Optimus Alive! went down in Passeio Marítimo de Alges in Portugal over the weekend. Headliners included Coldplay and Jane’s Addiction. The riverside fest had a nice mix of nostalgia (Stooges, Blondie) and fresh electronic sounds (James Blake, Duck Sauce) too, but while Primal Scream got to play Screamadelica front to back, the Pretty Reckless didn’t hit the stage at all due to “structural problems.” Good looking out, Portgual. Check out pics of all the aforementioned bands — plus Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Grinderman, Patrick Wolf, Grouplove, Anna Calvi, Seasick Steve, Kele, Twilight Singers, and more — in the gallery above.

This week we’ve got new videos from Hooray For Earth, Broken Social Scene, Tyler, The Creator, and White Lies. I included the Calling All Cars and Border Surrender videos because they both featured long slow-motion foot chases but the latter video also has a surprise at the end of its long, single shot. You’ll also notice some familiar directors this week: Cyriak, Claire Edmondson, and the ever-present trio CANADA. Enjoy:

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A couple weeks back you might have watched White Lies’ E.T.-esque video for “Bigger Than Us,” the first single from Ritual. Stereolab remixed the first kick off on Ritual, “Is Love.” Stereolab announced that they’d be going on hiatus in 2009 (they release material that they recorded at the same time as Chemical Chords in 2010), so I bet remixes from the band are pretty rare now. The beat here is all Stereolab; it feels like one of their grooves: pulsing, straightforward. It works well with vocalist Harry McVeigh’s frigid vocals. It warms up about halfway through though. Listen:

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This week’s clips from Arcade Fire, Rokysopp, Simian Mobile Disco, No Joy, and White Lies show off what’s possible when your videos don’t have to fit particular television formats and time limits. The suburban dystopias in Rokysopp’s and Arcade Fire’s extended videos are a little long and a little much for TV, especially with the shot of a horse’s head — skin stripped off, with chunks of flesh visible — in the Rokysopp video. Same goes for Simian Mobile Disco’s slow-motion clip of a pig being butchered (no one likes to know how their sausage — or dog food – is made). But other artists and directors don’t seem to care if their video is even accessible online, let alone on television. The Klaxons video has so much nudity and viscous fluid that YouTube won’t even put it behind a age verification wall.

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There was dust, rain, then mud. There was Eddie Vedder, sitting in with Kings Of Leon and calling Perry Farrell up onstage with Pearl Jam during a reportedly monstrous, festival headlining two-hour set. There were Brooklynites and Brits, Dave Matthews and Phoenix, The B-52s and Mos Def, John Paul Jones and Karen O. Basically there was a little of everything spread around Zilker Park this year, so we sent photographers Pooneh Ghana and Jon Gitchoff to capture what they could for our gallery. Enjoy.

This past weekend, bill-sharing fellows Reading and Leeds were tasked with distracting a nation still reeling from the death of its Oasis. Their secret weapons were unannounced sets by Them Crooked Vultures, the tweet-happy supergroup of Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones, and Josh Homme who introduced his band as “Michael Jackson” because he’s so talented at stage patter. (Incidentally, Nirvana’s legendary Reading ’92 performance is finally coming to CD/DVD 11/3.) Singer/producer Homme didn’t cameo with his bros in Eagles Of Death Metal or Arctic Monkeys, but there was plenty of other crossover fun in the form of cover songs: London HypeMachinists XX did their version of Womack And Womack’s “Teardrops,” Gossip took on “Sex On Fire” by headliners Kings Of Leon, and Fall Out Boy attempted Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” Elsewhere, Vampire Weekend (this year on a mainstage) played new songs that aren’t all that new anymore, Patrick Wolf changed costumes mid-gig presumably to something tasteful and understated, Mike Patton arched his eyebrows a lot, and security cracked down on crowd-surfing by anyone not named Alice Glass. Finally, Radiohead surprised few by including “These Are My Twisted Words” both nights, but no one predicted their Reading set would open with “Creep.” Or tease YYY’s “Maps” in the intro to “Everything In Its Right Place.” (NME says they also debuted a new song, but that is a twisted lie!) Peruse their setlists and pro video, and a smorgasbord of photos from the eventful bank holiday weekend this way…

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Aside from some heavy rains on Thursday and some quick showers Sunday, the throngs at Worthy Farm this year enjoyed some of the best weather in Glastonbury history. In return, the impressive lineup — featuring headliners Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young, and memorable sets from Blur, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Lily Allen, Spinal Tap, etc. — logged memorable sets throughout a weekend when the world paused to mourn Michael Jackson. Glasto’s Jacko tributes were nonstop, from MJ covers by the Streets, Dizzee Rascal, the Noisettes, and the Black Eyed Peas, to Lily Allen adorning her chest-baring outfit with a single white glove. The Boss continued his recent tear of onstage collaborations with artists that are clearly indebted to him (Arcade Fire, the Killers) and those less so (Phish) by performing “The ’59 Sound” with the Gaslight Anthem. (They belong in the former category.) But the weekend’s biggest buzz may belong to the reunited Blur, whose reportedly triumphant set was career spanning and NME stupefying. If you couldn’t make it to the UK for these reunion sets, the band’s making their upcoming Hyde Park shows available for professionally mixed and mastered download here. For now we’ve got Glastonbury in lots of pics, and we’ll update with video as it pops.

Once you strip White Lies’ “Nothing To Give” to its core components, there’s no question the band picked the best possible artist to remix it. There’s Harry McVeigh’s aching, echoing vocal; that overarching adolescence to its “When you said goodbye, I almost died” emotion; even the synths, and strings, and stadium guitars — all perfectly calibrated for Anthony Gonzalez to work his reinterprative skills. M83 largely abandons the original tracks, though, choosing chilled keyboard tones and whale-song-like patches dialed to his own brand of epic sentimentality, and wisely deletes the guitars entirely, replacing their more manufactured climax with a slow rise that takes six-and-a-half minutes to fully bloom. Really the remix hinges on McVeigh’s voice, which is smart because it’s the original track’s strongest asset; try the second verse, where M83 frames the lead vocal by simultaneously pinging clips of it to either side, like sending McVeigh down a hall of funhouse mirrors. Oh, the melodrama. We then spend a minute recalling the Knife before the release valve on everything is slowly let go for the big finish. Not the first time M83′s used this formula, but it is a great example of why, especially in the face of remix glut, an M83 reworking is still worth something.

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By Amrit Singh & Brandon Stosuy
Our trek into Indio went so smoothly this year that we’ve both become paranoid about something going incredibly wrong at any moment, but so far we’ve made it through without broken bones or spirits. In fact, even though the day started with extreme lines and heat, once we passed the impressively green grass into the actual grounds and started watching bands (and people), the weather seemed to ease up incrementally: By the time we witnessed Paul McCartney nail classic after classic, we were freezing and felt vindicated by our decision to wear jeans. But there was much music before that.

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It’s an annual thing, this BBC list. Last year they bestowed the top three slots upon Adele, Duffy, and the Ting Tings. So, music supervisors for Apple commercials and Saturday Night Live, here’s another list to pick over. This year’s spread numbers 15 — five honorable mentions with the top 10 ranked — based on a poll of 134 UK music pundits including magazine editors, newspaper critics, DJs, radio/TV program directors, bloggers, and cetera. Some you’ve heard before (Passion Pit, Little Boots, Empire Of The Sun), some you’ve yet to hear, and some you’ll wish you never did. Here’s the list with listen links affixed for your clicks:

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