Mew- No More Stories..(etc) 2009

i found this Danish trio a year or two ago while rocking some Pandora, and had to stop everything to check into what the hell it was i was hearing. although they are studio fiends and im not sure if they have a bigger band for live shows, No More Stories is a tight rock/pop album with great hooks. it goes many interesting places with a distinct, purposeful layout of songs, some rocking the fuck out with a huge sound, while others will be nicely composed minimal tracks with just piano and vocals. they start things off with a proper bang, after an intro track, with their single Introducing Palace Players, and a few tracks later comes Repeaterbeater, below. a bit artsy fartsy vid but aww yeah.



no more stories..

metaghostin' Vol. IX - If I saw double once, then again.

If I saw double once, then again. - 43' 26"
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Side A - What's cooler:

1. The Microphones - "Here With Summer" / Don't Wake Me Up (1999)
2. The Weeknd - "The Birds (Pt. 1)" / Thursday (2011)
3. RX Bandits - "White Lies" / Mandala (2009)
4. Penpal - "Bed Bugs" / Postscript EP (2011)
5. Genesis - "Chamber of 32 Doors" / The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)

 Side B - An Eclipse or a Syzygy?

1. TV on the Radio - "Playhouses" / Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)
2. Stateless - "Visions" / Matilda (2011)
3. Gavin Castleton - "Swim Good (Frank Ocean x Portishead Mashup/Cover)
4. Mister Metaphor - "The Sunset Song" / This Is How the Day Goes (20XX)
5. noumenon - "Pimpin' Zenith (Pt. 2)" / Split 7" with Rooftops (2009)

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Don't you guys hate when albums are shoddily sequenced? I know people mostly just be listening to their tunes with complete disregard to context, but goddamn do I get salty when I put on a record and things just be arbitrarily jammed together like a motherfucker ain't never eaten a PB & J sandwich. I used to buy Mars Volta LPs, and the first thing I would do is rip it and re-sequence, because those dudes are basically retarded and put their ballads next to their helicopter sound effects.

Gotye- Making Mirrors 2011

I give thanks to the folks in Happy Body Slow Brain for turning me onto this Australian multi-instrumentalist known as Gotye. They posted a link promoting his 3rd release, 2011s Making Mirrors, and after reading into it a bit I found the first single, Somebody That I Used to Know; the artistry and lovely melodic building that shows in the track had me hooked immediately. He's got a killer Peter Gabriel impression going on in that chorus, and the neat rhythm section and acoustics work really well with minimal electronica and nice vocal layers. Ive listened to it about 6 times since i first heard it; thats my first hint at being onto something that I will love, when i cannot get enough of it until it i have integrated it into being a part myself.



making mirrors

Kimbra- Vows 2011

Keeping on the Australia kick, after digging into Gotye, i checked in on the lovely lady, Kimbra, who lends her voice to that Gotye single above, and was pleasantly surprised with her solo work. Shes got some really good production on her album, but what won me over on her was a series of Sing Sing Studios live performances up on the youtubes. In them, she performs 4 or 5 tracks from her album Vows with a slick band that help her to lay down some live looping for her more intricate vocal showcases from the album, but also works to strip the songs of their more glossed over details. Seeing her with a 4 piece band kicking out tracks like her single, Cameo Lover, give it a much more jazzy, motown sound that the electronic version from the album conveys, until that chorus kicks in. That chorus is straight motown no matter how you cut it. Dig her live version of Settle Down, track one off Vows.