Jack White is a far better drummer than Meg. I guess it would be a little difficult for him to play guitar, sing, and play drums at the same time. I feel it time consuming to write a summary about The Dead Weather. You have to be locked in a basement to not know about this band. I will tell you what other bands the artists in the supergroup play in: Jack White (Your an idiot if you don't know this), Alison Mosshart (The Kills, Discount), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes).
Results tagged “Videos” from Fade Away Never
Fiery Furnaces The End is Near animated Music Video by Dax from dax norman on Vimeo.
The Fiery Furnaces primary band members are brother (Matthew) and sister (Eleanor) Friedberger's from Brooklyn, NY. "The End Is Near" is off their 7th studio album I'm Going Away (July 21, 2009). The video is Dax Norman's animation for "The End Is Near" video competition. Dax's video blows the rest out of the water. The winner will be determined by September.
Glen Hansard (The Frames) and Markéta Irglová are the two leading actors and provide the soundtrack for the beautiful Irish-indie movie, Once (2007). They both received Oscars for the song "Falling Slowly" from the soundtrack. Hansard was not intended to be the lead actor in the John Carney written and directed (former bassist in The Frames) film, Once. His original job was to create the soundtrack for the film. Carney's first male actor choice was Cillian Murphy, an almost signed musician before he became an actor, but Murphy felt he was "too good" to be in a movie with the unknown 17 year old actress/musician, Irglová and did not want to, or more likely could not, sing Hansard's octave-leaping songs. Irglová and Hansard tour together under the name, The Swell Season. On NPR's Tiny Desk Concert the directions are simple, play 3 songs. Rebellious Hansard, turned his 3 song "session" into a mini concert by performing 6 new songs that will be on their follow up to Once titled Strict Joy (October 27, 2009) and one older song, "When Your Mind's Made Up."
Breaking News! New Leslie and the Ly's Video. The only time I cried at a concert from laughing so hard. Not just a tear, I mean rolling down my face.
Florence + The Machine just released their debut album Lungs (July 9, 2009). They released an EP in April, A Lot of Love: A Lot of Blood that includes their cover of Cold War Kids' "Hospital Beds." Florence Welch sounds like a spawned baby of a lesbian love affair between Sia (Zero 7) and Bat for Lashes singer, Natasha Khan. This Mercury Prize nominee's video for "Drumming Song" would be perfect at 2-4 am on MTV when they actually play music videos.
Florence + The Machine - Drumming Song
MP3: Florence + The Machine - Kiss With A Fist.mp3 (Lungs 2009)
MP3: Florence + The Machine - Flakes.mp3 (Mystery Jets Cover)
MP3: Florence + The Machine - Hospital Beds.mp3 (Cold War Kids Cover)
Final Fantasy (Owen Pallet) is a Polaris Prize-winning violinist who recently played both the Hillside festival in Guelph Lake, ON (July 24-26) and the Pitchfork Music festival (July 17-19). The festivals were complete opposite experiences for Pallett as he described Pitchfork's fest a "festival filled with a bunch of spoiled babies... who went online to whine about everything from the music to the weather. Every single band there was among the hottest bands I could ever hope to see, and yet people were still complaining." "Here at Hillside, everybody could complain about the lineups for the bathrooms or the beer or whatever, but nobody's complaining - they're just having a good time."
Unfortunately, the drizzle on the Hillside turned into an outright poor while he was performing "Lewis Takes His Shirt Off" from his upcoming album, Heartland (due out at the end of 2009), as the stagehands scurried to cover the equipment with plastic. The rumored album that has taken a couple of years to make is finally in the completion stage. Pallet, the foot pedaling looper, recorded some of the album at the Greenhouse studio in Iceland, where Bjork made some of her records. His longtime friend and once Arcade Fire band mate, Jeremy Gara, helped him out with the record. Final Fantasy's career started opening for and playing with Arcade Fire after their release of Funeral (2004). Being a bachelors graduate in music composition, he wrote the string arrangements for Funeral and Neon Bible. For his upcoming album, Heartland, he recorded alongside a 50 piece orchestra in Prague. Traveling even more to his hometown Toronto and then New York for mixing.
MP3: Final Fantasy - Song Song Song.mp3 (He Poos Clouds June 2006)
MP3: Final Fantasy - The Butcher.mp3 (Spectrum, 14th Century - EP September 2008)
MP3: Final Fantasy - Ultimatum.mp3 (Plays to Please - EP October 2008)
MP3: Final Fantasy & Ed Droste - Possibly Maybe.mp3 (Stereogum Presents... Enjoyed: A Tribute To Björk's Post)
Update: Listen to the entire Dodos album Time to Die (September 15, 2009) at Time to Die.
The most remarkably talented modern day Mexican musicians are Rodrigo y Gabriela. If you don't have goose bumps after listening to their rhythmic hand-made classical guitars, then you have no soul. They embelish musicianship to the core and make the indie guitarists sound like kindergardeners. The video is of a song with an unknown name off their new album 11:11 (September 8, 2009) following their self-titled debut (2006). "Diablo Rojo" was on their debut album.
TOUR DATES:
09-16 Terminal 5 - New York City, NY
09-19 Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre - Denver, CO
09-21 Moore Theatre - Seattle, WA
09-23 Fox Theatre - Oakland, CA
09-25 Orpheum Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
By far the best album of 2009 thus far is Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear. The song "Ready, Able" is a whimsical taste of what it will be like on Halloween this year when they perform with the London Symphony Orchestra.
There is something incredibly magical about the rarity of the three female singers of Broken Social Scene: Feist, the Star's Amy Milan, and Metric's Emily Haines, singing live together. They all attribute to BSS albums but are never seen together live. Usually, one of them joins the band when they have a break from touring with their other bands. Along with the ladies are the guys Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Andrew Whiteman, and Justin Peroff to name a few of the cluster f of guys on stage. Broken Social Scene are in the process of recording their fourth album.
The song "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" is when you get to see all three ladies singing together live on this amazing quality amateur video. A song I wish was around when I was a seventeen year old. "Used to be one of the rotten ones, and I liked you for that...Smiling flash, talking trash, under your breath...park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me." No other lyrics could sum up a 17 year old's existence better than that. The third video is the duet couple, (I'm not sure if they are still dating) Kevin Drew and Leslie Feist. The medley includes "Safety Bricks" (Kevin Drew), "Past in Present" (Feist), and "I Feel It All" (Feist).
Imogen Heap released her solo debut album, I Megaphone, a decade ago in 1998. With the UK success and critical acclaim of Heap's debut, her original record label, Almo Sounds, gave her a deadline to construct songs for her second album. A similar story to Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), in that the label told her the songs lacked "hit potential" leaving her career in the palms of the label. Soon after, Almo Sounds was sold to Universal and in the transfer Imogen was "layed off."
A few years later she grouped up with Guy Sigsworth thus forming a British electronic duo. They released their only album to date, Details, in 2002 and disbanded only a year later. He left to help write and produce for other artists including Britney Spears. Most U.S. familiarity of the band came from Frou Frou's somewhat theme song, "Let Go" for Zach Braff's film, Garden State (2006).
After the dispersion of Frou Frou, Imogen Heap created her following two albums, Speak for Yourself (2005) and Ellipse (2009), huddled in her house conceiving various sounds on computer software programs. Even live she brings her electronic equipment that she created the background beats etc. on while she whisk fully sings alone with no band. Another way her eminancy flourished is when her songs "Goodnight and Go" and "Hide and Seek" from Speak for Yourself ended up on the crappy show the O.C. Heap has a way to bring forth enjoyably indulgent songs much like Tegan and Sara. With every pop song easy on the ear, she is sort of like graffiti on a bathroom wall, for a good time call Imogen. There is something comforting about having consistent albums that never cease to deliver. She is quirky and rambles in person but her lyrics are controlled, direct, and melodic. Michael Jackson was also a weirdo, but he knew how to create a great pop song. With the hype of Imogen Heap's new album, Ellipse (August 25, 2009), she recently went through an Ebay crisis when a record critic tried to auction off an unreleased sealed recording of Ellipse. The album was going for a ridiculous amount of money when furious Imogen and Ebay prevented the leak. Imogen has choronologically recorded video blogs (40 of them) of her recording process. "First Train Home" is her first single released off of Ellipse via Stereogum.
Stream: Imogen Heap - First Train Home
Beck spent one day covering the Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967- Yes, the album cover with the Andy Warhol banana) and will post one song at a time on the internet calling it his Record Club project. He has so far released 3 songs from the album. So far...the covers are quite exceptional, especially his newest released of "Femme Fatale."
Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.
Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Waiting for My Man' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.
Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Femme Fatale" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.
Nothing seemed more appropriate than this little ditty for Independence Day. Björk has just released Voltaic (June 23, 2009). It is a box set of 2 CDs and 2 DVDs supporting her last tour for her overly-produced album Volta (2007). Thanks to Timbaland (OneRepublic, JoJo, Missy Elliott), Volta has been the only disappointing Björk album. Lets put it this way: following a water boarding session with a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, play Volta on repeat for a few hours and after the atrocious headache they will be begging for more water boarding. Fortunately, the live performances of Volta are much more appealing and exciting without being overboard.
One of the CDs is a live performance from olympic studios. Half of the live CD are songs from Volta and the other half dozen are fresh reworkings of her classics. She varies up her oldie but goodies and seemingly misses a tune from her Debut album. Björk even throws in "The Pleasure Is All Mine" from her underrated album Medulla (2004). The magnificently composed album, Medulla, consists of only one instrument, the mouth. She gathered up beat boxer Rahzel (The Roots), Mike Patton (Faith No More), and others to virtually create the entire album by human sounds and a cappella voices. Here are the track listings for the live Voltaic CD:
- Wanderlust
(Volta)
- Hunter
(Homogenic)
- The
Pleasure Is All Mine (Medulla)
- Innocence
(Volta)
- Army
of Me (Post)
- I Miss
You (Post)
- Earth
Intruders (Volta)
- All Is
Full of Love (Homogenic)
- Pagen
Poetry (Vespertine)
- Vertebrae
By Vertebrae (Volta)
- Declare
Independence (Volta)
- My
Juvenille - Live (Volta)
The other CD is all remixes. There is even a remix of "Wanderlust" by Ratatat. One of the DVDs is 21 different songs live in Paris and Reykjavik. The other DVD is videos. In the video for "Declare Independence," the eye catching luminous blue circle the guy is moving the blocks around on is called a Reactable. The musician controls the system by manipulating tangible objects. By rotating and connecting the blocks/circles one can create sample loops, synthesizers, or any imaginable composition.
"Nattura" is a song that Björk released last October to support the environmental Nattura organization that is concerned with the preservation of Icelandic resources. It has the equivalent blood pumping intensity as the live "Declare Independence." And those little moans and groans in the background are of previous "I've Seen It All" (Dancer In the Dark Soundtrack- Selmasongs) duet-er Thom Yorke.
MP3: Bjork - Nattura.mp3
"Actor Out of Work", "Strangers", and "Oh My God" are on St. Vincent's May 5, 2009 album release, Actor. The stripped down acoustic versions reveal Annie Clark's vulnerability and true talent. The sound quality is outstanding, almost making this more likable than the album versions.
St. Vincent "Actor Out Of Work" from Lake Fever Sessions on Vimeo.
St. Vincent "The Strangers" from Lake Fever Sessions on Vimeo.
What could be better than JoJo, the Pop / R&B artist, singing her song "Too Little Too Late?" (refer to the original for familiarizing) Well, it is Department of Eagles covering "Too Little Too Late." Daniel Rossen (Department of Eagles/ Grizzly Bear) covered the song as a birthday present to fellow Grizzly Bear bandmate, Ed Droste. With all the hoopla surrounding Grizzly Bear at the moment this is just an unexpected extra. The song was released on Tuesday and you can download it on ITunes.
All I have to say is that I HATE this video for the fact that it brings up a few of my own childhood fears. If you have ever taken any psychology class you know these are the things that make kids afraid of bunnies. Although I hope to believe that these creepy costumed people are CGI-ed for the poor kids sake, I don't believe MGMT is notable enough to have a million dollar video. In most of the scenes I will give the band the benefit of the doubt, believing they would not truly expose this innocent kid to the torment of the masked creatures. However, this is not the case in the scene where the kid walks on the sidewalk aimlessly fleeing the scary figures. The neglectful baby dropping mom is none other than Joanna Newsome. I haven't looked this up but the artwork at the end I'm assuming is illustrated by Chad VanGaalen. He has drawn for many music videos including his own.
I know I said I wasn't going to post, but when Jeff Mangum calls, you must answer. Pitchfork is showing a live performance by Mangum (of the band Neutral Milk Hotel, of course) which took place in a coffee shop in Athens. The show happened in March of '97, which was a little less than a year before In The Aeroplane Over The Sea was released -- so these are probably some of the first live performances of these songs, ever (only about three songs performed here are from that album, the others are from On Avery Island). Not that there were many live performances of these songs after that -- it was shortly after touring in support of Aeroplane's release that Mangum effectively disappeared. The sound quality is good enough, so this is pretty much the best full length show you'll ever see of him performing NMH songs.
His between-song banter is priceless -- he describes that "Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two" is about a family in the 1940's in Europe and a certain member of that family that he sometimes has dreams about (we now know that he was referring to Anne Frank, but the audience didn't know that at the time). Also, the little story he gives about why he wrote the song "Engine" is so sincere and up-front, that I am pretty glad that he stopped appearing publicly -- where ever he is, I am sure that his authenticity is still totally intact.
I think its safe to say at this point, that In The Aeroplane Over the Sea is the single most important indie-rock album ever made. I say this, not only because of the unquestionable merit of the album's music, but also because the face of indie forever changed post-Napster, and really, anything after that is simply from a wholly different era. This video is special because it was recorded in the waning hours of the analog age and features songs from an album that possibly acts as that age's swan song.
In related news, Best Buy is going to start selling vinyl. That probably means that you'll be able to buy In The Aeroplane Over The Sea at Best Buy soon (maybe you can already, who knows) considering its one of the best selling vinyl albums in the past ten years (fourth last year behind In Rainbows and Abbey Road). I also read that Walmart is going to be devoting 8-square feet to vinyl (thats huge if you consider Walmart's hyper-sophisticated supply-chain mechanics). How long have I been saying to friends that I wanted to market low-price band-driven turntables? Vinyl sales went up 85% last year. Guess I missed my window.
Edit: After writing this I was reminded of some writings I did in college for the school newspaper which related to Napster and the music industry. I was shocked to read how on top of my crap I was almost seven years ago when I wrote this stuff, so I thought I'd post a link to those articles. My writing back then is only slightly worse than it is now. But I was singing almost exactly the same tune.
This one is from February of 2003. It was a pretty complete statement on my views of the recording industries decline at the time, and I still pretty much agree with everything that I wrote then -- I'd add a lot, but I don't think I would subtract anything from the following article:
I couldn't find a direct link to the following article that I wrote in August of 2002, so it's included after the jump. There is some suspect reasoning in the following article, I guess my ideas weren't as completely formulated as they became in the previous article -- but I do like what I said about file sharing opening the doors of competition. You can see how I was totally over-using hyphens and dashes, a habit I have happily -- continued to do.
Continue reading Video: Jeff Mangum -- "Starlit Crypt".
The Decemberists dropped by the Jay Leno show last week to totally blow the cover off of a version of "The Wanting Comes In Waves" off of the new album Hazards of Love. Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond takes the center stage for this performance (even though she's technically 'stage right'). Whereas, in My Brightest Diamond, Worden is a little too melodramatic for my tastes, in the setting of this song Worden's powerful pipes are put to a much greater cause -- melting your face. I love that the Decemeberists are continuing to develop their sound, moving from what was heavily Neutral Milk Hotel-sounding to something a little closer to indie-Led Zepplin. If you don't buy that, just listen to "The Island" off of The Crane Wife -- you'll see what I mean.
The modern Americana folk singer, Alela Diane's first live performance arose from an invitation by fellow Nevada City, CA native and childhood friend, Joanna Newsom. Diane's (now residing in Portland, OR) writing inspiration was sprouted by the anguish of her parent's divorce. Many articles oddly parallel Newsom and Diane, but I hear at times a conglomerate of Beth Orton on pitch, Laura Gibson, and Joni Mitchell. This self-taught guitarist grew up waking up and falling asleep to her parents singing in the kitchen. Surprisingly, she recorded some of her serene album To Be Still (February 2009) in her father's home recording studio.
She describes her sound as "the deeper sounds of the river." References of war, fields, and rivers sweeps you away to another time, back when life was about working hard to provide for your family's survival and the beauty of nature. There was no electricity, computers, televisions, or cars to warp your brain into caring about trivial things that aren't important. Diane pulls out lyrics about the old ambitious American dream and the humble heartaches that turn up along the way. This folk primitiveness is a rare find these days. People strive to come up with novel lyrics never heard before when occasionally all you want to hear is truth and simplicity. She reminds you of the small things in life. My personal ancestral favorite is "Age Old Blue," a folk song my great grandparents could have sang on the rugged ol' Oregon trail (by the way I used to love that computer game). The deep undertone harmonization by Michael Hurley creates a beautiful composite duet. Although this album came out a few months ago, I thought it was more than worthy of mentioning. It encompasses true folk music, and is a fresh breath of country air. You can download 8 live songs on Daytrotter from her albums To Be Still and The Pirate's Gospel (2006).
TOUR DATES:
05-08 Masonic Hall at Hollywood Forever Cemetery w/ Iron & Wine - Los Angeles, CA
05-09 McCabes w/ Mariee Sioux - Santa Monica, CA
05-10 Muddy Waters w/ Mariee Sioux - Santa Barbara, CA
05-11 Café Du Nord w/ Mariee Sioux - San Francisco, CA
Natasha Khan and Bat For Lashes hit up "Late Night With David Letterman" last week and performed their amazing song, "Daniel", from the recent release, Two Suns. Letterman even gives a story about getting drunk on his way to Brighton, Khan's hometown -- and then after the performance clumsily fumbles around the stage. They must have been done early and had lots of time to burn before the end of the show. Oh, and, Natasha is my future wife, naturally.
As for #musicmonday, as of 3:57pm today, that term was the #1 trended twitter term in the country. Pretty successful day.
Playlist
