The first thing you should know about Sky Ferreira is that she’s really young. Not like toddler prodigy young; more like still figuring out who the public persona of “Sky Ferreira” is, young.

This isn’t at all a criticism—I’d love to still be young!—it’s more of an observation that reveals two sides of a swordIn one sense, she seems very emotionally thinned-skinned, living her songs’ lyrics as she sings them on stage in a wide-eyed yet endearing way and even bringing herself to tears in front of her fans. She also seems to still be figuring out what the Sky Ferreira sound is, touching on everything from danceable electro power pop a la Robyn + Ellie Goulding; to 90s-grunge-influenced live numbers; to twangy crooning songs like “Lost in My Bedroom” from her most recent 2012 EP, Ghost.

But, once you get past the overly morose public persona—which prompted Refinery 29 to title their interview with the singer “Sky Ferreira Is Sad All The Time (But Glow-In-The-Dark Stars Help)”—you’re likely to come to a mutual conclusion: This young woman’s got a lot of talent and we’re just beginning to hear the first of what she has to offer.

I mean, hopefully. Or she could blow up + go down in a fame-induced flurry of flames before we get beyond this new EP. But if the live show we saw out in LA a couple weeks ago and her newer material are any indication, we’re putting our money on no flames; more great music.

Born + raised in Los Angeles, the classically trained, 20-year-old singer recently made the move to New York City and, if you compare her earlier, very poppy LA-based work to the Ghost EP, this city has aged her, Reader. So, welcome, Sky, and we’re sorry, I guess—it’s a tough town. We suggest copious trips to LA.

Listen to the 80s-infused pop song, “Everything is Embarrassing” below and then, as a bonus, since we left you high-and-dry for a bit there, check out her stripped-down cover of Miike Snow‘s “Animal” from a while back, both below.

Like? You can listen to a full stream of her EP on her soundcloud page and purchase it over at iTunes. Those of you on Facebook (so, not you, mom) can also grab a free download of Unicorn Kid‘s remix of “Everything is Embarrassing” on her page.

And cheer up, Sky—summer’s nearly here; we swear.

Photos—Hedi Slimane (above); Ricky Opaterny (live, b/w below); + Loren Wohl (live, color below).

We’re not ones to paint ourselves as something we’re not—you won’t find us using this space today to wax poetic about the grief we feel for those touched by yesterday’s bombing in Boston. Not because it isn’t felt heavily by us and by New Yorkers in general—it is. We simply think that it would be in poor taste to trivialize the very serious nature of what happened yesterday and the inevitable associated repercussions by using a blog that most commonly addresses music, vegan food, and aesthetic culture   as a soapbox in this sensitive time. Suffice it to say, then, that our thoughts are with those affected and, Boston, you’re in our hearts.

We will tell you, though, that we were mid-post yesterday, writing up a talented British artist, when we stopped as these much more important, weighty things came to light, making the post both paltry by comparison and—given the artist’s choice to use somewhat violent imagery to get across her point—potentially crass.

But music is an important thing, especially in times like these when many of us may be looking for escape. So we’re thankful that French band Phoenix released today a full stream of their soon-to-be-released fifth album, Bankrupt!, due out proper next Tuesday.

In celebration of the album, this week’s Song is a “remix” of the album’s first single, “Entertainment”, by Dinosaur Jr. We use the quotes around the word remix there as this sounds more like a straight-up cover to us, with frontman J Mascis taking over vocals and the band slowing down the originally upbeat song, adding a familiar alterna-twang to it. They even end it with a ™ Mascis guitar solo.

And yes—J Mascis does look like Saruman these days.

You can listen to the original below. Keep scrolling and you’ll find a video of the band performing an unplugged-ish version of the single. It features a disinterested Shiba Inu! So French…by way of Japan.

The album stream for Bankrupt! is over at iTunes; the digital + hard-copy versions of it can be pre-ordered via the band’s site.

And don’t worry—we’ll be back in two weeks with the song we originally posted and filling you in soon on our recent trip to sunny LA.

Peace.

Photo above—Pascal Teixeira.

Back at the end of January, when the Oxford, England math rock band, This Town Needs Guns released their long-awaited sophomore follow-up full-length to their superb 2009 album, Animals, I had two immediate thoughts: 1. I can’t wait to get this album, and; 2. What a shitty time to be in a band named This Town Needs Guns.

True, the band comes from a country that counted 58 gun deaths in 2011 (as opposed to 8,775 in the US’s most recent figuring, though Britain’s population is 62 million as opposed to our 314 million or so) and cops don’t even carry firearms in most cases. But in this digital age, when something someone Tweets in Djibouti can end up on the morning news in New York, it’s fair enough to say that a band today may find it useful to take more of a world view on certain things than a band formed in the early aughts, when This Town Needs Guns was formed.

It seems that the band agrees, announcing recently that they would be known only by the acronym TTNG. As they wrote on their site:

“Over the years, many of you have asked where the band name comes from. As a band originating in Oxford, UK, ‘This Town Needs Guns’ was simply a name chosen by a group of friends wanting to make music together. At the time, this name was not considered particularly offensive and indeed was an ironic statement given the setting of such a historic and cultural city as Oxford.

Context plays a big part in the way a band name such as ‘This Town Needs Guns’ may be perceived. In the UK, guns are not present. Ordinarily, our police force do not even carry guns. Within this context, an idea such as a town needing guns seems too absurd to be taken seriously.

However, eight years on, things have changed. With our music now finding new cultures, the irony of the name is no longer implicit. Also, in light of the controversy over gun ownership in the US as well as tragic shootings there and elsewhere in the world, we want to distance ourselves from a band name which we are now uncomfortable with.We hope this change of name doesn’t disappoint anyone. It is the music that is important, not the name. As Shakespeare’s Juliet said ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.'”

Ending a press release with a Shakespeare quote—super-British.

While we’d opine that moving away from the original name makes sense from a sensitivity standpoint and in an effort to take into account the fact that the band and its ideas now extend well beyond their own immediate culture, we would have liked to see them adopt a totally new moniker if they were going to go that route. Now they’ll just have to constantly answer the question ‘What does TTNG stand for?” bringing them back to their original problem with the name and what’ll likely result in a tired explanation on their part. Plus it’s fun to name bands. Who doesn’t like the Band Name Game?

We’d also argue a more acute shift would be especially timely given that the band’s original singer, Stuart Smith, left the band to start a family before recording this most recent album. Following that, the band’s bassist, Jaime Cooper, stepped away as well, leaving the band to find a new singer—Henry Tremain—who ended up taking on bass-playing duties as well, though he evidently does so with a bass/baritone guitar hybrid to retain some of the band’s original dual-guitar melodies. The result—a three-piece consisting of Tremain (left, above), guitarist Tim Collis (right, above + the only remaining original member), and brother, Chris Collis on drums (middle).

I’ve always found it kind of odd when a band loses its frontman and soldiers on under the same brand, as it were. But one could easily maintain that Tim’s guitar-playing is the true defining sound of the band. Intricately melodic and inarguably evolved from the early 90s post-hardcore/indie sound (think American Football, et al), Collis’ guitar ranges from classically beautiful forlorn to staccato-rhythmicly aggressive and it drives the rest of the elements of the band’s songs.

The new album—the Mayan-end/beginning-of-the-world-themed 13.0.0.0.0—is an understandably different animal (pun, sadly, kind of intended), but one that shares the same roots of the band’s earlier work and pushes it further into new, exploratory directions.

Scroll down + listen to the superbly titled “Cat Fantastic”—a rhythmically complex but hauntingly engaging song seemingly about the pitfalls of dudes in bands trying to date posh women—to see what we mean.

You can listen to the full album, embedded below, and buy it + their back catalog via the band’s Hello Merch page and iTunes.

TTNG will be hitting our shores mid-April. They’ll be playing Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory May 2 + you can see their full tour dates on their site.

Photos by Tom Nero.

13.0.0.0.0 by This Town Needs Guns

You may or may not know this, Reader, but former Smiths frontman + legendarily doleful crooner Morrissey is quite the outspoken animal rights activist.

True, he’s quite outspoken on most things—including celebrity trash-talking—but the iconic singer has actually been a devoted vegetarian since was a wee lad in the suburbs of Manchester. And then there was the title track from The Smiths’ 1985 LP, “Meat is Murder,” Morrissey’s ongoing support of PETA, and this amazing, cat-approved print ad for his 2011 tour. True, the ad’s not really saying anything about animal rights, but I look for any and every opportunity to point out how awesome that is.

Finally, there was Morrissey’s recent attempt to have the Staples Center in LA go vegetarian for his show there at the beginning of this month…which, sadly, did not quite work out for the best. Pile onto that the cancelation of the remainder of his US tour due to health problems, and you’ve got some seriously bummed out fans, especially in the vegetarian circles.

But fear ye not, Reader! We here at Kindness of Ravens/raven + crow studio are here to help!

We hereby excitedly announce our sponsorship of At Last I Am Born: A Morrissey Birthday Celebration, featuring a live set by The Sons & Heirs, NYC’s tribute to The Smiths + Morrissey, DJ Matt Heart Spade on the turntables, a reading by Tony Fletcher, author of A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths, and a Smiths-inspired congregation of vegetarian food, fashion, culture, and fun, as curated by us.

Everything will kick off at 7PM on May 22 at The Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn—one of our favorite venues in the city.

We’ll be raffling off products and services from some of our favorite vegan + animal-friendly businesses (more on that later) and are working with The Bell House on some exciting vegan food options for the night.

We’re offering a discount on tickets to readers for a limited time—purchase your tickets by 8PM tomorrow night, and get $2 off the advance ticket price when using the code MEATISMURDER. Get your tickets here, and see you there, Reader!

Below, The Sons & Heirs performing their spot-on version of “This Charming Man.”

I’m going to reveal something rather un-American to you, Reader—I wish I had a British accent. Not like a little British either—you know, like that asshole kid back in college who went away to London for the summer and came back not pronouncing R’s because he ‘just couldn’t help it’. No, a dead British accent, one where you’d need subtitles if you were in a movie showing stateside.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to defend our nation’s rebellious spelling choices—why exactly the extra ‘m’ + ‘e’ in programme? And do we need that ‘u’ in colour, really? I think not.

But that accent—how can anyone deny its coolness. Be you a British lord not coping well with a post-industrialization world, an oddly handsome heroin addict trapsing through gray/grey Edinburgh, or a swashbucking piratical Keith Richards, you most likely sound a helluva lot cooler than me.

Granted, I realize I’m not alone in this aural preference. I’d say many, if not most Americans wish they said ‘banana’ instead of ‘banana’ and ‘vitamin’ instead of ‘vitamin’.

Wait, that doesn’t work so well written out.

Anyway, case in point, the band that gives us this week’s Song—Shanghai’s Pairs. Yes, the duo technically hails from China, and, yes, the band’s singer/drummer, Xiao Zhong, is actually singing with an Australian accent, given that he’s Australian, but, on a blind listen, Pairs’ songs strike me as brash, raw, chaotic punk born of the early British DIY scene. And Zhong’s vocals—mired in a heavy accent and a beautifully strategic disregard to tone + form—make the band.

The other half of Pairs, a silent Asian woman known only as F, plays simple, noisy guitar that washes over Zhong’s vocals and drum work to create what strikes me as an oddly pleasing combination of K Record’s Kicking Giant +  the seminal (for me, at least) Newcastle band, Milky Wimpshake. Never you mind if those references mean not a lick to you, Reader, just give this week’s Song—”Part Songs”—a listen and see if it’s your bag.

If so, scroll down a bit further and give their full album, If this cockroach doesn’t die, I will, a listen. From the band—”Record goes alright. Some pretty good tracks. Songs about frustration, cock suckery, idiots being in positions of power and a heap of other worldly themes.” You can buy it on double-vinyl and digitally on the band’s bandcamp page.

Not into it? Give them one more try in another format—an even more stripped down version of the band with only piano + voice via their 8-song album, Eltham Join, which you can buy and name your price on the bandcamp page. Like Huggy Bear singing ballads.

Still not down? Butcher’s hook, China plate, what’re ye, Mutt and Jeff?

3.14.13 EDIT: Like what you hear? The band’s been gracious enough to pass on a few download codes for the album. Contact us and we’ll send you one, first come, first served.

If this cockroach doesn’t die, I will. by Pairs

Remember how, back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, when Dave Kendall still hosted 120 Minutes, “alternative” was something you could call music without sounding like a total douche? I know, it lasted like one week, maybe, but man was that one sweet week.

Scotland’s PAWS are alternative like that. In the fun, simple, high-energy way that makes you want to bleach your hair and then dye it with Kool-Aid. Again. The Glasgow trio churns out lo-fi, fuzzy pop-punk (man, remember that term?) in a charmingly contemporary way that keeps them from coming off as total ‘born too late’ throw-backs.

The band lands stateside for the first time tomorrow night, playing Brooklyn’s Glasslands and then Cake “Don’t Yell Fire” Shop in the LES Wednesday night along with a smattering of other east coast shows before ending up at Austin’s South by Southwest festival next week.

To celebrate, the band’s recorded three brand new songs for a cassette (SO 90’s) they’ll be selling only at their shows. You can stream the songs below, along with this week’s Song, the jangle-rock hit, “Miss American Bookworm”, off their debut album, Cokefloat! You can listen to, download, and/or order the album from their label, Fat Cat Records. I heard Kanine Records got into a huge bidding war over these guys….

Anyone? Anyone?

Also be sure to check out their video for the superb “Sore Tummy” below, featuring Alice Costelloe, of the band Big Deal (who we wrote up early last year).

You can see the band’s full list of tour dates on their site and, if you’re in town for SXSW this year, be sure to catch them one of the 73 showcase they’ll likely be playing.

Record label, Polyvinyl recently re-released the back catalog of one of my favorite artists—Owen. Owen is the solo project of Mike Kinsella, key member of such seminal bands as Cap’n Jazz, Joan of Arc, and American Football, all of whom rank among my favorite bands of all time.

So one could imagine my excitement when my dear, kind wife + partner, Katie, gave me the limited-edition vinyl of some of Owen’s early releases.

Owen’s sound has ranged over the years from sparse, contemporary singer/song-writer folk to more rocking music that harkens back to his work in early emo bands, but the common threads that run through all of Kinsella’s songs and draw me in are his intimate vocal tone, his intricate guitar work, and his introspective lyrics. The emotional and tonal sensitivity that Kinsella exhibits paired with the harsh reality of his lyrics or more driving drums or electric guitars creates a beautiful juxtaposition that reveals a fragility in Kinsella’s own life that any of us could identify with. After more than twenty years of making music, Kinsella remains one of my most highly-held creative forces in the world of music.

You can order the limited edition vinyl—each of which come with a one-time MP3 download—from Polyvinyl. Listen to his more recent work on Kinsella’s site, where you can stream his 2011 album, Ghost Town. Polyvinyl also allows for streams of his albums in its store.

In the meantime, enjoy my personal favorite song from my favorite album—”Bag of Bones” from his 2006 album, At Home with Owen.

Below, marbled yellow vinyl of his 2001 debut solo album, Owen; translucent gold vinyl of his 2002 follow-up, No Good for No One; white vinyl of 2004’s I Do Perceive; translucent blue vinyl of At Home with Owen; and clear vinyl of his beautifully designed Seaside EP.