Another Form of Relief

This is the one of the rare non-mp3 posts, but I feel this deserves an audience. Last night, Stephen Colbert hosted the White House Press Dinner. This is an annual event where the President and the media come together and poke fun at themselves and each other. I was a tad surprised when I read that Colbert would be hosting it, and he certainly didn’t disappoint. He absolutely laid into Bush, the administration and just about everyone else in attendance. This has to be one of the most awkward things that I have ever seen, as the audience has absolutely no idea how to react to much of it.

Watch this excellent moment of car crash television below:

(Edit: I’ve replaced the original video with a higher quality one that covers the entire speech. Due to length, it’s split into two parts. You can find Part 2 here.)

Highlights:

“Fox News gives you both sides of every story. The President’s side and the Vice President’s side.”

“This adminsitration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deckchairs on the Hindenburg.”

“By the way enjoy that metaphor. Your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is.”

Bush looked a tad pissed after this, not smiling at all as he shook Colbert’s hand when he left the stage. I know Colbert does this kind of thing on a daily basis on his show, but to do it a few feet away from Bush and most of the administration is another thing entirely. I’m just happy that he made it out of there alive.

(If you’re unfamiliar with the ‘Crossfire’ reference in the title, you might want to watch this.)

A few years ago Weezer were just about my favourite band. They were certainly the first band that I took an almost obsessive liking to anyway. This led me to collecting pretty much every song they ever recorded, included every demo and unreleased song. This was done largely because a few years ago they would put new songs up on their website on an almost daily basis. It was an interesting way to watch the evolution of the band. Unfortunately, then they dumped most of them and proceeded to release shit like Maladroit and Make Believe.

There were a large number of really very good songs during that period though, and I’ve collected the best of them for this two-part series of posts. I would have put them all in one, but 16 songs at once seems a little excessive, and means I don’t have to write so much in one go. These songs aren’t in any kind of arranged order beyond alphabetical, largely because I can’t remember when a lot of them date from. Most are just demo versions of songs, meaning they aren’t fully mastered, but they are still a good indication of what might have been.

MP3 Weezer - 367 (expired)
‘367′ was one of the album 5 demo songs that got dumped back in late 2004. I don’t know if ‘367′ was to be the finished song, or whether it was just the number of the song, seeing as every song is numbered and 367 would be about where they were up to at this point. It’s notable for it’s use of piano (way) in the background, something that will crop up on more than one of these songs.

MP3 Weezer - Ain’t Got Much Time (expired)
This is the song that closest matches the style of “current” Weezer, meaning it’s weaker than most of the ones here, but as current Weezer goes, it’s actually pretty good. The lyrics are pretty dumb and simplistic, but it’s short and manages to rock pretty well in the meantime.

MP3 Weezer - Blast Off (expired)
‘Blast Off’ is probably the oldest song here, dating from around 1995. After ‘The Blue Album’, Rivers’ intent was to release a “space rock opera” concept album, entitled ‘Songs From The Black Hole’. This fell through and eventually turned into ‘Pinkerton’, and only ‘Tired Of Sex’ and ‘Getchoo’ survived the transition. A few of the other songs, like ‘Devotion’ and ‘I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams’ eventually surfaced on other releases, but most of the songs never saw the light of day. ‘Blast Off’ would have been one of the earliest tracks on the album, setting the style for what was to come. It’s a conversation between the four human occupants of a spaceship, and their robot travelling companion. Which may sound pretty weird, but it’s strangely addictive. Unfortunately the mp3 has rough cuts at the start and finish of the song, as this is where it would have merged straight into the other songs.

MP3 Weezer - Booby Trap (expired)
‘Booby Trap’ is from the period where Rivers wrote pretty simplistic songs, but it’s one of the better ones to fall into this category. And there’s something oddly enjoyable about Rivers asking “am I just going mental?” over and over.

MP3 Weezer - Comin’ Home (Left My Broken Heart In Carolina) (expired)
The strangest song here, and unfortunately I can’t remember any story behind it. I remember it being posted to the website out of the blue with a couple of other “unique” sounding songs, but nothing more ever seemed to come of any of them. I’m inclined to think it was a joke more than anything else, but it’s certainly amusing. I really don’t have the words to describe it, but if I didn’t know it was Weezer, I probably wouldn’t believe it if someone told me that was the case. It’s just downright bizarre, although any rock band who can feature whistling in their songs gets a thumbs up from me.

MP3 Weezer - Lullaby (expired)
More piano goodness to be found on this one. Another one of the album 5 demo recordings than never made it any further. Which is quite a shame as it’s a really nice song.

MP3 Weezer - Misstep (expired)
An absolutely insane song, with guitar work that sounds like it just stumbled in from the big rock era of the 80s. Trying to keep up with the lyrics is pretty much a lost cause, so it’s not hard to see why the song was abandoned, but I still find it to be a lot of fun.

MP3 Weezer - Mo Beats (expired)
The first song where Rivers seemed to get vocally pissed at the press (and the fans?) for their constant negativity about recent Weezer material. It isn’t exactly the greatest of comebacks (”Now to my challengers / Still think with little words / You’re so upset you’re pissing on yourself”), but the sound of the song makes it unique enough for me to post it here. I think this may have been Rivers’ first dabble in the rap-rock genre, but I’m not too sure.

Well that’s the first batch of songs covered then. I’ll be back with the second set in a day or two. I actually think that the second batch is a stronger set of songs overall, although all of them are an interesting way of filling in the big gaps between old and new Weezer.

I’m From Barcelona are a large band. So large, that even on that picture there, a bunch of them are missing. The full band contains 29 people. The size of the band will instantly draw comparisons with The Polyphonic Spree. It’s a fair comparison, most of the members are just there to sing along rather than do anything specific, but the end result is very different. In that I’m From Barcelona’s songs are actually good.

I’m From Barcelona are another band from Sweden doing their singing in English. Are any Swedish bands actually perfoming in Swedish these days? This is just perfect happy pop, the kind of thing that’s going to sound damn good blasting out on a sunny day. Which is quite a feat given I don’t even like sunny days. Sure, the lyrics are simplistic (’Treehouse’ is pretty much just “I have built a treehouse / I have built a treehouse / Nobody can see us / Cause it’s a you and me house” for five minutes), but I defy anyone to not find these songs catchy. Even when they are singing about fun topics like chickenpox. When you’ve got upbeat music, gleeful handclapping and the best part of 30 people shouting out the words, it seems to be oddly irresistable.

MP3 I’m From Barcelona - We’re From Barcelona (expired)
MP3 I’m From Barcelona - Treehouse (expired)
MP3 I’m From Barcelona - Chickenpox (expired)
MP3 I’m From Barcelona - Rec & Play (expired)

All of these songs come from their debut album ‘Let Me Introduce My Friends’. It was released a mere three days in Sweden. I’d love to point you in the direction of where you can buy it, but my Swedish isn’t particularly good. I think it’s inevitable that a release in other parts of the world will follow given how fast these folks seem to be flying around the blogs at the moment. If you’d like to try and brave the Swedish to order it though, you’ll find details on their website.

Little help here?

I doubt very much that anyone is actually reading the text, but if you are, I’d like you to recommend me some books. I have £30 to spend on Amazon, and I have more than enough CDs and DVDs to get through at the moment, so I’d like to bolster my book collection a little. Now I’m very picky about what I enjoy reading wise. I’m a big fan of contemporary fiction, so recommending the convential classics probably won’t be a big help. To get a rough idea, at the moment I’m just finishing ‘The Perks Of Being A Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky which I’ve loved. I went through my Palahniuk phase a few years ago, and Catcher In The Rye is just about my favourite book ever. If based on that not particularly helpful line-up you have anything to recommend me, it would be greatly appreciated.

I mentioned yesterday that I had been pointed in the direction of a couple of excellent Scottish bands. The Sky At Night are one of those bands. They are a six piece from Glasgow who utilise a wide range of instrumentation, from guitars and drums, to piano and mandolins, to trumpets and trombones. They arrange all of these instruments into beautiful songs that have a melancoly feel to them.

This is the perfect ‘3am music’ to me. That’s not a literal description, but the a term I use to describe music that works best when played late at night when it’s incredibly quiet, yet you’re still awake. Ryan Adams’ ‘Love Is Hell’ is my staple for this little subgenre, but this is the kind of thing that fits the bill perfectly.

MP3 The Sky At Night - My Reasons
MP3 The Sky At Night - Plucky Scot Goes Down Fighting
MP3 The Sky At Night - The First Test

The Sky At Night are currently preparing for the release of their debut album, entitled ‘Hope For Dummies’, which should be released around the end of may. Until then, you can learn more about them on their website and send them a friendly “hello” on their Myspace.

I’m tired and want to crawl into bed and continue reading the best book I’ve read in a while. Before that though, it’s time for another batch of randomly selected cover song awesomness!

MP3 Beck - Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes (expired) (The Korgis)
One of the best things about Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind was how damn good the soundtrack was. It says a lot about how well the music worked with the film that I can’t listen to this song without seeing the title sequence where it was playing in my head. I’m going to be honest and say that I’m not familiar with the original of this song, but I just wanted to include it as it’s so damn good.

MP3 The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes (expired) (The Postal Service)
For their ‘Such Great Heights’ EP, The Postal Service had the inspired idea of inviting both The Shins and Iron & Wine to cover them. This may have been a lazy ploy to avoid coming up with new material, but it doesn’t really matter when the results are so good. Everyone is familiar with the Iron & Wine ‘Such Great Heights’ cover, but this excellent version of ‘We Will Become Silhouettes’ is often overlooked. It’s another great reworking, turning TPS’ end of the world ditty into cheerful acoustic fare.

MP3 The White Stripes - Jolene (expired) (Dolly Parton)
There seems to be a consensus that the Live Under Blackpool Lights version of this song is the superior one, even to the point that it was the one released as a single. I like this studio version a lot more though. I’m not entirely sure why, I just think it sounds much better. Could I be any less helpful in supporting my views? Probably not. Anyways, the White Stripes manage to turn this into an excellent little blues rock song, gender roles be damned.

MP3 Adam Green - What A Waster (expired) (The Libertines)
This one doesn’t really work anywhere near as well as the original (which was flawed itself), but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. It’s incredibly foul mouthed, something made far more noticable by the crisp vocal track that Green has over a simple acoustic guitar. The style of the song does somehow suit him, but it’s far from perfect. ‘What A Waster’ needs to be sung by the kind of dodgy guy that you’d run into a kebab shop on a saturday night who would kick the shit out of you in a second if you looked at him the wrong way. Which is why it seems to work so perfectly for Pete Doherty I guess.

I’m going to go to bed now. I got sent a couple of awesome Scottish bands earlier on today. Scotland’s music scene seems damn good at the moment. Granted it’s not quite Canada or Sweden, but it’s putting out some excellent material. Anyways, I might feature one or both of them tomorrow. Of course now I’ve mentioned it I’ll probably end up posting something else, but we’ll see.

I’m not quite sure how I managed to remain unaware of The Helio Sequence for so long. They last released an album two years ago, but I’m writing about them now as I’ve only just discovered them and like what I hear. An electronic pop rock band on Sub Pop Records, The Helio Sequence is made up of two people, Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel.

If this sounds a little like the Postal Service to you, then you’re on the right lines. It’s a lazy comparison, but kind of an appropriate one. Perhaps if one created a hybrid of the Postal Service and The Flaming Lips, this would be the result. Mildly trippy, largely non-sensical upbeat pop music.

MP3 The Helio Sequence - Everyone Knows Everyone
MP3 The Helio Sequence - Blood Bleeds

‘Everyone Knows Everyone’ is the more immediate track of the two above, grabbing hold of you with a quirky sound that seems to mix together guitars, drums, a harmonica and electronic effects. ‘Blood Bleeds’ is a far more cautious song, seemingly constructed very carefully as opposed to the organised chaos on the previous song. To drag things back to the Postal Service, I get the same kind of feeling I do from this as I did the first time I heard ‘Such Great Heights’. I’m not saying it’s on the same level as that, but that’s what I get from it. It also feels like it could fit in perfectly on the excellent Lost In Translation soundtrack too, particularly when Summers starts singing “Everyone keeps on talking / Like they got answers / What was the question?”. It drags a little in the last minute or so, but I’m willing to forgive it given how good the rest of the song is.

As usual, more Helio information can be found on both their website and their Myspace, where you can listen to a couple more songs.

Live Voxtrot Videos..

Schedule Two have posted up a bunch of live Voxtrot videos from a performance in Minneapolis back in February. The video quality is excellent, the sound is crisp, and best of all, they are all downloadable in mp4 format for you to enjoy on your iPod. You can download them all here.

So today I’m entirely exhausted because this is the third day in a row where I’ve had less than five hours sleep. I can do this every now and then but it gets a bit much by day three. Why did I get up so early today? So the nice man from the RAC could come and replace my car windscreen and charge me a mere £200 for the privilege. My car has had a small crack in the windscreen since I got it three months ago and I finally decided to get it fixed.

I like my car a lot. Well that’s not entirely true. I like having a car a lot. The car itself isn’t of any great consequence. If I’m honest, I actually liked my old car (Nissan Almera) more than my current one (Daewoo Matiz). I drive a hell of a lot, largely for no particular reason. There’s a fun hypocrisy with my environmental views threre, but we won’t go into that. Sure, the Matiz doesn’t leak, has only done around 20,000 miles, and it has a speedometer that actually works, which should make it far superior to the Almera. I liked that car though. It was a better drive, it was bigger and it could accelerate up hills, something the Matiz and it’s 0.8 engine is sorely lacking.

There’s no particular point to all of this. I’m not looking for another car, nor do I really have the ability to change it even if I were. This is just a lazy way for me to write something without having any new content, and a way of having a little variation beyond “this band is so awesome”. Which I know I write far too much. Anyways, this is an mp3 blog, so we need something relevant to the situation. What better than Belle & Sebastian then? I think I post too much Belle & Sebastian actually, but this is the one song that fits this perfectly.

MP3 Belle & Sebastian - I Love My Car (expired)

Today is also the birthday of fellow Another Form of Relief contributor, Simon, so here is a lame mp3 to fit that event too! That said, it’s actually a really good song, and I’m not even that big of a Clem Snide fan.

MP3 Clem Snide - Happy Birthday (expired)

I realise this post has next to no value whatsoever, but this is the best you get at the moment. I’m not writing a personal blog at the moment, so the random pointless posts like this end up here with a vaguely relevant mp3 at the moment. I’ll be back to pimping a band of the moment later on tonight.

Columbus are yet another great band coming out of Canada. Unlike most of their peers though, Columbus are making perfect 60s style pop music that still sounds entirely contemporary. I realise I’ve used such descriptions a fair bit recently when describing various bands, but there’s seems to be an awful lot using 60s sounds in a modern way lately, and I’m all for it.

Back to Columbus though. They are from Edmonton, playing to packed shows even though they only have one EP under their belts. It’s not hard to see why though. Their music is non-demanding (which really is a good thing sometimes) and catchy. The kind of thing that’s perfect for spring actually.

MP3 Columbus - Free Girl
MP3 Columbus - Christian Girls

There’s a ton more information about Columbus, including how to get hold of their EP, on their website. You can also hear a couple more songs on their Myspace page.

More free music than you can shake a stick at..

Most of you are probably aware of the awesome deal from the good folks at EMusic where you can get 50 completely free mp3s. These are DRM free, and can even be played on your iPod, and there’s absolutely no commitment to purchase further music.

Did you also know though that Audiolunchbox are offering exactly the same deal? That means you can get another 50 free mp3s from a wide range of indie artists. If you’ve already taken advantage of the EMusic deal, it’s exactly the same process for the Audiolunchbox, so head on over there and get another 50 songs!

Use the buttons below to sign up to either (or both!) of these awesome deals:

Full disclosure: I get a small kickback if anyone who does take up these offers using my links. This is simply used to help fund my server costs and the such. For what it’s worth, I’ll only pimp shit that I fully endorse myself, and both of these companies get the thumbs up from me.

If you’re anything like me, you have next to know idea about all of the weird and wonderful things going on in the world at any one time. As such, you probably have no idea that April 26 is a day of great importance. It’s not a day for remembering some important event or anything silly like that, but rather a day for each person to express their appreciation to Australians simply for being Australian. Yes, April 26 is Hug an Australian Day!

Hug an Australian Day is one of many holidays created by those crazy folks over at Wellcat Holidays just to make our lives a little more fun. Which we could probably all do with a lot more of. As part of this, April 26 is when everyone should go out of their way to not only be nice to Australians, but to actually hug them. Of course you might want to explain this to any Australians you meet before you hug them, or you may just seem incredibly weird.

So if you live with, or work with, or just happen to run into any Australians, be sure to give them a hug tomorrow. I for one will be hugging every Australian that I meet tomorrow. There aren’t usually a great many Australians in my room (where I’ll spend 95% of my day) at any one time, but you never know, fate could conspire to bring one here tomorrow! And they will certainly be getting a hug for their trouble.

The one thing putting this together did teach me though is that I have hardly any bands from Australia in my music collection. Sure, I have a bunch of Architecture In Helsinki and Ben Lee, a little Jet and that funky ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ thing by The Avalanches, but that’s about it. I really need to explore the Australian music scene a little more. Of course any recommendations of bands is always greatly appreciated!

Anyways, seeing as this is supposedly a music blog of some kind, here are a couple of cheerful songs by Australian musicians that should make you want to give Australians a big hug.

MP3 Architecture In Helsinki - It’5 (expired)
MP3 Ben Lee - Catch My Disease (That’s The Way I Like It) (expired)

Hanalei began as a solo project for Brian Moss, a former member of The Ghost. He also seems to enjoy changing his sound a fair bit.

His first full album, ‘We Are all Natural Disasters’, was released in 2004 and was a something that defied pigeonholing, playing around with a folk type while also mixing in a fair bit of electronica. For the second full release though, Hanalei has expanded into a full four piece band. They released ‘Parts and Accessories’ a few weeks ago, and it’s an entirely different experience, but just as good. The new material has much more of a stripped down acoustic feel to them, but they are still able to rock out when the song calls for it. The electronic parts are gone all together, which seems like something of a shame to me, but it doesn’t matter a great deal given how good Hanalei sound as a full band.

‘Resonate Remain’ and ‘Action Drum’ are my favourites from their respective albums, and give an excellent comparison of how different the two versions of Hanalei sound. I think that I tend to like the older material a little more than the newer, mostly because of my recent appreciation of all things electronic I imagine. Both lots are certainly worth your time though.

MP3 Hanalei - Resonate Remain (Parts and Accessories, 2006)
MP3 Hanalei - Nothing Works (Parts and Accessories, 2006)

MP3 Hanalei - Action Drum (We Are All Natural Disasters, 2004)
MP3 Hanalei - Josh & Sarah’s Belated Wedding Present (We Are All Natural Disasters, 2004)
MP3 Hanalei - Anza Ninety Three (We Are All Natural Disasters, 2004)

As usual, they have a website and a Myspace, although unlike most bands these days, they actually still seem a little embarassed about the latter. Brian also has a blog that you can read here.