In the key of Black

Ohio band The Black Keys returned with another album, "Brothers", last month.



It made its way into my regular listening for a while, but has failed really moved me. Produced by Mr. Danger Mouse who also helped produce their 2008 album Attack and Release, and as a result it's got pretty much the same stylings. The single "Tighten Up" is quite a good (and the video is also quite excellent), but it stands out as the pop-iest song on the album. Other songs to check out are "Everlasting Light" and "Too Afraid to Love You". On a whole it's not as good as their last one, but still well worth listening. I'll leave it up to you to make up your mind.

Also, Guy Garvey's Finest Hour has been especially good the last couple of weeks. If you've a couple of hours to listen to it, or even 5 minutes to listen to a song or two, you should check it out. My hunt for more music from the band Black Market Radio, has turned up a couple of acoustic albums by a "Carey Sims and Black Market Radio", and is from what I can tell, completely unrelated to the Black Market Radio I'm looking from. Some alt-folk Americana songs, not all that bad, the hunt goes on however. And finally,

Idling

For a band that's been around for ages, Idlewild slipped under my radar for a long time. I had known about them for a long while, but never paid too much attention to them. That is until of course I came across their new album.



Post Electric Blues is a much produced album than their others, losing a bit of their raw sound from earlier albums (call it maturity or whatever... narc). The result is pretty good though. Songs like "Younger Than America" and "Dreams of Nothing" are fine examples of their latest incarnation of their sound, while "Take Me Back To The Islands" and "Take Me Back In Time" (I'm noticing a pattern), are slower more introspective and a little seemingly out of place, but still awesome. As per usual, I'll let you make up your mind, I'm not your mother after all.

In other news, apologies to those who I haven't sent the mixtape to yet (I'll get to it soon, promise), and to those who have got their copy I hope you liked it. Also, I particularly liked this comic today...

Erland & The Carnival... and Us

So, a while back we went a seen Erland & the Carnival in Crawdaddy's in what must have been the strangest gig we've been to in ages.



The support band (who's name I can't remember, I'll try and find it out), were good. Very good in fact, although there were 2 minute intervals between songs while the guitarist tuned his guitar in perfect silence. Not even the crowd made a whisper. Which was quite odd as the crowd, who themselves were perfectly silent during the intervals but then proceeded to talk as loud as they could during the performance. There was also a good mix of fans of the band and people who clearly had wandered in by accident.

More importantly Erland & The Carnival played a great set, playing every song from the album. In particular "Love Is A Killing Thing" was even better live than it is recorded. For a band that is seemingly randomly thrown together (I mean, where did they pick up Simon Tong from?!?), they play extremely well together, no matter what the Irish Times say...

In other news, I am quite enjoying the Black Keys new single. The video is especially silly...

Not Farmville, Farm World

Occasionally we get emails from people. We like getting emails from people. We had an email a few days ago from someone professing the greatness of Farm World, the recording name for Michael Armstrong, a man from Madison, Wisconsin. Apparently not craving fame or money from his music (which is a good thing), he has gone largely unnoticed by the world (which is a bad thing).



His music meanders through different styles but it's mostly reminescent of Bon Iver and the influence is clearly heard through his songs. Songs like "Look Up!" and "Eat, Kill, I Want Your Soul" have a very folky sound to them, while "Barn Baby" has an a more rockier side to it. "Dark Room", with it's autotuned vocals could be straight off Bon Iver's Blood Bank EP. Finding his stuff online is near impossible, bar what's up on his myspace page. If we weren't emailed it, I doubt we would have found it. This is very underrated music, and we could only hope that someone, somewhere finds this guy and puts his name out there.

In other non-related ramblings, I'm enjoying Billie the Vision a lot lately. Also, JSC's new album. Still waiting for BRMC's new one which is released here on Friday (hopefully). You should read this too. It's a friend's non-sensicalness. Funny though. And keep mailing us awesome music.

Indie Mix Tape 2

I had this on the back burner for a long while... well, since last summer in fact when we came up with the first mix tap. We sure do love procrastinating around here. So here's volume two of our awesome indie compliation. Better late than never. It's a mix of everything we liked back then, stuff we like now and a few other random things we've come across in between, but mostly is bands we've seen and liked.



Side A:

Liam Finn – Better to Be
Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
My Bloody Valentine – Only Shallow
The Very Most – Bleess
Tokyo Police Club – Cut Cut Paste
Erland and the Carnival – Trouble in Mind
Billie the Vision & The Dancers – A Beautiful Night in Oslo
Gregory and the Hawk – Stone Wall, Stone Fence
Spoon – Written in Reverse
Oh No Oh My – Walk in the Park

Side B:

Jenny Owen Youngs – Fuck Was I
Iron & Wine – Hickory
Oxford Collapse – Please Visit Your National Parks
of Montreal – An Eluardian Instance
Mirah – Million Miles
Billie The Vision And The Dancers – Take Me to the Boats
The Tallest Man on Earth – The Gardener
Foy Vance – Homebird
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
The Very Most – April Is The Kindest Month
John, Shelly and the Creatures – Long May You Reign

If you want a copy, drop me a comment or send me a mail to chip@indieawesome.com In other news, can't wait for BRMC's new album next month, and Axe Cop is the best comic ever made. Last week's poll says people have all their music on their computer... Really? All of it? Today's photo is by owlbookdreams... A very talented person from Canadaland.

So Very, Very Most

Ok, again we let our concentration lapse. We go to the gigs, we talk about the musics, and yet we don't write any of it down. Time to dust the cobwebs off the ol' blog, and see if this thing still works.



So, today is new band time. The Very Most. Idaho's best indie pop band, even if they do think all the best bands come from Scotland (they're right though). Happy go-lucky indie pop so make you feel good inside. There's a unique mix of folksy acoustic guitars and funky synths. To quote the Boise Weekly, "Most songs are in a major key and tend to bounce around like a carefree child in an inflatable carnival jumping house".

Oh, the Boise Weekly can be oddly specific at times. A Year With The Very Most, a compilation of their last four EPs was released a few weeks ago. Go listen to it here! If you live in Dublin you can find it in Road Records, or if you live in Boise you can find it in The Record Exchange.