Funny how even the more sensible of us fall victim to the fabled company party and all its ragged booziness. After near-disastrous phone disappearance and subsequent sleep-deprived, hungover recovery mission, I'm thinking it'll be easier to stay above the influence in the future. (My creaky bones nod in agreement.) Meanwhile, I'm thinking some ridiculously sunshiny tunes are a nice way to downshift from a manic couple of weeks. The Free Design sometimes strike me as a put-on, but there are some subtle dark vibes underneath the harmonies. Here are a couple tunes from both ends of their full-throated career. [...]
This song Speed of Sound by Beat Mark has taken over my waking thoughts for the past day. It is one half of the upcoming split single with the Two Bit Dezperados (The Two Bit Dezperados song Blind on the flip is recommended to anyone that digs Thee Oh Sees ). Beat Mark hail from the Isle de France, sing in English and jangle like Scots. This split single follows their debut album Howls of Joy that came out on Final Taxi last year. Speed of Sound may be their best [...]
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, [...]
Nowadays, if they think of Christmas music from the Sixties, young people are apt to think of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album or Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records or any of the Motown versions. But I think of artists like Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, and Nat King Cole. Back when I was a kid, the Christmas music I heard was pretty lightweight. I wasn’t listening to some of the fine seasonal offerings from Stax or Atlantic. I wasn’t much of a rock or soul aficionado at all. [...]
As Cooper's second birthday looms, he's finally aged to the point where he has developed some bona fide opinions about music—or at least latched onto a few favorite songs. Being that this is a household that emphasizes songs the whole family can enjoy (while not wholly outlawing outright kids' music), the majority of the songs on this list are simply oldies for young'uns . These are the songs (especially of late) that Coop asks for by name, and/or can "sing" on request. The Beach Boys: Barbara Ann The [...]
Cults is a name that you’ll either know really well, or not at all. The hotly-tipped Brooklyn duo made a big impression around the blogosphere last year, after their debut single “Go Outside” was Best-New-Music’d by Pitchfork . Since then, they’ve been touring fairly rigorously, and between dates found some time to put together a proper full-length debut, due out June 7. I sat on this track for about a week, deciding on whether or not I wanted to post it. I try to stay on top of new tracks, but when “Abducted” was released back in [...]
Cults is a name that you’ll either know really well, or not at all. The hotly-tipped Brooklyn duo made a big impression around the blogosphere last year, after their debut single “Go Outside” was Best-New-Music’d by Pitchfork . Since then, they’ve been touring. I sat on this track for about a week, deciding on whether or not I wanted to post it. I try to stay on top of new tracks, but when “Abducted” was released back in April, it somehow managed to slip beneath my radar. So it may seem a little old-hat, but this track [...]
For as long as there's been music, there's been music about love. And so it's an imposing task to pick and choose songs about the feelings that make us do extraordinary - and extraordinarily petty - things, all for one mix. I don't think a day goes by when I don't hear a song that's [...]
It's Sunday night. All across the country, people are watching horrible television. I know this because I drove to Nicci's house after work only to learn that she was involved in a reality cooking show, and half of her neighbors were involved in an episode of a vampire drama. The other half of her neighbors were watching Jersey Shore . This left me with nothing to do but think about blogging. I was sidetracked for a few hours by a spur-of-the-moment poker tournament, but now that I've lost my $5 I can once again focus on sharing some music [...]
Just got word that The Free Design 's main songwriter, Chris Derrick, passed away over the weekend after his battle with cancer. He was 62. While the feel good sunshine psychedelic pop of The Free Design never really achieved the notoriety of many of their paisley-clad peers in the late '60s and early '70s, The Free Design's baroque pop has truly never aged, thanks to its influence and relatable themes of innocence and summer whimsy. Moreover, there was a sense of genuine excitement when you heard The Free Design for the first time as opposed to, say, The Byrds, because it was a [...]
Filed under: News , R.I.P. Chris Dedrick Chris Dedrick, lead songwriter of '60s and '70s vocal pop band the Free Design, passed away on Aug. 6 after battling cancer. He was 62. "I feel Chris knew I was in the company of love and could pass without worry," his wife Moira wrote on Dedrick's website . "I have felt for days that he had dropped all baggage, and now I feel he is traveling lightly and [...]
Inspired by rainstorms and Doris Day films; this mix is dedicated to one of the coolest girls in the world. 1. Maps & Atlases - Solid Ground.mp3 2. Ane Brun - Humming One of Your Songs.mp3 3. Real Estate - Suburban Berveridge.mp3 4. Avi Buffalo - Remember Last Time.mp3 [...]
PLAYLIST: Je Suis France - Fantastic Area Airiel - Firefly The Arcade Fire - Surf City Eastern Bloc Elbow - Any Day Now The Free Design - Bubbles Pirate Love - Laughing Gas Lush - Bitter The Concretes - You Can't Hurry Love Noonday Underground - When You Leave The Ruling Class - If You Wonder The Oohlas - From Me To You Mercury Rev - Black Forest (Lorelei) Kaiser Chiefs - You Can Have It All Fire Engines - Meat Whiplash Pavement [...]
pic: Alex Robbins De bien jolies paroles pour une bien jolie chanson dans une bien jolie... publicité? Non effectivement, personne ne s'y trompe, la pub pour la Toyota Yaris est vraiment naze, mais la chanson derrière y ajoute un certain charme. Ainsi pour les 8 premières fois; mais après... Tu verras, dans si 6 mois - ou dès maintenant pour peu que tu n'aies pas de boite abrutissante - tu écouteras cette douce petite comptine avec délectation. En attendant, la voici la voilà (by the way tu devrais checker les free [...]
We don't know why but we kind of like Christmas songs. Here's some of the best tracks to party on this Holyday. From Lady Gaga to James Pants , passing through YYYs , RUN DMC and even Snoop Dogg . The first one is Siriusmo and it's not a Christmas song, we just felt like it should be here. Hope you all like it. Also, every year Stones Throw has an awesome gift for everyone who shops on their online store in this season. This year they're bringing [...]
Try this out on some decent earphones and prepare to be teleported to the sunshine stereophonics of the Dedrick family (aka the Free Design). ‘Love You’ has been snapped up by at least half a dozen contemporary adverts and it’s hard to argue with their decision given its downright perfect harmonies. Although the band released an album in 2001 the vast majority of their back catalogue was released in the late 60’s/early 70’s and it is from that era that this piece of adorability was created. The Free Design were a commercial flop despite harmonies like angel delight and a [...]
No doubt that regular readers are familiar with the satirical Billy Corgan Twitter gimmick . It's really taken off in a ways that I could not have foreseen, and I have to assume that you all might be interested in an update. First, Corgan himself has acknowledged its existence. Official statement from the King Pumpkin, found in paragraph six of his mission statement thesis : I do plan on doing other things coming up though. I have notions to start 2 other bands and also release some more solo work. I would [...]
Last week, I had part one of the 26-song, seasonally-inspired, massive clusterfuck mix. Guess fucking what! This is part dos, just in time to send March off like a lion (or a lamb, depending on where you are I suppose). Spring rules, and I want you to have the jams I'm cranking in my car with the windows down and rims still spinnin'. Below are 15 more songs that are one million times better than the new Phoenix or St. Vincent or Lykke Li albums (or whatever the other blogs are poppin' boners for). Fuck that shit. String Band, [...]
This month, Nottingham's Selectadisc closes its doors after 43 years in the city. I've been going there off and on for the best part of 23 of those years, from my late school days, through college and into my University life - there were perfectly good shops in Sheffield but I frequently got the train back, walked across town and bought something before heading home for the weekend. I can't pretend that I've frequented it all that often over the last couple of years but when I heard about its closure (from The Guardian , [...]
There's no real need for an introduction. Spring is here finally, and it rules. West coasters may not be privy to this, but on the east coast, we have this thing called February which really sucks the life out of you. With these new mild conditions and sunshine, I had the energy to pull together a rather massive springtime collection of music - sunny folk and psychedelia (with annotations!) that evokes the oft conjured imagery of the season that I won't waste time reiterating here. This gangsta-ass mix is so massive, as a matter of fact, that it will be [...]
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