I find Jenny Lewis’s voice and delivery at its most distinctive to be charmingly snotty and geeky. But my favorite Rilo Kiley song is her gorgeous country song, “More Adventurous”. Someday I hope they write the great album I’m sure they have in them but haven’t produced yet. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eHiyOYAn08&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qACCt2DMhDQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m11svmUCs3g&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
I probably don’t need to tell you about the movie that made Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová famous (or, if not famous, at least Oscar winners), but the real must film to watch is the hilarious claymation one somebody made for my favorite Frames song, “Fake”: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_P3k0BG5WA&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoSL_qayMCc&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utnB-95ebi8&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs0SXMtCy3c&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Trailer!! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkzB789GTes&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
Kurt Cobain loved this quirky band enough that Nirvana recorded three covers of their songs. Below are the Vaselines playing acoustic versions of those songs and then another of my favorites: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4kov4p64Ss&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njFD-zE4Qro&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVHd1Dr88Xk&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQKubXoCPHk&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFs--tmf3-Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
I love bands with both a male and a female lead, so you’ll hear a bunch of them show up over the course of this list starting here with Los Campesinos! This Welsh band’s songs are brim over with a truly vibrant, youthful energy and undeniably strong melodies. The only drawback which prevents me [...]
No videos today since this band is small enough that there are no good videos of the song most responsible for their being on this list. It’s called “SSSH!” and when I first discovered it I played it on a loop for about 30 times I found its lyrics and melodies and, most of all, [...]
Metric is the band fronted by Broken Social Scenester Emily Haines, whose incredibly captivating vocal performance on “Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl” is arguably the highlight of the Broken Social Scene’s entire recording career. Motivated by love for “Anthems,” I dug into Haines’s work with Metric and as Emily Haines & The Soft [...]
Do you like math rock? Do you like girls who can totally shred on the guitar? How about a great rhythm section? Do you like screechy voices? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3oxU9-zeiA&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-waJkiflb0&hl=en_US&fs=1&] And here she is live: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkGFYetgouY&hl=en_US&fs=1&] And in interview form: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21nTEibpILg&hl=en_US&fs=1&] (Full interview here. Her recent album here.)
The Japandroids’ songs are essentially catchy melodic pop-rock songs that gain their edge from a monolithic droning guitar that carries through the whole album and is cranked so high and lo-fi to give the experience of listening to a killer pop song with treble pounding a dying set of speakers to death. The drone and [...]
Startling sad news. He was only 29. Pitchfork has more. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG65eqfg6bc&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
Alright, full disclosure on this one, I was actually in this band about 16 years ago—in that the lead singer was one of my closest friends in high school and for a brief period we had the ridiculous idea that I could write lyrics and perform the vocals to songs that he played guitar on. [...]
Watch Vampire Weekend play an acoustic set from the comfort of your own internet here. I think I actually like them a little better this way! But it might just be the novelty. Or the energy and excitement of the live string section, which totally kicks ass in a string sectiony way. Your Thoughts?
The Morning Goats album I own is Get Lonely and it’s one of the very saddest sad sack melancholy wuss-indie acoustic guitar albums you’ll ever hear. This is music for the pathetically paralyzed and self-pitiful that’s as close to full out emo as you’ll get me to like. Get out your tissues for this one [...]
I love power pop and a band with a sense of humor and that’s how Fountains of Wayne, who are sort of a poor man’s Weezer, makes my top 366 favorite bands list: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUG1aCUY2o&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
Siouxsie and the Banshees’ contribution to the Batman Returns soundtrack, “Face to Face” has long been one of my favorite songs, though I’ve had a hard time warming to the first full CD of theirs I picked up, so I haven’t gotten much further into them. Admittedly a large portion of the song’s appeal to [...]
Something hot for a cold night in December: Your Thoughts?
(sadly the version of this song I posted is no longer available on YouTube)
Any one else up for some some good old fashioned hard grooving bassless garage blues rock? Your Thoughts?
A little Nick Cave for the beginning of the weekend… Your Thoughts?
There’s gotta be some story behind how they made this video… Your Thoughts?
Profiling the fantastic Fiona Apple version of “Across The Universe” and the new Taken By Trees spin on Animal Collective got me thinking about another of my favorite covers by a woman singer, Leigh Nash’s exquisite performance of “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” with her band Sixpence None The Richer. Please forgive a Christmas [...]
I may be prejudiced in that I first discovered this song through her performance, rather than through either John Lennon’s own or through any other cover it, but as far as I go Fiona’s sultry husky voice languidly mumbling in a flowing, laconic, melodically and ironically complacent way is what the song was written for. [...]
A really good song first tripped out in Animal Collective experimentation and then stripped down in Taken By Trees’ more elemental (but barely less buoyant) version. For cover lovers, this is a wonderful contrast worth exploring: You can get Animal Collective’s album here and Taken By Trees’ here. Your Thoughts?
So Grizzly Bear’s newest album Veckatimist is all the rage in the indie music world (and has been since long before it was officially released). I haven’t yet given it much of a chance outside listening to a few tracks because I never got into their previous album. Nonetheless, I’m a sucker for claymation and [...]