New music from The Posies: new album Solid States

I've been a big fan of The Posies since I first heard the exquisite power pop of Frosting on the Beater. The past year has been rough with the passing of both drummer Darius Minwalla and bassist Joe Skyward. They've got a new album called Solid States that just came out last week. They say it's a conscious effort to make a different Posies record.

Check out some tunes. There's the powerfully melodic "Squirrel vs Snake", the low key "Unlikely Places", and the delicate "Radiance".







Pic from Facebook.

Five by Five: from pop to alternative

In 2004, Jem put out an album called Finally Woken. That's exactly how it felt to listen to these perfectly formed pop songs, with the icing of Jem's vocals on top. Check out "24".

It was back in 2006 when I first heard The Sounds. Dying To Say This To You is an incredibly strong pop album. One that they probably can't be faulted for not being able to top. This tune is "Tony the Beat". It's only the beginning.

I've never posted this old favourite from The Shins. It's "Kissing the Lipless" from 2003's Chutes Too Narrow.

Let's go back to the 90's. 1993 to be exact. Belly featured Tanya Donelly and Fred Abong of Throwing Muses. Their début album Star was packed with great tunes. "Feed the Tree" was the most popular.

I've posted songs by The Posies before, but never this one. It's "Definite Door" from one of the best albums of all time, in my humble opinion, Frosting on the Beater.

To sleep, perchance to

snore

Nothing's better than Frosting on the Beater

I really, really love The Posies' Frosting on the Beater album. And then I got to see them at Lee's Palace when they played pretty much the whole album.

They've got a new one out. Called Blood/Candy. I suffered the annoyance of buying the album from iTunes only to find it on emusic a few weeks later. At least a bunch of cool guys got paid a little extra. ;-)

Here's a great track, called "Glitter Prize".

Scarlett, Spinnerette, Stereophonics and Other Cool Stuff!

I read a number of RSS feeds on my Blackberry on my way to work every day. I save the one's I want to follow up on, either because they have some content I want to see or hear that doesn't come through on the Blackberry, or the feed is truncated and I want to read the rest of the article (I actively dislike it when feeds are truncated). Here are a few of the articles or posts I found interesting over the last while.

Scarlett Johansson is singing again. While the few songs I heard from her Tom Waits cover album didn't grab me, this new song with Scarlett and Pete Yorn sounds quite good. Spin has posted the video and has a brief article here.



Stereophonics are coming out with a new album called Keep Calm and Carry On. I've never been super into them, but I seem to have a lot of their music in my collection. I think that if I just spent some more time with their albums, they could really become a favourite. Guardian has an article on their pending release and about Ronseal records in general. Ronseal records are those albums that let the listener what they are via the album title.

NPR.org has a cool article on the Posies and how bands make money these days. Interesting that they never pocketed any money from their major-label albums. It's no wonder that the record business is in the tank and the music business seems to be going strong. When will those record company's realize that they are dinosaurs and that they're extinct?

Julian Plenti, also known as Paul Banks from Interpol, has released an album called Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper. I really like Interpol and after giving this album a spin, I give it a thumbs up. It is available from emusic.

Spinnerette were on Letterman, sounding decidedly less keyboardy and poppy than they do on their latest, self-titled album.

More to come!