MP3: “Your Hands (Together)” – The New Pornographers
The New Pornographers, despite rumors of their imminent demise, have returned to the studio and have a full-length due out May 4. This first single definitely makes New Pornographers’ fans anxious for the upcoming album . . . The huge band of gypsy musicians that they are breeds a HUGE sound on the track. “Your Hands (Together)” is an epic, percussive single that makes me think of old 1980’s cop movies for some reason. Perhaps I’ve just had too much morning coffee and the repetitive rolls and cymbal crashes are a bit much this morning.
Besides . . . I swear I’m hearing lyrics about Lee Majors or something.
Together is out on Matador, May 4.
- New Pornographers Official Site
- Support The New Pornographers on
Like
mp3: Ascending Melody
Listen to Ascending Melody
TrendRobot Rating: 9/10
Good lord I love the Dirty Projectors. After snagging my top spot for albums of 2009, the band releases a 7″ that continues to hone their odd-rock orchestra.
Ascending Melody is a song that definitely embodies what the Projectors are all about. Carefully crafted and improvised at the same time, the song sounds like a family garage jam-session. Guaranteed to brighten the most overcast days, The Dirty Projectors are a band unlike any other. Head to their official site to download the Ascending Melody 7″ in it’s entirety, for free!
- Dirty Projectors official site
- Support the Dirty Projectors on
Tour Dates: Anyone going to Coachella will be in for a show
|
The Allen Room @ Lincoln Center | New York City, New York | ||
|
Walt Disney Concert Hall | Los Angeles, California | ||
|
Montechristo Room | Auckland, New Zealand | ||
|
San Francisco Bathhouse | Wellington, New Zealand | ||
|
The Lost Weekend | Brisbane, Australia | ||
|
Golden Plains Festival | Meredith, Victoria | ||
|
The Hi Fi | Melbourne, Australia | ||
|
The Metro | Sydney, Australia | ||
|
The Rosemount Hotel | Perth, Australia | ||
|
Shibuya Club Quattro | Tokyo, Japan | ||
|
Big Ears Festival | Knoxville, Tennessee | ||
|
Coachella | Indio, California |
mp3: Ruby Soho
TrendRobot Rating: 7/10
Listen to Vampire Weekend cover “Ruby Soho” (Rancid)
Stereogum noted that while reviewing Vampire Weekend’s Contra, the fellows had quite a love for punk, hardcore, and dancefloor ska. The unabashed love for Operation Ivy and Rancid seems to be one more bit of info that nudges me towards loving Vampire Weekend. While you’ll never, at any point, in this track, believe that it was a Tim Armstrong song, I love the breakdown with smoothed vibrato.[Stereogum]
- TrendRobot Reviews Contra
- Vampire Weekend official site
- Buy Contra from
TrendRobot Rating: 8/10
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Listen to “Beat The Devil’s Tattoo” from the forthcoming LP, due out March 9, 2010
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club always seem to be just what rock n roll needs. A gypsy band of guys in leather jackets, doing garage-rocking, jangles with very very lo-fi production. “Beat The Devil’s Tattoo” takes rock n roll back to it’s dirty, Rolling Stones, roots.
From the forthcoming LP, Beat The Devil’s Tattoo, the title track is an ode to every influence that the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has ever had. With a touch of southern voodoo and flair, this track is really as much of a party-stomper as it is a preview track.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Site
Support B.R.M.C. on
The Shout Out Louds are really rolling out the marketing tools in support of this February’s Work. After receiving an advance copy of Work, “Walls” was undoubtedly the single and stand-out track. “Fall Hard” is an interesting song in the mix . . . a bit mellow and more vocal cadence than most Shout Out Louds work.
The video for “Fall Hard” finds the band backstage before a late-night, european talk show, waiting to perform in the murky smoke of the show’s host
Shout Out Louds – Fall Hard from Merge Records on Vimeo.
- Official Shout Out Louds Site
- Support The Shout Out Louds on
mp3: Walls
TrendRobot Rating: 9/10
Listen to “Walls” from the upcoming (February 23, 2010) Work
There are few bands that I get downright excited about receiving an advanced copy from these days. The Shout Out Louds, after taking a short hiatus in the latter months of 2008, returned to Stockholm to re-invent themselves on an upcoming project. Later, turning a barn into a full-on, musical temple, the band mixed-down what would become Work, to be released this February.
Work finds the Shout Out Louds in a different mode than they were on Our Ill Wills, but still as vibrant and angsty as ever. This track, “Walls”, has been on constant repeat since I received the advance. Review soon to follow.
- The Shout Out Louds
- Support The Shout Out Louds on
Whether or not 2010 will be the untimely end of the wonderful Yeah Yeah Yeahs remains to be seen. Recently the video for “Skeletons” has been making the rounds on the internet and has the band showing at least a little bit of life, despite rumors of recent, in-house squabbles.
“Skeletons” is a great, artsy, jaunt through a graveyard. Karen O and Co. haunting the graves as they triumphantly play their tune. Great imagery. Great video.
- Support the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and purchase this video on
TrendRobot Rating: 7/10
mp3: Hardest Button to Button (White Stripes Cover)
Listen to “The Hardest Button to Button” from The Golden Filter
The glitz and the glamor of the New York music scene. Always first to produce a dingy, yet gleeming sound, the New York clubs are constantly buzzing with great dance music, and endless artisan renaissance. The Golden Filter, a two-piece from the big apple, thrive on sensuality, a “Yeah Yeah Yeah’s with a chaser” type effect. Lead singer Penelope Trappes croons over Stephen Hindman’s air-tight arrangements to create some beautifully accessible electropop. The band, formed in 2008, opened for The Presets on their 2009 United States tour and created quite a bit of buzz on the internet. Besides, covers are hot right now. The bottom line being though, whether or not New York wants the sound to be accessible . . . it’s too good to ignore.
The White Stripes has never felt more brooding and dark. The thumping of Meg’s drums gives way to Hindman’s soft-touch, house beats. Trappes whispers her lyrics into the voice module until you’re entranced into believing this isn’t a cover at all.
Support The Golden Filter on
TrendRobot Rating: 8/10
I simply had to designate Spoon as the bearers of today’s Track of the Day. With somewhat of a disappoint showing on their latest, Transferrence, I had to put a nod in to the great work on prior albums.
Albeit a pop supergroup of sorts, Spoon was always innovative in that everything was stripped down to it’s bare, raw, lo-fi essence. Sounding like a garage recording from the 70’s, Pitchfork once described Spoon’s early sound as “just swinging by the studio to drop off some tunes”. I couldn’t have summed it up any better.
Playful and exuberant, Britt Daniel stretches his rasp beyond key every opportunity he gets on A Series of Sneaks. The band, on this album, really established their forte in creating brit-rock infused R&B, playing through grooves and rhymes as only white men can.
TrendRobot Rating: 9/10
Cold War Kids – “Audience of One” from Behave Yourself EP
Buy “Behave Yourself EP” now
Ah . . . our girlfriends. Our wives, our girlfriends, our significant others. As much as the chemistry of “togetherness” allows, sometimes we have to hand it to eachother for just how much inane BS the other person puts up with. At some point, we’ve all been on the endless shopping trips, through the mood swings, and sat through long, boring, chick flicks.
In the same breath though, they listen to us ramble on about our latest vinyl discovery, comic book fetishes, music rants, skateboarding atrocities and so on, so forth. They put up with just as much stuff that they don’t particularly care about as we do. The Cold War Kids apparently realized this and decided to devote their latest (and, by far, greatest) single, “Audience of One” to the matter. Casting their own girlfriends in the video, the band created a real, fighting couple’s chemistry that we all know all too well.
“But babe . . . it’s a live album!”
