Santogold

Why didn't I get my shit together to see her any time in the last year? She is from Brooklyn, yet I can't seem to find my way to one of her shows. I am suddenly really digging her sound. In that creepy obsessive way that I tend to get excited about music. I vaguely remember her as a hip hop artist, but I heard "Lights Out" today, and discovered that I am woefully wrong, Santogold is much more than that. Her album came out yesterday....and she is being sponsored by Target?? Awesome for her, you all know how excited I get when an artist find a way to make $$$$!!

<3 The Elephant

Other music blogs

I know that you, my loyal readership, don't want to hear me say this, but its true. The best way to find about new bands is to read locally based music blogs from every city you can find. There are is a good LA based blog charmingly named Rock Insider and a Kentucky blog called You Ain't No Picasso.

Both blogs write great concert reviews and talk about local greatness. I would highly recommend putting some time into researching these kinds of sites. Also, I would highly recommend that I get my shit together in increase my list of good reads on the blog.

<3 The Elephant

Stumbled upon an interesting band...

As per usual, I can't remember where I got the name of this Brooklyn based band, but I wish I did. Ching Chong Song sounds like a high school musical, recorded in the gym, where the vocals are oddly far away, and the old lady plays the piano at church also. Her favorite will always be accompanying the high schools' talent shows though. The humor and whimsy to which I am always oddly attracted lushly flows out of each of their songs, but in a serious and sermon-like fashion. "Start Your Engines" is among their less experimental, and more commercial sounding songs. I mean this in the best way, because I think that an experimental band needs to have a couple of songs that are good "soundtrack" songs, songs that people who are fearful of new, fresh sounds can relate to. Much like Beirut's "Postcards From Italy", they act as a gateway for the listener into the more dynamic music that the artist has recorded.
CCS's myspace describes themselves as having a "cabaret/parlor room" sound. I do agree with this, but I just keep picturing a high school production of a musical. You should take a listen, share your opinions, and come see the show with me July 26th, at the Polaroid Party.

Little Naked Gay Adventure is available at CDbaby.com

Pitchfork caught on too..

So Love to Hate posted our David Horvitz Polaroids. Mentioned my name. Thanks guys....but wait, WTF?! Why did they link that other dude's bolg. Mystery. Bitches. Anyways, read it here.

<3 The Elephant

Crystal Castles

I read blurb about them on Stereogum...then proceeded to ignore them, despite the awesome track they posted. Recently (like 5 minutes ago) a friend reminded me of their exsistance, and Check them out here. Like Dan Deacon, only minus the goofy. Not only is it good electro-dance, but I think its a higher level of listenability than most of the electro dance stuff than I usually hear. So...that about sums it up....

<3 The Elephant

May Shows

As you may have noticed, May is a great month to be a New Yorker. There are so many great shows coming up, I am already trying to rationalize the impending sleep deprivation. See the calender for some of the shows that I am going to try to catch. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson is a record release party for another band, so its already sold out. I am going to attempt to get my hands on a ticket, since after his record drops in July I suspect that he will playing lots of crowded hard ot get into shows. Just a guess. One show I absolutely don't want to miss is Black Kids/Mobius Band/Cut Copy. Another awesome show is going to be Cave Singers, we are already planning on going. I will be updating the calender...but things are a bit crazy at work, so I will do my best to update frequently.


<3 The Elephant

She&Him...Sorta Overrated?

I'm going to openly admit something: I don't like She&Him because Zooey Deschanel is famous for something else, and rarely does cross pollination really work out. Case in point: the Tyra Banks Show. I am not saying that I actually think that She&Him "Volume 1" is bad, because it certainly isn't, its completely fine. In fact, I might really like it if it weren't for the all star line up. Another band that has an all star line up that is pretty weak are The Raconteurs. Seriously, that is the best Brandon Benson and Jack Black could do? So, you have all been listening to "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" since it dropped in January, think to yourself, I can't wait for this album to come out! Me too! But honestly, the album is a bit of a disappointment. Sorry guys, I just wish I could say something nicer....

<3 The Elephant

Muxtapes

Were you dedicated enough to music to make a muxtape (after reading my blog)? I use the word dedication because, frankly, you need to have a lot of free time to do this. It takes a huge amount of bandwith and is insanely slow. Seriously, I think it took so long to upload these songs that I am no longer going to get carded. Interestingly enough, its not so slow that people aren't doing it.

I made one, and my homey B made one too. We both wimped out after a few songs....but I'll let you know when I have updated. Also, you probably have most of these songs already.

http://monkiman96.muxtape.com

http://elephantwhale.muxtape.com

<3 The Elephant

Concert Review: Wye Oak with Deer Tick at Union Hall

Last night Spang and I went to one of our favorite places in Brooklyn to see one of my favorite new bands, Wye Oak. After several trials and tribulations we found ourselves there towards the end of the Deer Tick set, and they were having so much fun. Although I am really not familiar a lot of their work (read: i listened to like 2 songs on myspace) they were tooooons of fun. We heard a couple of songs and then they closed with a cover of "La Bamba" (or whatever that songs is called).

The set was too loud in my opinion. I usually don't need earplugs, but man, I seriously ran to the bar to get a pair (read: the elephant is old). I introduced myself to Jenn, the singer of Wye Oak when we arrived, as she was sitting at the merch table all by herself. She was warm and friendly, and introduced me to her drummer, Andy. Both absolutely adorabe. She commented that she is turning 22 on wednesday, and I was shocked. She is so poised and mature for 21, would have never guessed.

So Wye Oak is a two person band (much like the Dodos) which gives them a clean sound where Jenn's smoky, airy voice defines their M.O. On stage they are absolutely as strong as they are in recording, really digging into their music. They aren't at all heavy, and on stage they maintain their fluidity beautifully. Like everyone else, I am most familiar with "Obituary" and "If Children". My lack of familiarity allowed their other songs to really show me who they are. "Regret" was particularly haunting, in that depressing, beautiful, glowing hurtful way. When they finished their set, Jenn blushingly admitted that they only knew one other song, which they gracefully played for us. They have a defined sound (namely Jenn's voice) and I don't feel like there is going to be a lot of change from that sound in the future, but that challenge will force them to push into new, currently unexplored areas.

Their album If Children is out on Merge.

<3 the Elephant

Thao: Another Female that I forgot...

Sometime before Christmas I stumbled upon Thao Nguyen. She alledges that she learned guitar by hanging around at her parent's laundry mat, and screwing around on the guitar. If only laundry mats could inspire such beauty and whimsy in everyone. Alas, it doesn't, but we should continue to appreciate hers, and her back up band, The Get Down Stay Down. I personally hate that name, but whatever, its not important. Her album, We Brave Bee Stings and All is sweet and jouvenile, but in the most refined way. Her delicate strums and breathy finishes translate into percussive sounding "Beat" and in the more emotional sounding "Chivalry".

She plays Terminal 5 with Rilo Kiley (unfortunate, I know) on June 2nd and 3rd.

Her Album, We Brave bee Stings and All is out on Kill Rock Stars (read: Elliot Smith, Decemberists, DeerHoof, Xiu Xiu...yeah, pretty weak)

Beat (Health, Life, Fire)

<3 The Elephant

Hercules and Love Affair

I think this was another one I forgot to mention...They are disco dance music, with vocals by Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons). I really like it, maybe you will too?

Love to Hate

You might ask why I keep passing you along to a website about which everyone proclaims with firey breath "I hate pitchfork blah blah blah". The answer is this: when I agree with them, I really agree with them. When I disagree, I really disagree. They write much stronger reviews than I do (although curiously, there are people who read through this dreadful churning of the English language). Give them a chance, but like any other "bible" you get to choose which parts you really believe in.

<3 The Elephant

The Dodos (again)

I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that I called it.

Love to Hate

Under their "Best New Music" section of the main page, there it is. In yellowy, shining glory. Congrats guys, you totally deserve this.

<3 The Elephant

Female Folk: It Doesn't All Suck

In this age of female singers like Feist and Cat Power, the competition is fierce (another fashion word) to be in the mainstream. I am not a huge Fesit fan, and I outright dislike Cat Power, Amy Winehouse and Duffy. Not because I think that they lack talent, but because it just isn't my taste.

I can't remember if I have already written about Basia Bulat, but I think that her music is richly spread across many instruments and modes of expression. She speaks to me in a way that not many of the others can throughout most of her music. Some of it isn't my favorite (December, off of Oh, My Darling) but on the whole I think she is terribly under-rated and underblogged. I am dying to see her live after I missed seeing her open for St. Vincent in February. Word on the street was that she killed it on stage, but I wasn't there. I always like interesting instrument use, and she def does that. So listen to this song and let me know what you think. (Haha...comments).

In the Night

Basia Bulat plays with Devotchka May 5th at Terminal 5. Her album Oh, My Darling is out on Rough Trade Records.

She also has a Daytrotter Session here.

<3 The Elephant

Belated Art Party Thursday

Tonight, Christie's Old Master Paintings go on view at their galleries in Rockefeller Center. There will be vino and hors d'oeuvres, and of course wonderful paintings. They are on view for about a week, and then they hit the auction block on Tuesday, 4/15. The auctions are open to the public, so if you have some free time, head over and check it out. I will be there with the Walrus and the Hippo, and several other people. One cool thing about this exhibit is that you can actually touch the paintings! Although I wouldn't advise going crazy, I have in fact done it before myself and know for a fact that they won't yell at you. This is a Van Haarlem est. 1.5-2 million.

Christies New York
20 Rockefeller Plaza
49th Btwn 5th and 6th
6-8 pm

Polaroid Project

Spencer likes beer too...

And he knows how to juggle?! Why aren't we married?

This might be a Horvitz self portrait....

Oh Jordan, are you tired of hearing that you look like Adam Brody?

Outside, probably brooklyn c. 2008.

MMM, I like fresh squeezed orange juice too...

Am I a bad person for not knowing who this person is?

I <3 Camilla, and not just because she told me that she thinks I'm pretty.

I know dude, I totally feel the same way!

When we saw Sunset Rubdown a couple of weeks ago, photographer David Horvitz offered to send us some Polaroids (after a bit of cajoling). Plus he knows how awkward I am, and helped me out by being cool and not making the situation much worse. See the below photos, and please, please let me know if I mislabeled anyone, since I am largely guessing at which guitarist/drummer/bassist is which. So, if I get it wrong, post a comment so I have a prayer of not offending anyone.

<3 The Elephant

MP3's!!

I am still trying to figure out how to do this properly, but here is a preliminary effort:

www.elephantwhale.tumbler.com

It is a song that makes me happy, and helps me get through each and every day....

Wye Oak at Union Hall Saturday

As I have mentioned before, Wye Oak is a band I could see myself listening to pretty frequently once I get my paws on their release. They hail from the beautiful town of Baltimore MD, and have an adorable video on SG. I plan to have a relaxing Saturday evening with them at Union Hall, and hopefully the weather will be good, so we can all chill on that cute patio! Incidentally, Deer Tick is opening for them, they too have been getting a lot of good press. They are nice folk music, and you know how I feel about that.

Wye Oak plays Union Hall this Saturday, and their album is out today on Merge.

Concert Review: The Dodos w/ No Kids and Silje Nes

Mystery 3rd guy, and Meric Long rocking out.

Long sings into 2 microphones, one with reverb, one without.

In typical fashion, Kroeber killing it on the drums.

Disclaimer: I know the photos suck, but it was really dark, and we didn't bring a real camera, so we were left to iPhone it....

Last night the menagerie and I headed down to the Mercury Lounge to see the beloved SF duo (now a trio?) The Dodos. I had listened to one of the openers, Silje Nes, on myspace beforehand and had hear through the grapevine that she was decent. I hadn't done any any other prep research. I think that was for the better because No Kids was a great act, and I think I would have written them off based on music alone.

Silje Nes is a multi instrumental, classically trained pianist. That being said, the Norwegian native plays guitar to its fullest, building melodies by recording and playing it back. In this way, she creates a full, warm sound with just herself and a drummer. She knocks, pats and scratches the guitar (both acoustic and electric) to create non-traditional sounds. The drummer (whose name is a mystery, Matz?) was actually my favorite part of the act. He might be her boyfriend, the way that he smiled at her, and just glowed with pleasure on stage. She seems to play for herself, in a self absorbed and terrified way, while he smiled and enjoyed the experience. It was a small crowd, no more than 30 people, but the room was silent and breathless while she played. It was almost like no one wanted to interrupt her. I'm not sure if I would go see her headline, but I would definitely see her open again.

I missed a bit of No Kids (I got hungry, as usual, and had to run out with the whale to Katz's) and according to the Hippo and the Walrus, the lead singer did an awesome dance. I was sad that had missed it, but had an absolutely immediate, and intense crush on lead singer Nick Krgovich. I am having a deep and intense love affair with him. Too bad he doesn't know about it. He is that awkward dorky hipster, with a dry sense of humor, and a wonderfully confident stage presence. The repertoire that he built with the audience was unmatched that evening, telling cute stories and commenting in between songs. The whale looked at me when we walked back in, and announced that he was "ridiculously dweeby". I was already smitten. I am digressing from the music though, sigh. My immediate reaction was that No Kids is just a silly combination of R Kelly and Jens Lekman, but I'm not sure that I can back that claim. On stage I felt like they were a parody of themselves. With largely upbeat, happy, falsetto infused songs, they seem to enjoy the humor of the whole experience. One element of dance plus one element of electro, the simple melodies lack complicated chord progressions and heavy layers on stage. In recording however there is a chamber orchestra backing everything, and giving it the same broadway-musical feel that Jens Lekman has. I think I would go see these guys again (and not only to feed my stalkerish crush on NK).

So last, but not least: The Dodos. As you may have read in my previous posts, I discovered the Dodos in December or January through Jonk, when they posted Fools as their song of the day. I was immediately taken by their sound. As NPR said, it is frenetic, perpetual and furious. Guitarist Meric Long started the band as Dodo Bird, and eventually added drummer Logan Kroeber. That was a good decision. Kroeber has some fucking endurance. Throughout both shows that i saw, Krober drummed furiously, in a full bodied craze for the full hour. He and Long are connected to each and every move that the other makes, they are literally the tightest band I have ever seen. When there is a pause in the music, there is utter silence, and unlike other bands Long and Krober play in unison frequently, and there are no discrepancies. Long frantically picks, plucks and strums his many guitars with a set of disgustingly long fingernails. He also apparently plays the trombone, and has studied African drumming and blues guitar. All of these influences speak in the music, he doesn't stray from non traditional instrumentation either: this last show featured a vibraphone, a child's harpsichord, a gong and a trombone. The child's harpsichord was adorable, and added a wonderful plunking in the background.
This performance was much grander than the last, featuring multiple guitars, the trombone, and the mystery third dude, who had a much more active role in this show. He manned all of the aforementioned unusual instruments, but somehow his presence lacked the magnetism of Long and Kroeber. They managed their way with grace and ease throughout the entire main set without touching their first album, Beware of the Maniacs. For the encore, however, the audience was calling for renditions of The Ball and Men (the obvious jokes were made, both by the audience and the band). For the encore, they played Men, launching directly in the Ball, and from there directly back into Fools, their initial single that dropped in January. They are quiet on stage in terms of talking, in fact I am not sure we heard more than 10 words from them the whole evening, it was just glorious, overwhelming music.

I will see them again, without a doubt. They are apt to be the darlings of 2008 (much in the way that Vampire Weekend was in 2007). I will also confirm that this will be a Top Ten show of the year. I'm eagerly awaiting their return to the stage in NYC, undoubtedly at a bigger venue.

<3 The Elephant

New Awesome Song

Au (pronounce the letters as in: A, U) is a Portland, Oregon based band that is sort of overtaking my world right now. Its one part Animal Collective, one part Bach and one part Huck Finn american folk. I read about them on Stereogum, of course, and it seemed to patch some sort of tear in my musical life. I keep listening to these folk-y soft spoken guitar strumming men, and frankly I need to break out. I am super digging Au because it has a lot of those folk elements that I am loving from The Cave Singers and Fleet Foxes, but also has some more progressive, "noise" to it, that is usually not dissonant or contradictory. It really reminds me of Animal Collective, on the Panda Bear side of things. Head over here and here for some downloads, and to read what SG has to say about them. I didn't even read their review, but hopefully it doesn't totally contradict mine.

They are playing April 19 with Fleet Foxes, in Portland Oregon at 1001 SE Morisson St. IF YOU LIVE ON THE WEST COAST (SPANG) YOU MUST GO TO THIS.

Their album Verbs is out 6/26 on Agoo.

<3 The Elephant

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

Stereogum wrote him up as a "band to watch". You heard it here first! Score:

the Elephant: 1
Stereogum: 734647560245602870

<3 The Elephant

Paying for Music-SongSlide

I don't know how many of my readers actually buy hard copy CDs. I never do, if I have to pay for an album I buy it through Amazon. There is a website called SongSlide where you pick how much you pay for music. It is entirely independent musicians who place their music for sale themselves and you pay what you think they deserve. The best part is, the more you pay, the higher the percentage of the margin they make. So in other words, if you are a cheapskate, the website gets a high percentage of the cut. Bitches. So, I really haven't listened to any of the artists or bought any music, but if anyone has some time and wants to check it out, write a comment and let us all know what you find.

That Bjork Cover Album

Our friends over at Steregum have a little more pull in the music industry than I do, and they asked a bunch of their fav artists who are relatively unknown to do covers of a Bjork album. I am going to admit to 2 things right now: 1) I don't like Bjork. 2) I don't like the covers. That said, its a fucking amazing album for other reasons. It seems to me that stereogum is using the album to predict music trends by identifying the bands that have (as we always say in fashion) "fresh" sounds. I guess I'm falling behind the new cool sounds, because a lot of it just doesn't work for me. It is largely atonal and non-melodious with dissonance and free flowing sounds ruling the album. I am going to continue to try to listen to it to get involved with the new sound, because as with all new things, it takes time to adjust, so I should break out of my comfort zone and try something new. Its funny because when it comes to clothes, I leap forward embracing trends to which people have violently negative initial reactions. Ex: high waisted jeans, skinny jeans, and shoulder pads (i know everyone is shuddering at that one).
I am extremely curious to hear what other people think, since i think some of my friends are more open minded musically. Not that any of you would ever comment, but still, a girl can hope!

<3 The Elephant

Art Party Thursday

As we all know, Thursdays mean art parties in New York. Head over to the Umbrage Gallery in DUMBO to see a wonderful show of Paintings by Hilary Cooper called "DIVIDED PORTRAITS: identity & disability". 111 Front St. Suite 208, Bk.

Also, tonight is Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson at Mercury Lounge! I won't be going, but if someone else does, please report back and let me know if it is as good as the recordings.