Testing MP3 widget
Just testing out this MP3 widget from esnips.com.
The song playing is Datarock’s “Fa Fa Fa”. Which sounds eerily familiar…hmmmm.
Click on Track Details to download song.
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Work in progress
Over the next few days / weeks, I will be working on the look and feel of this here music blog. With the new release of WordPress 2.2 I thought it made sense to rethink and retool the template.
For now, the look is generic but the news is still the same…good music a plenty is out there for you to hear. Also, with the upload of the new Wordpress some of my old plugins do not work like my streaming audio flash player. I will be working on cleaning up the old links that appear as html code in the posts and working to upload a new audio streamer. The streamer that Pitchfork uses, IMEEM, is working out so far. Let me know what you think.
The National Pics
I got myself as close as possible to capture a couple good shots and I think I did a decent job. I won’t elaborate too much on the show as I’ve already expressed how I feel about The National in the previous post.
Few highlights – “Murder Me Rachel” off of Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
And “Mr. November” off of Alligator were two highlights from previous albums. The stand out song for me from The Boxer was “Slow Show”, which was in honor of some guy in the crowd that I believe is either writing a book for them or gave them a book. Not exactly sure.
As for the crowd, with 18+ you’re always going to get some annoying screaming and people singing louder then they should be during the versus but nothing could take away from The National’s ability to overpower our senses. They know how to finish every song. It seemed like each song climbed as high as it could go and then it was over. There was no coming down they just left us up there and hit us back again with another climatic tune.
I’m out of here for the weekend so hope every has a good one and we’ll see you next week.
It’s National week in Boston
That means it’s The National showcase day on the square.
They play tonight and tomorrow at The Middle East Downstairs. Both shows are sold out.
Links of Interest:
Download: “Fake Empire” – From their recent release, The Boxer
Purchase The Boxer – (U.S.) (U.K.)
Official Site: www.americanmary.com
Myspace: myspace.com/thenational
I was introduced to The National like a lot of music fans two years ago when their album, Alligator, came out of the wood work and squeezed passed the critically acclaimed and highly publicized Sufjan Stevens album, Illinoise, and made it to the top of many ‘Best of’ lists.
There is an immediate appeal to The National I think for almost everyone I know. There is something about the simple melodies but complex persona that intrigues most fans of music. They seem to wrap up a lot of sound in to a tight package. They’re never really too risky or experimental. Some may even argue that their most recent album, The Boxer, isn’t risky enough.
But maybe not being risky is risky. There are many bands, and I mean many, that I think try too hard to be different or unique. It’s probably due to an overbearing front runner who feels his artistic ability is above and beyond the norm. And his bandmates are like sheep and go along because, hey, “we’re in a rock band man and all we care about is drugs, sex, and rock and roll”.
The National come from a different breed then most young indie rockers. They’re all in their 30’s. They all held or rather still hold regular day jobs and don’t seem to prescribe to the whole rock ethic. Things maybe changing for some of the members as they slowly but surely make their way out of the day job and in to the spotlight but in the end, their music has stayed consistent.
In their earlier work (self-titled album The National and Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers), the vocals have a bit more snap to them. The pop anthems are worn a bit more on their sleeve versus the actual fabric. The songs themselves have all seemed to skate along the same line. Matt Berninger writes from an outsiders point of view and mixes the every day man’s life with the surreal life. This combined with their remarkable ability to write catchy pop anthems is what makes everyone I know say, “Hey, these guys are really good”.
We all seem to relate to this group. Whether you’re reaching the parenthood years or fresh out of college, The National has a song for you.
The Boxer has been resonating with me for the past two weeks. While their music has stayed consistent over the years, The Boxer has taken a bit of a step forward even though it may seem as if they are taking a step backwards by toning down the volume. It’s the subtle nuances of each track that make this album special.
Having the show at The Middle East is just about as perfect as it gets. The National are an intimate band and the fact that my apartment is literally around the corner and the Middle East itself is a tight little venue with low ceilings, tonights show has intimacy written all over it.
And that will just about do it…
As one of the best concert line ups to hit this side of the equator.
You heard it here, probably the 8th time but every time it still sounds good – LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire are heading out on tour together. Yup, it’s not just that one show for lucky Colorado fans out at Red Rocks on September 17th, which is still going to be one heck of a show, it now looks like the indie slam bam team are scheduling a full fall tour together.
The only other tour date besides Red Rocks announced is the Hollywood Bowl on September 20th as reported by Pitchfork.
Keep your eye balls peeled to media outlets like me…. I mean like Pitchfork and DFA’s home page, myspace and Merge Reccords and Arcade Fire’s website / myspace and what ever else you can think of that should be on top of the announcement. Because once these bad boys are announced and on sale and it’s already been 5 minutes since they went on sale and you’re just finding this out, you may as well forget that the tour even exists.
LCD Soundsystem stream – “All My Friends” (Download at Music Refinery)
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Arcade Fire Stream – “My Body is a Cage” (Download)
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Back to back – Justice Remix
Back to back Justice posts… sounds good to me.
This post is related to the plethora of Justice remixes that are available through the Vice Records MP3 blog.
The feature mix for this post:
Download: Madonna and Britney Spears “Me Against the Music”.
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The song begins and ends with the heavy breathing Britney to set the obvious sexual mode. It doesn’t matter if Britney and Madonna are singing about a night out at the club, the song is going to have sex written all over it. Combined with the slick yet jittery production of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, aka Justice, this song is a perfect fit for those late night dance parties that I know you all are going to rock to celebrate the official first weekend of summer. Make sure to include this track along with just about any other track that has the magic touch of this Parisian duo.
In case you haven’t heard, Justice recently released their debut album on us. With a couple tracks already in the top of the UK charts, their album, appropriately untitled but for article purposes, Cross is already getting heavy play in clubs across the country.
Purchase Cross – (U.S.) (U.K.)
Justice Myspace – myspace.com/etjusticepourtous
Ed Banger Records – myspace.com/edbangerrecords
Justice to the rescue
Holy smokes! This is what file sharing is all about. Just take a look at the following tracklist for this Justice mix:
Earth Wind And Fire “In The Stone”
Janet Jackson “What Have You Done For Me Lately”
Prince “Earthquake”
Dmx Crew “Unknown”
Daft Punk “Musique”
Busy P “Rainbow Man”
France Gall “Musique”
Justice “Valentine”
Alan Braxe ‘In Love With You’
M83 ‘Run Into Flowers (Jackson Remix)’
Les Rythmes Digitales ‘Sometimes’
I Robot ‘Spacer Frau (Boys Noize Remix)’
Hall And Oates ‘Private Eyes’
Chromeo ‘Tenderoni’
Tepr ‘Minuit Jacuzzi (Data Remix)
Chic ‘Everybody Dance’
Midnight Juggernauts ‘Shadows’
Goose ‘Bring It On’
The Proxy ‘Destroy’
Zongamin ‘Double Dostiev’
Zombie Nation ‘Tape Me’
Boule Noire ‘Super Lady’
Chemical Brothers ‘It Doesn’t Matter’
Tc Crew ‘Unknown’
Surkin ‘Unknown’
Dj Mehdi ‘Lucky Boy (Surkin Remix)’
Vamp ‘Outlander’
Fields ‘Unknown (Sebastian Remix)’
Feadz ‘Sekstyle’
Jamelia ‘Something About You (Mr Oizo Remix)’
Jesse Velez ‘Fire’
Justice ‘D.A.N.C.E’.(Live Version)
Surkin ‘Radio Fireworks’
Soundhack ‘Freakin’
Justice ‘Stress’
Zzt ‘Lower States’
Justice ‘Stress’
Scenario Rock ‘Both Gotta Move On’
Vanessa Paradis ‘Be My Baby’
The Ronettes ‘Be My Baby’
Breakbot ‘Happy Rabbit’
Jacques Dutronc ‘Les Cactus’
Justice ‘Dvno’
Kavinsky ‘Testarossa Autodrive’
LFO ‘Freak’
Mr Oizo ‘Lotus Suite Koln’
Autorepeat ‘Most Keys Are Auto Repeat’ (Soundhack)
Midnight Juggernauts ‘Into The Galaxy’
Buggles ‘Elstree’
Das Pop ‘Underground’
Gilbert O Sullivan ‘Alone Again (Naturally)’
Human League ‘Things That Dreams Are Made Of’
Savas Pascalidis ‘Defend It’
Rainbow Brothers ‘Unknown’
Chromeo ‘Ah Oui Comme Ca’
Leonard De Leonard ‘Leonizer’
Ian Pooley ‘Chord Memory –(Daft Punk Mix)’
Human League ‘Don’t You Want Me’
The Prodigy ‘Girls’
Klaxons ‘Gravity’s Rainbow (Soulwax Remix)’
Paraone ‘Liege’
Daniel Balavoine ‘Vivre Ou Survivre’
Miss Kittin ‘Requiem For A Hit (Gegm Remix)’
Mr Oizo ‘Stunt’
Handycap ‘Murphy’
The Rave ‘Mother’
Fancy ‘Inside Of You’
Syreeta Wright ‘Sweet As Candy’
Modest Mussorgsky ‘Night On A Bald Mountain’
Joni Mitchell ‘California’
Now, download this 2 hour long beast – Download
(Courtesy of Discobelle.net, and, farther down the line, courtesy of sasharetroemporium.)
Free Dinosaur Jr. Show – WERS
Some of you may be familiar with the first after made-for indie rocker car, the Yaris. In an effort to promote the new car, they are joining up with independent radio stations to put on free rock shows at Urban Outfitters. They are calling it, Free YR Radio.
Tonight in Boston the beloved Amherst, MA based indie rockers, Dinosaur Jr., are playing a free show at the Urban Outfitters in Harvard Sq. today at 8 pm.
The bands will get together at the end of their shows and talk to Yaris about how they would customize their car. They are also giving Yarises to the radio stations as a way to build funds from their audience.
Purchase new Dinosaur Jr. album, Beyond – Amazon
Download – “Almost Ready”
Free YR Radio invite to tonights show
Behind the Scenes – “All My Friends”
This behind the scenes footage of the LCD video, “All My Friends”, is pretty cool if you’re in to learning about the production behind one-take videos. Or perhaps you just want to see James Murphy soaking wet in a suite and face paint.
Click here to view Previous post with “All My Friends” Video
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga sneak peak
Are you excited yet? You should be. And to help elevate your excitement you can stream tracks from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoons forthcoming album, on June 15th at Merges’ GaGaGaGa Juke box site – www.merge.com/gagagagajuke
Leading up to the entire album stream they will be adding a new song to listen to.
Pick up “The Underdog” track (Courtesy of Stereogum)
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About Editor
Name: Luke "Kip" Owen
Location: Boston, MA
Contact: kippy[AT]hip2besquare[DOT]net
Twitter: twitter.com/kipdog
Youtube: youtube.com/kipdog
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