We All Want Someone To Shout For

Vampire Weekend have chosen “Cousins” to be the first single off of their hotly anticipated new album Contra!

“Cousins” will be release digitally on November 17th, with a release of a 7 inch on December 15th.

I approve of this. This is why:

Yeah, Weezer is trying to be complete pop stars now. Their goal seems to be appealing to a more radio friendly crowd. They have pretty much left their true fans in the dark.

The best example of this has to be their new song “Can’t Stop Partying” that features Lil Wayne.

It can definitely be seen in the vein of “so bad its almost good”. Lil Wayne’s rap is very quick, but it still remains shocking enough. Why is Lil Wayne rapping in a Weezer song??? The song is gonna be stuck in my head for a while, but I don’t know if I want that :-/

I don’t know how to think about this track. Weezer has been moving to a complete pop sound for a while now, and it seems they just went face first into it. It will do amazing on the radio and whatever, but the Weezer fans from the Blue Album and Pinkerton era are floored at Rivers and co. right now.

“(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” was one thing, this is a completely different level….what to think about Raditude…

[mp3] : Weezer – Can’t Stop Partying (Feat. Lil Wayne)

(photo credit :: Kalle Gustafsson)

I feel like I have not been as strong of a blogger as I was at around this time last year. I am currently 1000 emails behind in my inbox, and I have tons of bands still to write about (raise high the roof beam, I didn’t forget about you!!). I just feel like I could be doing a lot more with my blog right now! I think it’s hard to manage a blog by yourself. I am no gorillavsbear, but things certainly stay busy on my end of the blogging spectrum. Emails keep piling up, and I have a few interviews to conduct, etc. etc. It is hard to do it all by yourself sometimes!

There are a ton of mp3′s on my desktop that desperately need posting. I don’t have enough time to make individual post’s for all of them so fuck it, Ill just post them here!

I’m also wondering if I should continue keeping this blog strictly music, or if I should include some personal thoughts every once in a while on this to spice things up. I don’t know if that belongs here though. Then again, this is my blog. This is the place to do it!

Sometimes I feel like there is something missing about the blog. I love this thing to death, and want to make sure it stays good enough to keep all you awesome readers here!

So if you are reading this post, let me know what you want. Do you want this blog to be strictly posts about new bands/new hot songs? Or would you enjoy some personal thoughts every so often? Post a comment let me know!

Check these songs out. It’s about time that I got these out there:

[mp3] : Rain Machine – Smiling Black Faces

Rain Machine is the moniker for the side project of Kyp Malone (from  TV On The Radio). Here is a song from his self titled debut album. It is really nice, but totally sounds like TVOTR.

[mp3] : Alec Ounsworth – Holy, Holy, Holy Moses (Song For New Orleans)

Alec Ounsworth is the distinctive voice that you know from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Here is one of his 2 new solo projects (the other is called Flashy Python). I am craving a new CYHSY album, but this will do for now. I like!

[mp3] : Mightyfools – Juno

Groovey. Think of them as a lighter house version of Justice.

[mp3] : Motel Motel – Cowboy

Heres a song Motel Motel recorded last winter. They say that is a preview of what their new album will sound like. They are quite an underrated band. This songs amazing!

[mp3] : White Hinterland – My Love (Justin Timberlake Cover)

White Hinterland does a very soulful cover of JT’s “My Love”. A nice listen.

I discovered Freelance Whales over the weekend, and I have been obsessing over their debut album ever since. I noticed that they were getting some good hype from  Stereogum, but I didn’t look into them simply because I am pretty lazy right now. It took some other bloggers to push my lazy ass to get started on this wonderful band. A thank you to Lindsay and Luis for this!

A “band to watch” post is on the way (but i got a test in 4 hours), but for now enjoy “Generator ^ First Floor” the opening song from their debut album Weathervanes.

The song blew me away from my very first listen. It has been my most played song for the last week by far. This song is so pure, so gentle, so organic. Their voices are amazing, they play a gorgeous tune with all instruments (goodbye over usage of electronics!!). What is not to like about “Generator ^ First Floor”?

[mp3] : Freelance Whales – Generator ^ First Floor

If only I wasn’t a music blogger who is stuck in college in upstate, NY during CMJ. It wouldn’t bother me so much if I wasn’t getting hundreds of emails rubbing the fact that I can’t go to CMJ in my face. Every other email is “LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO SEE _____, AND I’LL PUT YOU ON THE LIST!”

If you don’t know what CMJ is, its basically a big festival where new and upcoming bands are showcased for 4 days with big parties and music all day. Pretty sweet eh?

It’s a really cool thing that I am getting invited to see bands, showcases, and all other kinds of parties! However, it is not cool that I am stuck up here.

It bothers me that I have the chance to attend all the cool CMJ stuff, but no dice. Stuck in upstate NY, doing the college thing.

That’s not depressing at all….

Beach House have announced that their new album will be called Teen Dream. What a cool title!!

Teen Dream is set to come out on January 26, 2010. It is their 3rd album, but the first for the band’s new label Sub Pop!

Below I posted 3 new songs that BH have been playing live. All are confirmed to be on the album. I included a good sounding youtube video, with a proper mp3 for each song. The recording is from their show at The Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri.

I had the pleasure of seeing these songs live when they toured with Grizzly Bear @ Vassar College on Oct 9th, and they blew me away. These 3 songs are some of Beach House’s finest work yet!

Beach House – Zebra

Beach House – Norway

Beach House – Walk In The Park

[mp3] : Beach House – Zebra (Live)
[mp3] : Beach House – Norway (Live)
[mp3] : Beach House – Walk In The Park (Live)

Here is the official tracklisting:

Remixes have been pretty good to me over the last few weeks! A-Trak does a pretty stellar job remixing the YYY’s “Heads Will Roll”. I’ve really been enjoying this remix over the past 2 days.

If only the shitty party’s I go to would actually play good dance/club music like this. Then maybe my tall lanky 6’5 ass would actually consider dancing.

A-Trak is one hell of a producer/dj, creating an epic jam like this:

[mp3] : Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)

Julian C was good to us yesterday! He posted “River Of Brakelights” another new song from his solo debut album Phrazes For The Young, now pushed back to November 3rd. (Preorder here)

I love the build up for this song! Leading to the usual glorious Julian chorus that we get spoiled with time and time again with The Strokes. “River Of Brakelights” has an unusual song structure, which a lot of people seem to have a hard time digesting. I however am really blown away by how complex Julz is getting with us. I am even more blown away by how delicious the results are to my ears.

Phrazes For The Young is turning out to be Julian’s The Eraser. Yeah I said it.

[mp3] : Julian Casablancas – River Of Brakelights

I am a diehard Yankees fan. Die hard enough to drive almost 3 hours for game 1 of the ALCS on Friday. It was a big victory for us, it is important to take the 1st game. Especially against these pesky Angels. Even better was Saturday’s victory in the 13th inning. Jerry Hairston jr came to score on a throwing error which won us the game (photo of him above sees him getting the A.J. Burnett traditional pie in the face, for the player who helped us win a walk off victory!)

I have a great, great feeling about this year. There is something different about this team. These guys are bonding, having fun, and playing hard. We haven’t seen this for almost a decade!!! They kick off game 3 today at 4pm eastern time! Today will be hard agaisnt the pesky Jared Weaver, but I think momentum is even more pesky!

For once, local radio station z100 actually did something someone good. They created a remix of Jay-Z’s “Run This Town” and changed the lyrics for the Yankees postseason run. It was supposed to just be a joke, but listeners enjoyed it so much they saw it more as a good luck charm! Thousands of calls came in to the station requesting it, and it even got the Yankees attention, as it was actually played during the game on friday!

The Yankees are 2-0 in the ALCS series, so as long as they keep winning I’ll keep blasting this!

[mp3] : Jay-Z – Run This Town (Yankees ’09 Playoff Remix) (Z100 themselves asked me to take it off!!)

Just found out that Vampire Weekend played their new song Horchata live last week at their Toronto show on October 8th. Very good performance! Check it out. below: