Pictured: If the Easter Bunny rolled with a crew, this would be it.
Only a few things in this life make me feel better than blasting “Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down,” through a pair of headphones and riding my bike around town. Those things are corn on the cob, being a master eater of corn of the cob, and Christmas. Just to clarify, there is not one kernel left on the cob when I’m done with it.
Really though, Noah and the Whale’s debut full length was most likely my Summer ‘08 album. It was is fresh, bright and colorful, too much so according to one particularly terrible review, while still maintaining a satisfying amount of drama and tones of sadness that sink in at a level deeper than the surface. The band holds a fairly clear envy of the Magnetic Fields, with bits of DeVotchka and Neutral Milk Hotel thrown in for good measure. That their most poppy song, “5 Years Time,” was recently used in a car ad only multiplies the number of harsh critiques of the band’s overtly cheery and accessible style, but I’m not about to judge bands based on the demographics of their listeners or the commercial use of their music. I’ll judge bands based on how much I enjoy their albums, and this is one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed for months now.
Noah And The Whale - Shape Of My Heart
You get two from these guys. The first is Shape of My Heart, full of peppy handclaps, cute boy-girl vocals and giant horns.
Noah And The Whale - Give A Little Love
The second is Give a Little Love, full of…well, peppy handclaps, cute boy-girl vocals and giant horns. Also, go to their Myspace page and use your spam email address to sign up for their newsletter. They give you a free recording of their new song Sometimes, and they’ll keep you updated on all the tours and shows they play that won’t be anywhere close to you.
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Now that Thanksgiving is over the holiday season is upon us, which means tons of end-of-the-year lists. I, like many a music blogger, live for this kind of year-end reflection, so this will be the first of many. Here listed before you are the absolute, indisputable 25 best music videos of the year 2008. All the videos are embedded below for your viewing pleasure, but I highly recommend you watch the higher quality version, which you can view by clicking on the song title (if available). Except for the five at the end (the best of the best) the order is completely random.
The qualifications for this list are the video must be visually interesting, uniquely executed, with a song that’s pretty good as well. Superb editing and gorgeous cinematography doesn’t hurt either. Basically I didn’t put a video on this list if it’s not was worth your time (it’s not like you have anything better to do over the holidays than sit for an hour and a half watching music video, amirite?). As always, If you have any favorites videos from the year that you think I missed, make sure to leave it in the comments. The first three are embedded below, but you’ll have to click through to see the whole list.
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor (Dir. Nima Nourizadeh)
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The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go (Dir. Alexand Liane)
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Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines (Dir. Seth and Bobby) MP3
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Click the link below for the rest!
Goldfrapp - Happpiness (Dir. Dougal Wilson)
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The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour (Dir. Mark Lomond)
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Noah and the Whale - The Shape of my Heart (Dir. James Copeman) MP3
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Alphabeat - What Is Happening (Dir. Toben Seymour)
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Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (Dir. Tobias Stretch)
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Architecture in Helsinki - That Beep (Dir. Krozm)
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Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Dir. Wilderness) MP3
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The Last Shadow Puppets - Standing Next To Me (Dir. Richard Ayoade)
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The Lovely Sparrows - Year of the Dog (Dir. Eric Power) MP3
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Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants (Dir. OneInThree)
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Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal (Dir. Sean Pecknold) MP3
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Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes (Dir. Nima Nourizadeh)
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Gnarls Barkley - Run (Dir. Happy)
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Damien Jurado - Caskets (Dir. Matt Daniels) MP3
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No Age - Eraser (Dir. Andy Bruntel)
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Justice - DVNO (Dir. So_Me and Machine Molle)
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Weezer - Pork and Beans (Dir. Matthew Cullen)
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…and the top 5 music videos of 2008 are:
Fujiya & Miyagi - Knickerbocker (Dir. Wade Shotter) MP3
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Rogue Wave - Chicago X 12 (Dir. Bob Odenkirk)
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Supergrass - Bad Blood (Dir: Keith Schofield)
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Bjork - Wanderlust (Dir. Encyclopedia Pictura)
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Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma (Dir. Richard Ayoade)
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HM:
The Mountain Goats - Sax Rhomer #1
Jamie Lidell - Another Day
Girl Talk - Still Here (Unofficial Video)
Birdmonster - The Iditarod
Evangelicals - Midnight Vignette
M83 - Graveyard Girl
A-ha - Take On Me (Literal Version),
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Today, I did something I haven’t done in years. I actually started on the front page of Hype Machine and then listened to every song posted so far in order until I found something I liked. I remembered this being a tedious process before… and that was when there were significantly less bloggers. Luckily, within 30 or so blog posts, I found myself letting a song play out.
The song was “Shape Of My Heart” by Noah And The Whale and the blog was fensepost.com. I couldn’t get over the way the clever, sentimental, and yet cynical lyrics came across over all but jubilant trumpets that sound like they were recorded in a park square in Mexico City.
So, I immediately went and found the rest of the album (as I was writing this paragraph). Skipping through it, I recognized “5 Years Time”… which I can only guess is because Tara likely played it at Graveyard one Monday.
Considering how much I adore The Magnetic Fields and Andrew Bird, I can only guess that I’ll spend the rest of the day listening to this album.
Noah And The Whale - Shape Of My Heart
Noah And The Whale - 5 Years Time
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Saturday started off (almost) where Friday left off when the Family Growl arrived, through the mud for the last couple of songs of Devon Sproule on the Garden Stage. The Garden Stage and the surrounding garden area was much easier to navigate than the glue-like mud in the adjoining field, so we hung around there for a while and The Baby Growl got her first proper taste of a festival (last year doesn’t count – too young). Perhaps it’s no surprise that she seemed to like Noah and the Whale, what with their bouncy pop tunes and up-tempo jigs, and she moved around as best as she could, joining in happily with the applause. Me? I liked them too. I’m not going to be sniffy about them because of recent chart success – I find their songs just too hard to dislike, and they seem well-suited to the bigger stage. Sunny weather and happy families it may have been, but all good stuff.Half an hour and another Toad meet-up later, The Young Republic had graduated to their biggest stage of the weekend. What a difference a year makes. Not only has their line-up changed, but so has their entire set. 2007’s EOTR saw them playing largely songs from their 12 Songs From Winter City album. The intervening twelve months has seen a major line-up change and a definite decision to break with the past. Not only were all of the songs in their set from their recently-released Idiot Grin EP or even newer, they are definitely now a rock and roll band. None of the sweeping strings and sweet melodies that saw them compared to Belle and Sebastian. This was a country rockin’ band strutting their stuff. Their only concession to older material was the sublime Modern Plays – with an added rock jam ending of course. Julian apologised to all the fans for the lack of 12 Songs material and promised to play any of the old numbers to anyone who requested him around the festival over the course of the weekend. I didn’t manage to spot him though, so my personal performance of Goodbye Town is still outstanding. Next time, hopefully.The Baby Growl’s teatime had to be maintained, so while I headed back to fill her belly, Mrs Growl stuck around for Bon Iver and one of the most talked-about sets of the whole festival. She and many others later testified to the brilliance of Justin Vernon’s set and having seen them at the wonderful St Giles’ church gig back in June, I have no doubts that they’re all right. This being a festival which also featured Bowerbirds on the same stage earlier in the day, Vernon brought them on to guest on the cover Lovin’ For Fools, which I believe went down pretty well too.Later we tried to juggle the Baby Growl’s bedtime with Low’s main stage appearance. Being huge fans of the Minnesota couple’s music, we didn’t want to miss them, but getting the small one off to sleep wasn’t easy with all that noise going on. You may not think of Low as being a loud group, but you’d be surprised. She didn’t drop off till near the end of the set, so our full attention was not on the beautiful music coming from the stage, but what he heard was very fine. A Low ‘greatest hits’ set, if such a thing were possible – Sunflower, Dinosaur Act and other old faves were present and correct. The end of the show provided another one of the festival’s talking points. Alan Sparhawk had already complained of having a “crappy day” and seemed in a dark mood, which came to a head in the final song when in a noisy wig-out he attacked his guitar before swinging it and hurling it full-pelt into the crowd. Sparhawk may not be a well man, but this was an inexcusably reckless act which left too many people open-mouthed to muster much applause as the band left the stage. Thankfully it didn’t end badly – no-one was hurt, and one guy has a new, second-hand guitar. It may need some repairs.Mercury Rev were the headliners, but given that I’m not a huge fan, I wasn’t that desperate to catch their main stage headline show. However, I did wander into the gardens later on and their encore of Goddess on a Highway sounded mighty fine as I walked around the spotlit trees. I’d forgotten what a great song it is.Two Gallants in the Big Top provided a temporary distraction for me, and again were sounding like they were on good form. It’s easy to compare their drummer/guitarist line-up to The White Stripes, with less virtuoso guitar playing and better drumming, so I will. But the Gallants absorb country as well as the blues and it’s a heady mix, spoilt only by the drummer’s shocking haircut. I’m only familiar with their When The Toll Tells album but a couple of songs from that record got me going for a while before I had to get off to The Local for Shearwater.Both Toad and I were keen to see Shearwater’s first UK gig since signing to Matador and releasing both an expanded version of Palo Santo and their latest album, Rook. The latter hasn’t quite grabbed me as much as I thought it should, but their live performance was spellbinding. Playing to a packed and expectant tent, they seemed to go down a storm, with Jonathan Meiburg hitting the high notes and the whole band brandishing a range of different instruments, none more so than drummer and multi-instrumentalist Thor who pulled out a bewildering range of (apparently hand-crafted) weird instruments. Despite having relatively short songs, Shearwater always manage to sound epic, and their set seemed just too short. Appetites are now well and truly whetted for future UK appearances.After that, all that was left for me was some more chat with Toad in The Bimble Inn, with another Young Republic covers set as the background. If (perish the thought) I ever get married again, I’m booking them. As we made our way back to our beds, we ran into a very drunk man raving about Mercury Rev. We were having none of it. It was all about Shearwater.Download: Noah & The Whale - Shape of My HeartDownload: The Young Republic – Green Hills Mall BluesDownload: Bon Iver – Lump SumDownload: Low – SunflowerDownload: Two Gallants – Waves of GrainDownload: Shearwater – RooksBon Iver picture (C) Ro CemmLow picture by Red_One
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After canceling their Stateside visit that was planned around Lollapalooza, UK blue-loving neo-folkies Noah and the Whale have finally figured out their first U.S. tour with ten dates in the usual places, including three NYC dates. One of those is at, believe it or not, the Sidewalk Cafe -- birthplace of the '90s antifolk scene that gave us Jeffrey Lewis, Cindy Lee Berryhill and Beck. It's a tiny venue for a band with a current UK Top Ten Hit, the lovely "5 Years Time" which is actually playing in a Saturn car commercial as I type this. (True!) They are admitted Jeffrey Lewis fans so I wonder if they didn't ask to play there specifically the way some singers used to want to play The Bitter End or the Bottom Line because Dylan did.The band's very good debut album, Peaceful the World Lays Me Down, was supposed to come out over here at the end of last month but is now scheduled for September 16, the day before their first U.S. show at Union Pool which will be a lovely place to see them. Hopefully they will sell advance tickets to that one.MP3: Noah and the Whale - Shape Of My Heart
Those tour dates:9/17 Union Pool, Brooklyn9/18 Sidewalk Cafe, NYC9/19 Mercury Lounge, NYC9/20 TOAD, Boston MA9/26 Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL9/29 The Sunset, Seattle, WA9/30 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR10/02 Pop Scene, San Francisco, CA10/04 Detour Festival, Los Angeles10/06 Spaceland, Los Angeles
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After canceling their Stateside visit that was planned around Lollapalooza, UK blue-loving neo-folkies Noah and the Whale have finally figured out their first U.S. tour with ten dates in the usual places, including three NYC dates. One of those is at, believe it or not, the Sidewalk Cafe -- birthplace of the '90s antifolk scene that gave us Jeffrey Lewis, Cindy Lee Berryhill and Beck. It's a tiny venue for a band with a current UK Top Ten Hit, the lovely "5 Years Time" which is actually playing in a Saturn car commercial as I type this. (True!) They are admitted Jeffrey Lewis fans so I wonder if they didn't ask to play there specifically the way some singers used to want to play The Bitter End or the Bottom Line because Dylan did.The band's very good debut album, Peaceful the World Lays Me Down, was supposed to come out over here at the end of last month but is now scheduled for September 16, the day before their first U.S. show at Union Pool which will be a lovely place to see them. Hopefully they will sell advance tickets to that one.MP3: Noah and the Whale - Shape Of My Heart
Those tour dates:9/17 Union Pool, Brooklyn9/18 Sidewalk Cafe, NYC9/19 Mercury Lounge, NYC9/20 TOAD, Boston MA9/26 Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL9/29 The Sunset, Seattle, WA9/30 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR10/02 Pop Scene, San Francisco, CA10/04 Detour Festival, Los Angeles10/06 Spaceland, Los Angeles
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En av årets mest omtalade och intressanta debutanter är utan tvekan brittiska folkpopparna Noah & The Whale som efter diverse förseningar nu är redo att släppa skivan Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down i början av nästa vecka. Att bandet kan skriva beroendeframkallande indiehits har vi redan blivit varse i och med singlarna 5 Years Time och Shape of My Heart, men det återstod också att bevisa att man var mer än bara en dagslända med ett par bra låtar i repertoaren. Detta lyckas man alldeles utmärkt med och albumet överträffar faktiskt mina förväntningar med råge. Musiken är lättillgänglig, men ändå mångnyanserad på ett sätt som lovar gott för albumets hållbarhet. Jag hade väntat mig en hitparad från början till slut, men istället visar bandet upp en överraskande mångsidighet och övertygar som allra mest med de vackra balladerna Do What You Do, Mary och Second Lover. Bland influenserna märks bland andra Daniel Johnston, Smog och Neutral Milk Hotel, varav den sistnämnda är den mest uppenbara med tanke på bandets fascination för lätt distade akustiska gitarrer i en stökig blandning med blåsinstrument av olika slag. Frontmannen Charlie Fink har fått utstå en del kritik för sin slöa och lätt nonchalanta sångstil, vilket förvånar mig en aning eftersom hans sång är en av de stora behållningarna med skivan. Hur som helst är detta en mycket fin debut som får mina varmaste rekommendationer.Noah & The Whale - Shape of My Heart
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Image: Jayme McGowanPerception Stick - Talbot TagoraHyacinth Grrls - Abe Vigoda"Perception Stick" is what screenplay pitchers refer to as high concept. Just sort of beats you into entertained submission with a, um, stick: point blank metaphor, rigor mortis beats (think Meg White), massive low end and narcotized coed vocals sticky with swamp (think a less-sophisticated Black Mountain). It's pretty great. Talbot Tagora's part of Los Angeles' Smell scene, which I'm loving against my better judgment. I ignored the initial buzz on neighbors Abe Vigoda, but looked the band up after their messy, convoluted (and loud so loud) strawberry jam with No Age at Pitchfest on a Sonic Youth cover. Yeah, they do sound a bit like No Age crossed with Animal Collective informed by Sonic Youth. And I suppose "Hyacinth Grrls" is a ref to The Wasteland, which I guess makes them a little literary too. God bless L.A. and may its music ever prosper!Talbot Tagora: Buy some of their stuff, MyspaceAbe Vigoda: Skeleton (Amazon, eMusic) MyspaceShape of My Heart - Noah and the WhaleSo no, this isn't the car commercial song. But the first dozen times I saw that ad I thought good for the Magnetic Fields! The similarities were pretty superficial anyway. NatW, for example, isn't soaked in bleak irony; Noah (presumably) just has a funny-miserable voice. Also: British. Also: seems to have picked up the ever-popular eastern European brass thread. In fact, the band is of a piece with a dozen folk-pop outfits and has simply made the looser, less-calculated (better) LP Bishop Allen should have. From Peaceful the World Lays Me Down (Amazon), MySpace
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Image: Jayme McGowanPerception Stick - Talbot TagoraHyacinth Grrls - Abe Vigoda"Perception Stick" is what screenplay pitchers refer to as high concept. Just sort of beats you into entertained submission with a, um, stick: point blank metaphor, rigor mortis beats (think Meg White), massive low end and narcotized coed vocals sticky with swamp (think a less-sophisticated Black Mountain). It's pretty great. Talbot Tagora's part of Los Angeles' Smell scene, which I'm loving against my better judgment. I ignored the initial buzz on neighbors Abe Vigoda, but looked the band up after their messy, convoluted (and loud so loud) strawberry jam with No Age at Pitchfest on a Sonic Youth cover. Yeah, they do sound a bit like No Age crossed with Animal Collective informed by Sonic Youth. And I suppose "Hyacinth Grrls" is a ref to The Wasteland, which I guess makes them a little literary too. God bless L.A. and may its music ever prosper!Talbot Tagora: Buy some of their stuff, MyspaceAbe Vigoda: Skeleton (Amazon, eMusic) MyspaceShape of My Heart - Noah and the WhaleSo no, this isn't the car commercial song. But the first dozen times I saw that ad I thought good for the Magnetic Fields! The similarities were pretty superficial anyway. NatW, for example, isn't soaked in bleak irony; Noah (presumably) just has a funny-miserable voice. Also: British. Also: seems to have picked up the ever-popular eastern European brass thread. In fact, the band is of a piece with a dozen folk-pop outfits and has simply made the looser, less-calculated (better) LP Bishop Allen should have. From Peaceful the World Lays Me Down (Amazon), MySpace
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I indievärlden har man pratat om brittiska folkpopparna Noah & The Whale som nästa stora grej under en ganska lång tid nu och i slutet av juni är det äntligen dags för bandet att bekänna färg då deras debutalbum släpps. I dagarna kom singeln Shape of my heart på bolaget Young and Lost Club och det lovar verkligen gott inför debutskivan. Singeln är nämligen, liksom allt annat bandet släppt ifrån sig, briljant. A-sidan är otroligt medryckande och det stökiga soundet med akustiska gitarrer, fioler och trumpeter i en salig röra påminner mig en aning om Neutral Milk Hotel.Imorgon spelar de på Debaser i Stockholm. Det kan nog bli väldigt bra.Noah & The Whale - Shape of my heart
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