Toro Y Moi Plays at Whitney

South Carolinan rocker Toro Y Moi, a.ka. Chaz Budnick, recently added more dates to his tour including a free show at the Whitney Museum this Friday. You can hear his new single, "Leave Everywhere," coming out on July 20 under Carpark records. A departure from his typical beats and synth, the song is a throw-back to early rock...with xylophone!

Leave Everywhere [mp3]

Steel Train

New Jersey rock band Steel Train just released their newest self-titled album today, radiating with exuberant rock-romp jams perfect for those crystal clear sunny summer days. Steel Train has completed their tours with Tegan & Sara as well as their performances at Coachella and Bamboozle festival (which Spin.com rated as one of the "11 Best Moments of Bamboozle"). As a bonus, they have created an exclusive all-female companion album, Terrible Thrills Vol. 1, reinterpreted and remixed by Tegan & Sara, Scarlett Johansson, Holly Miranda, Amanda Palmer, Alia Shawkat and Nellie McKay, which can be purchased on their website.

Bullet [mp3]
Turnpike Ghost [mp3]
Support the Artist: Purchase on iTunes

Parenthetical Girls @ Coco66

NOTE: Apologies for the lack of pictures - I'm short on time and wanted to get this posted today because US Royalty has a show tonight. Check back tomorrow to see the pictures.

Saturday night I hit up the Northside Festival and went to see Parenthetical Girls at Coco66. First up was DC-based US Royalty, and they were pretty awesome. They're music is that high-energy rock with a hint of bluesy grit that I love so much. Not only did they hit my rock 'n' roll sweet tooth with their music, but they actually had stage presence and I think it's very possible that these guys could be quite successful if they can get the right backing. They kind of reminded me of Cage the Elephant, who are doing quite well for themselves these days, except I liked US Royalty even better than Cage the Elephant (and their singer can actually sing, which helps...). They have a show tonight at Pianos. See the flier below.

Louisiana Spell [mp3]

Parenthetical Girls were also quite good, although in a completely different way. I have to say, they weren't quite what I was expecting. I expected a lot more theatrics from the entire band but Zac Pennington was definitely the main attraction in terms of drama. He's quite the performer, never standing still and often walking or dancing around in the audience or on the furniture - it's probably best to see him at a venue that has wireless mics because dragging the cord around the entire venue nearly caused some problems a few times, and it would've been nice to see him with even less restriction to his movement. His voice and his look are quite unique and he has a combination of endearing quirkiness and mysterious intensity about him that make the show quite interesting. They played a lot of new songs, and I have to say I really liked most of them. Some of them were downright danceable and I was totally rocking out. I'm quite excited for their upcoming album, despite the fact that Zac kept apologizing for only playing new songs.

A Song for Ellie Greenwich [mp3] - ( Amazon / iTunes )

Winner of FNL Giveaway

Congrats to Trip L, the winner of the Friday Night Lights vol. 2 soundtrack! For those of you who didn't win, please check back again soon for more giveaways!

Flashback Friday - Safety Dance

Words can't describe the awesomeness that is the Safety Dance video...



And the modern usage in Glee (I wasn't such a big fan of that whole Artie getting out of his chair thing but the dance was fun - I definitely wish I had been in that mall at the time).

The Library

A couple of nights ago, a friend from out of town wanted to check out some live music, so we went to see what was going on at the Living Room. There were a few decent acts, the best of which was the Library, a mellow, catchy folk-rock group from Brooklyn.

The frontman has a distinctive, feminine singing voice that initially made me suspect he might be the guy from Wheatus. It works particularly well with that of the drummer, who sings most of the backup. Throw in a lap steel guitar, and you've got some very tender pop music. Good stuff to sit and sip a beer to on a Tuesday night.

They've apparently finished a new full-length record called The King of Silverlake. It has no release date yet, but they played the title track at the show, and it was very nice. The tracks below come from their 2009 EP The Life and Times of Rosa Lee.

Club Amnesia [mp3] (iTunes)
Nothing to Lose [mp3] (iTunes)

Cameron Rafati

Upon first glance of the track below, you'll no doubt think Cameron Rafati has listened to a lot of John Legend in his lifetime, but don't be too quick to judge - the boy has an impressive range of sound. On his self-titled debut album, Rafati goes from sounding like John Legend ("1 In 10") to producing a perfect Jack Johnson voice that is seemingly swank-singing to a Sondre Lerche number ("Battles") to David Byrne ("Dirty Conversations"). The tracks themselves are not only entirely distinct form one another, they're all completely solid. The more I explore the album, the more I find myself impressed. Check him out.

1 In 10 [mp3] (iTunes)

Ok Go, Muppets, Zach Galifianakis.

Enjoy.

Friday Night Lights - Vol. 2 - GIVEAWAY!

Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite TV shows, so imagine my elation when the Friday Night Lights vol. 2 soundtrack showed up in my inbox. And I was even more excited when I was offered a signed copy to give away (signed by the band AM). The soundtrack is stellar, with lots of great indie rock and folk. So many of my favorite bands and songs! White Rabbits, Sufjan Stevens, Band of Skulls, The Avett Brothers, Heartless Bastards, A. A. Bondy... I really couldn't be much happier with the soundtrack - it's so reminiscent of all the best things about the show: the grit, the emotion, the contemplative quietness, the excitement, the tension. A great soundtrack for a great show.

To enter to win (for all US and Canada readers), please email us with "I want the FNL soundtrack!" in the subject line and your name and address in the body (as always, we won't stalk you or anything, it just saves us all a step). You have until Friday, June 25th at 11:59 EST to enter. The winner will be announced on Saturday.

Sway [mp3] Heartless Bastards

Amazon / iTunes

The Hoof & The Heel

NXNE, the Canadian version of SXSW, is underway at the moment, and among the many bands performing this week is the indie-folk-electro group The Hoof & The Heel. Their debut EP, And All The Tigers, contains numbers like "Fireworks" that bombard and energize like Florence and the Machine, with vociferous drums and seesawing synths flaring about. It also has more relaxed tracks featuring perky folk-pop and acoustic guitar slowjams, showing great potential for future albums to come. For those of you at NXNE, the band will be performing 10pm tomorrow night at the Drake Underground and I highly recommended that you check them out.

Fireworks [mp3] (iTunes)

Dolly Parton & Sylvester Stallone in... Rhinestone

HBO's been showing Rhinestone a lot lately, a movie I'd never heard of but was immediately drawn to after reading the on-screen synopsis: "A country singer (Dolly Parton) bets her considerable virtue she can make a New York cabby (Sylvester Stallone) a star in only two weeks."

Singin' in the Rain it is not. Stallone won two Razzies for it, one for his general performance and another for the brief but ridiculous musical number "Drinkin'stein." He also co-wrote the screenplay, so he can be credited with most of what went wrong here.

I do give the movie credit for one thing, though. I kept expecting Stallone's character to make a remarkable turnaround and suddenly produce an incredible singing voice in a feat of movie magic. But he sucks the whole time, eventually winning the (inexplicably discriminating midtown-Manhattan country music–loving) crowd over with his charisma rather than his pipes. This at least makes for a more enjoyable finale.

But it also makes for a weak soundtrack album. Dolly Parton wrote some great songs for this flick, the best of which are the entendre-laden lovers' duets that are unjustly presented here only in their laughable Dolly-and-Sly form. I personally got enough of that in the film; I was led to the soundtrack hoping that another male counterpart would be there to bring the songs' clear potential to fruition.

The one song that's strong enough to completely survive this treatment is "Woke Up In Love," included below with "One Emotion After Another," a solo Dolly track that is another highlight from the soundtrack.

It's also worth noting that the aforementioned "Drinkin'stein," a Dolly composition, is actually pretty decent but suffers even further on the soundtrack from the addition of cheesy '80s horror sound effects. Dolly gave it a sporting try herself on the Tonight Show, but the sound effects were unfortunately employed there as well.

Dolly Parton & Sylvester Stallone - Woke Up In Love [mp3] (Amazon)
Dolly Parton - One Emotion After Another [mp3] (Amazon)

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers

So my dad informed me the other day that he read in the paper that we have a new neighbor just up the road in Brevard, NC; One Mr. Steve Martin. Apparently he has settled into the mountains here to hang out with his new band The Steep Canyon Rangers.

For those of you who are unaware, this is the same Steve Martin of TV and movies.
He has been a banjo player since his early years as a stand up comic and even scored a number 17 hit with King Tut back in 1978.

Since those early days Martin has played with a number of bluegrass legends on several albums and in 2009 recorded an album "The Crow: New Songs for the Five String Banjo" which won him the Grammy for best Bluegrass album in 2010. Check out the title track The Crow and see for yourself that he should be taken seriously as a musician.

The Crow [mp3] - Steve Martin (iTunes)

and below is a video why you can still laugh at Steve Martin =)

New music video from OK Go

Today is apparently the day for colorful fun music videos. Check out this one from OK Go.

New music video from Locksley

Man, I wish I had been there for the making of this... It looks like it was a total blast!

KaiserCartel - Secret Transit

Hello dear readers! Em here. I've been absent from the blog for a while - I was in the beautiful country of Peru! But I'm back now, and I'm very pleased to have a review of my favorite Brooklyn due KaiserCartel's new album to share with you for my comeback.

For those of you familiar with KaiserCartel, you will probably be a bit surprised by their new self-released album, Secret Transit, which came out on June 8th. Whereas their previous albums will relax you with their hauntingly beautiful harmonies and placid music, this album is going to have tapping your foot and bopping your head to their spunky rock 'n' roll tunes. And whereas I always associate their songs with a kind of melancholy, many of their new songs are full of simple, sweet, romantic lyrics such as "Around You" (about wanting to be around "you") and "Stella," which has lyrics about leaving "the light on for you, just in case you come back late." Of course, there are still a few songs reminiscent of their old sound, like the down-tempo, longing "Mine Field," and the gentle, yearning "The Wait." Some of you may remember this video, but for those who haven't seen it, here's an exclusive video of KaiserCartel behind-the-scenes writing "The Wait" last summer. It's evolved a lot since that session, so I find it really interesting to look back.

Ready To Go [mp3] - (Amazon / iTunes)

Tour Dates (more to be announced):

06/15 Evanston, IL @ SPACE w/ Jeremy Messersmith
06/16 Iowa City, IA @ The Mill w/ Jeremy Messersmith
06/17 Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center w/Kid Dakota
06/18 Milwaukee, WI @ Club Garibaldi’s w/Jeremy Messersmith
06/21 London, UK @ The Green Note w/Treetop Flyers
06/23 BBC Late Night, 94.9 FM – 11 pm
07/06 St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House – supporting Kate Miller-Heidke
07/07 Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s – supporting Kate Miller-Heidke

07/09 Dubuque, IA @ The Lift
07/14 Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre
07/16 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios – opening for LeRoy Bell
07/17 Seattle, WA @ High Dive
07/19 Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Café
07/20 Los Angeles, CA @ Echo – opening for Grand Archive
07/22 Colorado Springs, CO @ Shugas
07/23 Ft. Collins, CO @ Road 34
07/24 Denver, CO @ Hi Dive/Underground Music Showcase
07/27 Chattanooga, TN @ JJ Bohemia
07/28 Nashville, TN @ The Basement
07/29 Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
07/30 Pittsburgh, PA @ Schenley Plaza/WYEP Event
08/29 Keene, NH @ Armadillo Burrito/Acoustic Sundays

Villagers

Guys. You GUYS.

I daresay I found a new obsession and I cannot believe that I'm so late on the bandwagon. Villagers, aka Conor O'Brien (yes, he's Irish), started out as a collection of nameless musical poems, but somewhere over the course of time those songs became extremely well crafted and a triumphant accomplishment. Becoming A Jackal, which dropped earlier this week, contains enriched numbers filled with warm instrumentation - most of which is played by O'Brien - wind-whipped into guitar-strafed sensations that are remarkably expansive yet intimate.

If you were like "Hmm..okay," about the youtube clip above, check out the fleshed-out version of the title track below and find yourself completely sold.

Becoming A Jackal [mp3] (iTunes)

Ellery

Ellery is the moniker for husband/wife duo Justin and Tasha Golden, who are releasing their sophomore album This Isn't Over Yet on June 15th. The sound is clean pop-alternative that's slightly stripped down and basic, but Tasha's vocals are just offbeat enough to give it some flair. Despite the optimistic sound of some tracks (Tasha calls the track below a "charismatic imposter"), the eleven songs on the album explore depression, denial and vague hope.

Where It's Going [mp3]

Momentary Delay

Blogger's been bit on the fritz these last few days with maintenance updates, making us unable to post, but we'll continue our regular programming starting tomorrow.

Nada Surf release If I Had A Hi-Fi tomorrow

Electrocution [mp3]

Flashback (Sun)Friday

So I know that it's Sunday, but I feel like today's weather calls for a flashback to "Do the Whirlwind" by Architecture in Helsinki. This is off of their 2008 album, In Case We Die. Enjoy!

Stars at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Last night I headed over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch Stars on tour for their upcoming album, The Five Ghosts. Rumor had gotten around that the band was playing the album in its entirety and an energetic group of loyal fans waited in anticipation. Their was an explosion of cheers when the band came on and sultry singer Amy Millan announced "We're gonna play you The Five Ghosts from start to finish."

The first song, "Dead Hearts," was a sweet call and response between Millan and lead vocals Torquil Campbell. It was their typical sound in a refreshed way. But the rest of the album, for the most part, took a different direction with strong New Wave and Art Rock influences. With heavy synth and simple rhythms, the album is more of an authentic 80's sound than it is a modern day interpretation.

At this point the band is seasoned at performing the album and they knew what the crowd wanted. Campbell was theatrical and engaging, reminiscing about their time in Billyburg. "Stars started in the streets of Williamsburg," he said. "When I walked down the streets today, I thought I was on acid... It's an honor to be a part of the community again." With that, the band went into "The Passanger," a pop song with laser sound effects. The crowd swayed and there was a chorus of "woos." A lot of them also stood there, staring, with open ears. It's a weird thing to have a band fully play an unreleased album. There's a rush that this is a live listening party, but also a feeling of wanting to bring the album home and carefully listen to it in your bedroom.

The show was broken into 2 sets: the new stuff and the old. The crowd roared when Stars jumped into "Take me to the Riot," and from there the energy grew. The nostalgia continued to pour out from the band. As the second set approached its end, Campbell gave one last nod to the neighborhood. "This is a fucking hallucinatory dream of life and it's because you supported it. So start a band in Williamsburg... but that L train is a bitch!"

The Five Ghosts will be released on June 22nd. You can pre-order it on

Amazon/iTunes

Kacey Johansing

With a sweet warbly voice and a dandy whistle, Kacey Johansing, a sometime member of the bands Honey.Moon.Tree and Honeycomb, is releasing her pop-folk debut solo album Many Seasons on June 15th. Although Johansing has a penchant for the Susanna-esque muted electronic piano numbers filled with slow-burning emotion (exhibit A), the track below incorporates a summery kick to its beat.

Oh Brother [mp3]

Dirty Projectors cover Dylan

Today New York Magazine released Dirty Projector's cover of Dylan's lesser-known ballad "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," as a part of Levi's Pioneer Sessions: The Revival Recordings. Yes, Levi's jeans has been slowly building a niche in the music scene and I'm not sure how I feel about this. The record matches an eclectic mix of solid artists doing covers of oldies but goodies. Starting with the debut of the album last week, Levis will be releasing 2 songs off the album weekly through July 1st. Other features include Nas' interpretation of Slick Rick, She & Him doing Rick Nelson, and The Swell Season covering Candi Staton (the last of which is an amusing attempt of a white folk singer taking on a disco great).

DP's cover falls a little flat of the original. I'm wanting to hear more of the grittiness that we love from Dylan (or the strong, twangy female vocals that we get with my favorite version by Joan Baez). Simply put, the cover is less soulfoul. Still, what attracts me to DP is that they push themselves to invent and reinvent, much like Dylan.

As per request, you can download The Dirty Projectors cover and other songs

here.

Olafur Arnalds

Electro-classical mastermind Olafur Arnalds released his new album ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness and it's even better than Arnald's Found Songs, which made our Honorable Mentions list last year. It's the best of dramatic piano pieces, full of strings and perfect build ups. After multiple listens, I've found it soothes me best while I'm cooking, but take it for your own calming needs.

Þú ert sólin [mp3] (iTunes)

Turkuaz & Dopapod

I had the great fortune to stumble across a Turkuaz show a couple of months ago. I was leaving another, frankly disappointing show and had my spirits lifted when I stepped on the street and heard some glorious funk coming from the bar a few doors down. These folks know how to start a party:

Mostly (if not all) Berklee alumni (now relocated to Brooklyn), they've got serious musical chops all around, and they back it up with some serious personality: a professorial, Col. Bruce Hampton–esque frontman; a charismatic horn section dressed like the Super Mario Bros.; and two sexy female "backup" singers stationed front and center, perpetually in motion.

Turkuaz - 20 Dollar Bill [mp3] (eMusic)

Some of Turkuaz's members pull double duty in Dopapod (pictured at the top of this post), a jammy, instrumental group that is still based in Boston. They also frequently dip into trippier, electronic territory with some dancefloor-ready burners reminiscent of the New Deal. Both flavors are represented in the two live tracks below, drawn from a show they performed here in New York a couple of months ago.

Dopapod - Freight Train (Live at Pianos) [mp3]
Dopapod - B3 Kings (Live at Pianos) [mp3]

You can get the full show and several others at the Live Music Archive, and their album Radar is available on iTunes. They're also playing a good number of shows in the northeast this summer, including several festivals. Tour dates are available at their MySpace page.