The Wait Is Over! Hoodie Allen's "Leap Year" Is Out

We've been looking forward to the release of Hoodie Allen's new mixtape, "Leap Year," for quite some time. It's now finally out.

Stream it and download it right here (or download the entire mixtape as a zip file here):

Leap Year by Hoodie Allen

And here's the video for the first single, The Chase Is On:



The summer is now complete.

Video Encounter: Hoodie Allen's "Leap Year" Teaser

CER brought you Hoodie Allen back in March, days before his first ever show in LA at the Key Club, where he left everyone happy and wanting more. Here's a teaser of "more." Hoodie's releasing his next mixtape in two weeks and I can't wait.



You're welcome.

The Way Too Late (and too short) SXSW Wrapup

First band: Kid Infinity

Last Band: Das Racist

In between: The White and Black Years, Lesands, Fruition & The Bellbays, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Cults, Foster The People, Twin Shadow, Givers, The Naked and Famous, Toro y Moi, Oberhoffer, Jeff & The Brotherhood, Kisses, The Orbans, Hanni El Khatib, Skiggy Rapz, Starfucker, Kyle Andrews, Oh No Oh My, ARMS, Delicate Steve, Family of the Year, Jonquil, Givers, and Cults

Best Sets (in order of appearance): Lesands, Foster The People, Skiggy Rapz, Kyle Andrews, Family of the Year, Jonquil, Givers, Cults

Random Stuff: Helping Odd Future parallel park their car. Their hype died real fast, eh?

Weirdest Thing: Givers’ guitar player looks like a young James Franco, and when he plays his eyes often roll back into his head, so you only see the whites of his eyes. Very freaky, but amusing.

CER's SXSW 2011 Plans

Always ambitious and always subject to change, but here it goes.

Thursday Night

CER (sure, I can refer to myself in the third person) lands at AUS at 8pm, assuming the flight gets in on time. Head over to where I'm staying, and then hopefully have time to pick up my PureVolume badge at the PureVolume house (504 Trinity St.) before Kid Infinity's 10pm 3D show at at Gypsy Lounge (1504 E. 6^th Street). I'm very excited for this; KI is an LA hip-hop/electroic duo whose 3D live show uses the technology Michael Jackson was going to use for his This Is It Tour. (One member of KI is the office manager at the company that created the technology). This will be the first time they’ve done a 3D show outside of LA, and the third time total. I was at the last one; there’s nothing to compare it to. Here’s a review (that I did not write): http://larecord.com/live-reviews/2011/02/15/kid-infinity-alexandria-hotel

As for the rest of the night, the KI show runs until 1am with Twin Atlantic, Funeral Party, and some DJs. May not be the worst place to spend a couple hours.

(Aside: KI is doing a second 3D show at Cheer Up Charlie's [1104 e. 6th st.] at 1am)

Then onto the PureVolume House (504 Trinity St.). Their lineup starts at midnight with The Limousines, followed by The Dears at 1am, and The Bravery at 2am.

Friday Day

Friday’s all about the Windish Agency’s party at Emo’s (603 Red River Street), mostly because Foster The People are performing , but also because the rest of the lineup is really strong. Emo’s isn’t my ideal SXSW venue (bigger and more crowded than I’d like), but this should be worth it, as long as you get there early. Here's the Emo's lineup:

12:15: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
1:00: Cults
1:15: Chain Gang of 1974
2:00: Foster The People
2:15: Toro y Moi
3:00 Twin Shadow
3:15 Esben and the Witch
4:00 Givers
4:15 Naked and Famous
500 Friendly Fires
515: Braids

All bands worthy of catching, but no one wants to stay in one place too long. The question is when to leave. Here's a couple of options:

• Home Slice Pizza (1421 S. Congress Ave. -- Congress & 15th) http://homeslicepizza.wordpress.com/music-by-the-slice-2011/

o 550: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down

o 625: The Rural Alberta Advantage

• Fader Fort (1101 E. 5th Street)
  

o 515: Ellie Goulding

o 600: Smith Westerns

o 645: Odd Future

o 730: Matt & Kim

• Lawn Party (802 San Marcos Street)
  

o 530: Tune-Yards

If I had to choose, I’d probably go with leaving Emo’s before 430 to catch a little of Givers, and then go pick up our Fader Fort bracelets (San Marcos Street between 4^th and 5^th) (about half a mile from Emo’s), get to Fader Fort in time for Ellie Goulding, and stay through Matt & Kim. Ellie Goulding is big in the UK but less known here, so it will be worth it. Smith Westerns are pretty good, if you ignore their annoying long hair and the girls who go crazy for them, Odd Future will be wild, and Matt & Kim is a remnant from my "bands I didn't get to see at SXSW 2009" list. But in exchange I'd miss out on Naked and Famous, Friendly Fires, and Braids at Emo’s. We’d probably survive, although I feel that Naked and Famous would be an enjoyable guilty pleasure.

Friday (Night)

Two good party options:

• Killer Tofu/Official Unofficial Showcase Show at Lipstick24: Really great lineup, including Oh Land at 12:30am and Kisses at 1am. The rest of the lineup should also be worth it, there’s free beer until it runs out, and it’s half a mile from Fader Fort.

o The other bands: Brahms, Aislyn, High Highs, Secret Mountains, Delicate Steve, Gobble Gobble, Hooray for Earth, Foxes in Fiction. I don’t know much about them, but here’s some videos of them in mostly-acoustic action: http://www.biguglyyellowcouch.com/post/2011/3/4/i-guess-im-big-ugly-and-going-to-sxsw.html

• Redefine party: Starfucker’s closing out this party out on the outdoor stage at 945, preceded by Casiokids. It would be fun. The only problem is that the party is happening about 2 miles outside downtown, up near UT (2610 Rio Grande St.). It’s 2.2 miles from Emo’s, for instance. Probably a dealbreaker.

Then maybe see Chromeo at midnight at La Zona Rosa (612 W4th).

After Chromeo, on to the Pure Volume House again. Baths is on at 12:45 and Jonquil at 1:30. Both are worth seeing; I especially like Jonquil.

Saturday (Day)

Saturday’s looking to be a more hop from show to show day to hit the bands that are worthwhile.

Start the day at Hotel Vegas (1500 East 6^th Street) for The Big One 2011:

- 1200: The Orbans

- 100: Hanni El Khatib

- 200: Skiggy Rapz

I’m excited about Skiggy Rapz; he’s a hip-hop artist from the Netherlands. I think he usually plays with a live band, too. The Orbans and Hanni are also good.

Then walk over to the Terrorbird Licensing SXSW Party at 501 Studios (501 N I-35). If they’re behind schedule we may catch some of Starfucker, but our main purpose is to see Kyle Andrews, who’s scheduled to go on at 3:15.

Hopefully we’re still on time, so we can walk over to The Ghost Room (304 W 4^th Street) to see Oh No Oh My at 4:30, and to cross off another band from my "missed at SXSW 2009" list.

Then we walk a couple hundred feet to Fado’s Irish Pub (214 W 4^th Street) for the remainder of the afternoon. Lineup:

- 450: Adam Arcuragi (will probably miss him)

- 540: ARMS (ex-Harlem Shakes)

- 630: Holiday Shores

- 720: TV Girl

Saturday (Night)

There’s a seriously excellent (and nicely varied) showcase at Emo’s Jr.:

- 800: Delicate Steve

- 900: Family of the Year (a CER Favorite)

- 1000: Jonquil (unlikely that we'll make their PV House Set on Friday night)

- 1100: Givers (great indie pop/rock, lots of instruments; will likely miss their 4pm set at Emo’s on Friday)

- 1200: FM Belfast (electronic from ICELAND)

- 100: Lesands (dancey pop [very 80s] from LA; fast on track to becoming a CER Favorite)

Alternatively, there’s a party at the Austin Museum of Art:

- 8:10 - Neon Windbreaker

- 8:45 – Badknight

- 9:20 - Grass is Green

- 9:55 - Dirty Dishes

- 10:30 - Moving Mountains

Dirty Dishes is pretty cool. The rest of the bands are kind of "eh."

There’s also a night party at Gingerman (301 La Vaca):

- 8:20 Colourslide

- 9:20 David Wax Museum

- 10:20 Girls Guns and Glory

- 11:20 Parallax Project

- 12:20 The Wandas

Again, generally "eh."

Oh, and Kanye's performing. If you want to wait in line for hours and hours on SXSW's last night, he's all yours.

Saturday (Late Night)

The Emo's Jr. showcase goes well past midnight, but Das Racist is performing at the PV House at 2:15 am.

On to Austin!

Family of the Year: SXSW and Video for "Psyche or Like Scope"

Back in January, CER Favorites Family of the Year premiered their video for "Psyche or Like Scope." Being negligent in my duties, I did not post the video. Allow me to correct myself:



But that's not all. After a string of successful, sold-out shows in Europe, the band will be playing two shows at SXSW. Their official showcase on Saturday night, March 19, at Emo's Jr. has a very strong lineup. FOTY is on at 9pm and you should then stick around for the rest of the night to see Jonquil (10pm), Givers (11pm), FM Belfast (midnight), and Lesands (1am). It's an incredible way to close out SXSW, and I hope to be there.

Essential Listening: Hoodie Allen's "Pep Rally"

Ivy League educated Jewish kid from Long Island sounds like Kanye West and samples Marina & The Diamonds, Cold War Kids, and Death Cab For Cutie, among others. A new obsession.

Catch him at the Key Club Thursday, March 10.

Pep Rally Set by HoodieAllen

Video Encounter: Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks"

Foster The People have finally released a video for Pumped Up Kicks, featuring performance, rehearsal, recording, and hanging out footage. Is it summer yet?

Oh Land in LA This Week

It's rare for CER to post about music created by people living outside of Los Angeles (you may reply that it's rare these days for CER to post about anything, but that wouldn't be nice of you). This is a necessary exception. You have two chances this week to see Oh Land. Both shows are early, meaning that you won't have to wake up bleary-eyed the next morning as a result, and one of the shows is even free.

Oh Land is the stage name of Nanna Øland Fabricius, who is originally from Denmark but now lives in Brooklyn. She plays sometimes dance-y, sometimes dreamy, but always hook-laden electropop. You can call it a guilty pleasure, but the songs are too good to ignore.

Show #1 is at the Troubadour on Tuesday. She's on at 9pm. Show #2 is at the Echo, and is free; she's on at 8pm.

Enough with the words. Here's a live video of her performing "Son of a Gun." If one listen doesn't entice you to check her out this week, you may have no soul. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more of Son of a Gun, and a lot more of Oh Land, in 2011.

2011: The Year of Foster The People

It's time to call it, before January is even over: 2011 is the Year of Foster The People. Not only do they have a head start on most other bands, with their "Pumped Up Kicks" EP dropping (edit:) today, January 18th, on Startime International, but they've got the songs (and the team) to back it up. "Pumped Up Kicks" is only the beginning. Listen to their new song "Helena Beat" and you'll want to put on repeat for a couple rounds. Catch-y, dance-y, awesome-y. And "Downtown" puts the dance beats in the back and piano chords up front for a smoother sound.

Catch them for free at the Echo every Wednesday for the rest of this month. You may never get the chance to see them for free ever again, and may never get to see them again at a venue so small.

Stream an MP3 of "Helena Beat" HERE

And stream "Downtown" here