Over and over - Sludgeworth Is the "one. two. one two three four!" and those little pauses that happen before the chords the second time it progresses around just an unavoidable, reflexive convention every pop punk band must incorporate into a certain percentage of their songs, or a calculated affectation to humour us. They do not need to be there, they sound forced and overdone, and you'd think Dan Shaefer would be above such mediocrity. But boy, when they come around, are they fist-pumpingly [...]
The third last song on the tape - Independent Thought Alarm REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR! REUNION TOUR?! REUNION TOUR?
It's not you - Language Of Flowers This is a great song, and one that so meticulously meets my wants, loves, and ticks of excitement in music that it makes me question myself and why i latch on to this kind of stuff so eagerly and with such life-saving enthusiasm. Make a band like this this and i will love that band. But is it the music or the structure of the band, and the era it calls back to? I don't know or [...]
A song i don't know - It sounds like a 902s band. This happens sometimes. There are too many songs out there. This unidentified one goes dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun and then a bent guitar note in the most 902s, alternative way possible. The drums are slack, the guitars are distorted. It could be a song by the Breeders. Or someone. I'll never find out.
Busy doing nothing - Love Is All I could have seen Love Is All live. They toured here and i missed it. I am too far out of every conceivable loop. I keep tabs on nothing. I don't know how to. Fucking... ... ...Rocketship could be playing tomorrow, next week, month, anytime, and i would have no idea. And if i were to miraculously stumble upon the news, it would be too late for me to get the time off of work, too inconvenient [...]
Afternoon delight - Starland Vocal Band Starland Vocal Band?! They suck!
What difference does it make? - The Smiths So my "First line of Smiths' songs = Titles of Smiths songs" theory has disproof. A fair bit of disproof, actually. Sub theory: If the first should fail, whatever string of words Morrissey sings most frequently and repeatedly in a song, especially towards the end of a song, could also be the title of a song. e.g. Here, This Charming Man , There Is A Light That Never Goes Out . Is there a [...]
2, 3, Go - The Wedding Present This is them in 1996. They are a bit of a lad's band, aren't they? Like blokey, afternoons at the pub, calling them "Weddoes", a resurgence band for those who were young in the late 802s/early 902s who've lost their youth in both appearance and ideals but not their propriety for this music. I mean, look: Look at those men! How [...]
Belle and Sebastian - Belle and Sebastian To the majority of my generation the words "Belle and Sebastian" link to the band, without a thought to the original work. Me too. Well, to the majority of my generation, those words fall to an ignorance. I know the band obtained Cécile Aubrey's permission for use of her title (how many emo bands did that?!), but in doing so have they done a disservice in usurping its eminence? To push it further away from [...]
Convertible - The Wedding Present Finally, some later era Wedding Present, which, as time would have it, has become a middle era Wedding Present. The Wedding Present: 25 years in the industry. This would be from the Cooking Vinyl era then, just before Cinerama became active. A little slower, a little softer, Jayne Lockey on backing vocals, still amazing. David Gedge has never written a bad song. Some may be better than others, some i may spend more time listening to than others, but, [...]
I'm not scared of you - Heavenly If pop music in various roundabout ways is an edict of relationship advice (and when has it ever not been?), then this song is one of the more heedworthy admonitions in any song/heartbook. To not be afraid, threatened, held to ransom, duped... Amelia, she with the most capricious of hearts, knows what's up. And twenty years later she's still hugging that [...]
Boule de flipper - Corynne Charby Step aside Lio, there's a new 802s French pop chanteuse in my life. Well, no. Until i unearth the lengthy, hit-filled singing career of Yianna Katsoulos (i.e. more than one song), nothing will topple Lio from the highest atria of my heart. Still, it's nice to find something new. I realise to say something like this is completely premature and wrong, but having... exhausted (in supply, not love for) yé-yé, it is now the synthy, big drums, 802s [...]
Belle and Sebastian - Belle and Sebastian R.I.P. Mme. Cécile Aubry, 1928-2010. I've never read any of your books but i've seen the TV show, and listened to the band who took their name from its namesake.
Once more - The Wedding Present For as popular, simple, three-chordy, fun, and i guess influential as the Wedding Present were, there is really no other band in the world who sounds like them. In the whole near thirty years of their existence, has no one really tried to imitate them? Maybe they're too idiosyncratic, in that frantic strumming, the speed, and David Gedge's unobscured accent, that anything imitative could and would be immediately drawn to the source, cries of "rip off!" stifling any [...]
Metastasis - Naked Raygun Yeah! Play a single line verse once through then the "Heyayhey" on top of surf guitar bit. Then play a guitar line that fits over a whole chord progression as Naked Raygun did best. This song kicks, as does pretty much everything the band ever did. Naked Raygun knew how to write songs. There is so much praise around for them, yet they never seemed tiered with the great 802s punk bands. I mean, it is not [...]
Letter to a fanzine - Great Plains Yes! Why do punk rock guys go out with new wave girls? The pertinent question of 1986. The pertinent question of any age. Though this is an once great and hilarious song, it is pushed and commemorated on compilations, lists and mixes and as coverings as the only Great Plains song in existence. Its gimmickry and how easily that stuff sticks works against it. I am here to say the whole album is fantastic, one i consider [...]
Won't get fooled again - The Who Believe it or not, i actually like the Who. I mean, i haven't heard much of the Who past the hits but i like what i hear ok. I think Keith Moon is an incredible drummer who is fun to try imitate to varying degrees of failure, they seem to target, affect and call into being a certain youthfulness and that's always a good thing, the Freaks and Geeks episode didn't hurt none, and the [...]
One half laughing - The Aislers Set There's something kind of dark about Aislers Set songs that runs against this pop business they fit perfectly in. Be it lyric matter, the weird, creative, oddly sensible and, above all, fantastic way Amy Linton writes these songs, or the way they're recorded - nothing ever seems as bubbly and happy as it should be. I can't think of something plainly convival by them. Even this song, one of their most upbeat and playful, is mitigated to... [...]
I guess i was wrong - Club 8 The only time i have ever listened to something in a record store was this album in that great but ill-fated store run by the Popfrenzy people hidden in those back streets around Central Station. It's something i never do, can never bring myself to do, and is something, according to Peter (happy birthday...), people do freely and without hesitation all the time. The person running the store was overwhelmingly friendly and eager to [...]
Strange powers - The Magnetic Fields What fortuity! It just so happens that i am going to see a movie by this very name tonight. Fingers crossed it's good. I can't believe it made it into a cinema here, but the people at Popfrenzy do good work sometimes. One night only and that one night to be in a Sydney cinema... Sometimes prayers do get answered.
Adding Machine
Akabu feat. Alex Mills – Everybody Wants Something (Joey Negro Strip Mix) [New Release]
MP3: Daft Punk – “Horizons” (RAM Japanese Bonus Track)
Listen to producer Jacques Greene’s “On Your Side,” featuring How To Dress Well
