Three Trapped Tigers

Here's a band I've wanted to write about for ages. I only just remembered Three Trapped Tigers again because I found a second hand copy of Fuck Buttons' debut album 'Street Horrrsing'. There was this time where I used to listen to Three Trapped Tigers's first EP a lot, and that was about the same time as I found Fuck Buttons.

Now I don't know where this love of instrumental post-rock comes from, because I know no-one else in my family is too fond of it, but I'm damn happy it's there. If you want to know what my idea of "I Love You" might sound if said without words just listen to Russian Circles' 'Melee'



Whereas Russian Circles have a more heavier metal approach to their music, Three Trapped Tigers certainly don't shy away from that side of things. Ultimately TTT sound astonishingly intricate at the same time as being just plain wonderful.

Anyway TTT have a new EP coming out next month. A great thing about TTT is that you'll never forget what order their EP's came out as they've got an ingenious naming system going on.

EP 1 (Tracks 1 - 5)
EP 2 (Tracks 6 - 9)
EP 3 (Tracks 10 - 13)

Here's a song from each EP







And for all of you who aren't "OI ENOUGH OF THIS BOLLOCKS WHERE'S THE FOOKIN SINGING?" here's another of my faves Cougar just to warm your/my heart. Awwww.

Esben and the Witch

So another Brighton band from me. Who'd have guessed?
Possibly anyone.

More ace haunting gloom for you. This time from Esben and the Witch.



Named after a Danish fairytale about Esben, a witch and some major family issues, Esben and the Witch perhaps sort of sound like a cross between Florence + the Machine and The XX. Not bad eh?

E&theW will be playing at The Great Escape and E&theW will be supporting Efterklang along their tour.

And I will probably just sit at home being pathetic.

SATURDAY

Everything I listen to these days seems to be caught up in reverb-laden guitar and synth effects and generally rather lazy, relaxed or just plain echoed-the-fuck-out drums.

No exception to this then here tonight folks...

First of all I want to write about and share some of Dunian.

Now from what I've gathered Dunian is a Latvian producer who doesn't go in the bushes. I'd love to be able to say more about who/what/where/how? but frankly, with the info he's giving out, detailing anyone on this subject is a wee tad difficult. I mean, if you look at his pictures, the man hasn't even got a head. Anyhow, what I can say is that the tunes that I've heard of his are mighty tasty.



Very "Chill-wave" (Annoys me how often I say that, like I can't think of a different term to describe stuff) and 'Love to Match' invokes memories of listening to Burial's album for the first time. Bliss.

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Memoryhouse are just as relaxing if not more than the aforementioned Dunian. With beautiful echoed vocals and soaring synth-lines Memoryhouse sound as though they're about to take you on a day-trip to that cosmic unicorn playpen that you've always dreamed about as a child while watching national geographic documentaries about unicorns.

They do draw comparisons to other female-lead acts. Beach House springs to mind too. Drawing comparisons is one thing but carrying those comparisons well is another. Memoryhouse do this with their head well above the surface.

Go to their Myspace to download the 'This Years' EP for nada.



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Finally today is Bathcrones. Slightly more up-tempo than the other two acts today, but whether that's a good or bad thing in your opinion Bathcrones should bring some smiles (not in the laughing way).
Be it the miami-drums on 'Vineyard of the Sea' or the 80's movie sountrack feel to 'Glaslyn Rains' that makes me suddenly feel nostalgic for a period of time that I was hardly even born in.
You can download a couple of songs here from their label BEKO. I suggest trying out some of the other stuff found on there too, because it ain't half bad.

Bathcrones - Vineyard of the Sea

Low Sea

Sometimes I go to painstaking lengths to find music that appeals to my readers (ie. my mum & me), but thankfully sometimes it just presents itself to me all nicely wrapped in a sort of Christmas/Birthday/Name Day present. A few years back I didn't use to have a day for my name, which pissed me right off. Nowadays I'm not sure if I do, because I just scoff in the face of Name Day.

Back to what I was supposed to write about... Low Sea!




Low Sea are a duo from Galway (That's Ireland for you ignorants) who play some rather claustrophobic gazey-gazey music. It sounds dark and hypnotic. Exactly the opposite of what one would hope for now come almost spring-time. However, forget spring-time because this is sort of like 'shut curtains and turn lights off' music to vigourously nod ones head to.

A lot.

Or you could just bask in the wave of sound flowing over you like you're back on that beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, but instead of a head leo's got a drum machine and various synths, and instead of All Saints playing the main theme, you've got My Bloody Valentine doing it

Low Sea have just released their album 'Las Olas' on Lefse Records, home to the likes of Neon Indian and Tape Deck Mountain.

I thought I'd share some of their video's.







On a totally different note, These New Puritans released a video for their newest "single" 'Attack Music' today:

Kiss Kiss Fantastic

Does everyone here like listening to music?

Good! Because we're in for a right treat now! Oh Yes!



Possibly to be deemed "chill" by some people Kiss Kiss Fantastic seem a lot more than just "chill"
KKF consists of band members Jeremy and Rachel who live opposite sides of "The States" and apparently have never met. Now that either sounds like a great thing to have going or a recipe for disaster. Recipe for disaster it is not my friends.
As I'll have you listen below, KKF has a lot going on 'in-your-ears'-wise.
You can listen to them here or download their EP for free from here
DO IT! DO IT NOW!

Violet from kisskissfantastic.

Paradise Vendors/ Italian Beach Babes

Howdy!

Whoah, that was a weekend and a bit! First game of our football season. Horribly embarrassing loss. Tears. lost my capability to walk for a few days. (who said stretching is for girls?)
I even did the unthinkable, that I've been laughing at friends for doing, ie. internet poker.
In the words of fictive US senator Clay Davis: "Aah Sheeee-it"

What I haven't done for a while is burden the blogosphere with more drivel.
Today's rant is about this very very cool band compilation split LP PVI006/IBB004 from Paradise Vendors inc. and Italian Beach Babes.



Featuring some ace "local" (Brighton) bands as well as some ace "further-away" bands, this LP has a great blend of some of the most interesting lo-fi noise-pop bands you might well have never heard of. [especially when living out here in the wilderness (Finland) like me]

Tracklisting goes like so:

Teen Sheikhs - 'Germs'
Mazes - 'A Metric Tower'
Plug - 'Fresh Pleasures'
Cold Pumas - 'Tropical Guilt'
The Human Race - 'Kicks'
Spectrals - 'It's very kind of you to put up with me'
Graffiti Island - "Perverse Savage'
Male Bonding - 'Carrying'
La La Vasquez - 'Don't Rush Me'
Fair Ohs - 'Christmas Tree'
Not Cool - 'Limbs are for Liars'

My personal faves have been Cold Pumas for a while now, sounding like a gruffier HEALTH on tracks like 'Jela' and 'Beat Mystery' , being muchos differentos from most of the bands on here comp' who've got a much more laid back surf-vibe.



The one man band Spectrals have a great sound to them which evidently translates rather well to live performances too. See here "one-man-band-with-some-other-guys-helping-out"



However the cream-of-the-crop, the Créme de la créme, are Fair Ohs. With a sound they themselves describe as "Paul Simon but... you know... punk."
Here's their track called 'Almost Island'. It's very good with it's tropical rythm that brings to mind a certain Abe Vigoda

SECRETS, secrets

Sometimes you come across something so mysterious that it feels like it's just your brain playing tricks on you to turn you into a paranoid wreck. Paranoid like Mel Gibson. I got this e-mail off a band called Admiral Radley promoting their up-and-coming gigs around the U.S of A. Now the mysterious thing about AR is that they haven't even got a Myspace account. Hot damn. In this day and age I say! All there is is a website and a twitter account. Now via some internet snooping I found out that AR consists of members of Grandaddy and Earlimart and they sound roughly like this:



Now say what you say, but Grandaddy/ Jason Lytle are/is mega. (Not in the way Liam Gallagher means mega, but in the way I mean mega)



Yes, that song was on the soundtrack to 28 days later, which makes both movie and song just that much better.

Earlimart's 'We Drink on the Job' is also a rather fine tune. So here goes.



Well anyway. Maybe one day Admiral Radley might release some songs that us normal folk can listen to on here internet-world.

Here's to the weekend.
Cheers
xxx

Villagers

If you don't happen to live inside a fortress made of granite and diamonds and cookie dough and early-20th-century sloops and bricks, you might have heard that yesterday was St. Patrick's day.

This day is celebrated all over the world because this feller called Patrick had to carry this magical invisibility ring into a mountain range with big fiery crazy-eyes on top on the mountains. The mountain range was full of really ugly people who'd got really angry about being really ugly so they started having a bit of a go at the world. Patrick had to stop this by taking his super ring there and melting it in an oven (obviously). Anyway Patrick got there with the help of various tall and short people and had to fight this mega-big dragon because the dragon was sitting on top of something important. Possibly a nuclear weapon or something of the sort. So he defeated the dragon (could have been called Megatron) and melted his magical jewellery and saved the world. yay. Now people everywhere rejoice annually and drink lots of Guinness and Jamesons, because these two companies sponsored all his mountain-climbing gear.

Because Patrick was Irish, I'm going to celebrate his merits by writing about this Irish act called Villagers.



Villagers is a band in the sense that it's one guy called Conor O'Brien and some of his mates making lovely music that sounds a bit like Josh Rouse, had Josh not been living in all the sunny parts of the world and tried not to be so cheery all the time (okay, there are of course some exceptions).
Villagers are set to release their debut album 'Becoming a Jackal' in May on Domino Records, which should mean that it's going to be very good ya.
(tip-top albums already released this year on Domino: Four Tet, These New Puritans, Owen Pallett... So you know they know what they're doing)



Here's Conor playing his guitar in the bogs.

Best Coast

So I was meant to do stuff today. But because I'm finally out of the dark abyss of "the lab" I decided to have one of those "entire-day-naps", leaving me with a whole lot of stuff that I meant to do today but didn't.

("The lab" is nay some hip-hop studio, nor is it the place where I make all my meth. It's just a plain old run-of-the-mill lab. How boring...)

What I have done today is check out the line-up to this years Great Escape festival in Brighton. (feels like Brighton's all I ever talk about these days)

The line-ups for past Great Escapes have always been a bit like having the love-child of Mozart and Brian Eno do super-cool glitter-graffiti over your already über-cool favourite cellar door whilst you yourself are bound and gagged in the boot of the local alcoholic's/drug addict's Toyota Corolla. This year however I feel the urge to escape that empty bottle/syringe riddled, shit-stained car boot and spread my wings towards the freedom and musical bliss that this year features the likes of:

Band of Skulls
Cold Cave
Delphic
Ellie Goulding
Ganglians
Hurts
Japandroids
Marina & the Diamonds
Real Estate
Surfer Blood
The Leisure Society
Wild Beasts

Of course that ain't even the half of it. You need to check out the website to fully grasp the entirety of the PRELIMINARY artist line-up.

Basically all the bands there are bands to look out for, but if I was on the lookout for something a bit good and a bit very awesome, I'd go with Californians Best Coast who have that supergood sundrenched fuzzed-out sound to them making them sound like a female-lead scuzzy Beach Boys or more like a female-lead Wavves (with audible lyrics)





So May, Brighton, anyone?

Lets go and have a grand old time, listening to Best Coast and pretending the pebbled sea-front is a primed-for-surfing Californian beach and the ruined west pier could be an epic sized Great White Shark set on destruction. But because we've all drank waaay to much Red Stripe we end up having some sort of larger-than-life drama about "Why your best friend's boyfriend is like so totally a total jerk because he like comes from this like poor part of the city where they don't even have money for like stuff like three cars and a swimming pool filled with like real water." But in the end it turns out that your boyfriend is "like so totally an even bigger jerk because he wants to go like all gay or whatever and sail across the sea/universe in his dumb-ass sailboat that he may or may not have named after you"

Veronica Falls

Hello again after the weekend.

Yes I have got something to write about today, instead of meandering about silly girl bands and even putting up a silly poll. [To which the amount of responses I received was phenomenal btw. (over 1)]

So hands up I you're fond of/a fan of "lo-fi" bands such as:
Vivian Girls,
Dum Dum Girls,
U.S. Girls

(you see the "girls" pattern forming?)

Or perhaps you like:
Abe Vigoda
Wavves

(Thems the boys)

Or maybe even:
Mika Miko
Comanechi
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

(thems got like both sexes)

Well I'm fond of/a fan of them and what I want to write today is about London based band called Veronica Falls.



After listening to the songs they've put on Myspace I'm definitely impressed and looking forward to more than just a single release. I feel like I just need more and deserve more. The single features their "hit" lo-fi "goth-pop" song 'Found Love in a Graveyard' and a cover version of Roky Erickson's 'Starry eyes'.

Found Love in a Graveyard starts of beautifully with a sort of vocal delivery I could imagine hearing at a traditional music recital but breaks into a glorious "vivian-girl-esque" pop song that is a delight to listen to.



When asked about their favourite bands, they came up with Brighton boys 'Light Sleepers' who are indeed a bit good. But I'll write about some of my fave Brighton bands some other day.

Laterz

Poll time

YoyoYo

I'm doing a monumental fleamarket excursion today so I haven't got time for that much writing.

However I saw that The Sugababes had a new album out and I thought I'd conduct a poll concerning your ultimate girlband anthem.

Swedes indeed

Hejdå

Today's post is my tribute to Sweden.

Oh Sweden! Oh Sweden! How thy fair haired land maketh thy neighbours jealous of thy music scene. Yes, we've been treated to the likes of Abba, The Cardigans, Roxette. Let us not forget Europe and their entire discography (Final Countdown pt. 2 perhaps?)

These days it's still the same. Bands keep pouring out of Sweden and the world keeps going "Wow!"

Everyones favourite whistlers: Peter Bjorn and John
That blonde temptress: Lykke Li
Sudden rise to fame-ers: JJ

Today however isn't about any of those, because today is about these:

Sambassadeur who released their third album called 'European' just a bit ago.



Sambassadeur play genuinely uplifting popmusic that is simple but refreshing and very pleasing.



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I read about Dag för Dag recently in Vice. They're a brother/sister duo who've been americanized to some extent and started a band in their 30's. Their late start to music isn't however audible in their songs. The debut album 'Boo' is already out and it's also on spotify for all of your pleasure



Described as Sonic Youthlike and having a similar sound to The Raveonettes, Dag för Dag are indeed something special you might want to give a listen to.

Here's my pick of the album:


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And the last band I'm gonna write about today, just to not overflow the internet with my overlength drivel, are Wildbirds and Peacedrums.



Not because they have a new release coming out, but just becasue I'm rather fond of them. If anyone has been inside my head, then they are well aware of how much I love obscure, off-beat, tribal or just good drumming. This band offers me just that. Oh Yes. Well on most songs anyway. A lot are just plain good without having to hook me with drumming gimmicks. Like so:

Bagheera

Sometimes so many great things seem to happen simultaneously leaving you feeling overwhelmed by the whole situation. Without going into further details about my personal life i'll just throw it aside and point out probably the most hauntingly beautiful set of songs I've heard this year.



As-of-so-far unsigned Liverpool band Bagheera have completely swept me off my feet with their 4 song EP 'Hollow Home'

Now instead of comparing these guys to any other artists, like has been done elsewhere on t'web I'm just going to compare them to all the amazing shit in my head that I'd imagine to sound amazing, if I knew what amazing were to sound like.
Make any sense? Probably not, but that's good because I am myself confounded as to how 'Skeleton Leaf' has possibly become my favourite song in quite some time.

Bagheera - Skeleton Leaf


Whereas 'Skeleton leaf' has the soaring vocals and spine-tingling harmonies, 'Old Machine' has the pounding beat that seems straight out of the theme tune to 'Survivor', but you know in that kind of good way. Like when survivor was still original.



Bagheera were supposed to be supporting The xx but unfortunately that fell through "at the last minute".

Now that would have been a double billing that I'd have loved to have witnessed.

Alas I'm here in Finland where I doubt either band will ever find their way to.

Cheerio

Monday is the day of the woman

Yeah happy "international women's day" everyone

What did you do?
I for one bought the entirety of womankind "fucking loads" of flowers.

I once even heard that some women like music?

If so then here's my embedded gift for the femalefolk (shit it's even got a flower in it's title):
(because I didn't actually get anyone "fucking loads" of flowers)



While I'm on the subject of pretending to know anything about romance/women here's one of my ultimate favourite "walking down a street or doing something else super romantic with my bitch" tunes.



Now call me a freak and hit me with something heavy, but I think "ye olde music" is perfect for being all smoocheywoochey. I'm talking past the 80's, past the 70's, hell, sometimes even past the 60's.





It is statistically more likely to be born a male than a female, so I congratulate you women on being born the way you are. You do indeed deserve all the last minute petrol station flowers and all those yummy chocolates that he/she hand picked for you.

It's days like these that I wish I was a woman
It's days like tomorrow that I think "What the hell's wrong with you man, get a grip and stop wearing your mum's cardigan"

Erm. ok. I'm gonna go now
Love all of you!

The High Wire

As far as new albums go, few will evoke such laid-back chilled feelings of dreamy serenity as The High Wire's debut 'The Sleep Tape'.



This has been the perfect soundtrack of late seeing as the sun has come out giving everything that springtime feel. YES! I even went out for an ice cream the other day. One of those "authentic" Italian gelato's, and that's the true measurement of the hope of winters transition into spring.

Back in 2008 Londoners The High Wire were supporting Coldplay and have come along in leaps and bounds since then. They have now made a name for themselves and backed that name up with this stunning album. If there's only one thing you do whilst on here, make sure it's that you listen to 'The Midnight Bell'.



Tunes available for embedding were hard to come by on youtube but here's another cracking one.



'The Sleep Tape' is out tomorrow and judging by my megaexpert opinion that came from me listening to it, it is a cracker. Definitely something to rival fellow shoegazers.

friday: back to some new stuff

Hi.

Florence is now but a distant memory so it's time to turn to my sluggish gaze towards the new shit.

First up is a band you can call Foals. I loved everything about their debut 'Antidotes' especially the drumming which was so precise and intricate that I knew I could never even dream of pulling it off with my co-ordination that would resemble Theseus trapped in Minos's labyrinth had he been blind and ball-of-string-less.

This is new song 'Spanish Sahara' which is a very slow-burning return for Yannis et al. but when it all comes together at about 4½ minutes it becomes a welcome return to the spotlight. (albeit with a slightly disappointing beat, oh well you can't have everything...)



next up is New Young Pony Club who have the follow-up to 'Fantastic Playroom' already out.
Here's 'Chaos' off said new album 'The Optimist' Thanks J-rule for the heads up on this



Ah and the cream of this crop? The duo from my 2nd home (Brighton), who are Blood Red Shoes and who some might describe as a better 'The Kills' than 'The Kills' have come out with their new record called 'Fire Like This' and, from what i've been hearing, it's rather good.
Try new song 'Colours fade' sounding very "Sonic Youth-ey"





Here's "everyones" favourite 'BRS' tune.

Helsinki

Got my taste of "city life" yesterday.
My day trip to Helsinki was good. Helsinki was kind to me.
Yesterday was of course Florence + the Machine at Tavastia.
I'm thoroughly entertained for the time being.

Supporting act 'Sian Alice Group' had to cancel their slot so Anastacia Mouna was brought in to support for the whole duration of three songs. Those three songs being the exact ones found on Myspace.
Mind you the length of the set didn't really matter seeing as she was the smiliest person you'll ever see + yesterday was her birthday making her even bubblier and smilier than she's possibly ever been.

Enter Florence + the Machine:
Flo' herself is dressed in a fabulous (green?) gown/bathrobe, inspiring comments such as "ooh, doesn't she look like a fairy?" from one of my pop-concert-viewing-companions. I suppose she sort of did, but the thing that sprang to mind was her looking like a (ginger) redhead Noel Fielding. I DON'T MEAN THIS AS A BAD THING. I mean there was even talk of a cape being bought from UFF

Florence in a cape? Noel in a cape?
Now all I'm saying is that I've never seen both of them in the same room together.

If it wasn't yet obvious that Flo has an amazing voice, then it became very in-your-face obvious seeing her live, because so much of the gig relied on her vocals. And hear me out: They were absolutely scorching. Flo was definitely pulling the strings last night. Instructing band members when and what to do with dictator-like authority. Quite impressive. What else was impressive was the harp. Now who even plays the harp in this day and age?
It was quite a bit spine-tingling when the fella playing it started proper arpeggiating. Crickey!

The set itself was quite unsurprising. Just songs from 'Lungs'
but that's all good.

Hmm yeah, well I had a good time.
Cheers flo. Maybe see you again at Ruisrock



Here's Boy 8-Bit's reworking of same song. a bit speeded up. Still nice though

Xiu Xiu and Casiotone

Wow yeah, WOW!
Holiday week. That's like so totally one whole week off school. A tidy bit of needed goodness! It feels like Father Christmas has been on heaps of reality-altering neurotoxins and forget where-the-hell and when-the-hell he's at and brought me my annual pressie(s) already. Mighty fine I'm telling ya.

I started off this joyous week by having an incredible english breakfast after which I went on to do my traditional "after pay day record shopping".

today was the day for Tv-Resistori's 'Serkut Rakastaa Paremmin' AND Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's 'Advance Base Battery Life'

This Casiotone record has been one that I've meant to get for ages and ages. Advance Base Battery Life is a compilation of Owen Ashworth's 7-inches and split-singles and really showcases the dudes talent of creating the wow! from the huh? Working with a drum machine and various synths, Owen has a habit of making very unique tunes that just open up more and more after multiple listens.

'ABBL' features 4 cover songs including 2 Bruce Springsteen tunes (Born in the USA, Streets of Philadelphia) Everyone's jumped on the "Boss cover song wagon" as Joensuu finished their set last wednesday with Brucies 'I'm on Fire'

Here's my two-band "Boss cover song" bandwagon





BUT

As covers go here's another quirky and good one, which I can say is rather relevant at the mo'



relevant how?
Easy!
Xiu Xiu have according to this/themselves released album 'Dear God, I Hate Myself' to the entire world now today. Yes. My listening of Xiu Xiu hasn't gone beyond my copy of 'Women as Lovers' but hell if that isn't good enough to merit some hype even on here where it might be read by perhaps maybe my mum and some random person who was honestly interested in reading about "Andy's crazy trip to Chinatown where he ended up strapped to the back of a tuna fish swimming around Greenland in search of King Arthur's Excalibur" but ended up on some foolish blog with not even a single mention of Andy, Chinatown or Excalibur for that matter.

My posts are getting quite heavy on youtube embeddings but who cares? Here's the title track off of new album!



It's surprisingly pop-y but you know it's still got the extremity of noise and experimentation that were so abundant on Women as Lovers and what makes Xiu Xiu so unique. Perhaps not something you'd neccesarily dance to or play to your conservative family at your wedding but nevertheless I'm a fan.

Now Goodbye