BeatCrave.com - Passionate About Music!

The Submarines, The Pity Party, Thao Ngyuen: Concert Review and Photos

Carl Pocket — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:56:07 +0000

Even on a Saturday morning BeatCrave finds a way to go check out some live music. The non-profit organization 826LA was responsible for putting on the music for this day. The event was hosted by Diana Argon from the show Glee and was mostly accompanied by many of the kids that participate in the program. However, with acts such as The Pity Party and The Submarines, hanging out with little kids was worth it.

The Pity Party fought through a shortened set that was ravaged by technical problems. It seemed like the group was just hitting its stride after a noisy section that left many of the younger people in the crowd covering their ears and moving to the back, but the technical problems only worsened. After singing a song that was written by the kids of 826LA where the main lyrics were, “Two and a Half Men is boring…. and so are you!” Julie walked off stage. It could have been her microphone which stand kept moving on her or that the speakers were popping, but the abbreviated four-song set really gave many who had never heard of the group a good taste of how much sound can come from just two people.

Between groups Dianna Argon, from the show Glee, would come out with many of the kids from 826LA for different impromptu sessions. For this one we were treated to a speed round where she would start a story and let the kids finish. It was often unpredictable as was the special guest who would come out next.

Thao Nguyen (sans the Get Down Stay Down) made her was on stage as this special guest and immediately started with her foot stomping country folk number. She even had the kids on the side of the stage to join in on the foot stomps. Some change fell out from her pocket during this which resulted in one of the kids yell, “Can I have some money” to which Thao replied, “What?!?! I have no money, do you have some?”

The hilarity of children with artists continued as all the kids came out with brightly colored egg shakers and became the percussion section for a song they had written. Thao pulled out a toothbrush, not one she uses to brush her teeth as one adolescent asked, but to play the guitar. Everything was going well until the kids decided to start throwing these eggs into the audience. While most were throwing Jamie Moyer change ups into the crowd, one boy decided to rev up a Randy Johnson fastball that bounced off another audience member’s head with a loud clunk. The set ended with Thao asking the kids if they could beat box as Dianna came back on stage for a rendition of the Salt and Pepper song “Push It.” While Thao thew down the beat with her mouth, Dianna fumbled and struggled to find the words which would often be shouted out by the parents in the crowd. (How odd is that?)

Last up was the group that seems to be Apple’s favorite background music for commercials, The Submarines. The trio which now features a bass player who was introduced at the show navigated through a six song set featuring a unique cover. After the group got the audience dancing to a song that even Blake said, “everyone has heard in a commercial”, “Submarine Symphonika” the Submarines dropped into a heavy dance beat with synths into a cover of the song made famous by Jennifer Lopez, “The Fun Party.” The whole crowd erupted at this point and jumped with their hands in the air just as Blake was doing on stage.

“You probably know this song better than we do,” Blake explained before the group went into “1940″. As the song faded out Blake continued, “I said that because we have never played this live with bass and I am sure he hasn’t really practiced it either.” However none of that mattered when they closed with the infamous, “You, Me and the Bourgeoisie”

Now that we think about it, it might have been more fitting for them to have ended with “The Fun Party” because that’s what 826LA’s Chickens in Love was, a fun party.

Photography by Carl Pocket

Yeasayer Music Video: O.N.E.

Seraphina L. — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:19:12 +0000

Brooklynites, Yeasayer, are back with a new video for their track, “O.N.E.” off of their latest album, Odd Blood. They’ve snagged the same director used for NSWF-ish and incredibly trippy, “Ambling Alp,” and once again it’s complete eye candy during every second. The previous video may have involved face massaging and body parts but with “O.N.E.’ using a dance club as its setting the visuals are expected to be a bit more dynamic and crazier to match the tone of the song.

There’s a man with a mutating face driving to the club, there’s the neon colors painted on people’s faces, there’s the tribal-like dancers that remind us of the Ting Tings’ “That’s Not My Name” or Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” videos. There’s also Anand Wilder who sings behind a fence with a very clear and strangely phallic microphone.

This is one club we would probably go to. Neon body paint, games with pieces that light up, black lighting and Yeasayer? Aside from the face-shifting noise, it sounds like a good time to us. We wonder if they actually throw parties like this. Watch the video for “O.N.E” below and let us know what you think!

What do you think of the “O.N.E.” video from Yeasayer?

Listen: Neon Indian’s Sleep Paralysist Co-Produced By Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor

Seraphina L. — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:34:07 +0000

Along with Washed Out and Toro Y Moi, one of our other favorite chillwave artists is Neon Indian. Initially just a moniker for the music Vega’s Alan Polomo songs that didn’t quite fit wit his band, Neon Indian has now become a critically acclaimed artist by people such as Spin, Rolling Stone, and Gorilla vs. Bear for the album, Psychic Chasms.

Now Polomo’s got some fresh material for our listening pleasure and it fits right into the sounds of the 80s and electronica we love so much from him as Neon Indian. The new song, titled “Sleep Paralysist” which was co-produced by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor can be heard and downloaded after the jump!

“Sleep Paralysist” is released on Mountain Dew’s Green Label Sound imprint, the same one who released Chromeo’s latest song, “Night By Night.” Both songs definitely fit into the niche where throwbacks to the digital age back then somehow contribute to today’s electronica music scene. We’re happy to see another great musician unafraid of taking chances on new ideas.

It definitely pleases us more than MGMT’s “Flash Delirium” does (maybe we just need some time for it to grow on us) but take a listen to it below and decide for yourself!

What do you think of “Sleep Paralysist” from Neon Indian?

Florence + The Machine, Belle and Sebastian, and Vampire Weekend Announced As Latitude Fest Headliners

Travis Woods — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:46:06 +0000

NME has broken the headlining lineup for Suffolk, England’s five-year-old Latitude Festival today, which seems lightly subpar when compared to the fest’s previous heavies (such as Arcade Fire, Nick Cave, Thom Yorke, Wilco and more). Florence + The Machine, Belle and Sebastian and Vampire Weekend will be the tent-pole acts for this year’s Latitude, with backing by Empire of the Sun, The Maccabees and Rodrigo y Gabriela. Keep in mind that this is simply an initial announcement, meaning that there will be more to come. That said, as far as initial announcements go… well, Belle and Sebastian are pretty good, right?

Also announced were a slew of secondary-stage performers, including the National, the XX, the Horrors, Grizzly Bear, and Charlotte Gainsbourg, nearly all of whom I’d take over Florence + The Machine or Vampire Weekend. But, one can’t complain too much – it’s a far, far better lineup, even with substandard headliners, than the rumored Soundgarden/ Green Day/ Lady Gaga axis of evil that may or may not assist Lollapalooza 2010 in jumping a very large and very ridiculous shark, so there’s that.

The fifth Latitude Festival will run from July 16th, 17th and 18th in Henham Park in Southwold, Suffolk, England, with more lineup announcements expected soon.

What do you think of Latitude Festival’s initial lineup?

Ted Leo, Bad Veins Cover Apples In Stereo For “Future Vintage”

Seraphina L. — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:44:36 +0000

It seems like a lot of bands whose last albums were in 2007 are making 2010 their major comeback this year. Apples In Stereo is now one of these bands in anticipation of their upcoming album, Travellers in Space and Time, which slated for release on April 20. To celebrate the album release and to shout out to the influence of Apples In Stereo, a hand full of indie rock artists have come together on a cover album which is being billed as “Future Vintage: Covers of The Apples In Stereo.” Pressed on 12″ vinyl, it will be available for free with purchase of Travellers at your favorite local indie retailer on national Record Store Day, April 17th. Check the complete track listing out below!

Future Vintage: Covers of The Apples In Stereo track listing

“Ruby” by Ted Leo
“Benefits of Lying (w/ Your Friend)” by Bad Veins
“The Rainbow” by Throw Me The Statue

Side B:

“Ruby” by The Generationals+
“Same Old Drag” by Maps and Atlases
“Strawberryfire” by Elf Power

+Generationals are on tour with The Apples in stereo in April!

It also sounds like lead vocalist, Robert Schneider, has been busy. Not only has he been involved in a short film titled, “Exploring The Universe,” with actor Elijah Wood but he will also be joining the like of Weezer, Chromeo and of Montreal as he performs a song called, “We R Super Heroes” on the children television show, Yo Gabba Gabba! Ironically, Elijah Wood was also the first special guest on the show.The episode will be airing on March 11.

What do you think of these artists covering Apples In Stereo?

OK Go Leave EMI and Start Own Record Label, Parachute

Seraphina L. — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:57:29 +0000

With the EMI slowly but surely crumbling in the midst of other major record labels falling part, viral band OK Go, has decided to part ways with them and start their own label, Parachute. Another band who has a major tiff with EMI, OK Go are now happy to announce that they are free to make their own decisions in regards to promotional and distributional funds.

Although they may have just gotten their third viral hit with their latest music video, “This Too Shall Pass,” the band also has plans to start a fresh and bigger campaign for their album, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky.

According to our friends at Rock It Out!, lead vocalist Damian Kulash had the following to say about their leave: “We’d like to thank the people who have worked so hard on our behalf and we’d like to thank our fans for making this choice an easy one for us.” The official change from EMI to Parachutes label will start on April 1 and that will be the same month they’ll also be on a massive tour which includes Bonnaroo. Check the dates out below!

OK Go tour dates:
4/13 Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room
4/14 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
4/16 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
4/17 Chicago, IL @ Metro
4/18 St. Louis, MO @ The Old Rock House
4/20 Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note
4/21 Indianapolis, IN @ Earth House
4/22 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
4/23 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
4/27 Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street
4/28 New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place
4/29 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
4/30 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg – SOLD OUT
5/02 East Rutherford, NJ@ Meadowlands (Bamboozle)
5/03 Philadelphia, PA @Theatre of Living Arts
5/05 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
5/07 Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
5/09 Baltimore, MD @Rams Head Live
5/1 1 Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre
5/12 Charlotte, NC @ Visulite Theatre
5/13 Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
5/14 Tampa, FL @ Crowbar
5/15 Orlando, FL @ Firestone Live
5/16 Gulf Shores, AL @ Hangout Music Fest
5/18 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre
5/19 Austin, TX @ The Parish
5/21 Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
5/22 San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
5/26 San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
5/28 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
5/29 George, WA @ Sasquatch Festival
6/11 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo

What do you think of OK Go starting their own record label?

Letting Up Despite Great Faults: BeatCrave Fav

Winnie Jaing — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:00:47 +0000

Indie-tronica band Letting Up Despite Great Faults is a relatively new Los Angeles based band. With guitar strums similar to that of New Order and an overall sound like that of The Postal Service, it’s no wonder that Ben Gibbard himself is a self-proclaimed fan. Letting Up’s sound, often described as “fuzzy synthpop”, has even been fortunate enough to garner them a song on the show One Tree Hill.

Interested in what they have to offer? Check out Letting Up Despite Great Faults below in our BeatCrave Fav series and if you like their sound as much as we do, vote for them in Friday’s poll!

Pick of the Day: Letting Up Despite Great Faults

Type: Indie/Electro/Shoegaze

Band Members:

Michael Lee
Kent Zambrana
Rachel Koukal
Chris Gregory

Label: New Words

Discography:

Movement EP (2006)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults (2009)

Videos:

“In Steps”

“So Fast: You”

Photos:

Upcoming Shows:

March 08 2010 – The Walnut Room – Denver, Colorado
March 10 2010 – Double Door – Chicago, Illinois
March 11 2010 – Glasslands – Brooklyn, New York
March 12 2010 – Pianos – Manhatten, New York
March 15 2010 – The Middle East – Boston, Massachusetts
March 16 2010 – The Khyber – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 17 2010 – The Drunken Unicorn – Atlanta, Georgia
March 18 2010 – SXSW Sneakerfest – Austin, Texas
March 19 2010 – SXSW Coast to Coast – Austin, Texas
March 20 2010 – SXSW Moose Lodge – Austin, Texas
March 20 2010 – SXSW Homeslice/WOXY – Austin, Texas
April 02 2010 – Spaceland – Los Angeles, California
April 17 2010 – Muddy Waters – Santa Barbara, California

More Information:

BeatCrave Favs this week:

*** Like Letting Up as much as we do? Remember to vote for them in Friday’s BeatCrave Fav poll for your favorite artist!

Other Past BeatCrave Favs

Anna Nicole Smith To Be The Subject Of New Opera

Travis Woods — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:29:45 +0000

Because you can only see La bohème or Don Giovanni so many times before thinking, ‘What… what is this missing?’ before snapping your fingers and exclaiming, ‘Where’s the fried chicken?!?,’ English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage will be blessing us all on February 12, 2011 with the world premiere of his new opera, Anna Nicole. As in, Anna Nicole Smith. Yes, her.

Associated Press reports that the opera is set to debut at the Royal Opera with Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek in the lead roll, direction by Richard Jones and conduction by Antonio Pappano.

One can only guess as to why Smith’s epic life is only just now being married to the sweeping drama of live opera – born in Texas, Smith was a high school dropout who briefly worked for Wal-Mart and Red Lobster before turning to stripping, which in turn led to Playboy modeling, softcore pornographic film, reality TV and marrying an 89-year-old oil tycoon at the age of 26 before dying of an accidental drug overdose in Hollywood, Florida in 2007, at which time she became the center of a media circus — as her story is marked by a series of classic opera tropes as found in the seminal works of Maybeer, Verdi and Wagner. TrimSpa, baby!

What do you think of this? Should Anna Nicole Smith get her own opera?

New Verge Festival To Feature Weezer, Rogue Wave

Jeffrey Hyatt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:05:12 +0000

Weezer, AFI, The Raveonettes, Rogue Wave and She & Him are just a few of the artists on the schedule to perform at the inaugural Verge Music Festival, scheduled for June 4 and 5 at the Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The festival name was chosen by a fan vote to become the name of the modern/alt-rock music festival. The name ‘Verge’ received 37 percent of the vote, just nudging past ‘Parallel, which collected 35 percent. ‘Diatonic’ came in third.

The winning name for the festival was suggested by Katie Kostuck.

Milwaukee World Festival Inc., which produces Summerfest and the new festival, will reveal a logo for the event shortly, plus an updated band lineup at the festival’s new website: vergemusicfestival.com.

Other bands scheduled to play include Crash Kings, Eagles of Death Metal, Cold War Kids, Nico Vega, Reni Lane, Jaill, The Championship, Figureheads, Geri X, Pezzettino, 1956, Red Knife Lottery, Invade Rome, Revision Text and Juniper Tar.

Look for more acts to be announced soon.

Advance tickets for Verge are on sale at www.yourmusicfest.com and can be purchased there through June 3.

What do you think of the name Verge?

Rock Band 3 Coming For The Holidays

Jeffrey Hyatt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:32:03 +0000

The next installment of Rock Band is on the way: MTV Games and Harmonix have announced that Rock Band 3 will be here just in time for the holidays.

The announcement hit the airwaves via the game’s official Facebook page, saying the next version in the series is set to “innovate and revolutionise the music genre once again.”

Philippe Dauman, president of Viacom, which owns MTV Games, also confirmed Rock Band 3 at the Credit Suisse Group Global Media and Communications Conference.

Let us ask: do ‘we’ want/need another version of Rock Band? Surely MTV Games, Harmonix and Electronic Arts, who will handle distribution, think so. And they hope the new version sparks excitement considering the recent dip in sales for both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises.

No major details about the new game are known, but look for the creators to spice things up to entice Rock Band weary players. Billboard has remarked that Rock Band 3 may try to incorporate new motion-capture technology and motion-based controllers, due out on both Playstation 3 and Xbox later this year (via Exclaim). Rock Band 3 may also incorporate the Rock Band Network, which launched earlier this month.

Already on deck is a Jimi Hendrix Rock Band due later this year, plus a Green Day edition. All this news comes after last year’s Rock Band franchise seemed entirely focused on The Beatles: Rock Band; it was expected to commence sales with as many as 1 million copies… but sold 595,000, according to NPD Group.

Rock Band 2 was released in 2008.

Rock Band 3 To Teach You Real Music?

Official Trailer for The Runaways – Fit for Rock Legends?

Anet Hovhanesian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:22:53 +0000

The Runaways is the music-fueled, coming of age story about a groundbreaking, all-girl 1970’s rock band. Written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning (yes, little Miss Fanning is all grown up) as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, respectively. The movie is based on the true story of the bad-ass rock chicks that made up the 1970s band.

Watch the trailer below…

The Runaways left their influential mark with songs such as their #1 hit, “Cherry Bomb.” They led the way for girl rock groups such as The Go-Go’s and The Bangles. In this film, we see the ups and downs, the fun and turmoil these two, young girls – not even 18 when it all started – went through. The film centers on how they dealt with the fame, drugs and abuse, as well as their musical journey as The Runaways.

What do you think of the movie that is based on the baddest girl band of the 70s? What do you think of Stewart and Fanning playing the Joan Jett and Cherie Currie? Do they do them justice?

Muse Breaking Records With New Album The Resistance

Anet Hovhanesian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:19:33 +0000

Alternative rock band, Muse become the first band to have two songs in the top three spots on the alternative rock charts as well as the BDS Alternative Rock charts in the same week. This is coming a year after the bands single “Uprising” remained at No. 1 for 19 consecutive weeks on Mediabase’s Alternative Rock chart, which was a record for the longest run at No. 1 in the history of the chart.

The songs are from the British rock bands fifth studio album, The Resistance. The band includes members vocalist/guitarist Matt Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme, and drummer Dom Howard. The Resistance was produced by Muse and mixed by famed audio engineer Mark ‘Spike’ Stent.

Muse who are known for their energetic and extravagant performances are now on tour. Here is a list of where you can find them in the near future:

March 10 | Bell Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada
March 12 | United Center, Chicago, IL, USA
March 13 | Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI, USA
March 15 | Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI, USA
March 17 | Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI, USA
March 18 | Toyota Center, Houston, TX, USA
March 39 | Recall Place, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Which of the five is you favorite album?

BeatCrave.com - Passionate About Music!

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