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To put it frankly: If you have any drugs, you should probably take them now.Music: Levek - "Shift" (Grizzly Bear cover)Video: Walt Disney's Melody TimeGrizzly Bear - "Shift" (acoustic)
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Grizzly Bear's "Shift"—An A Capella Cover
Terrible Records: A Good Label
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Artist:Class Actress
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Album:Journal of Ardency
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Track:Let Me Take You Out
Brooklyn's Acrylics and Class Actress are part of a cast of young musicians signed to Terrible Records, a label recently launched by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor. Taylor, a talented multi-instrumentalist and producer, has previously proved his own immaculate taste with projects like Veckatimest, the Department of Eagles' In Ear Park, and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's debut—and now behind th.
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The Runaways - "Queens of Noise"
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Celebrated as one of the first all-female hard rock groups, the Runaways were led by singers Cherie Currie and Joan Jett and the guitar shredding Lita Ford. Merely teenagers at the peak of their success, the band members were unfortunately marketed as jailbait (think Britney Spears circa "Baby One More Time"), but the Runaways nevertheless persevered as a group of bad ass rockers who could pen ...
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The Dirty Diamonds - "By Default"
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Artist:The Dirty Diamonds
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Track:By Default
A Chicago doo wop group that wears soulful love songs like a pair of worn, old and perfectly fitted jeans, The Dirty Diamonds are a small unsigned band that's worthy of plenty of praise. Dance, sing along or just sit back and take in that sweet polyphony: this band's for you. You can download the group's first EP here for free and below, the instant head buzz—"By Default."The Dirty Diamonds - ".
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New Beach House: "Norway"
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Track:Norway
Once you've settled into the quiet, ethereal tones of Baltimore's Beach House, it becomes hard to take off that comfortable blanket of fuzzy textures and sound. After their overwhelming succes last year, the duo is now set to follow up Devotion with its Sub Pop debut, Teen Dream—due out January 26th. And yes, the album cover appears to be a bunch of zebra butts. Beach House - "Norway" (from Tee.
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"Abel, come on. Give me the keys, man."
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I like to make lists in that annoying Rob Fleming (High Fidelity) fashion: best Bob Dylan covers, top ten favorite films, greatest 80s songs not used on the Top Gun soundtrack or featured in a John Hughes movie, etc. But most important and dear to my heart is my top ten favorite songs of all-time list: a constantly evolving undertaking roughly eight years in the making. Last week I knocked off ...
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Brandi Carlile - "Dreams"
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The first time I heard Brandi Carlile sing was in 2005 at a small advertising firm in New York City. Playing for about 30 or so creatives and ad persons in a conference room, Carlile's voice lit up the space with an explosion of unexpected sound, nearly rendering her and fellow bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth's acoustic guitars useless. It was a lot of noise from such a little person—and a bea.
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New Soft Pack - "Answer To Yourself"
Everybody Taste favorite the Soft Pack will be releasing their first record as the Soft Pack (not the Muslims) on Febuary 2 via Kemado Records. In preparation for the "debut," the band's already released a single—the stiff chord-strumming frenzy of "Answer To Yourself"—and a video for the song (watch it over at Stereogum). You can pre-order the album now at Insound.The Soft Pack - "Answer To Y
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Deer Tick to release four-song EP
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The great rock and roll band that is Deer Tick is set to release a four-song EP on Dec. 1st to cap of a year in which they earned universal praise, from obscure taste makers to mainstream behemoths like NBC anchor Brian Williams and Rolling Stone. When I saw the band live earlier this year, it just clicked: this music is classic—something no trend or length of time can change.The EP, More Fuel .
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Trends suck, the Freelance Whales don't
The Freelance Whales song "Generator ^ 2nd Floor" is swelling orchestral pop music—unfortunately, a completely over-saturated style in contemporary indie rock (thank you Arcade Fire). However, if a song's good enough it can always stand on its own—and those meddling trends can be forgotten. Here, the banjo-plucking Freelance Whales make just that case.Freelance Whales - "Generator ^ 2nd Floor"
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Trends suck, the Freelances Whales don't
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Artist:Freelance Whales
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Album:Weathervanes
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Track:Generator ^ 2nd Floor
The Freelance Whales song "Generator ^ 2nd Floor" is swelling orchestral pop music—unfortunately, a completely over-saturated style in contemporary indie rock (thank you Arcade Fire). However, if a song's good enough it can always stand on its own—and those meddling trends can be forgotten. Here, the banjo-plucking Freelance Whales make just that case.Freelance Whales - "Generator ^ 2nd Floor"
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Must listen: Fat Freddy's Drop - "Boondigga"
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A seven-piece concoction mixed with equal parts dub, reggae, funk, jazz and soul, Fat Freddy’s Drop is a dynamic and largely improvisatory group that plays what New Zealander’s call Aotearoa music—the native Māori people's name for New Zealand.According to lore, the band came up with its name shortly after recording its first song—“Hope” in 1999—under the influence of LSD. The parti
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Digging For Covers: Camera Obscura gets Bossy
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Album:The Sweetest Thing
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Track:Tougher Than the Rest
"Tougher Than The Rest" was released on Bruce Springsteen's 1987 album Tunnel Of Love. Because of the musical influence of the time period—cheesy synthesized organs and glossy production—the song was never a favorite of mine. But recently, under the guise of different artistic visions, its developed into somewhat of an addiction. First with Mike Vogel's remix—a dreamy landscape of texture—
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Vic Ruggiero: The Intersection of Ska and Old Time Jazz
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Album:Something In My Blindspot
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Track:Lonely Nights
Oftentimes, the best music travels by word of mouth from friends. For me, that's the case with Brooklyn ska band The Slackers—a band I might've never heard about if not played endlessly by a good friend. Fronted by the charismatic and often self-depricating singer Vic Ruggiero, the Slackers came about in the early 90s ska resurgence that saw bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big F.
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Dawn Landes - "Straight Lines"
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Album:Straight Lines
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Track:Straight Lines
There are plenty of reasons to like Dawn Landes: she plays the glockenspiel, has a background in sound engineering, covers the likes of Peter Bjorn & John and Tom Petty, and is married to fellow folky Josh Ritter. Most importantly, she has a beautiful voice and sticks it to some pretty good tunes. I highly recommend Landes's excellent performance of "Straight Lines" on the Black Cab Sessions. T...
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Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - "Death Cab For Cutie"
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Artist:Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
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Album:Do Not Adjust Your Set
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Track:Death Cab for Cutie (Bonzo Dog Band)
I'm not a Death Cab For Cutie fan. They're certainly talented, but not my cup of tea. However, I found it interesting to discover their name came from a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. A group who gained popularity performing in the British children's television show Do Not Adjust Your Set (which also featured future members of Monty Python). Paul McCartney was a fan and in 1967 asked the b...
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Yeasayer - "Ambling Alp"
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Album:Odd Blood
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Track:Ambling Alp
Yeasayer's new song "Ambling Alp" is rather mind blowing: weird pop music spun with great orchestral ambition and lathered in a radiating wash of sunshine. The single will appear on the Brooklyn band's forthcoming album Odd Blood, due out February 19.Yeasayer - "Ambling Alp" (from Ambling Alp EP)
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Sam Means - "Yeah Yeah"
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Artist:Sam Means
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Track:Yeah Yeah
Back in September, Sam Means—formerly half of beloved Arizona pop group The Format—returned to releasing records with a soundtrack for the independent comedy The Sinking of Santa Isabel. From the trailer, the film looks like it could have its moments—more or less a fable about avoiding growing up where one adult character literally lives in a tree house. With a nod to Josh Ritter's great "W
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Bogart-Internet-Tubes Blues
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Track:Low Rising
My free internet situation dried up over the weekend (yes, I was bogarting internet tubes) so I'll be posting a bit more erratically over the next week or so in coffee shops until I remedy that. In any case, there have been several excellent releases over the past week, so in case you haven't had time to look around, here's what's been going on. That awesomelly genuine and charismatic, Van Morr...
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The Wild Tchoupitoulas and The Rest Of New Orleans
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"Indians are the rulers on the holiday," sings George "Big Chief Jolly" Landry on the lone album from The Wild Tchoupitoulas. Formed as a group of Mardi Gras Indians—ceremonial African-American Carnival revelers—The Wild Tchoupitoulas recorded in 1976 what was considered the first rock record to capture the funky New Orleans sound. It helped that the band was backed by legendary funk group The
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