Label Day: Afternoon Records

I'm not going to lie and say that the past few Label Days have been easy. You see, I've got a list (thanks Wikipedia) and I - much like when looking for records or books - just scan until something catches my eye. Not the best method I'll admit, which is why I'm particularly happy with having found today's label.

I think this guy is really good. I can't think who he reminds me of, but his bio says: Comparisons range from Daniel Johnston to Robbie Fulks to The Mountain Goats to Guided by Voices, but he’s just trying to sound like Neil Young. Watch him closely, or he will come to your house and watch you. Here's his page. I like the first track most myself.


I'm having flashbacks to when I used to listen to folk most of the time (Jon Boden, Seth Lakeman, Kris Drever etc) but really it's only his lyrics that bring that style to mind - he's most certainly in the alt./anti-folk vein. John Vanderslice (also, if this helps, he's collaborated with John Darnielle {who's All Hail West Texas I am still in the process of reviewing for last weeks AOTS}) 

If the last Bright Eyes album had been more like this instead of a watered-down Digital Ash..., I'd have been a very happy girl indeed. Poison Control Center The first track, by the way.


Mollx

SOTW: Kimya Dawson, My Rollercoaster

Kimya Dawson. How she does it I'll never know - My Rollercoaster  is a bit of a jumble. Lyrics as fast and meandering as if she was just making it up off the top of her head, sometimes almost childishly soppy (The life I love is making music with my friends) and still full of quiet beauty. You can imagine her just sitting in your kitchen, laughing, joking, eating a flapjack...and just strumming this song, introducing it with a humble "I just wrote this, it's rough, but I'm really proud of it."  And she ought to be proud. It grabs you, shakes you, puts the biggest smile on your face, and has you humming it for the next three days.

8/10

Mollx

Late Label Day: Cooking Vinyl

I  have often said that Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen In Love is one of the best songs ever. And together with this song, I'm pretty sure they also should have the title of  "Most Epic Band".  Buzzcocks, Fast Cars

I listen to the radio, but I respect his views. The Vines, Don't Listen To the Radio

Well well well. This band've been on The LIST  for a few months now...and who'd'a guessed it? They're good! The Wedding Present, I'm From Further North Than You

Mollx

(Hair-brained) Music Monday

I dyed my hair purple today. And I think I did it just so I had an excuse to post this song. Can you guess which one I'm talking about? ("I really don't care, did you see the drummer's hair?") Pavement, Cut Your Hair

This is just under six years old. Doesn't sound it, does it? Devendra Banhart, Long Haired Child

...And I miss your ginger hair...The Zutons, Valerie

Mollx

AOTS: Sunset Rubdown, Shut Up I Am Dreaming

Most of the time, an album focuses on one or two things. Lyrics, maybe, or the fact that you've got a great guitar player, even, perhaps, that you bought a new distortion pedal last week and are desperate to show it off. Shut Up I Am Dreaming focuses on none of these things. Or at least, not just those things. Like in Spencer Krug's day job Wolf Parade, everything is thrown at your ears all at once. And boy do I mean everything. In Wolf Parade, you get the feeling that at least one person in that band knew the meaning of the word restraint. No such word appears in the dictionary of Sunset Rubdown. Krug, however, has a fantastic ear for melody, for contrast, and for making songs that on paper sound shambolic and clumsy sound perfectly centered between what-the hell-am-I-doing-now and military precision. The band pulls back when they need to, like on The Empty Threats Of Little Lord, and goes full throttle on others - Snakes Got A Leg III, for instance. Krug's lyrics are pretty much genius: "And I'm sorry that your mother died / But that one wasn't my fault." from opener Stadiums And Shrines II, or  "I've heard of creatures who eat their babies / And I wonder if they stop to think about the taste." from the stand-out track Us Ones In Between. They're a band that transcends genre boundaries and throws conformity out of the window along with most of their sanity. It works for them though, this crazy, hard to swallow collage of sound. Of course it works. Maybe it's too much at first, maybe the best way to take it is to listen to the tracks separately. But listen to it, please. It's beautiful, fascinating, confusing, and very possibly one of the best albums of the last ten years.

10/10

(and here's the album on streaming site We7)

SOTW: Charlie Simpson, Down Down Down

I have one problem with commercial singer-songwriters: the very fact that they're commercial. It's a fine line sometimes, between commercial-with-merit and popular-indie - which is, say, the line between Charlie Simpson and Marcus Mumford. I'm going to say it right out - Down Down Down is an ok song. It has an acoustic guitar or two, strings, et al, and the man himself has a decent voice if that's your kind of thing. The most glaring thing about it, however, is that it's a song without substance. It's a tune, a group of musicians, in dire need of a good lyric. Case in point: "And the nights are so long without you / And the days speed up." Seriously, Charles. I mean, seriously. Much like his first outing as "the one from Busted with the terrifying eyebrows" (he's still got those, by the way), it's a diluted copy of a decent genre - first doing brain-numbing pop-punk, and now only-slightly-less-brain-numbing pseudo-folk. But it's ok! It does what it says on the tin. It's radio-friendly folk pop, and that's all. It won't change the world. Hell, it's not even trying to. 


But can someone please tell me what the deal is with that weird tempo change? 


3/10


Mollx

Foreign Friday: Ukraine

The second instalment of FF comes from the Ukraine, which accounts for sixty-four of my blog hits (ie forth highest country)

I'm loving this. Am I insulting anyone if I call this harmonic industrial metal? I hope not, they don't sound like the kind of people you want to get on the wrong side of. Komu Vnyz, Shiva

Something totally different now - ethereal folk music, flutes, the whole shebang. T'are good. Fleur, Remont

I always look in the "Metal" section of HMV now. I don't know quite why - they don't stock very much music I like generally, so why should they stock a good range of metal? To be honest I think it's just the first step on my way to coming out of the metalhead closet. Drudkh, Distant Cries Of Cranes

Mollx

Further Evidence of a Musical Apocalypse

It seems David Bowie may be retiring. 

gfvbgvfbyfhghv

Sorry, my forehead hit the keyboard. I accept if he doesn't want to be in the business any more, but I just lost hope for music. We've still got the underground stuff to fall back on, I suppose, although I've just looked at the top forty and it's dire. At least if Bowie tossed us a new track it might make the top ten a bit more interesting and a bit less manufactured. 

Here, then, are three songs to light up a very dire chart.

Reason 1

A rockier Reason 2

Did you ask for piano? Course ya did. Reason 3

And I think I should just chuck in a bonus Reason 4

Mollx

(oh, and more on the PIAS story)

Cold Case?

Yeah yeah yeah, watched Cold Case this evening, decided to scrape the barrel of one-hit-wonders and tried to find something good, yeah yeah yeah. So, where ARE these bands? Is the trail cold? Maybe.

I like this, mostly because Linda Perry reminds me of Joan Armatrading in a pretty big way ('cept Joan's a lot better. Well, I think so, anyway.) 4 Non Blondes, What's Up

Mum's been singing this so much lately it's become more a conversation starter:
Mum: You know, I get knocked down.
Me: But do you get back up again?
Mum: Oh yeah.
Me: Am I ever gonna keep you down?
Mum: No. Do you want a brew?
Chumbawamba, Tubthumping

Is there anyway I was going to dislike this? It's got Kim Deal from't Pixies and Tanya Donnelly from Throwing Muses, plus an awesome bassline. The Breeders, Cannonball

Mollx

Label Day: Smells Like Records

Well, this is awesome. Take Spectoresque bubblegum pop, adopt it, raise it on Sleater-Kinney, and then give it a band. I'd say it'd sound like this. The Rondelles, He's Outta Sight

If you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have said "Yeah, I like Cat Power. Why?". Now, I say, "I love Cat Power. Why don't you buy me Myra Lee, since you brought it up?". Cat Power, Ice Water

Now this rocks. Be honest, who's going to give Pixies-esque alt. rock a miss? John Wolfington, Shotgun

Mollx

The Youtube Trail, V

Further to this whole music-for-a-non-existent-summer thing...

The 6ths, Falling Out Of Love (With You)
I like it. Perfect summer sun music.

Sunometer: 8/10

The Magnetic Fields, I Don't Really Love You Any More
I like this too...but more rainy summer/autumn than summer sun

Sunometer: 6.9/10

Drop Nineteens, Winona
I think I like this most of all...it's perfect for this strange summer we're having.

Sunometer: 8.5/10


Mollx

The Sony/PIAS Fire

You might have heard about the riots in London these past few days, and I just wanted to let you all know about the Sony warehouse that was burnt down - home to lots of indie labels' stock; Beggars Banquet, XL, Warp, and many others. Given how much independent labels depend on physical sales, and how little money they have due to the recession, it's looking like some are going to go under. The good news though, is that a fund is being set up to minimise the damage - http://cognitvedissonancerecords.com/labellove/.

Here's an article with more information, and a list of labels distributed by PIAS.

Mollx

Label Day: Sub Pop

Tell me something.

Why has it taken me so long to feature Sub Pop?

Oh, and you know what I was saying yesterday about free music? All the following rockin' tracks are FREE!!!

I - somehow - didn't like this when I downloaded it. I love it now. Dum Dum Girls, He Gets Me High (download)

*looks meekly at floor* It's not riot grrrl, it's not, it's not! Sleater-Kinney, Entertain (download)

I haven't listened to this in ages. I'd forgotten how good it is. Oxford Collapse, Please Visit Your National Parks (download)

Mollx

(A Special) Music Monday

The tagline on my blog says "There's good music everywhere, if you know where to look". To be honest, I find it somewhat pretentious, so I'll probably take it down. But the idea behind this post is really to share with you where I find stuff. (by the way, it'd be awesome if you could leave me comments saying where you find yours!)

So, 1a) the radio. Yes, the radio. Before switching to BBC Radio 6, I listened to Radio 2, which wasn't great for finding new music or anything particularly alternative (at least, during the daytime shows), but sometimes they'll throw in a wildcard. I found the evening shows had a bit more variety, and it's by listening to them that I first heard No Name #4 and Bloodbuzz Ohio by Elliott Smith and The National respectively, to name just two.

1b) Internet radio. I remember quite vividly hearing This Year by The Mountain Goats for the first time, after putting Elliott Smith into the Jango internet radio generator. After becoming more aware of these things, I found Last FM was better, but Jango, as far as I remember, doesn't play ads between songs.

2) Youtube. Yeah, unsurprising I know, but you really can find some great songs just from going from video to video (also, fantastic for when you're bored and still want to feel like you're actually doing something). I've found so many people like this I can't even begin to name them.

3) Looking for free (or at least cut price) stuff! Amazon and iTunes do free songs and reduced-price promotions, though the problem with those is it's usually just mainstream things, although iTunes did once offer Georgia by Yuck, so just have a look 'coz you never know. Record label websites quite often have free songs available too, like Team Love, Sub Pop, Joyful Noise etc. (There's a very extensive list of labels on Wikipedia I usually use for Label Day). Record shops themselves also sometimes have albums stupidly cheap, and I've occasionally found albums in charity shops for 50p-£2 (and some places will cut the price down for you if you get loads, or if it's a bit damaged).

Mollx

SOTW: Karen, The Trouble With Sweeney

There must be something in the August air that makes people unable to do anything but lie in deckchairs and eat ice-cream. Karen's a slow candyfloss whisp of a track, a song built on soft guitars, floating drums, lazy brass and sweet harmonies. It sounds frail, barely more substantial than the head of a dandelion, and yet it sticks in your mind - not catchy, as such, but just so pretty and fragile that it takes over your life for three minutes and twenty-six seconds. It's sweet but slightly heartbreaking, like coming to the end of your last bottle of lemonade.

8.5/10


Mollx

(The link I've given is also a free download link from Burnt Toast Vinyl, have a look around their site because they've got tons of downloads)

Foreign Friday: New Zealand

Possibly to become a semi-permanent fixture - Foreign Friday! (I did promise alliteration)

Not quite what I was expecting, but it's really good. Tall Dwarfs, Nothing's Gonna Happen

Some eight years before that whole C86 wave - jangly, trippy and a fair bit kooky: just my thing! The Clean, Are You Really On Drugs

You probably caught a few seconds of this on the beginning of Nothing's Gonna Happen, and here you have the whole thing. The Bats, North by North 

Mollx

New Adventures In Vimeo

I did have an idea for today, but it was better suited to Friday for alliteration purposes.

So now I have no idea, but I think I might just mooch around the interweb and see what happens.

Well, it is summer (supposedly) and you can't expect me to put any effort in on holiday, can you?

I haven't long known this video sharing site, Vimeo, but if this is the standard of music people post on there then consider me a convert. The Greff Band, I Want To Go Home 



This isn't strictly a music video. There's music in it, oh yes, and it's by Sigur Ros, but just watch it for the sake of the beautiful animation. Carlos Lascano, A Short Love Story In Stop Motion



I'm sensing there's a hole the size of a music video featuring Jenga and an abandoned factory (or other such thing) in your soul. Here's the perfect thing to fill it with. Northern Labour Party, Failure Won't Fail Me



Mollx

Label Day: Sarah Records

I'm in love with the idea of fanzines. I'm especially in love with the idea of a fanzine that releases flexi-discs (a flexible record! I had no idea such things existed!), and the record label that springs up as a result.

Where is this summer I ordered? Out of stock? Damn. Well, at least we've got this little bit of C86 sunshine. The Orchids, Apologies

Good god. The 90's music scene really was awesome. I listen to music like this and just imagining how terrible it is that these bands just fall by the wayside, and that the members are probably doing the nine to five in an office block somewhere. It's heartbreaking. Even As We Speak, Blue Suburban Skies

It's the same with this one. It sounds like it was recorded on a rainy summer afternoon, while everybody was praying for sunshine and candyfloss. Another Sunny Day, I'm In Love With A Girl Who Doesn't Know I Exist

Mollx