music induced euphoria: 2009-11-29

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Bragging Rights, Thou Art Mine.

finally, a little recognition of my genius.

everybody seems to think I'm a (gay) man. oh well. I'm in the same list as Stereogum. that's pretty bitchin', if I do say so myself.

The Offspring - Come Out and Play

have I ever said how much I love this song?

The Offspring - Come Out And Play
by lefurhien

'cause I do.

I feel like making mix tapes.

Saturday Music Definitions: Story

because, whether it's with a handful of drunk friends or to a bunch of super-attentive five year olds, I will always be a story teller at heart. and to me, music always tells the best stories. thank you all for letting me share my favourite musical tales with you.

The Velvet Underground - That's The Story Of My Life [mp3]

Brain Slaves - Weekend Story [mp3]
I love this band. they promised to send me more music but I think they're too busy being awesome to remember to follow through. oh well, the demos will suffice for now.

Mister Loveless - Good Story [mp3]

The National - Apartment Story [mp3]

Pulp - The Never-Ending Story [mp3]

BONUS:
Oasis - Champagne Supernova [mp3]
the epic closer to (What's the Story) Morning Glory, and my second favourite Oasis song. it's funny, for all music that is not The Strokes, I have clear favourites--songs, albums, everything. with The Strokes, though, I can never manage to pick favourites. well, except for this, I suppose.

The Strokes Post #286

I just rewatched this 'cause it came to me in my dreams. I couldn't remember what song it was, all I could see was Slash and Jules.

ai ai ai I love the Ramones.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Band of the Week: The Subways

every time I sift through clearance racks at record stores, I always come across Travis albums. I'm a person who has never understood the band Travis, or, for that matter, other UK bands that flirt with the not-so-subtle and not-so-well-excecuted fluctuations between gentle songs and thrashing ones.

The Subways, though, are another story completely.

the band is three people.
guitar, bass, drums.
guitarist Billy Lun does most of the lead vocals but bass lady Charlotte Cooper occasionally joins in, and it always creates an insanely pure rock sound, maintained by their drummer Josh Morgan.

they are to the 00's what Nirvana was to the '90s. or a cool indie rock version thereof, anyway. they obviously aren't as groundbreaking as Nirvana, or as important, but they're still fucking awesome and have grunge energy up the wazoo. I love it when I find threesomes who managed to make such fantastic amounts of racket.

but then, they can also pull off songs like "Lines of Light" extraordinarily well. it's an acoustic song that would have fans of "Wonderwall" tearing up. for the record, it reminds me a lot of "Mary Jane" by The Vines. The Subways generally emulate The Vines in the best way possible, but particularly in the perfect balance of slower songs and ones that are the musical equivalent of drug-frenzies/drunken rocknroll dance parties

I picked up the Subways' debut album Young For Eternity ages ago from a clearance rack, because the little 30 second samples of the songs I heard from those little red machines intrigued me so much. that was the same day I put down the Travis debut for the very opposite reason. I grew to love The Subways more and more and now am passing them on to you.

now go forth and have some rock n roll adventures.

The Subways - Young for Eternity [mp3]

visit them on MYSPACE

The Strokes Post #285

is this a new Strokes song? who knows, but it's rad.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Classic Track Thursday

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart [mp3]

I just heard "Slow Poison"-- the new single by The Bravery -- and decided that posting an actual Joy Division song would be more worthy of your time than nonsense derivative stuff. and what better than my favourite Joy Division song?

RIP, Ian.

Phoenix on La Blogotheque!

I have no words to describe how amazing this is. one of my favourite bands on one of my favourite websites. epic combo. I don't ever want to be a bride but it must have been amazing for that lady to have such an incredible band do an impromptu transcendent performance on her special day.

(speaking of transcendent experiences, I have such an intense crush on Laurent.)
I love how he cradles the guitar as he holds it upright in the second video. and "One Time Too Many" is one of my favourite songs ever. ah, this is pure bliss. It's Never Been Like That is my favourite Phoenix record, the band does two songs from it and the two singles from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

Phoenix - 1901 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Phoenix - Lizstomania / One time too many - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Phoenix - Long distance call - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

today is a good day. I was pleasantly surprised today as I signed into work that it is THURSDAY which means it's almost the weekend!

The Strokes Post #284

bootleg time!

The Strokes @ Belfast, Ireland, 21 February 2006 [ZIP FILE, entire concert]

1. Intro
2. Heart in a Cage
3. The Modern Age
4. Hawaii
5. Red Light
6. Ize of the World
7. Someday
8. 12:51
I love how Jules delivers "I'll be right there" when they do this live. it's so different from the studio version (which I also love!) so powerful.
9. The End Has No End
10. Juicebox
11. Soma
12. I Can't Win
13. Life's a Gas (Ramones cover)
14. Electricityscape
15. You Only Live Once
16. Trying Your Luck
17. Last Nite
18. Hard to Explain
19. Ask Me Anything
20. Vision of Division
21. Reptilia
22. New York City Cops
23. Barely Legal
24. Take It Or Leave It

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

new Spoon: Written in Reverse

Spoon - Written in Reverse [mp3, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!]
from the forthcoming LP, Transference, due out next month

the raw keys are powerful and lusty. messy in a good way -- like Cold War Kids on their first album. awesome, considering CWK probably wouldn't have been a band if it weren't for Spoon. also, didn't the two bands tour together? or am I thinking about Delta Spirit and CWK?

I recall hearing this song a few months ago on some youtube video, I probably posted about it too. but this is just a whole new level of awesome.

what I love the most about this is that it's the first new song-from-an-LP I've heard from Spoon since I saw them in concert, and it just brings back mounds of excellence. because they are such a fucking spectacular live act.

Spoon just has a knack of creating the most stellar key/guitar combos ever. I'm mesmerized by the guitars in this song (they remind me very powerfully of Bowie for some reason). and Britt's voice. oh yes.

(legit) rumours of new Arcade Fire stuff for early '10

May? hell yes. thank you Stereogum

Arcade Fire - Burning Bridges [mp3]
this is a very pretty, unreleased instrumental song which you should listen to. now.

The Strokes Post #283

you know those pleasant chills you get when you stumble across something that you never would have imagined existed?

you know how some songs you never expect to hear live?

it's a cover, but a damn good one at that. Fab wrote the song years before the conception of Little Joy, so it makes the whole shindig double awesome.

thanks so much to Olivia for telling me about this gem! "Clear Skies" is probably my favourite unreleased Strokes track. it's so simple and perfect.

UPDATE:
there is excellent news of the Strokes confirmed for another UK gig, the same weekend as Isle of Wright. this makes me very happy because it annihilates the itty bitty fear I had that the June 12th gig was a one-off thing for a while. get ready for Spring/Summer-Strokage.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Strokes Post #282

Monday, November 30, 2009

The Strokes Post #281 aka the greatest news since Obama won his Nobel Prize

THE STROKES ARE SCHEDULED TO PLAY A UK GIG ON JUNE 12, 2010.

holy crap. other than the Filter article which I was gonna post today, this solidifies my faith that all is well on The Strokes front. their recent bouts of hushed productivity have finally been confirmed!

not only does this mean fresh youtube videos ('cause we all know we've seen all their live performances a thousand times. er, maybe it's just me. stop self incriminating, Hanan), but hello, it's not like they're gonna play one gig and one gig only.

I am so ecstatic!!!! THEY'RE BACK! THEY'RE FUCKING BACK!

fuck Jay-Z.

The Strokes - Hard to Explain (demo) [mp3]

excuse me, I'm gonna go dance to Is This It.

PS many thanks to everyone who emailed me about this news.

CONTEST: win a free album of your choice!

first off, I'd like to apologize for the ads on my site. I should have more integrity than that, I know, but here is the consolation:

when I signed up for the MOG network, I did so with two intentions:
a. to get my site exposed to more people
b. to use the revenue to give away music that I love.

so here's the dealio. I am offering five readers any of the albums from my favourite album list. from the top ten or from the honourable mentions. vinyl or cd. anywhere in the world.

so leave a comment below, tell me how you found Music Induced Euphoria, and good luck to everyone!

winners will be announced in one month, on the 30th of December.

UPDATE:
in addition to the five albums I'm giving away, I will also give away five copies of the Telekinesis album. so if you want that one, make sure you mention it in your response.

My Top Ten Albums of 2009

head on over HERE to find out how you could win any of these albums!

10. Cage The Elephant - Cage The Elephant

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

9. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

8. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

7. Girls - Album

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

6. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

5. Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

4. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW #1; #2 // AMAZON // OFFICIAL SITE

3. Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand

RECORD REVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

2. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // AMAZON // OFFICIAL SITE

1. Telekinesis - Telekinesis!

RECORD REVIEW // CONCERT REVIEW // INTERVIEW // AMAZON // MYSPACE

honourable mentions/albums that would have made the list if it were 20 and not 10:

Audrye Sessions - Audrye Sessions
Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose
Cut off Your Hands - You & I
The Dead Weather - Horehound
The Dodos - Time to Die
Peter Doherty - Grace/Wastelands
Morrissey - Years of Refusal
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Regina Spektor - Far
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor

Sunday, November 29, 2009

interview: En Tout Cas

the Band of the Week's guitarist Dave Cameron was gracious enough to answer some of my questions on the band's behalf. here they are:

How did you guys meet? Whose idea was it to start the band?
We went to the same school. Skube and I had the idea to start the band in 2005. Jimmy was invited to play with us and we noticed he could sing really well and play guitar. We met Marc this year when we were out looking for a bassist.

On your site, you claim that you are “an immaculate act to follow.” What, if anything, do you think would defile the obvious musical purity which emanates from these early demos?
Most likely recording in a recording studio and over-producing our sounds, which would inevitably cause us to lose the rawness of the demos, which were rushed, one-take recordings, mixed in a really short amount of time on Garage Band. If anything’s “immaculate” it’s the new songs coming up.

You are currently recording a new EP. Are these songs in the same vein as the ones on Elevater or are they in a completely new direction?
The songs we are about to record are all new songs written after we recorded Elevater. They are more intense in their extremities as the darker get darker and lighter get more sunshine.

When you do release a full length album, do you think you will start from scratch or just rework the songs from your EPs? Do you view EPs as test runs or as collections of songs not cohesive enough for a proper album?
I will say it will probably be like 75% new material and 25% reworked old material if not less. It would really depend on how the songs sit with each other on the album as a whole and if we write a whole album worth of material that is better than our old material. I view an EP as a mini album that encapsulates the sound of the band in a smaller package. Albums cost a lot of money to self-fund so early on an EP is a better idea. Were hoping this debut EP will really take production styles and professionalism to the next step hopefully taking the band with it.

How far have you guys traveled to play shows? Is there any hope of a full on tour any time soon?
We have only traveled as far as like an hour and a half to a show and that was early on so we were playing to only a handful of people and it didn’t seem worth it at the time. We plan on taking this new EP on the road but haven’t booked anything and won’t until this EP is finished; then we can shift the focus. We have been meaning to take the band on a Coastal Tour but are waiting for the EP to give us a reason to.

What was your favourite album this year?
I’m going to have to go against the grain and kick myself in the shin while the pot calls the kettle black and say Ragged and Ecstatic by Yves Klein Blue

Have you ever met any of your musical heroes? If so, what happened?
Well we met the Born Ruffians, that was aright; our drummer Stewart kept touching him which was a bit creepy. We have also met Billy Corgan, and I once threw a bottle at either Tegan or Sara while they played at the Falls festival.

The ultimate love mix tape. What’s the first song?
Spandau Ballet - True

Your songs reek of desperation (the good kind, though). Is there any chance for sunnier songs in the future?
The new EP will have a mixture of Sunnier and Stormy songs, BTW that’s a good name for an EP!

Are there any other good Australian bands we should know about, maybe people in your niche?
The Holidays
Yves Klein Blue
Dan Sultan

What has been the biggest influence on the band?
Probably the season of summer, it’s the only time we can get Jim to practice.

What do you like to do best: write, play or listen to music?
As cheesy as this will sounds, all three!

What is the greatest band nobody’s heard of yet?
Ross De Chenes Hurricanes
They all have shit live recordings, but check out the “Can We Dance?” live video on their page.

Are you trying anything special for promos or are you just banking on your music speaking for itself, and to gain recognition via word-of-mouth?
Well when we release this debut EP, we plan to bring out the big guns in terms of promotion techniques. Hopefully a few blogs pick us up and WOM spreads.

How much interaction do you think should occur between a band and their fans? A lot of bands, even small ones, don’t seem to linger after shows. Which route does En Tout Cas take?
I could see how bands could be rather annoyed by answering the same questions by hundreds of people but En Tout Cas usually takes the route of drinking and causing a ruckus with fellow patrons with the end result being pantless and reverse kangaring the local.

En Tout Cas - Quarter Sins [mp3]

visit En Tout Cas on MYSPACE