Assorted Jazzbeans

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)

Heathers - Here, Not There

2009-11-16T19:02:00.003Z

This has been called the 'Good Tegan&Sara'
I'm gonna take issue with that for two reasons:
1) Just because T&S are gay, and the Heathers sound like the Indigo Girls (and therefore folkishly lesbian) (only better), does not mean we should compare them. I admit some similarities between v. early T&S and the Heathers but other than that, they're both pretty different NOW.
2) Just cause both bands are made of two girls who happen to be connected by genetix or someshit. C'mon, cack handed reviewers, even I can be less half assed than that. And I post like once a year, tops.

So if they DON'T sounds like T&S, better or not, what kind of tune-age DO they play? Pretty magificant stuff in all - it's acoustic, very well hamonised, but not the normal roughy punk acousticness Plan-It-X specialise in. It is, for better or worse, kinda female, and softer. Still awesome though, with catchy lyrics that can grab everyone in their widespread experience-yness.
The only issue is that track 1+3 are 5/5 amazing, and the rest are 4/5, maybe one or two flatline enough to be 3/5. But goddamn, those two tracks would make any butch ass kid ready to cry.
And the Indigo Girls aren't so bad are they?
Here, Not There

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

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.)

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

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

Before I leave you, take this....

2008-07-28T13:54:00.006+01:00

SUUUMMMMEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR
I am going away on an actual holiday, to somewhere the sun shines more than 10 minutes a day, and where pizza tastes ace, pasta wasn't really invented, and canals streak the landscape. Yes. America!
Nooo... actually Italy. I'm so excited cos last year we went on holiday to england, and it wasn't really warm and I didn't get a tan. At All. Which is, of course, the reason, I never got any sex that year. Obviously.
So, what this is all leading up to? I made a summer mixtape, and it's the last thing I'm posting.
Ever.
Ever.
EVER...
(Until I get back, 2 weeks later or so.)

Sun shines, tracklisting reads:
1. Friends - You'll Never See That Summertime Again
2. Sun Kil Moon - Convenient Parking
3. Magnetic Fields - 100,000 fireflies
4. Built To Spill - Centre Of The Universe
5. Pavement - Elevate Me Later
6. Desert Sessions - Like A Drug
7. Bonfire Madigan - Snowfall Summer
8. That Dog. - She Doesn't Know How
9. Tattle Tale - Take Ten
10. American Football - Letters And Packages
11. Say Hi To Your Mom - Let's Talk About Spaceships
12. Frente! - Accidently Kelly Street
13. Sublime - What I Got (Reprise)
14. Catch 22 - Kristina She Don't Know I Exist
15. The Rumble Strips - Time
16. Weezer - Jamie (Acoustic)
17. Mirah - This Dance
18. Decemberists - Summersong
19. Nouvelle Vague - Teenage Kicks
20. The Postmarks - Summers Never Seem To Last
21. Broken Social Scene - Our Faces Split The Coast In Half

SUMMER ME UP!!!

Nixt? I have no idea. Hopefully I'll come back with a tan and that might influence my music taste. If so, I might even like enrique thingy.

Spoonboy - I Love You, This Is A Robbery

2009-01-12T16:31:00.006Z

"Intelligent acoustic pop songs, with special guests, Madeline, Hannah Jones, Matty pop chart, Chris Clavin, Erin Tobey and more. Spoonboy is also in a really great band called The Max Levine Ensemble that he started when he was in high school in the DC area. The songs of Spoonboy and TMLE share the same catchy melodies and sharp lyrics as well as the ability to make you tap your feet and sing along. This is the kind of album that won't leave your CD player for the first week you have it."
Thank you, littletype
(The CD's for only 4 dollars there, so yay)
You might already know of the max Levine ensemble- I posted an album of theirs one post back.
In short, it's acoustic guitar, pop punky and clever.
If you were into the Juno Soundtrack, you'll be into this.

Truck loost
1. The Restaurant
2. California (Cover of the OC toon)
3. What You Want
4. Second Hand Smoke
5. Actions And Words
6. Fireball or "What I Learned From TV"
7. Paint By Numbers
8. Ghosts Overseas
9. Always Leaving
10. My Generation (Favey)
11. Philadelphia
12. This Is War...

No, This is the robbery.

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.

Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

2009-08-25T21:40:00.003+01:00

'An Explosive mix of funk, rock, metal, and hip hop'
Well... yeah, this is a really summery album, and I'm posting it before-summer-runs-out. I don't even think it's that an amazing album, although I read somewhere this is Incubus' best album, that could've wrongly remembered. It's the only album of them I have anyway, so what would I know?
I do enjoy it plenty, and the summer romance song is kinda cool, as are the first two tracks. Just gets a bit nineties nu metal touched up sometimes.
Really I just need to upload a load more albums, I've been so bad at this computer thing recently.
Oh, and the album's called S.C.I.E.N.C.E and ooh guess what I'm doing at university?
(Answers after the break)

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)

Surf Piranhas - Both Sides Of The Surf

2009-07-22T08:47:00.005+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.

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

Federal Drugs Administration

2009-08-12T02:33:00.002+01:00

These guys are like, the total shit, dude.
Sorry, I'm in this awful twitchy mood, and at least 50% of it can be attributed to this one song by FDA.
Try it, sing it, love it.
It's so so so so so so catchy.
I mean it.

Also, here is their myspazz, where you can hear a good many more songs of their catchy electro pop brilliance.
It's like hadouken! only with a wider range of vocals, and more eurodance influence.
I'm totally making all that up.
DOWNLOAD IT.

Jill Sobule - Happy Town

2008-07-01T08:07:00.009+01:00

Jill Sobule - Happy Town
A cross between Aimee Mann and Cyndi Lauper with sure melodic hooks and adult sensibilities, Sobule is quirky, vulnerable, and likeably human on tracks like "Bitter," "When My Ship Comes In," and on the buoyant, horn-driven title track. Oh, and the title track is about prozac ^^ And her name begins with J.
Yeah, showed you, huh?

Bitter
Happy Town
Barren Egg
Half a Heart
When My Ship Comes In
Clever
I'm So Happy
Little Guy
Underachiever
Love Is Never Equal
Soldiers of Christ
Attic
Sold My Soul
Super 8

Download me

Coming up..... is a band called the stars, or something beginning with the letter... G

Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War

2008-07-01T14:30:00.012+01:00

Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
Montreal's Stars are certainly a theatrical bunch (and not just because co-frontman Torquil Campbell is also an actor). Their passionate delivery of love and breakup songs--often sung dialogue-style between male frontman Campbell and female lead Amy Millan--is a compelling combination of musicianship and dramatic intensity. In Our Bedroom After the War is similar in style to Set Yourself on Fire--albeit a little gentler and more intimate in tone--capturing the many varied elements that Stars do best.
Yup, nicked that of off ole amazon.com. Sorry, but I think they describe stuff better than me, no? Basically, fantastic pop music that's sad but pretty. Nice vocals too.
And in case you aren't described up enough, here's a song from another one of their good albums, to give you a taste of their excellence.

The Beginning after the End
The Night Starts Here
Take Me to the Riot
My Favourite Book
Midnight Coward
The Ghost of Genova Heights
Personal
Barricade
Window Bird
Bitches in Tokyo
Life 2: The Unhappy Ending
Today Will Be Better, I Swear!
In Our Bedroom after the War

Check it out

Coming up... some nasty punk with added pop (but don't tell anyone)

The Organ - Grab That Gun

2008-07-07T14:39:00.007+01:00

The Organ - Grab That Gun
The Organ are an all-female band from Canada. They basically sound like a band that was getting airplay on college radio in the late 80's/early 90's when alternative music was golden. More than anyone they remind me of a female version of Joy Division. Their music is moody, melancholy and aching & dripping of emotion and even has a sense of humor, hence the title - The Organ "Grab That Gun".
The vocals sound an awful lot like Debbie Harry's but not in a bad way... actually, how on earth could it ever be a bad way??
In short: bit like the cure/joy division, with Debbie Harry singing.

Tracklist:

Brother (this is the one that's on the L word)
Steven Smith (fave no.1)
Love, Love, Love
Basement Band Song (Fave no. 2)
Sinking Hearts
A Sudden Death
There is Nothing I Can Do
I am not Surprised
No One Has Ever Looked So Dead
Memorize the City
Hidden Track

Grab That Gun

nexttt: maybe some ska? or a proper long length riot grrrl album?

iwrestledabearonce - iwrestledabearonce

2008-07-07T21:59:00.007+01:00

iwrestledabearonce - iwrestledabearonce
Normally, I'm not one for metal much either... it's all too complicated for a whiny emo kid like me... but recently, like, today, I decided that I should try something new, and so once I finished having sex with guys, watching eastenders and eating banana skins, I tried some grindcore. and to my surprise, in contrast to all those other things, it actually was quite fun. I mean it. fun. I wouldn't ever say that you should listen for any deeper meaning in these songs... unless you're a proper metal fan and can see deeper meaning, but even if you're some indie kid you shouldn't be too scared... I'm not anyhows. Yeah.
In short: Cool grindcore thats got fun electro bits, doesn't take itself seriously, and has both growly and clean female vocals. Whoop.
Trackliiisssstt:
01 Ulrich Firelord: Breaker of Mountains
02 Alaskan Flounder Basket
03 Vlork: Mighty Wielder of Sheep
04 Still Jolly After All These Years
05 Corey Feldman Holocaust
06 Firelord Ulrich (Remix by Dada Yakuza)

also, cos I'm ace I added their new demo, 'Tastes Like Kevin Bacon', which I suggest you at least watch the video for... just because of the cool car horn thingy in the middle.

Cybergrind? In my indie blog?

Soon to be seen: Johnny Fucken Foreigner aceness that they areee

Johnny Foreigner - Waited up til it was light

2008-07-08T21:56:00.012+01:00

Johnny Foreigner - Waited up til it was light
Right, I know you should buy everything you download, but if you buy nothing else you listen to here... PLEASE GET THIS. It's only, like, 8 quid from amazon, and even I, the jobless, penniless student can afford that. You should do this because:
1. The art work is immense.. see the cover on the left? You get like, 7 more images like that only even better on the inside. I know that doesn't mean the music is ace, but it's a reason to own the entire hard copy at least.
2. The songs are immense. Obv. They have cool beats, and are punkish but not in a straightforward way. The vocals also act as a cool instrument, having a fun interchange of male and female voices. If you've heard Los Campesinos, then it's a bit like that, only harder and with more crunch.. much less twee indie, and more punky rock. Also, to throw in another random band name, it's a bit like fall of troy only less of the fretwork, maybe.

Tracklist:

1. Lea Room

2. Our Bipolar Friends

3. Eyes Wide Terrified

4. Cranes And Cranes And Cranes And Cranes

5. End And Everything After

6. Hennings Favourite

7. Salt Pepper And Spindarella

8. Yes You Talk Too fast

9. DJ's Get Doubts

10. Sometimes In The Bullring

11. Yr All Just Jealous

12. Absolute Balance

13. Hidden Song At The End Of The Record

So go try it then buy it

Nexxxt- Michel Petrucciani, cos he does ace Jazz piano

God Is My CoPilot - Straightnot

2008-07-10T10:59:00.010+01:00

The Punk abandon and downtown errantry of Sharon Topper and Craig Flanagin's constantly evolving and mutating God is My Co-Pilot project is as diverse and erratic as music can be. Their art is an extension of their radical queer/feminist/post-colonial politics, not merely by lyrical subject, but extending into an anti-aesthetic that turns hegemonic music production on its head by ignoring boundaries of difference, generating sound from collective libidinal desire rather than an applied manifesto. The band's changing members and interests fuse approaches as disparate as Techno, Thrash, Klezmer and Free Jazz together as if they weren't so dissimilar after all. Form and function are hand in hand like two raised fists.

- Marc Kate

Or: they rock, you mayn't have heard of them, and they made me happy. Plus they're interesting. Gettit.

1. Any #

2. Haul Away

3. Earliest Memory

4. No Cancer

5. We Signify

6. Safety Fast

7. Girl in a Car

8. Don't Say My Name

9. County Down

10. Pump Action

11. Absent Parent

12. She's So Butch

13. Helen's Tits

14. Mid-Air Refueling

15. Little Game

16. Youth

17. Tierhelden

18. Drave

19. Don't Fuck

20. Both Ways

21. Tom Sawyer

22. Lost

23. Mieluummin

24. Misbehave

25. Well

26. Danny Boy

mmm... cream soda.

soon: hardcooooorreee. Propa brutal, yeah?

Josie Cotton - Convertible Music/From the Hip

2008-07-12T15:59:00.006+01:00

It's surprising how well Cotton's first release, "Convertible Music," has stood the test of time. Originally released in 1982 at the height of the ROQ-of-the-80s boom, Cotton and her producers Bobby and Larson Paine fashioned an album that rode only incidentally on the crest of New Wave. Where they really anchored their work is in the classic sounds of '60s girlgroups and bubblegum pop.

The Paines' "Johnny, Are You Queer?" may have generated most of Cotton's publicity (first as an indie single on Bomp, then as an album track here), but the rest of the album is easily as good. The twangy guitars and organ backings hew more to hyper-melodic '60s sources, and the songs (penned by Cotton and her producers) are the sort of hook-filled summer (lost-)love fare that will stick in your head for days. Think of The Go-Go's or Bangles without the all-girl tags, Missing Persons without the angular new wave video affectations, or Blondie's debut with California sunshine replacing the New York grit. This is pure pop for now people, ala Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo, without a skippable track in the original eleven.

Cotton's followup, 1984's "From the Hip," couldn't possibly sustain the level achieved on her debut, particularly with her producers "updating" her sound to include hackneyed new wave synthesizers and syndrums. Cotton remains an appealing vocalist, and the songs hold promise, but the production defeats both with choices that were disappointing in 1984, and poorly aged twenty years later. Perhaps the Paines felt it would be a sell-out to repeat the sound of "Convertible Music," but its classic elements fit Cotton's voice and songs like a glove, and gave the album lasting distinction among its contemporaneous releases. The synth-of-the-moment arrangements on "From the Hip" make Cotton's second album mostly foregettable. The few highlights include the soulful stroll "Life After Love," the Freddy Cannon styled "Straight Talk," the rolling double-tracked surf-tinged "Gina," and a cover (as featured in the film "Valley Girl") of Gary U.S. Bonds' "School is In."

Tricklast:
1. He Could Be The One
2. Rockin' Love
3. Waitin' For Your Love
4. So Close
5. I Need The Night, Tonight
6. Johnny, Are You Queer?
7. Systematic Way
8. Another Girl
9. Bye Bye Baby
10. No Pictures of Dad
11. Tell Him
12. Jimmy Loves Maryann
13. License to Dance
14. Life After Love
15. Stop Me
16. No Use Crying
17. Straight Talk
18. Gina
19. Come With Me
20. School Is In
21. Way Out West

Johnny?

Next: Team Dresch, a nice riot grrrl band thing.