This. Just. Blew. My. Mind.

How I’ve never heard of jazz, funk, fusion supergroup Snarky Puppy until 10 minutes ago is beyond me. I don’t even particularly like jazz or funk or fusion…but this is AMAZING. The fact that this video was “recorded and filmed live (free of overdubs) on December 16, 2011, at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn, New York, for GroundUP Music” makes me even more appalled that over produced, auto-tuned artists who can’t play an instrument are winning Grammy’s…

Founded by composer and bassist Michael League back in 2004, and signed to SitMOM records in ‘05, Snarky Puppy has been steadily building a buzz in the “people who like actual music” community for the past 8 years.

This performance of “Anna Sun” by Walk the Moon is amazing. It’s even more amazing than Carson Daly still having a show and that fact that he hasn’t aged since 1999.

Walk the Moon is currently on tour with Young the Giant through March before playing with the Kaiser Chiefs March 6th. You can pick up their Anna Sun EP for $2.99 at their website walkthemoonband.com

Bon Iver wins Best New Artist 2012? Um….For Emma, Forever Ago was released in 2008. Blood Bank was released in 2009 with the “Blood Bank” single charting as follows:

Charts (2009) Peak^[12]
Irish Singles Chart 24
UK Indie Chart 1
UK Singles Chart 37
U.S. Billboard 200 16

Dear Recording Academy,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sincerely,
Every indie music fan ever.

The recipe for a great stripped-down acoustic version of an indie song? Apparently mix one part The Format, one part Anathallo, and one part Steel Train, shake until frothy, garnish with Janelle Monae.

After the breakup of indie pop band The Format, lead singer Nate Reuss joined forces with Andrew Dost from Anathallo and Jack Antonoff from Steel Train to form Fun. Their debut album Aim & Ignite was released in 2009 and re-released as a deluxe album in 2010. However, it wasn’t until late 2011 when their single “We Are Young” was performed on Glee that the band really started getting the attention they deserve.

Hypothesis:
My girlfriend has better taste in music than your girlfriend.

Data:
-Liz told me to check out Dawes.
-This video is a live Dawes performance.
-This video rocks fucking hard.

Conclusion:
My girlfriend has better taste in music than your girlfriend.

Note: I am currently up to my eyeballs in embryology and thus unable to give this a full write up, but will get to it sometime in the morning. In the mean time, watch this video and revel in it’s awesomeness.

“Prozac Rock” is the first single off Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s upcoming album Rot Gut, Domestic. The single sees Richard Edwards and the band continuing their deviation from the chamber-pop sound featured in earlier albums like Dust of Retreat and Animal! and instead focusing more on the electric-guitar driven indie rock soundscape that we heard on 2010’s Buzzard. 

As a long-time Margot fan, I think the single is great—then again, I was never a part of the sect of fans who criticized the band for it’s departure from it’s original sound chamber-pop sound in the first place. Sure, the departures of Emily Watkins on backing vocals and keyboards and Jesse Lee on cello changed the vibe of the band and yes, the band has taken a noticeably different route on their two most recent albums, but at it’s core Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s is still driven by the epic songwriting ability and perfectly imperfect voice of Richard Edwards. Adding guitarist Ron Kwasman, violinist/guitarist Erik Kang, and keyboardist Cameron McGill into the mix didn’t change the substance of the band, they merely revamped the way that core was accentuated—think of it as being akin to adding some new spices to your favorite dish.

I for one, will be undoubtedly be replaying “Prozac Rock” on loop until Rot Gut, Domestic hits shelves. For more info about the single and upcoming album check out the recent interview/blurb over at Paste Magazine.

It seems like three-word band names with “the” as the second word are all the rage these days - Foster the People, Young the Giant, Cage the Elephant, etc. Given how awesome those three groups are, perhaps there’s something to this fascinating trend. In any event, you can now add Walk the Moon, an indie-rock quartet from Cincinnati, to the growing list. They’re receiving a fair amount of airplay on mtvU with “Anna Sun,” a bouncy, sunny indie-pop tune with an infectious energy and an irresistible keytar riff. It was a pretty elaborate video shoot from the looks of it, but the end product is both entertaining and undeniably fun.

Review by eastcoastmusicscene