Band: I’m From Barcelona
From: Jönköping, Sweden
Sound: Uplifting, joyous bedroom pop to the 29th power
Similar Artists: Polyphonic Spree, Beulah, Bodies of Water, Architecture in Helsinki
Listen Now: “Oversleeping”
Pardon our lateness to the Coldplay listening party.
By now I’m sure you know the narrative: Coldplay dabbles in Radiohead/NIN online altruism by making the the first single from their upcoming Brian Eno-produced album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends available for download (upon surrendering your email address) from their official site yesterday. And yet, by the time our morbid curiosity got the best of us, it took three different email submissions before we finally got the goods.
And that anecdote is about as exciting as it gets. Granted, we’ve never been huge Coldplay fans, but who could possibly mistake “Violet Hill” as a dynamic and interesting song? MTV!
And seeing as their gushing “review” of “Violet Hill” is far more engrossing than the actual song, let’s train our curmudgeonly glare upon it instead. Read more
WIRED interviews Justin Oullette, the man behind Muxtape
Watch Morrissey perform on the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson
Or, watch Scarlett Johansson’s video for “Falling Down”
Roger Waters’ giant pig found!
Radiohead takes on sweatshops, won’t repeat In Rainbows-style release again
Robert Pollard to publish coffee table book
Nicole Kidman to play Dusty Springfield in upcoming biopic
Bloc Party announce small summer tour, New York shows
While Stereogum is busy fawning over NYC’s Bell (rightfully so), EAR FARM has finally given in and twisted our own arms to get ourselves listening to Ireland’s Bell X1. You better believe we’re sorry to have missed their recent shows at Bowery Ballroom (we were on the road) that they almost missed due to tour bus fire.
Check out two Bell X1 songs posted below. The first one, “My First Born For A Song”, has been playing over and over and over in EF HQ. It’s part Dave Brubeck, part Coldplay, part perfect song title, and part completely amazing. Part completely. Listen, love. Read more
Or, on MTV2 actually. Same difference. What I’m saying is that last night, on Subterranean, I saw multiple videos I’d never seen before and I loved them. And I discovered a new band too (The Buddy System). It was amazing. Just like old times. Check out a few favorites from last night’s show below… Read more
EAR FARM’s Three for Free: three EF approved, free and legal MP3s posted each week. This week - three songs from artists on Southern Lord Records. That’s right… METAL. Click on the artist name to go to their site, click on the song name to listen to the song.
Listen:
Boris - “Flower, Sun, Rain”
Wolves in the Throne Room - “I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots”
It’s a well established fact: I love making mixes. It’s an art form, it’s a game, it’s like my Sunday crossword puzzle; or, it’s like baking a cake for someone except the cake is made out of ingredients you can listen to. Mmm! Read more
The Walkmen will release their new album on August 19th on Gigantic Records
Damon Albarn also has a new album in the works for a July release
Ting Tings soundtrack the latest iTunes commercial
Annie Leibovitz and Miley Cyrus spar over racy photo
Coldplay announces free single and 2 free shows (one at MSG) for release of their new album
$10,000 reward offered for the safe return of Roger Waters’ prop pig
The New York Times wrote about it so it’s okay for us to: Vivid Entertainment to release a Jimi Hendrix sex tape?
Wolf Parade announces revised title to their sophomore album - At Mount Zoomer
Listen:
“Jet City Woman” by Queensrÿche from Empire
View:
Image search results for Jet City Woman - above image is from the tenth page of results (and was originally from HERE).
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In the recent past these songs were featured in Hit-or-miss posts:
“II. In Taberna: Estuans Interius” by Carl Orff
“Dangerous” by Frente!
“Keep Their Heads Ringing” by Dr. Dre
“At It Again” by Sublime
“The Day I Tried To Live” by Soundgarden
“I’m Comin’ Down” by Primal Scream
“I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes” by The Boy Least Likely To
“Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t've)?” by Buzzcocks
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EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss is a weekly feature (every Tuesday) wherein the EF music library is put on shuffle, the song that plays is then searched (using the song title) on Google images and a resulting photo (plus an MP3 of the song) is posted. You can see all of EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss posts thus far right HERE.
Online indie superstore Insound has just upped its game considerably, unveiling a sparkling new website (Insound 4.0) along with some refreshingly altruistic news….behold the “Give More! Get More!” campaign:
Every time you buy an MP3 album from Insound (not EPs or singles), Insound will donate $.25 of our take to a touring band. We choose 6 lucky bands that we like, but you get to select the actual artist to earmark your quarter to. Furthermore, should you wish to “tip” additional funds to these great artists, you can add your own tip during checkout. 100% of these funds will do to the band you choose. If you do not choose a specific band, we will distribute the funds equally to all of the bands. We will add new bands 2-4 times each year. All funds are to be used by bands to support the next national tour. In short, their tours will be made possible by you – Insound customers!
Pretty awesome. And the six lucky bands stockpiling your quarters to buy a few ounces of gasoline on the road? Check out the roster (alongside MP3s from each band) after the jump…
- The Big Sleep - “Bad Blood”
- Russian Cirlces - “Death Rides A Horse”
- The Twilight Sad - “And She Would Darken The Memory”
- Headlights - “TV”
- Epsilons - “Snap Crackle Pop!”
- Videohippos - “Bear Fight”
Also worth noting, Insound is instituting a free mixtape program, whereby each digital album order (full albums only, no EPs or singles) gets you a free MP3 sampler of 10-15 hand-selected tracks updated each month. Which just leaves the following questions: a) what do you think about the “new Insound” and b) are such moves the answer to the death of the physical record store? It’s certainly not a bad start…
*above image found HERE
Wakey!Wakey! played Maxwell’s this past Friday night in an opening slot for the twenty nine member Swedish pop sensation I’m From Barcelona. EAR FARM was at the show to interview IFB’s Emanuel Lundgren for our Band of the Week feature this week - expect to see tons of content related to I’m From Barcelona’s incredible performance at Maxwell’s (including an exclusive interview, live videos, and pics) on Wednesday - thankfully we got there early enough to see Wakey!Wakey! warm up the crowd with their happy-sad songs and supremely friendly demeanor. Read more
Reuters recaps Coachella, and gives MVP honors to Prince
And The Los Angeles Times agrees, Prince reigned at Coachella
…but don’t forget The New York Times’ praise of Prince’s set also
Rolling Stone gets in on the Prince love and also recaps the rest of day two as well as day one at Coachella
And at the tail end of the Prince-love comet, blogs really latched onto the video of Prince covering Radiohead
Spin catches up with Les Savy Fav at Coachella and coaxes acoustic song from them
Guitar Hero IV rumors are already swirling, and Activision CEO promises new instruments
Midlake’s guitarist launches his own brand of coffee
NYC Taper has live audio of the April 26th Fiery Furnaces show at Southpaw
Eddie Van Halen: “I’m healthier than I’ve ever been”
Luna Lounge was shut down by the Department of Health?
Joshua Allen recently wrote a piece in The Morning News claiming that the perfect song length is precisely 2:42, and after going through the exercise of putting together the following mix, I’m inclined to agree. The quality of songs in my library at the 2:41, 2:42, and 2:43 marks is rather outstanding. So how was I able to whittle down this week’s mux to a mere 12 songs? Because I rule. Also because I made rules. Read more
Paul Simon renewed his month-long residency at BAM Wednesday night in a concert billed as “American Tunes”, an obvious foil to the two previous series “Under African Skies” and “Songs from The Capeman”. The three separate concert runs were designed to highlight different periods of Simon’s songwriting career with “American Tunes” revisiting his years as a songwriter working with Art Garfunkel into his early years as a solo artist, “Under African Skies”, quite obviously, highlighting those years in the ’80s and ’90s when Simon delved into the music of Africa and South America, and “Songs from The Capeman” giving New York one final listen to music from Simon’s Broadway disaster The Capeman. Read more
Drowned in Sound has Islands guide them through a track-by-track preview of Arm’s Way
The New York Times reviews Paul Simon’s “American Tunes” at BAM
The Guardian blog: should bands who split stay split?
Rolling Stone has a Coachella 2008 preview
Knitting Factory venues expand to Idaho and Washington
Beck announces summer tour
Check out Radiohead playing “House of Cards” for Conan
Behold, the Tim McGraw Spicy Jalapeno Fritos