The beautiful song, "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová won an Oscar last weekend and Pitchfork caught up with the couple that penned it. The two discuss small venues, John Travolta, Bob Dylan, and of course...Oscar. Check it out here.
Orba Squara's Sunshyness is a relaxing Saturday afternoon album. It feels more summer-y then then it feels outside today, but it can warm you up for sure. Singer/songwriter Mitch Davis (who is Orba Squara) makes you feel that a day at the beach is just around the corner. Chill out with it and those of you that watch TV might recognize, well, just about every song. Great musician, wonder how he sells products. Maybe Apple owes all their iphone sales to his wispy voice and sweet ditties.
We could go on, but you get the idea. Check out the rest at their myspace.
A great week of new releases births a great week over at spinner. This weeks goodies include; always talented Stephen Malkmus, the aforementionedBeach House, gorgeous new Goldfrapp, Dolly Parton, and the Cowboy Junkies. Go check them out if you get a second.
Been revisiting the old Beach House album of late, boy it's good. This here video is for the track "Heart of Chambers" from the Baltimore duo's new album Devotion.
The UK dance makers, the Ting Tings will infiltrate the US with tour dates surrounding their SXSW performance. They are listed below the video for "Great DJ" from their unreleased new album of the same name. Go ahead and press play, we dare you not to dance.
Ting Tings - "Great DJ"
Tour Dates:
March 9 Seattle, WA - Vera Project 10 San Francisco, CA - Venue TBA 11 Los Angeles, CA - Rec Center Studio 18 Boston, MA - Great Scott 20 Chicago, IL - Av-Erie 21 New York, NY - Le Royale 25 Austin, TX - SXSW (KCRW Showcase @ Buffalo Billiards)
The Icelandic band, Sigur Ros, that we love here at Musicology NYC has released this information on their website:
11 foundations recorded
27 February 2008
sigur rós have returned from new york’s sear sound studio with foundations for 11 songs which will appear on their next lp. the band will continue recording the album with producer flood in their sundlaugin studio over the next couple of weeks, with a tentative release date of late spring / early summer. excepting the crowd at the tiny sirkus concert last month, no one has heard any of these songs before.
Thom Yorke with REM doing "E-bow the Letter" and Michael Stipe with Radiohead doing "Lucky". Must have been amazing shows to have experienced live. Was anyone there?
How Cloud Cult isn't huge as say Modest Mouse is beyond me. But it's just as well, I don't mind keeping them to myself. Their songs are so heartfelt and an intense. As mentioned, they have a new album coming out April 8, 2008, called Feel Good Ghosts (Tea Partying Through Tornadoes). Pitchfork has the first song from it. You can download it below. Cloud Cult - "When Water Comes To Life" MP3
We're listening to this dude John Maus a lot. Check him out via his myspace. "Do Your Best" can really get jammed up inside your brain. You'll have to go to myspace to hear it though.
John Maus - "Pure Rockets"
Plus he's funny, from his myspace:
REVIEWS OF 'SONGS' (2006)
It took this Ariel Pink cohort five years to write and record his debut album, and only five minutes to become more annoying than Ariel Pink. - CMJ
For me, this is just too weird. The first couple of tracks make this the most skip-able album of 2006. -Subba Cultcha
Apparently, Maus spent five years working on this album, which is a shame because, frankly, its awful. -Vice
There isn't one song you could call 'good' on the whole album. -Music Zine
Overall, I can't recommend this album even as a novelty listen. Maybe I just don't get it. It seems as if Maus sabotages practically any hint of an interesting melody, lyric, or instrumental part with a blatantly grating one at almost every turn. -Indie Workshp
Maus's baroquely deadpan voice - and thats being polite - effectively spoils many a song. Some will hear a little Nick Cave in it; others will hear a man crapping out of his mouth. -Drowned in Sound
If it is supposed to be funny, it is not. If it is meant seriousy, then Maus needs some SERIOUS help. -Another Zine
REVIEWS OF 'LOVE IS REAL' (2007)
His music now lacks the surreal, jarring juxtapositions that made his earlier work such a rewardingly confounding experience. Maus seems content to sing his heart out instead of rattling cages, which is rather a shame. -The Wire
If you can't laugh at yourself...laugh at the critics.
Speakingof 90's rock, there will be a new movie about the underrated grunge-metal band Alice In Chains. It will be called, Get Born Again, after the book by journalist Adriana Rubio. You can read more at the movie's myspace. Layne Staley will be played by Lathan McKay, who's photo is shown here. Looks a lot like him.
Last night Brooklyn's The National performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, "Brooklyn Next" series. Seeing a band like them at seated venue was quite unusual for the fans as well as the band. You could sense them feeling a bit uncomfortable and it took a few songs before they actually settled into a groove. Even singer Matt Berringer mentioned something about it. Musically the band sounded great despite guitarist's Bryce Dessner's back injury. He remained seated for the majority of the performance. The stage seemed rather small because of his lack of mobility. This, however, took nothing away from the music as the band played tighter than ever. The horn section and orchestration filled in the set beautifully. A highlight of the evening was seeing Sufjan Stevens step onto stage to join the band on the track "Ada", which he co-wrote with the band. And of course, "Mr. November" rocked.
Opener My Brightest Diamond surely gathered some new fans as singer Shara Worden's strong vocals and goofy stage antics set the stage for the National.
Set list (and photo) via TMS (one complaint, we are at a rock show and notes nor pictures are allowed because the ushers say my phone is bothering other spectators - and how did you pull it off TMS?):
Start A War. Brainy. Baby We'll Be Fine. Slow Show. Secret Meeting. Mistaken For Strangers. Squalor Victoria. Abel. Wasp Nest. Racing Like A Pro. Ada. Apartment Story. Untitled New Song. Karen. Fake Empire... City Middle. Mr November. About Today. Gospel.
The people that brought you a pretty weakCoachella have officially made it up to us. They have finally made their way east for "All Points West". The festival which will be held in New Jersey's Liberty State Park from August 8 to August 10 will have Radioheadheadlining on Friday and Saturday! The lineup is pretty damn stellar. And there's that Jack Johnsonagain headlining on Sunday. Should we be listening to him? Tickets are available on 2/29 via Ticketmaster. Here's the lineup, enjoy:
Radiohead (Headlining Nights 1 & 2)
Jack Johnson (Headlining Night 3)
Underworld
Kings Of Leon
Cat Power
The Roots
The New Pornographers
Girl Talk
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Youssou N'Dour
Animal Collective
Andrew Bird
Michael Franti
Spearhead
Metric
CSS
Chromeo
The Go! Team
Amadou & Mariam
The Black Angels
Sia
The Felice Brothers
K'Naan
Jason Isbell
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Alberta Cross
The Virgins
Black Kids
Mates Of State
Duffy
Forro
In The Dark
Nicole Atkins
Juana Molina
Little Brother
Rogue Wave
Neil Halstead
Your Vegas
Not sure if more will be announced or not. Either way, I'll be leaving NYC for this one (admittedly not too far). See you there!
Awful excited for "Band of the Month" contender The Big Sleep at the Mercury Lounge tonight. The intesity of the studio work is enough to get anyone pumped. It is a record release party in support of Sleep Forever. You can read a review of it by Nick Greto over at kevchino.
I imagine tonight will look and sound something like this:
Soul Coughing was one of the greatest bands to make their way out of the messy '90's alt rock radio scene. Mike Doughty was their singer with the ultra cool voice and even sweeter delivery. He has a new album that dropped just yesterday. It is streaming in it's entirety over at Spinner. His last record Haughty Melodic was a solid one. The new one, Golden Delicious, seems a little more poppy and maybe a little more jazzy too. He is trekking the North America as well. Check out his new video below.
M.Doughty - "27 Jennifers"
Tour Dates:
March 2008 12 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street 13 - Rochester, NY - The German House 14 - Montreal, Quebec - Saints Montreal 15 - Toronto, Ontario - Mod Club 16 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Blind Pig 18 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom 19 - Indianapolis, IN - The Music Mill 20 - Chicago, IL - The Vic Theatre 21 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall 22, 23 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue 25 - Omaha, NE - The Slowdown 26 - Kansas City, MO - Beaumont Club 27 - St. Louis, MO - The Gargoyle 28 - Nashville, TN - Exit/In 29 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse 30 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel 31 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
April 2008 2 - Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom 3 - Lancaster, PA - Chameleon Club 4 - New York, NY - Highline Ballroom 8 - New Haven, CT - Toad's Place 9 - Somerville, MA - Somerville Theater 11 - Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore @ TLA 12 - Troy, NY - Revolution Hall 13 - Millvale, PA - Mr. Small's Theatre 15 - Newport, KY - Southgate House 18 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theater 19 - Spring, TX - Texas Crawfish Festival 20 - Austin, TX - Antone's
A little something to go along with the Guillemots news we posted last month. How about a new song called "Get Over It" from their forthcoming Red LP? And they are looking for a female singer to tour with them? Pretty exciting. This was on Jonathon Ross this past Friday night:
And this from their myspace blog:
we is looking for a girl singer ??
The main thing is just finding someone with a really distinctive, uninhibited voice who could add some harmonies / noises to some of our songs, and obviously, someone who is also able to be on tour a lot of this year.
So. . .if anyone out there thinks they might fit into the strange little sung-glove world of Guillemots, send an email to
mail@lunchtm.co.uk
with whatever you want to tell us about yourself and some link to listen or download some examples of your voice or voices...
Once again Nick Greto went out to the Mercury Lounge to check out the early Yoav show this past Saturday. You can see his full review over at Kevchino.
The set List went something like this: “Live” “There Is Nobody” “Wake Up” “Angel and the Animal” “Club Thing” “Adore” “Where Is My Mind?” “Beautiful Lie”
Oakland based producer Amplive has finally released his free download of his RadioheadIn Rainbows remix album, titles Rainydayz Remixes. This finally sees the light of day after Radiohead wondered why they were never contacted about the release. Amplive agrees that he should have contacted them and now an agreement has been reached after Amp's youtube plea:
It contains eight tracks:
Tracklist 01 Rainydayz 02 Video Tapez (ft. Del The Funky Homosapien) 03 Nudez (ft. Too $hort & MC Zumbi of Zion I) 04 Weird Fishez 05 All I Need 06 15 Stepz (ft. Codany Holiday) 07 Reckonerz (ft. Chali2na) 08 Faustz
Genghis Tron's are melodic scream metal. Their new album Board Up the House is streaming at their myspace. The band hail from Philadelphia and they have a whole heck of a lot of upcoming dates.
