The One-Hundred and Fourteenth Day

Music Festivals this summer:
Though I would love to go to Bonnaroo, it is much to far and expensive. On the other hand, a festival with many of the same musicians and also easy access for me and a friend, All Points West seems like it's going to be AMAZING. All three days are unmissable basically, but $200 dollars for 3 days and 50 bands from which to pick your ultimate viewing experience is an unmissable opportunity if you live at all near Liberty State Park.

Don't forget the free Siren Music Festival on Cony Island.

The last festival, though I am no where close, is the Redding Festival in England, though it is sold out, so find a scalper if your close and enjoy the amazing line up.

The One-Hundred and Eleventh Day.

It's been exactly two weeks, my bad.

and I only have a few things to share sadly.
First, July 18, save the date if you live even 2 hours from New York City. Siren Music festival on Cony Island is a free music festival taking place on that day, Micachu is playing, and a few other bands. http://siren.villagevoice.com/siren/

More later probably.

The Ninety-Seventh Day.

Micachu's album, which I somehow got, is fabulous. Definitely not an album with only a single to enjoy.
Not necessarily my favorite track, but the track who's sound most often is stuck in my head is "Floor" off of Jewellery. This one is just a Micachu track, and the lack of lots of technological beats and regular drum beats from the shapes, is refreshing. Also, it's one of the only tracks ever that successfully did noise harmonies. Where the harmony doesn't follow the lyrics and actually is just a noise, but it still sounds good, and actually makes the track sound better.
Though "Gold Phone" is the most accessible, and the one that will probably turn up on some commercial, "Vulture" is defiantly the best song and the one that most sums up Micachu and the Shapes sound. Heavy strumming, lots of technological sounds, and steady loud drums.
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1879161/4806008/
my friend is god, so that is a link to download Jewellery. Have fun with it.

The Ninety-Third Day.

Micachu & the Shapes. I am so very excited to load the album "Jewellery" onto my iPod, when I can. Though I have yet to love the whole album, I have contracted a sever addiction to "Gold Phone" and "Vulture"
Though I'm sure the short snippets do no justice to the whole tracks on the album, and I'm looking forward to contracting the same addiction to the whole album. I was afraid Jewellery was only going to hold one single I was excited about. Singles from 2009 is this weeks playlist by the way.

Here's some Micachu, also check out her video with Bob on NPR on live concerts from All Songs Concidered

The Ninety-First Day.

Two Suns
I just got the album, and was sad to find it much to easy to talk over. In fact it was almost awkward to not talk over. Maybe I need to spend some alone time with it, but I guess I much more of a sucker of semi-pop songs that I can catch a lyric here or there to sing too. Bat for Lashes sings so personally that I'd feel intrusive singing with her, or at least they allude something to personal. Also being a lyrically biased listener, I'm slightly unimpressed. They simply seem to be just statements without any word to sound mastery or attempt.

If you feel the same disappointment, here's some noise music from Boo and Boo Too (Boo happens to be my childhood nickname, so that's a double plus for this band)

The Eighty-Seventh Day.

Hold Time and Middle Cyclone.
I have been listening to the pair a lot in this past week and have noticed a very interesting thing, the match up quite well. It seems as if their formula's are almost the same. It's one part acoustic love songs + acoustic songs with a beat + a few mellow acoustic songs = one dang good mostly acoustic album.

My friend has gotten me in to the Math Rock genre, something catchy about it I guess.
Therefore, the next play list will be a Math rock one. This is to show off a genre becoming slightly more popular and to fill my need to listen to some Battles, who don't have an album out this year.

It seems back in the day I was into a lot of math core.. I discovered this looking for any math rock album due out this year. 2008 and 2006 seems to be the much more popular years to release, so I'm having a hard time finding a good 2009 release from a Math Rock band. In face many even numbers are release dates (1996, 1998).. I guess Math Rock bands are much more even than odd.

I've found one slightly math rock influenced band (Joan of Arc) but I'm slightly uninterested, they don't really follow the formula for math rock tightly.

Finally, in the "T" 's I found three releases from Math Rock bands
- Idioms Vol. 1 by Tera Melos this ep is a cover ep, so I don't know how it will sound
- All the Saints/These Arms Shake by These Arms Shake is a 7" (the glorified single)
- Animals by This Town Needs Guns is a full album which came out in the US this January, I'm excited to take a listen.

Oh lame slide show... but this is the most math rock sounding of This Town Needs Guns I could find. Apparently their track "Banboo" is much more Math Rock-y, but I cannot find it. It's all missing the atypical melodies (the vocal medodies is what I'm more concerned with) and replacing it with quite typical melodies.

The Ninth Playlist.

Easily misused songs play list

1. Wedding Cake - Fol Chen (imagine this being played during a wedding, and laugh)

2. Actor out of Work - St. Vincent (imagine this on a sitcom, starring an actor out of work, and laugh)

3. My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille (imagine this on any sitcom. and laugh)

4. In the Flowers - Animal Collective (imagine someone running through flowers, and laugh)

5. The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade - The Joy Formidable (imagine happy family times, and laugh)


This just shows how easily a song title can be misinterpreted and sadly, many are. That's why it is easy to tell if a music supervisors is good or bad, they actually listen to the song for the felling rather than just the words. A mixture of feeling and words is definitely the best, but hard to come by.

The Eighty-First Day.

The play list this week is going to be of "Songs easily to misuse" in a Music Supervision standpoint. Mostly obvious lyrics that could be easily put into obvious situations, which would almost ruin the content of the song, but also sounds that could be misused. This whole play list, unlike others, is going to be of songs only from this year.


I know it's a little late seeing that the album came out in , but Fol Chen's album keeps coming up, so I must now take it seriously. The album "Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made" is about as serious as the title, but delves out some serious kiddy sounds. It's like if the kinder-music groups got some serious lyrics, and looked at a market much older. I'm enjoy the stuff I've found online (such as the video below) but I've found their live performances to sound more interesting.



Epically "wedding cake" live. It's gotta be like 20x better. Now if only I could find a good sound quality recording.

The Eighty-th Day.

My last post on St. Vincent was very un-expansive, so I decided to post about here again; partly because she's all I listen too until the album gets kicked off of first listen (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103138882) and partly because I feel as a reader you deserve more about it.

Top Notch songs
- Strangers
- Marrow
- Actor out of Work

All three songs feature some awesome beat.
Strangers have the pounding bass behind so very airy sounds on top of it, and a surprising lack of hard guitar.
Marrow brings in that hard guitar and backed by a disco beat.
Actor Out of Work is the most addicting song on the album, I listen to it at least twice as much as any other song off the album (except for maybe Marrow). The charm of the song comes from it's again hard hitting drums, and brilliant horn sounds that awkwardly break up the song while progressing it (contradicting, I know). The lightness of Annie Clark's easily over-powering voice on this track gives way to the technical sounds, as well as the moments of chaos.

Back to the fact that this is an album of pieces. Though pieces, they all seem to come from a happier Annie Clark, not that she was ever unhappy, but IS undeniable that she LOOKS happier. Check out the new album cover and compare it to Marry Me's cover. Though the live shows may not show it, something still has changed from the DUMBO Sessions (widely accessible on You Tube) to her more recent performances. It might just be the hair, though it is completely necessary that someone that shares hare with Little Orphan Annie (and a name) should look so happy.

St. Vincent is now in her Daddy Warbucks stage and past the orphanage.


Here's the Video for Actor out of work

The Seventy-Eighth Day.

So St. Vincent's album is an album of singles. Each song is unique to it's self and much more enjoyable that way.
This year (so far) has seemed to be an album of a whole, maybe "Actor" will bring about some fantastic albums of pieces.

I love the album already. I'm gonna listen to it for free as long as I can, and then buy it at the very moment it comes out on May 5th. Good job St. Vincent, hope to see you sometime over the summer live.

Banter. Visual Entertaining.

That's exactly what Tiga's video for his song "Shoes" sums up.
Great, simplistic, but also witty banter for two complete characters, with cool visual effects.


Tiga "Shoes" from AlexandLiane on Vimeo.

St. Vincent

Her new album "Actor" (out May 5th) is streaming on NPR's first listen podcast starting tomorrow.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98679384

is the website. Other goodies for the site is Camera Obscura's new album which is due out in 2 days.

The Seventy-Sixth Day.

Oh silly M. Ward.



Animation Videos... there everywhere.

The Seventy-Third Day.

I've discovered that Thurlow is poor mans Eulogies. The both have a similar sound but Eulogies is a little tighter and has had more experience in the studio, this (Here Anonymous) being their second recording and first full length album.

It is either this or just the song "Two Can Play" sound similar to Thurlow.
Either way, I'm more excited for Thurlow's progression into a full length album, then their current album which needs a little work. Still an enjoyable piece though.

The Seventy-First Day.

Thurlow
They only have a 8 track EP, but it's good. On the surface they do sound pretty generic, but truly, there is some intriguing stuff here. Of the two piece(both singers on different tracks) the girls voice isn't my cup of tea, but it is an interesting sound. She sounds very classically trained, with seemingly perfect pitch. I don't know, I like a little bit of misguided attempt, but it's still a good sound.

The tracks I like more are when the male sings. He has a very average voice for the genre I like, but I guess there's a reason I like it.

The band defiantly has potential to do more, like add more band members. Sometimes the production gets a little cheesy. The bass lines could be worked in a little better, but a solid album still.

The Seventy-th-Day.

So I guess it's really in fashion of higher register female singers to cover Kings of Leon songs.

http://hypem.com/#/track/797858/Bat+For+Lashes+-+Use+Somebody+Kings+of+Leon+Cover

Also an awesome 80's remix. AC Newman did it this year, but this remix some how uses more 80's stereotypes than the actual song.

http://hypem.com/#/track/797918/A+Ha+-+Take+On+Me+The+Twelves+Remix

Death Cab EP. thurlow.

Death Cab for Cutie has an EP coming out on April 14. It's called the Open Door EP



Of samples from Amazon, it sounds like a solid Death Cab album. Not too changed up, but why would you with such a working formula? Ben Gibbard's voice on anything becomes gold, so look out for this EP. In full versions there's probably a stand-out single that will show up everywhere. (Like the above video)

thurlow
little bit of happy mellow. Found them on Myspace, it's like if Mates of State decided to mellow out and use one singer more than two singers. They also have there own sound of course off of the Mates of State reference. There 8 track EP seems like just about the right size. Hope to get it soon.
http://www.myspace.com/thurlowmusic

The Sixty-Eighth Day.

The formula for music last year lies somewhere in loud happy music (ex Mates of State, Santogold, and so on) or very dark acoustic music with lots of harmonies and beards (Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, and so on).

Already, the mixing of the level of happiness with loudness of the music has been changed up. Bruce Peninsula, for example, creates some haunting songs around a chorus of up to 10 people. Neko Case builds some happy music on her quiet, but full, record. All we need now is a very contemplative happy song from a man with a beard. Or maybe the opposite; Colin Meloy could grow a beard and his very loud, in the end miserable, album could satisfy all aspects of beardyness, sorrow, and volume.

BTW: Demigods by Mega Wand and Steamroller by Bruce Peninsula fit oddly well together if played at the same time by accident... Steamroller at a much lower level.

thanks to The Musicologist for the Mega Wands find(check under the others. with love
for his blog.)

The Sixty-Sixth Day.

It's Blitz!
By the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it's the perfect popish album to come out this year. With the easy to enjoy, but not really capturing, sound which anyone can agree on. I'm glad it came out, and the album is prefect for just that, agreeing on a cd in the car where you can feel your indie edgeyness, but your mother can also sing along.

The only reason I would at all be a disgruntled customer would be of the lack of Yeah Yeah Yeahs essence. Fell In Love With the Night is undoubtly my favorite song by them. Maps is also up there, with the aggressive drums, simple but rough guitar, and smooth vocals or Karen O. They lose themselves a little behind the disco fever.

The album does show some progression in the band, in the use of electronics, and such, opposed to only vocals, drums, and guitar. Karen O.'s brand of vocals still adds all the vocal catches and breathy yells. I can just imagine drummer Brian Chase grooving with the Disco beat and instrument man Nick Zinner felling a little like a mad scientist creating the disco-era-parallel backing sounds under his emotionless facade.

Check out the 80ish dance moves from Karen O.

The Sixty-Fourth Day.

This truly is just hilarious.

http://hypem.com/#/track/793288/Franz+Ferdinand+-+Womanizer+Britney+Spears+Cover
Womanizer by Franz Ferdinand.

http://www.mediafire.com/?xmmwwjymq32