Punch Brothers - Reptilia

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE the Punch Brothers? Well I do. I may have once stalked them at work with my coworker so we could meet them... maybe. I love them so much that I'll be doing a full feature on them soon but I had to share a video I just saw of them covering a Strokes track. They are always brilliant when covering other artists. I heard them live doing a Radiohead tune. Not many can cover Radiohead but they rocked it. Love me some bluegrass!!

Fitz & The Tantrums - a new favorite

Fitz & The Tantrums just released their new album Pickin' Up The Pieces and it has made it to my list of favorites. Love their retro fabulousness!!

http://fitzandthetantrums.com/

Update!

So I haven't changed my blog name yet but I am making one little change. I'm taking out the Monday. With my currently crazy schedule posting every Monday was a little difficult. So I'm changing the format. I will now basically be posting whatever I want, whenever I want. Sometimes it will be full artist write ups other times it will be little ramblings on music videos and such. I hope you all enjoy the change!!

~Mary

(Image source unknown)

Satellite - Ring The Bells

Sometimes there are songs that hit you like a ton of bricks. Saturday night I heard one of those songs and I wanted to share it. I went to the CD release show for Satellite at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. I had never heard of this band before but some of my friends are buddies with these guys so we all went out for a night on the town. When the title track of their EP played I almost cried listening to it. It was written after the divorce of one of their closest friends after 10 years. He also wrote a beautiful song for his wife of 6 years during one of their worst years that I had to share as well.

"Well ring the bells that lead you home

Cause the only truth I've ever known

Is that nothing ever hurts us more than love

So circle up your best friends

And we'll celebrate the way it ends

At least we live tonight

At least we live tonight"

Life can hit us hard. Actually life will hit us hard. We all go through rough times and times of loss and tragedy and having best friends to surround you during those times is something I've been incredibly blessed with. So I'm sharing this song for my best friends, you all know who you are. I love you.


If you want to check out this band go to their website here.

The Bird and the Bee

A few weeks ago I went to one of my favorite concerts to date. It started out with our featured duo The Bird and the Bee, She & Him and ending with one of my all time favorites, The Swell Season. It was a night at the Hollywood Bowl dedicated to male/female writing duos which I have to say are my favorite. To describe The Swell Season's performance would be impossible except to say I actually cried when they did their Oscar winning hit, "Falling Slowly" which is a first for me. The evening started off well with The Bird and the Bee also known as Inara George and Greg Kurstin. I had heard a few of their songs here and there on soundtracks and such so they were familiar but I had never really delved into their music. Inara, dressed in a fabulous retro, silver dress provides the vocals while Greg produces and backs on the keyboard.

Inara and George met back in 2004 when she was working on her debut solo album. They quickly bonded over a love of jazz standards and soon wrote and recorded their debut EP in 2006 and a full self-titled album in 2007. Greg as a keyboardist and producer has worked everyone from Britney Spears to The Flaming Lips to KeSha. The man has to have some skills, no? With several other EPs under their belt and two recent albums, Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future in January 2009 and Interpreting The Masters Volume 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates in 2010 as well as other individual projects you'd have to say these two are quite the busy pair. Let's also address that Inara just had a baby. (Insert witty joke about the birds and the bees).

As much as I would like it Greg and Inara are not a couple as she is actually married to someone else. That didn't matter to Greg though who brought the baby out of stage for the last song while he played piano with one hand. He was probably just trying to pick up girls. I hear babies work really well for that... I however cannot be fooled! I was slightly jealous though that this child has made it up on stage for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl while I still sit in the audience... I'm working on accepting that.

With a recent performance on Ellen as well as the Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel The Bird and the Bee are well on their way to becoming a household name. You can hear their music on Grey's Anatomy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Sex and the City: The Movie and Funny People.

http://www.thebirdandthebee.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thebirdandthebee

I hope you have enjoyed this week's feature after my long absence. Be sure to leave your comments below with what your think of their music and make sure to share it with friends if you like it! Happy Monday!

Photo 1 & 3 – by Autumn DeWilde

Live Photo by Gabi Porter

Sneak Peak at Florence + The Machine

Well, its been a crazy few weeks and I've just moved to a new apartment. Boxes are everywhere. We have three sets of silverware and way to many mixing bowls but I'm in love with our new home and am pretty stoked that Peet's Coffee is only two blocks away. In all the chaos and lack of internet my weekly postings have not happened. I hate not posting and I hate not sharing new music with all of you! So until next week when I'll be up and running again here is a little glimpse of a new favorite. If you are a Twilight fan you can hear Florence + The Machine on the new soundtrack and if you love the show So You Think You Can Dance, which I do, then you may recognize this track from an absolutely breath taking contemporary dance performed a few weeks ago. I just downloaded the album Lungs last night off Amazon for only $5.99!! So worth it! Enjoy and I hope to do a full feature on Florence soon!



This video is slightly weird but I love it. Especially all the twinkle lights. She reminds me of a combination of Alison Sudol from A Fine Frenzy and Roisin Murphy. Maybe its the red hair :)

Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes

Well, we are back after a much needed break! It was a little impromptu but hopefully you didn’t miss me too much. It’s great to come back with a great new artist out of Nashville. Daniel Ellsworth brings to the table a jazz performance degree from Belmont University in Nashville as well as classical piano training under his belt. Daniel along with his band The Great Lakes are making some great music with some 70s vibes as well as Daniel’s jazz background with a little folk and pop thrown in.

Daniel’s first release, Between the Sea & The Sun, was a solo album put out in 2006 that features his jazz influenced piano playing. Two years later he was joined by the Great Lakes to release their self-titled album. The album starts off with the track “Electric In Love” which is a fun upbeat love song with one of my favorite lines in a song, “take off your make up because I like what your made of.” What girl doesn’t want to hear that? Daniel comes from a highly musical family where everyone came together singing and playing their instruments on holidays so it may be no surprise to them that Daniel would pursue a career in music.

Daniel Ellsworth & the Great Lakes are working with Brite Revolution and support the Blood: Water Mission which is an organization started by the band Jars of Clay to help fight the AIDS/HIV and water crisis in Africa. If you join Brite Revolution, which you should because its free, you can get some great tracks from Daniel as well as a ton of other great artists and help support some amazing charities. Of course if you like tracks one and three in our player, those were Brite exclusives so join people, join! Hopefully you are enjoying his music and if you liked to purchase the recent album your can get it for$6.93 on iTunes and Amazon.com.

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I hope you have enjoyed this week’s feature! Be sure to leave your comments below and share the music with your friends if you like it.

Photo 1 - Justin Wright Photography

Photo 3 - Photography by Adam Gatchel