It's around here Somewhere...

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I Can't help but Fell Queasy about Brandon Flowers' Solo Album


I don't know about anyone else, but I love The Killers. I don't care if you give me their early stuff like "Mr. Brightside" or their older stuff like Sawdust, I'll pretty much eat it right up. But with the coming release of The Killers' lead singer Brandon Flowers' new solo album. With the first taste of the solo effort being "Crossfire", I get a little uneasy because it feels like it's just The Killers, but without being called The Killers. It sounds a lot like a stripped version of "Read My Mind" and I don't know if I can accept Flowers on his own. Don't get me wrong, I actually like "Crossfire", but if this is what the entire disk is going to be like this, I will be less than encouraged to go out and get it.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Just Because it's Cool

I think it's safe to say that I am now obsessed with The Black Keys' new album Brothers mainly because the video for their single "Tighten Up"--a bluesy fest of cool--is just awesome.





Okay, admit it, you know that this video cost about 6 bucks to make.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Band of the Moment: Sleigh Bells

What happens when you clash the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metallica, Peaches, and most likely whatever is under Deadmau5's rodent mask? Brooklyn electroclash fuck-wreck Sleigh Bells. Their debut album, Treats, is a gigantic piece of raw noise-pop screeches with massively addictive vocals that will never leave your mind once they have been inserted like a turkey baster into the bird on Thanksgiving Day.

Sleigh Bells is remarkably edgy with refreshing new bloops and beats that will turn the best of us deaf from listening to it. Only at their lowest sourcing of being a nuisance do Sleigh Bells become fatigued, which is not very often on their disk. Every song is a slice of teenie-bopper jolt rolled into a cluster nugget of fresh vibes, which they evade being pretentious or under educated in their casual dance nature.

Their impeccable talent of being able to make you move is highly admirable in a new way that most bands have frequently failed at creating. I look forward to seeing what else they have before them in their bright future.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

I Know I Am Late, but I Needed Time to Really Evaluate: The Best Albums of 2009


10. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Everyone's favorite French guys lit up the peppy sound check with danceable synth tunes and impeccable vocals.

9. Girls - Album
Possibly one of the most oddly-looked at album of the year, Album by the San Francisco duo Girls (ironically two long haired guys) lights up the depressed party carrying along a mixture of Beach Boys sounds, with Morissey mentality.

8. The xx -xx
If you sit in a dark room while listening to one of the greatest debuts in the past decade provided by English newcomers The xx, you will fall deep into the synchronized hums and bleeps of a staggering four-piece feeling every second of the disk that is a silent boom of a step forward for the future of indie rock.

7. St. Vincent - Actor
It may have been St. Vincent's (alias of the wonderful Annie Clark) roaring guitar with mysterious lyrics clashed with the wonderfully sadistic mystical backing instruments that made this complex album ahead of it's time creatively, but I can speak for myself that it's when St. Vincent sends out the lyric like a dangerous siren in "Marrow": "Help Me".

6. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
With every word that Ed Drowste seems to spill out like smooth butter, the more and more you fall in love with his voice and the paradigm of the past musical traditions put into one brilliant album. "About Face" and "Two Weeks" bring in such different emotions, yet they stay true to their personal mission in their folksy work of genius.

5. The Horrors - Primary Colours
The Horrors did for shoegaze that The Strokes did for garage rock, they revitalized a monumental genre and made it reach a crowd that guarantees a beautiful near future. Primary Colours speaks in extremes with vague lyrics, and an even more vague personality that stands above all the rest with leadman Faris Rotter moving mountains with his blank slate of vocal expression that explains more about the group than if a band were to write an entire book on what they mean.

4. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Someone asked me, after checking out my obsession with Dirty Projectors being played out on Facebook, what kind of music that Dirty Projoectors play. I caught myself speechless. Bitte Orca delivers multiple styles ranging from easy listening pop, to country, to hard rock in a brilliant concoction that delivers with a large experimental vibe that loses you in its intellectual value. Your mind is saying yes as you stand back in awe at it. Also of note, Amber Coffman's stunning voice is perhaps one of the most darling things I have ever heard.


3. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
It's hard to believe that an actually good solo career could flourish, and Julian Casablancas is the one behind it. Casablancas interprets a Utopian 2042 with distress and modern angst matched with even higher chants and his absolutely legendary vocal appreciation. Glamorous dance hall electro beats power up a wonderous imagination of history and it all ends with a sorrowful realization that Julian so simply conveys. You can tell that it is a great album when I didn't have to mention The Strokes once, cant you?

2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion Animal Collective's beautiful Merriweather Post Pavilion showed everything that they can succeed at, which is layering synthesizers and other beats, and reckoning blockbuster status while still keeping an intimate and welcoming nature among others. "My Girls" will go down in history as such a magnum force of triumphant feat for love and everything that may prosper. Every track is an abundant oasis of sympathetic vibes with a hopeful outlook that succeeds even more then their previously known stature.

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
More bliss than blitz, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs changed sweetly this year in a testament to the dance floor and synth dreams while holding onto all of their previous heart. Karen O has always pushed the juxtaposition between banshee queen and poised darling, but she opts for both in this tremendous effort filled with as much remorse and girt with rocking charisma as their legendary debut.Nick Zinner's always-perfect-amount of synthesizer and Bryan Chase's heartbeat drums along with Karen O's guiding voice bring you to a land of unexpected fixed emotional roller coaster. The album has the rare power to pick you up in the beginning, then rock you to splendor all within the best fifty minutes of music recorded for 2009.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Model - Like.

As I stood with my hand above my mop that I call my hair yesterday morning in the lobby of my school where all the ghetto kids and scenesters catch up before failing their algebra classes, my friend mentioned the fact that everything I do, physically, makes me look like a narcissistic model.

I make sure my three-dollar, black wool coat always exposes about 6 inches of my vintage tee of some sort of bar in the late 60's. (by the way, the one I'm wearing now is for a place called "Ruckidee's"). I also stand with my legs crossed and with an iced-cold expression in the morning. I've seen my friends' evidence, in the form of pictures, I do stand like that...but trust me, it's not all on purpose. The way I dress--like a homeless hipster--is severely intentional. Everything else is inspired by my dislike for the place I am in and fueled by the desire for 2:25 to come. I am an A student, but I don't like it anymore than anyone else.

And another thing, just because my bangs make me look like Zooey Deschanel, it doesn't mean you can say I remind you of Kate Moss.

Band of the Moment: Harlem


I was in Newbury Comics last week for National Record Store day (more on that event later), and as I checked out, the music playing over the speakers caught my undivided attention. The last live band had just gotten offstage, and this coming over the stereo was much better. When I looked towards the register, the vinyl of Texan band Harlem's new album, "Hippies", was displayed above the laminated sign "Now playing". I instantaneously felt the feeling that everyone who loves music loves more than they love Daft Punk: "I think I have just found a new band".

When I got home, even before opening the cheap White Stripes album I had bought used, I went straight to youtube (thinking Harlem was too obscure to be on any downloading platform) to listen to the album.

The first song I listened to when I got to the website was "Someday Soon", a rattling, guitar-peppy filled, chant-like, ubercatchy song that I realized was the song that had caught my ear inside Newbury Comics. I immediately fell in love with their punky songs that sounded like they were recorded in their buddies basement. I was in complete indie rock heaven.

When I checked them out on Myspace, I found out that they were coming to Boston--in four days. Of course, they were going to be coming to Boston the night before I come back from spring break. I went to Boston on Friday morning, and on the train I noticed that they were featured in the concert calender of the Metro. My reaction was a fusion of giddiness and sad. It was only a ten dollar show--and I probably could have gone, but I figured that they were bound to come back someday soon. I honestly would not be too surprised if they end up playing Lollapalooza or Coachella next year. That, my friends, would be fantastic.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Lets get Physical

Lately, I have decided to be entirely alternative, and in this case, being someone from 1999; I am going to expand my wee album collection.

Yes, I am rejecting downloads. Well, for the most part. I will still be "buying" downloads, but I do want to be proactive with the physical object of a CD. This all kind of started last year when my friends got me all I wanted for my birthday, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz!. From then, I got a hint to start my collection. Christmas, and buying Vampire Weekend's Contra in January definitely got me going with all of this CD commotion.

Since then, albums from The White Stripes, Bloc Party, The Strokes, MGMT, Sonic Youth, and many others have followed. Anyone have any ideas on what I should get next?

"I liked them when no one knew them..."


It's possibly the worst thing to ever happen to an independent music lover: When your favorite, obscure artist gets discovered and goes totally mainstream.

Yes, it is like a dagger through the heart. It kills so badly. Most relevant example: La Roux's UK hit "Bulletproof". "Bulletproof" has been released for nearly a year, and now I hear my local pop station blasting it constantly. Even worse, the guy on the radio station says something so terrible: "That was some new stuff from La Roux!". NO IT IS NOT! It's been around forever!

But La Roux's case is nothing out of the ordinary. When does this not happen? Its been happening for years, including last year with Phoenix and Kings of Leon. Granted, I still enjoy listening to them, but the fact that they have become commercial fixtures sets me on edge. In a sense, all artists start out "underground", so this is the only way for any success to be withheld. But once a band creates such a cultural change in the independent market, it kind of rains on the indie parade when Fun 107 starts jamming them.

So tell me, all three of you who read this blog, has this annoyance ever happen to you before?

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Music Review: MGMT - "Congratulations"


After two years of the bulbs flashing, MGMT must have been planning to knock their catchy pop synth busters with shining anthem value image and try at the psychedelic rebellion.

"Congratulations" is nothing at all like their epic breakthrough album "Oracular Spectacular". "Oracular.." never strayed from a genius formula of synthesizer heartbeats and battle cry lyrics. "Congratulations" comes across greatly as the after party of all the fame. It is the riveting mountain-climb of a concept album which tells a story seemingly told through a drug addled Andrew VanWyngarden's weeping cry and humming put off into the distance."Oh Maryanne, pass me the joint." WynGarden whispers in a 12-minute dream "Siberian Breaks". From the flagship song "Flash Delirium" and an upbeat "Song for Dan Treacy", which are the most similar to Oracular's charm, to psycho-nuggets "I Found a Whistle" and the wonderful song of the same title as the album "Congratulations" sound like a '67 jam session.

"Congratulations", in a sense, is a perfect follow up. They stray from what's their boundries, and this may be their breakthrough. All I know is that the kids at Hot Topic are not going to be too happy with this new MGMT. A-


DOWNLOAD THIS: "Song for Dan Treacy" (and) "Congratulations".

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Band of the Moment: Yeasayer

It can't be too hard to make a catchy, synthpop gem, but Brooklyn jammers Yeasayer, and their new album "Odd Blood" make it look like a god damn science experiment.

Much like Animal Collective, noise wise, and Dirty Projectors experimental and harmony wise, Yeasayer deliver euphoric dance-hall supplements one after another without a break of sweat. It all goes down smoother than water. The album is so beautifully catchy and danceable, you'd think they were the second coming of Bowie.

Their thriving tour and numerous spots at festivals this Summer (Glastonbury, Lollapalooza) solidify the fact that they aren't gonna go down without swinging. And, God, I hope they do not turn into Passion Pit. So I beg you, Yeasayer, please do not make a commercial with any of the Palm phones. I beg you.

On a rainy Tuesday...Julian Casablancas Blows my Mind.

It was March the 23rd. A Tuesday. Pouring outside. My father, disabled from the night before accidentally cutting himself washing the dishes, begrudgingly takes me and my brother to Providence.

When my brother, Justin, and I got out of the car at the Providence Place mall at 5 P.M., it suddenly kicked in that when the doors opened at Lupo's at the Roxy at eight o' clock; only three hours away, I'd be seeing my idol Julian Casablancas rocking out. The feeling of anticipation was of a euphoric bliss and uber-nervousness, because this is what I wanted to become. I wanted to become that hipster indie kid listening to Felix Da Housecat in the back of my science class and seeing The Strokes' front man on a rainy school night. This night was an expected taste.

After eating 2nd-rate Chinese food from the mall (which ran me eight bucks, by the way) and walking around Border's, we decided to finally just walk over to Lupo's. It was 7 PM, and I was stoked. Only 6 college students were waiting in line; all in the rain. Luckily, I had an umbrella. Also, we also had entertainment. A production bus in front of Lupo's was for a pilot called something like " Night of Darkness". The scrambling crew was interesting enough to stop shuddering in the paralyzingly cold rain.

It's not 7 anymore, it's not 8, and the Lupo's workers are just letting us in. Of course, I got searched, and the just ran into the dance floor. There was no one, and I was right at the front row. I looked up, and saw that where I was standing was within reach of where Julian's mic would be. My stoke level was through the roof.

The opening act, a synth-dream of a band from Providence called "Triangle Forest" rocked the place. They were fantastic. I suggest you look for them on Myspace. During this, and the wait for the show, I got to do what is one of my favorite things at concerts: becoming friends with the people around you. Lets just say by the time Julian came on, I was 6 feet away from my brother and I was dancing with other people.

Okay. Here it is.

Julian came out around 10-ish. He came almost stumbling out singing one of my favorites from his new solo album, "Phrazes for the Young", "Ludlow St.". I knew every word, and Julian, a foot above my face could see it. I kinda felt special and apart of everything having that knowledge of who this was and what he represented.

The whole night turned into a blur of me screaming out to him and him walking around the stage singing these blissful songs of random long-notes. I swear I almost shit myself when the baseline for "Hard to Explain"--one of The Strokes' finest songs. And when this night couldn't get any better, I shot my hand out and yelled "Julian! You're my idol!". He did the best thing I could ever ask for: a nod and a genuine handshake. I was in heaven. How often do you get to shake one of your idols hands? "Yeah, I wrote that shit, I can play it" he said when he was through with the anthem.

Other covers from the Strokes and all his new, original solo stuff were absolutely terrific. With a sticker and a shirt from merchchandise, and that nod and my hand in which I went home and sprawled all over my "Is This It" record, I will always remember my night with Mr. Casablancas.



At the very end of the video, you see him nod and shake someones hand. That hand then shoots up into the air. Yeah, that's mine.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I am doing a Terrible Job

"Yes, yes you are" probably says the one person (I'm guessing a J.K. Rowling look alike grading my life) who actually visits this blog, but I mean in the sense of the fact that I have seen nearly no Oscar Bait movies this year.

Yeah, I did see 'The Hurt Locker' back in August, along with 'Precious', 'Up in the Air' and 'Avatar' in the past few weeks, but compared to last year, I am doing terribly. By this time last year, I had seen Slumdog thrice, Milk, Frost/Nixon, and even, wait for it, Man on Wire (also many, many others). I feel like I am uber deceptive to last-January Adam.

This year just feels so off. It's like this year is even more indie than any other year. Has anybody really seen 'An Education' yet? It hasn't even played anywhere is the 100 mile radius of my home. It's sad when Boston even denies playing it. It's 'funny because they probably won't even be played until after the Oscars. Hell, whats the point then? I would enjoy to actually watch the movies before the Oscars so I can even appear relevant; not when Toy Story 3 takes over the whole damn world.

Music Review: Vampire Weekend - "Contra"


When I took my biweekly venture to my local Newbury Comics a few days ago, I wasn't expecting my possibly Jewish (I'm so stingy with my cash, I seriously wouldn't be THAT surprised I had that much in common with Woody Allen) self to just drop cash on just anything. I had no CD or cult horror movie in mind to get; I was just browsing around to waste a Saturday. But when I found out that Vampire Weekend's long awaited disk "Contra" was the 'Wicked cheap deal of the week' at only $6.99, I really couldn't say no to that.

What I didn't realized until I got into my 2004 Honda Accord was that It also came with a special, 3 track disk of remixes, by Toy Selectah.

"Contra" expresses high and low of the Cape Cod-y band's style while staying true to their breakthrough, self-titled 2008 CD debut. The first released single, 'Cousins' is great fun with it's poppy overload of African-influenced guitar. The rest of the album seems to stray to less eventful, yet enjoyable soft melodies and tunes. The closing song 'I Think Ur a Contra' is a quiet hum of a beat and the best of the album.

Staying true (and even living up to) their epic debut is a tall order, but Contra seems to get the job done. B+

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Best Singles Of '09

10. Bat For Lashes "Daniel"
A beautiful talent in Natasha Kahn, and an even more haunting song and video to match.


9. Kid Cudi Ft. MGMT and Ratatat "Pursuit of Happiness"
The song that didn't leave my mind for 3 straight weeks that is too awesome with the coolest rapper ever, an Indie superstar duo and a New York guitarist.

8. Grizzly Bear "Two Weeks"
By far the best Ivy-league acapella themed songof the year by far.


7. St. Vincent "Marrow"
Annie Clark's, also known by her stage name St. Vincent, brings her mellow-ly roaring guitarwith her fantastic voice to make an all around drug of a song.

6. Julian Casablancas "11th Dimension"
The former Strokes lead man, and always too-cool-for-school rocker came back into the spotlight this year with this electro/rock debut for his solo career that is one of the best dance songs in the past few years.

5. Passion Pit "The Reeling"
Shouts and synth bliss is all in the Massachusetts natives first song from their debut album Manners is certain to get you onto the dance floor.

4. Lily Allen "Not Fair"
Certainly Lily Allen's best song brings out the best of her range and great backup synth.


3. Dirty Projectors "Stillness is the Move"
Sideways harmonies and melodies clash in this odd, yet precious song by the experimental New York band.

2. Phoenix "Rome"
Though the only song on the list never released, it is surely the shining joy from the French bands breakthrough album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix that brings out the best of all of Phoenix's qualities that make them so damn addictive.

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Zero"
The best song of the year is by far the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sweeping, almost epic dance theme. Karen O's cries; "climb, climb, climb, Higher!" are in paralyzing Studio 54 dance fashion while Nick Zinner trades in his Stratocaster guitar for a synth machine that seems to fit him just as well, if not more. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' anthem is simply outstanding.