Lost, it bears remembering, began as a show about people. People held in solitary confinement by their demons; people deeply in need of redemption. And of each other. Last night’s series finale gave them that, finally, and it came both movingly and cleverly. It’s a tribute to the show’s creators and participants that Lost‘s story was able to end with so much emotion — on this, my hat is off. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never seen the Kings of Convenience live, but I can’t imagine catching a better show than this one: Erlend and Eirik unplugged and unmic’d, a beaming audience quieter than mice and gorgeous-as-usual camera work from La Blogotheque, home of the Take-Away Shows. All that and an epic, ridiculously sincere cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’.” If you have a better way to spend a half-hour on a Sunday morning than this, you may actually be R. Kelly.

Photo by Starbright31

Flickr user Starbright31 has a pretty epic set of shots from The National’s show at the Wiltern last night. Click here to see ‘em. Missed the boat on this one myself — tight press list plus I saw the band at the venue on the Boxer tour, so I took a pass. Probably a mistake, huh? They’re headlining again tonight, if you’re looking for Silver Lake Jubilee alternatives.

Previously: First Look: The National – High Violet | All National Posts

Division Day / photo by David Greenwald

And there I was, wondering where all the good local festivals had gone. Here’s a start: the inaugural Silver Lake Jubilee goes 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and tomorrow, with the cost a mere $5 and the lineup including, but not limited to, Division Day, Death Kit, Radar Brothers, The Like, Eulogies, Dios and literally dozens of local heroes. Peep the full schedule here.

Death Kit – “I Can Make You Love Me”: mp3
Division Day – “Chalk Lines”: mp3

(More iCal/Google Calendar-friendly L.A. concert dates here.)

After I peed my e-pants Tweeting about Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s new single, the band itself noted, “I think we just got Best New Music on Rawkblog!” Let’s go ahead and make that official. “Sink / Let It Sway,” the lead track from August 17-due Let It Sway, finds the power-pop act continuing their flawless singles streak. As I noted on Twitter, new producer Chris “Death Cab” Walla adds a beefy, Telekinesis-like low end, the band delivers enough hooks to catch Moby Dick and the whole thing gushes with open-armed enthusiasm. Three albums in, I still love this band — if that’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Sink / Let It Sway”: download via the band’s site

Previously: SSLYBY – LP3 Teaser

ABC

Few things in life sting more than a sour end to a long relationship, pulling inside the curtain to reveal your lover as a wizard of lies, cheating, heartbreak. I’m talking, of course, about myself and Lost. I’ll admit, I’ve changed, too. Our first time together was in December 2004, a few short months after the show’s September premiere. Over two days of sweaty marathon sessions, I watched 11 episodes and fell passionately in love. I watched them, I should note, on a DVD-R burned from ripped episodes gleaned from Bittorent. Hulu – and YouTube! – was then about as realistic a possibility as a flying car.

I was in college then, a sophomore months removed from the loss of my virginity and still yet to discover “blogging.” I was optimistic; I was listening to a lot of Wilco. In the 5-and-a-half years since, I dumped one girlfriend and moved in with a new one; watched journalism, my chosen profession, suffer one subarachnoid hemorrhage after another (get well soon, Bret); saw indie rock, my chosen musical genre, explode into something suddenly popular and exciting but increasingly unwelcoming; and after two years in the working world observing the inner corridors of entertainment news, turned what most would call cynical. (I prefer “pragmatic.”) But a lifetime of comic book reading, thank God, has let me retain some semblance of a sense of wonder, and I’m still amazed by a great album or a vividly imagined film or, to return to our subject, an endlessly intricate television show. I’m no angel, but Iet me be perfectly clear: it’s Lost that’s done me wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Very Truly Yours’ debut album, like its debut EP before it, finds the twee group already nostalgic. Things You Used To Say follows last year’s Reminders EP, and even their early singles (and by “early,” I mean, “year-old”) look back, title-wise: take “Popsong ’91,” a song paying homage to a year the band’s oldest members were likely going to elementary school and watching Home Alone on repeat. The group’s infatuation with the past extend to the music: the group’s early batch of singles were jangling and winning in a ‘90s Slumberland-y way, but it’s geography, not era, that’s changed with this release’s influences.

As hinted in Reminders, Very Truly Yours have taken to the softer, Glaswegian sounds of Camera Obscura and Belle & Sebastian over the last year, with singer Kristine Capua at times a dead (or at least more fragile) ringer for the former group’s Tracyanne Campbell. Things You Used To Say finds her branching out from sometimes aping Campbell’s affectations, though, turning to a softer style for the band’s newly sun-splashed chamber-pop. Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently the musicians of Arcade Fire are Rawkblog readers — they’ve taken my advice and decided to let us hear their next single. Precious, precious seconds of their next single. Stream it after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »