Classixx Releases ‘All You’re Waiting For,’ Featuring LCD Soundsystem's Nancy Whang

Classixx’s recent singles in advance of Hanging Gardens, the L.A. act’s upcoming debut LP due May 14 on Innovative Leisure, have gotten their fair share of press, but now they’ve gone and dropped their best jam yet, featuring cool as F vocals from LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang. Here’s your early summer jam.

IO Echo Unveil Interactive Video

I’m already a fan of L.A. group IO Echo and their recently released shoegazey electro-pop album, Ministry of Love. Now they’ve released a cool interactive video for the title track that just makes them that much cooler. Wow. Why don’t more bands do stuff like this? And more importantly, do I win something if I rearrange singer Ioanna Gika correctly in the beginning? Check it out on VICE’s Noisey blog.

Album Picks:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito

CD $11.98

Deluxe CD $19.98

LP $19.98

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sultry fourth record starts with a bang, a big soul-rocker complete with gospel choir called “Sacrilige.” From there it’s a smorgasbord as colorful as their mosquito-attacking-a-baby album cover, including moody, atmospheric sound pieces (“Subway”), Banshees-esque post-punk rockers (the title track), dubby soundscapes (“Under the Earth”), “X-Files”-inspired new age ballads (“These Paths”) and rockers (“Area 52”). And that’s all before you get to a dark collaboration with Dr. Octagon and James Murphy (“Buried Alive”), as well as breathtaking new entries into Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ pantheon of after prom-style bittersweet ballads in the form of the picturesque “Always,” the slow-burning, oddly uplifting “Despair” and touching “Wedding Song.” Mosquito is a very different beast from the previous YYY’s albums and takes some getting used to, for sure, but repeat listens offer new rewards (as with every album the band has produced since its debut). Its eeriness and campiness at times call to mind a Cramps record, while its hollowed-out space represents something else entirely, something new and alluring. You might miss some of their previous raucousness (or continuity), but hearing them fling new ideas to the wall to see what sticks is intriguing enough. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are one of the few bands who know how to make its constant tinkering with its sound both interesting and entertaining. Hearing them restlessly forge new ground on Mosquito screws with your head in the best way possible. It inspires you to shake old notions of what stadium-size rock bands can and should do, and that lone is something to celebrate. Pick up "Mosquito" at any Amoeba store 4/16 and get a limited edition autographed lithograph and a special 7” (while supplies last).

The Mantles Release “Brown Balloon,” Long Enough to Leave Due June 18

Lovely new stuff from San Francisco’s The Mantles. “Brown Balloon” echoes a bit of New Zealand’s Flying Nun label (with bands such as The Chills and The Clean) with clean guitars dripping reverb, but the vocals are nicely left largely rough and untouched, giving it a garage feel that goes a long way to set it apart. Loving those pristine guitars that come in about 40 seconds in, as well as the power chords at the chorus — remember those? Long Enough to Leave is out June 18 on Slumberland.

The Soft Moon Unveils “Want” Video

The Soft Moon’s Zeros is a deeply dark, cinematic record, so it makes sense that the video for one of its best songs, “Want,” would follow suit. Feeling somewhere between a nightmare, drug hallucination and horror movie, “Want” calls to mind classic videos like Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” (and similarly to that video, “Want” is very much NSFW, so don’t click if you may be offended by drug use or brief nudity and violence).

FIDLAR – “Max Can’t Surf” video

Loveable L.A. garage punks FIDLAR have a new video for “Max Can’t Surf,” one of the best tracks from their self-titled debut record, built on classic-rock riffs with lyrics about Del Taco and a dude with no balance. The video follows band members on an acid trip via interstellar skateboards that look like the hoverboards from Back to the Future II. Too fun! See more pics from their Amoeba performance here, and read my interview with the band here. They’re also going on tour with Wavves, whose upcoming Afraid of Heights is due March 26 and it up for preorder; check ’em out together at the Echo March 20 and The Smell April 21.

The Soft Moon – “Insides” video

Oakland-based The Soft Moon aka Luis Vasquez has a video for “Insides,” a standout from last year’s darkwave release Zeros. Really nice effects on this, sort of looks like a graphic novel streamed through a projector and fits the gloomy nature of the song. It also puts the shy-seeming Vasquez in the center of the video, as does the song for an artist who primarily lets the music do the talking but who steps out of the shadows on this track.

Thee Oh Sees – “Minotaur”

S.F.’s Thee Oh Sees are at it again, with a new album out April 16 called Floating Coffin. As Pitchfork reports, the album comes from “the mindset of a world that's perpetually war-ridden.” The track is more ominous than anything the band has released thus far from the outset, carried through with somber strings that sound amazing in their lo-fi setting, making Thee Oh Sees sound like some zombie orchestra. John Dwyer’s vocals are appealingly deadpan throughout. With having just released Putrifiers II last year and Castemania and Carrion Crawler/The Dream both the year before, Floating Coffin sounds like it’ll continue their tradition of getting better with each release. Hear it at Pitchfork.

Local Natives – “Heavy Feet” video

Local Natives have unveiled an almost painfully charming video for their song “Heavy Feet,” a standout on the excellent recently released Hummingbird. It’s one of the rare videos I’ve seen recently where I immediately thought of the glory days of MTV — this shit would’ve been buzzworthy fo sho. Something about talking sandwiches, cute old people painting planes and burying a cake. It reminds me a bit of the looney Michel Gondry videos of the ’90s, though not as manic. Read my interview with the band here; see photos of their amazing Amoeba performance here.