Best of 2009 Part III

Part III

These are the best 15 tracks of the past year-

Frank Turner- Sunday Nights
Fanfarlo- The walls are coming down/Finish Line
Leisure Society- Last of the melting snow
Conor Oberst- Map of the world
Peter Doherty- Last of the english roses
Bombay Bicycle Club- Always like this
Camera Obscura- French Navy
Emmy the great- First love
Fun. - At least i'm not as sad (as i used to be)
Golden Silvers- Another universe
Howling Bells- Treasure Hunt
Jamie T.- Sticks and stones
Jupiter one- Volcano
Marina and the diamonds- Mowgli's road

Albums of the year- Monsters of Folk

Monsters of Folk

1. Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.)
2. Say Please
3. Whole Lotta Losin'
4. Temazcal
5. The Right Place
6. Baby Boomer
7. Man Named Truth
8. Goodway
9. Ahead of the Curve
10. Slow Down Jo
11. Losin Yo Head
12. Magic Marker
13. Map Of The World
14. The Sandman, the Brakeman and Me
15. His Master's Voice

Essential Downloads: 13, 6, 2

"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)." ~ Outroversion August 2009

Now the end of the year is coming around I would say yes, this is in my top 5 albums of the year. If it was just conor, mike and m. ward and the other guy didn't sing then it would probably be in the top 3. M. Ward's tracks are excellent, conor's great as ever and mogis always adds something, it's a nice mix, a really pleasant album.

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

Best of April 2009

Due to all the copyright problems I had this month, I'm going to do a "best of outroversion" each month to make sure all the songs and bands get to see the light of day. Once again if you need anything reuploading or want it sent to you just let me know...

Leisure Society- Last of the melting snow
Builders and butchers- Bottom of the lake
Fanfarlo- I'm a pilot
YACHT- So post em all
Stardeath and the white dwarfs- Chemicle
Delphic- Counterpoint
Phenomenal Handclap Band- 15-20
Electric Touch- Love in our hearts
Sportsday Megaphone- Young Lust
Pulled apart by horses- I punched a lion in the throat
Conor Oberst and the mystic Valley band- The roosevelt room
Eminem- We made you
IAMX- Kingdom of welcome addiction
Heloise and the savoire faire- Illusions
Broken Records- Anne
Magic Magic- Over your heart
Camera Obscura- French Navy

Looking back a month ago and a month before that this blog's come along way, thanks for your support, commenting, following, 1000+ independant views. Look forward to where we'll be in another month!

Shuffle Tuesday V

The Flaming Sideburns- Loose My soul
The magnetic fields- Promises of eternity
Everclear- The New York Times
Dane Cook- BK Lounge
Mates of state- Sound it off
Frog Eyes- The ill Twin of evil energy
The Lemondheads- In Passing
Conor Oberst- College
Babyshambles Live- There she goes

I've never heard of the flaming sideburns, apparentyl they're from sweden, not sure how they got on my ipod! this track starts off with some hispanic announcer before leading into oasis style guitars and then 80s rock stones inspired vocals and underlining guitars. When he sings in English it's actually REALLY cool, the swedish stuff's pretty gay but I like this, uplifting rock at it's goodest.

"I heard he wrote you a love song, well some guy wrote 69" this is that guy, stephen merritt of magnetic fields. This particular ballad has a touch of divine comedy in the delivery with of montreal in the music, probably sums it up quite well, I always thought; man if he'd have made this 3 disk album into one disk and just made it the best songs it would legendary. None the less the compilation is to a lot of people anyway so what do i know. One thing i've never understood is what the hell is a gay piano bar?

This song nearly burst my head open after the previous track, comes in like a face fuck! Which isn't the last thing I'd expect from Everclear but it's definately not why I like them. They're like the ataris for me, in that they've got many good songs but their funny names make you forget which is which and then means you rarely listen to them. The only one I remember is the one where it goes "now do that stupid dance for me" everything to everyone, but then there's songs like volvo driving soccer mom and sex with a movie star. This songs as sunny as everything they've ever done.

Ah man, Dane cook. I first found out about him when people at my uni in canada were quoting things from him stuff like "ah no i kicked them off in a fit of joy" and then one night at a rez party I went to sleep at this girl's place and she had this cd palying and man was it ever hilarious. Now he's like my second favourite comedian (to Russell Brand).

Gotta love the canadians. Mates of state, like they could be the only band in the world and i'd be happy just cos their music's so nice. Maybe that was kinda an overblown compliment, it's not gonna happen so i don't mind making it. I don't know how I found out about them but I really dig MF duo's especially when the girl takes on lead vox. I remember on a road trip in 2005 all in your head was on the tape deck quite a few times, that's right a tape deck- killer road trip down to the minutest detail

I don't know if anyone knows who ox.eagle.lion.man are yet but this band "Frog Eyes", not a great name for a band, remind me of them, quite an apocalyptic lyrical delivery with a twirling backing from a guitar's higher echelons, a keyboard and clinky drums, although it's gotta be said that Frederick Blood Royale's drummer is amazing. Yeah- go check out ox.eagle.lion.man.

Obviously having one huge album is a... I have forgotten how to spell this word... "poisined?" man I can't believe this... Poisened, poisoned? poisoined... poisind... Oh my god I literally have no idea, maybe it's because it's so sunny today, i'll blame that for the lapse- Lemonheads in the sun is perfect but as I was saying, having one highly successful album can make your previous and latter efforts pale in comparison, indeed i didn't even realise they'd released an album this century until last month! Haha. But yeah I love that album, I really want to know the rest of the stuff but I feel like i'm missing out on that album when I hear other stuff!

Ah a pre-pubescent conor oberst singing about college which was a distant half a decade away when he started releasing albums. It's weird because all this stuff solo and with commander venus is good, the pop mastery of you should be in sweden and the prediction of a haunted future. It's tracks like this that make you realise just how talented he was and is, he's been writing constantly since he could and it's all been better than anything anyone else has ever said.

This is from their "Oh! what a lovely tour" DVD and Cd, I've been listening to it loads, I really loved them live, I saw him on and off drugs and prefered him off and this album just shows off how actually quite polished and professional Babyshambles've become while also remaining true to pete's erratic persona. They've released two wonderous albums and if the libertines don't get back together, Pete could be doing worse things than making music with these guys.

Alright, insane compliments out of the way i'm pretty happy with how my taste was portrayed by my ipod today and I'll see you tomorrow. Let me know what you like and don't like by commenting etc!

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)