Outroversion's Xmas Mixtape

Outroversion's Xmas Mixtape 2009

Happy holidays guys. Here's my gift to you, another mixtape, this one with a seasonal feel. It's obviously not as dark as the halloween one, just a few tracks from my favourite artists but bright eyes and the killers do make sure things don't get too upbeat cos we wouldn't want that.

You can either download some of the files individually from the track listing below or the whole thing in the link at the top of the page...

Eels- Christmas is going to the dogs
Death Cab- Christmas Baby please come home
Bright eyes- Little drummer boy
Fall Out Boy- Yule Shoot your eye out
Killers- Don't shoot me santa/¡Happy Birthday Guadalupe!
Emmy the great- Christmas in Prison
Ron Sexsmith- Maybe this christmas
Hello Saferide- Ipod Christmas

NME Top 50 albums of 2000's WITH DL LINKS!!!

I read NME this week and saw the list of their 50 albums of the past 10 years and whether I agree or not I thought that it would be amazing if someone put the list up with all the download links. I figured I doubt no one will bother but then I thought, you know what would be a nice thing to do!? :D This is my thanks for reading my blog guys, as will be everything I post in the next month, it keeps going from strength to strength and if no one read it I would have stopped ages ago.

Sorry if this post blows your mind to the point that you simply can't function in regular society buttttt...

50 MIA - Arula
49 Muse - Absolution
48 The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
47 Brendan Benson - Lapalco
46 The Delgados - The Great Eastern
45 Avalanches - Since I Left You
44 Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
43 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
42 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
41 Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
40 Ryan Adams - Gold
39 Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
38 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
37 The Knife - Silent Shout
36 Spirtualized - Let it Come Down
35 Babyshambles - Down In Albion
34 Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
33 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
32 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
31 Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
30 Elbow - Asleep In The Back
29 Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World
28 Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
27 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
26 Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
25 The Rapture - Echoes
24 The Libertines - The Libertines
23 Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future
22 Jay-Z - The Blueprint
21 The Coral - The Coral
20 Blur - Think Tank
19 The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
18 The White Stripes - Elephant
17 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
16 The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
15 Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
14 Radiohead - Kid A
13 The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
12 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
11 At The Drive In - Relationship Of Command
10 Radiohead - In Rainbows
09 The Streets - Original Pirate Material
08 Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
07 Arcade Fire - Funeral
06 PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
05 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
04 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
03 Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
02 The Libertines - Up The Bracket
01 The Strokes - Is This It

I think i'll let this post settle a few days and then we're into outroversion's top 20 albums of 2009 which I think's better than this list lol and my top 100 tracks of this year and also the best of november rar's oh wow I wish I was someone else so I could discover this blog! Enjoy the ride gaiz.

Frontier Ruckus- The orion songbook [2008]

With the indie rock playlist and my best of wrapped up for octoboer I started on November and this is the first band I got excited about. The track I heard (Rosemont) reminded me so much of Bright Eyes' old soul song and that was one of the tracks that pretty much tipped me over the edge from a casual fan to conorobsessive. You simply gotsta check this one out.

Frontier Ruckus
The orion songbook [2008]

1. Animals Need Animals
2. The Latter Days
3. What You Are
4. Dark Autumn Hour
5. Mount Marcy
6. The Blood
7. Bethlehem
8. Foggy Lilac Windows
9. Orion Town 2
10. The Back-Lot World
11. Rosemont
12. Orion Town 3
13. Adirondack Amish Holler
14. The Deep-Yard Dream

"Matthew Milia, David W. Jones, and crew take the americana, backwoods-homespun-heirloom sounds of a bygone era, and give them a new understanding, with an unobtrusive modern edge. Top it off with the most intelligent lyricism you've heard in years, and you have Frontier Ruckus. It's hard to recall a voice as untreated and honest as Milia's... ever. His is a voice whose timbre carries as much meaning as the words that come through it"

Reccomended Downloads: 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13

So on my album posts now I'm going to put what tracks I reccomend to download as recently i've gone through my itunes and tended to keep sort of 5 or 6 tracks on quite a few albums and my ipod is much more healthier for it and when you put it on shuffle it's pretty much all gold rather than hit and miss.

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!

Monsters of folk

You know the super group that's as good as it sounds.


















Monsters of Folk (2009)

Upon first listen, it didn't blow my brains out. I mean do you reeeaaaally want that from an alt.folk album anyway right? I was ready to receive this as my album of the year to be honest, I was ready to listen to it on loop, buy it on cd, all that 20th century jazz. Unfortunately it didn't grab me. That is to say it hasn't, yet. I still hold out hope. One thing though- map of the world by conor oberst is incredible, it's up there with his best (by that I mean theme from pinata, rainy days and weather reports).

Think they've got the right balance here in terms of artists, they all have always been in it for the creative outlet and just wanted to make music together. In a fantasy, unicorn, night rainbow, planet of the nymphomaniacs dreamworld this would be conor oberst, ben gibbard, john vanderslice and rob crow but the fact of the matter is you know that wouldn't go down well and ben gibbard's voice is starting to annoy me now. There I said it. *is genuinely devastated by this revelation*

In me news: I've sneezed a lot of times today and i'm also pumped for finding a new job.

Don't call it a supergroup! (Monsters of folk)

Conor Oberst's definately good at making you do your work to be called a real connosieur of his work, between bright eyes, the mystic valley band, desperaciados, the split ep's, guest appearences and to a lesser extent- commander venus lol he's now back with super group "monsters of folk" with mike mogis of bright eyes and M. Ward of she and him i suppose and jim james of no less than My morning jacket. This has to be good right?

Right. This is amazing, it's got both the feeling of genius colliding and four friends rocking out together doing what they do best and for each of them that involves different areas, as long as conor's on lyrics so i'm pretty much happy to leave everyone to their own devices although james and ward do get in on the act. The result, surely cacophonic emo-folk bliss.

Say please

Shuffle Wednesday

Hannah fury- Untitled

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













Red Hot Chili Peppers- Lovin and touchin

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













Air France- Collapsing at your doorstep

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














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

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













Bright Eyes- the difference in the shadows

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












Nirvana- Something in the way (MTV Unplugged Live)

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






















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

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

Bands with emo names

Or should I say 3AnD2 wItth 3m0 nAYm3z

Oh man so I was just on this chick's profile on last.fm and I was splooted in the face but an humungous "emogasm!". Some people say emo is hard to define, well if you'll bear with me I think you'll find that these four bands outline "homosexualitemo" down to tee!

DISCLAIMER: I have come back to write this disclaimer as there's a lot of vitrole and acid tongued languaged laced in this post. Like, my favourite band is bright eyes so how can I not like emo? It's not that I don't like emo, anytthing about it it's just the constantly reinforced stereotypes that I present you with here that I FUCKING CANNOT STAND!!! Now emo girls? I love, can't say no to them, especially if they have glasses too. There's just something wrong about emo guys, maybe it's the hair straighteners, maybe it's wearing their younger sisters trousers and their make up, maybe it's...

Nevershoutnever!

All one word? Check. Unnessecary exclamation mark? Check. Stupid emo hair? Check! The main problem I have with this band is that they're actually quite nice sounding, alot like rocket summer and I want them on my ipod... Fuck what have I gotten myself into with this blog!

Neversaynever

Obviously a completely different entity to the previous band I mean firstly their name's just like totally different... but yeah this music is what is an even more poisonous (YEEEAAA!!!H) element of emo- Screamo. Stupid idiots going- rarghrarghrargh at the mic and with guitars all going jujujableh yeah man- hate this band and this genre.

Eatmewhileimhot!

You know the deal by now, all one word, unnessecary punctuation. This band are more along the lines of "melemodrama" big emotional "sounds like they're about to cry" lyrics. Ah shit and there's that stupid AFI voice all the emo kids seem to love. I don't get it, you can fuck yourselves if you think i'm even gonna consider eating you...












DotDotCurve :)

Oh yeah, this is one of my favourite elements of emo, the band name that is really a smiley face. Pioneered by acts such as Colonopenbracket oh and semicolonclosedbracket. I just had to post a picture of these douche bags. Plus their music is THE worst thing I have heard in my life, you know idiots like Akon and sean paul do that electronic voice thing which is just supergay? Well it's like that but with the AFI voice. Think that sums it up fucking perfectly.

And seriously this was just the first four bands I saw on this girl's profile, I just happened upon her on the oasis gig i'm hitting in the summer. Like I'm sure it gets worse!

New Album #?!- Conor Oberst- Outer South

Conor Oberst & the mystic valley band- Outer South

Track Listing

1. Slowly (Oh So Slowly)
2. To All The Lights In The Windows
3. Big Black Nothing
4. Air Mattress
5. Cabbage Town
6. Ten Women
7. Difference Is Time
8. Nikorette
9. White Shoes
10. Bloodline
11. Spoiled
12. Worldwide
13. Roosevelt Room
14. Eagle On A Pole
15. I Got The Reason #2
16. Snake Hill

Was pretty excited when I found out that this had leaked, so excited in fact that I'm posting the album without listening to it! I will be though, all day, just you watch me. Except I'm also re-reading on the road.. I would expect these two events not to coincide.

I read a funny review of this album where the guy said something like "I've been listening to conor oberst's new album with the mystic valley band and it's great except that he let's some of the other guys sing on it which is kind of like winning a three some with johnny depp and him insisting that johnny vegas joins in." I was confused that the guy saw winning sex with a man in some sort of celebrity sex lottery as a good thing but the alliterative nature and pure oxymoron of his comparison was brilliant.

Oh and- DISCLAIMER!!!: For god's sake don't download this album from that link just wait and go and buy it when it comes out, have you no will power?! Come on support the artist and buy the cds so you can be down with the grandads...

And to think I try and make money from music lol

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

Music is the universe (big bright eyes speech!)

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, cheated on my girlfriend like a jerk one night, 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..) and got noise floor through the mail loved it, more of his voice from the past, 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".

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 definately my secret favourite band if not my actual favourite band. 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)

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!!!

Return To England

So i've just switched canada for the u.k again, I made a mix cd for the way there and months later the music is still awesome so I thought i'd share some of the highlights-

I was lucky enough to see John Vanderslice 4 times last year as he accompanied death cab for cutie on tour, I was there for death cab but also left as a fan of J.V, his lyrics are as original as they get, songs about joan crawford, detectives, a love song named after a crater on the moon. Anyway this is how he opened the show, too good for a support act!

John Vanderslice- Plymouth Rock

For me the ultimate summer's album is Pinback's "Summer in abbadon", it is flawlessly exhuberrant. After getting into them I trawled their earlier works and was surprised it was quite a removal from that, this is where "autumn of the seraphs" gets it right, it's good in the same way summer in abbadon was but also evolved in terms of lyrics and more deliberate, which could be a critisicm of the first album but this is the first single and it's awesome-

Pinback- From nothing to nowhere

I can't even remember how I found out about this band but Maps are definately up and coming, this track "to the sky" is a perfect cloudless sunset gig anthem, I assume it was through NME but none the less check it out-

Maps- To the sky

"I travelled through the atmosphere as a wall of feedback climbed", I travelled to bristol on my birthday last year to see Bright Eyes at the peak of their cassadega tour only for it to be cancelled leaving me devastated, anyway on the way back home I really listened to this song, I had sometimes skipped it before but some of the lyrics are amazing, it also features buck 65 how can u go wrong :p pick up the album if you don't have it!

Bright Eyes- Middleman

I'm a huge advocate of Pete Doherty, I tire of defending him so am glad his music more often than not does it for me, if you haven't got shotter's nation get it and if you don't know how sweet the tunes are then have a listen-

Babyshambles- Delivery