Cover Me Slowly

Yet another Cover Me Slowly, defying the implied lack of haste in the title, but when good music pops up, it has to be reported TO THE WORLD! (Or to the three people that may, possibly read this once I publish a novel and mention the Blog I run within the inlay blurb...)

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This time, for your listening pleasure and courtesy of a University chum who goes by the name of Scott (HEY, check out his website http://scottmichaeldavies.zxq.net/), I have a whole bloody album full of covers for you from an established LA duo going by the name of The Bird and the Bee.

They have toured with Lily Allen, performed on the Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel in the US of A and had their creations broadcast on the likes of Greys Anatomy and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. So, not exactly slouches but still a relatively unknown entity on these British shores.

With their third album, they bring a whole record full of slinky little indietronic versions of Halls & Oates numbers. Yup, the 1980s pop duet containing one of musics greatest moustaches. They turn classic wedding anthems such as 'Maneater' into modern synth seduction, echoing a cheesy, pop-tastic version of The xx.

Top of the pile, personally, is their version of 'I Can't Go For That', viewable here. (Primarily because that song ALWAYS reminds me of THIS)

The Bird and the Bee's Myspace

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BUH BYE!
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Cover Me Slowly

London planning and lazy days and the lack of imagination and inspiration to be found in the ol' hometown have left me starved for words and writing this past month. BUT never look back, never surrender and blah blah blah, so let's jump this engine and see what's ticking on the internetz....

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Cool Runnings are an eight piece from Knoxville, Tennessee who gyrate their way through several different stylings throughout their awesomely titled tracks. 'Burnout' drums along, sinister and heady, whilst 'Babes Forever' gets glitchy and angular and 'When I Got High With You' sounds as stoned and sleepy as implied.

However, this is all about the fabled art of the COVER! And here Cool Runnings take on 'Road To Nowhere', the Talking Heads' choral uttering on the lack of direction in life. Perfect for a band without one specific musical direction so far (which works well as far as the smorgasbord of sound emitted shows).

Cool Runnings throw some tribal drums on the song, whinny out the vocals and bring out the nihilism of the whole thing, dashing bits of archaic synth and communal singing into the mix. A delightfully offtrack take on the 1985 Byrne creation.

Oh and free to download RIGHT HERE!

Publish Post

Check out their own offerings at Cool Runnings' Myspace

GOBBLE GOBBLE

GOBBLE GOBBLE are insane. Possibly actually literally. They appear to be Canadian and are touring all over North America this year. They make music that is strained through a psychedelic blender at high speed, warping and twisting everything until it makes no sense and sounds FANTASMIC! 'Wrinklecarver' is such perfect psych pop, it synths itself into a sexy little black hole of freakout. And their devastating destruction of Pixies' 'Where Is My Mind?' (self described as blasphemy) is wondrous and evokes the spirit of losing ones mind after a healthy dose of hallucinogenic drugs. I would love to see these guys go all out live but will either have to adventure to America (which I am happy to do if someone GIVES me money) or await a British tour....

GO LISTEN at their Myspace NOW!

Whispers From The Web....

Whispers From The Web will see me throwing a whole bunch of new-ish bands at you to listen to, adore, praise, worship or hate (depending on your taste, OF COURSE). ONWARDS!

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I am always joyous to find a band I enjoy from le Midlands (nostalgic hometown glory coming into effect I feel...), and I have discovered one in Boat To Row, a folk group who know how to pluck heartstrings and manufacture such merry melodies. 'Night The Owl Slept' particularly shows off the breadth and width of talent in the young band.

Boat To Row's Myspace



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Oh Brooklyn, go on then give me another bloody reason to move there. ARMS are a trio who churn out moody indie rock that swells and surges with splendid energy, via combined choral vocals, driving riffs and soft percussion. Think a low-key Local Natives with a bit more intensity.

ARMS' Myspace

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I am a bit behind with Suckers, who have released a debut album, 'Wild Smile', after much online acclaim from the likes of MTV and Spinner. Suckers are a foursome who fuse angular jerky indie rock with funk and harmonic chants. They are supporting Yeasayer on tour in the UK in October so will soon be reachable in live form.

Suckers' Myspace

You can also download a free track, 'Easy Chairs', here at Stereogum



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Moving to Canada now, we have another foursome in Braids. Braids make shoegazing music with less of a lo-fi edge and spend up to ten minutes on each track, noodling around with various instrumentation phases and fading. It's all rather daydreamy and highly enjoyable, gently pulsing and breaking at numerous junctions, like the ebb and flow of some wonderful musical tide.

Braids' Myspace

Yet another free track, 'Lemonade', from the wonder of Stereogum



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Sticking in Canadian territory, Memory Screen are a band who make terrifically trippy music and seem to have an addiction to images of leaves and trees, if their Myspace images are anything to go by. Though, this does sound like the kind of music you could get good and lost in the woods to. Its etheral and beautiful and well worth a listen.

Memory Screen's Myspace


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And finally, a bit of math pop. Tangled Hair are a balls-out math rock band who throw angular guitars, jerking percussion, gently yelping vocals and a dash of keys here and there. A free EP, 'First', is available for download below.


Download FOR FREE Tangled Hair - 'First'

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I shall be keeping my eye on the blogosphere (as bloody always) and updating Whispers From The Web every few days (hopefully).

BUH BYE!
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Back on the Beat

'Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.' ~ Alphonse de Lamartine

Riiiiiiight, so a broken Macbook charger meant I have been dead to the net for a week (HORROR!) but I am back and charging through new music, old music and that music that lies inbetween....

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Lo-fi R&B crooning and rumbling is pretty popular right now, particularly for a great number of solo bedroom musicians such as Toro Y Moi. How To Dress Well is Tom Krell, a New Yorker who has been rolling out EPs for a while now and managed to impress with each one.

Each track is a soothing, seething mass of reverb and ethereal vibrations, eminent in the standout 'Suicide Dream 2' and 'Ready For The World'. Vocals wail and squeal via computer distortion over steady, careful footsteps of synth, keys and percussion. It is soulful and wonderful and sinks into the self so easily.

How To Dress Well Interview and Streaming Songs at Village Voice

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Maximum Balloon is a side-project of Dave Sitek, the TV On The Radio genius, where a whole host of electronic influence and fuzz takes hold, alongside hip-hip, R&B and indie rock. It's modern funk at its twinkling best and the album, expected sometime in August, includes guest appearances from Karen O, Theophilus London, Kyp Malone, Holly Miranda and David Byrne. I AM EXCITED!

Turn up your speakers/headphones/minds to full volume for the pulse and blip of 'Groove Me' featuring a timely bit of hip-hop via Little Dragon, and an occasional riff that feels like an Earth, Wind and Fire offcut.

Maximum Balloon's Myspace

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And Last But Not Least....

• Having just listened to an early copy of Best Coast's 'Crazy For You', I can commend it ridicuously highly and urge you to purchase the West Coast, fuzz-rush of splendor when it is released at the beginning of August....
• Formerly known as Treasure, now known as Prizes, still pretty awesome and percussion perfect....roll along with 'Canada'...
• Tricky is back with 'Murder Weapon' AND it is as pounding and amazing as anything he has done before, with an amazing sample....

Albums out over the next week or so that you should probably buy include;

• 'Mines' by Menomena [Portland indie rock that screeches, wails, kicks, scratches and bites...]
• 'To All Beloved Enemies' by The Shimmies [Relatively gentle garage rock that could soundtrack some 'dramatic' TV shows with ease]
• 'Praise and Blame' by Tom Jones [the Welsh Maestro is back with gospel garble...JUST look at that hair....wow.....]
  

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More special shiz approaching from the West...and East..and North and South and inbetween..

Have fun!

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Cover Me Slowly

With Cover Me Slowly, I will aim to bring you a unique/odd/alternate cover song from some new or old artist that gives you an aural double take on hearing it.

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Keeping a bit of mystery about a band is both rare and fascinating in todays 24/7 GOSSIPGOSSIP culture. Wu Lyf, an Manchester based collective, are hiding their identities behind bandanas and a confusing concoction of songs. And Cymbals have so far only revealed a couple of tracks and the image over to the right with a hush-hush ethos on their identity. Nonetheless, they spit out of the musical barrel with both guns blazing.

Cymbals go about putting a suit on Pavements 'Kennel District', sharpening the edges with a blunt bit of yelping and a jagged guitar. Some handclaps sends the whole thing grinning upwards, taking it away from the beautiful despair in the original. Well worth a free download, as well as their own creation, 'Summer Job', which whizzes along via howling and hooting at math rock speed.

Listen to and Download both tracks from RCRDLBL.

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A Deadbeat Summer...

'In summer, the song sings itself.' ~William Carlos Williams


Hola once again! Yet another month or so of shuffling, moving, job searching, homelessness, kerfuffle (and losing my password to access my blogspot) and I am finally back to attempt to blog every other day or so on music and all that such a wondrously vast topic entails.

I will be attempting to bring a few ongoing sections (such as Cover Me Slowly) into constant renewal on here as well as this weekly update on what to send spiralling down your earholes!

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Seeing as I have had a penchant over the last few posts for some sort of gnarly, lo-fi-esque band, why not kick off again with one more for good measure...

Oh and they are based out of bloomin' Brooklyn (OFF TOPIC I visited recently and MUST live there; on with the music!).

Coasting are two females, Fiona and Madison, with the ability to send their sound hurtling down a grinder of sorts, resulting in the strained sophistication that stumbles out in the likes of the deliberate drubbing titled 'Don't Fight'. But don't, not for one second, think they don't know how to thrash something bone rattling out via a heady drumbeat and a growling grumble of a guitar. Just smack the self-titled 'Coasting' all the way up and feel your fillings fall out.

'Kids' is a standout piece of blurred singalong rock that gets off with its own percussive power. I pray they make it to London around the time I get there.

Coasting's Myspace

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I recently had the pleasure of reviewing a record for Middleboop by a man from LA, named Will Wiesenfeld but using the name of Baths for the musical miscellany he musters. Every song on 'Cerulean', the blue-ish title of the album, sounds like a hazy, misty memory not quite recallable yet always on the tip of the proverbial tongue.

'Maximalist' kickpushes its way through a field of samples whilst the strained vocals and beat of 'Lovely Bloodflow' pulsates with a blood-like resonance. The percussion on the record acts as a honed heartbeat, tapping and ricocheting its way amidst an emotional sea of lyrics on love and sound effects recalling birdsong and shoreline rumblings.

The full album review can be found right HERE at Middleboop so go check it out for a little more info on this suprisingly loud chillout album by Baths.

Baths' Myspace

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Folk music is always tricky to get right, with modern attempts treading the fine line between modern technology and production and the archaic, elemental factor in the original folk stylings of the early 20th century. So, it is lovely to hear it done right once in a while.

Dear Winesburg are a foursome who use a host of lush instrumentation (including a wondrous chunk of harmonica) on their debut, self-titled album. Frontman Chris Kreinczes' vocals seep out through a time machine, at times rasping like a young Tom Waits and then suddenly lighting up in full story-telling mode, as if preaching to a full campfire circle. Lyrically, the stories at hand weave and duck through wit and litany, seen wonderfully in the tale told within 'Under The Eaves'.
Violins kick in sporadically to great effect, throwing a Civil War atmosphere into the intoxicating mixture of archaic, melancholy folk music peddled by Dear Winesburg. Well worth a listen and I am deeply regretting my inability to reach their EP release gig, and hope to make it along to another opportunity asap.

Dear Winesburg's Myspace

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Last Minute Reinforcements....

• Fol Chen sound like Dirty Projectors with a roomful of instruments, a heap of something illegal and intoxicating and a supercomputer...their second album 'The New December' is simply sublime...
• Janelle Monae is all over most blogs and reviewers' radar after the release of her debut 'The Archandroid'. One more can't hurt. It is AMAZING. Go Get It....
• I love Jenny Lewis. Literally LOVE. But her boyfriend, Jonathan Rice is also bloody talented and they are releasing an album together titled 'I'm Having Fun Now'...DAMN HIM!

Albums out over the next week or so that you should probably buy include;

• 'Archive 2003-2006' by Department Of Eagles [Melodically low key indie pop with a hint of the avant garde and a spot of dreaming drama...]
• 'Turning Lead Into Gold With The High Confessions' by The High Confessions [Loud, spindly and long with plenty of drums, fuzz and backlash]

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Keep live and kicking for a bunch of different features and sections and whatnots!

Buh Bye!
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