Four Songs to Listen to Forthwith - 05/30/10

Two Door Cinema Club are a young british band. They're new and fresh, a great personal favorite of mine. Watch out for this band, I've got a good feeling about them. Their sound is original yet familiar and catalog has been built up well. As much as I want to begin with a buried track, I'd rather introduce you with something that's fun and easy to listen to. This song, "I Can Talk" puts together novel sounds with energy and feeling. It seems styled and polished, but I get the sense like they aren't trying too hard. I don't say that to be mean, they're just honest, excellent musicians.

The Bird and the Bee are a duo from CA with a sound to match. They're indie synthpop. One half the band, Greg Kurstin, is an accomplished producer and it shows in here. The songs are polished pretty and really feel complete. The vocalist, Inara George, brings sugar and and a surreal environment to the listener. Her voice is familiar and comforting. They recently released a cover album for Hall & Oates. Which is full of great stuff, but I'd rather start them off with a single for you. Here's "My Love". (Strange video source because embedding wasn't allowed from Youtube for this video.)

Synth Punk is fantastic. To me, many other genres have flowed naturally into the newest trends of mixing and electronic sounds. But not punk, despite it's hardcore anarchistic roots there's a defined sound that makes up "punk." It's difficult for me to imagine what I would have come up with if someone asked me to put together synthetic sounds with punk culture, luckily I didn't and Mindless Self Indulgence did. The song "Never wanted to dance" has the punk attitude with some crazy beats and melodies. It will pick you up, shove you around, and leave you wanting more.

Ida Maria came out hard a couple years ago. She had a few singles that were pushed, she did great in Europe, not so much here in the States. She's Punk Rock Alternative and definitely has the flavor of European style rock. I don't know why there's such a divide in tastes across the pond, maybe she's not more popular because her songs are considered precarious and a bit vulgar? She uses risky words like "naked" and "God" Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either. Here, have a listen and don't worry, its SFW.

Rachel Rocks the Reviews - 05/25/10

I came across this band on one of my many adventures online. Paramore is one of my favorite groups to consistently listen to and always enjoy their music. I was researching bands that have opened for them in previous years, they are notorious for including new and up in coming bands. Now Now Every Children recently opened for them (along with Paper Route, which I talked about last post) during their recent European tour. Friends with my sister was the first song I came across and immediately fell in love with the style and the music. Their cd Cars has been in my car cd player on constant repeat for a week straight, and I'm still not tired of it. If you're interested in this band, I recommend you check out their MySpace account or their YouTube account...from there you can watch their own home movies and really get to see what they're like behind the scenes.
Live in Europe:

I had heard many artist speak of the XX and decided I would check them out. I decided to not wait for the cd and to go ahead and look them up on YouTube. The first video that popped up was Island, the video concept and the catchy song were what drew me to the rest of the cd. They remind me a bunch of Metric, Phoenix and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I recommend listening to the whole disc, it's well worth your time.

I had heard of Dallas Green (City...Colour...get it) from many artists through out this year. This is such a contrast from Alexisonfire(Green's main project), which is a heavy darker sounding screamer/metal hybrid while the majority of his solo project is driven by singing and acoustic guitar, although once in a while you'll hear a piano or violin. If you're looking for relaxing music and beautiful lyrics then I suggest you pick up City and Colour's album Bring Me Your Love. Sleeping Sickness is one of my favorite off the album (although it was tough to choose), enjoy!

Last but not least, after hearing about the untimely death of Slipknot's bass player, Paul Gary, I think it's only fitting to focus on one of the many great songs from the Slipknot (you know the group with the creepy masks) catalog. I know you're probably surprised to see after all my other musical selections that I enjoy them. But after seeing Stone Sour (lead singer, Corey Taylors side project) in concert I became more interested in all of his music and have grown to really enjoy them not to mention it's my fiances favorite band. One of my favorites, Snuff, is off of the most recent album. It always amazes me the range that this group is capable of doing. If you're looking for a good rock out jam with great lyrics and amazing guitar then I suggest you take some time to listen to this song.
(song with lyrics)

Four Songs to Listen to Forthwith - 05/23/10

I'm having fun writing about this music. Like a lot of fun, way more than I thought I would. Just the simple thought and analysis of my own listening has been supremely satisfying. It's great to be able to share with others, even if they are imaginary. A band called Free Energy just released an album at the beginning of this month. With a name like free energy you may expect a techno band or some crazy new synth pop dubstep, but you'd be wrong... again. Free Energy is a great indie alternative band and aren't for dancing to. They've got good stuff none the less and are worth some time listening to, over and over. Here's Free Energy - Free Energy to get you started.

Crystal Castles are an obscure lynch pin for anyone interested in synth pop. They are creative, original and always one step ahead of their fans. This album is no different, pushing their style to be more mature while maintaining the grease and eeriness that got them this far. Hear's a pro tip when you're looking for good songs from entire albums. Pay special attention to tracks 2 thru 4. That's where the good stuff is. For this album they put both singles up top at 2 and 3, track for, Baptism wasn't a single but is my favorite. Not that it matters really, they're not headed to the radio anytime soon... which is a good thing btw.

I'm a big fan of Jem. It's very surprising that she isn't some crazy run away success instead of chicks like Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber. She's got a fantastic unique voice, she sings with incredible intensity, her lyrics are poetic and meaningful, she weaves her songs with melody and consonance. It's just good good stuff all around. Here's Jem - Missing You.

There were many bands that separated the 103.3 the Edge in my Buffalo from the far superior 102.1 the Edge in Toronto. For me, Tea Party really stood out for me because they are a hard rocking band with an enormous array for different musical instruments coming together. The song Walking Wounded is moody and complicated. It is absolutely packed with bits that could have been spread among half a dozen songs and still felt complete. I hope it's a treat to those that haven't heard it in a few years.

Format

This is my first serious attempt at taking over the internet. I've learned a bit in the few hours I have put in. The biggest advances are to kill all <span> tags, I really don't care for them complicating things.

Also, always begin and end the embedded parts for a video with <p></p> Not only that, but there are two parts to an embedded video that need to be changed if you want to change it's size. Why?... The answers only lead to more questions.

It's a labor of love, while working on this I was listening to the Grooveshark, playlist "Get Shit Done" by Jay, hit shuffle for this one. Thanks Jay!

Rachel Rocks the Reviews - 05/18/10

While my musical choices aren't exactly new, they are still worthy of a mention and a listen.

I stumbled across New Goodbyes by Hey Rosetta while listening to a podcast. I think the ending of the song is what gets me the most and it draws me in to listen to it again. After listening to it five times in a row I was hooked on the song itself. I enjoy the combination of heart felt lyrics and great drum beats and guitar riffs...not to mention who could pass up the clapping?

(a fan made video)

(or a live version)

I was recently watching a television show I don't normally watch, mostly it was playing in the background of me doing random things around the house...anyway, I started to pay attention to the song playing in the background of the scene. I pulled out my handy-dandy iPhone, with it's handy-dandy Shazam! app and found out what the song was. Turns out it was Florence and the Machine, I had heard of them before but had never gotten around to actually getting a cd. I figured this was a sign for me to make the move. I immediately fell in love with the first song off the cd Lungs, Dog Days are Over. The combination of her voice, the guitar, again hand clapping, drums...how can you not bop to this song? I dare you to try...

Next song up is Major Tom by Shiny Toy Guns. I'm sure everyone has heard this song once or twice, but you're not sure exactly where it came from or why you know it. Originally it was performed by Peter Schilling the character is unofficially related to Major Tom, the theme of David Bowie's 1969 album Space Oddity, the song is about the character being caught in an accident in space. Now it's on the Lincoln car commercial, which is how I originally heard about it. This is a great version from a great electronica indie rock band...enjoy

The last song selection is Gutter by Paper Route. Last fall I was lucky enough to see Paramore perform and this group was one of their openning acts. I immediately fell in love with their sound and HAD to have the cd. It was such an interesting style and combination of sounds that drew me in. I chose this song off of the Absence cd because it's they're latest song that they've released. They also have released a new video for the song, the video was a do-it-yourself video in which some band members from Paramore helped out, well worth a look...

Four songs to Listen to Forthwith - 05/15/10

This past Tuesday "Sea of Cowards" was released, the second studio album from the super group "The Dead Weather" or better known as Jack White's latest band. I'm still anxiously waiting for more news about the Raconteurs, Jack's previous band, but whatever, this stuff is great. Some differences between these two are 1) Dead Weather is more bluesie, especially on this record, 2) he's back with a female vocalist, and 3) this band doesn’t seem like it’s trying to make every song a single. Here's The Dead Weather - Die By The Drop. It's good stuff and worth a listen, this should be getting some radio play soon. I poked around looking for the "official" music video and noticed that there were about fifty previews and teasers... why?

On to an album that will be released next week, “Innspeaker” by Tame Impala, don’t feel bad for not knowing them, unless you’re the kind of person that would frequent Pitchfork or iTunes. The single “Solitude is Bliss” is beautiful example of what should be on the radio, but isn’t. The song isn’t eclectic or even completely original. It’s solid psych rock, a perfect track to your next drinking parties and you can wow your friends with your music taste. I wish I could use Vimeo for more tracks, fantastic site.

The New Pornographers just came out with a new album, it’s all good stuff. Nothing edgy and crazy or experimental. (As a programmer, and former English major… I love that last sentence. More of my sentences should have multiple ambiguous operators that should form regular expressions and they don’t, but I just keep stringing them along, one after another, because everybody loves a run-on sentence.) This fun ditty is Mass Romantic, to remind us of why we still love the New Pornographers. Here's a fan made video using the Sims 2, such a great game... I must have made a dozen families... all lesbians.

Speaking of great songs for drinking parties. Here’s Pinback with Fortress from 2004. Listen to this song right now. Then listen to it again tomorrow. Then listen to it 3 days after that. In your brain little pathways have formed and then settled. In education psychology its along the ideas of a schema. This pattern is a studying technique. If you really did that and this is your third time listening, the song is different now isn’t it? What was generic is now fresh and catchy. Come back often to find more gems just like this one.