SKIPSTER / ECHOING VOICES OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC IN UPSTATE NY

I thought this would be of interest to our Swedish readers (and yes, I’ve just learned we have quite a few! so hello Swedes, we love you!) and, uh, readers from all over as well…

Swedish Indie Pop star Robyn announced last month that she doesn’t plan on releasing a full-length anytime soon; what she is doing is releasing three shorter EP’s in the next year. The first one will drop in June, the second one will arrive in the fall, with the third one hits your hard drive sometime next Winter. I’m thinking it’s going to be way worth the wait. Last time we gave you a sneak peak of the recently-titled “Dance Hall Queen”, and this time we have “Fembot” — which is also available for listening on her official site.

Check out Pitchfork Media’s very detailed interview with Robyn here, as well as some short videos that document Robyn’s making of these songs over the past year.

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Robyn / “Fembot”

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Robyn / “Be Mine” (Ballad vers.)

Attention all Metric fans and Facebook users! Starting today you can hear two unreleased b-sides from the group on their Facebook page. Apparently the unreleased song “Black Sheep” was written for Fantasies but was left on the cutting floor. However, the band was approached by director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) asking if they’d like to work with Radiohead’s Nigel Godrich to make some music for the movie. Obviously the band said yes, and now the resuscitated “Black Sheep” will be featured in Wright’s upcoming film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, in what they refer to as “a pivotal scene.”

Check out the official site for more info on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Hear the song, as well as another unreleased track entitled “The Gates” below. Lastly, I’d like to mention how mushy it makes us feel when metric signs their emails xoxoxoxLOVEmetric. Really! What a stand up group of people!

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Metric / “Black Sheep”

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Metric / “The Gates”

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Thank you to all who came out last Thursday night to see Marissa Nadler and Emily Arin performing at Skipster’s first show. We had a great time and hope you did as well. Hopefully this is the first of many more to come. Hearty thanks to the WildFire Lounge, Luke Fenchel and The Ithaca Post, all musicians who performed, and again, all attendees.

We hope to see you all soon..

love,
mike and scott

P.S. Here are two post-show treats for you to help re-create the night.

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Emily Arin / “The Invitation” (from Slipstream EP)

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Marissa Nadler / “Mexican Summer” (from Songs III: Bird on the Water)

While Ms. Newsom may not be stopping through our beautiful region of NY this time around, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to enjoy these shows!
Look at this beautiful video captured from Joanna’s visit to Toronto last week. Personally, once the bridge arrives in this clip, with the audience claps, I  became a puddle of mush with goosebumps all over.  How about you?

Skipster will be traveling to Philadelphia this week to cover Joanna Newsom and the Moore Brothers. Stay tuned!

Once I saw this weird duo open for of Montreal in 2005. They didn’t have a CD out, but their live show was already impressive. They took off half their clothes, paraded around like ghosts wearing sheets, and then curated a dance party. Years later, this band has two hit songs and is universally known as MGMT.  This week, these indie pretty boys have finally released a sneak peak into their upcoming full-length Congratulations, out April 13th, with the song “Flash Delirium.” Stream the song below, or head to their website to download it for free.

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MGMT / “Flash Delirium”

We want to know what you think. Good? Bad?

Tell us!

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)