jeremy jay

It's been forever ago since my last post! I'm sorry to all my loyal dootlings. Only kidding, i think i'm the only one here! 

In any case, onto the business at hand. Jeremy Jay. He builds pretty and fragile love songs, but there's also this exaggerated, echoey reverb that renders me helpless to the bringing to mind of long past regret and loss. Also in my head it seems to simultaneously reference and lovingly bury the 50s for all time. 

This song is from the most recent 'splash' but you should pickup 'a place where we could go' for what jeremy jay is really about.

Click here to download

some doot doot pop...

Well i’m sure i’m much later than all the other blogs about this, but i’m a bit slow and so is my little blog. But we get stuck on things and we’re happy that way!

Remember that movie with the pleasant fall tints and the dialogue that’s all choppy and hyperreal and stuff and the guy meets the girl and it’s all wonderful and warm and perfect, but then they break up? That’s right, All the real girls! It’s my favourite David Gordon Greene movie next to George Washington. And remember that guy with the warm and slightly raspy voice who did the beautiful old-timey crackley music that sounded like it was coming out of one of those ornate antique standup wooden radios, and it totally belonged on Merge even if it might have pushed them a tiny bit closer to adult-contemporary-land? That’s right, M. Ward! Well the girl from All the real girls and M. Ward from well, M. Ward, got together for some odd reason and started making music, and oh my goodness, it's very pretty old-timey pop! Apparently Zooey Deschannel writes music herself, and quite impressive she is! And i’ve always liked M. Ward. So here’s one for you to try:

I was made for you (mp3)

young and sexy vs. the arc

Here’s just a quick little post for vancouver's little appreciated and best recording group! Perhaps i’m exaggerating but i really can’t think of any vancouver band that approaches young and sexy’s complexity, depth and growth (i hope i haven't made them sound like a fungus?). The latest album is the Arc and it is fantastic.

Here’s a couple songs:

Young & Sexy vs. The Arc
Saucerful of Fire

bah, ack and ugh...

I've done it again and let another year go by between posts. I've depressed myself now. To cheer myself back up again i will listen to monkey swallows the universe. You should too! Here are some implements to help you...

Science (video) ; (youtube original)
Bloodline (video) ; (youtube original)

come on chemic-oh-oh-oh-oh-als

Well Of Montreal has moved miles away from twee in my opinion, maybe i have a conservative definition of twee though! I suppose i haven't really understood where they were going, or maybe more to the point, i wasn't sure i wanted to come along! In any case it usually takes me just one song to decide i have to figure out what makes a band tick. For Of Montreal i finally got the itch after hearing 'Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse' from Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Oh boy, what a song! There's so many things going on but still with that simple hook that grabs me right in my middle!

When i realize what a musician is capable of i think i become willing to listen through anything they do in case they manage to better it in some crazy neat direction, which gives me a chance to appreciate the ideas in the stuff i didn't get before. In any case it took me long enough i know, my brain is little and frightened, just at the moment he is excited and happy and thinking about possibilities...

here is:
Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse

and one more hows about:
So Begins Our Alabee

blue boy

Well it's not exactly a new band to me, and probably not to you, but darn it, i really like Orange Juice's Blue Boy so in the long meanwhile where i get myself motivated to write something at least a little bit lengthy about something else new i'm excited about (and i'm also a bit scared of another year elapsing between posts) i'm going to post it (and anyways it's slightly topical due to Edwyn's recentish health problems no? Hear he's feeling better though, yay!).

here is Orange Juice's:
Blue Boy

A Song to Break God's Heart

Yup i'm still alive, sorry for the delay, i'm a terrible blogger! I won't get into details since i'd like to keep things about music, but i'll just say it was a busy year!

But let's see, where was i, oh yup well shortly after moving into my new place i stopped by what is now my local record shop, red cat records, and discovered amongst an unassuming and neglected used cd bin, a compilation titled 'Songs to break god's heart vol. 1' that reminded me of an album by a favourite group of mine called Hefner. I found from the liner notes, the title at least was actually inspired by Hefner's 'Breaking God's Heart', and included songs by Hefner songwriter/vocalist Darren Haymen and his new band the French. But the real surprise was 5 songs in, an exclusive cover of a Kirsty MacColl song i'd never heard called 'They don't know' by someone i'd never heard of called Tara Jane O'Neil & Miggy. And oh dear, how pretty! With soft delicate harmonies and little jingly bells even to remind me that christmas was coming up. Suddenly my tiny new room felt miles more cozy and homeish. Well it's exactly the sort of happy surprise that keeps me searching. And a couple days later, i accidentally discovered Tara's name again while looking through the liner notes of my Papa M cd. So a convergence of little connections of things that i think are neat really. Without further adieu...

They Don't Know

candypants...

Candypants are quite good at the pop songwriting and they keep it up for the most part. You will have heard a few brilliant tracks, then a song will start and you will say, 'oh i recognize that this must be the start of the filler songs' and then 'whoosh', there will be a hook and a flourish and you're in heaven again! And then you will smile involuntarily for the rest of the day.

Probably not an adequate description, but i think i'd describe Candypants as somewhere between 60s girl pop (i've heard some ronnie spector comparisons and they make sense to me) and punk (i could say i also hear some ska in there). They are one of those groups that make you think of a very specific time and place. It makes me think of the filthier parts of los angeles, the bits with the residue of kitsch pop, stained and worn red carpets in lousy basement clubs with too much lighting, nicotine-yellowed walls, wood-laminate tables and cheap old aluminum chairs with ripped plastic leather-print seat covers (phew!). It's still very accessible and happy pop music though, but a bit more depthy on account of some world weary and libidinistic lyrical themes courtesy of Lisa Jenio, who's other job i understand has her editing for barely legal magazine (!).

Here is:

a song from them called Dishy.

More songs can be played at the candypants myspace page.

the owls...

The Owls are one of my favourites recently. Bios on them are scarce, but judging from all the shows they play in Minnesota, i am assuming they are from there. The four members are made up of two husband and wife couples (that's right, just like abba!) and they play soft and pretty pop music that reminds me of Young and Sexy. Right now there isn't so much volume-wise to find from the Owls, only a little ep and 2 songs in a compilation, but after hearing Our Hopes and Dreams i'm expecting wonderful things! So let's listen to the Owls!:

Air
City Girl

king of ska...

Recently i have been quite excited about Desmond Dekker as i have only just discovered his stuff. For me, as i suppose i have not heard so much ska (i have some preconceived notion that much of the modern stuff is a bit derivative even if it is a bit fun, and apart from The Specials, have not been entirely interested up until now), he is it's most original (he was big in Jamaica before Bob Marley!) and unique representative. A reasonably priced and very good compilation is Rockin' Steady. Here are a couple songs of his:

Israelites
Pickney Gal

stereo total

Their music is in the spirit of pizzicato five's and saint etienne's fun with the past. In stereo total's case, i think it's mostly stuff like gainsbourg and hardy that gets danced up a bit and sometimes hippity-hopped (they also do some disco covers and even nico, so they aren't all smiles und sunshine!). But they're different enough from most other stuff and i like the idea and every now and then it's surprisingly pretty. Here's a couple of not-entirely-representative songs from stereo total:

Ex Fan de 60s
Megaflittchen
The Other Side Of You

Updated: 3hive is a few weeks behind me posting a band once again (i'm so proactive!) but they do their homework better, so i'm adding some of the tracks they've linked:

L'amour á 3
LA, CA, USA
C'est la Mort

Pete and Bob...

From one of the funnest places on the web, Flip, Flop, Flyin', comes the music stylings of owl friends Pete and Bob. A precarious balance between silly, sweet and sad (okay mostly just silly!). You can find the six episodes here (click here).

And the lovely Walker Brother's song sampled in episode 6,

'The sun ain't gonna shine anymore' can be downloaded here (click here).

And finally i also recommend visiting the educational pebble museum of Witham and Woodhall .

music is my boyfriend...

I love the Hidden Cameras. If you haven't heard 'The Smell Of Our Own' you have some great pleasures in store! It's joyful poppiness, quiet reflection and so very tuneful and pretty (or church music for gay fetishists?).

In any case, from their recent album 'Mississauga Goddam' here is a video for 'I Believe In The Good Of Life' (windows media) (click here).

And from the same album, here is the beautiful 'Fear Is On' (click here).

Fat Tulips

Another group i don't know very much about is the Fat Tulips. Apparently they formed in the late 80s in England and were Clare Grogan fans (the title from one of their releases mentions her). I suppose they could be lumped in with the C-86 group as Clare seems to be a bit of a godmother to all those bands.

A jangly, chimey (there's a xylophone or small bell in there somewhere i think), pretty song called:

So Unbelievable is here (click here).
and another: James by the Fat Tulips

too many Wainwrights...

I'm currently stuck on Martha Wainwright's first full length album. If i had a doot da doot album of the month i think this would have to be it. Here's a couple of songs from Martha Wainwright's 'Martha Wainwright':

G.P.T.
Factory

Update - a few tracks that 3hive dug up (the last two are not on Martha's debut) so i will stick them here too:

BMFA
I Will Internalize
How Soon

Black Tambourine

Black Tambourine was one of the first groups on slumberland records (other notable alumni include Velocity Girl, The Swirlies, Stereolab and of course all of the great Rose Melberg projects). An interesting, noisy and tuneful song from the abovely pictured record is this one called "Throw Aggi Off The Bridge" (click here for song). An interesting bit of trivia is Tullycraft references this song in Twee (even though I don't think Tullycraft really embodies the spirit of twee, even though i do like Tullycraft even though and so on).

Life's fun when you're having flies

The nice thing about a blog is you can post whatever you like, so in that spirit, here's Kermit the frog's 'Rainbow Connection' (click here) from 'The Muppet Movie'.

The Clientele

I haven't made up my mind about The Clientele but these two songs are helping to convince me:

(I Want You) More Than Ever (real audio)
Violet Hours (real audio)

You can't hurry love

I thought i would try to post some interesting videos here and was reminded of the great animated video for 'You can't hurry love' (quicktime) by the Concretes from some months ago. Also available for streaming with Real video hi res / low res and Windows media hi res / low res.

There's also a video for the song 'Warm Night' (quicktime).

More Unlovables...

Here's one more song (Bein in Love) from the Unlovables. This track has the best 'whoah ah yah yah yahs' and 'oh yah baby's that I know of.

16 military wives

Here is a video for the Decemberists song 'Sixteen Military Wives.' It looks a lot like it was inspired by one of the montages early in 'Rushmore.' You can glimpse Craig Thompson's 'Blankets' if you look closely! (there's detailed instructions on how to download torrents on the linked page)

Updated: If you don't want to deal with the bittorrent stuff, you can watch a lower quality version of the video in your browser here.

(neato lego Decemberists photo by Dunechaser)

A legend in her own time...

Doris Duke is a surprisingly overlooked singer from the 70s who hasn't had much recognition until now (even now you can barely find her on the internets). Here's a cracking song of hers (click here).

Pipas

Londoners, Lupe Nuñez-Fernandez and Mark Powell are Pipas. Apparently Pipas are quite big, i had no idea! Here's a couple of lovely songs from Pipas:

Hiding in the Park
Don't Remix (real audio)

The Page Boys

I don't know much about The Page Boys, other than this great song (click here) that sounds very british invasion. If my web searching is correct they were from Peoria, Illinois and active in the 60s. Enjoy!

Things i like to eat for breakfast...

1. Pie (pumpkin or cherry)
2. Cheerios
3. Danish (authentic with custard)
4. Herbal tea
5. Grapefruit