Its...

I had a cough today, and just wasn't quite at the races, best to listen for the music and a jazzy new jingle, the show starts after a couple of songs.
Australia-The Shins
All Along The Watchtower-Bob Dylan
Answering Bell-Ryan Adams
Inaction-We Are Scientists
Elevator Music-Beck
I Walk The Line-Johnny Cash
and now for something...
Numb-Portishead
Pumping On Your Stereo-Supergrass
Click Click Click Click-Bishop Allen (mp3)
5-22-02-Golden Smog
Part-Timer-The Young Knives
Walking With A Ghost-Tegan and Sara
choose an album track
Grace-Jeff Buckley
listen here just click open) or download here

Erupt!

Its been a bit difficult getting the blog posts in recently as I have had a right stinker of a cold (on and off) for the past two weeks also I've had a lot of work to do, anywho todays post is about a band quite popular on NME.com's New Music section and with good reason i.e. they are actually good and have potential. So what do they sound like? I hear you cry (or possibly moan)...Well now imagine those Arctic Monkeys and Kings Of Leon meeting in a large hall and proceeding to knock the crap out of each other whilst writing some music, there are also some other influences floating around there, their music certainly grabs you by the jugular with many a fast-paced opening, basically its some good ol' rock 'n' roll. I've just realised I haven't mentioned their name yet they are Volcanoes they are currently unsigned, they are from Sheffield and Leeds and they are good as I mentioned above.

MP3s:
Volcanoes-King Of The Hill
Volcanoes-Black and Blue
more on their MySpace

Buy:
all details found on their website

Classic Video Day- Here Comes Your Man

Monday is classic video day here on Sessions, and todays pick comes from seminal college rock band Pixies. I would certainly argue that although this song isn't their best known it is probably their most accsesible (mostly because it sounds less like their usual output), definitely benefiting from the start chord which is almost exactly the same used in 'Hard Days Night'. The video itself is also a classic, at first seeming to be fairly normal (the band just playing the song) but then they chose the simple but effective technique of simply opening their mouths rather then actually miming, its brilliant really in it's very odd way.

Back To Back

Yes indeed, West Ham now have back to back victories against Blackburn and Arsenal, come on this is the reverse of the season (from the living hell its been since the Villa match). Now we go on to Boro who we hopefully should beat. In other news if you would like to hear my show which I did on Friday with guest star Joe, here is the tracklisting:
Blues Are Still Blue-Belle and Sebastian
Rain-The Beatles
Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby-Islands
King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1-Neutral Milk Hotel
Disco 2000-Nick Cave
Phantom Limb-The Shins
Waiting To Happen-Super Furry Animals
Bones-The Killers
Some Kind of Chill-Arizona
Eeany Meany-Jim Noir
You can download the show (with link at the bottom) or just listen here (click open). Finally I'd thought that I'd give a mention to In Civilian Clothing a band featured on P'forks free downloads page, who make some elegant and intriguing Ambient-Indie. See you in another life brothers and sisters.

MP3:
Breakfast Session Show
In Civilian Clothing-Current Therapist

Ye-Haa

Well its been two days since my last post so I thought I'd get up off my ass and post today about a rather excellent electro-indie three-piece by the name of Cowboy Racer who are the current band of the week on Channel 4's slashmusic pages. Their sound is a mixture of various bands from classic (Blondie) to fairly current (Hot Chip, Goldfrapp) all put into a blender and set to liquidise resulting in a nourishing electronic-indie-female vocal smothie. Probably best if you don't read that and just listen to the music.

MP3s:
Cowboy Racer-Yellow Horse
Cowboy Racer-Hey Cowboy

Buy:
all details on shop section

Buzzing with excitement

Hooray for our buzz bands, we just get so many and The Wombats are a buzz band (who hail from Liverpool) of the moment with praise raining in from all quarters from Radio 1 to Drowned In Sound, and frankly they deserve it for playing really exciting pop-punk (imagine if the Buzzcocks formed in 2006 and you might be close) with oodles of charm, some seriously catchy and punchy guitars, some keyboard melodies and a sense of madness that at any point of any song they could just start going ape. If you don't know about The Wombats yet you will soon they could well be the Next Big Thing, they are currently touring their guts out across this island here, more details on their MySpace.

MP3:
The Wombats-Dr Suzanne Mattox
more here

Buy:
The Wombats shop

Bwa ha ha ha haaaa

Yes Happy Halloween from Bowser King of all Coopers and Sessions Of Breakfast, for some excellent Halloween music head on over to the good ol' Contrast Podcast with a contribution from yours truly (for the first time in a while).

Relax

Its Monday evening, I've just been home and come back and I have a cold so this is going to be quick. Listen to Red Cassette the song below sounds a bit like the Scrubs theme at the start (if the Scrubs theme was recorded by Devendra Banhart) basically relax with some acousticy, banjo-tinged, mellow music, and forget your troubles (maybe daydream that you live on an island with Evangeline Lilly and Maggie Grace for company, or Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox for the ladies in the audience) and drift off.

MP3:
Red Cassette-His Monikor Was An Alias
more at myspace

Buy:
go here for details

More Numberwang

The fantastic Mitchell and Webb Look with some more Numberwang, just a little something to enjoy for the weekend. Also you can play Numberwang (link to BBC site)

MP3:
Angel Summoner & BMX Bandit Theme tune (also from Mitchell and Webb)

The Show must go on

For this blog post I've decided to make my show earlier the main subject, it ran for about an hour (I was a bit late, but the last song went past 9am) and the tracklisting is as follows:

Never Even Told Me Her Name-Air Traffic
Electioneering-Radiohead
Like Eating Glass-Bloc Party
Phantom Limb-The Shins
Bones-The Killers
Back to Back
Summersong-The Decemberists (mp3)
The Infanti-The Decemberists
Me Plus One-Kasabian
Death Or Life We Want You-The Dears (mp3)
Girl From Mars-Ash
Talk Too Much-The God Damm Doo Wop Band (mp3)
choose a cover version
Gold Digger-The Automatic

You can listen to the thing here (just click open I come in after about 6 minutes) and download it here (just click save as).

Some Consequences for Air Traffic

This post Numberwang post today is in tribute (in a way) to two excellent quality blogs namely swedesplease (a blog entirely devoted to Swedish music) and the brilliantly named Good Weather For Airstrikes as its about two bands who have been recently featured on these blogs, these two bands are The Consequences and Air Traffic. The Consequences hail from Sweden and produce some excellent catchy radio-rock (big British influence with a Swedish twist) it certainly doesn't suggest a lack of ambition (I especially like the background mandolin used in the intro for 'Release Me From Love'), basically very good see swedesplease for more details. So secondly we have Air Traffic a band that has seen backing from a certain Mr Lowe and has also recently signed a deal with EMI (and considering that they have just recently appeared on the scene you can tell they're going to be good) they make extremely fun, infectious, piano-driven indie rock/pop certainly worth taking a look, so read more at Good Weather For Airstrikes. On other fronts you may remember when I posted about Slo-Mo Fireworks, well I received feedback from them asking if I would like their demo CD which I'm about to reply to. Finally of course my radio show on Junction 11 is on tommorow 8-9am BST (thats UTC+1) and if any readers want to tune in please do.

MP3s:

Slo-Mo Firewoks-The Tape

Slo-Mo Fireworks-Number One Fan

Thats Numberwang

Its awesome it really is top quality comedy, it has nothing to do with music but what are you gonna do about it. More to come from SOB after we rotate those boards.

Good Afternoon

Yesterday I posted about The God Damm Doo Wop Band, who signed with Afternoon Records in Minneapolis and today I was once again perusing my friend request list and came across One for the Team who are also signed to the Afternoon label and are actually also pretty darn good Indie-Powerpop outfit, I shall use the power of metaphor (and band comparison) to describe them, imagine Weezer (Blue album era) and The Subways stealing the clothes from Death Cab For Cutie's rider and then proceeding to rock out. Its a terrible description which doesn't tell you very much so give them a listen, theres four tracks on their MySpace fyi.

MP3:
One For The Team-Take Cover

Buy:
One For The Team-Good Boys Don't Make Noise

So God Damm Crazy

That last post really made little sense so I've decided to make up for it, just a few minutes ago I was scrolling down my myspace friend requests list (theres a lot of them because I've basically being ignoring them for a while) and happened to come a cross a band with an interesting name which intrigued me enough to take a look and as it happens was pleasatly surprised to find out that the god damm doo wop band are actually rather good, their name gives away something of their sound so let me just say if your a fan of The Pipettes and The Zutons you'll love these guys and girls as their 'sound like' section says "a guitar, playing with drums and a bass, along with a saxaphone, and when it feels right, a keyboard, and then three girls singing different notes all pretty like over it. and i mean like ALL over it...yeah..." they are pretty, pretty good as Larry David would say. In other non-music news I whole-heartedly suggest you go and purchase the DVD of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace as I explain here its pure comedy gold.

MP3:
The God Damm Doo Wop Band-Talk Too Much
The God Damm Doo Wop Band -Rooftops of Bangor

Video:
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace- Episode 2 - Hell Hath Fury

Buy:
The God Damm Doo Wop Band-Broken Hearts (Afternoon Records)
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace DVD

Inspiration needed

I really need some inspiration for writing this here blog, I'm going to start doing a myspace friend link feature soon which should be cool as long as the well known artists on myspace actually have good but lesser known banda or artists on their top friends list, yeah I'll see how that goes. More posts will follow this and they will make some sense and actually be interesting to read. Actually now I come to think of it you can check out my new Junction 11 show homepage for my Friday slot here. Also here is the new Lily Allen video (you've probably seen it already but just in case) .

Its Back

Yes indeed I have wireless internet sorted at my house, and although I have quite a lot on this year at uni I will try to make as many posts as possible, and there is a lot to talk about seeing as I've been effectively off the blogosphere since June. One of the best pieces of news though is that The Shins have announced that they have finished their third album called 'Wincing The Night Away' (what a brilliant title) and released on 23rd January next year (I smell a 2007 album list entry) with 'Phantom Limb' as the single released 16th November, the tracklisting is as follow
1.Sleeping Lessons (3:58)
2.Australia (3:56)
3.Pam Berry (0:56)
4.Phantom Limb (4:47)
5.Sea Legs (5:22)
6.Red Rabbits (4:30)
7.Turn On Me (3:41)
8.Black Wave (3:19)
9.Spilt Needles (3:45)
10.Girl Sailor (3:44)
11.A Comet Appears (3:49)
So plenty of short pure indie pop gems to look forward to, although as expected the album has already leaked so if you want a taster of the new album take a listen to Australia which is a perfect Shins song really absolutely one of their best yet (I can't upload it because file lodge is being annoying).

This time its for real

Yes at 8-9am tommorow (although theres always a possibility it will continue on further) I will definitely be presenting the Breakfast Session on Junction 11. So accept it and enjoy it.
MP3s (just to helpfully get some attention):
Love Is All-Kiss Kiss Kiss
Bound Stems-Western Biographic
Asobi Seksu-Thursday

The Return of the B.S

Hello again from a uni computer (still haven't got wireless broadband set-up) this post is just telling anyone who reads this blog that the world-famous Breakfast Session presented by me on Junction 11 is returning from a long hiatus and will start again this Friday from 8am, so be there or be square.

Watch this Space

This blog will be restarting very soon (as soon as I get wireless broadband sorted at my house) and seeing as I've been away from the 'blogosphere' (which is fast moving even from day to day) I have plenty to catch up with, I should also be restarting my radio show which will probably be Fridays 8-10am this time round, catch you on the flipside dudes and remember to keep pushing the button.

MP3s (nabbed from P'fork):
Grizzly Bear-Lullabye
Swan Lake-All Fires
Belle and Sebastian-Another Sunny Day

If 1 a.m. Had A Sound

Johnette Napolitano (of Concrete Blonde) was once quoted as saying "if 3 a.m. had a sound, it would be the sound of Iggy (Pop)'s voice." Not many would agrue with me when I say that Iggy, the godfather of punk, has a sound that is unique and unparalleled. That being said, I think I might have just discovered the sound of 1 a.m., in the form of the band Mink. Frontman Neal Carlson was a finalist in the television competition 'Rockstar: INXS,' and even though I don't watch t.v. (and thus had no idea what 'Rockstar' was about), I'm quite glad that he lost out. This band is by far too good to be connected in any way with shotty reality television. Mink has all the New York punk swagger and gritty 70's rock sounds that ought to make fans scream and jeans cream. Their sound recalls the glory days of The Stooges and the New York Dolls, and throws in some Rolling Stones-esque guitar riffs for good measure. Forget all the power-pop-punk-wannabes and garage rock posers; Mink is the dirty N.Y. rock and roll band we've been waiting on.

Mink's Myspace
Mink - In The Halls
Mink - Madame Chung

This is getting frustrating

Hi there, no doubt people would have noticed that there haven't been any updates for a while on the good ship S.O.B so I thought I'd post something (even if it did mean having to go to my library to use a computer) thanking everybody whos sent e-mails in my prolonged absence and when I get Sessions back up and running properly I'll certainly post about some of the stuff I've been sent. In the mean time I strongly suggest you purchase a copy of 'Fox Confessor Brings The Flood' already highly recomended by many blogs and critics it is just a magical brilliant album which I can't stop listening too (and I mean that litterally I physically can't stop it) Neko Case just rules generally o.k.

MP3:
Neko Case-Star Witness
more at MySpace

CBGBs to Sin City?

The legendary CBGBs will be shutting it's doors soon and packing out to the desert. Due to rent/lease issues, the owner is looking at possibly relocating to Las Vegas. Such a shame really, cos New York is losing a real peice of music history. CBGBs is often credited as the birthplace of American punk, and was the early stomping grounds for such acts as the Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, and Blondie.

read more about it HERE and HERE.

I dunno anyone that still uses VHS or Beta

So now that Jim's back in the land of crappy internet, I figure I ought to pick up the slack and post a bit more. So instead of once a week-ish posts, I'll try to get 2 or 3 up. Sounds good eh. But first off, I'd like to address the world cup final: what the fuck was Zidane thinking?! ... That's actually all I have to say about that.

I was looking through my music library for some of my recent discoveries that I might be able to write about, when I realized something odd. A bit of an anomaly really. I have very little music by American artists (most of my tunes have the artists nationality in the comment space cos I'm quite anal about trying to have correct tags on all my music). Compared to Canadian and British artists, I have only a teeny tiny bit. In fact, I have more tunes by German artist than I do American. I thought that odd, and have yet to come up a suitable reason as to why this may be. So I decided to write about one of my new favourite American artists: the cleverly named VHS Or Beta. These lovely lads from Kentucky offer up amazingly catchy new wave-ish dance rock. The Killers may be the pre-eminent new wave-ish group of the day, but give it time and I'll bet they'll be losing that crown to VHS Or Beta cos they rock harder than The Killers. Other comparisions might be drawn to fellow compatriots Radio 4 and Canada's Death From Above 1979. Give a listen to the track 'Night On Fire' and you'll probably be hearing shades of Duran Duran too.

Listen To:
VHS Or Beta - 'Night On Fire'
VHS Or Beta - 'You Got Me'
VHS Or Beta - 'No Cabaret'

Err, what just happened?

Yes you may have wondered what happened to my almost daily posts, well I'm actually currently back home and away from a broadband connection (and will be until October) so its extremely unlikely that there will be very regular posts from me until then, in some brief music news you can listen to the entire Thom Yorke album at Radio Indie Pop as its their album of the month. As for the World Cup well I don't want to talk about it.

Happy Canada Day!

so today (well, it will be the 2nd by the time this gets posted ... been into my cups in celebration) is our (actually, mine, not jim's) country's birthday! happy birthday canada! so many reasons to be a proud canadian, but i'm gonna get weepy if i start being patriotic bout now (as i said, cups were filled and promptly emptied). so i'm gonna keep this short and sweet. i've uploading 4 tunes for your sampling pleasure: 2 by more popular canadian acts, and 2 by indie (but still quite popular) canadian acts. the first is by The Tragically Hip. many would probably say The Hip are overrated. quite possible. but they're canada's R.E.M. or Oasis. kings of popular canadian arena rock. they're barely known beyond our borders, but sell out constantly across the country. they're almost too canadian to be marketable elsewhere. which is fine by me. the second is by Sloan, loverly 60's flavoured power pop. the two indie acts are Arcade Fire and The Weakerthans. Arcade Fire really kick started the whole canadian indie trend and garnered our music scene a lot of international attention. and The Weakerthans are finally getting their due because of said indie trend.

also, i would just like to mention that i am rather heartbroken right now. perhaps i should just stop watching sports, it would make my life a whole lot less stressful. 'e' teams seems to not appreciate my support *cough*edmonton*cough*england*cough* ... excuse me.

mp3s
The Tragically Hip - Wheat Kings
Sloan - Rest Of My Life
Arcade Fire - Rebllion (lies)
The Weakerthans - Anchorless

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

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.

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

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

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

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).

"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

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.

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)

"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

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'

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...."

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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)

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

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