Sufjan Stevens + FlyLo + Here We Go Magic + A Video

Sufjan Stevens :: All Delighted People EP

First off, this is some pretty exciting news... Without any warning, after five years of doing pretty much nothing (yeah he did 4 albums worth of Christmas Carols, but... not exactly what anybody really listens to Sufjan for), Mr. Stevens has just released an EP entitled All Delighted People, but in standard form for him, the EP is a sprawling hour!  He also recently announced some new tour dates, so does this mean there is an album on the way?  Let's hope so.  The press release for this album is about as puzzling to say the least.  Apparently, the album (woops, EP) is "a dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s ‘Sounds of Silence."  It also contains a "17-minute guitar jam-for-single-mothers ‘Djohariah.'"  As is evident from these descriptions, the EP is indeed epic in nature, featuring choirs and more; it features choirs, massive buildups with powerful trumpets in the end (think the his great 'You Are the Blood' from Dark Was the Night), and at times sounds almost Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon-ish to me, with lyrics like "What difference does it make?"  Its also got your great Sufjan acoustic rock, and well, a guitar-jam-solo that is... considerable... in its length to say the least.  Is this as good as some of his previous stuff... probably not, but is certainly pretty wonderful to have some new Sufjan.  You can stream the entire thing below.

Here We Go Magic :: Terminally Chill

Having just released an album, (Pigeons, Secretly Canadian) which I think I posted a track or two from a ways back, the Brooklyn band went on and put out a cover of Neon Indian's 2009 song demonstrative of all the chillwave qualities, "Terminally Chill."  Despite some similar parts, like the backgrund synth, they really put the HWGM touch on it with the backup vocals echoing the lead and repeating and overlapping, as well as the quick repetitive drums.  Enjoy.

mp3: Terminally Chill (Here We Go Magic Cover)

Flying Lotus :: Camera Day

Was releasing one of 2010's best albums (Cosmogramma) enough for LA (woot!) hip-hop/electronic/general bro Flying Lotus enough?  Absolutely not.  He must come back with more!  More the people want!  Well more the people shall have (what else would you expect from the nephew of John and Alice Coltrane, after all he does have to carry the family torch).... he will be releasing Pattern+Grid World, an EP (hopefully of the Sufjan length...) soon enough, and here is the first track from it, "Camera Day."

Flying Lotus - Camera Day (taken from Pattern+Grid World) by Warp Records

Yeasayer :: Madder Red
Finally, although I'm sure you've seen it already, here is the new Yeasayer video for "Madder Red."  It is a perfectly normal video.  There is nothing strange or off putting about it.  Oh wait, this is a Yeasayer video.  Of course it's the weirdest video since you've seen the last Yeasayer video.  Of course it makes you feel sort of like, what just happened, and of course it makes you quite sad on the inside...  Well here it is, starring Kristen Bell.



-- A Teenage Elephant

of Montreal + Best Coast + Wavves + Some Remixes/Covers

Hey so sorry it's been a while (and jeez why do all my posts start like that now?  I guess I'm just a bad blogger... Frown face).  After an action packed May (in terms of album releases), June has been a little slow, but.... there have been some new tracks coming out from forthcoming albums, so here you go.

First Up: of Montreal :: Coquet Coquette

Normal guitars?  Normal drums?  How can this be of Montreal?  Well, it is certainly different, that is for sure.  Coquet Coquette is a step in a whole new direction, featuring a much more straight up approach.  Kevin Barnes still maintains the slightly psychedelic sound though, and it ends up resulting in a sound that is very similar to the most recent MGMT album.  It will certainly be interesting to see how False Priest, their 10th (!!!) studio album comes out.
mp3: Coquet Coquette

Since I mentioned MGMT, I'll also throw in the AIR remix of "It's Working" by MGMT, courtesy of PMA.
mp3: It's Working (AIR Remix)

And since we are on Remixes... check out the Golden Filter's remix of Yeasayer's "Madder Red"  below.  (sorry couldn't find the mp3 anywhere...).

Madder Red (The Golden Filter Remix) by theQuietus

And since we are doinig covers/remixes...

Antlers :: Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd Cover)
The AV Club have an interesting thing were they have one band come in and choose a song off of a list of 25 songs to cover and then cross that song off, so the next band will have one fewer songs to choose from.  Most of the covers are really great, and this was one of my personal favorites. Sorry about the Budweiser mumbo jumbo.  Also check out the late Mark Linkous (AKA Sparklehorse)'s cover featuring Thom Yorke.


The Antlers cover Pink Floyd

mp3: Wish You Were Here (Sparklehorse Cover)

Best Coast :: Boyfriend

Just as you'd expect, this track has been tearing up the web, and deservedly so I might add.  We are all looking forward to her debut album... (yes that's the album art)
mp3: Boyfriend

And since we are talking about cat's on the covers of albums, and Best Coast (Beth Cosentino), let's talk about Wavves, whose lead singer Nathan Williams is in a relationship with Beth Cosentino, and who both have cats on their album covers!  Go read the hilarious HipsterRunoff post about their relationship.

Wavves :: King of the Beach
I just grabbed this album and it is one of the first albums released in the past month or so that I have really enjoyed, the others being The Drums' the Drums, Ariel Pink and the Haunted Graffiti's Before Today and Here We Go Magic's Pigeons.  Definitely listen to this if you would like to keep the summer state of mind up.  This album has a little bit of a cleaner sound, but it's still lo-fi if you were worrying.

mp3: Mickey Mouse
mp3: Super Soaker
and the most fun one off the album
mp3: King of the Beach



Best,
A Teenage Elephant

PS Is anybody at all excited for the new Klaxons album, which also features a cat on the cover?

Coachella Day 1

 Hey Yall--
First of all you can check out all my photos from this and the coming posts here (I took over 300 but most of them weren't that great).
Yeasayer
So I arrived at the Empire Polo Club (the grounds that Coachella is on) at around 3:30, and after cutting about two and a half hours of line and avoiding the logistics nightmare, I made it to the Mojave tent just before Yeasayer started playing (they started at 4:20), so I was towards the back.  They packed the tent commanded the stage well and definitely got the crowd in a trance by starting with the slow, distorted opener from Odd Blood, "The Children."  At times, the synths didn't quite come through and the vocals sounded a little overwhelmed by the drums, but overall they played a crowd pleasing psych show, my personal favorites being their tried and true songs "2080" and "Ambling Alp."  Unfortunately, it was during the day and at Coachella, so the crowd wasn't treated to their signature light show, but it was still a very enjoyable first concert, even if it wasn't a perfect show.

Photo by Yours Truly

 Afterwards, I wandered into the Sahara Tent (the electro/rave/dub tent) for a few minutes of Aeroplane, which was essential just some good DJ-ing, but the tent wasn't packed as it would be for the rest of the weekend and the crowd wasn't as into it, so it just sort of felt like any other set by an electro/DJ artist.  When they did their remix of Friendly Fire's "Paris" they did get the energy levels up.

I saw one song by Ra Ra Riot, so I don't really have too much to say, except they looked like they were 16!

Then I saw the Specials, a really big ska band from the 80's (I did not know that, my friend told me that... I don't know if you guys knew or not so I included it...).  They had lots of energy and they were very danceable (I mean they are a ska band come on), but it didn't stand out to me in particular to write about on this blog, just because I don't love to listen to ska when it's not live.

Unfortunately, after that I had to miss two bands I would have loved to write about on here, Passion Pit and Grizzly Bear.  Over the course of the weekend I saw lots of bands that my friend didn't want to see, so I saw some bands he wanted to see.  We each tried some new stuff.  In this case it was Them Crooked Vultures.  It wasn't my style of music (harder rock), but it was certainly fun to see just because the crowd was really into it, plus John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin for my less musically educated readers) can rip it up on any instrument whatsoever, and Dave Grohl (of Nirvana) is such a rocker that it was still pretty fun, despite the loss.

LCD Soundsystem

Photo by Sam Wolk (the Teenage Elephant)

This was a show I was dying to see for pretty much ever, as LCD Soundsystem was one of the first bands that I liked when I started liking the music I like now when I got the album Sound of Silver when it first came out.  The show featured some of James Murphy's goofy antics, an all white getup and some excellent music.  The songs really emphasized the band's style of using repetitive drum beats for minutes on end and vocals that are usually essentially just spoken and then repeated in a shout.  If you dig LCD's style than the show was awesome; the music grooved like no other and everybody was dancing under a massive disco ball that hung over an otherwise sparsely lit stage.  At the back of the stage, Jay-Z's equipment loomed in the background, and when James Murphy was told he only had time for one more song when he still had three left, he went into a nearly 15 minute long rendition of "Yeah" that to me seemed essentially like a big "Fuck You Jay-Z" as people in the crowd either starting throwing up the Jay-Z diamond or dancing like there was no tomorrow.  After that he played yet another song, "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" before yielding the stage to Jay-Z's roadies.  The best songs were definitely "Yeah" and the always moving "All My Friends."  Other favorites were the new song "I Can Change" and the long, comedic "Losing My Edge."  Unfortunately he didn't play "Someone Great," the first song I ever heard by him and one of my all time favorite songs.

After that, unfortunately I didn't get to see Vampire Weekend (my friend really dislikes them, so we didn't see them), but hearing them from afar they did sound like they put on a good live show.

Sahara Tent
After we went to LCD we went to Sahara.  This is when the tent starting heating up, both literally and figuratively (even though it was 11 at night).  The tent was absolutely packed when we got there with Benny Benassi mid way through his set; there must have been about 20,000 people there.  Lemme tell you (it's hard to say that without sounding pretty stupid...) this tent is all about partying and nailing the bass drops.  It was very fun, though nothing in particular to write about, besides the fact that you get REALLY tired.  We left at around 11:30, which was before Deadmau5 went on, which we would have liked to have seen but we were just too tired and we knew we would have a big day on Saturday.  We then saw a couple of Jay-Z songs and left.

So despite missing a few bands and not seeing too many shows, Friday was an enjoyable day and served as great warmup for the front row madness that would be Saturday and Sunday.

--A Teenage Elephant

PS Yall should check out the Antlers cover of The xx... very interesting.

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)

Back from the Br-..... Being Lazy

So, as I am sure you have noticed, I haven't posted in about two weeks.  I would say no excuses, except I do have a few and I think that you should be informed.

1)  There just hasn't been that much out that has really interested me, although since some new tracks that did generate some buzz, I do feel obliged to post 'em so I will below.  From here on out though, I won't be as posting as often as when I first started the blog.  I was posting 3-4 times a week and writing a lot each time, and it got to be a lot to handle (I am in high school after all); also, I will only be posting on stuff that I feel is important/what I feel I enjoy.  I feel I was just posting whatever was coming out/stuff I didn't really care about, so from now on it'll just be stuff I think should let y'all know about.  Having said that, I will still posting tracks that EVERYONE is buzzing about, that way you're in the loop!

2) This is the bigger reason, and what will be the bigger change to the blog.  I don't know if you guys know this, but the blog service I use, Blogspot, has begun deleting music blogs that have repeatedly been found to be posting illegal tracks, even though the bands are DEFINITELY happy about it... but I won't get into that whole spiel right now...  I've already gotten two emails looking like this:

from support@blogger.com to wolk.sam@gmail.com cc blogger-dmca-notification@google.com date Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 2:20 PM subject Blogger DMCA takedown notification mailed-by blogger.bounces.google.com signed-by google.com,blogger.com

hide details Feb 4 (6 days ago)

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again.
asking me to remove posts.  There were more to the emails, but that is the essence.  Seeing as I REALLY don't want my blog taken down after just three months, for now I will hold off on posting mp3 links for downloads, but I will instead put in embedded Lala boxes and the like.  I am dreading receiving a final email that says this:

Subject: Blogger Blog takedown notification

We’d like to inform you that we’ve received another complaint regarding your blog (http://irockcleveland.blogspot.com/). Upon review of your account, we’ve noted that your blog has repeatedly violated Blogger’s Terms of Service (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g). Given that we’ve provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we’ve been forced to remove your blog.

Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

I don't think I would understand... but thank you guys for understanding my changes!

So, now that that is out of the way, back to my music blog, which will now be slightly less legitimate and slightly more depressing for me that I can't post links, but oh well... I'm sure you can all find links VERY easily on Hypem... Wink Wink Nudge Nudge...  And finally, on to the music!!!!

-- A (Slightly Sadder) Teenage Elephant

What HAS Interested Me

ALBUMS

Yeasayer :: Odd Blood

This was an album that I have been talking up a lot on this blog, and from what I have listened to of it so far, I think it hasn't quite lived up to it, but it is enjoyable for the most part.  I feel I haven't quite listened to it thoroughly enough to review it, but I will definitely be posting one later.  For now you can  stream the whole album at their MySpace.

Local Natives :: Gorilla Manor

 Now this is an album that I talked up a lot that I do think is living up its/my hype.  I am really loving this album and feeling that it really captures the LA indie sound.  Again, I will post a review later, and you can stream the whole album at NPR, which I HIGHLY recommend you do.


SONGS

The Morning Benders

First Up: Here is a fantastic video from the Morning Benders.  They are performing the first track, "Excuses," from their LP Big Echo, which I am highly anticipating and is due out in March.  In this video they sing with a bunch of other San Francisco natives, including Christopher Owens, the singer for Girls, whom I saw the Morning Benders open for.

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros :: Home

These guys and this track has been around for a while, but it has started to pick up some radio time and I really love this track/the band so I figured I would post it.  

Home - Edward Sharpe & The Mag...

Broken Bells :: Vaporize

 Broken Bells, AKA James Mercer and Danger Mouse, just put up their newest track, "Vaporize" on their MySpace. IMHO, it's not quite as good as "the High Road," but still very enjoyable (sorry no embed).

 

Harlem :: Someday Soon

 Another opener track, "Someday Soon" is an enjoyable jam form lo-fi-ers Harlem.  Listen to it here it PMA (sorry no embed). 

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

New Video + New Album News (And Why This February Will Be a Great Month for Music) (UPDATED)

New video from Washed Out... following up the vacationers from the 'Feel It All Around' video are a bunch of girls in 80's workout gear.  They look like they might have just walked out from a shopping spree and American Apparel... in fact, I think the whole first 2 minutes and 30 seconds may be a commercial for what I will henceforth exclusively refer to as AmAppy (thanks HipsterRunoff).



Washed Out - Belong (Music Video) from Blake Salzman on Vimeo.

 Here's another new video that is pretty fun for the eye... It's for 'One Life Stand,' the newest single off Hot Chip's forthcoming album.

Hot Chip - One Life Stand (MySpace Exclusive)

Hot Chip | MySpace Music Videos

Flight of the Conchords
They won't be returning for a 3rd season!!! What will the world of comedic indie rock do???

Yeasayer

Here is the album art for Yeasayer's Odd Blood, coming out in February; also, here are two more tracks just released from the album (just like the album art, it's pretty much just more psychedelicness from Yeasayer).  The cover is definitely reminiscent of the video for 'Ambling Alp," which has got to be one of, if not my favorite, music video of the year; if you haven't seen it you can check it this earlier post (it was actually the first one with content!).

mp3: ONE

mp3: I'll Remember


Toro y Moi :: Low Shoulders

Here's the album art (it came out awhile ago so I never posted it, but here it is) for Toro y Moi's Causers of This, which will feature Blessa and Talamak, two of my favorite songs of the year (you can get them in this post).  This song isn't quite as good, but still very enjoyable.  He was one of the best live performances of the year for me when I saw him in October, and yet there were only 15 people there when he was on!

mp3: Low Shoulders

Local Natives :: Camera Talk

LA natives (so they really are Local Natives for me....) Local Natives have their album Gorilla Manor coming out in February, and I just came across this song, which is another one that has just been released.  I think they are poised to make a big splash with the album.  Here's the album art, freaky as ever.  You can download two other songs by them in this post.

mp3: Camera Talk

In Conclusion: 
Odd Blood (February) + Causers of This (Febuary) + Gorilla Manor (February) = Awesome February

New Yeasayer

Here is the video for the new Yeasayer song Ambling Alp.  It's a pretty crazy trippy video directed by duo Radical Friend.  If you don't know them they are a psychedelic, electronic and overall sweet Brooklyn band.  They have a new album coming Odd Blood.  Out in February on Secretly Canadian it should be a great follow up to All Hour Cymbals if it holds up to the first single.  You can download the new single over at Yeasayer's website for free. There are also a couple of great remixes, the best of which by Memory Tapes.  Check it all out after the jump.

--A Teenage Elephant

"Ambling Alp"
mp3: Ambling Alp

Ambling Alp - Yeasayer

[via]

Memory Tapes Remix
mp3: Ambling Alp (Memory Tapes Remix)

Ambling Alp (Memory Tapes remi...

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