Walkie Talkies

generous dose of music wisdom from Walkie Talkies (you should follow him on Tumblr):

NATEDERN asked: I haven’t fallen in love with a band for a while, not since first hearing Man Man in 2006 or 2007, whenever it was they toured with Modest Mouse. I still have a soft spot for The Thermals, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, but don’t listen to anything that new. From these meager crumbs, could you please introduce me to the next band I’ll love? Thank you.

WALKIE TALKIES: There’s a lot directions to take this, and we’re going to go in all of them.  I’m not sure what else you’ve been listening to, since I know you’ve got some treats tucked away in the bread basket, but if I was listening to new records and new bands right now this is what I’d hit up:

TRE ORSI, and any of their other Austin/Denton indie rock cohorts.  Seriously unstoppable feel good throwback rock. 

LISSIE, who’s cover of “Pursuit of Happiness” is enough to put her on every mixtape ever.

FORMING, who round out the kind of trad-indie that should definitely appeal to you.  I had no idea about these guys until I randomly picked up a CD, and I don’t think there’s a weak song on it.

P.S. ELIOT, who’s new EP is absolutely unmissable pop-punk.  Didn’t know they had it in them.

BEACH FOSSILS, maybe one of the only bands to transcend the whole fashion conversation that surrounds so many Brooklyn-area bands.  New Order on the shore, in a nutshell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, led by King Tuff with some of the most twisted hit singles in the world.

And then as far as older bands with great new material, you can’t miss the Hold Steady, Comet Gain, or Ponys new material.  All are just as good as ever.  And, very lastly, the Black Tambourine reissue is essential listening.

Advice

benjaminapple:

I wish when I was younger someone had said to me:

Everyone’s advice is based on their own interpretations of their successes and failures, which are produced by luck and chance just as much as methods and intentions. Take advice about how to do X with a grain of salt when it’s coming from someone who has only done X once and is still riding the wave of that success. They think they know how they did it, but they probably don’t. On the other hand if someone does X constantly, listen to everything they say, figure out why it’s true, and imitate or adapt it.

re: Dear Nate Dern →

You’re following my Tumblr? Be still my beating heart! I’m assuming that you only did so as an act of reciprocity, but we’ll just pretend that you check my blog religiously to see if I’ve updated. I can visualize you sitting there in a cluttered Brooklyn apartment, clicking “Refresh” over and…

Dear Annie, 

Thank you for the kind words in this post and sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I just looked for a way to reply to you personally on your Tumblr page, but I couldn’t find one. So in lieu of that, I’m just going to reply to you as a reblog. My apologies if that isn’t the proper Tumblr etiquette. For as much as I like and spend time with the Internet, I’m still not too sure how all this stuff works. 

I’m glad you got a kick out of the show. It was a pretty crazy experience. I’ve seen that post you mentioned before devoted to saying that I was a big faker. I remember it bothered me when I first saw it, but not so much now. For a long time if you did a Google search for “Nate Dern”, that post was the top hit. Last time I checked, my personal website had finally inched into the top spot. I’ll cross my fingers that is still the case. 

That is pretty funny about Richard Rubin co-hosting that show down in Buenos Aires. Good for him! I hope he’s having a good time with. There was definitely a time in my life that had I been offered a chance to co-host an Argentine game show I probably would have taken the offer. Did you have a good time while you were down there? Coincidentally, immediately after the show ended filming I spent two months down in Buenos Aires doing thesis research for my senior year of college. It was surreal to go from being watched constantly and having all of this attention on me to going to this foreign country where I wasn’t fluent in the language and nobody knew or cared who I was. 

I don’t get up to Ithaca all that regularly, but if I ever do I’ll give a holler. If you ever make it down to NYC on a Tuesday, come check out a night of improvised fun at UCB.

Thanks again for the message and take care. 

-nate