Deerhunter in Boston, from the HAD Archive . It's Monday morning, and it's the middle of March, which inevitably means one thing: head colds. Head colds, in turn, lead to sitting around and discovering video awesomeness that passed us by while we were busy being frenetic and out of control, and in turn causing ourselves to get sick. Today's object of affection: Deerhunter . The band made a series of television appearances in support of Halcyon Digest, and they are awesome. If you haven't seen them, [...]
David Byrne at The Greek Theater, Berkeley, from the HAD Archive You may recall that last year we gave mention to David Byrne 's awesome TED talk about music in spaces. Well apparently that wasn't Byrne's only duty on the conference, as we just stumbled upon this awesome version of the Talking Heads classic "Nothing But Flowers". Accompanied by Thomas Dolby and the string quartet Ethel , Byrne delivers a chilled [...]
The Walkmen at Terminal 5, from the HAD Archive It took us a minute to give "Orange Sunday" a look and listen, but we're glad we finally did. The track is a b-side from The Walkmen 's fabulous record Lisbon. Upon listening it rapidly becomes clear that in this case "b-side" and "throwaway" are by no means the same thing. A beautifully stark track, the song highlights Hamilton Leithauser's voice over the interplay of two guitars, acoustic and electric. [...]
The Strokes at Outside Lands 2010 , from the HAD Archive (Photo By Rick Audet ) Yes, we know it's been almost a week since The Strokes were on SNL, but we've had a busy week; give us a break! Now we're all caught up, and delivering you the goods. First up are two vids from the SNL performance: the single "Under Cover Of Darkness", and the new track "Life Is Simple In The Moonlight". Then come two more parts in [...]
At Tuesday night's Kurt Vile show , the man aborted an attempt at "My Best Friends from his killer record God Is Saying This To You... . We're certainly not ones to hold it against him, but it did leave us with a hankering for the tune. When we got home we started scouring the internets, and found this awesome vid from the site Big Ass Lens . We think you'll find it's well worth your while. (And, while your at it, checking out the whole Big Ass [...]
Last night we stopped by Other Music to see Kurt Vile 's third record store appearance of the day - and it was well worth the effort. After waiting in a length line for about thirty minutes, we barely squeezed in to a packed house. For the next hour or so, Vile delivered a set that pulled largely from his fantastic new record Smoke Ring For My Halo . As is typical Vile, much of the set was sung from behind his notably massive head of [...]
Sondre Lerche at Mercury Lounge last summer, from the HAD Archive We'll confess: we love Sondre Lerche . With his charming manner and killer pipes, the Norwegian singer songwriter falls handily into the "can do no wrong" side of things. Given that, we were stoked to hear that he has a new self titled record on tap for June 7th. The first track from the new record has been a Lerche live staple for a while now, [...]
Today marks the first in a series of features on the music of the 1990's. Our beloved pal XOXO RIOT GRRRL is writing a series of editorials on the best tracks from the iconic TV show 120 minutes. Enjoy! I was pretty much the nerdiest child ever growing up, with one exception. Come Sunday night, as my parents fell asleep, I would lay in bed in anticipation of 2 hours of glorious music videos formally known as 120 minutes, MTV's finest show (though trust me-Alternative Nation with my girlcrush at the [...]
What's that? You had a hectic Monday and wanted to bask in the awesomeness of Zwan ? No worries, us too. Check the vids above. mp3: Zwan - Lyric
Yesterday saw the release of the "Under Cover Of Darkness" physical single from The Strokes , and along with it came some nice goodies. First off, the video for the track has been released, and it's fab. What can we say? We're giddy to see the band back in one room together and delivering rock and roll cool as only they can. It doesn't hurt that the track is completely awesome as well. Just make sure you set it to 1080p - it makes a difference. On top of the vid, the [...]
Spoon at Music Hall Of Williamsburg, from the HAD Archive You may recall that last month we brought up Spoon 's demo for "Is Love Forever?" that the band was giving away for free on their website. You may also have noticed that the mp3 conspicuously labeled it "version 2" of the demo. Well, guess what? Version 1 has been put out for the world to hear. Given how straight-ahead the last version was, this [...]
Currently our lovely little record labe l has two bands signed. Why only two, you ask? Well, mainly because we only put out albums by bands that we feel so happy, so comfortable, and so psyched about, that there simply isn't any way we'd let them be put out anywhere else. Case in point: the new EP from The Heavenly States , Oui Camera Oui . What's so great about this record? In short, everything. It is melodic, addictive, raucous, gentle, endearing [...]
There is always room for false starts, and Kurt Vile 's Matador debut Childish Prodigy was unquestionably that. While it certainly wasn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, it didn't hold a candle to 2009's brilliant ...And God Is Saying This To You . It lacked much of the depth of that record, and failed to capture the gentle darkness that so perfectly balances Vile's more rock and roll tendencies. In the time between, Vile delivered The Hunchback EP, which seemed to be more in the [...]
Yes, we love Ryan Adams . And yes, we've been obsessing over the lovely III/IV for the past few months. So it was that we were perusing videos on the internets and discovered some "vintage" footage from 2006 featuring some tunes off of his most recent record. While it's somewhat incredible that it took four years for studio versions of the tunes to see the light of day, it's not exactly surprising. The notoriously prolific Adams has always had to self edit, and apparently more than a few songs have had [...]
It's been a little bit of a while since we fell head over heels for Handsome Furs ' second record Face Control . As such, we were completely stoked to hear that the band not only has a third record on tap for this year, but has set up a small east coast tour for this spring. The band will be making a one week jaunt up and down the coast, including an April 14th date at Bell House in Brooklyn. Will we see you there? Yes, yes we will. [...]
It goes without saying that we love bands on our own label . It's one of those things: you don't tend to sign someone to release their records unless you really, really, love their records. Which is why we were stoked when Grand Lake came out of hibernation and told us that they had recorded a new record over the winter entitled Leaves Ellipse ! The record is a fantastic piece of work recorded over the winter in San Luis Obispo, and it [...]
You may recall that last Monday we were completely taken with the Flaming Lips ' idea to drop a 12-track cell phone masterpiece upon the world. Well, we were so taken that we decided we had to see this thing actually happen in the real world. The only problem was that syncing 12 cell phones, much less having access to that many, is no trivial task. To wit, we enlisted 12 able bodied souls from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program , and got them to sync up their phones [...]
Last night while we were enjoying a few beverages at the always-lovely Rusty Knot , their DJ-slash-doorman played this killer track, and it just about blew our minds. It's semi-common knowledge that Willie Nelson wrote the Patsy Cline classic "Crazy", but this took things one step further: This is Willie's own 1961 demo of the very same track. Not only are his vocals straight-up impecable, but the track itself is the picture of simplicity. With a quiet slide guitar, and gently moving rhythm, Nelson does his work more justice [...]
Jesus Christ, they 're just downright ON. So amazing.
HAD Contributor Nabocough cooked up a nice little Valentine's Day mix for us. Here's what he had to say about the tunes: Henry Jacobs - Dead Air Years ago an old friend played this on his radio show on KDVS, and I only remembered it recently. An American [...]
Hippies Are Dead
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
THE MASTERSONS — BIRDS FLY SOUTH
