AOTS: Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights

Put early Radiohead and Joy Division in a blender, whiz it up with some crushed velvet and an abandoned cityscape, and you've got Interpol. They're a band with a strangely massive sound - not stadium-expansive, but instead straining against the walls of a small club. They're a band with a sound suited to the dark, a dark filled with insomnia and expensive hi-fi. Listen to them through the best headphones you can find, and loose yourself in the moodiness, the gloom and weird freedom of asking where did it all go wrong? It's a beautiful sound. It's got all the warmth of the dim light at four in the morning, the loneliness of being the only one awake, the exhaustion of still getting on with life after a night lying awake. It's a comforting sound, interesting enough to hold your attention, but still has that kind of vague monotony you could fall asleep to if you wanted to. It's a simultaneously strong and delicate album, beautiful to listen to once, but endlessly rewarding if you have the time.

8.9/10


Mollx

SOTW: Face Parade, Child Bite

For a band called Child Bite, the amount of death metal in Face Parade is pitiful. Non-existent, in fact. Instead it sounds like The Shins-meet-Sunset-Rubdown, having been introduced by Roxy Music. It's a song that can't really seem to settle - the sound rises and falls, glam one minute and synth-pop the next. It's a strange song, on first listen sounding uncertain, but the more you hear it the more confident it grows, until it dares you to dislike it.

7/10


Mollx

The Eric Club

Did you hear Eric's Club in Liverpool is reopening? Heartwarming, even though it's OMD that are behind it. 

I like this song, very, very much. Always have. Anyway, I'm led to believe that's Eric Burdon on vocals.

No prizes for guessing this Eric. 

Woah! What is this, 60's/70's rock day?

Mollx

A Midweek Addiction Update II

So, again, just some tracks I've been really loving this past fortnight:


Something in the same kind of vein happened with Chapel Club's Surfacing - Ok at first, but the more you hear it the more you like it until it comes on and you yell "I LOVE THIS SONG!!!"

I really want to like the Pixies. I've never though much of them (probably because I was expecting something harsher) but I'm actually liking Frank Black. I should give his band another go.

I've always really liked this song, but I never paid attention to what it was or who played it until now.

Mollx

P.S. I just looked up Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies, and found out that I am in the same situation I was in with Lloyd Cole an't Commotions.

Curses. Where have I been, eh? Crazytown?

Label Day: Kill Rock Stars

I'm surprised I haven't done this one yet.

I think this might be how Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory might be if he embarked on a alternative rock project.

This is really good. Dirty, heavy guitars and one of those awesome basslines I like so much, with Warpaint-esque vocals. Absolutely gorgeous.

Smudgy, muted rock. Good stuff.

Mollx

(A Tribute) Music Monday

You'll have probably heard by now about the sad death of Amy Winehouse. I can't say I'm a fan of her music particularly, but she did have a lot of talent, and that's how we should remember her.

A great live performance

One of my favourite of hers
And one that I think is one of her best

Mollx

AOTS: Various Artists, Newermind

Free with SPIN magazine, Newermind is a cover of Nirvana's Nevermind with contributions from various alternative bands/artists, from Meat Puppets to EMA. Smells Like Teen Spirit is Meat Puppets' chosen track, and keeps pretty close to the original, only with an acoustic guitar and a helluva lot more gravel. In Bloom is a lot more playful than the original, with a bit of a glam-rock shimmer lightening the heart of the song but still holding onto the ironic lyrics. The second most recognisable track from Nevermind, Come As You Are, is twisted into an electronic, auto-tuned, spooky monster by Midnight Juggarnauts. Again, Titus Andronicus have stayed faithful - it's not bad, just a little forgettable. The Vaselines' Lithium is more chilled, loosing the intensity but adding a slight haunting detachment. The vocal intertwining at the bridge lifts it a little, but even still it falls flat. Drain You, courtesy of Foxy Shazam, is, like Come As You Are, adventurous, but slightly more likeable since it keeps the dynamics of the song but shifts the genre several points closer to "Weird". Jessica Lea Mayfield's Lounge Act is as haunting as hell, filling every word with venom and feedback.

The main thing that strikes me when listening to this is how good the songs are. Not the new renditions, but the originals. Nevermind isn't my favourite Nirvana album, and it never will be, but it's only when you hear them in another context that you really appreciate them. And simarlarly it's when this collection loosens up and is as creative as they were that it really shines.

6/10


Mollx