Cellophane Sunset

"Love to make music to"

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

diamonds / fur coat / champagne

"Introducing" three great artists I've heard recently/been reacquainted with, united by their driving, tribal tonal progression, yet divided by their relative use of Vocoder etc.

Tame Impala

tame impala Pictures, Images and Photos

acid rock is reborn

Heard this last night on Triple JJJ when MGMT were being interviewed in the studio pending their show on Thursday. This band from Perth are touring with them in a support capacity around Australia, and provide a fuzzed-out acid rock sound which contrasts nicely with MGMT's muted synth squeals (no other phrase to describe the opening of that ode to overplay, Electric Feel). Check out their myspace at www.myspace.com/tameimpala, or if you're lucky enough to have got tickets to MGMT you'll see them tomorrow, while I watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, clinging to sophistication.

Suicide

mgmt Pictures, Images and Photos

i know, its a picture of MGMT, but its relevant. and have you ever tried typing in "suicide" in photobucket?

Another band introduced by MGMT on JJJ last night were Suicide, a very influential 70's synth-pop duo from New York. I followed up and got their first two albums, and this is definitely the pick of the bunch. After a few listens, it strangely feels like a bridge in evolution between Joy Division and New Order, a missing link which joins a gap otherwise sharply divided between Ian's melancholy lyrics and the crisp drum machine on Blue Monday.

Laurie Anderson

big science Pictures, Images and Photos

i have it on vinyl

Laurie Anderson's an experimental/minimalist artist who released her first album Big Science in 1982. Somehow the song below, O Superman, got to #2 in Britain. This was despite the fact that its over 8 minutes long, has a constant repeating "ha-ha-ha..." for its entirety, and lyrics which aren't exactly in keeping with the traditional British Top Of The Pops scene (Pseudo Echo covering Lipps Inc. springs to mind as an example).

I came across this on vinyl when going through my mum's collection the other night because I needed some good late-night Kes-editing music, but instead of working hard got really drawn in, especially when I flipped it over to the B-side and the former British #2 sprung up. Reminiscent of the theme from Little Miss Sunshine, How It Ends by DeVotchka, in one pretty obvious way.

Stranger still, Laurie is married to Lou Reed. Hey-now.

This will be my last post for a while, the real world is calling.

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

some velvet morning when i'm straight / i'm gonna open up your gate


Bear with me, I'll start with Haze, before branching off into [is] and finishing way out of left-field with a blissful duet between Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood.


Haze



Haze (www.myspace.com/cupidswounded) are a band from Fitzroy High School who formed sometime during last year and have been rapidly rocking in the free world ever since then. While their early songs (two of which I'm hosting below) are pretty chilled out and quiet, lately at their gigs (the 2nd-last of which was the one at IDGAFF pictured above) they've been premiering much louder tracks with emphasis on the "dancier" side of the musical moon. Songs such as Hey Kids and Clearly are yet to be recorded but I'm assured they're forthcoming, and a recent introduction to one of Brunswick St's biggest promoters is sure to increase their gig-rate (like bit-rate, much cooler). I love the 2nd song, 2000 miles, by virtue of its glockenspiel alone.

[is]

Although they're now known as Tom Ugly, before their name change [is] had a fairly low-key underground rumble on the musical equivalent of the Richter Scale with Cult Romance. They won the Triple JJJ Unearthed High Schools competition with the song, which features an adroitly manipulated Moog synthesiser and some catchy, if meaningless lyrics ("paraphenalia failure / hands caught in the cookie jar / stranger / movie star"); still good form for a trio of Sydneysider high school students.

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood

nancy sinatra & lee hazlewood - NANCY & LEE Pictures, Images and Photos

I've got a sneaking suspicion that this saga-song of drug addiction kicked off the whole "velvet" trend as far as band/songnames go, from the Velvet Underground to Bowie's Velvet Goldmine. A wonderfully contrasting duet, which I'd detail in more detail if I wasn't still recovering from the shock of discovering that Laurie Anderson is married to Lou Reed.

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Monday, December 1, 2008

battling against the bitch / for the ultimate kitsch / of a crucifix clock

vampire weekend Pictures, Images and Photos
vampire weekend trying to outdo kevin barnes yet again
Before I head off down Brunswick St to trawl op-shops for a very "spucific" article of clothing, here's a few songs which match my current mood of finished-exams-but-technically-still-at-school-until-thursday-at-twelve-oh-five, namely a Foals tracks which tends to fly under the radar, a new one from Vampire Weekend, and a slice of Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor's stripped back solo album.
Don't worry, there's still the obligatory 1;1 ratio of songs to pretty pictures, (C) every pretentious mp3 blog in the multiverse
Foals
foals Pictures, Images and Photos
because I couldn't find that staged picture of them posing with balloons
I hadn't listened to Foals for aeons ever since downloading their album Antidotes way back when, but recently when reminded by George (http://www.oligarchicalmachinations.blogspot.com/) of their goodness I went in search of their more obscure songs on hypemachine (http://www.hypem.com/, a great site for finding music that even some torrents don't have, most serious DJ's go there to find things like Soulwax edits of Walter Murphy's Fifth of Beethoven, to take a purely hypothetical example). The result from a multifarious bunch ranging from Daytrotter live sessions to Fucked Up! covers, the pick of which was definitely Brazil Is Here.
I'm not sure why Foals aren't more popular down under; like MGMT they were on Skins (they even performed live in one episode, similar to the way in which 2-tone ska bands like Madness would play Our House In The Middle Of The Street during Young Ones episodes) yet they have none of the uber-sickening popularity now enjoyed by the "Management" over here.

Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend Pictures, Images and Photos
they used this picture for the poster for their melbourne gig at the prince this year, how exciting
They're currently working on their "sophomore" album and trying to move away from their "college inspirations", and this is the result, a sneak peek that is pretty decent, obviously covering Radiohead has done wonders.

Alexis Taylor
hot chip Pictures, Images and Photos
he's the one on the right, looking like one of the accordion-listening villains from the movie diva (see the erich satie song a few posts below)
If you like Hot Chip, you'll probably like this, as the singer Taylor has an extremely distinctive voice. In his solo album Rubbed Out he's stripped back most of the synthesizers that proliferate Hot Chip's albums to shift focus.
PS: As a Hamlet-like aside, I'll be featuring some songs by my friend's band Haze next post, check them out at www.myspace.com/cupidswounded before they get famous, as well as a teenage band called [is] who won the Triple JJJ high schools competition with a great song called Cult Romance.
PPS: Photos of 70's music stars such as Grace Slick (my favourite female singer by far) and Frank Zappa...with their parents: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/look/look-70s-rock-musicians-and-their-parents-homes-070419
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