( Editor's note: That's not my living room up there. It's a photo of The Who on a huge TV in an immaculate entertainment room that I found on Flickr. Pretty good visual metaphor for the current state of the band that recorded The Who Sell Out, no? Three quick things on the Super Bowl before we dive into this most recent edition of the singles club. 1. The Who - Let me preface this by saying that I love The Who as much as any other band on the planet. A cassette copy [...]
In the past month there have been some really great covers emerge. Phoenix doing Bob Dylan is as good as anything on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Jay Reatard's death brought an old cover out back to prominence, Major Lazer have added a whole new depth to a Beyonce track and lo fi indie rockers Little Girls have a stunning take on a new Beach House track. Enjoy these and please feel free to link to your favorite covers in the comments. Major Lazer - HALO (Beyonce Cover) Solange Knowles - Stillness [...]
On April 20th, Caribou releases his new album, Swim, onto the masses on Merge Records here in the states and City Slang in the UK and Europe (released on 19th). The first track to come out is Odessa. While I'm excited for many albums this year (Hot Chip, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, etc), Caribou is [...]
Brooklyn-based band Pearl and the Beard have established themselves as a rambunctious presence in the NYC scene, with a rapidly growing and highly dedicated audience. They're now set to conquer new territories with the national release of their debut album 'God Bless Your Weary Soul, Amanda Richardson' , including first single "Oh, Death!" , a live appearance on WNYC 's prestigious Soundcheck , a cheeky new video for their Will Smith Cover Medley and an AOL Spinner New Releases feature. [...]
Link: http://www.whitestripes.com/ Link: http://www.billboard.com/news/ white-stripes-protests-air-for ce-super-bowl-1004066018.story Popular mainstream rock band sometimes marketed as indie the White Stripes had a 'shitty version' of their song "Fell in Love With A Girl" ripped off and utilized in a Super Bowl commercial by the Air Force, a popular branch of the US military which uses jets to bomb Arab and terrorist hideouts. The White Stripes were not given 'mad bank' for the usage of their song [via commercial licensing]. It seems like they also got [...]
Indie, so hört man munkeln, sei der neue Mainstream. Peter Gabriel untermauert diese These, indem er Arcade Fire und Bon Iver covert. Kann das gut gehen? Peter Gabriel schenkt uns pünktlich zu seinem 60. Geburtstag ein aussergewöhnliches Coveralbum. Die Songauswahl von "Scratch My Back" (VÖ 12.2.) ist ebenso überraschend wie die Instrumentierung. Nach Gitarre, Bass und [...]
' Good As Gold ' is the kaleidoscopic second album from six-piece Swedish shape-shifters Petter & The Pix . It will land in the UK on 3 May, 2010 via Gung-Ho! Recordings, following the release of single "Never Never" on 26 April. 'Good As Gold' is a sonically and emotionally layered album, only revealing itself after repeated listens. It was recorded in live takes over just two days, and then assembled over a painstaking twelve month period. As a songwriter, Petter repeatedly roams round various genres, scoping [...]
Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. Taut New York five-piece MiniBoone are an enchanting mesh of old-school energy and new-school melody... Continue reading "Download MiniBoone's New-Waving, Arcade Fire-Vibing "Devil In Your Eyes"" >
There is a restrained mania to Oberhofer's "I Could Go." Buzzing synths, a haunting whistle and air-puffed drum-loops finally give way to an ebullient rain of chimes, and all of this is before we've heard word-one from vocalist Bradley Oberhofer. The arrangement is borrowed from the Win Butler school with different aesthetic choices place-holding for the Arcade Fire's orchestral pop. Or maybe
LP Giveaway details at the end of the review. Yeasayer Odd Blood Secretly Canadian out February 9th 89 /100 [ Rating Scale ] Yeasayer's sophomore release, Odd [...]
Saw this trailer over the weekend and was genuinely surprised to find out that this documentary about the very private songwriter - or most dubiously known as "the most miserable man in rock" - has been in the works for nearly ten years. Directed by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara, the film seems to primarily focus on the period of Merritt's time between the releases of 69 Love Songs (1999) and Distortion (2008). From the many horror stories I've heard/read in regards to most interviews with The Magnetic Fields [...]
Suspense; Without A Violin String They've been compared to the Arcade Fire but The Rest has a more auspicious sound, delicately sweeping over a swindled layer of percussion and wandering whimsical guitars. The Ontario band released their debut album in 2009 and it received glowing reviews across the world. The band declare that not a single negative review can be found, quite a fine achievement. The seven piece band is a very creative, ambitious bunch, and since forming the band has had many diversions [...]
Arcade Fire - A Change is Gonna Come {Sam Cooke, live} This song, in all its incarnations, is beautiful and peaceful and angry all at once. It comes over you like a hot summer's night, lit only by a crescent moon, warm and close and insistent. I know this is an old cover, but I rediscovered the original recently, and it feels good to listen to, like a different understanding of the same experience.
In the past month there have been some really great covers emerge. Phoenix doing Bob Dylan is as good as anything on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Jay Reatard's death brought an old cover out back to prominence, Major Lazer have added a whole new depth to a Beyonce track and lo fi indie rockers Little Girls have a stunning take on a new Beach House track. Enjoy these and please feel free to link to your favorite covers in the comments. Major Lazer - HALO (Beyonce Cover) Solange Knowles - Stillness [...]
You can stream what is probably my favorite album of the year at Spinner . Tags: Album Stream , Yeasayer Yeasayer and Arcade Fire this Monday! (3) Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (Music Video) (NSFW) (9) Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (6) Yeasayer "O.N.E." (XXXChange Remix) (13)
So I've been sitting on Laurent Bourque 's impressive debut CD for a few months now, trying to come up with the right way to describe it without making it sound like it's a bit on the dull side. You could slide it into the singer/songwriter genre, but that makes it sound boring. You could say it's a rock album, but that conjures up images of bar bands and classic rock, and that's not doing it justice either. And it's certainly hooky enough to be called a pop album, but the sounds are a tad too organic for it [...]
On Scratch My Back , his first album in 8 years, Peter Gabriel aims to shed light on outstanding songs from both rock warhorses (Paul Simon, David Bowie, Neil Young) and from an alternative lineup that reads like a college radio programmer's wet dream (Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Magnetic Fields).
Last nite, I watched the Super Bowl, because I am currently working in a mainstream office environment, and I secretly feel insecure when every1 else is talking abt a mainstream event, yet I don't have a progressive opinion to 'share' that goes over every12 heads. The Super Bowl seems like a more fulfilling viewing event than awards shows like the Oscars or Grammys or the BCS championship because you have 2 forces/teams 'battling' to be the champion, instead of just voter opinions and computer algorithms. Did u have a 'Super Bowl party' with chips, dips, meats, brewskies, [...]
Even though the Super Bowl halftime show has been consumed with legacy acts the last few years, 2010's broadcast did give ample airtime to music written after 1985. Granted, it was in ads - but since you have to drop a couple million to get on the air, it's still meaningful. Then again, maybe it just means the down economy affords large corporations less money for licensing fees. Either way, one of the few humorous commercials involved Tracy Morgan getting punched by Stevie Wonder - while Grizzly Bear 's [...]
Last week, it was announced that Arcade Fire had licensed "Wake Up" for use in NFL ads in order to raise money for Haiti. So here is that ad, which is actually pretty tasteful. Though, then again, it's probably impossible to make an ad that doesn't seem disproportionately cooler thanks to "Wake Up" being played in the background. I mean, me walking to get my mail in my slippers would seem epic if someone played "Wake Up" while I did it. [ Videogum ]
New Releases V2.9
2010 Bonnaroo Artists Unveiled
New Nas & Armand Van Helden
