Last night's episode of The O.C. was pre-empted in the Northwest by the NFL (the Seachickens lose again .) The episode was instead broadcasted locally at 11pm, which I watched to the sound of 60 mph winds outside, using commercial breaks to tend to a flooding basement armed with a squadron of towels. Maybe that's why I appreciated the alternative universe/ It's A Wonderful Life concept on last night's annual Chrismukkah episode more then I probably would've normally. Right before a major rainstorm, Ryan and Taylor [...]
2006 was a great year for music, especially when compared to 2005. In fact, I had such a hard time picking my 10 favorite albums that I have expanded my list to 20 this year. With each record on the following list I have included a list of my favorite tracks, as well as some mp3s [...]
Unfortunately, as I continue to delve into the past year, the number of overlooked albums continues to mount. It's always a struggle to find that balance between focus and diversity, especially when you're regularly inundated with potentially interesting and/or acclaimed work. The new Mates of States album, Bring It Back , has been out quite a while now, but for some reason, I haven't given the entire album a focused listen. However, the track "Think Long" really stands out, and it's a great example of their drums n' keys jangle and very appealing dual [...]
Though not a big fan of the show itself, I've always been fascinated with the amount of amazing indie music being featured on the show. So far, many songs on the previous five volumes of the compilation series have made their endearing ways into my iTunes library, especially covers recorded the show like the stellar, better-than-the-original Jem cover of Paul McCartney's 'Maybe I'm Amazed' or Nada Surf's sweet remake of 'If You Leave'. So you know how excited I am when this mix 6's out. The idea here is to get indie bands covering indie songs, stripping them down in [...]
Three duos and a quartet from the excellent Barsuk Records . Click on the artists' names for additional information and songs. Mates of State - Fraud in the '80s mp3 Viva Voce - When Planets Collide mp3 [...]
The same old typical routine happened to me. Band was in buzz, checked out a couple of songs, wasn't into them, put them aside. Then new video came out, hesitatingly gave them a second chance, and got surprisingly convinced. Though 'Like U Crazy' remained my only favorite song from them, I was grateful for it. The song may sound a little overwhelming at first, but it should start seeping through your brain and get stuck in it the second time around. First, the lush piano arrangements from start to finish is like a huge pool you want take [...]
Do you trust your gut? Are your first impressions usually correct? Or do you second-guess yourself until you can't make a decision to save your life? I think you probably already know which camp I belong to. I overthink everything. In fact, one of the few things I know definitively about myself is that I can't trust my first impressions. (Except when it comes to taking tests. I am a very good test taker, for whatever reason.) In certain areas of life, this isn't such a bad quality to have. [...]
Y our favorite couple is NOT coming to town tonight! That's right, Mates of State (fresh from a recent tour of duty with our own Starlight Mints ) were playing a FREE show at the OU Union. FREE. Also playing with them was to be Asobi Seksu . FREE. The winter mixtacular [...]
Fall is upon us and September is coming to an end. Fortunately, good music continues to find its way through the region. The week starts off with the beats of Ladytron and CSS finding their way to the 9:30 Club on Monday Night. Tuesday brings Kansas City's The New Tragedies to The Sidebar. Yo La Tengo support their brand new album at the 9:30 Club. Wednesday night is kind of crazy around
Like el8ed Playing this Saturday at Irving Plaza, Mates of State are a quirky pop couple from San Francisco. Making an awful lot of noise with just drums, keyboards, and two voices with an odd but persuasive sense of harmony, MOS are married now and have a daughter whom they thus far schlepp around the world. "Like U Crazy" is, I assume, an homage to Prince. Like U Crazy [...]
For those who don't know, my job is to coach debate at Dartmouth. It's not worth getting into all of that right now, but it does have some significance for the blog, since tomorrow we leave for the first tournament of the year. It's at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Why does this matter? Well, one of the big reasons I started to get obsessive about finding new music is because about five years ago I was trying to make mix-CDs for every tournament, and quickly discovered I was running out of interesting stuff to put [...]
Aww... they're such cute little lovebirds... Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, the indie world's happiest married couple, has been proclaiming their love to the world through sweet, melodic power pop for five years now. They sing together, play their respective organ and drums together, and come up with extremely cheesy song titles together (i.e. "Like U Crazy"). Their complete infatuation with each other may be a bit sickening, but the catchiness of their music is undeniable. Their latest album, Bring It Back , is chock-full of tunes you'll be singing in your head after only one [...]
Tonight I saw Mates of State play in Northampton, MA. I thought that their show was nearly perfect. They played everything you'd want to hear (they even did the Like U Crazy/Crazy combo). They played David Bowie's "Starman" and the second to last song they played "These Days." I was hoping that they would play it and when they did, it made me feel very good. If you haven't listened to them yet, then do so, please. If you have the opportunity to see them live, then do so, please. Mates of State - These Days [...]
I just noticed this yesterday, and find it to be a fitting testament to how little attention that I sometimes pay to the world around me. In the Thai restaurant down the street they have all of this artwork up on the walls. It's mostly flaming skulls with cobras crawling out of the dead eye sockets or depictions of the crucifixion with a pig in place of Jesus, you know, that sort of thing. I think most of them would look pretty hot under a blacklight, but glaring into my pineapple fried rice is just a little strange. Each of [...]
I’ve been in Berkeley many times this summer for concerts. It started with Radiohead at the Greek Theater in July (fucking amazing, I say). Then, I didn’t look at the tickets correctly, mistakenly went to the Greek Theater, and later found myself over to the Community Theater for Ben Lee and Say Anything (…yeah, and Dashboard Confessional was there too to cheese up the whole night). Last Friday, I once again went to the Greek Theater, and this time I was right about the venue. And had the pleasure of watching three awesome bands all on the same night. [...]
These are the top 30 songs of 2006 (so far) for Lunapark6 with a rather interesting requirement: the songs are freely available for dowload - legally. Only reason for this requirement & this list, is to let people that may not be familiar with these acts check out their material. If this list didn't have [...]
Hello everyone it's Patricia ... I thought I'd give Chris the day off and make a post of my own. This will be post #2 for me on Neileslife so cut me some slack if it sucks. This will probably be a long post, but I have a few days to cover. This weekend was very fun... Friday night Chris , BJ , Mike & I went to Ribfest! mmm we got the Boss Hog ribs from Athens, Georgia and it was awesome. We went [...]
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I’ll Just Leave This Here #161
BAND OF HORSES – The Funeral (Sound Remedy Remix)
Angger Dimas – Ribon Dooh (Preview)
Video: Dreamers - "Appaloosa"
