What's New(s)?

The Walkmen "reuniting" for NBA All-Star Game Concert


Cue jokes of "that didn't last long." Less than a month after indie-quintet The Walkmen announced an "extreme hiatus", they're getting back together for an NBA All-Star event in New Orleans. The "Alt-Star" party, thrown by Matt Bonner of the Spurs and his brother Luke's non-profit Rock On Foundation, will also feature a DJ set from Vampire Weekend drummer Chris Tomson and the Lost Bayou Ramblers.

In a press-release frontman Hamilton Leithauser had this to say about the reunion: "We thought it might take a lifetime to get us back together–til the Alt-Star Party gave us the nod. How could we stay on the bench? We’re coming 110%. Full-court press. Man to man. Rock n Roll, Pick n Roll." Before the big-game, Leithauser will be participating in the Gene Clark covers tour which will feature members of: Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Wye Oak, and Fairport Convention.  While you wait for the ball to drop, see the band playing their "final" song together.

"We've Been Had"

The Men announce new album & tour

Less than three months after releasing their "meditative" EP Campfire Songs, raucous New Yorkers The Men are returning with their third LP in as many years. Today we got our first taste of the record, entitled Tomorrow's Hits, when the group released "Pearly Gates". A scorching piece of late-60s garage rock, the track all but abandons Campfire Songs acoustic strumming. 

In addition to the new record, the band will be hitting the road for a two-month tour starting in March. You can find the dates below, along with the rousing number which may have you scrambling for a Nuggets compilation.

3/2 Allston, MA - Great Scott
3/3 Washington, DC - Rock & Roll Hotel
3/4 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
3/5 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
4/10 Cleveland, OH - Happy Dog
4/11 Detroit, MI - Lager House
4/12 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
4/13 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
4/14 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue & 7th St. Entry
4/16 Missoula, MT - Ole Beck VFW Post 209
4/17 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
4/18 Vancouver, British Columbia - Media Club
4/19 Portland, OR - Dante's
4/21 San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop
4/22 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
4/23 San Diego, CA - The Casbah
4/24 Tucson, AZ - Skrappy's
4/26 Austin, TX - Mohawk Outside
4/27 Dallas, TX - Club Dada
4/29 Nashville, TN - The End
4/30 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
5/1 Asheville, NC - The Mothlight
5/2 Richmond, VA - Strange Matter
5/30 Nelsonville, OH - Nelsonville Music Festival





Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow @AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

You've Got a Nerve"

Since yesterday, I’ve had “The Rat” by New York indie rockers The Walkmen burrowed deep in my head. I get songs caught in my head all the time, but most flee from me in a short while. No matter how much I loved the song at the time, when I’ve had my fill it’s as if the song never existed. However, with this shuddering piece of modern garage rock, I am at lost for what to do. The more I hit repeat, the more I long for the song’s cold embrace, the more I begin see to the song for what it is. It’s a song worthy of the high-praise it has seen since its 2004 release, a song that’s one of the greatest tracks of the 2000s.

Even after all of these replays, I’m still hard-pressed to pinpoint just what this song is about. Sure I have an idea; it’s hard to hear that roaring start, those propulsive drums, and the scathing singing of Hamilton Leithauser and not form at least a rough-sketch. Within the song’s walls, Leithauser immediately identifies himself as a man who has been wronged, filled to the brim with bile, “you’ve got a nerve to be asking a favor,” but just what or who has he been wronged by? Is he a jilted lover who’s had it up to here with the beckoning of an old flame? Have all his friends left him high and dry? The line “when I used to go out, I’d know everyone I saw,” seems to lend credence to these theories, but Leithauser is just cryptic enough to avoid being caught. Musically, Leithauser’s weariness in the song’s bridge matched by the downturn in the raucous instrumentation is the lone respite we as listeners are given throughout this four-minute emotional hurricane.

It’s this emotion, more than any other ingredient that makes the song so successful. Few songs come to mind from the 2000s that are more candid. Many of the potential candidates come up short because they give up too much to us as listeners. Leithauser however is self-effacing and contemptuous of society as whole without ever coming across as heavy-handed. Were he to critique himself anymore, he would shoot from emotional to emo, a term that in music today is often a pejorative of great magnitude.  Leithauser avoids such trife by calling himself a ghost, “can’t you see me” while also knowing when to fold his hand and call it a day, “I go out alone if I go out at all." In the hands of less confident band, the track would’ve either wallowed in this presupposed pity or reveled in this “us against them” attitude that loiters at the song’s door. The Walkmen however do none of this, they are contented to spend their last few breaths screaming that piercing question so many of ask when we feel we’ve been drowned out, “can’t you hear me?” In the case of “The Rat,” yes we can hear and we won’t soon forget.  

"The Rat"- Bows + Arrows