Music to drink tea by
Archive for August, 2010
Essential Albums: We’re Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise by Nosferatu D2
01 year ago
in Essential Albums, MP3s
Something odd happened the other day. I was playing through this Nosferatu D2 album as I quite regularly do and for the first time, I felt the desire to actually open up the lyrics booklet. Now this isn’t something I usually do, despite my perhaps unhealthy fascination with the words of songs above all else. It’s odder still considering I’ve known some of these songs for about four years now. Obviously I’ve played them all enough that I’ve picked up on most of the words, but there’s always the bits that slip through, particularly when you’ve got something as loud, fast and mumbling as this.
Reading through the booklet along with the record, I was quite frequently taken aback by just how many little elements I noticed that were entirely new to me. Nothing too major, just clarifications of individual words, references to places, or just an appreciation of the wordplay involved. I’ve gone on before about just how good of a songwriter Ben Parker is, but having it set out in written form really pushes that across.
This truly is one of those albums that I just never fail to get bored with. Whatever the mood, it somehow manages to fit it. Depressed about the state of the music industy? Mojo Top 100 it is. Feeling miserable at Christmas? It’s Christmas Time (For God’s Sake) hits the spot. Bombing along the motorway at 100 70? Few things are going to top A Footnote. It’s all over the place, but it’s held together by just how personal it all is. Colonel Parker is perhaps the most brutally honest song I’ve ever heard that by the time you reach the anecdote about being stuck in Blockbuster on Flying Things & Pests you have no idea whether to sympathise or be scared.
Best of all, the entire album is now available on Bandcamp to buy, or just if you want to listen to the entire thing, which you will find in the handy little player below. Don’t be put off by how rough around the edges it all sounds, as by the time you’re halfway through the record it’s an essential bit of it’s charm. It’s a loud, messy and deeply personal album, which is just about all one can really ask for.
We’re Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise is out now on the excellent Audio Antihero.
Website / Myspace / Twitter
The Thermals – I Don’t Believe You
0There’s something about a new Thermals record that makes me interested and apathetic at the same time. I look forward to hearing each new one, and it’s usually good. On the other hand, I know it’s not going to be another More Parts Per Million or Fuckin A. The band seem to have gone through the same routine that The Mountain Goats have on recent releases. Seemingly given more money to play about in the studio, you get a cleaner, crisper record, but one with slightly less charm. The songwriting is certainly no worse than before, and musically it’s all very good, but it’s a little too refined. Those earlier albums were messy and all the better for it. Still, I probably shouldn’t be judging the whole upcoming Thermals one on the back of this one song.
Personal Life will be released on September 7 via Kill Rock Stars. I Don’t Believe You is available as a promo mp3, but seeing as publicity is a bad thing, only via one site. Go and hunt for it if you care enough. Instead, here are a couple of classic Thermals songs, via Sub Pop, who are happy to share them about:
MP3 The Thermals – A Pillar of Salt / MP3 The Thermals – No Culture Icons
Captain Polaroid – How to Lose at Video Games
01 year ago
in MP3s
Captain Polaroid is a one man lo-fi project from Birmingham. He makes fuzzy, noisy, and surprisingly tender songs. I first encountered him on the Show Me A Word That Rhymes With Pavement compilation earlier on in the year, where he contributed a solid cover of Here. Since then I’ve got hold of a sampler of his earlier recordings and have been following his current Beat Nostalgia releases, a selection of free EPs over the course of the year. Recently released EP2 may be the strongest effort yet, in no small part due to the brilliant opening double header of How to Lose at Video Games and When the Controversial Artist Became a Middle-Class Commodity. Both are seemingly more upbeat than much of his previous work, if only in music and not lyrically. There’s a certain bleakness that seems to permeate here, which suits Polaroid’s world-weary vocals perfectly. The EP even manages to find time to throw in a Blur cover, which I’d probably appreciate more if I was familiar with the original song. Still, well worth clicking through to his site and getting the full EP, as well as his other releases that are there for you to download.
MP3 Captain Polaroid – How to Lose at Video Games
How to Lose at Video Games is taken from Beat Nostalgia EP2. The EP is part of a series of five Beat Nostalgia EPs that will be released for free download over the coming months. Both EP1 and EP2 are available to download now from Captain Polaroid’s own website.
Video: Pulled Apart by Horses – High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive
01 year ago
in Videos
I’ve talked before about the disconnect between the majority of the music I enjoy (the “music to drink tea by” of the slogan) and music that just “rocks the fuck out”. Nothing shows up this divide more than Pulled Apart by Horses. They are stupidly noisy, all over the place, and don’t make a great deal of sense. Compared to the vast majority of what I listen to, I should absolutely hate this. But I don’t. Sure, I couldn’t listen to them all the time, but when the mood is right, something this brash is the way to go. Brilliantly creepy video too.
High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive will be released September 6 via Transgressive Records. It’s included on their self-titled debut album, which is out now.
New EP from The Sailplanes
01 year ago
in MP3s
It was a couple of years ago that I first encountered The Sailplanes. A London band by way of Berlin, they made the kind of noisy, scrappy rock that was so good I even branded them as one of our Great British Hopes. Since then, the band have returned to London, and have decided to take a more refined approach to their style. As the band themselves put it, they have been focusing on “toning down the abrasive sounds, and concentrating more on playing our fucking instruments”. It seems to have paid off though. The songs on this new EP certainly seem to be more clearly constructed, with a number of little flourishes and details pushing out from the noise. Not that the band have been entirely gentrified. The Sailplanes are still a little rough around the edges, and all the better for it.
MP3 The Sailplanes – Photograph the Past
The Mild Peril EP will be released on September 1 as a free download available directly from the band. Physical copies will also be available in exchange for a little bit of money.
Darren Hayman & the Secondary Modern – Two Tree Island
01 year ago
in Videos
There’s not really much for me to say about this beyond how completely lovely both the song and the video are. I’ll take some grainy Super 8 footage over your newfangled HD nonsense any day. Wonderful.
Essex Arms will be released on October 4 on Fortuna Pop! Just like every other release I seem to mention on here these days.
Saint Thomas – Movie Star
11 year ago
in MP3s
A few weeks ago I received a whole stack of CDs from Irish label yesboyicecream. I’m still working through them all now, but I’ve already found some real gems. The disc that immediately grabbed me the most was Saint Thomas’ There’s Only One Of Me. I wasn’t familiar with Saint Thomas before listening, and found his incredibly open, honest and at times brutal songs to be really rather moving at times. That the songs are sung with a Norwegian accent just makes them all the more charming.
After I listened to the album, I decided to do a little research as to exactly who this guy was. Turns out that Saint Thomas was Thomas Hansen, who had managed to put out no less than six albums and tour with the likes of Of Montreal before being found dead at the age of 31. Which was something of a shock. Really wish I’d found these songs earlier. The songs are tough in places already, but that particular fact just makes them all the more difficult to listen to.
There’s Only One Of Me is out now via yesboyicecream.
Website / Myspace / Twitter
Shrag – Tights in August
01 year ago
in MP3s
Six months ago I couldn’t stand Shrag. I found them too shouty half of the time, and the sneering female vocals on the other half didn’t do much for me either. Watching them at London Popfest started the process of winning me over to them. They played a whole bunch of new songs that just seemed to click with me far better. A few months on, and the album those new songs came from has arrived, and it’s incredibly good.
Not that anything has really changed. The things I disliked about Shrag the first time round are all still here. Perhaps it’s just a style that needs to grow on you though, as I even quite like the first album at this point too. Anyway, Life! Death! Prizes! does seem to expand into a few new areas. There’s an increase in male vocals to play off the female ones, and it makes a big difference. Tights in August is the first single from the album, and features a superb back and forth between a girl who is in love and a guy who just wants to get away from her. Now I’m a sucker for this kind of male-female interplay in the first place, but this pleasingly recalls the sound of bands like Heavenly, which is always a big plus.
Life! Death! Prizes! will be released on October 4 via Where It’s At Is Where You Are. However, if you order it directly from them, you’ll probably get it a hell of a lot earlier given I’ve had my copy for the past week and a half!
