Outroversion offline

Got no net at the mo. Back 1st of next month but remember to check out the indie/rock playlist.

The big babygravy party @ Oxford Academy 13/6/09

I heard about babygravy through my random blog searchings, while looking at oxford artists for I think their scene has a lot going on right now. I checked whether they were playing and not only were they this saturday but had organised an audacious evening of music at the academy single handedly. Impressive. Ambitious. The way forward for sure.

I was kind of in two minds whether to go like money wise, as I have a lot of gigs and festivals coming up not to mention blur and oasis at the start of next month. But I left a post on their last.fm and they kindly offered to put me on the guest list so I resolved to tell work i'd be finishing an hour early on saturday (and to SMahB's) and head over to cowley road, the epicentre of indie oxford.





















Babygravy/The vibe/Motor City shuffle/mr. Shaodow/G-block & Silecta @ Oxford 02 Academy 13/6/09

So I was going into this in a pretty good mood, the band are clearly nice people and have put in a hell of a lot of ground work to make this happen. In particular the drummer, zahra who set me up on the guest list and is pretty easy to get hold of if you want to book babygravy or they seem they'd be happy to chat with you if you were having a bad day! But i'm getting ahead of myself for their are many acts to be seen before I can even begin to pass comment on babygravy's live show...

Silecta

I don't know if it's right to call him the compere for the evening but if I were about to then i'd say he was a fine compere. Seriously though this guy was good, all night. He kicked off rapping ABOUT the evening and I couldn't tell whether it was a song or if he was just saying things, this happened quite a few times, he blended with the beat and rhythm that well and just seemed to have a natural poeticism in his speaking voice.

It all started off with unbeatable energy, helped in a large part to the group of like 3 or 4 dozen highschoolers who seemed to have access to a kind of enthusiasm us indielites could only dream of! But if this level of energy continued and infected the whole place then this was going to be a great night...

Motor City Shuffle

Now here's some guys wearing the same genre of shirt as me! After silecta left the stage it seemed like there was going to be a fairly short turn around and it turned out ot be sensationally quick. So far everything was seeming to be worked out to perfection.

They went straight into a high temp number which of course cued moshing, certainly think a slow song wouldn't have gone down too well it was catchy stuff though. Noticed more and more people filtering in as these guys proceeded. There was one track in particular that had really impressive lyrics, sort of from the semantic field of literature and writing. I'd imagine if I was sitting in a library and wanted to write this it wouldn't come out nearly as coherant. "I need a light" was a great track as was "wednesday". Great songs, both of which you can check out on their myspace.

Seemed to communicate well with the crowd despite not saying much in between songs but during people seemed to really be digging them and rightly so. Mr Brown was another good track. Could pretty much name their whole set list each song was that memorable. Playing a few more oxford dates this summer and i'd expect to see them at truck or indietracks next summer. Problem is they don't, as a few acts don't this evening, have a last.fm and it is kinda essential these days.

G-block

Before these guys come out silecta is out again being as charming as ever. Reminding us to hit up the merch stand and also to bag on old people, a favourite pass time of mine of course ;) Crowd seemed insanely excited for what was coming up next...

Starts off with a guy playing acoustic guitar, kinda unclear as to what is about to happen! First track was a little static but two more fellas hit the stage and things started jumping. One of the guys, wearing plaid with a badge, has a great laid back style. He just seemed to be ahead of the beat, I don't mean he was out of time lol I just mean he was controlling it seemed to be one step ahead lyrically. There were... alot of people in this group! So many going off and on stage that it was hard to keep up and I'm sorry I couldn't get everyone's name but credit to-D-Dot-Anger, Rawz, A-Star, OMC, El Capitan,Biscuit, Black Knight, N-Zyme, Precise and Goldline for making this a truly visceral experience and everyone up there seemed to be having a great time which was a pleasure to see.

They also gave out free cd's which is always a cool thing to do but man, the girl in front of me was a MAGNET for these things! First she got hit in the head by one, then she caught one, then another and gave it away, it was all rather impressive ha.

The Vibe

This band was YOUNG. Plus one of them had a guitar that lit up! What do I gotta do here?! Didn't notice until now but it was getting pretty packed. I felt like it would be worth the entrance fee to see what the hell this was gonna be like they are definately THE youngest band i've ever seen. The lead singer poppy, I must say, has incredible composure, leading these four guys well. She can shred and seemed relaxed in the rhythm, was highly impressive. Alfred on the synths was 'kin lovin it and the drummer surprisingly deliberate.

One track called messed up sounded like a proper track, coulda been by tegan and sarah or smoosh. Speaking of which it's hard to really not compare young female leads to smoosh before they mature and certainly resonates here. The last track had proper electro rhythm too they seem to know what they're doing, be interesting to see what comes of them on the oxford scene.

Also during this set I saw a kid shiftily going to buy condoms from the machine and two guys having a little dance off right in front of me! Ha, it was awesome but damn it was just that kinda atmosphere.

Mr Shaodow

Before Mr. Shaodow came on an old guy came onto talk about LMHR. I could tell he was old because he used "do" as a noun ha. Seriously though this is why I like the zodiac room in the academy because it does allow a forum for serious issues without really distracting from the music. This was where I first saw to write love on her arms. Obviously spoke about the recent gig in Stoke and about the BNP and it was good to see all us young folks united in opposition to such oppression. I heard someone say today "evil comes from good people not doing anything" so yeah obviously vote against the BNP.

So, Mr Shaodow. He played truck last year. I definately noticed people feeling this further and further back in the room and was starting to hope by the end of the night the room would be unified in one big fat dance off. They're way too cool alright.

After his first track he introduces this guy as being able to "rap about anything off the top of his head" and to be fair it was amazing! The subjects he was given were "horses, sex and cats" I recorded it on my phone but everything's being videod anyway and I missed out the best line at the end. grr. You gotta wonder though how much preparation you can put into freestyling but I think this guy just prepares by being awesome.

Shaodow though was hella impressive, glad I finally got to see him everyone was feeling it was a great time. Apparently Tim westwood, the big dog, says all us cats should be eating him up too ha though it is right that he's getting the attention his talent deserves. Check out his myspace for "are you stupid".

Babygravy

Kicked off with did it again which stats wise is their most popular track. The singer has a hugely powerful voice and jagged crystalline delivery. Drummer 'kin meant it tonight! Everybody's somebody. Bassist had huge control and worked well with the keyboards. Red eyes, infectious as ever. Not going away again. New track, could be their signiture tune. Bit gossip. Don't touch me ft. mr shaodow was about as sweet as fuck!

They go off but come back for the encore which was "you are where i am" yeah I know I said that the other track could be their sig but i 'kin love this track! It's got four stars on my ipod! Haunting, pumping, awesome.

_____________________________________________________________

It was still light outside when it finished but only because summer solstice is next weekend. Great atmosphere in the academy. And this whole straight edge thing is amazing, I go in and have fruit juice and come out even healthier than I went in and of course can truly appreciate the music and remember it all in the morning. Feels like i've been SxE my whole life :)

Driving back my main contemplation was over the organisation of the night and I was thinking if I organised a night like that that would be how I'd dream it would turn out. Of course i'd wake up and go there in the evening and no one would turn up lol but I'm sure babygravy are pleased with themselves. A huge success in my opinion, gives hope to all of us little guys.

Free mp3-
Babygravy- Set me on fire

3hive.com

3hive.com

It's difficult to know exactly what to say about 3hive, without gushing at least. It's a phenomenal site, probably the first music blog I became aware of around 2003. It would pretty much render all other music blogs obselete if it was as well known as the hype machine but it remains alot of people's favourite secret.

I discovered innumberable bands through this site but due to the sheer volume and consistancy and amount of (legal) mp3s on the site it's been impossible to keep up. You can navigate through artists, genre, labels you name it. It's an amazing tool for discovering your new favourite artist of the moment. Without them I may not have known say hi to your mom, !!!, all-girl summer fun band, imaginary baseball league or suburban kids with biblical names oh and up up down down left right left right B A start... of course I chose them all because they had awesome names and just turned out to be as cool.

I don't use the site as much as others for the simple reason that the amount of music on there is overwhelming like you don't know where to look and there's so many names you don't know that you start to question your very existence... Just check it out you'll see what I mean and hopefully find some new pet sounds.

Fanfarlo Reminder

I know i've said it a million times but seriously catch them while you can they're going to be humungous, love their sound, love their album... which btw they are selling for $1 until July 4th! Get on it- Resevoir

The baddies

I wrote about this band I caught at the dot to dot festival in bristol...

"9.15pm. Baddies @ The thekla Here it is. One of those reasons that all the effort is worth while and why I love live music. I sat down in an empty thekla bar with 15 minutes to spare. I was whacked I was pretty much ready to call it a day, no one else on the roster appealed to me enough to move another inch. Sitting there flounced over the couch people started to filter in and soon enough it was a healthy attendance, I wasn't interested I just wanted to lie down on this suprisingly comfortable leather couch. They kicked off and BAM. That was it the place was on fire, I was up, forgot my woes rocking out to such an event. The Baddies have about as much energy as a particle accelerator. Mesmerising. The front man was as unique as they come. The greatest thing about festivals like these was seeing word spread about these guys. Calls, texts and tweets declaring a happening. Seeing people walk in and realise this was huge was fantastic. They stormed through an action packed set, including the lead singer getting a tooth knocked out and seeking vengeance on a few members of the crowd. I stood around to indulge in the excited conversation before heading next door..."

And here's their bio, I found it kinda amusing but above all enlightening-

"Cast your minds back to January 2007… where were you? What were you doing? Well, if you’re name was Michael Webster (and let’s face it, your name probably isn’t that, but please… work with me okay) you were hatching a scheme, a fiendish plot, a devilish desire… to start DUN-DUN-DUUUUURRRGHHH… A BAND! Yes! A band with guitars and vocals and drums and bass. Holy mother of fucking shitballs! Mike had the guitar and vocals, so far so good… but where do you go from there? Well, if you were Mike you’d go to see your twin brother who just so happens to be a fricking awesome drummer and ask him and guess what? He said yes. Brilliant. But that’s not where the fantastic train stopped… no sirree bob, those Webster twins kept a right on rollin’ and they picked up a Simon Bellamy and a Danny Rowton on guitar and bass respectively. So that was nice.

So there they were. One. Two. Three. Four. And they called themselves Baddies. Not The Baddies, just Baddies. Got it? Good.

After quickly writing a batch of songs, Baddies had discovered that not only were they: (a) pretty darn good thank you very much, but they had (b) discovered their sound. Yep that’s right sound in italics. So what exactly is the sound of Baddies? Hmmm, right okay… well, imagine this… Talking Heads (Good) + Queens of The Stone Age (different, but also good) + being from Britain and all that entails (???) = the Baddies sound (its okay to say ‘the’ there I think?)

The band worked hard. They gigged. They recorded some tracks, “Tiffany, I’m Sorry” and “Battleships” and before long industry types heard them and got all hot and sexy at the very prospect of the band, and industry types love getting hot and sexy, don’t you?

Within months the band were in hot demand, everyone wanted a piece of that Baddies pie. ZOOM! They played Eurosonic in Holland. WHIZZ! They played London Calling in Holland, again! KABLAM! They played In The City in Manchester and shitting crikey they went down a storm! “I love them” said one guy, “Fuck me! That was good” said another. Which was great y’know, that’s what Baddies wanted all along, the diabolical little tinkers.

So what would you do? You’re in this band, everyone’s spaffing in their pants because you’re so damn good, where do you go next? You release a single right? Yeah, a single! On vinyl, limited to 500 copies and then you sell them all. Yeah sold out. Can’t get it any more. Sorry. But that’s not enough for Baddies, no no no. You make a video too right? Not a big expensive thing, just a little performance video. Film it, discretely put it out there… see what happens… get to number 1 on the MTV2 / Myspace chart with like zero promotion. That’s what you do if you’re Baddies anyway.

Now Baddies face the next phase, second single and then the debut album which Mike describes as “an insight into 'the struggle' of getting to where we are now."

I saw a lot of great bands that day and hear a lot of great bands every day but this is the one that's stuck with me, not since fanfarlo have I been as impressed/excited by a new band. They were in all those Bands to watch lists at the start of the year, not sure how I missed them but it all comes around and here's the only mp3 i've been able to get my e-hands on...

Baddies- I'm not a machine

New music (sonic youth/marina and the diamonds/cogwheel dogs/dum dum girls/client)

I now get a warning to remove the files which is great except i got like 7 on my last few posts so that was a little demoralising but it's better to have that than the whole blog removed and as you can see it's still been going pretty strong despite all this. Spread the word if you please.












Marina and the diamonds- Obsessions

I love polly scattergood at the moment, her beautious visage melded with lyrics from the darkest corners of a lunatic asylum. And this is the same reason I dig marina and the diamonds. This track is laden with secret stars like angst with her synesthesia infused vocals. Maybe the piano is a little simple but the pulsing of the percussion helps it on the journey that she's becoming pretty spectacular at creating.














Sonic Youth- Anti-Orgasm

Sonic Youth's new album is their first on the matador label, ending their 17-year long love affair with geffen. This track is all about the guitars, so much going on and very little repeated, solos all over the place, riffs riffing in and out of each other and feedback on the rhythm, it what weve come to expect in a way and it's where SY are at their best. "The tracks with the chick on are the best". This piece concludes with a dreamy outro, ambient sonic youth at their best. This album is a return to form.

















Client- Lullaby

Electronically and disco driven, robots in disguise influenced the pulse beat is fairly resounding in that the lyrics become a little background not that they're particularly meaningful. Bottom line is don't get this track if you want insightful, introverted lyrics just get if you dig synths and robot girl vocals, they're ok for sure... but also really, really hot.













Cogwheel Dogs- Ducking Stool

I found these two guys (M/F) on last.fm and the best thing about them is they sound like a full band. Layered vocals and harmonies, drums, guitars, cello... Well I say that's the best thing they're actually awesome in other ways too. I'll be following this band. The lyrical themes on this track are reminiscent of cloud cult as well as the delivery and some of the guitar parts sound so much like modest mouse it's heaven. They've got other free tracks on their last.fm so check them out.
















Dum Dum Girls- Longhair

This chick dee dee is very riot grrrl. Defining herself “blissed out buzzsaw”, she concentrates more on making the music as low-fi and fuzzed up as is bearable before dulling that out and switching it to the vocals. It's all very intelligently layered and being self-produced she really knows what works well with her sound and knows how to get it. It all sounds like something you'd hear if you fell asleep due to sunstroke at a music festival in one of the less populated band tents and realised what you were hearing is in your head.

Shuffle Wednesday

Hannah fury- Untitled

Only a minute long, I assume it's either the first or last track... or one of the ones in the middle of her album... charmingly named "through the gash". It beings off ambient before













Red Hot Chili Peppers- Lovin and touchin

38 seconds. This is all beginning to get very brief. This track from freaky styley has AK saying sentences that sound like lovin and touchin, for example kissing and hugging, fondling and moaning... you get the idea.













Air France- Collapsing at your doorstep

I think I've already posted this track on here but not written about it. It's heavenly. It has a repeated sound clip, possibly from a movie, "sorta like a dream" "no... better" and with the dreamy instrumental and strings and "tomorrow's at your door" from the Sarah Cracknall part of Swedish band AF, who describe themselves as "beach foam pop" it's all pretty spectacular and blissful. Sorta like a dream. No. Better.














Boat- (I'm a) Donkey for you love

I got this track from a "best of 2007" compilation on some random blog, since then boat which I think they are called now rather than B.O.A.T have become quite well respected. This track starts off with John Lennon's "I told you about strawberry fields" from glass onion and I'm like... Yeah if we all put beatles lyrics in our songs, result but also a bit lazy as that made me like this song instantly, it's like loving someone just for the way they look. The rest of the track is all over the place, samples, the lyrics are stacatto and a lot of ba ba bas... in other words catchy as fuck.













Bright Eyes- the difference in the shadows

"Now that it's june, we'll sleep out in the garden. And if it rains, we'll just sink into the mud" As ever I needn't write anything except his lyrics because he lets them speak for themselves. Conor starts of quiet here, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar before the drums kick in along with mike mogis' country slide thing. It gets more intense half way through before getting really intense but with beautiful words. Pretty much everything you'd expect from the nebraskian, particularly on letting of the happiness as this is.












Nirvana- Something in the way (MTV Unplugged Live)

The legendary MTV live session, every track haunting as ever, it's all so sparse; the guitars, the drums but the vocals resound like your favourite ghost. There's not much I can say about Nirvana that hasn't been. Great track, great session, great band. Obviously download this and the rest of the album if you haven't heard it and if you don't have much nirvana go get all their stuff!






















The Long Blondes- Once and never again (Singles version)

I loved this when I was younger before I played it to death, I just loved the rhythmic percussion in it. That's the version on "someone to drive you home" this version is live, infinately rawer. I really dig the long blondes, click on their name down the bottom to see my post on them.

Every now and then...

I find something that I think's awesome but obviousl;y doesn't fit on this blog but still want it on here so hide it in the deep dark recesses of past months so someone might accidentally stumble on it and be like wtf...

So some guy cleaning his teeth at the chelsea man u game yesterday :D



*Sparkle Sparkle!!*

Dot to Dot festival (Bristol) 23.5.09

The Dot to Dot Festival is a one day festival in bristol and the next day in nottingham featuring around 50 artists and bands in 5 venues over the area. It's like camden crawl but without the expensive tickets, queues and pretentiousness.

I know usually I'd say what I was doing and stuff leading up to this but this is going to be an epic review so open your minds to new music and- bam...

2pm. Official Secrets Act @ The fleece

You get your wristband, map, line-up etc about an hour before it kicks off so you have time to make an educated decision on where to go first. I chose the official secrets act for I had blogged about them a week prior and had good things to say. This has been slightly tarnished now for they apparently cancelled! When I found this out I had about 10 minutes to get to...

2.15pm. "Special Guests" @ Louisana

So I run 2 miles to the louisana to see the special guest. From experience this is either someone awesome opening up the festival (it's the only special guest the entire weekend) or someone they've just bunged on at the last minute.

Well let me tell you I was sweating balls by the time I got there, drunk after drinks with my bro earlier and hot... not in a co-ed spring break way but an uncomfortable self-conciousness leading to more sweating kinda way.

There was a bit of a buzz about this carpeted, curtained, well decorated, could be a living room venue so I was hoping for the best. Turns out to be one guy from a band called "farthing wood" just him and a guitar oh, and a guy on the glockenspiel. I can't say anything too bad about the performance which is a plus but after listening to the band on last.fm I can say this guys way better on his own.

Towards the end people started to filter upstairs, I figured this was to see...

3.15. Marina and the diamonds. Louisana

I was looking forward to seeing her cos she's amazing, unfortunately it wasn't to be. Another cancellation. i didn't stick around to see the replacements because there was a huge up and comer back at the fleece...

3.20. Gran Ronde @ The fleece

So once more I RAN back to the fleece. To hear a californian band I compared to the early works of the killers in time for the lead off single from their new album. Absolutely immense. Around 100 people, all digging the hell out of it. They turned that this rustic, sunday night venue into a proper venue. What a killer sound though. After seeing them I can only heighten their reccomendation.

3.40. Flashguns @ Thekla

The thekla is a unique venue. In that it's a boat. Yeah. So I headed to see whatever band was on there as there wasn't anything I was planning on seeing there later. This was in the bar part of the thekla, a smaller room that later on that evening would be the setting for the most memorable performance i've seen in recent times. The place was packed, the band were mental, I didn't stick it out.

4.30pm. Rogues @ The Academy2

The Rogues were reccomended to me by a guy outside of the first venue so I headed back to the academy that I first visited in 2005 to see the young knives in the upstairs room. It was a long time ago but still looked exactly the same which was nice. Also the next venue is right near it so pretty sweet deals.

I caught the end of Tommy O'Reilly (the winner of indie idol or whatevs on T4). A modest sized crowd. I only heard one song but he plays guitar like a 12 year old i.e. bass plucks, open strings, has a hard on for palm mutes. I think all his songs are about love.

The crowd upstairs slowly but resoundingly filtered in and by half way through was rather impressive. One track in particular stood out "under the red sun". Between songs they used recorded effects to add atmosphere. I can give little more desription as I was sitting down at the back, whacked.

5pm. Mumford and sons @ The academy

Fortunately the next act I was due to see was downstairs. They were brilliant. The only bad thing I could possibly say is that they are a bit country, yeah but this in the same way that the decemberists are! They PACKED the academy it was like a 9pm headline slot despite it being only being tea time o'clock. Musically and lyrically the whole place was into it, especially this one guy, damn I wish i'd videotaped him- BEAMING he was! These guys will get a whole blog to themselves very soon. Brilliant. The set closer was incredible but I had to shoot off right after see nme hyped girls...

5.35pm. Girls @ The cooler

The final venue out of them all and it's an awkward one. Narrow but with raised standing areas towards the back so even if it's packed out you can see. These guys were insane. Acid rock. Stonercore. I headed back to the academy pretty quickly...

6pm. Cage the elephant @ The academy

An actual queue here. I skipped due to being awesome/not having a bag lol.

CTE were fairly riotous from the get go. Very middle america frat party rock but yeah you know that's good times. One thing was that they reminded me of rooney to such an extent that it was hard to remember you weren't watching them. Very much a party band, enjoyed but wouldn't make a trip especially. Good atmosphere.

6.45. Mission District @ Academy2

This was the first band I hit that I knew zero about. Just a short jaunt upstairs where they were kicking off. They were nice. Definately one of those bands I secretly dig. In the style of the rocket summer and other summery emo pop bands. Definately gonna check them out.

7.30pm Patrick Wolf @ the academy

It was at this point I realised that I'd only ever heard this guy on record. Most of the time it doesn't occur to me to check out what an artist might look like but I definately realised why each of the numerous times he'd been reccomended to me none of those had been guys.

He really did blow the place up though, real control over the stage and audience. So androgynous it was confusing :p

8.30pm. The pains of being pure at heart @ the cooler

Tricky one. My feet and butthole really hurt. Plus I had no money. You know these guys have been hyped to the heavens for months now. They seemed nice, I didn't stick around too long, one of these reasons being that the cooler is an uncomfortable venue. I'll give the record another listen before I see them in oxford next week.

9.15pm. Baddies @ The thekla

Here it is. One of those reasons that all the effort is worth while and why I love live music.

I sat down in an empty thekla bar with 15 minutes to spare. I was whacked I was pretty much ready to call it a day, no one else on the roster appealed to me enough to move another inch. Sitting there flounced over the couch people started to filter in and soon enough it was a healthy attendance, I wasn't interested I just wanted to lie down on this suprisingly comfortable leather couch.

They kicked off and BAM. That was it the place was on fire, I was up, forgot my woes rocking out to such an event. The Baddies have about as much energy as a particle accelerator. Mesmerising. The front man was as unique as they come.

The greatest thing about festivals like these was seeing word spread about these guys. Calls, texts and tweets declaring a happening. Seeing people walk in and realise this was huge was fantastic.

They stormed through an action packed set, including the lead singer getting a tooth knocked out and seeking vengeance on a few members of the crowd. I stood around to indulge in the excited conversation before heading next door...

10.10pm Kid British @ The Thekla MainStage

I can't imagine a gig being any more FUN than what this group bring, such a visceral, eclectic sound with each member bringing their own personality to the furore. Rock, reggage, rap, killer times. I'm definately going to see these chaps again.

______________________________________________________

And so that was that, I headed home. The hold steady weren't due to play til after midnight so I thought it best to call it a day, working in the morning and all. It was such a drive back though, I mean i'd been rocking out 10 hours, running in between venues in searing heat. Halfway back I had to take a nap in someones driveway! Still, definately going to be a mainstay for me while i'm in england. Highly reccomended festival.

Tips for future dot2dotters- don't drink. don't bring a bag. add dot2dot on twitter to get live updates on cancellations, tips etc. Try and research vaguely where the venues are to save on shoe leather and to reserve your energy for rocking your face off. See you in 2010.

We are the bands that you'll come to love soon (2009)

A weird mix of an album. It has the beatles, modest mouse, the kinks, ash and simon & Garfunkel on one cd. Thing is if you're not into many of these bands already this is a great download...

Tracklist:

01 the monkees - i'm a believer
02 the kinks - david watts
03 the wake - here comes everybody
04 the beatles - no reply
05 jonathan caws elwitt - come in the evening
06 television personalities - sooty's disco party
07 let's wrestle - my schedule
08 le days - blood red heart
09 oh sweet music! - oh, daniel
10 sunset rubdown - idiot heart
11 the bear quartet - portrait painter
12 ash - return of white rabbit
13 modest mouse - satellite skin
14 placebo - for what it's worth
15 hockey - learn to lose
16 moofish catfish - at the club
17 she wants revenge - i don't want to fall in love
18 one - the slaughterer's girl
19 le voyage dans la lune - geoffrey ingram
20 simon & garfunkel - sound of silence

Download link:
*Removed*

Blalocks Indie/Rock Playlist (June 2009)

Download Link: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2645212

1. (00:03:51) Elvis Perkins - 1 2 3 Goodbye
2. (00:05:23) Hopewell - 10,000 Black Masses (Part I)
3. (00:03:13) Phoenix - 1901
4. (00:02:43) Owen - A Trenchant Critique
5. (00:02:35) Bright Brown - Are You Listening?
6. (00:03:10) Lacrosse - We Are Kids
7. (00:04:12) Jack Penate - Be The One
8. (00:04:55) Macha - Believe
9. (00:03:43) Paul and The Patients - Blogspot
10. (00:03:30) Peter Gabriel - Book Of Love
11. (00:05:58) The Flaming Lips - Borderline (Madonna)
12. (00:03:01) Green Go - Brains For Breakfast
13. (00:02:53) Go To Berlin - Call Of Duty
14. (00:03:14) Flunk - Cigarette Burns
15. (00:03:06) Lisa Mitchell - Coin Laundry
16. (00:03:18) The xx - Crystalised
17. (00:03:21) Magic Arm - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
18. (00:03:24) Eulogies - Day to Day
19. (00:05:12) 6pm - Deadbeat
20. (00:03:25) Ape School - Deathstomp
21. (00:03:34) Raised By Robots - Dinner Pill
22. (00:02:56) Chris Garneau - Dirty Night Clowns
23. (00:04:01) The Sounds - Dorchester Hotel
24. (00:03:50) Nick Sheqz - Everything Nothing
25. (00:03:03) When I Was 12 - Explicit Content
26. (00:03:09) Faunts - Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.
27. (00:04:11) Kasabian - Fire
28. (00:03:00) Fanfarlo - Fire Escape
29. (00:02:51) Coeur de pirate - Fondu au noir
30. (00:03:56) Ok Vinyl - Gap
31. (00:04:21) The Peekers - Gather It All
32. (00:04:44) Cara Beth Satalino - Good Ones
33. (00:04:03) Modest Mouse - Guilty Cocker Spaniels
34. (00:02:58) Dios Malos - Hermit (F.Y.P. Cover)
35. (00:03:37) Firewater - Hey Clown
36. (00:03:18) Mimicking Birds - Home & Somewhere Else
37. (00:03:31) Owl City - Hot Air Balloon
38. (00:04:05) Plushgun - How We Roll
39. (00:12:39) IAMX - I Am Terrified
40. (00:04:34) Home Video - I Can Make You Feel It
41. (00:03:12) Wave Machines - I Go I Go I Go
42. (00:04:38) Crocodiles - I Wanna Kill
43. (00:03:33) Aaron Stout - Ice Cream Man
44. (00:03:04) Built By Snow - Implode Alright
45. (00:05:19) Seasons - India
46. (00:03:27) Neils Children - Indifference is Vital
47. (00:03:45) Salim Nourallah - It's Not Enough
48. (00:03:15) Regina Spektor - Laughing With
49. (00:03:59) Passion Pit - Little Secrets
50. (00:02:30) Joie De Vivre - Local Local
51. (00:03:36) Yeti Lane - Lonesome George
52. (00:02:01) Crystal Stilts - Love Is a Wave
53. (00:03:15) The Maccabees - Love You Better
54. (00:02:02) Kelsey Brown - My Fair Lady
55. (00:04:10) The Burning Hotels - My New Romance
56. (00:03:14) And Selby Jase - My Pills and My Slack
57. (00:03:22) Cryptacize - Mythomania
58. (00:04:05) Dinosaur Bones - N.Y.E.
59. (00:02:26) Benjamin E. Morsberger - Near
60. (00:01:30) The Bicycles - One Twist Too Much
61. (00:03:48) Here We Go Magic - Only Pieces
62. (00:03:55) Discovery - Osaka Loop Line
63. (00:03:09) Dananananaykroyd - Pink Sabbath
64. (00:03:52) The Meligrove Band - Planets Conspire
65. (00:04:08) The Old Ceremony - Plate Tectonics
66. (00:02:27) An Horse - Postcards
67. (00:03:31) Florence and The Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
68. (00:04:38) New Villager - Rich Doors
69. (00:03:49) Trip - River Phoenix
70. (00:01:54) Marmaduke Duke - Rubber Lover
71. (00:02:06) Telekinesis! - Rust
72. (00:02:09) Sonic Youth - Sacred trickster
73. (00:05:03) GIVERS - Saw You First
74. (00:21:39) Blank Dogs - Setting Fire To Your House
75. (00:03:50) Mika Miko - Sex Jazz (extended)
76. (00:03:25) Director - Sing It Without A Tune
77. (00:03:24) Magic Magic - Sleepy Lion
78. (00:02:44) Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work
79. (00:05:26) Deastro - Spritle
80. (00:03:19) Little Birdy - Summarize
81. (00:03:44) Think About Life - Sweet Sixteen
82. (00:03:56) Harlem Shakes - TFO
83. (00:06:36) The Phantom Band - The Howling
84. (00:02:53) The Paper Chase - The Laying Of Hands
85. (00:03:32) Elevator Music - The Rocketeer
86. (00:03:38) The Tallest Man On Earth - These Days
87. (00:01:58) Coconut Records - This Old Machine
88. (00:05:17) The Barlights - Ticking
89. (00:04:06) The Gathering - Treasure
90. (00:02:50) Datarock - True Stories
91. (00:04:03) Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
92. (00:04:46) Foreign Born - Vacationing People
93. (00:03:36) Data Dog - Wall Kicks Will Work
94. (00:04:59) The Thermals - We Were Sick
95. (00:03:26) Record Of The Week Club - Keewatin Arctic
96. (00:04:07) telegraphs - What's So Good About Goodbye?
97. (00:05:13) Cymbals Eat Guitars - Wind Phoenix
98. (00:04:49) Yellow Tricycle - Yellow tricycle
99. (00:03:22) We Have Band - You Came Out
100. (00:03:39) William - Youngun

'nuff said ;)

The Rumble Strips- Welcome to the walk alone

Track List:
01. Welcome To The Walk Alone 2:44
02. London 3:10
03. Not The Only Person 2:21
04. Daniel 2:58
05. Douglas 2:38
06. Back Bone 3:11
07. Sweet Heart Hooligan 1:53
08. Running On Empty 2:27
09. Dem Girls 2:55
10. Raindrops 3:49
11. Happy Hell 3:23

Download Link:
http://hotfile.com/dl/4986213/272f135/The_Rumble_Strips-Welcome_To_The_Walk_Alone-_Advance_-2009-DV8.rar.html

Last.fm Hype List

This is more of an experiment that anything else. You're all probably aware of the last.fm charts they have coldplay and radiohead all over them. Each week last.fm records the highest improvement in plays and listeners over the course of the last 7 days in a list called the "hype list". In the past i've seen it full of music from south korea and lady gaga clones but I saw some
interesting names in there today and wanted to give it one more and maybe a final shot...











Elizabeth and the catapult

From new york the lead singer is called elizabeth so she's named the band after herself, which of course is not cool. They claim to be a mixture of jazz, pop and funk which seems to be a trend in popular music these days "these guys are fresh they're a mix of slap-funk, sunshine-happy-handclap and death-star-facefuck". The singer herself is very much like sara bareilles, but without the red hair :( It's really easy to listen to in that the lyrics aren't pop enough to be annoying but also not profound enough to have any lasting effect.

Download: Rainiest day of summer. It's nice and melancholy, very dark feist. It's the least listened of their available tracks, which says alot about what they're being marketed as.











The boy will drown

I think the definition for this is "deathcore"... I'm thinking these guys could be pioneers in the new genre of shitcore though. Unfortunately I didn't make the latter up myself. So they're experimental music wise and have that shouty man voice that all the other bands have. So yeah this happens a hell of a lot on the hype chart, ridiculous, loud, shouty, deathmetal bands. I probably wouldn't waste your time.

Codes in the clouds

O.K A great name, I like it. Turns out they're instrumental though, I like band names that go with their music and this sure does but I'm just not a huge fan of instrumental bands I am not of the opinion that this is the classical music of the 21st century but rather that these guys don't have the balls to say anything important and instead are wasting your time by "jamming out" at you. They're playing the jericho soon with another instrumentalist by the name of "message to bears" who does paint quite inspiring pictures with his music.

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I've looked through the rest of the list and with the exception of bands that people should already know (soft pack, magistrates) it's a whole lot of BS. Ah damn I don't even want to post this blog now but I have to explore all the avenues to find great stuff just sometimes it's not always there.

So yes. In conclusion. The last.fm hype list is supergay.

New Music from Old Bands

Manic Street preachers- Vision Blurred

The manic's sure love a bandwagon! Remember when they got the welsh one from I'm a celebrity get me out of here to sing on a track? Ah ok i'm needlessly bagging but they're already covering horrors' songs?! Everyone makes out MSP are some sort of god-like-genius'... none more so than nme who gave them that award last year ha. I saw them live in 2007 (supporting foo fighters) and it made me think maybe blur shouldn't reform if it's going to be like this!

Maybe I should mention the music though right!? Screeching guitars (probably with that pretty boy pouncing around the stage). Let's define a cover- making a song your own. Let's anylyse this- a track that didn't even make it onto another bands album which you've managed to make sound like every single other song you've ever done but also keeping in mind you wish you were u2... Well there ya go I think you've done it again fellas.










Ash- Return of the white rabbit

Couple of things about ash- healining the truck festival this summer which is awesome as I loved all their old stuff but then they decided to do a radiohead and give away their album online. That didn't have the same impact so they've decided to "revolutionise the music industry" release one single a month for the next year. I think this is a good idea as suuuurely that means they're gonna have like a solid month to make each track awesome rather than having recorded an album and just are releasing it like that. If it's the former, that's actually quite cool.

Speaking of cool, this track is just that. The music's great, the bass and keyboards rhythmically pumping this track forward with a resounding chorus. It sounds like this track will go down fantastically live and hopefully a sign of what they're about now. It's a great track, instant 3 stars on my ipod.













The Lemonheads- Dirty Robot Ft. Kate Moss

Kate Moss' singing career eh? First Le Belle Et le ete with Pete which I thought was a nice track as beautifully shambolic that album was and now teaming up with Evan Dando on their new covers album "varshons". It lists them as sleeping together on whatever "NNDB" is?! Ah god you've gotta hate the modern world.

The song in itself, sounds like it could have been made by that band from the mighty boosh. Synths, robot singing, trying to sound like the future you name it it's all there. It's really nice to have new lemonheads but... this isn't exactly lemonheads is it?! Like having seen them live i'm like are they even playing on this record?! Maybe the robot man is E.D. either way- the track- once you've stopped listening to it you will have "i'm a dirty robot" stuck in your head for a bit (I wrote hair there originally... messy) so I guess they've hit one demographic.

















The Twang- Another Bus

I've always been a little racist against scottish bands that sound like they're from scotland. Which is fortunate in a way as the twang are from birmingham... But also unfortunate as I'm racist against brummies in the same way :P Neither people from birmingham or scotland are races so I can say what I want and you can't get mad!

But I love bands that give away songs for free, it gives you a taste of the album that will hopefully make you want to add the whole album to your ipod. It does cause tagging issues sometimes but that's surely the only bad thing.

The track has that twingly dreamy guitar in the background ala silversun pickups and the vocals are certainly in the region of just saying things that go along with the music and not worrying about using cliches "we never really try" "I guess we'll never know" "somethings are better left alone" like, this is unimaginative sure but if you just let the track pass through you it's actually quite nice.
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O.K well 4 new tracks and one that is gonna get a good few listens on my ipod. I call that a result as I have 21000 tracks on there and around 1,100 are rated so that's above average. Kinda bullshit in a way but I'll try and weed them out further in the future for you guys. Hope you're liking this months Indie/Rock Playlist from Blalock.

To write love on her arms #2

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Here comes the serious bit Pt. II















Probably don't read if you don't want to know how emotionally insecure i am uh- lol

So I wrote about TWLOHA a little while ago and the main focus was rocket summer, I wanted to give a shout out to all the other bands that help out the society. I still don't talk about it but I know i'm going to have to start soon, fact of the matter is in the past few years i've had a parent and a friend commit suicide, the former on my birthday and the latter the same day I was in a car accident, two friends die in seperate car accidents, my grandad and aunt die, and when I try to list them all like this I forget some because I've blocked it all out and it comes out through self-harm. But recently i've been going through hard times and even when I tried to take a break I couldn't escape myself. I feel like I've had my last drink as that was just another way of hurting myself. I'm done with all that, I just want to be healthy and not feel like this.

Anberlin- Audrey Start the revolution
Paramore- We were born for this
Copeland- No one really wins balls
Rocket Summer- Cross my heart
Bayside- Just enough to love you

I have so much more respect for the people at gigs drinking fruit juice than the people drinking beer, sweating and making out with strangers and I know this used to be me but the feeling that I felt was so profound that I feel like I wouldn't even consider doing this again, I want to be all I can be.

(Bombay Bicycle Club- Always Like This)

Best of May

Kinda sounds like best of mates so that's nice. The TWLOHA blog will be tomorrow instead, didn't realise the date. I guess also this is unique as i've been so busy this month and also the computer's been broken so it's amazing i've been able to blog as much as i have. I've just amassed these and not found time to post them on the blog so these are all fresh, hopefully a few will be on blalock's indie/rock playlist, make sure you check it out...

Wave machines- i go i go i go
regina spektor- laughing with
phantom band- the howling
dizee rascal- bonkers
iggy pop- king of the dogs
grizzly bear- Two weeks
blank dogs- setting fire to your house
miko miko- sex jazz
loop- the nail will burn
Greenday- before the labotomy
junior boys- dull to pause
marmaduke duke- everybody dance
maximo park- overland, west of suez
patrick watson- big bird small cage
Phoenix- lisztomania
kid congo- i found a peanut
manic street preachers- peeled apples
john vanderslice- too much time
Graham Coxon- Humble man
jarvis cocker- angela