Music Monday

The White Stripes used to be this band I always heard about and of, but couldn’t actually name any of their songs and I had no clue what they actually sounded like. So I finally got ahold of some of their stuff and fell in love with Jack White’s sound. So, I meant to post this song earlier in the day, but I kept forgetting and putting it off. I intended to say something like, “Here’s a song to get your Memorial Day going!” Instead now it’s 11:48 (central time) and Memorial Day is pretty much over and done with. So I suppose the only logical thing left to say is, this song should end your Memorial Day quite nicely!

Enjoy™

More About The White Stripes

“Even with a generous handful of tracks that easily rank alongside the White Stripes’ best work, Get Behind Me Satan remains a confounding record, one that wears its “transitional album” tag like a heavy peppermint-striped crown. One can’t help but feel that if perhaps the White Stripes had seen fit to take the necessary time to give cuts like “Forever for Her” or “The Denial Twist” a sincere revision or two, we might’ve been looking at a stone classic. As it stands, there’s more than enough here to give Stripes fans cause to celebrate, although it may not inspire much faith that the duo will ever find the patience necessary to deliver upon their promising new innovations.”

— Pitchfork’s album review of The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan</

Music Monday

I like Surfer Blood and I think it’s worth anyones time to listen to. Some of their music reminds me of Vampire Weekend not to say they are as good or better, nor am I saying it’s the same. Just that something about it reminds me of Vampire Weekend’s sound at times.

Enjoy™

More About Surfer Blood

“There’s plenty to like about Astro Coast, the debut LP from the youthful Floridians in Surfer Blood, but first and foremost it’s a great guitar album. So what exactly does that mean these days? Often, it’s a reference to either a display of astounding technical chops or innovative use of tone and texture, qualities which, to be quite honest, aren’t particularly present here. This is a great guitar album in the way Weezer’s Blue Album, Built to Spill’s Keep It Like a Secret, or, more recently, Japandroids’ Post-Nothing are: six-strings serve as a multiplier for hooks, making it every bit as easy and fun to air guitar with as it is to sing along to.”

— Pitchfork’s album review of Surfer Blood: Astro Coast

Music Monday

YOU GOTTA FIGHT!

I am feeling like right now my life is a real battle, so I need a good fight song to help me battle my way through the week. I think this one will do. Sleigh Bells definitely deliver a mixture of sweet soothing vocals mixed with hard powerful beats to create a sound you have never heard before. The simple lyrics help give the stage to the motivating, get-your-butt-out-your-seat-and-DANCE, bob-your-freaking-head-in-your-car, pretend-to-play-the-drums-on-your-steering-wheel type of a beat.

Enjoy™

More About Sleigh Bells

“Demos of songs from Sleigh Bells’ Treats first started making their way around the Internet last fall, and they immediately served as conversation starters. The distortion in early track “Crown on the Ground” was so intense that every other second the song seemed on the verge of shutting down. But while Derek Miller’s overdriven guitar and bass were distressed in the extreme, vocalist Alexis Krauss remained calm as chaos raged around her. Her cadence, somewhere at the intersection of singing, speaking, and chanting, conveyed an easy confidence, like she belonged in the middle of this maelstrom and knew she didn’t need to shout to be heard. The contrast between her relaxed bearing— where she seemed to rule over it all— and the dangerous splatter of the music was striking to say the least. It was as easy to be taken in as it was to understand why someone else might be repelled. I felt some of both feelings, to be honest, but I also wanted to hear more.”

— Pitchfork’s album review of Sleigh Bells: Treats

Music Monday

So theirs this Heineken commercial out right now. Maybe you’ve seen it a handful of times. Maybe you’ve seen it a lot of times like me. I’m not actually that big of a fan of the commercial itself, but I did really enjoy the song. So after the 30th time of seeing the commercial I opened up my SoundHound android app and it informed me that “The Asteroids Galaxy Tour” sang the song. Then my wonderful wife went and bought it for me on Amazon. Now I’m sharing it with all of you.

Enjoy™

More About The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

“The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s undeniably catchy debut LP, Fruit lingers in the head with a horn-filled, psychedelic pop “who cares?” Whether channeling a spayed Gwen Stefani, a boring and cuddly Kathleen Hannna or a flaccid Billie Holiday, Mette Lindberg’s voice ranges from pleasantly poppy to gratingly shrill baby talk. Place this atop a consistent bed of repetitive mediocrity and the result is both a nice pop record — which many people will love — and a migraine waiting to happen.”

“The result is poppy by grating, without message and fun in an utterly meaningless way. If you can make it through all 10 tracks without skipping out on one of the interminable hook repetitions and without polishing off a bottle of aspirin you are a better person than I. Fruit should have been an EP, should have shaved off some of the waste and marinated longer. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour clearly have a keen ear for hooks, but no idea what to do with them.”

— Pretty Much Amazing’s album review of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour: Fruit

Music Monday

My brother Matt introduced me to Jenny and Johnny, and it has turned out to be one of the best albums I’ve listened to this year. I keep returning back to it to listen to the songs again and again. Today I’m going to kick start this week off with one of my favorites called, “Big Wave.”

Enjoy™

More About Jenny and Johnny

“Jenny Lewis, as even her detractors would confess, is a magnetic frontperson. Her alto is naturally bright and sassy, but she can contort it into soulful low tones, coquettishly thin coos, or an earthy twang. She’s an engaging narrator with crisp, conversational elocution— she bites into consonants with relish and is comfortable indulging in ooey-gooey vibrato if the mood is right. Though she’s taken a more dominant role in her music-making, edging Blake Sennett out of the Rilo Kiley spotlight and delivering two solo records, she works best when bolstered by a collaborator.”

“Luckily, then, Lewis has returned to collaboration on I’m Having Fun Now, an album made with her boyfriend and folk troubadour Jonathan Rice, and she seems determined to do exactly what its title suggests. She sounds loose and carefree singing in googly-eyed harmony with Rice on nearly every track, as the two play almost every instrument themselves. The up-tempo numbers are sunny and exuberant despite their often-dark subject matter. (“Big Wave”, for example, deals explicitly with the current economic crisis, but it bounces along effervescently.) Part of the credit can go to Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis for his vivid, glossy production, but most of it belongs to Lewis and Rice, who simply sound happy to be singing together. On the album’s best songs (the breezy “Scissor Runner”, mellow gold sing-along “Just Like Zeus”), they keep the instrumental arrangements simple and the rhythms gentle-but-energized to make room for their huge, candy-coated harmonies.”

— Pitchfork album review of Jenny and Johnny: I’m Having Fun Now

Music Monday

My brother Matt introduced me to this little folk group three weeks ago called “The Head And The Heart”. They played a live show at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop during SXSW. So I first heard a recording of their live show online. It wasn’t too much longer that we got the entire album.

Enjoy™

More About The Head And The Heart

“The Head and the Heart are a 6 piece ensemble composed of transplants all living here in Seattle. Their album contains 9 fully realized arrangements with amazingly rich production. I was literally stunned by the quality of the recordings. Describing the sound must begin with the dancing Beetles-inspired piano that leads the way into most every song followed by textured harmonies of voice and violin weaving through the open spaces like Boston ivy, all backed by solid but subtle rhythm and a guitar that might drip with twang as in “Couer D’Alane” or jangle along as in “Sounds like Hallelujah”. The whole package is bundled tight and under the shadow of the recent folk-revival movement it could be classified as such but I’d be more inclined to place it in a broader space of “Timeless Americana”. (even WITH the Beatles’ influence).”

— Seattle Subsonic album review of The Head and the Heart

Music Monday

The week before Jackson was born Heather and I ate at a Panda Express. I got a fortune cookie that read:

“You’re headed in the right direction.”

I’m still carrying it with me in my wallet to this day. This song reminds me of that fortune, that “LIFE GOES ON… You’ve got more than money and sense, my friend you’ve got heart and you’re going your own way! What you don’t have now will come back again. You’ve got heart and you’re going your own way!”

Let this be your anthem of the week! Enjoy™

More About Noah and the Whale

“At its best, and on lead single “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.”, Fink aims for a kind of Tom Petty story-song vibe, with broadly painted characters (“she’s a rock and roll survivor with pendulum hips”) and a classic Americana sense of the possibility in the great wide open, even one littered with cautionary tales. The first half of the album is written almost entirely in third person narratives, and it begins to give the album the feel of a world looked at not through its protagonist’s eyes but through a camera’s lens. This trick holds up enough so that when the album shifts to first person on the flipside, it feels like Fink is inhabiting roles rather than just spilling his own guts.”

— Pitchfork album review of Last Night on Earth

Music Monday

Cause when the sun always shines down on your shoes could be a blue blue christmas for you.

This song does a wonderful job reminding me that life isn’t supposed to be full of sunny days. Rather those rocks we encounter while sailing through our ocean of life are there for our benefit. They help mold us into the people we should want to become.

More About Noah and the Whale

“Those early Wes Anderson flicks are still pretty huge for me, even as a divided pop culture has helped big-budget schlock conquer actual film snobs. Anderson and many effective fey indie-poppers have real similarities: obsessive detail, pitch-perfect verbiage, outlandish characters, bookish humor, Harold and Maude-retro aesthetic, supersized cult followings. No surprise, then that Noah and the Whale take their name from director Noah Baumbach and his Anderson-produced The Squid and the Whale.”

— Pitchfork album review of Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down

Music Monday

“All my life I’ve been searching for something…”

I’m dedicating this song to all my friends. I’d like to take this time to thank all of y’all. I appreciate all y’all do for me. All your love and support is greatly needed and appreciated.

Enjoy™

More About Band of Skulls

“The album itself is a collage of three or four different styles, due to the fact that all three members of the band are primary songwriters. Having formed the band mere months before recording, the album presents a collection of mismatched songs brought to the table by three members who all wanted their voices to be heard. While the album can be frustrating to listen to due to the lack of congruence, the good news is there are no bad songs on this album.”

“Never judge a book by its cover, or in this case, a band by its name. Britain’s Band of Skulls are not a bunch of death-metal skeleton-heads. They are actually a frayed-round-the-edges rock trio hailing from Southampton, England. Their debut album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, is as jumbled up and eclectic as their name. Recorded in Radiohead’s Courtyard Studios and produced by Ian Davenport (Supergrass, Badly Drawn Boy), BDBFH could very easily be confused with another one of Jack White’s side projects. Singer-guitarist Russell Marsden echoes White in both his vocal delivery and in his guitar-playing . Marsden is joined on lead vocals by Emma Richardson, whose smoky voice resembles Alison Mosshart’s (The Kills as well as Jack White’s new band, The Dead Weather). Drummer Matt Hayward’s influences may come genetically - his Dad was in a band who supported the Rolling Stones and had the same manager as the Troggs.”

— Album review of Baby Darling Doll Face Honey

Music Monday

Monsters of Folk is a quartet made up of Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Matt Ward, and Saddle Creek auteur Mike Mogis. This song reminds me of my Dad. In fact I think if he was still alive, I think he’d enjoy this song, and maybe even this entire album. So even though Monday is almost over, I still want to end your day with a song.

Enjoy™

More About Monsters of Folk

“In many ways, Monsters of Folk feels like a summary statement for the inconsistent careers of the musicians behind it. Like the combined output of all four, these 15 tracks— a mix of highs and lows, stylistic risks and reservations, songs that sound either exactly or nothing like the past of the person singing it— are as frequently frustrating as they are satisfying. An album about God and love, neighbors and friends, it’s the sort of lived-in record that too often feels too comfortable to compel.”

— Pitchfork album review of Monsters of Folk