What would you get if you mixed American Psycho
The Mountain Goats are fronted by singer/songwriter John Darnielle.
So I ventured downtown a couple of weeks ago for a concert by an indie rock band I really hadn’t heard much about before. That’s partly because I just don’t do enough indie tunes or live concerts to get around. On a friend’s enthusiastic recommendation, I got tickets to see the Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats are fronted by John Darnielle, who in the past actually performed as a literally-solo act, acoustically and still under the plural Mountain Goats name. He did play solo for a few songs in the middle of the concert. He’s known as one of the truly great indie songwriters and I can say that, going in with no background of listening to the band, I was impressed with the concise, interesting story-telling accomplished by the songs.
Click through for more. Read more…
Just downloaded my tickets for two upcoming concerts that should rock it all out.
First, on January 19, I’m going to see a redux of the Fitz and the Tantrums concert that blew me away last year (review here). This time they’re playing the Bowery Ballroom for the steal price of $18 a seat, general admission. Tickets here.
Just a week later, I’ve bought my seats for White Lies on the secondary market. The show has been sold out for a bit, so it remains to be seen what price the seats will bear, but I got them for about $30 a pop, general admission. They’re playing the Highline Ballroom on January 27. Tickets here.
If you don’t yet own them, I highly recommend Fitz‘ album Pickin’ Up The Pieces
If you have a chance to see them, definitely take it.
This past Saturday some friends and I dropped on down to Mercury Lounge on East Houston in Manhattan for an early show by Fitz & the Tantrums. The band, fronted by Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs has been burning up my iPod of late and was featured in a player post linked here.
Needless to say, I knew I was going to love the music, but I was bringing along two newbies as well. The sound is relatively unique and hasn’t gone mainstream yet. It is somewhat of a revisit to 50s soul music, but with a decidedly modern hipster vibe. While I normally want to punch most things hipster, that’s not the case for Fitz & the Tantrums.
The show was sold out, but the venue was not so crowded as to make the concert uncomfortable or getting drinks impossible. In fact, the only complaint could be some issues with the bass levels and our choosing to stand too close a bank of speakers. It took a good day for my right ear to clear up fully.
All in all, the show was outstanding and the crowd was lively. The band played near studio quality tunes, true to the CD and the only real hiccup is when Scaggs fell off the stage into the crowd. After getting up with little more than her pride hurt, she claimed her tussle with gravity was a failed stage dive with nobody catching. As a note, I’m not sure being found unworthy in a trust fall is any less embarrassing than catching an edge of the stage.
All in all, I could not recommend the show more highly. This is an opportunity to catch a rising artist before they hit it big.
Some additional thoughts and videos from the performance after the jump. Read more…
I’ve been jamming of late to a new band that a buddy turned me on to. The sound is just epic, with an older, soulful vibe to it. To put it best, it’s the type of tunes that makes you feel happy and somewhat inspired to listen to.
If you like it, head on over to Amazon and download the full CD Pickin’ Up The Pieces
or the five-song EP Songs for a Break Up, Vol.1.
They played Official Trailer #2 for Tron Legacy at the Inception IMAX showing last weekend. It got me even more jazzed than the first; also, any movie with Olivia Wilde is gonna be worth seeing in IMAX.
Over at GeekTyrant, they’ve posted a player for six tracks by Daft Punk for the upcoming Tron Legacy soundtrack. I’ve embedded the tune from the first trailer. It’s got a great vibe to it. Along with the Sunshine soundtrack, I do believe I’ll be buying that one.
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A new feature I’m going to hopefully get going on the site is linking a couple of lectures from TED that I find worthwhile watching. Last week, I featured a few pieces on Science, Free-thinking and Religion. This week is significantly more light-hearted.
We lead it off with a brilliant nine-minute romp by poet John G. Rives, of Def Poetry Jam fame. His TED2007 lecture, named 4 a.m., is a genius, witty and play-along journey through references to and the interconnectedness of that early morning hour. March 2007, Monterey, CA.
More entertaining talks, after the jump. Read more…
I’ve popped The Editors to the top of my iPod playlists again this past week after burying them for a while. Their sound is, not surprisingly, UK indie rock. The below songs, and the album as a whole (The Back Room, from which Munich and All Sparks come), are awesome. Give a listen.
Munich
More tunes, after the jump. Read more…
Just stumbled upon these guys this Monday. Been listening to it quite a bit and I like. First up is “Beaches and Friends”, a collaboration with Database (there are a ton of remixes of this out there, I picked the Hey Champ one to link). After the jump are the Sniper Twins produced videos for “Up All Night” and “Broken Heart”.
Beaches and Friends (Hey Champ Remix)
Click through for the rest Read more…
Jack Peñate has been on my playlist a lot of late. Especially late at work. It’s great background music and definitely doesn’t take too much of my focus. I’ve linked some of his stuff before. Below is Tonight’s Today.
