Weekly Roundup, July 05 – July 12
I promised there would be a weekly roundup of new songs, and yep, there will be one. Except this is one day late already, I’m sorry much. Blame work and laziness. Let’s go.
Tegan & Sara, but who is who?
Tegan & Sara – Call It Off This one’s a couple of years old but I hadn’t heard it until a few days back. That’s cause I never bother to listen to albums completely. I like tracks to stand alone, not to be framed by the following or preceding songs. Anyway, when I first heard the title track of their then released album, The Con, I liked it, but not enough to get their album. And so, two years later, there’s another track to hype on. At least for me. Buy The Con on Amazon.
Atmosphere – The Ropes Oh, where to start with Atmosphere! Most of their songs score an average on my sheet. In fact, there are only a handful of songs I dig. But these I will listen to for ever and ever (namely “Trying to find a Balance” and “God Loves Ugly”). This one lines up right behind. Nice beat and decent rap. I think Atmosphere are the last rappers who don’t pretend to be all ghetto. Fuck Asher Roth, this is the real shit. Download their give-away EP “Leak At Will” at Fifth Element
Belle & Sebastian – Funny Little Frog I’m in a good mood. And when I’m in a good mood, I tend to listen to yuppie music with a pinch of extra-cuteness. Funny Little Frog might sound like any other song Belle and Sebastian have ever recorded, but you know what, I love musicians who stay consistent in their field. Buy The Life Pursuit on Amazon.
Four Tet – Iron Man (Black Sabbath Cover) What is this? Heaven? Double-chocolate muffin? It could be sex with Johnny Depp for all I know. This guy just knows how to push the right buttons to make a girl want to dream more than she already does (still does not catch up with Burial, but ever since they teamed on an EP a couple of months ago I don’t even care about competition anymore).
Yes Giantess – Tuff & Stuff Backstreet Boys meets Passion Pit. You’ve got yourself a winner for this week. I like it, it’s annoying but edgy and electronic and damn fucking hipster. Where’s the glitter girls at?
Kate Simko – Margie’s Groove Some minimal stuff for a change. I tend to ignore anything minimal on my playlist unless I’m in a club full of likeminded ravers on Berlins eastside. Every now and then an interesting groove, such as Margie’s, haha, will sneak back into it and make me lose myself while preparing the dish of the day. Can’t help the nodding though. Buy Gamelan/Margie’s Groove EP on Amazon.
Mr. Hudson – Everything Is Broken ft. Kid Cudi Long live auto-tune! Long live the Hipster Hop! Blame me as much as you want, Kid Cudi is awesome in my book, no matter who he teams with. Song gets boring after a while, though.
M.I.A. for AWESOME
NUMP – Legalize My Medicine ft. M.I.A. In my last post I asked why M.I.A. couldn’t release tracks on a daily basis. Well, she still doesn’t, but if weekly is the alternative, I’m happy anyway. This one’s not as awesome as her feature with Blaqstarr, but come on, how much less than awesome can M.I.A. ever be? Damn right and there she goes again.
Sian Alice Group – Close To The Ground Fuck yeah, rock music with a creepy touch to it. Don’t know who these guys are and will probably never find out (it’s not that good yet), but I will surely follow up to their next songs. Very promising so far.
The Twelves – When You Talk Love the Twelves! Wish I could see them live, but I’m too old to rave to such monuments of electronic music. Nowadays, whenever you visit an event that is supposedly “underground”, a gazillion of hipster-kids will simply knock you out. Someone’s always higher, fitter and drunker than you, my friend. Applies to me anyway, and thus I’ll just observe from my comfortable bedroom and sway in wouldacouldashouldas.
That’s it for today children. I’ll see you next week or somewhere inbetween, depending on how much time I have (my mom’s coming up to visit and I’ll be back home from Saturday on, so let’s see how that works out). Cheerio and goodbye!
Weekly Roundup
Because there are so many good songs, good and old, lying around my harddrive, just waiting to be shared with the world, I decided the time is ready for a weekly roundup of music.
That is, I will try. I am already seeing myself desperately fighting for more time so I can make Sundays the weekly roundup days, but bear with me and my efforts if I don’t make it on time. Anyway- the weekly roundups are soley based on what I deem a good song, particularly one that I’ve been listening to the whole week. As I said, it doesn’t have to mean I’ll be picking out only new songs, though they’ll probably be rather recent than old.
So here are the rules: Every week, I’ll add a new post about 10 songs that have been somehow intruiging. I might even simply post the charts from my Last.FM account, but I’ll leave that to creativiy. If you have any more suggestions on how to improve this game, let me know. And if you have any more criticism, feel free to hit the comments.
Here are this weeks top songs I loved listening to (that is, what was left besides Kings Of Leon):
Florence, maker of awesome music
Florence and the Machines – Cosmic Love
This is a powerful song. Florence has got herself some energetic voice there. This sounds like it should be played when the hero rises from the ashes to the sky. Sounds a lot like Bat For Lashes, though not yet exactly of the same quality.
M.I.A. – Way Down In A Hole (ft. Blaqstarr)
That woman just knows how to make my brain pop. This one’s an awesome interpretation of the Tom Waits original, Blaqstarrs voice gives it the hardcore dark-spirited touch it carries throughout the whole track. There should be more M.I.A. songs, preferably on a daily basis.
The Gossip – For Keeps
I hate when people say that The Gossip are post-punk. They’re not. Actually, they’re more techno than post punk. This song proves how decent and quality pop music should be done. Beth Ditto, you had me at Hello.
Prince – Erotic City (Morsy Remix)
Really, there are only a couple of remixes I like, there are only a couple of Prince songs that I like. A perfect match right here, enjoy.
Robots In Disguise – Turn It Up
Meh, I don’t usually like electroclash/pop/hipster music, but there are a couple of exceptions. This one, albeit old, still gets me hooked. It’s also the only song from the RID-discography that I like.
She Wants Revenge – Sister
She Wants Revenge have some sort of talent for making evil music. Seriously, when I listen to them, it’s like I’m watching a movie about drugs and sex and human brain waste. Sounds a lot like Interpol, even catchier though. Song is not very special, but a hooker.
The Trucks – Zombie
“You just can’t hate a girl that looks good dancing”. So true. Indie-pop, synth-pop, call it what you will, I approve.
The Dance Party – Sasha Don’t Sleep
Yeah, I don’t know what that is exactly. Fall Out Boy meets Metro Station meets a shrill voice meets something about Sasha who likes to dance alot and you’ve got me a dance floor boomer. I don’t really approve, and yet I do. Figure that.
Michael Jackson – Scream
Yeah, it’s caught up with me too… I swore I wouldn’t fall into the hype-trap but I eventually did. I’ve always loved that song and someone played it a couple of days back at a party, and here I am now, dancing to it like it’s 1999…
Alright, that’s it for last week’s random picks, let’s see if I can find something new for next week then.
Kings Of Leon – Playlist & Wallpaper
Kings Of Leon
I apologize for the lack of updates, there was an urgent emergency that occured Saturday evening: I went to see the Kings of Leon show at o2 World and ever since I haven’t been able to listen to anything else (which is a blatant lie if you check out my last.fm profile, but let’s just pretend for the sake of it). See, I know there should’ve been an MJ update of some sort, but I thought: why bother? Let the kids get their info somewhere else. Besides- I mean come on. You don’t come here for news and gossip.
I’d been thinking about doing a posting about the Kings, I think now is the time. First of all: the show was amazing! They hit every chord right and I still dream of Caleb Followill (the singer) at nights. He used to look like total crap, but with that haircut he’s sporting these days.. oh my, I haven’t felt so alive in a while as I did at the concert. The crowd was great, many people of all kinds, freaks, rockers, parents, kids, grandparents, teenagers- and then there’s me, somewhere in the middle of it all. Calebs voice carried our minds to another place of magic and energy. Despite him getting drunk as fuck, and despite Mew, the opening act, being the shittiest act I’ve ever witnessed (seriously, I just wanted someone to rip my ears off so I’d never hear that shrill voice of the lead singer again), I think this concert was just one of the best concert I’ve ever seen (even better than Red Hot Chili Peppers!).
Whenever I hear Only By The Night, I remember the drive to Berlin when I moved here. Five hours with my best friend, last year, who kept getting on my nerves because she hated Kings Of Leon, especially Calebs voice, which I think is the best part of it all. I get goosebumpy even now, because these moments in the car induced a paradigm shift for my whole life. I was growing up, listening to “Closer” and “Be Somebody” made me realize that then and there. Good lord, it just means so much to me, somehow. And I’m glad it was the Kings of Leon album on rotation back then, not some other shit, so I’d always conserve these feelings and open up to them every time their songs are played…
Anyway. I believe that Only By The Night is pretty much their best album so far. That doesn’t imply though that I did not love their older albums. I especially like Aha Shake Heartbreak, which I think was their debut (but correct me if I’m wrong). Now there are two things I want to share with you: First of, my personal favourite’s playlist, which includes pretty much every known song and some gems here and there. The second thing is a wallpaper of Caleb Followill. It’s not very special and even kinda ugly, but since I couldn’t find a nice one on the web (that I could dress my desktop at work in), this had to do.
Caleb Followill Wallpaper
Kings of Leon – Be Somebody (from Only By The Night)
Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire (from Only By The Night)
Kings of Leon – Use Somebody (from Only By The Night)
Kings of Leon – King Of The Rodeo (from Aha Shake Heartbreak)
Kings of Leon – The Bucket (from Aha Shake Heartbreak)
Kings of Leon – My Party (from Because Of The Times)
Kings of Leon – On Call (from Because Of The Times)
These don’t really belong to my favorites, but consider them a bonus for your KoL loyality:
Kings of Leon – Notion (from Only By The Night)
Kings of Leon – Knocked Up (from Only By The Night)
Daniel & Bees
Found a new love for the weekend. I’ve tried my best so far to ignore the hype around Bat For Lashes, which I thought was just another hipster indie thing to avoid. Turns out, I was wrong.
I stumbled upon a video of “Daniel”, one of the newer songs (I guess?), and there you go, it is amazing music. I got the whole album half an hour later and what can ya say, it was my greatest mistake not giving this more attention.
Download Bat For Lashes – Daniel
There is yet another track that got me swooning in soon-to-be-summer thoughts, Mr. Hurricane by BEAST. I haven’t heard of this artist before and I’m looking forward to finding more of their stuf. It’s exquisitely delightful. And also, I like the bee concept of the video.
Übrigens: Auf nfon.net gibt es die skalierbare, virtuelle Telefonanlage als Teil der Bürotechnik. Auf Nfon bin ich über Käuferportal gestoßen, wo man Anfragen stellen kann (auch zu Bürotechnik; halt sowas wie Telefonanlagen oder Plotter oder auch so ganz ganz andere Sachen, wie z.B. der Koffeinschub durch den Kaffeevollautomaten oder ‘ne Werbeagentur wenn man mal wieder ein bisschen Promo braucht; ist ja auch super für Musiker!).
The Clash – Bank Robber
The Clash
The lack of updates cannot be justified, I’m just busier with work than I thought and I’m having a hard time even finding good music. Nevertheless, I’ll try and update stuff every now and then. I just wish I had a better way to upload songs (which can then be downloaded without risk). But using zshare and yousendit is just a crappy and long winded way.
For now I’ll simpy post You Tube videos until I’ve found a better way. So long, and I leave you with: The Clash – Bank Robber.
Alive With The Glory Of Love
So, here’s the first song I get to present to you. I guess Say Anything are known as your typical MySpace-crappy-music-for-teenager-girls band, and yes indeed they are. Yet there is one song that I would truly add to my all time favourites. First I thought it was only because it reminds me so well of a certain Scrubs episode (last of glorious season six), where JD and Elliot are about to get it on again, and then we are interrupted by an unholy cliffhanger letting us wait for season seven.
Anyways- “Alive With The Glory Of Love” is what it’s called. Nice beat and very awkward lyrics (it was difficult enough to understand what the guy sings, and I kept thinking I had it all wrong. Then I looked it up and it was indeed about WWII and Nazi work camps, a very romantic setting for a love song, but all so more dramatic). And I know the song is old, I never said I’d only post new stuff.
Hurry up, savefile only keeps the songs up for 10 days!
Say Anything – Alive With The Glory Of Love
from the Album “… is a real boy“.
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