Over the past few years my love for the quintessential Swedish sound has infected my airwaves with album after album of soft-focus, shoegaze inspired, balearic dream pop. With longtime backing of labels such as Sincerely Yours and Labrador, swedish Indie seems to going from strength to strength. This new found sound has lead me to hours of music from bands such as Air France, JJ, Peter Bjorn and John, The Embassey, Jens Lekman and Lykkie Li. Not to mention the pioneers of this dreamy new genre The Tough Alliance. The country seems to be inadvertently creating it’s own soft focus indie monopoly!
Being released in early April (via Labrador) ‘Clinging to a Scheme’ is third full length from long-running fuzz-pop trio the Radio Dept., who have released just two full-lengths (along with a number of EPs) over their 15-year career. After the bands well received ‘Lesser Matters‘ (2003) the band rose to fame with a number of tracks on Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and certain shoe companies Vancouver road trip. Their first single ‘Heaven’s On Fire’ is just what you need to kick start yourself into the Spring/Summer ahead of us.
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The Urban Dictionary defines ‘A Chickenhawk’ as the homosexual male equivalent of a Cougar. Wikipedia defines it as is a political epithet used in America to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or military action, yet who actively avoided military service when of age. The former of these definitions bears no relation to the band that I went to see two Saturdays ago at the Unicorn on Camden Road, the latter is where they got their name from.
Having watched Chickenhawk several times when I moved to Leeds and since moving to London, you might think it would get a bit repetitive, but each time I watch these four sweaty boys play they seem to get better and better, sound more unified and slick, whilst resembling a giant perspiring shambles…
The show at the Unicorn was one of my favourite shows so far, for the same reason that I always end up really enjoying their shows, their enthusiasm and enjoyment of what they do is down right infectious. They endear themselves to their audiences because, while being super badass at playing their instruments, they don’t take themselves too seriously. The show was energetic, and fast paced, highlights for me were ‘I hate this, Do you like it?’ and ‘Bottle Rocket’. The band are finally starting to get the recognition they deserve so check out their Myspace, and then check out their awesome zombie video for ‘I hate this, do you like it?’. Thus ends my glowing review of Turkeysparrow, or Chickenfox or whatever.
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On the 27th March I’ll be sitting down with the guys from Motion City Soundtrack to discuss their new record, life on the road and to generally shoot the shit. In the meantime however, why not check out the music video for band’s latest single Her Words Destroyed My Planet taken from their new album My Dinosaur Life.
After a five year hiatus with members having successful solo careers and two Broken Social Scene Presents albums completed the Juno Award-winning Canadian indie rock powerhouse are back. ‘World Sick’ is a 6 minute and 48 seconds blast of raw emotions that’s reminiscent of the earlier BSS albums. Rolling drums, raging guitars and soaring vocals are a clear sign they haven’t missed a beat.
Kicking off exactly where they left off back in 2005 they seem to have done nothing but improve of their big band sound. Their forthcoming album and aptly titled ‘Forgiveness Rock Record’ will be released on May 4th via Arts & Crafts and with the whole BSS crew united you can expect regulars like Leslie Feist, Emily Haines (Metric) and Amy Millan (Stars) making an appearance. If Broken Social Scene haven’t already intoxicated your life with their unforgettable and epic sound now is the time to play catch up with You Forgot It in People and the self-titled Broken Social Scene.
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Teen Dream is the new album from Baltimore dream-pop duo Beach House. Released on Sub Pop and produced by Chris Coady, Teen Dream is a lovely collection of slow, wistful and atmospheric songs that are the perfect soundtrack to a lazy afternoon.
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Chromeo is a Montreal based Electrofunk duo composed of P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) on keyboards, synthesizers, and talk box, and Dave (David Macklovitch) on guitar and lead vocals. The two childhood friends jokingly describe themselves as “the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture.” Chromeo Online – Click! Here | Chromeo Blog – Click! Here | Vice Records on Vimeo Click! Here
Music Video: Tenderoni featured on Fancy Footwork (2007) Turbo Recordings
Introducing innovative film makers Flat-e. Great Work, Great Blog, Great Stuff. Here’s something to get you in the mood from Flat-e and Aphex Twin at Traffic festival in Turin in front of 20,000 people. Click! Here for more info on this film. Enjoy.
There haven’t been many bands that have managed to evoke the bro-mance power pop of Weezers blue album. Surfer Bloods ‘Astrocoast’ released the back end of last year gets pretty damn close though. It has the obvious surfy garage vibe that their name evokes, yet it’s the youthful optimism and raw energy that sets it apart. No layers of vocals or autotune hell …bad Vampire weekend, now sit and beg for your treats.
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For the past few months I have been saving the songs I really love, that maybe are not well known or over looked. It has everything in there from ground breaking new wave, an italian prog-rock horror sound track and a sprinkling of Latino jazz. Enjoy the trip.
‘Go Do’ is the second single from Sigur Ros’s lead man Jón Þór Birgisson. I love the song and the video is pretty incredible. Under the new moniker of Jonsi he’s set to release his new full length ‘Go’ on April 5th via XL and Parlophone. It consists of predominantly acoustic music and string arrangements from classical composer Nico Muhly and the album will be produced by Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, Tokyo Police Club). Based on the last Sigur Ros LP its pretty clear he has some love for my favorite band Animal Collective. Just a trace in this song, but I can hear it all the same…
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