Kick off your weekend with music from artists featured this week on BestNewBands.com.
“Be My Girl” – The Smith Westerns
Over the weekend, Leif Roswold caught The Smith Westerns at The Echo in L.A. The sold-out show attracted Hollywood hipsters as well as a few celebrities (hello, Alexander Skarsgard!).
Leif wrote, “I was excited for the show, and apparently so was the rest of the city, as it was sold out. This did not go unnoticed by the band: Cullen remarked at one point, ‘We played here a year ago and there was 20 people here – we must be doing something right.’ [...] The Smith Westerns played most of the songs from their new album, and maybe only two songs from their self-titled debut. At one point before playing an older song, ‘Be My Girl,’ Cullen prefaced it by saying somewhat derisively, ‘This is for all you lo-fi fans.’ This is a band on the up and up.”
Read the rest of Leif’s review here.
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“I Remember (Painted Palms remix)” – Yeasayer
Some musical acts surprised their fans with lovely new tracks on Valentine’s Day: Yeasayer did this by releasing a few remixes of their song “I Remember.”
In a short post on Monday, Monica Christoffels shared news of the tracks, along with a new video for “I Remember” and Yeasayer’s announcement of a spring tour, which will hit both sides of the U.S. and even some spots in Canada.
Read the rest of Monica’s post here.
“Butterfly” – Delicate Steve
In this week’s installment of our BackStory series, the New Jersey musician describes how he came up with “Butterfly.”
“I sat down one day in the place where I make music and took out this small drum machine I bought at a salvation army and turned the speed of it all the way up. The chugging sound it made gave me an inspiration…what I can remember thinking about at the time was an image of being on a train traveling through India….not necessarily me doing that, but I had that image in my mind. [...] When it came time to name the song, originally I had an idea for a longer title, but I knew that it would make it harder for the song to become memorable and I thought that was important. I forget exactly how ‘Butterfly’ became the name, but I know that it came about by joking around singing lyrics and imagining what the guitar part would be saying.”
Read the rest of Delicate Steve’s BackStory here.
“Pink Redemption” – Moving Units
Claire Gallagher reviewed Moving Units’ new Tension Wars EP, which debuted Tuesday. The band is also scheduled to perform at Coachella in April.
Claire wrote, “A single track of theirs, ‘Pink Redemption’ has found its way onto my workout playlist and has pushed me through many part-jog-part-dance-party miles. [...] Basically, if you’re looking for some dance music on the heavier side that you can move to but still feel like a bad-ass rocker, this is the EP for you.“
Read the rest of Claire’s review here.
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“Through Your Eyes” – Thurlow
Monica Christoffels reviewed Thurlow’s four-track EP, Spokes, which also came out Tuesday.
Monica wrote, “‘Through Your Eyes’ gives off a fun, bouncy vibe, though its lyrics are much more soul-searching (‘if I could just hold onto you / long enough for you / to make a change, a change in me / then would I be free?’). Green is a good singer, but I really love Caruso’s voice – it’s so ethereal, yet strong and supported at the same time.”
Read the rest of Monica’s review here.
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“Penny Licks” – Lady Lamb the Beekeeper
Kelly Knapp interviewed the southwestern songstress before her Brooklyn show last weekend. Here’s some of their conversation:
Kelly Knapp: How did you come up with Lady Lamb the Beekeeper as your moniker?
Lady Lamb the Beekeeper: A couple years ago I was keeping a notebook by my bed. I was really inspired and I was finding that I was writing lyrics in my sleep, like I wasn’t sleeping very well because I just constantly up there (in my head) working, so I was training myself to roll over and write in my journal in the middle of the night so I could just get it out of my head and fall back asleep, and Lady Lamb was written in my notebook when I woke up.
KK: Your songs have very strong nature imagery and metaphors. Is nature a big source of inspiration for you?
LLB: I don’t know how that happens. I wouldn’t really say that I’m a nature-y sort of person, per se. I know that sounds kinda bad, but I don’t really love outdoorsy things. I don’t love hiking or camping or anything like that, but I do love coastal Maine, I do love the ocean and the area where I’m from in Maine, so I think that just kind of gets in there. It’s specifically Maine, but when I write about it, it’s more broad. You don’t know necessarily that I’m talking about Maine.
Read the rest of Kelly’s interview here.
“Doin’ It To Do It” – The Nervous Wreckords
Laurel Kathleen chatted with Brian Karscig of The Nervous Wreckords about the band’s trip to the Grammys, their first full LP, Valuminum, and upcoming plans.
LK: Who do you think is a “game-changer” right now in the music industry and why?
BK: That’s tough. I have a lot of respect for Arcade Fire and their music. It seems very sincere and uncontrived…I would love to convey that freedom and honesty in our music, just as well they seem too.
LK: Speaking of game-changers, how did The Grammy Awards go? Did you see or speak to anyone worth mentioning?
BK: It was pretty cool…we really just went for the parties. We left late from San Diego to Los Angeles, and got there near the end. Muse (who I’m also a fan of) had a party at the drummer Dom’s house and invited us. They’re really great guys and down to earth: I had some great guitar gear geek conversations with the lead singer Matt. It’s fun geeking out on gear talk with people, especially when you respect what they do and how they sound. We saw lots of famous people, and the best performance I saw was the mariachi band from The Heartbreak Kid that played the whole night at the party.
Read the rest of Laurel’s interview here.
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“Healthy Geometry” – Vanaprasta
Lauren Novik got an exclusive video (available on BestNewBands.com’s YouTube channel) from this L.A. band, who’ll be appearing at SXSW this spring. This unreleased song is available for free download on Vanaprasta’s website.
Read the rest of Lauren’s post here.
Latest posts by Monica Christoffels (see all)
- Weekend Playlist – June 17, 2011 - June 17, 2011
- Weekend Playlist – June 10, 2011 - June 10, 2011
- Sasquatch! in Review: Part Two - June 3, 2011