Best of 2010

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

10. Beach House - Teen Dream
review//buy


9. The Walkmen - Lisbon
review//buy


8. Spoon - Transference
review//buy


7. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
review//buy


6. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
review//buy


5. Vampire Weekend - Contra
review//buy


4. The National - High Violet
review//buy


3. Delta Spirit - History from Below
review//buy


2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
review//buy


1. The Black Keys- Brothers
review//buy

honorable mentions:
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
Tokyo Police Club - Champ
The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards
Free Energy - Stuck on Nothing

song of the year:

Goodbye.

Writing this blog used to bring me joy, but it no longer serves that purpose. As of today, I have decided to forgo all further posting. Thank you to everyone who has read, supported or otherwise been loyal to Music Induced Euphoria. It's been a blast.
Happy musicing. Vinyl forever.

Sunday Morning Covers

ZIP FILE!

Beirut - Shiki Shiki Baba (Kocani Orchestra Cover) [mp3]

The National - Clampdown (The Clash cover) [mp3]

Bettie Serveert - Lover I Don't Have To Love (Bright Eyes cover) [mp3]

Mensch - This charming man (the smiths cover) [mp3]

Linfinity - Road to Nowhere (Talking Heads cover) [mp3]

Ben Gibbard - Joga (Bjork Cover) [mp3]

Foo Fighters - Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty cover) [mp3]

Broken Social Scene - Love Will Tear Us Apart [mp3]

Arcade Fire - A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke Cover) [mp3]

Free Energy - I'm Going Down [mp3]

Gnarls Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone (Violent Femmes cover) [mp3]

The Strokes Post #598

Saturday Music Definitions: Everything

Radiohead - Everything in its right place [mp3]

Modest Mouse - Gravity rides everything [mp3]

New Order - Everything's gone green [mp3]

Phoenix - Everything is Everything [mp3]

Spoon - Everything hits at once [mp3]

Kaiser Chiefs - Everything is average nowadays [mp3]

The Smiths - You've got everything now [mp3]

Doves - The man who told everything [mp3]

The Flaming Lips -Suddenly everything has changed [mp3]

David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything that happens [mp3]

The Cribs - I've tried everything [mp3]

The Strokes Post #597

The Strokes Post #596

somehow, I don't think I've ever seen this.
wow.

Classic Track Thursday

Son House - Grinnin' In Your Face [mp3]

The Strokes Post #595

The Strokes -Live At The Monarch (London, England) (07.02.2001) [zip file]

Hard to Explain [mp3]
Alone Together [mp3]
New York City Cops [mp3]
The Modern Age [mp3]
Soma [mp3]
Last Nite [mp3]
This Life [mp3]
Barely Legal [mp3]
Someday [mp3]
Take It or Leave It [mp3]

The Strokes Post #594

Julian C, you are such a weirdy.

The Strokes Post #593

I never needed anybody...never needed no body. except for The Strokes.

band of the week: The Dig

The Dig are from NY. At times their songs are easy breezy like early Oasis and elsewhere, they employ a sonic heaviness that would do Josh Homme proud. Their music is intelligent; not like math rock, but rather there is a deliberate delicacy in the arrangements that displays a fine grasp on what people need to hear. Employing the perfect amount of distortion; The Dig’s debut Electric Toys is a tad intoxicating, yet nearly completely composed. It’s the aural equivalent of an otherwise reserved person who is emboldened by a few drinks, not sedated by them. Like Blur delivered through a post-grunge lens, The Dig’s music is intrepid and fresh. Check it out.

The Dig - Two Sisters in Love [mp3]
The Dig - You're Already Gone [mp3]

visit them on MYSPACE

They are currently on tour with MIE favourites The Henry Clay People. see you kids in San Francisco

Oct 12 – Atlanta, GA – The Drunken Unicorn
Oct 13 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
Oct 14 – Washington, DC – Backstage @ Black Cat
Oct 15 – Philadelphia, PA – Kungfu Necktie
Oct 16 – New York, NY – The Mercury Lounge
Oct 17 – Cambridge, MA – T.T. The Bear’s
Oct 19 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
Oct 20 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
Oct 22 – Denver, CO - Larimer Lounger
Oct 23 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
Oct 25 – Seattle, WA – Crocodile Café
Oct 26 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge Patio
Oct 28 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill

The Strokes Post #592

watch this on mute while you listen to this

Sunday Morning Covers

ZIP FILE!

Arctic Monkeys - Take It Or Leave It (The Strokes Cover) [mp3]

White Stripes - Cold Brains (ft. Beck) (Beck cover) [mp3]

Jamie Cullum - I Only Have Eyes for You (Al Dublin cover) [mp3]

The Postal Service - Grow Old With Me (John Lennon cover) [mp3]

Beach House - Play The Game (Queen Cover) [mp3]

Free Energy - I'm Goin' Down (Bruce Springsteen cover) [mp3]

The Morning Benders - Outlaw Blues (Bob Dylan Cover) [mp3]

Phoenix - Playground Love (Air Cover) [mp3]

Sufjan Stevens - She Is (Tim Buckley Cover) [mp3]

The Strokes Post #591

I think from all the songs in The Strokes catalogue, this one affects me like a drug the most. it leaves me paralyzed and wanting more. I should have been at ACL.

Saturday Music Definitions: Pie

I've had a crazy few weeks, culminating in a very very draining Saturday. it ended well, though, and I won a pumpkin pie eating contest today. I ate a whole Costco pie in around 10 minutes. it made a grown man throw up.

Oasis - Magic Pie [mp3]

Guided By Voices - Zoo Pie [mp3]

Stephen Malkmus - Dragonfly Pie [mp3]

Wilco - Pieholden Suite [mp3]

The Temptations - Sugar Pie Honey Bunch [mp3]

The Beatles - Wild Honey Pie

Bonus:

The Hives - Barely Homosapien [mp3]

Black Lips - Best Napkin I Ever Had [mp3]

The Strokes Post #590

because of this recent tour,
Juicebox is my favourite live Strokes song. damn you, Nick.

The Strokes Post #589

The Strokes Post #588

The Strokes Post #587

The Strokes Post #586

The Strokes Post #585

I don't work better when I'm stuck in the ground

yo, children.
I will be away from my computer for the next week.
occupy yourselves accordingly.

The Strokes Post #584

The Strokes Post #583

The Strokes Post #581

via

friday, saturday, sunday: hardly strictly bluegrass

three days of music in the park for free.

this year, be sure to catch the Avett Brothers, Elvis Costello, Conor Oberst, Joan Baez, and Patti Smith.

click HERE for a complete schedule of the weekend's performers

Classic Track Thursday

if this is the soundtrack to depression, sign me right up
Jimi Hendrix- Manic Depression [mp3]
from Are You Experienced (1967)

The Strokes Post #580

yes.

The Strokes Post #579

hahah

new song: The Morning Benders - Virgins

cheers, Olivia!

The Strokes Post #578

The Strokes - Live At Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA (09 March 2001) [zip]

1. The Modern Age
2. Soma
3. Barely Legal
4. Someday
5. Alone Together
6. Last Nite
7. Hard to Explain
8. New York City Cops
9. Trying Your Luck
10. Take it or Leave It

book review: Innerviews by Anil Prasad

Fans read interviews in music magazines to find out what makes their favourite musicians tick, or what factors might have contributed to a recent release. They revel in intimate details because, in a strange way, it allows them to possess their favourite artists.
Innerviews is not like that in the least. Anil Prasad’s new book, which is essentially an anthology of his unpublished interviews with various musicians over the last decade, gives more insight into musicianship than it does to dirty laundry. It’s the antithesis of your typical journalistic work; Prasad explores the bounds of making music with a few fundamental questions. Although the artists whom Prasad features (Stanley Clarke, Bjork, Joe Zawinul to name a few) are not currently in the spotlight, their words offer invaluable details about the process of making music (particularly when they answer Prasad’s standard question of what spirituality means to them). Everything from writing soundtracks to the preference of playing old songs vs new is discussed, and the book teaches a lot more about music history and the industry rather than oft-limited personal stories. Jazz, pop, electronica, hip hop, world music—it’s all here. Prasad, who founded the internet’s first online music magazine (innerviews.org) in 1994 has crafted a gem for anyone who loves music itself, not just a particular artist or genre.

Recommended for musicians and music geeks.

The book will be available on October 19th, and you can order it HERE

The Strokes Post #577

Shayan is my guardian angel of all things Strokes.
er, all things beauutiful-pictures-of-Julian.
cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeers!

holy wow

I totally forgot this was coming out. November is so soon!

Sunday Morning Covers

ZIP FILE

Eternal Summers - A Salty Salute (Guided By Voices cover) [mp3]

I like this. a lot.
Robbers on High Street - Shout To The Top! (Style Council cover) [mp3]
The Morning Benders - Ram On (Paul McCartney cover) [mp3]
A Place to Bury Strangers - Suffragette City (David Bowie cover) [mp3]
Cut off Your Hands - The Witch (The Sonics cover) [mp3]
Elliott Smith - Care of Cell 44 (Zombies cover) [mp3]
Callers - Heartbeat (Wire cover) [mp3]
Beck feat. Liars, Os Mutantes & St. Vincent - Kick (INXS cover) [mp3]
Okkervil River - Mellow My Mind (Neil Young cover) [mp3]
Band of Horses - The End's Not Near (The New Year cover) [mp3]
Iron & Wine ft Calexico - Wild Horses (Rolling Stones Cover) [mp3]
Ryan Adams - Freeway To The Canyon (Neal Casal cover) [mp3]

The Strokes Post #576

Albert Hammond Jr - Scared [mp3]

The Strokes Post #575

Band of the Week: Bettie Serveert

Bettie Serveert are from Amsterdam and their lead singer Carol Van Dijk has an edgy attitude that gives Karen O a run for her money. The band began nearly two decades ago, releasing a debut album in 1992 and joining the Matador family. After releasing eight albums (including a Velvet Underground tribute record), Bettie Serveert have returned full force in 2010 with Pharmacy of Love, a dizzying collection of menacing punk and grime, doused with screeching, slightly distorted guitars—with a bit of cabaret thrown in for good measure (“Mossie”). They have that lust-for-life sound that is almost exclusively found in bands that are still relatively unknown, and they want to confirm all of your mother’s fears about the unbridled dangers of rock n roll.

Bettie Serveert - Deny All [mp3]

Bettie Serveert on MYSPACE

Tour Dates:
Sep 30, 2010: Magic Bag (Ferndale, MI, USA)
Oct 01, 2010: The Abbey (Chicago, IL, USA)
Oct 02, 2010: First Avenue & 7th Street Entry (Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Oct 04, 2010: Larimer Lounge (Denver, CO, USA)
Oct 06, 2010: Empyrean Coffee (Spokane, WA, USA)
Oct 07, 2010: Tractor Tavern (Seattle, WA, USA)
Oct 08, 2010: Biltmore Cabaret (Vancouver, BC, CAN)
Oct 10, 2010: Dante's (Portland, OR, USA)
Oct 12, 2010: Cafe Du Nord (San Francisco, CA, USA)
Oct 13, 2010: Spaceland (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Oct 16, 2010: The Rialto Theatre 'Club Crawl' (Tucson, AZ, USA)
Oct 17, 2010: Launchpad (Albuquerque, NM, USA)
Oct 19, 2010: The Prophet Bar (Dallas, TX, USA)
Oct 20, 2010: Stubb's (Austin, TX, USA)
Oct 22, 2010: Blueberry Hill (St. Louis, MO, USA)
Oct 23, 2010: Exit / In (Nashville, TN, USA)
Oct 24, 2010: Earl (Atlanta, GA, USA)
Oct 25, 2010: Local 506 (Chapel Hill, NC, USA)
Oct 27, 2010: Brillobox (Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
Oct 28, 2010: North Star Bar (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Oct 29, 2010: Bowery Ballroom (New York, NY, USA)
Oct 30, 2010: The Record Collector Store (Bordentown, NJ, USA)
Oct 31, 2010: Iota Club & Café (Arlington, VA, USA)
Nov 02, 2010: T.T. the Bear's (Cambridge, MA, USA)
Nov 03, 2010: Maxwell's (Hoboken, NJ, USA)
Nov 04, 2010: Daniel Street (Milford, CT, USA)
Nov 13, 2010: De Oosterpoort (Groningen)
Nov 21, 2010: Beauforthuis (Austerlitz bij Zeist)
Nov 26, 2010: Podium Asteriks - Blokhuispoort (Leeuwarden)
Nov 27, 2010: 't Beest (Goes)
Dec 03, 2010: De Waerdse Tempel (Heerhugowaard)
Dec 10, 2010: Muziekgieterij (Maastricht)
Dec 23, 2010: De Vorsting (Hilversum)

The Strokes Post #574

Colbert + Malkmus = awkward bliss

this is so freaking wonderful.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Pavement
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

"Reagan" hahahahha

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Pavement - Gold Soundz
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

Pavement are magic covered in powdered sugar.

video + mp3s: The Walkmen's impeccable TAS sessions

fucking grand.









read the interview from the The Alternate Side session HERE

angela surf city [mp3]
juveniles [mp3]
woe is me [mp3]
torch song [mp3]

Adam Haworth Stephens visits Daytrotter

"Stephens has always been able to deliver the ballads with the fiery expositions of torn to shreds people set on getting a little ferocious and snapping when they've been cornered and here, on 'We Live On Cliffs,' we find that there's more of a settling going on, of folks falling into those phases of life where they might comment that they're too old to give a damn anymore."

Adam Haworth Stephens - Praises in Your Name (DT) [mp3]

check out the whole article + download all the mp3s HERE

I am so obsessed with this man's soul. his voice makes me quiver. I need to listen to his band, Two Gallants.

Classic Track Thursday

when I get to hell, I expect Messrs Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Lou Reed to be waiting for me at the gate, ready to engage in an orgy.

The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog [mp3]
from The Stooges (1969)

The Strokes Post #573

"that's not just music that's romance too
you like music we can dance to."

The Strokes - You Only Live Once (Zane Lowe) [mp3]
the rare early version with the lyrics from I'll Try Anything Once. it makes my heart melt.

The Strokes Post #572

concert review + interview: Everest

Bands nowadays are a dime a dozen, with longevity and impact factor to match. While new bands seem to sprout up quicker than weeds, it’s rare to find truth or substance in their music. But then there are hidden gems, bands that have been doing spectacular things under the radar for years while people dilute their souls with Lady Gaga.


Everest are from California and are currently based in LA, but their hearts are fixated with the timelessness of Americana and folk music. Their spectacular performance at the Fillmore Saturday night was sandwiched between two acts (Nathan Moore and the Mother Hips) that had me shrugging my shoulders with indifference; I left midway through the later set. They drew heavily from their recent sophomore album, On Approach. The set, which was characterized by the band's unshakable control over the holistic sound of the varied guitar tones and a subtle mastery of keyboards, culminated with a rollicking cover of Neil Young’s classic “Revolution Blues” which had the audience begging for more.







I had the chance to ask their lead singer (Russell Pollard) and their bass player (Elijah Thomson) some questions. I was thrilled to discover something about the identity of the latter, read on below to find out what it is

Stylistically speaking, who are your biggest influences?
Russ: Dylan, Tom Petty, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Pretty Things-they recorded around the same time as The Beatles…they had a number one record in ’70…then they disappeared. Bands like that. Good songs, good singers
Eli: I know everyone says this but I think we enjoy a wide variety. There is no stylistic genre we try to fit into

On Approach is your second album. How did writing it differ from your debut?
Russ: The songs were written in a different chunk of time…we were on the road when some of the songs were written. But we had more time writing it, about two years. We had more experience playing together and more time in the studio figuring things out and had more of an idea of defining our sound together than we did on the first record. That one was more about enjoying playing together and making stuff up.
Eli: the first one was more of a project based thing, we had more of a vested interest in the second one. All the lessons that are learned touring and testing yourselves in different situations and what effect that has on your creativity. What impact you want to have musically. In subtle ways, not something you think about consciously but, you know, thinking to yourself, “ok, I have to up the ante now”
Where did you come up with the band name?
Russ: Jay and I-our guitar player- liked the name Everest, and we have a little studio by that name. A little recording space called Everest Recorders. Before the band started, we were just messing around in there, figuring out how to capture our ideas, rather than having to go to somebody else’s space. It was just the name that fit.

What has been the best touring experience the band has had?
Russ: It’s hard to choose one, we’ve been really lucky. We started touring with My Morning Jacket and we went to Europe with those guys, we had fun, cause we’ve been friends for a while. I’ve known Jim James since high school, I’ve seen him in different bands and we’ve played together in bands in our early twenties. I’ve seen his trajectory into MMJ and I talked to him about it and he took us out on the road.

You guys remind me of two other bands from Southern California who do their own thing without much regard for what is trendy in indie music-Cold War Kids and Delta Spirit. Any thoughts on either band?
Russ: Eli knows DS pretty well
You’re not Eli Thomson are you? The guy who co-produced History From Below?!
Eli: That’s me.
Holy…wow. Thank you. Wow. I am honoured. Oh! Right, cause the record was also produced by a guy from MMJ…
Eli: yeah, Bo. He was playing with us, with Everest on a tour with Neil Young. MMJ took a year off and he was just trying to do some new things, some interesting things. He came out on the bus one day saying that he had just heard this record [Ode to Sunshine-DS’s self released debut]…that was when they were still a club band, and the early creativity is captured in a different way. When we started working with DS, they had made a conscious decision not to recreate that record. You have to respect a band that doesn’t want to do the same thing again. I’ve known those guys since they were teenagers.
The thing that I like about our circle of friends is there isn’t any kind of competition, other than friendly competition, you know. We all try to build each other up.
What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?
Eli: I dunno what to say without sounding self aggrandizing. People have made comments that my bass playing was…I think unique was my favourite term. I don’t think of certain musicians as necessarily better than others, every individual has their individual expression, they’re collecting a lifetime of influences and honing them into some new form that is different than from what everyone else has because they didn’t experience life in the same way. When anyone recognizes something I do as unique, I consider that the highest form of compliment.
Russ: When we finished On Approach, Neil Young listened to the record and he told me that one of the songs was a classic
Which one was it?
“Unfortunate Sea”. So that’s as good as it gets for someone who is writing songs to hear something like that from someone they look up to…it’s huge

Describe your music with one word.
Russ: True
Eli: Multifarious

“Let Go” has a gripping shock factor. It made me want to hear more, immediately. Do you prefer writing that kind of song or do you prefer slower ones like “Unfortunate Sea”?
Russ: I enjoy both. I think they go hand in hand, they help each other out. They’re both necessary. You can’t have every song sound like “Let Go”, it would get boring, especially in the live setting
Does either feel more forced to write or do they both come naturally?
Probably a song like “Let Go” felt a little more forced. For us, it was a different direction than what we were used to doing. We were unsure of it at first but at the same time it never felt “forced”…we never felt like we needed to write a certain kind of song so that people would say this about it. We questioned it because we didn’t know it was in our wheelhouse. And it ended up that it was.

Which instruments make you uneasy?
Russ: Saxophone in rock music makes me a little uncomfortable
Eli: I would agree with that. Not in jazz, or in a section, that’s fine. In the middle of a rock n roll song, it can’t be great
Can you tell me what inspired “House of 9's”?
A riff inspired it…this dirge riff that our guitar player Joel wrote while we were out on the road. I was feeling nostalgic. It was the fall, and I always feel nostalgic during the fall. That’s sort of what it’s about in a vague way. There are a lot of characters on our record that aren’t real. You know when you have recurring dreams and you feel that the person in the dream is you, but it’s not really? It’s like pieces of your subconscious that you don’t need anymore fleeing…your brain erasing things you don’t need
That’s how your songwriting goes?
Russ: sort of. Just trying to remember things that you might not reveal themselves to you again and trying to make sense of it somehow

How do you feel about music or the industry today?
Russ: to be positive, something good to dwell on is that I’ve felt a lot of camaraderie amongst different bands as things have changed and maybe become more difficult for bands to figure out ways to sell records. There’s this spirit and energy that was kind of missing for awhile of Bands being supporters of one another. Taking them out on tour and giving them a shot; or, if they’re on the same level, giving them a shout out and bringing them to the attention of their fans. We’ve been really fortunate to have some great touring experiences with some really great bands. You have to be really proactive and work really hard but the fruits of your labour are just that much sweeter because it’s not easy. Just surviving.
Eli: and that’s just surviving. The question is, how do you maintain that? You have to be weary of inner band politics and strife. There’s more stories of people that lose it than ones who maintain it.

If you could live out the experiences of any band, past or present, which would you choose?
Russ: Led Zeppelin. For me, they were my first favourite band. They were young and they did whatever they wanted and it just happened to be, like, the hugest thing ever. Those guys were just awesome. And they became humongous and they wrote these great records that people still put on and it’s your favourite. And you don’t even realize it until you go back to it. Why wouldn’t you want to live that?
Eli: Russ’s answer was great. I have to think of something different. I think the band I would most likely wish I was in is the Ravi Shankar Orchestra. I think that is probably the most amazing shit I have heard in my life. The beginning of the concert for George…is just…one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. If I could be anything in that band, I might have to leave Everest
Russ: I’d join you. Totally.

Everest on MYSPACE

Everest - House of 9's [mp3]

The Strokes Post #571

tomorrow will be different
so this is why I'm leaving

The Strokes Post #570

The Strokes Post #569

oh Pete. you're a darling so I forgive you.

new song: The Henry Clay People - Switch Kid

now THIS is what I call anthemic music. bless these boys and their Pavement love.



The Henry Clay People - Switch Kid [mp3]

The Henry Clay People on MYSPACE

Saturday Music Definitions: Snow

Kings of Leon - Velvet Snow [mp3]

Regina Spektor- 20 Years of Snow [mp3]

The Walkmen - While I Shovel The Snow [mp3]

Miike Snow - Animal [mp3]

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (hey oh) [mp3]

The Strokes Post #568

I have never seen this. have you seen this? THIS IS RAD!

band of the week: Phantogram

What can one say about Phantogram? They are perhaps best embodied in the very context which got me into them. Months ago, my best friend was coming out of a bad breakup so I went over, picked her up and took her to Rickshaw Stop, my go-to place whenever I feel down in the dumps. There, we found a pair of electronica wizards, each outstripping the other in glittery prowess. The boy-girl duo from NY crafted a magical sound: hazy, fuzzy, shiny, soft, edgy. You know the term “black gold” for petroleum? Phantogram is the aural equivalent of it. They remind us singletons that there is beauty in solitude yet.

Phantogram – Mouthful of Diamonds [mp3]

Phantogram on MYSPACE

Eyelid Moves was released earlier this year and it is a trippppp

The Strokes Post #567

I think my favourite thing about my tattoo is that it gets children into The Strokes.

Classic Track Thursday

Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown [mp3]
from the Nervous Breakdown EP (1978)

I've been binging on Black Flag lately. they embody such splendid simplicity in their punk ardour.

The Strokes Post #566

via SPIN

song of the day: Everest - Let Go

Everest on MYSPACE

The LA band will play SF's Fillmore on Saturday (September 18) with the Mother Hips. tix are only $20, come out and enjoy the show!

Free Energy to (co)headline Slims

it'saboutfreakingtime!

Friday 29 October 2010
tix are $15, buy em HERE

Free Energy - Cmon Let's Dance [mp3]

The Strokes Post #565

via

The Strokes Post #564

thanks Shayan =)