faster than myspace

yeah hate to say it, but this blog's been talking about kate nash since last fall. today she's one of the featured artists on myspace. so there you go: read our blog and every once in a while we'll give you a heads up from across the pond. i think tim gets full credit for this one.

i was gonna put in a kate nash picture, but myspace has had an unknown error. that's hilarious and well timed.

coachella: 23 days later...

ok so i failed horribly at blogging my experiences at coachella. maybe i was slightly overwhelmed because there was so much to say about it. or maybe it's because i talked about it nonstop for the week or 2 after & i, plus everyone else (i'm sure) was a little tired of it. coachella was one of those experiences where so much is happening all around you but you are so exhausted & tired that the whole thing ends up feeling like a dream where you're not sure what DID happen. the music was amazing, the bands played on time (with a few exceptions) it was HOT, there were a lot of very interesting people, & there was always something to do. for 3 straight 12+ hour days it was non-stop entertainment. by the 3rd day i was more often lingering toward the back of the crowds or sleeping in an air conditioned nokia tent rather than fully immersing myself in sets that i would probably pay good money to see play in salt lake. i had no idea i would crumble under all the goodness the way i did, but i can sum it up to just not being prepared for it. you have to expect to be running all over the polo field & missing your favorite bands to see your other favorite bands. i had to decide whether to watch prince's 2.5 hour show & risk getting in a girl fight/getting peed on AGAIN or to leave a little earlier to maintain my sanity(we left early; 1AM). staying the the entire roger waters set or leaving to go to the chromeo & justice dance party(missed the dance party but totally worth it). sleep in or see a band i like but not THAT much(slept in). i still wish i could go back again this weekend & i think i will miss it until i get to go again next year. for now, here is a very brief summary of what i saw...


friday...

dj mehdi opening act of the festival, we watched him since he was the only one playing on any of the 5 stages at that point. he is one happy dj.
american bang if you like kings of leon you will love these guys. bringing back the classic american rock & roll sound.
battles intriguing. we only stayed for a couple songs. sounded like ratatat to me.
black kids these guys & girls were so much fun. great music.
architecture in helsinki those are some silly australians. they were fun & sounded as fantastic live as they do in my earbuds.
vampire weekend honestly, after the first 5 bands i saw these guys were a little boring. but i do like their music. i think it was just nap time at this point.
the national they played right after vw on the same stage. it was good, but the vocals weren't my favorite.
the swell season i would have payed friday's ticket price just to see them. it was incredible. those are some talented people. you MUST check them out.
after swell season we noticed the field beginning to fill up with couples dressed in american eagle & abercrombie & an abundance of baseball hats. it took us a minute & then we remembered: jack johnson was headlining that night. so we left.

saturday...

the bird & the bee lovely. adorable. sweet. i love love loved them & their bubbles & squirt guns.
vhs or beta it is impossible for these guys to not rock. i was in the front row dancing & sweating in the 2pm sun. they sounded insanely good.
minus the bear played main stage right after vhs so i kept my front row spot. they played my favorite songs. i simply love them.
mgmt is this really happening? did i just see 3 amazing bands & now i am seeing another? yes. mgmt was electric. can't wait to see them again sometime. oh & i was standing right by the guitarist from vhs, i wanted to high 5 him so bad for some reason! haha
kate nash that girl was a hot mess! i don't think she had ever seen the sun. she was sweaty, frizzy, moody & her weird christmas stage theme was tacky. but there's no denying her lovely voice & catchy emotional lyrics are a hit with the hipsters. she was good - the group of girls screaming every lyric behind me was not.
death cab for cutie only watched from afar for a few songs while we re-energized for the rest of the day. they sounded like...death cab for cutie.
rilo kiley so good. so so good. better than i had imagined.
M.I.A. disappointing. there were about a million people crammed in the tent to see her. gunshots are not music. neither are blow horns. she only played 4 songs during her hour long set. yeah.
prince i got peed on. beat up due to some drunk girl's violent dancing. he started about an hour late. then he played 1999 hid behind some speakers for an entire song & then played little red corvette. that's pretty much all i remember. we sat down at the back of the crowd (about a mile from the stage) & heard him do the cover of radiohead's creep but didn't really care because we were barely still alive after having such an amazing day. then we left.

sunday...

slept in, went swimming, arrived to the festival at 4.
stars they were alright, a little disappointing. we left early & noticed that as we walked further away from the stage they sounded better & better. i don't know what was up with that.
autolux i don't even remember them, i was passing out on the grass at this point.
metric got me on my feet. even from the back they were great. very entertaining.
roger waters wow. it was amazing & i have never been much of a pink floyd fan. but it was a crazy good show. the inflatable pig, the plane, the prism, i loved it all. i'm glad we stayed for the whole 3 hour set (missing chromeo & justice).

so that's all the music, there was so much more besides music but that's not what this blog is about. so go check out those bands! & go to coachella next year!

she's just so charming...

the wondeful kate nash. she's been mentioned on the ship a couple times before and i'm with tim on this - is it okay to say that i'm in love? not too long ago i started listening to the made of bricks album repeatedly. if you have already listened to it maybe you are wondering why i find her charming; she's a bit of a bad ass with a dirty mouth. however, that makes her so real, funky, and honest. she's one of the most unique artists that i've ever listened to. the lyrics to her spunky, dancy songs are what really draws me in. it's not often you hear a girl singing about dickheads and birds shitting on your head. it's fantastic. plus she's got an accent. done deal. take a listen. i promise, you won't be dissappointed.

can I finish? (plus Dan & Kristen Smith from Listener)

So, I guess it's my turn. Dan and Kristen's top five is at the bottom.

2007 saw a lot of albums from a lot of my favorite artists, Band of Horses, Broken Social Scene, Pinback, Jose Gonzales, and tons of others. So when I started this little endeavor I thought it would be pretty easy... not so. Instead of writing a top five I just want to write down a bunch of albums you should go listen to, Pink Nasty for instance, or The Pipettes. Both bands released great first albums, I listened to them non-stop for weeks, but I struggled putting them, ultimately, before the albums that you are about to read.

Another point I would like to make before you read my top five, I was really against numbering them, I'm not OK with it. So, since I was just going to randomly assign the numbers to albums anyway, I decided to take another route. I will be listing them by animal, you can decide for yourself what animal corresponds to what number.

Meercat - Iron & Wine - The Shepherd Dog.
This album is just too good, and coincidentally Chad and I are going to seem Iron & Wine tonight, which I love him for. Sam Beam went to another place on this album, not completely, but it's definitely different than The Creek Drank the Cradle. The Shepherd Dog is much more percussive, and to me, seems like a natural progression from his last release, The Woman King.

Antelope - Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
This is a "first effort" that did actually make my list, and was easily a no brainer. Bon Iver (pronounced eevair) created a masterpiece with For Emma, Forever Ago. I have to give credit to My Old Kentucky Blog for introducing me to this guy, and I'm glad he did. For those of you who know me, you know that I really enjoy a soft, down-tempo album, and this album is one of the best of it's kind.

Dung Beetle - Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers
I'm actually really surprised that this album hasn't gotten more love in the top albums of the year category. I'm not sure if it just didn't get promoted the way it should have, or what, but this album is easily one of the best of 2007. Laura has a special little place in my music heart because I have a great memory of seeing her in Berlin, and I think this is her best release yet.

Polar Bear - Kate Nash - Made of Bricks
I love Kate Nash, literally. Not only do I want to date her (I'd move to London, whatever), but she makes great music. I almost forgot about this album, and luckily Chad reminded me of it a few weeks ago. It's very poppy, very British, and really fun. I usually don't listen to lyrics, but I love hers. This is her first released album, and I think she'll be around for a long time. Favorite songs: Birds, We Get On, Shit Song [Interlude].

Goose - Radiohead - In Rainbows
I struggled a lot with this one. It's a great album. The way they released it is better than anything that's been done in the music industry in a long time. I think I'll be listening to this album for years to come. At the same time, for me, it's on par with all the other 20 albums that I wanted to put on this list. In fact as I write this, I just want to change it to the Kevin Drew/Broken Social Scene album. I don't know. You've already heard all about it, I don't need to write more.

Dan & Kristen Smith from Listener

1. Explosions in the Sky – All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
2. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
3. El P – I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
4. Radiohead – In Rainbows
5. Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog

top fizzle...with a little help from my friends (chad)

i really should have decided on a top ten list, because there were a lot of really good albums released in 2007. these are a few that i have really enjoyed. and i should note: i want to hear what your top five are in 2007 (leave some comments). this isn't one of those reviews where i tell you what you just HAVE to go out and get. these are just cds that have meant a lot to me in 2007. speaking of hearing what others have to say, attached to my list are the lists of two friends. jimmy richards (drummer for brighten) and linsday stranigan from the militia group (she seems to have a new job or at the very least, new responsibilities every month so i'm not quite sure her title).

5. iron & wine - the shepherd's dog (sub pop)
what a year for sub pop. they've had such a great year i bet emi is going to buy them out and wreck the label (i pray the emi rumors aren't true). i've enjoyed iron & wine for a while now (not as long as my wife though) and i was worried when i heard his new cd, was, well, different. and it is different, but it's quite good. real good. it's so good that i bought a ticket for his show in salt lake later this week. an expensive ticket (expensive for me is anything over $15). any fan of iron & wine need not worry, the shepherd's dog is as solid as any of his other releases. favorite song: carousel - it haunts me in all the right ways.

4. radiohead - in rainbows (independent)
there's a whole lot out about this lil' record and there honestly should be. what radiohead did with this album has already made waves through the industry and will be studied for years to come in every music business night class. not to mention they're doing what rock is all about: thumbing their noses to the industry and conventions and doing their own thing. good thing they've got the music to back it up. favorite song: jigsaw falling into place - in 15 years when my child hopefully asks me about radiohead, i can truthfully turn to this song as a classic example of what radiohead was all about.

3. surrogate - love is for the rich (tooth & nail)
full disclosure: i'm a friend of surrogate's lead singer chris keane and have a strong affinity for all of his creative endeavors. that said, love is for the rich is still deserving of being in anyone's top 5 list. i spent two weeks in africa this summer and i listened to this album up until the night my ipod died and stayed dead until arriving back on american soil (note: don't try to sync anything to a computer in west africa). what's my point: well it's december and i just spent a whole week with love is for the rich in my car's cd player. surrogate's music possesses a rare ability to remain timeless. i had most of the demos from love a full year ago and am still listening to it. and i'm a ridiculously hyperactive music listener. favorite song: stay out of the sun - if tooth & nail were smart (and they're not), they'd pitch this song to movie types and it would fit perfectly in any type of coming of age tale with an indie bend (zach braff take note).

2. andrew bird - armchair apocrypha (wegawam/fat possum)
i know i'm supposed to say that armchair isn't as good asbird's last album, the mysterious production of eggs, but i actually like armchair better. songs like fiery crash, heretics, and simple x help armchair pop in a way that eggs never did (i still love it though, don't get me wrong). the lyrics from the songs heretics ("thank God it's fatal, thank God it's fatal") may be some of 2007's best. favorite song: heretics.

1. band of horses - cease to begin (sub pop)
rather than spend time writing about cease to begin, i'll just skip that so that this post will be that much shorter, thus allowing you to get to a local cd store that much faster. if you already own it, then you know exactly why it's on the top of my list. favorite song: the general specific and islands on the coast. ben birdwell's musical charm goes far beyond satiating just southern fans with southern style: he paints a southern mythology that all of us would like to see and be involved in.

honorable mentions:

explosions in the sky - all of a sudden i miss everyone
eisley - combinations
kate nash - made of bricks or foundations (or anything that she released in 2007)
as cities burn - come now sleep - (i'm as surprised as anyone else)
brighten- king vs. queen - (this really should be in my top 5)
menomena - friend and foe - (i promise sub pop isn't paying me (but it wouldn't kill them to send a few pre-releases yeah?))

biggest let down of 2007

jimmy eat world - chase this light

watching jimmy eat world perform during halftime of the mls cup confirmed it: they're bored with making music and as a result are making boring music. if they can't even pretend to like their new album, why should i?

so there's my 2007. i'm going to likely write a follow-up next week with my favorite songs and also a look ahead for what's being released in 2008 (sneak preview: the new frontiers will be your favorite new band this time next year).

here's jimmy richard's (drummer from brighten) top 5 from 2007:

1. radiohead - in rainbows
2. copeland - eat, sleep, repeat
3. eisley - combinations
4. m.i.a. - kala
5. colbie calliat – coco

and here is lindsay's (militia group awesomeness) top 5 from 2007:

1. m.i.a - kala
2. radiohead - in rainbows
3. menomena - friend and foe
4. band of horses - cease to begin
5. feist - the reminder

honorable mentions:
lovedrug - everything starts where it ends
avett brothers - emotionalism
tegan and sara  - the con
kanye west - graduation
beirut - the flying club cup

click here

click here to hear kanye west's remix of peter, bjorn and john's "young folks." it's amazing. click here to hear the original. also, the brobecks are great and we're always happy to have them play the cafe.

and since we're doing the whole hyperlink thing, click here to download a free b-side from surrogate.

today i found a friend who also likes kate nash. having friends like tim and paul always sailing the rough seas on the very edge of music is a great thing. they put in all the work and research to discover new artists while i'm asleep below deck. and when they find something, they're good to wake me up and give me a listen. i give them full credit for all the great music they bring to my attention.