Song o' the Week #28

Donovan and I took an impromptu drive up to Cornell to visit Bishop, as well as to see some bands including The Rural Alberta Advantage, Deer Tick and Hold Steady tomorrow. On the drive up, we played every Radiohead album from The Bends to In Rainbows. I felt like I needed to post this song because it was right when our excitement was at the peak, before it slowly formed into frustration.

Radiohead- A Punch Up At A Wedding (No No No No No No No No)
iTunes / amazon

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #27

I've had this song stuck in my head for a while now, and I don't really know why. I haven't listened to it in a long time, yet somehow it continues to pleasantly plague me many times throughout the day. Maybe it'll help those who are experiencing the heat like I am with it's wintry lyrics. Or maybe not.

Animal Collective- Winters Love
iTunes / amazon



As an added bonus, I was getting all Tarantino'd out to prepare for his latest film Inglourious Basterds by watching a few of his past endeavors, and I decided to help you do the same. To get you in the mood I figured I'd post the theme from True Romance and "Little Green Bags," the song that plays during the opening credits of Reservoir Dogs. Hopefully you'll enjoy both and go to see his new film, which I can't give enough praise for.

Hans Zimmer- You're So Cool (True Romance)

George Baker Selection- Little Green Bags
iTunes

-Chandler

Song o' The Week #26

(Not me and not my grandma)

Like previously mentioned, us f/k fellows have been working quite a lot lately, and as a result our post output has decreased a bit. In fact, I'm mustering all my remaining energy of the day to do this one, so I hope you enjoy it. I blast this song sometimes when I drive to my grandma's for some grub on my lunch break, because it seems to fit very nicely with the warm weather and sunny days we've had recently. It's Wavves before he hit it big via Pitchfork, had a meltdown, and broke some bones skateboarding.

Wavves- Wavves
amazon

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #24

Photo from Harlem MySpace

I've been listening to Harlem's Free Drugs a lot lately as news came that they signed with Matador and will release their second album sometime next year. This is great news for everyone, because not does it mean another great act is added to the Matador roster, but also Harlem's next release should get some more attention. Which they certainly deserve.

Harlem- Caroline
iTunes / amazon
Harlem MySpace

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #23

The Dirty Projectors' new album Bitte Orca was released earlier this week, and some discussion is beginning to swirl around the blogosphere about it. Personally, I need some more time to let it sink in before I can start talking about it in reference to releases from the rest of the year. But I do know that there are a few songs that jump right off the album as perfect stand alone tracks, and this is one of them. While the song is fantastic, I'm still on the fence about the album itself. I feel like it may be one of those "keep listening until it clicks" ordeals, or it may just wind up as a "listen for a couple weeks and then forget about" ordeal. The problem is this: while '08 was seriously lacking in great releases, we've already been blessed with countless albums that need to be heard in '09, and it's only June. If you've got time to listen to Bitte Orca, feel free to stream it below and decide if you'd like to add to it what I'm sure is a giant collection of albums on rotation.

Dirty Projectors- No Intention
iTunes / amazon
Dirty Projectors MySpace

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #22

A while back, Sup Pop released a free zip file containing some great songs from some great artists. Like one would assume, it's great. The ones that stuck with me were the Grand Archives' new song and Tiny Vipers' new tune, both enjoyable for different reasons. Anywho, here's the aforementioned Tiny Vipers song, because I find it too relaxing and good not to post. It's off her upcoming album Life On Earth, which will be released next month. If you'd like the entire zip file, head here to download it. It's super cool and not a virus! And it contains some good tuneage from some other Sup Pop bands, like those Fleet Foxes guys.

Tiny Vipers- Dreamer

Tiny Vipers MySpace

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #21

This will actually be song o' the week for last week, and I'll give you a new one this Friday. Like we previously stated, there are some changes a-comin' for the blog, so stick with us for a little while longer while we work it all out. The real song o' the week for me is off Sunset Rubdown's upcoming album Dragonslayer, but because it's not out yet, it's rather frowned upon to post a song from it. But when the release date comes, expect a glowing review. Anyway, on to this week. Which is actually last week.

Last Tuesday we saw some great releases, including the new Grizzly Bear album Veckatimest, Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, and Mandy Moore's Amanda Leigh. Okay, the only one I really enjoy/care about is Veckatimest, and it seems like the rest of the world tends to agree. After its ridiculously early leak, we got a low quality feel for this masterpiece, along with those increasingly annoying ">" comparisons with Animal Collective. It took a few listens to win me over, but Veckatimest eventually turned into a beautiful mosaic of harmonies, and is really worth picking up if you haven't already. To win you over, here's possibly my favorite song from the album, which was debuted before the leak on late night talk shows. Which reminds me: make sure you watch the debut of Conan on the Tonight Show tonight, as it's sure to be gold.

Grizzly Bear- While You Wait For The Others
iTunes / amazon
Grizzly Bear MySpace

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #20

Stumbled upon this today while my iTunes was on shuffle. Just some fat beatzz if you're planning on celebrating the end of school.


Fear of Tigers- The Rich Cry Too
Fear of Tigers MySpace

-Chandler

Song & Your LOL Moment o' the Week

Along with the 19th installment of Song o' the Week comes a really great LOL moment. The song o' the week has been a brief hiatus, but I'm glad to say it's back. Until I run out of material. Anyway, this is a Radiohead-themed post, so I hope that's not a problem. Donovan and I had the pleasure of seeing Marissa Nadler a while back, and her voice is just as haunting live as it is in studio. Which fits "No Surprises" perfectly.

Marissa Nadler- No Surprises (Radiohead Cover)
Marissa Nadler MySpace / Website

Now to the real reason for the post. Donovan pointed out that when Conan started in 1993, his musical guest the first night was none other than Radiohead. What makes this great is not only young Conan, but check out the hair on Thom.


Radiohead - Creep (Conan O'Brien 1993) from Guillermo Delicia on Vimeo.

Also, 38 days until Conan returns.

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #17

Well, I've taken a little more than a week off from blogging, and most likely my posts will be few and far between until this semester is over. To compensate, I thought I'd just do a bunch of quick posts that don't take much time, just so our faithful readers don't think I'm abandoning them. I haven't been listening to anything new lately, just a lot of Person Pitch. So it's not like you're missing out on anything. Anyway, I thought I'd start my series of quick posts with this Tom Waits song, because it just sounds too cool to pass up, and I feel like it should be played over opening credits to a movie as action happens in slow-mo. Maybe not though.

UPDATE: Thanks to one of our readers, it has come to my attention that the song actually is in the opening credits of a movie already: "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead." Having not seen the movie, I cannot comment on it's validity or it's use of slow-mo. I guess I'll have to find another song to play over the slow motion opening credits in my movie, which currently doesn't exist.

Tom Waits- Jockey Full Of Bourbon
Buy Song: iTunes /amazon
Tom Waits MySpace

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #16

The word on the streets is Micachu & The Shapes are gonna be huge. After giving them a listen, I think I might have to agree. They're incredibly young, and yet have created a somewhat unorthodox, yet undeniably fresh sound. Their debut LP Jewellery, a collection of short and twisted pop gems, drops in the U.S April 7th, so get ready for that. Each song needs a couple of listens, so try and let this one sink in.

Micachu MySpace

Micachu & The Shapes- Golden Phone

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #15

For those of you that haven't heard this yet, here is a recording from Animal Collective's newest song that they're playing live. Whether it's "Blue Sky" or "What Would I Want Sky" or whatever else it's called, it is something great. Go see one of their shows and hear it live!

Mar 19 2009 8:00P	Aeronef w/ Pantha du Prince	Lille
Mar 20 2009 8:00P	L’Olympic w/ Pantha du Prince	Nantes
Mar 22 2009 8:00P	Trinity Centre w/ Dent May SOLD OUT	Bristol
Mar 23 2009 8:00P	Rescue Rooms w/ Dent May	Nottingham
Mar 24 2009 8:00P	The Forum w/ Dent May SOLD OUT	London
Mar 25 2009 8:00P	TJ’s Woodhouse Club w/ Dent May SOLD OUT	Leeds
Mar 26 2009 8:00P	Static Gallery w/ Dent May	Liverpool
Mar 27 2009 8:00P	Tripod SOLD OUT	Dublin
Mar 28 2009 8:00P	Stiff Kitten w/ Dent May	Belfast
May 10 2009 8:00P	The Ottobar w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Baltimore, Maryland
May 11 2009 8:00P	9:30 Club w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Washington, Washington DC
May 12 2009 8:00P	Electric Factory w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
May 13 2009 8:00P	Terminal 5 w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	New York, New York
May 14 2009 8:00P	House of Blues w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Boston, Massachusetts
May 15 2009 8:00P	Metropolis w/ Grouper	Montreal, Quebec
May 16 2009 8:00P	Sound Academy w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Toronto, Ontario
May 18 2009 8:00P	Royal Oak Music Hall w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Royal Oak, Michigan
May 19 2009 8:00P	The Riverside Theatre w/ Grouper	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
May 20 2009 8:00P	First Avenue w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 23 2009 8:00P	Sasquatch Festival	Quincy, Washington
May 24 2009 8:00P	Commodore Ballroom w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Vancouver
May 25 2009 8:00P	Roseland Theatre w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Portland, Oregon
May 26 2009 8:00P	Fox Theatre w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Oakland, California
May 27 2009 8:00P	Henry Miller Memorial Library w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Big Sur, California
May 29 2009 8:00P	Wiltern w/ Grouper SOLD OUT	Los Angeles, California
May 30 2009 8:00P	House of Blues	Las Vegas, Nevada
May 31 2009 8:00P	Rialto Theatre w/ Black Dice	Tucson, Arizona
Jun 1 2009 8:00P	Sunshine Theatre w/ Black Dice	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Jun 2 2009 8:00P	Boulder Theatre w/ Black Dice	Boulder, Colorado
Jun 4 2009 8:00P	House of Blues w/ Black Dice	Dallas, Texas
Jun 5 2009 8:00P	Stubbs w/ Black Dice	Austin, Texas
Jun 6 2009 8:00P	The Library w/ Black Dice	Oxford, Mississippi
Jun 8 2009 8:00P	State Theatre w/ Black Dice	St. Petersburg, Florida
Jun 9 2009 8:00P	Culture Room w/ Black Dice	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Jun 10 2009 8:00P	Firestone w/ Black Dice	Orlando, Florida
Jun 12 2009 8:00P	Bonnaroo Festival	Manchester, Tennessee
Jul 26 2009 8:00P	Fuji Rock Festival	Nigata
Sep 12 2009 8:00P	All Tomorrow’s Parties	Monticello, New York

Animal Collective- "Blue Sky/ What Would I Want Sky"

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #14

In addition to listening to The Hazards of Love more, one album has really controlled most of my listening opportunities. Blueberry Boat, the sophomore album from The Fiery Furnaces, has almost literally been on repeat for a few days now. It's such an amazing, yet polarizing release that manages to become more and more interesting with each listen for those that like it. This heavily layered concept album needs to be listened to all together to understand the story, so I'm not going to post a song from it. Instead, I strongly encourage you to pick up the entire cd (or vinyl, like me) to really experience this masterpiece in its entirety. Anyway, the song of the week is a Built to Spill song, because they're great and there's a chance we may go and see them at the Pitchfork Festival this summer. As a side note, we officially have a Twitter account, so feel free to follow us to catch more of our wild and zany antics!

Buy Blueberry Boat: itunes/amazon

Built to Spill- Distopian Dream Girl
itunes/amazon

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #13

Wakey! Wakey! is the name Mike Grubbs plays under, along with a few other talented musicians in studio. He's done a lot of covers, including a great cd that's entirely covers and can be downloaded for free here. This weeks song isn't on that cd, but it is really quite good and can be found on another cd of his from a live show at Bowery Ballroom that also can be downloaded for free here. It's a cover of Gnarls Barkley's smash hit "Crazy," and I really like what Grubbs does with it. I think next week's song will be something by Wavves, because I'm really enjoying his new cd. But that's neither here nor there.

Wakey! Wakey!- Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover)

Wakey! Wakey! MySpace page

-Chandler

Superpost!

I have no classes on Fridays, and yesterday was a snow day. This has caused four consecutive days of me doing nothing, including not posting my weekly posts Song o' the Week and MMM. For this I apologize, but I hope to make it up to you in this Superpost combining the two. Happy Len Cabral day everyone!

Song o' the Week #12

For the past two weeks or so I've been eating up Yo La Tengo. Having albums like Painful, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One on repeat on my iPod, it's really hard to pick just one song from one of the greatest and long lasting indie acts to walk the planet as song of the week. But I managed to pick one. "Little Honda" is actually a Beach Boys song that appears on All Summer Long, but it's given a very nice treatment by YLT here. To really appreciate their stuff though, go buy an album and listen to it all the way through. It's worth it.

Yo La Tengo- Little Honda
Amazon/ iTunes

Music Movies Monday #7

Liars is a three piece band that plays great music. Here's the video for "Plaster Casts of Everything" from their most recent self-titled album. I would've posted a song, but I'm scared because they're on a major label.



An animated story to help celebrate Len Cabral day:



One of my dad's favorite music videos:

Sky's The Limit - Notorious B.I.G & 112
by kaz1988

One of my favorite videos:




Superpost done! Tell some stories!

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #11

I'm posting this song because it's so hard to find, and deserves to be heard by many, many people. The original is a classic by Harry Nilsson, and whenever I hear it I think of the scene from Goodfellas when Ray Liotta's driving paranoid because of the helicopter. And then I think of how good of a director Scorsese is, and then of how he has so much money and can't find some time to trim his enormously bushy eyebrows. I mean, that's out of control. Anyway, I digress. This is another instance where LCD Soundsytem takes a great song and makes it even better by adding that LCD Soundsystem "oomph." So here you go. Please play as loud as possible.

LCD Soundsystem- Jump Into the Fire (Harry Nilsson cover)

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #10

I'm feeling a little under the weather, so the song o' the week is a day late. My apologies. Anyway, we got this gem thrown our way through our mailbox, and I thought it needed to be shared. The Sonic Truth are five guys from North Carolina making some quality mashups and remixes. Enjoy one of my favorites from their catalog, and check out their MySpace page here.


Sonic Truth- Push In This Club (Gameboy Gamegirl VS Usher)

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #9

I was going to post a rather new song as song of the week, but Donovan wants to post it instead. We're good guys around here, so it's all yours friend-o. Anywho, I'm going to give you a throw back to one of my favorite EP's released since the turn of the millennium, so I guess it's technically Song(s) o' the Week. The other day I listened to it all the way through, and then again yesterday. The band is Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!, and the EP is entitled You Seize the City, I'll Seize the Sky, released in 2006. Not only do I absolutely love the title, but it sounds great and it flaunts a nice little cover to boot.


Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! are from Australia, and this debut EP is as much energy as you can pack into five songs. It's guitar-driven pop, with rather undecipherable lyrics the first ten times through. Seize was available for free download years ago lots of places, but I've managed to dig up a location for you even though many of them have disappeared. Fire!'s website, which is nothing much except the words "The band where other band members and your manager sleeping with your girlfriend is A-OKAY!" and an expanding smiley face, doesn't offer much about the band's future. Their MySpace, however, contains their newest song, "War Coward," which is quite good. Fire! also says there's a "new digital EP coming out soon," which is fantastic news. Until then, enjoy a couple songs from one of my favorite EP's, and hope, hope, hope they come out with something in the near future.

Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!- Captain Thunder Hearts Mistress Ice

Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!- Hounds

You Seize the City, I'll Seize the Sky can be downloaded for free here.

-Chandler

Song o' the Week #8

I'm still not getting blown away by any releases recently, so this week I'm just going to throw a couple songs out there and hopefully you'll find one you like. The first one is from Soko, a French solo artist. Most of her material is pretty terrible, but this one song got stuck in my head and it won't get out. It's simple ukulele pop, and it sounds like it came straight from the "Juno" soundtrack, or like it could be eaten up by some company to be thrown into a commercial (*cough, Apple). But I still enjoy it quite a bit. It takes a while to get into it, so give it a chance. Visit her website here if you feel she's worthy.

Soko- I Will Never Love You More

The next is a song that gets the kids dancing and the head movin' from side to side, and it's a good cause. Heroes of the Dancefloor is a collection of artists that put out albums where ALL the money go to charities. It's a funky little song, so check out their website to stream more and help out a good cause.

Heroes of the Dancefloor- Ricky
Buy Song: iTunes

Finally, I wanted to reiterate how great this is. Donovan and I just can't get enough. Have you tried doing the scream he does? Impossible.



-Chandler

Song o' the Week #7

So while most of us are going through an Animal Collective/Panda Bear phase right now, I found time to be going through a múm phase as well. múm is an Icelandic group (yep, there are others besides Sigur Rós) whose sound can't be described well with words, but I'm going to give it my best. They sound like if Explosions in the Sky were electronic and toned down a little. Multiple small electronic sounds fit together beautifully and rise and fall to create a lush, and at times rigid atmosphere. They've also transitioned a great deal from where they started, adding additional instruments and even lyrics. I first heard them when their latest LP Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy came out in '07, which I didn't really listen to except the fantastic "They Made Frogs Smoke 'Til They Exploded." I recently stumbled upon them again through shuffle on my iTunes and discovered their 2000 debut Yesterday was Dramatic - Today is OK. It is really an achievement and I strongly suggest buying it, for it's one of those albums that needs to be listened to all the way through. This week's song is from Remixed, which, as you might have guessed, is an album that features a bunch of múm songs remixed. The song doesn't really reflect what they sound like, but I enjoy it too much not to post it. In addition, since we're such nice guys, I'm going to throw in one of my favorite early Animal Collective songs for those who don't really know where they started from. Because, like I said, it's also an Animal Collective phase. Enjoy.

múm- The Ballad of Broken Birdie Records (Ruxpin Remix II)
Buy Artist: iTunes

Animal Collective- Essplode
Buy Song: iTunes

-Chandler