This guy is fantastic! Falsetto forever.
Jan 17
Dec 13
Honestly, I don’t know anything about this band other than that they are from San Francisco and appear to be made up of some guys a bit older than the average new band. Their first single is over 7 minutes long and they are signed to American Recordings, the label started by Rick Rubin that has been home to some crazy albums over the years such as Slayer’s newer work and the 5 disc series of incredible Johnny Cash American albums.
Looks like the album comes out on Valentine’s Day and I for one will be listening to it.
Howlin Rain – ‘Phantom In The Valley’ by The 405
Dec 04
Oct 06
Jack’s Mannequin is one of my favorite bands of the post emo, emo world. Born out of Something Corporate’s front man Andrew Mcmahon, basically being all him and being a bit more pop and a bit more polished than the piano teen indie rock of SoCo.
What most casual fans probably don’t know is that Andrew was diagnosed with leukemia a few albums back. He then beat the fuck out of leukemia and came back to continue recording music. His last album was good but it seems like on this one he has really come terms with the gravity of life and his new lease on it. There are typically peppy songs that you want to see live and sing along with and there are melodramatic songs full of dark imagery of fighting and beating a horrible disease. Some of the pop songs on this album are simply the hookiest popiest songs that Andrew has written in years and sound like something that could be on the radio, but in a good way.
The craziest moment of this album for me was the timing of it this afternoon. I had just read that the great Steve Jobs had passed away and I was in an eerily sad state of mind, sadder than I feel I should have been. The sadness was compounded when the current track ended and “Hey Hey Hey (we’re all gonna die)” came on. ”Keep your eyes on the road / i’m the glass passenger / and i sing for the traveling band / where i’ll be tomorrow, guess god only knows / it seems there’s science at hand / but i’ll finish the shows when I land/ and i say hey hey hey, we’re all gonna die someday”. That wasn’t even the end of things… I then reached into my inbox to grab a piece of mail and it turned out to be a donation sheet for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. Whoa.
Enjoy the album though. It has heavy moments, but its an overall delight.
My Racing Thoughts – People and Things by jacksmannequin
Sep 25
I love the band “Fun”. For those who aren’t familiar with Fun, it’s the band that the lead singer of The Format went on to create after The Format sadly broke up. And yes, The Format is one of my favorites of all time.
Apparently their new album isn’t coming out until next year sometime, but this pretty interesting song that features Janelle Monae recently hit the internet and it’s making me think that the new album is going to be pretty epic. Enjoy!
fun.: We Are Young ft. Janelle Monáe by Fueled By Ramen
Sep 05
Aug 31
Aug 29
i’m really digging the album from The Head and the Heart that came out last year. i slept on this one, listened to half a track and forgot about it until now, but now i’m obsessed. it’s like mumford & sons went up to seattle and got emo with the rest of the sub pop label. some Shins, some Damien Rice even. seriously great album. go buy it.
Aug 19
this guy is from australia i think. he goes by Gotye (pronounced ”gore-ti-yeah”)
enjoy.
Gotye- Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)- official film clip from Gotye on Vimeo.
Aug 09
This jazzy vocalist has sold close to a million albums in her home country of The Netherlands and tons more elsewhere in Europe yet nobody in America knows who she is. Want to know my opinion? She could be the next Amy Winehouse. America is always the last to fall in love with the musical artists who are bringing back retro and doing it in a quirky way, just as Amy did, but once we do, we fall hard.
Caro Emerald is just quirky enough to get the indie kids talking and just mainstream enough to get the regular folks to steal her coolness away from the skinny jeaned bunch and start playing her songs in GAP ads.
