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 October 2009

What a month! I've found some new personal favourite bands of all time (Jupiter one, Espionage of the Loc, Jeffrey Lewis). The twilight saga highlighted Thom Yorke, Death Cab, Muse and others as willing to sell their souls for franchising... Weird thing is all the music is pretty good!.. That is all. I also saw fanfarlo live again. Oh and greenday :D

It was loads of fun doing the Halloween mixtape, I'll definately do one for christmas too. I've put a few tracks by the same artist on here so there will be plenty that aren't on the Indie Rock Playlist but obviously download that also, too, aswell, in addition to :)

Part I

Espionage of the loc- Another fine sunny day
Yes giantess- Tuff N Stuff
Ex Lovers- Just a silhouette
Golden Silvers- True Romance
Marina and the diamonds- Mowgli's road
Parts and Labour- Nowhere's night
Editors- Papilion
Katherine Williams- Come with me
Espionage of the loc- Start again
Frankie and the heartstrings- Fragile
Doctors and dealers- Snow child
Margot and Ugga- Goodbye July
Cath Le bon- Hollow Trees house hounds
Girls- Hellhole Ratrace
Scary Mansion- Scum inside (2009 version)
Jeffrey Lewis- When I was 4
Leopold and his fiction- Come back now i'm here
MC Lars- Signing emo
Upside down- Number twenty nine
Lixian Hantover- Rachel's new apartment
Nicole Reynolds- When we meet again
Local natives- airplanes
Grace potter and the nocturnals- Oh mary/Mr Columbus
Joy Formidable- Greyhound in the slips
Old canes- Little bird courage
Peter Yorn and Scarlett Johannsen- Relator
Vampire Weekend- Horchata

Part II

Ben Gibbard- California Zephyr
Young Galaxy- Long live the fallen world
Lovely feathers- Lowiza
Foo Fighters- Wheels
A broken robot- All here
Butch walker- Going home
Brand New- Bed
Band of skulls- Friends
Jupiter one- Flaming arrow
This machine is dying- 1
Atlas Sound- Sheila
Muse- I belong to you (twilight new moon mix)
Bosque Brown- So loud
Bowerbirds- Beneath your tree
Sea wolf- the violet hour
The submarines- You me and the bourgeousie
Gentleman caller- Jamie all my days
Kindercastle- Postmaster general
Pet ghost project- Wires from the ceiling
Sound of guns- Alcatraz/Architects
Ellie Goulding- Under the sheets
Boy of girl- Hot chocolate boy
Drums- I felt stupid
When I was 12- Make believe hearts

Part III

Music Go Music- I walk Alone
Julian Casablancas- Out of the blue
Pocketbook- Cross the line
Slow Club- Because we're dead
O. Children- Dead disco dancer
Paramore- All I wanted
Tegan & Sara- Someday
Caroline Smith and the goodnight sleeps- Where has sally gone
Dead man's bones- Pa pa power
The soft pack- Answer to yourself
NNeka- Heartbeat
Ravons and chimes- Hearts of palm
Enola Fall- I don't drive
Charlotte Gainsbourg- IRM
Platicines- Barcelona

Twitter

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

Mine feel free to follow me

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

And here are some highlights of people who update regularly

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

Slash- http://twitter.com/slashhudson

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

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

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

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

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

Eminem- http://twitter.com/eminem

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

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

Shuffle Seven!

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

The Coral- Arabian Sand

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

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

Good question, dick.

The Attic Lights- God

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

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

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

Aqualung- just for a moment

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

Matt Pond PA- Winter One

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

The Libertines- The ha ha wall

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

The Rural Alberta Advantage- Sleep All day

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

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

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

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Police Helicopter

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

Ipod Shuffle #4

It's that time again. I saw someone actually copied my post on their blog and pretended it was by them, I kinda took that as a compliment! Lazy though. Once again I post everything that comes up unless I don't have it on my computer and the only things I don't have on there are some of the indie/rock playlists so it's good music I just can't upload it. Everything else- is there ballbags and all.

Oh also I gotta say, I've got theeeee most amazing ear phones atm. I've gone through so many pairs the past few months looking for the right ones and these are it, the sound quality is amazing, length of the cable just right and perfect size ear bits, just perfect. Yeah, i'm in love with some headphones so what?

Anti-Flag- Police State in the USA
The Promise Ring- Living Around
Bell & Sebastien- Dialogue: Toby
Animal Collective- Lion in a coma
Megadeth- Kill the king
Death cab for cutie- I will follow you into the dark
White Williams- Smoke
Laura Veirs- Don't Lose yourself
Dashboard Confessional- So Long, So Long

First up was anti-flag who I saw supporting rise against, they were intense. I was preeeetty close to taking my shirt off, only i'm not a douche :(

Great thing about the shuffle I find bands I put on there and ahven't listened to. Like Promise Ring, I downloaded because a girl I like had them on her last.fm and so I downloaded loads of their stuff so I could impress her with that if she didn't fall for my charm, good looks and big pe.. rsonality :) They're a bit nice, a bit soft rock but catchy, maybe a bit boring live but how would I know!

Worst thing about the shuffle is 30 second interview/dialogue tracks, not much you can say about this, for what it is and what the album is in terms of belle and sebastien it's slightly interesting.

People go on and on about animal collective and here it is- I don't dig them. There you go, secret's out, I find them annoying and cutting musically and boring and grating lyrically. For whatever reason everyone's creaming all over this album well if we're going to keep talking about animal collective I'm gonna break the record for the amount of time I've mentioned these two kinds of bags in one sentence- ball and douche.

Funny story of why I have Megadeth on my ipod. On April 1st it was announced they were headling truck festival this summer, so I downloaded all their stuff. Turns out it was an april fools joke and i'm retarded! None the less I went through that whole getting into metal thing over the past year and this band apparently are fairly important and apparently so huge that it's just proposturous they could headline and independant music festival. They're alright, a bit cliche. Yeah that's right big metal bands- I judge you the same as any other band. They should lose the solos ;) Also I think there were only about 8 words in this song *pukes*

Ah this song. I first heard it a long with that canadian girl I moved over there for, billing it as the greatest love song of all time. Saw Death cab play it live before the album came out, stunning... Two years later 14 year olds screaming along to it and it's become the most annoying song on their setlist. Having this come up on shuffle will probably be good for popularity among the O.C crowd. I can also play it fairly perfectly on guitar as I used to be one of those douche bags who played acoustic guitar at their girlfriends while singing rubbish love songs. You gotta make up for the lack of actual feeling some how lol

O.K I don't know who White Williams is but the song's called smoke and the album is called smoke and it has a picture of two people smoking out of a bong on the front with the smoke spelling smoke. When he says smoke in the song I get the impression he's talking about the capital city and the liberating effect it had on his mind, maybe i'm being a bit generous but I like to think there's more to it than face value.

Laura Veirs' album "saltbreakers.." was labelled the album of 2007 in quite a few places. Maybe worth it lyrically she's excellent and she's not twee or lovely like some other female solo artists. Quite dreamy and deep, the music is fantastic too, experimental in places and never quite incidental, I like her alot, check the album for sure.

Funny Dashboard Confessional should come up as I INTENTIONALLY listened to these emo rockers sometime last week, not sure why just figured i'd never listened to them and alot of people dig them. They're very very soft and very "i close my eyes like a douche bag when i sing cos i'm so fucking emotional"...

O.K I'm out!

Bands you should know I

So as the blogs becoming more popular and there's more interest and directions for it to go I mentioned yesterday I'm going to try and get some consistancy with it, I'm thinking it'll look like

Mon- A restrospective on a classic band or album
Tues- Ipod Shuffle
Weds- Modern bands/artists you need to know
Thur- New Music
Fri- New bands
Sat- New bands
Sun- more of a wildcard like if i've found a band that's been around ages that I think should have attention etc just whatever I feel like.

Should be pretty sweet deals.

Bands you should know I- Pinback

Pinback of San Diego, California are Rob Crow (foreground... has a big orange beard these days) and Armistead Burwell Smith IV. I've been a fan of them for as long as I have death cab, their album Summer in Abaddon is, in my opinion, the epitomy of the music of the sun.

Like Death cab they were featured in the o.c but didn't garner the same attention as death cab or modest mouse recieved on the back of it. This probably the reason I was able to see them at a 60 person venue in london last year and meet rob crow so it's not so bad. Smith's bass lines are as intelligent and creative as you'll find in indie rock, Crow is criticised for his lyrics lacking meaning at times, this is debatable either way, but they make fantastic tunes aimed at the spring/summer audience.

Penelope- Fans favourite, the track that got them onto the airwaves and on the radar

Fortress- The track that was on the O.C, I feel it's not representative of Pinback's sound which may be why they didn't get as much attention. Still good though.

Loro- My favourite track. The bassline is bliss, the lyrics nonsensically beutiful. The perfect chillout track.

Barnes- This track shows how much they can do with so few instruments, such an effective track musically with some fantastically visual lyrics.

Wasted- A black flag cover, chilled down about 8 notches, pretty great. Reminds me of uni.

Tune in this time next week for Modest Mouse.

We're promised gold, we get myrrh

Death cab bring out a new ep, the indie world breaths in as if the world will come to a stop, breathes out as the world keeps turning.

There was a time that any new music from death cab was a gift from heaven to anyone remotely interested in the band, they were compelling. A live recording of broken yoke, ben covering avril lavigne. The e.p's were legendary, forbidden love, stability, even the john byrd ep which had no new music on was met with reverence, so-

Death cab are bringing out a new ep, this one called "open door" which is a line from both a track off narrow stairs and a song no this one, just like directions and plans were utterances from songs. I kinda don't want to write this blog but i've been a fan of these guys for 7 years, seen them a dozen times, bought many a girlfriend transatlanticsm. This is to say- I feel obliged.

Which is the same reason I checked stereogum every day as the tracks seeped through onto their blog and is the same reason why every day I fall out of love a little bit more.

Little Bribes

A new track?! A NEW TRACK FROM DEATH CAB?!... No, it's an old track which ben's decided to call something else, once again a line from the song. Certainly the worst titled song in their catalogue and when he played this (casino blues) on his solo tour and people were worried he was going to put it on the album (because it was so shit) it was labelled their worst song, until he left it off the album and there was hope. But remember death cab are on a major label now, they are going to have every song sucked out of them, examples being a studio version of broken yoke in western sky, that duet with leslie feist oh and this e.p.

A Diamond And A Tether

First time I heard this i got so bored I didn't bother listening to the whole track, I forgot i was listening to death cab and just closed the tab because it was so benale and jejune. The rhythm of this song is soooo dull and you remember when ben used to write amazing lyrics? Well fuck that they've got records to sell. Yummy cliches in this song "i know you can't..." "waiting for..." "just to..." "waits for it to..." "... again". I wish I hated death cab so I would enjoy writing this review. I can't believe this but I don't want this song on my ipod :(

My Mirror Speaks

This track IS better. Apparently co-written by nick harmer and probably owes that to it's driving rhythm. The lyrics are less sparse and as far as ben gibbard is concerned that's awesome and they're of a better quality here too. A testament to this track is that I played it 5 times in a row... But then I played soul meets body about a 100 times when that was leaked from that radio station before plans ha

I Was Once A Loyal Lover Just as good as the previous track, probably better, this could actually be played live, I really wouldn't mind them opening up a show with this. It's quite crystalline and cutting musically, the lyrics are still a bit "narrow stairs" in that they don't really get you thinking, they just are what they are. "my friends are so forward thinking, getting married and quitting drinking" yeah that's just the way things go plus i HATE that he forced the thinking/drinking rhyme. Makes me sick. Otherwise this is a good track, I think this E.P- is what it is!

Talking Bird (Demo)

When Narrow stairs was being hyped we got these legendary rumours of tracks that ben wrote on basic instruments with just vocals and took them to the guys and blew their minds... We realised when the "no sunlight" demo was released that these were apocryphal tales but with the promise of talking bird (without a doubt the worst death cab song ever) on a ukelele, hope?! The answer, is no. The lyrics are as vomit inducing as ever and whoever didn't tell paul mccartney the ukelele is an annoying instrument has also failed here.

So i conclusion i give the EP 3/5, I can't give it 4 because that means it's good and I just can't bring myself to give it 2 :(

I thought once around the time of transatlantiscm that if Death cab kept writing albums as great as this and all the previous ones they're going to be one of the most important bands in modern history. Naive maybe, but either way it didn't happen. I might have to do a post on why death cab 1998-2005 were amazing.

Solo Careers

So some people leave bands or just do stuff on the side, either way whenever they do it people say it's not as good, here are a bunch of examples where they've gone on to rock it just as good or better than in their day job.

Paul Mccartney (of the uh... beatles)- Uncle/Albert Admiral Halsey

Postal Service (Ben gibbard of death cab)- Such great heights

Conor Oberst (of bright eyes) and the Mystic Valley Band- Gone gone from new york city

Jenny Lewis (of rilo kiley) and the watson twins- Rise up with Fists

Rob Crow (of pinback)- I hate you rob crow

The last shadow puppets (Alex turner of arctic monkeys)... (and i guess miles kane from... knowing alex turner i guess)- My mistakes were made for you

Ben's basement, 1138 Ellis

O.K So my car broke down this morning and so i'm taking solice in listening to narrow stairs (I think this is the first time i've had the choice of all of death cab's albums and chosen it) It's nice, makes me appreciate IWPYH it's kind of like stability for the next generation. Oh by the way? This guy said that he was living in ben's old house 1138 ellis a couple of years ago, anyway i was like no way and he was like yeah there's even set notes in the basement... I was like Oo. I creamed my pants today when I saw THIS-


I mean are you KIDDING me? These are ben's notes from when he was no joy in mudville and lowell MA, it's like the holy grail it's insane. And yes they are ben's he played drums on Facts douchebag :p The guy said "the heating bills got really expensive" as a hardcore DCFC fan this made me cream. "we're not paying til the heat comes through, so you slept in a stocking cap and wool scarf".

So anyway aestetic orgasm out of the way, my pick for late '09-

Music go music
I don't know a WHOLE lot about these guys except that they're awesome and as empire of the sun were my dead cert for 09 these are for '10, they're from L.A, have about 1000 friends on myspace most from california. Their songs are epic and magical. Light of love is going to be their first big hit but don't expect england to catch up with them too soon... maybe i should put '11 for these guys ha!

Soft Pack

Again these guys are gonna come around sort of in the summer they're playing live over here from may, I don't recall seeing them in any '09 lists but blow me if they are because i haven't mentioned them on here and I just gotta! Used to be called the muslims, that's gonna be the stuff you'll be able to find on p2p.

Best of yesteryear

Yesteryear is an anomoly for clearly, it means last year, like yesterday means the day before today and indeed the etymology backs this up but due to it's archaic usage it is linked with the times that it was more likely to be used.

Oh, big shock i'm a nerd about language. So the best albums of last year, in my opinion, yeah i'm about 3 months late with this but whevs I'm a little bit too cool to be on time (These are all torrents in a way i apologise for that but in another way it saved me a buttload of time and is also legal, right pirate bay?! ;))

Vampire Weekend/Vampire Weekend-

This album is great, I've already mentioned them on this blog with the track ottoman which isn't on this album, very preppy, great vocals, original guitar stylings, been listening to it loads recently, someone I don't like once said it was a great album to drive to, I completely agree!

Nick Cave & the bad seeds/Dig lazarus Dig-

When I first heard more news from nowhere I listened to it about 20 times in a row and for a 10 minute song that takes alot of doing! At the time I described it as sounding like "if we got a radio signal from mars and it was playing the red planet's very own rolling stones with the lyrics of the most tripped out lennon/mcartney", I went to see them live based on this and that made me see how fantastic and original the entire album is. Alot of old people at the gig though, i hope i always find that weird.

MGMT/Oracular Spectacular-

O.K So it won NME album of the year and single of the year, at the time it came out I thought nick cave was better, as an entire album I still do. In terms of singles, this wins for sure and well done on them for that because with 4 songs they've made a lot of people forget about the rest of the album and just remember the highlights, I'd feel dirty if I ever made an album like that.

Death cab for cutie/Narrow Stairs-

There are some really flawless tracks on this album, yeah, it's not their best album, yeah it's probably their worst, yeah it has a couple of the worst tracks ben's ever written on it (Twin sized bed, talking bird, pity and fear) but the other half of the album is IMMENSE! Bixby Canyon Bridge which is probably one the most highly anticipated tracks in their history, Cath, You can do better than me, the latter which sounds like the beatles could have done it, the only track off the album not to be played live. look I love death cab, they had to go in here- shoot me.

Lightspeed Champion/Falling of the Lavender Bridge-

He's on conor obert's label, I believe this album incredibly went to #1 in the shitty pop obsessed country of england. He's a great lyricist, thinks about music all day every day, original and a cool guy. Seen him a couple of times live, first time supporting bright eyes second time in leicester. he used to be in test icicles and got to see him play guitar with ox.eagle.lion.man that night and he just watched the gig with everyone else before then.

Last Shadow Puppets/Age of the understatement-

I was in canada while they were doing their thing so I didn't get to see them live, if miles kane was talented they could be the next lennon and mccartney, unfortunately he's not so don't get any big ideas! Fortunately Turner is and he's as forward thinking as lennon, this album shows this, I don't think anyone else coudl have gotten away with this but he did with applomb, that's right applomb...

Courteeners/St Jude-

After leaving their gigs I tend to call them the next libertines, NME don't like Liam Fray and he's not on drugs and can play the guitar (Disclaimer: I loved the libertines and pray for the day they get back together) but none the less this albums brilliant and killer live, check it out.

I'll be back with the best of 09 next week...

They looked like EPICS

This post is for a selection of songs that are worthy of the title "epic", from some of my favourite bands.

favourite songs of all time, it'sFirst up is (apart from blackbird, day in the life etc.) one of my like an indie rock bohemian rhapsody and the soundtrack of this generation. Off The Libertines debut album, Pete Doherty's observations of the may day riots are recorded here with sublime vision and mastery, the music is Carl Barat's, a perfect combination. I saw pete live last year and he asked if anyone could play the solo for him, didn't work out I think the videos on youtube, anyway he had a go in the end and it wasn't pretty! The song on the otherhand, is a masterpiece-

The libertines- Time for heroes

Semi-Charmed life is my anthem in canada, although admittedly about crystal meth, I prefer to get a different message from the song! It is the ultimate indie party anthem and is layered brilliantly, the lyrics flow and it's as catchy as fuck... The album this was on was killer, can't remember what it was though maybe third eye blind's self-titled... both this and time for heroes were in american pie movies :p

Third Eye Blind- Semi Charmed Life


Conor Oberst has a way with words but which means on his usual 3 minute epics he could easily write for 10 minutes and still make it as poetically breathtaking, on this song- he does! 7 whole minute of pure unadultered lyrical brilliance from the nova scotian dylan, this is from the best of Bright Eyes' flawless post-happiness albums, can i get a god damn timpany roll!

Bright Eyes- Let's not shit ourselves to love (and to be loved)

Saves the day kinda removed themselves from their sound for this album, if you're wondering how just look at the pic on the right :p indeed they pissed off a few hardcore purists of their fanbase, the album was brilliant so they'll get over it. This song is as epic as a less than 3 minute song can be, by 30 seconds they've thrashed out a verse and chorus and are on their way to a second, it's a killer track with great vocals. This is one of those that I saw on meg's msn status and checked out, she has heavenly taste.

Saves the day- In reverie

Every band has a semi-charmed life in them, this is canadian husband/wife duo mates of states' fairly flawless, once again about drugs but you'll get over it. This is a pleasant reminder of those times during university where you woke up and you knew all you were going to do was get blasted with your friends all day, and were at one with them. It makes no apologies, nor do i ;)

Mates of state- Goods (All in your head)



And finally the ultimate american indie rock epic from seattle washington, death cab for cutie's we looked like giants!!!

Totally addicted to bass

I'm not really, in fact a more appropriate title would declare that this particular post is totally dedicated to bass...

Flea, he may not be the best bassist in the universe... but then again he just might be! Whether he is or not, he is revolutionary in the form of slap and expanding the horizon's of the traditional 4-string plucker and blah blah etc. anyway so rather than post a typical red hot chili pepper's track with a killer bass line I thought i'd post one of my favourite chili tracks and with one of the soundest basslines early on and a track which the asforementioned by the way/stadium crowd probably wouldn't get to hear otherwise-

Behind the Sun- RHCP

Carlos D of Interpol is such a unique bassist and is the joint staple of interpol, the other being Banks' unique voice. The basslines of interpol are unlike any other, like I say unique... I can't say to much more without repeating myself I guess but he's a killer bassist with a killer stage presence. This track is just unbeatable-

Evil- Interpol

So I hadn't intentionally listened to oasis in like 3 years and now i'm listening to them all the time, volutarily. The band is kind of gay in that, unless you're english which I happen to be so do, no one knows who the other people in the band are which also means unless noel's playing bass the bassline is left behind, in this, it is not-

Masterplan- Oasis

O.k So Death cab were/are my favourite band. I've been a fan for over half a decade and they've gotten so huge over the last couple of years that i'm kinda embarassed to say i like them ugh so elitist right?! It's just that if you say you like them you get a lot of OMGGGZZAZ ME"2! I HEART IWFYITD OMG"22111!!1one So wahtevs! But the bassline in IWPYH is pretty immense-

Death cab- IWPYH

The Debut

I can't seem to get into my old blog any more (retrospeedlab) so have started up a new one, the first few days will be reposts but then i'll stick up more new awesome music than you'll know what to do with. Also let me know you're reading cos I stopped writing my old one after I didn't think anyone was but then it turned out they were but i lost the password and I want my legacy to continue-

So this is my first post on my music blog, or any other blog for that matter! I've been wanting to make one for a while as it's a rarity to meet anyone into the same music as me, when it does it's amazing but it's too few and far between for my liking!

I spend alot of time in north america so, despite being english, a lot of my musical influences come from there, expect a lot of rare bright eyes, death cab for cutie, modest mouse and john vanderslice mixed with the best england has to offer.

I shant waste any more of your time here it comes-

My opening post I have entitled appropriately, debuts. A few choice debuts from bands I've seen over the past few years-

Cansei De Ser Sexei are a brazilian female fronted band, they released many an e.p before this but "let's make love and listen to death from above" is the emo sounding title off their attention grabbing debut album, live they are immense-

CSS- Let's make love...

I first saw The Young Knives in my first year of uni, along with 5 other people. And I don't mean I was with 5 other people I mean there were 6 people in the audience including 2 members of the band supporting them, it was amazing and they won me over for life! This is the summer anthem "weekdays and bleakdays (hot summer)" because it is actually sunny here today!

TYK- Hot Summer

I was playing guitar over my cousin's place and she was going nuts for this track, i'd heard 'of' it but not actually heard it, it's from Coventry's The Enemy's debut album, "we'll live and die in these towns" it's entitled away from here-

The enemy- Away from here

Rumble Strips is a sign I notice more when I drive into stratford upon avon more often these days because of this band, I saw them on the NME tour a couple of years ago and I was refreshed by their attempt at ska revival as well as charlie's convincing falsetto. I drank with the band afterwards and they're killer awesome- (oh yeah, check out the video if you've got time it's amazing!)

The Rumble Strips- Motorcycle

And as I had help from people at the DCFC boards here's Ben Gibbard's version of indian summer which i know is intensly hard to track down-

Indian Summer- Ben Gibbard

I also like Hey There Delilah by the plain white t's right now, not a debut but whevs.

Thankyou for listening ;)