"Trains to Brazil" Guillemots

Its 1 o clock on a friday morning
I'm trying to keep my back from the wall
The prophets and their bombs have had another success
And i'm wondering why we bother at all

I think of you on cold winter mornings
Darling they remind me of when we were at school
Nothing really mattered when you called out my name
In fact, nothing really mattered at all

And i think about how long it will take them to blow us away
But i won't get me down, I'm just thankful to be facing the day

Cause days don't get you far when you're gone

It's five o clock on a Friday morning
one hundred telephones shake and ring
One of them is from someone who knew you.......

And i still think of you on cold winter mornings
Darling they'll still remind me of when we were at school
When they could never have persuaded me that lives like yours
were the hands of these eronious fools

And to those of you who moan your lives through one day to the next
Well let them take you next
Can't you live and be thankful you're here

It could be you tomorrow or next year

"Trains to Brazil" Guillemots (buy)

PS Check out Guillemots' gorgeous website before you die.

"True Affection" The Blow

More Portland. Khaela Maricich & Jona Bechtolt prove that you don't need bells and whistles when you've got good ideas. While most electro-pop acts are piling on the layers, The Blow have an uncanny intuition of where to stop. Particularly in this song, you can almost hear a digital wind blowing (BLOWing?) through the track, lifting Khaela's broken-hearted lament above the casio bleeps and 808 claps. Whoah, did I just write that? I must really like these guys.

"True Affection" The Blow (BUY IT)

PS I've adopted a new sharing system. I'll be using box.net to host mp3 so I don't have to rely on outside links. Also, I've added this nifty little widget on the right so you can play the songs right off this page. Let me know what you think.

"Kelly" Van She

80's revival done so right you'll wonder why we ever left.

P.S. Were Australians always this awesome?

"Kelly" Van She

"Lovers Who Uncover" Crystal Castles vs The Little Ones

This song by The Little Ones is pretty sweet. A little too sweet. Like a Mars bar. It's easy to like; all chocolate and caramel and (nougat?). But, about half-way through, you start wishing you bought the Snickers, so you could sink your teeth into a peanut or two. Well, Toronto's Crystal Castles bring the peanuts to this remix, adding the perfect amount of 8-bit crunch. You'll still get cavities, but it'll take a little longer.

"Lovers Who Uncover" Crystal Castles vs The Little Ones (BUY IT FROM ITUNES)



This remix was my gateway drug into Crystal Castles' other work. If you need another fix, check out this track from their debut 7 inch...

"Air War" Crystal Castles

"Air Aid" Menomena

Forgive me for gushing but these guys are officially my new favorite new band. And they're playing Pat's Pub on saturday night (feb 3) so don't sleep. Pretty sure this is my favorite song on the record. I love the retro prog-rock aesthetic. It could be a Yes, or Genesis or even Can song. I feel a definite prog-indie wave building (TV on the Radio, Grizzly Bear, Danielson) and I couldn't be happier. It's fun to get drunk and dance, but it's also fun to miss your ex-girlfriend and think about the nature of the universe. Maybe that's just me.

"Air Aid" Menomena
(BUY IT)
I also anticipate a whole lot of choirs coming our way, unless Sufjan Stevens gets hit by a bus sometime soon.

"Fallen Snow (Teenagers Remix)" Au Revoir Simone

Um...first, let me be completely honest and say that I would listen to anything that these three women produced. They could play didgeridoos through delay pedals and I would try really hard to like it. (I turned 31 today and full disclosure is the new policy, even if you're not asking for it) That said, so far, it hasn't been difficult to like Au Revoir Simone. The lack of pretense is refreshing for a trio of Willaimsburg hipsters; simple, content before fashion, uncomplicated songwriting. Then there's The Teenagers, who it's harder to like, probably because they look like guys that Au Revoir Simone would date. But I don't think they're good enough. They're dirty. They look like they do a lot of coke and fuck without condoms. Plus I'm not suuuper impressed with their original material. It's a little gimicky for my taste. However, the remixes they've been putting out are spectacular, (I highly recommed the Scanners Lowlife remix on their myspace) especially this take on ARS's "Fallen Snow."

Oh yeah, and if you can tell me what movie "Au Revoir Simone" is a reference to you win the my new best friend award.

"Fallen Snow (Teenagers Remix)" Au Revoir Simone (BUY IT)

PS Just found this video for the original version of Fallen Snow.

"Wet and Rustling" Menomena

Okay, Portland...what the fuck do you guys do with your days? Grow beards, shop for cardigans and make human sacrifices to the indie-rock gods? Doesn't anyone have a real job? Do you all work at that giant book store 12 hours a week? Do you get government subsidies for not driving a car or smoking cigarettes or voting republican? If you produce one more conspicuously high-quality rock band I'm writing a letter to the WTO.

"Wet and Rustling" Menomena (BUY IT)

Or stream Menomena's whole softmore album HERE.

"Knife (Girl Talk Remix)" Grizzly Bear

This should not work. I'm so gaga over the tender musings of Grizzly Bear right now that any outside interference should throw me into a wild rage. So, someone tell me how Girl Talk can lace one of Yellow Houses' best songs with Tears For Fears riffs, drop Clipse's Wamp Wamp on top and I'm smiling like a baby. Either Girl Talk is the new Jesus or I'm a big fat push-over.

"Knife (Girl Talk Remix)" Grizzly Bear

"North American Scum (Ian St.Laurent's South Philly Scum Remix)" LCD Soundsystem

The new LCD Sound- -system record, Sound of Silver, leaked just before christmas and, predictably, it's excellent.

Check out this crunchy remix of the forerunner for first single, "North American Scum."

"North American Scum (Ian St.Laurent's South Philly Scum Remix)" LCD Soundsystem

(BUY IT) "Sound of Silver" LCD Soundsystem

"Graceland" Grizzly Bear

Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear released an excellent second album (Yellow Houses) in the fall and I really should be posting a track from that, but I can't resist upping this beautiful rendition of the Paul Simon classic, Graceland. Yellow Houses is full of sprawling, dreamy arrangements that give way to moody indie/folk tunes. This cover is much more stripped down and straight ahead, instrumentally speaking, but you have to admire the way they bend and stretch the melody to see if they can break it. They can't.



"Graceland" Grizzly Bear

(BUY) "Yellow Houses" Grizzly Bear

"All This Love" The Similou

What's happening to me? When did I start digging twinky scandinavian electro-pop? If my sixteen-year-old-self could see me now he would puke all over his Bad Religion t-shirt. Forgive me.

"All This Love" The Similou (BUY)

2006 Top Ten

It's been a good year. And now that I'm a music blogger, it's my god-given right, nay duty, to summarize it (musically speaking) in a good ol' top-ten list. Here goes...

2006 Best Albums

1. Hot Chip - The Warning
2. TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
3. The Knife - Silent Shout
4. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
5. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
6. Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye
7. Girl Talk - Night Ripper
8. Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk*
9. Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat
10. Danielson - Ships

*Just a week into the new year, I really have to add Grizzly Bear's Yellow Houses to this list. Probably at the expense of Ladyhawk. Sorry guys.

And just cause I can't resist, here are my favourite songs of the year.

1. Never Be Alone - Justice vs Simian
2. Over and Over - Hot Chip
3. We Share Our Mothers Health - The Knife
4. Playhouses - TV on the Radio
5. In The Morning - Junior Boys
6. The Greatest - Cat Power
7. Beng Beng - Gyptian
8. Waters of Nazareth - Justice
9. Lowlife - Scanners
10. All Fires - Swan Lake
11. Launch Yourself - Adem
12. Chillout Tent - The Hold Steady
13. Ross Ross Ross - Sebastian
14. My Love - Justin Timberlake
15. Funeral - Band of Horses
16. LDN - Lily Allen
17. Ghetto Story - Cham
18. Notorious - Turbulence
19. The Dugout - Ladyhawk
20. The Devil - The Rapture

"Big Money" Lexicon

I gotta up my boys Lexicon from LA. First of all, they're brothers. Second of all, they've been plugging away at this shit for like ten years. Third of all, their new ep, Rapstars, kills. It's the same sharp, funny rhymes we've come to expect, but they're riding over classic-rock, punk and even disco inspired beats. Good one.

"Big Money" Lexicon

"Over and Over" Hot Chip (video)

I've been hyping Hot Chip since I started this thing but I hadn't seen this video until today. It's pretty much the best music video ever. My eyes were laughing and cumming at the same time.

The Pixies on SNUB tv (1988)

YouTube sure is fun for music fans. Search Guided By Voices or Pavement or N.W.A. and see how many videos come back. Or The Pixies. Well, I've saved you the trouble of sifting through the hundreds of mediocre cel phone recordings of their 2003 show in Des Moines by posting this little jem. It's an appearance on a late-night BBC show called SNUB TV, circa 1988. They play Dead and I Bleed in promotion of their forth-coming album, Doolittle. And there's some funny interview footage with Kim trying to explain the name of the band.

"Rick Rubin (White Girl Lust Remix)" Spank Rock

White Girl Lust is the best band name ever. You know I'm right.

"Rick Rubin (White Girl Lust Remix)" Spank Rock

TV On The Radio on AOL Music

AOL is the best. They're repping indie-rock till they fuckin die. They just have to unplug the guitars so the soccer-moms can get the kids to the game in one peice. For real though, this is a very nice recording from AOL Music's "alternative" platform, The Interface. Brooklyn's finest play three acoustic (almost psychedelic...) pieces and then have an entertaining chat with a star-struck host.

TV On The Radio on The Interface

"Don't Be Shy" Spektrum

I thought I was transitioning out of my disco phase. But alas, all it takes is a sick-ass bassline and a hot girl with a gap in her teeth singing about getting a facial (not like a spa facial...) to pull me back in. Oh well... Get used to it, Hitler.

"Don't Be Shy" Spektrum

"Burning" The Whitest Boy Alive

Thanks Matty. Another melancholy rainy-dayer. With a beat. The Whitest Boy Alive is Erland Oye's (of Norway's Kings of Convenience) new band. Do you think Canada will ever be invited to become part of Scandinavia? We could really use some new friends.

"Burning" The Whitest Boy Alive

"Are You The One" The Presets

One of my favorite things about this whole internet music movement is the crazy amount of remixing going on. I played a party recently where I mixed four different versions of The Knife's "We Share Our Mother's Health" together. How fun. Perhaps it's a phase but I don't think so. It's almost like there's no such thing as a finished product anymore. Everything is a work in progress, zipping back and forth as ones and zeros, evolving though time and space. To illustrate my point, I'll enlist the help of Sydney duo The Presets who have been at the centre of a flurry of re-edits. Their song "Are You The One" is a certified party starter. But why stop there? Throw a james-murphy-disco-beat underneath it. Or strip the drums right down to the raw hi-hat and kick and see if it still moves asses. It's like lego, except you can get laid doing it.

"Are You The One" The Presets

"Are You The One (club edit)" The Presets

"Are You The One (Van She NYC Tech Mix)" The Presets

"Are You The One (Simian Moblie Disco Remix)" The Presets