Upcoming Album of the Week (Ending September 17)

Have you ever seen Lip Sync Battle? I've never watched a full episode, but often enjoy the performance clips that they post to YouTube. It's a pretty cool show and many of the celebrities featured are pretty convincing, other are...less so. Still, nothing compares to seeing your favorite bands perform their own music. Check out some of mine with new music coming out on my Upcoming Releases page!

This week, the Christmas album announcements started to come in, including She & Him, who announced their second holiday album, Christmas Party.

pitchfork.com

She & Him are Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, who have been performing together for a decade and have released five albums. The project is hardly a celebrity ego project for Deschanel, who has become best known for acting; she is an incredibly talented songwriter and vocalist. Of course, it helps to partnered up with M. Ward, who has his own celebrated music career spanning 17 years.

She & Him released their first Christmas album, A Very She & Him Christmas, in 2011. Most recently, though, they released Classics, a collection of standards, two years ago.

Christmas Party is set to come out October 28, lest we forget that the Christmas season now starts before Halloween.

They weren't the only artist to announce a Christmas Record this week, Kacey Musgraves will also be releasing one in October.

Also announced this week:

Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley - Sketches for the Music JIB (out now)
Beastie Boys - License to Ill Reissue (October 14)
Damaged Bug - “Smoggy Terminus” (September 19)
The Game - 1992 (October 14)
Justice - Woman (November 18)
La Sera - Queens EP (September 30)
Lady Gaga - Joanna (October 21)
Lazarus Cast Album (October 21)
Lizzo - Coconut Oil EP (October 7)
Lou Reed - Lou Reed - The RCA & Arista Album Collection, Vol 1 (November 18)
Luke Temple - A Hand Through the Cellar Door (November 11)
The Men - Devil Music (November 11)
Miles Mosley - UPRISING (January 27)
Peter Silberman - Transcendless Summer (out now)
Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl (November 25)
Pretenders - Alone (October 21)
The Time Is Now (October 7)

New Music Friday - November 20, 2015

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

Essential Full-Length Releases

Adele - 25 This year, Adele ensured that any artist who may have thought that 2015 was their year would be terribly wrong. Starting a couple of months into the second half of the year, it started to become clear that something was soon to come from the world's favorite singer. The general release timeframe was announced back in August. In the relatively short time time between its release and the end of the year, it had already broken many of the year's records. Watch: "Hello"

Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express - Junun Jonny Greenwood is generally best known as the guitarist for Radiohead, but has had an active solo career with studio albums and composition work since 2003. Early last year, Greenwood traveled to Rajasthan, India to work with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express ensemble for a truly international new album. The recording process was captured in a documentary of the same name, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Listen: "Roked"

Other Full-Length Releases

Arca - Mutant Watch: "EN" Watch: "Vanity"

Bill Wells & Friends - Nursery Rhymes Listen: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (featuring Satomi Matsuzaki) Listen: "Three Blind Mice" (featuring Karen Mantler & Yo La Tengo)

Cavanaugh - Time and Materials Listen: "Typecast" (featuring P.O.S., Hemlock Ernst, & Busdriver) Listen: "Pinky"

Hurricane #1 - Find What You Love and Let It Kill You

WoodzSTHLM - Lighthouse Listen: "Woman"

Singles, EPs, Soundtracks, etc.

Baio - The Names (Expansion Pack)

Beach Boys - Beach Boys’ Party! Uncovered and Unplugged Listen: "I Should Have Known Better" Listen: "Blowin in the Wind"

Freddie Gibbs - Shadow of a Doubt Watch: "Fuckin’ Up the Count" Listen: "Packages" (featuring ManMan Savage)

Guided By Voices - Suitcase 4: Captain Kangaroo Won the War

iLoveMakonnen - iLoveMakonnen 2 Listen: "Second Chance" Listen: "Flippin All Night"

Indie for the Holidays Listen: Sondre Lerche & Jherek Bischoff - "Surviving Christmas" Listen: Robert Pollard - "What Begins on New Years Day"

Led Zeppelin - Mothership Listen: "Whole Lotta Love" Listen: "Immigrant Song"

M83 - Digital Shades Reissue Listen: "Coloring the Void" Listen: "By the Kiss"

M83 - Saturdays=Youth Reissue Listen: "Couleurs" Listen: "Midnight Souls Still Remain"

Natalie Prass - Side By Side Listen: "Sound of Silence" Listen: "REALiTi"

Punch Brothers - The Wireless Listen: "Sleek White Baby"

Queen - A Night at the Odeon Listen: "Bohemian Rhapsody" Listen: "White Queen"

Roger Waters - Roger Waters The Wall

Stevie Wonder - Someday at Christmas Listen: "Someday at Christmas"

Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants Reissue Listen: "Juanita : Kiteless : To Dream of Love" Listen: "Pearl’s Girl"

Velvet Underground: The Complete Matrix Tapes Watch: "We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together" Listen: "Sister Ray"

The Who - Live in Hyde Park

Merry Christmas from 50% Hipster!

I wanted to take a moment out this holiday season to wish everyone out there a merry Christmas! It's also a time of year for many artists and musicians to share special holiday songs and surprise recordings. Here's a sampling of what we got this year:

- Bill Murray has a new Netflix holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas. It was directed by Sofia Coppola and features appearances from other comedians and even a few musicians like Miley Cyrus, Jenny Lewis, and the band Phoenix. Phoenix got together with Murray to record a cover of the Beach Boys' "Alone on Christmas Day."

- Amazon released their Indie for the Holidays compilation, including songs from Avid Dancer, YACHT, and Langhorne Slim, along with many others.

- Sondre Lerche continued his tradition of recording a cover of one of the year's biggest hits as a gift for his fans. This year, he took on Drake's "Hotline Bling."

- Run the Jewels started a 12 Days of Christmas advent calendar, giving fans the chance to win special prizes everyday!

- Kelela released a collection of remixes from her latest EP, Hallucinogen, today. It includes reworks from Sporting Life, Kahn, and Airmax.

- A number of artists released new Christmas and holiday themed EPs and albums, including: Ariana Grande, Cassie Ramone, and Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings.

- And, as usual, a number of one-off tracks were released by a wide variety of artists, enjoy them below!

Merry Christmas from 50% Hipster!

On this Christmas Eve, I would like to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a wonderful holiday season.

To celebrate the holiday, I would like to share with you this year's set of new Christmas and holiday songs from some of my most-loved artists. The playlist below includes some new tracks from Dum Dum Girls, JEFF The Brotherhood, Walter Martin, and Band of Horses.

If you happen to be an Icelandic speaker, then also check out this Iceland Christmas television special from 1976, in which an 11-year-old Björk recites the nativity story in her native language. Even though I can't understand it, I must say that she was one adorable kid!

Finally, there was one more amazing Christmas song from a favorite artist of mine. Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) recorded a version of "Marshmallow World" for Target's latest holiday commercial!

New Music Tuesday - 10/30/2012

New Full-Length Albums

Andrew Bird - Hands of Glory

Bird released his most recent album, Break It Yourself in March of this year. Hands of Glory is meant to serve as a companion to that release, featuring re-recordings of songs from that album, as well as covers of classic country and bluegrass tunes.
"Three White Horses"

Matthew Friedberger - Matricidal Sons of Bitches

Friedberger is mainly known for his work with sister Eleanor as The Fiery Furnaces. It's been some time since the most recent release from that project and, in the meantime, Eleanor has released her first solo album, Last Summer, last summer (literally). Matthew has been considerably more prolific as a solo artist, having released twelve albums (including this one), with ten in just the past two years!
"Expectant Fathers - In for a Surprise VII. As If in the Car with the Kids"

RNDM - Acts

This new rock collaboration features Akron's Joseph Arthur, bassist for Pearl Jam Jeff Ament and Richard Stuverud. The three met 13 years ago when Arthur opened for a project featuring Ament and Stuverud. It took all this time, though, for that friendship to yield a musical result.
"Modern Times"

Other Releases

Cee-Lo Green - Magic Moment

Cee-Lo gets into the holiday spirit, featuring Christina Aguilera, Rod Stewart and The Muppets.
"This Christmas"

Holy Ghost - "It Gets Dark" single

New single from the LCD Soundsystem torch-bearers, released on James Murphy's label, DFA Records.
"It Gets Dark"

Rush Midnight - +1 EP

Debut EP from Twin Shadow off-shoot.
"The Night Was Young Enough"

From Gainsbourg to Lulu

Tribute to the late great Serge Gainsbourg, fronted by his son, Lulu.
Lulu Gainsbourg featuring Scarlett Johansson - "Bonnie and Clyde"

Holidays Rule

Starbucks Christmas compilation featuring The Shins, Sharon van Etten, Rufus Wainwright, Paul McCartney and Andrew Bird (among many many others).
Sharon van Etten and Rufus Wainwright - "Baby It's Cold Outside"

The Man with the Iron Fists soundtrack

Soundtrack from RZA's directorial debut.
Kanye West - "White Dress"