Arcade Fire - William Pierce (demo) If every song works best in a particular setting, this is one for sitting on a train, watching others walk home through unsheltered streets and deciding you want to walk home that way too. It's for seeing the same faces wander past you day by day like absentee housemates, and picturing their lives and loves. It's for figuring out the best way back to your bed, or the person waiting for you, and watching it get closer as the sun passes through the sky.
Peter Broderick - And It's Alright Well. That was a great week. { Buy }
On Tuesday night, a small crowd convened in our sitting room, and listened to two of my favourite musicians, DM Stith and Cathy Davey, as they quietly took their seats and played beautiful music. There was wine and gingerbread, and Cathy's dog Rex, and his ridiculously cute ways. The atmosphere was that of the friendliest little birthday party you could imagine. The response to this little concert has been great; it really seems like everyone had an amazing time. There were some definite highlights. [...]
94. Tapes 'n Tapes - Insistor Ohne Ahnung - einfach hart, und gut so. 93. Bikini Atoll - Desolation Highway The start is here is homely and simple, like watching someone paint a landscape, a nice way of filling up a great empty weekend. It grows from this into something unexpected, simultaneously like a friendship that blooms out of nothing, and the way you head out [...]
{Part one is here .} 101. The Decemberists - Engine Driver Missing someone is the easiest way to feel the seconds of your life tick past, unused and unfulfilled, spent trying to find comfort in the doughy seats of a train, instead of in the sweet-skinned arms of the girl you love. 100. Bell x1 - Eve, The Apple Of My Eye I have [...]
The Holy Roman Army - Here This is a song to listen to on the way home from work. It's one for the flow of tired faces, reeds swaying in the wind, examining each one for the feelings that have been held in check the whole day long. It's a song for hard times, and for getting a little more honest with yourself about your life, and what it is and might be. For all this, and for the way her voice wavers, down and down, it's something beautiful. This is from [...]
Here we go! As always, there is some arbitrariness. The list is of 116 songs, but not for any particular reason. And it's not definitive, it's a list of songs I love the most: no more than one from each band, in order. They're all really, really good. 116. Shearwater - Leviathan , Bound This is for the kind of person that would rather swim with sharks than dolphins, and be confronted with the terror of physical beauty. 115. The [...]
Twin Sister - Lady Daydream (live) I get up for work at ten minutes to six. Outside, the sun strains through what remains of the night, sleepy and hazy. It pushes on, dreamy and undecided, and slowly, as I move from one train to another, the cold morning becomes day, and I reach my desk. Twin Sister - Milk & Honey (live) On the way home, because I don't really get enough sleep, I've started finding [...]
DM Stith - Braid of Voices In our sitting-room, actually. It's going to be fun. It's going to be cosy, and intimate, and really, really good. There will be candles, looping, and beautiful music. There will be wine and beer, and good company. Also, there'll be free buttons . How often do you get the opportunity to see one of the most original and talented musicians of his generation play to a few lucky people in a little house by the sea? Not often enough, we say. So we want you to [...]
This list was tough. I'm not even sure it's finished yet. There's more than a hundred songs on it. I'm not sure I've written about some of them properly yet. Many of these songs mean a great deal to me, and I don't want to get it wrong when I try and figure out why. The blog's fifth birthday seems like the right time to look back over the last ten years, from a numerically handy point of view. Also, it's kind of fun. It's going to take a couple of weeks, and many of you can probably guess the [...]
This blog is five years old today. That's kind of a long time. It went from being something I started as an excuse not to study (with a badly-chosen name, I might add) to the kind of thing I put on my CV. Along the way, I've been lucky, interviewing some of my favourite musicians , getting them to review things and write about music , selling clothes and badges, getting great guest articles , [...]
via Arms - Heat & Hot Water Sometimes, the experience of ending your working week feels a little weirder than normal. Fridays are like every other day, coffee breaks, emails and routine - but afternoon arrives, and all of a sudden you kind of fall out of it. Everyone else is laughing more than usual, and you're not sure what will happen - the night is beckoning you to come out and celebrate this temporary [...]
Twin Sister - All Around And Away We Go The demo for this has been floating around for a while, but it's astonishing how much of a progression the band has made with this song. It still sounds a little like wandering around a city while looking at the sky, but now that sky is full if images, of flickers of paper falling from above, not manna from heaven, but the revolution taking hold over skyscrapers. That kind of simple dream, the kind you trip into when you're tired, and then jerk awake [...]
Beat Radio - Golden Age Beat Radio are back , and this time they've picked the sunset out of the sky and strung it onto this song. Golden light spills across guitar frets and kick drums, and everything is all set to get together, like the sunset is going to lead to a brighter day, instead of a deep dark night. There's something fine and astonishing about this kind of songwriting, when the light hits it just right. {More}
This is the kind of thing I want bands to do more often. It's a really simple idea - the same song recorded and performed in a few dozen different ways, spliced together to make a video that serves as a shot of life on the road. It shows fans that the band earnest though they are about their music, needn't always take themselves too seriously. And it's another reason to love Efterklang. Efterklang - Modern Drift Magic Chairs is [...]
If you're going to watch any video before going to bed, make it this one. It's stunning.
Arcade Fire- Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son (France Gall, live) Arcade Fire have just been announced as the headliners for Oxegen 2010. I might go. Yes, I'd rather they played Electric Picnic, and I think it's distinctly possible they might confirm more dates, but either way, things are going to get a little exciting. Remember how much fun the run up to Neon Bible was? There is joy ahead.
Sharon van Etten - Much More Than That I want a day at the beach with you. I want walking with drinks in our hands, and sleeves pulled up, and being stuck together at night when the power is out. I want to be with you when we've missed the last train, and we're left wandering around in the cold. I want the look on your face when we realise we've paid more than is sensible for the wine at dinner. And right now, I want to listen to this song with you, because I [...]
Cathy Davey - Little Red (demo) Any longtime reader will know that Cathy is just about my favourite Irish musician, and that her last record, Tales of Silversleeve , is one of my most-loved albums. It is with much rejoicing then, that I share with you the following news: 1 - The new album is to be titled The Nameless . 2 - It will be released on the second of May. 3 - There will be a single, 'Little Red' - this [...]
Another reminder why 2010 is set to be a very exciting year for music indeed: Conor O'Brien's outfit have a full-length coming up on Domino Records, and this is the lead single. It's quite jaunty, and as with all Villagers songs, has a melody that you'll be humming long after your first listen. 'Becoming a Jackal' will be released on 7" vinyl on April 17th. Villagers are playing SXSW and the UK this month, with Irish dates set to be announced.
the torture garden
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
