College Pick of the Week: Delorean

We have an awesome selection for you today from KSUB Radio at Seattle University who helped us program the music you hear in stores. Check out “Stay Close” from Delorean; it’s the ultimate summer jam and the video makes us dream of crashing waves and suntans.

Video Wednesday: Vivian Girls

On their third album (and Polyvinyl debut) Share the Joy, Brooklyn's Vivian Girls continue to sharpen and refine their transcendent mix of garage thrash, girl-group warmth and infectious pop hooksmanship. The trio's vibrant blend of guitar noise and melodic sweetness has already made Vivian Girls one of America's most celebrated and influential young bands, and has helped to spark a wave of similarly-inclined female-fronted acts who've followed in their wake.



Tue-Sep-06 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's *
Wed-Sep-07 Baltimore, MD Ottobar *
Fri-Sep-09 Raleigh, NC Hopscotch Festival / Slim's #
Sat-Sep-10 Conley, GA Southern Comfort %
Sun-Sep-11 New Orleans, LA TBD *
Mon-Sep-12 Jackson, MS Sneaky Beans *
Tue-Sep-13 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone *
Wed-Sep-14 St Louis, MO Billiken Club *
Thu-Sep-15 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle *
Fri-Sep-16 Toronto, ON Parts and Labor *
Sat-Sep-17 Syracuse, NY The 219 Takeover! *
Mon-Sep-19 Boston, MA Great Scott *
Tue-Sep-20 New York, NY Knitting Factory *

* = w/ Widowspeak
# = w/ Coliseum
% = w/ Black Lips

Little Dragon's Third LP Ritual Union Out Today

On the surface the quiet port city of Gothenburg doesn't seem like it would harbor much soul music but it comes through in the dreamy rhythmical shifting moody creature that is Little Dragon. The four-piece band blends R&B, new wave, electronica and experimental pop. They kicked off 2011 with a headlining tour of the U.S. and thanks to a recommendation from superfan Questlove of the Roots, a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in March. In May, Little Dragon appeared on the track "Just Don't" from Raphael Saadiq's Stone Rollin', a record some are already calling the album of the year. Big Boi and DJ Shadow called to invite the group to work on new music. And it seems that the rest of the world is starting to catch on to what tastemakers from BBC's Gilles Peterson and the DJs at Los Angeles' influential KCRW have known for years. Today, Little Dragon releases Ritual Union, an album which finds futuristic, trance-like rhythms mixed with the soulful vibes of their debut LP plus upfront and danceable sounds of Machine Dreams.

Little Dragon's second album, Machine Dreams, a more uptempo set with '80s influences like Prince and Depeche Mode working their way into the mix, followed in 2009. Meanwhile, Gorillaz front man Damon Albarn tapped Little Dragon to appear on their album Plastic Beach and to open-along with De La Soul-their arena-filling world tour. Also in 2010, the group appeared on "If You Return" from Maximum Balloon, aka the solo project of Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio. The next chapter leads to Ritual Union, their third LP due via Peace Frog / EMI.

Check out a performance of Little Man HERE.

08/14 @ Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival- San Francisco, CA
08/15 @ The Roxy- West Hollywood, CA- (Ritual Union release show SOLD OUT)
08/16 @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg- New York, NY- (Ritual Union release show SOLD OUT)
09/03 @ Bumbershoot- Seattle, WA
09/04 @ North Coast Music Festival- Chicago, IL
09/06 @ Henry Miller Memorial Library- Big Sur, CA w/ Seventeen Evergreen
09/08 @ Hawthorne Theater- Portland, OR w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra
09/10 @ Next Door- Honolulu, HI
09/24 @ Parklife Melbourne- Melbourne, AUS w/ Lupe Fiasco
09/25 @ Parklife Perth- Perth, AUS
10/01 @ Parklife Brisbane- Brisbane, AUS
10/02 @ Parklife Sydney- Sydney, AUS
10/03 @ Parklife Adelaide- Adelaide, AUS
10/06 @ Avalon- Los Angeles, CA
10/14 @ Terminal 5- New York, NY
10/28 @ Moog Fest- Asheville, NC

http://www.little-dragon.se/

MP3 Monday: Pacific Festival 2011 Sampler

STEVE AOKI and PACIFIC FESTIVAL ENTERTAINMENT are pleased to announce the addition of SNOOP DOGG as the official festival headliner to the 2nd annual Pacific Festival: OC which will be held on August 13 (10am - 12am). The festival will be held at the picturesque Oak Canyon Ranch near Irvine Lake in Silverado, CA and features an outstanding line up with CUT COPY, STEVE AOKI, CALVIN HARRIS, GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY, !!! (CHK CHK CHK), PHANTOGRAM, TORO Y MOI, BAG RAIDERS, ZEDS DEAD, THE TWELVES, CLASSIXX, FRED FALKE, and many more.

To celebrate the upcoming festival, we have an awesome sampler to offer as a free download courtesy of our friends at FILTER Magazine featuring Poolside, !!!, The Growlers, Toro Y Moi, Cut Copy, Zoot Woman, Phantogram, Superhumanoids, FiFiNasty, Bag Raiders, Sad Sad City, Hanni El Khatib, Black Lips, American Royalty, Brady Miller, Bird Peterson, and Steve Aoki.

Pacific Festival: OC 2011 Official Sampler by FILTER Magazine
For more information on the Pacific Festival, check out www.pacificfestival.com.
To purchase tickets, CLICK HERE.

Friday Giveaway: Saddle Creek Records Prize Pack

We’ve got an awesome prize pack to give away to a lucky winner from music purveyors of that Omaha sound, Saddle Creek Records. Click here for your chance to win a cd sampler pack featuring their most recent releases including:

Bright Eyes - The People's Key
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing
Tim Kasher - The Game of Monogamy
Adam Haworth Stephens - We Live On Cliffs
Azure Ray - Drawing Down The Moon

CLICK HERE to enter.

Show us your BestShot

Shake it, shoot it, share it. With the new AE BestShot app, take a picture of yourself in AE gear and enter it for a chance to win your piece of $50,000 in prizes. You can even win the opportunity to appear in an American Eagle photo shoot! Starting Wednesday, July 20th, you can download the AE BestShot app from the iTunes app store or the Android Marketplace. If you don’t have an iPhone, iPad, or Android, you can enter directly from our Facebook page. (Note: You will need an active Facebook account to register in the contest.)

After you take your picture, you’ll submit it to one of eight contest categories. For example, you can enter as “Class Clown,” “Coolest Hipster,” or even “Best Back Pocket.” (We’ll let you figure that one out.) There are even two categories exclusively for AE Associates so that they can join in on the fun. Your photo will be placed against all other photos within your category to see who can get the most votes. Share your photo with friends on Facebook and Twitter to encourage them to vote for you.

Every week, the top five photos in each category will win a $100 AE gift card. The #1 photo in each category per week will move on to the grand prize final round. After four weeks, the weekly winners in each category will battle it out for the ultimate prize. The individual photos from each category that receive the most votes in the final round will win $3,000 and the opportunity to be featured in a future AE campaign!

So throw on some AE jeans and show us what you got! Search for “AE BestShot” in the app store or Android Marketplace, or check out the app on Facebook. You can enter anytime from today through August 16, 2011.

Go ahead. Take your Best Shot.

FAQ

How many photos can I submit?
As many as you want.

Can a photo be taken down after it’s submitted?
Photos cannot be removed once submitted.

--

Have any other questions about the app? Ask in the comments below.

Thursday's Jam: M83

This post is from our friend Samantha Feld, Director of Music Programming for Filter Magazine.

I’ve always been a fan of the French electronic/dream pop group, M83. While blasting KCRW on my morning drive to work, a particularly epic and moving song caught my attention; turns out, it was new single from M83 titled “Midnight City” from their upcoming release Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Each album has been more dramatic and powerful than the next, and there's no doubt that the just announced double-album will continue that trend.

Midnight City:
Latest tracks by M83
Tour Dates:

October
15 Mexico City – Corona Capital Festival
28 Washington DC – Black Cat
29 Raleigh, NC – Kings Barcade
30 Asheville, NC – Moog Fest
31 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade

November
1 Tallahassee, FL – Engine Room
2 Orlando, FL – The Social
4 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
5 Austin, TX – Fun Fun Fun Fest
7 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom
9 Los Angeles, CA – Music Box
10 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
11 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
12 Vancouver, BC – Venue
13 Seattle, WA – Neumos
16 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
17 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
18 Toronto, ON – Lees Palace
19 Montreal, QC – Le S.A.T.
20 Boston, MA – Paradise
22 New York, NY – Webster Hall

Interview with Sasha Charnin Morrison, Fashion Director for Us Weekly

Us Weekly's Fashion Director Sasha Charnin Morrison will be doing a book signing in our Times Square store on Tuesday, July 26th from 6pm-8pm. Her book, Secrets of Stylists: An Insider's Guide to Styling the Stars, offers a behind-the-scenes look into the glamorous (and sometimes gritty) world of styling. You'll learn tricks of the trade from Sasha and the people she interviews. The transformations of stars like Nicole Richie and Katie Holmes are used as discussion points in this very informative guide. On July 26th, you're invited to get a copy of the book signed by Sasha herself! Robert Verdi, celebrity stylist, will also be in attendance. To get the event started, we sat down with Sasha to ask a few questions.

AE: What was your first job to break into the fashion/ writing industry?
I was Madonna’s dresser and assisted this stylist, named Kevin Dornan who was costume designer by night (Goose and Tom Tom at Lincoln Center around “True Blue” Madonna phase) and creative director of a now defunct magazine called Beauty Digest. After the show was over, he hired me as his assistant and I was able to do everything-call in clothing, style shoots, organize his life, and do all my all own returns. That’s how I learned how to be an independent. We shot some wild, iconic stuff like Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass and Giorgio Di Sant Angelo. It was all luxury, 24-7. A little crazy but that’s what it was all about when I was 21.

AE: What advice do you have for people who want to break into the fashion industry?
1. Listening. Very important. Hold your tongue because you simply know nothing and that’s ok. Do not think being a know-it-all is the key.

2. Learn. Absorb. Do not shut anything out or down. You can’t. Good or bad-bad being the best-work experiences propels you to grow. Jobs in fashion need time and patience and building to get somewhere. It’s not the place to think your rise to the top spot will be overnight and meteoric. I have always said the super top spot sucks, let someone else handle the numbers and the meetings…I want to create and I want to produce pictures and moments I’m proud of. I want to be the authority and grasp as much as I can possibly know-being the BEST at referencing old pictures, knowing where to find or have made the perfect red patent leather high-waisted panty (Funny but I have made several of these exact requests thru the years working at magazines) for a shoot, and always figuring out a way to make it work, because you can if you try hard enough.

3. Never throw anyone under a bus because it ends up stinging you.

4. Try to be focused on what you want. You’re very clear on what you don’t want! Don’t go into an interview professing your love to design a line of handbags with your name on it when you’re interviewing at a fashion magazine or blog. You’re there because you want this more than anything in the world. That’s how fashion people think and feel. It enters your blood. The power, the glamour and the constant change in styles and trends draw you in.

AE: What are your three essential style items that you can't live without?
1) My kids who keep my brain young and fresh.

2) Shoes: I just love my footwear. All of it. We can all wear a black dress but we can’t all buy the SAME Azzedine Alaia shoe or the same YSL Tribtoo, now…

3) My library of images, pictures, old magazine clippings. I use these to reference and think of ways to reproduce those great images in new and modern ways.

AE: What's your favorite thing about working at US Weekly?
The product. I have always loved reading it, absorbing it and owning it. I love knowing about breaking news before everyone and how it’s always handled glamorously. Seriously, what’s not to love?

AE: If you weren't an editor, what would you be doing?
Had I been a great, trained dancer, I would be in every company of West Side Story at this point. My mom was a Shark girl and my dad was a Jet in the original Broadway production in 1957. I could sing the score, I can act. I can move well. That didn’t cut it. Just like fashion, I needed to either stick with the show biz or get out. So at 21 I had a choice: a roller-skating musical audition or Vanity Fair assistant. Whoever took me, I would stay in the “profession”. I nearly broke my ass at my inline skate dancing audition but aced Vanity Fair.

AE: Who is your business inspiration?
My stepmother, Jade Hobson. She was the Creative Director at Vogue when I met her at 13. I knew when she walked me into the Vogue fashion closet at that moment, whatever was going on in there…was what I REALLY wanted to do. She exposed me to the business and she was nice and liked and of course, ICONIC. EVERYONE loved her and that’s a great feeling. My mother and father nurtured this behavior but Jade made me see it could turn into something bigger.

AE: You've described yourself as a reality TV junkie. Which show is your guilty pleasure?
Which show isn’t? I love breaking news item, and just knowing it all at every second. My father produced and directed TV in the early 1970’s, the set was always big and always on. I loved watching variety, news, episodic all of it. Now it’s reality. All of it. Real Housewives of Beverly Hills pretty much makes me insane-in a good way and do not laugh but kind of obsessed with The Suite Life with Zack and Cody.

Sasha on her first styling job

So if you're in the New York City area, RSVP to the event on 7/26 at 6pm on Facebook.

Video Wednesday: TV on the Radio

Check out the new video "Caffeinated Consciousness" from TV on the Radio here.




TVOR have also released brand new remixes for “Will Do” and “Caffeinated Consciousness exclusively on iTunes.


ON TOUR THIS SUMMER – INCLUDING A HOLLYWOOD BOWL CO-HEADLINE (WITH ARCTIC MONKEYS) AND THE VIRGIN MOBILE FREE-FEST!

07/20/11 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
07/21/11 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
07/22/11 Troutdale, OR McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater
07/23/11 Seattle, WA Capitol Hill Festival Grounds *Appearing at "Capitol Hill Block Party"
08/27/11 Kansas City, MO The Crossroads
08/28/11 St. Louis, MO Central Field @ Forest Park *Appearing at "LouFest"
08/30/11 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
08/31/11 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
09/01/11 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
09/02/11 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
09/06/11 Boston, MA Bank Of America Pavilion
09/08/11 Brooklyn, NY Williamsburg Waterfront
09/09/11 Philadelphia, PA Mann Center for Performing Arts
09/10/11 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion Appearing at "Virgin Mobile FreeFest" / Patti Smith
09/12/11 Charlotte, NC Fillmore Charlotte
09/13/11 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
09/14/11 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
09/16/11 Dallas, TX House Of Blues
09/17/11 Austin, TX Zilker Park *Appearing at "Austin City Limits Music Festival" / Stevie Wonder
09/18/11 Tulsa, OK Cain's Ballroom
09/20/11 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
09/21/11 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
09/23/11 Las Vegas, NV The Cosmopolitan
09/24/11 San Diego, CA SDSU Open Air Theatre
09/25/11 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl
09/27/11 Oakland, CA Fox Theater

The Killers' Ronnie Vannucci releases Big Talk today

The Killers’ Ronnie Vannucci will release his debut, self-titled solo album, Big Talk today via Epitaph Records. Produced by Joe Chicarelli (The Strokes, My Morning Jacket), and mixed by Alan Moulder (U2, Foo Fighters), Big Talk sees Vannucci step out from behind the drum kit of one of the biggest bands of the past ten years to show us what he’s got.

As a songwriter with The Killers, whose writing is frequently approached collaboratively, it will come as no shock to find that Vannucci has a way with a genius song of his own. Vannucci is a true multi-instrumentalist and superb vocalist who has created an album that pays homage to some of his greatest influences. With Big Talk, Vannucci stays true to his roots while carving his own musical path.

When The Killers came off the road last February after almost nine years of back-to-back albums and touring, Vannucci saw the opportunity to get out there with his own thing, to bring his own ideas, his own voice front-and-center for the first time. “I needed to do this,” he says. “And now, having done it, it feels like the right thing to do. It all feels very natural.”

Vannucci recruited an old friend and former bandmate, Taylor Milne to help in the studio and who will play lead guitar when Big Talk performs live. “Taylor really attacks things at a different angle,” he says, highlighting the guitarist’s unique style of playing. “All these really cool leads that you’ll hear on the songs are Taylor. We work on things together, but it’s his take, so sometimes it’s very different. It sounds fresh to me.”

Vannucci will take Big Talk to the stage this summer along with Milne and a full band. Ronnie Vannucci is Big Talk, which is the name of his band, the name of his album, and in a way, both what his record is about and also not what his record is about. Whatever Big Talk is or is not, there is no doubt that it will be the rock soundtrack to the summer.

www.bigtalkmusic.com
Check out the album on iTunes

MP3 Monday: Frank Turner

While you’re getting back into the word grind on this Monday afternoon, check out some new tunes from English folk/punk singer-songwriter, Frank Turner.

CLICK HERE to download “Peggy Sang The Blues” from the album Keep My Bones out now on Anti/Epitaph

For a list of tour dates, please visit his Facebook page HERE.

Friday Giveaway: IAMSOUND Records Prize Pack

Happy Friday!

To celebrate we’re giving away an awesome CD sampler prize pack from indie label IAMSOUND Records including the following releases:

Florence & The Machine – A Lot Of Love. A Lot Of Blood EP 12”
MEN – Talk About Body CD
MEN – Off Our Backs EP 12”
Telepathe – Chrome’s On It EP 12”
Nikki Lane – Gone, Gone, Gone EP

ENTER HERE for your chance to win.

Get to Know: AE Model Rodrigo Calazans

Rodrigo at the AE Photo Studio

We are sure you have seen this charismatic cutie (originally from Brazil) in the American Eagle Back to School pictures and videos. We had the opportunity to sit down and learn more about Rodrigo, talk about his career, his favorite jeans and even about what it was like on the shoot in Nashville.

AE: When did you first start modeling? How did you get into it?

When I was 18 years old a managing agency came up to me and my cousin when we were at a club. I was a bit timid at first and wanted to look more into it. In the end, it worked out!

AE: Soccer turned model. Do you still play? If so, what position?

No, I don’t play anymore and like different stuff. I have bad ankles because of soccer. Now, I like to play “foot volley”. It is like volley ball but with feet.

AE: What is your favorite American Eagle Jean?

The Original Straight jean and also the Slim.

AE: What is the go-to, favorite song on your ipod currently?

Rayland Baxter’s “Willy’s Song” (One of the singers in the AE denim song!)

AE: What are your top 3 must-have essentials for the BTS?

Original straight jeans, V-neck shirt, and a red flannel shirt

AE: What is your favorite dish?

Brazilian BBQ!

AE: What is your favorite summer vacation spot?

Anywhere with a beach.

AE: Boxer or Briefs?

Trunks.

AE: How was being on set with American Eagle in Nashville?

Perfect. We were at a fairground and had a lot of fun playing in all of the mud. The stylists weren’t too happy with us when they saw us coated in mud. ;)

Rodrigo on the set in Nashville

Rodrigo is more than just a model. Check out his photography blog.