Chewable Vitamins | Los Angeles Music Blog

Stand By Me by Ben E. King Happy birthday, Dad. shared from...

Sat, 26 May 2012 11:14:00 -0700

Stand By Me by Ben E. King

Happy birthday, Dad.

shared from exfm

Willie Nelson - Just Breathe (Pearl Jam cover featuring Lukas...

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:29:00 -0700

Willie Nelson - Just Breathe (Pearl Jam cover featuring Lukas Nelson)

There are a couple excellent covers on Willie Nelson’s new album, Heroes. We heard his take on Coldplay’s The Scientist a while back. Turns out there’s an even better one. I just love this version of Pearl Jam’s Just Breathe by Willie and his son Lukas Nelson. It’s pretty true to the original, but that harp adds a lot and Willie sounds amazing.

Florence + the Machine - Try A Little Tenderness (Otis Redding...

Thu, 24 May 2012 08:17:24 -0700

Florence + the Machine - Try A Little Tenderness (Otis Redding cover)

I have two great cover songs this week, so here’s one a day early. This recording is from Flo + the Machine’s MTV Unplugged session. “Try A Little Tenderness” — first performed in the 30s but made popular by Redding in 1966 — has been getting a lot of love lately. You may remember another subtle tribute that sampled Otis’s version. Ms. Welch, whose music is often called indie soul, puts her spin on a classic here.

Lupe Fiasco - Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free) Chicago’s...

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:53:00 -0700

Lupe Fiasco - Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)

Chicago’s Lupe Fiasco has announced a sequel to Food & Liquor — one of my favorite albums of the last decade. I’m gonna hope and pray for some classic “Kick, Push” and “Daydreamin’” caliber awesomeness from Lupe. This first single is a step in the right direction (even if Pete Rock doesn’t like it). Food & Liquor II is due in September.

The Walkmen - The House You Made The new album from The Walkmen...

Tue, 22 May 2012 08:57:00 -0700

The Walkmen - The House You Made

The new album from The Walkmen is pretty great. This is the first track that jumped out at me. It’s sort of Pulp Fiction meets Brooklyn. Love the bass section about 3 minutes in.

shared from exfm

Music For Your Morning: NPR Music is streaming Sigur Ros’...

Tue, 22 May 2012 06:59:59 -0700

Music For Your Morning: NPR Music is streaming Sigur Ros’ Valtari and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ Here and Saint Etienne’s Words And Music By Saint Etienne and The Walkmen’s Heaven and Regina Spektor’s What We Saw From The Cheap Seats.

Via nprfreshair

sigur rós - Varúð The long anticipated new album from Sigur Ros...

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:09:55 -0700

sigur rós - Varúð

The long anticipated new album from Sigur Ros drops a week from today. The band held a global listening party last week, and it’s now streaming on-demand via NPR and The Guardian. It goes without saying that I’m in love at first listen.

Preorder at http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/

Shearwater - You As You Were I’m wrapping up two weeks on...

Sat, 19 May 2012 04:26:00 -0700

Shearwater - You As You Were

I’m wrapping up two weeks on the East Coast today. lacartaajena and I left Brooklyn about a week ago with no plans and only a vague notion that we wanted to visit Maine. We ended up in Bar Harbor this weekend and spent yesterday in Acadia National Park. What a place.

We listened to Shearwater’s Animal Joy en route to the trailhead of our epic hike. Shearwater’s sweeping, melodic pop is known for invoking the natural world and exploring otherworldly themes. It always makes me think of J.R.R. Tolkien. Animal Joy is a little less obscure than the recent trilogy of Palo Santo, Rook, and The Golden Archipelago, but still touches on the same concepts. An amazing soundtrack for a trip through coastal Maine — a place of astonishing natural beauty.

The Golden Filter - Age of Consent (New Order cover) From MOJO...

Fri, 18 May 2012 04:28:11 -0700

The Golden Filter - Age of Consent (New Order cover)

From MOJO Magazine’s January edition. Happy Friday.

Rural Ghosts - Rural Ghosts I find myself in Portland, Maine...

Thu, 17 May 2012 05:44:23 -0700

Rural Ghosts - Rural Ghosts

I find myself in Portland, Maine this morning listening to local artist Rural Ghosts. This self-titled track opens the self-titled debut EP, which Erik Neilson self-released in March. It’s a safe bet that this song captures the essence of the project, which Neilson describes as “Sparse ballads of death, love and regret, set against the thick & mysterious ambiance of Maine’s North Woods.” If that line conjures images of the good winter in northern Wisconsin, you’ve got the idea.

The opening lines talk of being followed by ghosts “down wooded paths and by docks on crumbling piers.” Powerful imagery — especially as I trapse through Maine with no plans and little direction. Give the EP a listen on Bandcamp, and also check out the limited edition, handmade physical copy on Etsy.

The Tallest Man On Earth - 1904 This new track from...

Wed, 16 May 2012 05:35:42 -0700

The Tallest Man On Earth - 1904

This new track from Sweden’s The Tallest Man on Earth hit the airwaves yesterday. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Kristian Matsson said “I wanted to build something that didn’t sound like a rock band, but wasn’t super minimalistic. I wanted a sound that had that brittle [quality], that feeling that it might just fall apart.” He achieves that brittleness very nicely here.

There’s No Leaving Now is out June 12 on Dead Oceans.

Via whitneymcn

Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless When an album hits the hype cycle...

Tue, 15 May 2012 05:42:29 -0700

Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless

When an album hits the hype cycle and an artist is suddenly everyone’s SXSW pick and everyone’s band of the moment, sometimes I can’t even listen to it. I’ll admit that I steered clear of the new Cloud Nothings album because the swells of praise were too loud.

Well, that was a mistake. This is probably the best album of the year so far. Perfect pop punk that invokes both the Strokes and Minor Threat. You wouldn’t be wrong to call them brethren in arms with Japandroids and Fucked Up. Attack On Memory is raw and alive. Even “Wasted Days,” at almost 9 minutes, is driving and urgent with the repeating chorus “I thought I would be more than this.” It’s hard to listen outside the context of today’s political and socioeconomic shit show.

“No Future/No Past” is straight out of the Slint playbook, and is the first track that drew me in. But “Stay Useless” is the centerpiece, so I’ve shared that here.

Attack On Memory on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes. Also check out their performance on KEXP.

Daniel Rossen - Golden Mile Daniel Rossen, of Grizzly Bear and...

Mon, 14 May 2012 04:22:00 -0700

Daniel Rossen - Golden Mile

Daniel Rossen, of Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles fame, dropped a solo EP last month. It’s quite good, as you may expect.

Insound Vinyl

Pomplamoose - Mrs Robinson (Simon and Garfunkel cover) Happy...

Sun, 13 May 2012 08:23:34 -0700

Pomplamoose - Mrs Robinson (Simon and Garfunkel cover)

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom: Mrs. Robinson!

I don’t think she was much like The Graduate’s Mrs. Robinson when I was in college. And if she was, I don’t want to know. But this song is, naturally, a family favorite.

shared from exfm

Jim James & Calexico - Goin’ To Acapulco (Bob Dylan...

Fri, 11 May 2012 05:18:00 -0700

Jim James & Calexico - Goin’ To Acapulco (Bob Dylan cover)

An oldie from the “I’m Not There” soundtrack. I’m shocked to see that, when I first posted this video a few years ago, I wrote that I wasn’t a huge MMJ fan. What!? Must have been a momentary lapse in taste.

Gary Clark Jr. - When My Train Pulls In (Live) [Solo Acoustic] I...

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:25:00 -0700

Gary Clark Jr. - When My Train Pulls In (Live) [Solo Acoustic]

I bought Gary Clark Jr’s. The Bright Lights EP for this track. It’s 8 minutes 13 seconds of blistering blues rock. In the era of 15 microphones and 50 takes on every instrument, it’s almost impossible to believe this was done live in one take. What an incredible talent.

The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows The final track on Revolver,...

Wed, 09 May 2012 05:40:00 -0700

The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows

The final track on Revolver, released in 1966, broke with traditional song structures and recording processes, signaled a larger shift in popular culture, and urged the listener to “surrender to the void.” It uses tape looping, Indian harmonics, and George Martin’s now-famous speaker cabinet, which he built to record this song. It brought the psychedelic ideas of Timothy Leary et al to the mainstream.

Mad Men’s use of this track in the latest episode was pretty epic. I can’t think of a better song to soundtrack standing on the edge of the abyss.

Turn off your mind relax and float down stream
It is not dying, it is not dying

Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void,
It is shining, it is shining.

Yet you may see the meaning of within
It is being, it is being

Love is all and love is everyone
It is knowing, it is knowing

And ignorance and hate mourn the dead
It is believing, it is believing

But listen to the colour of your dreams
It is not leaving, it is not leaving

So play the game “Existence” to the end
Of the beginning, of the beginning

The Record Company - So What’Cha Want (Beastie Boys...

Tue, 08 May 2012 06:31:00 -0700

The Record Company - So What’Cha Want (Beastie Boys cover)

LA blues rockers, The Record Company, recorded this tribute to the Beasties and Adam Yauch. This is how you do a Beastie Boys cover.

Alt-J - Hand-Made Oh! This is great. Alt-J is playing School...

Mon, 07 May 2012 18:41:18 -0700

Alt-J - Hand-Made

Oh! This is great. Alt-J is playing School Night at Bardot tonight. I’m not going, but you should! Thanks to Rollo Grady for the audio.

Dead Sara - Weatherman Holy shit! How am I finding out about a...

Mon, 07 May 2012 08:13:00 -0700

Dead Sara - Weatherman

Holy shit! How am I finding out about a killer LA rock band from ~~an online friend in Boston~~ a NY-based writer? (UPDATE: I got my Maura’s mixed up.) Whatever, I’ll take it. Smokin’!

Great write-up on the band and their debut album on LA Music Blog.

maura:

Super into this album. Loud (yet not crushingly produced) anthemic post-alt led by a woman who can YAWP.