the morning benders. excuses.

Another great clip from Yours Truly, featuring a song from the Morning Benders' forthcoming LP, Big Echo (which was co-produced by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor). "Excuses" is the album's opening track, and this soaring "Wall of Sound" performance is enhanced by the "Big Echo Orchestra," which includes Bay Area luminaries Christopher Owens of Girls, John Vanderslice, and many more. Shout out to Phil Spector:

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Broken Bells

"The High Road" has a video... and it's legit


The High Road

Broken Bells | MySpace Music Videos

Kevin Barnes (of Montreal)

Newly bearded Kevin Barnes recently posted a YouTube video featuring new of Montreal material. In the video, the frontman and songwriter for the ever-changing band uses a webcam to record himself at the piano, playing a snippet from the forthcoming of Montreal LP, which will either bear the title False Priest or The Controller Sphere... Siq right?

Gil Scott-Heron

The amazing new video for Gil Scott-Heron's first single in over a decade, "Me and the Devil," taken from his forthcoming I'm New Here LP:

Memoryhouse

Yes it's yet another memory_____ band but this track really is a great one. They call it a bedroom recording project of a neo-classical composer and a photographer. This "To The Lighthouse" video is pretty spectacular so I'm guessing that is the photographer's doing.



Their Years EP is available for free on their myspace.

Beach House

Teen Dream is album of the year so far... This walk in the park is a pretty disturbing turn from what I thought the video would be like. In other words it's totally rad.

Beach House "Walk in the Park" from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.

Animal Collective

New video from AnCo... Pretty fun video accompanied by a fun song

Big Boi

After putting out hip hop track of the year "Shine Blockas" I think we have all been anxiously awaiting a video. This one is kind of half assed but the track itself effortlessly veils that.

Neon Indian

We all would probably agree that Neon Indian is overhyped chillwave synthpop but this video is actually pretty cool, and so is neon indian. (try to ignore the pitchfork logo in the bottom left)

Jay-Z

He already conquered the universe with his NY anthem "Empire State of Mind" but there is more to Blueprint 3 than one anthem.

Here are a couple more videos from the King of New York.




This video is awesome. Juggalos. Flaming basketballs. Do you think there is some indie integration in Hip Hop these days?




I don't really like this one but I guess it's worth watching. A few too many hip cliches for my taste.

Class Actress

I have to thank this song for making the drive to and from Portland that much more memorable.

Here We Go Magic

I have been listening to this band more and more. This track Tunnelvision is the best song to drive home to late at night. The video isn't half bad either.

Girls

Yeah I know this band is the center of way too much hype but this song might be deserving of it.

The Breeders

You have to love the 90s... if only we could have harnessed all the grease in kim's hair and converted it to crude oil we wouldn't have needed to invade iraq

Cass McCombs

I'd put this in my top songs of the year list(if I were to make one)...

Phoenix

Live in paris
who knew 1901 could be pulled off acoustic?

Phoenix - 1901 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Headlights

Cherry Tulips.

This song sounds like a standard I'd like to be dancing to in my retirement home half-senile/half-drunk.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Think I Wanna Die.

If you are feeling like getting in a good mood without saying so this video is for you... check it out!

The Top Music Videos of 2009

The Top Music Videos of 2009

Pitchfork actually put together a really good list, even though I usually have trouble completing a sentence including the words 'pitchfork' and 'good.'

Japandroids

A year ago Japandroids were like any other noise band, drunk and playing in half-empty dive bars. 2009 has been kind to the duo, and thanks to the blog-generated hype, they have climbed well out of obscurity. They headlined the bill Friday night at the Echo in Los Angeles with Florida born buzz-band Surfer Blood.

Most people come to shows at the Echo expecting to tolerate the opening bands and start to get hyped for the headliner, but Surfer Blood won over the crowd quickly with their catchy jams and boyish charm. They immediately gave you the "this band is going to be big someday" feeling. The vocals were kind of lo-fi and hazy while the guitars were reverb drenched and foregrounded. The Major/minor chord changes had that friendly digestible feel that had the crowd leaving humming melodies. By the time they were finished the crowd had forgotten who they came to see and the awkward "So are you guys ready for Japandroids?" shout out was confusing. John Paul Pitts, Surfer Blood frontman, left the stage with a final goodbye saying, "You should stick around for Japandroids cuz these fools are tiiight," accompanied by a finger-snap straight out of Da Ali-G Show.

After a few minutes of too loud dance-party indie remixes Japandroids wanders onstage to the highly distinguishable guitar tone of Brian King. He then told us that this was the band's second time in LA and he knows that LA crowds tend to be a bit too reserved to get rowdy but that this show is going to be the right time to forget about that. They opened with a kind of sloppy version of "The Boys Are Leaving Town" as King complains that the vocals are too low and so are the drums(about which he was right). Then about halfway through "Rockers East Vancouver" everything started to come together and the crowd noticed. People start nodding their heads which turns into a bit of hopping up and down which finally resolves in an awesome mess of pushing and shoving. As the set rolls on through their limited arsenal the band plays a couple of songs that they claim will be on an upcoming 7" and the crowd never slows its moshfest. After about 45 minutes of extended versions of the Post-Nothing favorites the sound man signals that they only have about 15 minutes left. So Japandroids seem to consciously decide to bring the sets highlight, "Heart Sweats" with a one chord verse and a refrain that consists of the duo plus 150 fans screaming "XOXOX"; it was garage rock at its most primal. Overall a great way to spend a friday night in Los Angeles. (especially for 8 bucks;))