Canadian songstress and bedroom beatmaker Grimes (a.k.a. Claire Boucher) stopped by Amoeba Hollywood for a What's In My Bag? shoot. I've been obsessed with her single "Genesis" and her recent album, Visions (4AD). She was in town for a sold out show at the Echo Friday night (coming to LA off of a sold out show in SF earlier in the week).

Here are a few pics to tide us over until the video is ready:
 

   

 

Saint Etienne has released a video for "Tonight," the first single from their forthcoming album, Words and Music by Saint Etienne - their first album of new material in seven years! "Tonight" was produced by Tim Powell (Kylie Minogue), and member Bob Stanley describes the song as being about "the anticipation of going to see your favourite group...The whole album is about the power of pop, how it affects and shapes your life."

So far no album release date has been set, but they have announced tour dates around the UK in May so perhaps that's a good indication of when to expect the album.


Santigold released a new single this week, "Disparate Youth," from her forthcoming sophomore album, Master of My Make-Believe (out May 1 on Downtown). You can catch her on tour this Spring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers or at Coachella in April. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that she tours solo as well. I had the chance to see her at the House of Blues Anaheim a few years ago when she was supporting her 2008 self-titled debut album (back when she was still Santogold) and I hope to see her perform again. The new Santigold tracks will have to tide me over until then.

Watch an animated clip of "Disparate Youth" and an official video for "Big Mouth," the album's lead single:

Our latest episode of What's In My Bag? features experimental, electronic goth artist Zola Jesus. Her most recent album, Conatus (Sacred Bones), has been on many Amoebites' year end Best Of and Music We Like lists.

Sharing her influences and interests, she picks up music from experimental electronic pioneer Daphne Oram, minimalist modern classical from Luigi Nono, and music from Hermann Nitsch's "Aktions," among other things (like a Gene Simmons KISS doll - wait for it after the credits roll).

If you want more Zola Jesus, she's performing in Los Angeles at the Natural History Museum on Friday, March 2 as part of their First Fridays series, along with another "What's In My Bag?" alum, EMA. That will be one hell of a powerful show! Advanced tickets are already sold out, but you should still be able to line up on the day of the event when they release a few more tickets.

There has been a flurry of activity this week with three heavy hitters releasing new songs - Jack White, M.I.A. and Madonna.

Jack White is releasing his first solo album, Blunderbuss, on April 24 and the first single, "Love Interruption," premiered this week.  (Also new this week, I learned what a Blunderbuss was -- a gun.)  Third Man Records is releasing a 7" for "Love Interruption" on Tuesday, February 7, which features a non-album B-Side, "Machine Gun Silhouette." Mr. White will be doing some solo shows, but so far only two have been announced - Sasquatch! in WA and Radio 1's Hackney Weekend in London. 



M.I.A. released a new single, "Bad Girls," which is a reworking of a track originally featured on a 2011 mixtape, Vicki Leekx. The "Bad Girls" video was directed by Romain Gavras (who also shot her controversial, banned-from-YouTube video for "Born Free"). So far she hasn't announced a release date or title for her next album, but hopefully that will come soon. 



Madonna has been all over the interwebs, radio, and television this week in a furious media campaign for her new single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" (featuring M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj) and her Super Bowl performance on Sunday, all of which are leading up to the release of her next album, MDNA, out March 26.

In more tragic news following this morning's announcement of the passing of Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, renowned artist and musician Mike Kelley has died at age 58 from an apparent suicide. (Update: Kelley was 57 when he died.)

Originally from Detroit, Kelley had been living in Los Angeles for many years. Kelley was a diverse artist known for his textiles, doll objects, performance videos, drawings, and multimedia installations. He has had one-artist exhibitions all over the world including the Gagosian Galleries in New York City and London, the musée du Louvre in Paris, and galleries in Japan, Germany, Italy, and Austria. He had public collections featured in the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among many others. His work is scheduled to appear in the upcoming Whitney biennial.

Kelley was also a musician. Though those two audiences didn't often co-mingle, music fans will recognize his art from the album cover for Sonic Youth's 1992 album, Dirty. Kelley was a founder of Destroy All Monsters, a noise/punk/experimental band from Detroit which began in 1973 and broke up in 1985. Although they never found mainstream success, they garnered new attention in 1977 with the addition of former members of The Stooges (Ron Asheton) and MC5 (Michael Davis). In 1994, Kelley and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore compiled a 3-CD box set called Destroy All Monsters: 1974-1976 on Moore's record label, Ecstatic Peace!. The band reunited in 1995 and re-released past editions of the Destroy All Monsters magazine, recorded 5 new albums, exhibited their art, and performed at festivals around the world.