Foster The People‘s new video for “Call It What You Want” is the most lavish of their young career. Since their humble beginnings with “Pumped Up Kicks,” Foster The People have been featured as a You Oughta Know artist, and now are on the fast track to superstardom with their quirky brand of infectious electro-pop. We’ve been bopping our shoulders all morning at our desks as we listen to the new single, so one thing’s for sure — we absolutely love “Call It What You Want.”
The video, on the other hand, is a little bit more interesting and requires more than just a toe tap to decipher. Set in a lavish mansion akin to the Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, the video also has a decided Gossip Girl vibe, what with all the gilded, ornamental decadence and the striking resemblance of front man Mark Foster to Chace Crawford. Add some hallucinogens and the video descends quickly into madness while the band experiments with all manner of wet, exploding and popping things, while ignoring the scantily-clad female fans screaming beneath their balcony.
And not only are the fans ignored, they’re shot at with Mark Foster’s finger gun, exploding blue paint from their chests in a gruesomely vibrant simulation. We can’t decide if it’s a thinly veiled metaphor — Foster The People’s priority is to experiment and create rather than to lavish in fame — or if it’s just a super fun, tongue-in-cheek kitschy kind of video. Either way, we hope the fish flopping on the floor towards the start of the video made it back into its tank alive…
At the risk of sounding like a codger, the experience of going to see a concert live and in the flesh has diminished over the last few years, a time during which smart phones and digital cameras have become ubiquitous. Sure, audiences have always been easy to distract mid-concert—be that for beer, conversation, what-have-you—but over the last five years or so, the live concert experience has suffered because many members of the audience are too busy either taking crappy digital pictures or tweeting about the show instead of enjoying the vibes, mannnn.
I bring this up because at last night’s Dawes/Blitzen Trapper show at New York City’s Webster Hall, there were a surprising few number of people who experienced the show through a 4-inch handheld screen because they were, *gasp*, actually present in the moment! This kind of warm attentiveness is something that bands tend to react really positively to, and four gents of Dawes were no exception: Their rollicking, 90-minute(ish) set of “classic indie” songs went over like gangbusters with the demographically diverse audience last night, one that was a pleasant mix of hipsters in tight fitting plaid shirts, recently-graduated-yet-quickly-aging frat stars, bearded bros looking to kill time before next year’s Bonnaroo, and Lefsetz-reading Boomers.
We’re less than a month away from the highly anticipated premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, and the talented musicians who appear on the Breaking Dawn soundtrack have been keeping us company all month long as part of our ongoing Posted series. Tonight, we’re super excited to premiere the video for Christina Perri‘s “A Thousand Years”which is chock full of footage that Twi-Hards are going to be obsessing over until the film’s November 18th debut.
Perri, who we introduced to you as one of our You Oughta Know artists one year ago this month, delivers romantic lines like “I have loved you for a thousand years, I’ll love you for a thousand more” and “All along, I believed I would find you/Time has brought your heart to me” with the kind of emotional resonance that will have those who have long been obsessing about seeing Edward and Bella’s wedding finally come to life on the silver screen reaching for their hankies. In fact, it’s the kind of soaring ballad that one could easily imagine high school seniors all over the country voting as their Prom Theme come next May. That is, unless you’re on Team Jacob, in which case you’ll probably just have to make do with this awful reimagining of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” as “Bella.”
(This video premiere is brought to you by Chronicle.)
MUTEMATH had already come through New York City on their fall tour when we selected them as the latest You Oughta Know artist, so we felt a bit guilty making them go out of their way to come to our offices, thrilled though we may have been. The band didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, though, laying down a killer You Oughta Know Live set for us, including an Alicia Keys cover that surprised us with its unique interpretation. After playing the two singles from their new album—”Odd Soul” and “Blood Pressure”—they launched into a Southern blues-rock version of “Fallin’” that sizzled. Maybe it was the Hammond B3 organ Todd Gummerman played, or perhaps Darren King’s substitution of snare for hi-hat on the double-time beat, but this cover worked in every way that “Southern blues rock” covers almost always don’t. This was “Whipping Post,” not Blues Hammer. Even the band was visibly pleased with how they sounded; frontman Paul Meany let out a deserved “Alright” when they finished.
VH1 announced earlier this week that MUTEMATH is the latest You Oughta Know artist. We weren’t deeply familiar—though we were impressed with the video for “Blood Pressure”—so we did a little investigating. Their latest record Odd Soul came out on October 4, and it’s got a definite New Orleans funk feel at points—unsurprisingly, the band cites the Meters as an influence—but the overwhelming feel is of a band whose members are deeply in tune with one other. [click to continue…]
It’s been an immense joy to watch the rise of Foster The People over the last few months. Since we added them our roster of You Oughta Know artists back in June, the band has exploded in popularity and become arguably the most popular debut artist of the year 2011. The guys were cool enough to let us tail them for a day at the Austin City Limits Festival last weekend, and we’re psyched to share with you the video and photgraphic evidence from our encounter with the current #1 artist on Spotify.
The video begins with a curious homage to Pulp Fiction (or maybe Repo Man?), as lead singer Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick stumbles onto a briefcase of indeterminate origins and opens it up, resulting in him being bathed in golden light. He then proceeds to walk/jog through a series of urban alleyways in search of vocalist Noelle Scaggs and the rest of the Tantrums, while lens flares invade the frame at a clip that would make even J.J. Abrams blush. Along the way, a slew of feathers begin floating down through the atmosphere, which makes us think that either Sully Sullenberg was in the vicinity exacting more revenge on the geese population or there was an explosion at a nearby down pillow factory. Just when we think we might have an idea where this video might be going, Fitz falls to his knees in an alleyway and gets drenched by a raincloud that only has eyes for him.
So, what does it all mean? Well, even after watching it a few times, we’d be hard pressed to explain the video treatment, but we are certain of one thing: This song is totally boss.
VH1′s latest You Oughta Know artist Dawes is well into its co-headlining tour with Blitzen Trapper, but late last month, when they stopped by our offices for a You Oughta Know Live set, they were accompanied by VH1′s multi-talented Lauren Deiman, who in her role as photographer followed the band all day for our Music Seen photo series. After the jump, the band gets really good coffee, performs at our offices, and lugs equipment around the city to all sorts of stops on a promotional junket. The band’s tour continues through November 15, and we’ve got plenty more from Dawes, including interviews and music videos, over at yououghtaknow.VH1.com.
Since we namedDawes our latest You Oughta Know artist last week, they’ve continued to gain buzz. Example: After seeing the band for the second time in two days, self-styled music industry prognosticator Bob Lefsetzraved about Dawes in his much-read blog The Lefsetz Letter. (It helps that Jackson Browne was an unannounced special guest the second night.)
Meanwhile, we’ve got a bonus clip from the band’s You Oughta Know Live set: a cover of “Where Were You,” by Vic Chesnutt (from the late songwriter’s Michael Stipe-produced 1991 album West of Rome). The band’s rendition gives the alt-country lament a California sheen without losing its plaintiveness. Watch it above! [click to continue…]
Sometimes a band sounds exactly how you expect them to. Judging from the You Oughta Know Live set that they recorded in our offices, Dawes is just such a band. Even before they began playing, we watched the quartet try to recall, without Google, with what song Elvis Costello began his infamous Saturday Night Live performance before stopping and launching into “Radio Radio” (for the record, it was “Less Than Zero,” and they succeeded) while re-doing a bit of sound-checking.
Then they launched into their lush (and loud) set, kicking off with “Time Spent in Los Angeles,” the lead track from June’s Nothing Is Wrong. The lyrics reflect on the somewhat exceptional position the city holds in the popular imagination, and how some of its residents engage with that, or refuse to (sample lyric: “When people ask me where I come from/ To see what that says about a man/ I only end up giving bad directions/ That never lead them there at all”). Everything about the performance seemed well-tuned and calibrated—when the vocals fell off the beat, it was just as purposeful and focused as anything else. The whole set is streaming now, so check it out!
