For today’s track of the day I was going to choose a track off Stephen Marley’s new album, Revelation Part 1: Root Of Life, but instead I’ve opted to go with this, a song from Ellwood’s recently released Lost In Transition. Here’s why: not only should you already know how good Stephen Marley is, but I just couldn’t choose a single song off such a strong album. So, then, Ellwood.
Ellwood is a new project from Mad Caddies singer Chuck Robertson and before you ask, no, they don’t sound like Mad Caddies. I hated the Mad Caddies but love this album. I love it because of its simplicity: this is traditional, summer-time pop-infused ska. No horns, no gimmicks, just laid back reggae tinged sun soaked riddims. And if you cringed reading that, good, because I cringed writing it, but if even a small part of you cracked a grin, be it out of pity or nostalgia, Ellwood’s worth checking out. For fans of Sublime, the Slackers, etc, etc.
Check out “Sunshine Garden” below.
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Today was a proud, proud day in the world of journalism for so many reasons, but the one posterity will remember is the closure of Britain’s News of the World Sunday newspaper after 168 years of proud dedication to the art of photographing tits and drunk celebrities outside London nightclubs.
All 200+ staff at the London office have been laid off (those in the Dublin office technically they’ve been given 90 days “gardening leave”) and the NotW will be replaced by a Sunday edition of the equally upstanding Sun newspaper. Presumably some of the staff will be redeployed, but certainly not all, and many fine journalists will find themselves out of work while former editor Rebekah Brooks keeps her post at News International.
People say it’s difficult to have much sympathy for News of the World journalists, and to a point it’s true, but beneath the sickening phone-hacking scandal and the brain-deadening “social diaries” there was an excellent team of sports journalists, sub-editors and administrative staff who face an uncertain future while their sleazy overlords scramble to preserve their own reptilian skins. Still, nobody likes a tabloid hack and, for that alone, we give to you The Wildhearts and ‘News of the World’ from their epic 1994 album Earth vs. the Wildhearts.
If you thought we were going to stop posting this just because Osama is dead (so is Obama, according to Fox), you’ve clearly misread the situation horribly.
Enjoy your independence everybody, no matter what country you live in, and don’t forget to thank Will Smith for killing the aliens and making all this possible.
40 years gone, the legend of Jim Morrison has long since superseded the man himself to the point where clueless music journalists feel free to refer to his death as his “breaking on through to the other side,” a lyrical nod to the Doors’ 1967 classic single.
Such dimwitted tributes are, sadly, common currency. The image of the rebellious rocker valiantly passing over to the “other side” is a far more romantic notion than what occurred in reality (or at least in probability, as no autopsy was ever performed): Morrison and his junkie girlfriend took a suicidal cocktail of drugs overnight, leading the singer to vomit up his internal organs before slowly, and painfully, meeting his end in a Parisian bathtub.
The romantic image of Morrison is made even cuter due to the fact that he, by all accounts, was a misogynistic dog who’d fuck anything that walked on two legs, or maybe even three. Yet that’s what made him such a compelling figure: as a man, he was stirringly, disarmingly handsome and as a songwriter he was deceptively accomplished. He was the rock n’ roll ideal: irresistible and prodigiously talented.
While the abiding sonic image of the Doors as a group might be their longer, more psyched-up pieces, ‘Light my Fire’ was Robby Krieger’s baby and was driven by Ray Manzarek’s iconic keyboard melody. What Morrison brought to the party was a manic, almost primal energy, best exemplified by that distinctive guttural roar – he was in many…
In the four years since Zach Condon’s francophilia hit its gorgeous, horn-blaring high with 2007’s The Flying Club Cup, a quick detour through Mexico for the hit-and-miss March of the Zapotec EP has been the only visible marker of our hero’s musical whereabouts. It wasn’t until the release of their latest single, the wonderful “East Harlem”, that the band’s upcoming third LP, The Rip Tide, was firmly on the map again and if the tracklist is anything to go by, it looks like Condon, whose trip to Europe inspired Gulag Orkestar, has left his travels behind for places like home (simultaneously his hometown “Santa Fe” and his part-time residence, “East Harlem”), “Payne’s Bay”, and the single b-side (the namesake of a town in Indiana (thanks Google)) “Goshen”. NOTE: On further investigation, Goshen is also an area in New York, which may make more sense.
The b-side and album track burns slowly, possibly more so than any Beirut song thus far, and Condon’s croon is accentuated by the usual suspects – the percussive-based group of brass, strings and vocal harmonies that give Beirut their shine – and a delicate piano riff. You can listen to the track for yourself below and pre-order The Rip Tide, set for release August 30th, here.
So July is here, and once again we find ourselves nudged by the unrelenting pokey stick of time into the second half of another year. Except this time, we’re staring down the barrel of an end-of-the-world Mayan raygun year and there may not even be time for Google to deliver Mark Zuckerberg that cyber-wedgie he so sorely needs. Worst of all, in merry old England at least, you could hardly even say that summer’s arrived. Even by our standards, it’s been pretty pants.
Nevertheless, it’s always awesome to find tracks like Youth Lagoon‘s ‘July’, which sound great come rain or shine, Apocalypse or lazy Sunday. The Year of Hibernation, the debut LP from Trevor Powers’ solo project, is full of songs which charm and captivate with their delightful, youthful exuberance, infectious melodies and summer-daydream fuzz. But it’s on ‘July’ where Powers really excels. Tinged with reverb, lyrics of reminiscence echo from the 22-year-old’s fragile voice whilst the song builds; from the absorbing ambience, to the uplifting handclaps and pianos, and finally to the canyon-filling cry of fuzzy guitars and rousing oh-ohs, ‘July’ is thoughtfully and maturely structured. And yet, the song still manges to retain that feeling of rawness; of youth. Not the oft-exploited youth of impulse and parties and misguided profundity, but the youth of anxiety, of daydreams, of unrealized strength discovered when it’s needed most.
So whilst this July may be unpredictable, and possibly fill your head with thoughts of the end of the world, you can bet…
If anyone has been in the Sputnikmusic room on turntable.fm while I am DJing, you probably know that I like Portuguese kuduro group Buraka Som Sistema. A lot. Like, if the room gets remotely dancy, I’m putting on a Buraka song immediately.Black Diamond, released in 2008, remains one of my favorite dance albums of the past decade. Their Essential Mix for BBC rules. Their FabricLive album rules. “Restless”, the single they released in 2009, rules.
Point is, if Buraka Som Sistema doesn’t get you dancing, you are probably a really self-conscious person who doesn’t like to dance.
“Hangover (BaBaBa)”, their first single from Komba, their second studio album set to be released this fall, has one of the most annoying choruses of all time, but I’ve been singing it for the two months this song has been available. Although signed to Diplo’s Mad Decent and getting promotion from not only Diplo but also M.I.A., Reso, and other big names in the English-speaking dance world, Buraka have struggled to find an audience in the U.S. due to their tendency to feature Portuguese and Angolan rappers who alienate the U.S. fanbase. “Hangover”‘s chorus, in essence, is a response to that language barrier. “BaBaBa” is global and undoubtedly infectious.
If nothing else, watch the video for “Hangover” for the dog at 1:30. That dog kills it.
We can listen to Gold Cobra all day trying to figure out just how ironically we’re enjoying it. We can listen to Taking Back Sunday all day, trying to convince ourselves that it’s a spiritual successor to Tell All Your Friends.
But of the albums released on my birthday, Junior Battles’ Idle Ages is obviously the most fun. It’s an album of sounds pop-punk forgot about. It’s an array of whoa-oh-ohs and shout-along throwbacks in the style of what most of us grew up on. It’s Blink 182 before Travis Barker, Green Day before “When I Come Around”. It’s Fall Out Boy before Patrick Stump got fat then skinny again.
Bloated rambles aside, it’s fun. I said that already, I said it again. I’ll say it a third time—it’s fun. But here’s the catch: I’m not posting a song off Idle Ages. I’m posting one off their self-titled 7”, which is free if you go here.
If you like this, go buyIdle Ages sight unseen. Do it for the days before MP3 sampling, when you bought albums on good faith and recommendations. Or, you know, for the days when you just bought albums in general.
The 2008 film Berlin Calling wasn’t exactly a huge hit in the west, yet as actor and composer for the film, Paul Kalkbrenner achieved quite substantial popularity in Germany. Sure some such as Ben Klock, Marcel Dettman and others around the Berlin scene may have as much talent; but comparing to his status and fame would be very difficult. Kalkbrenner’s work on Berlin Calling should not be trivialised because of its popularity. Sky and Sand still connects so easily and with such minimal effort, in a way that many in his field wouldn’t have a handle on. Tracks other than the single such as Azure likewise are in persistent motion, with minimal brush strokes conveying such beautiful imagery.
Sure it was always going to be difficult to follow up on Berlin Calling given its popularity, but Icke Wieder certainly delivers on the sounds that have served Kalkbrenner well in the past. Picking a highlight from the album is difficult, with Sagte der Bär, Kleines Bubu and Der Breuzen among others worthy of a mention. Yet Kruppzeug provides a nice characterization of Kalkbrenner’s sound, very much of Berlin, and very much minimalist. The song builds carefully, a pattering beat moving persistently across a simple melody. Though moving towards an end, Kalkbrenner’s minimalist narratives prove the most rewarding experience.
Since Irish Dave – as opposed to Aussie Davey – pressed “refresh” on the SputnikMusic ‘Track of the Day’ yesterday and espoused all things Irish, I thought I would follow his lead today and head a little north to the sunny country of Scotland. Ever since this wee Southampton supporter got many a laugh out of trying to decipher what the hell Gordon Strachan was saying in his post-match press conferences, something about that thick accent has tickled my fancy.
Musically, the nation has always provided some fond memories. Expats such as AC/DC and Jimmy Barnes took Australia by storm decades ago, while Simple Minds and The Proclaimers set the charts ablaze in the 80s. ‘Take Me Out’ and ‘Chelsea Dagger’ saw Franz Ferdinand and The Fratellis continue the momentum last decade, while rockers Biffy Clyro were a bees d!ck away from being the most inspired live act I witnessed last year.
Continuing the notion that the Scots are just a little bit different to the rest of the world, Glaswegian six-piece Dananananaykroyd are now upon us with their crazy band name and self-labeled fight-pop genre. Performing a difficult to describe combination of indie-pop and post-hardcore, debut LP ‘Hey Everyone’ received resounding critical acclaim, while their energetic live show saw many a band member get injured as their audience were encouraged to perform a wall of cuddles!
Album #2 ‘There Is A Way’ has just been released, seeing the unique group rock up their boisterous sound.…
I’m sure you’re all fully aware at this point from my reviews, blog posts and twitter ramblings that I believe Irish music – and Dublin music in particular – is in the midst of a golden period, and nobody represents this better than labels Popical Island and the Richter Collective, either of which three-piece scuzzy pop outfit Squarehead can call home. (I’ve talked about Squarehead here before to mixed reaction.)
Saturday night saw indie collective Popical Island – jointly run by Squarehead drummer Ruan Van Vliet – put on their second annual Popicalia, a free all-day, child-friendly gig featuring as many of the label’s acts as they could fit in, including Land Lovers, Yeh Deadlies, Groom and the excellent We Are Losers (see the full, awesome running order here).
Time constraints meant I could only make it along for two acts – the aforementioned Losers and Squarehead – but I walked away with one particular tune stuck in my head and I haven’t been able to shake it since. Squarehead’s ‘Fake Blood’ was voted #1 Irish song of 2010 by Ireland’s most popular music blog, Nialler9, and it’s a real belter of a tune, resting somewhere between Weezer-influenced alt. rock and ebullient Brian Wilson-inspired pop.
‘Fake Blood’ appeared on the first Popical Island compilation (€5 on Bandcamp). The second compilation (which features another Squarehead song, ‘Candle’) can be streamed here and will also (presumably) be available for the same low price on Bandcamp soon.
Despite the unequivocally loud – and at times violent – protests for ‘Idol Thoughts’ to make a return to the SputnikMusic blog, your humble and flattered reporter simply could not find the time to keep up with the goings on of J-Lo and Steven Tyler this year. Fear not however, as the over-saturation of music-based reality shows which span the globe nowadays, is always likely to serve up some form of quality entertainment.
While the ‘(insert country here)’s Got Talent’ franchise is usually more likely to serve up a contender for ‘Funniest Home Videos’ than reveal a musical genius, there is something about the ad-libbing kitchen sink nature of the show’s format which could attract an undiscovered gem.
Case in point is the aptly named James “Chooka” Parker, a contestant on the current series of Australia’s Got Talent. While rural Victoria is not exactly the Australian outback, it is not completely out of the question that young Chooka actually does not own a television, let alone the modern necessities that are a smartphone and the internet… The fashion sense definitely suggests so anyway.
Already the owner of more facial hair than the average red-head is likely to see in their lifetime, the self-taught 16 year old – yes, I said 16 – wandered on to stage for his debut appearance a few weeks back, ready to apparently make everyone laugh. What followed was a mixture of hooting, hollering and bewilderment, which later resulted in one judge calling him a “freak”……
Working-class hardman turned middle-class investigative journalist Ross Kemp has seen a lot of things in his time, not least the most vicious gangs ever to emerge from the barrios of Rio, Bogota and San Salvador, as well as Maori tough men, Timorese martial arts cults and Ricky Gervais.
But not even his experiences in the most deprived, most dangerous parts of the world could quite have prepared him for the slaughterous aural wrecking ball that is And So I Watch You From Afar’s Gangs. I gave it a rather ambivalent 3/5 on its release a couple of months back, but let’s hear what the far more discriminating and battle-hardened Kemp has to say…
