New song from the Dodos: 'Fables'

Haven't had much time to update over the past week or two, but I haven't been too busy to listen to music. Here's what I found yesterday:



Be sure to watch it soon, as it's one of those Pitchfork Special Presentations that is only posted on their site for a week. I imagine you have until June 7 to listen on repeat. Enjoy :).

Listen of the week: Lykke Li, White Rabbits, new Passion Pit

I'll probably have a chance to shed more light on these listens later this week, but I wanted to share them now while I'm all pumped up about them.

First, my friend brought over the Lykke Li debut album, Youth Novels, last Friday for a dinner party at my house. I had never heard of this Swedish lady, but my friend promised that I would like her music, and indeed I do. When I asked my friend what Lykke Li sounds like, she told me it's along the same lines of indie electronica like Passion Pit and Peter Bjorn and John, and I was in immediately. The key to the PB&J sound is that Youth Novels was actually produced by Bjorn. I'm blessed to have such a good friend and to live in a world where I can listen to this.

I honestly can't even tell you how many times I've heard about White Rabbits in the past month, but I just tonight heard the band for the first time. The drum intro on "Percussion Gun" is instantly reminiscent of Bow Wow Wow's "Aphrodesiac" and Adam and the Ants' "Kings of the Wild Frontier." Thankfully, the White Rabbits song gets more original as the song progresses, and turns into something I'm going to be giving a closer listen to over the next few days. Check it here:



Lastly for now, the new Passion Pit CD, Manners, came out today. Last night the fellows kicked it SNL digital short style with their CD release party on a boat- yes, they were on a boat! Sweet. I hope to bring you some sort of news about that in the next few days. Til then, I keep listening to Passion Pit on repeat, in between plays of Lykke Li's "Little Bit," and my favorites so far are "Moth's Wings" and "The Reeling." I guess I'm on to something, because "The Reeling" seems to be the new single. Here's the music video released a few weeks ago:

Review of the week: Camera Obscura- My Maudlin Career

Camera Obscura has always been a throw-back to the happier times of pop rock history, but on their new album, My Maudlin Career, they do classic rock’ n’ roll in a way that seems to stand out with it’s back a little straighter than all the other classic rock throw-backs.

Songs like “French Navy” and “The Sweetest Thing” are dripping with sugary sweetness that is very upfront about the album’s pop roots and intentions, with rousing tambourines, keys and strings and beautiful melodies that make the coldest of hearts melt. But then the lyrics freeze everything back up in a way unique to contemporary lyricists, such as artists like Cat Power or Jenny Lewis. “I wanted to control it/ But love, I couldn’t hold it” (“French Navy”), or “I'm going on a date tonight/ To try to fall out of love with you/ I know, I know this is a crime/ But I don't know what else to do” (“The Sweetest Thing”).

Then, there are the hopeless tragedies of songs like “You Told a Lie” and “Away With Murder” that just make you think of The Crystals and the same sort of irony that went along with “He Hit Me.” This is where listeners start to really get a sense that the songs are about the band members and troubles they're having on the road, too: “People have been traveling miles just to hear us sing/ It's a February night and I don't want to feel anything” and “Oh it's been hard to be strong with all of this going on/ Yeah it's been hard to be strong with all of this going on/ I have been lonely too, like you/ I'm just like you.” You start to get a sense that the maudlin career is actually that of the individuals in Camera Obscura.

By the way, “maudlin” is known as an alteration of Mary Magdalene, who is known for weeping often, and the direct meanings are: 1. to be drunk enough to be emotionally silly and 2. weakly and effusively sentimental. To have a “maudlin career” is kind of a wild approach to thinking about a profession. This might mean that someone is a bad actor, or that someone is Britney Spears, for example.

The best insight we’ll get about Camera Obscura’s take on a maudlin career is probably from listening to the title track, “My Maudlin Career,” which starts out with incredibly whimsical keys and builds a steady pace with that heavy dose of cymbals, tambourine, and classic percussion that reminds you of the good old days. There is something very lamenting about the tempo and about the crooning vocals that seem to be weeping in true Magdalene style, via Tracyanne’s Scottish voice. She starts off with typical things about crushes crushing, but then in a delightful play on words she gets into the heart of a maudlin career: “I harbored worried feelings/ Like they were worth protecting/ You say I'm too kind and sentimental/ Like you could catch affection.”

Suddenly, things start to come together, and the album never looses sight of a deeper sense of sadness cushioned by the bubblegum pop music that delivers the sad news. You start to wonder which came first: the idea for the album title or the actual songs and lyrics. Maybe one day I’ll get a chance to ask them this question.

Listen of the week: Camera Obscura

I'll post more in depth thoughts later this week, but for now I just wanted to share with anyone who will listen that the new Camera Obscura album, My Maudlin Career, is absolutely delightful. It's well-rounded, a pleasant mix of old-school pop sound and new-age sarcastic lyricism that as a whole package is a beautiful work of art. Think the Crystals and Elvis Costello meet Fiona Apple.

For now, enjoy this music video for "French Navy." It's the first track on the new album.



Also, Camera Obscura on Twitter: @camera_obscura_

Under a rock?

Well, you must have been if you didn't hear anything about or by The Dodos last year, but just in case, here is the actual video for "Fools." It's pretty BA.

The Dodos Drink Miller Chill? Part 2! And Santogold w/Bud Light Lime

Finally found a video for you of the The Dodos' song "Fools" featured in the newest Miller Chill commercial:



Also, since I saw/heard about this Miller Chill commercial, I've also seen Bud Light Lime commercials (Bud Light's answer to Miller Chill) with the Santogold songs "Lights Out" and "Fine Tune." For now I just have video for "Fine Tune," but I think the ad with "Lights Out" is more artsy.



I wanted to know which of the beers was cool enough to have an alt band ad first, and it seems Bud Light had Santogold on in May 2008. I pretty much always prefer Miller to Bud, and I don't think either of these commercials will really persuade me to pick either Miller or Bud over, say, Magic Hat #9, but I think it's a nice coincidence that The Dodos are in the commercial for the beer I prefer. Now I at least have something cool to say about the beer.

New live Grizzly Bear footage, get excited!

Hi folks, look what I just found:

Slightly sketchy looking video footage (notice the odd look when Chris Bear is playing the drums), but beautiful sounding audio at the same time, of Grizzly Bear playing "While You Wait for the Others," a track from their soon-to-be-released Veckatimest.



Everyone has been buzzing/blogging/downloading about this album for the past two months because the album leaked. Which sucks for G. Bear, and kinda sucks for humanity because it says interesting things about what we've become. These guys are making truly great art and we can't just fucking calm down long enough for them to officially finish it and present it to the world on their own terms? Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly calmly awaiting the release date, because I am way hyped about the album, especially after falling completely in love with Department of Eagles earlier this year.

I need to really get on top of pre-ordering the album on vinyl because within the past week I've turned into a vinyl head. Yes, that's what I've been doing instead of posting on my blog, I've been listening to actual records, and let me tell you- it's been an enlightening experience. I now "get" what people meant when they said that things just sound better in actual record format. How cool that people were right and not crazy! Or maybe now I'm just crazy with them.

Anyways, I'm sure that Veckatimest is one of those albums that is going to be great sounding and then even greater sounding on vinyl, and I think I'm going to have a listening party. Listening parties have become pretty trendy lately, because people can't afford multiple albums/download them anyways, so they need some sort of resource or live listening experience to let them know which albums they would like to either spend their time downloading or money purchasing. But then, they're just fun times when you have a specific album and a particular group of people excited about that album, and you're all listening to it for the first time together. Now, let's all hold hands and sing Grizzly Bear together.

Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest, available for US purchase May 26 via Warp. Preorder on the Grizzly blog.

Nightly Update: The Dodos drink Miller Chill? and Taking Back Sunday take back my heart.

Two things to discuss tonight.

First, I just heard that The Dodos have their song "Fools" featured in a new Miller Chill commercial. This is sort of weird. I met Meric last year and he doesn't really seem like the sort of dude who would want to be in a Miller Chill commercial. He was drinking whiskey and tall boys. It just doesn't seem very "alt," as my homies at Hipster Runoff would say. But then alt=mainstream these days I guess. I don't think they've lost their hipster cred, they still effing rock balls off.

Second, I heard earlier today the new Taking Back Sunday song, "Sink Into Me," and experienced the '00s equivalent to a '60s dad flashback. See, in the middle of my last 4-5 years of hipsterness, it was perceived to be "uncool" to listen to Taking Back Sunday because it was emo and generally not as hip as Animal Collective. It is poppy, and unoriginal, and catchy, and for all of those reasons I loved songs like "Makedamnsure," and because songs like that just made me feel things in song format that I was sure I had felt in my gut long before but had no proper way for expressing.

Because it was uncool, I listened to Taking Back Sunday in secrecy. Well, the new song seems to catch up with me in my current hipster state, drawing on things I love about bands like Tokyo Police Club and joining them back up with the same old familiarity of those TBS songs that got me through lonely and frustrated nights in suburbia. And I guess now I'm in a place where I feel secure enough in my hipsterness to say hey, I know that TBS is mainstream, but I like them, and I'm not mainstream. I just like how it makes me feel, man.

Which is why I've been listening to "Sink Into Me" on repeat for the last three hours straight. The punk guitar riffs blend into some sort of subtle dance beat that is all over the music scene right now, but somehow with TBS this all seems way more genuine than it does with bands like The Killers, Cute is What We Aim For, and all of that other crap. The lyrics are seriously to die for, in a way that is tragic, romantic, violent, sadistic, all at the same time, just like every other TBS song I've loved in the past.

I'd like to be a note
The kind you could sing
But don't because you're shy
That way I'll live inside your throat
And hang from every word you spoke."

I don't care if it's emo, I effing want to listen to it all the time, and I think you should listen to it at least once.

Taking Back Sunday- "Sink Into Me"


The new TBS album, New Again, will be released legally June 2, sooner for leakers, and there should be a music vid for "Sink Into Me" coming out soon. Til then, this is the best I could do to post directly on the site. Check out the TBS MySpace for others.

Live Review: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Last Friday was the show I'd been waiting for since the start of 2009: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at the Summit (in Columbus, yo). The event lived up to all expectations, save for all of the rain that was coming down outside. Inside, local band Tin Armor started things off with some good energy and a decent crowd, considering they were the first of three bands to play. This was my second time seeing Tin Armor, the first being at the Columbus Alive Bands to Watch in 2009 show back in January. Really nice fellows, and they're nice looking, too.

Then Zaza took over the stage with lots of downtown New York black clothing style going on and super bright white spotlights on the floor of the stage pointing out at the crowd. It was a surreal experience, catering directly to those who like to watch music totally spaced out, either naturally or drug-induced style. The music seems to be highly influenced by Radiohead, circa Kid A, Hail to the Chief (esp. "There, There") and Amnesiac. I highly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone currently into the shoegazing movement (think: m83+Radiohead).

Whilst all of this was going on onstage, I noticed that Kip from the Pains was just hanging out at the merch table with another dude helping him sell the merch, who interestingly had a copy of Moby Dick on the table that he "just started reading while on the road, because it's good reading for starting and stopping." I was a liiiitle shy at this point of the show, so I just talked to Johnny from Tin Armor and then squeezed my way up to the front for the rest of the Zaza set and to get a good spot for The Pains.

It paid off, and I was in the front, allowing these fun photos to be taken:



The show was at first kind of what I'm deeming the stereotypical Columbus hipster show- everyone is all excited for the show, but then you could hardly tell this is the case judging from how everyone just politely bobs their heads to the beat and applauds when appropriate. The music was great and I could feel the energy building to the point where if someone started dancing, the rest of the room would, too. Luckily, Danny J did just that, and dancing ensued for the last 3-4 songs, to the delight of the band. Peggy announced that if anyone knew of any good "keggers" that they should let them know. Cute.

Generals: Kip has a very, very firm handshake. Peggy and her bangs are SUPER cute. Some of the people who are playing/touring with Zaza are also playing with The Pains while on the road. LPs and T-shirts are only $10!

Looking forward to seeing them next at Pitchfork Music Fest in July. Check out the rest of their tour stops here.

Found Friday

I think I'll start doing something on Fridays, like posting something I found throughout the week. For this week, I found a video on Pitchfork today that is one I've been hearing about all week: the new Matt & Kim music video for "Lessons Learned" off their latest release, Grand, in which the couple runs through Times Square first in complete winter gear, stripping down until they are naked. I mean, butt naked, both of them. Then, the police attempt to arrest them, or maybe just grope them, but they make an escape that looks in no way narrow- Kim just eases out of the officers grip, but then...I won't tell you what happens at the end, don't want to spoil the element of surprise.

Matt & Kim "Lessons Learned"


More Matt & Kim.

m83- 'We Own the Sky'

Today is apparently the day for me to see new music videos. Here is the latest from m83, "We Own the Sky." The song is pretty sweet, but I got bored after about 30 seconds and wondered off into the Internets with the song still playing, and came back in time for an ending that looks cool but which makes no sense because I skipped the rest of the vid. Will try again later, hope you have better luck with your attention span.

(Possibly) New Music Vid for 'Young Adult Friction'

This was posted to Pitchfork.tv yesterday, and it seems that it might be something like the official music video for the Pains of Being Pure at Heart single "Young Adult Friction." This song is catchy as hell and certainly sounds like spring to my ears.

The video starts out with main lady Peggy reading a copy of "Ghosts Among Us," and takes on a true Brooklyn-ite house show feel--playing with toy dinosaurs, sitting on couches, apartment lighting, fuzziness, the whole thing screams "hipster." Which I love. There's the vague look of an Arcade Fire video, but the sound is a new pop-punk-lo fi beast and the actual video is much less theatrical. All around, this video seems to really capture the playful at heart vibe that you get from listening to this actual song with only audio to guide you. The video hints randomly at childhood subjects, like toy animals, reading library books, tons of friends cramming onto one couch, and how awkward it was when you first started hanging out with boys AND girls.

Enjoy!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs update

According to ticketmaster.com, tickets for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs show at the Newport in Columbus,Ohio, on May 28 will go on sale at 10:00a.m. this Saturday, May 2, for $23.00.

There was only one price posted on the ticketmaster.com site, so I assume this means it's general admission. You can probably skip the Ticketmaster fees if you get to the Newport, but I would get there early- a lot of people in this city are already excited, and want to save a buck or two.

Heck Yeah!

This just in: CD101 presents the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in Columbus, Ohio, at the Newport Music Hall May 28. Tickets on sale Saturday, May 2.

Oh man! I want to be there. Will post prices as soon as I hear about them. Till then watch the latest video for "Zero."

Sounds like Summer

The other day a friend and I were discussing how a piece of music can take on a whole new life when listened to during the transition from winter to spring. It's really a magical experience- listening to songs you loved in the cold months, wearing sweaters, and then one day you've got the windows open, the curtains are billowing, the music is bumping, and it hits you--"ooooh man, THIS is what this is supposed to sound like!"

There are also those albums that make me instantly think of summer, probably because they were first a part of my life during warm times. Both are cool, and lately I've been making a mental note of such bands/songs/albums. To continue with my list post tradition of late, here is my list of Songs that Sound Better During Warm Weather.

John Mayer- "Why Georgia"
To be honest, now adays I don't give John Mayer much time out of my day. But last night I heard "Why Georgia" played somewhere randomly and I was instantly flashed back to the summer when I was 15 and my girlfriends and I first got Room for Squares. One of them got a new Dodge Neon that summer, and it was a big "ironic thing" for us to drive around listening to track 5, "Neon." Yeah, we were cool. We were 15, we were girls, and we went to see John Mayer. Actually, we met his band while we were having lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cleveland before the show at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a part of this MTV2 summer concert series- I think we're on TV somewhere. And, my escalator (going up) took me immediately past John Mayer (going down the opposite escalator), where I took a picture this picture:



Anyways, I heard "Why Georgia" last night and it was the first really warm night of the season, and life just felt like it was all in place.

"Everybody is just a stranger
But that's the danger
In going my own way,
I guess that's the price I'm going to pay every day."



Band of Horses- "Island on the Coast"
This song is great for summer road trips, especially with the windows rolled down. I think it really explains itself and it's summeriness, just give it a listen:



Vampire Weekend- "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
Really, any song from their debut self-titled album is summer-ific. However, something about "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" just makes me want to sit around with hipsters in striped bathing suits on a beach drinking PBR. With beach balls and bikes. This song also captures the friskiness of spring in a very...honest way. You'll see what I mean:



The Pains of Being Pure at Heart- "Gentle Sons"
There's just something epic going on here, reminds me of the same building intensity of waves and of my home watering hole, Lake Erie.



Led Zeppelin- "Gallows Pole"
I got Led Zeppelin III in my freshman year of college at Ohio University. I immediately connected with this Zeppelin album more than others, but then spring time hit, and let me tell you, it hit hard. I remember drinking a lot, studying a lot, all while being in the sun a lot, and being dehydrated at frequent intervals. All the while Zeppelin III was playing in any way I could make it play, whether over real audio or just constantly in my head. This album as a whole is really great when listened to outdoors, especially "Gallows Pole," which has a crazy mystical and almost western/southern film sense to it, and all around sounds heartwarming. Check out this video of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page playing it, with Robert giving a brief telling of the history of the song at the beginning:



Peter Bjorn and John- "Up Against the Wall"
This song is connected to another college memory, this time a not so optimistic one, but one that is certainly reflective of how instrospective and emotional I tend to become when the warm weather of May hits. In "Up Against the Wall" the melancholy, repeated melody is met by the ultimate match of equally melancholy and repeated lyrics, emphasizing the sensual violence often felt in the discontent between two lovers. It seems to be the great embodiment of spring's sexual tension- with utter abandoment and cyclical masochism, "Up Against the Wall" is the perfect song to follow the track immediately before it, "Start to Melt." Someone on YouTube was kind enough to host a video of both songs playing back to back, check it here:



Happy springtimes everybody!

D.

What? That came out last year?!

Even the biggest music connoisseurs miss things, and I will be the first to admit that there are a few bands/albums/songs from 2008 that I have only stumbled across so far in 2009. I'm as shocked as you are that I hadn't heard some of this stuff until now, but it's never too late to discover the music, and I hope you find something of your own to discover in this list of Things Dana Didn't Hear Until 2009 (and is now in love with). (Part 1)

Department of Eagles.
This video for "No One Does It Like You" is the first for the sophomore release from Daniel Rossen's (Grizzly Bear) side project.



The album In Ear Park came out on October 7, 2008, but it didn't grace my ears until late January 2009. I owe this discovery in large part to my Metromix Columbus producer, Justin Powell, who tried and tried to talk me into seeing DOE when they passed through Cbus in January, but I thought the name of the band sounded contrived so I resisted giving it the time of day. And then I was bored and thought I'd check it out, some MySpacing happened, and I fell in love. Hard. Seriously--I only have one DoE album in my library and already the band has shot up to my 4th most listened to band slot on Last.fm, out of 31572 songs played. Yikes.

The music is a lot like Grizzly Bear, but for me it seems to be what I most love about GB times one million. All of my favorite parts from Yellow House, like Rossen's soothing voice on "On a Neck, On a Spit," are found in an amplified fashion on In Ear Park, especially in songs like my favorite, "Phantom Other."

Passion Pit
I heard about Passion Pit for the first time from Paper Magazine's new blogger spotlight sometime in January or February 2009 and then somehow the band name kept popping up EVERYWHERE. This was in large part due to the fact that Passion Pit was playing an upcoming show in Columbus with Paper Route, and Metromix did a nice front page display of both bands, where I discovered that Passion Pit started originally with one guy's project to make a Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend. I had a listen and, damn--if I got this EP as a Valentine's Day gift, the guy would get so lucky.

Well, Michael Angelakos (lead singer/keyboardist, aka "the guy who gifted uniquely") sure did fall into some luck, as he was signed to French Kiss and the original gift was released as the Chunk of Change EP on Sept. 16, 2008. The album is full of what might be considered ballads, hidden under a disguise of good dance grooves, electronic beats and Angelakos' falceto, that apparently has no limit as to how high it can go. "Sleepyhead" is the peak of the album, closing it out as the last track, and is the one that I continue to listen to on repeat a few months after I first heard it. Passion Pit was just announced as a part of the Lollapalooza line up for 2009, and there is a full-length set to be released May 19, 2009- this time I'll be waiting for it.



Los Campesinos!
I feel like I really did myself a great disservice by not knowing about Los Campesinos! at all in 2008, when they had a busy year releasing two full-lengths: the debut Hold on Now, Youngster... in February 2008 and their second album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, on October 27, 2008. That's a lot of music to put out, and the best part is that both albums are extremely solid.

Hold On Now, Youngster... has a slightly more upbeat sense to it lyrically than We Are Beautiful... does, but both albums have at heart a disillusioned perception of reality that I equally respect and identify with. They follow the guide of their band name, which means "The Peasants," and have a shitload of people on the stage (7 members), with as many instruments as people, including a fiddle in true peasant style. The product is anthem rock for the indie kids, and it rocks. Compare: "You! Me! Dancing!" from Hold On Now Youngster... to "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" from album of same name:

You! Me! Dancing!


We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed


That's all for now, but I'll probably have a "Part 2" to this series coming soon...stay tuned, and happy listening!

Papercuts

Today's discovery: San Francisco-based band Papercuts. Very Beach Boys meets Beach House. Check out this video until I have time to do a proper write up:

New feature, yay!

Hey readers,

I've added a new feature to the end of each posting that allows you to easily let me know if you find something funny, cool, interesting, etc. Please use it up, I love feedback :).

D.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Greetings from the land of article writing procrastination. Today I will entertain you with my thoughts on The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, not to be confused with notions of a self-help book. This 4-piece Brooklyn-based band has seemingly blown up overnight thanks to a little thing known as Pitchfork (PFork's review, overall reviews on Metacritic), but then also thanks to the band's generally awesome music.

First of all, let’s just take a minute to contemplate the name of this band. It captures in one breathtakingly long phrase the notion that anyone who is inherently good by nature will probably experience some form of disappointment. Because why? Because the world is generally shitty? Because people who are nice get walked on? Because they get their hearts broken? Because of any other number of reasons? Probably yes, to all of these queries.

But then there’s also the sense that this is a totally pop music band name, with “The Pains” being an easy abbreviation that triggers thoughts of The Beatles or the Killers, or The Smiths.

The Smiths is where the thoughts really start going, because the music is so reminiscent of their 1984 self-titled release. The main difference is definitely in the vocals, with The Pains being more anthem-based sing-a-longs, but the same idea of crooning understatedly is at heart in both albums.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart tap into the pubescent stage of their lives for main lyric topics, especially in “Young Adult Friction,” with lines like “between the stacks in the library/ not like anyone stopped to see/ we came they went, our bodies spent/ among the dust and the microfiche.” This is all cleverly combined with the idea of library checkouts being somehow tied to checking a human being out from head to toe. I like it.

If you are in the Columbus area, The Pains are playing at the Summit on May 1, and if you're not in Columbus, check out the rest of their tour dates.

Check out the music video for "Everything With You":

Here We Go Magic

So I should definitely be focusing all of my writing energies right now on my article with a looming deadline, but instead I'm choosing to spend my time sharing my latest discovery with you all.

I'm sitting at Cafe Apropos, where they always have Sirius XMU playing. There are worse things to hear in a coffee shop, especially when you discover that the song you're listening to is by a band you've been reading a lot about but haven't heard yet: Here We Go Magic. The song: Tunnelvision



I first heard about this band a few weeks ago because Edward Droste from Grizzly Bear is way into this band, ergo Here We Go Magic is touring with the Grizzlies this spring/summer. This makes me doubly sad that this tour doesn't make a stop in Ohio, but maybe dates will be added for July and August that are closer to the big O.

So here's what I've found out about this band: First of all, the band name is pretty sweet. I don't even care if it's a reference to Harry Potter or if it's about drugs or whatever, it just makes me smile. It seems that there is one guy, Luke Temple, who does everything on the recordings, but he tours with some other dudes and dudettes (Peter Hale, Mike Bloch, AJ Lambert, Kristina Lieberson) so that there is actually something to experience live.

The sound: To me, I hear looping guitar that seems to hold hands with some toned down Animal Collective songs, but with a sound very very similar to Grizzly Bear at the same time. The tone is rather haunting in a way that hooks me in, and makes me happy that the sounds seem to go in circles and always come back to me. To play the devil's advocate, my friend Kyle says it's not for him because it's "really repetitive, but no energy." So there you go.

The latest self-titled Here We Go Magic record was released in March, and you can see how the critics rate it here.

Karate Coyote and Blastronauts at Outer Sounds

The opening show for Outer Sounds at Oldfield's on High on April 4, 2009, featured Columbus bands The Lost Revival, Karate Coyote, Blastronauts, and concluded with a dance party courtesy of DJ Self Help. I got there in time for KC and stayed through Blastronauts...here is my account.




Some tips for using the slideshow: scroll your mouse over the top of the slideshow frame to see the command options; scroll over the bottom of the slideshow to select individual photos. Click on the larger image of the photo to see information about the picture.

A live update

Hello all. I seem to have taken a year-long hiatus without ever intending to, but my musical life has definitely not taken a break in that time frame. Since May of 2008, I have experienced the glory of Pitchfork Music Festival, fallen completely in love with the Fleet Foxes and Department of Eagles, discovered Under the Radar Magazine, totally freaked out at the Radiohead tour, and reached the "30,000 songs listened to" mark on Last.fm. Oh yea, and I received my degree from OU in magazine journalism, relocated to Columbus, and began writing for Metromix Columbus.

This new writing gig (new as in new to this blog; I've been writing for MM since November 2008) has proven to be the perfect excuse for me to delve into the Columbus music community and become involved in a meaningful sense. Check out my Columbus local music guide for 2009 here.

Bands on the guide include:

Super Desserts
Couch Forts
Brainbow
The Hot Damn
RTFO Bandwagon

Any a few more! Also, feel free to look at some follow-up bands I've gotten really into since putting together the guide: the Andy Shaw Band, the Lost Revival and Karate Coyote.

More photos from Karate Coyote coming soon!

D.