12 posts tagged “wales”
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Britpop ♥ Flyer (11/07/09) |
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BRITPOPCAST #3: WELSH BRITPOP BANDS
This show was recorded on Saturday morning at 12.30am with Sally. I was half tired and half unprepared... but lots of fun on this episode about Welsh Britpop bands.
Welsh bands we focused on: Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Catatonia, Stereophonics, and 60ft Dolls.
The second part, which is more like a post script is that Sally will be DJing Jarvis Cocker/Pulp music for an hour on December 5th in anticipation and celebration of Cocker touring in Australia around that date. Come stalk her in Sydney, more details on britpop.com.au.
Below is the interview Sal did with singer Gruff Rhys from SFA, originally published in Kill the Cod fanzine.
Whilst attending a smashing concert at Newcastle Uni (25th.Feb), i managed, as well as being able to watch three of my favourite bands (Lavish, Super Furry Animals and Custard), i was able to have a chat to a Mr Gruff Rhys, the lead singer of the Super Furries. So here is the story of that night....................................................................................*sally*
What's the deal with all the Welsh bands that have been touring Australia lately?
It's really funny, you know, we used to share the same amps as Catatonia and we shared drummers, we've known members of Catatonia since I was...you know...
So you lived near them?
ah...Catatonia are from North Wales and we're from South Wales...your in bands for years playing along and it's...so surreal, you know...we'll be playing in Melbourne the same night as Catatonia and we'll probably meet up with them after...and I saw them in a pub in Cardiff before coming over...
So it's just coincidence that you, Catatonia and the Manic Street Preachers have all decided to tour Australia at the same time?
Yeah...cos Wales is a small place...you bump into everyone and you meet everyone...the music is quite different...you know? Everyone does their own thing, so no one is in competition with each other...it's great you know...to meet up in exotic locations
How do you like playing with Lavish and, tonight, Custard?
well...I haven't heard Custard and I hadn't heard Lavish until last week
How do you feel about not being the headlining band tonight (Newcastle Uni)?
That's fine...yeah...I mean we've never played in Australia before and no one's heard of us practically...you know..we sort of have just started out in Australia, so it's great to be number 1 and number 2...it's good to have an audience...I don't care about headlining...you know, I think that's secondary to the music true true...
So how did the Super Furry Animals form?
ahh...we started recording in Dafydd's house about five years ago (points to Dafydd)...this doesn't translate on tape..um..that short guy with the brown shirt..um..we had a home studio..we spent a few years writing songs and before that me and Dafydd were in a band called Ffa Coffi Pawb, Guto and Bunf were in a band, and Cian had his own band and Cian is Dafydd's brother so he used to hang out with us...and by this time me Cian and Dafydd had moved down from North Wales to Cardiff and we knew Bunt and Guto from the days in Ffa Coffi Pawb, we were all in Welsh punk rock bands you know..then we spent two years in the house writing songs and playing around and um...then we decided to start playing live...we did a few gigs and then we got together to release a single on a label called Ankst and so it's one of those freaky things...we'd played about two gigs and we sent a copy to the NME or something and we got a slot in a pub in London and about 10 journalists came to see us and wrote rave reviews...we went to London again the week after and played in another pub and there was about 40 record companies and they all wanted a piece and...it was really strange and easy and then we did an album for Creation...we've been in bands for 10 years making music and suddenly you get offered this chance to record the albums of your dreams you know..and come to places like Australia to play
Are you enjoying Australia?
Yeah...I didn't know what to expect at all and it's a good place and um...i'm looking forward to coming back...yeah I want to come back
I don't know if you've ever been asked this but...i've got a game called Actua Soccer at home..
..oh yeah...
and I notice a SFA team with you running around the field...so how did you get into that?
well...we were making a video and we didn't have many pictures and we wanted to walk into the screen and change into football players and so we got in contact with these people and they did it free for us and...but they fucked up cos..we selected a team of all our heros..um...we had..i think Che Guevara was in goal, Nelson Mandella on the wing..i think Lou Reed was in the team and...Fidel Castro and...Frank Zappa on the wing, etcetera, etcetera and the five of us...apparently they've put like..Stalin and Ghengis Khan on the team and it's horrible cos they lost the piece of paper we sent them so they put all these wankers in, you know...it's really bad...so we're all embarrassed it's still an alright game though I prefer Fifa 98
yeah...me too... What football teams do you support?
Bangor City...their in the league of Wales............ah a bug (on the ground).........yeah..i support Bangor City in the league of Wales and I support Cardiff City who are in the third division of the English league even though it's a Welsh team...um...I support Barcelona and Bilbao in the Spanish league...who do you support?
I support Arsenal and it's not just because they won the FA cup and that, I had been supporting them for years, so don't get any ideas
o.k....i know some Arsenal fans
What is your favourite telly show ever?
well...Calimero...it's like a Czech cartoon. Calimero is a little black chicken with half a shell on its head and um...I did have a photo of him (searches his pocket and wallet)...he's like the only black chicken in a family of yellow chickens and it gets translated into Welsh so we used to watch it in Welsh on Welsh TV and i've met Japanese people...it's been translated into Japanese and Italian and in Scotland it's in English with an Italian accent so Calimero's catch phrase is "It's an injustice" (in an Italian accent) and um..in Welsh it's (Welsh words-sorry ) which is "there's no flavour to life"..it's this depressed chicken..it's a cartoon for kids but, you know...Calimero...god guy..one of the greats
How do you Kill the Cod?
Are you an active fisher?
it's actually out of the Goodies
Ah yeah...i saw a band a few weeks ago and they've got Graeme Garden's son on keyboards...he's got the same smile...that's quite amazing..i don't'know if I endorse killing cod..so maybe we should let it swim..you know.
10/24/2009 20:06:30 ♥ vu (
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
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11/07/08 The Academy Dublin
11/10/08 Union Chapel London 12/02/08 SECC Glasgow 12/03/08 SECC Glasgow 12/04/08 AECC Aberdeen 12/06/08 International Arena Cardiff 12/07/08 International Arena Cardiff 12/09/08 Echo Arena Liverpool 12/10/08 MEN Arena Manchester 12/12/08 Metro Radio Newcastle 12/13/08 Trent Arena Nottingham 12/15/08 NIA Birmingham 12/16/08Centre Brighton 12/17/08 Intn'l Centre Bournemouth 12/19/08 Arena Sheffield 12/20/08 O2 Arena London |
The new album is pretty much typically Welsh rock, if you've enjoyed their previous albums, you'll definitely enjoy this new album. The cover artwork seems to suggest a mix of sex (two women's lips?) and war (a grenade pin), a theme that reminded me of their infamous Performance & Cocktails cover art.
Back to Pull the Pin, the official single from this album is "It Means Nothing", which I didn't like that much as I think the song sounds too sensitive. I mean, I've always thought the 'phonics as more rock-n-roller type, and as they've aged into Just Enough Education to Perform they seem to get more mellower. I suspect this has more or less to do with singer/songwriter Kelly Jones (I don't have Only the Names Have Been Changed, but I reckon this is might be more acoustic and mellow compared to Stereophonics).
The songs I did like, I really like, and they include "Soldiers Make Good Targets", "Bright Red Star", "Pass the Buck", and "I Could Lose Ya". Yes these songs are aggressive, compared to say "It Means Nothing", "My Friends", and "Ladyluck", but I just some really enjoy that loud, loud rock sound with Jones' whiskery vocals.
The DVD portion only features four songs live, and I thought "Bank Holiday Monday" sounded particularly well.
Pull the Pin did quite well in the UK, charting at number 1, but in the US failed miserably. Shame, really, because I think it's actually one of their best album to date. The album is available now from any major retailer, courtesy of Universal Music Group.
Also, there's a lot of 'phonics news on the vine, I hear that Decade in the Sun: The Best of Stereophonics is scheduled to be released on November 18th.
Details below:
HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW THE STORY BEHIND YOUR FAVORITE STEREOPHONICS SONGS? WE WANT YOUR QUESTIONS!
In celebration of Stereophonics' forthcoming album Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics, the band will be answering fan's questions about the songs included on the greatest hits (+2 new songs) album. These questions and answers will be put into a very special podcast that will be made available worldwide through the band's website. The band will answer 20 questions (one for each song) from a few lucky fans who will be chosen to not only ask the band their question on the podcast but will receive an autographed copy of Decade in the Sun.HOW TO ENTER:
Email your question for the band to: StereophonicsPodCast.at.gmail.com (Deadline is November 10th)The question should specifically relate to one of the songs included on Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics. The track listing is as follows:
Dakota
Bartender and The Thief
Just Looking
Have a Nice Day
Local Boy In The Photograph
Maybe Tomorrow
Superman
Pick A Part That's New
My Own Worst Enemy *
I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio
You're My Star *
Mr Writer
Step On My Old Size Nines
Devil
It Means Nothing
A Thousand Trees
Vegas Two Times
Traffic
More Life In a Tramps Vest
Handbags and Gladrags
The greatest hits album CD and DVD will contain two previously unreleased songs: "My Own Worst Enemy" and "You're My Star".
Since I actually own all of Stereophonics' album, I thought it would be nice to talk about their previous five albums and my favorite tracks from each album. For casual fans with only one or two albums, you might want to check out Decade in the Sun. Hardcore fans will want the best of for the two new songs.
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Word Gets Around (1997)
This was Stereophonics' debut album, originally as a trio. The album didn't do so well in the US, but it did alright in the UK charts. I bought this album when Performance & Cocktails was released, so I had a lot of 'phonics song to listen to, but my favorite was "A Thousand Trees". |
Performance & Cocktails (1999)
I love the cover artwork for this album. I've always thought it was a picture from an airport, but as it turned out - it was a staged photograph based on a similar picture outside of a prison. There are loads of great songs off this album, but I'm fond of "The Bartender and the Thief". |
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I saw Stereophonics live for this tour, the big controversy was that the title was originally called "JEEP", but apparently that's a copyrighted name from a car company. I bought the Best Buy version of the album as it included a bonus 4-track CD, which was nice because the album was only $9.99. You might enjoy "Everyday I Think About Money" about a trunk driver who fantasies about stealing the content of his truck. There's a nice, sad, twist of an ending of the song you don't often find in pop songs. |
I "borrowed" this album from my ex-roommate, who was a Stereophonics fan. By this time, they've cracked the mainstream (although if you ask me, I thought they did that with Performance & Cocktails.) Not much to say about this album. "Maybe Tomorrow" appeared over the credits to the Award-winning movie "Crash" (2004). |
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I did borrow this album from my ex-roommate, and I can't say that it's one of those album I've listened to over and over again. Despite all that, this album was really well-received by the British press and even reached #1 in the UK charts. The first single is "Dakota", which I thought was pretty decent, but I would not have called it as "Single of the Year", as did some reviewers. It is pretty catchy and I thought the line "whatever happened to you" says a lot to the band around this time. |
 Only the Names Have Been Changed (2007)
This is singer Kelly Jones' inevitable solo album. Each of the ten songs are names of girls - most people just assume they were former lovers :/ I never bought this album, I don't even think it was released in the States... Update: I just found out that this album is being released in the US around the greatest hits album. |
)10/11/08 ABERDEEN Tunnels with Das Wanderlust / Captain Face & The Marionettes (14+) Aberdeen, Scotland
10/22/08 ITALY - Forlì - Diagonal Forlì, Forlì - Cesena
10/23/08 ITALY - Pescara - Mono Spazio Bar Pescara, Pescara
10/24/08 ITALY - Recanati - Extra Alt. Club Recanati, Macerata
10/25/08 ITALY - Foligno - Feedback Foligno, Perugia
10/26/08 ITALY - Fucecchio - Limonaia Fucecchio, Firenze
10/30/08 BATH Moles with The Kabeedies / Lego Castles / The Panther Girls dancers Bath, Southwest
10/31/08 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE Star & Shadow Cinema - Lulu’s Pension party with The Actionettes Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northeast
11/01/08 MIDDLESBROUGH Westgarth Social Club with Pelle Carlberg / Das Wanderlust Middlesbrough, Northeast
11/06/08 LONDON Brixton Windmill with Pelle Carlberg London, London and South East
11/16/08 CARDIFF Swn Festival @ Clwb Ifor Bach - Peppermint Patti with Agaskodo Teliverek Cardiff, Wales
 Let It Slip EP (Jun 2008) CD-EP |
 All I Wanna Do (Apr 2008) 7" Single |
The School is a six-piece band from Cardiff, Wales (UK). The current members are Liz (vocals, keyboards), Ryan (bass), Joshua (drums), Ceri (guitar, vocals), Steph (violin, vocals), and Harri (guitar/glock/vocals/percussion). They were signed to Elefant Records (Spain) in the Summer of 2007 after performing only four shows. Early this year they released their first single on 7" vinyl, titled "All I Wanna Do". Their first E.P., "Let It Slip", was released this summer.
If you give their songs a listen, it will become quite obvious they're heavily influenced by 1960's motown and girl-groups. Their songs are upbeat and catchy without being mindlessly cute or "twee". It's likely that anyone who likes Camera Obscura will find it easy to to like their labelmates The School. They could also be compared to other 60's-influenced bands such as The Pipettes, Belle and Sebastian, and Lucky Soul.
The song I'm attaching here is the title track from the "Let It Slip" E.P. Containing four outstanding songs, this E.P. is well worth the purchase. The standout track for me is "I Want You Back"... it's the type of song that gets stuck in your head for days, and won't leave you complaining about it for even one second. I imagine they'll be releasing a full-length album at some point, and if their two releases so far are any indication, it's going to be nothing short of fantastic.
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Links:
myspace.com/theschoolband
theschoolband.blogspot.com
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Tour Dates
08/20/08 Birch Aquarium with Shawn Mullins San Diego, California
08/21/08 Border’s Books In-Store San Diego, California 08/30/08 KUSI morning show San Diego, California 09/21/08 Main Stage - Oceanside Harbor Days - Alex Woodard and the Naysayers Oceanside, California 10/04/08 House Concert Series - Seattle Seattle, Washington 10/11/08 House of Blues with Chris Cagle San Diego, California 10/17/08 House Concert Series - Alex Woodard and the Naysayers New York City, New York 10/25/08 Casbah - Alex Woodard and the Naysayers San Diego, CA 12/06/08 Casbah - Alex Woodard and the Naysayers San Diego, CA, California 12/10/08 House Concert Series - Lafayette, LA Lafayette, Louisiana 12/11/08 Ogden Museum - Alex Woodard and the Naysayers New Orleans, Louisiana 12/12/08 Julep - Alex Woodard and the Naysayers Jackson, Mississippi 12/13/08 House Concert Series - Memphis, TN Memphis, Tennessee 12/15/08 Tin Roof I Nashville, Tennessee |
Alex Woodard's self-titled debut album is out today, and if you've kept up with site.w♥m, you'd know that you can get him to write a song about you if you pre-order his album.
The link is still available, probably until the end of today, so if you want to brag to your friends that you have a song about you...
It looks like you need to use PayPal to buy his album, and your email will then be used so they can contact you directly about your personal song. You'll also be grant exclusively to "The Woodshack" for more cool stuff with Woodard.
I wasn't offered his album for review, but based on this one song, "Reno", I thought this news was worth mentioning. It has a country/western feel to it, and I did like the duet with Sara Watkins. Her sweet southern comfort voice is a nice counterweight to Woodard's country pop vocals.
Anyway, if you got a chance to check out W♥M Podcast #19, I did mention at the end that I would like to do more coverage on international artists. Fortunately, we received enough artists for this article.
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SOUND AND FURY
soundandfury.com ♥ myspace.com
Most of the more metal/heavier rock I have given over to Soup, but on occassion, I would grab something if it looks interesting. Anyway, I thought I'd take a stab at listening to Canada's Sound and Fury's debut album - mostly because of the William Shakespeare's reference ("A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing") and their stunning cover art (who says album artwork doesn't sell a record?) The cover is a die-cut of "SF" covering most of the men in skull masks, which upon closer inspection looks like it might have been real skulls, photoshopped on their bodies. Getting past the cover artwork, this album is actually pretty rockin'. I can already hear AC/DC and early punk influences in their song (especially with the vocals and some of the frantic guitar riffs), this band sounds like they are from the 70s/80s. They seem like a relatively young band, being that this is their debut album (just released June 26th on Rebel Youth Records). Plus a lot of their subject in their songs involves early age/high school, such as "18", "Teenage Rampage", "School's Out", and "High School Hotbox"... hey as they say: write what you know! They are sure getting their names out, being recently on the Warped Tour and now supporting Airbourne and Bang Camaro, so be sure to check them out all over the US and UK:
August 20 Imperial de Quebec Quebec City
August 21 Le National Montreal August 22 Elements Kitchener August 24 Cowboy's Ranch London August 27 Garrick Centre Winnipeg August 28 Odeon Events Centre Saskatoon August 29 Event Centre Edmonton August 31 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver Sept 1 Sugar Victoria Sept 12 Pearl Street Northampton, Massachusetts Sep 13 Asylum Portland, Maine Sep 25 Double Door Chicago, Illinois Sep 26 The High Noon Saloon Madison, Wisconsin Sep 27 7th Street Entry Minneapolis, Minnesota Oct 3 King Cobra Seattle, Washington Oct 4 Dante’s Portland, Oregon Oct 5 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, California Oct 8 The Roxy Theatre Los Angeles, California Oct 9 Beauty Bar Las Vegas, Nevada Oct 10 The Casbah San Diego, California Oct 11 Plush Tucson, Arizona Oct 24 Exit/In Nashville, Tennessee Oct 25 EARL Atlanta, Georgia Nov 1 Cardiff University Cardiff, UK Nov 2 Bristol Academy Bristol, UK Nov 5 Birmingham Academy Birmingham, UK Nov 6 Sheffield Octogon Sheffield, UK Nov 7 Liverpool Academy Liverpool, UK Nov 8 Manchester Academy Manchester, UK Nov 10 Dublin Ambassador Dublin, IRE Nov 11 Belfast Mandela Hall Belfast, IRE Nov 13 Inverness Ironworks Nov 14 Dundee Fat Sams Nov 15 Glasgow Barrowlands Glasgow Nov 17 Newcastle Academy Newcastle, UK Nov 18 Leeds Met University Leeds, UK Nov 19 Stoke Victoria Hall UK Nov 20 Nottingham Rock City Nottingham, UK Nov 22 Oxford Academy Oxford, UK Nov 23 Norwich UEA Nov 24 Cambridge Junction Cambridge, UK Nov 26 Folkestone Lees Cliff Hall UK Nov 27 Astoria London, UK Nov 28 Astoria (TBA) London, UK Dec 1 Laiterie Strasbourg, France Dec 2 Boule Noir Paris, France Dec 4 Apolo 2 Barcelona, Spain Dec 5 Theatre Barbey Bordeaux, France Dec 6 Rolling Stone Milan, Italy Dec 7 Rohstofflager Zurich, Switzerland Dec 8 Flex Vienna, Austria Dec 15 Small Vega Copenhagen, Denmark Dec 18 Grunspan Hamburg, Germany Dec 21 Backstage/Werk Munich, Germany Dec 28 Colas-Saal Ascahffenburg, Germany
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SOUTH
south.uk.net ♥ myspace.com
If their description of "Coldplay" and "Travis" doesn't turn you off, then you'll love this London-based trio, South. Although (based on their fifth album, You Are Here), they do sound more contemporary British pop/rock, they did originally started out as more of an electronic act. This is especially evident with their work with Stone Roses' Ian Brown (the Madchester scene is still some of the most influential music today) and UNKLE's James Lavelle (who was so impressed with these lads that he signed them on his own personal label, Mo' Wax).
Since I'm not familar with their earlier releases, they must've shifted gears in 2003, after leaving Mo' Wax's label. However, there is a rumor, based on singer/songwriter Joel Cadbury's blog that suggests they might return to the more dancey origins because they want to release a brand new remix album. I'm sure you'll see that soon, if not next year. Listening to their latest album, I absolutely the crazy horns on "Lonely Highs", it sounds like some Spanish flamenco song... completely out of the blue. But listening to enough music, I can tell you that the single that everyone will love should be "The Pain". This song starts off with a nice bass, followed by a very Kink-esque melody. Other songs worth checking out are "Wasted", "Better Things", and "She's Half Crazy" ("don't you know that she's half crazy?"). The good news is that if you live in the US, the album is available domestically via Bluhammock. Be sure to check out some of our coverage of their other bands: Virginia Coalition and KaiserCartel. PS, there is a hidden song at the very end of "Zither Song". It sounds like a warped record, but it's a nice bonus. |
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DONNA LEWIS
donnalewis.com ♥ myspace.com
Welsh singer/songwriter, Donna Lewis, rocketted into fame with her 1996 VH1 hit single, "I Love You Always Forever" from her platinum-selling debut album Now in a Minute. If you have never listened to pop music, just head over to her myspace and you'll be in for a treat. The song has a very catchy rhythm, and the lyrics seems to go on and on. For fans of Lewis, you'll be happy to know that she's been steadily releasing music - her latest from last year is In the Pink. I can see from her album that "You to Me" is probably the hit single, it tries to capture that "I Love You" feeling, but more acoustic and sweeping backing vocals. An excerpt of the song appears again in a reprise version, just to remind you that this is the song. Apparently I am wrong, because her single from this album is "Shout", a jangley acoustic song with a focus on her sweet voice. The title of this album, not a reference to Tori Amos, comes from her song, "Pink Dress". This track, along with "Obsession" (I love the whispery "wishing well" that sounds like she's singing "whissing well") and "Shut the Sun Out" suggests more of an electronica/dancey future for Lewis. Although I like seeing this kind of experimenting and change, I don't think her hardcore pop fans would appreciate this... but I did enjoy her dance songs a lot more than her love/sugar pop songs. In the Pink have been out since April through the US via Peruzzi Music and Redeye Records. |
SALME DAHLSTROM
salmedahlstrom.com ♥ myspace.com
Although currently based in New York, this DJ/singer/mixer/music producer, Salme Dahlstrom, was born in Sweden. Once again, the Swedes does not disappoint with this latest release called, The Acid Cowgirl Audio Trade - out today, August 19th via Kontainer Records. After a short introduction to the album ("this is your brain on music..."), you're hit with an explosive dance number, "Bombastic". This is a hard-hitting song, it uses a lot of drumming and beats and it's just very catchy. I will have to point out that her "playful" imagery of a salute on the cover artwork as well as the lyrics "line up like a Nazi/watching every move that I make" might offend some overly sensitive people. Although I don't have a problem with it, I know this subject is still relatively taboo. It's also hard to listen to this album without thinking about another Swedish woman called Robyn. Especially in the easy-to-sing-along "C'Mon Y'All" (the main lyrics are "ooh la la, sing ooh la la, c'mon y'all"). She's clearly a talented woman, having written and put together all her songs. It looks like The Acid Cowgirl Audio Trade might be her debut album, consisting of two previously released EPs, with three brand new tracks ("C'mon Y'All, "Bombastic" and "Wearing The Peace"). She's supposed to be on tour for support of this album, so I'll be sure to mention her tour dates if those are made available. |
Here are some random album artwork that's sexually suggestive. We're not talking explicit or anything, just some eye-catching covers that I've noticed.
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The first album here is the 2005 self-titled debut album from French singer, Pauline Croze (paulinecroze.com). The cover shows (what looks like) a naked Croze, looking innocent with her doll-like eyes. She was twenty-five when they took that picture for her debut album, but the truth is she started writing and playing music when she was fourteen.
Last year, she released Un Bruit Qui Court, and seems to be more popular than ever.
Neon Neon (myspace.com/neonx2) has a rather suggestive and rude cover for his EP, Raquel. I don't really know much about him, apparently he's currently residing in Los Angeles, by the way of Wales?
This song, "Raquel", reminds me of early 80s new wave dance music, which I like... and apparently other people like him too as he's featured on the cover of last month's BPM Magazine.
Look closely at the cover to 2008's We're In the Music Biz by Robots In Disguise (robotsindisguise.co.uk) and you might be surprised. They're actually naked, with body paint. I guess they're more than meets the eye, huh?
If you got that joke, that's because they stole their name from Transformers[W♥M].
These two English girls reminds me of DIY punk DJs mixing some electronic music (but they also sing). They sound really fun, don't they?
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Speaking of looking closer, does the map of Make it Happen by Nizlopi (nizlopi.com) remind you of something else?
I think the cover is pretty clever actually, nothing too sexual, and at a quick glance, you wouldn't notice the woman's body.
Apparently there's only two members in this band: Luke Concannon and John Parker, two dudes from Leamington Spa in the UK. They got their name (Nizlopi) from Concannon's crush on a Hungarian girl.
While I Walk You Home features what looks like two people about to do the horizontal tango, but with the sunlight through the window, I would have to guess this is the morning after.
Despite the somewhat sleazy cover art (at least I think so), the music of Norway's Dylan Mondegreen (dylanmondegreen.com) is actually quite nice and folky.
Finally, we have a blatant booby cover of What's Wrong With You from New York's The Crayons (thecrayonsmusic.com).
I hope the tanned gorgeous babe on the cover sell some CDs, and as easy-on-the-eye as the cover, they're actually easy-on-the-ear as well.
Check out this song "God Hates Me".
So, this ends the first part on "Sex Sells". I hope to have a collection of "unintentional porn" in my next article. (Please send me some suggestions).
04/15/2008 00:05:20
vu
my♥posts
weheartmusic.com
The theme for these reviews are Electro and Dance. I'm probably not going to do a theme for the next review block as I have a mish-mash of CDs in house. Maybe someone can send me a suggestion.
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Austin Leeds
Austin Leeds is a DJ/producer from Miami, Florida, specializing in dance/house music with an amazing singles and remixes output, according to discogs.com. It looks like he's also booked on quite a few live dates, DJing various parties - and also playing with labelmate Starkillers. Speaking of label, Made Records have decided to compiled some of Leed's best songs into their "Dirty Sounds" collection called, what else?, Dirty Sound II/Love Machine. The CD's released today (March 4th). [ read more ] |
Konie The Club is Open is the latest release from Konie, an electronic/dance Swedish band (?), that seems to be under the direction of this Konie fellow. The album starts off with a hilarious "The Club Is Open", which you hear an old man, seriously telling us that the Club is open... only to correct himself at the end:
It really sets up the album to not take this album too seriously, that it's okay to have a little fun with it. [ read more ] |
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Bayard Russell Bayard Russell is a one-man singer/songerwriter. He also dabs a little in synth and keyboard, which appears in many of his songs on his debut album, Selftitled (2008). I found out that he's actually been in many bands (Karess, Clean Slate, Funkelstiltskin, The Very Nerve, and Matt Jones Band), but currently the singer and bassist for Negative Ken. Judging from their myspace, their sound is more plugged-in & rock than the decisively lo-fi Russell. The press material said that the album is not released until March, but looking around online, it looks like it's available now. [ read more ] |
Yip-Yip Yip-Yip is Brian Esser and Jason Temple, based out of Orlando, Florida. Two Kings of the Same Kingdom is their sixth album, released 2/4/2008. From the press material, it lists that this is the first time that the duo experimented with an organic saxaphone and horns and video (the album comes with a DVD). Before you get too excited about the DVD, I will have to admit it was hard for me to watch them all. They're too similar to each other and all the visuals are too ... they're extremely bright and distorted. Since it's harder to describe it, experience the video for yourself with "Jazz Rat" which is one of the songs I've enjoyed. [ read more ] |
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Icesixxx Icesixxx is an electronica artist, based out of Belgium. I will have to confess, I did not expect much from the album he sent me called MeKaNiKaLZ, but when I listened to it (all of last week) I have to say: this guy is really good. You can check out (and download) some of his song off myspace. He even offers MeKaNiKaLZ (his debut album) via a torrent. I asked him to tell a little about him and how he got into music: [ read more ] |
Kristofski Kabuki Kristofski Kabuki is an Electropop musician from Cardiff, Wales. I have his demo CD, which I'm calling it This Demo Belongs to WeHeartMusic as that last bit was written in by hand. Possibly by Kristofski, himself, or at least his secretary. There are only four tracks, and the last song is listed as "Keeponmovin'" as a cover of 5ive. Since I've not brushed up on my boy-band, I had to look up the song... which you can hear "Keep on Movin'" on their myspace. [ read more ] |
03/04/2008 18:04:52
vu
my♥posts
weheartmusic.com
Ok ladies and gentlemen, this one's a little different. I know I've posted far too many Crimea tracks already (and even an Akira The Don one but a couple days ago) but there's a much better reason for posting this.
You'll remember not so long ago Radiohead caused a stir by releasing In Rainbows as a pay-what-you-like download. Well, before all of that nonsense (and even before Prince's newspaper giveaway), The Crimea released their own album complete free online (yes, I blogged about that too). Anyway, this week they've been continuing their trend settings crusade against the music industry with a unique single release tactic. The lead single track, Loop A Loop, along with twelve remixes and two b-sides have all been made available through fourteen seperate blogs and one TV advert (UK viewers may have seen it already...). Each blog hosts an exclusive download of one remix, and that's where W♥M comes in...
Available to We Heart Music listeners is the release to the right, a remix by Akira The Don. It's not quite as exclusive as the others as it's also available for full download on Akira The Don's website, or on his ATD 15 mixtape CD. But if you like it, want more remixes, wanna know more about the band, or just want some more cool music blogs to check out, then take a look at The Crimea's official site where you can find links to all of the blogs featuring single remixes. I particularly recommend the Faronheit blog for the b-side Stoned, or Music Like Dirt for the unrelated article on Lily Allen's pottential album samples and influences.
Now we just wait for Radiohead to follow suit and get all the press attention...
Welsh born rapper and producer Akira The Don (Myspace) came to my attention after he remixed a song by one of my favorite bands. After a bit of searching I came across another cover he's made, Clones, originally by Alice Cooper. The original video posted on Newgrounds is probably as much as draw as the tune, though even that is deffinately catchy and I reckon better than the original. Check out the full quality flash vid on Newgrounds if the Youtubified version doesn't suffice. Welsh rap FTW! Seriously, did I ever post any Weapons Of Mass Belief stuff? - Christopher
This is the 6th Top 7, so you know what that means? The 7th and final installment will appear on December 31st, the last day of 2007. I love it when a plan comes together, don't you?
So I had to leave myself off this list because I have written over 387 stories. My goal was to write a story a day, so it's really no surprise that I have over 365+ posts.
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Coming in at 35 stories is my right-hand-man, The Dharma Blues dude himself, Ryan. Just take a look at some of his stories: We're All Going to Die for Christmas, Music from troubled minds (Mental Health Day), Joanna Newsom @ The Royal Albert Hall, From the trenches of my artificial Glastonbury: Day Two ("Glasto Coverage"), and A song about a man who doesn't have a cat... ("No Pussy Blues" by Nick Cave).
24 stories from Jason, all quality in my opinion! So many of my favorites: Little Boxes (ever wanted to hear 44+ "Little Boxes" covers?????!!?), (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons, Ratatouille / Le FestinHarry Potter and the Phenomenon of Wizard Rock (this article introduced me to "Wizard Rock", who knew?), Tetris Music (a must read!), Night and Day (29 classic covers), and Jaymay. Also check out Jason's free mp3 blog.
Christopher stories are all based around hot women who can play guitars (all Australian) and obscure band names. But don't let me discourage you from checking out Llama Farmers, Little Blue Crunchy Things (see what I was saying about weird names?), Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches, and Nobou Uematsu - Final Fantasy VII Soundtrack (who doesn't love FF?).
For Swedish pop, check out Randy's stories: The Concretes - Chosen One, The Charade - Monday Morning, Acid House Kings - Say Yes If You Love Me, and Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Rent A Wreck.
Hopefully we'll see the return of Gus in 2008. My favorite Gus stories: Bettie Serveert - "Hell = Other People" (I love Bettie Serveert!), A Group Called Smith (Deathproof), and 23 (Blonde Redhead).
The only lady to make it on the Top 7, is the Cristina. Check out: Soundtrack Maestros: Goblin, Reunion Recap (The Verve, Héroes del Silencio, Soda Stereo, Shed Seven, and Superdrag), and Birthday Beefcake (DANZIG).
Mads have disappeared, but his posts lives on: Jetstream Lovers - Floored, Rhythms del Mundo project, Candie Payne - All I Need To Hear, and Stereolab - Eye Of The Volcano.
I want to let you know that all contributors are very important to me, and although these didn't make it on the Top 7, you should check out their stories: Maggie, Lara, Jennifer, Emelia, WB Mook, Michael, Sally, Em, Dave, Troy, Kristine, inuit66, Valley Girl, Silpa, Alex, Ceji, Kennie, Jessica, Eric, Mel, Minh, Jaime, Marcus, Adina, and Celeste.
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12/30/2007 10:42:28
vu
my♥posts
www.weheartmusic.com
I don't know about that. I do know there's good reason for me following the band for the past 7 odd years. 'Course, at the start they had a few different members, were known as The Crocketts, and produced what can best be described as Welsh cow-punk. The lead singer, Davey, did stuff like this and this.
Then a few members left, a few more joined, they changed their name to The Crimea (though it was nearly the much more interesting Fat Camp Heros) and eventually they started producing much quieter, heart-felt indie with a bit of an edge. They've been compared to everyone from the Pixies to Dusty Springfield. I that's just marketing crap, but anyway. They released three singles and an album, then were signed to Warner Bros for a while who promptly went about releasing the exact same three singles and album once again. When they ran out of stuff to leech off, they dropped the band leaving them to run things on their own.
The song I've added is a never released demo from 2005 called Oliver Twisted (cockney for pissed, if you couldn't tell). The lead singer burned it along with a load of other in-progress tracks to a CD after a gig one evening and handed them to a friend of mine. I have good contacts. I actually have another version of the same song that came on a demo CD I got off eBay. They're almost like chalk and cheese, this one's kinda dark and emo-y, the other is real light and poppy.
Either way, in my opinion it's the greatest song the band have ever produced, and because of that and the fact that, as a good fansite webmaster, I must do my duty to promote the band as much as possible, I'm gonna post the second version of the song later on. That way, if you hate it, or you just forget that there's a free album to be had, you'll get a second chance to fall in love with the only band I've listened to for 7 years. Well, pretty much.
