Discover Your Three New Favorite Songs (LIVE EDITION)

Another week, another post from me spotlighting my three current favorite songs. Let’s make this a LIVE EDITION just for the hell of it, yeah?

First up is Haim, recent winners of the BBC’s Sound of 2013 music industry poll . Performing new track “Falling,” the band is a joy to watch as they let loose with their throaty vocals and R&B-tinged grooves. I saw them play at Mumford & Sons‘ mini-festival in Portland last summer and they’re all kinds of awesome.

English rock band Foals just released their third album a week or two back and I’ve essentially had it on repeat ever since. “Last Night” is a particular highlight that builds into an epic climax and is totes worth the listen. Tickets for their show at House of Blues in May just went on sale and it’s performances like this one that have me already counting down the days for it.

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper sure sounds like a bizarre name for a single singer-songwriter to go by, but please don’t let it distract you from her brilliance. Her soon-to-be-released album is ridiculously emotional and it’s performances like the one above of my personal favorite, “Bird Balloons,” that make it clear she’s going to be having an enormously successful 2013.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy the rest of the day off and keep on jamming!

Josh

Introducing… Town Hall, the Next Big Thing in Indie-Folk

Over the past couple weeks, NYC-based indie-folk trio Town Hall has quickly become one of my favorite bands of the moment and it’s about time I expose all y’all to their brilliance. Town Hall puts their own twist on the male-female vocalist formula and consistently produces some of the best music I’ve heard in months. No lie.

The band first captured my attention when their folksy take on the Ja Rule/Ashanti classic, “Always on Time,” hit the web a couple months back. Aside from me being a sucker for a good cover, I was instantly hooked on their immaculate harmonies and immediately sought out every track they’d ever released online.

After obsessing over every track on their EP, Sticky Notes & Paper Scraps, for several weeks, I watched the band’s newly-released music video for “Good Boy” and fell deeper in love. While lacking in the harmonies that initially drew me to the band, the track still tells a great narrative about a neighborhood hellion.

Just yesterday the band celebrated the official release of debut album Roots & Bells with a show at NYC’s Webster Hall. As tempted as I was to make the trek down, I resisted and now I’m patiently waiting for the band to make their return to Boston some time this summer. Apparently I missed out on them playing Great Scott in Allston just a couple weeks back, an error on my part that I’ve since grieved.

Be sure to like the band on their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, or purchase their album on Bandcamp. They deserve all your love. They really do.

Recommended Tracks: The soaring “Mary A. Longden” and decidedly more somber “Charlie”

Have a great week everybody! The semester is actually almost over. Like, forrealz.

-Josh

Frank & Dependent: This Year’s Winner of Battle of the Bands

Last Saturday some of Boston’s finest local bands threw down in the final round of our Battle of the Bands series and out emerged Frank & Dependent as this year’s victor. The band has been steadily on the rise on the BU scene over the past few months, so it’s about time all y’all got acquainted with the folk-rock ensemble.

Frank & Dependent, with its fluctuating slate of 8-ish members who play a wide array of instruments, deservedly took the competition when the crowd deemed them the official winner of the night. Enjoy the video below of them performing a particular favorite of mine, “Kelly Combs”.

Be sure to like the band’s Facebook page by clicking here or downloading some of their awesome free music off their Bandcamp page by clicking here

Have a great week, y’all!

-Josh

Fresh Music Videos to Check Out!

Not much of a theme to the songs I’m posting today, just what I’ve been listening to as of late. Prepare for some majorly quality music videos!

The video for St. Vincent’s “Cruel” constantly plays on mtvU and I don’t have the slightest problem with that. It’s shot beautifully and the song itself soars across the heavens. LOVE.

Niki & the Dove is an up-and-coming electronic act and delightfully weird videos like this one for “The Drummer” are sure to make the band big on the hipster front for much of 2012. LOVE.

And on a completely different note, I present something folksy and adorable! Indie-folk band Hudson released the video to their song “Against the Grain” about a week ago and it plays like an extended version of a back-to-school Staples commercial. Even if it just makes me want to buy school supplies, it’s still crazy creative and you can’t help but be happy while listening to it. LOVE.

That’s it for this week. Have an awesome Thanksgiving break and I’ll see all y’all next Monday!

Josh