I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness at Mercury Lounge
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness review from last night over at The Young Shoppers.
March 31, 2006
March 30, 2006
Three 6 Mafia to Receive Key to their City
Yes, Saturday is official Three 6 Mafia Day in Memphis where they will be presented with the key to the city. Apparently Paris Hilton interviewed them and they may be working on a song with her soon.
A Seminar for Night Club Bouncers
A Seminar for Night Club Bouncers at McSweeney's. These guys are always in full effect outside the terrible club nextdoor to the Mercury Lounge. I will be there tonight (at the Mercury Lounge not the club — they probably would not let me past the velvet rope) for I Love You But Your Band Name Is Too Long For Me To Continue Typing It.
March 29, 2006
Editors at Warsaw
Editors played Warsaw yesterday in Brooklyn. Review over at the 'Shop.
SXSW Recap of Recaps & Gigantic Mixtape
Because I have waited so long to write something about SXSW I am going just mention a few of the recaps that I found particularly interesting.
1. A Cool Hunting SXSW Video
Although they don't really capture any crazy street shenanigans, they do film a ton of bands and the sound is pretty good.
2. Gorilla vs. Bear Recap
Chris has a lot of good pics. It seems like he was hanging out with Tapes n' Tapes a lot.
3. Central Village Talks A Lot
If you want to read 2000+ words about the three day music fest – have at it. I could not finish the whole thing.
4. Blue States Always Lose in Texas
I hope you are familiar with the wry commentary of Blue States Lose, which documents hipsters at their worst. If that is not enough for you, see more at The Cobra Snake.
I have compiled a SXSW Mixtape from some of the cool bands on the torrent. Get the 41 song mix and a lesson in downloading after the jump.
Image above stolen from The Cobra Snake
A SXSW Torrent Mix
So for those of you who don't know there was a torrent file (2+ gigs / over 700 mp3s) available for free download before the festival. Here are my picks from that group. If you use Firefox browser (Internet Explorer makes this blog look terrible) you should get the Down Them All Plugin. It allows you to right-click on a page and choose which files you want to download. You can specify .mp3s and it grabs them all at once at a blazing speed. Give it a test run here. Note: This mix is only songs from that torrent. There were a ton of other good bands there and some bands have MP3s on the SXSW website that were not in the torrent.
Amos Lee - Colors
Apollo Sunshine - Today Is The Day
Editors - Munich
Envelopes - Sisters in Love
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Long Walk
Islands - Don’t Call Me Witney Bobby
Jason Collett - We All Lose One Another
Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch
Magnolia Electric Company - Dark Don't Hide It
Man Man - I, Manface
Midlake - Ballon Maker
Mr. Lif - Party Hard
Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis
National Eye - Halo
Okkervil River - No Key, No Plan
Page France - Junkyard
Pink Mountaintops - Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy
Rogue Wave - Publish My Love
Sam Champion - Slow Rewind
Shearwater - I Can't Wait
Silversun Pickups - Kissing Families
Tapes 'N Tapes - Cowbell
The Black Hollies - Tell Me What You Want
The Cinematics - Chase
The Czars - Paint The Moon
The Gossip - Standing In The Way of Control
The Grates - Sukkafish
The Juan Maclean - Give Me Every Little Thing
The Mother Hips - Red Tandy EP
The M's - Future Women
The Rakes - Retreat
The Spinto Band - Oh Mandy
The Whigs - Violet Furs
The Young Knives - Weekends & Bleak Days
Tunng - Tale From Black
We Are Scientists - It's A Hit
We Are Wolves - L.L. Romeo
What Made Milwaukee Famous - Mercy, Me
Xiu Xiu - Muppet Face
Mystery Jets at Mercury Lounge
I saw Mystery Jets at Mercury Lounge Saturday. They rocked. Extra long review over at Product Shop NYC.
Gnarls Barkley; That Dude
So Gnarls Barkley is the amalgamation of Cee-Lo Green and Danger Mouse. Their press photos are spoofs on movies. The possibilities are endless. They also cover a Violent Femmes song on their St. Elsewhere promo. Their album is out in the UK soon and in the US later.
Gone Daddy Gone (MP3)
More press photo hilarity after the jump.
I Brake for Short Songs
After seeing Brakes at The Annex last week, I have really gotten into their short songs. I was probably this guy in the song to a few people who I talked with at the Editors show tonight. Get their album Give Blood. It's good. If had to lump some words together to describe their music, I would say it's Country Punk with English accents.
Hi How Are You (MP3)
The M's at Pianos
I saw The M's at Pianos. Something from that album was missing from that show. I really like some of the songs on their new album Future Women. Something was missing from that show either the horns, or the strings, or the crazy percussion. The drummer was the highlight of the evening. I have never seen a drummer eagle-eye his bandmates so intensely. You would lose to this dude in a staring contest. While the show was not that great, that is no reason not to check out their album.
Listen to Plan of the Man (MP3).
Jerry Yeti was also there.
March 27, 2006
Beastie Boys Interview Complete
So last week I mentioned that I interviewed the Beastie Boys at their studio with some other folks. Those three are really funny when they get together. It is pretty crazy that they have been making Hip Hop music for twenty years and have not fallen off. In that time they have explored some other projects. MCA has directed a concert film called Awesome; I Fucking Shot That!. Go hear or read part of the interview. Jason and I also did a Mystery Jets interview before their show Saturday and will post it later this week.
Love Is All at Knitting Factory
I posted some pics and impressions at Product Shop of the great show Love Is All played at the Knitting Factory on Friday. Its not really a review because it's not that long.
March 23, 2006
Jose Gonzalez at Joe's Pub
Review of Jose Gonzalez's show last night at Joe's Pub over at Ye Old Shoppe.
UPDATE
Check out this video I shot of Jose Gonzalez at Joe's Pub covering "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
March 22, 2006
The Rakes at Bowery | Brakes at The Annex
Yesterday was intense. I was part of a roundtable interview with Beastie Boys (More on that later), went to two book parties (one was for The Oral History of A Band Called Pixies), then went to the Bowery and saw The Rakes and Towers of London, then went to the Tarts of Pleasure after-party at The Annex to see Brakes. I had a lot of fun at The Rakes show. People were really dancing and there was a high concentration of English accents at the show. Brakes were good too. That song "All Night Disco Party" was really fun live, especially considering the instruments they are using.
There are more pics and a full review by Jason at Product Shop.
The Modern Age also has a review and some good pics.
THE RAKES
BRAKES
TOWERS OF LONDON
March 17, 2006
Awesome; I Fucking Shot That! Film
Because I link to everything I do for Product Shop NYC, go check out my review for Beastie Boys' new concert film Awesome; I Fucking Shot That!
March 16, 2006
Post-SXSW in NYC
Can anybody heard the crickets chirping in New York? It is a very quiet week since the most of the music biz is down in Austin for SXSW. I am excite for post-SXSW in New York. Below is a list of shows you might want to consider (that are not sold out as of 3/16) for next few weeks. Are you seeing any cools shows this week (anywhere) involving bands that are not at SXSW?
THE NOT-YET-SOLDOUT SHOW LIST FOR MARCH
Sun 3/19 Sam Prekop (of The Sea & Cake), Archer Prewitt @ Southpaw
Mon 3/20 Annie, Shy Child @ Mercury Lounge
Tue 3/21 Matt Pond PA, Youth Group @ Northsix
Wed 3/22 The Go! Team @ Northsix
Fri 3/24 Detachment Kit, Foreign Islands, The Big Sleep, Goes Cube @ Brooklyn Lyceum (Oh My Rockness' March Radness Party)
Fri 3/24 & 3/25 Love is All, Cause Co-Motion! @ Knitting Factory & Southpaw
Fri 3/24 & 3/25 Mystery Jets @ Mercury Lounge
Sun 3/26 Part Chimp, Oxford Collapse, Die! Die! Die! @ Union Pool (ToddP presents)
Mon 3/27 White Rose Movement, Foreign Islands @ Mercury Lounge
Tue 3/28 Magnolia Electric Co., Destroyer @ Avalon
Tue 3/28 Editors & stellastar* @ Warsaw
Wed 3/29 What Made Milwaukee Famous @ Mercury Lounge
Thu 3/30 I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness @ Mercury Lounge
Fri 3/31 The Spinto Band, Human Television, Aeroplane Pageant @ Mercury Lounge
Fri 3/31 Bishop Allen @ Pianos
That should keep you busy for the rest of the month. I will be at few of them. There is more in April but ironically a lot of the good shows are already sold out. More on that and some of these bands later.
Isobel Campbell & Eugene Kelly at Southpaw
I went the Isobel Campbell and Eugene Kelly at Southpaw last night and it was packed. The duet sound great together, they sang most of the songs of Ballad of the Broken Seas. They reminded me a lot of Johnny Cash and June Carter. Except Southpaw was less like Folsom Prison and more like somewhere on the Midwestern prairie, where the stars are hung in the sky, a fire is crackling, and a bunch of cowboys and girls sit lonesome in a semicircle around the duo as they sing songs that trot along. However, the music was not all twee country. Have you ever seen a man in a trucker hat and cowboy shirt play a classical waltz on a piano? Now I have. Highlights of the set were "Come Walk With Me" and "Ramblin' Man." In addition to songs off their new album, the band did a few covers. First was "Love Hurts" lead by the slow warble of the dobro, which was in the mumbled words of the guy standing next me, "Dope." For the last song they played a Vaselines' song, which Eugene wrote, "Son of a Gun” and the crowd seemed to like it.
UPDATE
Below is a pic from the show last night when somebody hurled a bra on stage. Isobel picked it up and twirled it around for the rest of the song then threw it back into the audience.
March 15, 2006
Brian Chase (YYY's Drummer) Speaks
Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs talks with Cool Hunting. Go read the interview.
OLD GOSSIP
Something Like a Phenomena
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Bowery Ballroom
March 14, 2006
Guillemots at Mercury Lounge
I saw Guillemots at the Mercury Lounge yesterday. I liked the second half of the set better. I am not sure if that's because they made some adjustments to their sound as the show went on or if the live versions of the songs later in the set were just better. From the Cliffs is out in the US today. Read my complete review over at Product Shop. BrooklynVegan was also there.
OLD GOSSIP
Guillemots Are Coming (but not by train)
March 12, 2006
The Big Sleep at Mercury Lounge
The Cloud Room, Film School, and The Big Sleep played Mercury Lounge yesterday. Review over at Product Shop.
March 11, 2006
Mussels at Cake Shop
I saw Mussels at Cake Shop on Thursday evening. Those fellows were spot on that evening. I see a lot of Mussels shows because my good friend Dan is in the band and I think they make good music. The only other show I have seen that was on that level was at Magnetic Fields with Detachment Kit this past summer. At one point during the show, Dan asked the crowd if they should change their band name to Mussels. The crowd responded with a mix of thumbs up and down. I think they should stick with it. Watch out for this band; they are on the up and up.
The Boy Least Likely to at R&R
New review over at Product Shop NYC of The Boy Least Likely To at R&R on Friday night! Go read it now!
OLD GOSSIP
The Boy Least Likely To … do homework
March 09, 2006
The Boy Least Likely To … do homework
I was going to write this long-winded post today about how you should check out The Boy Least Likely To and go to their show at R+R tomorrow. Instead, maybe Jof from the UK duo can convince you.
Jof: The first record I ever got was a Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins album of gunfighter ballads when I was about seven. I loved that. I always thought I'd grow up to be a cowboy, but I guess there isn't much call for cowboys in the middle of the English countryside. Maybe when I go to America, I can become a cowboy out there. Like Bernie Taupin did.[1]Jof: A lot of the instruments we used were instruments you play when you're a child, like glockenspiels and recorders and all the percussion, cuz they seemed to fit with the lyrics about growing up and lost innocence. And they seemed to give it a simple happy feel touched with a nostalgia for something gone. The more traditional instruments, like harmonicas and banjos, were there cuz we wanted there to be an English folk or American country side to the album. But we didn't put that much thought into it.[1]
Also check out The Boy Least Likely To blog.
Here is an Be Gentle with Me (MP3) for your listening pleasure. Come experience the loss of innocence for yourself at the show tomorrow. They are also on a supporting tour with James Blunt (not my thing).
March 08, 2006
White Rose Movement Kicks
White Rose Movement. With that name, a manifesto must have been drafted and its members must be preparing to make their avant-garde assault upon the masses. Well kind of, the WRM already happened in the 1940s with a German student group that organized around an anti-Nazi leaflet campaign. Flash-forward to modern-day UK and the name works equally as well for Finn Vine (vocals, guitar) Jasper Milton (guitar) Owen Dyke (bass) Taxxi (rad name, keys) and Ed Harper (drums). "We’re London based, but not a London band,” says Jasper. ”Well, let’s say we’re an East Anglian band, because it has the word angle in it,” says Finn (gigwise). ‘We formed the band just as we were going to war (in Iraq), and we wanted something that suggested peace, to wave a white flag to what was going on. Not only that, but it sounded good and made sense.’ Or as Finn succinctly says, ‘the right name for the right time’ (myvillage). While I can't say that their songs are political, they make some kick-ass borderline rock/dance (it could go either way depending on the song) music. These guys are not only reviving a name, but they are shaking up 80's synth pop with a grittier edge. I was beginning to think that the 80's revival was getting tired but WRM zaps new life into it. They look the part too.
The debut album for White Rose Movement Kick will be released April 17th, 2006. For Now check out:
Love is a Number (MP3)
Cruella (MP3)
Also check out the new Girls in the Back video (Quicktime). De Look, De Color, De Stijl!
White Rose Movement are scheduled to play a show at the Mercury Lounge on March 27 (tix). They were supposed to be in New York in January but cancelled at the last moment.
March 07, 2006
Aloha - Some Echoes
Aloha (Polyvinyl) is going to release Some Echoes on April 11th. The band has been around since 2001, debuting with a jazz-influenced record and following with a prog-influenced record. Then T.J. Lipple joined the band. T.J. can play the mellotron and the marimba. Now with all current members, they made another departure with Here Comes Everyone, a pop record that draws from prog and jazz but keeps a restrained rock structure with less improvisational noodling. Some Echoes is along the same lines except a bit catchier. It's real good and I think this record should push them to the next level. They are playing with Voxtrot in April at the Mercury Lounge. That show is going to be awesome. They are also playing SXSW.
Check out Your Eyes (MP3) from the forthcoming Some Echoes.
You can also stream and download parts of Here Comes Everyone at their website.
March 04, 2006
Will Sheff at Southpaw
I saw Will Sheff at Southpaw Thursday and he was great. See my review over at Product Shop NYC.
March 03, 2006
Fake Tales and San Francisco
If you haven't heard the news:
There were lots of shake ups in the rock critic world this week. Nick Sylvester has been cought in a scandal for writing a cover story for the Village Voice that read like a press release for The Game, a do-it-yourself seduction book, and fabricated a story about picking up girls at the bar 151 with some LA TV writers. Read about it here in Gothamist and Gawker (lots of updates here too). He has been suspended from The Voice and forced to quit at Pitchfork. Does anyone have a link to the real article (which has now been pulled)? He is certainly no comparison to Stephen J. Glass and Hollywood will probably not make a movie about him.
SPIN has also had its fair share of news. The magazine was sold to a San Fransisco publisher and people were fired or quit (including Chuck Klosterman and Marc Spitz). On the lighter side, Marc Spitz of SPIN has a new and supposedly good rock novel out called Too Much Too Late.
March 01, 2006
Something Like a Phenomena
So, the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album Show Your Bones seems to be a straight-up rock album. The first single, Gold Lion, first appeared as Diplo remix, where the guitar strums were chopped up, along with the chorus, to rock well with some blippy Diplo drums and an ill synth bass line.
Another stand out track on the album, Phenomena, which is roughly the same tempo, presents the same opportunity. Again we have a killer chorus, which was lifted from Grand Master Flash's White Lines. “Something like a phenomena baby" rides the chops of Nick's guitar. This song is just waiting for the drums to double-up and the bass to come in.
Now the entire album is not like this but it is pretty cool there are two half-speed dance tracks to say, "This wasn't an accident." We all know Karen O loves to dance.
Check 'em out for yourself and get the rest of the album when it drops in March.
Phenomena (MP3)
Gold Lion (MP3)
Diplo's Gold Lion Remix (MP3)
OLD GOSSIP
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Bowery Ballroom
Categories
Recent Posts
- I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness at Mercury Lounge
- Three 6 Mafia to Receive Key to their City
- A Seminar for Night Club Bouncers
- Editors at Warsaw
- SXSW Recap of Recaps & Gigantic Mixtape
- Mystery Jets at Mercury Lounge
- Gnarls Barkley; That Dude
- I Brake for Short Songs
- The M's at Pianos
- Beastie Boys Interview Complete
Songs posted on this blog are for exploratory purposes. If you are the copyright holder of any song posted and would like the song removed, please contact us.
Please do not link directly to any of these tracks.