I love NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert Series. it’s always nice to hear an acoustic & seemingly impromptu version of a song you love.
I haven’t really listened to them much since college but I’m particularly enjoying today’s tiny desk concert by Phoenix.
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this morning I’ve been enjoying the new-to-me sounds of Portland singer/songwriter Laura Gibson. her sound is just perfect for a Monday morning.
dlb just sent me this music video from Plants & Animals and I really love it. I think you will too. it’s a perfect pick me up for a dreary day.
they will be in Portland this March and I really want to go!
{from plants & animals}
dlb and I went to see Department of Eagles last night at Doug Fir. it was amazing. I love their sound and the concert did not disappoint. usually dlb and I like to buy shirts at the shows we go to but only if they shirt is really cool. by the end of the show, I was really tired and didn’t feel like pushing through the crowd to go to the ATM so we passed up on a really great DOE shirt with an owl on it that I figured we could find online.
after doing a little bit of net searching this morning, I’ve come up empty on the owl shirt, but I did find these really cool gig posters by Jason Munn. he’s my favorite gig poster designer. I just love the simplicity and clean look of his style. I’d happily have more than one of his posters on my walls. {the Stars poster I bought in um, 2007, is one of the prints I need to hang. maybe I should get to those first so I’ll be able to cross something off my list}
{from insound}
if you haven’t heard of bon iver…
where have you been?!
i kid, i kid. but really, if you haven’t had the chance to listen to his first album, for emma, forever ago, go do it! really. truly amazing song writing, with a beautiful and unique falsetto. strangely enough, bon iver (meaning good winter in french, and spelled incorrectly on purpose) and i went to college in wisconsin together. of course at that time, he was just justin vernon, a regular guy who worked at a small magazine with me and ran with the same pals. (i’m totally playing the i knew him when card here). now, he is this amazingly successful, semi-famous musician, who has received international praise for his first solo album. it makes me smile a little to think about our familiar days in little old eau claire, wisconsin.
Black Cab Sessions – Bon Iver from Aaron Landry on Vimeo.
his second release, blood bank, comes out this month. i got a sneak listen, and you’re in for a treat.
dlb is constantly turning me on to new music. his latest find is the fantastic band, Department of Eagles. we’ve had their music on repeat for days now. Department of Eagles is Fred Nicolaus and Grizzly Bear member, Daniel Rossen, so naturally their sound is a toss up between a Grizzly Bear remix and Beatles coverband. I can’t get their song, No One Does It Like You out of my head.
listen here or here.
one week from today…
I can’t freaking wait!
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let me take a break from the regular fashion and style blogging to share with you one of my favorite obsessions – last.fm.
I first discovered last.fm from the recommendation of dlb two summers ago and couldn’t be more happy with that discovery. last.fm, a social music community, is a place to listen and love music. with a free account you can create a music profile, see charts and stats for your musical taste, create widgets for your blog or other web pages, listen to personal radio stations based on the music you love, and discover new music, people and events. that’s not enough, you say? well, for $3 a month you can become a subscriber, which enables you to create playlists, listen to your “loved tracks”, and other special priorities.
this week last.fm unvieled a new version of their site. it’s quicker and much more organized. if you don’t yet have an account, sign up and starting listening. you’ll be happy, I’m sure.
I went to see Beirut last night at the Crystal Ballroom. and it was fanfreakingtabulous. I always knew that they would be great live but even I was blown away at how great they really were. I danced and moved my body to the beat and sang along with the crowd to every single song.
what amazes me most about this band is front man, Zach Congdon, who is a mere 22 years old and created all of this, the band, while writing songs and dreaming up plans in his bedroom. he has such stage presence and his voice is spot on. they came back for two encores and encouraged the crowd to sing and dance.
if you haven’t had a chance to listen to Beirut yet, please do. and if you have and you’re lucky enough to see them in concert, it’s sure to be a treat. just remember to bring your dancing shoes.
{image from pitchfork}
so, I didn’t even watch American Idol this season. not one minute of it. but tonight when I opened up iTunes, the thing across the top blared American Idol top 2 so I decided to listen to a few of their songs. I was immediately taken by David Cook. just as Bo Bice swooned me with his rocker vibe and incredible renditions of Whipping Post and In a Dream a few years back, David got me with that raspy voice and his versions of Music of the Night {absolutely best musical EVER} and Billie Jean, only like my favorite song ever in the most amazing arrangement.
