It’s quite simple and innovating. Select 10 songs out of 20, design your cover and finally, but not at least, pay £7.50 and download. Released on their official website on June 3, 2011, this is the way the band decided to deliver their fourth album, “The Future is Medieval”. If you want all the 20 tracks, you will take off from your pocket/wallet 15£. Fans, customers, will also be able to share their version of the record with other people once it has been created, and earn £1 each time it is purchased by someone else. It’s an original way to promote your stuff, but still, I’m wondering how marketing, management, expensive videos, t-fuckin’-shirts and all the accessories took over music and we ended up having music business where the music actually is quite secondary.
On the other hand, it’s quite ok that you can listen these songs and decide if it’s worth or not to pay for them, it’s almost cool that they make you feels like matter and involved in the construction of the album, well, the idea, let’s admit it, it’s catchy. Perhaps, user fuckin’ friendly. Still, I believe, now days a band should play their ass off and sell their CDs at the gigs in the good-old-fashioned way, back to the basics, face to face. But I also admit it, a band from New Zealand or South Africa probably will never make it to Toronto, San Francisco, Berlin or …Leeds. Read more Kaiser Chiefs – The Future is Medieval (2011)
indie rock
Sounds Under Radio – Where My Communist Heart Meets My Capitalist Mind (2011)
You might believe this is the new Muse album, its sounds like, even the voice and singing style by use of falsetto and vibrato of Lang Freeman reminds me of Matthew Bellamy, but well, Sounds Under Radio are a band from Austin, Texas, formed in mid 2005 by Lang Freeman, Bradley Oliver (bass, keyboard), Sonny Sanchez (drums) and Doug Wilson (guitar).
Their song “Portrait of a Summer Thief” was featured on the “Spider-Man 3” soundtrack ant their were the only unsigned band (at that time) to be included in the soundtrack amongst names like Snow Patrol, Jet, Wolfmother, The Killers, The Flaming Lips, etc.
They signed with Sony/Epic Records in late 2008, but after facing inter-label turmoil, they gave up their contract and in mid 2008 released their first full length LP “Cinematica” independently. Read more Sounds Under Radio – Where My Communist Heart Meets My Capitalist Mind (2011)
Company of Thieves – Running From a Gamble (2011)
Musicians have their entire lives to write their debut, and a year to complete the followup. I guess this is the result of industrializing the music and turn it from art into business. Company Of Thieves take their time with the second album while “Ordinary Riches”, originally was independently issued in 2007 and came out in February 2009 and their second album, “Running from a Gamble”, was released on May 17, 2011. And the waiting for it’s worth. The 13 new songs keeps that friendly, warm, familiar, close and tight feeling which makes Company Of Thieves so bright and special and bring them a feverish fanbase which extended lately.
While Genevieve Schatz reminds me sometimes of Bjork, their music is a nice blending of indie/alternative rock with roots back to The Beatles and soft shades of blues with the gloomy texture of Portishead and the explosion of 12 Rounds (an awesome and unfairly forgotten band). Read more Company of Thieves – Running From a Gamble (2011)
My Morning Jacket – Circuital (2011)
It’s like swimming in circles of fuzzed guitars, trippy keyboard layers, twisted pop hooks and kind of familiar, country feeling. Soft electronica, scattered rock left-overs, indie experiments, pop like vocals, My Morning Jacket throw in their blender everything they can get their hands on and came out with a colorful, but slippery material. It’s like a jam of Simon And Garfunkel with The Flaming Lips suffering from massing hangover on a morning after. “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” for example it’s an absolutely minimal country song while “Holdin’ On to Black Metal” sounds like a hippie anthem from 69 with some vocals traceable back directly to The Beatles. It’s nice to get into this retro feeling, but honestly I don’t really see the reason for what use? For sure some fat-ass guys from Rolling Stone Magazine will be delighted and maybe get even a small hard-on, but still. And for those who weren’t born in the 70s maybe it’s sounds exciting, but it isn’t. Recycling it’s good, but not in all meaning. “Slow Slow Tune” it’s a nice song. Read more My Morning Jacket – Circuital (2011)
Eksi Ekso – Brown Shark Red Lion (2011)
Merge some songs left over from David Bowie since the 70s with some experimental indie, dream pop like layers and perhaps the result will sound just like this third album by Eksi Ekso, the band from Boston, Massachusetts, US. For the good of the experiment, eventually try to do this in your living room and bring some neighbors as well. There’s no guarantee at all that you will sound like Tom Korkidis (vox, guitar, bass, keys, samples, woodwinds), Alex Mihm (drums, loops, percussion), Sean Will (keys, samples, trumpet), and their collaborators, but it worth to try. 😀 At their MySpace page at the paragraph “Sounds like” they wrote: “We play instruments in the same room, sometimes in ways that sound like we’re playing together.” Nice. And in their case it worked out absolutely perfectly. “Brown Shark Red Lion” is a strange, sometimes airy, sometimes scattered, waving, rolling album. Million shades and colors sparking around and sometimes you’re not really sure what actually you’re listening at, but still, it’s kind of warm, familiar and friendly. Read more Eksi Ekso – Brown Shark Red Lion (2011)
Empyr – Unicorn (2011)
Empyr is a five-member French alternative rock band formed as a side project in 2006 incorporating members from the bands Kyo, Watcha, Pleymo and Vegastar. Their debut album entitled “The Peaceful Riot” was recorded in late 2008 in Los Angeles and produced by Ken Andrews, formerly Failure, who has worked with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pete Yorn and A Perfect Circle. To increase their chances on the international market, theychoose to write the lyrics and sing in English. Empyr are Benoît Poher (vocals) & Florian Dubos (guitar) from Kyo, Benoît Juillard (bass) from Pleymo, Fred Duquesne (guitar) from Watcha & Jocelyn Moze (drums), formerly from Vegastar. Read more Empyr – Unicorn (2011)
Duff McKagan’s Loaded – The Taking (2011)
At the previous spinning of the record, talking bout Nazareth I mentioned Axl Rose and right after that I stumbled into Duff’s new album… In this life nothing is accidental. Duff is quite a figure. (Michael Andrew) McKagan was born in Seattle, Washington, his brother Bruce taught him his first bass lines and while growing up, McKagan was a fan of such acts as James Gang, Sly Stone, Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge, Jimi Hendrix, and New York Dolls. His idol at the time was Johnny Thunders. Later he being a huge fan of Sex Pistols, Ramones, and The Clash. He cites Paul Simonon of The Clash as his favorite bassist, and is also particularly fond of Sid Vicious. At the age of 15 in 1979 he joined the pop-punk band Fastbacks as drummer and between 1979 and 1982 he led and played guitar in punk band The Living. Answering an ad for a bass player in a local magazine, McKagan headed to California, at age nineteen. In California, he met guitar player Slash and drummer Steven Adler of the band Road Crew and in 1985 he joined Guns N’ Roses replacing Ole Beich. Read more Duff McKagan’s Loaded – The Taking (2011)
The Kills – Blood Pressures (2011)
Rawness and kind of retro polish with that garage indie touch, the forth album by The Kills have the same noise blues flavor which was cooked and licensed by Jack White with The White Stripes and re-invented with The Dead Weather. And while Alison Nicole Mosshart spend most of her time lately touring with The Dead Weather, it’s kind of natural the infusion of the style and sound from Mr. White. “Blood Pressures” is noisy, dirty, sounds like vinyl and I almost miss the sound of some nice scratches, but on the other hand it doesn’t have the tension of the late “Sea of Cowards”. This “hippies goes punk” approach it’s a winning recipe, but if there will be a million plus one similar products, every single record label will try to invent their “own White Stripes”, the whole shit will goes down just like any other good thing before. Read more The Kills – Blood Pressures (2011)
Death Cab For Cutie – Codes and Keys (2011)
The upcoming seventh studio album by Death Cab For Cutie, set to be released on May 31, 2011 contains 11 quiet, kind of “interiorized”, intimate songs, as Benjamin Gibbard and Nick Harmer have declared before, this album is “a much less guitar-centric album than we’ve ever made before”.
The first single, “You are a Tourist”, was made available for online stream on March 28, 2011 on the band’s official site.And “You Are Turist” – just like the other 10 tracks – is a nice, quiet song build upon a minimalist orchestral construction, the voice of Ben Gibbard lead as through a mysterious space filled up with a lonely acoustic guitar tune and a few discrete synth colors, only drummer Jason McGerr smashes off his drum kit and at the end of the track they introduced a nice turn into a much sunnier theme, but only for a few moments to create a nice contrast. Read more Death Cab For Cutie – Codes and Keys (2011)
Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (2011)
I never was excited by Dave Grohl after Nirvana’s band, Foo Fighters. It was too fluffy, too pop for my taste, too mainfuckingstream, too radio friendly and actually I have no taste for Dave’s funny approach and kind of parodies. If I wanna have fun listening music, I prefer Dennis Leary, The Bloodhound Gang or Richard Cheese. “The Pretender” directly pissing me off because I actually think that Dave is exactly that kind of pop star millionaire he make fun of it. Well, maybe I’m a wrong judge of characters, but he’s star and a millionaire for sure. Irony? Probably. On the other hand I’m convinced that Dave is also very talented. It may be a paradox, but that’s a fact. And Dave proved us this not once. He’s a great drummer, a great musician, a great songwriter. “All My Life” – the opening track of the 2002 album “One by One” – is a huge rock anthem. So, I didn’t really expected from Dave nothing this time, but “Wasting Light” actually it’s a great rock album. Read more Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (2011)
