We All Want Someone To Shout For

I wanted to make this post a “band to watch” post but I realized Two Door Cinema Club are not really a band to watch anymore. The young band from Northern Ireland are no strangers to the blogging scene. There songs have been heavily blogged on the internet, with loads of dance remixes of their songs clogging hypem every day. However, their debut album Tourist History wasn’t released in Ireland/UK until earlier this month. It doesn’t even have a release date here yet. So I guess in a way, they are still a band to watch stateside.

I just discovered them recently based on a couple of recommendations from my readers. It’s cool to see readers reccomending great bands to me, seeing everything comes full circle. Two Door Cinema Club make catchy dance Rock that has had me replaying Tourist History for two days straight. Every song from start to finish is loaded with tremendous amount of hooks that will leave you addicted all day. Alex Trimble’s warm vocals smartly direct the the band to pop perfection. The guitars have the angular fury of Tokyo Police Club. The basslines on the songs deserve a blog post of their own. The bass is the standout on every single song, creating rhythms that will be a hit on the dance-floor.

It’s amazing that this is their debut album because the band doesn’t sound amateur at all. The songs are heavily produced to the finest degree allowing their songs to sound full and focused. These are pop songs done right. I am going to play these all summer long, as loud as possible.

It is impossible to choose just a few songs to share with you on an album as great as this, but I tried. I highly recommend that you give this band a try. Tourist History may actually be one of my top 5 favorite albums of the year. I haven’t really listened to an album is such an obsessive manner since Contra. These guys are my favorite discovery right now. I am planning to see them at Bowery Ballroom on May 12th. I hope to see you there with your dancing shoes.

[mp3] : Two Door Cinema Club – I Can Talk
[mp3] : Two Door Cinema Club – What You Know
[mp3] : Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work

My attendance of last nights She & Him show at Bowery Ballroom was a blessing for me, as I got tickets 5 hours before the show started. Can’t get any luckier than that. I was extremely excited to hear some retro tunes from She & Him. I was also excited to see Zooey in person just like everyone else in the building (male & female!). It was one of the first times I went to a show by myself, but I had an absolute blast!

Openers The Living Sisters were three girls who sang beautiful harmonies with nothing more than an acoustic. It was very nice but it kinda made me bored after the first 4-5 songs. Nice stuff but not really something I would want to see live again. I’m sure the debut album is lovely though.

The minute that Zooey stepped out the crowd went pretty ape shit. Guys were screaming like fan girls, just happy to ge t a look at her. Don’t worry, she can sing people. I knew she had pipes on her but she really impressed me with her vocals last night. She really does have it all. M. Ward shouldn’t be forgotten either. He absolutely owned the guitar last night, earning his Monster Of Folk title. They mixed songs from Volume’s 1 & 2 giving the songs a upbeat alt-country feel that had all the Zooey look a likes swooning and all the men drooling. I had a lot of fun.

The band asked us to refrain from photos, so I don’t have many. People were sneaky and took some shots throughout the show. I joined in – indiscreetly with my 6’6 frame. I became friends with someone at the show who asked me to send her the photo’s I took, but I couldn’t find her on facebook. So if you are somehow reading this, let me know please!

After the show I waited outside and met M. Ward by himself. I asked for a photo but he said he doesn’t like photos. He was nice but was very, very, shy in an awkward way. I waited another 15 minutes and out came Zooey with her husband, Ben Gibbard from Death Cab. I said hi to Zooey over the other 6 people swarming her, then went to Ben and shook his hand and told him I’m a fan of DC. He was very appreciative that I noticed him, since the rest of the Zooey-maniacs ignored his presence. I didn’t even bother them with a photo request after being deaded by M. Ward.

Go check She & Him out if they are coming near you. Totally worth it for many reasons.

LCD Soundsystem has finally announced the title for their 3rd and most likely final album. It’s called This Is Happening. It comes out May 18th via DFA. James Murphy and friends will be playing two nights at Terminal 5 this summer. I’m going to the Friday night show. Who is hanging out with me?

You can listen to first single “Drunk Girls” below. Add it to your party playlist and have fun.

[mp3] : LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls

Check out the equally quirk and bizzare music video for MGMT’s Flash Delirium embedded below. It was directed by Andreas Nilsson.

If you haven’t already, pre-order Congratulations on itunes or insound.

Another new cut from Heaven Is Whenever has been shared to us via NY Mag’s Vulture Blog. The new one is called Rock Problems. The Hold Steady claimed to have lost their anthematic sound along with the departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay. After hearing “Hurricane J” last week, and the new song “Rock Problems” today, it seems like we still have the same old Hold Steady.

I am enjoying the song as it is still The Hold Steady doing what they do best. However, I can’t help but think that including some epic keyboard lines would have fit just right. Stream it below via Vulture. Thanks to Ben for the mp3 tip too!

[mp3]: The Hold Steady – Rock Problems

It’s rare these days when everyone can make a mashup, but there are still great mashups out there. One of the best rappers to use for mashups is The Notorious B.I.G. Hell, the Party and Bullshit In The U.S.A. mashup with Miley Cyrus is incredibly good.

Wait What mashed up Biggie with every song on the xx’s debut album. Charlie, the man behind Wait What, described the mashup album The Nororious xx on his site. I posted the bio below:

the notorious xx began as an idea in my sister’s apartment, where I was trying to figure out what it would sound like hearing juicy over vcr, and since then expanded to include all 11 tracks of the xx’s debut album chopped, sliced, and mashed up with biggie’s vocals. I made it over the span of a few weeks in boston, williamstown, albany, chicago, aspen, denver, and san francisco, and then mastered over 10 days in zurich, zermatt, london, san francisco, dallas, baton rouge and new orleans.

The whole album was  made available for free download on march 25th, the 13 year anniversary of Life After Death’s release. It is pretty amazing to see how well this mashup works. Biggie’s smooth raps fit perfectly within those tiny spaces that the xx leave deep within their music. On paper it may leave you scratching your head. Once you hit play, it all becomes clear. This is a perfect fit.

Download two cuts from the album below. If you like the rest be sure to grab the album for free over at wait what. This is probably the best mashup album you will hear all year. Don’t miss out!

[mp3] : Wait What – Juicy-R (The Notorious B.I.G. vs. the xx)
[mp3] : Wait What – Islands Is The Limit (The Notorious B.I.G. vs. the xx)
[mp3] : Wait What – Suicidal Fantasy (The Notorious B.I.G. vs. the xx)

Yesterday Tokyo Police Club posted a free mp3 download of their new single Breakneck Speed on their website. It will be off their new album, Champ. There isn’t too much info other than the title, and the random bits of info the band has given us on their blog.

After listening to Breakneck Speed half a dozen times I am very impressed with it. It’s very much a Tokyo Police Club song, just more focused and fleshed out (3:45 – one of their longest songs to date!) It has an engaging melody that is held together by tight instrumentation and quirky hooks that have become commonplace in their songs. Something tells me that Tokyo Police Club have discovered some new confidence with their time off.

Throughout the song Dave sings “it’s good to be back”. I couldn’t be happy to have these guys back. They have taken the sound they created on their early ep’s/debut album to the next level. Their unfair hype has died down, allowing them much needed space to grow on their own wings. These guys have a lot of potential that has to be unlocked. I’m hoping all of it comes out on Champ.

[mp3] : Tokyo Police Club – Breakneck Speed

Bryan Derballa is a Brooklyn photographer who is a friend/the roommate of Chris Chu, the frontman of the morning benders. Bryan has some great photographs of the band’s last few weeks posted at his blog. He filmed a few sessions of the band playing, including this magnificent acoustic version of Stitches that took place in their living room.

Me and my friend Alex have been desperately trying to see Spoon for years. We stupidly missed out on their Ga Ga tour, but we were smooth enough to grab tickets for their huge show at Radio City Music Hall. It was completely worth every penny (I’m not big enough to get press passes at Radio City, who are you kidding?)

Openers The Strange Boys played exciting country inspired garage rock. They honestly sounded like the old Kings Of Leon (try 4 years before they used somebody) with a young Caleb singing.

Deerhunter followed with a very strong set full of dense reverb rock They mixed their slower ambient stuff with Microcastle hits like “Never Stops”. Bradford dedicated the set to Alex Chilton‎, the legendary Big Star member who recently passed away.

The crowd was full of a lot of older fans who had no interest in either of the opening acts. So it was easy to tell people were impatiently waiting for Spoon to take the stage. Once they finally did, things settled down and the mood was set right. Spoon’s set started with Britt Daniel performing “Me and The Bean” solo. They followed up with three Transference cuts, The Mystery Zone, Written In Reverse, Got Nuffin, all of which got pretty good responses from the crowd.

The band played their songs true to form on the record with precision and ease. They played many classic cuts from all of their albums as far back as Girls Can Tell. I extremely enjoyed hearing songs that I have spent plenty of time with over the past few years, such as the excellent Ga Ga Ga opener “Don’t Make Me A Target” to “The Beast And Dragon, Adored”. However, the crowd was more enthusiastic about the Ga x5 standouts such as The Underdog, Don’t You Evah, and Cherry Bomb.

Spoon messed up the begging of The Ghost Of You Lingers, but they restarted it and gave it a new life live. Personally the best song of the night was “I Summon You”. It’s probably my favorite Spoon song, and it was just so sincere live. One of the coolest concert moments for me – ever. The cuts from Trasnference were handled with delicate care, but it was the older cuts that really shined tonight and made the night unforgettable.

It was a big show for the band, and they knew it. They had plenty of guest and surprises for us to make the show quite memorable. Eleanor Friedberger from the Fiery Furnances came out to help Spoon cover their song Waiting to Know You, as well as Spoon’s Someone Something. Then later on in the show Wolf Parade’s guitarist/vocalist Dan Boeckner came out to help the band cover Wolf Parade’s song, “Modern Love”. As a big Wolf Parade geek, this was an amazing treat and I was able to record it for you all. What a great moment. Watch the video below:

I would totally go to see Spoon again live, and hoped that they will play The Way We Get By, I Turn My Camera On, Everything Hits At Once, and Sister Jack. All of which were notably omitted from the setlist.

I took notes on the setlist with my phone, here it is:

1. Me and the Bean (Britt Solo)
2. The Mystery Zone
3. Written In Reverse
4. Got Nuffin
5. My Mathematical Mind
6. Don’t Make Me a Target
7. Ghost Of You Lingers
8. Love Song (The Damned Cover)
9. Is Love Forever?
10. Waiting To Know You (Fiery Furnaces Cover w/Eleanor Friedberger of the FF)
11. Someone Something (w/ Eleanor Friedberger of the FF)
12. Beast and Dragon Adored
13. Don’t You Evah
14. I Summon You
15. Nobody Gets Me But You
16. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
17. Rhythm & Soul
18. Jonathon Fisk
19. The Underdog
20. Black Like Me

Encore 1:
21. Trouble Comes Running
22. Modern World (Wolf Parade Cover w/ Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade)
23. I Saw The Light (Dan Boeckner on guitar)

Encore 2:
24. Small Stakes

After the jump check out the photo’s I took, plus a full video of Black Like Me that I captured:

Read the rest of this entry »

Aside from Kick-Ass, one of my most anticipated movies of 2010 is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It is a comic book adaptation about young man named Scott Pilgrim who is a bassist for a band called the Sex Bob-omb. He falls in love with a girl named Ramona who has seven evil ex’s that want to kill him. Sound dumb, nope its sounds rediculously awesome.

Edgar Wright is the director (he directed Shaun Of The Dead/Hot Fuzz), and Michael Cera in Scott Pilgrim. I love Michael Cera and Edgar Wright, so I am all for this movie. Complete geek out huh? Watch the trailer below. This film looks hysterical, I can’t wait.

Apparently Beck wrote some new music for the movie, that will be used by Scott’s fictional band The Sex Bob-omb. Even more reasons to get excited!