Friday Music News

12/16/2016

Janice Headley

It's the end of the year, alright, but I don't know how fine you're feeling. R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe joined Stephen Colbert and actor James Franco for a spirited, updated rendition of the 1987 single "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" last night on CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. As Stipe sits out most of the song in a comical visibly annoyed way, Colbert rattles on about Pokemon Go, exploding Samsung phones, Harambe, and more in this 2016 recap. Franco jumps in towards the end as a makeshift Mike Mills. Watch below: [Under the Radar]

Last year, Spencer Tweedy and his dad, Jeff (yeah, of Wilco), released their debut LP, Sukierae. Now, on his 21st birthday, Spencer is branching out on his own with a solo 4-song EP titled Geezer Love. And his gift to us is, we can stream the whole thing below. [Consequence of Sound]

Not only does popstar Carly Rae Jepsen provide guest vocals on the new Blood Orange album, but she also appears in the video for "Better Than Me," directed by Mr. Orange himself (real name: Dev Hynes). Watch the two lead an army of office employees through a choreographed dance routine below. [Pitchfork]

Oklahoma weirdos The Flaming Lips continue to share tracks from their forthcoming album, Oczy Mlody, out January 13th via Warner Bros. Records. We previously heard the single "How??," and today we get the track and video for "Sunrise (Eyes Of The Young)." Frontman Wayne Coyne describes the clip, saying, "The ‘Sunrise (Eyes Of The Young)’ video is part somber and sad and part childlike, ethereal fantasy. Myself and the band (Well… Ha… Some of the band) are lip syncing and play pretending in a scene out of perhaps the spaghetti western, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly… Ha. We are all looking serious and melancholy in what is maybe a church balcony at sunrise. The other part, the ethereal fantasy part, is Disney cartoon meets James Bond movie title sequence. The sun turns into a bouncy, drippy ball and is kicked around (and played with) by a giddy, cosmic nymph. Dancing and tripping in the echoes of dawn…" [Stereogum]

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