A.A. Bondy release tomorrow!

Is anyone else kind of excited for A.A. Bondy's album, When The Devil's Loose, being released tomorrow? If you're not excited, you should probably check out his music. I posted about him last month, but came across another one of his songs from the new album so I had to share it with y'all.

He's headlining a bunch of shows in September before heading off to Europe to tour with The Felice Brothers, and then he's back in the States in November to tour with Elvis Perkins in Dearland. Head over to Mr. Bondy's myspace to see if he's playing near you and check out the new album when it drops tomorrow!
I Can See The Pines Are Dancing (boxstr)

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's live @ Daytrotter

So my most recent favorite band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, stopped by the Daytrotter studio recently to play a few songs. I love it! If you are ANYWHERE near one of their shows, please for my sake go!! It sounds on these recordings like they kind of mellowed out a bit from other live recordings I've heard (especially on "40 Day Dream") but they still sound great! Daytrotter is giving away the songs from the session for FREE, so go check them out!
Up From Below (Daytrotter Session) (boxstr)

help!

Ebony Bones - Warrior from maskomi on Vimeo.

I NEED this song RIGHT NOW.

Well maybe it's not that urgent, but I would still really like to be in possession of this song and any other songs by Ebony Bones! Seriously. I'm in a rut and I think she will pull me out. Any readers in the UK, Spain, Japan, anywhere it's been released want to help me out since this isn't available in the US yet?? Pretty pretty pretty please?

i need to read my emails closer

So...I was going through all the emails I've had to hold off on, and lo and behold I got an email Jeremy at Vagrant, with a video of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros performing @ The Regent. It is fab and shows how awesome they are. So, check it out and now I for real promise to get through my emails in a more timely manner so I don't almost miss out on gems like this.

looking for utopia?

If you're down with hippies and/or like the idea of utopia, you should check out the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I heart them. They have this whole communal family feeling, and I just really really like their songs. Band leader Alex Ebert said in an interview recently that he wants to start a commune with his band mates and the whole communal idea behind music is what brought the band together. Awesome. If they ever tour in Michigan, or if I happen to find myself on the west coast where they're from, I'm definitely going to catch one of their shows (and maybe see if they need an extra person to shake a tambourine or strum the few chords I know on guitar...) They have an EP out, but it's really just 3 songs (40 Day Dream, Janglin', and Carries On) off their self titled debut album that was released a few weeks ago. So if you want a sampler get the EP, but you might as well buy the whole thing, as the EP leaves out my favorite track "Home." Their first single is "40 Day Dream" and it's awesome (See video in the post above this one...). Check back in a few months for new singles/awesome videos because I know I'll love whatever they put out next (at least I'm hoping to...)
40 Day Dream (boxstr)



On a completely unrelated note, I've gotten a ton of emails from people in the last month or so with songs to check out, and I PROMISE I'm not ignoring you. I've just been super super busy and want to be sure if/when I post something about the song you sent me, it's not half assed. But by all means keep the emails coming! Maybe I'll get my life somewhat back together this weekend and get some listening done...

Why is Iceland so awesome?

So apparently Iceland is the place to be for new music recently. I'm currently battling an obsession with Lay Low's music, and now I've come across the band Retro Stefson. They're all sorts of poppy wonderful. I want to compare them to Vampire Weekend but I'm not sure I want to make that leap. They have songs in Icelandic, English, and Spanish, and they pretty much amazing. They just really seem like they're having a blast, which is really awesome for the listener. It's hard not to start smiling and bobbing my head when their songs come on.


Salvatore (boxstr)

NPR + Newport Folk Festival 2009

Wow. I feel like I've been away for forever. Work is currently kind of crazy since I'm leaving in like 2 weeks (bye bye health insurance...*tear) to go back to school. It's basically like lets see how much work we can milk out of you before you leave. Sigh. So that's been seriously cutting into my blogging time haha. I hope you all (if there is anybody still reading) can forgive me.

You know who I love? NPR. It's probably because my mom not so secretly brainwashed me, as it was on NONSTOP growing up. I usually get most of my news from them and sometimes even get some good song suggestions via "All Songs Considered." And seriously who doesn't love Ira Glass and "This American Life"? Now I have yet another reason to love them... They have posted pretty much all of the performers from the Newport Folk Festival last weekend. If I try really hard, it's almost like I was there. Okay, well not really but it makes me feel a teeny tiny bit better about missing it. I'm also 85% sure you can download all the performances. Go here to check it out!

photo by Wiquan Ang