Can't Get Enough...

...Local Natives. I did some more digging and found their first appearance on the Take Away Show. I'm such a sucker for their harmonies – they have it down! And for the record, Wide Eyes is my favorite track off the album. I realize I'm borderline obsessed here; my wife just referred to me as a "groupie." This is good stuff here:

Local Natives / A take Away Show @ Route du Rock Hiver 2010 from Watch Your Steps on Vimeo.

Islands: For the Mrs.

The xx are easily one of my favorite bands over the past couple of years. Somehow I totally missed this video – very interesting concept. Truthfully, it makes me sort of dizzy. But I like that it's different, and love the song, and Kelsey loved the choreography. I don't know the first thing about dance, but I think the choreography is amazing as well.

Take Away Show: Local Natives

French music blog La Blogotheque does a really cool video series called Take Away Show where they film bands playing live in obscure places/settings. It's usually more of an acoustic performance, due to the setting & circumstances (the first episode I experienced was "1901" by Phoenix with the Eiffel Tower as a back drop). As a big fan of Local Natives, I immediately wanted to share this.

In this episode of the Take Away Show, Local Natives play "Who Knows Who Cares" while walking through the Palais Royal in Paris. The intertwining harmonies are downright inspiring in that setting. And done live? That much more impressive. Thanks to Pitchfork for the pointer.

Local Natives | Who Knows Who Cares | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Helplessness Blues

Looks like this is turning into a sort of music blog... I'll just roll with it. Fleet Foxes just announced a new album and concert dates. You'd better believe my tickets are purchased for the NYC show (which I just read they added a second date – get your tickets while you can!). I've been anxious to see these gentlemen live for the past two/three years, and am thrilled they're touring again. They're first single, "Helplessness Blues" is available for free download on their website.

On a related note, Brooklyn Vegan included this amazing cover of "White Winter Hymnal" by Oh Land in their latest Fleet Foxes coverage. Oh Land is new to me; Apparently they're Danish - not too hard to tell by her naturally beautiful Scandanavian features. Fun cover to say the least.

Before It's Too Late: Favorite Music 2010

I get that I'm at least a month late with posting this list, but for my own sake I wanted to document my audio favorites from 2010 – another successful year for music.

Favorite Bands of 2010 (as judged by the amount of listens in my iTunes library)
*Note: For all the hater hipsters, I understand that some of these groups could technically have been in 2009, but for me, the discovery really came in 2010. So don't bother calling me out on it–I'm doing the best I can to keep up!

10. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti "Before Today"


9. Deerhunter "Halcyon Digest"


8. Best Coast "Crazy For You"


7. Tokyo Police Club "Champ"


6. Sufjan Stevens "The Age of Adz"


5. Ra Ra Riot "The Orchard"


4. Beach House "Teen Dream"


3. Two Door Cinema Club "Tourist History"


2. Arcade Fire "The Suburbs"


1. Local Natives "Gorilla Manor"

Honorable Mentions: (in no particular order) LCD Soundsystem, Yeasayer, The Morning Benders, Glasser, Band of Horses, Animal Collective, Phoenix, Passion Pit, The National, Mumford & Sons, Caribou, Jónsi, Phantogram, Surfer Blood, Tame Impala, Toro Y Moi

HelveTic-Toc

This isn't terribly efficient for telling time... But at least it looks nice and modern!

Check out helvetictoc.com

My Other Favorite Irish Band

These guys are the "band of the moment" for me right now. Definitely floating my boat, if you will. I really appreciate when an entire album jumps out at me from the get go. Typically for me, it can mean one of two things: 1. It's a solid album, start to finish. Or 2. It's just a bunch of catchy, pop-y songs that you're going to get sick of really fast. I will note that a lot of the songs have a very similar sound (since I still can't distinguish some tracks from others), nonetheless I've been loving this album as of late.

I was also impressed by their performance on Jimmy Fallon a couple weeks back – I've probably watched this video a dozen times since then (Like I said, "band of the moment...).