David O' Doherty & Arcade Fire

I've mentioned before how funny David O'Doherty is, so assuming you all know that, I invite you to take a look at his new music video for his new song 'Orange' - here on YouTube. It's a story of love and orange stuff. If you want to have a copy of the song, have this spirited live version. It's very good. Then you can buy his live cd here.

David O' Doherty - Orange (live)

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In Arcade Fire news (this is like a daily section now), they played another show tonight in London, as you probably know, but (according to reliable sources) they opened with a cover of The Clash's 'Guns of Brixton'. I can barely imagine how good that must sound with an accordion and a mandolin. As well as that, they've taken to writing serialised stories in their setlists - replacing the title of the song (Antichrist Television Blues) with varying lines in each show. The story so far:

Monday: Joseph Simpson knelt down in a grove and a dream came to him
Tuesday: He saw his daughter standing on a stage in a black room
Wednesday: When suddenly the brightest spotlight he had ever seen was turned on her

Who knows what'll happen next? Keep up to date here. And if you fancy familiarising yourself with the lyrics of Neon Bible, as well as a fable of Aesop's, you can now read them on the official site.
I can't think of another band that gets as close to their fans as this. Except for that punk band who raffled a night with their drummer at a gig, but that's different.

some really good music

Esiotrot - Sally Likes the Beach Boys

Esiotrot could be really good. This song is little over a minute long, but there's so many good and wonderful things about it. I'm not going to spoil the surprise for you. You can buy their album Schmesiotrot here for £4.00. Do it.



The Young Republic - Girl in a Tree

This is a really really nice song. With guitars and violins and cornfields and hills with dark empty trees on top and hot sun and lazily chewed food. And girls.



Andrew Bird - Heretics

I haven't heard this album yet, I'm way behind on listening to leaks. But from this song, it sounds like Andrew Bird has started using his formidable powers for good.

Not listening to Neon Bible is really getting me down. But anyway, you should all listen to that Esiotrot song. Yup.

Arcade Fire on tour

{via}

The band kicked off their tour tonight with one of five sold-out shows in London, and it would seem they are as amazing live as ever. Setlist:

Black Mirror
Keep the Car Running
No Cars Go
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
Haiti
My Body Is A Cage
Ocean Of Noise
Rebellion (Lies)
Intervention
Windowsill
Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
The Well And The Lighthouse
(Antichrist Television Blues)
Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)
---
Wake Up

Best of all, they played 'Wake Up' as an acoustic encore - on the steps of the church. The Daily Growl has pictures, and the forums have all the details - including this great video of Regine and the band outside.
Why is this news? Because their live show is the best I've ever seen.

Arcade Fire - Wake Up

Michael Knight Interview/Essay

The music that Michael Knight make sounds very little like that name - although it may wear leather, and help people, there's no way it has enough money to drive around in a car that looks like Neosupervital's sunglasses, and it probably doesn't get all the ladies either. But that's okay, because the music is really good in lots of other ways, with fishing-line melodies, unwanted Belle & Sebastian comparisons and kid-simple emotions running through it like a knitting pattern. Want to know more? Tough! You're going to learn more anyway.


These are the questions. There's a few, so you don't have to answer all of them, just the ones that seem the most appealing. It's like the leaving cert.

Give a bit of background on MK please.
When I first heard Foals, I didn't like it at all. But after a few listens I began to like it a lot. How did you do that?
How did you settle on the name Michael Knight? Has it ever been the cause of any humourous situations?
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the Carrots and 10 is U2, how popular do you think Michael Knight could be?
Describe your song-writing/recording process - do you have a firm idea of what you want or does the music only come together in recording?
Do you record at home or in a studio? How do you get the sound you like production-wise, what software do you use?
Do you do any good cover versions?
What has been Michael Knight's best show so far?
Describe your sound in one made-up word.
What was your favourite music this year?
What's your plan for 2007?

Taking my cue from the comment that "it's like the leaving cert", in this sub-1000 word essay I attempt, in my own words, to answer some questions from The Torture Garden (which will, I trust, be helpfully printed above). An exercise for the reader will be to determine the extent to which the answers to distinct questions have been successfully stitched together into a naturally composed whole. Perhaps a more interesting study would be on the level of deviation of this pretentious bookish nonsense from accepted rock'n'roll practice in the 21st century. Most fun of all, calculate the percentage of people still reading at this point.
(Being both a crank and lazy, I've opted to take offence at - and so ignore - the question "How do you get the sound you like production-wise, what software do you use?" by interpreting "production-wise" as a derogatory spit implying the interviewee is just a little too big for their production boots.)

Michael Knight began approximately some number of years ago as a desperate attempt by Richie Murphy to sex up his ponderous bundles of mediocrity by referencing a notable irony-laden figure of fun (who shall remain unnamed for legal reasons), reasoning that all band names lose their original meaning and the name would at least stick in people's heads in the "early days" (before worldwide fame and such). It should be added that this was before said figure of fun became ubiquitous mass e-mail roughage, that is to say, when it was still vaguely cool to reference this person (or so the author defensively thinks). In those less knowing times identifying the act was often met with a revealingly blank response, and even today one is frequently addressed directly as if this was one's name (though to be fair that's usually politeness preventing the addresser from pointing out the reference, similar to when one avoids commenting on a clearly visible pregnancy unless one is 100% sure it *is* a pregnancy).
A side effect of the choice was the discovery that all word processors seem, on typing the name of this band, to automatically generate (to the delight of the deadline and word-count motivated) anything from 50 to 100 words helpfully distinguishing the band from the TV show (oddly, despite the griping, this has just been repeated here, despite not even using a word processor).
Moniker chosen, the less important (word-count-wise) business of making music led ultimately to a home-recorded solo EP in 2003 and a studio LP as a 3-piece band in 2005. Another LP of what can hopefully (despite its grimness) be titled retrointellectropop should appear in 2007, with a varied array of musicians, recorded in various places, with various equipment, and furthering the MK project of combining indie leanings with nerdy classical music in dense event-laden pop songs. To the disappointment of record collectors across the globe however, each release to date has had only one version of its cover.
The 2005 LP was preceded by the single "Foals", which, like most of MK output, tries adult entertainment style to only gradually reveal its delights, this being achieved at the writing stage by zealously attending to extremely boring technical considerations such as avoiding repetition, writing long tunes and featuring lots of independent vocal/instrumental lines yawn...with an eye kept on other minor matters such as counterpointing the music lyrically yawn and fancy arrangements and working out in advance how it's to be recorded and what effects to use and yawn. Tiring writing this, even if it wasn't so boring. Continuing to ignore all contemporary trends, still convinced they should be as big as U2, and reaching new lows with every live performance, who knows what the future zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...


Foals
Waves to the Shore
Coronation Street (very lo-fi demo of a new song)

{Buy Youth Is Wasted On The Young here.}

Micheal Knight's second album will be released in mid-2007. For a taste of what it'll sound like, you can download the above demo, or listen to more tracks on MySpace.

es schneit

So it snowed, and it was beautiful, and the city itself went blue with the cold, and we made plans to build a snowman - but then it got just warm enough for the snow to disappear. But I've never seen a city that looked like it was meant to be covered in snow. It's like a dream, though I'm sure I remember loving Berlin when it's warm and sunny.

JJ72 - Snow (acoustic)

If you're not doing anything better, and you're probably not, you should listen to the segue the Arcade Fire do between 'Ocean of Noise' and 'Rebellion (Lies)' - possibly their two best songs, according to some.

Ocean of Noise (live)
Rebellion (Lies) (live)

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Though I haven't listened to the album yet (and still don't plan to), Louis from the UKK forums wrote a gushing yet wonderful track-rundown that was too good not to share.

I went outside and endured the cold until the end of Intervention, then I sat in my room in the pitch black and listened to the rest. It was amazing. Amazing is the wrong word. It was like some atonement. My fears just lifted and seemed to be released through the music, Win's vocals. It was total catharsis.
God, it's a difference. It's new. It's exciting. And it's utterly fantastic. Maybe it's just first whole non-stop listen excitement. But this is special. And I will treasure it so much.

So, Black Mirror. God. In context now. And it is an opener. The reflection bounces around, the energy is built up. It's self-sustaining, and self-powering. There's an almost ever-increasing supply of imagery, and as it grows it puts more effort into growing ever further. The verse, then the chorus. The flurry of woodwinds and the ever present chop of the guitars. It's like a train. Unstoppable. And then the peak in excitement, in feeling, "but mind is the only kind that I relate to!" and then it builds again. The sound just rolls on. Rising, falling, reflecting.
But it's dark, and frightening. Not full of fear, or even afraid, but still fearful of something... the other side of the mirror. Then the "un, deux, trois" and the violins follow. They're not the normal warm strings we're used to. It's different. There's so much intention, order and power.

Then the release. The energy starts to fall. It calms, but there's just enough of a respite before Keep the Car Running begins. The soaring strings, the mandolin joining in. Something is happening, and we're a part of it. It feels like it might never end. The drums kick, the piano keys jump, the song jerks and dances. The lyrics swirl over one another. It's beautiful. Again the song builds, but the fear escapes. Here there's refraction rather than reflection. Win's chorus starts and ends, the next verse begins, and the distant riff remains. The WooOOOHHS occur, they fit like in a perfect jigsaw. The sound drops, then rises again. The piano becomes more adventurous. Why use just one chord? Let's add two more! The dance continues. And then all of a sudden, it ends, as if time has run out.

What's that next sound? Neonbible.com. No, 'Neon Bible' on it's own. The skewed, watery vocals. Muffled. What are we meant to think? There's confusion, or rather contemplation. The lullabye that Win and Regine sing to us. The fear is there, it's acknowledged. Maybe the outcome is gloomy, but there must be an answer, right? The strings flow in, warm and humble. The wise cellos, and the comforting violins.

Intervention. The organ powering forward - there's life now. Maybe if we're fearful we have to do something about it. Maybe this is the answer.
It is grand, but the guitar is acoustic. The contrapunctual relationship between the guitar and the organ. The huge sound meets the electric. There's a trio of sounds: guitar, organ and electric guitar.
Then the whole instrumentation comes together: "Who's gonna throw the very first stone?" The violins are unashamedly self-confident. Swooping, diving, never stationary. Then comes the key change. And it does lift us up, and take us away. It's as if the night has ended. We've woken up after the lullabye and the sun breaks through the clouds.

Black Wave/Bad Vibrations seems odd here, in my opinion. But that's not a complaint, just an observation. The music begins united, close together. Again purposeful and beautiful: Regine's voice full of longing, the sea stretching out front. The calm water begins to become alive, the waves grow, then topple. Finally, the storm arrives. The guitar cuts across the curves of the first section, it's straight and direct, and the distortion floats out into the background like an echo of Black Mirror. Regine's vocals hover about. They're not angelic, but there's something higher about them. The storm clouds are in front of us, but the sun's still behind them somewhere, "moving under my feet". There so much feeling in this song, and yet I can't even feel half of it at any one time. The distorted guitars climb up. The piano briefly chips in. The choir and the strings rise and fall together. Win continues. And then Regine's vocals. Beauty! Like some wordless answer to her husband's questions. The sunlight streams through, the reality of the world is lit - the stage is lit. In the background Regine sings again. The grace... the sudden stop. And it's all over.

Ocean of Noise just makes me feel like I'm underwater. Maybe it's the position next to Black Wave/Bad Vibrations, the calypso feel. It makes me think of some historic era which should have happened but never did. "As if I had a choice... oh well." But the water seems to slow things down. The percussion there in the background, out of range. It's full of sadness, "but all the reasons I gave/were just lies to buy/myself some time." It's almost confessional. The moment of self-reconciliation occurs, the strings and the brass join together, Regine begins her vocals, Win is almost forgiven. And it's lamenting, but it is a triumph.

The Well and The Lighthouse. I should have just waited and listened to it as part of the album, not as a live version first - I spoilt the experience. But now it's hit me. The slower pace, it isn't slow at all. It's just controlled -but only just.
Okay, I'm not a huge fan of Regine's vocals, but it's beautiful how they fade out into the background. They leave me wondering whether they ever happen. Wins vocals echo around, Regine answers to him, echoing. Is it just me or is this an amazing love song?
Win wails passionately, and then the emotions are kept in check. The strings grow warmer, the brass sounds out. That time change! It works. But I didn't get it when the waltz was by itself. The fairy tale element comes into its own, the romantic violin, the guitar circling. The tom. The music box effects. The echos carry on and then fade away, finally moving far away from the joint vocals of the last line.

Fucking hell! (Antichrist Television Blues)
It's such a response. There's life again. Reality reigns. It's truth in contrast to the narrative of The Well and The Lighthouse. The guitars, the country rhythm. It's so real. "Now i'm overcome..."
The piano joins in, the backing vocals, the choir are so graceful. Win continues - these lyrics mean so much. They're direct, but not lecturing. "You better just stay close and hold on to me."

Silence. A simple guitar section. Win is defiant, but the vocals are personal. They're spoken right to us. There's a straightforward structure, but it grows like the other songs. Layer upon layer. The chorus has such a good rhyme, then back to the simplicity. But it's fitting. The minor shift and the ominous feel. It sounds like the band has grown up. Well, they have.
Suddenly each syllable packs a punch. The weight increases, but the chorus still supports the words. "Don't want to see it at my windowsill" - repeated like some kind of mantra. The message and heart of the song. It ends as simply as it started. A point has been made.

What's this? An orchestral flurry, fucking hell! The guitars! It's No Cars Go. But it's new, and huge, and glorious and amazing. And my mind is set alight. And aha! WOA! "hey!" Yes Win, you've got my attention. THIS IS WHAT MUSIC IS ABOUT. I don't want to make any judgements before I really listen, but this is clearly one of the best songs I've ever heard. And the work has paid off. The sun should be setting, but the sunlight carries on just shining across the horizon. The orchestra is huge but not intrusive. Win and Regine still sing confidently, the guitars still scream, the strings still moan and the orchestration stil swells and heaves... until this brief respite. Woodwind flurries! Then the drums kick in again. IMAGINE RECORDING THIS! Is that a choir I hear? The sound is just so much one element. Together. Huge. Perfect. The brass has the honour of the central riff, before the calm starts. The violins sings impossibly high. Win and Regine breathe the same breath. The flutes say hello. This moment between the click of the light and the start of the dream. It's perfectly balanced.
The sun stops moving. Time stands still. The energy builds, ever steeper - and jumps. It's so uplifting - Win's orders and instructions, which we can't help following. And then the whole band is singing and the whole orchestra is following the same pattern. Jeremy keeping the military drum beat. This is an anthem. "Us Kids Know!" Hell yes we do. The sound soars again, never faltering. And the time is right for the sun to set.

So it feels like night again. The performance is over, though the stage is there. The organ is full of sorrow, passion. The brief silence, and it starts again. The drums are like a heartbeat. Or the sound of breathing. And then there's another level. Conclusions are being made. It's the right time to end. But not before the big finish. The sky is torn apart. The organ, the brass, it all just breaks through and it's otherworldly. The drums carry on their defiant beat, but the flourishes start. A cymbal crash. A choir. The message repeated. The reflection that began with Black Mirror.
Next the final section. The spirit, the body are set free. Repeated. Win's begging is rewarded. The last message. After all isn't this what this music does to us?

Black Mirror {stream only}
Keep The Car Running (live)
Intervention (live in Canterbury High School)
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations (live)
Ocean of Noise (live)
No Cars Go (CBC Studio Session)

Pre-order Neon Bible with Merge Records here. Thanks Louis!
{More Arcade Fire}

Samstag

Grizzly Bear are great.
The Papercuts are supporting Grizzly Bear.
They have a song called 'John Brown'.

The Papercuts - John Brown

'John Brown' is great.
Neon Bible has leaked, and they say that's great too - and that hearing the new version of 'No Cars Go' is so good it's like evolving. Imagine that! Well done Arcade Fire!
It's snowing in Berlin, and just before the sun sets, the lights are reflected and softened by the snow, and the whole city goes neon. It's amazing.
If you like Anika's artwork for the best-of-2006 list, you might enjoy this Grizzly Bear interview.
As of right now, it's Saturday.

That was the news.

windowsill

I don't want to fight in a holy war
I don't want the salesmen knocking at my door
I don't want to live in America no more

because the tide is high
and it's rising still
and I don't want fear at my windowsill

More new Neon Bible tracks have leaked: Keep The Car Running, Windowsill, (Antichrist Telvision Blues) and the title track. This means that including live tracks, the whole album is available.
I haven't listened to them yet, and I am curious as to how they sound, but this has to be one of the worst ways to listen to an album. I'll wait for the whole thing.

{edit}

Oh well, the whole thing has leaked. Have a nice weekend everybody.

coupling

John Vanderslice - They Won't Let Me Run

bands playing in berlin soon

Arcade Fire - Neighbourhood#2 (Laika)
Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

And there's some others too:

Cold War Kids - The Littlest Birds (Be Good Tanyas)
Low - Monkey
Bloc Party - Banquet
The Rakes - Retreat
The Duke Special - Freewheel
My Brightest Diamond - Disappear
Naked Lunch - Colours

But mainly:
Arcade Fire - Neighbourhood#3 (Power Out)

Keep The Car Running

Tonight BBC once again premiered an Arcade Fire song - the new UK single, 'Keep the Car Running'. You can now stream it here on the BBC website. It's a fine single, something like a happy version of 'Laika', a drop D rock song driven by a pulsing drumbeat, with a mandolin tagging along.
Here's the live version from the secret gig in Montreal:

Keep The Car Running (live)

Curiously enough, the song is again listed as being under Mercury, though the band has denied this. It's expected that they will release Neon Bible under their own imprint, in conjunction with various European labels, such as City Slang in Germany, and possibly elsewhere.

The Arcade Fire go to Church

{via}

As rumoured, last night the Arcade Fire played a second show - this time in the basement of a Catholic Church in Montreal - as a benefit for a Montreal charity. You can read a fine account of it here. Despite the lack of publicity, the show was crowded - and recorded.
The quality of the sound is what you'd expect from a show played in a basement through a PA, but good enough for the energy and effort of the band to shine through. New UK single 'Keep The Car Running' is a bit like the last minutes of 'Une Année Sans Lumière' and sounds very nice indeed. Oddly enough, the melody is quite similiar to 'Carpetbaggers', by the Harlem Shakes, but it's certainly got more energy on the strength of this showing. I haven't listened to any of the other new songs, and I don't intend to, but I can tell you that 'Black Wave/Bad Vibrations' is going to be astounding live - the first half of the song takes on a whole new life in this setting. And 'Ocean of Noise' remains as mournful live as it does on record.

Ocean of Noise (live)
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations (live)



Again, all credit goes to the fans at the Us Kids Know forums. You can pre-order Neon Bible with Merge here, to get a free poster (and possibly some other goodies) and see more photos here and here.

{Update}

Here are some videos from the show - they're short and you shouldn't judge the music by the sound quality, but they're worth seeing just for that neon bible onstage:

Black Mirror
No Cars Go
Between-song banter
Keep the Car Running
Intervention + 2
My Body Is A Cage
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
Black Mirror (full video)
The Well & The Lighthouse

Thanks to screwdriver223 for the videos!

The Arcade Fire go to school

As you probably know, last night the band played Neon Bible songs live for the first time (not including 'Intervention' and 'No Cars Go', naturally) to some very lucky Canadian schoolgoers. Aside from some apparent technical difficulties, word is that the show was to their usual astral standard. Here's the setlist:

Black Mirror
Keep the Car Running
No Cars Go
Black Wave / Bad Vibrations
Haiti
Ocean of Noise
Rebellion (Lies)
Intervention
Windowsill
The Well and the Lighthouse

Neighbourhood#3 (Power Out)

So far it doesn't seem that anyone has recorded the show, but Pitchfork have a video of 'Intervention'. Those lucky enough to attend say there were eleven band-members on stage, with Owen Pallett, Pietro Amato and a third violinist joining, though it's confirmed that Pallett won't be playing with the band on tour. But what does the new material sound like? According to CBC:

"...the sound trouble made it hard to make out any lyrics or any musical subtleties—like the sacrificial string section, for example. But the strength of new songs like the political “Windowsill,” the propulsive “The Well and the Lighthouse,” and the triumphant single “Intervention” were all obvious to even the tone deaf."

Here's an mp3 of Intervention as it was played last night:

The Arcade Fire - Intervention (live in Canterbury High School)



You can read more about the show here, watch them play 'No Cars Go' on the night here, and see more amazing photos here. There are rumours of a secret show being played tonight, but it's not clear if it's in Montreal or Ottowa.

{edit}
Apparently, the show is on the corner of St. Viateur and St. Urbain, in St. Anthony's Church, according to the forums. Get going Montrealers!

Remix day

{via}

Not to spoil the surprise for those who haven't heard them, but the Positive Tension remix has the greatest drums ever, the Colour Revolt remix is an improvement on the original, and the Kevin Shields remix/mashup of the Go! Team's two best songs is amazing. Nothing more needs to be said.

The Go! Team - Huddle Flash (Kevin Shields remix)
The Go! Team - Huddle Formation (RJD2 remix)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control (The Faint remix)
Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You (Alex O'Nan remix)
Adem - Launch Yourself (Hot Chip remix)
Bloc Party - Positive Tension (The Go! Team remix)
Stars - Ageless Beauty (Most Serene Republic remix)
Asobi Seksu - Strawberries (Cassettes Won't Listen remix)
Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask (Final Fantasy remix)
Colour Revolt - A New Family (Maverick remix)
Snowden - Black Eyes (Le Castle Vania Disco Remix)
My Brightest Diamond - Golden Star (Alias remix)

New My Brightest Diamond

This is the opening song from Shara Worden's upcoming album Tear It Down, a collection of remixes from her debut.
With this remix, the punch and panic is removed from the original, and instead, it moves like a car going slowly through a city by night, all neon lights and people spilling out of clubs - which is something of a turnaround given how 'Golden Star' used to sound. The drama is still there, but it's a different place altogether - and most unexpectedly, the classical element of My Brightest Diamond's music has been almost completely displaced.
That said, it's still really very good.

Golden Star (Alias remix)
Golden Star (original)

Laura Barrett

Laura Barrett has a song called 'Robot Ponies' which I first heard a year ago as part of a Final Fantasy bootleg, and only this week did I finally get it together and track down the original.
It's really an amazing song - the lyrics depict a future Christmas, with bizarre gifts and creeping authoritarianism. The music adds to this, the eerie melodies, and the beautiful weightless sound of the kalimba (an African instrument like a xylophone played with the thumbs) producing a feeling akin to being locked out of your family home on Christmas Eve, and staring in the window. It's apt listening at the moment, as a hurricane has Berliners kept at home, with 16 people dead so far across the country.
But just to make sure you're not left too gloomy, here's a song by another band, of which Laura is a member. Henri Fabergé and The Adorables (link)sound a bit like that name suggests - indeed, this song is something of an antithesis of 'Robot Ponies' wintry tale, with kisses, school and vinegar volcanoes. Actually, I can't believe they try and sing lyrics like these at all, but it works in a weird way, coasting on its charms.

{Edit: links fixed}

Laura Barrett - Robot Ponies
Laura Barrett & Final Fantasy - Robot Ponies (live & unrehearsed version)
Henri Fabergé and The Adorables - Favourite Kisses

Laura Barrett is unsigned (!), but you can see about buying her Earth Sciences EP here.

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Unrelatedly, the Arcade Fire are playing a small charity concert in Richard Reed Parry's old school tomorrow, so look out for possible bootlegged Neon Bible songs making their way online. And even if they play nothing new, it's still pretty cool. 'Keep The Car Running' seems to be the UK single - as NME declares:

The track will be released on March 19, with the LP 'Neon Bible' following on March 5.

There you have it.

mixed results

These are some slightly weird things that people search for and end up here by accident. I guess it'd be a hell of a way to get into the Arcade Fire...

prison chained gallery girls tortured
sex child predator " multiple personality" devlin
marijuana "dangerous classes" chomsky dogs vulture
i want to know if he's the one for me
Augusto Pinochet shirts
Shane Delorean watch strap
torture women in roman empire
torture falling on rocks
extreme machine sex torture
what to do about awkward relatives at christmas
how long do horses have orgasims
wooden pony ride free torture (this is a popular one)
why do you think marx is right about how capitalist way was the cause of human suffering
german goo girls torture
cartoon stork & frog never give up

CSS - Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
Death from Above 1979 - Romantic Rights
The Bird and The Bee - Fucking Boyfriend
The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
The New Year - Chinese Handcuffs

Unrelatedly, and this has been noted before - but these two songs are very similiar, though unfortunately the Sloan one isn't quite as good:

Belle & Sebastian - White Collar Boy
Sloan - Who Taught You To Live Like That

And lastly, if you want to nominate this blog here, that's be nice. I know I'm slightly distracted at the moment, I'm working on something. There'll be a better post later.

Ein Wolf im Schafspelz

Well, I posted a song by Josephine Foster yesterday, but I've since decided that she deserves a post all of her own - just for the sheer uniqueness of bringing out an album of modern folk versions of old Romantic German music. I don't really have time to give it a full description, but I don't think it would make much difference if I had a day to do it. I would probably use a few of the following words though:
Intimate, lebensnah, mysterious, Abendland, Angstfreude, shivery.
I don't think you have to understand the lyrics either; it's her voice that makes this music stick to your bones. Enjoy these songs from A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing, as well as some older, less German material.

An die Musik
Der König in Thule (Schubert/Goethe)

Older Material:
Who Will Feel Bitter at the Days End?
The Golden Wooden Tone

{Buy A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing}

The Four Ordinances of St.Cloud...

Josephine Foster - An Die Musik
Cloud Cult - Outside of Your Skin
Panda Bear - Comfy in Nautica
Storsveit Nix Noltes - Krepatka




"You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book... or you take a trip... and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might generate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken."
[Anais Nin]

dreamy sleepy nighty snoozy snooze

{via}

Just to keep the theme warm, here are some more Arcade Fire rare goodies, including my favourite live version of 'Haiti', and a great old demo version of 'In The Backseat', sometimes lumped together along with the other demos and attached to that "Christmas EP". All very good stuff, though.

Haiti (live on First Avenue)
Five Years (live David Bowie cover)
Old Flame (demo)
Sleeping in a Submarine (demo)
In The Backseat (demo)
Headlights Look Like Diamonds (demo)
Maps (live Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover)
Age of Consent (live New Order cover)
Brazil (live Ary Boroso/Bob Russell cover)

And just for the curious:

Beirut - Brazil (live)

nearlymadeits

Here's a bunch of songs that nearly made the best-of list, as well as a few good ones from the last weeks. Just for fun.

Fionn Regan - Abacus
Destroyer - Painter in Your Pocket
Islands - Rough Gem
Grizzly Bear - On a Neck, On a Spit
Bishop Allen - Butterfly Nets
Sufjan Stevens - The Henney Buggy Band
My Brightest Diamond - Something of an End
Grizzly Bear - Knife
Midlake - Roscoe
Mountain Goats - Woke Up New
Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos
Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines II
Belle & Sebastian - Another Sunny Day
Cortney Tidwell - Eyes are at the Billions
Destroyer - European Oils
The Carrots - Kissing and Telling
My Brightest Diamond - Golden Star
The Essex Green - Don't Know Why (You Stay)
Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds
The Bicycles - Paris, Be Mine
Final Fantasy - Arctic Circle
Peter & The Wolf - Lightness
The Rosettes - Could This Be Love
The Innocence Mission - What a Wonderful World

The Shondes - Let's Go
Deerhoof - +81
Clark - Fish for Friends
Sandro Perri - Dreaming
Cathy Davey - Clean and Neat
Seasick Steve - Cut My Wings
Final Fantasy - No Cars Go (Arcade Fire)
Jape - Floating
Bell - Moon River
Cortney Tidwell - Hard To Tell

The Shondes

The Shondes take their name from the Yiddish word for 'disgrace' - presumably because being a band composed of radicals, queers, trannies, Jewish and non-Jewish Palestine-solidarity activists from Brooklyn, they get to hear it a lot.
Thankfully their music is as interesting as their sound. They rock like radicals first of all, but they have a thing for strings, accordions and folkish melodies. They really are very worth hearing - 'Let's Go' especially, being the weird little biblical musical adventure it is. Except in this Bible there are anti-Zionists, and transgender characters. Wow!

Let's Go
The Mother And the Colony
I Watched the Temple Fall

Ryspace has some live mp3s here. Better live than Modest Mouse, he says.

Arcade Fire - Ocean of Noise

Who Here Among Us Still Believes In Choice? Not I...

The fact is I've never been very good with willpower. This morning I told you I regretted hearing 'My Body Is A Cage' cut off from the album it was meant to crown, and I stand by that. But that didn't stop me from listening to this song when it came my way.
I'll start off by saying - by the first listens, it's better than the album's closer. This is different, this is living on an island, it is that strange intense sadness that comes when a storm strikes during the summertime, it is standing by the sea at night. The drums floating along are the reflection of the moon on the surface of the sea. The guitars are between 'Haiti' and 'Tunnels'.
For a brief moment today, feeling slightly underwhelmed by the newest leak, I considered that it was probably impossible for the Arcade Fire to deliver the album I was expecting. But I was way off.
The bass and the guitar chop along in their subdued way, and Win Butler sings like he's just been abandoned. The song comes to its crescendo (3.09), with horns and crashes and a high tide, and damn it, you're being swept along too and you didn't expect it. Two chords again, they can do so much with so little - this music brings sadness like I haven't felt in a while. And yet, at its highest point, it sheds light on that feeling - when you can feel yourself rising above a sadness that dogs you, and you defeat it, it falls harmlessly away from you like a wave breaking against a ship.
I no longer have the slightest doubt about Neon Bible, so with that in mind, I have decided I will not listen to another leaked song, even if the album itself leaks as a whole. I tried this with Funeral two years ago, and failed, but this time I'll try harder.

>>We're gonna work it out... 'cause time won't work it out.<<

I'm going to go to bed now, to try and wake up with this in my head.


{an fear marbh image courtesy of donncha}
{Pre-order the 4-side vinyl here}

Arcade Fire - My Body Is A Cage

Over the next day, the newly communised Arcade Fire song 'My Body Is A Cage' will make its way all over the internet, and probably on most mp3 blogs. I'm not sure how it leaked, but I kind of wish it hadn't.
It seems very much like a song which is meant to be the end of the album - and should really be heard in that context, especially when heard for the first time. Because, while it is steadily getting better with each listen, right now it doesn't sound like the Arcade Fire of Funeral, or even of the other Neon Bible songs we've heard. In fact, there's quite a bit of John Lennon in there. But when I imagine it at the end of the yet-to-be-heard-by-my-ears album, then I can get attached to it.
Initially it seems like the party (wake?) is over, and all that's left is the vocals, and companion organ - Win and Regine perhaps. And slowly, not in a schlocky horror film way, the ghosts start to appear, not angrily, and not unexpectedly either.
At 2.10, the lights come on (boy do they), but there is no lightening of the weight that this song carries throughout. But the house they are playing in has been blown away in a whirlwind, and you the listener, are either staying or going with them.

What this song does is leave me wanting to hear the album - just so I can put it where it belongs, and not separately, like nothing more than a branch broken off a tree. But that's just me.

If you're interested, you can speculate about the band's apparent new label, Sonovox, which it would seem they have set up. It does seem like a name they would pick. Or you can go to Amazon and pre-order the deluxe book version of Neon Bible. But I would recommend, above all, that you do not listen to this song until you've heard the rest of the album lie down before it.

My Brightest Diamond

As if it wasn't enough to record one of the best albums of last year and focus on that, Shara Worden has been even busier than her more famous labelmate. Not only did she record the fine 'If I Could Say One Thing' for a little known Italian podcast with nary a word of explanation, she released an iTunes only (sod it) EP of 'Disappear' remixes, toured, worked on her other album, and now she's set to release a full remix album of Bring Me The Workhorse.
Entitled Tear It Down, it's set to be released by Asthmatic Kitty on March 6th (hmmm, sounds familiar) and features 13 reworked songs. I await it with intense anticipation - and if you do the same, you might like a glimpse of David Keith's remix of 'Something of an End' - available here as a sweet short video on YouTube. It'll be a good year, won't it?

Something of an End
Disappear
If I Could Say One Thing

You can also read her blog post (sort of) on seven undertalked about albums here. She mentions Clark, Clogs and Inlets, who I nearly mentioned here.

wandering hillbillies

Just a nice couple of songs for you today - one from Deerhoof's upcoming album, and one from a band which was once called Clark but may no longer be but definitely had members of the Arcade Fire in it at one time.
Both these songs are nice. The Deerhoof one is better - it sounds like marching in an elephant parade in Tokyo on Valium. But the Clark song is infinitely catchier.

Deerhoof - +81
Clark - Fish for Friends

Two other things you should check out are Deerhoof's covers EP, and more Teitur songs at Lost in your Inbox. Definitely.

Ed decides.

One of the best concerts I saw in 2006 was Grizzly Bear in Lido, Berlin. It was my first concert in the city in months, and though it was beset by technical difficulties, I couldn't have picked a better one. As well as that, Yellow House slowly became one of my most played albums, and I've already pointed out many times how great 'Lullabye' is.
So that's why I was very happy when Ed Droste agreed to review some songs for me. I did my best to pick a few songs I liked that he hadn't heard before - which mainly meant Irish music. He decided to do his review in pictures, some of cats, and it worked out quite nicely, I think. He even gave his own pick, a beautiful song by Sandro Perri, which I like so much I'm already planning to write about it again. Enjoy.

{By the way, I've added the file names for when it was necessary - just hover over the images.}


1. Michael Knight - Waves to the Shore








2. Cathy Davey - Sing for your Supper








3. Winter Aid - Within








4. The Carrots - Secret Since '99






5. Simple Kid - Kids Don't Care












6. Sandro Perri - Dreaming (Ed's pick)







Now I can understand someone not really liking Simple Kid, but that Cathy Davey song is almost perfect. I am shocked. But giving me that Sandro Perri song more than makes up for it.
So thanks to Ed - everyone go and buy Yellow House!

Neon Bibles

Firstly, it seems that, in Germany anyways, Neon Bible will be released on City Slang. As well as this, you can buy tickets for their German shows now - while they're not sold out yet, they probably will. 23 Euro? A bargain.

Now, get yourself over to the Neon Bible site for some surreal fun - the phone messages that people have been leaving on the phone line are there for your listening pleasure, as well as some more of the above artwork, weird pictures of swimming, and more. Here's a sample of some of the messages (via):

"Bleep! Ooohhhh. I, I, I, I would plant a Money, a Money, Money Tree farm and I'd help the nation out with that. Uh, I would like to have plumbing for all and I'd like a mou, mou, mouth, MOUTH wash fountain, and a butt freshener implants for a lot of people, they need that. And, um, get some thesaurus translators and, uh, Japanese, Mexican, Spanish, um, French, Swahili, Italian, Indian and Clickity-clack. Okay, then. Bye bye. Don't reveal my address to Satan. Thank you. Bye."

"What the heck is Neon Bible? This makes no sense. Whatsoever. I mean, is it a bible that glows with neon light? What does that mean? Is it a modern bible? This is pointless. *click*"

Don't worry, a non-Neon Bible post will be coming up later.

Neon Bible Advert & Tracklisting

Run, run, run as fast as your fingertips will carry you to this video - and see what seems to be Arcade Fire guitarist Richard Reed Parry giving you a fine presentation of the band's new album. It's a weirdly produced video and a slightly tacky sales pitch - but there are clips of all the new songs playing. All of them:

1. Black Mirror
2. Keep The Car Running
3. Neon Bible
4. Intervention
5. Black Wave Bad Vibrations
6. Ocean of Noise
7. The Well & The Lighthouse
8. (Antichrist Television Blues)
9. Windowsill
10. No Cars Go
11. My Body is a Cage

... and possibly more than that. The album, as hinted, will be released on March 5th and 6th - 5th in the United Europe. If you'd like to hear the song clips on repeat, here's an mp3 of the video. These songs sound amazing - there's Springsteen, there's the new 'No Cars Go', there's a song that sounds like a tank, and even more from that enormous organ.

This isn't your parent's Bible!
*****************************
Thousands of people just like you can't be wrong!
**************************

Also, Arcade Fire will be playing Paris on the 19th of March. More European dates will be announced here very soon. As well as this, keep an eye on the official site, as it seems the band will be using some of the messages recorded on the Neon Bible line.

{UPDATE}
Pitchfork says Tracy Maurice will once again be handling the artwork. Excellent. And two nights in Dublin, one in Berlin. Postbahnhof is going to be a perfect venue, not nearly as big as the Olympia (in Dublin).

European Dates:

03-05 Dublin, Ireland - Olympia
03-06 Dublin, Ireland - Olympia
03-08 Manchester, England - Apollo
03-09 Manchester, England - Apollo
03-11 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
03-12 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
03-14 London, England - Brixton Academy
03-15 London, England - Brixton Academy
03-19 Paris, France - Olympia
03-20 Paris, France - Olympia
03-23 Stockholm, Sweden - Circus
03-24 Oslo, Norway - Centrum Scene
03-25 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
03-27 Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof !!!
03-28 Munich, Germany - Elserhalle
03-31 Lyon, France - Transbordeur
04-01 Cologne, Germany - E-Werk
04-02 Utrecht, Netherlands - Vredenburg
04-04 Brussels, Belgium - Halles de Schaerbeek
04-05 Lille, France - L'Aeronef

The Arcade Fire - Black Mirror

The first single from Neon Bible will be 'Black Mirror', as rumoured. The song is currently available to stream on Win Butler's page on the official site. It is very very good indeed.
After three songs, the progression the Arcade Fire have made from Funeral seems clear - the lyrics here are almost unable (or unwilling) to escape the idea of death, and carry all the dark imagery you would expect. 'Black Mirror' itself sounds a little like how 'Rebellion (Lies)' would sound if the band had died and were playing it in the underworld.
That's not to say they're not having fun with it, rather that the above image, supplied with the song, is a pretty accurate reflection of the lyrics and atmosphere. Win Butler half sings, half whispers, ghostly moans haze around in the background, the drums keep the pace like a pirate ship, the chords sink as though the song itself is becoming submerged in filthy water.
Then there's the Arcade Fire moment - the strings soar, the band picks up, the vocals rise like a sail taken by the wind - and then the chorus takes all that and lifts it up even higher.

"Un, deux, trois, dis miroir noir - Black Mirror!"

With this and 'Black Wave/Bad Vibrations' it seems, oddly enough, that the band have taken the logical step after the theme of Funeral. Thankfully, these are still songs that want to live in your head. I don't know if the world can take another two months of this waiting. The apparent release date for the album (in the U.S. anyway) is March 6th.

The Arcade Fire - Black Mirror {stream only}

Learn more at the Us Kids Know forums.

the best songs of 2006

{all artwork by a}

There seems to have been a lot of talk this year about 2006 not measuring up to its immediate predecessors, and in one sense, I agree. There was no clear great album for me this year, unlike Funeral and Illinois from years before - none that took a hold of me to the extent that I forgot all others. But in terms of individual songs, it was a fine year - contrary to expectations, this year's best-of lists were a dependable source of music I had yet to hear.
So that's why this is a list of songs instead of albums - as someone probably once put it: nobody walks around humming albums.
The rules are as follows:

1. There are no rules!
2. All songs were all (re-)released in some form in 2006.
3. Only one song per artist.
4. I took my cue from that character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest who makes no sense but makes lots of sense at the same time.
5. No Neon Bible songs - they'll get their attention next year.

So, in reverse order, here they are - the songs I loved the most in the past year. Enjoy!

58. The White Birch - Your Spain
The definition of slow-burning, like a cigarette abandoned in an ashtray by a svelte french actress.

57. The Butterfly Explosion - Sophia
It's like waiting at the bus-stop, and for no reason, no earthly reason at all, everything takes on some deep meaning and it seems your heart just woke up. It takes its time getting there, but it really gets there.

56. The Grates - Sukkafish
This on the other hand, could conceivably wake up your heart if you let it go to sleep again.
Don't, though.

55. Neosupervital - Rachel
Upon listening, I forgot why I picked it. Until I got to the chorus, and remembered; "Oh yeah, that's what it sounded like in my head for most of September."

54. Rademacher - It Really Shouldn't Matter
A special song, and dangerous too, because it gives me the feeling I have nothing to lose.

53. Asobi Seksu - Thursday
Like getting drunk with two skyscrapers.

52. Adem - Launch Yourself
Hear that? That solemn choir juxtaposed against hand-clapping? That's the sound of life not going to plan.

51. El Perro del Mar - God Knows (You've Got To Give To Get)
It felt like flo-o-o-o-o-o-oa-ting, it felt like floating.

50. Thao Nguyen - Feet Asleep {Daytrotter session}
I don't care what year it came out, it's going on the list. This song makes me want to buy a hammock and start drawling.

49. Juana Molina - Micael
I would have liked The Eraser a lot more if it had sounded like this. Moods deeper and darker than night painted black, but still visibly beautiful. I don't know how she does it.

48. The Pipettes - Judy
Undeniable. It reminds me of what it must have sounded like when school was still fun.

47. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
Today I realised that this song appears in my head when the Berlin night sets in, and I am still far from home. It's something like... why not make your home in the night?

46. Psapp - Tricycle
Psapp's album seemed to be the most original collection of noises I heard all year. This is the highlight, something like Nouvelle Vague with little demons in the production. Beautiful.

45. Danielson - Did I Step On Your Trumpet?
Struttable stuff from a fine album. This is probably the only 'indie pop' song I can think of that you could conceivably do the funky chicken to.

44. Lucky Soul - Ain't Never Been Cool
Then take it from someone who knows, baby, this is cool.

43. Teitur - Louis Louis
This song mosies along until it gets to the chorus, and then it's not a song anymore but someone who has been slowly walking to the edge of a rooftop, murmuring to himself all the way to keep calm, and now that he's gotten to the edge, he's opened to the fullness of what lies in front of him. The melody flies and rises chaotically like a kite that's gotten away from you, and for no reason, the man steps back and finishes the song without asking you.

42. Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks
I know some people find it easy to write amazing pop songs, but I didn't know anyone could make it look this easy.

41. Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation {Daytrotter session}
I didn't like this song that much until a few weeks ago, when I saw Cold War Kids beat the shit out of it onstage, and then make it sing. After that I liked it a whole lot more, and now I beat it up myself on occasion.

40. Half Handed Cloud - A Suit of Clouds to Ride the Skies
One minute with handclaps, angels, God, beeps, silence, and a melody beautifully paired with a chord change you've heard a million times, but never as cutely as this. If you asked Santa for a song this Christmas, you might have gotten this, but only if you'd been very good.

39. Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You
A slow burning jazz medley gone wrong and right again, this song pulls you like a tune through the fields and backroads of some great little southern state town. It's a dream girl, you know she doesn't really exist, but you've fallen in love with her anyway.

38. Bishop Allen - Flight 180
God knows it tries your patience. Feedback, slightly out-of-tune vocals, and repetition. But then, hints of beauty, like the glimpses you see out of the windows of a plane in flight. So you sit back and pay attention, and you anticipate. And it comes, laden with strings, a validation, dealing with death on trembling knees, and acceptance that maybe you've only been pretending you're unhappy.

37. Sufjan Stevens - The Mistress Witch of McClure (or, The Mind That Knows Itself)
A diamond in an album of unwanted songs, this, for me, is tied to the image of being a child and seeing your father come home. Maybe you've forgotten now how good that used to feel, but back then you didn't need anything more.

36. Cat Power - The Greatest
You know how at school nativity plays when they've taken a dark blue cloth and pasted little golden stars to it to make the night sky, and how good it looks even though it's so simply done? Yeah, me too.

35. (((GRRRLS))) - Love Connection
I don't always find this song easy to listen to, and I don't always want to listen to it, but I always feel like I've made myself a better person after I do. Those uneasy lyrics, awkwardly sung over a delicate melody, it gives the impression of someone smiling on the verge of crying, I don't know why.

34. The Lovely Feathers - Photo Corners
This is just a few young men, singing, playing and summing up something I haven't felt yet, but am certainly looking forward to.

33. The Subjects - Hounds of War
You don't expect this song to be so good. You don't expect that slightly whiny kid to sing so strongly. But it is, and he does, and I did too.

32. Oh No! Oh My! - Walk In The Park
I could try and sum up the mood of this song with some apt imagery, but that's what they did with the lyrics: "Nice day for a talk with a girl/ Nice day for your shop to get busy". It's like a little holiday.

31. Beach House - Master of None
Christmas lights all year round. Having fun in the dark. Your first drink since you stopped counting. I don't know what the song is really about, but any of the above will do for me.

30. Cortney Tidwell - Hard 2 Tell
I just realised that there are 37 seconds of solo vocals at the start of this song. You'd think if she was planning on being difficult, she wouldn't have put in such a damn catchy chorus. But it's both! How utterly perfect.

29. Swan Lake - The Freedom
I swear, the first time I heard this song, and its opening line, I realised I had been wanting someone to sing that line for ages. This is before I heard the amazing chorus, the noise of the "three most annoying voices in Canada, together at last" and all those tamed lyrics. I think this may be the highlight of Beast Moans.

28. My Latest Novel - The Reputation of Ross Francis
If anyone could give me directions to a place where they sing more songs like these, I'll be off.

27. The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
How can a song that starts so easily, and with such a normal and familiar set of sounds, get so intensely sad? I feel bereaved just listening to it.

26. Arms - Tiger Tamers



"The tigers have been tamed." Crash! Boom! You bet your ass they have.

25. Snowden - Anti-Anti
This song brings something else to the party. Fuzzy feelings, and a strong desire to shake it, but not quite... That riff!

24. The Rakes - The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect
It may have started as nothing more than music to watch girls go by, but this song deserves its place here. Such a stupidly catchy guitar line, and those lyrics. Wry observation is an old trick, but it's rarely worked as well as this.

23. Sibylle Baier - Tonight
It's like turning on every light in your bedroom, but still not being able to get rid of all the shadows.

22. The Carrots - Secret Since '99
There's no point writing anything fancy about this song. Just listen to the fucking thing. It's really really good.

21. Munck//Johnson - Last Wish



This song is all about the time I saw Munck//Johnson live a few months ago - a night so good I bought their album Count Your Blessings on vinyl instead of cd, and so had to wait till now to give this to you.

20. Islands - Swans (Life After Death) (live)
This song wakes up on a beach! But where it goes after that, I only discovered the first time I heard it, and since then it's been hidden from me.

19. Annuals - Brother
No, not your brother, but walking out in the open, and walking with the sunrise against your backs, one dawn not like others, as witnessed up close. In German, they call the east 'Morgenland' and I like to think it would sound a little like this if I went there.

18. The Innocence Mission - Lakes of Canada
When human beings get lost at sea, or mountaineering, or exploring, we act illogically. Other species would ignore the lost and forget, but we engage in the organised equivalent of panicking. We assemble search parties, we summon trained men and dogs. We go deep into the danger as a group.
This song is a bit like that notion, the pure goodness of the intention. Many times they must have found someone they couldn't help anymore, someone who had died without knowing they were almost loved. This song is, almost accidentally, a reminder of this: if you got lost, if you disappeared, people would search for you.

17. Regina Spektor - Samson (get a live version here)
This song makes me feel like getting up, taking hold of it, and going back to bed.

16. Tapes 'n Tapes - Insistor
'Insistor' reminds me always of the capacity I have to make people terribly angry. And that I enjoy it too.

15. The Spinto Band - Oh Mandy
Well, no, I actually don't have any poetic reason for loving this song, but there's only so many times you can write about perfect pop, so instead I will direct you to 2.20 and let you describe it to yourself.

14. Page France - Say Wolf in the Summertime
Happy but not naive. Poppy but not cliched. Bouncy but not silly. Brilliant!

13. Fionn Regan - Hunters Map (EP version)
This song sounds like Ireland to me, but I don't know what it sounds like to the rest of you. It's pretty spot on, except there are no cities.

12. My Brightest Diamond - If I Could Say One Thing
Do I really mean that this session song is better than anything on the album? Yup. It's not so much wearing your heart on your sleeve as it is wiping your tears away on your sleeve.

11. The Immediate - Stop and Remember
I was gonna type something for this song, but as soon as it came on, my fingers started drumming all by themselves, so I'll just leave it at that.

10. Hot Chip - Boy from School (acoustic)
It sounds a bit like a computer with a broken heart. If for no other reason, listen to it just to learn more about how amazing music can be these days.

9. Belle & Sebastian - White Collar Boy
My favourite song of the summer from my favourite album of the summer. Just so singable, and though it is clearly simple, it is built of the kind of advanced stuff I can't yet sum up in a few sentences.

8. Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
Yes, deeply complicated music sounds good too. Punk without stupid hairstyles, with way more than three chords and as many emotions.

7. Joanna Newsom - Only Skin



First things first, at this point, after many listens, I still prefer Joanna Newsom's first album. That said, this song just amazes me. Every time I listen to it, I have the impression of time taking on a new rhythm, matching the tamed insanity that finds its home here. The day winds away, and takes its time at it, before quite suddenly the minor chords turn up, and the segment formerly known as 'Be a Woman' appears. This is the onset of night, the danger inherent, because in whatever world this song lives, there are no cities, no real society, no institutions of safety. It's so deep, as deep as the endless light of the night sky, and suddenly it's over, as though sleep has been fought off. Horns signify the coming of the dawn, and the song moves on and lets you out of its grasp to address a huge crowd and bring them its worrying news.
For me, the highlight of 'Only Skin' remains this manufactured night-time, when it holds you close out of fear like an old movie damsel tied to the train tracks. I think the rest of the album will grab me equally with time, but for now, this will do.
Joanna Newsom - Be a Woman (live)

6. Sunset Rubdown - We Got Broken Eyes
Again, this song isn't on the album. I had difficulty deciding between this and 'Stadiums and Shrines II', but this just took it in the end, by virtue of the tremendous push forward evident when those drums crash in, and the slight, and patient dismantling of the song at the end, while he's still singing it. It's worth hearing over and over and over.

5. Peter and the Wolf - Safe Travels



There is a certain sense of safety to this song, not just in the title, but embedded in it the whole way through, like the rings of a tree trunk. This song may be the only thing you need to take with you as you travel, something you would keep in your hands carefully. When Red Hunter sings "Know how to climb a tree? I assume you do," he's welcoming you into some club, where you know nobody, but you don't care.
Maybe it's because I've uprooted myself recently, but it feels like this song knows where I want to go. It's not perfect, yet it gives me an idea of what that perfection might be like, something like looking at sunny palm-tree adverts in the window of a travel agent. Even if you don't get there it's okay, because it's not going away. This song is the one your friends would sing, unexpectedly earnestly, at you're going-away party. You'll never see them again, but there it is, with its sad raindrop guitar-plucked notes, its steady pace (like a bus!) and mournfully happy group calls. Safe Travels accomplishes all it should. It feels like goodbye.

4. Beirut - Postcards from Italy
It sometimes sounds like the pages of the old history book I'm reading, a song trapped in 20th century paper, and circling the same brass notes over and over, but how it feels is mournful and happy, like a wedding. The 'Balkan sound' is only a minor detail, it's the truth engrained between every note of this song that makes it ring out so fine.

3. Grizzly Bear - Lullabye



I don't know if I am living in this song's head, or if it is living in mine. I just can't seem to imagine where something like this could come from. It completely overshadows everything else on this fine album, that much I know. But it is some puzzle to me, like some visually amazing film in a foreign language that I cannot place. It pulls itself from tired singing and guitar picking to awesome heights, with singing in chorus, and pacy drums, and electric guitar that slings itself around the room.
It was once said to me that little children, when they begin to sing random invented melodies out of pure happiness, write music that the best musician could never write, music closer to humanity than anything ever composed. I think this song is reason enough to rethink that statement.

2. Cathy Davey - Sing for your Supper



This is all you can do, you can't do anymore. It's not your fault if at this stage you can only rest your head on your arms on your desk, and offer yourself to sleep. Oh, but love, and girls and these swinging chords that give no peace, only exhortations not to give up! Finish that love letter, write that love song, you'll get it right soon, you're almost there. It could be around the corner from everyone of us. Some day you can say it and mean it and there it will be, life, wow, and you're amazed, and you look back, and all those hints, all those signs everywhere, like that song Cathy Davey recorded as a demo, and put up on her MySpace temporarily before taking it down later bashfully, but that song was a hint! That song was a sign, plucked from some random place in the air above a woman's head, not written but discovered, a brick in the yellow brick road. This is not an advert. This is real life, there are real people out there to break your heart, all you have to do is give it. It is a toy, not a collector's item.
Do it now, start looking now, before you find yourself in an empty room, unwrapping your heart in your pocket like a fragile old violin, too brittle to be played now, but at least in near-perfect condition. That old thing never moved nobody, you say, I'll get my money back. Don't let the cobwebs grow! Get moving and start looking for someone who's looking for someone like you.

1. Destroyer - Rubies



This is it. This is nine and a half minutes of insanity made sane. Imagery that doesn't bear thinking about (because you'd never stop) with music that it simply doesn't work to think about. This song holds itself on a different level. I mean, yes the chorus is great, and the way they cut it down to simply Dan Bejar and his guitar is wonderful, but I'm not sure that's it. I don't know how to get near what makes this song great. Some day I'll come back and type it in here, but for now I'd better leave it blank.

Destroyer - Rubies (CBC Session)


Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Deepest thanks to Anika for the artwork, for it would have been a boring post without it. Thanks too to everyone who read or did something for this blog in the last twelve months, and here's to 2007, which already looks like it'll be a fine year.

Arcade Fire update...

You've probably had enough of them by now, but I haven't. Their MySpace page has been updated with new artwork, including the above neon bible. It seems a bit too literal to be the cover, although the lack of title and name would be interesting. Intervention is also available as a stream, and there's a new logo:



Their biography has also been updated to give details on Neon Bible:

"Slowly the songs came together. They found a huge pipe organ in a huge church in Montreal and recorded it. They bought some bass steel drums and some bass synths. They got a hurdy-gurdy. They called in friends for help: Martin Wenk and Jacob Valenzuela, the horn players from Calexico, came in for a song. Hadjii Bakara from Wolf Parade added some bleep and bloops and sonic weirdness. Owen Pallett, Final Fantasy, helped to orchestrate (as he did on Funeral). Pietro Amato and his horn playing associates added some brass. The band traveled to Budapest to record an orchestra and a military choir. And besides all this, the band just played music together. They played the songs that were going on the album. They played songs that wouldn’t go on the album. They played cover songs. It was all quite nice, really."

This is wild stuff altogether.

{UPDATE}
All the above has since been removed, and there is some doubt as to whether it came from the band or not. Probably not. Why can't things be simple for this album? As well as this, a new song called 'Black Mirror', previously playing in reverse on the Neon Bible hotline, is now playing normally. Give a listen.
If you want to keep up to date on Neon Bible news, go here - it's absolutely the best source for news, wild rumours and general niceness. And nothing as weird as this, definitely not.

Sibylle Baier

Originally recorded in West Germany in the early 1970's, Sibylle Baier's album Colour Green was re-released earlier this year on Orange Twin, and thank God it was. It's like turning on every light in your bedroom, but still not being able to get rid of all the shadows. It's excellent. It's mainly just one woman and a guitar, and it seems that's all these songs could ever need.

Tonight

{Buy Colour Green}

By the way, my best-of-2006 list will be up soon, and I don't want to hype it up, but it will probably be so good that it may conceivably change your political orientation.

Arcade Fire European Tour?

Some possible dates:

Cirkus, Stockholm, Fri Mar 23, 2007 - see here.
April 2nd, Vredenburg, Utrecht, The Netherlands - see here.
April 2nd, Pays-Bas, and April 5th, Lille, France.

I looks very much like a European tour in the making...
Also, it's likely that rerecorded versions of 'No Cars Go', and 'Surf City, Eastern Block', will be on the album, as well as a new song called 'Black Mirror', currently being played backwards on the Neon Bible line. Owen Pallet mentioned here that he was writing string arrangements for these songs. 'No Cars Go' might be the lead single for the new album. Might be.

Surf City Eastern Block (live)
No Cars Go (CBC Studio Session)

Seasick Steve

It's 2007! And I feel like shit, appropriately enough. I think I've picked up a wonderfully ambitious cold, and dragged it all the way back to Berlin with me. So, understandably, I've got the blues. And this New Year's Eve I heard music from Seasick Steve, and wouldn't you know it, he's got the blues too, but his blues are related to getting kicked out of the family home, and playing string-deficient guitars. And his blues moan about themselves from the inside out, and grip his fingers and riff on his dirty fuzzed-up strings, E/G/A and repeat, and he kicks boxes and smiles and throws his head back and you don't know if he's got the blues or the blues have him.

Cut My Wings
Salem Blues

{Buy Doghouse Music here.}

By the way, you people who can ring this number, is there really another new song playing backwards? Is it called 'Black Mirror'? I wish I knew.