m3 online

We're Back

2006-07-09T19:54:00.000-04:00

So we're back, but if you access this site from www.goodweatherforairstrike.blogspot.com you won't be able to access it anymore. Instead enter www.goodweatherforairstrikes.com into your browser and go there. We really did return July 5th but I just didn't realize the old blogger page was still accessible until some of you sent emails inquiring as to our whereabouts. So yeah, there you go.

Love,

Derek & Everett

On Hiatus Until July 5th. We Miss You.

2006-06-14T20:16:00.000-04:00

And thus the dreaded hiatus begins. Everett's at beach week drinking away his sorrows and engaging in all sorts of debauchery, so I'll give you all the lowdown on what happened. After Everett posted those Thom Yorke tracks ezarchive was all "that's not allowed, you must remove the mp3s from your archive" and while we removed the mp3s from the blog, one of us forgot to remove them from the archive. This shouldn't have been a big deal, only the songs were so sought-after that the mp3 links had been posted all over the internet (forums, other blogs, etc.), and as a result they continued to be downloaded. Thus, despite our best efforts to oblige, we did not comply with ezarchive's request, giving them the right to shut down our account, which they proceeded to do. Color us owned.

But hey, the hiatus isn't really all that bad. First of all, there's less than a month until we relaunch, and when we do, Good Weather For Airstrikes will have a whole new look and a veritable cornucopia of new content and features. The hiatus gives us time to prep said new content and also allows us to redesign the site without shaking things up here, which would have been the case if it weren't for this break. Here's a brief look into what you can look forward to on Good Weather For Airstrikes version 2.0:

a professional redesign, featuring a new header, logo, color scheme and layout
new features, more frequent updates, and better content (interning at a prominent record label yields all kinds of benefits, the least of which is exposure to all kinds of new, great and unheard of bands)
full review and summary of the Intonation Music Festival, complete with an inside look at all of the weekends hottest parties (seriously, does anyone throw a better party than VICE?)
a veritable crapload of show reviews, as my time in NYC has already yielded more incredible concert experiences than you can count on one hand (Regina Spektor playing to fifty people in Manhattan's oldest church? epic)
M3 Volume 9 (as well as many more volumes to be released throughout the summer)
one of those best-of-2006-so-far lists that everyone loves to hate and hates to love
more commentary and witty banter from Everett and I that is guaranteed to be at least 200% more adorable than before

Now before you get all teary-eyed on us, I know some of you are wondering, "Is it something I did? Was it me? Should I have commented more? Am I not pretty enough?", and the answer is no. It's us, not you. But we're only going away for a little while, and yeah, we know you're probably going to fool around with some other blogs here and there, and we understand, we're a little bit hurt, but not mad. It's nothing we can't get past, we'll come back for you and we hope you'll come back to us. We like you a whole lot, really, and we have this feeling that this could really turn into something beautiful if you'd only give it a chance. That said, here are some suggestions as to how to best pass the time while you await our return:

Visit all the blogs in our blogroll, we like them lots and lots and we think you should to. Also, check out Green Pea-ness, who I'd add to the blogroll now but blogger's all frontin' and shit and won't let me. If you can get past that unfortunate name, you'll see that this is one of the best blogs out there. James is doing an awesome job over there, and his writing is some of the best you'll see on any music website, let alone any music blog, out there. James and I share a similar appreciation for great production and dancy British rock, so if you're into that you've found your new favorite blog.
Head over to Cable & Tweed where Rich, who was one of the first to champion GWFAS-favorite Heypenny, has posted an awesome live set from those lovable Cold War Kids. I had the priviledge of seeing Cold War Kids a week and a half ago at Bowery Ballroom, and despite the fact that they were the first opening band and were only afforded a 45 minute set, they brought the house down and may have been the best live band I've ever seen (stay tuned for a full review after the hiatus). Seriously, this band is for real. Best new band of 2006? Quite possibly.
Continue reading All Things Go. Zack and I are basically the same person (NOTE: there is actually a facebook group titled "Zack Friendly Is The New Derek Davies"), so if you miss me too much head over there and he'll be sure to treat you right.

I had a couple more suggestions, but I'm at work and I started this post at 7 PM at the same time people were breaking out the beer (Beck's sent VICE 25 cases as part of their promotional partnership) and at that point I was merely nursing my first Sparks, but after numerous distractions, a couple more Beck's and Sparks, and a binge font-downloading session, it's now 9:30 and I hope you'll forgive me if I just want to get the tearful goodbyes over with.

Finally, if you really like the site and you're really sad we're going away and want to do something to help, it'd be super awesome if you felt like donating to help get things back up and running. The expenses involved with getting a new hosting service and professionally redesigning the site aren't exactly neglible, and if anyone wanted to throw some cash our way it would be more than appreciated. Any person who makes a donation over $5 (this is making the bold assumption that people would actually want to donate in the first place) get an awesome prize pack assembled by yours truly. Each will vary, but they'll probably include a couple mixes (an advance copy of M3 Volume 9 maybe?), some sweet vinyl LPs (I have more Silent Alarm [Bloc Party] and Hind Hind Legs [The Lovely Feathers] LPs than I know what to do with), and a random assortment of other CDs, posters and vinyl 7"s that I'd love to send to loyal readers. If you have a PayPal account and would like to donate, my PayPal account is registered to my UVA screen name, dwd7e@virginia.edu, and you can easily donate simply by pressing the PayPal donate button on the left sidebar beneath the Defunker ad. So yeah, now that I've gotten my shameless begging out of the way, I guess that's pretty much everything. Thanks for reading and we hope to see you soon when we relaunch the site on July 5th.

CONTEST: Guillemots Dress & Prize Pack

2006-06-10T21:00:00.000-04:00

PREFACE: Due to a dispute with our hosting provider, our account has been terminated and Good Weather For Airstrikes will be going on a brief hiatus until July 5th. This contest is the last of two posts, the second of which will appear early next week, after which our hiatus will begin. I will write up a full farewell post sometime next week that further elaborates on the situation and will reveal what new surprises we'll have in store for you when GWFAS version 2.0 launches in July. To reiterate, we're not going away forever, we'll just be taking a little break while we revamp the site, find a new hosting provider, and get all of our shit together.

Not that anything's going to top the excitement generated by those new Thom Yorke tracks, but I thought I might as well put in a valiant effort by giving away some free stuff. That's right, a contest. I'm not much of a contest guy, but I've been assembling some pretty sweet prize packs (i.e. stealing stuff while my bosses aren't looking and toughing out the lashings when I get caught) and will be giving them away throughout the summer.

The catalyst for all of this is the overwhelmingly awesome Guillemots contest. Not only will one lucky winner win both the CD and 10" gatefold LP versions of Guillemots incredible debut EP From The Cliffs (along with some stickers and postcards and whatnot), that same lucky winner will also win a one-of-a-kind (pretty much) Guillemots dress! The lovely folks over at Evil Needles have been churning out awesome DIY dresses adapted from punk t-shirts for punk rock girls for years, but now they've got their sights set on your indie, Guillemots-loving girlfriend. Fyfe designed the logo featured on the Guillemots t-shirt below, and Evil Needles will be taking that shirt (which is originally an Adult XL) and tailoring it down to fit your measurements, which I will elicit from the winner after he/she is selected. Here's how it works: Evil Needles takes this shirt (follow the link or look at the image below) and turns it into a dress that looks something like this, and then sends it straight to your doorstep, a little bundle of DIY love. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail adress. That's all. You might think that with a prize pack as awesome as this the qualifications might be a bit more stringent, but yeah, you just need a name and an e-mail adress to win, and the winner will then be selected randomly. If you are a personal friend of mine, you are not eligible for this contest because that just wouldn't be fair, sorry. The contest will close ten days from now on June 18th, and a winner will be announced shortly thereafter (or when we return on the 5th of July, we'll see). Below is the shirt, which was designed by 'Mots lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield himself, which will be turned into a dress and will look a little bit like this or this in the end (except it's made from the Guillemots shirt, obviously).

And one more thing. Did I mention the 10" LP is autographed by the band? Well it is. I don't even have one of those, and I'm over at addVICE section of the office everyday, sucking up to those kids 24-7 like it's my job (which it is). But that's enough talk, here's a full list of all the awesome shit you get if you win, in case you're unable to read anything not presented in list form:

Guillemots stickers
Guillemots postcards (featuring the album artwork)
Guillemots ' From The Cliffs CD, which is only like the best thing ever
Guillemots' From The Cliffs signed double 10" vinyl
Guillemots' dress courtesy of Evil Needles

I will contact the winner, at which point I'll need you to give me your/your girlfriend's/your friend's measurements, which I will pass on to Evil Needles, who will in turn do their magic and whip you up a fly-ass Guillemots dress.

Normally, most of my Guillemots posts just end with me throwing up an mp3 of "Trains To Brazil" and telling you how omg it's the best song ever. This time I've got some special treats for you, two exclusive Guillemots tracks, acoustic versions of their two most recent singles, "Trains To Brazil" and "We're Here".

MP3s:
"Trains To Brazil" (Acoustic) - Guillemots
"We're Here" (Solo Piano Version) - Guillemots

And, um, yeah, in case you forgot, "Trains To Brazil" is still the best song of the year.

MP3: "Trains To Brazil" - Guillemots [sooo highly recommended]

I was wholly anticipating Through The Windowpane (still with the preposition-based album titles), out in the UK on July 10th, to be my album of the year (From The Cliffs is my favorite release so far), and while my first few run throughs of it (it leaked earlier this week) fall slightly short of that expectation, it's still an incredible debut full-length and justifies all the hype Guillemots have received as of late. The next single from that album will be a re-produced version of "Made Up Love Song" (out June 19th), and the video is already in roation on MTV2 and VH2 in the UK, but if you know of somewhere on the internet where it's available for viewing let me know in the comments. Good luck to all on the contest, which again, ends ten days from now on June 18th.

Exclusive First Listen: Thom Yorke's "The Eraser"

2006-05-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

[UPDATE: We apologize for the lack of posts recently, we have been having issues with our hosting service. Regular updates should start up again on Monday, and we have plenty of great new music coming your way in the coming week, so please bear with us. Thanks for reading.]

Thom Yorke's day job is, of course, fronting what is arguably the best band in the world. Obviously one could tire of such a chore, so his decision to distance himself temporarily from Radiohead and establish a new musical identity is not only understandable, it's welcome. the eraser is the name of this new project, and though Yorke expressed a desire to keep the word 'solo' out of it, the rest of his band is absent from this recording. Unless, of course, you include producer Nigel Godrich as a band member; the eraser seems to be more of a collaboration between Yorke and Godrich than anything else, veering more strongly towards the electronic than anything Radiohead's done since Kid A. Indeed, at times the eraser is evocative of that masterpiece of an album, though I'm hesitant to make comparisons between Yorke's new work, which I've now only heard twice all the way through, and what I believe to be one of the defining albums of a generation. The presence of Yorke's otherworldly vocals and Godrich's electronic production make such a comparison obvious and viable. The emergence of this album with relatively little warning (the first mention of it was made less than three weeks ago) helps to soften the news that Radiohead's next studio albums release has been pushed back in to 2007.

Though I don't feel this album can really measure up to any of Radiohead's recent output, that's not really the point. Yorke made the conscious decision to try something new here, and that is what Radiohead has been doing their whole career. The innovation is present, and that's what makes this record exciting. Yorke is held to an absurdly high standard resulting from his remarkable consistency at producing diverse and incredible albums with Radiohead, and that standard carries over to his new work on the eraser. Thom Yorke meets those standards with his new album, which will surely make plenty of year-end best lists. It is difficult to remove the inherent bias one has listening to this record, as Yorke is already so established as a musician. It will forever remain a hypothetical what the reaction to this album would be were it a true debut from an unknown artist. Instead, Yorke has simply added a new chapter to the ongoing saga of Radiohead, the band that will define a generation of musicians, music critics and music lovers alike.

MP3: Thom Yorke, "Atoms for Peace" [link removed]
This is probably the most immediately accessible track on the eraser. Named after either a 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower speech, the motto for the International Atomic Energy Agency, or something entirely different, this song definitely sees Yorke's vocals at their best. The arrangement is more subdued than much of the album, giving Yorke's voice center stage with fantastic results.

MP3: Thom Yorke, "Harrowdown Hill" [link removed]
Another immediate standout track, the song borrows its name from the place British Ministry of Defense employee David Kelly, who inadvertently caused a British political scandal through his discussion with a journalist regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, was found after committing suicide. The relatively straightforward production and vocal melody mask the eerie lyrics, highlighted by Yorke's emoting what was likely going through Kelly's head at the time, "I can't take the pressure / No one cares if you live or die / They just want me gone / They want me gone."

MP3: Thom Yorke, "Cymbal Rush" [link removed]
"Cymbal Rush" was the first song Radiohead enthusiasts heard from this album, as Radiohead played it in a live setting in early May. The closing track on the album, "Cymbal Rush" ends thing on an unexpectedly abrupt end, serving to both whet and strengthen the appetites of listeners for more new material from Yorke and Radiohead.

Architecture In Helsinki @ The Avalon 5.18.06

2006-05-28T17:50:00.000-04:00

[all photos courtesy of The Village Indian/Stereogum]

If you ever get a chance to see Architecture In Helsinki and you're even a slight advocate of fun or exuberance, it'd be in your best interest to do everything in your power to make it out to see them because after seeing them bring down the house at the Avalon last week, I can assure you their live show is some of the most fun you'll ever have. Though I missed opener Clue To Kalo, I was more than ready when the AiH collective took the stage in their colorful attire and quirky outfits.

Cameron Bird is a unique vocalist because of the cartoonish highs and lows his impressive vocal range enables him to reach, and his vocals definitely held up live, as did those of adorable back-up vocalist Jamie Mildred. The show was an absolute blast, and it seemed as if everyone in attendance was having the time of their lives, especially the group of what must have been more than 15 kids who apparently skipped their high school prom to attend the show. Bird had been informed of this before the show, and invited any of the couples in the group to take the stage, and one couple took them up on their offer and climbed up on stage to waltz to "Maybe You Can Owe Me" (pictured below). Bird went on to say that John Hughes (see: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, and The Breakfast Club) would probably end up making a film about them someday, but this comment was met with mostly blank stares and nod-and-smiles from the group, all of which were likely born after Hughes box office heyday (not that I was alive then either or anything).The prom kids aside, the rest of the audience seemed surprisingly young as well, but the lack of indier-than-thou 20-something hipsters was certainly refreshing. Everyone in the crowd was moving throughout the entire show, and you'd have been hardpressed to spot a single person in the attendance who didn't look like they were having an awesome time. Highlights included "The Owls Go", "The Cemetery", "Wishbone", "Maybe You Can Owe Me", and set-closer "Do The Whirlwind". "Wishbone" was perhaps the single happiest two and a half minutes of my life, made even more enjoyable by the fact that during the horn-happy bridge, Jamie ran up to the balcony and threw confetti from the railing onto the crowd below, who loved it, before racing back down to get in place to continue her vocal duties before the bridge ended. The band also played an awesome new jam, introduced as "Derby" (if memory serves), which sounded really great and has me really excited for AiH's next release. After leaving the stage at the conclusion of their regular set, the band returned to the stage to chants of "Whirlwind! Whirlwind!", which closed the night out perfectly. Below is the setlist, which I got from Stereogum (here) but modified slightly because I know they played "The Owls Go" and I'm positive that "Maybe You Can Owe Me" was a mid-set highlight rather than a closer. I take special exception to the fact that "The Owls Go" was left off their recounting of the setlist, as the song contains what is easily the most adorable single moment in the history of music at the 2:54 second mark (which I owe Adrian for showing me). So yeah, below is the setlist from the show, with some mild guesswork at play at parts in regards to the ordering of the songs.

Setlist:
1. "Neverevereverdid"
2. "It'5"
3. "In Case We Die"
4. "Heart and Faces"
5. "Frenchy I'm Faking"
6. "Hot To Trot"
7. "The Cemetery"
8. "Wishbone" [highly recommended]
9. "Kraftwerk"
10. "Maybe You Can Owe Me" [highly recommended]
11. "Fumble"
12. "The Owls Go"
13. "What's In Store"
14. "Derby"
15. "Do The Whirlwind" [highly recommended]

Also, because a) I'm a nice guy, and b) I'm sure most of you have those AiH tracks already, I've decided to throw in a handful of "Whirlwind" remixes for your enjoyment as well, which you can get at below:

MP3s:
"Do The Whirlwind" (Hot Chip Remix) - Architecture In Helsinki
"Do The Whirlwind" (Halma's Remix) - Architecture In Helsinki
"Do The Whirlwind" (Metronomy Remix) - Architecture In Helsinki

Currently AiH are wrapping up the final dates of this tour, and have just finished a cover of The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", which is to be featured on an upcoming Beach Boys tribute (which will also feature covers by Daniel Johnston and Iron & Wine as well) to be put out by Spanish label Houston Party later this year. Also, they've revealed that they just finished their first remix, of The Shout Out Loud's "Very Loud", which should appear on an upcoming Shout Out Louds single release. Finally, AiH will be heading into the studio soon to record the follow up to 2004's incredible In Case We Die, due out in 2007, which should be excellent if the new songs they played last week were any indication.

Imogen Heap: "Hallelujah"

2006-05-27T14:22:00.000-04:00

So I finally saw the season finale of The OC this morning, which I had missed when it aired a week and a half ago because my roommate's TV in my apartment works almost as well as the internet does (read: not at all). Plot-wise, nothing happened that I didn't expect; not to say I'm prescient or all-knowing, but considering how we've been trained to hate Marissa for the entire season it's not exactly a surprise that she was the one killed off. However, it was this climactic scene that debuted, for the second OC season finale in a row, a brand new Imogen Heap song.

Last year audiences were floored by Heap's incredible "Hide and Seek"; this year we got Heap's previously-unheard cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Like "Hide and Seek", "Hallelujah" features an equally-sparse arrangement and uses Heap' stunning voice as the sole vehicle with which to tug at (or in this case, to obliterate) your heartstrings. It's rare that an artist can create a powerful peace of music without the use of any actual instrumentation, but Heap has done it before with "Hide and Seek" and proves here that she can do it again. I can't say it comes anywhere close to topping Leonard Cohen's original, or the Jeff Buckley version that made it famous, but it was a great treat regardless. Download the three aforementioned versions below, along with a great live version by Damien Rice, which begins as "Cannonball" and smoothly transitions into "Hallelujah". Also, definitely head over to My Old Kentucky Blog, where Dodge has compiled a huge list of "Hallelujah" covers, featuring even more versions of the classic, including interpretations by Dylan, Bono, and Rufus Wainwright, as well as pretty much every singer-songwriter ever. Hallelujah:

MP3s:
"Hallelujah" - Imogen Heap
"Hallelujah" - Leonard Cohen [highly recommended]
"Hallelujah" - Jeff Buckley [highly recommended]
"Cannonball/Hallelujah" - Damien Rice

Speaking of Imogen Heap and The OC, the season finale also prominently featured another new Heap track during the stirring graduation scene, "Speeding Cars", which I already featured here nearly two months ago, but am reposting due to its renewed relevance. However, when I posted that track, I received a ton of requests in the comments and via email to post another Imogen Heap b-side, "Cumulus", so here that is as well. "Cumulus" is a swirling, swelling, string-laden instrumental track, as epic and beautiful as "Hide and Seek" was before it. I prefer "Speeding Cars", which I think is even better than the A-side it supports ("Goodnight and Go"), but both tracks are worth the download regardless.

MP3s:
"Speeding Cars" - Imogen Heap
"Cumulus" - Imogen Heap

I'm home for Memorial Day weekend, so I'll be posting as much as possible to make up for my lack of posts during the week, so keep an eye out for my review of the AiH show and an artist profile containing my new favorite song, as well as, you know, other good stuff. It's a nice-ass day. Peace.

Art Brut w/ The Chalets, The Robocop Kraus, and "Art Brut 47" @ The Knitting Factory 05.17.06

2006-05-23T22:50:00.000-04:00

I officially kicked off my summer concert season in NYC this past week, catching Architecture in Helsinki last Thursday and seeing Art Brut, not once, but twice. That’s right, I saw Art Brut twice. I saw Art Brut TWICE (albeit fully clothed). Desperate puns aside, both shows were quite awesome, though the first goes down as one of the better shows I’ve ever seen (the second was just a brief eight-song in-store performance at Brooklyn’s Sound Fix) due to its incredible line-up, featuring three openers all incredible in their own right: The Chalets, The Robocop Kraus, and “Art Brut 47”, who, as speculated, turned out to be We Are Scientists.

[all photos courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan and Music Snobbery]

The Chalets were the penultimate highlight of the night, eclipsed only by the headliners, and they put on an absolutely awesome set, which I’ve already reviewed here. Next up was The Robocop Kraus, who were absolutely great. I hadn’t enjoyed the few recordings of The Robocop Kraus I’d heard preceding the show, but their excellent performance completely changed that. First of all, they were sooooo German. Second of all, their glitch-pop/guitar-rock fusion sounded awesome in a live setting, and they put on a great performance, with lead singer Thomas Lang venturing into the crowd on multiple occasions. My two favorite songs by them are “Laughter Becomes Tears” and set-closer “You Don’t Have To Shout”, both of which were the undisputable highlights of their performance and can be downloaded below.

MP3: "Theme From Chalets" - The Chalets [highly recommended]
MP3: "After Laughter Comes Tears" - The Robocop Kraus
MP3: "You Don't Have To Shout" - The Robocop Kraus

Next up was the much speculated-about and anticipated performance by Art Brut 47, who turned out to be We Are Scientists as was rumored, though there was nary an Art Brut cover to be heard. They introduced themselves as being “in the vanguard of Art Brut cover bands”, but explained that they settled for an opening slot upon the real Art Brut’s arrival in town. Instead, they explained, they’d be playing We Are Scientists covers for the evening, and immediately launched into “Lousy Reputation”. Their set consisted exclusively of tracks culled from their excellent 2006 major-label debut, With Love & Squalor, with the exception of brand new song “Ram It Home”, which is featured as the b-side on the CD-single re-release of “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt” (and is available for download here and below). Despite copious amounts of witty banter and excellent run-throughs of all the hits on Love & Squalor (not to mention Chris' excellent sports-goggles), We Are Scientists proved to be a mere appetizer for the feast of a show that Art Brut put on. Download their new b-side "Ram It Home", as well as a studio recording of the acoustic version of "The Great Escape", below.

MP3: "Ram It Home" - We Are Scientists
MP3: "The Great Escape Under The Sea" - We Are Scientists

Eddie Argos and company took the stage and right away launched into the immediately-recognizable “Sweet Child of Mine” riff, which segued perfectly into “Formed A Band”, instantly setting the tone for what would be an incredibly enjoyable performance. Argos has a flawless stage presence, overwhelmingly likeable with his affable confidence and humor, and he had the crowd laughing throughout the show with his clever and impromptu lyric revisions and monologues. In “Formed A Band”, Argos revealed his intention to write a song more universal than happy birthday and perform it “FOREVER on Total Request Live!!!.” During “Moving To L.A.”, Argos shared his ambition not only to drink Hennessey with Morrisey, but also to drink beano with Brian Eno and Rose with Axl Rose as well. Before the final verse of “Emily Kane”, he stopped the band to share the fact that Emily Kane heard the song and had actually contacted him, and that he realized that in actuality it wasn’t so much that he was in love with Emily Kane, but it was more that he was in love with the idea of being in love when he’s 15. He went on to say that “Emily Kane” shouldn’t be viewed as a desperate plea to a long-lost love, but it should be instead be thought of as a celebration of moving on from ex-lovers and accepting that it wasn’t meant to be, and being happy for them instead of harboring resentment. Amidst applause from sentimental audience members, the group immediately launched into the final refrain of the song, before leaving the stage, only to return moments later for an encore that consisted of “18,000 Lira” and their international hit of a new single “Good Weekend”. Before the latter, Eddie took us on a tour of the pop charts around the world, reminding us that “Good Weekend” was not only #1 in Ireland, but in Germany, Australia, the Ukraine, the former Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria (among others) as well, despite maintaining only the #2 spot in the UK (“but we’re working on that”, he assured us). Then, after invoking chants of “Art Brut! Top of The Pops!” from the audience, the band launched into the song, the perfect finale to an incredible performance saw a typically-unaffected NYC crowd rocking out like there was no tomorrow and Art Brut coming into their own and beginning to realize their role as one of the world’s most popular bands.

MP3: "Good Weekend" - Art Brut [highly recommended]

Though "Good Weekend" is my favorite Art Brut track and was the highlight of the show, the band did treat the crowd to one brand new song, which Eddie called "Nag, Nag, Nag, Nag". Fortunately, RySpace was in attendance and recorded an mp3 of the song for your listening pleasure, available here.

Bloc Party: Live @ Coachella

2006-05-21T20:27:00.000-04:00

So as I finish up my reviews of the shows I attended last week, I figure I'd give you one more little treat today, a great recording of Bloc Party's complete live set from their performance at Coachella last month, originally posted over on Blog Party. I took it upon myself to design some basic cover art for it in the typical Bloc Party style. The recording is near-perfect, and it's a great set, featuring two brand new songs to be included on their as-yet-untitled sophomore album, though there are a some brief silences here and there due to stalls in the live stream that the audio was recorded from. Unfortunately however, I asked one of the higher-ups at VICE about the tentative September release date for the band's next album, and apparently the album's likely to be pushed back to a first quarter (hopefully January) 2006 release, which is some of the most soul-crushing news I've heard in a while. Regardless though, here is Bloc Party's 2006 Coachella performance for your downloading and listening pleasure. Thanks again to James over at Blog Party for originally posting and hosting this, and if you like this you should head over there to download Bloc Party's entire set from BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend Festival, which was recorded and split by bootlegging legend Dave Allen (so you know it's high quality).

Setlist:
01. "Waiting For The 7.18" [new song!]
02. "Positive Tension"
03. "Banquet"
04. "Blue Light"
05. "She's Hearing Voices"
06. "Uniform" [new song!]
07. "This Modern Love"
08. "Like Eating Glass"
09. "So Here We Are"
10. "Helicopter"

Also, AT&T, who broadcast Bloc Party's set live from Coachella, has now made available for streaming and viewing three songs from the band's performance: "Banquet", "Blue Light", and "This Modern Love", which you can cheack out here.

GWFAS Exclusive: New We Are Scientists Song(s)!

2006-05-21T15:50:00.000-04:00

May 1st saw the re-release of We Are Scientists’ debut single, “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt”, and though it didn’t crack the UK top ten as I had expected and hoped (it reached #21), it did bring us two great new W.A.S songs as b-sides. “Be My Baby”, which reached #2 on the American charts when it was originally released by The Ronettes in 1963, has frequently been covered by We Are Scientists at their shows, but it wasn’t until now that we are able to listen to a produced studio version of the track. But the real draw here is brand new song, “Ram It Home”, available only as a b-side on the vinyl release of the single. Thanks to the power of the internet, I’ve got it in my possession and have made it available for mass consumption, so download away. It feels like it’s almost a parody of sorts, a sexually-charged, over-the-top rock song (a la Eagles of Death Metal), which kicks in immediately with a face-melting riff that remains throughout the course of the song, which features laughable lyrics like, “All my friends ask if my girlfriend’s pretty, I said I don’t really know I only look at her titties”. Guitar solos are in excess and are downright masturbatory in length, and even though this is obviously just W.A.S. fucking around and pushing the limits of chessy rock n’ roll, it’s still a good time to be had by all. Grab these two new songs, as well as the acoustic version of the title track originally posted on You Ain't No Picasso two weeks ago, below.

MP3s:
"Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" (Acoustic on BBC 1) - We Are Scientists
"Be My Baby" - We Are Scientists
"Ram It Home" - We Are Scientists

As a bonus, I figured that while I was posting W.A.S. b-sides I might as well go ahead and include the b-side from The Great Escape CD-Single, "This Means War", as well.

Bonus MP3: "This Means War" - We Are Scientists

Artist Profile & Live Review: The Chalets

2006-05-20T17:43:00.000-04:00

A year or so ago I downloaded some Chalets tracks from a music blog (I forget which one) that sang their praises, and while they piqued my interest for a little while I ultimately got over them and as a result of them not surviving the transfer from my old desktop computer to my new(ish) laptop, I completely forgot about them and haven’t listened to them since. However, at the suggestion of Rory and Kristin from VICE, who I met up with at Art Brut’s NYC show at the Knitting Factory last Wednesday, I arrived at the venue early in time to catch The Chalet’s opening set. Great call. I was completely floored by The Chalets, who played an awesome set and completely renewed my interest in them as a band, so much so that even picked up their debut LP, Check In, at the show after their set (another great call).

The Chalets are an adorable five piece from Dublin, Ireland, who play fun, spiky pop music, standing out an exciting anomaly in Dublin’s often morose and dreary music scene. The band is comprised of the adorable Pony (Caoimhe Derwin) and Peepee (Paula Cullen) on vocals and keys, supported by Chris Judge (who is also responsible for all of the band’s fantastic art direction) and Enda Loughman on guitars and backing vocals, and Dylan Roche on drums. After garnering an ample amount of buzz with their fantastic live shows and debut Nightrocker EP, The Chalets released their awesome debut LP, Check In, last September in Ireland, though unfortunately it's still only available on import in the US.

[picture courtesy of Music Snobbery]

Live, The Chalets are one of the most fun bands I’ve ever seen. Their banter is witty, their outfits are adorable, Pony (who is incidentally dating Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos) is overwhelmingly attractive, and the songs sound amazing. Pony and Peepee have a kind of Pipettes-esque thing going on, as they both took the stage in polka-dot red dresses with retro hairstyles and most of their songs featured some form of cutesy choreography from the two lead singers. In my opinion, with the exception of headliners Art Brut, The Chalets upstaged every other act that performed after them at the Knitting Factory last Wednesday, which includes We Are Scientists, The Robocop Kraus, and Think About Life. Highlights included single “Sexy Mistake”, which ended awesomely with Peepee and Pony absolutely shrieking the chorus into the microphone, “Theme From Chalets”, my favorite song by the group, and the incredible “Love Punch”, which sounded absolutely incredible live, completely eclipsing its studio recording counterpart. Below is the complete setlist, and all three of those aforementioned pop gems are available for download there. I'd [highly recommend] you check them out and if there’s anything right in the world, you’ll be hearing a lot more from these guys stateside in the near future.

Setlist (w/ MP3s):
1. David Boring
2. Sexy Mistake
3. Cloud Bound
4. Theme From Chalets [highly recommend]
5. Red High Heels
6. No Style
7. Nightrocker
8. Gay Holiday
9. Love Punch

I'll Believe In Anything

2006-05-20T16:29:00.000-04:00

Hello again, it's been a little while. Unfortunately, the internet at my apartment is incredibly inconsistent and unreliable, so it's nearly impossible for me to post anything from my apartment and I am as a result typing this in an internet cafe on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. Aside from my internet difficulties, I'm having an incredible time here so far. VICE is, to say the least, amazing. It's just an incredibly awesome environment to work in, with people tossing new music back and forth all day long and free CDs and vinyl everywhere I look. I spent an hour after work yesterday just taking music off of the server and ripping it to my pod, and that was barely even enough time to get half of the stuff I wanted. But what does this mean for you guys? Well all the free new music obviously means more stuff for me to post on and more new music for you guys, but addVICE (who is based in the same office as the rest of VICE until June 1st), is moving offices and as a result are trying to get rid of the vast majority of their promotional material, which means some seriously awesome contest prize packs lay in the immediate future for you all.

I'm spending nearly all of my time working at the office, but I'm getting to go to incredible shows (be on the lookout for reviews of last Wednesday's Art Brut show and last Thursday's Architecture in Helsinki show in the near future) and just hang out with really cool and interesting people outside of work. But now you're just getting bored and antsy waiting for the downloadable content, I'm sure, so let's move on to the body of this post.

As I've made it known before, I'm a huge fan of Wolf Parade's "I'll Believe In Anything", so imagine my delight when I discovered that Spencer Krug had previously recorded a more stripped down piano version of the song with his Sunset Rubdown side project, with the unabridged title, "I'll Believe In Anything, You'll Believe In Anything". While I can't say I prefer it to the original, it's definitely a great alternate recording and those who feel Isaac Brock overproduced Apologies To The Queen Mary will may enjoy this sparser arrangement more than the original. Also, as a bonus, I've also included a great live video of Wolf Parade performing "I'll Believe In Anything" that Sub Pop posted on their site a while back, a treat considering Sub Pop rarely commissions live videos, which you can and should download below. Also, for those of you who missed Wolf Parade's newest video for "Modern World" when Ben posted it over on Videoteque a little while ago, be sure to head over there and get it now, as it's excellent and one of the better videos of 2006 so far.

MP3:
"I'll Believe In Anything" - Wolf Parade [highly recommended]
"I'll Believe In Anything, You'll Believe In Anything" (Piano Version) - Sunset Rubdown

Video:
"I'll Believe In Anything" (Live) - Wolf Parade

This was just a "checking in" post of sorts, but rest assured we've got plenty more goodness in store for you in the near future, including profiles of some great new bands, exclusive new We Are Scientists material, and plenty of show reviews. Also, let's all congratulate Everett on officially graduating from high school, as he had his last day of classes yesterday (this is also awesome because it means he has more time to post, but I guess the whole life milestone thing is cool too).

Artist Profile: Regina Spektor

2006-05-16T22:10:00.000-04:00

Regina Spektor was born in Moscow in 1980 but moved to the Bronx in New York as a nine year old. Coming from a family featuring a violinist father and a music professor mother, Spektor was predestined to be musically inclined. Her classical training in the piano began at age six, and she began writing her own songs as a teenager. She released her debut album, 11:11, in 2001, followed a year later by the aptly named Songs. It was Soviet Kitsch's release, in 2004, that finally broke Ms. Spektor in the (semi-)public eye.

My first introduction to songwriter, singer, and pianist Regina Spektor was through an iTunes Exclusive song by The Strokes, "Modern Girls and Old Fashioned Men", where she and Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas shared the vocal booth at the same time Regina and The Strokes were sharing a stage, touring the United States together in 2003. The intro to "Modern Girls..." is one of my favorites, and I remember being extremely put off when Ms. Spektor's high-pitched vocals kicked in, and I took to changing the song as soon as her voice started slicing through the guitar line. Obviously, this was not the best first impression, and since then I've been extremely hesitant to give Regina Spektor a chance. 2004's Soviet Kitsch received its due of critical acclaim, yet I maintained my stance that her voice was impossible to get through and I couldn't possibly enjoy her music, and didn't even listen to the album. Well, it turns out I was completely missing out.

Soviet Kitsch happens to feature one of the better folk/pop songs featuring a backdrop of strings that I've heard in recent memory, the outstanding "Us". The first Regina Spektor song I listened to in full, it completely opened my eyes (ears?) to her outstanding voice, and since then I've been pretty excited for her upcoming release, Begin To Hope. In 2005, she released an EP called Live at Bull Moose, and in early 2006 came a compilation-of-sorts called Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories, which collected songs from her previous three full-lengths, focusing on those featuring the fictional character Mary Ann. On June 13 of this year, however, Ms. Spektor will drop the official follow-up full-length to Soviet Kitsch, Begin To Hope.

Four songs from Begin To Hope have been released on iTunes already as exclusive singles: "Fidelity", "Better", "On The Radio", and "Summer In The City". "Fidelity" is the early-frontrunner for my favorite, as it is the most reminiscent of "Us". "Better" is more of a straightforward rock song (and the albums lead single), the difference being the emphasis put on the range and beauty of Regina's voice. "On The Radio" is the apparent favorite of the iTunes crowd, as it is the leading download of Regina Spektor songs, and it again prioritizes Spektor's vocals, though from a less rocking and more storytelling standpoint. Finally, "Summer in the City" is a gorgeous ballad whose only drawback is it's relative emotional detachment; Spektor is at her best when you truly believe in the suffering or ecstasy she is experiencing, and despite her fantastic voice, "Summer in the City" lacks that in a way that "Us" and "Fidelity" do not. All the aforementioned songs can be downloaded below, as well as a remix mc DJ (the man behind the beat-tastic Sufjan remix album, Illin' Noise) made for "Us".

MP3: The Strokes, Modern Girls and Old Fashioned Men (feat. Regina Spektor)
MP3: Regina Spektor, Us [highly recommended]
MP3: Regina Spektor, Fidelity [highly recommended]
MP3: Regina Spektor, Better
MP3: Regina Spektor, On The Radio
MP3: Regina Spektor, Summer In The City
BONUS MP3: Regina Spektor, Us (mc DJ Remix)

[Postscript: Derek is having a great deal of trouble with his internet since relocating temporarily to New York City. The situation is being worked on and we promise to do our best to keep the music coming.]

Summer Plans

2006-05-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

Awh yeahhhh, my final exam went relatively smoothly on Tuesday, and as a result, I'm free from the stressful grip of finals week at UVA and summer is (basically) here. Thus, I figured I'd share with you all my summer plans. I'm back in DC for only a few days before I jetset off to New York City on Sunday to become a star. And by "become a star" I actually mean "work as a lowly intern at VICE Records and Magazine", but I'm ridiculously excited to be doing anything even remotely affiliated with VICE, so I'm definitely looking forward to my time in NYC. Most of you are probably well aware that Bloc Party are without a doubt my favorite band, and the fact that they're signed to VICE only compounds my excitement for my internship there. I'll be working at VICE from May 15th to June 30th, and will be attending the VICE-curated Intonation Music Festival on the 24th and 25th, where I will finally see the unadultered glory that is Bloc Party's live show after two years of trying to see them live. And... speaking of shows, that brings me to my next area of interest, my summer show schedule. NYC's live music scene is unparalleled, and I'm extremely excited to catch all the great bands who are playing in the city this summer. Below is my complete summer show schedule, with mp3s:

Summer Show Schedule: [all songs highly recommended]
May 17, NYC: Art Brut w/ Art Brut 47, Think About Life
MP3: "Good Weekend" - Art Brut

May 18, NYC: Architecture In Helsinki
MP3: "Do The Whirlwind" - Architecture In Helsinki

May 24, NYC: The Books (Free Show)
MP3:

May 28, NYC: Page France w/ Canada (21+)
MP3: "Bridge" - Page France
MP3: "Record Function" - Canada

June 2, NYC: Super Furry Animals (Free Show)
MP3: "Lazer Beam" - Super Furry Animals

June 3, NYC: Snow Patrol w/ The Duke Spirit
MP3: "Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking" - Snow Patrol
MP3: "Cuts Across The Land" - The Duke Spirit

June 4, NYC: Tapes 'n Tapes w/ Cold War Kids*
MP3: "Hang Me Up To Dry" - Cold War Kids

June 9, NYC: The Spinto Band w/ The Lovely Feathers
MP3: "Oh Mandy" - Spinto Band
MP3: "Frantic" - The Lovely Feathers

June 24-25, Chicago: Intonation Music Festival
(Bloc Party, The Streets, Joes Gonzalez, Annie, et. al)
MP3: "Skeleton" - Bloc Party
MP3: "Could Well Be In" - The Streets
MP3: "Hand On Your Heart" - Jose Gonzalez
MP3: "Heartbeats" - Annie

June 29, NYC: Jose Gonzalez (21+) OR We Are Scientists w/ The Double
MP3: "Hand On Your Heart" - Jose Gonzalez
MP3: "Lousy Reputation" - We Are Scientists

July 19, Martha's Vineyard: Willy Mason
MP3: "Oxygen" - Willy Mason

July 28, Boston: Bloc Party w/ Secret Machines and Mew [best show ever?]
MP3: "Always New Depths" - Bloc Party
MP3: "Sad and Lonely" - Secret Machines
MP3: "Am I Wry? No" - Mew

After June 30th I leave NYC to spend the rest of the summer at my summer home on Martha's Vineyard (I know, indie cred obliterated), hence there's only one more show after that date, Willy Mason's show at Outerland (formerly the Hot Tin Roof) on MV on July 19th, which I couldn't be more excited for. But back to the NYC shows, I've already scoured Oh My Rockness, but please tip me off to any shows you think I can't afford to miss in the city this summer that I haven't listed above. Keep in mind that, while it wouldn't be impossible for me to get into a 21 and over show as I've got a so-so ID, the fact that technically I'm under 21 is a bit of a logistical hinderance.

*Unfortunately, I was unable to actually secure tickets for this show before it sold out, which was fairly quickly due to the fact that Tapes 'n Tapes is everybody and their grandmother's new favorite band. The thing is, I don't even want to see Tapes 'n Tapes, for some reason they don't really do it for me, and I'll stay for their set and stuff, but it's Cold War Kids I'm dying to see. So if anyone has an extra ticket or something and would like to sell it to me (or give it to me?), please contact me via e-mail (DerekDavies@aol.com) or IM (AIM = DerekDavies).

Finally, Bloc Party have just announced nine new US tour dates, though they only play Boston and NYC before heading out west for the remainder of the tour. But these tour dates happen to feature maybe the best support ever, in Secret Machines and GWFAS favorites Mew, for the east coast dates, and fucking Broken Social Scene on the west coast dates, which is, suffice it to say, ridiculous. I'm going to be attempting to catch their Boston show, which should be no problem as long as tickets don't sell out in negative three seconds like Radiohead's NYC dates did, but I don't anticipate that happening. I hope everyone else is as excited about their summer plans as I am, feel free to share any particularly awesome music-related plans you have in the comments.

New Muse Single: "Supermassive Black Hole"

2006-05-10T17:26:00.000-04:00

To preface: Yes, I know Stereogum just posted this, but I've had this post written for two days (I just wanted to give Anathallo some time at the top of the page) and I feel like I might as well still post it. Plus, there's some sweet mash up goodness included here.

So, last week or so I posted that Muse would be releasing the lead single from their upcoming fourth full-length album, titled Black Holes and Revelations, in the first week at June, and that I'd be sure to get it to you guys as soon as it was released/leaked. However, the song leaked this weekend and (as a result?) the single's release date has been pushed up to, well, today. Beginning today in the UK, the single, titled "Supermassive Black Hole", will be available on iTunes and at all CD retailers and whatnot.

After a couple run throughs of the track, I'm not completely sold. I much prefer the piano/keyboard-based epic rock of songs like "Butterflies & Hurricanes" and "Bliss", and "Supermassive Black Hole" airs much more on the side of dancier glam-rock. In fact, vocals aside, the song sounds exactly like it could just be a dance remix of "Time Is Running Out", the song that brought Muse up and out from the depths of obscurity on this side of the pond. I mean seriously, and especially at the beginning, it's just like they kept the same melody and transposed a club-friendly dance beat onto it. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but I remain fairly optimistic for the quality of Black Holes and Revelations (apparently lead singer Matt Bellamy said there was a song even more over-the-top and bombastic then "Butterflies & Hurricanes", which would be, well, amazing), which drops in the UK on June 12th. Check it out for yourself below, and again, if you're a representative of Muse and would like me to remove the song, just contact me and I will take it down without resistance.

MP3: "Supermassive Black Hole" - Muse

Big thanks to Taylor from Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good, who hooked me up with this track.

UPDATE: In the comments, Iain from Delete As Appropriate brought to my attention that apparently "Supermassive Black Hole" has been getting a lot of comparisons to Britney Spears "Do Something". Now I don't specifically remember hearing the Spears track (though its probably been playing in the background at a party or club I've been to or something), the two songs are definitely very similar, and as proof of this someone on the Muse forums (credited as Citizen Erased) created a really well-done mash up of the two songs, which you can and should check out below. The song came with the generic title "Supermassive Black Hole vs. Do Something", so I've taken the liberty of renaming it in typical mash up style, to "Do Something Supermassive", I hope nobody minds.

MP3: "Do Something Supermassive" - Muse vs. Britney Spears

Artist Profile: Anathallo

2006-05-09T01:20:00.000-04:00

Every year sees a few new bands come along that inspire a whirlwind of buzz and praise based on the sole fact that they possess an intangible mysticism about them that just leaves people somewhat awed and clamoring for more. 2005 saw the Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens rise to prominence on the strength of this principle, and so far 2006 has yielded a few bands that have had a similar effect on me. The Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens mention is probably a misnomer here, because the point I'm trying to make is not that these types of bands are necessarily some of the best in the world (though Arcade Fire and Sufjan certainly are), but they bring something completely unique and refreshing to the table that just gets you excited about what they will do in the future. To this point this year has seen only two bands assuming this role for me, Guillemots and the Cold War Kids (artist profiles here and here, respectively), but Anathallo has just joined those elite ranks as well.

In short, Anathallo defy categorization; genres need not apply. They are just as much a hit with the angsty emo crowd as they are with the elitist indie types, two typically adversarial crowds. In fact, I first heard of Anathallo nearly two years ago on Absolutepunk.net (though I foolishly passed them off as another run-of-the-mill mediocre emo band at the time and neglected to check them out), but it wasn't until recently that they began popping up on the blogosphere (and loyal reader Matt tipped me off on them) and I finally gave them the attention they deserve. Basically, Anathallo are unlike anything you've ever heard. The best way I can describe their music is as sprawling, epic, and highly operatic punk rock, or in other words, the most evolved and otherworldy punk rock you've ever heard.

Sounding most often like a more conventional and refined Animal Collective (keep the unusual and constantly-evolving song structures, but lose the shrieks and unintelligible lyrics) with a co-ed acapella group on vocals (ridiculous harmonies), Anathallo also frequently garner comparisons to Sufjan Stevens with their baroque arrangements and lush instrumentation. This eight-piece collective from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan has no single musical equivalent, but instead are an amalgam of genres and styles. Their large size and deep roster (all male with the exception of vocalist Erica) helps to explain their ability to create such an expansive and unique sound, in which elaborate arrangements made up of horns, strings and dramatic percussion sections come standard. With a litter of releases, mostly EPs, already to their name, 2006 sees the release of their masterwork, Floating World, which is a small-scale epic in its unrivaled grandeur. The album has an ambience that flows subtly throughout and gives all the songs a certain mood and feeling, and four of the songs are devoted to telling the story of a Japanese folk tale, "Hanasakajijii", in four parts, which is explained in the booklet that accompanies the album and goes as follows (thanks to Big Static for the explanation):

Basically, there is this massive drought and famine plagues the country, and this old farmer's wife is washing her clothes in the river when, lo and behold, a dog standing on a log comes down the river barking, so naturally, as you would expect, she saves it. Anyway, she takes the dog back home to her husband who takes the dog outside with him as he tries to work the land, and the dog starts barking and clawing at the ground, so he joins in and digs too, and finds lots of gold. Then, their greedy neighbor comes along and sees the gold, and then half-inches the dog, but in his garden, the dog just digs up all these nasty things like slugs and bugs and snakes and such, so he kills the dog and burns its body. Then, because it is evidently a magical dog, where he buried the ashes in the ground splits open and all this wind comes out and the ashes start attacking the neighbor, so the farmer comes and saves him by scooping the ash out the ground, and then after accidentally spilling some ash, notices that it makes plant life grow, so he starts sprinkling it everywhere (Big Static).

There you have it, more or less. My favorite song on the album is the fourth and final part of the story, "Great Wind, More Ash", which is absolutely breathtaking in its swelling beauty and is right now firmly entrenched in my top five favorite songs of 2006. Lead singer Matt Joynt possesses an immensely powerful voice able to convey a full spectrum of emotions, and "Great Wind, More Ash" exemplifies the power of his voice in its finest form. Floating World is not an album of tracks meant to be listened to individually, rather it is a listening experience meant to be heard as a whole. The album flows flawlessly and each song moves seemlessly into the next, creating an operatic listening experience fitting for an ornate and fanciful theater. Thus, I've chosen to post "Great Wind, More Ash" along with "The Angry Neighbor", the song which immediately follows it on the album, to give you an example of how the song flows seemlessly from one into another. Finally, I'm also making "Hoodwink" available for download, as it's fantastic as well and, though it's not a part of the four-song Japanese folktale series, is the closest thing you'll find to conventional song structuring on Floating World.

What I'm most excited about is the fact that Anathallo and Page France (who I just profiled here) will be teaming up to release a collaborative EP at some point later this year, which is, suffice it to say, an incredibly exciting pairing. Though details on this release are sparse, apparently it's not a formal split, as both bands collaborated and worked together to record two songs, but the prospect of such a holy union of up-and-coming indie rock bands alone is enough to get a significant fire burning betwixt my loins. Please do not let the punk/emo stigma deter you from giving Anathallo a chance, you'll find it's misleading and doesn't do the band justice. I'm very interested in what people think of this group, so let me know in the comments. Lastly, please please support the band and buy the album, which you can do here, as this is an album meant to be listened to in its entirety in order for one to truly expeirence the gravity and expanse of this music.

UPDATE: Coincidentally, this morning saw the release of Floating World in the iTunes Music Store, despite the fact that the album's been out since February, so you may now go here to buy it from iTunes as well.

MP3s:
"Hanasakajijii Four: A Great Wind, More Ash" - Anathallo [highly recommended]
"Hanasakajijii One: The Angry Neighbor" - Anathallo
"Hoodwink" - Anathallo

We Are Scientists: Acoustic On BBC 1

2006-05-05T21:32:00.000-04:00

Tonight is going to be a long night for me, as my Cinema As Art Form final is tomorrow at 2 and I've got five movies to re-watch and theorize about before that time, but as I wait for The Thin Red Line and Paths of Glory to become available, I thought I'd point you all to my favorite blog post of the day, We Are Scientist's acoustic set on BBC 1, brought to you by Matt over at You Ain't No Picasso. Be sure to check this out because this is certainly not your average acoustic set, as Keith and Chris from W.A.S. not only perform a completely reinvented and reworked version of their hit, "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt", but they also drop on the unsuspecting public a cover of Sigur Ros' "Hoppipolla". "Hoppipolla" was my favorite song on the band's incredible 2005 opus, Takk..., and while the cover certainly isn't perfect, it's awesome to hear "Hoppipolla" performed on a guitar and Keith actually does an at least mildly serviceable job of recreating Jonsi's unparalleled vocals. Who knew that falsetto even existed? And it's impressive enough that he could even remember the words, as memorizing lyrics in a language as perplexing and foreign as Icelandic is surely no easy task. So yeah, be sure to check out that set here, you won't regret it. However, it's time for me to plunge back into the fiery depths of studying hell, so wish me luck and I'll be back tomorrow, most likely a fragile shadow of my former self.

The Pioneers

2006-05-05T16:12:00.000-04:00

So last night's episode of The OC sucked, as it's been wont to do this season, but one saving grace was the excellent music choices on the episode. The episode opened with a ridiculously melodramatic and highly inflected montage sequence showing Ryan beating the shit out of Volchek, as the opening notes of Bloc Party's "The Pioneers" began to play before shifting into Tunng's cover version of the song, which fit the scene perfectly. Bloc Party's version played later on in the show, before Tunng's cover, with that dramatic "All you need is time, all you need is time" refrain, closed out the episode. Even though I've already posted both versions of the song on GWFAS before, I suspect last night's OC episode will rekindle interest in the song, so I'm posting it again below for those who may have missed it the first time around. And as an added bonus, I'm also throwing in Mystery Jets' excellent cover of the song as well, just to round things out. Enjoy the original as well as the two covers, which can be found on the Always New Depths Bloc Party b-sides and remixes compilation I posted two months ago, below.

MP3s: [all highly recommended]
"The Pioneers" - Bloc Party
"The Pioneers" - Tunng
"Pioneers" - Mystery Jets

Gnarls Barkley: "Crazy" (Live on Top Of The Pops)

2006-05-04T00:22:00.000-04:00

Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere is an album that I would consider an early competitor for my year-end best list. Absolutely unique and defying any genre stereotypes, Dangermouse and Cee-Lo have crafted a 30-minute wake-up call to the hip-hop underground: if you're good enough, you can rise to the top. Dangermouse has managed to evolve from Beatles + Hov mashmaker to acclaimed major-label producer (for Gorillaz' Demon Days) while staying in tune with the indie rap scene with his collaboration with MF Doom, as Dangerdoom. Cee-Lo has always hovered on the brink of mainstream rap, with a few singles (like the excellent "I'll Be Around") that weren't as noticed by the radio as they should've been, and I relish the irony that it was only when he shifted his mainstream capabilities to indie sensibilities that he broke in to the charts in a big way.

By now you've all probably heard about Gnarls Barkley's record-breaking run to the top of the United Kingdom singles charts; lead single "Crazy" is the first ever single to make it to the number one spot before the physical single was released. This marked a few things for me: one, downloading is a legitimate moneymaker, two, when something is just great, it can and will make its way on to the charts, and three, the UK is better than the US at appreciating good music. Another thing "Crazy"'s astronomical rise to the top of the charts did was earn Gnarls Barkley a chance to perform on England's Top of the Pops. I'm sure a lot of you have seen this video, which has been making the rounds of the blogosphere in some fashion, but I can't stress enough how great it is. Gnarls slows "Crazy" way down and throws in an epic string section, while Cee-Lo's voice has never sounded so soulful. A legitimately great singer, Cee-Lo absolutely kills it on stage here, hitting all the notes he's reaching for and unrelentingly sending shivers down my spine and goosebumps up my arms. I implore you to watch the video below:

Also, to sweeten the deal, I'm putting up an mp3 of the performance I ripped. It took me quite a few tries to get a high-enough-quality version to post here, but I admit that the quality isn't exactly top-notch. Definitely worth the download, though, as though "Crazy" isn't my favorite track off St. Elsewhere ("Just A Thought" probably holds that distinction right now), this particular version is easily one of the top five songs I've heard this year. Pick it up below:

MP3: Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy" (Live on TOTP) [highly recommended]

NOTE: Unfortunately, I can't post any of the great songs from St. Elsewhere, as I know other bloggers have gotten in to some trouble with Gnarls' record label for that, but I [highly recommend] purchasing it; it's currently available from iTunes but I'd go ahead and pick up a physical copy if I were you. Also, if you are a representative of Gnarls Barkley and would like this mp3 taken down, I would be more than happy to do so, just send me an email.

John Vanderslice w/ Page France @ Satellite Ballroom, 05.01.06

2006-05-03T21:40:00.000-04:00

Well, I've already reviewed Page France's portion of the show and I've said pretty much everything new and of note that there is to say about John Vanderslice in my JV megapost, so this will be kept short and sweet.

The show was great. Honestly, I was more excited to see Page France, but it was Vanderslice and company who put on the better performance, though that's to be expected given PF's limited experience. Even though I came into the show only truly loving three JV songs ("Pale Horse", "Trance Manual", and "Exodus Damage"), I came out a much bigger fan than I came in. He's just so damn likeable. Seriously, he's one of, if not the nicest guy in music (granted, I haven't quite met everyone yet). He took the stage early to chat with a couple of the die hard fans in the front, discussed some covers they wanted to hear him play before saying, "Well maybe I should play the songs you guys know before getting into that" and launching into his performance. The songs sounded great live, and I was standing directly in front of the moog (which sounded awesome, especially on "Up Above The Sea"), soaking up all of it's synthesized glory. I had a setlist, but then misplaced it in the hellish mess thats assembled in my room since finals week began on Monday, but I can tell you that JV played every song you'd expect to hear, playing nearly everything from Pixel Revolt as well as old school classics like "Me and My 424", "Time Travel Is Lonely", and "Pale Horse" (the highlight for me), though sadly "Bill Gates Must Die" was left off the setlist (go here to view the cease and desist letter Vanderslice received from Microsoft regarding that song).

The highlight of the show was definitely John's stage presence and interaction with the crowd; the witty inter-song banter was top notch. At one point he accused Ian Bjornstad, who tours with JV on moog source and wurlitzer, of doing lines of coke off of the moog and then sent him off stage to heat up the perogies in the back. After the show, JV manned the merch table like the personable-ass guy he is, talking with and signing CDs for fans. Music needs more people like this.

On an unrelated note, in an awesome (read: not awesome) turn of events my computer completely crashed (and I mean completely), leaving me mp3-less and questioning my will to live. This happens at an overwhelmingly inconvenient time, as it's finals week and I have two essays due Friday that are nearly done but trapped in the icy grasp of my hopefully-salvageable hard drive. So yeah, wish me luck on all of that, but I'll try to find externally-hosted mp3s and have Everett upload stuff and increase his posting frequency to keep the site running as smoothly as usual. Thankfully, Vanderslice has a huge library of his mp3s hosted at JohnVanderslice.com (seriously, the awesomeness never stops with this guy), so we're set for this post. Below are my favorites from his vast library, new and old, including the brand new and fantastic Alias remix of "Exodus Damage".

MP3s:
"Exodus Damage" - John Vanderslice
"Exodus Damage" (Alias Remix) - John Vanderslice
"Trance Manual" - John Vanderslice
"Pale Horse" - John Vanderslice [as heard on M3 Volume 1]
"Me and My 424" - John Vanderslice
"Time Travel Is Lonely" (with Spoon) - John Vanderslice
"Bill Gates Must Die" - John Vanderslice

Artist Profile & Live Review: Page France

2006-05-02T10:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm aware that I'm the last blogger on earth to give Page France the copious praise they deserve. And yes, I'm also aware that it's not like I'm two weeks behind the curve on this one, it's more that I'm actually like a year or so behind. However, I'm clinging to the hope that at least there's one of you out there who hasn't been thoroughly convinced to give Page France a listen, and that I may be able to change your mind. Also, I saw them perform tonight at the Satellite Ballroom at UVA, so this will serve as both a live review and an artist profile.

Like most people, I downloaded and loved "Chariot" back when it was still the toast of the blogs, but for some unfathomable reason I neglected to seek out the rest of their material until recently when I came across a used copy of Come, I'm A Lion at Plan 9 Music and decided to pick it up. Best call ever. This album, along with Hello, Dear Wind which I also acquired recently, is incredible, and I've honestly not been able to listen to anything else since. At this point I still prefer Lion to Wind, but that's just a matter of the amount of time I've spent obsessing over "Bridge" and the other immaculate tracks on their 2004 debut. Michael Nau's songwriting is simplistic and strikingly emotional, and Whitney McGraw's backing vocals take the song's to a whole new level of stunning beauty.

Pear France are often compared to Sufjan Stevens due to their use of unconventional instruments like the banjo and glockenspiel, as well as the Christian symbolism that recurs throughout their songs, but I personally think that the similarity of Nau's vocals to those of Ben Gibbard absolutely cannot be ignored. Particularly, the "double-sided frame" chorus on "We Remain As Two" is unmistakeably Gibbard-esque, and sounds IDENTICAL to the Death Cab frontman (go here to download "We Remain As Two" and see for yourself). As for the recurring Christian symbolism, Nau counters: "The 'Christian band' inquiry wears me out, to be honest. As for the Christian symbols in my writing — sometimes I don’t even realise that they exist until someone points them out to me. There’s really no reason; it just rolled out that way." Regardless of the subject matter, Nau has a penchant for crafting beautiful and emotional songs, though there's a large stylistic jump between 2004's Lion and 2005's Wind.

Most of the songs on Come, I'm A Lion seem to be centered around relationships and evoke comparisons to a much more acoustic and stripped down Death Cab, especially due to the Gibbard-esque vocals. However, on Hello, Dear Wind the songs seem to move away from relationships to a broader range of subjects, and Nau's voice seems to evolve as well, and he sounds much more like a Jeff Mangum/Colin Meloy-type, especially in a live setting, which brings me to my review of their show.

The band took the stage promptly at 9 PM tonight to negligible fanfare and a crowd of maybe five people, but fortunately more began to filter in and move towards the stage as soon as the group commenced their performance. As a live band, Page France are great, though certainly with ample room for improvement, as is expected for such a young group. Singer Michael Nau does a good job of engaging the crowd despite their unfamiliarity with the group, and his voice, as well as the songs, held up wonderfully live. "Chariot", as expected, was the pinnacle and highlight of their set, sounding more intense than ever with awesome percussion courtesy of drummer Clinton Jones and a new verse of lyrics from Nau. But to my utter dismay, their setlist featured not a single song from Come, I'm A Lion, leaving me crestfallen and on the verge of a tantrum (not really, I stopped throwing tantrums at least two years ago). Afterwards, I asked the lovely Whitney, who I kind of have a crush on now, what the reason for this was, and she apologized and explained that they require "more people" to play. I let her know that "Bridge" was one of my favorite songs of the last few years, and she apologized again and agreed that it was one of her favorites as well, and I told her I'd try to make their May 25th show in NYC and hoped they'd play it then. Below is their full setlist, culled entirely from Hello, Dear Wind and their two 2006 EPs, Pear and Sister Pinecone (both of which I picked up at the show).

Setlist:
1. "Junkyard"
2. "Jesus"
3. "Talking Out-Louds"
4. "Dogs"
5. "Chariot" [highly recommended]
6. "Elephant"
7. ??? (probably from one of the new EPs)
8. "Antarctica (My Beloved Home)"
9. "Windy"

More importantly though, below are my favorite songs from their debut, Come, I'm A Lion. "Bridge" is my absolute favorite song by them, and I was legitimately crushed that they didn't play it tonight. Whitney McGraw's back-up vocals are in their finest form here, Nau delivers his most emotional vocals and lyrics on this track, and the most moving part of the entire album comes at the 2:08 mark when the instrumentation fades out and Nau delivers the "I'm stable, so you want me, yeah I'm stable, so you want me" line. While pretty much the entire album is incredible, my other favorites are "So Sweetly" and "Ribs", which you can also grab below.

MP3s:
"Bridge" - Page France [highly recommended]
"Ribs" - Page France
"So Sweetly Around Me" - Page France

John Vanderslice was the headliner for this show, so check the post above this for the review of his set (to be posted sometime later this afternoon).

Bloc Party Recording Update & New Song!

2006-05-01T12:47:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: James hooked us all up with another great live recording, this one of "Waiting For The 7.18", which was the other new song Bloc Party debuted to the Coachella crowd. Download it below.

First of all, I'd like to thank James over at Blog Party, your go-to place for all things Bloc Party, for being the source of most of this information, and if you like Bloc Party anywhere near as much as I do you should be checking his site regularly. Now onto the massive amounts of Bloc Party news.

Leading off, Bloc Party rocked Coachella to its collective knees yesterday, putting on an excellent show (which I watched live via ATT's webcast of the show) and even debuting two new songs to the crowds at Indio. Official friend of Good Weather For Airstrikes, Jenni Romanek, was there in the front row and reported breathlessly over the phone that the show was "amazing" and "the best thing [she'd] ever seen", before collapsing in a heap of euphoria. But in the best news regarding the band's performance, Drew from the Always New Depths forums was able to grab a very high quality recording of "Uniform", one of the two new songs played, which means we can finally put to rest the poor-quality Bloc Party live recordings that have been circulating the internet for the past month or so. No word yet on whether or not anyone was able to get a good-quality recording of "Waiting For The 7.18", but below is the band's complete Coachella setlist as well as the downloadable live recording of "Uniform".

Setlist:
1. "Waiting For The 7.18" (via Blog Party) [new song!]
2. "Positive Tension"
3. "Banquet"
4. "Blue Light"
5. "She's Hearing Voices"
6. "Uniform" (via Blog Party) [new song!]
7. "This Modern Love"
8. "Like Eating Glass"
9. "So Here We Are"
10. "Helicopter"

As for the recording update, Bloc Party will be heading into the studio with Jacknife Lee, best known for his production work on the last two Snow Patrol albums, upon returning from Coachella (so like, now). As for the sound of their sophomore release, Kele had much to say:

"...I know, I know, I know, I've been pretty slack in keeping you guys up to date so I thought as I have just compiled a playlist of the album contenders that I would let you guys in on it. On first thoughts, this album is going to be angry, not angry in a "fuck you, I won't tidy my bedroom!" Linkin Park way, more silent rage, like what is left when frustration boils over. Lyrically a lot of the abstraction has gone, the ideas are clearer and braver.

The new record will not be called 'Urbanite Relaxation', I told a journalist that would be one of the main themes, not the title. After reading 'Society Of The Spectacle' by Guy Debord and 'A Critique Of Everyday Life' by Henry Lefebvre I literally became obsessed with these minute details of everyday life in a modern capitalist society. Commuting, working, drinking, watching time slip by.

It's not a dance punk record, that shit has been done to death. Dance punk will not be a noose around our necks. The songs that stand out for me are: 'A Song for Clayton', 'Kreuzberg', 'Sunday', 'Perfect Teens' (formerly 'Machine'), 'Wet', 'Seroxat' and 'England' (formerly 'Blue Moon')."

So yeah, it sounds like the guys are moving away from the dance rock sound of "Banquet" that helped them to strike it big and more towards the more mature sound hinted at on singles "Two More Years" and "So Here We Are", and "Uniform" definitely supports this notion.

Kele also has a message regarding the poor-quality live recordings that surfaced a little while ago:

"Also to all you fans that have downloaded some live new tracks, please don't get too attached to them, as we are still in the process of overhauling everything. Those songs are just templates, playing them live to you guys helped us decide what worked and what didn't, that is all."

In other exciting news, Bloc Party is rumored to be announcing a US tour soon, featuring support from GWFAS' favorites Mew and The Secret Machines, though details are unconfirmed at this point. Their sophomore effort is tentatively slated for an early-fall (Septemberish) release, and I'm more or less too excited to function; be sure to keep checking Blog Party for all your Bloc Party needs and updates.

Hung Up On Soul

2006-05-01T01:27:00.000-04:00

I'm very sorry about the glaring lack of posts over the last few days, but I was in Ohio over the weekend and Everett was, uh, doing other stuff I guess. But no one should really care anyway because the Washington Wizards have fought back to tie up their series with the Cavs at two games a piece and that's cause for universal celebration. As for those of you artsy indie rock types who just vomited at the unexpected inclusion of sports in this post, I apologize, but yeah, Gilbert Arenas > you. But back to what you're here for, the music.

"Hung Up On Soul" had me all hot and bothered a couple months ago, but for some reason I neglected to post it until now. Another brilliant mash up courtesy of Party Ben, the same guy who brought you the ubiqiuitous "Boulevard of Broken Songs" mash up of 2004, "Hung Up On Soul" spices up Death Cab's "Soul Meets Body" with Madonna's excellent (yeah, I said it) "Hung Up", and the result is four minutes of the most danceable Death Cab you've ever heard. Dancefloors, meet Ben Gibbard.

MP3: "Hung Up On Soul" - Death Cab vs. Madonna [highly recommended]

Ben Cohen, my lovable cohort over at Videoteque, being the video nerd that he is, created a wonderful music video mash up for the song, which Party Ben praised on his website, so I'd recommend you head over to Videoteque to view (and download) the fruits of his labor there. We also have the wonderful new Arcade Fire video for "Tunnels", so at the very least you should grab that.

Finally, while we're just randomly posting mash ups, here are two of my recent favorites, both involving Bloc Party, courtesy of Aggro1. I especially love the Pussycat Dolls one, grab 'em below.

MP3s:
Bloc Party's "Banquet" vs. The Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha"
Bloc Party's "Banquet" vs. Fatboy Slim's "It's A Wonderful Night"

Imogen Heap: "Goodnight and Go" Single

2006-04-26T03:06:00.000-04:00

So regardless of my knowledge of the week's releases, I always spend fifteen minutes or so browsing around the iTunes Music Store every Tuesday to see what surprises they have in store for us, and today certainly did not dissappoint. Not only did they have the Decemeberists previously vinyl-only Picaresqueties EP in mp3 format (more on that later), but they also have Imogen Heap's brand new "Goodnight and Go" single. "Goodnight and Go" itself is obviously not new, seeing as it was featured on M3 Volume 2 over a year ago, but the single version, officially dubbed "Immi's Radio Version", has been subtley revamped and reworked. At first listen, the differences between the original and the single version aren't terribly noticeable, but so far I've noticed a shortened intro, a new wordless chorus, a completely new post-chorus at the 2:30 mark, as well as lots of brand new little production flourishes here and there. Definitely worth the listen, regardless of whether or not you already have the original.

However, the real prize here is the brand new b-side, "Speeding Cars". Another post-break up song, which is what Imogen does best (see: "Hide and Seek"), "Speeding Cars" is a delicate piano-based track, featuring a more sparse arrangement than her usual fare (not including "Hide and Seek"). "Cars", in all of its stark beauty, is immediately one of my favorite Imogen songs, so be sure to grab that below as well. Also, I've included for download Imogen's wonderful "Can't Take It In", another non-album b-side from the Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack.

MP3s:
"Goodnight and Go" (Immi's Radio Version) - Imogen Heap [highly recommended]
"Speeding Cars" - Imogen Heap [highly recommended]
"Can't Take It In" - Imogen Heap

Yes, we're aware we've been a veritable parade of [highly recommendeds] recently, but trust me, all these songs are definitely worthy of the label.

New Sufjan: "The Henney Buggy Band"

2006-04-26T03:00:00.000-04:00

God I'd kill to post this, but this is officially a Stereogum premier, so please (please) go here to download this wonderful track. This is our third taste of The Avalanche, and while the title track is quite nice, "Adlai Stevenson" (downloadable below, in case you missed it) left a good amount to be desired and surely had some questioning how the rest of The Avalanche will turn out, but "The Henney Buggy Band" offers plenty of reassurance. Stereogum even begs the question, "Could Avalanche pull of some consecutive album-of-the-year Tom Hanks-style shit?". To be honest though, if the 18 other tracks we're yet to hear off of this album are all this good, then the answer's probably yes.

I really can't fathom why this was left off of Illinoise, as it's just as good as the vast majority of that album. That descending horn refrain, the group backing vocals, the part where the instrumentation drops out for a beat and he says "the catastrophic smile" and rocks that falsetto; seriously, this is so good. But yeah, just go, now. Seriously, bye.

UPDATE: "The Avalanche" and "Adlai Stevenson" have been removed at the label's request. Also, please note that the acoustic version of "Chicago" posted below is not the version that will be on The Avalanche, rather it is a live recording from a KCRW session last summer, though I imagine the album version won't be drastically different (I mean, acoustic is acoustic).

Previous MP3s:
"The Avalanche" - Sufjan Stevens [link removed]
"Chicago" (Acoustic) - Sufjan Stevens [highly recommended]
"Adlai Stevenson" - Sufjan Stevens [link removed]

Apathy Remixes

2006-04-26T02:33:00.000-04:00

Alright, so normally this would take the form of an artist profile, but to be honest, I really know nothing about Apathy and don't have the time to investigate further, as my History of Photography final paper (25% of my final grade, fuck) is breathing down my neck. And yes, hip hop is normally Everett's thing, but I'm making an exception here. Earlier tonight Ben (from Videoteque and Work For It) brightened my relatively-bleak night by hooking me up with Apathy's "It Takes A Seven Nation Army To Hold Us Back", which just defines hotness, and I still haven't gotten over Apathy's "Banquet" remix, which I posted a little over a month ago with my Bloc Party Always New Depths rarities compilation. While the various rappers' featured on these two tracks' (one of which is Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park) lyrics are juvenile at best, the beats on these songs are just awesome, as their sampled from two of my favorite songs of the last few years.

Also, the "Banquet" remix, aside from being ridiculously hot, is worth listening to just so you can hear Mike Shinoda's "I'm fuckin' awesome when I'm rockin' the booth" line, as it never ceases to bring a smile to my face. WARNING: Fiery hotness below.

MP3s: [both highly recommended]
"It Takes A Seven Nation Army To Hold Us Back" (ft. Emilio Lopez) - Apathy
"Banquet" (Remix ft. Mike Shinoda & Styles of Beyond) - Apathy

Muse To Release New Single In June

2006-04-25T17:51:00.000-04:00

My favorite arena-rockers, Muse, who put on one of the ten best live shows I've ever witnessed when I saw them two years ago at the 9:30 Club in DC, have just announced the details of their comeback single, "Supermassive Black Hole", which will be out June 19th in the UK (and way before that on the blogs, I imagine). Their as-yet-untitled fourth album will follow on July 3rd, and though no US release date has been confirmed, I imagine we shouldn't have to wait too long, as Muse achieved mild success and radio play with Absolution in the US the last time around. Singer Matt Bellamy, who consistently manages to sound absolutely flawless live, hinted at a shift in sound for Muse, saying:

"I was going out dancing in clubs around New York. That helped create tracks like 'Supermassive Black Hole'. Franz [Ferdinand] have done it very well, with that dance type beat going on mixed with alternative guitar and I've always wanted to find that."

So, considering my undying love for dance rock, I'm definitely looking forward to hearing this. While unfortunately I don't have their upcoming single for you (yet), I do have two of Muse's pre-Absolution singles, their two finest songs in my opinion, which could easily have been overlooked by you American readers, seeing as Origin of Symmetry didn't see a US release until long after Absolution came out here. "New Born" (awesome intro) and "Bliss" (check out that piano/synth line) are my two favorite Muse songs, so hopefully some of you non-UK folk will discover them for the first time and enjoy them as much as I do.

MP3s:
"New Born" - Muse [highly recommended]
"Bliss" - Muse [highly recommended]

That Song From The NBA Playoffs Commercial

2006-04-25T01:05:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: I replaced the old poor-quality webrip with the actual mp3 from the album, which means no more of those irritating clicking noises in the background.

Here at Good Weather for Airstrikes, we have a thing for sports. Football always holds the number one spot in our hearts, but with no NFL season right now the NBA Playoffs are keeping us occupied. Our hometown Washington Wizards should have gotten over that road bump known as LeBron James' Playoff Debut by now and are poised to make a run deep into the playoffs (until they have to play Miami. If you know 'Zards basketball, you'll know its been a looong time since we've beaten Miami. Over two years, in fact). However, as we were watching our Wizards being dismantled by LeBron's triple-double, we couldn't help but notice one NBA Playoffs commerical standing out, and no, it's not the one with Fort Minor (more on that later: guilty pleasure alert!). The commercial is called "To Each His Own Ritual", and advertises the beginning of the NBA Playoffs, airing on ESPN and ABC. Zack posted the commercial over on All Things Go, and we've done the same, right here:

If you read Zack's post, it signs off with a plea for somebody to identify the wordless track that plays in the background. Well, Good Weather For Airstrikes (read: Everett) has come to the rescue, tracking down that elusive song, and, with the help of Derek's computer-hacking skills, has made it available for download.

The band is Mountains In The Sky. Signed to Trifekta Records (Aussie home of The Decemberists & Deerhoof and the past label of The Avalanches, Architecture in Helsinki, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone), Mountains in the Sky is the creative outlet of Melbourne, Australia's John Lee. His latest album, 2005's Celestial Son, features the song that is being made famous through its use in the above commercial, "Noah's Arkestra". Trifekta says of the band: "Mountains In The Sky is music you half-hear in your dreams. It lifts musical elements from the everyday and constructs kaleidoscopic, intimate, cut'n'paste pastiches that are as elusively foreign as they are somewhat familiar...sonic bliss." Hyperbole, perhaps, but the song in question is definitely worthy of that description. Vaguely reminiscent of RJD2, who's excellent "Ghostwriter" has been used in past NBA commercials, Mountains In The Sky's work also seems influenced by DJ Shadow, but slightly more energetic. The song itself works perfectly with the "To Each His Own Ritual" concept, which sees various NBA stars going through their superstitous pregame activities. The jittery track perfectly imagines the butterflies even the greatest of basketball players feel before taking the court in the playoffs, and I applaud the National Basketball Association and ESPN for selecting a song that is not only obscure, but perfect for the mood they are trying to set.

Unfortunately, at the moment the only mp3 of the song we have downloadable for you is not of the highest quality, as it is a webrip. Rest assured, it will still play fine on your computer or your iPod, but because our only option at the moment was to capture the streaming audio from the label's website, the sound quality does leave something to be desired. We are working to get a better copy, but we couldn't wait to share this song with you, so we're offering it to you right here, as is.

MP3: "Noah's Arkestra" - Mountains In The Sky [updated link]

To download the song, PC-users should right-click on the song link and select "Save Target As...", and Mac users should CTRL-click and select "Download Linked File".

M3 Volume 8... Available Now

2006-04-24T16:55:00.000-04:00

[cover art adapted from Threadless]

Springtime is here, awh yeah, and with it comes M3 Volume 8, officially dubbed the Springtime Edition. Like M3 Volume 3 before it in March of last year, Volume 8 compiles songs perfect for the unbridled optimism of springtime. Kicking things off is perhaps the perfect springtime jam, PAS/CAL's wonderfully innocent "The Bronzed Beach Boys", which many of you may remember from that Saturn commercial of last year. Next up are four tracks that were all originally found on M3 Volume 4, but all made the cut for reincarnation on Volume 8, and The Cloud Room's "Hey Now Now" and Rilo Kiley's "The Execution of All Things" were more or less the official soundtrack to my spring last year. Guillemots' flawless "Trains To Brazil" keeps the whole unbridled exuberance vibe going right on into I'm From Barcelona's "Treehouse", which is another one of my favorite songs of 2006. Athlete is next, and though many will be quick to dub them lame or played out, there's no denying the sheer fun that is provided by "You Got The Style", which moves nicely into The Perishers' "Trouble Sleeping", which features some of the best xylophone use this side of Engineers' "Blue Light" remix. No spring mix is complete without a little bit of the whimsical fun of The New Pornographers, who make their fourth M3 appearance (which is approaching record-breaking territory) here with "Electric Version", and Architecture in Helsinki keep the good times rolling with "Wishbone". Mates of State make the first of their two appearances with "Goods", which is pretty much the most euphoric song ever, and Heypenny and The Decemberists also chip in before Mates of State close out the album with "Punchlines", the best song off of their newest album, Bring It Back.

I've had this done for over a month now, but I've been waiting until spring officially bloomed to release it to you all, but I'm hoping it soundtracks your spring as wonderfully as it has for me so far.

Download: M3 Volume 8 [follow link]

M3 Volume 8:
01. "The Bronzed Beach Boys (Come On Let's Go)" - PAS/CAL
02. "Hey Now Now" - The Cloud Room
03. "Me and Mia" - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
04. "Homemade Bombs In The Afternoon" - A.C. Newman
05. "The Execution of All Things" - Rilo Kiley
06. "Trains To Brazil" - Guillemots
07. "Treehouse" - I'm From Barcelona
08. "You Got The Style" - Athlete
09. "Trouble Sleeping" - The Perishers
10. "Electric Version" - The New Pornographers
11. "Wishbone" - Architecture in Helsinki
12. "Goods (All In Your Head)" - Mates of State
13. "Brave" - Heypenny
14. "July, July" - The Decemberists
15. "Punchlines" - Mates of State

There you have it. Now, rip it to your pod, grab your 'phones, and just go outside and enjoy yourself.

Artist Profile: The Research

2006-04-24T13:49:00.000-04:00

While I was in NYC three weeks ago doing the whole interview circuit, Carrie and I tried to go see V For Vendetta at the IMAX theater downtown, but after being devestated by the news that it was sold out we made a serendipitous trip across the street to Tower Records, where I proceeded to preview the shit out of everything in the import section. Now, I call this trip "serendipitous" because had V For Vendetta not been sold out, I never would have discovered The Research (alright, maybe I would have come across them at some point, but let's just work with this for now). I'd heard of The Research before around the blogs, but for some reason I automatically assumed they were a post-punkish UK guitar-rock band from their name, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Rather, The Research are a charming twee-pop trio, made up of Russell (or "THE DISASTER" as he apparently goes by), Georgia, and Sarah (last names not given), all of whom handle vocal duties on their debut album, Breaking Up. The three met at college in 2003 and scrapped together some money to buy a casio keyboard and borrowed a drum kit and bass guitar from friends, and began making music. Before too long they had an impressive set of demos under their belt and were signed to At Large records, a subsidary of EMI, last year. Their debut album finally saw release this past February, too critical acclaim but somewhat quiet buzz, as is evidence by their relative obscurity in the blogosphere. Musically, The Research craft simplistic pop songs featuring playful harmonies and plaintive lyrics, and are most notable for their exclusion of guitars in favor of that aforementioned casio keyboard and the wonderful harmonizing of their voices.

Russell (THE DISASTER) is the founder of the band and technically the lead vocalist, but his vocal services are absent on the trio's best song, "Lonely Hearts Still Beat The Same", the group's highest-charting single and my personal favorite song of theirs. Georgia takes lead vocals on this one, telling a tale of heartbreak that erupts into an extremely addictive chorus at the 0:29 mark. "The Way You Used To Smile" and "She's Not Leaving" both serve to portray the trio's quirky, simple lyrics and their playful sing-song vocals, and their entire debut, though nothing terribly groundbreaking or innovative, is a fun album all the way through.

MP3s:
"Lonely Hearts Still Beat The Same" - The Research [highly recommended]
"The Way You Used To Smile" - The Research
"She's Not Leaving" - The Research

Also, M3 Volume 8 is done and uploaded, so be sure to check back later this evening to download it.

New Feist Remix LP: Open Season

2006-04-23T17:40:00.000-04:00

So while we'll still have to wait patiently for Feist's next album, which is due out later this year, the indie-pop princess has released a "remixes and collabs" compilation to tide us over in the meantime. Open Season, as it's called, compiles remixes and collaborations (as the subtitle of the album implies) as well as reworked versions of songs found on Let It Die, and "Tout Doucement", a song previously available only on the French release of Let It Die. Though Pitchfork reported a different, 13-song tracklist, the version I've got comes with 15 songs, four of which are "Mushaboom" remixes. I only got the album yesterday, so I've only given it a couple of preliminary run-throughs, but it was the aforementioned "Mushaboom" remixes that immediately jump out at me, and since there pretty much isn't a single person on the planet that doesn't like "Mushaboom", I decided I might as well throw those remixes up here for your consumption.

Everyone's already heard (and loved) the Postal Service's treatment of "Mushaboom" (which hopefully many of you enjoyed on 4/20), and I personally think it's the finest remix of 2006 to this point. However, also present are three other remixes, courtesy of Mocky, Toronto rapper K-Os, and VV, the remixing name of Renaud Letang and Gonzalez, the duo behind the production of Let It Die (who will also be producing the upcoming album), and all three give "Mushaboom" completely different treatments. Mocky's mix, my favorite of the three, opens with the crunch of footsteps in the snow and turns "Mushaboom" into a much funkier, jazzier romp, while K-Os gives the track street cred with a hip-hop beat and a rapped verse of his own. Finally VV take the song, transpose a dance beat onto it, and add an addictive synth line to the already addictive hook of the chorus. None of them come close, however, to the glitch-pop perfection that is the Postal Service's take on the original, but they're all good no less and are worth checking out below.

Open Season hits stores Tuesday in the US and Canada (but is already available on iTunes in Canada here), so be sure to check it out.

MP3s:
"Mushaboom" (Postal Service Remix) - Feist
"Mushaboom" (Mocky Mix) - Feist
"Mushaboom" (K-Os Mix) - Feist
"Mushaboom" (VV Mix) - Feist

Artist Profile: Willy Mason

2006-04-22T19:50:00.000-04:00

Willy Mason is a native of Martha's Vineyard, which is more or less my favorite place in the world and the place I've spent my last ten summers, and his sparse and honest lo-fi folk songs perfectly capture the laid-back atmosphere of the island. However, despite his rural American upbringing, it was in the UK that he got his big break, signing to Virgin and selling over 100,000 copies of his excellent debut LP, Where The Humans Eat, in the UK alone. Last year Humans saw a domestic release after Conor Oberst snatched Mason up and signed him to his upstart Team Love label. The most recent development in Mason's saga is his jump to Astralwerks, who signed him away from Team Love and then re-released Humans early last month with additional content including the wonderful video for "Oxygen".

Speaking of "Oxygen", it is the centerpiece of Humans and his highest-charting single to date (reaching #23 in the UK), and it's a lyrical masterpiece in which Mason offers an insightful and brilliantly-delivered critique of American society and the world today, touching on everything from the over-diagnosis of ADD in America ("I wanna be better than ridalin for all the kids who think that they have a diseas" to our nation's materialism and the dominance of big business ("we can be bigger than industry as long as we know there are things that we don't really need"). "Oxygen" is an absolutely remarkable song from the perspective of an as-yet-unjaded youth, a call to arms to the youth of today to wake up, start caring, and take action. The video is absolutely amazing as well, but I'll leave my gushing praise for it for the Videoteque post that compiles Mason's videography and can be seen here. "So Long", the album's second single, is a much more upbeat, almost honky-tonk, Ryan Adams-esque folk romp, in which Mason's sings of his longing for home from his surrogate home in Europe. The entire album is wonderful though, a remarkable feat for someone so young, as Mason is fresh out of highschool and was only 19 years of age when he recorded the record. He's even received comparisons to Leonard Cohen, one of our greatest living songwriters, an astonishing feat for a songwriter so young, and while those comparisons might be putting too much pressure on a songwriter whose not even of legal drinking age, there's no denying his potential and bright future.

Mason sounds as if he's spent too many nights singing in smoke-filled pubs, but this world-weary voice comes from a youth whose only just celebrated his 20th birthday, and his talent is so immense that the always-hyperbolic NME declared that "this youth is about to inherit the world". However, with a debut album as strong as Where The Humans Eat, and the recent news that Radiohead (RADIOHEAD!!!) hand-picked him to open for their entire upcoming European tour, that prediction might not be far off.

MP3s:
"Oxygen" - Willy Mason [highly recommended]
"So Long" - Willy Mason
"Hard Hand To Hold" - Willy Mason

Also, please make sure to check out his wonderful music videos over on Videoteque here. They're directed by Tim Laursen and Emily Wilder, fellow Vineyarders who together make up the Wilder/Laursen production company, and all of them, especially the amazing clip for "Oxygen", are well worth your time and hard drive space.

M3 Mini: Earth Day Edition

2006-04-22T03:22:00.000-04:00

[cover art adapted from The Small Stakes]

Well, 4/20 came and went, and Derek's M3 Mini ode to the day and the pastime was well-received and I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend you all check it out if you haven't yet. However, with the 4/20 festivities being less my thing than certain other individuals throughout the blogosphere, I felt a little bit left out when I saw my friends posting all there fabulous mixes for the day. I enjoy making mixes and I enjoy even more when I can distribute them for public consumption, and one way to give my mixes some semblance of flow and direction is to have a specific theme. Well 4/20 was great but when 4/22, also known as Earth Day, rolled around, I knew I couldn't let the opportunity pass without making my own personal ode to the one day the Green Party has a larger, more active following than, say, the Libertarians (though it could be said that 4/20 was one big "Green Party" in itself). Most of my comments following with regards to Earth Day see me placing my tongue so hard in to my cheek that I'm actually drawing blood, but the reality is that there are a lot of environmental issues that do need discussion and would benefit from raised awareness. If I can get anybody here to care just a little bit more for the world they live in than they did before, I will consider this mix a success. I will also consider this mix a success if I break in to double-digits in the comments section, so all of you go wild and make me feel good about myself!

1. "Third Planet" - Modest Mouse

First found on Modest Mouse's album The Moon and Antarctica and later featured on M3 Volume 6 right here on Good Weather For Airstrikes, "3rd Planet" is an obvious first track on an Earth Day mix simply because the title implies Earth, which is basically what I'm going for here. Additionally, it's a good Modest Mouse song, and though most Modest Mouse fans should already have this song, if not than it's obviously a must-have.

2. "Look Into The Air" - Explosions In The Sky

I jump at any opportunity to include Explosions in the Sky, one of my favorite bands, on any mix. "Look Into The Air", from their debut How Strange, Innocence, is not only a great instrumental guitar song but also a reference to what Earth Day asks all of us to do: look in to the air, and wonder to ourselves what kind of condition it's in, and whether that's a good thing. Which segues quite nicely in to our next song...

3. "Air Conditions" - Q And Not U
...Which addresses the air condition issue right there in it's title. Q And Not U is an absolutely essential band for anyone in the greater DC-Metropolitan area, easily on par with Fugazi or Dismemberment Plan. This song, from their "break-through" (used rather loosely) album Different Damage, is pure Q And Not U, featuring odd arrangements and signature sing/yelping from the now solo (Ch)Ris Paul Ric(hards).

4. "Price of Gasoline" - Bloc Party
What does this song, from my #2 Album of 2005, Silent Alarm, have to do with Earth Day? Well, if "the price of gas keeps on rising", as Kele Okereke sings, perhaps environmentalists will make some headway in decreasing the number of Hummers on the road and increasing the number of hybrids. Even better, the Earth Day mission for increased environmental standards could further be aided by rising gas prices as scientists and auto industry research and development teams work to discover new, cheaper, more environmentally sound alternate energy sources. That said, Bloc Party is a sweet band and this is a sweet song, and if you don't have it you should download it and then buy Silent Alarm immediately.

5. "Air Pollution" - Page France

A quiet, melodic tune about an issue that, to Earth Day activists, is kept too quiet: air pollution. Though various past administrations have attempted to reach some sort of agreement with regards to clean(er) air, the connection Page France makes between sharing breaths and sharing air pollution still rings true: there is too much pollution, and Earth Day seeks to remedy this undervalued and pressing issue.

6. "Recycled Air" - The Postal Service

Everybody's favorite mellow electro-pop dynamic duo, Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, indirectly address Earth Day issues in one of the stronger songs from the downright impeccable Give Up. Though Gibbard likely meant something slightly more romantic when he sings about "the stale taste of recycled air", the reality is that this 'recycled air' is all too prevalent in our nations cities, and as mentioned above, pollution is one of the main issues Earth Day aims to raise awareness for.

7. "The Giving Tree" - The Epochs
Possibly the most underrated band currently producing music, The Epochs are based in Seattle via Northern Virginia by way of New York. Their brand of Postal Service-esque electronic pop feature a more diverse array of sounds than the 'Service's Tamborello generally utilizes, and this song in particular highlights the unique ability The Epochs have of taking challenging sounds and song structures and making them sound so overwhelmingly familiar that you are forced to wonder why the song isn't blowing up the radio, until you remember how different it is from anything on the radio. Not to mention, all trees are, in essense, giving trees, if just for the oxygen they produce while recycling used carbon dioxide and furthering the cycle of man and nature's interconnectivity. Have you hugged a tree today?

8. "Evergreen" - The Fiery Furnaces
The title of this song evokes the inherent belief of humanity that their environment and the resources on which we rely will exist forever. Unfortunately, as Green Party members and Earth Day 'celebrators' will no doubt tell you, the Earth has a finite amount of resources to provide, and we need to find alternatives with some degree of urgency if we'd like to continue living with the lifestyle we've grown accustomed to. Also, the Fiery Furnaces pull out some mean electric guitar in the middle of this track, which makes it worth a download just to hear that.

9. "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground" - The White Stripes
In addition to being one of my favorite White Stripes songs, with an accompanying music video that fits right in the Stripes oeuvre of memorable videos, Jack White's title has Earth Day written all over it. Leaves die every year, you may say. The ground is made of dirt, and as such is always dirty, you may also say. What I say in response is, just because the bully in middle school beat you up every single day and took your lunch money didn't make it okay, right? Irrelevant, you may exclaim, and in response I would say, "you might as well just give in to Earth Day and do your part to help the environment regardless of the message Jack White is trying to send on this badass track."

10. "Big Blue Sea" - Bob Schneider
Bob Schneider is yet another singer-songwriter armed with an acoustic guitar, some pipes, and relatively forgettable lyrics. However, his experimentation with shifting between the left and right channels of sound take his songs, especially this one, to a new level. After forty-five seconds of hard-to-decipher, too-soft vocals, you may be asking yourself what I was thinking in posting this track. But when the vocals explode throughout the channels of sound and you become enveloped by Schneider's soothing voice and the warmth of the song sinks in, you will understand what I mean.

So there it is, ladies and gentlemen: Good Weather For Airstrike's Official M3 Mini: Earth Day Edition mix. I hope you all download and enjoy, and I hope this makes you a little more aware of what Earth Day is all about. Earth Day has a website that you should all check out, which can be found by searching "Earth Day" on Google, provided you are "Feeling Lucky". Enjoy the tunes, and Happy Earth Day!

NOTE: This post is made from 100% recyclable plastic.

It's Earth Day Now!

2006-04-22T02:21:00.000-04:00

Woooo, it's Earth Day now, finally I can celebrate the earth without being judged. (In actuality, this is just a post to make sure that there won't be two M3 Minis posted in a row without there being a post in between, but yeah, Evro's Earth Day mix = teh hotness).

M3 Mini: 4/20 Edition

2006-04-20T00:18:00.000-04:00

Ahh, the inaugural M3 Mini, and what a great way to start things off: by semi-encouraging the use of habit-forming illegal drugs! For those in the know (apparently 4/20 isn't an international celebration, as 20/04 doesn't exactly have the same ring), April 20th is a day of putting everything on hold (except my mandatory poetry class at 3:30, fuck) and just kicking back and relaxing. So if that's your thing, light up, sit back, pop this special mini edition of M3 in your stereo and let it take you places. Some people like to get high,put on the chillest songs they can find, and sway back and forth with their eyes closed. But this isn't your hippie parents mixtape, I go for something else. When my cannabinoid receptors are on overdrive, I prefer more interactive music; songs with layered textures and a lot going on to keep me completely enraptured, with particularly mind-blowing moments that incapacitate you and prevent any speech other thatn "...whoa" or "...that was ridiculous".

Below is my 4/20 music mix, and even if elevated states of consciousness aren't your thing, it's still a great mix to pop in the CD player and cruise to on a spring or summer day. And remember, as with any M3 mix, all of the songs come with an automatic [highly recommended] seal of approval. Enjoy (preferably, more than you've ever enjoyed anything else).

Download: M3 Mini: 4/20 Edition [follow link]

1. "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" - Postal Service
A few of my friends and I are of the thought that this just might be the best high song ever. Whether it's the swirling strings sample, the soaring vocals, or just the way everything comes together in a holy union of musical euphoria, this song is high perfection.

2. "Mushaboom" (Postal Service Remix) - Feist
I once made a high mix that was just this remix and "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" alternating on repeat for an hour, and - needless to say - it was awesome. Just wait until Ben Gibbard's backing vocals stutter and get chopped up whil Jimmy Tamborello gets all glitch-pop on your ass and then try to tell me your mind isn't flooded with pleasure.

3. "Eple" - Royksopp
I know I just dubbed "District" the best high song ever, but I'm gonna have to go ahead and give that title to Royksopp's "Eple" as well (it's 4/20, I don't have to make sense). This euphoric wonderland is just what it sounds like to experience an elevated state of consciousness, and it's as simple as that.

4. "Do The Whirlwind" - Architecture in Helsinki
This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say "songs with layered textures" that "have a lot going on". There's so much going on here (whirrs, buzzes, swirls, etc.) that you shouldn't even bother trying to focus on one thing; jsut let the song overwhelm you and take you to that happy place that AiH songs never fail to access.

5. "Smile Around The Face" - Four Tet
This one's got it all: swirls-a-plenty, a nice, pounding percussion section, and those soaring-ass synths. If you can find a song that better embodies the verb "to soar", be sure to let me know.

6. "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" - Her Space Holiday
This is just a great song regardless of your state of consciousness. The central strings sample here is just too catchy for anyone to ignore, but the deal is sealed when those heavy, crushing guitars come in for the kill at the chorus.

7. "Rough Gem" - Islands
You'd be extremely hard-pressed to find a more fun and whimsical three-and-a-half minutes in music than this. Thus, it's a high mix essential, as is the vast majority of The Unicorn's/Island's library.

8. "Goods (All In Your Head)" - Mates of State
Really, the only thing that matters here is the moment when the "bah-bah-bah-bahs" explode into a "wa-oh-oh!" (at the 0:22 mark to be exact) and the song bursts into a explosion of euphoria. However, that's one of my favorite moments in any song, so it makes it on the mix on the strength of that alone.

9. "King Without A Crown" - Matisyahu
Honestly, what's a stoner mix without a little reggae? Matisyahu, with his 100% kosher flow and synthesized reggae beats is the perfect call here, and "King Without A Crown" is easily one of the best songs of 2006 so far.

10. "Cherry" - Ratatat
The introverted and often overlooked younger brother of Ratatat's party anthem "Seventeen Years", the former excels where the latter is inappropriate. That is, when you're getting your drink on at the fly honey warehouse, you better be rocking out to "Seventeen Years", but the fist-pumping glory of that masterpiece just has no place in the musky haze of a habitual marijuana smoker's den. "Cherry" is the perfect song to close out the mix, slowly building up to a glorious climax before fading out into oblivion, just like your brain cells.

BONUS!!!
Below are a couple songs that didn't really fit into the mix, but are epic and perfect for elevated states nonetheless.

MP3: "9 To 5 & Eple" - 2 Many DJs
Perhaps 2 Many DJs' finest accomplishment yet, this mash-up (best mash up ever?) is spliced from their Radio Soulwax Pt. 2 compilation, and is the most memorable moment on that excellent mix. The Dewaele brothers mix Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" with Royksopp's immaculate "Eple", and "Eple" lurks at the back of the mix until it burtsts into the spotlight at the same time Parton''s verses hits their climax, resulting in a moment of sheer mind-melting bliss.

MP3: "Tracy" (Kid Loco Mix) - Mogwai
My favorite Mogwai song is actually this remix, and it is the epitome of the chill high song. It plods along, with nothing more than a simple guitar riff and a basic percussion section, repeating over and over again, accented only by the occasional twanging echo, and is absolutely perfect in its simplicity. Listening to this I can't help but think of Pete and Pete on Nickelodeon in the mid-90s, just sitting on the front porch of their house watching the days go by, and I like to share this with whoever I'm listening to it with at the time, but usually they just nod and smile, obviously not seeing with the same bloodshot clarity as I am. This song really speaks to the diversity of Mogwai, as one second they're rocking you to smithereens and the next they're chilling with Pete and Pete on the front porch waiting for Mr. Swirly to make his daily rounds.

MP3: "What Else Is There?" (Trentemoller Remix) - Royksopp
The mighty Trentemoller will absolutely (trente)maul your senses here on this one. Seriously, this remix is so pounding and agressive it's ridiculous, but it's just incredible all the way throughout. By my count there are at least seven different sections in this remix, but the highlight is definitely in the second half when Karen Dreijers vocals are isolated, transposed over an acoustic guitar and chopped up, before the strobes, synths, and percussion coming roaring back in out of nowhere for the final kill.

So there you have it folks, the best high mix I could possibly muster. As Gary Lightbody might say "Light up, as if you had a choice", and with a mix like this, trust me, you really don't have a choice (NOTE: You do have a choice and you should make the right one, Good Weather For Airstrikes does not condone illegal drug use, they just dabble in it from time to time).

ALSO, in a special cross-promotional extravaganza event, I'm posting an equally mind-blowing music video mix, the first ever Videoteque Videomix, over on Videoteque, which is viewable in all its ipod-compatible glory here, and as I'm sure some of you know, the only thing better than listening to music high is watching music videos high (too many commas!). Be sure to check it out, and I wish everyone a happy holiday.

New Snow Patrol Live Sessions

2006-04-18T19:27:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Another bonus mp3 has been added at the bottom of this post.

So I've received plenty of emails from people requesting the new Snow Patrol album, mp3s from which I had to remove do to the displeasure of the IFFL (I think that's the acronym), which is essentially the British RIAA. However, to the best of my knowledge (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), live material - unless being recorded or filmed for a live album or DVD - is uncopyrighted and free for distribution. Many bands (Sigur Ros, The Arcade Fire and Thrice to name a few) actually encourage their fans to seek bootlegs of their live shows on the internet and often point bootleg-seekers in the direction of where they can find such live material (and no, I don't listen to Thrice). That being said, I'm not exactly sure what the policy is as far as radio sessions are concerned, but I think it's safe for me to post these nonetheless.

Though the spectacular "Set Fire To The Third Bar" isn't present on either of these sessions, the three other best tracks from the album - "Hands Open", lead single "You're All I Have", and "Chasing Cars" - are all here, including a special acoustic recording of "Chasing Cars" that can be found on the BBC Broadcasting House session. The recording is flawless, and was originally recorded in FLAC format before I converted it to mp3, and the live versions of these songs feature some nice synthesized flourishes not found on record. The interviews are enjoyable to listen to and informative, and Gary Lightbody and company really come off as entertaining and witty guys, so I've made each full session available for download via Rapidshare for those who want as much Snow Patrol as they can get their hands on. The interviews discuss everything from SP's recent gigs with U2 to the recording process for the new album to the band's original name (Polarbear), and I enjoyed them even though I'm not quite a die hard Snow Patrol, so there's a good chance you will to. Download the individual songs below or grab the entire session via Rapidshare.

NOTE: These were originally formatted as FLAC torrents downloaded from Dime a Dozen, a torrent site devoted exclusively to high-quality live downloads. So, for those audiophile types who want the FLAC files as opposed to the mp3s, go here for the Maida Vale session and here for the BBC Broadcasting House session (registration is required, but it's free and worth the time).

Download: http://rapidshare.de/files/18363109/Snow-Patrol-Maida-Vale-Session.zip.html [follow link]
Download: http://rapidshare.de/files/18363549/Snow-Patrol-BBC-Broadcasting-House.zip.html [follow link]

Snow Patrol: Live @ Maida Vale Studios (4.12.06):
1. Interview Pt. 1
2. Hands Open
3. Interview Pt. 2
4. You're All I Have
5. Interview Pt. 3
6. Chasing Cars
7. Outro

Snow Patrol: Live @ BBC Broadcasting House (4.15.06):
1. Interview Pt. 1
2. Interview Pt. 2
3. Chasing Cars (Acoustic)
4. Interview Pt. 3

I'm a poor-ass college student, so if anyone has a problem with these please notify me before taking legal action.

ALSO, as a super-special bonus, I've got two excellent Snow Patrol session covers for you. The first is a live recording of lead singer Gary Lightbody's cover of Bright Eye's "You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.", the original of which is one of my favorite songs of all time. The recording is taken from Snow Patrol's appearance on the BBC two years ago, and while the recording is good (with the exception of some mildly scratchy parts), Lightbody's rendition gets a bit sloppy at times, but it's a great listen nonetheless. I also have for you another live session cover, this time of Gary Lightbody covering Damien Rice's "Blower's Daughter". Like before, nothing spectacular, but still a great listen for Snow Patrol fans.

Bonus MP3s:
"You Will. You? Will..." - Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol)
"The Blower's Daughter" - Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol)

Artist Profile: White Rose Movement

2006-04-18T18:08:00.000-04:00

The White Rose Movement are the closest thing I've heard yet to "the next Bloc Party", and for that reason alone I obviously like them a lot. White Rose Movement's brand of danceable, electronic synth-rock is highly reminiscent of Bloc Party at times, but WRM's take the danceability further, dripping their arrangements in synths and production floursihes. The two bands also share my favorite producer, Paul Epworth (be sure to download his incredible Phones remixes here), who once again turns in a near-flawless production job on WRM's debut album, Kick, which was released in the US today after dropping in the UK yesterday (buy it on iTunes here).

It's actually quite surprising that WRM aren't better known. Though their debut album wasn't released until today, single "Love Is A Number" was released to much critical acclaim last year, even garnering the #42 spot on Pitchfork's Top 50 Singles of 2005 list (as well as the #33 spot on my Top 65 Songs of '05 list). "Love Is A Number" opens innocently enough, drawing you in with a glitchy synthesized guitar riff before suddenly unloading a barrage of synth-laden percussion on the listener 12 seconds in. The driving rhythm section remains throughout, keeping the party rocking until the song reaches its pinnacle, the addictive (though somewhat unintelligible) chorus on which lead singer Finn Vine rocks the best dance-rock falsetto since Kele Okereke belted out those "ooh, ooh-oohs" on "Banquet" last year.

Follow up singles "Alsatian" and "Girls In The Back" (the latter being their first US release) also do a great job of keeping the party moving, and producer Paul Epworth offers up a great remix of "Alsatian" under his "Phones" pseudonym (as he is wont to do for bands he produces). All of these are available for download below, which you should be sure to hit up, as I can easily see White Rose Movement blowing up with epic proportions of hype on the strength of "Love Is A Number" alone.

MP3s:
"Love Is A Number" - White Rose Movement [highly recommended]
"Alsatian" - White Rose Movement
"Girls In The Back" - White Rose Movement
"Alsatian" (Phones' Gone To The Dogs Remix) - White Rose Movement

For more of Phones' excellent remixes, check out my post from two months ago here, and I'll also be posting a compilation of all ten of Phones' remixes, the closest thing I can find to his complete remixography, in the coming week or so.

John Vanderslice News, Tour & MP3s

2006-04-17T12:32:00.000-04:00

John Vanderslice is a great guy. He always responds to fan emails, actually listens to the mixes and CDs given to him by fans on tour, and even let his fans name his backing band on (John Vanderslice & Photographs) on his last tour, making him one of the most accessible and interactive stars in indie rock. On top of all this, he does a great job of keeping his fans happy, releasing an excellent video and remix for "Exodus Damage", a new single/EP for "Trance Manual", and launching a full-fledged North American tour this spring, all hot on the heels of his last album, Pixel Revolt, which was released last fall.

NEW "EXODUS DAMAGE" REMIX
Remix artist Alias has composed a wonderful new remix for Vanderslice's "Exodus Damage", which strips away much of the rhythm section of the original in favor of atmospheric synths and Vanderslice's hushed vocals. The remix really hits its stride at the 1:20 mark when the reverberating guitar strum breaks the muted tone of the songs opening bars and Vanderslice's vocals are brought out of the dreamy haze and brought to the front of the mix. Fuzzy, swirling, and beautiful, Alias's remix is one of the best of the year so far, and the kind folks at Barsuk are offering it as a free download, so be sure to grab it below.

MP3: "Exodus Damage" (Alias Remix) - John Vanderslice

"EXODUS DAMAGE" VIDEO
While not a new video, Brent Chesanek's 2005 clip for "Exodus Damage" was one of the best and most compelling videos of last years, so much so that it garnered the #34 spot on my Top 65 Music Videos of 2005 list and warrants mention again here. Chesanek's stirring clip has a great washed-out, retro feel to the cinematography, and all the still shots of America possess a subtle potency that for some reason really resonates with the viewer. The 9/11 theme of the song is reflected beautifully in the video, but I can't figure out if the kid's a terrorist and he's plotting things to blow up or if he's trying to solve a mystery or what exactly. I just really love the look of this clip, and I think it represents the song perfectly. Download it below in .mov format, or head over to Videoteque and download the video in iPod-compatible .m4v format here. Also, according to JV, Chesanek "just completed a mind-blowing video for 'Trance Manual'", which he'll post "as soon as I can", so everyone can go ahead and get excited for that as well.

Video: "Exodus Damage" - John Vanderslice [highly recommended]

NORTH AMERICAN SPRING TOUR

[click picture to enlarge image and see full tour dates]

Vanderslice has also recently launched a full-fledged North American tour, and fortunately for my fellow UVA cohorts and I, V-Slice and tour-mates Page France will be rolling through Charlottesville on May 1st. While I'm not quite as in love with Page France as the rest of the blogsophere, I'm definitely thoroughly excited to see them, and you can download three of my favorite songs, including the impeccable "Chariot", by them below. Also, Vanderslice released a fully downloadable live set from his show at San Francisco's The Independent last year, and my three favorite tracks from that are available for download below as well (or feel free to download the entire set as a .zip file here).

MP3s:
"Chariot" - Page, France [highly recommended]
"Spine" - Page France
"We Remain As Two" - Page France

How much does vocalist Michael Nau sound like Ben Gibbard on "We Remain As Two"? It's ridiculous, really.

MP3s: (Live at The Independent, 11.05.05)
"Trance Manual" (Live) - John Vanderslice
"Exodus Damage" (Live) - John Vanderslice
"Pale Horse" (Live) - John Vanderslice

NEW RELEASES!
The past month has seen two new releases from Mr. Vanderslice, the iTunes-exclusive Trance Manual EP and Suddenly It All Went Dark, a live album featuring only Vanderslice, his acoustic guitar, and his voice, recorded to a 2-track in a chicken coop in California. In actuality, the Trance Manual EP is really only the album version of "Trance Manual", accompanied by four 2-track recordings from Suddenly It All Went Dark, so feel free to grab those four tracks below as a Suddenly It All Went Dark sampler of sorts.

MP3s:
"Angela" (Live to 2-track) - John Vanderslice
"Dead Slate Pacific" (Live to 2-track) - John Vanderslice
"Farewell Transmission" (Live to 2-track) - John Vanderslice
"Trance Manual" (Live to 2-track) - John Vanderslice

Finally, being the stand-up guy that he is, Vanderslice has a huge archive of free mp3s culled from all of the releases in his lengthy discography available for download directly from his website. Thus, I've taken the liberty of selecting my favorites and linking to them for download below, so feel free to grab them with a guilt-free conscience.

MP3s: [free downloads from JohnVanderslice.com]
"Trance Manual" - John Vanderslice
"Exodus Damage" - John Vanderslice [highly recommended]
"Pale Horse" - John Vanderslice [highly recommended]
"They Won't Let Me Run" - John Vanderslice
"Me and My 424" - John Vanderslice
"Time Travel Is Lonely" - John Vanderslice

Too much John Vanderslice? Never.

Mr. Blue Sky

2006-04-16T20:23:00.000-04:00

One would be hard-pressed to find a more perfect song for the first days of springtime than the Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky". Originally released in January of 1978, the song reached the #6 spot on the UK charts on the strength of it's whimsical vocals, happy-go-lucky arrangement and addictive chorus. "Mr. Blue Sky" remains a springtime essential nearly thirty years after it's original release, and it's time to break it out again now that the fairer months are upon us again.

Another band that's been a staple on all of my springtime mixes are The Decemberists, whose whimsical brand of indie-pop is perfectly evocative of the warmer seasons. Thus, it's fitting that throughout their 2005 US tours they would occassionally perform a cover of the ELO classic in the encore of their performances, which sounded amazing when I caught them live at their DC show last October. After the show, I raved about how good "Mr. Blue Sky" sounded and posted a crappy live recording of the song that merely hints at the greatness of the cover. However, thanks to the wonder that is archive.org, I was able to find two more recordings of the song, both of which are much better than the live recording I originally posted. For a while I had no greater wish than to hear a studio recording of The Decemberist's version of "Mr. Blue Sky", but this near-flawless recording will have to do. You can download the mp3 of both the original version and The Decemberist's cover below, or go here to download the entire performance, recorded at The Metro in Chicago on October 19th of last year, in flawless FLAC format.

MP3s:
"Mr. Blue Sky" - ELO [highly recommended]
"Mr. Blue Sky" - The Decemeberists [highly recommended]

Artist Profile: The Album Leaf

2006-04-13T01:10:00.000-04:00

Jimmy LaValle is one of the most talented and musically diversified individuals currently gracing this planet with his presence. A member of no less than five bands, all of which are virtually indistinguishable from one another, the classically trained pianist has no shortage of outlets for his unrivaled creativity. One would be hard-pressed to find two bands more different than The Locust and The Album Leaf, yet LaValle is a member of both. He is also a member of Tristeza, Black Heart Procession, and GoGoGo Airheart, though I am personally of the opinion that The Album Leaf is LaValle's greatest accomplishment to date.

The Album Leaf is the moniker LaValle records under when creating music as a solo artist, and his solo side is very electronics-driven and unmeasurably chill (indeed, "Twentytwofourteen", one of the tracks from his latest full-length, In A Safe Place, found its way on to All Things Go's Sleep Mix, which I highly recommend you check out). The Album Leaf's debut, An Orchestrated Rise To Fall, was released in 1999, though I feel LaValle did not truly hit his stride as a solo artist until the 2001 release of his sophomore LP, One Day I'll Be On Time.

A San Diego native, LaValle found the inspiration for his latest full-length, In A Safe Place, in Mosfellsbaer, on the western coast of Iceland. On Sigur Ros's first tour of the United States, the band and LaValle were introduced and became friends; several tours later LaValle began performing with Sigur Ros at their shows. After years of invitations, LaValle gave in and made the trek to Iceland, which he described as, "crazy rolling countryside with horses and ponds ... very surreal." LaValle believes that the music he makes is perfect for the setting Iceland provides, and I imagine that if I were ever lucky enough to go to Iceland (it's one of my life goals) that I would wholeheartedly agree. In A Safe Place was recorded entirely in the converted swimming pool studio Sigur Ros used to record ( ) with the help of Sigur Ros, members of Sigur Ros opener mainstays Amiina, and ex-Mum cellist Gyda Valtysdottir, and stands as LaValle's finest work to date. Sigur Ros lead singer Jonsi Birgisson lends his haunting tenor to "Over The Pond", and "The Outer Banks" and "Eastern Glow" are, though drastically different from each other, possibly The Album Leaf's two finest tracks. LaValle himself was even convinced to sing on "Eastern Glow", and the resulting vocal track is quite touching. The song made an appearance on one of the Music From The OC mixes (I believe Volume 2, but don't quote me), resulting in LaValle's biggest break yet, and though his gorgeous and intricate songs are hardly mass-marketable, the pure beauty of them have an undeniable appeal (LaValle would get another break when "Twentytwofourteen" became a recurring musical theme in the final episodes of The OC's second season).

Recorded before In A Safe Place but released afterwards is the Seal Beach EP, which serves as a perfect bridge from the more ambient sounds of One Day I'll Be On Time to the more beat-driven and vaguely more pop-oriented songs that make up In A Safe Place. Standout track "Brennivin" is available for download below. The bonus edition of the Seal Beach EP also included five live recordings, two of which saw LaValle performing two of the standout tracks from One Day I'll Be On Time, "Wet The Day" and "The MP", in a concert setting; those two tracks are also downloadable at the bottom of the post.

Derek posted The Album Leaf's only music video to date (though one for "Twentytwofourteen" is in the works), for "On Your Way", over on Videoteque, so you should all head over there when you're done grabbing all the tracks here. He's made an mp3 and an iPod-compatible m4v available for download, which are definitely worth checking out.

Finally, The Album Leaf made a split 7" for Better Looking Records in 2001 with none other than indie/emo poster boy Conor Oberst. Of course, the Bright Eyes/Album Leaf collaboration track, "Hungry For A Holiday", is also available for download as well.

MP3s (from One Day I'll Be On Time):
The Album Leaf, The Audio Pool
The Album Leaf, Vermillion

MP3s (from In A Safe Place):
The Album Leaf, The Outer Banks [highly recommended]
The Album Leaf, Over The Pond (ft. Jonsi from Sigur Ros)
The Album Leaf, Eastern Glow [highly recommended]

MP3s (from Seal Beach EP):
The Album Leaf, Brennivin

Live MP3s (originally recorded for One Day I'll Be On Time):
The Album Leaf, Wet The Day (Live in Atlanta)
The Album Leaf, The MP (Live in Atlanta)

Bonus MP3:
The Album Leaf & Bright Eyes, Hungry For A Holiday

Crosses All Over The Garden

2006-04-12T20:53:00.000-04:00

I Guess I'm Floating, possibly the best blog out there right now, first alerted me to the collaborative efforts between everybody's favorite Swedish singer-songwriter, Jose Gonzalez, and British electro-soul duo Zero 7 nearly a month ago by providing a downloadable track, "Futures", from Zero 7's upcoming release, The Garden. Well, The Garden has leaked, and "Futures" is not the only track to which Jose has leant his soothing timbre. His masterpiece of acoustic simplicity, "Crosses", is reprised on The Garden, with Gonzalez's unmistakable voice rising above the new electronic backdrop. I guess technically this should be called the Zero 7 remix to "Crosses", but as it appears on Zero 7's album, I'll go ahead and label it a full collaboration. The guitar work from Jose's original is completely gone, replaced by a methodical drum beat and some light synths. Orchestral strings punctuate the silences in the vocals, and during parts of the chorus, Gonzalez is backed by a veritable choir of female voices. The song has been stretched to twice the length of the original, and admittedly it does drag on a bit at points. Regardless, it's an interesting listen for fans of either Zero 7 or Jose Gonzalez, and definitely recommended, though in my opinion it doesn't hold a candle to the original. Judge for yourself and download it below, then head over to I Guess I'm Floating and grab "Futures" as well.

Zero 7 & Jose Gonzalez, Futures (link to post)
Zero 7 & Jose Gonzalez, Crosses
Jose Gonzalez, Crosses [highly recommended] [is this even necessary?]
Jose Gonzalez, Crosses (Live from SXSW on KEXP)

Pre-Order The Garden (Release Date: May 15): HMV / Amazon (UK)

The Truth About M3 Volume 4

2006-04-12T17:02:00.000-04:00

Well I'm sorry guys, I have to come clean. M3 Volume 4... well, it doesn't actually exist. The last four or five days have seen more and more frantic requests demanding that M3 Volume 4 be posted. But the thing is, I don't have it, it's been ostracized from the M3 collection. How can this be, I see the cover right up there, you ask? Well, it's complicated.

Just before leaving for the summer last year I made a last-ditch effort to throw together one final M3, the "finale edition" as it was then dubbed, but the circumstances surrounding it sucked. No carefully-deliberated flow (which I know no one cares about but me, but I value it greatly), no much-hyped release date, not even accordance to the typical ten song format. No, this guy had 18 sprawling songs, all of which failed to interact with each other and create any flow, vibe, or feel whatsoever. The closest it got to flow was a weak, half-baked idea that the first half of the album would contain organic, guitar-based songs, while the second half would be solely electronic, and the two halves would be united in the middle by one Bright Eyes song from the I'm Wide Awake album and one song from the Digital Ash album. But yeah, it didn't really work. However, six of the songs from Volume 4 comprise part of M3 Volume 8 (due out sometime on or before May 1st), and two more are available on All Things Go's Sleep Mixtape ("Hide and Seek" and "Twentytwofourteen"), and to make sure M3 V4 doesn't go completely for naught, I'm posting some of the mix's other highlights below. Rest in peace M3 Volume 4, and enjoy:

MP3s: [all highly recommended]
"10,000 Lakes" - Kid Dakota
"The Velocity of Saul..." - Okkervil River
"Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking" - Snow Patrol
"Y Control" (Faint Remix) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Also, I'll be starting a new spin-off from the M3 series, M3 Mini Mixes, which will drop from time to time and rather than the sprawling 15-song epochs of the main releases, they will instead be more concise, ten-song mixes that focus on and revolve around a ceain theme. The first M3 Mini will be dropping on April 20th (i'll let you guess the theme from its release date), and I've got two more subsequent M3 Mini releases planned for the coming month or two. So yeah, another new thing at GWFAS to get excited about (hopefully), and remember to keep an eye out for M3 Volume 8, due out sometime in the next month.

Jammie Jams!

2006-04-10T00:54:00.000-04:00

I just spent an hour on this post only to have it vanish when I tried to save it as a draft. Awesome! Hopefully the charm of the original is recaptured here, but I make no guarantees.

"Awh yeah, I'm gonna go outside in my awesome new spiderman jammies and listen to All Things Go's awesome new sleep mixtape next to that park bench."

So for a while now Zack has been working hard on his second All Things Go mixtape (check out his Valentine's Day mix here), the ultimate sleeping mix. After much planning and deliberation, he approached me with trepidation yesterday with 11 tracks looking to flesh it out into a full 15-song mix (as is custom around these parts). Being the best friend ever, I delved deep into my iTunes library and pulled out the four best sleeping songs I could muster, all of which ended up making the final cut. I also volunteered to design the front and back covers, and the result is the most potent musical sedative out there, just check out the pictures above for evidence. Trust me, Ambien has nothing on this shit. I'd recommend listening to some of the later tracks individually in a non-sleeping environment, as you'll be hard-pressed to make it through even the first third of the mix without falling asleep when nestled betwixt the sheets, which means the wonderful songs in the second half would be heard only by your unconsciousness and that creepy guy who watches you sleep.

Head over to All Things Go to peep the full tracklist and download the full mix; below is the album cover and the four songs I contributed to the mix.WARNING: Do not operate heavy machinery while under the influence of this mix.

MP3s: [all highly sleepable]
"Recycled Air" (Acoustic) - Ben Gibbard
"Hide and Seek" (Ciaran Hamilton's Sleep Mix) - Imogen Heap
"Untitled #3 (Samskeyti)" - Sigur Ros [1000% sleepable!]
"Twentytwofourteen" - The Album Leaf

Zack Friendly is now a veritable force in the blogging mixtape scene, look out.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this were my sleep mix and not Zack's I wouldn't have done much differently (maybe removed that B&S song and chosen a different Dntel track), but I definitely would have put this song by Gregory & The Hawk on there, as it's been the last song I've listened to before falling asleep every night for the last week and it's just quite fantastic. Gregory & The Hawk are the first band I've discovered randomly on MySpace after stumbling across some girl's profile (maybe someone who friended us?) which had this song in it (if you are that girl: thank you, we like you now). I'll be doing a full-fledged post on them and other cutesy female folk singers shortly, but here's this track now as it's just perfect for the sleeping mood.

MP3: "Boats & Birds" - Gregory & The Hawk [highly recommended]

Sufjan Stevens: "The Star Spangled Banner"

2006-04-09T16:24:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: I Guess I'm Floating, who are tearing up the blog scene now, has a new Sufjan song, from the upcoming Kill Rock Stars The Sound The Hare Heard compilation, which focuses exclusively on singer/songwriters. "Adlai Stevenson" is typical Sufjan flawlessness, and is one of the tracks slated for the hotly-anticipated The Avalanche b-sides compilation, so head over there and grab it while it's hot.

So I was re-reading my post on Sufjan's upcoming Illinoise b-sides compilation The Avalanche (because sometimes I re-read my own posts as an ego boost), and I realized I should have posted one of his best (and unreleased) songs, his incredible rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner". I first heard this when I felt the Illinoise live in concert when Sufjan rolled through DC last fall, and it was a definite highlight of the show and just a great treat to hear live. After the show I frantically tried to find a recording of this, but could only come up with a poor-quality version. However, the lovely Dodge over at My Old Kentucky Blog posted the complete live set from Sufjan's Denver show, which contained a great recording of the song, thus making me a very happy man. Granted, Dodge posted that live set way back in December, but with Sufjan entering the news again with the announcement of his new b-sides album and my recent posting of two of his excellent b-sides, I figured it'd be appropriate for me to post it here for any of you who missed Dodge's great post.

The American classic, which spent weeks at the top of the charts when Francis Scott Key first dropped it on our young nation back in September of 1814, is completely reinvented here with a haunting new echoing chorus and reworked lyrics. When the backing vocals come in around the midway point, the deal is sealed, and this is easily one of my favorite covers of all time.

MP3: "The Star Spangled Banner" - Sufjan Stevens [highly recommended]

Also, sorry for the lack (in quantity and substantiality) of posts around here over the last week, I've got a huge paper ("Car Culture In Nabokov's Lolita") due tomorrow and I've been pretty busy with that. However, M3 Volume 8 will be dropping sometime next week, and it's all springtime-y and fun and wonderful, so you can look forward to that. Also, My Ex-Best Friend posted Benjamin Costello's covers of (Iron & Wine's version of) "Such Great Heights" and Death Cab's "A Lack of Color", and while they're not incredible or anything, those are two of everyone's favorite songs so that's probably of interest to some of you. I also just finished a pretty fantastic collaboration with Zack (from All Things Go), which he'll be posting shortly, so yeah, there's that too. Cool, talk to you guys later.

New Franz Ferdinand: The Fallen EP

2006-04-07T15:33:00.000-04:00

I love it when bands release excellent b-sides or double a-side singles that actually make the single worth buying, and Franz Ferdinand have decided to do just that with their single release of "The Fallen", the third single off of last year's You Could Have It So Much Better. The single is actually a double a-side, with brand new track "L. Wells" being thrown in to make the package all that more exciting. Also, available on the CD-single/EP is another new song, "Jeremy Fraser", further continuing the trend of nominative song titles on this release, as well as Justice's remix of "The Fallen" and an instrumental track, "Brown Onions"."L. Wells" gets the "a-side" call here over "Jeremy Fraser", and rightfully so, as it's an excellent song, about Lynsey Wells, a friend of the band from Scotland. Here's what frontman Alex Kapranos has to say about her:

Lynsey [Wells] is a girl we know from Glasgow. She's amazing, one of those people who can always put you in a good mood. There's something very whimsical about her, living her life like she's a character in a film. The song started when I was thinking about her red hair blowing in the winter wind.

"Jeremy Fraser" is a darker track, that lyrically sounds like it might be better suited as a Decemberists song, a creepy-souding song about a boy who was died in the woods "by a lance of silver". But the best part of this whole deal is that rather than just releasing a video for "The Fallen", as is custom, they decided to go ahead and release a whole slew of videos, filming clips for "L. Wells" and "Jeremy Fraser" as well! The "L. Wells" video is fun, following the whimsical Lynsey Wells (though I don't know if that's actually her in the video) all about town, but honestly, who doesn't enjoy watching a good-looking indie girl frolic about? The "Jeremy Fraser" video is, like the song itself, much darker, and actually feels a lot like a Sigur Ros video, with its focus on schoolyard children and the animal masks and such. Best of all, Domino's been kind enough to make all these videos available for download directly from their website, so get to it below. Also, I've posted iPod compatible versions of all of these videos over on Videoteque, so be sure to head over there and grab those if you want these videos for viewing on your 'pod.

MP3s:
"L. Wells" - Franz Ferdinand
"Jeremy Fraser" - Franz Ferdinand
"The Fallen" (Justice Remix) - Franz Ferdinand

Videos:
"The Fallen" - Franz Ferdinand
{Director: Alex & Martin}
"L. Wells" - Franz Ferdinand
{Director: Blair Young}
"Jeremy Fraser" - Franz Ferdinand
{Director: Scott Lyon}

Bonus Acoustic MP3s:
"The Fallen" (Acoustic) - Franz Ferdinand
"Walk Away" (Acoustic) - Franz Ferdinand

New Sufjan Stevens Album!

2006-04-07T14:47:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: I Guess I'm Floating, who are tearing up the blog scene now, has a new Sufjan song, from the upcoming Kill Rock Stars The Sound The Hare Heard compilation, which focuses exclusively on singer/songwriters. "Adlai Stevenson" is typical Sufjan flawlessness, and is one of the tracks slated for the upcoming The Avalanche b-side compilation, so head over there and grab it while it's hot.

This is easily the most exciting thing I've heard in a while: Sufjan Stevens will be releasing a new album on July 25th, a collection of songs originally cut from Illinoise titled The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras From The Illinoise Album. Seriously, how wet-your-pants-exciting is that? Here's the backstory direct from the Asthmatic Kitty website:

The little secret behind the Illinois record is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs. But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in—as did the opinions of others—and the project was cut in half... Sufjan gleaned 21 useable tracks from the abandoned material, including three alternate versions of Chicago. Some songs were in finished form, others were merely outlines, gesture drawings, or musical scribbles mumbled on a hand-held tape recorder... As an illustration, the avalanche refers to the snow and rubble that falls off the side of a mountain, or, in this case, the musical debris generously chucked from an abundant epic.

Seriously, three alternate versions of Chicago? I'm pretty sure that's the most exciting thing I've ever heard. Head over to the Asthmatic Kitty website to view the full tracklisting, available here. Also, Rosie Thomas is not carrying Sufjan's baby, so ladies, you may now get back to drawing pictures of Sufjan and writing "Mrs. Stevens" all over your Geography binder.

Finally, I've included two MP3s, title-track "The Avalanche" and a live acoustic version of "Chicago" (as heard on M3 Volume 7), below, in case you weren't already in a fit of spasmic anticipation.

MP3s:
"The Avalanche" - Sufjan Stevens [highly recommended]
"Chicago" (Acoustic) - Sufjan Stevens

Bonus Video:

From The Vault: M3 Volume 3

2006-04-05T23:34:00.000-04:00

[cover design adapted from Waking Ashland]

M3 Volume 3 was conceived of and released in the premature warmth of late March last year and V3 was the first volume to focus on a specific idea or feeling: the transition between winter and spring and the feelings of happiness that are automatically associated with such a time. All of these songs have a decidedly warm-weather, springtime feel about them, and all work together to create a mix perfectly reflective the mood of early spring.

The mix opens with A.C. Newman’s excellent “Miracle Drug”, which moves on into “Graceland”, a gem of a b-side from his full-time band, The New Pornographers. Next up is The Decemberists’ “16 Military Wives” the lead single from their album Picaresque, which had just been released at the time. A pair of Rilo Kiley-related tracks follow; “My Slumbering Heart”, an often-overlooked highlight from the band’s 2002 release, The Execution of All Things, and “A Time For Emily”, by The Elected, the side project of RK guitarist and back-up vocalist Blake Sennet. The Arcade Fire keep things moving with “Rebellion (Lies)”, easily the warmest song on Funeral, which flows into the album’s pinnacle, Ted Leo’s flawless “Timorous Me”, which hints at shades of summer with its down-home guitar strumming and Blues Traveler-esque sound. Snow Patrol and Eels round out the mix’s second half, but it’s album-closer “Sweet Child ‘O Ravi” that steals the show. The least known, and – as a result – most underappreciated song on the album, “Sweet Child ‘O Ravi” is my favorite mash-up of all time, in which DJ Lenlow takes the soothing piano of Norah Jones, speeds it up, adds an energetic percussion rhythm, and then transplants onto it the infamous guitar riff from Guns ‘N Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine”, creating an instrumental masterpiece of sheer exuberance and delight.

Download: M3 Volume 3 [follow link]

M3 Volume 3:
01. “Miracle Drug” – A.C. Newman
02. “Graceland” – The New Pornographers
03. “16 Military Wives” – The Decemberists
04. “My Slumbering Heart” – Rilo Kiley
05. “A Time For Emily” – The Elected
06. “Rebellion (Lies)” – Arcade Fire
07. “Timorous Me” – Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
08. “Spitting Games” – Snow Patrol
09. “Fresh Feeling” – Eels
10. “Sweet Child O' Ravi” – DJ Lenlow (Norah Jones vs. Guns ‘N Roses)

Long-Winded Overanalysis: "Trains To Brazil"

2006-04-05T23:05:00.000-04:00

Blogger is being lame and refusing to let me upload any images, which means M3 Volume 3 will have to wait a little bit (even though it's mostly ready to go), because no images means no cover art, and we certainly can't have that now can we? Anyway, to tide you over, here's some ridiculous overanalysis of "Trains To Brazil", which only further proves that this is the best song of 2006 so far. So here is, to the best of my knowledge, the full, overanalyzed and long-winded meaning of the song:

At first glance, "Trains" appears to just be a lesson in unbridled exuberance and worry-free existence, which Pitchfork eloquently described as "like going full-speed down a hill in rollerskates", but in actuality it's somewhat the opposite of that.

First of all, the song was written in 2002 when the world was still recovering from 9/11,and then when Guillemots were recording it in 2005, a Brazilian man was killed on the subway by London police because he was wrongly suspected of being a terrorist, and the band changed the title as a tribute. As for the meaning, here goes:

The song is a social commentary on the state of the world today. Lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield (not his real name) discusses the ever-present feeling of distrust and suspicion caused by terrorist attacks, which resulted in the wrongful murder of the aforementioned Brazilian man on the subway last year. We are all living with our "backs to the wall", and though he wonders when they'll "blow us away", he's just thankful to here for as long as he can. The "prophets and pawns" are the terrorist leaders and their mindless followers, and we live in a culture of anxiety, aware that are lives are "in the hands of these erroneous fools". He curses those who live their lives unhappy, "from one day to the next", and says "let them take you next", as you should just be thankful to be here on this earth, living this life, as it could be "you tomorrow [or] next year".

As for the girl referenced in the song, the one he still "thinks about on cold winter mornings", I'm a little less confident. It could be that she's just an example of a reason he's happy to be alive, but I think she may have been a victim of terrorism herself. She is an example of a person whose life turned out to be "in the hands of those erroneous fools", a victim of senseless terrorism. This song is beautiful, amazing, moving, life-affirming and completely worthy of the hyperbole I drenched the first half of this sentence in. Far and away the best song of 2006 so far. Download below, in case you managed to miss it the first two times we posted it.

MP3: "Trains To Brazil" - Guillemots

ALSO, Drowned In Sound recently devoted an entire podcast to those lovable Guillemots, or rather, the lovable Guillemot as it was an interview with and solo performance by lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield. Included in the podcast is a solo performance of the band's brand new single, "We're Here". Download the podcast below or click here to subscribe.

Podcast: "Drowned In Sound Radio: Guillemots Special" - DiS Radio

Death Cab: "Talking Like Turnstiles" (Live)

2006-04-05T12:56:00.000-04:00

I've never posted an embedded YouTube video and I generally try to not to simply post things other blogs have already covered, but I had to make an exception here. Above is an embedded YouTube video of a crazy fan at one of Death Cab's recent shows, who just had to hear "Talking Like Turnstiles" and then, subsequently, just had to get up on stage and then had to run backstage and steal a water bottle from the band's dressing room (via Stereogum). The video starts out slow, as the audience sings along to the end of "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", but get's going immediately after that, so stick with it. Also, since the song is a b-side from Plans that was only available on the vinyl release, I've included it below for your downloading pleasure.

MP3: "Talking Like Turnstiles" - Death Cab For Cutie

From The Vault: M3 Volume 2

2006-04-04T21:35:00.000-04:00

Polar Bear adapted from Threadless

M3 Volume 2 shares some major similarities with OC Mix 4. I’m really sorry about this, I assure you it was unintentional. Around the time that I began working on V2 I was seriously into The OC, and I had gone on a downloading binge trying to get all the songs from the second season, and in the process of that I discovered a lot of great new songs, a couple of which ended up on M3 Volume 2 and subsequently, OC Mix 4. The mix opens with Bloc Party’s incredible “Little Thoughts”, which at the time was still considered a rarity, as it was excluded from the UK release of Silent Alarm and wasn’t released in the US until Silent Alarm saw a domestic release in late March of that year. Two tracks from OC Mix 4 follow, “Cartwheels” by The Reindeer Section (the side project of Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody), and Flunk’s otherworldly “Play”. Next up are two electro-pop gems, Postal Service b-side “Be Still My Heart”, which would later see release on the We Will Become Silhouettes CD-single, and Imogen Heap’s immaculate “Goodnight and Go”, another track introduced to me by The OC and music supervisor Alex Strapstavas. The album reaches its pinnacle with Phoenix’s “Run Run Run”, before moving through Shins’ b-side “When I Goose-step” and onto Radiohead’s indie classic, “High and Dry”. Ben Fold’s incredible cover of Dre’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit” offers another highlight, before things are closed out with Death Cab’s flawless and beautiful “Blacking Out The Friction”. Though M3 Volume 2 was probably the least well-received of the M3 collection, it’s still a great mix and entirely worth the download.

Download: M3 Volume 2 [follow link]

MP3s:
01. “Little Thoughts” – Bloc Party
02. “Cartwheels” – The Reindeer Section
03. “Play” – Flunk
04. “Be Still My Heart” – Postal Service
05. “Goodnight and Go” – Imogen Heap
06. “Run Run Run” – Phoenix
07. “When I Goose-Step” – The Shins
08. “High and Dry” – Radiohead
09. “Bitches Ain’t Shit” – Ben Folds
10. “Blacking Out The Friction” – Death Cab

Put Yourself In Teddy Geiger's New Video

2006-04-04T20:31:00.000-04:00

Trust me, you want to do this. If you're like me, and someone tells you to go to Teddy Geiger's website to check something out, you'd probably rather stay as far away from TedHeads.com (actual name of the website) as you possibly can. However, fortunately for me, I heeded my friend Stephen's recommendation yesterday and checked it out, and it turns out the people who promote Teddy Geiger may have come up with the single greatest promotional tool of all time (Built To Spill Basketball finishes a distant second).

You see, they've created a program that allows you to insert your face and the face of a friend into Teddy's new video for "For You I Will (Confidence)", and the results are nearly always hilarious. Seriously, I spent like four hours playing with this yesterday, it's ridiculous. So anyway, I encourage all of you to head over there and make one for yourself and your friends, I myself took the liberty of creating one for Everett and I, to commemorate our everlasting love. Let it be noted, Everett and I hardly ever jump into pools and make out these days (that was so summer-after-8th grade), but if we did this is exactly what it would look like. My personal favorite part is the adorably smug look on Everett's face at the end, it's priceless. Enjoy our video below, and be sure to make your own (which it gives you the option to do as soon as the video finishes playing).

Video: "For You I Will" (GWFAS Version) - Teddy Geiger [follow link]

New Saves The Day Single: "Eulogy"

2006-04-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

I've had the upcoming Saves The Day album, Sound The Alarm, for a couple of weeks now, and just as I had hoped, the band has announced the album's best track, "Eulogy", as the lead single, which was released on iTunes today (purchase here). Saves The Day are another band following the current trend of once-emo bands trying to shed their emo label and go for a more pure arena-rock sound, a la Muse, and this is evident in the high-quality production and pure rock sound of "Eulogy". Granted, if you didn't like Saves The Day before, this song probably won't change how you feel, but as a on-again-off-again Saves The Day fan for the last three or four years I love this song. The highlight comes early, at the 0:47 mark, when the instrumentation momentarily falls out and the addictive chorus suddenly fades in with an intense burst of energy. I really like this new single, and while it is a definite change in sound, I'd recommend you check this out if you ever were or are a Saves The Day fan.

MP3: "Eulogy" - Saves The Day

Also, in other single news, though it appeared as if "You're All I Have" would be the lead single from Snow Patrol's upcoming Eyes Open, "Hands Open" is the first track to be formally released, and it's available in the US iTunes Store for purchase now. I don't know which one's technically the first single, but I think I'd definitely go with "Hands Open" if it were me.

From The Vault: M3 Volume 1

2006-04-03T21:38:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: I had forgotten to add the Rapidshare links for all of the M3s to all of the posts, so I'm doing that now. You can access the Rapidshare link for M3 Volume 1 here or below.

So here it is, the one that got everything started: M3 Volume 1, from way back when life was still simple, when each M3 only carried ten tracks of audio ecstasy and I could still fit secondary graphics on the back cover. For a while, I viewed M3 Volume 1 as my Mona Lisa, that is - a work of mixtape art that I'd never again be able to meet or surpass, though I think I may have at least come close with M3 Volume 5. But back to the matter at hand - M3 Volume 1 has it all. You've got classics in "Staring At The Sun" and "New Slang", the latter a more-obscure live performance featuring heavily-bearded folk god Sam Beam (known to the common folk as Iron & Wine) on backup vocals. However, you've also got your rare gems like Ty Cobb's "When You Smile" (the original version of what became "Smile" after Ty Cobb changed their name to Mad Action), and Iron & Wine's immaculate "Swans and The Swimming". The latter is from Beam's 9-20-02 recordings, a collection of songs he recorded on a 4-track recorder (in September of 2002, hence the title of the recordings) and ultimately used to get signed to Sub Pop. Another incredible song that can be considered somewhat of a rarity is "Couches In Alleys" by Styrofoam, featuring vocals by Ben Gibbard. Gibbard shines on this track, unleashing some of his most impressive lyrics to date. The lyrics are an allusion to Jack Kerouac's On The Road, hence the "Hey Jack, it's me" lyric. In interviews Ben has said that On The Road is his favorite book, and "Couches In Alleys" serves as a fine tribute to it. In the song he relates to the listener his attempts to leave his problems behind, just as people leave their old couches in alleys, and just as the couches become "rain-soaked and rotten" so too do his problems, as no matter what he always has to come back to them and face his demons; they won't just go away. But that's enough summary for one song, there's plenty more to love on M3V1.

Granted, the passage of time has stolen some of the freshness from M3 Volume 1. "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", "Goodnight Goodnight", and "Hounds of Love" were all very hot/lesser-known tracks at the time of M3 Volume 1's "release" (February 2005), but have all since become well-known indie staples. Regardless though, M3 Volume 1 is a lot of fun and definitely has the most stylistic variety of all the M3s (yet still manages to flow seamlessly), and be sure to download it so you can hear for yourself how it all began. Available in it's entirety via Rapidshare or individually below.

Download: M3 Volume 1 [follow link]

M3 Volume 1:
01. "Staring At The Sun" (Liars EP Version) - TV On The Radio
02. "New Slang" (Live ft. Iron & Wine) - The Shins
03. "When You Smile" - Ty Cobb
04. "Pale Horse" - John Vanderslice
05. "Couches In Alleys" - Styrofoam ft. Ben Gibbard
06. "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" - Stars
07. "Goodnight Goodnight" - Hot Hot Heat
08. "Hounds of Love" - The Futureheads
09. "Counting Down The Hours" - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
10. "Swans and the Swimming" - Iron & Wine

New Futureheads Single: "Skip To The End"

2006-04-03T21:09:00.000-04:00

I'm a little behind on this one since I was gone all weekend, but the new Futureheads single leaked during my absence, and I figured there's probably still a good amount of you who may not have heard it yet. If you're one of those who are yet to hear it, I hate to break it to you, but it's pretty dissappointing. Like, it's not bad, and I'm sure it will still grow on me some, but it's extremely mediocre. The Futureheads have this great, refreshing, herky-jerky guitar-rock a cappella thing going on, but then they go and release "Skip To The End" as the lead single from their upcoming album, News and Tributes, and one can't help but to be dissappointed. It's just boring, rudimentary guitar-rock, nothing anyone else couldn't do. Decide for yourself below, and let's just hope the rest of News and Tributes is more impressive than this.

MP3: "Skip To The End" - The Futureheads

Korean Pop Superstar Eddie Shin!

2006-04-03T20:20:00.000-04:00

So yeah, sorry about, you know, not posting anything for the last four days; my bad. I went to NYC on Friday for internship interviews (with VICE Magazine/Record Label and AOL Music), and before I went I made sure to write up a lot of posts beforehand so I could get some new content up while I was gone, but I didn't have any internet access all weekend (read: I was too busy gallavanting around the city with Carrie and Kathryn), so sorry to leave you all hanging.

HOWEVER, to make it up for you I'm posting not one new (kind of) M3 tonight, but THREE "new" volumes of M3, which will be posted over the next three days. Since I started the site I've been planning on posting M3s Volume 1-"4", but the time never came and then my hosting went down in flames in January, but now that I've gotten my original ezarchive account back, you all can reap the benefits. So after this post I'll be debuting M3 Volume 1, which was originally released to all of my high school friends in February '05 but has never been posted on GWFAS, and Monday and Tuesday will see the release of M3 Volumes 1 and 2 as well. So keep an eye out for those, and get excited and whatnot (if that's your thing).

Also, on Friday night I slept in the bed of Korean pop superstar Eddie Shin (who goes by just "Eddie" in his recording career), though he was neither in the bed nor does he go to NYU anymore. While it's widely accepted that Eddie Shin failed out of NYU, only his close friends - with whom I had the pleasure of hanging out with on Friday night - know that rather, it was NYU who failed out of Eddie Shin. Enjoy his awesomely bad hit single below, "Just My Way".

MP3: "Hello (My Name Is Eddie)" - Eddie

Finally, in administrative news, Everett and I have decided to cut back on the whole [highly recommended] thing, as we've found ourselves doling it out a bit too liberally as of late. We don't want to devalue the highly recommended label, as so many bands depend on it for both self-esteem and advertising purposes (not true), so we'll be cutting back a bit, as anything we post is automatically recommended by us, so it's a bit redundant to highly recommend every song in a post (as has happened before). So yeah, just because a song doesn't have the label doesn't mean you shouldn't download it, that's pretty much all we're saying here. Enjoy your Monday and get ready for the online debut of M3 Volume 1 later today.

Artist Profile: Cold War Kids

2006-03-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

Cold War Kids have a sound that seems displaced from their current time and place. The bluesy four-piece from Fullerton, California (or The OC, as it's better known these days) sound like they should be a part of the incestuous Montreal scene, with at least one or two members of the Arcade Fire in their backing band. Also, despite bursting onto the indie scene only recently, their jangly, bluesy sound wouldn't be out of place in the late '60' and '70's of the actual Cold War-era. Sonically, they sound like a unique blend of the haunting vocals of Win Butler and the passionate ferocity of Isaac Brock, with the bluesy tone Jack White's voice thrown into the mix for good measure, all backed by the instrumentalists of Wolf Parade or the Arcade Fire.

I'm as excited about Cold War Kids as I am about Heypenny, which is saying a lot, and Cold War Kids are another ludicrously unsigned band as well. As for that last fact though, I wouldn't expect them to remained unsigned for long, as buzzworthy performances at SXSW have record labels scrambling all over the place trying to sign them. One record label executive (can you call people who run indie labels "executives"?) I talked to said with confidence that he thought they were the next huge band in the indie scene, and I'd have to agree, as these guys really seem to have the potential to light the blogging world on fire in the same way that the Arcade Fire did a little over a year ago and Tapes 'N Tapes are doing now. So far only My Old Kentucky Blog and Rock Insider have featured these guys (here an here, check out Rock Insider for more mp3s), which seems criminal considering the raw, unbridled talent these guys possess. There's an intangible quality about bands like the Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens that contributed to them blowing up in the blogosphere in the way they did last year, and I feel like Cold War Kids possess that same intangible mysticism about them, most immediately evident in the cryptic graphic design they feature on their website and MySpace.

"Hospital Beds" is my favorite song of theirs, an absolutely awe-inspiring track (just wait for the "I got one friend laying across from me..." part at the end) that's sure to spark the interest of lots of listeners. The track is the closest thing they have to a single on their upcoming Up In Rags EP, due out later this month along with the simultaneously-released With Our Wallets Full EP. "We Used To Vacation" is my other favorite track by them, also found on the Up In Rags EP. I'm also posting all of the other tracks available on their website, "Tell Me In The Morning" from the Wallets Full EP, along with "The Soloist In The Living Room" and "Heavy Boots" from their debut Mulberry Street EP. Incidentally, Cold War Kids are also SPIN's "Band of the Day" today, so be sure to head over there and check out the feature on them, where you can view their full list of tour dates from their upcoming jaunt across the country with Saddle Creek favorites Two Gallants. I'm frantically trying to figure out how I can get to see them live, as they've excluded the Virginia-Maryland-DC area from the tour, and I'm even considering trying to catch their Chapel Hill, NC date. See what the buzz is about for yourself below:

MP3s: [free downloads from ColdWarKids.com]
"Hospital Beds" - Cold War Kids [highly recommended]
"We Used To Vacation" - Cold War Kids [via Rock Insider]
"Tell Me In The Morning" - Cold War Kids
"The Soloist In The Living Room" - Cold War Kids
"Heavy Boots" - Cold War Kids

March Music (& Movie) Mini-Medley

2006-03-30T01:04:00.000-05:00

I am not the type of person that sees a lot of movies; I could probably count the number of times I've been to a movie theater in the past three years on one hand. Today, however, was a rainy day here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and not being a local Santa Fe-an, I didn't have much to do on a rainy day. I decided that since there were actually a couple movies out that I wanted to see, I'd go catch a flick, as the moviegoing public is wont to say. The movie I chose to see is The Inside Man, "A Spike Lee Joint" starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster, and I was incredibly impressed. As you may have gathered, I am no movie critic and I hardly fancy myself to be knowledgeable on matters of cinema, but I would absolutely recommend the movie to anybody, it was entertaining and suspenseful and Denzel (we are on a first name basis) and Clive Owen (we are not) were absolutely superb. You may be asking yourself at this point, "why is he writing this? This is not a movie blog, it is a music blog!", and for that reason I am going to give up on my review of The Inside Man and simply say that if you are reading this, you should see the movie at your soonest convenience, I doubt you will be disappointed.

There is, however, a music-related aspect to this tangent: the song used in both the opening and closing credits of this film is quite excellent. It is very foreign, as the title and artist may suggest, and the lyrics are in no way related to English, but it is a downright funky tune, so much so that the first thing I did upon getting home from the theater was dive into researching and downloading the song. It is called "Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint", which is an extremely fitting title, and it is credited to Sapna Awasthi and Sukwinder Singh. I realize that it may not be as instantly compelling to those of you who have not yet seen The Inside Man, but this should only serve as further motivation to see the it as soon as possible. As per usual, song is downloadable below:

Sapna Awasthi & Sukwinder Singh, Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint

As I mentioned previously, I am currently on vacation, and after reading Pitchfork's glowing review of the new Band of Horses album, Everything All The Time, I decided to pick up the album for vacation-time listening. I realize that virtually every music blogger and their grandmother has beaten me to the punch on this one, but this is truly a great album. Obviously, epic lead single "The Funeral" has been posted everywhere, and because it is one of the best songs I've heard all year, for the two of you that have not yet downloaded this song, Good Weather for Airstrikes is giving you that opportunity one more time. I cannot stress enough how great this song is. In scanning many of the other blogs posts on Band of Horses, I noticed that one song I believe to be far superior than much of the album is conspicuously absent. That song is "The Great Salt Lake", and I honestly feel that it rivals "The Funeral" as the best song on the album. Every time they hit the chorus and repeat that title line I get goosebumps, and I can't help but replay it over and over. Obviously, with such a positive review I wouldn't deign to give you, the reader, a case of aural blue balls by not making the song available for download, so it can be grabbed along with "The Funeral" below.

Band of Horses, The Funeral
Band of Horses, The Great Salt Lake

Finally, to complete my mini-roundup, I direct your attention to the criminally under-appreciated Sondre Lerche, who's singer-songwriter style has recently been compounded with some quality classical instrumentation courtesy of the Faces Down Quartet on his newest album, Duper Sessions. The lead single from that album, "Minor Detail", is melodic pop songwriting genius in a tidy three-and-a-half minute package, and is, like every other song in this post, [highly recommended]. To sweeten the deal and to hopefully increase Sondre Lerche Awareness (there really should be a LiveStrong-esque armband about this), I've included possibly the best Sondre Lerche song, the title track from his previous album, Two Way Monologue. Excellent lyrics abound in Lerche's songs, but I feel that this track in particular highlights his song-writing dramatically. Pick up both of the songs below, and let the praise for this 23-year old Norwegian start flowing throughout the blogosphere!

Sondre Lerche, Two Way Monologue
Sondre Lerche, Minor Detail

Artist Profile: The Shortwave Set

2006-03-29T13:17:00.000-05:00

The Shortwave Set are a "folk" trio that make beautiful, sample-based pop music. I know that's a fairly confusing description, but try to follow me. The Shortwave Set craft songs from samples taken from old 50 bargain-bin records and then write and perform folk songs over them, creating a very interesting, textured pop sound, and I'm really surprised there isn't more coverage of them in the blogosphere. Formed in the summer of 2002, they released their first single, "Slingshot", on the Slingshot EP in 2004. Now, not to be lazy, but I'll let the band's cleverly-written bio tell the rest of the story:

"Slingshot" was lauded as the definitive first single; not least in respect of the widely accepted view that nobody could recall any previous releases. Over the following two years more music was eked out and recorded. The band subsisted on a diet of own brand supermarket lager, Bombay mix (the hot orange ones), and purity of intention. Such messianic dedication to the cause had inevitable social fallout, but although they hemorrhaged friends and cash at an equal rate, the good work continued unabated. Currently, the band are busy watching telly in a one bedroom flat in SE London having just released their first album; the Victorian Funk masterwork entitled "The Debt Collection". The record was made in the front room using a handful of 50p charity shop records, clumsily cut up on a laptop computer, over the top of which songs were carefully crafted and overlaid. The floor remains littered with a variety of vinyl, battered old instruments, electronics, and empty tobacco packets through which you can, if you look closely enough, still make out the threadbare carpet beneath.

Their debut album, the aforementioned Debt Collection, is indeed wonderful and while I don't exactly have much experience listening to "Victorian Funk", the label is strangely appropriate for this album. My favorite song is "Is It Any Wonder?", which revolves around a vintage piano sample, over which the group adds layers of guitars, other after-effects and Swedish lead singer Ulrika Bjorsne's honey-smooth vocals. "Slingshot" has a very classic, very '60's Beatles feel, and - similarly to "Is It Any Wonder?" - revolves around another twinkling vintage piano sample. Follow-up single "Repeat To Fade" is one of the songs on the album exemplifying the bands "folktronica" sound, and Ulrika Bjorsne's vocals on the "repeat to fade" chorus are startingly reminiscent of Neko Case's on many of the choruses of New Pornographers songs. Actually take back what I said about her vocals being "startingly reminiscent" of Neko Case on "Repeat To Fade", in actuality they sound exactly like Neko Case, anyone else feel the same way? Download these three songs below, and be sure to check out the rest of their album, available in the US on iTunes here.

MP3s:
"Is It Any Wonder?" - The Shortwave Set [highly recommended]
"Repeat To Fade" - The Shortwave Set [highly recommended]
"Slingshot" - The Shortwave Set

We're Back

2006-03-29T12:47:00.000-05:00

The title of this post is somewhat misleading because a) we were never really gone and b) Everett's still on his spring break vacation, but by "we're back" I mean that Ezarchive has graciously reinstated my original account. This means that all of the pre-January downloads are working again, and it also means I no longer have to freeload off of Zack's Ezarchive account, both of which are significant pluses. Despite the amount of time it took to get everything sorted out, I'd like to extend an immensely grateful thank you to Ezarchive for staying with me and working through this with me, they're a great company and really treat their customers well. As for all of you, feel free to take some time to go back through the archives and download anything you had wanted to get before but were unable to, everything should be up and running just fine, though I've deleted many of the music video links. Also, thanks to everyone for bearing with us and sticking with the site while we went through our various hosting ups and downs, we're totally thankful for that.

Love,

Derek & Everett

[More] New Snow Patrol: Eyes Open

2006-03-28T18:13:00.000-05:00

I posted on the lead-off single from Snow Patrol's upcoming album, Eyes Open, last week, but the full album has since leaked and contains even more of the same goodness that "You're All I Have" hinted at. As a whole, the album possesses a decidedly major-label feel, absolutely dripping in production flourishes, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, and Snow Patrol's been heading in that direction since even before Final Straw. In fact it kind of feels like Interscope had a little leftover money in the budget, so the band decided to just fuck it and throw in as many bells and whistles as possible, adding strings ("You Could Be Happy"), a full choir ("Shut Your Eyes"), and even a duet with Martha Wainright ("Set Fire To The Third Bar"). The latter, a haunting ballad, is one of my two favorite tracks on the album, along with the much more rocking "Hands Open". "Hands Open" even name drops Sufjan, actual lyric: "Put Sufjan Stevens on/and we'll play your favorite song/'Chicago' bursts to life/and you remember [trails off...]", which is weird, but I guess kind of cool also. Finally, "Chasing Cars", which has been a live staple at recent shows, is the leading candidate to be this album's "Run" and follows the same formula as "Run" (sparse beginning + emotional climax + excessive melodrama), though it doesn't come close to eclipsing the original's epic beauty. All in all the album is great, though I'm not sure if I can say it surpasses Final Straw yet, but Eyes Open sees Snow Patrol finally finding their niche as the UK's next great arena-rock band, somewhere in between Coldplay and Muse. Again, as I said in the last post, if you're an Interscope representative and you'd like these tracks removed, just email me and I'll take them down without resistance.

NOTE: MP3s have been removed at the label's request. Color me owned.

MP3s:
"Hands Open" - Snow Patrol [removed]
"Set Fire To The Third Bar" (ft. Martha Wainright) - Snow Patrol [removed]
"Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol [removed]

ALSO, I've made all of Bloc Party's videos available for direct download in iPod-compatible format over at Videoteque, so be sure to head over there and grab those. And comment or something, we're getting pretty lonely over there despite the good traffic flow.

Les Savy Fav @ Satellite Ballroom, 03.25.06

2006-03-26T14:56:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: Fellow UVA student Taylor was able to get the setlist from the show, which was written on the back of a torn-up Pita Pit menu, and I've added it to the body of the post below.Despite a hastily-thrown together line-up and last-minute planning, PK German - the concert-planning committee I'm on at UVA - still managed to throw together a pretty awesome indie showcase concert last night at the Satellite Ballroom, featuring renowned headliners Les Savy Fav. Considering that Pitchfork called Les Savy Fav "the best live band in the universe. Period.", I was extremely excited to see LSF despite being a bit of a latecomer to their bandwagon, only having first really gotten into them after hearing 2004's Inches. However, if there's one band I should love more than anyone it's Les Savy Fav, as I have personal family connections to the band; bassist Syd Butler, who moonlights as the single nicest guy in the world, and his mother are close family friends, meaning I got to view Saturday's indie showcase for free and hang out with the guys afterwards.

As for their live show, the hype is completely warranted, as LSF are incredible live and frontman Tim Harrington is the single most entertaining lead singer in all of rock. Harrington is known for his on-stage live antics, and his reputation preceded him to the point that there were two policeman looming ominously in the corner of the venue, supposedly because someone with UVA had heard that Tim gets naked on stage (which according to Syd, "happened maybe once in the last ten years, and that was in Spain"). But despite the concert officials' concerns regarding Tim's hijinx, he did nothing to water them down and still put on an incredible show. Antics include:

taking various members of the audience’s belongings and putting them on, which resulted in him at one point parading around the stage while singing “We’ll Make a Lover of You” wearing some guy’s hat, a girl’s “strong prescription” glasses, and swinging some innocent bystander’s video camera around the stage and filming the band from on stage
physically leaving the venue twice, the second time of which he walked around to the side window of the venue and knocked on it, prompting someone to remove the curtain so the entire audience could watch him singing the song from the outside of the window looking in (fortunately the mic cord stretched that far, creating a cool effect where despite his location outside the venue his vocals could still be hear from the speakers inside)
taking off his shirt (multiple times)
and in the final song of the encore, entering the crowd and sitting in the middle of the venue on the floor, signaling for everyone to do the same, as he sang the final words of the chorus while the instrumentation faded out

The setlist was near-perfect too, as they got to my two favorites, "We'll Make a Lover of You" and "The Sweat Descends", the latter of which was awesome, though they did omit "Meet Me In The Dollar Bin", a song I'd really been looking forward to hearing live. They also played "Raging in the Plague Age", one of two songs made available by eMusic as a free download last week. If you get the chance to see The Fav live I wouldn't pass it up regardless of how much or how little you enjoy the band's recorded material, as it's an unforgettable experience. Peep the setlist:

Setlist:
Tragic Monsters
In These Woods
We'll Make a Lover of You
The Slip
Yawn, Yawn, Yawn
No Sleeves
The Sweat Descends [highly recommended]
I.C. Timer
Rage in the Plague Age
One Way Widow
Obsessed with the Excess
Rodeo
Rome

Encore:
(Unknown)
Who Rocks the Party

After the show I ate dinner with the band at the bistro next door, where I tried to hold my own as we discussed the decline of Hot Hot Heat, the state of the music industry, and I got to learn more about the business side of music (Syd started and owns French Kiss Records, home of LSF, Thunderbirds Are Now! and the former label of The Hold Steady). Syd also filled me in on the background behind "Raging in the Plague Age", which is truly an awesome inspiration for a fuck-it-let's-party punk rock song. Back in the Middle Ages in the time of the Black Plague, the rich and wealthy would stock up on supplies and alcohol and all move inside the walls of the castle and party until the plague had passed and it was safe to emerge from the castle and re-enter the outside world. In "Raging in the Plague Age", the king has been ostracized from his castle due to his infection with the plague ("I used to hold the biggest balls, from deep inside my castle walls"), but soon everyone inside has the revelation that someone among them in the castle has the plague, and everyone's resolution is just to party as hard as ever since they know they're all doomed to die shortly anyway ("throw up the drawbridge and draw down the blinds, everyone inside is getting high tonight/waiting for the plague to move on, no one's getting sober 'til the liquor's all gone"). Personally I think it's a really awesome song concept, and you can download "Plague Age" as well as "When You Wake Up a Snake" below, since they're free on eMusic anyway.

MP3s:
"Meet Me In The Dollar Bin" - Les Savy Fav
"When You Wake Up A Snake" - Les Savy Fav
"Raging In The Plague Age" - Les Savy Fav [highly recommended]

Introducing: Videoteque

2006-03-26T14:34:00.000-05:00

Awh yeah everyone, the time has come. Some of you might remember like a long-ass time ago I hinted that I was working on a new project and I said I'd be unveiling it "sometime later [that] week". However, some delays were encountered and obviously I didn't end up announcing it that week, but the time has finally come... ladies and gentlemen, introducing my new project: VIDEOTEQUE

The Go! Team @ The Black Cat, 03.19.06

2006-03-25T15:39:00.000-05:00

The Go! Team got the hardest beats and they brought them to us in spades in their first ever DC show at The Black Cat last Sunday. Due to a dastardly quesadilla I ingested on the Thursday before the show I was bedridden with food poisoning that entire weekend, but thanks to a certain miracle drug I was able to perservere and make it out to the Black Cat to see the Team in action along with a sampling of my friends from UVA and high school and Caroline Bocarosse, who totally hooked me up with tickets to the sold-out show. First let me preface this by saying that The Go! Team's live show is unlike anything you will ever see, and is worth every penny of the ticket price regardless of how steep it is. TG!T rolled through DC last Sunday with their motley crew of multi-instrumentalists just raring to get the party started, and they succeeded on all accounts.

Team captain Ninja is one of the best and most engaging lead singers out there, and she consistently encouraged the crowd to get moving and start rocking out, and to her and the rest of the team's credit there wasn't a static body in the house by the end of the show. The Go! Team are far and away the most fun live band in the world right now, and I honestly feel like you could take anyone off the street - so long as they don't detest enjoyment - to this show and they'd have the time of their lives. A testament to this is the fact that despite only playing a handful songs from their debut album Thunder Lightning Strike - Ninja prefaced at least half of the songs with a "this one's not on the album" warning - the crowd still loved every minute of the show and danced along with every song. The setlist was split evenly between the hits from TLS and newer songs from the Are You Ready For More EP (only available on their 2005 Australian Tour and as a bonus disc on the UK re-issue of TLS), as well as a handful of brand new songs not found on either release. Of these new songs, instrumental track "The Wrath of Mikey", a b-side from the Ladyflash EP, encore-choice "Titanic Vandalism" and "Doin' It Right" were easily the best, and despite most of the crowd never having heard the song everyone was dancing along. As for the hits culled from Thunder Lightning Strike, every song sounded amazing and about ten times better in a live setting, and I'm pretty sure "Huddle Formation" and show-closer "Ladyflash" were two of the highlights of my life. Before launching into the former, Ninja took some time to clear up the lyrical ambiguity of the chorus, dividing the audience in half down the middle and having the right side sing "Keep banging on the door, 'cause we can't hear a thing" and the left side return the call with "Keep shutting down the power, 'cause we can always sing". All in all it was a night to remember, and you can rest assured I'll be at the next Go! Team show the next time they come anywhere within three hours of DC. I've collected an assortment of the new tracks The Go! Team have been playing at shows, recorded at various locations on TG!T's recent tours, including brand-new track, "Doin' It Right", first unveiled at SXSW less than two weeks ago. Finally, as an added bonus I've also thrown in an absolutely top-notch live rendition of "Huddle Formation" recorded live on Glasgow Beat 106 FM, which is great as it not only allows you to get a feeling for the intensity of the band's live show, but also proves to be a very different listening experience, as the vocals are brought to the front of the mix and the lyrics are actually decipherable. Enjoy the downloads and stay tuned for a very special announcement later today.

MP3s:
"The Wrath of Mikey" - The Go! Team
"Doin' It Right" (Live at SXSW) - The Go! Team (via Take Your Medicine)
"Titanic Vandalism" (Live in Austin) - The Go! Team
"Huddle Formation" (Glasgow Beat Session) - The Go! Team [highly recommended]

Also be sure to check out the collection of flawlessly-recorded live tracks I posted some days ago, as they're all worth a listen and are nicely demonstrative of The Go! Team's live sound.

New Bloc Party Recordings!

2006-03-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

Given the success of the Always New Depths compilation I posted last week (500 downloads already) I imagine that a lot of you will be pleased by this. I've been sitting on a variety of live recordings of new Bloc Party songs recorded at different stops on the band's recent fans-only UK tour. However, my source requested that I not post the songs, so I've been unable to share them with you all. BUT, apparently Angela over at But She's On Fire didn't receive the same mandate, and she's posted six of the brand new recordings on her site. Unfortunately, the majority of the recordings are fairly poor, so these aren't so much for your listening pleasure as just a chance for you to get a small glimpse at what the new Bloc Party songs will sound like. Be sure to grab those here, and thank Angela while you're there. As for the recording of the new album, the band is currently recording one song with two different producers, Jacknife Lee and Steve Dub, and will then determine which producer they'll be recording the album with, which is tentatively set for a September release date according to NME and - needless to say - September can't come soon enough.

Bettie Serveert: "Lover I Don't Have To Love"

2006-03-24T13:33:00.000-05:00

Those of you who caught last night's steamy episode of The OC ears' may have perked up upon recognizing the familiar chord progression of one of the song's that provided a recurring soundtrack for the episode. At first I wasn't quite sure if it was a cover, thinking it might possibly be an instrumental rip-off of Bright Eyes' original, but when the vocals came in in the episode's final third it became apparent that it was in fact a cover of the Conor Oberst classic. Specifically, Dutch indie-rock group Bettie Serveert's cover of "Lover I Don't Have To Love" from the band's 2005 release, Attagirl. I loved the instrumental (which is all that was played for the first half of the show), and though I was at first put off by the female vocals and lead singer Carol van Dijk's worn voice, having heard the song in its entirety in mp3-form, I quite like it. Granted, it's not on par with the original, but that's to be expected, and Bettie Serveert delivers a faithful cover here.

MP3: "Lover I Don't Have To Love" - Bettie Serveert

GWFAS Exclusive: New Snow Patrol Single!

2006-03-23T00:53:00.000-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, live from Good Weather For Airstrikes headquarters in your nation's capital (alright fine, I'm in Charlottesville right now, but it doesn't have quite the same ring), we present to you: the new Snow Patrol single, "You're All I Have". I'm kind of nervous because this is the first time I've done the whole "first-to-post-a-hotly-anticipated-single" thing, but here it goes. I just got it and have only listened to it once, but my initial impression leaves me somewhat underwhelmed, though not outright dissappointed. It's very catchy and is highly reminescent of "Chocolate", from the group's 2003 masterwork, Final Straw, and definitely has the potential to grow on me in the coming days/weeks.

"You're All I Have" is the lead single from the band's highly-anticipated fourth full-length, Eyes Open, which is due out on May 1st in the UK and May 9th in the US. Go here for more details and the full tracklisting for Eyes Open, which features a duet between frontman Gary Lightbody and Canadian songstress Martha Wainright. If you're an Interscope record label executive representing Snow Patrol and you'd like me killed for posting this, I simply ask that you send me an email requesting that I take it down (which I will do without resistance) before you send your snipers in. You can view the album's cover art above and download the song below, and be sure to pick up Eyes Open when it drops in May.

NOTE: Interscope was all, "Take that file down immediately", and then I was all, "Okay".

Exclusive MP3: "You're All I Have" - Snow Patrol [removed]

[NOTE: I owe major thanks to Ben from Work For It, as he was the one who found the single, but was reluctant to post it due to fear of record-label backlash. I, being more naieve than he, got his permission to post it in his stead, so be sure to roll over to Work For It and thank him.]

Royksopp's Night Out: Live EP

2006-03-22T21:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday saw the surprisingly hushed US release of Royksopp's new live EP, appropriately titled Royksopp' Night Out. The EP was recorded at the Rockefeller Music Hall in front of an ecstatic hometown crowd in Oslo, Norway at the tail end of their 2005 international tour last November, and culls tracks from their stellar debut album, Melody AM, which sold 1,000,000 copies worldwide and 500,000 in the UK alone, and 2005's equally-fantastic The Understanding. Royksopp is made up of Torbjorn Brundtland and Svein Berge (if you're looking for a pronunciation key, sorry, I've got nothing for you), and they're easily my favorite electronica group, so be sure to go here to check out the artist profile I ran on them last December for more info and mp3s (that unfortunately don't work). Anyway, as for the EP, it's a great listen, even for fans who already have all of Royksopp's recorded material.

Live albums often prove to be only of interest to extreme fans and completionists only, but the electronica duo absolutely rocks it here, and Royksopp's Night Out is definitely worth your time, regardless of who you are. Royksopp, which means"smoking mushroom" in Norwegian, completely reinvent their songs in the live setting as many electronica acts do, and even throw in a completely unexpected - but completely awesome - cover of Queen of the Stone Age's "Go With The Flow" on the EP. The first two tracks, "What Else Is There?" and "Only This Moment", are two of my favorite Royksopp songs on record, but remain mostly unchanged here, though Karin Dreijer's (of The Knife) incredible vocals on "What Else" remain absolutely stunning live. "Remind Me" is supercharged with a pounding beat not found on it's Melody AM counterpart, while the languorous pace of the original version of "Sparks" is exchanged in favor of a much more danceable, club-approved rendition of the song. The duo takes a similar approach on the live version of "Poor Leno", choosing to play the remixed and vocal-less "Poor Leno" (Istanbul Forever Take) instead. However, the main attraction of this EP for most will be the only new content, Royksopp's excellent cover of "Go With The Flow". Here they strip away all of the organic elements of the original and deliver a pulsing, electrified version of the song, over which Svein (or is it Bjorn, I'm not sure) delivers a surprisingly faithful vocal rendition. Below is the complete tracklist, where you can download their cover of "Go With The Flow" and the other highlights from this excellent live album.

Royksopp's Night Out (Live in Oslo):
1. "What Else Is There?" [highly recommended]
2. "Only This Moment" [highly recommended]
3. "Remind Me"
4. "Sparks" [highly recommended]
5. "Poor Leno" (Istanbul Forever Take)
6. "Go Away"
7. "Aplha Male"
8. "Go With The Flow" [highly recommended]
9. "Teppefall" (Outro)

I've also included some bonus mp3s and videos for your enjoyment. My only qualm with Royksopp's Night Out is with the glaring lack of "Eple" from its tracklist. "Eple" is Royksopp's best work to date and is a huge fan-favorite (so much so that they actually played the same version of it twice at their last NYC show), so it's exclusion from this live EP is both inexplicable and frustrating. Annnnd I've re-uploaded the mighty Trentemoller's remix of "What Else Is There?", which held the #6 spot on my Top 10 Remixes of 2005 list and is a true remixing marvel. I've also uploaded the duo's fantastic remix of Coldplay's "Clocks", which despite not altering the original too much, manages to still have that signature Royksopp feel. Finally, I've also included Royksopp's two best videos, for "Poor Leno" and "Only This Moment", the latter of which I named the third best video of 2005.

MP3s:
"Eple" - Royksopp [highly highly recommended]
"What Else Is There?" (Trentemoller Remix) - Royksopp [highly recommended]
"Clocks" (Royksopp Trembling Heart Remix) - Coldplay

Videos:
"Only This Moment" - Royksopp [highly recommended]
"Poor Leno" - Royksopp [highly recommended]

The Complete Bloc Party Remixes & B-Sides

2006-03-21T20:20:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: Loyal reader Anjali sent me another great "Banquet" remix, which I've uploaded and added to the end of the remixes disc below.

Hopefully this should please a lot of people, as I know I was pretty thrilled when I found this. I originally grabbed Always New Depths off of the old (pre-Red Light Glow) Glass Danse, but I've modified the tracklisting, added some newer b-sides, and rearranged the structure, though the great original artwork (in typical Bloc Party style) wasn't done by me, so I can't take credit for that.

Always New Depths (complete title - Always New Depths: The Complete Silent Alarm B-Sides & Remixes) is exactly as the name states - the most comprehensive collection of Bloc Party b-sides and remixes available (on the internet), all bundled together with a nice, organized tracklisting and some appropriate/cool cover art. Though the original came with all of the tracks from Bloc Party's debut self-titled EP and some remixes that were eventually released on the Silent Alarm: Remixed album, I've removed those in favor of newer b-sides and more remixes.

I've uploaded the complete album to Rapidshare, divided into two discs - one for the remixes and one for the b-sides - for convenience purposes, but you can download the best of the individual tracks below. Generally, there are two kinds of b-sides: 1) the b-side that is cut from the album because it's not as good as the rest of the tracks, and 2) the more elusive and sought-after b-side that doesn't make the album not because it's not as good as the rest of the tracks, but merely because it doesn't fit in with the general sound and feel of the album (good examples of the latter are AC Newman's incredible "Homemade Bombs In The Afternoon" and Stars' wonderful "Petit Mort"). Fortunately, nearly all of the Bloc Party b-sides on this album fall into the latter category, and many of these songs are just as good as the bulk of Silent Alarm.

"Skeleton" is the best of the bunch, featuring more of Kele Okereke's wonderfully urgent lyrics and a central riff as catchy as any other on Silent Alarm (save maybe "Helicopter"). "Always New Depths", which attracted some attention and recognition at the end of last summer in those weird Target commercials is another great, well-produced track with an addictive, soaring chorus, and all of the b-sides prove to be enjoyable listens at the very least. "Tulips", which was featured as a b-side on the "Little Thoughts" single, but then released on it's own as it's own single, is another great Bloc Party track, albeit a slower one, more in the vein of "This Modern Love" than the more upbeat tracks on Silent Alarm, and is accompanied by it's dancier "Club Version" counterpart on the compilation. "This Is Not A Competition" is one of the less-polished songs on the album and one of Bloc Party's more sub-par b-sides, but provides an interesting listen as it shares similar lyrics ("if you fall sick, if you pass out") to "So Here We Are" and is possibly an early build of the song, though the final product was drastically reworked if that is indeed the case. Bloc Party has also produced two instrumental tracks, the so-so one minute mini-track "American Kids" and "Every Time Is The Last Time", the latter of which is a hauntingly beautiful instrumental track written by guitarist Russell Lissack that's a bonus "hidden" track on Silent Alarm. The two newest b-sides are "Hero" and "The Present", the former the excellent b-side to the recent Two More Years single, and the latter a new track written for and featured on the HELP: A Day In The Life War Child compilation. Finally, two acoustic tracks find their way onto the compilation courtesy of the Pioneers single, both of which are excellent, especially the stripped-down acoustic rendition of album-track "Plans". I've also concluded on Disc 1 two excellent covers of Bloc Party's "The Pioneers", from Mystery Jets and Tunng. Mystery Jets stip down the song and give it a much more organic feel, while Tunng takes it in the opposite direction, giving the song a decidedly electronic polish, injecting the original with their unique brand of folktronica.

Disc 2 compiles all of the official Bloc Party remixes not included on Silent Alarm: Remixed, as well as the best of the unofficial remixes, and gets started with the Minotaur Shock remix of "Tulips" a fairly mundane remix that for the most part leaves the original structure alone and just spruces up the mix with some dancier electronic beats. Next up are a series of "Banquet" remixes, courtesy of The Glimmers, The Streets, Cornelius, and Divide & Kreate, the best of which are Mike Skinner's semi-mash up Streets remix, on which Skinner raps over that ridiculously catchy "Banquet" riff and some cool drum effects, and "Somebody Stole Your Beat", a mash-up in which Divide & Kreate combine "Banquet" (slowing it down a bit) and The Killers' "Somebody Told Me" in the most-holy of dance-rock unions. Next up are Allen's incredible "Helicopter" remixes, which both found their way onto my Top 10 Remixes of 2005 list, and two more "Helicopter" remixes courtesy of Diplo (good) and Weird Science (not as good, featuring Peaches) from the recent Helicopter remix single, released last month in the states. Also on the "Helicopter" portion of the remix disc is the awesome "Bloc of Nails" mash-up, courtesy of "Tim G", which mashes up NIN's "Hand That Feeds" with the always-incredible "Helicopter". "Positive Tension" gets the official remix treatment as well, getting reworked by Johnny Whitney and The Go! Team, and TG!T take the song and make it their own, creating their signature whirlwind of sound, complete with that twinkling xylophone that seems to make all of their songs better. Finally, MSTRKRFT's "Two More Years" remix is easily the best of the bunch, on which MSTRKRFT take the morose, Joy Division-esque stylings of the original, transplant a dirty, DFA1979-signature guitar riff and a disco beat over it and transform the slower, more contemplative original into a bona fide party jam.

There you have it, the complete Bloc Party b-sides and (official) remixes. You can download each disc in it's entirety from Rapidshare below, and I've also made the best of the individual songs available for download as well. Hopefully everyone will enjoy this as much as I did.

Download: Always New Depths: Disc 1 (B-Sides) [follow link]
Download: Always New Depths: Disc 2 (Remixes) [follow link]

DISC 1: B-Sides
01. "Little Thoughts" (Extended Version) [highly recommended]
02. "Tulips" [highly recommended]
03. "Storm and Stress" [highly recommended]
04. "Skeleton" (7" Version) [highly recommended]
05. "Always New Depths" [highly recommended]
06. "Tulips" (Club Version)
07. "Hero" [highly recommended]
08. "The Present"
09. "This Is Not A Competition"
10. "She's Hearing Voices" (Original Demo)
11. "Storm and Stress" (Acoustic)
12. "Plans" (Acoustic) [highly recommended]
13. "Pioneers" - Mystery Jets [highly recommended]
14. "The Pioneers" - Tunng [highly recommended]
15. "American Kids" (Instrumental)
16. "Every Time Is The Last Time" (Instrumental)

DISC 2: Remixes
01. "Tulips" (Minotaur Shock Remix)
02. "Banquet" (Glimmers Version)
03. "Banquet" (Cornelius Remix)
04. "Banquet" (The Streets Mix) [highly recommended]
05. "Somebody Stole Your Beat" (Bloc Party vs. The Killers) [h.r.]
06. "Helicopter" (Allen's Breakneck Mix) [highly recommended]
07. "Helicopter" (Allen's Santa Monica Mix) [highly recommended]
08. "Helicopter" (Diplo Mix)
09. "Helicopter" (Weird Science Remix ft. Peaches)
10. "Bloc of Nails" (Bloc Party vs. NIN) [highly recommended]
11. "Positive Tension" (The Go! Team Remix) [highly recommended]
12. "Positive Tension" (Johnny Whitney Remix)
13. "Price of Gas" (Jus Ske Remix)
14. "Two More Years" (MSTRKRFT Mix) [highly recommended]
15. "Banquet" (Apathy Remix ft. Mike Shinoda & Styles of Beyond)

UPDATE: I've uploaded and added Apathy's "Banquet" remix, courtesy of loyal reader Anjali, and the beat Apathy drops on this is absolutely ridiculous, but just do your best to ignore the fact that the remix features Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park (besides, that synth line from "Faint" was fucking awesome and you know it).

The Go! Team: The College Radio Sessions

2006-03-21T18:21:00.000-05:00

Sunday night I managed to temporarily overcome food poisoning (though I paid for it Monday) and attend The Go! Team's first-ever DC show at The Black Cat, which was - needless to say - incredible. The Go! Team's live show is all kinds of awesome, and to give you all a little taste of that while I finish up my review of the show I've uploaded a live sampler (full title: Audio Assault Course: The College Radio Sessions) I picked up for free at Revolution Records this past weekend. The disc contains six songs recorded over a course of three different performances at three different college radio stations (KXRW, KEXP, and WERS), plus one bonus track, Kevin Sheilds' (of My Bloody Valentine fame) surprisingly awful mash-up/remix of "Ladyflash" and "Huddle Formation", titled "Huddle Flash". The Go! Team's live recordings are an especially rewarding listen, as it's an entirely new experience, since the vocals are brought to the front of the mix and you can actually decipher their lyrics for once. I'm posting the entire Audio Assault Course and since it was basically a free giveaway to generate publicity in the first place I'm sure no one will mind. So while you await my review of the show, be sure to grab these hot live tracks to tide you over in the meantime.Course Curriculum:
1. "Huddle Formation" (Live @ KCRW)
2. "Junior Kickstart" (Live @ WERS)
3. "Bottle Rocket" (Live @ KEXP)
4. "We Just Won't Be Defeated" (Live @ KCRW)
5. "Lady Flash" (Live @ KEXP)
6. "The Ice Storm" (Live @ KCRW)

Extra Credit:
7. "Huddle Flash" - Kevin Shields vs. The Go! Team

ALSO, I've decided not to change the header, or at least to postpone the change, despite the fact that the voting's been pretty much split and only slightly in favor of the old header (24-20 as of right now). After visiting the site with the new header in place I've realized I actually prefer the old header, or at the very least the size of that one was more convenient. Soooo, I'm going to keep the old header for now, rework the other header into a more convenient size, maybe draft up some other potential candidates and try out this whole voting thing again somewhere further down the line. Thanks to everyone for their insight and comments, and I'll be consulting you guys again at a later date.

New Header

2006-03-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: I've decided not to change the header, or at least to postpone the change, despite the fact that the voting's been pretty much split and only slightly in favor of the old header (24-20 as of right now). After visiting the site with the new header in place I've realized I actually prefer the old header, or at the very least the size of that one was more convenient. Soooo, I'm going to keep the old header for now, rework the other header into a more convenient size, maybe draft up some other potential candidates and try out this whole voting thing again somewhere further down the line. Thanks to everyone for their insight and comments, and I'll be consulting you guys again at a later date.

Well, I've got this huge Bloc Party post I was going to drop for you guys today but in an extremely unfortunate turn of events my internet died right as it was about to finish uploading to Rapidshare, which I had been waiting for it to do for over an hour, and I have neither the patience, nor the resolve to upload it again tonight. So, you'll all have to hold out for that until tomorrow, but I assure you it will be worth the wait.

However, I did re-work the layout of the site a little bit today, as I have replaced the old header with this shiny new one that I just designed recently. BUT, I can't decide which one I like more, so I'm asking you all to vote for the one you prefer (or let me know in the comments) in the new poll I've added to the left sidebar of the page. Personally, I'm really torn between the two, so your input would be greatly appreciated. You can view the old header here and the new header here (or at the top of this page), so consult those to help you make your decision. Thanks in advance for your input and keep an eye out for a huge Bloc Party post tomorrow.

Islands: Profile & Live Review

2006-03-18T18:58:00.000-05:00

photo courtesy of Secret Unicorns Forum

Many of you probably know that one of the most unique bands of the past few years, The Unicorns, have been disbanded for some time now. Their album, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone, is truly an indie masterpiece, with a wider variety of genres covered than most albums I can think of in recent memory. The breakup of The Unicorns was very tragic, especially because I never got the opportunity to see them live; I can only begin to imagine the energy the band surely put in to its live show. On Thursday, March 9, Austin from All Things Go and I came as close as possible to seeing the Unicorns live, when I went to see the band who rose out of the ashes of the Unicorns: Islands.

If you do not know what I mean when I say that Islands has a distinctly Canadian sound, listen to them. They epitomize, for me, what Canada's indie scene sounds like, while differentiating themselves from their contemporaries with generally superior musicianship and arrangements. Islands includes two-thirds of the Unicorns (Nick "Niel" Diamonds and Jaime Tambour), with the rest of the band filled out by a revolving door of members. Their debut release, Return to the Sea, is still largely unavailable in the United States [UPDATE: Return to the Sea is being released in the United States on April 4], but it was leaked to torrent sites across the internet last December. Though I hesitate to call it comparable to Who Will Cut Our Hair..., many of the songs are indeed similar. Imagine the Unicorns with stronger vocals and with orchestral strings replacing the electronic sounds that permeate Who Will Cut Our Hair..., and that is the general sound of Islands.

photo courtesy of Leslie Hartman

In concert, Islands are a band of few words and much music, and I think most of the audience appreciated that. They played a strong set full of selections from Return to the Sea; I cannot remember the full setlist but I know they got to album highlight "Rough Gem" and nearly ten-minute album opener "Swans (Life After Death)", and still had time for "Volcanoes", "If", "Jogging Gorgeous Summer", and, if I remember correctly, a rushed rendition of "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby", another highlight of Return to the Sea. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to play "Humans", my personal favorite song from Return to the Sea, but given their situation I can't blame them for not getting to all their great songs. The show itself was fast-paced, as Island seemed to be trying to fit as many songs in to the pre-set 30 minute time slot they were alloted as an opening act. Thankfully they were allowed to break that time slot some, as they were the whole reason I was at the show in the first place. No offense to Metric, and I'm obviously very appreciative towards the band for bringing Islands with them on tour, but I am a much bigger Islands fan than I am a Metric one. Also incredible was the first band on the bill, Men, Women & Children. I had never heard any of their material before, but they put on one of the most energetic and fun performances I've ever witnessed. Watch All Things Go for more information on them, as Austin has a joint artist profile and live review of them on the way.

If you get a chance to see Islands live, I definitely recommend it, as I was also able to pick up a physical copy of Return to the Sea at their show. Islands is coming back to the Washington, DC area on April 25, and I can guarantee you I will be at that show. To further entice you to investigate Islands further, I've included some downloadable content for you. Make sure to go to the show and buy the album there, I assure you that you will not be disappointed. Below, as a sample of what you may hear at an Islands show, I've included the studio recordings of some of the highlights of their live performance.

Islands, Rough Gem [highly recommended]
Islands, Don't Call Me Whitney Bobby
Islands, Volcanoes

Belle & Sebastian w/ New Pornographers @ 9:30 Club, 03.05.06

2006-03-17T20:24:00.000-05:00

EVERETT: Today is a milestone day in the world of Good Weather For Airstrikes. You may ask yourself why this is, and I will explain. The reason for today being so special is this: it is officially the eleven-day anniversary of our Good Weather For Airstrikes trip to see Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers! Now, you me ask yourself, why does this guy feel it is so important that today is the eleven day anniversary of this concert? And again, I will explain: this is the day that our review of the show finally gets posted! Why did it take so long? Because we're lazy! YEAH!

So, on to the magical night of music and passion and smiling and no quesadillas (touchy subject): Two Mondays ago, on March 6, the Good Weather For Airstrikes staff saw Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers at Washington, DC's 9:30 Club. We were accompanied by All Things Go's Zack, Austin, and Adrian, the lovely underage duo of Claire and Suzanne, and the slightly less lovely but equally lovable Avi. The night began with us being unfortunately late to The New Pornographers (we missed their first two songs, "Twin Cinema" and "Use It"), so I'm going to summarize briefly their performance below.

The New Pornographers performed without guitarist Dan Bejar (off promoting his band Destroyer's excellent new album, Rubies) or vocalist Neko Case (off promoting her excellent new solo album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood), so it was not exactly the best ever New Pornographers show, if you catch my drift. Of course, I don't mean to take anything away from A.C. Newman, who is arguably my favorite pornographer new or old, but the evening's lineup did seem to have a little something missing. Neko's absence was felt the most, as keyboardist Katherine was supposed to take over her vocal duties, but she had lost her voice and was unable to answer the call to duty. Anyway, the band sounded great regardless, but I couldn't help but feel like I could have gotten the same experience just playing one of their albums really loudly in my room, especially due to the fact that the female vocals were just Neko's recorded voice brought to the front of the mix and played through the P.A. They mimicked the sound of their album almost too well, and though I must admit that is an accomplishment in its own right, I go to shows with the expectation of seeing something a little bit different, a little more spontaneous, and the closest A.C. Newman and crew came to that was when Newman started whining about a cut on his finger. Though Newman did provide some much-needed comedic relief when he went on a rant about Fall Out Boy, Hawthorne Heights, and the state of music today. Anyway, they were fun, and their entire set can be downloaded here and here (credit to So Much Silence for those tracks).

No disrespect intended towards the New Pornographers, but Belle & Sebastian was the real reason we all went to the show, and we were not disappointed. They played a great set, playing many old favorites ("I'm A Cuckoo" and "If You Find Yourself Caught In Love", to name a couple), a less common live song ("Your Cover's Blown"), and of course, all the favorites from The Life Pursuit ("Another Sunny Day", "Funny Little Frog", "White Collar Boy", etc.). I was skeptical at first when they chose to open the show with "Expectations", but by the end of it I could safely say it had become one of my favorite Belle & Sebastian songs. They immediately launched in to "Another Sunny Day", and to be honest the rest of the performance was basically a blur of musical ecstasy for me. Highlights for me were "Electronic Renaissance", "Funny Little Frog", "Your Cover's Blown", and "I'm A Cuckoo", though I genuinely felt that every song choice was impeccable and translated excellently live. I apologize for my inability to describe the experience as eloquently as Belle & Sebastian deserve, but to make up for it I'm offering you, the readership, my usual penance for my various writing blunders: downloadable content!

NPR continued their excellent Live Concert Series, recording a variety of shows that go through the 9:30 Club, by taping, and later offering for mp3 download, the Belle & Sebastian and New Pornographers performances in their entirety (read what NPR has to say about the show here). Austin from All Things Go took on the difficult task of breaking up the hour and a half mp3 into individual tracks for easier public consumption, so keep an eye out for ATG's review of the show with those downloadable tracks and be sure to thank him when they eventually get that post up. However, we've got some special Belle & Sebastian-related treats for you as well, so I'll let Derek do what he does best and bring the downloadable hotness for you all.

DEREK: Available for download below is what is recognized in B&S fan circles as the band's best live bootleg out there, titled Our Favourite Party Songs, which was recorded live in Holland on March 31st, 2004. The sound quality is stellar, after all it is technically a liberated bootleg (basically just a high-quality, mass-produced bootleg, typically released illegally by a pseudo-record company), and the setlist is equally fantastic as well, which you can see for yourself below. I've made every song available as an individual mp3 below, and I also uploaded the entire file to Rapidshare (available for download HERE), so as to make it easier for people to download the whole thing if they're so inclined. But that's not all! Also included for no additional charge is a fantastic bonus B&S rarity, "Meat and Potatoes", which was featured as the b-side to the "Funny Little Frog" single. Download away:
DOWNLOAD (.zip file):
Our Favourite Party Songs [follow link] - Belle & Sebastian

DOWNLOAD (individual mp3s):
01. Passion Fruit
02. Expectations
03. Step Into My Office Baby
04. Wrapped Up In Books
05. The Model
06. I'm Waking Up To Us
07. You Made Me Forget My Dreams
08. You Don't Send Me
09. You're Just A Baby
10. Dog On Wheels
11. Slow Graffiti
12. I'm A Cuckoo
13. If You Find Yourself Caught In Love
14. Stay Loose
15. Wrong Girl
16. Dirty Dream Number Two
17. Sleep The Clock Around

BONUS MP3: "Meat and Potatoes" - Belle & Sebastian

Artist Profile: Heypenny

2006-03-15T19:47:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: So turns out the blogosphere is not "bereft of any mention" of Heypenny; a couple other blogs are already on the Heypenny bandwagon. Cable and Tweed have a nice little write-up of them here, Nashville-based Out The Other featured them here, and I Guess I'm Floating, who seem to just be doing everything right these days, featured them here. Check those out for more mp3s and info.

Audacious claim: Heypenny are the best band you've never heard. But I don't mean that in the way the mainstream media gives any band on an indie label and not on the radio this title. Yeah, The New York Times called The Hold Steady the best band you've never heard in 2005, but face it; nearly all of you have heard The Hold Steady and whatever other band these major publications assume you've never heard. But Heypenny deserves this title, because, due to what must be the result of some astronomical error somewhere in the solar system, Heypenny are not only unsigned, but - with the exception of Zack's post on them last month on All Things Go - even the omnipresent blogosphere is bereft of any mention of them.Thus, chances are, unless you've had the luck of stumbling across their MySpace page or have seen them perform in the Nashville area, your ears have never been graced by the glory and brilliance that is the music of Heypenny. Heypenny are the product of creator, lead singer, co-producer, and all-around mastermind Ben Elkins (pictured above), who began writing what would become the songs on Heypenny's incredible debut, Use These Spoons, in 2003. Use These Spoons, unofficially released in 2005, is an absolutely remarkable album, and had I heard it last year I can assure you it would have been firmly entrenched towards the top of my Top 25 Albums of 2005 list. Elkins cites Wilco, The Beatles, and Iron & Wine as some of the artists that influence Heypenny, who get their name from those "Give a penny, take a penny" trays at American convenience stores (called Ha'penny in the south), but many of the songs on the album conjure up more accurate comparisons to The Decemberists, The Unicorns and at times even shades of Bends-era Radiohead. That said, the diversity of the songs on the album is Spoons' finest strength. First track, "Dooley", sounds like The Beatles singing lyrics borrowed from Colin Meloy's songbook, while "Let It Rain" and "Walnut St. Bridge" (both of which are available for download here at All Things Go) slow things down and reflect the Iron & Wine influence, and standout track "Brave" was immediately reminescent of Radiohead's "Just" for me, though I can't necessarily pinpoint why. However, I by no means wish to give the impression that Heypenny are merely stealing and rehashing the styles of other bands, as that is most definitely not the case. No two songs on Spoons' better exemplify the undeniably unique style of Heypenny than "Secreterror", on which Ben plays a ceiling fan as an instrument, and "Parade". The latter of these two masterpieces is easily one of the best songs of the last few years, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a more enjoyable five minutes of music anywhere (seriously). You know what, this just in: "Parade" is so good it gets it's own paragraph.

"Parade" opens with a slow, brief intro, before erupting into a cacophony of exuberance and enjoyment. Though the instrumentation is unique and the top-notch production sets it apart from other songs of the lo-fi indie-pop genre, Elkins appears to channel the whimsical stylings of The Unicorns in the vocals and lyrics here (sample lyric: "I. Like. Chocolate cake./Bring me a few pieces... Make a fist, cram the chocolate in/Yeah, it tastes bloody, but you keep mashing it down"... brilliant). "Parade" and the aforementioned "Secreterror", as well as "Seems So Small" (which features a strings section), are great testaments to the astounding production of the album, which was produced by Elkins, who worked along side Charles Allison, and is some of the finest lo-fi production in recent memory, on par with Isaac Brock's recent work for Wolf Parade on Apologies To The Queen Mary.

As you've probably gathered, I really like Heypenny and think they're pretty great. Unfortunately, Ben and the gang have no formal plans to tour outside of the Nashville area until at least mid-to-late April, but in Zack's excellent interview with him he described the Heypenny live experience as a cross between "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood on PBS and avalanches on Discovery Channel", so you should definitely do everything you can to see them if the opportunity presents itself. I can't [highly recommend] buying Use These Spoons enough, and you can do so here or at select indie record stores in the Nashville and Chattanooga area. Though relatively unknown now, Heypenny have world domination on their to-do list, and with a debut album like this, you can expect them to follow through.

MP3s:
"Parade" - Heypenny [highly highly recommended]
"Brave" - Heypenny [highly recommended]
"Secreterror" - Heypenny [highly recommended]

Sugababes Covers

2006-03-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

Indie bands covering Top 40 hits get all the love (because who doesn't love the ironic cover?), but things can work just as well the other way around. Case in point: Sultry female three-piece Sugababes, one of the UK's most popular acts, have recently covered UK "it"-bands Arctic Monkeys and Hard-Fi (though "it"-band is a pretty huge understatement in the case of the former, considering the absolute frenzy of hype surrounding Arctic Monkeys) for the admirable purpose of providing stimulating b-side fodder for their fans. Their cover of the Arctic's "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" appears as the b-side to their "Red Dress" single and has received praise from all across the blogosphere, and many have gone as far as to say it actually eclipses the original (including Pitchfork). With their cover, Sugababes, "transform what was sloppy post-punk into music for tube tops", polishing the rough guitars to a glossy finish and tidying up the instrumentation, all the while keeping the manic pace of the original (Pitchfork).

Sugababes have since set their sights on another group of UK dance-punk rockers, Hard-Fi, and just released their cover of the group's "Living For The Weekend". Though not quite as perfect as their Arctics cover, Sugababes deliver a serviceable rendition of the Hard-Fi original, but my lack of enthusiasm could merely be do to the fact that Hard-Fi's music doesn't really excite me in the first place. Setting my disposition aside, download the tracks below and decide for yourself.

MP3s:
"I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" - Sugababes
"Living For The Weekend" - Sugababes

[Even More] Guillemots: "From The Cliffs" EP

2006-03-14T19:49:00.000-05:00

I'm well aware that Everett made a huge post on those wonderful Guillemots less than two days ago, but thanks to reader Iain, who runs Delete As Appropriate and recently posted a review of Guillemots' live show, it's come to my attention that the band have just today released their US debut EP, available on iTunes and elsewhere, which compiles all of the tracks from Guillemots' UK debut EP, I Saw Such Things In My Sleep, and the Trains To Brazil CD-single, plus one new song, "Sake". However, it's a bit of a curious release because From The Cliffs, which until this point I had thought to be the band's debut LP, isn't released until 3/27 in the UK and bears the same cover art. So in essence, Polydor (Guillemots' label) are inexplicably releasing From The Cliffs to little to no publicity two weeks before it is released in the UK, which is odd considering that Guillemots are a UK band signed to a UK label. I'm a bit confused, but I'm not going to argue as that just means more Guillemots goodness for us Americans, and I don't think anyone can be upset with that. Purchase the From The Cliffs EP/mini-album on iTunes (here), as it's pretty incredible and will easily find a spot near the top of Good Weather For Airstrikes' Top Albums of 2006 list.

Also, Everett got to write their profile, but I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I am in complete agreement with his lavish praise of Guillemots, so much so that if the year ended today, "Trains To Brazil" and "Who Turned The Lights Off, Baby" would be #1 and #2 on my Best Songs of 2006 list, with "Made Up Love Song #43" not far behind. I know there was a lot of downloadable content in Evro's post and some of you might have felt overwhelmed, but just to make absolutely sure you all download these three tracks I'm re-posting them here. Enjoy (again).

MP3s:
"Trains To Brazil" - Guillemots [highly highly recommended]
"Who Left The Lights Off, Baby" - Guillemots [highly highly recommended]
"Made Up Love Song #43" - Guillemots [highly recommended]

The Faint: "Y Control" Remix

2006-03-13T21:50:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so a couple of weeks ago I had promised a post previewing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs new album, Show Your Bones (due out March 28th) because I had a few of the tracks, but shortly after I said that the whole album leaked and now you can pretty much find it everywhere (shhh). However, in promising the Show Your Bones preview I mentioned that I'd be posting an exclusive remix of "Y Control" courtesy of The Faint, and many of you expressed a strong desire to hear it. It got lost in the shuffle for a little while, but here it is. This is one of my favorite remixes, and sounds a bit like what you'd expect to hear if The Faint performed the song with Karen O on vocals and maybe Nick Zinner contributing a distorted bassline or two. I especially love how the chainsaw noise that opens the song subtley morphs into the moaning of Karen's voice, and how The Faint leave the song's general structure alone but transplant a dancy beat over it and tighten up and polish the instrumentation until it's ready to take over dancefloors nationwide. Granted, this was released a while ago, so the takeover (if it happened, clubs are still three years away for me... well, legally at least) already occurred, but enjoy it now anyway.

MP3: "Y Control" (Faint Remix) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs [highly recommended]

UPCOMING: Best of B-Sides

2006-03-13T20:39:00.000-05:00

So I've decided to undertake a new project, as the success of my Top 65 Videos project and those of other blogs (You Ain't No Picasso's "Now That's What I Call Indie Covers" post of last year, Information Leafblower's annual Top 40 Bands in America list, etc.) indicate that you blog frequenters really enjoy a good project feature (for lack of a better term). This time I'd like to focus on the art of the b-side, and I'll be gathering my favorite b-sides in a Top 15 or Top 25-style list, for posting sometime in the near future. However, the most exciting and intriguing attribute of the b-side is its rarity and obscurity, but as a result many incredible songs go unnoticed or overlooked due to the fact that they're not formally released or featured on an album. Thus, there have been many great b-sides that I know have slipped past me, not to mention I've got a pretty limited knowledge of classic b-sides, so I'm giving you guys a chance to submit your favorite b-sides by emailing them to me at dwd7e@virginia.edu. Keep in mind that I try to keep GWFAS as forward-thinking and current as possible, so it's doubtful I'll include many classic b-sides on the list, but feel free to submit them anyway. I tend to view remixes as the lazy b-side approach so they're less-likely to make the list, but again, feel free to still send your favorites if your so inclined. Also, if you know of a great b-side but only have it on vinyl and not in mp3 form just tell me the title and I'll do my best to find a downloadable copy of it.

Finally, to clarify, for the intents and purposes of this post I'm defining b-sides as any song not formally released on an album or as a single. So, this broad definition includes single b-sides (obviously), songs exclusively released on soundtracks or compilations, album bonus tracks, and whatnot. Granted, there's a lot of gray area regarding what exactly qualifies as a b-side, so there may be some questionable choices on the final list, but I'm excited about this and I think it'll be an opportunity for a lot of people to discover a lot of new songs by some of their favorite bands they otherwise might not have known existed, so start sending those b-sides my way and keep an eye out for the post sometime in the near future.

Artist Mega-Profile: Guillemots

2006-03-12T15:40:00.000-05:00

Guillemots have started getting a lot of love in the ol' blogosphere of late, and I think it's about time Good Weather For Airstrikes jumped on the bandwagon. In all honesty, I've been preparing this post for weeks, trying to get as many Guillemots b-sides and whatnot to post for all of you, and in my waiting a great number of fantastic blogs beat me to the punch of breaking Guillemots for you. Now that Pitchfork has reviewed their single, "Trains to Brazil", it seems as if Guillemots have reached their breaking point, and with their album due out in the next few days they seem poised to take over the United States (well, "take over" in the manner that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Arctic Monkeys did - that is, take over the US blogging world).

The lead singer and frontman of Guillemots goes by the name of Fyfe Dangerfield, which is certifiably badass as far as I'm concerned. To match his name, Dangerfield has an excellent voice that is equally at home softly warbling over a lone piano or projecting to the masses over the more anthemic Guillemots songs (of which there are many).

I am confident in saying that Guillemots are well on their way to becoming my favorite band of 2006. First single "Trains to Brazil" is easily (EASILY) my favorite song so far this year, and the diversity of the Guillemots songs I've heard lead me to believe that their album should be an early front-runner for my year-end best of list. I'm not about to make comparisons such as "Guillemots are the next Radiohead", but they are absolutely a unique band that I feel is just, to be blunt, incredible. Guillemots have a fascination with extraneous sound, exemplified by the concord of laughing children and ringing telephones in "Trains To Brazil", which gives their decidedly pop-based songs a refreshingly experimental feel.Below, I have given you tons of downloadable content to begin to appreciate Guillemots. I do not yet have the Guillemots full-length debut album, but I have collected as many b-sides as I can and am treating you all to them now.

First off, I would recommend you pay a visit to Guillemots web-site, over at www.guillemots.com. Under the 'Sounds' tab at the top of the home page, you can stream the music videos for singles "Trains to Brazil" and "We're Here" as well as watch a live, improvised set from The George. Below the videos section there is a "Songs" section, with two songs ("Through the Windowpane" and "If The World Ends") that Guillemots performed at an Xfm Session. Both of those receive the [highly recommended] stamp from Good Weather For Airstrikes and both are downloadable as mp3s, so rather than use our own hosting we decided to send you over to the bands official website to grab them for yourself. Also [highly recommended] and downloadable from that same page are two demo's, "Cold Cool Moon" and "Sea Out", which you should definitely look in to. I prefer "Cold Cool Moon" of the two, but both are definitely great songs worth having in your music library.

The first three songs, entitled "Woody Brown River", "Blue Would Still Be Blue", and "Over The Mountains", are ballads that showcase Dangerfield's voice over sparse arrangements. To my knowledge, these songs have not yet found a home, though Dangerfield has mentioned that they will be kept in the band's back catalogue for release as b-sides for the upcoming album's singles. These three songs can be downloaded below:

Guillemots, Woody Brown River [highly recommended]
Guillemots, Blue Would Still Be Blue [highly recommended]
Guillemots, Over The Mountains

The next two songs are tagged with the album name Of The Night. For a sort of Valentines Day present, Guillemots posted four songs on their website for free download (unfortunately, the download system was needlessly complicated and the songs were only available in a PC-only, WMA format). I was able to acquire the four songs by other means so that they would play in iTunes on my PowerBook, and have uploaded the two songs I believe to be the best of the four-song set. The other two songs, "She's Evil" and "Bay Boyfriend", definitely highlight how unique Guillemots can be when they choose to, and the results are mixed. If you have any interest in the other two songs, however, send me an email at EverettCase@gmail.com or IM me at Duder987v on AIM and I'd be happy to send them to you. Anyway, here are the two Valentines Day songs, available for download in easy-to-use mp3 format below. [UPDATE: due to an overwhelming unforeseen demand for the other two Valentine's Day songs, I have uploaded them and included them in this post. Enjoy.]

Guillemots, The Rising Tide
Guillemots, By The Water
Guillemots, She's Evil [just added]
Guillemots, Bad Boyfriend [just added]

Next up for our downloadable content, Guillemots released a four-song EP in September of 2005. Entitled I Saw Such Things In My Sleep, the EP was most people's first exposure to Guillemots. The songs are all pretty different from each other, and they are all excellent. Many people are going crazy over "Made Up Love Song #43", so that would likely be a good place to start for those of you who are new to Guillemots. If you haven't gotten the impression from me already, as far as I'm concerned you can't go wrong with a Guillemots song, so all of the songs I've made available for download in this post are recommended.

Guillemots, Who Left The Lights Off Baby? [link removed]
Guillemots, Cats Eyes [link removed]
Guillemots, Made Up Love Song #43 [link removed]
Guillemots, Over The Stairs [link removed]

As I mentioned above, Guillemots first single release was "Trains to Brazil", a song I am officially hopelessly in love with. "Trains" is a breath of sheer fun and exuberance, an absolute joyride that clocks in at just over 4 minutes and is unrivaled in it's brilliance by any other song this year. I have also made available for download the two b-sides from that single, "Go Away" and "My Chosen One". Though both of those songs are fantastic and both (if "Go Away" were a little shorter than it's 7:47) could easily be hit singles for any other band, I cannot help but feel that when compared back-to-back with "Trains to Brazil" they fail to match up. What I am basically trying to say is that if you download one song from this post, or even one song from this website, I would strongly recommend that song by "Trains to Brazil".

Guillemots, Trains to Brazil [link removed]
Guillemots, Go Away [link removed]
Guillemots, My Chosen One [link removed]

And finally, Guillemots are preparing a second single release from their upcoming full-length debut, entitled "We're Here". Though it is no "Trains to Brazil" (no other song this year is), it is an incredible song in it's own right, and coupled with "Trains to Brazil", the Guillemots debut should surely have the punch to take over the American music scene. ~~"We're Here" can be downloaded below.~~ [UPDATE: At the request of the band, "We're Here" is no longer available for download.]

Guillemots, ~~We're Here~~ [removed]

I apologize for the unwieldy length of this post, and if you are a Guillemots band member or representative and you would like any or all of these songs removed do not hesitate to let me know by emailing me at EverettCase@gmail.com or sending me an instant message at Duder987v, my only goal is to expose the glory of Guillemots to the public. Thanks for sticking with me on this post all the way to the very bottom, and I hope you all enjoy the above songs. Let me know how you feel about Guillemots in the comments.

Coldplay @ MCI Center, 03.02.06

2006-03-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

So I recently sold out and saw Coldplay at the MCI Center and I loved it; the hipsters are just going to have to deal with that. That said, Coldplay were amazing, and while it certainly wasn't my favorite concert of all time or even in the top ten, it was easily onae of the best-produced and more enjoyable shows I've ever been to. Everything about the show was over the top, from the giant yellow balloons filled with gold glitter that descended from the ceiling during "Yellow" (which Chris Martin proceeded to tear apart with his guitar - you know, because Coldplay's so hardcore), to the Chris' sprint down the aisle all the way to the back of the arena during "In My Place". Another special element of the show was the fact that it was Chris' birthday, and though it was impossible for this to go unnoticed due to the thousands of "OMG Happy Birthday Chris!" signs throughout the audience, he made sure you didn't forget by changing the words in "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" to "I just turned 29 today". Anyway, this isn't going to be much of a concert review, as a) I'm sure most of you don't come here to read about Coldplay and b) all of the shows on this tour are more or less the same, following the same rigid setlist (for the most part), and will instead serve more as an outlet for me to post some great Coldplay-related mp3s and rarities that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. As for the aforementioned setlist, it didn't leave much to be desired (and even featured an unexpected Johnny Cash cover) and went something like this (NOTE: this is more or less accurate, with the possibility that some of the songs might be slightly out of order, but all of these were played):

Setlist
1. "Square One"
2. "Politik"
3. "Yellow"
4. "Speed of Sound"
5. "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face"
6. "X & Y"
7. "How You See The World No. 2"
8. "Don't Panic
9. "White Shadows"
10. "The Scientist"
11. "Ring of Fire" (Johnny Cash cover; acoustic)
12. "'Til Kingdom Come" (acoustic)
13. "Trouble"
14. "Clocks"
15. "Talk"

Encore
16. "Swallowed In The Sea"
17. "In My Place"
18. "Fix You"

Below are an assortment of Coldplay-related mp3s and b-sides many of you may enjoy, as well as the three new remixes of their latest single "Talk" from the Talk EP, released last month in the UK. Definitely download Johnette Napolitano's incredible cover of "The Scientist" (which was featured on M3 Volume 5), the excellent Parachutes b-side "See You Soon", and Petra Haden & Bill Frisell's cover of "Yellow", which was featured on The OC a couple months ago.

"See You Soon" - Coldplay [highly recommended]
"Clocks (Acoustic)" - Coldplay
"The Scientist" - Johnette Napolitano [highly recommended]
"Yellow" - Petra Haden & Bill Frisell
"Shiver (Jo Whiley Lunchtime Social Mix)" - Coldplay
"Talk (Junkie XL Remix)" - Coldplay
"Talk (Francois K Dub)" - Coldplay
"Talk (Thin White Duke Mix)" -Coldplay

You Will Be Missed...

2006-03-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

R.I.P., Ali Farka Toure

If you all don't mind, I'd like to break from the usual "indietastic" postings here on Good Weather for Airstrikes and honor the passing of Ali Farka Toure. His music earned him a Grammy in 1994 (for Best World Music Album) and in my opinion he is one of the more talented musicians the world has known. Toure was pronounced dead earlier today, March 7, as he lost his ongoing battle with cancer.

Ali Farka Toure was born in the African nation of Mali in 1939, the tenth son born to his mother but the first to survive infancy. A renowned singer and guitarist, Toure combined influences from his native Mali with the blues that were popular in North America as he was growing up. Toure's first album, entitled Farka after his nickname (translated to English, it means "donkey", a nod to his tenacity as a child), was released in 1976. His self-titled follow-up album came over a decade later and put Toure firmly on the world music scene, though it was not until his fifth album that he was honored with a Grammy. That album, Talking Timbuktu, is possibly his most famous work to date; it was recorded over a two-week period with legendary guitarist Ry Cooder with many of the songs going to tape in only one take. For songs of such length (all but two are over five minutes, with four clocking in at over seven minutes) and featuring such complex guitar improvisations, this is truly a testament to the undeniable talent of Toure, Cooder, and session musicians Gatemouth Brown (renowned session guitarist who plays fiddle on Talking Timbuktu), John Patitucci (fusion bass), and Jim Keltner (drums).

Toure recorded four albums after Talking Timbuktu, with his final album, a collaboration with Toumani Diabate entitled In The Heart Of The Moon, seeing release in September of 2005. Toure was honored with the second Grammy of his thirty-year career for In The Heart Of The Moon. For Ali Farka Toure fans such as myself, some consolation for this sad death can be found in the information released recently by Toure's record label, World Circuit, who stated that Toure had recently completed work on a new solo album, which will likely see post-mortem release in the relatively near future.

The three downloadable tracks below are all featured on Ali Farka Toure's first Grammy-winning album, Talking Timbuktu. I realize that world music may not be easily embraced by much of the readership of Good Weather for Airstrikes, but I implore you to at least download these songs and give them a chance. I am confident that you will be moved by the beauty of Toure's voice and the interplay of intricacy and simplicity found in the instrumentation by Toure, Cooder and company. "Soukora" is my personal favorite Toure track, but apparently "Ai Du" is featured very prominently and sexily in the movie Unfaithful; I have not seen the movie but from the reviews I've read I gather if you have seen the movie you will be thrilled to add "Ai Du" to your music library.

Ali Farka Toure, Soukora [highly recommended]
Ali Farka Toure, Lasidan
Ali Farka Toure, Ai Du [highly recommended]

Under The Sea Mix

2006-03-05T17:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, so midterm hell is behind me, I'm back in DC on Spring Break, posting can now return to normal, and we've got some great stuff lined up for you in the next couple of days/weeks. Everett and I both saw Coldplay from the floor (3rd and 8th rows, respectively) on Thursday and were sufficiently blown away, and we'll be seeing Belle & Sebastian with The New Pornographers, one of the best tours of this or any year, on tomorrow night, so we'll have write-ups of those up shortly as well as a couple surprises for you all. But onto the body paragraph:

Good Weather For Airstrikes (Everett and I) and (almost all of) All Things Go (Zack, Austin, Adrian, and Alex) had a lovely little retreat to the cold, desolate beaches of Delaware this weekend, where we imbibed quantities of alcohol and pontificated about music, shutting each others' opinions down like the elitist assholes we are. Needless to say, hilarity/intoxication/nudity/cuddling ensued and we all went home no longer boys, but men. Anyway, this brings me to ATG's excellent "Themed Thursday" post from last week, in which each adorable writer posted a song that fit the "Under The Sea" theme. Everett and I thought we'd live vicariously through them for a second and contribute a two more songs to the mix, one from each of us, so check out our contributions, available for download below:

DEREK: "Dayvan Cowboy" - Boards of Canada
I've really never gotten into BoC's brand of ambient, sprawling electronica, but I've loved "Dayvan Cowboy", the first single off of the duo's recent The Campfire Headphase, ever since it first made love to my ears last fall. However, it's one of those songs that I can't help but envision an elaborate visual for, and I'm taken to a mysterious world of deep sea exploring everytime I listen to it. Try it out for yourself: imagine your piloting one of Steve Zissou's submarine pods, moving slowly through underwater caverns around bends and turns with no knowledge of what lays before you. All of a sudden (at the 2:07 mark in the song) you navigate a bend and emerge from the dark caverns and into a lush, colorful, metropolis of underwater flora and fauna, with life and color everywhere. It's pretty upsetting there isn't a music video out there depicting this, I'd really like to see that. But if you had a hard time visualizing that, stop, alter your consciousness/get high (if that's your thing), and repeat, with the lights out or maybe driving along a dark road where all that's illuminated is in the path of your headlights and there are no other cars on the road. Then get back to me, as I'd like to hear if this is a listening experience unique to me or if it can be shared collectively.

EVERETT: "Alone In Kyoto" - Air
This beautiful instrumental by Air, which some may recognize from the movie Lost In Translation, perfectly captures the feelings of under-sea living on a slow day. The background features crashing waves, and the foreground is light piano and softly strummed guitar. 3:22 in to the song, the main part of the song is stripped completely, leaving only the crashing waves and a lone piano to which the guitar is slowly added back; the last thirty seconds is solely the sound of the ocean softly lapping at a serene shoreline.

GWFAS Now on MySpace

2006-03-01T01:14:00.000-05:00

That's right, you read the headline correctly, I've officially sold my soul to the scene and created a MySpace page; Good Weather For Airstrikes is moving into the 21st Century! I spent an unreasonable amount of time late last Wednesday night creating the best MySpace page I possibly could (unreasonably large logos! pretentious quips! fabricated biography!), so all you scene kids should run, not walk, over to MySpace.com and send a friend request to your dear friends at Good Weather For Airstrikes. I've pretty much been against MySpace since I gave it a test run in 11th grade, but by joining not only will I have the opportunity to discover more bands and great new music for you all, I also get the bonus ego boost of seeing how many people care enough about GWFAS to actually extend a friend request to us. The page is accessible at www.myspace.com/airstrikeweather, so check it out and feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, disparaging remarks and so forth in the comments (either here or at the MySpace page). If you're way too cool for MySpace and want to tell us how lame it is, you may as well save your breath as we're well aware and I already hate myself a little bit for joining MySpace in the first place. But alas, it had to be done. If you happen to visit the page and all the pictures are replaced with little red x's then that means ezarchive is down and the fruits of my creative labor cannot be fully realized, so be sure to check back again.

AND, to be sure that this post is not completely bereft of downloadable mp3 goodness, I'm including a very special MP3 of the day for you all. As you may have intuited by the lack of posts this week, it's midterm week once again (four-page essay and two huge midterms, alllll tomorrow), and pretty much the only thing that's been keeping me going has been Wolf Parade's incredible "I'll Believe In Anything". For the longest time I refused to by into the hype and enjoy Wolf Parade's music and I just couldn't figure out what people liked about them, and as a result I received many (alright, like maybe two or three) objections in response to "I'll Believe In Anything" being left off of my Top 25 Songs of 2005 list. However, official friend of Good Weather For Airstrikes Andrew "Vanderslice" Van der Vaart has forced the Parade on me in recent weeks and I've finally warmed up/fallen in love with the song. While the rest of the album is yet to grow on me, I can officially say I was wrong in leaving this off of my Top 65 list, and maybe even erroneous in excluding it from the elite company of the Top 25. Anyway, I'm sure all of you cool kids already have the song, but for the few of you who don't, this is definitely worthy of the [download or die] tag. Oh wait, sorry, I forgot I don't write for All Things Go and use violence to threaten my readers into downloading songs*. A simple [highly recommended] will do.

UPDATE: Man, this song is fucking epic.

MP3 of the Day:
"I'll Believe In Anything" - Wolf Parade [highly recommended]

* just kidding... love you guysssss.