Assorted Jazzbeans

Me bitching about fazbook. Also: Mixtap!

2010-08-04T15:37:00.006+01:00

Summer of '10 and it's many facebook groups.
There are way too many, aren't there?
And my younger brother is the sort of person that joins a shit load of them, it depresses me.
He justifies it with the fact that he isn't enjoying the summer unless his facebook indicates so.

Me, on the other hand, just needs to produce some shabby mixtape to show my lust/love of the summer, and how rad it's been for me.
So this is a mix of a bunch of songs/band I've been mad about over the summer. I've been super honest about what I've been checking out, so that's my explanation for it not being totally hip and up to the minute. Not that I normally am, but I don't usually ram the blink in there. (oyesido)
Check it

TvackLvst
1. Lê Almeida - Canção pro Beto Guedes
2. Lee Moses - Time And Place
3. the parasails - skylife 9
4. Algernon Cadwallader - I Wanna Go To the Beach
5. Louis Armstrong - Fireworks
6. Paul Simon - Crazy Love Vol. II (I've been lsitening to this one track none stop. It's from Graceland, the album which is like Vampire Weekend if they came along twenty years earlier. And if they were more awesome)
7. Beck - Mixed Bizness
8. The Dandy Warhols - Now You Love Me
9. The Breeders - Flipside
10. The Screaming Females - Fun
11. P.S. Eliot - Cry Uncle (from their new EP. I don't know how, but all these guys do is get better and better)
12. Discount - Waiting by the Wayside
13. Sibyl Vane - Hongos
14. Busdriver - Imaginary Places
15. Max Richter - Vladimir's Blues
16. Lake - Don't Give Up
17. Kid Cudi/Best Coast/Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend) - All Summer (okay, sorry about this one, it's some souper commercial converse related thing, but BEST COAST, and I like poppy crap sometimes.)
18. Blink 182 - Feeling This
19. that dog. - Long Island
20. Shuggie Otis - Ice Cold Daydream
21. 764-HERO - Coastline (Some nineties indie rock thing I've been digging a lot, of recent)
22. Cloud Nothings - Even If It Worked Out
23. Sleater-Kinney - Good Things
24. Dog bite - Owls Eyes
25. Electrelane - Cut And Run

(The name is just cause I recently was drawing onions attacking advocados. It's the type of art work that's got meaning you squares just can't see.)

Rodan - Rusty

2010-06-05T14:46:00.003+01:00

Rodan are a super cool math rock band, lots of indie rock influence. They have Tara Jane O'Neil in amongst their ranks, which makes it all even better annnnddd this is their only full length release.
Basically just tight ass riffs and melodies. You'll probably like it.
(sorry for being a shitty reviewer: allmusic also can help you decide)

The tooth fairy is one vengeful bitch

oh oh also they're from the nineties and you can totally tell.

Thomas Truax

2010-05-25T23:03:00.001+01:00

So a week and a half... or so ago, I went to see Thomas Truax. He was reccomended by an excellent internet friend with excellent tastes in oddities.

Thomas makes his own instruments. He plays the hornicator, the stringaling, the scary aerial... you know, the usual. He loops stuff, puts rotating laser eyes to the hornicator's bell, stands on the table in the other room, picks his guitar with a handheld fan, and spreads joy like a farmer spreads shit over his fertile land. Then he reaps.

He sounds a little like rich hall during speech, and has similarly a similarly high mirth count. He performs. He doesn't just play music, he performs it spectacularly. It is literally a spectacle.
As for what he sounds like during music... question mark? Some is uncompromisingly weird. strange beats primitively clunked from his drummer, mother superior (constructed from a bicycle wheel amongst other things), distorted vocal loops and howling. Some songs are fairly conventional, but delivered with such humour and quirk he is quickly elevated above the level of the gimmick.

So firstly, I direct you to his website -
Direction to his website.
I would heartily reccomend you go to any of his shows that you can. The one I attended was the best live musical experience of my already fruitful existence.

Then I would demand that you buy one of his compact discs. I bought two, at once, from the gentleman his-self.

And with some reluctance, I... post absolutely none of his music for download, because he needs the cash. Oh, ok, just a few tracks. I'm not posting a full album. I am utterly confident in my assumption that buying his music is a very good idea, and the money you will give will go to the right people, which isn't the case with so much music.

Just a few tracks.

X-Mal Deutschland - Viva

2010-05-25T23:03:00.000+01:00

X-mal Deutschland have been described as "Siouxsie and the banshees but German". I like to think they have their own merits, though the similarities are unavoidable. Not that that's a bad thing of course, I am a siouxsie lover.

Their roots and development were a little sinister.

So basically, they are a female-fronted band from the early 80s. They began as somewhat non-standard punk, with barking vocals and additional synthesisers. Then they developed into a more rounded 80s-gothic-y act. And their last album was apparently terrible, some pop rock with all the lyrics in English. I've never heard it though.

This album, viva, is never available to buy anywhere. Which should be mourned, as I consider it their best work.

Feuerwork should replace Auld Lang Syne as the new year's anthem, as it has for me. Polarlicht, the track that introduced me to the band, is a black whirlpool of celebration. Morning sets mourning victorian poetry to a bassy funeral march. Matador sets the album off with promise and pace, and evokes memories of chris hulsbeck's Turrican 2 soundtrack, which you probably didn't play unless you were as cool as me.

VIVA, VIVA! EIN NEUES JAHR!

Why are you here when you could be

2010-05-21T20:13:00.003+01:00

on some other hip music blog.
I'm bored, and also lazy, which means I'm going to tell you exciting blogs that you probably already know of.

http://rdfrnds.blogspot.com/
They do cool garage pop type things. And other stuff. It's all varied, all interesting and my descriptive skills ran away last tuesday.

http://side-ponytail.blogspot.com
Posts neat 'single songs and assorted albums'. Quite a bit of twee indie/general indie pop. Slightly more female leaning, I guess. Very neat stuff. (I already said that, my volcabulary is limited and I cannot afford a theasaurus.)
(who is also doing this thing where if you post various answers to various questions, or just comment nonsically, you might get cool record type items. But don't do that, I want more chance of winning.)

http://balladofaladyman.blogspot.com/
Awesome female band posting blog, has a ton of neat 90s type bands. Again a lot more varied than I just made it sound.

http://shoegazeralive4.blogspot.com/
Does what it says on the tin. Which is post millions of great shoegaze bands. Along with post-rock, dreampop, sadcore, slowcore, class of 86, Sarah Records and lo-fi music (that was detailed because it actually says, right there, on the blog, what it's all about. Not because I actually managed to describe things effectively for once)

http://nonotfunnotno.blogspot.com/
Oddly enough, quite centred (I mean, like the record label. I'm sure you know that, but I wouldn't want to assume). Posts noise, jammin type stuff. Grool.

http://www.bebopkids.blogspot.com/
So incredibly hip. It's like surfing on the crest of the trend wave. In a good way. I mean, they tend not to post the crappy bands of the trends. And they do post good, other, not hip-house stuff.

Also, I thought I'd give a mention to my three favourite record containing and sending places:
http://sncl.collective-zine.co.uk/index.php (bit hardcore leaning, but still rad indie schmindie stuff. Also a cheapish second hand selection)

http://www.normanrecords.com/ (neat, fairly unbaised reviews alongside the majority of records, from experienced music critiks.)

https://www.volcanictongue.com/ (AWESOME music selection. If only it were right next to me, I'd spend all my cash there as soon as I had any. Also has decent descriptions with all records. And a large selection of tapes)

And those are all UK based, cause I'm a UK kid, and long shipping times/prices make me cry.

(Seeing as this post is a ton of rambling ANYWAY, I should point out that Bathetic Records now have the second run of the Dark Is The Night comp, and while it's obviously not as cool to have the second edition, it's still kinda worth getting it for the awesome music, right? Right? No, I guess not...)

The Royal We - The Royal We

2010-05-18T23:24:00.004+01:00

This here is a pretty neat indie pop gem type EP thing. It's the only thing they ever released which sucks, cause while this is good, you can imagine their full length would have been one of those lost-classic type things.
Maybe that's pushing it.
Anyway, indie pop is really a broad definition - think of a slightly softer, american girl vocal fronted early los campesinos, with less rough edges.
That's who they sound like on their better songs-ish.
On the other less-good songs, it's not that they're bad, it's that it's a little bland.
Any old indie pop band with a decent sounding frontman, and acceptable guitarist type thing.

I'm making it sound a lot worse than it is though, for fear you'll accuse me of over hype. Their best song (no. 2, in my opinion) is genuinely fantastic, and certainly gonna be my song of the summer.

(thinking about it, probably the main problem is that the first track is the worst, or at least most bland, and sets the whole album up a little badly. Miss that, and the album's pretty much a winner)

Haven't I dissuaded you enough yet?

The Summer We Went West - Following The Holy Moon Goddess

2010-05-14T16:43:00.004+01:00

Alright, this band is one of those indie emo types - all sinewy and stretched out. Their vocals are winsome, their guitars trying to put across the deep trauma of a dying white whale, the last of its kind.
Or something.
They are actually pretty fantastic, this could be one of my favourite emo-y records of it's type.
RIYL Algernon Cadweller, Timmy Kinsella's thingys.
I did upload a mediafire link, here, but upon checking out their website, they've got links for the album there anyway, plus a few other neat additions. They broke up a while back, and some of them are in some other band, etc. Go check 'em out, s'all gravy.
Oh, and track 2, 4 and 3 to a certain extent, are in my top ten of emo songs. Track 4 might just be in the top ten, ever. These guys know what they're doin'.

Janelle Monae

2010-05-11T22:20:00.002+01:00

I've already blogged her before somewhere.
But she's still awesome, and her new album has recently leaked.
It's a continuum of the whole suites concept thing, about an android that falls in love with a human.
I recommend you check it out, it's pretty rad, with plenty of beats and melodies that complement her fantastic voice well. Kinda got the mo-jo, if not as much as the previous suite did.
You've also got to bear in mind that I'm not really feeling this kind of beat-tastic music at the moment - although there are a coupla of more chill tracks, I guess.
I'll probably be fifty percent more positive about it when I'm in that kind of mood.
Uh, I've some nice stuff to blog about lined up, I'll try get on that in a bit, just that my time at the moment has been taken up by not-really-revising, and my new found love, roller skating.
Which means you might get some roller skatin mix in a bit, maybe.

Fuckemos - Can kill you

2010-05-06T18:40:00.003+01:00

Hey bitches. How you liking my excretions? Some feedback would be nice. I don't just shit on your doorstep and run, I hang around in the bushes.

So here's an album that I've been listening to a lot lately, by a charming musical ensemble known as fuckemos! Let's read about them on last.fm!

"After an incident with security at Austin’s famed Emo’s nightclub in 1992 in which Porter tried to retrieve his wife from within the club after hours, he went home and sticker-taped the words “Fuck Emos” on his kick drum."

That's a good origin story! Better than mine.

They sound something like straightforward grungey punkey metal, except more atonal, and with distinctive altered vocals that sounds like a record played just too slow! As such, they sound sludgey and destructive.
They sing about nice things like fucking, murdering, gays, more gays, Paedophiles, smelly people, and beating on people who don't like the fuckemos. As such, you may need to appreciate an adolescent confrontational sense of humour. I'm fairly sure they're being sarcastic, ironic, or just plain wickedsick.

I can't get hold of it here, so why don't you just click this bold, underlined text and download it?

Oh, unfortunately, I'm not sure the tracks are labelled completely correctly. There seems to be a problem, as most of the tracklistings I have found have titles that are slightly different from each other, and themselves. Shouldn't demolish your delight though. Eat up, whores, bon apetit!

Mirage Island - The Monument

2010-04-27T16:14:00.005+01:00

This is first and foremost electronic-y ambient kind of music.
But it's also quite catchy, and the tracks are shorter and more to the point than most other ambient that I've listened too, at least.
You get the feeling that while vocals are clearly not nessercery, it wouldn't be too hard to fit them in there.
Most every track has a nice beat, but they're not too dancey- it's still totally cool to sit there and relax to.
Much like I'm doing now, in fact.
Also the band name is from some pokemon game.
Awesome.
In fact, thinking on it, a lot of the tracks wouldn't be too far out of place on a pokemon game, although they're more polished and a bit more developed. And a bit dancier. So if pokemon had a disco related bit, somehow.

01 - Little Dreamer
02 - Mysterious Pastry
03 - Green Waffle
04 - Lost Valley
05 - As Life Slips Away
06 - Dark Heaven
07 - The Monument
08 - A Better Place
09 - Childhood Dreams (Remix)
10 - Shin Ai (Nana Mizuki Cover) (Bonus Track)
My sandwich is excellent.

EDIT: The above was such a lie, not sure what I was thinking. It gets crazy with the beats later on, I'm still liking it and all, but it's really not as half as ambient as I implied. I'm actually terrible with music.

L.P - Suburban Sprawl And Alcohol

2010-04-27T01:10:00.003+01:00

So this is a female solo album, which is pretty standard above average rock with a little bit of pop.
It's too polished to ever be an underground sensation, and there are too many releases like this for it ever to have really stood a chance of being crazy popular.
It's like, fun stuff though, esp. in some places where it gets a bit grimier, and her voice goes more wilddddd.
And in the places where it is almost too polished, that's alright too, it's still pretty poppy.
Easy listening, I guess.
Her release before this was even slower, and more country influenced, I think.
Still pretty good though, I've got it upped somewhere around if you fancy it.

1. Wasted (Was title track to south of nowhere, that really gay teen drama thing)
2. Darkside (One of my faves, is all skatey and stuff)
3. All I Have (Sort of slow, sad, studio enhanced)
4. Get Over Yourself
5. Suburban Sprawl & Alcohol
6. Little Death (Is all crazy mad rawwwk)
7. Change of Scenery
8. Nowhere
9. Never Was
10. Heartless
11. Cadillac Life
Takeee

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

2010-04-27T00:26:00.004+01:00

Kate Bush is fucking awesome.
And this album is an art pop classic.
I love love love it, and it's only just this past month I've slackened off on the listening to it, much to the guy-who-lives-above-me-'s relief.
Okay so I'm a little drunk/slow on badly made cocktails at the moment, but this album is brilliant due to the pop melodies, the way it builds up and up on the first track, then blazes completely into the Hounds Of Love, swings into a Big Sky, slows it down for the next one, then starts building it up a little for the fifth.
Eh, I could go on, but I'd basically be tracklisting and saying a vague comment after each one.
I really, really like listening to it before I go out.
And in general as well.
I'm not crazy fond of listening to it with headphones, but I sort of have to do that right now because the-guy-above-me has been super quiet this evening, and it's about twenty to one now. Plus he gave me monster munch. That shit is gold, yo.

1. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
2. Hounds Of Love
3. Big Sky
4. Mother Stands For Comfort
5. Cloudbusting
6. And Dream Of Sheep
7. Under Ice
8. Waking The Witch
9. Watching You Without Me
10. Jig Of Life
11. Hello Earth
12. Morning Fog

Hounds Of Lurrrrve

Jacques Brel - Ces Gens-Là

2010-04-18T20:16:00.002+01:00

This is an album by Jacques Brel.

----Ok, sorry I didn't write anything before.
Jacques Brel was a Flemish (it means that he comes from Belgium) singer.
He produced a large amount of work, all of it receiving high critical acclaim. His songs have been covered by a range of artists, most notably Scott Walker, though most of his songs, and his name, are virtually unknown in English speaking countries.

One exception is "Seasons in the sun", a reinterpretation of one of Brel's songs. In an attempt to brighten it up a bit, the jaunty rhythm and the sense of humour were removed.

Most of his work was released in the west in many permutations. Many compilations were circulated as opposed to the original French albums.

I have chosen this particular album for next to no reason, other than it includes some of my favourite Brel songs.

Some of his songs are available on youtube, but unfortunately the best ones with what appeared to be the best translation were all recenty removed.

Many English interpretations of his songs lack the poetry and cynical humour found in the French versions.

I can't quite make this post into a coherent piece, so, adieu.

A touching story

2010-04-18T18:59:00.002+01:00

One day, when "pidgey" was clumsily attempting to court me with pictures of large headed teenagers, I demanded that she compile a selection of music for me. Meanwhile, I compiled my own mix. She would have to listen to it as punishment for me telling her to make a mix of her own.

I managed to trim it down to a brief hour and ten minutes, and tried to lighten the endless opressive misery by switching songs with more "fun" tracks by the same artists. If the artist had a song about fucking, this was obviously much more preferable to whatever dirge I had previously selected.

And here is the result.

Unfortunately I've lost the original album art, and can't remember what it was called. And the files. But not the playlist. So I have reconstructed it. I could not, however, be bothered to change the tags, but the filenames are ordered in the order I chose.
Which is, AS FOLLOWS

Virgin Prunes - Sandpaper lullaby
Leonard Cohen - Don't go home with your hard on
Big Star - Kangaroo
The Cure - Let's go to bed
Lydia Lunch - Atomic Bongos
Foetus - Cirrhosis of the Heart
Throwing Muses - America (She can't say no)
The Angels of Light - Public Embarrassment Blues
Tom Waits - I Don't Wanna Grow Up
Red House Painters - New Jersey
Vermillion Lies - The Astronomer
Akron/Family - River
Moris Tepper - Sandpaper
Siouxsie and the banshees - Sin in my heart
Ivor Cutler - Everybody Got
Silver Jews - How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down
The Cramps - Strychnine
Big Black - He's a Whore
Einstürzende Neubauten - Sand
Vitor Ramil - Quiet Music

Only 21 tracks? And such a vivid array of Rejoicing music!

Yes, it's far too long, and not cohesive, and far too miserable, but it should be interesting. Mostly. It's all good music.

PURE PIDGEY PARTY ANTHEMS CLICK IT HERE

OST - Whip It!

2010-04-16T21:21:00.004+01:00

Okay so I have three albums I intended to write about, only the one I really wanted to natter on about right into your ear didn't upload.
So.
Instead I'm just gonna post this pretty-awesome OST, and enthuse about the film.
And you're probably going to ignore me a bit/take it all with a pinch of a salt, and you should, 'cause once anything contains Ellen Page I tend to grab my rose tinted glasses and embed them in both my eyes and ears. I'd go for the nose as well, but a) my nose is pretty huge so I'd waste a lot of rose tinted glass filling it up and b) smell o vision hasn't caught on yet, sorry Mr Waters.
That disclaimer was over written.
The Film: Absolutely super, 8/10 for me, and probably you. Possibly. I'm now going a bit obsessive over roller derby/skating in general, and about to buy some cheap ass quad roller skates to learn. Mostly to prove my friends wrong when they say I'll get them, fall over once, and never use them again. But oh god Ellen Page is awesome, her friend is awesome, the parents are awesome, it's a really neat take on various growing up/discovering yourself type plots and while, yeah, it does have the sports flick generic plot line, it's done really funnily and also slightly understated. The loss of two points would be because the romance was ever-so-slightly shoe horned in there, but mostly because her best friends romance bit more natural in contrast and the whole thing ended really well. In conclusion, please watch it and get obsessed, esp. if you're in Hull cause I want to form a roller derby team and need more people on board for that. Thanks.

THE MUSIC BIT:
The songs are a mixture of slightly-unknown-but-not-really artists and kitsch-y classiks. It doesn't consist of mostly just one genre type of music, but it a bit more scattered, which is good and all, although it makes the collection a little less cohesive. I'd give it a four out of five, mostly because it's introduced me to Jens Lekman and his song 'Your Arms Around Me' which is completely fucking beautiful. And chill. But good chill. It's also got some punky songs that were used for the hardcore derby matches and just all in all fun stuff.
Check it out if you saw the movie, or fancy getting to know a few more respectable artists.

Smackfist:
1.Pot Kettle Black – Tilly and the Wall
2.Sheena is a Punk Rocker – The Ramones
3.What’s the Altitude – Cut Chemist feat. Hymnal
4.Bang On – The Breeders
5.Dead Sound – The Raveonettes
6.Blue Turning Grey – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
7.Your Arms Around Me – Jens Lekman
8.Learnalilgivinanlovin – Gotye
9.Boys Wanna Be Her – Peaches
10.Jolene – Dolly Parton
11.Caught Up in You – .38 Special
12.Never My Love – Har Mar Superstar feat. Adam Green
13.Black Gloves – Goose
14.Crown of Age – The Ettes
15.High Times – Landon Pigg & Turbo Fruits
16.Unattainable – Little Joy
17.Lollipop – The Chordettes
18.Doing It Right – The Go! Team
19. Apollo Sunshine – Breeze
Not my link, I suck.

Chrismix

2010-04-10T03:17:00.002+01:00

Okay, so aside from this one other post Chris is gonna do, this will be the last time I'm all, whoa I have a new poster on this blog.
Because you shall understandably get bored of that.
Anyhow, when Chris and I met through secret wiles and ways, we made each other a mixtape full of exciting music we thought the other would like/that represented the listener or something.
This is the mix I tossed casually at chris, and was basically a huge insult or something because it's composed of mostly depressing songs, implying I think he's a hugely depressive person.
But secretly it's the nicest compliment I could ever give him because all the songs are also awesome, meaning I think he's super awesome.
You could check it out if you fancy the idea of any of the bands, or want to hear something new?
It's not tracklisted, I was fuck-lazy at putting it together because putting effort into stuff is totally unhip.

Blonde Redhead - Elephant Woman (This made Chris get the entire Blonde Redhead discography. I'm that influential. And this is that awesome)
Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight (Jazz. Very melancholy, I always think)
The Antlers - Kettering (From one of the most awesome albums of... last yr now, I guess)
Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub - Fine Art Of Silver (
Algernon Cadweller - Look Down (Because the Ground Is Easier to Understand and Doesn't Take So Much Work to Figure Out But I'd Rather Not Know Where I'm Standing and Have An Idea of What Life Is All About)
Patty Waters - Sad am I, Glad am I
Can - Thief
Des Ark - It's A Hard World Sometimes For Little Things
Murmurs - Genius
Modest Mouse - I Came as a Rat (Long Walk off a Short Dock)
Ash - Sometimes
Cursive - Sierra
Elastica - Waking Up (Brit Pop catchy as fook)
The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist (Lots of samples together to make super song from super album)
Artie Shaw - Gloomy Sunday (Jazz that sounds like the title, plus all snakey)
Ben Folds - Brainwashed
Best Fwends - Safety Scissors
The Awkward Stage -Heaven Is For Easy Girls (pop rawk, or something)
So a mix of melancholy jazz and indie rock, poppy rock and loosely tied together emo.
Totally Chris

Red House Painters - Early Demos

2010-04-10T01:46:00.002+01:00

We've never even met.
Hello, I'm Chris. I'm invading her internet persona. Here is some... music! I have heard it called "slowcore" and "sadcore". It is slow and sad, but I am unsure how cores are involved.

These are some "early demos" from Red House Painters. LINK link link
I know practically nothing of the story behind this. One day I found it, I listened to it, and now, it's here. The Audio is cassette tape quality, pretty much. Definitely Listenable.

This collection seems to preceed the group's debut EP, "Down colourful Hill". Much of the material here was later re-recorded and released on the first EP, and the first two albums (both titled "Red House Painters"). But there's some unreleased tracks, an alternate versions of released songs.

As is the case with early rhp, there's a lot of soft misery in this collection. The slow dirges and gentle clean guitars are definitely there, representin. But there's also a great deal of uncooked youthful zeal that has not been exposed elsewhere.

Because I am new here, and this is my maiden contribution, I demand that you enjoy this.

GUYS I HAVE FRIENDS HONEST

2010-04-10T01:29:00.002+01:00

And I bullied one of them into being my blog buddy.
He'll hopefully post away and fill in the cracks that I keep making with my big stompy doc martens.
Or at least paper over them.
With metaphorically papery blog posts.
He's awesome and my new first mate.
Welcome aboard the good ship Ducktail: Mr Chris!

(I don't wear doc martens though I do have a really tegan/sara haircut right now. And it's a lot less hip than you're thinking.)

Using the last of my waning influence...

2010-03-12T10:52:00.003Z

I order ye all to go check out that guy from Sigur Ros' new album. It's actually immense, and you're actively missing out, right now, by not having it pounding through your eardrums.
It's called Jonsi - Go, but you probably knew that already and listened to it like back in 08 and oh god how did I get so behind in music related stuff.

Á túr - Píka

2010-02-09T23:47:00.004Z

Yeah, I didn't just randomly decide to upload a picture of some sanitary towel, that's totally their album cover.
Hard to the core, huh?
Okay so these guys are hardcore feminists apparently, they're like from iceland I think, least ways they were signed to some Icelandic label, and their music is pretty marvellous.
Not a bloody clue what they're singing, but the voice is very pretty, and they use like a cello and a piano and probably something else. It creates a really atmospheric feel most of the time.
It's maybe like a harsher version of Tattle Tale?
But harsher, still awesome.
I really do like this album, and I've liked it for a long while, it's a deep one.

Be sure to impress all yr icelandic feminist friends!
(Also they're quite unknown, my hipster senses are tingling)

(Where have I been? Mostly having an outside life. You'd think that's good, but the other day I was at an indie rock night and I only knew like 70% of the bands. I tried to pass it off because I was so drunk, but oh god they all knew and were laughing at me. So I need to stay inside and music geek up some more.)

Lê Almeida - REVI

2010-01-12T18:38:00.002Z

This is an awesome fuzzy poppy, slightly psychedelic band. It's a neat catchy release if you like that kind of thing. And according to pitchfork alla you guys do atm. I don't know anything else about them, but no doubt google blog search does.
Perhaps it's a bit too summery sounding for me right now oh i have to go make tea.
In a bit.

Liz Phair - Girlysound cassettes

2010-01-12T18:29:00.003Z

I think the common consensus is that Liz Phair is goddamn essential on Exile In Guyville, and then takes a suddenly horrifying boring approach on her next few albums. It's not so much that they're rubbish songs, just that they're Avril Lavigne type stuff - catchy, contained pop.
I like pop too, just that there's so much better pop out there.
Okay, so we've established Liz is good on Exile, and not afterwards. But what about beforehand?
I never thought of checking out her previous stuff until this week, and I'm very pleased that I did.
She has three cassettes under the name Girlysound, and while only two of them are avaibale in their complete forms on the net, they're very much worth a listen to - it's like, some're rough versions of Exile songs, and some are just rough. And lo-fi is clearly great. Even if it wasn't, Liz Phair lends herself very well to lo-fi kinds of things anyway - just her guitar and a few harmonized voices make her songs pure magic enough.
Go download awayyyyyyyyy

The Crown Vandals - The Guenevere EP

2009-12-22T12:54:00.002Z

These guys are fuck awesome. Like, one of the best bands I've heard this year. Definetely one of the best bands I've heard the second half of this year. They sound like Neutral Milk Hotel, only more awesome and they actually still release music and one day maybe they'll do a solid real life release that I can hold in my hands and cry over. Violins, gitars, fuzz fuzz fuzz FOLK and ohlord if you aren't listening to it you're missing out.
Overhyping it? NO.
You can listen for free, real life, actually not stealing at all, free on their myspazz.
Or they say you can download it here.

I'm still working on the xmas Ep thing, but in honesty, this band is the best christmas present you could hope to receive.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-14T15:32:00.004Z

So few updates, tis awwwwful.
I'd lie and say the new year shall be better, but it probably won't be, seeing as I've exams in january.
I've also got three tomorrow, and yes I am super prepared for them, how did you know?
Anyway, this is a fail of a year as regards blogs, so I'll try my best to push together a mixtape relating to xmas, and perhaps a few general updates on the side when I go home friday and have nothing much to do.
But in case I don't: THIS is a super awesome bird&the bee song which they probably made last yr, but whatever, I've heard it now and wowowowowowow.
Deffo going on any possibility of a mixtape I create.
(They also apparently did a somewhat less awesome cover of Twelve Days of Xmas, but it's still not bad)
Also: The reason for using youtube is because mediafire doesn't work well for me anymore. My love affair with the university internet is now officially over.
Merry Xmas/Happy Holidays if I don't update before then. xxx

I needed to share, and for the moment am without a personal blog

2009-11-18T14:58:00.001Z

"Just watched Hilary Duff have a three-some on Gossip Girl...all I could imagine was that LIzzie Maguire cartoon girl freaking out above their heads"

I fucking LOVE texts from last night so HARD.
(and gossip girl)
(that shit is wack, yo)

The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism

2009-11-12T01:12:00.002Z

It's like bluegrass country alternative indie rock grunge.

And a few other labels that I just forgot.

The most important ones're probably the bluegrass thing, and the grungy rock.

Maybe the indie rock thing, but what would that tell you?

Nothing, that's what.

This is my favourite album of theirs, despite the fact it isn't their first or second, or even their third. The first track is ridiculously good, but then the rest are just very good.

I'm gonna try up some stuff tomorrow, tho I'm not sure what, cause I've not been doin much downloadin of late.

Eeehhhh ehe eh ehEMO

Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love

2009-10-18T20:06:00.001+01:00

I'm 87% sure I've not posted this gem before, and I'm too hungover to confirm this surity.

Anyway, it's decent enough to hear twice, right?

Okay, Built To Spill in three phrases: Indie Rock, Crunchy Guitar Lines, Marvellous Lyrix.

And in my personal opinion, this is one of their best albums, if only because it seems to gel together so well as one singular album, rather than a collection of good songs that just happen to be hanging around together, having a fun time.

I mean, you can tell the songs are all best buds, but they're also family/romantically linked/incestuous overtones.

The fuck. I shouldn't write while still reeling from TheNightBefore.

It's good good good, and well known, you've already probably got it, but BITCH 320kphs, and we've all got a little audiophile in us somewhere.

Part A

Part 2

Wolfgang Parker - Hep City Swing

2009-10-18T15:31:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure, but I think you can get a good idea of what this album is about by just looking at the name/cover. Pinstriped zoot suits, slicked hair, snappy tasches, and goddamn he's a hep cat type thing.
It's like very swing influenced punk. Sort of similar to some rockabilly, and made without a brass instrument in sight.
Pretty damn swinging, and enjoyable.
He's released another album since, but that was more of the rock/pop type swing, and this one is a little more out there.
Still good, though.
And I'm off to a jazz night come tues, guys I'm so totally uni right now.

YOU GOTTA SWING, SWING, SWING!

(yes, he covers 'Sing, Sing' by Benny Goodman on the last track, it's filTHAY, man.)

El Oh El

2009-10-16T13:48:00.002+01:00

(Sorry for lack of hupdates, haven't had the net for a bit, then I was getting drunk, then doing biology. And I mutated into a jellyfish for a short period of time, but that's another story. I'm going to try and write some more stuff, but no promises, cause they'd be drunken and unreliable)

Des Ark - Live on WXDU

2009-09-17T16:52:00.003+01:00

Des Ark in their best possible form - all acoustic-y and soulful.
This music had best touch your heart, or you aren't listening to it right.
My favourite part of this is the first volume of the songs, which you can't buy anywhere, for love nor money.
If someone can give me a heads up if it is available anywhere, then I'm deeply indebted to you.
The second volume of acoustic songs is also fantastic, don't get me wrong, but the first vol. just seems slightly more... vunerable, somehow.
Anyway, I'm giving you both volumes here, decide for yo self.
Des Ark
(Eloise, and If By "Gay" You Mean... are the best tracks. They were good with a full band; as acoustic, they are my favourite tracks ever)

The Halo Benders - The Rebels Not In

2009-09-04T20:20:00.003+01:00

Sexy-ass indie rock lo fi fuzz, surfy bits tossed in. Has Beat Happenings peoples, and DUDE BUILT TO SPILL DUDE in there.
The two different voices are so different - you know the droney one, and the lighter one, that they make an interesting tapestry.
It's pretty cool, and it's meant to be their best album, may-be.
I see an angel walking down

Fu Manchu

2009-08-25T21:50:00.004+01:00

The truth is, Fu Manchu have been making pretty much the same album ever since they started. But, much like nofx's offerings, that album isn't half bad. It's all smooth fuzzed out desert stoner type rawk, with analogue warmth, and a laidback attitude. The vocals are male, but not so rough that they interrupt your chill axing as you listen to this music.
Probably ideal for a really long highway/freeway/whatever they're called in America that's in a desert. The sun is blazing down, and you have a car that's both retro and super cool. Hopefully with air con. I wouldn't know, seeing as those places only exist on American Roadtrips, and I don't live in America, and aren't allowed to drive down our nearest British equivalent, Motorways.
So, I upped three albums of theirs a while back, and here they are. If I was to suggest any in particular, I do like The Action Is Go most of all, although that's probably partially because of the cool skater dude cover. Maybe you should go through them in order of creation, that's usually a good way to do it.
The Action Is Go (1/2)
King Of The Road
California Crossing

DEMI LOVATO

2009-08-17T01:10:00.003+01:00

You sound so much like paramore, it's not even funny.
(I meant the backing music sounds like paramore)
(Don't worry, I still feel both voices are distinctive)
And I think that if Demi Lovato didn't have that whole disney factor, and if paramore's new album turns out to be nothing new, then she'd get to beat them, just for pure Demi Lovato-ness.
Although she smiles way too much.

That Dog. - totally crushed out!

2009-08-12T19:03:00.004+01:00

This is one of my favourite albums. It's power poppy, and punky pop.
For some reason, I always think of it in the same vein of weezer - it's got the hella poppy melodies, but they toss in all those fuzzed up grungey guitars.
It's really really really good.
Like, only just not as good as weezer's Blue Album.
But weezer's blue album is fucking 5.1/5
And this album is still 5/5.
I love That dog. I really do.
And this album is all about crushes and how he's crying because he's kissing boys, and this other girl is really sad cause she liked the boy who likes boys and oh.
Just one of the fucking best albums. It's their best album as well - they have other two stellar efforts you oughta check out, but they're either really power poppy, or too rough for my fluttering adolescent girl heart.
he was a boy/she was a girl/what more can i say

(Yes, Avril Lavigne is always relevant)

Teenage Cool Kids - Queer Salutions

2009-08-12T11:50:00.004+01:00

lo-fi, suitably messy indie rock with some built to spill type slacker rock influence tossed in there.
It's generally quite good, especially when it's all laid back and slowed down- those melodies just roll out and stick onto your lap. I mean, it's catchy, but not sugar poppish.
The only thing is that some songs are a bit... well, it's a youngish band/early CD, they probably need to find a more defined sound, cause sometimes they're a bit like any other above average indie rock band with a love of Built To Spill.
Which is still a fun thing to be, but they could be so much more than that, trust me.
Hindie Hock

(Damn) This Desert Air - EP 1

2009-08-08T15:48:00.003+01:00

This is like... stoner influenced all kinds of spread out indie rock.
It has some hefty kind of bluesy clutch type influences, but they're fused with a more indie rock sensibility.
And the first track almost sounds like a good nu metal song, only without the cruddy rapping.
It's just relaxing, and somewhat heavy, smooth as well.
Zilch jagged edges.
Most importantly, it's pretty good.
I enjoyed it a lot, and shall continue to enjoy it for the next month or so at least.
Just wish it was a bit longer.
Episode 1

Eh Up Luv, Fancy A Tumble?

2009-08-07T22:51:00.005+01:00

So, the more intelligent blog readers amongst you may've been able to tell that, from my burst of angry MY CAR IS BROKED SAD FACE posts, and then a sudden absence of any posts, that the car got fixed, and we set off on a later ferry, one that was over night, sharing a room with twenty randomers, all snortling along in the night... BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY.
Look guys, I'm back.
I'm fucking typing on my keyboard, clicking my keys, and updating myself on all that music I missed these past... two and a bit weeks?
It's great, I tell ya.
Looking forward to some super good posts?
I mean, maybe just some posts that don't revolve around the mechanical state of the family car?
Good-oh.
I'll get right on that.

Also: Am planning to redo the tags, because I realised how messy they are, and some are even mispelt ohboyohboy it's an OCD kid's wet dream.

The Sonora Pine - Sonora Pine II

2009-07-22T09:12:00.006+01:00

I can possibly say, that in this point in time, this is the only place you can find this CD on the net, aside from buying it.
Also it has Tara Jane O'Neil in it (She's done Rodan and Retsin, and one of them was a super awesome math rock band, the other was just super awesome).
You should be downloading it already just because of that, but otherwise, this is an indie rock band with very slow, emotional filled songs.
But its really good, and relaxing, I think.

ALSO RARE!
(sorry, couldn't help that)
Reminds me a bit of a more folky Karate.
Sonora Pine

Surf Piranhas - Both Sides Of The Surf

2009-07-22T08:47:00.006+01:00

uh uh uh.
So way back when I thought I might one day reach france, I figured some sir frock might help set up the mood.
Dick Dale's pretty cool, you know?
(This isn't him)
(Just in case you thought it was)
(I mean, mentioning him in a post about surf rock and some vague band; I can understand how you might get confused)
(But yeah, this band DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY DICK DALE)

They play punky surf rock, and they have a snappy set of songs that make me happy. Sorry, I really should stop writing posts when saddend by dying cars.
Oh and this is what "many consider one of the finest examples of "Surf Music's Second Wave"."
Whatever the hell that is.
1. Do The El Camino (fave)
2. Basement Bop (second fave)
3. Daytona-Montarbo
4. Lonely Fisherman
5. Costa Mesa
6. Rancho Verde
7. Sunset Beach
8. Rockin' Dive Party
9. Attleboro Surf
10. Boss Piranha
11. Undertow
I'm hungry BUT WE HAVE NO FOOD BECAUSE WE WERE GOING AWAY.

OST - Malcolm In The Middle

2009-07-22T08:32:00.004+01:00

This is an irrational post.
I am an irrational poster.
I used to fancy the hell out of Justin Berfield, who played Reese.
So so so.
For the entire first season of this show, They Might Be Giants did the incidental music, also the theme tune (YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME NO MORE). This is why they have two snaptastic trax on here.
As well, they have a collection of britpop/amerirock tracks or something.
It's really all pop rock, with some poppy rap and COTTEN EYE FUCKIN' JOE on there. (you know, if it hadn't been for Cotten Eye Joe, I'da been married a long time ago).
But this is like, ONE of the first CDs I got (The other one is Busted, if you want I'll post it.....? No? FINE THEN) so all these songs mean a whole lot more to me than they will to you (refer to the irrational poster/ing message above, and the fact I've listened to ITS A BEAUTIFUL LIFE ten million times over by now)

YES NO MAYBE.

I don't need to consult the CD for this, I suggest you go straight to track 2 and listen to it.
It's a fucking ace tune.

The Folk Implosion, An Incomplete Discography

2009-07-22T08:19:00.004+01:00

But it's only incomplete because I'm missing out on the one album which wasn't that great, so really, by not having that album, the overall quality is raised, right?
The Folk Implosion has Lou Barlow in it, and they mostly did the soundtrack for Kids, which is one of my favourite soundtracks EVER. They generally play experimental folk indie rock lo fi type stuff (did I just hit every hipster button in existence? oyesidid), and I suggest you try their first album first, because I reckon it's their best. Then go find the Kid's Soundtrack, listen to that.
And then the second two albums are both pretty cool, you can check them out AT THE SAME TIME.
I know, it's crazy, but it might just work.

Take A Look Inside (Thissun first)

Dare to be Surprised

One Part Lullaby

(I'd say some tracks to esp. check out, and stuff, but right now I'm kinda irriated I had to get up at freaken four in the morning to drive to the ferry only to have to stop half way through because our car turned super gay and it's steering broked. Then we came all the way back home, and now I'm just sitting here listening to a top knotch cover of 'It's a Beautiful Life', and twitching. And because of this, no recommendations -MAKE YOUR OWN MIND UP, YOU SHEEPLE.

Des Ark - Battle Of The Beards

2009-07-18T20:12:00.003+01:00

Okay, so I probably overhype stuff, upon the odd occasion. Or, you know, all the time.
But when I say Des Ark are, right now, my favourite band, I promise I am not over hyping, getting over excited, or anything.
THESE GUYS ROCK.
Or, girl, singular, who had a band surrounding her sometimes, but sounds just as good (even better?) when she's all on her own... in a deserted wood... with no way to call for help.... I MEAN OH SHE'S REALLY NICE, I LIKE HER FOR THE PERSONALITY THING, HONEST.
I actually do love her lyrics, and I'm not normally a lyrics person, whatsoever.
And in fact, what got me into her was this live acoustic set, which I'll up later, cause it's now out of print (I would know, I've been trying crazily to get hold of it). ANYWAY, the acoustic set was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. (I know, I over hype, but it really was). This CD that I'm giving you, right now, is more electric-y guitar, and in fact only half by them, as it is originally a split with this other, quite good band, but I got rid of the other band's part, and deal with it, or something.
It's still really good, and if you tried to have sex with the speaker/headphones while it was playing, I wouldn't blame ya.
(They sorta play indie rock with math influences but that's not telling you much really, just get it)
6. Eloise (third fave, even more amazing acoustic, yo)
7. If By "Gay" You Mean... TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME, THEN YEAH, I GUESS IT'S PRETTY GAY (First fave. Maybe you could tell)
8. Lord Of The Rings And.. (This is second faveo)
9. The Fall Of The Skorts (hahahah SKORTZ)
10. The Subtlies Of.. (Hellyeahs.)
CLICK THIS SO HARD, YOUR CLIKFINGERFALLZOFF

WIZDUMB - Dollar Bin Delicacies

2009-07-18T20:02:00.004+01:00

This is some hip to hop mixtape I found hanging around on the net.
It's more like a mish mash of a ton of random samples together to make songs, and the vocals aren't all that present, so really not that hip hop anyhow.
STILL, it's good, like the avalanches, and I think we can say it's got more than a bit of trip hop influence in there.
It's chill, summeray, and is getting in on my holiday mp3 yaylist.
Last.fm says: uses analogue equipment and ONLY 277 plays?
So, so, unbearably hip, I couldn't keep it to myselfs.
(Credit to here, he gives it away for free anyway)

BUT MEDIAFIRE IS SEXIER, DUH.

Cristina - Sleep It Off

2009-07-12T10:51:00.004+01:00

This kind of follows on from my last post about how electronic based stuff can be all kinds of souless?
Or at least numb, cause this is.
In a way, it's like a pre lady Gaga, or at least if you look at "Just Dance" then it is. It's full of the kind of sarcastic mocking mope that the funnier rich people end up with, after a lifetime of excess and no boundaries.
It's sort of empty, and if you aren't drunk, it's sort of depressing as well.
The actual music is like 80's Electronic stuff if it were mashed with the whole no wave scene. Some songs have other bits and pieces in there - it is catchy and pop as well, don't worry, but the actual lyrics are a lot sharper than usual pop fare.
Her first album was a lot more disco based, and I've upped the best song from it here, which at least gives a taste of her vocals, and overall tone (Detached boredom, yo) if not the actual sound showcased on this LP.
(Oh, and another thing - this is the CD version, and the track listing got changed in transition from vinyl to CD, and not really for the better. Still, you're meant to be drunk, you shouldn't care)
(I love ticket to the tropics, and MUTILATE MY MINK)
Sleep It Off

Marina & The Diamonds

2009-07-12T10:34:00.003+01:00

These guys are like the CATCHIEST POP EVER.
(and then some). I've been listening to this all week, but even if I hadn't, their tunes would've still be hanging around in my head.
Sounds wise... well, I was gonna say they were like an even better version of Thingy and The Machine (is it Florance? Something beginning with F, anyhow), but then I remembered I hadn't actually listened to Thingy And The Machine's album yet, plus I think it's kinda electronic based.
And Marina & The Diamonds aren't really electonicy at all, which is great. I mean, they have a keyboard in there you're made very aware of- it's used fantastically in all their songs, but the vocals, the drums, the overal feel- that's pretty organic. In fact, the single is called "I am not a robot". And I think the front woman has said something about Lady Gaga being souless.
I agree, but not in a bad way, cause I think dance tunes when you're drunk and half numb inside SHOULD be souless. I mean, I already think electronic stuff is mostly souless, so.. it fits, I guess.
But whatever, right now you should be downloading MARINA & THE DIAMONDS. Then go buy their stuff, see them live, ask the various band members to engage in sexual congress with you.
(In case you're interested, that little download link had the Obsessions Single, with it's B Side, and the 'I'm Not a Robot' song, with some remixes that do, in fact, make her sound like a Robot.)

The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - Pigment

2009-07-08T16:14:00.004+01:00

This is probably the second best shoegaze band's first best audio output collection (EP?).
And they're only the second best because of My Bloody Valentine. Who're like, impossible to top, and everything.
But seeing as My Bloody Valentine only released one truly amazing album, then this EP is probably the second best shoegaze CD out there.
You wouldn't pass up on that, would you?
Honestly, every single track is a gem, and truly just is exactly what shoegaze is meant to be.

GooShaze

Teeth - You're My Lover Now

2009-07-08T15:57:00.004+01:00

When I first listened to this album, I was walking back from this guy's house, slightly too high, and in a fairly unfamiliar neighborhood.
It wasn't the greatest idea I've ever had.
The sudden attack clash of gypsy music on the first track scared the hell out of me. I became hella paranoid, and for a good half of the journey home, I seriously believed that I was being followed by someone who wanted to steal my shoes. My beautiful new pop art influenced puma high tops. And their sparkling red laces...
No, so there was a point to this story, other than I get really paranoid sometimes (I also started imagining that the guy whose house I'd been at had actually put this album on my mp3 player to purposely freak me out/warn me of the on coming shoe thieves), it was that the first track is gypsyfied and scary.
Oddly enough, on subsequent re-listenings, it's not really that scary.
Which means the previous back ground story was even more pointless than usual.
So what they play is actually really good rock, with various instruments. They've always got a beat, and a hella good melody.
Just don't listen to them high, I guess.

1. Molly Make Him Pay
2. Trumpets Blared (This one is kinda friendly)
3. Shoulderblade
4. Fight in the Dark
5. Yellow
6. It's Not Funny (fave)
7. Coolest Kid in School
8. Walk Like a Clown
9. Ball of the Dead Rat
10. It's Over, It's Over
11. You're My Lover Now
12. Rabbit Run
13. Your Feelings on Life
14. That Light Always Goes Out
shoestealinggoodfernuthingreatggrandpa

Rival Schools - United by Fate

2009-07-05T13:09:00.003+01:00

I put off listening to this for ages, because all the reviews I read made it sound like quicksand (this post hardcore band), and I do know quicksand are super good, but all the time I was listneing to them, I was a bit like "I know it's good, but I'm not especially enjoying it"
I maybe wasn't in the right mood for it.
So I figured Rival Schools would be more of the same - something like far, but heavier, and with less enjoyable vocals.
BUT IT WASN'T.
It was really good, I really liked listening to it, and although the guy's vocals aren't as good as Jonah's, I can manage.
It was pretty spectacular, and I recommend it lots and lots.
So, in short: Post Hardcore that isn't crazy heavy, little bits of emo pop hanging around the edges. (They occasionally sound like very early Jimmy Eat World).

Travel by Telephone
Everything Has Its Point
High Acetate
Undercovers On
Good Things
Used for Glue
World Invitational
The Switch
Holding Sand
My Echo
Favorite Star
So Down On
Hooligans for Life

firstandonly

Heavy Vegetable - Frisbie

2009-07-05T12:37:00.005+01:00

This band is fronted by the same guy who is in pinback... and it sounds rougher around the edges, I guess.
Somewhat.
It really is straight up indie rock, if indie rock was ever a genre that can be called straight up. It does have a clear math rock influence, but you really should get it if you like any form of indie rock, esp. things like Guided By Voices or Archers Of Loaf.
I suppose the quality of this album is better than you're thinking, although it's still not as good as the best pinback album.
But better than the two not really that great pinback albums.
I had a good time with it, no doubt you can as well.

1. Still Moving

2. Cotton Swab

3. Abducted by the Work Aliens

4. Crash

5. Poe

6. Song for Wesley

7. Sad Mud Song

8. Never Forget

9. Intro

10. Bully

11. Tune Travis Tune

12. On Purpose

13. E/Or

14. Mushroom Boy (Fave)

15. Henry Mancini Goes Surfing

16. I Owe You

17. Multiball

18. Dental

19. Daisy

20. Ducks at Ralphs

21. Spatula

22. Jackie Chan Is a Punk Rocker

23. Pine

24. Fired

25. Tap

26. Stop

27. Radio

28. Going Steady With the Limes (chill)

frisbie

Go Sailor - Go Sailor

2009-07-05T12:25:00.005+01:00

It's summer and that's a great reason to toss up some hella good twee indie!
No, really.
Go Sailor have members of Tiger Trap and The softies, who're both also solid twee indie bands, and soft sweet vocals.
They also have killer catchy hooks, and a beautiful chill vibe.
We were all kids once, right?
It's great fun and I'm going to say this is in the top 5 twee indie CDs I know.
Even though it's just a collection of all the 7 inches and comp tracks they ever put out, it still works.

Trcklstng
1. Last Year
2. A Fine Day for Sailing
3. I'm Still Crying
4. I Just Do
5. Bigger Than an Ocean
6. Silly
7. Long Distance
8. Windy
9. Blue Sky
10. The Boy Who Sailed Around the World
11. Don't Go
12. Ray of Sunshine (Second fave)
13. Together Forever In Love (First fave and ohfuck I forgot to toss it in there, you'll have to download it by clicking on the track separately, sorry)
14. Every Day
Twee as fuck.

Beirut - Lon Gisland

2009-07-05T12:14:00.004+01:00

Bierut play an interesting mix of gypsy influenced full band... folk? The guy's vocals aren't bad, and the lyrics aren't either, but you're mostly here for the music, I think.
While this EP is hardly their best/most ground breaking in terms of the exact mix of music they have going here - their album previous to this is a similar mix, and they haven't developed it any - this EP is a good way to get to know them.
And it has my fave Beirut song, and possibly one of my top five general all time fave songs on it - Scenic World.
I was listening to that all the way home after my chem exam.
It was quite wonderful, and the opening blows my mind every single time.
In a way they're like a very smooth, slower Gogol Bordello.
I still prefer Gogol Bordello overall, but that Beirut song is just fanfuckingtastic.

1. Elephant Gun (second fave)

2. My Family's Role in the World Revolution

3. Scenic World (THIS, BITCHES)

4. Long Island Sound

5. Carousels

Give it a go, eh

Summershox

2009-06-18T14:05:00.004+01:00

So I finally upped my summer mixtape.
And because I'm the slightest bit OCD about having to use the original post I drafted for it all the way back when, I've posted it here.
Uhm, not to be all whoa, check my sweet ass kinda thing, but this is my favourite mixtape I've ever made.
And a serving suggestion would be:
Play it slow. Like, 0.7 speed, as opposed to 1. I don't know, you've a music player, I'm sure you can figure out how.
I would suggest you get somewhat high as a side plate, but it's still awesome slow when you're, like, high on life.
AND WHOOP JEEPERS SHIT, cause I've finished ALL MY EXAMS.
Word.
So that was a heads up to check the mixtape, cause it's got my no-longer exam heavy heart in there.

Love of Everything - Superior Mold and Die

2009-06-13T21:03:00.007+01:00

The guy who does this record is in some way connected with the Kinsella brothers, but right now, I can't remember how.
I think he plays some kind of instrument on one of their bands, but I totally don't remember which one.
It might even be all of them.
Either way, when on his own (well, he still has a full band around him, but it's mostly him), he plays absolutely beautiful indie pop. It's really pretty and sweet. I know some indie pop that leans towards twee indie can have some really rather rough instrumental playing, and vocals, but this is just soft to the touch all the way through. It shall warm your heart, I promise you. It isn't as simply straight forward as some indie pop either, ending with crunches of tape fuzz, and starting with delicious continuous looping of a guitar line.
I love it to pieces, especially the whimsical guitars.
Something or other described it as a kind of naive indie pop. But that was intended as a compliment, if that makes any sense.

Nothing Left to Use
Sokay
Drive Through Rainbow
Bad Year
Dresden
Dead Laughing
Too Much Happy Wet Hair
Fill Your Eyes In
SMD
Don't Wait
Horses Are Brave

Wait Tim Kinsella does drums here, don't you want it all the more?

Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

2009-06-13T20:48:00.005+01:00

Gojira are this really ace french metal band that my friend's french boyfriend told me about. He looks a lot like one of the guys in it, actually.
In fact, he probably is one of the members of Gojira, trying to promote his stuff.
Whatever, it doesn't matter, it's an actually enjoyable metal album, so we should all love him for that.
Apparently it's death metal with 'dreamy progressive touches'.
Right, and YES, I would usually run away if someone told that something was death metal, but either I've become less anti-metal, or these guys make it... fun to listen to?
And those dreamy progressive touches make it really neat as well. Like, you have a super heavy bit which is all kuhCHUNKkuhkuhCHUNKkra sort of thing (and no, I still can't tell the heavy bits apart either), and then go into a smoother bit where he sings, and whoa, this guy sings in a really touching way. And it's environmental friendly. No, I'm not being a jerk, this vocalist really did go live in a hut in the forest for a year, being all sustainable. And the lyrics are all about that, not dragons and video games. In fact, the entire album is a concept based on the changing environment of earth, and how humanity's gotta do something.
I don't know how, but that makes the album feel really detoxing somehow. Listen to it, it's like you're going through the crucible.

Ocean Planet (first fave)
Backbone
From the Sky
Unicorn
Where Dragons Dwell (oh... they DO have songs about dragons. At least it's only one?)
The Heaviest Matter of the Universe (Second fave)
Flying Whales
In the Wilderness
World to Come
From Mars
To Sirius
Global Warming

It has whale songs as well. I know, right

Jack Conte - Sleep in Color

2009-06-13T20:38:00.004+01:00

This is sort of slippery broken beat electronix with some experimental rock tossed in there for good measure.
It's actually really good fun, although in my opinion suffers from the fact that the first track has better lyrics, and maybe melody, than the other four songs. It certainly has a first rate build up kind of thing.
So it maybe builds your expectations up too much in the first song, and means that you disregard the next tracks too much.
But that isn't to say the other tracks AREN'T good, just that I, personally, think they aren't AS good.
They all still are varied, interesting, and worthwhile to know.
He's a neat up and coming kind of guy, and maybe we can call it 'indietronica'.
The beats are really interesting as well, not just solid 'duh duh duh duh' type of things.

1. Hollywood Endings
2. Like a Match
3. The Greatest Hoax
4. Now That's Sacred
5. Carousel Waltz
Trippy stuff

The Cat Empire - The Cat Empire EP

2009-05-07T22:48:00.004+01:00

The Cat Empire are ska reggae latin rock. Whoa. All very classy and perfect summer music- very smooth, and likeable. Probably that's their only problem, as they're so easy to like, you don't really feel there to be much behind the catchy tunes. But seeing as they're so multicultural, and they have their particular sound down perfectly, it isn't such an issue. Their music is never going to be essential, but it is something you can put on any time during sunny weather, or at a downbeatish party, and you won't get anyone complaining about it. Not about how irriating and obscure it is, nor about how very poppy and simplistic it is. Which is a decent enough achivement. They're more reggae and latin than ska, just in case you're assuming a trend from my recent posts.
I chose an EP because if you like this one, you'll like pretty much anything they've done, because it contains their biggest hit so far, and because the tunes get slightly samey after 12 tracks, but they can pass six with ease.

1. How To Explain
2. Days Like These
3. The Lost Song (this, and the next song are really downbeat, I think)
4. The Chariot
5. Hello (this is like, their big hit. And it's really catchy and funky. I love it awfully)
6. One Four Five (This is kinda funky, but maybe the chorus gets slightly wearing)

latinskareggae?
must be near summer

Ska-P - A Mix.

2009-05-07T21:15:00.006+01:00

So I think it's fairly obvious that recently I've been totally digging the ska vibes. The fairly mainstream, well known, ska vibes, if I'm honest. So here's one that might be slightly off your radar. If you're American/Canadian/that side of the globe, that is- I think they're pretty big in Spain, though how big I can't gauge, because as an ignorant englishkid, I cannot read any language aside from my own.
Anyway, they play much more instrumentally varied ska punk, and it is punk- while they do vary the instruments they use (from banjo, to fiddle), it's all very rooted in the short, sharp, and skanking.
That isn't to say they're unoriginal though, or that their songs all sound the same - they can be completely crazy and off the wall, while creating pretty damn sharp songs. It's all sang in Spanish, of course, but it's a nice voice, and it's all kinda anti establishment so you be assured they aren't singing about how much they like to eat chicken nuggets, or a similarly embarrassing subject.
Also because of the Spanish thing, there is a nice bit of Spanish influence (flamenco?) in there, but in an easily digestible way for those foreigners with weak stomachs. And the guitar lines are worthy of something other than just ska-y up and downy things.
I would have probably dug this out a while back, only a couple of summers ago I went on holiday in france w/ my family and for some reason, I was the only one who brought CDs. And of all my CDs, this was the only one my family could stand. So when it was it was my dads/mums/sisters/brothers turn to pick music they always picked this. And while it is good music, after a 7hour drive it got wearing. Just a bit. So I didn't listen to it again for ages, because of the bad memories.
/end boring background story I always feel the need to add to every post.
Oh, and this is a random CD I downloaded offa a random site, and as such I don't think it even exists officially - it's more like a best of or something. So therefore, not real CD art, and a tracklist that you won't find anywhere else. And that's a promise.

1. Espana Va Bien
2. La Mosca Cojonera
3. Vergenza
4. El Rey (call Inspector Gadget.... someone stole your theme tune, man)
5. Planeta Eskoria (more instrospective?)
6. Tio Sam (This is about uncle sam. Probably about what a lovely fella he is)
7. Estampida (faster beats)
8. Cicero Iberico (slower)
9. El Hombre Resaka Baila Ska
10. Esquirol
11. Insensibiliodad (one of my faves)
12. Consumo Gusto
13. El Gato Lopez (carnival-y)
14. El Olvidado
15. Intifada
16. Welcome to Hell (whhhhhhah. Love the organ)
And apparently 17. is missing, but it's not even a real album of theirs, not like it matters.
18. Solamente Por Pensar (nother fave)
19. McDollar
20. Nino Soldado
Spanishska

Edna's Goldfish - Before You Knew Better

2009-05-07T21:05:00.003+01:00

This, too, is a ska punk album. However, here it's much less crazy chaotic punk, and more tightly developed, even rocky music. It's not that it's no fun, or that it's any less decent, it's just tighter and probably easier to get into.
Every single song is as catchy as hell, and while they did manage another album before breaking up (sad face), this is the one I heard first and yeah, I get to pick what to up, not you. Possibly the other one is even more developed.
Get this if you like Reel Big Fish/Less Than Jake/any third wave ska band. These guys can be the standard good ska punk band - they did all that a very good ska band should've, and although they probably would have benefited from a little more experimentation, that isn't to say they don't have a crazy tight horn section, dancey song, and funky ass vox. The guy has his rhythm down.

1. I'm Your Density (third fave)
2. Eventually, Anyway (first fave. No question bout it)
3. Just Less
4. Sunrise To Sunset (chiller one)
5. This Is Not Here (speed again)
6. Story
7. A Perfect Day (second fave)
8. 24 (mind you, I like this one an awful lot as well)
9. If You Want It
10. Purple
11. Trace Your Steps
12. Gone Away
Skattack.
Just because I didn't write something next to the song doesn't mean I think it's bad. There are no bad songs on this album, just ones that are better than others.

Arrogant Sons Of Bitches - Three Cheers For Disappointment

2009-05-07T20:49:00.005+01:00

So last Monday night I had a coursework deadline due, and had one heck of a crazy time trying to complete it all.
And to keep me all pepped up and stuff, I turned to ASOB. Those guys, and this album, is one of my personal favorite ska punk of the third wave hits.
It was their last album, and I think it's pure brilliance. I know ska (esp. third wave) is one of those genres that seems to keep being past by the revival stakes, and while ska isn't completely dead it is one of the least obviously thriving genres nowadays.
I mean, I only still listen to it because it's all peppy and nostalgia worthy. And good. Don't forget the good.
So, what sets this ska aside from all the other ska? Well, it's really varied, chaotically punkish, has great fun vocals, and is genuinely funny/good lyrics.
Just, I don't know, it's maybe my second most favourite ska album, and you should most definitely get it whether you like ska or not. Well, maybe if you hate ska, it won't work. But if you hate ska, I've decided, you must have little soul. Or not be a nineties kid, eh?

1. The Last Bell I Will Ever Hear
2. (i Must Be A Proctologist Because..) All I Do Is Deal With Assholes
3. So Lets Go! Nowhere (fave but it's hard to choose because)
4. Kill The President (then we have this one, which is also fantastic and)
5. People Pops & Fudgesicles For The Hit Factory (the start on this pure god.)
6. Rocket Rocket Rocketship (fuckit, they're all fantastic)
7. 1-800-alarm-me
8. I've Got Enemies In High Places
9. Disappointment At The Taco Bell
10. Piss Off
11. Have Fun Rotting By Yourself
12. "yeah I Dont Know What Its Like To Be Around A Bunch Of Hipsters"
13. Last On My List
skaisSOnineties.

You Slut! - Critical Meat

2009-05-03T12:02:00.004+01:00

Math rock. Or, as one review described it, math-pop-metal. I wouldn't have gone as far as to label them metal- just hardrock riffs, I suppose.
But still.
Most progressive math-y bands can be all about the instrument wankery, and that just annoys me. But these guys- even though they don't have singing to distract you from the instrumental gymnastics that they're pulling - never come off like they're showing off. With is an accomplisment, because, lawdy can they play.
It's catchy as well (hence the 'pop' tag), so even if you normally hate instrumental/math stuff, you will enjoy this. It's really energetic as well, which is also probably why you never get bored - 10 songs in 30minutes isn't bad for a math band.
It's just really good fun stuff, and possibly the first instrumental band I really got into. They're meant to be releasing another album soon (although this CD can slightly fall into the bracket of EP, because two of the tracks are live vers. of two tracks already there)

Cut and Shut by You Slut!
On the Count of 13 (My fave)
Roofio shoots, Roofio Scores
On-The-Spot Tina Turner Fine
Pie to the Death-Faced Indie Kid (second fave)
1s, 2ns (The Original Door)
Jarabew
Mybloodyjesusexplorernnfire
(Japan Version only) On-The-Spot Tina Turner Fine (live)
(Japan Version only) 1s, 2ns (The Original Door) (live)

Clickyclickyclack

The Blow - Paper Television

2009-05-03T11:45:00.003+01:00

When I first heard this album, I wasn't so crazy taken by it. It sounded like lo fi pop- sweet enough, but at the end of the day, just pop that wasn't so massproduced, but still with glitchy electro lines, and beats.
But, oddly enough, I didn't stop listening to it. Like, it stuck around. Paper Television wasn't what it appeared to be at first - yes, it's lo fi pop, but it's not a worse substitute for pop, it's much deeper than it first appears.
Just because the electronix and beatz used are pretty lofi, it doesn't mean they aren't worthy- they're used to full extent, and in fact give you more room for listening to the lyrics, and letting those sink in.
The woman's voice is very nice as well, and this is the Blow's poppiest album so far (they have released an EP since, but w/e). If you want a further artist comparision - they're similar to Hello Saferide in that you don't immediatly think you've fallen in love, it's just when you realise you can't tear yourself away from their lyrics and melodies that you know you're hooked.

Pile of Gold
Parentheses (Favourite song. Just pure fantastic)
The Big U
The Long List of Girls
Bonjour Jeune Fille
Babay (Eat a Critter, Feel Its Wrath)
Eat Your Heart Up (Probably the one that got me into them)
Pardon Me
Fists Up
True Affection

I hope I convinced you to try it

Sacred Reich - Surf Nicaragua

2009-05-01T00:42:00.003+01:00

Look, it's me, proving my hardcority.
I kinda needed to, after that last post, I think.
Me and metal have never been best pals, yadadayadada you know the rest... I'm a whiney indie bitch kid, metal is all butch and stuff....
The two types of metal I've never had much issue with (never loved to pieces either, but whatever), would be Stoner Metal, as well as all it's offshoot/related bits like doom, and stoner rock, AND thrash metal.
You're getting some stoner metal later, so I'll shut up about that now.
But Thrash metal because it's just SO fun. Even Sacred Reich, who add in political bits (that probably meant more in the 80s, but hey) along with their SUPER SUPER FAST RIFFS.
Rawwwwwwwgh. Thrash metal is just great for getting drunk and having fun too. They work fantastically live, as Municipal Waste has proven beyond belief, and the songs are generally short and so never outstay their welcome.
I like Sacred Reich cause they're all SURF BABY SURF! And the title track has a really cool riff bit in it. I'll let you find out where. Thrash metal is just punk with a bit heavier riffs. I way prefer it to the other ways you can fuse metal w/ punk (metalcore? Nothnx), and none of the players in todays scene (or any other past scene) have taken themselves too seriously. They have bitching beards as well.

1. Surf Nicaragua

2. One Nation

3. War Pigs

4. Draining You of Life

5. Ignorance [Live]

6. Death Squad [Live]

Hellayeah

Girls Generation - Gee

2009-05-01T00:30:00.005+01:00

I wasn't gonna post this but then I remembered: This blog is about what I listen to, and I shouldn't be ashamed of any of it.
I mean... I listen to good stuff as well..... like Aphex Twin. Yeah, bitch. I totally have taste, and the enjoyment of this ONE SINGLE SONG is totally an anomaly that will NEVER OCCUR AGAIN.
So yes, Girl's Generation are this k-pop band, and composed of a bunch of females who probably all have names and favourite foods (fuck the wiki page for them went on and on), but whatever.
Their voices are cool enough, it's really the guy who composed it who deserves credit.
Gee gee is a fucking crazy catchy song and I can't stop listening to it. True, the lyrics are some random thing about being timid and shy and all those things that seem to make korean business men weak at the knees, but it's okay- they're in Korean. I don't understand them, you probably won't either.
The other 4 songs range from one slow ballad thing that I hate, to faux pop punk that I can bear.
It's mostly for Gee that I upped this, also because I was upping EPs under the influence... of MUSIC!

Gee (insert westorean thing to say... she's my waifu? Is that what they say?)
Way to go
Dear. Mom (slowy one)
Destiny
Let's talk about LOVE

Cringe and Click!

The Virgins - 07

2009-05-01T00:20:00.006+01:00

Yeah, the latest richkid sensation, isn't it?
Still, they're catchy rock, who add what I think is some funk into the mix to keep it all very interesting.
No, I don't doubt that there are at least 20 bands out there who would do this music mix so much better, and who are being ignored cause these guys are prettier/richer and so on, but still.
Life's unfair.
And they pull off the 'Oh we're numb causa the great excess we have' thing SO well.
It's odd because as I was listening to them I was thinking "This would be the greatest gossip girl soundtrack ever'
And it turns out the reason I have them on my PC anyway is because I downloaded the gossip girl soundtrack, and in one episode, they use all the songs on the EP. This EP, in fact.
I have the full album, but they're both the same quality, and the only song I think this is really missing I've already upped separately, so here.
Tracklist:

Rich Girls
Love is Colder Than Death
Fernando Pando
Radio Christiane (Demo)
One Week of Danger (Demo)

Be all numb w/o listening to that linkin park song.

Los Campesinos! - The International Tweexcorex

2009-05-01T00:08:00.004+01:00

So, I decided that I'd up a bunch of EPs today, so the next few posts are gonna be short, sweet, and possibly involve less rambling.
This EP is by the Los Campesinos! who are basically the best twee indie band I know atm. Actually, they've developed beyond twee indie, but still.
They use plenty of instruments, and with every song you're guaranteed a good time - their lyrics are funny, referentially hip, but don't take themselves too seriously.
Very sweet and catchy, with a boy/girl vox attack.
This particular EP I chose because it was the first one that fell into my head (they do have another which I would've upped instead if I'd remembered because it's longer and was my introduction to them but... this one's maybe more interesting anyhow), and it has one song by them you can't find elsewhere, and two covers- one fantastic, one decent.
1) The International Tweexcore Underground (One of my favourite LC! songs. Just showcases everything that is good about them.... great mix of intruments, great vocal attack, and fantastic lyrics... about the Tweexcore Underground, ofc.)
2) C Is The Heavenly Option (BRILLIANT cover of Heavenly's song, which was a classic of the twee indie scene, and just marvellous. Sorry, just listen)
3) Police Story (Black Flag cover.... it works not amazingly, but is interesting)

Become a fankid... LIKE ME!

(Isn't their artwork fantastic? Aren't they just perfection?)

The Doors - The Doors

2009-04-22T16:25:00.003+01:00

Wow.
This is totally the afternoon of dad rock albums.
Actually, I don't think my dad likes the doors. I mean, he might, but he prefers Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd. Also Mike Oldfield.
The person I do know who introduced me to the idea of actually bothering to go listen to them (before I'd been like, gawd, if even my dad doesn't like them, clearly they're over rated like a certain band will be in years to come), was my friend's olderish sister.
She didn't really introduce him to me as much as shriek that THIS SONG IS GREAT WHEN YOU'RE HIGH.
And like, as an impressionable teen, that totally hit home with me.
I really should stop with the background stories about how I first heard the band, shouldn't I? Whatever. The Doors play psychedelic rock, with more bluesy influences. And they have a fucking organ. Also Jim Morrison, who we're all meant to long for. I think.
Its ace and amazing, and it has 'Light my Fire' which is another one of those songs you'll have heard before, but not in a bad way, in a good way.
I chose the debut album, because everyone knows debuts are the best.
You can chill to this album, and it turns out my friend's older sister was right about the drugs thing. Although I think she meant something more than joints, because she ended up going to rehab.
With all that talk, I still refuse the tracklists.
Break On Through

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

2009-04-22T16:03:00.005+01:00

This is/was 'The Soundtrack To The Summer Of Love In San Fran'.
Unfortunately, it's no longer the sixties, and even more unfortunately, I am not located in San Fran.
In fact, San Fran is probably not even it's nickname, I'm just being lazy and annoying everyone.
However it is summer, wherever you are (except maybe not australia?), and I think you can easily make your own summer of love (esp. w/ one of those C-Cards), and therefore I'm validated in posting this.
Actually, I'm valid anyway, it's a ripping good album, what what. I'm nto entirly sure exactly where on the scale of classic it is, but it's one of my favourite psychedelic rock albums (yes, I did have to copy and paste that word), and really nice just to chill to.
The vocals are really smooth and dreamy as well, esp. the woman, who, in this Album Cover is kinda freaking me out cause she looks a bit like Jenny from the L word with more hair. And white rabbit is probably the exact type of song Jenny would sing. I love that song. And 'Don't you want somebody to love'. Probably another strength of this album, aside from including L Word members, is that it does mix up the music styles. Like, whatever psychedelic rock (ctrl+c again) is, it does a damn good job of tossing in some other bits and pieces. Uh, a good reviewer would probably say what other musical styles at this point, but a good reviewer would also not feel the need to tell you about band member's resemblences to physkotic dames, and how they have to copy and paste psychedelic rock (did it again!).
I've decided not to put a track list in, because like: why?
It makes it look neater, that's all, and I'm believing you should be looking for the beauty inside, man. Yeah, like, the words. Oh. Wait. The words have no beauty. Don't worry, track list next time.

NO TRACK LIST.......... CRAZY, I KNOW

NOFX - Punk In Drublic

2009-04-18T11:03:00.006+01:00

So they released a new album like, just now, and I was listening to it, and it's pretty cool and all. NOFX are probably a band that is in all lower case, but I can't be arsed to go check it out right now, so bear with me here.
They're punk, melodic punk, and they're funny friendly guys who haven't made me cry yet.
Every single one of their CDs is a 7 at least, and for people that have been around since the 80s, that isn't bad.
This CD, right here, is their very best. I think.
It's where all their stuff comes together and they make a truly class record.
Honestly, I don't think they'll ever top it, but then again, so long as they keep on throwing out albums that are 8 out of 10s and everything, I don't mind so much. If punk develops enough it ends up not being punk, most of the time, and I like Nofx where they are.
get it from here (is mediafire link, but credit to them, I was being lazy today)
And yes, I suppose there might have been an motive to this post in that people shouldn't be outraged over that song about Sara/Tegan they have on their new album. Srsly. I wish people would quit being offended. Sara/Tegan aren't. And if they aren't, you shouldn't be either.
Yeah, it just angrys up my blood.

Defunkt - Defunkt

2009-04-17T16:33:00.007+01:00

This is some red hot jazzy funk punk band, one that I've wanted to hear ever since I read about them being one of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's main influences, the band they always used to listen to in the laid back '80s.
Now I've finally gotten my hands on a couple of their CDs, I'm not disappointed.
This is fantastic funk, ace just to lie back and listen to in the garden, assuming you have sun around about.
The punk influence makes it even more listenable for me: I like my music with some faster tempo, and I think that's where the punk influence comes in.
There's a solid beat bass, sweet brass, and the guitars touch it up around the edges.
This is probably the very definition of groovy. His vocals don't slack at all either - they are as smooth and rolling as you'd want, and even do a bit of early rapping type patter. The actual lyrics even tackle serious things like drug dependence, but it's more of a hopeful light in the storm outlook - they aren't so much of a downer. As for the 'Jazz Fusion' label, admittedly they do fuse Jazz in there, but it never has any annoying jazz fusion qualities, like where the jazz guitar is played to death.
Just grab it and be happy.

1. Make Them Dance

2. Strangling Me With Your Love

3. In The Good Times

4. Blues

5. Defunkt

6. Thermonuclear Sweat

7. Melvin's Tune

8. We All Dance Together

Smooth Groove

Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom

2009-04-17T16:18:00.003+01:00

So, just recently, I went back to metal. And by 'went back to', I mean that I decided to bother listening to some decent stuff of it- even when I was listening to metal as a kid, it was still only the hideously obvious or poppy stuff, like Iron Maiden or Bullet For My Valentine.
Which means I have a nice new band to recommend to y'all. Admittedly, if you like metal you possibly already know of them? I don't know what's hot in those metalkidz scenez nowadays, so forgive me for that.
Diablo Swing Orchestra play metal fused with swing. The vocals tend towards the more operatic style which sounds nice enough, if slightly evanescence-y at points (but not that much or I wouldn't like them). The actual metal in the piece is pretty good as well, and wasn't so crazy heavy that I got scred and had to hide. And although the swing/metal thing could've started to seem a bit gimmicky, they have enough variety in their songs to prevent this. If I had any problem with this it would be that I'm not crazy into the growly vocals, though they aren't so bad as growlas go, and that probably if the metal didn't have the swing overtones, it wouldn't hold up so well on it's own. I can't say this for sure, I'm no metalhead, but I think that is how it is. Still, Enter Shikari, an electro/hardcore band, wouldn't have great songs if it weren't for the electro backing their average hardcore riffs, and they're faring well enough.
Yeah it's good, metal for the non metal lovers, you gits me?

1. Balrog Boogie (Finger snappin', toe tappin')

2. Heroines

3. Poetic Pitbull Revelations

4. Rag Doll Physics

5. D'Angelo

6. Velvet Embracer (Second fave)

7. Gunpowder Chant

8. Infralove

9. Wedding March For A Bullet

10. Qualms Of Conscience

11. Zodiac Virtues

12. Porcelain Judas

13. Pink Noise Waltz

Swetal? Mwing? This is why I never get to name genres.

The Sleepover Disaster - Hover

2009-04-17T16:06:00.005+01:00

So I was listening to this band all yesterday- like in my hungover state they felt quite nice and coolingish. This is dreamy poppy shoegaze without any particular issues in it. In honesty, I probably wouldn't have bothered getting it if it wasn't called 'The Sleepover Disaster', and if I hadn't misread the title as 'Hungover' instead of hover.
It's really chill and you won't hate it, which might be the problem here: it doesn't do anything particularly exciting or crazy. Rise, fall, fuzz, smooth, some distory guitars that aren't so angular.
It was good for me with a fuzzed up head though, although probably it's the apt name that's making me this post this rather than anything else. I don't know, watch out for their next album and they might do something crazy good. This is just nice, average if you don't like shoegaze, and slightly above average if you do. The vocals are smooth enough, but again, nothing crazy amazing.

01. Friend
02. Code Breaker
03. Funnel Cloud
04. Dark Star
05. Tremble
06. On A Sunday (Fave, although they tend to merge a bit)
07. Make You Sing
08. Edward Said
09. Songwriting For Dummies
Here You Are

Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit

2009-04-14T19:51:00.006+01:00

Okay, quick warning - this review is going to suck, I didn't get round to upping the bands I really wanted to talk about, and decided to stick my hand into the pick 'n mix bucket that is my mediafire account, and see what albums I came up with. See, I have a habit of upping more albums than I care to talk about in one post sesh, so I end up not doing one because it's actually not as good as the rest.
I am not a crazy huge Belle & Sebastian fan. For ages I kept getting them confused with Simon And Garfunkel for some reason, and kept telling people how much I loved their Mrs Robinson song. And how they stared. But yes. This album isn't their best album either - while it does have some catchy tunes, for sure, it doesn't beat that Sinister album, the proper name of which I've forgotten. I don't know, I figured that if you hadn't bothered to listen to B&S before, you might decide to check them out now. And you might be a google blog searcher, getting their entire discography. In which case you won't care what I write, so I can type pretty much anything right now, you'll still download.
That's a liberating thought. Here- I got a what.cd account yesterday! Someone thought my music taste was hot shit, and invited me! Yeah, me! And I got super flattered, and went around telling my family, but no one cared.... my dad, who should've cared cause he's a bigger pirate than me, didn't know what what.cd was, and my brother was like: So. Cause he's a fool.
And I found out this girl who I'm really into is coming to mine tomorrow.
So life is pretty much ace atm.
Im waiting for something really bad to happen, like I turn straight, or find out she's straight.
Oh, you still want the CD I've mentioned only once?
Here
Like I said, not bad, pretty catchy, worth a look.

Dearestazazel - Be Mine

2009-04-11T21:19:00.005+01:00

This is one time where the album cover gives completely the wrong impression. I'm not sure exactly what they should've used, but I'm thinking half naked females, lightening, and guys wearing black would've worked.
See, Dearestazazel are like satanic metal if satanic metal totally knew how foolish it was, and was happy to play a type of metal that was, in fact, not really metal at all, but rock with synthy edges. Really synthy edges. Like, pretty electro. If it weren't for the pseudo metal overtones... be a fucking banging dance track. But the pseudo metal is ace - don't get me wrong.
It's a camp thing as well, like in track 8, which has a gorgeous keyboard tune, reminiscent of the best broadway tunes.
It's really really really catchy as well, taking minus 3 seconds to get into.
Just... not serious at all, but that really works for me.
I love it, and have loved it for at least a yr now, so it's doing something right. Let it do that something right for you as well.

1. Sex Is A Sin (from the moment the riff kicks in... JOY)
2. Darkness.Eternal.You.Are.There.
3. Bubbles And Nights
4. Get Onboard The Drug Train
5. She Sells Sex By The Seashore (love this one)
6. Lovely Lovely (Catchy- so catchy)
7. Dead, All Dead
8. All My Friends Are In Love With Satan (Listen to this, if nothing else. You WILL be hooked)
9. The One
10. I Never See Them In The Dark

LOVE ME LOVE ME LITTLE RED LAMB

Make Believe - Of Course

2009-04-11T20:53:00.005+01:00

Who's ready for some reminising?
This is the first Kinsella album I got, and I didn't even know about that until last yr.
See, we used to have a real indie record shop round these parts. I even did my work experience there.
But then, as happens to far too many decent indie record shops, it had to close, and go for the online market exclusivly.
This meant they had a sale, a huge one, for their last week as a solid, real, presence.
So, I went to the sale, I got something.
But then, they for some reason didn't have their new premises ready, so they stuck around for another week... and another, and another...
And of course, each week, I went down there, bought another 'last' CD from them. This particular CD I bought in a halvies with a friend, which is why I don't have it any more (we don't talk much anymore, and she's somehow managed to end up with this, while I have... metalcore? Ugh). Anyhow, we bought it because we liked fish, and it wasn't too bad a price.
But when it played?
Magic flowed from the fucking speakers.
The guitar moves with rythm, but is discordant, yet... not? You have to remember, this was pretty much the first time I'd heard anything like this before... but I made sure it wasn't the last time. Overall I guess they're in the vein of American Football/Owls/Joan of Arc, but like with random mathier bits? Not sure.
Just real good, and something you should know.

1. Song About Camping

2. Another Song About Camping

3. Political Mysticism

4. Florida/Oklahoma 12/05

5. Pat Tillman Emmitt Till

6. Coup D'Thought

7. Biscet Duality

8. Plants Dance

9. Sometimes I See Sideways

10. Anything/Selling That Thing

of course.

The Joy Formidable - A Balloon Called Moaning

2009-04-11T20:42:00.004+01:00

The Joy Formidable are these ultra sweet dudes from wales, I think. They play what to me, sounds like poppy shoegaze. Like, it's all hazy, but also tuneful. A catchy kind of blur. The reason I'm upping this quite recent not-quite LP-not-quite-ep is because it seemed to really stand out from all the albums I'd grabbed recently. And that is an accomplishment not to be sniffed at.
The vocals are really good, even though they slightly reminded me of Tegan&Sara for some reason. It was good.
And while it is shoegaze, it's accessible, but good shoegaze.
I'm trying to think of some negative thing to say about them, but I'm coming up with zeroh- having only 8 tracks means less chance for filler, I guess.
Oh, and the male's vocals are alright as well.
Really, download it.

1. The greatest light is the greatest shade
2. Cradle
3. Austere
4. While the Flies
5. Whirring
6. 9669
7. The Last Drop
8. Ostrich
Yo! Get into it

The Go Team - Archer Come Sparrow

2009-04-09T19:34:00.005+01:00

So this is an OMGRARE album from the dude/dudette that were in Beat Happening. I remember when I first heard about the Go Team, I desperately searched for anything they had because ZOMG, it was like beat happening and they were god to me (the fact that the girl had also drumd for Bikini Kill was also pretty ace). But when I found a ton of their Single Vinyls (They released tons in '89) they for some reason, despite being MP3s, wouldn't work w/ my media player. So I kinda ignored them until I found a way to fix them. Oh, and they are very good, although now I'm not crazy into twee indie, they aren't quite the wet dream of previous.
Still, very hot and chill and ace twee indie that's like some kind of supergroup, if you could get that in twee indie.
And yeah, it is a cassette, which no doubt makes it somehow very hip. I don't know.
I would like to pretend I miss tapes and mixtapes at this point, but in reality my one experience with tapes is DJ Otiz's Hey Baby single. So no nostalgia there then.

Tracklast (which may or may not be screwed up by people who totally aren't me)
1. Acid Autumn (I love the guitar tune, slow)
2. Broken Window (bit stompier)
3. Crash Cavern (Mixin' it up)
4. Help Me If You Can
5. Intercept Irradiate
6. Keep-a-Way (I do so love Calvin's voice)
7. My Head Hurts
8. Open Fire 3 Guitars
9. Pledge Of Allegianc
10. Rainy Day
11. Red Headed Ants
12. The Golf Pro
13. Treasure Hunt
The other tracklisting is here,
and the album is here

Tullycraft - Disenchanted Hearts Unite

2009-04-09T19:26:00.004+01:00

Clever wordplay, huggable guitar lines, wonderful female v male vox.
What's not to like?
This is a crazy easy way to slip into the indie pop club, and this my fave tullycraft album. I think....
Yes, it is, I've decided.
The songs range from fast and up beat, and slower and slightly less up beat.
It's all really good, and I think you should like twee indie.
So here goes nothing.

Trickfast
1. Stowaway
2. Our Days In Kansas (Favo)
3. Every Little Thing (Beats)
4. Leaders of The New School
5. The Last Song
6. Molly's Got A Crush On Us (gggang vocals)
7. Polaroids From Mars
8. Rumble With The Gang Debs
9. Fall 4 U
10. Girl About Town
11. Building The Robot
12. Secretly Minnesotan

So I guess you might wanna tap this?

OST - Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4

2009-04-03T19:31:00.003+01:00

So I'm nearly done geeking out now... nearly.
But this is a super important post to me: every single track on this I ended up listening to obsessivly, because, ehh... I was playing it obsessivly. And, no lie, I was the shit at this game. You know, like, no one could beat me. Although, just like the Tekken thing, that's probably because they played different stuff... like COD. I know, right.
Anyhow, moving on from my crazy smug, this music is a mix of Hip to the Hop, Punk to not really more Pop, and Rawk.
Yeah, RAWK.
It's all good, and it's all been imbedded in my brain like the parasite toxoplasma gondii is probably imbedded in yours (Got a cat? Then for sure it's got you!).
Oh, and looking around the net, there are a few tony hawks OSTs out there with only half the tracks that were in the game.
Those were probably the officially released version or something... but here at Assortedjazzbeans, we go out of our way to make stuff completely illegal! Just for you!
(That's my way of saying that it has all 35trax from the game, and that's why it's split into two files. Also why I cannot be bothered to type up a tracklist)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Next time we meet, it'll be all Built To Spill, Pavement, and naked Brent Corrigan.
I just love me.

OST - Vib Ribbon Original Game Rip

2009-04-03T18:51:00.007+01:00

So it's like, I was a total geek as a kid (still am, obv.), and Vib Ribbon was the first game I ever played on the first demo disc I ever got.
It's this game where the obstacles, speed, and therefore difficulty is determined by the music playing in the background. Like, any track, it's beats and bumps translate to the path you go.
The best thing about it was that you could put in your own CD and music, and it would create a level to that as well.
Bloody marvellous.
However, you did get to start out with a set of banging tunes already- they're all fairly bleepy and reminiscent of Chiptunes, with JPop overtones, but freaking good all the same.
Some are even chopped and screwed, or sound it, at least. It's kinda magic, and I'm fairly sure it isn't just my nostalgic rose tinted glasses saying so.

1. Title Screen (this one is kinda loopy. So you won't need to press repeat for it)
2. Menu (again looping. Menu music though, y hear me)
3. Start (7 second START)
4. Polaroid (Stomp, splash. Sublime)
5. Sunny Day (my fave. Starts off cheesy, gets way better)
6. Laugh & Peace (rap, man)
7. Universal Dance (Like Helen Love. A Bit)
8. Overflowing Emotions (Bouncy)
9. Roll Along (happy pop punk on Ps1)
10. Vib Ribbon Blues (this played whenever you died...)
11. High Scores (WIN)
PS1, much?

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak

2009-04-01T14:42:00.005+01:00

So, you might have noticed I haven't posted much these past weeks. That was mostly because I hadn't summoned up the gumption to do so. And the reason for my lack of gumption would be that the bands I was hearing were, yeah, decent, but nothing that made me go OMG, this rules!!!!!!!
As you can see, I am now posting.
You can credit Ted Leo and his boys for renewing half my gumption (Janelle Monrae gave me the other half).
All these songs are super catchy, and rock tastic. I love, love, love ALL OF IT.
Apparently this isn't their best album.... man, I didn't notice that. I mean, having only heard them about a day ago, it's all new and amazing to my kid eyes.
Off the back of this album, I have now ordered actual real CDs. Of them. I mean, I also downloaded all the songs of them I could get my fingers on, but you know.
Not much makes me pay for it in my current economic state.
Ted, you made me quit my student tight fistedness. Rock on.
(and in case you want more of a music a description, they just are pure rock and roll. Also pop. It's not so much what they put in, but the pure crazy great stuff they get out)

1. Building Skyscrapers in the Basement
2. Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
3. I'm a Ghost
4. The High Party
5. Hearts of Oak
6. The Ballad of the Sin Eater
7. Dead Voices p
8. The Anointed One
9. Bridges, Squares
10. Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead
11. 2nd Ave, 11AM
12. First to Finish, Last to Start
13. The Crane Takes Flight
Super enthusiastic dude, as well. What's not to like?

Laakso - Mother, Am I Good Looking?

2009-04-01T14:33:00.005+01:00

I don't know, they seem alright looking to me.
Onto the music though, which is the important thing, obv.
Laakso play indie pop, with some bite, and have one of the sparsest Wikipedia pages I've seen in a long time.
Their sounds are pretty and move nicely into the ears, and while some of the songs on their album slip a bit, they are well worth a decent listen - the songs of them you do like, you will keep and be very happy with.
Uhm, the vocals sound nicely swedish and unbland, along with the melodies they create. (WTF did I just write?)
I'm struggling to say anything else- they're just a good band, and you should try them.
(although if it's a toss up between them and Janelle Monae, go for the latter. They aren't that good)

01. Worst case scenario (good opener)
02. Drop out (Third fave)
03. Hang me in the Chrstmas tree
04. Italy vs Helsinki (w/Peter Jöback)
05. I can't stop (second fave)
06. The death of ss
07. Dancing queen (Favourite)
08. Västerbron
09. Stay tuned to my love
10. Norrköping
11. No one is completely faithful
This is your brain on fairly decent indie pop

Janelle Monáe - Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase

2009-04-01T14:21:00.003+01:00

This is just pure fantastic. Seriously.
I suggest you download it NOW, then read this.
Got it going? Good.
Janelle Monae is just something new and quite amazing.
Well, okay, she's been around since 2003. But i mean, if you haven't heard her before, then this music will be gorgeous.
It's like RnB, only with electro-y edges, always a smart beat 'n bass (alternative pop, soul and hip hop also). Her vocals are sweet as well.
The album itself (more of an EP, but w/e), is like a concept, with all of the songs aside from the last two (they were added w/ the re-release) fitting in with the idea. It's about this Android who falls in love with a human male, and must be dissembled for it. I mean, you get to hear about it on the opening track. But the whole thing fits together perfectly, and so long as you treat the last two trax as some extra tunes, then it's just wonderful.
Magic, man.

March of the Wolfmasters (Speaking, funny, huggable)
Violet Stars Happy Hunting! (My fave track. Beautiful all the way through)
Many Moons
Cybertronic Purgatory
Sincerely, Jane (Mmmmmmmmm)
Mr. President
Smile (Not relevent, but it did make me smile)

And again, you didn't get it earlier, did you? Hmmmpfff.

Dungeon Elite - Make Love Not Warcraft

2009-04-01T14:13:00.005+01:00

This is some bleepy punk, in the vein of Karate High School, only more hardcore, much less rock.
Lots of 'lectronix.
Lotsa fun, although don't expect any huge crazy kicker.
Me, I love it cause it has lots of video game samples, like tekken, which I was the best at out of all my friends (who, like, only played Ashley + Mary Kate's new cashcow, so it's not really anything amazing).
Anything else?
Well, it does have not-great quality.
But you can probably find at least one song to put on your latest dance mix, no?
And final band comparison: Enter Shikari? Only the electronics aren't as sparse, and more geeky. They grawwwwl a bit more as well, although they aren't so hard that they scare me off- should be cool w/ you as well.
They're also Italian (can you say multicultural?)

1. Insert Coin (Opener)
02. I've To Do Lvl 23 Before Server Crush Down
03. Stay Together For The Pics
04. GG (probably the most developed and electronic nearly all)
05. This Is A Cover Of The Darkest Night (My fave beatz)
06. Continue... 10 9 8 7 (the actual tekken sample is really on the next song... odd)
07. Put Your Hands Up For Yourself (JIN KAZAMA)
08. I Dunno If This Song Will Be Called PvP Or TvB (happy beatz)
09. Terren Mill Is Under Attack
10) Elite N.10
11) Game Over
12) Mission Complete (Outro)

Beeply bleep

Ash - Intergalactic Sonic 7's

2009-03-28T12:50:00.005Z

Ash are fantastic pop punky indie rock with just a hint of grunge at the edges, to keep it from descending into whole hearted poppification.
This is their Best of CD, although it was released before their last CDs... in fact, it's quite old now. They originally came onto the scene when the whole Britpop wankery was going on, so accidently got tagged as that, but they aren't so much.
You want to get this if you appreciate power pop/ pop punk/indie rock. Or just get it.
They're ever so catchy, and the second single I ever bought was by them. And the second girl I ever fancied could well have been their guitarist. Not sure on that though.
Still, the vocals are good, the riffs aren't too fuzzy warm. Oooh, and because they're that good, along with their Best Of, they also released a load of B Sides that their fans had voted for. Like, it's a cool extra CD, and if you are already an Ash fan and don't fancy their Best Of, still get the B Sides CD. It's a bit more experimental, but nothing crazy.

1. Burn Baby Burn (from the moment this kicks in... instant happy)
2. Envy
3. Girl From Mars (Equally happy making, and fuzz grinding)
4. Shining Light
5. A Life Less Ordinary
6. Goldfinger
7. Jesus Says
8. Oh Yeah
9. Jack Names the Planets (possibly my first that riff is god moment)
10 Sometimes
11. Kung Fu
12. Candy
13. Angel Interceptor (ahhhh)
14. Uncle Pat
15. Wildsurf
16. Walking Barefoot
17. Petrol
18. There's a Star
19. Numbskull
I don't know if you knew that?

Ash - Cosmic Debris
1. No Place to Hide
2. Warmer Than Fire
3. Where Is Our Love Going?
4. Taken Out
5. 13th Floor (My very first rawk song)
6. Stormy Waters
7. Message from Oscar Wilde and Patrick the Brewer
8. Who You Drivin' Now?
9. Stay in Love Forever
10. The Sweetness of Death by the Obsidian Knife (This is ever so ace)
11. Melon Farmer
12. Nocturne
13. Gabriel
14. Coasting
15. Lose Control
16. I Need Somebody
17. Sneaker
18. Cantina Band
19. Astral Conversations with Toulouse Lautrec
20. Day of the Triffids
21. Halloween (Final god moment)
22. Thinking About You
that very day

Kind Of Like Spitting

2009-03-26T09:06:00.006Z

A while back I posted about these guys, but couldn't find the entire discography link I used to download most of their stuff.
I just did now, here.
For those unknowing, Kind Of Like Spitting are very good indie rock, with sadness deep inside.
The original post I did wasn't much more enlightening than that, but you can find it here, along with an album that isn't included in the other package.
Yes, I'm lazy.

The Pierces - Thirteen Tales Of Love And Revenge

2009-03-25T13:47:00.004Z

This is a very mixed album in terms of genres - while most songs have a strong base in darkish poppy folk, there are some songs that deviate from that formula, like the sort of James Bond esque Boring, which has beat and melodies that fly upwards, the vocals completely dispassionate.
Not that the vocals are like that the entire time - and even if they were, it's dissapassionate in a good way, not as in "Oh the vocalists really are just doing this for a quick buck"
None of the songs on this album dip below above average, and you probably won't ever get bored through it. The only issue I can see is that from tracks 7-11, is a wee bit too slow for me at times. Had they spread those tracks out more, I wouldn't have noticed that, but that really is the only issue I have.

Secret
Boring (Fave)
Sticks And Stones
Lights On (second fave)
Lies (Third fave)
Turn On Billie
Ruin
Three Wishes
The Power of
Kill! Kill! Kill! (fourth fave?)
It Was You
Boy In A Rock and Roll Band
Go To Heaven

Got a secret- can you keep it?

Le Tigre - This Island

2009-03-25T13:01:00.004Z

I originally found this totally randomly on some website, with no description aside from it being punky electro. This means that when I first heard it, I wasn't comparing it to all Le Tigre's other albums, or more specifically, their self titled debut, which is just a pure classic of the Dance Politico type.
See, while their other albums were all DIY and hyper political, with base drum machines, this one is a lot poppier/slick and more polished. Is it a bad thing? Well, I didn't think so at the time, and I still enjoy it an awful lot, even after hearign their self titled.
It's just a really solid poppy danceable album, and if you vomited on my Britney post of previous, then these guys are probably for you. The drum machines are more complex, the tunes are tight and the lyrics are yeah, still pretty politico.

1. On The Verge (was in acouple movies/TV shows, sharp starter)

2. Seconds

3. Don't Drink Poison (Second fave)

4. After Dark

5. Nanny Nanny Boo Boo

6. TKO (rawkea)

7. Tell You Know

8. New Kicks

9. Viz

10. This Island

11. I'm So Excited

12. Sixteen

13. Punker Plus (Fave. Has a place on most any dance playlist I do)

Backstage, everyone wants a piece

Oh, and lol at the amazon reviewer who insulted JD Samsun's 'tasche. Srsly dude, you just cannot do that without the entire wrath of the community being brought down on you. Uh uh.

The Datsuns - Outta Sight, Outta Mind

2009-03-23T16:23:00.003Z

Once upon a time, there was a girl, of around thirteen. She was in town bezzing around w/ her mates and decided to like music other than Busted. Hence she went into their local indie record shop and purchased two singles.
One was Blacken My Thumb By The Datsuns.
Seriously, it was a totally random choice, and a lucky one. This type of, yeah, hard-ish rock with catchy riffs was my perfect graduation from Busted/Lost Prophets. You know, easy to get into, but still with a worthy pounding beat.
I didn't actually hear the entire album until much later, but I wasn't much dissapointed.
Yeah, they're nothing crazy ground breaking, they probably take a little too much from Led Zepplin, but that's it.
They are crazy fun, and a part of my musical awakening.

1. Blacken My Thumb(<>

2. That Sure Ain't Right

3. Grirls Best Friend

4. Messin' Around (AC/DC-ish here. No complaints, tho)

5. Cherry Lane

6. Get Up! (Don't Fight It)(pump up)

7. Hong Kong Fury (Slightly stonerish drawl.)

8. What I've Lost(Slower, but in no way too slow)

9. You Can't Find Me

10. Don't Come Knocking

11. Lucille

12. I Got No Words

This is the last time I'll see your smile.. and it seems like heaven, so divine.

Buddy Holly - From The Original Master Tapes

2009-03-23T16:13:00.005Z

Sometimes new stuff isn't always the best stuff. Sometimes you've got to look at the older stuff, no matter how bad the cover art is.
Buddy Holly, to me, was one of those people I'd always eventually get round to listening to. Properly, I mean.
So the other day, I found this CD, and looked at it.
Despite the whole 'From The Master Tapes' thing, it's not shitty quality, or anything.
Not fantastic, but it was pre-90s.
The actual music though, is well worth it. Admittedly, I like it because they're well catchy pop tunes. Not slow, and not overly country. Just ground breakin' R n B mixes, with some soulful vocals.
You don't have an issue with that, right?

1. That'll Be the Day

2. Oh, Boy! (rally like this one)

3. Not Fade Away(And this)

4. Tell Me How

5. Maybe Baby

6. Everyday

7. Rock Around With Ollie Vee

8. It's So Easy

9. I'm Lookin' for Someone to Love

10. Peggy Sue (obviously this one)

11. I'm Gonna Love You Too

12. Words of Love

13. Rave On

14. Well...All Right

15. Listen to Me

16. Think It Over

17. Heartbeat

18. Reminiscing (mmm, mmm)

19. It Doesn't Matter Anymore

20. True Love Ways(sweetish, not too sickly)

You lovin' me, gotta be real

Dan Black - Samplet

2009-03-22T23:01:00.008Z

I'm posting this because it happened to be one of those rare-ish occasionsions when my mood matched the music playing on my mp3 exactly. Normally I just have a load of music on there that matches my mood from yesterday evening when I was filling it up or something.
But no.
Dan Black hit it all right on the spot. This kind of crazily catchy, slightly winsome edged electro pop would've been fantastic, even if it hadn't been there at the right time.
Mmm.
At least it got me off of the counting crows trax I was playing obsessively.
Only a sampler, but I'm definitely gonna be keeping a lookout for any more of his stuff, he is an ace music maker.
Meanwhile, I'm still a bundle of mope.
Stupid hormones.

TrakList
1. Alone (his single, some good shit)
2. U+Me= (Sharp line all the way thru)
3. Wonder (all floaty SUMMERY stuff. Fave)
4. Exstasy (Still floaty, but more of a dancer)
5. Hypntz (Cover of that rapper dude?)

Just make it work.

Britney Spears - Blackout

2009-03-21T21:50:00.005Z

Look, I have friends. And one of them in particular is completely obsessed with Britney. At one point, she was the only girl he would've slept with. Lucky Britters, I guess. Anyhow, this is my roundabout way of explaining this upload. He got me to listen to this album so many times, it's just pretty much slipped into my Mp3playa as part of my look-at-my-crazy-mix-of-pop-and-metal thing. (not really. I hate metal)
This album is genuinely good though, a really nice smashed up electro-y modern pop thing. So much better than the Kylie album that came out around the same time (no, I have no excuses for listening to that one). Her latest one was a return to the standard pop of all her other albums. I was all a bit meh about it, tbh.
Apparently she's best when in the middle of her breakdown.
Although, yeah, I do know that she probably contributes nothing to blackout, even her voice is all synthed to fuck most of the time, I don't care. It's good and pumpy and dancey and if I ever did exercise, it would be of use. As a plus, it doesn't have any suckish overly long ballad-y songs. They're what I hate about most pop albums.

Gimme More
Piece of Me
Radar
Break the Ice
Heaven On Earth
Get Naked (I Got A Plan)
Freakshow
Toy Soldier
Hot as Ice
Ooh Ooh Baby
Perfect Lover

BritneyBitch

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables

2009-03-12T16:44:00.005Z

So I got my results, and was like: Oh, I wanna talk about a happy funky family fun band.
You know, to fit in with my upbeat mood.
And obviously, Dead Kennedy's spring right out at me.
They play surfy guitar lines over crazy driving punkishness, and the vocalist is sharp 'n snarky.
Clever as well, which is kinda useful when making fun of people.
This album, in my highly regarded opinion, is their best, and I'm not just sayin' that cause it's their debut album and everyone knows that debut albums rock harder than the rest. I'm also saying that because it has two of my fave DeeKay songs.
And some of their later releases concentrate mre on being clever about people, rather than the actual music. I think so anyhow, and we all know I'm amazing.
Right?

1. Kill the Poor (Ace singalong. Oh, and it has meaning)

2. Forward to Death

3. When Ya Get Drafted

4. Let's Lynch the Landlord

5. Drug Me

6. Your Emotions

7. Chemical Warfare

8. California Über Alles (I love this song. Love it)

9. I Kill Children (This is my song when I drive along... Killing children!)

10. Stealing People's Mail (Been there, done that)

11. Funland at the Beach

12. Ill in the Head (someone once said I was ill in the head. They didn't say that for long. Because I ate their head. Now who has the head malfunction?)

13. Holiday in Cambodia

14. Viva Las Vegas (Feel good, man)

Ace of spades.

Spinnerette - Sex Bomb

2009-03-10T22:39:00.005Z

Okay, so this is... not entirely unexpected, I suppose, but still.
Their EP, Ghetto Love (which was fabulous and all things wonderful) did hint at this type of dance rock... but only slightly.
Maybe the big thing for me is that her voice is all... not Brody.
I liked the whole throaty thing she had going.
Not that this new thing is bad, but I'm an OCD whiner who dislikes people changing.
Whatever.
If you'd just given the single to me randomly, I'd be like: that's a nice dance trak, with a sweet female vocal, maybe. And would probably have put it on any dancey mix I may've been making at the time.
But it's just kinda out of the blue... well, not exactly, cause as I said, the EP was dancier and cleaner and all queenofthaboneaged. But I'm just a blind fool.
On the other hand, it's remixt here by Adam Freeland, who did some sims2 music- so what am I complaining about, huh? Click on the album image to getit.

Comadre - Burn Your Bones

2009-03-10T22:29:00.005Z

Comadre are these dudes who play emotional hardcore, like from the nineties, only it's.. not.
It's way better than most emo-y stuff round nowadays, cause they're all about the music, maaan. Also having a few laughs.
You can put it on, and just feel happy.
Okay, maybe a couple of riffs are appropiately saddening. It is emo, after all.
The vocals are screamy raw, but still good, I guess.
Still, a proper kicker, and maybe my first or second proper emo hardcore band that I actually really liked.
I'm a lightweight at this kinda stuff you know.
Also at all the other stuff.
Don't hurt me?

1. Make Me Believe
2. Breakfast of Champions (The bit in the middle of this is actually danceable)
3. El Padro Macho
4. The Southern Comfort Smile
5. Sabado Gigante
6. Backland Dirt (i love the clip at the start of this. They pulled it off, well done)
7. Hey, Holmes, Slow Down... (Slower downed)
8. ...Naw, You Catch Up
9. The Hole in the Ship SOS
10. Give Me Hell
11. Hit Me Up On My Celly-Cell
Fo' Sho'

The Detroit Cobras - Seven Easy Pieces

2009-03-09T20:58:00.005Z

Uuuh. I never realised how bad the cover art was until I actually had to search for it myself.
Sorry.
What if I say the music is ten times better than that screwy art?
Because it's so true.
Detroit Cobras', for the uninitiated, take little known RnB tunes from way back and cover them in an electric garage and soul type fashion. The bluesy tunes and absolutely soulful vocals are just a magic mix.
If you haven't heard these guys, you are missing out.
Gawd.
Seriously, what were they thinking with that cover?
If that's meant to appeal to their target audience, then I feel distinctly uneasy.
The music? Makes up for even that cover.

1. Ya Ya Ya (Looking for My Baby)

2. My Baby Loves the Secret Agent

3. Heartbeat

4. You Don't Knock (Slower no., still good)

5. Silver & Gold (When I Get Like This) (Much slower, still sweet and slow)

6. 99 and a Half Just Won't Do(The bestbestbest)

7. Insane Asylum (bit crazy fun)

I'ma runnin low

The Living End - Under The Covers

2009-03-09T20:38:00.006Z

The Living End are one of those bands that have an equal right to fame as Green Day. Slightly more, in my opinion, because they take punk and add a more rockabilly influence to it, and I'm a sucker for that type of thing.
Suffice to say that they're a very competent punk band, and whatever your level of punk hardcority, you should check them out.
Okay, they do have melody, but they also have the speed and sharp lyrics.
This particular CD is what you get as a neat extra when you buy the Single collection. It has 6 of their covers, and I think they've done a very good job on all of them.
I would've upped a proper album of theirs, but then I couldn't decide which one, and was like: hey, covers were the in thing last summer, maybe I can make it so again.
SOme of the tracks are live, but they're all good sound quality, don't worry.

01 Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2 Cover)
02 Tainted Love (Gloria Jones Cover) (Live)
03 I Get A Kick Out Of You (Ethel Merman Cover)
04 Rip It Up (Little Richard Cover) (Yai, my fave)
05 10:15 Saturday Night (The Cure Cover)
06 Prisoner On The Inside (Lynne Hamilton Cover)

Cover me with delicious tunes?

Broder Daniel - Broder Daniel Forever

2009-03-09T20:18:00.006Z

I got into these guys because of the (very good) movie Fucking Amal (Or Show Me Your Love, if you want the dorky english name). I'm never entirely sure if the movie connection means that these guys are secretly not very good, and I'll never realise it because whenever I hear their songs, I always think of the amazing film... so rose tinted eyeglasses from here on.
Having said that, they've only got good reviews on amazon.co.uk, although those people probably got into them because of the film as well, and as such have the same problem.
Any how- the music... it's basically a sweet, clean-ish melody line, over some rough punky riffs. The vocals are above average- but shouldn't any vocalist be above average anyway? It's like, their job. The lyrics are simplistic, but endearing- they're swedish, be thankful they're bothering to sing in english at all. I think they're a bigger band in sweden, but aside from the lyrics, you wouldn't figure them any different from english/american bands. Which isn't the greatest thing in the world.
But I like them well enough, they go through the spectrum of human emotions, can make me feel sad and happy (Mostly sad, admittedly)... not half bad.

1. I'll Be Gone(Fucking amal song no. 1 Love it, much)

2. Dark Heart

3. Old In Just One Day

4. You Bury Me

5. Happy People Never Fantasize (Not fucking amal, probably one of the best)

6. Whirlwind (Is fucking amal, is fucking ace)

7. The Name Is Brother Daniel (Jumpyish one, I guess)

8. Love Doesn't Last

9. Dream My Days Away

10. No Time For Us (nice ender)

Here

Adickdid - Dismantle

2009-03-09T20:05:00.007Z

Okay, so this is a grungey, garagey rock, riot grrrl-ish band from the nineties. And it has female vocals.
If that's enough to convince you to download it, go now, I have nothing more to say.
If you're still hovering, then this band is fronted by Kaia Wilson who is in both Team Dresch and The butchies.
Also she is, you know, Kaia, the person that has written a couple of acoustic folk-ey albums that weren't half bad.
The other two band members aren't bad either, but I don't know so much about them, sorry.
You should get this if you like Team Dresch (the sound is like an even rougher version of them), or the Butchies (she breaks out into quite soft and sweet vocals at points). It's not mind blowing, but it's definitely good.
Catchy, grungey rawk. With better vocals than the norm. Are we good yet?
Oh, short lasting band, this is their only LP, and they had one single and one track on a Kill Rock Stars comp.

1. She's Dangerous
2. Eye Level
3. Telephone (I like the guitar lines in this one speshly)
4. Song #2
5. Hey Sister
6. Mail Box
7. Ask Nicely
8. Stare Right Past You (Second fave)
9. Bugs in Nevada (Fuzz is less obv. here)
10. All American Girl (Third fave)
11. A Dick Did
12. Joe's Stubble

It really is worth a listen, honest.

Latterman - No Matter Where We Go..!

2009-03-05T16:32:00.004Z

"It's like this: LATTERMAN rules. With shouted vocals, screaming guitars and pounded drums, "No Matter Where We Go..!" is filled with positive, community-minded, socio-political discussion and delivered with an electrifying, reckless abandon. This is throw-your-fists-in-the-air, dance-around, catchy-as-hell punk rock that's sung from the gut and comes from the heart. But punk never sounded THIS good, nor delivered such a timely message. These songs are flat-out impossible to forget, with captivating singalongs and infectious choruses at every turn. Latterman strikes hard and fast with purpose, conviction, relevance and melodies that keep you smiling from ear to ear. Oh, and they're really friendly guys too. Latterman dedicates this release to positivity, friendship, community and anyone who recognizes and struggles against patriarchy, homophobia, racism, white privilege, alienating wage labor and the world's other flaws. Latterman may not save the world, or even rock and roll, but fuckin' a...they saved me. " (from here)
I was gonna write my own review, but that guy said all I was gonna say, and said it better.
It is crazy catchy jumpy, though. And in a less thicker way to the Explosion.

1. My Bedroom Is Like For Artists, Part 2
2. Doom! Doom! Doom! (Funtastic opener)
3. Yo, Get Into It (I first heard them with this song on some summer mixtape. GawJus)
4. This Project Is Stagnant (Get It Out Of My Face)
5. Dear Boys
6. An Ode To Jon Contra, Part 2
7. Fear And Loathing On Long Island
8. Video Games And Fantasy Novels A Fucking Awesome (YES. I've been trying to tell people that for YEARS)
9. Zombies Are Pissed (But that's okay, I have an escape plan)
10. We're Done For! (Another crazy jumpy one)
11. I Wish Branca Was Here
12. My Bedroom Is Like For Artists (Fantastic ender)
Who could ask for more?

X Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents

2009-03-05T16:17:00.005Z

This is a proper punk rock classic from the seventies. Their vocalist, Poly Styrene, has some right pipes on her and along with the saxamahfone and guitars, they make one helluva racket. It's good racket though, don't worry.
In addition to singing loud and proud, Poly knows what she's saying, and pens lyrics sharper than your mother's knife.
The sax is pretty special as well, and if the production had been slightly better (I'm slowly realising just how spoilt I am buy the slick tunes that hang around nowadays), then you honestly wouldn't have figured it to have been thirty something years old.

1. Day the World Turned Day-Glo (Yo, let's go day glo)

2. Obsessed with You

3. Genetic Engineering

4. Identity

5. I Live off You

6. Germ Free Adolescents

7. Art-I-Ficial

8. Let's Submerge

9. Warrior in Woolworths (R.I.P woolies)

10. I Am a Poseur (This makes me happy.)

11. I Can't Do Anything (Listen to this just for the random "freddy's strangling me with my own plastic popper beads" bit)

12. Highly Inflammable

13. Age

14. Plastic Bag

15. I Am a Cliché (Don't worry dear, so am I)

16. Oh Bondage, Up Yours!(The best, a feminist sarkattack)

freddy tried to strangle me with my plastic popper beads