We All Want Someone To Shout For

Man, will The National stop finding new ways to amaze me? Doubt it. They put on a mesmerizing show tonight at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House that you hopefully caught during it’s live stream on Youtube.

I got stuck in pretty horrible NYC traffic and ended up getting there late, missing the first 5-6 songs. It would have bummed me out, but to be honest I was perfectly fine hearing all the songs I did.

The Opera House was filled with middle aged fans, with virtually no teenagers in sight. I think I may have been one of the youngest fans in attendance. I even spotted Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste & Chris Bear in attendance. The venue was filled with a sense of awe for what was before our eyes. It was more than just 5 friends playing their songs on stage. It was more than just watching a band playing songs off High Violet, arguably the finest record to grace 2010. It was a band at their pinnacle moment, playing for their hometown fans, who have watched their incredible growth for a decade. With youtube cameras all around, Sufjan Stevens and Richard Reed Perry of The Arcade Fire as special guests, this was a concert for the ages.

Although I missed Bloodbuzz and Secret Meeting, I got plenty of great songs as well. Hearing All The Wine, a favorite of my girlfriend Jade, absolutely made her night. It was my 3rd time seeing the guys, and it may have been the best yet. The show took a turn for the epic during the 3 song stretch of Conversation 16, Apartment Story, and Abel. Three songs, all from different albums, going in order from new to old. The songs complimented each other showing how far the band has come, and how definitive their songs are.

Before playing England the band saluted any UK fans who were still up at 3am watching the youtube stream. Matt, who was pretty well buzzed off his wine by now, went on to jokingly call them lonely losers. The lonely losers certainly had to forgive the band after the stunning version of England that the band played. Hats had to go off to the backing orchestra that certainly added depth to the song. Easily a highlight of the night.

The band came back for an encore that started with “Runaway”, and then led into Matt hilarious introduction for “Lemonworld”. He described the song basically as a dirty song about his wife. Gotta love honesty. It was delivered in perfect fashion, proving why it is one of the clear highlights of HV. Matt sang half of Mr. November in the crowd as he walked over seats, singing directly to the crowd. I never thought any other song could follow Mr. November live but Terrible Love was more than appropriate. Matt started singing a bit early, causing Aaron to playfully kick him. The band didn’t miss a beat after that, delivering a performance that sounding like an earthquake. Can you say, epic love?

Look who I found after the show:

Me and my girlfriend Jade waited around after the show for about 30 minutes and Matt came out. He was an extremely friendly guy, who was very cool to meet. Basically, he was the man!

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Arcade Fire confirmed my suspicion of a new single with an update on their site, in the form of a postcard. Check it out below:

According to P4k, the bands camp denies amazon’s listing of a June 1st single called “Suburbs/Month of May”. Either way, new Arcade Fire is on the way soon. Summer just got that much better.

The new Twilight movie, Eclipse, pulled in great indie artists to provide sounds for its soundtrack. We are getting new songs from artists like Vampire Weekend, The Dead Weather, Band Of Horses, and a collab between Beck and Bat For Lashes. Never seen any of the films, but cheers to them for bringing decent tunes.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Soundtrack:

01 Metric: “Eclipse (All Yours)”
02 Muse: “Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)”
03 The Bravery: “Ours”
04 Florence and the Machine: “Heavy in Your Arms”
05 Sia: “My Love”
06 Fanfarlo: “Atlas”
07 The Black Keys: “Chop and Change”
08 The Dead Weather: “Rolling in on a Burning Tire”
09 Beck and Bat For Lashes: “Let’s Get Lost”
10 Vampire Weekend: “Jonathan Low”
11 UNKLE: “With You in My Head [ft. the Black Angels]”
12 Eastern Conference Champions: “A Million Miles an Hour”
13 Band of Horses: “Life on Earth”
14 Cee-Lo Green: “What Part of Forever”
15 Howard Shore: “Jacob’s Theme”

If you head over to amazon, you will notice that a new single called “Suburbs/Month of May” is listed, and set to a release date of June 1st 2010. Hopefully this is legit, because we could all use some new Arcade Fire this summer.

This seems likely after the mysterious “The Suburbs” message on the Arcade Fires website.

Been falling behind a bit, but I had to vent about this somewhere. I love you M.I.A., and it made sense that you called your new album Maya, but did you really have to spell it /\/\/\Y/\? That is some ugly stuff right there! Come on M.I.A., you create great music, why do you have to make my itunes tags look lame?

She announced it over on the N.E.E.T. blog, where you can also listen to XXXO, if you have not heard it already. The version of XXXO posted on the blog is different than the studio version. The one on the blog is called the Riginal Blaqstarr Version.

Earlier this month I posted “Say No To Love“, the new single from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Now you can stream it’s accompanying b-side, “Lost Saint”, which is just as much of a fuzzy delight as it’s a-side:

The stream is via Drowned In Sound.

The Lost Saint 7″ single officially drops June 8th via Slumberland Records.  You can pre-order it at insound right now. You can also watch the music video for their song “Higher Than Stars” over at Spin.

Two more songs from Kele’s debut solo album Boxer are available to stream below. The are called “Walk Tall” & “Rise”.

Walk Tall:

Rise:

Not all that impressed with “Walk Tall”, but I am really digging “Rise”. “Rise” features some of the great talent of Kele that made Bloc Party so special at times.

Boxer comes out on 6/22 on Glassnote.

I never posted his music video for “Tenderoni”, but you can watch it below:

Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend goes under the moniker of Boys Like Us when he is doing his own creative stuff such as remixes for Foreign Born or Jack Johnson. You can find the Foreign Born remix of “Early Warnings” posted below, or listen to the Jack Johnson remix here. If you loved Discovery, you will love what Rostam is doing with Boys Like Us.

[mp3]: Foreign Born – Early Warnings (Boys Like Us Remix)

On May 21st Rostam, Cass McCombs, and Foreign Born are performing at The Highlands. More info can be found here. In order to go, your name needs to be on the list. There are no tickets. You only get on the list when you donate $15. It is being called a special, intimate, one night only, event. All songs will be performed with The Calder Quartet.

According to an Arcade Fire fan site called Joel’s Arcade Fire Blog, the band’s website briefly held a banner that said Arcade Fire presents The Suburbs. It has since been taken down, and the rest is speculation.  One can only hope it is a new song title or even an album title. Hopefully we find out soon. I could really use some new music from Arcade Fire. I’m sure you share the same sentiments, right?

As you probably know by now, Brandon Flowers is going solo. His debut album is going to be called Flamingo. My buddy Peter, over at TwentyFourBit, presented the news that Jenny Lewis helped Brandon out on some of his songs. There is even a duet between the two called “Hard Enough”. This is awesome news. The producer of the album is Daniel Lanois, who produced Neil Young’s last album. Just like Peter, I am even more sold on this album now.

Also, a clip like this helps:

Sound interesting. He certainly has my interest. I’m a little more confident that this album may be quite alright.