Monday, June 26, 2006

Beck, Beck, Beck

Ahh some more Beck news from NME about his new album "Beck has revealed that his next album will feature predominantly hip-hop tracks.Recorded with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the as-yet untitled LP will feature tracks such as 'Soldier Jane', 'Nausea' and '1000 BPM'.Speaking to MTV, Beck also announced that the artwork is complete: "It's really pretty amazing. The artwork is laid out in stickers, it's modular, the cover is blank and you get a sheet of stickers and you make your own cover."The star also revealed the inspiration behind the album's style: "Before we started, Nigel said he wanted to do a hip-hop record. And in a way it is, and in a way it isn't. It has hip-hop songs, and my previous work with him was 'Mutations' (1998) and 'Sea Change' (2002), these sort of introspective records, and so this new one is sort of bringing those two worlds together.The new album is to be released sometime in the autumn." Predominately hip-hop? Blank cover on which you can make you own with stickers? You never know what that crazy Beck is going to do next apart from the fact that it will be brilliant, in other music news from NME again the new Killers album (due out September 18th) was a 'experience' for Brandon Flowers "this is the album. I feel totally empowered by singing it. There's a spiritual element to the music that wasn't there before." Does anyone else think that it will actually not be that great (or at least not the best album of the past twenty years) or maybe its just me. Around a couple of blogs I Guess I'm Floating proclaims Arizona to be awesome and just maybe 'the next big thing', they are actually awesome think in musical terms pitched half-way between Radiohead during their Bends era and The Beatles at their most mellow and you might be half way there (or perhaps just confused), and Gorrila Vs Bear has some excellent female-fronted electro pop in the form of The Evening Episode (think Portishead and your quite close). On the World Cup front Australia harshly beaten by a extra time penalty from Totti, and Italy will play the winner of Switzerland-Ukraine (kicking off about now). Also the Portugal-Netherlands match was a complete joke, and now we have to face Scolari and Portugal again in the Quarter-Finals (although they will be without Deco thanks to the idiotic referee who dealt out 15 yellow cards in that match). Lastly I'd like to remind everyone that my radio show tommorow at 8am will be the last till hopefully October (Junction 11 will be under new management so maybe it won't).

MP3s:
Beck-Cancelled Check (live)
Beck-Qué Onda Guero

Sunday, June 25, 2006

On to the Quarter-Finals

What a awesome free-kick from Beckham just sublime, we played generally well except for a few hiccups at the back the whole team played well (basically we are gradually getting better), so now we go on to play Portugal or Holland in the quarters and frankly lets hope its third time lucky for Sven with regards to the quarter-final fixture (and potentially facing Scolari again), but basically I'm reasonably optimistic that we can go all the way, so Come On England (has to be in capitals), aside from England the Argentina-Mexico match was bloody excellent and has set up a quarter-final between Germany and Argentina, which could well be very tasty likewise with the Portugal-Netherlands match coming up a bit later (also looking forward to Italy-Australia and Spain-France). So once again Come On England.

MP3:
Badiel & Skinner-Three Lions
New Order-World In Motion
(definitely our two best football songs)

Tops in Moose Jaw

So it's last Thursday evening in the sleepy town of Moose Jaw and I have a bit of a dilemma. I can either a) park my arse on the pavement down Main St. and watch the 'Hometown Parade' or b) I can go the The Elks (aka Elkz :P tiniest venue ever) and see a show with 4 local(ish) acts. No brainer: music above all else. I arrive when the doors open and pay 6 bones to get in. It's an all ages show, and I'm not even joking about 'all ages.' Indie teens in their skinny jeans and parents toting around their little tots and even Grampa showed up. There were 4 acts, but I'm really only gonna comment on one. The highlight of the night (for me, anyways) was Go Jeff!!!. There wasn't a point during their 4 song set that I wasn't smiling. Go Jeff!!! are: Dylan Nash (guitar/vox), Kate Mcwilliams (bass/vox), Tallguy (Skyler? ... guitar/vox), and Blair Colwell (drums). Being a 'co-ed' band, Go Jeff!!! would probably draw easy comparisons to Be Your Own PET, The Subways, or Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But I'd wager my right foot (provided re-attachment were possible) that Kate would own Charlotte Cooper in a bass strutting competition. Twas incredibly high engery throughout the set. Tallguy's spontaneous leaps threatened to have him put through the roof, while Blair, their matchstick sized drummer pounded away like his kit had personally offended him. Not only were the tunes pure indie garage rock, but their antics were highly amusing as well. 'That's A Neat Disco Ball!' suddenly deteriorated into Third Eye Blind's 'Semi-Charmed Life.' And during another tune ('The Doesn't Rhyme With Gibbard...' I believe it was...) Dylan and Tallguy felt the need for a costume change and passed off their guitars to members of the other acts (The Coast and Captain) while they dashed to the mens. Dylan came back in Tallguy's shirt and Tallguy came back in an odd tee and boxers. Gimmicky or no, it were highly entertaining. Anitics + great rock = fucking brilliant Moose Juice indie.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Have You Got Xol?

Well do you? Hopefully you do now as todays post from me is about Xol, who or what is Xol you may ask, well Xol is one man from Telford (kind of spoils the mystery doesn't it) who produces music with his guitar and voice (wow never heard of that kind of artist before you may well say) and somehow makes some beautiful acoustic music with a slight suggestion of folk with vocal similarities with Jeff Buckley (although softer) and musically similar perhaps to the likes of Damien Rice (except not as depressing as he mostly is) basically about a ten million times better then James Blunt (not that difficult you also may well say), also I think this music makes more sense when played at night, maybe ideal fodder for DIY Rockstar's Midnight Music feature in my opinion. Basically if you enjoy falling into a cocoon of acousticness (possibly not a word) you should enjoy Xol.

MP3:
Xol-Angel's Ghosts
more at XolSpace

Friday, June 23, 2006

Peg City Holla!


I love re-discovering bands. Buying an album, playing it ad nauseam, forgeting about it for a while, then pulling it out and giving it another spin. A band i recently re-discovered: The Waking Eyes, who hail from my home town, Winnipeg. Often forgotten or overlooked or taken for granted (at least in Canada), the Winnipeg music scene has been producing quality rock since forever. Case in point: The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Weakerthans, JFK & The Conspirators, Bif Naked, The Duhks, etc, etc, etc. The Waking Eyes have got plenty of recognition in their home and native land, but still seem to be just on the brink in other parts of the world. About fifty years from now, I think that The Waking Eyes' sound will be the new 'classic rock' sound. Throughout their 'Video Sound' album, all their influences shine clearly. The nostalgic pop melodies of The Beatles, harmonies that might make The Beach Boys jealous, stirred in with the riff happy rock & roll of The Rolling Stones. Occasional grungey vocals and emo-ish yelps show off other influences like Ween, Weezer, and Nirvana. Modern edge and classic stylings meshed perfectly. Also, drummer Steve Senkiw is my new hero cos he likes to play quidditch in his spare time.

mp3s
The Waking Eyes - Watch Your Money
The Waking Eyes - Headlights
The Waking Eyes - On A Train

Thursday, June 22, 2006

freshly caught Cornish lo-fi alt-pop

A band I stumbled across upon on NME New Bands site and checked out firstly because I actually liked their name, I was pleasantly surprised that unlike the other 99% of the time where I have checked out a band just because I liked the name these guys were actually good, they are Slo-Mo Fireworks and (much like OMR yesterday) they are a duo of friends called Tom and Jack who can certainly make their own kind of music with all sorts of instumentation ("guitars, voice, drum machine, mini keyboard, ebow") its all coming from a bedroom in Cornwall and its all gloriously lo-fi with a heavy dose of alt-pop, which at times borders on elecronica and at other times is closer to indie-pop, and they actually intend to record 50 tracks this year (a project similar to Bishop Allen's E.P a month thing) which is pretty impressive, so enjoy. Just as I post this Japan have taken the lead against Brazil very impressively.

MP3s:
Slo-Mo Fireworks-The Canadian Pacific
Slo-Mo Fireworks-Pointless Graffiti

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

uplifting bleakness

OMR are a duo from France who make (as mentioned in the post title) melancholic yet oddly uplifting music (sung in english though which in a way is a slight shame), they recently added me as a friend on MySpace which is how I heard of them, the music they make is sort of indie/electronic in a similar vein to say The Postal Service also I would say another musical similarity would be Bloc Party in their mellower moments, I really like the blending of electronica music and Virginie's vocals which compeltely suit each other, anyway heres what they say about themselves on their About Me section "Formed by Virginie Krupa and Alexandre Brovelli, OMR is a perfect duo: two souls that blend their strengths and doubts, their blinding brightness and their anguish in a single body in this music, conceived in perfectly equal proportion by both of them. Absolute artistic harmony: of those magical, inexplicable unions that come into being between heads that are on the same minute waves, connected to the same spiritual spheres. Two individuals coming from different places but united by a common desire for powerful emotions." (and theres more). They are certainly a band who have a grand vision for their music, and are already signed to a indie record label (Uncivilized World) I wouldn't say mainstream success awaits them but they seem to be building up a fairly large fanbase, and even have a street team which you can join on their website.
On the World Cup front I was obviously glad that England qualified as group winners with a 2-2 draw with Sweden and Joe Cole's goal was an absolute scorcher I would say the best of the tournament so far, although it would have been nice to have (finally) beaten the Swedes and we also had the horrible news about Owen missing the rest of the World Cup (and in fact be out for 6 months through injury), but I still believe we can win the World Cup so bring on Ecaudor and the rest.

MP3: OMR-The Way We Have Chosen

Buy: OMR-Side Effects (this is a UK site for other countries go to the news section on OMR's site).

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

"The Numbers"

If you haven't already headed on over to check out the Contrast Podcast I heavily suggest that you do, the theme is 'Numbers' and its my second contribution to this great bloggers podcast in a row, I won't tell you what song I chose except to say that it is a classic. In other 'me' news I (as usual) presented my show just earlier today, on which I played a album track off of the upcoming Muse album amongst other great stuff, I haven't posted the tracklisting yet but you can listen to the show or even download it if you really want to (just something to bear in mind each hour starts with the news).

MP3s and M3Us:
Listen to first hour of the Breakfast Session (click open)
Listen to second hour of the Breakfast Session (click open)
Download first hour
Download second hour
Contrast Podcast

Monday, June 19, 2006

The New Contributors and the Fun Retro Rock

Well firstly the big news is about this very blog as you would have noticed I have now recruited two contributors to the S.O.B 'Team' (he he he s.o.b) firstly Sarah from Moose Jaw in Canada whom I know through MySpace and Last.FM (oh the crazy magic of the internet) and of course she has already made her introduction post earlier today (look down), and secondly Andy my good friend from Secondary School and Sixth Form who presents his very own radio show 'The Beatbox' at URF (Sussex Uni radio) which is currently on hiatus (although there are plans for him to appear on a certain other world-famous radio show, hint hint) and I'm sure he will make his intro post soon enough. Anyway they are sure to add something extra to this blog as they post about the music they like, or perhaps anything interesting that is music related. On to the subject of the above picture which has nothing to do with the new members of the S.O.B team (tee hee) and everything to do with a band I've decided to post about namely Spencer McGarry Season (well they are kind of a band although its mostly about Spencer McGarry, the clue is in the name) who hail from Swansea and are featured on the latest One Music Unsigned podcast, and are the sound of numerous retro influences: The Beatles, The Kinks, XTC (particularly strong in my opinion), Talking Heads (very slightly) and The Jam all thrown together in a blender and then thrown at the wall, basically they sound like they're having a fun time playing some highly catchy retro-rock which alternates between various influences, it certainly caught my ear so why not have a listen there is of course more on their MySpace. My final message is Come On England.

MP3s:
Spencer McGarry Season-Tell Me Whats Shaking
Spencer McGarry Season-Radio 35

Salutations de la terre de blé !

... Roughly translated, that says 'greetings from wheatland' ... 'wheatland' being Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (try saying that ten times fast). So, a bit about me eh. I'm Sarah and (hopefully) I'll be writing some rather insightful, witty pieces on some of my favourite music (I say hopefully cos i can't really guarantee that I'll always be insightful or witty). Now, I know what you're thinking: how does some random chimp from Middle-Of-Nowhere, Canada manage to team up on a blog with everyone's favourite ReadingU radio host? It's through the beauty of the internet. Myspace and Last.FM are both brilliant sites for a) discovering new music and b) meeting new people. So a random IM here or there, and a listen to Breakfast Sessions @ The Waffle, and here I am. Our taste in music is quite similar (read: excellent) so have no worries, cos I'll try to keep bringing you the best of the best. Cheers.

P.S. Apologies in advance for any confusing colloquial Canadian-ness.

P.P.S To learn a bit more about me and my tastes, you ought to check out my Myspace and Last.fm pages.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Ausgezeichnet ein deutsches Band, das ich ungefähr bekanntgeben kann

Hopefully that title makes sense to any German readers, I used AltaVista Babel Fish to translate (I wish I could say that I can speak German but I can't really), anyway first of all props to Dodge of the finger-lickin' good MOKB who posted about these guys first, they are a German band and they go under the great name of Klee and Dodge put them under the europop genre (now for me that type of music would usually lead to a serious consideration of jumping off a cliff) which is broadly accurate they are certainly very pop (althought not in the crappy sense) and they are euro seeing as they come from Germany, but luckily their music doesn't make me want to jump off a cliff, instead its some very melodious not exactly infectiously catchy but a few listens and it does get under your skin (well it did for me) with some great keyboard work tinged with guitars and vocals exactly suited to the kind of music, as for a comparison they do slightly remind me of New Order at their most poppy, they are on Minty Fresh records in the states and you can be their cyber friend on MySpace. In other news eMusic free daily download for today is a rather excellent slice of College Rock coming from The Living Blue a band that I can't say I've actually heard of but will check out (and they are also on Minty Fresh, certainly a record label that will leave you with excellent smelling breath for the rest of the day) having heard this Pixies/U2 sounding tune which is definitely all about the big guitar riff, big vocals and big hooks, its just big then and its called 'Tell Me Leza'. Finally on the music front I was informed earlier today that the excellent Radio Indie Pop features Falcon (a great unsigned band I posted about on Wednesday) as their favourite Unsigned Artist (as if you needed a reason to go and register there),so go check it out. Now I'm going to watch Brazil Vs Australia which could well be a cracking match.

MP3s:
Klee-Errinner Dich
Klee-A Thousand Ways (English version)
Klee-This Is For Everyone (English version)
loads more here

Buy:
check out your Amazon, Minty Fresh or of course the Klee website (although it is in German obviously)

Saturday, June 17, 2006

"dont you go and cut your hair"

Hey there, you may remember when I posted about rather good indie/electronica oufit Cassettes Won't Listen well this is a quick post to say that they have made a rather superb cover version of Pavement's best known song 'Cut Your Hair' really giving it a funky fresh 21st Century re-working, definitely a candidate for my 'choose a cover version' Breakfast Session feature (and also well liked by heavy-weight blog GvB).

MP3:
Cassettes Won't Listen-Cut Your Hair

Buy:
Head on over to Dope Lotus Records for more info

Friday, June 16, 2006

Founding not floundering

You know how some blogs are just awful, well one that certainly isn't is the fantastic i guess i'm floating, I particularly enjoy the descriptions they write about the music posted, possibly their best musical description (that I've read) came about a song from the band pictured above they are The Foundry Field Recordings and to my mind they combine shoegaze and rock/pop absolutely perfectly as their songs not only have the sonic intensity of shoegaze but also the catchy hooks associated with the rock/pop genre (man did I just say genre?) anyway I loved the description by Connor of IGIF about 'Warning Raids Over Kiev' so much that I think it deserves to be posted here too "so this promo ended up in my mailbox, like any other promo, except it was buzzing...vibrating, if you will. so, i popped it in my computer, and the speakers started vibrating (to my surprise, i mean, how the hell does sound work anyway?)...and then my face started vibrating, until a smirk suddenly "popped" (pop!) on my face...and then my hand started vibrating, fingers, toes, nostrils, eyelashes, elbows, cuticles, testicles, follicles, bicycles-- even my left hand! and legs! holy crap, i was floating! i could see everything (almost)! but it didn't stop!! i started to sweat, terrified! my head...fucking "popped" (pop!) like a balloon, and i fell back down, down, really far down....and i opened my eyes, only they weren't my eyes at all...they were the palms of my hands. in one was a vile of blood with a cork cap labeled "silence." this was in the other hand" now if that makes you think "how is that possible?" believe me so did I when I read that but its so true, it is that good. Also the guys at IGIF are friends with Oh No! Oh My! so much so that Joel from the band is going to be making a few guest posts on that blog, how cool is that!! So go be the myspace friend (and listen to some more tunage) of The Founding Field Recordings but you can also go be the myspace friend of IGIF. So in conclusion was this post about a band or a blog? Probably both in a way.

MP3s:
The Founding Field Recordings-Warning Raids Over Kiev
The Founding Field Recordings-Beneath The Winter

Buy:
The Founding Fields Recordings 'Prompts/Miscues'

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Just about through

Well its about time I did a proper World Cup post and why not now because despite not exactly being at our best and struggling against Trinidad and Tobago for most of the game we won 2-0 and are into the knockout stages with a group game to spare, so great then (and Rooney got a decent run out and looked fairly sharp). The best is yet to come though. In non-world cup related news I probably should direct you over to the Contrast Podcast page on which I made my second contribution overall by choosing a track for the 'I'm The Only One That Likes This' podcast.

MP3:
New Order-World In Motion (Single Mix) "you've got to hold and give...."

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Falcon Punch

Firstly I'd just like to say that currently the World Cup rules my life so I wasn't entirely sure if I was even going to post today especially since I was desperately searching for a actually good band to post about (this may be where having another contributer to this blog may come in handy maybe I'll try and get one), anyway I decided to post about a band that I heard on the fantastic Radio Indie Pop which I highly reccomend in general anyway. The band are called Falcon and I believe they go down as melodic indie pop in Radio Indie Pop terms, they sound a bit like Snow Patrol although not really as polished as their (Snow Patrol) sound has got with their recent album, actually scratch that they are really closer to British Sea Power in that their songs have a certain 'big' quality about them and they are driven by a simple yet effective guitar line or drum beat and vocally theres that similar breathless style. I could go on but I need to eat and watch the Germany-Poland match, I'll also say here that Spain looked like quite a brilliant attacking force earlier today, perhaps this will be the tournament where they finally do something.

MP3s:
Falcon-Dry Land
Falcon-Birds And Mice


Buy:
nothing yet but when there is I'm sure it would be announced on either their MySpace or Website

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

And the award for the most imaginative album name goes too...


Well Razorlight obviously who after much deliberation have decided to name their second album 'Razorlight' as NME has just reported "The band's follow-up to debut 'Up All Night' will be called 'Razorlight'.The band finished the album last week (June 10) in a west London studio, and though they warn it could still change, for now they are calling the new album after the band.Deciding on an album title proved one of the trickier bits in producing the new record with a series of titles including 'The Modern Condition' and 'Wham Bam Bam' among the suggestions considered."I liked 'Can't Stop This Feeling' after one of the songs," guitarist Bjorn Argen told NME.COM. "Johnny liked 'Rocket Ship To The Moon', which was a lyric, and someone else suggested 'Black Jeans' the other day." Their album will be out on July 17th. They could have surely thought of a better title for their album I mean coming very soon after The Decemberists called their next album 'The Crane Wife'.
Secondly watch this brilliant video for Pull Shapes by The Pipettes. Finally you can listen to my radio show here, todays show lasted a grand total of three hours and was excellent as usual (but then I would say that).

MP3:
Razorlight-In The Morning
The Pipettes at Hype Machine

Pre-Order:

Razorlight-Razorlight

We Are The Pipettes-The Pipettes

Monday, June 12, 2006

Groovy Power-Pop aplenty

Yes indeed, the band I'm talking about are Channel 4 Slashmusic's Band Of The Week and they are called The Love Jones a sparky new band who give us this infomation about themselves on their MySpace "From the Birmingham metropolitan region its The Love Jones innit. Old enough to know better but young enough to get away with it (only just) It's inventive guitar based rock/pop type stuff with positive lyrics (usually) and a bit of wry humour chucked in - the perfect antidote to all these miserable new wave revival arseheads doing the rounds at the minute. Have a listen, make up your own mind - available for weddings, childrens birthdays, bar mitzvahs etc etc". But you know what if they can produce more songs of the quality of 'Monday Morning' a great almost Brendan Benson like sunny power-pop anthem and 'Nothing In Your Way' a song that switches between big chorus and funky groove several times without sounding rubbish then they could go far. Anyway thats todays post wrapped up except to say that obviously my radio show is tommorow morning at 8-10am on Junction 11, so if you can listen to that then cool.

MP3s:
The Love Jones-Monday Morning
The Love Jones-Nothing In Your Way

Buy:
check their website (where you can also download some more songs)

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Named after a Belle and Sebastian track and excellent

Yes they are the Stars Of Track And Field and I swear that I had heard of them before I saw them on as a featured artist on MySpace Music frontpage so I checked out their page and had a listen to their songs and I can safely say that this band hailing from Portland, Oregon are quite excellent from what I've heard in many respects they could be grouped with the soft rock stylings of Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Embrace etc but that would really be unfair (especially to group them with Embrace because to my ear they are the band Embrace want to be rather then the dull affair they have become) want stands them apart from that lot in particular is their use of electronic sounds to craft some more unique songs, they also know their way around a good chorus line with some excellent vocals, it certainly brings an anthemic quality to their music without sounding cheesy, its some goood pop/rock with a bit of electronica thrown in for good measure. Go befriend them on their MySpace space. Finally they just released their debut album although only in the U.S at the moment (and Amazon UK doesn't have any imports in stock at the moment)

MP3:
Stars Of Track And Field-With You
(you can obviously hear more on their MySpace and their actual website)

Buy:
Stars Of Track And Field-Centuries Before Love And War

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Mmmmm....Alaskan Shoegaze

Can you judge a band on one song? Well no otherwise it would be possible to judge The Beatles on say 'Wild Honey Pie' however the band at the centre of this fairly short post, the bizarrely named the crepuscular half-lights who hail from Sleetmute, Alaska (this is where random searches on MySpace get you), have only got one song uploaded on to their MySpace page, which is a fairly shoegazey type song although also quite similar to Low actually so if you like them then you'll probably like this. Hopefully they'll have some more songs up soon even if they're music is more suited to winter it sound good from that one song (albeit one song which I currently have on repeat).

MP3:
Swann at night-the crepuscular half-lights

Friday, June 09, 2006

What will go the distance?

Yes you have to wonder whether some things will really go the distance, considering that this post was meant for yesterday you have to wonder if blogger will go the distance without breaking down every other day, also with the World Cup beginning today people all over the world will be wondering whether their team can go the distance in that (come on England), however this post is actually about a band called The Distance who are perfect now that summer has seemingly arrived with their feel good melodys and big chorus with joint male and female vocals you could be forgiven into thinking I was describing that other summery bunch The Magic Numbers but The Distance are a bit more rocky then the Numbers (although not at all like the fictional boxer). Have a listen to a few of their songs on their MySpace.

MP3s:
The Distance-Self Help
The Distance-She Says

Buy:
The Distance-Stand Alone E.P

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Best News Ever

From NME.com "Beck has completed work on his new album. The record has been overseen by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, who worked with the star on his 2002 album 'Sea Change'.It will be the follow up to 2005's 'Guerolito', the remix version of his 'Guero' album.According to his website, the record will be due for release in the autumn.It is unclear whether the songs that the singer made available exclusively online last year ('Sorrow', 'Day For Night','Premonition' and 'Untitled 2') will be included on the new album" altogether now "celebrate good times come on" that was just fantastic news that has just made my day. Heres some advise if you don't own a Beck album buy one, my personal favourite is 'Mutations' but frankly they're all great so why not enjoy this lovely (if short because of bandwidth) Beck Mixtape, which features six songs from his six 'official' or 'proper' albums thus far, enjoy the genius.

A Short Beck Mixtape:
Beck-Beercan
Beck-Lord Only Knows
Beck-Lazy Flies
Beck-Sexx Laws
Beck-Guess I'm Doing Fine
Beck-Qué Onda Guero

Each From:
Mellow Gold
Odelay
Mutations
Midnite Vultures
Sea Change
Guero

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

C'est Bon

Well it is good it is the music of Cate Le Bon possibly Wales' answer to Cat Power depending on what the qustion was in the first place heres a bit about her from her MySpace "Cate Le bon is a female singer song writer currently residing in Cardiff, WALES. who has recently paid an army to pull her finger from her arse and get some music done. She writes songs in both english and y gymraeg about stuff.She hardly talks between songs. Never looks at the crowd. That is presuming there is a crowd. Lets say for arguments sake that there is. She can also be found playing the keys like a monkey and singing with the magnificent Richard James. His fingerpicking is dynamite mate.I shit you not. Recording a welsh ep and a bilingual album are next on her to do list." Also I would say if you are a fan of Nick Drake (particularly Five Leaves Left) her sound does remind me slightly of his music, its some good folk, the soundtrack to nature if you will, take On Mountains for example it deserves to be heard from mountain tops, so its some good stuff (it featured on the Radio 1 Unsigned Podcast a few weeks back alongside Stars Of Aviation). On another note my radio show went pretty well considering it was my thirteenth and on the 6/6/6 day the tracklisting can be found here but if you want to hear it without knowing what I played just click open on these links for the 1st hour and 2nd hour. Finally I got a message from The More Assured saying "thank you for the superreviewpostanablog!" which was cool.

MP3:
Cate Le Bon-On Mountains

Monday, June 05, 2006

"didn't you get the memo"

Apart from being an excuse to use a Batman Begins quote a a post title, this is also a shameless plug for my radio show which will be on tommorow 8-10am BST (thats UTC+1) on Junction 11, if you want to know what sort of stuff gets played go to my show page also if you want to you can hear the 1st hour and 2nd hour of my last show (just click on the links ands press open they both annoyingly start with the news because thats just the way its done at J11). In the mean time enjoy some Wilco.

MP3:
Wilco-Radio Cure

Buy:
Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Very Assuring

Fancy some breezy jangly indie pop that will make you jig without realising it and the fact that it comes from a new band that don't sound like Hard-Fi in anyway (I believe Hard-Fi are now being labelled Chav-Rock or something, so if anythings going to put you off them its probably that tag) or indeed most new bands from Britain who are currently intent on becoming the next Arctic Monkeys for the most part at least, these guys take influence from the likes of Belle & Sebastian (all the time) and The Cure (when they do jangly and upbeat) mix it with a smidgen of that Monkey sound just so they sound different but still relevant to today's scene, they are The More Assured, they are unsigned (why?), they have had a small amount of press (although the first I actually heard of them was thanks to Sarah my MySpace and Last.FM friend) so far and they are excellent. Finally you can check out and download more then the usual amount of songs from their MySpace and MySpace 2!

MP3s:
The More Assured-All In Your Head
The More Assured-These Golden Rules

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Mummy's boys

They are Channel 4 SlashMusic's Band Of The Week and they happen to be myspace friends of mine, they are called Out With Mummy (which lets be honest isn't a brilliant band name) but they have overcome these obstacles and are actually quite good so far heres the critics quote for them they combine the left of centre lyrical style of Talking Heads and the tunes of The Jam, and then claim to be contemporaries of the Crazy Frog and Arctic Monkeys. Well mostly on this site its probably better if you judge bands by the music rather then what I say about them (why not join them on MySpace). Meanwhile The Young Knives are launching a competition on their Myspace site to win some Young Knives goodies including (quite brilliantly) a Young Knives umbrella this is all because their fantastic edgy pop-rock ride continues with the release of 'Shes Attracted To' released on the 19th June. Finally is anyone else firmly in the World Cup groove because I am, only 6 days to go!

MP3s:
Out With Mummy-Who Stole Peter's Soul
Out With Mummy-Just Another Day

Buy:
Pre-Order She's Attracted To (UK only)

Friday, June 02, 2006

Plagiarism,Petty and Petticoats

Yes todays post is brought to you by the letter P firstly (to avoid the charge of plagirism myself) full credit to Matt of the monster Blogosaurus YANP for he was the first on the scene for Petticoat, Petticoat (well they are a local band for him) having just read his two most recent entries hes also got a competition on for those who want to win a copy of their upcoming album 'Every Mother’s Child' released on June 27th (its open to U.S residents only though which rules me out). Anyway I probably should say a little bit about why I like them from what I've heard, well I like the fact that they kind of make me think of a downbeat New Pornographers despite still having a sunny indie pop sound but also the fact that despite that they do sound highly indie,poppy and folky there is also an edge on Glittering Heels of a nice driving bassline (something I always like), so in conclusion a great deal of promise, join them on MySpace. Now you wouldn't expect a band like the Red Hot Chili Peppers to be mentioned in the same breath as direct rip-off of a Tom Petty track but thats what is suggested by this radio programme from the states, now hmmm would I say the chord progression is basically indentical and the vocals are incredibly similar as is the vocal theme, well I guess I just did but have a listen to the two and make up your mind.

MP3s:
Petticoat, Petticoat-Glittering Heels
Tom Petty-Mary Jane's Last Dance
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Dani California

Buy:
Pre-Order Petticoat, Petticoat-Every Mother's Child
Tom Petty-Greatest Hits
RHCP-Stadium Arcadium

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Party like its...

Its not often you find a band who not only are named after the year of your birth but also actually being quite good, well some more brousing on Channel 4's SlashMusic site led me to these guys called well 1985 (reasonably obviously) and they have a pretty tight sound highly influenced by Grunge bands like Soundgarden but with also a hint of 70s Rock yeah they are pretty retro sounding but its still a good sound, take Roulette for example it starts of almost sounding like James Dean Bradfield performing a Nirvana b-side till it hits the minute mark and some Thin Lizzy style guitars kick in, its all performed with prescision and was enough to grab my attention and post about. Go find some more of their songs on their MySpace page. In other news I've finished my exams for this year (woooo) and X-Men 3 wasn't as good as I thought it would be although Kelsey Grammer was surprisingly good as Beast even if he did look a bit too much like the cookie monster.

Mp3:1985-Roulette