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New Music, New York

TAS In Session: The Low Anthem

Posted 4-4-11 by , Claudia Marshall

Tags: The Low Anthem

Stir together a quirky ragù of songs inspired by wire-walkers, explored via vintage instruments and recorded in an abandoned spaghetti sauce factory, and you'll have the makings of The Low Anthem's fourth album, curiously titled Smart Flesh. WFUV's Claudia Marshall recently caught up with the quartet, who discussed the new album's curious pedigree and played a generous set of songs, including "Hey, All You Hippies," which Ben Knox Miller cryptically dedicated to a former president.

TAS In Session: The Radio Dept.

Posted 3-28-11 by

Tags: The Radio Dept.

The Radio Dept., Sweden's dreamy pop perfectionists, are having a very productive year, not only with the release of 2010's critically-acclaimed Clinging To A Scheme and an EP, Never Follow Suit, but a recent career-spanning retrospective, Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010. The trio, who play Coachella and Sasquatch Music Festival this spring, visited The Alternate Side for a chat and performed three songs, including a striking, stripped-down version of "Heaven's On Fire."

TAS in Session: The Poison Tree

Posted 3-21-11 by

Tags:

The Poison Tree, the new project from ex-King of France frontman and Saltlands Collective member Steve Salett, will play Joe's Pub this Wednesday night, March 23. Recently Salett and two of his bandmates, Josh Kaufman and Lauren Balthrop, dropped by The Alternate Side to talk with Russ Borris and play a handful of songs, including the brand new and tentatively-titled "What Kind of Man."

TAS In Session (SXSW Band): The Vaccines

Posted 3-14-11 by , Eric Holland

Tags: The Vaccines

The Vaccines are not only causing a stir back in the UK, but the London-based indie rock quartet has also managed to kick off a mighty buzz in the States. It's fair to say that they're one of the most anticipated bands playing SXSW in Austin this week. The band, which released an EP Stateside earlier this month and will drop their debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? on May 31, visited The Alternate Side recently and chatted with Eric Holland about their love of The Zombies, misquoted lyrics and the place of politics in their music.

TAS In Session (SXSW Artist): James Vincent McMorrow

Posted 3-7-11 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: James Vincent McMorrow

James Vincent McMorrow might be a late bloomer - he didn't begin studying the guitar until he was 19 - but the Irish singer songwriter, who jumps on board the SXSW carousel in ten days, found a more languid pace suited him artistically. Nearly a decade later he finally self-released his debut album, Early in The Morning, an album that finally came out in the States this past January. Earlier this winter, McMorrow visited The Alternate Side and played a set of songs from that album, including "Sparrow and the Wolf" and "Hear the Noise That Moves So Soft and Low."

TAS In Session: Dom

Posted 2-28-11 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: Dom

Aspiring to be the Madonna of garage rock seems unconventional, but so is Dom, the Massachusetts band - led by the surname-eschewing Dom - that's generated a ton of enthusiastic attention for their EP Sun Bronzed Greek Gods, recently re-released in a re-mastered, re-mixed version via Astralwerks. The SXSW-bound group came by The Alternate Side to play several songs, including "Bochicha," named after Dom's cat. Most surprisingly, Dom also revealed why they have no intention of ever releasing a full album.

TAS In Session: Junip

Posted 2-21-11 by , Rita Houston

Tags: José González, Junip

While Swedish singer and songwriter José González' solo career took off over the last decade, Junip, the band that he'd begun with friends Elias Araya and Tobias Winterkom, was on indefinite hiatus, save a single and an EP. The trio finally remedied that problem with last year's release of their debut album Fields. The band, which has a new EP upcoming called In Every Direction and will play Bonnaroo this June, dropped by Studio A not too long ago for a special session with WFUV's Rita Houston.

TAS In Session: Iron & Wine

Posted 2-14-11 by , Rita Houston

Tags: Calexico, Califone, Iron & Wine

Iron & Wine's Sam Beam decided to change things up a bit for his fourth proper studio album, Kiss Each Other Clean, jumping onto a major label and drawing on a sunnier sound and slicker production. The day before his Radio City Music Hall gig, Beam and some of his bandmates dropped by Studio A to discuss the album's genesis with WFUV's Rita Houston and they played a mini-set of songs, including "Me and Lazarus" and "Tree By The River." Video after the jump.

TAS In Session: Mountain Man

Posted 2-7-11 by , Rita Houston

Tags: Mountain Man

The sweetly harmonizing trio of Mountain Man - Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath - began singing together in dorm rooms at Bennington College. Flash forward a few years and the friends not only have a debut album, Made the Harbor, but they've also been touring with The Decemberists. The ladies of Mountain Man trekked to the Bronx on a cold winter's day to talk to WFUV's Rita Houston and sing four songs, including "Dog Song," the quirky track that inspired them to form a group.

TAS In Session: The Greenhornes

Posted 1-31-11 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: The Greenhornes

An eight-year hiatus between studio albums sounds extreme, but The Greenhornes have been a bit preoccupied. Bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler ended up in The Raconteurs and Loretta Lynn's Do-Whaters, Lawrence is also in The Dead Weather and singer/guitarist Craig Fox has two other bands. The spiky, garage-rocking trio finally reconvened last year to record their new album Four Stars and they dropped by The Alternate Side to play us four songs from that new record, out now on pal Jack White's Third Man Records.

TAS In Session: The Hundred In The Hands

Posted 1-22-11 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: The Hundred In The Hands

Back in September, The Hundred In The Hands, aka Brooklyn's Jason Friedman and Eleanore Everdell, released their self-titled, dreamy dance-rock debut on Warp Records. Friedman and Everdell, who also run a mighty cool webzine called Thith Zine, dropped by The Alternate Side recently and treated us to four live songs, including the enigmatic "Pigeons" and "Lovesick (Once Again)."

TAS In Session: Moondoggies

Posted 1-17-11 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: Moondoggies

Seattle's The Moondoggies have had a busy year, releasing their second album Tidelands, touring extensively and finding themselves featured in MTV's $5 Cover web series. Not long ago the quartet, who kick off a their winter tour in San Francisco tomorrow, January 18, and play Brooklyn's Rock Shop on January 30, dropped by The Alternate Side's Studio A to chat and play four songs from Tidelands.

TAS In Session: Karen Elson

Posted 1-10-11 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: Karen Elson

Singer and songwriter Karen Elson is the first to admit that she had unusual circumstances to overcome when she released her debut album, The Ghost Who Walks, last year. As a highly successful model, Elson was known more as a beautiful face until she married The White Stripes' Jack White. When the release of her record was announced, it seemed an incongruous leap, but Elson, a longtime member of The Citizens Band, has written songs for years. When she visited The Alternate Side last fall, she played us four songs from the new album, including the title track and the eerie "Stolen Roses,"

TAS In Session: Erland And The Carnival

Posted 1-3-11 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: Blur, Erland and the Carnival, The Bad and The Queen, The Good, The Verve

Psychedelic folk rockers Erland and the Carnival release their second album Nightingale this March and recently the London-based band - which includes Scottish singer and songwriter Erland Cooper, guitarist Simon Tong (Gorillaz, Blur, The Verve, The Good, The Bad & The Queen), and drummer David Nock (Paul McCartney, The Orb) - visited The Alternate Side to play a few tracks from their eponymous debut album and new EP Trouble in Mind, including "You Don't Have To Be Lonely" and "Everything Came Too Easy."

TAS In Session: Flashback 2010 (Part Two)

Posted 12-27-10 by

Tags: Blitzen Trapper, El Guincho, Field Music, Fyfe Dangerfield, Stars, Stornoway, The Tallest Man On Earth, The Walkmen

Last week we gave you the first part of TAS In Session: Flashback 2010, looking back at many of bands and musicians who passed through Studio A over the past year and highlighting some of the songs played in live performance. We also updated you on what these artists have planned for 2011, from tours to new recordings to free downloads you can find this very minute on their websites. This week, the promised Part Two of our reminiscence and we've rounded up another collection of 2010's live performances from Stornoway, The Walkmen, Field Music, The Morning Benders, El Guincho, The Tallest Man on Earth, Stars, Lost in the Trees, K-os and many more.

TAS In Session: Flashback 2010 (Part One)

Posted 12-20-10 by

Tags:

Over the past twelve months, The Alternate Side has hosted dozens of live sessions in our studio with an eclectic array of musicians and bands, segueing from the cheeky groove of Yeasayer to The Joy Formidable's dense wall of sound to School of Seven Bells' dreamy strolls. We wanted to revisit some of our favorite tracks from many of those sessions, like Kele's muscular, acoustic take on "Tenderoni" or Phantogram's hopelessly pretty "Mouth Full of Diamonds," and give you updates on what's coming up in 2011 for many of these artists and bands.

TAS In Session: The Tallest Man On Earth

Posted 12-13-10 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: Kristian Matsson, The Tallest Man On Earth

Soft-spoken Swedish singer Kristian Matsson, better known as The Tallest Man on Earth, dropped by The Alternate Side not long ago to chat about his recent EP, Sometimes The Blues is Just a Passing Bird, the fairly quick followup to his second album, The Wild Hunt, which was released in the spring. Kristian wanted to play his red electric guitar for us, so we were treated to plugged-in versions of "The Dreamer" and "Tangle in This Trampled Wheat." But who ever figured Kristian for a "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" fan?

TAS In Session: Lost In The Trees

Posted 12-6-10 by

Tags: Lost In The Trees

North Carolina band Lost in the Trees, guided by frontman and songwriter Ari Picker has released one of the most deeply personal, brutally handsome albums of the year, All Alone in an Empty House. Picker and his six bandmates recently dropped by The Alternate Side to explore and explain tracks from their remarkable debut. Look for the band live when they play Joe's Pub on January 7.

TAS In Session: El Guincho

Posted 11-22-10 by , Alisa Ali

Tags: El Guincho

Pablo Díaz-Reixa, better known as El Guincho, made his mark with 2008's gleeful mélange of textures and rhythms, Alegranza!, but he's found his stride in an even more impressive way with his latest release, Pop Negro. Not long ago he dropped by The Alternate Side to play "Bombay" and "FM Tan Sexy" from the new record.

TAS In Session: Autolux

Posted 11-15-10 by , Alisa Ali

They took their time, thwarted by record label issues, but Autolux finally returned this year with their long-awaited second album, the haunting and cerebral Transit Transit. As The Alternate Side's Alisa Ali discovered, the Los Angeles trio has never sounded so good, as demonstrated by the taut quartet of songs they played for us, including "Supertoys" and "The Science of Imaginary Solutions."

The Alternate Side is a proud part of WFUV Public Radio from Fordham University,
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TAS Top 20

1. James Blake
Overgrown

2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Mosquito

3. Vampire Weekend
Modern Vampires of the City

4. Kurt Vile
Wakin on a Pretty Daze

5. Savages
Silence Yourself

6. Chvrches
Recover EP

7. Palma Violets
180

8. Depeche Mode
Delta Machine

9. Daughter
If You Leave

10. Phosphorescent
Muchacho

11. My Bloody Valentine
m b v

12. Phoenix
Bankrupt!

13. Shout Out Louds
Optica

14. Atoms For Peace
Amok

15. Deerhunter
Monomania

16. Yo La Tengo
Fade

17. Foals
Holy Fire

18. Chelsea Light Moving
Chelsea Light Moving

19. Jamie Lidell
Jamie Lidell

20. Caveman
Caveman

Deerhunter and Caveman make TAS Top 20 debuts while the James Blake juggernaut continues at the peak of the album chart.

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