I was planning to do a review of Brandon Flowers’ solo debut, Flamingo, but decided against it after a brief once-thru’. After all, we at poptart only put up stuff that 1) we like, and 2) we think you may like and Flamingo doesn’t come into any of the 2 categories. My sincere apologies to the fans of The Killers, but his solo effort sounds weak and too middle-of-the-road to say the least.
What can I tell you about these guys who don’t have a wiki-page as at time of writing?
This quartet is L.A. based (who says there aren’t any good West Coast indie bands anymore?) and is made up of Sarah Chernoff, Cameron Parkins, Max St. John and Evan Weinerman. Incidentally, Cameron and Sarah double up as Ronnie Ray Gunn and Mimi Malone respectively for the upcoming Garage/punk band the Franks.
Unlike the Franks, Superhumanoids has the boy-girl vocal, clean guitar rifts, electronic beats and synths all amalgamated into a melodic lush sound. Can’t really put my finger on the one genre that describes them but, in a record shop, you d most probably find it under “indie”. LOL.
At times they sound New Wave, while other times quite surf-ish/post-punk (the Drums). Cranial Contest is a good example of this. Listen to Persona and you could be forgiven for thinking that Superhumanoids is an Arcade Fire tribute band. Another fav, Hey Big Bang, is a power ballad with a catchy staccato drumbeat that feels tailor-made for Chernoff’s haunting vocals. Here again they sound like a different band altogether.
After reading all this, you’d probably go, “you are recommending a band that don’t know what they want!” Either way, these guys sound really good for something that was initially conceived in the bedroom of Parkins. Trust me on this.
Listen and download HeRe.
Persona from superhumanoids on Vimeo.
Norman
Raymond
Gerard
Francis
These are the names I d put on my tribute-cum-parody teeshirt to one of the world’s longest-surviving powerpop/alternative rock acts. Contrary to the name of the band, these guys are well into their 40s, and their sound has never deviated much from a mean. Honest lyrics of life and love , earnest Rickenbacker twangs for rifts and perfectly simplistic, hi-fi pop jems that appeal to a wide audience.
One of our favorite 1990’s pop bands, Teenage Fanclub, return to their roots with the release of their new album, Shadows. Teenage Fanclub broke through in Glasgow during the C86 (a collection of post punk music that was distributed underground on cassette tapes during the late 80’s and early 1990’s, mostly in the UK) craze, eventually transforming from a noisy and rough sound to a more cheerful, harmonic and melody lush pop, drawing comparisons with The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Neil Young and even Big Star.
-Spin Magazine’s 1991 reader’s poll for best album of the year went to Teenage Fanclub’s album, Bandwagonesque (a must-have 90’s indie record), beating out Nirvana’s legendary Nevermind, which is still one of the top-selling albums in rock history.
-Bandwagonesque also beat My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and REM’s worldwide smash LP, Out of Time.
-Teenage Fanclub were regularly name-checked by Kurt Cobain in interviews and described by him as “the best band in the world”
If these mean nothing to you, it’s time to do your music research dear friends. : )
some tracks to help you on your way:
Like a Virgin (madonna cover) (from The King)
Baby Lee (from Shadows)
myspace (listen to Sparky’s Dream please)
Hallå!
No prizes for guessing what that meant (in Swedish!). Whilst doing a google on Sweden and its music scene, I found out that they had as many (or if not more) blackdeathmetalhardcore bands than their pop counterparts: Carnage, Pain of Salvation and Bloodbath to name a few. Betcha didn’t know, did you?
And on the not-so-dark-side of things, we started with ABBA (70s), Roxette (80s-90s), and then finished up with Ace of Base and The Cardigans before the turn of millennium. Fast forward into the indie noughties, we have Jens Lekman, The Knife, PBJ, Juniorboys and the Radio Dept. flying the flag for Sweden these days.
What started out as a duo in 1995 (incidentally also one of their tracks from the Lesser Matters Album), Radio Dept. then became a quintet and eventually now a trio consisting of Johan Duncanson, Martin Larsson and Daniel Tjader. Because of the basic elements of the dreampop or shoegaze sound that Radio Dept. embraces: fuzzy distortion and airy-and-not-so-decipherable vocals, they are often compared to Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine.
15 years on: 2 albums, an inclusion onto Marie Antoinette’s OST and many EPs later, Clinging to a Scheme finally gets released following a 4-year break after Pet Grief in ’06. Although nothing ground-breaking this time round, the band has been quietly refining their own soft-focus, shoegaze-indebted sound, occasionally adding drum machines or synthesizers for a slight change of pace.
Still signed under Labrador Records, the band continues to adhere to what the label stands for: melodic, indie-pop from sweden. On the tracks we love: Memory Loss, sounds like what Phoenix did with their Alphabetical album. David, carries the almost exact backing beats as one of the many Jens Lekman songs. This sort of borrowing may not expand any horizons, but that matters little when, like here, it’s all done right.
Hej då! see you this sat!
Perfect for: Coming down
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
David (Right-click “save as”)
Heaven’s on Fire (Right-click “save as”)
Right. Am not gonna name every letter for you but here are the important ones that every ASH fan should know.
A is for A Lifeless Ordinary
G is for Girl From Mars
J is Jackie Chan
K is Kungfu
N is for Northern Ireland
S is Starwars
Rather than fighting it, Tim Wheeler and his storm troopers has embraced the way the internet revolution has come about and how inherently it has changed the music industry.
I quote,“The way people listen to music has changed, with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks. It hasn’t helped that most people have forgotten how to make a decent album. I’m constantly disappointed with records I buy,” unquote.
IMHO, Ash has been guilty of their own words: forgotten how to make a decent album. Ever since 1977, the subsequent albums the band has produced have been substandard. Notwithstanding the one or two songs of course (Jesus Says from Nu clear sounds, Shining light from Free all angels, Starcrossed from Meltdown and Polaris from Twilight of the innocents).
It’s things like these that make you just want to buy the “best of” instead.
Hence the band decided to ‘go with the flow’ and release 26 single-format songs aptly titled, A-Z series, which started in October 2009, right through until the end of this year. Ash kicked off with “Return of White Rabbit”- a mix of klaxons/bravery. Although a mixed reception was received, RWR is definitely good enough for me.
It’s evident that ASH are venturing into the electronic side of things;not surprising in this day and age. The next single (which is also the first radio single of the series), True Love 1980, definitely marks the return of a band that has come a long way since the early 90s. Catchy hooks and brilliant sing-a-long choruses are the hallmarks of great ASH songs. This is one of them.
True love 1980 (Timothy Allen remix)
2nd radio single, SPACE SHOT
First of all, a happy new year to all out there.
Apologies for the belated one and the lack of music recommendations for the past few months. 2009′s just ended and I am sure each and everyone of you would have had your top ten indie albums for the year all decided by now. So I was having a chat with Mark (who is as picky as pitchfork when it comes to music) and comparing our fav albums for 2009 just before the brilliant Yeah Yeah Yeah concert on Tuesday night. Right up there we had The Girls, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The XX, Animal Collective and Phoenix (this where our opinion differed, haha). He then brought up one more band in his top ten: The Big Pink.
“The Big Pink?” I exclaimed.
Ironically the band consisted of 2 straight men (no, I have nothing against our friends with alternative lifestyles) from London. Signed to 4AD (Blonde Redhead, Bon Iver, The Breeders,Camera Obscura, TV on the Radio), The Big Pink won the prestigious NME Philip Hall Radar Award for best new act. Previous winners include: Glasvegas (2008), The Long Blondes (2006) and Kaiser Chiefs (2005).
TBP sounds shoegazed married with electronic beats, hence the genre, nu-gaze. So if you’re looking for something to slit your wrists to, this might work. Try the song “Love in Vain”. “Tonight” starts off sounding like a La Roux track but Robbie and Milo’s vocals and random noise distortion changes the overall tone (remember, they’re shoegaze meets electronic). Still no clue? Imagine JAMC with more noise and electronic beats.
Listen to our recommended tracks on their myspace site: “Velvet” (best track of the album for me), “Count Backwards From Ten”, and “A Brief History of Love”.
7.9 pinks out of ten from me.
Check out Big Pink’s cover of The Cure’s lovesong —>here
