Music to drink tea by
Archive for October, 2009
Moustache of Insanity
02 years ago
in MP3s
A few years ago I probably would have been defensive about liking something this. Perhaps I’d even think it was childish. Times change though, and Moustache of Insanity are right along the lines of the things I tend to listen to at this point. All of this goes hand in hand with my gradual slide further and further into indiepop. I’m not really sure when it began in earnest, sometime during the earlier years of this blog I would suspect. If you’d told me five years ago though that I’d be going to indiepop festivals on steam railways, or the kind of club night where everyone swaps a mix CD, I’d have probably laughed at you. Still, the joy of music is the constant evolution of taste. I wonder what I’ll be listening to in another five years.
So, Moustache of Insanity then. This is the kind of music that doesn’t really allow for middle ground. People will either find this a ton of fun or insufferably twee. Clocking it at barely a minute, Imagine is a joyful romp about imaginary friends, puppets, kittens, llamas and a whole lot more. With no time for any of that bullshit about world peace either.
Moustache of Insanity’s self-titled album is available now from WeePop!
New Brontosaurus Chorus – Louisiana
02 years ago
in MP3s
Six months on from their album, the band with my favourite name of the year are back with a single just in time for Halloween. The song itself is typical of the band. It’s a cheerful sounding little indiepop number with some instrumentation that’s more complex than you might expect. Of course, ultimately it’s just eight people making a joyful racket, but hey, isn’t that what being in a band is all about?
Best of all, they’ve also come up with a video to suit the occasion too. It’s your typical scary movie fare, with a deceased band member leaping out of their coffin and turning the others into zombies and then the inevitable fightback. It’s also surprisingly violent. It’s not everyday that you get a music video with limbs being pulled off and chainsaw decapitations.
Louisiana will be released as a free download single on October 31 (that’s this Saturday!) and will include a bunch of remixes of the song. All from those nice people at PopArt London.
New Pants Yell! – Cold Hands
02 years ago
in MP3s
I’m not really sure whether this can qualify as a ‘new’ Pants Yell! song or not. I first heard this one way back in February when it was on Skatterbrain’s awesome If You Like Everything, There’s Nothing Left To Love! compilation. Back then it was called Cold Hands, You Make Me Nervous, a title I actually like more than the rather shortened one here, but that’s a minor quibble. This version is certainly different from that one, and it comes heralding a new album, so it’s just as good as a whole new song.
This version seems a little harder than that one, but that feels a bit unfair towards it. Pants Yell! have never been a band where “hard” can be used to describe them. The band have always revelled in their restraint. Gentle words half spoken out over music that is just there to support the story. Even the stories themselves are never huge. Just those little everyday things most of us can relate to at some point. Even when the emotional parts inevitably come, they tend to focus on the mundane. This isn’t a band that wants to change the world. They just seem to want to observe it.
Received Pronunciation will be released on November 10 by the ever brilliant Slumberland Records.
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Great British Hopes: The Kabeedies
02 years ago
Every now and again, being a music blogger heralds unexpected rewards. About a year and a half ago, I briefly wrote about The Kabeedies on here. I haven’t really kept up with them since then, only really giving them a thought when the iPod would throw up one of their songs. Today I went to the Another Form of Relief Mail Centre (a PO box) to pick up a couple of things I had ordered (the Nosferatu D2 disc and the new Superman Revenge Squad record) as well as whatever the promo companies had sent over. I was slightly surprised to find a promo copy of the debut album from The Kabeedies in that stack. I likely would never have realised they had a record out without it, and that would have been a damn shame.
If there’s one word that comes to mind throughout this album, it’s “joyful”. Everything is so full of glee that it could easily run the risk of being utterly sickly, but it never quite crosses that line. Which is impressive on a record that uses handclaps, jangly guitars and extensive boy-girl harmonies. It’s all rather chaotic too, but if anything, that’s the one thing that holds me back from completely loving it. I like my songs to be chaotic, but here the chaos seems to be rather well thought out. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and it’s a minor niggle on a superb little album. There’s a great band here though, and one that could go to the top of an already crowded indiepop scene.
Weezer return with new video and possibly dodgy album
02 years ago
in Videos
Shit, I actually sort of like this. It still amazes me just how much goodwill I have toward Weezer at this point. The last album I genuinely liked was 13 years ago, and yet I still give every release a chance. Even the last album had a couple of tracks I managed to enjoy on it.
(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To is the first single from the band’s seventh (holy shit, really?) album which may just have the worst artwork of any album in recent memory. Yes, even worse than this.
I haven’t heard the whole album so have no idea if it’s any good or not, but I admit I quite like this song. It’s by no means great, but it’s a solid enough bit of throwaway pop rock. It leaves a slight nagging feeling that the band are a little too old to be singing songs like this, but when the album also includes “I’m Your Daddy” and “The Girl Got Hot”, maybe this is their mid-life crisis record. Throw in collaborations with Lil’ Wayne and The All-American Rejects and I have no idea whether to be intrigued or terrified.
Fun fact: The video above is directed by Marc Webb, director of the delightful (500) Days of Summer.
Raditude will be released on November 3 by Geffen Records.
So Say So
02 years ago
in MP3s
So Say So are a London five-piece who make the kind of offbeat pop that seems to be popping up in a few bands at the moment. Fanfarlo are the current champions of this, but So Say So are strong contenders, awkward name and all.
But while Fanfarlo are very good and what they do, they can also be a little, well, boring. So Say So have no such problems. The music is slightly dreamy, and bigger than it really should be, but most surprisingly of all, still manages to remain incredibly catchy. It’s so easy for these kinds of bands to cross the line to the dull side of things, but So Say So keep an air of whimsy about the proceedings. It’s hard to tell from just one song, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them as the critical buzz band of choice six months from now.
Jesus H. Foxx
02 years ago
in MP3s
It took me a while to know what to make of this. In most cases, that’ll be the kiss of death for a band with me. I know one shouldn’t write off a band immediately, but such is the nature of instant music gratification. I always promised myself that I’d never be one of those people. Then the internet made so much music available that it became impossible to give everything a fair chance. This blog hasn’t exactly helped matters either. I’ve got two giant stacks of CDs sitting on my desk, even with the amount I listen to. The ability to listen to albums over and over is something lost on me at this point.
Jesus H. Foxx are not the kind of band that do instant gratification. Their music is difficult, at times slight, a little too comfortable with not getting excitable. Yet it has something. Something that made me come back to the album a week later and play it again. Something that has made me go over a few more times since. I still can’t put my finger on what it is that’s working for me, but it does. I can’t say that I love the album as a whole, but it has the ability to worm into one’s head.
Some songs manage to stand right out though, like I’m Half the Man You Were. It’s gentle, but gradually builds, vocals that jump between band members playing off of each other throughout. There’s not all that much it on first listen, but repeated plays open up further complexities. It almost has the vibe of a rootsy Americana record, most obviously in the voice, but it’s far more than the sum of it’s parts. Give it a listen or three, and it’ll be impossible to resist.
Matter is out now on the mighty Song, by Toad Records.
Nosferatu D2 release debut album two years after breakup
32 years ago
in MP3s
Each time I write about Nosferatu D2 on here, I say to myself that it’ll be the last time. Excellent as they were, they broke up two years ago now, so what more can I keep saying? If I haven’t sold you on them by this point, odds are I’m not going to.
Step forward the “specialists in commercial suicide” Audio Antihero who have taken it upon themselves to finally get the debut Nosferatu D2 album a proper release. It would be easy to write this off as both pointless and/or foolhardy. These songs need to be out there though, and AA deserve nothing but praise for getting it done.
As with his more recent Superman Revenge Squad project, it’s Ben Parker’s songwriting abilities that are the main attraction here. Over the course of ten songs, we move from ferocious attacks on his home town of Croydon to melancholy laments at Christmas to that shitty feeling of every band disappointing you eventually. This is accompanied by music that shifts from the violently abrupt on some songs to subtle backing on others. It’s an odd record, one that regularly contradicts itself, but as a snapshot of what it’s like to be a young adult on the periphery of London, you’ll be hard pushed to find anything better.
Not bad for a band that was only around for a couple of years.
We’re Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise should be released on October 16 via Audio Antihero. The songs have been remastered, artwork supplied by the band and comes with a retrospective inlay. You can’t say fairer than that for £5.99
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She & Him & 500 Days of Summer: One big happy family
0I can’t remember the last time I loved a film as much as (500) Days of Summer. Granted, it was a pretty easy sell to me in the first place. Quirky indie romances with credible leads make up a good portion of my DVD collection. This one towers over all of the others though. No one factor causes this, but everything about it seems to work. A non-linear structure, coming through on the promise that “this isn’t a love story” and boldly ditching a female perspective altogether help. Rattling off a few things like that doesn’t put across just how well this film works though. It even managed to get me back into a cinema for a second watch, which hardly ever happens.
Which leads us to She & Him, the band made of M.Ward and Zooey Deschanel. I’m not sure if I’m using the film as an excuse to post the band or the band as an excuse to praise the film. Either way, both are worthy of being explored. The crossover between the two is muddied somewhat by the video above. It’s the video for Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?, but it’s also directed by 500 Days director Mark Webb and stars Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It doesn’t really tie into the film beyond those elements, but it makes for a nice little aside. And just as the film proved, any opportunity for an over the top, slightly silly dance number is always worth taking.
New Los Campesinos! video – There Are Listed Buildings
02 years ago
in Videos
One day Los Campesinos! are going to break my heart. It’s actually amazing that they haven’t already given my usual somewhat brief flings with bands. Generally it’s album before it all goes to hell, sometimes not even that long. Los Campesinos! have been the band I have most consistently enjoyed since starting this blog thing. A lot of bands have come close to the excitement they manage to generate in me (Johnny Foreigner*, 4 or 5 Magicians, Sky Larkin), but no one quite pips them. Three and a bit years on from first covering them, I’m writing about songs from their third album with just the same admiration as back then.
There was some concern when The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future appeared that we’d moved past the upbeat, manic incarnation of the band. Shades of a more restrained, thoughtful version of the band were previously hinted at on the last album, so it wouldn’t have been too surprising. There Are Listed Buildings puts those fears to rest. While not as loose as the original You! Me! Dancing! days, it still feels like something that would have been right at home last time around. This is the sound of a band on the very cusp of legendary indie status. It’s just going to take one perfect record to tip them over the top.
The third, currently untitled, album from Los Campesinos! is due to be released early next year. Presumably on Wichita.
* The same Johnny Foreigner that have an upcoming album called Grace and the Bigger Picture on Best Before Records. That everyone else seems to have received a promo for except me. I mean, it’s not a big deal. I certainly don’t expect promo material. Ever. Even if it’s the album I’m most excited about this year. Not like Another Form of Relief was the very first music blog to cover them god knows how long ago. Oh no. Not that I’m bitter or anything.**
** Seriously, I’m not. All in jest. Just really want to hear the damn thing.
