Here is a song that starts off like a irreverent but totally charming little pop number, before exploding into a craze of fuzzy guitars and a hammering drum beat. It has the partial air of a lo-fi, post-punk sensibility, and it also has an entirely ludicrous video about a penguin with a drinking problem who also happens to be the President of the United States. Because why not?
Ah, how I do love to delve down the musical rabbit hole, despite the wankiness of that metaphor. Here is a tune that popped up through yesterday’s post. Soundcloud has given it every tag under the sun, so here is a smattering of them to try and describe it: Swedish, indie rock, alternative, psychedelic… you get the picture. Maybe. It has the spaced out feel of the 60/70s without the campiness of the 60/70s, to which I can only wholeheartedly get behind!
So, here’s a song that absolutely turned up very recently in my inbox and totally not a year ago. Of course, even if hypothetically speaking, it turned up a year ago, there’s nothing wrong with posting it now, right? Music is eternal!
My ineptitude aside, this is a pretty sweet track: solid rock with a bit of a country/surf twang (depending on how you feel about these things). Superbly bop-able, if that’s even a word…
Pretending there hasn’t been a hiatus in 3, 2, 1-
Here is another entirely delightful tune from Canadian indie group and married couple The Tallest Tree who previously melted my coal-encrusted heart with their endearing cuteness and spunk. It is a soft bit of indie rock that you might want to sing to a sweetie while you’re trying hard not to look at them. Not because they’re grotesquely hideous or anything like that, but because you’re shy and your sweetie is shy and you’re all lovey dovey and so on and so forth. Point is, it’s very cute and sweet and lovely and all that jazz. Even though it has no jazz in it. Gosh, I’ve truly forgotten how to write, haven’t I?
I can only assume that, like me, Mumford & Sons occasionally want a break from delicate indie folk tunes. And who doesn’t? As pretty as such tunes can be, they can be dreadfully dreary sometimes! So ol’ Mumford have progressed towards delicate indie rock with their latest album, Wilder Mind. Sure, this isn’t a terribly unique tune, but it is emotional and rockin’ and fun in all the right places. It also kind of sounds a little like The National, which most certainly isn’t a bad thing!
Oh ho, I see how it is! I leave this blog for a mere few months and someone thinks they can come along and post whatever they want! Well, the joke’s on you, sir! Somehow!
Allow me, if you please, to claw back some dignity with a tune recommended to me by my friend, Adele (no, not that Adele – all she does is recommend her own music, annoyingly). I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Jack White, whose output tends to seesaw from brilliant (Love is Blindness – heavenly and haunting) to bizarrely woeful (Another Way to Die – be quiet, White, and let Alicia Keys sing, damnit!). Adele helpfully pointed me towards another example of the former via The Raconteurs (or, oddly enough, The Saboteurs if you live in Australia), a Detroit-based supergroup of which White is a member. It’s an absolutely cracking bit of garage rock, with White’s vocals lending it just a hint of psychedelic mystery to go along with its general wildness!
One of the problems with my appalling laziness is that the world spins on, days become nights, and new music continues to flood my inbox. Life as a blogger is tough, isn’t it? Let’s wipe away the tears that I know you’re currently shedding over my plight and engage the help of our dear friend, Canada, to pull us out of the doldrums. Today, she brings us The Elwins, who in turn bring us a peppy, energetic piece of pop rock (and a fun video to boot!). It’s ever so slightly Strokes-ish (though perhaps not as serious) with a hint of psychedelica thrown in for added spice. It’s also gloriously, stupendously catchy!
Allow me, if you please, to continue this pretence that I am patriotic with yet another post about an Australian group. Though perhaps I have not stretched that particular sentiment very far, considering they’re performing a cover of a rather famous English DJ’s tune. No matter! Despite the compositional simplicity of Praise You, it’s always been an indelibly catchy, toe-tapping kind of song. And, because it’s yet another tune in the oeuvre of musical history that is comprised solely of pre-existing samples, it’s not one that tends to get trotted out for live performances. But The Belligerents manage to maintain the spark of the original, and give it the pep that only a live performance can bring – there’s something almost Courtney Taylor-Taylor-ish in that screaming falsetto.
It was with great sadness that I learnt today that Joe Cocker had passed away after a long battle with lung cancer. I greatly enjoyed his music and figured the best way that I could honour his memory would be with this little post about his most famous work.
A cover of the Beatles song, Cocker made it entirely his own with this wonderfully soulful, sentimental arrangement that has become as ubiquitous as the original version (if not more so). His raspy but powerful vocals perfectly compliment the backup singers in a way that, on paper, really shouldn’t work.
You will be missed, Mr. Cocker.
Once upon a time, there was a film called Sucker Punch. There’s no more to that story, because the film was pretty dang sucky (how on earth do you make a film featuring kick-ass women and robots so dang boring), but there is certainly a good takeaway from it, in the form of this tune.
I am a pretty big fan of the original song, which usually spells doom for any subsequent cover version, but this is quite delightful. It takes an already fairly psychedelic song and gives it a kind of Massive Attack style aura, to which I cannot say no!
