I’m a big fan of Gilt Groupe. My credit card, not so much. Just saw this Silicon Insider article reporting that Gilt is close to raising another $40 milion at a $400 million valuation. On the surface, that blew my mind. Blodget cites some truly impressive stats (0-$150M in revenue in under 2 years, phenomenal int’l growth) and I absolutely agree w/ his conclusion that inventory is going to be a problem. Regardless, I’ll definitely be watching these guys in the future.
Apparently this dude is playing Shaq in H.O.R.S.E. this week. I’ve seen a bunch of these ridculous basketball shot videos before and this one seems legit b/c the ball never leaves the frame in a bunch of them. Unless Shaq dunks every single time, I can’t imagine this even being close.
1 Amadou & Mariam - Sabali I’m already breaking my rule that every playlist will start off with an instrumental track but my buddy Ryan just sent out his latest mix, “Tiny Changes”, and this was the fabulous opening track he went with. Sort of instrumental since I have no idea what they’re singing about… 2 Passion Pit - Sleepyhead Ever since Passion Pit dropped their EP (which was more or less a mixtape the lead singer made for a girlfriend. Mad game.) and were the “it” band at SXSW last year, I’ve been anxiously awaiting their first album release. I went w/ Sleepyhead which was on the EP but definitely check out “The Reeling” and “Moth’s Wings”. 3 Ra Ra Riot - Can You Tell I’m cheating a bit again here as this song was actually released last year. Great album and Ra Ra just put out a little EP with this as a single and bunch of other cool remixes (including one by Passion Pit). 4 Ben Lee - What’s So Bad Wonder if Ben proposed to his wife with a boombox over his head? 5 Pilot Speed - Put the Phone Down Ryan discovered this band a few years ago and in the words of the immortal Randy Jackson, the lead singer “can sing his face off dawg!” 6 Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band - Nikorette Always mentioned as one of the better songwriters around these days and Conor doesn’t disappoint here. Love the line “Will you talk me down if I get too upset? Be the cool washcloth to my fevered head” 7 Beads - Evil 8 The Thermals - Now We Can See 9 Telekinesis - Coastal Carolina 10 Iron & Wine - Love Vigilantes Favorite album of the month. Great cover of a New Order song. 11 White Rabbits - Percussion Gun 12 Modest Mouse - Guilty Cocker Spaniels Pretty excited for the new Modest Mouse album later this summer. Here’s a B-side from their recent single to keep us sated. 13 Bat For Lashes - Daniel Thought long and hard about including her cover of Kings of Leon “Use Somebody” (here it is on HypeM) but I went w/ this song b/c on the cover of the single, she has a painting of Ralph Macchio on her back. Cool. 14 The Pragmatic - Circles 15 Sebastian Blanck - Thunder Sebastian is a good friend and one of the more artistically talented people I know. Not only is he a phenomenal painter but he’s an incredible musician to boot. He creates quite the lush soundscape layering vocals on this track. Can’t wait for more from him.
In the last post leading up to In Case You’re Curious: June (should drop sometime tomorrow…), here’s a live performance of a song that made the playlist. White Rabbits doing “Percussion Gun” on Letterman. How much fun would it be to bang on the drums during this song?
Bonus band: Harlem Shakes performing Strictly Game at SXSW via Daytrotter. I *highly* recommend subscribing to Daytrotter - endless source of great live and unplugged music from up and coming bands.
I’m finalizing the June playlist as we speak - it’s tough letting down a few of these bands but I trust they’ll forgive me in the end.
In preparation, let’s relive the music from a few of last month’s stars. I’m a big fan of finding in-studio / acoustic performances so for the next 4 days, I’ll post a video of an artist that made the first In Case You’re Curious playlist (with a few bonuses thrown in for good measure…). First up - Great Lake Swimmers via LaundroMatinee. Moving Pictures Silent Films is off Great Lake Swimmers’ first album from way back in ‘05.
I’m a big fan of Gilt Groupe. My credit card, not so much. Just saw this Silicon Insider article reporting that Gilt is close to raising another $40 milion at a $400 million valuation. On the surface, that blew my mind. Blodget cites some truly impressive stats (0-$150M in revenue in under 2 years, phenomenal int’l growth) and I absolutely agree w/ his conclusion that inventory is going to be a problem. Regardless, I’ll definitely be watching these guys in the future.
