Monday, 30 June 2008
After the RIP-ROARING SUCCESS of the lazy comparisons undertaken whilst reviewing last Thursday's Band Of The Day, Monster Island, I took a long, deliberate ponder during the 25-minute 'Holocaust' brain-destroyer section at the end of the My Bloody Valentine gig on Saturday. Just before their mind-bogglingly loud replication of the sound of 20 jet planes all taking off at once, then crashing one by one into a volcano caused my soul to leak out of my ears, it occurred to me to continue this easy reviewing style for one week only, and brand it Glib Comparison Week. So expect this week's dazzlingly good array of new bands to be wholeheartedly sullied by an increasingly stupid method of review.
Moronic, bowel-looseningly-loud-noise-induced decisions aside, this week's first New Band Of The Day is really rather special. They're from London - but isn't everyone? - and are called William. Like James, The Smiths, and, er, The Johnsons out of Antony and the Johnsons, they're following in the noble tradition of having a band name that's also a person's name. It's a mystery as to which William they're named after, though I'd hazard a guess that it's more likely to be this one than the tabloid-friendly Prince. William, frankly, sound great, with punchy melodies and half-yelped, half-casually drawled lyrics. South of the Border is urgent and a bit weary at the same time, and Five Minute Wonder is even better, picking up pace as it rattles along, churning guitars not able to mask a lackadaisical cry of "I spend too much time on my own...You do too? Well, alright."
Their songs are a huge stride ahead of the mundane identikit rock that's polluting CD players worldwide at the moment. Listen to their great songs here, and catch them live in the next month - but only after you've been overwhelmed by the half-baked lump of lazy reviewing below:
TODAY'S GLIB COMPARISON: "A bit like the Pixies slowdancing suggestively with the White Stripes as Art Brut play non-po-faced Jam covers."
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Moronic, bowel-looseningly-loud-noise-induced decisions aside, this week's first New Band Of The Day is really rather special. They're from London - but isn't everyone? - and are called William. Like James, The Smiths, and, er, The Johnsons out of Antony and the Johnsons, they're following in the noble tradition of having a band name that's also a person's name. It's a mystery as to which William they're named after, though I'd hazard a guess that it's more likely to be this one than the tabloid-friendly Prince. William, frankly, sound great, with punchy melodies and half-yelped, half-casually drawled lyrics. South of the Border is urgent and a bit weary at the same time, and Five Minute Wonder is even better, picking up pace as it rattles along, churning guitars not able to mask a lackadaisical cry of "I spend too much time on my own...You do too? Well, alright."Their songs are a huge stride ahead of the mundane identikit rock that's polluting CD players worldwide at the moment. Listen to their great songs here, and catch them live in the next month - but only after you've been overwhelmed by the half-baked lump of lazy reviewing below:
TODAY'S GLIB COMPARISON: "A bit like the Pixies slowdancing suggestively with the White Stripes as Art Brut play non-po-faced Jam covers."
Labels: chunky, Glib comparisons week, yelping
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Friday, 27 June 2008
It's Glastonbury Festival this weekend, and for the first time in about 6 years, your intrepid ANBAD troupers aren't going. Why? Well, forget all the at-best-idiotic, at-worst-racist fuss about Jay-Z headlining. The real problem with Glastonbury 'these days' are the awful Pete Docherty and Peaches Geldof-wannabes clogging it up with their pristine hair and designer wellies.
Unfortunately, it's no longer a wonderful brain-altering weekend in the countryside, but is now a tourist experience for Gap-Yearers to tick off their moronic 'Must Do Before I'm 30' list. I saw a number of girls straightening their hair with heated tongs last year, shortly after witnessing a queue of people waiting to waste gallons of water to wash the mud off their wellies. Before stepping straight back into the mud again. At a music festival who turns over millions of pounds to Water Aid. This idiocy must stop. At least nature is kicking back by raining on them continuously.
Glastonbury has never been about the big bands for me - in fact, it's rarely about the music at all, and more about 'finding yourself' by buying unusually healthy-looking weed cakes from a topless hippy woman and then staring at the sky whilst curled up in a giant bird's nest in the Green Fields. That said, the most enjoyable experiences at Glastonbury for me have been stumbling on an unknown band in one of the many tiny stages scattered all over the site.
So, with that in mind, today's new band is up to you! Have your own virtual staggering-around-at-2-in-the-morning festival experience. Start here, and wander around Myspace until you trip over a band you like. It'll be like Glastonbury, but warm, dry and with hardcore pornography a click away. And if you have their misfortune to meet a Kate Moss/Russell Brand wannabe, you can click on a new page to get rid of them, as opposed to suffocating them with a clod of earth as I had to do last year.
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Unfortunately, it's no longer a wonderful brain-altering weekend in the countryside, but is now a tourist experience for Gap-Yearers to tick off their moronic 'Must Do Before I'm 30' list. I saw a number of girls straightening their hair with heated tongs last year, shortly after witnessing a queue of people waiting to waste gallons of water to wash the mud off their wellies. Before stepping straight back into the mud again. At a music festival who turns over millions of pounds to Water Aid. This idiocy must stop. At least nature is kicking back by raining on them continuously.Glastonbury has never been about the big bands for me - in fact, it's rarely about the music at all, and more about 'finding yourself' by buying unusually healthy-looking weed cakes from a topless hippy woman and then staring at the sky whilst curled up in a giant bird's nest in the Green Fields. That said, the most enjoyable experiences at Glastonbury for me have been stumbling on an unknown band in one of the many tiny stages scattered all over the site.
So, with that in mind, today's new band is up to you! Have your own virtual staggering-around-at-2-in-the-morning festival experience. Start here, and wander around Myspace until you trip over a band you like. It'll be like Glastonbury, but warm, dry and with hardcore pornography a click away. And if you have their misfortune to meet a Kate Moss/Russell Brand wannabe, you can click on a new page to get rid of them, as opposed to suffocating them with a clod of earth as I had to do last year.
Labels: Pick 'n' Mix, ROAD TRIP, wandering minds
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Thursday, 26 June 2008
One of the really hard things to resist when reviewing bands is to draw comparisons between them and other, more established, bands. On one hand, it gives the reader an instant point of reference, but on the other, it does neither party any favours. No band sounds exactly like another (apart from Razorlight, who seem to have cribbed the Boomtown Rats' sound wholesale). But when a band comes along that sounds like a combination of three great bands - let's say, The Fall, Pavement and The Pixies - wouldn't it just be more stupid not to mention the fact?
Thought so. Thus, let's start by stating right now that Today's New Band, Monster Island, sounds like a ragged combination of The Fall, Pavement and The Pixies. This sounds like a grand boast, but it's true. To mention The Fall is a bit of a given - Monster Island are an off-beat indie band from Manchester, and therefore it's virtually a legal obligation to mention Mark E. Smith's grumpy lot. But it's fair, this time, as in songs like Hothouse, there's the same sparse, threatening griminess that pervades the best Fall records. See Twin Towns too for a Pavement-y lollop and and the Pixies' patented loud 'n' quiet dynamics are oozing out all over too.
Beyond glib comparisons, there was one moment when listening to Monster Island's songs that actually delighted me. Yup, actual, tangible delight, bordering on glee, a feeling which made my wizened, blackened heart start to flutter. Throughout their chuntering (and free-to-download) song They Never Sleep, the music is occasionally interpolated with screeching sounds of tapes rewinding, bleeping and electronic interference. Deliberate or not, it's a fabulous, pointless detail which screams of lethargic, understated, inventiveness. Brilliant.
So that's my justification for taking the easy comparative route to describing them. Listen for yourself here, on their Myspace page.
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Thought so. Thus, let's start by stating right now that Today's New Band, Monster Island, sounds like a ragged combination of The Fall, Pavement and The Pixies. This sounds like a grand boast, but it's true. To mention The Fall is a bit of a given - Monster Island are an off-beat indie band from Manchester, and therefore it's virtually a legal obligation to mention Mark E. Smith's grumpy lot. But it's fair, this time, as in songs like Hothouse, there's the same sparse, threatening griminess that pervades the best Fall records. See Twin Towns too for a Pavement-y lollop and and the Pixies' patented loud 'n' quiet dynamics are oozing out all over too.Beyond glib comparisons, there was one moment when listening to Monster Island's songs that actually delighted me. Yup, actual, tangible delight, bordering on glee, a feeling which made my wizened, blackened heart start to flutter. Throughout their chuntering (and free-to-download) song They Never Sleep, the music is occasionally interpolated with screeching sounds of tapes rewinding, bleeping and electronic interference. Deliberate or not, it's a fabulous, pointless detail which screams of lethargic, understated, inventiveness. Brilliant.
So that's my justification for taking the easy comparative route to describing them. Listen for yourself here, on their Myspace page.
Labels: 90's, lo-fi, wandering minds
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Brevity, as anyone who has sat through the full-length version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird will testify, can be merciful. I've had power naps shorter than Freebird. Freebird is so long that you could boil three eggs, one after another, whilst listening to it. You could boil two of them during the guitar solo. If you did this at a Lynyrd Skynyrd gig, by the end of the song, you'd have enough hard-boiled eggs to throw one at each band member - which is useful, and eco-friendly.
Today's New Band, Grandmaster Gareth, however, could play a bare minimum of 10 songs during the same amount of time. Grandmaster Gareth, you see, specialises in one-minute long songs. He calls them, suitably enough, 'Minute Melodies'. Remarkably, although each song is only 60-ish seconds long, each seems fully formed as a song, with snippets of stories, super tunes and a fearsome sense of fun will invade your ears. Most of the melodies in his songs are so super-duper that many a musician would expand them into a full song. Not Gareth, though, who has realised that short 'n' sweet means that the songs are always regarded as tasty morsels - musical tapas, if you will.
Listen to all of the songs on his Myspace page - go on, it'll only take 6 minutes - and chuckle with glee at the wall-to-wall diversity of his musical treats. Dr. Dre's imagined tussles with the mundanity of life pop up as a reoccurring theme in his songs, with Dr Dre Gets Complacent only rivalled by Dr. Dre Buys A Pint Of Milk for true every-day Gangsta status. Organs, brass, computer noise samples, old clips from films and TV shows are all tossed into the mix and out pops a mini fairground meisterwerk each time. Grandmaster Gareth: touched by musical genius - but only for a minute. Listen to his songs here!
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Today's New Band, Grandmaster Gareth, however, could play a bare minimum of 10 songs during the same amount of time. Grandmaster Gareth, you see, specialises in one-minute long songs. He calls them, suitably enough, 'Minute Melodies'. Remarkably, although each song is only 60-ish seconds long, each seems fully formed as a song, with snippets of stories, super tunes and a fearsome sense of fun will invade your ears. Most of the melodies in his songs are so super-duper that many a musician would expand them into a full song. Not Gareth, though, who has realised that short 'n' sweet means that the songs are always regarded as tasty morsels - musical tapas, if you will.Listen to all of the songs on his Myspace page - go on, it'll only take 6 minutes - and chuckle with glee at the wall-to-wall diversity of his musical treats. Dr. Dre's imagined tussles with the mundanity of life pop up as a reoccurring theme in his songs, with Dr Dre Gets Complacent only rivalled by Dr. Dre Buys A Pint Of Milk for true every-day Gangsta status. Organs, brass, computer noise samples, old clips from films and TV shows are all tossed into the mix and out pops a mini fairground meisterwerk each time. Grandmaster Gareth: touched by musical genius - but only for a minute. Listen to his songs here!
Labels: dr. dre, Pick 'n' Mix, satisfyingly short
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Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Sometimes, overblown rock is just what you need. I rediscovered a huge bundle of CDs the other day, and amongst them was the Manic Street Preachers' half-good, half-poodle-rock debut LP, Generation Terrorists, an album I hadn't listened to for years. It's a pleasant Über-slick chug through a weird combo of late-80's RAWK and the punky aesthetic that they later became better known for. That said, super-smooth rock grates after a while, and unless you own a pickup and live in Arkensas or Texas, I imagine that the slick radio-friendly stylings of Nickelback at al are as far away from your stereo as is humanly possible too.
An antidote to slick RAWK is Today's New Band, Computerization, fresh from a bedroom in New York. Cobbled together from synths and bleeps, his songs are cheap 'n' cheerful - literally, in fact. He has a brilliant service where for a meagre $9 you can order your own song, to your specifications - subject matter, tempo, instruments etc - and he'll make it and mail it to you. The songs that he makes for himself, like Go Back, with its lovely chorus, and 1Point14Me, a slow, scattered pop song, are the sound of an abandoned computer singing to you from a skip - vocodered, slight and a bit world-weary.
It's all very simple, basic and rough and ready, and like his super-slick antipodal counterpart Generation Terrorists, you might not want to hear a whole album of it. But so what? Pop music is about short, creative bursts of happiness and with Computerization's songs, that's just what you get. Listen to his songs here, and apply for your own custom song here!
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An antidote to slick RAWK is Today's New Band, Computerization, fresh from a bedroom in New York. Cobbled together from synths and bleeps, his songs are cheap 'n' cheerful - literally, in fact. He has a brilliant service where for a meagre $9 you can order your own song, to your specifications - subject matter, tempo, instruments etc - and he'll make it and mail it to you. The songs that he makes for himself, like Go Back, with its lovely chorus, and 1Point14Me, a slow, scattered pop song, are the sound of an abandoned computer singing to you from a skip - vocodered, slight and a bit world-weary.It's all very simple, basic and rough and ready, and like his super-slick antipodal counterpart Generation Terrorists, you might not want to hear a whole album of it. But so what? Pop music is about short, creative bursts of happiness and with Computerization's songs, that's just what you get. Listen to his songs here, and apply for your own custom song here!
Labels: human-computer hybrid, lo-fi, slightly mournful
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Monday, 23 June 2008
You've had a busy weekend haven't you? I know you have. All weekends are busy. You head home after a week at work, intent of some R&R, and then remember that you have to do all the jobs you've spent a week ignoring. Then Monday comes around again and exhaustion saps the life out of your body before the grind has even started. Such is life.
So if that's left you in the mood to reach for the bleach and Ribena for easy mixin', you'll love* today's new band, Bleak Black Branches, who, by the sound of their chosen name, don't spend their pocket money on fizzy sweets and Hello Kitty merchandise. Whatever their state of mind - and there's no saying that an absence of E-numbers and mentalist Japanese toys is the sign of a sound intellect - the music they produce is perfect if you need calming on a nerve-jangling Monday morning. In fact, it might even be the sound for Monday night-time too, as If Tired Sleep is the humming, gurgling sound of the blood slurping around your ears as you fall asleep. Circular Cause and Consequence is, comparatively, frighteningly upbeat - circular, looping and organic.
The songs mostly fade in, drift by and seep out of your mind again a few minutes later. It's all a bit 1977-David-Bowie-Brian-Eno-side-two-of-Low, introspective, cold and yet warm. This is a good thing. Listen to Bleak Black Branches at their MySpace page here. Excitingly, all the songs are available to download from here.
*"be condemned into an even tighter circle of introspection by"
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So if that's left you in the mood to reach for the bleach and Ribena for easy mixin', you'll love* today's new band, Bleak Black Branches, who, by the sound of their chosen name, don't spend their pocket money on fizzy sweets and Hello Kitty merchandise. Whatever their state of mind - and there's no saying that an absence of E-numbers and mentalist Japanese toys is the sign of a sound intellect - the music they produce is perfect if you need calming on a nerve-jangling Monday morning. In fact, it might even be the sound for Monday night-time too, as If Tired Sleep is the humming, gurgling sound of the blood slurping around your ears as you fall asleep. Circular Cause and Consequence is, comparatively, frighteningly upbeat - circular, looping and organic.The songs mostly fade in, drift by and seep out of your mind again a few minutes later. It's all a bit 1977-David-Bowie-Brian-Eno-side-two-of-Low, introspective, cold and yet warm. This is a good thing. Listen to Bleak Black Branches at their MySpace page here. Excitingly, all the songs are available to download from here.
*"be condemned into an even tighter circle of introspection by"
Labels: I am calm, slightly mournful, Welsh
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Friday, 20 June 2008
That's right folks, this week's borderline-awful ROADTRIP! gimmick is drawing to a close. And yet, for all its conceptual craptitude, we've dug up a lot of ace bands so far on our virtually-drunken, imaginarily-debauched trundle around Northern Europe. Sweden's Envelopes, Norway's Hiawata! and Poland's MR BEEP have provided us with a ADHD-fat-kid-in-an-ice-cream-parlour sample of Upper-Euro music, and brilliant it all has been too.
Thus, before we head back to Cyber-Calais (Yes, this is getting tedious now), for the ferry, we've stopped in France for one final hurrah, and look who's Today's New Band - it's Facteur! Now, as the observant of you ANBAD readers will readily acknowledge, if there's one thing we hate to regularly do, it's to recycle old musings and pass them off as new. So, without further ado - just what is it that makes French dance music so awesome? We may never know - it's certainly not the legacy of Johnny Hallyday - but Facteur aren't concerned, and certainly aren't hanging around to find out, as they're too busy thrashing wildly around the room, losing themselves in their ridiculously thumping songs.
Pick any of the songs - any - on their Myspace page, and you'll be yearning for the dancefloor instantly. If you can't imagine yourself going chicken oriental in a nightclub to their frighteningly CHOON-tatsic remix of Asshole by Giko, you may have exhausted your brain's supply of serotonin, in which case, call a priest and wait calmly for death. It's Friday night. Go nuts and dance in your bedroom to his brilliant tunes, and worry about how daft you look afterwards. You deserve it.
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Thus, before we head back to Cyber-Calais (Yes, this is getting tedious now), for the ferry, we've stopped in France for one final hurrah, and look who's Today's New Band - it's Facteur! Now, as the observant of you ANBAD readers will readily acknowledge, if there's one thing we Pick any of the songs - any - on their Myspace page, and you'll be yearning for the dancefloor instantly. If you can't imagine yourself going chicken oriental in a nightclub to their frighteningly CHOON-tatsic remix of Asshole by Giko, you may have exhausted your brain's supply of serotonin, in which case, call a priest and wait calmly for death. It's Friday night. Go nuts and dance in your bedroom to his brilliant tunes, and worry about how daft you look afterwards. You deserve it.
Labels: CHOOOON, French, stupidly bangin'
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Thursday, 19 June 2008
It seems that we're taking a virtual road trip around Northern Europe this week on A New Band A Day. A road trip, that is, without the casual sex, drunken debauchery and gradually itchier genitalia of a real one. Yesterday, we had Poland's wonderfully er, beepy, MISTER BEEP, and prior to that it was the turn of Sweden's brilliantly-chorussed Envelopes. So, taking a swift detour to Norway seems a perfectly reasonable turn of events, assuming you can afford to pay the exorbitant beer prices.
And, to continue a tortuous theoretical-journey-theme, joining us in Oslo is Today's New Band, Hiawata! They're a part Teenage Fanclub, part Belle and Sebastian, and all-super. Listen to their Song, Animal, and bask in the lovely ringing guitars and harmonised choruses. Then, when you're done swooning in delight, cower in fear as they threaten to "make you forget everything that you said, cos I'll love you like an animal", which is disturbingly close in intent to W.A.S.P.'s ludicrous hit, Animal (Fuck Like A Beast).
Their other songs follow a similarly endearing jangly-guitar template, which is a good thing. It's funny when music from outside a country's 'scene' creeps in, insidiously - there's a hint of the tabloid-loving skinny-jeaned brigade's sound in some songs - but it always gets distilled through another country's musical sensibilities, and in Hiawata!'s case, it works like a charm. Have a butcher's at their summery sounds here!
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And, to continue a tortuous theoretical-journey-theme, joining us in Oslo is Today's New Band, Hiawata! They're a part Teenage Fanclub, part Belle and Sebastian, and all-super. Listen to their Song, Animal, and bask in the lovely ringing guitars and harmonised choruses. Then, when you're done swooning in delight, cower in fear as they threaten to "make you forget everything that you said, cos I'll love you like an animal", which is disturbingly close in intent to W.A.S.P.'s ludicrous hit, Animal (Fuck Like A Beast).Their other songs follow a similarly endearing jangly-guitar template, which is a good thing. It's funny when music from outside a country's 'scene' creeps in, insidiously - there's a hint of the tabloid-loving skinny-jeaned brigade's sound in some songs - but it always gets distilled through another country's musical sensibilities, and in Hiawata!'s case, it works like a charm. Have a butcher's at their summery sounds here!
Labels: Jaunty, ROAD TRIP, sex
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Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Just as the Emo scene attracts people who like to wear black, cut outrageously stupid fringes and look identical to one another, and the Nu-Rave scene attracts 15 year olds who want a legitimate reason to dance to Scooter, the Chiptune set attracts people who are A) Nerds and B) Musicians. This is an unusual combo - mathematically-minded musicians are hard to come by - you don't hear Thom Yorke yapping about logarithms. Actually, that's probably a bad example, but you get my point. Nevertheless, the Chiptune scene is a monster on the Tubular Interwebs, and we have lavished much praise on it's luminaries such as PixelH8 before.
Much of the enjoyment of chip music can rely heavily on nostalgic memories of late 80's video games, though occasionally people like PixelH8 transcend those boundaries. However, just because Today's New Band, MISTER BEEP, produces music which sounds like it really could be from an 80's ZX Sinclair Spectrum game (because it has, kind of), doesn't mean the music is like listening to someone on the bus play all of their polyphonic ringtones to their 'bezzie mate'.
MISTER BEEP's music sounds great, at least to my ears - the ears of someone who spent much of their youth trying to complete Switchblade and Fantasy Island Dizzy on their ZX Speccy. Like how Orbital produce music that sounds like the soundtrack to a film never produced, MISTER BEEP's sounds like the tune that would have accompanied Chase HQ 3, had it ever been made. Those of you who used to revel in the excitement of spending 10 minutes waiting for the screeching loading noise for Operation Wolf to finish will find Who's That Robot and Escape From 16-Bit Land leaving them joyously happy. Perhaps that's the point of the chiptune: nostalgia through new (old) music. Pleasure through rubber keyboards. Mmm, sexy.
Listen to his ZX-tastic tunes here!
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Much of the enjoyment of chip music can rely heavily on nostalgic memories of late 80's video games, though occasionally people like PixelH8 transcend those boundaries. However, just because Today's New Band, MISTER BEEP, produces music which sounds like it really could be from an 80's ZX Sinclair Spectrum game (because it has, kind of), doesn't mean the music is like listening to someone on the bus play all of their polyphonic ringtones to their 'bezzie mate'. MISTER BEEP's music sounds great, at least to my ears - the ears of someone who spent much of their youth trying to complete Switchblade and Fantasy Island Dizzy on their ZX Speccy. Like how Orbital produce music that sounds like the soundtrack to a film never produced, MISTER BEEP's sounds like the tune that would have accompanied Chase HQ 3, had it ever been made. Those of you who used to revel in the excitement of spending 10 minutes waiting for the screeching loading noise for Operation Wolf to finish will find Who's That Robot and Escape From 16-Bit Land leaving them joyously happy. Perhaps that's the point of the chiptune: nostalgia through new (old) music. Pleasure through rubber keyboards. Mmm, sexy.
Listen to his ZX-tastic tunes here!
Labels: bleeps, nostalgia, ZX 48K Spectrum
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008
I watched a BBC4 documentary about Britpop the other day. It'll be on Youtube if you look for it. There's loads of documentaries about Britpop, possibly because it was such a recent popular period in music, and possibly because it's all very simple to explain: UK bands get bored by grunge, look back to the 60's, make great songs, get coke bloat and collapse in on themselves.
However, it ended with One Very Important Thought: that trailblazing Britpop wonders like Suede, Blur and Pulp ultimately didn't affect music much at all - the bands that traded in inane, emotion-lite songs with huge, soft choruses, like Oasis and the Verve have spawned the similar big bands of today - I'm waggling my finger at you, Coldplay and Snow Patrol.
The point is that the early 90's were a fertile time for actually new, interesting music, before giving way back to cruddy average music. And so when I listened to Today's New Band, Sweden's Envelopes, I immediately thought of the early 90's. Possibly because their fabulous song Sister In Love somehow straddles the late 80's and early 90's, whilst luckily missing Shoegaze altogether - no mean feat. "Is your sister in love?" chants the chorus, joyously pinging from person to person in the party, kissing each on the cheek.
The chorus is so much fun, they don't waste much time on verses and get there as soon as possible, and Freejazz, similarly, is a big, fun-tastic romp through a delirous chorus. Party even is as cheeky enough to interpolate some of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart, and guess what - it works. Brilliant. If only all music could stop and deviate from here. Listen to their great songs right here!
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However, it ended with One Very Important Thought: that trailblazing Britpop wonders like Suede, Blur and Pulp ultimately didn't affect music much at all - the bands that traded in inane, emotion-lite songs with huge, soft choruses, like Oasis and the Verve have spawned the similar big bands of today - I'm waggling my finger at you, Coldplay and Snow Patrol.
The point is that the early 90's were a fertile time for actually new, interesting music, before giving way back to cruddy average music. And so when I listened to Today's New Band, Sweden's Envelopes, I immediately thought of the early 90's. Possibly because their fabulous song Sister In Love somehow straddles the late 80's and early 90's, whilst luckily missing Shoegaze altogether - no mean feat. "Is your sister in love?" chants the chorus, joyously pinging from person to person in the party, kissing each on the cheek.The chorus is so much fun, they don't waste much time on verses and get there as soon as possible, and Freejazz, similarly, is a big, fun-tastic romp through a delirous chorus. Party even is as cheeky enough to interpolate some of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart, and guess what - it works. Brilliant. If only all music could stop and deviate from here. Listen to their great songs right here!
Labels: 80's/90's, actual brilliance, chorus-mageddon
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Monday, 16 June 2008
Bands, generally, sound like other bands. The Kooks sound like Libertines Lite, Oasis sounded like Slade having noisy drunken sex with Status Quo, and Elastica sounded so much like Wire and the Stranglers that they got sued. But there's nothing really wrong with that - there's only so many chord sequences and topics to sing about. Unless you're Natasha Bedingfield, in which the only topic you ever sing about is how unutterably gut-emptyingly awful you are (listen closely to her lyrics).
Sometimes when you listen to a band for the first time, there's something unmistakable that leaps out and reminds you of another band. The vocals, the rhythm, or even the vibe, maaaan. This happened today when I was listening to Today's New Band, Sky Larkin. The funny thing is that I just can't place exactly who they remind me of. Sure, Summit sounds a bit Yeah Yeah Yeahs-y, but that's just a lazy comparison, primarily because I have a thing for Karen O. But it was mainly their great song Somersault Notes that got stuck, nagging away at me in my head.
The song itself is lovely, swooping and grand, but slender - not stumbling into dreaded 'overblown epic' mode. I was positive that it reminded me of another song by another band. I spent a weekend trying to think, but had to give up. It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it wasn't reminiscent of anything else, but one of those instances when you hear a great song and it sounds familiar, but is actually brand new. Fingers crossed. The other great songs they have on their MySpace site includes a super-duper cover of QOTSA's I Was A Teenage Hand Model. Listen to them all here! If you know what that song sounds like, please let me know....
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Sometimes when you listen to a band for the first time, there's something unmistakable that leaps out and reminds you of another band. The vocals, the rhythm, or even the vibe, maaaan. This happened today when I was listening to Today's New Band, Sky Larkin. The funny thing is that I just can't place exactly who they remind me of. Sure, Summit sounds a bit Yeah Yeah Yeahs-y, but that's just a lazy comparison, primarily because I have a thing for Karen O. But it was mainly their great song Somersault Notes that got stuck, nagging away at me in my head.The song itself is lovely, swooping and grand, but slender - not stumbling into dreaded 'overblown epic' mode. I was positive that it reminded me of another song by another band. I spent a weekend trying to think, but had to give up. It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it wasn't reminiscent of anything else, but one of those instances when you hear a great song and it sounds familiar, but is actually brand new. Fingers crossed. The other great songs they have on their MySpace site includes a super-duper cover of QOTSA's I Was A Teenage Hand Model. Listen to them all here! If you know what that song sounds like, please let me know....
Labels: confusion, cover, unsigned
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Friday, 13 June 2008
The weekend already! It's been a weird week on A New Band A Day. Coherency is low on the ANBAD agenda at the best of times, but this week we've been all over the shop like Amy Winehouse on DisneyLand Paris's new ride, Journey to the Centre of Crack Mountain.
We've romped between super lo-fi tinkling with Magpied and the sleepy bleeps of oMMM, via the rollicking insanity of the Velvet Orchestra and the jaunty jangles of Buen Chico. So in some ways, Today's New Band, The Joy Formidable, is a bit like the conclusion at the end of a high-school essay, albeit an essay that begins, "What is a New Band? The dictionary definition of a New Band is...".
That is to say, The Joy Formidable are tinkling, sleepy, rollicking and jangly all at once. This is a Very Good Thing, and can be plainly heard for yourself on their track Cradle, a driving pounder of a song, which, with its "Woo-woo-woo" male/female vocals, sounds, frankly, a bit like what My Bloody Valentine would sound like without quite so many layers of fuzz. Austere punches its way forward bluntly but delicately, leaving you sure of their intent - to RAWK, but in a measured way, slightly reminiscent of Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 'noise' mode.
I usually wouldn't compare bands to others - it's mainly unhelpful - but look, I've just done it twice. Maybe it's because The Joy Formidable are really good, maybe it's because I'm feeling lazy. I hope it's the former. Even more thrillingly, all their songs are FREE! to download at their MySpace page, and their's even a remix by old friend of ANBAD, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs! What more could you ask for, really? Listen to their great stuff NOW, here!
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We've romped between super lo-fi tinkling with Magpied and the sleepy bleeps of oMMM, via the rollicking insanity of the Velvet Orchestra and the jaunty jangles of Buen Chico. So in some ways, Today's New Band, The Joy Formidable, is a bit like the conclusion at the end of a high-school essay, albeit an essay that begins, "What is a New Band? The dictionary definition of a New Band is...".That is to say, The Joy Formidable are tinkling, sleepy, rollicking and jangly all at once. This is a Very Good Thing, and can be plainly heard for yourself on their track Cradle, a driving pounder of a song, which, with its "Woo-woo-woo" male/female vocals, sounds, frankly, a bit like what My Bloody Valentine would sound like without quite so many layers of fuzz. Austere punches its way forward bluntly but delicately, leaving you sure of their intent - to RAWK, but in a measured way, slightly reminiscent of Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 'noise' mode.
I usually wouldn't compare bands to others - it's mainly unhelpful - but look, I've just done it twice. Maybe it's because The Joy Formidable are really good, maybe it's because I'm feeling lazy. I hope it's the former. Even more thrillingly, all their songs are FREE! to download at their MySpace page, and their's even a remix by old friend of ANBAD, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs! What more could you ask for, really? Listen to their great stuff NOW, here!
Labels: not-quite-NOISE, sleepy, unsigned
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Thursday, 12 June 2008
Sometimes, it's easy to dismiss bands for just sounding like...a band. You know - twangly guitars, drums and nice harmonies. Since the majority of bands are tyring to sound like they've just stepped out of the DeLorean from 1981, it's easy to forget that not everyone wants to sound like Wire. Nothing's wrong with that in itself, but there's some sort of pure pleasure to be had from shunning your peers and going back to jangly basics.
Hence: Today's New Band, Buen Chico. That kind-of means 'good guy' in Spanish - not that it's particularly important - but we like the idea of providing Edutainment here at A New Band A Day. Buen Chico are Good Indie, in that they aren't twee, but are a bit cute; they have a basic sonic template, but without being derivative. Giving Your Gifts is a great example of this - a simple, breezy singalong that would get any indie disco dancing around its ironically nostalgic handbag.
Gold From Lead, if anything, is even more jaunty, and veers into the 'lovely' territory during the chorus, the point where wistful and happy meet, twirling around each other like sugar-demented kids at a wedding. Hooray! Listen to them here, right now!
**PS - Apologies for the lateness of yesterday's post - technical issues. Stupid internets.**
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Hence: Today's New Band, Buen Chico. That kind-of means 'good guy' in Spanish - not that it's particularly important - but we like the idea of providing Edutainment here at A New Band A Day. Buen Chico are Good Indie, in that they aren't twee, but are a bit cute; they have a basic sonic template, but without being derivative. Giving Your Gifts is a great example of this - a simple, breezy singalong that would get any indie disco dancing around its ironically nostalgic handbag. Gold From Lead, if anything, is even more jaunty, and veers into the 'lovely' territory during the chorus, the point where wistful and happy meet, twirling around each other like sugar-demented kids at a wedding. Hooray! Listen to them here, right now!
**PS - Apologies for the lateness of yesterday's post - technical issues. Stupid internets.**
Labels: chorus-mageddon, Indie, Jaunty
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008
What would the sound of sleep be like? Silence? A deeeep humming noise? Your parents' voices chanting "blood....blood...blood" over and over again? Something similar to the noise when you load a game into a ZX Spectrum? We may never know.
Or perhaps we will - because Today's New Band, oMMM, produces songs that are apparently "spaced out bedcore...a bedtime pop experiment!" Don't let that fool you, though - this music isn’t like Side Two of The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld. Instead, oMMM is a musical trip, a treat of inventive bleeping and what could be hesitantly described as 'soundscapes'. In songs like CATWALKTVKAYAKARMX, the sound drifts - but not aimlessly. oMMM are taking us on a bit of a journey - but a nice one, with a break for a cream tea somewhere along the line.
SZWOMMMRMX could be described as residing somewhere between Boards of Canada, the ubiquitous Aphex Twin and Four Tet if we were being particularly lazy. Which we are. It's a particularly lovely, deliberately dream-like skittle through spacey sounds.
oMMM's music is calming yet attention-grabbing, a brilliant musical representation of the relaxation and insanity that both tumble from sleep. The music is good for your ears, and the calmness good for your mind. Listen NOW at oMMM's Myspace page!
And if you found that all a bit too serious, here's the best/most ridiculous song about a £1.50 portion of chicken and chips performed in a grime style ever. Thanks to Scatman Jamie for pointing out the brilliance of 'Junior Spesh'
***BLOGGER'S BROKEN AGAIN - NO IMAGES TODAY***
Labels: bleeps, sleepy, ZX 48K Spectrum
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Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Subtlety - like most things in life - can be both a virtue and a pest. It's generally considered to be A Good Thing, but then also consider that Jazz is generally considered to epitomise musical subtlety, and as Tony Wilson said, "Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented". So then, good on Today's New Band, The Velvet Orchestra, who haven't just eschewed subtlety, so much as beating it to death with blunt instruments, and even when it was dead, just kept on going.
It's temping to think that The Velvet Orchestra took a step back from events, pondered and then emerged with the considered opinion that if you're going to go mental in a room with a bunch of friends, you may as well do it with noisy instruments. This is probably the correct observation, as their songs buzz with manic energy, the band throwing everything at the song just to see what comes out at the other end.
What does come out of the other end are songs like The Creator, which may be the elevator music they play as you descend to Hell. The song jerks around wildly, thrashing with excitement and horror, and you, the innocent listener, can only hang on for the ride. In Wolves Crave Horrible Tongues, The Velvet Orchestra tread the same risky path of all-in bonkers noise-making, but again, happily, they pull it off.
Like when painting, knowing when to stop is one of the hard parts of making music, and they know when not to push harder when the temptation must be great, ensuring their songs are just on the right side of overwhelming. Great. Hear their songs right here!
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It's temping to think that The Velvet Orchestra took a step back from events, pondered and then emerged with the considered opinion that if you're going to go mental in a room with a bunch of friends, you may as well do it with noisy instruments. This is probably the correct observation, as their songs buzz with manic energy, the band throwing everything at the song just to see what comes out at the other end.What does come out of the other end are songs like The Creator, which may be the elevator music they play as you descend to Hell. The song jerks around wildly, thrashing with excitement and horror, and you, the innocent listener, can only hang on for the ride. In Wolves Crave Horrible Tongues, The Velvet Orchestra tread the same risky path of all-in bonkers noise-making, but again, happily, they pull it off.
Like when painting, knowing when to stop is one of the hard parts of making music, and they know when not to push harder when the temptation must be great, ensuring their songs are just on the right side of overwhelming. Great. Hear their songs right here!
Labels: a bazillion miles an hour, not-quite-NOISE, SATAN
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Monday, 9 June 2008
A New Band A Day is a fairly broad church with regards to our personal philosophy on what we like bands to sound like, but if we were to nail our colours to one mast, the 'made-in-our-bedroom' sound would probably be it. While some bands pride themselves on sounding slicker than a seagull the day after Exxon-Valdez decided to pop a rivet, others shun 'production values' and just get on with making great songs. Rough-and-ready bands sound like they could be playing on your sofa next to you, and usually are all the better for it.
So, with that in mind, here's Today's New Band, Magpied, a band who relish the challenges put to them by Bontempi Keyboards and £69.99 guitar & amp deals from Argos. And meet those challenges they did, by cobbling together a bunch of songs which leap uncontrollably between "slightly bonkers" and "deliriously happy". Downloadable-for-free song SCRAPS nightstatcher REMIXXX is a lost 1970's kid's TV show theme tune, tinkling, bouncing and vaguely promising edu-tainment; whilst It Hibernated sounds like one of the instrumental tracks off David Bowie's Low played as a demo function on a child's keyboard, crunchy drums and all. There's also a super cover of Los Campesinos' You Me Dancing, as if you needed another reason to listen.
Magpied are small, in gestation and from Norwich. All of these are good things. They say they are 'wanting gigs', and frankly they deserve them. A duo this crazily delightful deserve a wider audience. Go nuts, and get your ears around their ace tunes here.
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So, with that in mind, here's Today's New Band, Magpied, a band who relish the challenges put to them by Bontempi Keyboards and £69.99 guitar & amp deals from Argos. And meet those challenges they did, by cobbling together a bunch of songs which leap uncontrollably between "slightly bonkers" and "deliriously happy". Downloadable-for-free song SCRAPS nightstatcher REMIXXX is a lost 1970's kid's TV show theme tune, tinkling, bouncing and vaguely promising edu-tainment; whilst It Hibernated sounds like one of the instrumental tracks off David Bowie's Low played as a demo function on a child's keyboard, crunchy drums and all. There's also a super cover of Los Campesinos' You Me Dancing, as if you needed another reason to listen.Magpied are small, in gestation and from Norwich. All of these are good things. They say they are 'wanting gigs', and frankly they deserve them. A duo this crazily delightful deserve a wider audience. Go nuts, and get your ears around their ace tunes here.
Labels: Jaunty, lo-fi, toy instruments
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Friday, 6 June 2008
Wowsers - today's band has it all. That is, all that makes us excited and tingly here at A New Band A Day. Firstly, today's band is the third in the Fabulous Glasgow Triple Bill, hot on the heels of the wonderful ERRORS and super Q Without U. And then, secondly, and almost more groin-pulsingly exciting, is the Super Fantastico Name that they have - pretty much a prerequisite for getting on ANBAD, such are our soaring levels of idiocy.
So then, here's today's New Band - DANANANANAYKROYD! Let their name roll over your tongue a few times, because it's a whole truck-load of lot of fun to say it out loud. In many ways, it's the perfect band name, appealing to those who like mildly novelty names (like us) and people who like dressing up as the Blues Brothers at any given fancy dress party. It may appeal to other people too, but we don't have that wide a variety of friends, so we aren't in a position to judge.
Anyway, DANANANANAYKROYD's music is great. Considering they're from Glasgow, where, by the sound of it, crafting great pop songs is taught in Infant School, this is no great surprise. They yell, grind and crunch their way through a bunch of swift and sneaky songs - check out British Knights (MC Hammer's trainer of choice, fact fans) for a burst of super, howl-at-Button-Moon rock. Cleaning Each Other follows a pleasingly similar path of yell-blast loud guitars-thrash drums, and yet keeps the all-important melody churning through it all.
Glasgow 3 Rest of World 0. Check out their Myspace page here!
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So then, here's today's New Band - DANANANANAYKROYD! Let their name roll over your tongue a few times, because it's a whole truck-load of lot of fun to say it out loud. In many ways, it's the perfect band name, appealing to those who like mildly novelty names (like us) and people who like dressing up as the Blues Brothers at any given fancy dress party. It may appeal to other people too, but we don't have that wide a variety of friends, so we aren't in a position to judge.Anyway, DANANANANAYKROYD's music is great. Considering they're from Glasgow, where, by the sound of it, crafting great pop songs is taught in Infant School, this is no great surprise. They yell, grind and crunch their way through a bunch of swift and sneaky songs - check out British Knights (MC Hammer's trainer of choice, fact fans) for a burst of super, howl-at-Button-Moon rock. Cleaning Each Other follows a pleasingly similar path of yell-blast loud guitars-thrash drums, and yet keeps the all-important melody churning through it all.
Glasgow 3 Rest of World 0. Check out their Myspace page here!
Labels: glasgow, novelty triple bill, yelping
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Thursday, 5 June 2008
Oh, bugger it. We had the hat-trick of dinosaur-themed bands the other week, and it should be clear to you regular readers by now that we love gimmicks just about above anything else here at A New Band A Day. So, after yesterday's super Glaswegian Scrabble-fiends* Q Without U, we're going for broke and pumping two more Glasgow bands at you, today and tomorrow. Glasgow, similarly to issues we've expounded limply about Wales before, must have something special in the water (no jokes about Tennants Super, please) as the city is churning out superb bands left, right and centre at the moment.
So, Today's New Gimmickly-Induced Band is ERRORS. If I was mildly cretinous, I'd make a poor joke about how there is nothing erroneous about their music, because it's fantastic. Unfortunately, I am that cretinous - there is nothing erroneous about their music - they sound exciting, inventive and are so pleasingly non-Razorlight/Kooks/etc that I almost did a backflip listening to them. To be slightly glib, they sound a bit like A.N.B.A.D. favourite PixelH8 coupled with the gloriously noisy Battles. You honestly have to hear Salut France, a song with all the skippy beats, gorgeous melodies and bleepy poking you'll ever need. Focussed and sharp, but without falling into that awful laptop featurlessness like most electro-noise bands.
You could dance to them, you could strut around town to them, and if you were pretentious, you could stroke your chin to them. Whatever you do, just listen, because they're SUPER.
Listen to them, quick! Myspace here. More Glaswegian bands tomorrow!
*possibly true
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So, Today's New Gimmickly-Induced Band is ERRORS. If I was mildly cretinous, I'd make a poor joke about how there is nothing erroneous about their music, because it's fantastic. Unfortunately, I am that cretinous - there is nothing erroneous about their music - they sound exciting, inventive and are so pleasingly non-Razorlight/Kooks/etc that I almost did a backflip listening to them. To be slightly glib, they sound a bit like A.N.B.A.D. favourite PixelH8 coupled with the gloriously noisy Battles. You honestly have to hear Salut France, a song with all the skippy beats, gorgeous melodies and bleepy poking you'll ever need. Focussed and sharp, but without falling into that awful laptop featurlessness like most electro-noise bands.You could dance to them, you could strut around town to them, and if you were pretentious, you could stroke your chin to them. Whatever you do, just listen, because they're SUPER.
Listen to them, quick! Myspace here. More Glaswegian bands tomorrow!
*possibly true
Labels: actual brilliance, bleeps, glasgow
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Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Wow! Just like Buses, you wait for one A New Band A Day Radio Show, and then none come along, and then you wait longer, and still one doesn't come, and then it rains and you get grumpy, and then you think you see a bus, but it's actually a lorry, and then finally, another one comes.
So here it is! Here's what's great about this new A New Band A Day Radio Show:
So LISTEN NOW! Click the 'Play' button below and treat yourself to a tour through a bunch of the greatest new bands! You've read about them, now listen to them!
More great new bands all week!
Love, Joe
(If you're reading this in the A.N.B.A.D. email, you'll need to visit the site to listen, but do it - it's worth it, promise)
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So here it is! Here's what's great about this new A New Band A Day Radio Show:
- Features great bands like lovely Pavement-y rockers Dinosaur Pile-Up, The most lo-fi band ever Heartbeeps and bangin' choon-merchants Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
- It's exactly 3 minutes 16 seconds longer than the last one - that's 3m16s of EXTRA superness!*
So LISTEN NOW! Click the 'Play' button below and treat yourself to a tour through a bunch of the greatest new bands! You've read about them, now listen to them!
More great new bands all week!
Love, Joe
(If you're reading this in the A.N.B.A.D. email, you'll need to visit the site to listen, but do it - it's worth it, promise)
Labels: Radio show
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As anyone who has spent time stuck in a caravan on a rainy week in Wales will know, Scrabble is the kind of game that only people with giant intellects can really play. All the rest of us just take part, and grind our teeth with frustration as our opponent beats your last move of "dog" with "onomatopoeic", or similar.
That said, these insufferable people are directly responsible for the invention of the video game, allowing us mouth-breathers to be victorious at something, so perhaps they can be spared from utter hatred. Either way, Scrabble champs would take a situation where they were faced with the dreaded "Q" tile in their stride. They've memorised the list of all words spelt using Q without U, you see. Yes, there are 24 of them. No, you won't know what they mean, or ever need to use them. Or know how to.
For those of us with social lives, the only instance of Q without U that will be of any importance is Today's New Band. From Glasgow, like just about every other band of any interest, Q Without U meld super-tuneful guitar rock with whizzy synths into punchy pop songs that, like in ace tune The Deficit Model, tread on the right side of traditional rock without descending into Runrig hell. So, melodic, but not drab, and not taking the easy route. Songs like Our Luck Is A Prostitute are quirky enough, with its soaring chorus, to soar a bit before floating gently back to earth.
Oh, and they say that they're "Like the shit bits of your favourite band", which is a good enough starting point for me.
Listen to their songs on their Myspace page here!
That said, these insufferable people are directly responsible for the invention of the video game, allowing us mouth-breathers to be victorious at something, so perhaps they can be spared from utter hatred. Either way, Scrabble champs would take a situation where they were faced with the dreaded "Q" tile in their stride. They've memorised the list of all words spelt using Q without U, you see. Yes, there are 24 of them. No, you won't know what they mean, or ever need to use them. Or know how to.For those of us with social lives, the only instance of Q without U that will be of any importance is Today's New Band. From Glasgow, like just about every other band of any interest, Q Without U meld super-tuneful guitar rock with whizzy synths into punchy pop songs that, like in ace tune The Deficit Model, tread on the right side of traditional rock without descending into Runrig hell. So, melodic, but not drab, and not taking the easy route. Songs like Our Luck Is A Prostitute are quirky enough, with its soaring chorus, to soar a bit before floating gently back to earth.
Oh, and they say that they're "Like the shit bits of your favourite band", which is a good enough starting point for me.
Listen to their songs on their Myspace page here!
Labels: glasgow, scrabble, synth-o-tronic
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