We've made to the fat on top, or the fruit at the bottom, in other words the top ten…I bought way too many seven inch singles this year. I'm not trying to brag. It's a problem really. The seven inch is like crack to the record geek, a fleeting moment of pop perfection and then it's off to either flip the record or put on another one. This was a daunting task this year and I feel like I left out a lot of stuff, but a top 60 would have been too much and limiting it to 40 makes [...]
The tension builds...I bought way too many seven inch singles this year. I'm not trying to brag. It's a problem really. The seven inch is like crack to the record geek, a fleeting moment of pop perfection and then it's off to either flip the record or put on another one. This was a daunting task this year and I feel like I left out a lot of stuff, but a top 60 would have been too much and limiting it to 40 makes you have to really decide, what were your favorite singles of the year. Here are numbers [...]
I bought way too many seven inch singles this year. I'm not trying to brag. It's a problem really. The seven inch is like crack to the record geek, a fleeting moment of pop perfection and then it's off to either flip the record or put on another one. This was a daunting task this year and I feel like I left out a lot of stuff, but a top 60 would have been too much and limiting it to 40 makes you have to really decide, what were your favorite [...]
I bought way too many seven inch singles this year. I'm not trying to brag. It's a problem really. The seven inch is like crack to the record geek, a fleeting moment of pop perfection and then it's off to either flip the record or put on another one. This was a daunting task this year and I feel like I left out a lot of stuff, but a top 60 would have been too much and limiting it to 40 makes you have to really decide, what were your favorite singles of the year. Here [...]
Bombastic music from Richmond, Virginia has got me putting off my list making another night. Use to be that this sort of music didn't get made on this side of the Atlantic, but the world turned upside down a few years ago and now Americans are making big sounding shoegaze music. White Laces seem to have an innate ability to meld the hazy sounds of Seam with the prog grandiose of iLiKETRAiNS and the muscle of Swervedriver . This is big music that chimes, pummels, wrenches and soars. [...]
image snagged from 62Stockon * If you are the type who goes all Tron for Kraftwerk , Gary Numan and Berlin 's Riding on the Metro, you should probably get on this. The first batch of Total Control ' s third single sold out pretty quickly, but as luck would have it Smart Guy Records has seen fit to press up another run of the 7 inch, only this time on sterile white vinyl. Total Control [...]
Portrait by Julia Kay Being an old curmudgeon, if I don't like a band's name I won't give them a chance. After all musical taste is all about aesthetics and if I don't like the name, chances are I'm not going to like the music. There are tons of bands that reinforce that rule: Crash Test Dummys , Vampire Weekend , Hoobastank , Deathcab for Cutie , Gay Dad , Dogs Die In Hot Cars , and the Cherry Poppin' Daddys to name but a [...]
photo from sare bear's Flickr photostream Vancouver, BC's Dead Ghosts have a portfolio of obscure seven inch singles to their name, but it's almost like they don't want you to know about them, preferring to release records on obscure European and Iowan labels. They seem to favor flying under the radar. Hopefully all of that is about to change with the release of their first feature full length album. Packed full of foot-stompers, the Dead Ghosts self-titled debut on Florida's Dying is easy to like, especially for garage [...]
You may or may not know that Ben Franklin thought that the national bird should have been the wild turkey. He thought the bald eagle to be of questionable moral character and that it was lazy since it scavenged and stole food from other birds. Wild turkey's on the other hand, he thought were a much more respectable bird, maybe a little vain and goofy, but they were courageous. Maybe if not for the unfortunate name, its connotations, and the fact that they taste pretty good, there might have been a different bird adorning our money. Of course then what [...]
When Spectrals which for all intents and purposes is one Louis Jones first appeared on the scene with his debut single Leave Me Be on Captured Tracks last year I took him for subscribing to the darker realms of pop à la Crystal Stilts . Subsequent releases have shown that was never the intent. There is still a darkness to the songs, but their bright slick pop hooks play tug of war with the dark side to create a contemporary 502s feel. The latest Spectrals record is a six song EP that goes one [...]
At this year's SXSW one of the highlights of the week was Ottawa's White Wires . The trio weren't reinventing the wheel with their powerpop garage jams, but their songs were so tight and well formed it was like hearing garage rock for the first time again. It was one of those shows where you go in kinda liking a band and then mid-set there's some kind of conversion/epiphany turning your like into love. Each song that day at the Longbranch tunneled through my auditory canal and bounced around my skull connecting [...]
Wild Flag and Royal Baths at the High Dive, Seattle | 12 November 2010 You've likely already heard about how Wild Flag are two parts Sleater-Kinney (Carrie Brownstein & Janet Weiss) , one part Helium (Mary Timony) and one part Minders (Rebecca Cole); how they've signed with Merge to put out their record and how up until this weekend no one knew what they sounded like. Much ado has been made about [...]
I was kind of surprised at how blown away I was by Weekend last Saturday at the Vera Project even with technical difficulties (a blown fuse in the guitar amp) near the end of their set. The San Francisco band's Slumberland debut hit the streets this week and they were in town supporting fellow label mates the Pains of Being Pure At Heart . There's something about their waves of cacophonous noise that drill into a sweet spot in my brain. They have this uncanny ability to bury the melodies of their songs [...]
I remember being at some record store in Raonoke, Virginia and seeing Max Eider 's Best Kisser In the World in the used bin. I was with friends Mike and Bill who use to preach the gospel of the Jazz Butcher to the unconverted. For some reason I had a hard time drinking the Jazz Butcher kool-aide (I've since converted), but his guitarist Max Eider was aces as far as I was concerned. Back then the best Jazz Butcher songs to me were DRINK, Down the Drain, and Who Loves You [...]
Summer Babes appeared this summer seemingly out of nowhere with an EP they put up on bandcamp . I got sucked in by the undeniable pop hypnosis of their song Crack Habit and ponied up the $5 for a download and was not disappointed. The Babes are lead by Jeff Albertson who sings sometimes in the Lights but mostly plays bass in that band. Summer Babes are his outlet for the songs that don't fit into the Lights' prickly, sharp edged design. Their EP is full of laid back, wistful and nostalgic songs that [...]
Allo Darlin', Math & Physics Club, Special Places at Jewelbox Theater, Seattle | 29 October 2010 If there is a more perfect place than the tiny Jewelbox Theater to enjoy the precious pop of the likes of London's Allo Darlin' and Seattle's Math & Physics Club and Perfect Places it likely only exists in my imagination or some storybook. After providing the secret knock to the theater door I entered into a Seattle's small but [...]
A German band with a French name for a German bank? Guitars that sound like they've been coughed up, spit out and then gurgle down the drain? Seemingly as obscure in their native Germany as they are here in the States? Have you been looking for such a thing? If you answered yes to one or more of those questions and like Big Black , the kiwi noise of the Gordons , early Gang of Four , the urban decay of Tyvek and like keeping a German to English dictionary handy then [...]
Surf Friends are from Auckland, New Zealand. I don't know how they met, but based on their name and their sound I would guess it was over some conversation that they struck up about fellow New Zealanders the Clean at some point break while waiting for the next set to come in. They've put out a slew of singles on Power Tool Records down south and now they have decided to put out a long player which they're calling Confusion . It rolls with some Krautrock grooves, jangles in a few [...]
The following five songs have been on repeat in this order throughout my day. Not sure how this short play list came to fruition. I just live in the moment and don't question higher powers. Seattle's Brent Amaker and the Rodeo have make a good case for doing an entire album of Kraftwerk covers with their version of Pocket Calculator. This song is not on their new album Please Stand By that comes out next week,but they might play it [...]
If you didn't know any better you might think that Trouble in Mind dug up a long lost 602s record from some dusty Parisian attic. the Limiñanas debut album is Jacques Dutronc , Velvet Underground and Françoise Hardy rolled up into a single slab of wax. You literally throw this record on and you feel like you're doin' the time warp en français. It conjures such an authentic 602s vibe that I bet they have bands lining up to record with them to get that sound. After two top [...]
the finest kiss
Monday Music – 28 May 2012
Bison - Quill
