The British vocal sensation Florence Welch and her six-person backing band, The Machine, gave a rousing musical performance on the Late Show With David Letterman Wednesday night. The group played its latest single, “No Light, No Light,” from sophomore album Ceremonials, which was released late last year.
Watch the video below.
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Electric Guest, the L.A.-based retro-pop act, performed Friday on the Late Show with David Letterman, making their network television debut.
Fronted by singer-keyboardist Asa Taccone and guitarist-bassist-drummer Matthew Compton, the duo's debut album, Mondo, released on April 24. The album is produced by Danger Mouse, who's had a nice streak of success with previous projects he has worked on (Gnarls Barkley, The Black Keys, Norah Jones).
Electric Guest is featured in Variance's recent edition of FutureSounds.
Watch the video of "This Head I Hold" from the Late Show below.
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Treat yourself on this Monday with a little Tennis. Released today is the music video for "My Better Self," off their second studio album, Young & Old, which is available now.
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The popular trio Miike Snow stopped by Letterman on Friday night, performing “Paddling Out” from their recently-released sophomore album, Happy to You. Watch video of the performance here.
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Racing Heart play indie folk, but try instead to imagine the earnest yearnings of American golden era pop music, the earthiness of the English folk revival and the searching spirit of contemporary Scandinavian indie rock. The ten songs off their new album, To Walk Beside that Ghost (which releases today on Movemounatins), set out to accomplish something, finding themselves somewhere in the soundscapes that many of today’s Brooklyn-based bands are busy exploring, with lush vocal harmonies that lead your thoughts (and your ears) to the 1960’s and 70’s.
To Walk Beside that Ghost was written and recorded by Racing Heart in Brooklyn, with members from St. Vincent and Sufjan Stevens’ bands joining them in the studio. Centred on the soft acoustics of voice, finger-picked guitar, autoharp, upright bass and drums, but embellished and expanded upon by both analogue synthesizers, a string quartet and brass trio (the stated goal always being that each sound must serve the song and not just act as decoration) this album carries with it inspiration from many different musical decades.
Mostly recorded on what is rumored to be Eddie Van Halen’s old 16-track analog tape machine (adding perhaps the ghosts of blistering guitar solos past to the mix as well), simplicity and sense of purpose was key when recording To Walk Beside that Ghost. The music was committed to tape by living, breathing musicians playing as a group in the same room, or huddled around a single microphone when singing background vocals.
Written after songwriter and prime mover in Racing Heart, Mathias Tjønn relocated to New York from Oslo, Norway (with stops in Rome, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Boston,) the songs they recorded together are informed by both the struggles and the stolen moments of joy that come from relocating to this equal parts mythical and maddening city, caught in the midst of an economic downturn and the grey-weather days that followed.
Variance reviewed the new album in the April issue, calling it "a soundtrack to life, a tribute to good vocal harmonies, and a blast from the past.” Spin said: “Mathias Tjønn's distant muse feels just as irrevocably lost as Justin Vernon's, though the elaborate wash of harmonies more closely recalls Grizzly Bear, Local Natives, or even Maps & Atlases.”
The album, To Walk Beside that Ghost, is now available and the music video for the track, "Emma," premieres today below.
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Gotye and Kimbra joined host Josh Brolin on NBC's Saturday Night Live this week. Following the performance, Gotye, Kimbra and SNL were all Trending Topics on Twitter--as the social networking site marked an increase of +800% in the number of people talking about the Australian singer.
Read more about Gotye in the April cover story.
Watch Gotye and Kimbra perform "Somebody That I Used to Know" on SNL.
Watch Andy Samberg and Taran Killam with Gotye in a hilarious Digital Short.
Watch Gotye perform "Eyes Wide Open" on SNL.
During the annual White House Easter Egg Roll this past weekend, Janelle Monáe stepped away from her own material to throw back to a classic, performing her rendition of The Jackson 5′s “I Want You Back.” The Monáe version keeps true to the original, with bubbly, romantic vocals nearly identical to the original.
Janelle Monae is no doubt one of the most talented--and coolest--musicians to step forward in recent memory. Very good call from the White House!
Did your invite get lost in the mail? Watch the replay (via Pigeons and Planes).
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Lights recently took a break from her tour to attend the Juno Awards in her home country of Canada. The electronic musician, who was also nominated for an award, performed with deadmau5 on Sunday.
The singer-songwriter is featured in the April issue of Variance, in which she speaks about a variety of things including her life on tour and her views on the rise of dubstep in the electronic genre--and in mainstream music.
Watch the pair perform his song, "Raise Your Weapon" below.
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Karmin debuted its video yesterday for "Brokenhearted," the pop duo's first Billboard Hot 100 hit. The song jumps 84-60 in its second week on the chart.
Take a look (and listen) here.
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If you haven't had a chance to listen to the music of Tennis, you're missing out.
The indie trio joined Jay Leno on The Tonight Show Wednesday night and gave a stellar performance--reaffirming why they're currently one of our favorites.
Watch the performance of "Origins" below:
(Check out our photos of Tennis from SXSW 2012)
Watch the video below.
Amidst all the current buzz for fun. following the release of their new album, Some Nights, a video surfaced this weekend of Wisconsin-native Kevin Hammond covering their popular song, "We Are Young (featuring Janelle Monae)."
Hammond is signed to A&M/Octone (home of Maroon 5, Paper Tongues). Some Nights released on Tuesday and landed at No. 1 on iTunes. Billboard has also predicted the album will debut in the top five on this week's overall charts. The hit track, "We Are Young," has been No. 1 on iTunes for several days.
Watch Kevin Hammond's acoustic cover below.
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Whether you're a Whitney Houston fan or not, anyone can appreciate this recent cover of her hit "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" by the incredibly talented Ben Rector. Rector is currently on tour with NEEDTOBREATHE and if you've never seen him perform live, we recommend putting that on the to-do list.
Watch the video below.
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