Unpiano | Music Blog

My favorite video to mp3 site is down right now so I can’t rip any audio for this, but check out these new SoKo songs. It seems as though she sort of quit music for a while after getting all of that attention (who can blame her), but thankfully she recently moved to Los Angeles and started working on a new album. Watch the video all the way through or just skip to the end if you’re short on time. The first song is pretty good but the real gem is ‘First Love Never Die’ which she plays alone on a keyboard at the end of the show. I know there are other songs with the same title, but I can’t tell if it’s a cover of not. Either way, it’s great to hear her belt out that sadness. What a voice on that girl.

EDIT: I finally had a chance to rip the two songs out of the video – you can grab them below.

SoKo – First Love Never Die
Soko – It’s Not Gonna Work

I grabbed this off Woooooo the other day and it totally floored me (EDIT: I had to replace the orig video with a worse quality one because the first one was taken down). I guess maybe it had been a while since I saw the Monterey Pop Festival footage, but this version of ‘Today’ is a heart-stopper. Grace Slick is so haunting and beautiful up there that I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. I ripped the audio out of the video but also included another live version that has better audio quality since it comes off their live album Someone To Love. To be honest I like the crappy raw version better.

Jefferson Airplane – Today (live at Monterey Pop)
Jefferson Airplane – Today (live)

Bonus:
Tom Scott – Today

I forget where I found this gem, but it may be one of the best Joy Division covers I have heard in a while. Steel Harmony performed a Caribbean steelband version of ‘transmission’ as part of Jeremy Deller’s Procession in Manchester. Supposedly they also varied their set with other Joy Division and Buzzcock’s songs. I ripped out the audio below which you can use on it’s own if you feel like so inclined.

Steel Harmony – Transmission (live)

Last time I was out record shopping, I picked up a Grizzly Bear 7″ that happened to have two of my favorite songs on it. I played it all week and then filed it away not thinking about it much. Well, apparently it was a huge deal that I found it at all since they were super limited and are selling for a ton on ebay already. Anyways, it appears that I do things right every now and then. The 7″ features a couple songs (which I may or may not have posted here before) from their performance on KCRW last year and are arguably better than the original as they sound a bit softer.

Grizzly Bear – While You Wait For The Others (live on KCRW)
Grizzly Bear – He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss) (live on KCRW)

I know, I know.. another Deerhunter post. What can you do? I’ll stop posting their songs when they aren’t good anymore. This cover of the Tears For Fears song is amazing and I spent like 3 months trying to find out what it was after I heard it on a Noise Pop recording. I had no leads until one day I played it for Evelyn and she was like “It sounds like a cover”. What? When does a song fucking sound like a cover? But she was right.. good work kid. Anyways, the song is off their Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP which is due out in June of this year. I sort of like the first live version I heard better because he belts out the “famous” and hits some note that sounds sort of sadder than in other versions. Gotta go with sound quality sometimes though..

Deerhunter – Famous Last Words
Deerhunter – Famous Last Words (live @ Noise Pop)

//photo by julie remensperger

Deerhunter just gets better and better don’t they? I heard that they were playing this song live and I was finally able to find it so that I could go to sleep last night and stop thinking about it. It’s originally a Jay Reatard song that they covered on a split 7″ where they do his song and he covers their song ‘Fluorescent Grey’. I think they made like three of them total.. nice. I have also been obssesively searching for some new songs that I heard from a live video the other day. So far I have had no luck but I ripped the audio out of the video and have been listening to that on my ipod (is that weird?) I put a link to the original video shot by Awww Damn at The Rickshaw for their “secret” show at the end of February and then also to the ripped audio track which contains two songs I think. If anyone knows what they are, I would love to know.

Deerhunter – Oh, It’s Such a Shame

Bonus:
Deerhunter (live at the rickshaw stop)
Deerhunter (live – audio only)