Prinzhorn Dance School‘s self-titled debut was one of those rare records that genuinely, and successfully, escaped critical dissection. Definable or vaguely describable, sure: it was minimalist, nostalgic post punk. But it defied nuanced explanations of potential importance or relevancy in the zeitgeist of 2007. Similar to MGMT’s Congratulations, Prinzhorn Dance School seemed to elude any [...]

Sonic Boom w/ Panda Bear at MHOW in 2011 (more by Amanda Hatfield) Sonic Boom aka Peter Kember of Spacemen 3/Spectrum/E.A.R., has had a busy last two years, producing MGMT's Congratulations and playing live with them in 2010, and producing...

With less than four weeks to go and the shortlisted candidates just announced, it's time to look at some of the NME Awards 2012 categories in more depth. Let's start with one of the most contested of the year, the Best New Band (supported by Boxfresh), an award previously picked up by Hurts, Bombay Bicycle Club and MGMT. [...] Read more!

A few days after Leonard Cohen talked shop with Jarvis Cocker on the BBC , a couple of young guns are paying tribute to the deep-voiced crooner: Videos of Cults and Cold War Kids covering Cohen songs hit the web yesterday. The covers were performed for Old Ideas with New Friends , a project orchestrated by Columbia Records (Cohen's label) to "celebrate Leonard Cohen's legendary 40 years in music" — as well as build all that newfangled blog buzz around the recent release of the poet's new studio album Old Ideas . The disc, which arrived January 31, is the legend ...

Big Head Todd and the Monsters may not be one of the names that leap to mind when discussing the early history of the modern jamband festival scene. Yet, when you look back on the old, grainy, Zapruder footage of the mid-90s H.O.R.D.E. festivals, Todd Park Mohr’s Colorado-based trio (now a quartet) doesn’t come across as a fuzzy blur in an off-center grassy knoll. Alongside Blues Traveler, Widespread Panic and a pre-Derek Trucks Allman Brothers Band, Big Head Todd & The Monsters were among one of the main draws of the 1993 and 1994 versions of the jamband world’s influential answer to Lollapalooza. At New York City’s Irving Plaza (mercifully nee Fillmore), BHT revisited their early days offering the fans that grew with them a real treat: Midnight Radio , their finest album, in its entirety. [Photo by C. Taylor Crothers] The only thing keeping the full album gimmick from having a renaissance is the fact that it may never have had a heyday. As it stands now, the results are mixed. When Bruce Springsteen breaks out The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle at Madison Square Garden, the event can become awash in the warm glow of revisionist nostalgia where everyone remembers the album being successful upon its release. When Peter Frampton takes Frampton Comes Alive out on the road, it makes fine business sense. When The Spin Doctors resurrect Pocket Full of Kryptonite  (and themselves) at the Bowery Ballroom, it becomes kitschy fun for a finely-hewed target audience. When Evan Dando decides to perform The Lemonheads’ It’s A Shame About Ray at the Knitting Factory, it reeks of desperation and begs intervention. (In all fairness, you could interchange The Spin Doctors and Evan Dando in those last two sentences and still maintain an acceptable semblance of journalistic accuracy). An interesting marriage of the home listening and live concert experiences, it has to be bittersweet for an artist to use an album from their distant past as a successful selling point for a show. On one hand, reconnecting with a collection of songs that presumably found an audience and helped launch or sustain a career can be pretty special for both an artist and their audience. On the other, artists grow; devoting a night to putting an album on a pedestal that an artist may very ...

Youthless are two guys, Alex Klimovitsky (vocals, drums, keyboard) and Sebastiano Ferranti (bass), originally from New York and London but both currently living by Lisbon Portugal’s lush surfing paradise. Their mix of garage-rock and psychedelic-dance-pop falls somewhere between Male Bonding, T. Rex, MGMT and Gang Gang Dance and their tracks have already caught the attention [...]

Time off from being one-half of the Fiery Furnaces (with the other half being her brother Matthew) has been treating Eleanor Friedberger quite well. She’s on tour with a backing band featuring Matt Asti (MGMT), Ahmed Gallab (Yeasayer, Caribou) and John Eatherly (Be Your Own Pet, Turbo Fruits), and she’ll also personally be joining Carrie [...]

Eleanor Friedberger hat jüngst ihre Live-EP zum kostenfreien Download bereitgestellt. Darüber hinaus hat die Popsängerin kürzlich ein neues Musikvideo zu ihrem Song "Heaven" veröffentlicht. Für die Visualisierung wählte Produzent Scott Jacobson ein unprätentiöses Selbstportrait der Popsängerin, das ihre nicht ganz ernst gemeinte Vorstellung vom Himmel andeutet. Das Video könnt ihr euch »hier ansehen. An dieser Stelle habt ihr außerdem die Gelegenheit, die fünf Live-Tracks gegen Aushändigung eurer E-Mail-Adresse herunterzuladen: Eleanor Friedberger – "Live-EP " Zusammen mit ihrem Bruder Matthew, der im letzten Jahr stolze fünf Soloalben produzierte, ist Eleanor Friedberger Teil der Indierock-Band The Fiery Furnaces . 2009 veröffentlichten sie ihren siebten Langspieler ...

The first part of some anticipated albums for this coming year includes Alabama Shakes, Azealia Banks, The Beach Boys, Beach House, Fanfarlo, Frank Ocean, Grizzly Bear, Janelle Monaé, The Killers, Marques Toliver, The Miracals, Memoryhouse, MGMT, Michael Kiwanuka, Miike Snow, MIKA and the morning benders!

Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Friedberger released her first solo album, Last Summer, this past July to glowing reviews. It featured an all-star cast of Matt Asti (MGMT), Ahmed Gallab (touring member of Yeasayer & Caribou), and John Eatherly (Be Your Own Pet & Turbo Fruits, as well as many excellent songs -- like "Heaven". She released the video for that one in particular today

"Put Me to Sleep" MP3 from the album Strange Weekend 2012 iTunes It's unlikely that you'll hear a back story as cool as Mauro Remiddi's. Before he began to record as Porcelain Raft, Remiddi traveled from his native Italy to London, Berlin, North Korea, and finally New York. Along the way, he caravanned with the Berlin Youth Circus performing gypsy Klezmer music, created reinterpretations of traditional North Korean folk songs and played piano for an Off-Broadway tap show. He hasn't even had his 30th birthday yet, but Remiddi has more musical experiences under his belt than ...

You know the drill, once again I’ve scoured the internet for five of the best limited edition, rare or re-issued vinyl your hard earned money can buy this week. 1. First up this week is really special, the self released, self titled debut album by Internet Forever . I know what you’re thinking, in this day and age self releases aren’t uncommon. but self releases limited to just 250 vinyl copies are. Trust me when I say this is a great album and with production from James Rutledge (Radiohead and MGMT) and Dreamtrak (Foals and T3eth) it seems ...

Words: Saam Das Speak to almost any new music blogger and they'll tell you about the dreaded band backlog. Swim Deep have been just another victim until now. A couple of months after I casually dropped their name, along with fellow Midlands bands Peace and Troumaca , I'm finally on it. Join the trio with their blissed out sounds below. It's hard not to resist all the water-related puns so basically I'm not going to. Sorry guys. Swim Deep have been making waves in the West Midlands for a while now but it's the appearance of ...

Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, R.E.M., the Pixies, Jarvis Cocker, Beck, Devendra Banhart & MGMT (and more)

We're pretty fond of following the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra, and their exploits covering everything from MGMT to The Strokes to Kanye West. Today they've dropped a bit of a lullaby medley in tribute to Blue Ivy Carter, the daughter of music mogul Jay-Z and unfathomably soulful singer Beyonc&eaccute. Although they are a bit late to the media blitz, it's a nice sentiment, although we're not sure how Jay would feel about that one dude who insists on always wearing sunglasses (even indoors).