Providing you with your weekly dose of diversions from whatever scary things are in the news; Impose’s Week in Pop brings you the latest breaking news from the artists & arts that continue to inspire & move us. Bringing you first a few of the week’s top stories; from here onward, Alex G will now be known as (Sandy) Alex G & dropped “Proud” off the upcoming album Rocket available May 19 from Domino; at long last Melody’s Echo Chamber (oka France’s own Melody Prochet) announced her new album Bon Voyage & dropped “Cross My Heart”; At the Drive In dropped the Rob Shaw & Damon Locks video for “Hostage Stamps” off their first album in 17 years, in•ter a•li•a, available May 5 from Rise Records; D∆WN (oka Dawn Richard) announced her stateside Redemption Tour & dropped the Monty Marsh video for “LA”; Kristin Hersh released the new album Wyatt at the Coyote Palace today from Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records (also a book of the same name) & dropped the video for “Bright from Beatrice & Zoran Drakulić; GRMLN dropped the self-released EP Discover; Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo went platinum (and should be historically noted as the first streaming-only full-length to receive RIAA certification); Joey Fatts & Vince Staples dropped their collaboration “562” produced by Supah Mario; Luca D’Alberto announced the upcoming album Endless available June 2 from !K7’s neo-classical label 7K! & dropped the title track; The New Year announced their first album in nine years, Snow available April 28 on Undertow Music & dropped the Pond5 video for “Myths”; Son Lux announced the upcoming Remedy EP available May 12 where all proceeds will go to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hear “Dangerous” ft. 300+ crowd-sourced voices; Beth Ditto announced her debut solo album Fake Sugar arriving later in 2017 & dropped “Fire”; Björk dropped the Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones video for “Notget”; Travis Scott dropped the BRTHR video for “goosebumps” ft. Kendrick Lamar; Making Movies announced their upcoming second album I Am Another You available May 26 & dropped “Brave Enough” ft. Hurray for the Riff Raff & Alaina Moore from Tennis; John Mulaney releasing the comedy special The Comeback Kid as an album on Drag City on June 16; A$AP Ferg dropped “East Coast” ft. Remy Ma off the upcoming album Still Striving; Kevin Gates dropped “What If”; Yumi Zouma dropped their self-directed video for “Text From Sweden”; Beach Fossils dropped the video for “Saint Ivy” directed by Joey Chriqui & Princess Nokia “Tomboy” Milah Libin (read more about it in IMPOSE); RAC x Rostam dropped their collaborative single “This Single”; Mount Kimbie x James Blake dropped the single & Frank Lebon vieo for their collaboration “We Go Home Together”; Sam Gellaitry released Escapism III via XL & dropped “Acres”; lineup buzz surrounding Afropunk’s Brooklyn edition taking place August 26-27; Outside Lands 2017 lineup buzz happening August 11-13; A Perfect Circle performed the new single “Feathers”; Tool posted the mysterious image that states “6-24”; Lydia Lunch doc is in the making directed by Beth B titled Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over, peep a conversation between Lydia & Nicolas Jaar; Queens of the Stone Age hinted at new release; the late great auteur/artist/composer Tony Conrad’s previously unreleased 1972 performance Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain (edited by Jim O’Rourke) will be available May 19 from Superior Viadact & you can hear an excerpt; Can announced the compilation Can — The Singles available June 16 from Mute/Spoon & dropped a listen to the rare 7″ from 1971 “Turtles Have Short Legs”; Beyoncé dropped the video for “Die With You” & IV EVER EVER mix celebrating her & Hova’s seven year anniversary; Kurt Vile is reissuing the EPs Square Shells & So Outta Reach May 19 through Matador; Weezer’s River Cuomo’s announced the upcoming Scott & Rivers album of Japanese sung jams titled ニマイメ available April 12 & dropped “Fun in the Sun” & “Doo Wop“; The Districts covered Leonard Cohen’s “Lover Lover Lover” off the Ordinary Day 7″ available April 22 on Record Store Day; Feist covered Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye”; Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield & Kevin Morby covered Everclear’s “Santa Monica”; American Football dropped their “I’ve Been So Lost For So Long”; Father John Misty’s late night performance on German show “Neo Magazin Royale“; The xx dropped the last video from their “Night + Day” series; Julian Casablancas guested under the name Exhibition on Hammarsing Kharhmar’s single “No One’s There” off the Last Dance EP available April 14 from Casablancas’ imprint Cult Records; Radiohead’s “Where I End and You Begin” returned to the live set rotation after nearly a decade; Hans Zimmer announced a stateside tour; The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & Frankie Rose announced summer tour; Fleet Foxes announced tour & dropped a trailer for their June 16 slated album Crack-Up; Air announced first stateside tour in quite some time; Ride announced September tour; Father John Misty announced a world tour on the heels of Pure Comedy‘s release; Violent Femmes announced co-headlining stateside tour with Echo and the Bunnymen; Beck covered Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love”; Burial remixed Goldie’s “Inner City Life” from 1995 to be released April 22 for RSD; X-Ray Spex leader Poly Styrene documentary slated for release November 18 titled, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, peep the trailer; behind-the-scenes with Danny Brown & Gus Van Sant; Jason Molina biography titled Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost will be available May 15 via Rowman & Littlefield; Eddie Vedder’s MLB commercial cameo; Pearl Jam covered Brandi Carlile’s “Again Today”; Jack White’s “Battle Cry” baseball ad; Bleachers live-scored The Breakfast Club; LCD Soundsystem confirmed that new material will be debuted at their Brooklyn residency & so far have debuted the new tracks “Tonight”, “Call Police” & “American Dream”; Killer Mike talked about Kanye’s meeting with the president; in conversation with Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!; Jay Z’s solo albums have been pulled off of streaming services Apple Music & Spotify (but all are still available on Tidal, naturally); Gorillaz “spirit houses“, Damon Albarn said there are 40 more Gorillaz singles & dropped “Let Me Out” ft. Mavis Stapes & Pusha T; TLC are crowd sourcing for the name of their final fifth album; David Byrne gave his two cents regarding the government’s proposal to do away with the National Endowments for the Arts & Humanities, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, etc; Supreme’s collaboration with Houston imprint Rap-A-Lot Records; Young Thug cleared of all felony charges stemming from a 2015 police raid at his Sandy Springs, Georgia home; Matt & Kim canceled upcoming shows after Kim suffered an injury at Festival Vaivén in Morelos, Mexico after a stage jump; Bobby Shmurda sentenced to four years in prison for contraband; Chemical Brothers’ classic “Control” video was 15 years ahead of Pepsi’s recent Kendall Jenner ad debacle; Rick Ross’s apparent plea deal; Tyler, the Creator’s @tylerthecreator has vanished & then subsequently returned; our dearest thoughts are with The Fall’s Keiron Melling for a speedy recovery; we also wish Neil Young a speedy recovery; Suge Knight’s suspicious revelations; Chairlift’s farewell “Polymorphing” video directed/edited by leader Caroline Polachek; we mourn the loss of Trans-Siberian Orchestra founder/leader Paul O’Neill; continue to reflect on our memories of the late-great mixed media artist & Mwahaha member Cyrus Tilton; we remember the snarky insult comedic wit of Don Rickles; and we continue to remember & celebrate the contributions from the late great Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi.
Continuing forward it is our pleasure & privilege to present the following insights, exclusives, media & interviews with Fascinating, Pascale Project, WRITER, Barra Brown, Ensemble Economique, Rearranged Face, Noita, Secret Shine, Summer Salt, Goldn, featuring guest selections by Remy Banks & more—in no particular order.
