Unfortunately, for the next two weeks I am being a horrible bastard and leaving the whole reality thing, meaning that blogging is very unlikely to happen. So here's what I can just tell is going to be going down in the next two weeks: The GIT Award It has been presented as the Scouse Mercury award but, having seen the shortlist, that's probably a bit of an insult to the artists that have made it – and the Mercuries aren't even that disastrous, the current crop of Liverpuddlian artists are just that [...]
Loved Ones are definitely very subtly staking their claim into being the UK's most exciting new eccentric-ambient-folk band. It might not be the most hotly contested accolade in the music industry, but, nevertheless, it goes someway to describing the Wirralian quartet's measured brilliance. It has seen them go from being the most talked about band in Liverpool's music community to seducing Communion in a relationship that will hopefully bear some very beautiful musical children. Judging by new track, "All Your Cry", that seduction is looking increasingly likely. Ripped from the forthcoming debut album "The Merry Monarch", [...]
This is so underappreciated it is either going to make me question the state of the music media or my own sanity. However, I'm pretty sure I'm largely sane, and, more importantly, an objective enough a listener not to be drawn towards music simply for the virtue of having been made in a town relatively near to mine. So the conclusion is the same one that I've been drawing for a while; Loved Ones' debut single "Are You Hiding Out In Hell?"s fragility and unrelenting, restrained emotion is absolutely brilliant. And now they've a hypnotic video to match the song's [...]
The Weeknd - "The Knowing" Directed by Mikael Colombu. Childish Gambino - "Bonfire" Directed by Dan Eckman. The Roots - "Sleep" Directed by Clifton Bell. Thrushes - "Trees" Directed by Christopher J. Ewing. SPC ECO - "Big Fat World" (Live @ The Wilmington Arms) Directed by Wombbaby. CANT - "Too Late, Too Far" Directed by Richard Peete. Loved Ones - "Hell" Directed by Matt Thomas & David [...]
This Week Tashaki Miyaki, Loved Ones, Eugene McGuiness, Little Comets. Just a quick one this week as I'm in the middle of decorating, getting a new PC built and ...zzzz...ok, ok on to the music... ********************** Tashaki Miyaki. "Something Is Better Than Nothing" By Tashaki Miyaki First up is Tashaki Miyaki who aren't distant [...]
This Week Tashaki Miyaki, Loved Ones, The Raveonettes, Eugene McGuiness, Little Comets. Just a quick one this week as I'm in the middle of decorating, getting a new PC built and ...zzzz...ok, ok on to the music... ********************** Tashaki Miyaki. "Something Is Better Than Nothing" By Tashaki Miyaki First up is Tashaki Miyaki who [...]
Being a music journalist has always seemed like an unbelievably illogical career path to me, because presumably you would only choose to become one if you loved music, yet, surely to anybody who loves music, the idea of being forced to continuously listen to and pick over an album that you have a real hatred for is something close to Guantanamo Bay levels of torture (not that I've been and know what goes down there). And then there's also the point that you get paid less than a well organised busker, and that whole crisis of people virtually stopping buying [...]
Dave Hause of The Loved Ones has a new video for the song "C'mon Kid" from his solo album. Watch the video below.
So apparently the interwebs has been buzzing about west coast native Hanni El Khatib for quite a while now and we're just getting word of him. "Loved One" a single from his forthcoming debut "Will The Guns Come Out" is a blues based tune that's just as sexy as the video above. Enjoy the Coney Island leading visuals above.
This is called the Barbecast because we finally went out and replaced our shitty old one this morning, and today we intend to christen the new one. The previous one had actually rusted through, and the only way to hold the burning coals in place was a shonky combination of chicken wire and tin foil. Not ideal. It's funny though, the two nations who go about barbecueing things the most actually know nothing whatsoever about the barbecue. Dear Aussies and Americans, if it is powered by gas rather than charcoal it IS NOT A BARBECUE. It [...]
Alu - Aludome Is Light Dub - I Do Not Need Much But You Loved Ones - Hi Pressure Alan Vega & Pan Sonic - Endless Is Contractors, E8 - Ils Sont Deux, Beaux et Rapides (ISE8 dub)
There are moments of haze and dislocation that punctuate the days of this 20JFG scribe. Days stretched to interminable limits at the 'mill' of our personal corporate overlords. It is of course to be expected that the escape afforded by the sweet sounds of summer would particularly appeal in the schizophrenic depths of a British June. And so, the temptation to submerge oneself in the fantasy of the pastoral that folk affords is as seductive as the transcendent bludgeoning dance of EBM, the delicate galactic vistas of Terry Riley. But they always remain fragile evocations of a never [...]
Photo by Jesse Deflorio As the lead vocalist and guitarist of the Philly-based punk band The Loved Ones , Dave Hause knows full well the many musical merits of high-octane rock. More recently, however, he's also come to understand the genre's limitations. So, when it became obvious to Hause that the batch of acoustic-guitar-and-piano-driv en songs he was working on for the next Loved Ones record weren't really Loved Ones songs at all, going the solo route seemed like a no-brainer—even if the switch came with a new set of creative challenges and [...]
I heard "Clash City Rockers" on the radio earlier this week and its startling face-smack triggered a flood of emotions - remembering sweaty, desperate punk rock shows, recalling the steely-eyed yet approachable humanity of Joe Strummer, but most of all reveling in how the Clash's awe-inspiring debut never backed down, never gave an inch and was unapologetically earnest while dolloping out bolts of righteous rage. Dave Hause reminds me of that feeling - you get the sense there's no backup plan, rock and roll is the only thing there is to do. Talk to him for five minutes [...]
![[Introducing] – Hanni El Khatib](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3244323_lg.jpg)
Arguably one of music's greatest eras, the 502s and 602s changed the face of music forever. Without people ranging from Elvis Presley to Little Richard , Bob Dylan to The Beatles , we probably wouldn't be listening to some of the bands and music we take for granted today. One man who grew up obsessed by the pop culture of this era was Hanni El Khatib. The son of Palestinian and Filipino immigrants (and the first American in his family), Hanni El Khatib grew up in San Francisco and was influenced by these kinds [...]
The Loved Ones and The Menzingers recently played a surprise show at Philadelphia's The Ox . The two groups were also joined by The Holy Mess and This Is Jazz.
First off, all the pictures in this post are from the show and taken by an incredibly talented photographer named Blake. You should check out his concert photography over at blklrsn.tumblr.com.Secondly, there's been a lot of good shows lately. Last Friday, I headed out to the Ox to catch philly relocated own The Menzingers play with The Loved Ones and The Holy Mess. This place is one of
Thanks to the folks over at Paper + Plastick Records for sending us "Resolutions," the first single from Dave Hause 's upcoming solo record (set for a January 2011 release). From the label: "While writing the follow-up to the last Loved Ones release (2009's Distractions , Fat Wreck Chords), Hause was writing songs that didn't seem like they would fit on a Loved Ones record. With a number of solo runs under his belt, Hause admits, 'I had only dabbled a bit in playing solo, and once I had enough songs for a cohesive [...]
Photo by Neil Ian Google "turkey vinyl" and this is what you get. (Whatever, it's festive enough) As producer of The Key Studio Sessions , I've got a lot to be thankful for this holiday: the wealth of musical talent in the Philadelphia region, and the number of those musicians who are stoked on performing for us. The incredible studio here at XPN where I can record, and this website where I can share those recordings with you. It's been good vibes since The Key launched, for sure—but I promised Matt I wouldn't [...]
Not Many Experts
A Good Day For Airplay
The VPME
The Key
The Maroon Cafe
The Wounded Jukebox
Song, by Toad
L.A.D.R.I.
20JazzFunkGreats
Teenage Kicks
Listen Before You Buy
The NJ Underground
Battle of the Midwestern Housewives
I’ll Just Leave This Here #161
How High Can You Hear? Test Your Hearing Now!
Taste And Try Before You Buy
BAND OF HORSES – The Funeral (Sound Remedy Remix)
K-Holes - "Frozen Stiff"
