Music Makes Us

2 Weeks

I think I will start to update this in a couple weeks. I am with friends in Phoenix finally and once everything with work is done and I see the people I had planned to, I should be ready to start posting again. In the meantime, check out the links on the right for some awesome music blogs.

Updates Put on Hold

Taking a break from this until I get over all of the crap in my life.

Black Tambourine – Complete Recordings

From the time I heard the first track on this album I knew I had to post this album. Black Tambourine were one of the earliest Slumberland groups, consisting of members of Whorl and Velocity Girl, plus their pal Pam Berry on vocals. Conceived as an explicitly pop band at a time when pop bands were pretty rare in America, Black Tambourine wore their influences on their sleeves: The Jesus & Mary Chain, of course, but also folks like Phil Spector, Smokey Robinson, Love, The Ramones, Shop Assistants, The Pastels, 14 Iced Bears, Orange Juice and the list goes on

Track List

• For Ex-Lovers Only3:40
• Black Car3:28
• Pack You Up2:26
• Can’t Explain2:23
• I Was Wrong (Previously Unreleased)2:35
• Throw Aggi Off The Bridge3:17
• Drown3:42
• We Can’t Be Friends2:49
• By Tomorrow3:05
• Pam’s Tan1:19

Continue reading to listen to the album…

Tokyo Police Club – Champ

Sorry for the delay, Grooveshark wasn’t getting along with my uploads. This is a new album from Tokyo Police Club which I was excited to hear. Tokyo Police Club is an indie rock band from Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. The band consists of Dave Monks (Vocals, Bass), Josh Hook (Guitar, Percussion), Graham Wright (Keyboards, Vocals) and Greg Alsop (Drums, Percussion). In 2005, Tokyo Police Club started by accident one day in the ordinary suburb of Newmarket when Greg, Josh, Dave, and Graham decided that they missed playing music together, their previous band having broken up several months before.

Track List

• Favourite Food4:55
• Favourite Colour3:37
• Breakneck Speed4:43
• Boots Of Danger (Wait Up)3:07
• Bambi3:45
• End of a Spark4:36
• Hands Reveresed3:18
• Gone3:03
• Big Difference3:57
• Not Sick3:57
• Frankenstein3:30

Continue reading to listen to the album…

Fire on Fire – The Orchard

Fire on Fire are an experimental folk band from Portland Maine, formed from members of Cerberus Shoal and Big Blood. In 2007 they released a self-titled ep on Michael Gira’s Young God Records. Fire On Fire used to be the art-punk-prog-chaos collective Cerberus Shoal, but they ditched their electric instruments, went into hiding for a while, and now play all acoustic—stand up bass, mandolin, banjo, harmonium, accordion, acoustic guitar, dobro etc etc, and they all sing and harmonize on the songs. I am really liking it.

Track List

• Sirocco5:16
• Heavy D5:37
• Assanine Race6:14
• The Orchard4:06
• Flordinese5:28
• Hartford Blues4:31
• Toknight6:12
• Squeeze Box4:13
• Flight Song4:25
• Grin5:02
• Tsunami5:43
• Haystack9:36

Continue reading to listen to the album…

The Dead Weather – Horehound

The Dead Weather is an alternative rock band which formed in Nashville, Tennessee, United States in 2009. They consist of Alison Mosshart (vocals, guitar), Dean Fertita (guitar, organ), Jack Lawrence (bass) and Jack White (drums, vocals). All members of the band are from other, well known alternative rock groups. Mosshart is a member of The Kills, Fertita is a member of Queens of the Stone Age, Lawrence is a member of The Greenhornes and The Raconteurs and White is a member of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs.

Track List

• 60 Feet Tall6:32
• Hang You From the Heavens4:36
• I Cut Like a Buffalo3:28
• So Far From Your Weapon4:39
• Treat Me Like Your Mother4:10
• Rocking Horse3:58
• New Pony4:55
• Bone House3:26
• 3 Birds4:43
• No Hassle Night3:51
• Will There Be Enough Water?6:18

Continue reading to listen to the album…

Modern Skirts – Catalogue of Generous Men

Modern Skirts is an alternative pop band based in Athens, GA. The band consists of four members: Jay Gulley (guitar and vocals), JoJo Glidewell (guitar, piano, and vocals), Phillip Brantley (bass, guitar, and vocals) and John Swint (drums). Probably not the best album I have posted, but thought some might enjoy it. Somehow it reminds me of Counting Crows, which probably is the only reason it made the cut.

Apparently this band is similar to The Albertans, so if you know your Canadian pop, there is a benchmark for you.

Track List

• New York Song5:36
• Seventeen Dirty Magazines2:07
• My Bully3:46
• pasadena4:05
• city lights4:24
• Tonight Before You Were Sleeping4:51
• September Days3:30
• My Lost Soprano4:32
• Save Me5:35
• ring the bell6:54
• sugarpile4:49

Continue reading to listen to the album…

Morcheeba – Blood Like Lemonade

New album out by Morcheeba. If you haven’t heard of them yet, be sure to listen to some of their other albums. Morcheeba is a British band that mixes influences from rock, trip hop, rhythm and blues and pop. The word “morcheeba” means “the way of marijuana” (“Mor” – the middle of the way & “Cheeba” – informal name of marijuana). Formed in 1995, they consisted of Paul Godfrey (dj), Ross Godfrey on guitar and keyboards with Skye Edwards as the primary vocalist fronting the band. While churning up interest through an underground presence mostly in London, the band finally broke through when featured on the Ultra-Chilled series.

Track List

• Crimson5:09
• Even Though4:17
• Blood Like Lemonade5:50
• Mandala3:39
• I Am The Spring3:25
• Recipe For Disaster5:18
• Easier Said Than Done4:40
• Cut To The Chase4:17
• Self Made Man5:08
• Beat Of The Drum6:07

Continue reading to listen to the album…

Portugal. The Man – American Ghetto

I am a bit late with this release as it came out February of this year, but here it is in case it slipped past you like it did me. Portugal. The Man is an experimental indie rock four-piece centered around frontman John Baldwin Gourley’s abstract musical approach and corresponding upbringing. He was raised in a sort of technological isolation: his log cabin home in the winter wasteland of the fringes of Wasilla, Alaska was powered by a generator and had no telephone. Both of his parents helped completely immerse him in the unique lifestyle that comes with a land of seasonal darkness and perpetual cold with their jobs as dog sled mushers.

Track List

• The Dead Dog3:13
• Break1:58
• 60 Years4:12
• All My People3:11
• 1000 Years3:51
• Fantastic Pace4:41
• The Pushers Party4:22
• Do What We Do3:27
• Just A Fool3:04
• Some Men3:30
• When The War Ends3:30

Continue reading to listen to the album…

Gun Outfit – Dim Light

I finally have internet at my new apartment, and man do I love the speed. Uploading this album was a breeze, so I might end up digging through my old CD collection and uploading some indie albums I bought a while back. Already championed by the LA scene and the Rough Trade shops in the UK, Olympia, WA’s Gun Outfit are an avalanche of intensity and excitement. Dim Light is reminiscent of Meat Puppets, X, Dinosaur Jr, and Hüsker Dü. I haven’t listened to the entire album, but I like what I have heard so far. Playing SXSW got them some well deserved exposure and I look forward to seeing more of them.

Track List

• Work Experience2:12
• Troubles Like Mine2:08
• Guilt and Regret2:06
• The Valley3:54
• In the Dark1:44
• Control2:49
• Cocaine Woman3:46
• Had Enough2:09
• On the Beach1:52
• Your Will2:01
• Like It Is2:41

Continue reading to listen to the album…