Nada Surf played Let Go in its entirety last Thursday

Read my review of the show on Late Night Wallflower.

The Loyal We release debut album

The Loyal We are Kate Sikora and Lindsay Lueders, two gifted twenty-somethings from America who met in Japan and formed a magical and musical friendship. While both Kate and Lindsay have solo albums, they recently released their debut as a duo in Japan on January 20. It’s called Homes and it’s a rare combination of catchy and earthy. With minimal instrumentation, these resourceful girls produce noteworthy rock ‘n’ roll. Their musical styles are different, but disjointed The Loyal We is not. Where Kate is edgy, Lindsay is refined, and they happily combined their strengths to create tracks that range from airy and somber to fast and melodic. Though no song is overly optimistic, they reveal the often overlooked possibilities that exist when you’ve got your feet are on the ground. In short, The Loyal We are royally awesome!

You can listen to their songs on their label's website. http://www.contrarede.com/artist/loyalwe.html   

You can also check them out on MySpace. http://www.myspace.com/theloyalwe 

Track listing for Homes 

01. Accordion Song 

02. Stars 

03. Still Quiet 

04. Synecdoche

 05. Ichabod 

06. Fresh Crop 

07. Counting Song 

08. Super Hero Theme

 09. Mister Burgundy 

10. Box Is A Rocket

Standard Fare in NYC March 11 and 14

Standard Fare crossed the pond to play two shows this past weekend, on Thursday and Sunday, in New York City; one at Death By Audio and the other in the basement of Cake Shop. At Cake Shop, they played a nice chunk of songs off their album The Noyelle Beat in a quick half hour set, causing fans to request that certain songs, such as “Philadelphia”, be played a second time.

NME Shockwave Awards 2010

photo from NME.com

The NME Shockwaves Awards were held at the 02 Academy Brixton in London on Wednesday, February 24. Jarvis Cocker hosted, playing games before performances, giving the audience clues as to who was coming to the stage. Alexa Chung and Nick Grimshaw briefly interviewed bands immediately after they won an award.  

Compared to American awards shows, like say the Mtv Video Music Awards, it was much smaller and less flashy. Not to mention that no one took it seriously and the bands didn't really care if they won. Some seemed insulted. Also, people did not even try to pretend to be sober. They were there to party and it showed. It was a lot of fun. Winners included Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys (Alex wasn't even there! Big disappointment.), Blur, The Big Pink, and some other people I've never heard of. There was no mention of Camera Obscura whatsoever. Lady Gaga won to some guy I don't know, probably because she's too big to attend.  There was a tribute to The Specials (C'mon who cares?) And Paul Weller won the God-like genius award. I was happy to see Effy from my new favorite show Skins, present an award and Richmond, from my old favorite show The IT Crowd running around with vampire make up on.

You can watch the show in six videos at http://www.nme.com/video/bcid/69203973001/search/bhazan. I think they cut some parts out though.