Surfer Blood, “Catholic Pagans”
I’ve seen so many bands that sound kind of like Surfer Blood recently—vintage-inspired lo-fi indie pop that sounds like it’s recorded half-underwater—that I may actually have seen them and not known it. That’s not to say that I don’t like the trend, I’m just saying that it’s everywhere, and sometimes I find it difficult to tell the difference between them, Holiday Shores, Real Estate and other similar landscape-inspired bands. The redeeming grace is that it’s good, fun, emminently listenable music. I just wish I could enjoy it on a beach, as was intended, rather than my dreadful morning subway ride (the worst).
Max Tundra, “Which Song” (Passion Pit remix)
Just that song/artist description alone signals that there will be lots of bleeps and blips and soulful electro pop made by dudes who are good with computers. And it’s right! I love that the remix craze has pretty much caught up to the pace of music today, so that as soon as you hear a great song (this Max Tundra track is a whopping one year so old) there are already half-a-dozen remixes that make it even more complicated, and sometimes even better.
(Don’t forget the strangely compelling video for the original song, which features a guy running around an apartment building wearing a Ben Folds Five t-shirt and headphones, stopping to check out randomly placed trays of sushi and play the keyboard on his leg hair. It’s like looking into a mirror, right?)
Mumford and Sons, “Little Lion Man”
For anyone like me just catching the wave of British folk (yes, they’re into folk now, go figure), Mumford and Sons is a delightfully poppy example of what the Brits can do when they set their mind to co-opting our country sound. They’re also playing at at CMJ showcase, for anyone in the neighborhood—Mercury Lounge on Wednesday, and Music Hall of Williamsburg on Thursday.
Mike Snow, “Cult Logic”
Mike Snow sounds enough like Passion Pit that it’s a pretty safe bet that everyone who likes the new Passion Pit album is going to like this song. And I assume that everyone likes Passion Pit now; you can’t walk into a trendy chain retail store without hearing at least half a dozen tracks off of it. But it’s still catchy and fun, and I vastly prefer it to the millionth rerun of “Pokerface” (sorry, Lady Gaga fans, I know you have your reasons).
Built to Spill, “Planting Seeds”
Few bands consistently do it for me like Built to Spill, and I’m super psyched to get my hands on a real copy of their new album on Tuesday (it’s up for streaming on their Myspace, although in frustratingly way-low quality). I’m going to resist the urge to quote all the memorable lines from this one at you, just this one: “Just because you love something/doesn’t mean it’s yours to buy.” Fortunately for all of us with functioning bank accounts and band crushes, that isn’t true.
Sunny Day Real Estate, “Seven,” on Jimmy Fallon
Hey now! It’s hard to tell what’s better about this video: that Sunny Day Real Estate is playing this song on my TV (or computer, whatever), or that Jimmy Fallon seems just as excited to see these guys as I was. Either way, if you ever wondered what emo sounded like before the genre became synonymous with sad (and suck), then check it out.
Bon Iver - Skinny Love (Live at Hollywood Cemetary Sunrise Show)
Bon Iver did a show at 6AM at the Hollywood Cemetary last Saturday. I’m sure this was an incredible show.
Gay Talese on getting drunk at The New York Times, via BigThink.com
Mr. “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold” himself tackles how a newsroom, back in the day, made Mad Men look like a kindergarten classroom. Maybe the Internet isn’t causing the Great Decline Of Journalism; maybe it’s an overreliance on sober people? Yeah, let’s go with that.
Girls, “Substance,” on Pitchfork’s Don’t Look Down series
Let me tell you about the time I saw Girls. They were opening for Los Campesinos! at Union Pool not too long ago, and I had no idea who they were. But boy, did they look exactly the way they look in this video, down to the exact same clothes and hair and hipster posturing. The music was fantastic. The antics were less so, with the lead singer stopping every song to be fussy with his guitar and then one of the members walking off stage in an apparent snit two songs from the end.
But everyone stays in this time, which is a relief. It’s very beachy, lots of reverb, and of course a lot of hair.
Clues, “You Have My Eyes Now”
I think Videogum said it best: Can Tim Heidecker be in and/or direct all of the music videos now? But a word of warning: This video is probably way too weird for work, unless you don’t mind being caught watching a husky guy feel up a mannequin.
By way of background, Clues is some monosyllabic mashup consisting of certain Islands and Arcade Fire members, so, you know, Canadian and indie and all that.
