An exciting recent find, I found this band in the wee hours of the morning during an overnighter working on the dissertation. I was listening to an archived October 2 interview with xkcd cartoonist Randall Munroe carried out last fall at Skeptically Speaking by Desiree Schnell. At the end of the file with their interview, The [...]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw5ztuhEat4&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4E_1I4kiP0&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4UxfJbLwg&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBvwXghx9j4&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
An atmospheric-bluegrass-folk-Beachboyharmony kind of bandwhose debut album is best listened to straight through so that it can wash over you. The first song below is my favorite of theirs and the second is another really good one put to a claymation video, so heads up to fans of claymation. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZTvGIzeGg&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
The 21st Century ’70s Springsteen, Craig Finn writes songs that are anthemic, evocative, and rich with narrative and emotional detail and perceptiveness. If his talk-singing didn’t become a slog so often, his band would rank much higher. This song always makes me smile though: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqdT8tIrfEU&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
The list of my top 366 favorite bands now becomes a list of the top 300 with Joseph Arthur: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkOat8zTO4&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QotZ7TIaztw&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
The Good Life’s Album of the Year is an album of a year long relationship and as a sucker for concept albums and songs about the complications of relationships, I eat it up. I love this (long) song most. It’s the only one with a female lead vocal on the album: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYT8XUKO-58&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
Easily one of the most prolific and promising punk rockers of the young century until his tragic and untimely death earlier this year: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG65eqfg6bc&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
The first terrific 2010 debuting band to make the list: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh7WN7vrJ8s&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
Just the second of what will be many Swedish artists to make the list, but the only one who sings their songs in Swedish: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hey5JOvnEiY&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
So earlier in the month CWH webmaster Dave and I went to see Laura Marling, who is one of both of our favorite recording artists, and we featured two great videos taken during the show here on Camels With Hammers and expressed hopes that video of Laura whistling her way through the string portion of [...]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nMHGyR_i8g&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36nW3e3Pkf4&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpdDpi2Y4Y4&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
I have their newest album, Ashes of Grammar, and it’s a really enjoyable hour long psychedelic atmospheric experience taken all in one straight through listen. They’re the kind of band whose songs I wouldn’t even attempt to listen to apart from the full context of the album because they’re so jarring and hard to get [...]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oRlpGyI1rg&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
Their EP is only 4 songs long but it’s spectacular. With a full LP this good, they’d rank way higher on the list. Here’s their anthemic, “It Gets Your Body Movin’”. One of those songs that felt so right to me the first time I heard it that I could have sworn I’d known it [...]
Catchy melodic riff and bass heavy hard rocking punk: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCQ7VLoY7bQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Their entire Veni Vidi Vicious album just never lets up and I never want it to. Your Thoughts?
Alright, so I normally hate children’s choirs as much as the next guy, but that’s because they’re normally put to the smug indoctrinating purpose of having children innocently and preachily mouth platitudes their parents, churches, or schools want to inculcate into them. It’s nauseating. But there is another way to use children’s choirs and it’s [...]
If Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls was in the band Heavenly, it’d sound something like The Long Blondes. It’s a shame they’re definitely done for good already. I particularly love the first song because it gives musical expression to an anecdote I sometimes share with my 19 year old students about talking to a [...]
So, last Friday I escaped the dissertation for a night to go see Laura Marling live down in Greenwich Village at Le Poisson Rouge. I went with my friend (and Camels With Hammers webmaster and occasional blogger) Dave. Considering Laura is essentially my very favorite female folk singer of all-time this was an extraordinary [...]
The cover of their Grammy winning album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix has more pink than any other color. Which is thoroughly appropriate for a band that sounds like cotton candy with a strong bass line. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weoqE_thaIk&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RulP4OXxFbM&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?
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=jGch7c_1JoE&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Your Thoughts?