Wednesday, January 21, 2009

On The Lookout: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart


This band from New York brings back the lush, dreamy-guitar pop of 80's bands such as The Smiths and mixes a bit of shoegaze like My Bloody Valentine in the production of their sound. It's like the heartwarming feeling of a beautiful, sunny day.

Their S/T debut comes out February 3rd and if you pre-order from Insound you can download their almost out-of-print EP for free.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Ableton announces Live 8/I wish I had more money


I started to use Ableton Live 7 about a year ago and I really can't recommend it enough for people looking to get into recording and using the program not only to record compositions you have made but also to intuitively on the fly make up new things/try out interesting ideas. They've just announced their new one and it looks awesome. Go to their webpage and check out all the videos on it.

Also, Akai made a midi controller dedicated specifically for Live:



[Ableton Site]
[APC 40]

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Crescent City Radioshow Plug: Indielicious


Every Tuesday from 11pm-Midnight, I will be broadcasting my online radioshow Indielicious through Crescent City Radio. The main point of the show like this blog is to open up people to a variety of artists that aren't typically heard through the mainstream media. If you are an artist that wants your stuff played feel free to send me an email and if you have Facebook then join the group.

Also much thanks to Mike Brady for the awesome flyer.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

News Recommendation Site: ShortFormBlog


For those of you who like to browse news that is short and to the point, this is a great new website dedicated to just that. It also has a nice, sleek design.

[ShortFormBlog]

Friday, January 9, 2009

Grandcrew Posts Ratatat Concert

Grandcrew is a website that puts up full length concert videos (in good quality too) of a mix of European and indie labeled bands. They've posted an awesome set from Ratatat and have plenty of other cool concerts on their site so check them out.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP


This four track EP starts right where Bon Iver's debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, left off. A bit dark and low-key, the guitars steadily build on the opening title track as Justin Vernon's powerful yet tender voice harmonizes along. His vocals are the focal point of this band and I doubt the music would be nearly as heartfelt and engaging without it. On this EP they try some new things such as the use of a repetitive piano riff on "Babys" and a vocoder acapella song, "Woods" that reminds me a bit of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek." At first I thought the vocoder was a bit much since Vernon already has an excellent voice but the lush multiple harmonies that end the song completely reversed my opinion of it.

Blood Bank sits as a solid companion to Bon Iver's debut. The songwriting indicates a move toward a full on band sound while still sticking with the intimate, warm production that characterizes their style and lastly Justin Vernon's voice never gets old.

[Stream Blood Bank EP]
[Buy Blood Bank EP]

Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Mono Track


Japanese post-rockers Mono are releasing a new album, Hymnn to the Immortal Wind, via Temporary Residence Limited on March 24, 2009. They've posted the first track to the album, which continues to prove that Mono is one of the best bands in the genre. They escape the monotony of post-rock by just simply createing gorgeous, euphoric music and being damn well good at it.

[Download Mono - Ashes in The Snow]
[Mono Myspace]