Neader's Jukebox

Toro y Moi Working On a New Album

2012-01-22T14:35:00.001-05:00

Why Music Needs Bloc Party More Than Ever

2012-01-21T13:05:00.003-05:00

For Indie Rock/Post-Punk Revival junkies like myself there's little to listen to to satisfy our unyielding thirst for a jangly power chord , a bass drum steadily thudding along to the beat and a bass guitar vibrating your intestines.

Guitars have really fell by the wayside these past few years in music. Looking back at last year there's only seven artists I see that used guitars as a main asset on their album: Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Yuck, Minks, Arctic Monkeys and the Strokes.

Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes we can respectfully take out of this equation for obvious reasons.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart don't exactly "rock" as much as the type of music I'm talking about, nor do Yuck or Minks in a sense.

"Suck It and See" was just...bad.

The Strokes almost had it. God damn it was so exciting when Under Cover of Darkness was first released, I thought they had it, captured what made them so great on "Is This It" and "Room on Fire" but a large portion of the album was soft and not in the same style.

I'm not saying any of these albums are bad, just that they're not what I'm hoping for.

So what are we left with?

Nothing.

Well...something.

We do have a glimmer of hope, Bloc Party are working on a new album, and so far have around 20 songs in the making.

It's more important that Bloc Party makes an impression now than it was in 2005 when they were hyped to be the band of 2005.

In 2005 what Bloc was doing was in a sense unique compared to other bands, but they were one note in a huge landscape of riffs and handclaps. They were different from other Indie Rock bands, but the difference now and then is that there were actually other bands that were comparable to Bloc Party in 2005. In 2005 we had The Strokes (when they were better), Interpol (when they were better), Arctic Monkeys (when they were better), Editors, Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park, The Cribs, Bloc Party, The Futureheads, and so on.

Now the landscape's been deserted, there's a tumbleweed here and there (What's up Strokes?) but it seems permanently dead, uninhabited, lost and unloved.

This is why the music scene needs Bloc Party.

We need guitars.

We need bass.

We need drums.

We need Bloc Party.

We need music like this

Judging by Kele's recent remarks on Radio 1 saying that, "It's nice to make music that sounds like all four of us playing together in a room," and recent pictures that Russell has been tweeting, we have something to hold on to, something to look forward to and something we're going to be able to rock out to.

Three of the four members, calmly resting around their instruments, with the fourth one taking a picture from his. We see the guitars and drums in place of where laptops and other electronic devices would be, now we just have to wait to listen to them.

New Minks Song - Painted Indian! (I'm Back Bitches!)

2012-01-20T20:38:00.003-05:00

"Black to white to red to white and back to red."

The first song that I really started to like last year was 'Araby' by Minks, it would be fitting that they would be the first song this year in so many ways.

'Painted Indian' really does differ from Minks's earlier work. Yeah that thumping bass and emphasis on snare is still present, but the overall feeling is a lot more energetic and optimistic from what we're used to from music. It's strange to think that two years ago the same musician who made this buoyant tune started one of his most well known songs with, "Wherever people go, darkness will always follow. There is no way to lead a quiet life."

The lyrics still have the same undertone though, I haven't listened enough to find out what exactly the song is about (if there is a meaning, right now I'm thinking it might be a criticism of cynical people who hate everything, like these guys ) but the lyric, "You have your sunglasses on, and you hate everyone," really sticks out.

Anyway, good tune, really loving the harmonies and synthy feel it has to it.

Minks said on their tumblr that they're working on a new album, so look forward to that.

It's great to be back and I promise to post a hell of a lot more often.

Minks - Painted Indian http://minksinamerica.tumblr.com/post/16173444798/this-is-a-new-song-by-minks-called-painted

Update

2011-07-23T02:52:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone, I'm really sorry for the lack of posts lately!

I wanted to get an interview with Yeasayer and Matt and Kim, but, unfortunately, both acts were unable to do it.

I still have to do my interview with Matt Tong, but only 5 questions!

Also, I will be seeing Interpol Monday night, which will leave me with my first concert review!

Here's a video from when I saw them in August, best concert I went to last year:

Interview with Edwin of Foals

2011-05-13T14:16:00.007-04:00

I was in the middle of transcribing all of it when my computer froze, I'm not going through it again, it took 3 hours to begin with. I'll give you guys the general answers though, it won't be word for word as I was originally going to have it but most of it will be exactly what he said.

Neader: I'm here with Edwin of Foals, not The Foals, how do you feel when people call you The Foals?

Edwin: We're over it. It use to irritate us years ago but we're use to it now. Here in America foals aren't as well known or common like in England, in England generally everyone knows what foals are.

Neader: Yeah, when I first heard of you guys, I didn't know what foals were, so I searched on Wikipedia and found out. Now, when I search you guys, you come up. How's that feel, all this success, Mercury, NME, everything?

Edwin: That's a good question. We didn't mean to change the definition but it feels good, we feel more self-assured. We use to be quite anxious about our recordings. We would worry about where we were going. There's an enormous amount of the music industry focused on breaking new bands and we feel like we've done that, we've done two records. We've received some good nominations and won some awards so we feel a bit rooted now.

Neader: A bit different from your humble begins as house parties. Are those over now?

Edwin: Yeah. It wouldn't really work with our new material. We use to get hounded in the U.K. after the Skins thing through Myspace messages of people just messaging us "Hey I'm turning 16 next week I'll give you £50" some actually offered us a lot of money. It ruins the point though. The last house party we ever did was so busy it actually felt a bit dangerous. We're on tour now, so there's no need. The whole point of house parties was playing shows when we didn't have any, and I think now, on a day off, the last thing we would want to do is play a show.

Neader: How's the tour been so far in the U.S?

Edwin: It's been good

Neader: Disappointed you had to miss the Royal Wedding?

Edwin: Not at all. I didn't even know when it was happening. People talk about it, and people chat about it, but I don't care.

Neader: Earlier this year you were working on an album in Australia, can you tell us how that went?

Edwin: That went badly. We didn't really accomplish much in terms of songs. It wasn't like wasted, it was kind of disappointing. We went over and recorded with the brother of Dave Ma, Jono Ma. The two brothers are really talented, one does videos and Jono's the producer. He's got his fingers all over the place. He's opened our eyes to a lot of possibilities on the new record, synthesizes and drum machines that we haven't used before. It's given us a foundation to take our new record.

Neader: How would you describe that foundation music wise?

Edwin: A lot of old synthesizers, drum machines, and sound samples which I think we're going to stack pile.

Neader: You have a new song you're playing live right?

Edwin: Yeah, it's not a song, I mean it is a song. That had nothing to do with Sydney or Australia. That's just something we decided to play. I think it's important when we go on tour that we're doing something to enjoy ourselves. We've been touring for 14 months, and it's not that any of us think it's boring, it's just that we can easily get complacent about how we play them.

Neader: So what's happening with O-Funk? Is it dead?

Edwin: Unfortunately, different members of the bands have different opinions of the song. It's one of my favorites, I wanted it to go on the last record and I want it to go on this record. The approach we have to have is that only the best stuff goes on the record. So hopefully it makes it. I think it will be a little bit different but it's definitely one of those songs that has that live energy.

Neader: You have a lot of cover with Foals, from the Police, to Holy Fuck, to Gwen Stefani. How do you have such a wide variety?

Edwin: It's usually because we're told we have to do one. If you do various radio sessions the producer of the show says we need you to do a cover and we're given like a weeks notice. And there's a couple arguments like "Oh do we have to? Do we have to?" Sometimes it works, like our Police one.

Neader: I like your Swedish House Mafia One

Edwin: That one worked surprisingly well. Something them aren't the best ones in the world I'd like us to do more it's just a question of priorities. It's something that you should do for fun, and we don't do it for fun, we do it because we're told we need to do it.

Neader: Sorry that you're forced into it.

Edwin: It's not that we're forced into doing it.

Neader: What's next for Foals?

Edwin: We're going home, for ages. We're doing some festivals in the summer not very many. We have mid-May to the end of the year to do an album. We're just going to see what happens there's no real program to it, I think we're going to try and spend a lot of time together though, in a quiet easy manner. We're going to try and find a good producer and everything because that's our weakness. It's not that we've made bad producer choices, just in the writing process, we write too many songs, and when we go into the studio we have 30 songs that are unifinished and the producer has to bang our heads to together. And it's quite stressful, I think we're trying to do it...better this time? I don't know, I think we're going to let the process evolve naturally this time.

Neader: You have a lot of songs in your catalog that I feel don't get enough attention live, such as Brazil is Here, Dearth, Tron, why is this?

Edwin: I don't know. It's one of those things if a song doesn't really get written live then there isn't often a motive to start playing it live because there's a lot involved in putting it together. Brazil is Here was more or less composed in a studio and I don't think more or less we ever played it. Dearth is a different topic because that was kind of loved. There's this thing in this band where we always want to move on to different stuff and there comes a point where a song is just over, and that's happened with Dearth and it's a shame. We play it once and it was terrible, we did a surprise encore at the Squalor in London, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't amazing well.

Neader: Were they just like, what is this?

Edwin: Yeah, exactly. Tron same thing really, we just haven't played it in ages. We're trying to make our setlist more towards the new album.

Neader: Okay well I think that's it thank you.

Edwin: Thank you so much, cheers.

Interview with Wes of Ra Ra Riot and Discovery

2011-04-11T13:38:00.013-04:00

Yesterday I got up and was looking forward to see Ra Ra Riot at the Magic Stick. I was in the middle of getting in the shower when I get a message from their Twitter asking them if I wanted to interview Wes after bombarding their Twitter with requests and being turned down by their publicist. I got that at 1:00 saying they would prefer to have it done at 8:30 without a camera and to call their tour manager when I arrived. The next 5 hours was me quickly scrambling for questions and doing all the research I could on Wes, finding something to record audio with (I ended up filming it with my camera but had the lens pointed at the floor) and other last minute preparations. When I arrived I called their manager at about 7:30, she told me they were out to eat and I told her that they wanted it at 8:30 anyway, so she just told me to contact her at 8:30. A half hour later I got a text from asking if it would be all right to do the interview after the show, I told her I was ok with that. After the show the band was walking around, I went up to Wes and told him who I was and that I was to interview him without trying to sound pompous. He was very accessible and friendly, and told me that if I could just wait around for a while he would be able to do it. After he talked to a few fans and the token group of 30 year old drunk girls who are having their night out, he approached me and we found a quiet spot by a billiard table, I thanked him for coming to Detroit and asked him how the tour was and such, then the interview began. The interview was full of a lot of laughs, positive attitude, and yeahs, which seems fitting with the type, style, and genre of music that he and Ra Ra Riot plays.

He's in blue, I'm in black

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Ra Ra Riot, name kind of sounds like a thrash metal band, but you guys obviously aren't, so how did that come about? Do you know exactly?

Wes: Yeah that's kind of a boring story. We just sort of borrowed it from a friend, a friend of Milo's, our guitar player. He had a friend who had a band name but didn't have a band yet, seeing as we had a band and didn't have a name yet we sort of borrowed it, it sort of fit. I mean I think it's somewhat appropriate obviously it could be...

A thrash metal band?

Wes: *Laughs* Yeah something like that. We started off playing house parties and doing really crazy, noisy things. Yeah, it fit so it just kind of stuck.

You guys are generally a poppy band would you agree with that?

Wes: Yeah I think so.

Ok, there's something about you that makes you different from poppy, gimmicky, nonsensical music, what do you think that is?

Wes: *Laughs* Um...well I appreciate you not thinking that we're a gimmicky band. I don't know I think maybe part of it is you know at first look it might seem like having string players in a band could be a gimmick or something but, it's more about the composition. They write music with us, it's not just a direction that's given to them, they write their parts, they give us feedback, so 1/3 of the band has a totally different perspective than your average rock and roll band, so that might be part of it.

Ok, and your drummer recently left, why is that?

Wes: Yeah, Gabe left. He wrote us a letter that we put on our blog or something.

He wanted to simplify things?

Wes: Yeah he's older than us, and I think he was starting to feel like the things he wanted to do were more likely to be done at home.

Kind of like James Murphy?

Wes: I guess, somewhat yeah. He's also obsessed with the (Collapse/Claps/Claps/Clash I can't understand him, sorry!), you know like he's mapping out the fruit trees in his neighborhood and so forth.

So is your new drummer, Kenny, permanent or have you not decided on that?

Wes: I'm going to say no comment on that.

Haha kind of awkward

Wes: *Laughs* That's okay.

So your tour bus is named Mark Wahlberg?

Wes: Yes!

Big fan of Entourage?

Wes: *Laughs* This was before any of us have ever heard or watched that show I think, how long has that show been on?

2004?

Wes: 2004? The van we got in like 2007, I don't think I ever heard of Entourage until like maybe the next year. I don't know it was just one of those things like "What are we going to name the van?" Someone said Mark Wahlberg and it just stuck. And our trailer is named Buddy so we call them Mark and Buddy.

You lived in Japan for 4 months right?

Wes: Yeah

And since the tsunami you've been doing a lot for relief effort. How's that been going do you know how much you've raised?

Wes: I don't know the figures, but we played a benefit show and that was really great and sold out.

Zach Galifianakis was there right?

Wes: Yeah he was there. *Laughs* he was like an hour and 15 minutes late. But he was there! Yeah, I made a bunch of T-Shirts just like stencils and spray paint, and sold them on eBay for charity auction, and they all sold. I was really pumped about that.

Obviously everyone somewhat in someway compares you to Vampire Weekend. Is there ever going to be a tour? That would be awesome.

Wes: Well there was a tour, in the U.K. for like five shows. It wasn't a long one, and we played one show in Montclair New Jersey which is just up the road from where Ezra and I went to high school.

You guys went to high school together? Is that how you know each other?

Wes: Yeah, we've known each other since like elementary school, so yeah that was really fun just like up the road.

Hometown heroes?

Wes: *Laughs* Yeah. We've been to that theater as kids, I think separately actually, but it's just like right in our neighborhood, never thought that would happen, it was a lot of fun.

And speaking of that, anything with Discovery we can expect in the future? Possibly Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend tour together with Discovery opening?

Wes: *Laughs* Well, I don't know, I hope so. I love working with Rostam and getting to work with Ezra again, that was a lot of fun, so I don't know, I really hope so, it's so difficult to get together, so much touring.

What have they been up to?

Wes: Uh...I don't really know, Rostam was just in India, he was tweeting from there. So we'll see, I hope it happens but we'll see.

And on your LP with Discovery you had a cover of the Jackson 5. Was that before or after you heard about Michael Jackson's death? Because the album came out like 2 weeks later, so probably before right?

Wes: Yeah it was way before. Yeah it was strange.

Do you remember where you were when you heard that?

Wes: Yes, I was playing tennis with my girlfriend and she got a text from her cello instructor.

Mood killer.

Wes: Yeah it was crazy, it was really hard to fathom, but we felt like we wanted to put song on the record so that's no reason not to.

Well it's a good song and a good cover.

Wes: Thanks.

Being in Detroit Motown you know, huge fan of all that music.

Wes: Oh yeah totally. Then you might also be interested to know we use to do a cover of Madonna, also a Detroit native.

Yeah my uncle's backyard matches up with Madonna's dad's backyard.

Wes: No way, wow, that's crazy.

You have a major in physics, are you ever going to put that into use? Will you be working in a lab in the future?

Wes: Well I hope not *laughs* I hope that it just collects dust forever, because I've become a successful musician I hope that pans out. But if not that would be fun to do a little physics.

What's next for Ra Ra Riot?

Wes: We are going to finish this tour, and just keep touring I guess. And probably by the end of this year start working on a new record.

And what are you coming out with this August? August of 08 was The Rhumb Line August of 09 was Discovery and August of 10 was The Orchard. So are you going to have anything out?

Wes: I don't know, I hope so. Yeah it would be the first year I don't release a record since 2007. But yeah maybe it's time to take a break and regather and reassess my goals and readjust things.

Enjoy August?

Wes: Yeah maybe time to enjoy August for a change. Yeah well my birthday's in July.

July what?

Wes: July 3rd.

Oh I'm July 12th, my uncle is July 3rd. He keeps coming up.

Wes: *Laughs* Yeah, your uncle and I should be in a band.

He's like 58, he plays saxophone.

Wes: He plays saxophone?

Actually I think it's the trumpet.

Wes: I play saxophone.

Yeah with the Dirty Projectors right?

Wes: That's right yeah wow, you did your research!

Yeah I had like 5 hours to get this together so I just sat home and Google! Google! Google!

Wes: *Laughs* Well that's good you know more about than most people that interview me.

Thanks it's only my third interview so...

Wes: Well you're good.

Haha thanks, well I think that's it, thanks for doing this with me.

Wes: Cool man yeah man thanks so much.

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I would like to once again thanks Wes for agreeing to do this with me. Looking back I feel like I may have asked too much about Vampire Weekend and less about him and Ra Ra Riot which I feel kind of bad about that, Wes if you read this, sorry! On the other hand I wish I would have asked if he had any funny childhood stories that happened to both a young Wes and a young Ezra.

Thanks, Yay/Nay, Russell, and Matt!

2011-04-09T13:57:00.003-04:00

Well in case you haven't heard, I'm sure most of you are reading this from it, the Guardian has quoted my interview with Russell and linked in here. This has caused the traffic of this blog to increase...by over 10xs! So, a special shout out to the Guardian for all of that, along with Consequences of Sound who quoted me, the Spinner, and the dozens of other sites, you guys and girls are all the bomb. For those of you coming here for the first time, welcome! Hope you visit soon and often and enjoy your stay.

I've added a "Yay" "Nay" feature. Since no one ever wants to comment on stuff, just click "Yay" if you agree with something I write, or enjoy it in anyway, and "Nay" if you feel the opposite. I thought it'd be better than having "Interesting" or "Insightful" and other adjectives that mean roughly the same thing in the context of the blog. Simple "Yay" and "Nay" ought to get the job done. So it'd be awesome if you could all click it on posts.

Unfortunately, my interview with Russell is over, and NME has decided to steal my interview, that was nice. I talked to Luke Lewis about it and he said it was done last week, that was when Part 1 of mine was done, I doubt there's a coincidence. Why would they choose Russell over Kele if not for my interview when they interview Kele all the time? Yeah Russell just left Ash, and t hat's a primary reason they chose him, but I'm positive they chose to do an interview in general because of mine. So way to go NME, way to steal my thunder. When I told Russell about it he said,

"And i wouldn't pay any attention to them, their interviewer was clearly too busy playing Angry Birds and seemed to make half that stuff up."

So looks like I wasn't the only one who got fucked over in this scenario.

What's next for the blog?

Well, seeing as I've just finished interviewing Russell, I'm going to interview Matthew Tong, drummer of Bloc Party, as he is available and said he would answer 5 of my questions. Choosing the questions will be difficult, but let's see how this goes. A friend of mine who lives in Germany, Chris, already asked him 4, all of which are great questions, so I'm left to try to think of questions just as good but not as obvious! At least I can base some of my questions off of his!

Here's some of Matt's Animal Collectivesque solo material from last year.

I'm also seeing Ra Ra Riot tomorrow night, hopefully I'll be able to corner Wes before or after the gig for an interview.

That's all for now!

Interview with Russell Lissack of Bloc Party: Part 4

2011-04-09T11:17:00.000-04:00

Here it is everyone, the last one. I will always be grateful to Russell for doing this for me.

Bloc Party have been on hiatus for a year and a half next week. Rumors say (from you actually through a member of AND who saw you DJ) that you'll be back in the studio together in August. It seems that the hiatus has lasted longer than originally intended. Are the plans for August still in motion or are Bloc Party fans going to have to wait even longer for material?

There's nothing concrete planned yet. I'm not sure about the others, but i'm busy until the end of August, so September would be the earliest we'd all start writing together, but that still depends on everyone else's plans.
I've written quite a few songs, and met with Kele a couple of times to jam, so there's plenty of ideas floating around.

The last single Bloc Party released was 'One More Chance' obviously a huge difference your first single 'She's Hearing Voices'. Bloc Party has slowly became more focused on electric music it seems, how exactly did this occur, what brought about this drastic change?

I wouldn't say it was a drastic change, more a natural evolution. Kele and I have always been into all genres of music, and love dance music as much as we love guitar based music. As teenagers we didn't have the access to musical technology that being a professional musician provides you. And things have moved on a lot since we started, now you can record an album on your iPad for example. So if we were starting out now, we'd be a completely different band i'm sure.

It's probably too early to ask this, but we are all dying to know, what should we expect from the fourth album? We know that you've written stuff on the road, will this be a return to the basics for Bloc, the same direction you've slowly been going in, or something entirely new?

Well yes, you have answered your own question there. We wrote a lot of songs on the last tour, but i'm not sure if we'll use any of those.

Now that I'm done talking about new material, let's talk about some old work, will we ever get to hear the early The Angel Range / Union demos that have been sought after for nearly 6 years? Songs like Life of the Party and Teen Crisis? Do you still have an old CD of them lying around somewhere?

I might have one somewhere at my old family house... it would possibly even be on cassette. I don't really have time to sit and listen through endless unlabeled cd's and tapes unfortunately. I don't know if our former record label would keep things like that on file.
If there was enough interest, i'm sure the label would like to put out a collection someday, but realistically at this moment in time, i'd imagine there's about 7 people who'd like to hear those demos.

Even more recent are the "A Weekend in the City" b-sides. Many fans believe that the b-sides of the album are better than the actual a-sides and wish that these songs were played more often live. You have played The Once and Future King on occasion (which I consider myself lucky to hear) but overall these songs seem to be forgotten. Some of Bloc Party's best work is believed to be these songs, The Present came in as the third best Bloc Party song on the fan forum Always New Depths. Can you tell us how the band feels about the b-sides and why it appears that they get the cold shoulder so often, and your opinion on them versus songs on the actual album?

I'm sure i've said this before, but when you're playing a live show, you're performing to people who've paid to see something, they have expectations, and the majority of people want to hear the songs that they know. We have 3 album's, and i don't know how many singles, so there's already a lot to condense into one evening.
There's no personal vendetta against b-sides (i really enjoy playing Future King), so we try to drop them in when we can. I don't think anyone can remember how to play songs that we've never really performed live though! And on a few occasions when we've dropped a b-side in, it's really killed the atmosphere in the crowd, so it's quite hard to deal with when you're performing.
I've always wanted to do a b-sides show, or a fan show with requests, something of that ilk but it never seemed to pan out. Though we did a Silent Alarm show in Australia with B-sides, so we're not complete jerks :)

Interview with Russell Lissack of Bloc Party: Part 3

2011-04-08T10:15:00.002-04:00

We (members of AND) know that the band knows of the forum. I've always been curious how often the band visits the forum, and reads up on it. There have been some odd links that seem too strange to be coincidence, with a member (Progress) suggesting that Bloc Party should play I Would Die 4 U by Prince live and have it go into Flux and a few months later, it happened, and Kele wearing a shirt with Obama on it and underneath saying Progress, which was Progress's avatar on the forum at the time. So...are members of Bloc Party also undercover spies on AND?

I have no idea what the others get up to on the internet in their own time... that's probably best left alone.
The Obama progress thing sounds like a coincidence, wasn't that his presidential campaign slogan?
I rarely look on there anymore, its not our domain, it's somewhere for our fans to hang out. If anyone want's to talk to me, i always reply to messages, even if it takes me a while, and i'm always happy to talk if people bump into me.

As a musician, what are you most proud of?

I might be wrong, and who knows where we will stand in the grand scheme of things, but i like to think that we are a band that are important to people.
When i was growing up, there were countless bands and songs i enjoyed, and that influenced me, but i can count on one hand the bands that were truly special. its hard to put into words, but somehow their music was influential beyond songwriting, they actually had an impact on the direction of my life, they really fueled a passion in me.
I hope that's something like what we mean to people.

You've been in Bloc Party for almost a decade now. Looking back on it, and your music career, is there anything that you would have changed?

It's hard to say... there's lot's of things we could have done differently, but you never know how they would have worked out.
Even if we never work as Bloc Party again, i've done what i always dreamed of doing.

You're somewhat labeled as the quiet, shy, and even awkward member of Bloc Party. Are you really quiet and shy or do you feel as if this is an inaccurate portrayal?

It was accurate, but i think during this time off, and touring with Ash, i've become a lot more confident.... in relation to myself 5 years ago anyway.

Finally, what are your favorite Bloc Party songs and your favorite album? Which mean the most to you and why?

That's the kind of question that can produce a different answer depending on when i'm asked.
So today, i'd say Weekend in the City is my favourite album.
I love "Sunday", for me it's one of those rare moments when a song creates goosebumps. I always remember when we did a demo for it and Matt wrote the backing vocals, it reminded me of the Lion King, and obviously i'm now King of the Jungle so it's even more relevant.
Writing the Prayer was awesome too, it really felt like a step forwards. (I actually got the idea for the "ooh" intro vocals from the Wizard of Oz, fact of the day.)

Top Songs of the 2000s (1)

2011-04-03T13:04:00.004-04:00

'Leif Erickson'

Is there a song that can be categorized as so beautiful and so chilling? That makes you weep and shake? Makes your insides scream from adrenaline and fear? 'Leif Erickson' is one of the few, if not only, song that I have ever heard that can be affect you in such a powerful way, in such opposite emotions. Not to mention, Paul Banks is pretty bad ass with that cigarette.

'Take It or Leave It'

Everything about this song is perfection. All of "Is This It" is centered around indifference, finding yourself, and just figuring out what the fuck to do with your life. Not until the last song, 'Take It or Leave It' does Julian finally speak his mind and just say fuck it, I'm going to do what I want and say what I want and tell you what I've always wanted, that guy you're with, he's an asshole. It's him finally looking around and criticizing those around him and those who brought him down "Boys act too tough, girls act too much, enough is enough!" The guitar riff is one of the best guitars of the past decade, unarguably catchy and though repititive, gets better with every listen. Most importantly though, the intro and guitar sets the confident mood of the song. Those opening down chords followed by that upbeat riff lets you know that this song is different from the rest of the album. It's fitting that this self proclamation anthem is at the end of an album that is themed on indecisiveness and giving up, saying there's still hope, and you can still do what you love.

Interview with Russell Lissack of Bloc Party: Part 2

2011-04-02T13:52:00.002-04:00

On your tour with Ash in South Africa you were brutally massacred by a murderous lion. What exactly happened? Is this an accurate story? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tzxV6OXfoc

Ha ha, Yes, that is a live recording of what happened. And here is a photo (attached) of the culprit, washing down my blood afterwards

Speaking of Ash, you were in an Ash tribute band when you met Kele, correct? How has touring with a band, and musicians you hold so highly been, and do you feel that touring with another band on that scale has changed your thoughts towards Bloc Party or how you will write music?

That's not quite correct. For mine and a friends birthday, we decided to do a one off show of Ash cover's, as we were such big fans and both knew most of their songs. Fun fact, Mattie from the band Does it offend you yeah? played the drums for us.
Touring with them has been amazing. Fortunately we'd met a few times prior to this, so it wasn't too awkward when we started... and the fact i already knew how to play the songs helped!
I think it reminded me how much i enjoy playing the guitar, and how fun it can be to rock out. It has definitely reignited my passion.

You and I are both vegetarians. While a lot of things came into play with me deciding to become a vegetarian, admittedly 'Meat is Murder' and my respect for Morrissey had a great influence and was the final nail in the coffin for me. What made you become a vegetarian and do you find any difficulty being one?

I became a vegetarian for health reasons. The book Fast Food Nation was very influential in my decision.
Travelling to different countries, sometimes it can be really tricky finding food. The worst are when we play in Spain or Portugal, every restaurant serves plates of meat and cheese, yet its impossible to get any vegetables. Its really infuriating, as i love visiting those countries, but you feel pretty sick after 2 days of eating just bread and cheese.
Japan was a place i was always nervous about being vegetarian too, but as long as you have someone who can translate for you, its easily the best food in the world. That and New York, they have crazy fake meat there i never see anywhere else.

Sorry, my puppy is misbehaving, to be continued!

Interview with Russell Lissack of Bloc Party: Part 1

2011-03-28T13:28:00.001-04:00

You turned 30 recently, congratulations! How was your birthday?

Great thanks. I went to Alton Towers (a big theme park in the UK like 6 flags), i love rollercoasters and haven't been there since i was about 14.

You've been busy since Bloc Party's hiatus, recording an album with Milena for Pin Me Down, touring with Ash, and you mentioned that you've written some songs. Can you go into more detail on what these are for and how they're sounding?

I've been writing songs for various things.I wrote a couple with Heavenstamp, a Japanese band from Tokyo who i'm working with at the moment. I've also been writing with a producer friend for a new project.
And i've written maybe 7 or 8 songs intended for Bloc Party, but they're at such an early stage there's not much point in describing them, as things tend to change a lot.

You haven't been the only one busy though, Kele's doing his solo thing, Gordy's in Young Legionaire, and Matt's working on solo material as well. How do you feel about your other bandmates' work?

To be honest i've not heard much of the other guys work, i was on tour for about 9 months of last year. I did see Gordon's first gig with Young Legionnaire, it was good to catch up.

While on the subject of other musicians' work, you're a Radiohead fan, what's your opinion on "The King of Limbs"?

I am indeed, but so far i think it's one of their worst albums. Hail to the Thief actually turned out to be probably my favourite Radiohead album. Its not very often a band puts out such high quality material so far into their career, which makes that album all the more impressive. King of Limbs i've found to be unlistenable. Perhaps it will grow on me, but i don't currently have a desire to put it on again for a long time.
I could find positives with it at a stretch, but there's no point forcing yourself to like something.
I do love that video though!

Who or what inspired you to pick up a guitar and start playing?

The very first thing that inspired me was watching Michael J Fox perform Johnny b Goode in the film Back to the Future. At the time, i thought it was the coolest thing ever and wanted to be able to do that.
Coincidentally i saw it again last night, it's still pretty damn cool.

When writing a song, how do you approach it? How does the writing process usually occur for you?

It can be different all the time, depending on who you're working with. But i usually just hear melodies or ideas in my head when i'm doing other things, and hope that i can remember them in time to get to an instrument.
I've never really been one to sit around jamming and working on ideas, it either happens straight away or it's not happening.
Its similar if i'm working on someone elses idea. I think instinctively, i know what to do immediately, the spontaneity is what makes the music.

You seem to be a big fan of the Japanese culture, if I remember correctly you're quite the fan of Final Fantasy and you mentioned that you're producing a band in Japan. Mind giving some details about this band and how it might be different for you to being a producer instead of a musician?

Yep, as i said their name is Heavenstamp. They're a new band in Japan, i worked on an EP with them, and shortly i'm going to help them work on their album (though with current events this could be postponed).
I was nervous about taking a producer role, its not something i've had much experience in, but it turned out really well. I managed to get my friend Jamie Ellis on board (he's a young producer who's worked with Chapel Club and Paul Epworth amongst others), and with him taking on the more technical producer duties, i was free to take on more of a creative role. I definitely felt more at home working on musical ideas and sounds than arranging drum mic's and programming, its been a great relationship so far.

Ok, i have to go out now, will get back to you!!
Russell

The Strokes - "Angles" What we have now, and what to expect

2011-03-09T20:44:00.003-05:00

"Angles" comes out in 13 days. Luckily, we already have half of the album at our disposal, along with 30 second clips of the rest of the songs.

The five songs we have right now:
Machu Pichu
Under the Cover of Darkness
You're So Right
Taken for a Fool
Life is Simple in the Moonlight

Want them?

Fine, here they are! http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IZU1T3TD

'Machu Pichu' - So someone's been listening to some Bob Marley and Michael Jackson. Very tropical. The chorus brings it back to classic Strokes, "I'm just trying to find, a mountain I can climb" followed by some awesome bar chords from Nick. As far as openers go, this is The Strokes worse, still good, but no where near the same league as 'Is This It?' 'Whatever Happened' or 'You Only Live Once'.

'Under the Cover of Darkness' - I've already discuss this below. This has the potential to be one of the best song son the album. It IS The Strokes, this is it! If you don't like it, then you don't like the essence of The Strokes. Take everything in "Is This It" combine it with "Room on Fire" and you'll get 'Under the Cover of Darkness'. Fact.

'You're So Right' - Radioheadesque. No one saw this coming. Very similar to 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place' by Radiohead if you replace the acoustic with that electric, futuristic feel. Has a really impressive guitar solo, very aggressive. This could become an awesome opener for their live shows, simple repetitive lyrics, never really slows down, it'll get people moving. But on the album, it lacks that power and just falls flat.

'Taken as a Fool' - Typical Strokes formula, Julian singing with an instrument backing him and playing the same notes he's singing ('12:51'). His vocal melody reminds me a lot of Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers during some verses. This, like 'Under Cover of Darkness' feels like their early stuff mainly through the subject of the song, elementary but awesome, just about someone who wants to be respected.

'Life is Simple in the Moonlight' - This song brings me to tears. I don't even know what it's about. The way how the keys harmonized with Julian's voice is astounding, The Strokes have never closed an album with a soft and slow song, instead using classic tracks as 'I Can't Win' and one of my personal favorite Strokes songs 'Take It or Leave It' I'm glad they've changed this, because this is a great closer.

Full review of "Angles" will be up soon since it'll probably leak this week. Hopefully it'll be better than what we have, if not then I'll be disappointed.

Neader's Jukebox now on Facebook!

2011-03-07T21:54:00.001-05:00

http://www.facebook.com/neadersjukebox

Like that shit!

Interview with MINKS

2011-02-27T12:33:00.002-05:00

I suggest you watch it in HD. Will never forget how MINKS did this for me, I am eternally thankful for Sean allowing me to interview him, coolest guy.

Radiohead - The King of Limbs

2011-02-22T13:46:00.005-05:00

A week ago today, the music world was put on pause. Radiohead released a message simply saying "Thank you for waiting" and a link to their new album's website stating it would be out in five days. The album is called "The King of Limbs" and it was instead released in four, here is my review.

Overall: Radiohead bring it to the table once again. Compare this to "Kid A" or "In Rainbows" and be prepared to be disappointed. Compare it to other releases this year, and you'll find something spectacular. My only complaint is it needs more up tempo songs, like 15 Step, Bodysnatchers, Jigsaw Falling Into Place. On "The King of Limbs" it is very similar from track to track with the exception of 'Morning Mr. Magpie' and 'Little by Little' but somehow Radiohead is able to keep your attention. This album feels very natural, though the music itself mainly relies on loops, atmosphere, and background noises. The lyrics and feeling it brings reminds me of walking around Dagobah or any swamp covered world, filled with lotus flowers, and 1,000 year old trees.

10/13

Track by track:

'Bloom' - Starting off with a beautiful piano arpeggio that reminds me of music heard in Legend of Zelda. Later coupled with a very consistent yet powerful drum beat, simple but profound bass, and Thom's screeching makes this a very strong and impressive opener. Also has, what I find to be, a thoughtful lyric that had me thinking for a while, "We'll die until we die" sung, repeated, and whaled many times by Thom.

'Morning Mr. Magpie' - Complete 180 from 'Bloom'. Very quick, starting off with some muted, quick picking, and Thom immediately whaling "You've got some nerve, coming here." The guitar part remains all the way through and this is one of the few songs that has a guitar. There's a really nice instrumental breakdown in the middle, and it picks right back up to the speed picking guitar beautifully. This song seems to drag on a bit, Thom is spending too much time using his lyrics to accuse someone of doing (or rather not) doing something.

'Little By Little' - The 'Reckoner' of "The King of Limbs" if 'Reckoner' was meant to be scary and loud. The guitar line is very similar. As always, Thom is whaling. Johnny does some awesome slide guitar on this song and Colin's bass really makes the song spooky and clear why the artwork was chosen to represent the album.

'Feral' - Bleh. Has some really awesome drums courtesy of Phil, but other than that, there's really nothing going on. Some more creepy shit, but nothing really too extraordinary.

'Lotus Flower' - And this, this is where the album comes alive. Hand claps, some awesome reverb, something about this song gives off a really intergalactic feel. Thom is finally singing, instead of whaling, and it is fucking beautiful. The bass in this song really carries it well. When Thom does start whaling and singing falsetto, it's appropriate and fitting with the song in the way it progresses and the instruments that go along with it. The chorus is excellent, even though there's really only three tracks going on, Thom, the drums, and some chords on keys, they harmonize perfectly. The way this song progresses is truly phenomenal. The lyrics are nonsensical at parts, Thom singing about wanting the moon on a stick, but the overall message is just to accept yourself, do what you love, and become your own person. Cliché, but not the way Radiohead does it.

'Codex'- Damn. Depressing. Suicidal. Fucking beautiful. Song is dominated by piano chords and Thom singing about jumping into a clear, innocent, body of water when he is alone. It's tear jerking and inspiring. Little changes in this song, some horns are added, but it doesn't matter. It's so emotionally gripping and atmospheric, it pulls you in, and creates crystal clear imagery, like the water Thom is contemplating diving in.

'Giving Up the Ghost' - Back to whaling, but only in the background, though it is through the whole song "Don't have me, don't want me." This song is really folkish, both with Johnny's guitar playing and Thom's singing. More horns in this one too. A lot of people have been praising this song, but I really don't see it, it's long, repetitive, and boring. Thom's singing is great, and there is a really good guitar that comes in. But the first half of this track is almost unbearable for me.

'Separator' - Best track on the album. It's the only one that really doesn't fit with the rest of the album in that it uses some pretty standard instruments and doesn't rely to much on ambiance. The guitar in this track is simply fantastic, bravo to Johnny. The vocals are great too, Thom's melody during the chorus "If you think this is over than you're wrong" is applauded by myself. The drums are great, and reminiscent of Weird Fishes/Arpeggi if they were slowed down and calmed down.

Comment you fiends

2011-02-06T16:46:00.001-05:00

I've had 250 views within the last two days.

Start commenting and discussing!

The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness Snippet

2011-02-05T20:57:00.010-05:00

"We got the right to live by the music
Got everything and you can just choose it
I won't just be a puppet on a string
Don't go that way
I'll wait for you
and I'm tired of..."

and so we have it, the Strokes first new material in 5 years. Rhythm heavy. Starts off very bluesy, which they hinted at in interviews. At 10 seconds, following a small drum section, what I'm guessing is the bridge comes in. It's pretty great. Nick really kicks ass with the guitar on this song, and adds a lot with his backing vocals. Fab is rocking the drums in this too. And of course, as always, Julian is making our hearts swing with his vocals.

To me, this seems like where the Strokes should have gone after "Is This It" and where we all expected them to go. It's has the same feeling, a bit more poppy and happier sounding, but the guitars in it are very similar to those of "Is This It". The guitar sounds like 'Last Nite' but the feel of it is more like '12:51'. I'm expecting great things from this.

The first single from "Angles" which is out to release on 3/22 is this, 'Under Cover of Darkness' which according to Amazon, will be available on 2/15.

Fuck yeah.

Toro y Moi - Underneath the Pine

2011-02-04T17:06:00.007-05:00

New Toro y Moi album leaked today. I want to get back into really reviewing albums, here we go.

Overall: Honestly, I'll get right into it. As this was one of my most anticipated albums of this year, Toro y Moi really does disappoint. It's sad that it seems few musicians can truly capture what made them great on their first album and be able to transfer that and improve it with their second. Where as "Causers of This" was very upbeat, danceable, and funky, while at the same time being relaxing and chill, "Under the Pine" is just...bland. Few of the songs add anything new to the experience and the same formula is used again and again making an 11 song album seem to be one giant composition. This is good in most scenarios, but with Toro y Moi, it just gets really boring, really fast. With Toro y Moi I've come to expect some awesome hooks that made "Causers of This" so spectacular, songs like 'Low Shoulder' and 'Talamak' really made it an amazing album, these awesome synths are truly lacking as Chaz replaces hooks with chords and repeating notes. The worst crime committed on the album though, may be Chaz's refusal to sing. Instead he replaces his voice with a high pitch moan, and when he does sing, it just feels awkward. It's odd that such a great debut is followed by such a different sophomore album. It's too relaxing and chill for one sitting. It feels like Toro y Moi have gone completely backwards in their progression, Chaz had a perfect combination of upbeat but chill tunes, and now it seems he has ditched my favorite aspect of his music. It is almost impossible to groove to this album, which was Toro y Moi's best trait.

Rating - 7/13.

Track by track:

Intro Chi Chi - Serves it's purpose pretty damn well. Song is primarily a speed picking guitar, lots of feedback, and Chaz's high pitched moans. Then the drum beat comes in and the song really picks up and starts grooving. It's very simple, but as an intro, that's what it's suppose to do. In essence, a great precursor into a highly anticipated album.

New Beat - This one's been out for a few days. Very rhythmic. Starts off with hand claps and a really catchy hook on the synth about 20 seconds in that is echoed by another synth, this by far makes the song. Without that synth the song would seriously be lacking, and the parts that don't have it suffer, but once it kicks back in you'll find yourself nodding your head along. Regardless, I feel this song dragged on and should had been cut down shorter.

Go With You - Starts off a kinda of scattered. Some guitar, some chords on the synth, nothing really feels organized. Then about 18 seconds in this synth and drum beat comes in, and the synth 40 seconds in really puts the song in its place. It's the first song Chaz really sings on this album with "You know I'll be all right with where ever it ends, our choice is on to them(?), it's the distance. I know I push it over, and I'm sorry for that, don't need to make this hurt, when we haven't started yet." About half way through the song changes and becomes much more poppy with a synth coming in on the beat and then a slow solo joined by Chaz going woahooooooohooooh.

Divina - And still, the album just gets chiller and chiller. By this point I want something really poppy, like 'Imprint After' was on "Causers of This". However, I find this to be the best song on the album up to this point. It's extremely relaxing and at points almost sees like a classical piece. It's really interesting to hear the fusion of old and new.

Before I'm Done - New territory for Toro y Moi. It reminds me of Beatles White Album work done by Paul. It has that acoustic guitar that he used a lot during then, (Blackbird, I Will, etc.) even the vocals seems Beatlesque. The outro is a bit lengthy though.

Got Blinded - Yes. This is what I've been waiting for. Something upbeat and danceable. Very great bass lick and constant chords on the keys that are being hit repetitively, unfortunately, this is met with more of Chaz's high pitched singing. Sadly, the longer the song goes on, the more calming it becomes.

How I Know - This one starts off pretty upbeat like 'Got Blinded' but not as much. The chorus is pretty explosive, and basically, fucking tasty. This might be my favorite song on the album. It has everything that makes Toro y Moi great really, a steady beat, some awesome keys, and Chaz singing pretty nicely. Also, this song has the lyric Under the Pine in it. I felt like that should be mentioned.

Link: http://www.zshare.net/download/8613291907d65e9b/

Light Black - This song doesn't really bring anything to the table. It's just noise. Maybe it's because at this point the album is just too repetitive, I don't know, it's just really basic and like all the other songs, synth, Chaz's high pitch vocals/moaning, just meh.

Still Sound - You should have heard this one by now, this has been out for a while. Very funky. Has a pretty nice bass. More of Chaz's moans...

Good Hold - Woah. This starts off really dark, almost gothic. Piano chords and piano notes that are very creepy. Later joined by Chaz's still high-pitched vocals. This has a really awesome effect on it though half-way through that makes it seem like you're listening underwater, definitely my favorite part of the whole album.

Elise - This is great. The only song on the album that has emotional depth it seems. Has some really awesome jazzy synths. Two and a half minutes in the song really picks up and turns spectacular, then becomes really soft again, boo. It stays that way too. For a cruel 2 minutes, then the upbeatness comes back! It cools down...and then just ends. I feel like in time this will be my favorite on the album and most others.

I'm going to go turn on "Causers of This" to remind myself why Toro y Moi is such a great artist and why I do love him so much.

Coachella 2011 - Sold out in less than a week

2011-01-27T15:20:00.003-05:00

This year's Coachella sold out in under a week. Last year's Coachella sold out mid-April, and 2009 didn't sell out at all. The biggest music festival in the country, that attracts over a 250,000 has just sold out in 5 days, a impressive amount of time and a record for the festival.

Why?

Is it the lineup which I have posted above? With headliners such as Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Kanye West, and the Strokes? All that plus the reunion of Death From Above 1979?

Possibly.

The 2010 lineup, was not as impressive as this year's and consequently did not sellout.
The 2009 lineup though, featuring Paul McCartney, The Killers, Morrissey, and The Cure definitely had a better lineup than this years, and did sellout, but not as quickly.

Then...why?

Is it because of the rising popularity in the Indie scene? Arcade Fire's the Suburbs did hit #1 in the U.S. charts and is nominated for a Grammy under the Best Album category. Kanye West has been one of the few artists to be loved almost universally by those who listen to both mainstream and underground music, his appearance definitely caused a spike in popularity for the festival this year.

I'm more inclined to this reason, obviously the lineup had a great deal to do with it, but the rising popularity of the festival, and the music scene itself I believe is the dominant reason for the sudden sellout for Coachella this year.

Still, totally out of the blue and unexpected.

What I'm really interested to see is if tickets will be sold later in the year (I doubt it) or how this will be handled next year.

Let's hope Lolla is managed much more professionally.

New MINKS song 'Araby'

2011-01-22T14:32:00.003-05:00

MINKS "Araby" by user5012449

The Cure's Seventeen Seconds meet the Cure's Faith in this song. Best thing I've heard all year. Pure nostalgia is crafted by Sean Kilfoyle singing the nursery rhyme 'Ring Around the Rosies' combined with singing of a "different time." The song is based of off Joyce's short story from the Dubliner, Araby, which tells of a young boy who falls in love with a his friend's sister, and basically stalks her. The story ends with the boy visiting the bazaar, Araby, in order to get a gift there, and when he is stiffed armed by a seller loses all hope for his romance and adult life.

"I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side." - Araby by James Joyce

"Standing there, by the iron gate, on Saturday, I hoped to see you there, the wind beside your hair." - Araby by MINKS

The music keeps the basic MINKS formula going, a steady and strong bass that drives through the whole song is the centerpiece coupled with rhythm guitar that keeps the beat going with the drums that are reminiscent of She's Lost Control by Joy Division. The chorus is a beautiful synth that creates a sound of pure bliss, and this, with the nursery rhyme lyrics and Marresque jangly guitar truly paint a portrait of a first love for us all.

What truly makes this song stand out compared with the rest of MINKS's material is Sean's vocals. They're much more clear, concise, and just straight up good on this track. Something about his voice, though he barely sings on this track, pulls at the heart, it feels almost forced and confined, but, in a way it's suppose to. It's about a boy first discovering love, and the way that Sean sings on this track gets that across phenomenally. That first, insecure, shy, puppy love, not really knowing what you feel. The bridge, "When you smile, oh, oh, Araby." He doesn't explicitly say what it is about her that makes him feel so passionate, simply because he doesn't know what it is about her that he loves, he doesn't even know what he is feeling, just like in the story,

"Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom."

Ironically this part of the song, along with the chorus, is the only time in the song that Sean really sings, emphasizing that he really does care, that he needs to express it and get it out of his system. Exactly like in the story,

"All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: 'O love! O love!' many times."

This is one of the only MINKS songs that lacks Amalie, and honestly, it works. She wouldn't really fit in too well both musically and lyrically with the whole subject and feeling of the song. Though, her soothing voice is still missed.

New Antlers Album in May "This is not a sad record."

2011-01-21T22:01:00.006-05:00

I really don't like making a post about news I all get from one source, makes it a little pointless, except for my 2 cents which I know you all care about so much.

The Antlers are suppose to have a new album out in May following their 2009 album "Hospice". I am not hesitant to call "Hospice" my favorite album of all time. No album has shattered me, crushed my soul, trampled my heart, and drenched my eyes the way that "Hospice" has. Any album that is that emotionally moving is truly something spectacular.

According to Peter Silberman, the creative force behind the Antlers, their new album is suppose to be electro. I'm not too enthusiastic about this right now. "Hospice" was excellent because of the lyrics, the story it told, and the emotion it made the listener feel. An electro album won't really be able to get this across, Silberman said it's not a sad record, so what do the Antlers have when you take away their power to destroy listeners?

In the interview he mentioned "For a while, I thought the next logical step from Hospice was to make some very sad, post-Hospice concept record." That would had been probably the best move for fans and the worst move commercially. I would have loved it, and I'm sure others would had too, but it if they would had done that it would had been impossible for them to escape the story line of "Hospice", if they ever wanted too.

It's too early to tell how it'll turn out, but right now, I'm a bit anxious on how this will turn out and whether or not if it'll be worth the wait. They just tweeted today that they're officially done with the record. Time to just wait and see.

Minks - By the Hedge

2011-01-13T18:16:00.002-05:00

Debut album out by Minks called "By the Hedge". It's fantastic, get it now. Very dark at some points while at others very poppy. They received a decent (though not enough) coverage last year with their single 'Funeral Song' in which basically everyone said they sound like the Cure. I don't, and never will, understand how a band can sound like the Cure when the Cure have 200 different types of sounds. We talking 'Homesick', 'Just Like Heaven', 'Why Can't I Be You', 'Disintegration', or 'Boys Don't Cry'? Anyway, hardly anything is known of Minks right now, I've looked everywhere and can't find anything, except for apparently they sound like the Cure. I love the vocals they have though, usually a mixture of a girl and guy at the same time, though it's almost all indecipherable. I'm also sure there's 5 of them. Anyway, "By the Hedge" is a great way to start off the year by revisiting the 80s.

(Holy shit! Highest rated comment says they sound like the Cure!)

The Best of 2010

2011-01-01T03:25:00.003-05:00

2010. Excellent year in music. Some disappointments (looking at you Kele and Klaxons), some surprises (Foals and The National anyone?) Anyway, here's music in 2010 list.

Albums of 2010:

25. Klaxons - Surfing the Void

24. Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard

23. Of Montreal - False Priest

22. Mystery Jets - Serotonin

21. Warpaint - The Fool

20. Hot Chip - One Life Stand

19. Sleigh Bells - Treats

18. Violens - Amoral

17. Kele - The Boxer

16. Delphic - Acolyte

15. Wild Nothing - Gemini

14. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History

13. Vampire Weekend - Contra

12. The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You

11. Interpol - Interpol

10. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II

9. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

8. Toro y Moi - Causers of This

7. Twin Shadow - Forget

6. Tokyo Police Club - Champ

5. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

4. The Drums - The Drums

3. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

2. The National - High Violet

1. Foals - Total Life Forever

Top 10 Songs

1. Spanish Sahara - Foals

2. Not in Love (Ft. Robert Smith) - Crystal Castles

3. Impossible Soul - Sufjan Stevens

4. Terrible Love - The National

5. Blue Blood - Foals

6. Home - LCD Soundsystem

7. Everything You Wanted - Kele

8. What Remains - Foals

9. All of This - The Naked and Famous

10. Horchata - Vampire Weekend

Awards will be done later.

Glad to be back, promise you I'm sticking around.

Guess what

2010-12-04T11:33:00.001-05:00

I'm getting this back together come the new year.

Watch me.

Interpol - Lights, Carlos D, Barricade, Letterman! (The Resurrection!)

2010-07-30T00:41:00.005-04:00

Interpol's fourth self-titled album is due to come out in September, the 7th.

The first song released from this album has been 'Lights'. Ironically it shares the name of Editors's first song from their first album, and I've always believed that Interpol and Editors have more than enough in common, a baritone singer, both heavy on guitars, abstract (and often nonsensical) lyrics, and finally, after their third album, both lead singers decided to take a break and create a solo album (though this can be seen with other bands, The Strokes, Bloc Party, etc.).

Unfortunately 'Lights' fails to bring anything new to the table, Interpol seems to remain the same band that they were 9 years ago with "Turn On the Bright Lights." The same absent minded lyrics, Paul's baritone voice singing similar melodies, and basic guitar riffs that can be traced to the beginning of their career.

Shortly after 'Lights' was released online Carlos D., the bass player, announced that for personal reasons he would be leaving the band. Fortunately the album has been finished and Carlos was quickly replaced by another bassist for live performances and Interpol has also recruited a keyboardist at the same time.

Another song was released online which Interpol has confirmed will be the first single, 'Barricades'. A song that I believe is much better than 'Lights' because in it Paul reaches a high pitch that listeners are not use to, it has surprised me on every listen and it's excellent to hear variation in such a consistent band.

Finally, Interpol were on Letterman Tonight and played 'Barricades'.

Still excited to see them 8/11 and will probably arrive at the venue around 1:00!

Tenderoni

2010-04-28T15:02:00.004-04:00

Kele's first single from his new album "The Boxer" is 'Tenderoni'. It was played for the first time about a half ago on Radio 1 with Zane Lowe (eww). "The Boxer" has a LOT of hype around it, all reviews are extremely positive, even going as far as saying it's the best thing Kele's every worked on, better than "Silent Alarm" (2005).

The song starts off pretty gripping, it'll catch your ear. However, it's important to remember this is a dance tune, and it does a really great job at doing that. The chorus is pretty explosive, it has a lot going on, I just imagine like Kele singing and huge fireworks and lights going off, so obviously it fits a club perfectly.

But the song other then a club song is pretty rank. It'll hook you in, but it'll do nothing to keep you there. The song has almost nothing going on in it it feels. Kele seems to refuse to sing in this song and instead whispers, and as always Kele is almost impossible to interpret, and with a dance song, he's reached a new height of unclarity. There is a part in the song that slows down and picks back up within 3 seconds that I applaud Kele for doing. A nice synth near the end is very catchy as well. However without these 2 additions the track as a whole fails. It's good for a club dance, but other than that the song will not satisfy you.

Regardless of 'Tenderoni' "The Boxer" is suppose to be phenomenal, something I never did believe, and 'Tenderoni' strengthens this belief.

Total Life Forever

2010-04-24T04:54:00.002-04:00

Favorite album of all time.

This blog has been dedicated to Foals, a lot more than I wish it would had at the time. It was all leading up to this album. However, now that it has leaked, I am proud of myself for doing that. Total Life Forever is the greatest album I have ever heard. Foals completely blew it out of the park with this one. A band that I always considered a little bit more than average, nothing too exciting, good for a dancefloor or party tune and nothing more have suddenly transformed into geniuses. How this happens I have no fucking idea. I cannot emphasize how amazed and surprised I am by this sudden transformation. It leaked on Monday, I have been listening to it religiously since. Total Life Forever is scheduled to release on May 10th, I'd tell you to be ready but that's impossible, this album will simply kick the shit out of you and force it back in. Total Life Forever has 11 amazing tracks on it, none of which are below superb for the purpose that they serve. Review time? Yep.

'Blue Blood' - An amazing way to open an album. I wouldn't expect anything less from Foals actually. 'The French Open' which opened "Antidotes" (2008) was always my favorite album opener of all time. It had everything you wanted, it tuned you in, it kept you intrigued with Yannis yelping in French and then shrieking in English. With 'Blue Blood' you get none of this, and it's foreshadowing for the rest of the album as well, as every opener should be, and none do this as well as 'Blue Blood'. Starting off with simple guitars and Yannis calmly singing "You got blue blood on your arms, I think it's my own" that keeps you interested for the whole time. After the first verse one guitar begins strumming, after that, the Walter comes in rocking the bass. A slow buildup, great way to start an album guys. As the song slowly builds up it becomes near orgasmic. Walter kicks ass on the bass and Jimmy is totally rocking the guitar as Jack beats the fuck out of the drums. The chorus features an amazing guitar playing chords that slowly work up the neck and...horns? It works. It has backing vocals "You show me, where to go, to my home, so take me, through the roads, that you know." repreated as Yannis sings "Come and be accepted affected, protected, come and be accepted so now that you know." With all of this going at once your head will explode.It breaks down but slowly picks up through Jack and then some tremolo picking is adding. Then they throw in some distorted...something. Anyway it goes back to Yannis singing his protected line with him screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh" incredibly in the background. After that the chorus guitar comes in on it's own basically. It ends as it began, softly and calmly, which is beautiful and I think totally changes the perspective of the song and album. It reminds you that this is a new Foals. They end soft, not hard, the album is overall soft, and not hard. As I'm posting this it is my favorite song on the album, however with an album as beautifully as this one, it's been changing often.

'Miami' - Yannis doing Robert Smith better than Smith does. Jack completely comes to life on this one as well the drums in 'Miami' will drag you in as well as the guitar. During the verse it's Jimmy on the guitar, someone on an....acoustic and Jack wrecking the drums as Edwin plays around with some awesome synth sounds on his keyboard. Then the chorus comes in "Would you, be there, be there, be there for me?" Which I'm ashamed to say, reminds me of that shitty I'm sure it was the 70s dance song "I'd like to thank you, for letting me, be myself!" I don't know why but they sound really familiar to me, completely ruins the song for me. Oh well. I'd say this is the closest you'll get to "Antidotes" just in the feel as this is the most in your face song on the album.

'Total Life Forever' - Next single. Calling it now. A great tune, very Johnny Marresque guitar throughout the song whether it be Yannis or Jimmy combined with simple keys struck by Edwin make it extremely catchy as does Jack's constant drumming. The first chorus is has some excellent guitar work, however I really think Edwin makes this song and this very quick guitar strumming the guitar does at the end of every verse. The bridge in this song is a bit poor, but it goes into the chorus well as it builds up and becomes louder. I don't understand why they decided to name the album after it though. It's a incredible song, but far from the best.

'Black Gold' - "Top of the world, bottom of the ocean" is how Yannis starts out beautifully. The first mellow song on the album, and it is phenomenal. The chorus comes in beautifully with backing "oooooooooo"s and Yannis calmly singing "The future, it's not what you've seen, not where you've been to at all, the future, is not what it use to be, use to be at all." However half way in the song changes a bit, for the worst I feel. 'Black Gold' drags on for a bit too long (6 minutes long) as Yannis begins to sing how Spring is finally here and about hallow hearts. Regardless of this random singing it is still a magnificent tune.

'Spanish Sahara' - I'm not going in this one again. Go back to the first post if you must, you know how I love this song to death. Simply amazing on the album as well. It's track placement has been receiving a lot of complaints which I understand, having a slow long song like this in the middle can be a turn off to some.

'This Orient' - The first single, why? I have no idea. A good tune, but probably one of the worst on the album. Of course this doesn't mean it's bad, but nothing really sticks out in it. There's a lot of little bells here and there and other sound effects, but there isn't anything constant except for Jack raping the drums like the expert he is. The chorus is really catchy though "It's your heart, your heart, that gives me this Western feeling. Oh do you know? You give me, you give me, this Western feeling" and a particular line I love, which ironically might be my favorite on the album is "No return to that resting place, you've reached it, you've found your grace." However at about 2 and 1/2 minutes in a catchy synth comes in that you should recognize from the website snippets before it picks back up to the chorus again. My favorite part of the song is the ending, partially because it ends, and because there's a kind of whooshing effect to close it all off and makes a great transition to the softer side of the album.

'Fugue' - Roughly 45 second instrumental piano track with some effects. Compare this to the one on "Antidotes" 'Like Swimming" and you'll see how much they've evolved. Simply serves as a transitional piece, and it does it wonderfully.

'After Glow' - Amazing. It will pull you in and keep you there. Starts off with awesome space like effects on the guitar, I really don't know how else to describe it, Jimmy or Yannis are muting his guitar while the other is playing around with this effect, unless it's Edwin of course. Yannis begins singing with "I know I couldn't last very long at all, without you here to break my fall" which will immediately grab your attention. Yannis once again sounds like a Smith impersonator at some points of this song. As the song builds (and it does) Yannis grows louder, and begins his shrieking, however it's not a in your face pump up type like on "Antidotes" more of a how the fuck am I suppose to live without shriek, and no it doesn't sound like Michael Bolton. The backing vocals add a lot to this as well, a lot of "Woah, woah woah" and "Woooooooooohhhhhh" coupled with just simple "Heyo, heyo, heyo, heyo" intense and almost tribal sounding "oooooooohhhh oooooooohhhhhhh woh woh woh" and the guitars going crazy make a perfect climax. However, like 'Black Gold' I feel this one drags on for a bit. Doesn't make it bad at all however.

'Alabaster' - Jesus christ. If any song's going to pull you in it's this one. I have never heard such a captivating song. Beginning with feedback, some distorted noise, and awesome guitar riffs, then more feedback and it just stops for a split second and Yannis's vocals come in and totally kick your ass "She's up in the sky she's up in the (dome/dark)." All of the verses are basically a pounding constant drum, a guitar strumming on the beat simply, and Yannis's demented voice that completely takes control of everything you're doing. Then the chorus comes, and Yannis's delivery of the word "alabster" will have you jumping in adrenaline or crying in joy. After the chorus Jack totally kicks ass with the drums, a rhythmic pounding. At one point it slows down and picks back up beautifully, and this sing, not 'This Orient' has my favorite lyric "And with victory the whole world will be ours, we will fear nothing in it, nothing in it." After it transitions beautifully into the chorus. Jack keeps the drumming the same throughout the whole song, making the transitions work perfectly and simultaneously not seem forced. Fades out excellently.

'2 Trees' - I was scared when I first heard this one, the intro seems similar to 'Heavy Bloom' on "Antidotes" and I'm sure if they wrote this 2 years ago it would had been accompanied with pounding drums. But nope, shows perfectly how they've matured. Most mellow song on the album, just paints a picture of lying on top of a hill and starting into the sky. Very soft and amazing guitar riffs and Yannis's equally soft point make it a very relaxing piece of work. With a chorus going "Don't let go, just hold on, so hold on, it will pass, don't give up, don't let go, grey closet, they'll break up" after the chorus the guitar starts tremolo picking with Yannis just going "aaahhh" and it works perfectly. The guitar keeps this way until the second chorus after and it works beautifully with the licks of the other guitar. After the second chorus the tremolo guitar starts sliding which fits the mood perfectly and Yannis singing "Just breaaaaaaaaaathe." The song ends by slowly becoming more and more distorted, which I don't really agree with but it's all for transitional purposes.

'What Remains' - Beginning with a simple note pattern by Edwin and guitars accompanying it, Jack comes in beautifully on this one as well. This is also Walter's best song on the album too, the bass really adds a lot to the experience. The chorus comes across very powerful by Jack banging the cymbal and Yannis screaming "I've been to the darkest place I know." Then the song really does a 180. It becomes a lot like how Miami is. It goes back though, thankfully, the guitar lingers though, it fits, but would be better with something else. Probably one of the lesser songs on the album. Oh and it ends out of no where, what the hell? Anyway I would write more but it really doesn't change and Yannis is hard to understand in it.

Best to worst as of this moment:

Blue Blood

2 Trees

Spanish Sahara

Alabaster

Black Gold

After Glow

Total Life Forever

This Orient

Miami

What Remains

Fugue

The placing of 'Spanish Sahara' has been getting a lot of criticism as I said earlier. Having it in the middle doesn't really bother me too much, I just don't like how it's before 'This Orient'. The whole album has basically a fast and then a slow side. 'Spanish Sahara' and 'This Orient' completely ruin that. It goes Fast + 'Spanish Sahara' then + 'This Orient' and then Slow. Switch those two where they're at and you got fast to slow. Oh well it's still phenomenal.

Total Life Forever is my favorite album of all time. It is constant, deep, and just outright perfect. Some songs drag on a bit but other than that I really don't have any complaints. Foals have completely changed in their style, they have lost their math rock roots and have become a completely different and better entity. Eagerly awaiting their tour dates!

With that being said go listen to this album now.

Vampire Weekend = New Love

2010-04-05T19:38:00.002-04:00

I just received their first album, I received Contra a couple months ago. This band is just amazing. Very quirky and genuine. I love how much they've progressed between the two albums, you can completely see how they've matured but still kept their signature sound. Their first self-titled album had very little rhyme and reason. It was like giving kids with ADHD guitars and telling them to go at it at times. Very few songs followed a formula at all. But it still worked. You listen to 'One' which I think is the worst song on the album, and you listen to the drumming and it's so elementary, it has no rhythmic pattern to it but it still works. It reminds me of the scene in Tarzan where all the apes are playing with the pots and pans at the camp. In 'Boston' there's a random part where the whole song just slows down and gets very depressing and sporadically picks back up. No one could had seen this coming, and it really doesn't fit the song at all. But all these faults still gets you going, it still gives you adrenaline and energy and you fucking love it. Campus is a masterpiece lyrically and musically. A-Punk is a the best song for both the guitars, drums, and bass. Oxford Comma is a witty and hilarious song bashing Ivy League society. The whole album is aimed at the society of the east, references to the ivy towers, Boston, Cape Cod, Walcott, all of it is a huge satire on the east coast culture. Ironically with "Contra" Ezra decided to change the focus to the west coast with Horchata, California English, and Holiday primarily. "Contra" sees a huge evolution in the band as well. More musical pattern is put into it, the songs flow easily and it seems more professional. They still keep their notorious afrobeat sound however, mainly through Chris and his excellent reggae like drumming. Ezra has also mastered his voice in "Contra" as there is a lot less yelping and voice cracking as there was in 'Cape Kwasa Kwasa'.

Excellent band. Both albums are excellent. Their third album might be one of the best works of the decade if they improve as much as they did from "Vampire Weekend" to "Contra". Their signature sound might be seen through a lot more bands as their reputation, and more importantly, musical skill rise and improve.

I love songs that fade into each other

2010-04-02T10:18:00.003-04:00

It takes so much artistic skill to be able to do that I love it. I recently acquired 'The Back Room' by Editors after only listening to a few select songs (Blood, Munich, All Sparks, Distance, Bullets, and Fall). Anyway I love how beautifully 'Open Your Arms' flows into 'Distance'. Another example is how well 'Alastian Cousin' flows into 'Little Man What Now?' on Morrissey's solo debut 'Viva Hate', though Stephen Street does not master it as well as Editors does.

Here are both 'Open Your Arms' and 'Distance'!

Open Your Arms

Distance

Ah! How did I forget Bloc Party's cover of Prince's 'I Would Die For You' that goes beautifully into 'Flux'!

I Would Die For You/Flux

Not dead/Smiths buyout!

2010-03-28T18:26:00.001-04:00

Just need something to post...uh...I'm buying all 7 Smiths studio albums and Viva Hate all thanks to 'Jukebox Jury' from my Morrissey forum (http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/index.php) he's also written a book titled 'Morrissey's Manchester' give it a read!

Foals's New Website

2010-03-16T18:39:00.001-04:00

That was the surprise, just the website. Yippe. No I didn't die.

The Strokes Confirmed for Lollapalooza!!!!

2010-03-12T06:31:00.001-05:00

YES!!!

Straight from NME

NME News

The Strokes confirmed for this year's Lollapalooza festival

Julian Casablancas reveals the band will play the Chicago event, according to reports

The Strokes are set to play this year'sLollapalooza festival, according to reports in the US.

Currently working on the follow-up to 'First Impressions Of Earth', theChicago Tribune reports that frontman Julian Casablancasconfirmed that the band would be playing the event, which takes place at Grant Park, Chicago between August 6-8.

Meanwhile, Casablancas also gave an update on how work on the new album was going.

"I've written a lot of melodies for it," he explained. "But the other guys have also contributed a lot more: melodies, choruses, parts. It's way more collaborative. So it’ll have a different feel than our other albums."

As previously reported, The Strokes are also set to play this year's Isle Of Wight and Rock Ness festivals this summer. "

http://www.nme.com/news/the-strokes/50190

Foals Website Updates are Winding Down

2010-03-10T21:37:00.002-05:00

"Help Yourself...Help the Rest"

Inhale/Exhale"

So tomorrow or the day after will be the 10th and final day...even though we have 11 tracks on the album. They won't release a new song so soon after 'Spanish Sahara' and the first single of 'Total Life Forever' is 'The Orient' which will be released on May 3rd 2010 so that's not going to happen obviously. Track-listing confirmed may happen but since thefly and other websites have already mentioned it it wouldn't be that exciting, but it's still likely, showing a little bit of every song and then telling us what every song is. I think the most likely is album artwork. It's not really anything to get excited for but it makes the most sense in regards to 'Total Life Forever'. I'm hoping for U.S. tour dates but I think album artwork is what will happen, there's nothing else that they could really do besides those 3 now is there? Let's wait and see what happens!

Foals Website Updates and more!

2010-03-09T21:25:00.004-05:00

In chronological order:

"A satellite careering through the sky

this colour

this summer night"

"No I could not stand to be alone for long

There's something missing in the ever after glow"

"And w/o victory the whole

world will be ours

we will fear nothing in it."

Those are the past 3 days.

Videos, once again a special thanks to 'maggotbass':

March 7th

March 8th

Furthermore it seems as 'the Fly' has already posted a "first listen" of the album, the link will be on the blog entry but I'm just going to copy it in here too.

"‘Blue Blood’

Kicking off the A-side of the album (‘Total Life Forever’ is split into two sections, A & B), single-string guitar plucks bring ‘Blue Blood’ to life as Yannis croons over the top, the lyrics repeating “You’ve got blood on your hands/I think it’s my own”. And yeah, I did just use the word croon; Yannis ditches his anguished yelp, replacing it with something more soulful and melancholy. The judder of Foals’ rhythm section soon injects ‘Blue Blood’ with a tamed, taut groove, building suspensefully towards a climax of shrill guitar sparks and distant hollered vocals, but never quite taking off. ‘Blue Blood’ is all the better for it – sounds like Foals have learnt the control the math-rock beast.

‘Miami’
WOWSER. ‘Miami’ is the big giveaway that Foals don’t wanna be tarred with the math-rock brush anymore (sorrrry!) – this has HIT written all over it. Their most straightforward song to date, it resembles Timbaland blinging up ‘Just Like Heaven’-era Cure, Yannis doing his best Robert Smith impression over a strutting bass groove. You better get used to the chorus – “Would you be there/be there/be there for me?” – because it’s going to own this summer’s festivals. ‘Miami’ is Foalsreworking their angular template to fit a big massive pop song – it doesn’t only work, it’s fucking ace.

‘Total Life Forever’
Starting off with an almost-indie guitar riff (against the relative militant guitar-play of their first album, anyway), ‘Total Life Forever’’s title track is led by a choral howl of voices. A stark contrast to the stark lone-voiced vocals of their debut, the vocals sound warm and campfire-esque – and also perhaps a nod towards their tour buddies Dananananaykroyd, regular users of the “EVERYONE SING ALONG!” technique. “This total life forever will never be enough, no” goes the repeated mantra that the song glides around. An album track, but a brilliant one at that.

‘Black Gold’
‘Black Gold’ glides on a muted, percussive groove over which Yannis’ croon (there it is again!) sings “Top of the world/Bottom of the ocean” before a synthy, slow-paced chorus lends it an atmospheric, soundscape-y edge. After the second chorus comes an expansive, epic build-up and an outro that’s beautiful and heart-warming. If they sometimes sounded like hellbent, and uber-talented, robots on their debut, then here they sound human, the music imbued with a warmth that wasn’t present before.‘Black Gold’ is stadium rock, circa 2056.

‘Spanish Sahara’
Not really worth writing too much on this given they’ve already released it (YEAH – NICE ONE FOR RUINING MY FIRST LISTEN, FOALS!), but it’s probably worth saying, in the context of the album, ‘Spanish Sahara’ is both ‘Total Life Forever’’s slowest-burner and starkest opening and, in the jittery sonic-strobes of its second half take-off, probably the closest they come to replicating the math-rock mechanics of‘Antidotes’. Yannis’ vocals, which, for the most part, are a desperate falsetto, bring the whole thing to a euphoric, surging climax.

‘This Orient’
Like ‘Miami’, ‘This Orient’ sees Foals flex their newly-found FM pop-hook muscles. Starting off with eastern-tinged synth bleeps, ‘This Orient’ soon erupts into a stompy Arcade Fire-esque singalong, its chorus chanting “It’s your heart that gives you this western feeling/Do you know, you give me this western feeling?” over and over, each chorus leaving a big fucking indelible mark on the brain. An adrenaline-veined, gloriously-executed pop song.

‘Fugue’
45-second broken-piano instrumental ‘Fugue’ acts as a bridge between the two sections of the album, its soporific atmospherica an indication, perhaps, that the B side of ‘Total Life Forever’ will head down more reverbed, reflective path…

‘After Glow’
It seems that way with the mid-paced opening of ‘After Glow’, with its arpeggio’d, delayed guitars and stop-start drums. A solemn, almost-spoken word chorus of “Get up/Don’t forget everything you care for/For it will be nothing more tomorrow” sounds tender and fools you into thinking the second half of ‘Total Life Forever’ will be all reflective, Battles-on-valium grandeur; then, in swoops a giant swarm of fuzz and octopus-limbed drumrolls as it segues into a futuristic, malevolent outro of effects-laden guitars, viciously-executed drum marches and swirling vocal harmonies. Stunning.

‘Alabaster’
A plaintive, echoed guitar strum and rumbling wall of sound begin ‘Alabaster’, which again sees Yannis employ that falsetto. Pretty good at it he is, too. Instrumentation gently builds around the melancholic vocals, the second half adding an industrial, percussive thump, adding a venom to the otherwise glacial, serene chorus. Like‘Blue Blood’, ‘Alabaster’’s flawlessly-executed four minutes sound wonderfully restrained.

‘2 Trees’
There’s an almost baggy-feel to the bliss-pop of ‘2 Trees’ as static guitars and bass spar over an early 90s drumbeat, with Yannis’ dreamy vocals lost in a shoegazey-whirl. The two-minute outro of reverbed guitars, stuttering samples and synths that sound like they’re going backwards brings ‘2 Trees’ to an astonishing climax.

‘What Remains’
Starting off with a similar eastern-tinged opening to ‘This Orient’ (and one that, for a sphincter-clenching nanosecond, sounds a little like Snow Patrol’’s ‘Chasing Cars’), ‘Total Life Forever’’s closer ‘What Remains’ might be the best thing Foalshave ever done. Again, there’s a hint of Robert Smith about Yannis as the band get on a slow, grinding groove around him. “I’ve been to the darkest place I know” goes the monumentally ace chorus, whilst a post-second chorus singalong invokes the best “whoa whoa whoas” this side of ‘With Or Without You’, before the final blast of the distorted, desolate chorus descends into a fuzzy, menacing riff finale, signalling an end to Foals’ thrilling, beautiful and brilliant second album."

By: Niall Doherty

So it appears the order of the website is the order of the tracklisting...like I said.

Vampire Weekend play Cousins and Giving Up The Gun on SNL

2010-03-07T00:58:00.003-05:00

Aha, my predictions were right!

'Cousins' was flawless with the exception of some weird sounding chords, however some spots in 'Giving Up The Gun' sounded awkward solely because it was live.

Here is the 'Cousins' performance. Uplaoded roughly 15 minutes after the performance, special thanks to 'latenight2017' for the quick though low resolution upload!

Strange chords at 1:47 and 1:52, I think Ezra knew he screwed up, his voice cracks afterwards because of it.

Foals Clue 5 tells us a lot!

2010-03-06T19:52:00.002-05:00

So we have a lot of things answered with Foals's new update...a lot.

Pictures are as follow:

"I'll find you in the sand

wipe you clean with dirty hands"

As always the last one says 6/10, the others say 5.

Sound familiar? Well it should, it's from 'Spanish Sahara'. So is the background music, in fact if you go back to my first point you'll notice how I said something about my friend Wes pointing out how there's a part in 'Spanish Sahara' that sounds like 'Ion Square' by Bloc Party. Well that part is played on their website once you're at these pages. This tells us a lot.

1 - What we've been listening to are snippets of songs with other parts playing simultaneously taken out

2 - I'm going to speculate (and I'm 100% positive on this one) that the order we are receiving these in is the track order of the album. So 'Spanish Sahara' is in the middle. What does it mean? Well I think we can agree that some of the highlights of an album are usually the opener and the closer, and since those aren't 'Spanish Sahara' that means that even if possible, a song better than 'Spanish Sahara' will be on the album. Fucking exciting!

3 - The lyrics we have been given are NOT part of the chorus, just verses that I suppose Yannis favors.

But what does that picture have to do with 'Spanish Sahara'? It's mud. That doesn't relate to the song or the video at all, either way still an awesome post.

Rumored track list as of now from many sources:

'Blue Blood'

'Miami'

'Total Life Forever'

'Black Gold'

'Spanish Sahara'

Pin Me Down's debut album to be released April 19th

2010-03-06T13:50:00.003-05:00

Bloc Party's lead guitarist, Russell Lissack's band Pin Me Down is to release their first and album this April! Pin Me Down consists of Russell Lissack and Milena Mepri. The album, which is named Pin Me Down, was produced by Alex Elena and Daniel Lingren and was recorded in New York and London. The album is available to pre-order on Pin Me Down's website, click the title of this entry to get there. You can order a digital download for £5.00, a CD and digital download for £10.00, a vinyl, CD, and digital download for £15.00, or you can purchase the 'Deluxe Tote Edition' which features the CD, immediate download of the exclusive track 'Curious' (Shibuya Edition), Pin Me Down wallpapers, a bonus 12" white-label vinyl with the first 200 being signed by the band, a Pin Me Down tote bag, 3 pin badgers, a 'free' (how the hell is it free, you're paying £20.00...) 'Treasure Hunter' 7" single including exclusive b-side for the first 1,000 orders, 11-track album in choice of premium DRM-free 320kbps, MP3, Apple Lossless, or FLAC (I have no idea what any of that means), and an option Pin Me Down T-Shirt for an extra £5.00

Track list:

'Cryptic'
'Treasure Hunter'
'Boy Who Cried Wolf'
'Ticking'
'Oh My Goddess'
'Pretty In Pink'
'Curious'
'Time Crisis'
'Meet The Selkirks'
'Everything Is Sacred'
'Fight Song'

Foals Clue 4 Galore!

2010-03-06T12:35:00.005-05:00

Pics are as follow:

"The future is not what it use to be"

Once again the last one says 5/10 and not 4/10. The music this time has some lovely strings in it, quite beautiful!

Here's the videos for the 5th of March sound and the 6th of March sound respectively, once again a special thanks to 'maggotbass'!

Furthermore I'd like to thank 'crouchfj' from the Foals forum for posting a link to a French website that when translated tells us this:

"Last week we were invited to last ONE SHOT NOT Manu Katche (superb broadcast on Arte).Well imagine you in that the guests were famous FOALS who appeared for their first live release since their studio - to record the second album Total Life Forever. Only one thing to say, looks like our friend BIG SUCCESS!.
After a short presentation to the téloche, Yannis Philippakis and his pals played the first two singles from the album - This Spanish Sahara and East - two really good tracks, the first is to discover below."

The video is the Spanish Sahara video I posted in my first entry and the website link can be found here http://www.mytourmanager.com/blog/2010/03/04/foals-en-attendant-lalbum-spanish-sahara/

User '!Ivan' posted a link to Jack Bevan's twitterpage (drummer of Foals) which showed a picture of an underwater tank in a studio leading speculation to the next music video to be underwater. Foals seem to be going with a very organic and natural feel with the publicity to go with their album. The website pictures are all of nature, the Spanish Sahara music video, and now this.

Twitter Page: http://tweetphoto.com/user/jackbevan

Picture:

Vampire Weekend to play on Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Kimmel

2010-03-04T20:18:00.007-05:00

SNL will be on 3/6
Jimmy Kimmel on 3/12

I'm guessing they'll play either the only single as of now from their second album 'Contra' Cousins or most likely I'm saying they'll play Giving Up The Gun with the release of the video roughly a week ago.

News come from they're facebook wall post (Click on the the title to see it full screen...of this post)

Disintegration Deluxe Edition to be delayed until May

2010-03-04T19:45:00.004-05:00

Woo Hoo! Something non-Foals related!

The Cure's magnum opus and, my favorite album of all time's reissue, Disintegration, will be delayed back until May. Originally suppose to be released on March 16th, will now be pushed back as long as May 4th according to Amazon Canada or May 28th according to Amazon Germany. The reasons for the push are unknown and the Cure have yet to comment on it, a Universal employee stated "seems like the Disintegration remaster will be postponed again, sometime late May seems to be more likely for a release." Information comes from the Cure blog, Chain of Flowers (http://craigjparker.blogspot.com/2010/03/disintegration-remaster-delayed-again.html)

A May 1st release date would be appropriate for obvious reasons, 21 years on the exact day would be a great day to release it.

Disintegration is a masterpiece, both the song and the album, I plan to write a review for it soon. Regardless the deluxe edition will include 3 CDs and be a doubly vinyl! Here is the track info from the Cure's website (http://www.thecure.com/blog/default.aspx?nid=23104) :

CD1 DISINTEGRATION

01 PLAINSONG
02 PICTURES OF YOU
03 CLOSEDOWN
04 LOVESONG
05 LAST DANCE
06 LULLABY
07 FASCINATION STREET
08 PRAYERS FOR RAIN
09 THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU
10 DISINTEGRATION
11 HOMESICK
12 UNTITLED

CD2 RARITIES (1988 - 1989)
ALL PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED VERSIONS
(* PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED SONG)

01 PRAYERS FOR RAIN
-RS HOME DEMO (instrumental)-04/88
02 PICTURES OF YOU
-RS HOME DEMO (instrumental)-04/88
03 FASCINATION STREET
-RS HOME DEMO (instrumental)-04/88
04 HOMESICK
-BAND REHEARSAL (instrumental)-06/88
05 FEAR OF GHOSTS
-BAND REHEARSAL (instrumental)-06/88
06 NOHEART
-BAND REHEARSAL (instrumental)-06/88 *
07 ESTEN
-BAND DEMO (instrumental)-09/88 *
08 CLOSEDOWN
-BAND DEMO (instrumental)-09/88
09 LOVESONG
-BAND DEMO (instrumental)-09/88
10 2LATE (alt version)
-BAND DEMO (instrumental)-09/88
11 THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU
-BAND DEMO (instrumental)-09/88
12 DISINTEGRATION
-BAND DEMO (instrumental)-09/88
13 UNTITLED (alt version)
-STUDIO ROUGH (instrumental)-11/88
14 BABBLE (alt version)
-STUDIO ROUGH (instrumental)-11/88
15 PLAINSONG
-STUDIO ROUGH (guide vocal)-11/88
16 LAST DANCE
-STUDIO ROUGH (guide vocal)-11/88
17 LULLABY
-STUDIO ROUGH (guide vocal)-11/88
18 OUT OF MIND
-STUDIO ROUGH (guide vocal)-11/88
19 DELIRIOUS NIGHT
-ROUGH MIX (vocal)-12/88 *
20 PIRATE SHIPS
-(RS solo) ROUGH MIX (vocal)-12/89 *

CD3 ENTREAT PLUS
RECORDED LIVE AT WEMBLEY ARENA 1989
REMIXED BY RS 2009
(* PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED PERFORMANCE)

01 PLAINSONG *
02 PICTURES OF YOU
03 CLOSEDOWN
04 LOVESONG *
05 LAST DANCE
06 LULLABY *
07 FASCINATION STREET
08 PRAYERS FOR RAIN
09 THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU *
10 DISINTEGRATION
11 HOMESICK
12 UNTITLED

Foals, A Clue, A Clue!

2010-03-04T19:37:00.003-05:00

Day 3 Now!

You know the formula!

"They took it all w/a view
To the Great Fall *Insert Eye*
Cavse singularity is here
To stay,"

The background music this time is a guitar muted and a jangling guitar going along with it.

All say 3/10 except the last says 4

Huge Omega Foals Post! Website update, and track names!

2010-03-04T16:11:00.006-05:00

Yes yes this post will be big, and yes it is about Foals again. Stop crying, I'm sorry. First off I would like to post a video of the first snippet of audio from their website found yesterday, a special thanks maggotbass to for uploading this!

Now on Day 2 we have more clues!

Pictures are as follow, you know the formula kiddies (look at the post below)

However, the puzzle has two parts instead of three like yesterday.

"I promised you
open ocean glow
mother-of-pearl
god, indigo"

Note that they all say 2/10 at the top except the last one, 3/10.

The music for this one is more African with the bongos, it appears to be a desert with a mirage. Sand, again, hmmm....

Song for this picture courtesy once again of maggotbass:

Now there have been rumors of track listings on the Foals forum (http://foals.freeforums.org/index.php)

According to member 'Cassius'

"The Fly tweeted about a song called "What Remains" calling it the best Foals song ever."

The tweet:

We also have Alabaster, Black Gold, and Total Life Forever coming!

Common belief is that Total Life Forever will be 10 songs, which correlates with everything going on with the Foals site.

So let's see what happens.

Foals keep us on our toes

2010-03-03T16:49:00.003-05:00

I feel lame for making my first two posts in a row about the same band, I'll try not to let this happen often. However on Foals's website they have a little puzzle for us, and some atmospheric background music!

The layout is this:

A couple things to note:

It's a picture of a beach with rocks on it, or at least a picture of a group of rocks, either way the shore seems to be a reoccurring theme judging by this picture and the music video of Spanish Sahara.

The rocks are split into three circle in the middle, when clicked the circle that you click will move, you are suppose to match them in place with the lyrics, once done it creates this image

The picture with the lyrics connected, they read:

"Bite my nails to the quick
And run back home
To where I belong
Where I was born"

The third picture is the most important. For once you put together the puzzle and click it, this shows up:

It appears we will be getting a surprise tomorrow. I think it might be too early for a new song after Spanish Sahara, but with the lyrics in the picture it looks like that may be what we are getting. Here's hoping for more tour dates or possibly a release of the album artwork? Either way what also makes this important is in the top right it says 2/10. The two before this as they were the same page read 1/10. So looks like today won't be the end of our mysteries!

Once I hit back I got this page:

The same puzzle without the lyrics, but when put together, the second picture pops up and then the third when clicked.

The website itself: http://www.totallifeforever.co.uk/

So it appears as Foals will be giving us some goodies tomorrow, and that there are more to come!

Spanish Sahara

2010-03-02T18:23:00.003-05:00

New Foals song that was released yesterday and is incredibly fantastic. Model demonstration of a band and how they should mature musically. Unlike their previous material, 'Spanish Sahara' is more downbeat as well as simplistic, but more importantly has very little techno elements, a signature aspect of Foals's songs. A friend of mine, Wes, pointed out how in the background you can hear a similar noise which is heard in Bloc Party's Ion Square, of whom Foals's have said to be the teeny-boppy version of which with more dance and math rock influences. Either way, 'Spanish Sahara' will give you chills, nostalgia, fear, joy, and make you ponder. It is a master of atmosphere and of building up. A simple masterpiece and a much needed improvement in Yannis's lyrics and vocals.

'Spanish Sahara'

Foals's new album, Total Life Forever, will be released on May 10th. They will begin their tour of the U.K. in late April into May, be sure to go.

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