New Strokes video - All The Time

Taking a look back through the year's with The Strokes' newest video for "All The Time," we get a formative home-video montage of what it's been like to grow up with the New York garage stars. Fittingly so, the perspective is given with a song that seems to truly fit the Strokes Is This It? early styles.

Grab the band's upcoming fifth studio album Comedown Machine March 26 via RCA.

New Strokes - All The Time

It seems the reckless synth overdrive of the Strokes previous single "One Way Trigger" has been forgiven (a little) with "All The Time." The newest single from the band actually conjures a little from their Is This It? and Room On Fire days, modeled in garage rock simplicity and a booming, catchy chorus.

Check out the new track below and grab Comedown Machine March 26 via RCA.

Wednesday Bears: TV on the Radio, Death Cab, and Strokes do late night

Last night, TV on the Radio, Death Cab, and The Strokes all made another stop in the ongoing series of their rampant late-night performances.

TV on the Radio, making their first national television appearance since the death of bassist Gerard Smith - a noticeable absence - in late April, performed "Will Do," one of Nine Types of Light's lighter selections on The Tonight Show.

TV on the Radio - Will Do (Live on Leno)



Over at Fallon, Death Cab performed one of the newer singles from Codes and Keys, "You Are a Tourist," as well as a special bonus rendition of "Title Track" from 2000's We Have the Fact and We're Voting Yes.

Death Cab for Cutie - You Are a Tourist (Live on Fallon)



Death Cab for Cutie - Title Track (Web Exclusive on Fallon)



Not to be outdone, The Strokes played the same songs they've been doing from Angles for a few months now on Later ... With Jools Holland. Can you guess what they are?

The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness (Live on Jools Holland)



The Strokes - Taken for a Fool (Live on Jools Holland)

New Strokes video - Call Me Back

Shortly after the release of Angles and a few impromptu live gigs, the Strokes premiered the second video from the album (fast, huh?) earlier today.

The video was actually made by baseball t-shirt aficionado Albert Hammond Jr. for anyone who preordered Angles. It's about bubbles, or girls, or something.

The Strokes - Call Me Back

Thursday Bears: Strokes make Letterman return

The Strokes just seem to fit on Letterman. During their 2000-06 heyday, the band constantly frequented the Late Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien (including month long specials). Now with Conan dearly departed (Jack White/the White Stripes were always his band anyway) from the New York area, and the Strokes already previewing Angles on SNL, the Late Show seemed apt.

Last night, the group returned, performing the live debut of "Taken for a Fool," one of Angles stand-outs. It still has that classic Strokes-performance cool apathy, but they seem to try a bit harder than they did on SNL a few weeks ago.

The Strokes - Taken for a Fool (Live on Letterman)

Monday Bears: The Strokes return to SNL

As you probably have heard already, the Strokes performed a pair of new songs on last weekend's Miley Cyrus-hosted Saturday Night Live. Alongside "Under Cover of Darkness," Casablancas and Co. debuted "Life is Simple in the Moonlight," a song we've only heard 30 seconds of before.

The consensus is that it seemed a bit, I don't know, phoned in. Plaintively, the group looked unenthusiastic (that's not to say that the songs were actually bad - they weren't), but not in the cool Strokesy way. See for yourself.

The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness



The Strokes - Life is Simple in the Moonlight

Wednesday Bears: New Strokes video - Under Cover of Darkness

Shortly after midnight, for whatever reason, the Strokes premiered their brand new video (the first from them in five years) for "Under Cover of Darkness," the apparent lead single of Angles, which is due out March 22 via RCA. You know, in case you forgot.

The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness

Listen to all of the Strokes new album, almost

A few weeks after the Strokes premiered "Under Cover of Darkness," the first new song anyone has heard from the band in five years, the group is giving fans a chance to listen to Angles a little ahead of its March 22 release. Well, kinda. Get your fill of 30-second samples of each of the album's 10 tracks here.

Bonnaroo 2011 lineup released

Manchester, Tennessee's annual Bonnaroo Music Festival's official lineup was released earlier today. Here are the meaty, dirty details:

• A week after news came out that Eminem would be headlining Lollapalooza 2011, the Detroit rapper surprised again, filling out the top of Bonnaroo's billing.
• After winning Album of the Year (and beating out Eminem), Arcade Fire will also be at Bonnaroo this year.
• My Morning Jacket, Buffalo Springfield (and friends), Lil' Wayne, Robert Plant, The Strokes, Decemberists, and the Black Keys are among the other notable larger acts.
• Bassnectar seems to be this year's big electronic act.
• For the rest of the lineup (Bonnaroo's site is currently stuck in traffic), check here.

Tickets for the festival go on sale this Saturday, Feb. 19.

Wednesday Bears: New Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness

For those living under a series of rocks, the Strokes are back.

Today marked the release of the band's first new song since way back in 2006. For those who've been following, you may have already heard the 30 second sample of "Under Cover of Darkness," and probably wanted more. Well, good news then.

For the next two days, the song will be available for free download at the Strokes website, barring you sign up for it. But for those who don't even want to deal with that, just download it dummy.

Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness - MP3

Tuesday Bears: The Streets' new free mixtape

Prepping the heavily anticipated release of Computers and Blues, The Streets first studio album in three years and potentially his "last," Mike Skinner (and other guests) released a free, lengthy mixtape aptly titled Cyberspace and Reds, which, incidentally, is better than any title on the Strokes upcoming album Angles (check out the track list here).

The mix tape features the likes of Kano, Ice Kid, Trim and many other English people we don't know.

You can grab the full, individual song downloads over at Pretty Much Amazing.

Wednesday Bears: Lollapalooza 2010 Review - Day One

Lollapalooza 2010 has come and gone. And as with every year, I'll post my day-by-day in depth review of everything that happened, to me at least.

Day One:

By now, I feel comfortable calling myself a Lolla veteran. Despite the new shake-ups organizers made to the park - moving some stages and increasing size and ticket revenue - certain things about the festival have now become somewhat predictable. Now that's not me saying that I don't enjoy my time, because I certainly do, but the surprise factor has somewhat been diminished. Regardless, August 6, the festival's first full day, was one of the best I've ever had the privilege of being a part of.

The sun was out in pristine blue sky, as Chicago usually seems to this time of year, at a hot, but bearable 80 degrees. Walking in I noticed two distinct things that we're a bit different: one; the size expansion. The Lolla-area had been extended to Michigan Avenue, allowing several stages their own space, more bathrooms and easier in and out access to the park. The other was the overwhelming amount of Lady Gaga fans. They had come in black and pink droves, with colored hair, flaring costumes and skin-tight everything, parking themselves at the south side of the park for the entire day, hoping to save a seat in the enormous crowd that was growing throughout the day. It was a big change of pace for a festival that had never billed a pure mainstream pop act of this caliber. For once, the festival wasn't a haven for mislabeled hipsters and older fans looking for a fun weekend. More on that later.

So, officially, my third Lollapalooza began with Wavves at around noon. For those familiar with the band and their studio work, you'd understand the risks seeing them. Luckily, or in another sense, predictably, the band is better live than advertised. With a weekend short on surprising acts, Wavves was a good start. The noise rock trio, headed by notorious frontman Nate Williams, were a bit out there (if you know the cover of their King of the Beach album you can pretty much figure it out) for the majority of the show, accusing fans for being Ben Stein and whatnot, but they settled into their own, making them a bit more endearing than before.

Wavves

Leaving Wavves with a little time to spare, I made my way to the opposite end of the park to catch the Walkmen, the first of my many heavily anticipated performances. While the first five minutes of the show were clouded with immense, for some reason, technical difficulties, the band broke into with the first of many new tracks from their upcoming album Lisbon.

Decked in their usual casual yet formal clothing, the group, thanks most to Hamilton Leithauser's booming vocals, gave maybe the best early performance of the day, mixing in new work and more familiar singles like "In the New Year" and "The Rat" throughout the show. All in all, a pretty damn good start for just being 2:00 p.m.

The Walkmen

My eventual down-time was few and far between, but between 2:00 and 4:00 I had my first breather. I took short trips to see Ana Sia, my first visit to the updated Perry's Place, and a couple minutes with noise-gaze trio Cymbals Eat Guitars, but eventually found myself waiting for the New Pornographers to start.

Kicking off with my favorite song of theirs, "Sing Me Spanish Techno," Neko Case (draped in a sun-protecting hat), AC Newman, Dan Bejar (who came in and out often) and the rest of the group performed almost every hit they've had in their near ten-year careers, spanning from 2001's Mass Romantic to this year's Together. Needless to say, the group sounded flawless on stage, despite the direct sunlight on Case's fair frame. Friday afternoon had again spurned what would turn out to be one of the weekend's best shows.

The New Pornographers

Once 5:00 rolled around, I was caught in my first of several weekend dilemmas. Do I stay at the north side of the park and catch the Dirty Projectors? Or Fuck Buttons? Well, I knew I wasn't going to Matt & Kim on the south side so there wasn't too much worry there, so I tried my time at both and wound up just grabbing my spot for Hot Chip.

It's unfortunate to note that this was probably the only stain on day one. As I mentioned before, the plethora of Gaga fans camping out at the south end of the park eventually begun to choke the area around the main stage. And by 6:00 any person hoping to grab a spot for either Hot Chip or Gaga had to really manage their way through the sidelines. It's a shame too, because the group put on one of the best shows of the weekend, but half of time I was trying not to bump shoulders with 40,000 others. Still, it was another great show for the day.

With the first night a few hours away from closing, I geared up for day one's headliner, The Strokes. I stayed a short time at Jamie Lidell's bearded and disheveled performance, trying to rest my legs in anticipation of two and half hours of straight standing (and/or jumping). Yeah, it didn't really do much to help.

Jamie Lidell

For those who weren't aware, or don't regularly read this thing, this was the first show the Strokes had done in the United States in nearly four years. While there wasn't any new material to speak of (could be a good or a bad thing), the band seemed like they haven't spent too much time apart, performing almost their entire track list from Is This It? and several other songs from their last two albums. It's hard-pressed for Lolla headliners to put on disappointing performances, and aside from the late start and somewhat early exit (making a scheduled hour and half show into an hour and 10 minute show), The Strokes easily delivered. So for fans electing to, or adamant about staying away from anything Gaga, their night ended pretty well.

The Strokes

Best Performances: The Strokes, The New Pornographers, Hot Chip, The Walkmen
Worst Performances: None

Highlights: "Reptilia" by the Strokes, "Bleeding Heart Show" by The New Pornographers and "In the New Year" by The Walkmen
Lowlights: The Gaga crowd at Hot Chip

Day Two Review Tomorrow ...