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TAS In Session: Fyfe Dangerfield

Posted 7-26-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Fyfe Dangerfield

Fyfe Dangerfield, the frontman for the Mercury Prize-nominated Guillemots, released his own solo debut, Fly Yellow Moon in January. He recently visited The Alternate Side's studio, chatted with Alisa Ali, played two of his own tracks, "Faster Than The Setting Sun" and "She Needed Me," and then totally surprised us with a Billy Joel cover.

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TAS In Session: Stars

Posted 7-19-10 by , Kara Manning
Tags: Stars

Montréal's heartbreak kids, Stars, are marking their tenth anniversary and have just released their fifth album, The Five Ghosts. The quintet (yes, they're fascinated by the number 5) have also become the proud owners of their very own label, Soft Revolution Records. The band, which is part of the extended Broken Social Scene family, dropped by Studio A not long ago to chat with WFUV's Rita Houston and they performed three songs from their new album, including "I Died So I Could Haunt You" and "Dead Hearts," plus one old favorite, "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead." Notice a theme?

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TAS In Session: The Morning Benders

Posted 7-12-10 by
Tags: The Morning Benders

The Morning Benders attracted enthusiastic attention when they released their debut album, Talking Through Tin Cans, in 2008, touring with The Kooks and Death Cab For Cutie. However, it wasn't until their second release Big Echo, which came out this past March on Rough Trade, that the band truly made its breakthrough. Not long ago, the quartet dropped by The Alternate Side's Studio A to perform "Promises," "Wet Cement," "All Day Light" and "Cold War" and they told Alisa Ali about working with Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor and where to find good Berkeley pizza

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TAS in Session: Kele

Posted 7-7-10 by
Tags: Bloc Party, Kele Okereke

Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has temporarily traded the rougher guitar chops of his longtime band for sleeker, synth-driven dance grooves, as evidenced on his solo debut album, The Boxer. A few weeks ago, Kele dropped by The Alternate Side studios to talk with Demos and unfurl three acoustic versions of "Tenderoni," "Everything You Wanted" and "Rise."

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TAS In Session: Los Campesinos!

Posted 6-28-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Los Campesinos!

Welsh-born octet Los Campesinos! (well, they're a septet again, since drummer Ollie Campesinos! announced his departure from the band over the weekend) released their second album Romance is Boring last fall, though fans of the raucous popsters might still stubbornly consider their extended EP, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, an album. The Alternate Side's Alisa Ali chats with four of the band members who perform acoustic versions of a few of their effusively-titled songs like "The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future" and "A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State; Or, Letters From Me To Charlotte

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TAS in Session: Horse Feathers

Posted 6-21-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Horse Feathers

Horse Feathers, a whimsically-named quartet of folk rockers from Portland, Oregon, recently released a third album, Thistled Spring on Kill Rock Stars. The band, led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Justin Ringle, will be heading out on tour this summer, with stops at the Newport Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folks Festival and the Ottawa Folk Festival. Horse Feathers dropped by The Alternate Side not long ago to play three songs: the album's title track, "Starving Robins" and "Belly of June."

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TAS In Session: Phantogram

Posted 6-14-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Phantogram

Saratoga Springs' dark, quirky electronic rockers Phantogram, the duo of Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, originally recorded their debut album Eyelid Movies as a demo nearly two years ago. However, the album generated so much enthusiastic attention that they released it in February, re-mastered and resequenced, on Barsuk Records. The pair recently visited The Alternate Side's Studio A and unfurled tracks from the album, like "Mouth Full of Diamonds" and "When I'm Small," and a bonus track, "Make A Fist.

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TAS in Session: Two Door Cinema Club

Posted 6-7-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Two Door Cinema Club

Northern Ireland's alternative electro-popsters Two Door Cinema Club have toured with Phoenix and Foals, been praised by Kanye West and recently released their excellent debut album, Tourist History. The Glastonbury-bound band recently dropped by The Alternate Side for a Studio A session where they spoke to our own Alisa Ali and played "I Can't Talk," "Something Good Can Work" and "Undercover Martyn." Video after the jump.

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TAS in Session: Lawrence Arabia

Posted 5-24-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Lawrence Arabia, Okkervil River, The Brunettes, The Ruby Suns

New Zealand's punchy popsters Lawrence Arabia, who will be touring with Crowded House this summer, dropped by Studio A during a recent stop in New York. Frontman James Milne regaled The Alternate Side's Alisa Ali with explanations of pineapple lumps and Shoreditch hipsters and the band played several songs from their award-winning second album, Chant Darling.

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TAS in Session: Shearwater

Posted 5-17-10 by
Tags: Okkervil River, Shearwater

Austin's indie naturalists, Shearwater, released their latest musical journey to the wilderness, The Golden Archipelago, in late winter. The band visited The Alternate Side for a studio session, spoke to our own Alisa Ali and played "Castaways," "An Insular Life," "Meridian" and "Landscape of Speed."

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TAS In Session: k-os

Posted 5-10-10 by
Tags: Drake, k-os

Canadian rapper and producer Kevin Brereton, best known as k-os, brought his lush, old school fusion of alternative hip-hop, rock and folk to The Alternate Side recently and spoke to Alisa Ali about the impetus for his fourth album Yes!, his pay-what-you-can tour and the art of collaboration. He also rolled out three songs with his band: "Burning Bridges," "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman," and the older "Sunday Morning." K-os will be playing with Flobots at New York's Gramercy Theater on May 21.

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TAS in Session: Field Music

Posted 5-3-10 by
Tags: Field Music, Led Zeppelin, School of Language, The Week That Was

Despite the remarkable strengths of David and Peter Brewis' excellent solo projects released under the monikers School of Language and The Week That Was, fans of Field Music were relieved when the brothers decided to reunite for an ambitious double album, Measure. The band dropped by The Alternate Side to chat with Russ Borris and play three songs off of their beautiful new record: "Write A Book," "Something Familiar" and "Share The Words." Video and interview after the jump.

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TAS in Session: Choir of Young Believers

Posted 4-26-10 by
Tags: Choir of Young Believers

Copenhagen's Choir of Young Believers, founded by former Lake Placid guitarist Jannis Makrigiannis, is an orchestral pop collective that sways between richly layered folk harmonies and more abrasive, melodic rockers that vaguely hint at The Flaming Lips and even Neil Young. Makrigiannis recently came by The Alternate Side with some of his bandmates to chat with Alisa Ali and play not only their own songs, like "Hollow Talk," but even delivered a spirited cover of a track by Swedish indie rockers First Floor Power.

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TAS in Session: Shout Out Louds

Posted 4-19-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Shout Out Louds

Sweden's Shout Out Louds, who released their third album Work on Merge in late February, will be returning to the States this May to tour with Freelance Whales. The irreverent quintet  dropped by The Alternate Side's Studio's not long ago and performed four songs from their latest release: "Walls," "Candle Burned Out," "Four By Four" and "Throwing Stones."

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TAS in Session: Delta Spirit

Posted 4-10-10 by
Tags: Delta Spirit, My Morning Jacket

Delta Spirit return with a second album, History From Below, on June 8, produced by My Morning Jacket's Bo Koster and Eli Thomson. Recently, band members Matthew Vasquez and Kelly Winrich dropped by The Alternate Side to chat with our own Alisa Ali and play three songs from that upcoming release: "Ransom Man," "Vivian" and "St. Francis."

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TAS in Session: Freelance Whales

Posted 4-5-10 by
Tags: Cymbals Eat Guitars, Freelance Whales

The pride of Queens, Freelance Whales, will rerelease their exceptional debut Weathervanes on Frenchkiss/Mom + Pop Records on April 13. The Alternate Side's Russ Borris caught up with the quirky quintet for a live studio session before they set out on their latest tour with Cymbals Eat Guitars. Check out exclusive performance videos for "Ghosting," "Hannah," "Generator 2nd Floor" and "Location" after the jump.

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TAS in Session: The Antlers

Posted 3-29-10 by
Tags: The Antlers

Thanks to the success of their critically-acclaimed, deeply moving debut album Hospice, Brooklyn trio The Antlers have been spending more time on the road than at home. They'll open for The National this summer and they'll also embark on their own headlining U.S. tour with Phantogram in April. Recently, the guys were in New York just long enough to come up to the Bronx for a special TAS session with Alisa Ali and played "Bear," "Shiva" and "Sylvia." Videos after the jump.

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TAS in Session: Drink Up Buttercup

Posted 3-22-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Drink Up Buttercup

Philly's carnival popsters Drink Up Buttercup not only survived nine shows at this year's SXSW, but the winsome, retro-leaning quartet finally release their debut album Born and Thrown on a Hook tomorrow, March 23. The band - Jim Harvey, Ben Money, Farzad Houshiarnejad and Mike Cammarata - recently dropped by The Alternate Side to chat with our own Alisa Ali and play "Doggy," "Gods and Gentlemen" and "Young Ladies" for us. They even brought along a mannequin head.

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TAS in Session: Basia Bulat (SXSW Preview)

Posted 3-14-10 by , Alisa Ali
Tags: Basia Bulat

The Canadian singer-songwriter, who will be playing this week at SXSW in Austin, dropped by The Alternate Side not long ago to play songs from her new album Heart of My Own, out now on Rough Trade.

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TAS in Session: The Drums

Posted 3-8-10 by
Tags: The Drums

Purveyors of the perfect pop song, Brooklyn's The Drums drop by The Alternate Side to chat with Alisa Ali about their songwriting credo ("be selfish"), Kraftwerk as kids and their upcoming full-length album. Plus they play "Submarine" and "Make You Mine."

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