THE MIDNIGHT BLUE Los Campesinos! - “You! Me! Dancing!”. Cardiff’s (Lyric ride rihanna we)
Los Campesinos! - “You! Me! Dancing!”. Cardiff’s Los Campesinos! have an exclamation mark in their name, like the Go Team!, are signed to Wichita, like the Go Team!, and blaze fucking technicolour, like the Go Team!. But while the punctuation, the label and the razzle-dazzle are familiar, they don’t particularly sound anything like the Go Team!: instead it’s the glockenspiel indiepop of The Delgados, The Winks and Ballboy. Boys sing with girls, nonsense is bellowed, calm gives way to dancebeat rock’n'roll. It starts all coy, playin’ with atmospherics and anticipation, but come 1:38 you’ll know what the song is about - a cycle of guitar, drums and glock that’ll wear you ragged. They’re a group that makes me wish I was in a band; it’s a song that makes me wish I was a piece of vinyl.
[MySpace]
Kim Doo Soo - “Wild Flower”. This is from a compilation called International Sad Hits, Vol. 1: Altaic Language Group. It’s a record compiled by Damon & Naomi, with contributions by four Asian singer-songwriters who are veterans in their scenes - compared in the press notes to the likes of Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. This is by far my favourite cut on the record, something soft and a little broken by Korea’s Kim Doo Soo. It opens with a clip from Badly Drawn Boy’s “Stone on the Water” (thanks aleska!), violin trembling under disjointed organ phrases. When Kim Doo Soo’s voice appears it is balanced delicate on the line between melancholy and maudlin. As the song rises around him - harmonica, plucked fiddle, - and returns to the opening melody, the maudlin aspect’s totally gone. It’s just plainly sad.
[buy / read Damon’s StG guestpost from April 2005]
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Shake Your Fist shares Robin Allender’s version of The Snowman’s “Walking in the Air”. Allender used to record as The Inconsolable. The Snowman was one of my most cherished childhood films: a spinning musicbox version still sits by the bed in my old room at my parents’. Allender’s rendition is not quite slow enough, but as Amy says it is a “sugar-dusted murmur” - quiet as my whisper at the first sight of snow.
For something very strange, see IRN BRU’s version of The Snowman (and “Walking In The Air”), featuring a fly-over of the Forth Bridge, Edinburgh Castle, Princes Street Gardens, George Square, and other suitably Scottish landmarks. IRN BRU is of course a Scottish soft drink, made of girders.
Scots should join me at Damien Jurado in Glasgow tonight. (Turns out this was last night - dammit!)
(Best of Year contest winner(s) will be announced next week when StG presents its favourite music of 2006.)
Rihanna Lets Fans Be Her Guide, Selects Summer Jam ‘We Ride’ As Next …
MTV - LOS ANGELES When it came time to choose the follow-up to her smash singles “S.O.S.” and “Unfaithful,” Rihanna turned not to management or record-label professionals for guidance, but to her computer. “Out of all my songs [available for sale] on …
You know how the army makes high-quality tools and clothes for soldiers? Like, most people don’t require the quality of most things to be very high because they don’t necessarily want to sign on for that one aesthetic. So a diverse marketplace appears, naturally. But still, when you feel an army wallet, or an army belt, you know you’re holding something built with the purpose of extended use. This song feels built for extended use, I bet the cd feels like a bathroom tile to hold in your hand. With that same white sheen, too. [Buy from Amazon UK]
In a line, these words step single file, hoods hanging over their faces, out of your computer speakers, and they form a slow circle around you. Things that wear hoods are often kinda scary, you can’t see what they’re gonna do. But often, you’ll find it’s usually the silly and geeky who wear the scariest hoods, and only pretend to be a threat. Sometimes in their velvet monk’s robe they’re carrying a special edition Ghostbusters DVD.
This song is like making a salad with one thing in it. It might be like looking for your keys for 35 minutes. But it’s certainly like putting a digital sepia filter on all your personal photos.
And all these things can be alternately pronounced, as can my Christian name, “I like it”. [more]
Monday’s mp3: Czech…Latin…Marta!
dj earball
Bossanova
More Canadians, eh? I’ve been sitting on Bossanova for a while now, ever since their debut album Hey, Sugar was released on Teenbeat way back in March. Please accept my sincerest apologies for hiding this Vancouver band’s catchy pop sensibilities for so long.
clay
20jazzfunkgreats
Monday’s mp3: Just One Big Irie Family
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“Werewolves In The City” by Quem Quaeritis
Merry Christmas. Due to the cult popularity of our Halloween single Werewolves in the City by Viking Moses, Quem Quaeritis has decided to put up the original version of the rap on their myspace. And now listen to the inspiration behind Viking Moses’ electro horror track by clicking below!
George Brigman - My Cherie
George Brigman - My Cherie George Brigman is another one of those Cherrystones discoveries (in fact, a track that you can’t get anyone else is available on the Cherrystones Word—available on the 23rd of October! Pre-order now by clicking here.. George Brigman is a proto-punk rocket—releasing home recorded last bastions of punk rock type stuff in the seventies yet as these incredible private pressings show—George Brigman deserves critically acceptance up there with the MC5 and the Stooges for making the last howls of punk rock in mid-America. To find out more about George why not go to his myspace.com/georgebrigman
“About A Son” trailer
They’re making a movie called About A Son about Kurt Cobain using interview clips that Michael Azerrad audiotaped for his book Come As You Are. Which is kinda weird cuz Kurt told a lot of fibs in that book… either…
