Archive for year 2008

Video: Ben Folds – You Don’t Know Me

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3 years ago
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Ben Folds

Today we have a video that falls into the “who on earth thought this was a good idea” camp. There are a lot of whimsical songs on the new album, Way to Normal. You Don’t Know Me really isn’t one of them. Sure, it sounds upbeat enough, but we’re dealing with a couple realising they know sod all about each other here. You’ve also got floating in and out of the song, giving it a certain dignity.

As such, a video seemingly about nothing more than cross-dressing bandmates doesn’t seem like the most appropriate theme. I have nothing against the video itself, however silly it all is, it’s just about the least appropriate song from the album to use with it. The whole album is surprisingly better than I expected. I was ready not to bother after the whole Silverman snorefest, but it’s a decent attempt to get the feel of the old Five back.

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Internet Forever – Break Bones

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3 years ago
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A band without any pictures at all. Not the greatest of starts when you want to blog about them.

That said, it’s hard not to take notice when you get an email claiming “equal love for , , ! and .” Seeing as I love three and a half of those, I’m inclined to have a listen.

This is the kind of music that makes the likes of Casiotone sound overproduced, which is no mean feat. Everything is incredibly rudimentary, and covered in distortion, yet it’s ultimately adorable for the two minutes that it lasts. Despite the limitations, boy-girl vocals, handclaps and glockenspiels all manage to put in an appearance, giving us a sense of what Los Campesinos! perhaps would have sounded like with only two people.

The ethos of the band seems to be built around the idea of making music in the now rather than thinking it over too much. The band’s first gig will is coming up in a couple of months. Hopefully they won’t rehearse too much.

will play their first gig on December 11 at the The Lexington in Angel. Which is in London.

Website / Myspace

No Age – Eraser

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3 years ago
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No Age

A few years ago, if Pitchfork had given an album a 9.2 rating, I’d be all over it in no time. I wouldn’t necessarily like it, but a high score at least meant it was worth trying. Now I drop in on Pitchfork about once a week, skim read the reviews of bands I already know, and leave it at that. Which meant that slipped entirely under my radar. That is until they were announced as part as Los Campesino’s Shred Yr Face tour.

For some reason, I expected No Age to sound like The Thermals. I have no logical reason to think that, given I had never heard them, or even read anything about them until a couple of weeks ago. Maybe their name suggests a certain urgency or something. Whatever the reason, I wasn’t really prepared for the wall of noise I was hit by. During the first minute of Eraser, it sounds as if it is something big. By the second minute, you start to wonder if it’s little more than an interesting instrumental piece. When the vocals finally kick in, we’re already in the final moments of the song, making us desperate to hear some more. Which I suppose is what makes it so perfect as a promo mp3.

McCarthy Trenching – Wedding Song

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3 years ago
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McCarthy Trenching

It seems that the older I get, the more I appreciate country music, or at least elements of it. Five years ago I wouldn’t have gone near anything with a twang in it, now I’m listening to singer-songwriters lamenting about lost love and never forming a bluegrass band. At this rate, I’ll be in cowboy boots by the time I’m thirty, and believe me, that would not be a good thing.

a one man band from Omaha, Nebraska, meaning he is signed to one of Conor Oberst’s labels. I’m pretty sure that guy has some kind of racket going out there. Does anyone know a band from Omaha that is signed to a label other than Team Love or Saddle Creek? It doesn’t matter who releases though. I’m just happy that someone did. Gently strummed, thoughtful, with a voice that would make reciting the phone book sound interesting. Perfect music for thinking things over far too much at two in the morning really.

Panoramic & True – California

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3 years ago
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Panoramic & True

Sometimes you discover a new band and something about them doesn’t sit quite right.

Evidence A: Their Myspace location claims they are from France, their bio claims Chicago, which sounds rather more likely.
Evidence B: The only picture I can find of the “band” is the one above.
Evidence C: At this moment, they have a grand total of 14 “friends” on Myspace, despite being there a year.

Now I realise that this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The location thing could be a joke. The picture thing could just be an eccentricity. The number of friends could just mean they are really, really shit at self promotion. The question here is whether or not any of this really matters. Thankfully in this case, it doesn’t.

Evidence D: A wonderfully upbeat pop song that evokes images of slacking off, road trips and long, bright days.

The Whispertown 2000 – Done With Love

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3 years ago
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The Whispertown 2000

If you’re as big of a nerd as I am, you may have wondered in the past who the mysterious ‘Morgan’ is that’s mentioned on Papillon and The Absence of God. The answer is none other than Morgan Nagler, lead singer of . I’ve been aware of the band for a few years now, but never paid them a great deal of attention. They do however present an interesting case of just how far can a band go purely on a tenuous connection to an already successful band?

All of which is probably a little unfair. The Whispertown 2000 aren’t a bad band by any means. Their songs are decent enough, and I don’t think anyone would find them all that objectionable. The problem is that they aren’t that great either. Maybe they have that breakthrough indie hit in them (you know, the one that’ll turn up on Gossip Girl or 90210), but at the moment it’s all rather uneventful.

I have no idea when the ‘The’ was added to the name, but it really doesn’t work.

Pale Young Gentlemen – The Crook Of My Good Arm

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3 years ago
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Pale Young Gentlemen

It seems inevitable now that any band that is even the least bit theatrical will be compared to . Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Meloy and company are certainly a decent band. I find that my tolerance for elaborately instrumented stories is rather limited. It all sounds very nice and all, but is there really a need to be so over the top?

Which sounds like I’m setting up for a fall. There is no way of getting around the fact that their music is theatrical, but they also manage to still sound like a band who isn’t fussed about that fact. The song is still the most important element, racing onwards, with just a hint of desperation in singer Mike Reisenauer’s voice. If a few extra instruments have jumped on board, the band is too busy to have noticed.

Video: Sky Larkin – Fossil, I

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3 years ago
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One of the things I find to be most appealing about is how unlike a rock band they seem. I’m not knocking their music at all, but they always seem to come across as normal people that just want to play good songs. This video for their upcoming single Fossil, I does little to disprove that, showing the band playing on a street corner while no one really pays any attention. Oh, and amps start floating through the air. As they do.

Fossil, I will be released via Wichita Recordings on October 20.

Cover: The Young Republic do Bob Dylan

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3 years ago
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The Young Republic

Two and a half years after I originally wrote about on here, I finally got to see them live on Monday as they supported The Mountain Goats at ULU. Despite having a ton of Young Republic songs, it seems that the changes in the lineup have led to a new musical direction as they only played one song that I already know (the superb Modern Plays). The rest of the set was made up of far more country and folk influenced songs from their Idiot Grin EP, which isn’t really a bad thing. I’m just kind of disappointed I didn’t get to hear Girl From The Northern States. No matter though. The only other song I was familiar with was their cover for the night: ’s Isis. With a full band setup the song sounded superb, and while the recorded version below is rather more stripped down, it’s still a pretty damn good version of it.

Styrofoam – Bright Red Helmet

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3 years ago
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Styrofoam

My familiarity with , as I suspect is the case with many people, started and ended with his collaboration with on the really quite beautiful Couches in Alleys. For some reason, I never explored any further, presumably thinking that Gibbard was the creative force behind the song, so the electronica based Styrofoam didn’t appeal. Jump forward four years and I receive a copy of Styrofoam’s newest EP, which I skeptically listen to. Some of it misses with me, but half of the songs grab me right away. Title track Bright Red Helmet is one of them, it’s lyrical cynicism betraying the real tone under the cheerful beats.

Website / Myspace
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