THIS MONTH: Music of 2010

It's been a long road, 2009 was a bumper year for music, with so many fantastic albums being churned out by bands, but I won't be going into that. There will be more of that in the month to come, as I might be reviewing albums and songs of this year. That said, I'll be discussing releases for next year, whether some bands are going to live up to their billing, what we could be looking forward to etc.

Here's a couple I'm looking forward to.



Vampire Weekend - Contra (12 Jan)

First up, there's New York indie rockers Vampire Weekend with sophomore effort "Contra". Their much fancied self-titled debut album received rave reviews, and stand out tracks included Oxford Comma and A-Punk. This is what some people said,

Rolling Stone: On their debut, Vampire Weekend mostly earn points the old-fashioned way: by writing likable songs you'll be glad to revisit next month.

The Guardian: Behind the penny loafers and songs about commas, there's a bold band that can balance dextrous originality with an innate pop sensibility.

Boston Globe: At its best, Vampire Weekend takes the exceedingly familiar template of indie rock and invigorates it with a chiming guitar sound that suggests the band has been spending its downtime browsing afropop.org.

Personally, I quite liked the fresh and preppy feel, and it was injected with so much fun. And with Horchata, also available as a free download at their official site, their sophomore effort is really one to look out for.




Beach House - Teen Dream (25 Jan)

Victoria Legrand (fresh off her collaboration with Grizzly Bear on Slow Life, off the soundtrack of Twilight: New Moon) and Alex Scally present to us "Teen Dream". Also included is the single Used To Be released in Oct 2008 and the leaked track Norway that has gotten many raving about their third outing. And I take back what I said previously "I don't actually always pick out their songs to particularly listen to". They're nearly on constant rotation right now. Peachy!

Beach House Norway



OK go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (12 Jan)
OK go of Here It Goes Again fame (remember the treadmill video?), is back with a new album titled "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky", taken from the book The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky, about how illness can be cured by blue light.

OK go - Skyscrapers


Spoon - Transference (19 Jan)
How exciting is this, Spoon's new album after their 2007 awesome release "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga". I'm pretty ooshed just thinking about their new album.

Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring (26 Jan)
Los Campesinos! - There Are Listed Buildings

Lifehouse - Smoke and Mirrors (2 Feb)
Lifehouse - Halfway Gone

Hot Chip - One Life Stand (8 Feb)
With dancefloor hits Ready For The Floor and One Pure Thought, the slow groove Over and Over, I'm all set for "One Life Stand".
Hot Chip - Alley Cats (Live)

Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago (End Feb)

Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks (Early Mar)

A few others, such as "Congratulations" by MGMT, un-named albums by Secondhand Serenade, Panic! At The Disco and a couple more, are to be released in first quarter of 2010.


Note: I apologise for the sloppy post, been a bit busy with stuff.

THIS MONTH: Fires in Snow and Miike is Friendly

This is my 100th post since I started this blog! It doesn't even feel like I've been doing this for more than 3 months. And somehow it coincided nicely with this month's end of month post. (I didn't plan this. Honest)

What this post would be about is 2 albums that I've been uncovering more about day by day. After finding out yet another song in the album that hooks me in line and sinker, there would be another song glittering under everything else, waiting to revel in it's full glory.

I hear that the Miike in their name was derived from Japanese director Takeshi Miike, that they are fans of his. For Miike Snow's self-titled album, Animal came out guns a blazing as the first single. (oh btw, this came out at the unusually sweet ending for the latest Gossip Girl episode. also, I think they got the singer wrong for Ready For The Floor which is by Hot Chip. They listed a female singer when the song obviously was sung by a guy.) These guys, Andrew Wyatt (who does the vocals and the songwriting) combined with the production of Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (more known as Bloodshy & Avant and produced/wrote Britney Spear's Toxic and Piece of Me), spared nothing in their arsenal. There's the balladic and emotional Silvia contrasted with the heavy house beats present in In Search Of. I can't make head or tails of what A Horse Is Not A Home could mean, and the cryptic lyrics did nothing to help, but it is a pretty catchy number, though not the best they could muster. And one wonders what Miike Snow could be doing with a song on the affairs of the heart, but here they are with Cult Logic, wondering if somebody can free him from the logic of love that he knows. There are slow numbers like Faker - very pop-ish with the piano in the background and a tinkle of electronic, to the uber catchy buzz of Burial sang to the tune of morbidity.

A very pop-ish feel, with heavy electronic influences, it's reminiscent of a male version of La Roux, with a vocalist fronting the production. However, Miike Snow is(or are) Miike Snow, and it's hard to fault what Pontus and Christian are doing and Andrew doesn't let down either with meaningful (and a dose of huh?) lyrics not usually present in pop. But of course, the album isn't perfect, with a song like Plastic Jungle which sounded like a mish-mash of odd lyrics plus weird la-la-las. Like "sometimes i wanna get slain" and "I was choked by the jailor and fucked the gorilla." just throws you off kilter. A lot of people say they sound a bit like Passion Pit, but I think both are unique and have their own identities, and I love them both.





Next up is British group and Mercury Prize nominee, Friendly Fires, also with a self-titled album. Ed Macfarlane met bandmates Jack Savidge and Edd Gibson at St Albans School, said to be one of the oldest school in Europe.

First things first is their really arty cover. It's obviously something broken, but I really can't think of what it could be. The white stuff that seems to be scattering, immediately brings to mind the Skeleton Boy video, which by the way just oozes with catchy beats and trippiness. They seem to be going all ravey in the video. Suspiciously, Lovesick sounds very similar, even the lyrics are about love. What do you think? There's the obviously dance and remix friendly Jump In The Pool. Dance beats, check. Awesome chorus, check. Groovy melody, check. So there. Like Miike Snow(the album), there are songs that just don't fit. Maybe as a debut album, it's experimental on their part, but Photobooth has Macfarlane going so high(as in pitch) about a photobooth. Ditto On Board which sounds like something out of a drag show. But here, we have a saviour inParis. It makes me just wanna turn it on on the rooftops of an apartment (doesn't have to be in Paris), but preferably somewhere with an awesome night view under the stars, like in the song. Just dancing to it, or leaning over the parapet gazing out and over, even just lying down and watching the stars, see if they twinkle to the pulsing beat. And here I am wondering how they could make ooh-ooh-oohs sound good in Kiss of Life while Miike Snow just botch it with la-la-las. (ok it could get a little grating after repeated listens to the song - the ooh-ooh-oohs). White Diamonds is just unadulterated rock. While it doesn't culminate in a bang, it has the prerequisite chorus and highs and lows, not forgetting the hard drumbeats pounding behind.

Like what Edd Gibson notes: "The hardest thing I think is to know what to leave out, to know when something is enough." They nearly got that, except for a few ughs here and there, like Miike Snow, it's rolling as a debut. I particularly love these lines in Paris - "I'll find you that French boy/You'll find me that French girl", don't ask me why.

These two have put together really tight songs that just literally force your legs to start moving or sometimes pensive songs that want you still - just listening. Not forgetting the dearth of remixes for both album, I could leave them on for hours and maybe not finish one cycle.

And now essentially, I've actually done 2 album reviews in one post, but what I was looking to do was to just talk about them, which I realise the music has more than sufficiently done. Really look forward to their sophomore album. This marks the end of this post, but with these groups, it just heralds more for us music lovers.

THIS MONTH: what was and what will be

Well, August is coming to an end, and we're two-thirds through with the year. Music this year so far has been awesome. There's so many albums which could potentially be album of the year, nevertheless, here's some goodies released so far this year.



Of course, the much hyped Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective can most certainly not be left out. In fact, I'd think that MPP would be on nearly every Top Albums List of the Year. Something random, I've come across quite a number of people who say that Animal Collective sounds even better than they already do, when you're on drugs or on a high. Well, I should try listening to them when I'm on a high. Besides, they have this really dope optical illusion for their album cover. It's already making you see weird when you're sober, what more seeing it while you're high. Trippy!

Animal Collective - In The Flowers



This is one of my personal favourites for easy listening, like really, anytime anywhere. An unexplicable attraction to their songs is the easiest I can describe this. It's Au Revoir Simone with Still Night, Still Light. I did a review of it here and they certainly are much to love.

Au Revoir Simone - Knight of Wands



Dirty Projectors sure came a long way, since the time Longstreth struck it out on his own with "The Graceful Fallen Mango" and now releasing the critically acclaimed Bitte Orca, which means Please Orca or Please Whale, since Bitte is please in german and Orca is a species of carnivorous whale (remember Free Willy?) Their fresh experimental music is definitely here to stay.

Dirty Projectors - Temecula Sunrise



They are Robin Pecknold, Skyler Skjelset, Christian Wargo, Casey Wescott and Josh Tillman. They are Fleet Foxes. With their eponymous debut album, Fleet Foxes. Says Robin, who along with Skyler could be said to be the founders of Fleet Foxes, "We aim to be adventurous and true to ourselves and to enjoy our time together—the music we make is a reflection of our instincts... ...We love acoustic guitars, electric guitars, big rolling tom drums, mandolins, dulcimers, bass guitars, bass pedals, organs, pianos, kotos, and most of all harmony and melody.. ..try to draw from the traditions of folk music, pop, choral music and gospel, baroque psychedelic, sacred harp singing, West Coast music, traditional music from Ireland to Japan, and film scores, and are inspired by the music of our friends and contemporaries in the Seattle music family." Well, they've certainly succeeded in drawing from their influences, and clearly in Blue Ridge Mountains, there's the folksy english/irish sound accompanied by what I think is the mandolin.

Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains


There's tonnes more good music out there, these musicians, bands or singers etc, with unrelenting fervour in doing what they do best - creating music. Here's a list of several more albums that have been put out so far this year and is in no particular order. Also, this list is by no means exhaustive, for every album I list here, there's probably 5 more as good/better albums out there. Feel free to add in your comments what you think are your favourite albums so far this year.

Dan Deacon "Bromst"
Reverie Sound Revue "Reverie Sound Revue"
Whites Lies "To Lose My Life"
Bibio "Ambivalence Avenue"
Handsome Furs "Face Control"
The Antlers "Hospice"
Fever Ray "Fever Ray"
Grizzly Bear "Veckatimest"
Phoenix "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"
Miike Snow "Miike Snow"
O+S "O+S"
Ohbijou "Beacons"
Passion Pit "Manners"
Portugal. The Man "The Satanic Satanist"
St. Vincent "Actor"
The Decemberists "The Hazards of Love"
Camera Obscura "My Maudlin Career"
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "The Pains of Being Pure at Heart"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs "It's Blitz!"
Florence + the Machine "Lungs"



Well, having said what was, now what will be. I'm pretty sure the later third of the year would not be a letdown, what with all the new releases anticipated by everyone out there. Here's some.

Yo La Tengo "Popular Songs"
The Big Pink "A Brief History of Love" The Big Pink - Dominos
Islands "Vapours"
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "Higher Than The Stars EP" The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction
The Twilight Sad "Forget the Night Ahead"
Volcano Choir "Unmap"
Fool's Gold "Fool's Gold"
Memory Tapes "Seek Magic"
Headlights "Wild Life"
Sufjan Stevens "Run Rabbit Run" Sufjan Stevens - The Lord God Bird
Atlas Sound "Logos"
Fuck Buttons "Tarot Sport"
Built To Spill "There Is No Enemy"
Mayer Hawthorne "A Strange Arrangement" Mayer Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out
The Raveonettes "In and Out of Control"
Neon Indian "Psychic Charm"




See yall in September!

THIS MONTH: BANDS TO PUT ON YOUR AURAL RADAR

1. Reverie Sound Revue



They are considered an indie pop group, hailing from Canada. Comprising Lisa Lobsinger(vocalist), John Marcel de Waal(rhythm section), Bryce Gracey(rhythm section), Marc De Pape(guitar) and Patrick Walls(guitar), they only recently released their first self-titled full length album.

Reverie Sound Revue - One Marathon

official, myspace, last.fm


2. Fever Ray



Fever Ray is actually Karin Dreijer Andersson, so while she's not a band, she's one half of The Knife. Her brother, Olof Dreijer, makes up the other.

This is said of her on the official website, "Constantly inventive, restlessly emotive, Fever Ray swaggers, broods, intrigues and dazzles without ever making concessions to the soap opera demands of modern media." And it's hard not to agree, that even in this electronic genre, she serves to make herself stand out with a unique sound that is both compelling and surreal, it draws you right into the heart of it, and I dare say no one does it better than her.

Fever Ray - Keep the Streets Empty For Me

official, myspace, last.fm


3. Moscow Olympics



This will essentially be a re-post of what I've said before, which is nothing much. I can't dig up much information about them, other than the fact that they are a dreampop, 4 piece band from Phillippines. Talk about unknown. Nevertheless, it doesn't stop them from being awesome and I hope they continuing producing more good stuff.

Moscow Olympics - Still

myspace, last.fm