I was browsing vampire weekend stuff on youtube and came across an excellent acoustic cover of my favorite song from Contra, “Diplomats Son”:
Not much was posted about who the guy was, so I contacted him on youtube and found out his name is Mason Maggio. He’s a musician who is currently in two bands known as The Republic Of Wolves, and Tigers On Trains. Animal themed much?
This guy is a talented musician and did an excellent job with Diplomat Son. Vampire Weekend would be proud!
“Mean Red Spider” is the b-side for Transference’s lead single, “Written In Reverse”. For me it was slightly more accessible at first than Transference was. With that said, I am still digging my teeth in Transference (which you can stream at NPR right now) and it is sounding better and better with each listen.
This b-side features crunchy guitars, pounding drums (love the bass drum work at 1:45-1:55 by Jim Eno), and Britt Daniels confident vocals. The song is a steady rocker that should please all fans of the band. If you are still taking time to truly appreciate Transference, give Mean Red Spider ago and maybe it will ease you into things. Spoon are a band that just delivers time and time again.
[mp3] : Spoon – Mean Red Spider
I went to Passion Pit’s show at Terminal 5 last night with my friend Johnny without any tickets, and was able to find some before the show started. Thank god, because Passion Pit killed it last night! They topped it off with a cover of The Cranberries classic 90′s hit “Dreams”
Check out the cover below:
When I saw the Kooks live back in 2008, the opening band The Morning Benders came out of no where and blew me away. I bought their debut album immediately after and it made my best albums of 2008 at #23, as well as being called one of the ignored gem’s of 2008. It is now 2010, and the band is back!
Their new album is called Big Echo, and it is being promoted by it’s first single “Promises”. On first listen, it is somewhat different than what we got on their debut album. This may have to due with Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear sharing production duties with lead singer Chris Chu. Chris Taylor was the producer of The Department Of Eages album, In Ear Park, and you can definetly hear some familiarities with his production! The Morning Benders still have their same excellent pop writing at the forefront, but the production gives it an almost darker vibe that gives them an entirely new look. This definitely works for the better!
“Promises” sounds like a tighter, more confident, Morning Benders ready to take over the new decade! The Morning Benders are one of the most criminally underrated acts making music today. Hopefully this album will get more people noticing and appreciating what they have to offer! Chris Chu’s song writing is best described as “coming of age” with lyrics about “growing up too fast”. We have all been there, I currently am at this state of mind. Maybe that is a part of why I connect so well to his music! The Morning Benders definitely took things to a new level here! This is great!!
Big Echo drops 3/12, and you can preorder it from insound right now. Their are 500 copies of the 7 inch for Promises left, which you can buy right here.
[mp3] : The Morning Benders – Promises
Alex Schaaf is an absolute recording machine. The man is the front man of The Chairs, who are always welcome to grace the pages of we all want someone to shout for! You can also add his solo project Yellow Ostrich, which is just as excellent! He released his new album Wild Comfort 4 days ago, and is allowing it to be downloaded for free in its entirety from yellowostrich.bandcamp.com.
Alex Schaaf effortless creates sincere emotional bedroom indie rock that is easy to listen to, but also easy to fall in love with. Every word from his warm, delicate voice hits home with me. This is music that can warm you up during the coldest night. These really hit home for me!
Yellow Ostrich deserve your support, and you can do it for free! Go give Wild Comfort a try. It may be my favorite thing from Alex yet! If you need some motivation, listen to two songs from the record:
[mp3] : Yellow Ostrich – How Long
[mp3] : Yellow Ostrich – Little Tired
44 of you faithful readers were cool enough to take some time and vote for your favorite albums of the year!! 44 may not seem like that much, but considering that most people (including myself!) are lazy, and that this is a personal music blog, I am beyond thankful for the 44 of you guys that did vote! That is 44 more than I would ever thought I would ever have! So thank you to you 44!
The results as a whole weren’t that surprisng. The ordering was, I think you guys will be surprised at the ordering of the top 10! No, Arctic Monkeys didn’t win number one, which should stop all claims that we are a “Arctic Monkey fan blog”! There is a lot more to me than that, I think any daily reader of my blog will back me up on that one!
You guys proved that my readers are not strictly “indie” fans, because Gaga made the top 40, and Muse made the top 10! The list has a lot of my top albums (which is coming soon, I promise!), which just proves that you guys read this blog for a reason!
No one’s list was higher than 20 albums, so I did a 20 point system. The #1 album got 20 points, the #2 got 19, etc. It took some time to count them all, but it was worth it to see the results! A grand total of 200 diverse albums were mentioned, which just goes to show you how much good music is out there. It says a lot about the over abundance of music, and how it is impossible to give everything an equal shot!
Without further ado, here are the top 40 albums as chosen by the We All Want Someone To Shout For’s readers a.k.a. YOU:
40. fun. – Aim and Ignite: 40 points, 3 votes
39. Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster : 41 points, 3 votes
38. Freelance Whales – Weathervanes : 42 points, 3 votes
37. The Dodos – Time to Die : 43 points, 3 votes
36. Real Estate – Real Estate : 44 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote
35. Washed Out – High Times: 46 points , 3 votes
34. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm : 48 points, 3 votes
33. Wilco – Wilco (The album) : 50 points, 4 votes
32. The Horrors – Primary Colours : 51 points, 3 votes
31. Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon : End Of Day : 55 points, 4 votes
30. The Dead Weather – Horehound : 56 points, 4 votes
29. Metric – Fantasies: 57 points, 4 votes
28. Mos Def – The Ecstatic: 58 points, 3 votes, 2 #1 votes
27. White Lies – To Lose My Life : 60 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
26. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart : 62 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
25. Monsters of Folk – Monsters Of Folk : 65 points, 4 votes
24. Dark Was The Night : 65 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
23. Dan Deacon – Bromst : 66 points, 5 votes
22. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career : 67 points, 4 votes
21. Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand : 70 points, 6 votes
20. Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures : 73 points, 5 votes
19. Julian Casablancas – Phrazes For The Young : 76 points, 5 votes
18. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic : 77 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
17. Florence + The Machine – Lungs : 81 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
16. St. Vincent – Actor : 87 points, 6 votes, 2 #1 votes
15. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast : 88 points, 5 votes , 1 #1 vote
14. Fever Ray – Fever Ray : 89 points, 7 votes, 1 #1 vote
13. Passion Pit – Manners : 90 points, 6 votes
12. Girls – Album: 92 points, 6 votes
11. White Rabbits – It’s Frightening : 98 points, 6 votes
10. Miike Snow – Miike Snow : 117 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote
9. The Antlers – Hospice: 119 points, 7 votes, 2 #1 votes
8. Muse – The Resistance : 122 points, 8 votes, 2 #1 votes
7. Dirty Projectors – Britte Orca : 155 points, 10 Votes
6. The XX – XX : 207 points, 15 votes, 2 #1 votes
5. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – It’s Blitz : 208 points, 15 votes, 2 #1 votes
4. Animal Collective – MPP: 253 points 14 votes, 7 #1 votes
3. Arctic Monkeys- Humbug : 275 points 17 votes 3 #1 votes
2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest 315 points, 19 votes, 1 #1 vote
1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amedeus Phoenix 349 points, 21 votes, 2 #1 votes
You love b-sides from your favorite bands, correct? Vampire Weekend are riding a hot streak of near perfection right now with all of their fantastic music! They have released some really high quality b-sides over their short career, and now we can finally add Giant to that list!
If you saw the band live right as their first album was being released/supported, you should be familiar with thes song already! “Giant” first graced their live sets as “Little Giant”, and it has finally been made into an official studio recording and tacked on as a bonus track on the Japanese/Itunes versions of Contra.
The boys were able to make the translation from the live rendition to a studio version quite flawlessly. I was surprised to hear the guitar intro replaced by Rostam’s colorful keyboard playing. It only took a few listens for me to get used to it. The studio version definitely fits the sound of Contra, so I can accept the new changes with ease! This song is a lot of fun, and I think they should totally bring “Giant” back to their shows! I think people will eat this song up, it is an absolute delight! Any fans that are still letting Contra “grow” on them can rely on “Giant” to get them through the process! This is as immediate as they come!
Overall, I am really pleased with how well “Giant” came out! I waited a few years for a studio version to arrive, and it didn’t disappoint!
[Stream] : Vampire Weekend – Giant
Give it a sample, but please buy the song from itunes when it comes out on Tuesday!
Vampire Weekend are taking over the world! Over the summer they filmed an acoustic session for MTV Unplugged. The session has been posted online for our viewing pleasure! Watch M79 and Run below. You can watch the rest of the songs performed at MTV.
I attended the release party for Contra last night, and it was an absolute BLAST! I had so much fun, and I have a photo to post soon that may make a few of you guys pretty jealous! Stay tuned!
I got more new music from the legends known as Massive Attack for you guys today. Their new album Heligoland is out there if you know where to look and I am about to give you a proper taste! Massive Attack deliver an epic tune with “Atlas Air” a standout from their new album Heligoland. The bass is big and loud, making my floor shake with every thump. It creates a nighttime/club atmosphere through their smooth vocals and undaunted beats. They sound calm, cool, and collected. Effortless crafting a fine piece of electronic music!
This song is just plain cool!
[mp3] : Massive Attack – Atlas Air
Animal Collective have released the video for their most recent single, “Brother Sport”. I think you know what to expect by now from an Animal Collective video:
