Track #1 on my New Spring Playlist

I think this song will be track 1 on my 'Summer is coming' Playlist.

It's a perfect soundtrack for day-drinking, non?

The band is Crocodiles and i'm in love.

ISO: a dark & stormy and a rocking chair

Maybe it has something to do with the gorgeous weather, but I am totally in love with the wood brothers right now.

They would be the soundtrack to my life should I ever purchase a farmhouse in the south... their songs make me long to be sipping on a dark and stormy while rocking away in a creaky old wooden chair on an oversized front porch, as the sun sets and the ligtening bugs are first starting to come out to play on a muggy summer evening...



just missed a performance of theirs outside of philadelphia. Had I realized that they were playing there's a solid chance I would have gone to see them on my way back from Penn Sate this past weekend.. sigh.

KOL on Rolling Stone

i feel like a proud parent. or at least im trying to... The boys of Kings of Leon are on the cover of Rolling Stone this week. Part of me is so psyched that a band I've followed for YEARS is finally getting the recognition that it deserves here in the states. The other part of me however, isn't quite so sure.

The other week I was at a show talking to my friend about whatever band we were seeing. I can't remember exactly what I said, but my friend turned to me and yelled "You are being SUCH a hipster snob!" I was totally offeded. That's the last thing I want to be--someone that only loves a band as long as they are small, but as soon as they get big or get recognition, labels them a sellout. I have since made conscious efforts to quell my 'hipster snobb-ish' behavior-- but sometimes it's more difficult than others.

In the specific case of KOL, I am trying extra hard, but it is proving to be a challenge. I'm glad that people discovered how awesome they are. I really am. What I'm NOT sure how I feel about are the Kings of Leon-branded plastic bags that they put their over-priced merchandise in at concerts.



I'm also not sure how I feel about the video on RollingStone.com where the guys give a tour of their Nashville homes-- I mean, at one point Nathan is sipping on an effing chianti in front of his fireplace discussing sunshine and golf... Meanwhile Caleb is shown walking through a field and up the steps of his farm house playing his guitar? They then proceed to cut to his sunroom where he is also sipping on wine and some country record is conveninently playing in the background, scratched and skipping-- "i really was listening to records before," he says, "I didn't just set this all up for y'all"

sigh... I just don't know...

must.keep.reminding.myself:
i'm not a hipster snob. i do not judge. i'm not a hipster snob.....

bobby long @ lakeside lounge

last night, my roommate kelly and i checked out Bobby Long at Lakeside Lounge.

before I get into the AWESOMENESS that was his set, I'd like to take a bit 'o space to profess my newfound love for Lakeside Lounge. It's quickly taken a spot as one of my favorite bars that i've ever been to-- the bartenders are super friendly and chill, the atmosphere is dive-ish but cozy, cheap beer flows like water, and most importantly there's an EFFING photobooth.

Back on topic--
It was Bobby's first american gig and he drew quite a crowd. He ended up arriving around 10, and went on stage right away to start playing. Upon taking the stage, he started telling lovely anecdotes about his day in NYC and that the main thing he noticed is that taxis here don't stop for you to cross the street (definitely true) and that he almost died... a bunch. i think he said some other things, but i was too busy swooning over his lovely english accent to comprehend what he said. I really am a COMPLETE sucker for accents. Don't judge me. ok maybe you can judge me a little.

He played quite a few songs and sounded just as awesome live as he does on the recordings that i've got. Seriously, it's no exageration to say that his voice made me melt. just a bit. He seemed geuinely excited that people were here to support his music. He was there with his manager who seemed just as jazzed about the turnout. Afterwards, I played it cool for a bit and hit up the photobooth with Kelly, but eventually my inner fangirl got the best of me and I had to chat with him and let him know how great i thought he was and get a pic. He was definitely a lot taller than I thought he would be-- what do they put in the water across the pond.


He's got another show tonight at Arlene's Grocery and then heads off to LA and I think Nashville. I snapped some pics and got a video or two, but none are of a tremendous quality since it was really dark. The video is also quite shaky but the sound quality is pretty decent.



and now for the pretty:

Sunbears = My New Obsession

Last night I went to one of the most entertaining shows I've been to in a while. We hit up the Music Hall of Williamsburg to see Mates of State & Black Kids. I'm not a huge fan of the Black Kids, but found myself uncontrollably dancing like I could have been an extra in some prom scene in an 80's flick. Seriously- I was Molly Ringwalding it like a pro. You can't help but dance to their music.

Mates of State didn't disappoint. I love their new album and they sound incredible live. and for some reason I LOVE that they are married.

Now, to the awesomeness that is Sunbears! I was completely caught off guard by how much I liked them. Very rarely do I get so psyched about an opening act. So for your listening enjoyment:


and my pics from the show:
Sunbears!


Mates of State:


The Black Kids:

new dead man's bones

pretty sweet. and ryan gosling is pretty easy on the eyes.


DEAD MAN'S BONES - "NAME IN STONE" from biz3 publicity on Vimeo.

Cold War Kids yay!

I thought it was about time for a Cold War Kids post. They are one of my all time favorite bands and I will be seeing them tonight at Terminal 5 for the 3rd time in one year. Even I think that it's a bit much, but I just can't NOT see them whenever they come to the city.

sigh-- i love nathan willett.. yet another exmple of how i always tend to find the oddest people attractive.

one of my favorite CWK songs of all time:

Handsome Furs

Love Wolf Parade-- so my friend, Jones, told me to check out Handsome Furs. Handsome Furs is made up of Dan Boeckner (of Wolf Parade) and his wife alexei perry. Reading their bio on their myspace page and found this part interesting:

“This band is completely based, aesthetically and otherwise, on travelling, on absorbing places and regurgitating them in music,” says Dan Boeckner over a screwdriver. His wife, Alexei Perry, also sipping on a screwdriver, interjects, “We both secretly want to be journalists.” And her husband concurs, “Secretly, I want to be a foreign correspondent. Handsome Furs is compact and transportable; it allows us to travel to places a lot of fully-manned rock bands with a drum kit never make it to. And bring them to others, whether anyone notices or not. We believe good music helps you broaden your perspective without ramming things ham-fistedly down your throat.” “We have X amount of commercial potential. It’s not a lot, but enough to sustain two lives as much as two minimum wage jobs would or even more. So we can afford to make decisions like using the proceeds from an L.A. show to go to Serbia. If you look at it from a financial point of view, we do stupid, stupid tours. Then again, we’re not financially-minded. We’d rather extend ourselves as far as we can to absorb the world, life and experience.”

Elvis Perkins in Dearland

I was driving with my friend Dave out to PA this past weekend for St. Paddy's Day festivities and he made a comment that I listen to nothing but depressing music. I disagree. Mellow? Maybe. Depressing? eh I guess sometimes.

SO in an attempt to prove to myself that i AM musically diverse and listen to other things besides mellow and depressing blues/folk/rocky stuff, I will try to post some upbeat stuff for a while.. starting- tomorrow. because this might require some digging.

Anyway- Bought the new Elvis Perkins in Dearland album this week and am loving it. I saw him open up for Cold War Kids this past summer at Prospect Park and they were pretty awesome. Dearland is pretty much a clusterf*ck of every possible instrument you could imagine. And then at the end of the CWK set, they came back on stage and had this huge all-out jam session. Good Stuff.

I've included the video for their song, 'Shampoo' My absolute favorite song that they played live was Doomsday, but I couldn't find a video of it that did it justice.

Little Boots

it seems i'm a bit of an anglophile these days, non?

whatevs.

Dan Auerbach, "Keep it Hid"

The other week, Dan Auerbach, of the Black Keys released his first solo album 'Keep it Hid'. I purchased it, eagerly wanting to know what he would sound like without his other half (Patrick Carney) on drums. To say that I was blown away with what I heard would be an immense understatement.

He completely rocks out in Black Keys fashion with songs like "The Prowl" (below) and "Street Walkin" but then he can take his grainy vocals and turn out heart-wrenching songs like "When the Night Comes" and "Whispered Words (Pretty Lies)." The latter of which is definitely my favorite song on the whole album and gives me chills.

It kills me that such talented guys like this remain relatively unknown (outside of indie music circles) and dudes like John Mayer are famous.. *steps off soapbox*

Listen, Love, spread the word of good music:

edit: hot links blow:

The awesomeness that is Laura Marling: aka 'why couldnt i be this talented at 19'

i just missed hopping on the laura marling band wagon in time to catch her touring the U.S. with johnny flynn. that would have been pretty sweet to see. i think they came through nyc in mid november and i didn't really get into her music until December. Such is the story of my life.

anyway- her music is folky and her voice has this whole ethereal thing going on. yet another disgustingly talented and super young Brit-- she's only 19... sigh..

Crawled out of the Sea:



My manic & I:

Dr. Dog in Austin

so dr. dog just announced their spring tour and NYC is not one of the stops.. i'm pretty bummed. I'm actually contemplating a roadtrip to lancaster, pa or maybe boston...

i'll have to make due with this video of their last show at The Parish in austin. you can watch the whole show at baeblemusic.com-- pretty sweet:


Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com

Tapes n Tapes / Wild Light

(Wild Light, Bowery Ballroom)

last night i made an impromptu trip to the city to see Tapes n Tapes play at Bowery Ballroom -- by myself. i've gone to movies by myself quite a bit, but this was pretty much a milestone for me and i must say--I dug it. I don't know if i'll make a habit of it, but if I want to see a band that no one else is into, it's definitely an option.

so back to the music. First of all-- Bowery Ballroom is my new favorite venue in the city. The venue itself is small and intimate. It's got a downstairs lounge full of dim lighting, nooks, and couches that has a really relaxed vibe. I got there a bit earlier than I would have liked to and had to chill in the bar for a few minutes before they let people into the space where the show takes place and i think counted 5 people reading. reading. i was tempted to bust out my book to pass time, but I was in a dark corner.. sigh.

The two opening acts for tapes n tapes were The Subjects & Wild Light. I pretty much fell in love with Wild Light. They rocked -- Like foot stomping, awesomeness. I initially went to this show for the sole purpose of seeing tapes n tapes, but ended up leaving a converted wild light fan. I bought their ep which is good, but it doesn't quite manage to capture how great they are live.

Tapes n Tapes were ok. I was super psyched when they played my favorite songs... headshock, conquest, & LeRuse. In the beginning of their set I was right up in front and it was great, but I moved toward the back for the 2nd half of the set so I could get out quicker, and they seemed a bit quiet. maybe it's just me. or maybe i was a bit deaf for standing right by the speakers for the 2 previous hours.

Tapes N Tapes:

oldie but goodie: ray lamontagne, burn

This is an older Ray Lamontagne song, but it's one of my all time favorites and I've been listening to it non-stop lately. It's one of those songs that can bring me to tears sometimes... esp. when he's like:

so don't pay no mind
To my watering eyes
Must be something in the air
That I'm breathing
And try to ignore
All this blood on the floor
It's just this heart on my sleeve that's a bleeding

..sigh..

makes me want to find a bearded hipster that will croon to me and call me mama.

oscar sunday!

in honor of the oscars i thought that i'd throw a little slumdog millionaire/m.i.a in the blog:

rockin!

catchy

this song- actually, this whole album-- has been stuck in my head ever since i started listening to it a lot like a week ago.

tres catchy.

mates of state: get better

coconut records = jason schwartzman?

i love when i'm surprised by stuff. i'd first heard about coconut records a few months ago, but didn't really look into it that much besides maybe listening to part of a track on itunes or something. About a week or so ago, however, the new cd 'davy' happened to fall into my posession. i listened to one song and was hooked.

imagine my surprise when i went online to learn more about this band and i found out that it's jason schwartzman.

i mean i wasn't SUPER surprised because i know he's quite musically inclined (he used to be the drummer for phantom planet ) but i wasn't aware of his most recent solo venture. it's quite catchy. his first album 'nighttiming' is also quite good.

an epic birthday bash with the black keys

The show last night was phenomenal. I was continually amazed that such big and rich sound was coming out of only two people. It doesn't really come across in the vids that i got, but Patrick Carney is a beast on the drums. I found myself watching him much more than i watched Dan Auerbach (guiter/singer)-- although Dan Auerbach is completely awesome as well.

It was also my first time at Terminal 5. I'd heard from MANY that it's a great venue and it didn't disappoint. A bit crowded, but there were three floors for viewing, so there's lots of space for you to find your ideal viewing spot. we got there late though (just in time to catch the end of the last opening act), so a lot of the great spots had already been taken. we ended up getting a decent spot on the main floor. I had to duck around the ridiculously tall boys in front of us, but it didn't bother me too much as for the most part i had a pretty clear view of Patrick (whooo i have a bit of a crush on i think).





and also because it was my bday celebration, a pic below of the party crew (thanks for coming everyone!) at our pre-show dinner at eatery (53rd and 9th - home to some of the most delicious meatloaf I have ever had):

another year older

So yesterday was the big birthday-- I'm now 25... eek. So far, however being 25 is pretty much rockin. Just like the Black Keys will be tonight. To celebrate being one year closer to thirty, a group of us are going out to dinner in the city and then catching their show at Terminal 5. I am pretty stoked.

To set the mood, some of my favorite Black Keys songs:

house of cards

house of cards was one of my favorite songs off the new radiohead album. whenever I listen to it, I always associate it with driving at night (on the merritt parkway to be specific) in the summertime with all of the windows down... very zen.

anyway-- if you haven't watched the making of 'house of cards' video, you should and get excited for their performance at the grammys on sunday.

6 more weeks y'all

That rodent out in Punxsatawney saw his shadow. looks like it's 6 more weeks of winter... sigh...

For your Groundhog's Day enjoyment, a little Bill Murray for you (ignore the swedish(?) subtitles?):

Kings of Leon - MSG

“We’d all like to be something bigger at home.” Caleb Followill told Spin magazine back in October, "I don’t want my family to have to gather around a computer to watch our biggest show.” He was referencing their headlining performance at the UK’s Glastonbury music festival where they played to a crowd of 100,000 rabid fans. Up until pretty recently they had been enjoying huge success abroad while keeping a relatively low profile here in the U.S.

Three Grammy noms and a sold out Madison Square Garden later, it’s pretty evident that things had changed. At last night’s show, before crooning ‘Fans’, Caleb addressed the crowd for what was one of the only times they spoke during the show. Amid the screams and with Caleb’s mumbled, heavy southern drawl it was hard to decipher exactly what he said, but I’m pretty sure it was something along the line of “We’ve finally made it and it’s all because of you guys. This one’s for y’all”

Fans


Use Somebody


Sex on Fire:


On call (I took this one--- annnd it’s kinda shaky—sorry!)


Taper Jean Girl




Setlist:
Crawl
My Party
Mollys Chambers
Closer
Revelry
Fans
Milk
Four Kicks
Wasted Time
Sex on Fire
Slow Light So Long
The bucket
Notion
Black Thumbnail
On Call
Use Somebody
Cold Desert
Trani

encore:
Knocked Up
Manhattan
Charmer

"Bye Good" a Hoax? I KNEW IT

I EFFING KNEW IT! For those not up on celebrity trainwrecks, the latest was Joaquin Pheonix (or so he wanted you to believe). I don't want to turn my blog into a Gossip Rag, but this is kind of on topic as JP 'quit' acting to focus on his promising RAP career (A video of that MESS is below). Note-- All of this was to be documented by BFF Casey Affleck

Needless to say, I didn't buy it. From the beginning I was like 'he has to be joking! he and Casey are totally EFFING with everyone!' It looks like this might be the case after all.

According to Entertainment Weekly/ People.com (reliable sources as far as gossip is concerned), their sources tell the magazine's Hollywood Insider blog that Phoenix's bizarre career change is a joke at the expense of the entertainment media and actors who take themselves too seriously.

"He said, 'It's a put-on. I'm going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey is going to film it,'" says one source who recently worked with Phoenix.

EW reports: "It's an art project for him," says a source. "He's going full out. He probably has told his reps that he's quit acting. Joaquin is very smart."

Here is JP performing in Vegas. The words "HOT MESS" jump to mind:

Things that Make Me Sad:

Van Morrison tickets being $200

Seriously-- who has $200 to spend on a concert ticket? maybe he missed the memo that these are turbulent economic times.

Astral Weeks:


On a side note-- Van's people are ON their game. Not one single video exists on youtube that isn't 'official'. at least none that i can easily find this early in the a.m. Why so sly, Van? I was just looking for a little culdesac for my blog.

le sigh.

Kings of Leon B-sides

in a couple of days time I will be rocking out to Kings of Leon at MSG. They are one of my favorite bands of life so you can imagine my surprise when I came across a SLURRY of B Sides when I was looking for a cool video to post. I like to think of my self as pretty on top of stuff when KOL's involved so I must admit that I'm pretty disappointed in myself for severely dropping the ball in this instance.

the only positive? i totally feel like i have a new album of theirs because i just found all of these songs that I've never heard before. word!

frontier city:


beneath the surface:


and because caleb followill is gorgeous and one of my 3 possible future husbands (even if he doesn't know it yet):

they're trying to make me (more) poor

A BILLION people released new albums yesterday—which is both awesome and non-awesome at the same time. I want them all but I must budget myself. Boo. Luckily, I could use the very last of my gift cards from Christmas to buy the new Andrew Bird album and the new Bon Iver EP, so now I just need to wait until pay day to get the new Animal Collective and AC Newman albums. sigh...

Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP
Amazing. It’s beautiful and haunting. Have listened to it 3 times through already. Here’s the title track (ignore the random pics that the dude that uploaded it to youtube added:


Andrew Bird – Noble Beast:
At first listen, I’m really digging ‘Oh no’ but ‘Tenuousness’ is also really good as is 'not a robot, but a ghost'

OH NO

farewell, 'dubya!

the glorious day has finally arrived when this is no longer the person representing our country:

shuffle rediscovery: eastern conference champions

had the ipod on shuffle while driving back from PA today and this song by the Eastern Conference Champions came on. Hadn't listened to them in quite a while and was totally reminded of how much i like them.

"the box"


and I've uploaded another song of theirs "some sorta light" HERE.

good stuff

OH yeah! they are from philly too-- word!

One Song. One Take. One Cab

www.blackcabsessions.com

I always end up spending hours on this website when i stumble on it. The premise is pretty simple-- get a band, get a cab, band sings whilst cab drives around aimlessly through the street of London for a bit and it's documented for our enjoyment

Sometimes bands are specifically chosen and other times a band will call up and be like 'we're in town and want to do a session, we've got free time in an hour.' and they make it happen (as was the case when Cold War Kids were in town). There have been something like 70 black cab sessions featuring acts of all sizes, from the uber indie to the mainstream (i.e. Death Cab for Cutie or Ryan Adams).

Some of my favorites are below, but i thought it'd be fitting to start with Johnny Flynn since he was the very first session:


and this guy was just awesome: Seasick Steve:

Reppin' Philly: Dr. Dog

"We are interested in three-part harmoies, the out-of-doors, hoagies, vegetables and diminished chords."

Squee! hoagies! the only way they could have shown their Philly-ness EVEN MORE would have been to mention how awesome Tastykakes are.

But I digress...

Dr. Dog released their latest album Fate in July and kicked off 2009 by touring Australia with The Black Keys. Speaking of which, I'm pretty jealous of the fact that Australia got to see two of my favorite bands play together. For a second I was hopeful that Dr. Dog would be opening for the Black Keys when I see them in Feb., but alas they are not.

Below are two songs of their newest album:

Hang On:


Performing "My Friend" in Australia:


Check out their myspace HERE

dead man's bones

sick:



and ryan gosling is pretty.

dead man's bones on myspace

Folk'n Around with Bobby Long

To kick off the week, here’s a post devoted to Londoner, Bobby Long. His music is folksy and bluesy (which I seem to be skewing towards with an increased frequency these days) and full of awesome.

He’s working on releasing his first ep which should be out… sometime. And there are rumors of a tour in the u.s. sometime in the summer which would quite exciting.

Performing in London in Jan. 08:


Dead & Done Blues:


Links to some of his other songs:
Sad Woman Blues
So Tear Me Up

a list

10 Best Overlooked Albums of 2008
(according to spin-- full article with downloads here)

1. The Week that Was - The Week That Was
2. Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes
3. Kassin +2 - Futurismo
4. Ida Maria - Fortress Around My Heart
5. Human Highway - Moody Motorcycles
6. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
7. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
8. Flowers Forever - Flowers Forever
9. El Perro del Mar - From the Valley to the Stars
10. Catfish Haven - Devastator

The Gaslight Anthem: The '59 Sound


Ida Maria: Queen of the World

'bohn eevair'

There are times that I hear a song and from the first note I can tell that I’ll love it. Then there are times where I hear an song and I’m like ‘ehhhhhhh’ only to rediscover it a month or two later and become completely obsessed. This is what happened with Bon Iver. So here I am listening to “Skinny Love” on repeat and wondering how I ever made it through the last couple of months without this song in my life.

Ok- maybe that’s a smidge dramatic, but regardless the album “For Emma, Forever Ago” has fast become a staple in my itunes library.

Below is a video of Bon Iver's performance on Later with Jools Holland. It’s a good vid because (a) it points out the correct pronunciation of his name (i was completely saying it wrong until today) and (b) you can see the amount of passion that this guy puts into his music/performance. It’s kinda beautiful…. sigh…



Here are album cuts of Skinny Love and Blindsided and Flume

Also, be sure to check out his new album "Blood Bank" available Jan 20.

REVIEWS/LINKS:
Rolling Stone
Spin
Pitchfork
Bon Iver's myspace

rad music blog > quarterlife crisis

In one month, I will turn the big 2-5. Up until about 2 weeks ago I’d say I was pretty psyched about it. Then the realization set in—-

i’m going to be 25, a quarter century, almost 30. Long story short, I found myself deep in the throes of a full-fledged quarter life crisis, wigging out about how my life is one giant question mark to my bff here in CT and my sister in Pittsburgh, who both ever so patiently reminded me to take a deep breath and take things one day at a time.

Waking up this morning with a renewed sense of Hope, I sought a way to channel all this Crazy I’ve got floating around in my head into something a smidge more positive.

Enter: Rad.Music.Blog.

To put it simply: discovering new music makes me happy & sharing new music that i find with friends makes me even happier. And this way, instead of having to email 10 different people when I’m obsessed with a new band that I think they should be obsessed with too, now all i have to do is post it up here. Really it’s just more efficient and I’m ALL about the efficiency.

Once I post anything, feel free to comment or suggest other stuff you think is cool. Or Heck— you can just check in on me every now and then to make sure i’m not curled up in the fetal position in that hole that i keep saying i’d rather live in than the real world.

Really it’s a win/win sitch for everyone involved— I will hopefully be less anxiety-ridden and you get good music and quite possibly peace of mind because, let’s face it, the more people comment the less likely I am to lose interest in this and, therefore, the less likely I am to make erratic phone calls to friends and family at all hours of the night. See? It would really behoove you all to love this (or at least pretend that you do).

:)

and if this blog doesn't work, I've always got my plan b (apparently they are making candles for everything these days: