I've got yer Five Songs! I've got yer Five songs!

(I've also got internet access again, which makes me happy. Something my cable company did killed my internet for six days, but it's back now).

I won't be having a podcast this week, though. The main reason is since I haven't had internet access this week, I haven't downloaded much, so I barely have enough to make my five songs post. Another very good reason is I'm already at 97% of my web storage capacity. I remarked on this last week: apparently $5 doesn't buy much storage. So, since doing a podcast is kind of a byline of my Five Songs post, I decided to let a little more time go between installments. I'm thinking either two or three weeks. I'll try not to let more than three weeks go by without a new podcast. Maybe at some point I'll either be able to afford more money for the Libsyn service or I'll check out other storage sources.

For now, though, I'm going to let the Five Songs post take precedence. The podcast will continue to be more what it was before; an occasional augment of the music blog.

More news: the review I wrote last week has been posted at Urban Jacksonville. Yay me! My next project for them will be a review of the Ted Leo show this coming Wednesday. It just occured to me that for me to do a thorough review, I actually have to see the opening bands too, grumble grumble.

I will say this: for having no internet access (except for what I got from the coffee shop) I still managed to find some great songs. I'm head over heels for every one of these.

Five Songs I'm Loving This Week

Palace Fires, "Nothing Comes Close"

Once again, I'm in love with the guitar. I'm also in love with the smooth, romantic vocals. The gauziness of the vocal part reminds me of another song from a few years ago, "Talking To Myself" by Cousteau. It's the same kind of romaticism that drew me to the 80's New Ronantic movement. In fact, a few of the songs in this post share that same quality. Unlike some of the following bands, though, I can't say they're "kinda British" 'cause they are British (from the "Nothing Comes Close" single).


Palace Fires investigate something interesting near the ground

Palace Fires' Myspace and Website

Peter and the Wolf, "Safe Travels"

I'm sure musicians hate to hear their music called "cute". I hate to call anything cute. The word cute implies something demure; something less than the rest.

This song is dang cute, though. It's his fault for putting the "ahahah"s in there! How can he put that in there without thinking someone would think it's adorable? I don't know why, but the background vocals make me feel like I'm at a luau. Maybe it's 'cause the instrument playing sounds like a ukelele. Is it a ukelele? I have no idea. It sounds like one, though. Maybe someone's going to Hawaii, hence the "safe travels" thing. That's pretty far to go no matter where you're starting from. (from the album Lightness)


Peter and the Wolf's Myspace and Website

French Kicks, "Go On"

I've heard a few of their songs, and I've liked them all (especially another song called "One More Time"). You might think from their name that they're Euro-electronic music (or Euro-something), but they're not. They're American and their sound is British via America, in a New-New Wave Walkman or Killers way. They're even from New York, like The Walkmen. They share a lot with that other NYC band: a city, a sound (kinda British, kinda Romantic in a Talk Talk kinda way). If the guy from The Walkman sang this song, I would probably think it was one of their songs.

Comparisons are not a bad thing if they remain in the correct context: I love kinda British, kinda Romantic (in a Talk Talk kind of way) music. I'm fully aware though, that, that these are completely different bands and the comparisons may start and end with this one song. The song's what hooked me--regardless of who or what it might remind me of. (from the album Two Thousand)


The French Kicks wonder what the one guy's tea leaves say. The tea leaves say "you guys play really cool music".

French Kicks' Myspace and Website

Longcut, "A Tried and Tested Method"

I love the guitar in this. It's very clear and sharp. The vocals are a little repetitive, but I like the song so much (especially the aforementioned guitar) that I can deal with a little imperfection (and it really is slight to me). From the album A Call and Response.

The version of this song on their Myspace is much different; the vocals are more full; more like singing instead of shouting :) I like the guitar on the version I posted better, though.


The Longcut's Website.

Touriste, "Your Move"

I first heard this band on KEXP, which is a great resource for the kind of music I like. They have a podcast called "Music That Matters" and the particular episode that played this band and also Palace Fires was #29 hosted by DJ Shannon. The song I'm posting here isn't the song on the podcast; I desperately (read: used every source I knew of) to find a copy of "Shannon's Cannon"--that song is spectacular, in my opinion. I only found it through ITunes. I downloaded it, but I'm sorry I did; I forgot that ITunes won't let me convert it to mp3 format so I can't even put it on my mp3 player. I'll probably end up buying the actual cd, though I'm getting away from buying physical music media. I have enough stuff in my apartment. I tried Musicmatch, but they didn't have it available.

Though this isn't the song I'd intended to post, it's still a great song. I got it from their Myspace. I hate the term "power-pop", but this song is very powerful, and a little on the poppish side (though if you download from my blog for awhile, you'll figure out that "poppish" can be good, as long as it's done in a mature fashion with real craft behind it. This is a very well-crafted pop song, and it shows that the band behind the song has true talent (from the album Hope and Faith).


Much like Palace Fires, Touriste have found something interesting to investigate.

You can listen to the other song, "Shannon's Cannon" on their Myspace. Their Website.