Mark Linkous who played under the name of Sparklehorse passed away this weekend at his own hand. Sometime last year, I talked about how brilliant the record ‘Dark Night of the Soul’. I found this video on GOOD magazine’s blog- it’s a beautiful video for ‘Sea of Teeth’. Why do we keep losing great artists? Have you seen Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talks on nurturing genius? It’s a strong thesis on why artists seem as tortured as they do. 

Sea of Teeth – Sparklehorse from christina vantzou on Vimeo.

Yesterday I was in San Diego with some friends and they suggested we go to a record store in Hillcrest to check out some band called Phantogram. They were so. so. good. You guys, am I late on this one? How have I not heard about them before?

Guitarist Josh Carter and keyboardist Sarah Barthel are of the ‘psych pop’ breed, the ambience and electronically fused futuristic sounds accompanied by the gorgeous vocals of Barthel who sways meditatively with thick black bangs to a drum machine. It’s easy to listen to, mellow with moments of distortion, combined with layered echoes that build throughout the song, as if they’re crafting the song as they go. This requires precision and they seemed to do it so organically. Below is an acoustic version of ‘When I’m Small’. Thanks Andrea [Nakhla] for showing me this, AND for making me the worlds.best.mix.

Phantogram- FuturisticCasket 

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Phantogram- Mouth Full of Diamonds

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I love my friend Andrew (Jamdrew) for so many reasons. We’re friends mostly because we both really love music, all kinds of music. And most often our loves align, and we find outselves loving most of the same stuff. In comes David Bazan- an artist that’s something sacred to us, to even talk about him would require full attention from the other, knowing that there is some good news on the way, or just how soul crushing his lyrics really are. We nerd out pretty hard over it. Well, in a few days I’ll be seeing him play, and will be bringing a giant poster of him to sign, “To Jamdrew, catch those dreams, my dreamcatcher”.

So Andrew reveals to me that Bazan had released David Bazan: Live At Electrical Audio a couple weeks ago that includes 10 new versions of the following songs. Magazine is available for download, and How I Remember and I Never Wanted You are streaming HERE. 

1. I Do
2. How I Remember
3. When We Fell
4. Magazine
5. Never Wanted You
6. Cold Beer & Cigarettes
7. Heavy Breath
8. Keep Swinging
9. Fewer Broken Pieces
10. In Stitches

Oh, and I found this cover of Julie Doiron’s ‘Will You Still Love Me in December’ on donewaiting.com

I don’t know why I never tell you what else I’ve got going on besides the blog. I actually do quite a bit of writing for other projects/publications, but I’ve been working with Spinner/AOL for their ambitious SXSW project. I often don’t get to choose what I write about (that’s reserved for the usefulness of this little space!) but I was assigned  to write about a project called Cast Spells, it’s the sideproject of David Davison (Maps & Atlases, Hey!Tonal) and it is brilliant. He’s got this sweet gingerale voice, some of the most imaginative pop songs and stripped down, minimalist acoustic jams, with his debut EP ‘Bright Works and Batons’. I’ll link you to the article when it’s up!

I love the track, ‘American Quilts’ where he sings,

“That’s when she said there are so many things I would thrown in the ocean when I was younger but/ Underneath couch cushions seems a less obvious good bye,/ I agreed and continued to build her an ash tray in the sand/The muted applause of rain /Sleeves wrapped like licorice on the back seat of a train”

You can stream the whole album HERE

You can check out his EP Split with Good Old War HERE

You’re welcome.

Nada Surf.

They announced they’ll be releasing a covers album entitled ‘If I Had a Hi Fi’ on June 8th. They’ve given away the tack ‘Electrocution’ by Bill Fox as a free download. I really like this band, mostly because they’re sweet dudes. I remember working one of their shows sometime last September for Invisible Children and they were really pleasant. I’m glad that my name is most recognizeably associated with a reasonably good band. Thank God my name isn’t R. Kelly. Although I do know an R. Kelly and he is pretty sweet. 

The tracklist is as follows:

“Electrocution” (Bill Fox)
“Enjoy the Silence”  (Depeche Mode)
“Love Goes On” (The Go-Betweens)
“Janine”  (Arthur Russell)
“You Were So Warm” (Dwight Twilley)
“Love and Anger” (Kate Bush)
“The Agony of Laffitte” (Spoon)
“Bye Bye Beaute” (Coralie Clement)
“Question” (Moody Blues)
“Bright Side” (Soft Pack)
“Evolution” (Mercromina)
“I Remembered What I Was Going to Say” (The Silly Pillows)

Nada Surf- Electrocution [Bill Fox]

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The latest effort by Brooklynites Fang Island entitled ‘Daisy’, released on Feb. 23rd is best described as a charmingly noisy racket. Sometimes, I’m not too sure what to think of it, but I’ve been steadily into their track ‘Daisy’ for some time now. There’s a lot of layered instruments, power chords, distant choruses of voices (nearly exclusively choir vocals). It’s a little power pop punk, or something Andrew WK would do, mixed in with a little Dragonforce, if Dragonforce did their rendition of ‘We Are The World’. Hah, are you still following me? Anyway, it’s perhaps best left undescribed and just listened to.

Fang Island- Daisy

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A while back I had mentioned a band called ‘Seabear‘ with the introduction of their delightful track called, ‘Lion Faced Boy’. Well, I snagged a listen of their full length called ‘We Started a Fire’ and it’s just a sweet. The vocals are very Iron and Wine, but with more magical instrumentation by way of violins, banjos, children’s choirs and tinkering keyboards. The album officially comes out March 5th but it’s streaming in it’s entirety online. Pre-release copies are available with an additional 6-track EP entitled ‘When The Fire Dies’. Check out their super weird new video for ‘I’ll Build You A Fire’ below:

Seabear- Arms

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Seabear- Singing Arc

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Freelance Whales have been making their presence known to me steadily for the passed few weeks. It started when my talented friend Andrea Nakhla put together this video for Swapdoodles, our friends’ project, set to a Freelance Whales song. Since then I’ve been putting them on mixes, and just got the latest Porchswing mix and noticed they were sitting quite comfortably in between Wild America and True Womanhood. (Yes, I’ve linked it, but it’s members only so.. sorry). Anyway, I just came across this Stereogum exclusive video and it’s beautiful. Lyrically, they are unrivaled. The chorus for Generator Second Floor goes something like, “dont fix my smile, life is long enough, we will put this flesh into the ground again”. Weaving a dreamy tapestry of narratives, citing childhood stories and fantasies. With soft vocals and layered instrumentation it reminds me a little of Annuals, Beirut, or Broken Social Scene.

Immediately, I knew I’d like this band. And then I found out they’re from my hometown of Toronto. They’re called Mathemagic, and as far as I know their EP ‘Breaststroke’ hasn’t even been released yet. Before I go any further, did you know that Mathemagicians are real? Mathemagic is a real thing, as demonstrated by Arthur Benjamin in his TED talks about “lightning calculations and other feats of mathematical agility”. Back to the band- they’ve got that shimmering, hazy sound that makes everything steady along a slow-motion pace. It steadies your breathing. I’m two songs in and already in love. The repetitive phrase ‘it’s alright’ makes you believe that, hey, it really is. Toronto, sometimes I adore you.

Mathemagic- Breaststroke

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Mathemagic-High

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Hey friends, 

Exciting stuff here at FWBA, we’re in the beginning stages of completely revamping this space. I’m so excited about partnering with Cameron Woodward- social media guru/technology wizard/dude from Rushmore. Soon you’ll be able to connect with us on a new level, we want your feedback, we want you to hit us up, write us love letters, give us your thoughts and get involved. This may take some time but stick with us, we’ll be posting regularly like we always do. 

As we slowly transform this space into a more accessible, relevant forum for cool ‘ish and other projects we’re excited about, we want you on board with us. Thanks for keeping with us and sending us sweet messages. We love them. Feel free to write us at friendswithbotharms@gmail.com

Love, 

Nada and Andrea

La Strada- My New Home

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