Friday Five: 1st 1/4 2010 Highlights!

You guys, it's already April! That means that a quarter of the year has passed us by. Fortunately for the keen music fan, there has been lots of great new stuff to soak in through our ears. We've already had great new releases by Hot Chip, Owen Pallett (formerly Final Fantasy), Vampire Weekend, Spoon and MGMT (oh what? it's not out till next week...LEAK ALERT). Plus I've stumbled upon new interests, like Das Racist whose reference-laden rap makes me smile. Their mixtape/album is well worth the free download.

And there is so much more too look forward to in the coming months: LCD Soundsystem are releasing LP3, 'This is Happening', on May 18 in North America and Wolf Parade are dropping their next one, 'Expo '86', in June or July (fingers crossed for June). Broken Social Scene have new record, 'Forgiveness Rock Record', coming out May 4 which I'm sure will be another epic based on these tracks. Not to mention every morning I check the interwebs hoping for some piece of information about highly anticipated LP3 by Arcade Fire - tipped to appear later in the summer.

Enough talking, these songs are all objectively great.

LISTEN / TELL YOUR FRIENDS:

LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls

MGMT - Flash Delerium

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Owen Pallett - Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (Dan Deacon Remix)

Das Racist - You Oughta Know

Spoon - I Saw the Light

Anya Marina likes T.I, stupid vampire fad

Anya Marina is kinda hot and has an awesome voice. So naturally, she has fit my criteria to blog about her music on BTA. I literally came across this girl today while doing my daily scout of the interweb looking for new tunes. Now I haven't seen Twilight and don't really intend on watching movies about some lonely emo girl that shags vampires or whatever, but she must be on the soundtrack as one of her videos is the whole 'the artist is in the random movie setting / scene but not' deal. What caught my attention though was her cover of the T.I track 'Whatever you like'. It's pretty solid and shows that Anya has been deeply affected by T.I's prison sentence just as much as the rest of us. Now as I tend to do my research as I write..I discover at this point in the post that this track as been floating around for a while. Still good though. And the guy from Weeds is in the video! Anya has just released her new album, Slow and Steady Seduction: Phase II, produced in part by Brit Daniel of Spoon.



Anya Marina - Whatever you like (T.I Cover)

Black Cab Sessions

Fleet Foxes and Sunset Rubdown are just two of many bands to jump on the Black Cab Sessions bandwagon. The premise? Indie artists jump in the back of one of London's iconic black cabs and play a stripped down track while getting a ride around the city. Recent participants have included The National, Bon Iver, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Cave Singers and Lightspeed Champion.

Robin of Fleet Foxes contributing an excellent cover of 'Crayon Angels' while cruising around the streets of Holborn a few weeks ago:


3/5 of Sunset Rubdown performing an unreleased track called 'You Go On Ahead' before their gig at the Luminaire last month:


Lykke Li with 'I'm Good I'm Gone':


- a.m.p.m.

Mixed Tapes: Best of 07

You can download the individual tracks or download the zip file provided below.

The Snob Machine Presents: The Best of '07
Hello! - Junior Senior
Hip Hop A Lula - Junior Senior
The Year Before the Year 2000 - Les Savy Fav
Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
Labyrinthian Pomp - Of Montreal
Ddiamondd - Battles
$20 - M.I.A
Driving Me Wild - Common feat. Lily Allen
D.A.N.C.E (Mstrkrft Remix) - Justice
Kiss Kiss - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
McFearless - Kings of Leon
Mistaken For Strangers - The National
Don't Make Me A Target - Spoon
Wet and Rusting - Menomena
All I Need - Radiohead
Northern Whale - The Good, the Bad, and the Queen
We've Got Everything - Modest Mouse
Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party
Box - Tokyo Police Club
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend
My Body is a Cage - The Arcade Fire

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE COMPILATION HERE.

Cheers,
MF Blaz

Spoon: Live in Victoria

Last night Spoon performed to a sold out audience at the Sugar Nightclub in Victoria BC. By the time they took the stage, the crowd was energized and thirsty for the musical excellence that was about to be consumed. This was thanks to openers Black Joe Lewis. They are without a doubt one of the best modern blues bands I have seen to date. And Lewis' voice, with such strength and delivery, is comparable to the likes of B.B King or James Brown. His accompanying band flaunted a three piece horn section and keyboard to go along with the regular three piece. It didn't take long for the crowd to start dancing and moving to these guys.

Spoon put on a stellar performance. What more can I say. Much of the set list came from the recently released Ga Ga Ga Ga album, along with the best of Gimme Fiction and other old favorites. The best part of the show though was when the horn section from Lewis' band joined them on stage to perform songs like 'The Underdog'. The crowd was hungry for more after this great set and welcomed them for a great encore. This was by far one of my favorite live experiences of this year. Pick up Ga Ga Ga Ga if you haven't already and see them live asap.

- Matty B .
Here are a few quick clips from the show:





Spoon - The Underdog

Spoon's Greatest Hits

A few weeks ago I learned that Spoon's only show here in London (on August 16th) was sold out. Apparently it had sold out in roughly 3.7 seconds and I'd missed the chance to see one of my favourite bands playing tracks from one of my favourite albums of 2007. So imagine my extreme joy when it was subsequently announced that the band had agreed to a second London gig at The Borderline the following night. Needless to say, I'll be attending that second sold out show tonight. In honour of this good fortune I present to you Spoon's Greatest Hits.

Spoon - Everything Hits At Once

Spoon - Lines in the Suit

Spoon - Stay Don't Go

Spoon - Don't Let It Get You Down

Spoon - The Book I Write

Spoon - I Turn My Camera On

Spoon - Sister Jack

Spoon - I Summon You

Spoon - The Ghost of You Lingers

Spoon - The Underdog

Spoon - Black Like Me

Bonus:
Spoon - Mean Mad Margaret

Spoon - Tasty Fish

Grab a couple more Ga Ga Ga Ga tracks here.

-a.m.p.m.

Going GaGa over Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Nothing's changed here, folks; Spoon's new album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is bursting at the seams with solid offerings from a band who's been doing their thing for over a decade, and doing it well.

The forces behind Bridging the Atlantic been digging these guys for ages; yours truly was first exposed to Spoon via A Series of Sneaks (circa '98) and could never understand why almost nobody had heard of them, but all signs point to this being the Summer of Spoon. The first single from the July 10th release is 'The Underdog', an upbeat Paul Simonesque rock/pop glory complete with handclaps, jazzy horns, bouncy acoustic guitar and Britt Daniels' earnest yet cheeky lyrics. The sheer catchiness of 'The Underdog', plus the single's trippy video (see below) and a July 11th performance on Letterman will likely help to increase the band's fanbase.

Almost every track on this album is an absolute gem, but 'Rhthm & Soul' and 'Finer Feelings' are currently my personal favourites. Check 'em out and let me know if you agree.

Spoon - Rhthm & Soul

Spoon - Finer Feelings

- a.m.p.m.