Colin Meloy sings new Decemberists songs

The Decemberists' sixth full-length album is tentatively slated for early 2011. Luckily, you don't have to wait until then to get a sense of what the new material will sound like. Below are the three new tracks that Colin Meloy premiered while at CMJ's KEXP stage.

"Down By The Water"


"June Hymn"


"Rise To Me"


Many thanks to YouTube user rac3m

Golden Isles – "Sir Gian"

Golden Isles is Montreal based indie-pop made by Adam Feingold, Kyle Salhany, Richard Wenger, Jonny Knowles, Matthew Salaciak, and Emmanuel Thibau. After this Take Away Show was shot, the band changed their name to Golden Aisles.

Okay, that wasn't very funny...but this video is highly amusing.

Their EP Foreword was released in September. "Sir Gian" is currently unreleased.

Broken Social Scene in-studio with KCRW

Broken Social Scene stopped by KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic yesterday to chat with host Jason Bentley and play some songs. Their in-studio version of "Almost Crimes" sounded mesmerizing! (fast-foward to 32:10 if you just want to hear that part.)

Watch/Listen!:


P.S. I'm pretty sure the girl in the blue top is Ariel Saldivar.

Warpaint – The Fool LP (Streaming Now!)

Warpaint's The Fool is streaming on Hype Machine until its official October 25th release date. Happy Monday! Have a listen!

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

If you're looking for the Sufjan Stevens you've come to know (and most likely love) through Illinois and Michigan, you will probably only glimpse him during opening track "Futile Devices." The Age of Adz (pronounced "odds") almost entirely abandons its folksier predecessors and trades them for more electronically influenced sounds.

Stylistically, Sufjan has never been one to box himself in, so this genre-bending news shouldn't be so alarming. But, with its eerie transitions and sometimes cacophonous instrumentals, The Age of Adz is a considerably darker album.

Where we might expect intricate metaphors involving well-crafted characters and picturesque settings, we are instead confronted with first-person statements. In "I Walked," Sufjan expresses feelings of personal disconnect amidst electro-pop backgrounds ("At least I deserve the respect of a kiss goodbye"). Title track, "Age of Adz" aurally identifies with the traffic-inspired sequences present on The BQE. "I Want To Be Well" builds slowly and eventually disintegrates into a chorus of "I want to be well" juxtaposed against Sufjan shouting "I'm not fuckin' around!"

He isn't. At all. If The Age of Adz reveals one thing about Sufjan Stevens, it's that he's not afraid to take risks; sacrificing what he already knows will work in favor of artistic exploration.

In fact, that's exactly what the album ends with. Twenty-five minute long "Impossible Soul" includes everything from auto-tuned vocals, harps, digitized noise, a call-and-response section, and finally dissolves into characteristic guitar-picking and sentimental whispers reminiscent of albums' past. In the last few seconds echoes of "Boy, we made such a mess together" swirl the listener back to their present-state.

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Sufjan Stevens – "Futile Devices"


Sufjan Stevens – "I Walked"


Sufjan Stevens – "I Want To Be Well"

Lady Danville – "Kids" (MGMT Cover)

You probably didn't know this, but cloudy days are great for time traveling. Today, we're rewinding back to 2008. Or 2005 if you want to be really technical.

While Lady Danville is a little too pop for my taste (but please judge for yourself), their acoustic cover of MGMT's "Kids" is so captivating it shouldn't be overlooked.

Warpaint – Undertow (Music Video)

I'm using this video as an excuse to keep Warpaint on repeat. "Undertow" is the first music video from their full-length The Fool, which will be available October 25th via Rough Trade.

If you missed Warpaint at FYF here in Los Angeles, then you've got three more US dates to catch them before they cross the Atlantic.

12 Oct 2010 7:00 P Club Congress Tucson, AZ
13 Oct 2010 9:00 P Bunkhouse Saloon Las Vegas, NV
15 Oct 2010 8:00 P Skybar (Acoustic Set) West Hollywood, CA

For European tour dates click here

New Group: Wild Flag

Wild Flag have zero songs on their MySpace page, so why should you be excited?

Well, if you're a Sleater-Kinney fan you'll be happy to know that Wild Flag consists of Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss playing alongside Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole. In a recent Pitchfork interview, Janet commented that in regards to Wild Flag's sound "It's really collaborative, but it's poppy and it's hard to explain. It sounds a little like all the bands we've been in, but it also has real songs. There are actual songs there."

Sleater-Kinney "Jumpers"


West Coast tour dates as follows:
10 Nov 2010 8:00 P The Northern Olympia, Wa
11 Nov 2010 8:00 P The Green Frog Bellingham, WA
12 Nov 2010 8:00 A The HIgh Dive Seattle, WA
13 Nov 2010 9:00 P Doug Fir Portland, OR
17 Nov 2010 8:00 P The Hub sacramento, ca
18 Nov 2010 8:30 P BOTTOM OF THE HILL San Francisco, CA
19 Nov 2010 8:30 P Spaceland Los Angeles, CA
20 Nov 2010 8:30 P Casbah San Diego, CA
21 Nov 2010 8:00 P Aladdin Jr. Pomona, CA

October Recommendations

My apologies for the huge delay! We're already five days into October, which means pumpkin spice lattes are in full swing, the weather is (finally!) beginning to resemble autumn, and the Halloween spirit is in the air. Czech out these upcoming events for this month:

10/6

Broken Bells @ The Wiltern

The Futureheads @ Troubadour

10/7

Arcade Fire @ Shrine Auditorium

Lissie w/Dylan LeBlanc @ Troubadour

10/7-10/10

Filter Magazine's Culture Collide Festival w/Black Lips, Klaxons, Phantogram, Tokyo Police Club, Sea Wolf, and many more @ Echo, Echoplex, and Spaceland

10/8

Arcade Fire @ Shrine Auditorium

Caribou w/Nite Jewel @ Music Box

10/9

Bassnectar @ The Wiltern

10/10

Residual Echoes w/Catwalk @ The Smell

10/11

Evan Voytas @ The Echo (Monday Night Residency)

Teenage Fanclub @ The El Rey

10/13

Frightened Rabbit @ The Mayan

Gogol Bordello @ Club Nokia

10/14

M.I.A. w/Rye Rye @ The Mayan

Miike Snow w/Mark Ronson @ Club Nokia

Morning Benders w/Twin Sister and Cults @ Music Box

Zola Jesus w/Broken Spindles @ The Echo

10/15

Four Tet @ Music Box

Nicole Atkins @ The Echo

10/16

The National @ Fox Theatre, Pomona

10/16-10/17

Treasure Island Music Festival @ Treasure Island, San Francisco

10/17

Die Antwoord @ Music Box

Holy Fuck w/Indian Jewelry @ Spaceland

10/18

Foals w/Esben and The Witch @ The El Rey

Mumford & Sons @ Hollywood Palladium

10/19

Deer Tick @ The El Rey

Broken Social Scene w/The Sea and the Cake @ The Wiltern

10/20

Ra Ra Riot @ Music Box

10/22

Mark Sultan w/Kelley Stoltz and My Pet Saddle @ Spaceland

Minus The Bear @ The Wiltern

10/23

The Octopus Project w/Starfucker @ Echoplex

10/24

Gold Motel @ The Echo

10/26

Snoop Dogg w/Mike Epps @ Gibson Amphitheatre

10/27

Gorillaz @ Gibson Amphitheatre

Jon Brion @ Melody Bar & Grill

10/28

Built to Spill @ The El Rey

10/30

Of Montreal @ Hollywood Palladium

10/31

Joe Pug w/Nik Freitas @ Spaceland

Of course, Los Angeles always has tons going on each night, so if there's anything I missed, please comment so I can add it to the post and share with everyone else.

Happy October!

Belle and Sebastian with Jenny Lewis "Lazy Line Painter Jane"

Glasgow legends Belle and Sebastian were at the Hollywood Palladium last night, were you? If not, then you missed out on a special version of "Lazy Line Painter Jane." Here is a clip:

The Morning Benders "Virgins"

What would we do without La Blogotheque?

The Morning Benders debuted a new track called "Virgins" for an upcoming Soiree de Poche.



In other Morning Bender news, the band will also be featured on the collaborative compilation Subterranean Home Sick Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home. The album drops October 5th via Reimagine Music. See the tracklisting below and get excited!



01 Peter Morén: "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
02 Ane Brun: "You Belong to Me"
03 Castanets: "Maggie's Farm"
04 Mirah: "Love Minus Zero"
05 The Morning Benders: "Outlaw Blues"
06 Julie Doiron: "On the Road Again"
07 Asobi Seksu: "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"
08 Helio Sequence: "Mr. Tambourine Man"
09 DM Stith: "Gates of Eden"
10 Franz Nicolay: "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"
11 Sholi: "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
12 J. Tillman: "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"
13 Sea Wolf: "Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence"
14 Denison Witmer: "I'll Keep It With Mine"
15 Laura Veirs: "Mama, You've Been on My Mind"
16 William Fitzsimmons: "Farewell Angelina"