Yes, yes, I know it's been ages since we've gotten together. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa . Now look, I can fritter my time away explaining how I was held prisoner by Morlocks in the wastelands of Mississauga, then besieged by small people and forced to work in the salt mines, or I can get on with what I came here to do, namely draw your attention to some fine music. The choice is yours. What's that? You're going for the music? You sure?? You have [...]
Listen HERE Here's today's playlist... Future Sounds #17 - March 30th, 2009 Gran Ronde – On Our Own – Demos – Unsigned The Cloud Room – Waiting – New Songs – Unsigned [...]
I potter about from here to there, then somewhere else, all off the back of some tune or other. Recently grabbed some really nice tracks by The Vichy Government which a Tart posted, including a delightful & moving rework (albeit tongue in cheek) of Stop the Cavalry . The Vichy Government have a fine sense of humour - check out Memo from Turner on their myspace , it's wonderful. That lead to digging out "Stop the Revelry" from 2006, set to the same tune, but a rail against too much Christmas spirit, [...]
Until now I have been able to avoid it. I looked the other way when Dearest Tart started in on it obscenely early . And I plugged my ears when Dearest Ed started spinning his seasonal discs back at the arse-end of November. But December has ushered in the relentless tyranny of green and red and bells and fa-la-la-la-fucking-la. I cannot escape it and so I grudgingly accept an egg nog latte made with two parts schmaltz, two parts tension, and a diluted shot of cheer. Christmas is coming. [...]
Yes we still do talk about music here. If you're sick of all the political chat, well, it's probably not going to stop. But I can promise more actual music-centered posts in the upcoming weeks. One of the big breakout artists of 2007 for me was Kate Nash . As much as I love sophisticated music, and as much as I want indie cred, I have no problem admitting how much I love a well-crafted and idiosyncratic pop song. And last year Kate Nash had three or four of the best entries in [...]
As a blogger I get mp3s e-mailed to me all the time. This week I got a bunch of stuff that I actually got a chance to listen to, and more importantly, liked. Tom Jones has been given a bit of the Winehouse treatment on his new record and is taking it back to the old school. 2 Hot 2 Sweat are a boy/girl synth-rock duo who deliver a snotty, scuzzy robot rocker - fabulous. Shrag deliver a snotty,
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 It's bad enough that the Cowboys are playing rather terrible, but now they've gone off and shelved Tony Romo for an uncertain amount of time. What a complete bummer, especially since I'm going to see Dallas take on the Buccaneers on Sunday! In any case, having caught a screening of Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, I came home feeling the need to appreciate some material that went with a sort of narrative more so than just [...]
Records get their worth from people, not the other way around. If there's anything I hope to convey in the gazillion hastily proofread words I spew out to my editors each day, that's it. I've never actually lent anyone a 45 from my impotently meager vinyl collection, as the ex-boyfriend does in Shrag 's excellent "Forty Five 45s", but my most meaningful listening experiences have almost always been social ones-- drinking beers in cramped apartments, meeting friends at shows, trading furtively flirty mixes. Even those that weren't explicitly social have usually been mediated [...]
Shrag "Forty Five 45s" - This song, which is about a stack of singles soured by its connection to a failed relationship, may as well be an entry on the Ruined Music site. I'll admit that I tend to be rather dubious when people talk about spending time together deliberately sharing records -- How many people actually do that? Am I just weird for not doing that? -- but this song rings very true, particularly when the singer hints at some resentment for the way [...]
Brighton is slowly gaining on Leeds as the best place for new music in England. The band Shrag takes the early '90s DIY punk thing and updates it for the future. They might be all too familiar to some, but it's the unique personality of the band that makes them stand out. If you've ever wondered what Bis would sound like if they were all riot-grrl and hailed from Seattle, this may very well be it. The band's debut album was just released last week, so make sure you pick [...]
The long hot busy summer has past. Here is what entertained my ears for the past three months. Plenty of the usual suspects. Enjoy. 01 - The Muslims - " Walking With Jesus ". For two decades plus, sunny San Diego has been cranking out garage gorgeousness. This gem is an obvious cover of the classic Spacemen 3 tune jammed through with two-chord strummage that makes Jason Pierce look ancient by comparison. 02 - [...]
May be just me but is Brighton beginning to push Brooklyn for the title of most creative neighbourhood in the world? Perhaps not but I can't stop running into great little bands from that neck of the woods. Shrag are the latest and within seconds you may detect a certain Ting Tings direction. The thing (ting) with Shrag though is that there are 5 of them which affords more opportunities to flesh
Another week nearer the festival, and if you're anything like us, you've been staring blankly out of the window at work/school/college dreaming of steam trains and clicking on the stage times bit of the Indietracks website just to marvel at the spectacular number of bands Stuart's managed to book this year. We're sure female-fronted Brighton five piece Shrag don't need too much introduction. In fact, if memory serves, their latest single Lost Dog got a glowing write up in the Guardian Guide among other places recently. (As indeed did the festival itself, hee! We're [...]
Shrag "Stop The Revelry" - Set to a tacky, cheap sounding track that seems as though it was made to evoke bad Christmas music and cheap holiday junk , Helen Shrag sings an anti-Christmas carol about a character who must suffer through the day alone with a family that she loathes, and without booze to "block out all the misery." Delightful holiday misanthropy! ( Click here for the Shrag MySpace page.) Ed Shepp "Scenes From [...]
Contrast Podcast is back this week with yet another batch of Christmas cheer to force down your gullets. But this isn't just more of the same-old mouldy fruitcake, oh no! This stuff is cool and crisp, just like a new snowfall on Christmas morning. The Vandals! The Muppets!! The Wedding Present!!! And more!!!! Rejoice, rejoice!! As usual, you can pull the podcast out of this stocking, or you can get Santa to regularly drop off each episode by subscribing with the following RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Co ntrastPodcast . OK kids, let's do some rapping and [...]
01 - UCLA's Awaken Accapella - "Hide And Seek" (Imogen Heap Cover) . Two days ago, this magically appeared in my inbox courtesy of a friend . I don't have a clue about it except to say that it is amazing and gives me pleasant memories of The OC Season 2. | Website | Purchase | 02 - Brilliant Fanzine - "One In 10,000" . Lame band name, amazing intro. Who starts songs with " And "? Genius. [...]
Shrag @ Cake Shop 10/17/2006 Intelligent Theft / Mark E Smith / Cupboard Love / Intro / Talk To The Left / Lost Dog / Hopelessly Wasted / Pregnancy Scene Shrag "Hopelessly Wasted" - The Brighton, UK based quintet Shrag made their first appearance on this site back in February of 2004, and in the time since have slowly transformed themselves from a one-off project into a proper indie punk band that can, y'know, come and play a few shows [...]
Shrag "Why Are You Here? - The sloooooow drip of new Shrag tunes continues with this forthcoming single on the Where It's At Is Where You Are label. This time, team Shrag takes on dreary borecore audience members who come out to shows as if they were under duress, and drag down the mood of the entire room. Whereas a lot of bands seem to go for a "Why aren't you dancing??? You should be dancing!!!" message regardless of whether their music is actually good enough for dancing, [...]
pogo a go-go
FUTURE SOUNDS
How Marvellous...
Heartache with Hard Work
silence is a rhythm two
Side One: Track One
Pitchfork: Forkcast
Fluxblog Is So Hot Right Now
Stranded In Stereo
A Certain Romance
mp3hugger
Indietracks festival
Stream: Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Americana
