A great musician, that currently got the media attention due to his latest release (entitled "Heartland"), Owen Pallett is Final Fantasy. He had to change the well-known musical project's name to his own name since it had copyright issues (the game Final Fantasy didn't allow him to keep going with that name). I got the chance (for only 5 euros!!) to see him perform at Teatro Municipal Maria Matos (located in Lisbon, Portugal). He had a great setlist ranging from Heartland themes to old ones (like "This lamb sells condos"). I filmed almost the entire concert by the way. I still haven't had enough time to post all the videos, but here are some: part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5, part 9. Here are some photos of the gig I found on another portuguese music blog.
Aquaparque are a kind of recent portuguese musical project (started around the year 2006). The band members are: Pedro Magina and André Abel. It's difficult to label this band, but I'd say their music is more on the experimental / pop side. This CD was released last year. They received a considerable amount of positive criticism. The track list is: 1.De dentro de uma baleia 2.Bem bom 3.Ver ao perto 4.Siga para bingo 5.Conte-os 6.Mais lento que a casa dos teus pais 7.Tom de amuo 8.Fantasma 9.Museu de Cera 10.Saúde
My favourite ones are: "De dentro de uma baleia" (which means "From inside of a whale"), "Bem bom" (which means "Really Good") and "Fantasma" (which means "Ghost"). You can get the album here. Its size is around 40 megabytes.
Alex Klimovitsky and Sebastiano Ferranti are Youthless: a duo that is enthralling some melomaniacs around Portugal and other countries. Their music is difficult to label, however I'd insert them into an indie rock category. The musical instruments they use are: bass, drums, a synth and vocals. Simple as this... This is the band's first EP and it was recorded on Rory Brattwell's (ex-Test Icicles member) studio in London. It's admirable that their songs on this EP kind of followed an order, adding cohesion to the transactions between the tunes, creating a whole that characterises Youhtless' music. Their myspace can be found here.
The track list is the following: 1. In the pacific 2. The Beasts 3. In Motion 4. Out there 5. I guess 6. This must be the place 7. Travel n Pieces
The intro of this EP starts with a psychedelic, mind warping, sound of waves, with vocals and synths blending along the track [the song's name is "In the Pacific"). The second tune, "The Beasts" is more intense, reaching Youthless' distinct signature sounds: a nice bass, fast drums and soft, steady vocals. The third tune, my favourite, "In Motion" has an awesome bass line and tribalesque drums along the whole track, with Alex's vocals making part of this dance between drums, bass and synths. The forth song, "Out There" starts with a catchy synth line, accompanied by Sab's bass, for 30 seconds straight, until the Alex's vocals appear once again and the drums start to be hearable. Around 1:35 minutes the vocals and drums explode. Then, after a while, the bass and the drums maintain playing until the song ends. Quite nice track. The fifth song, "I Guess", is kind of an interlude. The sixth song, "This must be the place", starts with a synth then appears Alex's voice announcing "home is where I wanna be". This track has catchy lyrics, and, of course, as usual, Youthless' drums and bass euphorically blasting along the track. The seventh and final song, "Travel n Pieces", doesn't have any lyrics, but you can hear Alex screaming "hey!" along the track, inviting you to dance. The bass is awesome, sometimes can be mistaken by one of those intense wobble basses you hear on a DnB track or some similar genre. The drums, as usual, are at high tempos, being soften by the synths. At the end of the song, you can hear the bass playing the same sheets that it was heard at the second track, which is kind of funny, since it's like an epitaph to this first Youthless' EP.
Wave Machines started around 2007, in Liverpool. They've released this album since then, entitled "Wave if you're really there". Receiving good reviews, this work has got lots of great tracks to choose from, each of them, peculiar, but with Wave Machines' characteristics within it. They use synthesizers, samplers, drums, guitars, basses, vocals, blending them in their own way: the product is surely marvelous. The tracks are:
1. You say the Stupidest Things 2.I go I go I go 3. Keep the Lights on 4. Punk Spirit 5. The Greatest Escape We Ever Made 6. Wave If You're Really There 7. The Line 8. I Joined a Union 9. Carry me Back to My Home 10. Dead Houses
The album's lenght is around 40 minutes, I believe. My favourite tracks are: "Punk Spirit", "You Say the Stupidest Things", "Dead Houses" and "Carry me Back to My Home". To get this album, click here.
AmericanCountry musicsinger-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor and entrepreneur. He has charted more than 70 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 420 individual weeks in the United States alone. -Ever heard of Kenny Rogers ! -Who? -Kenny Rogers from the Big Lebowsky OST ? -oh yeah, that guy ! -"That guy " When one singer makes such an indelible mark, that's not mere luck or even simple talent. "I really, really love what I'm doing," Rogers says. "People survive longer if they love what they're doing. Because you just don't quit." This is a singer of who i always wanted to know and share more about. But i really didn´t know what to say about him, heard the song a few years ago at a friend´s place just to hear it again as one of the main theme songs of the movie "Big Lebowski " as you´ll read further in detail, well here it goes, check it out it really worths the time.
So, about Kenny Rogers, Kenneth Ray "Kenny" Rogers (born August 21, 1938 ).
Well his career began in the mid-1950s, when he recorded with a doo-wop group called The Scholars who had some success with a single called "Poor Little Doggie". Rogers was not the lead singer of the group and after two more singles they disbanded when their leader went solo.
Now on his own, Kenneth Rogers (as he was billed then) followed the break up with his own single, a minor solo hit called "That Crazy Feeling" (1958). After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a jazz group called The Bobby Doyle Trio, who got a lot of work in clubs thanks to a reasonable fan following and also recorded for Columbia Records. The group disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called "Here's That Rainy Day" failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers; including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. In 1966 he joined the New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player.
Feeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams and Thelma Camacho left the group. They formed The First Edition in 1967 (later renamed "Kenny Rogers and The First Edition"). They chalked up a string of hits on both the pop and country charts, including "Something's Burning", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town", "Reuben James" and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)." In his First Edition days, Rogers had something of a hippie image, with long brown hair, an earring, and pink sunglasses. Known affectionately in retrospect as "Hippie Kenny", Rogers had a much smoother vocal style than in his later career.
When the group split in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career. Rogers soon developed a more middle of the road sound, with a somewhat rough but tuneful voiced style that sold to both pop and country audiences; to date, he has charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including upwards of 25 #1's) and 50 of his albums have charted. His music has also been featured in top selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy and finally the spotlight started focusing on Rogers when the group got their first hit, "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)." Within a year the band was called Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, and his distinctive voice led the group to both pop and country chart success with "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," written by Mel Tillis. The double-genre success struck again with "Reuben James," and the group landed their own TV variety show. Though theoretically a country singer, Rogers dominated the pop charts, consistently finding songs with universal appeal. "I've never considered myself a great singer, but I am a great storyteller," Rogers told Billboard magazine, also noting that he feels his strength as an artist is in finding great songs. In the 1980s he came to embody the role of the sensitive male, singing such romantic hits as "Through The Years," "She Believes In Me," "You Decorated My Life," and "Lady," the biggest song of his career. Those songs are classics today, sung at countless weddings, and even engraved on tombstones.
"I've always been like a boomerang." Rogers says. "You can throw me away, but you can rest assured that I'm coming back. It's not necessarily about success for me. It's not about being the biggest star in the world. I think for all intents and purposes, if you go back to the peak of my career, I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish. To do that again doesn't excite me. But to just be there and to be a force and have people care about what you're recording, that's the greatest gift you can have."discography:
Liberty (1980, United Artists merged into EMI/Capitol in 1980; some pressings of albums were issued on Capitol's imprint labels, EMI, EMI America, and EMI Manhattan.)
onQ Music (1996, one solo album; onQ Music was created by the QVC Network to release exclusive albums for sale only on QVC. The first onQ release was Rogers' Vote for Love, a two-disc set that would later become available in standard retail stores.)
Dreamcatcher (1998, solo deal; Dreamcatcher was owned and run by Rogers and Jim Mazza for the purpose of releasing Rogers albums and certain reissues of Rogers' catalog. Other artists such as Marshall Dyllon and Randy Dorman were released on Dreamcatcher Records, also. The label closed in 2004)
This is one of my favourite albums this year, perhaps. "Jewellery"... what an awesome work it is! I love how they can be at the same time a lo-fi band and keep a classy touch constantly in their records. It's Micachu and her backing band, the Shapes... You got to love them! Even Björk loves them! I first heard of them in 2008, thanks to the Patrick O'Dell's website. They started in August 2008 and released this album in March 9th 2009. This album received mainly excellent reviews. Check these reviews out: Metacritic's, Drowned in Sound's, The Guardian's, All Music's, BBC Music's, FACT Magazine's, The Times' and Pitchfork's. I also advise you to hear this album... It's the debut album of some distorted awkward pop, with some "punky energy" as many critics recall it. It has nothing cliché, it's a new own particular genre, that has made them a hype band with a relevant somewhat-underground indie cult behind them. The track list of this album is the following:
"Vulture" (2:49)
"Lips" (1:21)
"Sweetheart" (0:53)
"Eat Your Heart" (2:20)
"Curly Teeth" (2:27)
"Golden Phone" (2:43)
"Ship" (1:59)
"Floor" (1:22)
"Just In Case" (2:46)
"Calculator" (3:09)
"Wrong" (3:35)
"Turn Me Well" (2:58)
"Guts" (3:12)
"Hardcore" (1:33) is an unlisted hidden track at the end of the record.
My favourite tracks are [not in a particular order]: "Golden Phone", "Sweetheart", Eat your heart", "Curly Teeth", "Wrong" and "Turn me Well". What, I just said I prefer almost half of the album? No wonder! It has lots of cool songs on it. The album's lenght is around 31 minutes and 57 seconds. By the way, last Saturday, this is November 21st 2009, I saw Micachu and the Shapes live at the Loft, here in Lisbon (I also got the opportunity to see a bit of Jon Hopkins show next). It was awesome and what I find more peculiar, is that some of their songs are even more appealing live, like the song "Wrong" for example. I also got the chance to take a pic with them, along with my friends. I'd love to see them live again. Oh, their t-shirts are also original and worth the price! Go grab yourself a Micachu goody! If you want to hear the album, click here. Hope you like this album. PS:I'm going to post a live review about Micachu and Shape's performance at the Loft, when I have enough free time to do such thing.
Next, is the song "Golden Phone" which is about suicide, according what Mica said live:
Alex, from this duo named Youthless said in Muso's guide: "Youthless is Sab and I. I play drums and sing and sometimes I play synth lines with my free hand. Sab sings and plays bass through two amps which he alternates between using a footswitch. We also use a bunch of weird FX boxes and other toys. It’s a bit of a strange set up but somehow, amidst all the confusion, we manage to bang out some rockin’ tunes." Like they've said in some interviews, they don't like to be labeled, since it doesn't give them that much freedom to record whatever they want. They're a great promise and are going to launch this month, October this is, a new single through Enchufada records. You can hear next [click on them] the following Youthless' songs: "Golden Age" and "Blondie".
Below is a videoclip of their song entitled "Monsta":
"Smile, sometimes typeset with the idiosyncratic partial capitalization SMiLE, is a solo album by Brian Wilson, with lyrics by Van Dyke Parks released on 28 September 2004 on CD and two-disc vinyl. Wilson, Parks and Darian Sahanaja completed the legendary unfinished album project, started in 1966 for Wilson's former band, The Beach Boys. It was released in September 2004 with back-up from members of his touring band, including three members of Wondermints." This album has more to say than just what wiki introduces to the viewer, this time. It has inspired so many artists. Take in count, ranging into a more experimental background, Animal Collective and Panda Bear or even John Maus. Its clear that many synth-based artists produce melodies nowadays that assure us that SMiLE's impact on popular music culture is remarkable. Brian Wilson's melodramatic pop tunes are so catchy and are a synesthesia of happiness and sadness, that can't be described by these words I'm currently typing. Like it's often said, an image is worth more than 1000 words. These songs are worth more than 1000 images. A transcendental baroque pop masterpiece, a beautiful alienating psychedelic pop work is what this "SMiLE" is. It received high critical acclaim from music critics: earned a 97 on Metacritic; All Music's review is pretty good, giving this album 4.5 stars out of 5; Drowned in Sound gave it 10 out of 10 stars; Pitchfork gave it 9 out of 10 stars; Rolling Stone gave it 5 out of 5 stars; Robert Christgau (a great american rock music critic) gave it an A+; Tiny Mix Tapes gave it 5 out of 5 stars. Great reviews, huh? Smile hit #13 in the US during a chart stay of 17 weeks. It reached #7 in the UK, going gold (100,000). The label that was lucky enough to release this record was Nonesuch.
My favourite songs are: "Good Vibrations" (I don't know if you've heard Psychic TV's cover, which is also pretty mad good), "Surf's Up" and "Cabin Essence". Some instruments that Brian used to convert this album to a real masterpiece are: keyboards, power drill, whistles, hammer, wood winds, harmonicas, some sound fx, celery, guitars, leg-slap, semi-conductor, mallets, drums, saws, cello, violin, trombone, flute, clarinet, saxophone, bass trombone and [above all] Brian Wilson's vocals. If you find this album really appealing, you should take a look at this website, a great source of info for this work. Get this album right here.
Brian Wilson, the man.
Like I usually do after reviewing some albums, I'll put below a song that's included in the subject at hand. This time, it's "Good Vibrations":
Basically there's just one consistent member in this band and she calls herself "Dee Dee" I believe. It's lo-fi pop. Nevertheless, it sure is good. Dum Dum girls... They've even signed to Sub Pop. You can tell this is an upcoming band. They've played in the Woodsist fest in Brooklyn, NY, or whatever that fest was. Dee Dee assumes a wannabe gothic style (no offense intended here) - which I quite adore, I must say. Their discography currently consists of: an EP entitled Yours alone (on Captured Tracks label), a 7" named "Long hair", a 4-way split and there'll be soon available a cassette comp on Art Fag label. See how this lo-fi pop is appealing - direct yourself to their myspace. They've been compared to bands like Black Tambourine and Shop Assistants.
I'll put a video here for you to heart them("Hey Sis" song):
Liars consist of a three-piece experimental rock band that was born in New York (its early years were lived at that urban cage). Currently, these Liars are living in Berlin, Germany. The band's members are: Angus Andrew (vocals/guitar), Aaron Hemphill (percussion, guitar, synth) and Julian Gross (drums). This is their 4th album and their latest one (it was released in 2007). Mute Records released their album. I think it's more accessible than most of their albums, but its really good at the same time. The songs featured in it are trippy sometimes ("Plaster casts of Everything"- watch the videoclip too) and other times they convert themselves into eccentric sound waves that wash your brain with a peculiar and semi-ambiguous mix of emotions ("Houseclouds", "Sailing to Byzantium", "Protection" and "The Dumb in the Rain"). The album's lenght is 39 minutes and 6 seconds. The producers are the following: Liars and Jeremy Glover. You can get the album here - have fun.
High Places released their debut album in 2008, self-titled "High Places". It's good, even Pitchfork reviewed it as one of the best new albums of that year. I totally advise you to hear it, if you're into more soft indie pop or/and psychedelic pop genres. Synths, nice feminine vocals and some sort of bongos that seem to fit always well with their music. They were formed in Brooklyn, NY (in Williamsburg, I think, the epicentre of all these new indie artists... MGMT, Gang Gang Dance, Das Racist, Chairlift, Telepathe, etc.). Recently, this duo has relocated to Los Angeles and its label is named Thrill Jockey. Like many bands who are similar in some ways to High Places, this band also features their own blog. Of course they also have a myspace page. The album's lenght is only 30 minutes, however one of the tracks, "From Stardust to Sentience", was listed as the 417th best song of the 2000's by Pitchfork.It was released September 23, 2008. You can get this album right here. By the way, they've also released a compilation.
One of my favourite songs of them can be heard along with an unnoficial videoclip right below:
It's funny, because I was searching for "Island" and I found a blog that spoke about this album and of the CD that came with the Comic Book that David Tibet released as a special edition around 1993. I got this album thanks to a friend who works in a record store- nowadays the album's kind of rare to get your hands on. It's one of my C93 albums. It's pure magic- and also the one with most "electronic" touches. In this album are featured the following artists: HÖH, Bjork and (I'm not certain) Baby Dee. You can hear Bjork singing in the first track, "Falling". The cover of this album is really appealing too and shows how the content of this album should sound like: mysterious, melancholic, sad, and "icelandic". The tracks which I'de recommend are the following: "Anyway, people die", "Oh, Merry-go-Round", "Crowleymass Unveiled" (an effort that David Tibet took to make a pop song and features a recording of Aleister Crowley speaking) and "Passing Horses". In the CD, which is a short EP,you can hear two tracks: the 1st one "Children Of The Nodapoc Gathering Round" is a must have! You can have the album and the short EP by clicking one of the images above. Hope you like these ones.
You can hear here a track that exists in "Island" (unfortunately I couldn't find one of the two tracks on the CD that came with the comic book...):
The first cd of the band "Ganglians", made in California, is a great step for this group of recognized recent artists. What's the meaning of their name? I surelly don't know. Mixing lo-fi, folk, Beach Boys' influence and other peculiar and unique sounds with beautiful frequencies, this cd is a good bet of this year. They have a song called Violent Brave, that has been catalogued has one of this year's best new songs. Even Pitchfork loves them. A funny coincidence is that Wavves were "born" in the same label where the Ganglians are right now: Woodsist. They promiss us more good stuff, I can assure you. You can get this album -"Monster Head Room"- here.
ThomYorke, the worldwide famous Radiohead vocalist, has done recently (10 days ago or so) a new song - actually it isn't "new", since it's a cover. The musical piece is called "All for the best" and is a Miracle Legion's cover. I have got the opportunity to hear the original version and I assure you that both are undeniably good.
I already have this album. It was given to me on my birthday, by my grandmother. Just the idea that I'm going to post it here makes me want to download it. Wavves is so good...
Natahn Williams is the man behind Wavves. He composes everything, plays everything, sings everything, etc... He's the man. His first album (self titled), came on 2008, and it seems that Pitchfork really liked it (yeah, wtvr...). This album came out this year, and... it's great. Labeling: low-fi, noise, pop, punk, beach and on and on.
Next, I'll show you a videoclip of their well-known hit "So Bored":
This is the finest sonar paintingthat's currently living in the Blogosphere: this artifact is so sophisticated that it wraps you inthe most awkward conversationsdealing with music. However, besmart enough not to get too muchmelomaniac... or else, you'll be caught by this sonar painting called "Serotonin Sounds".
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