Sunday 31 January 2010

Hot like fondue cheese

Happy Sunday everyone.

So today is 31.1.2010 and everyone knows what that means...
If you feel like you don't belong in the classification of everyone then I'll tell ya.
As tomorrow is the first day of February, it means that all those strong-willed folks who have given up the drink for the past month can safely go back to their binge-drinking liver-crippling ways without enduring the ridicule of the people who "told you so". I didn't take part in any of this nonsense but a good friend of mine did. Whilst watching a bit of football yesterday he let a couple of beers slip down his throut. And by my multiple checks of the calendar, yesterday was still January. So here goes

I TOLD YOU SO

Now that that's out of the way I can finally tell everyone about my fixation on 'Local Natives'
I hope and think these LA boys are going to properly "do the thang" this year. Their debut album 'Gorilla Manor' already out here in Europe is just a bit of perfection! I saw they were doing a huge tour as well but obviously leaving out Finland. Obviously. I hate it when that shit happens.

Anyway, my local record shop '8 raita' sold out of the 'Gorilla Manor' CD+DVD virtually straight away, but the vinyl release should be there soon so I'm just waiting for that.

The whole record is just so damn catchy and good I'm gonna put my fist down and recommend this to everyone in the world. Even babies.

Take 'Airplanes' for example! When the chorus kicks in, it does actually sound like he really "wants you back" and i've been humming/singing that in my head/out loud for ages now.



'Warning Signs' is a cover version of the 'Talking heads' song and this is where the bands 'Fleet Foxes' comparisons are the most audible. Mainly due to the three-piece vocal harmonies they've got going on.





'Shapeshifter' however veers slightly unnervingly in the 'Embrace' direction but all in all I äm luvink this musik mooch ya!

Thursday 28 January 2010

Open your eyes pumpkin head!

What's up? What's new?

Guess what?! I finally got up off my stinking bum and moseyed on down to the moving pictures for the visual treat that is 'Where the Wild Things Are'
I haven't been to the pictures in donkey's years and it felt just right to back again sitting in a dark room full of strangers.

About the film itself?

Gorgeous! It was very easy on the eye with beautiful landscape shots and the film constantly played with my emotions. One minute you're sat there with a huge grin on your face or laughing out loud and the next thing you know you're left feeling horrified and claustrofobic.

The kid 'Max' who played 'Max' the main character was also amazing for such a young lad. Projecting his emotions so well into the scenes. Well that's what I thought anyway... Although I guess it's easier to act when your character has the same name as your "real name". Maybe he was even just being himself and the whole film was a documentary in the style of 'Grizzly Man' but ultimately he doesn't get eaten by Tony Soprano in a crazy costume.



Much has been said about a certain Karen O penning the soundtrack for the film and honestly that was the main reason I was anticipating this so much.
Karen's vocals seemed to mostly consist of feline-like yelps but that was totally fine by me and all the way through the film the music not only complimented the film but also drove it on. The score had lots of childish elements aided by the kid choir in the background which helped in portrayed the Max's feelings to the viewer.


Where the Wild Things Are reduced the group behind me to a collective of blubbering wrecks. And it was, in fact, that moving, but because I'm a real man I don't shed tears for no shit. Fool.
Best film I've seen all year.
laterz
Boom!

Sunday 24 January 2010

Ooh aren't you a pretty one?

Should being called a "beautiful man" or a "handsome woman" be taken as a compliment?

Should 'handsome' and 'beautiful' be gender-specific descriptions?

Is the fashion industry's brand of marketed beauty ruining the kids of the world?

What words would you use to describe a worryingly attractive ladyboy?

Should everyone just use words like 'fit' and 'buff' instead of proper words?


Well my weekend was funky. How was yours?

Wayne Rooney being a bit of a demi-god netting 4 goals was nice. Serving beer to intoxicant-thirsty hibernophiles was relatively painless and at certain points even fulfilling. Getting a face full of flirt from various elderly ladyfolk was awkward. Hence the 5 ponderous questions at the beginning of the text.

"Is this going anywhere?" You might ask.
"Not really" I might answer.

I have however had time for musiqué too! So I've got a couple of posts coming up in the next few days about some nice stuff of 2010. whooh!

I'll start off with Woozy Viper.




If you like your rock 'n' roll served with a touch of laid-back bluesy acoustic guitar, (like I do) then these bro's will do very nicely. I can officially use the word 'bro' without sounding like some sort of hybrid finn/brit quasi-surfbro because the duo that is Luke and Mitch Meseke are in fact brothers. On Myspace you won't find much info about them though so I just let their music speak for itself.
The best thing is that they're giving their eponymous album away for free download here. Just realised while writing this and listening to them that they sort of remind me of an early Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Thursday 21 January 2010

Update!

Hej!

U know last friday when I said "blah blah blah Finns can't understand Rammstein 'cos it's in German blah blah" ya? eikö?

I heard Rammstein's newest hit single 'Pussy' on das radio yesterday/today/whatever. Turns out man don't have to know German to understand this "hot tune"



Shitdamn the song's mostly/all in Inkliish.
"Mostly/all" meaning it was a bit poo and I can't remember and don't want to listen to it again.

Best part for me were the genius "You have a pussy, I have a dick-ah, so what's the problem? Let's do it quick" lyrics.

WOW!
Now hot-damn-a-lam-a-lam if that line's not something, say for example, Bob Dylan would be proud of. I bet the hardest part was trying to rhyme dick with something.
Erm.. 'stick', 'chick', 'pterodactyl'? aah too hard, I give up.
Till Lindemann = God-like genius, I say.

Ooh yeah and the video! The one up yonder is the cencored version because apparently the "real" version might have boobs 'n' stuff in it! WOW

Damn u Rammstein with all your boobs 'n' dick talk and "powerful strain of brutally intense rock" making me feel like a worthless puny half-man.
I wish i could be like Till and convincingly sing about genitalia, or set off totally big fireworks on a stage or maybe for once have so much testosterone to wear skinny/leather trousers without looking like an 8-year old girl.

Sunday 17 January 2010

Laura Veirs

Good day to all.

You know that feeling when you walk past a record shop and you just can't go past without having a cheeky look at what they've got?

That happens constantly but this this time was just silly:

A) I ain't got no money baby

B) I ain't got a working record player

Anyway I treated myself to Animal Collective's Fall be Kind
and Neon Indians' Psychic Chasms

While I've listened to the whole Neon Indian before from various sources, all of the Animal Collective tunes are new to me. Not being able to play the record I'm relying on the mp3 download that came with it. Stupid stupid man.

It sounds like my computer is dying on me. Making exorcist-type noises and freaking me out. Not least because this is what I'm supposed to write my Bachelors' thesis on. Shiiit. But while it's still going, I've been listening to Laura Veirs' new album July Flame on good old spotify and the the title track is my 'song of 2010' so far. Ah when the choir and strings kick in at the end it's just hauntingly beautiful and atmospheric stuff. Bringing me back to my Beth Orton fanboy years but without the trip-hop experiments.



Here's Beth singing one of my faves:



Laura Veirs isn't new on the scene by any means, having released Year of Meteors in 2005 and Saltbreakers in 2007 but I've got to say that this is the first I've heard of her but I'm instantly hooked! hot damn.

Friday 15 January 2010

I <3 MEN

That's right you heard me. I'm shouting it out load: "I LOVE MEN"

MEN of course being a 'supergroup' from Brooklyn consisting of 2/3 of Le Tigres line up. Well used to be 2/3 but now Johanna Fateman's had a baby she's left the band so now it's just JD Samson from Le Tigre. Oh well. MEN features other band members from Hirsute, Princess and Ladybug Transistor. Cool.

Le Tigre
are/were of course one of my favourite bands of all time without me ever really getting into their political-sexual feminist lyrics. For me it wasn't what they were saying but how it was said. In the same way the majority of finns love Rammstein and I'll be damned if most people I grew with in Sauvo were adequately adept in German.

This being one of the greatest songs EVER. Prompting a cracking remix from the boys at DFA.



So MEN then! Imagine Dragonette eating up New Young Pony Club then getting set on fire by LCD Soundsystem. That's how I'll describe it. And that's how much I like it. Not actually having a record deal they've released a four song ep themselves but according to Myspace they've all sold out. BOO!

Credit Card Babies is all about how expensive it is to have a baby as gay parents. Not had first hand experience on this but i'll still appreciate the fact that it's a banging tune.

Holy guacamole!

Wednesday 13 January 2010

Wednesday night is identity theft night.

Hejdå!!

It's wednesday! Whooh! What's so special you say? Well it's the only day that starts with a W!! Whooh!

Yo anyone here like Corinne Bailey Rae?

Yo anyone here remember Corinne Bailey Rae?

Well I've got a feeling that if all goes according to 'THE MANS' big plan then this girl is gonna be big this year.



It's cute and nice isn't it? But I'm sure I've heard this before..

So instead of "girl put your records on" it's more like "girl put your rollerblades on"

Yo anyone here like Lily Allen?

Yo anyone here remember Lily Allen?

Check this one out...

Also nice, but very familiar.

Next time you hear Lily, Corinne or Feist on the radio you have been warned! It might actually be Eliza baby.

I brought this up because of the xx.

By now everyone has heard their interpretation of Florence + the Machines or Candi Statons (take your pick) 'You Got the Love' right?



Well they've been busy doing other sexy remixes and because I still don't know how to use blogspot properly I'm just gonna link their remix of Eliza Doolittle - Money Box
Cheers music like dirt for that one!

Another one I'm rather fond of is the remix for Jack Penates' Pull My Heart Away.
It's nicely dark and broody = xx



Hot Diggity Dawg!

Tuesday 12 January 2010

PERKELE!

Now that it's 2010 I thought it appropriate to exclusively write on here:

Tommy's definitive top 3 favourite words of 2009!!


#3 Pandemonium

#2 Audacious

#1 Perkele

And without further explaining "why those words?" or "why that order?" for #2&3 i'll just jump straight to Perkele.

Without doubt the coolest word ever, no? It's finnish and I guess a translation could be Satan but that's already got a boring version in finnish: Saatana
Basically Perkele is what proper finnish proper men say. It's dying out with this new breed of what I call 'saatana-finns'. YOU HEAR THAT FINLAND? KEEP PERKELE ALIVE!

Something a real man might say (I'm only guessing here): Perkele ku tos perkeleen Siwas ei perkele myydä perkeleen kossua.

(translation) Satan, that satanic local shop doesn't satan sell satanic Koskenkorva.

Sounds manly!

So today I got my tinyteeny man hands on the new Vampire Weekend album Contra.

Icecoolsnowbreeze cool.
I gave it a little spin as many times as I had time to... Sounds clever.. but ya eniveis the song 'California English' starts up and my reaction is "PERKELE! It sounds sorta Vampire Weekendy familiar, you know, just the way I like it. But it feels like Ezra has mutated into some sort of freaky, floppy-haired, indie Akon-a-like."

My point being the whole auto-tune vocal effect on his voice all throughout the song.
Auto-tune seems to be the hottest thing ever with practically everyone in R'n'B doing it and even Ra Ra Riot-Wes/Vampire Weekend-Rostam sideproject Discovery jumping on the bandwagon. So could Vampire Weekend have just left it there?



Personally I'm usually all for effects but seriously can I just hear an honest opinion on WHY that vocal effect could ever sound good?

I blame Cher and this:



Horrific.

But ya otherwise very much still liking Vampire Weekend. Must not let auto-tune hatred ruin whole album for me. Diplomats Son sounds really really good with it's MIA sample.Surely this won't be forgotten by summer because it's definitely a summer record.

Here's White Sky. It is Vampire Weekend so it's good. Duh!



Oh and one more thing. Here's Cher when she was still good:

Monday 11 January 2010

It's ON!

Jumping hot fishcakes splashing out from a boiling pan I SAY!

There I am thinking I'm the only Byrne to be doing the oh-so-original-music-blogging-thing when I find out my kid cousin is on to it too, writing on pinapple toast about what be going down in hipster London/St Albans. OMG!

What next? My dad posting photos on flickr of him dancing the night away at a Justice gig. Mum on facebook?! (oh hang on wait...)

But that's all cool. I was just wondering how I could possibly have anything more to offer the blogosphere from over here in Finland... But that's exactly it: Finland. Whoohyeah.

So it's time for a bit of plugging my mate Markus Perttula. He's known around Turku as 'The Voice'.
Maybe. I made that up, but check out el myspaceo and make your own mind up. He's recently featured on the album 'Syvissä Vesissä' doing a cover of CMX - Vallat & Väet. As musical influences go, you could do a lot worse than Jeff Buckley, Muse and The Maccabees and these are audible in abundance in his songs. Lovely stuff. Even a really nice guy as well. Imagine THAT!

This could be the spotify link to Syvissä Vesissä

and this should be The Gypsy Kings - Bamboleo

So Mr. Pineapple Toast man you can see all the gigs you want, but I'll always have spotify and Jonathan.

T-bone gotta bust a move now.
C ya laterz alligatorz

Sunday 10 January 2010

Woe is you and me

Aaah pooey poo.

It's back to uni tomorrow. Feeling lazy. Want to stay home.
Trying my best to learn the what the hell proanthocyanidins are and why I need to write 20 pages on them. Damndamndamn.

Oh well I've got the perfect soundtrack "for the learning process"
I'll trademark it as:

'The-T-bone-not-knowin-very-much-about-garage-rock-but-still-very-much-liking-it-and-hoping-it'll-inspire-me-to-sort-out-my-bachelors-thesis' soundtrack.

Whilst trawling the endless depths of t'internet. I stumbled across these young fellas from Austin, Texas. Y'all can call them 'The Strange Boys'
On their Myspace they've only got one track called Be Brave. Decent.
BUT check out spotify for the whole debut record 'The Strange Boys and Girls club'
It's good. Here's the video for Woe is you and me.

This made me go back to all my old faves.
Aaah yes Cage the Elephant - s/t album was my pick of the year for 2008.
This is THE song. Click on this for instant love.

There was a point where I just used to borrow heaps and heaps of cd's from the library and ended up getting fined because I just found it impossible to return Black Lips - Let it Bloom. (Little did I realise I could just extend the loan)

Going a bit less Garage-rock I really really like the Alberta Cross album Broken side of time, especially 'Song Three Blues'. A Bit like I like early Kings of Leon. You know before they went all 'Sex on Fire' on me. Play me 'Talihina Sky' and I'll make you my lovepet.

On the subject of Alberta I'm also loving 'Rural Alberta Advantage' aah <3<3
Tell you what. Anyone play me these as well and i'll still make you my lovepet.

I can tell you what I do know about Proanthocyanidins so far. Get loads of them in ya and you'll possibly live forever. I'm guessing that all Christopher Lambert used to eat on the Scottish highlands were berries and all he drank was green tea with lemon.

Toodles for now.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

2010 BABY!

Happy 2010, I totally feel like a new person. Whatever.

Something freaked me out big time a couple of days ago...
Saw some relatives and had a little sit down/chat and apparently at my age I should be thinking of having kids.

Hmmm so then I was like "WHOAH THERE! Hold your horses, Chill out, Steady on, what at the ripe age of 22 I'm at the stage where reproduction should be my main objective?" I mean come on I just got a kid bro 6 months ago so first of all would it not be a bit freaky to have a baby the same age as your bro? And second of all: WHAT THE HELL?!
Cheers auntie Han*a for that!

Meeting kid bro Bobby was wicked cool though. Made me mad happy. Made me listen to lots of Simon & Garfunkel. YAY!

Not all is good though. We were having a couple of bevvies yesterday listening to some tunes with a few mates and it would seem that contrary to my thoughts on the album (shitstomping hot!), my record player REALLY doesn't like Ra Ra Riot. So it had a bit of a strop and has now stopped working. Nicely nice....
Bought a few new records as well. Bummer.

OH! Can I just officially announce that AndygoesdowntoChinatown now has 1 reader! HA. I don't even mean me! Thanks Cheers.

Okay so lately I have mostly been listening to:

Simon and Garfunkel - Greatest hits. Everyone knows this. `I am a Rock´ = CHOON

Japandroids - Post-Nothing: Cool cool stuff from the noisy duo.

HEALTH
- Get Color: Whole album repeatedly punches me in the gut. (well sort of) Like a sonic spanking!

Monarchy: Just been listening to these on Myspace wanted to put their song ´Black the Colour of my Heart´ on here to download, but because I don't know how to I'm going with the "not putting it on here for download" option.

So that's it from me now
Adios funkyface(s)
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