Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

If you haven’t heard of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals you should feel ashamed. C’mon, I know you can’t stop pumpin that Bieber but lets be honest, you’re not a pre-teen anymore. Do you remember the times of artists like Janis Joplin, times where people came together to hear amazing music from incredibly talented artists? Artists as such are few and far between these days, and it is rare that commercial music doesn’t make you want to punch children, or tackle old people.

This is not the case for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, a Vermont based band that recently released their second “not independently recorded” album, to much critical acclaim. Twenty seven year old lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Grace Potter has been compared to the likes of Joplin, Lucinda Williams, and other great female artists. Combine her talent with an incredibly talented band and what do you get? Yeeaaaaaaa, some rowdy, blues-driven live sound and tight, classic-rock song craft.

If you don’t believe me check this video out. Recently released on Youtube it shows the band in their hotel performing a stripped version of “If I Was From Paris.” Things to note:

1.    A Blow dryer in mustache man’s pants

2.    Abundance of empty beer and liquor bottles

3.    Clothes on the lamp, floor, bed

You get the picture.

GPATN: One Short Night

PSA: Party Song Alert

j’adore french house.

New forthebeat favorite: Louis La Roche. Louis La Roche just makes me want to dance, hard. La Roche is Brett Ewels, 20 years old, from London & known for his French house. Nice.

I found the photo above, which was taken by Ewels, of his set-up at home, a preview of what’s to come, if you are lucky enough to catch him at one of the European festivals  he’s playing this summer (which include Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland).

His song, Missing You, is the perfect party track. I can’t help blasting it on repeat. Apparently, Missing You has been around for awhile but blogs just woke up on it, including, yup, you guessed it, this one.

Louis La Roche: Missing You

First came The Peach,  then there was Me & Her and the latest EP from La Roche, released in January, is Super Soaker,  out now on Ever After Records. EAR  is “2009′s answer to French House,”  based in the UK, their first signing was La Roche, when he was 18.

Also check out Malfunction and Be Brave.  La Roche is in early plans for an Australia/New Zealand tour for the end of the year…fingers crossed from forthebeat on that LLR…

Go buy Super Soaker and blast for your next indoor/outdoor pool party where the guests wear bikinis or spandex or both.

forthebeat’s Northside Festival Picks

The Northside Festival got underway last night with acts including Wavves, Cloud Nothings, DOM, Fang Island and Millionyoung playing all over the borough of Brooklyn.  We’re a day late, but we’re highlighting our picks for the rest of the weekend:

Friday: Dailyvinyl.com Presents Minks at Union Pool at 9 PM

Saturday: Titus Andronicus, Male Bonding and Cults at Newtown Barge Park @ 1 PM

And the show we’re MOST excited about — Sunday: FREEwilliamsburg Presents Keepaway, Hooray For Earth, Glass Ghost and Oh Land at Brooklyn Bowl @ 6 PM

A little preview of Sunday’s show, which promises: a night of dancing, drinking, and making out with strangers to the tunes of the following musical talents.  How can you skip that?

Keepaway – Yellow Wings

Hooray For Earth – Surrounded By Your Friends

Glass Ghost – Mechanical Life

Oh Land – Heavy Eyes (Kasper Bjørke Remix)

Air France is Coming to New York

It’s summer and that makes me think of Air France. And I guess they are thinking of us too because they’re coming to New York to DJ an event at the MoMA on July 17th.

Air France is Henrik Markstedt and Joel Karlsson. They are signed to the record label Sincerely Yours, founded by The Tough Alliance.

Music blog The Line of Best Fit got a rare glimpse into the incredible duo last month in their native Gothenberg. Check out the interview here, a must-read if you are even slightly intrigued with AF…

Here’s an excerpt:

When No Way Down, the duo’s second EP, came out nearly two years ago, it received rave reviews both Stateside and in the UK, but in Sweden went pretty much unnoticed. “It didn’t bother me at all”, Henrik says, “I had other problems to think about.” …“‘No Excuses’ was supposed to be called ‘No Apologies’, but ‘apologies’ is not a very nice sounding word, we thought. We wanted to question why people try to tell themselves that certain things have to be in a certain way, and for me it was a problem that I was so polite when I was younger.”

TLOBF also reports on something we’re sad to hear:

“Some new Air France material is expected in September. But don’t count on it.”

So for now, enjoy some of their classics:

Air France: June Evenings

Air France: ‘GBG Belongs To Us’

Collapsing At Your Doorstep is one of my all time favorite tracks, June Evenings and No Excuses are also ones to check out.

New forthebeat favorite: Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) should have been written about on forthebeat ages ago but ok, fine, I just found out about him recently from Sunglasses.

It was also before my XLR8R subscription which happened in 2009 and he was on the cover, pictured above, in 2008, which is an amazing cover…

The 26 year old, who resides in the locale he was born, Echo Park, has been dubbed “the Hendrix of his generation*.”

His first album, 1983, came out in 2006.  His second album was released in 2008, titled Los Angeles, which was noticed by Thom Yorke, who then booked him to open for the Atoms for Peace tour and later contributed vocals to the track that hooked me in the first place: And the World Laughs With You. This track is off of the latest, Cosmogramma.

The tracks that are electro based are my favorite but his influences are clearly eclectic ranging from jazz, harp melodies, trip-hop beats and more, making the album a truly enjoyable ride, yes ride, because it feels like a trip into something else or as Ellison explains it in his recent SPIN Magazine interview, “I’m into psychedelics and astral traveling.”

Below for your daily buzz:

Flying Lotus – And the World Laughs With You (featuring Thom Yorke)

*BBC Radio.

New Artist: Tennis

Tennis is a married couple that spent years of saving money to buy a sailboat. They started writing and recording songs as they sailed along the eastern states for part of a year. Pretty normal start to a band if you ask me… Anyway, their little adventure does explain why they have songs titled South Carolina, Baltimore and Bimini Bay. Release the jib and set sail with their first single Marathon…

Tennis – Marathon

TENNIS – Bimini Bay 6.5.10 from Scott Laidlaw on Vimeo.

New Artist: MINKS

Today is the first day of summer, but we’re going to post a song about the end of summer because we’re listening to MINKS and we’re hooked.

Recently debuting their Funeral Song 7”, MINKS will be releasing a full-length album in September on Captured Tracks.  There isn’t much info on this band – they are trying to keep that mysterious vibe going – but they’ve been playing live in Brooklyn a bit, with a Northside Festival appearance this weekend at Union Pool — we’ll check them out soon enough!

So happy summer – a breezy tune to enjoy.  Go download it, get it on your iPod and go for a walk…

MINKS – Funeral Song

Also, the video to go along:

Minks // Funeral Song from Wooden Lens on Vimeo.

Throwback: The Allman Brothers Band

I just wanted to thank my mom for taking me to see The Allman Brothers when I was growing up. Jones Beach, The Beacon, nice one Phyllis.

Today’s post is a throwback to the legend. The Allman Brothers Band is hitting Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago next week, on June 26th,  with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Robert Randolph and others. Enjoy the video and tracks below. I hope, I dream Allman Brothers “Blue Sky” – Bill Withers “Use Me” – Lynyrd Skynyrd “Simple Man” tonight…

I’ll also leave you with some Bill Withers below. “Grandma’s Hands” is said to be his favorite songs and definitely one of mine as well… the “Who Is He” remix is amazing and going on the next Le Miel du Mois.

Bill Withers: Lovely Day

Bill Withers: Who Is He (Henrik Schwarz Edit

New forthebeat Featured Artist: Emily Neveu

Another Lefse Records artist, Emily Neveu (solo project of Calico Horse frontwoman) is someone you should check out if you’re into really pretty female voices. Personally I’m not, but Emily caught my attention with her cover of Radiohead’s Idioteque. I can appreciate that because if I could sing, I would sing Radiohead covers all the damn time.

Emily plays drums, guitar, bass, piano, and sings, so I think it’s safe to say she is probably awesome.

Emily Neveu Covers: Radiohead – Idioteque

And the original I am in love with (sighhhhhh):

Radiohead – Idioteque

Emily is currently recording her debut full-length album, so look out for more news on that in the coming months…

Can’t Stay Awake…

…until you listen to Cloud Nothings, who will do nothing but get you completely amped up and ready to rock with their buzzy, super lo-fi pop.

Old Flame Records is putting out the band’s latest release, Didn’t You – a 7” featuring the B-side “Even If It Worked Out.”  The limited blue vinyl will be out on June 24^th (also digitally), the same day the Cleveland band plays the Knitting Factory with Wavves and DOM as part of the Northside Festival.  This is the fourth stop on a 6-date tour with Wavves (check the schedule below and buy tix to the Knitting Factory show in Brooklyn HERE).

Here’s a little bit about Cloud Nothings from their bio: In the fall of 2009, Dylan Baldi was an 18-year-old college student studying saxophone and sound recording at a small college near Cleveland, OH.  He had played in bands around town since he was old enough to hold a guitar, but recently he’d been putting his solo music on record through the magic of home recordings.  He titled the solo project “Cloud Nothings,” made a myspace page, friended some bands he liked, and sat back to wait.  That’s when a certain NYC show promoter known for putting on shows in unorthodox venues emailed asking if Cloud Nothings wanted to play with buzz bands Real Estate and Woods at the Market Hotel.  This happened to be the same date that Dylan had to play a mandatory performance with his college band or end up failing the class, which put him in the awkward position of having to decide if it was worthwhile to drop out of college to play a very first show with a non-existent band that had only been written about on a couple blogs and heard by a few people.  We are most grateful for his decision.

That’s right!

And for your listening pleasure – although not featured on the upcoming release, but still one of my faves…

Cloud Nothings – Can’t Stay Awake

6.20 IL MOTORE Montreal, Quebec
6.21 METRONOME Burlington, VT
6.22 GREAT SCOTT Boston, MA
6.24 KNITTING FACTORY Brooklyn, NY
6.25 ROCK AND ROLL HOTEL Washington DC
6.26 THE BARBARY Philadelphia, PA