What the future may hold.

The last few years have been weird, in 2005 everyone wanted to be Gang of Four and Joy Division, then Bloc Party one of the main bands leading this revolve'olution became The Chemical Brothers. Every band in New York went electro, The Yeah Yeah Yeah's became Blondie, Julian Casablanca's the guy who led the rock revolution of the early 2000's also became Blondie. I mean i like Blondie but i am so sick of over produced disco beats and free Pro-Tools Modular synthesis and generally I'm sick of people repeating the past and producing "lets remember a time that i wasn't even born in" music.

Its pretty rad that Animal Collective are one of the top bands of the year as there album is pretty obscure sounding (and girls is a unforgettable track), its also great that Grizzly Bear became one of the biggest bands of the year with even Jay Z and Beyonce kicking up a hype storm about them, but sorry to sound like a narc here, they both sound like The Beach Boys, just listen to Pet Sounds. Then you have Muse doing there Radiohead meets Queen album, if they actually sounded like Muse when they started instead of Radiohead using 19th century orchestral progressions id be more mad, but they never sounded original.

There have been many good releases this year as well, in fact its been one of the most creative years in music yet, but this isn't about that, this is my angry rant. I love music, i love music more then anything, i spend all day listening to it, creating it, blogging about it, masturbating to it and yet it still pisses me off so much, commercial radio is still a horrible nightmare of Taylor Swifts and Britney throwbacks, even commercial hip hop which used to impress me with its radical production has taken a step back in time. MTV which has sucked for decades still sucks, unless your into 3 songs all of which by Drake. Pitchfork who i used to trust has left me behind in a maze of gay'ish dance anthems and repetitive 808 beats. Who do i turn to for help, who can i trust. As a average show from the 90's once told me, "trust no one".

Just to prove a point (a obvious one at that as commercial music always sucks) i leave you with the current no.1 single in the USA.

Final Top Ten

So i was going to collate my top ten's and put together the perfect one, but then my best friend sent me his top ten and he hit the nail on the head. Call it laziness call it what you want, either way, i didn't have to think and that's a big plus around christmas, it means i can get drunk and ignore everything. Here goes:

top ten 2009

1)health- get color
2)a place to bury strangers- exploding head
3)no age -losing feeling ep
4)deerhunter-rainwater cassette exchange ep
5)reakwon-cuban linx 2
6) sonic youth- the eternal
7)the horrors-primary colours
8)atlas sound-logos
9)lightning bolt-earthly delights
10)converge-axe to fall

also a small note
both
wavves "so bored""no hope kids"
girls"lust for life","morning light" were good pop tracks that were as annoyingly catchy as aids so as singles they deserve an honourable mention.....

Thanks Tim

Stranded in Stereo v17: Download Now!

It's the end of the year and most of the office is headed out of Los Angeles for the holidays - various points of California, New York, Philly, Florida, Arizona, Massachusetts, and on and on. The last thing we're doing before we head out (well, besides downing massive amounts of egg nog) is dropping the latest SIS sampler onto your laps. Notable about this volume is all of the great last minute submissions. We might like having our music early, but some of the best stuff landed in our hands yesterday. Literally.

To download Volume 17, click on the links below! Here's a list of what's on the newest edition:

AUDIO
The Jezabels “Hurt Me”
Dios “Ojay”
Seaspin “Reverser”
Black Rebel Motorcycle Rebel “Berlin”
Bear Hands”What a Drag ”
East Hundred “Slow Burning Crimes”
Cosmo Jarvis “She’s Got You”
Blackmarket “Tongue Twister Typo”
Olof Arnalds “Klara”
The Kissaway Trail “SDP”
An American Chinese “No No Like That”
Leif + the Future “Let You Go”
Bern Kelly “Malorie”
Brian Lopez (of Mostly Bears) “I Pray for Rain”
Ground Up “Lost in Philadelphia”
DOWNLOAD AUDIO

VIDEO
Paper Zoo “We Are Paper Zoo”
Cosmo Jarvis "Problems”
Conshafter “Going Down?”
Bodega Girls "She's Into Black Guys"
Hooray For Earth “Surrounded By Your Friends”
The Cribs "We Share the Same Skies"
Grimus “In A Glimpse”
DOWNLOAD VIDEO

Top Ten - Part 3

John Frusciante - The Empyrean

Slayer - World Painted Blood

Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions

Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone

Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

Girls - Album

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Its Blitz

Graham Coxon - The Spinning Top

The Cribs - Ignore The Ignorant

Well, that's three, lists. Now i must collate this list to have a better list by the end of the year... Its all about lists.

Possible Top 10 Albums of 2010 Part 2

In an attempt to work out more albums of 2009 i ended up at this list. Indecisive as always, do i even like this stuff?


List Two:

Jay Z - Blueprint 3

Converge - Axe to Fall

Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Wilco - Wilco the album

Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Possible Top 10 Albums of 2010

Its that time again, when people from all over the blogosphere go through there itunes and attempt to work out what actually came out this year and what they like the most while procrastinating things such as Christmas shopping, working, booking trips home or eating and sleeping.

I am an indecisive fuck, i cant work out dinner plans, or what id like to do on the weekend if there are more then one option, id rather stay home then make a decision, its better now that i don't smoke pot, but still i piss off people daily with this indecision. Some say it's a Libra thing, hippies!

In Respect to that I'm going to attempt to put up three different lists this week and then a final list at the end of the week in order to work out what my top 10 albums of the year actually is. Here we go.

List One:

Health - Get Color

Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Linx 2

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Sonic Youth - The Eternal

The Horrors - Primary Color's

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

Dinosaur Jr - Farm

Atlas sound - Logos

Steel Panther - Feel the Steel

Duck Duck Chop - Blood/Final

Sonic Youth - Mote

Sure this is old, but it's still one of my favorite clips, sure its just a mash up of analogue tv mish-mash and blurry shots of Lee Renaldo singing way to close to the camera made on a budget of about $12, i don't care. It still looks a quadrillion times better then these average clips of people standing in front of cars they don't own (see clip below) and mansions hired by or owned by their producers.



What i hate even more is clips of bands performing in front of a green screen while a digital wank-fest is displayed behind featuring footage of earth shattering explosions and building's collapsing. I cant stand the atypical rock guitarist flicking hair out of his eyes while doing forced rock moves probably for 18hrs. Or anything by Nickelback.

Duck Duck Chop!

Every now and then sprawling through the muck and wankery of bands on myspace you find a gem amidst the slime, a diamond in the rough, a little slice of heaven(enough already). Its rare and rarer still you discover that they possess a gutsy energetic live show and artwork that makes your stomach churn with genius. Today in a series i will try and continue of unknown bands i like i give you Duck Duck Chop.

Coming from Melbourne Australia's weird art music scene but breaking tradition with the swamp/blues/scientists inspired bands that are all to common at venues such as The Tote and Pony, Duck Duck Chop destroy conventional hardcore, post rock and art punk in an explosion of passion and boyhood lusty fury. Although just a two piece their music is big and bold. They possess the deep rooted coolness of DFA 1979 and the passion of ATDI and there live show is crushing and exciting.

They have 7" record (Blood/Final) that I'm sure you could order through their myspace. Title track Blood in a plastic bag is like 7 minutes of math/hardcore fury with touches of Slayer and Converge while B-Side final is dark post punk but almost a pop song with lyrics of longing and drum and guitar interwoven genius. They have a whole parade of shows in Melbourne over the next month, go see them before the become untouchably cool.

The Rumble LA - Tomorrow night!

More good times in lower Hollywood (not the douchey section filled with tourists and Ed Hardy shirts) on Thursday night as we bring our excitement in the form of rock n' roll music back to 3 (of) Clubs (1123 Vine St). It's free, there's music, there's beer, and there's us. What more could you want?

Evan Voytas kicks the night off at 8pm. We're particularly excited to see the Drowning Men.

The Rumble SF: Tomorrow night

We're back with more music this month, and the little shindigs we co-present are rolling once again. Tomorrow night in San Francisco we have two lovely bands for you at the Rumble - LexiconDon and Keenhouse, plus some fun time DJs. Peep the flyer above.

It's free and there's cheap beer. Go and smash your face in with fun.

ATP the movie

New's flash, "good concert movie finally made."

I was lucky enough to go to a screening of the All Tomorrows Parties film last week and what i saw impressed me, it had all the things i love about festivals, drunk people making idiots of themselves, guys with acoustic guitars who think they are talented when they are actually embarrassing to everyone around them and really good music. I liked the Isle of Wight Festival movie from the early 70's. It had retarded hippies complaining about fences and having to pay like $5 to see Hendrix, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Leonard Cohen and a million other pivotal bands from the past. It was a fine movie, but finally there is one for our generation, a film that captures the mind bending variety of music around and also captures the hilarity of a multiple three day dorm style festival.

Its filmed on HD, super 8, mobile phones and all presented in split screen in homage to Woodstock. Jonathan Caouette edits it together amazingly and seemlessly juxtapose's between rather hilarious 60's english travel documentaries and really hilarious footage of concert goer's. I love anything that makes people who think they are really cool look really not cool. It has amazing performances by Les Savy Fav, Grinderman, Daniel Johnston, Sonic Youth, Slint, The Boredoms and many other bands of notable worth. See it!

Three Trapped Tigers

I was strolling through the internet yesterday and i stumbled across a something i've been missing for a long time. Good electronic music. These days its usually just 80's inspired electro-rock in other words, a disco beat, keyboards straight out of The NeverEnding Story and a woman dressed as a mirror ball singing about lost love and leather. Not that that is neccessarily a bad thing, it's just overdone. I remember when Aphex Twin's Richard D James album came out, to me it was mind boggleing. It sounded like music straight from the future and it still sounds ahead of its time. I dont know if Timbaland's fancy future productions will feel the same in 15 years.

Three Trapped Tigers are a band, a three piece to be precise. They harness the math rock timing and tightness of groups like Battles and Health and fuse it with the electronic orchestrations of Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Chris Clark and other Warp related bands and do it mostly live. It makes me happy, especially now that Aphex doesn't do anything, Squarepusher has become kinda shit and Warp is becoming a place of up and coming indie bands.

Three Trapped Tigers are touring around Europe currently and i implore any one who can to get off your hipster asses and go see them. Embrace the future, move on from the endless revivalist scene, leave that for the ATP dont look back tours of bands that created these sound.

Three things I hate today!

Sometimes i open up youtube and click on the music section to find things that may annoy me and make me laugh at the pathetic-ness of the failing Major-Label pop scene, while inspiring me to promote things i like, almost to prove to myself that there is music of merit out there. These three tracks i am about to play should make you laugh, cry and hopefully puke. If not your reading the wrong blog and subsequently will hate me and leave lame comments insulting my grammar as a way to prove your awful tastes are justified due to the fact you put the right there or their in a sentence. Congratulations, your still suck.

Firstly.



According to a interview i saw also on Youtube, Miley doesnt listen to Jay-Z even though the chorus features the lyric "and a Jay Z song was on" repeatedly. She also went on to state that she doesnt listen to commerical music. Strangely enough her favourite song is Surrender by Cheap Trick. Weird.

Secondly.



I do not have much to say about this except there is way to much counting and the clip is a bad experiment in motion graphics and flash animation.

Lastly.



What the fuck is this post Lady Gaga bullshit. Its as bad as that girl from the hills shitey Britney Wanna be music..... Kill me

Now back to writing about indie bands.

Finally! Arcade Fire do Something.....

It's been a long fucking time. The best band of 5 years ago have decided to grace us with their epic indie presence. I have been worried that Win Butler and Regine Chassagne had settled into the good life, bought an old church, some sheep and set about growing an amazing veggie patch in the outskirts of Montreal. Thankfully there must be some tension in there life that has permitted for them and their thousands of members/friends to record something.

This will be the first full length release since Neon Bible, which much like The Killers Sam's Town echoed the more earnest works of Bruce Springsteen. Where The Killers went for the dancing in the dark catchy pop era of Springsteen, The Arcade Fire connected more with the Nebraska period, Atlantic City styled moody but concerned Springsteen. I'm excited, their live shows when the live sound permits for all 400 members to be heard are epic, grandiose and beautiful.

In unsurprising reports about the album it will feature "more upbeat" songs and "include a harpsi-chord as well as the bands usual heavy-orchestral string arrangements, played by Julliard-trained string players." It's also being produced by Neon Bible producer Markus Dravs who most recently worked on Coldplays U2'ish experiment in wankery Viva La Vida.

Although these are all rumor's and nothing has been formally announced by the band i still have hope.

To get you all excited is The Arcade Fire live in a Elevator.

Stare at your shoe's people its Seaspin

Following on in the trend of bands revitalizing the late 80's shoegaze sound in the tradition of My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Ride and The Jesus and Mary Chain come Los Angeles based Seaspin. Joining the ranks of other revivalist bands such as A Place to Bury Strangers and Love of Diagrams, Seaspin present there noise-laden distorto-pop songs with a more shiny, cleaner vibe. Their vocalist Jennifer Goodridge (previously from Your Enemies Friends) has a pristine, melodic voice that rides high over the distorted, heavily tremelo'd suspended fourth chords of Ronnie Washburn creating that archetypal My Bloody Valentine sound of pretty girl meets dirty but talented stoner guy with too many big muff pedals, but with their own melodic sensibilities of course.

On Dec 2nd, at Bordello in Downtown LA, Seaspin, Woah Hunx and Little Girls are performing and now doubt it will be a noise and melody extravaganza of awesomeness. So come down, get drunk and get woozy to the sound of swooping chords and low key melodies.

They have a EP entitled Reverser due for release on the 19th of January. Download a tune here