South Carolina by way of Seattle…by way of South Carolina (confusing, I know) rockers Band of Horses released a video today in support of their upcoming full-length Infinite Arms, which drops on May 18th via Fat Possum/Columbia Records. The track is called “Compliments” and as of now I’m having a hard time deciding what I think of it. It isn’t bad by any means, but it’s a much bigger sound than their previous efforts and some of the charm found in Cease to Begin and especially their brilliant debut Everything All the Time seems to be sacrificed. The verse definitely does it for me, but the chorus kind of takes me by surprise as it comes across much more arena rock and almost cheezy. Maybe not a bad thing, but I’m still digesting. Anyhoo, judge for yourself below. There’s no doubt it’s a catchy listen, and a great teaser for the upcoming release. May is going to be an amazing month for new releases, and this one is still near the top of my most anticipated.
So, as I’m going through my usual procrastination routine at work today (don’t tell my boss), I click over to Funny or Die only to see a music video from The Avett Brothers featured on the front page. It’s not exactly the place I expected to find an Avett Bros video, but it was a pretty good surprise. Check out the video below and give it a couple minutes for the band to appear and perform “Slight Figure of Speech” from their latest release and major label debut I and Love and You. It’s one of the better albums of the year, and will most assuredly be Paste Magazine’s pick for the best album of 2009. They have been drooling over it for a while now and even named it their #9 album of the decade (!), which is maybe definitely a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless, enjoy the video below…it’s well worth the 6 minutes.
Earlier this week, I’m checking my e-mail when I see this little nugget pop up in my inbox:
Hello out There,
My name is Alec Ounsworth. I have completed a project called FLASHY PYTHON: SKIN AND BONES. You can listen to the album (and buy it if you feel so inclined)here.
As you may or may not know, and I suppose the reason I’m writing you directly, another project that I have been working on for several years now is called CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH. This is not that and that is this nor is it the other (the other often tragically confused with him or her) . . .
FLASHY PYTHONwas conjured up and brought forth absolutely independently. It was completed recently and released even more recently to no acclaim nor discredit as no “news sources” were informed of its completion.
The idea is to present the project purely (while we still can) and let the individual make up his or her own mind which, as it seems to me, is perhaps the primary benefit in the otherwise alienating age of modern technology and communication.
I also have another album coming out on October 20th on Anti Records called Mo Beauty. You can hear a track from it over atstereogum. That is not this either.
That made me feel special. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I got this e-mail since I have never signed up for a CYHSY e-mail list or anything like that. I have both the self-titled release as well as the underratedSome Loud Thunder, but didn’t buy them directly from the band or anything. My guess is that I had to give my e-mail address a while back when I downloaded a demo of a new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah song that they played on Jimmy Fallon, but I really can’t remember…we’ll go with that. Whatever the case, this was a pretty cool way to announce the release of an album. You can click all the links provided in the e-mail above if you want to go stream the album. I’ll go ahead and say, if you haven’t heard any Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, you might want to prepare yourself for Alec’s very unique voice…it isn’t for everybody. I’ve listed to the stream a couple times and while I guess it’s nice to hear something new from Ounsworth, Skin and Bones certainly isn’t up to CYHSY par, but then again I doubt Alec will ever return to the level of the CYHSY debut.
I’ve already mentioned the Brooklyn trio here, here, and here throughout A Round of Sound’s short history, but I just feel it necessary to bring up their amazing album Hospice whenever I get a chance. And well, another opportunity has presented itself as their live show from the August 21st Hospice re-release concert has been made available to download in its entirety. The show can be downloaded here, but I of course suggest picking up the LP which after the Frenchkiss re-release is finally starting garner the praise it deserves. It may be backwards to say this, but the live show doesn’t do the album justice…seriously.
Speaking of praise, Pitchfork finally got around to reviewing it and honored it with their Best New Music tag and recommended it on their ABC World News Webcast feature here. Oh, and finally, you can catch their first video supporting the album which is of “Two”, one of the best songs of the year. Phew! Ok, I promise no more Antlers news for a while…maybe
Garret Kelly and Taylor Shaw (far left and 2nd from left, respectively) have performed their last WSO show.
This time last year Wild Sweet Orange was busy preparing for the release of their long awaited debut full-length, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy, by performing a CD release show in their hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Well, last night, the four piece performed what they called their “last Wild Sweet Orange show of sorts” at Workplay Theater in front of those very same hometown fans. Over the weekend, on their myspace blog, WSO announced that longtime members Garret Kelly and Taylor Shaw would be departing the band and Tuesday night’s show would be their last, leaving Preston Lovinggood and Chip Kilpatrick to carry on the Wild Sweet Orange banner. So while this doesn’t mean the end of Wild Sweet Orange per se, it is the end of an era and at this point Preston and Chip are being pretty ambiguous as to how the band will progress from here on out. But, I think it’s safe to say that a change in style is a very real possibility and many of their songs through the years may very well have been retired at last night’s concert.
Over at al.com, you can find uploaded videos from last night’s show so you can pretty much catch the whole thing including the final song complete with loads of hipster kids taking the stage to sing along. YAY for teen angst! But boo for the end of an era…
There’s a couple nice little cheap music promotions going on around the internet that I wanted to pass along incase anyone has missed out.
First of all, as you’ve most likely heard, Paste Magazine is having a bit of a financial struggle with the current recession so they’ve been running a Save Paste Campaign hoping to get some donations to help cover the lack of advertiser support. A $25 dollar donation gets you over 100 rare tracks from bands such as The Decemberists, Neko Case, She & Him, Of Montreal, and The Avett Brothers to name a few. Paste is one of the coolest, most well put together mags out there covering more than just music such as movies, books, and really anything cultural significant in the arts. Click here to check out the promotion.
This other promotion isn’t very well known but it is still pretty dang cool none the less. Polyvinyl needs to clear some space so they can save over 10,000 records from getting trashed when a few of their warehouses are forced to close down. They’d like to move those records back to their office but they have to move some of their other stock out that they currently have sitting around the office. So, depending on how much you donate, they’ll give you some pretty cool CDs/DVDs. Some of the artists include Mates of State, Rainer Maria, Of Montreal, and Architecture in Helsinki. The $50 deal includes 26 CDs and 2 DVDs which is a pretty sweet deal. Heck the $10 deal will get you the Mates of State DVD and a CD each from Rainer Maria & Architecture in Helsinki. But I couldn’t stop there…that $50 deal was too good for me to pass up. Head here to see for yourself.
This isn’t exactly the kind of post I figured I’d use this blog for, but when one of the greatest musical icons EVER dies, I think a post is pretty necessary. First of all, yeah, the guy had a tough adulthood with all sorts of controversies and bizarre moments that to an extent overshadowed his brilliance as a artist and performer, but this is a music blog so that’s what I’m going to talk about…his music. It’s hard to really add any more to what has already been said all over the news about Michael, but I will say I truly think what Michael Jackson did as a performer is underrated, especially by my generation and younger. He was a transcendent superstar, and those don’t come along very often…I can think of maybe 3 or 4 from the last half century…maybe. He was the first big superstar of the MTV generation and took it by the reigns. I still remember as a kid watching MTV do a yearly (or so) countdown of the greatest videos of all time, and “Thriller” was a no brainer to be #1 every single time. Clearly Jackson was immensely talented as an artist, but where he really stood out was as a performer. Off the stage he was a very shy and quiet guy but he felt at home on the stage. Despite all his troubles, there was no denying his passion for his fans and how much he truly appreciated and loved everyone of them. In this day and age, I don’t know if there will every be another artist that puts that much passion and energy into his performances, but anyone that does, has MJ to thank for leading the way. Of course, he was a musical icon dating all the way back to his Jackson 5 days and beyond bringing us some of the greatest and most memorable American tunes ever, not to mention his dance moves which were groundbreaking, but he was also a cultural icon and up until a few days ago, a living legend.
I’m reminded of a Simpsons episode where Michael Jackson guest starred in one of the classic episodes from the series. He didn’t want to receive credit for guest starring so a sound alike received credit, but it was revealed later that it actually was Jackson in the episode. Seventeen years later and of all the different guest stars The Simpsons have featured on the show, I don’t think anyone has or ever will top Jackson’s appearance. Enjoy this song from that episode (note: I believe the sound alike did actually sing this song while Jackson did the spoken word voice-overs in the episode, but you get the gist), and go watch some MJ videos…they shouldn’t be too hard to find.
[“Happy Birthday Lisa” – The Simpsons :: Season 3, Episode 1]
In a bit of the coolest news I’ve heard in a long time, the rumors of a Sunny Day Real Estate reunion were finally confirmed today with the announcement of a tour featuring all the original band members coming this fall! I made mention of a possible SDRE reunion a few weeks ago in my little blurb about Jeremy Enigk’s new album, but this is pretty much the best Enigk/SDRE post I could ever hope to make. It sounds like they’ll be mainly playing songs from Diary and LP2 which each will also be re-issued by Sub Pop Records on September 15th to celebrate the reunion. Whether you call them emo, indie, or whatever, (they’re emo by the way, like it or not) there’s no denying that Diary was one of the most influential and defining albums of the 90’s and is easily one of my favorite albums of all time. Click here for the news article complete with tour dates. You can go ahead and count me in for that October 3rd Atlanta show.
I saw this reported all over the internet today, but The Yellow Stereo was where I first caught wind of Fanfarlo making their fantastic debut album Reservoir plus four bonus tracks available for only a buck on their website until July 4th (it’s also a much better quality than you’ll get on itunes, where it’s also pretty cheap at $6)! Fanfarlo is a London based band that I first heard on the All Songs Considered podcast a few weeks back featuring lesser known bands that listeners suggested for the show. I consider the band kind of a mix between Beirut, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and maybe even a little Arcade Fire. The Beirut comparisons jump out at me right away in “The Walls Are Coming Down” which at first could be mistaken for Beirut’s “Elephant Gun”. But find out for yourself for only $1 by skipping over to their site…you won’t be disappointed.
[“The Walls Are Coming Down” – Reservoir] – Download the album here for just $1 until July 4th!
Back what seems like ages ago, I made mention of the brilliant album Hospice by The Antlers as one of, if not my favorite albums of the year so far. What I didn’t mention is that Hospice was self-released by The Antlers which may have something to do with what little press it has been getting outside of the blog world. Well, news has surfaced that Frenchkiss Records has picked up Hospice and plans to remaster the album before re-releasing it in August. I expect a similar reaction to the release that surrounded Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago when it was re-released on Jagjaguwar last year (without the whole controversy of releasing an album in two different years that screwed around with soooooo many “Best of” lists). So, a nice little week for Frenchkiss, which as I recently noted has an album being released tomorrow that could also be one of the year’s best. Anyway, this is very cool news for The Antlers, and very well deserved. So here’s another track from Hospice as well as the two that I featured back in my original post.
Posted by Hawkins 
A Round of Sound 