YI And His Special Music Corner

[YI]

Yeah. I miss having a place I can make random posts about bands and shit. And whatever's on my mind. So...with it being a 'new' year, lets have a new l33t music thread.

Okay. "Field Manual" by Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie's guitarist) has leaked, and it's one hell of an album. Definately one to keep things ticking over until the new DCFC drops on May. The opening track, "Two-Fifty" has a Mew (circa. "Half The World..." like feel to it, and is downright amazing. There's other beautiful, quiet tracks, like "A Bird Is A Song". In this his song reminds me of someone (NOT Ben Gibbard)...especially in the "Colorado..." bits...and it's REALLY annoying me. There's the catchy, upbeat songs. The rocking "The Score", the total old school DCFC style "Geometry & C" (DA-DI-DUM DUM-DA-DI-DUM-DUM-DA-DI-DUM!), the stylish "Everyone Needs A Home" and the sweet "Everybody On".

In other news. I'm excited about the prospect of new Electric President and Styrofoam albums this year. I've been submerging myself in "Nothing's Lost" by Styrofoam a lot recently. Definately a killer album. As for Electric President, the self-titled was a great album. "Ghost" by Radical Face was a solid release last year, but it just wasn't Electric President, I much prefer the electro twinge to the more 'traditional' instrumentation Radical Face had.

Also. be your own PET have posted 4 news songs on their myspace. I like;

http://www.myspace.com/beyourownpetmusic

Also, "Ready For The Floor" by Hot Chip is a fucking tune. The rest of the album I'm not huge on. But I love this song.

So get discussing bitches.

Edited January 20, 2008 by YI

[ROC]

Yay, Hot Chip gets to be inconsequential and overrated again in 2008!

As mentioned way before in the listening thread, Cat Power's covers record is great. I like that she can even dig new passion out of stuff like "Silver Stallion". The l33t record of the moment, Destroyer's new record, Trouble In Dreams, has some awesome stuff and overall I think it'll be glorious and I'll like it more than I did Rubies.

A lot of the "hyped by the blogs" stuff, like Lightspeed Champion and Vampire Weekend are sort of...dull, I suppose. I didn't really get into either record so much, though, if I had to level them, I'd listen to VW a lot sooner. Sons and Daughters' new record is fine in the way that manic indie rock tends to be, though.

[Mr Evil Guy]

New Vampire Weekend is sicker than aids ROC. SICKER. THAN. AIDS. Same goes for Destroyer. Also, I am excited for BSS Presents Brendan Canning. If it is half as good as BSS Presents Kevin Drew, I will be satisfied. (nod)

[ROC]

New Vampire Weekend is sicker than aids ROC. SICKER. THAN. AIDS.

[YI]

Vampire Weekend fucking suck. I made it like 3 songs in and it was just shite. I'm not too hot on Destroyer either.

Best albums so far;

1. "Hold On Now, Youngster" by Los Campesinos!

2. "Field Manual" by Chris Walla (Although the 'new album shine', is still on it)

3. "Heretic Pride" by Mountain Goats

4. "New Lexicon" by Paint It Black

5. "Birds" by Collections Of Colonies Of Bees

Edited January 20, 2008 by YI

[IAceI]

"Darling" by Sons and Daughters is a fucking tune. I'm addicted to that song.

"Ready for the Floor" by Hot Chip I dislike, it's fucking annoying as.

I miss the l33t thread so I'm glad we have this one.

"Geometry &C", "Everybody Needs A Home" and "Everybody On" is a fantastic 3 song run on Chris Walla's album, simply fantastic. "Archer V. Light" is fucking fantastic as well, the last two songs are a bit dull for me and just wind the album down but I don't mind them, especially when the rest of the album is so fantastic.

Anyways, I'm absolutely in love with "Darling" by Sons and Daughters, I need to listen to it a couple of times a day at least. >_>

[Turbo Yannis]

Despite it not being my thing at all, "I Believe" by Simian Mobile Disco is such a fucking good song. I listen to it every time before a night out and it just puts me in the mood for a big gay manly dance.

I can't stop listening to The Cribs, I Am The Avalance and Idlewild just now. I wish I was a Jarman...

[IAceI]

The Cribs are fantastic, I'll need to pick up their stuff because every song I hear is magic. I absolute love Men's Needs and I'm A Realist.

[Colly]

Is anyone else amused by the gay Wakefield bloke that E4 use for their music stuff? I'm convinced he's the disowned fourth Jarman. More on topic its a blatant fact that they cannot write a bad song, pretty amazing in these dark days of the Pigeon Detectives.

[Steeb]

'Ready For The Floor' is excellent. I heard it last night on Jonathan Ross, and it had me bouncing through tiredness.

Lightspeed Champion's CD is pretty good, shame about Vampire Weekend though.

'Hold On Now, Youngster' is also awesome, and really follows up well to 'International TweeXCore Underground', which had me hooked for days.

[VerbalPuke]

Do I necessarily talk about music from 2008? I mean, I know it's the l33t music thread of 2008 and all, but I'd like to interpret that as the "l33t music thread that happens to be in the year 2008 as opposed to being about the year 2008".

I don't know, the reason I ask is because I'm listening to the Modern Lovers right now. Christ, they were fucking good, their self titled album is an absolute classic, not a bad song to it's name. My highlights are Old World, Astral Plain, and Pablo Picasso.

I wanted to get that off of my chest, but didn't feel that it warranted a new thread either.

Oh, and I just purchased The Men They Couldn't Hang's first two LP's. I sampled some of How Green is the Valley and really enjoyed it, so I decided to go ahead and purchase that album, and also their album The Night of 1000 Candles. Who says that downloading music doesn't translate into buying albums?

[Skummy]

I second love for The Modern Lovers, and anything Jonathan Richman does in general. The first album is, as VP said, an absolute classic; only he could get away with a line like "Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole" as a chorus. "Hospital" is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written, too.

Apparently, judging from perusing my last.fm "recently played" from last night, lots and lots of booze and a bad acid trip lead me to believe that, somehow, The Divine Comedy and SunnO))) were the perfect combination of bands to offset my evening. As lovely as they are, I think I was probably wrong.

Stuff to look forward to in 2008, in the l33t brigade at least: Nadja (drone/doom two-piece, one of whom is a pretty lady), new Earth, Blood Red Shoes, Black Mountain, Holy Fuck, new Nick Cave, new Roxy Music.

Oh, and Observer Music Monthly is being even more asinine than usual, in attempting to group together "The New Eccentric Movement", which apparently encompasses every relatively new band to sing about anything more intelligent than booze and girls.

The gem of the article is probably "Foals... [are playing what is] essentially, an unfolding fusion of the pared-down explorations of modern jazz, the avant-garde textures of post-rock, and dance music's pulsing beats, all of which, quite possibly, means absolutely nothing to the kids crammed against the barrier"....fucking diabolical. For a start, it makes them sound dreadful by attempting to formulate music into component parts, but mostly it's just downright insulting to assume that because they're not high-and-mighty clueless middle-class broadsheet music journalists, the "kids crammed against the barrier", who paid to see the band and who probably care about the music far more than some sub-Mojo hack, aren't nearly smart and informed enough to "get it". This, coupled with the BBC4 documentaries about pop music lately, has made me wonder why so many media people suddenly think "Ohmigod, pop music can be SMART and ART", when half the civilised world realised that decades ago.

Edited January 20, 2008 by Skummy

[Cactus Drags]

...or they could be making the point that Foals can be labelled and associated with all the "component parts," but it doesn't matter to the fans who clearly enjoy them since they're crammed in to see them perform.

[IAceI]

Going to see Foals in March probably, unless they cancel or reschedule.

Foals > you.

[YI]

Verbal. Go ahead. I meant it as "l33t thread for 2008", not "l33t thread for the music of 2008".

I still don't understand how people can claim them to be math-rock (Foals)...when every song I've heard by them in 4/4....when the only criteria for a math-rock band is that they fuck about with time signatures...which it appears as though Foals don't do at all.

I do really like "Balloons" by Foals. But they're just another one of those poncy, art-students in a band, which got annoying around the time of Franz Ferdinand's second album.

And the new Black Mountain's pretty cool.

Also, trying to figure out who Chris Walla sounds like at the start of "A Bird Is A Song" is going to annoy the ever living fuck out of me.

Favourite Tracks So Far;

1. "Two-Fifty" by Chris Walla

2. "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats" by Los Campesinos!

3. "Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis?" by Gaslight Anthem

4. "The Inquirer" by The Loved Ones

5. "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks" by Los Campesinos!

6. "Past Tense, Future Perfect" by Paint It Black

7. "Flocks IV" by Collections Of Colonies Of Bees

8. "St. Bernardino" by Mountain Goats

9. "Death To Los Campesinos!" by Los Campesinos!

10. "Ready For The Floor" by Hot Chip

Edited January 20, 2008 by YI

[Skummy]

New Black Mountain is brilliant; all Black Mountain is brilliant. They're not doing anything especially new or exciting....basically they're playing Sabbath riffs...but the girly makes them interesting. And they're bloody good at it.

As for the Observer article, if you read the whole article, the message isn't "none of this matters as long as you enjoy it", it's very much "this is over your heads", etc. Here's another quote; "This new breed have assumed the thinking person's mantle, recognising that music can be a crucible for grand gestures and condensing big ideas nicked from literature, history and cultural icons into simple mantras." ....as if, before 2008, no one had thought "hang on, music can be smart", or that before 2008 musicians just didn't read books, they just drank and listened to Led Zeppelin bootlegs and Wolfmother. It also implies that people are consciously making the effort to be "intelligent" with their music, as if it's a bold gesture and an exciting new statement, and it implies that the majority of music fans aren't smart enough to "get it", because they're not listening to these bands, whilst the oh-so-enlightened OMM writer is.

For a start, the whole idea of musical "movements" is asinine in itself anyway, especially in the 21st century when music is influenced from so many different sectors that it's pretty much impossible for a "scene" in the conventional sense to grow naturally, and that's a GOOD THING. Somehow, this article attempts to lump Foals, These New Puritans and Lightspeed Champion, amongst others, into one concerted "movement", as if they all got together and decided to make things smarter.

[IAceI]

What's the release date for Gaslights EP? I have it in my head it's the 29th?

Will be looking forward to it

[YI]

29th, yeah. Quite a number of good shit due to drop soon (Not taking into account like Chris Walla and Mars Volta which have leaked);

Hot Water Music - "Til The Wheels Fall Off (B-sides)" (22nd Jan)

Ayreon - "01011001" (23rd Jan)

(Chris) Clark - "Turning Dragon" (28th Jan)

Protest The Hero - "Fortress" (29th Jan)

Gaslight Anthem - "Senor & The Queen EP" (29th Jan)

[IAceI]

PTH the hero on the 29th

Gaslight and Protest the day before my last exam, i know what i'll be singing in the exam then

[YI]

A MONUMENT OF DICKS AND RIBS!!!