Got the 4th Vampire Weekend song performed on the excellent Pitchfork.tv series, Juans Basement. I am used to the auto-tuner on the album version, but I am not used to it live! Hopefully it will sound even better when I see the boys at United Palace! I gotta say California English is a really fun song to listen to, and I think it will translate well live. Isn’t that what Vampire Weekend is all about?
Archive for January, 2010
Animal Collective’s current absent member played his first solo gig ever at Baltimore back on New Years Day (It’s almost been a week since new years already! – WOW)! It was a show to help him get prepared for his big appearance at the festival in the desert, in Mali. He tested his solo work at the Ottobar, and the Baltimore Music Blog, Bmore Musically Informed was there and recorded 5 of Deacon’s new songs! None of titles yet, so he just named them Deacon 1, 2, 3 etc.
You can check each one out below, and get a feel for Deacon/Josh Dibb’s solo work.The songs are very early Animal Collective. A lot more focus on ambience and space within music, using his voice as an instrument.
[mp3] : Deacon – Deacon 1 (Live)
[mp3] : Deacon – Deacon 2 (Live)
[mp3] : Deacon – Deacon 3 (Live)
[mp3] : Deacon – Deacon 4 (Live)
[mp3] : Deacon – Deacon 5 (Live)
The Soft Pack’s awesome debut album is gracing my ears right now, and one of the tracks that I have fallen in love with from my early listen is “Mexico”. It is a breezy summer anthem with a really chill tone throughout. From Matt Lamkin’s laid back vocals, to the vibin’ bassline, the song resonates with cool. The band is in complete control here, having a lot of fun making great music. The guitar work is slick, sounding gritty enough to keep their garage rock sound. But it also suites there sunny sound just as well.
Just stare at the photo that I posted of them, and tell me that this song doesn’t fit the atmosphere! “Mexico” is an early standout from the bands great debut album, one of the brightest debuts of 2010!
[mp3] : The Soft Pack – Mexico
The Soft Packs debut album officially drops on February 2nd.
However, you can pre-order it now directly from Insound
Mr. Bon Iver himself, Justin Vernon, has become one of the best song writers of recent memory. This decade may be his to own, unless Sufjan decides that enough is enough, and gives Justin a worthy opponent. Before he got the world obsessed with his amazing music with Bon Iver, he recorded a solo EP called Hazelton’s. Pretty Much Amazing pulled out “Hazelton” from the 2006 EP, wiped off the dust, and shared it with the world. Thank you for doing so Luis, I wasn’t aware of this EP until you posted about it!
“Hazelton” could pass for a Bon Iver track because of familiarity, as well as quality. It sounds like most of his work, meaning that it is excellent. Justin just has a natural ability to grace us with excellent songwriting. Not many people could compose beautiful melodies like Justin. Hazelton is a uplifting song, giving off feeling of a broken heart.
[mp3] : Justin Vernon – Hazelton
Miike Snow’s debut self titled album’s was a pleasant delight in 2009. It was a solid album that was so front loaded it wasn’t even funny. The first half of that album is filled with incredible pop song after incredible pop song. The first five songs of the album are filled with sweet hooks and delightful memories that most bands would kill for. I never got around to posting about these guys, but it’s not like I am adding anything. These guys got blogged and remixed to death in 2009. I guess it was better for me to let the dust settled so that you guys can enjoy Miike Snow for what they really are, fun pop songs. Two of the guys in the band are professional pop song writers who write songs for the likes of Madonna, Kylie Minouge, and Kelis. They even won a Grammy for Britney’s Toxic (guilty pleasure much?).
It was hard to choose two songs to post out of those first 5, but these should give you a good enough idea about what these dudes are all about.
[mp3] : Miike Snow – Song for No One
[mp3] : Miike Snow – Animal
If you like what you hear,
It was only yesterday that I made a post telling you about the Knife’s plans to release brand new music for free download through Soundcloud. I didn’t think they would do it 24 hours later! The band put up the dramatic song “Colouring Of Pigeons” which clocks in at a long 11 minutes.
The song is going to be on The Knife’s new album, Tomorrow, In A Year. It isn’t the album that I expected though. It is the recorded version of the experimental opera about Charle’s Darwin’s, On The Origin Of Species that was commisioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. They got some help with collabortive partners Planningtorock and Mt. Sims. The band performed it live on stage last September, and now they are ready to share the recorded version to the rest of the world.
They have us “Colouring Of Pigeons” for free online, and it is pretty “out there”. It is very much The Knife, just a lot longer, and even darker. It features vocals from Kristina Wahlin Momme, Lærke Bo Winther, and Jonathan Johansson. It sounds mysteriously cold and distant, helped with the haunting vocals that The Kinfe are known to bring to the table. The guest vocalists take the “creepy” factor to a different level.
[mp3] : The Knife – Colouring of Pigeons
It is cool that we are getting new The Knife. We’ve been waiting for four years to hear new material from them. I am just a little disappointed that this is their new project. I wanted a more….”traditional” album, rather than this coolaboration of an opera. But I guess I can’ be picky with what I get! Afteral, the download was free….
Tomorrow, In A Year comes out digitally Feb 2nd, and on CD March 9th.
Once again, sorry about the video/Vampire Weekend CRAZE here. I cannot help it though, the lovely lads are all over the place! It is only 3 hours since the performance and someone has already uploaded their performance of Cousins on Letterman! How about that?
The band sounded great…like that is a surprise to hear from me! I’ll just shut up and leave you with the performance! :
Japandroids bring the garage to Jimmy Fallon as they performed “Wet Hair” on 1/4. The boys really brought it to the TV show, you can tell they are having fun! They sounded really great here, absolutely rocking it!!!! I saw them at the Siren Festival this past summer, and they are a ton of fun live.
Check out their performance:
I usually don’t post music video’s around here unless I really enjoy it, or find a reason that makes it a must post. “No You Don’t” is an excellent song from Islands criminally underrated/under-appreciated 2009 album Vapours. That is the first reason. The second reason is the video stars Michael Cera on a bad drug trip, and it is beyond hysterical!
This is worth a watch. I love Michael Cera and can’t wait for Youth In Revolt on Friday! Check it out:
