Florence + The Machine
You might have recently been hearing the powerful sounds of Florence + The Machine, a British group led by Florence Welch, who resides in London. The band’s debut album, Lungs was released this past summer and in its first 5 weeks of release it was number 2 on the charts, just one slot behind Michael Jackson. This is a pretty amazing feat if you ask me. And where did the name come from? Florence Welch states that when she first began playing shows, she was billing herself as “Florence Robot is a Machine.” This name began to garner lots of interest, most likely due to it’s originality and also because Florence has an incredible voice that stays with you for a while in your head once you’ve heard it. Feeling that this name was too long however, the band changed it to what we know them as today. They’ve recently released a music video for their newest single off of Lungs, “You’ve Got the Love.” Enjoy it below!
Upcoming WERS Welcomes!
Saturday, December 5th @ The Paradise Rock Club
Will Dailey’s Festival Holidad
Friday, December 11th @ The Paradise Rock Club
To see the complete WERS Concert Calendar, visit WERS.org
December Album of the Month!
After listening to dozens and dozens of CDs this month, we’ve decided to name Norah Jones’s new release, The Fall, our December Album of the Month! Listen in to WERS on Friday, December 11th as we’ll spend the day playing tracks from the album and you’ll also have the chance to win your very own copy! For a preview of the new music on the album, here’s a video of Norah performing her single “Chasing Pirates” live on Jools Holland. Enjoy!
WERS Top 5 of 12/1
1 DEVENDRA BANHART What Will We Be
2 NORAH JONES The Fall
3 PHOENIX Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
4 AVETT BROTHERS I And Love And You
5 MONSTERS OF FOLK Monsters Of Folk
New Vampire Weekend
The New York-based indie rockers, Vampire Weekend are set to release a new album called Contra in January! With their first album clearly being a huge hit, I think we are all expecting big things from Contra. They’ve made a video, which you can watch below, for their new single “Cousins.” Seems like VP is back to their old tricks of fusing catchy beats with Afro-pop. Do you think this new album will live up to the hype? We’re sure excited to see!
WERS Top 5 of 11/24
1 DEVENDRA BANHART What Will We Be
2 PHOENIX Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
3 MONSTERS OF FOLK Monsters Of Folk
4 INGRID MICHAELSON Everybody
5 AVETT BROTHERS I And Love And You
Throwback Thursday!
This week’s Throwback Thursday features one of the most bizarre groups in pop music history. Grangemouth, Scotland’s Cocteau Twins typically utilized a formula: a simple 808 beat, shoegazy guitar, and gibberish vocal gymnastics. It wasn’t their methods that made them so popular, however, it was the gorgeousness of their melodies and how each one created its own landscape of wild catharsis.
You’ve heard the Cocteau’s fantastic “Heaven or Las Vegas” on our airwaves, but for the Throwback we’re loving another unlikely hit they scored in 1988 off their underrated Blue Bell Knoll album, “Carolyn’s Fingers”. There might have been some absinthe in the mugs of alternative rock radio programmers at the turn of the 90’s as the trio were able to notch 3 top 10 hits on the Modern Rock Tracks chart here in the States. “Carolyn” hit #2 in ‘88, with “Heaven” reaching #9 and “Iceblink Luck” #4 in 1990.
Somehow, “Carolyn’s Fingers” does have a more accessible feel to it, with the rare inclusion of live drums, a catchy melody, and lyrics that, should you bother to track them down, actually don’t smack of the absurdist ramblings that serve as the marque of the Cocteaus. Frontwoman Elizabeth Fraser stuns in this track with a syrupy falsetto, exhaling fragmented syllables like a chorus of hiccuping angels. Rock those melismas, girl! Also, I’m a bit disturbed by how similar Liz’s hair is to mine at the moment.
-Jon Gabso
Monsters of Folk official video!
Here’s what we’ve all been waiting for! Monsters of Folk (Conor Oberst, Jim James, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward) have finally released their official video for their single “Say Please” Check it out below!
Tegan and Sara
The Canadian indie-rock duo, Tegan and Sara, recently released their 6th and newest studio album, Sainthood. The album was produced by Death Cab For Cutie guitarist, Chris Walla and it “addresses secular themes of devotion, delusion, and exemplary behavior in the pursuit of love and relationships.” With this being the twins’ loudest and most rocking album to date, it’s also their first album to feature a song that was co-written by the both of them. Usually they write their songs separately, but writing together is now proving to be a success! For a preview of the music on Sainthood, below is a video of a live performance of one of their new songs, “On Directing.” Enjoy!
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