Music of the Week: Arctic Monkeys at Madison Square Garden, Daft Punk Exclusives, A Hip NYFW Mixtape + More

Hey guys. I've been doing quite a lot music-wise (besides Music of the Week, I know) and I'm here today to share what I've found with you in an extensive, albeit super late, post. 

First things first: Last Saturday, I finally got to see the Arctic Monkeys in concert! Alex Turner's voice is amazing- it has a gorgeous timbre and depth- and the lighting and effects were right on. They performed a cover of "All My Loving" in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first American show. In all or most of the pictures, Alex is up front, Nick is to the left, Jamie is to the right, and Matt is in the back on the drums. All of these pictures were taken by my friend with her iPhone 4S. 

Just before they left... );

Arabella

Cornerstone

Brianstorm

Source

So that was awesome. Another group I've been really into lately is Daft Punk. I posted about them a little while ago when I started getting into them. I'd made a few weak attempts last year starting in May, but I had Arctic Monkeys on repeat and...yeah. Most people know Daft Punk from their summer 2013 hit "Get Lucky" with singer Pharrell Williams and Chic frontman Nile Rodgers off their latest album Random Access Memories. However, they've been around for just over twenty years and have had several hits like "One More Time", which is one of those tunes everyone automatically knows, and "Harder Better Faster Stronger", which was successful independently and sampled in Kanye West's "Stronger". While promoting their latest album, Daft Punk curated two exclusive Spotify playlists- one for Thomas and one for Guy-Man- back in September. Each is filled with personal favorites and sources of inspiration. I find them really interesting because they aren't what you'd expect would inspire an EDM artist. To hear Daft Punk themselves on the music that inspired RAM, listen to this NPR podcast. 

           



Let's switch gears to fashion for a sec; more specifically, New York Fashion Week. 

Source

Well, it's over. I would've talked about it, but I was so busy jamming out with Arctic Monkeys opening week that I guess it slipped my mind. However, Stylecaster did an amazing job covering it. (Click here for all their NYFW 2014 articles.) Of course, they made up their own creative NYFW-themed content to go along with all the streetstyle and trend reports. One of them happened to be this creative Soundcloud mixtape. 

Source

It's called "Sounds From the Front Row: Volume 9" and was produced by DJ and mixtape composer Mick. Learn more about the music and the other volumes here. 

And finally, I'd like to end with a little musical inspiration from my everyday life. If the Colbert Report counts as part of my regular life...

Lake Street Dive performing "You Go Down Smooth" on the Colbert Report on 2/5/14
Source

The other day Lake Street Dive performed on the Colbert Report, which is seriously one of my favorite shows ever. Anyway, they were all trained in jazz at Conservatory of Music in Boston, which is where they initially met. Their musical background is evident their work. It's got that classic chill-but-energetic jazz vibe but with a modern twist. The lead singer's voice is super smooth, rich, and playful. Overall, it's really refreshing to see a bunch of twenty-somethings revive a genre of music that most musicians in their generation are moving away from.

Find their full interview and performance here.

So, which artist(s) are you gathering inspiration from? Anything new you found this week? Comment below and email me at leatherandrouge@gmail.com.

New Post Series: Music of the Week

As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been busy lately. One of the things that's been keeping me from my dear blog is homework. As a high schooler, it's unavoidable. However, I always find a way to work something in so I don't completely lose my mind. The easiest, if not the smartest, option for me is music. I haven't written a significant of music posts thus far, so it may not seem like it, but let me tell you right now that I am super into music. I love finding new tunes and artists whenever I can. I stay updated about concerts with Songkick and have something like 50 playlists (I haven't counted, but let's just say that you have to scroll up and down to see all of them), and have multiple music apps on my iPad. From the information above, it may seem that I'm a full-time junkie and do this like a job. Not so. I realized all of the above just today, while feeling clueless about how to approach my thesis paper. I realized that I haven't been listening to any of my Spotify playlists besides the Arctic Monkeys and that I need to rediscover whatever's lying around in my rotting playlists from the summer before middle school. I realized that I need to start actually listening to and finding music again, not just putting some song on replay and burning it into my brain for the next week and a half while doing stupid homework. To keep me on track with my tunes and to share them with you, I'm starting a new post series, Music of the Week, which will make itself right at home with our existing Poll Posts. Every Tuesday, I'll be featuring a song, artist, playlist, something music-related, or any combination of the four along with a few words. 

Here's "You're So Dark" by the Arctic Monkeys to kick off the new series. (I've been listening to it on repeat for the past week and a half while doing stupid homework.) 

Did you like "You're So Dark"? What do you think of the idea of a new series? Comment and email me at leatherandrouge@gmail.com.