Blog: Midday Procrastination

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr are named after one of the most well known NASCAR drivers in history; Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The band comprises Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott, and they live and write out of Detroit; Motor City USA. However, just like V-Dubs , their music couldn't be further from the sounds their name suggest. Mixing folk and dreamy pop is nothing new, but the quality of the song writing debuted on their EP 'Horse Power' is exceptional; moments of Prince, Paul Simon, and The Beach Boys (who they cover on the EP) all mixed together for our [...]

EXCITEMENT! Braids, D'Eon, Gobble Gobble, and DJ Cadence Weapon are gonna be playing a show in Montreal tonight. According to 'GBL GBL's Mobile Rave Minitour 20102 it's at a place called 'La Brique' (check shows and events page for the address). It promises to be one of the better shows in recent history. Braids are always excellent, especially live. D'Eon impressed a lot of people (myself included) at the recent Arbutus show at Eastern Bloc. Gobble Gobble are just a grrreat time. And a DJ set by Cadence Weapon sounds verry promising. You truly don't want to miss this (unless [...]

We just got this message from David Mitchell referring to the status of Bar St Laurent 2 and the CASPIAN / THISQUIETARMY / EARLY TRANSCEDENTALS show scheduled to take place there September 18th. Hello, I got a message two nights ago from the bar manager at Bar St Laurent 2 saying the bar has been sold without notifying himself or anyone else with upcoming bookings and as a result all upcoming bookings at Bar St Laurent 2 are cancelled, including this one. This is very unfortunate news but luckily the nice people [...]

I'm eight tracks in and Gold Panda 's debut Lucky Shiner is really doing it for me. It's one of the more creative albums (already!) that I've heard of recent. Made up of electric, electronic, and acoustic elements along with eeeerie vocal samples, a driving beat and strong melody. This is reminiscent of Bibio's Ambivalence Avenue , at least in the eclectic instrumentation and overall skill as a producer. This is often a little more dance-oriented than Bibio's album, which, with the recent kick I've been having with stuff like Joy Orbison (' Hyph Mngo ' [...]

but P4K have decided to take OUR favourite Canadian glam pop superstar Diamond Rings in the making under their wing. Stealin' bitches. Check out their video feature  here . We totally would backlash against all this hype. ... If we weren't so in love. Diamond Rings plays Pop Montreal on September the 30th and will have his full length LP available to purchase at his show.

This is gonna be Notoriously Big. ... Join the boys of The Lobster Shack (aka Matt, Steve, Arnold, Addison, Dom, & Steen) in forgetting that class is (gonna be) back in full swing by experiencing the musical stylings of a trio of New York City based bands who are making the trip up especially to play at the Shack: GOSPELS / MEMORIALS / SUNNY BLONDES / the bands will be followed by: ROWAN [...]

A great night to be back in Montreal. Arbutus and Frontrunners are co-sponsoring an event called GENES GENES GENES  at Eastern Bloc (7240 Rue Clark - up Clark past Jean Talon / Station de Castelnau is right around the corner) that is a combination of performance art & dance, film, live music, instillation works, and a DJ dance party. It all starts at 10PM, but is preceded by a dinner presented by Silly Kissers and Beaver (you had to RSVP by 11am today, sorry ). But when the dinners over and the time is roughly ten in [...]

Free Energy play 1970s AM radio rock.  They deal almost exclusively with Crunching Les Pauls (replicas), air guitar riffs (authentic) and power-chord driven pop melodies (FUN!). As you can imagine, music made from the sums of these not-so-disparate elements ain't groundbreaking, but Free Energy just want you to kick back that leading leg, punch the sky, and air guitar the hell out of the night. Check out their videos below, and come to one of their shows with Titus Andronicus on their North American joint tour . We've already seen them play together once, and we're [...]

Kentucky based Idiot Glee describes his music as post doo-wop. When you listen to his songs it does sort of make sense. But still, c'mon, seriously... Nevertheless, I'm prepared to overlook that little quip because each one of the tracks on this debut EP have a stripped back, minimalistic quality to them that allows his gorgeous melancholic baritone voice to envelop and flesh out the sound. With harmony that recalls Robin Pecknold an' his boys and a power that refracts  Diamond Rings through a reverb pedal his voice is perfectly complimentary to the [...]

This time it's for the excellent track 'Just Enough' off his recently released (and absolutely fantastic) album Mare . This video was made by Mark Shoneveld (of yvynyl ) using footage shot by his mother Colleen in 1983. It's a collection of clips featuring children playing and the final element of the video is the triumph of what is likely the father cutting down a tree for what I imagine to be a real pretty Christmas tree. It's beautifully shot and edited to go along just perfectly with the song. I think this may be my [...]

UK based Summer Camp (who we previously wrote about here ) have dropped a new video to accompany their song 'Round the Moon'. The band ('real life' couple Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey) have their debut EP coming out on Moshi Moshi records on the 6th of September. The couple are also embarking on a UK tour and playing at most end-of-season festivals for those end-of-season summer chillout blues. Check out the video below, and the chorus which bears more than a little resemblance to a-ha's 'Take on Me'. Which is never a bad thing. [...]

Gold Panda, whose song ' Quitters Raga ', has been one of my favourites over the last 6 months, has announced that his debut full length will drop on October 12th on Ghostly International in the UK and NoTown Recordings internationally.  He has also made one track, from the upcoming release available now as a free download from his website . Head over to the site for the free download of 'Snow and Taxis', hear it below.

ARCHERS - ARCHERS 7" Portland, Oregon's ARCHERS have four awesome songs out on a self-titled 73 (only 200 made copies so get one real soon if you want one, this one's gotta sell out). I discovered these guys thanks to Jheri Evans (aka Get Off The Coast ) - this was also posted on the newly established and not-so-surprisingly consistent Altered Zones . They caught my ear while going through the mp3s on the Altered Zones page looking for jams, and after some more mellow and electro/dance songs, 'Brussels Truffles' came blasting through my [...]

[[WAY WAY LATE, SORRY]]Lots and lots of good shows coming up this week. Nite Jewel is playing (8/9 & 8/14), Fergus & Geronimo (8/11 & 8/14), Memoryhouse, Twin Sister, and Oberhofer (8/11), and Memoryhouse and Twin Sister again (8/12), Deerhunter and Real Estate FREE show (8/12), and a whole lot more good stuff. Enjoy. Mon 8/9 - NITE JEWEL / VIOLENS / PRINCE RAMA / SILK FLOWERS @ Mercury Lounge (217 E. Houston Street, New York, NY) | $10 | 7PM | 21+ Tues 8/10 - BLONDE [...]

The beginning of Augusts is lookin' good. Word has it that the Wavves, Smith Westerns, Total Slacker show was awesome. A few highlights for this first week of August: Arcade Fire tonight (I'm going!) and tomorrow (I'll watch via webcast); Andrew Bird's playing the Guggenheim (8/5); Boris, Torche, and Russian Circles are playing the Music Hall of Williamsburg (8/6); YACHT (8/6); Local Natives (8/7); The Beets and a bunch more (8/7); The XX (8/8); Ceremony's return (8/8); and the free JellyNYC show this Sunday with Cut Copy, Memory Tapes, Glasser, and Restless People (8/9). Enjoy this week's shows. Check out [...]

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs If you haven't received you're pre-order and didn't get your download email (or you didn't download a leak), you can now legally listen to the new Arcade Fire album, The Suburbs , in its entirety, thanks to NPR . Having gone through the album a handful of times over the past 4 or 5 days, my impression is this: it's really fucking good. It definitely got hyped up. It's been hyped up since Funeral. It deserves it all, though. It's 16 songs and roughly an hour long. It's not [...]

So we already loved the video for Julian Lynch's track 'In New Jersey' (as well as the song), and now we've got another awesome video to accompany one of Mare 's best tracks, 'A Day At The Racetrack'. The video was made by Ezra Ewen by using footage shot over different generations during the past forty years, and compiling pieces together to make a really beautiful music video. The shots accompany the music perfectly, and like the music, are very personal. It's 'home video' for 'home music'. Enjoy it below, you can check out the [...]

New Video from one of our fave bands of the moment . Tennis have a 7 inch coming out on Underwater Peoples records in August. We believe this song is from it.

No Cap'n Jazz. No No Age. No Lightning Bolt. I did catch a little bit of The Death Set though and they ruled. The show got moved from Williamsburg Waterfront to Brooklyn Bowl. This may sound familiar. Last summer the epic No Age/Dan Deacon/Deerhunter show was supposed to be at Williamsburg Waterfront but also got moved due to storm bullshit to Brooklyn Bowl. I was lucky (and patient) enough to catch the 2nd show of two that those bands played due to high demand. It was unreal. This time I didn't feel like reliving the grueling waiting process, unsure if [...]

After a slow week or so (besides Siren and the Gospels show last night), the end of July in NYC is gonna be nothing short of awesome. Too many good shows. Highlights are hard to come by since almost of these look like outstanding shows, but I'll pick the best of the best. I'm super excited to see the guys from Sirs play in none-other-than Shea Stadium on Thursday (7/22), where not too long ago lots of Ridgewood kids just played/watched the fantastic Chocolate Bobka showcase. On Friday there's the Free Energy/Best Coast/Loose Limbs FREE show at South Street Seaport [...]