Would I be able to do The Model, considering I do actually own The Man-Machine, but have only had it for a couple of days and haven't had a chance to listen to it properly yet?

I'd say yes.

Alright then, dibs.

My experience with Kraftwerk is limited to listening to the first track of The Man-Machine (The Robots, which is good), before it kinda got lost in the midsts of the thirteen other albums I purchased at the same time, along with Bill Bailey's [i]Part Troll[/i] Kraftwerk-imitating closer. I'm much more familiar with Big Black's cover of The Model though, as I own and love [i]Songs About Fu[font=verdana]c[/font]king[/i], so it'll be interesting to see how it measures against it.
[b]Kraftwerk - The Model[/b] - 3:43

Okay, starts off with what is, I suppose, the main riff. I hesitate to call it a riff because it's all electronic, but you know what I mean. It's a pretty catchy riff, and one of the ones I remember most (albeit in the grinding, slightly industrial punk sound of Big Black) from [i]Songs About Fu[font=verdana]c[/font]king[/i]. The vocals are clean, unlike both "The Robots" and Big Black's version of this song, which means I can make out what is being said a lot more easily. It's about a model..

Not sure how much I can say here, so far. There's two layers of electronic beats; one lower and repetitive, and one a bit higher and twinkly - the kind you'd make a "wah-wah" vocalisation for - and it's this second one which changes, experiments, builds on the main riff of the song; solos, I suppose you could say. Prime example of this goes from about 1:40 to 2:35 (had to check back for the times, as I was a little too enthralled at the time itself to notice), before another verse about this model.

The song fades out when the high notes gets higher and sustains itself for a long time, and it's the lower one which comes to the fore in terms of dynamics, playing out on the song's main melody.

8/10, I think. Good song, though inevitably I'm comparing it to Big Black's version, which I think I prefer.

[b]Songs;[/b] (no yousendits, sorry);
Elvis Costello - [i](I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea[/i] (slightly reggae-influenced rock)
Beck - [i]Girl[/i] (new album stuff)
Serge Gainsbourg - [i]Cargo Culte[/i] (French..various genres could describe it)
Husker Du (forgive the lack of umlauts) - [i]No Promise Have I Made[/i] (post-hardcore?)
Blues Traveler - [i]Optimistic Thought[/i] (poppy blues rock)
The B-52s - [i]Dance This Mess Around[/i] (weird pop)

Dibbums.

I got "Summer Girls" By Beck which they say is on Guero and it starts with analog synth playing. Is this the right song?

[B]Beck - Girl [/B]

Okay I decided to do this "Summer Girls" song becuase it sounds like Beck and it's way too fackin catchy to resist.

Alright so it starts on a dance analog electic beat. It's really poppy but in a total Beck way. I've only been listening to Odelay for a couple of days and I can already tell a Beck song when I hear it.

At Twenty seconds in the guitar comes in with Beck singing. Tis a magical moment kind of like in The Outkast song "Hey Ya" With the acoustic guitar and andre 3000 ahhhhhhh. Beck's singing is ace, it makes the song stand out so much. Hear comes the chorus "Heeeeyyyy I Saw that girrrllll" haha awesome. It has a very heavy Beach Boys Vibe. It's all in those back round vocals.

After The second chorus we get an acoustic guitar solo with a catchy dance beat. I almost feel guilty for liking the dance beat so much. This leads back into one more chorus and the song ends with an echo chamber effect looping back and forth. Oh man I'm going to listen to this at least twenty more times. If this isn't the right song I'm going to kill myself.

[B]My Rating: 10/10[/B] We Have a Winner

[B]My Selections:[/B]
The Evens - Crude Bomb [I]or[/I] Shelter Two(Catchy Indie Duo)
Magazine - I'm a Party (New Wave/ Post Punk)
Beck - Devil's Haircut (Alternative)
The Monks - Shut It (First Punk Band Ever?)
Circulatory System - Your Parades (Neo Pysch)
White Stripes - The Air Near My Fingers (Garage Rock)

I've been meaning to check out Magazine for ages, so dibs.

[url]http://s44.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1T2JT8CUGHOGR385590MTHZTJ9[/url]

Here's the Magazine Yousendit.

.....I've just downloaded it from Soulseek after searching for 45 minutes.

:(

[b]Magazine - I'm A Party[/b]

Starts pretty cool. Angular guitars, simple drums, synths. Really rhythmic, but in a jerky way. Like Talking Heads.

The chorus is a little bit of a shock. I was expecting something bigger and more blatant, but it's got a Kinks kind of feel to it. Maybe a hint of 60s girl groups, too, which is echoed in the backing vocals of the second verse.

For the second chorus, a saxophone comes in, then takes a solo. Great stuff. That's a nice touch, I like it.

The song brings itself to a close with vocables from the backing singers, and the singer repeating 'I know it hurts you' in a David Bryne-meets-Dave Davies type voice. Basically, it sounds to me like Talking Heads making out with The Kinks. Which is great.

I've heard better songs, but it's still hard to fault this. It's got a good, strong melody, and while the music doesn't do anything particularly special, it does it very well. And, of course, handclaps are always welcome in a song.

[b]7/10[/b]

Manic Street Preachers - 4st 7lbs
(Post-punk song about anorexia)

De La Soul - Eye Know
(Good-time old-school hip-hop)

The Afghan Whigs - Blame, Etc.
(Funky soul-grunge)

Tricky - Black Steel
(Punky, electro cover of Public Enemy's Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos, with female vocals)

Morphine - Honey White
(retro-ish rock'n'roll)

Mansun - Legacy
(Also prog-glam-indie-awesome-core. This is more soaring and beautiful than Shotgun.)

Mansun - Wide Open Space
(Radiohead gone medieval. Kinda.)

Bill Bailey - Cockney Medley
(A melody of hits, rendered in a cockney style by Bill Bailey and his piano.)

UNKLE - Nursery Rhyme
(Hard rock meets trip-hop. Badly Drawn Boy comes along for the ride.)

The Pogues - I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day
(Irish folk. One of their slower numbers, with Kirsty on vocals.)

I'm a first timer, please savage me if I do this inccorectly. :)

I chose Iai's suggestion of De La Soul - Eye Know

I'm not a huge fan of De La Soul, I'm familiar with no more then 5 of their songs, and I'm pretty sure I've loved all of them.
Starts out with a little guitar some beat over it, and some old school rap starts flowin'.
Some brass instruments and a whistle have a tiny solo, more rapping, cool lyrics.
Kind of lengthy at over 4 minutes with rapping and chorus/solo more rapping chorus/solo etc.
I'm not particularly a fan of hip hop or old school rap, but this song was pretty good.

7/10


My Selections:

Harpers Bizarre - "Witchi Tai To"
[trippy pop, late 60s]

The Roots - "Guns Are Drawn"
[hip hop with a reggae flavor]

G. Love - "Front Porch Lounger"
[acoustic, light, some harmonica, awesome song]

G. Love & Special Sauce - "Honor and Harmony"
[a hip hop flavor, nice vocals, another awesome song]

Jack Johnson - "Bubble Toes"
[acoustic, poppy, my favorite JJ song]

311 - "I'll Be Here Awhile"
[if you liked "Amber"]

:thumb:

mine

[b]311 - I'll Be Here Awhile[/b]

Don't know who/what Amber is, but I know just a few 311 songs, and they seem alright.

A salsa styled acoustic guitar picking opens it, then it turns into ska pretty quickly. It's fairly laid back, though a bit fast to properly relax to. The singer is singing, as singers do, his voice can be annoying at times, but here it's not too bad.

The guitar isn't played in such a staccato way in the chorus, but I think its the same chords. I can't say that much is happening.. well, I could, but I would be lying.

It goes back to the verse.. yep, just like before

2nd chorus has a bit more guitar work, of the lead guitar persuasion. Here's a bridge, which is softer.

The post-bridge chorus is the same as the ones before too... except the singer does some more "climaxy" vocals, which is a nice variation


Yeah, not too much happened, or changed within the song. I see it working well as a song to relax to, or one to have on at a party. Straight out analyzing it will only take it so far, this is a song to feel, and I have to say the feeling was good, just a bit fast.

7.5/10

_________________________________________
[b]A Chorus Line - At The Ballet[/b] - It's from a musical. The characters went to the ballet to escape their crap lives.
[b]Anathema - Temporary Peace[/b] - ambient, soft rock, only up to about 5:50 is needed, but go up to 7:52 if you want some more waves
[b]TISM (or maybe T.I.S.M.) - The Last Australian Guitar Hero[/b] - alt-pop/comedy, language warning
[b]Thyrfing - Dryckeskvade[/b] - viking metal, very piratey sounding!
[b]Electric Light Orchestra - Yours Truly, 2095[/b] - 80's synth rock
[b]Lamb - Gorecki[/b] - dance/the ultimate love song
[b]Custard - Nervous Breakdance[/b] - alt-pop-rock
[b]Caterwaul - Innerlooped[/b] - 80's gothish rock
[b]The Gathering - Great Ocean Road[/b] - trip-rock
[b]XTC - Greenman[/b] - ahead of its time (70's) pop-rock
[b]Gonzales - Take Me To Broadway[/b] - circus/dance/humor or something
[b]Alchemist - Worlds Within Worlds[/b] - really weird metal. close to 8 minutes

I'll return the favor and do ELO, I'll do it after I'm done with my research paper which could be a while..

must be too busy, bump

Dibs.

Cool. I've never heard any Gathering stuff that isn't on If_Then_Else.

[b]The Gathering - Great Ocean Road[/b]

Begins with a Kraftwerk-esque electronic melody and a didgeridoo. Clattering, mechanical drums come in, followed closely by guitars and bass.

Ah, Anneke's voice. What a great singer. Great melody, too, though that's a given with what I've heard of The Gathering.

The songs drops back down to just percussion. I though it was just a pre-chorus, but the song builds up again in a similar way to the intro, and there's another verse. An instrumental chorus? Nice touch.

Towards the end, the music cuts away except for some minimalist ambience - keyboards, I assume? - and Anneke sings without any background distractions. Hey, if you've got her as a singer, may as well show her off, right?

There's something of a guitar solo after this, though it appears to be imitating a cello, allowing notes to hold for more harmonic effect than anything else. Think the opening riff to Radiohead's 'Airbag'. We're in that sort of territory. It's nice, but it goes on a bit too long for my liking. The song fades out on this.

Good song. I've heard better from the group, though. The main problem is that it dragged on a bit (6.17 in total), but I liked it.

[B]7/10[/B]

[B]Manic Street Preachers - 4st 7lbs[/B]
(Post-punk song about anorexia)

[B]The Afghan Whigs - Blame, Etc.[/B]
(Funky soul-grunge)

[B]Tricky - Black Steel[/B]
(Punky, electro cover of Public Enemy's Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos, with female vocals)

[B]Morphine - Honey White[/B]
(retro-ish rock'n'roll)

[B]Mansun - Legacy[/B]
(Also prog-glam-indie-awesome-core. This is more soaring and beautiful than Shotgun.)

[B]Mansun - Wide Open Space[/B]
(Radiohead gone medieval. Kinda.)

[B]Bill Bailey - Cockney Medley[/B]
(A melody of hits, rendered in a cockney style by Bill Bailey and his piano.)

[B]UNKLE - Nursery Rhyme[/B]
(Hard rock meets trip-hop. Badly Drawn Boy comes along for the ride.)

[B]The Pogues - I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day[/B]
(Irish folk. One of their slower numbers, with the (female) bassist on vocals.)

[b]Suede - Animal Nitrate[/b]
(Glam, proto-Britpop.)

[U][B]Manic Street Preachers - 4st 7lbs[/B][/U]

I wrote a nice little song and dance just a minute ago but it got eaten by internet demons. So fu[COLOR=White]c[/COLOR]k that.

Anywhoooo, the song opens with jagged guitar stabs and a sample of a gal, I'ma guess she's anorexic. Stop and the pop into the main riff, chunky little distorted thing with some waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiling feedback hanging around. Singer pops in, sounds pretty good, perfectly raspy vocals. Snuggly perfect fit in this type of song.

Around the 1:50 mark, the guitarist breaks the emergency-guitar solo glass and lets himself loose. The bridge beforehand is kinda cool, singer let's us know, he wants to be "so skinny I rot (?) from view." Pleasant thought. Now we're about 3:20 and the tempo drops out and it gets very mellow and introspective. Nice transition from the balls on walls rock to a sour note. Song ends like this, with a little lead taking us out.

I've been meaning to look into these guys for a while now, but I've neglected the thought for a while. No reason, really but I think I'll get on that a little sooner than expected.

[B]8/10[/B]

Here's the skinny, Jim:

[B]Harry Nilsson - I'll Never Leave You[/B] (Dreary semi-baroque pop)
[B]Roxy Music - The Bogus Man[/B] (Eno era Roxy shaz)
[B]Prefuse 73 - Pagina Dos[/B] {Feat. The Books} (Chopped up electro-stuffs)
[B]MC5 - The Human Being Lawnmower[/B] (Dee-troit mini rock and roll opera)
[B]Of Montreal - So Begins Our Alabee[/B] (The Turtles go New Wave. Craziness ensues. Can be had [URL=http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/twins/]here.[/URL]

Should be available on the usual means of audio transit. I can upload if not, but not Bogus Man. That's a kinda long one.

[B]Of Montreal - So Begins Our Alabee[/B]


Never heard of this band nor anything by them, but there was a convenient link.

Some crazy melodies and guitars and pretty much yeah Turtles meets new wave opens up the song, I don't really dig the opening. It gets better though. Keyboard is pretty strong throughout the song. "And so begins, begins our odyssey.." I didn't really like that part it was too nerdish.

The solos are short and sweet for the most part. Sweeeet.

I like the vocals..kind of 80ish but cooler. It could almost be classified as synthish psychedelia, heh I dunno it's cool though.

Some solos of keyboard and guitar mixed with electronica stuff, a cool guitar riff at the end. I actually suggest everyone check that song out, I can't describe it very well.

Not really my style but that song was awesome:
[B]8.5/10[/B] :thumb:


[I]Check this that these and those:[/I]

[B]Jack Johnson[/B] - "Bubble Toes"
(Acoustic Alt-Folk, probably my favorite song)

[B]G. Love[/B] - "Front Porch Lounger"
(Awesome acousticky with a touch of G. Love)

[B]Donavon Frankenreiter[/B] - "It Don't Matter"
(Acoustic Light Hearted Fun Loving Music)

[B]Everclear[/B] - So Much For the Afterglow"
(90's Alternative)

[B]Porno For Pyros [/B] - "Pets"
(90's Alternative, kinda like Jane's Addiction if that helps)

[B]Dispatch[/B] - "The General"
(College Guys band that made it big)

[b]Jack Johnson - Bubble Toes[/b]

A swing flow, vocals on every pulse, it's foot tapping material. The acoustic guitar is just chords, with chops to cut them off. A bass and cymbal bit in there sounds really jazzy.

At 0:50 it goes into straight 4/4 time, still bouncy, but now it's more melodic, happier sounding. Some hand drums and guiros and stuff for the percussion. It goes on for not long, and then a drumkit comes in to do the drums instead.

It sounds even happier now, he sings a "la da da da" bit, which sounds good, it's quite laid back, a song for a good day. The drums stop for a bit, but the music is the same, it seems even more laid back now somehow. Heh, as soon as I say it sounds like ____, the next bit is even more so.

The singing is great, it's simple but fits so well with the music. A middle section, based mainly on percussive sounds, back to the verse which sounds really nice. "La da da" bit again, and this is the last bit of singing before the song fades out on the percussive part.


I quite liked that, it would be great music to drive to. Easy to listen to, simple without being boring. I feel good after hearing it.
The only things I didn't like was the start, which didn't fit in with the rest of the song, and I think the ending could have been better.
Great stuff, 9/10


______________________________

[b][url=http://www.comcen.com.au/~caracarol/DJ%20Soup%20-%20From%20Anuva%20Planet%20-%2013%20-%20Porthole%20To%20The%20Future.mp3]DJ Soup - Porthole To The Future[/url][/b] - organic electronic

that will do.

and I'll dibs

as much as I would like to not rate this track with any prejudice,I fail.

not too much to say about this.

some synth sounds, and a very nice drumbeat.
there is a woman talking over it, something about a journey and, well very spacey lyrics anyway.
(hypnotizing stuff)

this stuff goes on for the rest of the song.
the bass is very nice.
very relaxing

7/10

my picks:

no-man - all that you are ( ambiant soundscapes)
[url]http://s37.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0BX0O9P2UXP2D37RU2UD34RNSD[/url]

just one track to choose from, sorry, but I'm of to bed :)

dibs

No Man- All that you are

well, I sort of like the way it begins with the guitar arpeggios and the ride cymbals. I'm not really fond of the way that the vocals are mixed though. Other than that, it doesn't really seem all that bad. Well, actually, the music seems just a little bit trite. When the song kicks in, it's sort of interesting though. The drums are holding down a beat that isn't really expected for a 6/8 song at all. The shimmering choir pads are quite beautiful in my personal opinion...but the vocals keep boring me. Then the chorus kicks in, and I get those shivers down the spine that you hear whenever you hear something that's really good. However, I think that the verse is just sort of dull and boring.

So overall: boring verses, kickass chorus.
not much else to say here from me.

well, here's some suggestions of mine.

Lorenzo's Tractor- Gossamer
[url]http://www.garageband.com/artist/ashcat_lt[/url]

Fancy Lady- They stole our shoes so we stole their souls
[url]www.soundclick.com/fancylady[/url]

Or Einsturzende Neubauten- Armenia
no url.

bump

[B][U]Lorenzo's Tractor - Gossamer[/U][/B]

Okie dokie. The download place says "experimental/shoegaze/noise."

The tune opens up with a plodding beat, and the lead singer coughing. He then goes into a little spoken word tirade about drugs. Knuckleheads trying to fly out windows, giving the psychedelic experience a bad name and all that fun stuff. Very Velvets derived back-up going on behind him, something out of the Spacemen 3 school of slow burning drone. In other words, heavy on the reverb and very low on dynamic changes. And then the singer finally sings. I wish he'd stop.

He sounds a bit like Nick Cave, except Cave has presence and interesting lyrics. This guy doesn't display a whole lot of either here. Deep vocals intoning silly verses about getting high and flying away. Plus Nick Cave can actually sing. This guy can't.

There's really not much else to say beyond the fact that the song is almost 8 minutes long and one minute isn't much different from another. Not that I don't dig droning sounds, I do. But this was bad. It wouldn't have been quite so horrendous if the vocalist kept doing his goofy spoken-word shpiel and not tried to sing. Maybe if I had shot up beforehand, I could have gotten a little more in to it. Talk about giving the psychedelic experience a bad name.

Did not enjoy at all, sorry.

2/10

Don't kill the messenger:

[URL=http://www.scjag.com/mp3/jag/druganaut.mp3]Black Mountain - Druganaut[/URL] (Hard rock)

[URL=http://www.epitonic.com/files/reg/songs/mp3/Quasimoto-Come_On_Feet.mp3]Quasimoto - Come On Feet[/URL] (Hip hop, Madlib and his helium-induced alter ego. Must be underground.)

[URL=http://www.essexgreen.com/lady.mp3]Essex Green - Our Lady in Havana[/URL] (Indie pop, Elephant Six affiliated band)

[URL=http://www.lightintheattic.net/releases/deepthroat/Deep_Throat_Anthology_Parts_I_and_II-Run_Linda_Run.mp3]Deep Throat Anthology - Run Linda, Run[/URL] (**** funk)

Dibs.