Friday, 23 January 2009
Royal Bangs on Daytrotter
Four free songs from one of the most energetic, and exciting new bands (on The Black Keys' Pat Carney's label) at Daytrotter...
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
New Springsteen album
There's a pre-release audit stream of Bruce Springsteen's new album, Working On a Dream
at NPR. Can't say I'm impressed yet (which pains me to say...) - let's hope that Brendan O'Brien ends his run with Bruce soon...
at NPR. Can't say I'm impressed yet (which pains me to say...) - let's hope that Brendan O'Brien ends his run with Bruce soon...
Friday, 16 January 2009
Will Johnson and Christian Kiefer release Obama supplement to 43 Presidents project
An interesting project just got a whole load more interesting... Christian Kiefer is the songwriter behind a project, Of Great and Mortal Men, which had brought together guest musicians (including These United States).
Before the election of Barack Obama, a group of musicians recorded and released a collection of 43 original songs, one for each of the U.S. presidencies. Titled Of Great and Mortal Men, the three-CD set ended with George W. Bush. Now, just in time for the inauguration, the creators have completed their 44th song.Rather delightfully, Kiefer chose Will Johnson, of Centro-matic, to head up this one... It is also available for free download from NPR...
New Southeast Engine song
There's a new Southeast Engine song for download, from the new album From the Forest to the Sea
: Black Gold
: Black Gold
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Don't Be A Stranger
Found this wonderful Swedish band by accident on emusic... This isn't the best song on their oddly-titled Frutti Di Mare, but it is the one that has a video...
Saturday, 10 January 2009
The Walkmen
So, so good... From Juan's Basement:
THE WALKMEN NEW SINGLE AND UK TOUR
‘IN THE NEW YEAR’ RELEASED 23rd FEBRUARY
(Fierce Panda Records)
www.myspace.com/thewalkmen | www.fiercepanda.co.uk
The Walkmen are from New York City. They consist of Hamilton Leithauser (vocals/guitar), Paul Maroon (guitar/piano), Walter Martin (organ/bass), Matt Barrick (drums) and Peter Bauer (bass/organ).
In September 2008 they released the frankly terrific 'You & Me' album on Fierce Panda which featured 51 minutes of fearsomely inventive classic alt.rock noises, scowled at the dark end of the street and garnered hearty plaudits across the board including four stars in Q and a whopping five stars from The Guardian.
Indeed, many other sage listeners joined drownedinsound.com in believing it to be "the best thing they've ever done". And as if proffering more evidence that they were a band reborn since parting company with Warner Brothers, to follow up the launch of 'You & Me' The Walkmen played a splendid sold out show at ULU on a beautifully snowy winter’s eve in London Town. Unsurprisingly they have unveiled plans to make a swift return to these shores
'In The New Year' is the second single to be lifted from 'You & Me', following the smouldering success of 'The Blue Route' and will be available on limited edition 7” and download on February 23rd. Like much of the rest of the album 'In The New Year' is a meticulously constructed whirl of The Walkmen's trademark clanging guitars and otherworldly keyboards which sounds like nothing else out there, and sounds all the better for it.
To celebrate the single's release The Walkmen will be back on UK shores for a 3-date tour in mid-February – including a London date headlining Fierce Panda’s 15th birthday show at The Scala.
The Walkmen on Tour:
February
18th Birmingham Barfly
19th Brighton Concorde 2
20th London Kings Cross Scala (Fierce Panda's fifteenth birthday party w/Hatcham Social + The Molotovs)
The New Year - The New Year
Somewhat appropriately, a new video for the New Year, by growers The New Year...
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Best songs of 2008
These probably aren't the best best songs of 2008, but they are a selection of the ones that have really moved me this year (only one from each artist...). Check them out - downloads or YouTube clips where I could... In alphabetical order only:
Cage The Elephant - In One Ear
Centro-matic - Quality Strange
Chris Bathgate - Salt Year
Eef Barzelay - Make Another Tree
Horse Feathers - Curs in the Weeds
Land of Talk - Cornerphone
The Quiet Ones - Girls and Uniforms
Royal Bangs - Brother
Snowblink - Tired Bees
one little breeze, as quiet as a hiveful of tired bees
one little word, as soft as the breast of a hummingbird
one little song, sung oft as a moth moving towards a light left on
one little tremor, as tender as a frost thawing into pond
one little word, as soft as the breast of a hummingbird
Surf City - Dickshakers' Union
These United States - We Go Down To That Corner
Tokyo Police Club - Juno
Uglysuit - ...And We Became Sunshine
The Walkmen - In The New Year
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
The Uglysuit on Decomposed
Really liked this stripping down of The Uglysuit's Chicago on Stereogum's Decomposed series:
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Free 4AD sampler
There are a lot of free music samplers from labels, and most of them aren't worth that much... However, 4AD's is worth a lot, and probably contains bands you probably will like if you give them time... Go here to find out more.
Thursday, 11 December 2008
2008 Top 10 Albums
I guess people like Top 10s... They're hard to come up with - much easier to just throw together the albums that you've liked in any one year. When I did that this year, there were around 45... So, trimming was in order. Here's where I got to:
Dual Hawks
Misra
Will Johnson is the singer and songwriter for Centro-matic, a Crazy Horse-The Band style rock 4-piece and South San Gabriel, a quieter, mellower, folkier outfit. It is hard to overestimate the impact of his voice and ability to write a song - at his best, he reaches directly into your soul. Elegiac, spare melodies and aching building dynamics double up on power pop with a buzzsaw edge. Dual Hawks should ensure the bands are given the kind of accolades usually reserved for (friends) My Morning Jacket or Drive-By Truckers.
************************************
The Black Keys
Attack and Release
V2
A band playing primal blues that captured mass attention for the way they have made not only a man with a guitar and a drummer into some kind of modern rival for early Zeppelin, but the way that they have made elemental music popular with people under 25. Keeping their stark sound from Thickfreakness and adding in some wonderful atmospherics to a more soulful sound. Attack and Release sees the band grow into one of the best around.
************************************
Delta Spirit
Ode To Sunshine
Rounder
A five piece band from Southern California, Delta Spirit are The Cold War Kids meet the Beatles, and the Kinks, and the best folk music. It is joyful, melodic, anthemic and rootsy. Ten songs seems ten too few. When the electric guitars kick in, they mean it; when the choruses kick in, they sing with the evangelism of a Baptist preacher. There is not a weak moment, not a filler song, not a thrown away note. There is no preaching, no overreaching, no preening. It has spirit, soul and boundless energy.
************************************
Royal Bangs
We Breed Champions
Audio Eagle
So, so good. A band that combines the best of The Clash and Dinosaur Jr unleashes a thick slug of buzz and energy alongside some great melodies. With a studio-full of instruments thrown (appropriately) into the mix, the enthusiasm is captured and remains wonderfully thrilling, dirty almost, but always deliciously more-ish. There seems to be no higher purpose than simply making great music - there are parallels with an unleashed In Rainbows Radiohead, but lead man Ryan Schaefer seems to be having a better time than Thom Yorke.
************************************
5. The Walkmen
You And Me
Gigantic
The Walkmen are an individual, and remarkably cool collective, making left-of-The-Strokes New York indie. In The New Year, I Lost You and Seven Years of Holidays are as good as any Walkmen song (including single of the noughties, The Rat). Like New York Dolls playing Tom Waits, the band's rhythms and textures and punk spirit infuse the soundscape like a tequila marinade.
************************************
6. The Quiet Ones
Better Walk Than Ride Like That
In Advance
An energy like The Lily's Nanny In Manhattan and a musical mix like Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, The Quiet Ones seem instantly like one of the best bands you've heard in an age. At times, a hipper Foo Fighters (All Day), at others a rockier Wilco (O Mexico), coming back around with a B-52s cheese-fun thrash (Biggest Love), this is an album unlike any other, and wholly welcome for that.
************************************
7. Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Relentless
Like a red hot Red Hot Chili Peppers mixed with the Arctic Monkeys, this five-piece band throw a storming number of influences into the mix. It is like the 70s punk scene all over again - Sex Pistols attitude and Black Crowes songsmithery mixed with a wholly noughties attitude,. Lead singles In one Ear and Ain't No Rest For The Wicked will surely be the Chelsea Dagger of this summer's festivals, The funk underlying the tunes (listen to Lotus and try to keep your head still) adds depth and listenability to the whole album.
************************************
8. Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell
Label - Memphis Industries
So long as The Walkmen don't want to make The Rat again, this is as great a bunch of rapid-fire propulsive singles as you'll hear. Only one song comes in over three minutes, and none of the others needs to. The song ideas keep coming at you - they burst in, deliver their message breathlessly and with great melody, and get back out. With pounding backbeats, synths driving the melody, guitar adding edge and character, and a snaking punky bass under the shy boy voice, this is all the band you need.
************************************
9. These United States
Crimes
United Interests
Crimes is The Basement Tapes brought right up to date - in song quality, instrumentation and overall feel, it is hard not to believe that Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and Rick Danko were in the studio for this one when Get Yourself Home or Six Fast Bullets kick in. We Go Down To That Corner is a stunning song, a modern blues parable. Crimes is a step forward and sideways for These United States - a grandiose communal statement.
************************************
10. Eef Barzelay
Lose Big
Label - SLG
What Barzelay does so superbly is craft quite incredible lyrics, with an ability to balance bitter, sweet and achingly beautiful, and then fit them to songs that enhance every emotion. Rolling Stone captured it succinctly when they said, "Lyrically, he can be as cool as jazz, as earnest as folk, as sorrowful as country, as goofy as pop and as ironic as indie rock, sometimes all in one song." Basically, Lose Big is a Clem Snide album, freed from the constraints of genre. It is a lovely thing, full of texture, feel and touch.
Will Johnson is the singer and songwriter for Centro-matic, a Crazy Horse-The Band style rock 4-piece and South San Gabriel, a quieter, mellower, folkier outfit. It is hard to overestimate the impact of his voice and ability to write a song - at his best, he reaches directly into your soul. Elegiac, spare melodies and aching building dynamics double up on power pop with a buzzsaw edge. Dual Hawks should ensure the bands are given the kind of accolades usually reserved for (friends) My Morning Jacket or Drive-By Truckers.
************************************
The Black Keys
Attack and Release
V2
A band playing primal blues that captured mass attention for the way they have made not only a man with a guitar and a drummer into some kind of modern rival for early Zeppelin, but the way that they have made elemental music popular with people under 25. Keeping their stark sound from Thickfreakness and adding in some wonderful atmospherics to a more soulful sound. Attack and Release sees the band grow into one of the best around.
************************************
Delta Spirit
Ode To Sunshine
Rounder
A five piece band from Southern California, Delta Spirit are The Cold War Kids meet the Beatles, and the Kinks, and the best folk music. It is joyful, melodic, anthemic and rootsy. Ten songs seems ten too few. When the electric guitars kick in, they mean it; when the choruses kick in, they sing with the evangelism of a Baptist preacher. There is not a weak moment, not a filler song, not a thrown away note. There is no preaching, no overreaching, no preening. It has spirit, soul and boundless energy.
************************************
Royal Bangs
We Breed Champions
Audio Eagle
So, so good. A band that combines the best of The Clash and Dinosaur Jr unleashes a thick slug of buzz and energy alongside some great melodies. With a studio-full of instruments thrown (appropriately) into the mix, the enthusiasm is captured and remains wonderfully thrilling, dirty almost, but always deliciously more-ish. There seems to be no higher purpose than simply making great music - there are parallels with an unleashed In Rainbows Radiohead, but lead man Ryan Schaefer seems to be having a better time than Thom Yorke.
************************************
5. The Walkmen
You And Me
Gigantic
The Walkmen are an individual, and remarkably cool collective, making left-of-The-Strokes New York indie. In The New Year, I Lost You and Seven Years of Holidays are as good as any Walkmen song (including single of the noughties, The Rat). Like New York Dolls playing Tom Waits, the band's rhythms and textures and punk spirit infuse the soundscape like a tequila marinade.
************************************
6. The Quiet Ones
Better Walk Than Ride Like That
In Advance
An energy like The Lily's Nanny In Manhattan and a musical mix like Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, The Quiet Ones seem instantly like one of the best bands you've heard in an age. At times, a hipper Foo Fighters (All Day), at others a rockier Wilco (O Mexico), coming back around with a B-52s cheese-fun thrash (Biggest Love), this is an album unlike any other, and wholly welcome for that.
************************************
7. Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Relentless
Like a red hot Red Hot Chili Peppers mixed with the Arctic Monkeys, this five-piece band throw a storming number of influences into the mix. It is like the 70s punk scene all over again - Sex Pistols attitude and Black Crowes songsmithery mixed with a wholly noughties attitude,. Lead singles In one Ear and Ain't No Rest For The Wicked will surely be the Chelsea Dagger of this summer's festivals, The funk underlying the tunes (listen to Lotus and try to keep your head still) adds depth and listenability to the whole album.
************************************
8. Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell
Label - Memphis Industries
So long as The Walkmen don't want to make The Rat again, this is as great a bunch of rapid-fire propulsive singles as you'll hear. Only one song comes in over three minutes, and none of the others needs to. The song ideas keep coming at you - they burst in, deliver their message breathlessly and with great melody, and get back out. With pounding backbeats, synths driving the melody, guitar adding edge and character, and a snaking punky bass under the shy boy voice, this is all the band you need.
************************************
9. These United States
Crimes
United Interests
Crimes is The Basement Tapes brought right up to date - in song quality, instrumentation and overall feel, it is hard not to believe that Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and Rick Danko were in the studio for this one when Get Yourself Home or Six Fast Bullets kick in. We Go Down To That Corner is a stunning song, a modern blues parable. Crimes is a step forward and sideways for These United States - a grandiose communal statement.
************************************
10. Eef Barzelay
Lose Big
Label - SLG
What Barzelay does so superbly is craft quite incredible lyrics, with an ability to balance bitter, sweet and achingly beautiful, and then fit them to songs that enhance every emotion. Rolling Stone captured it succinctly when they said, "Lyrically, he can be as cool as jazz, as earnest as folk, as sorrowful as country, as goofy as pop and as ironic as indie rock, sometimes all in one song." Basically, Lose Big is a Clem Snide album, freed from the constraints of genre. It is a lovely thing, full of texture, feel and touch.
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