Spotlight on Lake Street Dive

Last Tuesday night, July 11th, the attendees of the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg waited excitedly for 7:30 to finally roll around. The theater was packed; even those sitting in the farthest seats, like me, were surrounded by enthusiastic fans. Much of this excitement filling the theater flowed into the air when finally the lights dimmed and people walked onto the stage. Instruments were tuned, throats were cleared, and as the show lights lit the faces of the band Lawrence, the upbeat music began. 

Lawrence, a pop-jazz sibling duo from New York, set the scene for the bigger act to come. Gracie, the amazing vocalist with an extremely wide range, bopped around the stage, dancing with the saxophonists and trumpeter, while her brother wailed away on the keyboard. Though their sound compares similarly to pop music of today, their R&B and jazzy twist created an exciting and upbeat atmosphere that got the whole crowd cheering. Though they only played a couple of songs, their force and stage presence stuck with the audience, even once they were off the stage.

Lawrence brought the audience to their feet, but the band we were all waiting for, Lake Street Dive, drove us to dancing in the aisles. The moment Rachel Price and her three other insanely talented band members took the stage, the excitement in the Majestic Theater was through the roof. They sound like they belong at outdoor festivals, where the audience dances along, barefoot in the grass, to their rhythmic beats and relaxed tone. Even when playing their slower, more melodic tunes, the members of Lake Street Dive possessed a cheery, passionate aura that inspired others to continue their dancing and swaying. Last year, Lake Street Dive came out with a new album, Side Pony, and they played many tracks from it, such as “I Don’t Care About You,” “How Good It Feels,” “Call Off Your Dogs,” and of course the namesake, “Side Pony.” Sprinkled in throughout the set were some of their classics off their older album, such as “Bad Self Portraits,” “Seventeen,” and “Better Than,” and they ended the night with one of my favorites, “You Go Down Smooth.” Throughout the concert, audience members were bopping along to the music, and some more enthusiastic fans were swinging their arms around to their favorite songs. But it wasn’t until the second to last song, “Call Off Your Dogs,” that people started dancing in the aisles. Only a couple at first felt the urge to get up, but once an older gentleman stood up from the middle of the audience and motioned the rest of the crowd to join him did we all dance along to the upright bass, the jazzy guitar, and the incredible strength of Rachel’s voice. The audience demanded an encore, and the whole crowd sang along to “You Go Down Smooth.”

It was an incredible performance by both Lawrence and Lake Street Dive; there wasn’t a dull moment throughout both sets. Both bands will continue their tour throughout America, staying a couple more nights on the East Coast until they venture towards the mid-West. If you ever get the chance to see them, you should take it!                                              

If you are interested in hearing more from Lake Street Dive, check out this NPR Tiny Desk Concert! Also check out their website for more cool info!

As for Lawrence, here is their website and how to listen to them for free!

 

If you have any questions, email Julia Ormond at ormondj@dickinson.edu. Thanks for reading!

ADDs of the Week for 10/22-10/23

I know I haven’t been exactly on top of my ADDs game for a while. A lot of senior thesis work and staring out the window has been occupying my time. Not to mention my attempts to break this caffeine addiction. It’s a little disturbing. Anyway, we have a lot of really great ADDs this week which you will be hearing over the air for a while, especially the ones I’m about to tell you allllll about. Because they are awesome. Didn’t I already say that? Anyway, here are this weeks top ADDs:

Titus Andronicus — Local Business: The long anticipated and accidentally recently leaked new album from punk rock Americana superband Titus Andronicus is here! This album differs from their other two albums because it doesn’t follow a set concept or narrative, but it is just as violent and rawly awesome as their other work. The subjects covered in the album’s themes range from an eating disorder to quitting smoking to lots of other things so nihilistic I can’t even begin to describe them all. Listen and punch a wall simultaneously to get the full effect.

Recommended Tracks: Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape With The Flood Of Detritus, My Eating Disorder, In A Big City, (I Am The) Electric Man

RIYD: Andrew Jackson Jihad, Bomb the Music Industry!, Japandroids

Paul Banks — Banks: This is the front man of Interpol’s solo album, and let’s just say he works even better alone. A more simplified sound, Banks’s voice still adds a lot of the allure that has fans drawn to his band Interpol as well. There’s something a little 1970s about this album as well.

Recommended Tracks: The Base, Over My Shoulder, Young Again

RIYD: Turtle Giants, Interpol, Blonds

Chelsea Wolfe — Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs: Okay, this girl is like Lykke Li and Cat Power had a baby after listening to a lot of Grimes. Though the album is primarily acoustic, her voice and layering of harmonies make this album a lot richer. There is a lot of raw emotion juxtaposed with clean cut structure. This album is perfect for studying or pretending to be studying but actually just stressing out while staring up at the ceiling. Highly recommended.

Recommended Tracks: Sunstorm, Flatlands, Boyfriend

RIYD: Cat Power, Lykke Li, Tegan and Sara, EMA

New Single from TEGAN AND SARA

I don’t know about you, radioland, but I have been waiting for a new Tegan and Sara single since I was in, like, high school. Like. They’ve probably had new music before then but I haven’t had any new Tegan and Sara in my personal universe in a long time.

Anyway, you should definitely check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dSGbOmW4AjI

And you can check out their first single “Closer” right here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7MNGPmrlWo

Their new album Heartthrob is set to be released in January 2013.

THIS WEEKS ADDS (9/11/12-9/12/12): Cat Power, Animal Collective and The XX

We have a lot of new adds this week for WDCV, and a lot from last week as well. While we sort through the piles of CDs currently overflowing from the rickety bookshelves in the exec office, here is a little sample of the bigger names we’ve racked in for adds this week.

All of the music we have gotten is of course, awesomeee, but these three deserve a post all their own.

The xx — Coexist: This album is everything you’d expect from The xx, sensual slow beats and the pleasant harmonies of sultry male and female voices winding in and around each other. Their second studio produced album, Coexist is the product of the band’s endless touring for the past two years and the loss of their fourth member Baria Qureshi. The themes common to the xx’s previous album remain the same with Coexist, loneliness, love and lust dominant the lyrics of the album. Though their music is inspired by pop and dance music, their sound is simple enough to stand on its own whether the band is playing live or you just have Romy Madley Croft’s voice sighing in your ear through inexpensive headphones.

Recommended Tracks: Angels, Chained, Fiction, Sunset, Swept Away

RIYD: Purity Ring, Lykke Li

Animal Collective — Centipede Hz: The tenth studio album from Animal Collective, Centipede Hz is the first in a while to actually include collaborative efforts of all four original members Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin. More experimental and less clean cut than Merriweather Post Pavillion, one is reminded of the raw quality of albums like Sung Tongs and Strawberry Jam. Fans of the old Animal Collective will warm to this album, with its trance elements and unique collaged quality.

Recommended Tracks: Moonjock, Today’s Supernatural, Applesauce, New Town Burnout, Amanita

RIYD: Gang Gang Dance, Deerhunter

Cat Power — Sun: Layered musically as well as lyrically, SUN is Cat Power aka Chan Marshall’s first album of solely personal and self written material in six years. Marshall wrote all of the material herself, and the music reflects her independence as an artist as well as her ability to mold and manipulate multiple musical styles. The haunting guitar and throaty vocals classic to Cat Power’s previous style remain as well as the influence of a more upbeat electronic sound that makes her work more competitive with current synth pop.

Recommended Tracks: Cherokee, Sun, 3 6 9, Manhattan

RIYD: Bat For Lashes, Sharon Van Etten, Neko Case, Grimes

 

That’s all for this week, keep checking in for more featured artist updates!

Meow.

The Two Rapstresses We Can’t Get Enough Of

And coincidentally, they have similar(ish) names: Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks aka Yung Rapunzel

Iggy Azalea, real name Amethyst Amelia Kelly, is a native Australian only 22 years of age. Despite her youth, she has already gained an avid underground following with a free mixtape available for download as well as her EP Glory which is also available for free download. Iggy was recently signed to Grand Hustle Records, the record label founded by TI in Georgia. Her rise to fame has been mostly due to her videos going viral on Youtube, and her sound is as fun as it is fierce. Her main influence is Tupac Shakur.

See her video with TI for Murda Bizness here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzI9VQUHJkU

Follow her on twitter here! https://twitter.com/IGGYAZALEA

Meanwhile, Azalea Banks is an American rapper/singer/lyricist from Harlem, NY. She is currently signed to Interscope/Polydor records. She is a young up and coming artist as well–she is only 21 years old! From a young age, Azalea was interested in theater and performance, but she eventually left high school early in order to pursue a career as a rapper. Azealia has a mixtape titled Fantasea as well as an EP released on Polydor/Interscope titled 1991.

See her video for Liquorice here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPaXn2XR-P8

And follow her on twitter here! https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS

The Avett Brothers at Innsbrook Snagajob Pavilion 7/20/2012

Almost a week ago now, I had the chance to see ever-energetic and delightful Avett Brothers perform in concert. I had yet to see them live, and after hearing wonderful things and crying over the online ticket purchase only briefly, I was able to see them in all their bearded glory.

Despite the kind of monotonous and nap inducing opener Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Avett Brothers came on with “Will You Return” and it was like a bomb went off in the pavilion (in a good way). Everyone was dancing, even the dads in their lawn chairs with beer sloshing everywhere. It was a hot and humid night, but halfway through their set it started drizzling slightly, and it was practically a scene from Singing in the Rain.

The set list in its entirety is below:

1) Will You Return
2) Traveling Song (slow)
3) Down With The Shine
4) Love Like the Movies
5) January Wedding
6) Salina
7) At the Beach
8) Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
9) Live & Die
10) Laundry Room
11) Sally’s Lover
12) Ballad
13) Closer Walk
14) The Fall
15) Colorshow
16) Go to Sleep
17) Kick Drum Heart
18) Slight Figure Of Speech
————-
19) Please Pardon Yourself (slow)
20) Paranoia
21) And it Spread
22) Talk on Indolence

This band is amazing because whenever they play their songs live, they always seem to change some of the lyrics. After stalking the forums on the band’s website after the show, I even found some live recordings so all of you avid fans can watch for yourself. Included is the recording of their new song “Live and Die” set to be released on their new album which comes out in September.

Will You Return

Down with the Shine

Live and Die

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Please Pardon Yourself

For more pictures from the concert you can see them on one of the photographer’s facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150924003341502.412537.138022931501&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10150924003341502.412537.138022931501&type=1

Ton-Taun’s Exporter

Ton-Taun, a four piece band from Lancaster, PA has released their sophomore album Exporter independently. A local band that most recently appeared and opened for Isis of Thunderheist last Friday for WDCV’s fall concert; The Perfect Storm, they succeeded to impress those select few who turned out for the free event. A band that released their first album barely over a year ago, a purely alternative rock sound is apparent along with modern influences like Modest Mouse and Wilco. However, the band itself is comprised of avid music lovers and listeners, and their other more subtle influences allude to the works of the infamous Miles Davis.

The premier track of the album, “Headdresses,” is pleasingly haunting yet repetitive. Soothing yet contradictory in its angst, it opens with steady guitar riffs and lyrics alluding to child-like images of finger-painting and feathers. With a pleasant harmony reminiscent of mindless whispering, Ton-Taun’s members sing of an assumed woman with a heart as hard as a diamond that one day the singer will tear out. The track ends with lead vocal Jordan Capizzi singing the repeated line “I was happy to see how scared you are of me, right now,” along with a reference back to the title of the song. The band actually played this song live at the concert, and the emotion and energy of the song shone through.

The sixth track of the album, “The Coca-Cola Factory,” could be considered a sort of sing-along drinking song for misfits and those of us who are more often than not down on our luck. Upbeat despite its melancholy lyrics, this track is catchy and easily relatable to any struggling, nostalgic college student. The song has a simple message, we were all meant for more than what we have or do, but something just went wrong along the way. It’s all a bitter twist of fate.

Young in terms of their years as a complete band but also experienced with two complete, original albums already under their belts, Ton-Taun has the potential to speak to a generation obsessed with consumerism, debauchery and the longing for a place in the world.