i <3 hiphop

i realise most people only read this for videos/music so here's one of my favourite suprises of '09. Snoop Dogg goes 2step, angriest rap comeback in a while:

conceptual seperation of self

going through another one of those heavy drinking, deep thinking, getting deppressed, 'what does it all mean?', high fidelity parody phases. it's like summer all over again but with shit weather and more bros. i love being miserable.

lisztomania

all these end of year/decade lists leave me asking one question, do they refer to the most important album/song of said measure of time or the one the writer(s) most enjoy listening to?
the two are very different things. in my opinion if the former is true no one should dispute this as being number one:

hurricane thunder-cloud/

it's so strange being back home. half of me hates it, half of me loves it but i definietly need it.

theres hope for weezer after all.

The Antlers from jamesfeatherstone on Vimeo.

this album is incredible, it completely dicks on every over-sentimental wannabe Bon Iver album that's come out this year due to For Emma kicking off last year. The lyrics are soul crushing, the instrumentation is beyond beautiful, this album is one of those gems I can almost guarantee I will be coming back to for years to come, it's not gonna change many things and hopefully there's not gonna be hundreds of copycats but it is definitely a strong contender for album of the year. Along with Cymbals Eat Guitars:

both completely free of any kind of pretentiousness, free from any recognizable influence from modern alt trends, these albums sound like they could have been made any time in the last two decades, which is quite a feat to achieve. and i get to see both bands today and tomorrow, winner.

'Framing effects can be quite subtle and even affect our recall of events. For example, in one study, groups of students were shown a film of a car accident. Each group of students was shown the same film clip and then asked ‘How fast were the cars going when they xxxx each other?’ ‘xxxx’ was different for each group, variously ‘smashed into’, ‘collided into’, ‘bumped into’, ‘hit’ and ‘contacted’. The table below shows the average speed estimated by each group.
Verb Mean Estimate of Speed (mph)
Smashed 40.8
Collided 39.3
Bumped 38.1
Hit 34.0
Contacted 31.8'

will dirty projects 'go big'

http://pitchfork.com/news/37093-premiere-solange-covers-dirty-projectors-stillness-is-the-move/
that cover sounds pretty big, even if it is just solange singing stillness is the move over xxxplosive by dr dre, ha.

weird that 3 bands/artists from my shithole of a hometown keep cropping up over and over in 'top tips for 2010' or whatevers. good luck to all of them, especially good luck to the ones that haven't been tempted by the majors. mad love to talonz.

most highly underrated album of whatever year it came out:

sorry this has been rather dull of late, ill get a drug problem or something and spice it up in a bit, bare with me,.

also

<3

halloween

much like valentines day halloween it seems is just a massive excuse to make money, unlike valentines day it's also an excuse to party and doesn't promote bad feelings, it is for thisreasons that halloween is good and valentines day just a made up excuse to make moneyz.

part of saturday night never dies

probably one of the best nights of my life, had major dejavu walking around the same parts of the city I walked that night, I feel it every time I here this song:



i didnt know it was possible to feel that good locked in a warehouse with 4000 other people.

musical concerts

is there such thing as overkill when it comes to gig?
i've been to over 5 in the last 3 weeks, more than i'd go to in 3 months in Hereford, and only been in awe at a couple. If Fuck Buttons played Hereford i'd probably explode with excitement and it'd be the talk of the (alt) town for weeks before and after the gig, but in Manchester I only really noticed it as something to do in an evening, and they were great but the only time i've mentioned it is when i've been asked about it. i've passed on two gigs in the last 3 days partly due to lack of funds, tonight I skipped seeing Yeasayer (possibly one of my favourite bands of last year) due to not wanting to see Bat for Lahses (as well as banking on a yeasayer UK solo tour sometime soon (pls thnkx). YACHT + Casiokids instead then, kids.
can you have too much of a good thing?

'there's something very attractive about a girl who can out drink you'

three bands i miss in ascending order of how much i miss these three bands i miss:

help she can't fucking swim.

the blood fucking brothers

meet me in fucking st. louis

friday nights party was awfully crazy:

I think this band are very good:

so refreshing, completely free of any current trends and cliches.

this is funny

http://www.conservativefuture.com/2009/10/02/party-conference-manchester/

Twi and The Humble Feather

Mystery, it seems, can only work in favour of certain artists. Would Burial be the talk of internet-town if it wasn't for his ambiguous identity? What would Sunn o))) be without the robes and the quest for 'Guitar Power', of course when mystery appears artificial or overtly intentional it no longer exists as mystery simply as a gimmick. Unintentional mystery is what Twi and The Humble feather do best, as well as bemusing and charming.
'Twi' is a character in the instrumental bands songs, an alien however you'd have to have a great amount of in-sight to work this out for yourself. The band tell Twi's story via three acoustic guitars, three sets of vocal chords and nothing else, which in itself is astonishing due to the incredible range of noises that are conveyed, none of these noises can be described as words and they vary from spaceship noises to almost train like rhythms. The faces of the audience in the Deaf Institute alter between bemused and amused. The trios set displays minimalist acoustic guitar works with hints of baroque and an abundance of Phillip Glass' vision, a fascinating outfit.

yo gabba gabba

probably the best kids tv show of the decade if not ever, perfect when getting in after a heavy night:

005045 29092009

outside in the courtyard of my halls, listening to burial, having a breather, life is rad.
uni is fun,
a record a day died a long time ago,
all i listen to now is girl talk and dance music and .

last 2 days

matt and kim - grand
hymies basement

fucking ace

built

to
spill.

i enjoyed this about 100% more than i thought i would.

14/09/09

basic

12/09/09 - vitalic - OK Cowboy
13/09/09 - anthony and the johnsons - i am a bird now.

that twilight sad record still kicks ass.

friday

nothing to do until about 7 today so i've just listened to the YACHT album See Mystery Lights which i've been after for ages, does not disappoint.
now i've got Daisy by Brand New on, this ones gonna take a couple of listens.
picked rolling stone yesterday, never really read it before but it's pretty good, i really wish there was some printed press this good in the UK.

feeling kind of basic.

08/09/09 - justin vernon - hazeltons
09/09/09 - sun kil moon - april
10/09/09 - owen - new leaves.

taken by trees or the new brand new record tomorow i think!

jay z

the blueprint 3 is pretty good obviously not as good as the records before it but worth coming out of retirement for.. that's the record.

7/09/09

The new twilight sad is crackers good, literally amazing. that was fun
yesterday I listened to the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart EP, probably grower although it did feel like the songs were missing something compared to the album.

fridays child

friday's record was the new cribs, apart from some massive choruses on the whole very disappointing. it sounds confused, none of the cheesy indie riffs of their other records and the lyrics aren't nearly as witty as the could be. the production on it sucks too, muddily recorded, should have got Kapranos back on board.
Saturdays record is the the twilight sad's new album 'forget the night ahead', very much looking forward to that.
the cribs - cheat on me., actually quite good

moby

for my record today (thursday) i listened to play by moby, partly cuz I was intruiged about the pointless lectures he writes in the booklets with his cds and party cuz it was one of the very few reasonable CD's we're selling at work (my other options included: Jamelia, M People, Ms. Dynamite, Sophie Ellis Bextor and a crate load worse). it was alright, the more atmospheric towards the middle was best but all of it reeked of MOR electronic music for middle aged men going through some kinda of mid life crisis.
Working in a charity shop is weird. you'd think most people visiting would be nice, if people want to find a specific book they should go to waterstones or amazon so they're either in to kill time or find something that takes their interest and then give their money to charity and if they're just in the shop to kill time then i don't have to deal with them cuz they don't come to the till however over working there for 6 months or whatever i've realised this theory is bullshit. utter scum by books from charity book shops. luckily today no cunts came in, i've started to realise how odd it is that the majority of my day is made up of making no impact on any of my customers days except when i'm especially nice or i'm hungover and a cunt, however their tiniest motions, how polite they are, how they look at me, whether they try and make conversation or ask ridiculous questions, whether they tut when I ask them for whatever rip off total is on the till or whether they put money in the tin can make or break my entire days work and then my days work which has little effect on my life as a whole can effect other peoples lives, the world is a small place.
moby
boring

wet hair

just finished listening to Glass Founatin, kinda drum + organ two piece who plan dark drone. kinda of sounds like someone recorded ian curtis singing over some Suicide and then smeared then turned it up and recorded that on a fisher price tape kit but slow. last track stepping razor is rad.

a record a day

Yesterday I set myself a goal to listen to a record i haven't heard before every day for a year.
To kick things off I listened to Ashes Grammar by A Sunny Day In Glasgow.
Luckily it's one of the best records i've heard in ages, so nice. for fans of M83.
Today i'm trying out Glass Founatin by Wet Hair.

things i hate

)adverts with singing in. actually anything on tv with singing in, in fact anything with singing in that isn't a good song and/or video.

)michael cera

)musicals

)deal or no deal

)pop punk

)george lamb on 6music.

)deal or no deal.

)shit weather.

ciao.

i've been busy sorry

dot-to-dot review soon.
all i can say in the meantime is that this is what will become known as 'one of the albums of the year':

Spectbro, Simon & Garfunkel & Women.

Really digging these three at the moment. Their use of harmony is sweet and works well in then sun.

Simon & Garfunkel - I Am A Rock
The Beatles - Long & Winding Road (produced by Phil Spector)
Women - Group Transport Hall

coooooooooool.

oh brother, lay a hand on me.

holy fuck

I can't really remember a time when my mind was blown by a duo songs as much as these 2, it was probably pretty recently but was some how erased from my memory via alcohol. i can guarantee your life will become better if you love this songs (if not better, then at least more credible, and that's better right? uhhh).


arms - shitty little disco
this piece of all out awesomeness could so easily have been turned into a piece of shit if it wasn't created in the right hands (the right hands being the guitarist from Harlem Shakes a.k.a. Todd Goldstein). The defining drum beat clearly a tongue in cheek reference to the song title and the theme of the song, taking the listener on a journey through the many scenes perfectly described by Goldstein. His prodigiously brilliant, jaded and sardonic yet gloriously optimistic vocals describing a drunken night put on auto-pilot: the party, hopelessly failing in a drunken stupor, a fight and of course the drinking. A feeling of being under the influence is projected onto the listener through Goldstein's phrasing and vocal melodies in some sort of forced empathy.
That's only half the story however, the constant semi-muted shimmering guitar line is the vessel in which Goldstein intends us to travel through his vision in, a sort of leitmotif that alters yet is always familiar, opening in what could sound like a Stokes b-side and developing into a sort of The National meets indie-dance (puke) but somehow excellent verse, a syncopated hi-hat line greeted with harmonious backing vocals as the song grows proud and confident before hitting a wall of thrashing crashes, followed by subtle I Was A Cub Scout synths, with that guitar riff slowing to a stop.
is this song going to change the future of music? No.
Is it pure unadulterated genius? Yes.

the horrors - a sea within a sea
If you had to put money on which over-hyped indie-band looked certain to fade into obscurity with their second album and get dropped by their label, it was probably The Horrors, and when they looked like this, you can't help feeling they'd probably deserve it:

However some how, the band returned with one hell of an album, dark and physdelic, baffling and cold, altogether superb. The first snippet we heard of this was Sea Within in A Sea, not only is better than the bands entire back catalog but it's also better than 99% of other singles of the last 12 months. Undeniably dark, penetrated only by the arpegiated synth that shimmers through the songs last few minutes. The band have clearly taken influence from dark, synth lead post-punk band S.C.U.M. (a member of which may be related to a member of The Horrors) as well as krautrock godfathers Neu! Sea Within A Sea is however a song that is probably easier explained by listening than by reading about. Thank me later.

this should be fun

Dag för Dag - Shooting From The Shadows

With the rise in recent years of technical, mathematic sounding, often instrumental music focus seems to have shifted from great song writing and the fun of music to a self indulgent wankfest of who can write the most technical 20 minute long epic, don't get me wrong sometimes this is great (see: Russian Circles, Dillinger Escape Plan, Rolo Tomassi and Talons), great guitar-pop music has seemed to take second place to this (unless it's some sort of derivative of pop, pop-physc, pop-folk or god forbid pop-drum & bass) and with the British scene offering such a poor crop: Maximo Park, Ladyhawke, Little Boots, White Lies etc. it's been put down to the Americans to give us what we need. Bands like Vivian Girls, Time New Viking, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and now Dag för Dag are supplying the world with great, great lo-fi pop.


Dag för Dag are a US/Swedish two piece delivering stripped back, noisy and gorgeous guitar pop. Opener of their 'Ring Me Elise' shows the brother sister duo's rougher side, simplistic drumming and gloriously sloppy guitar is the dish of the day here, however it would be easy to assume this sort of sound is the only string to the bands metaphorical bow. 'Pirate Sea' and 'Words' however, blows this theory out of the water. Subtle keyboard sounds and meloncholy vocals put the band's obvious talents in a whole new light, clearly taking cues from Joy Division (especially when it comes to bassist/vocalist Jacob Snavelys Ian Curtis and Peter Hook approach to his musical duties), PJ Harvey and one time tour-mates The Kills.
Despite this great first half of the record, the concurrent two tracks combine the rawness of Ring Me Elise with the subtlety of Words, creating more mature, developed and accomplished delightful lo-fi pop. However this doesn't mean the earlier tracks are neccessarily worse, one of the many joys of this band is the lack of production and the way the band avoid over thinking the songs and the fact they seem to come together by way pure unpolished talent.
The only low point on the record is supplied by way of the final track - a remix of 'You Holler, You Scream', this isn't because the remix is bad, it's actually really good, it just sounds completely out of place: a pristine, well produced remix on a record recorded on a 4 track. It's sort of like putting the Sydney Operahouse next to St. Pauls Cathedral - both are great, but they don't complement each other and it doesn't work. However when viewed as a bonus track, the remix is a great track on one of the brightest debuts of the year so far.

8/10

Shooting From The Shadows is out on Saddle Creek now

Words (Directed by Marcus Harrling):

D.M. STITH

Every few years a singer/songwriter type comes along from the underground and captures the hearts of many and makes the transition from being inexplicably unknown to some how being successful whilst retaining every scrap of credibility they started out with, Anthony Hegarty did it through sheer wierdness, Bon Iver/Justin Vernon did it via coming across like the most ordinary and likeable person in music, listening to D.M. Stith's debut album it's hard imagining the same not happening to Stith due to his jaw-dropping originality.

On first listen to Heavy Ghost the amazing attention to detail becomes apparent not just in the music but also the packaging, the production and the lyrics. Every song is given its own atmosphere and space, yet the album is the tied together with harrowing. ghostly layered backing vocals, trickling piano lines, improvised lead vocals recalling Anthony & The Johnstons debut, stumbling drunken rhythms and as Stith himself says 'a notion of being persued by something'. Stith takes you into his own dream world, it's been far too long since an album like this has so clearly displayed the artist's vision.

The album has it's own distinctive personality, which can probably be put down to Stith playing most of the music himself (with some fairly impressive cameos from Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond & Sufjan Stevens) whilst self-producing the album to mind blowing standards himself. This is goosebumps, hairs on the back of the neck stuff, reverb-drenched, astounding and beautiful.

9/10

Heavy Ghost is available on Asthmatic Kitty Records.