namelessnumberheadmen

how to attract love

well, yeah, possibly the worst band name since, i don't know, chicago...? thankfully the band is a lot better than its name. basically electrotinged (?) pop a bit like hood or perhaps slowdive. that sort of reverb fueled pop but more pop. how to attract love doesn't really kick in until after 2 min. so be patient. & then the pop-bliss only lasts for about 22 seconds. quite nice though. & worth the wait.

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.... it seems some people have too much time on there hands. if you do to, try this: {}

12 rods

accidents waiting to happen

pitchforkmedia reports that 12 rods is no more. it is sad b/c after strikingly uneven career they really hit gold with last year's lost time, which was perhaps one of the best albums last year. ironically that album was released by the band itself after the left (kicked?) their major label. at any rate, lost time is great in the same way that weezer is great. great pop dressed up as rock. great fun. definately stuff to sing in the shower.

ratatat (reakwon remix)

smith bros.

ratatat may just have scored the song of the year with seventeen & their album was one of this year's most interesting propositions laying stale 80s guitars and synths over hip hop beats to a surprisingly great effect. althought the hip hop beats weren't terribly obvious their latest release of hip hop-remixes confirms that the hip hop influence wasn't just a happy accident but a real influence. so this time around ratatat rework missy elliot, raekwon, dizzee rascal, jay-z and some other rappers of varying "quality". and strangely enough, they pull it of again. the 80s guitars are not as noticable but somehow the manage to interject a touch of melancholy into the songs and, frankly, it adds a whole another dimension to these songs. in some ways a lo-fi version of rjd2's work with cannibal ox (which IS the best rap album since public enemy' it takes a nation of million to hold us back) without the paranoia. considering what they throw into the mix one might say the sum is greater than parts but more accurately one could say that they turn shit into gold.

gallon drunk

now and forever

somehow gallon drunk disappeared from my sights until recently. and frankly they never got the attention they deserved way back when. anyhow, they released their last album, black milk, maybe a couple of years back & it is finally now that i had the sense to track it down. sure it doesn't quite match the their old stuff and it is a lot more mellow. interestingly enough, gallon drunk's james johnston is now one of nick cave's bad seeds. interesting, because black milk actually sounds quite a bit like barry adamson who is an old bad seed. so once again the world makes sense.

playmusicmagazine.com

the idea of putting a magazine online always seemed a bit stupid to me. simply because it is much nicer to sit down with a coffee on a comfy couch to browse/read. staring at the computer screen which you probably do all day anyway can get a bit tiring. but this one goes at least halfway towards convincing me otherwise. the content isn't that great but it adds some stuff to what paper magazines can't achieve. background sounds, music to go with the fashion spread, animations. kinda neat.

ghostdogjr goes podcasting

well, well. apparently one of my two readers resents having to click on the links to download the music samples. my kind nature quickly implemented his suggested solution of setting the blog up for podcasting. more accurately, i needed some excuse not to do some other less exciting things. for those of you not in the know (which was me until a couple of days ago) this means that with the appropriate software the songs will be downloaded automatically and automagically to your computer and ipod (if you are lucky/rich/cool enough to have one). you can check www.ipodder.org and various other places on the net to find the software. an added bonus of using podcasting is that you no longer have to read the crap i write! but that would naturally make me quite sad and eventually bored with posting things.....

air novoselic

well, well .....

kingdom flying club

the closer i get

just a nice pop song from the album non-fiction. sometimes simply is good, sometimes great.

frog eyes

bells in the crooked port

i'm a bit mystified that people aren't raving more about this band. sure it isn't easy listening but you would be surprised how soon you get used the vocal and actually start liking them. for the meaningless lame comparisions think crossing nick cave with jeff buckley with a healthy dose of xiu xiu. the song is from the folded palm released this year on absolutely kosher (another song here) but they also released ego scriptor, an acoustic album, this year. it is just as good. carey mercer, the singer, also has a solo album under then name blackout beach.

the flesh

love your fate

the faint's wet from birth almost ruined my year. the flesh goes a long way towards giving me my dose of the faint for the year. though in all fairness they are more similar in spirit than in sound. not nearly as driven by rhytm as the faint was and the vocals remind me more of the blood brothers. love your fate hijacks bits of destiny's child and it sounds utterly brilliant. the rest of the album may be more brilliant. so brilliant indeed that it received a great review by cnn. whether or not that is a recommendation....

micro reviews

low - the great destroyer: the best since their first? low rocks out - relatively, that is. surprisingly good. mercery rev - the secret migration: not bad unless you compare it with their old stuff. then it sort of blows. but as expected sort of flaming lipsesque poppy that I guess is every bit as much mercury rev's sound. i just miss the damn guitars. m83 - before the dawn heals us: more varied than their last & the sound isn't as distinguished. but basically the tracks that rock, rock and the slow stuff is a little boring. plus some horrible eighties vocals. terribly uneven. and you will know us by the trail of dead - worlds apart: let's just say that it is hard to see them destroy any stages to this music. not necessarily bad... just sort of retro bowie type sound. actually, it is kinda bad but maybe i need to give it another listen. bright eyes - digital ash in a digital urn & i'm wide awake it is morning: it sort of makes sense for bright eyes to release two albums. both their last album and the shows have suffered from being too all over the place. don't get me wrong, i think bright eyes is responsible for some of the best songs in the last few years, but i think at some point either i just lost interest or oberst ran out of ideas. the "acoustic" album in its better moments reminds me a little of a lesser elliott smith. the more folksy stuff just bores me now. the "digital" album also fails to convince though i think it contains a few of the better songs in this batch. another disappointment. hood - outside closer: the first single was fantastic (video). the album is a bit more low key. in terms of pop it doesn't quite reach the heights of their previous stuff but it sounds just as good - just more ambient than before.

khonnor

megan's present

it is a little depressing when these teenagers make such good records. khonnor is supposedly seventeen years old and he has put together a pretty nice laptop-rock album. for lack of time i'll just say m83, slowdive with a touch of the flaming lips. something along those lines i guess - or not. just check the song out. his website is pretty nice too: www.khonnor.com/

alias

unseen sights

well, enough bitching and whining about things that don't matter. i stumbled upon this album muted by alias released last year on the anticon label. the temptation is to label it instrumental hip hop because of the lable he is on but it is neither hip hop nor entirely instrumental. it is closer in spirit to boards of canada and occasionally maybe four tet. alias has worked with a bunch of hip hop artists of the good kind, e.g., slug and sage francis, but here is a song where markus acher from the notwist (another excellent band) provides the vocals. this song simply amazes me - the music and the vocal just fit perfectly together. i don't know whether i'm more impressed by the stunning prettiness of the song or just how it is pieced together.

on the methodology of the record review

record reviews don't usually bother me - it just someone's opinion & in most cases they probably reflect more on the writer than the artist being reviewed. but on the other hand most of us read reviews in the hope of finding out about the latest and the greatest so in a sense a writer, or a publication, can become a useful guide to what is hot and what is not. everett true (of the nme? or was it melody maker?) used to be my northern star for a while guiding me towards some great music. today, the internet has taken over and a number of websites offer a narrower focus than the aforementioned publications and i put a lot of stock into, e.g., pitchforkmedia. but once in a while i have my doubts. three things bother me - they don't apply only to pitchforkmedia but, hell, for the point of illustration. one. old farts that are no good. does michael jackson's compilation really deserve 8.0? i don't think anyone who wasn't a teenager while mj was at his "peak" would seriously consider thriller any good. take away all the memories you may associate with mj's music including the moonwalking in highschool and what is left? pretend mj was unknown and released any of his albums today. do you really think you would prefer listening to him rather than say modest mouse or out hud or max richter? my point is that i read record reviews to find stuff i like not stuff that may have some significance in pop culture history or in someones adolesence. i simply would never but mj's music on. because really, it is utter crap. two. old farts that are good. this really is the same complaint but i would feel terrible putting the clash into the same category as michael jackson. the clash made some stellar music no question. but did London Calling deserve a 10.0? great album but for the same reason as above i think someone's judgement may just be a little clouded by history and, as such, it doesn't signal accurately to me, or rather someone that hasn't heard the clash, how good the album is. how often do you think "i think i'll put the velvet underground on because they were so influential"? I don't know, but i tend to listen to them because i like the music. however important the music may have been in whatever social context you want to put it, it doesn't really make it better. write an article about these things - they are interesting in themselves - but don't call it a record review. three. "legends". now i'm thinking brian wilson and smile. forget the myth, review the album. C-. four. we're so damn hip we like crap. it is a tough world other people are also reviewing cool music. and you have to stay a step ahead. and it is good. pitchforkmedia, e.g., has exposed me to lots of stuff i wouldn't have stumbled upon if it hadn't been for their insistence to dig up new "more out there" stuff. but there comes a point in every hipster's life that they can't stretch any further. and the only way to stay cool is to start liking the lame. i refuse to believe that pitchforkmedia likes annie's anniemal that much (8.8) - i think it is misguided coolness. it is not a bad album but it isn't that good either. i check pitchforkmedia, and others (see links), out not because i'm curious to know what people there like but because they have shown themselves to be fairly reliable in recommending music. coolness, by its nature, is no reliable.

so i guess i'm arguing for a "veil of ignorance" method of record reviewing. Ideally, one should know nothing about the artists and simply let the music speak for itself. With famous old farts this, of course, is pretty much impossible but the reviewer should try to distance themselves from all those factors that don't really relate to whether the cd/album is worth listening to. well, enough bitching - got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning. and an hour too early as well.

the duke spirit

red weather

over the years i have sometimes wondered about the influence of "geography" on music. it certainly seems that cities rise and fade in terms of their output of "good quality" music. think seattle way back when and montreal today. what i find more interesting, however, is the continental divide. why is there so much music coming out of the states and so little out of the uk? it might just be the size but in my estimation it doesn't account for the differences. there are simply very few british bands that i like these days. trying to think of a few i can come up with arab strap, mogwai, 22-20s, and british sea power. and, well, chris clark and aphex twins. when i first got serious about listening to music the situation was almost reverse. of course, flipping through my collection i have to say happy mondays were shit and the stone roses weren't really much of anything - though they certainly were a notch. still, my bloody valentine, jamc, and ride have stood the test of time. so maybe it is just a matter of taste. but of the bands above two are scottish and the rest (excl. the electronic) sound pretty american. anyhow, the duke spirits also sound american. except that the singer sounds like pj harvey but pj harvey always sounded a bit american to me. her early stuff certainly appeared more related to babes in toyland or hole than any british artists i can recall from the time. at any rate, the point is that i like the duke spirit. resorting to lame comparisons i think they bluesy version of sonic youth (read: w/o the experimental edge) mixed with tricky's reading of public enemy's black steel in the hour of chaos. and of course it comes nowhere close to describing the sound. but at least i tried. just check red weather from their first ep out.

daedelus

cadavre exquis

the title song (well, translated into french) from daedelus' upcoming release. if you haven't heard daedelus before he is pleasant sort of chap from san fran that likes to play with electronics. what sets him a part is probably the source of his sounds, which as far as I can tell are from the 20's and 30's. my first encounter with daedelus was invention which got me all excited. such neat sounds! and somehow it worked. later on came the weather, a collaboration with busdriver and awol one, which was essentially a rap album with daedules providing the tracks. well, it was a lot of fun but i often wished that they had mixed the album differently, bringing the music a bit more upfront. daedelus must have thought the same becomes rethinking the weather, an "instrumental" version, appeared shortly after the weather. on his forthcoming album deadelus keeps moving further away from IDM to hip hop, this time collaborating with a variety of rappers including mf doom, which i always imagined would be a near perfect match. i wasn't entirely right but the thing is that mf doom's stuff can't really be improved on so it nowhere near a miss. prefuse 73 also appears on a track that could belong on any prefuse 73 album. in the end it is all good fun but like before i'm not convinced daedelus should bother with the rappers. his fairytail mini-musicals are quite enough for me. at least this time around the music manages to shine through. the sample song features the french ttc who sounds a like a french missy elliot. which is not a bad thing at all. two thumbs up.

wordsworth vs. bush

i couldn't help but find this debate between bush and wordsworth a little entertaining.

hercules

can't go out

well, there is nothing really herculian about this band. pretty chamber pop recorded on a single microphone and mixed by maestro j mascis (though i wonder how much mixing you can do with something recorded this way... or maybe i'm just exposing my ignorance here?) at any rate, great stuff if you are in the mood for something, well, moody and melodic. more over at hercules' website + links to buy.

hood

the release date for hood's new album is slowly approaching. check out the lost you over at zuri's blog. i was completely floored by this song when hood played the airwaves festival here last month. completely brilliant in every way. the ep version doesn't quite match the thunderousness of the live version but it still remains one of this year's best songs. also, i've been hooked on mark lanegan's bubblegum lately. i won't offer a sample from the album because it works far better as whole than in parts. solid job from the old fart. also spinning on my, erm, computer: the danish efterklang and teenager khonnor's handwriting. samples will arrive shortly.

vincent & mr. green

like you

this sounds like a smoky bar (soon to be outlawed everywhere apparently) in the same way elysian fields does but less jazzy. also reminds me little of portishead. at any rate a notch above the other trip hop acts in my estimation. actually there is a whole lot more going on here than that would suggest. hints of country in some places, pj harvey in other. but altogether it makes for a nice listening.

department of eagles

the horse you ride

from nyc and consists of couple of guys named iron chrysalis and butterfly emerging. for my typically lazy review by comparison with other bands i would say that they are a little like hood and a little like radiohead. at any rate if you like either of these bands you just might like the department of eagles. fine fine laptop rock. a few more songs over at department of eagles.

gonzales

gogol

well, who would have thought! gonzales, yes the same potty-mouthed mc we love and hate, has a new album titled album solo piano, which is precisely what the album title describes. surprising in itself, what is even more surprising is that the album is pretty much excellent. the mood isn't dissimilar to max richter (whose blue notebooks is one of this years best albums). i'm totally flabbergasted.

john peel

BBC's John Peel died yesterday. few people have done more for indie music than this legend. he'll be missed.

the airwaves festival

so another airwaves festival has gone by. the highlights were not so high and the lows were low. the festival has become a bit too crowded. the frat boys have arrived. the scheduling was weird - the shins play in a glorified garage while the godawful gus gus get a prime spot at one of the bigger venues? so the music.

day 1. to rococo rot: good but after three songs I got a little tired. adem: boring. who on earth thought of giving these guys good reviews. they sound like the fucking barenaked ladies. hood: somewhat of a disappointment but some of the new stuff sounded interesting/promising. some "technical" difficulties going which probably didn't help. slowblow: very nice but please drop the 453 instruments and play some rock like back in the day. fourtet: the few minutes I saw were alright but not what I expected. úlpa: rocking it out at nasa. the two songs i witnessed were great. look out for these guys. ensími: very boring, formulaic alternative rock. avoid. sahara hotnights: it is nice to know that the swedes can fail at something.

day2. skakkamangage: my festival surprise. sound like arcade fire minus three band members. nice dynamics. i want to hear more. kid koala: koalas rock. hjálmar: 8 times better than i expected from an icelandic reggae band. which makes them alright. hot chip: nerd fun. great show, no desire to listen to their stuff ever again. kimono: can i say polvo? excellent stuff. can i ask for a more lo-fi approach to the next album, please?

day3. mugison: thinks he is cool. and he is a little bit. but not enough for the act he tried to pull off. could have done with out ragga gísla on the second song. actually, just scrap that song altogether. but when he was good, he was good. Unsound: pretty good. i'll see him again. singapore sling: despite most of the members leaving the band they rocked and were better than last time i saw them. the stills: i wasn't crazy about the sound but they did a good job nevertheless. the shins: i didn't like the last album so i had rather low expectations that they thankfully managed to exceed. quite entertaining despite the crowd. Croisztans: i only caught one song but what a song. some definately ungodly noise. the pogues vs. death

dayafter: nursing a hangover i went for a beer and happened to see hudson wayne at sirkus. i may have enjoyed this show more than the entire festival. they are just a nice band. not terribly original but they do their stuff well. somewhere close to idaho, mojave three, ....

hood

you show no emotion at all

hood is playing at the airwaves festival in Reykjavík this weekend. i saw them live about two years ago and they were absolutely great. live they were a little louder and twice as pretty. only fools will miss this show - probably the same people that missed Calla and Tv on the Radio last year. anyhow, their album Cold House was a little bit of a sleeper but once it kicked in there will be very little need for those other 39.4GB on your iPod for the next couple of weeks.

modest mouse

broke (live)

stumbled upon this unofficial bootleg Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again that doesn't look terribly unofficial. at any rate, decent live album that any serious mm fan will want to get there hands on.

fugazi vs. destiny's child

independent room

well, well

sonic youth

eyes and teeth

this song escaped my attention when it came out in 1999. some more sonic youth goods at saucerlike.

the legends

there and back

another band trading in retro sound from sweden. but this time going further back and digging up some soul. reminds me little of afghan wigs doing those fabulous soul covers - even though they don't quite reach those heights. but quite nice nevertheless

earlimart

the hidden track

death from above

romantic rights

just in case you missed it when pitchfork mentioned it. the canadians score again. home.

moron parade

grip

from seattle. indie stuff. visit them here. where you will find more songs. remind me a little of pavement back when the became incredibly bad and annoying. and it didn't get any better when the singer went on to do his own thing. sad really how great albums (ie slanted and enchanted) just seem to be accidents somehow. anyhow, i enjoy moron parade more than the combined output of pavement since s&e.

fingathing

walk in space

well, boredom sometimes pays. everything about fingathing appears kinda lame. the cover art, the line-up (bass, drums and a dj), and, well, the name of the band. but because I am bored i did decide to check them out and, what do you know, they are actually kinda fun. i couldn't have been more surprised. so they sound like, you know, a drummer, bassist and a dj, but a little like that band with that song around the world. i'm getting old can't remember anything anymore. sad really. anyhow, this song makes me want to groove like when i was young way back in the day. off to copenhagen. have a good weekend. both of you.

sondre lerche

the norwegians seem a little bit odd. but how many norwegian bands can you name? well, st. thomas is was for the longest time the only one i could think of. until now, that sondre lerche has started making waves. loung-y, popp-y, sondre lerche. and very enjoyable. check his stuff out here: sfgate.com's Sondre Lerche piece

patrick wolf

a boy like me

in my humble opinon (which is why i put it on the web) patrick wolf's lycanthropy is a strong contender for the album of the year. powerful, poppy and twisted. according to the merriam-webster dictionary lycanthropy means a delusion that one has become or has assumed the characteristics of a wolf. which makes the album title very clever. although i'm not sure what it is intended to mean. patrick has taken on his own characteristics? he is delusional? maybe i'm just confused because it is monday.

the detachment kit

ricochet

from chicago. most of the time they rock. but somtimes they don't. and it is difficult to tell which suits them better. they may suffer from a multiple personality disorder as a band. their rock is urgent, their quiet stuff sincere but onstage they are clowns. caught them at the lit lounge this summer where they were wearing costumes. it is a perfectly good reason to hate a band for wearing costumes. but in this case it had the opposite effect. their 2001 album They Raging, Quiet Army was just plain superb. their new one Of This Blood probably reaches higher in places but is not as consistent but contains the pretty song of the year, ricochet.

over at epitonic, a couple of songs from They Raging, Quiet Army

over at self-starter foundation, a couple more. if you are in the states they are offering a great deal.

british sea power

fear of drowning

this band got pretty smashing reviews when the decline of british sea power came out. then the hype sort of died out but what remains is one of the very best albums of last year. but it is one of these tricky ones. there isn't really a stand-out track that stands out - the album works as whole. it works ok in pieces too. but it is better as a whole. and you will actually not realize you like it until one day that you realize that you can't really live without it. ok, maybe a slight exaggeration but it is pretty brilliant. so, in short, a single song has no chance of doing the album justice but here it is anyways.

and, if you don't want to take my word for it, take Lou Reed's word it: it is a good album. [and if you don't like Lou Reed, like me, the album is still good.]

the lights

i'm a dangerous snake

the lights are from the northwest (usa) and are not all that bad. they released beautiful bird last year (i believe) & it is not a bad album. not at all. its just not great either. but the next one might be. there is certainly some excellent parts here - like the above song.

gus gus

how absolutely crap have gus gus become? not that they ever where that terrific to begin with. i had the unfortunate experience of seeing them last weekend and they were just incredibly ridiculously bad.

ted leo and the pharmacists

me and mia

i always had rather mixed feelings about ted leo but he finally won me over with the hearts of oak album, which is just hell of a pop album. for some reasons i think of billy bragg when i listen ted leo. but the kind of billy bragg if billy bragg was more fun. i managed to catch ted leo and the pharmacists play an outdoor show at east river park this summer and it was all good fun. not at least thanks to some old man that kept trying to get people to dance. ted leo put on a fine show but sea ray sort stole the show (album doesn't live up to their live show but try quiver). But back on topic, ted leo and the rx have a new album titled shake the sheet which is a little disappointing but does contain some excellent popsongs... like the above song.

blonde redhead

no longer overlooked admittedly, but in honour of a terrific show here in iceland a couple of weeks ago i thought you might want to hear what blonde redhead would sound without the italian accent. this version of messenger features david sylvian and comes of the equus single.

apostle of hustle

canada is the new iceland. what is going on up there? i remember a few years ago I had struggle to name a canadian band that didn't deserve to die. that one nation was responsible for barenakedladies and celinedion may just have been better grounds for a preemptive strike than iraq's WMD. But the canadians seem to be able to deal with their own problems. A slew of truly phenomenal bands like the unicorns, arcade fire, godspeed, broken social scene and some lesser ones but still decent like the stills have been popping up - interestingly enough no good bands seem to come from the west coast? so apostle of hustle is yet another canadian worthy our attention - actually it is the side project of someone in the broken social scene - and, yes, it also sounds that way. it doesn't quite reach the heights of BSS but it is nevertheless pretty sweet. baby, you're in luck, a little sample from the album folkloric feel.

mono

this is music made for those moments. like the moment you are walking home after a night of drinking and the sun is coming up (never experienced that? either you don't drink enough or you drink too much). or the moment you just feel like staring out the window for 20 minutes. or some other moment of your own choosing. but basically it is just super pretty and loud music - think godspeed or sigur rós and you'll be close. but I like them more - and not only because they are from japan. it took a little while to get a hooked on them however. it didn't happen until late one night at work with the winamp set on shuffle that a mono track comes on and, well, blows my brains out. jackie says is from their first album "under the pipal tree." They have a new one "Walking cloud and deep red sky, Flag fluttered and the sun shined" out which pretty much sticks to the formula..... but why change it if it works?

nice mono website

the 22-20s

here is one to pierce your heart. this song appeared in a live version on their 10" album earlier this year ... or was it the last one... anyhow, this has none of the fancy shit lesser bands need. no violins, no pianos, no banjos and, oh my gosh, no little electronic beats to keep you tapping your foot [not that i particularily mind those things]. just straight ahead rock that kicks you in the head... that is if you imagine the song is written about you. at any rate the simple approach suits the topic. this version of such a fool is from the new album, which by the sounds of it just might be worth shelling out a few bucks for. here come the hiccups.....

the blood brothers

these guys released a fantastic album, "burn, piano island, burn" last year. yeah, it is a lot of spastic screaming and shit but we can all do with a little of that once in a while. plus the blood brothers do like hardly noone else falling somewhere inbetween the magnificent brainiac and calvin krime. they have a new album coming up which seems to cut a little down on the punkiness without sacrificing much of the energy. a sneak preview, track 16, that actually sounds, strangely enough, a little like blood redhead (who incidently just played a couple of fantastic shows here in iceland earlier this week).

midwest product

not the best of names but with songs like that you can't really complain. Motivator is from their ep World Series of Love (buy). Basically sweet sweet addictive pop in the vein of the Postal Service - only a little lower on the cheese factor.

some more songs over at epitonic.

plastic mastery

song against life

from the sverige ep. don't let it mislead you, the band is actually from florida. but they should be from north carolina....

peculiar

... how you get sucked into things like these?