New Video for Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.) by Monsters of Folk

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.


Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)

New Video for Flash Delirium by MGMT

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.

The Friday Thing: Skinny Love by Bon Iver

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!


Skinny Love

Congratulations Album Leak

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."

If you don't want to wait, here you go: MGMT's Website with the album streaming

New Video for My Propeller by Arctic Monkeys

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.


My Propeller

Julian Casablancas in SNL Digital Short

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.

The Friday Thing: Out of the Blue by Julian Casablancas

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.


Out of the Blue

SHOW REVIEW: MUSE LIVE @ Madison Square Garden in NYC 3/5/10

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.
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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
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NOTE: Okay, so I got the pictures from here from these people. 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.

New Videos for Lewis Takes Off His Shirt by Owen Pallett and This Too Shall Pass by OK GO

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.