4
Mar

On Casimir Pulaski Day: Listen to Demo of Sufjan Stevens’ Own “Casimir Pulaski”

Kazimierz_Pułaski

According to Sufjan Stevens (aka Sloppy Joe):

“Today is Casimir Pulaski Day. Here’s an early demo. Not sure when I recorded this, but I was obviously still working it out. XXOO Sloppy Joe.”

Check the demo of one of our favorites below or HERE.

3
Mar

Check Out Brooklyn-Based Blue Foundation

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The musical Victoria Falls continues unabated.  We find ourselves posited in a post-Pro Tools world in which every musically-inclined Tom, Dick and Harrieta has (thankfully) been empowered to inscribe their music in the digital realms, let’s just be candid here: there is no way to know it all Mr. Know-It-All.  Worthy music shoots past, left and right, unapprehended.

Take, for example, the recently unearthed Blue Foundation.  According to the “foundation’s” PR, the Danish-Brooklyn group “explores the porous borders between electronica, industrial, and dream pop, with influences from shoegaze, folk, turntablism, electronica, alternative classical music, film noir and contemporary music.”  Unbeknownst to us their music has appeared on the soundtracks for Twilight, Miami Vice, The OC-Show, So You Think You Can Dance, and elsewhere.  And it turns out that last year its ringleaders, Tobias Wilner and Bo Rande, released Blue Foundation’s fifth (fifth!) album, In My Mind I Am Free enlisting various guest vocalists (Mew’s Jonas Bjerre, British singer/songwriter Findlay Brown, Bichi/Ghost Society chanteuse Sara Savery, and Japanese artist Cokiyu).  Who knew?  The group has now released last year’s album remixed as In My Mind I Am Free Reconstructed.

What finally looped us in was Blue Foundation’s captivating song Lost (with Ms. Savery’s vocals) off last year’s album.  Check out a very inventive fan-made video for the song below, and then just for fun you can check out the acappella vocal tracks below it.  The group has also worked with Sun Kil Moon’s/Red House Painters’ Mark Kozalek, and you can listen to their collaboration on Watch You Sleeping HERE.

1
Mar

Watch Damien Jurado On Carson Daly Show

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One of our favorite singer-songwriters, Damien Jurado appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly’s last night to perform two of our favorite songs of 2012, Working Titles and Museum of Flight from his marvelous Maraqopa album.  The performances were taped at the Troubadour earlier this year before being broadcast this week.  Check out both superb songs below.

According to his label (Secretly Canadian) Jurado is currently working on the follow-up to Maraqopa with his favored producer Richard Swift.

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28
Feb

It’s Dance Thursday–Watch Solange Sashay on Letterman Show

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Thom Yorke isn’t the only one dancing on our screens today.  One of our new-found faves, Solange, appeared on the Letterman Show last night to perform Don’t Let Me Down  from last year’s recording True.  Check her and her band (including Dev Hynes of Lightspeed Champion and Blood Orange) laying down a nice groove on the song from last year’s EP True.  The entire performance is hypnotic, resulting in a classic Letterman summary and entreaty:  “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll go on tour, all right? We’ll all go on tour, like two and a half months, and I’ll come out and I’ll tell my jokes, then you guys will come and just kill, blow the roof off the place. And backstage it’ll be horseplay.”

28
Feb

Watch Thom Yorke’s Three-Piece Dance Video for “Ingenue” Off of Atoms For Peace’s “AMOK”

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Atoms For Peace’s AMOK album is now out, and it is predictably fantastic (more later).  AFP has now released the official video for the album’s Ingenue in which Thom Yorke and Fukiko Takase interpretively dance in three-piece suits and ponytails.  We don’t normally go in for this sort of thing, but herein lies more mesmerizement.  Check it out below.

27
Feb

Watch Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison Perform New Song “Leaving” for WNYC’s Soundcheck

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We are longtime fans of Kelly Willis (and her other singing kin).  And her husband, Bruce Robison, ain’t bad either–in fact he’s a highly-acclaimed country songwriter.  As witnessed below, put ’em together and you won’t be leaving the listening booth any time soon.  The couple will soon release Cheater’s Game, their first album together despite almost 20 years of marriage.  The new album’s songs are half covers and half originals.  Watch and listen below as the duo and their band nail Leaving, a Robison-penned song from the new album.  You can listen to the entire episode on WNYC HERE.

27
Feb

2013 Music Now Festival 4/12-4/14–Watch This Is The Kit From Last Year’s Festival and Get Ye to Cincinnati

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Bryce and Aaron Dessner continue to give back to their native Ohio.  Each year the Dessners and friends present the magical Music Now Festival in Cincinnati.  We would give our senseless minds to attend each year.  This year’s Music Now will run from April 12th to 14th, and the Saturday night of Glen Hansard, The Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) boggles the mind from afar.

Last year’s MNF was no exception, including the likes of This Is The Kit and other kindred souls meeting within the zips and zones of Cincinnati.  Check out This Is The Kit (rightfully raved over by Sharon Van Etten, Elbow’s Guy Garvey, The National, etc.) as they call forth a demon or angel three in their performance below (which includes a deft and soulful slide segment from Aaron Dessner and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry).  The performance was produced by A Story Told Well & Music Now for La Blogothèque.

And blessed are those who see and are silent.  Indeed (must aspire).  We’ve been getting most mightily filthy.  Mud marks up to our necks.  And they did unfold, and the wind it did fill them in the wind.  And so the outside bashes us in.  Feel it tugging you, ploughing you flat; then feel it filling your sails and warm on your back.  Life.

This Is The Kit is working on its next album, which will hopefully be released later this year, with Aaron Dessner producing.

27
Feb

Watch Kendrick Lamar Perform “Poetic Justice” on Letterman Show

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Buzz-dude Kendrick Lamar and his full band slipped into smooth last night on the Letterman Show and performed a Drake-less Poetic Justice to further stake his claim as the most poetic rapper extant.  Check it out.  Kendrick’s Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City album continues to draw circles.

26
Feb

Watch Japandroids on Conan–Coming to Velvet Jones on 4/15

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Vancouver duo Japandroids rock like few other duos do, and managed to turn heads and make the top rung of many Best Albums of 2012 lists with their phenomenal Celebration Rock album.  If you haven’t seen them, they performed their song The Nights of Wine and Roses last night on Conan, and you can check it out below.  We’ve heard them sound better on Fallon and elsewhere, but you get the feel nonetheless.  Thanks to Corpchella, they will play Velvet Jones (with Cloud Nothings opening)  on 4/15, and you can get tickets HERE.

26
Feb

Listen to New Iron & Wine Song “Grace for Saints and Ramblers”

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Check out below the new Iron & Wine song Grace for Saints and Ramblers from their impending new album Ghost on Ghost (out April 16th on Nonesuch Records and 4AD).  You can learn more and pre-order the album HERE.  Because Sam Beam’s been so saintly a songwriter in the past, we’ll give grace (for now) to this rambler.  It does have a groove though.