Live at Glasslands: ARMS

It's no secret that we've been a long time supporter of this band, and not just because they were one of the first to plop down on the couch way back in February of 2010. Since then — and good lord, has that been a long time — ARMS has grown to include 4 lovely appendages: Todd, Matty, Tlaecal and Dave.

The band has kind of become an unofficial mascot for us, minus the furry costumes and t-shirt guns and things. They are the only band to have not one, but two couch sessions, and even stopped by last winter to grace us with a cover of the Mariah Carey classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Or, as they put it, Todd's Great Grandmother's favorite Jewish holiday song.

 
And, since we clearly can't keep quiet about the band that represents the breadth of our site, we trekked out last Friday night as ARMS played to a packed house at Glasslands. The record release show was a joy to witness, to say the very least, as you'll see below in the videos for "Fleeced" and "Three Mile Island".

Don't miss the MP3 for a more lively take on the title track, and in terms of take homes, be sure to pick up the best little nugget to come out all holiday season: Summer Skills.

 

MP3

ARMS - "Fleeced (live at glasslands)"

ARMS - "Three Mile Island (live at glasslands)"

ARMS - "Summer Skills (live at glasslands)"

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 bandcamp

Couch Session: Port St. Willow

Couch Session #38: Port St. Willow 

I'm not one to say I don't like a big show,
fireworks, lights, that whole rodeo,
when it's big it's best, or at least most the time,
with quainter things being lost in decline.
But there's those few solemn moments, often heard on a whim,
that draw you in hopelessly, where you simply give in.
A voice like a dewy morning paired with reflections of the past,
he's the summation of what you'd hear looking out a window with rain falling fast.
We ate bagels and talked, on that dark summer night,
recording three songs under one dim light.
With praise from a much-love Antlers-ian pal,
whose alongside presence alone shows his morale,
having Port St. Willow over was quite a breeze,
akin to picturesque wind blowing through the trees.
Enough with the weather, we get it, we know,
We just think this one's beautiful, this intimate show.
So close your eyes, breathe deep, like a yoga class but without strain,
and take a listen to Port St. Willow and these stunning refrains:

MP3

Port St. Willow - "Holiday (live on Big Ugly Yellow Couch)"

Port St. Willow - "Stay Even (live on Big Ugly Yellow Couch)"

Port St. Willow - "Amawalk (live on Big Ugly Yellow Couch)"

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bandcamp

Christmas Came Early.

From calculating tips with electronic devices to a pathetic inability to easily count beyond fingers and toes, we're no expert at mathematics. But, when it comes to combining something we love with something we crazy-adore, it's one of those magical combinations like vanilla frosting and pretzel sticks that just works perfectly, seamlessly, and in that edible case, so insanely tastily.

Jumbling into that heap of glory is the fact that our near, dear friends Santah have paid a long awaited stop to our other favorite session site Daytrotter, and we're throwing a streamer-filled, oversized balloon parade in our minds for how excited the two of us are.

We've adored these kiddos from Canopy Club to Pianos, from down-the-street buds to long-distance friends and, fittingly, from neighbors to cousins, and couldn't give a bigger stamp of approval for you to download these tunes lickety-split if we had a first grade teacher's drawer of gold stars and blue ribbons to seal it properly.

Or, if their timeless doodle wasn't a drawing based on a lil' portrait of our own.

Go, look, listen, stop reading, and run.

An E-vite.

 Look, ma! We're on the radio!

As you can tell, us couchfolk are just squealing with glee over our newest radio-based venuture with those good eggs over at eMusic. Thanks to their expansive library, we were able to scrobble together some of our favorite songs from a whole long list of artists who have plopped onto those worn-in yellow cushions, as well as those we've spent days listening to with our tushies tucked there ourselves.

(We may not technically be having a pop superstar listening to their hit single on Z100 type of a moment, this is as close as we're gonna get to it, so we're going wild with it while we can.)

Get as close to sneaking into our musical libraries as possible by tuning in to hear everything from Yellow Ostrich and Spoon to J. Irvin Dally and Buddy Guy, all on one fun nifty station. Acesss it with your eMusic account, or sign up for a free one and get 10 hours of free radio listening time.

It's so grand, you won't want to get in a car and turn the dial ever again. Just don't blame any budding agoraphobia on us, k?

The Nose Knows.

Anyone who follows us on Twitter knows we're obsessed with this band. Like, Backstreet-Boys-in-the-TRL-studio-screaming-fan obsessed. We almost got wisked away by a flash flood at Lollapalooza catching their set, baked them a killer macaroni-and-cheese during their first stateside trip because we wanted them to adore Nueva York and literally yelped out loud yesterday when we heard one of their new songs being used in a commercial for our (well, my) large-schnozed love Owen Wilson's new movie.

Speaking of things we adore as well as those new diddies, we stopped by Knitting Factory back in August to catch them play those tunes live, and it was just as fantastic as we'd hoped. While we're not sure how long we'll have to wait in the middle of Times Square screaming upwards at 1515 Broadway to profess our love for these five, the amount of time that we need to put on the clock for the rest of you to get mesmerized comes in at just under 5 minutes, the proper amount of time each of these two videos from the show will set you back.

Coh-winky-dink? We think not. Take a goose and a gander at these slices of heaven, and keep an ear out for their return to some sets of cities next month. You know we'll be there.

MP3

Boy & Bear - "Blood To Gold (live at Knitting Factory)"

Boy & Bear - "Feeding Line (live at Knitting Factory)"

Boy & Bear - "The Storm (live at Knitting Factory)"

Big Ugly Yellow Couch Session: Boy & Bear