Another recent find for me, I appear to have crossed into loving the new band of post-wave punk bands that are becoming more and popular this year, probably thanks to The Horrors and a few others bands.
Crocodiles are a US band, hailing from San Diego, Jesus and the Mary Chain similarities are on evidence - Neon Jesus the bands debut single (you can find below) is a really good kind of early eighties electro punk jam, in the vien of Echo & The Bunnymen etc.
Stand-out tracks off the debut 'I Wanna Kill' and the title track off the debut album Summer of Hate - add a distorted fuzz and this band should be heard.
Blurb: From Wikipedia, Guy Bannister Alistair Bowis Simon Fogal David Martin
I Like Trains (styled as iLiKETRAiNS) are an alternative/post-rock band from Leeds, England. The group play brooding songs featuring sparse piano and guitar, baritone vocals, uplifting choral passages and reverberant orchestral crescendos. They draw their inspiration from historical failings and a pessimistic world view.
They debut LP, Elegies to Lessons Learnt was released on Beggars Banquet Records in 2007, and their debut EP, "Progress Reform", was released on Fierce Panda Records in June, 2006.
The brand new single 'Sea of Regrets' is available to Pre-Order now! From the I LIKE TRAINS Online shop. CD for £3 plus P&P. Released on 12/10/09
Emmy The Great has been around for quite a few years now, quietly making some noise through the release of some fantastic singles, slowly building up a following and finally 2009 saw the release of her first album First Love. (tbc) ...
I liked Slow Club, then I saw them last week at Scala, now I love them they were simply fantastic live, the show was both musically brilliant and entertaining throughout - I think the 1000 strong crowd all walked out smiling, which has to be a good thing.
The album Yeah, So is great (review to be added)...
The second CD on the deluxe version of the album is essential for so many reasons...
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/fanfarlo
Buy: Reservoir Here
Album Rating: 8.2/10
Half-baked Review:
I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing for Fanfarlo, I'd go with good as I love them, but it is 100% unescapable not to mention Arcade Fire, so there I've just started with it, there is a feeling of Funeral running throughout, which has to be a good thing when the music is also uniquely different.
The five piece band based in London (the lead singer is orignally from Sweden) are multi talented, playing many different instruments throughout creating a captivating sound. Such is the consistency, it is hard to pick standout tunes, if I had to pick it would be between Finish Line, Drowing Men and The Walls are Coming Down, however, the album for me, is best listened to as a whole. It may not have a classic like Rebellion (Lies) but it is a complete lush album, that won't have you itching to change the record anytime soon, so enjoy this indie-pop music as it's meant to be.
I First got into Boxers in 2005, I'm not sure how I ended up listening to Exits, but I did, and I loved it and promptly went to see them at the ICA, support was by Redjetson (RIP :() and Pure Reason Revolution and it was an epically good gig.
Exits was a fantastic debut, bad luck, mis-management or just the ineptness of the British public to see past the Kaiser Chiefs albums meant it was completely missed and alongside illness of the lead singer Nathan Nicholson(which lead them to cancel a well documented tour support slot with The Killers) I for one thought TBR might not return with album two.
2008 there were signs of a return, myspace only singles (at that time) Broken Glass / JKKFC / Waiting hinted at things to come. Fast foward to January 2009 and itunes of all places out of nowhere picks Evacuate as single of the week and releases Union, the second Boxers album exclusively.
It kicks off with Flashing Red Light Means Go, a fantastic drum beat resounding throughout the track and is one of my favourites. Evacuate was a perfect choice for first single of the album, heavy guitars duelling throughout with another great drum beat behind. Another faster paced highlight is a reworking of an old song, These Walls Are Thin, a fast paced guitar number that highlights Nathan's fantastic vocal ability.
Union has more melodic tracks than its predecessor, this isn't a bad thing. Soviets is a beautiful acoustic song then accompanied with yet more drumming and another stand-out is the atmospherics during the enigmatic ‘The Gospel Of Goro Adachi’ whilst final track the beautifully haunting Silent Movie closes the album with wonderful grace.
The album doesn't die with a whimper either, Forces and live favourite Semi-Automatic give it a final gloss and catapults the LP into a must buy of recent times.
Union shows the great confidence displayed by TBR, four years is a long time, but a solid album that shows great development from Exits and is an essential album of 2009.
Released by HMV(!) in September on CD finally, the CD has some nice video extras and a couple of bonus tracks - one of them the stunning Broken Glass. See them on tour in October in the UK.
Blurb - Neo-post-punk quartet Editors formed in 2003. Originally dubbed Snowfield, the group comprised singer/guitarist Tom Smith, lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz, bassist Russell Leetch, and drummer Ed Lay, all music technology students at Britain's Stafford University who relocated to Birmingham after graduation. A series of a well-received club dates and a single demo tape earned Editors the interest of British labels large and small, and after a bidding frenzy the group signed to a revitalized Kitchenware, the venerable British indie once home to Prefab Sprout. Kitchenware issued their debut single, "Bullets," in early January 2005 and the record sold out in one day, earning comparison to the dark, dramatic sound of contemporary bands like Interpol and Bloc Party as well as ancestors like Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen. Editors' follow-up, "Munich," made them darlings of the U.K. music press, and just weeks after their standout performance at the annual Glastonbury Music Festival, the band issued its third single, "Blood." Their much-anticipated debut LP, The Back Room, followed in mid-2005. "Munich" was reissued in January 2006, placing The Back Room in the Top Five on the U.K. album chart and earning the band a gold record. A joint North American tour with stellastarr* coincided with the stateside release of The Back Room in March, and a Mercury Music Prize nomination followed in July. Editors' sophomore effort, An End Has a Start, came out the following summer, preceded by the single "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors." ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Firstly I have to say this - I love Editors, I'm not massively into Interpol, I love Eds and I'm not afraid to say it, The Back Room, AEHAS and the new album, soon to be released, In This Light and On This Evening are all (the last by live performances only) fantastic albums.
One of my favourite finds of the past year, TATE are simply fantastic live and on record to and their self titled album released this year in the UK will be in my top five of this year no doubt.
I only discovered them in October last year when they played Camden's Dublin Castle for consecutive Tuesday gigs, the UK rumblings could be seen in the big cities, a gig at the 100 club sold out quickly, as did one at Kings College. The airplay for Sometime Around Midnight got as far as BBC radio, this time the hype is deserved. Gasoline, a fantastic guitar pop/rock song was the first song I heard and it's still great today. Somewhere Around Midnight has rightly propelled them towards commercial success. The sweeping violin, the slow-burning build up to a spectacularly frantic finish. Perfection. The pinnacle of this album is the last song of the US release, Innocence a Jim Steinman-esque intro, and as with the whole album a tour-de-force of lyrical story-telling.
I've seen a lot of bad reviews for this album, but what do these critical 'expert' reviews mean precisely? I mean Queen II got critically smashed on it's arrival and that is one of Rocks classic pioneering albums and everyone know what followed from the minds of Mr Mercury and co.
I'd rather bands go for something to please their fans, then the critics. I am sure they'd love an experimental shin-dig if it was done for the first ever time but a band with a violinist the isn't Win Butler and entourage - oh my, oh no.
Similarities to The Arcade Fire, The Hold Steady and other bands from the other side of the pond will be drawn, but let that not detract that The Airborne Toxic Event are most definitely unique. Highly recommended 9.1/10
Similar Artists: Editors / Boy Kill Boy / David Caggiari
Album Rating 9.6/10
If you played Fifa 08 you would of heard Fall into Place, a song that should have been the soundtrack to the Summer of 2007 but that never was (why?!). That's not even my favourite song on the LP, Pressures, an epic from start to finish wins that honour, other contenders would be the haunting Ghosts of an Unforgivable Past, a live favourite and often epically crazy set-closure Beyond My Control and the pop perfection of My Brother Chris and 10,000 Times.
This list of songs without even mentioning the sublime Pop perfection of early single Everyone Say's I'm Paranoid ("...which makes it much more") adds up to make The Dreamer Evasive one of my all time favourite albums, and I do mean all-time, not of last week, what I found down the sofa, or what I've been forced to listen to by itunes genius. I'd tell you my play count of the song Pressures, but you'd probably call the stalker police (let's say it add's up getting on for a week).
If you have never heard of Apartment do yourself a favour and look at the links above and download some rarer material below. Why Apartment never received mainstream success I have no idea when much, much worse Indie bands were packing the charts at the time...
If Apartment are to continue, it is yet to be seen, there has been no news for two and a half years, David their lead singer has done some solo tracks (see post 2) but he has not performed live in the UK for 18 months either (he has done some work singing in Brussells) - hopefully we will soon have some news because I for one am dying to hear a live Apartment / David show ASAP!
Please buy The Dreamer Evasive and Support David's new band Age of Giants.
The Joy Formidable are Ritzy, Rhydian and Matt, formally from Wales (well Ritzy and Rhydian) now based in London. In their own words on myspace; With Matt Thomas on drums, a conjoint surrealist and raw, forceful drummer The Joy Formidable have thrived on the live front. Soundscape layers are spiked by the nakedness of a 3-piece; gargantuan, clamorous bass and guitars come in waves, Ritzy seething and cooing in equal measure.
I have to agree, the three piece is simply electric and the live show is magnificent. The mini album 'A Balloon Called Moaning' kicks off with the intense The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade, an epic track with Ritzy's vocals dreamy and gives the album a pleasant start Ritzy's vocal of "Happy for you..." repeating to end. Cradle on the other hand packs one hell of punch, relentless guitar and drums whilst the songs chorus echoes of "All I want is to see the end of this" and at the end, the bellowing of "My vicious tongue cradles just one" - a stand out track. Followed by live favourite Austere which follows in similar vein - this is powerful driven pop music that won't let you forget about it.
My favourite track Whirring, has a beating drum track and electric chorus and stands up equally good when completely stripped acoustically (see below).
TJF have produced some of the best new music of the past year - it is noisy, relentless, unforgiving, completely full with adrenaline. If you are listening to this whilst out and about there is absolutely no chance that you won't be nodding your head and singing along as you walk down the street, probably receiving some odd glances from pensioners in the process.
The album is exhilarating, fresh and intriguing, I tip TJF to go on to great success soon.
Please if you do like it as much as I BUY from their shop here - the album comes in an A3 sleeve and there is also a live album on the way in November, they have some amazing T-Shirts too.
I have some more live stuff / acoustic stuff etc to post in the future too, so watch out for that, give me a toot if you want it.
See them live on tour with Editors and Passion Pit in October and in Europe with The Temper Trap in November / December
Fans of Apartment will know David Caggiari as the lead singer, probably the most underrated band of the last ten years, a band who's album The Dreamer Evasive (BUY) will be in my top five of the decade.
David solo is more stripped and acoustic and it is an absolute pleasure to listen to.
