My Shadow Falls over Blue Roses

Something that caught my eye in my packed inbox (and believe me I will never get round to checking everything out but I'm going to attempt to do so this week, especially since I quit my evening part-time job) was a new musical duo of Dan Bejar and Sydney Vermont ( who are "romantically entwined" which sounds better then "going out with each other") who "conjure a timeless collection as Hello, Blue Roses" anyway it caught my eye and the available mp3 'Shadow Falls' caught my ear in that despite the presence of the highly recognisable (maybe even ubiquitous) vocals of Dan Bejar, and some of the guitar work certainly reminded me of Destroyer it actually sounded very different to a lot of music being pumped out at all times by everyone, I think that the fact that Sydney Vermont's vocals are really the lead vocals helps as she has a voice not entirely disimilar to the likes of Kate Bush and Elizabeth Frasier which lends a blissed-out 80s vibe enhanced also by the electronic backing sounds which sound like they have been taken straight from 'Blade Runner' at one point, worth a listen I would say and don't forget to check their MySpace for another different sounding but perhaps more immediate 'Hello, Blue Roses' (title track).

MP3: Hello, Blue Roses-Shadows Fall
Buy: Hello, Blue Roses-S/T (released January 22nd)

Frozen precipitation in German capital

Or Snow In Berlin a newly available song from Austin's Zookeeper, a band I've taken a shine to recently. I think this song is an absolutely perfect song for the incoming long winter nights, not only does it have 'snow' in the title making it easy fodder for any winter compilation, its the sort of song that a family can gather round and enjoy as the nights come sooner and sooner.

MP3: Zookeeper-Snow In Berlin
Pre-Order: Zookeeper-Becoming All Things (with limited edition autographed booklet)

Classic Video Day-Galactica

any Galactica fan probably knows about these series of Adama flashbacks to the first Cylon war but this one is particularly epic, I can't wait for Razor and the 4th (and last!!) series. If you haven't already checked out Battlestar Galactica you are probably living under a rock or something.

MP3:Battlestar Galactica Music (why not)
Pre-Order: Razor

Becoming Beautiful

Well, haven't posted for a while and I have been sent so much music I thought "I'm going to sift through this and actually start posting regularly" so I started with the most recent e-mail which informed me about a band called Zookeeper who are releasing an album 'Becoming All Things' on November 6th (in the US), they are from Austin, Texas (quite a hotbed of talent recently) and I really enjoyed what I've heard from this album thus far a kind of indie-folk-pop mix with vocals that suit the music down to the ground, the two tracks made available are 'Trumpets' a sprawling, laid-back melodious number and the album title track which is a slow burning build with incredibly well done instrumentation gradually adding layers to the song before it reaches its climax. Well worth a listen. Moving away from that perhaps I should actually write a review for 'In Rainbows' to make up for the 'First Proper Review' which seems to have annoyed (although also entertained) some people, let me just say I'm not sure what possesed me to write it and I didn't think people would actually read it anyway, maybe I'll review the Britney Spears album after that, as thats "on my level" according to one anonymous remark who also used the phrase "faux witticisms" which I never expected to read in a blog comment, brilliant.

MP3s: Zookeeper-Trumpets
Zookeeper-Becoming All Things

Pre-Order (or more accurately buy when its available): Zookeper-Becoming All Things

Dig It

I really liked this video that was on Pitchfork a while ago, I just found it very endearing maybe it was the fact that it was a cover of a Beatles throw-away yet still sounded great, or perhaps it was the "London the home of The Beatles, sort of" anyway enjoy, also get 'Marry Me' its a great album I'd say one of the best of this year or perhaps I'm being "idiotic" as I was when I typed up that review a few days ago as one anonymous person commented, yes I kind of made that stuff up on the spot (like most of these posts) so oh well I got plenty of visitors from it so my ego is fed in some strange way.

Buy: St Vincent-Marry Me
MP3: St Vincent-Paris Is Burning

New from Apple

It is the way music should br heard, also Radiohead album coming out tommorow morning, see yesterday for a 'review'.

First Proper Review: Radiohead-In Rainbows

Well I got 'In Rainbows' earlier today, Thom Yorke came round on his bike with a copy (all very carbon neutral) I paid him £2.51 for it just to be clever, and what can I say? What an album who would have thought '15 Steps' would see Thom and the boys take their sound in to a sort of country-stomp direction I mean the lyrics "take your partner by the hand/ go 15 steps forward and 3 steps back/ you do it to yourself you fool, you had too much to drink" were entirely unexpected as it saw Radiohead go in a completely new direction but also revisit a lyric from 'Just'. If that wasn't enough 'Bodysnatchers' was simply snippets of audio taken from the 1993 film of the same name, I would call it Radiohead's boldest step since OK Computer. 'Nude' was a very strange track because it wasn't even Radiohead (literally it was actually taken from the 1981 album of the same name by Camel) it really sounded nothing like a bold fusion of Hail To The Thief and all music released since by everybody even The Kooks. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi was undoubtedly the stand out track as Thom Yorke ditched his trademark vocal style and instead opted for a bad Elvis impersonation with lines like "Don't step on my Weird Fishes/ You ain't nothing but a case of Mxamatosis crying all the time" Radiohead decided to make a interesting step into the realm of comedy-rock. Finally 'All I Need/Faust ARP/Reckoner/House Of Cards/Jigsaw Falling Into Place/Videotape" was simply a very long recorded piece of white noise (recorded on a poor quality cassete from what I could tell) an even more experimental sound then we heard on Kid A, at one point you can hear Jonny Greenwood humming to himself in the background which was defnitely the high point. Overall I would say this is Radiohead as you've never heard them before they take the guitar-driven drive of 'The Bends', mix it with electronic noise which may have been on 'OK Computer', it really defies expectations in every sense of the word, so I gave it 9.7 (Best New Music) in my totally original scoring system.

Pre-Order:Radiohead-In Rainbows

Ghost Blog

I honestly don't know why I can't quite stick to posting regularly on this blog, but it doesn't mean I'm giving up on it, even though this is a brief post really just to point you in the direction of this new Band Of Horses track which I think sounds excellent, more on the blog soon (hopefully).

MP3: Band Of Horses-Is There A Ghost
Pre-Order: Band Of Horses-Cease To Begin

----------------
Now playing: !!! - All My Heroes Are Weirdos
via FoxyTunes

album you should get...right now:Gold

Well this a post I wanted to put up longer ago (but haven't mostly because I wanted to do it justice but partly because I've had other things to do) because I suspect quite a lot of blogs would have included this excellent album a while ago Aaron Scroeder's second album 'Black & Gold' is perhaps in overtly record company speak an absolute gem, not so much in terms of that theres a couple of great tracks which you can 'cherry-pick' to download sense (I mean sometimes I think almost 76% of 'great albums' come under this category and thats a statistic not proven by eminent scientists), but more in the way that it fits together well as an album and shows a variety of influences starting from an indie base and working outwards with a variety of instruments, I particularly like the alt-country vibe on 'Cold Country' perhaps because it remnds me a little of 'Cancelled Check' by Beck off of Mutations one of my favourite ever albums, also the contrast between the woozy ending of the song and the breezy stomp of the opening of 'If You Please' is very pleasing. The style of music on 'Black & Gold' mostly reminds me of the catchy pop of Paul Simon mixed with the charming indie vibe of Belle & Sebastian or if you want a 'kooky' crtic soundbite: "Jaunty tunes twitching with genius" I'm quite proud of that one, anyway are you still reading this or are you buying it.

MP3:Aaron Scroeder-Fake Crimes (Demo)
Buy:Aaron Scroeder-Black & Gold

Coming soon: Murder Mystery

Classic Video-Worst Ever Fight Scene Ever

In some ways you have to admire how bad this fight scene is, although it's almost so bad its good...almost.

Time to wake up

Hello again, its been quite some time (not a massive amount but still) since I last posted on the blog but I now fully intend to get some things up that I wanted to have up a while ago but just kind of had other things to do, as an interesting for instance a friend and I are currently working on a sitcom script, partly just to see if we can do it but also we have wondered if there is a possibilty it could get picked up which would be great, anyway I now feel like I can start posting on this ol'blog a bit more regularly, starting with a bit of info-tainment namely the folk legend known on Earth as Seth Lakeman is releasing an E.P 'Poor Man's Heaven' which is set to be released on the 15th October and he is also touring the country, playing these dates:
September
Wed 26 Southampton Guildhall www.bigwheelpromotions.com
Thu 27 Exeter Great Hall 01392 263 518
Fri 28 Cheltenham Town Hall 01242 227 979
Sat 29 Aberystwyth Arts Centre 01970 623 232
Sun 30 Sheffield Leadmill 0870 010 4555
October
Tue 02 Glasgow ABC 0870 169 0100
Wed 03 Newcastle Carling Academy 0870 771 2000
Thu 04 Liverpool Carling Academy 0870 771 2000
Fri 05 Northampton Roadmender 01604 604 020
Sat 06 Leeds Met University 0113 244 4600
Sun 07 Manchester Ritz 0161 832 1111
Tue 09 Brighton Concorde 2 www.bigwheelpromotions.com
Wed 10 Cambridge Junction 01223 511 511
Thu 11 Bristol Carling Academy 0870 771 2000
Fri 12 Wolverhampton Wulfrun 0870 320 7000
Sun 14 Lincoln Engine Shed www.bigwheelpromotions.com
Tue 16 Oxford Carling Academy 0870 771 2000
Wed 17 Norwich Waterfront 01603 508 050
Thu 18 London Shepherds Bush Empire 0870 771 2000

for my part I saw him live at the Lewes guitar festival near me and he was bloody excellent.

MP3: Seth Lakeman-The White Hare

Buy: Seth Lakeman-Freedom Field

Classic Live Video Day-Beck

I bloody love Beck, I wish I could see him live some day soon but until then these rather awesome videos will have to do, like 'Tropicalia' arguably my favourite Beck song.



a slow rocking version of 'Loser', rather damm good.



Where Its At, well its right here.



Mutations is my favourite Beck album, and heres another great track off it.

MP3 (I think its one of the few songs that describes me oooh self-deprecation thats a new one): Beck-Loser

Album I'm looking forward too:smokin'

I really love the sound Devendra Banhart is developing further in his fourth album 'Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon' with 'Seahorse' being the first single or official mp3 or something, anyway it starts off with Banhart's uniquely understated vocals and guitar before building into what can only be called a jazzy number before morphing into rock territory without sounding in the least bit contrived, but in fact keeping his trademark organic yet freaky sound or as he calls it 'space reggae' which can defnitely be applied to 'The Other Woman' another great slice (think a folky version of 'Ghost Town' and you may be close to how this song sounds) of the upcoming album which can be heard here along with 'Samba Vexillographica' which is a folky-jazzy-samba number sang in Spanish (that is so Banhart) anyway I'm looking forward to it.

MP3: Devendra Banhart-Seahorse
Pre-Order: Devendra Banhart-Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

Third Post Of The Day:Bloody Hilarious

Say No More

A Quick One:The Great Pretender

Now I can't say I was a huge fan of the previous two Foos albums, barring a few tracks they were not really as good as their debut or 'The Colour And The Shape', but I still feel its newsworthy enough to say that the myspace stream of their upcoming single from their upcoming album is actually rather good, anyway enjoy some mp3s of particularly great Foos tracks.

Mp3s:Foo Fighters-Everlong
Foo Fighters-Big Me
Foo Fighters-Break Out
Pre-Order: Foo Fighters-Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
Tracklisting:
The Pretender
Let It Die
Erase/Replace
Long Road To Ruin
Come Alive
Stranger Things Have Happened
Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)
Summers End
Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners
Statues
But, Honestly
Home

Classic Live Video Day-Cat Power

I absolutely love this song and given the state of todays weather I think this will be a little escape portal for everybody brought down by the grim weather today, otherwise it is a great live performance and heres a few more.



a sublime solo performance.



taken with a mobile but with rather good sound and picture quality nonetheless, my favourite cover version of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.



a 'Rolling Stone' acoustic performance, its out of sync but its beautiful nonetheless. Finally for your listening pleasure another fine cover by Cat Power of 'Wonderwall'.

MP3: Cat Power-Wonderwall

Up All Night

I'm still trying to thrash out some posts for some other new music which I want to give a good mention too and I wasn't entirely sure what to put on todays post until I just received an e-mail telling me to check out Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, who are by all means pretty big on the other side of the pond (given that they are appearing on chat shows and have just released their third album) but I hadn't honestly heard of, so I clicked on the freely available track 'Ah Mary' which I loved from the brief piano intro which for a milisecond sounds like the start of 'Rockin' All Over The World' and the general country-rock stylings of the band's sound (especially that guitar solo close to the end), needless to say I look forward to hearing more.

MP3: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals-Ah Mary
Buy: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals-This Is Somewhere
Buy:

Always use Mouthwash after brushing

Its the next single from Kate Nash's surprisingly great 'Made of Bricks' album, I mean I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to get with the album but simply put if you take the best aspects of Lily Allen's music and stick them together with the most upbeat catchy moments from Regina Spacktor you may well end up with this album, although 'Foundations' is now beginning to grate with constant radio play, its an album well worth picking up (rather then downloading the odd track). Also thanks to some recent e-mails, I will aim to post about some new and lesser known stuff over the next few days (I just want to really do justice to some great stuff I've received, so keep on e-mailing).

MP3:Kate Nash-Pumpkin Song (great album track)
Buy: Kate Nash-Made Of Stone

Littlest Things that get you banned from the U.S...or not

In another 'whats the deal?' post I'm really not sure about (even though it has really nothing to do with me in any remote sense as I don't live in the U.S) is the reports and backtracks surrounding the Lily Allen U.S airport saga (perhaps saga is a bit strong, maybe two part episode would be better) after all you would think that she either has a visa or not, apparently she said she doesn't and her manager is saying she does, who knows? Heres some spiky pop.

MP3s: Lily Allen-Alfie
Lily Allen-LDN(non-album version)
Lily Allen-Mix Tape part 2

Classic Live Video Day-Arcade Fire

Back once again with the renegade feature, in other words here are some rather excellent live performances from one of the best bands on the block right now, namely Arcade Fire


next single, and a performance with typical passion


a modern classic performed with none other then a certain Mr Bowie


small stage, big sound


my favourite from 'Neon Bible'.

Well I wish I could say more but I'm feeling a bit off today, and besides I think the videos speak for themselves anyway.

MP3:Arcade Fire-Intervention

Album I'm looking forward too:limelight on blacklight

So previously it was the upcoming New Pornographers album, but today it is the return and reinvention of Rilo Kiley, returning with from what I can tell a part funky rock ("The Moneymaker") and part folkish ("Silver Lining") so quite possibly something of a reinvention which is pretty refreshing with perhaps too many bands taking a "if it ain't broke..." sort of approach which can be good and even excellent depending on the band (although it could actually be broken and they just end up flogging a dead horse) but can get a little waring after a while, so this album could be a hit or it could fall, either way it should be pretty entertainining and hopefully a great album.

MP3s:Rilo Kiley-The Moneymaker
Rilo Kiley-The Frug

Pre-Order: Under The Blacklight (released 20th August)

I go out posting after midnight

This post has nothing to do with the song in the title, it just seemed like a nice title in reference to this my second post-midnight blog post which will be brief, it is simply about a song which has been stuck in my head all day (and on my mp3 player) as I walked the streets of Brighton, namely it is the rather country rockin' 'Wild Mountain Nation' by Blitzen Trapper maybe its the oo-ooos, maybe its the well timed slide guitars but at the moment this song really sticks with me, and the album of the same name is a rather excellent piece of alt-country or folk-rock or whatever you want to call it (and you don't even have to take my word for it either). Anyway just thought I'd share that with ya'll.

MP3:Blitzen Trapper-Wild Mountain Nation
Buy:the album

Hey Ho its August

Its just turned August (in the UK), and heres the new video from The White Stripes and my favourite track on the rather smashing album which is well worth getting hold of. I always love a good White Stripes video at 22 minutes past midnight, so enjoy that and pick up an mp3 of the first track I heard from The White Stripes the infectious 'Hotel Yorba'

MP3:The White Stripes-Hotel Yorba
Buy:Icky Thump

Confusion or just a Bizzare Love Triangle

Is anyone else wondering what exactly is going on with New Order at the moment with Peter Hook saying that they had split and Sumner and Morris saying that they were going to continue without him as New Order which he has just said can't happen as he says on his MySpace This group [New Order] has split up! You are no more New Order than I am! You may have two thirds, but don't assume you have the rights to do anything 'New Order-ey', because you don't. I've still got a third! But I'm open to negotiation." As Jerry Seinfeld probably wouldn't say "whats the deal.." . Anyway enjoy some classic New Order.

MP3s:New Order-Crystal
New Order-Bizzarre Love Triangle
New Order-True Faith
New Order-Age Of Consent

Classic Live Video Day-The Who

Its an old feature from Sessions of Breakfast with a new This Charming Blog twist, i.e its just about live performances and today its arguably (I mean some will argue a lot about that) the greatest live band ever (in their heyday at least) The Who.

The old favourite isn't it live from the Monteray festival.


Quite possibly their finest song from their finest album.


Very raw, black and white version of their first hit.


a rehearsal jam cover of 'I Saw Her Standing There' with Keith singing.

MP3:The Who-My Generation
Buy: Who's Next

Master Music

You know how it is sometimes you just get the feeling to somehow renact a moment from the great new Doctor Who series quite possibly the scene in which the Master brilliantly portrayed by John Simm danced to the Scissor Sisters, well now you can (probably just me then).

MP3: Scissor Sisters-I Can't Decide

Deathly Hallows

Its absolutely brilliant, that is all (oh go on have an MP3 from Spoon, their new album is brilliant also).

MP3s: Spoon-I Turn My Camera On

Saturday Beauty

This Charming Blog may be mostly about music but I've decided that it will also be about whatever I want it to be about and for todays post I'm going to put up some pictures and videos of those in my own opinion are the ten most beatiful women in the world (I guess I should qualify this with famous women really) I think I'll mostly let the images and videos speak for themselves which is basically being pretty lazy, so in no particular order (because I often change my mind over this sort of thing anyway) my top ten are:

Rihanna

I'm actually starting to enjoy her music as a guilty pleasure sort of thing, but I mean wow, I have actually yet to find a bad picture of Rihanna which is fairly surprising.



Suprise MP3: Rihanna-SOS

Jessica Alba
The Sexiest Woman in the World according to FHM readers, and its not exatly difficult to see why.



Elisha Cuthbert
Basically the reason why anyone watched 'The Girl Next Door' also a great actress anyway.



Scarlett Johansson
First saw her in the excellent Lost In Translation, quite literally a perfect woman (although I don't know her personally).



Adriana Lima
The only actual model in my Top Ten , I find her heavily addictive.



Keira Knighley
The last 5 minutes of Pirates Of The Carribean, cinematic gold (or the whole of Domino).


(just put in on mute, you know you will)

Rosario Dawson
She was spectacular in Sin City and downright charming in Clerks 2 not to mention Death Proof.



Kelly Brook
No 1 Woman who men want to see in a bikini, again difficult to argue with that.



Eva Longoria
Recently got married, dang (thats all I have to say).



Evangeline Lilly
I love Lost, I really do and Evageline is actually great in it she is also smoking hot (ok maybe a bit too low brow, then again perhaps this whole post is anyway).


Thats it I probably should take a cold shower or something, more music posts will follow (almost all pictures from Hollywoodtuna).

Album I'm looking forward too:possibly a new feature

I've been a fan of The New Pornographers since the release of Twin Cinema ("hang on a minute that was their last album your not a real fan" etc) and they have become one of my absolute favourite bands (honestly joint 4th place with Bob Dylan on my last.fm profile). I just love their sound particularly the meshing of their different members vocal talents (most obviously Neko Case, A.C Newman and Dan Bejar, all of whom have excellent solo stuff too of course) they are highly skilled musicians all round and their three albums so far have been uniformly superb, I actually can't think of a 'filler' track on any of them, if all that wasn't enough they formed in Vancouver a place I'd love to visit some day, they are signed to Matador a record company with a load of great bands and artists (boy I'd love a promo copy of this album right about now) and they are the most potentially embarrassing band to reccomend to any uptight friends and/or relatives. So needless to say having heard a couple of tracks from their upcoming release 'Challengers' I am greatly looking forward to it, and so should you, thats right you sitting there in front of your computer and if you lift up that cup in front of you you should see the Jack of Spades (if it actually happened that would be freaky). I haven't yet seen them live so hopefully they will be shortly touring the UK (and hopefully coming to Brighton as well hint, hint) but for those lucky lot in North America they are touring and here are the dates:

7-29 Toronto, Ontario - Rogers Picnic
09-13 Victoria, British Columbia - McPherson Ballroom #&
09-14 Seattle, WA - Showbox #!
09-15 Seattle, WA - Showbox #!
09-16 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom #!
09-17 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theatre #!
09-18 San Diego, CA - House of Blues #!
09-19 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater #!
09-20 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater #@
09-21 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre #@
09-22 Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater #@
09-24 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater #@
09-25 Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot #@
09-26 Boise, ID - The Egyptian Theatre #@
09-28 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom #!
10-11 Edmonton, Alberta - Edmonton Event Center $
10-12 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwen Hall $
10-13 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwen Hall $
10-14 Missoula, MT - University Theater $
10-15 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Garrick Center $
10-16 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue $^
10-17 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre $^
10-18 Chicago, IL - The Metro $^
10-19 Chicago, IL - The Metro $^
10-20 Buffalo, NY - Riviera Theatre $^
10-21 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre $^
10-24 New York, NY - Webster Hall $^
10-25 New York, NY - Webster Hall $&
10-26 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero $&
10-27 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club $^
10-31 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues $&
11-01 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live $+
11-02 Dallas, TX - House of Blues $+
11-03 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Festival
11-05 Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre $

(& with Immaculate Machine
# with Lavender Diamond
! with Fancey
@ with the Awkward Stage
$ with Emma Pollock
^ with Benjy Ferree
+ with Spoon)

as if that wasn't enough you can also buy the album early and get it now if you live in North America. Anyway aside from that tune in to 6music from 4pm to hear Richard Hawley on Steve Lamacq's show, and until the next post be careful out there (your supposed to say good hunting).

MP3s: The New Pornographers-My Rights Versus Yours
The New Pornographers-Mass Romantic
The New Pornographers-Twin Cinema

Per-Order (UK style): The New Pornographers-Challengers

Sessions of Breakfast?

Hi there, its been a good long time since my last post, this is a result of some serious upheaval in my life including the end of my time at University and the Breakfast Session show itself, which may now mean that I change the title of this blog as I hope to sort of restart the whole thing. I went to see Final Fantasy on Monday of this week at the Brighton Komedia, and it was a truly awesome gig all round (can't wait for heartlands), and it was straight after seeing Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix at the cinema which was actually a great film in contrast to the others which have been pretty poor to average.

MP3: Final Fantasy-He Poos Clouds

June Bug

Didn't post anything in this month, it was a month of transition

New Nick Drake...sort of

A song from the upcoming 'Family Tree' of rare and unreleased Nick Drake songs, actually a cover version by another tragic figure (albeit much lesser known) Jackson C. Frank, more on Forkcast, its truly beautiful.

MP3:
Nick Drake-Blues Run The Game

Pre-order:
Nick Drake-Family Tree

Classic Video Day-11

I know its Monday, and for most of you its back to the week, although its a bank holiday here, look out the window its hardly the best holiday is it.

MP3:
New Order-Blue Monday

Sunday Lunch

If like me you are celebrating (kind of anyway because I have final exams this week) the fantastic victory of West Ham over Bolton, which almost secures our Premiership future, or if your just after a large collection of music, this is another new future where I taking a leaf out of Largehearted boy's book post a load of music which for some reason or another I haven't been able to write in depth about, so feast your ears on these MP3s:

Ruby Isle-Atom Bomb
Ruby Isle-Into The Black
MySpace, E-Card
The Basement-I Just Caught A Face
The Basement-Its A Kind Of Love
Official Website, MySpace, E-Card
Bang Gang-It's Alright
Bang Gang-Something Wrong
U.S Competition: Remix 'Its Alright' and send it with your full name to banggang@fanaticpromotion.com to win a trip to Iceland
Official Website, MySpace, E-Card
The Clutters-9999(Ways To Hate Us)
The Clutters-Temperature
Official Website, MySpace, E-Card
Winterpills-A Folded Cloth
Winterpills-Broken Arm
Winterpills-Handkercheifs
Official Website, MySpace, E-Card

Bonus Video:

I just couldn't help myself.

and finally Happy Birthday Joe, if you would like to wish my friend Joe, who has been my sidekick twice on my radio show, go over to his MySpace, this is him here

Friday Review: a new feature

Well it could be a new feature, seeing as I have got a few promo CDs to review, mostly from going to my first Junction 11 music meeting, something I've meant to do for a while but have either a) forgot about it or b) had work to do at the time, but I've decided that since I actually received a offer of a good album from a record company purely through this blog I thought that I'll leave my postal address now open to (hopefully) more good promo CD albums, did I mention my Junction 11 show on Tuesdays from 10am, anyway I have a few CDs to review, starting with the new album from The National.

The National-Boxer (Beggars Banquet)

The National follow up their 2005 breakthrough album 'Alligator', and retain their downbeat, melancholic sound (some would say depressing), vocally a mid-way point between Ian Curtis and Michael Stipe, Matt Berninger continues to deliver in his own monotone style. All this suggests that this album is depressing, and lets be honest it certainly isn't a 'soundtrack to the summer' type album, however there is more to this then deppression, from the opener 'Fake Empire' which begins with a simple but evocative piano track through songs like 'Guest Room' which sounds like a otherworldly version of U2 before they became MOR, the whole album shines through with a surprisingly rousing beauty which overcomes the superficial 'depressing' tag, this album will get under your skin and become a 'soundtrack to your soul'.
Score: 9/10

Candie Payne-I Wish I Could Have Loved You More (Deltasonic)

Opens with what can only be described as a blast from the past, almost verging on 'James Bond' theme music territory, single and album opener 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More' sounds like its been pulled right from the 60s a fact acknowledged by the replicated needle scratches at the end, the same can be said for the whole album. The influences of the likes of Dusty Springfield although vocally Candie Payne doesn't quite rise to the level of the greats, then again not many do. The album has a rich sound, and changes between upbeat and downbeat at points beginning to sound like more recent artists, like 'A Different You' which could almost fit on an early Bjork album. Overall if you enjoy the sound of 60s revival from the likes of The Coral, The Zutons (Candie Payne also comes from Liverpool and is signed to Deltasonic) and The Pipettes, then you'll almost certainly enjoy this sonically large and vocally soulful (and occasionaly both at the same time) offering which just might become the sound track to lazy summer evenings.
Score 8/10



Seymore Saves the World-S/T (Royalty, Etc)

Keyboards, keyboards and more keyboards, all three members of SSW are credited as playing them, and they are at the core of the bands sound, which is ultamately highly jaunty and appealing as it is keyboardy (thats not even a word), they mostly sound a mix between fellow Minneapolis band Tapes 'n tapes and Hot Hot Heat although perhaps add some anti-depressants into the mix, although lyrically more downbeat the uptempo keyboard sounds do tend to drown out the vocals. All in all a fun pop album which undoubtedly shows its strongest card first with the rather excellent 'Love Song', which is The Feeling but actually good, the rest of the album is still good, but that song shows off the real potential of the band.
Score: 7/10

MP3s:
The National-Fake Empire
Seymore Saves The World-Love Song

Buy:
Seymore Saves The World-S/T

Pre-Order (released May 21st)
The National-Boxer
Candie Payne-I Wish I Could Have Loved You More

Classic Video Day-"I came upon a doctor who appeared in quite poor health"

Its the video for the Bright Eyes son 'Bowl of Oranges' from his seminal 'Lifted..'. I just love the animation in this video, and as an extra bonus a fine photograph video for Nick Drake's 'Day Is Done'


MP3:
Bright Eyes-Bowl Of Oranges

Buy:
Bright Eyes-Lifted...
Nick Drake-Five Leaves Left

1,2,3,4

O.K so its been a very long time since my last blog post (over a month) so why is this? Well it is a combination of writers block, laziness and the 12,ooo word dissertation which I handed in last Monday, oh and my finals coming up a little too shortly. Anyway, enough excuses first of all I want to thank everyone who e-mailed in during this period, and I will get back to some sort of posting pattern soon. Having done a Top 10 of January albums list I probably should do another one possibly February, March and April albums top 10 or something. The big highlight of my recent life though was undoubtedly seeing Feist at the Komedia, it was an intimate venue and I was right at the front, its a shame that I don't have a digital camera because well I think I'm in love, the gig itself featured a large amount of new 'Reminder' tracks and in itself was just brilliant, the live versions of the songs were kind of like souped up versions of the songs if that makes any sense anyway it was awesome. On non-music matters isn't Lost a brilliant show the 3rd series has been a absolutely top-notch t.v, especially 'One of Us' which has to be one of my favourite ever episodes, just great acting all round particularly from Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet)Anywho, watch this space for some more blog posts, hopefully.

MP3s:
Feist-My Man, My Moon
Feist-Mushaboom
(both got played, both rocked)

Bonus Video:

filmed in Austria, and yet another superb video from Feist.

Edit: Go to Feist's MySpace to here 'The Reminder' in full.

MyFriend feature Return

So a few months back on this here blog I started a fairly adventurous feature where I take a band or artist and look at their MySpace page and see if among the top 8 (or however many friends there are) there is a good or great band or artist there, now todays return of the feature which actually features a band or duo who I just heard about on StG a blog that everyone should read just for the writing, and as luck would have it they happened to be on the top 8 of another Ontario based artist who I knew about already namely the fantasticly epic Basia Bulat, so I could link them in with the feature. Now Habitat (pictured above) are a band who make some oddly compelling indie-pop, songs driven by either guitar or keyboard with a nice male/female vocal combination, its good stuff.

MP3:
Habitat-Snow Song

Buy:
Self-titled E.P and download more tracks at their MySpace

Slightly tired

Maybe its because its getting late and I'm quite tired, but the music (from p4k) of Archives is very cathatic to me at the moment, in the best possible sense, and the title Sleepdriving feels very appropriate, enjoy and good night (or morning or afternoon, whatever).

MP3:
Archives-Sleepdriving
download another great track at their MySpace

Classic Video Day-Warning may cause Brian storm whatever that is

Hey its the new video from those Monkeys from the Arctic, certainly a new species, and its a rather well timed video suited to the barrage of guitar riffs and the overall frenetic fast pace of the song. Also my last radio show for a few weeks will be airing tommorow morning from 10am to 12pm as usual, with the usual mix of great music and more great music on Junction 11 around the globe from 1287am.com.

MP3:
Arctic Monkeys-Brianstorm

Pre-Order:
Arctic Monkeys-Favourite Worst Nightmare (go on, I have already)

Punk kick-start

Hi there its been a while (10 whole days) since my last post, this has been a result of certain things in my life right now, including but not limited to my dissertation, anyway I thought I'd make a quick post just to say if you happen to be at SXSW right this second (if you are I'm very envious of you by the way) then its well worth checking out a certain Jay Reatard, who essentially combines the punk ethic of The Ramones and Wire with a new wave sound, whilst hardly sounding original does manage to kick a hole in your ear and demand attention, and hes playing at Beerland, Red River Street apparently at 1pm today (although that might have already happened I'm not sure about time difference.

MP3 sample:
Jay Reatard-Hammer I Miss You

Buy:
Jay Reatard-Blood Visions

Classic Video Day-Its a whole army of me

Well with all the recent brilliant news about Bjork's upcoming brand new album Volta released May 7th I thought that this great old Bjork Video would be appropriate and it features a gorrila dentist as well.

Bring on the backlash...oh

So Uncle Zane cooked up a special treat on his show last night in the form of the brand spanking new Arctic Monkeys single, which was actually great, it sounded a bit like Klaxons which isn't a bad thing but still kept a element of Arctic Monkey sound and energy in a very full on almost metal sense (if you try dancing to this you will probably lose a few pounds). This is taken from their second album 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' released on Domino on the 23rd April. In other music news The White Stripes have suddenly (to me this came out of nowhere I thought Jack White was concentrating on The Raconteurs for now) got a new album ready, named 'Icky Thump' "We are doing our best (whatever that is) to release the album as soon as corporately possible. And though we are tired, worn, weary, hungry, cold and left without an ounce of nutrition amongst ourselves, we are in the midst of planning performance type shows around the world."

The tracklisting includes:

'Catch Hell Blues'
'Little Cream Soda'
'Rag And Bone'
'Clicky Bump'
'You Don't Know What Love Is (Just Do As You're Told)'
'I'm Slowly Turning Into You'
(from NME)

sounds cool

MP3:
Arctic Monkeys-Brainstorm (radio rip)
The White Stripes-Fell In Love With A Girl

Pre-Order
Arctic Monkeys-Favourite Worst Nightmare

Those damm Teenagers

I've been meaning to post about My Teenage Stride for a while now, basically before I saw a ton of other blogs post about them, the blog that first brought them to my attention was rhe always excellent Skatterbrain. Well what can I say about them? Well never before have I said that in many ways they sound almost like their beaming their music from the past (somewhere in the late 80s or early 90s) and that they do certainly show their influences clearly (Idolator said it best with the great quote "(their latest album, Ears Like Golden Bats) wears its influences like one-inch pins bearing the logos of Orange Juice and the Go-Betweens") but despite these potential obstacles they do not sound derivative in any sense, essentially down to a fantastic song-craft, great vocals and a indefatigable attitude (you could freeze that quote a put in on the CD cover if you want). In another thing which you hopefully didn't miss IGIF posted a brand new song from Arizona which is utterly out of this world, its called Thimble (it starts with the freaking sounds of the rainforest man before launching into one of their best songs yet, and a taster of what their second album will sound like (hopefully). Just realised that both bands are from Brooklyn, I guess I'll get no sleep till I get there. Oh and one last thing I did my radio show yesterday and you can listen to the whole two hour show here.

MP3s:
My Teenage Stride-To Live And Die In The Airpot Lounge
My Teenage Stride-Ears Like Golden Bats
Arizona-Thimble

Buy:
My Teenage Stride-Ears Like Golden Bats
Arizona-Welcome Back Dear Children

Classic Video Day-Wait What Do I Throw?

We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives


Its the new song from welsh wonders Los Campesinos! who I posted about back in the heady days of last month and even then I called the buzz surrounding them something of a bandwagon and now NME has waded in to their corner (this was expected, and hopefully it won't destroy this excellent band with an unreasonable amount of hype by which if they don't do a Wyld Stallions its a bit of a let down). Anyway the video has a real almost iconic style about it with the faceless soldiers and the 'Another Brick In The Wall' style marching feet, also the animation is incredibly well-timed with the song. The song itself combines punchy verses and epic chorus parts superbly and with a simple but effective message behind the song providing a insight into the genuine potential of Los Campesinos!.

MP3s:
Los Campesinos!-Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks
Los Campesinos!-Death To Los Campesinos
download video and song and artwork from their official website for free (dude that is truly most excellent)

Buy:
a Los Campesinos! t-shirt

(thats two Bill & Ted references there too)

Behave and watch

Heads up to the Forkcast, I think this is a really excellent video for Charlotte Hatherley's upcoming single 'Behave' its a great comic book/Sin City esq video that just suits the the slightly woozy (musically) yet focused (lyrically) song perfectly. Taken from her second solo album 'The Deep Blue' released on 5th March. As an extra treat I'll post an excellent track that was featured on her first solo effort 'Grey Will Fade' the uber-catchy 'Kim Wilde'.

MP3:
Charlotte Hatherley-Kim Wilde

Pre-Order
The Deep Blue

Absolutely Diamond

I have something of a love/hate relationship with finding out about bands who have already been on the scene as it were for a few years but I've just discovered them first of all you get the love, as in "wow this stuff is really great" (I don't think I actually say that though), then you get the hate, "hey they've just toured round the UK" and "why haven't I heard of this band before now they are signed to Rough Trade". This brings me on to Lavender Diamond who are a group signed to Rough Trade (in the UK) and Matador, and I've just heard about them on Idolator as their 'Stuck On Repeat' feature with the song 'Open Your Heart' which draws upon acoustic guitars, pianos, violins and an excellent drum together with vocals that almost get overwhelmed by the instruments before bursting into a chorus that will give you goosebumps and possibly cause temporary blindness (in the best possible sense), this is a song that will open your heart. Aside from that, I was pleasantly surprised that my little Feist post got a fairly large amount of attention, it was nice though so I thought I'd post the Mushaboom (radio edit) video as well


MP3:
Lavender Diamond-Open Your Heart

You'll need to make a memo

Yes its been posted to death all over the blogosphere, but there is a reason for that, its because it is a sublime slice of what looks set to be a must-buy album, it is My Man, My Moon, and for some reason the piano part in it bizarrely reminds me of Empire by Kasabian, however it really is beautifully minamalist and I really can't say enough about it, I will certainly be playing it on my show tommorow. For those of you who don't know Feist, well you probably know one of her songs anyway and that would be Mushaboom, which has featured on a few things on TV, and truly is awesome. Also seeing as this is also 'Classic Video Day' on this blog, I'll post the rather funky video for 'One Evening' where you constantly wish you were the guy in the video, except without the "end in one evening".

oh heck heres some more great Feist videos


and guess what I've just got tickets to see her in Brighton on 16th April, oh yeah I really can't wait.
Go and be Feist's friend, buy 'Let It Die' I insist upon it. 'The Reminder' will be out on April 23rd in the UK (and Rest Of the World), and May 1st in US and Canada.

Embedded Video Day- I'll get you next time Timberlake, next tiiiime

not really a classic video as such just an excuse to include Scarlett Johansson on this blog and just say that Mr Timberlake is a lucky bastard really (I'm not jealous, honest.....well actually thats a big fat whopping lie). Anyway a great video from Arcade Fire is here its a cover of 'Guns Of Brixton' which is cool. Also the sureally brilliant video for Knife by Grizzly Bear is great so check that out right here (thanks to Stereogum). Can I also remind everybody to tune in to my show 10am-12pm tommorow, on Junction 11.

MP3s
The Avalanches-Ray Of Zdarlight (WOOOO The Avalanches are back)
Dinosaur Jr-Almost Ready (Double WOOOO Dino Jr return from the dead)
(Cheers P4K)

Pictures (thanks Egotastic):