'give a little love' | noah and the whale
you know when you hear a song and you have a completely visceral reaction to it? it happened to me when i heard 'redwings' by guillemots, 'i know it's over' by the smiths, 'the funeral' by band of horses, 'only you' by yazoo, 'to build a home' by the cinematic orchestra, and oh so many, many more.
well, it happened again today when i heard 'give a little love' by noah and the whale. what a beautiful song. it's jumped right in the completely irrelevant 'spitcake song of the year' sweepstakes. i'd not heard of these kids kids before, but apparently they are blowing up on the other side of the pond. their debut, 'peaceful, i lay me down' drops on our shores september 16. check it out. it's quite an album amazing stuff.
→ noah and the whale: give a little love
→ noah and the whale: 5 years time | video
→ noah and the whale: girlfriend in a coma [the smiths cover]
SONG OF THE DAY [#358]
SONG OF THE DAY [#357]
'summer chill' | this is ivy league
i'm still basking in the glow of utah's glorious defeat of the wolverines yesterday. utah did its best to give the game to michigan, but in the end they held on for a two-point win. unfortunately, BYU won, too. drats.
at any rate, here are a couple of groovy tracks by new york-based this is ivy league. i've always been a huge fan of the twee scene [and i make no apologies for it], so this stuff is right up my alley. like most twee stuff, it's just this side of too cute for it's own good; but the guys keep it real. nice melodies and harmonies. think kings of convenience meets belle & sebastian. good stuff. check 'em out here.
→ this is ivy league: a summer chill
→ this is ivy league: don't waste your love on me
FOOTBALL! RARRR!
man, i love college football.
SONG OF THE DAY [#356]
'retiro park' | the clientele
there's a new clientele e.p. out and it's called 'that night, a forest grew.' i'm sure you could probably dissect that title and extrapolate all sorts of weird symbolism [not all of them wholesome, mind you], but heck, i just love the music! the four tracks on said e.p. are just like every other clientele effort, which is, of course, mighty!
there was a time many moons ago when i used to work a lot of late hours [i mean the time before the current time] and 'suburban light' was my ever faithful friend during those long, dark nights in sub-prime mortgage servicer hell, er, land [yes, i worked for the enemy, only i didn't know it at the time]. whenever i reached the end, i just hit the play button again and imagined myself in the never-ending land of golden afternoons, turtlenecks, tweed jackets and adriana lima in go-go boots walking next to me. oh yeah. in all seriousness, 'suburban light' ranks in my all-time top ten favorites.
i once even swapped a few email with alasdair. they published an email in the 'suburban lights' liner notes, so i thought, 'hey, i'm gonna email the band!' so i did. sure enough, alasdair replied! very cool. i tried to convince the band to stop in salt lake city, but i guess i didn't beg enough. they've yet to grace us with a show. i've not entirely given up home, however. my gut tells me they will be here someday.
here's a new track as well as some lesser known tracks. i highly suggest the new e.p. and the back catalogue. there be mighty songs in them there albums.
→ the clientele: retiro park [from the 'that night, a forest grew' e.p.]
→ the clientele: emptily through halloway [from the 'lost weekend' e.p.]
→ the clientele: breathing soft and low [from the 'house on fire' single]
SONG OF THE DAY [#355]
'drowned' | halloween alaska
well, this is the song that started this whole 'song of the day' business a couple of years ago [it was an email list for a while]. yep, this was song #1. it's such a great song that i thought those of you haven't heard it before, might might like to give it a listen because halloween alaska is very mighty and very awesome.
i'm forever indebted to my friend, honora, for first introducing me to halloween alaska on her 2006 mix, 'i fold in half so easily.' she's from minneapolis and so is halloween alaska. apparently the band has a big following there and i'm doing my best to give them a bigger following from new york to, well, alaska.
the first time i heard 'drowned' i about flipped. literally. halloween alaska, as the guy over at allmusic.com, is one of the rare bands that backs the claim that they don't sound like anyone else and don't fit into any pre-existing musical 'genre.' in this day where most bands either point directly to their influences and their influences are readily apparent in the music, halloween alaska has no absolutely no frame of reference. the only way you can answer the question, 'who do they sound like? is to honestly answer, 'no one.' what a colossal achievement.
well, i've been awaiting a new halloween alaska album for a couple o' years now. i keep hearing little rumours here and there that they are close to releasing something [this year, according to their website] and every time i do my heart flutters just a bit in anticipation. but alas, nothing new...yet. here's hoping they guys finish up their third album soon because their first two are on my desert island album list.
and by the way, the 2:30 mark will launch you into outer space. you have been warned.
→ halloween alaska: drowned
→ halloween alaska: you're it
→ halloween alaska: telling me
SONG OF THE DAY [#354]
'fm' | junior boys
the first time i heard junior boys' 'so this is goodbye' it was the proverbial revelation. it was an instant favorite and one of those albums that just gives me a lot of joy every time i listen to it. why? i dunno really know. i try not to think about it and just enjoy for it is. sometimes i like to do that.
'fm' is the last track off the album. what a beautiful song. and what a perfect ending to a perfect album. so, johnny and jeremy, will you please hurry up and make another album already?? ;)
→ junior boys: fm
→ junior boys: so this is goodbye
SONG OF THE DAY [#353]
'spiralling' | keane
so, keane's new album, 'perfect symmetry,' hits shelves october 23 in the uk.
'spiralling' is the first single.
i feel so confused.
→ keane: spiralling
→ erasure: spiralling
→ antony & the johnsons: spiralling
SONG OF THE DAY [#352]
as i was listening to the xm radio this morning i heard the duke spirit's 'the step and the walk.' all it took was three seconds and i was completely smitten, both with leila moss' dead sexy vocals and the band's serious songwriting chops. i'm telling you, kids, 'the step and the walk' is a monster. it will absolutely eat you alive. imagine motown meets sonic youth meets my bloody valentine meets blondie. yeah. that's what i said.
the duke spirit's sophomore album, 'neptune,' dropped last january [yet another one of those albums i didn't even know i had in ye olde tunes, but boy am i glad i did!!], and i gotta say, 'the step and the walk' is the duke spirit's 'single of the year' title to lose. it's just that good. check it out:
→ the duke spirit: the step and the walk
SONG OF THE DAY [#351]
'i miss you, someone' | cloetta paris
i'll swear on a stack of anything you want me to swear on that i had no frakkin' clue cloetta paris were sweden. that's the honest truth, kids. i had no idea. it wasn't until i google-searched cloetta paris that i found their/her [i dunno if they're a band or a solo act yet] myspace page indicating they're/she's from sweden. so there you go. i think we can now scientifically prove that swedes make the best music in the world. i mean, honestly, can anyone seriously make an contradictory argument?? you cannot.
anyway, cloetta paris make some pretty groovy sally-shapiro-meets-pet-shop-boys-meets-vince-clarke-style-keyboardadry music. i dig it it immensely! it's pretty darn awesome, so make sure you check it out and go buy their/her debut, 'secret eyes,' available at, well, just about everywhere you can find an internet connection. how can you not love anyone who does an erasure-esque cover of the classic john parr 80's anthem, 'st elmo's fire?' answer: you cannot.
→ cloetta paris: i miss you, someone
→ cloetta paris: did we collide?
→ cloetta paris: st elmo's fire [john parr cover]
SONG OF THE DAY [#350]
'gravity' | embrace
true story: i spent $30 [$30!!] on embrace's debut album, 'the good will out.' this was in the days when you had to rely on the the british fishwraps [vox, Q, the NME, melody maker, etc] for information about new bands and albums. and of course the only place you could really find those mags was at the virgin megastore or the occasional local cd store. man, that's when CD shopping was adventure! i miss those days!
one of the bands i started hearing about in said magazines was a band called embrace. from what i read, they sounded like a band i would really like. according to the the band, they 'were bigger than the verve!' [heresy if there was, but hey, you gotta admire the chutzpah]. well, no, they weren't bigger than the verve, but they were pretty darn good. 'the good will out' was a really great album. it was that perfect mix of arena-sized rockers and weepy ballads. 'all you good good people,' 'my weakness is none of your business,' 'higher sights,' and 'come back to what you know' were all highly mighty songs that found their way on to the pretty much every mixtape from the era. all signs pointed to a bright future.
well, their second album was a huge flop. [i don't think i've ever even heard it.] the critics had a field day with lots of 'pride before the fall' talk and what not [critics--who needs 'em?]. but honestly, it wasn't a very good album and i thought i'd heard the last of them.
a few years past and by some weird fluke, divine intervention, serendipitous moment, or a good old tap on the shoulder by god's knuckle, my best buddy chris paltrow co-wrote a little song called 'gravity' with embrace and embrace recorded it. well, being as chris paltrow has the paltrow touch, 'gravity' was a massive hit back in the UK and embrace, once nearly deleted from the collective british memory, was back in the game. for me it was great news! i had been hoping to hear more from them. but as with pretty much any band who finds sudden fame for the second time, embrace's success brought a whole new group of music virgins with an under-developed knowledge of music history, clamoring out of the darkness. inevitably, those who had not heard embrace before 'gravity' immediately accused embrace of coldplay thievery [as if anyone would want to steal coldplay's sound] and all sorts of silly nonsense. truth is, 'the good will out' preceded 'parachutes' by a couple of years, so i don't really get how anyone could accuse embrace of theft when embrace was doing it first. if anything, mr. stubbly stole from embrace. yeah.
i love embrace. always have, always will. if you've not heard them before, i hope you love them too.
→ embrace: gravity | video
→ embrace: ashes | video
→ embrace: free ride [from the 'all you good good people' e.p.]
→ embrace: my weakness is none of your business
→ embrace: nature's law | video
→ embrace: target
THE DAY THAT TWILIGHT DIED
so the end of the 'twilight' 'saga' ended today. i honestly had completely forgotten that the fourth and final installment of stephanie meyer's abysmal vampire quadriology hit stores at 12:01 a.m. this morning, much to the delight of all the sad and lonely girls all across the country. this can only mean one thing: the senseless death of hundreds of trees.
now yes, i did graduate with an english degree, but i really don't consider myself an literary elitist or snob. i don't think 'ulysses' is the greatest. book. ever. i thought 'the kite runner' was just silly silly. and i maintain that 'white oleander' is possibly the single most offensive book i've ever read, maybe the most offensive book ever written. i love sci-fi books. i enjoy pulp. i adore douglas coupland. i'm not off the belief i have to love whatever the 'critics' tell is me 'literature.' i'm all about a enjoyable reading experience, regardless of genre of subject. so i'll try to read anything.
so i did try to read 'twilight' last winter [i wrote about it here]. what a dreadful, horrible book. i'm still to this day nonplussed at its popularity. i'm even more nonplussed those self-professed feminists who eat this stuff up. that's an insult to feminists. but i digress. so, i got about 200 pages into 'twilight' before i couldn't read another word of meyer's clunky, painful, and woefully edited prose [and talk about unintentionally funny! that was its only redeeming value.] i've read more elegant writing on bathroom stalls. i'm so not kidding. i pointed out some of meyer's more egregious passages to some friends who ultimately had to agree with me that meyer's has no clue what she's doing. plot? who needs it. characterization? an afterthought. depth? puh-leeze. it was all about hot people, fantasies, and wish-fulfillment. in other words, a massive, stinky turd.
well, when i hoped on the computer this morning, one of my local yahoo news headlines was about what was surely a cadre of sad and lonely girls camped out at the BYU bookstore, dressed in vampire garb, i'm sure, eagerly counting down the minutes until 12:01 so they could read all about bella swan [i'm not making that up] and the perfect-in-every-way edward cullen [did i mention he's also abusive? 'he hits me because he loves me!' yeah. sure.].
being the curious fellow i am, i went over to amazon.com to see what the fangirls were saying about 'breaking dawn.' imagine my glee when much to surprise the book was being absolutely massacred. i've never seen so many 1-star reviews for anything on amazon before. i read a lot of passages like, 'what the hell were you thinking, stephanie?' 'this is the worst book i've ever read,' 'the day that twilight died,' 'the kingdom has crumbled,' 'meyer destroyer her characters,' 'the twilight haters have been vindicated,' 'trash,' 'horrible,' 'disappointed,' and 'i want my money back.' someone so far as to create a myspace page called 'burning dawn.' from the looks of things, the CULT OF MEYER will be taking their torches and pitchforks and making a march on the meyer complex at any moment now. hey, fangirls, i could've have told you six months ago that 'breaking dawn' would suck doughnut holes. all you have to do is look at the cover. it has all the symbolic subtlety of an atomic bomb. why's the Big White King so prominent on the cover? why is the little red pawn in the background? c'mon girlies, think about it. what does it mean? think really hard and you'll get it. your head ain't just a hat rack. use it for petey's sake.
now the rest of the world is finally starting to figure out what i've been saying for almost a year: 'twilight' is a con, a fraud, and most of all, a big, fat, smelly turd. and no matter how hard you try, you just can't polish a turd.
FAIL.
SONG OF THE DAY [#349]
'map ref. 41 degrees n 93 degrees w' | my bloody valentine
first of all, i can't get over how young kevin shields is that picture. he looks like he's 15. geez. secondly, i'm in such a my bloody valentine mood tonight. i put in 12 hours at work today. it was a long day.
i got home and flipped on the valentines and basked in the sonic glory of it all. then i remembered they're playing the US this fall. so i just checked ticketmassah, and yeah, i can get tickets for l.a. oh man. i'm so tempted to pull the trigger on this one. i've never once made a trip just to see a band. there are only a handful of bands i'd spend hundreds of dollars in travel money to see [pulp, pizzicato five, saint etienne, the smiths, the stone roses, and my bloody valentine. i'm still kicking myself for not ponying up to see yazoo, and i hate regret, so maybe i should just do it. i dunno.]. part of me believes this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. do you have any idea how long i've waited to see this, and this, and this live? stop it. sure, there's allegedly new valentines stuff coming out sometime in the not-too-distant future, but who knows if there will be a tour to support it.
one of the problems of going is that i don't have anyone to go with. not that i mind going to a concert by myself [i've done it before], it'd just be a heckuva lot more fun to see them with someone, and preferably someone who really gets the valentines. most of friends don't get the valentines. then again, most of friends listed to weepy, whispery guitar doods. boring with a capital bore. do i go? do i not go? where's a flower when you need one.
→ my bloody valentine: never say goodbye [from the strawberry wine ep]
→ my bloody valentine: drive it all over you [from the 'you made me realize' single]
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