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 *

5 Good Reasons to Love Phoenix

As new single 1901 spins its way across the globe (or at least the Land of Blog), I thought it might be good time to remember why we (should) love this band as much as we do.
 

 

(United, 2000)

*If I ever feel better
*Too Young

 

(It's never been like that, 2006)

 

*North

*One time too many

*Rally

Buy their albums here.
Leave some glittery graphics to express your love here.

I woke up this morning with boy-girl harmonies in my head

Photo by datahbi

Entire Cities - Coffee

First song on the list an indie countryish gem...I mean a country indiepopish...uhm that is...an indie-folk road-type... well nevermind. In their own words: "My personal contribution to the ol' pigeonhole is 'psychedelic cow punk'; I'm not really worried about it though because I've tried to define the music myself and failed miserably. If I don't know what it is, then how the f*** is anyone else gonna know?" Check out their myspace for more songs.

Orouni ft. Mlie - Panic at the Beehive

Orouni ft. Mlie - Open It In May

Moving on, french pop band Orouni have got a new album and boy is it good! The same sweet French voices that made us love them in the first place are there, plus some really catchy melodies so what else is there to want? We've posted another song of theirs a while ago (that was recently featured on Said the Gramophone) and now we're back with more.

The Deer Tracks - Slow Collision

And last but not least we have The Deer Tracks. We're getting tons of songs and band recommendations e-mailed to us so we try our best to listen to them all. It's not that often that we find something as good as this, though. Beautiful.

BONUS: We got a request for more Watercolor Paintings songs, so here you have an album that I received last time I posted about them (Steven R. M. or Dora K. - can't remember which, thanks). It'll only be available for a short period of time so do yourself a favour and download it!

Things You Can Fight With (zshare)

That's the end of the film. Now here's the meaning of life. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat...

from Kurt Vonnegut's 'Cat's Cradle':

"In the beginning God created Earth and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness. And God said: 'Let us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what we have done.' And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. 'What is the purpose of all this?', he asked politely. 'Everything must have a purpose?' asked God. 'Certainly' said man. 'Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this' said God. And he went away."

Today's picks:
The Chap - Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley
Computerization - MyBody [free at Cllct.Family]
The Ting Tings - Be the One
Orouni - A Greased and Golden Palm
Tiger Force - Syntax Error

On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are we about the season final of Lost? Around 9.4

* Cocoon - Take Off
'My friends all died in a plane crash
Well there is a God but he wants cash'

* Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down (Locke)
'Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head's been wet with the midnight dew
I've been down on bended knee talkin' to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel's feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, "John go do my will!" '

* The Decemberists - The Bagman's Gambit (Sayid)
'On the lam from the law, on the steps of the capitol
You shot a plainclothes cop on the ten o'clock
And I saw momentarily
They flashed a photograph, it couldn't be you
You'd been abused so horribly
But you were there in some anonymous room
And I recall that fall I was working for the government
And in a bathroom stall off the National Mall
How we kissed so sweetly
How could I refuse a favor or two?'

* Low - Walk Into the Sea
'And time is just a hunger
It bleeds us out to nothing
And when it finally takes us over I hope we’ll float away together
Yeah, time’s the great destroyer
Leaves every child a bastard
When it finally takes us over I hope we’ll float away together'

* Irving - If You Say Jump, I Will Say No (Hugo)
'Touch something to make you know that this is real
do you think it's that girl I used to love?
I never neeeded her then, how come I'm only needing her now?
But I know now that I am not my brain
And I can listen to the thoughts
And know that we are not the same'

* Sea Wolf - The Garden That You Planted (Sun)
'Cause everything around here's changed

But the garden that you planted remains'

* Sambassadeur - Kate (well, Kate)
'Underneath the surface, love's as cold and blue
And you're saying this town is not made for you
Starts getting closer, going through the night
No one can reach us when we're out of sight
Time's running faster, please let us through
Going in any direction will do
...
Tides don't last forever, don't you know?'

* The Automatic - Monster ("Smokey")
'What's that coming over the head, is it a monster?'

* Driveshaft - You All Everybody! (Charlie)

* Previously On Lost - Be My Constant (Desmond)

Feel free to share your thoughts on the grand finale!

When you come, bring the sun

And for this post we travel to Europe...starting up north and heading south, towards the sun...

Iceland:
*Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
This track (see lots of naked people playing in a forest... aka the video, here) is a taster from their new upcoming album, which will go by the title 'með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust'. Pretty catchy eh? Though it can also be loosely translated as "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly", which is something you could at least attempt asking a sales assistant at your local record store for. They probably won't understand you, but still. It's better than ( ).
Their summer tour will take them across the world, from Mexico to Norway,
while Letters have no Arms will be lucky enough to catch them at Benicassim

Sweden:
*El Perro Del Mar - How did we forget
Taken from her beautiful new album From the Valley To The Stars
*El Perro Del Mar - Loneliness
*A Smile and a Ribbon - The Boy I wish I Never Met


France:
*Sebastien Tellier - Divine
France's 2008 Eurovision entry, and the reason why the French are just so much cooler than most of the world.
*M83 - Kim and Jessie

and 12 points go to me for not making any cheap Eurovision tie-in comments ;)

How cool is Neil Gaiman?

a) There's something very comforting in the idea that you can address questions about a book you loved to the actual person that wrote it and get an answer back. Mr. Gaiman probably has more contact with his readers than any other writer of our time. Just check out his blog for God's sake! Tons of letters and e-mails from fans (and his replies to them), videos, articles or interesting links shared between him and his readers, recommendations, advice for young writers that bombard him with questions etc. etc. etc....Does he ever sleep, that man? If only all writers could be as open to communication instead of shying away from society and living like hermits ( *cough cough* mister J.D.).
b)He has a last.fm account! Our music compatibility might have turned out to be "Low" but it's so nice to be announced by the taste-o-meter that "you share a few artists in common, including The Magnetic Fields, Belle & Sebastian, Beirut, David Bowie and Regina Spektor"!
c) His collaborations (and there are many of them) with Dave McKean are definitely bonus points.
d) He's friends with Terry Pratchett, Terry Gilliam, Thea Gilmore and of course Tori Amos, who has mentioned him in a couple of her songs ('Tear in Your Hand', 'Space Dog', 'Carbon') and whom he included as a character in his book 'Stardust'.
e)And another thing. In 2002 'American Gods' won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. Now Neil Gaiman offered it for free online for a whole month to celebrate his blog's one-year anniversary. I mean how amazing is that? Someone offering for free what is, according to Wikipedia, among the most-honored works of fiction in recent history. On his site/blog you'll also find lots of short stories, articles, essays, interviews, readings, videos, book excerpts, and book extras. All for free.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to like his stuff (although it's pretty easy to). In fact, I've only read two of his books and a couple of short stories. But there's no denying that he's pretty damn cool.

And since this is a music blog, playing on repeat these days on my MediaMonkey (drop iTunes folks):

Culture Reject - Inside the Cinema (Culture Reject, 2008)
Vetiver - Hook & Ladder (Thing of the Past, 2008)
Wildbirds & Peacedrums - The Battle in Water (Heartcore, 2008)
Springfactory (side-project of Peter, a suburban kid with a biblical name) - Get Out of Bed (grab it from Series Two Records)
Yelle - Amour Du Sol (Pop-Up, 2007)
Santogold - Say Aha (Santogold, 2008)

The rules I made for myself when I met you

I will never love you more than the drummer of Flaming Lips.
I will never love you more than Woody Allen movies.
I will never love you more than the White Album of the Beatles.
I will never love you more than DVD nights with my girlfriends.
I will never love you more than my boyfriend when I was 14.
I will never love you more than meeting Paul McCartney.
I will never love you more than Scandinavian Tour.
I will never love you more than dancing to Phil Spektor.
I will never love you more than my Casiotone keyboard.
I will never love you more than Daniel Johnston himself.
I will never love you more than singing in the shower.
I will never love you more than my Mac computer.
I will never love you more than having a daughter.
I will never love you more than peanut butter.

SoKo - I Will Never Love You More

* If you missed I'll Kill Her in 2007 make sure to give it a listen. And if you love it - which I'm sure you will - surely you can spare 4.45$ for Not SoKute

My Fucking Jazzmaster

The Teenagers - Sunset Beach

***

Buy 'Reality Check' here.