pioneers

second cup.

2010-03-16T21:08:00.001-07:00

hello!

blue moon

2010-02-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today bedtime is at 9 pm. While the days get longer and nighttime shrinks somehow all the things that need to be done come later and all the unnecessary things, absent minded mistakes and lists from long ago become what's new and exciting. This past summer I spent some time in the mountains of Oregon, and listed and listened to all of this...

Quixote

Like Tim Kasher before all the whisky and smoke.

Drunken Unicorn

Not a band but a venue that books great stuff and updates their myspace accordingly, a shining example can be found in the featuring of Giant Lion and Balkans.

Grand Lake

Maybe the best San Francisco band ever. Awful recording, but lovely songs.

Black List

Should have been on the soundtrack to a John Hughes film. Have a name worthy of a black metal band.

Singer wishes he was Morrissey. ONE guess where they're from? Did you say Brooklyn? NO WAY.

Buildings Breeding

BB broke up three months ago, but their music lulls me to sleep in the best way.

Brontosaurus

Not to sound hostile, but screw you Owl City, this is how you rip off Ben Gibbard.

Low Victor Echo

I like the Eels, you like the Eels. Let's not pretend we've moved on.

The Slow Death

Who didn't like Rancid? I still do. I've loved Tim Armstrong longtime. I mean, after Brody Dalle dumped him for Josh Homme I could never listen to the Distillers again. If there was a punk US Weekly I'd have a TEAM TIM t-shirt for sure. But whatever. These guys sound like Rancid. No drama. That I know of.

Spires

This girls voice scares me. She sounds like a possessed china doll.

The French Semester

A sixties revival. I often wonder if they make music like this in the Children of God Cult.

Sleepy Sun

Oh my god. Like, industrial noises. ORGASM sounds. Have you been in Vice?

Amdex

The next Kanye?

The Pack A.D

They are on Mint. Therefore I like them before I even listen.

Hot Panda

Nice boys who make nice music.

DOOM

The High Strung

A grown up choir of bearded men. Also, very fun.

New Bengal Spice

Apparently all new music I like sounds the same. All of the above.

Bears!Bears!Bears!

Their myspace background features really cute kittens.

Bedtime with Dave Bazan, my favourite kind.

Lasso

2010-02-01T19:13:00.001-08:00

When you think about moving to a new city you feel like this:

When you actually get there it can often feel like you're this kid:

And it sometimes feels like everybody else is doing this:

You kindof miss this:

But then you find things that make you feel like this:

Spring is coming and I am excited for so many things, not least the F in Fresh, Hoof and the Heel, Little Girls, Graydon James, Walnut Kids, Le Trouble, Pop Winds, Boats, The Bombadils...the list goes on forever....

how to disappear completely

2009-12-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

Cryptacize!

I'm back. Sufjan Steven likes these flamenco folk players, as do I. I forewarn you they sound like a hippie group that could've played Woodstock and could easily soundtrack a Cameron Crowe throwback film, so if you're not into that, step away! Otherwise break out the tambourine and white gown, join the fun!

Novels

CANADIAN SUPERGROUP.

Lovely idea right?

Pyramiddd

Starfucker have changed their name! Their myspace hasn't been updated that recently, however their new stuff is amazing. When they play live, they do so accompanied by old records, that make their shows more like plays than just concerts, which is very very fun.

Little Big Adventure

Monocle magazine have been harping on for a while now about the wonders of Sweden, their design scene, fashion scene and we're all aware of the music the snowy wonderland has given us, Little Big Adventure are a pretty little package that represent Sweden at its best, and my oh my would Monocle be proud. Like a mellow Daniel Johnson with touches of good Peter Bjorn and John, songs like 'The Hateful Eye' recall Miike Snow-esque electric beats accompanied by soothing glitch free vocals that equal rad noises all around.

Coeur de Pirate

The French speaking Regina Spektor, and whether or not you speak the language this girls voice and simple piano led songs will make you feel as well rested and warm as the first time you heard Regina herself.

Eternal Summers

If I were going to SXSW this band would be high on my list to see. Scuzzy and poppy in that Pains of Being Pure of Heart way, just with more girly vocals, this is just up my street. I'm not sure whether this would die live, as the garageband-esque production is what makes me most happy, but go see them and let me know?

Breakfast Mountain

PDX's answer to Girl Talk. I'm not super into it, but the kids at Holoscene are, and that can only mean scary big things happening on the underground.

FUN

Fun are like Panic! At The Disco at their most eccentric. It's quite like the Rocket Summer and I really love it. Fun is really theatrical and polished, but is certainly not for everyone, it's a lot to take on board... I suggest trying it if you're feeling ambitious and curious...Nettwerks done good.

Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps

Jenny Owens Young-esque folk. By no means anything groundbreaking, but if you like the Johnny Flynn, JOY, N&TW sector of guitar music, Caroline may make you very happy.

Pomegranates

Like a lo-fi Tokyo Police Club meets Girls. Sweets, surfy and catchy enough that boys in collared shirts and sweater vests the world over will tap their toes intermittently.

Big Spiders Back

Fans of Panda Bear, Animal Collective and early TV on the Radio rejoice, here be the beginnings of your new favourite band.

Strength

So guiltily indebted to the eighties, it at times sounds like bad karaoke, but if you listen beyond some off vocals, this is pretty awesome. It gives off Prince like vibes, therein PDX wins once more.

Mattress

This band make me feel really uncomfortable. Any London types remember Ivich? They create the same creepy dank tone. This Oregonian outfit hurt my ears and inspire shallow breathing, but I kind of like it...

Religious Girls

Beautiful free pop that sits somewhere between Animal Collective and Idiot Pilot. In my head when I play "what would I do were I Alex Patsavas" (I play this game in my head regularly) I'd use this bands songs on a number of CW beach town set teen dramas in scenes panning seascapes. It's music that creates images of care free abandon and sunshine, and when it's so bleak outside, it provides an instant holiday.

Blastoids

With a name that sounds almost like a Pokemon (Blastoise), you probably wouldn't expect a Port O'Brien shanty-indie vibe to emanate from this band. They sound like early Flaming Lips-playful and a little aggravated, yet somehow managing to be sweet enough to take you out to sea.

Human Pippi Armstrong

A young man called Nathan makes this 60's style Beach Boys-esque pop and it is fantastic. Nathan, if you're out there. let's be friends.

Brother

Something is happening here. It's not often you can call music genuinely interesting, but this intrigues with its aural experimentalism.

Lackthereof

I love the record label Barsuk and I will never tire of saying so. This one guy from the Barsuk stable reminds me of David Bazan, who makes some of my favourite music in the world. This is emotive guitar music that means something, and so while I pine for more Bazan Lackethereof serves to please immensely.

If you like art at all there are some very good shows are on in London right now.

Please do check out:

Roger Hiorns at 157 Harper Road, Elephant and Castle.

Mark Tansey at Gagosian, Britannia Street.

Ed Ruscha at The Hayward Gallery.

Conrad Frankel at the Hempel Hotel.

Nicola Hicks at Flowers East, 21 Cork Street.

William E Jones at Swallow Street.

Stuart Haygarth at The Haunch of Venison.

Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Alina Szapocznikow at Hauser and Wirth.

Tom Wood and Padraig Timoney at Museum 52.

Sophie Calle at the Whitechapel.

Georgia Russell at England & Co.

Robert Mcnally at One in the Other.

If you feel like travel:

Paris and Miami hold galleries by the lovely Emmanuel Perrotin

and Copenhagen holds David Risleys great gallery too.

Food wise, I've been enjoying Beas of Bloomsbury and Lolas (there is a concession in Selfridges Food Hall), both exceptional for cakes. It's also worth noting that Beas, though new, excels in cosy afternoon teas. On the cake front (it's all I have been living on, nothing is new) Hummingbirds Soho branch has finally opened on Wardour Street, so why not give them a welcoming visit and have a red velvet cupcake, the greatest of them all.

Right, now it is time to go back to repeating I Blame Coco and Robyns 'Caesar' and trying not to laugh when Coco does a call and response "I heard Robyns can fly!"....it is TOO cheesy. Great song otherwise though, check it out:

Merry Christmas everybody, hopefully this break won't be as long!

Whip it

2009-09-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

All I listen to is Hall and Oates these days. Jet lag should really produce better blogs, but hey you can't rewatch all of Dawsons Creek AND talk about music et al. I have priorities...

clinton and division

2009-09-06T21:41:00.001-07:00

I left my I pod charger in New York four days ago, so I have been without music. It's very strange actually listening to the world.

The world has given me Weezer, Death Cab For Cutie, The Beatles and the Chordettes, so I am thankful. When I come home I have unpacked, repacked and lain down to Noah and the Whale, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Dave Bazan.

Oregon washes over me and I have nary a will leave. Travelling the North East, through rain and shine, the warmth of the city of Portland is fairly overwhelming (as is its AMAZING coffee). Starfucker are the best band I have seen on these here travels (at the Doug Fir), and tomorrow I get to take in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Cass McCombs, so I'm feeling merry.

I am back to New York in two days, and home in six. Autumn is here...

since you've been gone

2009-08-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

I miss the days of good Kelly Clarkson.

Remember 'Miss Independent'? Back in the days when reality TV felt new? How did I live in a world lacking television that followed the trials and tribulations of Spencer and Heidi? How did I live without exposure to the glorious, glamourous, insightful character that is Nevin from the City? I don't know, but he is on my NY hit list of lame celebrities I would like to meet. I brushed Adam from the City's shoulder the other week and felt a wave of joy wash over me that had not been felt since the sighting of Dave Coulier (FULL HOUSE!!!) taking out the trash earlier this month. I am fully aware of how lame I am.

Let's segway into something less lame. As you may have gathered I am living in New York at the moment (hurrah!). I haven't actually had much free time to live in the city as such, but the basics of my life have become quite mundane- I have a skeleton life of shower, work, (window) shop, sleep. To mix it up I at times have taken to galleries, pretty much only the heavy hitters. I can sum them up as such:

MOMA- Brunch + Rauschenberg + Johns + Lowman + bookstore from heaven= BESTTHINGEVER

Whitney-Bread and Butter+dreamy staff

Met- Home to my favourite art work. Sigh. Bohemia lies by the Sea. SIGH. Google it and fall in love.

I have also been to the Sunday Gallery, which I linked in the previous post. They have a wonderful photography/ found objects exhibition by a Swedish artist whose name currently escapes me, but it is 100% worth going if you are LES bound or oriented. Eldridge and Stanton.

Other than these pursuits I have pretty much been an art failure this summer. I'm re-reading Bluebeard by Vonnegut and getting super excited about October 10th when a collection of his unpublished short stories come out. I'm also reading a delightful book I bought from the Whitney about art collecting and what makes the process of acquiring art a collection, what legitimizes a collection, etc. I have bought this mostly because after seeing so many famous art works in such a short space of time I am hungry for my own pieces of awesomeness. Alas my pockets aren't quite deep enough to own a Schiele study of madness or a Degas ballerina-hooker. Instead I spend my earnings on "wearable art" as Vogue is calling fashion these days.

Since being in New York this summer I have fallen further away from having any sort of taste. There were moments in which I toyed with the idea of buying silk headbands in jewel tones at Bendels, but then I realised I wasn't Blair Waldorf, and that I looked like a Dr Seuss character. This has lead me to justify buying these headbands in muted tones, as they were staples of the "Zara dresses like she did when she was four" look. These were probably the only things of taste I have bought. While the magazines are pushing advice on dressing for the recession and investment buying I have mostly bought vintage things that will likely fall apart while I sleep tonight. These purchases include a gross camel coloured waistcoast with obscenely large ornate clasps, tan loafers, green silk plunge wrap dresses at wholesome lengths, the most monochromatic of jumpers, a navy and gold bold type faced oversized sweater, and really that's about it. Everything is pretty late 1940's and boyish (bar the dresses, duh.) This weekend brings the last push of the summer retail quarter, sales and that all right before fashion week. I am so down with injecting the last of my funds into some awesome thrifty purchases rather than spending them on extravagant meals as I have done the past month and a half (but oh have I eaten...more on stellar NY eating habitats soon!).

Finally music. Not so much of it has been seen by me. I saw Rumble Strips at the Tribeca Grand, they were delightful. Dinosaur Jnr pleased me in the park. Girl Talk seemed fun from Vinnies. Ellie Goulding's new tracks are better than ice cream sprinkled in joy on a summers day, and the Girls record kicks me into high gear every morning (that, and 'Let Your Love Grow Tall'...)

I also am digging Beach Fossils, Desolation Wilderness and Knight School quite a lot right now. I have a loaded list of bands that I've compiled over the summer that I haven't addressed yet and I promise to deliver some great ones over the next few months! Until then I suggest filling your life with gross tie dye dresses, floral boxers, pimms, banana pudding, Union Square Halloween store hats, getting excited for Frieze, CMJ, Zoo, reuniting and planning ways to avoid coming home...

so much to tell you

2009-08-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

New York. Boston. Toronto.

-Buschetteria

-Beacons

-Egg

-Passionate

-Strictly Prose

-Fidi

-Boston&Harvard

-Toronto&Criminal Records

-A Place to Eat

-Vinnies

-Horton and Co

-Walkmen

-Blink 182/FOB/Panic!

-Jones Beach

-SugarSweetSunshine

-DuMBo

-Pianos&SanLoco

-Max Fish/Library/Angels and Kings

-Ashlee Ice Tea

-Jukebox

-Otherside

-Cafeteria

-Cakeshop

-Central Park

-Salem+Essex Peabody+Hawthorne

-Happy Ending

I've been gone a month...

keys on strings

2009-06-27T00:59:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years I've collected a frightening amount of photos on my computer. As I float about the internet I always see things that I feel make me want to go out a create a little. I usually save these for friends birthday cards, blog posts...eventually I hope to make a mood wall with them. Knowing me, this will never happen as I jump project to project faster than the speed of light (currently arranging my sublets for New York and Portland this summer), so I thought I'd post some of my recent favourites here while I formulate another London & music post. Enjoy!

the one that got away

2009-06-21T01:22:00.001-07:00

Dreaming all day long, I've been finding myself in positively ethereal situations at night and floating around in a daze every day. Nights have seen balls, champagne flutes, many trains, dances at dawn, low lit forests, glitter flakes tumbling from the sky...aesthetically the most beautiful week I've experienced since my time in Portland. London this past week hasn't held much, I have not seen many friends. I posted a trip to the Selfridges sale (Nicole Farhi pink Breton top, LK Bennett beige patent flats), mostly time spent with the family. These are quiet times, and I find myself sleepily upon the Heath in the ruins often. The music I have experienced live this week included the Fatback Band for work (a band who have the kind of stories to tell that I could only dream of experiencing), Rumble Strips, Johnny Flynn and a few others.

I must say watching Johnny play for the first time in well over a year was an emboldening experience. I have never seen him play so well. The new songs took a torch to the sky; where there were sparks before, now there is fire. For all the new folk acts emerging from around the world, it is my opinion that Johnny is the greatest talent that you will hear. If you do get a chance to see him play anytime, go and experience the ascent and the growth for yourself.

Moving on, befitting the sleepy state, here are some bands by which to rest your head...

Pearson

So this band have seriously cringey song titles ('Purity of Heart' and 'My Ghost your Ghost'), but their music is pure 7/4 Shoreline Broken Social Scene beautiful with vocals off beat enough to make a mark that's pretty original. It's all pretty rough, but I definitely suggest keeping an eye on them. Plus they look like the kind of people you'd want to be your best friends, totally adorable.

Bahamas

Until pretty recently I did not realise it was a musical faux pas to admit that you enjoy Jack Johnson. I kind of do from time to time. However now that I've found Bahamas I have a way of enjoying the poppy male singer song writer publicly without being mocked. He's like a un-embarrassing not gimmicky Jack Johnson and Bon Iver. Listening to him kind of makes me think of Dawsons Creek- a soundtrack to soft sweet romantic Joey-Dawson moments-and I can't think of a higher compliment.

Amos the Transparent

A bit more depressed Deathcab and pretty beautiful. I'm guessing if the late great Elliot Smith was still around, he'd very much approve of this.

Emanuel and the Fear

I am a huge Rilo Kiley fan, and if I was ever given the joyous task of putting them on I'd

definitely pick these guys as a support. They have all that you love about RK and adapt it to make it unique and really special. I'm pretty late on this, but even if you've seen this lot before you've got to admit this bunch write HUGE pop songs that are interesting, have punch and heart, which is a pretty rare combination.

Mason Proper

The Shins for when the Shins aren't around, with a little something more. The boy-girl vocals

and the heavy percussion make this very worthwhile.

Deastro

I'm sorry, I'm going to use the term afro-beat here. Personally I think the term's crap, but if the music press is going to call Jack Penate afro-beat (dude is from Dulwich) then I guess I can legitimately call Deastro who clap, clop and provide mellow beats just that. So here we are, some pretty good "afro-beat" with touches of electro pop, for the sweater vest set.

Hecuba

This is actually whack. Freak avant-pop I guess? Why doesn't LA have more bands that are as weird as this gang? Life would totally be more interesting.

Quebec Antique

Deathcab 2.0. BIG and beautiful, I'm waiting for Alex Patsavas to stick this on Gossip Girl.

Before I go, has anyone else seen the pianos around London lately? On my journey home on Friday I stopped by the Bank of England, there was a ball just ending at Billingsgate and small gang of ladies in elbow gloves and men in top hats gathered outside the Bank of England. Music began to play and I realised a piano was placed on the steps, two men tapping jauntily at the keys. The music crept round all the empty old buildings and carried far- I could still hear it streets and streets away. It was one of the most wonderful snapshots of the city I had ever seen.

I guess sometimes London is pretty magical too...

dark times

2009-06-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'm so bummed out I missed the hail storm. Somewhere between Liverpool Street and home the underground stole my favorite weather from me. This weather inspires staying indoors, under covers, which is the way I like it best.

Over the weekend I met up with a certain cake lover, a recent birthday boy, the esteemed human effigy of a claymation penguin and my favorite Chanel loving graduate.

I visited Chapel Market for the first time on a Saturday, and while I was not impressed with the actual goods on the market, I came across a street off of it called White Conduit Street that I highly recommend visiting if you're in the area. I met Dave at S.Cohen, a shop of which only one photo seems to exist on the internet. It is a melee. Piles of victorian petticoats, beaded waistcoats, top hats, a stuffed ferret here, an antique gilt mirror there and piles and piles of dusty volumes. I nearly fell over and knocked myself out thrice. It's a place to spend hours and very little money on many things. The taxidermy window display itself is worth the trip alone. What I like most about it (besides the hidden room up the stairs which seems to have been a makeshift chapel and/or the stuffing room) is that it's not like Bolongaro Trevor or any of those purposefully haphazard shops, it is actually a right old mess with many treasures to be found. I wish I had my camera with me, but alas I didn't expect to come across such a gem. Please go discover it for yourself.

The purpose of the trip Dave and I made was to sample some cake at the Euphorium Bakery, which if Google is to be believed, the best cakeshop in London. With locations in Angel, Belsize Park and Hampstead, all modernly furnished and no frills fellow cake lover Dave and I saw no reason not to try it out. We approached and sampled a tart and a swiss roll, as well as some frappes. Both baked goods were light, just rightly moist and presentable, but while hitting the spot just so on a hot day, were certainly not the best cakes in London as proclaimed. The frappes were pretty blah. This judgement may be slightly warped however by the fact that later on that same day Dave and I visited another eatery at which more cake was sampled. If it were not for the delightful blueberry and vanilla cupcakes of Ottolenghi on Upper Street (with locations also in Notting Hill and on the Kings Road) I may have even recommended Euphorium as a prime cake location in Angel, however these cupcakes put everything into perspective. Light, fluffy, and just the perfect size for sharing. The cupcakes had a cream cheese frosting that rivaled Hummingbirds and lacked the overly sweetened sponge that most cakes fall prey too, therein making the combination absolutely spectacular. Ottolenghi is a little pricier than Euphorium, but the sheer variety of the desserts on offer and the taste sensation they provided make the expenditure 100% worth it. The service was great, the ambiance was buzzing (and mostly female- lots of amazing salads here too) and the location at the Upper Street-Cross Street junction was convenient for pre and post meal sauntering. The prettier part of Regents Canal runs just behind it, as well as the maze of gorgeous tree lined residential streets and squares of Islington that surround the antique marvels of Camden Passage and Essex Road.

It is worth noting that Essex Road has become one of the best thrifting spots in all London, and is amazing for cheap and quality goods ranging from typewriters to furniture to vintage clothing. The market days are Wednesdays and Saturdays 10-2, and I highly recommend a visit, not least for cheap art supplies at the CASS warehouse and the glorious Annies vintage.

Camden Passage is one of my favorite places to bring out of towners because it never happens to be as busy as the other major London markets, and yet retains all of the charm.

The evening held antics including suave new rides, sick bachelor pads, Kurt Vonneguts Jailbird, Cloverfield and Linderman (in retrospect, actually a very American themed night in Ealing.)

The next day I hopped onto the east bound line to Brick Lane, where I'm spending the next three weeks. This particular trip however was not for work but to continue the still incomplete mission: ballgown. I have to wonder how my Oxbridge friends deal with this kind of stress many times a year, as I simply can't take it anymore. I tried to budget at £50, an optimistic figure I am aware, and failed. Next I angled for a £100, now in my day before the ball desperation I have raised the bar even higher and feel a little sick about it. I searched high and low, I considered renting a dress from girlmeetsdress, I tried on more dresses than any girl should have to.

At one point I grew so desperate I started trying on dresses in the middle of Dray Walk, modesty be damned and still ended the trip with no dress. I'm not particularly picky, but why does every full length gown have to be coral? Coral is a putrid colour unless you are in a tropical climate, and even then it borders on Donatella Versace.

I then proceeded to kick it with the Neens (who had already gotten her dress for the ball from Bluebird, damnations) and wallowed in my Japanese pancakes (SO GOOD) in the Sunday Upmarket before heading to Urban to buy a consolation hat (evidently this is a pattern, the day before for some reason I bought a top hat "to keep things in"). I bought this one in white and moseyed up Oxford Street, the best way one can mosey on a Sunday in central London. I met up with the family for some fun in Berkeley Square and a meal at the Princess Gardens of Mayfair on North Audley Street (aka the end that is not home to Marc by Marc Jacobs).

The food at Princess Gardens was pretty standard. It's an older crowd than I'm used to- think more Scotts or J Sheeky than Hakkasan, and is armed with an amazing wait staff, but I was fairly underwhelmed by the food itself. The only really remarkable dish I had was the Bean Pancake I tried for dessert, which was really only good because it sounded so weird that I assumed it'd be gross and it wasn't. In any case I shan't return.

On the way home the family and I deliberated over what restaurants we deemed best in London (we eat as a family every Sunday) and the five names that came up consistently were Le Caprice, Cecconis, Hakkasan, Roka and Ciprianis. Honorable mentions also went to Nobu, Scotts, the Soho Hotel, Thai Rice (I once saw Micheal Cera AND Mclovin there) and Lupa (best local pizza delivery place you'll ever try). I wonder if most people would agree?

Finally, now after a pretty heavy days work (and more gown hunting, tear) I am in bed, with some awesome music...

1. Ugly Casanova

A Subpop gem. The only label I can listen to in the morning gives us a Jeff Lewis-Good Life-Modest Mouse hybrid here. Evidently it is best for starting and stopping, I'm making this my lullaby tonight.

2. Boys Who Say No

Man they sound happy. Of course they do, they're from Toronto. This is like pop punk if it were played on a ukulele, banjo and keyboard. So Warped Tour 2009.

3. Woods

REAL folk music.

4. Endangered Ape

Louder, Faster, Harder music for kids who wish they'd been able to take to the floor of CBGB's before it became a John Varvatos store.

5. Pollyn

Awesome electro-pop Zero 7 style.

6. Air Waves

Look who's here! Brooklyn again! Hiiiiiiii Brooklyn.

7. The Beets

Shoegaze. Stoner Rock. Summer haze. Lazy mornings. These guys. All in one breath.

8.Anamanaguchi

Kitschy and kind of cheesy. If you could hear neon pink, or Simpsons yellow this is what they would would sound like.

More and more and better music to come!

the beatles or the rolling stones

2009-06-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

I often wonder what music translates to the older generation beyond the pulp of Radio 2. It's something that really bothers me, especially when I look at people on the tube and you can guess what kind of music they're listening to by looking at them. In most cases you'll almost always guess right.

So I thought I'd try a little experiment. I approached my dad, who at the time was watching Camel and Zep music videos on Youtube and tore him away from the Wii (he's found his arch rivals to be Sarah and Elisa, fictional opponents on Wii Tennis) and asked his opinion on some of my current musical favourites. By no means is my dad a "hip dad", but this little experiment showed some interesting results. There was a lot of love for Metric, Passion Pit , Santigold and TV on the Radio and not so much for Pains, Silversun Pickups and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, all of whom he dubbed "try hards". He did also admit to liking that awful song by N Dubz, La Roux and Flo Rida, which sullies his opinion in my eyes a tad, but does illuminate the fact that the elder generation (sorry dad) shouldn't be presented with the soft serve music that the media expects them to lap up.

I guess a prime example of this is Adele, a super talented artist whose early live shows around London were incredible, and then sadly went on to produce an incredibly dull album, that wouldn't you guess it, Radio 2 loved. I played my dad the old, old myspace tracks and he LOVED it 1000% more than the god awful 'Chasing Pavements'.

Of course I realise there is theory and strategy behind who gets played where on the radio, and I know it's not easy to get new bands to a platform where they are unbiasedly exposed to an elder audience, besides children taking their parents aside as I did. However I still do wish radio stations would take a chance on maybe delivering an hour of what would be considered youth oriented content to direct to the 30+ crowd, maybe having awesome labels like Neon Gold, Chess Club, 4AD etc curate. It'd certainly be a way to foster a new connection not only between kids and their parents (from the preteens through to the college kids) but also would give newer artists and labels a connection with the seasoned listener. These guys don't go to many gigs or club nights and don't really get to hear new music until it's filtered down a long stream of musical atrocities and I think it's a real shame that they miss out. After all, if your parents are anything like mine, they shared their Smiths records with you, so why not try and share something with them that is as important to you, even if it is just an album crush that lasts a week?

I feel I should say, I didn't buy the Topshop dress mentioned below. Too many threats of mockery.

I cave, I cave.

Weekend dining, shopping, mania update coming soon.

the rain comes through my jacket.

2009-06-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

This dress.

I think it's pretty ugly. I also think it's ugly to the point where I really like it. Figures. Tomorrow it shall be mine.

Today I hit up this place for brunch, with the esteemed DK. I've been to Princi for lunch before -great pizza, great salads- but for brunch MY GOD. The baked goods kick some serious you know what. The cannoli was out of this world and I heavily recommend trying it (at 80p a piece can you really say no?) The restaurant's fairly casual, has a wonderfully modern interior, quick service and is very reasonably priced for Soho (£8 for a hearty portion of pizza and salad). It's canteen style service is one which ensures you never have to wait too long, and it somehow manages to feel luxurious (like one of owner Alan Yaus' classier joints), while being affordable and a culinary delight.

I also made a trip to the Alison Jacques Gallery on Berners Street to see the Saul Fletcher exhibition. I wasn't too impressed at first. Given the critical acclaim the exhibition had received so far I found Fletchers paintings to be very GCSE "abstract" self portrait. Pfft "assemblage". The photographs are what have been used to advertise this show to the public, and they were what drew me to the exhibition. It is in them that you'll find the depth of matter that makes visiting this exhibition worthwhile- they're claustrophobic and I suppose illuminate the idea of a photographs ability to capture (as in trap) not only an image, but time. The subjects are captured in the frames, as though in little decaying photographic prisons.

Looking at the photographs in a series, as they are presented in the gallery, you become very aware of time passing which leads onto the installation pieces in the next room very well. These installation pieces are all of wood, cardboard, aged brown matter- branches and birds feet and "bodies" hanging with claws gripped in the air.

Aging, entrapment, reminders of fleeting mortality, decay...not exactly an uplifting exhibition, but worth popping into if you're killing time in the Oxford Circus area.

Also today, I went to one of my favourite spots in London, on the hunt for a ballgown (I have loads, and yet no floor length ones, sigh) I took to Grays Antiques. I prefer hunting for clothes for events in places like Grays and Alfies because you don't find three year old H&M dresses being sold off as vintage and the elderly ladies and gentlemen who sell to you are genuinely passionate about the history of the pieces they sell, not having seasonal trend pieces. Grays is also the best place to buy old books in the whole wide world. Biblion in Grays Mews is my idea of heaven. Check out some of the selection here. Short of the British Library Biblion is the closest you can get to holding first editions of real worth in the capital, and maybe if you're lucky (and loaded) owning them.

Finally, I got home and found myself to have a whole load of emails from Brooklyn bands. I don't know where or how, but at some point I've been added to some sort of hipster mailing list. Weird. So some bands follow...

Vampire Hands

Unfortunate name right? Why choose the same mythical (OR ARE THEY?) creature as the single most successful new indie band of the last few years to share a name with? Is it something to do with Google searches? In any case the band are in some ways quite similar to the Vampire Weekend, but also sound a fair bit like Stars. Essentially they are a mellow hipsters wet dream. So cool they're not even from Brooklyn. No. Really.

Devil In A Woodpile

I have a confession. I sort of wish I had an excuse to dress like a 1940's folk singer. All the time. Pin curls. Red lips. Day Gloves. The whole she bang. I don't think it's that much of a bad thing. Rory did it on Gilmore Girls. It looks awesome, but I don't do it at the risk of looking as though I'm in costume twenty four seven. Whenever I'm vintage shopping in Stables I feel a surge of joy when old time folk comes on and I kind of wish I had been able to visit Storyville and dress like this. Devil In a Woodpile make the kind of music (along with some heady blues and jazz) I imagine to have been played in the famed down and out district. It's not trendy new folk, and it's certainly not ground breaking, but for generation envy this music is perfect.

The Hideout

Iron & Wine part two. I find the songs inexplicably heartwarming and dreamy. Not dreamy as in the same way I describe the Jonas Brothers (swoon) but Sufjan style dreamy. Music for muggy days for sure.

My Gold Mask

The Hood Internet love her. Sold yet?

Like a heady young Karen O striding through an especially 70's Bond theme tune.

I like this bunch a whole lot.

Blank Dog

Pains-esque, but with totally indecipherable vocals. Enigmatic and sunny. Think 'Here's Comes Your Man' era Pixies instrumentally and you've got it.

Pick A Piper

Words cannot describe how weird this band are. Pumping a totally out there combo of pys-tribal pop I can't compare them to anyone, all I can say is that in all their weirdness (like the dress at the top of the page) they end up being confusingly wonderful.

A couple more things, yesterday I also went to Satsuma (only because Taro is shut between 3-5) which was kind of blah and overpriced (£12 for a tofu steak bento, while at Taro it's about £6 and about a billion times better) and SNOG, to which I am addicted. I had a Classic Natural Frozen Yogurt with chocolate chips and coconut flakes and it officially rocked my world. I also saw Exlovers play (also Wild Palms who did not please my ears at all), who were pretty rad on their faster songs.

Tomorrow brings a trip to Alfies (the ballgown hunt continues) and a Lemuria gig at the Fly. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a trip to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition too, as next week new shows open at the Tate (Futurism!) and the graduate shows continue at The Truman Brewery, making for some exciting times approaching. Not to mention these awesome shows in the not too distant future:

Walking in My Mind
Jun 23-Sep 6, The Hayward
This year the Hayward’s summer exhibition delves into the creative imagination through large-scale installations representing the mindscapes of ten international artists, including Charles Avery, Yayoi Kusama, Keith Tyson and Pipilotti Rist.

Bill Brandt
Jun 24-Jul 18, Chris Beetles Gallery
An exhibition of work by the German photographer who studied under Man Ray and made Britain his home, becoming instrumental in documenting the British way of life from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Jeff Koons
Jul 2-Sep 13, Serpentine Gallery
American artist Jeff Koons continues his boundary-pushing examination of taste, consumerism, beauty and banality with a show of paintings and sculptures at the Serpentine Gallery.

(thanks to Time Out for the above exhibition descriptions).

Get Busy. Keep Busy.

trunk show.

2009-06-10T13:16:00.001-07:00

All of the above on display at the Tate Modern.

So now that I'm in London again for a consistent period of time I'm going to try and bring some other interests of mine into the blog. Namely, art and great food. Now I'm not going to try and act like any sort of authority on anything, but I do have a habit of going to a significant amount of exhibitions and eateries and thought it might be nice to suggest some of the good ones sporadically here and there.

Today I recommend the Design Museum. I went to the Super Contemporary Exhibition this morning and spent four hours reading, playing, looking and learning. I usually have a gallery absorption speed of thirty minutes max, so feel the amount of time I spent in this exhibition reflects well on the content. You'll learn so much about London- architecturally, historically, in regards to fashion, art and music- all in a wonderfully curated space. Not to mention, the area where the gallery is located, Shad Thames is a wonderland (one which I had never been to before) which is but a fifteen minute walk from London Bridge. Views of the Tower of London, Victorian canals hidden away, gorgeous cafes, cobbled streets, floating gardens, tiny bridges and old boats...it was utterly delightful.

My intention is to sprinkle this blog with some places where you may not have been, be that I aimlessly walk around town so often, and have done for the past twenty one odd years. So look out for notes of galleries, fairs, bookstores, cafes, museums, restaurants, shops and events. Oh, and of course music...

Be sure to check out this on Sunday and these over the course of the next few months (gin making classes! riverside singalongs! balls!), I'm sure I'll be seeing you around.

steve albini, what a dude

2009-06-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

What was the impetus for choosing the song that you're listening to right now?

Why is it that some songs have memories attached to them and others just as old and listened to don't?

I rarely stop to think about these things, I assume you don't either.

Lately I've been reading the word 'haunting' in reviews a lot (case in point the radical Holly Miranda), it's a word I tend to associate with the ethereal, the hushed tones of a singer song writer and dark places that I've never been to. Then I thought about it- haunting means to be followed by something beyond your control, and this can be anything, not just the ghostly echoes of a wizened being. Lately I've been haunted by songs old and new, fragments of Reflection Eternal have made their presence known when I'm lost without headphones and Harlem Shakes have returned making their refrains known once more in my mind. The two acts couldn't be more different, and yet haunt all the same, and while it remains to be seen who mentioned in the forthcoming blog will dance between my ears for years to come I find all those mentioned are slight ghosts of music I have loved previously, hence why I can compare them to predecessors and contemporaries.

So I suppose I haven't deciphered what makes music viable for eternal existence (another haunting definition) other than a songs propensity to be catchy, but I hope the bands mentioned below will make enough of an impact on you that you'll take away something with you, even when the act of listening is long gone.

Look out behind you...

1. Reverie Sound Review

A female fronted Minus the Bear. Think Regina Spektor sleepy and happy.

2. Cancel the Astronauts

There are touches of early Maccabees and Good Shoes at work on the songs posted on the Scottish gangs Myspace. Vocals need something more, but what already exists sure makes me feel nostalgic for times of being crammed into venues that are no more and having a great Smirnoff fueled time.

3. Girls

I think they're okay, and everyone else loves them. They sound very mid 90's US indie pop, but not in the fun Pains way. Despite this though, to me it says a lot that Pains cite them as one of their favourite new bands so due to my love of Pains I give them props.

4. Lightmares

Bishop Allen drunk and at a house party. I thoroughly enjoy the name too.

5. Hut

Hut sound like the future if it were curated by Passion Pit, Pains and of Montreal. The future looks bright, and like everything I want it to.

6. Boxes and Bags

Their myspace hurts my eyes. However, gang vocals, golden melodies and a random as hell trumpet equal what Los Campesinos should have been. I.e. good and fun.

7. Actual Water

Really really garage rock. Like post Horrors post noise post hipsters who can't play their instruments. Good or bad? I'm still contemplating if the line is a good place to be.

8. La Casa Muerte

A really happy family (of hippies).

9. Big Digits

Cambridge, Mass kids sure like big beats these days. I sure like Cambridge, Mass kids these days. So 80's it hurts, in a sort of cheesy exercise video good way. I am indulging with glee.

10. Fever Sleeves

Like an indie Boys Night Out, really experimental, not at all commercial and quite frantic. I'm not sure they've found their feet (or a good studio) yet, but I have a soft spot for these Black Box Recording alums. Mostly because Black Box reminds me of being a teenager in Toronto and super good times.

11. Gregory Pepper and his Problems

I LOVE Gregory. He's so weird and broken sounding. Gosh, I'd even go as far as to call him quirky (oh the dreaded word). I have a crush. So predictable. I am such a loser.

12. Phantom

Okay, so I feel a little weird talking about this band. When I first heard of them, which was about 3 weeks ago, I thought they were a joke band. A&R Dudes from XL (albeit nice ones) decide to form a band? My first thought was 'COME ON'. However, I actually really like this. To the point where I file2hd'ed the myspace tracks (okay, the first track is way better than the second). How can I place them...do you remember that band Battle? Who had that one single on Transgressive (where did they even go?) about not being able to pay the rent? Phantom sound like that, mixed with a bit of Tulips era Bloc Party and band du jour Delphic. Yup. It's good. Props to Phantom, high fives in the street when you see them, I want more.

unexplained ending

2009-05-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Alright so I said I wouldn't write again until after June 4th, I lied.

As I've been delaying much reading for frolics in the tropical weather that has arrived (or is visiting, depending on who you ask) I figured while the sunshine puts me off eating, moving or being generally productive throwing some musical names out into the world would bring me some sort of good karma and trick myself into thinking I've actually done something worthwhile in the past few days.

So while I remain in the previously described state of confusion and disarray (except now the inside of my head sounds like The Best of the 1930's album I just bought, rather than the Blood Brothers), I provide for you here dear friends some sounds with which to segway into summer.

1. Adventure

Did you play Nintendo when you were young? Did you like Donkey Kong? Did you get to the final level? This music sounds like the AWESOME music that accompanied the joy you felt when you got all the bananas, had Diddy Kong at your side and had broken through all those pesky barrels. It's insane, and will probably make you feel really freaked out.

2.Brasstronaut

Totally different to Adventure. Think Grizzly Bear doing a soundtrack to a Meg Ryan movie-wistful, charming and a bit weird.

3. Suckers

I'm a little late on these guys as everyone is harping on about them these days, but quite rightly so. They sound a bit like Bear Hands but (in my opinion) a bit more interesting. A little righteous, a little out there and with deep folk roots (think choral segments) I'm developing a little love for them.

4.The Lonely Forest

I can't do any better a job describing them than a certain Canadian magazine did, I quote:

"Hipsters are going to jizz themselves over this one. It's like a combination of The Flaming Lips, Built To Spill and Dismemberment Plan.”

Uh huh.

5.The Strange Boys

Like a drunk REALLY early Kings Of Leon. Or other drunk dudes from the Southern parts of America.

6.Elephant Stone

Six Pence None The Richer fronted by a guy meets a calm Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Believe.

7. Wye Oak

I feel like I've written about them before. Have I? They sound a lot like Chairlift or Yo La Tengo, maybe even a little Fleeing New York. An example of when boys and girls play together and it goes very right.

8. Black Moth Super Rainbow

Think Sia meets Billy Corgan meets the Polyphonic Spree. As Peter Andre would say, "insania".

9. Lotus Plaza

A Deer Hunter side project so beautiful it may make you weep a little. Big thanks to Pereira for this one.

10. Here We Go Magic

A Glucky discovery, and a dreamy, lazy summer day band if there ever was one.

Happy sunshine napping and as Spotify would say, PLAY SAFE.

i want to go to yale and be like rory gilmore.

2009-05-25T12:16:00.001-07:00

hello hello.

I am in the midst of studying for exams and for the most part I have forgotten how to engage in regular conversation (the inside of my head currently sounds like a Blood Brothers album played backwards.) So here's hoping this brief post comes across as punchy, short and sweet and not lacking, nonsensical and just plain weird.

Watch me try to type coherently:

Clues

Clues are awesome. They're made up of members of possibly the best band that ever came from Montreal, Unicorns. They're a little Pavement, a little Good Life and a touch Of Montreal. They take a few listens to get into as the songs are pretty complex, but give it a chance okay?

Fiction

These guys sound like the Horrors or maybe the Klaxons album that the record label never let them release. It's not my thing, but if you are a fan of spider webby Black Wire-esque post garage rock, behold.

Is Tropical

A little like Larrakin Love....and then they get a bit Postal Servicey. I don't know what to make of them, but they're playing a lot over the summer so I'm going to try catch them. The production is whack, but maybe live the songs will find their feet.

Discovery

For the electro-pop beat lover in us all (yes, all) this is the best side project in a long, long while. Try and guess who make up this band whilst you listen?

Spindle and Wit

Like the folk revival of late? You will like Spindle and Wit. Endearing, non-preachy and hopeful. It could stand to be better vocally, but the underlying hope of the songs make me want to believe that (again) live this could be pretty good.

Weak post. Weak week to come. Sigh.

Post June 4th come bigger, brighter and better things.

Until the jump.

chuckles and blair: perfection

2009-05-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

Are you ready?

I considered condensing this list, but you know what? Screw moderation. Who even likes moderation? Not I. Excess is way better. Eat till you feel sick, read till you can't see straight, listen till your head hurts.

In the wicked words of Celine Dion, "near far, where ever you are" BELIEVE in these bands:

1. WinterGloves

Marry me MTL? Yes indeed, another band from the French province of my second home. Just wait until you click onto their myspace and understand how great they are. Why are they so great you ask? Um, an electronic Faint meets Peter Bjorn and John-esque interpretation of Smells Like Teen Spirit. For real. All you Dj's are going to (mind my language) fuck shit up with this. Their originals are also fantastic, love is not even an adequate word.

2.Raccoon

A band from Calgary who take us right back to the mid nineties. Perfect for a Joshua Gordon Levitt teen film soundtrack, indie rock in a mellow upbeat form not unlike Bishop Allen and various other college pop sensations. Getting somewhere, going places.

3. Twi the Humble Feather

What a name. Minimal, charming, a little romantic. If I knew how to ride a bike, this is what I'd listen to whilst riding it through a hypothetical field. By field I mean Hyde Park, but you know, you get the jist. This stuff is just barely there, breathy and dreamy. There is a theory that if you listen to classical music while you study, you are more likely to retain that which you are trying to absorb, I believe this to be the classical music of our generation. A step beyond Fleet Foxes and Bowerbirds, this is timeless.

4. We Plants are Happy Plants

I probably cannot name one Hungarian musician. Let alone one that interests me. WPAHP intrigue me. Their myspace makes them look totally Eurotrash. I envision them to look like "typical eastern European" baddies so often depicted in American spy films (black pleather and all) however their remixes are much more awesome than awful. They've already done Radiohead, Oasis, Coldplay and Daft Punk. The question is, who's next? "Disco House" has never sounded (this) good.

5. Timber Timbre

Not a spelling mistake, but a charming arts+crafts band not too many people know about. They make what they call "low-fi bedroom blues", and I can't disagree (how can you ever really disagree with arts+crafts?) Like Matt and Kim after a nap, this is a boy girl duo you can back and rely on to aurally take you to an extremely pleasant place.

6.Japandroid

You know how loads of bands wanted to channel the Stooges but ended up sounding like the Strokes? Japandroid are one of those bands, but ended up landing, albeit quite messily, between the two. I'm not sure if it's just because their recordings are purposefully awful or because the sunshine has filled me with hope and glee I'd like to think upon performance/better recording this could be something pretty visceral. Or it could be really gross and bad. Either way, an interesting bunch.

7. One for the Team

I don't know if I like this band, but Afternoon records do and that makes me want to support them. A bit twee, a bit generic, but maybe just twee and generic enough to be good? Hmm.

8.Starlight Mints

These guys have been around a while, and are signed to Barsuk. I wasn't aware of them until fairly recently so I thought I'd put their name out there to see if anyone else had heard of them? Or if any one else liked them? They are a band who produce music not too unlike White Stripes demos. On a side note, I hear they're one of Ms Deschanels favourite bands, and if they're good enough for her...

9. Caledonia

A really fun band from, you guessed it, Canada. We should all move there. For real. Everyday would be handclaps and high fives.

Caledonia are a little Jeff Tweedy and a TINY bit Costello. I don't love them, but I think they are good-ish. I think they're a mood band, right now I feel chipper so moving on...

10. Rainbow Arabia

EVERYONE has been wanting to have these guys babies lately. I'm not missing out on the action, if one could procreate with music, man would this be my current choice. This music is pretty out there and yet probably the most likely to succeed out of the bands mentioned in this post. Like a really sugary cocktail that looks an unnatural neon colour, has a stupid name and makes your teeth hurt, but makes you haaaaaappy, this band take a pinch of Passion Pit, a dash of Justice and a hint of Uffie to equate to the hippest band on the West coast (along with their chums Haunted Graffiti).

11. Deleted Scenes

Taking us back to home of the hipster (Brooklyn of course) Deleted Scenes are making things pretty exciting in the outer borough. Atmospheric and a teeny little bit like Band of Horses and the National (note: teeny) they're rough and ready for better recordings, and bigger things.

12. The Antlers

Sticking to BK and the mellow music, The Antlers are a touch early Dirty Projectors, quite pretty sounding and a tad awesome. They're signed to Frenchkiss, and if that isn't endorsement enough I don't know what I can do to plead their case of lots of promise.

13. Pretty and Nice

I really quite like this band, and I fear this will lose me whatever cool points I have left. They're all over the place but remain decidedly a pop band at the same time. I love a hook, I love a left field approach to pop and in that sense I believe they could and probably will be a great MTV band. Also, I have been told they KILL IT live. Someone should book a UK show, I bet it'd be real sweaty, a real guilty pleasure and real great.

14. Eulogies

Pretty morbid name, pretty great band. They're currently on tour with the Dears, and unlike most bands I tend to talk about they have really great production on their tracks and sound so radio ready it pains me more people don't know about them. Standard summing up: if you like the Dears you will love Eulogies. Damn you Americans and your good shows.

15. Golden Bloom

Dude sounds like Wilco meets Wheat. Old school acoustic entertainment that'll depress/impress/heart warm more than David Gray does middle aged housewives. Not my thing, but doom, gloom etc resonates with some folk or else we wouldn't have David would we...

14. Modern Skirts

Hailing from Athens, Georgia this band are very Barsuk- mellow, sweet and purposefully out of tune at times. This stuff has a built in audience referencing Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel- Chris Walla where are you with your contracts and pen?

15. NOMO

Their record is named after an Italo Calvino book! Awesome!

This is totally middle aged jazz-funk music. I don't care, I secretly like it. At times.

16. Neon Indian

Fantastic Passion Pit-esque Brooklyn fare. They have given us some great Summer jams. Thank you Neon Indian, you are just wonderful.

17. Sean Bones

Afro-Caribbean melodic beats from a sweet little nerd. Another Frenchkiss boy with pleasant summery songs that make me wish I was on holiday already. Sunshine on a cloudy day.

18. Gliss

Like Silversun Pickups? Like the Stills? ME TOO! This is why I like Gliss.

Gliss make songs that were made to be played to HUGE venues, loud. I'm not saying they're the most unique band in the world, but I think you might like the noises they make as I sure do.

19. The Love Language

Bowerbirds+Fleet Foxes+Arcade Fire= new generation folk.

20. Monahans

Austins Band of Horses (I know I throw that comparison around alot, but it's only because I love them) with a bit of Explosions in the Sky. Pretty special stuff.

21. Entire Cities

Like the Hold Steady but raw.

22. Gravity Wave

They sound like a night at the Drake.

23. La Strada

Non-denominational hymnals for all.

24. She Keeps Bees

Cat Power pissed off and drunk on Jack Daniels. Bluesy, dirty and Glucky endorsed.

25. Holly Miranda

She played last night at the Boogaloo secretly and she killed it.

Holly Mirandas voice tingles sliding down your spine, hits your soul and stays there.

Can you tell the length of my attention span is that of a piece of string?

More soon...

are you that somebody?

2009-05-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

Again I fail you blogging audience.

I swear I'm not lazy, I'm just so tired I feel like my head is filled with gravel.

I do have an AMAZING list of really wonderful bands coming, and trust me, the list is massive, but until I get my act together and string together some coherent sentences to attach to the list (though if you really want it, email me saying 'band list' in the title and you can have a list of unedited awesome) I suggest you do one of the following:

a. Watch this set. Feel as overjoyed as I have done countless times these past few days.

b. Go to the Haunch of Venison 'Mythologies' exhibition in Burlington Gardens.

Where else will you see "anatomically correct" suspended skeletons of Sylvester and Tweety, as well as an amazing cube of organs and flesh AND some awesome taxidermy ALL for free?

No where. I have been twice, and am going again tomorrow.

c. Help me hate myself less for having twitter by getting one too? I'm on http://twitter.com/zaracupcake.

I clearly have no shame.

d. Go to the super secret awesome "buzz" show at the Boogaloo this Tuesday.

e. Go to the Camden Arts Centre, see the exhibition, take in a talk and hang out in the cafe (stellar cake and coffee).

It is just lovely, and one of my favourite contemporary spaces in North London, with an amazing bookstore attached to it. What more could you want? Nada.

f. Be SO excited for THIS.

g. All of the above?

Look out, records.

2009-05-14T16:26:00.001-07:00

I am a bad liar. I can't really do it.

To say I've always loved London would be a huge lie, to say I've always loved British music would be a bigger one. The bands that shaped and sorted my teens into neat time frames were nearly all American and Canadian. I think the case of grass is always greener had a lot to do with this- with London bands they were always just there, the trans-atlanticism felt exotic.

The anticipation of a US band coming over, who they'd bring as supports, the rare overpriced merch they'd flog, the excitement of whether or not you'd get tickets was a thrill. It felt special to like Pedro the Lion, it felt special to like the Lemonheads, it felt amazing to like Sloan, etc because when they came over for those one off shows that mattered so much, they felt all yours.

The Libertines, for example, belonged to London. They belonged to a culture I wanted no part of, be that as it may due to my ridiculously pretentious "punk" determination to not be like all the underage shooter drinkers at Club NME on a Friday wearing red military coats ( I here I totally missed out...).

However, despite having grown up a little since those days, I still can't say I have warmed to much British music over the last few years. Looking over my recently played list on my I tunes, with the exception of The Smiths and the Maccabees, there aren't any British bands present. I try quite hard with this blog to be as honest as I can in regards to what I like about different musicians, and it's never been my instinct to think about where they're from until after I've listened to them, in retrospect all the best bands haven't been from this country. I can't help but wonder why this is. If you've followed this blog and listened to some of the people I have talked about you'd see some British artists have drifted in- Ellie Goulding, Video Nasties, White Lies and a few others. So after some thought I began to think if there were any other British artists that I'm starting to lean towards.

The results were minimal...

Light Brigade.

Friends of the incomparable Little Death (who have some insanely good new tracks up on myspace) Light Brigade make me want to not hate shoegaze as a term, or genre as much. Shoegaze is genre that inspires thought of wannabe hip geography teachers, and people with no personalities paired with bad hair, which I realise is pretty harsh of me to say, but hey, honesty all the way. The band have touches of Smashing Pumpkins deep, deep under their post pop exterior. Like the seaside on a rainy day (Hi people at Great Escape!) it takes a certain mood to appreciate a band like this, who aren't quite engaging on record yet, but interesting enough to warrant a growing desire to see them play.

Cinnamon Chasers

Now this I can back. Lately rock star kids from London have been all over the media, the chiseled Simnon boys, Nick Caves son and so and so forth. Cinnamon Chaser features the nephew of one of the gentlemen in the Kinks and rather than pouting in a sultry manner in ID, this young man has chosen to beat match and create all on his lonesome. CC produces some pretty unique electronic music, which while not my cup of tea is really very good for what it is. If you like Fabric, you'll probably like this, if you like the Kinks, you will not.

Cold Pumas

Cold Pumas are a band that sound like the future: messy, loud and indirect. This Brighton band kick it real good. They go against all of what is rising as popular from the indie scene right now (i.e electric-autotuned dudes and dudettes) and so probably won't be headlining any festivals anytime soon, but man oh man would I like to see them at a house party. They'd Tear. It. Up. (Throw Hot Damn into the mix and there's a party!)

Teen Sheikhs

These guys sound like the Smiths, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. They've been getting lots of blog buzz from what really annoying people call "key tastemakers" and those who regular people call "industry people stalking art school students facebook profiles", and you know what? GOOD. TS are a good band and they deserve to play to A LOT of people. Check them out, it's music totally filled with sweaty, rad teen spirit.

Post Master General

So new that they don't even exist outside of the Internet Post Master General rise from sleepy little Exeter and have nothing recorded well. Somehow though, through the truly appalling Garageband recordings they have up on myspace I have developed mp3 lust. They sound like like the most garage rock garage band ever. Like early Black Wire. Worth keeping an eye on...

Ray Rumour and the No Ideas

Living in London somewhere between Deerhunter, Deerhoof, Low and a really hungover Emmy the Great is Ray Rumour. This is not happy music, this is music for when it's grey and a write off Summer outside. I'm pretty happy so I actually don't like it that much, but feel like some people might. It's odd logic, but I feel maybe something will happen here. Perhaps.

This was a pretty blah update, I apologise. Tomorrow I return to writing about bands from far far away, it'll be much kinder to your ears instantly rather than test on promise of growth. Until we voyage across the ocean together...

PAIN.

2009-05-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of things:

1. The Video Nasties are now good live. This is pretty awesome, and you should go see them play. The album is fine, the material feels a little dry on tape, but seriously trust me, it is a different animal on stage. Like a Lion maybe. Or a Liger. Also, the bass player has a pretty amazing fringe.

2. Metric are still awesome. Fantasies is up with Pains, YYY's and Maccabees with my records of the the year thus far. New Regina Spektor is looking good too!

3. I really like the new Ellie Goulding stuff.

4. WHY IS CHIDDY BANG NOT SIGNED YET?

5. Theophilus was pretty childish at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen. Seriously dude, we're British, you were in East London. People do not dance that often here unless super inebriated, be grateful no one was wasted enough to dance at your first show, it shows a level of expectation and respect we don't give most. You were quite brilliant until you stormed off though.

6. White Lies are just too awesome live right now. Go see them at a festival. Not sombre live but strong, powerful and electric. Bishop Allen are also just fantastic live. If you go see them, you'll want to hug the world after.

7. I am really glad I am not going to any festivals. Except maybe End of The Road. It shares a name with a Boyz II Men song AND has Explosions in the Sky & Papercuts.

8. Steven Merritt composed the music for a childrens film called 'Coraline'. Someone should bootleg this for me, I'd be very, very indebted to you.

9. Janelle killing it:

10. New band overload tomorrow. Be ready to press play.

Until then:

Go see Pains of Being Pure of Heart this weekend. I am.

Thrice.

sound track.

2009-04-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

The two best soundtracks a coming? 500 Days of Summer and Gigantic.

500 Days Of Summer TRAILER

Gigantic TRAILER

500 Days Of Summer will probably have the best soundtrack since Garden State made half the world fall in love with the Shins. It also has Zooey Deschanel (the she of She & Him), who makes everything golden.

500 Days Of Summer Soundtrack Tracklist:

Regina Spektor - "Us"

The Smiths - "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"

Belle & Sebastian - "The Boy With The Arab Strap"

Black Lips - "Bad Kids"

The Smiths - "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want."

Patrick Swayze - "She's Like The Wind."

Jack Penate - "Have I Been a Fool? "

The Doves - "There Goes the Fear"

Hall & Oates - "You Make My Dreams"

Knight Rider Theme

Temper Trap - "Sweet Disposition"

Carla Bruni - "Quelqu'un M'a Dit"

Black Lips - "Veni, Vidi, Vici"

Paper Route - "The Music"

Feist - "Mushaboom"

Regina Spektor - "Hero"

Spoon - "Infinite Pet"

Simon & Garfunkel - "Bookends"

Wolfmother - "Vagabond"

Mumm-Rah - "She's Got You High"

Karaoke Selections:

Poison "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood as performed by Zooey Deschanel "Sugar Town"
The Pixies "Here Comes Your Man"

Be excited, I think I'm in love.

it's a girl

2009-04-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

There aren't that many things that annoy me really. One thing that does is when someone asks if you like a band and then the person questioning rounds on you, as if the question was rhetorical, and asks,"OH MY GOD WHY?" if you do not like or enjoy the artist in question. Enter disbelief. Enter annoyance. People like different things, accept, move on.

For me when all of my friends fell head over heels for Bon Iver and I didn't (and still don't) I was faced with discerning looks and disbelief. There are certain artists like Bjork or the Libertines who just don't cohere with me and again when ever this comes up, people seem baffled. It's curious as to why people expect certain bands to match certain people. I'm fairly inconsistent. I usually dislike female singers, I usually dislike singer songwriters, I pretty much abhor ballads. However, there are always expectancies, discrepancies and anomalies in taste. So here I explore exceptions in my taste, and some of them (forgive the incoming pun) are pretty exceptional.

Leading the hit parade is Janelle Monae. When I first heard her about nine months ago I was super excited, and still now when she appears on my I pod, I feel sparks. Imagine a mixture of Shirley Bassey and Outkast. This is music that is interesting and accessible, a rare combination that roars into your head and stays rollicking around for days. Some people have called her the female Prince. I wouldn't go that far, but she is very, very, good. Oh and boys, she is gorgeous and has stellar style. I wish I was half as cool.

Talking of the stellar, our boy Chiddy Bang recently put his spin on MGMT's 'Kids', which is currently riding high on the Hype Machine charts. I can't get it out of my mind, and on a song as thoroughly played out as 'Kids' has been, he has made it sound impossibly fresh once more.

Next up the impossibly awesomely named Honey Claws. Electro-Ragga? Why the hell not. I'm down.

Tracks like 'Beat of the Wet Eve' make me feel Summer days at Talbot Road's Globe, Carnival, dry heat, sand and general tropical eclecticism. I guess some would call them Afro-beat, I just call them brilliant. When this is on you can't feel rain, grey or concrete, you just feel them emitting good vibrations.

The Depreciation Guild are electro-prog. By now, if you've been following this blog you'll understand that electro is really not my thing. I couldn't tell you the difference between techno, electro or house if my life depended on it (if anyone would like to educate me, give me a call). However, I can tell you what I like and the oddly rampaging noise of this band is it. The music is really intense and really overwhelming, like memories accompanying the morning after the night before. They have a lovely website too, click on the name to check them out.

Moving further a field Asteroids Galaxy Tour are from Denmark. I heard them on Gossip Girl (minus 1000 cool points?). They are the kind of band who really annoy me sometimes, but produce pretty ideal party/soundtrack songs. I love Alex Patsavas, the amazing music supervisor for Gossip Girl and think she's struck pop gold once more. Not one for the cool kids, but certainly possible pals for fans of the radio.

Azeda Booth may suit fans of Animal Collective, Broken Social Scene and the more electric Radiohead. Vocally they even have a touch of Smashing Pumpkins. They produce sounds that are very current and yet feel as though they come from another planet. Emerging from Calgary's suddenly booming indie scene, they certainly have a very good arsenal of songs to separate themselves from those who they can and will be compared to. I highly recommend those at a loss for new music to come and have a listen.

Secret Mommy. What an awesome name. What insane, awesome music. I don't really know much about Secret Mommy other than the music is bizarre and great. I can't even brand the music with a genre, as it is a true medley of sound that experiments and samples from all over the board. Not one for the conventional, but be brave, you might find it was worth diving in for...

Women have been getting a lot of love lately. They live somewhere between the Magnetic Fields, The Walkmen, Department of Eagles and the Kinks. It's not pretty pop music, and not easy to swallow, but once they reel you in, you settle into their arms and they hold you there. I feel like I'll be there a pretty long time. Come join me.

Braids make ambient prog, which is cool if that's your thing. I know it is a type of music a lot of people enjoy, so Mogwai/Hot Damn/Explosions in The Sky fans, you are welcome.

The Consonant C are for fans of Rilo Kiley. I have a massive girl crush on Jenny Lewis and sort of want to be her most of the time (it fluctuates, one day Zooey Deschanel, the next Jenny Lewis) and in between bouts with my two favourite gals, this band allow for some variation. Music to bake and wander to for sure.

Baking and wandering are my two favourite things, make of that what you will.

Also, if you like Adele, or did before she put out a totally Radio 2 album you may like Jane Vain. Who is a girl from Canada with a sick voice and awesome tunes. I'm loving it day in, day out.

That's it for the new music roundup. Lately I've also been looking back to Public Enemy, Some One Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin ('Modern Mystery' and 'Think I Wanna Die' are perfect falling in love songs), Land of Talk, Constantines and Albert Hammond Jnr.

I find most of these guys are horribly overlooked, so please download Spotify and have a listen to those who may have slipped through your net, there's a lot to be loved in what's been left behind...

straight out of.

2009-03-27T06:21:00.000-07:00

"zara, you've changed..."

Do you remember being fourteen? I remember being fourteen, and being able to, quite proudly, identify in a crowd who my friends would be by the way they dressed. This sounds awful, but it's true. The criteria for this initial "selection" has evolved over the years. My days as a Camden pseudo punk (school uniform carefully tucked away in my rucksack) were fun, dense and characterised by people who were covered in patches, leather, studs, tattoos and for that brief awful moment, trucker caps. With these people I associated all the independent thoughts I so admired in the music I was listening to. Looking back, I evidently hung around with a lot of very stoned people, who at the time seemed very deep. Punk was a new concept for me and I admired everyone involved. I then moved along to be surrounded by the "indie kid". You know, the Converse wearing, collegiate looking, bumbling, bookish shy types so characterised by Seth Cohen of the O.C. For a long time afterwards if I was to see a young woman or man strolling along with such apparel I'd deem him or her interesting enough to talk to. To place myself in this melee, I attended a shambolic, fairly odd, public school where the girls regularly came in to the common room at various hours of the morning sporting £400+ hair extensions, fake tanned to the max, logo-ed handbags, Tiffanys jewelery gifted to them by paramours and bejeweled Jimmy Choo heels. (You must note this was when I was sixteen and uniform was no longer required). To this day I still characterise those who dress and appear in this manner vapid, vacant and dull. When I was between fourteen and sixteen I lived in band t-shirts, black jeans and Converse. I realise that it is awful to pass judgement on anyones character by how they appear, but I truly believed the way in which you chose to express yourself (thanks Dre) physically said a great deal about ones personality and interests. By this I mean to me Ugg boots equal mindless heathens, Doc Martens equal intimidating girls with death stares and high heels equal the masochistic/exhibitionist types. It's likely your interpretations derived from these pieces of footwear are entirely different, and this is where the social divide begins. Now, being older I'm very much aware stereotyping of this kind minimizes the benefit a wide variety of friends can have and what you stand to learn, not just about music, but about culture (though Ugg boots have no place in ANY culture).

These days I have friends who dress themselves in a manner of ways- skinny jeans, skirts, trousers hung low, cords, whatever really, but if I'm being honest I still have a lot of characteristics I associate with certain ways people appear. Of course now, unlike when I was younger, fashion is much more in tune with subculture and buying into a Topman "indie look " won't buy you good taste in bands, nor will a New Era cap make you king of hardcore knowledge, the same way a pair of Dunks won't make you a real fan of hip hop. Due to the homogenisation of the ways in which various subcultures dress and in turn are being sold on as a "look" or "lifestyle" to consumers, in many ways we have begun alleviating our judgements associated with the items of clothing and the homogenisation in turn infers the falsehoods of the masses upon the subcultures themselves. Working both ways, the lines begin to get blurry and this takes away from subcultures, but also lays foundation for originality to appear in the cracks and forces people to move beyond "a look" in selecting their company, as "a look" no longer says as much about ones taste, or so it would seem.

I admittedly quite badly prejudge bands on how they look a lot of the time. Beards? Great. Skinny jeans on boys? Hmmm. Paisley? No. Bling? Hilarious! Grills? Ick. Do-rags? Gross.

Written down this comes across as very blunt, harsh and quite shallow, but the vast majority of people do pre-judge those they are faced with by the way they appear. When sifting through the vaguely more "unknown" acts of SXSW I tried to put aside my visual blockers, my judgements , and came out with some pretty decent results. So agree, disagree, debate, or no debate, I digress, and go on in an attempt to not bandy around genres and only describe the music...

Firstly Perseph One, who is a woman. She is a woman who reminds me a little bit of Lauryn Hill. If she decided to make a non-crazy comeback with a Santogold remix. I was told she tore it up at SX and sources say she is IT this year. Pay her a visit here.

Next, the awfully monikered Mr Lif who apparently I've been missing out on for oh about NINE releases? Where have I been? Why has no one shared the wealth? He rhymes with fairly intelligent lyrics, but as with most music such as this the samples make it for me. He'll certainly make you sway and nod your head, I'm feeling it.

Champagne, Champagne rise from Seattle and are very "now". Now meaning comparable to people like The Teenagers, Kitsune, La Roux, etc. Except they're pretty hilarious and good. Listen to the lyrics, at one point he mocks the "emotastic" and then goes on to sing an ode to Molly Ringwald. I laughed so hard my guts hurt. Beat heavy, lyrically awesome, GO now.

Awkquarius make me think of those hilarious porn channels that appear on Sky TV after midnight with those late night call shows where people act out their fantasies with some kitschy poorly acted brilliance. They also (with tongue firmly in cheek) evoke The Fresh Prince of Belair. This is so 90's it hurts, but man do you need to hear it.

What attracted me to the Morning Benders were their bedroom covers (hello Cardigans!). I'm a sucker for a good cover song and doing them in such a sweet offbeat manner does nothing but make me smile more. Their original music is very sunny, fans of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin should be excited, others who might enjoy may be currently revelling in some sort of hazy day. For those with weather wanderlust have a listen, they'll take you there.

The wiley We Were Lovers are disgustingly cute and very, very girly. SO sugary I almost want to put them among icing in my list of favourite things. After a while though I'm sure my teeth will be set on edge and I'll feel a little sick. However, until then I'll pretend I'm in the Princess Diaries and sing along to lighthearted tunes such as 'Birds Of A Feather' and feel totally pleased to be present in their musical fairytale.

Les Handclaps put us back in the 80's, but in Europe. In a trashy club. The bands name does not lie- they are pretty French (French Canadian), and do use a whole lot of hand claps, but somehow this combination works for them. They also have songs about the most stupid and ridiculous things. Such as how Cacti are delicious fruit. No, really...

The Lovely Feathers exist somewhere between Foals and the Caesars. They coast the perimeter of fine and great with some pretty promising mp3s circling the web. Every time I listen to them I begin to dig them a bit more and with a little more production effort and money they could quite easily be great. Watch this space? Yeah, they'll probably be on an Itunes advert soon.

Night Control create gorgeous sounds that Panda Bear would be jealous of. Ambient, a little spacey, it's good earth cafe music. Kids who've cruised beyond Sublime and past Animal Collective may enjoy this a lot. That said, I appreciate both Sublime and Animal Collective a great deal and fully endorse them, so anything goes. A band for all!

Everyone raves about Peasant. I don't really get the big deal, it seems to me like pretty standard singer with a guitar fare. Check it out with your own self loathing/wallowing discretion by clicking on his name.

Papercuts are pretty awesome. Mellow, elegant, creative, bundles of pain and joy. They contrast well with the certainly more grassroots Donnovan Quinn and the 13th month, close friends of the aforementioned. Enjoying both creates a lovely mixture of musical textures to fill the next few moments of your life.

Thus ends part one of the SXSW summary by the absentee.

On top of all this new music stuff I highly recommend the new Silversun Pickups record for Smashing Pumpkin fans, the new Metric album for EH fans and the new Grizzly Bear album

for all the cool kids. They are all worth actually paying money for and not just stealing off of the Internet, and that's kind of a big deal.

Love to LGBK for the tip offs, more soon to conclude the SX roundup in the week.

simon says

2009-03-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

This week has been busy. Not because I'm one of the masses getting collectively wasted in Austin, but because I have socialised beyond the point of no return. I think I have used up the funds at my bank of social skills and have resorted to having the most mundane (on my part) of conversations with people about the weather, politics and various forms of social sciences. So if I've seen you this week and been a little out of it, sincere apologies. I'll be awake and in touch again soon I think.

I recently came to a fairly startling conclusion. On the hip hop/ hip pop revivalist tangent I've been floating on recently I began to notice the prevalence of vulgar subjects and fairly nasty lyrics in some of my favourite songs. Nice songs in hop hop piss me off. Ballads are for the phenomenally lame. The songs I love in this genre start something, incite movement (be that it may, just head nodding), and really, it's not always good. For instance, Method Man's remix of Pharoache Monch's 'Simon Says', contains the lyrics "Ladies rub the ta-ta's, bras, titties and knockers on the floor/Oww! Fellas pull ya cock out" and "I got a bitch named Nina and I tuck her/I leave a nigga hanging like ya moms muffler/Snuff her/ Then my boys follow up". Hilarious and more than a tad gross right? This is nothing new. The main focus of the song is a line based upon the sensationalism of profanity (yelling "Get the fuck up!") and telling girls to rub their breasts in public ("Fuck it! Girls, I said rub on your titties/ Fuck it! I said rub on your titties!"), of which the appeal escapes me.

Another of my favourite hip hop songs is "Pass the Courvoisier II" by Busta Rhymes, an artist who my dad introduced me to at age eleven. You'd think being exposed so young to music so lyrically gross would have some sort of profound effect on kids like me, but while I would not mind a life in which I could bathe in jewels and be surrounded by a posse of large bottomed women and amply muscly men feeding me grapes, caviar and champagne, I have somehow come out the other end a mild mannered normal young adult. Who only occasionally dabbles in decadence. Despite being a fairly educated individual I continue to endorse and sing along happily to music made by the very misogynists aforementioned and their contemporaries. Why? As I can't help but want to nod my head in that awkward "street" manner that I learnt from watching Dangerous Minds back when I was a kid. The lyrics become like script, albeit an amusing one, and I'm character acting for three minutes. In this I realise, my mind has surrendered and on the most basic level I've engaged with a piece of music, and just music. With this instinct I rarely approach indie or rock music, as I enjoy it in a different way. So today I thought I'd try something new, here are some indie rock and pop bands, acts and individuals who I've tried to gauge with my "hip hop ear". To see who indeed might make your head bob up and down. Let's go...

Well after a few scarring experiences with electro proper it's safe to say I will never love the genre. However if there ever was a need to (I don't really see why there would) go to anything vaguely resembling an electro night once more I guess I'd want to hear the mild and childlike blip pop of Old Folks Home. I actually listened to them when I came home from a night out not too long ago and had the most messed up dream of a choir of children wearing white gowns playing tag in slow motion on a rainbow. It was pretty spacey and pretty scary. Electro clearly freaks me out.

Say Hi claims that he sounds like "the moment just before the orgasm", which I translate to mean either you'll find him hilarious or euphoric. Either way, it's a pretty corny description. Going back to the theme of the post, I'm not too keen on the way his voice sounds on the recordings, I do however really encourage the listening of his Bazan-esque, sort of Jimmy Eat World-ish spiderwebby songs musically. They're very delicate, as in if a song could be diaphanous, this is the perfect example. I've heard live he's quite powerful, so if he ever makes it across to British shores I'd be sure to check him out.

Final Flash remind of the National in places, Band of Horses in others. I'm a little in love with their floaty, calm alt-pop. They come from Montreal and deliver songs of grace, lightness and have the basis from which to morph into a really powerful force in their chosen genre. They have an album coming out this year and I'm hot with anticipation already. They will soundtrack many of my walks about towns and places for months to come, and I really hope Austin treats them well this week. I believe in big things coming their way.

The Break Mission might be compared to Bon Iver by some. I think they're way better. Earnest, hushed and intense, I find them to be reminiscent of early Shins and, once again Band of Horses. The songs seem to shimmer in a hypothetical musical light. Hardly one for emotional outpouring, I have to say I do feel a certain warmth when listening to them, the kind I haven't felt for a band in a long, long while.

Gigantic Hand are categorised as Americana, a genre I associate only with Springsteen, so I find it quite hard to compare them to anyone. The songs are quite hollow, but not in a bad way. They are easy and difficult in an instance, the kind of band I wish played in bars to provide pleasant ambiance to soundtrack dear moments with friends. However, at the same time not acting as a distraction. They have a long way to go, but march on in the right direction.

Dog Day first attracted me because I adore their cover art. It evokes different eras engaging you with gorgeous graphics. Providing a fusion of that late 80's shoegaze haze and early 90's pavement denim jacket-floral dress indie, the result is charmingly engaging. As I listen I begin to ache for American Summers, the skipping of continents, and excites me for the approaching Summer months of travel and experience- gardens, beaches, parks and dusty roads in hot cities.

Finally, you likely don't need me to tell you but Spring's finally here, and this calls for nothing more than a digging out of some Illmatic, and some Sublime. I'm going to go put on the Whackness and feel like it's 1994...(and act like I don't recall I was only seven back then, and not in fact old enough to appreciate the golden age of hip hop...)

i want to get down, but not the first night

2009-03-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

Oh Monica, what wise words you sung.

I apply Monica's theory to a lot of things, music not being an exception. Not many things piss me off more than when people hear only one song by a band and declare "O M G this band will CHANGE YOUR LIFE ! ! !" exclamation point, exclamation point, etc. I have a lot of one night stands with songs (I was going to say bands, but that'd be weird and wrong). This blog is compiled of some people who I have become very committed to, and others that befit a moment that I then cruelly dump and move on. Such is life. Monica didn't write a song about being musically slutty, therefore I don't know how to break the habit. So here I am, the musical Carrie Bradshaw, and these are my Aidens for the day...

Have you ever listened to one of those "indie-electronic" bands? None come to mind right now, but I know there are a lot of them out there. A lot of the time I find myself really down with the music, but vocals and ridiculous lyrics ruin the song for me overall. Windom Earle make music that those great backgrounds are made of. While I could never call myself an electro fan (I find flashing strobe lights and huge stereos far too daunting) I can say I really enjoy the music these guys produce, that really can't be put in any other category other than electro. People who are masters of electro will probably hate this, however people without an opinion on electro will probably love, and that's probably you.

Going to an extreme here, the Stolen Minks appeal to the fourteen year old in me who still wishes she spent every Saturday in the Electric Ballroom listening to really dirty CBGB's era punk. These days I've mellowed out a bit, but it doesn't mean from time to time I don't love hearing some really great scuzzy punk. Bikini Kill fans will love the Stolen Minks, who make me feel like I have a (less poppy) Blondie of my own generation to love.

Continuing on a punk themed route, Die Brucke play wonderfully fast hardcore. Hardcore was one of my first loves and has provided some of the most memorable musical experiences of my life. Music like this is great, abrasive, intense and not for everyone, which is why I love it. You can't get much harder or faster than music like this and that's what makes it so much fun.

Fast forwarding to the present and modern music, let's talk about Team B. A bag of Brooklyn All Stars, featuring members of LCD Soundsystem, Beirut and the Arcade Fire. You can't really get more indie avant garde than that can you? I find the music sounds a bit convoluted and difficult to listen to, but I didn't instantly fall in love with Beirut either, which is something I make an effort to remember when listening to the band. Have a listen, I'd be interested to hear what you think of them.

I saw Jack Lewis and the Fishermen Three play in an amazing basement venue in Manchester not to long ago. They came straight from opening for the Cribs, having driven for hours earlier that day, exhausted and tired to end up playing a really great cohesive set despite all of this. Long gone are the days when I made the effort to go see bands I'd never heard of play every night, but these guys made me want to do that again.

Pleasantly surprised Jack, Jeff Lewis' brother, sounds like a better, more interesting version of his sibling. The band angle less for the quirky 'I'm-on-like-so-many-drugs-man' vibe and focus on playing really interesting basic guitar based pop music. Plus they're from Portland, beards, check shirts and insta-endearing cool factor included.

Waiting For the End Of The World is kind of a mouthful to say. The name is also a bit dismal. The band however sound like the Walkmen and have a singing drummer, which is nearly always a good thing. They've been playing around New York a lot lately and while I haven't had a chance to catch them live yet I did come across a live set on the simply super Baeble website, which you can check out here. Who doesn't want concert in their bedroom? Sure beats going out a lot of the time.

Lastly, mellow out with some nineties lo-fi pop, Patterns play really softly driven pop-rock. Quite B ishop Allen, though perhaps a little more accessible. Fans of Barsuk or Polyvinyl bands will like them a lot, I think. It's fun music to assist you as you go about your day.

Sunshine calls outside my window, until next time.

day seven: no cake

2009-03-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

When the rain comes down hard outside and the wind blows you around on the way home, the world doesn’t feel that kind. You want to get into bed, wearing knitted socks, a big sweater, warm your hands around a hot mug of something and seek comfort. I’ve become a big fan of quiet over the years.

I can’t read when there’s music playing, I can’t try on clothes with music playing, I can’t cook with music playing, I can’t write or draw with music playing usually. However, I also can’t sleep unless there is music in the background, I can’t take long walks without music playing and I certainly can’t take journeys train, plane or otherwise without some music to provide mood or memory. What’s special about listening to music at this time of year I find is how it can very much take you away from harsh elements, the grey, any kind of emotional tumult and crowds of all sizes. After a particularly busy weekend I always feel the need to spend a day or two, or at least a few hours walking about by myself, with just headphones for company. With this in mind, here is my company of late…

I first became attracted to Bell Plaines a few months ago while addicted to Chris Walla. A recent film graduate from Portland, my dream home, Spencer (not of The Hills fame) had been creating soundtracks for films when he decided to create music that “had the sound of a blustery winter” for it’s own purpose. Chris discovered this music and fell in love with it soon after (while his band mate fell in love wit Zooey Deschanel, my girl crush). I find Spencer’s done a beautiful job. The songs are soft, clear, intimate and yes, cinematic. Not adhering to any musical trends, this is music to attach to your own “moments”, significant or singular.

Ruby Coast are from Aurora, Canada. I first listened to them because I have little of a fascination with the name Aurora; I think it’s terribly beautiful. This music is very typically “contemporary Canadian”. They sound like an untrained Tokyo Police Club, rougher and as unproduced as can be. Yet through this dusty haze of unprofessionalism, lies talent and pop songs that have infinite potential and appeal for fans of the Rapture, Tokyo Police Club and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Imagining them live I feel a little sunshine, the kind I associate solely with Ontario summers.

Winter Gloves dub themselves to be part of the genre “Healing & Easy Listening”. I like to listen to them when I need something mildly upbeat to get psyched for emerging into the night when it’s winter, a sort of merry incentive for excitement. They’re like a much less annoying MGMT, which in itself is a reason why I guess they could be “healing”. I have to be honest, I’m not totally sold on them, but I do find them interesting enough to listen to multiple times to try and figure them out. They have handclaps. I am a sucker for handclaps, so I guess I’ll keep coming back for more.

When I feel like being a little jauntier, I like to listen to Sports, another Ontario band, who are like a hyper Broken Social Scene or a band of sort of Beck fans. They make me happy, as they fuse a manner of genres from indie to pop to garage rock to laptop electro without taking themselves seriously at all. Most of all they sound really joyous and happy to be making music and generally, a happy band equals a happy fan. They cite their influences as “spontaneous mutations”, and you know what? You can hear them.

Now Now Every Children are playing in London soon, and if you like the Postal Service or even kind of liked I Was A Cub Scout in their short existence, go see them. Seriously. This kind of spacey laptop pop is only bettered by Faded Paper Figures and Gibbard and co themselves, so if you are a fan of the aforementioned bands, this WILL be your thing. The band hail from the truly wonderful Afternoon Records roster, which made me kind of like them before I even listened to them. They have epic potential and already pretty pop songs, and for such a small band that’s a big deal.

The last of this gang are called Bamorhea. This is very girly Grays Anatomy music- pianos, cellos and violins feature- and could soundtrack any number of heartbreaks, emotional let downs and moments of quiet reflection. It took me a long time to grow to even tolerate instrumental music, but find it to be the most malleable to ones own feelings. Lord, I’ve clearly just watched far too many heart wrenching episodes of Dawsons Creek in my time, I’m getting far too sappy. Next thing you know I’ll be digging out my Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton records…

Before I go I just wanted to say, I know a lot of you will know Pedro the Lion/ David Bazan, but I’m also aware a lot of you may never have heard him before. Pedro the Lion are not just one of my favourite bands for winter, but for always. I have spent days and days alone with records created by David and feel more for his music every time I listen. My three most listened to songs are ‘Harmless Sparks’, ‘Never Leave A Job Half Done’, and revealing my love for listening to carols all year round, ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’. Alas, none of these are on Spotify, but some can be found on the Pedro The Lion Myspace and at the Daytrotter sessions page.

Failing to like any of the above, put on ‘Logic Will Break Your Heart’ by the Stills (track: Gender Bombs) or ‘Boxer’ by The National (track: Slow Show) both the best of company for any season or situation.

cedar bar redux

2009-03-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

Good names, bad names, most bands teeter on the ridiculous with their monikers. I know whenever I've had to entitle anything everything that I come up with sounds either horribly pretentious or very cheesy. This is the case with a lot of the acts discussed on this blog and today it's no different.

To befit the mood I'm in lately hip hop is where my minds at, so as a segway from our last post which incited a lot of excitement about Chiddy and co, I give to you More or Les.
Awful name, good rapper. I'm a big fan of his big band/jazz samples, and once more I think he's one of those gems that fans of Kanye would really like. Unlike Chiddy there aren't contemporary references as recent as Chiddys' 'Chris Brown on Grammy night' line, but still works out being pretty sick. I think Will Smith in the Fresh Prince would dig it, and that's enough for me to keep pushing repeat.

Enjoying the jazzy tones of More? Why not cruise on over and listen to the interestingly titled Black Congo, NC. They're pretty weird, but funky, in a let's all take acid and go crazy kind of way. I've never actually done acid, so if you have do let me know if this is what jazz-rock sounds like while on it. I'm genuinely intrigued.

Let's move into non drug induced beat heavy indie rock now. Who doesn't indie music like the kind Illinois produce? They sound really hot and lethargic. Which might not sound so good on paper, but they sound really seductive in a dive bar kind of way. Like a dirty Dirty Projectors. Check them out and feel grimy in the best of ways.

I usually abhor modern folk music, especially when sung by precocious girls in flowery dresses, however I find Hop Along, Queen Ansleis pretty refreshing. She's really happy, and yet evokes the bitter sweet emotion found in the better Mouldy Peaches songs, without ripping off Diane Cluck like most lady folk singers. Her voice has real character that really just makes me want to be her (Frances Quinlans) best friend. Sweet and a little odd, have a listen to what I think is the healthy alternative to Emmy the Great. No offense to Emmy, but imagine Emmy doing a really great cover album of Alanis Morissettes 'Jagged Little Pill'. Now you've got the right idea.

Okay so, you read this blog. You think to yourself, 'Zara, it's all good and well that you talk about people with stupid facial hair and your love of bad hip hop, but where is the COOL MUSIC. I want to dance to some electronic bands this weekend, why aren't you helping me, huh? I want to jerk my body in awesome and weird shapes, give me music to be able to do so. Okay?'

Fear not Metronomy, Late Of The Pier fans, why not listen to hey hey for all your shape making needs. Pump up the jam, Philly style.

Jumping to another ship, do you like Tim Kasher? I do. Chicago has their own answer to The Good Life/ Cursive in Netherfriends. Netherfriends are a psy-pop-rock gang who make indie music sound like a soundtrack to a Narnia film, but awesome. I'm also guessing fans of this kind of music may like Minus the Bear-ites Exercise as well due to their big experimental pop endeavors .

Pet Lions are a band for those who like OKGO, The Strokes and maybe a little touch of Tokyo Police Club. I am getting a little sick of animal themed band names, but hey, this band are pretty good to bop along to in the sun. Or bop anywhere really. Sunny music for people of a sunny disposition.

Do you like Bon Iver? And Ben Folds a little maybe? Then damn, do I have a band for you in Thin Hymns. It's SUCH pretty music I may shed a tear. Plus, there are no gimmicks attached! There is no reason not to LOVE Thin Hymns. Get stoked. Get emotional.

Finally, have you ever wondered what would happen if Panic at the Disco covered Postal Service songs? I have not. However, I think I know now. The record would sound a lot like Sam Buck Rosen. It's pretty out there, but very enjoyable once you get into the right mindset for the post pop pandemonium.

Oh my. My laptop is now beginning to burn my lap, so I figure this is as good a time as any to say, hello, goodbye and happy weekend wherever you are...

egged on. egged off.

2009-03-03T15:39:00.001-08:00

Have you seen that Adidas advert? With Katy Perry, Run, Missy and various other cool cats at a slamming house party being played on your TV? I have and I love it. Got to love marketing that's down enough to appeal so many people. I'd never even thought of Adidas as anything other than a brand that make those uber gross drawstring bags weird kids in tracksuits carry around, but no more. Adidas = cool. Adidas = Jeremy Scott and WINGED trainers. It seems, I have been narrow casted to and I don't mind a bit. Actually though, the reason why I bring it up is that I also love the song being played in the background, which is Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons' 'Beggin'. I have loved FV&TFS since I was a small child. My family used to put on Four Seasons records and I would jive just like that cute kid in the beginning of the Outkast 'Hey Ya' video for hours on end. If your dad never played Frankie and his gang to you, check them out for some great old songs that'll make you pretty roused, and pretty happy.

Taking us quite appropriately down the soulful path, I give to you now my favourite new hip hop artists.

Before we continue down this route, I must explain to you that my taste in hip hop music is awful. I really like Lil Bow Wows' collaboration with Jagged Edge 'Puppy Love'. That song has been my excuse for non committal relationships since it came out ("I'm just too young to get down like THAT"). Fabs record 'Trade It All', is a total dream of a love song in my eyes. Mya and Blackstreets' 'Take Me There' from the Rugrats Movie soundtrack is my favourite lullaby. I even think Pink's first album is a great hip pop album, 'Split Personality' being one of my favourite songs by a female singer ever. I think you're getting the picture.

So with this in mind, if you're still with me, I forge on.

Chiddy Bang

From Philadelphia we have this neat rap-electro foursome. Rap-electro sounds a fair bit crap doesn't it? Aye. This however is a little different, I'd like to think this is more Kanye-lite than Ghostland Observatory. I don't think they're quite there with their production, but I think hip hop that samples is never super unless Jermaine Dupri/ P Diddy/ Rick Rubin/ Russell Simmons have blessed it and/or injected $100, ooo+ into it. All this said, essentially this is catchy stuff that I believe fans of Lupe Fiasco and ABX will enjoy. Turn up the bass once more.

Oh Snap

Okay, so this is more Gang Gang Dance than hip hop. Shoot me.

I'm sorry, that was a bit crass.

Oh Snap is a phrase I've always wished I could pull off saying without sounding like a wannabe American Valley Girl. It's never worked. This band actually kind of annoy me, however they have moments of greatness (see 'So Dynamite').

You know when you're in a club, and they're playing such mind numbing music you begin to think you're acclimatizing to the crap and can kind of find your groove in some songs because you just HAVE too? Oh Snap are the band you'd sort of end up liking, and then hating yourself for liking. I hate myself right now. I should stop writing about them.

I will.

I feel dirty.

G-Eazy.

G-Eazy. Click on the link. Just look at him. How much do you want to punch this kid in the face?

Hold off for a second, give the kick in track about 15 seconds. It's actually pretty good right?

It's a tad bit Gym Class Heroes, I'm not going to lie, but I really enjoy the rapping over the track. As the songs progress, they just get better and they're all real growers. So don't hate, appreciate a bit. I'm gonna give you some real hip hop in just a moment.

Concept

For fans of the 'Drop it Like It's Hot' style of hip hop. I ask firstly, why are you reading this blog? Secondly I say, you will love Concept. He is a super slick producer and kind of dirty sounding. I can hear hips gyrating to this song in those weird shiny leggings/skirts girls are rocking these days, I can see boxers from all the trousers riding low. Check him out, pair him with a few drinks and he'll totally get you laid.

Marc Payne

This guy is very much like the guy above. However, he is way more obscene. This is my favourite type of hip hop. Really derogatory, really dirty and really base. He has women panting in Britney -esque ways and sounds a whole lot at Timbaland at times. Good, bad and offensive, where is Perez Hilton? Like really? Are you guys feeling this stuff? I'm curious.

Theophilus London

Everyone loves this guy. He's a Neon Gold homeboy, so really, what's not to love? His Charming Mixtape is radical. I like him a whole lot. Download all his stuff free off the web, it's kicking about. I hear he's totally the new Kanye West, so why not join become part of the hype machine before Jo Whiley makes it her business to be more on it than you are?

High fives all around.

i'm on a boat

2009-03-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hello ladies, gentle friends, this fine afternoon we will explore new music!

While I have listened to pretty much nothing other than Andy Samberg and T Pain's wonder "I'm On A Boat" lately, in order to not be a total joke of a human being I have been tapping my finger along to some lovely talented new folk at regular intervals. None of these guys would be out of place on a teen movie soundtrack, so as you can imagine are pretty poppy, but just cool enough that Peyton Sawyer would totally advocate them. Like she did with Lavender Diamond that one time. I hate Peyton, she's clearly the worst character ever, but that's besides the point.

Elizabeth and the Catapult are one act who I've liked for a while, from Brooklyn as are most great new acts these days, she's one of the only girl singers I enjoy at the moment. She's very Hotel Cafe, pop and acoustic with a bit of a "sassy" edge. I enjoy 'Momma's Boy' and her other songs a lot. She's the kind of girl you wish would stumble upon playing one of the many open mic nights that go on. Alas, I do not live in Brooklyn so this will not happen. If you do, or are going to SXSW, check her out and report back okay?

Lots of people have been talking about Dent May lately, and I can see why. If you're down with lots of eclecticism and music that isn't easy to listen to, but is still inherently "pop" his music might be a match for you. I want to compare him to someone, but I can't really. SPIN magazine recently said ukeleles are the next big thing in music (thanks Noah and The Whale) and Dent uses a lot of them, in a much less twee way, which is quite interesting. I feel this'll appeal to fans of my beloved Coconut Records, and generally mellowed out people. I'm sending good vibes his way.

If you like old punk, like the Cramps, Black Flag and the such like, I very much encourage listening to Wicked Awesomes. If you don't like the bands mentioned, chances are you will NOT like this music. It's abrasive, but fun, and makes me think of Trash and Vaudeville in NYC and the awesome dude who owns it. Seeing as creepers are, like, totally in right now maybe this kind of punk will catch on again too? I'd like that a whole lot.

So onto indie rock, and hand in hand, Canada. The Danks produce the sort of melodic noise that makes everyone swoon (note: Broken Social Scene/Bear Hands fans will love them). The Danks produce perfect and intelligent poppy lyrics and melodies and generally are a joy to listen to. The Danks are just dreamy. I'm swooning somewhere up above the clouds.

Blind Pilot take this indie vibe a step further. We're talking acoustic dudes from Portland. They've got a bit of an E Smith vibe going on, Two Gallants a little also. Definitely poignant soundtrack music for the Good Will Hunting's of the world. I predict Alex Patsavas falling head over heels for them and putting them on Gossip Girl. Mark my words.

I actually can't remember whether I've talked about Target Market before, but for fans of the previously mentioned Little Death, Pains of Being Pure At Heart and Bishop Allen, you may well love this noisy pop gang from St Louis. Furrow your brow and shake your head, and enjoy the noise if so.

Enough for now- I'm going to go listen to the Cardigans and Land of Talk, feel the Spring sunshine outside my window.

Have the best of times.

loser moustaches

2009-02-25T15:31:00.000-08:00

Man oh man, sorry for the absence. I've been hanging down South for a few weeks, and as it so happens a whole lot of stuff has happened since I last wrote. I've jived with some great movers and shakers who are doing great things for the music industry, dined alongside US bigwigs who indicated that a LOT of A&R shaped heads will roll at one of the majors before SXSW, hung with people with really, really stupid moustaches and egos to match and of course, spent time with some very talented friends. I have also become one of the many now OBSESSED with Spotify, as it fulfills all of my Prince, Stevie Wonder and Hall & Oates needs on a daily basis, but more on that another time.

Enough business though, lets talk leaks and music for self professed geeks.

This past week the Kelly Clarkson album and Yeah Yeah Yeahs recordings were flung premature into the world, and joy of joys they are both very, very good. Clarkson rocks out like she never has before, it's so rock'n'roll it's like musical bondage. So fashionable, that Kelly. Alexander Wang will be salivating and dying to dress you. Track down 'Whyyawannabringmedown' and feel the guilt mingling with joy. I downloaded it today and have since listened to it seventy five times.

Nick Zinner and Co bring us some more mellow songs, with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs great and beautiful new work. I have yet to find a song on the record I don't want to make my own constant, soothing soundtrack. One for 2009's best of's already? Yup.

In older news, I have been digging Black Milk's record. The rapper brings game like he's repping Bad Boy back in the day and for that, if I had a cap, I would tilt it towards him with respect. Check out 'Losin' Out', and try not to nod your head, try hard.

If you hadn't already heard , by the by, the new Jamie T ( 'Fire' is so Beastie Boys I could cry with excitement), Maccabees (I could listen to 'No Kind Words' the National-esque song in question ALL day) and Metric (Oh Em, you can do no wrong) songs are wonderful and amazing. The new Jack Penate is not garnering much love from me, but hey Ottoman-lite works for some people...Pleasant news is that you can aurally manifest yourself with all of these tunes, as they are all abundantly free and available on the Internet. While you're out there I'd download Katy Perry's version of Sam Sparro's 'Black and Gold ', for a haunting and dare I say "soulful" take on an otherwise crappy song. It's Perry rocking it like the choir girl she secretly still wishes she was, all bare, delicate and pretty.

Keeping on the pretty vibe (as in pretty awesome), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have been killing it on Hype Machine lately and they in fact embody ALL the aspects of every 90's/early 00's teen movie soundtrack you adored, but new and now. I don't often buy albums, but this one is rough and poppy, has great bass lines AND Little Death/Pavement-esque vocals. So what I'm trying to say is that the band have created an album I'm in love with. I want to romance, wine and dine The Pains Of Being Pure at Heart. Please, do yourself a favour and listen? Fall in love and let your limbs have fun. Kids who like this type of awesome will also likely love Bishop Allen, also known as the band featured at Arlene's in Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. While you're in this "checking out new music vibe" why not check out the new Phoenix track? '1901' warms my heart just right.

I think, that's enough to send you off in a flurry of excitement, because while none of these are HOT OFF THE PRESS bands, I think there's music in this post for everyone to like and love/hold cherish/insert gross cliche here...

green tea: pretty awesome or pretty gross?

2009-02-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

So I admit, I am not immune to the plaid mafia (thank Nevan/ The City). I do own one Bon Iver song ("Creature Fear"). I do sometimes find myself humming the icky stick in your head chorus of "Quicksand" of La Roux fame, at times. Sometimes though, I do also dabble in good music. Here are some examples:

1. Singer.

This Chicago band have all of what I desire in a rock band. They remind me of the Dirty Projectors, but a little more minimal. It's very simple music, and I bet they're the kind of band Opening Ceremony would play in their New York store-embodying their ethos of being endlessly hip and ethereal, but not that accessible. Rad.

2. A Weather

Click on. The first song you'll hear is a cover of "Winter Wonderland", which is so lovely in its subtle indie glory I swear this is the kind of song Vanessa from Gossip Girl would play in Rufus' gallery cafe around Christmas, while she pines for Nate/Dan (she's so fickle, WHY would ANYONE like Dan. Such a loser.) Anyway, A Weather play beautiful, smart, emotive music. Pretty pianos and acute beats play well with the hushed male-female vocals. The only thing I take issue with is that the songs on the myspace all sound quite similar. I'd be really interested to see if and when they mix things up a little more, as there is lots of potential here. RAC should do a remix, it'd undoubtably be awesome.

3. Ladyfinger

For those who don't obsess over Saddle Creeks roster, this band are the best noveau Hold Steady for those who don't like the Hold Steady ever. Big, with Tim Kasher-esque vocals, and a healthy dose of good old American rock too. Can you say exciting? Crappy production creates a barrier that I'd imagine once removed in a live forum would be amazing. Despite/As well as a name that sounds a tad bit dirty, they excite me greatly.

4. EagleSeagull

I am intrigued by this band. They are musically schizophrenic. Coldplay on LSD? Keane on crack? I can't decide. Take the keyboards, take the kind of weird vocal, I can't decide whether I love or hate it. That said, I am still listening, so that must count for something right? Right.

5. Chris Walla

I know his record is pretty old now, but I love it. It got little to no recognition when it was released and I believe it to be one of the best records of 2008. Field Manual is a fantastic effort loaded with rockier elements of Wallas day job- Death Cab For Cutie. Essentially this means Field Manual is a great pop album with indie rock sensibilities in regards to production and composition, which is at once scuzzy and neat. The vocals pleasing and distinctive, and the melodies catchy and intelligent. For a taster why not download 'The Score" or "Everyone Needs A Home", and perhaps you too will share in the warm fuzzy feeling that the record gives me. Please do buy it. Barsuk (Chris Walla's very own label) needs you my friends, and if you order things from their website they send you wonderful extras, including stickers, patches and other neat surprises complimentary with your musical bundles of joy. Why? Barsuk are just great like that. Release some more records soon though, okay guys?

Soon, we visit more bands, more accessible and a little more pop. One band even sounds LOTS like Tokyo Police Club. How exciting is that? I can't wait!

explosions in the night

2009-02-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

Before I get on with chatting up little bands I’ve found myself loving later in the week, I thought I’d take a minute to talk about a few of the buzz bands people are talking about for this year. The term buzz band puts off a lot of people I find, especially when they’re lumped into “movements” (lets not even talk about “Thamesbeat”) this year is no different with electro-pop being all the rage. However we’re not talking Erol Alkan style beats (in my opinion his latest effort on the Late of The Pier album blows) we’re talking La Roux, Little Boots and Passion Pit. A good friend of mine saw a young, young man by the name of Archeo Price play a while ago at a YoYo, slick, so very eighties and by my estimations totally loaded. Dude had better packaging for his demo than most major label bands have for their priority releases. In any case I found his music to be pretty rad, so if you like Prince, MJ and all that fun stuff I encourage fitting him in between ‘Part Time Lover’ and- deep breath- MGMT.

I personally think La Roux and Little Boots both suck, so can’t really go into more detail about their music other than to say if you thought Adele or Katy Perry were overexposed last year you will be sick of the sight of those two ladies by this years end. I like the eighties, but really I can only take a little bit of regurgitation at a time.

Disregarding eighties musical bulimia for a moment, lets talk Passion Pit. I really quite enjoy them on record, and of all the Neon Gold stuff, they’re clearly the ones that match what’s going on right now best. They find a way of giving beats some sort of heart, which is pretty rare. Most bands of this musical ilk tend to go all Klaxons on us and talk about rainbows, fireworks, k-holes and other narcotic themed oddities, but the tale of Passion Pit is quite sweet and that remains at the heart of what they do. The story goes that the bands front man recorded a mix cd for his girlfriend as a gift (take THAT Bon Iver), which then became their much talked about EP, featuring breakout track 'Sleepyhead'. This EP then circulated beyond their Berklee-Emerson-Boston crowd to Goodweatherforairstrikes wunderkid Derek Davies who then heard and hailed it. Many expensive meals and drinks with labels later, here they are, on our shores ready for adoration. The blogosphere seems to have a massive crush on them, and while having seen them play one of their first shows in New York back in August 2008 not being too impressed, I have a fair amount of hope that on their current UK endeavour with Brooklyn’s Bear Hands (who are a pretty super indie rock band) they will have improved, haven taken mighty strides towards having a real live presence. Fingers crossed for the magic to permeate the world outside of the internet, I’m hoping for something special…rest assured though that much like the Shins before them they are destined to be every college kids favourite band to name drop, every indie soundtracks essential and the sample to many an advert in times soon to come. Excited? Kel would say "mmmhmmm".

customary

2009-02-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Goodness me it's been a long time!

Since I last wrote many new labels have been born, new bands have appeared, some glittering gems, some gross gross weirdos, all the usual types have been out to play. Kids have started wearing lots of plaid again, weeping in forests, skinny jeans are still in, hair is still big, facial hair is a must. It's Justin Vernons world and we're just living in it.

We have a global economic crisis and bands that fit the murky times ahead, old bands making good again and baby bands being born as you read and I write.

I feel as I did when I started this blog it's only right to talk about new bands first, ones that you may not have heard of. So if boredom strikes you have something fun to entertain your ears with one or all of the following...

1. Faded Paper Figures

2. Princeton

3. Tuneyards

4. High Places

5. The Mobius Band

6. Coconut Records

7. GOAT

8. New Villager

9. Elizabeth and the Catapult

10. Hot Damn

Some of the above are signed, some are not. All of them will make you smile, I hope. More will come soon, with the added novelty of descriptions, photos, drawings and all the magical things you can enjoy on a million other blogs, but choose to right here.

So until then, enjoy the joy, embrace the space, stay warm, comfortable and plugged in.

Zara

noise.

2007-11-09T01:12:00.000-08:00

It has been a long while since I last posted, and as a forewarning this will stand as a very long “catch up” entry. A post with links to new music will come very soon.

Since the last post, I ended my stay in New York, fully educational in purpose and travelled to my second home of Toronto. Where I stayed for three weeks. I then returned to London having missed every festival (leaving the day before Glastonbury and returning the day after Reading) .
Having left behind full time education in June 2006 with a place at Goldsmiths in my back pocket I spent the past year working four days a week at a small independent music promotions company and helped run a small record label. Having been at this company a year prior as a work experience girl whilst balancing such with running a small music website and doing some freelance journalism, not to mention completing my final year of school shifting to actual employment was more of a case of just being in more, than a sudden variation in responsibility. I spent the year at a lot of parties, venues, openings, club nights, awards, countless gigs and many, many “drinks things”. I met a large amount of people, bonded with some who I had been previously acquainted, learnt a lot about business, a lot about the nature of people and a lot about the industry that I somehow ended being a part of. Mostly though, a whole lot about people.

I worked with some amazing people and some really wonderful bands, coming across types of people who I could not have imagined existed and some of whom grew to be of my closest companions. Many nights were spent flitting from one gig to another, and many sit hazily with fuzzy detail in my mind, littered with all sorts of characters and colors. In this year I also started my own record label, Records. Records and put out a single by a band I adore called Little Death. I started a clothing line, albeit somewhat as a half hearted joke (but one thats potential will come into greater fruition in the new year) called hotels. I began to DJ here and there, and I travelled. Working only four days a week I had the privilege of having time to explore London the way I never had done before. As opposed to just wondering the streets of Soho in my free periods between classes at school I went and walked and walked North, West, East, South. I took many trips to Paris, mostly alone to just walk and sit in cafes. I travelled to Leeds, Brighton and Glasgow. I became acquainted with Kingston and its wonderful scene, spent a spectacular 19th birthday and Christmas in Toronto, as well as a surreal New Years in New York.

From the age of fourteen I had been intent on working in the Music Industry and had never stopped to even consider any other profession. Perhaps it was because I had never given myself enough time to stop and think, maybe I was too busy consistently doing things to further my ambition, maybe I didn’t think myself capable of anything else and I panicked. Though all of the good things I’ve been able to do from working in the industry hold some degree of merit- helping out friends, bands, musicians and people wildly talented, it took some time before I began to wonder if my intentions were starting to waver from my initial stance on the music industry, which was just wanting to listen to good music and help people.

When I left for New York in June 2007 I thought I would give myself and my increasingly fragile body a rest. So I went, and went to only seven gigs that summer. I went and studied literature, among other things. I wrote for hours a day. I read dozens of books and roamed a city and lived alone for the very first time. I entertained visitors and found homes. I completely and utterly fell for the city finding companionship in its avenues and hollows. I felt it truly meant things had changed when I realised that I did not miss London, the music industry and constant bewildering nights out.

I became content with just silence, I barely made use of my I pod and its docking speaker that summer. I did not take up the wonderful internship I had arranged at a local music venue. I was content and thought, that is it, I am done with the music industry. It felt amazing to listen to records and just listen again. Not hear any background thoughts when listening to music. Listening to old records, new records, wholly through and through and not thinking- who’s put this out? Or, I wonder who’d play that on the radio? I wonder what size venue they’d fill? I wonder if they’re managed?

I fell in love with countless records again that Summer and felt so happy that that feeling of gut deep excitement when hearing songs that you love for the first time had returned. In New York music and people felt inspiring again and I could hear the difference between the music that I needed and the music I wanted. My time in Toronto after the stint in New York was somewhat similar, I spent time listening to Dave Bazan and Bob Dylan. Voices who I love. Great Lake Swimmers and Nassau. I went to beaches and Queen West and heard dozens of great young new bands, and listened to them for fun. Not because I wanted to be on top of all the new music, just because the people who told me about it genuinely seemed to care. The local magazines, the record store clerks, acquaintances in cafes, as in New York all seemed to genuinely care and love what they were telling me about, which was something which had seemed to become devoid in London at the time of my departure. Sparks of passion and pinpricks of creativity seemed to exist again and that was very exciting.

I returned to London in early September superbly well rested and slightly jaded, thinking that’s it. I am done with the industry. Really, it is filled with questionable people who don’t care about music that says anything. Music was just means to an end, the end being money which is devastating when it promises to compromise the musical integrity of an entire city, nee country, so full of potential. I don’t doubt that a lot of people in the music industry love music and still do, perhaps more than I ever have done and that’s why they’re better at the ‘industry’ part than I, but so many seem so content to stew in the sterility of the British music scene it scares me. I’ve been there, I know how it works, I’ve lived it in as many capacities as you could possibly imagine, from every view point, and it became evident that there was such a lack of inspirational figures in music-those making it and those helping those making it.

It’s the question of the moment and one no on has a good answer for-Is there really anyone playing today who we will care enough to go see in ten years? Or twenty? Is anyone really saying anything anymore? Anything worthwhile?

With all this in mind and responses bleak, I took a break. I thought, I will go to university and be done with it. I shall figure out what to do and I won’t miss it at all.
I was very wrong, I did begin to miss it. There is something about being in London that makes me want to seek things out. There’s almost a magnetic pull, so that even though it is so apparently stagnant , after just six weeks in absence I felt compelled to feel involved again. I just wanted to figure out if there was anything I still wanted to do in the industry that I had become so disenchanted with and if there was anyone , my old colleagues aside, I would want to be like. I decided all of this in the midst of not being sure whether University was actually for me after all, finding the people very young and the course somewhat un-challenging, something I am still debating.

I met with a fair few people at the dawn of my “university crisis” to gather advice and among the assortment, there were some who I encountered who gave me the faith that there are still people in London trying. Trying to be creative and initiating things that they feel are truly visceral and integral, people who are good at their jobs and care enough to constantly want to better themselves and what they do for others. People who want to do something different and be a part of something, that I suppose lives in the greater collective unconscious. These people were making things to give London some culture, and it became nice to know at least some were still lighting fires. These sub-cultural impresarios had built themselves. They were mini moguls, and while I stood no clearer on where I wanted to go, I was given an idea of who I wanted to be.
I’m not going to take music as seriously as I once used to, I’m not currently actively involved in the industry and I’m very much okay with that. Once more it's something to take pleasure in. I don’t believe any of the music that’s being put out right now is wholly original or life changing, but perhaps I’m not listening right or looking hard enough. The music industry may appear to be for all involved a sinking ship, but perhaps it’s a sign that we need to rip it all up and start again? I know all of my favourite things seem to be stemmed from disasters, small and large.
I suppose we shall have to explore and see…

Next post I shall put up some new bands, I have lots and lots of good ones. I am also very excited to talk about the new Maritime record...

Until then...

azure blue

2007-08-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

Rather than apologizing for my absence here I will jump right back in.

First up the incredibly young New Yorkers, Cool and Unusual Punishment (named after a NOFX song) they sound nothing like NOFX, but like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs meets the Arcade Fire. Not only that, but their front woman has a presence (and dress sense) to rival Karen O. They have absolutely no decent recordings so someone would be wise to put them up and get a good four track done. As per usual click on their name to head to their myspace which will give you a vague jist of what they're about. They play Cakeshops all age shows quite a bit, so go enjoy them if you can!

Next up, also native New Yorkers the super scene cred holders Dirty Projectors. This band have songs like labyrinths and are in a league of their own in terms of adjusting the meeting point of indie and prog. I have yet to see them live, but I hear it's an absolutely Muse like extreme experience (and I don't even like Muse).
Check out 'Jolly Jolly Ego' on their Myspace page. For the Americans, they're touring all over so get yourself into the tiny venues while you can. Pitchfork will pick this band up and display them to the avant garde masses soon.

I feel like I should mention the Vampire Weekend too, as they will inevitably be huge. They have a brilliantly summery pop album filled with singles that will steal your radios airtime soon, very soon.

I have quite the few more but I shall sit on them a bit longer...

I shall leave you with my sentiments on Tellison. If you have yet to hear this band, please don't wait any longer. I've played them to about three hundred people in the past three months and not one has held back their outpouring of love for their debut album 'Contact!Contact!' (out now on Gravity DIP. Available at Banquet records). Some said they sounded like Fall Out Boy, others Minus the Bear, personally I quite like the term 'fight pop' which has been coined for their sound. Apparently their Barfly London show was amazing and though I was across the ocean I was called about 5 times from that show to the avail of only being able to hear a room full of adoring voices meeting the music halfway- pretty magical.
I can't even recommend songs, they're all really very, very good.

bastille

2007-07-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

It has been a little while.

I missed the Fucked Up show, due to a showing of Hairspray. Which has inspired me to take up swing dancing upon my return to London. You should make your way to the cinema for it, for some actual decent musical film fun. I usually really dislike musicals so this is a large anomaly.
I am quite sad about missing Fucked Up though, really really really an amazing hardcore band. 'Generation' is an instant classic.

Alright so on the under the radar topic, have you heard Hindi Zahra? Female vocalist from Paris who isn't trying to be Beyonce/Bjork/Gwen Stefani.

Apparently she's the only one.
I have loved her song 'Beautiful Stranger' for quite some time and some how, and I don't get why, she's still unsigned...

Not so under the radar as jostling airwaves in America Boys Like Girls. They are pretty much the All American Rejects delivering songs to a post Fall Out Boy audience. Basically, if this gets decent exposure in England they will be HUGE there.

Who's working/putting it out there? I have no clue. Someone should. 'The Great Escape' is a HUGE radio hit in the waiting.

ships

2007-07-19T06:56:00.001-07:00

New new new Maritime song 'Science Fiction' here.

I cannot wait for this record. There is nothing quite like revised nostalgia.

giest

2007-07-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to my first American gig of the summer. The other two I have attended here have been acts from home and made me realise how little I miss the act of seeing live music in London. In an act of leisure music feels so much more special. Here I will go out and see no one I know. I can choose to go to gigs alone and feel wonderfully lost in the crowd and tonight was such a night.

I went to go see We All Have Hooks For Hands at the Knitting Factory (which by the by has an amazing sound engineer, venues of such a capacity -140-rarely sound as good as the KF did tonight.) Playing to a semi mental crowd the Dakota eight piece really lived up to the promise I had come to hope of them. Sounding like Kings Of Leon but not arrogant or quite so polished, they appeared fresh faced and ambitious like all bands that play the Knitting Factory. They appear to have an ability to cause crowds to perform a hybrid of hardcore dance paired with that indie head bob, with a tiny bit of swing dance thrown in. I can see them getting better with each album and do believe they need and deserve a development deal, I'm pretty sure if Virgin UK came to see them play a few months from now they would wet themselves with excitement. Yes.

For the fans of American Rock that's quite poppy and contrived in nature, such as myself from time to time, a band called Hero Pattern played upstairs at KF to a hugely warm reception also. They sounded much better live than they did on myspace, which is nice. However they're a band I enjoyed watching, but would likely never shell out actual money to see.

Trotting back over the ocean I have a new found love for 'Galaxy Of The Lost' by Lightspeed Champion. Having been aware of Devs' endeavour for quite a while, I first heard this song when covered by the brazen voiced Florence and The Machine (the girl is superb, but is very unfortunately managed by the Queens of Noize. Personally I feel anyone who misspells on purpose is an utter fool and the fact they are in their mid thirties and are pill popping, coke sniffing groupies doesn't afford them any respect in my eyes). This song however, is gorgeous and lyrically resonant. It really strikes a chord with me. The video is also wonderful and heart warming. I would and will buy the Lightspeed Champion album on the basis of this acousmatic and simply stunning single. Point to Domino! I've also been told Devs' favourite band is Lifetime, which makes me want to shake his hand. He's probably the only one in the London indie scene who could name even one of their songs. Commendations are in high order.
So So So Compelling.

studies.

2007-07-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

I will admit my love for pop punk to anyone.
In class the other day we were critiquing music videos for Capitol/Virgin Records (US) and while being shown some truly atrocious ones (The Sick Puppies, who made me feel physically ill) we were shown this one by The Almost.

The Almost are the side project band of the singer Aaron of that awful screamo bleamo reamo etc etc band Underoath. While not really liking this song on first listen I must say the elements of artistic drumming and gang vocals (oh how I love gang vocals) have really, really grown on me.

So while I have gathered the other songs on the record 'Southern Weather' aren't as strong as this, and I know pop punk isn't cool, I thought you might enjoy some good ol' bounding music of the young. See below for links!

Video: The Almost-Say This Sooner
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thealmost

punch.

2007-07-16T05:24:00.000-07:00

I really recommend listening to We All Have Hooks For Hands and Please Dept.
Both bands have huge potential. I hope to rectify not having seen either live yet this month by seeing WAHHFH play the New York Knitting Factory on July 18th and Please Dept. play the Lower Eastsides one and only Cakeshop on July 27th.

We All Have Hooks For Hands are a indie folk outfit from Dakota on American indie label Afternoon Records, who happen to have some really good and undiscovered bizarre bands hiding in their wings. WAHHFH are sonically quite a bit like Kings Of Leon on 'Because Of The Times', which as you may gather, is a really wonderful thing. The band have a disposition that inspires me to believe they could provide an album as cohesive as 'Because Of The Times' in the near future. I expect a major poaching within the next twelve months.

Recommended Track: Hold On C'mon
http://www.myspace.com/weallhavehooksforhands

Please Dept. are a band whose sound lies somewhere between Cold War Kids, Black Wire and Guillemots. Imagine a freak show playing your local bar and you may develop the right picture. Jittered piano punching and a deep, off beat and a daunting vocalist allow the Brooklyn dwelling band to actually make the keyboards + band set up original.

Recommended Track: Sailors Mouth
http://www.myspace.com/pleasedept

My current obsession is Harlem Shakes, an unsigned band from Brooklyn whose song 'Red Right Hands' echoes constantly in my head. I would seriously, seriously have a listen to the band. Fans of all of the left field material on Sub Pop, Suicide Squeeze and Poly Vinyl -my favourite labels-will likely adopt this band with huge amounts of adoration.

http://www.myspace.com/harlemshakes

pioneer to the falls.

2007-07-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

The internet, hello.

Here you will find the little beds of music I like. Not so much reviews or interviews, but links and stories of music that lives.

I start this in New York with new tellers and feelers. London may steal this into stagnation eventually, I will try to avoid any stale influences as much as I can. Here it is about thought and prickling sonics, really what I hope is that you will find somethings you will love and somethings that will make you happy.

No Lauren, this is not a veiled attempt to rival or emulate Cory Kennedy. Not at all...

Top Five New Repeaters

1. Shapes and Sizes

2. Nurses

3. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

4. Land Of Talk

5. Harlem Shakes

Cupcake.