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.

Album of the year: Fanfarlo- Reservoir

Big surprise right?! When I think about 2009 I'll think of them. Here are some of outroversion's testemonial's from the past year-

"Dreampop, it's one of those abstract nondescript genres that still seems to fit some bands perfectly, this is one. Great for the summer, they're a mixture between the floatysunshinecatchiness of empire of the sun and the rhythmic intrumentation consciousness of an arcade fire. I really like these guys, they are probably the band that i've been most excited to discover in this blog, they really make stunning music. In the trunk is when it really struck me. Unbelievably endorphene inducing" ~ Outroversion, 25th March 2009

"YEEAAAHH!!! I know i've gone on and on about fanfarlo but I think they're going to be massive. I'm seeing them in a couple of weeks, the night before I leave for france. This track emphasises all they're great for; haunting backing, deep bass, high strings, introspective lyrics, hopeful sounding vocals with intense lyrics. So glad I found this band. "If you look at the horizon there is always something ducking out of sight" I wrote fucking the first time I wrote that :)" ~ Outroversion, 15th May 2009



Fanfarlo- Reservoir (2009)

The review

Before listening to this album the first thing I noticed was that standout track from the demo cd "you are one of the few outsiders that understand us" isn't included but then neither is "in the trunk**" which were the first two tracks I heard by them and what hooked me in. Well it's 9 months later and every single track from the album has 4 stars or higher on my ipod so that pretty much speaks for itself...

"I am a pilot" is a heavenly track, starts the album off perfectly, and purposefully. The strings are magnificent and add a haunting atmosphere to the dark lyrics which are masked by an upbeat tempo and clapped beats which underly the piano perfectly. Part of what sounds like percussion is actually a lot of people playing the same part on guitars.

I didn't really notice until I saw them live but Cathy underscores alot of Simon Balthazar's vocals on the album and once you listen out for her you'll fall in love with her-



The similarities and indeed comparison musically to arcade fire are both obvious and unignorable. The strings and brass heavy tunes, where the flowing vocals and harmonies maybe owe a little more to Beirut but in my opinion they do both better than either band can because it really seems like the entire band has a common goal as each track builds and support each other well. Like sometimes you don't care about the other members of the band but each member of Fanfarlo is integral to the scenes they create.

After the first 6 listens to the album I considered it a consistant and not overly ambitious debut, which was by no means a bad thing, they just know what they're good at and what they can pull off live and have aimed at hitting those highs first.

For the generation that can't listen to an entire album you simply have to hear the walls are coming down, finish line and fire escape. For those that can you've probably already got this and made it your album of the year, if not, do yourself a huge favour and invest your time in this band. They tour relentlessly and will no doubt be playing within your vacinity in 2010.

**If anyone has an mp3 of this I would be eternally greatful if you could send it my way

Fanfarlo Reminder

I know i've said it a million times but seriously catch them while you can they're going to be humungous, love their sound, love their album... which btw they are selling for $1 until July 4th! Get on it- Resevoir

New Albums- Fanfarlo (Resevoir)

So i've been working a hell of a lot recently, I unfortunately need to make money for my yearly quest of "make this the most awesome summer ever!". I'm pretty amazed with myself that i've kept this blog going while i've been "on da grind!" especially since I've had to declare my car off road due and walk 8 miles everyday! You should see my body though :p

Now I've gone on and on about Fanfarlo since finding them while randomly looking for new music a few weeks ago and it was pretty inevitable that they would get their own post sooner or later. And so it's finally here their debut album...
















Fanfarlo- Resevoir (2009)

01 I'm a Pilot
02 Ghosts
03 Luna
04 Comets
05 Fire Escape
06 The Walls Are Coming Down
07 Drowning Men
08 If It Is Growing
09 Harold T. Wilkins or How to Wait for a Very Long Time
10 Finish Line
11 Good Morning Midnight

My original review of FF "Dreampop, it's one of those abstract nondescript genres that still seems to fit some bands perfectly, this is one. Great for the summer, they're a mixture between the floatysunshinecatchiness of empire of the sun and the rhythmic intrumentation consciousness of an arcade fire. I really like these guys, they are probably the band that i've been most excited to discover in this blog, they really make stunning music. In the trunk is when it really struck me. Unbelievably endorphene inducing. Oh and they're from LDN!!!"

I'm pretty good to you, link to the whole album in the title and individual files on the track listing!

Before listening to album the first thing I noticed was that standout track from the demo cd "you are one of the few outsiders that understand us" isn't included, i'm hoping this means the rest of the album is eeeeeven better than that...

Early signs point to yes as "I am a pilot" is a heavenly track, starts the album off perfectly, and purposefully. The strings are magnificent and add a haunting atmosphere to the dark lyrics which are masked by an upbeat tempo and clapped beats which underly the piano perfectly. Part of what sounds like percussion is actually a lot of people playing the same part on guitars.

The similarities and ineed comparison to arcade fire are both obvious and unignorable. The strings and brass heavy tunes, flowing vocals and harmonies are evident on many of the tracks but in my opinion better than arcade fire because it really seems like the entire band has a common goal as each track builds and support each other well, AF vocals were lost way too often and I can see these going down great in big venues where AF will always be a support band to bands with a less pretentious and overtly thought out sound.

I've listened to the album about 6 times and it's a consistant and not overly ambitious debut, that is by no means a bad thing, they just know what they're good at and what they can pull off live and have aimed at hitting those highs first.

I'm so glad I found these guys and as coincidence would have it they're playing my town next month, i'm already there.

Moar new musik #?!

I'm gonna stop doing numbers next to things as I've already lost count and I'm only on like 3, I think this is why I failed math so many times :) Don't worry, I excel in other areas... Areas like- a) being cool b) not being a maths nerd :)

It's easter sunday, It's also my day off from exercise as I've done around 13 days in a row, results are smexeh ;) but none the less we're having a huge sunday lunch as well so probably gonna be a fairly glutenous day! Plus movies in the afternoon- groundhog day, darjeeling ltd and rounders. There is alcohol in the fridge but I would prefer not to drink it as Friday was so heavy and work yesterday was a bit of a slog dehydration wise..














Oh also Red Dwarf was back this weekend, I am not making any comments til i've seen it many many more times (i used to be a huge nerd about it... turns out I still am) But none the less here are the links if you don't have Dave (which I don't, I went over someone's house to watch it... what a 'kin geek!)

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3

I was looking through the stats for this blog and maaaaan does it get a lot of hits! I used to get all demoralised having no comments but have got some great ones recently on different sites saying you dig the stuff, the download numbers from some of the tracks are amazing. Any feedback is so very welcome. I'm glad people are enjoying it and I'm gonna do everything I can to keep the quality high. And more pretty pictures to give it an air of faux-professionalism.

Today it's time for more new music from new bands...













Black Box Revelation- Love, Love is on my mind

One of the heavier bands I'll feature today, I forget how I found about them especially considering they're from belgium. They're a two piece who remind me of supergrass in their darkest times, think Richard III. Pretty catchy chorus, lyrics are clear for the style, the album "set your head on fire" gained them a certain amount of notoriaty and rightly so, definately worth a check out.










Delphic- Counterpoint

From the same scene that touted twisted wheel as the next big band out of manchester, a 3/10 review in NME a bit of a dash to that claim, Delphic, formally known by the quite awesome name "Snowfight In The City Centre" are a four piece indie-rave band in cut from the same cloth as the cure and new order. One of the reasons their hyped to be big is the stadium potential for tracks like this, reminiscent of klaxons circa golden skans with a major plus that the tone of lead singer James Cook's voice is so much more clear and with actual resonant lyrics rather than sounds that just go with the music, I think these guys are gonna be pretty big later this year.




















Wave Pictures- If you leave it alone

These guys are maybe a bit twee, they've been around over 10 years other than that obvious comparisons due to the style of the vocals and supporting brass are te rumble strips, this track only serves to back up the similarities due to the meandering storyline of this song. The vocals of david tattersall are quite reminscent of the mountain goats and with the light dreamy possibly brushed drum track and delayed lightly picked guitars on this particular effort it could easily be mistaken.



















PJ Harvey- Black hearted Love / 16.15.14

Her tenth album, a woman a man walked by, has been getting amazing reviews already, labelling it the album of this year already. Plus she's a bit sexy. Oh and also a killer sound. An eclectic musician and despite being in the game so long has a fresh approach to music. 16/15/14 is quite a dark number quite like blonde redhead's "melody". Black Hearted Love on the other hand has been getting a load of attention from people like zane lowe and nme radio, a mix of the aformentioned blonde redhead, cat power and howling bells, can't go wrong.














Fanfarlo- I'm a pilot

You know I love these guys, they're my new favourite band and their album leaked last week and I still can't get enough of them, they're playing oxford in a month or so and i'm ever so there.

New bands to check out

Pete doherty is playing near me tonight, if I go my bank will be a bit pissed, if I don't go, i'll be a bit pissed! But it's not like I have insurance on my car but then it's not like I care!

And as ever music takes us away from the bleakness of existance. Certainly for me if I ever think damn what's the point i'll be like well this band's got an album coming out in a month, festival season is coming up, there's a new indie/rock playlist on the net and i've got tickets for this awesome band next week and as it should be. There's a lot of bands to be excited about which is what I shall be highlighting in this post.

Over the past few days i've been a bit stuck in the past, listening to belle and sebastien when I woke up today and right now it's the who but there's been a lot of lemonheads, smiths and mccartney. The sun's out, lemonheads HAVE been mentioned.

I feel obliged to post new stuff today as it's been stuck in the past the last few entries so here goes. Also SXSW happened last week, there's a pretty great torrent with a lot of the bands on there that you should check out, here are the highlighights-

Fol Chen- Cable TV/Wedding Cake
“You know that mysterious black object that the creepy family is staring at on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Presence” album? Fol Chen sound like that…" With abstract and potentially meaningless descriptions like that it makes sense that NME have hyped them on their blog recently, although said blog also concentrated 90% of it's efforts on their clothes which made me want to shoot myself in the face :) These californians are signed to sufjan steven's label, the aesmatic kitteh, chick and a guy on vocals you know i dig that. Cable TV starts off with some sitah and of course whenever this kinda instrument is mentioned so is george harrison, mainly because that's it's only redeeming quality... Ah it's not that bad, this tracks great though and glad it's opening up my blog today.

Local Natives- Airplanes

These guys are being billed as the next fleet foxes, that is to say they're destined to be as they're signed under the same management as coldplay and we know how much they love to sell bands out til you're sick right?! Plus their descrition on last fm labels them as "Basically the greatest band ever in existence." Now i'm aware that I could just click on the pencil next to it and write that they are balls but still you gotta listen right? They're from silver lake, california and are great a cornucopia of euprhoric instrumental harmonies behind powerful vocals and driving drums. You'll hear this track quite a bit later this year and probably a lot more about these guys.

Lissie Trullie- Self Taught Learner

This new york chick's a bit hard to track down cos she keeps changing the spelling of her name but this seems to be what she's settled on. She looks like what kate moss would look like if she looked bad while she was on drugs and forgot how to look like herself but was constantly trying to look like kate moss... You like that? She's good, her lyrics are good enough and the music refreshingly sparce at times, in this track in particular the vocals are as good as naked for half the track before the bass strings of an electric guitar are hit to underscore them, this before the drums and more melodic vocals and sweet bass kick in. It's good stuff I wouldn't be surprised if she is embraced by the indie harem in a spektor/heap sort of way.

Fanfarlo- You are one of the few outsiders that understand us

Dreampop, it's one of those abstract nondescript genres that still seems to fit some bands perfectly, this is one. Great for the summer, they're a mixture between the floatysunshinecatchiness of empire of the sun and the rhythmic intrumentation consciousness of an arcade fire. I really like these guys, they are probably the band that i've been most excited to discover in this blog, they really make stunning music. In the trunk is when it really struck me. Unbelievably endorphene inducing. Oh and they're from LDN!!!

3oh!3 and the pains of being pure of heart pretty much grabbed the headlines for SXSW this year, i've already raved about them both and they're gonna get enough attention without me.

One band that aren't new but i'm just finding-

Freezepop- Less talk more rokk Synth pop? Yeah it's fun, but what else? Nothing! But that's not a bad thing, music should be good times it doesn't always have to be intense meaningful lyrics, this track in particular emphasises that, you could play it at a party no problems and that is emphasised by the fact that this particular track was on guitar hero 2 ha! I bet it was killer hard to play.

Yeah I dig chick in bands, both these are the pop punk that sexiness is made of-

The Violets- Fereo
The Hussys- Napoleon Dynamite
YellowFever- Hellfire

O.K so that's me for the day catch you tomorrow!