heavy trash

jon spencer joins hands with matt verta-ray (madder rose then speedball baby). sort of the rockabilly explosion. slightly fun. a couple of tunes over here.

russian futurists

i was a pretty big fan of let's get ready to crumble and method of modern love. russian futurists have a pretty unique sound that i can't possibly describe with any sort of... words. well, it is pop. and there are loads of keyboards it sounds like. old ones probably. sounds like someone lost in toy store. i wouldn't be surprised that the russian futurists have listened to the likes of magnetic fields and maybe belle and sebastian. however, our thickness falls short when compared to the futurist's previous affairs. the place to start is undoubtedly but that is not to say that our thickness is not worth a listen or two. & probably a few more than that b/c it will grow on you.

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for the icelanders... nina nastasia is making an instore appearance at smekkleysa this saturday. thanks to helmet for the tip...

minotaur shock

minotaur shock crept in through the backdoor somehow - i had tried to listen to their earlier output but without much success. but there is something very likeable about their forthcoming album. the music fits somewhere along the path that manitoba (now caribou) from electronics to, erm, pop. some sort of electronic pastoral pop. other bands that come to mind are daedelus and boards of canada. the first single, vigo bay, also reminds me of the ratatat's retroizing of hip hop. and daft punk - while i used to like them. another great summer tune. the album is a bit uneven but at the very least it is inventive and considering i wasn't willing to cut this band a lot of slack it is a pleasant pleasant surprise.

supersystem

supersystem used to be el guapo and pitchforkmedia doesn't like them very much. now, i haven't heard their album but if it sounds anything like this it should at least be fun. actually, reading the review for their album nothing comes as much to my mind as another system, that is, the lcd soundsystem. i reckon supersystem's mistake was not to call themselves tft supersystem. at any rate, i prefer super to sound.

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nifty new feature today as well - just look above. it's an mp3 player! press start and here some tunes.... all stuff freely available on the web. listen and then buy lots and lots of albums.

madvillain vs. four tet

i don't know what genius thought of this but that genius deserves a prize. four tet remixing madvillain. no, it doesn't sound that exciting but some of the tracks here are absolutely fab!

fiery furnaces and the summer

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my summer really started when i heard this song - never mind that it has yet to reach 10 degrees. there is just something about this songs that makes me feel like it is summer. & it is not just that it has the word summer in its title. it is the sound of summer. & hopefully it will be this good.

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what else.... remember to check out ghostdogjr on www.webjay.org. i throw new stuff in there once in a while but, well, you may have to dig to find it.... perfect substitute for your radio...

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spinning (& liking): the evens (ian from fugazi and friend), jaga jazzist, alias, colleen, architecture in helsinki, russian futurists, and boy least likely to, brazilian girls, electrelane

gypsy punk ii - venetian snares

altoghether sort of gypsy punk going on here. venetian snares is best (un)known for his frantic drum'n'bass or drill'n'bass or whatyoucallit. well, in short venetian snares have been trying hard to make music that you can barely listen to - not because it is bad but because it is a bit mindnumbing. the music has always been more interesting than enjoyable. his latest album, Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett, changes all that. though it has it shares of frantic beats it combines it with more traditional instruments - all sort of gypsy sounding. in places the album recalls portishead, in others aphex twin's flirtations with classical music. it also reminds me a bit of amon tobin's live set (last summer) which incorporated some fantastic violin samples. venetian snares weaves the electronic and accoustic sounds together with the same skill that amon tobin does. normally i turn away from a venetian snare's cd waiting for my headache to subside, this time i am waiting to hear what he does next.

gypsy punk i - gogol bordello

i don't really know anything about these guys except that they were generating some buzz with their live shows last summer and that they have a new album out east infection. and well, they sound like a lot of fun. mala vida is a cover of manu chao and, well, it doesn't sound worse than the original. the album is available over at itunes and and some more songs are available at: http://www.gogolbordello.com/

single frame ii

i completely sold myself on single frame and had to go back and listen to their old album wetheads come running. it is about 10 times better than i remembered. and not as much keyboards as i remembered. brilliant.

single frame

single frame released a quite brilliant little album a few years back that sounded a little like pavement with loads and loads of fun keyboards (and some guitars). only much better. (and by the way, i must admit that i was wrong about malkmus - his new one is quite good actually - especially when compare to his post-pavement output). anyhow single frame's new one body/end\basement basically say goodbye to the melodies and produce an electro-creepy album. can't help but think of brainiac's last and, as always, brilliant ep but sometimes the music is more funky a la the faint. the link to the video above is a good example of that side of the band - which may even outfaint the faint. but somehow i still keep expecting single frame to do even greater things - this is not the great album i was hoping for but it certainly surprised me, which can only be a good thing. but this is a killer song.

manta ray

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just got back from spain, hence my inactivity here, where i managed to discover some new spanish music. I guess manta ray hails from madrid. the music is a bit difficult to classify. there are definately some post-punky math-rocky leanings here but it is also a little bit emo (not yucky dashboard but more in the vain of that band that released birch - my memory fails me). and then there is a touch of jamc-type rock (pre-shoegaze rock?!?) to it. yeah, i make no sense but the album is quite nice. so there you have it.

wasting time i don't have

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forgot to get you friend a birthday present? no problem, go here and print out the calendar.

seona dancing

it appears that ricky gervaise from the office was in a band in the early eighties, made it onto the pages of the NME, and finally had a hit in the phillipines after they the broke up. although under the name fade - supposedly because the radio station that 'discovered' the song didn't want its rival stations picking it up. no mention of the freelove freeway though... more details all over the internet...

i also happened to catch the first episode of the american version of the office. clearly they opted for copying the original almost right down the facial expressions (with a little americanized dialogue) but the result is just a disaster. and my expectations weren't high to begin with.

red sparowes

i recommend that you give this album a couple listens before you head over to the red sparowes' website. i certainly hope some silly PR person put that together and not the band because it reeks of pretentiousness. sure, the website correctly notes that the album is stunningly beautiful - only it takes about hundred words to say so. it puts you a little off. but i can't help it but forgive them that. the music. well, post-shoegazing, post-rock. the obvious comparisons are probably mono (which i apparently have to mention in every post) and mogwai but in some ways a little bit more muscular overall, which is countered with some great use of slide guitar. something about the music also calls to mind stoner rock a la kyuss or perhaps the god machine (which may not really belong in that category). stunning.

a couple of songs are also available on the band's website (but don't tell me i didn't warn you).

british sea power

i was a little disappointed when i first heard bsp's new album open season. gone were the noisy, almost irritating guitars and instead it all appears rather polished and, honestly, rather boring. even so, just like its predecessor the decline of the british sea power, open season improves with each listen as the melodies sink in. but the faint traces of echo and the bunnymen that were buried under the "chaos" (ok, far from black dice but relatively speaking) appear very clearly here. at other times i am reminded (again) of the kitchens of distinction and the suede. distinguishly less original sounding than their debut but pretty solid, intellectual pop (as we used to call it back in the day).

mono vs. eluvium

dreams somtimes come true i guess. finally got to see mono this past weekend - in short: every bit as good as the records. and if you haven't given them a chance this is your final warning. give them a few spins and you may even decide that they out-mogwai mogwai and rub shoulders with godspeed. eluvium opened up and, well, caught me by surprise b/c i hadn't really thought that much of his album, which admittedly isn't the kind of music that you like the instant you hear it. but with a backdrop of a very nice and bit edward gorey-like animation it was well, just very enjoyable.

however, the show made me rethink my position that free shows are bad. now i also think cheap shows are bad too. shows should really be ridiculously expensive. how f**king annoying can people be? why do people go to show if they are too busy talking? and for some reason they always seem to be standing behind me. if not them, it is the guy who insists on singing along with the band - often in some sort of a falsetto. remember the shooting at the dimebag show in december? bet that guy just went nuts just because the people behind him were talking. anyhow, expensive shows might keep the people that aren't really interested in the music away.

thunderbirds are now!

i once spent a year in east lansing, michigan. not really a place that has a lot going for itself (unless you like american football or basketball). the whole year the theaters only showed one foreign movie (amores peros). one of the few things keeping me sane were these guys that had shows in the basement. anyhow, if i'm not mistaken i caught the thunderbirds are now! there once. and i was fairly impressed. and i'm probably more impressed by their new cd justamustache. basically new wavy power pop with some nice twists. locate them somewhere in between hot hot heat (just to avoid confusion - i did like hhh. not sure about the new one though) and les savy fav. i've also heard people mention brainiac but noone can really touch brainiac. anyway, hell of a lot of fun.

bellafea

bellafea is a duo that hails from north carolina. they just released an ep "family tree" that is, well, quite excellent. listening to thorn bird one can't help but think "hey, they've listened to blonde redhead" (which, really, can only be a compliment) but then they take the song in different directions and, well, pretty quiet directions at that. i look forward to hearing more.

jeff hanson

awfully busy these days. anyhow, jeff hanson's first album son sort of kept under the radar, which was very unfortunate for those who missed it. simply excellent stuff that sounds a bit like elliot smith if elliot had sung like a girl. no, jeff is not a girl. his new self-titled album treads much the same water as his previous effort but is perhaps slightly less poppy. perfect music for sunday mornings and thursday afternoons. highly recommended.

other stuff sticking to my cd player. the norwegian shining. on the label rune grammofon that is single handedly saving norway from the bottom seat on the list of interesting countries. the shining really can't be described without making them sound awful - words like prog, fusion, etc. pop up in my head so it was with great trepidation that i pressed that play button. but hot damn, did this stuff blow my mind! definately not the stuff i listen to normally but this one won me over. rune grammofon also deserve for their covers, see some here: http://www.boomkat.com/promotion.cfm?id=2. then there is red sparowes. another surprise. contains members of neurosis, isis and, uh, some other band. if you like mono, or mogwai, then this is something you must check out. stunningly beautiful and loud.

oxes

i hadn't listened to the oxes in a while. so i did. i still love them. and then i also have a soft spot for red martian. though they sound nothing like the oxes.