Fucking Hipsters

courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan

Vampire Weekend Covers The Plastic Bertrand

1. Vampire Weekend have been one of the biggest buzz bands of the year. I was lucky enough to catch them at a small venue in London this past January before they started playing much bigger places such as Terminal 5 here in NYC.

2. Back in the 80s there was an amazing French new wave band known as the Plastic Bertrand. They were pretty underground in the states, but from what I remember I think they were somewhat successful in their native France.

What do these things have in common? Well the other night in Paris VW payed homage to the new wave greats and covered their biggest single "Ca Plane Pour Moi" (a song some might remember from the movie European Vacation). Plastic Bertrand were great and I would love to see them live (reunion?) and it's so awesome to see someone pay tribute. If you're not familiar with their work I highly recommend the following: Ca Plane Pour Moi, Major Tom, Stop Ou Encore, and Asterix est La.

No One Womanizes Like You

The Hood Internet has done some great mash-ups this year and you can download all their stuff from their site for free, but this new one might be my favorite.

ABX - No One Womanizes Like You

VOTE!!!

This Modern Love

Bloc Party's "Silent Alarm" was one of my favorite albums in 2005 and they certainly had the potential to become one of my favorite bands of the decade. Their debut showcased loud guitar riffs, dance breakdowns, assaulting percussion, and seemed to be taking indie rock in a great new direction. However after a bleak sophomore release and a dismal third effort these guys have faded off my radar and instead of a great new direction they inadvertently ushered in a bad British dance craze full of bands like the Klaxons and the Kooks. Their debut can still get things going for me and I enjoy a few tracks from their second one every now and then, but that is about it. Luckily I was fortunate enough to catch them in the summer of 2006 in Boston before "A Weekend in the City" came out so I got to hear all the good stuff. Recently La Blogotheque caught these guys off guard in an alley in Paris and got a great acoustic performance of one of my favorite songs from "Silent Alarm."


Bloc Party, 'This Modern Love' - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Still love that one...

Time Takes a Cigarette.

My show reviews of Fleet Foxes and TV on the Radio have been posted on Stories In High Fidelity (hopefully more to follow) so there has been a lack of updates recently. I'm working on some new projects, both writing and photos, so hopefully I'll have more to say in the near future. In the mean time keep it scene in the city.

Jeff Mangum Returns!

The Elephant Six Holiday Surprise show made its way to Pittsburgh last night and marked a historic event in indie music. The show's finale was Jeff Mangum playing Neutral Milk Hotel's "Engine" in the middle of the room accompanied by Julian Koster. This was the first time in ten years that Mangum has played a NMH song in public. Can we please have that reunion tour now?

Fleet Foxes played Webster Hall

Fleet Foxes have been getting a lot of buzz as of late due to the success of their self titled debut LP and great live shows and last night helped fuel the fire. The tremendous harmonies that these guys create translated from the studio to the stage with great perfection, even for the acoustic impaired Webster Hall. Along with great tunes, these guys are also just plain funny and had great interaction with the audience, which is lost among most performers. Before even launching into their first song, they shared some witty banter with the audience about how Webster Hall sounded more like a CW show then a venue. However when they finally kicked into music mode their voices melted the audience. I think these guys could blow away a crowd if they just did everything acapella and last night's show gave us more of that treat. Their voices and song writing ability are clearly their strong points, yet as soon as they jammed into "White Winter Hymnal" and "Ragged Wood" they showed that they clearly were just a great band and have the whole package. These songs are really where they shine and are able to put forth their best work. It just seems so cohesive and right when the melodies, harmonies, and lyrics just blend together. As their main set ended with "Mykonos" off the Sun Giant EP they broke down the ending into great vocal parts and really just set the mood for the entire evening and proved that despite their growing popularity these guys need to stick to small intimate venues where the audience can really be fully engulfed by what these guys are doing; something lost by bigger auditoriums.


new song

set list:
Sun Giant/Sun Rises
Drops in the River
English House
White Winter Hymnal
Ragged Wood
Your Protector
Crayon Angels (Judee Sill Cover)
Oliver James
Quiet Houses
He Doesn't Know Why
Mykonos
Katie Cruel (Traditional) - unplugged!
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
Silver City - new song!
Blue Ridge Mountains

My Bloody Valentine played Roseland Ballroom

The last time My Bloody Valentine played in the United States I was 4 years old, so I thought I owed it to myself to see their first proper show of their reunion tour. Upon entering the show Monday night I had no idea what I was in for. I was aware that these guys were loud, but I did not know how loud. Well when the ear plugs specifically picked by the band were being handed out at the door, I knew what I had gotten myself into. From the opening notes these guys plowed through what they do best. Epic layers of sound that mixed brutal guitar distortion, hard drumming, and soft dreamy vocals. These legends pioneered the way almost every indie rocker uses distortion and they showed why they do it best. While the volumes were unbelievably loud, the music still sounded pure. This is how their music should be heard; live. While the band had little energy and the only words uttered were "hi" and "thank you" the band did exactly what they set out to do. Despite the fact that the band played to prerecorded samples and people complained of the vocals being too low, this is exactly what I wanted and expected from these guys. The sounds gave new meaning to the term shred and the apocalyptic end of "You Made Me Realise" will undoubtedly go down as one of the most legendary performances of live music. A twenty minute noise jam that had people hunched over and covering their ears. This was a brutal onslaught of music and noise mixed together so well that afterward I heard a fan utter "I couldn't think for the past ten minutes."



Setlist:
I Only Said
When You Sleep
You Never Should
When You Wake
Cigarette In Your Bed
Come In Alone
Only Shallow
Thorn
Nothing Much To Lose
To Here Knows When
Blown A Wish
Slow
Soon
Feed Me With Your Kiss
Sue Is Fine
You Made Me Realise

This Shit is Dope!

I'm pulling a Kanye. This shit is dope, someone buy me one. Modern Squid makes giant squid dolls that you can "adopt." I need one please!

New TV On The Radio - "Golden Age"

The follow up to the best album of 2006 drops next week and after a few listens I think this album will be pretty good as well. The more upbeat feel can definitely be heard on the first songs released but it really gets picked up on the rest of the album. These guys seem to keep pouring out awesome tunes and I can't wait to see them in October. Until then check out the video for the song "Golden Age" which has been all over the web today. It's got all the things you want: dancing cops, golden instruments, crazy animal heads appearing out of nowhere and the band dressed in all white perched atop a (cookie?) mountain.

M.I.A. Speaks Out

Despite the fact that this recent resurgence of "Paper Planes" blasting at every party as of late (this song came out a YEAR ago people) I still have love for M.I.A. So I thought I would go ahead and inform everyone what she recently posted on her myspace. Good for you!

I CAME ACROSS THIS MOVIE TODAY ,


http://www.snitt.no/mdtt/prints/movie.htm


http://www.oslodocs.com/product_pages/my_daughter_product.html

I HAVE JUST ORERED IT SO I HAVENT SEEN IT YET , BUT WITH SO MANY ONE SIDED VIEWS IN THIS WORLD IT IS ONLY FAIR WE STAY EDUCATED AND EXPOSE OURSELVES TO ALL OPINIONS. I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE BECAUSE
1. NO ONE HAS EVER ACCESSED THE AREAS THIS FILM WAS MADE IN, AND I ACTUALLY DONT KNOW HOW THESE PEOPLE LIVE.

2. ANY EUROPEAN JOURNALISTS WHO HAVE ACCESSED THIS AREA , WHO INVESTIGATED THE TRUTH, HAVE BEEN SHOT DEAD BY THE GOVERNMENT, IN A BID TO KEEP THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE ONE SIDED .

3. I FOUND THIS STORY
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/12934...

READING THE COMMENTS MADE ME WANT TO SPEAK OUT. BUT I WAS DENIED ACESS TO MAKE COMMENTS, ONLY THE WELL CONNECTED INSIDERS ARE ALLOWED TO COMMENT AND THIS IS THE CASE WITH SO MANY OF THESE BLOGS TALKING SHIT ABOUT ME. NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TELL THE TRUTH, AND SET THE FACTS STRAIGHT. SO HERE IS THE COMMENT I WANTED TO MAKE!

THE TRUTH TO WHY I LEFT TO SRILANKA WAS ...
A. I COULD , I WAS BORN IN LONDON.

B. EVERY TOWN AND VILLAGE MY MOTHER TOOK US TO WOULD GET BURNED DOWN BY THE ARMY. IN THE END EVEN THE TAMILS WOULDN'T LET US STAY THERE AND AFTER MY SCHOOL WAS SET ON FIRE BY THE ARMY, I HAD NOTHING TO DO THERE, AND WAS REALLY FUCKING BOARD.

C. FUCK YOU TO ALL THESE EVIL PEOPLE TWISTING THE TRUTH. YOU DONT SPEAK FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN SPEAK FOR MY SELF.

D.WHAT PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND IS THAT YOU DONT HAVE TO BE A TAMIL OR A LTTE SUPPORTER TO KNOW THAT BURNING DOWN A SCHOOL WITH 800 KIDS IN THE NAME OF FIGHTING TERRORISM IS NOT COOL. I AM NOT A LTTE SUPPORTER. I WAS JUST AN 8 YEAR OLD THAT DIDNT GET KILLED ON THAT DAY, THATS ALL. I'M A MUSICIAN WHO DOESNT WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN, ESPECIALLY IN THE MUSIC PRESS.


THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR HEARING THIS

EVERYTHING IN ME WAS KILLED BUT MY ART IS NOT DEAD!

i love you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx m.i.a
_ _ _

Way to speak up on shit and let people know who you are and what you're all about.

Snap. Crackle. Pop.

If you know anything about me it is the fact that I love music. It is my ultimate passion and I live it and breathe it to no end. It should then come to no one’s surprise that perhaps my most valued possessions are my records. Of course my music collection is my world, but even more then I care about my 15,199-song itunes library, I care about my vinyl.

To me there is nothing like putting the needle down, hearing the crackle, and then hearing a form of sonic pleasure. Nothing sounds as good as when you hear it on vinyl. Sometimes it’s like hearing a record in a whole new way. The gentle opening notes of “Everything In It’s Right Place” off of Radiohead’s Kid A almost transcend out of the speakers like nothing I’ve heard before as opposed to the almost trapped and compact sounds that come out of an mp3 or compact disc. Don’t get me wrong I love living in this digital music generation and I would not listen to nearly all or most of the music that I do if file sharing was not possible, but now I am going back to music at it’s roots.

Vinyl is truly for the real music fan. The space required and time that it takes to find such classics is not for everyone, but those who do it know its worth. Upon finding my favorite albums and classic gems I feel as if I am experiencing the album in a brand new way, free from the limits of digital media. Even major music magazine Rolling Stone has stated on several occasions the importance on this resurgence of vinyl. While I’m not saying it could save the music industry, despite the fact that vinyl sales are on the rise, it could save the way in which fans listen to music. It should be more of an experience. Music is not meant to be shuffled around. When listening to vinyl you are making a commitment. There is no jumping around between artists and songs. It’s side a, then flip to side b. Perhaps Shelby Lynne put it best: "It's about as real as you can get. You got your vinyl, your weed, your friends, and while you're rollin', they're pickin' out another record. We're all taking music for granted because it's so easy to push a button. I mean, come on - music should be fun."

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

In a year which I have been very challenged for good new music, Fleet Foxes has been a clear front runner. Their Sun Giant EP gave me a good first impression and now their self titled full length is in top running for my album of the year. The video for the second track off their full length has been a recent highlight for me and reminds me of Bjork's "Wanderlust" so check it out. They recently announced a fall tour, but the Webster Hall show is sold out.

All Points West

All summer lead up to last Friday night. A long summer of being at home and away from the city had been too much for me to handle, but on my last day as a teenager I made up for it. Friends from home and school all gathered together at Liberty State Park for the first day of the first ever All Points West festival. Despite the stellar headliner that was Radiohead, the rest of the fest left people wanting a little more. The location was beautiful yet difficult to get to, the rest of the bands were alright, and the festival just seemed to be a little under prepared. However I still had an excellent time.

The day began with Mates of State, who I have never listened to, but have heard quite a lot about. While I enjoyed their set and wished I had known some of the songs since they seemed really good, I was very distracted with trying to eat a quesadilla, rain, and wind. Nature did not seem to be on my side. Despite the weather the band held out and played their whole set. Fortunately seeing this show allowed me to get the very front position for Grizzly Bear who came on next. These guys were excellent. The band I was most looking forward to see all day did not disappoint. The harmonies, guitar work, and perfection drumming sounded great live. The band even played an astounding four new songs during the set as well as classics such as "Knife" "Little Brother (electric)" and "On A Neck, On A Spit." Whenever these new tunes get recorded and released I'll be very excited.

We took a little break after Grizzly Bear and chilled near some art while we enjoyed CSS from outside the crowd. These guys put on a great show. The costumes were great and the energy was strong. They even got us moving during "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above." After their set we moved over to the main stage to claim our spots for Radiohead. During the process we were able to catch the last half hour of Underworld, however our energy was consumed for the spectacle we were about to witness. Taking the stage about five minutes late was about the only flaw Radiohead performed that night. The set list was phenomenal. Pretty much every track from In Rainbows and all the other albums packed in between. Even though I had seen these guys before this show was still breathe taking. The lights alone would have made the experience worth it. The LED rods that seemed to show every color in the spectrum at some point in the show were hypnotizing. The band was perfect. They played the classics and took them to a whole new level. The greatest band in the world playing with the New York City skyline in the background was the perfect way to end my teenage years.

setlist:
01. 15 Step
02. There There
03. Morning Bell
04. All I Need
05. Lucky
06. Nude
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. Optimistic
10. Videotape
11. Reckoner
12. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
13. You And Whose Army?
14. Idioteque
15. Climbing Up The Walls
16. Bodysnatchers
17. How To Disappear Completely
--
18. House of Cards
19. Pyramid Song
20. Paranoid Android
21. Dollars and Cents
22. Street Spirit (Fade Out)
--
23. Cymbal Rush
24. Just
25. Everything In It's Right Place

Mark Ronson (featuring Amy Winehouse) - "Valerie"

A friend of mine in London was really into Mark Ronson and this song was blowing up while I was there. I hadn't listened to it since I got back until today and I thought I would share it with everyone.

New Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"

Grizzly Bear continue to impress me as they performed a brand new song entitled "Two Weeks" on Letterman last night. The amazing harmonies and poppy melodies are once again presented in an interesting and unique manner that make Grizzly Bear one of my favorite current bands. Can't wait to catch these guys at All Points West in a few weeks.



Also according to a rumor on productshopnyc Barack Obama may be making a special guest appearance at Lollapolooza to introduce Kanye West for his headlining slot. Sounds pretty good to me.

Siren Fest 2008

If there is one thing to be said about this year's Siren Fest on Coney Island, is it was hot! The Village Voice once again hosted it's annual free summer music festival, however this year it happened to land on one of the hottest days of the summer. The weather would plague my friends throughout the day and we ended up losing a few soldiers along the way.

Weather aside, the day was great. We caught an early performance by Parts & Labor upon first arriving. These guys had a great mix of post-punk/indie rock/noise going on, however the draining heat limited my ability to enjoy the set. Since the Dodo's were running late I was unable to see any of their show and so I headed straight to Annuals on the Stillwell Stage. The band did a great job of mixing some new songs into the set while stilling being able to rock through songs off their first LP. Even the somewhat jammy finish came across with much appeal. The rest of the day was dispersed amongst other various sets by Beach House, Jaguar Love, Islands, the Helio Sequence, and wondering Astroland. As Broken Social Scene's set loomed closer we were able to catch the Helio Sequence's surprise cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows" which revived some much needed energy. BSS took the stage at 8:00 and immediately dived right into their excellent set. From the moment these guys walked out the energy began to climb and it didn't peak until they left the stage. Brilliant guitar work on "Cause=Time" was followed up by the catchy "Fire Eye'd Boy" and my personal favorite "7/4 (Shoreline)." Not only was the entire crowd drawn into the performance, but these guys just seemed to be having so much fun onstage. So much fun that only the marathon closer of "It's All Gonna Break" was able to end this weekend party.

Parts & Labor

Annuals


Coney Island


The Crowd

stolen.

I saw this last week or so on gorillavsbear and I couldn't resist. My favorite albums from each year I have been alive. Obviously the earlier it goes the harder it was to determine a favorite so I did my best.

1988 – Sonic Youth | Daydream Nation
1989 – Pixies | Doolittle
1990 – Pixies | Bossanova
1991 – My Bloody Valentine | Loveless
1992 – Rage Against the Machine | Rage Against the Machine
1993 – Nirvana | In Utero
1994 – Portishead | Dummy
1995 – Radiohead | The Bends
1996 – Weezer | Pinkerton
1997 – Radiohead | OK Computer
1998 – Neutral Milk Hotel | In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
1999 – the Get Up Kids | Something to Write Home About
2000 – Radiohead | Kid A
2001 – the Strokes | Is This It?
2002 – Wilco | Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003 – the White Stripes | Elephant
2004 – Arcade Fire | Funeral
2005 – Sufjan Stevens | Illinois
2006 – TV on the Radio | Return to Cookie Mountain
2007 – Arcade Fire | Neon Bible

video: drive-thru

I've always thought people should do stuff like this more often. Collaborations, while aren't always good, are at least usually fun. Thus is the case here. I really like all three of these artisits, but the song is not that great. Anyway it's a cool idea and the video is pretty sick. Maybe more things like this will start to happen.

Produced By Pharrell - Santogold, Julian Casablancas, N.E.R.D.

All I am saying is that this pin was sold at the Republican Convention in Texas this past weekend. Check it out.

Bon Iver played St. Giles-in-the-Fields Church

After spending the past five months in London I cannot think of a better way to end things then with this show on Wednesday night. After seeing Battles a few weeks ago I thought it would be a while before I saw another great show, however this did not turn out to be the case. Port O'Brien opened the show and for never having heard them before I was pretty impressed. Great job of foot stomping folk tunes to get the crowd ready for a great night ahead. While these guys were good, the spotlight clearly belonged to Bon Iver.
The church setting could not have been more perfect for the angelic voices that descended upon the audience as these three men took the stage. I was a little nervous about how well the album would translate live as those voices are simply gorgeous on the recording, yet I was anything but let down. From the opening distorted guitar sounds I knew that this show was going to be something special. Everything seemed to be perfect. The harmonies were unreal, the percussion was thundering, and the guitars were filling in all the right places. I cannot think of a better sounding live show that I have ever witnessed. The guys played "For Emma" in it's entirety (albeit out of order) and never missed a beat.
Justin kept thanking the audience over and over and referred to the experience as a dream after the audience erupted in joy and applause after each number. "Skinny Love" ranks right up there with other classics as one of the best songs I have ever seen performed live (Others being "Paranoid Android" and "Hey Jude"). However the ending rendition of "For Emma" in the middle of the church sans microphones and just and acoustic guitar and those amazing vocals was directly in front of me is an experience I will not soon forget.
The show was simply breath taking. There was nothing to complain about from the brilliant sound to the absolutely quiet audience. The last time I saw people so enthralled with a performance Thom Yorke was playing the opening to "Exit Music (For a Film)". The only thing that the show made me sad about was the fact that I do not think listening to that record will ever give me the satisfaction I felt from hearing it performed live.

Sigur Rós gets folky

In keeping with the trend of new music posts, I am currently digging the new single from Sigur Rós entitled "Gobbledigook." The single is available free for download on their website and the new album drops in June. This is definitely a new direction for these guys (think Animal Collective on Sung Tongs) and I hope they keep it up on the rest of the album. Something to look forward to for sure. I also highly recommend watching the video for the single which you can see at their website while you download the mp3.

Also the people over at Woxy have a complied this year's list of the 500 greatest modern rock songs. I guess modern rock covers quite the field of songs, but none the less this is a pretty good list. Very up to date with old classics and new indie anthems that should please the average moder rock fan. Anyway here is their top 10 and you can find the whole list here.
10. U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday
9. Radiohead - Paranoid Android
8. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
7. The Clash - London Calling
6. Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
5. R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
4. The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
3. Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun
2. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
1. Radiohead - Creep

Beck - "Chemtrails"

The first single has been released from the forth coming Danger Mouse produced Beck album (check it out). I think Beck is one of those artists that consistently release good music, but for some reason people don't get as into him as they should, or at least that's my feel towards him. I always seem to forget about him and I really shouldn't. The man has put out some amazing stuff throughout his career (and this track seems to lean towards more great stuff), but for some reason I keep him on the back burner of my playlists.
In other new music news I must admit that I feel like this year has been a little lack-luster. Nothing has come around that has blown me away like albums from last year. I realize that we're only about halfway through the year, but not much has really stuck with me. Aside from the new Portishead (which is currently atop my year list) only a handful of releases have really stuck with me. Vampire Weekend was an early front runner and is something that I still really dig. M83 put out another great record, but after that I have some slim pickings. Narrow Stairs is good, but at least for now sounds just like other Death Cab albums. I was hoping for a curve ball somewhere in there and as of current listenings I have yet to hear it.

Suggested Listening of 2008:
Portishead - Third
Vampire Weekend - s/t
M83 - Saturdays=Youth
No Age - Nouns
Los Campesinos - Hold On Now Youngster...
Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP
Animal Collective - Water Curses EP

Battles played Astoria

It had been a while since I had seen a show so I was particularly excited tonight when I went to see Battles. Mirrored was one of my favorite albums of last year so I couldn't wait to see these tracks live.
The opening acts were also something I was looking forward to seeing. British band Fuck Buttons opened the show and I must say these guys were as impressive as they could be considering the way in which these guys make music. There is only so much two guys mixing sonic sounds of swirling samples can accomplish in a live act, yet these guys were pretty good. They mixed stuff up and had some really killer beats that got the crowd moving. Overall I was left with the same feeling I get off their record. These guys build some killer sound, but it doesn't seem to go anyway. I keep waiting for it to peak and it never quite does. Still I was impressed with what I saw.
Originally Liars was supposed to take the second slot, but they had to back out in order to open for Radiohead. Instead they were replaced with Dirty Projectors, a band I knew nothing about. Even now after seeing them I'm not too sure what to think. I was not sure what I was supposed to walk away with afterwards. They had some great female harmonies, a eccentric drum with some really awesome beats, and a guitar player that jumped all over the stage. In the end I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to take away from the performance. It seemed as if too much was going on for me to really be able to take in the band as a whole.
When Battles took the stage I was in complete awe. Their recordings are such intricate works of art that I was unsure of how they would translate live, but I was anything but disappointed. They were one of the tightest bands I have ever seen and performed more like a well-oiled machine then a band. Just watching them was amazing let a lone the sounds they were producing. They started things off a little slowly, but eventually built things up and had the place rocking. From the time "Rainbow" came out of the speakers until the end the place didn't stop rocking.

Asterix est la

A while back a friend introduced me to this guy from France who was kinda big in the 80's and I've recently been listening to him again. The Plastic Bertrand had a minor hit in the U.S. with "Ca Plane Pour Moi" and his song "Stop ou Encore" was featured in the movie Three Kings. I think this is some classic material and this song is so good. I haven't been able to find an mp3 of this song so a youtube video will have to do.

Oh Shitttttt!

I remember when Drexel played the Parish my freshman year of high school. It was one of the best moments I ever had at that place. These guys blew everyone away. Five years later they are still one of my favorite hardcore/punk bands and "The Inevitable is Available" is one of my favorite all time records. I found this video the other day of one of the songs off that album and felt the need to share it with the rest of the world. Reunion please??

My Bloody Valentine coming to America, Grizzly Bear rock Conan

After 16 years, shoegaze pioneers and legends My Bloody Valentine will return to the U.S. They have announced their first show as the headliners and curators of All Tomorrow's Parties in New York. The festival is scheduled for September 19-21 and will take place in upstate New York. The rest of the stellar line-up and more info can be found here. They have also announced that they will also have a 6-8 gig tour around the same time, however no word on dates or cities.

Grizzly Bear performed on Conan O'Brien the other night and rocked their new single "While You Wait for the Others" from their forthcoming album (video below). Once again these guys have seemed to produce a killer song and you should expect to hear it on their summer tour where they will be opening for some band.

I've said it before...

The new issue of Rolling Stone talks about the best things in rock in 2008 and while I don't agree with some of what they have to say I can't argue with this.

"Best Festival Band: Radiohead. The best live band in rock played its greatest concert ever on June 17th, 2006, at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. "The performances are brilliant," says Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, "because they are so relaxed." At Bonnaroo, Greenwood, singer Thom Yorke, drummer Phil Selway, and guitarists Ed O'Brien and Colin's brother Jonny covered every extreme in their studio catalog, from the violent double-guitar clang of 1995's The Bends to the haunted electronics of 2000's Kid A. But it was in the fresh, unfinished songs, later cut for 2007's In Rainbows, that Radiohead peaked that night. "In 'House of Cards,'" Colin says, "50,000 people threw their glow sticks in the air to this kick-drum beat and Thom's keening voice. In the film [of the concert], it looks like Thom walked into a party where he feels instantly at home." Some new songs sounded flat at that show, Colin admits. "But isn't that what people want to see — the next part of the story? They don't want some prepackaged supper-club band." [read more]

I swear I will talk about this show until the day I die. Best musical experience of my life.

Bon Iver on La Blogotheque

More great videos from La Blogotheque have caught my eye. Five videos of a live Bon Iver set in San Francisco have been posted in the Back on Stages section. This dude is amazing and his debut release "For Emma, Forever Ago" is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. The video for my favorite track "Skinny Love" is below for the rest go here.

Back On Stages #2 Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Uploaded by lablogotheque

New Weezer

New Weezer single "Pork and Beans" is posted on their website. This is the first single off their next self-titled album which will be known be everyone as the Red Album. Could this be the return of classic Weezer? Check it out here.

Tomatoes and Radiowire

This is interesting to say the least. Not sure how I feel, but it is cool to see other people's interpretations and ideas. Definitely a cool project and always nice to see tribute to such an amazing album.

[more...]