Merry Christmas!

I apologize for the slow month, but I've been hard at work on the End of '08 List, and believe you me, it's pretty darn epic. As for my e-mail folder, I opened it the other day for the first time in forever, and was terrified. So don't worry, I'll get back to all of you.....sometime next year. Here's some pretty music to tide folks over:

Sufjan Stevens - "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"



Really, I could make this whole post about Sufjan, but do yourself a favor and just buy his massive Christmas collection with the crappy gift card you're gonna get tomorrow instead.

The Pogues feat Kirsty Maccoll- "Fairytale of New York"



I thought about posting this Stars cover I heard the other day instead, only because you probably already own the original, and it's hilarious to hear Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan try to sell lines like "you cheap, lousy faggot" with limp earnestness, but then I realized that would just be stupid.

Sarah McLachlan - "Merry Xmas (War Is Over)"



Now here's a worthy cover......

Mark Ronson feat Daniel Merriweather - "Wonderful Christmas Time"



......and another one.

Jukebox the Ghost - "Missletoe" (Live for WOXY)



These guys are all over my list this year. End of Year list, I mean. That wasn't a Santa Joke.

Sufjan Stevens - "Christmas in the Room"



Like I said, this whole post could be Sufjan. Here's a track from his privately released new volume of Christmas songs, leaked by one of his sneaky friends or relatives for our immense benefit. Once again.......Merry Christmas (or whatever you happen to be doing with your time instead of contemplating the cold, depressing dark nights right now), and I'll see you very soon with a whole lot of words to post.

Home is Where the Hot(lanta) Is

So I just got back from Atlanta for Thanksgiving, where I meant to do this update, but as my parent's computer has none of my mp3s, that wasn't possible. I really thought ahead on that one......anyway, going home is a stranger and stranger task these days, as the city I grew up in is changing so rapidly that it's sometimes hard to recognize it. Within the past five years, Atlanta has grown exponentially in size and in subcultures. Little Five Points has gone from being the punk area of town where the weird kids would go to an American Apparel-approved hipster haven, Inman Park has gone from a neighborhood of historical landmarks and unused warehouses to a loft-condo stuffed artistic hub, and Atlantic Station has literally come from thin air, a new zip code created just for it. While I should probably be bitching about all this and talking about the good old days, I'm more excited than anything by these changes. Atlanta remains the fastest growing city in the country for young artists & professionals, and when combined with Athens, also has one of the hottest music scenes in the entire country. While this has been the case for a while now, what's new is the diversity on display:

Possibly the most celebrated Atlantan in music this year, and certainly the busiest, has to be Bradford James Cox, who's released about five years' work in one. As frontman for Deerhunter, he's released two seperate (though, eventually released as one) LPs, and through his solo project, Atlas Sound, he's released a whopping six EPs, one official LP, and another, half-finished leaked one. While not every song he's been attached to has been a knockout, the amount of musical innovation that's come from one man in one year is nothing less than staggering. Without question, Cox is one of the most exciting artists working in music right now, and one gets the impression that the guy is just beginning to flex his muscles.


Atlas Sound - "Activation"

Similarly washed away in reverb, yet spiked with a dark, grungy element is Atlanta (by way of Alabama) threepiece, All The Saints. They've become known around town for touring with the more popular Black Lips, but there's something about their music which intrigues me more. The group separates itself from the rest of the shoegazy acts that have begun to take over Atlanta rock by giving a violent edge to many of their tracks, simultaneously invoking Nirvana and Black Sabbath. The band plays the Drunken Unicorn (in Atlanta; sorry Angelinos) in a couple weeks, and their LP, Fire on Corridor X, is out now.


All The Saints - "Sheffield"

While the rock scene in the city is red hot right now, it's impossible to forget what put the city on the music world's map in the first place: hip hop. While it's true that hits are no longer being cranked out like they were back in the glory days of the Dungeon (Outkast, Goodie Mobb, Kilo Ali), there's still a hell of a lot more life left in the scene here than anywhere else in the country, save perhaps Philadelphia or Brooklyn. Proof of this is rapper B.O.B., who's been making waves lately with some pretty innovative mixtapes, which combine electro, 80s pop & even 50's doo-wop. Wednesday night, the rapper showed up as a special guest at the 3Oh!3 show. Typical to my luck, after having missed 3Oh!3 twice before in LA, I finally catch them in my hometown.........only to learn that Sean Foreman (the half of the duo that generally sings & has my favorite raps) has torn his vocal chords & can't perform. While temptation to leave was high (especially since we were at the Masquerade, which always scares the shit out of me-it's essentially a wooden platform on stilts that can't possibly be safe to treat as a mass trampoline), the show ended up being pretty awesome. Sean came out and danced his ass off, while the crowd sang all of his parts, and I ended up getting to know the assisting B.O.B. a lot better than I did before. What he showcased at the 3Oh!3 show was suitably up-tempo electro stompers, but there's a lot more diversity in his catalogue. BTW, to all the Atlantans who weren't there, 3Oh!3 have scheduled a make-up show for Dec 15th, and based on how good they were operating at 75%, the fully Foreman-ed show should be one to clear your schedule for. But enough about those dudes; check out B.O.B. below:


B.O.B. - "Generation Lost"

I could go on for a few more entries about all the great talent swirling around the ATL these days, but I'd rather close the post with the song I couldn't escape from once I got into town, so let's knock it out. Matt & Kim are in love. And I'm in love with their new song. While I first heard it when the video premiered on Stereogum a few weeks ago, it took hearing it on my parents' XM radio a few billion tiems within the span of a couple days for it to hit me how fucking great it is. For those unaware, Matt & Kim are like the White Stripes of indie pop(a paradox of a term, but you know what I mean), except that Kim is un-ironically awesome at playing the drums, and they're not pretending to be brother and sister. That being said, their first LP never blew me away. It wasn't without its charms, but it did little to distinguish the duo from the glut of similar acts in Brooklyn, other than the rather remarkable fact that so much music could come from only two people. If their new single, "Daylight", is any indication, however, the couple's next album could be something very special. In fact, in a traditional advertising sense, this may just be the best single of 2008, as now I've got Grand on top of my 2009 wish list. I have a feeling this song will be stuck in my head until it comes out.


------------------------Song of the Week-----------------------------

Matt and Kim - "Daylight"



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Non-Vampire-Romance-Related Pop Culture

I'll admit that over the course of the past couple months, I've become a big fan of HBO's True Blood. It's pulpy, sexy and a whole lot of fun. I also thought very highly of the Swedish horror pic Let the Right One In. It's unbelievably fucked up, yet seeped in genuinely cute puppy love. And anyone that knows me knows of my affinity for Buffy. But really now, can we give the bloodsucking romances a short time-out? This Twilight shit has clearly gone too far, and god knows what kind of copycats Hollywood is about to follow up with. So with that in mind, here's a pop culture (and thus, pop music)-oriented post that has nothing to do with vampires. You're welcome.

So despite the steady stream of leaks that have been pouring forth from Kanye's 808's & Heartbreak, I've refused to feature any on the site thus far, mainly because everyone else was doing it, and partially because I wasn't quite sure what to make of it all yet. Well I've been forced to change my tune today, because 'ye just dropped "Welcome to Heartbreak", the best track from the album yet, so good that it seems to validate his whole crazy experiment thus far. "Hearbreak" is easily the bleakest song Kanye has ever done, so much so that it risks veering into melodrama, but the detached nature of the already-infamous Autotune makes it all work. It's a tiny masterpiece of a song, and something that further signals Kanye's progression from a superior pop artist to icon-in-the-making. The polished version of 808's & Heartbreak finally comes out Nov. 25, though you can basically find all of the songs floating around the net right now, thanks to Kanye's own leaks.


---------------------Song of the Week----------------------------
Kanye West - "Welcome to Heartbreak"



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Another pop figure who's made a surprising transformation (albeit a slightly more mainstream one) in 2008 would be the one & only Akon, who began the year by producing stellar indie-pop (if such a thing exists) for Lady Gaga, before transitioning to work on his newest LP, Freedom, all somehow while curbing his old impulses to over-expose himself. During the course of all this, he's gained a little bit more of my admiration. For some reason, while I should despise the man on paper, I can't deny that he can write some pretty solid pop songs. And if the tracks that have leaked from Freedom are any indication, he's actually improving. Thus, despite the presence of a man who seems to have taken over Akon's old job of guesting on fucking EVERYTHING, I present a song which is genuinely awesome, even if you'll be sick of it a year from now:


Akon feat Lil Wayne - "I'm So Paid"

I don't know what's in the Australian waters these days, but I for one am glad to see an emergence of music other than dancey-dance-rave stuff (not that there's anything wrong with Cut Copy, The Presets or Panther DLX, it's just that it's all getting a bit stale). Leading the new pack of mainstream-ready rock acts are The Panics, a not-quite-Coldplay act that feature a lot of horns, which if you didn't know, can make me instantly like any band. "Don't Fight It" has begun to catch on in the US, over a year since the band's first LP, Cruel Guards was released. With luck, the rest of the album may finally find an audience as well.


The Panics - "Don't Fight It"

And finally, I've got an awesome, 80s-tinged remix from The Teenagers (a band I saw a while back at Part-Time Punks that's really a lot of fun live), of Vampire Weekend's awes.......................Waaaaaaaaaaiiiiiitt! Well look at that. Guess I just plum failed you all. Oh well. Who could have possibly seen this post ending like this? Well, sorry guys. I guess the bloodsuckers won after all! (Cue Looney Toons-style shrinking fade-out, with whacky send-off music to match).

Vampire Weekend - "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" (The Teenagers' remix)

Blowing Up 2: The Sequel

So Shark Party has now joined the MOG Music Network, which means even more people are coming to the site, as evidenced by the new deluge of downloads and band e-mails I've been getting. It's certainly exciting, but a bit scary since now, people are, you know, reading and stuff. On another note, I recently had one of my entries from October ("Strange New Strange", featuring TV On the Radio, Shiny Toy Guns and others) taken down by Blogger because of an anonymous record label protest. So if all of a sudden any of my entries vanish into the ether, that would be the cause. While it's understandable on Blogger's part, it's also a bit frustrating, given that it tosses the baby out with the bathwater and destroys my entire post, for the sake of one asshole. So if it happens again, I may restructure how I post here. For now, though, I'll keep chugging along.

Deerhoof is a weird-as-fuck band from San Franciso (figures as much), that has been fairly prolific, despite living on the musical fringe for some time now, but may have a chance to break through to a wider audience (if not exactly the mainstream) with their new LP, Offend Maggie. Lead vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki still packs as much quirk as ever, but the rest of the band has beefed up its sound, layering harsher guitars and experimentation to her light and fluffy delivery. The final product is a cheerful clash of sound that puts the "rock" back in "art rock", and stands as one of the most engaging things I've heard all year. It's also bordeline ah-mazing if you're under the influence of something else that comes from California, or at least so I hear. It's always a good thing when I wrestle with which song to post. I love a few on the album near-equally, but I figured I'd give the this one the spotlight, considering it's the right season and all. Make sure to seek out "Fresh Born" and the incredible title track though, if this doesn't convince you to buy the damn thing. Angelinos can check out the band this Friday when they play The Echoplex with Experimental Dental School. I'm jealous of anyone who gets to go.

----------------------Song of the Week-----------------------

Deerhoof - "Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back"

.............okay, because it's just so fucking good, here's the aforementioned title track, set to a suitably weird-ass video:



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From a band I absolutely love to one I might learn to like, we come to The Stills. Upon their arrival five years ago, I was immediately turned off by singer Tim Fletcher's Ian Curtis syndrome, an illness which has instantly killed some (She Wants Revenge) and yet merely held others back (Editors, Interpol) for me. I assumed The Stills fell into the first column, even after I heard their second album had a crazier, more psychadelic vibe. Their newest album hasn't won raves, but ironically, I much prefer it to their first effort. It's not mind-altering stuff, but it finds the band crafting some memorable hooks, and some arena-ready choruses. The best example can be found with "Being Here", which sounds like the song bands like Daughtry or Razorlight have been attempting to make for the last few years, and never quite capturing (to put it mildly). My ears could be decieving me, but I think it's quite good (arena rock can be your friend).


The Stills - "Being Here"

Next up is a song I've been meaning to write about for a while, from a band that until recently, I'd written off as a one-hit-wonder (and a slightly overrated one at that), with the Aoki-clan (or if you're in NY, the MisShapes scene)'s favorite song of 2007, "We Are Rockstars". The band in question is British electro-rockers Does It Offend You, Yeah?, who have recently re-appeared on indie103 with their second single, "Dawn of the Dead". It's lighter than "Rockstars", despite the title, and is a nice throwback to Duran Duran-era British pop. It also forced me to examine their debut LP, which was far better than it has any right to be, coming off as a more earnest Electric Six crossed with some extra 80s synths. If you're into that sort of thing (and who isn't), it's more than worth a gander.


Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "Dawn of the Dead"

Finally, I've got something just for fun. Friday night in West Hollywood, me and my friends decided to get happy & go see "Repo! The Genetic Opera". If you haven't heard of the film, it's easily summarized as a graphically violent, gothic rock opera starring Sarah Brightman, Giles from "Buffy", the girl from "Spy Kids" and Paris Hilton, directed by the guy who did some of the "Saw" movies. If you're not sold yet, you probably never will be. Whatever the case, I decided that if I ever were to see the film, it would have to be in just the environment I ended up putting myself in: intoxicated, surrounded by an army of "that girl"s, all of them as doughy as they were angry, dressed to the nines in costumes from a film that had yet to come out, marching down the theater line singing songs from said film, while being cheered on by the film's director, as well as the cast (including Hilton). The film is retarded on every level imaginable, but the environment was 100% conducive to having a good time, and thus, I had a blast. On top of that, the cast is 100% committed (even Hilton, who's used as a twisted-Edie Sedgick-style prop), and the music is memorable. Not always great, but never less than memorable. Submitted for your approval is Vega's sexy (relax, she's 20 now) defiant "fuck you, dad!" declaration of independence, which is inexplicably aided by Joan Jett on guitar. Yeah, like I said, it's pretty retarded. But kind of awesome at the same time. grrl pwer!!!


Alexa Vega feat Joan Jett - "Seventeen"

PS: Paris' face peels off during the movie, mid-dance routine, so that alone is reason to see it. Don't look at me like that.

Celebracione!

Need I say more? Here are some songs to celebrate a generally happy week. And when I say celebrate, I mean listen to cool music. In addition to a wonderful trip to NY that included some fun stops in the old LES stomping grounds (Pianos, Arlene's Grocery & more nostalgic waterholes), a lot's happened in just the few days since I've been back in LA. Don't know if you checked the news recently, but it's been kind of a good few days for the whole country.

So last night, I barely escaped one of the most wretched places on Earth: The House of Blues in Anaheim, CA. Located inside Downtown Disney, the venue features overpriced parking, overpriced House of Blues Chicken Tenders, and overpriced Adios Motherfuckers (aptly renamed something involving the word "Blue" that escapes me). It also features the type of clientele that thinks all of this is awesome. Why did I choose to navigate this sea of horrors? Well, I got a free invite to see She & Him, so I figured it would be worth it. Despite the atrocious opening set by Lavender Diamond (honestly, so bad that I feel guilty for naming "Open Your Heart" one of my favorite songs of '07), it was indeed worth it. Consisting of actress Zooey Deschanel and veteran musician/producer M. Ward, She & Him emerged late last year and instantly carried more credibility than any Hollywood vanity project in history, thanks to the simple fact that the songs are actually good. Luckily, the two of them also are born performers, and last night, showcased a hell of a lot of charisma to match the charming tunes. Despite the fact that she faced down hecklers shouting "The Happening sucked!" (which, honestly, was kind of hilarious), Zooey worked the crowd and came off like a pro (and obviously a hot one at that), especially when only her and M. Ward were sharing the stage. I had heard some of their music before last night & liked it, but had never dove in headfirst. The show sealed my admiration for the duo, as I realized their songs have longer legs than I first suspected. The music's not Earth-changing stuff, but it's catchy and more than worthy of a listen:

She & Him - "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"

My anticipation for the Killers' Day and Age is growing each week. Something tells me this one might be something special. Again, that might just be my man-crush for Brandon Flowers talking, but I think the new studio leak of "Spaceman" (the live version debuted on 'SNL' a few weeks ago) proves that there's reason to get excited. Despite the dark, anti-melodic tone of Sawdust's B-sides, the band seems to have reversed hard in the opposite direction, creating pure dance-rock, with emphasis on the "dance". Whatever your opinion of the band, you can't deny they can craft a seriously addictive hook. And if for some reason you can deny that, check out the song below.

The Killers - "Spaceman"

For those wishing to party like it's 1993 comes Abbot Kinney, a new band that (despite its ocean-side name) has been making waves on the East LA circuit for a while now. Their sound is unique to the Angelino scene; belonging neither with the art rockers emerging from downtown, nor the easygoing hipsters of Silverlake. Despite the fact that the 80s revival is somehow still trucking (The Killers, Crystal Castles), with a step back to the psychedelic 70s on its tail (MGMT, Beach House), Abbot Kinney has decided to move the jam session forward a few years. The band invokes a sound that culls from early 90s college radio, with The Pixies and "Pablo Honey" era Radiohead as specific influences, though the guys could hardly be called a throwback group, as they check the irony and self-sympathy of Generation X at the door. In its place is an Obama-era (an awesome and only slightly cloying thing to type) earnestness that showcases "emotion", while never succumbing to that word's first three letters. The band has thus far released a small batch of demos, which, while not yet polished, have still presented a wide variety of sounds and a startling maturity for such a new band. No EP is available for wide distribution, but you can check out some of the band's songs right HERE, and I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more from them right here in the near future.


Abbot Kinney - "Hope View"

Bringing back the early 90s in their own way is New Zealand's Cut Off Your Hands, who invoke the spirit of shoegazy acts like Catherine Wheel and My Bloody Valentine without letting the music get bogged down in the dreamy reverb. The songs propel themselves forward with lightening pace, and despite being labelled "power pop", they carry a considerable edge. They've just completed work on their first LP, You and I, and while it doesn't yet appear to be available on i-tunes, it's worth visiting Ameoba (or if you're in New York, Other Music) to snag. It's a brilliant debut for a band that will hopefully catch on in the US as well as they have back home.



Cut Off Your Hands - "Happy as Can Be"

NYC Tricks

Short post today as I have to get ready for my trip to NYC this weekend. It'll be strange to be back on the old stomping grounds for Halloween, but I predict lots of shenanigans that should bring the nostalgia right back, likely followed up with vomiting and a hangover that should erase it again. And to my NYC listeners, if you're free Sat & Sun, come by the Pier of Fear at Pier 54. It's a festival for rich-ass Battery Park families to frolic and enjoy a generally inoffensive Halloween weekend, but The Maze of Horrors has slowly evolved from a clever diversion for the older crowd to the best haunted house in Manhattan (according to the NY Post, at least). Best of all, it's free, but it sells out very quickly, so get down to Pier 54 early on to reserve your spot. It runs from noon to 9 pm. More info is right HERE.

One thing I'll be listening to a lot on the plane ride over is Deerhunter's new double-album, Microcastle/Weird Era Contd..., whose leak-riddled history is too complicated to even broach discussing here. All you need to know is it's one of the best releases of the year, and another notch in the belt for Atlanta's red hot music scene.


------------Song of the Week---------------

Deerhunter - "Nothing Ever Happened"



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Catfish Haven is a rough-n-tumble indie act from Chicago, whose new album was released at the beginning of the month. It's fun, slightly gritty stuff that's antithetical to the anti-melodic trend in indie rock these days. You can buy Devastator at i-tunes. Here's the title track:


Catfish Haven - "Devastator"

A lot of time has passed since I last wrote about Lady Gaga on my Muxtape blog last Spring, and in that time she's gone from a buzzworthy act with the potential to kick pop music's ass to one of the most over-exposed acts on the net (thanks in large part to He Who Shall Not Be Named). That unpleasantness aside, I'd still argue that "Just Dance" was the scenesters' song of Summer '08, and I've enjoyed listening to the other tracks that have been steadily leaking from Gaga's deput LP, The Fame, and this past week, the album has been officially released. Buy it now if you're into some dirty, sexy pop shit. It's the perfect Halloween treat: it's fun and sugary, even if it carries a severe risk of tooth (or mind) decay.


Lady Gaga - "Poker Face"

Finally, here's a classic for all of my NYC friends. Let's make the most of our time this weekend, as this is what I'll be singing come Monday night.


Conor Oberst - "NYC-Gone, Gone"

Blowing Up

So Shark Party is now a part of The Hype Machine, which is exciting news, but also slightly terrifying: within a matter of hours after being added, my bandwidth had maxed out, and my e-mail was full of notices from new bands sending me their mp3s. Step one in solving this problem was upgrading my account (obviously) to get my bandwidth back, and step two was getting a seperate e-mail just for the site. Unfortunately, the surge of new downloads doesn't appear to be easing up, so I'm devising a creative step three. As for the time being, I figured I should make my first official post full of a bunch of artists few will have heard of, and few will be searching for (at least not yet......hopefully they will soon, since they're all pretty good and all). Let's hope it gives my bandwidth enough air to breathe for a bit. Overall of course, despite the new stress, this is an opportunity to reach exponentially more readers, so if it's your first time here, welcome & enjoy the site.

When is a side project really a side project? Don't ask Spencer Krug that question, as the answer might make everyone's head hurt, and apparently don't ask Daniel Rossman, who, despite reaching a much wider audience by being a songwriter for indie darlings Grizzly Bear, was first a member of "electronic folk" (I know, I know, but give me a better way to describe it) duo Department of Eagles, formed at my alma mater of NYU. Instead of leaving co-founder Fred Nicolaus in the dust, Rossman has now returned to release another LP from the group, which sounds decidedly like, well, like Grizzly Bear. That is, if Grizzly Bear were locked in a haunted cabin deep in the woods, and decided to do a few drugs. Not a ton, but just enough to get a little paranoid. The final product is mellow but far from calming. It's engaging stuff, and makes me proud to call both men Fighting Violets (yes, we did in fact have the gayest school mascot ever. What of it? Wanna fight?). You can buy the band's new LP, In Ear Park right now on i-tunes.


Department of Eagles - "No One Does it Like You"

Speaking of bands that conjure up the spirit of Grizzly Bear (and thus, obviously the Beach Boys) comes New York's Air Bombay, who'd also go down well with fans of Beirut and Okkervil River. The brand-spanking-new band hasn't released an official EP yet, but the songs they've posted RIGHT HERE have a lot of promise, especially "Norway". The songs carry through with the jetsetting theme of the band, both in tropical arrangements and in subject matter. It's the kind of music you might put on to read a book, only to discover it stealing your attention away a couple minutes in, and never letting go. In addition to songwriting skills and a cool band concept, however, these guys have a great fucking side-note: singer/keyboardist Andrew Kaladjian's last project was L'Homme Run, a hip-hop duo with Vampire Weekend lead singer Ezra Koening at Columbia University. Between this experiment & the formation of Department of Eagles, it's safe to say today's topic might almost be the joys of a Manhattan higher education, but I'd never allow that. All I have is one phrase and one word to search: "Pizza Party"....and 'awesome'. Happy hunting. Of course, that was then, and Air Bombay is now. Check out "Norway" below, and keep an eye on these guys: they're clearly just warming up, and where they go from here should be very intriguing.


Air Bombay - "Norway"

So I just got back from French weirdo-folk chantruese, Soko's first show on US soil, semi-secretly held at The Bardot (the new lounge occupying the old Spyder Club space above Avalon), and it was quite a night. Not cause she was incredible or anything, but because I got nice and drunk, before having a glass thrown at my back by a certain socialite/"actress"/party accessory who felt I was blocking her view. I won't drop her name, as her lawyers can most likely eat mine for lunch, but the bottom line is: Hooray for Hollywood. Anyway, in case you've never heard of her, Soko's like a French Cory Kennedy, except she's actually talented at something; that something being songwriting (though she's also an ex-actress). Unfortunately for Soko tonight, she was acting fucking wasted & that inhibited her performance. Fortunately, her charm has little to do with excellence of execution: half the fun of watching her tonight was trying to see if she could competently play her own songs, even for the ones where she was on drums with no accompaniment. In other words: fuck all, this crazy French chick's got charisma to spare. Even if she never got around to playing what's by far her best song. Overall, she played for almost 90 minutes to a scenester-ific crowd more concerned by why Kirsten Dunst just fled the party than the music right in front of them, and yet managed to win the majority of them over by the end. She even got a few to clap along, then meow like kittens, which alone is worthy of admiration. Soko's got no official EP as of yet, but a number of impressive singles are floating around, like this one below:


Soko - "I'll Kill Her"

Nothing more to placing this next song than the fact that it cleansed my palette after a very Hollywood evening.........okay I guess I have to talk about them, so that I'm not just giving away an mp3. The Guillemots are a bird-obsessed band fronted by Fyfe Dangerfield. Their first LP, 2006's Through the Windowpane, was a triumph of post-Clash Joe Strummer-style rock and copious horns. The band has a new single out, signaling that a new LP is most likely nigh, but this was the song that sobered me up in the car tonight, and the song that I'm now humming, so here you go:


The Guillemots - Trains to Brazil

Finally, here's datapuddle (which I think I'm supposed to keep in all lower case), aka Alex Data and Steve Puddle, a new band from London that churns out progressive rock, with some fairly experimental production layered on top. And yes, to get it over with, one point of inspiration for them might be another British band that starts with an R and ends in adiohead, but there's far more to dissect here than what's found from that obvious comparison. For starters, I'm sure I've never heard half the random objects used to record this album. Hollow clangs, rip-cord buzzes and various bleeps and bloops litter the songs with a sound both technically precise and entirely organic, like some of the best National tracks mixed with a CD of city soundscapes. The band's first LP, the wonderfully titled monkeyskymokey (note to all: I like monkeys), is available for purchase HERE, and the band's Myspace profile is @ http://myspace.com/datapuddle (for some truly bizarre reason, the html won't let me post a link so close to another). Here's one of the simpler, yet most impressive tracks on the album. If you dig the sound, I definitely recommend checking the rest out as well. The vocals are cathartic, and each track is packed full of pleasant surprises.

datapuddle - "SloGO"




And remember.....be nice to my bandwidth :) (ps: you know I've been drinking if I'm utilizing emoticons. Tip of the day.)

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UPDATE: I started this post at 4 AM then went to sleep at 5 AM before sending it. For the sake of preserving history, aka my first inebriated post, I still approve of it the morning after.