So, sorry I haven't had any posts this week... I was incapacitated all week if it is any consolation... I'm not sure why that would stop me from posting but.....

A lot went dooooown this week (including several excellent album releases: Titus Andronicus, Broken Bells, the Morning Benders and more), so here goes it.

MGMT :: Flash Delirium
Definitely the biggest thing of the week, this is the first single from their upcoming album, Congratulations, and I love it.  I think they sort of pulled what Spoon did with Transference in that they tried to go out for a slightly more experimental sound that they almost knew more people wouldn't like it, as if they wanted to reject some of the mainstream success they had.  I would compare its sound most to "The Handshake" from the previous album.  Not sure if I agree with Pitchfork's comparison to the Beatles buttt....
PS Album Artwork Win (I just can't wait to see what is underneath it... more on that in another post).

mp3: Flash Delirium (Yayyy mp3s... they are actually all hotlinked from Pitchfork, thus making it OK with Googlé?)

Light Pollution :: Good Feelings
Some more goodness from the always great Carpark Records.  Anthemic, up-beat, trad indie-guitars... Woohoo!

mp3: Good Feelings

Born Ruffians :: Sole Brother
An enjoyable new release from what I think of as Vampire Weekend replacements... not as great as some of the stuff from their first album but I still enjoyed it.  Slightly slower, a little groovier...

mp3: Sole Brother

Neon Indian :: Sleep Paralyst
Ehhhhh... The track did grow on me though.  Oh and the Wall Street Journal has an article about Chillwave...

mp3: Sleep Paralyst

Yeasayer :: O.N.E.
The new video from Yeasayer is soooo different from all their other videos... it's trippy (*Sarcasm... tone of voice just doesn't come through the interwebs...)!  But yes, it is certainly one of the trippier ones, although it does have a "plot" (but of course the "plot" ends up making no sense).  In a nutshell... creepy guy walks into party, but it looks cool.  Not my favorite song from a very good album (more coming in another post...), but still worth watching.  There is some Tron Chess in it... more on Tron Below


Yeasayer "ONE" By: Radical Friend from ODDBLOOD on Vimeo.





-- A Teenage Elephant


In Other News...
-Stars anounced a new album due out in June
-New Daft Punk can be heard in the epic trailer for Tron Legacy below...
-Also since I put one trailer in, I felt like I would put another in.  If Inception is anywhere near as good as its trailer, it will be unreal.




(Woo, Woo, that's the sound of the Idea Police)

The Start of 2010

So the new year has begun!  Sorry for being a little lax about the posting in the last two weeks, but apparently bloggers travel too.  I was getting some requests for what I am looking forward to most in the new year, so here we go!

Yeasayer :: Odd Blood (Febuary 9)


As the follow up to All Hour Cymbals, one of my favorite albums, Odd Blood is certainly looking to me as a possible Merriweather Post Pavillion situation; everybody's been dying for a new release, it's by a very unique band, and it was partially leaked (well, all of MPP was leaked and that's sort of what was special about it, but oh well).  Everybody has been drooling over Ambling Alp and the video for it, and after a few other songs were leaked the anticipation is certainly building the same way it did for MPP with the full album leak.  Yeasayer hasn't really done anything at all with the exception of the excellent "Tightrope" from Dark Was the Night, and hopefully they will impress and keep the Psych-pop that I love them for coming.
mp3: Ambling Alp

 Toro y Moi :: Causers of This (February 23)


T y M was for me the biggest breakout of 2009, really taking it to the next level with Talamak and Blessa.  His woozy, completely computer generated, mellow dance-pop certainly separated him from the rest of chillwave.  The difference between him and the rest of chillwave is that when you listen to Talamak, you are captivated by its ethereal vocals and simple sounding beat, and those two chords that repeat through the whole song; it is more of a sort of pop-jam that you really focus on the music, whereas, for me at least, the rest of chillwave is the perfect background music, a soundtrack to whatever you are doing.  Hopefully the rest of the album can live up to Talamak and Blessa, and not be overshadowed/let us down because of the greatness of those two songs.
mp3: Talamak
mp3: Blessa

Local Natives :: Gorilla Manor (February 16)

I fell in love with this band with just two songs; they are an up and coming LA band, and they fit in perfectly with the whole Deadly Syndrome-Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros-indie-power-pop scene, and I think the two songs really show a potential for a complex and sophisticated album.  Both songs seem to be complex arrangements of simple instruments, and "Airplanes" certainly has the slightly anthemic feel of Band of Horses' "Funeral" or the Deadly Syndrome's "Eucalyptus," or at least the sound that some indie-rock songs have that makes you feel like "Oh, this is the song that is going to become popular and is slightly stereotypical in sound of an indie-band."  The album is already out in the UK (weird right for an LA band to release across the pond first?), and hopefully they will have some success with it here.
mp3: Sun Hands
mp3: Airplanes
mp3: Camera Talk

LCD Soundsystem (Early 2010)
The title I believe hasn't even been released yet (I know, I know, I should be able to find it, but it's not out yet!), but this is certainly one of those albums that I have a feeling that I am so excited for it that it is bound to let me down, but who knows maybe it will amaze.  The previous album, Sound of Silver, is easily one of my favorite albums; "Someone Great" is one of my favorite songs EVER (and I hate choosing favorites) - it is such an emotional song with incredible lyrics, as well as incredible synth... you can't get much better IMHO.  If the new album has even one song as good as "Someone Great," "All My Friends," or really any of the songs from the first album, LCD Soundsystem, it will be great.  I really don't know why I am doubting the new album... I just don't want to be let down.

Born Ruffians :: Say It (early 2010)
A band similar in style to Vampire Weekend, their previous album Red, Yellow, and Blue was excellent and hopefully this album will be just as good as well as able to fill the gap left by an awful Vampire Weekend album (always a chance of an I stand corrected... get the pun?).

The Morning Benders :: Big Echo (Early 2010)
Another really good California band made up of really young guys...

Broken Bells
James Mercer & Danger Mouse... what more needs to be said?

Spoon :: Transference

Rumor
Arcade Fire!!!!!!
Arcade Fire have been reported to be in the studio right now.  They always let a lot of time pass between releasing albums; they are extremely deliberate when it comes to making music (and it always pays off).  It appears that we are due an album soon!!!

Anything I'm missing?
-- A Teenage Elephant

Born Ruffians

This band is a Canadian band, but instead of following more in the footsteps of other Canadians, I think they follow more in the New York/LA Indie Band Scene (i.e. Vampire Weekend/Deadly Syndrome).  To me they have an upbeat lively energy that is lacking in the new Vampire Weekend songs.  I feel that they should/will take the void (oh yeah, it's gonna be a big one *sarcastic*) created by a... bad... new Vampire Weekend album.  Even though these songs came out in 2008 (ages ago...), I've just recently come to love it, and will be really looking forward to what they do with their 2010 LP, so here ya go.


mp3: Foxes Mate for Life
mp3: Hummingbird

They also have an ambitious (if you can still be that without being much different from the original) cover of Grizzly Bear's "Knife."  As much as I absolutely love Grizzly Bear and 'Knife' (it completely captures the sound of Yellow House with its ethereal creaking and crooning), I'm undecided on which I like better.  I feel like the cover shows us what Grizzly Bear would sound like if they had followed a more typical indie band sound. Another thing I really like about the song is that it (at least the beginning of it) sounds as if it could be in the soundtrack to a movie about the late 50's early 60's.  Anyone agree?

mp3: Born Ruffians :: Knife (Grizzly Bear Cover)

-- A Teenage Elephant

P.S.  Something that makes me like them even more... They have a song called Kurt Vonnegut.