Cellophane Sunset

"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

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.

Tame Impala – Remember Me

Suicide

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.

Suicide – Diamonds, Fur Coats, Champagne

Laurie Anderson

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.

Laurie Anderson – O Superman

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

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.

Haze – Towered Over Me

Haze – 2000 Miles

[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.

[is] – Cult Romance

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood

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.

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood – Some Velvet Morning

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

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.

Foals - Brazil Is Here

Vampire Weekend

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.

Vampire Weekend - Ottoman

Alexis Taylor

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.

Alexis Taylor - Baby

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

Sunday, November 23, 2008

house society / got to get into the glitterati

First, two tracks united by their common interest in conformity...

1. a. Punks Jump Up

Kitsune maison 6 Pictures, Images and Photos

Its almost as if Kitsune Maison wanted their compilation albums to spell out conformity with big overt people-letters.

I first heard this song while listening to Triple JJJ while jogging (vertically, not horizontally) in Metung, a small town on the Gippsland Lakes whose main attraction is its long lakeside boardwalk. Anyhow, just in case the taste of conformity doesn't overpower thee at a first listen, check out the film clip for this on youtube, and remember, "We're all individuals!"

Punks Jump Up - Dance To Our Disco

1. b. Radiohead

hail to the thief Pictures, Images and Photos

From the album Hail to the Thief

This album was recently slagged off in uncertain terms by a Year 9 in the school "Newspaper" ("All the news that fits we print"), in a FITFUL attempt to mock Thom Yorke on the basis that his voice is too whiney. Well don't bother left-clicking this little blue link below and selecting "Download with BitComet" if thats the extent of your Radiohead appreciation; a fantastic band whose masterful song Talk Show Host is the perfect theme to Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. But that's another song, this is Sit Down, Stand Up (Snakes and Ladders)

Radiohead - Sit Down, Stand Up

Secondly, two tracks straight out of post-punk heaven...

2. a. Gang of Four

Yeah that's right, my music's SO alternative that photobucket doesn't even have properly sized jpg. files of the album covers, or in the case of The Dance, an album cover at all

A great song (redundant description, I'm not going to be wasting my time forcing something like ABC's Murderer of Love on you) from one of my favourite bands. Appearing on what's been described as "the best debut British album of all time" - Entertainment - Damaged Goods is typical of a band which defined the post-punk genre in the wake of Ian Curtis' death (although Postcard Records' Orange Juice - whose lead singer Edwyn Collins had a breakout 90's solo hit with Never Met A Girl Like You Before - tried to fill the Curtis-void with slightly happier tunes).

"Heated couplings in the sun / or is that untrue?"

Gang of Four - Damaged Goods

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2. b. The Dance

I've had to settle for a completely unrelated picture of Kerouac, deal with it.

Found this on Myspace somewhere; everyone I've played it to has uniformly hated it...

The Dance - Dubbin Down

Finally, two much more laidback songs...

3.a. Neil Young

I just swallowed my second harmonica, he mumbled.

Out on the Weekend is definitely not one of the more well-known tracks off the album Harvest, but its one of my favourites. It was good to hear it crackling away last night when I pulled out an old vinyl copy; maybe it just sounded good in comparison with Old Man because the latter's been played so many times that the grooves are all worn out, who knows...

Going to see him and Hot Chip (other bands will be there too, they're the only ones that matter to me) on the 26th of January at the Big Day Out, can't wait.

Neil Young - Out On The Weekend

3.b. Gabor Szabo

Looking like Zappa with no hair, Gabor's working at Dixons with Iggy Pop

First saw this over at http://www.artdecade.blogspot.com/, one of the best music blogs on the web (not just because it borrows from a David Bowie track for its title). If you're familiar with the film Spartacus this song, the most romantic I know, will already be familiar to you, but if not then use it to charm the jazz-guitar-with-strings-pants off some Eastern European (to test their nationality, first ask them to pronounce "Szabo").

Gabor Szabo - Love Theme From Spartacus

Thursday, October 23, 2008

look out / im just too fake / for the world

Professor Murder

Dance-punk is a pretty hectic genre. Its the only genre that will tell you when your sister gets home, because you can hear your Death From Above 1979 being switched off downstairs. While DFA 1979 are the undisputed kings of this collective, Professor Murder take it to another level, and not just by using cowbells.

Professor Murder - Free Stress Test

(As an aside I found this using last.fm's recommended radio, which I recommend)

A complete change of pace...

Diva

...from New York dance-punk to classical, namely Vladimir Cosma's take on Erich Satie in the 1981 "film du look" French cult classic "Diva".

Vladimir Cosma - Promenade Sentimentale

The Passions

This one hit wonder from The Passions is a rare example of the genre defined as "dream-pop", and thus is the perfect accompaniment to having mild concussion, like me at the moment.

The Passions - I'm In Love With A German Film Star

Friday, October 17, 2008

its ok i've overstood / this is a wordy rappinghood

Adam and the Ants

The story of Adam and the Ants is a moral story of redemption; when you are hospitalized after attempting suicide, change your boring name, you son of a half-Gypsy father and former-cleaner-for-Paul-McCartney mother. Changing it to Adam Ant will of course, result in a string of successful international hits, even in sunburnt Australia, and your eventual status as MTV's "Sexiest Man Alive".

Continuing on this purely hypothetical theme, you might found your band after going to see one of Eric's other favourite bands, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and one day produce a song at odds with your usual output of what Eric's mum terms "boring drum sections", a song with horns, and a funky journalistic theme around the middle.

Adam and the Ants - Desperate But Not Serious

"On St Crispin's day!"

Moving on...

I found this slice of 80's heaven on a torrented "Rare 80's" compilation. The best way to describe it is Men At Work having the bastard (and presumably gay) lovechild of the Pet Shop Boys, in song form.

Rhythm Method - Broken Haloes

"Rhythm Method" - get it?

Cellophane Sunset

Monday, January 26, 2009

you're my number one guy / number one guy

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

diamonds / fur coat / champagne