Sunday, October 30, 2011
[REVISIT SUNDAY] Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You
Since nothing makes the end of the weekend/start of the week blues feel better (ok, with the exception of new secrets updated on PostSecret) except some good homegrown nostalgia (and you know as indie music enthusiasts we love our nostalgia), I've decided to try something new here.
It may be the new startlingly foreign cold weather in Austin, or the fact that my housemates and I have built the coziest giant sheet fort downstairs, but lately every time I've left my house in the past few days, I've felt this odd string tying me back to it. I've been perpetually wanting to go back home. Which, for the record, is completely unlike me. The solution? Familiar, cozy songs. I've been playing them constantly to keep me going.
So in light of that, I've decided to start Revisit Sundays, in which a cup-of-soup-good song from a few years back will be focused on so we can all get over the letdown of a weekend gone past, and play it throughout Monday to keep from retreating into shelter.
Today's pick is Band of Horses' No One's Gonna Love You, off their 2007 album Cease to Begin. This was filmed live at Amoeba Music in Los Angeles, exactly 4 years ago in October 2007. Check out that beard, yo. Listen, and feel ok.
Modeselektor ft. Thom Yorke - Shipwreck
What's with all these kids having superpowers? Indie music is going all Matilda at the moment. First M83's music video for Midnight City, now we have a brand new music video from German electronic duo Modeselektor. The track features vocals from Thom Yorke and is off their latest album, Monkeytown. Don't know much about these guys, but with sounds and visuals like these, I'll be sure to keep an ear and an eye on them.
Directed by Tony T. Datis.
Monkeytown can be purchased here.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Real Estate - It's Real
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs of the fall. Still a little summer-y sounding, it feels just like October in Austin: golden, warm, whispers of a crispness to come perfectly blended with a sweet drop of summer still saturating the air.
The video is done by 4eyes, an exclusively vimeo-based film production group that is swiftly establishing quite a name for themselves in the independent music sphere. (Check out their sessions with The Antlers and The War on Drugs in particular.) The coverage is great in these productions, the amount of different angles and shots they can get in a 3 or 4 minute song is incredible.
It's Real is from Real Estate's latest album Days, which was released October 18. Purchase Days here, and give a listen to the rest of the tracks that help make up an overall warm and expressive album.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The Eastern Sea - The Snow
Here's a local! This song has become a sweet soundtrack to my going on 3 years living in Austin. I first saw The Eastern Sea perform at the 21st Street Co-Op during one of UT's student radio, KVRX's concert series shows. It was during fall and I was wearing a purple bandana and many were drunk and this song was being blasted yet played so graciously to a room full of enthusiastic people. I don't remember much other than that, but I knew after that I had to find the song.
Interestingly enough, I now live at 21st Street Co-Op. I don't know if the song brought me back to the place, but it certainly is a romantic thought. I just delight in the fact that the two combine in the same memory, and that The Snow continues to play in the background while I grow, realize, experiment, and weave my way through this city.
This music video is directed by Brittany Washington and released earlier this year. There also exists a previous music video for the song, filmed candidly at a house party by Danger FIlms. Check it out here.
mp3: The Eastern Sea - The Snow
Support Austin music! Purchase The Eastern Sea EP and The Eastern Sea EP II. You can also listen to Wasn't For Love off their upcoming LP Plague over at The Eastern Sea's website.
Also, support student radio! KVRX streams live 24 hours at their website, and in the Austin area at 91.7 FM.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Gregory Allen Isakov - Big Black Car
Not to get all emotional with you guys, but I first heard Gregory Alan Isakov at the most appropriate time in my life about half a year ago. I was going through a strange loss of my sense of self, and nothing seemed to help. But I heard Isakov's The Stable Song, and though I was feeling lost, I discovered something that gave me the sense of being home. Now, I will tell just about anyone that they should listen to The Stable Song, because I honestly believe that the world would be a better place if everyone listened to this song just once.
And just as before, I came across this video at exactly the right time a few days ago. Filmed in Isakov's Boulder home, Big Black Car takes on a much more raw and spirited energy than the album version. Music like this just feels good.
mp3: Gregory Alan Isakov - Big Black Car
Big Black Car is off off Gregory Alan Isakov's This Empty Northern Hemisphere, and The Stable Song is off The Sea, The Gambler. Both albums can be bought here.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Keegan Dewitt - Hearts Beat Loud
Keegan Dewitt is best known as a popular independent film score composer. He's written music for films such as Quiet City, Any Day Now, and Cold Weather.
All his film scores can be downloaded for free on his website.
Yet this song is off his pop-toned and lyrically driven EP Nothing Shows, which comes without a film attached. The album was released by Daytrotter, whom Dewitt has been touring under for the past year.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Alex Winston - Locomotive: All Things Go Session
Alex Winston is the woman I will never be. The pipes on this woman, the style, the sheer confidence and the way her songs confront the world in it's face. What else can be said about a singer who's lyrics that go "get the hell out, it's my night. You don't know the way to his heart like I do." So if I can't be Alex Winston, at least I can channel her aura. She's a badass goddess.
This live session was filmed for Washington DC blog All Things Go earlier this year.
Locomotive is from Sister Wife EP, released in April. You can buy it here.
Washed Out - Amor Fati
| From this hour, freedom! | |
| From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines, | |
| Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute, | |
| Listening to others, and considering well what they say, | |
| Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, | |
| Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. -Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road, 5 |
Oh man, doesn't this video make you want to experience the world? To go on a long road trip, shirk all responsibilities, Kerouac-ian style? I get itchy just watching it.
Director: Yoonha Park
Produced by: Neighborhood Watch
Amor Fati is off Within and Without, buy it here.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Wild Beasts: Télérama Session
This I cannot stop listening to/watching/fawning over. It's too good. I'm going to die. It's impossible.
As with anything Wild Beasts do, the music speaks for itself. Though I would like to make the comment that though Hayden Thorpe's vocals are astonishingly beautiful and deserve all the attention they get, Tom Fleming's deep and haunting voice is what gives me the shivers and makes me want to close my eyes and fall, especially in this acoustic session by the French blog Télérama.
All three songs performed are off their third album Smother, which was released in May of this year. You can buy it here.
Nurses - Fever Dreams
I consider it to always be a treat when a music video is both filmed and edited by the band itself. There's no middle man, no filter that the music must pass through before its visual manifestation. We can rest assured that what we're watching is singularly the band members' collaborative vision, and not just something they agreed to.
For their video for Fever Dreams, Nurses chose to make something dense and colorful to reflect such a rich song. Original? Maybe not, looks like a blend of every Animal Collective video I've ever seen. Enjoyable? Absolutely. The white light bouncing horizontally across the screen to the beat is such a mesmerizing vehicle for keeping the pace, and the whole serenading the lightbulb bit is a quirky touch. So, hey, maybe we would have gotten something a little bit more innovative if a filmmaker had had his or her hands in it, but this is what the band saw in their own song, and I think we can tell that based upon how the video and song seem to fit one another like warm mittens.
Download the mp3 for Fever Dreams for free at their Last.FM or Bandcamp.
Fever Dreams is off their 2011 release, Dracula, you can buy it here.
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