En Francais

So I popped over to France for a few days to see a canadian friend, here is what I wrote on the ferry home,

"While I was studying neuro-linguistics, one practitioner talked about emotional response and how wanting to change something sometimes isn't enough and to produce genuine long-term results you must experience and, react to the strongest and indeed, worst-case scenario."

These were the first few tracks that came on my ipod and also the most poignant, music does that to you...

Camera Obscura- Books written for girls
The Libertines- Can't Stand me now
John Vanderslice- New Zealand Pines
Pete and the pirates- She doesn't belong to me
Sammy Davis Junior- The Girl From Ipanema
Air France- Collapsing at your door

"When I think about me I hate myself woo-ooo!", on that subject tomorrow's blog will be about to write love on her arms again. Great news about this is i've already written the most depressing song of all time today!

The Enemy- Music for the people

So they're local to me so I want to support them and was really looking forward to seeing them do their first show actually in the ricoh arena. Thing is this album was hyped so much by the band themselves that the music press couldn't wait to bring it back to earth to destroy it's potential. So it's completely up to the people what they think as reviews have become irrelevant and one sided. This probably sounds like i'm a huge advocate of them! I'm not, I thought a couple of songs on the first album were ok and haven't even listened to this yet. They're just supporting Oasis when i'm seeing them this summer so i'm hoping it's good times-

1. Elephant Song
2. No Time For Tears
3. 51st State
4. Sing When You're In Love
5. Last Goodbye
6. Nation Of Checkout Girls
7. Don't Break The Red Tape
8. Be Somebody
9. Keep Losing
10. Silver Spoon

Torrent Download- http://www.mininova.org/tor/2529140

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

Everyone seems to love these guys I don't get them but here, if you don't have the album- have it.

























Tracklist:

01 In the Flowers
02 My Girls
03 Also Frightened
04 Summertime Clothes
05 Daily Routine
06 Bluish
07 Guys Eyes
08 Taste
09 Lion in a Coma
10 No More Runnin’
11 Brothersport

Torrent link:
http://www.torrent.ws/files/1705789-Animal%20Collective%20-%20Merriweather%20Post%20Pavilion%20-%202009%20(rhsiv).html

Blue roses- Blue Roses (2009)

1. Greatest Thoughts
2. Cover Your Tracks
3. I Am Leaving Now
4. Can't Sleep
5. I Wish I...
6. Coast
7. Does Anyone Love Me Now?
8. Doubtful Comforts
9. Rebecca
10. Imaginary Fights

Download link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/203881740/Blue_Roses-Blue_Roses-_Sampler_-2009-DV8.rar

Twitter

Everyone probably knows what twitter is by now, I'm pretty obsessed with updating everything I do but it also makes me make sure that everything I do is awesome. (This is not always true).

Mine feel free to follow me

The reason for posting this blog is to highlight some of the great musical artists that use the micro-blogging site. A full list is here- http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phtgMLGe8aahYaH0pRs7VHg

And here are some highlights of people who update regularly

Camera Obscura- http://twitter.com/Camera_Obscura_

Slash- http://twitter.com/slashhudson

Lily Allen- http://twitter.com/lilyroseallen

Ezra Keonig (Vampire Weekend)- http://twitter.com/arzE

Lightspeed Champion- http://twitter.com/addmelolz

John Vanderslice- http://twitter.com/johnvanderslice

Adam Ficek (Babyshambles)- http://twitter.com/AdamFicek

Eminem- http://twitter.com/eminem

Nick Harmer (Death cab for cutie)- http://twitter.com/onewhoharms

let me know of any other great ones you know of...

New Bands

It's been a little bit since I hyped up some new bands. Next weekend i'm going down to see my brother in Bristol as he's having a kid and you know how it goes after that, well I don't thank god but apparently it's quite the lifestyle choice. But this is giving me the opportunity to check out an awesome independant music festival, a less self-styled camden crawl, dot to dot festival sees you hit the streets of bristol (and nottingham) for one day and see some great bands without the perils that you face when traipsing around london in between the two days/£200 hotel rooms.

The line up looks amazing-

Patrick Wolf, The Hold Steady, Ladyhawke, Friendly Fires, Teitur, A.C. Newman, Cage the Elephant, Little Boots, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, My Vitriol, Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Titus Andronicus, Abe Vigoda, Shapeshifter, Future Of The Left, Crystal Antlers, Duchess Says, Naive New Beaters, Girls, Marina & the Diamonds, Son Of Dave, Fan Death, The Big Pink, Wave Machines, Gran Ronde, Kid British, Mumford & Sons, Colourmusic, Baddies, Official Secrets Act, Dinosaur Pile-up, Skint & Demoralised, Pulled Apart By Horses, Tommy Reilly, Annie Mac, The Soft Pack, Ulterior, The Computers, Dag for Dag and Chik Budo

This blog's also for my benefit so I can log on on the day and see what bands I said I'd go to and what was good and what I should miss out on. So these are some of the bands that i've been checking out in advance, like that I didn't already know of. I'm sure I'll do another blog afterwards on just how awesome a day it was-












Teitur

This guy is apparently from the faroe islands and I'm interested in seeing him as his introverted style reminds me alot of my own and if I do decide to kick the band and go it alone I want to see how he does it because he has been, relentlessly since the release of his critically acclaimed debut. He's won a danish grammy and I'd imagine not many people have :p

Also I just happened to find out he's playing a local town tomorrow! I'm going to hit it like you wouldn't even believe.











My Vitriol

I'm glad there's gonna be some heavier stuff on that night too. My Vitriol have been around for a decade, I would have liked to think the name was a reference to the genre of intensifiers but it's from a story about a guy who carried around a bottle of sulphuric acid for protection.. uh- lol. They're verging on metal but have a slice of 90s riotgrrl britpop sorta mix going on which obviously is a good thing. They've released a single album in their whole time as a band and it's gained them quite a cult status might be worth seeing based on that alone.














Duchess Says

A Canadian dance punk band with a hot lead singer? I'm so there! After listening though and after wanting to see 100% of the artists already these are ones I might give a miss. I can imagine though if I'm wondering what to do next and I feel like, Dane Cook style, going dancing, then i'd be all over it and if you dig dancing then i'd imagine this would be loads of fun. They're like a sensible, clean cut crystal castles.













Abe Vigoda

So that guy who was in the godfather and later on Late Night with Conan O'brien is where they take their name from. Their sound is a little bit mental and all over the place, experimental would just about describe it. I'm really not going to go see these guys, I don't dig on stage experimentation it seems... rude. Like people are paying to come watch you and you don't even prepare? They seem aimless too which is more than a little frustrating for the casual listener.













Naive New Beaters

These guys actually sound really fresh and unique... but at the same time sound stuck in the 90s! The electronics sound very "digital love", when the vocals do get going they actually seem quite well thought out and culturally relevant but unfortunately the hip hop aspect of their style means there is a lot of repitition. They seem to me like live they might be a bit too dancey for my tastes so they're only maybe a maybe at best.








Marina and the diamonds

I haven't written about this girl before because I wasn't sure if I was being swayed by just how stunningly beautiful she is. She's getting comparisons to kate nash because like she says, "I've got a keyboard and I've got a vagina". She has a deeper range which I personally dig and darker themes which are a huge plus. Some of her stuff is quite theatrical which I can only imagine will make for a great stage show, Kate Nash seemed to have very few places to go with her stuff but I can Imagine MATD will make for a killer time.

Girls

If anyone can find any more info on these send it my way cos seriously searching for this is about as difficult as finding the band "xx teens".

Son of Dave

This guy is FROM Winnipeg Manitoba, where I went to University, apparently he was in the crash test dummies- mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm you know, that song right?! Thing is listening to his music, he's got kind of a mental voice like that guy from police academy and samples pure CHEESE. Low Rider is backed by that butter commerical "something or other light" ah to be honest I'd want to see him cos of Winnipeg but this really doesn't sound good, great job on being in a big band last century but... Damn I had high hopes.

Kid British

I've been to see two artists with kid in their name and they both sucked soooo bad, I was apprehensive to listen to these guys but they're actually awesome and such a good time! "these lads whip up a tune as easy as Jamie Oliver making a meal out of the contents of a students fridge" that pretty much sums it well, bit of everything in there that you'd sort of put in when there's no other options, this isn't at all a criticism, there's a lot of reggae and steel a bit of brass and catchy as hell hooks. They're making my lsaturday night tough to organise.

Big Pink

They make a lot of sound without being a noize band. You remember MGMT's debut? Well so do these guys and they're a bit intent on recreating the smooth vocals with an intrepid swirl of psychadelic music. I say that but I don't think I've heard of a single band on their list of influences. Basically they'd be a pleasant support act, I'm not going to go out of my way it's way too electronic.

Gran Ronde

I'm going to see these guys, their sound is massive. From California they've got great reviews from all corners, I don't want to compare another band to the killers buuuut! Synths, guitars, droning yet clear vocals like the comparisons there guys, i'm making it and there'll be a bigger review on these guys after the weekend.

Colourmusic

Before listening to their music I heard things like- "Following the release of their self-recorded/produced debut EP inspired by the colour red, the band began entertaining local audiences with a variety of thematic shows, including a fake graduation, a mock prom, and a wedding." and I was like yeeeeah babies! Their music is a bit too twee though, they've got a picture of a unicorn as their emblem, harmonies and it's all a bit too nice and sugary. I totally think if you happened upon these guys you'd have an amazing time and i kinda wanna go to see what the deal is! Ungh!

Baddies

Hugely hyped at the start of the year from nme to mtv it's sometimes worth going along to the big 20 when you can see whether the fuss was justified. Thing is you remember these lists- florence and the machine, little boots- both pop starlets know being courted by the brit award crowd. For me this means that these guys will be awesome because they haven't been brown tongued by the british pop music obsessed press. O.k sooo upon listening, they seem to have gotten attention for the same reason pete and the pirates and young knives did, chirpy lyrics, catchy songs, well thought out musically. The tempo of their songs are designed for a sweaty live performance which is great but does mean they're not getting on my mp3 player. Plus- they REALLY sound like the young knives. Bit 2005.

Official Secrets Act

I'll be seeing these guys I should think, they're good, potentially really good and i've heard good things about their live shows. Judging by their sound and lyrics they'd bring a unifying atmosphere welcome at any festival. They sound fresh which is great, been around since 2007 so put in their dues. Their music sounds very intentional which is a bit of a relief with all the experimental and dance and everything else that is flouted as being relevant these days.

Tommy Reilly

So this is the guy that won channel 4's britains got the indie pop factor. I remember when Orange unsigned act first came around and it seemed like it was gonna actually be cool but it ended up about as cool as having the winner of big brother being the "surprise guest" that your parent's organised at your 21st birthday. I dunno, you know what indie snobs are like and I try not to be one but I kinda think going to his gig is kinda super gay. Buuuut someone sent me some new stuff from last year's winners and i'm gonna give them a chance so who knows it might happen.

Fact of the matter is, even before going through all these bands I had a chore deciding who to see and who not to see! Now it's just astronomical :)

To write love on her arms/The Rocket Summer

Here come's the serious bit...

"To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is an American non-profit organization which aims to present hope and find help for people struggling with problems such as depression, drug addiction, self-injury, and suicide. Based in Central Florida, TWLOHA seeks to connect people to treatment centers, websites, books, support groups, and other resources. TWLOHA also encourages people to have honest conversations about these issues, to live in community, and to seek help for these treatable conditions."

I found out about TWLOHA last january when in between The Secret Handshake and The Rocket Summer, a guy came out to talk about this organisation. I'm still not confortable talking on these subjects even after all this time but you have to know there are people out there who are.

The Rocket Summer are a great band, full of hope and a great soundtrack to a summer. Their gigs have really nice atmospheres too.

Brat Pack
Skies So Blue
Cross my heart
Never Knew
Tell me something good
December Days

Metric @ 02 Academy Oxford (17/5/09)

The last review I did in Oxford raised a few fat, middle aged eyebrows for sure! Fortunately this was at the academy and they know their place here ;)

Anticipation: I've been a fan of Metric longer than I have death cab Oo amazing right?! During my time in Canada "old world underground" was pretty much always in the cd player (there were 3 spaces) it got a lot of plays I loved some of it "if every surface you touch is cold, never go home" "He says- I can't feel a thing, my dreams are too tight. Why wouldn't I stand in line tonight?" "Tonight your ghost will ask my ghost, where is the love?" I really liked the haunting stuff like that but the upbeat stuff was great too but it still always had a twist of darkness "every 8 year old enemy thinks bombs are shooting stars sometimes but she never makes wishes on them" "now that the wall is on the up, you're gonna wanna wear it out". So this is probably the gig i've been looking forward to the most so far this summer.

Venue: The Oxford Academy, formally the zodiac. I've said before that this is one of the most convenient academy's i've ever been to- parking across the road for 60p, a tesco, pubs, take outs, money machines :)

My Day: Yeah so I worked 13 days straight up until a few days ago and today was a sunday which is always a ball buster which is why I was glad to have a great gig lined up for afterwards. I'd recently retaxed and reinsured my car so life was just getting a bit easier and I have a trip lined up for france at the end of the month so things are good :)

Journey: Took a great girl from work along, georgie, made the car jouney a million times more fun like it was insanely fun times. It'd blow your mind if i went into more detail so stfu.



The event: Turned out it was upstairs in the academy2 so it promised to be an intimate and sweaty affair. This was all proved true but I think a little must be said about the organisation... This is from doors to close so I have no choice but to indulge...

So usually I turn up to oxford around 7pm, pick up my tickets, hit up the hobgoblin then head up and see the support. Well there wasn't any support tonight, just the "resident dj" doing his schtick for 2 hours, gayness. If I was on my own I would've blown a full on GASket! So I went for thai food with G, which was good, my first bit of thai and prepared me for how M-f'ing sweaty it was gonna be upstairs!

The jericho bar was still supposedly doing those random cocktails but didn't have the mini mojitos and had run out of the most awesome ones so yeah- soberness was bound to ensue right?

WRONG! Metric well and truly bought teh sex, the atmosphere, the night. Starting off a little mid pace before hitting their stride with "help! I'm alive." which, in that moment, everyone including these well toned canadians thought, fuck this this is gonna be a fucking awesome night! And the following hour only verified that, mainly from fantasies yes, but still threw in "Dead Disco" and "Live it out". Shirt holding on for dear life at the end = another great night at the academy.

Yet another tip for driving back UI: Act nonchelant :)

Munchies: Mcdonalds chocolate milkshake. Yeah banbury's MD is now 24 hours which either means I have to avoid banbury on the way home or have some post gig willpower.. ha.

Work in the morning?: Yeah at midday. I woke up at sorta 9.30 and was like I can either drive in at 11.55 and sorta rock through or walk and and not feel like crap when i'm there. I walked in- proper sucked it up. Rained, went home after 3 hours (and 2 double bacardis) and this is pretty much where we're at now guys!

Once more let me know what you're digging what you'd like to see in future reviews, presumebly less fat middle aged men, but also other areas too kthaxbai/

Setlist:

Twilight Galaxy
Help I'm Alive
Satellite Mind
Handshakes
Gold Guns Girls
Gimme Sympathy
Sick Muse
Empty (long version)
Front Row
Dead Disco
Stadium Love

Encore:
Monster Hospital
Live It Out (slow version)

Live recording of 11/5/09- http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LLRPRRO0

NME's top 10 tracks you have to hear this week

From NME 13/5/09

This week's helping of free downloads, streams and video clips features a newie from Tiny Masters Of Today, a track from Just Jack that doesn't suck, and a slab of crunchy electro brilliance from Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.

1. Poppy And The Jezebels - Rhubarb And Custard
A whirling, wonderfully airy, big-sounding single from the teenage überfraus. They’re now possibly just old enough to stop us vomiting in fear every time their name is mentioned and could almost be Bombay Bicycle Club’s sonic sisters. Yet there’s something charmingly early-’90s UK indie, baggy-psychedelic about this track, singer Mollie Kingsley cooing flower-eyed “slide revolving, pink and yellow… out of body into very strange” like Harriet Wheeler from The Sundays singing with Inspiral Carpets.

2. Tiny Masters Of Today - Pop Chart
Continuing this week’s teen theme, New York siblings Ivan and Ada might have a way with bubblegum choruses but there’s an edge to their cuteness. This seemingly innocuous skipalong, like The White Stripes playing Cornershop’s ‘Brimful Of Asha’, masks a succinct dig at industry whores, “so rich it isn’t funny”. Still sticking it to the man, still only 15 and 13. Our money is not on the man.

3. The Sounds – Dorchester Hotel
You’d be forgiven for thinking Sweden is filled with shoegazey melancholics tapping tambourines while they sit on sturdy furniture. Helsingborg’s The Sounds, however, have been dedicated to ripping Scandipop a new one. Ballsy and punchy, this tale of a troubled rendezvous at a very posh London hotel makes us remember how good proper pop-rock can be. Stick that in yer Peter Bjorn And John and smoke it.

4. Lovelikefire - Stand In Your Shoes
Full-throated indie along the lines of their hometown heroes The Killers in their pre-“are we dancer?” days, or a rougher-edged Howling Bells, this also has a hint of a dark country-rock edge, like an answer record to one of Ryan Adam’s more anthemic moments. Ann Yu offers a troubled friend some perspective from her point of view, urging “it’s easy to see when you’re out of your body”, before a delicate mid-section ends in a huge clattering climax, Yu howling “I can imagine!”. Psychodramatic.

5. Archangel - Do It Again
One-man-band Nick Webber spent a year and a half holed up in a Wiltshire studio recording his debut ‘How To Lose Your Best Friend’. Now, he’s been thrust into the glare of adoration by this ace Steely Dan cover (no, really). Not exactly representative of his brooding, tetchy art-rock, it’s warm and infectious, like Athlete if they weren’t cack. Check out the awesome blog-sensation stop-motion stick-man video, too.

6. Just Jack - Doctor Doctor
Stop! Get it out of your mind. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about 'Starz In Their Eyes'. Too late, right? Well, if you can’t put it from your mind, the tight, funky-dancing awesomeness of this cruelly funny taste of Jack’s second album will. In no way quirky or annoying, it’s bitchy and beaty, and “She’s no verse, mostly chorus/Between those ears there’s mostly sawdust”, rates among the best kiss-off lines we’ve heard lately.

7. The Veronicas – Untouched
For too long, there’s been a pop no-woman’s land. On one side, you have adamantium-surfaced replicants such as Lady GaGa, Beyoncé and Girls Aloud, coyly cooing the words of faceless geniuses. On the other, you have the more identifiable, in-creative-control, more ‘real’ pop stars: your Allens, Nashes, Santigolds. But now! From Australia, twins Jessica and Lisa Origliasso. Yes! They write their own songs. Yes! They look like they wash their perfect hair in God’s tears. Yes! Their laser-tooled electro-emo brims with genuine teenage emotion and thrills coldly with its perfect structure. The new breed? Oh yes.

8. Jamie T - Sticks And Stones
Polish, sheen and glamour: very nice, very nice, very nice, but sometimes all the smooth airbrushed edges around nowadays get to us a little. We crave scuzz. Scuzz, yodelling, and messy energy. Bless this day, then, when we finally see a single release for this shit-kicking, adrenaline-rushing track, a sharp-witted snapshot of panic on the streets of the UK, first debuted at V2008. Argy-bargy never sounded so chirpy.

9. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Moon Hits The Mirrorball
Ahhhhhh. That is the sound of our huge relief at coming across a piece of deeply satisying, inventive, crunchy dance music that isn’t mired in either smug retro irony or ‘ooh, no, I’m all about the cock, me’ try-hard sleaze. Radiantly wired with housey energy that hints at Les Rhythmes Digitales or Daft Punk but keeps ’80s references at bay, this track is taken from TEED’s fantastically varied forthcoming EP as part of the International Sonic Wrestling series on New York’s Greco-Roman label.

10. Them:Youth - Bows And Arrows
“Sleeping fallen angel, you ain’t blind… You won’t find a broken-hearted boy who thinks about you more than me…” You won’t find many people flaunting their hearts like that in London. With a heartsore sound calling to mind Delphic and Doves, this is the sort of thing you turn up on headphones when staring out of train windows.

Maximo Park- Quicken the heart (2009)

Maximo park first came around in 2005 and we're very popular with english lads who drink lager who I can't stand so I was a bit apprehensive to listen to this album but it's fantastic, actually really really good. Nice one-
















Tracklist:

01 Wraithlike
02 The Penultimate Clinch
03 The Kids Are Sick Again
04 A Cloud Of Mystery
05 Calm
06 In Another World (Youd Have Found Yourself By Now)
07 Let's Get Clinical
08 Roller Disco Dreams
09 Tanned
10 Questing, Not Coasting
11 Overland, West Of Suez
12 I Haven't Seen Her In Ages

Torrent link:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4858012/Maximo_Park_-_Quicken_The_Heart_%5Bmp3-vbr-2009%5D

Roses, Kings and castles (2009)

Roses kings and castles is the side project of babyshambler Adam Ficek. I've been following him on twitter and for someone who is in a band with pete doherty to have to go through so much effort to put out a record and only manage to have it independantly and indeed, on limited release kinda makes you question how much chance anyone else has. Here it is though, get it while you can-
















Tracklist:

01 Entroubled
02 Horses
03 Sparklin Bootz
04 Broken Homes
05 Burn Your Town Down
06 Brass Winter
07 Run And Hide
08 Never Certain
09 Folk Song
10 Fool's Revange

Download link:
http://www.zshare.net/download/5996679844f9867f/

The Long Blondes (2003-2008)

The Long Blondes (2003-2008)

I stumbled upon the long blondes when I was off to see flash in the pan band "the automatic", as well as two hopeless ne'erdowells who dressed well but played shit music (!forwardrussia!/boykillboy). This was at the student union in oxford brookes about a week after seeing death cab there. And man am I ever glad I did.

I've only been fortunate to see them live twice but they have been two of the most FUN gigs i've been to. I know you're probably thinking, hey buddy isn't this all a little... affeminate? And i'd say nice diction dude but Kate Jackson is THE sex. At any given moment she has the ability to realise a sexual potency that would be crazy to even have prophecised. This was most notable live during "too clever by half" where I was so close to making out with a fat chick I was that caught up in the moment.

The first track I heard by them was "once and never again" catchy as hell and was on my road trip tape for 2005. I've posted the easiest songs to get into down the bottom of this post but you should pretty much get everything. Everything about them is cool, kate's geek-chic look to playing gigs in libraries.

Unfortunately they split pretty soon after I saw them live last after dorian had a stroke, pretty intense stuff but they've said they hope to do one tour eventualyl as a thankyou to all the fans and if they do I highly reccomend you go. KJ apparently is going to be doing some solo stuff to so it's by no means the end

Once and never again
Seperated by motorways
Giddy Strataspheres
Too clever by half
The Couples

Anti-Flag - The People Or The Gun (2009)

I saw these supporting Rise Against and if ever i've undone my shirt due to it being soaked with sweat due to intense moshing, it was while watching these guys. I literally had to take a BREATHER. Kinda looks like they've just learned about using parenthesis in song titles like everyone else did in the 90's still- check out their new album.

01. Sodom, Gomorrah, Washington D.C. (Sheep In Shepherds Clothing) ( 2:50)
02. The Economy Is Suffering... Let It Die ( 3:36)
03. The Gre(A)T Depression ( 3:08)
04. We Are The One ( 3:07)
05. You Are Fired (Take This Job, Ah, Fuck It) ( 1:00)
06. This Is The First Night ( 3:33)
07. No War Without Warriors (How Do You Sleep?) ( 2:28)
08. When All The Lights Go Out ( 3:08)
09. On Independence Day ( 2:51)
10. The Old Guard ( 4:17)
11. Hidden Track ( 1:06)

Torrent Link- http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4884357/Anti-Flag_-_The_People_Or_The_Gun_(2009)_%5Bmp3_VBR%5D

The Birthday Massacre- Walking with strangers (2007)

I'm seeing these guys next month, really looking forward to it. Once more embracing my metal side that I flirted with last summer and what more continuing my affair with canadians and hot goth chicks...






















1. Kill The Lights
2. Goodnight
3. Falling Down
4. Unfamiliar
5. Red Stars
6. Looking Glass
7. Science
8. Remember Me
9. To Die For
10. Walking With Strangers
11. Weekend
12. Movie

Download- http://rapidshare.com/files/65182605/TBM2007WWS.rar

Golden Silvers- True Romance (2009)

1. Another Universe 4:54
2. True Romance (True No. 9 Blues) 3:34
3. Magic Touch 4:07
4. The Seed 4:06
5. Here Comes The King 4:07
6. Shakes 3:53
7. Queen Of The 21st Century 5:03
8. Please Venus 5:02
9. Arrows Of Eros 5:40
10. Fade To Black 2:49

Link- http://toptorrents.org/torrents/301279/Golden%20Silvers-True%20Romance-(Promo%20CDS)-2009-DV8/details.html

Empire of the sun- Walking on a dream (2008)

I've pretty much posted all this album on my blog at various points hyping it up to death but here it all is in one place, before fanfarlo came along they were my band of '09...



















Tracklisting-

1. Standing On The Shore
2. Walking On A Dream
3. Half Mast
4. We Are The People
5. Delta Bay
6. Country
7. The World
8. Swordfish Hotkiss Night
9. Tiger By My Side
10. Without You

Link-
http://rapidshare.com/files/174371116/Walking_on_a_Dream-Upped-by-Quarantine.rar

Wilco- Wilco (2009)

My computer's been broken for like a week so yeah the blog's not been updated for that long but look, here's what I'm going to do- post full album links to a bunch of great albums that have come out recently, forgive me yeah ;)




















Tracklist:

01 Wilco (The Song)
02 Deeper Down
03 One Wing
04 Bull Black Nova
05 You and I
06 You Never Know
07 Country Disappeared
08 Solitaire
09 I'll Fight
10 Sonny Feeling
11 Everlasting

Download link:
http://www.zshare.net/download/59955691bba9007e/

Green day AND eminem leak

So maybe I was wrong about the teaser being an intentional leak, it seems companies are having a harder time keeping their goods under wraps than a hobo hepped up on goof pills. Overnight- BAM, first eminem leaks which is a little surprising considering how well they did to stop encore getting out early and then about 5 minutes ago the full green day album is out. It's gonna be a good day, at the moment pirate bay's the best place to get eminem and places like megaupload the best for greenday. I'll give a mammoth review to them both later on!

Greenday 21st century breakdown leaked

You can stream the leaked tracks from greenday's new album here

lol i'm up at 5am writing this blog!















Green Day- 21st century breakdown (2009)

I've never been a fan of greenday, barely even in passing. I mean I liked basketcase and... well that's pretty much it. I ignored all the hype around the last album because hey, i'm not american so wasn't particularly resonate (the usual (/e) vowel sound in that word in accordance with the IPA is (/U).

But let me tell you, I've got great things to say about this album, I've labelled it the most culturally relevant of this decade and what's more the most ambitious and potential realising of the past 20 years. As well as the 3 cd package rumour has it they're looking to play the entire album back to back, live. I mean that's unprecedented. I've already got my tickets.

So yeah, yesterday 6 tracks from the new album leaked. I'm downloading them right now and will let you know what I think of THEM. But what I think of the leak- intentional. You either leak it all or none at all, and I think leaking 6 tracks at a time is a genius idea, it lets the fans get used to a few tracks at a time so they'll know them all backwards by the time the tour hits and with the uniqueness and importance of this album most people will buy it anyway as if you just have the mp3s you're going to be missing out.

Joy Formidable/Dartz!/Calories @ The Jericho (3/5/09)

So I figured it would make sense to blog about all the gigs I go to, shame I didn't start a long time ago as i've missed out on doing so many great ones over the past few years. But today it begins, and with summer coming up it's that time of year when I hit a gig a week so should be pretty interesting stuff.

My day: I was working from 12-6 and the first few hours were pretty shit but after that I had the place to myself (in terms of colleagues) so was way less stressy. Had a couple of drinks there and was paid in cash before I left.

Travel: The soundtrack to the first part of the journey was Nick cave and the bad seeds' Dig lazarus dig and then Courteeners' St. Jude for the conclusion. Fairly straight forward, just to oxford and the venue's just off woodstock road.

Parking: Parking is fine once you know where to look and on sunday's and evenings is free so great times.

The venue (The Jericho Tavern): Downstairs is just like a regular oxford pub, they're all very similar, wooden floors, needlessly spacey, random drinks on tap. They serve food which is a bit pricey £7 upwards but have a bbq outside during the summer. Plus while you're eating outside in the huge garden area you can see the bands getting ready upstairs!

Inside the venue it's got the feel of a very small time place, hand stamps, furniture moved to the sides of the room and actual decoration.


































The stage, is literally the size of a bathroom. Not a public bathroom but YOUR bathroom, the one in your house! You're sooo close to the bands, at one point the drummer of calories sneezed and was forced to excuse himself.

Crowd: Seemed to be largely Oxford based which of course is great times, leads to a friendly atmosphere and everyones up for good times and converse and usually some beautiful girls, this wasn't the case last night though, can honestly say I wasn't remotely interested in a single person in there, but the rest was true :p

Bar Tariff/What/How much I drank: Cheaper than usual gigs, pretty much the sort of £3/3.30 you'd expect to pay for a pint at a regular pub. I was driving so couldn't drink... So like I say, had a couple at work, a random cider with the food when I got there, then another upstairs, a red bull and a pear cider. Drink wise I spent around £12. On and- don't fear the reaper yeh!

















Toilets: I wouldn't usually mention these in a review but I took a picture in there and wanted to post it :p

















Calories

Calories began an evening in a math rock style that was to be continued by dartz. They were enjoyable but weren't exactly engaging, talking amongst themselves a bit too much and i think pissed a few people off when they pointed out they won't have to pay to get into truck.

*edit* I wrote a paragraph about band image that made me look a bit like hitler. Ha. *edit again!* of cooourse it doesn't matter but yeah I think that's why they didn't really connect was because there wasn't much energy on stage with the exception of the drummer who was pretty amazing and had the whole math rock thing down as it is a tough task.

This won't be the last time I mention minus the bear in this blog but man are these guys similar to them.

I failed a bit with the opening act and will start taking a pad along to review these gigs cause it's way too easy to forget the opening act and I kinda apologise for that here as I have and all I could comment on was that the lead singer was fat and the drummer was good. Ha.

















Dartz!

The lead singer apparently had lost his voice a bit when, at last night's gig in sheffield he'd gotten drunk and seen a poster with matt horne on advertising him DJing the student union with the tag- "THIS IS HUGE!" and disagreeing saying "no, this isn't huge, it's fucking pointless" and went on to violently attack it before setting it on fire :) He still sounded good though, reminded me of if graham coxon fronted a math-rock inspired blur.

Interesting thing about Dartz is, the drummer is the voice of the band, or at least was here, maybe it was because of the lead's lack of voice but quite charismatic and sang vocals on a few of the tracks. His drumming patterns would take a mathematical genius to work out, it was brilliant to watch as well as adding loads to the sound scape vocally.

One thing that definately surprised me about Dartz was how good their lyrics were, on cd they sounded a lot like minus the bear which they surely were influenced by. But that brings me to my next point-

There was a moment in this set (once twice again) which you get maybe once every 100 gigs you go to, I can imagine it when MGMT played electric feel, Arctic monkey's first playing "I bet you look good on the dance floor" there was a genuine moment when the band looked at each other, the drummer played in and the whole place was glued, this track had clearly been practiced to such an extent as to ensure without fail that it reached it's potential live and for the next few minutes the whole place was going wild and became one, everyone connected in the moment and realisation that they'd seen something special.

The thing about the recording which is a bit backwards is it actually sound tighter live.

So yeah, dartz, some great times, cool bunch of guys, their live shows = a great time whether you know their tracks or not. I'll definately be checking them out again (and indeed am at truck!)



















Joy Formidable

I'd seen these live before but had other things on my mind and a lot of empty glasses distracting me from the show. It was a great time but there was actually one part that i'd NEVER seen live before and I was shocked as HELL when it happened-

One thing that kinda ruined it a bit was their were a few middle aged blokes in the front row and one fat fuck in particular was being just that- a fat fuck. I moved to the side of the room cos they were just being dickheads, making eye contact with you and noncing on the girls and stuff. Trust me it was fucking annoying.

They played their whole set right, and it was great times. Sure the crowd wanted more but as I was aware, they'd played everything i'd ever heard from them. She comes back out fired up and starts swearing "fuck me you guys. we're going to play another song you fuckers. get the fuck up here. fucking come on." turned me the FUCK on :p haha anyway they start playing a song that they'd already played earlier on in the set!!!! Like seriously?! It went down great and stuff cos I guess more people knew it after the first time but like for me this was unprecendented like if you don't have material just don't come back out! Or just go over to the bar and drink with people if you're that pumped! It was a bit weird I gotta say. But overall I've enjoyed JF both times i've seen them and I like them for sure but just don't seem to connect with them that well, bit of a poor man's metric maybe.

Mistakes I made: Carrying £150 cash in my pocket as well as camera ipod and phone, coulda gone dreadfully wrong! Didn't but just usually I take the minimum of what I need in so I don't have to worry about getting raped AND pillaged!

Drive Home/Tips to not getting pulled over while DUI: When you're tired and have had a couple your eyes get a little bit more sensitive to light. Do NOT flash cars when they come past as it might just be a police car, like last night with me when it was! Fortunately I know oxford well and was soon off the map lollers.

Work in the morning?: Yes, but not til midday. I'd gotten back at 1am so had about 7 hours sleep and time to go for a little run and then wash and rehydrate before work.

Let me know what you're liking, post a comment or whatevs and if there's anything I should try and include in future reviews :)

Calories- A bear a bison
Dartz- St. Petersburg
Dartz- Once twice again
Joy Formidable- Austere
Joy Formidable- Cradle

The Pains of being pure at heart (2009)

The pains of being pure at heart (2009)

1. Contender

2. Come Saturday

3. Young Adult Friction

4. This Love Is Fucking Right!

5. Tenure Itch

6. Stay Alive

7. Everything with You

8. Teenager in Love

9. Hey Paul

10. Gentle Sons

The link to the album is in the title.

Firstly, TPOBPAH have a random name, it's more suited to an album title and indeed is the title of their debut album. According to wiki, it comes from "an unpublished children’s story that a friend of singer Kip Berman wrote of the same title".

I'd heard so much about them without actually hearing them and at the gig last night (review of which will be up tomorrow) there was a poster saying they were playing there soon and with tickets being £6 at that place figured they might be worth a check out. They are definately. Male and female vocals shared on what is best described as indie dream pop with pounding drums courtesy of Kurt Feldman of The Depreciation Guild.

I would expect a band with such an introverted name to have more intense lyical themes but this is just the first listen and I can definately see them being great live and i'll have a review of them definately after that. It's the same venue as i'm seeing fanfarlo at so it's gonna be a mainstay of this summer.

Enjoy the album.

Shuffle Seven!

Shuffle time babies. You know the deal, shufflywufflies no skipps.

The Coral- Arabian Sand

I was listening to this song and I knew it reminded me of something, turns out it was chocolate rain! When people write songs about sandy places they try to make the music fit it, I'd imagine that the coral juice got the bass line and guitar to underscore it and then just put words from that semantic field to it. The coral wrote some great stuff, probably listen to that instead ;)

Lyrical highlight- "Can you dance with the lepers in the madman's house?"

Good question, dick.

The Attic Lights- God

These guys were supporting camera obscura when I saw them last week, they were loads of fun to watch, even better to drink to. Proper uplifting good time music. They're scottish but don't sound it so don't hold it against them yeah? Ya big racist.

Death Cab For Cutie (Live)- The face that launched 1000 shits (2003-10-31) Variety Playhouse Atlanta

Originally written by the revolutionary hydra, though i've never heard that version so if anyone has it send it my way and I will sploot, the lyrical themes of this track are incredibly well held together in an intricate tapestry revolving around musical creativity, the history of the black sea and greek mythology. It's really quite impressive and once again highlights ben's ability to pick a great little known track from an even littler known band like with the secret stars all those years ago. This track is from a full three years before the live shows stopped getting fun.

Aqualung- just for a moment

A twinkly piano track that could've been on a snow patrol album! I always get these guys mixed up with aqueduct, no idea why! I haven't heard enough of their stuff to really have an opinion but i know that i've listened to them a few times without generating one so that should give you an idea of quite how resounding their sound is.

Matt Pond PA- Winter One

An instrumental track, and a short one at that. I'm sorry but it's the nature of the shuffle!

The Libertines- The ha ha wall

"If you get tired, of hanging around. Pick up a guitar and spin a web of sound" The lyrics from Pete's time with the libertines were just flawless. I had a bit libertinegasm yesterday listening to pretty much everything they'd done, including that awful "day in the life" cover. Obviously the hope is they'll get back together but between the two amazing albums and the endless session tracks there's alot to go around.

The Rural Alberta Advantage- Sleep All day

This would be my dream, I try my best to do as it is. The lyrics are exactly about that, the reasons why you should sleep all day and give up on life. Obviously a bit of a melancholy track and soon goes into the reasons why indeed you shouldn't sleep all day. Fuck I think i took this song too literally. "If you try to hold on then i'll try to hold on you".

The Beatles- Wake up in the morning (From atop then apple rooftop, saville row)

Ah the rooftop concert, what an iconic way to end a band's career. As you probably know from let it be (the documovie) they had a proper jam up there for longer than people realise playing so many tracks and don't let me down many many times! This is an unreleased track by them and it really gives you a feeling that things weren't as bad as it really seemed between them. Even though they were :(

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Police Helicopter

I love pre-good-writing-chilis! Pretty much everything on "out in L.A" the slapdash "best of" album that was released before they'd even had anything that could be considered good enough to be called a hit! I love that album though it's brilliant and it's all this early stuff that, in retrospect you could see the behemoth that we know these days evolving from.

The Pixies

As part of the bands you should know series, this quartet from Boston have influenced any number of artists from the libertines to modest mouse to Nirvana and are indeed, the guy who plays Harry Potter's, favourite band.














The Pixies (1986–1993, 2004–present)

Covering areas from UFO's to mental instability to violent biblical imagery, Black Francis is the main man behind the Pixies' abstract lyrical themes that they have become reknowned for, more so in Europe than the States where they remain a band only the cool people really know.

Surfer Rosa and Doolittle are considered their masterpieces and spawmed most of their most famous songs that i've linked to at the bottom of this post and at the very least you should have both of those albums on your ipod. Oh and if you want the entire discography, as always just click on the name above. He shares vocal duties at times with Kim Deal who I think's been crucial to their success giving them another dimension.

Alot of bands are famous on the back of viral videos, I mean Ok Go? Sure the album was fine enough but without those two videos? I think they'd be about as popular as Hard-Fi. Pixies aren't famous on the back of it but they do have on, a video for "hey!", it's got about 26million views on this link alone.

They've split and reformed a few times and are releasing a best of box set in "minotaur" which is due to be released on June 15th. No plans for a new album.

Hey!
Where is my mind
Caribou
I'm Amazed
Monkey Gone to Heaven (Last.fm Link)

Some great bands i've found recently

I was listening to a few new bands this morning and was like, these are great I wish I had somewhere to get these guys the attention and give them the credit they deserve and then I remembered I write this every day! I'll be putting a few up every day as I do unfortunately work aloooot. Not all of these are nessecarily new bands but they are to me and hopefully you'll discover one or two you'll want to explore.

One thing I would emplore everyone to take up is checking out every single band that anyone mentions to you that you don't know. Just make a quick note in your phone at the time and check out a few when you have time. Either you'll find a fantastic new band, after all there is a reason why they're mentioning one band over any other, or you'll find out they secretly have shit taste! It's a good way of finding great music and an even better of weeding out your friends :p















The Starlight Mints- Drowaton

One of the moden day Barsuk luminaries, out of Oklahoma, they formed last century but started to achieve critical recognition with Drowaton and to be honest I'm just going to post the whole album because it's an electic, viscerial, pounding, well thought out, lyrically and musically brilliant masterpiece!














The Birthday Massacre- Happy Birthday

The lead singer's hot, alright, get past it... Even once you do- Brilliance. Goth rock at it's very best, I've been looking for a band like this all year. The music is explosive, the vocals haunting and resonant, I have no idea why I had never heard of them when they've been around for like 10 years and also that she's a hot canadian! They've only released 3 albums, I reccomend getting all of them.
















The Twilight Sad- That summer at home, I became the invisible boy

Scottish Shoegaze, sure camera obscura's gonna make me lean towards these guys, but one of the things I like about C.O is that they don't sound scottish, The Twilight Sad do and due to their melancholy delivery are about to get compared to glasvegas- *Bam* *compares to glasvegas*. The fact of the matter is TTS are incredibly morbid. Poignant lyrics coupled with the fantastically atmospherical instrumentation, I can only imagine that seeing them live is an event in itself.

Best of April 2009

Due to all the copyright problems I had this month, I'm going to do a "best of outroversion" each month to make sure all the songs and bands get to see the light of day. Once again if you need anything reuploading or want it sent to you just let me know...

Leisure Society- Last of the melting snow
Builders and butchers- Bottom of the lake
Fanfarlo- I'm a pilot
YACHT- So post em all
Stardeath and the white dwarfs- Chemicle
Delphic- Counterpoint
Phenomenal Handclap Band- 15-20
Electric Touch- Love in our hearts
Sportsday Megaphone- Young Lust
Pulled apart by horses- I punched a lion in the throat
Conor Oberst and the mystic Valley band- The roosevelt room
Eminem- We made you
IAMX- Kingdom of welcome addiction
Heloise and the savoire faire- Illusions
Broken Records- Anne
Magic Magic- Over your heart
Camera Obscura- French Navy

Looking back a month ago and a month before that this blog's come along way, thanks for your support, commenting, following, 1000+ independant views. Look forward to where we'll be in another month!