Good Weather For Airstrikes

Cold War Kids have a sound that seems displaced from their current time and place. The bluesy four-piece from Fullerton, California (or The OC, as it’s better known these days) sound like they should be a part of the incestuous Montreal scene, with at least one or two members of the Arcade Fire in their backing band. Also, despite bursting onto the indie scene only recently, their jangly, bluesy sound wouldn’t be out of place in the late ‘60′ and ’70’s of the actual Cold War-era. Sonically, they sound like a unique blend of the haunting vocals of Win Butler and the passionate ferocity of Isaac Brock, with the bluesy tone Jack White’s voice thrown into the mix for good measure, all backed by the instrumentalists of Wolf Parade or the Arcade Fire.

I’m as excited about Cold War Kids as I am about Heypenny, which is saying a lot, and Cold War Kids are another ludicrously unsigned band as well. As for that last fact though, I wouldn’t expect them to remained unsigned for long, as buzzworthy performances at SXSW have record labels scrambling all over the place trying to sign them. One record label executive (can you call people who run indie labels “executives”?) I talked to said with confidence that he thought they were the next huge band in the indie scene, and I’d have to agree, as these guys really seem to have the potential to light the blogging world on fire in the same way that the Arcade Fire did a little over a year ago and Tapes ‘N Tapes are doing now. So far only My Old Kentucky Blog and Rock Insider have featured these guys (here an here, check out Rock Insider for more mp3s), which seems criminal considering the raw, unbridled talent these guys possess. There’s an intangible quality about bands like the Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens that contributed to them blowing up in the blogosphere in the way they did last year, and I feel like Cold War Kids possess that same intangible mysticism about them, most immediately evident in the cryptic graphic design they feature on their website and MySpace.

“Hospital Beds” is my favorite song of theirs, an absolutely awe-inspiring track (just wait for the “I got one friend laying across from me…” part at the end) that’s sure to spark the interest of lots of listeners. The track is the closest thing they have to a single on their upcoming Up In Rags EP, due out later this month along with the simultaneously-released With Our Wallets Full EP. “We Used To Vacation” is my other favorite track by them, also found on the Up In Rags EP. I’m also posting all of the other tracks available on their website, “Tell Me In The Morning” from the Wallets Full EP, along with “The Soloist In The Living Room” and “Heavy Boots” from their debut Mulberry Street EP. Incidentally, Cold War Kids are also SPIN’s “Band of the Day” today, so be sure to head over there and check out the feature on them, where you can view their full list of tour dates from their upcoming jaunt across the country with Saddle Creek favorites Two Gallants. I’m frantically trying to figure out how I can get to see them live, as they’ve excluded the Virginia-Maryland-DC area from the tour, and I’m even considering trying to catch their Chapel Hill, NC date. See what the buzz is about for yourself below:

MP3s: [free downloads from ColdWarKids.com]
“Hospital Beds” - Cold War Kids [highly recommended]
“We Used To Vacation” - Cold War Kids [via Rock Insider]
“Tell Me In The Morning” - Cold War Kids
“The Soloist In The Living Room” - Cold War Kids
“Heavy Boots” - Cold War Kids

I am not the type of person that sees a lot of movies; I could probably count the number of times I’ve been to a movie theater in the past three years on one hand. Today, however, was a rainy day here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and not being a local Santa Fe-an, I didn’t have much to do on a rainy day. I decided that since there were actually a couple movies out that I wanted to see, I’d go catch a flick, as the moviegoing public is wont to say. The movie I chose to see is The Inside Man, “A Spike Lee Joint” starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster, and I was incredibly impressed. As you may have gathered, I am no movie critic and I hardly fancy myself to be knowledgeable on matters of cinema, but I would absolutely recommend the movie to anybody, it was entertaining and suspenseful and Denzel (we are on a first name basis) and Clive Owen (we are not) were absolutely superb. You may be asking yourself at this point, “why is he writing this? This is not a movie blog, it is a music blog!”, and for that reason I am going to give up on my review of The Inside Man and simply say that if you are reading this, you should see the movie at your soonest convenience, I doubt you will be disappointed.

There is, however, a music-related aspect to this tangent: the song used in both the opening and closing credits of this film is quite excellent. It is very foreign, as the title and artist may suggest, and the lyrics are in no way related to English, but it is a downright funky tune, so much so that the first thing I did upon getting home from the theater was dive into researching and downloading the song. It is called “Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint”, which is an extremely fitting title, and it is credited to Sapna Awasthi and Sukwinder Singh. I realize that it may not be as instantly compelling to those of you who have not yet seen The Inside Man, but this should only serve as further motivation to see the it as soon as possible. As per usual, song is downloadable below:

Sapna Awasthi & Sukwinder Singh, Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint

As I mentioned previously, I am currently on vacation, and after reading Pitchfork’s glowing review of the new Band of Horses album, Everything All The Time, I decided to pick up the album for vacation-time listening. I realize that virtually every music blogger and their grandmother has beaten me to the punch on this one, but this is truly a great album. Obviously, epic lead single “The Funeral” has been posted everywhere, and because it is one of the best songs I’ve heard all year, for the two of you that have not yet downloaded this song, Good Weather for Airstrikes is giving you that opportunity one more time. I cannot stress enough how great this song is. In scanning many of the other blogs posts on Band of Horses, I noticed that one song I believe to be far superior than much of the album is conspicuously absent. That song is “The Great Salt Lake”, and I honestly feel that it rivals “The Funeral” as the best song on the album. Every time they hit the chorus and repeat that title line I get goosebumps, and I can’t help but replay it over and over. Obviously, with such a positive review I wouldn’t deign to give you, the reader, a case of aural blue balls by not making the song available for download, so it can be grabbed along with “The Funeral” below.

Band of Horses, The Funeral
Band of Horses, The Great Salt Lake

Finally, to complete my mini-roundup, I direct your attention to the criminally under-appreciated Sondre Lerche, who’s singer-songwriter style has recently been compounded with some quality classical instrumentation courtesy of the Faces Down Quartet on his newest album, Duper Sessions. The lead single from that album, “Minor Detail”, is melodic pop songwriting genius in a tidy three-and-a-half minute package, and is, like every other song in this post, [highly recommended]. To sweeten the deal and to hopefully increase Sondre Lerche Awareness (there really should be a LiveStrong-esque armband about this), I’ve included possibly the best Sondre Lerche song, the title track from his previous album, Two Way Monologue. Excellent lyrics abound in Lerche’s songs, but I feel that this track in particular highlights his song-writing dramatically. Pick up both of the songs below, and let the praise for this 23-year old Norwegian start flowing throughout the blogosphere!

Sondre Lerche, Two Way Monologue
Sondre Lerche, Minor Detail

The Shortwave Set are a “folk” trio that make beautiful, sample-based pop music. I know that’s a fairly confusing description, but try to follow me. The Shortwave Set craft songs from samples taken from old 50 bargain-bin records and then write and perform folk songs over them, creating a very interesting, textured pop sound, and I’m really surprised there isn’t more coverage of them in the blogosphere. Formed in the summer of 2002, they released their first single, “Slingshot”, on the Slingshot EP in 2004. Now, not to be lazy, but I’ll let the band’s cleverly-written bio tell the rest of the story:

“Slingshot” was lauded as the definitive first single; not least in respect of the widely accepted view that nobody could recall any previous releases. Over the following two years more music was eked out and recorded. The band subsisted on a diet of own brand supermarket lager, Bombay mix (the hot orange ones), and purity of intention. Such messianic dedication to the cause had inevitable social fallout, but although they hemorrhaged friends and cash at an equal rate, the good work continued unabated. Currently, the band are busy watching telly in a one bedroom flat in SE London having just released their first album; the Victorian Funk masterwork entitled “The Debt Collection”. The record was made in the front room using a handful of 50p charity shop records, clumsily cut up on a laptop computer, over the top of which songs were carefully crafted and overlaid. The floor remains littered with a variety of vinyl, battered old instruments, electronics, and empty tobacco packets through which you can, if you look closely enough, still make out the threadbare carpet beneath.

Their debut album, the aforementioned Debt Collection, is indeed wonderful and while I don’t exactly have much experience listening to “Victorian Funk”, the label is strangely appropriate for this album. My favorite song is “Is It Any Wonder?”, which revolves around a vintage piano sample, over which the group adds layers of guitars, other after-effects and Swedish lead singer Ulrika Bjorsne’s honey-smooth vocals. “Slingshot” has a very classic, very ’60’s Beatles feel, and - similarly to “Is It Any Wonder?” - revolves around another twinkling vintage piano sample. Follow-up single “Repeat To Fade” is one of the songs on the album exemplifying the bands “folktronica” sound, and Ulrika Bjorsne’s vocals on the “repeat to fade” chorus are startingly reminiscent of Neko Case’s on many of the choruses of New Pornographers songs. Actually take back what I said about her vocals being “startingly reminiscent” of Neko Case on “Repeat To Fade”, in actuality they sound exactly like Neko Case, anyone else feel the same way? Download these three songs below, and be sure to check out the rest of their album, available in the US on iTunes here.

MP3s:
“Is It Any Wonder?” - The Shortwave Set [highly recommended]
“Repeat To Fade” - The Shortwave Set [highly recommended]
“Slingshot” - The Shortwave Set

The title of this post is somewhat misleading because a) we were never really gone and b) Everett’s still on his spring break vacation, but by “we’re back” I mean that Ezarchive has graciously reinstated my original account. This means that all of the pre-January downloads are working again, and it also means I no longer have to freeload off of Zack’s Ezarchive account, both of which are significant pluses. Despite the amount of time it took to get everything sorted out, I’d like to extend an immensely grateful thank you to Ezarchive for staying with me and working through this with me, they’re a great company and really treat their customers well. As for all of you, feel free to take some time to go back through the archives and download anything you had wanted to get before but were unable to, everything should be up and running just fine, though I’ve deleted many of the music video links. Also, thanks to everyone for bearing with us and sticking with the site while we went through our various hosting ups and downs, we’re totally thankful for that.

Love,

Derek & Everett

I posted on the lead-off single from Snow Patrol’s upcoming album, Eyes Open, last week, but the full album has since leaked and contains even more of the same goodness that “You’re All I Have” hinted at. As a whole, the album possesses a decidedly major-label feel, absolutely dripping in production flourishes, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and Snow Patrol’s been heading in that direction since even before Final Straw. In fact it kind of feels like Interscope had a little leftover money in the budget, so the band decided to just fuck it and throw in as many bells and whistles as possible, adding strings (”You Could Be Happy”), a full choir (”Shut Your Eyes”), and even a duet with Martha Wainright (”Set Fire To The Third Bar”). The latter, a haunting ballad, is one of my two favorite tracks on the album, along with the much more rocking “Hands Open”. “Hands Open” even name drops Sufjan, actual lyric: “Put Sufjan Stevens on/and we’ll play your favorite song/’Chicago’ bursts to life/and you remember [trails off…]”, which is weird, but I guess kind of cool also. Finally, “Chasing Cars”, which has been a live staple at recent shows, is the leading candidate to be this album’s “Run” and follows the same formula as “Run” (sparse beginning + emotional climax + excessive melodrama), though it doesn’t come close to eclipsing the original’s epic beauty. All in all the album is great, though I’m not sure if I can say it surpasses Final Straw yet, but Eyes Open sees Snow Patrol finally finding their niche as the UK’s next great arena-rock band, somewhere in between Coldplay and Muse. Again, as I said in the last post, if you’re an Interscope representative and you’d like these tracks removed, just email me and I’ll take them down without resistance.

NOTE: MP3s have been removed at the label’s request. Color me owned.

MP3s:
“Hands Open” - Snow Patrol [removed]
“Set Fire To The Third Bar” (ft. Martha Wainright) - Snow Patrol [removed]
“Chasing Cars” - Snow Patrol [removed]

ALSO, I’ve made all of Bloc Party’s videos available for direct download in iPod-compatible format over at Videoteque, so be sure to head over there and grab those. And comment or something, we’re getting pretty lonely over there despite the good traffic flow.

UPDATE: Fellow UVA student Taylor was able to get the setlist from the show, which was written on the back of a torn-up Pita Pit menu, and I’ve added it to the body of the post below.Despite a hastily-thrown together line-up and last-minute planning, PK German - the concert-planning committee I’m on at UVA - still managed to throw together a pretty awesome indie showcase concert last night at the Satellite Ballroom, featuring renowned headliners Les Savy Fav. Considering that Pitchfork called Les Savy Fav “the best live band in the universe. Period.”, I was extremely excited to see LSF despite being a bit of a latecomer to their bandwagon, only having first really gotten into them after hearing 2004’s Inches. However, if there’s one band I should love more than anyone it’s Les Savy Fav, as I have personal family connections to the band; bassist Syd Butler, who moonlights as the single nicest guy in the world, and his mother are close family friends, meaning I got to view Saturday’s indie showcase for free and hang out with the guys afterwards.

As for their live show, the hype is completely warranted, as LSF are incredible live and frontman Tim Harrington is the single most entertaining lead singer in all of rock. Harrington is known for his on-stage live antics, and his reputation preceded him to the point that there were two policeman looming ominously in the corner of the venue, supposedly because someone with UVA had heard that Tim gets naked on stage (which according to Syd, “happened maybe once in the last ten years, and that was in Spain”). But despite the concert officials’ concerns regarding Tim’s hijinx, he did nothing to water them down and still put on an incredible show. Antics include:

• taking various members of the audience’s belongings and putting them on, which resulted in him at one point parading around the stage while singing “We’ll Make a Lover of Youâ€? wearing some guy’s hat, a girl’s “strong prescriptionâ€? glasses, and swinging some innocent bystander’s video camera around the stage and filming the band from on stage
• physically leaving the venue twice, the second time of which he walked around to the side window of the venue and knocked on it, prompting someone to remove the curtain so the entire audience could watch him singing the song from the outside of the window looking in (fortunately the mic cord stretched that far, creating a cool effect where despite his location outside the venue his vocals could still be hear from the speakers inside)
• taking off his shirt (multiple times)
• and in the final song of the encore, entering the crowd and sitting in the middle of the venue on the floor, signaling for everyone to do the same, as he sang the final words of the chorus while the instrumentation faded out

The setlist was near-perfect too, as they got to my two favorites, “We’ll Make a Lover of You” and “The Sweat Descends”, the latter of which was awesome, though they did omit “Meet Me In The Dollar Bin”, a song I’d really been looking forward to hearing live. They also played “Raging in the Plague Age”, one of two songs made available by eMusic as a free download last week. If you get the chance to see The Fav live I wouldn’t pass it up regardless of how much or how little you enjoy the band’s recorded material, as it’s an unforgettable experience. Peep the setlist:

Setlist:
Tragic Monsters
In These Woods
We’ll Make a Lover of You
The Slip
Yawn, Yawn, Yawn
No Sleeves
The Sweat Descends [highly recommended]
I.C. Timer
Rage in the Plague Age
One Way Widow
Obsessed with the Excess
Rodeo
Rome

Encore:
(Unknown)
Who Rocks the Party

After the show I ate dinner with the band at the bistro next door, where I tried to hold my own as we discussed the decline of Hot Hot Heat, the state of the music industry, and I got to learn more about the business side of music (Syd started and owns French Kiss Records, home of LSF, Thunderbirds Are Now! and the former label of The Hold Steady). Syd also filled me in on the background behind “Raging in the Plague Age”, which is truly an awesome inspiration for a fuck-it-let’s-party punk rock song. Back in the Middle Ages in the time of the Black Plague, the rich and wealthy would stock up on supplies and alcohol and all move inside the walls of the castle and party until the plague had passed and it was safe to emerge from the castle and re-enter the outside world. In “Raging in the Plague Age”, the king has been ostracized from his castle due to his infection with the plague (”I used to hold the biggest balls, from deep inside my castle walls”), but soon everyone inside has the revelation that someone among them in the castle has the plague, and everyone’s resolution is just to party as hard as ever since they know they’re all doomed to die shortly anyway (”throw up the drawbridge and draw down the blinds, everyone inside is getting high tonight/waiting for the plague to move on, no one’s getting sober ’til the liquor’s all gone”). Personally I think it’s a really awesome song concept, and you can download “Plague Age” as well as “When You Wake Up a Snake” below, since they’re free on eMusic anyway.

MP3s:
“Meet Me In The Dollar Bin” - Les Savy Fav
“When You Wake Up A Snake” - Les Savy Fav
“Raging In The Plague Age” - Les Savy Fav [highly recommended]

Awh yeah everyone, the time has come. Some of you might remember like a long-ass time ago I hinted that I was working on a new project and I said I’d be unveiling it “sometime later [that] week”. However, some delays were encountered and obviously I didn’t end up announcing it that week, but the time has finally come… ladies and gentlemen, introducing my new project: VIDEOTEQUE

The Go! Team got the hardest beats and they brought them to us in spades in their first ever DC show at The Black Cat last Sunday. Due to a dastardly quesadilla I ingested on the Thursday before the show I was bedridden with food poisoning that entire weekend, but thanks to a certain miracle drug I was able to perservere and make it out to the Black Cat to see the Team in action along with a sampling of my friends from UVA and high school and Caroline Bocarosse, who totally hooked me up with tickets to the sold-out show. First let me preface this by saying that The Go! Team’s live show is unlike anything you will ever see, and is worth every penny of the ticket price regardless of how steep it is. TG!T rolled through DC last Sunday with their motley crew of multi-instrumentalists just raring to get the party started, and they succeeded on all accounts.

Team captain Ninja is one of the best and most engaging lead singers out there, and she consistently encouraged the crowd to get moving and start rocking out, and to her and the rest of the team’s credit there wasn’t a static body in the house by the end of the show. The Go! Team are far and away the most fun live band in the world right now, and I honestly feel like you could take anyone off the street - so long as they don’t detest enjoyment - to this show and they’d have the time of their lives. A testament to this is the fact that despite only playing a handful songs from their debut album Thunder Lightning Strike - Ninja prefaced at least half of the songs with a “this one’s not on the album” warning - the crowd still loved every minute of the show and danced along with every song. The setlist was split evenly between the hits from TLS and newer songs from the Are You Ready For More EP (only available on their 2005 Australian Tour and as a bonus disc on the UK re-issue of TLS), as well as a handful of brand new songs not found on either release. Of these new songs, instrumental track “The Wrath of Mikey”, a b-side from the Ladyflash EP, encore-choice “Titanic Vandalism” and “Doin’ It Right” were easily the best, and despite most of the crowd never having heard the song everyone was dancing along. As for the hits culled from Thunder Lightning Strike, every song sounded amazing and about ten times better in a live setting, and I’m pretty sure “Huddle Formation” and show-closer “Ladyflash” were two of the highlights of my life. Before launching into the former, Ninja took some time to clear up the lyrical ambiguity of the chorus, dividing the audience in half down the middle and having the right side sing “Keep banging on the door, ’cause we can’t hear a thing” and the left side return the call with “Keep shutting down the power, ’cause we can always sing”. All in all it was a night to remember, and you can rest assured I’ll be at the next Go! Team show the next time they come anywhere within three hours of DC. I’ve collected an assortment of the new tracks The Go! Team have been playing at shows, recorded at various locations on TG!T’s recent tours, including brand-new track, “Doin’ It Right”, first unveiled at SXSW less than two weeks ago. Finally, as an added bonus I’ve also thrown in an absolutely top-notch live rendition of “Huddle Formation” recorded live on Glasgow Beat 106 FM, which is great as it not only allows you to get a feeling for the intensity of the band’s live show, but also proves to be a very different listening experience, as the vocals are brought to the front of the mix and the lyrics are actually decipherable. Enjoy the downloads and stay tuned for a very special announcement later today.

MP3s:
“The Wrath of Mikey” - The Go! Team
“Doin’ It Right” (Live at SXSW) - The Go! Team (via Take Your Medicine)
“Titanic Vandalism” (Live in Austin) - The Go! Team
“Huddle Formation” (Glasgow Beat Session) - The Go! Team [highly recommended]

Also be sure to check out the collection of flawlessly-recorded live tracks I posted some days ago, as they’re all worth a listen and are nicely demonstrative of The Go! Team’s live sound.

Given the success of the Always New Depths compilation I posted last week (500 downloads already) I imagine that a lot of you will be pleased by this. I’ve been sitting on a variety of live recordings of new Bloc Party songs recorded at different stops on the band’s recent fans-only UK tour. However, my source requested that I not post the songs, so I’ve been unable to share them with you all. BUT, apparently Angela over at But She’s On Fire didn’t receive the same mandate, and she’s posted six of the brand new recordings on her site. Unfortunately, the majority of the recordings are fairly poor, so these aren’t so much for your listening pleasure as just a chance for you to get a small glimpse at what the new Bloc Party songs will sound like. Be sure to grab those here, and thank Angela while you’re there. As for the recording of the new album, the band is currently recording one song with two different producers, Jacknife Lee and Steve Dub, and will then determine which producer they’ll be recording the album with, which is tentatively set for a September release date according to NME and - needless to say - September can’t come soon enough.

Those of you who caught last night’s steamy episode of The OC ears’ may have perked up upon recognizing the familiar chord progression of one of the song’s that provided a recurring soundtrack for the episode. At first I wasn’t quite sure if it was a cover, thinking it might possibly be an instrumental rip-off of Bright Eyes’ original, but when the vocals came in in the episode’s final third it became apparent that it was in fact a cover of the Conor Oberst classic. Specifically, Dutch indie-rock group Bettie Serveert’s cover of “Lover I Don’t Have To Love” from the band’s 2005 release, Attagirl. I loved the instrumental (which is all that was played for the first half of the show), and though I was at first put off by the female vocals and lead singer Carol van Dijk’s worn voice, having heard the song in its entirety in mp3-form, I quite like it. Granted, it’s not on par with the original, but that’s to be expected, and Bettie Serveert delivers a faithful cover here.

MP3: “Lover I Don’t Have To Love” - Bettie Serveert