fool’s gold kept us warm

It was a cold and dreary day as we venture out into Austin for our last few shows of SXSW this past Saturday.  First, we stopped off at Iron Works BBQ, where we devoured 4 pounds – that’s right 4 pounds – of brisket and ribs.  (Fine, we didn’t finish it and there was a boy with us, I SWEAR.)

After catching a few sets including Memory Tapes, Dead Confederate, Twin Tigers and running into one of our faves Millionyoung, we ended up at the Mess With Texas outdoor stage for Fool’s Gold.

Armed with Sailor Jerry’s rum and coffee, we braved the cold and the whole crowd gathered in close to watch the LA-based band.  They were cold too.  Bundled up in hooded parkas and sunglasses, they looked like a little band of bongo playing, incognito eskimos and declared this past Saturday “National Shrinkage Day.”

Their humor along with catchy pop infused with African beats and melodies kind of made you forget about the weather and picture yourself dancing on some island somewhere to sunny, infectious tunes.

After warming up the crowd, the second song on the band’s debut album “Surprise Hotel” had us hooked.  You love the album version as much as you love the live version because most of the songs on the self-titled album were recorded live in 2008 and completed in 2009.  Take a listen…

Fool’s Gold – Surprise Hotel

Le Miel du Mois: Decembre

The December mixtape is now up on Et Musique Pour Tous, posted the first of the month, each month.  Click on the tape below to listen:

You can download the December mix along with all past months as well as our forthebeat CMJ playlist *for free* by clicking on “telecharger” – just right click, save to your desktop and “open” to play in your iTunes.

Le Miel du Mois: Decembre Track List

1.  Telepathe – Chrome’s On It (Gold Panda Remix)
2.  Charlotte Gainsbourg – Heaven Can Wait (Feat. Beck)
3.  Sébastien Tellier – Divine (Danger Remix)
4.  Mystery Jets – Half  in Love with Elizabeth (Delorean Remix)
5.  Glasser – Apply (Tanlines Remix)
6.  Phoenix – Lisztomania (Alex Metric Remix)
7.  Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone (Three Fingers Remix)
8.  Soko – I’ll Kill Her (JD7’s Killer Mix)
9. Neon Indian – 6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know)
10.  Fool’s Gold – Nadine (Memory Tapes Version)
11.  Holly Miranda – Waves
12.  Kasper Bjørke – Young Again (Edit)
13.  Bloc Party – Hunting For Witches (Crystal Castles Remix)
14.  Freelance Whales – Starring
15.  Glass Candy – Computer Love
16.  Natureboy – Heart to Fool

i’ve always wanted to be in a family band

A lot of people know how I feel about family bands – I’ve always wanted to be in one.  So I’m a little sad I didn’t get to see Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros last week.  It could have been a very inspirational and enlightening experience for me.  Anyway, a bunch of people I know did make it to the two-night NYC run at Bowery Ballroom and the Music Hall of Williamsburg, including our friend Jaime Widder.

First of all, Jaime works for Bloomberg (finance) but Bloomberg (news) caught wind of how many concerts this kid goes to every week and asked him to start writing for them.  You can check out his latest piece here.  Also, Jaime puts together a weekly e-mail recapping all the shows he saw the week prior and highlights all the shows to see over the next week, including a calendar of the best shows in the coming months.  If you’d like to be added to the e-mail, drop Jaime a line at Jaime.Widder@gmail.com.

Well after ranting and raving about this show, here’s what Mr. Widder had to say about Edward Sharpe:

“Now, I know some of you might find this band’s hippy loving style a little too much, but not me. Standing about 5 – 6 people back dead center – something I rarely do – the 11 piece band from LA had the Bowery singing along and dancing for every single moment of this energetic performance. If you ever want to see a band that can have every single person in attendance with a smile from cheek to cheek look no further than these guys. Their debut album is excellent but it the live show where this band truly shines. If you do not have songs like “Home”, “Janglin” or “Carries On” on your iPod yet, get ‘em.”

Local Natives and Fool’s Gold opened at these two shows last week.  Here are tunes from all three bands…

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home

Local Natives – Sun Hands

Fool’s Gold – Surprise Hotel