Okay, make your choice: Will it be the sassy and brassy Thao Nguyen or the Flaming Lips and their magic body bubble?

Sadly, this isn’t even a hypothetical, it’s a real choice you’re going to have to ask yourself, RIGHT NOW, considering Thao and the Get Down Stay Down will be hitting Ithaca on April 18th. Personally for me, there’s no contest. Considering Thao’s frenzied stage manner, the band’s extreme chops, the precise live show, and her brilliant 2009 album, Know Better Learn Faster, it’s an easy decision. In fact, Know Better was in this half of skipster’s top ten of 2009!

Details are to come forth soon, however the show will be $12 and most likely will take place at one of the clubs here in Ithaca courtesy of dan smalls presents!

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Thao // When We Swam

The magic draws nearer…

First, a bit of background: Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It In People is arguably the most personally influential album of my lifetime thus far. The album appeared stateside back in 2003, seemingly overnight and without warning, just as all my suburban high school angst was crystallizing into whatever mental state left me predisposed to rapture. Its greatness is a strange affair, achieved indirectly through imperfection and exhaustion, an edifice built from buzzing, collapsable gears. It runs with abandon into the summer twilight, standing breathless on the wet lawn with both palms raised, gestating in that single moment for fifty-six whole minutes. And I still think it navigates between euphoric pop and sonic experimentation with more bracing impact than anything released in the seven intervening years.

This brings us to the occasion of Forgiveness Rock Record, the first new Broken Social Scene album since their self-titled 2005 release. The album will be released via the band’s own Arts & Crafts label on May 4th, and is available for pre-order on multiple formats over here.

Here’s an unusually stripped-down track off their To Be You and Me EP, bearing no relation to the LCD Soundsystem jam of the same name. RIYL Elliott Smith underwater.

Broken Social Scene – “All My Friends”

Tracklist after the jump.

read more… »

With all the excitement and craziness of the weekend, you probably forgot to watch Joanna Newsom performing live on Friday’s edition of Jimmy Fallon. Don’t worry, so did we.

Here she takes on Have One On Me highlight “Soft As Chalk” and emerges triumphant as usual, breaking out some Western saloon moves as she catalogues a dissolving relationship from her vantage point on a descending airplane. (No, seriously, check out the lyrics.)

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Joanna Newsom / “Peach, Plum, Pear” (Live at Bottletree)

Friday morning’s traditionally the best time of the week to kick back and let all the feelings you’ve accrued over the past five days wash over you — the good, the bad, the ever-popular somewhere in between. We all need to take stock of whatever’s happening before we hurtle headlong into weekend madness. With that said, here are three tracks I’ve had in constant rotation over the past week, each of which is good enough to help usher you toward self-actualization before you go ahead and melt your brains tonight.

Pictured: Twin Sister in Brooklyn, via Ampeater

First up is Twin Sister’s “I Want a House,” the smoky, slow-burn finisher to the band’s self-released Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP. You can download the rest of that EP for free on their website, and stay tuned for another forthcoming release via Infinite Best Recordings. That one’s called Color Your Life and will be available digitally and on vinyl starting March 30th.

Twin Sister – “I Want a House”

Next is Jimmy Ruffin with Motowon staple “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” a song that Beach House’s Victoria Legrand recently named as an inspiration during the recording of their masterpiece Teen Dream. Opening with a melodramatic stomp before segueing into Ruffin’s genuinely cathartic vocals, his repeated mantra of “I’ll find a way somehow” coasts into the three-minute mark on the wings of pop perfection; it’s a land of despair and heartache, but never total resignation. One to keep on repeat.

Jimmy Ruffin – “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted”

Finally, we have nascent Los Angeles band Pearl Harbor with their latest, “California Shakedown.” As reported on Gorilla vs. Bear last weekend, this song will function as the b-side to their limited-edition, Japanese-distributed Slivers of You 7″. The sibling duo currently occupies my slot for “favorite working band who haven’t released an actual full-length,” and this is just another confirmation of their preternatural knack for opiated-yet-immediately-addictive dream pop. And check out that bassline.

Pearl Harbor – “California Shakedown”

That’s all, folks. Have a good weekend.

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Okay, okay, we all get it. Scott’s obssessed with the new Groove Armada, album. Etc. But really. The group just started touring in support of Black Light , and the reviews and this video speak for themselves.  Above is GA, with Saint Saviour and Ben Duffy (0f Fenech Soler) on lead vocals singing Skipster’s current anthem, “Paper Romance.”

More importantly, the band stopped by the BBC6 studios in London, playing stripped down versions of album cuts “Paper Romance” and “Cards to Your Heart”. Check them out below.

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Groove Armada / “Paper Romance” (BBC Live Acoustic)

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Groove Armada / “Cards to Your Heart” (BBC Live Acoustic)

Alright, I don’t know which indie God is currently blessing Upstate NY, but it’s about time to start praying to him. Each day, more and more sick events are being announced, and this one is a doozy.

So, as if there weren’t already enough options for May 7th (between Drake at Cornell and Yeasayer at Ithaca College), our Eastern neighbors at Hamilton College have recently announced another line-up adding to the fray: Dirty Projectors with Passion Pit and Dan Deacon. Seriously. When’s the last time you had to make a decision this big? Both shows are free, both shows feature three extremely relevant indie acts, and both shows are the same day. Help us, indie God.

More info on this when tickets and times are announced.

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Dirty Projectors / “Two Doves”

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Passion Pit / “The Reeling”

As the Facebook event states, there’s an “EPIC BILL” going on over at the Nines this Saturday night, one that is absolutely not to miss. Sexy bearded locals Caution Children will be playing alongside another Skipster favorite, BLOW!, with additional support from Electric Tickle Machine and Gabe Tavares. Make sure to clear your Saturday for what will be an awesome orgy of incredible local music — minus Electric Tickle Machine, who will be coming from NYC but will still be contributing to said orgy.  Oh, and did I mention how sexy Caution Children are? Because they are. Sexy.

On a related note, BLOW! just revealed they’ll be heading into the studio soon to cut a full-length, though their fantastic Overrated EP has totally been filling our appetite here at Skipster HQ. The group will be working with the legendary Jimmy Bralower, who has produced the likes of Peter Gabriel, Britney Spears, and even Celine fucking Dion. To say the least, both these guys and this show are brimming with promise.

What: Caution Children, Electric Tickle Machine, BLOW!, and Gabe Tavares
Where: The Nines (in Ithaca’s College Town)
When: Saturday March 6th, 9:00pm
Cost: $5

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Electric Tickle Machine / “Gimme Money”

Last week I was hooked on St. Saviour and Groove Armada, and while geographically my interest still lies in the same area, my interest lies in a different Brit. A Brit named V.V. Brown.  I first stumbled upon this gem whilest abroad when she was playing a tiny industry gig, showcasing new tunes in an effort to wow the bigwigs that had recently signed her. At that time she was relatively known in the area for penning songs for huge pop acts such as the sugababes, as well as the one or two songs she had already released independent of a label.

I heard bits and bobs about Ms. Brown proceeding my run in with her, seeing her release a few EPs on the interwebs and her name pop up in a blog here and there. However it wasn’t until last fall that she finally released her debut album, Traveling Like the Light, in Europe, that I decided to revisit VV and her work. I got the album from a friend abroad and was absolutely floored. It’s pop music that’s actually intelligent. V.V. mashes bee-bop, soul, dance, as well as straight up pop to create one of the best party albums I’ve heard in a very long time. Tackling typical subjects like love and loss, VV gives the music a retro feel that makes the listener feel like he or she’s in a technicolor sock-hop that happens to take place IN a nightclub. It’s insane.

It also doesn’t hurt that VV Brown is the type of woman you  absolutely cannot take your eyes off. With a divine style, a pristine jovial personality, and legs for days, its apparent why she is being looked at as a fashion icon, this early in her musical career.

Lastly I can’t help but mention, VV does an incredible cover of Coldplays’ “Viva la Vida”….While usually I’m a closet coldplay fan, this is a version I can get behind. Check it out below, as well as an impeccable cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”… read more… »

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To all those excited to see Kimya in Rochester tomorrow, as we posted previously, we have sad news. What we assume is due to her schedule, Kimya had to cancel her Rochester appearance. She will still be playing in Alfred, NY, and the other bands will still be playing in Rochester…but no Kimya.

sorry to be the bearer of the bad news..

UPDATE: although it didn’t happen we did find out that the cancellation was due to sickness in Kimya’s family. Hopefully this gets reschedules.