Music to drink tea by
Archive for April, 2011
Fishboy – Classic Creeps
0I’ve always had a soft spot for the particularly type of whimsy put out by Texas indiepop band Fishboy. They’ve always gone down the hyper-literate route in their lyrics, making songs that are closer to full blown short stories than simple pop songs. Their latest album Classic Creeps takes this to it’s logical evolution. The record is a concept album, with each song telling the story of a particular character, from Aaron the Afterthought Astronaut to Archibald Aspen to Autumn the Owl. Each song introduces the next character on the album, all of which are in alphabetical order (despite all beginning with A). Beyond the concept though, it’s just a really fun record, full of the typical Fishboy charm made up of upbeat sounding numbers that can actually be pretty grim if you look under the surface. The best part of all this? Classic Creeps is just the first in a series of such records.
Classic Creeps will be released on May 10 via Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records.
MP3 Fishboy – Autumn the Owl (Mistakes the Feelings of Being In Love with the Feelings of Being an Owl)
Art Brut – Lost Weekend
09 months ago
in Videos
Have we finally reached the Art Brut song that might actually let me down, as alluded to the last time I covered them on here? Lost Weekend may actually be my least favourite thing that they have put out, but is it particularly terrible? Not in the slightest. In fact, the past week has seen it grow on me a hell of a lot, so I’ll probably be singing the praises of it in a month.
It’s just so jarring from everything the band has put out previously that it’s difficult to know exactly how to take it. Art Brut as a band pretty much lives and dies on Eddie Argos. He is the centre of everything, and his vocals are what makes the band what it is. So a song that replaces his regular vocals with a subdued, almost whispered version is a bit of a shock. The more I listen to it, the more I start to appreciate the gentleness of lines like “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you by saying something stupid like ‘I love you’”, so I should probably be commending the band for at least trying to do something a bit different four albums in.
Lost Weekend will be released as a single on May 16. The album, Brilliant! Tragic! will follow a week later on May 23 via Cooking VInyl.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Heart In Your Heartbreak
010 months ago
in Videos
The new Pains album came out this week, and I for one am absolutely loving it. The first album took a while to grow on me, but this one seems infinitely more immediate. Which probably means I’ll end up hating it six months from now, but no matter.
The one thing that the Pains have always been great at are their videos. Each one fit the style of the band perfectly, be it the Super 8 loveliness of Young Adult Friction or Everything With You through to the slightly more whimsical Higher Than The Stars and Say No To Love.
This though, I don’t really like at all. Which is a shame as the song is probably my favourite form the album. The video is far too mid-90s MTV2 for my liking though. Don’t get me wrong, I associate a lot of bands I love with that era, but The Pains of Being Pure at Heart absolutely aren’t one that I’d put into that category. Maybe I’m just being a snob and I’ll come round on it over time, but it seems like something of a misstep to me.
Belong is out now on PIAS (apparently) and the band will be visiting London to play the Electric Ballroom on June 8. Where they are now a £14 a ticket band. Wow.
