New Animal

Atlanta-based duo New Animal is my favorite new artist discovery of the week.

The Sound That It Makes

Nightmares of Candy Yang & The Black Italian

Far Away

I Think It's Working

∆ (Alt-J)

I'm quite intrigued by ∆ (pronounced Alt-J) lately. I have high hopes for this British alternative pop quartet's 9/29 show at The Bootleg!

Fitzpleasure

Breezeblocks (definitely WATCH this ENTIRE video!)


Something Good

Time To Run by Lord Huron

I've been posting about Lord Huron a lot lately but that just means, if you haven't checked them out by now, you REALLY should. Their music just makes you feel good.

Hearing Lord Huron perform Time To Run live while watching their new spoof spaghetti western video projected all around me last Friday night at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA was 1 of the most uniquely awesome concert-going experiences I've had in a while.

Read more about the making of LH's Time To Run video here: http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/music/ben-schneider-of-lord-huron-describes-the-making-of-new-video-time-to-run/2012/08/29/

The Ross Sea Party & The Dead Ships @ Central in Santa Monica - 8/28/12

The 4th & final night of The Ross Sea Party's Tuesday night August residency at Central in Santa Monica was bittersweetly awesome. RSP played their hearts out to their biggest crowd yet & were sent out with a roar of applause, hoots & hollers (including my own).

I wish The Ross Sea Party could play a free show just down the street from my apartment once a week FOREVER because I'd be there EVERY time. But, alas, it's time for RSP to move on to bigger & better things. Soon, Central will be far too small a venue to contain all the soon-to-be crazed RSP fans. RSP is about to drop their 1st studio album &, after that, the sky's the limit. I'm honored to call all 5 members of The Ross Sea Party my friends & I'm looking forward witnessing their inevitably increasing success.

P.S. The Dead Ships rock too! Don't miss their next set at Central in support of The Muddy Reds' Tuesday night September residency!

The Ross Sea Party


The Dead Ships

Wild Nothing

The 1st act I'll be seeing on Day 2 of FYF Fest this weekend is WILD NOTHING at 2:40pm.

See all set times for both days below...

Golden Haze

Chinatown

Live in Dreams (Daytrotter Session)

Lord Huron & Cults @ The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA - 8/24/12

I came for Lord Huron & stayed for Cults. I'm now officially obsessed with Lord Huron & officially OVER Cults. They just can't carry a live performance. Lord Huron, on the other hand, CAN & they're fantastic. I'm already looking forward to the next time I get to see LH...ideally in a setting where people aren't chatting over the music the entire time :-P. Regardless, Friday night's show at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA was a very cool FREE event.

Lord Huron


Cults

Hiccups by Jinja Safari

Poolside

Do You Believe?

Slow Down

Harvest Moon

Brats by Liars

Check out this super odd video for a sick new track by Liars. I'm SO excited for Liars' upcoming set at FYF Fest over Labor Day weekend!

Outside Lands 2012

Despite my Outside Lands 2012 experience ending rather dramatically when I rushed out of Golden Gate Park in tears on Sunday night ~7:30pm in the middle of Bloc Party's super rad set because my cat Cleo was in a veterinarian's ER & my roommate needed me to get somewhere with reception in order to talk to the doctor (Cleo's doing much better now though, thank god!), I had yet another fabulous weekend attending Outside Lands for my 5th year in row. The 1st year of Outside Lands was in August 2008 &, on day 1, I was lucky enough to see The Black Keys, Beck AND Radiohead for my 1st time! This fest definitely has some logistical issues (i.e. acoustical problems, overselling tickets, etc) & I hope they someday work those issues out but I still manage to have a blast every year!

Tanlines

The Walkmen

Beck Performing The Golden Age

Foo Fighters Performing All My Life

Justice - Part 1

Justice - Part 2

Tame Impala Performing Lucidity

Portugal, The Man Performing All Your Light

Explosions In The Sky

Big Boi

The Kills

Metallica
Franz Ferdinand


Amadou & Mariam


Santigold


Bloc Party


 

One Man Party of Soulwax @ Central in Santa Monica - 8/16/12

Washed Out

I was only able to catch a few songs of Washed Out (aka Ernest Greene)'s set at Outside Lands in SF last weekend (I'll get my fest coverage post up shortly!) but I really dug what I heard & am already looking forward to seeing him again the next chance I get.

New Theory

A Dedication

The Ross Sea Party & Blonde Summer @ Central in Santa Monica - 8/7/12

The 1st night of The Ross Sea Party's Tuesday night FREE August residency at Central in Santa Monica started off with a bang! Meet me there next Tuesday 8/14 for night #2!

The Ross Sea Party


Blonde Summer

Alabama Shakes & Neil Young & Crazy Horse @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre - 8/5/12

So, after my 1st trip to Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Saturday night, I woke up on Sunday morning just DYING to go back &, because I wasn't flying out of Denver until Monday morning, I begged & pleaded & eventually was able to convince my Coloradan friend (who'd made other Sunday evening plans for us) to take me back to Red Rocks to see Alabama Shakes & Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

The only glitch was we didn't have tickets so we had to wander around people's tailgates searching for 2 tickets. We found 1 ticket right away but snagging the 2nd was a lot more work AND we ended up spending over $300 on 2 tickets when, the night before, for My Morning Jacket & Band of Horses at Red Rocks, my friends & I had only spent $50 per ticket. Granted, the face value for Neil Young tickets ranged form $125-175 so it's not exactly like we were ripped off. It was just a big price increase over the previous night's show.

Luckily, I absolutely LOVED Alabama Shakes because Neil Young didn't exactly thrill me & getting to go back to Red Rocks for a 2nd night in a row TOTALLY thrilled me! It really is a magical place.

Alabama Shakes Performing Hold On

My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses & Trombone Shorty @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre - 8/4/12

MMJ Night #2 Group Shot Courtesy of Evan Fletcher Close

A few months ago, when I first discovered My Morning Jacket was scheduled to play 2 nights in a row at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on 8/3 & 8/4, I daydreamed about going to Red Rocks for my 1st time ever to see my FAVORITE live band MMJ for the 8th time. For years, people have been telling me, if I love The Gorge (as much as I unconditionally do), I'd most definitely be a fan of Red Rocks. Then, once I realized Outside Lands in SF was the very next weekend, I decided I probably wouldn't be able to manage (or afford) a trip to Denver the 1st weekend of August followed by a 4-day trip to San Francisco the next weekend. Luckily, it turned out, by way of some serious last minute planning, I was able to squeeze Red Rocks into my schedule & my 1st visit to Colorado was all I could've hoped it'd be & more :-D

I feel extremely fortunate to have witnessed such an epic My Morning Jacket performance on Saturday night in what is now the 2nd most beautiful place I've ever seen a show. MMJ played for almost 3 hours & each song was pure perfection, including some unbelievable covers (see the full setlist below) & guest appearances by Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell & John Oates of Hall & Oates (who Jim James so eloquently & hilariously introduced as "Motherfuckin' John Oates!").

Phone Went West


One of the top highlights of the evening was MMJ's 17-minute rendition of my all-time favorite MMJ song Dondante. Because MMJ had played on Friday night as well & I'd been told they wouldn't be repeating a single song from Friday's setlist, I was worried I'd already missed Dondante. I was scared to ask anyone lucky enough to attend both nights if MMJ had, in fact, already played Dondante because I almost didn't want to know just so I could hold out hope but, right before the show, I caved by asking 1 of my friends anyway & was SO thrilled to learn they hadn't played it yet! Be sure to watch the video I "borrowed" below to get an idea of why that song means SO very much to me.



The Gorge still trumps all other venues, in my opinion, but Red Rocks is a VERY close 2nd. I liked it so much I went back on Sunday night (dropping 3x as much as I did on my MMJ ticket) to see Alabama Shakes & Neil Young & Crazy Horse. See tomorrow's post for more on that one...

Band of Horses



MMJ's Saturday night setlist:

At Dawn

Circuital

Xmas CurtainIt Beats 4 U
I’m Amazed
Lay Low
Highly Suspicious
The Day Is Coming
They Ran
The Bear
Golden
Honest Man
Steam Engine
Isn’t It A Pity with Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses
Magheeta
Touch Me Part 2
Moving Away
Dondante
Smokin From Shootin
Run Thru
It Makes No Difference
Phone Went West (see my video above)

ENCORE
Bermuda Highway (Jim Solo Acoustic)
I Will Be There When You Die (Jim Solo Acoustic) = SO beautiful it brought tears to my eyes (listen to the recorded version below)
Where to Begin
Oh! Sweet Nuthin’
Move On Up with John Oates and Trombone Shorty & Members Of Orleans Avenue
Dancefloors with Trombone Shorty + Members Of Orleans Avenue
One Big Holiday

I Will Be There When You Die (recorded version)

 

Not my photo but too beautiful not to include