So I was doing sound for a concert a short while back that turned out to be a nice little surprise. You know those concerts you go to where you end up liking the opener way better than the headliner. Well, I was lucky enough to have one of those recently. Though L.A. locals, The Rescues, put on a decent show, my hat goes off to openers Lady Danville. The three piece, consisting of a piano, cajon, guitar and three part harmonies, nailed it. Their take on pop folk was refreshingly smooth and quite The Dodos-esque. I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys took off by the end of the year. They are still unsigned and only have one self-titled, five song EP out right now, but some shows with Anberlin and Jack’s Mannequin later in the year should give them a nice boost. Plus, they are super chill and some of the easiest guys to do sound for, big plus.
*Quick note, I’ll be switching the nomenclature of these to the date of the releases that week (Tuesdays). Somehow this coincided with 4.20, tee hee.
Erin McKeown has two of her songs for download right now. One really good one, “Minneapolis,” and an okay live version of her song “Cosmopolitan.” She’s like a little more poppy and more folksy Ingrid Michaelson.
Matthew Mayfield (on tour with NeedtoBreathe) has one of his, “Fire Escape,” for free to download right now. I’m pretty sure Matt Nathanson’s musical embryonic cell split and this guy came out. Seriously, they are completely interchangeable, so if you like Matt…
How long have you been a fan of José González? You know the Swedish guy with most Swedish of all names? Oh, only since 2008′s In Our Nature. Then you probably haven’t heard of his previous band Junip. Well, they are coming out with a new record this year and just put up a single, “Rope an Summit,” free to download if you join their mailing list. Check it out. It is José + a full band.
Single of the Week: “If I Die Young” – The Band Perry (3.9) If I haven’t already told you, I’m not a huge fan of country. It’s kind of hard for me to get in to any of it. Every once in a while, though, I find a really happy or ridiculous one that sucks me into country’s dark void. This is one of them. Maybe not the most innovate music (I’m fairly certain you can sing T. Swift’s “Should’ve Said No” over this song perfectly), but the lyrics are my muse.
Discover Download: “Odessa” – Caribou (3.8) You know you are cool when you can name your song something from either ancient Greek or Roman literature. You are even cooler if you can name your band after Canadian wildlife. Basically, sounds like an electronic version of a King of Convenience song. Good enough for me.
Video of the Week: “The Getaway” – Athlete (3.5) An above average (just barely) video to a fairly decent song. It sounds like an O.A.R. single with Chasen’s lead singer as frontman. Nothing brilliant, but something I’ll most likely be keeping in my library.
Canción de la Semana: “La Pastillita” – Chino & Nacho (2.1) Translated this means “The Pastillita,” seriously I tried two different websites and this is all I got. Anyways, typical Reggaeton. I found myself yelling “uh!” and “sí” a lot.
The title may be misleading because this has much more to do with Australia than the near East, but hang with me for a second.
So, I was down under a few weeks ago and was pleased to find the average Aussie’s taste in music superior to that of our own. During a party I found myself listening to Miike Snow and Passion Pit instead of Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha. It nearly brought me to tears. Along my trek (Dare I call it a walkabout?), I met a few music enthusiasts, one of whom I’m still trading suggestions with. We’ve gone through a handful of artists, my favorite of whom has been The Middle East. Now you see the title wasn’t all for naught.
The Middle East is a nice folksy band with a little perkier tempo than most. They just played at Coachella (which I despise for the record), so I assume they are picking up steam. They’re currently working on some new stuff which should come out soon, but for a temporary sample check out this music video.
So I was doing sound for a concert a short while back that turned out to be a nice little surprise. You know those concerts you go to where you end up liking the opener way better than the headliner. Well, I was lucky enough to have one of those recently. Though L.A. locals, The Rescues, put on a decent show, my hat goes off to openers Lady Danville. The three piece, consisting of a piano, cajon, guitar and three part harmonies, nailed it. Their take on pop folk was refreshingly smooth and quite The Dodos-esque. I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys took off by the end of the year. They are still unsigned and only have one self-titled, five song EP out right now, but some shows with Anberlin and Jack’s Mannequin later in the year should give them a nice boost. Plus, they are super chill and some of the easiest guys to do sound for, big plus.
