Listen: HEALTH – “DEATH MAGIC” LP

I’ve been praising HEALTH for years and come next week when the LA band releases their new LP, Death Magic, I’m fairly certain many others will finally take notice. Death Magic follows in stride with the direction the band has been moving towards for the better part of the last five years. The collection of songs is infinitely more poppy and the electronics are more prominent then on Get Color. This version of HEALTH probably has most in common with “USA Boys” or “Tears” and for better or worse tones down on the noise elements found on earlier works. I’ve heard the record a whole lot in the last five days and love it but my personal tastes wish a little bit more of the noise was retained or even sustained in the songs that do go down that road and from past recordings. The record is well sequenced with songs, not directly flowing into the next per say, but more so rhythmically or sonically. If you don’t like what you hear in the first four songs then this record isn’t for as it’s a killer lead-in as far as these things go and offers a good blend of poppy HEALTH vs. noisy HEALTH.

Studio engineering comes from the Haxan Cloak, Mars Volta engineer Lars Stalfors, and longtime Kanye West engineer Andrew Dawson which only adds list of things that will make the record more high profile then anything the band has done before. It’s well deserved, the record is great and they are always amazing live so do yourself a favor, if you like what you hear, make sure to catch them next time they are in your town.

On a final note I hope the band continue with their tradition of releasing a remix album for this record as well, they always have really interesting people tinkering with their songs, often to great results and possibly even acting as inspiration or a stepping stone for where the band sonically finds themselves today. DEATH MAGIC is out August 7th.

DEATH MAGIC Tracklist: 01. VICTIM 02. STONEFIST 03. MEN TODAY 04. FLESH WORLD (UK) 05. COURTSHIP II 06. DARK ENOUGH 07. LIFE 08. SALIVA 09. NEW COKE 11. L.A. LOOKS 11. HURT YOURSELF 12. DRUGS EXIST
 

Video: Converge - "Precipice" / "All We Love We Leave Behind"

Converge have released a joint video for "Precipice" and “All We Love We leave Behind” from their 2012 album of the same name. The visuals were directed by filmmaker/animator Craig Murray, who utilizes both stop-motion and hand-drawn animation to tell the story of a man who seemingly loses everything. Note the reference to Jake’s fallen and beloved canine friend at the start of the clip. If you like what you see and hear you can buy at-shirt that utilizes a screen grab from the clip with proceeds appropriately going to the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, Massachusetts.

Download: De La Soul's Entire Catalogue For Free!

Perhaps in the spirit of the day hip hop legends De La Soul will be making their entire catalog FREE for download via their website starting Friday (2/14) at 11am and continuing until Saturday (2/15) at noon. There is an interview with the band right now over at Rolling Stone worth checking out that goes into some further details on why they are doing so. 

Listen/Download: Death Grips “Government Plates” LP

Without much warning Sacramento group Death Grips have unexpectedly shared a new free release! Government Plates can be downloaded HERE, here or here (servers are jammed so it might take several tries) or you can stream it below and check out some visuals for the track called "You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for it's your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat.”

Government Plates Track List:

01 You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for it's your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat
02 Anne Bonny
03 Two Heavens
04 This is Violence Now (Dont get me wrong)
05 Birds
06 Feels like a wheel
07 Im Overflow
08 Big House
09 Government Plates
10 Bootleg (Dont need your help)
11 Whatever I want (Fuck who's watching)

Listen: Blue Sky Black Death – “Euphoric LP”

Seattle’s Blue Sky Black Death has kept very busy as of late having dropped notable collaborative albums with both Nacho Picasso and Deniro Farrar. The production duo has also provided beats for other quite a few other MCs in the last year. Euphoric compiles some of their best recent instrumentals and gives them one nice home While such a collection can sometimes sounds scattered, the duo’s sound is a distinctive and cohesive one making this release feel like a proper LP. Stream the 13 tracks below for free and if you like what you hear pick it up for a small fee over at the bands Bandcamp.

Download/Listen: Four Tet – “0181 LP”

Yesterday Four Tet dropped a free album called 0181 featuring 38 minutes of unreleased music and rarities that he produced from 1997 to 2001. Hebden promises that a vinyl release will also come later this year.

Listen: Converge: “All We Love We Leave Behind” (Full Album Stream)

While most heavy bands from my youth have either disappeared or gone on to release embarrassing records that try and re-capture their glory days Converge have been relentlessly releasing quality albums every couple of years without losing any of their edge.   We already shared a handful of track from the Boston bands forthcoming LP and number eight overall, All That We Love We Leave Behind, and today we can share a full LP stream before its official October 9th due date on Epitaph and Deathwish Records. As previously reported frontman Jacob Bannon has stated its title stems from the death of his beloved dog and the concepts of time and self-awareness make up the backbone of the lyrics,  I can’t really speak to that but what I can say is that if you are a fan of the band you won’t be disappointed as the record is a tour de force. Check out the whole thing below via the youtube video and let us know what you think?

Listen: Menomena - "Moms" Full LP Stream

One last full LP stream to end the day off with and this time it’s in the form of Portland’s Menomena and their new, and 5^th overall LP, Moms, officially due out on September 18th via Barsuk. We shared both “Capsule” and "HeavyIs as Heavy Does" so you should have a pretty good idea what you are in store for. 

Video: Baroness –“Take My Bones Away”

I’ve really been digging the new double LP from Baroness Yellow & Green, it’s probably the best straight up rock album I’ve heard since QOTSA’s Songs For the Deaf  and now the Georgia band have released their first video from the project. "Take My Bones Away"  Is one of the Yellow album’s stand out tunes, probably the heaviest on the entire record as well, the video captures the live experience of the band and comes complete with shots of sweaty instrumental solos and the band singing their pleas to a crowd of enthusiastic headbangers. 

"It was shot over the course of a month touring around North America," Allen Blickle of Baroness tells Rolling Stone. "Thanks to our good friend Jimmy Hubbard for touring with us and shooting this video. Hope you enjoy!"

Listen: Baroness - "Yellow and Green" (Full Album Stream)

Savannah Georgia’s Baroness are set to release their third color themed album, Yellow and Green, on the 17th of July via Relapse Records. The double album contains 18 tracks and continues down the same genre bending path both Red and Blue did and was once again produced by John Congleton (The Roots, Explosions in the Sky, Black Mountain, The Polyphonic Spree.)  Check out the first single “Take My Bones Away” below and if you like what you hear you can stream the album now in its entirety over at NPR.

Listen: Mastodon's The Hunter In Full

I have had a couple people ask me about this so here it is, the entire new Mastodon album, The Hunter in one Youtube video, with a ton of visualizations to boot. Take a listen, have fun and then tell us what your favorite track off the album is.

The Hunter Tracklist:
01. Black Tongue
02. Curl Of The Burl
03. Blasteroid
04. Stargasm
05. Octopus Has No Friends
06. All The Heavy Lifting
07. The Hunter
08. Dry Bone Valley
09. Thickening
10. Creature Lives
11. Spectrelight
12. Bedazzled Fingernails
13. The Sparrow