Randomness: New Hip Single, Crazy Good Videos from MS MR and Wintersleep

I can't let you go too long without some new ear candy, but it's been a little slow over the past week and a half, so we'll both have to make do with some random stuff that's piqued my interest of late.

First up is, I suppose, some big news: The Tragically Hip have a new single.  Honestly, I'd have posted this a week ago, but I've been waiting for album and release date info.  They're being tight lipped about that for the moment, but it stands to reason we'll see something rather soon (July is my guess).  Hopefully Murphy's Law takes it from here, wherein I make this post and they announce all the dirt in an hour.

At Transformation feels like an exercise in compromise; the tune rocks harder than most of their recent output, but Gord Downie's lyrics and delivery refuse to take us all the way back to the early 90's.  This will likely be a problem for some, but I've always stood by the band despite their stubborn refusal to record Up To Here II, unlike a lot of folks.  Realistically, by now no one should get bent out of shape because The Hip graduated from (a really, really good) bar band to (consistently interesting) artists.




Up next is a video I found due to a glowing recommendation by Alan Cross.  MS MR is a guy/girl duo whose music isn't normally something I get into.  But the NSFW video for new single Hurricane is fantastic:



Finally, the video for Wintersleep's In Came The Flood, first single from fifth album Hello Hum.  The song is great, and the video seems like a run-of-the-mill performance vid.  Of course, there's more to it than that:



That it has (as of this blogging) a meager 194 views in three days is criminal.  So make sure to watch it twice.  Hello Hum comes out June 12, but if you want to test drive it, they're hosting a live listening party (and launching pre-orders) Sunday at 8pm (Atlantic) over here.