Monday, January 31, 2011

Aston Shuffle

The Aston Shuffle have an awesome video that not only appeals to my taste in music but my mild obsession with typography. Enjoy!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Givers and (Show) Takers

Oddly enough, last night was my first show of 2011, but it certainly did not disappoint!  I went with two of my bestest concert buds, Tron and the Felarcanator.  Was also supposed to meet up with the roomie, but we continued our trend of Not Seeing Each Other, Ever.  Anyway, tickets were originally purchased due to the fact that Ra Ra Riot was headlining, and well...duh, but it had the added benefit of showcasing Pepper Rabbit (who I saw with Freelance Whales late last year) and some random other band, Givers.

Pepper Rabbit kicked the night off, and I enjoyed them from the balcony, whiskey ginger in hand.  They had quite the crowd watching, as you can see...normally opening acts at Neumos have 2 or 3 rows at the front and an empty backfield as people try and consume as many libations as possible before the headliners come on.  The Los Angeles based band is certainly worth checking out if you get a chance.


Next came the Givers, which imho were clearly the stars of the night.  From Lafayette, Louisiana, they had a great indie pop dance sound.  Super high energy, the drummer was a beast, and Tiffany, the girl of the group was a real show stopper.  She played the xylophone, drums and a ukulele and was very good at all of them (particularly the drums). You can tell they're still in the process of refining their music and have made vast strides since the release of their EP, to what today's version of Up Up Up sounds like.  Full album coming out soon...should be some really good stuff!


After the Givers left the stage, Ra Ra Riot came on.  Don't let me give you the impression that they were a bad show, au contraire, they certainly put on quite the performance.  They played some older stuff and some songs off The Rhumb Line, which I was more familiar with.  The cellist and violinist, both women, were not only quite formidable string players, they were also rather attractive (bonus!), each in their own way, a sultry cellist with a great voice, and the super upbeat cute girl next door violist who must have snapped 30+ horsehairs on her bow, given the fervor with which she played.   Their encore, fantastique aussi!

                     

I'll be in Cali for 10 days at the beginning of Feb, spending time with the ToA, but when I get back, it's Smith Westerns, Macklemore, Fresh Espresso, Girl Talk, The Naked & Famous and the Foals (tell me you're not jealous and I won't believe you).  I'm going to try and get my D90 in and get some real shots, rather than this iPhone garbage...

Be My Animal

I'm thinking I might need to make an 'Animals and Nature' themed mix soon. Between Yelle's awesome new track (without which, I would have no idea that animals dance at the Safari Disco Club) and Lykke Li's 'I Follow Rivers', I have solid material for quite a raucous dance party of a playlist. Busting moves right along with this theme, The Good Natured's second track 'Be My Animal' is a super catchy little tune that will have you shimmying along with Sara Macintosh's great vocals.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

In Search Of Elusive Little Comets

When I studied abroad I became obsessed with the music scene in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and seriously considered dropping out of school to move to somewhere like Manchester or Liverpool to become immersed in the music scene there. Shockingly, the parentals would not agree to my ridiculous lack of plan and consequently I've had to rely on Tres as my emissary of all music Anglophile. I've been aware of the British group Little Comets but it wasn't until I heard this track from their upcoming CD which has a sound reminiscent of Vampire Weekend and Franz Ferdinand (without the awkward slowed down chorus thing going on) that I got really excited about their music.

Their new CD 'In Search Of Elusive Little Comets' comes out at the end of the month and can be added to my growing list of musics to purchase. Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Jump Right In

It's that time of year when I'm so happy to live in San Francisco. While everyone is still in the dead of winter the weather here is gorgeous and making me take long walks on city beach instead of working. With that in mind, I'm so happy to stumble upon this video and song by Benjamin Francis Leftwich, which makes me feel like running away and playing dress-up with my friends.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Bowl Cuts


One of my favorite tracks of last year was 'Living in America', and even though DOM really needs to work on their live performance, they know how to put out some killer muzaks. The lead singer of Cults joins in on the vocals on this track and helps make this a panoply of hipster electropop. Thanks to being part of Passion Pit's Black Bell label, this collaboration is actually a free download on their official site as well.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Byooooom!



I am in a prettttty awesome mood right now.  It's only 1030am and I've had quite a productive morning.  Drafting operating agreements, setting up LLCs, and jamming out to some solid tracks.  One of these tracks has been Treatment of the Sun by The Pass.  These guys are vaguely reminiscent of Passion Pit or a less melancholy MGMT.  They're from Louisville, KY, and have been around since '08, but I'm just jumping on the bandwagon now.  They put out a 5 song EP in early 2010, and have since released Burst, an uber cool full album where you'll find Treatment.

Treatment of the Sun is accompanied by a really simple, but great music video.  The old-school dancing is PERFECT for the song, and I can just imagine some indie chicks dancing their faces off in the exact same way to this track at a concert.  If you missed this song or video last summer on PMA, you won't want to repeat that same mistake.


The Pass - "Treatment of the Sun" PMA Premiere from Pretty Much Amazing on Vimeo.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Small Flowers

Okay so no idea what is happening in the world we call Twitter, I can barely manage to log in from time to time, but in the last few days all these music people have started following me which is curious but has led me to a band called 'Small Flowers'. While the stuff I have heard so far isn't super captivating, they do have one song that has a great breakbeat that I dig. I can't seem to find any information about these guys, but they remind me of Quantic and all the old Ministry of Sound muzaks I dug so heavily back in the day. Here's hoping they can get some heavy hitting production happening and step it up to something akin to Baths and Gold Panda.


Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Foster This

And in honor of an amazeballs Coachella line-up and a decadent weekend ahead, here is the track that has been in heavy rotation with the new Yelle and Lykke Li in my giant headphones. I hope this Foster The People can make an entire album as catchy as this tune because its a little ray of sunshine ushering in the end of work and the beginning of some seriously fun couple days.

2011 Coachella Lineup Released!

Joshua Tree Park Sunset the night before 2010 Coachella 


Coachella has released their lineup for this year's festival.  It looks pretty sick, with a shit ton of bands that weren't at either ACL or Squatch last year.  While Saturday has some good shows, Friday and Sunday look to be amazeballs.  I wonder how Kanye feels about co-headlining with the Strokes?  Haters always tryin to take away from the black man...

Carls and I were in Joshua Tree with L2B2 the week before Coachella and met a few people headed to the festival.  We were tres jealous, so accordingly, Carls is already putting on the pressure to attend this year.  Here's to hoping!

Some of my highlights:

Friday
Kings of Leon
The Black Keys
The Chemical Brothers
Cee Lo Green
Cut Copy
Klaxons
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

Saturday
Animal Collective
Broken Social Scene
Scissor Sisters
New Pornographers
Gogol Bordello
Two Door Cinema Club
(scratch what I said above, Saturday sounds amazeballs too)

Sunday
Kanyeezy
Strokes
Ratatat
Nas (!!)
Chromeo
Angus and Julia Stone
Yelle
Delorean

Driving Like It's Stolen

Once upon a time Dowks had to listen to a lot of boys with guitars and British music that populated my ipod. He was too nice to cause a fuss about it. However, when I moved to SF, Weis was less then amused by my indie roots, and in order to keep his attention and expand his musical horizons past Jay-Z, I was forced to learn about hip-hop. Due to my minor Anglophile tendencies (really more of a hybrid of Anglo-Audiophileness), I gravitate towards music that utilizes dubstep more and more. Which is why Glitch Mob perfectly encapsulates the type of music I can listen to with the 'pack and enjoy all on my own. Sorry Howie Day. You have been replaced with music we can roll with.



If you dig the King Fantastic version- go check out more of his stuff here

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Game Night Musiks

Last night I hosted a game night for the boys, where we played a rousing game of Settlers, in which I managed to narrowly edge out Willdo for the victory (what can I say, I'm a Renaissance Man).  As a precursor to the evening, I threw together an impromptu playlist comprised mostly of my new new, but with a hint of classic.

Brother's ears instantly perked up when the White Pandas - Shooting Superstars came on - and with good reason - it combines some great Aussie electropop (Bag Raiders) with some of rap's finest, Eminem.  While it came out in early 2010, I've just recently come across it on the always groovy Hypem and their Zeitgeistageness, and it's probably been played about 20x since then...

Enjoy...

Shooting Superstars by whitepandamusic

Not In Love


I've been meaning to write about this track for a while, but forgot all about it until the release of the video got the 'sphere blowing up my rss feed. Anyways, I was completely in love with Crystal Castles debut album and a little underwhelmed by the sophomore effort. However- this song featuring Robert Smith is by far one of my favorite songs of 2010. Its amazing how it can sound like the Cure and Crystal Castles all at the same time. Enjoy!

Monday, January 17, 2011

BBC Live

As anyone who has received a mix from me in the past four months knows, I've been obsessing over James Blake and counting down the days until I can buy his album here in the US. Then I plan to attend his concert posthaste because I have the feeling it will be amazeballs. Until then, here is a rather lovely live session from the BBC he did. The guy really knows how to make the dubstep turn into sexy time.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

New Burgher on the Scene

Well, well, well, if it isn't another hometown homeslice of mine, blowin up!  Mac Miller, the latest young star from Pittsburgh has just landed on my laptop.   He's a pretty chill hip hop artist, although I must admit I was not expecting this kind of sound from a 19 yo white boy.  Bro'skie put out some pretty cool stuff, including this rap, set to an uptempo version of Owl City's Firefly.  When I was watching some of his vids, I came across "Get a Clue" and immediately recognized the beat from "They Say" by a trio of some of my favs:  Common, Kanye and Mr. Legend (incidentally, they picked up the beat from a song by Ahmad Jamal).  The keyboarding, coupled with a soft snare in the background really works well for this track.

Aight, Stillers, make us Three River Fans proud and stomp dem Ravens ('n at)!!





Friday, January 14, 2011

The Animals Dance in the Safari Disco Club


Yelle just released a brrrrrrrilliant track, Safari Disco Club, pulled from their upcoming album of the same name.  The electropop beat is super catchy, and even if you don't understand a lick of french, you can't help but get down with this track.  Free download on Soundcloud, get at it, NEOW!

Safari Disco Club by YELLE

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Get the hell out


I first heard about Alex Winston, thanks to an awesome cover of 'Pull My Heart Away' she totally rocked. Now the Knocks have helped produce a killer track for her new album, and I'm championing it as the new theme song to Big Love. Just don't do what I did, and sing the hook out-loud in an open plan office. People will wonder about your personal life.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Lykke Li rocks my world


Lykke Li's new album is one of the things I'm most excited about in 2011. Her first single 'Get Some' was a holiday anthem in my house, and the fabulous Magician has done an awesome remix of her new track 'I Follow Rivers'. So courtesy of the awesomeness that is GottaDanceDirty; enjoy!


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Lets have a toast

This is a little old but I'm using the excuse that I unplugged pretty hard in Maui last week as my reason for not sharing this before. I might not dig his actual music but Josh Groban is hilarious as evidenced in Glee and now here:

The Smith Westerns are neither Western, nor Smiths....Discuss


So yeah, the Smith Westerns are an excellent sounding indie band that I just recently discovered through one of leslietron's epic share seshes on reader.  I have to say I really dig their sound and style, but the constant static/buzzing accompanying the lyrics in their debut album has really been throwing me off.....which is why I'm looking forward to the upcoming release of Dye It Blonde on Jan 18!  It sounds like they should have "fixed" some of that and the song below sounds very polished and clean - I dig it.  This will definitely be an album I pick up immediately...only one week to go!


Old Self-titled Album: - Tonight
The Smith Westerns- Tonight by ornamentation

New album: Dye It Blonde - All Die Young
Smith Westerns - "All Die Young" by forcefieldpr

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Niyaz Rocks the Rāga

Whew.  Finally made it back to Seattle after a great trip back to the 'burgh.  I got to hit up my friend Nathan's, who basically has a recording studio in his basement, where I listened to him, Isaaaac, Cook, and Woj jam out.  They are putting together some really great stuff and I can't wait until they finish the recordings and get the legal stuff finished so I can push it out here.

Anyway, Woj and I were messing around on some of Nathan's congos and he got to beating out Tunak Tunak Tun, which I had never heard, so he politely shared.  Quite ridiculous.......ly fantastic!  After we'd indulged in Delar Mendhi for a bit, Nathan (really just a super musician himself) pointed us to Niyaz.  Perhaps they have the subcontinent connection, but that's about it.  This song, sung in Urdu, is gorgeous and I can't get enough of the intro.  The mystical sound produced by that guitar/cello-ish instrument is mesmerizing.  Hope you enjoy too