A band that will be COASTing right into your life

It took me a while to find it, but I heard a song at the end of last week's "90210" (yeah, I watch that, too. Go ahead, judge me) and I had to know what it was. After a few days of searching the small snippet of lyrics - "Let's start a riot" - which lead to awful results that were not the right songs - I finally found it. The light at the end of the tunnel ended up being "RIOT!!" by The Coasts. It's at this point that I must apologize for that horrendous pun in the title of this post.

Anyway, Ike Peters and Eric Mount make up The Coasts. They're a nice little duo from...well,one half of the band is from Little Rock, AK and the other half is from Lebanon, OH (hey ACRNers! They're almost locals! Let's get 'em here.) Their first album is a little bit pop and a little bit rock 'n roll. They're raw and garage-y (think "10 A.M. Automatic" by The Black Keys). The Coasts definitely have some old-school inspiration (their track "Stranger/Danger" for instance) with a twist of current stuff. It's like Roy Orbison and The Black Keys had a love child and that child is The Coasts.

I can't help listening to their album and thinking a lot of it would have appeared on The O.C. if only it were still around. The entire thing is so listenable and catchy. It's that music you just know would be so fun to see live. I can just see these guys jamming out in The Union and people absolutely loving it.

The Coasts are definitely a little gem you'll want to check out. Their entire album is available to stream for free on their bandcamp site or you can buy it (buy it! Some of the proceeds go to Hope For Haiti's Children and it's only five bucks!) to show your support.

And maybe some proactive music-lover could contact their management and get them to Athens, eh?

"Handshakers" The Coasts (my personal favorite from the album)


"Hard-Working Man" The Coasts


"RIOT!!" The Coasts

You know you love me. XOXO, The National.

Last night's "Gossip Girl" had a brilliant closing montage, set to "Afraid of Everyone" by The National - a band that a lot of people lose their shit over. I won't go so far as to say that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, but they've got a knack for creating lovely harmonies and it's hard not to enjoy Matt Berninger's impossibly low voice. Plus, they're from Ohio.

You might also recognize their song "So Far Around The Bend" as that one song from the 'Charlie St. Cloud' trailer (58 seconds in). You know, that one movie with Zac Efron (squee!), boats, and a ghost brother? Yeah, that one.

Now that I've sufficiently spread the word about The National, I'm going to get (sort of) serious for a brief moment.

People scoff at television-- especially shows on The CW. I won't sit here and say that they're full of the highest caliber actors nor are the plots usually all that deep or meaningful, but having watched three seasons of "90210," I've gotta say that they're doing a good job of covering some pretty serious stuff that people shouldn't be ignoring.

This season alone (which is only into the fourth episode) has dealt with the following: homophobia/homosexuality, HIV, rape, and the whole "am I ready to have sex?" thing. I know that this blog is about music and film and how they go together, but I really just wanted to address the fact that there's a lot of shit going on in the world and I appreciate that a show like "90210" is willing to go there.

As tempting as it is to think about shows on The CW or any show that seems like a trashy teen show (and don't get me wrong, there are plenty of those) they're not all bad and might actually be striving to send a good message to viewers.

Okay, you're free to go. Thanks for hearing me out. Now go listen to The National and find out if you like them or if you like like them.

New school year? More like new season of TV.

Do you guys want to know how TV crazy I am? My current desktop is a giant calendar for the month of September. Now, if I were a good and a motivated student, it would have class times, stuff to help me study, important school dates, etc. But no. Instead, my desktop is full of premiere dates for every television show I could ever want to watch.

And now that (pretty much) everything has premiered for this TV season, let's get right into it. What I'm about to talk about will probably be nothing new to most of you, but I can't not talk about it.

The Black Keys. Good Lord, their music has been featured on anything and everything. That doesn't surprise me - their music has been used in TV and movies for years now, but with the amazing-ness of their latest album, Brothers, they've been everywhere.

Let's break it down:

1. "Your Touch" used in Private Practice premiere; everyone rolling around in bed together.

2. "Howlin' For You" used in Chuck; spying and sexting.

3. "Howlin' For You" used in Hawaii Five-O; Alex O'Laughlin and Scott Caan bantering.

4. "I'm Not The One" used in 90210; melodrama, making out, morals.

What I'm getting at is if you thought that The Black Keys were already popular...prepare yourself. I predict Bieber-Fever only...for The Black Keys?

A "wave" of delicious sound

Punny, right? Okay, let's get to it!

Rogue Wave is by no means a super unknown band. They were signed to Sub Pop Records up until 2007 and are now signed with Brushfire Records. They've toured with Death Cab For Cutie. They're definitely not unknowns. But this week's episode of "90210" prompted me to blog about them.

I distinctly recall being 14 and hearing "Publish My Love" on The O.C. and thanking God for the existence of Google. Since then, I've been hooked. And while they're already relatively well known in the land of indie music fans, they've been getting some serious playtime - probably due to the release of their new album, Permalight.

"90210" used the song "Eyes" which is three things: classic, well-known and a bit out of date for such a "hip" show. However, the people over at Chuck had the right idea a few episodes back in playing the song "Permalight" from the new album. On top of that, their music has been used in a ton of other stuff.

I'm not going to overdo it and create a music recipe to describe what they sound like. They vary between mellow and poppy. And they were on Sub Pop - you know that means it's good. I predict what is already a successful, independent band gaining some serious popularity in the coming months.