I first listened to We Are by Van Stee on my way work. My way to work is a 15 minutes walk by the harbor with the sun reflecting of the water in my eyes and other people around me getting ready for another day. Lots of impressions going off in all directions.
Therefore this song made a great soundtrack for my walk to work. It has this determined beat perfectly paced for my walking and the whole song has this feel of men at work banging away at steel creating the next big thing. What a great way to get the day started!
Charlie Van Stee is the man behind Van Stee. Other members of band are currently Josh Kaplan (drums), Lance Conrad (guitar), Shawn Connelly (keyboards) and Jimmy Stofer (bass). In March 2013 the band released their debut album We Are on Humans Win! records.
Cheers,
Nis
Facts and info:
Van Stee is a band out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Charlie Van Stee and Josh Kaplan had a band called The CVS Trio that disbanded in 2010.
The songs on the album were first recorded as demos after Charlie Van Stee took a year away from music.
More at:
https://www.facebook.com/vansteeband
https://twitter.com/VANSTEEBAND
https://soundcloud.com/vansteeband
Source: SoundCloud / VANSTEEBAND
It’s been almost one month since Daft Punk released the official audio for Get Lucky. This song has been playing (a thousand of times) at my house.
To be honest, my relationship with the French duo was never really strong. It’s a band I always flirted with, but that I never had the guts to stand up for or make a part of my daily life. However, when I read they were working on a new album, eight years after Humans After All (2005), something lightened up inside of me. I’ve had a strange feeling I can’t really describe - I just instantly knew they wouldn’t disappoint me at all - and I started to follow every single word about them.
Yesterday, the whole album was streamed through iTunes. What I feel, every time when I listen to RAM, is that there’s nothing else in the world, but my body and the music.
Cheers,
Gabi.
Facts and info:
Daft Punk is an electronic duo of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Cristo and Thomas Bangalter.
They released their debut album, Homework, in 1997.
The following release, Discovery (2001), was rather successful, driven by the singles One More Time, Digital Love, and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.
In 2005, the duo released the album Human After All and the live album Alive 2007 came out in 2007 and won a Grammy for Best Electronic/ Dance Album.
Daft Punk also recorded the score for the movie Tron: Legacy and released the album in 2010.
Random Access Memories, their upcoming album, will be out in May 21st.
More at:
https://www.facebook.com/daftpunk
http://www.youtube.com/artist/daft-punk
Random Access Memories Album Review via telegraph.co.uk.
Daft Punk’s RAM Embraces the Pleasure Principle via npr.org
Love and fear are opposing forces in life and in this song. And sometimes love is the very object of our fear. It leads us, deceives us and sometimes ruins us. Yet it fuels everything good in our lives and is as important as the air we breathe.
Song for Zula is a beautiful song even if you don’t pay attention to the lyrics and it has gotten a lot of well-deserved airplay the last couple of months. I can feel both the burning love, the desire for running on the open plains and the cage that holds me still.
Matthew Houck is the singer-songwriter behind Phosphorescent. His latest album Muchacho was released on March 19, 2013 on Dead Oceans and includes 10 tracks including Song for Zula and other great songs like Ride On / Right On. Matthew Houck is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, but is originally from Alabama.
Cheers,
Nis
Facts and info:
Phosphorescent first album was A Hundred Times Or More in 2003.
Matthew Houck played earlier under the moniker Fillup Shack.
Phosphorescent received wider critical acclaim after releasing Aw Come Aw Wry in August 2005 and Pride in October 2007.
They had songs featured in movies such as Margin Call (2011) and The Vow (2012).
More at:
http://phosphorescentmusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/phosphorescent
https://twitter.com/Phosphorescent
http://www.facebook.com/Phosphorescentmusic
Source: SoundCloud / Dead Oceans
Sometimes we only need to feel the melody and harmony in a song. Anything else seems unnecessary. Step by Vampire Weekend would bring me this feeling. When I first listened to it, the video and the lyrics came along, and the song did hit me! With all its elements. Some weeks ago, when I first listened to it, I spent hours repeating it over and over. I’d dare to say it brought some tears to my eyes - it was not because of sadness or happiness, but just because of the song for itself. In a moment, the beauty of life overwhelms you and time stands still. It happens to me with a song like Step or sometimes because of a marvellous sky.
Cheers,
Gabi.
Facts and infos:
They are from New York and the band was formed in 2006 by Ezra Koenig (lead vocalist and guitarist), Rostam Batmanglij (guitarist/keyboardist and backing vocalist), Chris Tomson (drummer and percussionist) and Chris Baio (bassist and backing vocalist).
Their first album, of the same name, was released in 2008.
Their second album - Contra - came out in 2010. Contra was the band’s first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, but lost to The Black Keys’ Brothers.
Their next album, Modern Vampires of the City, will be released on May 14th this year.
More at:
http://www.vampireweekend.com/
http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend
It has been a while and I wanted to share a track I have been digging lately. It’s a group out of New York called Haerts and this song - Wings - is their first single.
This winter has been the longest I can recall. We are approaching April and we still have snow. I can’t remember ever having snow on my birthday which is also right around the corner. While I am really tired of winter it gives us a nice excuse to stay indoors and listen to great music and enjoy a cup of hot coffee, tea or chocolate.
The song has a sad theme of lost love which somehow resonates with me during these cold winter days (which should have been spring).
Haerts will release their first album sometime in 2013 and you can catch them playing live in a number of cities in North America in the coming months.
Cheers,
Nis
Learn more about Haerts:
Source: SoundCloud / HAERTS
I think I need a dose of rock’n’roll tonight. And I know just the band to deliver that - The Stone Foxes from San Francisco.
The Stone Foxes has been playing since 2005 and has so far released three albums. Their latest album - Small Fires - was released just recently on February 12, 2013. I only just discovered them, but I really dig their sound and their beats. When I was younger I used to listen to a lot of blues and listening to Everybody Knows it reminds me of good times and great performers.
They have opened for The Black Keys and I think it is easy to hear why. There is some of the same gritty, blues rock’n’roll feeling to Everybody Knows that you also find in tracks like Next Girl and Everlasting Light from the album Brothers by The Black Keys.
It’s nice to see that this kind of music is alive and well. Be sure to check out Cotto another single from the new album. And remember that this kind of music is best served LOUD!
Cheers,
Nis
Source: youtube.com
Sometimes we try to put into words some of our feelings. Everyone has tried it at least once. All of us know how hard this task is.
Long Time Ago by Current Swell brings all my best feelings to surface every time I listen to it. I wish I could explain them. Perhaps there will be some people who will feel the same as me and they will understand. Maybe it was caused by the beats of the song? Maybe it was just because of that summer video? Or the nice lyrics? I have no idea. But I can tell you that after listening to that song a bunch of times, I just want to grab few fruits, get into the car and drive to the south coast. I want to leave the town, forget about all the problems and feel the sun burning my skin, smell the sea and hang around with some good friends.
It was been a long while since I felt this way because of a song.
Current Swell is a Canadian indie rock band from Victoria, British Columbia. They released their debut album in 2005 and it is named So I Say - I haven’t listened to it yet, but I look forward to checking it out. In 2011 their latest album, Long Time Ago, came out in Canada. But only in January this year it was released worldwide.
They sound a bit of folk, indie surf, rock, blues and ska. The albums were influenced by their experiences travelling - it makes them score a thousand points with me! Oh wait… that’s it!! That’s why they can bring my best feelings to surface! All those feelings come when I am on the road. I’ll be listening to Current Swell on my next trip, for sure.
Cheers,
Gabi.
Spring time is right around the corner, so is my birthday and so is the new album from Yeah Yeah Yeahs called Mosquito. It will be released April 16, 2013. The wait is almost over!
Sacrilege is the first single from the new album. There is still no official video, but close your eyes and enjoy the music.
I love Yeah Yeah Yeahs for they talented and varied song writing. Earlier on the blog we featured Maps and Zero is another one of my favorite songs by them. Karen O seems so awesome and I have a thing for strong women.
Soon they will be on tour playing various festivals around Europe and for my selfish me, I hope they’ll be booked for this years Roskilde Festival (their tour calendar isn’t currently booked around that time).
Cheers,
Nis
Source: youtube.com
Keegan DeWitt and Jeremy Bullock is the duo behind Wild Cub. Last year they released their debut LP Youth in North America and early in 2013 the album was also released in the UK.
When I first heard Thunder Clatter it reminded my of a bit of Little Comets which we featured back in December, 2012 with A Little Opus. Very well produced sound with a touch of different styles blended together in sweet harmony.
In february KEXP had the band drop by for a live in-studio session and I recommend checking it out - these guys play really well live! The smooth sound delivered live.
Cheers,
Nis
Source: SoundCloud / Wild Cub
Back in 2003 we could check out the debut album by The Postal Service. The band is a side project between Jimmy Tamborello, Jenny Lewis and Ben Gibbard (lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie).
On last February 19th, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of Give Up and the news about a Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition to be released on April 09, 2013.
The Postal Service’s reissue will include two newly recorded tracks. A Tattered Line of String is one of them. It was released on BBC radio in early February - and I’ve been playing it non-stop since then! Particularly, I love all the songs from Give Up and that song is one of my favorites released in this year so far. When I listen to A Tattered Line of String it seems to me that they haven’t waited so long to come out with a new amazing song … it sounds as if this song has been part of the album since 2003.
Check out also the official video for the great We Will Become Silhouettes.
Cheers,
Gabi.
