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

Local Natives/Blind Pilot @ T.T. The Bear's Place: 6/10/09

After scrambling to make plans for the two and a half hour drive up to Boston, the f/k crew was met with open arms by Local Natives upon arriving at T.T. The Bear's Place. The five-man, one-woman group didn't let the club's small stage stop them from putting on one hell of a live show. They always seemed to find a way to keep the audience on their toes and wondering how they could top the previous song, and they always did, leaving us longing for more as they left the stage.

Here's a song from their upcoming release, Gorilla Manor.

Local Natives - Sun Hands

Here are two more pictures of Local Natives, click on them to see the full size version!

After Local Natives was Blind Pilot. Although we were there to see Local Natives, Blind Pilot took the stage to a packed house. They were smooth and crisp, proving why they were the headlining act for the night. It wasn't a show meant to get people dancing, but instead one that had people singing along as they enjoyed every strum of Israel Nebeker's guitar and every vibration of his vocal chords.

Overall, it was fantastic night. We look forward to seeing Local Natives and Blind Pilot again, and we recommend that you catch their show if they come to your town. If you see them, be sure to say hello to the guys from Local Natives, they're a fun group of down-to-earth guys that seem to be having the time of their lives.

-Bishop-

Music Movies Monday #15

Blast! A day late again. Oh well, this MMM isn't very fun either. MGMT turned in a solid effort last year, along with the incredibly catchy tune "Kids." Recently, they churned out a music video for it that is getting some attention around the word wide interweb. I don't think it's very good, but it's certainly interesting. Though, it will be more interesting to discover the effects that making the video had on this poor child years down the road. In any event, it features Joanna Newsom looking mighty foxy.



-Chandler

These United States New Album Details

It's been quite a long time since the last These United States album, and they've finally released details on their next effort. Hitting the streets Sept. 1, Everything Touches Everything will feature that cool album art and this tracklist:

1. I Want You to Keep Everything
2. Will It Ever
3. Everything Touches Everything
4. Night & the Revolution
5. The Secret Door
6. Conquest & Consequence
7. I'm Gonna Assemble a City
8. Good Bones
9. The Important Thing
10. End
11. Good Night Wish

Why am I so excited? Because they make simple gems like this:

These Unites States- First Sight (acoustic Daytrotter Session)
itunes / amazon

They're touring extensively in July, so if you wish to catch them live, check out their tour dates on their MySpace

-Chandler

Dungen Brings the Swede-Rock

Chances are, you haven't heard of Dungen, and I don't hold it against you. There's enough music happening in North America that keeping tabs on the Swedish music scene seems totally unnecessary. Well, Dungen is here to prove everyone wrong. Think Sigur Ros with catchier melodies, deeper grooves, and more rock. The vocals are in Swedish, but it definitely doesn't matter that you can't understand what they're saying. The music is lush and shimmery, due in large part to the band's impressive instrumentation. Their most recent album, 4, is wonderful summer music. Here's a sample, a song called "Det Tar Tid." Enjoy!

Dungen - Det Tar Tid
Amazon / iTunes

Dungen MySpace


-Chris

Nashville

Kate Nash is great. She spins simple melodies laced with charm and inventiveness. I am a big time fan of her debut album, Made of Bricks. Something about its down-to-earth nature really encapsulated me a while back, and now as I revisit the material, I realize there is a tremendous power behind the album and it is really an absolutely fantastic debut album. The truly fantastic thing about the album is how deep it goes, I can name 10 songs I find really fantastic off it. There aren't a ton of albums for which that's true, so although she may have a poppy star, she can deliver an entire album, something which I think is important. The subject matter of the album is mainly based on relationships, but there are some fantastic moments when she breaks out of the mold and spins some truly bizarre and interesting lyrics. I recommend going out and familiarizing yourself with this young lady, because she has some new material in the works, and when it comes out you can totally be like, "Dude, I know her, she's great!" On a side note, she's one of the most attractive redheads I've ever seen. In fact, she's third on the list behind Molly Ringwald and fellow blogmate Chris Hoge. Enjoy my favorite, and perhaps the most mundane, song of the album, "Mouthwash."

Kate Nash - Mouthwash
Buy Song:ITunes

Kate Nash's MySpace!

-Donovan

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

Wooly Mammoth's Mighty Absence

Mount Eerie is the musical project of Phil Elverum. On record, his music is noisy, scattered, and experimental. However, much of Mount Eerie's material is available in acoustic form on rare live recordings. Thanks to my brother, we've gotten our hands on a high-quality version of Elverum playing "Wooly Mammoth's Mighty Absence." Check out this great live take. If you like it, I highly recommend taking a look at the rest of Mount Eerie's material, as well as Elverum's old projcet, The Microphones.

Mount Eerie - Wooly Mammoth's Mighty Absence
Amazon/iTunes

Mount Eerie MySpace

-Chris

My Favorite Albums Before and After Y2K

Since I didn't have the luxury of having parents who heavily influenced my taste in music, like Hoge did, I have had to search for music on my own. For many years I didn't think too much of music, so I just listened to whatever was popular, from 50 Cent to the Barenaked Ladies.

Fortunately, once I got into high school my friends and sisters introduced me to good music, and immediately upon listening I knew I needed more. I began to branch out in every direction, finding things I loved, things I hated, and everything in between.

So, after five or so years I have compiled this list of eighteen albums, nine that were released before the new millennium, and nine that have been released since, all of which have impacted my life in one way or another.

Pre-2000

(from top left to bottom right)

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Phish - Junta
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Bob Marley - Legend
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
My Morning Jacket - Tennessee Fire
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
Neutral Milk Hotel - In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
Radiohead - The Bends

Post-2000Radiohead - Amnesiac
Wilco - Kicking Television
Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
Andrew Bird - Armchair
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time

-Bishop-

The Dodos

As a music listener, the most gratifying feeling can come from finding the perfect band at the perfect time. For me, this is happening right now with The Dodos. I'd loosely describe their music as folk music with a thick layer of drumming underneath. Their incredible album, Visiter, has an unstoppable momentum, yet you never get the feeling that the band is out of control as they barrel along. To boot, they've got some of the most interesting lyrics that I've heard in a long time.

Here's a sample, a song called "Walking." Compared to the rest of the album, it's one of the more subdued and melodic songs. A perfect song to start the album, and a great introduction to the band.

The Dodos - Walking
Amazon/iTunes

Check out this great video from Pitchfork, it's a live performance of The Dodos playing some of their best songs.



The Dodos MySpace Page

-Chris

Your LOL Moment of the Week

A while back, I bought the theme song for the show Welcome Back, Kotter. Because, let's face it: that's a great song. I passed it in my iTunes today, and it put me on a spree of listening to a bunch of theme songs from shows. It was when I searched for 'Full House Theme Song' that I struck upon our LOL moment of the week. I saw a number of people saying that a recent song by Green Day very closely resembles the theme from Full House. Which meant I had to delve deeper. Whether it was cryptomnesia, blatent theivery, or just a longing for the lost days of Uncle Jesse, it seems as though Full House has found its way into the subconcious of the boys from Green Day. Don't believe us? Have a listen for yourself:


Jesse Frederick- 'Full House' Theme Song

Green Day- 21 Guns (Solo)

-Chandler

Your Good News of the Week

Sometimes it pays to read Pitchfork, and this is one of those times. They posted a link that brings us your good news of the week. As most of us had hoped, James Murphy is currently making a new LCD Soundsystem record according to his latest MySpace post. In addition, he gave a rather detailed account of his night at the MTV Movie Awards with his friend Aziz Asnari, which proves why he is simply one of the coolest people on Earth. As if his music didn't prove enough. I think it's safe to say all of f/k is very eagerly awaiting this release, whenever that may be. Murphy writes:

"making a record is strange. last time i made a record i had a pretty brutal and miserable experience. then i made something that wasn't the record, went back to said record, and had a great experience. it all worked out. this time i'm having a pretty great experience. i like the record more, but have no idea if that means it's better or anything. it's just more fun. the shitty full-days of lying on the floor stuck in my own head about things has been pushed back into hours, or only one hour, here and there. i also get to swim in the morning, and do things like that. which is good. which makes the record better, i think. because now when i'm not actually working on the record, i'm doing something i like and that occupies my mind, rather than sitting in a room with my head in my hands wondering if i still know how to make music.

i was very hungover today, mainly because i drank a lot of drinks with alcohol in them yesterday. i accompanied my tv star friend to the mtv movie awards because it seemed like the most hilariously hollywood thing i could possibly do right then, and wound up at times pretending to be either his publicist or body guard, which was very funny. i also ate a lot of these skewers with a shrimp and a green olive on them. they were good, but not substantial enough really to soak up the shitty free beer that they have at these things.

while at the awards, i learned a few things:

1. will ferrell is very nice in person, and must be exhausted with how much effort he puts in to seeming like a decent, regular guy. i met him very quickly and he was so absurdly nice that i felt like a dick for all the times i was wooden and awkward with strangers at a festival or something.
2. danny mcbride is fucking hilarious. and pretty much like you expect.
3. eminem is a better actor than you think.
4. pr people and "young hollywood" seem like, literally, different species of animal.
5. young, self-satisfied, confident celebrities are weird to be near.
6. the more excited young people are about an actor/actress, the less likely i am to recognize them. there is an inverse relationship formula for volume-of-screaming to person-i-recognize that i'm working on.
7. jason 'mayhem' miller has a very large head. and that's coming from ME.
8. talking for 2 minutes with ben stiller about something totally unrelated to the mtv movie awards while at the mtv movie awards makes people audibly say "who is that talking to stiller??" in total, unselfconscious earshot of the subject (me) while said subject (still me) walks back to the bar area. they'll actually point.
8b. being at an event thrown by a company called "music television" pretty much ensures that you will not be recognized by anyone at all except for the people you show up with, previously know, and danny mcbride.
9. comedians are funny in person, but not the way you think.
10. hollywood likes to stratify, and being the +1 of a tv personality makes you pretty low on the list, but if you've just said hi to will ferrell, and he looked at you in some way that could be interpreted as "familiar"--largely because he's kind, and you blurted something about him using "north american scum" in "stepbrothers"--you can basically walk into any room you want and take beer for the next 5 minutes. it's like getting an invincibility pill in pac-man. you can feel the power start to blink after you cruise out with 4 beers from the 3rd dressing room, so you should probably head back to your friends and share the beers.
11. chris isaacs likes his dog.
12. forest whittaker is disarmingly friendly.
13. i, as a person, am oddly frightened (i'm saying frightened here--not intimidated) by jim carey.

i think like being a largely anonymous dude in a weird band that most people don't know about. it's nice. i wouldn't want to be a movie star. i mean, i feel like i knew that, but it's good to have your feelings validated like that once in a while. because it's easy to sit back and say "i wouldn't want to be a movie star" when it's totally not a salient point... but being there, with everything seeming so easy for them, still didn't make me want any of it. except the free stuff.

today i woke up late, sat around in a horrible state, until i went in the pool and played "goodminton" (which is badminton where the object is to keep the birdie in play as long as possible), ate in n' out burger, and watched several episodes of the BBC show "ashes to ashes", which has amazing music.

tomorrow i'll wake up early, do a little jiu jitsu stuff, swim, shower, get into my making-a-record outfit, eat an avocado and a hard boiled egg, make an amazing coffee, and get to work on a new song. gavin russom (gavin and delia, black leotard front, black meteoric star) is here for a few days, so maybe i can get him to wrangle some synths with me. i have a good feeling about tomorrow, frankly. and i'm also terrified that i'll never make anything good again.

that works.

oh: my tv friend is aziz ansari. thanks, aziz."

LCD Soundsystem- Thrills
iTunes / amazon

-Chandler

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Prepare yourself for a healthy dose of trippy electronic psychedelia. Black Moth Super Rainbow is one of those rare groups that sound exactly like their band name. Using futuristic tools like vocoder, their songs are tangibly fuzzy and dripping with color. The distorted keyboards and unstoppable beats of Black Moth Super Rainbow have a distinct and specific appeal that you'll either love or hate. Take a listen and see what you think!

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Rollerdisco
Amazon/iTunes

Black Moth Super Rainbow MySpace Page


-Chris

Music Movies Monday #14

Keeping with the Grizzly Bear theme, I thought I'd quickly post this relatively new music video for their song "Two Weeks" for those who haven't seen it. I really like this video for some reason, but I'll let you guys be the judge.

Two Weeks


-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