Years ago a great blog, Sixeyes , turned me onto The Harlem Shakes. I became an instant fan and probably played their demos a little too much on my car stereo. A couple of years later another great blog, I Guess I'm Floating , turned me onto Todd Goldstein, the guitarist of The Harlem Shakes, and his solo project Arms. That EP from Arms also received a heavy dose of play in my car stereo (Tiger Tamer especially). Now after many years of planning and recording, Mr. Goldstein has released his debut, Kids Aflame , and yes [...]
Oh shit, the summer's over! Today is my last day at Flavorpill . I'm pretty bummed that the internship is over...it's been a great summer, and everyone involved there is totally awesome to work with. They gave me some great fact-checking experience and the opportunity to write about some things I actually, y'know, like. Plus, parties and perks and good lunches, oh my! I'm still going to write for them, but for the most part I am moving on to bigger and better things...like The Huffington Post ! You read correctly, folks, [...]
Oh shit, the summer's over! Today is my last day at Flavorpill . I'm pretty bummed that the internship is over...it's been a great summer, and everyone involved there is totally awesome to work with. They gave me some great fact-checking experience and the opportunity to write about some things I actually, y'know, like. Plus, parties and perks and good lunches, oh my! I'm still going to write for them, but for the most part I am moving on to bigger and better things...like The Huffington Post ! You read correctly, folks, [...]
A couple of weeks ago marked my return from the road trip of a lifetime, a 42-day coast-to-coast-and-back trek spanning 11,200 miles through 33 states, starting and ending in the greatest city in the world (NYC). During the final week of the trip as we headed back to where it all began, tensions were running high between my two compadres and me... homesickness set in, exhaustion was beginning to strike the wrong nerves, and the anticipation of never having to step foot into a Honda Civic again was almost too much to bear. But nothing perked me up [...]
I'm back from Michigan. It was awesome. We camped. Friends got hitched. I may have lost my digital camera forever. Ok, aside from that sadness, it was awesome. We also drove around. A lot. Ryan and I made 5 mix CDs as soundtracks to our roadtrip. They were all really enjoyable and included many tracks from a recent obsession and Ryan tip-off, a band called Arms . All their songs are really catchy and awesome. Here's just one of their goodies: [...]
Arms - "Shitty Little Disco" "I believe we can be extraordinary together rather than ordinary apart." Yea, that's from the season finale of Grey's Anatomy and refers to Meredith and Derek but I think it's also applicable to many a band members. Which is why so many side projects are just that: side projects. Even the solid ones tend to pale in comparison to the band they spawned from. But Arms, the side project of Harlem Shakes ' guitarist Todd Goldstein, seems to have shaken that curse. He keeps the [...]
Most likely to: help you see, and calmly embrace, the dark Todd Goldstein hasn't had much down time for the last three years. When he wasn't busy rocking Yale's Ezra Stiles college dining hall (former home to Mrs. Tansy) as the guitarist for the Harlem Shakes, he found the time to record what became Kids Aflame , his first solo release under the Arms moniker. Like Albert Hammond, Jr. to the Strokes, Goldstein's solo offers nary a bad song, but bears little resemblance to previous collaborative work. After a noisy [...]
There are only a handful of songwriters who can make the genuine transition from somber melancholy to irrepressible rage with success. It is an art in itself to audibly produce emotion, which good music does, but to demonstrate a variety of them effectively is a notable talent. Anyone can scream into a microphone to demonstrate anger or half-weep to depict melancholy; whether it comes off as a genuine meaning of expression or a fruitless attempt at bloated ardency is another story. One way to separate between fact and fiction is by examining how engrossingly unique their delivery is. Songwriters like [...]
Download: Hotel Hotel - "Harlem" Download: Arms - "Kids Aflame" Download: Light Pollution - "Firewood" Three new tracks from up-and-coming acts I would like to share with you. First off is Motel Motel , a Brooklyn-based, Americana-inspired quartet. For me, their first single, "Harlem", off their self-released album New Denver (this is a band that apparently likes proper nouns), was highly derivative off fellow Dylan-obsessed Americana plunderer Destroyer. The tunes on their MySpace page are much more promising [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Arms : "Kids Aflame" [mp3] from Kids Aflame other Arms posts at Largehearted Boy chris & thomas : "Land of Sea" [mp3] other chris & thomas posts at Largehearted Boy Freshkills : one track [mp3] other Freshkills posts at Largehearted Boy [...]
Jordan Geiger, songwriter of Minus Story, trumpet player for Shearwater, guitarist for The Appleseed Cast, and resident of Lawrence, Kansas, brings you his bedroom-pop solo album, Oh, Ramona. Influenced by the sounds of The Flaming Lips song title from which the name Hospital Ships is drawn, Geiger's debut exudes a seasoning of classic influences including John Lennon, The Zombies, and ELO to produce a bedroom pop symphony. Mixed mostly by John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Modest Mouse, The Mountain Goats, The Polyphonic Spree), Oh, Ramona is the culmination of over two and half years of writing and recording. [...]
It's raining in Brooklyn as I make my way towards Todd's. It's a muggy, humid night, but I couldn't be more stoked. Tonight I'm on a mission for IGIF , a mission that's years overdue: I'm interviewing ARMS . Ever since June of 2006 , we have all been keeping tabs on Todd Goldstein. Todd's work first caught our attention with the self-released (and self-distributed) Shitty Little Disco EP. Barely running over 30 minutes, this seven-track wonder featured a few tracks that were arguably among the best of [...]
For those of you who've been digging into ARMS' new full-length (the fantastic Kids Aflame ), it's welcome news that Mr. Todd Goldstein will be playing a kick-ass concert in Brooklyn on the 29th. At the show, Todd will introduce us all to the new ARMS band: composed of members of the Harlem Shakes , Frances , and Get Him Eat Him . If you're anywhere near New York, come check out this rare opportunity to see ARMS live, where [...]
Jul 22, 2008, 1:00am
»78s
High Places versprühen Spühlbecken-Melancholie, die sich anhört wie ein Ameisenorchester. (more...)
Gotta say that I'm in a pretty cheery mood. This week has galloped quickly to a near-end, which is always nice. AND if I don't chicken out, I might be doing a real actual interview with a real actual band on here one of these days... which would be exciting and newsworthy. Nothing's concrete yet. I might have to start sharing with people other than the lovely Maltese & the dashing Devilboy that I have a blog, which heretofore my friends (who don't know the url) jokingly refer to as my foot porn site. -The director of [...]
Arms' fantastic debut record, Kids Aflame , is now available all over the place, from shops in the UK to internettier places, and you can take your pick of them here . Even better, if you're in New York, you can head along to the above album launch party, which Todd promises will be a whole bucket of fun. To convince you a little further, here's my favourite track from the record... Arms - Shitty Little Disco ...in which Todd goes out, gets moody, drunk and sick, but ends up with [...]
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I've collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their "song obsessions of the week." Quite often it's easy to explain why the song is good; it's much hard to explain why we're obsessed. Maybe you'll become obsessed with one of these. - Adrian ( me ): BOAT - Topps (mp3) ( buy ) [...]
Jul 15, 2008, 2:00am »78s
Man soll ja vorsichtig sein mit zu hoch gegriffenen Vergleichen. Aber mit Tedd Goldstein aka Arms kann man sich das getrost erlauben. Er hat eine der schönsten Platten des Jahres aufgenommen. (more...)
Beck Modern Guilt MP3: Chemtrails Tricky Knowle West Boy MP3: Past Mistake Black Kids Partie Traumatic MP3: Hurricane Jane Album of the week is Beck's Modern Guilt . Both progression and regression from Mr Hansen, as he builds on the success of Guero and The Information , yet strips away many of the superfluous gimmicks that littered [...]
Pasta Primavera
Kid Pretentious
i guess i'm floating
One Sweet Song
Tuneage
It Could Be Mainstream
The Donnybrook Writing Academy
Obscure Sound
Minneapolis Fucking Rocks
largehearted boy
Local Vertical
Stop Okay Go
the torture garden
ipickmynose
Stereo Jealousy
[Álbum] “Magic Hour”, Scissor Sisters
Summer (Or What It Sounds Like) Vol. 3
[Listen] TV Girl: "Diet-Coke"
SQUATCHING: Girl Talk
Thursday Pass Along – May 24, 2012
