Kimbra - “Wandering Limbs”
There’s a lot going on in the chord progressions and melody of this song that didn’t really shine forth in the over-produced album version. Find a picturesque alleyway, strip it down to the bare essentials and perform it with a Robbie Savage lookalike and wa-hey, you have an almost-masterpiece!
Side note: in terms of capturing single-take live music performances, the lapel mics used must’ve been of the amazeballs variety.
Lucy Rose - “Scar”
Cue token Pitchforkian singer-songwriter-y keywords such as ingenue, whimsical, wistful and fragile and sprinkle a dose of Laura Marling comparisons.
Stereotypes aside, you could categorize her as a legitimately chirpier or far less dour Marling or a Suffolk-ier Kings Of Convenience. Only blonde and decidedly less testicular between the legs. I was raring to scour the interwebs for her album only to discover, disappointingly, that she hasn’t got anything out yet.
It feels like I’ve just sampled really good cheesecake from a bakery that will only start operating sometime in 2012. Blargh.
Via: Jiar
Wilco - NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts
There’s something so remarkably “middle of the road” about Wilco, even when they’re mediocre, they’re so intensely mediocre to the point of not deserving any superlatives to describe it.
I’ll just point out that the drummer has a really cool miniature percussion/drum kit. It looks like it was made to scale for infant musicians.
Little Tybee - “History”
On account of virtually dripping with music nerd fluids (see: insanely talented but prematurely balding 8-string guitarist, frontman that looks like computer programmer), I don’t think Little Tybee are the type of band that will ever be the talk of town in the land of the Pitchforks and Stereogums.
Crying shame, seeing as they write intelligent, tasteful and highly melodic music. Still, if Chad Kroeger and Scott Stapp made it, we can hope for lighting to strike for those who deserve it.
Land Of Talk - “It’s Okay”
So it’s not the most kickass of tracks from Some Are Lakes, but with some bourbon, starvation and a good four hours of self-flagellating introspection in a dimly-lit room, it’s a solid party trick if the party were to involve a lot of emotional teenagers crying about their repressed childhoods.
The music video (2010 Juno Award nominee, mind you) is beautiful and quite moving. But trust YouTube comments to encapsulate things perfectly in simple phrases:
Fitz & The Tantrums - “Don’t Gotta Work It Out”
Reasons why Fitz & The Tantrums are better than your favourite band:
Metronomy - “She Wants”
Once you suppress the slick hipster grease emanating from the Monocle-levels-of-pretention of their sharp dressing (see: double breasted suit, immaculately coiffed hair, 5mm stubble), it’s much easier to appreciate Metronomy’s knack for highly watchable music videos.
Notable mention: “A Thing For Me” for the clever use of those karaoke balls-over-words thingos.
Metric - “Sick Muse”
I consider it challenging attempting to peg Metric anywhere on the barometer of quality. When they’re good, they’re really enjoyable but when they’re bad, they’re smellier than a rotting, turgid potato left out in the rain.
It’s almost as if mediocrity is below them. This one’s above mediocre. Getting to the cruddy tracks is as easy as keying in ‘Metric’ into Youtube’s search bar.
Tennis - “Marathon”
Damn. The inconspicuous band name and football mom jeans/hair had me fooled. Perfect for evening drives home when traffic is slow moving and you’re stuck behind a dumbass driver with erratic braking habits.
Weird 60’s cover of the day:
Korean Kittens - “Can’t Buy Me Love”
