Channeling Fleetwood Mac's musical stylings with a hint of late-era Beatles, Family of the Year braid catchy melodies, stellar male/female vocals and personal folk tales to create some of the happiest and saddest music you've ever heard. Opening up with "Feel Good Track Of Rosemead" it's a delicate harmony and rock guitar combo, very much like The New Pornographers, or The Polyphonic Spree. Actually, it's singers Joe Keefe (formerly of The Billionaires) and Vanessa Long who harmonize and get lots of milage out of their pop chemistry and aural dynamics. Fans of The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds who hear the [...]
La scorsa settimana abbiamo terminato il nostro viaggio attraverso gli album più importanti del decennio che si sta concludendo. Abbiamo quindi pensato di riassumere il tutto in questo post che non è altro che la lista completa, tappa per tappa, degli album che di volta in volta abbiamo approfondito, in modo tale da avere una sorta di indice delle varie puntate. Dopo il salto trovate anche la listona di tutti gli album che di anno in anno sono stati inseriti fra "gli album da salvare". [...]
Akron/Family - The United States of Blibble The pastiche of the US flag on the cover is apt, for their latest Akron/Family have surpassed their own eclectic standard by tipping every aspect of US rock and folk music in a blender with a large measure of thoroughly unfashionable enthusiasm. So you've got Minutemen bass, bucolic flutes and strings, the urgent chorus from a lost 70s musical and smooth sax - the sound [...]
Written mostly by Frank Phosphate with some help by DL . FRIDAY Hidden Cameras / Gentleman Reg / The O's (Hailey's): It's a pretty shitty time to be a gay person in America. Somehow it was decided that civil rights issues are something to be voted on by the public at large. On one side of the argument, we have testimonials from couples unable to receive perks made easily available to their hetero counterparts, civil rights experts explaining the social/historical significance of [...]
The third installment of A Retrospective, this time the focus is on 2002. The year of rebuilding, so to speak. It was the year I discovered Cider Jack (and did so plentifully) at the local Pullman bar Rico's, and we all would rehearse Bill Brasky skits (from the SNL spots, and made up on the spot) as twenty feet away the university jazz combo performed excellent renditions of Van Morrison's "Moondance" and various Motown favorites. As we see every year, 2002 saw several real great releases. Here are my favorites. [...]
Annie Clark has played Columbus a number of times in the past couple of years. I fell in love with Ms. Clark while watching her perform with the Polyphonic Spree at SXSW a few years ago but somehow have managed to miss every one of her St.Vincent shows. Time for that to change. Tour dates below. 2/3 Victoria, BC Element 2/4 Vancouver, BC Venue 2/5 Seattle, WA Neumos 2/6 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge (2 shows, 6pm + 10pm) 2/8 San Francisco, CA [...]
MP3 : The Thermals - Now We Can See (live on Laundromatinee.com ) Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster, the two core members of The Thermals , have been through a lot together. Four albums, a few different studio and touring line-ups, a failed relationship, and two high-profile indie labels - just to name a few of the challenges. As the saying goes, what hasn't killed them, has only made them stronger. Their third album, [...]
After leaving Sub Pop Records, The Thermals' most recent album, "Now We Can See," was released this past April through new label, Kill Rock Stars. This fourth album is being billed as a re-introduction or re-birth for the band, but behind all the sweet melodies, catchy hooks and sing-a-long choruses, it carries many of the same explorations of life, death, religion and politics. "Now We Can See" was produced by John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Polyphonic Spree). Laundromatinee.com presents two acoustic versions of songs from that most recent album.
Photographic Evidence by Sean Hafferty The Paradise Boston, MA - 9/17/09 Tim Delaughter and The Spree at the Paradise images by RSL's Sean Hafferty "Hold Me Now " from Together We're Heavy [...]
There are few words that fully describe the Texas-bred Paper Chase, and even fewer that lead singer/guitarist/songwriter John Congleton would like to hear. Granted, the band's trademark is an uneasy yet confident mess of found sound, haunting piano, a dirty, thunderous rhythm section and Congleton's sprawling, squealing guitar attacks. Yet it's the 32-year-old's writing and delivery -- tense, sometimes comically fervent warnings of murder, guilt and the rapture -- that have spawned thousands of critics to wrongly deem the group as humorless, art-house horror junkies. In truth, the band's version of the dramatic owes as much to Queen as it [...]
Photographic Evidence by Sean Hafferty The Paradise Boston, MA - 9/17/09 Tim Delaughter and The Spree at the Paradise images by RSL's Sean Hafferty "Hold Me Now " from Together We're Heavy [...]
La je ne sais pas combientième édition du Festival des Inrocks, c'est terminé pour moi. J'ai trouvé cette cuvée 2009 plutôt bonne mais pas enthousiasmante... J'étais assez excité par ce tout nouveau concept de pass « Cigale/Boule noire » comme si qu'on était à un festival d'été (exceptée la route du rock malouine), sans temps mort. Résultat des courses: on voit plus de groupes, on en rate aussi, soit complètement (Passion Pit, Chew Lips) soit en partie ( Black Lips, Florence & The Machine, Amanda Blank), on court tout le temps et on n'a pas trop [...]
Karin Andersson from Fever Ray I wanted to take the image of a wire coat hanger and make a shirt out of it with words,"Old School?" underneath it. It was going to be a pro-choice shirt. It may be lacking in a little tact, but it gets the point across. It can't be worse than a PETA billboard. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Brendan Monroe is currently having an exhibit at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. It's entitled Places Between Here and Here . [...]
Nowhere Boy (2009) John Lennon's early years, including the formation of The Beatles, is chronicled in a the debut feature film by , Nowhere Boy premierd yesterday at the London Film Festival . Check out the trailer: I'm excited for this film to hop the pond, and make its way to a theater near me. Until then, I'm enjoying these John Lennon covers: Nobody Told Me - The Flaming Lips [...]
○○○●● THE Yes! EP sees psychedelic folk fivesome Colourmusic taking a positive step with their art. Because up until now, the group - who sound like they take their inspiration from acts like The Flaming Lips and The Polyphonic Spree - have taken their main inspiration from colours, and released EPs about them called Yellow and Red . However musically, after the eponymous anthemic opener sets out the group's stall, the whirring psychedelia here doesn't quite evolve to do anything to tickle the listener pink. It's a [...]
This week's episode of Austin City Limits features multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird and one-woman band St. Vincent. Annie Clark got her start as a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Steven's touring band before striking out on her own under the name St. Vincent, while Andrew Bird honed his chops with the Squirrel Nut Zippers and kept his name. Friday , October 23 [all times Eastern]: Conan O'Brien : All Time Low [NBC 11:35PM] [...]
![[Tracks] The <span style="color: #384E60; background-color:#84CCF2">Polyphonic</span> <span style="color: #384E60; background-color:#84CCF2">Spree</span> - Blurry](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/2067906_lg.jpg)
The Polyphonic Spree have always been on that list of bands I need to check out, but have never gotten around to. In high school a lot of the same kids that were pushing Phish and Widespread Panic were big Polyphonic Spree fans so I sort of wrote them off from the get go. However, I finally came around a couple weeks back when GorillavsBear shared a new demo for the song Blurry . This stripped down version was nothing like what I expected and got me very excited about checking out their back [...]
In our never-ending quest to dig up some great bands that cost less than a corned beef sandwich at Katz's Deli, we bring you another round of Blips. Blips highlights some great bands that are largely still in their larvae stage, but will soon morph into their beautiful butterfly. In this edition, we have some really cool new music, so take a sec, poke around their various websites, and see what you think of these three under the radar musical groups… J. Tillman [...]
Suicide Sundaes – stop your grinnin' and drop your linen. Every Sunday electblake and jsully of Earmilk will bring you the weeks dirty servings, and some old favorites through a throwdown-throwback to simpler times. A time when bangers were big, remixes were bigger, the bassline bled, and we didn't care about anything as long as came in kicking and left screaming. To hell with sketchy sunday, we want to shove another dragon down the hole. We're sorry it's been so much time off. Not to make any excuses, but we've had [...]
Canada's reign of indie supremacy over this decade began in 2001 with the infectiously fun synth-pop of a little band called The Unicorns . After imploding following the release of their landmark album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? , two members of the mythical group founded and released three albums with Islands . Meanwhile, Alden Penner recruited an original member of The Arcade Fire and a supporting cast of three to form Clues , who finally got around to releasing their debut record during May of this year… The [...]
new music from vampire weekend – cousins + music video
Friday Five: Surf Songs
No Curve Allowed (Grading This Week's New Tracks)
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
