Horchata - New Song by Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend, the indie-darlings of 2008, have announced their upcoming album in recent weeks, entitled Contra, which will be avaliable January 11th in the UK and the 12th in the US. I'm moderately interested to see if these guys can follow up with the same success with their first album. While they have a fairly unique sound, I've always been moderately turned off by the amount of critical praise heaped upon them, as well as the widespread adoption of the hipster-demographic. At the end, it never really matters what others think of anything, and they have sounded pretty good. This new track, Horchata (which, according to wikipedia, is: the name for several kinds of traditional beverages, made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley or tigernuts) sounds quite good. They have retained much of the light, fun sound that was prevalent throughout their first album, and that is an indication of how the album will sound, they should be pretty well off next year.

Here's the track listing:

01 Horchata
02 White Sky
03 Holiday
04 California English
05 Taxi Cab
06 Run
07 Cousins
08 Giving Up the Gun
09 Diplomat's Son
10 I Think Ur a Contra

Horchata - Vampire Weekend

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The Best of September

My, that month went by quickly. September had some very good music here - a couple new artists, but a lot of old favorites, such as Bon Iver, The Decemberists and Snow Patrol releasing some fantastic new material.

With the fall about to blow past just as fast as September, I'm starting to think about what the best songs of 2008 were, and most certainly, will be looking over these lists and doing a recap at some point, as well as looking back over last year's favorites.

For Emma (Myspace Edition) - Bon Iver


Flume (Myspace Edition) - Bon Iver


Bon Iver released a free EP via myspace, which featured four re-worked songs from his first wondeful album, For Emma, Forever Ago. These songs have a more expanded and richer sound behind them and sound beautiful. If only they had also recorded Re: Stacks...

Make You Crazy (feat. Femi Kuti) - Brett Dennen


Brett Dennen is back after a short hiatus with his new album Hope for the Hopeless, being released on October 21st. I'm not the biggest fan of Dennen, even after seeing him in concert last year, but this song is catchy, and really seems to fit with the current state of American politics, with a lot of awareness to outside issues to a level that we haven't seen until recently. What's going on in the world can certainly make me go crazy and mad.

Blow Away - Chris Blake


I came across Chris Blake randomly earlier this month with the track Blow Away, which really captured my attention with a good beat and energy. Wave is his first album, and while I haven't gotten a chance to listen to the entire thing, it's gone onto my to-get list, because this sounds like a promising new musician.

Valarie Plame - The Decemberists


The first track off of the Always the Bridesmaid series, Valarie Plame follows with Decemberists tradition of singing about some really random things - this time, about the CIA agent who was outed by the Bush Administration that's caused them a lot of problems. You can read the initial article that started it all here.

Grounds for Divorce - Elbow


This song was featured on the trailer for a movie called Burn After Reading, the latest from the Coen Brothers. I have yet to see the movie, but this song really got my attention with its heavy beat and interesting, haunting sound. It sounds like a cool song that just begs for things to happen in slow motion.

Silver Purse - Helen Lawson


I was very impressed with Helen Lawson earlier when I reviewed her initial EP, Crossing the Bridge. Her music is lyrical, smooth and very beautiful. Her lyrics and voice here match really well, and I'll be awaiting her first LP whenever that is released.

You've Changed (Original Mix) - Lauren Flax feat. Sia


I love Sia's voice and alt-pop sound. Mixed with an electronic/techno type song, it really fits well, and this song works very well with Sia's voice and style. It's interesting to see her in a different electronica song than her other work, with Zero 7.

Shattered (Turn the Car Around) - O.A.R.


I've enjoyed listening to O.A.R. (Of A Revolution) since college. They're not a favorite, but I've loved That was a Crazy Game of Poker, Hey Girl and Mr. Moon. They're a good band for the Adult Alternative listeners, with a nice blend of rock/alt-country/folk-rock and a little reggae thrown in for good measure. Shattered is a very typical sounding song from them, but it's a solid one, with a good beat and feel.

Take Back the City - Snow Patrol


Snow Patrol is back with a follow up for Eyes Open. This song sounds like it could have made the album, but for a bit more energy attached to it. This song, along with Shattered, feel comfortable, and have a good alternative/rock sound to it that makes me think that this will be a popular radio hit when their upcoming album, A Hundred Million Suns is released. I like this sound - it's solid and sounds pretty good.

Ottoman - Vampire Weekend


Vampire Weekend is back with a new song that's sure to be very popular with the indie-hipsters. It's a pretty typical song from the group, with a quirky sound and interesting guitar work, these guys are sure to be somewhat popular until they release their next album. While I enjoy this song, I'm not sure how much longer I'll enjoy listening to it. Time will tell.

That's all for this month - October is sure to bring some very good music.

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One

A year ago today, after some contemplation, I started off on this little experiment of a music blog. One year later, 425 posts and a total of 121,433 and 143,160 page visits (somewhat less unique visitors - this number is low, because I added on tracking a couple months after I started.) I'd say this is a success. The site has really grown over the past couple of months, and I've tried a number of features, such as the Cover and Original, Acoustic and Original, Live and Original, Artist Evolution, 80 Bands Around the World, Artist Comparison and a couple others. Some of those I haven't kept up with, but it's been a fun ride thus far.

The name Carry You Away came from a couple of songs, most notably Cary Brother's song Who You Are and Rilo Kiley's The Angels Hung Around. The idea was that music carries one away while listening. I liked the idea when I heard Who You Are, and it stuck.

From The Angels Hung Around:

"...'Till the angels hung around
as they carried me away."

From Who You Are:

"...You try to, but you can't move
As the windows crash around you
No one there to carry you away"

My main mission here is to highlight music that I like. Over the past year or so, my tastes have grown considerably, and I've found that there's a lot of stuff out there that I like. I've become a more competent reviewer and writer, partially because of the amount of writing that I've had to do for this site, and my tastes in music is more refined. I've met artists, taken tons of pictures, and found hundreds of new artists and songs that I never would have come across otherwise.

So, thank you to everyone for making the site a success, and for hearing what I've got to say about things.

Beginnings - Chicago
Thirty One Today - Aimee Man
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
One (Blake's Got a New Face) - Vampire Weekend
One Good Year - Slaid Cleaves

Who You Are - Cary Brothers
The Angels Hung Around - Rilo Kiley

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