The Best Dressers.

DRESSY BESSY


Elephant 6 has been the most reliable record label in the world of recent times, constantly dispensing psychedelic gems of groundbreaking perfection from the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples In Stereo, Of Montreal, Beulah and Olivia Tremor Control.

Dressy Bessy fit right into that eye-poppingly good roster with a sound like Kim Deal fronting the excellent aforementioned Apples In Stereo (they share a guitarist). Take a listen and turn your heart of stone into a heart of music.

Who'd Stop The Rain
A summer classic if ever there's been one, and delightfully has nothing to do with Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Electrified
This contains one of those choruses you could listen to forever but it only flashes by briefly. Until it comes around for the 2nd time and welcomingly lingers.

Just Once More
If the smooth female vocals were removed and John Lydon snarled over the music, and then took it on a time machine back to 1977, the Pistols would have their best song. However complicated that may sound, I think it's achievable.

Side 2

Electrified Video

Their myspace

Turn It Up, Switch It On.

SWITCHES


My first encounter with Switches was seeing their tourbus parked outside of their support show to the Spinto Band. Emblazoned on the back of the bus - in masking tape - was "myspace.com/weareswitches". That's innovative and cheeky enough to quirk the interest of any tailing vehicle, as it was for me. And then, inside, they played.

And whilst they are by no means a groundbreakingly original - or even different - band, their tunes found a way into my head and the 200 other early-heads.

Lay Down The Law opens with the almost cringe-inducingly bad lyrics of "we lay down the law, so what the hell are you here for?". But it's only 8 seconds and it serves to accentuate the song's good parts once they commence (on 9 seconds). The rest of the song is a blisteringly good stompalong which has no alternative but to be the now patented "this year's Take Me Out". Bouncy bass, crunching drums, a high guitar line and a snazzy breakdown only ever add up to perfect powerpop.

Message From Yuz couldn't stroke from the Vines any more (they even pinch the backing vocals from Outtathaway's middle 8), but if you're dying for a grunge riff painted over with Beach Boy harmonies, you're about to be revived.

The background Casio keyboard drums in Every Second Counts is enough to make anybody fall for them, but the forceful but simple chorus, 80's synth and cute handclaps (a regular feature) also grab the listener quite rudely.

Switches are only currently recording their debut EP in London. This fact that they haven't yet released anything must be the only reason they aren't residing on top of the NME chart. Seriously, it won't be long. They've got the melodies and the bite.

Testify
Blur rocking out with the Dandy Warhols.

Their myspace, featuring the 3 highlights mentioned above, available for free.

More Flaming Lips.

A "making of" the amazing Yeah Yeah Yeah Song video has just surfaced on YouTube. It's in 3 parts, which can be found here, here and here. Cleverly, it's been produced in the form of a "making of a making of", poking fun at the many clichéd making ofs.

Also, if you're lucky enough to be seeing the band live this year, instead of 2 dozen animals onstage, there'll be an even split of "scientologist ninjas" on one side of the stage and Santa Clauses on the other.

Like this, from The Oh So Quiet Show:


I can't imagine how GREAT it'd be to be in costume up onstage with the Flips. Oh, yearn!

Adidas Jim.

The Adidas summer World Cup advert featuring Jim Noir's Eanie Meanie is now viewable here. It's not a bad week for adverts - after Jack White's - especially for the people who discover music through adverts. They're in for an indie-ish summer. The widespread success of Jim Noir is something that would please me greatly.

If you want mp3s and more on Noir, check this review.

Verrett Good, Sir.

JONAS MURDOCK AND THE CHILD INSIDE


Damien Verrett - or Jonas Murdock and The Child Inside as he is known as in North and South America to avoid legal wrangles - is a 14 year old boy from California. You'll never guess his age from listening to him though, as his music is a delicate blend of Animal Collective and Unicorns, with a vocal styling similar to Eliott Smith.

Lyrically, his songs are bizarre outings into the psychedelic world where babies are christened in apple sauce and he battles with severe phasmophobia.

If you're looking for insane ramblings soundtracked by the bleeps from Nintendo GameBoy soundtracks, Jonas Murdock is the band for you. With this amount of talent and potential, if he doesn't evolve into your favourite indie artist by the end of the decade, you're sure to hear him at the cinema soundtracking 2010's biggest indie movie.

Applesauce Baptism
This will swim in your head, swaying from one side to the other. Makes me think of Animal Collective at their best.

Butterfly Massacre
This is a perfect acoustic Unicorns' song in every way, from the lyrics ("Dragon flies can go to hell") to the twinned vocals (albeit the same voice) and beautiful guitar harmonies. Written from the persepective of a deranged butterfly fiend.

His myspace, with 2 other excellent tracks. Add him.

Further Evolution.

THE VINES - VISION VALLEY


Apart from being the The Vines' third album, Vision Valley is the name of a recreation centre in the band's native land which "has grown into one of the most popular and best known retreat venues in Australia". The same could easily be said for the record itself. It must have provided Craig Nicholls with some solace in the form of a much-needed outlet for his tumultuous experiences in the past couple of years which have seen him appear in court for assault, be diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and have childhood friend and band bassist Patrick leave the group.

Their sophomore release Winning Days received unwarranted scathing reviews from the press. Coincidentally, so did the 2nd LP from The Strokes, their fellow 2002 garage rock revivalists. In both cases, the backlash was undeserved and surely came as a result of modern day media's short attention span. Unphased by a few disappointed reviewers, Nicholls finished his loathed tours forever and returned home to compose an album which would get them back into the world's good book. And despite his biological disorder preventing the disc from being released in a flurry of lavish promotional stunts, strings of international dates or even interviews, the attention that Vision Valley has being receiving nonetheless is testament to the quality of the work he has produced.

As always, the vast majority of song titles could only appear on the back sleeve of a Vines' album, with 'Gross Out', 'Fuk Yeh', 'Futuretarded', 'Dope Train' and 'Atmos' being prime examples. And as with their previous releases, Nicholls proves to be living in an entirely different world. His lyrics regularly paint a picture of nature, the deterioration of the mind or simple curiosities that get his attention. But they're always detached, rarely referring to himself or real people and often not making any sense at all ("C'mon now let me feel the gross out ain't corrupting you"). But that's all part of their charm, especially due to the fact that his strangling Ozzie yelp often smudges the words into the music. It's probably no accident that the simplest and most understandable track on the record - Don't Listen To The Radio - was the first glimpse the world got of the new material. This is also the album's highlight, with cute handclaps and trodding bass leading into a giant catchy grunge chorus.

Elsewhere, the album is stylistically closer to Winning Days than the world-beating debut Highly Evolved. There are large chunks of sparkling melancholy like the title track and epic closer Spaceship. Country-tinged Take Me Back is a slice of summer beauty which could easily rule the airwaves whilst the sun shines. Another highlight is the aforementioned Gross Out, a 75-second long bloodcurdling scream, which is best described by drummer Hamish Rosser - "It assaults you. It leaps out of the speakers at 100 miles per hour." It leaves the listener shellshocked, but they'll find it smashing up things in their head later on in the day.

Some have viewed Vision Valley as a stopgap in the Vines' careers, a quick shout-out to rid of the rumours of their break-up. If that is the case, this album is perfect. And if it isn't, we can't help but feel that the Vines are only just getting started and their masterpiece is yet to come. In the sleeve notes, Craig is pictured reading a book entitled 'How To Be An Artist'. We should hope he picks up a few additional tips, because he's the kind of character who needs to be remembered.

Going Gone
Exclusive acoustic video.

Gross Out
The video for the new single.

Don't Listen To The Radio
Video.

Podcast
A track-by-track video podcast.

Jacko Juice.

Watch the new coke advert featuring Jack White's specially-written song. I'm not sure if little boys should be encouraged to share their drinks with dirty homeless men. And I'm not sure about the song..it sounds like a mish-mash of about 3 different White Stripes' songs. If he was hoping to write an "I'd like to buy the world a coke", he's fallen short a bit.

The director also directed this video, and borrowed the concept for the coke ad.

Turn It Down!

SHOUT OUT LOUDS LIVE IN WHELANS - 13.04.06


I sacrificed seeing Baby Shambles for the 3rd time to see the Shout Out Louds instead. It wasn't a massive sacrifice by any standards, but being approached by Dublin's infamous one-legged tout - offering to buy my non-existent ticket from me for €80 - gave me food for thought:

Me: Do you know if the gig is even on?
Him: Huh?
Me: I mean, last I heard was at about 5 o' clock...he was in bed in Paris.
Him: Ah, who does he think he is?
Me: Dunno.
Him: What exactly has he done? Nothing.

This coming from the thief who makes hundreds of euro at every major concert in the city from decent music fans, in comparison to a musician who made the best punk album of all time and almost a dozen fantastic free acoustic albums.

Shout Out Louds in Whelans is the debut show of 2006's Bud Rising festival, so the venue is packed out with industry folk and alcohol promoters. Otherwise, I'm sure their Irish premiere wouldn't be sold out with masses being turned away at the door. I counted myself as part of that mass, and it was down to the kindness of the lovely bassist (he's obliged to be nice: his name is Ted) to let me in.

Opening with the chugging guitars and keys of The Comeback, they perfectly showcase their lovelorn, outsider lyrics juxtaposed with beautiful and well-crafted melodies. The crowd is entranced from the opening beeps of their set which signal "go!", and they often let loose to sneak in a sly jump or sing the keyboard melody that isn't being played live for some reason. Although their set is relatively short (it seemed to be shorter than the support band's), they managed to spin out all of their perfect singles with the only irritating ommission being the obscurely popular Wish I Was Dead.

Standing at the frontline of Sweden's amazingly good music scene, it can only be a matter of time before their deal with Capitol takes them to the very top (presumably with their long-awaited 2nd album, in early 2007). They give us a quick sneak preview of their new material and it sounds like world-conquering stuff. Largely incomparable (however; think of a poppier Pavement), I recommend you buy their LP Howl Howl Gaff Gaff right away.

(Perhaps you could sign up to an entirely free trial at eMusic, where you'll receive 50 free mp3s of your own choosing. 10 of your choices should definitely be HHGG.)

Videos
A vast array of their excellent videos, during all of which they seem to be playing bored. They aren't though! Who could be, with that type of music emanating from within them?

Their myspace

Wolves On Parade

The new Wolf Parade video for Modern World is really brilliant and entirely deserved of its own post.

Bud Rising Preview.

Bud Rising festival is happening all over Dublin this weekend, from Thursday until Monday with a religious gap on Friday. They've bagged at least one band well worth seeing per day, so instead of reviewing the bands afterwards (resulting in you missing out!) I'll stick up 2 of each bands best mp3s now so you know who to go see.


Shout Out Louds.
Whelans, Thursday April 13.


The Comeback
Wish I Was Dead


The Young Knives, White Rose Movement and The Immediate.
Whelans, Saturday April 15.

Young Knives - Weekends & Bleak Days
The Immediate - A Ghost In This House


The Spinto Band and Director.
Whelans, Sunday April 16.

Brown Boxes
Oh Mandy
Director's myspace


We Are Scientists.
The Village, Monday April 17.


Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
The Great Escape


Giant Drag.
Crawdaddy, Monday April 17. MIDNIGHT!



Kevin Is Gay
My Dick Sux


If it comes down to choosing between a few, GO TO THE SPINTO BAND!

Also, it appears that if you go to the Village before your concert on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, there's gonna be free food and some "special guests" playing acoustically.

Boredom Leads To Lists.

AND LISTS LEAD TO GREAT ALBUMS

So, pointlessly, here's my top 10 albums of the year so far, along with "key track" mp3s.

1. Hemstad - Hemstad
Patrik Sjoberg

2. Love Is All - Nine Times The Same Song
Make Out Fall Out Make Up

3. Islands - Return To The Sea
Rough Gem

4. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names
Funeral Face

5. Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

6. Danielson - Ships
Did I Step On Your Trumpet

7. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Mardy Bum

8. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Watercolours Into The Ocean

9. Secret Machines - 10 Silver Drops
Alone, Jealous And Stoned

10. The Vines - Vision Valley
Don't Listen To The Radio

Those 10 mp3s would make up the best compilation album 2006 has ever seen, at least for the months of January through 'til May.

And I know the Suburban Kids' record was 2005, but allow me some air!

Scandinavia Rox.

HEMSTAD


What's going on in Sweden? They're spitting out fully-formed bands with amazing albums like they're going out of fashion. But there's absolutely no way they're going out of fashion. So what the hell are they playing at?

Hemstad are an instrumental band. But hold on! They really aren't just any old instrumental band. And with them being of different tongues to us English-speakers, it works out nicely. They aren't singing in a different language and they aren't working around it by singing naive lyrics with the few words they have. Instead, we get the occassional "ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, bam" and ..eh.. "bom bom bom bom bom". It's like the Polyphonic Spree orchestra heaped up on acid, covering Nintendo soundtracks. Entirely upbeat and lacking a bad song, their self-titled debut is guaranteed to make you grin, marvel and move.

They're crazy, they're genius, they're incredible.

Kaserntorgets Charkdisco
The album opener and a massive celebratory anthem. Hammond organs and theremins, trumpets and crashing drums building up into a commmunal chant. If they play the festival circuit, this will be the summer's Wake Up singalong moment (probably just to me, though).

Patrik Sjoberg
Surf guitar and a Caribbean beat, this is your beach holiday soundtrack. There's a couple of short breakdowns like the sad violins and the (genius) bicycle bells playing along with the bongos, which means that when it hits you again, it's full force. They keep things fresh by introducing an accordian later on. Amazing.

Fyllekarring
Heavy bass and more Joey Santiago guitar. This song's biggest "wow" moment is the theremin in harmony with the guitar.

Buy the debut record for only $6. Limited edition of 500. We seem to have just missed out on getting one that comes with a free hand-painted CD-R.

Official website

Their myspace

We Sound Adazed.

THE DAZE


Hailing from Dublin, The Daze produce a thick rock sound condensed into 3 minute pop songs. They recently released their debut EP which turned heads for its fresh, precise angle. Lead track Car Crash In The Bedroom is a jangly pop gem which calls to mind The Wedding Present, but with a Pixie-ish guitar sound. Halfway through, the song breaks down, all tension is relieved, and it turns into an entirely different one.

With their big resplendent basslines and witticism-loaded lyrics taking centre stage, envisioning what Interpol would sound like if Morrissey wrote their songs will give you somewhat of an idea of their sound.

Go and see them live somewhere in Dublin... and in other places soon, I'm sure.

Free To Fall

Their myspace, featuring Shapes And Lines and recent single Car Crash in the Bedroom.

Jack Jackson.

THERE'S SOMETHING GOING WRONG AROUND HERE.

So, the riff in that Raconteurs' single couldn't be any more of a shameless rip-off of Joe Jackson's Is She Really Going Out With Him. There used to be lawsuits over this kind of thing.

That's pretty shameless, Jacko.

Hammer Along.

BISHOP ALLEN


Bishop Allen are the epitomy of indie pop loveliness, with definitive riffs and catchy melodies aplenty on their 2003 debut album Charm School. The follow-up album 'Clementines' has had its release date pushed back so many times that (at the end of last year) they decided to put it on hold for the time being. And instead, they decided to write, record, produce, press and mail out a new EP every month for the entirity of 2006. With each disc consisting of 4 songs, the restless fans would be rewarded with 4 albums worth of new material by the end of the year. And the way they've stepped up to this challenge is remarkable. Each CD cover contains the address of the receiver hand-written by a lovely member of the band and postmarked from the NYC. But it's the material that counts and they've yet to put a foot wrong. The March EP has just gone onsale, so get your order in before it sells out.

Eve Of Destruction
A Charm School classic.

Things Are What You Make Of Them
One of those life-defining pop gems that will brighten your every day.

Corazon
From the January EP, this tells the story of how they came into possession of the piano that added a whole new dimension to their sound.

Vain
From the February EP, the lovely treble riff dominates the tune and guides it all sorts of places.

The Monitor
From the March EP, I haven't listened to this yet...I'm waiting on my CD!

Their myspace.

Hey. Yeah!

GNARLS BARKLEY

Ah, Gnarls Barkley. Where have you been? Indie fans who'd like a bit of rap no longer have to trawl through Outkast albums and skip over arrogant ol' Kanye's awful "skits" and grunts of "uh, yeah". You'll take a quick listen and be won over. Dangermouse producing the last Gorillaz album has had an audible effect. These guys are breezy and upbeat and fantastic and I'm not even sure if their singing style would be called "rap". The 8 songs I've heard so far are more than enough of an apology for Cee-Lo having co-penned the insanely woeful Don't Cha. Download, download.

Crazy
The excellent record-breaker. It's got that summertime groove we know and love so well from other crossover hits like Feel Good Inc and Hey Ya!

Gone Daddy Gone
Gnarls include a cover of the Violent Femmes' track on their album to show off their indie sound and get down with the hipsters. If it's released as a single, it'll be the biggest hit of the summer.

Smiley Faces

The Kooks - Crazy

Their myspace, also featuring the pulsing Go Go Gadget Gospel and some of the best promo pictures ever conceived.

One Through Eighteen.

¡Forward, Russia! Live In Whelans - 01.04.06


Seeing a band live is meant to make everything clear to you. You should be able to see their vision and figure out what they're all about. But typical for a band who can only be described as "math rock" (in more ways than one), I came away from tonight's show still having no idea what the fuck they sing about, what they're like as people or what bands they like to listen to.

Tom, the frontman, is standing solitary in front of the stage watching the support band. He seems very subdued and bored, and when it's time for the Russians to set up the stage for themselves, they do so sluggishly. So the SECOND they begin to thrash out their disco noise rock and Tom explodes into action, literally going mental, it is quite a shock. Musically, they're some sort of hybrid between At The Drive-In and Brainiac but it can be hard to tell at times. Each song is thrown out before you realise it's started and then they're playing their next one but you've no idea if they've finished their first one yet. Like that sentence, it's disorientating stuff. To add to the dizziness, here is their setlist from the night (and I quote):

13
15pt2
12
17
16
18
14
2
9
11

The only song I'd be able to match with its title is the electrifying recent single 12. And the only lyrics I was able to make out in the entire show were "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten", which were sung by the byooteefull drummer Katie.

When Tom urged the audience to dance, "Whiskas" informed him that we were too scared to come any closer because we were scared of him. And we really were! He would periodically jump into the crowd and run amongst us, screaming into our faces and wrapping his microphone cord around us. Whiskas seemed to be the band's PR guru, chatting to us between songs. We were told that their debut album would be independently released in 6 weeks time but they had just heard the news of its leakage, with the suspected culprit believed to be involved with England's biggest music weekly (c'mon...guess!). "Cunts" is how he referred to them, but it's a double-edged sword because without the magazine's help up to this point (see their obsessive coverage of the "New Yorkshire" scene), they probably wouldn't be where they are. Another moment of comedy gold came when Katie told Tom that his boxer shorts were reaching the end of their lifespan and he threw a "girls, huh?" glance at Rob, the bassist.

But enough about underwear, ¡Forward, Russia! are the kings of noise and perform the most entertaining and energetic racket you'll hear all year, so keep an ear open. They'll be hard to mishear.

Confusing and very very loud.

12
Their debut somewhat-hit. Imagine if Alex Kapranos was retarded and on speed. And wrote a really great song.

12 Video

9

9 Video

11

13

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P.S. Check this post on Your Head's Not Right for the 4 brand new Arctic Monkeys songs which will be on their Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? EP.