Site Moving

For now update your bookmarks to http://outroversion.wordpress.com as that's where I'm writing for the time being. Thankyou for you patience and continued support (:

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New Kate Nash Track

Get it here

Quick One: Elbow

I just liked the picture :)

Albums:
Asleep in the back
Cast of thousands
Leaders of the free world
Seldom Seen Kid

Outro's Birthday Mixtape #2

This mixtape is a little more modern, just great tracks from the last few years that I think are great and tracks/bands I found through this blog like Jupiter one, Fanfarlo, Sad Day for puppets, Flying Tourbillon Orchestra, Eisley, 6 day riot, Cogwheel Dogs, Baddies and Joy formidable.

This one is in two parts as otherwise it would take ages to upload.

Outroversion's Birthday Mixtape #2 (2006-2010)
Part 1 Part 2

Frank Turner- Nashville Tennesee, Sunday, Isabel
Golden Silvers- Another Universe
MGMT- Time to Pretend
Camera Obscura- French Navy
Gaslight Anthem- 59 Sound, Miles Davis and the cool, The patient ferris wheel
Bombay Bicycle Club- Always Like this
Marina and the Diamonds- Mowgli's road
Sad day for puppets- Marble Gods
Howling Bells- Cities Burning Down
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Heads will Roll
Cogwheel Dogs- Cress
Empire of the sun- Walking on a dream
Lightspeed Champion- Tell me what it's worth
Laura Marling- My manic and I
Vampire Weekend- A punk/Dimplomat's son
Green Day- Heart's Collide
Leisure Society- Last of the melting snow
Elbow- Grounds for divorce
Metric- Gimme Sympathy
Fanfarlo- The Walls are coming down
Nick Cave- Call upon the author/More news from nowhere
Los Campesinos- You! Me! Dancing!
Black Kids- Look at me when I rock Witchoo
Courteeners- Not 19 forever/Acrylic
Monsters of Folk- Map of the world
Marnie Stern- Patterns on a diamond ceiling
Scary Mansion- Sorry we took all yr money
Joy Formidable- Cradle
Pete Doherty- Last of the english roses/New love grows on trees
Andrew Bird- Fake Palindromes
Xiu Xiu- Bunny Gamer
Eisley- Marvellous things
Radiohead- Weird Fishes
Dead man's bones- Pa pa power
Killers- Romeo and Juliette
Fun.- Stay calm
Rihanna- Bubble pop
Builders and butchers- Bottom of the lake
Flying Tourbillon Orchestra- In a dream
Jupiter one- Volcano
Nada Surf- From now on

I accidentally missed these off the last rar so they're on this-

Kooks- She moves in her own way
Oasis- Talk Tonight/Rock and roll star

Quick One: REM- Best of

R.E.M
Best of

Everyone loves R.E.M. Thing is most people don't consciously realise they do. I myself don't really think about it too much but when I hear songs like Man on the moon, What's the Frequency Kenneth, Shiny Happy People, Bad Day, Losing My Religion, End of the world, Everybody hurts and Imitation of life all in one sitting i'm thinking these guys should be bigger than U2. But hey, if Michael Stipe was an idiot fame whore like Bono i'm sure we'd hate him too, however he's a cool guy and has made some really great tunes. Enjoy.

Outro's birthday mixtape #1

So here is my first mixtape to celebrate making it a year and in particular a prosperous early 2010 in which my expectations have been surpassed exceptionally. Thanks for everyone's support.

Most of the songs on this mix I could give 10 minute speeches on what they mean to me, I have stories behind literally every song here so if you want some great new music or understand the enigma that is Simon D. check it out-

Outroversion's Birthday Mixtape #1 (1950-2005)

The unicorns- I do it
Pinback- Loro
Third Eye Blind- Semi Charmed Life
Neutral Milk Hotel- King of the carrot flowers
Beatles- Tomorrow Never Knows, Blackbird
Eels- Guest List
Tom Petty- Last dance with mary jane
Bright Eyes- Easy/Lucky/Free, Goldmine
Paul Mccartney- Jet, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Jenny Wren
Blur- Yuko and Hiro, Tender
Bic Runga- Dust
MC Lars- Signing Emo
Our Lady Peace- Innocent
Outkast- Prototype
Vanessa Carlton- Wreckage
All-Time Quarterback- Dinner at 8 in the suburbs
Beach Boys- I just wasn't made for these times
Interpol- Evil
Yellowcard- Ocean Avenue
Broken Social Scene- Anthems for a 17 year old girl
REM- Shiny Happy People
Modest Mouse- Fire it up, The good times are killing me
Laura Marling- My manic and I
Miles Davis- Little Blue Frog
Air France- Collapsing at your doorstep
Camera Obscura- I don't want to see u
CSS- Let's make love and listen DFA
Paramore- Misery Business
Optiganally Yours- Remo
Bloc Party- Banquet
Fall Out Boy- Golden, Thriller
Death Cab- Lowell, Ma, Debate Exposes Doubt, Kelly Huckerby
John Denver- Poems Prayers and Promises
Red Hot Chili Peppers- Power of Equality, Scar Tissue
The Smiths- How soon is now
The libertines- Ha ha wall, last post on the bugle, Time for heroes
Long Blondes- Seperated By Motorways
John Vanderslice- Continuation, Trance Manual

Outroversion's first birthday

So it was a year ago today that I made my first post here, fittingly titled "the debut".

I started this blog originally as a place to play my favourite tracks when I was at University when I don't have my ipod. I'd always carry a spare pair of headphones, stick them in the the port and bam play tracks from this blog.

Actually it originally started out as the retrospeed lab and that started some 5 months before but I forgot the password and made this, but hey this is where it's really at.

The tracks on my first post weren't great- The Young Knives, CSS, Rumble Strips, THE ENEMY?! I don't even like that band what was I thinking?!

But like I say that was from the old blog, the first original post was when I sold my favourite guitar.

Thankyou for all your support from the very beginning. It was kind of a slow start but then what blog isn't? Let me know what you've been liking and what you don't. I feel like it's gotten to a pretty good standard and format...

It's been pretty great, my target was just to take stock each month and make sure i've made improvements and that's definately happened. Obviously it's a great help working in conjunction with blalock's indie rock playlist and both have fitted around one another great so good times.

Let's make this year even better and spread the word! Tweet about outroversion, add a link to your blog, share the love :) This would be the best gift for me really. Or money, donate here hehe. Seriously though, next step's getting a .com.

As a gift to you i've decided to make a couple of mixtapes of my actual favourite tracks, one the best of the last couple of years and one with a retro feel, tracks from the 1950's to around 2004. I'll post one today and one tomorrow.

Here's a preview

Simon D.

Huge thanks to-

My followers
Everyone who has read this over the past year
My twitter followers
Blalock's indie rock playlist (Josh, Whipple, RebJukebox, ADR et al.)
Candy Warhol
Gabby Young
Cogwheel Dogs
Baby Gravy
MP!nk (wherever you maybe thankyou for the moral support early on)
RealityDistortd
Megz
This_anthology
Vicky
CodaQueen

I may have missed some people due to absent mindedness if you feel this could be you, shout me to say WTF!!

Quick One: Paramore

Quick one: Paramore



Albums:
All we know is falling
Riot
Brand new eyes
B-sides

Erland and the Carnival- S/T (2010)

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Erland and the Carnival- ST (2010)
Essential- Troubled in mind, my name is carnival, love is a killing thing, you don't have to be lonely

Erland and the Carnival are a supergroup of sorts, in the way of the fictional biblical/red dwarf character Legion E&TC are composed of minds that have worked with damon albarn, paul mccartney and richard ashcroft. If you were asked to relay what the sound is that would best represent this name, that is how they sound.

They certainly play to their strengths; keys a plenty, abstract musical melodies and thankfully; original lyrical themes.

They're on the hot plate right now and it's been turned up to number 6 but this kind of stove takes a little while to warm up so grab it while it's still heating up and manageable as if you leave it for too long you're going to end up with something that's hotter than you can handle.

Downloading a few albums

I'm just going through a list of albums I need to check out this week but wouldn't nessicarily be posting and figured i'd post them here in case anyone else needed one or more of the same...

Deeprooted- Self Titled (Crazy, Closer, Deeprooted)
El Goodo- Coyote (Information overload, I saw her today, Aren't you grand, Be my girl)
Built to spill- There is no enemy (Aisle 1, Hindsight, Life's a dream
Massive Attack- Heligoland (Girl I love you, Paradise Circus, Rush Minute)

Quick One: Lily Allen

Quick One: Lily Allen



Proof anyone looks goo... better, with pink hair

Albums:
Alright Still
It's not me it's you

Think that's it tbh.

I blame coco

I blame coco
_________________________________________________
Picture the scene:

Lily allen is the daughter of an actor. She doesn't want this to be her free ticket to fame blah blah etc...

Lily Allen: Oh my father's famous but I don't want to be famous because of that
World: Uh who's your father?
Lily Allen: Oh just Kieth Allen
World: Uh... oh I don't quite... what band was he in?
Lily Allen: Oh he's a famous actor
World: Um Lily I don't think that really matters if you're a singer there's no reason why it would make a difference.. But yeah that's cool if he's a huge hollywood actor, I guess i'm just not up on the names...
Lily Allen: Kieth Allen he was in lots of movies but ya know w/e i'll be famous just because of me (and my desperate need for attention).

Her entire fame is built on celebrity culture and her early success funded entirely by her father. Talentless and fame hungry, the product of an erroding sense of moral values in society.
____________________________________________________

I love Sting. However i've no idea what his surname is, but refreshingly self-aware the satin voiced coco, daughter of the lute enthusiast won't even risk using it for fear of being grouped in the same cess pool as the Lily lites.

I blame Coco's style is such that it's a pleasure for the senses. Laid back, reggae/ska influences, if it was twice the speed the mainstream would be all over this and she's be up for all the brit awards next week. I like to think everything about this project is conscious and self-aware with the aim of filling the perfect niche.

Her title track is gorgeous and symptomatic of her style. Sometimes labelled "how did all these people get in my room" such is the nature of demos, which is all we have right now unfortunately but they are sublime. The track "I blame Coco" with the line "it's late and i'm tired but Jasmine wants to dance" epitomises the carefree love in atmosphere that this exquisitely crafted music attracts, one can only imagine the live shows are a sight to behold.

I blame coco
Never be
Ceaser ft. Robyn
Bohemian Love
Control
2B 2D or not 2B

Outro's Issues: Getting the right headphones

Since I started listening to good music around 8 years ago i've endeavoured to find the perfect pair of earphones. A couple of occasions I've paid £20+ for pairs that promised to be life affirming and either sucked or were destroyed by the hand of fate.

Regularly i've had to settle for mono ear phones or ones that grate the inside of your ears or old ones i've found in drawers.

Now i'm not one for big retro ones as, whether you like it or not they make you look stupid.

Early 09 I found the answer when another set of my ipod earphones started to fail. I did alot of research into what exactly I wanted as I felt like I needed a definitive go to source for whenever I (and all of these have happened) left my earbuds dangling in a cup of water overnight, had the ends pulled off when i've shut them in my car door, let my cat play with them/left them within my cat's general jurisdiction.

These are the answer.




The sound is as better than any earphone i've heard, they fit so comfy in your ears and they work faultlessly in stereo. I literally haven't got a bad word to say about these, I absolutely swear by them. Of course they're not idiot proof, but even with my history i've only had to buy like one pair every 6 months and they're so inexpensive.

Do yourself a favour and hook yourself up. Keep it bookmarked for audio emergencies and spread the word.

Florence and the Machine- Lungs (2009)

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Florence and the Machine- Lungs (2009)

Dog Days Are Over
Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
I'm Not Calling You A Liar
Howl
Kiss With A Fist
Girl With One Eye
Drumming Song
Between Two Lungs
Cosmic Love
My Boy Builds Coffins
Hurricane
Blinding
You've Got The Love (Bonus Track)

Password: www.downloadbox.org

Gorillaz

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Gorillaz

With the impending release of their 3rd album I figured it would be a good idea to make sure everyone is up to speed. Now Gorillaz owe a lot to some amazing videos but I'm going to try and go half and half here but I think i'd love them a little less were it not for their thought tapping visuals. You can download all the tracks at the bottom of the page.

Personally I hate reading interviews with the "characters" because it seems kinda pointless but I do have an admiration for the world they have created and continue to build upon with their new residence-



[Insert predictable Dylan Thomas quote] with Clint Eastwood, essentially the Gorillaz theme. It encapsulates everything that makes them great; brillaint bass lines, imaginative, atmospheric musicianshop, excellent rhythm, awesome rapping, dozey yet profound lyricism and non-sensicle but irresistable hooks oh and zombie monkeys. This also gave you a glimse into each of the characters Drummer andEmCee Duncan, Bassist Murdoch, guitarist/vocalist Noodles and lead vocalist D2.





19-2000 is the vocal debut of Noodle, it was more of the fun side of the band but still remained true to themselves "get the cool shoe shine" being the hook here. This was back in the day when having a song on a FIFA game was a gauranteed #1. The video goes really well with the music which is incredible as the music is all over the place. mainly keys and electronix but the lyrics are just mental.



Tomorrow comes today answered the question, "So what... I don't get it... Is this band a joke or what, I don't see what.. Is it for kids or... I just don't..?" was answered and this was when I decided this was a quality project. This song has a haunting, apocolyptic feel that the video represents beautifully. One of the lesser heard of the singles but it truly is excellent.

[Tomorrow comes today video]

Rock the house could almost be a club track; looped bass and brass with light rap never really hitting his usual excellent stride, the video is basic if a little showy but still quite fitting.

Feel Good Inc. was an intro to their island in the sky which is a gorgeous visual repeated in future videos. More dismissive but catchier than thou hooks "windmill windmill for the land..."



DARE is an amazing track with an equally amazing video. Noodle on vocals again with Shaun Ryder as a giant head. It's all brilliant and borderline genius.

I have little difficulty with El Manana, Kids with Guns and Last living Souls. Technically they're not great tracks but the video for El Manana is excellent and the other two the stay in your head for days no idea why.

So there you have it. I may have left some off that I haven't seen or really heard but here's stylo to make up for it.

Stylo from Plastic Beach

Singles:

Clint Eastwood
19-2000
Rock the House
Tomorrow Comes today
Feel Good Inc.
Dare
Last living souls
El Manana
Kids with guns

Albums:

Gorillaz
Demon Days

Band of the week: The sounds

"The Sounds are a New Wave group which formed in Helsingborg, Sweden in 1999. They consist of Maja Ivarsson (vocals) Felix Rodriguez (guitar), Johan Bengtsson (bass), Jesper Anderberg (keyboards) and Fredrik Nillson (drums). The band has released three albums to date: 2002’s Living in America, 2006’s Dying to Say This to You, and their most recent, Crossing the Rubicon on Original Signal Recordings."



The sounds

Tracks:
Dorchester Hotel
4 songs and a fight

Albums:
Dying to say this to you
Crossing the Rubicon

The XX- The XX (2009)

"Formed in 2005, The xx are an alternative trio hailing from London, England, featuring the dual lead vocals of Romy Madley Croft (lead guitar) and Oliver Sim (bass guitar), and backed by Jamie Smith (beats, MPC sampler). Rounding out the group was keyboardist Baria Qureshi, who left the group because of the pressures of an intensive touring schedule.

Bonding over a shared love of dark, emotive 80s guitar sounds and the high-end sheen of American R&B, The xx’s unique sound befits a band whose wide range of influences combine beautiful, hushed vocal duets and a brilliantly inventive use of samples and low-end frequencies to produce stark, sweet, melancholic pop."



The XX

01 - Intro
02 - Vcr
03 - Crystalised
04 - Islands
05 - Heart Skipped A Beat
06 - Fantasy
07 - Shelter
08 - Basic Space
09 - Infinity
10 - Night Time
11 - Stars

Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man

Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man

These guys are one of my favourite criminally underrated bands. Lead by the brilliant Frederick Blood-Royale, a lyrical genius in his own right and backed up with mathematically improbbable percussion, twisted, drowned, looped keys and prog heavy, abstract guitar layers. Somehow these elements come together to make dark, post-apocolyptic lyrical themes and make them seem like pop music of the renaissance played by a band from a desolate pangaea ultima centuries from now.

You simply have to get these tracks-

The drowned and the saved
Where dead voices gather

st. mt. helens vietnam band

"In an unusual move, the Seattle based Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band gathered considerable attention before releasing a single song. Instead the band relied on word of mouth, their quirky sensibility and several original ‘PSA-style’ youtube videos which don’t even feature their music. Anticipation proved to be a great ally to the band, and upon the release of several songs from their upcoming EP they succeeded in providing a legitimate basis for all the internet hype.

The band is composed of Benjamin Verdoes (Guitar, and vocals), Verdoes’ wife, the mult-instrumentalist Traci Eggleston-Verdoes, his 12-year old adoptive brother Marshall Verdoes (drums), and friends Matthew Dammer (moog, guitar) and Jared Price (bass)."

St. mt. helens vietnam band

1. Who's Asking
2. Masquerade
3. Cheer For Fate
4. Anchors Dropped
5. Going On A Hunt
6. A Year Or Two
7. Albatross, Albatross, Albatross
8. Dull Reason
9. Little Red Shoes
10. En Fuego
11. On The Collar

Jesca Hoop- Hunting My Dress (2009)

"One of five children in a fifth generation Mormon couple, Hoop was steeped in a musical environment created by her family. She began performing as a child and starred in her high school choir.

Hoop broke away from the strictures of Mormonism just as her parents were separating. During this time, her mother Janette turned the basement into a theatre, and brought in all sorts of eccentrics to rehearse and put on musical plays for the community."



Jesca Hoop - Hunting My dress (2009)

Reccomended- Whispering Light, The Kingdom, Murder of birds, Tulip

Two Door Cinema Club- Tourist History (2010)

"Two Door Cinema Club are 3 people with the help of technology and a thirst for anything quirky. If you were to pose the question, “Where do Two Door Cinema Club live?” and someone was to answer, “Why, Bangor!” That someone would only be 66.67% correct because Two Door Cinema Club are a Bangor/Donaghadee based electro pop band. Their music has been loosely compared to the likes of Death Cab for Cutie and Broken Social Scene but without a definitive capacity to be pigeon-holed. Melodic vocals, which hail from all three members of the outfit, infuse with guitar riffs that have been described as “oceanic” and rhythm described as “pulsing”. To get the symbolism out of the way, take your seats; it’s going to be a blockbuster!"

Two Door Cinema Club- Tourist History (2010)

1. "Cigarettes In The Theatre"
2. "Come Back Home"
3. "Do You Want It All?"
4. "This Is The Life"
5. "Something Good Can Work"
6. "I Can Talk"
7. "Undercover Martyn"
8. "What You Know"
9. "Eat That Up, It's Good For You"
10."You're Not Stubborn"

Essential D/L: Undercover Martyn, Something Good can Work, I can talk, Cigarettes in the theatre

Rogue Wave- Permalight (2010)

Rogue Wave- Permalight (2010)

1. Solitary Gun
2. Good Morning (The Future)
3. Sleepwalker
4. Stars and Stripes
5. Permalight
6. Fear Itself
7. Right With You
8. We Will Make A Song Destroy
9. I'll Never Leave You
10. Per Anger
11. You Have Boarded
12. All That Remains

Peter and the wolf- Lightness (2006)

Peter and the wolf- Lightness

1 Midnight Train
2 The Ivy
3 Safe Travels
4 My Grey Overcoat
5 The Highway
6 The Owl
7 Anna Maria
8 The Bonsai Tree
9 The Apple Tree
10 Canada
11 Dear Old Robyn
12 Captain Dan
13 Black Saltwater
14 Holy Water
15 Silent Movies
16 Lightness

Reccomended (in order of quality):
silent movies, safe travels, the apple tree, the owl and the bonsai tree

Plan B- Stay too long (2010)

You wanna see a guy you shouldn't like? (based on social stereotypes and prejudices..)



Well when this same bile spitting chav (Ben Drew) starts dressing in designer suits and performing soul infused rap and revealing a stunning vocal range, I wonder why I ever listened to anything else.

The focal point of this transformation is "stay too long", which is just relentlessly brilliant. I was literally AGHAST when I saw the video. how had I not heard this guy before?! Well don't go and rush over to google to download his back catalogue because it is violent misogynistic nonsense but good news- he's a changed man. Catch him live in April-

Bristol Anson Rooms – 8th
Oxford Academy – 9th
Birmingham Academy 2 – 10th
Brighton Concorde 2 - 11th
Glasgow Classic Grand - 13th
Leeds Cockpit - 14th
Manchester Academy 2 - 15th
London Shepherds Bush Empire – 16th

And download the track below...

Stay too long

Kaki King

Kaki King

"Kaki King (born 24th August 1979 as Katherine Elizabeth King) is an American guitarist and singer from Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

When Kaki King went into the studio in upstate New York to record the tracks for her fourth album, Dreaming Of Revenge, her producer, Malcolm Burn, had one condition: “He said, If someone can’t be sawing a log in half and whistling along to the song, I don’t want it on the record"

Yellowcake.mp3
Dreaming of revenge (Life being what it is, Pull me out alive, Bone chaos in the castle)
Legs to make us longer (Playing with pink noise, Doing the wrong thing)
Everybody loves you (Night after sidewalk)

Bands you Should know: Say Hi (to your mom)

Apologies for fewer updates than usual, I switched web browsers a couple of times over the past few days and both googlechrome and safari were really frustrating to use. Anyway I started writing this one and it got to a point where I just said, that's it- i'm going back to firefox.

Say hi to your mom

I found Eric Elbogen's band through 3hive.com around 5 years ago, a blog that is still going strong today; read more about it here. As I mentioned in that post I went through a phase of downloading bands with either great names or great track titles (Suburban kids with biblical names, updownleftrightababstart and Minus the bear's thanks for the killer game of Krisco twister and wanna throw up? get me naked parts I and II). Strangely this strategy rarely steered me wrong, I guess the theory is you have to be good to have a name as austentacious as say hi to your mom, particularly in the early parts of the previous decade. Not so much in the latter.

The first track I heard was "super" and back in the day it wouldn't be a big deal if your blog's track labelling wasn't itunes savvy and, I know it was only 5 or 6 years ago but the blogging world was not what it has come to be and word of mouth was not an ideal route to infamy and finding out who this band was took, no foolin- upwards of 10 minutes...

So, back when burning music onto CD-Rs and taking them around your friend's house to play in a real life CD player was all the rage, I took this very route. Waxing lyrical about a band with songs about relationships with androids, websites so popular they crash servers, insanely catchy songs about laundry and relationships failing due to a girl's superior gaming prowess, as we spent the afternoon on the ps2 (that's right!) we were busy digging the hell out of this band.

I sort of had a mix of the first few albums on there but the first one I physically bought (that's right kids, bought, with real money, from an actual music store) was Ferocious Mopes. This had such legendary tracks as "yeah, i'm in love with an android', 'the forest scares the hell out of me' which retrospectively is reminiscent of scary mansion's "sorry we took all yr money" with the bass and strangled vocals.

"Poor pete is a bit self conscious" is a nice track, great lyrics like "Tonight is not the gonna be when his daily horoscope comes true, he knows venus is in retrograde but not if the moon is new". "I think i'll be a good ghost" is also great and a bit creepy which was what has always been comforting, in a weird way, about say hi, though he was never too serious about it all back then but of course later on that changed.

Numbers and mumbles is the other great album by him, it's the album with super on. It's immensely fun, "pop music of the future", "hit in sweden" "let's talk about spaceships (or anything except you and me)" "but she beat my high score" and their bass driven cover of the beatles' track "i'm so tired" are the highlights but other tracks like a kiss to make it better and your brains vs. my tractor beam are also great. Definately download these two albums but i'll post the others with a couple of reccomended downloads but I haven't given them enough time to warrent any kind of a review. Although I will say "spiders" is brilliant, listen to the lyrics they're actually genius, a genuinely creepy track.

Discosadness (2002) The fritz, Laundry, Super
Numbers & Mumbles (2004) Pop music of the future, A hit in sweden, But she beat my high score, Let's talk about spaceships, i'm so tired, a kiss to make it better, your brains vs. my tractor beam
Ferocious Mopes (2005) The forest scares the hell out of me, Yeah i'm in love with an android, I think i'll be a good ghost, Poor pete is a bit self-conscious
Impeccable Blahs (2006) These Fangs
Wishes and the glitch (2008) Spiders
OOhs and AAhs (2009) The stars they blink only for us, One, Two ... One,

Retrospeed Lab Mixtape #1

So in addition to my monthly collection i'm going to bring back the retrospeedlab as a mixtape, a dozen or so tracks from times gone by that i've been enjoying retrospectively.

I'll give a little description of each track as to why they're included. This one's obviously the first and I sort of got it together at the last minute so with a little foresight the future of the RSL mix will be a little better thought out.

RetroSpeed Lab Mixtape #1

M.O.P- Ante Up
One of my favourite youtube videos is Bert and Ernie rapping along to this track. I recently uploaded it to my ipod and once you've seen that video it's hard to seperate the two :)

NRBQ- Wild Weekend, The Zombies- Time of the season, The strawberry alarm- Incense Peppermints
These are included for the reasons outlined in this blog the opening to TSA is just perfect "incense peppermints, the colour of time" psychedelia at its best

Blur- Tracy Jacks/Out of time
I've been listening to Blur more and more of late, no idea why but Out of time from around 2002 was great and you've got to love Tracy Jacks, it's just a great tune- doo doo dooo dahdahdahdahdah do do dooo dadadadada do do dooo etc :D

The vernacular- Make good
Chris Walla and Sean Nelson of Death Cab and Harvey Danger respectively. Both bands I used to hold in high esteem but have kinda gone off. A while back they started this side project and it sounded better than either of their contributions to their regular bands, I expected good things but never really happened. Good track though.

Sisqo- Unleash the dragon/Thong Song
He was in celebrity big brother in England recently, I blogged about him quite prophetically a little while before here UTD is a cool track but maybe not for everyone's tastes. The thong song on the other hand is legendary!

Rod Stewart and Cher- Bewitched
Oh man, this song is beautiful. When I first heard this track I was like dayummmm those two got it goin own! Well, not in so many words. Rob and Cher have such a chemistry oozing through this recording that it feels like an intrusion listening to it. If you don't really like Rod Stewart you'll appreciate him at least on some level after this if it's only his ability to score mature hotties..

White Strips- Doorbell
I had an impulse the other night, to listen to white stripes. No idea why. In my entire life this has never happened but I did and yeah I like what they're selling. Thing is though this is the only track I rated on my ipod, I mean i'd reccomend them but htey seem to be a bit of an whole album band which is great if you really like Jack White but I kinda don't like him enough to dedicate that much time.

Nelly- Girlfriend
Haha oh wow. So this is here because I recently updated my workout playlist and put some nelly on there. This track's great, Nelly picks up a weak N*sync track and spits all over it turning it into something that is actually quite cool.

Greenday- Longview
What a great guitar riff and cool lyrics. Went through a bit of a Greenday phase last year, saw them live in November and this was definately one of the best memories of the gig and one of the tracks I didn't really know before getting into their stuff leading up to the gig. It's great.

Best of January

It's a pretty huge selection this month, 73 tracks in fact. It's been a great month. At the end of December we (the collective music blogging conscience), were worried the start of the year would be a slow burner but with Vampire Weekend taking an early shot for the album of the year, M.I.A, Courteeners and Gorillaz leaking tracks and Stornoway finally deciding to release music outside of Oxfordshire it's turned out to be one of the best in recent memory.

There are a couple of tracks on there that are "old" but this in that there is an acoustic version of Marina and the Diamonds "I am not a robot" and Babyshambles "stone me". The reasons for these are the former is gorgeous, the original only has 3 stars on my ipod but when I heard this reimagining it was an instant 5 stars. Pete's band are on there as this track is supposedly going to be on their next album, it was released as a b-side, it's brilliant but not many will have heard it.

Also I will be doing a retro playlist as well which I think i'm going to start doing each month too, it was what the retrospeed lab was originally and I think it's great that I can pay homage to that as well as doing this blog and working with Blalock on his playlist. Music wise it's great times.

Also this month I can incorporate the number of tracks into the title neat eh? I think there's actually 72 tracks. Ah well still it's something I did, so what.

I'll denote the highlights for people with small diskspace or short on time or patience or whatever with "**"

Ou7rov3rsion February 2010

Vampire Weekend- Dimplomat's son**, Run**, Holiday**
United Nations of Sound- Are you ready?**
M.I.A- There are spaces for all that I see
Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man- The drowned and the saved/Where dead voices gather**
Stornoway- You don't know anything**/The pupil of your eye/Zorbing
The little flames- Isobella
New Young Pony Club- Lost a girl
Pelle Carlberg- Clever girls like clever boys much more than clever boys like clever girls
Birds of Tokyo- White witch
Gorillaz- Stylo
Xiu Xiu- Gray Death**
Jukebox the Ghost- Good Day**
Fionn Regan- Put a penny in the slot
Darwin Deez- Up in the clouds**/Deep sea divers
Wiretree- Across my mind/Satellite song/Constellations**
Backseat Goodbye- Summer Drive Song/Technicolour Eyes**
OK Go- White Knuckles/End Love
Lady of the Sunshine- White rose parade
Yeti Lane- This Day**
Today the moon, Tomorrow the sun- Bones**
Spoon- Don't make me a target/You got that cherry bomb**
Besnark Lakes- Albatross
Low vs. Diamond- Heart Attack**
Hot silk pockets- What's the matter**
Performance- Reptile
New Buffalo- I've got you...
The Courteeners- You overdid it, doll
Marina and the diamonds- I am not a robot (acoustic)**
Babyshambles- Stone Me**
Mr. Gnome- Night of the crickets**
Everything Everything- Photoshop Handsome
Dawes- When my time comes**
Via Audio- Olga
Titles Tracks- Every little bit hurts
Chris Garneau- Fireflies
Nedry- A42
Chapel Club- All the eastern girls
Slideshow Freak- ElectroRock Therapy
Gloriana- How far do you wanna go?
Rocket Uppercut- We'll always love the stars
PocketBooks- Falling Leaves**/Fleeting Moments
Anna Calvi- Blackout**
Summer Camp- Ghost train
White Hinterland- Icarus**
Jemina Pearl- Heartbeats
The avett Brothers- I would be sad/DieDieDie
Shad- I don't like to**/Compromise
Wetdog- Lower Leg
Celestial- Crystal Heights
Acid House Kings- This heart is a stone**
Magnetic Fields- The dolls' tea party
Captain Polaroid- Dust will settle on this lifeless town
The international karate plus- Brides Abroad
Monkey Swallows the universe- Jimmy Down the well**
French Semester- The large Bouquet**
Strawberry Fair- Put yourself in my place
Summer cats- Super

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Blalock's Indie/Rock Playlist: February (2010)

1. (00:00:20) Blalock - 1 Year Anniversary
2. (00:04:37) Shout Out Louds - 1999
3. (00:04:35) The Besnard Lakes - Albatross
4. (00:02:41) Lawrence Arabia - Apple Pie Bed
5. (00:03:46) Pandit - Artichoke
6. (00:02:44) Toro Y Moi - Blessa
7. (00:05:18) The Middle East - Blood
8. (00:05:13) Balmorhea - Bowsprit
9. (00:04:02) Grizzly Bear - Boy From School (Hot Chip Cover)
10. (00:04:22) Hot Chip - Brothers
11. (00:03:03) The Nightgowns - Buoy
12. (00:04:27) Geographer - Can't You Wait
13. (00:05:07) Class Actress - Careful What You Say
14. (00:04:35) Threes and Nines - Carnival
15. (00:02:44) Run Toto Run - Catch My Breath
16. (00:02:13) The Soft Pack - C'mon
17. (00:03:11) Darwin Deez - Constellations
18. (00:02:08) Coma Cinema - Cop Caller
19. (00:04:24) The Rest - Cried Wolf (and Other Animals)
20. (00:02:59) Beach Fossils - Daydream
21. (00:04:24) Dirty Dancing - Delicate Chains
22. (00:06:01) Vampire Weekend - Dipomat's Son
23. (00:04:26) Exit Clov - District Menagerie
24. (00:04:53) Tunng - Don't Look Down Or Back
25. (00:03:03) Grave Babies - Eating Babies
26. (00:04:15) Slideshow Freak - Electro Rock Therapy
27. (00:02:55) Bicycle Voice - Ellis The Trellis
28. (00:03:57) Dirty Projectors - Emblem Of The World
29. (00:04:04) Ready Nena - En Silencio
30. (00:03:34) Pomegranates - Everybody Come Outside
31. (00:05:30) The Go Find - Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight
32. (00:04:21) Golden Ages - Everything Will Be Alright
33. (00:02:32) PS I Love You - Facelove
34. (00:04:57) Album Leaf - Falling from the Sun
35. (00:03:13) Electric President - Feathers
36. (00:02:53) Spirit Spine - Flashes
37. (00:03:32) Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Folding Under Stories Told
38. (00:02:22) Sore Eros - Fooled Me
39. (00:02:54) Holly Miranda - Forest Green Oh Forest Green
40. (00:02:53) Happy Birthday - Girls FM
41. (00:02:27) First Rate People - Girl's Night
42. (00:04:06) Rogue Wave - Good Morning
43. (00:02:46) Xiu Xiu - Gray Death
44. (00:02:36) Yeasayer - Grizelda
45. (00:02:51) The Crown Vandals - Guenevere
46. (00:05:14) The Delta Mirror - He Was Worse Than The Needle He Gave You
47. (00:01:56) Whale Tooth - Hibernation Song
48. (00:03:12) Retribution Gospel Choir - Hide It Away
49. (00:04:29) Dreamboat Money - I Can't Wait To Come Home
50. (00:04:58) Oberhofer - I Could Go
51. (00:03:36) White Hinterland - Icarus
52. (00:03:12) Skybox - In a Dream
53. (00:02:40) Phillip Oskar Augustine - Internal Combustion
54. (00:03:54) New Buffalo - I've Got You And You've Got Me (Song Of Contentment)
55. (00:01:58) DOM - Jesus
56. (00:03:46) Laura Veirs - July Flame
57. (00:02:37) Yawn - Kind of Guy
58. (00:02:38) History Books - Kink In My Neck
59. (00:03:07) Magneta Lane - Lady bones
60. (00:04:04) Lemonade - Lifted
61. (00:04:14) Eat Your Birthday Cake - Lightweight Stars
62. (00:03:38) Seabear - Lion Face Boy
63. (00:03:40) Cassis Orange - Listen Heartbeat
64. (00:03:08) Wetdog - Lower Leg
65. (00:03:24) ArpLine - Make It Rain
66. (00:20:16) Moonface - Marimba and Shit-Drums
67. (00:02:49) Burn Before Reading - Markers
68. (00:02:32) Benjamin E. Morsberger - Midnight Tomorrow
69. (00:05:51) Magic Man - Monster
70. (00:04:33) Dark Mean - Music Box
71. (00:05:06) mr. Gnome - Night of The Crickets
72. (00:03:21) Her Space Holiday - No More Good Ideas (ballad version)
73. (00:02:18) Owen - No More No Where
74. (00:02:47) Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
75. (00:05:16) Caribou - Odessa
76. (00:02:59) Via Audio - Olga
77. (00:04:45) Clara Clara - One on One
78. (00:02:48) Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk - Our Girls
79. (00:04:08) My Luminaries - Parasol
80. (00:03:28) Trouble Books - Past the New Parking Deck (single version)
81. (00:02:56) Title Tracks - Piles Of Paper
82. (00:02:32) Fionn Regan - Protection Racket
83. (00:04:11) Tanlines - Real Life (Basic Needs Remix)
84. (00:02:57) The Silent League - Resignation Studies
85. (00:03:19) Bikinians - Rhinocirrhosis
86. (00:02:36) MiniBoone - Rosalina Must Dance Alone
87. (00:04:30) Wildlife - Sea Dreamer
88. (00:03:20) downtown harvest - Shimmy
89. (00:07:15) Louis Aguilar - Six Feet Under
90. (00:05:17) Bearhug - Smack That
91. (00:03:43) matt pond PA - Starting
92. (00:02:45) Tape The Radio - Stay Inside
93. (00:03:55) Los Campesinos - Straight in at 101
94. (00:01:57) Field - Sunday
95. (00:06:00) Jukebox the Ghost - Temptation (New Order Cover)
96. (00:03:22) Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies - The Ballad of Cherry Hill
97. (00:03:29) The Incredible Flight of Birdman - The Frustrations of H
98. (00:03:47) The Knife - The Height of Summer
99. (00:03:54) Broken Bells - The High Road
100. (00:04:47) Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand A Chance (Miike Snow remix)
101. (00:03:40) Wolf Gang - The King And All Of His Men
102. (00:03:58) The Bloodsugars - The Pedestrian Boogie
103. (00:04:16) Efterklang - The Soft Beating
104. (00:02:51) Josiah Wolf - The Trailer And The Truck
105. (00:18:21) Good Shoes - The Way My Heart Beats
106. (00:03:32) Middle Distance Runner - The Wrong Hole
107. (00:04:02) M.I.A. - Theres Space For Ol Dat I See
108. (00:03:08) OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
109. (00:03:03) Memoryhouse - To The Light House (Millionyoung Remix)
110. (00:03:38) Surfer Blood - Twin Peaks
111. (00:02:16) The Watson Twins - U-N-Me
112. (00:03:43) Young Jesus - Up All Night With Stereotypes
113. (00:03:50) Sun Airway - Waiting on You
114. (00:03:06) Bear Hands - What A Drag
115. (00:04:22) Reagan - What's Left Behind (ft. Pandit)
116. (00:04:57) Dawes - When My Time Comes
117. (00:03:29) Sunglasses - Whiplash
118. (00:03:00) Feral Children - Woodland Mutts
119. (00:04:19) Spoon - Written in Reverse
120. (00:02:55) Yarn Owl - Yarn Blues
121. (00:03:06) The Magnetic Fields - You Must Be Out Of Your Mind
122. (00:03:48) IMMOOR - Young Intentions (Feat. Goddamn Electric Bill)
123. (00:03:07) Broadcast 2000 - Your Own Worst Enemy
124. (00:03:35) Stornoway - Zorbing

Playing Time.........: 08:02:45
Total Size...........: 782.03 MB

NFO generated on.....: 2/1/2010 12:48:24 AM

A couple of great covers

Mechanical Bride
Umbrella (Rihanna cover)

There's one thing I hate and that's people doing ironic covers of other peoples' work. I lost respect for Ben Gibbard when he did it solo and I don't think I've listened to manic street preachers since I saw them do this live.

Mechanical Bride however do this song and the writers justice with the evocative and hauting melodies of Lauren Doss on a piano laden reimagining of a classic piece of modern popular music.

Melissa Laveaux
Needle in the Hay (Elliott Smith cover)

Melissa Laveaux delivers an original performance that stays true to the isolation and insecurity of the original but without relying upon it. It's soulful and, as covers should; feels like it means something to the artist.

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Band of the week: Friendly Foes

Friendly Foes

I hadn't heard of friendly foes until yesterday which is a damn shame, no idea why but we've found them now and they're amazing which is the most important thing.

The three tracks I've heard are full moon morning, couch surfing and get yr shit together; all of which got rated on my ipod. A huge rarity but these are worthy of even higher praise. The latter is heart breaking because they seem to remain criminally under rated. I'm hoping that they're just under the radar and their inclusion on the indie rock playlist next month and festivals in the summer will give them the notoriety they deserve.

Friendly Foes are Ryan Allen, Liz Wittman and Sean Sommer who together make up a self-proclaimed verse-chorus-verse FFM indie-pop band from Michigan. They're in sort of the same vein as The Subways if Subways had a good male singer and Ash if they were fun and still had Charlotte Hatherley.

Full moon morning
Couch surfing
Get yr shit together
My body (is a strange place to live)

Lightspeed Champion- Marlene EP (2010)

Lightspeed Champion- Marlene EP (2010)

1.Marlene
2.Concerto .2 "So Long! So Long!"
3.69 Année Érotique
4.He's The Great Imposter
5.Tête Morte

jj- no 3 (2010)

jj- no 3 (2010)

"The Swedish duo JJ emerged on Gothenburg’s Sincerely Yours Records in 2009, with a particularly gratifying take on the musical preoccupations common to much of the label’s roster. Their take on neo-Balearic indie pop filters Air France’s tropical haze, the Tough Alliance’s penchant for slyly irreverent appropriation, and the Honeydrips’ fragile twee pop melodicism into a beguilingly lush, gently electronic style reminiscent of prime Saint Etienne with a smoother, beachier sheen."

Mp3:

Let go
Push up

Oxford Bands: Cogwheel Dogs & BabyGravy

Cogwheel Dogs

Greenhorn EP

Kitchen
The Greenhorn EP begins with the incessant tapping of metal on metal which then underscore plucked acoustics before intermittant drumming and high tops introduce the vocals. The percussion her is refreshingly unique as it is there to add effect rather than keep time, a feature that endeared me to the their stylings way back when.

The double bass, plucked early on before being bowed later, is haunting enough on its own but with the light background guitars, progressive drums and menacing vocals with perfectly introverted lyricism it adds to a heady concoction that makes for a great opener.

Spit
The ensuing track starts off more traditionally but the layered instrumentation seeps into the track independently to ensure a cocophonic, controlled, yet energetic performance and the vocals are solid in parts where others might waiver. In other words; this chick got a VOICE!

Power in Paper
The music here is a little more sparse as the lyrics take the front seat that they are worthy of. Supported well by driving strings, the delivery is excellant on this track. Possibly the pick of a great bunch.

Octavia
Kicking off much like Alan's Psychadelic Breakfast with what sounds like an egg being fried... Maybe not though who knows, sounds cool though. The sizzling fades out for an acoustic guitar backed up by light bass. The lyricism here is exceptional, I dig the hell out of this track.

Overall the EP is mega impressive. Home recorded faultlessly and, the thing that impresses me the most is that what was great about BIRP inclusion cress and their first single Ducking stool they've taken and built upon to glorious effect.

BabyGravy
Not Waiting/Hot Night

"Not waiting" is a stylish track, the drums that I have eulogised with high praise in the past lead the way with light tabbed electric guitar and sharp vocals following where they drive. Things get heavier with a metal inspired guitar solo which underscores the second verse superbly without ever threatening to drown out the other aspects that make BabyGravy a great band live as well as on record.

The B-side is a little more electro with disco keys and a hook that will stick with you as you step out of the doors into the apocolyptic tempatures of the english streets from the venue. Or the bus. Or wherever you're listening.

Owl City

Owl City

I'm going to be completely honest and say I like Owl City and was pretty close to deciding to go see him live in Oxford and even though I also like Lights I decided the whole evening would be a little affeminate and now the english have jumped on the bandwagon it all became a little less cool.

I first became aware of him through working on Blalock's Indie Rock playlist and liked a few tracks, firstly the saltwater room ft. Breanne Duren from his first album. And then I downloaded Ocean Eyes in which I'd reccomend downloading Hot air balloon, Hello Seattle and yes, fireflies is a good song but as the western world is if there is anything that does sound nice it will be played to death until you begin to hate it.

If you just have the songs mentioned above you won't be missing out on an incredible amount however the album as a whole is a really nice listen. The only exception being a song called "Dental Care" which is just dreadful, the lyrics are terrible, the tune sounds like it was written for children and the delivery is pathetic and whiney. The latter is something that he skates around a lot of the time but manages to steer ever so, just clear.

Of course his story is exaggerated, it goes along the lines of; aww he turned to music at his parent's house as a result of his insomnia (which i'm assuming is to link people to other meteoric rises in Seattle as in, "curt cobain turned to heroin as a result of his back pain") while working at a coca-cola warehouse. If his parents aren't mega rich and his job working for the world's largest drinks manufacturer was to pay for either tuition or to feed his family then I apologise but I'm thinking this isn't the case.

I'll level with you, his lyrics are FULL of cliches and songs like "on the wing" is just a list of words and phrases that sound nice in pop songs. BUT it's all a very unintrusive listen, it's nice to have on and as you float in and out it probably will make your day a bit better and sometimes that's all music needs to be.

Sunny Day Real Estate

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Sunny Day Real Estate
Essential D/L- Seven, In circles, song about an angel, Round, 47

Sunny Day real estate are seen as the pioneers of emo. I thought I better check them out as I further my e(mo)ducation. Now I'm not emo, people just say that because I'm incredibly morbid and talk about death all the time lol :)

These guys split up before I was even listening to good music but reunited last year on a north american tour and are playing coachella this year before coming over to europe and playing england for the first time ever.

The album I posted above is essentially a greatest hits (in that it's their best songs) so you may as well get the whole thing but the 4 I posted are definately the standouts.

Great bands from '09 that will be even better in '10

I would like to reitterate some great bands I saw live in 2009 that I expect to be going on to even greater things this year.



Fanfarlo

I've said alot of things about fanfarlo, most of them at the very least mildly phrophetic of a band so perfect they'll be talked about with revery in folklore towards the second half of this century.

They've been playing the perfect reservoir live almost constantly and are going to keep going, check the dates here. They've been playing a few new tracks too and they sound incredibly promising.




6 Day Riot

Have a plan was just magnificent. I saw them last year and wasn't perfectly sure what to expect but they were brilliant, an absolute pleasure to catch live. I expect they'll be at festivals this summer too and from what I hear they're warming up for a new album right now. They're having a small tour early this year so check the dates here.



Courteeners

They're releasing Falcon pretty soon. St. Jude was brilliant, an absolutely majestic retrospective over a the band's early career. Of course they are flourishing now and have gained a great live reputation and judging from the two tracks released from it are moving on a bit from the early oasis inspired youthful exhubberance of their debut. Definately something to look forward to.




















Gaslight Anthem

Since declaring the '59 sound my album of 2000-2010 Gaslight Anthem, surely inspired by such an accolade have gotten back in the studio. Now i'm not expecting '59 sound part 2 but nor would I be dissapointed if they didn't change a thing as that was a perfect moment in modern music. Im sure that whatever they do bring out it'll be a nice encore to it rather than a removal.















Lightspeed Champion

Now Dev Hynes is releasing his second album. The first was the truly imperious falling of the lavender bridge which was just an inspirational piece of musical artistry. Of course he did have a hand from Bright Eyes' Mike Mogis on it and that guy knows how to steady a ship. I heard lead single marlene live years ago and didn't really get it. It's now 2010 he's just released the marlene ep and nothing on that EP stuck with me. However he's great live, a really charming and humble performer who is content in the knowledge of what he and those around him are capable of.