Coachella '11

BE THERE

It's On

2011 is on bitches. I had this shit blastin when midnight hit. Donald Glover for life. My New Year resolution, back to hittin the blog. I can't leave you hangin on the first! Download this now. Happy New Year
http://www.mediafire.com/?ya3y2ms2u710yuu

Oxygen Ashtray's Albums Of The Year

1. Toro Y Moi - Causers of This

  2. Beach House - Teen Dream

3. Wild Nothing - Gemini 

 4. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

 5. Cloud Nothings - Turning On

6. Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils

7. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

 8. The National - High Violet

 9. The Arcade Fire - Suburbs

 10. Magic Man - Real Life Color

11. Girls - Broken Dreams Club Ep

12. Morning Benders - Big Echo

13. Wavves - King of the Beach

14. Beast Coast - Crazy For You

15. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid

16. Happy Birthday - Happy Birthday

17. DOM - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods

18. Teen Daze - Four More Years/Everything

19. Childish Gambino - Culdesac

20. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

21. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be
22. Twin Shadow - Forget
23. Tennis - All their music
24. The Drums - The Drums
25. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz
26. Surfer Blood - Astro Cast
27. Sleigh Bells - Treats
28. Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
29. Vampire Weekend - Contra
30. Tallest Man on Earth - Wild Hunt
31. Gayngs - Relayted
32. MGMT - Congratulations
33. Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
34. Ariel Pink - Before Today
35. Harlem - Hippies
36. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
37. Marcus Eaton - As If You Had Wings
38. Delorean - Subiza
39. Broken Bells - Broken Bells
40. Jonsi - Go
41. Matt and Kim - Sidewalks
42. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
43. Woods - At Echo Lake
44. Frightened Rabbit - Winter of Mixed Drinks
45. Crocodiles - Sleep Forever
46. Bonobo - Black Sands
47. Emanicpator - Safe in the Steep Cliffs
48. Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
49. Owen Pallett - Heartland
50. Yeasayer - Oddblood
51. Deer Hunter - Halcyon Digest
52. How to Dress Well - Both Albums
53. The Walkmen - Lisbon
54. Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
55. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way
56. Free Energy- Stuck on Nothing
57. Salem - King Knight
58. Four Tet - Love in You.

Well there it is! My favorite albums from the year 2010! It has been a decent year, with the early stuff having some real staying power. Toro Y Moi takes the #1 spot. I love everything Chazz does and that album is literally perfect. Every song on the album has had its moment at the #1 spot. Beach House is #2. Victoria Legrand is a goddess with the most beautiful voice ever. Teen Dream is another perfect album from start to finish. I find their music to be so visual. Wild Nothing, they are real talent. I saw them live this year, great guys and amazing performers. Their album is 80's fuzzy guitar dream pop. My favorite! These songs are so catchy to me. These three albums were by far my favorite from this year.

I gave Local Natives #4 because I love that album so much and it was re-released this year. Cloud Nothings are one of my favorites. Super reverby, you can hardly hear any vocals or actual guitar chords, but it's so raw. This band knows how to rock the fuck out, cheers guys! Beach Fossils are Lofi indie gods that have catchy guitar riffs that I love to try and re-create, you guys are true inspiration. LCD Soundsystem put out one of their best efforts yet. This album is so much fun, love throwing this on at a party and just having fun to it. The National and The Arcade Fire put forth extremely solid albums this year. They are both well established and are continuing to grow in different directions with their music. Magic Man rounds out the top 10 with some local talent. These guys built an album with depth and textures I was really impressed with. This album was in my top ten the moment I heard it.

I would like to mention that all of the albums on this list were good. If you made the list, I enjoyed your album this year. Morning Benders has some of my favorite songs this year, Wavves and Best Coast ruled our summer, the perfect soundtrack. Happy Birthday, you guys rock...keep being weird. Teen Daze, I don't want to just include Four More Years...I love everything you have put out so far. Each track gets better and better. Donald Glover, thank you for being my role model, you are the fucking man.

PS. Kanye's album didnt make the list...it was good but he's just not going on my list

MOM IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

Oxygen Ashtray is a year old today. WOooooooooooooooooo!!!! That's like 27 in blog years. Since I started the blog, I have met a lot of great people that work hard to bring quality music to CT. My initial goal was to get the music I enjoyed more available to my friends. So much more has come from starting the blog and it's really cool! I know that I have not been posting too much of late but I promise that is all changing. See...already 3 posts in the past couple of days. I've got my Cville write up being posted soon and my album of the year list will be up shortly. I wanted to have the album list ready for today because I had my best of '09 list ready for my first post. But alas I'm a lazy blogger. I blame work and my girlfriend. My new job doesn't allow me to get on the computer so there goes a good 4 hours a day of finding music. Plus I have a girlfriend now, which is way better then dating my blog. Here are some of my favorite songs from 2010, my favorite albums should be posted next week. Cheers!

DOM Live @ Iron Horse

This past Thursday I had the privilege of seeing DOM open for Suckers at The Iron Horse in Northampton Mass. My friends and I were excited for a good dance party...but the hipsters of Northampton would not allow it. There were only about 30 people inside around 10:30 when DOM was using up their drink tickets in the back bar. They took stage around 10:45. 'Lots of room up front here on the dance floor' Dom said. The only people standing near the front of the stage seemed like hometown friends. I wanted to stand, but didn't want to piss off everyone that was sitting...fuck 'em, we stood right in front. DOM is tight live, much more so then I thought they would be. They reminded me of The Strokes to be honest. They were not flashy at all, which is the polar opposite of the music they make. They stood in place, jammed hard and played all their hits off the 'Sun Bronded Greek Gods' EP, plus a rockin surf instrumental...then a Pete&Pete cover to end the set. I was very impressed. They also use a video projector for some really trippy added effects to their live show.

This EP is a vinyl I have been wanted to get my hands on for a while now. DOM didn't have a merch table but I did catch them outside having a cig, and they had some in their van. We chatted around the van for a bit about the show and lack of audience participation, then decided a blunt was in order. We burned one down, oddly right in front of the Northampton Police Dept. The entire band is chill, it seemed like they would have been down to hang out all night if we didn't have to get back to CT. I have read some mixed reviews about DOM and how they act, but these dudes are cool in my book. They even gave us two more free vinyls for coming out to see them. I would also like to add this is the best put together vinyl in my collection. Everything is so well done. From the vinyl itself which is a marble purple color, to the lyrics sheet and even the sleeve for the record is nice... plus it sounds fucking awesome. Can't wait to catch these guys again, if you guys don't get drink tickets, i'l buy ya one.

Best Coast - Boyfriend

“Boyfriend” is the first song on Best Coast’s debut album, 'Crazy For You'. They gave it away as a free download earlier today, and you can grab it at the bottom of this post. “Boyfriend” has the same lo-fi feel that we saw on her early 7″ singles...just not as much reverb on the vocals, much like she actually sounds live. Beth played it on her stop in CT back in April. Can't wait for the album!!
Best Coast - Boyfriend by berman1125

Jeremiah Weed Interviews Cool Dudes @ Bonnaroo

Here is Jeremiah Weed interviewing Phoenix, Local Natives, and Mumford & Sons from this years Bonnaroo music fest.

Dave Matthews Band Weekend @ SPAC

SPAC weekend is unlike any other weekend of the year for me. Hartford was fun, but SPAC is where you go if you want to see dmb on the east coast. It's more then just going to a concert. It's about meeting up with people that have a common love for one thing, music.The place you see friends you have not seen in a year, and make new friendships that last for life. So this write up will be more of a weekend recap then just a show review. Expectations could not have been higher with the way last year went in Saratoga. It would be impossible for them to top SPAC N2 of last year, but Dave and company did their best. SPAC weekend should always start on a Thursday. I had gotten tickets to a Surfer Blood concert for Thursday night, so early Friday morning I took the 2.5 hour trip north to our campgrounds at Moreau State Park. Getting there around noon, my pal Jesse who I have now seen 6 shows with was already packing the vape. Home sweet home. I was also meeting up with three jersey girls (no not like Snooki jersey girls). We have been friends for a year, but were finally meeting up for the first time. It was great to see everyone, set up tents, smoke a bit...I mean a lot...and then walk from campsite to campsite talking with other dmb fans. By then it was 3:30 and time to get to the venue. Now...we got off exit 15 to a police check point. Of course we smoked a J on the way to the show and the car smelled. He asked us to give him what we had. A sad sacrifice, but a necessary one. Laura...RIP...but he didn't get the 8 joints we had! We paid to park in a private lot that allowed tailgating and set up shop for a few hours.

We got into the venue in time to walk around, check out the posters, and found our seats. Then I got a txt from Amanda. 'Save us from the lawn'. Okay, I rushed to stub them in, we had aisle seats it wasn't too much of a squeeze. All four of us got to sit together for both shows, it all worked out exactly the way we planned. The band came on at 8:30...Big Eyed Fish into Bartender...just like Hartford, but I liked this Bartender much, much more.  It was Stefan's birthday that night, there was a huge Happy Birthday chant after Seven. Nancies was better then Hartford too. The crowd still fucked up the lyrics, but Dave saved it by coming back in before the second verse. During Boyd's solo the entire band stopped and it was just Boyd center stage ripping it up...one of those spine chilling moments. Dreamgirl got it's first play since 07...I don't know why, but whatever, Dave. Crush followed after, and it was hands down the best Crush I have ever seen performed (might say that about a lot of these songs). Jeff and Tim traded solo's for a good five minutes... Tim was laughing with Jeff the entire time, and then Carter just drums the hell out of the outro. It's one of the bands best live songs. I just can't help shouting the lyrics to this one. The band went on a Jam spree with the Crush, So Damn Lucky and then Grace is Gone...all clocking in at almost 15 mins each! So Damn Lucky had a different Thank You outro, and they took the Grace is Gone jam to a new level, I was really digging it. Cornbread into Recently was cool, I would have rather just heard the entire Recently instead, but I'll take it. Jimi Thing was amazing. Everyone took their turn soloing during this 16 minute monster. Jeff played two sax's again and they went into the Sexy Mother Fucker outro. The encore found a Last Stop tease that I didn't' even hear before going into the high energy perfect E1 song, So Right. It was followed by Ants Marching the perfect song to close out a concert with. You know how I feel about this song it's their anthem.

I think N1 was a good show. The only things I didn't agree with was Funny The Way It Is being played after Dancing Nancies, it just killed the energy...and Dreamgirl hasn't been played in three years for a reason, it's not good. Getting back to the campground was interesting, but when we finally did get back, we made a fire and stayed up all night talking about how we never wanted this weekend to end. The next day found us waking at noon after a horrible storm that I thought was going to kill us and spending the afternoon at the beach. Quality time spent with quality people. After some frisbee tosses and sun soaking, we headed back to camp for food and showers. Of course us stoners forgot a grill, but our good friend Mitch who was staying a few sites over was kind enough to let us cook up our dogs and burgers on his grill. By the time we were done eating, it was about time to head to the venue for N2. No issues with cops this night, only a car battery dieing in the lots due to too much partying.

With the Last Stop tease the night before, we were expecting it tonight. It didn't happen, but dmb did put on one hell of a set. Lots of debut's for the Saturday show...some were reallllly good, some...not so good. Squirm in my opinion should not have been the opener. Don't Drink The Water would have been a much more fitting first song. The beauty ballad Stay or Leave followed, it is the perfect #2 song to hear at a show, perfect placement Dave. Then Carter got the crowd pumped during Hello Again. This was my second time hearing it, and it was way better then Hartford. Cater took it to another level on the outro. I think The Idea of You is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's not really a dmb classic, but I love singing it once in a while so it was a treat to hear. After Don't Drink The Water, Cry Freedom got its first play since 2005. This song is pinnacle dmb. The horns sat this one out, an ode to Roi I would like to think. It was a blessing to see this song live. I will never forget hearing this song. Right after they went into a mid-set Tripping Billies. This song is a regular set closer, but to hear it in the first 1/3 of the concert is a great surprise. This is by far the best version I have ever seen or heard of this song. Seriously Boyd was on fire. He was all up in Stefan's face, dueling with Dave...he was right up in the crowds face too working the entire stage, stopping his feet. 'Tequila drinking oh our minds will wonder to wondrous places' (we had some tequila in the lots) The four of us looked at each other and shared a huge hug...it was my most memorable moment of the weekend. Check out the video below, it was so tight.

'I hope we get it right for yall this evening'...then they went into Can't Stop...no not Last Stop, the song that the entire crowd was shouting for...Can't Stop, one of dmb's worst songs in my opinion. This song should have been anything but this one. Really put a damper on what could have been a really epic show. Just put Crash in that spot and the crowd would have loved it. The only redeeming quality of Can't Stop was a bluesy Tim solo at the end. They got back on track with Granny. It was never put on a record, but Granny is a staple live song. So much energy and a lot of crowd interaction. The crowd chanted, loud for Last Stop. Dave teased it and the crowd went insane. Even I thought we may have a chance of hearing it in the encore. The tease went Straight into #41. I didn't have enough time to be pissed at Dave, I fucking love #41. Jeff+Carter going back and fourth, I thought Jeff was going to explode at one point. Amanda called Spaceman as the next tune, she was right...and the Neil Young cover was after that. Cornbread was a repeat that was completely unnecessary. This was my 20th dmb show and like 13th Cornbread, but it is better then Sister. Timebomb-->Two Step is such a sick combo. Obviously Carter killed Two Step. He makes that song his bitch. The encore break had the crowd chanting for Last Stop again. Dave came out running shaking his head no. The encore started with Some Devil. Such a beautiful, sad song...I love hearing Dave perform it solo, and this was only the second time I've seen it live. They close with Watchtower a lot, they do a really good job on it... but the fans wanted Last Stop. To say we were not disappointed about that would be a lie. The rest of the show was nearly perfect, another great two shows at SPAC.

So many memories were made this weekend. New friends were made for life and I have the itch to get to two more shows this tour. SPAC was everything I could have asked for. My only complaint was that it went by too fast, way too fast. It was a stoned haze, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Thank you all for making this weekend so special, you guys are the best fans on the planet!

New Best Coast Vid - 'When I'm With You'

Here it is folks, the premier of the new Best Coast music video directed by Pete Ohs. The song, 'When I'm With You' is my current favorite. I wake up the morning singing it, and go to bed thinking about it...and yes i posted this at 5:55 am, fml.