The Halloween Parties Super Mix Fun Time

This is the post where I put up pictures from various Halloween parties over the last few days that I either attended or hosted and then upload an MP3 to go along with them. Scroll over the pictures for a description. Feel free to comment on which is your favorite costumes and/or put up a link to your own.

MP3 Neil Young – Down By The River
MP3 TV Theme – Walker, Texas Ranger

MP3 Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien

MP3 Midlake – Bandits

MP3 Colour Revolt – Blood in your Mouth

MP3 The Smiths – The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

MP3 The Clash – I Fought The Law

MP3 Deep Blue Something – Breakfast at Tiffanys

MP3 The Magnetic Fields – Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits
MP3 Peter Bjorn & John – Poor Cow

MP3 The Good Life – Playing Dumb (<–recommended download)

MP3 Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon

MP3 Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama

MP3 Death Cab for Cutie – Debate Exposes Doubt
MP3 R.E.M. – Nightswimming

MP3 David Bowie – I’m Afraid of Americans

MP3 Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay

Georgie James

Looking for a band to fill the void that Rilo Kiley left when they decided to become an updated Fleetwood Mac and stopped making playful and occasional rocking indie pop. Ask and ye shall receive, because Georgie James is just that band, they even throw in a bit of a dancey Mates of State vibe to seal the deal. The band has released their debut album on the never-failing-to-impress Saddle Creek Records (who also released Rilo Kileys best/funnest album). The guy/girl team usually works pretty well for pop bands and Georgie James are certainly no exception. They’re on there way to becoming one of my favorite debuts of the year.

There’s a couple equally-amazing tracks you should definitely hear from this band. “Need Your Needs” is the funky and fresh and ultra-catchy first single from the band. The guitar work is spectacular on the song, as are the transitional drum fills. The chorus though, is what really hooks you in, when both vocalist sing in perfect harmony against the punchy beat. “Look Me Up” is another big standout, especially for fans of crunchy guitar and shifting tempos. It’s a 3 minute and 11 second pop explosion all the way from the power-pop guitar strummed intro to the “ba ba ba ba, ba-da da da, da da”s of the outro. Great music to start off the week and get you out of those “i have paper tomorrow and I spent all weekend dressed like Richie Tenenbaum and playing guitar hero” blues.

MP3 Need Your Needs
MP3 Look Me Up

*That being said I’ve actually grown to enjoy a few songs on Rilo Kileys newest. “Breakin’ Up”, “Under The Blacklight”, and “The Angels Hung Around” are good tracks just not nearly as good as anything on their first two.

iTunes Playlist Review: Darjeeling Limited

I’m finally going to get the chance to see my most anticipated movie of the year tomorrow: Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. I’ve heard mostly good and some bad things about the film, so I’m going into it optimistically especially since I love all of his films. One thing I’ve heard is that the movie features Apple products prominently, and Hotel Chevalier was released exclusively in iTunes, so it makes since that they would do a Celebrity Playlist. Owen Wilson isn’t involved for obvious reasons, but Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Wes Anderson all contribute playlists that I will now rate. Click here to view the playlists on iTunes.

Adrien Brody:

The newest cast member to the Wes Anderson’s crew really likes reggae. The first three songs are all tropical flavored beats from bands I’ve never heard of. He throws a couple over-used classic rock songs in there before making it slightly more interesting with some The Cure, Massive Attack, and Wu-Tang Clan. His song descriptions though are pretty short and meaningless though, most being four words or under. Looks like very little effort went into the playlist. I give it a 5.9

MP3 The Cure – Lullabye
MP3 Cream – White Room

Jason Schwartzman:

This guy has very eclectic tastes. We all know Jason was the drummer for Phantom Planet and he has his own band, Coconut Records (which he understandably plugs) so you know he’s into music, but it was still surprising to get a glimpse of his range of pop music. Some of the highlights include “Indian Summer” by Beat Happening, one of my favorite twee songs, and songs by Magnetic Fields, French Kicks, Ween, Arctic Monkeys, Of Montreal, Guided By Voices, and Phoenix.

It seems Schwartzman is most attracted to the intimate baroque pop of the 60’s by artists like The Zombies, John Cale, and Harry Nilsson and it’s reflected in his listening habits and his own music. There’s a lot of thought put into his song descriptions and you can feel his excitement as he describes listening to “Tired of Sex” and “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” for the first time or how he feels when he hears “So Begins Our Alabee”. He also has the song that Will Ferrell plays in Stranger Than Fiction and I’ve been trying to find that song forever. This gets an 9.6

MP3 Beat Happening – Indian Summer
MP3 Of Montreal – So Begins Our Alabee
MP3 Wreckless Eric – Whole Wild World
MP3 Guided By Voices – The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory

Wes Anderson:

Wes does a great job of tying his musical choices with his personal experiences, which include the movies he’s made. He starts off with a Cat Stevens song (one of the one’s not featured in Rushmore) and then picks a Devo song (making note of the Mark Mothersbaugh connection). He also takes the opportunity to announce that he’s jumped on the Arcade Fire bandwagon with “Well and the Lighthouse” as his song of choice. He predicts a French Invasion with a Phoenix track and says he sometimes wishes he would have put New Order’s “Ceremony” in The Life Aquatic. Songs by Seu Jorge, Pulp, David Bowie, and The Pixies fill out the rest of the playlist. The best find here is the Van Morrison song “Sweet Thing” which is a gorgeous tune that I can’t believe I never knew about. Wes gets a 9.3

MP3 New Order – Ceremony
MP3 Phoenix – Rally
MP3 Van Morrison – Sweet Thing

***

In honor of the latest Wes Anderson flick, I’m dressing up as one of my favorite of his characters, Richie Tenenbaum. I’ve been attempting to grow out a beard and I find an old style tennis racket and khaki suit to use. Anyone else ever try out a character from a Wes Anderson movie?

Soft – Gone Faded

Soft is one of the first bands I reviewed on this site way back in ’05 when they released a demo EP with the song “Higher”.  It’s been two years and they finally are releasing their full length, by the name Gone Faded, which hits stores this week.  The band has definitely fine-tuned their sound in the last couple of years utilizing the lush swirling guitars with huge anthemic choruses.  Many have noted the comparison to Oasis and it’s not hard to think that when you listen to songs like “You Make Me Wanna Die” which is a dead ringer for “Don’t Go Away”.   Although the guitar sound is definitely 90’s brit pop at times, I find there’s quite a bit more sonic experimentation layered within and the sound is topped off with Jim Reineck’s smooth, breathy vocals.

The band has put together a fine package of songs here with a number of standouts but “Higher” with its shoegazey feel remains my favorite of the bunch.  It’s also the most straightforward pop song of the album.  Another track though that I’ve come back to is “Droppin”.  The track begins with sublime atmospherics that give it a light, airy feel and builds as the guitars swirl and become more lively.  The steady drums and the lofty vocals hold the song together.  You can grab the track below and check out a beautifully shot music video for the song at the band’s home page.

MP3 Higher
MP3 Droppin’

Buy Gone Faded on Insound
Friend Soft at Myspace

My brush with Bob Dylan / I'm Not There Soundtrack

I work at the front desk at a nice hotel. While I was working friday night I was given instructions for a large group that would arrive late at night. We already checked them in to the hotel, we just had to give one of them the keys, and they would come in through the side door. Fairly odd, but I thought nothing of it. The next day when I came in their were two large tour buses in our parking lot and as I walked out some scruffy-looking old guys with southern accents were walking through the lobby. The person I worked with told me that Bob Dylan had just checked out of the hotel.

A few minutes later my manager called me from Dylan’s King Suite and asked me to come help clean it (the mixture of cigarette smoke, cigar smoke, and marijuana smoke was quite pungent). Our manager was pretty upset since we are a non-smoking hotel, but then again she didn’t know anything about Dylan so I had to explain that he’s the most legendary music artist alive and he’s also kindof an a**hole. I took a peek inside the trash cans which told me that Bob Dylan not only smokes a lot but he likes to eat apples. It was pretty thrilling to know that I was in the same hotel room (cleaning it, but still) that Bob Dylan was in less than an hour before. Interestingly enough the group that Dylan’s people book their reservations under gave us a fake name* and an address for a Diner in Greenwich Village.

While we’re on the subject, I’ve listened to a few tracks on the soundtrack to Dylan biopic I’m Not There which is coming out next week. I’ve heard a ton of Dylan covers in my day and these ones stand up with the best of them. The artists featured on the album include: Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Sufjan Stevens, Jeff Tweedy, Iron & Wine, Yo La Tengo, The Hold Steady, and Antony & the Johnsons. The covered songs are also a very eclectic selection, choosing album tracks and fan favorites over songs like “Like A Rolling Stone”, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, and “All Around the Watchtower”.

You can download Sufjan’s piano-based take on Oh Mercy track “Ring Them Bells” and Jeff Tweedy’s wonderfully simple version of Blood of the Tracks classic “Simple Twist of Fate” below. Stream Cat Power’s impressive version of my favorite Dylan song “Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” and Calexio and Jim James’ collaboration on “Goin to Acapulco” on the official I’m Not There OST myspace.

MP3 Sufjan Stevens – Ring My Bells
MP3 Jeff Tweedy – Simple Twist of Fate

*I would tell you Dylan’s pseudonym and the fake company name but I’d rather not lose my job.

We Can Do It Softcore If You Want

I’ve finally gotten my hands on a good recording of this brilliant new song from Of Montreal.  They debuted the song at Pitchfork Music Festival this year and they’ve been playing it on every stop at their current tour (including this one which I attended).   Kevin Barnes has said that the new album would be much more experimental but this song and many of the others I’ve heard doesn’t deviate much from the band’s classic pop sound.  If anything it’s even more glam, especially with the Bowie-like falsetto during the bridge.  Download to the track below recorded by nyctaper on October 13 :

MP3 Of Montreal – We Can Do It Softcore If You Want (Live, New Song)

Click here to download the rest of Of Montreal’s New York set including new songs, “Mingusings” and “Exquisite Confessions”.  It’s in FLAC format so you’ll need VLC to play it.

New Sigur Ros song – "Hljomalind."

If you’ve been following the Sigur Ros news as of late you probably know about the upcoming DVD of their summer Icelandic tour, Heima. You probably also know about the band’s embarrassingly awkward interview on NPR, but looking past that the band is streaming a new song called “Hljomalind” (actually an old one that wasn’t recorded until recently) that will be on a soundtrack accompanying the film. The song is absolutely gorgeous and stunning, which is, of course, what we all expected from Sigur Ros.

The song is structured like many Sigur Ros songs, mixing quiet, pretty atmospheric sounds with a noisy climaxes and soaring vocals. The song comes alive at the 2:46 mark during a spectacular guitar solo. I can imagine when put to beautiful imagery (like the picture above) as it will be on the DVD, this song will be even more mind-blowing. Download “Hljomalind” below and click here to watch the hi-res trailer for Heima.

MP3 Sigur Ros – Hljomalind

The b-side to this track is going to be an acoustic version of this song (which you may recognize from this movie):

MP3 Sigur Ros – Staralfur

Noah and the Whale

For years, on my way to school, the lady I carpooled with would blast out contemporary Christian radio, no matter how much I tried to convince her to change it to an oldies station. Inbetween playing songs by rejected country singers with names like Steven Curtis Chapman and Rebecca St. James, there was call-in Bible Trivia. One of the questions meant to “stump” incoming callers was “How many animals were there on Jonah’s ark?”. Even though anyone who went to one Sunday School class should know it’s Jonah and the Whale and Noah and the Ark and not the other way around, most of the time the answer was quick “two”.

I’m not sure if this is where British folk-pop band, Noah and the Whale, got their name or if they’re just big fans of Noah Bambach’s The Squid and the Whale, but either way I think they’re great and with tourmates like Broken Social Scene I’m positive you’ll be hearing more of them. The band is full of breezy, lighthearted folk dittys that are absolutely perfect for what many like to call “sweater weather”. Ukelele strumming, layered vocals, and some of the best whistling since Peter, Bjorn, and John, can be found on the band’s first single, “Five Years Time”. Unless you’re turned off by lyrics like “wherever you go there’ll be love, love love” and Wes Anderson-inspired music videos than I can pretty much guarantee you’ll be playing this one over and over. “Death By Numbers” in another laid back acoustic song by the manages to be both melancholic and cheery in a short span. The gorgeous and simple melody will keep you hooked.

MP3 Five Years Time
MP3 Death By Numbers

Noah and the Whale’s Myspace
Visit Good Weather for Airstrikes for another review and a couple demos.

I was just about to walk five miles in a day

Like anyone who’s down with Bishop Allen, Voxtrot, or Loney Dear, I’m always in the mood for some totally excellent new indie pop, and that’s just what I’m getting with Secretly Canadian‘s newest signee, Throw Me The Statue. The one-man bedroom pop is perfect for those who liked The Shins last album but wished it was more playful (and featured more glockenspiel). This music isn’t trying to change your life, just make it much happier, and it does a great job at it.

The two tracks I’d point you towards for this band would be “About to Walk” and “Lolita”. The first is a very simple song that’s led by an acoustic strum with some synth and drums thrown in the mix, but what stands out is the melody and the earnest sweet sounding vocals. The drum solo at the end seals the deal. “Lolita” is an electronica based track, and adds many more layers to the mix without watering down the melody. Drum machine, glockenspiel, harmonica, acoustic guitar picking and even hand claps all come together to make one spectacularly catchy song. Buy the album, Moonbeams, here for 10 bucks!

MP3 Throw Me The Statue – About to Walk
MP3 Throw Me The Statue – Lolita

Official Site
Myspace

Have you heard of this Hype MACHINE?

Anthony and the team have been working hard at the new Hype Machine, and it’s a thing of beauty. I’ve been using the beta for about a week now and can tell you that the site has been given a complete redesign. The new site is much more visual-based and I’m loving the new features (the key word being “love“, you’ll see why). They’re going to unveil the site today when 10,000 people are watching, and while I’m writing this about 3000 people are on the site. That means if all 7,000 of my readers (number might not be accurate) clicked this link right now, we could all be viewing the new Hype Machine right now and would be viewing MP3s from across the blogosphere. Like these two below!

MP3 The Chalets – Feel The Machine
MP3 Stars – Heart

What are you waiting for? Go There!