Great Music of the Last Decade
This is by no means intended to be an exhaustive list of the best albums of the last ten years. This is simply me posting a few of my favorite albums. Most of them are probably well known in any sort of indie circles, but since I have been on a bit of a nostalgia kick lately in my music, I decided to make a list of some, in my opinion, must-listens.
Looking for study music? Part 2
Considering of all the traffic that come to my blog, over two-thirds of it come from my study music post, I figured I might throw out a second one as I have some new ones, including a new one that came out last week. By way of introduction, I love to have music when I study, but I typically cannot handle my normal rotation of music. Lyrics and music that is too attention grabbing distracts me far too much and is actually detrimental whereas I feel when I have music conducive to studying, it not only renders my experience more enjoyable but enhances the quality of my session. As such, I have compiled quite the library of study music. People constantly ask me for it, yet I can hardly ever remember on the spot, so here is a compilation of it all. If you would like to check out part one, click here.
Really? You ruined my favorite song.
Scouring the net for new music, I stumbled into this trainwreck. I saw some punk band had done a cover of The Postal Service which instantly piqued my interest. I have a special spot for covers especially when they're cross genre. Anyway, give it a listen. I warn you may not be hardcore enough.
Embedding is disabled, so follow the link.
Confide - Such Great Heights (The Postal Service Cover)
Turn up the sound for extra effect.
The Mountain Goats Concert
All I can say is wow. What an amazing show. I can admit to being to skeptical about how the intimate nature of John Darnielle's music would translate to a stage show but I was quickly impressed at what they did. They often put variation on the song which made me some of their music more live even more than the album versions (which is a rarity for me at least.) I also appreciated that the set covered a great deal of the rather lengthy life-span of The Mountain Goats, but they also did play a great deal from their most recent album.
Concert rating? 10/10. I loved it. I'd recommend it to anyone. I'll go out of my way to see them next time they're through Salt Lake. I posted below a YouTube video of them playing 1 Samuel 15:23 (at a different concert) just to give you a taste of what the show was like.
Oh, and to answer your question, yes, that is John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats) holding a wombat. Yes, yes it is.
The Rescues – Let Loose the Horses EP
Just a quick plug a little known band I stumbled into the other day. Well, I assume they're little known because I'd never heard of them but I guess they're getting some pretty good press. They're called The Rescues and they just released their latest EP called Let Loose the Horses. It has bit of a earnest country vibe, but it's chill enough that it stimulates the pleasure center of the brain. They're playing in Salt Lake this week and I'd go if it wasn't on Sunday. Or if this wasn't finals week. Anyway, you can give them a listen on their website or enter your email address below the break and they'll email you an MP3 of the title track.
More new Broken Social Scene songs, “Forced to Love” and “All to All”
Just some more tunes for y'all to enjoy. I personally can't wait for the new album.
Looking for music to which you can study? Try The Album Leaf, Sigur Rós, and more.
UPDATE: Part 2 added with more study music added. Check it out here.
If many of you are like me, you have issues studying to the music to which you normally listen. Or at least for me, I have issues studying to music with lyrics. It tends to distract me and draw my mind into the lyrics and out of my study material. The silence of simply studying sans music just makes the experience worse. So how can we rectify the problem? I have compiled a list of my approved studying music complete with tracks for your sampling pleasure.
New Feist song – “He Was Free”
In between working on the new Broken Social Scene and catchin' the games in her native land of Canada, Leslie Feist found some time to write this nigh-chant song that's been stuck in my head all day. The video part shows Leslie for all of 30 seconds before just drifting above her head, but the sound quality is great. Here's hoping that a new Feist album is just around the corner.
New Broken Social Scene song – World Sick
After five long years of new-material silence, Broken Social Scene decides to grace us with a new track. It's quite the epic coming in six minutes and fifty three seconds. It's the quality we come to expect from Broken Social Scene and I highly recommend it. Click below to download it. Just enter your email address and they'll send it you.
Review of Hot Chip’s One Life Stand
I apologize for the conspicuous absence of updates, but mid-terms are finishing up and so we should be returning to daily posting again. Today's topic is one indie's hottest bands. After a decent amount time since their release of The Warning, Hot Chip dropped their latest record, One Life Stand.
Expectations of this album were high for this album because The Warning had some killer tracks on it notwithstanding some sour spots on it. And let me tell you now, One Life Stand meets and exceeds all the expectations set from their previous efforts. The album opens with one of the couple ringers on the album, "Thieves in the Night." After listening to it, you'll be walking around singing to yourself, "Happiness is what we all want!"
The shining star of the album and certainly the best track of 2010 thus far is the standout track "Brothers." The ethereal, almost dream-like trance of the song followed by the propelling drums is just blissful. The harmony is simply brilliant. The only shameful part of the song is that it ends and is followed by the weak track on the album, "Slush". The start of the song is so ridiculous that you'll be rushing to change the track before "Brothers" ends. Fortunately, is the only detestable song on the whole album. It's just a shame that it comes right in the middle of the album because it completely disrupt the flow the album. The rest of the album is solid throughout and enjoyable as a whole album or as individual tracks.
Final Rating: 8 / 10