The Pistola Press

You can always count on Kanye West for unexpected rants about an assortment of topics. His latest rant via his blog will not let you down. He hits out at several people and brings up some interesting points. Some of which you may agree with. “Let the ball players dance after they score!” and “Well fuck your coloring book” are my personal favorites. Check out the entire blog post HERE.

Grizzly Bear

Since Hot Chip tickets go on sale tomorrow afternoon, I thought I would share Grizzly Bear‘s cover of Hot Chip’s “Boy From School”. The guys recorded the cover during a session with Triple J Radio in Australia. Grizzly Bear put the song into a completely new context. Listen/download the cover below and listen to the original too.

DOWNLOAD: Grizzly Bear – Boy From School (Hot Chip cover)

In a previous post, we reported Cymbals Eat Guitars and Bear In Heaven are to play a show at Johnny Brendas in March. NYC kids Freelance Whales(Nope. They’re not from Brooklyn, they’re from the Queens.) were just added to the bill. The band just played a sold out show at Kung Fu Necktie on Friday and toured with Fanfarlo at the end of 2009. Their debut record, Weathervanes, will be released March 15th via Frenchkiss/Mom+Pop Records. Needless to say, Freelance Whales is a band to look out for in 2010. Tickets for the Friday, March 5th show at Johnny Brendas can be found HERE.

DOWNLOAD: Freelance Whales – Generator 2nd Floor
DOWNLOAD: Freelance Whales – Ghosting

Animal Collective and director Danny Perez collaborated to create a film called ODDSAC, which will be premiered tonight at the Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah. They released a 30 second trailer earlier today. The film looks like it will be very strange… a good strange though. It could go either either way really, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Check out the trailer below. Hopefully the film will be released somewhere around Philadelphia. Maybe one of Ritz Theatres? More information about the film can be found HERE.

Hot Chip have a new album, One Life Stand, coming out February 9th via Astralwerks. Listen to the new single “One Life Stand” below. The video for the song is pretty weird, but what else would you expect from Hot Chip? With the new record, Hot Chip will also be heading out on tour. They’ve only announced a few US dates, which includes a show at the TLA on Sunday, April 25th. It’s going to be a crazy dance party so don’t miss out on it. They’re always a good time live. Tickets go on sale this Friday(01/29). They can be found HERE.

Hot Chip 2010 Tour Dates
04/16 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
04/19 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
04/20 – Toronto, ON – Koolhaus
04/22 – New York, NY – Terminal 5
04/24 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
04/25 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory

Ticketmaster and Livenation merged today but under a few conditions. I wonder if they’ll combine the two names. We’ll see..

The U.S. Justice Department approved Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.’s merger with Live Nation Inc., while imposing conditions on their plan to create a new music- industry power.

Under terms accepted by both companies, Ticketmaster must license its software to AEG Live, its largest customer. Ticketmaster also must sell its Paciolan unit to a Comcast Corp. joint venture or another suitable buyer. The new company also will be banned for 10 years from retaliating against any concert site that signs a ticket-sales contract with a competitor.

The $889 million merger “will change the landscape of the live entertainment business,” said Allen Grubman, a New York- based music industry attorney whose clients include Madonna, Elton John and U2. “Artists are focusing tremendously on live performance because that’s an area where there is still a lot of money to be made.” (Business Week)

Fresh off a two week tour of the South, Philly band  Toy Soldiers played their first show ever headliner show at Johnny Brendas Friday night. They put on a great performance for their fans and friends. A few new songs they had been working on were debuted too. Keep an eye out for this band. They’re young, fun and have a lot more to come.  Photos and MP3 download below.

Download: Toy Soldiers -When I Tripped Into You

Since The xx and Beach House both have upcoming shows in the Sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church, I thought I would share their new videos. Beach House will play May 7th while The xx have a show in late March.

The xx video for “VCR” was directed by Marcus Söderlund, who has worked with Miike Snow, JJ, and more. Victoria Legrand, Beach House‘s frontwoman, directed the video for “Silver Soul”. Check them out below.

The xx – VCR

Beach House – Silver Soul

We Are Scientists played Johnny Brendas on the first night of their “Big Fucking Deal Tour”. They debuted a bunch of new songs from their upcoming record, which will be out sometime in May. WAS had a pretty solid number of diehard fans show up. Most of them knew all the words to all the songs. In an attempt to get the band back for an encore , one girl screamed as if someone was trying to kill her. It didn’t work and it was just really, really annoying. Photos below.