586 posts from 2008

Vu passed along singer-songwriter Leerone's debut full-length for me to post about and I'm so glad he did. Usually when a musician is labeled a "female singer-songwriter", the thought of acoustic songs comes to mind for some reason, but Leerone exceeded my expectations.

Imaginary Biographies is Leerone's first full-length album featuring eleven original compositions with wonderful piano ballads. On choosing the title of the album, she said, "I think of this batch of songs as little stories and worlds that exist in my mind. I was thinking a lot about when something is imaginary, specifically that we choose to keep it imaginary, or to make it real. That's sort of where the title of the album came from." On the opening track "To Fill the Void", she provides some uplifiting words for anyone who's had uncertainty with their life; "Who are they to tell you what your life is supposed to mean? Why are you so willing to be at their mercy?". On "JUNK / Peace of Mind", she dismisses the media saying she can't find peace of mind among all the advertisements inviting consumption and greed, TV because it's too depressing, and People magazine because of its "rhetoric of stardom".

With songs like these, it urged me to listen to her two previous EPs, In This Life, On This Road and Hail to the Queen. They sound a little more raw and stripped down compared to Imaginary Biographies. Hail to the Queen is just her and her piano, whereas In This Life, On This Road features other instruments accompanying her piano and beautiful voice. A song that stood out while listening to these EPs was "All Is Well" from In This Life, On This Road. It's a simple song about her naivety as a child. She believed her life would be like Snow White, but as she grew older, that dream faded away and seemed intangible. Leerone is a great musician whose releases I look forward to, especially with her choice of subject matter in her songs and amazing musical compositions.


Happy New Year to everyone! Here's to another year of sharing music with everyone who visits the site with open ears. I'm glad that WHM has a variety of contributors, all with their own personal musical interests. I'm looking forward to 2009 for some new releases.

After my recent musical tune purchases that were inspired by childhood memories I have decided to do a spot of writing on the bands that fit into the category in my mind. I must say a couple of things before I launch into my spiel.

Firstly, these are by no means all the bands/songs that remind me of moments in my childhood… a few others that I wont mention in any detail here include: the terrifying song Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, which was clearly about a rogue band of chairs that went around kidnapping children (“the chairs have got my son”); You Can’t Hurry Love by Phil Collins; and anything by Dexy’s Midnight Runners.

Secondly, an apology to those a few years older than me who are sure to know a great deal more about these bands (mainly because there is sooo much to write about and I‘m not planning to write a definitive history here) and probably like them for greater reasons than I do. Please feel free to contact me and harass me and/or set me straight regarding any mistakes I make.

Hoodoo Gurus
Formed in Sydney in 1981, the current members included Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist), Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, harmonica). Not a strictly “pub rock” band, the Hoodoo Gurus took inspiration from various genres including  a number of various types of rock music (60’s, pop rock, psychaedelic-esque rock, etc) and hence attracted a wide variety of fans.

A mighty 8 studio albums the band has under it’s belt as well as an induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007 locks the Hoodoo Gurus in as one of Australia’s most notable and brilliant rock acts of all time. They were a mainstay on the Australian music scene from the early 80’s up to the late 90’s and I can also remember a tour with Spiderbait and Peabody, which must have been in about 2003 (?) and I’m fairly sure they are still doing their thing somewhere in the world at this very minute (in fact, looking at their official website, it seems they‘ve just wrapped up an Australian tour). I wont go into any further history, but just take a look at some of the associated bands: The Victims, The Scientists, XL Capris, The Hitmen, The Dubrovniks, Monarchs, Antenna, The Moops/Persian Rugs, and Ghostwriters.

The song that brings me back to my childhood is the song “What’s my Scene?”. Released in 1987 on their 3rd album Blow Your Cool!, I specifically remember the film clip as being hilarious (in the mind of a 7 year old). I realise it’s not their best or most profound song, but there was always something about it that stuck in my head. It, since the, was modified and utilised by Australian Rugby League as their theme song in the form of “That’s my Team!”…. so profound. (It's the Newcastle Knights, in case you were wondering.)

Icehouse
Icehouse were another Sydney-based band, formed (under the name Flowers) in 1977 that took simple “pub rock” to a whole new level. Utilising a vast array of synthesizers and other instruments, Icehouse were able to produce a number of epic-sounding tracks (as well as many not-so-epic sounding tracks) that were the basis of their success both in Australia and Internationally.

At the front of Icehouse, we had Iva Davies. According to various sources, Iva seems to have been the only permanent member with a long list of members that stepped in and out during various periods of the bands history.
Icehouse were always one of those bands, to me, that had so many familiar songs that I didn’t know were by Icehouse until I reached a certain age (same as Kiss, but that’s a whole different story). For example, Great Southern Land, from my favourite childhood movie, Young Einstein, I didn’t realise was Icehouse until I was at least 15.

The Icehouse song that has always stood out for me is Electric Blue. Aside from being one of the best songs to do karaoke to (see you at Chatswood RSL on any given Friday night!) it was one of the singles on their 5th album, Man Of Colours, that was released in 1987 and was the highest selling album in Australia by an Australian band as recently as 2006 (I can’t seem to work out who holds this title now…. Feel free to let me know).

I'm not sure if this is their official website... if it's not.. i don't know where it is!

Mental As Anything
Formed in 1976 through a meeting of the founding members Martin Plaza and Reg Mombassa at the East Sydney Technical College art school (now the National Art School). Mental as Anything are known for poppy , well-crafted melodies and lyrics, and a very unique sense of humour.  I’m not sure who came up with this one but it seems that “they are arguably one of the most typically "Australian" of rock groups”.

The original lineup of the group, which boasted four songwriters and lasted more than twenty years, was: Martin Plaza (Martin Murphy) – vocals, guitar; Reg Mombassa (Chris O'Doherty) – lead guitar, vocals; Andrew "Greedy" Smith – vocals, keyboards, harmonica; Peter O'Doherty – bass, vocals; and Wayne "Bird" De Lisle (David Twohill) – drums.

With 18 albums (including “best of” and various compilations) it’s really difficult to write a concise blurb on Mental as Anything. From 1976 to present, they’ve had quite an epic history.  So if you feel like learning more…. look HERE at their official website.

Again, there are a tonne of  notable songs that I could talk about including the 1979 single "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" to “Mr Natural”, which was their most recent song to enter the Australian Top 40 charts in 1995. Two of the songs that figure most prominently in my childhood are “Live It Up” (1985) and “Too Many Times” (1981). Both more pop than rock, but Live It Up being significantly more reminiscent of what music was like in the mid-80’s.

Specifically, Live It Up reminds me of my half-brothers 18th birthday party at Whitebridge Community Hall… don’t ask me what year… but I must have been no older than 5. It’s the perfect cheesy party tune and the lyrics sum up my adolescent years…. almost.

Too Many Times was definitely a jig-around-the-kitchen-in-overalls type tune. It’s catchy and has a banjo and a harmonica (which incidentally, was the name of my imaginary friend at the time). It’s currently the anthem of this summer holiday I’m having (apart from the break-up bit).

Mental As Anything - Live It Up

Mental As Anything - Too Many Times (1981) 1 comment

Well…. I know there are many others I could talk about… but for now I wont.
I’ll let you digest these ones first.
Enjoy!

Sally
sally@weheartmusic.com

 12/30/2008 07:15:54  ♥ written by vu ()

I know politics and music have little in common, but releasing music around election day might not be such a great idea. I think perhaps people will be watching too closely to the polls to pay much attention to album being released. Plus, combined with Thanksgiving and a weakened economy, well you get the idea...

So below are a few albums that were released on November 4^th that was largely ignored. I finally had the time to put them all in for a spin:

ROGUE MOTEL
roguemotel.com ♥ myspace.com
Rogue Motel are an indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. I've been noticing lately that there seems to be a ton of bands coming from the upper west coast (mostly between the Seattle and Portland), and they all seem to be pretty good.

Anyway, to start off, this is one of my overdue review, but to be fair, there was a lot of confusion about the actual release date. I try and schedule reviews to go up just prior or around the release date, so it's kind of important to me anyway to make it timely. Unfortunately, they moved the release date to election day... see note above.

I think the band might have been named after living in a cheap motel while recording their album, far away from their home, in Kentucky. The result is this moody but intense album called Daylight Breaking.

The title, I think came from their best song (in my opinion) called "Hurry Up": "Early morning but the sun's not up yet, I came to look for something to ease my head". This is a pretty upbeat song with a simple, but memorable and catchy, chord.

I also really dig, "Smoke and Vines", particularly the line:

you want to change me, get in line

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the lyrics has a rebellious feel to it and that the band will continue doing what they're doing.

You can currently get the album digitally via amazon or the itunes (I've been having a lot of crashes relating to itunes, so I hate them).

FUTURE CLOUDS & RADAR
futurecloudsandradar.com ♥ myspace.com
I wanted to mention these guys for my Christmas 2008 for their song "Christmas Day 1923", but obviously a lot of songs were left out this year. Well, I reckon there's always next year.

To talk about them, you'll have to go back to the late 90s when they were known as a the power pop band called Cotton Mather. They had a string of albums before rising to fame when Noel Gallagher asked the band to tour with Oasis.

Perhaps he was tired of the power pop thing, but singer Robert Harrison went on to form Future Clouds & Radar, a more art rock/orchestral/psychedelia, much in the vein of, say the Beatles' Sgt Pepper.

Listening to their second album, Peoria, released on Election Day, it feels very sixties. Check out their perfectly 60s pop song, "Old Edmund Ruffin". Doesn't it sound like something John Lennon might sing on ?

I generally enjoy all the songs with trumpets ("Eighteen Months", "Mortal 926"), but not so much the crazy synthy chaos sounds (the middle of "The Mortal"). Thankfully it's just one song that I didn't really get along with.

If you've ever liked later-The Flaming Lips or psychedelic Beatles, you really need to give Future Clouds a try. Get your own cloud 9 at the usual locations (amazon, emusic, etc).

BSTC
myspace.com/bstcollective
Finally we have Music for a Saturday Evening by BSTC, also released on Election Day. We don't normally get soul albums in house, but when we do, they certain stand out among all the indie-rock stuff we get.

Like the 60s-inspired music of Future Clouds and Radar, the BSTC (short for BlackStone Theatre Collective) is drowned in 70s disco, soul and jazz. They seem to be very proud to represent their deep roots in these genre of music.

The band/collective is mostly producer Andy C. and multi-instrumentalist, Tunji, with singer Keanna Johnson. I think Johnson only sings on a few songs, but she seems to be the face of the band.

I personally thought the two stand-out tracks for me are "B.S.T.C." and "Jazz in Outerspace". Both instrumental songs offers some outstanding beats and groove. Since I wanted to represent Johnson's vocals in the song, I thought the excellent hip-pop song "Get It" should be used.

Fans of soul music, Buena Vista Social Club, or Jason Miles, should really take note of BSTC.

Can't get enough of their music? Check out that widget thing, it will play a few other songs from them.

You can get Music for a Saturday Evening from various places, usually amazon or emusic.

 12/29/2008 10:37:02  ♥ written by vu ()

Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS) or mypodcast (RSS) (Update 12/29/08, currently mypodcast service is not working, this will be the last time I'm mentioning the awful service).

We're back from Christmas hiatus. Considering the majority of my Sundays are taken up because of managing schedules, interviewing, and editing the show, so I am no longer actively requesting bands to come onto our show. It is part of our 2009 strategy which I'll address in January. Let's just say that the volume of music review in 2009 will not be as much as this/last year (as per my request).

However if you are serious about being on the radio program, please email me with the subject title "Podcast" and I will get back to you with an available schedule.

The audio recording is excellent, I'm using a new USB Logitech microphone, say goodbye to the analog mic! I'm also using a brand new Skype recorder called Call Graph - which seems to make its money off advertisements via their Call Graph Browser. It's free and worth checking out if you're into doing some Skype Recording.

I don't like how it records my audio on the left speaker, and my guest on the right (I ended up making the file as mono).

Andrea Gerak - Edes Gergelem Andrea Gerak & Barozda See Also Enya http://weheartmus... First off, I've edited together a few video sessions and we're going to call it a Holiday Buyer'...

PART ONE: ANDREA GERAK
andreagerak.com ♥ myspace.com
We recently mentioned Andrea Gerak and I'm happy to have her on the show to talk about her mostly-Hungarian traditional music.

She has three albums, Authentic Hungarian Village Music, Árva az a madár (Lonely Is The Bird), and Madárka, madárka (Little Birdie).

Download Andrea Gerak's Segment (19 mins)

We touch on:

• her background, from Hungary to Sweden
• "Rorogwela"
• All of her albums and the musicians that played on them
• She's looking forward to playing more live gigs and currently working on new music
• The story behind "Édes Gergelem" (My Sweet Gergelem).

PART TWO: SALLY!
schnitzelsafari.blogspot.com ♥ sally.weheartmusic.com
If you aren't familiar with Sally, she's one of W♥M's active writers, based in Australia.

So, join Sally and I, as we reminisce on days of yore, when music was hard to come by. When we were still trading mix cassettes, when we live and die by the next issue of Select Magazine.... Unfortunately all the lovey dovey Blur and Pulp trivia was toss out due to the audio software failing to capture Sally's microphone the first time around. What was left was a 50 minute of me talking to myself - which is way creepy.

So Sal was generous enough to re-do the recording, this time with her rock and roll Singstar microphone.

Download Sally's Segment (32 mins)

And we sang about:

• Sally's gift-to-herself ABBA Singstar game and microphone
• we struggle to remember the Tears For Fears cover song by Gary Jules ("Mad World")
• Kill the Cod fanzine
• Supergrassy Furry Animalsssss
• Choose 1995, Triple J, RAGE, and other musical things
• John Farnham and Jet
• Jarvis Cocker seduced Sally
• "Cities Bands" (I have an idea what that means, but it's not a term I'm aware of) "Shitty bands" (damn aussie accents), the Internet and the "Golden Age of Australian Bands"
• Schnitzels: the mysterious love of schnitzels
• Britpop Night, upcoming Primal Scream, expensive Razorlight concert ($60 AUD/$40 USD), Charlatans,
• Sally's unabashed love for Mental as Anything

 12/28/2008 13:25:40  ♥ written by jaklumen ( / jaklumen.vox.com)

Gejius ("say: Jee-jus and don't act the fool," from his MySpace page) is an indie electronic performer/laptop producer from Portland, Oregon.

Black Eyes, his first album, was released in 2006 on the Nueva Forma label.  Here's how Nueva Forma describes it:

This debut release from Gejius was created as a work of experimentation for open minds and ears. Jumping in at the beginning with Makkuro Kurosuke, the songs bounce from track to track giving the listener a fun yet introspective listening experience.

Other highlight tracks to watch out for are 'qpolaroidb', 'in Search of Moby Dick' and 'her Eyes on Horizon'. This engrossing 15-track full-length album is your perfect companion on any journey- roads or not. Or, better yet, as Dr. Brown [Emmett Brown, from the movie Back to the Future] put it, "Where we're going we don't need roads."

It's definitely an eclectic, eccentric, and engaging mix of instrumentals-- mingling in ambient and poppy sounds.  I've said it before in other electronica reviews that active listening, preferrably through headphones, is ideal, but for something this varied and diverse, I can't repeat myself enough.  (Unfortunately, I don't have a good set of headphones of my own at the moment.  But trust me on this one.)

Black Eyes can be obtained at the Nueva Forma online shop.

Wet Set: The Toys of Synth is a self-released EP recorded a bit more recently in 2007.  As of this writing, I was unable to procure a copy of the complete recording, but if "Slip 'N' Slide" is any indication (as well as some videos of live performances of other tracks), it's a lot more light hearted and fun.  Three of the tracks were written for Sean Christensen's Girls With Synthesizers series.

Here's a music video for "Slip 'N' Slide", directed by Christensen:

Reminded me a lot of odd experiences I had working at convenience stores back in the day.  Look carefully-- the cigarettes on the table have a mock logo with "Gejius".  Definitely a guy with a broad sense of humor.

 12/28/2008 00:47:36  ♥ written by vu ()

I just saw another great Danny Boyle movie called Slumdog Millionaire, the movie I'm sure you have all heard about. It basically about a story of Jamal's life, through a series of questions from his appearance on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". Although I won't go too much into the plot, without giving away too much, it's ultimate a destiny love story between Jamal and Latika.

I will point out some things I didn't like was that most of the movie was in English, which seems kind of weird, being in India. The small parts that did feature subtitles, well the subtitles was done in a way that I haven't seen before. Also, I didn't feel like there was any sense of real danger. I know there are a few realistic horrible scenes (the children league of beggars scene for instance, you'll know what I'm talking about if you see the film), but I was never at any point in fear of what will happen to the characters. It's not grim or gritty and the directing doesn't come off as comedic or cheesy, but it's not "real life", if you know what I mean.

Either way, I did enjoy the film, but not love it. I don't hate it, but considering his earlier enjoyable works such as Sunshine (his sci-fi movie), 28 Days Later... (his fast zombie movie), The Beach (his "I'm not working with Ewan McGregor" movie), Trainspotting (the Britpop druggie movie), or Shallow Grave (the first of the money-bag trilogy movies)... Slumdog doesn't quite have it as a Bollywood movie. And I reckon it's not what he intended the film to be compared to either.

Anyway, like Boyle's Britpop-soundtrack of Trainspotting, the soundtrack to Slumdog fits the film quite nicely between modern and traditional Indian music of A.R. Rahman and the urban world hip-hop style of M.I.A. Although I think Rahman's compositions works well as background music, I felt sometime M.I.A.'s in-your-face music overwhelm her scene. Still, it's hard to ignore the catchy sound of "bang bang bang ka-ching" sound effects in her "Paper Plane" hit song.

My two favorite songs from the soundtrack is Alisha Chinai's vocals on the Sonu Nigam song "Aaj Ki Raat". Chinai is quite famous in India, often called The Indian Madonna. Anyway, the song is actually originally from another Bollywood picture called Don - The Chase Begins Again, but I suppose Boyle love the song so much, he snuck it onto his own film.

Also, of course, the big bollywood dance number, "Jai Ho", was also pretty memorable. Incidentally, if you were wondering the vocals on that track is by Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, and Mahalakshmi Iyer.

So I highly recommend you checking out Slumdog Millionaire, if it's still showing at your local movie theaters.

 12/26/2008 09:19:30  ♥ written by vu ()

"Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day - you gave it away!"

That very next day, well that's today. In honor of the day after Christmas, Cover Lover presents: "Last Christmas"!

Wham!'s "Last Christmas" song is possibly one of the best Christmas pop song. Released in 1984, it dominated the charts and is still very popular even today (especially in Japan and Southeast Asia). Re-issues after re-issues, song is one of the best-selling single in UK chart history.

All that success lead the music publisher Dick James Music, to sue George Michael for plagiarism for the song "Can't Smile Without You". If you listen to the song by The Carpenters from their 1976 album, A Kind of Hush, it does bear a heavy resemblance - and eventually the matter was settled out of court.

Britt Nicole-Last Christmas

Twelve Girls Band - Last Christmas

I've previously already mentioned Britt Nicole and Twelve Girls Band's version, so be sure to check them out. I will comment that "12 Girls" is a misnomer, that there is actually 13 girls in the band. I have thought about it later and realized that the Chinese are very superstitious about luck and numbers. 12 is lucky, while 13 is not.

Anyway, here are some more covers:

CRAZY FROG www.jamba.de Crazy Frog - Last Christmas As much as I admire and love British culture, I could not understand their love for that Crazy Frog (Europe's love for the Crazy Frog sent him to #1 in the charts - simply by selling ring tones!) If you've never heard of Crazy Frog, it sounds to me that they just remix music by other people and through the brilliant marketing of an animated frog. Thankfully the craze never made it over to the States, and if it does, I'll bet you that Americans will complain about the Frog's penis. If you were wondering about the woman singing on Crazy Frog's housey "Last Christmas", it is by singer Nicole Bolley.	ASHLEY TISDALE ashleytisdale.com ♥ ashleymusic.com Ashley Tisdale-Last Christmas Like many other modern girl pop singers, Ashley Tisdale came out of the Disney school of music... or better known as High School Musical. Hate it or not, it's hard to ignore the impact of HSM on popular culture. In 2006, Tisdale decided to release her studio recording of "Last Christmas" for Warner Brothers Music. The song was eventually released only as a one-track radio promo, and only available as a digital download. However, if physical CD is your thing, you'll find the song as a B-Side on her He Said She Said EP. If you get a chance to listen to the sort-of-whiney version of "Last Christmas", it doesn't really add much to the song. It's definitely more modern and pop.
I'M SO LOOK YOU myspace.com ♥ imsolookyou.blogspot.com I'm So Look You-Last Christmas I'm So Look You is from Japan, I think mostly driven by DJ Muranao. I couldn't make any sense of her myspace or blogspot, as it's mostly written in Japanese, so I can't really tell you much about her. She seems like a young woman with a talent for mixing. Anyway, she recently remixed "Last Christmas", adding a little jingle bells, "Joy to the World", violas, synth, and techno beats to the original song. The vocals are modified enough that you might not recognize that it's George Michaels. She'll be DJing in the Nagoya area, check it out: 12/24/08  domina "パジャマ de オジャマ de KISS!!" 12/31/08  club buddha & R-base cafe "年越しパーティー☆" 01/10/09 GOLDEN CHILD CAFE 01/14/09  SARU 01/24/09  club EDITS "藤澤志保 Release Tour" 01/29/09  domina "HEIDI" 02/01/09 club EDITS "TRASH" 03/13/09 club buddha "LOVE LIFE MUSIC!!!"	HILARY DUFF hilaryduff.com ♥ myspace.com Hilary Duff - Last Christmas Hilary Duff is probably best known as Lizzie McGuire (yet another Disney child star). She ventured into music obviously, and from her first real studio album is actually a holiday album called Santa Claus Lane, released in 2002. The title is a fictional street, as originally referenced in the 1947 song "Here Comes Santa Claus" and probably inspired the poppy "Santa Claus Lane" song on the album. No surprise, but I don't think Duff wrote any of the songs on the album, they were either written for her or established songs. Some of the covers I did recognize is Paul McCarthy's "" and Wham's "Last Christmas". Incidentally, the "chicawah" sound effects on "Last Christmas" made Duff's version very cheesy. The quirky effects are also applied to other songs on her album. Someone should've stopped the mixer/producer from over doing it.
BILLIE billie-piper.net (unofficial) Billie - Last Christmas 1 comment Billie Paul Piper or better known simply as "Billie" is a British singer and actress. Unlike her teen pop contemporaries, she's not of the Disney music school. However, they're all pretty much interchangeable, aren't they? She dabbled in music, but have only managed to released two albums (strangely securing a "Greatest Hits" album based on the two previous studio albums) and seems to have taken more into acting. Currently, she's better known for playing Rose Tyler next to the Doctor in the television series Doctor Who (2005 to 2006), where she's won numerous awards for "Best Actress" to GQ's "Woman of the Year".	DAM VINH HUNG damvinhhung.ws ♥ myspace.com Dam Vinh Hung-Last Christmas Dam Vinh Hung is a pop singer from Vietnam. It must be hard to be a singer or actor in Vietnam because the state of things in the region is that everything is bootlegged and you can forget about money and royalties from legitimate sales of your records or DVDs. It's gotten to a point that people prefer the bootlegs due to the attractive dirt cheap prices. Anyway, the cover song is sung entirely in Vietnamese and contain the opening dialogue. I'm probably mis-translating it, but he said something to the extent of: My love, do you remember me? I know you don't love me anymore.

Phew, this year has flown by! I just got finished making Christmas brekkie for the family, and while they're stuffing their faces I wanted to give you a little musical gift.


One of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs, covered by one of my favorite bands. Enjoy your holidays! I'm going back to the kitchen =E

--Ceji

 12/25/2008 03:35:28  ♥ written by vu ()

And so, it's Christmas already. What happened?

The Glasvegas article was supposed to be a short snippet in Part Two of my Christmas articles, but as I started listening to it and writing and realized this was a group that deserved to be in its own article... well you get the idea. So technically this is the second and possibly final Christmas post from me for this year.  And if I don't say it, it's implied that you have a wonderful Christmas. Keep warm!

By the way, for those wondering about a "Top Ten" type list, that's being compiled for January 2009!

So below are some old and some new Christmas-type songs.

WOULD-BE-GOODS
connectedup.com/would-be-goods ♥ myspace.com
As you know, I am a huge Would-Be-Goods fan, particularly because I find Jessica Griffin's storytelling songs very compelling. Plus, I am a sucker for her oh-so-British accent.

They quietly released their latest album, Eventyr (which means fairytale), late October and I haven't really seen much promotion on it. I've placed my order on Matinee at a reasonably price of $10, so I am hoping to have reviewed in 2009 as I clear out what's left of 2008.

Well anyway! They have this wonderful, fun Christmas song on their 1993 album, Mondo, called "Christmas In Haiti". Listen to Griffin's dilemma as she describe to you a Christmas in the tropics, complete with voodoo chicken and a cockroach in her beer.

As I listen to other songs off Mondo, like my all-time-favorite "Black Pearls Of Polynesia", "Lisbon Beat" and "La Fonda Del Sol"... wow I can't wait to hear Eventyr.

LAST NOVEMBER
lastnovember.com ♥ myspace.com
I previously mentioned Last November on W♥M last year, and since then I have their second album, Over the Top or Under the Weather. The album is pretty much alt-rock, so if you enjoy Story of the Year or the Midway State, you'll like this. They do utilize lots of reverb, strange loops, and echo effects, making it consisting interesting. Most of the song on the album is pretty upbeat.

My favorite song on the album is "Uppers, Downers, & All-Arounders", which is an all-out-sing-along stompering song.

Their Christmas song on the album is called "Merry Christmas Little Match Girl", a mellow and depressing song, one of the few. I should mention that toward the end, it does start to pick up a bit, giving a little hope.

Hey, guess what? They are doing a few dates:

27 Dec 2008 Handlebar w/ After August & Sequoyah Prep School Greenville, South Carolina
10 Jan 2009 The Vinyl w/ The Drownout, The Swear, & Hot Lava Monster Atlanta, Georgia
24 Jan 2009 Soho w/ Sequoyah Prep School Columbus, Georgia
20 Feb 2009 Dragonfly Theater w/ Hot Vegas & Young and Running Boone, North Carolina

BRITT NICOLE
brittnicole.com ♥ myspace.com
Britt Nicole is a Christian singer, probably better known over in Europe, despite being from Nashville. Her songs even sport a weird-British-style singing, combined with hip-hoppy pop-rap. Check out tunes like "Holiday" and "Say It" from her 2007 album, Say It. Fans of Lily Allen should want to check her out.

Anyway, regarding Christmas, she covered George Michael's "Last Christmas" on the same album. Almost all the popstars have covered this song, and this version is pretty faithful with little deviation from the original song.

Well, it looks like Nicole is busy working on her next album, due out in 2009. She loves her fans, apparently you can just call her number 615-823-7325 to leave a message for her.

 12/24/2008 08:16:50  ♥ written by vu ()

A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like a Kiss) Glasvegas 01/04/09 Great Scott Boston, MA 01/05/09 Late Show with  Letterman 01/06/09 Bowery Ballroom NY (Sold Out) 01/08/09 Popscene San Francisco, CA 01/10/09 Chop Suey Seattle, WA 01/11/09 Richards on Richards ON 01/12/09 Doug Fir Lounge Portland, OR 01/14/09 Troubador, CA (Sold Out) 01/15/09 Late Late Show with Ferguson 03/30/09 Webster Hall New York, NY