37 search results for ‘alistair’

Best Coast - ‘Far Away’ & ‘Everybody’s Gone’

I’m giving you two songs by Best Coast because you deserve them. And because it showcases the diversity of a lo-fi band that could quite easily have written the same song twelve times over. No news on an album yet, but these songs follow a string of releases (which I’m sure you’ll find if you want it badly enough) slightly larger in sound and

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Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo

I’ve made my hatred of twee music well known. Why commit solely to mid-tempo, acoustically based lullabies? Must you be so evangelically care-free? Exhibit A: The Shins; Avi Buffalo’s closest resemblance on the self-titled album. Exhibit B: Belle and Sebastian, the second genre goal post; sun-filled, mixed gender sing-a-longs. Sick.

Case closed your honour.

But at the same time, it’s not all that simple. Avi Buffalo have gone to

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ALBUMS OF THE DECADE: THE WILL TO DEATH (2004)

2004 was a remarkable year for John Frusciante, with the release of six consistently fantastic albums he recorded in the space of six months on a break from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Released just months after Shadows Collide With People, an album that reportedly cost $300,000 to record and was very production heavy, The Will To Death was a conscious effort to be the opposite of Shadows.

“On The Will to Death, I thought it would be a good idea to make a record with very little backing vocals, because we’d done it so much on Shadows. I always have to have a new idea for each album. For The Will to Death, the idea was to have very little backing vocals. There’s a lot of other huge differences. In every way, I wanted the opposite of Shadows.” : Frusciante

A simple but beautiful album, The Will to Death works solely on the songwriting ability of Frusciante. Whilst the production is sometimes confusing with Frusciante using techniques that would seem unnatural with most other acts, he brings it together with an album that feels real through its honesty and simplicity. The main themes are life and death, but it’s definitely not a dark album with Ttought provoking lyrics and interesting harmony.

It’s very difficult to choose which album from this series deserves the title of Album of the Year, and if Curtains (the last of the series to be released, in early 2005) was released on schedule within 2004 then that would be my album of the year. Alistair on the other hand rates Shadows Collide With People at number one but for me, it is the beauty in modesty heard in tracks like The Days Have Turned and The Will to Death that makes The Will to Death one of my favourite albums of 2004.

Greg (currently in Bangkok)

Them Crooked Vultures ALBUM

This is a good day, it’s official, Them Crooked Vultures have an album.

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Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

Don’t worry, it’s a grower…or maybe not. Shit, sorry. Have a listen and find out for yourself, I just can’t help thinking the only reason it sounds pleasant is because Casablancas’ voice = good memories of good songs. I still can’t work out if this is a good song on it’s own two feet. Maybe we need to ask someone who’s never heard The Strokes…

Alistair

Beck/Record Club

Dear Reader.

I saw this and thought of you. Lead by Beck, groups of fairly respectable artists are  getting together currently and rerecording one classic album in a single day, with no prior rehearsal. Think Radio 1’s Live Lounge without the tranny. The Velvet Underground and Nico is completed and with the likes of MGMT, Devendra Banhart and Wolfmother (I did say fairly respectable) currently doing the UNTHINKABLE and covering Leonard Cohen, you should see more songs up soon. It’s a nice little blog to add to your RSS.

Love you!

Alistair. x

P.S. AGCS has 99 Tumblr followers. Will you pretty please invite one friend? You will? Thank you! That last ILY was totally insincere, but now I mean it!  xx <3 xx

RECORD CLUB

Jemina Pearl ft. Iggy pop - I Hate People

I’m not gonna lie. Be Your Own Pet broke up and a little piece of me died. Then I stumbled across a Jemina Pearl single and posted it up here. Things were good for a while, I was happy with the three songs on her myspace. And then, nothing. Things got quiet, and the booze came back out.Things got dark in my life. I don’t want to talk about it.

And then, in my darkest hour, I Hate People appears on my desktop. The sun came out, birds sang. It was a good day. I smiled, because Jemina Pearl and John Eatherly have quite obviously matured their sound - where a few years ago, ‘I Hate People’ would have been screamed out in an obtuse 1:20, it’s a slick, contrapuntal 3:19 that finally showcases the sharply witty potential a band like Be Your Own Pet never quite fulfilled. Iggy Pop adds, but doesn’t steal the limelight in this oddly sweet duet of shared misanthropy (which as music fans I’m sure makes it highly relatable) and adds magnitude to the much anticipated album, Break It Up, (featuring Dave Sitek too) out on October 6.

And once again I’m happy, basking in the bittersweet precursor of what looks to be the album BYOP could never quite manage.

Break It Up.
01 Heartbeats
02 After Hours
03 Ecstatic Appeal
04 Band on the Run
05 I Hate People [ft. Iggy Pop]
06 Looking For Trouble
07 Retrograde
08 Nashville Shores
09 No Good
10 D Is for Danger
11 Selfish Heart
12 Undesireable
13 So Sick

Alistair

Jemina Pearl ft. Iggy pop - I Hate People

Discovery - Osaka Loop Line & Swing Tree

I like to get stuff posted up here quickly, but I’ve held back on posting Discovery ‘cos I wasn’t sure. Well, now there’s internetz buzz surrounding them so I’m rushing my shit out to prove I’ve still got it yo.

Discovery are some guy from Ra Ra Riot and some guy from Vampire Weekend that isn’t the lead singer. They have an album. Don’t buy it. It’s full of autotune and sounds for the most part like T-pain covering Postal Service. This is not, ever, a good comparison.

Instead, you can download the two pretty decent tracks on us.

So, rest of album not so good, but, despite it’s most horrifiic misses it is never, ever as bad as Vampire Weekend.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I have some graduating to do, in Journalism of all things. You may laugh, but I’m not kidding!

Alistair

Discovery - Swing Tree by agcs

Discovery - Osaka Loop Line by agcs

Jonsi & Alex - Boy 1904

Tired facts about this song from the blogosphere I’ve chosen not to include:
50% of Jonsi & Alex is Sigur Ros’ frontman.
50% of Jonsi & Alex is his BF.
The track features the only known recording of a costrato.

Released a week today is Riceboy Sleeps, debut album from Jonsi & Alex, formerly and confusingly known as Riceboy Sleeps (You may recognise the name if you picked up/piratebay’d the Dark Was The Night compliation, on which they donated an ealier track called ‘Happiness’).

Here’s the PR video promoting the album:

If you found yourself thinking the super8 video of birds and washed out photographs of beaches all a little cliched, you’re not alone. Since THAT Planet Earth ad on the BBC,  Sigur Ros were propelled onto the radio and to relative success.

And then everyone had a go, even Sky News; Slow-mo + ambient music = something profound… and a cliche was born. What Boy 1904 shows is that there’s not much wiggle room for innovation in the world of ambient-scenescapey-reverby tweeness. That’s because that’s pretty much all it is; ambience.

The reason this track probably envokes a dreamy landscape in your minds eye is because you’re looking for something else to compliment it, and, just like the video above, that something is the rest of the multi-media cliche you’re used to.

Is it hard to listen to? No. Is it devoid of any musical integrity? No. Is there an hours worth of originality to be had? We’ll see/ almost certainly not.

Alistair

Jonsi & Alex - Boy 1904 by agcs