November 14, 2008

Vampire Weekend Covers The Plastic Bertrand

1. Vampire Weekend have been one of the biggest buzz bands of the year. I was lucky enough to catch them at a small venue in London this past January before they started playing much bigger places such as Terminal 5 here in NYC.

2. Back in the 80s there was an amazing French new wave band known as the Plastic Bertrand. They were pretty underground in the states, but from what I remember I think they were somewhat successful in their native France.

What do these things have in common? Well the other night in Paris VW payed homage to the new wave greats and covered their biggest single "Ca Plane Pour Moi" (a song some might remember from the movie European Vacation). Plastic Bertrand were great and I would love to see them live (reunion?) and it's so awesome to see someone pay tribute. If you're not familiar with their work I highly recommend the following: Ca Plane Pour Moi, Major Tom, Stop Ou Encore, and Asterix est La.

November 11, 2008

No One Womanizes Like You

The Hood Internet has done some great mash-ups this year and you can download all their stuff from their site for free, but this new one might be my favorite.

November 2, 2008

This Modern Love

Bloc Party's "Silent Alarm" was one of my favorite albums in 2005 and they certainly had the potential to become one of my favorite bands of the decade. Their debut showcased loud guitar riffs, dance breakdowns, assaulting percussion, and seemed to be taking indie rock in a great new direction. However after a bleak sophomore release and a dismal third effort these guys have faded off my radar and instead of a great new direction they inadvertently ushered in a bad British dance craze full of bands like the Klaxons and the Kooks. Their debut can still get things going for me and I enjoy a few tracks from their second one every now and then, but that is about it. Luckily I was fortunate enough to catch them in the summer of 2006 in Boston before "A Weekend in the City" came out so I got to hear all the good stuff. Recently La Blogotheque caught these guys off guard in an alley in Paris and got a great acoustic performance of one of my favorite songs from "Silent Alarm."


Bloc Party, 'This Modern Love' - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Still love that one...