Twi-hards, rejoice: the soundtrack for the latest film in the Twilight series, New Moon, will be released this Friday, as “overwhelming and unprecedented demand” prompted the release date to be pushed up by four days. The album will be hitting stores more than a month before the film is released on November 20, so the Twilight faithful can comfort themselves with the musical musings of Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Muse, the Killers, OK Go, Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Sea Wolf, and the Editors, among others, until their cinematic dreams become reality.

MTV has the full scoop on the most recent Twilight developments, of course, and is featuring an interview with OK Go and Lykke Li about their involvement with the soundtrack; check them out here and here. Stream the video for Death Cab for Cutie’s contribution to the soundtrack, titled “Meet Me on the Equinox,” here.

It must be tiring to be snarky all the time, coming home for vacation and your parents never knowing when you’re being ironic or why you think meatloaf was so last summer. So why not call a spade a spade from time to time.

Here’s the deal. The tracklist to the much-hyped new Twilight movie was released. And it sounds… really good. And why not. It’s a friggin’ pop culture phenomenon. If Phoenix or someone would have played the Harry Potter prom we would have been cool with that (although it would have given “Too Young” a bit of a new teen-angst feel). And hey, nothing else in this world has brought about a Bon Iver, St. Vincent collaboration yet. So screw it. Down is up. East is west. Blah blahblah. This soundtrack is going to be kind of awesome. The end. Vampires vampires vampires.

Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack:

01 Death Cab for Cutie: “Meet Me on the Equinox”
02 Band of Skulls: “Friends”
03 Thom Yorke: “Hearing Damage”
04 Lykke Li: “Possibility”
05 The Killers: “A White Demon Love Song”
06 Anya Marina: “Satellite Heart”
07 Muse: “I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)”
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: “Rosyln”
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: “Done All Wrong”
10 Hurricane Bells: “Monsters”
11 Sea Wolf: “The Violet Hour”
12 OK Go: “Shooting the Moon”
13 Grizzly Bear: “Slow Life” [ft. Beach House's Victoria Legrand]
14 Editors: “No Sound But the Wind”
15 Alexandre Desplat: “New Moon (The Meadow)”

(Via: P4K)

Someone new to St. Vincent would think that Annie Clark’s dash of diva-ness comes from her inevitable and well-deserved fame of late, but having seen some of her earliest solo shows, I can attest that her on-stage persona has always been a little vixenish. Haven’t you paid attention to the lyrics of her previous hit “Now Now”? A refrain of “You don’t mean that, say you’re sorry” is, in the context of the song, chill-inducing scary.

Even when she says something totally modest like, “I can’t believe I’m playing here, thank you so much, you’ve been so kind, etc”, I still think she very well might be part-vampire, entirely capable of destroying me in a matter of seconds. I’m sure the devilish way in which she often pounds on her guitar is responsible for this impression.

[St. Vincent]

She was even dressed to fit my imagination last night, in a pair of laced black stockings, over which she wore black shorts matched with a black top, accented with blood-red lipstick and equally red nail polish. She was joined by a band that included a saxophone and what I think was a fiddle (if not a violin or a viola). In a song called “Marrow”, off her new album, Actor, the saxophone blared over a steady stream of flat, 80s-inspired beats, and it sounded like all seven sins were involved in the making of that tune.

Pattern Is Movement was the opening act. Other than having a fantastic band name and lovable personalities, both Andrew Thiboldeaux and Chris Ward are nothing less than champions of music. When they play, it’s almost as if they carry a torch while wearing a shirt that says “Isn’t music such an awesome thing?”, and proceed to sprint like world-record holders. They were amazing.

[Pattern Is Movement]

Besides the fact you weren’t cool, famous or wealthy enough to attend.

From Flavorwire:

10. Off the Heezy, Fa Sheezy. As after parties go, this one was was particularly epic. Held on the crystalline roof-deck of the Cooper Square Hotel, the intimate gathering featured a (dangerously) open bar, and, for no apparent reason, an open-air bath tub. Björk kicked up the party with an unexpectedly ruckus DJ set featuring Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison” and Amerie’s “Got Me Trippin’.” Members of Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, and Vampire Weekend, meanwhile, could be seen waiting in line for the can.

Read the full list here.

Something else you might not have known is that Olaf Arnalds also performed.

Big concert, and currently, every mag large and small in New York is raving about how amazing it was. I had to come out to check out what was in store, as the lineup read like a who’s who of upper-echelon indie rock, crowned by Byrne, plus Sharon Jones!?!? Of course, when you pack this many acts into a night something has to give, and each artist performed four songs or less, sort of bite-sized micro-sets.

The highlights of the night were the David Byrne tunes from the Dark Was The Night comps over the years (including “Knotty Pine” w/ Dirty Projectors, “”Dreamworld: Marco de Canavezes” w/ Bon Iver, “Waters of March” w/ Feist and “Don’t Fence Me In” w/ drummer crew) which sounded amazing, the latter three evoking his African-cribbing heyday, an alternate version of “Flume” featuring Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), “Train Song,” Feist’s Vashti Bunyan cover from the compilation, and the finale where everyone came out at once to do “This Land Is Your Land” which got Sharon Jones REMIXED. I’m not usually one for venues this large, but the sound was incredibly crisp and clear. Lots of collabs, lots of memorable moments. I’ll let the other reviewers recount them to you:

BrooklynVegan
Stereogum
Rolling Stone
Happy Genius Heroes
PAPER mag
Metro Distortion
Quiet Color
Second Doubles
New York Rock Market
Music Mix, Entertainment Weekly
Black Raptor [w/ video]

Google Blog Search: Dark Was The Night

NPR is supposed to have video of the entire concert shortly.

We were only allowed to shoot for the first song of each act (ugh). Here’s what I came up with.

[Dirty Projectors w/ David Byrne]

[John Carlin of Dark Was The Night and Red Hot]

[My Brightest Diamond]

[The National.]

[Dave Sitek]

[David Byrne]

[intermission]

[Bon Iver]

[Feist]

[Sharon Jones]

[everyone]

Look who decides to make a cameo – Annie Clark (St. Vincent)!

In his usual fashion, David Byrne has been keeping himself quite busy, and now the multitasking musical genius will be curating his own stage at Bonnaroo this year — and is the first musician to ever do so at the festival as well.

Byrne’s stage will be on Friday, June 12 and he’s already tapped Dirty Projectors, Ani DiFranco, St. Vincent, Katzenjammer and Santigold to be a part of his world. We’re hoping we will get to see some great collaborations by the end of the Friday set.

Among the multitude of things Byrne is diving into lately, the musician has also confirmed that Santigold will be contributing vocals to his upcoming album with Fatboy Slim. According to Pitchfork, Here Lies Love is a concept album working around the life of former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. Byrne has also enlisted the assistance of Roisin Murphy and Tori Amos, among others, to lay down vocals on the new album.

We’re a bit late to the St. Vincent video party, but that’s because we wanted it to stay up over the weekend. Being fans of Annie Clark since back in her Polyphonic days, we’re excited about her new record coming out on May 5. Entitled Actor, and being that the first single is called “Actor Out Of Work”, we see a theme coming.

In this beautifully crafted, simple video concept, we see Annie giving auditions to a cast of tryouts who all have to give their best crying routine. It juxtaposes interestingly with the upbeat tempo and happy sound of the song (one that is bound to end up on a television show or commercial soon, we’re sure of it), but Annie, c’mon, if you really want to make people cry, just abandon them at the train station.

St. Vincent – “Actor Out Of Work”

Former Polyphonic Spree-ite Annie Clark, perhaps better known after 2007’s Marry Me as St. Vincent, has announced the details of her forthcoming follow-up, Actor.

Actor is her second solo album, set for a May 5 release date on 4AD. She produced the album herself with help from John Congleton, who’s produced for Modest Mouse and, of course, The Spree. Clark plays guitar, bass and keyboard on the record, plus stretching out her vocal cords. The album will also feature woodwinds, French horns and three percussionists.

The first single from the album is “Actor Out of Work,” and it will be out April 20. Clark has dates coming up in San Francisco for Noise Pop and Austin for SXSW.

St. Vincent – Actor
01 The Strangers
02 Save Me From What I Want
03 Neighbors
04 Actor Out of Work
05 Black Rainbow
06 Laughing With a Mouth of Blood
07 Marrow
08 The Bed
09 The Party
10 Just the Same But Brand New
11 The Sequel

St. Vincent tour dates
02.27.09 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall (Noise Pop Festival)
03.18.09 – Austin, TX – Central Presbyterian Church (4AD SXSW showcase)
03.20.09 – Austin, TX – Antone’s (Billions Corporation SXSW showcase)