shameless musical obsession: it’s all about the love.
Notes: Yes, I am listening to the leak. We all are. To be honest, we all also jumped when FOB started pushing out iTunes singles and giant boxed packages months ago, so we’ve already paid for this damn thing. (I’ve also already heard four of the thirteen songs in their iTunes incarnations.) Let’s just hope what I’m about to hear justifies the $100 some of us have dropped.
I tried going back through my Twitter posts to see what I’ve been listening to, but I haven’t been as faithful as I’d hoped in reporting what I’m listening to. I might be balancing too many Twitter identities.
Either way - Sarah and I decided to do a quick rundown of what we’ve both listened to in the last week or so.
Sarah: this song is awesome, “Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley” by Chap
Megan: ooh. ok, quick. we’re doing a five minute rundown of cool things we’ve been listening to
Sarah: new Chiefs
Megan: new kings of leon, repeating ‘use somebody’ a lot; dr dog’s fate (THANKS SPENCER), new killers, raising sand (what, like, a year later?), alternate abbey road covers - ‘golden slumbers / carry that weight’ in specific. japanese motors
Megan: have you heard them? the single ’single fins and safety pins’ is awesome. but i like regrets a paradise better
Sarah: I have!
Megan: i listened to the new bloc party a few times
Sarah: Oh, um, the hot video at Oxford is “Who Let the Yankees in the Chip Shop” by the Matches. All those Suarez remixes
Megan: yeah, he has good remixes
Sarah: The TMBG “Cast Your Pod to the Wind” collection
Megan: i really liked the remix pete posted in his blog for, like, three horus
Sarah: i think hey monday is kinda boring, but i love cassadee drops
Megan: i really haven’t given them enough of a shot
Megan: i have razia’s shadow all queued up, just haven’t tried it yet
Megan: and, of course, folie a deux.
And that’s where I stopped, because that’s all I’m listening to right now. Sarah’s going to give it the Fyrehaus First Listen tonight. Look for her coherent cogitation on it.
The short of it: Probably the best Chiefs show I have ever seen.
There’s a peculiar sort of stress when you push play on a favorite band’s new album for the very first time. What if it sucks? Then where are you? Can you still get as passionate about them when going to see them in concert means hearing the horrible new songs? It’s especially tricky for me on this one because I fell in love with their debut, Employment halfway through the second track and never looked back. The sophomore attempt, Yours Truly, Angry Mob was harder to get into and never quite achieved the same amazing status in my head (you know what they say: you get your whole life to write your first album and six months to write your second). I kinda need them to reverse the direction here.
So, I got this album months ago, and then I just never felt like I had the uninterrupted time to really listen to it. And then it turned out to be a breakup album, and I didn’t want to listen in case it was amazing and I was sad. But then I had a plane flight cross-country, so… Continue Reading »
Here’s my plan - get Robbie Williams and Mike Skinner (aka The Streets) TOGETHER the next time they both feel like writing sarcastic post-pop-y albums about the difficulties of stardom in the UK.
I think it sounds brilliant, really. They’ve both had a bit of navel gazing going on in terms of their own character defamation and personal life portrayal in the press, but they haven’t taken it up to 11. They could write the best sarcastic, dry-witted, un-understandable to Americans album EVER.
They could balance each other’s diva tendencies out! Really! It’d be awesome.
Preconceived notions:
1. It contains “Fernando” and “Carpetbaggers”, so it’s going to rock no matter what.
2. Some songs, I’m going to get distracted playing Who Is That Familiar Indie Rock Voice.
3. Jenny wrote all but one song on the last Rilo Kiley effort, so I assume it will sound like that.
Now, for the album. Continue Reading »
I’ve been trying to come up with something to say about The Kills’ new record Midnight Boom that isn’t just “It’s so great!” for the past week. So, straight up, here are four reasons why I like it:
Isn’t that enough reason to listen to it once? The first listen is even free!
[The Kills - Midnight Boom via lala.com]
Sons & Daughters will blow your socks right off your body, and show no remorse.
Ludo has, Wikipedia tells me, been around for a while. Since 2004, to be exact. They’re the type of band who, four years down the line, are enjoying some mainstream success after long, presumably hard years touring the Midwest and home-growing all of their endeavors.
Which means I’ll look into their older stuff. But right now, right now, I am listening to their big single “Love Me Dead” on repeat and hoping with my fingers crossed that everything of theirs, ever, will sound like this.
Here - give it a listen. Ludo - Love Me Dead
I’m also listening to the Victorian English Gentlemens Club. I procured a few songs based solely on the name and have found them to be a delightful, in a screamo-English-agit-pop way. Not quite as self-aware as Art Brut, not quite as ironic or bitter as the Ting Tings. I loved them even before I realized that their name was clever, since two band members are women. They’re recording an album. Go check out the sneak-peak track “Parrot” on their myspace.
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