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Sufjan Explosion! New Songs Debuted Live

Sufjan Related Things Happened This Week
At a recent concert in Ithaca, NY, everyones favorite Michigan bred musician debuted several new songs (like a couple other awesome musicians)...and the internet went nuts. The man hasn't written a proper album in 4 years and counting, though he has released a superb collection of Illinoise era b-sides, an epic collection of christmas songs, a long orchestral piece with visual accompaniment and a string quartet reworking of his 2001 electronica album, Enjoy Your Rabbit. While that may seem like a lot of output for most artists (and it is, certainly), it is ultimately unsatisfying coming from a man who is so gifted at the art of crafting albums proper.

All that being said, the most dynamic of the three new tracks he debuted, entitled "There's Too Much Love," doesn't find Mr. Stevens exploring new territory as much as combining all of his old ventures into one grand epic work. This formula isn't even entirely new for Sufjan, as his contribution to compilation-of-the-year-contender Dark Was the Night, entitled "You are the Blood," suggests a similar approach. However, whereas "You Are the Blood" sounds more apocalyptic than anything else, "There's Too Much Love" is downright catchy at its core (at least the first half is). It certainly unites the majority of Sufjanisms including self-critical/conscious lyrics, electronica, a combination male/female vocals, a plethora of harmonies and vocal echoes (feat. Cryptacize's Nedelle Torrisi), fusion orchestral-and-pop arrangements, measured instrumental chaos for compositional counterpoint, jazz instrumental interludes etc. The first half of the song sounds big and inclusive in the vein of Illinoise, until it drops into a more intimate, reflective Seven Swans type instrumental (with the brass section doing their best be-bop impression) during the second half. Not to mention the song itself is seven minutes long, which is a length Sufjan has more often than not transcended since he began playing (the heartbreakingly gorgeous) "Majesty Snowbird" live a few years ago. See for yourself:



If you like it and want more, here are videos + mp3s of the other two songs, courtesy of jp'sblog. And if that still doesn't complete your Sufjan fix, you can read his interview of former bandmate Shannon Stephens, who released her first album in 10 years on Asthmatic Kitty this week.

Sufjan Stevens - "You Are the Blood" - Dark Was the Night
Sufjan Stevens - "There's Too Much Love (live)" - Unreleased
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Los Campesinos! New Song, Video, Member, Album

Los Campesinos! Do Things!
Los Campesinos have been busy as ever recently and as always, we are invited along for the ride through their incessantly updated genius of a blog. First on the list is the replacement for their departed member Aleks Campesinos! who decided to go back to school. It turns out the replacement is none other than lead singer Gareth Campesinos!'s younger sister, Kim (aka the red head to the side). You can (and should) watch their hilarious football-draft-parody about it here.
And, as previously reported, the Welsh septet is working on their third LP (in only 2 years!) which supposedly is about "shagging and death," which is great. The album is to be called There Are Listed Buildings. While there is no release date for the album as of yet (rumors suggest we have to wait until next year), we get a little taste of their recent work in the form of the single "The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future." The track finds lead singer/lyricist Gareth exploring darker themes and more distressed characters over the same energetic instrumentals that we have come to love the Campesinos! for. Overall the result is a more mature sound delivered as passionately and sincerely as ever, which bodes well for the future longevity of the band. The song will be available on a single sided 7" (the band is all about 7"s) on the bands upcoming tour of England, and for a limited time thereafter.
Here is also a video for the song, created by Ellen, the Campesinos!'s bass player.

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Amazing! Birds on Telephone Lines Make Beautiful Music

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Fanfarlo Covers Neutral Milk Hotel Live

Fanfarlo's version of Neutral Milk Hotel's classic "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" it is a pretty straight forward take on the song (complete with a trumpet and all) and certainly a lot better than that other one I posted. The harmonies help to bring out the more gospel qualities of the song without over loading the track and it still works as a cover simply because of the fact that the original song is so good. Check it:



Elsewhere in NMH news, their label Merge will has announced they will be re-issuing both of NMH's albums on vinyl! This via JP's Blog:
Both albums will be released on 180 gram vinyls and will feature download codes for the tracks at 320 kpbs. Both reissues will not come with any bonus tracks or material but will just be released on their original state. The albums will be released on November 3.
Listen - "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"
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Grizzly Bear Video: "While You Wait for the Others"

Los Osos Grizzly from Brooklyn continue their trend of releasing awesome videos for their awesome singles. This one is a little more complex and surreal, featuring a boy in a fencing mask and a ton of other imagisitic (is that a word?) scenes. Mira:



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vampire weekend announces new album!


I have been loving Vampire Weekend since I first heard their infinite vibrance and danceability. So, how excited was I when I discovered via their myspace blog that they have a new album being released January 12, 2010 (guess, I dare you)! It's going to be called Contra and it will be out via XL Recordings. Here's to good dance parties ahead.
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Kanye Apologizes + Performs w/ Jay-Z, Rihanna on Leno

If you live in a not-internet-gossip cave somewhere, maybe you didn't know why everyone still thinks Kanye West is a jackass. So, if you didn't see it, here is where Kanye stole the microphone from poor little 19 year old country music singer, Taylor Swift, squashing her moment in the spotlight (cause she probably never got attention growing up and all).
Anyway, Ye went on Leno yesterday, as previously scheduled, which Jay is mighty thankful for. In the next couple uncomfortable minutes, Kanye gets all sincere and quiet and looks entirely shaken about the whole thing. He ends up dodging a question about what his mom would have thought by saying vaguely "I haven't dealt with pain..."

Then in a brilliantly strange transition, Kanye joins Jay-Z and Rihanna in a performance of "Run this Town" from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3, which dropped on tuesday. Featuring a live band, it was good to see one of my favorite tracks on the new album play so well live. Kanye has to self censor most of his verse (which is the highlight of the song, I think) but that actually seems fitting considering all the not-censoring he's been doing. The whole thing is rather emotional I think.



Jay-Z - "Run This Town" - The Blueprint 3 [2009; Roc Nation]
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Jay-Z on Letterman!

Jay-Z is a legend. He basically doesn't have to do any of these TV appearances anymore. Yet he has a great agenda and is keeping himself in the public eye for good reasons. That being said, Hova has other talents as well. Somehow this interview comes off as a perfectly scripted/acted comedy sketch. Only I don't think it is either because I dont think either of them can act that well. Which means its simply a perfectly improved comedy sketch. Only I don't think it was meant to be that. I don't even know how this interview got to be funny. Most of the time Jay-Z looks like a shy, deer in the headlights looking out of the corner of his eyes at dave for direction (but somehow a badass shy deer in the headlights looking at dave for direction). He gives really short answers that kinda kill a lot of Dave's questions, but he seems to be conscious of the comedy in that fact, unlike another one of Dave's guests this year. In the interview itself we find out that Blueprint 3 is "3 times as better" as the other Blueprint album, he is not called Shawn anymore because people stopped calling him Shawn, Lettermen's real name is Dave-Z, Lettermen's marriage is "3 times better" than Jay's,



Ha! "Jay-Z everyone! We'll be right back with Martha Stewart." That's gotta be two of the strangest interviews back to back I can think of. All in all, it was a great video though. It's pretty rad how the house band played hard knock life as he walked in. The best part though is when Dave says, "you're married to Beyonce" and some guy goes "Yeahhhhh" and Jay-Z just smiles. Perfect. But speaking of perfect, this man is wise (that's a great segue). I watched this whole 40 minute special from BET and I definitely recommend it for people who feel estranged from the hip-hop world. Jay-Z is a really smart guy, he's not all gangsta badass idontgiveafuck sorta person. Watch it. Unity! Brooklyn! Jay-Z!
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Euros Childs Has New Album

Euros Childs, a Welshmen (like some other band I love) who creates intelligent piano based pop songs, released his second solo album yesterday, entitled Son of Euro Child. Though he is supposedly giving it away for free on his website, I couldn't get the link to work. So while I haven't heard the album, his 2008 release, Cheer Gone, is full of interesting compositions and arrangements. For now though, there is this home video of album track "Like This? Then Try This" which I would characterize as a beautifully angular and dark take on a pop song with a few classical flourishes thrown in. Let me know what you think, eh?



[via: DiS]
Listen at Last.fm

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Video: Air "Sing Sang Sung"

Air Gets Animated!
As previously noted, Frenchster O.G.s Air are releasing another album (called Love 2). Naturally they are also releasing singles (called "Sing Sang Sung") for said album (called Love 2). Also naturally they are releasing videos for said singles (called "Sing Sang Sung") because that is what one (naturally) does. duh. This post is about that video. The video is as strange as this post. Except in a sort of Super-Mario-3-(for SNES)-meets-Yellow-Submarine-the-movie sorta way, kinda. Terry Gross has nothing on how fresh Air is nowadays.

*Note Youtube disabled embedding for this video. Watch it here.

I definitely think it does the song justice. Easily one of my 10 favorite videos this year. When will they stop? This is Air's 7th album this decade and they all have been pretty solid if not downright awesome examples of chill-core at its finest. I am expecting to see at least a few hits on best artist/album of the decade lists when we get there. Stay Tuned. Love 2 out October 6th

Buy Love 2
Air - "Sing Sang Sung" - Love 2
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Amazing! The Beatles do Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream via Liverpool and screaming teenage girls OR two of the best artists (or groups thereof) ever to walk the earth in one moment...



g-d bless youtube
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Amazing! Beck, MGMT + Devendra cover Leonard Cohen

There seems to randomly be a lot of buzz about Leonard Cohen recently for no good reason as far as I can tell (other than that he is always amazing). But this is definitely the most amazing. Beck a wonderful man for doing his record club project and his Velvet Underground covers were awesome. This is just like that. Watch.
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Taken by Trees Covers Animal Collective: My Boys

I have really been enjoying Victoria Bergsman's aka Taken By Trees's debut album East Of Eden recently. Besides having a lovely Scandinavian voice that lazily croons throughout every track (ahhh!..love) and besides being named after one of my favorite books, the album includes a rather creative take on the decades 9th best song. "My Boys," sticks with the repetition of the original but this time it sounds like hand claps and bongo drums. The insistent bass in the original becomes a synth key here, and the whole thing suggest tropicalia. Bergsman handles the melodies magnificently and now here is the video of it: