More vids from their show later that night at Urban Lounge can be found at Livingears.

Be there or be lame! Don’t forget their later show at Urban Lounge (9pm).

MP3: Girls :: “Laura”
MP3: Girls :: “Lust For Life”
Video: “Hellhole Ratrace”
Video: “Lust For Life”
Video: “Laura”
Video: “Morning Light”

Lots of music videos popping up lately — too many to keep up with as a matter of fact. Conveniently, most of these come courtesy of Pitchfork, among other places. I guess you could call this a lazy attempt at a blog post, but it’s better than nothing.

The videos can be viewed after the cut, and include new stuff from Jonsi, St. Vincent, Spoon, Toro Y Moi and Massive Attack.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a sweet little video of the two performing the song live above a house terrace in LA.  The announcement has been made of a co-headlining tour with El Perro Del Mar and Taken By Trees.  Ms. Assbring seems to never tour anywhere remotely close to me, so the list of dates is a bit disappointing.  One of these days, though!  It shall happen!

Tour dates can be seen here.

MP3: El Perro Del Mar :: “Change of Heart”
MP3: El Perro Del Mar :: “Change of Heart” (Rakamonie Remix)

Because I’d rather not submit my email address (mine is flooded enough as is) and that I’ve yet to create a dummy account for this sort of thing, has kept me from actually listening to these until just a couple of minutes ago.  If you’ve yet to get these, or still haven’t heard about it yet — both “Ascending Melody” and “Emblem of the World” are available for free via the Dirty Projectors website (you can click the image above to send you to the website).  A link is also provided on the site if you wish to buy a physical 7″ from Domino.

The b-side “Emblem of the World” was uploaded by You Ain’t No Picasso, which I’ve provided here as well to save you 50% of the hassle.  Enjoy, as the songs are actually quite good.

UK | US.

MP3: Dirty Projectors :: “Emblem of the World”

I haven’t kept up with Dinner with the Band since its initial first season as a web-only series in 2007, but now only a couple of years since, the show finds itself as a brand new IFC Original Series.  Combining two of my favorite things, cooking shows and music, for what should be (on paper at least) a wonderful idea for a television show.

The concept of the show involves host and chef Sam Mason, who invites different bands to come and cook interesting and “edgy” (as they’ve coined it) types of food recipes or or as the website says “intellectual food.” Whatever, food is food. Past episodes have included bands like Matt & Kim, Tokyo Police Club and Les Savy Fav.

A great idea, yes, but most episodes are very hit and miss as most guests have no business talking about food outside of how they make their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Like I’ve said before, it still caters to a very niche audience, but at the same time stands as one the show’s strengths.

One key to success is finding good talent to come on the show, which is the case with Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett) making an appearance.  While of course it makes sense for him to be on there (he’s releasing his highly anticipated third album Heartland on January 12th), it also allows me to take care of two subjects in one post.  Pallett describes Heartland as “a fully orchestral record, designed to exist simultaneously as an album, a 45-minute piece of orchestral music and a set of songs for looped violin and voice.”

MP3: Final Fantasy :: “Lewis Takes Action”

Here’s a couple of videos from his appearance, which include two songs from the upcoming Heartland.

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 a longing for the warm and sunny days of a summer that has long passed.  Walking outside now and seeing everything blanketed in snow just reinforces that feeling even more now.

MP3: MillionYoung :: “Hammock”
MP3: MillionYoung :: “Cynthia”

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As an aside, I want to mention that I’m putting off Graboid updates until next year.  Usually, December is a slow month for releases, and I just don’t have the time at the moment to devote to keeping that updated.  I just want to get back to keeping TYS reasonably active with updating.  I hope everyone understands.

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 at all.  I actually enjoyed the song, but I wonder how different an experience it is to just hear the new material on its own merit, without the added emotional connection/bond that the film had with its own soundtrack .

Watching Once even recently, the film still delivers on an emotional level.  I still listen to the soundtrack quite frequently, and I have a feeling that once I actually listen to the new record that I won’t have any qualms about it.  Still, I feel like it’s an interesting topic, regardless.  What are your thoughts on it?  Has enough time gone by that the band is unable to coast on the film’s success?

The duo is also currently in the midst of a North American tour, including a date right here in Salt Lake City on November 28th.  You can check the full list of dates here.

MP3: The Swell Season :: “Low Rising”

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 heard was incredibly agonizing.  Of course, I figured out the song (“Wake Up Pretty”); but to this day, I still have not listened to Scribble Mural Comic Journal in its entirety.  There’s no real reason to attribute to it; I guess I was just content with listening to bits and pieces of it.

That being said, it kind of made the release of Ashes Grammar a bit anticlimactic for me.  I kind of gave it one of those “Oh hey, I know those guys!” sort of reactions.  After listening to “Failure” for the first time, I was instantly reminded why I liked these guys.  I’ve always had a rough time with people tossing the Shoegaze tag on them, as it just seems so lazy to label them with that.

I’m not even sure if I could think of a genre to describe them outside of just a very dense, ambient-laden kind of dream pop.  It’s music that’s completely lost within itself, which may not sound like much of a compliment, but it just makes as I listen to these songs (all 22 of them).

MP3: A Sunny Day In Glasgow :: “Failure”
MP3: A Sunny Day In Glasgow :: “Ashes Grammar Ashes Maths”

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 cover of Animal Collective’s “My Girls”.  Of course, Victoria is no stranger to covers as you might remember her excellent cover of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from 2008.

I’ve read a lot of backlash in regards to this recent cover, which is just silly to me.  In my opinion, this cover is just too innocent to harbor any negative feelings towards.  Though, I suppose the Animal Collective connection isn’t too out of left field as Noah Lennox lends his vocals on one of the tracks.

The video for “My Boys” can be seen below.

MP3: Taken By Trees :: “My Boys”
MP3: Taken By Trees :: “Watch The Waves”