The xx - Mercury Music Prize Winners //

The 2010 Mercury Music Prize and £20,000 loot goes to London trio with their self-titled debut album xx.

Check out one of the songs (Crystalised, above) from what now formally considered the best album released in the UK over the past year.

Mumford & Sons, Dizzee Rascal, Biffy Clyro, Wild Beasts and Laura Marling were a few of the twelve nominees that were announced a couple of months ago. Kudos to The xx!

-K

Festy Fun 2010 - Best of Bonnaroo: Re-living the Dream Part 1.

Warning: This blog posting may quickly turn into a nonsensical stream of consciousness. Four days of mind-altering musical performances has a tendency to create a blur of great lucid memories. Or perhaps that had something to do with those cookies that had the funny parsley bits in them. Anywho…

Thursday June 10.

It’s 10am. We picked up the RV from New York at 3pm yesterday. Drove straight through the night (thank you concerta and Ben’s ipod). Already put $200 of petrol in the beast, but it’s totally worth it.

Above: Setting up camp. Anyone who didn’t bring a futon… well, you lose. Our castle on wheels, the “Chateau” was renamed and coated with a dirty French accent “Lè Chateau”. Then 10 minutes later, stemming from a miscommunication combined with my tainted aussie accent, our vehicle was further transformed into “The Lush Toe”.

Above: Local Natives started my ‘roo off right (listen to their full set courtesy of NPR here). Followed directly by Miike Snow (below). Those Swedes really know how to get things rolling.  When they fired up Animal, no mud could stop me from jumping up and down like a 7-year old on a bouncy castle who just drank their body weight in red cordial (Yankee translation: Kool Aid).

Day 1 in Manchester, Tennessee finished strong with sets from Neon Indian, The Temper Trap and The xx – ‘That Tent’ was this vags home that night!

The xx opened with Intro – no surprises there, no disappointments either. Rolling Stone posted a little snippet of “Shelter” with Romy breaking away into a hypnotic solo (watch it here), but I’m loving this fan vid of “Crystallized.”   

‘Roo Life Lesson Number 1: After a certain number of adult beverages, navigating through the 75,000 tent maze back to “The Lush Toe” can prove difficult without a cellular device. My friend, lets call him Morris, learned this the hard way.  He left his phone in NYC and left the rest of us in ‘The Other Tent’.  He did, however, manage to find the futon at 3am.  Props.

‘Roo Life Lesson Number 2: A festy futon is the best investment you’ll ever make.

- ‘Roo from my ears. To yours. With love. -k

Festy Fun 2010 - Bonnaroo- Manchester, TN

Recommendations from your trusty Vags on must-see bands at this summer’s hottest festivals.

In the first of our summer Festy Fun posts, we highlight MusicVagabond’s faves for this year’s Bonnaroo line-up. Over the year’s Bonnaroo has evolved to feature vastly different genres, varying just as much as our tastes here at MV.

L.Sizzle says… check out Thievery Corporation for some Dub Reggae goodness. No matter what your state of mind, you can groove. Grab some of your favorite mind altering treats and check out Lotus, you will NOT stop dancing. The Carolina Chocolate Drops will give you that southern experience- get your Bluegrass fix! 

Matt says… Here We Go Magic - Brooklyn-based band Here We Go Magic evoke a modern-day CSNY so they should fit right into the modern-day Woodstock. Listen to their song “Fangela” for a taste of what you can expect. Aziz Ansari - Though strictly falling on the comedy side of the Bonnaroo line-up, Aziz Ansari is currently working on a mixtape, so you never know what he could bust out. I’m just hoping that he continues to rip on BP.

Jay says… The Entrance Band - This three piece rock and roll outfit will get you going with a blast of sonic dominance. Look out as their highly ironic, 120 lbs frontman dominates the crowd with his growling voice and shredding guitar riffs. Miike Snow - Grab your favorite pharmaceuticals and get over to see Miike Snow if you want to dance your face off. This three piece quasi electronic band has all the right stuff to keep your glowsticks and imaginary balls moving throughout the night.

Jeff says… GWAR - what’s a summer music festival without a troupe of sadomasochistic chaos warriors screaming about their hatred of all things alive. go see it and be drunk. The XX - has this South London trio survived its tidal 2k9 hypewave? we think so. maybe Jamie (on the e-drums) will pull out some of his mix skills to beat up that big crowd.

Also, our very own Kylie will be rockin out at the festival so get in touch with her via @shallowleak on Twitter!

Music to your ears - from ours - with love

 <3 MusicVagabonds 

The xx - Islands (music video) //

The repetitive choreography in this new video from the XX should successfully give you deja vu. The vibe of the video definitely fits their sound and could help expose the band to a broader audience. 

-MW

The Notorious XX //

Wait What Music presents a full album of Notorious B.I.G. vs. The XX mash-ups.  It works better than you think it would.  Listen to one of my favorites, “Islands Is The Limit,” above or download the full mixtape here.

-MW