We All Want Someone To Shout For

Vampire Weekend looked fresh and excited to play SNL again, especially with Zach Galifianakis hosting. Two of my friends actually camped outside the SNL Studios from Friday night until the time of the show for stand-by tickets an succeeded. I would have done the same if I wasn’t 3 hours up north. Nevertheless, pretty cool, huh? Apparently the show was great (I missed it), and there were a lot of celebrities in the crowd.

If you missed the performance as well, check out their energetic performances of Cousins & Giving Up The Gun:

Cousins:

Giving Up The Gun:

Jónsi’s debut solo album Go is floating somewhere out on the “interweb”. I don’t mean to post this song from it to offend the label. Rather, I want to share this song with people because it’s so beautiful. When people hear the grand piano line and wonderfully orchestrated stings lighting the way for Jónsi’s heavenly vocals – which are sung in English. There is a really dark, sad, nature to the song, that is rather heartbreaking. This is one hell of a beauty.

Jónsi is a one of a kind artist that we are lucky to have during our time here on earth. With a sound as catchy as the poker face song sweeping the interwebs, and the voice of an absolute angel, his music catches you right in the chest. Never have you heard piano used in a stop-start method like this and had it been so effective. His rhythm is constant and insistent, and the song is (pun not intended) a whirlwind of emotion and calm that leaves you looking at the world from a slightly different place.

Do yourself a favor and make sure you buy his album, Go, when it comes out on April 6th. You don’t want to miss out on this one. I really believe that by hearing this magnificent track, more people will go out and support Jónsi.

[stream] : Jónsi – Tornado

You can pre-order Go from Insound right now. On CD & Vinyl.

You can always count on Ok Go to make a great music video. The one they did for This Too Shall Pass is no different:

Pascal Bizet is a 28 year old songwriter from France. He got in contact with me directly through my facebook fan page and caught my attention, since he was the first to do so. I emailed him, and he filled me in on the goods.

In 2009 he made grungy/electronic demos as Royal Arche and he had a pretty succesful run, getting airplay on main college/alternative radio stations all over the globe.

Now he is focused on his own solo moniker making delightful pop music that is easy on the ears. He sings in french, and it doesn’t matter that you cannot understand him. His voice is very warm and receptive, allowing everyone to enjoy his art. Right now the only song he has is “Sans Doute”, but what a marvelous piece of pop it is. Pascal himself said the song talks about pure love, disenchantment, and depression. If he can make pure love and depression sound sunny and upbeat, I can’t wait to hear a song about summertime. Wes Anderson should seriously use this guy in his next movie. This song would fit perfectly in one of his movies.

Pascal is a new favorite artist of mine. Expect more goodies from him in the future!

[mp3] : Pascal Bizet – Sans Doute

A music website called 3voor12 has an entire Vampire Weekend concert streaming that you can watch right now. The film is taken from their February 24th show in Paradiso, Amsterdam. It’s has some pretty damn good visual and audio quality. Don’t sleep on watching this. Don’t know how long it will be up.

Watch it over at 3voor12

A big thank you to Davey for the many tips he has given me, including this one!

Belle & Sebastian sent out the following message to fans on their mailing list

“We’ve been in the studio these last few weeks writing some new tracks and shortly we will say cheerio to Glasgow for a while when we set off to L.A. to record our next album.”

It’s been a while. Almost 4 whole years since we got a new album from B&S. So this is really good to see. They are surely one of the most reliable bands out there. Here’s to hoping that this new album is just as good as the rest. There is also a possibility of some new tour dates. I’ve never seen the band, so I surely would try to hop on board any NYC dates!

via exclaim.ca

The Blue Walrus was one of the music blogs that was a part of my essential reading, long before I became a music blogger myself. Tim has a good taste in music, so I’m always eager to see what music he is digging.

I was introduced to a new band the other day via his blog, and I gotta say he was on the money with The Shimmer. The band consists of brother/sister David & Jade Hanks who have a colorful pen that writes some super sexy pop songs. They know how to take some dark influences, and use them to create pop gem’s.

Lovers Void has a catchy beat and a sense of cool that would perfectly fit the next car commercial showing the car taking a spin in a beautiful city. It’s basically an electronic fans delight. No Surprise At All on the other hand is a straightforward sunny guitar rocker. David’s voice is a pretty big draw, he can definitely hold his own. These are the only two songs floating around, but here’s to hoping there is more

According to Tim their first single (I hope it’s Lovers Void) is going to drop in a few months via Hit Club. Not much else is known about the band but you can keep up to date with them on their myspace or their blog.

[mp3] : The Shimmer – Lovers Void
[mp3] : The Shimmer – No Surprise At All

Minus The Bear are back with a new song off new album Omni, and it may catch a few listeners off guard. The guitars are traded for a synthesizer in “My Time” and it sounds like nothing that Minus The Bear has done before. There is a heavy dance/r&b influence floating over My Time.

Hearing this electronic Minus The Bear may be rather off setting at first. But as the song progresses you realize still have the same band here, they are just trying out some new things. The chorus sounds very Minus The Bear, just a little bit slicked up.

They found a way to bring in some electronic elements and make it work. I do want those guitars back for the rest of their new album Omni though.

[mp3] : Minus The Bear – My Time

Something tells me that Minus The Bear are going to blow up this year.

This pretty much shows why they are one of my favorite bands. According to Village Voice, the video shows the band (minus Rostam….) playing a house party. The youtube description apparently says that some kids from Barcelona met the band at a bar after the show there and convinced them to play A-Punk and Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa in their house.

Shit Vampire Weekend, we could use you at my house warming party next year. Come on up!!

The National’s new album is called High Violet!

A website called highviolet.com just went up for the national announcing that their new album is called High Violet. It’s coming out May 11th!

Best. News. Ever. (well, of today!)