Featured Band: The Mood

Its not difficult to conclude that the mood that NYC's The Mood is attempting to evoke is a pleasant one; a beautiful summer afternoon, hanging out the park with friends. Perhaps there's croquet or bocce involved, perhaps not. Or, wandering around your hometown streets later on that same night, likely drinking from a poorly-concealed can of Old Milwaukee. Whatever the specifics are, it's certainly a pleasant time.

The press release states "fans of the New Pornographers take note." And while one could argue that they borrow a little too heavily from their Canadian counterparts, it can also be argued that there's no such thing as too much of a good thing. So, if you're a fan of male and female harmonies over guitar-driven, glockenspiel-laden indie pop and "oooh la la la" sing-a-long opps, then these two tracks below should put you in The Mood.

The Mood - Eskimo Scientist
The Mood - Masquerade

- bbbykmbrly.

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.

Rising to the Challenge

The first single from The New Pornographers' recently released Challengers is so good it bears posting again; I've thrown in a few other solid tracks from the new album to sweeten the deal.

The new album isn't as instantly catchy as 2005 release Twin Cinema - this one's a grower and somewhat understated. It's much more subtle, and aside from single 'My Rights, Versus Yours', offers little of the in-your-face hooks that defined previous efforts from the band. However, Challengers' songs blossom and grow with each listen. The album took me a while to get into, but now I can't get it out of my head.

- a.m.p.m.

The New Pornographers - My Rights, Versus Yours

The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour

The New Pornographers - Adventures in Solitude

The New Pornographers - Failsafe

June Tunes

Summer's almost here, again. It feels like I was just saying that at the end of April, but now I'm saying it again about the summer course on Bollywood cinema I'm taking for two and a half more weeks. That combined with a bi-weekly commute to the camp I work at make for a lot of traveling and iPod charging.

Here are some tracks that have been in high rotation recently:

Kanye West - Stronger (feat. Daft Punk)

Justice - Phantom Pt. 2

The New Pornographers - My Rights Versus Yours
Handsome Furs - Dead+Rural
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost (Joy Division cover)
- LCD was solid-sounding live and played most of Sound of Silver along with a couple older tracks, like Movement, Yeah and Daft Punk (obviously).
Feist - Sea Lion Woman
Arcade Fire - Antichrist Television Blues
- I agree with Bowie that these guys are the best band in the world. I had a brutal seat but it was so worth it.

-Andrew W.