Indie Rock News (4/6/10)

(Photo taken from MySpace.com)

Hey, folks. After making my rounds through the web's most prestigious web sites recently (news-related and music-related), I found some pretty unique links that I'd like to share. This could be a new segment, but it may not be. Things are getting a little wild here in Kutztown as I begin to wrap up my college career, so you'll have to excuse me for my lack of posting. I generalize a lot of things here nowadays. The show posts are still pretty tight, though. Anyway, here's what I found.

• Ask Vampire Weekend a question!
• Bloc Party's Kele will be touring and releasing a new record this summer, The Boxer. (!)
• Eyrkha Badu in legal trouble over new video shoot.
  
• Lollapalooza 2010 Lineup has been announced. Big names taking the stage in Chicago this summer.
  
• She & Him have been hitting the late night circuit lately: Letterman and Kimmel.

Look forward to New Music Wednesdays tomorrow. This week has been great. The Spring 2010 music release season looks better with each passing day.

Post-"Snowmageddon"/Thursday Night Notes

Snow sucks.

Friday night into Saturday midday was bad enough, but on top of that snow, we folks in Kutztown received a fresh blanket Tuesday night into Wednesday midday. 28 inches total? I've seen enough snow. I'm moving to Florida. Perhaps the only thing good to come from the "Snowmageddon" was the outlandish and totally welcomed two full school days canceled. This kind of thing never happens, especially here in Pennsylvania. Whatever, no complaints from me about that. However, digging my jeep out the street sure wasn't fun earlier tonight. Sorry to the community of Kutztown for pushing my snow back out into the street. I had to get to the Student Union building to plan our show for tomorrow night. Oh, and while we were buffeted with white powder, my housemates and I built an epic snow fort and invited all our friends up to christen it. We also drank excessively and threw our empties in the woods. College kids will be college kids. Okay, onto the notes:

+ Holy Spring tours!: Arctic Monkeys, Juilan Casablancas, Phoenix, and The Tallest Man On Earth.

+ New Japandroids tune: "Art Czars".

+ New live She & Him track. It was played on the radio. How fun.

+ Yeasayer played Jim's favorite tune of 2009 on Fallon last night. Behold "Ambling Alp".

+ Thom Yorke is going to remix Major Lazer?

+ Bonnaroo line-up looks great so far.

+ Grizzly Bear and Arcade Fire found their way into the ears of Super Bowl viewers. Google had a sick ad, too.

VW, Spoon Rock Late Night

Earlier this week, late night TV got a dose of indie rock. Conan was treated to Spoon. Ferguson was introduced to Vampire Weekend. Both performances showcased the best bands to release the best albums of the month, in my opinion. What a start to 2010. Late night wars aside, I think we can all agree that it's awesome to see bands like these appear on late night talk shows. These videos are proof of that awesomeness.

Spoon - "Written In Reverse"

Vampire Weekend - "Horchata"

Both albums are out now. Vampire Weekend's Contra via XL and Spoon's Transference via Merge.

Jimmy Fallon Is "Putting It On The Roof"

Note: "Putting it on the roof" is slang my friend Ben told me for stepping your game up so much: you put it on the roof. He may or may not have made it up.

Talk show host and world's most frequent laugh-er Jimmy Fallon has never been one of my favorites. For some reason though, I actually enjoy his talk show. I've gotten used to the awkwardness, the bits are semi-funny, the guests are usually awesome, and The Roots are the best band in Late Night.

Late Night, since the very beginning, has been giving spots to indie acts in music and comedy, and this week they had two of their best acts/performances so far.

Sunny Day Real Estate, in the midst of their reunion tour, stopped by to play "Seven" off their classic 1994 release Diary. The band is as tight as ever, although the full lineup hasn't played together in 15 years. Dan Goldsmith is still one hell of a drummer and Jeremy Enigk still has the voice that made them what they were. Here is them playing "Seven" from last nights show:

Sunny Day Real Estate - "Seven"

Dirty Projectors, album of the year candidate, and Bjork and David Byrne collaborators also stopped by Fallon recently to play a new song that blew Jimmy, the audience, and The Roots away. ?uestlove even tweeted and Twitvid(?) a video of DP playing in The Roots dressing room, absolutely amazed at what he heard. The song, "When The World Comes To An End" features some of the coolest harmonies you'll ever hear. Here it is:

Dirty Projectors - "When The World Comes To An End"

New Album(s) Tracklists; YYY's Roll On Conan

Tegan And Sara will release their sixth studio album, Sainthood, on October 27th, via Sire. Here's the track listing:

1. Arrow
2. Don't Rush
3. Hell
4. On Directing
5. Red Belt
6. The Cure
7. Northshore
8. Night Watch
9. Alligator
10. Paperback Head
11. The Ocean
12. Sentimental Tune
13. Someday

Vampire Weekend is getting ready to release one of the most highly-anticipated albums of the year... but in 2010. It's called Contra, and it's coming out January 12, via XL.

1. Horchata
2. White Sky
3. Holiday
4. California English
5. Taxi Cab
6. Run
7. Cousins
8. "Giving Up The Gun
9. Diplomat's Son
10. I Think Ur A Contra

And lastly, Yeah Yeah Yeahs played "Heads Will Roll" off their latest, It's Blitz! on Conan last night. Karen O looked like a cross between a long-lost Ramone cousin and a cartoon mutant from the 90's X-Men cartoon. Enjoy:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Heads Will Roll"

Dirty Projectors Feast On Letterman

Not literally. There was no dining involved. It wasn't like that show where an indie rock band and the host make breakfast and then do an interview (I'm blanking out on the name; any help?). Letterman stated that this was their network, prime-time debut and then let band take over. Right off the bat, I can understand the web hype for a group like this: pretty, young girls and what some would consider, the next Talking Heads. Perhaps that's why David Byrne joined them on "Knotty Pine" track for one of the most critically acclaimed combilation albums of the year, Dark Was The Night. Talent knows talent. But last night, it was just the Projectors - no Byrne, no internet hype to live up to - just the young group doing their thing. And if you ask me, I think they did it pretty damn well. Here's the clip; the band plays "Cannibal Resource". Now do you get the title?

The Dirty Projectors - "Cannibal Resource"

Bitte Orca is out now, via Domino.

Here's a list of tour dates, via Paste:

October
20 - Baltimore, Md. @ Ottobar
21 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Trocodero
22 - Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
24 - Atlanta, Ga. @ Masquerade
25 - Lafayette, La. @ Nitetown
26 - Austin, Tex. @ Antones
28 - Phoenix, Ariz. @ Rhythm Room
30 - San Diego, Calif. @ North Park Theatre

November
1 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Bimbo's
3 - Portlant, Ore. @ Aladdin
4 - Seattle, Wash. @ Neumo's
7 - Salt Lake City, Utah @ In The Venue
8 - Denver, Colo. @ Bluebird
9 - Lawrence, Kan. @ Granada
11 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Cedar Cultural Center
13 - Chicago, Ill. @ Bottom Lounge
14 - Toronto, Ont. @ Opera House
15 - Montreal, P.Q. @ National
17 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise
18 - New York, N.Y. @ Bowery Ballroom
19/21 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Music Hall
22 - New York, N.Y. @ Bowery Ballroom

Sonic Youth Brings "No Way" To Late Night!

Folks, I'm cleaning out my iTunes. It's such a strenuous task. I've gone through 10,000 tunes and limited my library to 6,000, so that I can potentially save my very old laptop's feeble existence. During this process, I began wondering why I have such a headache, beyond the mission at hand. I realized that I got awful sleep last night and had to deal with the Spanish language this morning. Well after a nice afternoon nap, I have to admit, it was worth staying up late. This is because Sonic Youth brought "No Way" off their latest and 16th album The Eternal, to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

What a dangerous group. So talented, even after all these years. Kim Gordon is still one of the sexiest women in rock 'n' roll and Thurston Moore can still captivate a crowd with a mighty and youthful fury. The way the band is able to distort their sound to make beautiful 21st century noise on their instruments is unparable by any other rock band today. This has prompted me to go pick up The Eternal at my local record store right away, which is out now via Matador Records. Last night's programming has also prompted me to add "7th Floor West", Fallon's own satire of reality television, to my favorite TV shows on Facebook.

Bloc Rocks Letterman

"Never mind Hugh Laurie, here's The Bloc Party!"

Bloc Party took over the last five minutes of The Late Show with David Letterman last night. In fact, I had no idea they were going to be on. I thought I had my Bloc fill, until Jim texted me and told me to tune it. So I did, and I hoped to hear "Signs". Instead, I got "One Month Off". Fair trade. Anyway, I miss the days when the bands were interviewed. I don't care how shy they are - Russel, you best speak when spoken to! So their version last night was what one can honestly expect in front of a crowd that doesn't know the music or moves around at all. Kele's vocals were clear; though I sensed some strain. Everyone else was at their peak. Kele also went into some gross, girly-high pitched voice during the "Lies, lies, lies!" part, like he did at the live show in Philly. I'm not so thrilled about that, but you know what, it's something new. And here's something that's not new: Stereogum beat us to the punch, although they're pretty much raving over the fact that Bloc's "Intimacy" is going to be remixed, like "Silent Alarm" was a few years back. Promising development. Here's the video. Peace.

I'm still iffy about the album art. I miss the woods!

The official video:


P.S. Apparently Morrissey was on Jimmy Fallon's show. I could not stay up late enough, nor get through the awkward monologue in the beginning, to see it.