….then my money would be on Cults. For serious, yo.

Check out the simple but deceptively haunting video of new Matador signee Perfume Genius playing “Mr Peterson”. Easily one of my favorite songs of 2010.

Just wanted to throw up a link from friend-of-the-site Alex Schaaf (The Chairs, Yellow Ostrich). He just covered Radiohead’s Kid A in its entirety for school using only non-electronic instruments. He claims its not that special but I disagree; it’s absolutely worth a listen. Check it out on his Bandcamp page.

The album art above is my own doing, not his, but posts with no pictures make Shawn cry and I don’t want to do that to him again.

Photo Credit: Amoeblog

A Jeff Mangum live review. Did I really just write those words? To review a live show generally implies you SAW said show, which means I SAW Jeff Mangum play live. Wow.

I’m not going to lie – I’m a Jeff Mangum fanboy. I’m the sort of person who, when you think of the worst of the overly passionate Neutral Milk Hotel lovers, you picture me. I have my reasons. I think that Neutral Milk Hotel is one of the most important and influential bands of the past twenty years. I’ve also found their most well known album, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, to be the soundtrack of some of the most important times of my life, a friend that was always there for me, and one of the most fascinating and endearing documents of passion that I’ve ever come across. So keep all this in mind as you read my review. …read full article…

Dammit, these eMusic cats have to to be some of the coolest people on the planet. Not only is their taste damn near impeccable (see their eMusic selects program….I feel like I owe them my first born for turning me onto the Rural Alberta Advantage) but they also put out amazing content themselves. I’d totally be jealous of them if I didn’t love them so much.

Up today is an interview with the uber influential but reclusive Black Tambourine, where they talk about fun stuff like, you know, potential reunions. It’s worth a read. Trust me. If you don’t trust me, trust eMusic.

Haven’t heard of them before? Have you heard The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart? Crystal Stilts? Pretty much every single band in Brooklyn and San Francisco today? Then you’ve seen people who likely pray to their worn Black Tambourine vinyl every single morning.

A link to the interview, some excepts, and an mp3, after the jump… …read full article…

This is my second year at SXSW. I am now a grizzled veteran who looks with jaded eyes at the whole Shiner Bock-loving, future talking but no actual action taking, skinny jean wearing crowds that throng 6th Street and all points North, East, South, and West. I survey the festival, sniff, and say “it was better last year”.

Not really. I do love this place. SXSW is still my idea of heaven. …read full article…

Greetings from beautiful (and warm) New Orleans! This place is amazing -I knew five minutes after I crossed the city lines that I wanted to live here and that was before I found out that there are no laws banning public drinking. As a New Yorker with Pavlovian conditioning against drinking in the streets, each time I walk outside with a drink I still half expect to be tackled by 15 cops.

But enough about the city. What is Foburg Festival?

Foburg is a small, brand new music festival in New Orleans, featuring mainly bands from this region, but with a fair amount of out-of-towners sprinkled in. New Orleans is starting to come on the map in the indie rock world (you’ve heard my raves about mynameisjohnmichael here in the past) so a festival like Foburg was an attractive option to see a lot of bands I’ve heard about but rarely (if ever) get to see coming through NYC.

The great thing about NOLA and it’s indie music scene is that the bands from here are so seeped in the town’s musical traditions – traditions deeper and more vibrant that probably any other place in America – that it inevitably shows in their music. The town is a musical marinade, taking otherwise great (and tasty) bands and just giving them greater depth and that extra wallop of flavor.

More on Foburg and pictures, after the jump. …read full article…

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (an oxymoron?), you’ll know that I’m going to be driving around the country as I research a book about music and the music industry. We’ve been extremely busy with the planning and getting everything together and the big day is finally here: we leave tomorrow. We’re all incredibly excited and we have some great stuff lined up. I’ll be posting regularly on Radio Exile about SXSW and the MtyMx festivals. Check back here often to see what is up. I’ll also be posting daily on the Sound Through Sight Tumblr. Check it out.

That’s all for now. Thanks to everybody for their support and stay tuned for the awesomeness to come!

Oh hey. What is probably my favorite band is releasing their new album, High Violet, on May 11th. Am I excited? You betcha. You should be too; this album is amazing.

Visit www.highviolet.com for more album info (as it becomes available…..all we have now is the release date and title) and tour dates.

…This Wilco Sandwich Shop. Yes, a Wilco themed sandwich shop in Toronto called Sky Blue Sandwich Company. First Canada wins gold in Hockey and now this. 2 – 0, Canada.

Seriously thought. This is amazing. I think my breakfast sandwiches are my favorite; they include A Shot In The Arm and A.M. Too perfect.

After the jump are 5 Wilco Sandwiches I’d Like To See …read full article…

So if there is anything I like more than people watching, it’s music blog watching. Oh, you may not care that Matt LeMay writes for Pitchfork again or that Google shut down a bunch of sites or which blogger reportedly hooked up with which blogger, but I sure do. Some people have soap operas, I have music blogs.

So imagine my surprise and interest when, upon stumbling into work this morning (I’m sick…boo!) and booting up my computer, I saw that one of the Holy Trinity of music blogs (Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, and Sterogum) had undergone a major redesign. Like, drastically major. This, ladies and gentleman, is news of the highest order. But what does it mean?

Okay, so I’m going to be reaching into my training as a music blogtologist (it’s sort of like proctology, only you study a lot more asses) for some analysis here. Bear with me. Pretension will be abound below. …read full article…

If you’re in NYC and are looking for some sweet ass entertainment tonight (note: I said sweet-ass entertainment, not sweet ass-entertainment…this is an important distinction), I am having a concert to help raise money for the book that I am writing. We’ve got an incredible line up (truly). The door is only $7 and there will be cheap drinks (you can also BYOB). Details are below. Hope to see you out there!

The concert will be a the Newsonic Loft, an incredible loft space in South Williamsburg, on 2/19/10. Admission is $7, there will be cheap drinks available at the bar, and you can also BYOB.

Tentative Schedule:

9pm: Doors

10:00p: Common Prayer – Kingston, NY – The new project from Jason Russo, of Hopewell and the Mercury Rev

11:00p: mynameisjohnmichael – New Orleans – “One of the Top 5 Bands at CMJ 2009″ – http://bit.ly/MNIJMCMJ

12:00a: Miracles of Modern Science – Brooklyn – “One of the Top 25 Must-Hear Artists from CMJ 2009″ – http://bit.ly/momsCMJ

12:45a: Dynasty Electric – NYC – Recently signed to Damon Dash’s Blu Rock label.

the xx remixed the Magic Wands

…if only they’d touch my magic wand….I’d allow them to remix it.

Oh well.

They’re legal, right? I know they’re young….

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. The xx remixed Magic Wands. RCRD LBL has the download (link after the jump). The Magic Wand’s video for Wizards also after the jump… …read full article…

Check out this beautifully shot video of San Francisco’s Morning Benders playing a Phil Spector influenced new song, Excuses, live in-studio. I could continue to waste ink over how great this video is, but I think the best thing to do is just watch it. Highly recommended.

If you’ve been browsing your favorite music blogs the past few days, you might have noticed something different. Namely, your favorite blogs might not exist any more. It seems that Google has decided that it’s Al Qaeda and music blogs are the twin towers (…too soon?), resulting in the removable of many loved and well read music blogs, such as PopTartsSuckToasted and I Rock Cleveland, among others. This blogs were removed without warning and, it appears in some/most cases, due to posting content they had permission to post.

Stupid Google.

Nashville Scene has more on the story.

I’ve also compiled the new links to some of these sites and created a list of ways to cope with this massacre, after the jump…
…read full article…

Alright y’all, I’m back writing for Radio Exile and I’m back inventing new columns that I will likely never follow up on.

I want to introduce you all to a band that I’m obsessed with. It’s name is Oberhofer [MySpace] and it’s the brainchild/bedroom recordings of one Brad Oberhofer, a teenager from Tacoma, WA who is currently living in New York. I met Brad through work, where he gave me a CD-R with his demo tape. Since I started to work in the music industry, I’ve had a lot of people give me, or try to give me, their music. At best they’re okay. At worst…..well, lets not go there. Oberhofer’s demo was different. At worst is was fucking awesome and at best….well, lets just say that CD-R made my Top 10 Albums of 2009 list.

Music, after the jump… …read full article…

I wanna start a band. I don’t care that I can barely play guitar, can’t sing, and have no other discernible musical talents. F#ck that! I love music. I wanna start a band.

So I will.

I wanna start a noise pop band. I want to make music that’s slightly experimental, uber-poppy and catchy but also slathered in a layer of fuzz and satisfying lo-fi goodness. I wanna make music you can get passionate about and fall in love with. I want to make music you can sing along with at the top of your lungs as you blast it in your car with the windows down on a hot summer’s day. I want to make simple music that anybody can play. I want to be a part of a band that builds a community around it. I wanna start a band so I have an excuse to start a record label for which to release said band’s music. I want to make music that’s optimistic, wide eyed, non-pretentious. I want to start a scene that’s inclusive, that is that antithesis of all the bullshit that Williamsburg so often is.

Check out more “after the jump” …read full article…

Wisconsin natives and friends-of-the-site The Chairs are currently on their first ever American tour right now. We were lucky enough to catch them twice in Brooklyn and were not disappointed; they’re one of the most interesting and consistently catchy bands we’ve come across. Also the most prolific. After dropping the delightfully ADD-pop of Laugh, It’s A Fright in March and the coolest covers EP we’ve heard in years in October, they’re back now with 9 Ways. Without even getting to the music (a review is following soon…), it should be noted that 9 Ways probably has the best album packaging I’ve seen all year. Check it out here. It’s worth your time. TRUST me.

To coincide with their tour, The Chairs have commissioned a truly beautiful tour poster (as seen above). Really, it’s awesome. Don’t take my word for it, go read what UnderConsideration’s FPO said about it.

While The Chairs were coming through Brooklyn, we managed to score one of these posters for a give away. Not only that, but we got the band to sign the poster. NOT ONLY THAT, but the poster is #1 of only 75 made. Readers, some day (sooner rather than later most likely…) when The Chairs are the next Of Montreal, this is the sort of memorabilia which you’ll be able to sell and put your kids through college with the proceeds.

So how do you win this glorious piece of art? Be the first to e-mail tom@hitsingularity.com the answer to the following question and we’ll ship this bad boy to your door.

Ready? Are you? Okay. The question is: What song did The Chairs cover on their first EP, The November EP? E-mail me the answer first and you win. In the mean time, enjoy the mp3.

[mp3] The Chairs – Charlotte Pipe

Sooooo, I took about a month off from posting on this site. I think Shawn hates me now. Oh well, I probably deserve it. Anyways, in an effort to win back his love and affection, here are five great songs that deserve some hypin’ love!

Awesome songs from Yellow Ostrich, The Big Pink, The Music Tapes, The Beets, and The Drums after the proverbial jump…
…read full article…