August 4, 2009 · 2:14 AM

ev2bk Live Music – All Points West 2009 Sunday

Statue of Liberty So we WERE able to make it to All Points West on Sunday and it was a sweaty, music-filled, muddy time. But first we had to wait all morning/afternoon for the torrential downpours to end and let the powers-that-be decide that the weather would hold out long enough to open the doors. There were many conflicting twitter reports and the All Points website was very infrequently updated but finally we decided to brave the crowds and the mud. On the way in we heard the Silversun Pickups and We Are Scientists but the first band that we got to see up close was Elbow. They rocked it on the mellow tip (they sound amazingly clean and sharp live) and geared us up for a walk to the Bullet Stage for a rollicking Black Keys show.

Gloomy skies @ All Points West on Sunday

Gloomy skies @ All Points West on Sunday

One thing that must be said about this whole All Points West festival experience: being forced to drink $7 beers in a “beer garden”/animal-pen-filled-with-mud is not a good or sustainable model. Get it together APW, this is rock and roll festival, idiots!

So for a little while I got caught up in looking for something to eat while Melissa explored the VIP area, and then Coldplay starting raining down some anthems, covering “Fight for your Right” along the way in a nice Beastie Boys tribute, which was a fitting bookend of sorts to Jay-Z’s cover of “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” on Friday evening.

Coldplay w/ crazy laser beams @ All Points West 2009

Coldplay w/ crazy laser beams @ All Points West 2009

Just a little while later, we wandered over to check out MGMT, who was playing on the Bullet Stage across the way, and actually got a couple of decent videos of them performing.

MGMT – Pieces of What (live @ All Points West 2009):

MGMT – Weekend Wars (live @ All Points West 2009):

On the way home, some of us were covered with mud, but only on our shoes/pants/legs/hair/outside parts. Not in our hearts. God Bless America!

Main Stage and flag

-ev2bk

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August 3, 2009 · 7:30 PM

Jam of the Day – We’ve Got It All (Most) Figured Out

Tomorrow, Epic will release (on CD and digitally) the new Modest Mouse EP titled No One’s First, And You’re Next, which has been in the works for a while now and collects the band’s most recent 7″ releases (like these two for Vinyl Saturday). The EP will also include two other tracks that have been released recently but are hard to locate, such as “I’ve Got It All (Most),” which was originally the B-side to the “Float On” single and also included with the deluxe two-disc edition of Good News for People Who Love Bad News. Here’s the track listing:

MM_NOFAYN_EP_coverartNo One’s First, And You’re Next:

01 Satellite Skin
02 Guilty Cocker Spaniels
03 Autumn Beds
04 The Whale Song
05 Perpetual Motion Machine
06 History Sticks to Your Feet
07 King Rat
08 I’ve Got It All (Most)

I guess I’m going to have to hit you with another Pitchfork link for a review, but I can tell you that when I first heard “I’ve Got It All (Most)” back in 2003 I listened to it on repeat for a few days and lamented the fact that it wasn’t fully worked out and on the record. But hey, now it’s here and readily accessible for everyone!

Modest Mouse – I’ve Got It All (Most):

And in a turn of shameful self-promotion, EV2BK has got it all (most) figured out too! Not sure how many people noticed (likely headcount=zero), but we recently were able to start setting up EV2BK.com! No need to remember that pesky ev2bk.wordpress.com address, just hit us up directly on EV2BK.com going forward. More good news to share soon!

-Drew

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July 31, 2009 · 8:13 AM

Jam of the Day – Elbow your way into All Points West

The second annual All Points West Festival kicked off today in Liberty State Park, NJ. If you’re headed over on the ferry for one, or all, of the days get excited cause it’s sure to be a weekend of excellent music. Each day has a pretty incredible lineup (although Sunday’s is the best) and many ev2bk favorites including Jay Z, The Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, St. Vincent, Coldplay, MGMT, Lykke Li, and the Black Keys are set to perform.

Sure to be a highlight on Sunday are English alt-rock band, Elbow. The band formed back in 1990 and lead vocalist and lyricist Guy Garvey, bassist Pete Turner, drummer Richard Jupp, guitarist Mark Potter, and keyboardist Craig Potter have released four studio albums and four EPs since. Rumor has it that the band is named after a line in the BBC TV mini-series The Singing Detective where a character says that the word “elbow” is the most sensuous word in the English language, not for its definition, but for how it feels to say it? Having just said it aloud a few times I have to say I surprisingly agree. Seriously, try it, you’ll see what they’re talking about.

Elbow has a really innovative sound and Garvey’s voice is hauntingly unshakable. Since winning the 2008 Mercury Music Prize for their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid, it seems like they are finally having some much deserved commercial success. These guys not only sound hot recorded but really on point live, as you’ll see below.

Elbow – Mirrorball:

-Melissa

Ed. note: Thanks to our San Fran correspondent JVM for her song recommendation.

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July 30, 2009 · 5:06 PM

Jam of the Day – Burning Spear Walks to Feel Irie

Even though we are, by all accounts, still in the midst of a broad economic downturn, it’s good to know that some scientific researchers are striving on and conducting the kind of important experiments of which Nobels are made. Yesterday Reuters posted a story about researchers from the University of Michigan and Delft University of Technology (in the Netherlands), who recently reported their findings regarding the purpose of arm-swinging in its relationship to walking. My favorite line from the piece is a quote from the researchers’ report: “Although arm swinging is relatively easy to achieve, its effect on energy use during gait is significant.” The cloud of ignorance has dissipated! Keep up the good work guys, maybe you can figure out this whole “leg-movement” thing next. For now, I’m sticking to public transportation.

burning_spear But on a more serious note, if you happen to be walking in Prospect Park tonight around 7:30pm, you might encounter the fascinating sight of a 60+ year old Rastafarian busting it out on the bongos and dropping some roots reggae in your ear. This evening, Celebrate Brooklyn! presents Burning Spear, as part of the continuing free concert series that’s been going on all summer, and which the website claims will be “another epic performance.”

Burning Spear, whose real name is Winston Rodney, is a real granddaddy of roots reggae, having grown up in the same St. Ann’s Bay area of Jamaica as Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey, both of whom had a great influence on Rodney’s life. In fact, you can see a pretty rad (although slightly long) video of Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, and Bob Marley here. Be prepared for a nice long session of reggae jams in the park tonight! It’s the most beautiful day we’ve had in a while, so make the most of it. And to help you along on your way to feeling IRIE, check out this video for the song “Walk,” Burning Spear’s most recent release (May 2009).

Rastaman live up!

Burning Spear – Walk:

-Drew

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July 30, 2009 · 1:31 PM

JOTD Update – Video Link for Passion Pit on Jimmy Fallon

Passion Pit on Jimmy Fallon

In case you want to see Passion Pit’s performance of “The Reeling” from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, a link to the video is now up on NBC’s website.

Just click through and then select Chapter 6 to skip straight to the band. Or you can just watch it here, too.

And if you used to be good at Where’s Waldo, look really closely and you might be able to find us on the balcony.

-Drew

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July 29, 2009 · 10:13 PM

Jam of the Night – Primetime Passion Pit

Even though it seems like Passion Pit is everywhere these days following the release of Manners (which we wrote about back in May), there’s one place they haven’t been: in your TV! But that’s all about to change after tonight, when their performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon airs later this evening.

We ended up scoring some free tickets to the taping as part of the “Band Bench” program, meaning that in return for our seats, we would agree to join the band on stage during their performance and promote a sense of excitement and dance around in the name of Passion Pit. Not a bad deal.

Of course, The Roots are the house band. We had always been relatively skeptical of this move by The Roots (could this be the very definition of selling out? Is this a good artistic move?), but to be honest they looked like they were having a great time, and were as funky as they ever were back in the day. Isn’t hip hop mainstream at this point anyway? It didn’t seem like a such a stretch for them to be comfortable and dynamic up there on the NBC stage.

The show was pretty alright, with Fallon sometimes stumbling, sometimes funny. Leslie Mann (Funny People, Knocked Up) seemed slightly off, like either she was on downers, or completely overworked and loopy. But overall she was pretty charming and nice. Michael Lang, the creator of Woodstock, seemed to be a completely chill, honest guy, although he wasn’t very animated. It’s pretty unbelievable that dude was 24 when he put Woodstock together; way to set the life accomplishment bar high. How do you surpass that?

But hey, we were there to see Passion Pit. And once we were up in the little balcony and looking at the homeboys rocking out below and sounding pretty great, it was difficult not to feel like this was a solid replacement for the cubicle on a Wednesday afternoon, listening to:

Passion Pit – The Reeling:

-ev2bk

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