i'm starting a new band

In an attempt to channel my unforgiving jealousy of Zooey Deschanel's clothes, lifestyle and singing voice, I have decided to start band. And this isn't just any band, my friends. This is a band that is going to put She & Him to disreputable shame until no one can remember who they even were, except wasn't that girl from Elf in it? Yeah, you get it.

My new project has a similar formula to that of She & Him. First, take one ridiculously talented guitar player with many successful albums, a sultry voice and a first initial/last name pseudonym, combine him (or her in my case) with a famous person who is cute, sweet and can sell tickets and kablooey, you've got not just one successful band but two, the dual-gender group with a newly released album entitled Volume One and the strictly girls only club counterpart with a new release tentatively called, "Our Famous Person Was Nominated For An Oscar". Allow me to introduce you to Me & Nim.

Sure, Abigail Breslin is like 13 years younger than Zooey Deschanel. She's not as hot, nor as stylish and any heckling from the crowd could be considered illegal (I'm referencing the removal of clothing, if you catch my drift). But she's come a long way. Remember Little Miss Sunshine? Didn't she just break your heart? Her newest film, Nim's Island, is sure to make a killing in the indie-rock scene--I heard that Pitchfork gave the soundtrack 10 stars, which is notably 2 more stars than was awarded to In Rainbows, an album often compared to seeing God and having an orgasm. Whatever this girl touches turns to gold--but hey, let's get to the point.

I wont deny that Zooey Deschanel has written some pleasant little ditties about falling in love and heartbreak and boys and sappy, silly, girly shit. They're nice songs. She's a nice girl. Need I mention, however, that her acting debut wasn't until she was 18, an age where she had successfully evaded the terrors and anxieties of the typical young, Hollywood starlette merely to come out on top looking completely clean and angelic? Not my Breslin. This girl's been on the silver screen since she was 8! Her lyrics might be a little on the poopy-doopy, cwappy-wappy side now, but give that girl a few years, a handful of nights snorting coke in the ladies room, a stint in rehab and probably a baby, and we are money. I bet her pen wont even be able to leave the page, she'll be crafting the lyrics of musical stardom. And not just hers, folks....mine.

All jokes aside, Me & Nim is the best band you haven't heard yet, while She & Him leaves something to be desired. Were you at the show at NYU's Skirball Theater last night? Sure, Deschanel can spiral daintily in mule heels but the girl has less rhythm than a cucumber, even a cucumber wrapped in tin foil that M. Ward probably shoved down his pants when he met her for the first time. She has a charming voice and commendable stage presence but it's clear that M. Ward is the Jesus to her Virgin Mary: one is the son of God, performing miracles and defining humility while the other is the chaste Matriarch who got knocked up by accident.

I'll leave you to ponder what biblical characters Me & Nim will someday resemble, though I'll give you a hint: it's all the good ones.

She & Him - You Really Got a Hold On Me (buy)
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wham bam merci danke thanka you ma'ams

New Zealand's fourth most popular comedy folk duo just put out their first full length jawn and you can buy it here. The album includes most of the songs from the show, though "I'm Not Cryin'," "If You're Into It," and the one about Bret having a fly booty are conspicuously absent. In the context of the show, my favorite tunes were probably "The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)" and "Think About It," but listening to the music on its own I find myself better able to appreciate tracks like "Ladies of the World," "Mutha'uckas," and "Foux du Fafa," all of which have some hilarious lines and require multiple listens. I've watched every episode a number of times and by my ear it sounds like the most if not all of the songs were rerecorded for the album.

What's your favorite FOTC lyric? Mine might be "When will the governments realize, it's got to be funky sexy ladies!?"

That's why you get this:
Flight of the Conchords - Ladies of the World (buy)
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jay reatard is a little too punk rock

If you should happen to attend a Jay Reatard show, please take this word of advice:

Do not attempt to get onstage.


Punched, while getting off the stage.


Kicked, while down. (Skip to around 2:20 if you can't wait.)

I gather that the fans at Jay Reatard shows can get a little out of hand and be less than respectful in regards to the equipment of the band, but this man has some serious aggression issues and unless you are ready to defend yourself, do not venture within striking distance. Continue reading...

another ezra and the 'poons

i have kind of an interesting relationship with ezra furman, which is to say that he is a friend of a friend of mine, an acquaintance who i technically met my sophomore year of high school, but whose music i quickly became more familiar with than his person. my (ex-boy)friend nate told me last summer he might go on tour with some band, playing bass, but he never did, and then during winter break he played the ezra furman and the harpoons (the harpoons being guitarist jahn sood, bassist job mukkada, drummer adam abrutyn. and mortimer the goose) album "banging down the doors" (available on itunes from chicago's minty fresh records) for me and said, "like dylan, but better."

since i myself am very prone to hyperbole i sent nick a copy of the disc and an enthusiastic email, which read, " . . . still i haven't been this excited about an album for longer than i can remember, maybe since funeral?" the next week we went to an ezra furman and the harpoons show to spend time with our friend erin, who frequently, including last night, calls me and asks for alex because i am listed in her cellphone as alex. to erin's delight, i knew all the words to "god is a middle-aged woman". in this tiny coffee shop i shouted requests like
"hotel room in casablanca! please!" i think i was the first time that has ever happened to them before. they were selling black sunglasses at the show, but the last pair went before i could even buy the cd; i guess ezra used to wear shades onstage always until he got grief for being to indie rock cool. i almost spent the night with the band but decided not to because my mother might worry. tried to secure a show for ezra furman and the harpoons at brown's the underground, but they are too busy making it big.

we saw him at the museum of fine arts vampire weekend show where he told us that the band facebooked vw asking to go on tour with them and they replied
that they were interested, had heard of them, and asked for a disc! since then, the harpoons have started their own blog, lost and found mortimer, and played for lou reed at sxsw. were featured on npr's world cafe! they completely redesigned their website. before,
it was just a picture of ezra and erin sitting on a couch and i used to wonder if any of his songs were about her.

& now they are on daytrotter!

"goin' to acapulco" by jim james & calexico (like dylan, but better)
"neighborhoods #1 (tunnels)" by arcade fire (got funeral on vinyl to observe record store day on saturday)
"god is a middle-aged woman" by ezra furman and the harpoons
"hotel room in casablanca" by ezra furman and the harpoons
"ladies of cambridge" by vampire weekend (b-side to the mansard roof mp3 and the "return of the jedi" of their trilogy of massachusetts-inspired songs)
"the moon" by ezra furman and the harpoons (live) best track, all unreleased, from the daytrotter session Continue reading...

spring weekend musings, a week late

Laura Buckman (bdh)

It's been a week since Spring Weekend at Brown and I thought it was high time (today's 4/20, ba-dum-chsh) one of us wrote something about it, since all three contributers to this bloggy blog were there. I recommend the Brown Daily Herald's summary of the weekend; it has a bunch of good photos, some attendee interviews, and what you really want to know: the figures on how many people were carted off by Emergency Medical Services.

It's a decent and pretty comprehensive article, so I'll use it to compare and contrast our (mostly my) take on the performances.

It characterizes, I'd say correctly, the Vampire Weekend set as "clean and smooth, if uneventful." It's no secret we love VW around here, so we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during their set, and the setlist was pretty similar to the previous times we'd seen them. They played the entire album, as well as live staple "Ladies of Cambridge" and a really good, new, still untitled track, which again reinforced my faith that their second album won't be a total letdown. The sound for the set wasn't great -- at times you could barely hear Ezra's guitar, other times his voice, others Rostam's keyboard. The more general problem, I think, is that the crispy guitar doodlings that drive most of the songs aren't suited for venues like the hockey rink at Brown University (the threat of rain moved all the shows indoors). That said, "A-Punk" rocked pretty hard.

Moving on. I've probably listened to The Cool about five times all the way through, so I don't profess to be any sort of Lupe expert. Or a huge fan for that matter. His lyrics are by far the most impressive part of his records, while his beats and hooks are often much less imaginative. It is hard not to compare him to KanYe, his more established Chicagoan counterpart, who somewhat facilitated his rise to stardom. And as I'm sure you know, here at DAA our love for KanYe is rivaled only by our love for VW. So when scrutinized on the Ye Standard, Lupe's lack of infectious KanYesque beats and impossibly catchy choruses outweigh the edge he holds over Ye from a lyrical standpoint. That said, the man puts on a good show. I commented to Dayna during the performance that I'd never seen a rapper be as sharp, energetic, or enthusiastic as Lupe was. It reminded me of videos I'd seen of the Beastie Boys in their heyday, but that was three guys and this was just Mr. Fiasco and a side-kick who's main job was, as you might imagine, to emphasize the last few words of every one his main man's lines. One fan's take was quoted in the BDH article: "Lupe was the shiznits." Seriously, you printed that? He definitely put on an impressive show, though, and Dayna and I are going to see KanYe in Boston in May so we'll see if Ye brings that kind of energy to his live shows.

Now for the Saturday shows. Fact: Girl Talk can really rock a party. Opening for M.I.A., DJ Gregg Gillis had the crowd of 3,000+ in the palm of his hand, and left us wanting more. There was a constant procession of students flooding the stage to dance around the sweaty, shirtless Gillis as he hunched over his laptop, mashing up a myriad of mostly recognizable samples, old and new. If you've seen Girl Talk before, I doubt it was much different than this set, though this one probably had a lot more people at it.

And now the main event: M.I.A. The biggest issue I have with the BDH article is that it portrays M.I.A.'s act as a nearly flawless crowd pleaser. This is completely different from what I myself experienced, and what most people I asked thought. The article makes it seem as though the sound volume was the problem, but this, I think, isn't entirely right. The gun shots and air-raid sirens were incredibly loud, washing out her vocals and the music, but even if the levels had all been right, there were still way too many fucking gun shots and air-raid sirens! M.I.A., your two best songs are arguably "Bucky Done Gun" and "Paper Planes" (two of four songs Diplo produced for you, who you've since broken ties with romantically and professionally, good luck with that), and you pretty much destroyed all the novelty of one of them ("Paper Planes") by using it's trademark gunshots in every other song, and between every song. I don't know if it was all your scarfed dj's decision but you definitely didn't put a stop to it. Those interviewed by the BDH thought M.I.A.'s performance was great, while nearly all of the opinions I heard or overheard were along the lines of "M.I.A. sucked balls," and though I'm somewhere in the middle, I'm definitely closer to the latter. Rumor had it that you were sick last weekend so maybe you thought the skull-rattling gunshots would help clear your sinuses but whatever the reasoning was, please rethink it soon or else my first time seeing you will be my last.

As always, feel free to leave your opinion. Continue reading...

get 'em west!

Oh shiiiiiii-iiiiit.

Everyone's favorite little brother has been hyping his Glow in the Dark Tour for a while now, and it is finally upon us. The photos of stuff from the set that he's shown on his blog have looked pretty insane, but none of them have gotten me as excited to see him in Boston with Dayna on May 15th as the one above.

This what our favorite commenter on KanYe's blog had to say about the latest pic:

@Kanye: Congrads to you...it's looks of excellence, Get'em West!! Hmmmm, I'm reminded of a line from the movie "War of the Worlds", in the first basement scene when Tom Cruise tells Dakota Fanning: (Cruise says) "This is what we're getting ready to do...I don't want you to look around you, underneath you orto the right or left...keep your eyes on me. I used that line from "War of the Worlds" in this sense meaning ....as you prepare to take the stage on tonight down to the final hour; keep away from ALL negatives opinions, whinies,people lacking confidence, goofies, foolishness, sad folk, mouthy individual, and doubters. Get somewhere of PEACE and quietness, talk and encourage yourself; say to yourself "THIS IS MY HOUSE...and I HAVE THE POWER...period"(repeat it until it gets in your spirit!), Never let them see you sweat...never! Have MAD CRAZY FUN!!!!! May the Force be with you young Luke Skywalker :)

What is your favorite part? I don't think any of them top this comment of hers from a month or so ago: "Jim Henson is creative and imaginary." Continue reading...

a humble gift

this song has been caught in my brain since the first time i heard it, more than a month ago at a vday benefit concert to end violence against women. sometime after the inadvertently silent ribbon dancing, a blond boy with an electric guitar performed his version of "he hit me (it felt like a kiss)," written, says wikipedia, by gerry goffen and carole king, originally performed by the crystals and arranged by phil spector. knowing, however, that he was really covering grizzly bear's friend ep cover of the crystals made me uncomfortable, the way seeing someone in a decently pretty dress that you decided not to buy frequently does. i wanted to go. lizzie recognized the next song. "oh!" she whispered. "soltero! this is the best song, too!" we stayed. until that moment i thought soltero was some kind of baile funk band she liked to dance in her underwear to when her roommate is gone, which is not meant to be derisive as i think we can all safely admit to partaking. this is only as weird as it sounds because the previous week we played soltero on our show but i think i was in the gender neutral bathroom and missed it.

forget everything i wrote. this is a song for headphones or quiet nighttime. fall asleep or in love or just down to this song. i know every word.

"the moment you said yes" by soltero

is a free and legal mp3. soltero is tim howard. he lives in philadelphia, like nick, and is touring, and will be playing at hampshire college this weekend, in amherst, mass. tim howard, when queried, does not want to be famous. keep him a good secret.

"he hit me (it felt like a kiss)" by the crystals
"he hit me (it felt like a kiss)" by grizzly bear (the crystals cover) Continue reading...

discovery doesn't want to hurt you baby

You know the keyboard player from Vampire Weekend with the long name who wears those puffy vests that look like they're from the kids section of Old Navy? Well, he's got himself a lil r&b-style side-project called Discovery with a guy from Ra Ra Riot. Check it out here. Of the three songs, I'd [ENTHUSIASTICALLY ENDORSE] is "Orange Shirt." It kind of sounds like what I imagine a younger, more innocent R. Kelly would've created, back when he was still "sleeping head-to-toe" and worrying about leaving "before your mother wakes up in the morning" instead of whether or not you were cool with him pissing on you and videotaping it. (However, the protagonist of "Orange Shirt" does tell his lady friend to "Google yourself when you get home." Discuss amongst yourselves.)

"Osaka Loop Line" is pretty good too. Continue reading...

quit it with your vanpoolery!

Have you ever heard of Vanpooling? NEITHER HAVE I.

I would assume it's much like carpooling, but with an extra 2 or 3 seats and if you have any interest in driving to New York to partake in some really great shows this summer, The National Park Services website recommends vanpooling.

You're probably wondering: what is she talking about? Well there is a lovely little lineup of artists that are playing at the Castle Clinton Monument in Battery Park this summer.

May 29 @ 7PM: MIRAH AND SPECTRATONE INTERNATIONAL (and some other peeps like Bela Fleck but clearly Mirah is the most important)
May 29 @ 9PM: SHE WOLVES FROM THE TIBER TO THE HUDSON
July 10 @ 7PM: ST. VINCENT (highly recommended! she is delightful! and talented! and sexy!)
July 17 @ 7PM: TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS (also on tour with Pearl Jam...f'real)
July 24 @ 7PM: AKRON/FAMILY (love is simp-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllll-llll-lll)
July 31 @ 7PM: THE LONG WINTERS (I find John Roderick's intelligence and wit painfully irresistible)
August 7 @ 7PM: TERRENCE BLANCHARD (hey what's up)

And the best part is that every show is free! All you have to do is show up at 5PM to get up to two tickets per person. Can it get any better? New York, the summer, a national park monument, all your friends hoppin' in a van and -- since Bloomberg's idea of getting vanpoolers to pay $8 in congestion fees has officially been turned down, all you have to pay for is gas! Oh, I almost forgot -- here's how to vanpool.
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not bad, p-fork, not bad at all

The high-court of all things indie just launched their newest venture, Pitchfork.tv. It is pretty sweet, I must say. It's got a nice big screen with impeccable picture quality (go full-screen!) and a lot of good concert footage and music videos, among other things.

Below is their Man Man "Daytripping" segment posted on Monday, apparently the first-ever Pitchfork.tv production, filmed in my home town of Illadelph, PA last spring (Sidebar: The Man Men bike down the street where I helped paint a gigantic mural in the Northern Liberties neighborhood last summer, but you can't see the mural so nvm). There is no shortage of facial hair or crazy bike-related antics, and we get a peak into one of the most creative approaches to music making out there. (Think broken beer bottles, fireworks, and a dog in a bathtub.) The new album, Rabbit Habits -- which front man Honus Honus describes as "laser beam, as opposed to tractor beam" -- was released yesterday on Anti- Records. And make sure to take note of those nice, big apartments you can afford in Philly, even when you're a poor, dirty hipster! Suck it, Brooklyn!



As a final note, the Pitchfork Casting Call thing is painfully unfunny until the forth and final "audition," which seems staged, especially since I'm pretty sure the applicant is Nick Diamonds/Nicholas Thorburn of Islands. Continue reading...

are you cool enough?

Let's start with some equations.

Crystal Castles + The Cool Kids + El-P = 1 show at NYU on April 3rd.
Crystal Castles performs...subtract 50 people.
The Cool Kids perform...take away 30 more people.
El-P + 3 bandmates - those two groupie girls that danced on stage during The Cool Kids set - the overwhelming population of NYU students who didn't show up or left too early to know what they were missing = what the fuck, why weren't you watching EL-P?

Since I was only at the show for the tail end of Crystal Castles, I can't say much about their set, their crowd, their dance moves. I was told it was a stellar performance.

However, I did show up just in time to catch all of The Cool Kids' set and watch as the crowd dwindled to a mere 30-40-50 people (estimation isn't one of my best skills) when the infamous El Producto took the stage. Has it really come to this? That upstart indie acts that have been on the scene for mere months are the only thing NYU music fans want to see anymore? Now, you know NYU kids, and if you don't, you've heard about them. I am one, though I'd like to believe not in the derogatory sense, and I myself was clearly wrong in my prediction of what this crowd of dirty ole hipsters would be interested in. Yes, I can definitely see their interest in The Cool Kids -- their name speaks for itself, as does their wardrobe -- and Pitchfork-approved Crystal Castles. My surprise lies in their lack of interest (and curiously, my hyper-interest) in El-P, one of the most important white rappers alive. Exaggeration? Come on, the guy's had a slew of quality releases, he started Definitive Jux records, he's a producer, a collaborator, and, I'm just going to go ahead and predict, a volunteer fireman. He brought you Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, Del the Funky Homosapien, and his current tourmate, Dizzee Rascal. (Sidebar: If you don't like The Streets, you'll hate Dizzee Rascal.)

I didn't even touch on El-P's music yet, though. He's got a style all his own, mixing old school influences with rock beats that always progress and go somewhere, while The Cool Kids often craft their tracks around a simple and sometimes monotonously-repetitive beat. He also doesn't dress like a hipster doofus. He doesn't wear bright blue American Apparel skinny jeans with enormous, old school Nikes, and, in a seemingly counterintuitive move, saves the sunglasses for strictly outdoor shows. He's just a white dude with talent and red hair who cares what he's rapping about. Hell, at one point in the night, the guy almost broke down in tears because the song he was rapping really got to him (forgive me for not remembering which one it was). Think that'll ever happen at a Cool Kids show?

The Cool Kids weren't particularly lacking anything in their performance but all that they had was lifted. All of their songs were samples of others, their lines were constantly referencing a time when I hardly believe they were even born and their stage antics were reminiscent of a circus. They were all style and looks. I bought into this for a while but when I saw that kids were leaving because the hipness had left the building, I felt betrayed. Could it really be that all you have to do to keep people at your shows is have a silly name like The Cool Kids? And, more importantly, do The Cool Kids think they're cooler than El-P, or do they know the truth, unlike their unenlightened fans?

Crystal Castles - Air War (buy)
The Cool Kids - Action Figures
El-P - Everything Must Go (buy)
Continue reading...

cut copy is more important

Last weekend I was in Brooklyn and I text messaged my friend Tim who lives in Manhattan to see if he was in the city. He replied that he was in fact in Paris. To that I responded with a bevy of questions: How are you able to text message me? What are you doing in Paris? When are you coming back? His reply: Have you heard the new Cut Copy record??

Have YOU?
Cut Copy - Feel The Love
Cut Copy - Unforgettable Season
Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire
(buy)
Continue reading...

islands creepin' back into our thoughts

Pun intended y'all! Nice KanYe shades! My favorite band named after the plural form of a common type of land mass has just dropped a hot new joint, "Creeper." It's a distinctly new Islands sound with spookier vocals and a pulsing backbeat that reminds one more of MJ's "Thriller" than either their first album, 2006's Return to the Sea, or frontman Nick Diamonds' (Nicholas Thorburn's!? Juiced's Elfers??) earlier and much loved endeavor, The Unicorns. With new album Arm's Way scheduled to be released in May, so far only one other track, "The Arm," has found its way onto the internets. Mp3 after the jump.

Islands - Creeper

I'll also include this because it started playing after "Creeper" on my iTunes and it felt so right.

Isley Brothers - This Old Heart of Mine

Sometimes the alphabet makes the best mixes, wouldn't you agree? Lastly, here's a one minute preview-type music video for "Creeper" from their website.
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welcome to the beach house

Nights at the Bowery Ballroom are always long. Though it's a beautiful venue, is exceptionally clean and the nightly lineup is always close to golden, the space itself leaves something to be desired for a girl like me. Without reason, every time I see a show there, I cannot leave the place without a raw, whine-worthy ache in my lower back. If someone knows why this is, please advise.

However, in my endless maybe-perhapsing about the tilt of the floor or the kind of shoes I wear, I have yet to discover why this venue ails me so. I have seen something close to a hundred shows there (I hope that's not an exaggeration) and yet I am clueless to why only at the Bowery am I in such pain. But with great luck and to the benefit of my poor, old-woman's back, I have just last night found the antidote:

BEACH HOUSE.

Their performance at the 6 Delancey Street address wasn't a lot of things (namely fast or peppy or music to get drunk to--wait, I might take that back later) but if it could actively encapsulate one word it would be this one: captivating. The music of Beach House is slow and melancholy, falling into moments of dronish drowsiness that make some of their songs indistinguishable from one another. For some, this style (particularly that we see on their new release, Devotion) is like a large, warm blanket--Beach House guarantees to take you with them, to protect you and to hold you until their hour and a half is up. However, I took less interest in being warmed by a fire of sadness than picking the truly kooky brain of their singer and keyboardist, Victoria Legrand.

Legrand is unabashed and unfiltered while her bandmate, Alex Scally, is hardly noticeable. When the two of them took the stage (accompanied by an unnamed drummer, supposedly from the previous band), my eyes had the feeling of adjusting to sunlight after being in a dark room. I was unsure of what to expect, uncertain of where to focus. The very moment Legrand began to sing, though, I was right there on her. Her voice is deep, penetrating almost, and her movements were shifty--she dances sexually, flipping her hair and bending her hips, all with the recklessness of a child. Victoria Legrand does not give a shit about the audience and it is incredibly endearing. What's more is that in combination with the fabulous oceanic light show and their various stage props (which the girl wonder claimed to have stolen from Connecticut), the music became much more than a listening event; it was something like a dance performance or a musical or a Bjork video.

Not be left out completely, Scally's guitar added layers that would be impossible with only Legrand's purrs and keys. When the band covered a Daniel Johnston song that I do not know the name of, the guitar was resonant and commanding, reminding the audience that yes, there was someone else to watch. Not to mention, his Flaming-Lips-esque costume of an entirely white suit introduced an angelic contrast to his counterpart's flashy, shiny, beaded getup that appeared to have no start or end point.

At the end of the night, after Legrand had coyly joked that "This is our last song" and had gone on to play three more (including "Home Again", off of Devotion), I realized I had not thought about my ailment all evening. The show wasn't unlike entering another world, one that didn't cause pain in your back but instead gave you a feeling of intense delight. Victoria Legrand and her friend Alex had distracted me from my distaste for the Bowery Ballroom's floor tilt and kept me involved all evening. Now if only Beach House wasn't just the band's pleasant moniker but also the location of their shows...

Beach House - You Came To Me
Beach House - Home Again
(buy)
Continue reading...