I like Christmas music just as much as the next, but this is the good stuff. And one to add to your Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas” soundtrack for the big day.
Savannah duo, Baby Jazz, officially release their “Song for the Season,” tomorrow but it is now available to download for free on their Bandcamp here.
Also be sure to listen to “Billy Ocean” on their MySpace. It’s complexly beautiful.
CMJ is our favorite week of the year (besides sxsw and ok, fine, Christmas). Yesterday, we only caught a handful of awesome bands (Oberhofer, Diamond Rings, Keepaway) because our Wednesday party with Transparent and ABC News Amplified ended at 5:00 AM so we’re tired. Thank you to everyone who had the awesome chance to catch Wise Blood, Dominant Legs, Hooray for Earth, Bronze, Psychobuildings, Kisses, Mon Khmer, Cloud Nothings and Sunglasses at Public Assembly.
Some of our picks for tonight, October 22, include:
Music Hall of Williamsburg: Dominant Legs, Porcelain Raft. 8 pm.
Bar Matchless: Teen Daze>Blackbird Blackbird> Sunglasses> MillionYoung. 8 pm.
CakeShop: Viernes at 8:40 pm.
Brooklyn Bowl: Pitchfork Showcase- How to Dress Well, Tanlines, Baths, Cloud Nothings, Candy Claws . 1 pm-3 am.
Death by Audio: The Altered Zones Showcase – John Maus, Prince Rama, Greatest Hits, Teen Inc, How to Dress Well (DJ set). 7 pm.
Some of our top picks for Saturday:
Gobble Gobble at noon @ Cameo, Wburg. Oberhofer at 2:30 and Holly Miranda at 5:30 @ Bowery Electric, NY. Keepaway at 7 @ Cameo. Jamaica at 8 @ Public Assembly, Wburg. Hooray for Earth 11 PM @ Coco66, Greenpoint. Bronze 11:30 PM @ Spike Hill, Wburg
Have a blast.
All of the kids are moving on. You’ll never get to Lon don.
I love this indie dream-pop band from Japan. I first heard about Ice Cream Shout through Altered Zones’ post of Cloudy Busey, whose song “Pound Your Town to Hell” is an exceptional dream-by, not drive-by, but, yes, dream-by track- A dream-by hits you hard but keeps going, leaving you left to wonder… – that forced me to listen to this band’s handful of songs available over and over. Cloudy Busey is the solo project of Ice Cream Shout’s ‘Bob’.
Tattooed Tears, one of their stand-outs, is a song about a man stabbing other inmates so that he can get out of prison and his growing numbness to it. Download the song on the band’s Bandcamp. Also listen to Marianne (below) and London. Upcoming shows at the moment include Osaka area only…
Go on: Dance and eat an ice cream.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.’s Horse Power EP was released this summer (out on Quite Scientific Records) and a few songs have crept onto mixes passed to me recently. Plus there is the video for “Nothing But Our Love” (below), so they were instantly a must-watch / must-listen. The Detroit duo of Joshua Epstein & Daniel Zott burst on the scene with a cover of the Beach Boys “God Only Knows” and a few other infectious indie pop tunes, my favorite of which is “Vocal Cords” below. And they will continue to invade your iPods with the early 2011 release of their full-length, I’m sure. Definitely flag them as a must-see for CMJ, they’ll be playing shows in NYC October 18 – 22.
New York based/Nashville born The Royal Chains just released a brand new video for my favorite single of theirs, Lucy Takes A Dare.
I’ve heard this song many, many times and while it is clearly a love song, the lyrics are more explicit, which I think makes a love song even that more beautiful. forthebeat interviewed drummer Adam Roddick and here’s what he had to say:
Where was the video shot? The video was shot on location at Blackbird Heritage Farms in Townsend, DE and was produced by Carousel Productions.
What’s the premise of the song/video? It’s based on a relationship I had that was very passionate but almost ’secret.’ When we were alone together, it was pure magic, but I never really had any proof. So when it was over, my friends had an impossible time understanding why I just couldn’t get over it. So this song comes out of that feeling of longing. I wanted to re-write the story with more of an open-ended ending.
What is “the dare”? The ‘dare’ because Lucy takes a chance just doesn’t have the same ring to it. It could also be a euphemism for a ‘roll in the hay’ which is probably a euphemism for something else.
What’s your favorite line from the song? ‘Timing means everything if time means anything’
Watch the video here:
Another great one:
The Royal Chains – Wolf
h a p p y w e e k e n d.
special love to doris for the pic.
Your heart beats in double time:
Florence and the Machine – Addicted to Love (cover)
I never fall back. I’d rather go forward:
But I think you would know but I thought you knew:
KISSES released a new track called Bermuda a few weeks ago, in anticipation for their full length, The Heart of the Nightlife (9 tracks), out October 19th.
If you don’t know Kisses, they are an L.A. based “disco” project featuring Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson. The Heart of the Nightlife was written and inspired by Jesse’s trips via his day job as a travel writer.
Described by Force Field as “minimalist approach to pop music that revels in the celebratory moments of life, those fragments of time that we only remember in postcards or faint recollections. The Heart of the Nightlife takes these elusive moments and celebrates them openly, without fear of scorn.”
I really love that description.
They have two very special CMJ showcases coming up. The first on October 19th at Santos and the second is a secret, at least for a few more days…but its *very* awesome.
You can pre-order the album now on itunes.
An oldie but a goody, Viernes is Florida-based Sean Moore and Alberto Hernandez. Fine, this isn’t an oldie. Their debut full-length Sinister Devices came out earlier this summer on Kanine Records — you can pick it up HERE. For whatever reason though, these moody tunes have been more impactful as summer comes to a close and fall sets in. The leaves are beginning to turn and the quiet intensity of the textured, layered sounds signifies change and something new to come. The music is nostalgic, and their methods are fitting for the feeling they create. According to their bio, “the two would spend their afternoons and late into the night secluding themselves in their homemade studio at Moore’s mother’s house. Incorporating instruments passed down to them, Moore’s old Wurlitzer piano inherited from his late father was used for every piano part, and Hernandez borrowed his father’s Puerto Rican cuatro.”
Viernes will be in town for CMJ, accompanied live by a drummer, to round out the ambient sounds on stage. Listen here and check them out.
This is crack. This is crack.
Baby Jazz is duo Elgin Braden (Teen Wolfe) and Samuel Cooper (Golden Chow). Elgin is also in Aux Arc with Marshall Trotter and Sam is 1/2 of the duo, Sunglasses.
Baby Jazz has a new track out called Michael Jordan that is just an eclectic mix of sounds, bumps, thumps, beep beeps, shazams oh and a sweet a** beat that comes in about a minute 1/2 deep. It’s a 12 minute adventure, pay special attention to around minute 8.
What’s even sweeter is that it will be accompanied by a comic book starring the duo, Golden Chow and Teen Wolfe. I hope its in 3D and comes with sparkle glitter red glasses.
Michael Jordan is the first off of what will be a full-length album for Baby Jazz. Catch the new track below but DEFINITELY listen to their older tracks: The Song for the Season (Holy Jam) and Billy Ocean- both currently on their Myspace page.
Free download of the song on their BandCamp…
NME, Paper, XLR8R, Rolling Stone and others have praised them as “intoxicating, ” “artist to watch” and “sublime.” They are no hidden secret but I still like to think they are my special discovery. Brooklyn based Home Video has a brand new single titled “The Smoke” which is a preview to their new 11 track album The Automatic Process out November 16th.
My two favorite genres, indie and electro are blended into one with this artist. I can’t say enough good things about this band, but seeing Home Video live only further speaks to their talent. Catch their next show September 30th if you’re in New York at Glasslands w/ Film School and The Depreciation Guild.
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