August 30, 2011

Dinosaur, Jr.

The tune "Almost Ready" from Dinosaur Jr.'s most recent album, Farm, came up on the iPod the other day. What a great song. I just love the loud guitars, the raspy, sometimes strained vocals, with the great melodies and hooks. This guy has been making great music for decades and he just keeps on getting better! I love seeing great artists evolve over the years.



The guy behing Dino Jr. - J. Mascis - has recently released an acoustic album called Several Shades of Why. Here are a couple of videos.





And here are some classic Dino Jr. vids.





August 28, 2011

Howling Bells have a new album on the way

Howling Bells from Sydney have a new album coming out. It's release date is September 12 and it's called The Loudest Engine. The first single is called "Into the Sky" and here's the video. The tune sounds great!



Here's "City Burning Down" from their 2009 release, Radio Wars.



And a couple from their 2006 self-titled release. "Low Happening" and my personal favourite "Wishing Stone".



August 25, 2011

Guilty Pleasure or Just Pleasure? I like Lily Allen

Here's another post I wrote about two years ago and never published...

I've said before that I like a good pop song. Lily Allen delivers great pop songs. She's got a great mixture of sass, beauty, cutesy delivery, and unbridled honesty. A number of similar artists came out after Lily, such as Kate Nash, but they never matched the playfulness in the sometimes harsh delivery. The backing music on many of the tracks on Alright, Still added to the fun, too. Her second album It's Not Me, It's You came out on February 10.

Her new video for "Not Fair" looks like it was pulled right from an old episode of Hee Haw.



As always, George Stroumboulopoulos does a fantastic interview. I've been listening and watching George since he was on Edge 102 and MuchMusic. He's got an amazing way with an interview whether he's talking to a Nobel Prize winner or a rock star. Here he is with Lily on The Hour. A sample exchange:

George: Were you a Clash fan?
Lily: Yeah, of course, who isn't?
George: Dumb people.

Nice!

And her "encore" story right at the end. Nicer!



Here's a version of Lily performing the first single from It's Not Me, It's You, "The Fear" accompanied only by piano and guitar, from Studio Q



"The Fear" on Later with Jools Holland



"He Wasn't There" on Sirius/XM - her singing is awesome on this take!



And finally, "LDN" on Jools

August 24, 2011

Everything Everything: This year's Mercury Prize Winners?

What do you think? Will Everything Everything take home this year's Mercury Prize?

I think they've got a solid chance.







August 21, 2011

Hard-Fi are back with Killer Sounds

Hard-Fi were one of the British bands that hit me really hard, in a good way, in around 2005. Along with Bloc Party, Maxïmo Park, Editors, The Bravery, and Kaiser Chiefs, among others I'm probably forgetting. They have a new album coming out on August 22. It's called Killer Sounds and they have the second video out.

I featured the first tune, "Good For Nothing", a while back. The second single, "Fire In The House", doesn't have the so much of the pronounced guitars of their previous albums, but it does have a strong chorus, a groovy bass line, and some nice and soulful backup vocals.



They also have another full song and samples of the rest on their audio player. Check it out. Sounds like the band is evolving and I like what they're coming up with.

Hard-Fi - Killer Sounds Sampler by Hard Fi

August 16, 2011

New video from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

I've put up one or two posts about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart before. Well they recently released another video from their album Belong. This one is for the song "The Body". Lovely tune. It reminds me of some sounds of the 80s without being retro or derivative.

August 14, 2011

Bloc Party's Debut on Jools

I really love Bloc Party's début release. I have been a little frustrated that nothing they released after that lived up to the song writing and frenetic energy of that album, but I guess bands progress and not all their fans can come along for the full ride.

Here's Bloc Party in their TV début, on Later with Jools Holland. They perform "Helicopter", an awesome song about a very scary politician.

August 11, 2011

The Decemberists cover Sugar

The other day I posted Bob Mould covering his old band Sugar on the avclub. Well, now the Decemberists have come in and done a cool cover themselves. I think they need more acoustic guitars.


The Decemberists cover Sugar

August 9, 2011

Holy Fuck that's a great song!

I used to do a "Favourites" thing where I posted a tune that is one of my favourites each Friday. I kind of stopped doing it because I pretty much post tunes that are my favourite no matter what day I post. I broke the "I have to do this every week" thing so I could just post a favourite tune whenever I want to.

And this is one of those times.

Radio is dead. I can't stand radio any more. Mostly crap music, stupidly narrow playlists, way too much talking and way, way too many commercials. I think most bands that aren't Justin Bieber or Beyonce tend to realize that. And so bands will use names that constitute radio suicide, such as Holy Fuck. Of course, in today's music biz, radio suicide doesn't mean much, and a band like Holy Fuck never would have gotten much in the way of radio play anyway. Although they should.

This is a great tune called "Lovely Allen" from their album LP. And in a somewhat ironic twist, I think I've heard this song in a commercial...



And here's a new tune called "Red Lights" from their latest album Latin. Everyone loves cat videos, right. Meow!

August 7, 2011

More Superchunk - new video for Learned to Surf

I posted about Superchunk recently. And they have a new video for the tune "Learned to Surf" from Majesty Shredding. It's a cool video because it mixes recent video with video of them back in the late 90s. And it's a cool song.

August 4, 2011

Bob Mould covers Sugar!

Here's a cool piece where the incredible Bob Mould covers one of his favourite bands, Sugar. He mentions a fondness for Husker Du as well!

I must see one of his solo shows!


Bob Mould "covers" Sugar

August 2, 2011

The Wonder Stuff is Wonderful Stuff

A while back, I mentioned The Wonder Stuff in passing. It wasn't really fair. As I mentioned, I was introduced to this band by some folks at the college radio station where I hosted a show for a few awesome years. They opened new doors for me, a predominantly classic rock and heavy metal guy, with a proclivity for pop tunes.

Here are some of my favourite tunes from The Wonder Stuff

"Don't Let Me Down, Gently"



"It's Yer Money I'm After Baby"



"Give, Give, Give, me More, More, More"