Showing posts with label indie. Show all posts

THERE ARE THINGS WE'VE NEVER SAID


“Look...Reality is greater than the sum of its parts, also a damn sight holier. And the lives of such stuff as dreams are made of may be rounded with a sleep but they are not tied neatly with a red bow. Truth doesn't run on time like a commuter train, though time may run on truth. And the Scenes Gone By and the Scenes to Come flow blending together in the sea-green deep while Now spreads in circles on the surface. So don't sweat it. For focus simply move a few inches back or forward. And once more...look.”
-Ken Kesey, Sometimes A Great Notion

"You can make a mark across the night with the tip of an embered stick, and you can actually see it fixed in its finity. You can be absolutely certain of its treacherous impermanence. Hank knew . . . "
-Ken Kesey, Sometimes A Great Notion


a great book. a truly overwhelmingly beautiful piece of writing. i've heard some people say that they find i hard to read, with the techniques he's used. but that's the beauty of it. you're getting these first-person perspectives from multiple people all at once and he creates this depth of character. and each scene in the book just has this added weight because of it. it's a beautiful thing. a truly beautiful thing.


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and something for your ears
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with his wonderfully sparce arrangements and use of loops to build layers in a track hayden calnin establishes this depth and emotion and its fucking lovely.

summer is such a bold song. i love it.

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THIS ROOM ON FIRE


youth lagoon is the best thing that's happened to me today.


i was mad depressed earlier...

one of those days when it's sunny outside but the shadows just seem to follow you.
can't get the light.
can't feel the warmth.
can't get anything to go my way.

...but then i downloaded youth lagoon's 'the year of hibernation' and all was good.

i fucking love that music can do that.

all you have to do is listen.




this film clip is stunning too. tyler t williams has mad talent behind a camera.


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and as an aside,

have you seen this trailer? beautiful. the song is by chad vangaalen, who until now i'd actually overlooked. he's amazing.





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BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART: ZOO KID


ZOO KID.


archy marshall of london.

old soul but this guys only sixteen.

great music. nice riffs, raw voice. plays with silent parts in his music, gives it an emotive quality, a maturity. sweet lyricism too, the dudes a poet.

zoo kid is genuine.

legit.

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can't go wrong with star slinger


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DREAMS, THEY'RE FOR THOSE WHO SLEEP: GRIMES + COMA CINEMA + JONATHAN BOULET + FISHING + CHET FAKER + SEEKAE




“Isn’t most of our lives an illusion?”
“Well, everything in the past is memory…and everything in the future is imagination. Those’re both illusions — memories are unreliable and we just speculate about the future. The only thing that’s completely real is this one instant of the present - and that’s constantly changing from imagination to memory. So, see? Most of life’s illusory”

jeffery deaver, the vanished man

(this girl is so flip, chopped samples and an epic voice, you can get halafax free from the arbutus records site, this song is beautiful)

(coma cinema absolutely never disappoints, he's got most of his stuff up for free download on his site)


(get north (chet faker minor edit) from his site, so flip)

(i've said it before but if you haven't got +dome yet buy that album, its fucking beautiful man)

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WANDERLUST: PENNY AND THE QUARTERS, JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW, PERFUME GENIUS, EMA


Have you ever seen someone peacefully dozing in the morning light? The sun is rising and the birds are singing and they look so wonderfully serene. In that moment you can believe in a higher being, you can believe in love and fairy tales and innocence and peace. In that moment everything is achievable and everything is real, and the tooth fairy doesn’t seem so far-fetched. And then they start to wake, almost always with a smile, almost never in a rush, almost perfect, these moments are. Have you seen the sunset? The fragmented blues and reds and purples, and the warmth that courses through you, and now suddenly the dread, you see that magnificent luminous ball, see it dip and hurry beneath the horizon. How beautiful the scene. How nice to you. How nice to me. Have you witnessed this splendour? And when you witnessed it did you seek answers? Or did you find them? I believe in the absolute wonder of the every day. I believe that knowledge has saved and ruined us. I understand the need for an explanation and I question the value of a scientific one. I want for everything and I know that that means I really want for nothing. I believe that ignorance is bliss, and that bliss ignorance is an ideal condition, because nobody wants to know the truth about everything. I believe that truth is relative and that lies are sometimes more honest than facts. I believe in magic and deception and I believe that one day a lie will be told that is so profound it will bring the whole world to tears. I believe in a higher truth, I believe that nothing is real and everything is imagined and that the ultimate honesty lies in our mistakes. I believe in opening your eyes, to see. See the mountains and valleys of virtuous nature, and the perfect grandeur of an uninterrupted skyline, see snow falling through windows and the sun set over the ocean, see fog veil the early morning light. See you. See me. See the furious glory of a shared yearning, a yearning to be free, free of plans and goals and rules and structures, limitations all, limitations of the mind and spirit. Have you felt that harsh grip of the shackles that bind us? That blind us?


penny and the quarters - you and me.mp3

james vincent mcmorrow - we don't eat.mp3

perfume genius - mr. petersen.mp3

EMA - the grey ship.mp3



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ALL GREAT AND PRECIOUS THINGS ARE LONELY: PLAINS, TYLER THE CREATOR, PURITY RING, JAMES BLAKE

i'm moving to sydney next week to start a new university course. so ima be busy sorting myself out here and there over the next few weeks and thus there won't be much posting going on. here are some words and songs and moving pictures to keep you sated.


I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren’t true and I can believe things nobody knows if they’re true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that peope are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in American is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians and unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of casual chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman’s right to chose, a baby’s right to live, that while all human life is sacred there’s nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.

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NO PLACE LIKE HOME: GROUPLOVE



GROUPLOVE: from london, l.a., and new york via crete. kindred spirits hannah hooper and christian zucconi met in manhattan before hooking up with sean gadd, andrew wessen and ryan rabin in crete to form what is now grouplove. their debut ep was released in 2010, filled with zucconi's raw vocals, broken melodies and a shared passion for their music. it's seriously good. check out the video for colours too. its sweet.




(i posted this one back in april on bvd so you might already have it. that was under the band name 'group')

...but my favourite thing about his band is probably hannah hooper. girl can paint. she did the cover of their self-titled ep, along with the morning benders 2010 album 'big echo' (a really solid debut album). CHECK HER SITE OUT.


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IN SEARCH OF ELUSIVE LITTLE COMETS

i don't know if you saw it but i posted this vid on my facebook page in december. cause this song is wicked indie.

the boys from little comets have their debut album 'in Search of elusive Little Comets' coming out january 21st...but, if you go to their facebook page you can stream the album in it's entirety for free for two weeks before the release. 'her black eyes', 'mathilda' and 'tricolour' are my favourites right now but the whole album is definitely worth a listen. really dope indie-pop.

here's a free download of their alternative version of 'joanna'.

little comets - joannacapella.mp3

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FOSTER THE PEOPLE


new track from FOSTER THE PEOPLE 'helena beat' which will be available on their 'pumped up kicks' EP due on itunes later this month. posted their first single 'pumped up kicks' over at BVD last march, if you haven't heard it yet you should get on that.



aus. tour dates

brisbane: 13th feb @ the zoo - tickets $44.90

sydney: 14th feb @ oxford art factory - tickets $43.50

melbourne: 16th feb @ northcote social club - tickets $43.00

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THE FANTASIES


THE FANTASIES: from northampton. these tracks are huge, the drums via 1960's. got a wicked isley brothers erraticness to them. 'midnight boogie' and 'tick tock' are both available for free download as part of their 'meet the fantasies' EP on bandcamp.

also check out their 'how the fantasies stole christmas!' EP (also on bandcamp). its got more of an instrumental hip/hop feel to it, huge change of pace but again, great tracks.


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also, for anyone in brisbane, check out the museum of brisbane's 'the stoke' exhibition. a history of skateboarding in brisbane. huge.

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CONNER YOUNGBLOOD



CONNER YOUNGBLOOD - this guys got range. 20 year old from dallas, texas, now at yale university. video is him playing 'colour blind (i swear)' just conner and ukelele and soul. great track. 'monsters' (my favourite) is an electronic, almost dubstep hinged alt-pop song. and 'girl hair' is a dreamwavey track that gives alot of sufjan stevens. he's got so much breadth to his talent, covers so many genres. and he's accomplished with guitar, banjo, piano, ukelele. 'colored ghost' EP is definately worth a look, doesn't have a slack track and keeps up the genre bending.

FFO: sufjan stevens, trophy wife, a.r.kane, bon iver

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FEET ON THE GROUND/HEAD IN THE SKY: CHAD VALLEY + TEEN DAZE + HOMEBOI


CHAD VALLEY - is the name of a uk toy brand. is also the name of hugo manuel's solo chillwave project. this stuff is bliss. way chill, jungle/beach hymns from oxford, uk. debut 12" comes out at the end of the month.
FFO: we say bamboulee, star slinger


TEEN DAZE - washy dream pop/chillwave from canada. debut 'four more years' came out in july. posted some of his other tracks back in august here. 'everywhere' is off the 'cold house b/w everywhere' digital 7" he did last month.
FFO: blackbird blackbird, unouomedude
HOMEBOI - 20 year old marcin sleziona of germany. got a bit of a posse going with the likes of nautic (16 years old, 'get satisfied' and his 'shrimps' remix are definately worth a look) and ohyeah. shrimps is a fucking tune, such an epic beat. been playing this song on repeat on my way home from work for the last two weeks.
FFO: seekae, darkstar

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HEAR THE WAY HE TALKS: GOLDEN GLOW

photo courtesy of hobbsy.com

i get a really joy division/velvet underground vibe when i listen to your songs. are they big influences on your music?

Totally. VU probably more than Joy Division, despite the obvious Manchester connections. I am a massive Nico fan. Chelsea Girl is one of my favourite ever albums, so beautiful. I love the first VU album too, and Loaded. They were ahead of their time, and obviously completely experimental, but underneath all that was always great songs. Some dark but some amazingly beautiful, like Femme Fatale. I love the whole scene thing too. I think there are definite parallels to be drawn between Warhols Factory scene and Tony Wilsons here in Manchester.
Its hard to escape the Joy Division comparisons, living here;- i love She's Lost Control and Transmission. Dark and desperate, but poetic too.
I think the main thing you realise living here for a while, is despite all the backstory and subsequent legacy, those guys were just 4 lads in a room, being a band. I think the similarities in our sound come more from just living in the same rainy city, and feeding off the architecture and the landscape.


manchester's association with music goes back a long way, and there's been some great stuff coming out of the city recently. does being surrounded by so much music feed your creativity, or does it feel like it makes it hard to get into your own headspace and be original?


A bit of both i suppose. Sometimes its suffocating, and can make you think 'oh i should be sounding like this' but you see things come and go and slowly begin to realise its all completely inconsequential. What works in the moment isn't something that can be dictated.
Plus it always great when someone local does something epic and blows your mind all over again. It's inspiring.




your myspace lists quite a few authors as influences (hunter s thomson, f scott fitzgerald, william s burroughs) is lyricism very important to you in your song writing?

Yeah - but not just in my songs and poems, more in my life in general. As you get older you realise everyone is on this planet for the first time, experiencing it for the first time, unaware of what may happen. I believe the only way to learn is to read what those who've been before have said. It can only do you good. Reading is something that is very personal too. Its the only medium that has transcended all generations without much technological interference. Its totally based on the power of the imagination of the individual. Its pretty powerful. I don't necessarily try and reference it in my songs on purpose, just hope that some of it seeps in the style and essence of what i'm doing.

and is writing something that comes naturally to you, or is it a laboured process?

Peaks and troughs. I think it is natural, but its easy to get lazy, plus the environment has to be right. Obviously i have periods of blankness, but i think everyone does. I'm not one of those people though who can be like 'right today i'm going to write a song'.. It doesn't really work like that..(for me).


you've done some stuff with holiday records. how was it working with those guys?


Really good. I started speaking to Jacob (The Drums) when i was going through a pretty dark period of my life, recovering from a car accident, i couldn't walk for 6 months, and that was actually when i wrote and recorded most of the album.
Someone saying they like your music is always complimentary, which gives u confidence and makes you feel like someone, somewhere likes what you are doing. Its also good to know there are still people like that that exist, genuine music lovers that do stuff for the love of doing it. As well as similar tastes we have similar DIY style ethics, and obviously because of the press attention they were getting, it shone a bit of light on me. Great guys.

what kind of music did you listen to growing up?

Pretty much only Michael Jackson until i was about 14. I was obsessed, still am. I loved the whole pop star thing as a concept, as a life. Aside from that The Beatles, a lot of Motown, a lot of Lovers Rock stuff my Mum played growing up in London, and a lot of 60s stuff, the girl groups (Shirelles, Ronettes, Shangri-Las).. it wasn't really until i was about 16 when i discovered the guitar that i started to like indie.


first album you bought?

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall.


if you could name one song/band/musician that made you want to make music who/what would it be?

Michael Jackson.


if you could name one song/band/musician that made you want to stop making music who/what would it be?

No one really - i don't think its really possible to switch it off.
If anything, the only thing makes me want to stop making music is those that are so good you kinda think, 'whats the point? i'll never reach those heights' aka Radiohead. But you soon realise there's a place for everything.

what are you listening to at the moment?

Still Corners, Cloud Nothings, 2.54, Warpaint, Boxed In.. A lot of new bands.


band i haven't heard that i should know?

Shimmering Stars. (myspace/starsshimmer)


website you spend way to much time on?

Facebook.


what does the next 12 months hold for golden glow?

We have a vinyl coming out in January on Bleeding Gold Records called 'Tender Is The Night'. Very limited, 300 copies, 12-inch gold vinyl. 10-tracks all composed, performed and produced by myself. Dead lo-fi, kinda a collection of all my demos and previous EPs so far in one cohesive package. I can't wait. After that we'll see what happens, the band is going good so I imagine it'll start getting a bit more collaborative.


golden glow is. pierre hall. is great. myspace here.

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WHERE IS MY MIND? PIXIES, GOBBLE GOBBLE, EMMY THE GREAT, MAXENCE CYRIN

photo courtesy of william eadon

this is a tune. GOBBLE GOBBLE thrashes the pixies' 'where is my mind?' with his own signature sound but he's managed to keep the same feeling in the song. the raddest cover of a huge track. more GOBBLE GOBBLE here.


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the original and two more great but entirely different covers:

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WE SAY BAMBOULEE

We Say Bamboulée - genuinely excited by these guys. pure pop bliss. doug wright with brothers, peter and russell fitzgibbon from the blue mountains, deliver sun-drenched indie/pop with definate winks to chillwave. if you're in sydney on november 4th they're having their 'bush tricks' EP launch at goodgod small club in liverpool street (EP comes out november 8th). russell and doug also make music as fishing, a more instrumental, jungly sound but just as poppy and catchy.
FFO: seekae, the naked and famous

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I THINK I MADE YOU UP INSIDE MY HEAD: SILVER SWANS + THE NAKED AND FAMOUS + ECSTATIC SUNSHINE+ DARKSTAR


SILVER SWANS - name born from comic books (the silver swans are from the wonder woman series, each has the ability to create powerful sound waves with her voice). san francisco collaboration between producer/musician jon waters and vocalist ann yu. really atmospheric music and yu's ethereal vocals give it some drama. 'secrets' is an epic, dreamy lullaby.
FFO (for fans of): the knife, the xx

THE NAKED AND FAMOUS - these guys from auckland are the business. if you haven't got their debut LP 'passive me, aggressive you' yet get it here. playing at the club house on november 6th. tickets here. check out this live session.
FFO: passion pit, ou est le swimming pool

ECSTATIC SUNSHINE
- matt papich. i saw this guy open for wavves at cargo in london on my birthday back in july. such a good night. experimental/minimalist kind of stuff but its got such a cool vibe. very unique. you can get a digital copy of 'yesterdays work' here, or email him at ecstaticsunshine@gmail.com with your deets to get him to send the 12" + download card (something like $25-30 incl shipping).
FFO: blithe field, julian lynch

DARKSTAR
- progressive/experimental dubstep from london. debut LP 'north' set for release in november with hyperdub.
FFO: deadboy, joy orbison

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LADIES IS TROUBLE: I BLAME COCO + COCOROSIE + AMY CUSHWAY + ELEANOR SEABIRD



I BLAME COCO
- i blame coco sumner. i blame sting's daughter. she makes great intelligent pop music. been listening to her for a couple of months and for some reason never posted her. debut 'the constant' is out in november, definately worth a look.

FFO(for fans of): ellie goulding, marina & the diamonds

self machine.mp3
caesar ft robyn (miike snow remix).mp3

COCO ROSIE
- these sisters are the business. released their fourth long play 'grey oceans' in may and its brilliant. get it here. i posted 'lemonade' from the album here.
FFO: joanna newsom, the knife

r.i.p. burn face.mp3
surfer girl.mp3

AMY CUSHWAY
- gold coast alt pop musician. in her words; 'I write alternative pop anthems, I am a Taurus, I have lost two finger nails to both the acoustic and electric guitar, I can't keep still when I play (I should get that looked at) and remember, the most rebellious thing you can ever do is to come to my show and bring your whole damn family!' . these two tracks are off her unearthed page but you can get lasy year's 'love's not anorexic' EP here.
FFO: laura imbruglia, emmy the great


ELEANOR SEABIRD
- london based. sent this track through a few days ago it features on her new release 'the elle p'. wordplay. genius. get it here. in her words; 'It's pop and whilst I can appreciate super underground indie type things which I used to do earlier, I just kinda got back to what I do best; catchy, simple, withdepth woven into a good hook.' dig it.
FFO: blondie, lily allen/karen o

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