i rock i roll

Friday, January 27, 2012

These Animals!!!

These Animals are a four piece band from Brooklyn who make lovely 60s inspired pop music. The four creators of this artful music met, appropriately enough, at art school and they have released two solid EPs in the last two years, including 2011's Souvenir Sessions. If you're in NYC, catch them Saturday night at Bowery Electric.

It's also worth mentioning that they offered me gift certificates to the Olive Garden in exchange for this blog post. While I am a HUGE fan of the Olive Garden, I wrote this strictly because I liked their music a lot (ok... well the gift certificates certainly didn't hurt either. Unlimited salad and breadsticks is a totally acceptable form of payola in my book and I admire their creativity).

Song: Souvenir

Song: Four to the Floor

posted by n. @ 1/27/2012 04:37:00 PM

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

You Won't

Let's break it down. It's 2012. Apparently mainstream music has made an amazing "comeback" - however that is possible for something that is "mainstream" I find questionable - and the music blog? Dead. RIP. But then along comes a band like Cambridge Massachusett's natives You Won't to reassure me that there are still musicians out there for us bloggers to embrace. Bands that are keeping things simple while still challenging us and who don't need David Guetta to make an impact (not that I have anything against David Guetta, his stuff is mad catchy). With their full-length debut, "Skeptic Goodbye," out Feb 14th on Old Flame Records (home of local faves Dinowalrus and Cloud Nothings), high school friends Josh Arnoudse and Raky Sastri have set out to do just that.

Stemming from home-recording and cross-country tape sharing collaborations, there's a little (and sometimes a lot) of twang on knee-slapping sing-along tracks like "Television" and just as much gentle melody and creative twists and turns on single "Ten Years Old." Overall, there is definitely a message of a simplistic innocence and childhood nostalgia to their music that as a listener you can easily get lost in, and that this industry has, in some ways, either forgotten or lost some appreciation for. Is the blog dead? Has mainstream won out? I'd be a skeptic to say goodbye at this point too.

Upcoming shows:
2/15/2012 - Portland, ME - 131 Washington (w/Artie Appleseed, Mango Floss, Heavy on the Juice) - 8pm
2/16/2012 - Cambridge, MA - TT The Bear’s Place (w/Friendly People, Slowdim, The Suitcase Junket) - 8pm
2/17/2012 - New Haven, CT - Underbrook Coffeehouse at Yale University (w/Laurelin Kruse) - 8pm
2/18/2012 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall (w/Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Lucius, Julia Read) - 8pm

Song: Ten Years Old

Song: Television

(But you probably will)

posted by n. @ 1/18/2012 11:22:00 AM

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #1-10!!! WOO HOO.

Just when you thought maybe - just maybe - I would just post a top 25-11 favorite albums and come back to this in February or maybe never - HERE IT IS YOU GUYS.

Also this blog has now been around for close to 9 years. HOW CRAZY IS THAT? How old AM I (ahem not that old)? Thanks to the five people or so who still read this, and to the great bands and awesome publicists who email me even though I don't always (ever) write most of you back. My gmail still reaches maximum capacity every month so it's good that you're kicking ass at your jobs and fighting the good fight for the attention you/your artists deserve.

Some people say music blogs are dead or dying and maybe that's true to some degree, but as long as I'm still listening to and falling in love with music and having fun doing so I'll still be here sharing/rambling in some form or another.. until I get really old and have to turn this into a mommy blog.

Just kidding.

1. We Are Augustines - Rise Ye Sunken Ships

SONG: Chapel Song

2. The Horrors - Skying

SONG: Still Life

3. The Antlers - Burst Apart

SONG: Parentheses

4. Caveman - Coco Beware

SONG: Thankful

5. Tally Hall - Good & Evil

SONG: You & Me

6. Youth Lagoon - The Year Of Hibernation

SONG: Cannons

7. Cold Cave - Cherish The Light Years

SONG: Villians Of The Moon

8. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar

SONG: Austere

9. Milagres - Glowing Mouth

SONG: Gentle Beast

10. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

SONG: Holocene

Also, if you have Spotify (and if you don't, you should!) you can listen to all of the albums #1-25 on this list in full. Hooray and thanks for reading!

posted by n. @ 12/29/2011 02:26:00 PM

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #15-11

Getting close to the top 10 here:

11. Hooray For Earth - True Loves

SONG: No Love

12. James Blake - James Blake

SONG: Limit To Your Love

13. The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love

SONG: Children

14. Oh Land - Oh Land

SONG: Wolf & I

15. Holy Ghost - Holy Ghost

SONG: Wait and See

posted by n. @ 12/20/2011 08:05:00 PM

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Thursday, December 15, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #16-20

16. The Dodos - No Color

SONG: When Will You Go Home

17. Das Racist - Relax

SONG: Girl

18. Boy & Bear - Moonfire

SONG: Feeding Line

19. Tom Vek - Leizure Seizure

SONG: Someone Loves You

20. Generationals - Actor-Caster

SONG: Greenleaf

posted by n. @ 12/15/2011 10:56:00 AM

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #21-25

Seriously, it's weird, but this list was in some ways harder to build for me than any other year.

Was it that there was so much amazing new music this year? I'm going to say.. kind of but not really. You'll see a lot of my top 10 list is going to be made up of personal favorites and everything else was pretty DARN GOOD. Not mind blowing. Not 'meh' inducing. What I'm saying is: it was a year of good music and these are my favorite albums.

Please note I'm not a paid music critic and I have a personal life so I have not actually listened from beginning to end to every album that came out this year. And I bet you haven't either (unless you are a paid music critic and in that case... how is that going for you?). These are the albums that are my favorites and maybe will become your favorites too. Here we go with 21-25!

21. Yuck - Yuck

SONG: The Wall

22. Acrylics - Lives & Treasure

SONG: Nightwatch

23.Kids of 88 - Sugarpills

SONG: Ribbons Of Light

24. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines

SONG: Please Ask For Help

25. Yellow Ostrich - The Mistress

SONG: Whale

Travel back to 2010 here:
2010 Albums #1-10
2010 Albums #11-15
2010 Albums #16-20
2010 Albums #21-25

posted by n. @ 12/13/2011 05:25:00 PM

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Monday, December 05, 2011

MillionYoung: EasyNow Video

Remember that time you danced around your laundry room seductively wearing nothing but a one piece bathing suit? Laundry days will do that to you.

Topspin has a new MillionYoung Remix EP, which you can download here. MillionYoung - hailing from Southern Florida - will be realeasing a second full length album in early 2012 to satisfy all of your electronic dance needs.

posted by n. @ 12/05/2011 03:05:00 PM

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Monday, November 21, 2011

The Big Pink Return! New Album, Video for Single "Hit The Ground (Superman)"

Future This, the second album from The Big Pink, will be released on 4AD on 16/17th January 2012.

The Big Pink - Hit The Ground (Superman)

posted by n. @ 11/21/2011 10:52:00 AM

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Tuesday, November 08, 2011

LITTLE RED

My CMJ this year was pretty uneventful to say the least. Or maybe underwhelming is a better word. It seems as though the entire "festival" has become far more of a fun social networking activity than an opportunity to get turned on to a lot of great talent. Not to say that I didn't see some awesome bands (the showcase I put on with Battering Room and Hilly Town was full of them!) and a lot of the new artists I saw were good, but not really great or OH MY GOD I NEED TO TELL EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM AND THEIR MOM'S BLOG about this RIGHT NOW. So it goes, I guess.

One of the new artists that I DID see and have kept on repeat since the fest is Aussie band Little Red. This quintet of charming gents play fun, light-hearted indie pop rock with just the right amount of layered harmony make your feet tap and perhaps your heart quiver, too. They just released their 2010 album Midnight Remember stateside October 25th on True Panther (a single from it already went gold in Australia) so hopefully this means lots more trips stateside are soon to come.

Little Red - Rock It

posted by n. @ 11/08/2011 04:44:00 PM

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Youth Lagoon

22 year old Trevor Powers has the kind of sensitive withdrawn genius that makes for immensely compelling bedroom music projects - and that's exactly what you find in Youth Lagoon's debut album The Year of Hibernation. Powers wrote the album about all of the things he has a hard time expressing because of his anxiety - talking about it, he felt he wouldn't make sense to people, but musical expression was the perfect outlet for him.

"For my whole life I've dealt with extreme anxiety." he says. "Not anxiety about passing a test or somewhat normal things, but weird.. bizarre things. Things that only I know. I sometimes feel like I'm literally being eaten up inside. So I started writing these songs. Not just songs about my anxiety, but about my past and my present. Songs about memories, and all those feelings that those bring. I know that if I can be honest about what is inside my mind, there will be others that will be able to relate to it."

Personally, Traver Powers and my 16 year old self would definitely have more than a lot in common, which might explain why I love his album so much. But even if you can't relate, we should all be glad that he has found such a perfect outlet for his self expression - it really is a very special gift.

Youth Lagoon plays at Mercury Lounge in NYC on November 14th and 15th and The Year Of Hibernation is out now on Fat Possum records.

Youth Lagoon - Posters

posted by n. @ 10/27/2011 10:52:00 AM

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