Woah, mixtapes!

Three years ago, I made some "mixes" and uploaded them on to the internet and forgot about them, now I'm on my old desktop and I found the old links to them!

They weren't mixes in the ultra hip dj sense of the word, more like a mix tape of the various bands and artists I was in to back then. All I really did was place the tracks next to each other in some program and try and fade them in to one another.

There were about four of them I made before I lost interest or whatever but, listening back to them now, they weren't so bad. Its interesting to look back on these and see the sort of music I was in to when I was 17. To be honest though, being 17 doesn't seem that long ago, and when you think about it, it isn't really. Seems the older I get, the shorter the years seem to last.

I still listen to most of these bands now I think, and listening back to it I get a lot of reminders of what was on my mind at the time. Fun! Have a listen.


Here's one I named grass tunnel, I think there was a lot of poppy electronic stuff on here. It had múm, thom yorke and some other bands on it:

Here's another, I think this was more post rock based. It starts off with an excerpt from a godspeed you black emperor song:

These two were the best I think, I'm listening to another one now and it has a klaxons remix on it, I don't wanna embarrass myself by posting that. If anyone actually listens to these, it'd be nice to know what people think!

i'm singing. i'm hollering. i'm singing.

Cap n Jazz are a great band to come back and listen to. Youthfully bold, whimsically abstract and most of all summery! It feels good to sit out the sun and listen to Analphabetapolothology for the first time in what seems like quite a while. An energetic way to wind down my evening.

Such good song titles too, all so cute like they were part of a little kid's first real sentence. The songs can get poignant at time but its never insincere, I like that.

I think I like this song best, but I can't be sure. They're all so rad.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hyvyxm0miml - download the album here and lemme know what your favorite is

Felt - Primative Painters

Heh, y'know its true what they say about you learning something new everyday! Whilst I was looking for the two Felt videos I just posted on Youtube, I found this little gem by a band from the 80s with the same name.

Recognize the female vocals at all? Its Elizabeth Fraser from The Cocteau Twins, god I love her voice. Ethereal as anything but it has some real soul to it at points. Must be where bands like Celebration get their inspiration from, and I can say without a doubt that Dave Sitek takes a great deal of influence from The Cocteau Twins production and composition style.

Oh! music was so exciting twenty years ago! I guess it still is!

Felt - Protagonists

I swear to god some of the music I was listening to back in year 11 was so much better than some of the stuff I've been listening to of late. Point in case (or is that case in point?) is Felt. I used to listen to Tribute to Lisa Bonet during lunch times in the library.

Felt is a collaboration between Slug from Atmosphere and MURS from Living Legends. Murs was the guy rapping on that Busy P track, serve and entertain or whatever it was called.
Felt had two pretty good albums called Tribute to Christina Ricci and Tribute to Lisa Bonet. Lisa Bonet was the daughter from the Cosby Show.

Anyway, I was on twitter today and it turns out they've got a third album coming out called Tribute to Sarah Palin, or at least that's what MF DOOM says.

Here's a track from it. Protagonists It's pretty good, quite drum heavy, not really saying much on the sampling front. I dunno, it doesn't strike me as anything special, I just remember the production on the other albums being a lot less polished and just a little funkier.

This was one of my favourite tracks off of Lisa Bonet.

Here's another.

I hope you can see what I mean. This stuff is just a lot more soulful and chilled out. Perfect for a summer's day. Actually I definitely remember listening to this during the summer.

Speaking of which,its fucking hot here so I'm sat at home in my boxers, nice.

Baby

I think this is the first single off of Ghostface Killah's forthcoming album "The Wizard of poetry."

I've only listened to a couple of the guy's tracks before this, but never the less, I'm immediately impressed by this. I definitely need to check out more stuff like this. Apparently its his last album on Def Jam Records and its gonna have a couple guest shots from R&B starlets like John Legend, Estelle and others I'm far too suburban to have heard of.

Recently my music library has been kind of stale, mainly because I don't have a proper internet connection where I'm living at the moment, I really need something new to obsess over. Perhaps this album could be it.

Before I moved out I was really interested in an American duo The Drums; they're two guys currently working together in New York and they've got a slightly convoluted musical history - but don't all the best bands?




Once upon a time there was a band called Elkland who were sort of like 80s power pop revival, think Chesney Hawks or Limahl, but slightly cooler and a little more camp. Anyway, that band were making waves for a while over in the states and were even on Columbia Records for a while. They even supported Erasure apparently.



Apart, I think this was the only single off of their 2005 debut "Golden", it's not an especially great release.

Well, when they disbanded, lead singer Jon Pierce went on to form Goat Explosion with multi - instrumentalist and childhood friend Jacob Graham. GE had a similar sound to the aformentioned Elkland but with much more organic synths and considerably less produced, lo fi sound...but it was still pretty camp. I discovered Goat Explosion by accident a while ago but by that time they'd disbanded (I heard rumors about an argument between the two involving some girl) and Jacob had gone on to form a bunch of new wave style bands - namely flashlight party (who I loved) and later on Horse Shoes. Both of these were pretty similar to New Order, Orchestral manouveurs in the dark and other groups of that ilk. Layered synthesizers, ghostly vocals and a whole lot of wintery meloncholy. Generally my kinda jam.



Here's a link to their last ep, Wreaths_

Anyway, later on down the line, two old friends reunited and have now formed The Drums, and they seem to be whipping up quite a storm. They've got a nice stripped down kinda sound that wears its post punk influences on its sleave, they come complete with holow basslines, wirey guitars and a few synth stabs wherever needed. Its Jon's vocals and the lyrical content that add the most unique and intriguing layer to their sound - Songs about surfing, roller coasters and young love in the summer time delivered in a soothing and innocent croon almost make me feel like I'm watching Stand by me or watching The Wonder Years. Not to mention, there's slightly less than consipicuous Phil Spector influence on the production front! Are we looking at the first post punk / doo wop / teen idol cross over band, and if so, do what do we call it?! Post Idol? Punk Wop? New Doo?


Oh and did I mention how handsome they all were? Its like Abercrombie and Fitch meets Domino Records!

Let's Go Surfing is their current single and its making waves (HAHA!) in the blogosphere and the real world alike. I think I heard in an interview that their ep is being released in the UK by Moshi Moshi records.
Here's their myspace - www.myspace.com/thedrumsforever - listen to "I Felt Stupid" and download the Lets Go Surfing maxi single for free.

Boffo!

Oh! Check out my friend Johanna's blog, I can't read french so it makes absolutely no sense to me, but there's loads of cute pictures of her and her ludicrously chic looking friends. Aside from that, I can't really vouch for the written portion of the content. But hey, its nice to look at pictures right? I sure think so.

http://wersindsie.blogspot.com/

hungry + angry