Posts Tagged ‘The National’
First Spins: The National
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
With 2010’s release of High Violet, The National knew that expectations for the album would be high. The New York based bands 2005 release of Alligator was hailed as album of the year by many critics and set the stage for The National to be one of the most buzzed about bands, boasting celebrity fans of the highest musical echelon, such as Joy Division and the boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.
Following up Alligator with 2006’s Boxer, the band proved that they were not a one album wonder. Boxer was rated the best album of the year by Paste Magazine and the group received widespread publicity when songs off the album were used on shows such as One Tree Hill, Southland and Chuck.
Over the years the band has lent their music and their time in support of HIV/AIDS awareness and President Obama’s Presidential Campaign.
High Violet hits stores next week but you can listen to the amazing album in its entirety by clicking here.
Favourite Tracks: Anyone’s Ghost, Runaway, Lemonworld, Conversation 16
Tags: Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck, first spins, Joy Division, One Tree Hill, Southland, The National
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4/7/10 News briefs: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, No Age, Mates Of State, The National and Refused
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are releasing a brand new single called “Say No to Love.” On the flipside will be a track called “Lost Saint.” You can pick it up via Slumberland Records on June 8th. But more good news comes in the announcement of a North American tour. Okay, so it won’t come to Canada, but it will hit border cities like Buffalo and Rochester, New York, which are pretty close to Ontario. Even better is the news that fuzzy indie kids Surfer Blood will support them.
No Age is giving away a live album they recorded in Los Angeles recently. The gig was a performance of the score they wrote for a short film by Todd Cole for Rodarte titled Aenteni. You can grab it here.
Mates Of State’s next album will be strictly covers. The married couple of Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner recorded/produced the album themselves, which they’ve cutely named Crushes (The Covers Mixtape). Some artists’ songs you’ll hear include Death Cab For Cutie (“Technicolor Girls”), Belle & Sebastian (“Sleep the Clock Around”), The Mars Volta (“Son et Lumiere”), Daniel Johnston (“True Love Will Find You in the End”), Girls (“Laura”), Nick Cave (“Love Letter”), and Tom Waits (“Long Way Home”).
More details have emerged from the forthcoming album by The National. Due on May 11th, High Violet will feature Richard Reed Parry from Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens and Justin Vernon from Bon Iver in different capacities.
Finally, the rumours of legendary hardcore fusionists Refused reuniting were false, we know this, but the band will be reissuing their landmark 1998 album The Shape of Punk to Come on two gorgeous slabs of blue wax limited to 500 copies. It won’t be out till June 8th, but pre-orders are underway and for something like this, it’s best not to wait.
Tags: Mates Of State, No Age, Refused, The National, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Posted in News, The New Music | No Comments »
1/25/10 News briefs: The National, Caribou, The Tallest Man On Earth, Pavement and Vampire Weekend
Monday, January 25th, 2010
The National will release a new album on 4AD in April. Currently untitled, the band’s fifth album will take the Brooklynites on a North American tour that includes one Toronto date: Massey Hall on June 8th.
Caribou will release the follow-up to his Polaris Prize-winning Andorra album this spring. Titled Swim, Dan Snaith describes the album as “dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water, rather than made out of metallic stuff like most dance music does.” Merge Records will release Swim on April 20th, but you can hear a brand new track called “Odessa” right now.
Swedish folkie The Tallest Man On Earth (or just Kristian Matsson) has signed to Dead Oceans to release his new album. Speaking of that, The Wild Hunt will be released on April 13th and you can check out the first “King of Spain” over at Pitchfork.
Matador has released the tracklisting for the forthcoming Pavement greatest hits. Quarantine The Past will feature 23 of the bands “hits” including “Gold Soundz,” “Shoot The Singer,” “Shady Lane,” “Trigger Cut” and “Box Elder.” You can pre-order a copy here.
Finally, anyone curious as to how Vampire Weekend topped the charts last week in both the U.S. and Canada can learn more from an interview with the band’s A&R guy Kris Chen. And no, it’s not just a matter of people discovering the sweet nu-Soweto sounds of the band on MySpace. There’s actually a lot of work involved. GQ got the answers.
Tags: 4AD, Caribou, Dan Snaith, Dead Oceans, matador, Merge, pavement, The National, The Tallest Man On Earth, Vampire Weekend
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12/14/09 News briefs: Titus Andronicus, Deerhunter, Thrush Hermit, Galaxie 500 and Google
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Irate New Jersey indie rockers Titus Andronicus have released details on their second album. The Monitor will be a concept album loosely about the Civil War. Frontman Patrick Stickles says “it is a record about how the conflicts that led our nation into that great calamity remain unresolved, and the effect that this ongoing division has on our personal relationships and our behavior and how they’re all out to get us (or maybe not?) and yadda yadda yadda.” Guests on the album include the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn and Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone. You can hear part one of the first single “Four Score and Seven” here.
Bradford Cox has dusted off a super-rare Deerhunter album. In a post on the band’s blog, Cox says “it features only me and Moses and is very experimental in nature. This was during our ‘tape phase’ when we would often play shows as a duo (or as a trio with colin) playing only tape machines and vocal loops.” You can download Carve Your Initials Into the Walls of the Night for free here.
‘90s East Coast indie darlings Thrush Hermit will reform for a series of reunion shows in March 2010. It doesn’t look like anything more than a short tour though. Joel Plaskett tells Exclaim!, “As it stands, this is a one-off tour. We’re all busy with our own agendas and we wanted to do this, so we are all pressing pause on our other lives to make it happen in March.”
Galaxie 500 will see their catalogue reissued once again. On March 22nd, Domino will release the seminal ‘80s indie band’s three studio albums - Today, This Is Our Music and On Fire - all with bonus discs of live recordings Peel Sessions and more.
The National and Dan Deacon have both been used new ad campaigns by Google. The National have leant “Apartment Story” for an “out of office” advertisement, while Deacon’s “Build Voice” will be heard promoting web browser Google Chrome.
Tags: Bradford Cox, Carve Your Initials Into the Walls of the Night, Dan Deacon, Deerhunter, Domino, Exclaim!, Galaxie 500, Google, Joel Plaskett, Patrick Stickles, The Monitor, The National, Thrush Hermit, Titus Andronicus
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10/26/09 News briefs: Mighty Boosh, Creation Records, Morrissey, Pulp and indie rock tutorials
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Not only is The Mighty Boosh coming to the big screens, but Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt have fessed up that they’re also working on an album!
A new documentary on the triumphant and turbulent history of Creation Records will premiere in February, 2010. Titled Upside Down, the doc will feature interviews with everyone involved in the label, including co-founder Alan McGee, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, among others.
Poor Morrissey. The Moz was just about to begin a concert at the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon, England when he collapsed on stage and was rushed to the hospital. He was released from a hospital yesterday and is said to be resuming his tour eventually.
Pulp may reunite for Glastonbury 2010. So says Jarvis Cocker, who recently admitted “Glastonbury means an awful lot to me, I would love to play there again. We’ve talked about it, there we go, there’ll be a band reunion.” Now that’s a reunion worth seeing.
And if you’ve ever wanted to learn how to play Vampire Weekend’s “A-Punk” or The National’s “Fake Empire,” CBC’s Q has video of the bands giving a tutorial how.
Tags: Creation Records, jarvis cocker, Mighty Boosh, Morrissey, Pulp, The National, Vampire Weekend
Posted in News, The New Music | No Comments »
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