We All Want Someone To Shout For

It’s 4:07 AM right now and insomnia is kicking my ass! I was just checking my emails and noticed that I had received a strange email 6 minutes ago. It came from a mysterious email address titled iamamiwhoami and the email title was a youtube link. The only contents of the email where the link to the same video. I clicked the video and lo and behold it’s titled “9.20.19.13.5.723378″. Faaantastic!

The video is 1:20 of  beautiful music and ambiguous images. The video was posted by iamamiwhoami and if you look at their past videos they have been posting the same type of mysterious clips!!! I believe GorillavsBear posted the first video a month back, and they have some guesses as to who it is. The most popular guess is Goldfrapp, and I can see that! However, we have no solid proof yet so it is still up in the air. Personally I am guessing Goldfrapp or The Knife. Maybe MGMT?

I am really intrigued by this, and I think this deserves some attention! Who are these guys? Who do you think this is? Is it a new artist trying to create some early buzz (which is working!)? is it a big artist giving us a tease of a new album?  is it a forgotten artist who is hinting at a big comeback? I honestly don’t have a clue but I am really interested!!!

Check it out below, please comment and tell me your thoughts! Who is iamamiwhoami ??

I posted the other two videos they have uploaded as well, after the jump!

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I drove up to Bing last night blasting Hot Chip‘s new one, and boy did it sound great! One of my favorite offerings from the album is the autotune flavored “I Feel Better”. To most people autotune is grating and unnecessary, but Hot Chip find a way to make it fit. The synths are dark and heavy creating a epic dance tune that is out of this world.

This song would pretty much slay any dance party.  I am really loving One Life Stand as a whole right now, and this is just one of the many tracks that are really doing it for me at the moment! I wanted to share this with you guys to make your Sunday that much better.

[mp3] : Hot Chip – I Feel Better

I am driving back up to Binghamton University in a few hours, so I don’t have too much time to post today! I recently re-discovered one of my favorite Muse songs, a b-side called “Crying Shame”. It is one of the best Muse songs in my opinion and I think it should be discovered by a much wider audience!

The song is very Muse. Edgy guitars, fun bombastic vocals, and a grand chorus. I love this song and wish it was placed on an album, but I guess it didn’t fit on any of their albums.

Give it a go, thank me later:

[mp3] : Muse – Crying Shame

NBC are idiots for treating Conan the way they did! He went out with a bang last night wit one hell of a show! Neil Young came to play Conan out with “Long May You Run”. I am not too familiar wit Neil Young but he’s on my list of artists to get into someday. Sorry, his discography is just a little bit intimidating!

The performance from Neil was heartfelt and touching, you can tell he is is putting his all into the performance for Conan.

I love how Neil says “Thanks for everything that you have done for new music”. He speaks the truth. Conan brought a lot of new acts onto his show and did great things for them! NBC should be ashamed of themselves for letting such a great man go, especially for such a boring, unfunny man like Jay Leno. I hope Fox picks up Conan and destroys Leno and his chin!

I love artists that give great performances day in and day out. I’m sure that it’s not easy to go out there and perform everyday. I also love when artists battle through rough weather giving it there all even though they get drenched with rain. Not only is it annoying to get soaked on stage, but it’s a potential safety risk that not too many people would be cool with.

Owen Pallet is a class act who is one of the most talented men making music today. I wasn’t surprised to see a video of him giving his all throughout a powerful rainstorm at the Hillside Festival In Guelph back in July. I saw it while reading Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good. Near the end of the song one of the festival people tell him to leave but he says “Let me finish the song” all while risking getting electrocuted and flawlessly finishing the song.

What a top class act, and a marvelous live performance. Owen Pallet is a must see live act for me now!

Check out the performance :

I have seen Vampire Weekend 5 times, all in pretty intimate setting, so I wasn’t too pleased seeing them at such a big venue such as United Palace Theater. I couldn’t get tickets to Bowery/Webster as they sold out instantly. I was in the back of the venue next to 40 year olds who didn’t move, sing, dance, or even care to be there. Ultra-lame! I wanted to be back at Bowery where everyone there knew all the lyrics by heart after studying the Blue-CDR for hours. There were moments during that album release party at Bowery where the crowd’s singing was practically louder than the band!!!!

I had to vent about the lameness of the crowd. I guess it had to be expected when they play a bigger venue for a bigger audience.

With all that behind us, I can finally talk about the bands performance. Considering it was the first time they played many of the Contra songs live (Ezra’s words!) the band sounded really comfortable with playing the songs.The only song that Vampire had problem getting straight was Diplomat’s Son which was understandably tough for them to get the timing straight! Otherwise, the new Contra tracks merged effortlessly into Vampire’s setlist. It seemed as though they have been playing the songs for their entire (short) career.

With songs like “White Sky”, this is partially true. I have seen that song every single time that I have seen them live so it literally has become a staple of their live set in my mind. You know what you are going to get when you see Chris Tomson jumping enthusiastically behind his drum set and that familiar backing track kicks in. The song has taken over Mansard Roof as the perfect opener to their setlist. Immediately the band kicks into Holiday & Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa getting the crowd pumped up. I really appreciate going to a Vampire Weekend live show because they really take care of their songs live. They will bring in a 4 person string orchestra in order to give M79 the true effect. I don’t know if it is because the song was written about NYC, but M79 has a special quality live that I’m pretty sure you can only get from their NYC shows!

“California English” works perfectly live, building and building to a fun climax that had me and my girlfriend dancing in our tight chair space, probably annoying the stiff old folks standing behind me. They shredded through “Cousins” and then slowed things down with “Taxi Cab” where Chris Baio played an upright bass while Chris Tomson pounding an electronic drum pad. From there the band didn’t look back running through “Run” (you see what I did there?) and a slew of Vampire Weekend classics like “A-Punk”, “One”, and “Kids” that had most of the crowd singing along.

Not surprisingly the crowd ate up the older songs singing back all the lyrics with enthusiasm. Most of the crowd around my seating area didn’t seem too familiar with the Contra songs, which was rather disappointing. I think I was one of the only people in my entire section who knew “Ottoman”, let alone singing along! That was a special treat, and I was pretty grateful that they brought it back to their live sets! The entire setlist was a treat, as it was Vampire Weekend’s longest set of their entire career. They played practically every song in their discography aside from I Think UR A Contra, Bryn, Boston (which was heartbreaking to not hear!!), and some more b-sides. They made sure every fan left happy, and got the most for their money.

I had a lot of fun at their show, but sadly it was probably my least favorite gig of theirs. I am not even talking about a loss of intimacy. That was expected as the band got bigger. I was talking about a really lame crowd that didn’t move. Not many people sung, or even seemed to really be a Vampire Weekend fan. You don’t need to know the lyrics word for word or anything, but at least pretend to want to be there! I’m sure there are thousands of you that would have gladly taken their place!

Hopefully the next time I catch them, the crowd will be a lot better! But, maybe I will be quick enough to catch them at a more intimate venue!

Setlist (Thank god for my phones notepad feature!)  :

White Sky
Holiday
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
I Stand Corrected
M79
California English
Cousins
Taxi Cab
Run
A-Punk
One (Blake’s Got A New Face)
Kids Don’t Stand A Chance
Diplomat’s Son
Giving Up The Gun
Campus
Oxford Comma

——————
Encore

Horchata
Ottoman
Mansard Roof
Walcott

Check out Local Natives performing “Wide Eyes” acoustic for Le Hiboo. This is a fantastic performance which should get any fan of live music excited to see them live!

HibOO d’Live : Local Natives “Wide eyes” from Le-HibOO.com on Vimeo.

I don’t think I have ever mentioned my love for Lost to you guys on this blog… Well now you know. It is my favorite show on televsion, and I believe it is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) shows on television, EVER! It is the only show that I have ever obsessed over. I don’t even know how many times I have re-watched each season and clicked through various forums to help myself understand the mindfuck that is Lost! I have recently run through Season 5 once again to get myself prepared for Season 6!

Season 6 is less than a month away, and I am dying in anticipation! The show can go in any direction, it is entirely up in the air! What other show can say that they went into their final season open to plenty of different ideas? I think we all have a few ideas about how it will all pan out, but does anyone know for sure? If you do, lets go get some coffee and discuss!!!

Are you guys ready for Season 6? Who else is a lost fan??

You can read this great interview from the Lost producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It only gets you even more pumped for Season 6!

M. Ward & Zooey Deschanel are back together as She & Him set to release the follow-up to Volume One, which is properly titled Volume Two! To get people excited about the new release, they put a new song from Volume Two up for download. The song is titled “In The Sun”. She & Him did a pretty damn good job making the song sound like it’s title!

“In The Sun” sounds like a bright day full of new opportunities due to Zooey Deschanel’s warm delightful vocals. M. Ward keeps his guitar riff in the background allowing Zooey to do most of the talking. This definetly works to the band’s advantage!

I can’t wait to hear Volume Two! She & Him are a band that everyone should love! They sound so warm and familiar, how can you not digg them?

[mp3] : She & Him – In the Sun

She & Him are doing a small spring tour so if you are in the area, go see them! I am thinking of going just so I can chill with Zooey! Check out the dates below:

03-15 Los Angeles, CA – Largo
03-25 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theater
03-27 Savannah, GA – Savannah Music Festival
03-29 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
03-30 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
04-15 Pomona, CA – The Glass House
04-16 Indio, CA – Coachella Festival

Lightspeed Champion released a really solid album with Falling Off The Lavender Bridge in 2007. Sadly it fell under the radar for pretty much everyone else! I had some decent memories with the album, and really enjoyed it! It was hard to believe that it was the solo project of Dev Hynes from the Test Icicles!

Dev is back with a new album under the Lightspeed Champion moniker for the new year! It’s cleverly titled Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You, and is slated for a release on February 1st!

I have two tracks that Domino posted for download on Soundcloud. The first is an cover of the one and only Elvis. Dev covered the King’s 1963 hit, “Devil In Disguise”. I can’t say I know the song by heart, but Dev did a pretty good job with the cover! He channels his inner rockabilly and gives a pretty damn good rendition of a song that is from an entirely different era. The second is called “Madame Van Damme”, a fun, vibrant, jam that should give you a pretty good idea about what Lightspeed Champion is all about. A culmination of different styles to create one unique style. Love the bass-line!

“Madame Van Damme” will be featured on Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You, which you can pre-order from Domino right here!

[mp3] : Lightspeed Champion – Devil In Disguise

[mp3] : Lightspeed Champion – Madame Van Damme