Time Spent in Los Angeles

Dawes are a Los Angeles folk-rock band. They wrote their latest album mostly on the road, which comes out in the yearny-solitude sounds of the new album. Their musicality and songcrafting has only gotten better since their debut album, and I wouldn't be surprised if we hear more about these fellas in the future.

This is the video for "Time Spent in Los Angeles" off of their recently-released second album.

Just for tonight we can pretend

My Fun Fun Fun wristbands arrived yesterday, which motivated me to start thinking about who I was going to see. Aside from the big four on Blue - Rakim, Public Enemy, Odd Future, and Major Lazer (order is important for that list) here's who I'm excited about (this time in particular order)-

Del, Big Freedia, Frankie Chan, Budos Band, Brandt Brauer Frick, Grimes (or Grimey as Homer would call her), Architecture in Helsinki, Clap your hands (at least I think I am), M83, Lykke Li, We were promised jetpacks, Diplo. For the record I am not excited about: This festival being moved to Auditorium shores, receiving three wrist bands instead of a single 3 day pass, Spoon, Ted, I play too many shows in Austin, Leo and his Pharmacists, Wugazi, Gambino, Spoon again, the white and yellow stages, and Neon, I was just freaking here, Indian.

So now for some music. Grimey has a new single and is gearing up for an album in Janurary. She was recently interviewed by the Jay Leno to our Letterman, Pitchfork. Hopefully LC will score an interview with her during FFF and you can be sure we'll blow those losers out of the water.

Grimes - Oblivion by Hypetrak



Brandt Brauer Frick is from Germany, their website even ends in .de, this video is the first, I think, single from their upcoming album. I really liked this video and also thought it fits in well with our oft revisited weird food video theme.

There is a crack in everything

Sometimes you're listening to the radio and a song comes up that just rattles you. Maybe because it's new and shiny and exciting. Or maybe because you hadn't heard it in forever but somehow it captures exactly what you're feeling. Well, I was rattled this morning.

I remembered "Anthem" from Natural Born Killers, but hadn't listened to it since I last saw the movie more than a decade ago. And today, while driving to work, on a very very sad time, Leonard Cohen starts singing:

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.



Thank you Leonard.

Oh, and for those of you that come to this blog to learn new things and not listen to old songs, Leonard Cohen has said that he is releasing a brand new album called "Old Ideas" sometime in 2012. It will be his first since 2004.

Kaleidoscope Endoscopy

Team Me are a six-piece orchestral pop outfit out of Norway. When I was in Helsinki, I saw posters showing they were touring with The Wombats (another great band), so I looked them up. Turns out they just released a five-song self-titled EP.

The music video kind of looks like a kaleidoscope endoscopy (and not the fun kind), but this is my favorite song off of the EP.

Alamo Tunes

I think Safety Rat already posted the audio for this on facebook (which if you haven't liked us yet, I recommend you do...), but the video is SO GOOD that it would be a tragic thing not to put it up.

For those of you who don't live here, Austin has an incredible movie theater called "The Alamo," where they do things like bring you beer and food to your chair, plan crazy Lord of the Ring Marathon Feasts where you get 5 meals during the day while you watch, and 80's sing along parties where you, for example, sing along to a video clip of it's raining men while male sex dolls fall from the sky.

What Alamo also does is choose a song every month and use it as a soundtrack for their promo of events. This month the song was M83's Midnight City, which is not only a great song, by a great artist, but has an awesome, brand-spanking new video that kicks all sorts of ass.

Also, can I just say that I'm totally ready for a sax solo come back on songs??? Pay attention on that 3 minute mark and get your mind blown.

M83 | Midnight City from DIVISION on Vimeo.

anything is better than New Girl

Wolf here. Guest posting because I'm in hardcore studying procrastination mode.

Lana Del Rey has a lot of haters. As hipster becomes mainstream (yeah, I reluctantly watched the New Girl pilot too), everyone is talking about Lana Del Rey and how she's had major PR grooming, not to mention a decent amount of cosmetic surgery. She has a new name (previously Lizzy Grant), new lips, and a good deal of video overproduction.

However, this video, posted today, shows one thing: we're going to be hearing a lot more from whatever-her-name-is-now.

Baby If You Wanna Be Right, I Will Let You Be Right

While they shouldn't be confused with the 1960's band The Mynah Birds that included Rick James and Neil Young, The Mynabirds do have a folk stretched to mo-town feel. Laura Burhenn was a member of Georgie James with John Davis of Q and not U and Title Tracks.

Burhenn's got some hypnotic pipes on her. On top of that, she's also one of the sweetest people I've ever had the pleasure of sharing a Lonestar tallboy (or three) with.

From their 2010 album What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, "The Numbers Don't Lie."

Rainy Monday

It's not my intention to get anyone depressed, I know we should be happy that it's a cloudy rainy day in Austin, and that finally, after months of drought, we got a few inches of water from the skies.

I can't help feel however, that this song fits perfectly with the grey, rainy day ahead of us.

Like "Behold the Hurricane," this song showcases a really gripping performance. It also speaks to how good a video can be when you keep it simple and beautiful.

Keaton Henson, "You Don't Know How Lucky You Are," from his first LP Dear...

Keaton Henson - You Don't Know How Lucky You Are from Keaton Henson on Vimeo.

I couldn't help also show you guys his first video out of the same album for the song titled "Charon." It's so good. Again, please don't shoot yourselves...

Keaton Henson - Charon from Keaton Henson on Vimeo.

Naptown Anthem

Urban dictionary defines Naptown as, 'Indianapolis, Indiana. Indianapolis used to be so boring in the early 1900's people would say there is nothing to do, but take a nap in the city. That's why its called Naptown.' Thankfully things have changed a bit from the 1900s, most importantly we got rid of Jim Harbaugh, now have one non-smoking bar in Broad Ripple, and have at least two talented graphic designers; see below and buy the poster here. This might explain the second definition of Naptown on Urban dictionary:

2. The first definition is correct, however, over the past two decades, Naptown has grown into a term of endearment. Nap as in "Nappy" or "Tight" for example:

Headin back to Naptown this weekend to run with some old friends.

Xei the ghost and I went to high school together. And like all the best people from Indianapolis he is a fan of the sports teams, loves the city, but lives in another state. He had a solid flow and a great ear for beats back then and has only gotten better. Check out his whole catalogue and go see him in person if you're in LA.










This post composed on mac. Thanks Steve.

Listening Habits

I recently discovered Young Circles, from Miami. They released Jungle Habits, their first LP, a couple of months ago. I guess I'm two decades behind in blogosphere time.

A quote on their Bandcamp describes them as "Radiohead-meets-Clinic". At first, I liked that comparison (after all, that's quite a feat). But now I don't think that's fair at all. They're so much more. I continuously found myself hearing bits that sounded like other bands, but never quite put my finger on what it was. Kasabian? Arctic Monkeys? Beck? Wilco? Foreign Born? Sufjan? Atlas Sound? Damn, they even sounded like Nomo, in the Afrobeat-infused "Jangala" (it's an afro-Zappa-Zone, a bit much for my taste). I'm not claiming these bands are good descriptors for YC. I'm just trying to inadequately communicate how they make me feel. Every song on Jungle Habits has something unique, yet weirdly familiar. I loved it immediately, but where have I heard this before?

Now this for the next edition of Modern Jackass Magazine: "YC are doing in indie what Tarantino did in film. Jungle Habits is a quilt of references to a long list of influential indie musicians. The end product is, however, refreshing and very much welcome." Lolz. What a dick.

Listen and listen again. Then buy the whole thing. If you don't buy, at least go to SoundCloud and download "Asthmatic".

[Image via]

Another dude from a band you know

Alex Ebert, known from Ima Robot and better known from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, released his first solo album this year. The album is pretty much Edward Sharpe sans Jade, but who's really complaining?

Here is a video for "Truth," my choice off the album.

Caged Animals

Vincent Cacchione, former Soft Black member, just released a debut album under the moniker Caged Animals. Sink into some West Coast dream pop synth and bring on the Casio.

My choice off the album is the single "Teflon Heart."

Caged Animals-Teflon Heart by theawkwardoff


Here is their video for "Girl on Medication." Nothing beats eating gummy bears and blowing up shit.

Caged Animals - "Girls On Medication" from Cluster 1 on Vimeo.