The Virgins Debut Drops Tuesday, Streaming Now

The Virgins' self-titled debut is finally almost here. You can find it in stores or wherever people buy music these days on June 3rd, but before then the band is giving you a chance to test drive the album via MySpace.

I'm a few tracks in myself and really enjoying it so far. They have a good post-punk thing going on. Has that summery feel of Vampire Weekend, but without the Ivy League education (i.e. no afro pop). "Teen Lovers" even feels a bit like a toned down -- in a perfectly fine way -- Hercules & Love Affair.

Wikipedia tells me, "The Virgins have gained popularity recently due to the CW show Gossip Girl featuring five of their songs in one episode." I believe Vice interviewed them/hyped them up a while ago too, but I didn't dig it up in my 5-second Google search.

Finally, the band did a five-song session with Daytrotter. You can read the story and download those tracks over there.

People to See, Places to Go: 5/30 Podcast

Look at us being all productive and whatnot. The three of us got together one last time before Melissa packed her bags for NYC for the summer to bring you this podcast. We take a look at the calendar and spotlight a few things over the next week or so. Sample tunes galore.

Wale Drops a New Mixtape About Nothing

Wale (pronounced Wah-lay) based out of Washington D.C. has just released his newest mixtape through his website Elitaste this morning. While the version available at this moment is a single track running near an hour and a half long, there should be a tracked version some time this afternoon. The Mixtape About Nothing is Wale's fourth free mixtape made available through Elitaste.

I will be updating this with a review tonight when I have the opportunity to listen to the entire thing. So far, the album title is incredibly fitting, he has touched on more than a dozen ideas, none of them really fit together. Still sounds real good though. URB magazine might be right comparing Wale to Kanye and Lupe, his sound is right on par we these two.

Wale caught my attention recently with the release of a video he did, mixing Justice's D.A.N.C.E. That video can be seen below.

Download:
Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing (one big track, tracked version coming)

Inspector Owl's EP Now Free to Download

Inspector Owl, the Illinois-based synth-indie-pop-etc band, have made their EP from last year available for download. You can grab it on their Web site after you sign up for their mailing list.

Ed reviewed Life Finds a Way last April and seemed to love it. We discussed it shortly tonight during out podcast (look for that tomorrow afternoon) and it still seemed to like it.

You can brush up on your Inspector Owl before they come through Hamden, Conn. on June 4.

Download:
Inspector Owl - Life Finds a Way

Titles Record Release Party Tomorrow

I feel like this show has been on our calendar for ages, but now it's finally here (and I think we'll be there). So expect photos from that show.

The show is free and starts at 9 p.m., so you have no reason not to be there and plenty of extra cash to buy Up With the Sun, Titles newest album on Safety Meeting Records.

Etta Place opens up the show and DJ Live Mike closes it out starting at midnight for the after party.

Titles currently has three songs off the new record streaming on their MySpace. Not sure if I just listened to "A Happy Life" or actually spoke about it, but it's very New Amsterdams-y and that is a good thing. "Fully Dressed in Bed" and "No Love" are no slouches either. Check them out.

Efterklang Photos from Tuesday's Show

As we said before, we missed out on what turned out to be a great show at the Space. We were able to dig up some photos of Efterklang in Hamden, however. So thank Lindsay, who has a ton of great photos on her MySpace and Flickr, for the photos below.


Efterklang

For more images, check out the whole album.

Ex-Gatsby's Vocalist Creates Keith Ledger

I was just having discussion with a few friends at work about what ever happened to the dudes from Gatsby's American Dream and none of us could figure out if they had started anything new. Well, it just popped up that Nic Newsham, GAD's vocalist has started up a new punk band entitled Keith Ledger with some friends. Three songs off of the Monroe Demos are now up on the band's MySpace.

In my opinion, the songs aren't bad for demos, but they are nowhere near as polished as Gatsby's old songs. Their sound has also dropped a lot of of the pop aspects and maintains a harder punk sound.

New Neon Coyote Mixtape is Here!

We loved Neon Coyote's last mixtape, so make sure you didn't miss that one. However, we're here to let you know that another one is ready for your ears. This time coming your way thanks to the third and latest member, Chico Love.

Chicago-based blog redthreat is hosting the mp3, but if you're a bit lazy feel free to grab it below. You can find the tracklisting, which consists of Chromeo, Amanda Blank, Danger, Rick Ross and Hot Chip (to name a few) on the redthreat post linked above.

Download:
Neon Coyote - "From Chico With Love"

New Weezer and The Re-Birth of Music Videos

So this weekend instead of getting drunk and grilling, I spent most of my time at work which means sitting online for extended periods of time.

First off, the new Weezer album, which is self-titled AGAIN and casually known as The Red Album leaked online and my first impression is that it is much better than their last offering of Make Believe, but doesn't come close to touching Weezer (The Blue Album) or Pinkerton. There are some catchy pop songs like "Pork and Beans" and "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived," but there are some failures like "Everybody Get Dangerous" which comes off sounding like a terrible Red Hot Chili Peppers track. Overall, it will make for a good summer release, but there should be dozens that are better.

The second thing that I did this weekend was getting back into music videos. MTV killed music videos for me about five years ago when every track got a music video and for the most part they were awful. Recently I have stumbled upon a few really good videos. One is from the afore mentioned Weezer album. The other one is from the French dance-duo Justice. This video is extremely realistic and makes me a bit tentative of going to France if the video captures any truth at all.

Weezer's newest single "Pork and Beans" brings back the fun, pop culture loving Weezer that disappeared after Maladroit in 2002. If you are as much of a nerd as I am, you will recognized the majority of the cameos in this video. If you don't, you need to watch more YouTube videos.

The next video is for Justice's song "Stress" from †, which never popped out enough at me to warrant a music video, but French director Romain-Gavras does an absolutely amazing job with the song and the video. Throughout the whole video, all I could think to myself was "Where can i get one of those jackets?"



Are there any new video you've found that you want to share? Leave a comment so we can check them out.

A New Obsession with Black Cab Sessions

This morning while I was reading through the dozens of websites I check out every day, I came across a new feature from the BBC that video tapes single songs films by indie artists or bands in the back of a British cab. They only get one take so the songs aren't always going to be perfect. So far, the Black Cab Sessions are up to 42 Chapters.

To sum it up quickly, this seems like an English version of La Blogotheque that Melissa blogged about a few months ago. This format certainly works better for some than others. Lightspeed Champion a.k.a. Dev Hynes playing "Tell Me What It's Worth" with just his guitar sounds great. Unfortunately, The National didn't fare so well. "You've Done it Again, Virginia" feels flat without the album production values with it. Other good sets come from Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon and The Felice Brothers.

Here is the Lightspeed Champion chapter.

Newport Folk Festival - August 1-3

When I mentioned there wasn't much going on in our area as far as festivals go, I seemed to have looked over the Newport Folk Festival in (you guessed it) Newport, RI. The festival has been going on since 1959 and was actually the place Dylan went electric for the first time in 1965. Pretty neat.

There doesn't seem to be any information on what is planned for Friday, but Saturday and Sunday have a mix of acts from really good to pretty depressing. I won't go on to complain about which bands don't really fit the 'folk' label, but you'll notice it's an odd mix. Two-day passes will run you $148 bucks or $69 for Saturday and $89 for Sunday, assuming those of you reading this are over the age of 12.

Saturday, August 2nd
The Black Crowes
Cat Power
Stephen & Damian Marley
Jim James (of My Morning Jacket)
She & Him (feat. Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward)
Jakob Dylan
The Felice Brothers
Jesca Hoop

Sunday, August 3rd
Jimmy Buffett
Levon Helm
The Avett Brothers
Calexico
Brandi Carlile
Kaki King

This is a shortened list. For the whole lineup check out the Newport Folk Festival's site.

Photos from The Submarines' Show Last Night

After much deliberation and phone calls, Melissa ended up going to the Submarines/Headlights show in Northampton rather than the Efterklang show in Hamden. I'm not going to rant about how she showed up late and caught only the last four songs of the Submarines (thus no Headlights photos), but I will tell you that it was a great four songs.

Blake Hazard (pictured below, twice) looked like she was having the best time of her life as she played and sang. I'll leave room here if Melissa feels like she needs to add anything, but on to the photos.



The Submarines

You can see the rest of the photos here.

Move Over Girl Talk

This is old (see: November 2007), but still amazing and worth your time if you're looking to be lazy when you throw a party. Ludachrist (EWUN + a dude from EVOL INTENT) put out this epic mixtape called Bangfest. Follow the Bangfest link to check out the track listing.

It includes a lot of the standbys you'd expect from mash-ups (Biggie, Jim Jones, Justice, etc), but with plenty of refreshing takes and some slightly unexpected tracks.

If you're a bit unsure if you want to commit to the whole long track. You can download/listen to "Se-bast-i-Am," which is featured on Bangfest and combines SebastiAn's "Ross Ross Ross" and Timbaland's "The Way I Are." Both are below.

Downloads:
Ludachrist - Bangfest
Ludachrist - "Se-bast-i-Am"

Comprehensive List of Festivals for this Summer

Pitchfork put together their "Guide to Summer Festivals" for this year and there's a lot going on. This is exactly what I was looking for a week ago when I was trying to plan a little vacation that involved a stop at a festival. So if you're looking for a weekend or week getaway and want to add some music to your list of things to do, check out the list.

There isn't much going on in our neck of the woods, but plenty of stuff not too far away. You can check the list yourself for New York, but I'll post the listing of the one Massachusetts fest.

WHAT: Brainwaves
WHEN: November 21-23
WHERE: Arlington, Mass.
WHO: Matmos, Stars of the Lid, A Place to Bury Strangers, Boduf Songs, Meat Beat Manifesto, His Name Is Alive, Gary Wilson, Lichens, Charalambides, Marissa Nadler

If you know of any other festivals (big or small) happening in the area, let us know!

Plenty Going on Tonight

After somewhat of a slow weekend, Tuesday brings us plenty of shows to attend. We hope to have a photographer at the Efterklang show at the Space tonight. Ed looks like he's chumping out, so look for Melissa instead. And then look for photos to go up tomorrow.

Efterklang

Efterklang seems like they would be a lot of fun live, but if for some reason that not your cup of tea maybe Two Loons for Tea (get it?) is. They will be playing at Cafe Nine in New Haven tonight and Cambridge tomorrow. Last August they released Nine Lucid Dreams on Sarathan Records.

Finally, the last show in the area tonight may be the best one. The Submarines and Headlights will be playing at Iron Horse in Northampton, Mass. The Submarines released Honeysuckle Weeks on the 13th of May. Honeysuckle Weeks has a bit of that same pop-guy/girl duo-etc going on that a band like a the Hush Sound has, or even Rilo Kiley (who will be all over the area this weekend).

So there you have it, plenty to do. We'll definitely be at one of these shows tonight. See you there.

Hood Internet Mixtape Expected to Drop Tuesday

They've blamed their lack of posts for single songs on their efforts behind the scenes where they've been working on a mixtape (I wish we could blame our lack of posts on a secret mixtape). The Hood Internet says they've been pacing their time with, "The Hood Internet vs Chicago," a compilation of 23 new tracks, and they're going to release it Tuesday, May 27.

Some of the artists making appearances on the mixtape include Kid Sister, Kanye West (in combination with Wilco and the 1985 Chicago Bears), Chin Up Chin Up, Rhymefest and Andrew Bird. R. Kelly's in there, too.

You can expect sweet match-ups and, as always, more clever and dramatic Photoshopped representations of the artists together on their description of the mixtape.

Download:
The Hood Internet - "The Hood Internet vs. Chicago" (full mix, 320kps)
The Hood Internet - "The Hood Internet vs. Chicago" (split tracks, 320kps)