Live at Glasslands: High Highs

 We'd need an assortment of about 45 Hallmark cards to profess our love about this band, so instead of feeding the corporate haiku giant, we're just going to give you some radaroonie videos Donald shot when the band played Glasslands two weeks ago.

These came out perfectiously (that's perfect and deliciously, add it to your Websters now), and with these dudes, we truly can't get enough. Enjoy their new gem, "Phone Call", and our ye olde favorite, "Flowers Bloom". If you end up drooling at the photos, too, can't blame you. They're a precious bunch.

toodlieos,

d + c

High Highs live at Glasslands by BigUglyYellowCouch

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Live At Mercury Lounge: North Highlands

PEOPLE WERE DANCING.

That's really the only thing you need to take away from this show when it comes down to it. People. Were. DANCING.

To get that many pairs of legs to bounce along to music in New York City isn't easy, and North Highlands somehow, some way, pulled it off at Mercury Lounge when they blew the place up last night.

Besides finding out that people in the city know how to cheer, clap and boogie (a rare trifecta in these parts of town, may I add), we were also presented with drummer Jasper Berg's lovely set of stems, and found out the California hometown that North Highlands takes their name from isn't quite the, ahem, serene, babbling brook type of countryside it infers itself to be.

Not that the band hasn't been getting their fare share of scenery lately — with trips back and forth to Philadelphia, where they've been recording their almost-80%-done album, I'm sure they've soaked in a lot of the beautiful, American highway system. Oh, the splendid roadsides!

Well, at least there's this — now, we know when they're finally done recording, there'll be a whole slew of people around applaud it. Loudly.

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Big Ugly Yellow Couch Session: North Highlands
Big Ugly Yellow Christmas Covers: "Last Christmas"

Killer Tofu, Killer Show.

Hey, party people. Or should we say, office chair-ridden, email-sending, blackberry-stressing people, since that's what we are now that we're back in the ol' swing of things.

The days of wearing cutoffs and eating animal parts slathered in BBQ sauce and walking past Isaac Hanson and Andrew WK on the same block within the same 90 seconds have been replaced by the ever-evil routines of early morning alarms and laundromats and office duties that are a far cry from "day parties", unless you count the walk to the deli to go get bean soup a party. (Which, frankly, depending on the selection, I sometimes do).

We've got more SXSW sessions to push into your eyeballs and eardrums, but for now, here's a couple of videos from the KILLER TOFU acts that performed on our outdoor stage on that fateful night. And, speaking of, big thankaroonies to I Guess I'm Floating for being the best blog co-collaborators we could have asked for. The fiesta was unreal, and people waited in a line to get in like it was Rollercoaster Tycoon or something! Without them, I wouldn't have seen the insanity of Gobble Gobble and holyshit, was it madness.

Enjoy, and get ready to enjoy all over again when we post some shiz from High Highs, BRAHMS and our surprise headliner, Blackbird Blackbird.

Til' then, this:

MP3

Hooray For Earth - "Rolling/Nectarine (live at Big Ugly Yellow Couch SXSW Showcase)"

Aislyn - "Invisible Woman (live at Big Ugly Yellow Couch SXSW Showcase)"

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Big Ugly Yellow Couch Session: Hooray For Earth

Big Ugly Yellow Couch Session: Aislyn

Twice As Nice.

When I was little, I would read Choose Your Own Adventure books like they were candy crack and I was in need of attending a Betty Ford Rehab Clinic for Tots. So many options, so many rope bridges that end up having pits of flesh-eating snakes beneath them, so many ways for a nerdy child to die by page.

Sigh. Those were the days.

But! Adults have choices, too. Like how I'm not going to sleep until I die. Or how I chose to eat a 1/2 pound chocolate chip cookie yesterday for lunch. Sure, not all choices are good ones, but dag nabit, we like having them! So, we're letting you make a decision, too.

Donald shot Yellow Ostrich performing "Mary" at the first night of their February Pianos residency, curated by the lovely gentlemen over at I Guess I'm Floating, and we're givin' it to you in TWO COLORS. Technicolor craziness, people. (Actually, wait, i think that's more than just two colors....but just go with it.) Technicolor DREAMS. Pick your color, pick your choice, pick your video, pick your adventure. Just try not to die by way of intergalactic fireball. That's always the worst.

Live At Pianos: Yellow Ostrich

I ate an ostrich burger today.

I'm not sure if that's species-specific cannibalism, considering how excited I also was for the first night of the band's residency at Pianos, but as unbelievable as eating melted cheese and avocado on a non-cow was, it still wasn't the best of the breed I saw that night.

Every once in a while, every few sessions, we have a band come by that transcends the two hours we spend with them on the couch. In these instances, they're not just a couple of people whose music we loved that shared a room and a spat of oxygen with us once. Sometimes, they win us over in such a way that we're in it for the long haul. And, after watching Yellow Ostrich perform on that tiny Pianos stage to a jarringly packed crowd, myself looking forward to each song as the album order carried on, I realized that we're in deep. We ate pulled pork for lunch and fell in love with the pig by dinnertime, and there's nothing we can do to change that.

We could tell you their harmonies are infectious! And that those melodies will keep you reeling for days! But instead, we'll cut through the descriptive fat and say the one thing you need to know: see this band at a venue this size while you still can, because it ain't going to be like this for long.

Check the boys out every Thursday for the next three weeks at Pianos. Next week is old, never-before-performed tunes, the following is all-new material, and the final week is greatest hits.

Good lord, I hope they cover something by Mariah Carey.

MP3

Yellow Ostrich - "WHALE (live at Pianos)"

Yellow Ostrich - "Mary (live at Pianos)"

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Big Ugly Yellow Couch Session: Yellow Ostrich
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