Clean Equations

Over the summer I had the pleasure of getting to see Vivian Girls and A Place to Bury Strangers live. In Finland. Wow! Both gigs were spot on. Vivian girls were at Flow festival in Helsinki and just sounded so good. Not to mention the fact that on-stage the guitarist and bass player looked proper fit! APtBS played at Klubi in Turku. Quite a small venue and quite empty which was a shame because it's rare we get anyone decent playing in our little city. A lot of people left during the gig and later I heard from someone there that they found it way too loud and frustrating how they kept building up the songs to end up amounting to nothing. For a band that's been given the title "Loudest band in New York" I don't find it too surprising that the music might even be a bit loud.

Anyway the reason why I brought this up is because I like these two bands, imagine my delight when I found a compilation LP with both of these bands on it + loads of bands i'd never heard of before from the brooklyn music scene and thereabouts.
http://www.statecapitalrecords.com/fieldrecordings.html

Apparently only 500 copies of this were printed so I consider myself privileged to have it. And after listening to it, one band firmly stuck to my mind:
Clean Equations. I had to listen to their myspace and turns out they've only got just over 1000 listens. They've got 6 songs on their profile.
The song thats on State Capital Records Field Recording called French Noise Piece features some tidy drumming and and a wicked wicked chorus.
The pretty piano-driven songs like Ohio Turnpike and Alison leave me wanting more. Turns out they've just released an EP. Coolio. Check them out.
http://www.myspace.com/cleanequations

best of 2009

yo Yo YO.
Everyone's doing it now so I thought I might as well jump on the bandwagon and do the whole "my favourite albums of 2009" thing.
So here it goes:


5. Raveonettes - In and out of Control
The Raveonettes are Danish and you can definitely heard "scandinavia" in their latest album. Their earlier records have been more Jesus and Mary Chain, whereas now I recognise something more local. Although darker this could maybe be what The Sounds would sound like if they sonically toned it down a bit and were actually any good.






4. Wavves - Wavves
If I was a surferpunk from California this is what I'd want my life to sound like. I absolutely love the almost inaudible vocals, lo-fi fuzzy guitars and simple but banging drums. If I didn't live in Finland I could almost imagine the scorching sun burning me to a crisp like the near-albino I am. But if burning to a crisp sounds this good then bring it on.



3. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
So APtBS debut album was my favourite album of last year and beating that with the follow up Exploding Head was going to take something special. I don't find it quite as good as the first one as It's missing stand out tunes like "missing you" and "she dies" but stick this record on full blast like it's supposed to be listened to and... it albeit not literally but in a sense delivers the albums title. (in a good way)

2. Passion Pit - Manners
Passion Pit and me have a wierd love affair. More so with the Chunk of Change EP where Michael Angelakos' vocals were sometimes just awful but still at the same time all the melodies were just ridiculously cute and happy. And that's what I love about them. Listening to this just makes me smile and want to dance. What more could a good record do?


1. The xx - The xx
Probably the most talked/blogged about band in the world after Animal Collective but rightly so! Everything about this album shouts out cool. The intertwining guitars sound so simple but are still captivatingly beautiful. The almost half-heartedly sung vocals of the back and forth female-male parts sound so fresh standing alone, but when the chopped beats are added I feel that's when it really starts to sound like now. Best album of 2009!