New Jack Johnson and Gaslight Anthem Singles

The first single from Jack Johnson's sixth studio album, To The Sea, out June 1st, just came out, and is called "You And Your Heart." It's pretty awesome, so check it out:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/7486352146bfa0c7/

Also, here is the album cover and single cover (click for larger):

One of my new (in the last year or two) favorite bands, The Gaslight Anthem, also released a new single, from their forthcoming third album, American Slang, out on 6/15. The song is also called "American Slang," and is also awesome. Here's the song and album cover:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/7486378895bb4f6d/

Vampire Weekend

My sister and I went and saw one of my new favorite bands last night (in Boston) at the Orpheum. SO good live. The music is just so fun and lively and it totally translates to the crowd. Everyone's just dancing and having a great time. They play really well live, and you can tell they have a lot of fun playing. Ezra talked quite a bit and was actually a really funny guy. They talked about how much they like Boston, partly why they have 3 Massachusetts-based songs on their debut album, all 3 of which were played. Apparently they don't usually play all 3. At least not "Ladies of Cambridge", which is technically a bonus track. Conveniently enough it's one of my favorite VW songs (at least top 3) so I was really really happy that they played it.

Also, to make the show even better, I upgraded my tickets at no extra cost last minute. The show had sold out in like an hour or something when it went on sale several months ago, and I managed to barely get tickets, last row on the lower level. I was a little disappointed, but figured it was better than the balcony. So last night, about an hour before we left, this family friend who owns a ticket agency calls me and offered me 7th row seats at face value, so I took them and put my crappy seats on craigslist at face value, got a call within 5 minutes, and met a kid at the venue. So it was amazing! I brought my camera, which I rarely do at concerts, and got a few good ones... check them out (click to view full size):

Been a While

So I haven't posted in almost 3 months... I've been busy with work and stuff, and just haven't had too much time to write up stuff. Just to catch up on 2010 so far, this is my current running list of albums, a quarter of the way through the year:

1. MGMT - Congratulations
2. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks
3. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring
4. Vampire Weekend - Contra
5. Broken Bells - Broken Bells
6. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
7. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
8. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
9. Spoon - Transference
10. Flobots - Survival Story
-----------------------------------------------------
11. RjD2 - The Colossus
12. Meth Rae Ghost - Wu-Massacre

The order is VERY subject to change... maybe I'll go back and write up reviews on a couple of them if I have time. The only album I've listened to that isn't yet placed is "Go" by Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi. (Both Sigur Ros and Jonsi have crazy Icelandic accent marks on some of the letters, but I don't care enough to figure out how to do that.) It's hard to rank an album like that because it's just SO different from everything else that I listen to. In general, 2010 has been really consistent, musically. There hasn't been an album that really blew me out of the water the way Merriweather Post Pavilion did, but there have been so many really solid 8.5 to 9 /10 albums, in my opinion. I don't like to officially assign scores out of 10 until further into the year, but right now I'd say that everything in the top 10 is at least an 8.5/10, with the top 6 being at least a 9/10. I'm really excited to see how the rest of the year turns out.

As far as upcoming albums that I can't wait for, we have a few leading that pack. And I'm just talking about 100% announced and confirmed albums, Detox doesn't count, nor does Kanye's new album, although I am pretty sure the latter will be out by the end of the year. Anyways, I really can't wait for these 4 albums:

- Reflection Eternal - Revolutions Per Minute (out 5/18)

- Nas & Damian Marley - Distant Relatives (out 5/18?)

- Jack Johnson - To The Sea (out 6/1)

- The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang (out 6/15)