Tracks From Nowhere Near You

There’s been a bit of buzz on the internet about the upcoming charity album “Live From Nowhere Near You, Vol II,” a 3-disc release which will be featuring unreleased and rare material from a number of my favorite musicians. So far two of the tracks have been released/leaked, and they’re shared below. Beneath that is the album information, which you should definitely buy here, since 100% of the profit will donated to charity to help homeless youth.

Eddie Vedder, Julian Casablancas, Josh Homme, and Fabrizio Moretti – Mercy Mercy Me (Marvin Gaye cover)

Isaac Brock – Dead End Job At The Dead Letter Office

The Strokes – Coachella 2011

In celebration of Pearl Jam’s upcoming festival at which The Strokes will be performing, I decided it was time to post their Coachella boot from this year’s festival.

Though I won’t be able to make the PJ-Fest, it’s bound to be quite the party. So if you have any inkling to get out there, do what you can to make it happen.

Download the whole show here or grab the individual tracks below.

The Strokes – Angles

As always, The Strokes have delivered.

“What?” you ask. “Are you serious? You think this is good Strokes.”

To which I must reply, yes, it’s good. It’s not their best, but it’s good. There’s just something to their music that works every time for me. Even if the music is somewhat 80s inspired and there are overtones of intra-band fighting, it still has the tight drums of Fabrizio Moretti which work unbelievably well with Nikolai Fraiture’s always-turned-up bass, the brilliant guitar interplay of Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi, and the lazily intense vocals of Julian Casablancas – an immediate recipe for success. This combination makes me highly doubt this band could put out a bad album.

New Strokes Album Leaked

The new Strokes album “Angles” leaked sometime yesterday. I’ve given the album about 5 listens-to so far this morning at work, but won’t be able to do a complete writeup of the record until later tonight or tomorrow, though I will tell you this – I’m really liking it so far.

To whet your appetites, here are a few tracks to check out: The awesomely 80s verse of Two Kinds Of Happiness turns into an amazingly perfect guitar song that is very much The Strokes. And Boys Are Back In Town-inspired track Gratisfaction is the band at their absolute best – slow churning rhythm, guitars that aren’t quite lead and aren’t quite rhythm, and Julian’s syrupy vocals layered right on top. The perfect recipe for the perfect Strokes song.

The Strokes – Two Kinds Of Happiness

The Strokes – Gratisfaction

The Strokes – T In The Park 2004

Recently, I was talking with a friend about which Strokes guitarist plays which parts. I was under the impression Mr. Hammond Jr. was the main guitarist, but apparently Nick Valensi plays lead on the majority of the songs. But then again, it’s pretty tough to define one guitar part as rhythm and the other as lead.

Either way, they sure sound good in concert. Enjoy this 2004 bootleg from the T In The Park festival in Scotland.

Download the entire show here.

The Strokes – Under Cover of Darkness

It’s been way too long since we’ve had Julian Casablancas’ voice combined with Albert Hammond Jr.’s guitar playing. Julian’s last solo album was great. But it lacks that grit that we’ve come to love about The Strokes. Enter Mr. Hammond Jr. No other guitar player in the history of guitar players has looked so cool with his guitar hung so high on his body. No other guitar player in the history of guitar players has said in an interview “I would trade my left testicle to play like Freddie King.”

While the song begins with in an upbeat key reminiscent “Phrazes For The Young,” it’s immediately clear that this is very much a Strokes song. The hard hitting drums. The awesomely loud bassline. The guitar solo. The early 2000s saviors of music are back, and they’re very much in top form.

The song can be downloaded for free on their website and the new album will be released on March 22.

The Strokes – Under Cover of Darkness

Days Of Graduation

It’s over. Finally. After way too many years, my undergraduate career has almost entirely come to the end, pending University Graduation on Tuesday.  This has been a long time coming, and it’s really an awesome feeling to be done with school, and to (hopefully) begin working soon.

It’s one of those weird feelings; where you’ve finished an entire 20-year stretch of your life and are about to venture out into a new one. It’s exciting, weird, and scary all at the same time. Here’s a few songs about

Drive By Truckers – Days Of Graduation