Mister Loveless - My Share of Losing

Someone on Last.fm asked me for this so I thought I would post it here for everyone. I first read about this band through a music blog that posted an mp3 of Scatterplot off this album. I liked Scatterplot so much that I went and ordered My Share of Losing. After a month's wait and some confusion due to my school's shitty mail system I got the CD in the mail along with Mister Loveless' newest EP Two Words (for free! Very nice people).

Mister Loveless' sound is a nice mix of shoegaze and post-punk. The singer's droning voice sounds Ian Curtis inspired and many of the songs have pronounced JDish bass lines. A few songs break from this so the album is all over musically; the first track, Twiggy, is a surfy instrumental and Scatterplot is a guitar filled shoegazy song. I like My Share of Losing a lot. The EP, Two Words, represents a big change in the band's sound and I don't like it too much. Perhaps it needs another listen.

Check out the tracks below or download the full album. If you like it, buy the album from the band.

Twiggy mp3
Scatterplot mp3
Dream mp3
Download album

800beloved - Cassette Single

800beloved is a shoegaze band from Michigan that takes its name from a 1-800 phone number. They haven't released much and what they have I don't know where to buy. There is an LP on the way titled Bouquet but no word on when it will be available. So here are two songs from a single I found on the web. Out of all the songs I've heard from 800beloved, The Skeleton Collection is my favorite due to it being the song with the most audible post punk influences. So check it out!

The Skeleton Collection mp3
Download single

Government Warning - Arrested 7"

There are maybe eight good bands from Richmond and this is one of them. Government Warning plays fast, 80s influenced hardcore. I don't like a lot of hardcore but I love Arrested off this 7". The band is still active and has released an LP called No Moderation along with another 7" EP. Check them out if you like Black Flag, Zero Boys, and etc.

You can buy this 7" from Grave Mistake.

Arrested mp3
Download 7"

KG

Here's an obscure shoegaze band I found on Soulseek. The only info on KG I found is from here.

This one-man show released some hard to find 7'inches. Fantastic JAMC overload meets MBV and Boyracer. Wow!

If you know something else leave a comment!

The JAMC comparison is spot on. The first song on the Candy 7", by far my favorite, sounds like something off Psychocandy. I love it. The other releases have a few good tracks but the standout is Candy.

Candy Loves Me So mp3
Love Me Forever mp3
Download Candy
Download 987
Download From innocence To Catastrophe
Download The Greatest Hits

Tally Ho - Takes Two To Do It + Wavves

This is kind of interesting. Download these tracks and play them in repeat + shuffle. These five short mp3s blend together randomly to make a song. For some reason I listened for at least five minutes. I don't know why.

Download


Also, Wavves' best song, SO BORED, is Insound's free recommended mp3 of the week. Yay! I can't wait for the De Stijl release in February. I'll probably buy both s/t LPs because I love the cover art so much.

And the track listing for the De Stijl album is new to me. Maybe it is to you as well. I haven't heard some of these.

1	rainbow everywhere
2	sun opens my eyes
3	get in the sun
4	jetplane (staying on a )
5	no hope kids
6	more fur
7	so bored
8	summer goth
9	surf goth
10	goth girls
11	ghost ramp
12	killr punx
13	scary demons

Ceremony / Screen Vinyl Image Split LP/CDR

Finally got this in the mail last week. I preordered months ago and the expected release was sometime in October but something came up and the split was delayed a long time.

Ceremony are from Fredricksburg, VA and formed from the remnants of Skywave when they broke up after the release of their second album, Synthstatic. They sound a lot like Skywave and are definitely on the noisier side of shoegaze. More Telescopes than MBV, maybe? Anyways, For Her Smile is now my favorite Ceremony track.

Screen Vinyl Image also come from north Virginia. DC, I think. I had never listened to them before this 12". I don't care too much for their songs on here but it is decent enough to warrant looking into whatever EPs they have out.

I need to catch both these bands live. I missed out on a show with both of them plus some other shoegaze band. Damn weekday metro schedule....

For her Smile mp3
Download LP
Buy it from Custom Made Music

Also, look what came in the mail today. It is beeeeeautifuuuuulll (click because it is best when viewed at maximum size)

Box Elders - Hole In My Head 7"

I read about these guys on Jay Reatard's blog. Box Elders are from Omaha, Nebraska and formed in 2005 but so far only have this single to their name. I really like it, especially the A side tracks. For fans of Wavves and Reatards. Buy it from Grotto Records.



Hole in My Head mp3
One Foot in Front of the Other mp3
Download the 7"

Nodzzz - I Don't Wanna Smoke Marijuana 7"

I don't wanna smoke marijuana
I just wanna get.... high
On another drug

I am very sad that both presses of this single sold out before I heard about Nodzzz because I love both tracks and neither appears on the LP. Nodzzz is three guys churning out short, lo-fi punk songs. They remind me of a sparser, punker Boyracer.

I think the title track on this 7" is their hit, but the LP is worth checking out. You can buy it at Goner. If anyone knows of a distro that still has copies of the single please tell me!

I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana) mp3
We Are the Only Animals mp3
Download the 7"

Miracle Legion - The Backyard EP

I don't know what weird mood is making R.E.M. sound so good to me right now but I don't mind it at all and have been listening to Murmur and Dead Letter Office a lot. I mention R.E.M. because they are an obvious influence on Miracle Legion, a band formed in 1984 in Connecticut. The Backyard is their first release and has my two favorite songs on it: The Backyard and Just Say Hello.

Anyone remember the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete? It was created by two guys who were fans of Miracle Legion, and they asked Miracle Legion to write music for the show. Mark Mulcahy, the singer, accepted and formed a side project called Polaris. The music they wrote for the show was collected on a CD titled "Music From The Adventures of Pete and Pete." I've gotta give the Pete and Pete guys credit for their music taste. Iggy Pop was a main character in the show and there were guest appearances by people like Debbie Harry (Blondie), Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), and Sarah Shannon (Velocity Girl). Good stuff.

The Backyard mp3
Just Say Hello mp3
Download EP

Weird Paul - I Got Drunk At Chuck E. Cheese

Another one-man deal. But totally different from the last one (by the way you should download all five MDID albums if you haven't. I listened to the rest and they're all great)! Rather than depressing post-punk this is... guess I will call it comedy pop. Weird Paul Petroskey has been writing and recording songs for about twenty years and has amassed a GBV-like amount of material (over 600 tracks). I don't really know where to start in the discography, and there is a distinct lack of sample tracks and information on the internet. Though thanks to the track in this video I'll probably be ordering 2001 through Weird Paul's website. I Got Drunk At Chuck E. Cheese has the best line I've heard recently: "I sat down right in front of my plate/and I was so messed up that my pizza tasted great." This is so true because Chuck E. Cheese pizza really does taste like shit. Go to Weird Paul's MySpace to listen to a few songs from his most recent album. Piece of Meat in the Tang is also great.

And here are the lyrics to the above song so you can sing along:

I got drunk at Chuck E. Cheese
on several of their bland chablis
I got drunk at Chuck E. Cheese
and I was asked to leave

I just wanted to know how their wine would taste
but I ended up so very faced
I guess you could say that I got trashed
but you also could say that I got smashed
Chuck E. Cheese is a talking mouse
and that kind of makes sense when you are soused
All I wanted was to cut loose
but I went to far and got totally juiced

I wish I could've helped Nicole when her mom got lost
But I wasn't worth a damn cuz I got tossed
I sat down right in front of my plate
and I was so messed up that my pizza tasted great
I thought of Scott Zodiack when I was wasted
When I saw the puppet's mustache so badly pasted

I got up on stage, I was pretty tipsy
people started throwing tokens but most of them missed me
You don't know what it's like unless you are plastered
when a 6 foot mouse calls you a bastard
he might not have hit me if he hadn't been goaded
but that's just how I am when I get loaded
it's no surprise that I got booted
cuz my brain was so chabli-polluted

LSD and the Search for God - S/T EP

First off, isn't this one of the best band names ever? Very awesome. On this EP are five great MBV/Slowdive sounding tracks with breathy male/female vocals that I love and can put on any hour of the day. This Time is my favorite but really the whole album just flows from track to track like The Comforts of Madness and it all comes together in a mass of dreamy bliss.

Everyone should buy this from Deep Space Recordings so the band can have the monies to produce an LP. The vinyl is beautiful clear yellow but I don't know if there are any more in stock (only 200 pressings in yellow, 800 were black). I sent the mailorder guys a message and will edit this post once I have a response. Because if there are some in stock there's no reason to buy the CD rather than the LP.

UPDATE: Holy shit that was fast. The label replied to my message in less than ten minutes. There are still a few in stock. $13.65 through Paypal!

Download

My Dad Is Dead

I've been on a bit of a one-man-band kick lately. Blank Dogs (check out The Fields cassette/LP/CD if you haven't. It's the best thing he has done so far), Wavves, My Teenage Stride, and most recently Captain Polaroid have all been getting a lot of plays. My Dad Is Dead is Mark Edwards, a guy from Cleveland, Ohio who has been recording since 1985. He has released eleven full length albums as well as some singles and EPs (full discography). I came across My Dad Is Dead while looking through some of my dad's records. The band name sounded neat so I looked it up online and found that Mark Edwards has released the first five albums as free downloads. I've only listened to the first two so far but they are both great and I highly recommend giving them a go. If you're like me it'll make you want to finally learn guitar and start your own band haha.

Mark Edwards is still recording music and has even played a few live shows in the past years (most notably SXSW 2008). You can buy CDs through his store.

Head over to MDID's download page to sample mp3s or grab the five albums + rarities compilation below (in chronological order).

...And He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore
Peace, Love & Murder
Let's Skip The Details
The Best Defense
The Taller You Are, The Shorter You Get Part 1 / Part 2
Rarities

Mix #2 - Perpetual Nervousness (American Jangle Pop)

Sorry to any British fans out there. No June Brides, Smiths, or McCarthy. Maybe in the future!




1. She's Fetching - Big Dipper
2. J.E.B. Pharoahs - Love Tractor
3. Fa Ce La - The Feelies
4. Radio Free Europe - R.E.M.
5. How Come? - Dumptruck
6. Elizabeth Montgomery's Face - The Embarrassment
7. Alex Chilton - The Replacements
8. Volume - Pylon

The Muslims - S/T LP

I don't remember how I came across these guys but I love this album. Classic garage punk that sounds a whole lot like The Stooges. Download and see for yourself. The Muslims also have a 7" coming out soon. You can sample the tracks and preorder it at I Hate Rock N' Roll.

Look for more releases by The Muslims under the decidedly less cool name The Soft Pack. I don't know why they changed it. Surely they don't expect to become big. Maybe they want to tour the Middle East?

Beside Myself mp3
Download the album
Buy LP+CD from Insound

Sourpatch - Demo

I read about Sourpatch over at Skatterbrain and listened to the tracks they had on MySpace after seeing that there was a show in Richmond. Sadly their DC show was last night and I'll be back in DC tonight when they play in Richmond. Shame because I really like the songs I heard. I assume they are off Sourpatch's demo, which is the only thing they have out (you can buy it for $4 if you mail them). You and Fun are fast, poppy, punky songs that make you want to sing along. These two are my favorites by far. The others aren't quite as good (and I kind of hate the part of Toothache where the girl starts talking. If that were cut out the song would be so much better) and are a bit slower.

Sourpatch sound like the Vivian Girls with more pop, less feedback, and clearer vocals. So if you like the Vivian Girls try out the songs below. I found some program that lets you download mp3s from MySpace so that's where these come from. They aren't from the demo (which has 7 tracks). Once I get the CD I'll post if the seventh song is any good.

You
Fun
6 songs from Sourpatch's MySpace

Off the Charts: The Song Poem Story

I saw this movie about two years back and it made me crack up. Off the Charts is a documentary on the business of song poems. Basically these are newspaper ads that say you can send in X amount of money along with a poem and someone will come up with music and vocalize the poem to turn it into a song. Then they send you a tape of the recording. Obviously song poems are ripe for comedy with all the strange people who would buy in to this sort of thing.

There are a few talentless rednecks who are horribly embarrassed after playing live. An old man with a scratchy voice sends in his poems all the time. But the best by far is Caglar Juan Singletary from Elmira, NY. He is just amazing and I want to hang out with him. Caglar likes to write about martial arts, ladies, religion, and science fiction. His song, Non Violent Taekwondo Troopers is a story of love, loss, and Priscilla Presley. I don't think Caglar knows how genius this song is and I am surprised that every new rock band isn't covering it by now since the movie has been out for five years.

Youtube clip of Caglar Juan Singletary in Off the Charts
Buy the movie
Non Violent Taekwondo Troopers mp3
From Off the Charts soundtrack

Moscow Olympics - Cut The World

This could possibly be my favorite release of 2008. Moscow Olympics come from the Philippines and play catchy pop music that sounds like all my favorite genres mashed into one. Cut The World is their debut album (or mini-album. It clocks in at under 30 minutes) and it is spectacular. Not a dull song on this disc! Here is what IndiePages has to say:

This Filipino group was the talk of the indiepop world after their single last year, and this mini-album is just further proof of their greatness - in case one was actually needed! If you missed 'em the first time around, the band plays dreamy pop with a very noticeable New Order influence (especially in the guitar melodies), in the same fashion as bands like the Airfields and the Radio Dept. Simply put, the result is stunning, with a sound that's lush and beautiful and dense with jangling guitars and ambient synths, and with the requisite Pale Saints-ish lost-boy vocal style that often goes along with this kind of music. And the melodies are immaculate, as well. The only fault I found was the drum rolls in the chorus of "Safe", which were rather conspicuously off-time; I know it's one of those things that not everyone would notice, but it definitely stands out to me, though it thankfully doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the song. Brilliant and recommended!

Selected tracks:
Second Trace
Safe
Buy Cut the World from Tonevendor

The biggest fault of Cut The World is that it doesn't include Moscow Olympics' best song. Their only other release was a 7" in late 2007 and the A-side, Still, sounds like it could have been released on Factory in 1982.

Still
Talk Like This
Download the 7"
Buy it from Tonevendor

Extra: Moscow Olympics demo download

Some random tracks from Wavves

Wavves is one guy making noisy pop songs that sound like The Circle Jerks and Jesus and Mary Chain crashed into each other while ripping up an empty backyard pool. Really catchy, really distorted. I ran across a folder of unreleased stuff on Soulseek. I don't know where these tracks originally came from. What I do know is So Bored, which I had heard earlier on Wavves' MySpace, is one of Nathan Williams' best songs.

Be sure to keep an eye on Woodsist for the upcoming CD release of Wavves' out of print first album.

Download here
or head over to Katie's blog and check out Wavves' self titled cassette

The Barbaras - Summertime Road 7"

I picked this up over the summer after hearing some clips on The Barbaras' MySpace page. These guys are from the garage scene in Tennessee and two of them were in Jay Reatard's band.

Once you get past the cheesy sleeve and listen to the music you'll find some catchy pop tunes that sound like they were recorded with a tape player. The fuzzy guitar and vocals on Summertime Road make you smile and wish it were a breezy summer day so you could lie by the creek and forget about everything. The two tracks on the b-side have cleaner production but still sound great. I especially like Flow.

Summertime Road is The Barbara's first and so far only release. As far as I know they are still together. I hope to hear more soon, and if I do you will hear about it here.

Individual tracks
Summertime Road
Day at the Shrine
Flow
or download the whole 7"

Buy it at Insound (use the coupon code "insound_rocks_07" to get 10% off. Yay!)

Extra: Five live recordings from Gonerfest (with Jay Reatard on drums!)

The Homosexuals post

This post is in honor of me not being able to go see one of my favorite bands play their first ever show in DC (god dammit). That band is The Homosexuals, a '70s punk band from Britain. But it's a bit unfair to label them punk since many of their songs sound less like Anarchy in the UK and more like something Gang of Four would put out. Post-punk sounding guitars and DIY production in punk fashion. The Homosexuals were around for 7 or 8 years but didn't release many records. What they did release didn't garner much attention mainly due to being on obscure labels. Their last output was an LP in 1984.

But now the reissue front is going strong and weird bands like this are being compiled on CD. Shortly after The Homosexuals' Record was reissued in 2004, Chuck Warner's awesome Hyped to Death label put out a three disc compilation that basically amounts to everything the band ever did. Stylistically it's all over the place. There are fast punk tunes like Neutron Lover, slower songs like Hearts In Exile, and numerous instrumentals. Go buy Astral Glamour at the Hyped to Death webstore. I promise it is worth the $21.

Now that the band has reformed (well, sort of. Bruno Wizard, the singer, is the only original member) there is a new 10" record titled Love Guns coming out next week on Serious Business Records. It is fully streamable on Last.fm and what I listened to sounded decent. The cool part is Bruno Wizard will be putting a slip of paper with lines from a story in each sleeve. It's limited to 300 pressings so if you want it go and preorder. And if you hate the record hold on to it for 10 years then put it on eBay!

You're Not Moving the Way You're Supposed To (Pt. 2)
Neutron Lover
Astral Glamour
Technique Street
Hearts In Exile
Snapshots of Nairobi

Mix #1 - We're Not In It To Lose (Texas Punk)

Time to break away from the stuff I've been posting recently and put up some punk music. Forget indie pop ever happened and pogo to this little mixtape I whipped up. Special thanks to KBDrecords and Good Bad Music for some of these tracks. I'll definitely do more of these "small scope" mixes in the future (mostly out of necessity as the website I found only supports eight tracks).



1. My Girlfriend Is A Rock - Nervebreakers
2. Narrow View - Big Boys
3. Nova Lust (Dick Lazer Meets Midge Meteoritz) - The Shades
4. Ultimate Orgasm - Non Compos Mentis
5. Zyklon B - Hugh Beaumont Experience
6. Monotony - The next
7. Crowd Control - Really Red
8. The Badge Means You Suck - AK 47

My Bloody Valentine - Two live bootlegs

Seventeen years and hundreds of thousands of pounds later, Kevin Shields is again working on a My Bloody Valentine album.

Shields confirmed the rumours at the My Bloody Valentine-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival this weekend, taking his earplugs out for long enough to talk to the New York Times. He will be returning to songs started over a decade ago, during abortive sessions for Island Records. "I realised that all that stuff I was doing in 1996 and 1997 was a lot better than I thought," he said.

-Guardian

When MBV tours for this album I will not miss them like I did this year.

Live at ICA, London June 13th, 2008 (first show in 16 years)
Tracks 1-10
Tracks 11-17
Live at Roundhouse, London June 21st, 2008.
Tracks 1-9
Tracks 10-16

Both end with a 20+ minute wall of sound. Enjoy!

Disco Ditto and other stuff by Az

I'm posting about this mainly because of a freak coincidence. While searching SoulSeek for some music I ran across a guy named "Disco Ditto." The name seemed familiar and it took a few minutes before I remembered listening to a band with the same name on MySpace a few hours earlier. I asked him if he was in the band and he said yes. He then told me about another band of his called Stellarium. Now, if the "Shoegaze/Shoegaze/Shoegaze" tag on Stellarium's MySpace or the dozens of references on Disco Ditto's page didn't tip you off, these two bands are shoegaze. Well, I guess it's called nu-gaze now that we're in the 2000s but whatever. MBV and JAMC inspired noisy music.

Disco Ditto released a free EP titled Into The Void earlier this year. Here is what Az has to say about it:

For starters, here’s a brief info:

Disco Ditto started as a one man solo project that I did to do stuff bordering on how I feel and for nostalgic purposes. It was 2004, and I was concurrently in Valium, a post punk band, and in Athena Flight, a shoegaze band which had lotsa potential and songs but fell out in the end. So in the midst of being in those two bands I decided to do something for myself as a way to remember particular feelings and emotions. And that’s when I recorded Love in a total time span of 13 hours at home on my busted computer. A few other songs fell through from there, some good, some bad, but it was personal to me.

In the path through time, I met different sets of individuals who expressed interest and liking in the songs, though I thought they were merely simplistic and too personal for anyone to comprehend, these three individuals joined the band and now it has evolved into a complete band with different sounds entirely, in which I’m glad and interested in exploring. I have since decided to let go of the EP as a sign of a closing chapter, and the opening of a new one with the current line-up.

I hope you guys will enjoy it, and treat it as a walk down memory lane yourselves.


Love,

Az

Disco Ditto

Download Into The Void or head to MySpace and preview the tracks

Unlike Disco Ditto, Stellarium is not a one man project. You can head over you their MySpace to listen to some tracks. Drift, my favorite, has a definite Slowdive feel to it. Very relaxing and smooth.

As a bonus, here is a song Az had on his SoulSeek. It is from a band called Athena Flight which is yet another band he played in. In the quoted message about Into The Void he mentions Athena Flight disbanded. I'm not sure if there are any other recordings out there, but this one is nice.

Athena Flight - Away From The Sun

Hotels - Thank You For Choosing

I bought this after finding it on CD Baby filed under "Sounds Like: Joy Division" and liking the previews. After listening the the album a few times I've come away disappointed, but still want to talk about three of the better tracks. The first, Atlantic, prompted me to buy the CD. Right away the Joy Division influence is obvious in the singer's vocals. Atlantic benefits from not being synthesizer heavy and drawn out like some of the other songs. A few of the instrumental tracks go on for too long and don't have enough hooks to be interesting. The one instrumental that does stand out is Farewell To Love. It clocks in at less than three minutes and has a fun bass line. Last comes Many Happy Returns. Again the Ian Curtis vocals are present and are joined by a Garlands-era Cocteau Twins bass sound which I love. Doom-y but pleasant sounding.

Here are the tracks I mentioned. If you want to hear the rest head over to Hotels' MySpace and order the CD.

Atlantic
Farewell To Love
Many Happy Returns
From Thank You For Choosing by Hotels

Either Deerhunter were so loud they puréed my bowels or I shouldn't have eaten Taco Bell

Something clicked inside me when Deerhunter stopped playing and announced Barack Obama had broken 270 electoral votes. I felt as if the world had been altered. President Bush still sits in his throne and the economy remains in turbulence but my chest warmed to the news. For the rest of the set I completely lost myself in the noise. A blissful wall of sound underlain by Bradford Cox's vocals washed away every anxiety. And though I knew no promised change would be seen until January 20th, the streets of Washington, D.C. professed that it had come sharp at 11 o'clock. Hollers and sirens and honks echoed around the city blocks. People blanketed an entire intersection, blocking traffic. Bits of the 93% of D.C. that voted for Obama sprawled all of U-Street, cheering his victory. It was incredible. Never before have I seen such unity achieved through an election.

The DCist pointed out that perhaps Deerhunter made a poor choice in playing election night. For me, November 4th made the show. Decades from now some kid will be digging through my old CDs, find Cryptograms, and I will recall the night Obama was elected. I will tell him how everyone came together on the corner of 14th and U and hopefully he will have never experienced the opposite.

Deerhunter put on a fantastic show. They played tracks off both Cryptograms and Microcastle, their newest release. The sheer volume made up for the disappointing omission of Strange Lights. Days later my ears are faintly ringing but that has only encouraged me to fill silence with music. I eagerly await the band's next visit to D.C.

If you haven't listened to Deehunter yet, go buy Cryptograms and Microcastle right now.

Deerhunter - Oh It's Such A Shame
Jay Reatard cover from Jay Reatard/Deerhunter split 7"
Deerhunter - Agoraphobia
From Microcastle
Deerhunter - Strange Lights
From Cryptograms