benoit pioulard

don't be fooled by the name - this frenchie is actually a michiganite. of course, his name isn't benoit but it sounds much better than his actual name. a couple of more from his album precis: triggering back and ash into the sky

beach house

beach house kinda reminds me a little of galaxie 500 and, therefore, i like 'em.

trentemoller

there is plenty to hate about trentemoller - at first it sounds like flaccid house music and, frankly, i don't know how many times i skipped over his songs after listening to the first few beats. but laziness clearly pays b/c yesterday i was too lazy to get up of the couch so i was forced to listen to a whole song and, well, it was a bit like having a hamburger that tastes really good. the ingredients are kinda boring/normal but for some strange reason it actually tastes really good. and, yes, it is a hamburger with a generous helping of cheese. not everything on the album, the last resort, is equally good, but the standout tracks are really quite tasty. if i weren't so prejudiced against house music i might even say it was a great album.

thee more shallows

san franciscans thee more shallows have been growing on me. the album is pretty solid but in a sort of quite way that you might not notice if 2am wasn't there to catch our attention.

a few random tracks...

it's been a while and, well, i figured i should throw something up here to dispell any notions that this blog is dead. or that i am dead. still alive, just not kicking. so some random new-ish stuff.

golem - warsaw is khelm

midnight movies - patient eyes

repellent - low earth orbit

clap your hands say yeah! - love song no. 7
clap your hands say yeah! - underwater

the shins - phantom limb

the thermals - here's your future

okkervil river - the president's dead

menomena - wet and rusting

viva voce - when planets collide

what made milwaukee famous - i decide

black sunday - this heart is now aluminum

mystery jets - elizabeth

the like young

tly have apparently decided to retire - old news i guess but i'm damn disappointed. anyhow, i like this video.

malajube

malajube hail from montreal and i wouldn't be surprised if they came to be regarded one of montreal's finest bands. which is no small feat given that montreal has spawned some of the finest bands of the last few years. montreal -40c is one of the band's poppier moments. but it's the band's louder moments that i favor (see filles a plumbes video below). and at times they sound a little cheesy... their first album was a fairly straight laced indie rock album. their new one, trompe l'oeil, is far more adventurous - and i hate to say it - it sounds like these guys learned a trick or two from arcade fire and wolf parade. but that doesn't make it any worse. actually, it makes it much better because malajube ad something new to the mix - or perhaps something old - there is trace of polishness that reminds me of some very much disliked rock from the 70s. but it works lovely when you add in lyrics in french. at any rate, i'm pretty sure this is on my top 10 for the year.

airwaves day 4

i barely had the energy to go to any shows this last day of the festival. but i did want to see ulpa... and i had to grab something to eat so i went anyway. ulpa, as always, was great. i guess this is the their third airwaves performance that i see and they have consistently been among the highlights. walter meego was next and i was not impressed - i thought the songs i had heard had some promise but they were pretty dull. some of the music was alright but the vocals sounded pretty much if the postal service went horribly, horribly wrong. benny crespo's gang was next and sometime in the future they will probably become quite good. right now, they just make me think of muse - this is not a complete put down b/c secretly i like muse a little bit. the keyboard parts seemed to drawn out and the songs didn't seem very dynamic. watching them i kept waiting for something to happen - when something happened it wasn't bad. or maybe i was just too tired - at least, my friends liked them a lot more than i did. but i have to admit that their female singer has a really great voice, which the band should use more. then i went to get some pizza and contemplated going home to sleep. but since i was curious to see patrick watson i kept going. i was somewhat surprised to see that the line to see the kaiser chiefs was longer than for the brazilian girls, which was enough to resolve my difference. and the brazilian girls turned out to be fun - just pretty solid and pleasant pop (for the most part). patrick watson ended the festival for me and may just have been the festival highlight. the only thing that you can really complain about (which is pretty much all i do) is that his voice sounds a lot like jeff buckley. which isn't really much of a complaint. musically, there isn't much of a similarity - as much as i like jeff buckley, his music was almost generic. not bad but it didn't bring anything new to the table - he just did it better or put his own twist on the formula. in patrick watson's case, you could take away the vocals and it would still be interesting. at any rate, a great end to the festival for me. there were still some bands playing but they couldn't possibly top patrick and i was quite happy to head home with his songs on my mind.

so overall, this year's airwaves was pretty good. obviously, i would have liked to see wolf parade. it is unbelievable that the organizers would make such a bad mistake to put them in one of the smaller venues. but then again, this is not exactly the first time the organizers make such mistakes. another downside (yes, i like to complain) is that people talk too damn much during performances - especially during relatively quiet acts like trost or patrick watson. but then again, icelanders aren't exactly known for being polite.

Patrick Watson - Giver
Patrick Watson - Luscious Life

airwaves days 1-3

wednesday - a half hearted attempt at seeing we are scientists. instead i checked out ultra mega teknobandid stefan, which was entertaining but not groundbraking. but hell, i'm sure they'll be a lot better by the time they hit puberty. damn kids these days. then i caught the last four minutes of lokbra. all i can say is that receive a pretty high score using the good music/bad name ratio. in the end though, it is kinda hard to like a band one of whose members sports a korn tattoo. weapons was just boring.

thursday - mates of states turned out to be slightly better than i predicted. but still not the most exciting live band and occasionally they get a little annoying. tilly and the wall were alright as well but perhaps a little too cute - in any case i had had my fill after a couple of songs and headed over to nasa to catch skatar and reykjavik!. i'm not sure what to make of either of them. skatar certainly had moments of polvoesque brilliance but, on the whole, the didn't leave a strong impression. but i would definately check them out again. reykjavik! was a similar story - there is much to like about the band. for example, they are loud and they look funny. but i couldn't figure out what they are aiming for - which may actually be a good thing. metric was up next so i made a run for it and caught a few songs with mugison. there is no question that mugison is talented but the first couple of songs were just a little too slick, which had me worried a bit but thankfully he slipped into his death metal shoes for a song. i returned to nasa before metric finished up but hid away in the back and managed to ignore them almost completely. finally, love is all was quite good actually though their sound is a little limited and kinda wears on you. but i have to give them credit for pulling off, first, a squeaky sounding singer, two, a saxophone, and, three, being swedish. and copying biggie smalls is pretty cool.

friday - i was feeling pretty beat but i made it to the festival after running into bobby fisher at a reception. islands were brilliant, as expected, and the best band of the festival so far. it would have been nice if their set had been longer. next up were apparat organ quartet who, well, try to rock with keyboards. and they kinda succeed. jakobrinarina (or whatever their name is) were up next - i had heard a lot about them but for some reason i had always been a little sceptical. but these kids rock - something tells me they have gotten into their parents' record collection b/c they certainly heard joy division somewhere. though they are a tad more upbeat perhaps. anyhow, a pleasant surprise. then the go!team, which quickly scared a good chunk of the audience away by turning up their guitars and rocking out like i hadn't expected them to. so, another pleasant surprise. the poppier songs were alright but what really won me over was the fact that they like noise. i guess, i'll have to give their album another listen. then, over to grand rokk to see gavin portland. gavin portland sounded massive - in the unsane sort of way. some great heavy riffing but unfortunately the singers yelling in no way matched the band's sound - or at least didn't add anything to it. i think actually would like them a whole lot more if they went all instrumental. and at the end of the night, we went over to the national theater's basement to watch trost. trost was pretty good - a kinda seedy cabaresque music if that means anything at all. but trost was an entertaining performer who liked to climb up on tables and play tug-of-war with the sound guy using the microphone cord.

my private own airwaves

so another year another airwaves festival. i swore i would never again go to the festival after last year's disaster... but, well, reykjavik is just too boring to let it pass you by. if nothing else i can always catch ulpa again. but it, of course, it won't stop me from complaining. so here is a list of the "international" acts ... and who is playing instead of them at my festival.


120 Days (NO) well, listening to the album certainly feels like 120 days. my guess is that these guys overdosed on the cure and new order and, no, those don't mix very well. i would have preferred 31 knots or 7 year rabbit cycle. or if you are going to stick with norwegian's, how about serena maneesh? i know, i know, i don't really like them either but if you are going with late 80s sound they are a vastly better choice. or actually, mustafa et monique would actually make me happy.

Brazilian Girls (US) strangely enough, i rather enjoy brazilian girls.

Call to Mind (UK) if you are going to bring dull emo-pop, why not go all the way and bring coldplay. wait, no we have the leaves so we don't really have to get an "international" band. but, of course, the leaves don't get to play my festival either

D�lek (US) are just fine and just great once you get used to the rapping.

Fields (UK) "Combining a harmony pop sensibility to rival the Magic Numbers with My Bloody Valentine style soundscapes, Fields are already shaping up to be one of the most talked about bands of 2006." (Airwaves website) man, i'm really out of the loop. Field Music would have been a better choice.

Datarock (NO) not enough data, not enough rock.

Gojira (FRA) not really my cup of tea but at least they are the least scary looking guys on their label's website. if there is going to be screaming i think i'd prefer isis.

Hot Club de Paris (UK) couldn't make it through their album even once. i suggest new young pony club or tokyo police club.

Islands (CAN) excellent choice. the only thing better would have been the unicorns....

Kaiser Chiefs (UK) can't really say that i've heard them but if you are dealing with kaisers franz ferdinand would seem to be the more obvious choice.

Klaxons (UK) might be fun to see

Leave Calmer (US) i think "Leave Calmer shifts from floating, ghostly vocals reminiscent of Buckley to the organic, textural explosions akin to Reznor" (Airwaves website) says all that needs to be said.

Love is All (SE) i have actually be warming up to love is all but i still find them a little annoying and i can't quite figure out who they remind me of.

Mates of State (US) are a decent choice but somehow i suspect they are not going to put on the most exciting show. which the like young most certainly would

Metric (CAN) if getting rid of the metric system would get rid of metric it would be worth dealing with feet and inches. i assume celine dion and barenaked ladies were busy? why? why? not only does the music suck, emily is also the most annoying "performer" out there.

Patrick Watson (CAN) may not be a bad choice. his 2003 album was kinda nice and what i've heard from his new one is promising - though some of it sounds a bit too much like buckley. but i still think it would have more interesting to see patrick wolf or patrick phelan. but it still might be one of the highlights of the festival.

Spektrum (UK) apparently they meant to book spectrum, i can't think of any other reason

The Cribs (UK) might turn ok. a bit like franz a bit like the strokes but they have a couple more cards up their sleeves.

The Go! Team (UK) should be fun. they are also playing on my airwaves festival. except at mine they don't play at the same time as wolf parade!

The Handsome Public (US) what, this sounds like the electric six without guitars. at my festival the electric six would play instead of the handsome public but the only song they would play would be fire at the disco.

The Whitest Boy Alive (NO/DE) is alright but i think they may end up feeling kinda silly with that name since reykjavik only gets about 2 hours of sunlight a year and consequently everyone is pretty damn pale here.

Tilly and the Wall (US) i feel are here because architecture in helsinki was such a success last year. but the problem is that tilly and the wall aren't quite as good. should be good fun though. at my festival the danielson family is playing instead.

Trost (DE) i don't know much about. her band, cobra killer, is kinda cool though. and the couple of songs i've heard sound pretty promising. i'm curious enough to invite her to my festival too.

Walter Meego (US) don't know about that name. they sound ok though when they aren't singing. i would invite trs-80 instead - and not just because they don't sing. who knows, maybe i'll check them out.

We are Scientists (US) kinda missed the train. the aren't really any worse than the killers or hot hot heat or any of those bands. poppy and fun to a certain degree but instead i opted for spoon, which is a far classier act as you can tell by the jaguar ads.

Whomadewho (DK) get to play my festival as well b/c i) sometimes they sound like a mellow version of the queens of the stone ages and ii) they released two versions of their album, one electric and one acoustic without making acoustic one (which came after the electric one) seem like a joke. this might be fun.

Wolf Parade (CAN) is clearly the big name here. that's why they get stuck into crappy little venue that will be extremely unpleasant and most likely you will not be able to see the band. at my festival, not only do they play at a bigger venue, but i get sunset rubdown and swan lake as well because the bands share a member anyway. and then i might as well get frog eyes and new pornographers to play as well.

and on a completely unrelated note, i've kinda been enjoying swissair

de rosa

i've kinda been digging de rosa lately - scots on the delgados' chemikal underground label. these couple of songs are actually not among their best but you would do yourself a favour if you were to head over to their myspace page to check some of their other stuff out. New Lanark

in other scottish news, the arab strap are apparently no more. love detective

madvillain all caps

bonnie 'prince' billy & the red sparowes

big day for shows yesterday. first, bonnie 'prince' billy and, then, the red sparowes. needlessly to say, the red sparowed won that contest hands down - i mean how much fun can a guy with an acoustic guitar be (unless, of course, you are damien rice)? not that i dislike bonnie 'prince' - i just much prefer listening to him on record. anyhow, this is an entertaining ad for his new album "the letting go". the reference to pissed-on shark probably has something to do with it being recorded in iceland. everyone knows icelanders like pissing on their food. that's why the girls are so pretty. there are a couple of more - undoubtedly to be found on youtube.com

the red sparowes have a new album, every red heart shines towards a red sun, coming out in september. the album does not represent a radical change from their previous album, which is a relief - at the soundless dawn was one of my favorite albums last year. if there is any discernable change, every red heart is a bit harder and, perhaps, less accesible. and if you get a chance to catch them live, they are certainly worth checking out. like always the songs have long titles like: Like The Howling Glory Of The Darkest Winds, This Voice Was Thunderous And The Words Holy, Tangling Their Way Around Our Hearts And Clutching Our Innocent Awe

swan lake

swan lake consists of carey mercer (frog eyes), spencer krug (wolf parade and sunset rubdown), and dan bejar (destroyer and new pornographers) so in theory this should be the best band in the world, or at least, in canada. whether that is indeed the case remains to be seen but this song, all fires, is certainly promising. the album arrives in november and is called beast moans.

i stumbled upon this cover on pitchforkmedia. now i'm not a huge fan of velvet underground (i know, i know... but i won't go into that) and covers are rarely good but i like this one:

DeVotchKa - Venus in Furs

ladyhawk from vancouver sort of remind me of okkervil river. pretty nice stuff: the dugout
and since i mentioned okkervil river, why not listen to for real once again. it's such a nice song.

and check out patrick phelan. his album cost had been sitting on my desk for a while and i never really got into it but one day.... favour. nice and poppy.

i also rediscoverd centro_matic: calling thermatico

and snowden from atlanta just released their first ep (?) or album (?) - well, they released something and it isn't bad at all: anti-anti

the big sleep

i've been kinda bored with music lately. and even more bored with blogging. although the guillemots' rave reviews were almost enough to get me started again - i actually listened to the their albums several times to try to figure out what i was missing and that supposedly makes their album so good. i never figured it out and except for a couple of decent pop songs i think the album is absolute shit. just had to get that out of my system. anyhow, i'm pretty excited about hearing the big sleep's forthcoming album son of the tiger. it seems like quite a few bands these days are inspired by late 80s-early 90s indie music with the great majority of them zoning in on my bloody valentine but unfortunately mostly ending up sounding like chapterhouse. with some exceptions, of course. the big sleep's influences are less obvious perhaps but i'm pretty sure their record collections/harddrives contain a fair amount of music from this period. they actually remind me quite a bit of the faith healers who, at least in my opinion, were somewhat underrated. at any rate, the big sleep shares the same driving, almost mechanical, beat, which also brings stereolab to (my) mind. at any rate, definately worth checking out. murder & you can't touch the untouchable.

pitchfork infinitemixtape

for convenience's sake.... the songs are listed here. or this may be better.

frog eyes

i've mentioned frog eyes here before but after seeing them play with beirut recently i feel obligated to mention them again. i had sort of mixed feelings about beirut as you can see below and seeing these guys live confirmed pretty much everything i thought before. beirut was nice but failed to excite. i just couldn't sense any sort of emotional investment in their music. to be fair this was their second show (or so they claimed).
but there do seem to be an awful lot of bands these days that are making 'nice' music - sonically, that is. but a lot of it sounds kinda hollow to me. personally, i blame sufjan. though i wouldn't lump in with these bands. but i think he has set the trend, accidentally, by using 'different' instruments and i think some people miss the point and mistakenly think sufjan's music is good because he plays a banjo. i guess beirut isn't the worst offender - i still like them but i just wished they'd inject some passion into the music. to me, someone like patrick wolf, another youngster, would be far more deserving of the hype.

or frog eyes. this post was supposed to be about frog eyes but all i want to say is frog eyes does exactly what beirut is missing, they are raw and they spit passion. a song from the folded palm is above. and, oh, since these guys deserve some hype - this is spencer krug's (wolf parade) other (sunset rubdown), other band. though i suspect this is more carey mercer's band - who incidentally reminds me of screaming jay hawkins...

tenement halls

tenement halls released the unappealingly titled "Knitting Needles and Bicycle Bells" last year and I guess I was a little late catching on to it. tenement halls is, from what I gather, essentially Chris Lopez who used to be in the Rock*A*Teens, which I never really listened to but I did like the few songs I heard and I was always going to check them out. Anyhow, for those of you in the know, tenement halls sounds a bit like the Rock*A*Teens (or at least how I remembered them sounding). There is something very likeable about that sound - somehow I always picture tenement halls playing small sleazy dark clubs with everyone sitting at the bar paying little attention to the band. Don't ask me why. tenement halls would also be a good for a David Lynch movie. If you like the song above you can check out a few more here.

beirut

beirut's first album has been getting quite a lot of attention and there are probably good reasons for that. or least a good reason - it sound quite a bit like the legendary Neutral Milk Hotel, which is probably not a coincidence since Jeremy Barnes of NMH assisted with the making. but basically this is the work of a yet another 19 year old wunderkind. at any rate, it sounds pretty nice but it is also a little restrained and, as a consequence, it feels a little bit gimmicky. i mean, if I was 19 and could make music like this i can't help but feel that there should be a greater sense of urgency. but still, a perfectly enjoyable album. Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)

mustafa et monique

there are still a few people out there waiting for my bloody valentine to release a new album. these people served as the definition of "optimism" in the hipsters dictionary. then these people were to be moved to the definition of "a dreamer" but by then mbv had fallen out of favor. however, now that shoegazing is making a comeback these people again have useful function in the definitions of "disillusioned" and "just plain crazy". at this point i'm not sure a new mbv album would be desirable at all. besides, the swedes mustafa et monique seem to do exactly what mbv used to do and do it quite well. you might hold it against them that they sound eerily like isn't anything era mbv. in most instances that would be something to complain about but what always liked about mbv was the sound on isn't anything (loveless was good too but i favour the rougher sound). unfortunately, these guys appear to copy mbv's every move since they haven't released anything since 2004 (i think). [correction: mustafa et monique released houdini aubergine ep in 2005.]

ecstasy like you
mailman bike

islands

the unicorns were quite a brilliant band and i was terribly disappointed when the broke up. but at least the band's members didn't give up on music and went on (some/all ... i don't know) to form islands. perhaps not quite as brilliant as the unicorns (more polished, less manic) but it is a pretty damn good album nevertheless. rough gem from return to the sea.

the double

somehow i missed this album when it came out last year. maybe there isn't really a reason why i should have noticed. but if there is it is definately the song idiocy, which is pretty much a perfect indie pop hit. it is actually good to the point it almost seems too calculated. and there is a bit of annoying killers type of sounds to it but if you can ignore it. of course, having said that you probably can't. much like igor ruined heineken for me by saying it tasted like olives...

the walkmen

the walkmen have a new album out on may 23rd. something to look forward to. there is a song on their myspace page (link above) and it sounds, well, sort of strange. it's still the walkmen's signature sound but the song is a little country... and mariachi. i kinda hope that the rest of the album is bit more raucious.

do make say think

i do seem to make my way back to do make say think every once in a while. & every time i wonder why i don't listen to them constantly - which may sound like a backhanded complement but isn't intended to. basically, these guys are liable to outlast 94% of my record collection although at any given time i may fall in love with some other band. i can't really pinpoint exactly what it is but do make say think also sound a lot like broken social scene to me. without the pop sensibility. something about these bands sounds seems very similar to me. at any rate, if you haven't checked them out now is as good a time as any.

tapes 'n tapes

i don't really know much about this band except that i find them entertaining. in sort of the arcade fire/wolf parade way... although they seem a bit more chaotic in sort of a unicorns way. but to the best of my knowledge they are not canadian. something about them also reminded me of namelessnumberheadman (a truly stellar band).

tv on the radio's new album finally sees them live up to their potential. i found desperate youth... rather disappointing and completely failing to capture what the band was like live. now they managed to be rough and hyper-melodic at the same time. this may just be the album of the year. the same can not be said for yeah yeah yeah's soon to be released album. it it perhaps best described as competent pop. good work music. it will probably be very successful. but if you liked the first one you will probably like this one as well.

i have also come to realize that the best album of 2004 was probably castanets' cathedral. here is a song: three days four nights

jason forrest

jason forrest started out by releasing stuff under the name donna summer, which is fitting b/c his/her music borrows heavily from other artists. technically an electronic album but it is really a rock beast in spirit. lots of fun to be had here.

jason also runs a record label called cock rock disco and here you can find a free compilation with a bunch of artists on his label.

The song above is satan cries again but for a far more rockin' song check out the video for war photographer.

the comas - the science of your mind

came out in 2004 but i still like it.

the rosebuds

i am one of those people that believe that bands are never better than on their first album. it probably has more to do with me craving something new (except when the band is mono) than anything else. i might have like a band's second album more than the first if it had been released first. maybe. we'll never know. at any rate, the rosebuds are an exception to this - first time around the struck me as decent pop-rock but nothing remarkable. but on birds make good neighbors the rosebuds have transformed themselves and deliver a set of songs that are, well, solid. they are not breaking any new ground here though, their songwriting has just improved vastly. good stuff. almost up there with the best of 2005.

man man

this band had me confused for a while. the reviews referenced tom waits and captain beefheart so i know i was supposed to like this. and i tried. it just didn't click. then i saw them live and i realized that i had completely misunderstood this band. these guys have more in common with the make up than tom waits. but instead of attacking funk and sould they deal in ... gypsy music.. or something like that. the tom waits references are understandable because of the instrumentation but that is really where the commonality ends. this is just a huge, huge blast of fun. though it may not sound it at times. you should buy the album but you must see them live.

Giant Drag

if the album kept up pace with the first song, kevin is gay, this would possibly be the best album to be released all year long. I can't quite place the song but it reminds me of the first time I listened to the Breeders. The only thing that makes it anything short of f**ing brilliant is that it's not terribly original sounding and essentially recycles, well, the breeders and my bloody valentine. but then again recycling is a good thing, right? in this case it is. the mbv influence is especially obvious on the first couple of tracks and, although such obviousness is a little off putting, I got over it pretty quickly and frankly there are far worse influences to have. sort of similar to autolux in that way - solid without reinventing the wheel.

are you there?

i guess I got tired of listing my favorite albums from last year... it's just too last year to really bother. at any rate, 2006 is already shaping up to be a stellar year for my tastes. mogwai's mr. beast is a monster of an album that even makes my want to revist their old stuff. and now i find out mono is bringing out a new album in april "there you are". steve albini records and mixes but mono produce the album themselves. at any rate, the first song of the album (linked above and available at mono's website) is pretty much everything you would expect from mono. so pretty much the same old, same old but in the case of mono I would never dream of asking for anything else.

BO05 - Red Sparowes

a great year for instru-metal clearly. treads the same waters as pelican but probably tops it thanks to some nice slide guitar. seeing them play live had me grinning like a fool for days.

WO95 - Art Brut

another huge disappointment - a band called Art Brut should be good + they released an entertaining single in 2004. Art Brut is a band that you either love or you hate. i belong to the latter category. sure they are fun but the problem with jokes is that you can only really laugh at them once, maybe twice if it is really good. after that you at most fake a laugh to be polite when you're told the joke for the n-th time. in this case i can't even do that because i find it offensive that music should be the vehicle for humour. that's even worse than dealing with politics. is there really any point to put music to your jokes? does it make the jokes better? i just don't get the idea. plus the music itself is not that exciting. maybe that's the point - the jokes serve as a distraction? still like the name though...

BO05 - Silence Kit

Pieonear. If I was absolutely forced to pick one album as the best of '05 this would have to be it (though technically it came out in '04.). i don't really know how to describe it - i guess post-rock wouldn't be far of but then it is more ambient in places and in others sort of radiohead kind of groovy. one of the very few albums this year where i would simply have to put whatever i was doing at the time and just listen. perhaps not enterily consistent in its greatness but there are moments here that are just amazing. oh, and these guys are from russia so don't confuse them with the u.s. band that shares their name.

BO05 - Pelican

The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw was a little less metal than the bands previous effort but no less engaging. at any rate, it wasn't too surprising that Pelican would release a split ep with Mono since the bands seem to share the same vision.

WO05 - Serena Maneesh

Another band I was really pretty excited about - shoegazers usually get a bad rep & here was one that was getting great reviews. But in the end it was just a record that pitchforkmedia 'discovered' before everyone else: " We understand that some records recommended by Pitchfork can be difficult to find. Please visit Honeymilk for more information on this release, including how to purchase it." Well, wish I was that cool. Strange though how albums featuring blonde Norwegians always get a great reviews.... recall Annie? At any rate, new shoegazers are sprouting like mushrooms (paik comes recommended) and this not among the tasty ones. Serena-Maneesh does the shoegazing bit pretty well - and there are bits and pieces that sound splendid - but you can't really get more derivative like this. There is a my bloody valentine song, a stone roses one, a primal scream (crappy gospel area) one, and you can go on. This is just pure nostalgia with not an original idea in sight. Here is to hoping that they will come up with some of their own songs next time around.

BO05 - Bohren & Der Club of Gore

I don't know how I stumbled upon this one but nothing could have prepared me for this. And frankly I wasn't sure what to think. Almost painstakingly slow. Sort of funeral jazz. Or just your slowest jazz record 72rpm played at 33rpm. Sort of the perfect David Lynch soundtrack. Needlessly to say, this is a record best listened to in the dark. Preferably with a cigarette and a beer.

WO05 - M.I.A.

Technically, not one of the worst albums of '05 but I just really feel like bitching about the music that is being hyped out of proportion. And I was excited to hear this album. But I wish I hadn't. C'mon, this is just shit. Ok, it is cool to go postpone the release because she felt like contributing the vocals to an album with Diplo and, yeah, she has some political opinions to express - though I don't know why we should give a damn about the political opinion's of musicians. Music and politics have never mixed particularily well and, well, maybe I'm old fashioned but music should be about emotions and feelings and all that shit but not about politics or reason or logic. If you have something so profound to say, wouldn't it make sense just to write a book. At any rate, the music did nothing for me and I find the whole album kinda annoying, neither hard enough not poppy enough.

BO05 - The Duke Spirit

Well, I guess it is about time to start deciding what was good and what was bad in 2005 - and since I've taken such a good time to think about it, you can be sure that, well, that I have indeed thought about. So, to kick of the new year in style (at last) I'm gonna list my favorite albums from last year in no particular order. In no particular order because it is to time consuming and the order would be pretty arbitrary since I pretty much change my mind every day. And I'm not going to be mentioning some of the albums that are on everyone's list (hello, Sufjan, Antony) b/c, well, you have already heard them or you know you should check them out. At any rate, The Duke Spirit album was a disappointment. But only because it came on the heels of such an excellent ep that promised the world. Initially it never occurred to me that this album would become one of my favorites for the year. Basically, straightforwards "bluesy" rock. The closest comparison is early-PJ Harvey, which is a big recommendation in my book. At first, I was drawn to the singer's voice, which is sexy as hell (if you find women who smoke and drink whiskey sexy), but the music is pretty solid as well. In fact, a damn perfect combination.

queen + 50 cents

good for a chuckle....

minus story

well, might as well throw up a couple of songs form minus story. here is one. one above. very nice stuff.

cat power

i'm lazy/busy as usual... but here is the title song from cat power's upcoming album "The Greatest".

Other things spinning.... tortoise vs. bonnie "prince" billy's album of covers, ester drang, tenement halls, detachment kit, minus story...

ladytron

i was a bit disappointed with ladytron's latest but now i'm over it and i've learned to just relax and enjoy.

chad vangaalen's album isn't too bad either - i like this song: clinically dead.

deerhoof makes me smile: wrong time capsule

airwaves

ah, yet another airwaves is over and what a relief - four days of waiting in lines to get into overcrowded venues. i may have spent more time waiting in the cold than actually listening to music. but then again there wasn't really much to miss - this was probably the least exciting line-up in a while. i was pretty excited about seeing ratatat but that didn't happen - mostly thanks to gus gus who for some inexplicable reason always draw huge crowds of people despite being the fourth most boring band in the world. maybe that says something about icelanders. at any rate since gus gus played right after ratatat there was no hope of getting in. i did, however, manage to catch annie (non-offensive pop but wastly overhyped - it clearly pays to be a blonde), new radio (who proved that playing bad rock music with cellos doesn't make it any better), the zutons (who exceeded my expectations), architecture in helsinki (who managed to live up to my expectations), ampop (slightly better than coldplay but equally unexciting), eberg (who i have been trying to hype but now i think that their album may just have been an happy accident) and some other bands that were neither good nor bad enough to mention. except for ulpa. once again this band saves the day - they are just freakishly good. sort of pre-orchestral flaming lips with the foot firmly planted on the effect pedals. and their new song sounds like a (good) remix of jon spencer but with a touch of greg dulli's swagger. right now they blow every other icelandic band out of the water. (an old song linked above)

hadn't it been for ulpa airwaves gets two thumbs down this time around. & it is the last time i will attend until i'm provided with a good reason - better bands and some certainty that i will won't have to freeze my ass off to catch the bands. besides, once you factor in the price of the alcohol consumed, one might as well just buy a ticket to nyc to see your favorite band instead.

bastard

man, i'm lazy... i must snap out of it soon. i haven't managed to get excited about any new music lately. swervedriver and les savy fav monopolize the ipod at the moment. i'm hoping neon blonde will grow on me - a blood brother's side project - but it hasn't happened yet. hmmm... must be the weather. can't even get excited about the airwaves festival. except maybe about ratatat - and for the fools that skipped calla last year and tv on the radio the year before, this is going to be the show you miss this year and then regret it later.

well, this is a band i would like to see live: part chimp - iron pond
the song is taken from the brilliantly titled album chart pimp. it probably won't sound good on your computer speakers but finally, finally a loud and unruly band that ... i don't know makes me smile and think that at least some people still know how to make a ruckus with their guitars...

... oh, and a song from the detachment kit above - old news but sometimes old news is good news...

albums of the year... i had hoped

i'm willing to bet that i'm not the only one that has been waiting impatiently to hear the new broken social scene album. i guess the album has been officially leaked now that bss feel the need to announce it on their website. so what is the verdict? it's not you forgot it in people. it sounds more chaotic and less poopy. windsurfing nation, (zip file) which any bss fan has heard by now, is a stellar song. in short, it is not the album i dreamed of but neither the album that i feared after seeing them on olympic island this summer. it somehow feels a little loose knit, like the band just had a big party - kinda like the band is having more fun playing than you listening. of course, repeated listening may chance this - great albums are rarely great at first listen. anyhow, the good news is that bss is also releasing a limited edition ep (7 more songs) on the same day as the album... oh joy.

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another album i have been dying to hear is calla's collisions. televise and scavengers are two of the best albums released in the last few years and it is a shame that calla hasn't caught everyone's ear yet. calla apparently thinks so too because collisions strikes a little poppier note than previous releases as hinted at by their (excellent) shows over the last year. unfortunately this comes at a cost - the nice "calla-sound" is almost missing here. previous releases sounded a little dark, a little miserable, and a little mysterious. now the lyrics seem a little to straightforward and the choruses too big. but despite all my complaints the album really is pretty good - it just didn't live up to my, perhaps unreasonable, expectations. if you haven't heard calla before, start with televise though.

it dawned on me
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ah, mf doom... not that one ever needs to wait impatiently for an mf doom release since he releases about 43 albums a year. nevertheless, many have been excited about the pairing of mf doom and dangermouse - the grey album guy. i wasn't too crazy about the grey album - though i did think it was an improvement on the white album, which, honestly, was rubbish. dangermouse's work here sounded a little flat here at first, and perhaps a little derivative of mf doom's production style and you wonder what is the point of a collaboration if you aren't bringing anything new to the mix. but to be fair, the beats grow on you and despite a slight initial disappointment (a theme here?) I now manage to thoroughly like the album - much like it took me a while to get into mm food. it is no madvillainy, of course, but yet another solid mf doom album (the 28th this year, i think).

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just because i have the links handy: Rogue Wave: 10:1
& Of Montreal: requiem for omm2
& the new pornographers: use it
& wolf parade: you are...

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i caught the red sparrowes opening up for zombi and breather resist last night and, well, this band is the shit. they were so good that i just left after they played because there was no way the other bands could compete (and, ok, i was feeling a little sick and tired). their album is strong contender for the album of the year in my book and live they are even better. catch them if you can....

sounds like violence

i can't say i had high expectations of band with a name like sounds like violence. nor the fact that it is on deep elm records. this band just has emo/punk written all over it but thankfully it didn't stop me from checking out the pistol ep. it sure is punky, but with a pop flair, and it might pass for the blood brothers' scandinavian cousins. basically, it is great album for those of us that like their pop with spikes. the band is definately competent though it is not breaking any new ground. the band's singer is, however, the band's biggest selling point. the above song, grow/blow, bears more than a passing resemblance to afghan wigs' early output and is the stand-out track here. if sounds like violence can expand their sound and range in this directions we may be in for a treat. right now, sounds like violence sounds like an interesting proposition - but one wonders where they are headed. they migh settle for a competent pop-punk band but they might also, and hopefully, start living up to their name. now if only they wrote lyrics like dulli.

arpeggios madness

well, there are few things i like more than to bitch about pitchforkmedia. and yes, obviously i wouldn't if i weren't a devote reader. it has become something of a ritual - 9am, coffee, cigarette, pitchforkmedia, and then i can go work. and this, of course, just means that i get annoyed with the smallest things. lately, arpeggios have been bugging me. ever damn review has to mention arpeggios. low arpeggios, floating arpeggios, lithe arpeggios, pretty, jangling arpeggios, dark Rhodes arpeggios, blistering arpeggios, genle folksy arpeggios, jazzy guitar arpeggios, tripping arpeggios, tender ebony-and-ivory arpeggios, and so on and on. the thing is that having read music reviews obsessively for nearly two decades i hardly ever recall coming across the word arpeggios. but apparently arpeggios are the shit now. but i don't know if it is because musicians everywhere all of a sudden realized that they didn't have to strum their chords or the music reviewers just learned a word that sounds polished and cool - and signals that they know more about music then you do. which ultimately is what most music reviewer want to get across. i'm leaning towards the latter. pitchforkmedia is undoubtedly one of the most elitist, snobbish music sites out there. a search on google reveals 122 mentions of arpeggios on pitchforkmedia.com. On rollingstone.com we have 17. need i say more? well, yes. this would seem to support the notion that the music hasn't changed but, well, rolling stone doesn't review exactly the same albums. so i checked out a few other music review sites and here is the ranking.

pitchforkmedia.com 122
adequacy.net 73
stylusmagazine.com 57
popmatters.com 50
rollingstone.com 17
fakejazz.com 8
nme.com 8
junkmedia.org 7
tinymixtapes.com 5
themilkfactory.co.uk 2
spin.com 1

obviously there are differences among the sites in terms of number of reviews, etc. but the picture seems pretty clear and i think the editors of pitchforkmedia should cut down on the arpeggios abuse.

silence kit

after hearing the silence kit's latest album pieonear i sat down to figure out how many russian bands i had heard. and to be honest, tatu was the only one i could recall. so in short i was a little shocked by how good silence kit is. pionear consists of three songs - with an average duration of about 22 minutes - so, yes, it has got post-rock written all over it. it is mostly instrumental, starting out with a sort of cabaresque piano that shortly gives way to an exploding guitar riff that reminds me of radiohead peppered with a dose of kyuss. then we get some more quiet parts on par with mono's prettiest moments and some more loud parts of shredding guitars and strings that sound equally frightening and beautiful. if this does not end up on my list of the very best albums of the year this year will indeed have been amazing.

the song above is in .ogg format (plays, e.g., in winamp). more song, including all of silence kit's self-titled debut, can be found here.

code pie & people for audio

well, i guess there is really no end to the good music coming out of canada! no sooner had i posted my last post than i bump into a couple of more bands that sound great ... and happen to be from montreal. code pie falls somewhere in between do say make think (or is it do make say think... i can never remember) and the arcade fire without sounding too much like either. and i'm not sure that these comparisons are all that appropriate. but if you like either of those bands chances are you will like this. this habit is, well, a very elegant album. there is something very classic about it - the songs remind me of some british indie band from the late eighties (whose name i can't remember) - sort of timeless in that way. definately worth our attention. more songs here.

people for audio, on the other hand, have little to do with pop. again, another montreal band, godspeed...., is the easiest point of reference. but whereas godspeed sort of like their instruments to melt together, people for audio like you to be able to tell the instruments apart although i suspect they want their music to have a similar effect. this is a risky strategy because it is a more 'traditional' approach but most of the time they pull it of. it is also a little jazzy in places, not dissimilar from karate (who apparently have called it quits). check out the title track from and this will be our homecoming. (15MB)

troubled hubble & the most serene republic & wolf parade

it doesn't seem that long ago that i was making fun of my canadian friends (behind their backs of course) for how bad canadian music was. but now the stream of fresh new bands from canada just doesn't seem to stop. at any rate, my suspicion is that canada always had a bunch of good bands around but that noone was listening. and that is probably true about every other country - i've mentioned norway as another example of this before. but at any rate, i'm ready for the backlash to begin - it can't be a long wait for that to happen. especially since some of the stuff is a little like arcade fire - which is not necessarily a bad thing. the most serene republic might fall into this category. but still damn good if you ask me. try content was always my favorite colour. from their debut underwater photographer. troubled hubble has been around for awhile and making beds in a burning house is their 4th album. it is hard to avoid comparisons with modest mouse - but again not thing to be compared to. the song above, ear nose & throat, also sounds a bit like rem but relax, like rem while they were still worth listening to [correction. troubled hubble is from chicago which is not in canada]. finally, wolf parade is probably the most promising of the bunch. they just released an ep on sub pop. they are perhaps a little bit more difficult to pin down. certain songs lend themselves to obvious comparisons with other bands, including some of the above, but what makes them interesting is that their range seems greater. that, of course, may just mean that we'll have to subtract points for lack of consistency. you are a runner.

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other going ons. caught trs-80 last night. great show. on one level the music is hopelessly geeky but then somehow it works and you can't help groove to it. which i guess makes me a geek. also playing were odiorne, which is jimy chamber's new band. chambers was mercury rev's drummer/sometimes singer(?) - on what probably were the best mercury rev albums. sadly, live they were a disaster - partly thanks to a busted speaker which made the vocals sound like slipknot (or how i imagine they sound) and i guess the bassist and keyboardist must suffer from a minority complex because i could hear them all too well - at the cost of only hearing the guitar when i was in the bathroom. odiorne's heavy wish.

other stuff on the stereo. julien neto - pretty, quiet, pretty. pelican - loud, pretty, loud. swervedriver - good, better, best. oxes (new ep) - loud, fast, dangerous. buck 65 - twang, beats,........

abstrakt keal agram

abstrakt keal agram share a label with m83 and you may have heard their remix on one m83's releases. i started out thinking that abstrakt keal agram was sort of an ambient hip hop after listening to clusterville, which was the second album. their last album, bad thriller, released last year makes things more difficult and now i just can't figure out where to file abstrakt keal agram. m83 might be one reference point but you could also imagine these guys enjoying themselves, the postal service and blonde redhead. bad thriller lacks the menacing tone of clusterville but it makes up for it in terms of diversity. never anything less than interesting to listen to and i doubt there are any more successful efforts mix seemingly incompatible genres together.

abstrakt keal agram's hell mix can be found here

icelandic music

by request - an old one - some icelandic stuff. some good, some bad.

jan mayen - the new kids on the indie block. old fashioned indie rock a la, maybe, pavement. nothing too original but, god damnit, some hot tunes. shut up shut down.

mugison - everyone's darling these days. really a cuddly bear that everyone from, well, me to my grandma loves and adore. even if they have never heard his music. he is the perfect anti-anti-star. so down to earth, hailing from a remote village, occasionally brings his father on stage that he should never be a star. but it is exactly that which makes him the biggest star. undeniably talented. i would love to hate him but i can't. i want you.

trabant - along with gus gus (which were actually not that horrible a long long time ago) this band represents almost everything that is wrong with iceland. pretentious pretty much sums it up. and pretty horrid songs. although their shows can be mildly entertaining (which can not be said for gus gus - god, i hate them). nasty boy

eberg - noone seems to know eberg. he released a little popgem a year and half ago that went almost completly unnoticed. one can almost forgive having been a member of spoon (uh, the icelandic spoon - not the really good one). he is a little difficult to listen to at first because he sounds like he has inhaled helium but after a couple of listens it becomes clear it is surely the most innovative pop album released by an icelander (with the possible exception of mugison). single drop from sea

the funerals - i resisted the funerals for a long time. can you blame me? an icelandic (alt-)country band? their album lordy is, however, a pleasant surprise being more reminiscent of bonnie prince billy - of course, a comparison that noone can live upto - than say, uh, more countrish country. stockholm city

mínus - i'll have to give mínus a credit for being pretty tight live. but that is all they get from me. terrible singer, unoriginal songs but yet, for some reason, are billed as the saviors of icelandic rock'n'roll. here comes the night

úlpa - i was completly blown away by these guys the first time i saw them play. they reside somewhere in between flaming lips and radiohead but throw a healthy dose of rock in the mix. i have high hopes for these lads. dinzl

slowblow - slowblow are just a nice band. they sound nice and use all sorts of instruments. which i sometimes wished they didn't b/c the songs themselves get a little buried under the instrumentation. at any rate i do have to admit that i liked their older stuff better - it was both more melodic and edgier somewho. i still suspect that those elements are still there i just find them damn hard to find but in the meantime i'm quite content with the saws and the sewing machines. very slow bossanova

ampop - electronic pop influenced by radiohead. quiet and quite nice. their new material relies less on electronics which in some ways is an improvement because they sound less like radiohead but unfortunately that means they sound more like coldplay. but on the whole quite pleasant and to be fair sometimes they are more post-shoegaze pastoral pop than the aforementioned. worth a listen. a fresh one.

hjalmar - there is something fundamentally wrong about an icelandic reagge band. which is why i avoided them for the longest time and was very surprised when i found out i actually like them. now, this may just be that may taste in music is bad i can't tell. it just seems impossible that something this wrong can be this good. here is a live one.

kimono - is the best band in iceland because they know who polvo are. japanese policeman is from their last album which was good but didn't quite capture their live shows.

some others:
tenderfoot - country
graveslime - 362 days until christmas
skakkamanage - flames of fire
skatar - halldor asgrimsson

the very hush hush

song from the forthcoming album by the very hush hush. fuzzy pop of the best kind. reminds me a little of the much touted clap your hands say yeah but also a little of the russian futurists. the also operate a very hush hush website.

the shortwave set

some more summer music here. some sort of psych pop. what apples in stereo would sound like if they had grown up in london? or st. etienne if they had grown up in north carolina. who cares? great summer pop is all i want at the moment and this does the job. another song can be streamed here.

not so fast

apparently my last post was very well received & i got many congratulations and even more thanks for having given up on the blog. this was, of course, just a ploy to get rid of some of my innumerable readers. and to let the more persistent ones know that i was planning to be even more lazy over the next couple of months than before. anyway here is a song of from art brut's recent release. which i'm having trouble to decide whether i like or not. and here is a bootleg of the same song. maybe some time soon i will try to attempt to explain why i have doubts about art brut. until then you will have to decide for yourself.

urusei yatsura --> project a-ko

i stumbled upon old friends the other day. urusei yatsura are scottish and, well, they sort of sound scottish. their early albums are pavementesque hyper active pop. later on they were less hyper but guitars still sounded nice and some of the slower songs were actually pretty good. at any rate if you liked the delgados' domestique you should study upon yatsura. at any rate, the album i stumbled upon was everybody loves yatsura, which is far from their best effort but this song silver dragon is closest in spirit to their earlier stuff (which i am too lazy to dig up). just take my word for it and do the digging. so, at any rate, yatsura disbanded and three-quarters went on to form project a-ko, which well sounds a lot like yatsura. i believe they have an album in the works and a couple of songs can be found here.

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in other news: i'm bored of blogging. it such a pain now that i have to rely on ftp. + what happened to all the good music. i did catch autolux and the ravonettes the other day. autolux was louder and rougher than on the album which was exactly what i had hoped for. the ravonettes were also louder and rougher than on album but i would never have dreamed of it. i might be forced to give their albums another listen. damn impressive. oh, forgot to go see architecture in helsinki. oopss. the dears played a free show in front of bunch of people of which only about 5,84% were actually listening but the dears did a good job nevertheless.

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and for a goodbye: the best summer song royal trux ever recorded. ridiculously brilliant.

say hi to your mom

say hi to your mom's new album ferocious mops sounds fun. parts postal service and equal parts something weirder makes for a nice combination. the only complaint is perhaps that it isn't always terribly original. but still a fairly solid effort. get another mp3 over here and buy the album while you are at it.