Video: J Mascis perform three songs at Rolling Stone's SXSW showcase

Even more SXSW posts... This time it's J Mascis' turn, he performed at Rolling Stone's showcase at SXSW on March 16 and Rolling Stone have been kind enough to share three videos from the show. We've got videos of Mascis performing the Dinosaur Jr. classic "Little Fury Things" from their arguably best album, 1987's You're Living All Over Me, "Ammaring" from J Mascis + The Fog's 2000 album More Light and finally the title track from his recently released solo album Several Shades Of Why. Check them out below.

"Little Fury Things"

Video: Micah Schnabel - "Ex’s & O’s" & Shane Sweeney - “Legion”

You have definitely heard of SXSW, but you may not have heard of CXCW, or Couch By Couch West. It is basically a tumblr account who upload videos people send of themselves playing music at home, rather than at SXSW. Mostly it's just you're average guys sending videos but Micah Schnabel and Shane Sweeney of Columbus, Ohio rock band Two Cow Garage each recorded a video of themselves performing brand new songs for CXCW.

Two Cow Garage released one of the better records of 2010 with Sweet Saint Me, a great mix of The Replacements indie punk swagger and Lucero's rough alt. country sound, and in 2009 Micah Schnabel released his first solo record, When The Stage Lights Go Dim, which proves him to be one of the most underrated songwriters out there today.

Micah Schnabel - "Ex's & O's"

Introducing... Erland and The Carnival

This week I have been listening a lot to Erland and The Carnival, a British folk rock band formed in London. Some interesting information about the band is that the guitarist Simon Tong is a former member of The Verve. Simon Tong has also been involved working with Damon Albarn, in both Blur and Gorillaz. Then he was also a member of Damon Albarns' unnamed supergroup who released one album in 2007 titled The Good, The Bad and The Queen.
Erland and The Carnival have so far released two full-length albums. Their self-titled debut album was released on 25 January 2010 and the second one, Nightingale, was out 7th March this year. Below your can watch the videos for two of my favourite tracks. "Map Of An Englishman" is their first released single from Nightingale and "Trouble In Mind" is a track from the 2010 debut.

Listen: Yuck, Smith Westerns, James Blake & The Antlers sets from SXSW

The South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas is in full motion right now and from the looks of my twitter feed pretty much everyone is there, either performing or watching. The amount of great bands playing there is insane and we've got recordings of four of them; Yuck, Smith Westerns and James Blake sets from the first day of SXSW (March 16) and The Antlers performing their entire upcoming album Burst Apart from day two (March 17), all recordings thanks to the good people at NPR. Head over to NPR for a full list of all the sets they've got available.


Yuck - Live at SXSW, Austin, TX (March 16, 2011)

Setlist:
1. Holing Out
2. The Wall
3. Shook Down
4. Suicide Policeman
5. Get Away
6. Suck
7. Operation
8. Rubber

Listen here, or download the entire set here.


Smith Westerns - Live at SXSW, Austin, TX (March 16, 2011)

Listen here, or download the entire set here.


James Blake - Live SXSW, Austin, TX (March 16, 2011)

Setlist:
1. Unluck
2. Limit To Your Love
3. Klavierwerke
4. Lindesfarne II
5. The Wilhelm Scream
6. To Care (Like You)

Listen here.


The Antlers - Live at SXSW, Austin, TX (March 17)

Setlist:
1. I Don't Want Love
2. French Exit
3. Parentheses
4. No Widows
5. Rolled Together
6. Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out
7. Tiptoe
8. Hounds
9. Corsicana
10. Putting the Dog to Sleep

Listen here.

Video: Jack White perform "Not Fade Away" and "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground" on a parking lot at SXSW

Former White Stripes frontman Jack White made a surprise appearance at a parking lot in Austin, TX during SXSW yesterday, and performed two tracks in front of the Third Man Rolling Record Store, which is a part record store, part recording studio on wheels (more info on that here). White performed the Buddy Holly classic "Not Fade Away" and his own White Stripes tune "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground", from 2001's White Blood Cells, before giving the stage to Seasick Steve, who recently signed to White's Third Man Records. Seasick Steve will release You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks, his first record for Third Man in May (head over to One Thirty BPM for more details). Check out the video below.



(via NPR)

The best of... The Mars Volta

I was first introduced to Texas-based band The Mars Volta in the beginning of 2009 when they were announced to play at Arvikafestivalen in Sweden that summer. It's kind of hard to put a genre on their music, and I do think it's kind of unnecessary to try because their music is something else. They have the talent to mix a lot of different genres in the same song which make it hard to describe their music. So the only thing you can do is to listen to it and get your own opinion on it. It's really impressive.

In my opinion, the three best tunes from The Mars Volta:

“Cicatriz ESP”


“Halo Of Nembutals”


“The Widow”

Song of the day; Beach House - "Norway"

Song of the day today goes to Beach House with the song "Norway".

New David Bowie live album out on April 26

David Bowie will release a new live album called Birthday Celebration - Live in NYC 1997 on April 26 in the US. The album was recorded on Bowie's 50th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden on January 9, 1997 and features guest appearances from Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, Lou Reed, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, The Cure's Robert Smith and the Pixies' Frank Black. Check out the full tracklist below.

Tracklist for Birthday Celebration - Live in NYC 1997:
1. Little Wonder
2. The Hearts Filthy Lesson
3. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (with Frank Black)
4. Fashion (with Frank Black)
5. Telling Lies
6. Hallo Spaceboy (with Foo Fighters)
7. Seven Years In Tibet (with Dave Grohl)
8. The Man Who Sold The World
9. The Last Thing You Should Do (with Robert Smith)
10. Quicksand (with Robert Smith)
11. Battle For Britain
12. Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
13. I’m Afraid Of Americans (with Sonic Youth)
14. Looking For Satellites
15. Under Pressure (with Gail Ann Dorsey)
16. Heroes
17. Queen Bitch (with Lou Reed)
18. I’m Waiting For The Man (with Lou Reed)
19. Dirty Blvd. (with Lou Reed)
20. White Light/White Heat (with Lou Reed)
21. Moonage Daydream
22. All The Young Dudes (with Billy Corgan)
23. The Jean Genie (with Billy Corgan)
24. Space Oddity
25. Can’t Read

Tyler, the Creator to release Goblin on May 10

Tyler, the Creator of the extremely hyped LA-based hip-hop collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All will release his second studio album Goblin via XL Recordings on May 10. Goblin will be the first Odd Future release to get a retail release, since all of their albums have been released for free via their Tumblr page so far.

The picture above has been used for a ad for a few days and if you've clicked it you've been redirected to http://www.buffalo-bill.net/ where the release date is unveiled and you get to hear a short sample from the upcoming record. (via Pitchfork)

For once the hype around an act is truly deserved - Tyler, the Creator is one of the most impressive and exciting new acts for quite some time and what makes it even more impressive is that he is only 19 years old and writes and produces everything himself. Check out the video for the single "Yonkers" below, plus the live performance of "Sandwitches" from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by Tyler, the Creator and Hodgy Beats with The Roots.

"Yonkers"


"Sandwitches" Live on Fallon

MP3 + Video: First Aid Kit - HearYa Live Session

Swedish folk-pop duo First Aid Kit, sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, guested HearYa at Shirk Music + Sound in Chicago to record a live session during their US tour. They performed three tracks; "Hard Believer", "Ghost Town" and "I Met Up With The King", all from their latest record, 2009's The Big Black And The Blue.

The fine people over at HearYa published the session yesterday and included videos of the sisters performing "Ghost Town" and "I Met Up With The King". Check out the videos below and head over to HearYa to download the session, either as a zip-file or individual mp3s.

"Ghost Town"


"I Met Up With The King"


First Aid Kit revealed that they are currently working on their next record, which they hope will be out during 2011, when guesting a Swedish tv show in January. Also check out my photos of them opening for Bright Eyes in February here, and photos and a review from their support slot for Band Of Horses, also in February, here.

Stream: Grinderman - "First Evil"

A few weeks ago I wrote about Grinderman's upcoming Record Store Day 12" single for "Evil", from last year's Grinderman 2. The 12" will, besides the original version, include the "Michael Cliffe House Remix" by Factory Floor, the "Silver Alert Remix" by Grinderman and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds drummer Jim Sclavunos and Peter Mavrogeorgis (which features The National frontman Matt Berninger) and also "First Evil" which is Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' early demo for "Evil". Stream "First Evil" below, and for comparison we've got the album version of "Evil" too available.

"First Evil"


"Evil"

Video: Smith Westerns perform three tracks for Pitchfork's Special Presentation

Chicago garage glam rockers Smith Westerns performed three songs live in-studio for Pitchfork.tv's Special Presentation, and you can check out all three performances below. The songs they performed are "Weekend", "Imagine Pt. 3" and "Dye The World", all from their latest record Dye It Blonde, one of the better records of 2011. Dye It Blonde features the band moving away from the messy lo-fi of their debut album and sounds kind of like a mix between T. Rex, The Beatles and Deerhunter. Dye It Blonde is out now of Fat Possum Records.

"Weekend"

Full album stream: The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

There's been a lot of posts concerning British guitar band The Vaccines lately, and quite deservedly so since they're one of the few British hypes that actually live up to the fuzz (James Blake being another recent example). Their debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is out now, and while it's been awhile on Spotify for a couple of days we've got an online stream for all of you who don't have access to Spotify, just click the link below. What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is filled with short and sweet guitar rock, with audible influences including both the Ramones and '00s indie rock. Recommended.

Full album stream: The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

Also check out our photos from their live gig here in Stockholm two weeks ago here, stream the gig here, and read my fellow blogger lmvs review of the album here.

Album review: The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

The Vaccines released their debut album yesterday, on the 14th of March, but it was released on Spotify a few days earlier so I have had time to listen to it properly. According to me, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is no happy guitar-pop, mostly because the texts are quite sad and the music's kind of melancoly. It is a beautiful blend of faster, danceable and slower, ”hang-around-the-beach” tunes. Even though it has a melancholy tone, I get in a great mood while listening to it, so it has kind of an opposite effect. At least in my opinion. The second track on the album (also my favourite tune), ”If You Wanna”, is their latest single which were co-released with their debut album yesterday.

It's a really great album, better than I thought it would be. Love the name of the album too. I'll actually give them 9/10 for this album. Yes, it's that good!


Top three tracks:
”If You Wanna”
”Wetsuit”
”A Lack Of Understanding”
Listen to the whole album on Spotify here.

Stream: Futurebirds - "Wicked Game"

Alt. country/folk rock band Futurebirds are releasing a four-track ep called Via Flamina on April 1, via Aquarium Drunkard's Autumn Tone label, and we've previously presented you with streams of "Millstones" and their cover of Stevie Nicks "Wild Heart" (both have since been taken down). Today we've got a stream of "Wicked Game" for you, a cover of Chris Isaak's hit from his 1989 album Heart Shaped World. Listen to "Wicked Game" and check out the tracklist for Via Flamina below.

Ryan Adams announce European solo tour in June

Ryan Adams revealed that he is finally returning to the stage properly; by a post via his Facebook account he announced a European solo tour for June, including the tour premiere here in Stockholm, which I will undoubtedly attend. I don't think I've been this excited for a gig in a long time. Check out his entire post, including the tour dates, below.

"I wrote some new tunes this winter on my acoustic guitar. I think I'd like to play them for whoever wants to hear them. Please don't yell at me.

Friday, June 10, 2011 Stockholm, Sweden Cirkus
Saturday, June 11, 2011 Oslo, Norway Folketeatret
Monday, June 13, 2011 Malmö, Sweden The Consert House
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Copenhagen, Denmark Koncerhauset
Thursday, June 16, 2011 Lisbon, Portugal Aula Magna
Friday, June 17, 2011 Porto, Portugal Teatro Sa Da Bandeira
Monday, June 20, 2011 London, UK Barbican
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 Brighton, UK Dome
Thursday, June 23, 2011 Manchester, UK Bridgewater Hall
Saturday, June 25, 2011 Glasgow, UK Academy
Sunday, June 26, 2011 Oxford, UK Oxford New Theatre
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 Amsterdam, Holland Concertgebouw"

The photo above was also included in the post.

Full album stream: The Strokes - Angles

So after a long wait The Strokes' fourth studio album is finally available to the public, and you can stream the entire album below. Angles sees The Strokes moving away from their traditional sound on a couple of the tracks and including influences from other genres, with mixed results. Check it out.



Angles will be released on March 22 via RCA.

Stream: The National - "Think You Can Wait"

The National have recorded a song for the soundtrack of the upcoming Tom McCarthy-directed film Win Win which will see its proper US release on March 25. The song is called "Think You Can Wait" will play over the credits of the film, and it's a beautiful mellow track featuring backing vocals from Sharon Van Etten. The track was recorded at the recording studio of Aaron Dessner, guitarist of The National, and was produced by Peter Kadis who co-produced the band's 2007 album Boxer. Check it out yourselves below.



(via Twenty Four Bit)

UPDATE: so apparently the track has been taken down/set to private, but you can listen to it here, or download it here instead, for the time being.

UPDATE2: We've got a new Soundcloud stream available, again via Twenty Four Bit, who got it from Some Kind Of Awesome.

Video: Kurt Vile & The Violators on Pitchfork's Don't Look Down

So I'm kinda behind on actually checking out these videos since they been up since last week, but anyway: Kurt Vile and his band The Violators performed four songs for Pitchfork's Don't Look Down series where the bands perform on a rooftop. And since this was recorded in February it doesn't look like it was particularly warm. The band performed "Jesus Fever", "Runner Ups", "On Tour" and "Ghost Town", all from Vile's brand new album Smoke Ring For My Halo which was released last week on Matador Records. Check out the performance below.

"Jesus Fever"

Video: Middle Brother perform three songs at the Rolling Stone office

Last week I posted videos of Okkervil River performing two songs at the offices of Rolling Stone magazine, and this week it's Middle Brother's turn. The newly formed folk group released their self-titled debut record on March 1 via Partisan Records and are currently touring the US (dates here).

The trio consists of John McCauley of Deer Tick, Matthew Vasquez of Delta Spirit and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, and they performed three tracks at Rolling Stone; "Blue Eyes", "Middle Brother" (on which they're joined by Jonny Corndawg) and "Thanks For Nothing". View all three videos below, plus an interview with the band.

Live review + photos: Glasvegas, Live at Kägelbanan, Stockholm, Sweden 2011.03.07

On Monday the 7th March the complete birds need feet-crew went to Glasvegas' gig at Kägelbanan in Stockholm, Sweden. Glasvegas have only released one album so far, their self-titled debut in 2008, but have a second one coming out on April 4 called EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\.

After the hype that surrounded their debut they have a lot to prove musically, and that they still deserve the huge fuzz and buzz that's been going on around them. Still, some things have changed since 2008. Frontman James Allan is no longer dressed in complete black, but in all-white instead and he has also changed his Ray-Ban sunglasses for a pair of John Lennon-inspired ones. The band also has a new drummer; Swedish Jonna Löfgren who during the gig proves that she really deserves the job.

As I had only heard the two first singles from the new album, "The World Is Yours" and "Euphoria, Take My Hand", I was very excited to hear some more new material this evening. But I couldn't have been more disappointed. They only played three songs from the new album, including the two singles and the only unheard song was "Shine Like Stars". But as this is a small tour before the album release I understand that they cannot reveal as much as I would have hoped. Kägelbanan is a very small venue if you compare with the stage they played on the last time I saw them live here in Stockholm, when they played at Cirkus back in 2009. I honestly think they deserve a bigger stage than Kägelbanan, and in May they are playing at Annexet here, which is about six times the size of Kägelbanan.

Their bombastic sound does not come to it's best in a club gig, but despite that Glasvegas always deliver! James Allan's voice is so delicate but still powerful - you don't know if it's going to last throughout the whole song, but as always, it does! In summary, this is still the old Glasvegas I loved back in 2009. The three new songs show that they still have great musical potential. This year I think I'll probably go see them live again, or I know for sure that I will.

8/10