Music for Perfect People

During this year’s CMJ in NYC, Portugal. The Man stopped by The Ace Hotel for a semi-acoustic performance of a handful of tracks. In the interview portion, Zach Carothers and Ryan Neighbors discussed where the name for their latest LP In The Mountain, In The Cloud  came from, how their acoustic performances are different from their electric performances, along with some other questions pertaining to the band’s move from Alaska to Portland, and when they knew they “made it.”

Setlist::
So American (from In The Mountain, In The Cloud)
Interview
And I (from Censored Colors)
Interview
All Your Light (from In The Mountain, In The Cloud)
Interview

Continue after the jump to watch the live performance and interviews. Thanks to Baeble Music for hosting the video!

Read the rest of this entry »

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On December 6th, Breathe Owl Breathe will be releasing a 7” for the singles “The Listeners” and “These Train Tracks,” along with a children’s book that was written, illustrated, carved, and printed by BOB’s Micah Middaugh.  Because each canvas-covered volume is being handcrafted and assembled by the band, the release will be limited to 750 copies. Pre-orders are currently available here.

While the lyrics of both of the singles follow the words/story in the childrens book, the sound of the two tracks are completely different. “The Listeners” features the combined vocals of Middaugh and a child, along with the delicate strumming of an acoustic guitar, minimal drum patterns, and some beautiful orchestral instruments. “These Train Tracks,” on the other hand, uses organic drum patterns created by handclaps, finger snaps, and what sounds to be a hand slapping a table, along with a repetitive synth line. What really stands out on “These Train Tracks” are the additional backing vocals, which act as another percussive instrument in the song, and really add another layer of sound to the story BOB is telling.

Breathe Owl Breathe Tour Dates::
Fri. Nov. 25 - Grand Rapids, MI @ DAAC *
Sat. Nov. 26 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Wealthy Theater – 3pm
Sat. Nov. 26 - Grand Rapids, MI @ DAAC – 8pm *
Tue. Nov. 29 - Evanston, IL @ SPACE *
Wed. Nov. 30 - Ann Arbor, MI @ Arbor Vitae *
Thu. Dec. 1 - Kalamazoo, MI @ The Strutt *
Fri. Dec. 2 - Ypsilanti, MI @ Dreamland Theater *
Sat. Dec. 3 - Detroit, MI @ ‘Noel Night’ at The Scarab Club *
Sun. Dec. 4 - Brown Town, MI @ House Show *
Tue. Dec. 6 - Marquette, MI @ Up Front & Co. *
Wed. Dec. 7 - Hancock, MI @ Orpheum Theater *
Fri. Dec. 9 - Traverse City, MI @ Higher Grounds *
Sat. Dec. 10 - Petoskey, MI @ North Woods Studio *
Sun. Dec. 11 - Bellaire, MI @ Shorts Brewery *
* w/ Little Wings

Stay connected with Breathe Owl Breathe:: website | facebook

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On October 18th, ex-Moldy Peaches member Kimya Dawson will release her eighth studio album, Thunder Thighs, which was produced by Aesop Rock. Featuring Dawson’s somber yet humor-filled vocals, “Driving Driving Driving” perfectly fits her flow of words over the mellow sounds of an acoustic guitar.

Make sure to pre-order Thunder Thighs here.

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While many of you may remember Mattie Safer from his days as the bassist of The Rapture, the BK musician has now gone off on his own and released a couple of party starters under the “future gospel” genre, namely “Is That Your Girl?” and “Get My Sheen On.” Earlier this month, Safer travelled to France, where he performed at the Paris Social Club, and also recorded an excellent acoustic set for Le Mouv Radio.

Mattie Safer live at The Paris Social Club, France ::

Mattie Safer acoustic set for Le Mouv Radio::

“Got To Find”

“All We Are”

“Is That Your Girl?”

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From Love You Moon:

While RX Bandits were in Caracas Venezuela in 2009 on our South American tour, I was able to spend many hours in the Waipea Records studio on our days off. Our Venezuelan brother Marcel recorded tons of my freestyle jamming with an acoustic guitar into the wee hours of the night. Well, he surprised me by taking a section of the session and getting some awesome Venezuelan musicians (Waipea Allstars) to play over my track.

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Chicago’s Maps & Atlases are currently wrapping up their tour of Europe and  have released a live video of their acoustic performance on BBC’s The Beat. The set included the tracks “Solid Ground,” “Pigeon,” and “Living Decorations.”

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Late last month, we brought the track “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve” from Chicago’s Scattered Trees to your attention. Lucky for us, My Old Kentucky Blog premiered the following lovely, live video of the track ..

Scattered Trees will release their forthcoming effort Sympathy on April 5th via Roll Call Records/EMI

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Check out the Good Old War‘s performance for the ApKmedia Microshows from September 2010. Featured from the performance are the tracks “Window” and “My Own Sinking Ship.”

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According to the Portugal. The Man, they just found this video of one of their acoustic performance of the Church Mouth single “My Mind” on their hard drive. Also from the same session is the band performing “Shade,” which happened to be the first video I saw of the PTM around two years ago. Needless to say, I fell in love immediately. Check both of them out below ..

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Scattered Trees are a 6-piece indie rock band from Chicago whose sound falls somewhere between Luna and their Chicago brethren Wilco. The band just announced that they’ll be releasing their latest effort Sympathy on April 5th via Roll Call Records/EMI and below, we have the second track off the album, which is titled “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve.”

DOWNLOAD :: Scattered Trees – “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve”

Sympathy Tracklist::
1. Bury the Floors
2. A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve
3. Love and Leave
4. Four Days Straight
5. Sympathy
6. Five Minutes
7. Where You Came From
8. I Swear To God
9. On Your Side

Contact Scattered Trees: website|twitter

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Earlier this week, we posted the Prelude To My Next Excursion mixtape from McKenzie Eddy, which noted that the NY songstress would be appearing in a bunch of DD172 projects later this year. Below, we have footage of two of these projects.

First, we have a short trailer for the Muscle Car Chronicles, an album produced by Sean O’Connell and film starring Curren$y and McKenzie Eddy, which is due out this spring. Second on the list is Sean O’Connell’s video for “An Empire View,” which is the first song off of his new album Free at First Light. [NOTE: both the trailer and the music video are contained in the vimeo video below]

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Atlanta’s genre bending Spree Wilson has released the track “Don’t Pass Me By” from his upcoming debut The Never Ending Now. The production and honey dripped vocals of Esthero are predominantly featured on the track but it should also be noted that the backing beat was created by the eclectic noise-maker and MFPP favorite Hot Sugar.

Contact Spree Wilson:: facebook|twitter

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Check out Aloe Blacc‘s performance of his single “I Need A Dollar” from Conan last night. Please note that the congo/bongo player is REALLY into this jam .. he must’ve known they were going to crank his mic for the performance. Regardless, Aloe Blacc kills the track and shows off some of his swanky moves .. hot damn!

Additionally, we have footage of Mr. Blacc’s off-air session in the Conan green room where he performs a stripped down version of “I’m Beautiful”.

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The Western States Motel are set to release their LP Freeway Freeway Riverbed some time in February and to hold you over until then, we have the single “Country and Western Song”, which features a blend of acoustic-pop with synths/drum machines.

DOWNLOAD :: The Western States Motel – “Country and Western Song”

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Back during the time when the weather was warm and weekends consisted of outdoor music + beach adventures (you know .. the summer,) Absofacto released a new single called  “Whose Side Are You On Anyway?” Now that the leaves have changed and they are finishing their descent to the ground, an acoustic version of the track has been released! Grab a listen below and make sure to check out the original as well.

From Absofacto:

I had a few people write to me asking for an acoustic version of this one. I don’t normally do acoustic tracks (you may have noticed), but the more I thought about it the more it seemed like it would be fun to try it for this song. This is just me in my bedroom with my cheapo acoustic guitar and a cheapo ribbon microphone. No BS! Unless you consider a touch of delay to be BS, in which case ONLY A LITTLE BS!

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