Another Form of Relief

After a lot of effort, it seems like everything is up and running again. We’ve got ourselves a shiny new host which should have none of the problems that ezarchive did, and everything seems to be running properly again. I’ve put back up the songs from the past couple of weeks on the new host, so all links should now be working once again. This also means that tomorrow I can start again with new content once more. Right now though, I just want to fall into bed.

Many of you may have been aware of the problems being experienced by ezarchive, the host I have generally used to host non-label mp3s here on Another Form of Relief. This has come to a head in recent days as ezarchive have “upgraded” their system. This has resulted in a reduction of quality for mp3s posted on the blog, and has seen an introduction of bandwidth limits which any mp3 blog will burn through in a few days, thus rendering the account almost useless.

As such, I’m going to be moving my hosting to a proper provider. I’m already in the process of setting this up, but it does mean there’s going to be a disruption in service here at the blog for the few days. Granted this might not seem like a massive change given how haphazard I’ve been with my posting lately. Anyway, all official band and label mp3 links will still work, just nothing that was on the ezarchive account. Once the new hosting is up and running though, we can all look forward to mp3s that aren’t disappearing every other day or me not being able to add anything new for days on end thanks to some random problem.

For our finale today though, we have the pathetic begging part. It costs me a little to run this blog. Not a great deal, just a little each month which I don’t mind at all as I enjoy doing this so much. Everything is paid monthly which makes it pretty easy to stay on top of. Unfortunately, the new hosting doesn’t work like that. I need to purchase a whole year’s worth in one go. I can afford it at a push, but it is a rather hefty amount. So without sounding too lame, if you like what we do here, please throw us a few dollars via the Paypal button on the sidebar. I certainly won’t ask for anything further in this manner, and believe me, the end result will certainly be worth it.

Thanks for reading, and I’m sorry for all of the problems we’ve been experiencing of late.

Starved for new Los Campesinos! material after playing their four available songs to death repeatedly? I know I certainly am, so you can imagine my joy to get hold of this BBC session that they recorded for Huw Stephens’ show at Maida Vale. Not only do you get two old favourites in ‘Death To Los Campesinos!’ and ‘You! Me! Dancing!’, you also get two brand new recordings.

‘We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives’ is a live staple, so if you’ve been lucky enough to see them live you’ll be somewhat familiar with it. It actually sounds better in it’s current form than when I saw them back in september though, although that might just be the voice of somewhat overjoyed to get new material talking. Secondly, and most interesting of all, we have a cover of ‘Frontwards’, a classic Pavement song from all the way back in 1992. It’s a great version of the song, adding a male-female duelling vocals thing, but I’ll be interested to hear how it goes down with the hardcore Pavement fans.

MP3 Los Campesinos! - Death To Los Campesinos! (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! - Frontwards (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! - We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing! (expired)

Los Campesinos!: Myspace

I first listened to a song by Pony Up! months ago, when I got hold of ‘The Truth About Cats and Dogs (Is That They Die)’. I thought it was a fun enough pop song, and it made its way onto my iPod. Then I didn’t really give the band any more thought. While working a few days ago though, iTunes played me a fantastic song. Of course, it was the same one, this time somehow striking a much better chord with me. This has led to a few days of trying to get hold of as many Pony Up! songs as I could before listening to the lot of them on repeat rather obsessively. And believe me, I’m not a guy who uses the repeat button very often.

‘Pony Up’ are four girls from Montreal. I don’t know why I point that out other than the fact that I can’t think of another band that has an entirely female line-up that I enjoy. They formed in 2002, and spent the following three years touring before ever releasing anything. When they did, it was a split 7″ with Ben Lee, which is certainly one way to get yourselves recognised quickly. This was quickly followed by a self-titled EP and this years debut full-length, ‘Make Love To The Judges With Your Eyes’.

The appeal here is that these are perfectly crafted pop songs. They sound catchy, to the point, and have the kind of honesty that’s not as common as it should be. ‘Shut Up and Kiss Me’ in particular is about an honest a song you’re ever going to hear about a one night stand (’Let’s be aware of what we’re doing / Not aware of what you’re losing / I am sorry that you’re stupid / I can’t be your fucking cupid’). Bleak content? Of course. Fantastic song though? Absolutely.

MP3 Pony Up! - Shut Up and Kiss Me
MP3 Pony Up! - The Truth About Cats and Dogs (Is That They Die)

‘Shut Up And Kiss Me’ is taken from Pony Up!’s self-titled EP while ‘The Truth About Cats and Dogs (Is That They Die)’ is from ‘Make Love To The Judges With Your Eyes’.

Pony Up!: Website || Myspace

My host is being a bitch at the moment and not letting me upload any songs, so I’m afraid that any post that contains music is currently on hold. This gives me time to put out a plea for a little help though.

As you may or may not be aware, Another Form of Relief will be holding it’s first ever live music showcase in December. Full details of this are available on our cunningly titled ‘Live Events‘ page.

Setting this thing up has gone pretty smoothly on the most part, but I’m still missing one thing: a kick-ass poster. I have absolutely no skill when it comes to anything beyond teh simplest graphic design, so if you’ve got some skill in that area, I’d love to hear from you! I’m running this whole thing on a shoestring, so I can’t really offer you anything beyond a ton of eyeballs seeing your work both online and offline. If you’re interested or want some more information, please send an email my way.

Thanks.

The Young Republic were the very first band I ever wrote about on this blog, so it’s always fun to check in with what they are up to every now and again. Being the busy student musicians types that they are, new material doesn’t appear all that often, but it seems that they are getting back into recording mode again. They are currently putting together a new EP which will be released soon, and will shortly begin work on their newest full-length album, which will be their biggest release to date.

‘Bows In Your Arms’ is a brand new demo, and it sounds nothing like anything I’ve heard from them previously. While most of their previous material was orchestral indie pop, this has much more of a dirty, blues rock kind of vibe going on. It felt so different at the start that it didn’t appeal to me at all, but after a few plays, I’ve warmed to it considerably. I still prefer their older, more classical twinged pieces, but there’s certainly something interesting about this. Hopefully the band will keep experimenting with their sound to see just what they can do when it comes to laying down an album.

MP3 The Young Republic - Bows In Your Arms (expired)

Old Young Republic:

MP3 The Young Republic - Girl From The Northern States
MP3 The Young Republic - Modern Plays

The Young Republic: Website || Myspace || AFoR Interview

Other stuff

There’s a nice little competition over at Nothing But Green Lights where you can win some lovely Sky Larkin artwork. Think of how cool you’ll be when you’ll be with that on your wall when they make it big.

Proving that deserving talents are sometimes recognised, Another Form of Relief favourite Kate Nash has signed a publishing deal with Universal. You can read all about it on her Myspace blog.

Those of you that haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Los Campesinos! live can get a little taster of the experience from a couple of live videos that have been posted to Youtube. Both ‘We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives‘ and ‘Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Broken Breakbeats‘ are songs that are only played live at the moment, so you can also sample a couple of new songs at the same time.

Sadly, two of my favourite music blogs have decided to call it quits over the past few days. Both rbally and Clever Titles Are So Last Summer were always well written and packed full of great music. It’s very sad to see them go, particularly given how many other great blogs we seem to have lost of late.

I know, I know, I’ve been incredibly slack in updating this place of late. When I started this thing, I always swore to myself that I wouldn’t be one of those bloggers who often disappears for big gaps and then suddenly pops up again with some lame excuse for not posting stuff. Unfortunately, that’s where we are though. I’d like to think these are somewhat reasonable excuses though. Partly I’ve been working an absolute ton lately, which eats into my time. Secondly, the host I use for the majority of my mp3s has been having no end of problems over the past week (and there’s more to come, yay). Finally, I’ve been putting together the first ‘Another Form of Relief presents..’ live music event. It’ll feature It Hugs Back, 4 or 5 Magicians and Favours for Sailors, and will be held on December 6 in Tunbridge Wells. A little more detail can be found on our new ‘Live Events‘ page. If you’re going to be in the south of England on that date, I implore you to attend. An awesome night of fantastic music is assured.

MP3 The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium (expired) (Nirvana)
I should probably declare now that I hate The Polyphonic Spree. I don’t particularly like their songs, I find the lead singer’s voice largely annoying and as a whole, I find the whole group to be a little on the creepy side. Despite all that though, I really like this. ‘Lithium’ is one of the few Nirvana songs that I really like (not a big fan there either), and somehow, it suits the Polyphonic Spree to a tee. I have absolutely no idea how this happened. The two bands are pretty much as far opposed from each other as possible, yet it works. Having a whole choir for large sections of the song works. The instrumentation works. Hell, even the lead singer’s voice seems to suit it. Very, very weird, but very, very good.

MP3 Counting Crows - Rain King / Thunder Road (live) (expired) (Bruce Springsteen)
In something of a contrast from the previous song, I love both parties involved in this one. I’m not the world’s biggest Springsteen fan (always try to explore more, never get very far), but the songs I do like are great. I also have a very soft spot for Counting Crows. I know over recent years they have ventured further and further into middle of the road territory, but their first few albums are still stunningly good. The first thing to note about this cover is that it isn’t just the cover. It’s taken from a live recording where Counting Crows suddenly broke into ‘Thunder Road’ part way through one of their own songs called ‘Rain King’. This in itself is a great song, and the most striking thing about this performance is how easily the band are able to segue from ‘Rain’ to ‘Thunder’ and then back to ‘Rain’ again. If you’re only really interested in the cover part, you’ll need to jump to around the three minute mark of the song, but I assure you the medley as a whole is far better.

MP3 Rilo Kiley - After Hours (expired) (The Velvet Underground)
Now I can’t stand the sound of The Velvet Underground, so this is the one song where I’m not familiar with the original. This obviously makes it difficult to write about a song, particularly in the context of a cover. As such, I can’t tell you whether this is a good cover or a bad cover. All I can really tell you is that I quite like it as a song. Granted I have a weakness for all things Rilo, and I’m not claiming that this is among their best, but it’s a pleasant enough three minutes. I don’t know when this was recorded, only that it appeared on The Execution of All Things single. It sounds kind of old, particularly when judged by Jenny’s voice, but if anyone has any idea when this was recorded, leave a comment to let me know.

That’s it cover wise. I have a whole list of things I want to write about here, so hosting willing, I’ll be back with another update or two over the course of today.

Another Form of Relief presents..

IT HUGS BACK
4 OR 5 MAGICIANS
FAVOURS FOR SAILORS

Wednesday 6 December

Tunbridge Wells Forum

8pm / £5

More as we get closer..

What is it about Scottish bands that they all have to do at least one (usually multiple) spoken word songs? I enjoy a good spoken word song, but most tend to be pretty awful or gimmicky. It only seems to be the Scottish bands that can actually get away with such a thing and I don’t have the slightest idea why. Is it something about the accent that makes it appealing? All of the ones included in this post feature thick accents, but there has to be more to it than that. Most bands don’t even tend to try this kind of song, yet Scottish bands all seem to give it a go.

Anyway, this all came about after I discovered Ballboy, and by discover, I mean read about them on another music blog. All of their songs were interesting and I’m happy to have found another band that I like, but it was ‘I Hate Scotland’ that appealed to me the most. It’s not actually a song about hating Scotland, more a moan about settling in our lives. It’s not a particularly complex song, just Gordon McIntyre’s “guy in the pub” words over a fairly repetitive backing track. Yet somehow, it still manages to be fantastic.

MP3 Ballboy - I Hate Scotland (expired)

Please find some more examples of this type of song below. Arab Strap painfully discovering a partner’s infidelity, Belle & Sebastian travelling to Mars and My Latest Novel being kind of non-sensical, but in a fun kind of way.

MP3 Arab Strap - Love Detective (expired)
MP3 Belle & Sebastian - A Space Boy Dream (expired)
MP3 My Latest Novel - The Job Mr. Kurtz Done (expired)

Anyone have more examples of this kind of song?

I got around to watching Gabriel Range’s drama ‘Death of a President‘ last night and my only real reaction to it is ‘this is what’s causing a controversy’?

Have those making a fuss actually seen it? Because honestly, all of this is probably helping it, particularly given the small caveat that it isn’t very good. I love a good fake documentary as much as the next person, but this is just rather dull. There’s nothing actually wrong with it, but it never really managed to grab me at any point. From the bait-and-switch opening of who actually carried out the crime to the oh so intellectual agruments about the event (”Bush was bad, it was inevitable” etc). Sure, the events leading up to the ‘assassination’ are handled well enough, as is the scene itself, but the rest is just a tired mystery that cuts away every now and then to a fake newsroom that looks like it’s straight out of an episode of Babylon 5. Boy did they love their fake newsrooms.

MP3 Okkervil River - The President’s Dead

You may be able to tell from the half assed nature of this post that this wasn’t something I intended to write about today, but I’m somewhat limited in what I can do given my mp3 hosting thing has been an absolute shit for the past few days. I really need to get some proper hosting sorted out, particularly given I’ve got a whole backlog of posts sitting here waiting to go up now. All packed full of awesome music goodness. Stupid ezarchive.