If you aren't ready for Christmas music yet. Stop reading now!
It's finally been snowing down south, tomorrow is December and even scrooge is starting to think about what he's doing for Christmas... Before the turkey is in the oven maybe you need to think about a CD or two for Christmas day. If so, this post has some links to download countless Christmas songs to help soundtrack your day and help avoid having to here Shakey, Slade, Wizard, Cliff and co.
My Favourite Christmas song from last year was probably this cover by Slow Club, although not quite as good as their original Christmas TV from the year before: Slow Club - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by morrisday
It's December tomorrow and I'll start posting my top 25 albums of 2010 and the 15 artists that I'm most looking toward to in 2011 just like every other blog under the sun.
I've not fully decided on the formats yet, whether all in one go or release them in batches of five?
Before, I thought I'd post 25 of my favourite songs of the year by artists that didn't quite make my end of year lists, so these are 25 top songs that maybe were the highlight of an album or were a fantastic single in 2010 (I've not done a best singles of 2010). I'd bet my life on the fact I've missed something as well!
There were a lot, lot more than 25 excellent albums this year, so some very good albums didn't make my list when I did it.
No more waffle, they speak for themselves and I've written more than I wrote for my uni dissertation for the best albums to follow!:
Feel free to share this mix about, put please link back to this thread.
Here's the list in no real order:
Former Ghosts – New Orleans
Crystal Castles ft Robert Smith – Not in Love
Leelou - Pig in the Summer
Fever Ray - Mercy Street
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Say No To Love
Fyfe Dangerfield - She Needs Me
The Chapman Family - All Fall
Lightspeed Champion - Dead Head Blues
Blouse - Into Black
The Horn The Hunt - Raptor
Glasser – Home
Foals – Spanish Sahara
John & Jehn - Time for the Devil
Void Vision - In 20 Years
No Joy – No Joy
The Mynabirds – Numbers Don't Lie
Parenthetical Girls - Young Throats
Cults - Go Outside
Call the Doctor - Little Bones
Tennis - Marathon
She & Him - In The Sun
Laura Marling - Devil's Spoke
Artur Dyjecinski – and he showed me the way of the buffalo
Yu(c)k - Daughter
Gold Zebra - The End of This
Not content with a standard 12 track CD, you can also order a rather wonderful box-set containing a bonus CD, two DVD's, a signed certificate, a badge and as a bonus for the first 300 orders, a piece of Ritzy's guitar broken at Reading / Leeds festival weekend this year.
So if that interests you, then you best hurry up and order it now! £24.99 seems a good price for all of that in my opinion although shipping is a little steep. Look:
Tracklisting for the CD's are as follows:
The Big Roar:
1 The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie
2 The Magnifying Glass
3 I Don't Want To See You Like This
4 Austere
5 A Heavy Abacus
6 Whirring
7 Buoy
8 Maruyama
9 Cradle
10 Llaw = Wall
11 Chapter 2
12 The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade
It's Just a World Apart:
1 Greyhounds In The Slips
2 My Beerdrunk Soul Is Sadder Than A Hundred Christmas Trees
3 Popinjay
4 Chwyrlio
5 The Butterfly's Last Spell
6 Wide Eyed
Then the DVD's contain a live show from the Mercury Lounge in May 2010, a documentary and all the promo videos to date. Wonderful.
I don't think there is a cat in hell's chance of any album knocking this off the best of 2011 lists and I've not even heard it yet!
Here's a video for the annoucement, make sure you keep watching for some snippets at the end! Yes, yes, yes.
Gazelle Twin is Elizabeth Walling from Brighton, her dark, gothic music reminds me a little of another Brighton artist 'Bat For Lashes', although definitely more leftfield and more subdued, with obvious Fever Ray comparisons for her visual artistry side.
Debut single "Changeling" came out download only on 8th November (buy it from iTunes). Sublime, eerie electronica with a gorgeous ghostly vocal which add up to a hauntingly beautiful track and one of the best singles I've heard in recent times.
I'm pretty excited by the b-side. If you've heard me go on about Prince then you'll know I'm a massive fan (understatement), so it was great to see a cover of a more obscure Prince track "I Wonder U" from the majestic and ignored 'Parade'. A fractured, distorted vocal and twisted synths manage to make the two minutes freakily disturbing and even more unique than its source.
Theres a handful of demos to listen to on her myspace link too which continue in a similar vein, with brooding synths and ethereal vocals. Go and see for yourself. An album is due in 2011, sounds exciting to me.
Here's the wonderful (self-directed video) to the single "Changelings":
I enjoy making and reading lists just like any guy who regards ‘High Fidelity’ as one of his favourite books / films. End of the year lists are great fun, they are a great way of discovering new music, seeing what other people have put as their favourite albums of the year and countless times you end up discovering something you'd previously missed, with so much new music available it’s so easy to miss out on wonderful albums.
As a means of discovery is one of the reasons why I maintain this blog when there are countless other things I could be doing.
So being that way inclined I’ve drawn up a few end-of-year lists for 2010, the best albums, favourite tracks and some tips/hopes for 2011 which I shall start posting in December.
Before that, I thought I’d revisit my Best album of 2009 list and see what has changed one year down the line. This is the list I compiled last year:
1. Editors ~ In This Light and on This Evening
2. The Joy Formidable ~ A Balloon Called Moaning
3. The Boxer Rebellion ~ Union
4. Slow Club ~ Yeah So
5. The Airborne Toxic Event ~ S/T
6. Emmy the Great ~ First Love
7. Fanfarlo ~ Reservoir
8. The Horrors ~Primary Colours
9. Grammatics ~ S/T
10. Jarvis Cocker ~ Further Complications
11. Franz Ferdinand ~ Tonight
12. Metric ~ Fantasies
13. The Joy Formidable ~ First You Have To Get Mad
14. White Lies ~ To Lose This Life
15. New Rhodes ~ Everybody Loves A Scene
16. She Keep Bees ~ Nests
17. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart ~ S/T
18. Codes ~ Trees Dream In Algebra
19. Jeniferver ~ Spring Tides
20. Manic Street Preachers ~ Journal for Plague Lovers
21. Gliss ~ Devotion Implosion
22. Esben and the Witch ~ 33
23. Crocodiles ~ S/T
24. Loverman ~ Human Nurture
25. Regina Spektor ~ Far
Twelve months on I’m not looking at that and thinking “holy shit, that list is plain awful”. On the whole, I still think most of those are good albums that I enjoy but over the past twelve months I’ve discovered some brilliant albums released in 2009. Some you just "go off". One definite change is White Lies. The new song sounds too big for its own good and I think that’s rubbed me up the wrong way towards some of the older songs. Some of those on my list are probably in hind-sight 7/10 albums and some just aren’t as strong as albums that I’ve discovered afterwards.
I’m sure there are still some hidden gems from 2009 I’m yet to discover / listen to.
Okay, enough rambling. This is my new list for my favourite albums of 2009:
1. Editors ~ In This Light and on This Evening
2. The Joy Formidable ~ A Balloon Called Moaning
3. Warpaint ~ Exquisite Corpses
4. Soap&Skin ~ Lovetune for Vacuum
5. The Boxer Rebellion ~ Union
6. Cold Cave ~ Love Comes Close
7. Fever Ray ~ Fever Ray
8. The Airborne Toxic Event ~ S/T
9. Dirty Projectors ~ Bitte Orca
10. Emmy the Great ~ First Love
11. The Horrors ~Primary Colours
12. St Vincent ~ Actor
13. Fanfarlo ~ Reservoir
14. She Keep Bees ~ Nests
15. Jarvis Cocker ~ Further Complications
16. Slow Club ~ Yeah So
17. Bat for Lashes ~ Two Suns
18. Esben and the Witch ~ 33
19. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart ~ S/T
20. Metric ~ Fantasies
21. xx ~ xx
22. Jeniferver ~ Spring Tides
23. Crocodiles ~ S/T
24. Japandriods ~ Post Nothing
25. Regina Spektor ~ Far
I’m not going to give a massive waffling synopsis here like I could but that’s nine new additions out of twenty-five and five of them I’d put in the top ten. Quite a considerable change but I definitely think that with more time to digest and allowing for the late discovery of some material, it’s a stronger list of albums.
Editors still keeps the number one slot. I listened to ITLAOTE just yesterday on the way home from the Still Corners gig (where I got the idea of this post) and was blown away by it after a few months off. It’s such a strong, deep and powerful album.
Perhaps the only real conclusion I can come up with is that all the sites who rush to post their ‘top albums of the year’ lists could perhaps do better holding off a little while.
Geoff Barrow of Portishead / Beak> produced Berlin/ Bristol/ London based artist Anika's self-title debut LP released at the end of last month on Stones Throw Records. The resulting collaboration is an raw, unsettling journey into a trippy world of early 80's post-punk, dub and 60's girl pop. Yet quite bizarrely this unique mash-up creates an overall cohesive sound and intense experience.
The opening, a dark, synthesised version of 60's girl group Twinkle's track "Terry" sets the tone perfectly, it's disconcerting, menacing and yet manages to retain the sound of a dubbed down pop song. The lyrics fit the overriding tone perfectly. "He rode into the night // accelerated his motorbike // I cried to him in fright // don't do it, don't do it, don't do it."
The Skeeter Davis classic "End of the World" has well and truly become the soundtrack of a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, this followed by sirens and a stuttering funk-lade bass in Yoko Ono' cover "Yang Yang" which make it sound like something lifted directly from 'Kill Bill'.
"Masters of War" (Bob Dylan) has the feeling of 'Unknown Pleasures' off-cut, a vague deeply threatening ambience with Anika's vocals sung with a nonchalant and unconcerned voice which makes it all the more sinister and creates a colossal sense of paranoia with a pulsating electronic throb overriding throughout.
'Anika' doesn't sounds like it was released in 2010, it's got all the hallmarks of an unearthed classic from the early 80's post-punk era, the original compositions especially the reggae infused "No One's There" stand side by side with some fantastically selected choice of classics, you'll never hear a Ray Davies song sound so haunting ever again. Highly recommended if you like your music dark, sinister and damn right unsettling.
Scary Mansion's wonderful cover of the Chris Isaak classic "Wicked Game" (listen) generated quite a bit of interest so here is another cover that Leah released before that.
I'll be honest and say although her vocals are fragile and beautiful the song does not do a lot for me, but if my posting generates 38,000 plays like "Wicked Game" and just 1% go out and download a Scary Mansion song, I'm happy with that.
Do go and listen to 'Make Me Cry' the fantastic second album by Scary Mansion, I've included one of the highlights below.
Nice shades in the picture hey! According to their PR, Enjoy Your Pumas sound is "akin to Emily Haines fronting Bloc Party covering Radiohead" now I have no idea what the hell that would sound like but I'm happy to say that I'm enjoying the sound of Enjoy Your Pumas
Energetic, punchy guitar lines and atmospheric indie-pop always goes down a treat with me and as you may have suspected by now I'm always fond of a female lead vocalist so EYP are win-win.
Helped by the powerful, wide-ranging voice of Rosie Blais I think the overall sound is quite similar to that of Let's Buy Happiness. With LBH being a band I'm totally in love after hearing their 7/8 tracks so far, it's a great sign for EYP's and their longevity on this site! It's slightly more up-tempo as exhibited in the glorious "Weight of the Circles" which you can hear below.
They released an EP a while back in their native Canada and have a debut LP planned for release on February 1st 2011. Not sure on the UK, have yet to find any releases over here.
Hundreds are from Hamburg, Germany and make some very nice chilled and fragile electronic sounds.
They have an album out in Germany through their label Sinnbus, with a wider release coming next year. Listen to one of the album tracks below: Hundreds - i love my harbour by morrisday
They also play some live dates, included a London show:
02.12.10 - FR - Paris - L'international // Hundreds & Bodi Bill
03.12.10 - LU - Esch Alzette - Kulturfabrik // Hundreds
04.12.10 - UK - London - Upstairs at the Garage // Hundreds & Bodi Bill
05.12.10 - BE - Bruxelles - AB // Hundreds
06.12.10 - NL - Amsterdam - Paradiso // Hundreds & Bodi Bill
If what you've read / listen to up to now takes your fancy, then you can download their latest single "Solace" for free from this link.
and watch the video below:
Ho ho ho! Posting this on November 22nd feels a bit wrong, but when somethings limited you can't hang around...
I'll be honest and say I'm a miserable scrooge when it comes to Christmas. I fail to see the point in spending £10/£15 on someone when on the whole you are buying them something they don't really want and in return they will do the same for you.
It also seems to start earlier each year, before Halloween is just wrong. I do all my shopping the week leading up to and write cards for those who give me one just like a true Ebenezer.
However, what can get me in the celebratory mood (other than a nice curry on xmas eve) is some of my favourite artists releasing new material that means I don't mind the odd listen to "Saviour's Day". Following on from the couple of wonderful Christmas songs on Caitlin's new EP we have The Mynabirds releasing a couple of new tracks.
Laura's original anti-xmas song "All I Want Is Truth (For Christmas) starts off all Christmassy with sleigh bells et al before delivering a more serious lyrical warning about consumerism, politics, war and global warming. The end warms up nicely though - we can't have you all miserable tucking into the turkey now can we!
You can order it from Saddle Creek direct limited to 200 copies on exclusive white vinyl (more on black). Go here now.
It's a pretty good deal too, including shipping to the UK my copy cost $8.00. You can download the A-side for less than the price of a mint humbug below (an email address to be precise), the B-Side is a cover of The Zombies "This Will Be Our Year". It's a nice, sweet version too. Laura's exceptional voice will have all smiles, even more so whilst wearing your xmas day Grandma knitted jumper and putting away the fifth sherry on December 25th I am sure!
As you all liked The Cordelier Club track I posted last week, here is another for you, the band have released it for free download too. People seem to struggle doing so from Soundcloud - just click on the arrow on the right hand side of the player...
This is the B Side taken from The Cordelier Club's debut single "Don't Let It Go By" released 6th December. Entitled "We Can Dance" it's pure dancefloor pop, reminiscent of Abba / Fleetwood Mac and is sure to brighten your mood.
See what you think below and if you haven't yet, listen to the A-Side here:
If you aren’t going to see The National next Monday November 29th, the band are playing at Kings College Student Union and from the glimpses we've heard so far appear to be well worth seeing live.
Stealing Sheep are an acoustic folk/pop trio from Liverpool, the arrangements in their songs remind me of First Aid Kit and their vocal harmonies that of Mountain Man but with added glockenspiel, and accordion.
That's a pretty potent mix, the gorgeous lullabies and delicate arrangements exhibited in their two EP's releases this year are a wonderful listen and enough to warm you up on such a dark and damp day. I'll be sure to catch them at a future London show.
Wildbirds & Peacedrums with TWENTY drummers doing There is no Light = yes please.
You can watch a lot, lot more via the youtube channel of StageExitLeft here. Do so, to date a mere 200 people have seen that extraordinary performance above. Here's Today/Tomorrow too:
If that's too much drumming for you, there is also a 'standard' show videos in there too. Happy Christmas.
"My Heart":
That has the words hit and single written right through it. A full on electro tinged, indie-pop smash hit. Signed to Columbia they'll get the PR backing to make sure it happens too.
The other "Gorgeous Garbage" is the first ballad that I've heard from the band and it's a very nice too, Karen Anne's gorgeous vocal and gentle shimmering guitars..There are no hiding the Blondie similarities for me, that's no bad thing of course. Expecting big things in 2011.
I'll keep this post shorter than my previous, over the past few months I've given Caitlin Rose lots of praise on here, all of it deserved but I'm running short of new superlatives to describe her!
Tuesday 16th saw Caitlin headline her biggest London show to date (next year it will be even bigger places) at the new venue XOYO (so new it looks unfinished) with the addition of a full band for the first time, although I missed Jordan on bass and backing vocals (over the late summer shows her voice complimented Caitlin's so well) this show was a whole lotta fun, the addition of a drummer and a more dominate role for Spencer allowed Caitlin more room to play around with the arrangement of the tracks than during the summer shows, especially with foot-stomping tracks such as "Spare Me" and "Shanghai Cigarettes". "Spare Me" is one of my live favourites and it truly was a treat, "That's Alright" another blast with Jeremy allowed to wonder off on his guitar solos.
Caitlin's playful, witty banter and show stopping vocal range completely won over a pair of show virgins next to me and I think that is the perfect summation of her shows, you'll enter the building liking those few songs you heard on Radio Two, during the show you are hanging on to every note, every word and when you leave you are completely smitten.
Two new covers were played (well new to me), the beautiful "Faithless Love" and "Young Blood" by The Coasters which certainly won the vote for funniest moment of the night during the deep backing vocals of the drummer (sorry didn't catch the name). A country star and a 'rock & roll' star too, whatever Caitlin turns her hand to, it turns to gold.
Learnin' To Ride
New York
Own Side
Spare Me
For The Rabbits
That's Alright (Fleetwood Mac)
Shanghai Cigarettes
--------------
Sinful Wishing Well
Faithless Love ( J.D. Souther)
Young Blood (The Coasters)
--------- (Caitlin Solo)
Docket
Shotgun Wedding
Marie (Randy Newman)
If you don't have the album yet, it's been voted number four on Rough Trade's 100 albums of the year, you can order it with a new bonus 'Columbia Hotel EP' CD here.
This completly passed me by somehow... Her Name is Calla have a pledge music campaign that ends in just three days. Click on the link above or the badge below for full details and to pledge yourself. I've done just that today.
The money is for charity too, all profits will be sent to Oxfam's Pakistan Flood Response
There's some great deals to be had but the main incentive is supporting a great charity cause, though of course you also happen to get a two track exclusive EP, a lyric book, tickets and dinner with the band or a show in your front room if you are slightly more well off!
The third I Like Trains recording in quick succession, this one is probably the best, not just for it's superior sound quality but for the performance too. An extra ten minutes from the London show always helps, but when it's in the form of the amazing "Spencer Percival" then it truly is a win win.
Make sure you get this one. I mentioned a Jan / Feb tour in my last post. Here are the dates:
Here we have a truly amazing acoustic session by The Strange Death of Liberal England for an Austrian radio station, the songs sound just perfect and I urge you to download this in full below. Here is a sample:
The only negative I can find is that it's only three songs in length. "Autumn" really is breathtaking in this form and the stripped down glockenspiel aided versions of singles "Rising Sea" and "Flagships" are a joy to listen to. Adam particuarly sounds in fine form.
Read my review of 'Drown Your Heart Again', better still get it here. TSDOLE are one of the best indie-rock bands in the UK.
The Strange Death Of Liberal England - Heartbeat, FM4, Vienna, Austria, 2010-11-12
I have Tympanogram to thank for this one - so yeah, thanks!
Baltimore band Secret Mountains are just about to released their new 'Rejoice EP'. You can order the limited to 100 tape from Friends Records now. I've done just that. Watch the video below.
Their debut 'Kaddish EP' came out last year and missed my radar completely, you can order it from the band on the link above or download on a pay-what-you-like basis here.
Singer Kelly has a wonderfully lush, ethereal vocal that reminds me of Sarah from Let's Buy Happiness and the shimmering guitar and gorgeous melodic work really has stopped me in my tracks and demanded that I give Secret Mountains catalouge my full attention, which I shall be doing in full over the next day or two.
What's even better is that you can download an entire eight song live session via mobtown studios. "Gate/Gate/Paragate" an early favourite, it's beautiful and breathtaking in such a stripped down state.
I downloaded a couple of tracks by Leelou (aka Rebekah Dobbins) from my inbox a little while ago and put them into my library as I normally do, but it wasn't until last weekend when one randomly came onto my player whilst I was doing some menial tasks that I was prompted to investigate her further, I stopped tidying up for the impending arrival of my auntie to see what exactly was playing, it was Leelou's track "Kiss Like Carnivores".
Her Ep 'Kiss. Death. Love. Come.' came out last week (Buy on iTunes) with a rather striking cover.
Four driven post-punk songs with relentless energy and a grunge edge. Leelou has a great voice, there is a gothic pop star in waiting here, I hope she continues with this dark, moody punk-rock rather than a Marina style release of an album that is way over-produced and then transform into Pop Princess for the T4 brigade.
"Burn Your Houses Down" immediately grabs your attention with it's punky percussion and vocals yet maintains a catchy pop chorus, better though is the next track "Kill For Your Love", gritty and uncompromising, it contains lyrics featuring the EP's great title 'Kiss. Death. Love. Come.', the tempo increases yet another notch with "Gasoline", an edgy, and rousing song that could well become her anthem before "Kiss Like Carnivores" closes with it's driving drum and guitar work. Immediate comparisons for me are Siouxsie and Nirvana.
Though, I think the honour of my favourite track goes to the bonus track "Pig in the Summer", it's simply amazing. A talking narrative combined with some piano make this song a wonderful come-down from the relentless energy of the previous four songs, the highlight though is screeching guitar work.
It's a wonderful end to this promising debut EP. I've certainly added Leelou to my "to see live" list.
Here is a sample track, the one that made me investigate Leelou: You can find more on Leelou's Soundcloud - no need for me to up them to mine... Kiss like Carnivores by Leelou
Generally I tend to think my taste is pretty much in the category of miserable / dark when it comes to both music and lyrics. It's not very often I find myself liking what I would classify as "poppy" music, generally this being up-tempo songs that could trouble the charts and are liable to make you smile.
However, sometimes I have to hold my hands up and let the inner pop junkie out, I found myself doing just that with The Cordelier Club and their single "Don’t Let It Go By". It's really pretty darn infectious, full of some lovely vocals from Alice especially (I'm not normally a big fan of vocal interchanges but it works well here), it's catchy as hell and basically damn hard not to like.
The Cordelier Club are a brother and sister duo from Cambridge and this is their debut single out on December 6th. I'll follow their progress into the new year
If Carlsberg did girlfriends, then Lourdes Hernández (recording under the name Russian Red) would be about that. What a wonderful quirky voice and such lovely acoustic-folk based songs, her album 'I Love Your Glasses' came out back in 2008 with the hit "Cigarretes" making her pretty well known in native Spain and the US but she has since been relatively quiet, hopefully that's about to change as we approach the new year...
I'm looking forward to her come back for sure, if you've never listened to her, rectify that below...
Here my favourite from her album 'I Love Your Glasses':
In the mood for a warm up for next week? Good, here is a great quality recording of Caitlin Rose in Hamburg last week. It's an opening slot (Seriously Germany I thought you had taste!) for some band I've never heard of (sorry!), so it's pretty short at seven songs, but it's wonderful and it's Caitlin and that's enough for you by now surely?!
For the real deal, get involved with Caitlin's UK dates NEXT WEEK: In full they are:
Mon 15 Nov Brighton Komedia £10 [link]
Tue 16 Nov London XOYO £10 [link]
Wed 17 Nov Leeds Brudenell £8
Thu 18 Nov Reading South Street £10 [link]
Fri 19 Nov Bristol Fleece £10
Sun 21 Nov Newcastle Cluny £8
Mon 22 Nov Leicester Musician £8
Think I can only do the London show, unless anyone wants to take me to Reading and back?!
I've missed Caitlin's live show, it's only been six weeks but I saw her six/seven times in the space of the previous six weeks and her shows are always wonderful, humourous, entertaining and yeah, great.
Don't dilly dally and regret it, come and see one of the best artists of 2010.
Here's the recording:
Caitlin Rose - opening for KORT (Kurt Wagner & Cortney Tidwell)
Knust, Hamburg, 2010-11-06
I've only seen Summer Camp once, that's something I need to rectify next year. Hopefully the debut album will follow up on the promise of the 'Young EP'. I think it will, "Was it Worth it?" has potential hit of 2011 written all over it and "88" is probably the highlight of their live set (see the end of this post a recoding of their Paris set from earlier this year). The on-stage banter and clear chemistry between Warmsley and Sankey is wonderful and their beautiful sugar sweet synth-pop songs will brighten up many a day, yeah, I like Summer Camp.
Another wonderful voice here, Daughter is a new incarnation of Elena Tonra, I don't know too much about her other than that at the moment. I don't really need to either. I'll start my investigation of her older work tomorrow.
Her songs are delicate and pretty on first play; just her beautiful, pure voice with generally just some gentle guitar work for company, what won her over to me is the sorrowful and poetic honesty in her lyrics that really set her apart from many singer-songwriters I've heard recently.
"In The Shallows" highlights her stripped back folk beautifully, it's simply a lovely and gorgeous song, I think it's my favourite on the EP. "Tomorrow" is another brilliant song, it has a wonderful percussion beat to it and then their is the more up-tempo "Run" (not to be confused with Snow Patrol's lighter waving "anthem") which accentuates Elena's voice perfectly.
I featured Seapony a little while ago, but you can now watch this wonderful video for their new single "Dreaming". If this was on the Best Coast album it would be the best track on it, it's not, it's on a 7" from Double Denim Records, their are only 300 of them, so get one from their shop quick and enjoy the other two tracks too because they are also pretty darn good.
Whilst not particularly new music, Transgressive announced that they are to release the (long overdue) debut album of Mechanical Bride next year. That should be a bit good I think.
Her debut EP (a collection of earlier 7"s) Part ii was released back in 2008 and includes probably most famously a cover of Rhianna's "Umbrella".
Myself, I like the alternative folk that Mechanical Bride produce with clear references to peers such as Miss Bush, Bjork and Beirut. It's hauntingly beautiful; ethereal vocals, delicate glockenspiels, pianos and magical melodies throughout. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this release.
I Like Trains have just finished a brief UK tour to promote their new album 'He Who Saw The Deep' included was a show at the troubled 100 Club last week, we have a lovely recording that you can download below. I've another show to post as well, probably later this week.
I tend to only post bands / artists who have a few tracks that appeal to me, this is a rare occasion where I've only heard one track and I'm passing them on.
Blouse have just the one track on their bandcamp, the rather dreamy "Into Black". It's perfectly in fitting with a lot of my current tastes. Rather delicious airy vocals with some laid back synths and tight guitar work.
Listen to it below and download for free via the bandcamp link above.
I'm liking the pretty airy and dreamy vocals of these tunes in a similar vein to Pram and Au Revoir Simone. My standouts are the wonderful album closure of "Half Asleep", "All of a Sudden" and “Lone Wolf Home”, the album as a whole sounds just comes across as perfect choice to snuggle down to with a blanket and ignore the fact it's pretty dark miserable and cold outside those drawn curtains.
Currently on tour with Tame Impala in mainland Europe, no news on UK dates for this rather wonderful shoegaze-pop discovery. Give it a listen.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart certainly know the recipe to make a toe-tappingly good three minute pop song, they released an album full of them just last year and have now come up trumps again with new song "Heart in Your Heartbreak" which comes out on December 13 before their second album due in March next year.
A great follow on to their last "Say No to Love" if not quite in the same league as "This Love is Fucking Right"... It features (of course) shimmering guitar lines, catchy pop hooks and Kip's exquisite vocal delivery, it's certainly not going to lose them any fans.
The Pains play the 229 venue in Portland Street on December 2nd. It'll be grand. Come along.
Head on over to Veronica Falls website above, you can get an exclusive new song (so it's more than worth your trip). I'm yet to hear anything bad by this lot and this freebie keeps that momentum going nicely. The two singles are both must purchases (I'm sad enough to own both UK and US versions), "Found Love in a Graveyard" is one of my songs of the year, it is a lovely little ramshackle of infectious and basically bloody brilliant indie pop.
They play London White Heat on 16th Nov (w/ Blue on Blue). If it didn't clash with Caitlin I'd be there. Album tour I shall endeavour to get along. UK wide dates on their website above.
I posted about Hungarian artist Piresian Beach at the end of August, now we have a new 5 track EP named 'Parttalan' (download the entire EP for free on the link below)...
It continues with the same lo-fi bluesy /punk aesthetics, but on "Summertime" there is also this infectious beat combined with dark fussed out distorted and wailing guitar. It's quite excellent.
and one of the earlier tracks which made me discover her, this is my favourite of the first tracks from Piresian Beach, "Lost": Piresian Beach - Lost by morrisday
Esben & The Witch annouced details of their debut album last week, being a bit slow, it's taken me until now to post about it!
Violet Cries is to be released 31st January 2011 and will be one of the first CD's that are essential next year. Pre-order from the link above.
Download a track off it, "Warpath"; possibly the perfect thing to get you ready for the impending winter of gloom: Esben & The Witch - Warpath by morrisday
If you haven't already make sure you've seen the excellent video for the first track we heard off the album "Marching Song":
This is just what I needed right now; something dark, moody and damn right sinister - a bit like how I've been feeling since the weekend after a self inflicted overdose of alcohol!
The Soft Moon is the project of Luis Vasquez who has released a couple of singles and has an album on the way through New York label Captured Tracks. A clear nod to the bygone 80's era of post-punk a la Bauhaus combined with some New Order riffs but there is enough new sounds to create something pretty fresh. It's unsettling, intense but also pretty wonderful.
