Josh S's Blog

The Klaxons are one of the hottest bands in the UK, yet most people here in the U.S. would have no idea who they are. They picked up the Mercury Prize beating out Amy Winehouse and the Arctic Monkeys, which is quite impressive. I will admit that their album Myths of the Near Future is a bit weird at times but the track It's Not Over Yet is covering some serious ground in my iPod. 

A close second is the new single from Aesop Rock, None Shall Pass, which MTV has been promoting like crazy and it was in last month's Paste Magazine CD sampler. One last track worth mentioning is Roscoe by Midlake. I saw them this summer at the Latitude Music Festival in England and I wore that album out pretty quickly.

What are you guys listening to right now? Anything worth noting?

I mentioned The Kooks a few weeks back when Illinois performed on the FOX25 Morning News. The Kooks were headlining back then and were still unknown to the mainstream masses...now with the help of iTunes The Kooks are out there. Their song Ooh La was the free download this week and it's a fun tune. Download the song and let me know what you think, and check out the performance by Illinois because their a young band close to hitting the mainstream as well...especially after all the festivals they'll be at this summer. 

If you're looking for some more good tunes or venues to see some good live music then check out my last blog on Mando Diao or watch Paste Magazine's Jay Sweet on FOX25.

On a side note I highly recommend Knocked Up...that movie was an absolute riot especially for Canadian Jews, which I'm not but hey free dummy.

Mando Diao is a cool little band hailing all the way from Sweden, and their latest album Ode to Ochrasy is a must-buy if you're into good music. I don't know maybe you're not, and that's cool. According to the band's website their third album "is about touring and people we met."

While I've never seen Mando Diao in concert I have to admit there's something about this album that makes me want to hit the road with the band, at least for a few cities. They bring you into their world of ending shows around 1 AM and running into different characters for the next several hours until finally falling asleep. I'm usually at work during those hours so I don't necessarily see those same characters, but you gotta admit it sure does sound interesting.

Here are three songs worth downloading before you see Mando Diao and their raucous pop sound at T.T. the Bear's place Saturday, May 19.

Long Before Rock nRoll

The Wildfire (If It Was True)

TV & Me

Gotta love Sundays...Sitting here talking to my Hasidic Homeboy Jeff about college hoops (my man Wayne Chism having a strong first half for the Vols against UVA), and he tells me to hop on the Kaiser Chiefs MySpace page since they're streaming their new album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob. The Kaiser Chiefs burst onto the scene a couple of years ago with "I Predict a Riot." 

 Anyways I'm only 3 songs into this latest album but you must check out the first track, "Ruby." Mother of G-D this track rocks.

It's also worth noting that Modest Mouse drops their new album this Tuesday. The single, "Dashboard" has been on heavy rotation in my iPOD for close to a month now. I haven't heard anything as raw as some of the old classic Modest Mouse, but this new album is sure to rock hard like my abs when I was on HGH back in the day.

 As I've been writing this I finished three tracks and decided to play "Ruby" again and now the Vols have taken full control of this game so my bracket is looking nice. I almost had a "romance explosion" on my keyboard.

 Ok I think I'm done but let me know what you think of the new album, or if you're like Jeff let's hear about Mary J. Blige.




 

For years I have waited to see The Shins live in Boston, and on Thursday night I finally got my chance. Most people only know the band because of the numerous Zach Braff references in Scrubs and in his film Garden State (It's snowing this weekend if you haven't seen Garden State I suggest you play a little Monopoly and pop the movie in). 

Anyways let's start with the opening act....if you happened to be at the Orpheum Friday night you'd know Viva Voce from Portland Oregon opened for The Shins. Man, I haven't heard music this bad since I heard Corky Thatcher sing in an episode of Life Goes On (I'm not sure he ever sang but we can all imagine it would have sounded like Viva Voce from Portland Oregon). The band consists of a guy who looks like a hippied out version of Teen Wolf playing the drums and acoustic guitar and a girl playing lead guitar and vocals. You could tell at times they wanted to bring you the sounds of Built to Spill (the fathers of Indie Rock), but it sounded like a garage band gone wrong. You were barely able to hear her vocals and when you could you wanted to vomit in your mouth and swallow it back. In fact I just threw up on my keyboard thinking about having to listen to them again. The highlight of their set occurred when two guys sitting front and center decided to stand up and dance as if they were having a seizure. At one point they reached over a few seats in order to give each other a high five and in the words of Borat "They made a sexy time."

But I digress because the real reason I shelled out $41 (thanks Ticketmaster) was to see The Shins. I've been lukewarm on their latest album Wincing the Night Away. The boys from Portland opened up with a trippy version of "Sleeping Lessons" and continued to play stuff off their latest album. The night finally picked up though when they decided to play some tracks off Oh, Inverted World. " "Girl on the Wing," "Girl Inform Me," and then Natalie Portman appeared in front of me (I'm pretty sure she took out a restraining order against me since I stalked her in my dreams when I was at BU and she was studying at Harvard), and told me the next song would change my life. Naturally "New Slang" in concert was just so-so, but had the entire theater singing along. The Shins closed their set with, by far the best song of the night, "Caring is Creepy." The crowd continued to chant for an encore and we got 3 more songs but nothing worth writing about.

Overall I'd have to say it was a good show and made me appreciate Wincing the Night Away a bit more, however the old stuff is what really made the night fun. Well that and of course Viva Voce from Portland Oregon.