Santigold @ Bowery Ballroom, 12/10/2012 (more by David Andrako)

As you may have seen last night, HBO's Girls won big at the Golden Globes, grabbing both Best Comedy series and Best Actress for creator/star Lena Dunham. At the same time Dunham was giving her acceptance speech, Season 2 of Girls (now featuring Donald Glover as Hannah's new boyfriend) was making its debut on the pay cable channel.

The soundtrack to Girls just came out last week and one of the songs exclusive to it is Santigold's "Girls." We've got the premiere of its video right here in this post. Shot here in NYC the cool little clip features girls from all walks of life (and all ages) lip-synching to the track and you can watch it below. The Girls soundtrack also features Sleigh Bells, Fleet Foxes, Robyn, Belle & Sebastian and more.

Santigold played Bowery Ballroom back in December and her only upcoming live date is at the House of Blues in Los Angeles on February 9. Video and Girls OST artwork and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Santigold sings about 'Girls' (video premiere); 'Girls' wins big at Golden Globes - soundtrack out now"

Alt-J at Mercury Lounge in May (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Big day for award nominations. The Oscars announced theirs this morning and the Brit Awards just wrapped up their ceremony for 2013 nominations, with Emeli Sandé grabbing four and Mumford & Sons and Alt-J each getting three. All three of those artists were nominated for British Album of the Year, a list that also included Paloma Faith and Plan B. If you don't know, The Brits are basically the UK's equivalent of the Grammys, though nominees are all British apart from a few "International" awards.

Jessie Ware, Muse, and Adele each got two nominations, and single-digit noms went to Bat for Lashes, The xx, Richard Hawley and The Vaccines.

Mumford & Sons have two nights at Barclays Center in February and Alt-J will swing though town in March.

The entire 2013 Brit Awards nominees list is below.

Continue reading "2013 Brit Award nominees announced (Emeli Sandé, Mumford and Alt-J lead the pack)"

Check out the entire list of 2013 Grammy Nominations below...

Continue reading "2013 Grammy Nominations announced (full list)"

Japandroids at Pitchfork, July 2012 (more by Fred Pessaro // BBG)

NPR Music have announced their "50 favorite" albums of 2012, which includes names like Pallbearer, Andy Stott, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Death Grips, and Swans. (No Grimes, though.) The list is also deep with hip hop, with shouts to Homeboy Sandman, Kendrick Lamar, Killer Mike and many others. Much like Q magazine did, NPR opted to list them alphabetically instead of one better than the next. Check out the full list below.

Japandroids also made the list, and the band played the first of two shows at Webster Hall last night (12/4). The band continues their stay at the venue tonight and tickets are still available.

Continue reading "NPR Music's Top 50 LPs of 2012"

photos by Amoreena Lucero

Franz Ferdinand / Jack White / Bloc Party, Outside Lands 8/12/2012

Outside Lands might be the only major festival where 93 percent of the musical acts on the bill could walk the grounds without getting recognized.

The headliners certainly had their fans - particularly the Vermont jam band Phish, which played nearly 3 1/2 hours of droopy guitar licks to twirling dancers on Friday. But the rest of the acts on the three-day bill drew less discriminating crowds.

On Sunday, the kids waiting for the Swedish electro-pop troupe Little Dragon to take the stage in Lindley Meadow sang along to the sounds of John Fogerty floating through the trees from the Polo Field. The 66-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and former leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival filled his hour-long set with classic rock staples such as "Bad Moon Rising" and "Up Around the Bend."

But turntables were as prevalent as guitars. One of the biggest draws of the weekend was Girl Talk, the 30-year-old Pittsburgh DJ Greg Gillis, who on Saturday in Speedway Meadow did nothing more than stitch together hundreds of familiar riffs and beats from other peoples' songs in rapid-fire bursts.
If you didn't know where to head at any given time, all you had to do was jump into the nearest stream of young people. It was almost impossible to go wrong with more than 70 acts on the bill, including the Black Keys, Foster the People, Best Coast, the Arctic Monkeys and the Roots. - [SF Gate]

Pictures from Day 1 are here and Day 2 are here. More pictures from Sunday are below.

Continue reading "Outside Lands Festival 2012 Day 3 in pics (Jack White, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Regina Spektor & more)"

Last night Stephen Colbert, in an effort not to be outdone by Coachella and their impending expansion into cruise lines, announced the second edition of his own music series will also be on a boat...though not one of those sissy luxury liners. Only the most American of vessels can contain Colbert, that's why you can look forward to the StePhest Colbchella '012 aboard the Intrepid aircraft carrier on August 10th.

Don't worry, Colbert is hip to all of the cool bands ("like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, those guys are great"), so you can get excited for appearances from The Flaming Lips (who recently played Firefly), Grizzly Bear (who have a new LP on the way), Santigold (who plays Fun Fun Fun Fest this year in Austin), Grandmaster Flash and Billboard Singles Chart toppers Fun, and will be FREE/open to the public, though tickets are required (available via the Colbert site). Check out the announcement from his show last night below.

Continue reading "Flaming Lips, Grizzly Bear, Santigold and more playing "StePhest Colbchella '012" on the Intrepid next week (FREE)"

photos by Chris Graham and Rae Graham

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah/Feist

Before the release of their 2011 album, "Hysterical," Clap Your Hands Say Yeah had been inactive for three years, but they were as lively as ever on Monday afternoon. Blowing through tracks from all three of their albums, Alec Ounsworth and company charged through a set full of guitar-based indie rock that catered heavily towards their fans. But judging by the crowd's response, even those who were unfamiliar with the band were enticed. After playing Sasquatch! 2006 on a much smaller stage, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's triumphant set had the crowd, well, clapping their hands and saying "yeah!"

Mogwai (who have upcoming shows with Balam Acab) were supposed to play that day but they cancelled last minute and were replaced by Deer Tick who came on to play a set of covers.

Pictures of Day 1 are HERE, Day 2 are HERE and HERE, Day 3 are HERE, and more from Day 4 below...

Continue reading "Sasquatch 2012 in pics - Day 4 (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Feist, Beck, Spiritualized, SBTRKT, Shabazz Palaces & more)"

By Bill Pearis

Minneapolis trio Now Now are currently on the road with The Naked & Famous, a tour which rolls into New York next week for a sold-out show on Wednesday (4/4) at Terminal 5. For those who want to see them in a less cavernous (yet still high-ceilinged) venue, Now Now play a headlining gig on Tuesday (4/3) at Cameo Gallery with Lightyear and Field Mouse. After their stint with the Naked & Famous, the band will then hook up with fun. who will be atTerminal 5 on June 15 and 16 (both sold out).

Now Now's second album, Threads, came out earlier this month on Chris Walla's Trans Records. As you might expect from a label run by a member of Death Cab for Cutie, Threads is expansive, ocean-sized, heart-on-sleeve pop. (You can fill in your own late '90s/early '00s sensitive genre names.) It's a big, ambitious record that sounds like it was built for places like Terminal 5 and, who knows, it may not be long before they are headlining there themselves.

You can stream a couple Threads tracks at the bottom of this post and watch the video for "Dead Oaks" as well. Or you can stream the whole album on Spotify. All Now Now tour dates are below too...

Continue reading "Now Now released 'Threads,' playing Cameo, touring with The Naked & Famous and fun. (dates)"