panda bear: last night @ the jetty

this shit is pure audible bliss. panda is doing a great job of reminding me why he's one of my all time favorite modern musicians. this is the album version of last night at the jetty. april 12, get excited!

didn't i, didn't i,
didn't i have a good time?
i know i, i know i,
i know i had a real time.

now who could say i'm not just as i was?
no one could deny my mind.


Panda Bear - Last Night At The Jetty

dum dum girls: he gets me high

he get's me high, she turns me on.

Yann Tiersen: A True Virtuoso

I love fancy dinners. I don’t even need to eat with anyone, I will literally cook myself a meal, turn off the lights and light a candle pretty much a few days a week. The best part is, and what made Yann Tierson so special, is that after the food is cooked I queue up the soundtracks to “Good-bye Lenin” and “Amelie” and proceed to enjoy myself just a bit too much.

            With the release of his newest album “Dust Lane,” Tiersen embarked on his tour of these great United States. This last Saturday, with a very small turnout due to the unfamiliarity with the artist here in the U.S. (and a high ticket price couldn’t have helped), Yann Tiersen played New Orleans nightclub and venue Republic. It’s a shame not too many people knew who he was though, because this certainly proved to be a very special evening.

            S. Carey, supporting vocalist and drummer for Bon Iver opened the show. Though he played a very ambient, cooled set, the crowd really seemed to enjoy it. And just as I was beginning to zone out S. Carey's band mate stands and plays an epic floor tom and keys combo that brought the energy back up quickly. While it held my attention temporarily, after twenty-five minutes I got bored and anxious for Tiersen to start.

            Tiersen opened his set with a slow mandolin intro that he looped twice before the rest of the band came in with guitar, bass, drums, and keys. Eventually the phrase “Dust Lane,” the name of his newest album, echoed through the speakers and the set truly started. Tiersen played a mix of music new and old. I had hoped to hear mostly his music that makes me feel like I’m driving through the European countryside—his soundtracks, that is, which is mostly solo stuff—but his band joined him for nearly all the songs. In his fourth song “Kala” I got that feel as soon as two members of the band picked up melodicas that, if you go by the crowd’s reaction, was the best of the night. As he moved into “Amy” the sounds of his newest album began to emerge and the show took an interesting turn. I began to feel like I was watching—wait for it—Radiohead. Five of the six members harmonized vocally, and then abruptly paused to allow the keyboardist a chance to show off his Thom Yorke impression.

            Tiersen switched instruments with ease. At one point he played a violin solo so beautiful no one dared to speak. Well, expect for this one guy in the back who clearly thought he was at a club night and started screaming calling a girl a bitch after she didn’t agree that the music was “gay.” For those of us in the back, it was a strange, but funny, addition to the solo. Tiersen finished his set strongly with his hit “Fuck Me” off the newest album, which included him playing a twelve-string guitar. Tiersen ended the show with a three-song encore concluding with the track “Amelie.” I left The Republic glowing.

           Republic has definitely gone through some sort of mid-life crisis, and I like it. The venue has become home to many great shows.  A short list includes Designer Drugs, Glasgow, MEN, Cut Copy with Holy Ghost, Menomena, and Class Actress as well as others. Be sure to check out their site at http://www.republicnola.com/ and get your tickets to all these great shows soon.

Article by Aaron Saltzman

Photos by Joshua Brasted

For more pictures from the show,

check out Joshua's Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brasted/

The Strokes return: "Under Cover of Darkness"

The hype and expectations building up to the first Strokes album since 2006 are pretty ridiculous. Angles is due out on March 22 via RCA. Today, the band released the first single from the record. It's called "Under Cover of Darkness," and it sounds like The Strokes we all know and love. It's great to have them back.

Stream the song here:

Download the song here (Available only for the next 2 days)

New Okkervil River

Catchy brood-folk masters Okkervil River will release their sixth album, I Am Very Far, on May 10. The Austin, Texas outfit has a knack for crafting great songs with an unmistakeable lyrical wit and a certain hushed drama in the instrumentation. "Mermaid," the embedded song below, comes from a 12" single that they put out today. The track is a b-side to the album itself, but should still offer an idea of what the album will sound like.

Also, check out this video from a few weeks ago of the band playing the album track, "Wake and Be Fine," on Jimmy Fallon. Performing with Okkervil River are The Roots and A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers.

If you don't know about Nicolas Jaar... you should.

Nicolas Jaar is only 21 years old, but he's already had quite the life. Much of his childhood was spent in Chile, but his formative years were spent in NY, where he entered the world of electronic music and released his first record before he completed high school, on the renowned Wolf + Lamb label no less. These days, he's actually pursuing a college degree at Brown, but he still finds the time to DJ around the globe, produce, and run his own imprint, Clown and Sunset. Next week, Jaar will be releasing his full-length debut, Space Is Only Noise, so we figured it would be a fine time to enlist him for the XLR8R podcast series. His exclusive mix does not disappoint, as it's heavy on his own pensive, jazz- and soul-tinged productions, including several unreleased songs and remixes. Jaar is ostensibly a house artist, but this mix explores different moods, tempos, styles, and eras; it even manages to squeeze in tracks from Bob Dylan and Pharoah Sanders without losing the plot. We imagine that we'll be hearing lots more from Jaar in the years to come, but the man already appears to be operating at the top of his game.

01) Bob Dylan "Love Sick" (Sony)
02) Nicolas Jaar "What My Last Girl Put Me Through"
03) Wendy Kane "After Laughter Comes Tears (Nicolas Jaar Edit)"
04) Nicolas Jaar "Materials (Nico's Bluewave Edit)"
05) The Enticers "Thief (Live Set Edit)"
06) Pharoah Sanders "Meeting John Coltrane"
07) Nicolas Jaar "Variations" (Circus Company)
08) Nicolas Jaar "Hage Chahine (feat. Will Epstein)" (Wolf+ Lamb)
09) Nicolas Jaar "Dubliners" (Clown & Sunset)
10) Nicolas Jaar "Colomb" (Circus Company)
11) Nicolas Jaar "Avalanche (Tribute to Leonard Cohen)"
12) Nicolas Jaar "Russian Dolls" (Clown & Sunset)
13) Nicolas Jaar "Encore"

Download the podcast here!


**This article and photo was taken directly from http://www.xlr8r.com. They are a great musical resource, so be sure to check them out.

Lots of love,
Aaron

XX

good.morning.jams.

These are both incredible. Jamie Welch aka Seams, recorded his most recent EP "Tourists" while working and living in Berlin. Beyond that I know little information about this new producer. I got this bit of info from fellow music blog "hot cakes."

• It was inspired by the outdoor living of the city in the summer, and how much music was intrinsically linked to daily life. I spent much of my time in Berlin recording the sounds of the city with a tape recorder and my phone, and based each track on these recordings, attempting to recreate the feeling of being there.

While I'm not the first to say it, his sound reminds me a lot of Four Tet and Pantha Du Prince. Make sure to play them on a good sound system (naturally). Have a lovely lovely day.

Aaron


Nachtmusik by seams

Hung Markets by seams

XXX