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

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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. 

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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. 

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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
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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.

Music of the Week: Songkick + My Current Faves

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Wait, it's not Tuesday? Sigh. I'm late. Well, it was bound to happen, so let's pretend it didn't.

As I mentioned last week, I'm going to an Arctic Monkeys concert soon and I cannot express how absolutely excited I am. I've heard (and seen on Youtube) so many good things about their concerts and can't believe I'm going to be seeing Alex/The Most Bada-- Guy in England (along with Nick, Jamie, and Matt, of course) live.

Tyler Oakley + GIFs FTW!
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Getting to the point now. This wouldn't have been possible without Songkick, the London-based concert tracking service I used to find my beloved show. 

I mean, technically, they found it for me. I made a free account, they used my Spotify library to determine which artists to notify me about, I got an email one fine day with "Arctic Monkeys" in the subject line, and the rest consisted of me freaking out along with amazing tickets.  

I strongly recommend Songkick to those of you who don't listen to mainstream artists because it's such an easy way to find concerts. It even makes life easier for mainstream lovers; instead of having to stay updated by friends or the radio, you can simply check your email. There are so many artists to see live and so many vendors to buy from, and Songkick makes it manageable for you to keep track of it all. For a more detailed description of the service and how it works, read the fourth point of this article I guest wrote on Allwomenstalk a little while ago. 

Get the Songkick app:

• App Store
• Google Play
• Spotify

To wrap things up, here's a little playlist of what I've been listening to on repeat lately. 

Don't worry, I'll be talking something other than Arctic Monkeys soon enough. My favorites out of these are "Reckless Serenade" and "All My Own Stunts". I also love "Wanna Be Yours". It's so romantic but lusty at the same time. I haven't been listening to it as much because I've been through that phase with it already and the first two on the playlist are much newer to me. So yeah, I do favorite favorites. Favorite-ception. All that.

And then there's the track in dead last, which is totally random and unlike the others. I first heard of it from Troye Sivan while discovering him and his delightful Youtube channel. It's a super chill R&B tune that'll make you feel oh so cool. 

So, try out Songkick and let me know how that works out for ya! Let's also discuss my current faves and topics you wanna see next Tuesday in a comment here or in an email to leatherandrouge@gmail.com.