New Radio Dept!

*the beautiful photograph belongs to Ylvas*

The Radio Dept. - David
1st listen: weird intro; doesn't sound like the usual RD; hmm...are they sure they want to go in that direction?
2nd listen: okay, it's not as weird if you listen to the whole song; the end where the guitar breaks in does have a distinct Radio Deptish vibe.
3rd listen: this is actually pretty good!

Ten songs you really should have heard over the past few months

Ten songs you really should have heard over the past few months

Ever open a music magazine or look at a website and think "who the fuck are these bands?" and/or "I've never even heard of these songs!!?"

It happens to the best of us. You return from a trip, get out of prison, wake up from a coma or have simply been spending way too much time on your Wii.

However, don't fret. If you've been in any of the above for the past one or two months, Letters have no Arms is here to assist.
 
We hereby present:
 

Wavves - So Bored

Bat For Lashes - Daniel

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead

Phoenix - Lisztomania

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

Animal Collective - Bluish

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero

The National - So far around the bend

Little Boots - Meddle

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

These are (some of) the songs that have been making the Land of Blog stand erect with excitement over the past few months.
 

 

Simply listen to these songs a few times and you'll soon be able to accept that drink/dinner invitation again! Join those conversations at the watercooler and climb back up on that slippery social calendar!
  

Hurray!

 
Caution: if you have friends of the so-called 'hipster' variety, these are the exact songs you should NOT mention/be listening to! And if, by some regrettable lapse in judgment, you do, be sure to do so in a "haha yeah that song was kinda cool, back in like January (of 2008!)" after which you should immediately exchange an ironic high five with the person nearest to you and quickly readjust your hair.

Songs I might have heard if I were in Barcelona tonight: Primavera Sound 2009 (pt 1)

 

Yep, it's only the best festival in the world: Primavera Sound! 

 

The indie Mecca on the Mediterranean coast kicks off today, and will continue to dazzle, daze and otherwise pleasure indie kids lucky bastards until Sunday. If you're in the area, get your ass over there. If you're not, tune into WFMU for live broadcasts, or the official Primavera Sound radio station.

 

The Horrors - Sea within a Sea

Jay Reatard - Don't let him come back

Girls - Lust for Life

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
  

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go silently weep in the corner.

The Life and Times of John Vanderslice

*illustration by Drew Beckmeyer - check out his site here*


John Vanderslice - Fetal Horses (Romanian Names, 2009)
John Vanderslice - Romanian Names (Romanian Names, 2009)
*
John Vanderslice - Wild Strawberries (Cellar Door, 2004)
"Wholly and totally brave I swam under dying Philippino light
Fighting and furious against the tide
'cause I lost our keys in the sea, diving deep under coral reef
Following treeline on the shore
I stumbled back to the road
Left you on the hood of a rented ford
I looked back, it was the last time I saw you alive
Still light follows the same rules that I do
Reflecting off the water never making it down to the bottom"

*

John Vanderslice - Me and My 424
(The Life and Death of an American Fourtracker, 2002)

From the depths (of my external hard drive) - Guided by Voices - I am a Scientist

 

 

Guided by Voices - I am a Scientist (Bee Thousand, 1994)

The importance of pom pom pom pom pa pa pa

 

 

"Of what?", she said.

"Of pom pom pom pom pa pa pa".

 

Pipas - Barbapapa

Yo La Tengo  You can have it all

Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Rent a Wreck

Matthew Dear - Pom Pom
 

"Ah!", she replied. "Oh...", she thought.

The Limes: New Songs

Ladies and gentlemen, your refreshments for the day:

The Limes - Dead Furniture
The Limes - Sao Francisco Waters

* find them on MySpace *
* illustration by Ian DIngman *

Good evening Moscow: Eurovision 2009!

Good evening Moscow! 
 

Yep, it's that time of the year again. In fact, it's only hours away! Glitter! Glamour! Awful music! Bad haircuts! Fake tans! Hilarious accents! Comedy metal! Suits that suddenly turn into dresses! Ice skating! Petty nationalist voting! England making a fool of itself! Lots of completely unnecessary exclamation marks! !!

It's also the night we get to see how well Greece has managed its annual assignment of combining whiter than white® clothes, an insanely complicated dance routine (culminating in a clever flip, jump or leap), and a girl named Maria into yet another irresistibly catchy tune! The night that Eastern Europe puts fear into the hearts of, well, pretty much everyone else!

  Want to know who will win before the show even begins? Just us this handy chart and a calculator!

 
It's the Eurovision Song Contest! aaaaaagh! The TV equivalent of staring at a 12 year old girl's Myspace profile for 5 hours!

Let the madness begin!

A few past favourites:

 

Kate Ryan - Je T'adore (Belgium)

Les Fatals Picards - L'Amour à la Francaise (France)

Texas Lightning - No No Never (Germany)

Sebastien Tellier - Divine (France)

Mihai Traistariu - Tornero (Romania)

Rodolfo Chiquilicuatre - Baila el chiki chiki (Spain)

Don't Judge a Song by its Cover!

"This happened on the fourth day. The fish, all 1,200 of them who were journeying overland in that famous journey you have read about, were pulled over by a police officer driving a motorcycle. He stopped all the fish, who were walking in a line approximately three miles long. He asked to see identification, and only a few of the fishes had their wallets with them. He asked where the fishes were going, and they said, "Overland." ... " 
  [to be continued here*]

I found the Josh Reichmann cover in my inbox a few days ago and realized  Letters have no Arms has been conspicuously lacking in the cover department in recent months. Here's a nice little selection for your listening pleasure:

 

Klaxons (Gentlemen Drivers Remix Ft. Soko) - Not over yet (Grace)

Josh Reichmann - Daniel (Bat for Lashes)

Anamanaguchi - So Bored (Wavves)

Jens Jekman - You can call me Al (Paul Simon)

Evan Dando - Knowing Me Knowing You (Abba)
 

Sebadoh - Gimme Indie Rock!

from the depths of my external hard drive

Started back in '83
Started seeing things a differently
And hardcore wasn't doin' it for me no more
Started smoking pot
Thought things sounded better slow
Much slower, heavier
Black magic melody to sink this poseur's soul


VU Stooges undeniably cool
Took a lesson from that drone rock school
Manipulate musicians hack righteous drool
Getting loose with the Pussy Galore
Cracking jokes like a Thurston Moore
Peddle hopping like a Dinosaur, J...


Rock and Roll genius, ride the middle of the road
Milk that sound, blow your load
Shoot it further than you ever said it go
Four stars in the Rolling Stone


Oooh sludge rock,
That's hard as harsh
Just gimme indie rock!
It's gone big
Come on indie rock
Just give me indie rock 

 



Taking inspiration from Husker Du
It's a new generation
Of electric white boy blues
Come on indie rock
It's gone big
Come on indie rock
Just give me indie rock


Breaking down the barriers
Like Sonic Youth
They got what they wanted
Maybe I can get what I want too
Come on indie rock
It's gone big
Come on indie rock
Just give me indie rock


Time to knock
The hard rock on it's side
Time to knock
The shit right up a storm
Turn to amaze
With the indie sludge
Grunge!
Aaah! 

 

Sebadoh - Gimme Indie Rock

A Book & a Band

I usually keep my book reviews separate from my song reviews. I use Librarything for the former and Letters Have No Arms for the latter. But I figured it's wort breaking this rule from time to time - perhaps only in favour of 5-star books (ok, I rated it 4.5 actually, not 5, but you get the point). If even one person will be inspired to go out and buy it, I'll be happy. And now my review, copy-pasted from LT:

"The Crimson Petal and the White is a book that knows precisely where it stands - and where it stands is at the utmost edge between Victorian and postmodern. Its themes, its conflicts, its setting, its people, and the motivation behind their actions and thoughts are utterly Victorian. All the concerns of the era, from the Woman Question to the technological advancements and the loss of the "natural", from the "evil of prostitution" to the inhuman working conditions, from the religious dilemmas of the time to the conflict between "tradition" and "modernity" - everything and anything that might concern the Victorian man or woman is addressed here. Issues of poverty, hunger, dirt, and criminality are dealt with so perceptively and touchingly that it would flummox even Dickens. The hypocrisy of the upper classes and their preoccupation with nothing more than balls, parties and "social calls" are ridiculed with a wit and sharpness worthy of Austen.

But if you glance at the novel's form and writing, the daring pen of Michel Faber makes it clear that The Crimson Petal and the White, despite the title's allusion to a famous Victorian poem, does not belong to the 19th century. Faber, the writer, often steps into the story - to great comical effect - to offer the readers advice or to stir the story into another direction. He makes his authorial presence known and, in true postmodern fashion and in the spirit of Lemony Snicket, often addresses the reader directly: "So there you have it: the thoughts (somewhat pruned of repetition) of William Rackam as he sits on his bench in St. James's Park. If you are bored beyond endurance, I can offer only my promise that there will be fucking in the very near future, not to mention madness, abduction, and violent death." It seems that he uses every device and trick known to writers to keep the reader interested in the story, but makes the whole thing seem so effortless - he never lost me for one second. Most importantly, the distance between mr. Faber's era and the era he is describing makes it easier for him to see the past in a clearer light, and allows him to express his observations and his critique openly. "This is the novel that Dickens might have written had he been allowed to speak freely", The Guardian says, and they're definitely onto something here. It was a comfort to see a writer that finally has the courage to address that most mystifying feature of the Victorians - one that jumps out at me whenever I pick up mr. Dickens - the fact that sex is an unmentionable topic with them. Of course, the conflict between the Victorians' behaviour and their "morals" is transparent: while prostitution is soaring and people are certainly no less interested in sex than today, they insist on acting as though sex is simply inexistent, far way from their thoughts and lives. The effects of this sexual repression on society's part are made clear enough in the novel: people battling with their consciences, trying to reconcile the idea of sex as something that is clearly natural and desirable in their hearts of hearts with the idea of sex as filthy, degrading and evil.

I could go on and on but I think I've described the book well enough to stop here. The reason why I didn't award it a full five stars is a certain death that I thought was completely unnecessary - it seemed to me that it was just an easy way to dispose of a character that served a purpose no longer. Other than that, this is a wonderful book. Sugar - our prostitute heroine - along with William Rackam, Henry Rackam, Emmeline Fox, Agnes, Sophie, Caroline, Colonel Leek, Clara, Ms. Castaway will draw you in and never let you go. Great cast, great story, great writing, great book."

Dinosaur Feathers - Teenage Whore
Beirut - My Night With the Prostitute From Marseille

Boat Beam hail from Spain( but sing in English) and have just released their new first album on Origami Records. It's indie pop delightfulness.

Boam Beam - The Rain Pauly

Johnny Foreigner - Feels like Summer

Johnny Foreigner at Standon Calling last year

Yep, it's that time of the year again. Longer days, bookmarked festival websites (or, if you're attempting to go to any large UK festival: an early alarm, 2 hours of feverishly hitting refresh and a lot of nervous sweating, followed by stomach-knotting disappointment and an unreasonable feeling of hatred towards your computer), sniffling-sneezing, money-saving, house-cleaning, plan-making... yep, Summer's just down the road!

And what better way to celebrate this joyous fact then with a new Johnny Foreigner song!

Johnny Foreigner - Feels like Summer

All those summer parties, bleep bleep beep, swine flu and a sweet farewell to Daniel F

Find us a trap door, find us a plane
Tell the survivors help is on the way
I was a blindfold, never complained
All the survivors singing in the rain
I was the one with the world at my feet
Goddess of battle, leave it up to me

What it is and where it stops nobody knows
You gave me a life I never chose 

Metric - Blindness 

 

I dedicate this to a certain Dr. Daniel F. I know you were only fictional, but you'll be missed! 

 

* 

 

 The Streets once had a hit with a song called Let's Push Things Forward. These past few weeks they've been doing just that. Releasing songs on Twitter and even writing a song about (how NOW can you get?) swine flu, titled He's behind you, he's got swine flu  

 

 

Surely this is how it should be done. I realize that financially speaking not all bands can afford to just record and release music whenever they want, but wouldn't it be nice if it were possible? To be able to just react to something in the news, on your mind etc, write a song about it, put together a quick video, Tweet it and get it out there.

 

 

The Streets - Trust Me

 

*

 

 In which Animal Collective do very strange things indeed to Yeah Yeah Yeah's Zero 
 

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero (Animal Collective remix)

 

 *

Ok, I've been going on about how good this album is for a few weeks now. It's probably time I posted something.

 

I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again

 

Bill Callahan - Jim Cain

 

*

1 part Modeselektor + 1 part Apparat = Moderat
 

Moderat - A New Error

 

*

Letter have no Arms was lucky enough to see Evripidis and his Tragedies a few weeks ago in Barcelona. Here they've distilled the essence of summer into four minutes and nine seconds. 

The best part? 1 min 25 sec in 'what a shame'. 

Get out your dancing shoes, unlock the door to the roof terrace and open a bottle of wine!

All those summer parties that we used to share
I can hardly recall a thing,
that surely means that I was there
dancing and kissing
you don´t know what you`ve been missing
all those summer parties that we shared
no-one could make
them fade away

with our fists in our pockets moving nervously
with a spring in our step and our dancing shoes on
we waited for this all winter long and nobody can stop us now

  

Evripidis and his Tragedies - All those Summer Parties

We're from Argentina. Argentina, not Barcelona, damn it! How many times do we have to tell you?

image found here

✂ Chau Fan - Boletos de tren

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero (Erol Alkan rework)

yes, I enjoy making silly videos :)

It's been a bad week for pigs

It's been a bad week for pigs.

But then again, music wise, it's never really been a good week for pigs. Granted, pigs aren't alone in this category, yet, were there such a thing, they would surely take first prize. Fascist pig, Filthy pig. Fat pig. Stupid pig etc etc. Hell, even the Three Little Pigs (lets face it) were assholes. In acknowledgement of that unhappy fact and in tribute to our little pink friends, Letters Have No Arms takes a look at pigs in song.
 

 

'You were right
I was battling you, trying to prove myself
I tried to bury you with guilt; I wanted to prove you wrong
I've got nothing better to do than pay too much attention to you
It's sad, but it's not your fault
Self-righteous and rude
I guess I lost that cool
Tapping 'til I drive you insane
I'm self-righteous, but never right
So laid back, but so uptight
Destroying your patience to tolerate me
With all the negative spirit I bring'

 

Sebadoh - The Freed Pig

 

'I wanna try and fly
I wanna try and die
I wanna be a pig
I wanna fuck a car'
 

Sparklehorse - Pig
 

'hey pig
yeah you
hey pig piggy pig pig pig
all of my fears came true
black and blue and broken bones you left me here all alone
my little piggy needed something new'
 

Nine Inch Nails - Piggy
 

 'when i was a baby i was so happy
i played with my friends in the mud'

Weezer - Pig

'Breathe in
you gotta read my clues for you to follow
cos when everything goes black again
nothing really matters anymore
could tear at any moment
penetrate
could tear at any moment
attack attack.'

 White Rose Movement - Pig Heil Jam

New Band: Le Page

pic: photoharrie

It's not often, but occasionally, just occasionally something very special pops up down here in this big dusty city Letters Have No Arms calls home. Le Page might just be one of them. Hailing from Athens, Greece, Le Page sound like they were raised on a diet of Froot Loops and France Gall. Jens Lekman and toy trains. Sunny days and.. well, just listen to the song!

 

  Le Page - Talking to Plants

 

Le Page on Myspace.

The Follies of Youth

 

♣ picture by Olivia Bee ♣

from The Urban Dictionary:

1. youth

a person at the age of believing they are politically involved when they're not.

"In this week's youth meeting, we will make you feel like you're contributing to the society's needs. Oh, and while you're at it, the meeting room needs some youthful cleaning."

2. youth

a young boy or girl mostly around 13-18 years old.

"Hey Jaycc are you going to church tonight? It's youth night."

3. youth

term of recognition used by english speaking people especially those from afro-carribean and / or northern (i.e. north of Watford) origin. Somewhat ironically, it is especially prominent among the older generations.

"'ow do youth"
"easy there, my yoot"
"jooost gettin' me pension, youth"

in song:

Royal City - I Am a Raw Youth

I am a raw youth, I am a restless youth

But I shall keep with thee  

Cats on Fire - Horoscope

You say you don't belong here because someone once said you look like a star

Another drunk man saw a chance...

And you come from a family who can afford to be eccentric - go back and cry to them

You could have gone on your own:

A high-heeled escape to your fairyland, a dare-and-run for designer clothes

...The follies of youth, the follies of youth, for someone like you they're still true. 

Dion and the Belmonts - A Teenager in Love

One day I feel so happy, next day I feel so sad
I guess I'll learn to take the good with the bad
Each night I ask the stars up above:
"Why must I be a teenager in love?"