New Festival Debut: Truck America

Truck America is a 3-day festival that begins today.  Tickets are still available, so if you are thinking: catching some amazing music that you know, added to some amazing music that you may not know this beautiful weekend, do it. Beginning today and ending Sunday (April 30-May 2), the famed festival that began in the UK 13 years ago will be making its U.S. debut in the Catskill Mountains at The Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, New York.

The Dig, Monogold, Natureboy, White Rabbits, The Joy Formidable and many many others are among the acts that will be taking the stage today and over the weekend. forthebeat is catching the Sunday show, and if we could make it today and Saturday, we would.  Go buy tickets at the door or here: TRUCK

An old favorite:

White Rabbits – Percussion Gun

A new favorite:

The Joy Formidable – Whirring (Brahms Remix)

Your new favorite?

The Dig – You’re Already Gone

New Artist: Shara

I know you don’t want to be talking or thinking about snow right now, trust me I don’t either, but 21 year old, barely out of college Shara and his new EP Snowday is worth putting your sunglasses aside for a hot second.  Shara is Ryan Pollie with shared vocals from Justin Lerman, delivering catchy, electro-pop tracks.

Although Pollie is currently back and forth between Philly and Maine, most of the tracks on Snowday were written in Cork, Ireland and were influenced heavily by the environment there, as Pollie recalls, “It rained…all the time, and when you asked locals if they liked music, they’d say, ‘yeah, ya heard of bono?’”

Not the most inspiring, I will agree, but something in that Irish air worked for Pollie because Snowday is easy-listening pop that deserves more attention.  I got hooked with the infectious lyrics of “Save Me” with the chorus repeating: “I want you to say yeah.” Second favorite track is “The Second Chance.”

Check out “Save Me” below, and hear the rest on his MySpace page:

Shara – Save Me

cassette debut: SAFE

Soft, minimalist, ethereal dream-pop, SAFE is a new forthebeat favorite and a project from Christopher F. Edley III, who says he’s “only good on purpose.”

According to his bio, Edley is a multimedia artist and former future farmer. He enjoys plant identification, animal husbandry, cigarettes and whisky, disco music, weather patterns, cutting his hair, finding things, birds and fish, making sounds, knot tying, and cooking outdoors. He is unsure of where he lives, but wrote his fist album, aptly titled SAFE, in a Berkeley, California basement sitting on the floor while trying not to work on music videos for other people. SAFE is only good on purpose. SAFE puts together bands when necessary, though not begrudgingly. SAFE enjoys good company. SAFE is almost always surprised and excited.

Co-released through Greedhead Records and Lasercave, SAFE’s self-titled debut is available on cassette, VHS and as a digital download, all here.

Safe – Twenty Years On

DeVotchka Surprise Show – Tix Giveaway

DeVotchka is playing a surprise show at Bowery Electric tonight.  Do you want to go?  Well, it’s sold out.  But lucky for you, forthebeat just got its hands on two tickets, and we’re willing to give ‘em away.  But you’ll need to be witty.

The person who comments below with the best haiku about what DeVotchka sounds like wins. If haikus aren’t your thing, tell us what you think DeVotchka should mean if it was an actual word in the dictionary.  (SL and I will pick the winner, and we’re TOUGH).  Just make sure to include an e-mail we can reach you at in the e-mail field.  Doors are at 8 PM tonight and the show starts at 8:30 PM.  (We’ll pick the winner at 5 PM and your name + 1 will be added to the list.)  Good luck!

Devotchka – How It Ends

New Artist: PUNCHES

Punchessssssssssssssssssssss – I just love this name for a DJ group. Punches is Brooklyn based Alan Astor, Dj Never Forget, The Kid Robb and Terry Diabolik.

Their debut gig was this past Saturday at Public Assembly with Moullinex, Xinobi, Justin Faust and others.  Not too bad for a debut gig…

Their remix of Au Revoir Simone’s Only You is so danceably, catchy awesome, you wont want to stop movin and groovin. Listen to it here:

Au Revoir Simone – Only You (Punches Remix)

Want a Punches t-shirt just because they are kind of awesome in an 80′s pac man dance neon tight-pants kind of  way? KC has one and you can too.

yes, this is happening

We weren’t going to do it, but forthebeat wanted to leave you with some feel good tunes for the weekend.  So here it is, our LCD Soundsystem post.  We’ve been listening all week, so shouldn’t you?  Head here to pre-order This is Happening (out May 17^th / 18^th) on iTunes and to stream the whole album.

Sadly, we missed the recent Music Hall of Williamsburg and Webster Hall shows (we were doing other cool things like hanging out with Florence + The Machine, promise).  But we’ll be catching one of their Terminal 5 shows.  Now, I hate Terminal 5, but for some reason, seeing LCD Soundsystem there kind of excites me.  I’m hoping it’ll be like a giant dance party with 1,500 of your closest LCD loving friends.  As our friend Jaime Widder has wisely pointed out: Something about LCD performance gets it fans more rambunctious than 98% of other dance acts I catch no matter what day of the week it is. The band brings the heat and the fans go bonkers.

Here’s one new one and two old favorites for you.  Happy Friday!

LCD Soundsystem – Dance Yrself Clean

LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends

LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great

New Artist: The Sonnets

The Swedes really know how to do it right.  Here’s another one to add to the list: The Sonnets.

On Despotz Records, The Sonnets have only released one track so far (in Feb. 2010), and yesterday released a brand new video to go along with their leading track Sebastian Said. The video is a scene on a beach with the simple premise of “a morning run,” with the ocean and the sun.  It’s really beautiful to watch and the song is melodic pop at its best.

Listen to the remix of Sebastian Said by Montauk below; definitely excited to see more from these guys…

The Sonnets – Sebastian Said (Montauk remix)

Check out the video here:

New Artist: Natureboy

Natureboy is Sara Kermanshahi from Bushwick.

I was first introduced to her last year and included her song Heart to Fool on the monthly mixtape I do for Et Musique Pour Tous‘ December mix.

I haven’t seen her live but have heard her intimate, packed Brooklyn loft performances have been amazing. She plays the first ever (on U.S. soil that is…) Truck Festival, which has been an established festival in the UK for 13 years, on May 2nd. Some great acts coming to that 3-day festival include The Dig, White Rabbits and The Joy Formidable. Natureboy performs early Sunday afternoon and forthebeat can’t wait to catch our first live show.

The self-titled album is available now on iTunes; stand-outs include “Famous Sons” and “Heart to Fool.”  I love both tracks – reall, truly love.

“Pariah” below for your first listen:

Natureboy – Pariah

Where are they now? SNOWDEN

What happened to Snowden?  I’ll tell you what happened – they just put out a new EP Slow Soft Syrup and you should download it here because it’s FREE.

The Atlanta four-piece, who derive their name from the Catch 22 character Howard Snowden, were mesmerizing when I saw them live a few years back at Mercury Lounge.  After their full-length debut in 2006 titled Anti Anti – a captivating album from start to finish – Snowden started gaining incredible buzz, touring with the likes of Kings Of Leon, Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, as well as securing the title of “most blogged” band on the internet (according to elbo.ws).

While they were local heroes down in ATL, they seemed to just scratch the surface nationally and have been on hiatus for a while.  So I was excited when I caught wind of this new EP.  Hopefully it will drum up enough buzz prior to their next full-length release later this year to finally catapult them to the next level.

New song…

Snowden – Don’t Really Know Me

Old song…

Snowden – Anti Anti

Three songs too many to post?  Whatever, here’s my favorite Anti Anti track “Black Eyes” remixed by La Castle Vania:

Snowden – Black Eyes (La Castle Vania Remix)

New Artist: Jamaica

Um hello…where the hell did you come from? This was my thought this morning when Jamaica‘s “I Think I Like U 2″ (Breakbot Remix) came on my headphones and I perked up instantly.

It all made perfect sense when I realized who this was: Jamaica is Antoine Hilaire and Flo Lyonnet.  They used to be known as Poney Poney. They are from France and another big detail adding to their sheer awesomeness might be the fact that their music is produced by Xavier – Justice. They are doing some one-offs in France, with a performance coming up in London on May 7th with Midnight Juggernauts.

Breakbot is just plain siiick. Every remix he touches turns to gold, and this one’s no exception. (Although pay equal attention to the Buffalo Bunch remix) Get on it. Here:

Jamaica – I Think I Like U 2 (Breakbot Remix)

Go support the artist and buy the single on iTunes. Also check out Short and Entertaining. Busy P Likes It? I Think I Like It Too…