The always reliable Stereogum has already said everything that needs to be said about Jónsi‘s new video for Go Do. This wonderful, bird-filled video was filmed in Iceland over the winter – a time when there may only be a few hours of sunlight a day on the small island nation.
Unfortunately, the video seems to have been taken down from it’s host at Pitchfork. It was up barely long enough for Stereogum to post and tweet about it. We hope this beautiful music video will be back up before long.
Posted in News | Tagged Go Do, Iceland, Jónsi, Jónsi Birgisson, Music Video, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Twitter | Leave a Comment »
Three weirdos posting under the YouTube user name giraffedance really love Jónsi‘s recent single Boy Lilikoi. Apparently, enough to create an improvised interpretive dance for the song. Unfortunately, only one of the three members of the giraffedance dance troupe has a beard.
Make sure to check out their page for other gems, including The Album Leaf, David Bowie, Vampire Weekend and more. And stay tuned for more information on Jónsi‘s upcoming album.
Posted in News | Tagged Boy Lilikoi, Comedy, David Bowie, giraffedance, Jónsi, News, The Album Leaf, Vampire Weekend, YouTube | Leave a Comment »
65daysofstatic's studio set-up, as seen on flickr.
Today, in a message to their 65propaganda mailing list, Sheffield-based math/post-rockers 65daysofstatic announced their upcoming album, We Were Exploding Anyway. With no specific release date other than, “the vaguest of times, THE SPRING,” We Were Exploding Anyway will serve as the long-awaited fourth studio album for 65daysofstatic. Track list after the jump. Continue Reading »
Posted in News | Tagged 65daysofstatic, 65dos, 65kids, BBC, In The Studio, Kurt Vonnegut, Loops Haunt, Math-Rock, Nedry, On Tour, post-rock, Radio 3, Radio 4, Rock, Sheffield, Slaughterhouse 5, Spring, The Destruction of Small Ideas, The Distant and Mechanised Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties, UK, We Were Exploding Anyway | Leave a Comment »
Happy New Year! It is the year 2010 and alien technology has taken over the world. Humans are slaves to machines that replace all the simple things in life with a series of ones and zeros. I have harnessed the power of this secret formula and cranked out a list of 50 best releases of the year (in alphabetical order). Here it goes…
Posted in Album Reviews | Tagged 3 Rounds and a Sound, Actor, Aim and Ignite, Akron/Family, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, Animal Collective, Annie Clark, Arcade Fire, Atlas Sound, Beach Boys, Becky Starke, Bitte Orca, Björk, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Blind Pilot, Blood Bank, Blue Velvet, Bon Iver, Born Like This, Brian Burton, Califone, Camera Obscura, Chris Taylor, Christopher Bear, Clangour, Clem Snide, Dan Auerbach, Danger Mouse, Daniel Rossen, Dark Night of the Soul, Dark Was the Night, David Lynch, Department of Eagles, Derek Webb, DM Stith, Dragonslayer, Eating Us, Ed Droste, Embryonic, Eric Johnson, Eskimo Snow, Fall Be Kind, Fever Ray, Flaming Lips, For Emma Forever Ago, Fortress 'Round My Heart, Frank Black, Fruit Bats, fun., George Gershwin, Grandaddy, Grizzly Bear, Hazards of Love, Heavy Ghost, Horehound, Hospice, Hungry Bird, Ida Maria, Iggy Pop, Intuit, It's Frightening, James Mercer, Japandroids, Jason Lytle, Jim James, John Williams, Julian Casablancas, Keep It Hid, Lavender Diamond, Logos, Manners, Mark Linkous, Merriweather Post Pavillion, MF Doom, Miike Snow, Modest Mouse, Monsters of Folk, Mos Def, Mount Eerie, Mullholland Drive, My Brightest Diamond, My Maudlin Career, My Morning Jacket, Neon Indian, Neutral Milk Hotel, No One's First and You're Next, Passion Pit, Peter Silberman, Phoenix, Popular Songs, Post-Nothing, Psychic Chasms, Ramona Falls, Real Estate, Ruminant Band, Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well, Scott Spillane, Sea Wolf, See Mystery Lights, Set 'Em Free, Set 'Em Wild, Shara Worden, Sing Fang Bous, Sparklehorse, St. Vincent, Stardeath and White Dwarfs, Stockholm Syndrome, Sufjan Stevens, Sunset Rubdown, Suzanne Vega, The Antlers, The Birth, The BQE, The Builders and the Butchers, The Dead Weather, The Decemberists, The Dirty Projectors, The Dodos, The Ecstatic, The Shins, The Strokes, The XX, Time To Die, Twin Peaks, Unmap, Veckatimist, Vic Chesnutt, Volcano Choir, Wayne Coyne, White Bloom, White Rabbits, White Water, Why?, Wind's Poem, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, xx, Y.A.C.H.T., Yo La Tengo | 2 Comments »
With so much new music released every year, it’s hard to keep up. With Micro Beards, we’re here for your weekly dose of bite-sized reviews both new and old.
This week on Micro Beards:
Posted in Album Reviews | Tagged 3 Beards, 3.5 Beards, 4 Beards, 5 Beards, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Audio Eagle, Beach Boys, Bell, Björk, Dangerbird, Domino, Ed Droste, Final Fantasy, Liars, Micro Beards, Neon Bible, No Age, Passion Pit, Royal Bangs, Sea Wolf, Stereogum, The Dirty Projectors, Xiu Xiu | 1 Comment »
The following represents what I consider the top ten albums of the last decade. The decision was beyond hard, but this reflects the albums which hit me the hardest and stuck with me the longest.
Posted in Lists | Tagged A Thousand Shark's Teeth, Aaron Dessner, Ada, Anathallo, Anticon, Apple, Ashes Of American Flags, Asthmatic Kitty Records, Beggar's Banquet, Björk, Blood Bank, Bon Iver, Boxer, Braid of Voices, Brooklyn, Bryan Devendorf, Bryce Dessner, Cafetorium, Canopy Glow, Casimir Pulaski Day, Caskets, Caught in the Trees, Chicago, Crooked Legs, Damien Jurado, DM Stith, Electronic, Everything Trying, Flume, Folk, For Emma, Forever Ago, Ghost of David, Gloria Esperanza Montoya, Glory Hope Mountain, Heavy Ghost, HW / Hope of New Fields, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, Ice and Storm, Illinois, Indie, Inside A Boy, Jagjaguwar, John J. Audubon, Jonny Greenwood, Justin Vernon, Lakewood, Low Gravity, Lullaby (Mountain), Matt Berninger, Midwest, Mistaken For Strangers, My Brightest Diamond, Nonesuch Records, Noni’s Field, Osso String Quartet, OST, P. T. Anderson, Panda Newsome, Paper Bag Records, Pity Dance, Poor Places, Proven Lands, Radiohead, Rolf Klausener, Secretly Canadian, Shara Wordan, Sheets, Skinny Love, Slow Show, Sufjan Stevens, The Acorn, The BQE, The National, The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!, The Seer's Tower, The Wolves (Act I and II), There Will Be Blood, Vermont, Where Shall You Take Me?, Wilco, Wisconsin, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Year End | 2 Comments »
This morning, members of the Sigur Rós mailing list were sent a simple email that said in plain lettering, “www.jonsi.com“. Following the link leads to what you can easily guess is Sigur Rós vocalist Jónsi Birgisson‘s new personal website. eighteen seconds before sunrise, the official Sigur Rós website, confirms the undoubted fact that it is Birgisson‘s new site. For the moment, the site consists of text like that pictured above, and a space to enter your email address to join a mailing list, but the band’s website gives a little more information, stating “go explore and check back over the next few days and beyond as more information is revealed.”
Click around the site for a little surprise. We here at Years For Beards hope that this means what we are all thinking. That j sure sounds intriguing…
UPDATE: It’s official (as if it took any real guessing). All the letter samples are active, and members of the site’s mailing list were sent a free download of the track “boy lilikoi” from Jónsi upcoming solo album. We here at Years For Beards are very excited by this new track, and we think you will be too.
Posted in News | Tagged eighteen seconds before sunrise, Electronic, Jónsi Birgisson, News, post-rock, Sigur Rós, www.jonsi.com | Leave a Comment »
What do an acclaimed jazz pianist, a death metal vocalist and a five piece band have in common? The answer is, not surprisingly, Tom Waits. Seven Norwegian musicians from Trondheim’s metal, rock and jazz scenes have come together to form the traveling show titled “Earth Died Screaming (while I lay dreaming of Tom)”, a tribute to Tom Waits. What comes from this union of Trondheim’s various music communities is an experience that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. The single disappointment: that the group is sticking to Norway (as far as Years For Beards knows).
Posted in Show Reviews | Tagged Allesandro Elide, Bø, Bø jazzklubb, Clap Hands, Daniel Elide, Death Metal, Earth Died Screaming, Earth Died Screaming (while I lay dreaming of Tom), en hyllest til Tom Waits, Experimental, Grillen, Jazz, Kurt Sprenger, Magnus Mortensen, Manifest, Marita Røstad, Metal, Norway, Norwegian, October 2009, Rain Dogs, Rock, Singapore, Stian Leknes, Stian Omenås, Telemark, The Grill, Tom Waits, Trondheim | Leave a Comment »
PROS: fan-serving | full-band parts not overdone | heart-felt songs
CONS: not memorable as a whole
If you have heard the name Allison Weiss before, then you probably already know her story. When she was fifteen, she began playing guitar to impress a boy in her creative writing class. Several years, a profile on every social networking site you could imagine and eighty-some YouTube videos later, Allison Weiss continues to build an ever-increasing fanbase. Unfortunately, any fan of hers can tell you that Allison Weiss is most certainly underappreciated. There is no lack of dedication, talent or heart in the sounds Allison Weiss creates, and it seems as though she just needs a little something to push her over the top. Her newest release, …Was Right All Along, is a step in the right direction.
Posted in Album Reviews | Tagged 4 Beards, Allison Weiss, Folk, Indie, Indie Rock, YouTube | Leave a Comment »
PROS: can mend a broken heart | more mature sound
CONS: depressing | boring | emotionally draining
Noah and the Whale’s second album The First Days of Spring, which came out October 6th, was not “fun fun fun” to listen to. The album was written about the lead singer Charlie Fink’s recent split from girlfriend Laura Marling, who also used to be in the band. The band lacks variety without a female voice to offset the deepness of Fink’s sound.
Posted in Album Reviews | Tagged 2 Beards, Charlie Fink, Cherrytree Records, Indie, Laura Marling, Noah and the Whale, Rock, The First Days of Spring, Vertigo Records | Leave a Comment »
John Praw Kruse
Corey Murphy
Laura Stingl
Zach Harris