You Should Know About Miracles Of Modern Science

I think I sound too gushy in this article, but these boys deserve it!

Also, I am going to the Amanda Blank show at Santos Party House on Friday. My show preview is here.

You Should Know About Best Coast

You should know about Best Coast, so read my featured artist profile on Bethany Cosentino for Joongbug.com's music blog Frequency here. Seriously, if we all start thinking about summer hard enough, maybe it will get here faster.

I'm a Joonbug blogger!

I've started writing for Frequency, the music blog over at Joonbug, a website devoted to NYC nightlife, events, and venues. I'm excited to undertake this new venture as it will ensure that I write about music often. I will be sure to post a link to any article Joonbug publishes on infinity yeah.

You can read my first post for Joonbug here. It's a review of Vampire Weekend's Contra and is very similar to my original post on the band, though this one is a bit more detailed.

Thanks for reading!

Leave Vampire Weekend Alone!

I tried for about an hour (OK maybe 15 minutes) to write something really profound about how tired I am of reading negative commentary on Vampire Weekend surround the release their new album Contra. But I couldn’t come up with anything better than what Carles of Hipster Runoff (I know, I know) has already said: "The most impressive thing about Vampire Weekend is how deliberate/aware they seem to be. Even though they may or may not have a douchey brand, and listening to them might be 'exhausting' because you have to read tons of 'backlash' articles, they still seem to be performing beyond 1st release expectations. Excited to see what happens 2 them in the next decade, because it will be pretty awesome/hilarious/sad/funny/etc."

Vampire Weekend is a band that figured out how to write good pop songs, give them a unique sound, and get a lot of people to listen. To me, Contra is the natural evolution of their sound. The sophomore album is more produced than the debut and it has less songs that will be receiving stars on my iTunes playlist (though I do love that track "White Sky"), but I think Vampire Weekend achieves what they set out to achieve and don’t deserve the hostile response. I think you’re all just jealous!

Listen to Contra in its entirety on Vampire Weekend’s MySpace page before it “officially” (what does that even mean anymore?) drops on Tuesday and read an awesome profile of the band by Lizzie Widdicombe in last week’s (sorry I’m late) New Yorker to learn just how deliberate they really are.

You Should Know About The Grates

One of the ways to pretty much guarantee that I will like your band is if there is a kick-ass female out in front belting out the tunes. Patience Hodgson of The Grates sounds like a punky Karen O backed by a band that seems to be two parts Be Your Own Pet with a splash of The Breeders thrown in.

It’s hard for me to not burst into my best lip-synced rendition of “Aw Yeah” every time I’m on the subway and this Australian trio peeks its way through the shuffle of my iPod playlists. And “Sukkafish” is a frequently requested performance in the venue of my own bedroom. Hodgson’s dance moves are pretty easy to imitate:

Seriously, if you like listening to girls that are cooler than you and wishing you were them, listen to The Grates. Australia already knows what I’m talking about, so should you.

the first post

2009 was, for me, a year full of low paychecks and high rent, no vacations, roommate drama (in 3 boroughs), boys who kissed and never called, and at least one hospital visit.

Fortunately, 2009 was also a year of musical reawakening. After being laid off in May, I found myself with an abundance of time on my hands and absolutely zero obligations. I approached my newfound freedom like any sane 25-year-old in the throws of a quarter-life-crisis and started partying. A lot. Luckily I sobered up enough in the late afternoons to spend a few hours perusing the internet for some new boozing tunes. This was the first time I was ingesting new music since graduating Berklee in 2006 when an overdose of jazz and classic rock caused me to swear off music all together. I was giddy with how good it felt to discover that not only were there people out making music that sounded fresh and new to me, but that I liked it and wanted to share it with others.

Now that I am actively listening to music again, I’ve returned with a fervor and zeal that dwarfs any enthusiasm that existed in my previous idle lifestyle. Granted, the lifestyle I lead now is still pretty idle, but I do manage a few more mouse clicks nowadays. There is no way that my current incarnation as a music fan would exist without the internet. The blogosphere has changed the way people share and listen to music and blah, blah, blah. The online community fascinates and excites me. True (actually, “obsessive” is probably a more proper word here) fans are the interactive ones. It would be egotistical of me to assume that I would have any unique insights to what is already being said online about the current music scene (Brooklyn’s in particular) and that’s not why I’ve created this blog. I simply want to join in the conversation.

I don’t want to define the mission of infinity yeah too narrowly. I’m sure it will evolve and define itself, like most things do, as it progresses. However, I will say that I have always thought that taste is a silly thing to debate. This blog is my humble opinion and if it so happens that I actually acquire a reader or two that disagrees with that opinion, it is my hope that we can engage in thoughtful, intelligent, MATURE discussion rather than character attacks. I am not an expert, I welcome input from all music fans, and reserve the right to change my mind (I have been know to make a few hasty decisions).

In order to beef up infinity yeah, I've resurrected some of my favorite blog articles from an old domain and posted them here under their original posting date, so they appear before this "first post." Hope that's not too confusing!

For those who are curious as to the reasoning behind the name of the blog, it was the title of a mix that a good friend gave me for Christmas, some of which is featured below. Happy 2010!