Piney Gir is another band I stole from blogs, though their name is strange enough that I would have downloaded it from Doug eventually (for he has this album as well). Anyhow, this is a band that truly sounds different with every song. From the electro-pop of Boston to the country twang of Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye to the violins on K-I-S-S-I-N-G , you really don't know what to expect from the next song. That isn't necessarily a good thing, but at least it keeps you on your toes. From Peakahokahoo [...]
Back in the day, when I whored blogs much more than I do now, I wrote e-mails to myself listeing all the bands I enjoyed, along with a short description. In the case of Space Mtn , the description consisted of "sweet pop." Upon listening to them more thoroughly, I've decided that I was using the slang term for sweet, because while these songs do not evoke the sugary-sweet melodies of The Beach Boys, they are definitely friggin' sweeeeet . These three are especially awesome; any one of them is better than 90% of songs, and they're all [...]
I seem to enjoy bands that play music from areas that are not associated with them; first it's circus music from California, and now it's the The Broken Family Band , who are from the UK and play country music that's more "country" than what the country stations play here. At the same time, some of their lyrics are hardly standard country fare; part of the chorus on Living In Sin is " You're a sick Satanic lady, you're full of hate and I just love that ." Imagine the media shitstorm if a popular singer sang [...]
Vermillion Lies is a circus-cabaret group out of... California? That amuses me to no end, but the music is as authentic as you're going to find anywhere (perhaps there is hope for the West Coast after all). The band's headed by two sisters, both of whom are quite capable singers. I'm not sure which sister sings No Good , but her voice sounded exactly like Katharine Whalen's , the lady who sang for the Squirrel Nut Zippers; this can only be a good thing. While the singing is different on their other songs, it's still good enough [...]
In my younger music blogging days, I didn't like to post about bands I found from other blogs. Nowadays, I realize there is not much point to this as all of the big blogs repost the same bands (and mostly the same songs). So, here is a bunch of songs from Dios Malos. They are a mostly excellent indie-pop group out of California, but they are not one of those cheery pop bands that always has a smile on their face. Going off the lyrics of Asshole , my favorite song of theirs (" She dangles carrots, makes you [...]
Vashti Bunyan released her album Just Another Diamond Day in 1970, so she has been around for quite some time. I honestly had trouble deciding which songs of hers to post, because they are all so good. Vashti's music is about as carefree as folk music can get, which is why I love it. It evokes such great "spring" imagery that you can't help but be happy when you listen to it. That being said, there are a few songs interspersed throughout the album with a more melancholy tone that act as a cloud over the sun for [...]
With all the anti-Chinese sentiment running around right now, it may be hard for some people to accept Chinese music. However, Jay Chou mixes Eastern and Western music so successfully that no one can touch him. I first heard his song, Ji Hua Tai during the end credits of Curse of the Golden Flower, and I knew right then I had to find out who sang it. His voice has an amazing clarity and tone that gives his music just that much more merit. He does a few hip-hop style songs that, despite the fact that [...]
I got in trouble for only posting 1 song with some of my posts, so I offer this as an atonement for my apparent shortcomings. More songs from our artists, plus some from artists that I posted enough from. I hope you like these guys as much as I do! From Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands This song is featured in the trailer for the upcoming movie, The Hills Have Eyes 2 . Devendra is one of my favorites. Insect Eyes - (Streaming, 55bytes) [...]
Sometimes, when the random music pickings aren't so good, I'll get lazy and just listen to the first song of the album and decide whether or not to get the rest from there. This system is hardly effective for many reasons, one of them being that the first song on any given album is hardly going to be representative of what the band sounds like. In the case of The Causey Way's Causey vs. Everything , which starts with Te Como Vivo , I thought they were a Latin punk band that was heavily inspired by Le Tigre. [...]
It's nearly the end of March, which means it is time for another mix. All of them are free and legal, which is good news for me since then I don't have to pay for any bandwidth. Living the good, cheap life is the only way to live... at least when you're a cheap bastard. And don't tell me you've seen a cooler picture of Christopher Walken today, because you haven't. Calla - Bronson - (MP3, 5.8 MB) Calla is an awesome band that I could never recommend enough, and that [...]
HUMANWINE (all caps, no gaps!) is an incredibly awesome cabaret group out of Boston, which is unfortunate for me as I am nowhere near Boston. That's my only beef with good cabaret bands; they are all from the East Coast, while I am from the West. Fie! It seems that whenever I bring up this band, the only people who seem to have heard of them are those who know they've opened for The Dresden Dolls. While that's entirely true, that shouldn't be their claim to fame when their music is so damn good. Oh well. They're kicking off [...]
Imagine a guy and a girl who are inscrutably happy about everything. One bangs on the drums, and the other bangs on a keyboard, both pretty much to the same rhythm and beat. Seeing them live, even the grumpiest dudes would find it impossible not to grin like an idiot and at least tap their toes. I've felt like their recordings just do not do justice to seeing them bounce about in person, but it is still worth a shot. Strangely, I have heard they have appeared on MTV (or one of its variants), and [...]
Anyone who knows what music I like knows that lyrics don't matter that much to me unless they're really good or really bad. These ears of mine tend to focus on the singing and instrumentation, and that inevitably leads me to the conclusion that Everthus The Deadbeats is one hell of a great band. Even when they're singing a long string of " Lalalalalala " as they do on Trevor Dust The Bedsheets , it doesn't matter because the instrumentation is so awesome (especially that damn keyboard). I should probably clarify that though their lyrics don't really [...]
I found Richard Buckner about 3 years ago, but just got back to his music while sorting through my music collection. My favorite song Ariel Ramirez is in the same laid-back, vintage style as most of his other music. The album has some great guitar-work and clear vocals. Overall, Richard Buckner presents great folk imagery. An interesting bit of trivia: Richard played with Eric Bachmann in 2006 and one of their stops was about 20 or fewer miles from where our own Hugh lives. From Devotion and Doubt Ariel Ramirez [...]
Sixeyes works the opposite of how I think music blogs should be; that is, their posts covering well-established bands are much longer than their posts where they throw a bunch of songs at you. On the other hand, maybe they just don't want to write a lot about bands they're not overly familiar with. I have no such hang-ups, which is why I will attempt to talk about Exit Clov (which I heard from one of Sixeyes' posts where they throw a bunch of songs at you). Just looking at the title, I thought [...]
I'm not usually one to like a song primarily for the lyrics, but in the case of We're All Going To Hell by The Bastard Fairies, lyrics are most of what it's got (" All you Mormons who like cussing, you are going to hell / All you preachers who like fucking, you are going to hell / Little boys that choke the chicken, you are going to hell / It's the nature of evolution, the dinosaurs went to hell "). It might not be for everyone, but if you don't mind thinking about how you're inevitably going [...]
My friend Ciara recommended UHP to me tonight and the one song I can get ahold of, Katrinah Josephina , captivated me such that I had to write about it right away. Universal Hall Pass is a one-person band compised of Melissa Kaplan, formerly of the band Splashdown . Unfortunately all I can find is a 2-minute segment of the song, but you can sample other songs on Amazon.com and cdbaby.com . From Mercury Katrinah Josephina - (MP3, 02:00, 469 KB)
I realize that most of what people want out of SXSW has been covered by now, but that's only if you were interested in the Cold War Kids and whatever other huge bands that everyone already knows about. Which isn't to say that you've never heard of any of these bands, but that is largely besides the point! So, here's some of the songs I enjoyed using SXSW's music player. Ane Brun - To Let Myself Go - (MP3, 3 MB) I've meant to talk about Ane Brun on here for [...]
For those of you who like original folk music, You can visit the Max Hunter Archive for folk music. Max Hunter was a musician and folklorist who travelled around the Ozarks searching for folk songs and recording them for the Library of Congress. Now, a project at my university has digitized the entire collection for the internet. This project contains an archive of almost 1,600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1972 by Mr. Hunter. The database is searchable if not very intuitive. It also includes the original sheet music and lyrics for each song, along with different [...]
For some reason, there are three things that are quite popular in indie: Sweden, Canada, and bands made up of other bands. Henri Fabergé And The Adorables satisfies the latter two of those requirements with their Canadianness (not a word) and members from Born Ruffians and The Bicycles , among others. They have an alluring ability to mix catchy indie-pop with some of the most hilarious sex-related lyrics in the history of sex-related lyrics. In case I somehow have to prove my point, they have a song called Rub & Suck & Tug ('Til [...]
either/or
Bison - Quill
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Mr Fogg - Eleven
