Wednesday 28 October 2009

Outroversion's Halloween Mixtape

Oh MAN do I love halloween! Not because you get to dress up and people have fun with candy and you get to see this picture again but cos it's all dark and creepy :)

My favourite halloween song is this. I don't know who it's by but it's on my ipod under "halloween" and I called it "do you believe in the boogeyman" the genre is probably acid house or something but I love it!

I mean you probably know by now i'm not into pop music so when i'm talking about halloween music I don't mean the monster mash. I'm talking haunting songs that genuinely unnerve you and make you feel uncomfortable in your own skin :)

haha the smiley faces take on a whole new meaning in this post.

There are some great rock songs that fit here. Feed my frankenstein by alice cooper and Red Right Hand by nick cave is a perennial inclusion in every modern day horror movie but nothing niche. Xiu Xiu's bunny gamer is included here, it'll follow you around like a demon for real.

My whole reason for this post is so I have more halloween music to listen to each year rather than just that one no matter how awesome it is. Originally I was just going to post up a few halloween songs to set the mood but, you may also have noticed i'm a bit obsessive about music and accidentally ended up putting loads of time and effort into it and have now made a Halloween Mixtape which isn't merely a bunch of awesome songs i've also ordered them to create a desired effect. Enjoy!


Tracklisting

Alice Cooper- Feed My Frankenstein
Nick Cave- Red Right Hand
O.Children- Dead Disco Dancer
Death In vegas- Aisha (Ft. Iggy Pop)
Dead man's bones- PaPaPower
Say Hi- Spiders
Xiu Xiu- Bunny Gamer
Halloween- Do you believe in the boogeyman?
Charlotte Gainsbourg- IRM
Evangelicals- The Halloween Song
Dead Man's bones- My body's a zombie for you!

That's pretty much it for the outroversion blog this month. The best of October will be up in a couple of days and then it's into November where we'll kill it. Happy Halloween!!

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Dead Man's Bones- Dead Man's Bones (2009)

I will remember them forever for soundtracking my halloween 2009! What an awesome and creepy album.



Dead man's Bones

1. Intro

2. Dead Hearts

3. In The Room Where You Sleep

4. Buried in Water

5. My Body's a Zombie for You

6. Pa Pa Power

7. Young & Tragic

8. Paper Ships

9. Lose Your Soul

10. Werewolf Heart

11. Dead Man's Bones

12. Flowers Grow Out of My Grave



Editors.






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A few days ago I was on twitter and got yelled at for not liking the editors that much before the latest album and indeed, for my inclusion of the definate article in their name.

I was persuaded to check out more of their old stuff. My main problem with "editors" was their first album came out post summer 2005 along with maximo park, hard-fi, ordinary boys- all of these bands that were orchestrated to english yobs and glastonbury goers, bloke rock. I should probably include the arctic monkey's in that list too.

Maximo park have matured into a fine enigmatic band in it for the long haul with a great live set up. I'm hearing the same sort of things about editors. I'm not sure what happened to the other bands I think I heard something about one of them growing their hair long?

Editors latest offering of 3 is the sound of a band having found their groove. Criticisms I've heard are "it sounds like the lead singer's been replaced by vic reeve's pub singer" and that "you don't know love" sounds like it would fit right in on Megaman II on the N.E.S. The latter I agree with but personally I think that's awesome!

So as I was saying, they've taken what worked on album one (Munich, Sparks and I suppose bullets) and dismissed what didn't click on album two and come up with a something distinctive which has put them on a par with some of the best around. I mean they're still in the same sort of genre as maximo park and arctic monkeys but it's not the worst place to be and it's not the same place they were 4 years ago.

Monday 26 October 2009

Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young [2009]




Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

Out Of The Blue
Left & Right In The Dark
11th Dimension
4 Chords Of The Apocalypse
Ludlow St.
River Of Brakelights
Glass
Tourist

Thanks to Whipple/Rebjukebox for D/L links

Sunday 25 October 2009

Fall Out Boy- Infinity on high (2007) [Albums you should own]

This is a review of a fall out boy album, not a discussion of broad socal trends...

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/f/fall-out-boy/album-infinity-on-high.jpg


Fall out boy- Inifinity on High (2007)

I bought this album in Canada on the stregnth of "... Arms race", a song I can barely listen to due to one night while we were pregaming with everything imaginable, I had this song on loop and me and the guys there just forgot that it was playing on loop while we were having good times and by the time we headed out we'd probably heard the song about 50 million times constantly for 6 hours and at the party we went to every song that was played just sounded like that song to me. It's a great track but that night is my definition of overkill!

Since then this album has turned into one of my favourites of modern times. As I mentioned during my Bright Eyes post Canada was full of amazing ups and downs and the music that soundtracked that was immense. I listened to this album in different moods, when I feel good, down, when I can't sleep, it's pretty versatile.

It kicks off with a Jay fucking Z intro, how cool?! The following song, Thriller, sets up the album perfectly rocky, angsty, all lovely and emo. Comfort! Jay Z closes that song and it kicks into another classic "The takeover, the break's over" oh yeah so the whole FOB ridiculously long song titles thing is a consistant theme here as well. Great changes of pace and Patrick Stump's vocals are as strong and versatile as ever.

The sixth track on the album "Golden" is just beautiful. Magnificent, isolating. It would be perfect to listen to on a cold, rainy, moonlit night in your car under a flickering streetlight after you'd been fired from your job, evicted from your apartment and served a restraining order... The progressive metronome at the end of the song is my favouroite thing in music ever.

"We only want to sing you to sleep through your bedroom speakers", it's like he sings on "Hum Hallelujah" "I can write it better than you ever felt it", like I can see why this band means so much to so many.

Album closer "I've got all this ringing in my ears and none on my fingers" (... yeah) is like when Dean Martin did medleys in vegas or the end of abbey road, a mixture of riffs and lines from earlier in the album blended into another song, it's really quite special.

I can't speak highly enough of this album.

So as ever the album is in the title under the album cover if you want the whole thing and i'll link the best tracks off the album at the end if you simply do NOT have time to listen to a whole album based purely on one guys opinion. Jeez. Either way you're missing out if you hadn't got it yet but make up for it it really is quite the masterpiece.

Thriller
Golden
The takeover, the break's over
I've got all this ringing in my ears and none on my fingers
This aint a scene it's an arms race

Friday 23 October 2009

Brand New- Daisy (2009)

Embrace your inner emo right? This album's been getting insanely good reviews condsidering the mixed responses to their past output. I feel the same way about this, some of it is great, Bed probably is the standout but some is reeeeal heavy, i'm surprised but glad people are embracing this. Enjoy.





Brand New- Daisy

1. Vices
2. Bed
3. At The Bottom
4. Gasoline
5. You Stole
6. Be Gone
7. Sink
8. Bought A Bride
9. Daisy
10. In A Jar
11. Noro

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Camera Obscura- Underachievers Please try harder (2003)

I didn't realise this album came out so recently. By that I mean I was listening to it before I went to university in 2004 and thought it was quite old! None the less I've always said that this is an album that will be in my top 100 albums of all time when I die. It's beautiful, it's shoegaze, I found out about them from a hot indie-hipster.

During my first year at university I was pretty lonely my girlfriend was far away, my dad was ill and i'd pay £40 returns every weekend to get the train back home and back before monday's classes. I stopped trying to make classes in the end when I knew I was going to university in north america the following year. Anyway I'd listen to this on the train journeys and it always comforted me and helped me relax as I was stressed as hell the whole time. My dad's no longer with us and I broke up with that girl but things work out don't they and when they do i'll still be listening to this album-



"The vocals are very beautiful and genuine. Overall, this record has an intimate bewitching beauty that drags you in with each listen. Upon first listen, it seems easy to say that you've heard this before"

~ Sircharliepalmer.blogspot.com

Camera Obscura- Underachievers Please Try Harder

Back up link

Also click on camera obscura below to see my other posts about them.

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar- One fast move or i'm gone [2009]

It's uninpressive especially the other guy but hey it's ben gibbard and you know you're curious...


Kerouac_cover_sticker[1].jpg

1. California Zephyr
2. Low Life Kingdom
3. Willamine
4. All In One
5. Breathe Our Iodine
6. These Roads Don’t Move
7. Big Sur
8. One Fast Move Or I’m Gone
9. Final Horrors
10. Sea Engines
11. The Void
12. San Francisco

Monday 19 October 2009

The Helio Sequence

It's been a couple of days but I wanted to leave the bright eyes blog up for a little bit cos let's fac it, it's epic.




The Helio Sequence

It's amazing that I haven't written about these guys at all. They're incredible. They've been around a while, I had them on my creative labs zen mp3 player when they were the size of small books and only held 30gigs, this was in 2003 and i've dipped in and out of them ever since which is a crime really as they deserve untold success.

Hailing from the seemingly bottomless pit of talent that is Portland, Oregon they're with sub-pop and broke through with "keep your eyes ahead". An album maybe not representative of the band's past sound due to Brandon Summers damaging his vocal chords and having to relearn how to sing. It's an amazing album but then so is love and distance, you should at the very least get them both.

To say these guys are talented would be to do a disservice but then to go into more detail would be to reel out an endless line of superlatives. The best way is probably to show you. They regularly play the beatles' tomorrow never knows live, this is a track the beatles didn't even play live. It's incredibly and shows mucianship that most bands these days could barely dream of grasping. Probably also bear in mind that the helio sequence are just two guys. And probably remember that the drum part and the tabbed guitar part were both reversed. Just watch eh-




Go ahead, you'll be leet for life.

The other
two albums

Saturday 17 October 2009

Bright Eyes. That is all.

It's around this time of year I listen to Bright eyes christmas album and, I don't know- I love bright eyes. I own most of his works on cd but I figured as an early gift or maybe for canadian thanksgiving i'd make sure no one was missing a beat, a phrase which thanks to MLIA makes me want to cheesegrate my face :)

I'm also going to repost a blog I did a while back, all the links to the albums are in it-

"I'm just listening to cassadega and having it remind me how amazing music is, I first heard of bright eyes while I was at oxford college and saw it on a guys shirt, the digital ash album cover of some dude being sick in a toilet, ha fuck me i'm funny *LINK SPLOOT*... Anyway the first album I downloaded was the christmas album, I was like... THIS i do not get... But then a buddy asked me if i knew them and I claimed to be emperor of bright eyes knowledge because I was super l33t back then. Nonetheless ashamed at my behaviour i decided to go out get all their music and lsiten to them from start to finish, beginning with "a collection of songs"... Once again i was like- THIS I do not fucking get! I dug invisible gardner, music wise. I liked how he didn't worry about singing but I'm definately not getting into this band... Cue me at university in the uk, hating it like balls, miserable, felt like listening to anything remotely emo, put my entire collection of bright eyes on my (then creative labs zen) mp3 player from start to finish, pretty much history from there, started listening to I'm wide awake in my room playing along on my guitar, went out that night and cheated on my girlfriend like a coward. I woke up the next morning and the lyrics to Lua and this guy was finally getting right through to my soul...

"Supplies are endless in the evening; by the morning they’ll be gone."
"The mask I polish in the evening, by the morning looks like shit"
"The love I sell you in the evening, by the morning won’t exist."
"what’s so easy in the evening, by the morning is such a drag"
"what was normal in the evening, by the morning seems insane"
"And I’m not sure what the trouble was that started all of this
The reasons all have run away but the feeling never did
It’s not something I would recommend, but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight, by the morning never is"

And pretty much from then on I listened to everything he said. I moved to canada (for the same girl) everything I discovered by him pretty much soundtracking the breakdown of my relationship with that girl. Anyway she was history and cassedega came out and it signified the future "It's not that often but I think of her sometimes, just something quaint, a couple of ships in the night". Also while I was living in that apartment, noise floor was bought out which are just obscure and forgotten bright eyes tracks which are still better than anything anyone else has ever done. Also I bought the live album while I lived there. Weird I remember being happy all the time turns out I was megaemo!

Now if i'm feeling down I put him on and it makes me feel better, "when I press the keys it all gets reversed, the sound of loneliness makes me happier".

So now, 2009, they're my favourite band, death cab have fallen away due to appaling quality of their output and Conor inspires me to think I can make music and that my words mean something. Just mind blowing how everything he's done has been incredible.

I was going to post about all my favourite albums but this just ended up being a big bright eyes love fest, i'll post a few amazing tracks for anyone who isn't one of conor's deciples yet."

chronological order.

Invisible Gardener- (From a collection of songs)
The Calender hung itself (From Fevers and Mirrors)
Lover I don't have to love (From Lifted, or the story in the soil)
Goldmine Gutted (From digital ash in a digital urn)
Lua (From I'm wide awake, it's morning)
Spent on rainy days (From Noise Floor : Rarities)
Lime Tree (From Cassadaga)

Hopefully those links are still up, I'll just post a link to all the albums here if you don't mind-

A CHRISTMAS ALBUM
A COLLECTION OF SONGS 95-97
LETTING OFF THE HAPPINESS
FEVERS AND MIRRORS
LIFTED
I’M WIDE AWAKE, IT’S MORNING
DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN
MOTION SICKNESS
NOISE FLOOR
CASSADAGA

thanks to strikeitgently.com for some of the links!

Friday 16 October 2009

The Northwestern- Telephones

Sometimes the mark of a great band is that you try to ignore them but they make it impossible to. In 2003 I tried to ignore bloc party, this was around 2 years before their debut album so you can imagine how relentless that was. I ignore them again now they've turned into some sort of beastie boys intergalactic wannabes but without the lyrics. However these guys, former members of hope of the states, from south east england ironically, seem to have something... you like the word tangeable? well i fucking hate it. Umm ha anyway in the same way that Stornoway look like being a career band because their sound is what sells them not just a couple of songs, these guys have got that too. However their double A-side single telephones and all the ones is SO good that they're going to have to keep delivering a pretty high level, i wouldn't bet against them.




Northwestern- Telephones

01 Telephones
02 All The Ones
03 Fire
04 Dark Houses

Foo Fighters- Wheels

Fo' Wheel

You know this is the first time i've mentioned foo fighters on this blog? weird.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Jupiter One- Sunshower (2009)

You know sometimes you hear someone and you think they're amazing but you thihnk you better not get carried away? I don't feel that here, I just think these guys are AMAZING. They're not new so it's not on a par with finding fanfarlo, my band of this year without a doubt, but these guys are without a doubt my band of this month and it's only half way through. That's like a band of the week four weeks in a row so yes, it is quite the accolate. Just get this album it's mind blowing, Flaming arrow is the track that will get you hooked but you won't be going any where after that.



























Jupiter One- Sunshower (2009)

Sunshower can be rare occurrence, but when these opposing forces meet, magic
and allure is in theair. This is exactly why the NYC-based rockers, Jupiter One, chose the title
(inspired by the Japanese short film Dreams by Akira Kurosawa) for their upcoming Ryko album. Their far-out freshness mixed with timeless musical inspirations mesh together in a bittersweet indie-pop rock concoction.

01. Volcano ( 3:53)
02. Lights Go Out ( 3:06)
03. Flaming Arrow ( 3:23)
04. Made In A Day ( 2:53)
05. Anna ( 3:21)
06. Simple Stones ( 4:32)
07. High Plains Drifter Finds The Oracle At Delphi ( 4:29)
08. Find Me A Place ( 3:34)
09. Come On ( 3:24)
10. Strange Teacher ( 4:04)
11. People In The Mountain, People Of The Ocean ( 1:49)

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Young Galaxy - Invisible Republic (2009)




01. Long Live The Fallen World
02. Oh Sister
03. Destroyer
04. Pathos
05. Light Years
06. Disposable Times
07. Dreams
08. Queen Drum
09. Smoke And Mirror Show
10. Firestruck

www.myspace.com/younggalaxy

Gus Black- Today is not the day to fuck with Gus Black [2008]



1. Today is Not the Day
2. Out on the Amsterdam
3. Love is a Stranger
4. Silent Films
5. Blood and Belonging
6. I've Been Trying to Pretend You Don't Exist
7. Little Prince Town
8. Can We Talk About This Tomorrow?
9. Variations on a Theme Called Honesty
10. I'm F#@ked
11. Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah, Hurray Hurray
12. One for the Arrow

Pass: sharedmp3.net

Mumford and sons- Sigh no more [2009]






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If you are not redirected automatically within a few
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Tracklist
1.Sigh No More
2.The Cave
3.Winter Winds
4.Roll Away Your Stone
5.White Blank Page
6.Gave You All
7.Little Lion Man
8.Timshel
9.Thistle & Weeds
10.Awake My Soul
11.Dust Bowl Dance
12.After The Storm

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Headlights- Wildlife (2009)

I've read a few opinions about this garnering it as a late entry for the album of 2009, it's fairly blissfull definately worth a download and a good few listens-





Headlights- Wildlife (2009)


Last.fm

01. Telephones 4:08
02. Secrets 3:24
03. You And Eye 3:42
04. Get Going 2:38
05. Love Song For Buddy 3:15
06. I Don't Mind At All 3:48
07. Dead Ends 3:49
08. Wisconsin Beaches 3:18
09. We're All Animals 5:06
10. Teenage Wonder 3:40
11. Slow Down Town 5:25

Curb your enthusiasm

I LOVE curb your enthusiasm! It's back and you can watch all the new episodes here on strikeitgently.com which is an amazing blog i discovered the other day!

Monday 12 October 2009

Hearing Damage

http://www.thecanonlogic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/twilight-thom.jpg



Hearing damage

I've not gotten into these vampire things at all like everyone else but nor did i harry potter. Like I'd LOVE to but there's something that doesn't click with me like I like books and movies to be feasable and have some sort of scientific reasoning behind it if there is a supernatural element.

Like Harry potter, he's a wizard because he learned it at school and his dad had sex with a witch or something right? Well neither of those things exist like documented druids which are essentially what wizards are are so called because of their creativity at harnessing the healing power of the world around them it's not like a god given gift. Now if they'd said harry potter just learned it at school then i could've dug that but they went too far.

Now vampires, if there was documentation of people being bitten by bats or wolves and developing a taste for blood i would be ALL OVER that unforunately this isn't the case...

I'm from oxford and yet I give thom yorke a hard time. I dig this track, check it out babies.

Hey Monday!

These are my new favourite band (of the week) I had their album on my ipod for some reason but I was hooked like a first time freebaser...

So yeah the lead singer's a bit of an emo hottie, you gotta love em right, so yeah there's the paramore comparison but you secretly love paramore anyway so get over it and check em out-








HOLD ON TIGHT!!!

1. Set Off
2. How You Love Me Now
3. Homecoming
4. Obvious
5. Candles
6. Run, Don't Walk
7. Josey
8. Hurricane Streets
9. Arizona
10. Should've Tried Harder
11. 6 Months

I also just found out i missed them playing live in oxford the other day and now want to shoot myself IN the face.

Music Go Music- Expressions [2009]




Music Go Music- Expressions [2009]

Tracklist :
1.- I Walk Alone (3:30)
2.- Thousand Crazy Nights (3:47)
3.- Light Of Love (5:15)
4.- Reach Out (6:17)
5.- Explorers Of The Heart (3:47)
6.- Love, Violent Love (4:50)
7.- Just Me (4:46)
8.- Warm In The Shadows (9:41)
9.- Goodbye, Everybody (4:49)


Thanks to DaKrahda for the link

Sunday 11 October 2009

The drums- Summertime EP





THE DRUMS - Summertime EP

Tracklist
01 Best Friend
02 Down By The Water
03 I'll Never Drop My Sword
04 Let's Go Surfing
05 Man And The Moon
06 Submarine
07 I Felt Stupid
08 Instruct Me

Much hyped, 2009's answer to the beach boys.

Thanks to Rebjuekbox for the link!

Clap your hands say yeah

I know this is from likeeeeeee years ago but a hell of a lot of people have been saying they sound like fanfarlo, well they said it the other way round but then I broke their face :)






Clap your hands, say yeah!

1 Clap Your Hands!
2 Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away
3 Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)
4 Sunshine and Clouds (And Everything Proud)
5 Details of the War
6 The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
7 Is This Love?
8 Heavy Metal
9 Blue Turning Gray
10 In This Home on Ice
11 Gimmie Some Salt
12 Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood

Saturday 10 October 2009

Lights- The listening (2009)

I saw this lot while looking through the gig listings in kerrang and the girl was super hot, they're one of those female fronted goth metal bands sorta things but upon listening they're a bit like the softer side of paramore, still like it a bit though..





Lights- The listening

1. Saviour
2. Drive My Soul
3. River
4. The Listening
5. Ice
6. Pretend
7. The Last Thing On Your Mind
8. Second Go
9. February Air
10. Face Up
11. Lions!
12. Quiet
13. Pretend (remix)
Plus the iTunes Bonus Tracks
14. Up Up and Away
15. Saviour (Colin Munroe’s Unsung Mix)

Friday 9 October 2009

New vampire weekend and Scarlett Johanssen

Vampire Weekend- Horchata

VW started a countdown at www.ithinkyoureacontra.com on monday which concluded at 7pm BST and resulted in the above track being posted. Ezra has high praise for this track saying it uses groundbreaking techniques and the such, I heard it when I go back from a gig that night and didn't know quite what to think.

Scarlett Johanssen and Pete Yorn- Relator

Some people may be aware Scarlett Johanssen released an album of Tom Wait covers last year, i've listened to it a couple of times and haven't quite gotten what it was getting at. This track however she is phenomenal on, it's beautiful, call it a preview of the november IRP cos this is the best i've found this month.

****** Yeah i've probably spelled her name wrong but how should I know? ********

O.K I lied [: (Stardeath and white dwarfs- the birth)

This was one of my most highly anticipated albums of the year-



Tracklist:

1. The Sea Is on Fire
2. New Heat
3. Keep Score
4. The Birth
5. Those Who Are from the Sun Return to the Sun
6. I Can’t Get Away
7. The Age of the Freak
8. Country Ballad
9. The March
10. Smokin’ Pot Makes Me Not Want to Kill Myself

Thanks to Josh Blalock for the link :D

Thursday 8 October 2009

A couple of links :)

Captain crawl picked up my blog the other day after hype machine have been idiots about it for months and months so I wanted to link back to them cos it makes it all a bit worth it. The way it works is the same as the hype machine but instead of linking to piddly one tracks that are down half the time it links to whole albums and isn't super gay.

And obviously as y'all know i'm involved in the indie rock playlist. You should join up. Would be a great help if you could so please take the time, for me :D

http://gewgul.com/

I think anytime I spend on the net not reading MLIA is a waste of time buttt

Seeing fanfarlo tonight, i'm writing this on monday as I write most posts in advance oh right the secret's out :9





Mumford and sons- Sigh no more (2009)


1.Sigh No More
2.The Cave
3.Winter Winds
4.Roll Away Your Stone
5.White Blank Page
6.Gave You All
7.Little Lion Man
8.Timshel
9.Thistle & Weeds
10.Awake My Soul
11.Dust Bowl Dance
12.After The Storm

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Bert, Ernie and Harry Potter

I don't feel great today, these are a couple of my favourite youtube vids

Bert and Ernie rapping to some song-



Harry potter puppet pals and the mysterious ticking noise-



A little speech about john vanderslice by some guy-



When college jocks get lonely and bored-



and i love jake and amir-



So I guess this wasn't totally about music but I think this post had to be done eventually, this is the kind of stuff my mind likes on youtube.

Pretty Lights Album

Just so "urrbody" knows you can DL the album for free here- www.prettylightsmusic.com/

Tuesday 6 October 2009

whispering dj on the radio, "i'm not your favourite lover"

A certain bands entire discography.

Just get it. Thankfully it doesn't have the open door ep on it, nobody deserves to be put through that again.

Sunday 4 October 2009

Broken Social Scene- Anthems for a seventeen year old girl
















Anthems for a seventeen year old girl

I'm no seventeen year old girl but I think this song is wonderous. Broken Social Scene take more research than any other in terms of all their music and members and then each member's music and then the solo albums, I have most of the stuff and metric have a special place from 2005-2006 for me and I like feist sometimes. I've gone on a little bit recently about how lucky we are to exist in these times and social scene are a pretty good example of another group of highly talented people in it for the music.

But this post isn't about BSS, it's about this song. On record it sounds nice but here's a video of BSS singing it as a closing encore with emily haines, amy millan and leslie feist, it's quite euphoric and makes the recording that little bit more great.





I'm going to be posting more about older music than usual cos last month I listened to new music pretty much constantly and I need to bring it back for a bit.

Saturday 3 October 2009

Vampire Weekend- White Sky

I've been listening to mainly new music of late and from what i've been listening to i've dicovered the genius of jeffrey lewis, appreciated the four artists on the nme radar tour on another level, found simon joyner who writes like no shit- dylan used to, i've really dug jay-z's album, been a bit let down by paramore, liked muse a little bit when i couldn't stand them before and found a whole bunch of bands who are going to be on the blog soon enough.

The new indie rock playlist is now out, go check it out I think it's the best yet. It also features the first release from the new vampire weekend album, white sky, there's been live versions floating around for a while and they sounded fantastic. I am more excited about this album than any in recent memory. Probably right up there with narrow stairs on an anticipation level, I was let down by that but let's not go into that. I literally have no fear about this album because it's the style of vampire weekend that i like so much as well as evra's vocals neither of which are going to change so while the anticipation builds check it out-

Vampire Weekend- White Sky

Also if you could sign up to the indie rock playlist using my referral link that would be awesome and a way of thanking me for all the time I put into everything :D

Friday 2 October 2009

Albums you should own. John Vanderslice- Pixel Revolt

You remember when I used to do specific blogs on different days of the week? Well I was reminiscing over those times on the way to the gym, the reason for this being I organised my gym trip around harvesting my vegetables on farmville (*cough*whatageek) yeah so i'm on level 25 so what? But yes I've learned to organise my time well recently what with working 50 hour 7 day weeks at the job i just left, despite that I was still going to the gym every day and going out to gigs and stuff, when it stopped I reflected and was impressed but it seems this habit dies hard which i'm glad for as i'm literally spending time wisely these days, especially if you consider on a virtual farm wisely.

So yes it made me think that maybe not everyone own pixel revolt, summer in abaddon, frank, we have the facts, good news for people who love bad news, underachievers please try harder and all the rest of em and it made me realise that this simply must become a weekly fixture on ma blog.















John Vanderslice- Pixel Revolt (2005)

I've posted about john vanderslice before, waxing lyrical over his work ethic, his studio and love for musical progression. So in that I probably mentioned I first discovered him on tour with death cab in sort of 2006 where I was lucky enough to see him and his band 3 times and each time realised just a litte bit more about how brilliant an artist he is.

Probably best to begin at the beginning, yeah i've read under milk wood so what? I won't do every track as otherwise this blog will be humungous just the ones you really have got to hear.

The album kicks off with a letter to the east coast which I probably skipped the first 20 times I listened to the album but now kinda like it. It's sort of an account of the tragic actress joan crawford's life if you don't know her you'll recognise her if you saw a pic. It's a nice song and a quaint prelude to-

The best song about september 11th I have ever heard. Starts off innocuously enough, musing over JV's love of guns. He loves guns, this is far from the last time firearms are referenced in his works. So there's the refrain of dance, dance revolution which is nice then, starts talking literally about his experiences on that fateful september morning and how it didn't feel real before relating it to his relationship and finding solace in one person when there doesn't seem to be anything else good in the world.

Peacocks in the video rain is a pretty jaunty unless you listen to the lyrics "you can tell a cable from a tourniquet when 10,000 12 year olds mouth along", if you don't know then you've probably never been on heroin lol. It swims along nicely, i've given it a rating of 3 on my ipod which is a pretty accurate description of it. Good enough to be rated but it aint a 4 starrer baby!

There was a period at university where I listened to trance manual every day, (it's a 5 starrer by the way), it's a beautiful song, just an amazing, poet, relaxing gift of a song. I've not heard anything like it since like lucy in the sky with diamonds painting these clear yet abstract pictures with a slow wistful vocal and twinkling, droning instrumentation. The song sounds like the most blissfull sleep if you have synesthesia.

I know I said I wasn't going to review every single track but it turns out i've rated the first 9 consequetive songs on the album, that's how perfect this album is. It came along at a time when death cab had released plans, the decemberists were gearing up for picaresque, modest mouse were touring good news..., it was a boom in independant music in america and all regions were invited. Flying high with labels such as sub-pop, barsuk and pioneering producers and forward thinking artists all heading in the same direction and making sure they had more than enough men on the front line for their assault on the mainstream. This concluded with billboard number ones for modest mouse and death cab for cutie and ben gibbard hooking up with zooey deschenal. In the end it felt like everyone became as successful as they wanted to be and we're lucky to be around in the times that see bands like monsters of folk happening and have all these great lyricists at the top of their game. Now where was I...

JV opened each of the shows with plymouth rock, maybe because it has a little hand clappy bit where you can tell who's a proper fan from the get go and maybe because it's as atmospheric as fuck. "a moonless night, blacked out except for the street fires". The middle 8 has some pretty imaginitive instrumentation in too and this happens regularly with the band you hear this stuff on cd and you think how the hell do they do that live and they pull it off so effortlessly, Vanderslice has of course been in the game for a while and MK Ultra was as lo-fi experimental as mountain goats. The band.

New Zealand Pines is an odd track, i've rated it 4* because once again, I've not heard anything like it! It sounds like it's underwater, the music and lyrical themes reflective of this. The song makes you feel like trying to get warm in the winter. There's also a line in this song which probably did bump it up from a 3 to a 4 to be honest but that happens, deal with it.

"back and forth and back and forth
Goes the tock of the orange, bland, ambassadorial
Face of the moon on the grandfather clock.
All autumn long, the chafe and jar of dirty bomb
We have talked ourselves to death."

These lyrics are taken from robert lowell's 1961 so I can't really say it's genius on JV's part but fuck do I wish I could write lines like that. So that was radiant with terror, it has a great little chorus that's catchy and fearsome. Next up is probably THE most original song i've ever heard.. Ok i know i've overdone the superlatives on this album but it really is that good and this song THAT original. So it's about four detectives, written from the point of view of one of them, they are all suspected killers and from his point of view he knows it's not him or these two other guys where he's suspected by the other two so the actual killer, detective reger, knows he's on to him and plans to murder him next. You really must listen to this song. (Continuation)

O.K I know i've gone on and on about how original this album is but i'm at pains to emphasise it because it is mind blowing. Dear sarah shu has lyrics like "peer round corners with dental mirrors heed the threats taking cautionary measures" and "your office will flood every night, it's water don't try to fight. Suspend all your files using my system of hanging wires" like if I wrote this one night, I'd wake up the next morning and be like wtf this is mental and dumb but in reality this is utter brilliance.

And it turns out after track 9 i didn't rate any so maybe just get those so your first listening of the album isn't diluted by its decent into an, albeit really quite beautiful but sleepy ending.

Thursday 1 October 2009

Best of September

Every month I get together a .rar for the indie rock playlist and figured why not post it on here, the actual playlist being around 120 songs and these being around 40 it'd be a nice way of seeing what i've been listening to each month. I'm also thinking of doing a proper one with not just new tracks on, as all these tracks are new...

Part 1




















Part 2


















Part 3




















For some reason that last pic's blurry but we'll survive eh. Oh and although it says part I on both one and two i can assure you they're different! I dunno i kinda lose interest in stuff if I don't get any feedback at all, so I might do this more often I guess we'll see whether variables change.