We All Want Someone To Shout For

Turns out that the first image Belle & Sebastian shared with us wasn’t the album cover for Belle and Sebastian Write About Love. This is:

It also looks like B&S may have there own TV show in the works. Stuart updated their site with a post hinting at Belle & Sebastian TV show. Sounds pretty amazing to me. He also gave us a small preview clip to chew on. It features a song called “I Want The World To Stop” that will be on Belle and Sebastian Write About Love. Watch the preview clip below:

If you haven’t submitted an entry for the album’s photo contest, you best get on it. I shouldn’t talk though. I haven’t done mine yet. I’m still thinking….

I’ve been enjoying this song/music video for Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan’s “You Won’t Let Me Down Again”. It’s like She & Him with a brush stroke of the blues. It’s off their new album Hawk.

Wow this is my 2nd Justin Bieber related post today. Weird…

Chances are that you have probably seen/heard this by now, but if not, this is for you. A 20 year old producer from Florida named Nick Pittsinger (who goes by the moniker Shamantis) took Justin Bieber’s “U Smile” slowed it down 800% of it’s speed through Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch. The 35 minute result was surprisingly amazing.

With the sounds of kind waves and dreamy ambiance, the song slowed down sounds more like Sigur Rós than a teenage pop song. His slow stretched vocals sound like something from another world along with the wave like effects. Who knew that so much beauty and elegance could be pulled from a slowed down J-Biebz song.

The internet has been in a craze over this song. Nick had no idea it would turn into this. Even outlets such as Entertainment Weekly have interviewed him. You never know what will be a hit these days, do you?

Listen to it below:

J. BIEBZ – U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

Listen to his stuff on his soundcloud, or follow him on twitter.

The National dropped by Minneapolis radio station The Current to play some songs from High Violet, along with a new tortured piano ballad called “You Were A Kindness”.

You can hear the new song by heading to The Current’s website or listening to a mp3 below via Each Note Secure.

[mp3]: The National – You Were A Kindness

Made sense to leave it off High Violet as it wouldn’t have fit.

“I Would Die For You” is a song that all the girls are gonna be swooning over. It’s rather pretty. It comes from a new singer songwriter from Australia named Matt Walters. He has a great voice and strong songwriting chops. The song features vocals from Australia’s Washington.

It’s taken off his 2nd EP, Talking in My Sleep. If you guys are fans of singers like Damien Rice, I think that you’ll love Matt. He has got some real talent.

[mp3]: Matt Walters – I Would Die For You (Feat. Washington)

Matt is working on his debut LP for release sometime in 2011.

I found a set of bootlegs from Robin Pecknold’s (Lead singer of Fleet Foxes people!!!) opening set for Joanna Newsome at Seattle’s The Moore Theater on August 4th. He played a whole set of new songs that may or may not be for Fleet Foxes.

I picked out a few of my favorites to share with you guys. They are quite good. If these are songs for Fleet Foxes LP2, then it’s going to be quite a follow up. (I think “Blue Spotted Tail” & “Helplessness Blues” will be Fleet Foxes songs). Some of these songs have made the rounds as live video’s but you may have missed them.

Robin is absolutely flawless live. Damn.

[mp3]: Robin Pecknold – Blue Spotted Tail Lorelai (Live At The Moore Theater) (Someone in the comments gave me the heads up that the song is actually called Lorelai.
[mp3]: Robin Pecknold – Helplessness Blues (Live At The Moore Theater)
[mp3]: Robin Pecknold – Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road (Live At The Moore Theater)

Here is a Fleet Foxes goody that he performed as well:

[mp3]: Robin Pecknold – Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (Live At The Moore Theater)

Update: Credit to Jackson Barnes for recording it!

I was lucky enough to attend a very intimate Neon Indian show at The Studio At Webster Hall. It was live streamed for MTV, and the place couldn’t have been able o fit more than 150-200 people. It didn’t stop the likes of The Morning Benders (minus Chris Chu) from attending the show.

Miniature Tigers opened the show with a admirable set of songs that were filled to the brim with great melodies and tight playing. They played plenty of songs from their new album Fortress, which had me head bobbing and toe tapping throughout. Charlie Brand the bands singer/guitarist ventured out into the small crowd to sing face to face with fans for the bands lovable song “Goldskull”. He even passed the mic to the morning benders Jon Chu for a bit of it’s chorus. I couldn’t help but notice a Dharma Initiative sticker on front-man Charlie Brand’s acoustic guitar. This automatically made me fall in love with the band. Be sure to check out Fortress, it’s a damn good album.

Neon Indian came on promptly at 9 and had no problem rocking out the small basement like crowd that was before them. Going into the show I was wondering how Neon Indian were going to be live. I’m not nuts for earlier worries that their songs may not translate well live since the project is the one man team of Alan Palomo. Neon Indian didn’t sound good, they were great.

Alan is backed by a tight live band that I couldn’t imagine him being without. They each had an important role and gave the songs fruitful energy, making an easier transition live. The crowd had no problem dancing to Psychic Chasms wonders like “Deadbeat Summer” & “Should Have Taken Acid With You”. Each song was straight fire from the stage, giving us plenty to smile about. The beautiful Erika Forster of Au Revoir Simone provided guest vocals for one song, totally stealing my heart in the process.

I left Webster Hall really happy, and an even bigger fan of both Neon Indian & Miniature Tigers than I already was prior to the show. A true indication of a solid show.

Neon Indian:

Miniature Tigers:

For The Rest Of The Photos For Both Bands, click read more:

Read the rest of this entry »

Young Empires are going to be huge someday. They will be playing festivals and creating dance parties all over the globe. That’s probably a huge statement considering the Canadian dance rockers technically don’t have any official releases to show for. However, they have plenty of huge dance anthems in their stock, ready to explode.

Young Empires have been a young favorite of mine ever since the band themselves introduced their infectious piece of pop gold “Rain Of Gold” to my ears. Since then they have been at the top of my list for bands to watch. So when I found out they were playing their first U.S. show ever at Bowery Ballroom (an opening slot for Dragonette), there was no excuse for my absence.

The band have got it going on live. The have energy, stage presence, and the tunes are calling for the masses to cause a dance craze. They only had a modest number of songs to share with us, but what a strong bunch it was. They played a couple of new songs that I hadn’t heard of yet, along with the ones that I’ve gotten very familiar with over the past few months. “Rain Of Gold” closed their set, and it’s going to be unstoppable live.

Look out for these guys at showcases such as CMJ & SXSW. Considering it was one of their earliest shows the band sounded great. They are great for a small venue like Bowery, but their sound is made to roam free in big halls where everyone has enough room to dance their asses off.

Here is a song the latest song from the band that I simply never got around to sharing yet:

[mp3]: Young Empires – White Doves

If you don’t have “Rain Of Gold” yet, shame on you. Get on it:

[mp3]: Young Empires – Rain Of Gold

Check out the rest of the photos, after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

I never thought I would see an Arcade Fire remix, let a lone be posting one. Yet, “Sprawl II” is an electronic song that is practically begging for the remix treatment in this day and age. Thunderlust does a fantastic job taking the songs dance inspirations and fleshing it out to it’s maximum capacity. It works like a charm.

Grab this gem below:

[mp3]: Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Thunderlust Remix)

Saw this via Feral Party Kids

Here is the original:

[mp3]: Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

I think this calls for a WTF. Raekwon confirmed via a phone interview with XXL that a collaboration project for a song is in the works between himself, Kanye West, and….Justin Bieber.

If you follow Kanye on twitter, than you may have seen some of the tweets about it, but I didn’t think it was seriously going to happen. Raekwon said the song is already in the works. I am partly confused and party intruged. Either way, it should be interesting to see what comes out of this very unlikely collaboration.

Twitter, you are changing the world. Head over the XXL article to get the full scoop.