Monday, 19 October 2009

The Helio Sequence

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




The Helio Sequence

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

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

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




Go ahead, you'll be leet for life.

The other
two albums

Saturday, 17 October 2009

Bright Eyes. That is all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

chronological order.

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

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

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

thanks to strikeitgently.com for some of the links!

Friday, 16 October 2009

The Northwestern- Telephones

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




Northwestern- Telephones

01 Telephones
02 All The Ones
03 Fire
04 Dark Houses

Foo Fighters- Wheels

Fo' Wheel

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

Thursday, 15 October 2009

Jupiter One- Sunshower (2009)

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



























Jupiter One- Sunshower (2009)

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

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

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Young Galaxy - Invisible Republic (2009)




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

www.myspace.com/younggalaxy

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



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

Pass: sharedmp3.net