Saturday, February 27, 2010

Sunday Morning Soundtrack




Looks like the rain has cleared out here in sunny (?) So-Cal; So as you get ready to enjoy your fair city, please find time to enjoy these jams. To you and yours, have a beautiful day.

Thoughts and prayers to those in Chile and surrounding areas.

Surfer Blood - Take it Easy
Cold Cave - Life Magazine
Keepaway - Yellow Wings
The Drums - I Felt Stupid
Shout Out Louds - Fall Hard

Thursday, February 25, 2010

La Blogotheque Take-Away Show - Local Natives




Vincent Moon is a Parisian filmmaker who has coined the ever popular Take-Away Shows. The work he does is beautiful; filming live performance primarily on streets throughout Europe and featuring some of the very best. If you are not familiar with any of his work I suggest you spend a lot of time here.

Local Natives make beautiful music. The relationship only seems natural.

Enjoy.

Thom Yorke ?????? = Atoms for Peace



Thom York and his "question marks" (which include the likes of Nigel Godrich, Flea and a couple other dudes who can play music out of their minds) have settled on a name of Atoms for Peace. The name shares a speech/program President Dwight D. Eisenhower instituted in the 50s related to peaceful nuclear energy development; also, happens to be a title of a track from his album The Eraser.

In addition to this announcement, the group has scheduled a number of shows leading up to their Sunday Coachella appearance (including an additional Southern California show in SB). I had the great opportunity to see them play one of their warm up shows at the Orpheum (Fall '09) and I'll just say, do all you can to see these dudes live.

Shows listed below (all in April), Flying Lotus will be opening the gigs.

New York Roseland Ballroom 5th & 6th
Boston Citi Wang Theatre 8th
Chicago Aragon Ballroom 10th & 11th
Oakland Fox Theatre 14th & 15th
Santa Barbara Bowl 17th

Check out this pretty good quality vid of a new cut Thom has been playing with his new band and that other one. And find more info on the Radiohead blog, Dead Air Space.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Efterklang



Mew has a bit of competition for title of "it" Danish band with all the buzz Efterklang has been garnering. The Copenhagen band released their 4AD debut album, Magic Chairs February 23rd; to quite some high praises.

For those unfamiliar, Efterklang craft a gorgeous orchestral layered pop sound with contagious melodies that flutter behind the distinct vocals of lead singer, Casper Clausen.

Blogs are eating these dudes up (rightfully so), which certainly helps them attack a month long US jaunt leading into the annual SxSW music conference (where I hope to check 'em out). They tackle the major cities in March, including a date at Spaceland March 16th.

Watch their beautiful video below for single Modern Drift and stream the whole album at their website.

Enjoy.

Modern Drift by Efterklang from Rumraket on Vimeo.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Aziz as RAAAAAAAANDY and Dave Sitek



Aziz is the man. But I imagine you already know that if you're reading this here blog. Either way, take a listen to the first cut from the mixtape he's working on with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.

Aziz Ansari and Dave Sitek - AAAAAAAANGRY (with eight A's)

Memory Tapes



Davye Hawk, the mastermind behind Memory Tapes plays Spaceland Friday February 26th. If you aren't familiar with the Philadelphia based pop-dance jammer, I suggest a listen; and based upon live reviews strongly suggest a visit to the show.

Additionally, he has released EPs under the monikers Memory Cassette and Weird Tapes if you can track those down as well.

The show is 10 bones at the door. See you there?

Word.

Memory Tapes - Bicycle

Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (Memory Tapes remix)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sunday Morning Soundtrack



Is there anything better than a beautiful Sunday morning accompanied by the sweetest of sounds? Here are a few tracks to lilt you through that cup of coffee, olympic curling, book reading and overall general merriment on this, the finest of days.

Enjoy.

The Morning Benders - Excuses

Broken Social Scene - World Sick

The Middle East - The Darkest Side

Field Music - Measure

Toro Y Moi - Blessa

Friday, February 19, 2010

Surprise Gig: Broken Bells



Broken Bells, the new side project featuring Shins frontman James Mercer and producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse, will debut their live set tonight at the Bootleg Theatre. A limited number of tickets went on sale and are no longer available. This will undoubetedly be a mess, so if you want to check them out, I suggest arriving early. Doors are @ 8pm.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about these guys yet... but take a peek at the video below and decide for yourself.

I will not be in attendance but if anyone makes it out, let me know what you think.


The High Road

Broken Bells | MySpace Music Videos

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record



Head on over to Broken Social Scene's website to download a sneak peek from their upcoming album Forgiveness Rock Record. The epic jam entitled World Sick clocks in around 7 minutes and is more or less what you'd expect from Kevin Drew and co. Man is it great to hear something new from these dudes.

They have a number of tour dates coming up and the new album is out via Arts & Crafts May 4th.

Enjoy (what a great way to start your Friday, huh?)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Odds and Ends


Austin band Harlem plays Spaceland Saturday (2/20). I hear they bring the show with their infectious blend of garage/lo-fi goodness. Check it out if you can - I will see you there.


Shaun White
is the man. Watch the clip if you haven't seen his Gold medal run.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

For the Record: Local Natives - Gorilla Manor



Living in LA I've had the pleasure of hearing for quite some time (live or UK release, which hit fall '09), Gorilla Manor by Silver Lake's Local Natives. While an outright review of the album might be redundant, a diagnostic approach to what makes these guys so good might be more par for the course.

The Local Natives recipe is as follows:

Instrumental Chops: Quite simply, these dudes can play and have a well developed ear for melody/harmony and it's mind-blowing to realize they have only been playing music together for a couple years.

Songwriting: The subject matter of the lyrics is creative and precise; personal development is the theme heard in ("Wide Eyes") and the all too clever ("World News") focuses on all that can happen in the waning moments of your commute home. In keeping with their experience beyond years theme, one must remember that these well thought out lyrics accompany the arsenal of melody and rhythm leaving little room to let your mind wander while listening. And while you might expect this from a more seasoned band, they deliver with ease on this debut album, making it seem all too natural.

See this band live: Gorilla Manor on it's own is amazing; their performance is transcendental. Percussion assaults, four part harmonies, high energy and an overwhelming respect for those that listen to them abound in their typical hour long set. And one can't help but be immersed into an immediate memorable music experience.

While there has been a bit of a wait for proper US release of their album, it couldn't come at a better time for these fine dudes. A lengthy European jaunt (where they are quite popular), leads into anchoring sets at SXSW, Coachella, Sasquatch and Bonnaroo. Blog buzz abounds as they tore through sets at SXSW '09 and CMJ '09 but the festival setting should provide them well deserved exposure and it's only a matter of time before the masses will be taking a note out of their lyrics, thinking: "I want you back..."

Gorilla Manor is available now on French Kiss Records and digitally via iTunes. A media player can be found below with live performances and streams of singles.

As always, enjoy.










Friday, February 12, 2010

The Morning Benders


The below clip is well worth about 7 minutes of your time. The band's Rough Trade debut album Big Echo comes out March 9th. Co-produced by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, it will most assuredly garner plenty of buzz.

The first single Promises is available via download from their clever, minimalistic new website.

Enjoy


Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Odds and Ends


- I've been digging Wild Nothing the past couple days. From what I gather, it's the project of Jack Tatum, also of Facepaint.
- Four Tet has a splendid new album out entitled There is Love in You (thanks for the rec @ChristopherC23).
- Broken Social Scene is confirmed to play the Fonda May 3rd. Pre-sale is Friday 2/5 10am-10pm. Password is BROKEN.


Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday
Four Tet - She Just Likes to Fight