Summer Lovin’ Part 1: Air France and Caribou

minorprogression has been missing from the web but filling up the summer stages this past week, taking in so much live music it’s almost ridiculous.  Last week we saw Caribou and Air France totally kill it at Governers Island and PS1‘s aforementioned warm up series.  Caribou’s performance in particular was a wonderful surprise.  Their psychedelic and electronic inclinations both fed into each other beautifully, creating a more cohesive listening experience than I was really anticipating.  Spacey projections and the view of lower Manhattan and the water around it added to what was really a perfect night.

PS1’s Warm Up Kicks off NY’s Summer of Great Music (With Photos!)

Every time I start to hate on NY summers I am confronted with the fact that more awesome music happens here during the fleeting hot weather that we call summer than in most cities whole year’s of music happenings. This summer is set up to be no exception and PS1‘s always rocking Warm Up
summer concert series kicked off last week with all the awesomeness we’ve come to expect from them. The courtyard of the former school and current modern art mecca has been transformed yet again for the summer, this time with multiple moving polls and nets that hold up tons of colored balls, water misters and dip down into a small pool for wading at it’s center.
The kick off party featured minorprogression favorites Delorean headlining as well as performances by the incredible Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang (one of our new favorites) and Glasser another recent happy discovery.

Museum of Bellas Artes “I wanna know, I wanna know…”(Interview!)

Museum of Bellas Artes

Sometimes songs appear out of nowhere in this magical age of the internet.  Quite often these songs have no back story and often even when followed up up on, these songs, usually by very young and newly formed bands, still remain a bit of a mystery, since there really isn’t all that much to say. This is the double edged sword of the hype machine and we still have a long way to go before we learn how to tame such a beast. We digress…When we interviewed Air France a week or so ago, our attention was drawn to a track called “Who Do You Love” by a band we hadn’t heard of called “Museum of Bellas Artes”  that has since become what is undoubtedly our jam of the month.  Following up on this beautiful mystery track, we were lead to their Myspace and then to Pitchfork Media (who picked up on them via our Air France interview!!) and immediately wanted to know more about this trio from Stockholm Sweden.  They generously granted us an interview and helped to shed a little bit of light on their still mysterious existence.  Though their staying power as a band is yet to be determined, we here at minorprogression are very hopeful that this attention the web has given them (ours included)  doesn’t make things sour for them and helps to push their creativity along in helpful and exciting ways.

Air France: Post Rave Bliss

We at MinorProgression make very frequent trips back to Air France‘s album No Way Down. It’s the kind of record that somehow gets better with each listen; it’s good for a cry, allows you to dance, perfect for the bedroom, whimsical, magical and has pretty much become our favorite album off the Sincerely Yours label. I kind of had a weird “Oh No” moment last Spring when I realized (though admitting it is hard) that Air France moved above The Tough Alliance in my last.fm account.  Anyway, I shot Air France an email to see what they’ve been up to and was happily blessed with an interview. So check it out!   If you don’t already have any Air France tracks at your fingertips, look at the bottom of the page for a few downloads and I suggest you immediately dash off to buy the full album if our recommendations here at minorprogression ever get you going. Of course you don’t have to take my word for it, I’ll let the music ( and the band) speak for itself…