Friday, December 31, 2010

Favourite albums of the year 2010

1. JOANNA NEWSOM - Have One on Me
2. BEACH HOUSE - Teen Dream
3. KANYE WEST - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Contra
5. BIG BOI - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
6. CARIBOU - Swim
7. TOCOTRONIC - Schall und Wahn
8. ARCADE FIRE - The Suburbs
9. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - This Is Happening
10. SHARON KING AND THE DAP-KINGS - I Learned the Hard Way

The Vaccines - Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)

This is the best 7'' of the year. The Vaccines are my biggest hope for 2011, mainly because of these 81 seconds — yes, it's that short! Everything's here: a chorus that deserves to be sung by one hundred thousand people at the same moment, they somehow manage to stack a short-but-great guitar solo in there, and the verses feature such great lyrics as these: "The angels gave us Scott Fitzgerald, the Evening News and the Morning Herald." They can add themselves to the list now. They even give you the impression that those poor deluded fools who think that punk is not dead could be right.

Oh, and the B-side is a cracker as well: Different style, not as direct as "Wreckin' Bar". But with another wonderful melody that rises and rises, reminds me of Glasvegas's "Daddy's Gone".

Latest tracks by The Vaccines

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Jonny - Candyfloss

Ex-Gorky's Zygotic Mynci singer Euros Childs and Norman Blake, Teenage Fanclub singer, are Jonny. They have teamed up for the formidable 7'' "Candyfloss" and an album will follow end of January: http://www.euroschilds.com/candyfloss/

Given the craziness of some of Euros Childs' solo productions (especially "Shithausen" and "Son of Shithausen"), this single sounds remarkably straight-faced. Well, straight-faced in the Euros Childs universe. I don't know who of the two wrote the song but the chorus sounds like Teenage Fanclub while the lyrics seem to be from Euros Childs. It could be the other way round. Nevermind, this is a nice pop song by two of Britain's finest musicians. And because it's called "Candyfloss", naturally it's on pink vinyl!

Friday, December 17, 2010

The Joy Formidable - Austere

The Joy Formidable will re-release their magnificent single "Austere" from 2008 on January 17, 2011 on 7'' vinyl. It will herald their debut album "The Big Roar" which features a couple of old songs, which are probably re-recorded (www.thejoyformidable.com).

Listen below and marvel at the sheer inventiveness of the (original) track: Its dynamic drumming, the buzzing guitar (or bass?), the ah-ah-ah earworm melody in the background which is the track's most distinguishing feature and its foundation, and the eruption after 80 seconds that will carry the tune off to its glorious end. I hope their debut album will make them as massive as this single sounds.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Love Music!

What a nice and simple idea: a blog that dedicates itself to people who are hugging the new Joanna Newsom album (possibly because they love it so much)! Well, it really is a huggable album.

People Hugging the New Joanna Newsom album