Best tracks of 2012: August

August 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Showbams presents the best tracks of 2012 ➜ updated daily, through August 31st. We’ll be updating this list weekly, and the list will surely change significantly by the end of September.

Notable September releases include Animal Collective, Cat Power, Bob Dylan, A$AP Rocky, St. Vincent & David Byrne, The Avett Brothers, The xx, The Presets, Band of Horses, Mumford & Sons, Calexico, Django Django, Grizzly Bear and many more.

Subscribe to this Spotify playlist and follow along until the final ranking at year’s end.

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FYF Fest 2012: 10 not to miss

August 28, 2012 by 1 Comment

Written by Mike Frash //

FYF Fest //
LA State Historic Park – Los Angeles
September 1st-2nd, 2012 //

Nestled between downtown Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium at LA State Historic Park, FYF Fest opens its gates Saturday with a blend of punk, indie, garage, micro house, comedy, future pop and and reunions that should satisfy music fans. Fuck yeah!

FIVE FOR SATURDAY: One word: stacked. Get crazy with Fucked up, Sleigh Bells and The Men, mellow out with Chairlift and Tycho and don’t sleep on Chromatics, Future Islands or Tanlines. Bottom line: Saturday is conflict-laden. Here are five I’m focusing on:

Simian Mobile Disco

Get your dance on and the rage out.

Quicksand

You never know … I could go to M83.

Purity Ring

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. (I’ve heard they’re great live, too.)

Cloud Nothings

They put out a great album from earlier this year.

King Tuff

Alone and stoned. Oh the irony at a festival …

CONFLICT BONUS: James Blake

Really it’s the most gut-wrenching conflict Saturday. Purity Ring vs. James Blake. Maybe a split set will do?

FIVE FOR SUNDAY: Sunday offers another day of great variety. The power of Ceremony vs. the crooning of Father John Misty. Tiger & Woods’ 70’s disco grooves vs. Aesop Rock’s flow. The Eastern brass of Beirut vs. Gold Panda’s hypnotic beats.

Yeasayer

New set design and at least three good songs from their new album.

Nicolas Jaar

All sources indicate this set can be classified as “must-see live.”

Liars

No. 1 against the rush. Gotta love Day 2 at a festival.

Atlas Sound

Bradford Cox destroys as the frontman of Deerhunter and is an epic looper. Anything can happen.

Wild Nothing

They released a new album this week. It’s pretty fucking good. I found this video that’s not official, and I think it works perfectly with the music.

CONFLICT BONUS: The Field

More micro-house! Dance while you can, but I must see Bradford Cox’s solo project.

Conflict Double Bonus: Father John Misty

Honestly, I could see Ceremony, Father John Misty or Givers. They are all great bands — and all great live bands. I’m thinking of deferring to a mellow Sunday morning, but we’ll see.

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Stream Animal Collective’s ‘Centipede Hz’ @ NPR

August 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Stream the new Animal Collective LP ‘Centipede HZ’ @ NPR Music.

Filed Under: News

New Music Tuesday: Swans • Wild Nothing • Matthew Dear • Dan Deacon • Divine Fits

August 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

Swans - The Seer

Every Tuesday, we focus on new music releases by naming our top tracks and supplying the latest videos for select albums.

Swans – The Seer

Top Track: “Mother of the World”

Wild Nothing – Nocturne

Top Track: “Nocturne”

Matthew Dear – Beams

Top Track: “Her Fantasy”

Dan Deacon – America

Top Track: “True Thrush”

Divine Fits – A Thing Called Divine Fits

Top Track: “My Love Is Real”

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Coachella 2012: Don’t ever look back

August 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

Sights & Sounds from Coachella 2012, Weekend one. Aka Cold-chella.

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Sharon Jones covers ‘It’s a Man’s World’

August 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Sharon Jones performing her encore at Stern Grove in San Francisco in 2011.

Filed Under: Video

The Very Best might not be dealing in hyperbole

August 26, 2012 by 1 Comment

By Mike Frash //

The Very Best //
Mezzanine – San Francisco
August 24th, 2012 //

The Very Best, a refreshingly unique mix of contemporary EDM-pop and the traditional music of Malawi, performed at Mezzanine to an oddly thin audience. MTMTMK, the group’s fourth studio album released recently to critical and general acclaim, and Malawi-born frontman Esau Mwamwaya along with London based DJ/producer Radioclit have produced a live production that is gearing up to sub-headline festivals by the 2013 festival season.

The show began with two top cuts from MTMTMK, “Adani” and “Moto”, and it was immediately clear Esau has a star quality — a combination of having an infectiously positive presence about him that matches the upbeat pace and tone of the group’s music and actually delivering on his vocal chops.

The duo is joined on tour by hype man and background singer Seye (pronounced “Cher” and is “Eyes Backwards” as he explained when performing the opening set). Seye certainly added an element of upbeat youthfulness with his super-upbeat kinetic energy on stage and early 80’s-inspired style. Two percussionists, mostly enhancing the dance tracks with driving bongos, helped connect Esau’s voice to the EDM build-ups and drops. All together, this hodgepodge of Afro-Western dance, hip-hop, pop and Malawian singing and percussion elements produces a sound that is uniquely theirs: They are not a simple Amadou and Mariam knockoff, nor do they pander to the most homogenous EDM trends of the moment.

The aspect of the beats and drops from Radioclit that are most memorable is the bass. Plain and simple. Drum and bass was the dominating factor in almost every song at this Very Best show until the disappointing encore, a half-baked overlay tracing Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There.” But it didn’t matter — after 90 minutes of non-stop dance and positive grooves, it was an appropriate wave goodbye.

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