We All Want Someone To Shout For

For whatever reason, Santogold has changed her name to Santigold. I couldn’t tell you why, maybe she gets bored easily? In a press release this was the explanation: “Santogold is now Santigold. She’s not telling you why, that’s just how it is. No unpronounceable symbol, no numbers where they shouldn’t be, no random capitalization, just plain ass Santigold so remember that. That’s pretty much all that I know about now, she has a all new myspace. If anything else comes my way I was deliver you the update!

[mp3] : Santogold – Shove It

i had to put this song in there:

[mp3] : The Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name

The good people over at insound have teamed up with us (well I mean me) to give away an exclusive Andy Dixon designed Handsome Furs t-shirt. The shirt is only available at insound, and it comes with a FREE digital download of Face Control, which is an awesome, awesome album. This is an awesome giveaway, a first for this blog! All you have to do to win is sign up for the contest and we will announce the winner on Febuary 20th. I wish you all the best of luck, and I will contact the winner as soon as I find out who wins. Check out the shirt below, it is pretty sick:

You know you want that! So..SIGN UP FOR THE CONTEST – Get yourself some goooooodies

[mp3] : Handsome Furs – Radio Kaliningrad

[mp3] : Handsome Furs – I’m Confused

Great Northern has a new album coming out on April 28th called “Remind Me Where The Light Is”. The first taste of the album is with “Houses, the first single. I liked it. See what you think as well, mp3 is below. Here is a bit off the press release that was sent to me:

Great Northern released their atmospheric and melodic debut album, Trading Twilight For Daylight in 2007. With its catchy hooks, lush keys and breathy vocals, it was received warmly and created a solid buzz. Their new album, Remind Me Where the Light Is (in stores April 28, 2009), is the work of a more seasoned group, one that has been on the road for months, missed home, seen the world, and returned, not entirely prepared to sit still and write. It became very clear to them that they were going to do things a little differently this time. Great Northern take bigger chances on Remind Me Where The Light Is. Wishing to expand their sound, Bixler and Stolte began working with producer Michael Patterson (Beck, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Beck, Puff Daddy, She Wants Revenge, amongst others) and Nic Jodoin. The results being upbeat, guitar-driven songs, yet with the familiar layered vocals and sweeping, panoramic sound.

[mp3] : Great Northern – Houses

Rogue Wave recently took some time to cover the already classic “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The cover is awesome, the band was really able to make it their own. The YYY’s should be proud:

[mp3] : Rogue Wave – Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs Cover)

[mp3] : Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps (Acoustic)

The Thermals have given us a preview of their new album “Now We Can See” with one song of the same name. The song has a sing along of  “Oh-way-oh-a-whoa” over their familar sound. The song picks up just where the band left off with their last album “The Body, the Blood, the Machine”.The song in other words is awesome. It is good to have a new Thermals record to look forward to. Start the countdown, “Now We Can See” comes out April 7th via Kill Rock Stars.

[mp3] : The Thermals – Now We Can See

Myspace

I honestly did not know what to expect when I listened to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s debut self titled album. Well I will tell you this much, the album is a great 34 minutes of shoe-gaze, lo-fi rock. I always have had a warm spot for noise bands with melodies tucked away beneath layers. The songs on their debut are straight forward rock/pop oriented songs that are glowing with melodies. Right off the bat each song made an impression on me with clean acoustic guitars and sharp distorted guitars over the soothing male/female vocals that allowed The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart to craft one of the coolest sounds of 2009. Songs like “Come Saturday” and “Young Adult Friction” are instantly catchy with a driving beat, Belle & Sebastian like vocals and perfectly constructed melodies. The production on this album is perfect for their sound with everything mixed together over the fuzziness to give them the out of body sound they were striving for. “The Tenure Itch” and other tracks have dreamy characteristic’s about them. These songs remind you of just chilling out during the summer with no fucking worries at all. Listen to “Stay Alive” and tell me that it doesn’t invoke memories of just chilling out by the beach with your friends during the summer, having a cold one. You know, those simplier times. This is a really pleasant record, full of all the things that makes indie music great.

It was good to see pitchfork give their album a positive review, as now the band will get well deserved attention. I have been enjoying this album for a good part of the new year and it has only gotten better and better. I think this is my 2nd favorite record of 2009 so far (with MPP way up front). The new Andrew Bird record and A.C. Newman record were all enjoyable for example, but I didn’t connect to those records as much/as fast as I did with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Man 2009 is really giving us some solid offerings.

[mp3] : The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Come Saturday

[mp3] : The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Young Adult Friction

[mp3] : The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Stay Alive

Buy Their Album | Myspace

I will always be a Green Day fan despite what anyone says. It amazes me how it suddenly became cool to hate on them just because they changed their sound and got more popular. American Idiot is a great album, and all the hipsters need to pull the pitchfork out of their ass and just rock out a bit. It has been a long time since “American Idiot” came out, almost 5 years! It was cool to see Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt present the award for best album at the Grammy’s last night. Today the band followed that up with the announcement that their 9th studio album is titled “21st Century Breakdown” and it is schedules to come out in May. I have a good feeling about this one!

Success! Grizzly Bear have finally given us the title to their new album: Veckatimest! What the hell is Veckatimest you ask? Ed Droste himself said that “Yes, V is for Veckatimest, a small uninhabited island. It’s untouched and a pretty speck of land to explore”. Honestly I would not mind heading over to the island chilling out with the cool dudes of Grizzly Bear themselves. They always seem to be living such a enjoyable life, I sure would love to get in on that. The band hasn’t given us too many details besides the fact that it is due to come out in May. We know of 4 songs that will be on the album for sure, and there is some talk that Victoria Legrand of Beach House may be adding some vocals on the pop gem “Two Weeks” that may just be one of the best songs of the year.

If any more news comes my way, I will post it for you guys. This album is going to be pretty fantastic!

[mp3] : Grizzly Bear – While You Wait For The Others (Live ON KCRW)

Well the Grammy’s were a dissapointment as usual. One of the good performances came from Radiohead playing “15 Step” with a marching band right behind them. The performance was pretty much spot on, and played a little bit faster than we are used to. They also won best alternative album! Check out the video below before it is taken down:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IMiiJRwhS0

[mp3] : Radiohead – 15 Step (Live at the Grammy’s)

TV On The Radio have offered one of the coolest covers off of the Heroes: War Child’s Heroes Compilation. For this compilation 15 “ultimate icons” chose a song from their own back catalogs and chose a new act to cover it. David Bowie himself choose TV On The Radio to cover his classic “Heroes” for the compilation and the result is pretty damn cool. I approve of it. Give it a shot:

TV On The Radio – Heroes (David Bowie Cover)