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Rescue your Tuesdays with our weekly roundup of music news, videos and songs that just might help you get through the rest of the week. This week, a Presidential Playlist, a Dean’s List of sorts, and an Aussie trio ready for its closeup.  AN AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL POSTCARD FROM NEW YORK One of my favorite discoveries of last year was the Australian trio called Little May [https://email.wnyc.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=mQ8VP9Spw0qDWEyxmm0mtj4pIYC3rNIIpjyCjQWXqEKVDhDrH-NJ6QaJfa4---I0a8Tst8CQkcQ.&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcheck.wnyc.org%2Fstory%2Flittle-may-in-studio%2F]. Their indie-folk/pop was lovely and catchy and poignant all at once, and that 2014 EP promised more for 2015. The good news for Little May fans is that they’re releasing their full-length debut, on October 9; the even better news is that they’ve teamed with Aaron Dessner, one of the twin guitarists in the top-rank indie rockers The National and the producer of Sharon Van Etten’s great album Tramp. They recorded here in NY, and that distance from home may have played a part in the sound of this bittersweet rocker called “Home.” It certainly had an impact on this simple but affecting video. HAIL TO THE CHIEF’S SUMMER PLAYLIST In case you missed it, the Obama White House, long known for its embrace of the power of social media, has released via Twitter President Obama’s summer playlist. Actually, he released two playlists – one for those long, lazy days of summer, when all he has to do is sit back on the White House lawn and fix everything in the world, and another for those wild and crazy summer nights, when Chancellors and Prime Ministers come to play their own versions of “mo money, mo problems [https://email.wnyc.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=mQ8VP9Spw0qDWEyxmm0mtj4pIYC3rNIIpjyCjQWXqEKVDhDrH-NJ6QaJfa4---I0a8Tst8CQkcQ.&URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgUhRKVIjJtw].”  The White House press release is here [https://email.wnyc.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=mQ8VP9Spw0qDWEyxmm0mtj4pIYC3rNIIpjyCjQWXqEKVDhDrH-NJ6QaJfa4---I0a8Tst8CQkcQ.&URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse.gov%2Fblog%2F2015%2F08%2F14%2Fwhite-house-just-joined-spotify-listen-presidents-summer-playlist], and includes both sets of songs as Spotify playlists. You WILL be surprised by some of his choices. I know I was: the day list included Philly bar-rockers Low Cut Connie, whose frontman, Adam Weiner, thought it was a joke at first, before stating, “I'm shocked and humbled and confused.” And it included “Down the Deep River,” by the Austin-to-Brooklyn band Okkervil River. A personal fave of mine, it is also the title of songwriter Will Sheff’s forthcoming film about the town and the people who populate that record. A NEW DEAN'S LIST  Robert Christgau, the veteran rock critic from The Village Voice, is the Dean of American Rock Critics – a title proclaimed by no less a personage than Robert Christgau himself. Until 2006, Christgau was most famous for his Consumer Guide: paragraph-long reviews with a letter grade that told you whether you should splash your last five bucks down on that new Lou Reed record or not. (Famously, Christgau once said “not,” and Lou Reed responded by calling him various unprintable things on his next live album.) Anyway, Christgau is back, with a column called Expert Witness, online at Noisey. His first reviews are of Sam Smith, Jason Derula, and Miguel, so he’s not exactly ahead of the curve, but as he says in his first column, “I'd rather be right than first. So I listen at my own pace until I know what I think.” Read it here [https://email.wnyc.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=mQ8VP9Spw0qDWEyxmm0mtj4pIYC3rNIIpjyCjQWXqEKVDhDrH-NJ6QaJfa4---I0a8Tst8CQkcQ.&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fnoisey.vice.com%2Fblog%2Fexpert-witness-with-robert-christgau-1].  FREEDOM FROM MUSICAL STEREOTYPES Black Violin’s album comes out September 18, and it’ll be called Stereotypes. Notice the plural there – this isn’t just two young black men who play violin and viola exploding a racial stereotype. They’re also out of smash musical stereotypes.  Classically trained but in love with pop and hip-hop, Kev Marcus and Wil Baptiste blend the two in a way that somehow avoids being cheesy. Last year they posted their hip-hop variation of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto [https://email.wnyc.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=mQ8VP9Spw0qDWEyxmm0mtj4pIYC3rNIIpjyCjQWXqEKVDhDrH-NJ6QaJfa4---I0a8Tst8CQkcQ.&URL=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fblack-violin%2F01-brandenburg] #3, which sounded way better than it had any right to. (I think I hear a sample of Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” in there – hip-hop’s version of classical music, I guess.) Lately, they’ve been “redefining” songs by Big Sean/Drake/Kanye, Wiz Khalifa, and, in this video, Pharrell Williams’s “Freedom.” The guys are serious about this, but they’re clearly having a blast too. A MASSIVE ATTACK OF THAT '90S SOUND Gems is a duo that, from its sound, you might think were from Bristol, England. They’ve got that moody, groove-based thing going – you know, feathery female vocals over throbbing electronics. But Gems is from Washington, DC. Their first full-length LP, Kill the One You Love, comes out October 30, but they’ve already released the single “Living As A Ghost,” and it promises '80s gloss, a la The Cocteau Twins, and '90s darkness, a la Massive Attack and the other Bristol bands. 

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