Well, it would seem we neglected the blog again. As happens from time to time. But what's a little time off between friends.
Anyways, here's someone surprisingly good. The Tallest Man On Earth, Swedish folk singer Kristian Matsson's solo stage incarnation. Best described as like a Swedish Sun Kil Moon, he songs are a brilliant example of that lovely folksy sound that just captivates you. Having recently seen him in Whelans, I was surprised by the number of people who were there (and knew the words to sing along too), so this is definitely something to look into. There's a good few of his videos up on last.fm and on the myspace, so check them out.
Today's lovely photo is by Karl Gunnarsson, Icelandic man living in Sweden. I bet you're all jealous of him.
I was going to continue talking about The Times today, but I've something much more important... A new band!
All the way from Atlanta, Georgia come Manchester Orchestra, indie rock with a bit of everything else thrown in. After hearing about these guys from a friend, and missing out seeing them playing, I went out and got their album. I ended up buying their newest one, Mean Everything To Nothing.
Their sound is a strange mix of almost everything, but it stays together with a sense of continuity. Formed in 2005, we're clearly dealing with proper music fans here... You can hear influcence from Grunge, Shoegaze and Folk, all thrown together, all expertly performed, and the end result is something that will amaze you.
The photo is by a mysterious man called only "Brady" and who has an interesting photo blog. I wonder if it would be possible to do our blog using only photos and still get our style of semi-coherent music reviews across...?
Well after a month off, we're back and more indie than ever I suppose.
In The Times newspaper, in which the music reviewers attempted to be "hip" and "with it" in discussing The Horrors new album, they raised an interesting and valid question... How many times has a band's second album better than their first?
Sure, there have been great examples of bands crashing and burning. The more commercial the band, usually the worse they do. There's a ton of bands today, that are favorites of the critics, that aren't going to make an album as well received as their first. And it'll be compared to their first, and they'll be assumed to have lost, whatever it is they had. This is the doom I foresee for bands like MGMT.
The more subtle version of this is when a second album is despised by critics but then goes on to be well received by fans and eventually by critics many, many years later. Good examples of this are Weezer's Pinkerton and BRMC's "Take Them On, On Your Own". Taking this to it's logical conclusion, you get Elbow, who's first album, though not hated by critics, went mostly unnoticed, then 14 years later they come up with The Seldom Seen Kid.
So, what bands do you know who out did themselves the second time around?
Oh, and today's photo is from Jurriaan Persyn, who's a bit of a jazz enthusiast it would seem. And according to last month's poll, radio is dead. I'll go tell those pesky radio presenters to pack it in finally.
Here's a band that impressed me a long time ago... We'll like 3 months ago, when they were supporting of Montreal, but seeing them at Oxegen jogged my memory.
Casiokids are a Norwegian indie-something band. Not quite pop, or as last.fm might describe them electronic. Whatever it is it's very experimental.
They're something different to see live. There's lots of things going on, on stage. People on keyboards, guitars, extra drums, and shaking little maracas and the likes. I can't really describe their music properly with words. It's a mix of rock, pop, electro, shoegaze. I'd just call them a Scandinavian Explosions In The Sky.
Check their stuff out on Myspace and Last.fm. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Thanks to Jon Reksten for the awesome photo
Pick a style of indie... Let's go with Rock. Then Pick an indie country. In this case, we'll go with Canada. Then pick the indiest city in Canada. A contentious topic I know, but we'll go with Halifax. If you put all that together you get my new favorite band.
Wintersleep are all of the above and more. Together since 2001 (a good year for music), they've been making albums just as long. And they're even part of an indie label/collective. Oh, and they make good music too. I saw them at Oxegen, and I was pretty impressed. From Rock, to shoegaze and back, these guys will take you on a lovely musical adventure, and you'll be pleasantly surprised methinks. They're supporting Editors on their UK tour at the moment, so if you can get out and see them.
I needed to listen to some good music, since U2 are playing in Croke Park, just down the road from my house (where the streets have no name?) and it's pretty much all I can hear right now. Today's photo is courtesy of Labwork Music. Making Canada an indier place...
i've always objected to fairy tails that encourages children to accept other people's differences in some sort of mutual respect thing. Why not a story where one idiot.. let's call him Colin the mango. Gets talking to Kevin the microwave. Colin says "hey there, have you heard of Lady GaGa, she's makes great music". "nope your confusing music with contrived bullshit" says Kevin who walks away never to have to listen to Colin's shit ever again.
it may need some fleshing out, but the content is probably about right. anyway for people who are interested in a story with a lovely indie life lession, one that perhaps isn't quite harsh enough, but it's a good start, take a gander at this:
it was created by an american guy called Dimitri Frazao, who has other stuff to watch here. keep up the good work
There has never been an official indie chart that properly represented indie music. You might find they have some Fat Cat Records band or Asthmatic kitten show up in there but they're generally swamped in main stream marketed indie, bands i dare not even name... so it's about damn time that an effort has been made to kick the big 4 labels out of Indie.
As of today, the first truly official indie charts are being published in the UK. these do not contain any artist on any of the big 4 and more importantly no record lable that is any less than 50% owned by an independent source. we may actually see the first time when the big 4 can't buy themselves into a chart!
The Independents Breakers charts as they are known will rang both singles and albums, and as i said the first charts will be released today. sadly they appear to have a non-existent web presence. which will change i hope after a little while, so do your best to support that newest way to find great indie music, and perhaps finally kill off the major label monopoly
I sure do, and how I loved them. And after their 2006 demise, they left a bit of a gap in the music scene. Trust Brody Dalle and TonyBevilacqua to come up with something, and something good at that. Now add Jack Irons (former drummer of Pearl Jam, amongst others) and Alain Johannes (one of the many former guitarists of Queens of the Stone Age), and the result is Spinnerette.
I only heard the album last week, and was quite impressed, though looking at my desk there's a copy of Kerrang from March which raves about these guys (note to self, clean my desk). Incidentally, never trust anything anyone says in any magazine, it's just nice to read though.
But back to the music, just think of Queens of the Stone Age, with a female vocalist (who incidentally can't sing as high as Josh Homme, though that says more about him than it detracts from her). The music is quite well composed, heavy distorted bass, heavy drums, and very, very grungy guitars. Brody's voice suits the music perfectly.
The one negative thing I will say is that some of the songs (namely "Geeking" and "Sex Bomb") seem a bit long and repetitive. If they were a bit shorter, they'd be perfectly fine. That being said I'll let it go, the rest of the album is brilliant. The best songs have to be "Ghetto Love" and "Baptized By Fire" both available on their Myspace for your listening pleasure.
A few unrelated things... A review of Gregory and The Hawk in Whelans will be up on my last.fm page soon. It was pretty awesome.
A belated thanks to our friend Robin at Forward Music for his kind words earlier in the month, who's blog is now year old and who's new website puts ours to shame (stay tuned for a whole new design soon. I'll get around to it eventually).
And thanks to something.from.nancy for the awesome picture of Spinnerette today. She's Female, she's taken, and she sells clothes on ebay. So check her pictures and the clothes out.
Well Belle and Sebastian have been pretty quite for a long while the last thing they released was just an album of stuff they did with the BBC. Turns out Stuart Murdoch has been writing songs for a girl group he decided to create. which makes a lot of sense, Belle and Sebastian has always been a bit let down by the range of their female vocalists. So what God Help The Girl seems to be is a load of songs Stuart wrote as an excuse to hang around with 3 beautiful women. Good for him. They have a nice little sample playing on their myspace page, Come Monday Night is a lovely little number here's the video
If i was to be cynical about it i would say that it's basically just Belle and Sebastian being re-branded with some added sex appeal. But i'm not cynical, just jealous that i could never go around asking girls to be in a new band i'm forming without coming across like a bit of a weirdo.
It may be finally time to leave last.fm. It hurts me to say it, but it's true. Unless you are one of the lucky few who live in the UK, the US or Germany (those lucky few numbering in the several hundred million), you may have noticed you have to pay now to listen to music on last.fm.
This trend was started last year when Pandora decided to block all non-US listeners. Pandora was quite the useful tool in finding new and interesting bands, but since it didn't have the social aspect to it, never had the same appeal to me as Last.fm did.
In fairness, last.fm are only charging €3 a month to listen, so it's not that bad, but that's still infinitely more than free. Though all the rest of the site (the charts, the gig listings, the whole social side of it) remains free.
One interesting alternative, is Deezer. Deezer seems to be quite similar to last.fm in many ways, except it's a little flashier (There's a pun in there for all you web nerds). Although I like it, it just doesn't have the ease of use that last.fm does and although I'm not sure, it doesn't have half the cool awesome indie people.
So I might just stay with last.fm anyway. It mightn't be free, but it's home. And home is where the indie is after all.
Alight, after a few weeks off fighting for indie in the Irish elections we're back and here to inform you of the next band you should already know about.
The Dying Seconds are Electro-Indie-Pop band from Dublin. It's a very experimental sound, which I won't even bother to attempt to describe. Now in their second year together they'll be releasing their second EP, "Some Grand Romantic Gestures" next Tuesday in Whelans.
Their last.fm page has all the songs from their first EP "Seconds" available for free download, which already puts them in my good books. The fact the music sounds awesome makes it even better. So get yourself their music, and get yourself to the gig. I know I will.
Summer means more time, later nights and lots of gigs. Time to start looking in our favorite place in town to go, Whelan's. The next few weeks of gigs wasn't looking too promising until I stumbled across these guys...
Ezio are a British Acoustic-y Rock indie band from Cambridge. They're similar to Elbow, in so far as they've been going since 1990 and have yet to make it into the mainstream. It's always good to see bands going for that length of time without the desire to get rich/famous and sell out into the popular music scene.
The songs they write are quite varied, with interesting influences from classics like The Stones or The Who mixed with a good bit of originality. Head over to their Myspace page. The songs to listen to are "Higher" and "Woohoohoo (Song for a fired waitress)".
They'll be playing upstairs in Whelan's, on Sunday 24th. I think you'll know where we'll be. Today's lovely photo comes from someone, known only as Rachel.
It's a question that's been floating around since we crowned the King of Indie, and we didn't wanna rush into it. Now i think it's time to name our main contender for the title.... Miranda July
This lovely lady from the indie capital of the America; Portland, Oregon has been able to create some really special work, in so many different mediums that it's hard to know exactly where to start. So i think i'll start with my first introduction to Miranda, which was a film which she, wrote, directed and stared in. Me and You and Everyone We Know, this is a great platform to begin the journey into Miranda's work. The movie gives away the theme of most of Miranda's work. Take very average everyday people, add just a drop of weird to each of them and suddenly you've got a whole lot of weird, that your going to think seems perfectly normal, because the moral of the story is that everyone is in fact a little weird. This is a fantastic film, and it's worth your time to get it. In other fronts she has a website where she would ask people to participate in doing something like (Assignment #11) Photograph a scar and write about it, people do so and you've got yourself an online exhibit. take a look here. there's some really interesting ones. She also has herself a very odd experimental spoken word album as well as a really enjoyable book of short stories called No One Belongs Here More Than You. There is lots more stuff out there that Miranda is up to and it's a lot of fun searching around and trying to find what she's up to next. i've certainly become a big fan of hers.
New York Indie pop favorites, Passion Pit are back... and this time with an album. Their EP Chunk of Change was one of the best EP's I've heard in a long while. It subsequently spent nearly three months on repeat on my music player.
The album is exactly what you'd expect from these guys. "Manners" brilliant collection of indie pop tunes in that certain indie style you get from having three people playing keyboards at the same time. There's definitely some awesome songs, "Little Secrets" is one of my favorites, and only one song, "Sleephead", made it from the EP to the LP. It seems to me that is has been re-produced in a subtly different way (if I'm imagining this, which is a distinct possibility, do tell me). There's a few more slower, more introspective songs, like "Swimming in the Flood", to contrast all their usual upbeat stuff you've come to expect.
One song I do not like, is "The Reeling", the single off the album. It sounds like something off the soundtrack to a movie in the 1980's. It just seems to be lacking in that originality that I love from these guys.
Head over to their Myspace page to hear some of the lovely tracks...
Well, after a busy couple of weeks and some awful neglect of the blog, it's time to get back to the indie.
I have noticed that (at least with me) each year certain albums tend to dominate my summer playlists. Although it is a little too early to tell what these are going to be yet, it's worth a look back at what was the sound of last summer...
I got a copy of this hard to come by EP off a friend and it I instantly became addicted. Consisting of 5 songs that didn't make it on to their debut album, including Fail-Safe (possibly one of their best work to date).
Suggested to my by indieawesome friend Kev. Peter Cornell (brother of Chris) along with 3 friends. Possibly one of the best grunge albums I've ever heard. I must have listened to this hundreds of times, and didn't get sick of it. I'm still not sure if BMR are still around (if you know please tell me), but I sure hope so because I'd love to go see them.
Lovely happy indie pop. It's hard not to like music like this, and although every song it only about 2 minutes long (I don't think they'd work if they were longer), and the album is quite short, it does make for good summertime listening.
The lovely summery photograph is by Stathis Stavrianos, who titled the photo "Summer Wasting..." after the Belle & Sebastian song... Looks like someone know's his indie
Camera Obscura haven't released an album since 2006 but on the 20th of this month My Maudlin Career should be available to buy, better than that of course is that they also start a tour on that same date. arriving in Dublin on the 30th. you can listen to the little track by clicking play:
They've been going since 1996 and i came to know them during the end of my "Belle and Sebastian are better than everything" phase, and while i'm now on a bit of Swedish Indie kick, i have not forgotten the great Scotish Indie scene. I saw them play last time they came to dublin and will certainly be going along to see them this time. you should go to.
If you haven't heard about this album yet, you must go out and get yourself a copy. Although they've been around for a good 8 years now, this album by far is their best. Junior, is part of a two album project which examines two different sounds. Junior, is apparently an album for the Springtime. Very happy and upbeat. The second part, Senior, which is due out towards the end of the year, will be more moody and introspective. So, in part this could be considered a concept album, something we've seen a lot of in the past year from Franz Ferdinand's Tonight to of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping.
The first two songs off the album deserve much praise. Happy Up Here, which is a brilliant track by anyone's standards and The Girl and The Robot, which has Swedish singer Robyn on vocals, not that I'm a big fan of Robyn or anything. One song that is quite awful is Tricky Tricky, which features the lyric "Is six afraid of seven, because seven eight nine?" possibly one of the worst puns the world has seen this century. Though if you ignore the lyrics, the song is not that bad.
Check out they website for some full track previews and their Myspace page for some interesting remixes.
I'd like to share with you a band I discovered many years ago but they often slip my mind. The Amazing Few are not your average band. It's psychobilly mixed with punk mixed with country mixed with whatever else they had lying around, and boy is it crazy.
All the songs come straight from the mind of Kieron Black not so much the band's singer, so much as their narrator. The songs take you through his many life experiences and a few of the crazier thoughts he's had, all accompanied by upbeat happy music. If you actually delve into the lyrics and analyse them, you might very surprised.
These guys are a true indie band. Not doing it for money, fame or anything other than the love of playing music. They've been doing the rounds around Ireland for years now, and have moved up in the world playing cool festivals around Europe. If they're ever playing near you, go see them. It's a real specticle to see live.
You've probably never heard of Condo Fucks, but you will... They're the latest incarnation of Yo La Tengo, a band that will try anything once. Fuckbook is a big collection of old style rock n' roll songs with a sound straight from the 1960's and 70's... Ah, the 60's, such a simpler time or so I've been told. The songs have that sound of classic bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols, anyone really who made music around that time.
Unfortunately the internet hasn't quite discovered this gem of an album yet, but give it time. Not even their myspace page makes reference to this, nor does it to any other of their "side projects". However, the monopolistic yet useful Amazon has some album previews up, though the clips don't do the album justice really. Though they do have used copies of the CD for $4 which you can't shake a stick at.
Go out, get the album, and I can promise you you'll enjoy it. It's (not) Yo La Tengo after all!
During the Week there was the 11th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF). This is a whole side to indie that most people completely forget. This is where the battle between the bank-rolled games from the likes of EA and Activision come up against a small group who have "a great idea for a game". Lately the main games companies have fallen into the same trap as main stream films. Just rehashing the the old ideas and using newer technology. While sometimes that does produce results the games (and films) are often watered down in order to appeal to all pallets.
There are a load of indie games represented and here are a few of the nomenees:
Cletus Clay
This game reminds of the time in my youth when if asked what i was doing on the computer i would answer "Using time travelling toilets (ChronoJohns) to help stop an evil tentacle from taking over the world". Something the main stream industry does very well is take itself WAY to seriously. If i had to kill a horde of virtual aliens I'd rather have Cletus on my Side than Master Chief. This game was nominated for Excellence in Visual Art with it's combinations of stop-motion characters and computer graphics.
This game by a Swedish developer by the name of Erick Svedang looks great and seems to give the player a immersion into the world that EA's big release Spore never did. It came away with the Grand Price, the Seumas McNally award as well as Excellence in Audio.
This looks brilliant. If games are divided into casual or formal this appears to be some kind of hybrid. while it was nominated for Technical Excellence any game is also visually impressive for a side scroller. Also I've liked every game in which the player in a brain in a bunker controlling cyborgs. here's more info on the game.
the rest of the games can be found here. support indie games take a look at what some guy decided where the best ones around.
I've been getting lazy when it comes to finding new bands these days. Letting last.fm recommend me bands, although it's mostly correct in knowing what I like, and what bands are like other bands, it's still the lazy option.
First I discovered Passion Pit when I saw the CD in work, then I discovered Hockey when they were playing with Passion Pit, and now at the end of the line is Little Comets, who last.fm says are similar to Hockey. I don't quite share last.fm's opinion on the matter. Hocket are a little more origional than these guys are, who are more like that kind of indie pop that England seems to be making a lot of these days. Still I prefer American indieness, but that's just me.
Well, I've neglected my duties to indie lately. I've been to very few gigs, haven't listened to much in the way of new interesting music and not to mention the lack of blogging. But it's sunny out, and I'm feeling in the mood for some music.
Blind Pilot. I came across these guys today and was quite impressed. It's a very relaxed acoustic indie folk. Just drums and a guitar for the most part, with a few other random instruments, like banjos or violins or double basses thrown in occasionally. The music is really well composed and the lyrics and his voice remind me of Duke Special.
On a side note, I seem to be finding a lot of bands with "pilot" in their name (Pilotlight, Agitated Radio Pilot). I wonder if they're all somehow connected... And Blind Pilot are also yet another great band from Portland, Oregon. I guess I'll have to visit there sometime soon. Today's lovely photo is from Jonathan Maus, photographer and writer for BikePortland.org
Hockey - These guys co-headlined with Passion Pit on their most recent tour, and they really caught my attention. They're yet another band from Portland, Oregon (there's something about that place that seems to making good music easy apparently). They've got that catchy indie pop sound that's hard not to like, but it's mixed with a bit of funk, soul and anything else they had lying around the ol' garage.
Check out their stuff on MySpace and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Rap and indie don't often go together very often and despite the "indie rap" tag being surprisingly well populated, any puritan of either genre would have problems excepting those bands as accurate representations of the music they love. I've decided that I'm going to attempt to explain the story behind a popular rap song.
At the moment the top spot on the rap/hip-hop billboard charts is Jamie Foxx a man who once claimed that Fox is a four letter word and subsequently made appropriate changes to ensure he was correct. It does appear adding an extra 'x' to you name works miracles!
The words to his song Blame It can be found here, and after a quick read the writer appears to have some serious problems concerning very basic elements in a story.
So, the song is called Blame It, this raises 2 early questions, 1) who to blame 2) what they are to be blamed on Despite rap having a reputation for nonsensical ramblings this is very clear from the start. 80's movies are being blamed on someone's pants falling down. the main offenders pictured below are Goose from Top Gun and the sci-fi classic Tron.
That of course isn't the end of the story, they've had a co-conspiritor which sounds to me like a particularly painful beverage, namely "ah-ah ah-Al-Co-Hol".
The story then takes a twist. By that i mean it reads like it was written by a drunk 4 year old, who had recently suffered a stoke. I worked through the kind of sentence structure that could only be demonstrated by somebody who is completely new to the idea of language, that a the story continues like this:
1) The guy is showing interest to a girl 2) The girl does not reciprocate. 3) like any red blooded rapper he takes the rejection well, assuming that she's easy and a lier. 4) Disturbingly he then concludes that no matter what she thinks, she will in fact end up doing what ever it is he wants to do.
Can we stop imagine for a second the kind of guy you would expect to follow these same steps.. here's a clue:
So what does our hero have in-store for us next? well he's not going to just jump the poor girl (probably because that wouldn't play to well in court). Instead the 3rd verse details how he's going to ensure that both of them are so drunk that in court he can probably plead diminished responsibility. suddenly the true meaning of the song comes true, it's essentially documenting the defence for his inevitable prosecution, even going as far as to refer to witnesses by name. that is assuming T. Pain is a name and not simply the description of being scolded by a hot beverage.
I think i'll stick to indie myself. (unless someone presses charges)
A while back I came across a band called The Black Keys. I'm not exactly sure when, or how, but these guys quickly became one of my favorite bands. When everyone's looking to the future and trying to make music that sounds like it was made by robots, these guys looked back. It's the kind of blues rock that no one plays anymore, which makes me wonder, why people don't play it anymore.
Dan Auerbach, one half of The Black Keys, has put together a collection of songs he wrote whilst touring called, Keep It Hid. For his first solo effort, and isn't a big departure of style. It sounds a lot like The Black Keys earlier albums, but slightly more polished. Not lo-fi, more medium-fi. Very garage rock, but folky too. Like BRMC meets Josh Ritter. Whatever it is, it's a style nobody really plays anymore, and he plays it particularly well, and that's why it's this week's Album of the Week.
Today's photo comes from Guus Krol. Nice photographer, and (I'm sure) nice all-round man.
There are a few different places to get great Indie Shirts on the Webbervers The one above comes from here, i think it explains the quite accurately my feelings towards humanity. But for the folks out there who would rather be more cryptic about your disgust of other peoples music then perhaps this is more your style
You can get that and i must say a great amount of other fantastic shirts from the aptly named indieshirts. com. There's always the folks out there who really want people to understand that they have the most note worthy shirt in the room. Depending the room this kind thing can either get you a standing ovation or a public hanging, if you wanna try your luck here's the site
Finally the most underrated of T-Shirts... the subtle joke that only one other person in the world is likely to get. this genre is well represented in the world of geeks (a world i'm very much a part of) here is a sample from Think Geek. Summer is coming (sort of), and it's a great opportunity to let people know how terrible they are for the music they like. Wearing a plain T-Shirt is like saying "I'm ok with your music". Don't risk it!
when it comes to story telling in any form media a post-apocalyptic world is something that carries an abundance of possibilities. I've listened to 50's Sci-fi radio shows like X-Minus One and Played Games like apocalyptic Fallout series, and i've loved what people are able to created. Sadly it seems a very underused scenario in most video media with obvious exceptions (Mad Max, Shaun of the Dead, etc.). A little while ago the BBC did a great job of making a post-apocalyptic tv series that was so bad i had wished the human race had been destroyed completely... but thank goodness for the interwebs, this pilot could bring about the start of something that might actually produce a watchable TV show for the genre, check it out:
I came across lovely little indie number today by The Orion Experience called Obsessed With You. a very happy and funny song, thought i'd better blog about it before they become to popular to like.
They released they're album Cosmicandy about a year ago and you can listen to the sort of stuff to expect from it on they're myspace page. I think i'll give the album a listen and report back later.
I'm not really one to watch TV, generally i find turning on the telly and then choosing what to watch is a distant second my other option. Deciding what to watch and then turning on my computer and watching it... with out being sold something every 10 minuets. Those few times i have been drawn to watch TV have been short lived and here are 3 great shows i love that where sadly cancelled after just one series.
1) Downtown
The summer of 1999 on MTV was actually watched by people other than 15 year old girls with no interest in music. This was the twilight of what has become known "MTV with music" soon i'm sure there will be a trivial pursuit question confusing us all as to the humble beginnings of the most popular reality tv channel. Back then they had Downtown, a unique, surreal and wonderfully animated 13 episode series. It's a perfect cast of realistic no-bodies living in New York City. I loved this series and while you can't buy it, there are recordings out there. if you can find them.
2) Freaks and Geeks
This short lived creation of Paul Feig has a very special place in my heart. while i can't say that life in an American high school in the late 70's early 80's is anything i can deeply relate to, i do find myself at home with the characters. The 18 episodes certainly aren't enough to fully expore them... the end of this show was like loosing a friend. For those of you who feel the same, you should get your hands on the Books by Paul Feig, it turns out a surprising number of the funniest moment of the series actually happened in Mr. Feigs youth. Including a few others that certainly are best left in the chapter of Superstud entitled "Please don't read this chapter".
3) Wonderfalls
An underachieving, pessimistic, self centred girl find that inanimate objects with faces talk to her and tell her to do things, some times good things (which she's generally apathetic to) somethings oddly evil things, either way things are not the same for anyone involved afterwards. This was a really interesting show with very cool characters. i morn it's 2004 demise. I count my self lucky to have seen it at all, as my girlfriend was the one who put me on to it long after it had disappeared.
All the way over the water, in a little place called Cambridge, Massachusetts there is a little known band you may not have heard of yet, but you will soon... Passion Pit. I came across their EP, Chunk of Change over the weekend and have fallen in love with it.
It's a wonderful mix of indie and that certain 80's electro-pop sound. It's like going back in time, but into the future. I know that doesn't make sense, but listen to their music and you'll understand. They're signed to Frenchkiss Records, a cool little indie label in New York, best known for signing The Hold Steady. Keep an eye on Passion Pit, they might just be the one of the best new indie bands around this year.
Much thanks to Oliver Lopeno for the photo and if you have some spare time, check out his awesome website and awesome music taste.
Long time, no blog. My little sojourn over to Italy last week made me realise how bad some European music tastes can be. Although Livigno was a little tourist in parts, the music was an unfortunate mix of 80's and 90's poptacular crap. So, all this got me thinking, let's have a little look at the state of European indie, of course aided by our friends at Last.fm.
The tag "European Indie" was made by 8 people so already it's indie, but unfortunatly, none of these people know was "indie" actually means, with the number one on the list being Franz Ferdinand, who aren't really that indie (although the do come from the indie rock scene in the UK). In fact most of the bands on that list fall into that UK indie, but not really that indie, scene such as Bloc Party, Coldplay, The Streets, you can see where this is going. The only non-UK bands on the list, are Peter Bjorn & John, Carli Bruni (wife of the President of France), and psycho-electro-indie-rock band El Columpio Asesino.
The indiest band on the list are Go Ahead, Drink Drink, and indie pop punk band from Oslo, Norway. I have to say, I like the cover art. As for the music, it's not too bad. Reminds me of all the pop-punk I used to listen to in the before times, and is well worth checking out, even if you're not really into this kind of stuff. Even if it does have that overly American sound to it. Apparently their EP is out of May 26th, and I wouldn't mind getting myself a copy. Now, how much is postage from Norway to Ireland...?
The year was 1999 and a man uniquely named Sufjan had just found a way to link three relatively unrelated thing together that would ensure his stable future in the indie scene. Those unassuming items where; A stray cat called Sara, His step father and an album for each American state.
Asthmatic Kitty was formed and while his step father and (apparently) the cat remain in good health the 50 album plan fell by the waste site after only 2 states. but the success of those albums and others has ment that Asthmatic Kitty has survived to collect a few other bands and open an office the New York.
The theme of the Label so far seems to be indie and folkie with an underlying Christianity in parts. While the labels silver bullet remains it's founder they've found a few new acts that might grow to help to pay the bills.
The Welcome Wagon released they're début album at the end of last year and while i generally wouldn't have listened to a band boasting the eclectic tunes of a Reverent and his Wife, i was surprised that i quite liked what i heard. Rafter Roberts who is touring at the moment is also one to look out for.
But for me what this label really has going for it is the music created under "Unusual Animals" which according to the label is a little place for the labels artists and friend for "conceptual and experimental projects", and it's great! listen to it on Asthmatic Kitty Radio and take a look at the other artists, your bound to find something that puts a smile on your face.
A while ago, back before the new year I talked about Indie Mix Tapes. Well, after many long hard hours, pouring over the best indie stuff I've heard in the last while, Seb and myself have come up with one ourselves, along with some help from the awesome people that are Carrie and Kev.
So now, whether you need a mixtape for your favorite person, or just like indie music here's a helping hand...
Side A:
Tokyo Police Club – In A Cave The Moldy Peaches – Lucky Number Nine of Montreal – Touched Something's Hollow John Shelly and the Creatures – Tiger Tales The Hedge Schools – Butterfly Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline) ((Shoreline)) Iron & Wine – 16, Maybe Less The National – Secret Meeting The Presets – Girl and the Sea Camera Obscura – Swimming Pool The Organ – It's Time to Go Elbow – One Day Like This
Side B:
Future Bible Heroes – Mr. Punch The Olivia Tremor Control – The Opera House Pavement – Shady Lane Acid House Kings – This And That The Seedy Seeds – Calliope The Hi-Life Companion – You're the greatest Cherry Ghost – Thirst For Romance Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost Asobi Seksu – Thursday Miracle Fortress – Whirrs Fleet Foxes – Mykonos
Some of the tracks are available as free downloads, full track previews or 30 second previews over on last.fm, so head over there if you like and feel free to leave comments and suggestions. Nothing's set in stone here. If you'd like a copy for yourself, just leave a comment and you can be the proud owner of a lovely mix tape.
Jason Schwartzman, The uncrowned king* of Indie, this year will be releasing his first movie with writer/director Wes Anderson since The Darjeeling Limited. which is certainly enough to be happy about. But until Fantastic Mr. Fox surfaces what can we entertain ourselves with? Well it seems that Jason has thought of that and has release a second album under the band name Coconut Records.
It's called Davy and (if you didn't read my post last week) you can download it on iTunes. It's a pretty good little album. compared to the first album here isn't as much diversity in the songs. With the first, when a song ended you have no idea what was coming next and it could have been a homage to stadium rock or an intimate acoustic track. Davy is more consistent with the genre. This means that when listening to the album there isn't a track the stands out to much or catches your attention.
All in all a good album, but maybe not as good as the first
and if i was to rate it... 66%
*i'm going to say king because as an indie person i believe that democracy decides the most mediocre of things and until i can think of something better than monarchy thats how it's going to be
Bon Iver, aka awesome indie folk,Wisconsin singer-songwriter Justin Vernon is back. This time with an EP, Blood Bank.
His first album, For Emma, Forever Ago was a brilliant example of indie lo-fi folk, and just how far raw talent and a cool indie label will get you these days. This new 4-track EP shows Mr. Iver trying a few different things this time, even going as far as to use autotuned vocals on one track. I'm not normally a fan of those, since they seem to be used exclusivly by overly commercial rappers who want to make themselves sound like robots. He does however, use them to great effect. The track he has up on MySpace, Blood Bank is a song more along the style of his album. Definatly worth a listen. Although the standard of songs on the EP is not as good as For Emma, it is only an EP, and does point towards good things in the future from him. Indie has a future, and it's name is Bon Iver.
Today's lovely photo is from Rich Thane, and man who loves his music, film and art apparently.
When i first entered the world of Indie music, i had a great collecting of CD's that i was very proud of showing off to people, i still have those CDs (somewhere) but while the music they held lives on, they no longer hold the same place in my heart. These days CD's are just another type of shopping bag, once you get the music off it, you just want to put it away safe, knowing that perhaps one day you'll have a use for it.
These days, instead of showing people my music through a carefully stacked and sorted on a (particularly indie) CD rack, i open up my laptop and show them through their now homely digital medium. There is a problem. Due to getting a welcome gift of an iPod, i found myself shackled to the bulky, over bearing, user-hating iTunes and i know a lot of people have the same problem so PLEASE do yourself a favour...
Get Songbird. This wonderful, free, open source creation comes to you from the same guys who brought you Firefox (remember when you didn't think internet explorer was shit?). It's final version has been released recently and it works brilliantly. Have no fear it's not iPod exclusive (thats just what i use it for). It also has a very highly customizable user interface and a load of great plug-ins to install. so free yourself from terrible software! My hope is that if enough iPod people get songbird then either apple will finally bring out some software that doesn't constantly harass it's user or maybe even disappear completely, either suits me.
Again it seems, looking for random indie gigs has paid off, and a whole three new indie bands have been discovered. They're all playing Whelan's on the 7th of February, so get yourself a ticket if you can. Even if you don't live in Dublin, they're touring Europe over the next while so get yourself to a gig.
It's a Musical. Poppy indie. I mean, really poppy happy stuff. Bits of every instrument thrown together. You really have to hear it, because I don't think they've come up with a word for it yet.
Kid Dakota. Less poppy, less happy. Lots of delay, and echos and the like. More downbeat lyrics, and a lot slower. His Myspace describes it as rock/indie/country and you can certainly hear the country influence. Quite nice really, a lot like people Sun Kil Moon at times, but has a certain quality to it that makes it something very much it's own.
Ter Harr. Experimental indie from Berlin. Has a certain lo-fi sound to it, with a touch of early 90's/late 80's British indie rock to it. So indie, Flickr couldn't find a picture of them.
Today's photo of Kid Dakota is by Stacy Schwartz who has some really awesome photos, so check them out. On another note I've finally found time to do my review of the gigs I've been to in the last three months, so head over to last.fm and check them out.
