Myspace Mystery Tour!

Having read a very informative article on Fake DIY, I investigated the humble myspace page of Bear Hug. Then continued on by looking at their top friends and then their top friends and so on.

Their myspace picture is the typical, two at the back, two at the front, winter coats done up to the necks Indie "Look how serious we are for our new album" comeback look. But this doesn't quite tally with their twee indie-pop ethos. But then again, never judge a book by its cover. What is true however, is that they come complete with the typical Indie influences: Bass borrowed from Interpol, Chords borrowed from Britpop, lyrics borrowed from a rhyming dictionary complete with "oooooh ohoh ohoh" chorus. Unfortunately, not being Northern, this is deemed unoriginal. Although "Sweet And Gentle" is the best (of the two) track availiable.

One of their top friends is all-female Canadian group Pony Up. While the singer's voice share an unfortunate affinity to a certain Avril Lavigne, the overall sound is polished and pleasant. These ladies seem to have their heart set on World domination, and their Rilo Kiley stylings are not only signed in North America, but have releases in Australia, and tour dates organised across Europe. Their debut EP Make Love To The Judges With Your Eyes looks set to be a rarity for the future and it may be only a matter of time before this foursome make it big.

From Montreal, Quebec down to Austin, Texas, where Oh No! Oh My! are set to make a splash at SXSW in their hometown. These guys have already achieved the auspicious publicity of featuring on a Kitsune Maison release with "I Love You All The Time", a suspiciously folky-yet-beepy affair that probably best shows off their particular quirky acoustic sound that wanders somewhere between the Shins and the Flaming Lips. Complete with the vague Beach Boys influence that seems to vaguely linger with every American band. But that can only be a good thing. "Walk In The Park" is the best song availiable on their myspace, but they have recently released their second EP "Between The Devil And The Sea".

Heading west to California from ONOM's profile leads to Shana Levy and her project Let's Go Sailing. While she is joined by an apparently massive band live, the tracks availiable on her myspace speak for themselves, carrying her delicate vocals to their very limit. Once again, for fans of bands such as Rilo Kiley, Shana and her orchestra will also be playing SXSW very soon.

http://www.myspace.com/bearhugmusic
http://www.myspace.com/iheartponyup
http://www.myspace.com/ohnoohmyband
http://www.myspace.com/letsgosailing

Land Of Talk

This Canadian Indie-Rock trio, simply because they have a female singer, often lend themselves to comparisons with their fellow countryfolk Metric as well as Tennessee-dwelling punks Be Your Own Pet, and this article is no different.

I had a promo copy of their debut LP/EP Applause Cheer Boo Hiss which seems to almost invite some sort of delete-as-appropriate kind of review. On the whole however, all four are equally applicable on this hit-and-miss record, released in the UK in October. For example, Elizabeth Powell's occasional Emily Haines-esque vocals sometimes glide and sometimes stutter over the often epic Dinosaur Jr. overdrive. Prime examples being former single "Summer Special", and my personal favourite "Breaxxbaxx".

Their full length album should be out within the next couple of months, but until then, this EP (availiable cheaper on import from Amazon for some reason) and their myspace below should be enough to satisfy.

Myspace

More Track Reviews!

Shocking Pinks - Emily
The latest single from their self-titled DFA compilation based on their last two native released albums from these electronic New Zealanders, centred around Nick Harte, kicks off with a snare-drum dance beat and bass fuzzier than the Dulux dog. When Harte's shoegazey vocals drone in, the lyrics of love lost about a girl called, you guessed it, Emily, emanate over the scene. However, way too soon, but mercifully lacking a Westlife key change, the song finishes as abruptly as it started. B-side "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" is an acoustic lullaby that aims as to be as impossibly glacial as Leonard Cohen, but still ends up somewhere above Newton Faulkner. Also better than the A-side is the Expanded Head Band version of album track "Cutout" which is as close to labelmates LCD Soundsystem as they venture.

Released 3rd March via DFA/EMI. From the album "Shocking Pinks", out now.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - We Are Rockstars
With an album track called "Attack of The 60ft Lesbian Octopus", it's fair to say that these guys don't take themselves particularly seriously. Which is fortunate for this tongue-in-cheek titled single, released a week before their debut album You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into drops on March 17th, which lurks somewhere between previous single "Let's Make Out" and fan favourite and album opener "Battle Royale", complete with Discovery-era Daft Punk vocal sampling. A messy noise of bleeps of ancient synthesizers, bangs of improvised percussion and a bassline which holds the whole thing together between the assumingly momentous live breaks. Sound something like Holy Fuck and Animal Collective if they got drunk together and recorded their stuff onto an answering machine.

So, pretty awesome then.

Released 10th March via Virgin. From the album "You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into", released 17th March.

Assorted Track Reviews

(Thanks to the good people at PURE:FM who asked me to review these)


Art Brut - Pump Up The Volume
This is the opening track from these slightly peculiar yet somewhat unique London art-punks' second album It's A Bit Complicated is released to coincide with their current UK Tour. But to be honest, while Argos' lyrics still as biting and chock full of mock-irony, this song is no "Emily Kane". While lead single "Nag Nag Nag Nag" expanded on the already well-defined sound of Bang Bang Rock and Roll, this single barely rises to the lowest ebbs of their debut LP. Although, this is arguably more due to the overall standard of their debut, which would be the best place to start for those new to Art Brut.

EDIT: 22/02/08: apparently EMI released this without telling the band. Whoops. Link

"Pump Up The Volume" was released on 11th February via Mute and is taken from the album "It's A Bit Complicated", which is out now.
Myspace

XX Teens - How To Reduce The Chances Of Being A Terror Victim
This mock public service announcement, which sounds dangerously familiar to the old Nuclear Safety videos, consists of semi-serious advice soberly spoken over a dancey repeating drum beat and TV Themetune guitars that seem to both mock and elevate the subject matter. With no discernible chorus and a simple soliloquy of everyday advice, this song is a refreshing twist on the "possible breakthrough single" and makes them stand head and shoulders above the rest. This is especially true for me, as none of their previous work really attracted my attention. They already have a healthy following and should be dropping their debut album sometime towards the end of the year.

Released 25th February via Mute.
Myspace

Ida Maria?

Saw these guys on Jools Holland last night (I was mainly watching for BSP) and they weren't bad at all. Well I say guys, its confusing as to whether or not Ida Maria is the lead singer or the band themselves, as she began as a solo artist in Bergen, but clearly her current music is band-orientated.

It was kind of refreshing to hear something outside of the British or American spheres of Indie or Rock and hear something that was almost an objective intepretation of both. Immediate similarites are with fellow Swedes The Hives, only slightly less rubbish.

Basically, just listen to "Oh My God" on her/their myspace and enjoy this inoffensive, if albeit unchallenging take on the traditional rock formula.

Myspace

TOP 5: Songs shorter than 1 minute 30 seconds

Let's face it, most indie rock bands are comprised of stoned ADD sufferers with no attention span. When you combine this with the fact that they're paid to dick around with free instruments for months at a time, it's no surprise that there is a surfeit of sub-1:30 songs. The majority of them are fairly useless. I'm pretty certain Modest Mouse's career would remain enriched and respected if "Horn Intro" was removed from their canon, and the world wasn't crying out for "A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze" (0:19, that one). However, a talented tenth are able to create an excellent whole from a small amount of seconds, and here they are saluted. Top 5 time!

5. "Sweet Road" - Animal Collective (1:16)

An experiment - find your most hardcore anti-capitalist rage-against-the-machine friend and mention that this was recently used in a Crayola commercial. Whilst they fume, lock him/her in a room with some crayons, and play this jam. On repeat. The song is so dementedly, twitteringly fun, simple in its duel-acoustic arrangement yet littered with little yelps, giggles and charmingly infantile asides. By time you let him leave, the room's walls will look like the ones in the advert, and he'll have eaten the crayons.

Here's the ad: Link

Found on Sung Tongs

4. "Fortress" – The Fall (1:21)

One of The Fall’s many knacks is the knack for incredibly brief songs which put you into a state of confusion. If “Prole Art Threat” is like being led through a military bunker in a hail of gunshots and emergency radio broadcasts, and their cover of “Jingle Bell Rock” is Oxford Street on Christmas Eve, then this is something else entirely. The intro riff rings an introduction, then lowers and pummels you, as Mark E. Smith rounds on “left-wing kids”, “boiled beef and carrots” and makes an obscene suggestion about Jimmy Saville. Afterwards, you’ll be bruised, but happily so.

Found on Hip Priests and Kamerads

3. "Car Radio" – Spoon (1:30)

This song is cooooool. It’s the audio equivalent of walking down the street like Peter Parker in Spiderman 3 going to the jazz club (but much, much less lame). Picture it, you’re giving the double-point to the chicks with every slashed guitar chord. You are the “voice of authority from here into Empire State”. By time the “ma-ma-ma”s start, you may have even broken into a strut. That’s what this song does to a man (or maybe just me).

Found on A Series Of Sneaks

2. "A Good Flying Bird" - Guided By Voices (1:08)

GBV's back-catalogue is littered with sub-1:30 songs - especially the much acclaimed "Alien Lanes" (which comes with the highest recommendation on my part). They're all really fantastic, but many eliminate themselves from this list (with it's oh so stringent guidelines). "A Salty Salute" is waaaay over it's 1:29 in spirit, mentally it roars for ages out of the doors of the bars it heralds, being screamed by drunks and alcoholics alike (check this out!: Youtube.) "Big Chief Chinese Restaurant" is tantalisingly short, "Game of Pricks" just two seconds too long. In the end, "A Good Flying Bird" (written and sung not by Bob Pollard but the improbably named Tobin Sprout) isn't the best short track on "Alien Lanes", but it's the best short song. And it really is a smash, forcibly uplifting you with it's racecar pace, Replacements-esque 'fuck you, we were young' lyrics and a lovely twist in it's chord structure in the "fools and kings decide..." part. Perhaps its exuberance can be summed up by the simple chorus: "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeaaah!"

Found on Alien Lanes

1. "Allison" – Pixies (1:18)

Youtube

People crow on about "Here Comes Your Man", but in my book this one, taken from the underrated "Bossanova", is really the bellwether of Frank Black and co's pop side. There's not much point in ranting on about the genius of this song, except to mention the guitar sound, the energy, the fact that it makes one want to pump one's fist unironically. If it had handclaps it would be everything a short pop song should be. One final thought: at the start of this song, Frank Black mumbles that it's about "Mose Allison" (a jazz singer). I managed to hear that as "Mos Eisley" - pretty stupid, but quite apt - this song is just as spacey and awesome as hanging out in the Cantina would be. Honestly, right guys! Guys?!

Found on Bossanova

Just so this article doesn't end on that nerdy Star Wars note, here's a bonus...

BONUS SONG: "You Suffer" - Napalm Death (1.316 seconds)

Youtube

This costs 79p on iTunes.

Andrew Barnes

ALBUM: Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

Most of the tracks have been availiable on the internet for weeks, but Hot Chip's third album is the eagerly awaited comeback for the band that made you sing "Over and Over"... erm... again and again?

Where The Warning was more refined than their debut Coming On Strong, the same is also true of Made In The Dark. Opener "Out At The Pictures is reminiscent of "Careful", but... better. Similarly the next track and previous single "Shake A Fist" is more danceable and more fun than "Boy From School", with an impromptu game of "Sounds of The Studio" thrown in after a quick game of Sonic The Hedgehog. It kicks this album screaming into life with a somewhat grimey video game beat alongside some Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard's hypnotic vocals.

By the time "Ready For The Floor", obviously this album's "Over and Over" and soon-to-be-classic Hot Chip, beeps into life, you start to wonder why on Earth it took them three albums to make this one so good.

Then after what sounds like Rolf Harris' heavily distorted vocals for the intro of "Bendable Posable", the album starts to take a bit of a downward turn. Slow ballad "We're Looking For a Lot Of Love" sits uncomfortably in the album like the only sober one at the party who has to drive the others home. As does title track "Made In The Dark".

"One Pure Thought" starts out with a guitar intro that Orson would be proud of, it soon becomes a cross between Grandaddy and The Go! Team. It is a definite example of their apparent "rockier" sound, as is "Hold On", which sounds like what LCD Soundsystem would make if they didn't take themselves so seriously. However, it comes off less as a change of sound, and more of a redundant gesture about what could have been.

"Don't Dance" is another throwback to the barely danceable quirkiness of The Warning, while the final two tracks "Whistle For Will" and "In The Privacy Of Our Love" seem half-arsed attempts at making a point that Hot Chip can write serious love songs.

What you get then, is an album that builds on the band's previous work, but not in one complete direction. While the more layered sound and production works better with the sound than the sparse chip-tunes that featured on "The Warning", at times the songs become overloaded and seem to lose focus. A good group of songs, and chock-full of possible singles, this album doesn't flow particularly well as either a dance or indie album. Too quirky to dance to and to dancey to quirk to, it instead straddles both genres uncomfortably with some old fashioned R&B papering over the cracks.

MySpace
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