Now Streaming: Bonnaroo 2010

About two weeks ago, one of the biggest US music festivals, Bonnaroo, occurred. If you were like me, you couldn't pause real life for a couple days to enjoy heat, sweat, mud, and good music but luckily for all those that couldn't attend NPR was there doing live coverage and webcasts (Of which I caught an amazing set by the always lovely Regina Spektor). These performances are now archived and can be listen to, at your convenience. So listen and enjoy here!

Ra Ra Riot to tour US (and Canada too)

Indie pop rock band Ra Ra Riot are heading off on an extensive US (and some dates in Canada) tour in support of their upcoming album The Orchard. The new album is set for a late August release on Barsuk and the tour coincides with the release beginning on August 1st. Here are some dates below:

Aug 1 Montreal, Quebec - Osheaga Festival
Aug 4 Columbus, Ohio - Columbus State Fair w/ Devo
Aug 28 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheater w/ Tegan and Sara
Sept 5 Seattle, Washington - Bumbershoot Festival
Sept 9 Portland, Oregon - MusicfestNW @Wonder Ballroom
Sept 18 Geneva, New York - Three Stories Benefit @Cracker Factory
Sept 21 New York, New York - Bowery Ballroom
Sept 22 New York, New York - Bowery Ballroom
Sept 23 Brooklyn, New York - Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sept 24 Brooklyn, New York - Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sept 27 Northampton, Massachusetts - Pearl St.
Sept 28 New Haven, Connecticut - Toad's Place
Sept 29 Providence, Rhode Island - The Met
Oct 1 Boston, Massachusetts - Royale
Oct 2 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Trocadero
Oct 3 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Diesel
Oct 4 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Blind Pig
Oct 5 Chicago, Illinois - Metro
Oct 7 Minneapolis, Minnesota - Varsity Theatre
Oct 8 Omaha, Nebraska - Waiting Room
Oct 11 Denver, Colorado - Bluebird Theatre
Oct 12 Salt Lake City, Utah - In the Venue
Oct 13 Crystal Bay, Nevada - Crystal Bay Club
Oct 19 Pomona, California - Glass House
Oct 20 Los Angeles, California - The Music Box
Oct 21 San Diego, California - Belly Up Tavern
Oct 22 Tempe, Arizona - The Clubhouse
Oct 24 San Antonio, Texas - White Rabbits
Oct 26 Austin, Texas - Emo's
Oct 27 Houston, Texas - Warehouse Live
Oct 28 Dallas, Texas - Granae Theatre
Oct 29 Little Rock, Arkansas - Rev Room
Oct 30 Nashville, Tennessee - Exit/In
Nov 1 Birmingham, Alabama - Workplay Theatre
Nov 2 Atlanta, Georgia - Masquerade
Nov 3 Asheville, North Carolina - Orange Peel
Nov 4 Carrboro, North Carolina - Cat's Cradle
Nov 5 Washinton, DC - 9:30 Club
Nov 13 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Commodore
Nov 17 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwan Hall
Nov 19 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Louis' Pub
Nov 20 Winnepeg, Manitoba - The Garric

The band also released a video preview of "Keep It Quiet" from the forthcoming release and will be posting several others in the future so stay tuned.

Love Is All - Two Thousand and Ten Injuries (2010)

Swedish Indie rock quintet Love Is All's third full-length album Two Thousand and Ten Injuries, released earlier this year in March, charms the listening from the opening with its high energy, almost hyperactive and yet controlled playing style and Josephine Olausson's unique childish voice. Instead of an emphasis being placed on vocals or instrumentals, they weave together sometimes trading roles like on lead track "Bigger Bolder" where the guitars finish the melodic lines after Olausson begins them. Definitely a summer album, the tracks have a warmness and jangly guitar stylings that wouldn't be out of place in surf-rock and yet, manages to elusively evade that classification or any strict classifications all-together (like a brief reggae-ishness in "False Pretense"). The album reminds me of British band Stricken City but only due to its energetic playing and somewhat nonsensical (and sometimes hard to hear) lyrics. That's not to say the lyrics are bad but that they aren't necessarily trying to do much more than entertain and enjoy what they do. Love Is All, with its hodge-podge of instruments, love of music-making certainly shines through on this album and I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who isn't charmed by the band, the album, and their respective whimsy.

Give the band a listen with the music video for "Kungen" directed by Olausson herself:

Random Musing: Horse Feathers and the Oregon Ballet

So after I attended the Horse Feathers concert in Poughkeepsie, folk musician John Craigie came to town and aftermentioning the concert mentioned Horse Feathers' collaboration with dancers. Intrigued I looked on Youtube and found some videos and found some info. Horse Feathers originally collaborated with the Oregon Ballet Theatre in November performing live accompaniment to original choreography in a show called Uprising. The show was so popular that they reprised the performance earlier this year in January. Enjoy some of the videos I found:

"Working Poor"


"Heathen's Kiss"


"In Our Blood"

Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can (2010)

British songtress Laura Marling's follow up album to her 2008 solo debut Alas I Cannot Swim, I Speak Because I Can begins with the dark "Devil's Spoke", similar to traditional storytelling folk song style, made all the more haunting by Marling's earthy voice and the male backing vocals before migrating to a brighter, more hopeful tone where Marling caresses each lyric in the happier section. Rather than the lead track giving you an idea of what the album will sound like or where it'll go, the song's dual nature leaves you unsure of what to expect and anxious for what's to come. The response is "Made by Maid" which sparse guitar lines showcase Marling's voice and lyrics and sharply contrast the rather busy lead track down to its Dylan-esque sing-speak. "Rambling Man" is somewhat of continuation with a quiet slow-building intro before picking up tempo, texture, and instruments. "Blackberry Stone" with it's simple strummed chords featuring beautiful, lyrical cello lines functions as both Marling recounting the end of relationship but also a part of the explanation given to the person in question. "Alpha Shallows" continues in the heavy use of strings, "Goodbye England (Covered in Snow)" while using still featuring strings and the newly introduced clarinet, doesn't distract from Marling's vocals and might be the best written track on the album both musically and lyrically. "I wrote an epic letter to you, it was twenty two pages front and back but it's too good to be used/And I tried to be a girl who likes to be used/ I'm too good that, there's a mind under this hat/ And I called them and told them I've got to move" are by far the best lyrics she managed to slip in there. While no longer than the rest of the tracks on the album, it's composition might be, for lack of a better word, the most epic. Beginning with a clarinet solo, Marling voice enters to describe a scene between her and a lover accompanied by strings. Slowly the song adds more to it like additional instruments, voices, rising to a musical climax that is musical, lyrical, and emotional. "Hope In The Air" follows with swaggering guitar and almost whispered vocals like Marling is letting you in on a secret, this track marks the return to the more traditional folk style. "What He Wrote" might be an embellishment of the non-speaking man introduced in the previous track, describing his "journey" so to speak and the narrator's fascination with him. "Darkness Descends" brings the album to an upbeat mood. "I Speak Because I Can" serves as the album closer, is probably the most loose in Marling's storytelling style of songwriting beginning by mentioning a woman whose husband has left her before the remaining parts of the song are ambiguous in who they are talking about and to whom and that might be the purpose. The lyrics "I speak because I can to anyone who I trust to listen" might in this case refer to the listener, explaining things she never got to do. Interestingly several of the lines have an unfinished quality to them like perhaps the speaker is overcome by emotion and unable to say anymore before regaining composure and beginning a new topic. If you didn't listen to the lyrics, the listener would be fooled into thinking that the track is upbeat and positive rather than a tale about this lone woman wondering what she's going to do without her husband.
While each song on I Speak Because I Can can be listened to an understood seperately, it also functions as an overall story with the lead track's foreboding intro before metamorphosing into sentimental tracks pining for lost love, describing how it came to be. Several songs aremarked by repeated themes or words like the city ("Alpha Shallows", "Goodbye England", and "Darkeness Descends") or speaking/not speaking ("Hope in the Air", "What He Wrote", and "I Speak Because I Can"). The awesome thing about Marling's writing is that the song's can either related to as tales of love, love loss, etc. or can be treated a little folksy tales meant purely for entertainment. The whole album is enjoyable and entertaining but something to note is that I felt, the second half of the album was more lyrically developed than the first. Marling employs a narrative style of songwriting but the first half seemed more focused on getting the lyrics across than the music that accompanied it. This changes however and the music and lyrics work together to illustrate and form complete vignettes of remarkable songcraft.

Have a taste of Laura Marling with the music video of the second single off the sophomore release "Rambling Man":

Efterklang - Magic Chairs (2010)

Danish indie pop rock group Efterklang released their third studio album Magic Chairs earlier this year in February. Though the band has been performing since the early 2000s, this was the first I had heard from them, after reading about them in a magazine (either Under the Radar or Spin, I think). Beginning with "Modern Drift" which has lyrical, flowing melodies accompanied by drum beats, violin accents, occasional brass florishes, and piano in addition to guitar and bass; the album starts off lively and fresh and while their penchant of the use of tons on different instruments might draw comparisions with the numerous indie orchestras around, Efterklang style with its sweeping vocals, in-no-rush song build up, and syncopated African-esque drumbeats puts them (and the album) in a league of its own. Not surprising for a band that's been around for about 10 years. Efterklang manages to use percussion to remarkable music effect like on "Raincoats" where clapping intertwines with the vocals and guitar riffs to create an infectiously engaging and charming gem. The album as a whole is rather mellow, not attempting to grab your attention with any over-the-top melodrama but rather catch your ear and move your heart with its lovely melodies. Lovers of mellow indie pop and stellar string arrangements certainly won't be disappointed by Efterklang's most recent full-length release. I know I wasn't!

Give Efterklang a listen with their lead single off 4AD label debut Magic Chairs, "Modern Drift":

Watch: Fanfarlo - "Fire Escape"

The British "indie" pop quintet are back to release a new version of the video for "Fire Escape". The previous low budget version premiered about two years ago before the band got signed to a major label, and even before the finished their debut album Reservoir. The new version is much artsy and plot heavy than the original. Directed by Jamie Thraves, the video tells the story of a suidical man (played by band leader Simon Balthazar) who gets stopped from jumping off a roof by a random man offering aid. The man brings Simon to a house filled with similar "patients" played by the other bandmembers and some other random people before taking a creepy sci-fi spin. The housemates are actually part of a cult that by dying together hope to return to some sort of alien mothership (a possible Harold T. Wilkins reference). Simon is not a fan and that's when the video takes another interesting spin. Because the director and band couldn't decide on a darker or happier ending to the video, they made two different versions. You can watch them below.

The Dark Version:


The Happy Version: