If you missed MUTEMATH on today’s “Like A Version” on Triple J, then you missed out on 4 minutes worth of pure, pure music. I know that sounds an obvious statement, but I well and truly mean it. It’s not often these days that you hear pure, unbridled music. And holy shit, I loved it.
I remember back in the days when I lived in South Africa, we struggled to get good international acts to come out and play intimate gigs. No longer, it seems, as I’ve just come across this stunning recording of The Tallest Man on Earth playing a live show in South Africa, in one of my favourite cities: Cape Town.
The tune in question, Little Brother, is simply beautiful. Dare I say, it’s the favourite thing I’ve heard from Kristian Mattsson yet. And considering I’ve been writing about the guy for about four years now, that’s saying something.
This weekend The National debuted two songs on Canadian Public Radio and… sigh. They are predictably gorgeous.
After much teasing about their new album, this is our first look at what the boys have been working on while wrapping up their final High Violet shows. And it certainly doesn’t disappoint.
The first track, Rylan, is a classic-National tune, with those precision drums and understated piano chords leading. The other, “I Need My Girl” sounds a little less polished, but all the more intriguing for its surprising folk-guitar led melody.
Listen to both below, and the catch the videos of the performances that the mp3s are taken from below that. There’s also a bonus video of our buddy Justin Vernon joining the boys for “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”.
Since pretty much the release of their debut album, we’ve all been waiting with bated breath for Mumford and Sons‘ sophomore release. The band has teased us by road-testing quite a few of the rumoured new tunes while on tour; most recently, we wrote about “Home” here.
They’ve now debuted possibly my favourite of the lot, live on Philadelphia’s Radio 104.5 on Saturday. Marcus calls it “Ghosts That We Knew,” while Ben calls it just “Ghosts.” Whatever the title, I can tell you that it’s simply beautiful. Listen below.
So this is a few days late, but Ryan Adams recently appeared on WNYC to talk about (and perform an absolutely killer version of) his tune, “New York, New York”. As WNYC says:
In the wake of 9/11, certain music that was recorded well before the attacks suddenly took on new meaning. Alt-country singer-songwriter Ryan Adams joins us to explain how “New York, New York,” his country-pop rave-up about heartbreak in the East Village, was transformed by tragedy and triumph. Plus: Adams performs a stunning arrangement of the song at our piano.
Listen to Ryan’s thoughts on how “New York, New York” was changed by the events of 9/11… and watch the song video – which was shot on location just 4 days before the towers fell – below that.
Sophomore album pressure? Looks like Mumford & Sons don’t know the meaning of the term. Despite having that ever-so-slightly weighty debut release hanging over their heads, the boys show no signs of feeling anxiety. First they brought us that beautiful cover of England, and now – thanks to KBCO – we can hear this live take of their new tune, “Home”, which has been getting some spins on their latest tour.
“Home” will more than likely appear on Mumford’s second LP, which is rumoured to be out by the end of the year.