A couple of months ago, Jón Þór Birgisson (or better known as Jónsi ), frontman of Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Rós , released an instrumental record/art collaboration with boyfriend/partner Alex Somers titled Riceboy Sleeps under the moniker of Jónsi & Alex . While newsworthy, the first single didn't really do so much to satisfy any casual fan of Sigur Rós, and really just came off as nothing more than a throwaway artistic endeavor. I suppose that project was just a warm-up [...]
We haven't even finished 2009 and it already looks as if 2010 will start off with a bang as far as album releases go. Yes, we all know about the Beach Houses and the Yeasayers of the world, but there's one release in particular that I've been currently pining for is Laura Veirs' July Flame . I only discovered her for myself with 2007's Saltbreakers , but most music-savvy folk will tell you that she's been generally overlooked with nearly all of her solo work. It's an absolute shame really that such [...]
With many musicians/bands (Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Broken Social Scene to name a few) providing music to films recently, it would come as almost no surprise that a trend is starting to begin, or continue rather, of these high-profile collaborations between these two spectrums of entertainment. Whether it be complete film scores ala Arcade Fire with Richard Kelly's The Box , or the surprising soundtrack collection of New Moon , it seems Hollywood is continuing to dip into a well that's [...]
MillionYoung is an act from Florida whom I discovered a couple of weeks ago while listening to WOXY's Future Sounds . I've been meaning to post this for some time now, but just never had the time to do so. As of this posting, I think he remains unsigned, and joins an ever-growing list of artists ( Memory Tapes , Air France , etc.) of the dreamy, electro-pop variety - more of which is never a bad thing, believe me. Listening to these few tracks from his EP titled SunnDreamm , evokes [...]
I'm late on this by a day or two, but despite not having time to blog, I can't completely ignore such splendid news in regards to new material from Beach House . I haven't heard any of the previous incarnations of "Norway" so I came upon this one with fresh ears. About 10 or 12 continuous listens later, there's no doubt that the track is absolutely stunning. It's easily up there as some of their best work to date. Compared to almost everything that has come before it, the song actually plays a [...]
I got the opportunity to see War on Drugs guitarist and recent Matador acquisition Kurt Vile on the final date of his American tour. I turned the following in to another local blog but was horrendously late in doing so. I still find this review relevant to anyone curious about Vile, who has become one of my favorite new finds of 2009. So here are my thoughts on last week's Black Cat show. Photo from the Matador Records website [...]
This edition of the Graboid is all about the unknown, as I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard about many of these releases (I haven't, at least). Though, there are a few notable names scattered throughout including MF Doom and Ola Podrida . There is one album that I highly recommend checking out, which is Received Pronunciation , the fourth release from Pants Yell! which also marks their debut with Slumberland Records. As always, feel free to recommend anything I may have left off! [...]
Yeasayer's debut album was one of my favorite surprises a couple years back, and it left me not only wanting more, but very curious as to where they would take their sound. In February, their sophomore disc Odd Blood will hit stores, but we're already getting the first taste in "Ambling Alp." It's a slice of bizarro pop that has had me hitting the repeat button, with a chorus both ridiculously simple and completely infectious. At the very least, it will help tide us over until next year, when we can hear the rest of [...]
Fanfarlo recently announced on their website of an upcoming US tour starting on November 9th in Chicago, and for all of you locals - a November 14th date here in Salt Lake City. This is excellent news, as I have been wanting to see these guys for quite a while now. I missed my opportunity to see them way back at SXSW in March, so I'm anxiously awaiting this! As an added bonus, the band uploaded a laptop session that includes a cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "In The Aeroplane Over [...]
The Swell Season (Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová from the film Once - yes, people still don't know this) were on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last week for those that happened to miss it; and while I still haven't listened to much of the new album yet, I was curious as to what everyone's opinion is on it who have heard it. I ask this because as I was sitting on the couch watching the performanc with my sister, she mentioned midway through "Low Rising" that she didn't like the song [...]
If you've been keeping up with my Twitter feed , you may have noticed that I've been incredibly busy as of late. I just can't seem to catch a break with finding time to blog now that I currently work two jobs. Of course, those who have been keeping up have come to expect lengthy periods of inactiveness, at least on my part. Mentioning any kind of worthwhile albums from the past three weeks is just a meaningless task, as you can just take a peek below to see the excellent amount of releases at [...]
Not quite the stellar lineup of releases this week, but there are still some great records to be had with The Flaming Lips' latest, Embryonic leading the pack. Also not to be completely overshadowed are releases from Thao Nguyen , Neon Indian , Imaad Wasif , Grant-Lee Phillips , and Fanfarlo who's debut finally get a proper US release after being available digitally for what feels like forever. As always, feel free to recommend anything I may have missed. [...]
Here's to more of the overwhelming amount of good news coming out of the Slumberland camp, as Pants Yell! have announced via their myspace that their new album Received Pronunciation will be out on CD/LP on November 10th via Slumberland Records . My goodness, that label has been on a complete tear this year with the amount of great records they've been releasing. If you head over to their myspace page , you can stream a new song called "Cold Hands" off the forthcoming release, which Matt over [...]
After discovering that Afternoon Naps had signed to Athens-based label Happy Happy Birthday To Me last year, I had been quietly awaiting the follow-up to their completely overlooked debut Sunbeamed . It definitely took a while, but completely unbeknownst to me, the new record titled Parade was released last month. As I started to listen to Parade , I figured I had the entire album pegged after the first two tracks "Plum City Fight Song" and "Beach Bum" which were as expected - the same [...]
After quite a long absence, the Graboid is back and this time around with a proper title. As much as I liked the original 'The Daily Graboid' title, in the grand scheme of things it just never really made much sense considering it had always been a weekly post. I've always meant to have the change eventually, but considering how long it's been since I've last put this up, it just felt right to start back anew with this different title. So with that being said, you can expect to see this every Tuesday since I [...]
Here's something for the local folks (it sounds so nice to actually say that now) as White Hinterland (chanteuse Casey Dienel from Portland, OR) will be making her way into town; apparently, with a brand new batch of songs! Things kick off at 8 pm over at Slowtrain ; a free, all-ages show - meaning no excuses for not showing up! Hoping to possibly meet some of our readers here in town, so definitely try to make it out tomorrow night. Should be a good time. MP3: [...]
Here's a little something to kick off your weekend in fashion, as this Animal Collective remix of Phoenix's "Love Like A Sunset" made its debut via Discobelle . As we all know, remixes are a dime a dozen nowadays, especially as of recently in regards to Phoenix-related remixes. In fact, around the time I found this one in particular, my inbox had about four other Phoenix remixes from some people I've never even heard of. It's just nice to actually hear a remix with some substance without it trying so [...]
Keeping with this ongoing theme of new albums I've failed to mention over the past month or so continues with A Sunny Day In Glasgow and their recently released second album titled Ashes Grammar . As their name may lead you to believe, they are not actually from Glasgow or anywhere remotely nearby, but are actually a Philadelphia-based group. I remember hearing them on the radio a few years ago while driving through Atlanta on the interstate. I was instantly hooked, and not knowing for months what the exact song I [...]
![[video] Taken By Trees :: "My Boys"](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2024568_lg.jpg)
I've been spending most of the evening catching up on a few recently released albums, including the latest from Taken By Trees - the solo project of former Concretes lead singer Victoria Bergsman. Despite clocking in at a mere 32 minutes, East Of Eden is a nice mesh of acoustic indie-pop, with a unique use of beats and rhythms which is the result of recording entirely in Pakistan with local Sufi musicians. One of the more sweeter tracks to appear on the record is this inspired [...]
It definitely shows how much I've been keeping up with music lately, as only a couple of days ago I heard the self-titled track from Thao Nguyen's follow-up to one of the better albums of 2008, We All Brave Bee Stings and All . The new record is titled Know Better Learn Faster and is due out on October 13 via Kill Rock Stars . According to Pitchfork , the album will feature a number of guests including Andrew Bird and Laura Veirs . [...]
The Yellow Stereo
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Mr Fogg - Eleven
Crocodiles - Endless Flowers
