Los Campesinos' new record We are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is out now. There will be no singles released from this album and the release with be LIMITED. That's right, it's capitalized. According to their website, only one worldwide run of CDs will be made and then it will be out of print. Over. Forever.
And to put a cherry on top of the limited edition album, the CD will be accompanied by a self-made DVD documentary, a 30 page magazine including artwork and lyrics and an exclusive poster.
No Doubt has been in and out of the studio in 2008 and while they haven't played live since 2004, they're playing a show at the Bamboozle Festival (New Rutherford, New Jersey). It'll be interesting to here the post solo Gwen Stefani No Doubt.
The group made the annoucement of new material via their website with a message that read:
"I have cabin fever. Maybe we should play some shows or something," guitarist Tom Dumont wrote. Vocalist Gwen Stefani answered, "I think we should go out now. I don't think we should wait. Pack up the babies and get a bunch of nannies. So fun! Would be so inspiring to get out there and play all those songs again."
NME has confirmed two important things for me just now.
One:
"Blur are certainly going to rehearse and see if we're into it," quoth Damon Albarn.
Happy times!
He says that all of the band's members, including Graham Coxon, will be working together in the coming year. Albarn then sat down among the performers at a BBC Radio Theatre rendition of Monkey: Journey to the West in London.
Paul Thomsom, Ferdinand drummer, told NME: "We shot it just after midnight behind the Barrowlands Ballroom in Glasgow. We wanted to get a Weegee vibe – that famous New York crime scene photographer from the '40s and '50s."
Read more, here, or pick up the latest issue of NME for a full interview with the band.
The Cardigans' Nina Persson will be releasing the sophomore album for her side project A Camp, on January 28, 2009. It's titled Colonia and the first single "Stronger than Jesus" has just been released. You can hear it at http://www.reveal-records.com/artist/A-CAMP/
Speaking of the very cool Ms. Persson, I wonder if the Cardigans are still on hiatus? The website hasn't been updated since 2005 and there's been no word on the status of the next record. Does anybody know?
Cut off your hands have an exclusive EP, Live at the Lime with... out now, only at the LimeWire store. It was recorded in Oct. 2008 for a Live at the Lime Session at the CMJ in New York earlier this year and and it includes two songs from their upcoming full-length album, scheduled for a Jan 2009 release. "Oh Girl" (my favourite track) and "Let's Get out of here" will be on the upcoming You and I full length.
Tracklisting:
1. You Still Love Me 2. Nostalgia 3. Oh Girl 4. Still Fond 5. Let's Get Out Of Here
Since we're already on the subject of expectations, Glasgow's Bubblegum Lemonade is slightly cooler than their name leads you to believe.
It's twee-pop, combined with 60's sha-la-las but slightly darker with Jesus and Mary Chain style drumming and Byrds inspired catchiness. Bubblegum Lemonade - I'll Never be Yours (mp3) (buy)
It's been a while folks, but something finally galvanized me to write on this blog. Since we're on the topic of The Killers, I'm happy that Mr. Flowers decided to rid us of the moustache. But I came across a review of their newest CD in the Toronto Star and was aghast when I saw this image accompanying the review. Someone needs to let the dude second from the left know, whoever told him he looked good in that "Kraven-the-Hunter" outfit was not his friend.
I was reading Toronto tabloid style newspaper, The Sun, when I came across an article in which Brandon Flowers explains two items. Two items that I think have needed an explanation for quite some time now.
1) His Moustache.
"We're coming back, I shaved, and we have a new album," Flowers, 27, said yesterday. "I actually grew quite fond of (the moustache). I feel more handsome with the hair on the face. Once these songs started coming out I decided that the person who sang these songs didn't wear a moustache."
2) Human Lyrics.
Many of "these songs"- including the new single Human, which references a Hunter S. Thompson quote in the line, "Are we human or are we dancer?"- were crafted by the Sin City foursome when they were still on the road for Sam's Town. "I think (Thompson) was very concerned with the direction of where we were headed in America - you know, the kids - and it's amazing how simply worded he put it, just by saying 'I'm afraid that we're raising a generation of dancers.' It says so much and so I stole it and it made this song," Flowers said. "One ironic thing is Hunter S. Thompson hated disco music, but it is a very dance-(oriented) song."
The 88's new video for Coming Home consists of the band spending the budget they were given to make said video, on giving people free gas and ice cream. What a nice group of boys. It's hard not to feel your heart being warmed while watching it.
Also in the giving spirit, is Amie Street, the indie online music store. If you haven't heard of it before, here's the low down: Artists can upload their tracks to Amie Street for users to download. The track price starts at $0.00. If the user likes what they hear, they may recommend it to other users. As the track gets more popular, and "bought" more times, the price of it increases, until it reaches a maximum of $0.98. Pretty neat, huh?
Well Amie Street is teaming up with Cheap Lullaby Records, and the Food Bank for New York City. For the next week, if you purchase music from any artists on Cheap Lullaby's label, Amie Street will make a donation to the Food Bank for NYC equal to 50% of your purchase.
And while we're on the topic, why not check out Gramercy Arms, who just so happens to be on Cheap Lullaby Records?
They seem like such nice kids, don't they?
Gramercy Arms are comprised of members from Guided By Voices, Luna, Joan as Police Woman, Dead Air and the Damnbuilders, with guest appearances from Sarah Silverman (yes, that Sarah Silverman) among others. I like to think of them as the New York version of Canada's Broken Social Scene. Only with a more structured sound.
They debuted their their self-titled album just yesterday. Check it out. I do recommend it.
So it seems that the music scene is already into diving head first into the spirit of giving this season. Why not follow suite? Give a little, get a little.
We exceeded our bandwidth recently, so some of our mp3s will be down. Working on a temporariry solution. Gotta fix that problem soon. I'll try to think up a permanent solution in the time being.
Gramercy Arms is a relvolving collective of New York based artists including members of Guided by Voices, Luna, Joan as a Police Woman, Dead Air and the Dambuilders. Kinda like an American Broken Social Scene.
Sometimes I feel very unaccomplished when I look at what others have achieved in their lifetimes.
I mean, the Radical Sons have already been signed to RCRD LBL and most of their members are still in high school. I looked them up over mySpace and read over their profile briefly before their tracks started to autoplay.
"The four future members of The Radical Sons met while loitering and skateboarding around the St. Louis Delmar Street Loop. "
Already I was biased. "Loitering skateboarding teens?... Probably another set of whiny emo kids."
They've got that gritty sort of garage rock feel going on. No doubt the upcoming EP they're releasing will sound a little more cleaned up, like the tracks that are up on their mySpace.
I've got a good feeling about them. Considering how young they are, they've got a pretty sophisticated style, and they've got ample time for improvement. I just know that a few years from now, when they're being interviewed about their sophomore album, they'll look back on Jungle and Brother Speed, and they'll laugh reminiscently at their past efforts. Then they'll exchange friendly banter with the journalist, telling him that those tracks were nothing compared to what they've been working on more recently. That's how I picture it anyway. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for the Radical Sons in the future.
More currently though, the Radical Sons will be opening for... Little Joy, who are playing in St. Louis, Missouri this Wednesday November 12th. Their debut self-titled album just dropped last week. Little Joy - The Next Time Around (mp3)(buy)
Little Joy made to main points to me: 1) They're another rebuttal against that "the drummer's making a solo effort ha ha ha" cliche. 2) Statistically speaking, the members of the Strokes must have so much talent that there should be city-wide power shortages when they're within the same vicinity. However, this isn't happening because they won't be near each other for while and their fourth album won't be out til late 2009, and still likely to be postponed. =(
Good on you though, Fabrizio Moretti.
Ironically, the show I mentioned earlier is 21+, so really the Radical Sons aren't really of age to play it. Speaking of age restrictions though... Franz Ferdinand is playing a show at Lee's Palace in Toronto on December the 4th and IT'S NOT ALL AGES.
Damn alcohol. I'm one year away from legal drinking age, and it's torture. Not because I wanna drink. But because I'm missing out on shows like, the Franz'. Although I guess I should congratulate the Young Lords for having their track, Rodeo Songs highlighted in that Guinness ad you just saw.
Meet the Pallers, makes of Swedish electronic music. It's rather "dance music for the lazy, the blazers and for the slightly depressed" which sounds like my kind of thing. Their EP Humdrum is out on December 3, 2008 and it's perfect for our lazy, wrap-ourselves-in-a-comforter-and-drink-some-hot-chocolate Canadian winters.
I saw Au Revoir Simone open for Voxtrot last summer the Sneaky Dee's in Toronto and it didn't leave a lasting impression. Their set was neither good nor bad, but I was a bit disappointed since I've heard good things about them. Au Revoir Simone had dropped from my musical radar until the song "Lark (remixed by Ruff & Jam)" arrived in my inbox. I had not heard any of their recordings up until this point, but it's worth another shot.
Au Revoir Simone are releasing Reverse Migration, a collection of their favorite remixes and cover versions their friends have created from their last EP, The Bird of Music. It's out Nov. 11, 2008, the album features contributions from The Teenagers, Darkel of AIR, Montag, Best Fwends, Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor, Pacific! and more.
Le sigh. Cut off your Hands, even with their macabre name, is something to swoon over. And it's not the fact that their debut album, You and I, which should be out in early 2009 is produced by Bernard Butler. It's because the EP Happy as Can Be already offers soaring, sweeping melodies, with a Brit-pop romanticism, and great melodies. They're from New Zealand, but their first single is already making its rounds in the UK. As NME states "what's not to love?"
Happy as Can Be Tracklisting: 01 You Still Love Me 02 Happy As Can Be (mp3) (buy) 03 Shorelines 04 Nostalgia 05 (Hidden Track)
He believes that Nothing's Forever (Not Even Goodbye). Just like the name of his new debut album.
According to his mySpace, "Aaron Beaumont completed degrees in Economics, Spanish, and Literature before concluding that, at least for the moment, what the world really needed was neither: A) a well-read bilingual economist, nor B) an economically savvy Spanish novelist, but rather C) yet another singer-songwriter."
...I wasn't alive in the 20s, but somehow, Aaron Beaumont makes me nostalgic for the decade.
The following are all-ages unless otherwise specified. This list is SUBJECT TO CHANGE. I'll try my best to keep this up-to-date but ALWAYS double check official sources before you go.
I hope that sharing a few of your songs is alright by you. If not, please let me know as I will immediately remove your material upon request. We're still good though, right?
Greetings few, but well-loved readers. Please enjoy your stay but remember, the mp3s are for sampling and will only be available for a short time. If you find something you like, support the artist. Buying the record and going to shows makes everyone happy.
Music submission? Important feedback? Questions or comments? Complaint? We're more than happy to hear it: impressionableyouth@gmail.com
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