The Dodos got some help from their friend Neko Case, who everyone just loves, last night on the band's appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It's a fairly impressive performance, especially considering I usually have a hard time getting into the Dodos. Maybe it's Neko. Man I love Neko.
The Dodos - Don't Try and Hide It (ft. Neko Case)
EDIT: Something shitty with the embedding, watch the video here.
"Moves," the New Pornographers newest music video, off of Together, features an all-out ensemble that's worth watching again and again, even if the song does sound a little like Weezer's "Sweater Song."
Paul Rudd, Bill Hader, Horatio Sanz, Donald Glover, John Oliver, Wyatt Cenac, John Hodgman, a cross-dressing Ted Leo, and an Independent Spirit Award nominated performance from Kevin Corrigan as Dan Bejar. Watch.
As the days to Lollapalooza 2010 swiftly approach, we continue the list of my top ten must-see acts of the festival. And now, here's part two.
#8: The Walkmen
A relatively under-billed, for some reason, act at this year's festival, The Walkmen are on the cusp of releasing what is expected to be another stellar album to their frequently filled catalog. Five years after the group broke into the hearts of indie-philes everywhere with their dynamic, and all-engrossing single "The Rat", The Walkmen, led by lead-singer Hamilton Leithauser are on the cusp of yet another studio release, Lisbon.
The new album, scheduled for release in September, via Fat Possum Records, is a continuation of the matured sound from 2008's You & Me, with plenty of modern saloon-esque horns cascading the slow decadence of Leithauser's surprisingly booming voice. For more on Lisbon, you can read an NPR highlight on the band's new works here.
The Walkmen will be performing at 1:00 on the Adidas Mega stage, Friday, August 6.
Canadian super-group The New Pornographers - led by singer-songwriters AC Newman, Dan Bejar and Neko Case, who made her own appearance at Lollapalooza last year - will be making their first appearance at the festival as a whole group in four years.
After a successful string of critically acclaimed albums released in the first half of the 2000's, The New Pornographers, coupled with their various side projects, took a bit of a side-step with their somewhat disappointing 2007 release, Challengers. Fast-forward three years, and you have Together, a collective reshaping of the band back to the enduring sounds fans first experienced with Mass Romantic.
The group will be performing at 4:00 on the Budweiser Stage, Friday, August 6. Together is out now via Matador Records.
The New Pornographers - Crash Years (Live on Fallon)
We'll continue our top 25 countdown with songs #10 through #1.
#10: Stillness is the Move - Dirty Projectors
As much as people fawned over Merriweather Post Pavilion, Dirty Projector's Bitte Orca rivaled it many ways. Some would even suggest that Orca surpasses MPP in brilliance with its sheer ingenuity and creative flourish, thanks in part to "Stillness is the Move." Often pop music is regarded is simplistic and rudimentary because of lack of originality and mass consumerism. With "Stillness," however, the rhythms, hooks, and harmonies of Amber, Angel and Haley is as uncommon and inventive as anything else we heard this year. Nearly impossible to replicate, although Solange Knowles did a good rendition.
Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move
#9: What Would I Want? Sky - Animal Collective
After over three minutes of distorted samples and crashes, Animal Collective's "What Would I Want? Sky," begins to glisten in a clash of brilliant vocal sequences, with a sample of the Grateful Dead's "Unbroken Chain" gently grazing in the background. Few and far between do Animal Collective's songs sound so gloriously uplifting and enriching, with Avey Tare asking, "Is everything alright? You feeling lonely? You feeling homely? You're not the only." The direct contrast between the first and the second half are what make Animal Collective such a polarizing and ingenious group -- with mess is beauty, in the brightest places.
#8: You're a Target - No Age
"You're a Target" accomplished something somewhat rare for No Age; they compiled a rousing, loud and boisterous noise-rock song with a collective harmony and memorable bridge. The song, part of the band's four-track Losing Feeling EP, wouldn't so much as fit with their 2008 album Nouns, because it sounds too mature, too frank and welcoming. "You're a Target," sounds, however, more embracing because the visceral fuzz and melody actual comes clean, unrushed, and still categorically immense.
How any artist retooled Hall & Oates coined "Maneater," to not only an extent of not only relevance but revitalization is beyond me. In Neko Case's "People Got a Lotta Nerve," the red-haired singer-songwriter boasts her man eater lifestyle not to the party-styled anthem idea of commanding and conquering the opposite sex, but ravaging them until their nothing. And yet, it's insatiably sweet coming from Case's exquisite alt-country voice -- both terrifyingly honest and beautifully broadcast.
Neko Case - People Got a Lotta Nerve
#6: Ambling Alp - Yeasayer
Before first listen to "Ambling Alp," Yeasayer could be deemed more psychedelic than pop. Their 2007 album All Hour Cymbals, aside from the wonderful "2080," sounded like a mirage in the Sonora desert -- long, labored, loose and fluid. "Ambling Alp," albeit very new (released only a few weeks ago), is a terrific step for the Brooklyn band. Pop is often curiously standard and continuous, always looking to achieve what's already been heard. Yet, every so often an artist with enough gall and ambition can make those strides toward a higher level. Radiohead did it, Animal Collective did it, and with "Ambling Alp," Yeasayer is doing it.
Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
#5: Lisztomania - Phoenix
With most of 2009 rumbling over Merriweather Post Pavilion and Bitte Orca, Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix reveled in their indie shadows and helped the band make their first leap into popular culture. "Lisztomania," creates a mass-appeal without asserting itself. Its bright melodies and cheery and leaping chorus, makes Phoenix sound lighter and more alluring than ever before, and it's not even the best song of the album.
Phoenix - Lisztomania
#4: Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The border between dance and rock music is hard to define. Often times those in music business will attempt to trespass on that border, and, more or less, failure is certain. What the Yeah Yeah Yeahs achieved with "Heads Will Roll," not only crosses that border, but takes it down. Karen O shrieks and shrills on a "chrome" dance floor, imploring that everyone should "dance, dance, dance till your dead," while Nick churns a haunting synth lead, almost sounding like noir with poise. The finishing product, glistening in a metallic stream, is heavier than it appears; it rips and tears through the dance-floor with a midnight castle element -- glowing in the dark and shining under the lights.
"My Girls" rushes into the ear with a earthy stream, followed by the emerging electro beat, humming quietly in the back. The song yearns for simplicity, imploring that Panda Bear doesn't "care for fancy things," but that gloriously simplicity is already there. "My Girls," sounds like sped-up evolution. The sounds careen and swirl around the listener, with tiny percussions, vocal samples and bass punches popping out of the back like small cracks on the Earth's surface. It leads and ends in the same fashion, slowly swelling, rising, climaxing, and falling back down to Earth. But before it falls, "My Girls" goes somewhere Animal Collective, until now, haven't found before -- a place lost between sounds and meaning, combining for something unbelievable.
Animal Collective - My Girls
#2: 1901 - Phoenix
"1901" is Phoenix's advertisement for the rest of the world -- it's the culmination of the bands work for the majority of the decade; smart, invigorating, inviting pop music that can make someone smile for days. The song's fuzzy interlude and landscaping synths make Thomas Mars sound cleaner and cooler than ever, bringing the band in the commercial spot light that has been years in the making.
Phoenix - 1901
#1: Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
"Two Weeks," is Grizzly Bear's triumph on Veckatimest. It's stark, luring, brilliant and incredibly intelligent. Every key note hit by Ed Droste and the rest of the band, honing in on their trademark harmonies, sounds crisper and better than ever. The alarming exceptionalism of "Two Weeks" makes one wonder how much further the band can progress after Veckatimest and 2006's Yellow House. Indeed, if "Two Weeks" can prove anything other than indelible craftsmanship, it's that Grizzly Bear seem to progress at each and every try. How much better can they get?
The part-time New Pornographers member and solo artist is currently on the final leg of her current U.S. tour, hitting the American Southwest before she departs for Australia.
Finally, I can actually get a legitimate copy of Dirty Projectors new single "Stillness in the Move" off of their upcoming Bitte Orca LP, without dealing with any of that mailing list bull crap. The album's due out June 9 via Domino Records.
, features an all-out ensemble that's worth watching again and again, even if the song does sound a little like Weezer's "Sweater Song."
, with plenty of modern saloon-esque horns cascading the slow decadence of Leithauser's surprisingly booming voice. For more on Lisbon, you can read an 
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