iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 28th, 2006
The Black Angels - "Black Grease" from The Black Angels - EP
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New Low
Pete Doherty gives new meaning to the idea of, "giving back to his fans". Is it possible to hit rock bottom if you're in a bottomless pit? Obviously not...
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 27th, 2006
The Decemberists - "Bandit Queen" from Picaresqueties - EP
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 26th, 2006
Islands - "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone" from Return to the Sea
Sound Team - Movie Monster
Behold the title track off Sound Team's Movie Monster, set to release on 06/06/06! Coincidence, I THINK NOT!!!
My initial review of the album still stands, I can't get enough of this record!
Sound Team - Movie Monster (mp3)
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 25th, 2006
The Rolling Stones - "Miss Amanda Jones" from Between the Buttons
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 24th, 2006
Iggy Pop - "Brick By Brick" from Brick By Brick
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 21st, 2006
The Lovely Feathers - "Breakfast Cake" from Hind Hind Legs
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 20th, 2006
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Turn Into" from Show Your Bones
Daytrotter Sessions - Impossible Shapes
The Impossible Shapes are Daytrotter's band of the week so be sure to check out the band's story and free songs.
The Strokes - "I'll Try Anything Once"
The Strokes are giving away the "Heart In A Cage" B-Side, "I'll Try Anything Once" ("You'll Only Live Once" Demo), away for free! You can listen to it here.
Thanks to Jake from Ride on Rides for the heads-up on this.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 19th, 2006
Man Man - "Van Helsing Boom Box" from Six Demon Bag
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 18th, 2006
The Whigs - "Half the World Away" from Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip
Favorite New Release of the Week - Apr. 18th, 2006
The Lovely Feathers - Hind Hind Legs
Canada has pulled another rabbit out of there hat, and this time it has feathers. Hailing from Montreal, The Lovely Feathers are taking center stage with there debut full-length album, Hind Hind Legs. A thirteen-track release with stories to tell from these five longtime band mates. Heading the band are Mark Kupfert, and Richard Yanofsky, both vocalist's and guitarist's to add those lovely melodies, and ripe harmonies.
Their sound, a melodic post-punk meets quirky pop as they like to describe themselves, could not be more accurate. Each track is laced with it's own sound, but maintains The Lovely Feather spirit. With "Wrong Choice," a ear grabbing, attention getting, soon to be hit, they put all the ammo from there arsenal into this sing-a-long.
One thing that is for certain, they win the most creative album art award in my book, with hand drawing, a crazy layout, and an overall one of a kind look. This sure goes hand in hand with there equally creative song title's like "Lion eats the Wildebeest," and "Rod Stewart." Yes, "Rod Stewart," listen to all two minutes, and thirty two seconds of it's short, and sweet chorus, with its more prog-rock sound, and I am sure you will catch yourself singing it in the car, shower, or in your sleep. It's just that fun!
If you enjoy the likes of Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, The Bravery, or say the energy of Joe Jackson's, "Look Sharp!" Hind Hind Legs will be a favorite in your collection. So remember these five boys from the Montreal scene, with looks to kill, and melodies to keep you bumpin' and groovin' the night away to songs like "Frantic," go get Hind Hind Legs already!
- Dave Karvasales via Kevchino
Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry
Born To Please
So often, when a listener sits down with a new record, they've been bombarded with endless comparisons and expectations. This is not the case with Sound Team and for good reason. The members of Sound Team have constructed their own eclectic brand of indie rock and when they bring it to the table, they'll have you coming back for more, time and time again. I have a feeling listeners will have a very difficult time getting their fill of Movie Monster in the coming months. This is the kind of album you can't wait to tell your friends about… the
same friends who will ultimately thank you for turning them onto this band.
From the start, Movie Monster unfolds like the soundtrack for an epic film that doesn't yet exist. The opening track, "Get Out", peaks your interest and, just as the hypnotic sway of the track begins to pull you in, the song cuts out and starts the action. When the title track, "Movie Monster", settles in, the pulsating rhythm sounds like the broken heartbeat of an astronaut floating through the abyss after an ill-fated mission. The spastic keyboards and guitars of "No More Birthdays" create an edge-of-your-seat thriller.
The first half of the album is strong but the second half is even stronger. If you don't find your head bobbing or your foot tapping during "Your Eyes Are Liars", you should probably check to make sure you still have a pulse. Luckily you'll have time to catch your breath and relax as the sounds of "Afterglow Years" gently bring you back down to Earth. The albums triumphant closer, "Handful of Billions", delivers an energetic, upbeat ending you'll be sure to enjoy.
If you don't pick this album up on June 6th you'll soon hear your friends tell you about “this record you just have to hear.” If not... you might want to find some different friends.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 17th, 2006
Regina Spektor - "Fidelity" from Fidelity - Single
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 14th, 2006
Built to Spill - "Liar" from You In Reverse
Movie Monster
Here is an early review, and just another example, of why you should be counting down the days until Sound Team releases Movie Monster.
(via thetripwire via gorilla vs. bear)
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 13th, 2006
Eagles Of Death Metal - "I Like to Move In the Night" from Death By Sexy
The Beatles Are Coming!
The entire Beatles catalog is currently being digitally remastered to prepare it for sale online! Click here for the article.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 12th, 2006
Elliot Smith - "Angeles" from Either/Or
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 11th, 2006
Califone - "Stepdaughter" from Quicksand/Cradlesnakes
Daytrotter Sessions - Catfish Haven
Catfish Haven is the Daytrotter band of the week so head on over and check out the band's story and free songs.
P.S. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin was featured last week so be sure to check out their story and free songs as well!
Favorite New Release of the Week - Apr. 11th, 2006
Eagles of Death Metal - Death By Sexy
Since hearing Queens of the Stone Age's "First It Giveth..." from Songs for the Deaf, I must confess that I've been secretly pining for them to pour more coy falsetto over their churning riffs. It's a sound that could easily sustain an entire record. While QOTSA's follow-up to Songs was consistent enough, it's becoming more apparent that ringleader Josh Homme is getting some of his best work done away from the weight of expectation, from the Desert Sessions to Eagles of Death Metal, whose first record was much more consistent and satisfying than most had expected. Now, EoDM return with Death by Sexy, further proving that this high-octane novelty has more than just joke appeal, and granting my QOTSA wishes in the process.
Singer Jesse "The Devil" Hughes (or Boots Electric, or whatever sassy moniker they've slapped on him today) is the perfect manifestation of QOSTA's lighter side, slipping between a manic Mick Jagger caricature and a Cramps-like amphetamine Elvis. For a record that revels in the clichés of rock, his attempts are terribly cute. Where Queens of the Stone Age have always explored the dark and dirty, the excess and the evil, the nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, and ecstasy, the Eagles of Death Metal crank up a cock-rock sound that's free of any danger or seriousness. This isn't subversion, this is good clean fun.
One would think innocence and cock-rock would be like fire and holy water, or that a record that just skims through familiar modes couldn't sustain itself for an entire album, but here, all bets are off. The cuddlification is kind of the appeal: Despite lyrics like "I touch you there because I know the spot," they rock "I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen)" with the absurdity it deserves-- sleazy, but in the same way as a Tijuana Bible comic. There are tracks a bit too campy to hold up for repeat listening, like "Shasta Beast" or the bizarre swamp lullaby "The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck", but mostly it's the camp that makes it work; they get away with "I Gotta Feeling", as well as the pregnant pauses on "Don't Speak (I Came to Make a Bang!)", the faux-Delta blues of "Bag O' Miracles", and, in "I Like to Move in the Night", being the umpteen-millionth band to quote "Brown Sugar". EoDM may nearly cross into Ween territory, but rather than roaming all over the stylistic map, they consistently stick to a rubbery ZZ/Stones pastiche.
The other main reason it works: Homme probably doesn't want the puppet master tag, but the drums are perfect. Totally ham-fisted but still incredibly intuitive and propulsive, they're the bedrock of this album's goofy appeal. Death by Sexy rubs out the line between novelty and earnestness, reminding us that music doesn't have to be ironic to have a sense of humor.
- Jason Crock, April 11, 2006 via Pitchfork
Built to Spill - You In Reverse
It had seemed as if the story of Built to Spill was already more or less written: Indie pop band forgoes simple, summery perfection of early work to craft epic, melodic guitar-rock. From 1996's Perfect From Now On through 2001's Ancient Melodies of the Future, Built to Spill records served as a reliable platform for Doug Martsch's plaintive and layered songwriting, brought to life by a band whose talent and proficiency at times seemed boundless. You in Reverse marks the first steps of an unexpected third chapter in the group's saga, casting off the usual meticulous guitar overdubs and studio polish in favor of a less refined, more spontaneous approach.
While the results are spotty, the change itself is welcome. Ancient Melodies of the Future was short on inspiration but flawlessly executed; tracks like "You Are" showed that the band could still make good on a paucity of musical ideas. By contrast, they sound downright energized on You in Reverse. The first Built to Spill album in a decade not to feature Phil Ek's crystalline production, You in Reverse wastes no time in establishing itself as its own distinct entity within the band's catalog: As the album begins, drummer Scott Plouf lays down an urgent backbeat that immediately blasts away the band's recent complacency, establishing opener "Goin' Against Your Mind" as one of their most insistent and muscular songs.
That same spirit is evident on "Conventional Wisdom", which evokes the best of 1999's Keep It Like a Secret by pairing an explosive guitar hook with a characteristically strong Martsch vocal melody. While Ek might have pushed "Conventional Wisdom" toward restrained transcendence, here it conveys an unchecked exuberance that hasn't graced a Built to Spill record since There's Nothing Wrong With Love. Or at least, it does so for about two minutes, at which point Martsch stops singing and a totally unnecessary four-minute guitar jam ensues.
Long songs are by no means new for Built to Spill but You in Reverse suffers from a lack of structure that leaves much of it sounding indulgent and extraneous. The longer songs on the classic Perfect From Now On invariably included a few grand but unobtrusive structural changes, as well as subtle shifts in dymanics and feel-- "Velvet Waltz", with its layers of shimmering guitar and reverberating percussion, seems downright economical at eight minutes. Most of the songs on You in Reverse start at full-blast, and the band often seems to have trouble figuring out where to go from there-- when the chorus rolls around at minute five of "Wherever You Go", not much has changed since the chorus three minutes prior.
Aside from its abundance of overlong songs, You in Reverse is marred by a lack of strong melody when compared to Built to Spill's other records; aside from "Conventional Wisdom", nothing on You in Reverse approaches the seamless melodic dexterity of the band's best work. And yet this is also their most promising statement in years; far from the lovely stagnation of Ancient Melodies, You in Reverse suffers from the awkwardness of new beginnings.
- Matt LeMay, April 10, 2006 via Pitchfork
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 10th, 2006
Crystal Skulls - "The Cosmic Door" from The Cosmic Door - EP
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 7th, 2006
Modest Mouse - "Polar Opposites" from The Lonesome Crowded West
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Asthmatic Kitty has announced the latest Sufjan Steven's release, The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album, to be in stores 07/25/06.
The little secret behind the Illinois record is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs. But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in—as did the opinions of others—and the project was cut in half. But as 2005 came to a close, Sufjan returned to the old, forsaken songs on his 8-track like a grandfather remembering his youth, indulging in old journals and newspaper clippings. What he uncovered went beyond the merits of nostalgia; it was more like an ensemble of capricious friends and old acquaintances wearing party outfits, waiting to be let in at the front door, for warm drinks and interesting conversation. Among them were Saul Bellow, Ann Landers, Adlai Stevenson, and a brief cameo from Henry Darger's Vivian Girls. The gathering that followed would become the setting for the songs on The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album.
Go here to read the rest of the press release and see the tracklisting.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 6th, 2006
The Flaming Lips - "Mr. Ambulance Driver" from At War with the Mystics
The World’s Finest Optional Entertainment
DWEEZIL & AHMET and the Zappa Family Trust PRESENT The music of FRANK ZAPPA starring DWEEZIL ZAPPA with special guests: Steve Vai, Terry Bozio, Napoleon Murphy Brock and and others...
AUTHENTIC: This is the first OFFICIAL presentation of Frank Zappa Music since the Composer himself departed for his final tour in 1993.
AUTHORITATIVE: Having mastered QUITE A BIT of the most challenging repertoire ever conceived for a Rock & Roll stage, ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA brings it to the road. The Tour de Frank launches in Spring 2006 for the ever-popular hygienic European version following final finishing touches in Iceland!
ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA WILL PRESENT HEIR-TIGHT PERFORMANCES OF THE WORLD’S FINEST OPTIONAL ENTERTAINMENT. Dweezil and Ahmet feel it is their duty . . .
This Deep Dish Extravaganza will include a FRENZY of Mysterious Entertainment DELIGHTS - Lights! Music! Action! Real Musicians - You never know who might show up onstage! Spotlights! Stars! Also featuring exciting filmic adventures from the life of a Composer - A MAN WHO WROTE DOTS ON PAPER!
NO TWO SHOWS THE SAME: That’s right, Folks! don’t touch that dial! Expect the Unexpected! Expect the long-anticipated release of Frank Zappa’s TRANCE-FUSION. Coincidence? Uh uh! Guitar fans welcome!
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 5th, 2006
The Impossible Shapes - "Pan-ther" from Tum
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 4th, 2006
Spiritualized - "Lay It Down Slow" from Amazing Grace
Favorite New Release(s) of the Week - Apr. 4th, 2006
The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics
Flaming Lips have befuddled, bamboozled and bemused the record buying public for over 20 years now, and things thankfully are unlikely to change with the arrival of 'At War With the Mystics'. Yet few bands split opinion like Flaming Lips. The believers are certainly a rabid bunch, but the doubters wonder what it is that stirs the fans up so, what there is to love about a Simon Callow-on-Slimfast lookalike dancing around in a hail of balloons with an army of furry dolphins reciting tales of Japanese singers having rumpuses with lofty camp androids. But while Wayne Coyne has been carving out and presenting to the world the manifestations of his crazy mind for an age now, the possibilities have so often been superior to the finished article. That is certainly not the case here.
Coyne has seen off his last vestiges of sanity and thrown caution to the wind with this, the band's finest and most broadly experimental album to date. The 'Yeah Yeah Yeah Song', for instance, is unashamedly and immodestly ebullient, a slightly silly song that's so catchy it surprises you, in the same way a child might wind by you running into your chest with his noggin. On 'Free Radicals' the Lips are one part Prince, one part Frank Zappa, making those comparisons with the now defunct underachievers Grandaddy obsolete once and for all. The funk doesn't stop there, and when listening to tracks such as the sublime 'The W.A.N.D' or 'It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small...' you wonder if they've paid a recent trip to see The Mighty Boosh's Old Greg.
Songs like 'My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion' and 'Vein of Stars' revert to type, though the overall production is bigger than ever, and the current trend towards prog suits Coyne and co, though they've been exponents of the form when nobody gave a fuck so they should hardly care if their sound is suddenly fashionable now (listen to 'The Wizard Turns On', or 'Pompeii AM Gotterdammerung', and hear the masters show the young pretenders how it's done). If the Flaming Lips have been met with indifference or with bewilderment in the past, then it's time for the many and not just the few to take them to their breasts.
- Jeremy Allen, March 21, 2006 via Playlouder
Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP
"[I]t's okay for somebody to be into both Throbbing Gristle and Belle and Sebastian," Voxtrot's Ramesh Srivastava writes on his blog, "and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing." When Srivastava moved to Glasgow at the age of 19, he'd already written the tracks that would comprise the Raised By Wolves EP, songs with deft arrangments and charming melodies that evoke Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, and the Lucksmiths, but with jagged, rumbling guitars remindful of early Cure and, sometimes, Joy Division. Srivastava immersed himself in Glasgow's nightclub scene, developing a particularly strong affinity for Optimo. The commingling of his jangle-pop roots and his newfound love of dance music is writ large in the Texas-based band's turbocharged twee.
Voxtrot's two EPs are so consistent and evenly matched that I'm going to address them as a single entity, although Raised By Wolves suffers slightly for having one tepid track, the late-Jawbreakerish "Wrecking Force". There's nothing terribly wrong with it; it's just not as spectacularly right as the other nine songs rounding out Voxtrot's recorded work. If there's any significant difference between the EPs, it's that Wolves is a little more obvious, with wafting respites like "The Start of Something" and "Long Haul" to blunt the serrated thrust that overtakes Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives. This is probably why Wolves lept out as my initial favorite, until I'd listened to both EPs for long enough to internalize them and consider Mothers slightly stronger, if slightly more forbidding.
Despite his jones for beats, Srivastava complies with twee tradition by allowing his singing and lyrics to assume center stage. His voice is forceful and tender in equal measure, dancing around central melodies with uncommon mobility and vigor. On "Missing Pieces", he moves effortlessly from a quivering falsetto to a soulful moan within the space of the word "you"; "Rise Up in the Dirt" finds him equally comfortable at a croon and a near-shout. His lyrics strike a balance between open-hearted sentimentality and wry bemusment, leavened with artful obliquity and lexical music. If its melody weren't so exquisitely naïve, "The Start of Something" would collapse under lines like "I'm a love letter away" and "If I die clutching your photograph/ Don't call me boring, it's just 'cause I like you." But Srivastava seems to be at the mercy of his paramour to an almost unhealthy degree, and bitter acknowledgements of this dependency repeatedly deflate his whimsy: "Everyone loves a man who lets the hardest people/ Build him up and cut him down to loveable size," he sings on "Soft & Warm".
Voxtrot's music, though, is far more than a platform for Srivastava's vocal performances. The guitar work on both EPs, but particularly on Mothers, is a model of constrained energy, and the songs blossom with controlled detonations, like small charges set off sequentially to demolish a huge building. The complex arrangments never intrude upon the lucid melodic arcs; subtle string and brass sections are meted out judiciously. A twinkling piano phrase tiptoes around the careening guitars of "Rise Up in the Dirt"; a fountain of chimes spills languidly over "Long Haul". And while Voxtrot's kinetic thrust may be the product Srivastava's inspiration, the rhythm section has to be credited for realizing it. Like the vocals, the basslines use melodies the way a gymnast uses parallel bars, their combination of mobile force and memorable sonority evoking the Dismemberment Plan's Eric Axelson. The percussion is crisp and compressed, so that each song displays lively patterns of overlapping movement within a tight sonic field. As is always the case with music like this, you'll come for the droll melodies. But whether it's the simmering drum and voice breakdown of "Missing Pieces" or the wedge of stately post-punk dropped convincingly into the middle of the otherwise fey "The Start of Something", you'll stay for the inspired songwriting choices and confident execution.
-Brian Howe, March 29, 2006 via Pitchfork
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Apr. 3rd, 2006
Pink Mountaintops - "Lord, Let Us Shine" from Axis of Evol
Driving On Methadone
Walking science experiment Pete Doherty has now been seen, "driving on methadone". This was according to some daredevil who put their life in danger just by being on the same street as Pete while he was behind the wheel.
Honestly, whether you're a fan of his music or not, it's a miracle Pete is still alive. I really hope he decides he wants some help at some point before it's too late.
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