Before the Cocteau Twins became the band you, I, and anyone with any musical taste whatsoever 1 adores with their still-beating bloodthumping heart, there was a darker, stranger version. Before all the delicate chirruping, the apparently nonsense lyrics 2 , those chiming, echo-drenched arpeggios, that whole sonic cathedrals of sound 3 thing. Before Blue Bell Knoll, Treasure, Heaven Or Las Vegas, all those stunning EP's (the Love's Easy Tears , in its CD form, must rank as one of the finest 14 minutes of music anywhere, ever), came Garlands. A jagged, fraught, mechanised, angry, [...]

Bird are one of the most exciting new bands to emerge from Liverpool in recent years, this is not merely our opinion, we can back it up with Dr. Brian Cox style science using Euler-Lagrange field equations, but nobody would understand so just take our word for it, Ok ? We've often bemoaned the fact that Liverpool has, over certain periods of time been littered with lamentable sub-Beatles wannabes giving the local music scene all the sparkle of a bedraggled, faded piece of tinsel languishing on the bare branches of a long since dead Christmas tree. Respect your musical heritage [...]
Originally found on Lush 's third EP, Sweetness and Light , is the soft drive of "Breeze", a track that reminds me a lot of what's abundant on the forthcoming Frankie Rose album. Lush revealed a dueling persona that incorporated their love for both Wire and Cocteau Twins. Before they drifted off into full-on shoegaze territory they sounded a bit more Pop, more like a band still in discovery mode. This is perhaps my favorite period of their existence. Don't get me wrong, I love all of their releases and full-lengths, but as they [...]

Here's a revelation: the music industry never sleeps. One would think the holiday season would be a time of rest. "Only Santa works these hours," your mother might have said ages ago. Not in the digital era. Not when Twitter enables artists to be their own publicist, label, and distributor. (We love you Patrick Stickles.) Consequently, yours truly spent Christmas afternoon stringing together the words "Merry eX-Mas and Suck My Dick." Sorry, Mom! Below you can find a recap of news coverage from the last two weeks. Among the major themes: Mixtapes, covers, and more money for Adele. [...]

Hace un largo tiempo que Cocteu Twins dejó de estar en activo (y por eso le dedicamos un Flashback ), pero la disquera Beggars Archive acaba de anunciar que publicará una nueva compilación de la banda para los más nostálgicos. No habrá nada digital en este nuevo lanzamiento. Será un trabajo que pretenderá repasar los nueve discos que esta banda grabó en sus años de existencia. Se llamará Stars and Topsoil: A Collection (1982-1990) y aparte de incluir sus canciones más exitosas como "Sugar Hiccup" o "Pearly-Dewdrops' [...]

La banda de dream pop escocesa oriunda de Grangemouth, Cocteau Twins , anunció el lanzamiento en vinilo del compilado Stars and Topsoil: A Collection (1982-1990) a través del sello Beggars Archive . De acuerdo a la gacetilla de prensa, el vinilo doble (blanco) contará con 18 temas y abarcará material desde su debut de 1982 Garlands hasta el EP de 1990 Iceblink Luck . En este sentido, la misma colección -que cuenta con canciones como Sugar Hiccup [...]

Download album HERE If you're a fan of The Weeknd, you'll probably recognize the album title, as it's a song name from Thursday. Anyways, The Weeknd sampled the song " Cherry-Coloured Funk ", and I thought I should give the original song a listen. Turns out I loved the whole album. [wpaudio url=" http://ilspins.com/wp-content/ uploads/2011/12/cocteau-twins- heaven-or-las-vegas-01-cherry- coloured-funk.mp33 text="Cocteau Twins - Cherry- Coloured Funk" dl=" http://ilspins.com/wp-content/ uploads/2011/12/cocteau-twins- heaven-or-las-vegas-01-cherry- coloured-funk.mp33

Cocteau Twins ' 2000 compilation Stars and Topsoil: A Collection (1982-1990 ) will soon be reissued as a double vinyl set, as Slicing Up Eyeballs points out. The 18-track effort comprises material from the band's 4AD release, from their 1982 debut Garlands through their 1990 EP Iceblink Luck . The reissue was remastered by John Dent and will be released on white vinyl in the UK on February 6th via Beggars Archive. The set will be released in the U.S. pressed on black vinyl. Below, check out the set's tracklist, followed by Cocteau Twins' [...]

Ho ho ho, assholes! With the Christmas holiday coming up this weekend and we're already two days deep up on the Hanukkah tip, it's very much time to drop the annual The Decibel Tolls Holiday Mixer . You know the deal - a carefully curated collection of skewed, brain-burning, monolithic Christmas gems that totally sleigh. Get it?! Sleigh? Slay? It's a homophone, you guys! Ugh... never mind. Tough crowd. Anyway, these yule-time canticles exalted on high can crush shopping malls and magically spike egg nog, true story. For this year's mixer, you'll recognize you'll recognize some jams from previous year's mixers, [...]

4AD has announced the release of Stars & Topsoil; A Collection (1982-1990) , a collection of the best of the Cocteau Twins 4AD years. You can stream the tracks, get more info, and pre-order on vinyl over HERE .

So we would normally have our new releases out this week on Tuesday, but the new releases this time of year are few and far between. We decided to compile some tracks for your listening pleasure as you hang with family and friends around the tree, or cuddling up with your significant other in front of the yule log. Props to Vague Space for making our job pretty easy, by hosting some rad Christmas flavored tracks. Cheers. The Raveonettes; Christmas Song [...]

Every year, we ask our friend Josh from the esteemed music blog Indie Kid vs Dance Kid to give us his best of. This year he just gave us a list of videos but neglected to provide comment, so being the friend that I am, I will provide commentary (in italics) IKDK Best of Holiday Songs; Best served with Eggnog and Rum Saint Etienne and Tim Burgess - I Was Born On Christmas Day Saint Etienne is Josh's favorite band ever and [...]

Ahead of our album of the year special it's time to . . . . Jingle your bells, polish your baubles and roast you chestnuts on an open fire along to this special festive edition of the VPME podcast. Including festive tracks from The Ramones , the Cocteau Twins , Low, The Raveonettes , Emmy The Great & Tim Wheeler , The Pogues and much more Listen below or via mixcloud Related articles [...]
Some indie rock tunes to celebrate the coming winter (I am loving that it's so warm here in NJ so far this December) and the world of Christmas and New Year's. Enjoy. Download She & Him - "Sleigh Ride".mp3 FYI: Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward have a full album of Christmas tunes out this winter, so check it out if you like this song Download Parenthetical Girls - "Festive Friends (Forever)".mp3 [...]

Artist: Sealight Ep: Dead Letters Place of origin: France / Australia Label: Commission45 Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter Buy: Bandcamp
Star Slinger - Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins Mix) Heavenly bliss courtesy of Fluo Kids

We're not exactly sure what it is about Fridays that get us all nostalgic up in here, but it happens more often than not. The first song that freed itself from the archives of our cerebral hard drives is the title track from the Cocteau Twins classic Heaven Or Las Vegas. Enjoy.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Whether you like it or not, clearly. The best way to listen to an album for me is late at night when everything is totally quiet, then to lie on my back on the floor with big headphones on full blast. If it sounds bad [...]

Este tipo de cosas son las que hacen que me caiga el veinte de que realmente ya ha pasado un año desde que les puse un playlist para esta ocasion con tan solo un par de semanas de haber iniciado con todo este asunto del blog y claro, como ya ha pasado un año y estamos de nueva cuenta dentro de todas esas 'celebraciones' que en si, para ser un tipo de México para muchos podria parecerles una gran mamada ya que todo el asunto de Halloween es de los 'gringos' y nosotros solo debemos enfocarnos en el Dia de [...]