March 31, 2012

New Regina Spektor track All the Rowboats

I first got into Regina Spektor after I heard the amazing song "Fidelity" from her 2006 album Begin to Hope. She's got a new album called What We Saw From The Cheap Seats and it's coming out May 29. Here is the first video for "All the Rowboats". I really like the sound of it.

March 30, 2012

New Maxïmo Park on the way!

Maxïmo Park are coming out with a new album called The National Health on June 11 and they've just put out the title track for our listening enjoyment.



Sounds great!  I'm looking forward to this album!

March 29, 2012

Katy Perry's Part of Me video

Katy Perry's a bit of a guilty pleasure, I'm afraid.  And this new track is quite cool.  And it's not about the ex Mr. Perry (Mr. Brand).  "Part of Me".


Photo from katyperry.com

March 28, 2012

Official Video for Cold by Blood Red Shoes

Blood Red Shoes released their new album called In Time to Voices and they recently released the official video for the song I posted before called "Cold".  Really looking forward to this album.

March 27, 2012

New Hard Fi video for Bring It On

Hard-Fi have released a new video for "Bring It On" from their most recent album Killer Sounds.  Fun track!

March 26, 2012

With 8 million views, it's Kimbra


Yes, 8 million views.  So this isn't exactly cutting edge.  But it's a great song.

"Settle Down" by Kimbra.




March 25, 2012

Enjoy the Silence cover by Nada Surf

Back in 2010, Nada Surf put out an album of covers called If I Had a Hi-Fi and they included Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence".  They've truly made this song their own.  I can't wait to get into the other covers on this album as they filter through my shuffled playlists.



If you missed the fact that they released a new album, the deets are here.  They're in Toronto at the Opera House on April 4.

March 24, 2012

The Big Sleep

Mmmmm.

Tired.

The Big Sleep.

"Ace"

Cool song.

March 23, 2012

Clever. How's that working out for you?

"Clever" recording tricks that are really just stupid. 


They included putting sound on the run-out of a record so that if your tonearm didn't automatically lift at the end of a record you'd hear some sound for eternity. Then CDs came along and Nirvana put a long gap of silence after the "last song" so you'd be all surprised when another song started. Then NiN and Cracker put 99 tracks on their CDs just because they could. Of course when you went to rip these CDs, you just excluded the silent tracks. 


Like most things that are "clever" at first, the 10-15 minute-long songs with many minutes of silence in them are just annoying. 


I am so surprised that bands and artists still do this. What's going through their heads? Do they think that its clever? Do they think that anyone likes it? Especially in this age of iPods and shuffle and smart playlists its nothing but an annoyance. There I am riding the subway, happily listening to my music when I'm listening to silence. 


Let me tell all artists and bands out there unequivocally - its not clever, or funny, or entertaining in any way. Its dumb. Its old. Its been done and no one ever liked it. 


Stop it. 


Now. 


Rant off. 


Tune in next week when I go off about how movie and TV shows still put in dial tone sound effects on cell phones when everyone knows full well that there's no dial tone on a cell phone. Never has been. Never will be.

March 22, 2012

Another version of the most played song...

I wonder how long it will take me to get totally sick of this song.  I don't listen to radio or watch video channels and already this song seems to be everywhere.  It's great.  Here's an acoustic version.

Fun. with "We are Young" from their recently released album Some Nights.

March 21, 2012

New video from The Cribs' new album

As I posted before, The Cribs have a new album In the Belly of the Brazen Bull coming out on May 8.  They had previously released a song called "Chi-Town" on a free sampler. Now they've released a video for "Come On, Be A No One". Here it is! Good tune!

March 20, 2012

Wicked Game cover by These Electric Lives

I never really liked the original version of this song, but I like These Electric Lives and the cover version definitely improves upon the original.



Follow the link to your copy.

March 19, 2012

New Norah Jones!


I love Norah Jones' début Come Away With Me.  I think it's awesome that she's working with Danger Mouse on her next release, Little Broken Hearts.  Here's a track from that album, "Happy Pills".  Love it.

The album's due out on May 1.




March 18, 2012

New Garbage!


Garbage have a new album called Not Your Kind of People coming out May 15 and have just released a full track for us to check out.  It's called "Blood for Poppies" and it sounds good to me!  You can get your very own copy at their web site.



If you didn't see it elsewhere before, here's a preview of "I Hate Love", also from the upcoming album.

March 17, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well, it's St. Patrick's Day.  And Ash are from Ireland.  So enjoy the awesome tune "Orpheus" from their 2005 album Meltdown.

March 16, 2012

New Big Pink video

The Big Pink have released another video from Future This.  It's called "Give it Up".

March 15, 2012

Loud Pop

In the early days of my old band, we tried to coin a name for the kind of music we played.  We knew we had (hopefully) catchy melodies complimented by loud guitars.  I came up with "Loud Pop" to describe the sound but the other guys felt it might be taken too literally, as in the sound of a loud pop.  Pop!

In hindsight, the term I was probably looking for was Power Pop.  And what a great genre it is.  So much of my favourite music can be summed up by this term.  Here are some great examples of the genre.  Mostly old and some new.

I let the "labels" on the post be my limiting factor, which only means one thing: this won't be the last loud pop post.

Jellyfish "The King is Half Undressed"


Jellyfish "That is Why"


Jellyfish "The Ghost at # 1"


Jellyfish "New Mistake"


Cheap Trick "Dream Police"


Cheap Trick "Reach Out"


Badfinger "No Matter What"


Big Star "When My Baby's Beside Me"


Big Star "September Gurls"


The Cars "Let's Go"


Nick Lowe "Cruel to be Kind"


The Knack "My Sharona"


The Romantics "What I Like About You"


The Vapors "Turning Japanese"


The Smithereens "A Girl Like You"


Material Issue "Kim the Waitress"


The Pursuit of Happiness "When the Sky Comes Falling Down"


The Pursuit of Happiness "Beautiful White"


Odds "Love is the Subject"


Odds "It Falls Apart"


Squeeze "Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)"


Sugar "Gee Angel"


Sugar "Believe What You're Saying"


Sugar "A Good Idea"


Sugar "If I Can't Change Your Mind"


Bob Mould "See A Little Light"


Bob Mould "Circles"


March 14, 2012

Fun with lyrics, Facebook and The Flaming Lips

I had great fun on Facebook many months ago with "The Yeah Yeah Song" by The Flaming Lips.

I posted a line from the lyrics every day as my status and then watched for the responses.

March 13, 2012

March 12, 2012

The Futureheads a cappella!!?!??!

The Futureheads have said their new album, Rant, will be totally a cappella (that means "with a my hat on"). And while that might make sense on some level given that they've always had an emphasis on harmonies, I think its an April Fool's joke. Especially since the album's slated to come out on April second.  Do they have April Fool's in the UK?

Listen to their a capella version of "Robot" and tell me you don't think this is a joke.




You heard it here first.

March 11, 2012

Mr. Valentine's Dead

A long time ago, on a Valentine's Day, I posted a video for Kevin Quain's "Mr. Valentine's Dead". It was a really bad quality version of the video and I think it's gone now.  But I recently saw this audio only version on youtube, so I thought I'd put it up.

March 10, 2012

Favourites: KISS my ass

Get yer metal on!

Here's a cover version of KISS' "Calling Dr. Love" from years ago. It's by Shandi's Addiction, who is Maynard James Keenan of Tool on lead vocals, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave on guitar, Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass, and Brad Wilk of Rage and Audioslave bashing the kit.  Now that's a supergroup.  Killer.



And here's Anthrax covering "She", also from years ago.  Some amazingly stupid drumrolls. Oh yeah!  And one of the best guitar riffs ever. Ace Frehley is a guitar god.



Both of these tracks are from a tribute album called Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved that came out in 1994.

March 9, 2012

"City Girl" by The Jezabels


This song came up in my ipod mix today and I really enjoyed it so I thought I'd share it here. Simple as that.

"City Girl" from The Jezebels' latest Prisoner.


They've just released a video for "Rosebud" so here's that, as well.

March 8, 2012

New Blood Red Shoes

I likes me some Blood Red Shoes.  The band.  

I likes them so much they came in #2 with "Heartsink" and also #33, #48, #54 on my top tunes list.  The album Fire Like This came in #3 on my albums list.

And they've got a new album coming out.  It's called In Time to Voices and I really hope it's out in North America at the same time as it's March 26 UK release date.  Please!  Don't make me do anything bad!

In the meantime, "Cold" will have to tide us over.  It sounds great!

March 7, 2012

And behind door number two

Groovy tune.  Two Door Cinema Club with "I Can Talk".



What do you call that drum beat in the chorus?  Infectious?  I love those hi-hat shots.

And what the hell.  Here's more.

"What You Know"


and "Come Back Home"

March 6, 2012

Is it a Placebo?

Placebo have some amazing songs.  They're hard a rockin' band with possessed guitar parts, cool, catchy melodies, and a great lyrical fit between melody, voice and music.  They marked a return of androgyny not seen since Bowie.  Here are some of my favourite Placebo songs.

Here's the very first Placebo song I ever heard. "Pure Morning"


"Special K"


"Nancy Boy"


"Every Me Every You" taken from the film Cruel Intentions.


and their cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill"


They also put on an impassioned performance on Jools.

"Nancy Boy"


"Teenage Angst"


And here's Timo Maas feat. Brian Molko with "First Day".  It's that unmistakable voice.

March 5, 2012

Ray Lamontagne

I like singer-songwriter acoustic music a little less than the next guy.  It's got to have some guts and passion for me to get into it.

I like to catch the show Live from Abbey Road when I can.  I remember thinking that I wouldn't like Ray Lamontagne very much based on the whole acoustic singer songwriter thing.  And then he did "Trouble".

Wow.



He seems like such a unique and interesting character.  I'll have to listen to a bunch more of his stuff.

If you're the impatient type, the song starts at 1:07.

March 4, 2012

Stupid record companies

Hey record companies - since people aren't buying music much any more and radio stations play narrower and narrower playlists and video stations don't play videos, you might want to let little guys like me put your videos on my site to promote your bands.

This post replaces a video by a band that just might have sold a record or two.

Oh well, you lose, record company.  Music will continue without you.

March 3, 2012

Truly Lissy Trullie

Back in 2009, Lissy Trullie put out an album called Self-Taught Learner.  I can't remember where I heard about her, but I picked up that album and enjoyed the great little tunes.  Catchy melodies, and heartfelt vocals with music to move you.  It's good!

Here are a couple of videos from that album.

"Ready for the Floor"


"Boy Boy"


and "Self-Taught Learner"


Now it's been a few years.  Where's the new album?  Apparently, it's out this week.  March 6 to be exact, according to her wikipedia page.  Timing is everything.

Check out some more tunes on her myspace, including a couple that might be from the new album.


March 2, 2012

Submit to Jack White

It only took a few listens to go from "meh" to "great" for Jack White's first solo single "Love Interruption".  See if you can resist.



It's from Blunderbuss, which will be out April 24.

March 1, 2012

The Darcys cover Steely Dan's Aja

I was excited when I heard The Darcys were covering the entire album Aja by Steely Dan. I can admit it - I really like Steely Dan and I had heard good things about The Darcys.

When I first heard the cover of "Josie", which is one of my fave tunes ever, I was disappointed. It was so different from the original. Well, I gave it another chance and I have to say it's growing on me. And the video fits well.



If you like the track, you can get the whole album as a free download from The Darcys' web site.

And here's the original if you haven't heard it before.