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):

Join the Club

I'll start of this post by saying theres a heck of a lot of great music floating about on the Blogosphere and I am currently going slightly insane deciding what to post about, basically for now check out the sidebar links (theres also a few blogs which may join the Blogosaurus) anyway you may remember I posted about Tiny Dancers a band obviously going places (well they are signed to EMI which is probably an indication) well they have started a free MP3 club where by those who join get a free Tiny Dancers Mp3 every month which ain't all bad.

MP3:
Tiny Dancers-20 to 9

Buy:
Tiny Dancers-Lions and Tigers and Lions EP

Sound of Silver

So Silver Pyre a band from 19th Century Somerset by the sounds of 'Sovereign' a traditional sea shanty, but hang on a second their singing about "a hundred odd meatheads", seriously though if the musical genres of shoegaze and electro existed in the 19th Century then 'Saline' and 'Shurtan Bars Ammonite' (boy what a catchy song title) respectively would be how they would sound. Back to 'Sovereign' then as it sounds a bit like The Decemberists blowing up with a roaring accordion. Seriously this stuff will rouse some sort of collective cultural memory out of everybody, and their playing a session on Huw Steven's Radio 1 show tonight, so listen and enjoy this odd folky musique.

MP3s (samples):
Silver Pyre-Sovereign
Silver Pyre-Saline
more on their MySpace

Buy:
Silver Pyre-EP(i)

Classic Video Day-Mon The Park

I know its not Monday but I wanted to post something and I thought why not the video for the new single 'Our Velocity' from the awesome Maximo Park.

Geeky Post with added post-rock

OK lets get the geeky non-music part out of the way first, I'm rather excited to say that Deathly Hallows the seventh book in the superb Harry Potter series is being released on the 21st July 2007. Right now having got that out the way I should also mention my radio show which I broad casted on Tuesday which was kind of my anniversary edition you can listen to that here, I haven't posted the tracklisting because I've been a bit busy with a presentation as well as the 'mammoth' Best Albums of January 2007 post, which I was quite pleased about (although I don't really know why). Anyway on to the music and what great music it is from the already highly recommended Somme, a duo from Chicago who combine post-rock shoegaze (pretty experimentally) with conventional indie rhythms, see the handclaps in 'Massless' as well as some almost 'Pavement' like guitars to start 'Forge', I haven't heard the E.P but it should be awesome. It is certainly ear catching stuff and just to make this post extra geeky "it's post-rock jim, but not as we know it" (I'm not a trekkie though I probably should highlight that fact).

MP3s:
Somme-Massless
Somme-Forge

Buy:
Weight E.P should be available soon just keep checking their MySpace