We All Want Someone To Shout For

Last night was my second night in a row seeing Two Door Cinema play live in the city. I had a great time at the first show, but their performance at Bowery Ballroom blew it out of the water.

Florida native MillionYoung opened again, and they managed to sound even greater than they did at The Bell House as well. Their set was a perfect place setter for the night, with delightful dreamy electronic songs that I couldn’t stop moving along to. I spotted Ryan Schreiber, the founder of Pitchfork, watching his set, so I can only expect mucho lovin’ from them in the future. Apparently he came for his set only too.

Bad Veins were up next, and boy did they play a great set. The songs were mainly off of their debut album which came out last year. Their sound is a rush of rousing rock and roll that reminded me of The Walkmen. They are composed of just two guys, but boy, do they flesh things out live. An interesting aspect of their live show was when Benjamin Davis, the bands guitarist, sang into a phone that gave his vocals a distant effect. Totally rad. I’m about to check out their album, you should do the same.

Two Door came out at about 10:15, and I could immediately sense an incredible atmosphere that made The Bell House show pale in great comparison. The boys opened with a riveting performance of “Cigarettes In The Theatre” that had everyone on the floor shouting the lyrics back as they sloppily found ways to move to the sexy grooves that the band laid down. The set was the same as the previous night before, but I still noticed an incredible difference. The sound was better, the band looked more into it, and the atmosphere was incredible.

Interestingly enough, there were older fans in the crowd for this show, ranging from the high 30′s to even 50′s. All of the older fans were clearly Irish, showing how incredible pride in one’s country can be. B-sides like “Costume Party” & “Kids” were well known by the crowd, and it made all the difference.When songs like “I Can Talk”, “Come Back Home”, and “What You Know” came on…well, lets just say you had to be there.

Bowery didn’t sound big enough for Two Door Cinema Club last night. They have the talent and stage presence to own stadium stages and festivals, and it will only be a matter of time until we see them there.

I met the band at the after party after the show, and I can say that they were all incredibly nice guys, especially their touring drummer Ben Thompson, who notified me of the party when I met him after the Bell House show. I learned from bassist Kevin Baird that when the band first started he was originally thought to be the singer. As you know, those duties ended up going to Alex. All in all they were all amazing guys who I can only wish tremendous success.

P.S., the band gave us a heads up that they will be returning to NYC in the fall to play Webster Hall. You heard it here first :-p !

Photos after the jump:

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Is there a better band working in America right now than The National? I don’t think so. I don’t think you will argue with me after you witness this exceptional live performance of “Afraid Of Everyone” that the band performed live on David Letterman only a few hours ago. Oh and guess what who adds guest vocals? Sufjan fucking Stevens. Why are you still reading this? Watch it already:

Favorite it, like it. Hit replay. Right now.

There are so many different formats to buy new albums on, and with these formats usually come exclusives. While this is awesome, it often becomes a task to collect all of the bonus tracks that are floating around. I guess it is cool that they truly become “exclusives”, but who has the time to hunt all of them down? That’s what you have me for.

The National’s new album High Violet has come with a few exclusives, and one of these includes “Walk Off”, a bonus track that comes with a purchase of High Violet on itunes. It is a true ballad with gloomy strings that pave the path for Matt’s sad vocals. Of course there are images of water thrown in there. There are also images of violet cities that certainly serve the title right. However, “Walk Off” wouldn’t have fit on High Violet. Unless they placed it before/after “Runaway”.

Stream it below:

What do you think?

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes have release a new music video for their excellent song “Home”. This is how the band described it:

This video for Home is a collection of some of our favorite memories over the past few years. We hope it feels like Home where ever you are watching this.

The best music videos are able to take great moments and mend them seamlessly with a song. This video does just that, in tremendous fashion.

Dum Dum Girls released their debut album I Will Be earlier this year via Sub Pop. If you have not heard it yet, I reccomend it. Sub Pop is giving away two free mp3′s in order to celebrate the bands tour through Europe and the West Coast of American from May to July. The first is “Bhang, Bhang, I’m a Burnout”, a song from I Will Be. The second song is “Pay For Me”, a song that was on their record day exclusive split single with Male Bonding.

Download both for free by trading away your e-mail address. The offer is only for two weeks, so what are you waiting for?

Check out their spring 2010 tour dates:

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Last night I saw Two Door Cinema Club at The Bell House in Brooklyn, New York. It was probably the most fun that I have had at a show in a while. They played everything from their excellent debut album Tourist History plus three of their b-side/bonus tracks (Hands Off My Cash, Monty, Kids, & Costume Party). It was the first NYC show for the band, and it was an honor to be there.

I missed the first opener Dinosaur Feathers, but caught the second opening act: MillionYoung. He played a quick set of hazy dance tunes that got the crowd ready.

Two Door Cinema Club played a really fun set that had me and my friends dancing and signing throughout. The band took each song and made it explode live creating a mini dance party inside The Bell House. If last night was any indication of how big this band is going to get, prepare to see these guys get much bigger in the immediate future. They came back with a encore of “Come Back Home” & “I Can Talk” that absolutely blew me away.

I’m going to see them again tonight at Bowery Ballroom, so I will have better photos to offer tomorrow.

Here are two of the b-sides they played:

[mp3]: Two Door Cinema Club – Kids
[mp3]: Two Door Cinema Club – Hands Off My Cash, Monty

Photos, setlist, and a photo of the setlist I snagged all after the jump:

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I just discovered the NYC band The Dig through this fantastic live video of them performing their song “Sick Sad Morning”. Watch it below:

I found out they are just about to release their debut album Electric Toys on June 8th. You can hear “You’re Already Gone”, a song from the album, posted for free download below:

[mp3]: The Dig – You’re Already Gone

Sounds like The Walkmen’s vocals over dance rock. I approve.

If you are in NYC, the band is playing a record release show on June 5th at The Mercury Lounge. The rest of the tour dates are posted below:

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The Coral are back with a new song called “Butterfly House”. Thats also the title of the new album that will come out on July 12th. The Coral are one of the most underrated/underapreciated bands of our generation. I hope that people start to realize how great of a band that they truly are.

“Butterfly House” features captivating harmonies that sound like they came from an entirely different era. It’s good to have The Coral back. Can’t wait for the rest of Butterfly House.

Stream the song below, or grab the mp3 at the Coral’s website for the price of an e-mail address.

The first single is going to be a song by 1,000 years which will come out sometime before the album officially drops.

The National have released the first music video for High Violet. It is of “Bloodbuzz Ohio” and Matt is the star of the video, singing to the camera, awkwardly dancing, and walking around NY. It was directed by Hope Hall, Andreas Burgess, and Matt’s wife Carin directed it. There is also a guest appearance from D.A. Pennebaker as a bartender. He will be directing the Youtube live broadcast of the bands show this Saturday at BAM.

Sam from Cities Of The Plain emailed me this hilarious video where he combined MSTRKRFT’s “Bounce” with clips from Seasame Street. How could I not post this?