Feather Grid 5: Classic 4.5: Awesome 4: Original 3.5: Good choice 3: Uneven 2.5: Nice try 2: General mistake 1.5: A wreck 1: Makes you writhe in pain .5: Ears bleed 0: Destroy the CD
"If you want to make an imaginary animal, if you want to make a mythical creature, just take a regular animal and add wings to it. Horse becomes pegasus, lion becomes a griffin, and a hawk becomes a Double Hawk."-Demetri Martin
Suddenly Yours- Allstar Weekend Label-Hollywood Records 1st Studio Album Status-Out as of 2010 Rating-.5 feathers
Based in California, and gaining popularity by way of the Disney Channel, Allstar Weekend has released their debut called “Suddenly Yours”. But don’t let the boy-band looks, the fact that they don’t write their own songs, and the Abercrombie wannabe photo spread fool you: They are a lot worse than they appear!
If you love the idea of Boys Like Girls and Owl City fed into a grinder and extruded through the Disney Channel boy-band machine, then you’ll love Allstar Weekend. I, however, largely despise everything to do with that concept. The songs on “Suddenly Yours” progress from worse to ear-bleedingly horrible. The first few seconds of the album are ok, with passable synthesizers. But all turns to loathsome awful once you hear the singer’s voice and the other instruments. Everything sounds over-processed and synthesized; nothing sounds organic or like they sat down with the instruments and actually made up an arrangement on their own. Coupled with generic melodies, the lyrics are quite possibly the most vapid I have ever read. I cannot help but be inspired by lines like “get on your way/that kinda sucks,/wish you could stay” or the oh-so-motivating “Save my friends so they don’t/get hurt/get the mustard stain off my favorite shirt”. They are all simply vile pop songs with virtually no musicality requiring no apparent musical talent to make.Disney Channel fans will be in their glory.
I hope I never have to listen to “Suddenly Yours” again. They are an appalling excuse for “music”, and in regards to their own words “I’ll rock out/like Nirvana now/Be timeless like Madonna”, Kurt Cobain is rolling in his grave.
Video for Dance Forever
Recommendations: None http://www.allstarweekendrocks.com/ Well, that was a horrific experience. Just don't listen to them. Really. Don't. The next review I will have out is The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens. Now that's what I call music.
Bright Eyes has released the cover art for their February 15th album The People's Key!
I think it's pretty ugly, to be honest. Cassadaga was clever, Noise Floor/Letting Off the Happiness were pretty, and I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was just nice, but this is kinda pretty hideous.
What's not ugly is the fact that Bright Eyes was so kind as to release a song for free download from the album! It's called "Shell Games".
The song is great and I am thoroughly excited to hear it!
I feel like I am at that point where I can start posting regularly again. I very happy to be back, and I would like to welcome my 8 followers to my blog again!
Any way, I'll have two reviews up in the next two weeks AND by late December or within in the first week of January, I will be posting my choice of best albums and best songs of the year.
Bright Eyes, fronted by Conor Oberst, have announced that they are coming out with an album entitled "The People's Key", which is due out on February 15th, which is also Conor's 31st birthday!
The People's Key tracklist: 1. Firewall 2. Shell Games 3. Jejune Stars 4. Approximated Sunlight 5. Haile Selassie 6. A Machine Spiritual (In the People’s Key) 7. Triple Spiral 8. Beginner’s Mind 9. Ladder Song 10. One for You, One for Me
After announcing one New York and one London show, they have just announced a series of more U.S. dates as follows:
3/2 The Fillmore Miami Beach @ The Jackie Gleason Miami, FL 3/3 House of Blues Lake Buena Vista, FL 3/4 Tabernacle Atlanta, GA 3/5 Thomas Wolf Auditorium Asheville, NC 3/6 The National Richmond, VA 3/8 Radio City Music Hall *** New York, NY 3/9 Radio City Music Hall *** (SOLD OUT!) New York, NY 3/10 House Of Blues Boston, MA 3/11 State Theatre Portland, ME 3/13 Sound Academy Toronto, ON 3/14 Royal Oak Royal Oak, MI 3/15 Vic Theatre Chicago, IL 3/17 Ryman Auditorium Nashville, TN
I hope those of you who are as thrilled about this as I am are able to get tickets!
Interpol- Interpol Label-Matador Status-Out as of 2010 4th Studio Album Rating-3.5 feathers
Interpol was one of the many bands that fell victim to what I like to call 3rd album syndrome: the first two albums are fantastic, but the third album is just a monotonous wreck. That description fits their 2007 album, Our Love to Admire, like a glove. After three years off, Interpol have returned to redeem themselves with their fourth effort entitled Interpol, announcing that they were going back to basics and returning to a sound more like their mega-hit debut Turn on the Bright Lights. With a statement like that, the expectations are very high.
“Success” starts off the album in the same dramatic way Interpol start off most of their albums: prominent, striking guitar that soon gets underpinned by thick drumming. One thing is for certain: this song is wonderfully epic and they “have succeeded” in leaving you desperately wanting to hear more. These desires die pretty quickly into “Memory Serves”. It starts out a little slow, and it builds nicely for the chorus with perfectly drone-y guitar, but then it occurs to you that the song isn’t really going anywhere and becomes very tedious. The only thing that makes it interesting is Paul Bank’s terrible “Ooooh la la la” backing vocals.“Summer Well” restores the lost desire, starting off with a thumping bass line and piano very reminiscent of Muse’s “New Born”. It quickly kicks up, the vocals intensify, and the guitar comes crashing. It’s not particularly catchy, but that doesn’t take away the fact that it is a great song. “Lights” represents all the pretentiousness and grandeur Interpol have become stereotyped as having, but in the most glorious way possible. It’s the most wonderfully dramatic, affected, raw composition that they have ever conceived. It will move you to cry out, “that is why I hold you here” right along with them. “Barricade” is equally glorious. It possesses the joys of “Slow Hands” and “The Heinrich Maneuver”, but sounds like it could have easily been from their debut. If “Lights” didn’t get you wound up, then you will definitely be shouting “It starts to feel like a barricade to keep us away, it kinda does”. “Always Malaise (The Man I Am)” is a little awkward. It starts out fairly dramatically, and it builds to the point where you think, “Yes! YES!”. But then, it just anticlimaxes and gets weird. The instrumentation is okay, but the extremely creepy double-tracked vocals really destroy the song and obliterate any hope of you liking it.“Safe Without” is just as bad, but in an unoriginal way. The vocals sound very typical to the album, and the guitar riff sounds very generic, but more importantly, very not-Interpol. The added orchestration really just sounds stupid and makes it clear that they were trying a little too hard. “Try It On” sounds nothing like Interpol, which ends up working brilliantly. The main instrument is a piano and there is whistling, both of which are a complete first for them. The drumming is very syncopated, which fits the aura perfectly. The Julian Plenti influence is very prevalent, but I applaud them for finally innovating and expanding their sound. “The Undoing” closes the album with a dark, yet bittersweet sound. The guitar is similar to their usual closers, but the gloomy atmospheric sound along with the use of Spanish during the verses closes this dramatically grandiose album the best way they possibly could.
From start to finish, Interpol was non-stop overt drama. Every song was interesting to listen to, but most were almost too hard to grasp. Unlike their last album, they managed to make every song interesting, but they still failed to diversify their sound. The songs that stood out, like “Lights”, “Barricade”, and “ Try It On”, offered something new to the listener, whereas the others all followed the same tedious formula. As a whole, Interpol was a good attempt at redemption, but it generally failed to meet expectations. Interpol have come a long way, and I know that they will only continue to renew themselves, but that time isn’t now.
"We don't write for that purpose. But there's such a thing as a perfect song, and one day I would like to write one perfect song."-Paul Banks
Video for Barricade
Recommendations: Lights, Summer Well, Barricade Interpol's Official Website Note: YAAAAAAAAAAY! I WROTE A REVIEW I WROTE A REVIEW! How immature. Okay, I hope any and all of you read this and I would love to hear your feedback. I allow anonymous comments, so everyone can respond. I also publish all comments, except for clear spam. So, thank you everyone. I really appreciate it!
Blogger has kinda died on me. Many music blogs that I loved and commented on frequently have stopped posting, one by one. Some have been gone 2 years, others only 2 months. Anyway, this has made me very unmotivated to post. I haven't felt the urge to review CD's like I used to or post my opinions of news and such. It saddens me greatly that I let my blog become this barren wasteland.
Anyway, so I'm not making empty promises this time: I will try to come back slowly: posting little snippets of news here and there, maybe a review soon. The much needed break I took from this blog has gone on for a while and I think I'm going to try to give it another go.
For those of you who are actually reading this: Thank you so much! I appreciate it fully and greatly! Thanks for the support.
MGMT have recently released the video for their 2nd single It's Working from their new album Congratulations. The video is probably the least weird video they've done as of yet, with Andrew and Ben working to make some sort of machine out of a box and after they finish, silliness ensues. It's not bad, and I'm glad they got of the "Let's be as obscure as possible!" bandwagon for this video.
Yesterday, Animal Collective released the video for Guys Eyes, the 4th video from their 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavilion. It's not a bizarre video at all: it does not feature weird colors, people in bubble/tents dancing, or the band melting. Rather, it features Geologist running a surf shop and people surfing. It's a nice video, and worth a watch.
Vampire Weekend have released a video for their song "Holiday" from their new album. They really surpassed themself this time, getting all colonial on everyone. Even they make powdered wigs gangsta.
Ra Ra Riot have announced the release of their second album "The Orchard", and it's due out August 24th. Oh, I really cannot wait!
Tracklisting for The Orchard 01 The Orchard 02 Boy 03 Too Dramatic 04 Foolish 05 Massachusetts 06 You and I Know 07 Shadowcasting 08 Do You Remember 09 Kansai 10 Keep It Quiet
Okay, Muse are awesome and insane. I love them, but this whole twilight thing has got to stop. In an interview awhile ago, Dominic Howard himself said that they would not be partaking in anymore "Twilight" soundtracks. Well, he lied. Now, we have a complete original for the soundtrack called "Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)". Regarding the song, it's really disgusting--it sounds like they threw together a few things and topped it off with sloppy vocals. The only redeeming part of it is the drumming and the classic-Muse arpeggio. I give them credit, though, for not taking a song from a previous album and destroying it by letting it be associated with such a poor movie (cough coughSupermassive Blackholecough cough).
Regarding the video-it's an average video of the band performing dramatically, which would've been ok with the mediocrity of the song, except they decided to punctuate it video from the movie that no one who actual watches the video wants to see at all.
According to Amazon apparently, founding member of Animal Collective, Noah Lennox (AKA Panda Bear) is set to release the first title-track single for his album Tomboy on July 13th. You can head over to amazon now and pre-order the single. The product description left us with this enticing message:
"Paw Tracks is excited to present the first in a series of limited edition seven inch singles by Animal Collective's Panda Bear. There will be several limited singles total (on different labels), and each one will bring us closer and closer to the much anticipated release of the Tomboy full length."
The album is due out in September, and I'm really very excited!
I don't know how long this news has been around, but I haven't read until now. The Coral are finally coming out with their 5th album entitled Butterfly House after their 2007 album (the amazing) Root & Echoes and the departure of guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones. They have released several song names: 'Coney Island', 'Rovin Jewel', 'Green is the Colour', 'Sandhills', and '1000 Years', which will be the albums first single. The Coral are also offering a free download of the title track 'Butterfly House' through their website. While your their you'll also notice some English tour dates. The album is set to be released July 12th. I hope it's as fantastic as their last!
Interpol were the first indie band that I ever got into. Arguably, without them, I would have never expanded my research into the indie genre. Carlos D has always been known as the gothic looking "weird" bass player of Interpol. He was always a stand out member, whether it was for his style or his insane bass playing (which he always chose to play at his knees), so the news that Carlos has left them has struck me with immense sadness. From their website:
"After the completion of the album, Carlos informed the rest of us that he would be leaving the band. He has decided to follow another path, and to pursue new goals. This separation is amicable, and we whole-heartedly wish him great happiness and success. We will remain, as always, deeply respectful fans of this blazingly talented individual."
I am happy that he stayed to finish the album, and I hope his future endeavors go well, but for now, i'll still be left deeply sadden.
The video that started my Interpol love so many years ago
Yesterday, Silversun Pickups released a video for their 3rd single "The Royal We" from there latest album "Swoon". Songwise, it's really a great song, with nice progressive guitars and vocals that sound like they're coming from the soul. The video is not as good as the song, but it's worth a watch. It's really psychedelic, with weird surrealistic images and awkward close-ups of singer Brian Aubert. I have absolutely loved Silversun Pickups since I saw Muse in March, and if you don't think you like them, I suggest giving them a try.
Congratulations- MGMT Label-Columbia Status-Out as of 2010 2nd Studio Album Rating-3 feathers
Two years ago, MGMT were a little known band supporting of Montreal, and having just released their 1st EP “Time To Pretend”. Little did they know that their 2008 album “Oracular Spectacular” would instantly launch them into the mainstream. Apparently, they really didn’t like this. Now with their 2nd album, “Congratulations”, they have made it very clear that they want to lapse into an obscure world where they won’t have any well known ‘singles’. In other words, this is not the MGMT you used to know.
Congratulations starts with “It’s Working”, rushing in bombastically with surf-pop inspired guitars/bass under pinned by fantastical synthesizers. I don’t know if they noticed, but it is an undeniably catchy song—when the entire band is chanting “it’s working in your blood”, there’s no way you can avoid the urge to sing along. The same can be said for their not-single “Flash Delirium”. Granted, it’s not the best version of a radio-friendly danceable pop song, but the thick synthesizers and endless hooks will leave this song as engrained in your mind as “Kids” ever did. Yet, amongst these innovative songs, MGMT still manage to fall over themselves trying to lose their dance-aesthetic. “Someone’s Missing” does everything to make it as psychedelic as possible, even going as far as adding a really poorly placed sitar. It picks up toward the end, but goes absolutely nowhere. Unlike similar works by of Montreal, Animal Collective, and even The Who, their twelve-minute multi-movement piece “Siberian Breaks” sounds overdrawn and forced. The movements lack any sort of cohesion, each one being completely different from the previous with awkward transitions between. The individual components could each be turned into their own great song, but as one, it flounders severely. “I Found A Whistle” provides some sort of serious musicianship with a gorgeous soulful tone and space-y organs, even if the subject matter is slightly ridiculous. “Brian Eno” also plays up the inane subject matter (it’s a strange glorification of Brian Eno), but as with “Whistle”, it is masked by wonderfully poppy and mashed-together synthesizers. Much to their dismay, this song would be an undeniably radio-friendly single. “Congratulations” closes the album in a calm, very reorienting manner. If you get past the almost laughable Flight of the Conchords-esque delivery, it offers a good amount of ordinary closure to a very odd album.
The album really wasn’t that bad. As a whole, MGMT achieved their goal and then some in departing as far away as possible from Oracular Spectacular; it’s more psychedelic, contains more intelligent lyrics, and all in all sounds significantly more complex and thought out. However, they seem to be suffering a musical identity-crisis where they combine ten plus genres in one song, and they’re becoming absurdly pretentious: just look at “Brian Eno” and “Lady Dada’s Romance”. MGMT had built massive bridges with their debut, but “Congratulations” let them burn them all down to the point where their career will start over and progress slower, or as they put it “more naturally”. I’ll at least commend them for that.
"The title ties into this cynical philosophy I have. It's like, Congratulations, you're Bono, you've made it. But what do you really have? You still don't have any answers."-Andrew VanWyngarden
Video for Flash Delirium
Recommendations: It's Working, Flash Delirium, I Found a Whistle MGMT's Official Website Note: YAY! Review out! Hasn't happened for a few months, and now I'm back and ready to post more of them. Hooray! Anyway, I'll post a picture of my actual copy soon, but if it matters, I got the picture from google images. I hope you enjoy and I appreciate your comments!
For all of you yanks and some brits, tomorrow is Record Store Day! Record Store Day is a celebration of indie bands and the Record Stores that make there careers possible. To celebrate this fabulous day, many bands, such as Monsters of Folk, Muse, Phoenix, Passion Pit, have released special edition (mostly vinyl) singles of new-for-Record-Store-Day-recordings and old stuff too. So go out, get some vinyl, listen to tunes!
"It’s important to have something that is being done just out of true love for new music that is being welcomed into the world. People should go to their indie record store and find out what is happening.”-Regina Spektor
So everyone, this is my last Friday Thing. I guess it wore out it's welcome, and I let it take over my blog. I sorta figured that this is the 75th Friday Thing, and it will be the last. I am stopping it for I feel that I've lost focus with my blog, it starting out as a strictly review blog. Now I will only do reviews and little news things. Expect an Animal Collective, Monsters of Folk, or Spoon review out in the very very near future.
Johnny Flynn is a fantastic performer and writer. All his songs are simple, and immensely poignant. He never fails to evoke some sort of emotion, whether it's hope or sadness, and this song conveys the perfect sense of lonliness with some acceptance; it's just beautiful.
Yesterday, Monsters of Folk released a video for "Dear God", their second single from their 2009 debut. The song is so wonderfully dreamy with soulful singing and a harp, and was a very good opening for the album. The video, however, is not quite as great. The amount of "crafted" looking layers and the zooming in concept is not bad, but it's not a whole lot interesting and little a slow moving. Too bad it didn't include the band.
So, this morning, MGMT released the video for their new not-single "Flash Delirium". It's immensely weird and bizarre, but you'd expect that after seeing videos like "Kids" and "Time to Pretend". It's moderately enjoyable, the song goes well with the video, but then when Ben Goldwasser's neck starts talking and someone pulls an eel/snake out, you can't help but get a tad nauseous. I'm looking forward to what else they have planned.
A while ago, I was waiting to see Blur perform on a Glastonbury 2009 special, and one of the other bands they showed was Bon Iver. I was told prior to this to give him a listen, and I never got to it. I really wish I had because this song is, for lack of a better word, beautiful. The amount of passion he throws into the chorus is astounding. I love the minimalistness of it; it makes his message that much more effective. It's a heartwrenchingly passionate performance, and I hope you enjoy!
Apparently MGMT's April 13th album Congratulations has leaked, and like The Dodos, they decided that instead of letting you hear the album in crappy quality out of order, they are now streaming it on their website for free. I, like I did with The Dodos, am not going to listen to the album yet; I get joy out of buying the album and looking at the packaging while I listen.
MGMT leave us with this message:
"Hey everybody, the album leaked, and we wanted you to be able to hear it from us. We wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn't make sense to anyone but us."
Arctic Monkeys 3rd video for their 3rd single My Propeller was just released. Now, I get they are changing their style-I mean, just look at the difference between Favourite Worst Nightmare and Humbug-but, why do they have to go in such a weird (bad) direction? Videowise, "Crying Lightning" was different and "Cornerstone" was a little awkward, but "My Propeller" takes it to new heights of awful. It's not just them performing, it's them with a black-white effect and strange/awkward close-ups. All in all, it's just bad. To be honest, the only redeeming aspect of the video is the song.
If there's two things that everyone can agree on are the only redeeming factors of Saturday Night Live it's the musical acts (which are hit or miss) and the Andy Samberg Digital Shorts. So, this weekend's SNL nailed it when the Digital Short guested Julian Casablancas to do the immensely funny Boombox. You will enjoy it, like you did Lazy Sunday, so please, watch it.
I saw this a long time ago-this was when Julian Casablancas came to Letterman in January. It was only until this week that I actually went out and got the album, and now I can't get enough of this song, and the album. It's really not bad, and I'd suggest giving it a listen. "Out of the Blue" is a fantastically sing-a-long-inevitable song, so if you don't give the album a listen, watch this performance.
Last night, I was fortunate enough to see Muse at Madison Square Garden in NYC. You probably heard many different blogs/music magazines deem Muse as the best live band in the world, and you cannot possibly comprehend this until you go to see them. To make the night that much better, Silversun Pickups were the opening band. The crowd was pretty not interested during their set, but I thought they held their own. Chris Guanlao, the drummer, and Nikki Monniger, the bassist, are absolutely amazing at what they do. Chris is a monster, and offered endless entertainment through his flailing. Nikki seemed more inhibited, but she’s one of the best bassists I’ve ever seen. All and all, they were great. They played quite a few songs, and it’s a shame I only recognized “Substitution”, “Panic Switch”, and their closer “Lazy Eye”. They made it very clear to us how happy they were to be there, and you felt their joy when singer Brian Aubert did a little happy dance. Now given that this was a WRXP sponsored event, Matt Pinfield, one of the DJs, came on to introduce Muse−that made everything suddenly real. The lights dimmed, the towers lit up showing an image of a person walking up to the top (and then falling off ala Absolution), and suddenly the shades dropped and there Matt, Dom, and Chris were. They immediately plowed through “Uprising”. I really don’t like “Uprising”, but it was performed so grandiosely that everyone was screaming their heads off, and it made me like it, if not just for those 5 minutes. After “Resistance”, they did an extremely epic two song run of “New Born” and “Map of the Problematique”. What more could you ask for? Matt Bellamy is a guitar god, and the “New Born” solo proved it. Dom Howard is a complete virtuoso on the drums, and his insane skills were the utter highlight of “Map of the Problematique”. “Guiding Light” was one of the best performances. The overall sound is that of what you’d imagine hearing in a huge football stadium, and hearing it at MSG was one of the most emotionally epic moments of my life. Afterwards, it sounded like they were just messing with the guitar, and when I realized it was infact “Interlude” I flipped. Chris Wolstenholme is sheer genius when it comes to “Hysteria”, and the audience seemed to agree. Even though the rest of the concert was beyond-words unbelievable, in my mind, “Plug in Baby” had to be the best part of the night. When the air-raid sounding static-y guitar began and he launched into the opening riff, I freaked. The massive energy that poured from the stage and Matt’s endless hops and twirls were just perfect. If they ended it there, I still would’ve been out-of-control happy and satisfied. For the encore, they did “Exogenesis (Overture)”, which was severely entertaining because I’ve never seen or imagined so many people jumping around/head banging to bombastic strings. They finished with “Stockholm Syndrome” and “Knights of Cydonia”-both intensely and perfectly performed, and the best possible ending to such a brilliant night.
I was deeply moved by their performance and very sad that it had to end. For the first time, I have no complaints about a concert. They did everything spot on; they had a very full setlist, doing both “MK Ultra” and “Unnatural Selection”, and they performed with everything they had. It’s been awhile since I had this much fun at a concert, and if you want your mind completely blown, I would suggest doing everything in your capacity to go see them. They are the best live band in the world today. ---------------------- SET LIST
Uprising Resistance New Born Map of the Problematique Supermassive Blackhole Guiding Light Interlude Hysteria Nishe United States of Eurasia Feeling Good Helsinki Jam Undisclosed Desires MK Ultra Starlight Plug in Baby Time is Running Out Unnatural Selection
ENCORE Exogenesis: Symphony, Pt. 1: Overture Stockholm Syndrome Man With Harmonica+Knights of Cydonia ----------------------
NOTE: Okay, so I got the pictures from here from thesepeople. I didn't have a camera with me, but if these pictures belong to you and/or you a have a problem with me having them here, just drop a comment, and I'll get rid of them. I hope you enjoy reading my review as much as I enjoyed being there. My ears are still ringing, but that just makes me remember how amazing it was.
The wonderful Owen Pallett (used to be known as Final Fantasy) released a video for his song "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt" from his new album Heartland this week. The music is very good, as is with most of his, but the video is a little weird. It's strange, just a little convoluted, and very pretentious.
OK GO also released a video this week for "This Too Shall Pass" from their new-ish album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. As usual the music is ok, but this video is pretty good. It features them singing amongst a nicely complex Rube Goldberg Machine. It goes perfectly with the music and is definitely up there with the dancing and treadmills.
I remember back in early 2008, I saw previews for a Jools Holland episode with Vampire Weekend and The Kills as guests. I ended up tuning in a little late so the only thing I saw in that episode was the last performance which was "A-Punk". I had never heard anything at all by them before that moment, so when I did I was completely enthralled and couldn't believe how good they really were. I loved them so much that I went out the next day and bought their album strictly on this performance-now, 2 years later, I finally will be going to see them.
A-Punk
POLL RESULTS: In January I put up a poll to see what you guys liked most about what I offer on this blog, and an overwhelming amount of you (3 of you) have voted. Based on the results, I will start trying to post more news items and music reviews. Also, I'm thinking about stopping these Friday things, or making them more infrequent. Next week, I'm going to a show, so I won't have a Friday Thing, but I will have a concert review! Opinions?
I like Radiohead. I really do. On that note, I've listened to a lot of them this week, and I felt that it'd be nice to bring their performance from that Coachella movie to you. This is one of their older songs and their performance is very good. With Jonny Greenwood bouncing around and Thom Yorke's awkward goofy smiles: it's hard not to enjoy. Give it a chance.
Well, the title says it. Vampire Weekend have released a video for their Contra song "Giving up the Gun" today. I feel confused yet happy: It stars a Jonas brother and Jake Gyllenhaal, respectively, who play a girl in a tennis match. Other than that, the band look cool, and the over all feel of the video fits that of the amazing song.
Giving up the Gun
(I feel so violated posting a video by someone named "FanaticForJonasB")
This is the cover art to MGMT's supposedly very different Congratulations which is due out on April 13th in the states. This is gonna be a weird album-the fact that there are flutes, a 12 minute song, the song titles, and the album art means that it's not going to be normal. The only way it could be more bizarre is if they make the actual songs conventional.
Track Listing 01 It's Working 02 Song for Dan Treacy 03 Someone's Missing 04 Flash Delirium 05 I Found a Whistle 06 Siberian Breaks 07 Brian Eno 08 Lady Dada's Nightmare 09 Congratulations
From the Basement is a fantasic show shot by Nigel Godrich where they take a band and have them perform with no audience. Recently, I've been getting into Andrew Bird, so I decided to watch his set from the episode he was in. He is a one man show-he loops his violin, he whistles, plucks a guitar, and sings-and words cannot properly describe how beautiful the violin looping is. There are so many layers that are perfectly placed together. Andrew Bird is a genius, and if you didn't know that, watch this performance of "Tenuousness"-you'll understand!
Soul-singer/electronic(ish) Jamie Lidell is releasing his 4th album "Compass" which is due to be released May 17th in the UK and May 18th in the States. For those who don't know, Jamie Lidell is a very talented soul and electronic artist. His previous album "Jim" was a very soulfilled, bright effort, but now it seems with "Compass" he's moving into the more experimental zone; apparently even the likes of Beck and Feist helped with the record. Be sure to pick it up when it comes out! . Go here to hear the title track "Compass"
It's been known for awhile now that MGMT are due to release an album entitled "Congratulations" this year, but nobody has any idea when it'll be released...until now. On MGMT's website they have a countdown going which will end on Tuesday, April 13th. It's pure speculation, but Vampire Weekend's countdown led to Horchata, so this may just lead to a song or an album. You never know.
This week, Vampire Weekend did a set of songs for a small audience for La Blogotheque. It's a very intimate setting, with the four of them playing amongst a small group of people sitting around them, which makes it such a great performance. Their nerdyness and quirks come out to an extreme, and the acoustic-versions are very nice to hear; they make California English bearable! The energy is great, and if you have 23 minutes to spare, you won't be disappointed.
Cousins, Have I The Right?, California English, Walcott, Horchata, and A-Punk
On this music/concert channel I thoroughly suggest/watch a lot, they've been playing a lot of Kings of Leon performances. I had assumed that after hearing Only By The Night, which I really rejected, that I wouldn't like any of their stuff at all. However, I was exposed to "The Bucket" and knew I had to give 'em another listen. So now, I have become a huge fan of their album "Because of the Times". I chose this performance because "On Call" is such a good song and that bassline will get jammed in your head to a point of no return. You'll love it.
Animal Collective have been working on a movie (or visual album) called ODDSAC and the the trailer was released today. If your in the New York or Chicago area, go here to buy tickets for screenings.
Contra- Vampire Weekend Label-XL Recordings Status-Out as of 2010 2nd Studio Album Rating-4 feathers
From the start of their career, Vampire Weekend were one of the few bands that were nearly unconditionally critically acclaimed. Hoisted so high on the indie pedestal, when it came time for them to make a second album, many thought that there was no way they could pull it off again. Well, they have. With a significantly mellower sound, and slightly more synthesizer in place of guitars, Vampire Weekend are back with their sophomore album “Contra”.
The carefree “Horchata” starts off the album with their signature bubbly synthesizer and vocals. It’s an inspiring and powerful beginning that will leave you singing “Here comes the feeling you’d forgotten” long after it’s over. “Holiday” offers you the same immensely catchy and bouncy synthesizers that you’ve come to love about Vampire Weekend, except with much more force and massive sing-along ability. There are very few things to really despise about this album, especially after hearing the last few songs. However, there’s usually something, and that something is “California English”. It’s like the “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” of Contra, except the violently annoying part is the irritating use of auto-tune. It makes it almost unlistenable. The only redeeming part of it is the clever lyrics, except you’d never know that unless you were reading the booklet; the auto-tune obscures them that badly. “Taxi Cab” conveys the exact opposite of what the last song did. It’s like a sadder, and significantly more somber “I Stand Corrected”. Both the slight but effective cello and the non-falsetto singing makes it that much more moving. “Run” is nicely upbeat, and provides you with endless hooks. The fuzzy drums and fanfare punctuated by the new synth creates a bittersweet yet very bright symphony of sound. “Cousins” is all over the place, but in a good way. It’s completely manic and never ceases in force, and it’s amazing that they kept the frantic sound so tight. Then you have “Giving Up the Gun” which is the perfect example of their maturity as a band. They combine a reflective attitude with a grandiose mix of synthesizers and glittery sound effects that swell to build their most epic and encouraging song so far. With songs like that on this album, “I Think UR a Contra” is a pretty disappointing ending. I don’t like what Ezra does with his vocals and the dreamlike echoe-y instrumentation in the background makes it just way too fantastical for me. Also, the grand piano really doesn’t sound right. At the end, when it sounds like the instruments are breaking down, that’s when it finally gets interesting.
As a whole, Vampire Weekend have created a pretty good answer to their debut. It’s a very mellow collection of songs all of which embrace rawer synthesizers and a fuller sound. However, they did completely rid of their minimalist and baroque pop sound in exchange for a sometimes annoying electronica sounding one. Yet, I applaud them for building on their sound and for still sounding as fresh as they did two years ago. I have no doubt that future albums will continue on the same bubbly and brightly paved path.
"It's easy to write a song that just takes down easy targets--there were songs like that on the first album, though some people misinterpreted them. It's more of a challenge to write a song that's about compassion toward people that you disagree with or people that represent something you think is rephrehensible."-Ezra Koenig
Video for Cousins
Recommendations: Horchata, Holiday, Run, Giving Up the Gun Vampire Weekend's Official Website NOTE: YAY! I wrote a review. Start thinking of this as a more regular thing again. Next up is Spoon. In regards to the album, I really didn't like White Sky. I know it was a song they've played for a really long time, but I'm just not convinced on it's greatness. I hope you enjoy!
As with my Dodos post, you know I don't typically watch late shows. However, on Tuesday, Spoon released their 7th album Transference, so I was very pleased to be able to hear the album and then watch them perform one the songs that same day (or night). For this, they performed the slightly crazed "Written in Reverse", and they did it quite well if I must say. I'd suggest watching it, and I hope you enjoy!
Last Friday (or Saturday, technically) The Dodos made their first American television appearance on David Letterman performing "Fables" from their not-so-new-now Time To Die. I thought it was a pretty good performance, the vocals were a little funny, but the drums were way awesome as usual (just look at the tambourine foot). It's a good song, and I'm very happy I got to see their debut. Enjoy!
Muse have just released the video for "Resistance", their third single from their new-ish The Resistance. In actuality, it's just a live video with the actual recording over it, similar to their "In Your World" and "Butterflies and Hurricanes" videos. They really out do themselves with the grandiosity of their live show, and I'm happy they made a "simple" video after the wreck that that was "Undisclosed Desires"'s video. I hope you enjoy!
If you're not from the states, click this link and click "Rest of the World": Muse premiere Resistance
BTW: Please vote on my poll if you haven't already!
If you didn't know, Contra by Vampire Weekend and Heartland by Owen Pallett (formally referred to as Final Fantasy) were released today. Go out and support your bands!
So, I'm very happy about this. Animal Collective have released a video for their 3rd single, Brother Sport, from their latest "Merriweather Post Pavilion". For those who read, I personally thought that Brother Sport was the best song of 2009: it's really excellent. However, I don't really like the video. The video for My Girls and Summertime Clothes were really well done, but this takes on a style more like In the Flowers. Enjoy!
Btw: I'm putting up a poll to ask those who read what they'd like to see more of in 2010, and also, Friday Things resume next Friday.
To kick off the New Year, I bring to you what I think are the 20 best music videos of the aughts. Look out for part three of the countdown. Enjoy!
21. Girl by Beck-This is pretty poor of me to put this in after the fact, but it deserves a mention. Beck is just cool, he really is. This video demonstrates that. It's clever, and I think you should watch it.
20. You Only Live Once by The Strokes-I love how they are all in white when the disgusting "sewage" comes pouring in, but I thoroughly enjoy how Julian Casablancas's hopping around never ceases.
19. I'll Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab For Cutie-It's a nice, and slightly sad song, but I like how the hole symbolizes the songs meaning.
18. Summer Song by Yacht-You don't have to see it to know your already crazy about it.
17. Such Great Heights by The Postal Service-I'm not entirely sure what is happening in the video, but I think it fits with the electronic-ness so well.
16. The Hardest Button to Button by The White Stripes-The general smoothness of the stop motion is really good, but it has to be the sheer amount of equipment they used.
15. Here it Goes Again by OK GO
14. My Girls by Animal Collective-Them only having lips and the fact that they soon begin to melt shows that Animal Collective are very weird without being stupidly outrageous. Also, the fact that they seem so into it makes the song that much more enjoyable.
13. Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games) by of Montreal-of Montreal would take an already cutesy song and make such a seemingly more adorable yet so morbid video out it.
12. Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim-Who knew Christopher Walken could dance so well?
11. Australia by The Shins-The concept of freeing helpless balloons by releasing them back to the atmosphere is adorable. This video is both comical and creative, and isn't the image of all the balloons at the end beautiful?
10. Evil by Interpol-Norman the puppet is the creepiest and coolest puppet, and the dancing is just too creepy for words. I think what did it for me was the fact that Norman fits Paul Bank's vocals eerily well.
9. D.A.N.C.E. by Justice-I'm not a fan of Justice. At all. However, this video is really great. The constant redesigning t-shirts are way cool, and the concept is purely unique. Do you not want some of those shirts?
8. 1901 by Phoenix-Not only was this one of the best songs of the year, it was definitely one of the best videos of the decade. Most of the videos here aren't too fancy, and this one really isn't. The projector idea fit the song insanely well and it's so wonderfully original.
7. A Million Ways by OK GO-You have to love OK GO. Before they were jumping around on treadmills, they were dancing in back yards. To the video that started it all.
6. A-Punk by Vampire Weekend-The endless thought of "How'd they get the lip-synch like that?" will never leave my mind.
5. Window in the Skies by U2-A lot of bands do music videos that compile footage of the band with a live performance or take random videos that "go" with the song. U2, however, took clips of performances by everyone from The Smiths to The Clash to Arcade Fire, and synched it up perfectly to the music. It's a walk through music history, and that, with the perfect lip-synch, is enough reason to love it.
4. Another John Doe by Thenewno2-You may not like Beatles's children's bands, but if you ever had any reason not to love Thenewno2, this video will far overshadow those thoughts. Directed by the bands own Oli Hecks, it's not just any stop motion. I mean, have you ever seen one that's this smooth?
3. Easy/Lucky/Free by Bright Eyes-This is the prime example of the simpler, the better. All he does throughout the video is write down some of the lyrics on a pane of glass. What's so genius is that he thought to do it, and it the product came out so well. It's simple, effective, and gets the songs message across without getting too serious.
2. Obstacle 1 by Interpol-No matter how many actors you hire or how facny the effects you use are, it will always be difficult to beat a band simply just performing the song. This is one of those videos. Interpol all look so cool and a song like "Obstacle 1" just shouldn't be messed up with an overdone video. The slight effects really add to the classic feel and I feel it just adds to the subtle brilliance that is "Obstacle 1".
1. Fluorescent Adolescent by Arctic Monkeys-Simply the best music video of the decade. When you first heard "Fluorescent Adolescent", you surely didn't think of homicidal clowns or a torn friendship, but once you saw the video, you cannot think of anything else. Jamie Cook himself has said "[it's] probably one of the best videos in the last, like, 10 years", and in my mind, it is the best.
Suddenly Yours-
