Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre

Of all the new music I got this week, the Weakerthans' Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre CD/DVD is by far my favorite. It would serve as a great introduction to the band, if you happen to need one, or a great rehash of all your old favorites, if you're already acquainted. For me, it serves to make me feel much, much better about the concert of theirs I missed a few years back.

And now, the obligatory video clip:



No, it's not the Weakerthans, but, seriously, how awesome was that?

Guilty on all charges

Via Flavorwire, it's music review bingo! And yes, it totally captures the vocab of VK. Well done, indeed.

RIP Alex Chilton

We are saddened to have to write this blog post about yet another super-talented song-writer dying. Alex Chilton, you know the guy from classic 70s band Big Star has passed at only 59. If the dude only sang "Thirteen" that would have been more than enough to solidify his immense talents. I mean that is THE purest, most innocent declaration of young love EVER. His trembling voice is the encapsulation of adolescent yearning. It was practically written for do-you-like-me?-circle-yes-or-no mixtapes.

BUT thankfully his output far exceeds just one song. Celebrate his life by revisiting his tremendous body of work.

Thirteen - Big Star
The Ballad of El Goodo - Big Star
It gets so hard in times like now to hold on

The cover is so crayon-y!

The best National songs make me want to punch holes in walls. Even when they're elegant restrained there is still such unbridled angst and anger amongst the beauty. And dear God is "Terrible Love" beautiful. The slow-boil crescendo percolates to such awesome heights, I get shivers. Shivers, I tell you! Mark your calendar's for May 11's release of High Violet. We sure have.

Terrible Love - The National

and another live stunner:

Runaway - The National

RIP Mark Linkous

Just Because

I have no timely reason to post this song, except because it's beautiful and got stuck in my head in the shower this morning:

The saddest PSA this side of the Sarah Mclachlan with the puppies one

You guys! The rabbits are sad! I know this because they are in cages and are listening to Morrissey! Factory farming never seemed so cruel.

Rap song! Rap song!

If you live in the northeast than you've probably survived a blizzard this weekend. But have you survived Blizzard Man??


Ok so that was parody, and um be forewarned this isn't. The lovely boyfriend and I are taking up a collection to get the Mountain Goats to sing this at the next Zoop:

Great band, great cause

Looking to get rid of your crappy old albums (not that any of our readers own crappy albums, no, of course not) and get something less-crappy in return? Oh and want to see some awesome bands AND help combat AIDS and homelessness? Well I sure do. Therefore this Thursday I be at Housing Works Bookstore.

I will plunk down my five bucks, a donation to the aforementioned causes of course, and a bushel of old CDs and pick one that is hopefully a lot better than those crappy promos I've accumulated over the past three years. (All albums that aren't claimed will be donated to the non-profit shop.) And I will see the Morning Benders!

ALL THE DETAILS ARE HERE

OH and did I mention I WILL SEE THE MORNING BENDERS! Their upcoming album Big Echo, out in March is pretty damn awesome and has lots of sha-la-las and ooh-ooh-ahhs and other monosyllabic sounds of delight. (It's also produced by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor and you can definitely hear a smidge of the Grizz in the moody atmospheric production.) This is a long rambly way of saying its occupying all of my ears' time lately. Take a listen:

Excuses - The Morning Benders

SO GO GO GO! All the cool kids will be there!

Sound through Sight

Looking for something to do tomorrow (it's a Friday in New York, so of course you are)


All proceeds go to help some cool kids write a pretty cool book. Basically they're take a road trip across America and Mexico next month in search of where music and the music industry stands in 2010, how we got here, and where we're going.

The book is called Sound through Sight. Here the deets.

Happy Valentine's Day y'all!

Valentine's Song - The Felice Brothers

SO many La, La, Las

Here's a beautiful way to start your weekend. In honor of a pre-murderous Phil Spector, The Morning Benders perform their song "Excuses" with choir of their friends. It's just that their friends all happen to be a who's who of the San Fran music scene. We got the Nicest Guy in Indie Rock (TM), John Vanderslice, plus the guy from last years breakout band of choice, Chris Owens' of GIRLS and the Mumlers. Together they call themselves the Big Echo Orchestra. Basically your ears will be in heaven for the next six minutes. Enjoy!

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

Everybody's favorite twitter topic becomes a song

You know what I did instead of watching the Superbowl last Sunday? I saw MC Frontalot rap his ass off. To the uninitiated he is the reigning king of nerdcore. That basically means he raps about Star Wars and internet and it is all sorts of awesome. Here is a video of a song on his upcoming album, the brilliantly entitled "First World Problems":

Two-headed comic

So I hung out in this adorable comic book shop last night. While perusing the shelves I stumbled upon this book entitled "Ballad of the Two-Headed Boy". That has got to a be a Neutral Milk Hotel reference, right? I mean it came out in 2000 and even the black and white sketches seem Aeroplane-esque.
Just thought I'd throw that out there and if anyone knows for sure, hit us up in the comments. Also I'll take any excuse I can get to post this song:

Two-Headed Boy - Neutral Milk Hotel
Two-Headed Boy - the Mountain Goats (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)

Yeah, that's right TRIPLE ALBUM

I'm probably the only one who likes Joanna Newsom but does not love Ys. Sure, it's alright I guess. I mean I dig the harp and even her girly sometimes overly affected vocals. But with the exception of maybe "Emily" I simply didn't enjoy the overly ornate orchestral arrangements and rambling song structures. It was a total 180 from the homespun charm of her debut album The Milk-Eyed Mender and I missed the folksy twang of it all.


BUT hope is not lost. This week Drag City unveiled two new tracks off her highly anticipated TRIPLE(!) album Have One on Me out February 23. And I like them both. One is long. One is short. Yet the production is definitely a return to the old and the melodies are tight. There's even some banjo thrown in for good measure. Check 'em out:

'81 - Joanna Newsom
Good Intentions Paving Company - Joanna Newsom

Les Savy Fav @ BAM, Brooklyn, NY 1/29/10

This man (dressed as a monkey):

played this venue (an opera house):

Ok, let's back up a little. For those of you who've never experienced the spectacle of a Les Savy Fav show, Friday night's show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opera house (BAM) was an unconventional place to start. These art-punk guys have been at it for over a decade and are consummate pros at infusing rock with DIY theatrics so maybe playing an opera house wasn't that much of a stretch for the band?!

Ok, so who am I trying to kid, because obviously the ushers at BAM had NO idea what they were in for when lead singer Tim Harrington took the stage, clad only in shiny purple spandex leggings, beard adorned with close pins and limberly pranced around with near balletic movement inviting the somberly seated crowd to take to their feet and GASP stand as close to the stage as humanly possible. Dude also proceeded to give himself an atomic wedgie with the black briefs over said leggings WHILE SINGING. The man suffers for his art. Cue the sound of monocles room-wide breaking.

To close out the set Tim changed into a homemade monkey costume and re-wrote the lyrics to Cats' "Memories" to "MOOONKIES". If anyone has a video of this, I will give you my first born. It's kinda impossible to take any video or photographic footage there, given the rigidity of usher/security guard nazi. (and that is why I really love Bill for stealthily taking these photos <3)

The Sweat Descends - Les Savy Fav

Britt! Britt! Hooray!

So last Saturday my friend Thom and I double-dosed on Britt Daniel. We caught the Spoon frontman twice in one night - once at an in-store at Sound Fix and then later that night at the Brooklyn Vegan Haiti benefit show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. And best of all Thom recorded BOTH. Enjoy!

Download the Sound Fix show here:
01. The Mystery Zone
02. [tuning]
03. Written in Reverse
04. The Beast and Dragon, Adored
05. I Summon You

Download the Music Hall of Williamsburg set here:
01. Isolation (John Lennon cover)
02. Who Makes Your Money
03. I Summon You

Brooklyn Vegan's Haiti Benefit Concert @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 1/23/10

Brooklyn Vegan's Haiti Benefit concert basically doubled as a cover lover's paradise. Here's the rundown:

-We got swoonworthy Spoon man Britt Daniel covering John Lennon's "Isolation". (How I'd love to run my hand's through his perfect bedhead.

-My Brightest Diamond took on Prince's "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" (Dear God that voice, it's so sexy that as a 100% hetero-woman, I want to sleep with her vocal chords)

- St. Vincent literally made me shed tears with her cover of Nico's "These Days". AND then she followed it up with The National's "Mistaken for Strangers" EPIC DOUBLE WHAMMY OF MELANCHOLY.

- Bon Iver sang the crap out of the oft-covered "Satisfied Mind". (Also can we talk about his unabomber hair? Maybe someone's been locked in the cabin too long?)

Oh as in typical infomercial form, BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

St. Vincent joined Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Megafaun's Brad Cook to form an indie cover supergroup awesomely know as Songer-Singwriter and played Neil Young's "Harvest Moon", Tom Petty's "A Face in the Crowd", a 10 minute version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" complete with a noisy, psychedelic freakout outro and finished it up with a sing-along of Annie Lennox's "Why".


All and all it was pretty much the best 35 buck donation I've ever made. In fact I'd probably donate my left arm, a kidney and a few buckets of blood to see it all over again. Thank god for YouTube.

Oh and I won't even taunt you with the line-up of Comedian's who also contributed to the night's festivities. The Daily Show's Wyatt Cenac AND Jeaneane Garafalo. Oh this other guy. Some dude who looks like fat Jesus. I think his name is Zach Galifianakis. He was in some little movie called The Hangover. Maybe you've heard of it.
It's ok. Your jealousy is allowed. I'd hate me too if I didn't get to witness such a one of a kind event.

These Days - St. Vincent (Nico cover)

Sufjan & Co. documentary released soon??

Finally! Crooked River, the 2006 Swiss documentary by Kaleo LaBelle about his childhood friends, brothers Sufjan and Marzuki Stevens, is coming available stateside!

In the trailer, you can see glimpses into the daily life of music making, running, crafts, Pac-Man, and a long road trip from NY to Boston over to the Great Lakes and home to upper Michigan, to reunite with their estranged father. This long-awaited and deeply personal film is slowly coming out of obscurity.

Fervent searches haven't led to exactly when/where/how it will be available, but a public demand for this film will move the process faster and give it a wider release here.

Sufjan Stevens - Alanson, Crooked River.m4a

UPDATE UPDATE

A member over at SufjanFans.com emailed the director of the film and received this in reply:

Thank you for writing and for your interest in the documentary film CROOKED RIVER by Kaleo La Belle, featuring brothers Sufjan and Marzuki Stevens. A DVD version of the film will be available for purchase in the Spring of 2010. Please check back on the CROOKED RIVER website for updates. Because of your interest in the film, you have been added to the CROOKED RIVER email list. An email will be sent out when the DVD is available.

Keep an eye out for Kaleo's newest feature documentary, BEYOND THIS PLACE, with musical score composed and performed by Sufjan Stevens and Ray Raposa (Castanets). A trailer for the film can be seen at http://www.beyondthisplace.ch.

HOORAY!!!!!!!! :D

Did you hear that Contra is the number 1 album in America? Madness.

Because my brother finally got around to giving me my Christmas present I found myself yesterday with some money to spend on new music, yay!

I've been rather poor of late, so it's been a while since I've had the chance, here is what was going down in my brain:

me: wow, look at all this new music! Oh, so shiny, what shall I get?

brain: why, look at this album here, OK GO.

me: OK GO? Nah, I don't really like them.

brain: have we ever heard them?

me: sure we have, you know, they had the film clip with the treadmills.

brain: oh yeah! That was cool, we should by this

me: well, yes, but brain, but I don't by music because the film clips are cool. I'd own a hell of a lot more Kanye West if that were true.

brain: wait, wait, hold the presses! didn't we see a film clip for this new album, with marching bands and stuff and it, too, was really cool? Was that OK GO? I'm pretty sure it was.

me: and again I point out that cool film clips do not awesome music make. Here, let's buy Contra.

brain: Nooooo! Everyone's buying Contra, Vampire Weekend don't care if you buy Contra! Buy this one, reward cool film clip making, come one, buy this on! Buy it!

me: argh, fine! I'll buy it! Stupid brain.

So, yeah, I bought OK GO's new one; 'Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky.' I'd dismissed this guys as gimmicky and far too reliant on treadmills to sell albums, but I'm posting here so that must mean it's time to tuck into some humble pie. Because yeah, I' really liking its lo-fi electro poppiness. The middle seems like it might be a little slow, but the last few songs are really beautiful, and there's this one track that I can't stop repeating. That's probably why I no strong feelings about the middle, because I rarely make it to the middle because I get caught up on repeating track two over and over.

It's called 'This Too Shall Pass.' My brain was right, it does have a seriously nifty film clip floating around, which apparently can't be embedded or some such (there's a letter from OK GO to EMI popping up about the place explaining the situation) and it's just a really killer track.

Maybe I should listen to my brain more often? But then again, probably not...

This Too Shall Pass
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