Five Songs I'm Loving This Week

I feel really bad for giving my blog such short shrift last week. I was in a very, very bad mood. I'm feeling much better now, though. I'll give some more information on last week's bands later in this post.

On with this week's post:

Cranebuilders "Public Space"

Sigh. I searched and searched teh internet for a non podcasted version of this song and couldn't find one. So I coughed up the $.99 ($.99!!! Why don't they ask for my first born?) for the song from Musicmatch and I confirmed that I was downloading it, but it's nowhere to be found. I'm not keen on spending more money to try to find it through another site, so here be the Indie Feed version of the song. No, that's not me introducing the song. That's a guy. The song's really cool, though, in my opinion.


Cranebuilders album cover

Their Myspace and Website (not ready for primetime)

Camera Obscura, "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"

If you watch the video, you will see that the singer is obviously not just heartbroken, but she's mortified by something. The poor girl's face is frozen in eternal let down! Lloyd! Dude! What did you do? Anyways, I like this song so much that I'm going to try to help the singer get over Lloyd (get your mind out of the gutter). I'm going to remind her that there are good Lloyds in this world. There's Lloyd Dobbler. He's the ultimate good guy. He could give me a pen anyday. There's Christopher Lloyd. He's just awesome and funny. Any other good Lloyds? Lloyd Cole's a singer I like a lot.


Here, have the phonograph. No, I insist...

Their Website and Myspace

Copeland, "Don't Slow Down" (WMA file)

I had to (gulp) buy this one too. I gave up on Musicmatch (it's acting weird) and went straight to the origin of my music downloading obsession: Napster. That's why it's in WMA format. The only way I have of making it an MP3 is to burn it to a cd and reupload it as an MP3. Yeah, I'm too tired to do that.

The intensity and drive of this song more than makes up for any lethargy on my part. The vocals are plaintive and the accompanying music is every bit as urging. He really doesn't want the person to leave his side, though he seems to be telling the person he/she goes too fast. First, though, he tells the person not to slow down for him. I bet the person is just scratching his/her head in confusion. Still a cool song, though.


Copeland, Just hanging out, y'know?

Lyrics to "Don't Slow Down" (from Sing365), Their Website, Their Myspace and their Pure Volume Site.

Lost On Purpose, "London"

He seems to be blowing into a huge gourd on his Myspace page. For musical or recreationally hallucinogenic purposes? I don't know. He says his main influence is alcohol, but musically his taste is eerily close to mine. In fact if it weren't for the absolute lack of punctuation and overuse of the word "and" it could be my Myspace! Anyways, this song is a nice gem. It's a song about floating around, trying to find your place. He doesn't stay in one place long; he says in a year he's moved twice. One thing he knows is he's got to write songs to keep from dying. Eerily I feel the same way about alcohol (just kidding).


He's not lost; he's in a hallway. See?

His Website and Myspace

The Real Tuesday Weld "Something Beautiful"

I also originally heard this through Indie Feed. I was fortunate, however, to find the song on their website; thereby providing you with a clean, unadorned copy. It's very hazy, kind of dreampoppish. The vocals are very blurred, but the music is very detailed and ornate, featuring a tamborine and swirly keyboards. I love swirly music. I can't help it.


The Real Tuesday Weld need to meet Dresden Dolls. Or do you think there'd be cosmetic rivalry?

Their Myspace and Website/Blog

***

Sometime this week I'm going to write & post (in that order) a review for the reissue of Pogues' If I Should Fall From Grace With God. It's a matter of desire and obligation eventually winning the war over lethargy. It will be a mighty challenge. Well, as mighty as someone with lethargy can muster.

***

As promised, I'm going to include some links for the bands I posted last week. This way they get two mentions in my blog--they actually come out ahead!

Brookhaven (Does the song "Transitive Verses") Myspace, Label Site (no independent site listed)
Catfish Haven (Does the song "Crazy For Leaving") Their Myspace and Their Official Site
Divinyls (Does the song "Pleasure and Pain" and is famous for the song "I Touch Myself", both available on their unofficial Myspace). Their Official Site
Orenda Fink (Does the song "No Evolution") Her Myspace and Official Site
The Sharp Things (Does the song "There Will Be Violins"--what a great song!) Their Myspace and Their Official Site
Sara Culler (Does the song "At Least Like Melissa") Her Myspace and Her Official Site
Gomez (Does the song "Notice") Their Myspace and Their Official Site
Like Honey (Does the song "Airport) Their Myspace and Their Official Site. Coincidence alert: They're from the same town in Sweden as Sara Culler. Weird, huh? (I always have loved Swedish music).

I also mentioned some Myspace bands, but since I posted their Myspace sites, I'm not going to repost them here.

By the by, here's a video for one of my favorite Ween songs, "Freedom of '76". What? You don't know who Ween is? Well, if you like faux Prince songs that are sometimes kinda crass, this is the best band for the job. (The song doesn't start until about two minutes into the video). (Mannequin was filmed at Woolworth, Boys 2 Men keeping the beat)

and remember kids, sometimes a dreamer is a loser.

...I don't know much about Lloyd Dobbs. Is he a good Lloyd? Lloyd's of London is the first insurance company. Is that good? Probably not. Frank Lloyd Wright had some beautiful architecture. According to Wikiepedia, Lloyd is a variation of various Welsh names. I like Wales, so that's more positivity connected with the name Lloyd.

...I am so frakkin' tired now...

Song Post

I'm not much in the mood for a full five songs post, with commentary, but I did manage to download a few songs that I really like:

Brookhaven, "Transitive Verses"

Divinyls, "Pleasure and Pain" (I loved this song when I first heard it when I was in high school. That was a long, long time ago).

Catfish Haven, "Crazy For Leaving"

The Sharp Things, "There Will Be Violins"

Orenda Fink, "No Evolution"


These are some songs that I've been listening to for a few weeks. I meant to include them in one of my posts, but they slipped through.


Sara Culler, "At Least Like Melissa"

Gomez, "Notice"

Like Honey, "Airport"

Also, I found some Myspace artists I like:

Tac Buchannon and the Hobies He's so pretty--at least I think that's what he says.

The Submarines

This would be cool:

A Life Less Lived: A Gothic Box Set

Also, completely unrelated to music (except it's from Rhino's offices), this is me at work:

Voicemail Hell

Okay, slight change of plans. My wall-to-wall weekend plans have plummeted :/ (wahhh) so I may have some time to listen to music. I'm not going to try to do an all-out five songs post, but I'll post some stuff by Sunday night.

Maybe I'll do a podcast!

One moment! Some of the links aren't working!

Eight Songs I'm Loving This Week (despite having limited time, I just felt like writing about eight songs instead of five. I was told by a rabbit in a dream that my power would increase proportionately to the number of songs I post every week. I'm sure by next week exhaustion and lack of ambition will influence me to revert back to my normal five songs.)

Also I figured out how to post songs to the storage space I pay for (it's about time I start getting my $5/month worth). So, hopefully this will work better than EZArchive. If anyone has any problems, please let me know.

1) James Figurine, "55566688833"

This song has definitely been the highlight of my week. I figured I can listen to it three times in a row while walking on my break. It takes a really kick-ass song for me to replay it three times in a row (the last song I did that with was Anathallo's "A Great Wind More Ash", which is just plain infectious). This song's pretty infectious too. It seems to be about a guy who doesn't text message his girlfriend and they have to resort to fighting face to face "like it's the nineties all over again". I tell ya, I never got the hang of text messaging. I mean, I know how to do it, it just annoys the hell out me. You have to punch four times just for the letter S. I use a lot of S's! If I want punctuation, forget about it. I'd be here all day. (By the by: the song title stands for "L.O.V.E". Yes, I had to sit there and pretend-punch it in. Texting really is annoying).

I just started this song over again. I keep waiting for the female backing vocalist to start singing "S S S S A A A A F F F F E E E E T T T T Y Y Y Y ..."


If James Figurine were an animation, I wonder if he'd look like this.

His Myspace, His Label Site and Official Site

2) Jet, "Move On".

I don't want to post a song from "The OC Mix 1". I don't watch The OC. I don't want to be associated with The OC; however, they've chosen to associate themselves with music I love, and that just pisses me off. Scrubs, yes. OC, NO!

Oh well. I can't un-love my music just 'cause The OC has made bitches out of it. I do love this song. Jet is cool. (Their Myspace and Official Site)


Despite the hair, Jet are not British.

Jet's Myspace and Official Site

3) My Brightest Diamond, "Golden Star"

The band is really only one member: vocalist (aka singer) and instrumentalist (aka music player) Shara Worden. She brings on other musicians to record and play live, but essentially she's it. Some of the songs I've heard are a little too dramatic for me (what, too dramatic?) like if Tori Amos decided to take it up ten notches. However, I can't deny that her songs are very well-done and her playing and singing is fantastic. This song is awesome, in my world anyway. It starts off sounding like it's going to be one of those hard-edged masculine rockers, but it turns into a very subtle, layered, intense song that rolls forward, gathering momentum as her voice reaches higher and higher notes.


Shara Worden is perty. Her Myspace, Label Site and Website

4) The Stills, "Destroyer"

I should stop posting The Stills. I'm going to post so many of their songs that soon there will be no point in buying the album. Okay, if you do end up downloading the whole album, be good and buy something from the band--a poster, maybe. Like Rock-N-Roll, downloading is here to stay, but it'd be a nice gesture to support the band in some way. Anyways, I love this band--they're Canadian, they have a song with Lola in the title, and they rock extraordinarily. This song in particular will destroy you (in a good way).


If The Stills don't destroy you, they sure as hell will make sure you can't see when you go to take out the trash. (Their Myspace)

5) Broken Social Scene, "It's All Gonna Break"

As far as I know, none of the members of The Stills are in Broken Social Scene, but they're about the only East Canadian musicians who aren't. Members of Stars, The Arcade Fire, Feist, The Dears and The Weakerthans have been in this collection at some time. The name of the band is appropriate because the line-up changes regularly. The band does have two core members: Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning (though one site lists Charles Spearin instead of Canning), who began the "scene" as K.C. Accidental. I'm so glad they changed the name.


I know--I thought it was a cast photo for Dazed and Confused too. BSS's Label Site, Noise Factory Site and Myspace

6) Scott H. Biram, "Down Too Long"

It's like M. Ward went off the edge of sanity and hollered a song back up to us. Imagine what a song might sound like by a guy on a label called Bloodshot records who's so dedicated to his punkabilly music that he went on stage with the IV still in his arm three weeks after being hit head-on by a truck. I only wish I had that kind of bravery and dedication. Of course if I loved my job as much as this guy does, I might be able to do it. I'm about to sound very silly saying this but this is Grade "A" hollerin' and stompin' bluegrass/rockibilly with enough punk spirit to blur the lines between the genres. His Myspace and Official Website


Cover to Scott H. Biram's latest album, Graveyard Shift

7) Wolfgang "Not In Love (Not True)"

It starts off sounding like an Erasure song. Seriously. It sounds just like "Sometimes". Then it gets all techno-robot-y. I like it. I want to hear what it sounds like without the modulation. I bet it'd be a kickin' little synth song, a la the great Yaz. (His, er It's Myspace, It's Official Site)

Do robots prefer to be called "It" or a gender-based pronoun?

Wolfgang the Robot

8) Band Of Horses, "Monsters"

Yeah, I should stop posting this band too, but I luvs them! Luvs them, luvs them, luvs them.

Okay, I've been restrained. Okay, so I haven't. I couldn't type if I were being restrained. Unless a monkey were trained to type in my place. That would be awesome, except I wouldn't want to take care of a monkey. Maybe a sock money. Sock monkeys don't have hands, though, I don't think.

Anyways, I love Band of Horses. This is a great song. (Their Label Page, Myspace and Band Page)


"Why can't you stop writing about horses? Don't we get enough publicity? We just want to graze in peace."

In other news: I just got a new contact prescription a few months ago but using this laptop with it's tiny little letters makes me wish I could find some glasses to put on over the contacts to make my eyesight super-good. That was a very long sentence.

I will do another podcast eventually, but not tonight. As it is, I'm having to tape Mystery.

I know it's after ten at night, but I suddenly want coffee. Shoulda thought of that before I finished the post. Dangit.

Five Songs I'm Loving This Week

Okay, well, I decided to use EZArchive for the first time. I created an account and uploaded all the songs I wanted to use this week. I wanted the mp3s to be hotlinks, and while they sort of are, they're not exactly what I wanted. I can get the downloads to open up directly from the blog entry; however, a web browser will also open up with it. Also, it won't let me drag and drop the mp3 file straight into Winamp so I can stream it. If anyone is familiar with EZArchive and knows how to make that work, please let me know.

In the meantime, these songs took up half of my 100mb account, so I unfortunately won't be able to keep these up for long (probably no more than two weeks; in some cases one week.

The Clientele, "I Can't Seem To Make You Mine"

I'm not sure if I've ever used the word "romantic" to describe a song because I always considered it hard to qualify what "romantic" is. Okay, though, I give. This song is sad, wistful and about a hopeless love situation. It's romantic and bittersweet. It makes me crave dark chocolate.


The Clientele

Their site, their label site and their Myspace

Grant Lee Phillips, "Killing Moon".

This is one of the first Echo and the Bunnymen songs I heard (the other being "The Cutter"). It's still one of my favorite Echo songs and Phillips does a pretty faithful version of it, albeit not as new wave-y a version. This version is less dense and terse; it doesn't have as much of a gothic atmospheric, (though it does sort of a gothic cowboy feel). That's not a big deal to me, though, because I can always get an absolutely 100% faithful rendition by listening to the original song. This version is just different enough to mark it as Phillips' own rendition, but not so different as to be unrecognizable.


Grant Lee Phillips

His site (look on his "links" page for archived live performances) and his Myspace.

Chin Up Chin Up, "Mansioned"

I've posted a few Chip Up Chin Up songs in the past; I love this band. The singer uses this almost speak/sing method of singing and it creates a repetitiveness that I've mention before I really like. This song is from their second album This Harness Can't Ride Anything. It won't be released until October, but this song has made it out into the wide world.


Chin Up Chin Up, Photo by Martha Williams

Their label site, their official site and their Myspace.

Sterlin, "They Love You"

This song reminds me a little of The Bangles, if The Bangles had their start in the '00s instead of the 80's...very bright vocals that glide over the melody. Like a lot of The Bangles song, this one is a very memorable very well-constructed pop song.


Sterlin

Their website and Myspace.

The Scanners, "Lowlife"

Sometimes my favorite song of the week ends up last; I don't know why. Maybe it's because I know I'll like writing about it more. I dunno. Anyways, this is a spark of a song. It ignites and doesn't stop until the very last second. The guitar part in it should be a classic. (from the album Violence is Golden)


The Scanners

Their website and their Myspace.

Five Songs I'm Loving This Week

For the sheer sake of comfort, I'm attempting to do this post from the couch, using my laptop. I'm not complaining, but it takes me about three hours to complete a post and that's a lot of sitting in an uncomfortable chair. So, as an experiment, I broke out the old laptop. Now I don't t ype so well on l aptop computers, so the raw post will look somtghing like this. I'll go through and clean it up, which will add the to the time, but if it means I still have feeling in my butt at the end, it may be worth it.

Kate Walsh, "Talk Of The Town"

Lilting folk music from 20-year old British singer-songwriter Kate Walsh. This song uses just a guitar and a voice, but the result has a quiet resonance. Her voice grips each note, making the song intimate and personal. As much as I love thrashy songs (ex: all the other songs in this post), sometimes all I need for a song to mean a lot to me is pure emotion backed by sparse music and a powerful voice (okay, and maybe a little thrashiness).

Kate Walsh
Her Website and Myspace.

The Grates, "I Am Siam"

What an awesome song. It has a lot of energy and the melody has taken up residence in my brain forever--I've been singing it my head for a few days now. It's neat how "I am" rhymes with "Siam", too. For some reason I find the song very affirming, though I have no idea why. Maybe I just need to be affirmed. Anyways, according to their website, they found the perfect wife, so that's good news. I'm not sure if that's considered polygamy; they're a whole band, so it would probably be polygamy for the bride.


The Grates
Their site and their Myspace.

Stars Of Track And Field, "Movies of Antarctica".

I'm not sure if this about movies made about Antarctica or if Antarctica has a film industry (Does it? I'm not sure. Chilly-wood?) Anyways, this is a very good, very quintessential "indie" song. Lots of loud, kinda thrashy guitars, vocals that fly but never quite catch up to the wall of instruments. It kind of reminds me of the music I listened to in the 90s, but it stands up as its own song.


Their website and Myspace

Starsailor, "Keep Us Together"

I first heard Starsailor when they became pretty well-known over here with their album Love Is Here. Their song "Good Souls" is one of the songs that got me back into music. After an unfortunate time in the late 90's listening to only the local alternative station and then moving to my mom's house where culture dies on the doorstep, I'd gotten away from music. That song jump-started me back into myself. This song, "Keep Us Together", from their new album On The Outside, hasn't changed my life the way the first song I mentioned did, but then again I'm not on personality life-support like I was in 2002. I may not shout for it to played 3 minutes before I die, but it is a very good song from a very great band. The "oh oh"s remind me ALOT of Simple Minds, which in my mind is a good thing. My only real gripe: It's perfectly acceptable in my book to pick on the U.S.--we deserve it. Just don't focus on one state; we're all to blame.


Starsailor tries to find the special mushrooms
Starsailor's site and Myspace

Headlights, "T.V."

Kill Them With Kindness is the name of this band's album. Hee Hee. Sneaky--I like it! Now I'll really take it as a compliment if someone says "Oh, Lola's so nice". Female vocals speed along urgently with equally energetic guitars and keyboards (actually it sounds like a Xylophone). The song climbs up a wall of sound and thankfully never plateaus.


Their label website (and a great label it is), their website and their Myspace.

Thank you for reading. I'm going to go eat popcorn now and watch some dumbass Scifi movie (there's always some dumbass Scifi movie).