Bon Iver - Don't You Cherish Me To Sleep

For you Hip Hop heads out there, Justin Vernon, the lead singer of @boniver, was instrumental in the success of Kanye's latest album, offering vocals on the opener Dark Fantasy, Monster, and lastly, Lost in the World, which was a sample of Justin's previous track titled, Woods.

In case you haven't heard, it's national "Bon Iver Day" in the indie-world, as today welcomes the nationwide arrival of the band's second full-length self titled album, Bon Iver. One record store in lead singer Justin Vernon's hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin is actually having an all-day listening party with prizes and bonus material available, while another store opened it's doors at midnight specifically for this album's release...so you could say, it's kind of a big deal to indie-kids.

What can I say that hasn't been said about this band, and the man behind it, Justin Vernon, in these past few weeks? He's been on the cover of both Billboard and Spin Magazine, received great reviews from tastemakers Pitchfork.com and Rolling Stone, and he was even featured in Vanity Fair for goodness sakes.

The band is currently in New York, filming appearances on The Colbert Report last night, and Jimmy Fallon tonight, and I couldn't be happier for them, as they deserve every bit of this success. They've resisted the seemingly inevitable backlash from fans that most indie-bands receive when they blow up like this, as they've consistently remained humble, never losing that sense of intimacy that their music created for fans to latch onto in the first place.

Bon Iver - Minnesota, WI

|iTunes

Before hearing this record for the first time, I thought there was no way it could live up to expectations; I loved the first album, and I was of the mind that anything remotely close to the first would be a success. Lo and behold, I was thoroughly amazed to find this record showed remarkable growth, offering an album that flowed together beautifully from start to finish, leaving me with two tracks, Minnesota, WI and Calgary, that became instant favorites.

So if you get the chance, give these songs a listen, and seek out the others, because, I can assure you, they won't be hard to find.

Bon Iver - Calgary

|iTunes