Josh Tillman is squeezing everything he can out of last year’s Father John Misty album, Fear Fun. “I’m Writing A Novel” is a nice little country-rock tune, but this video doesn’t have the same great qualities all previous FJM videos have had. This is more of a tour journal-like video, but that’s just fine. I can watch Josh prance around jokingly over and over again with the best of them.

Foxygen, from Los Angeles, are bringing back psychedelic rock & roll in a big way. Here’s “We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic” in a fantastically blissed-out acid trip video.

Their debut album, of the same name, came out earlier this year.

Far out, man.

Every once in a while, a pure pop song hooks me and I find myself drawn back to the song over and over again. This song, by Copenhagen’s Oh Land, does just that. Oh Land is the nom de plume of Nanna Øland Fabricius, and she’s been performing in this particular guise since 2008.

I have a limited pop music vocabulary, but of what I do know, this seems to be even more deliberately kooky than, say Lady GaGa. I like the tune, as well. Oh Land’s third album, Wish Bone, comes out September 24.

This is mind blowing. I consider the medley from Abbey Road to be the single most phenomenal passage of music in all of recorded time. And I say that without hyperbole.

Here we have, through some fancy use of technology, the isolated vocals for the entire passage (except for a lone tambourine and piano that somehow crept in during “Mean Mr. Mustard”)

It’s amazing how much the music makes these famously disjointed parts feel of a family. Stripped down like this, the disparate nature of the song bits is painfully obvious.

Jaw, floor.

/via kotkke.org

NPR All Songs Considered’s Bob Boilen says:

The Tiny Desk has moved, and OK Go has helped make it so.

Earlier this year, we needed to figure out the best possible way to move my Tiny Desk from NPR’s old headquarters to our new facility just north of the U.S. Capitol. We wanted to go out with a bang and arrive at our new space in style, so our thoughts naturally turned to a catchy pop band we love: OK Go, whose unforgettable videos have been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube.

Bandleader Damian Kulash used to be an engineer at an NPR member station in Chicago, so we figured he’d be up for helping us execute a simple idea: Have OK Go start performing a Tiny Desk Concert at our old location, continue playing the same song while the furniture and shelving is loaded onto a truck, and finish the performance at our new home. In addition to cameos by many of our NPR colleagues — Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, David Greene, Guy Raz, Scott Simon, Alix Spiegel, Susan Stamberg and more — this required a few ingredients:

• Number of video takes: 223
• Percent used in final version: 50
• Number of raw audio channels: 2,007
• Percent used in final version: 50
• Number of microphones: 5
• Number of hard-boiled eggs consumed: 8, mostly by bassist Tim Nordwind
• Number of seconds Carl Kasell spent in the elevator with OK Go: 98
• Number of times Ari Shapiro played the tubular bells: 15
• Number of pounds the tubular bells weighed: 300
• Number of times the shelves were taken down and put back up: 6
• Number of days it took to shoot: 2
• Number of cameras: 1

OK Go played “All Is Not Lost” from Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, with words tweaked by the All Songs Considered team. And so begins a new era for the Tiny Desk, after 277 concerts (counting this one) in our old home.

The Carl Kasell bit is my favorite part.

Here’s a nice electronic-plus-stringed-instruments song by Iceland’s múm. The band has always seemed to float around my radar, never landing squarely in it until now.

Their new album, Smilewound — their seventh — came out back in June.

Fun song and video from Scottish darlings Belle and Sebastian, from their rarities and b-sides album, The Third Eye Centre, that came out earlier this year. This particular song, “Your Cover’s Blown” was remixed by Miaoux Miaoux, also from Scotland.

Looks like TV on the Radio (HOW DO THEY NOT HAVE THEIR OWN ACTUAL WEBSITE?!) have a new album coming, but it‘s still not clear when. “Million Miles” will be on it, though.

Sleigh Bells are back, with the title track of their forthcoming third album, Bitter Rivals, due October 8.

I love this slow version of Mazzy Star’s 1993 hit “Fade Into You,” created by Tim Carmody from Kottke.org. He slowed the song down by 18.921%, dropping the pitch and tempo, making it even slower, and sounding like it’s sung by a man. He slowed down many other songs as well, all because of the slow version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” that was circulating around in early August.

Turns out Mazzy Star has a new album coming out on September 24, called Seasons of Your Day.

Another video from The National from this year’s Trouble Will Find Me. This time, the band is getting wasted on camera and apparently injuring themselves.

I love this song. I love the setting. I love the crowd murmur that dies down as the song goes on. And apparently I love Basia Bulat, although this is the first song I’ve ever heard of hers. The recorded version of “It Can’t Be You” can be found on Bulat’s new album, Tall Tall Shadow, which comes out October 1. This will be the third album for the Toronto-based singer/songwriter.

One of my favorites from this past weekend (Bumbershoot 2013) was seeing Superchunk play the KEXP Music Lounge.

Here’s a video for “Me & You & Jackie Mittoo” from the band’s new album I Hate Music. A nice little post-punk ditty.

Here’s a catchy little tune from an English band called Sky Larkin. The song is called “Loom,” and the band’s upcoming third album, Motto, out September 16.

Keyboard headdress. That’s about all the words I can muster around this mind-bending video from Ra Ra Riot. Their album, Beta Love, is out now.

I’ve only touched the tip of the Explosions in the Sky iceberg, but I’m fairly certain the music in this video is from a completely different planet entirely. The song is called “Send Off” and it’s from Explosions in the Sky’s original motion picture soundtrack for the movie “Prince Avalanche.” With this song and video, I both want to see the movie and listen to the soundtrack.

By now, you’re undoubtedly one of the 5.2+ million people who’ve already watched this Mumford & Sons video. Maybe even more than once (ahem). So let’s just say we’re putting it here for posterity.

I’m decidedly in the not-a-fan category when it comes to Mumford, but this video went a long way in getting me close to falling over that fence. “Hopeless Wanderer” is from the band’s most recent album, Babel.

If Chvrches’ forthcoming debut album The Bones of What You Believe (due out Sept. 23) is simply the sum of their previous EP Recover and this new song, “The Mother We Share,” I think I’d still be overjoyed.

This album is gonna blow your socks off.

Here’s another one from Shad. He’s really got it all firing in unison.

Barsuk 15th Anniversary Series

This morning on KEXP, Barsuk Records announced the lineup for their 15th Anniversary concert series to happen in early November. It’s going to be an awesome array of bands you’ve loved for 10+ years, getting together to play albums and songs they’ve all grown well beyond since their release.

Check out this lineup:

Thursday, November 7, at Showbox at the Market:
Nada Surf (performing 2002’s Let Go in its entirety)
Mates of State
More TBA

Friday, November 8, at the Neptune:
The Long Winters (performing 2003’s When I Pretend To Fall in its entirety)
David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion)
Chris Walla (of Death Cab for Cutie)
Minor Alps More TBA

Saturday, November 9, at Neumos:
Menomena
Maps & Atlases
Yellow Ostrich
Cymbals Eat Guitars
With Very Special End of Night Guests

Sunday, November 10, at the Tractor:
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter (performing their 2002 debut Reckless Burning in its entirety, with the original Sweet Hereafter lineup)
Rocky Votolato
Laura Gibson
More TBA

You do not want to miss these concerts. Each individual show is $15, and you can buy a four-day pass for $60. This is a rare opportunity to see some big bands in smaller venues (and there will surely be plenty of surprises that they haven’t announced yet). Tickets go on sale at noon today, August 7, right here: http://barsuk.com/xv. You can also find any additional info about the series of shows right there.