Down there in the dark i could see the real truth about me

The Mountain Goats is actually John Darnielle. Another soulful guitar strumming hipster, except this one has a past to back up his words. The Sunset Tree is an entire album about his abusive stepfather and the family life that he dealt with growing up. We Shall all be Healed is about his teenage years hanging out with meth addicts. This man has been listed in more "best songwriter" lists than i can remember. The Sunset Tree is more easily likable and is probably your best bet to get into the music. After several listens and comparisons you should find yourself liking We Shall all be Healed more.

The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree

The Mountain Goats

Clamour for Glamour!

What was started by the scissor sisters and continued by the darkness has been mastered by The Ark. Upbeat infectious hooks and charismatic overindulgence. This reminds me of the best parts of Queen, Elton John and to a lesser extent Bowie. For such a glitzy over-the-top affair it's a surprisngly sincere and solid piece of work.


The Ark - State of the Ark

Did they make prog rock accessible? or pop worth listening too? who cares

The Alan Parson's group where a prog-pop band from around about the 80's. Their best album was Ammonia Avenue, and it's quite an album. Strong instrumentation, fair vocals, intriguing lyrics and studio polish mean that there are no weak tracks on this album.

The Alan Parsons Project - Ammonia Avenue

Lounge redux

Smoma are a trio of trumpet, keyboard and vocals. You already know what your getting yourself into with these.

Smoma - Casual Lounge

Smoma and Friends the Kancutband

I got the space voodoo blues....

After some dark and mysterious grooves from outerspace circa New Orleans? Papa Mali is what you need. Any album that has slide guitar, little moses and quadrological rocket stations all in one track, is one i can dig.

Pap Mali - Do Your Thing

Modern Melodies

My First Trumpet does not contain any trumpets. It does contain some very nicely understated melodies with interesting layers of sounds. Electronic and organic sounds mix nicely in this mature recording which, to my ears, has a distinct tinge of whimsy to it.


My First Trumpet - Frerk

The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi

Owen is a misleading name since it's really just Mike Kinsella from various 90's things you've all heard before. This album is a soundtrack for a quiet afternoon filled with nostalgia and personal memories. The multiple layering of intricate guitar melodies is wide and varied with little in the way of traditional song structures in sight. The lyrics are both well written and deeply emotional, albeit somewhat distant with an air of reminiscence. I would compare this to a cross between Eliot Smith and Nick Drake while avoiding all the terrible connotations to all those people who tried and failed to sound exactly like those two. It's refreshing to hear music that sounds as if it were made simply for the sake of making it.


Owen - At Home With Owen

A baby, if you really break it down, is just a tiny, shirtless, bald human being with a bag of its own crap tied around its waist.

Patton Oswalt is a comedian who's face you probably won't recognise, but his voice you almost certainly will. His routine hangs almost entirely upon his voice, which is good because the whole thing doens't fall apart on cd like some comedians. He also has the uncanny ability to sound exactly like he looks. I'm not sure how he does it but i've seen this man live and it is exactly like the image in your head from listening to this.

Patton Oswalt - Feelin Kinda Patton

Last one out; hit the lights...

The lights shall be turned back on around the 22nd-ish of August, till then

farewell and adieu to you spanish ladies

The prospect of finding pleasure tomorrow will never compensate for today‘s boredom.

There are two types of peope in this world, those who do a large amount of acid and then stay in a controlled environment to avoid sensory overload; and those who do a large amount of acid and then run shouting a primal roar of exuburance into the night, as they ride in the upraised tray of a tractor that is travelling faster than any heavy equipment ever should, piloted by a raging alcoholic who would eventually pass out behind the wheel, towards a bonfire that is more chemical in nature than organic and flames that seem to engulf the stars themselves while a misting rain merges with the light creating a diaphanous shroud of light and a rain of ash flitters and whirls with an air of accidental magic, laughing at the folly of gravity.

Either type will enjoy this.

This is probably one of the most finely produced-audio play's i've ever heard, and the acting is very strong. It perfectly captures the rising cresendo of madness and sense of panic that trippers the world over know and love. Now i have a question for the readers, i'm %90 certain that Harry Shearer does some background voices, one of the reporters sounds exactly like Otto from the Simpsons. If someone could confirm or deny my suspicions it would be appreciated.

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vega - A Radio Play

There's no poetry between us; said the paper to the pen

Make no mistake, Gary Jules is a poet. His poems are wrapt up in a cocoon of mellow folky-rock goodness but they are poems none the less. Most people recognise Gary from his remake of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World" which was used to much effect in the Donnie Darko soundtrack but that was an atypical track and you should prepare for a different sort of sound.

The debut solo album "Greetings from the Side" contains individually better songs than the follow up release "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets" however the former never really feels cohesive. It is really just a collection of songs put onto and album, a collection of great songs including possibly the greatest love song i've ever heard(Owen Down), but it never really meshes with itself.

"Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets" on the other hand is a far more fleshed out piece of work. Melancholy and subdued each track captures the mood of a different story, with Los Angeles as an unspoken backdrop.

Gary Jules - Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets

Gary Jules - Greetings from the Side

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Influences Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Mr. Show, Bill Hicks, Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot

Again with the wikipedia titles, but sometimes they're just some damn pithy. Stephen Lynch is a musician/comedian and this is his music. If you don't find the influence list enough to sell you on the idea, try googling Stephen Lynch and plenty of video's of live performances are available.

A Little Bit Special

The Craig Machine

Superhero

Avant-garde jazz, jazz funk, soul-jazz, post-bop (the wikipedia tags for this album)

Dearest readers i'm afraid i must offer my sincerest apologies to all. The other day i made a mistake. I posted an album by Mediski, Schofield, Martin and Wood and i made quite an error. When i wrote that update i used descriptions like "funky spy soundtrack". What i was thinking of is actually this album which is simply Mediski, Martin and Wood. No Schofield in there. The out louder album with Schofield i posted is a much tighter and traditionally jazzy affair, while End of the world party is the groovy goodness i was thinking of. Now that that's covered you should get this album if only for the oh so charming title.

There are really three tracks you need to listen to to understand this album. first off, the titular track, end of the world party( just in case). People have said that it's overly dominated by Mediski's keyboard playing but that's not a bad thing to my way of thinking. This song sounds like it should be playing at the hippest party the world has ever seen.

Bloody Oil shows why Chris Wood is so renowned for his bass skills and New planet shows how tightly they can play together. Sasa's horn section is prolly worth listening to as well.

Mediski, Martin and Wood - End of the World Party(Just in Case)

Denies the Day's Demise

Daedelus has quite a bit of critical acclaim under his belt. In my opinion this electronic artist from LA first really found his sound with this album. It's an interesting album and at times almost infuriating but by the by it's a well crafted solid piece of work. The sound is the usual mix of strange and interesting samples from obscure places but unlike most of the electronic genre this has a distinctly Brazilian feel. In many songs carribean beats underly the mashup of sounds and each song is actually an entire song, not just a collection of sounds thrown in a blender like so many other artists end up doing. At 15 tracks it could probably have stood to bear to be cut to 10-12ish tracks but that's not a terribly big complaint, not when compared to the fact that it avoids sounding overly cold and artificial, despite otherworldly sounds at several points it seemed as though i was listening to an analogue recording. This is something you should play for people who scoff at electronica as a viable method making music, not simply sounds.


Daedelus - Denies the Day's Demise

Sometimes thirty minutes is all it takes

Many would say Thelonious Monk was at his best in the early 50's, and it was certainly his most creative period. Sonny Rollins was one of the few people who could keep up with him and in 53 they put out " Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins". It's fairly short with only five tracks clocking in at 34 minutes but it's two of the best playing well together, 34 minutes is really all you need.

Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins

Avante Groove

If your the sort of person who would like Mediski Marton & Wood, then your the sort of person who already knows about them. The sort of person person who knows what's worth digging, and how to dig it. You probably have funk flowing through your veins and walk through this world surrounded by the soundtrack of a 60's psychadelic spy movie. Well in 2006 they made another album with guitar legend John Scofield and this time they really clicked, Unlike on A Go Go which sounded like a trio playing with a session guitarist this time it sounds like a quartet. Worth having for the amazing cover of the Beatles song Julia

Mediski, Martin, Scofield & Wood - Out Louder

Comedy-Indie-Folk-Rock

You've probably seen Flight of the Conchordes at a comedy festival, or on their HBO tv series which is also called "Flight of the Conchordes". If you haven't seen the show then i suggest you do, it's well worth watching for the low key deadpan lines of crazy that they dish out every couple of minutes. The second season was supposed to be released 2008 but is now looking like 2009 and to tide you all over here is the soundtrack.

Flight of the Conchordes

Yeah i know that cat, heard his voice a thousand time

You have probably spent more time listening to this man's voice then you have listening to your closest friends, and his name is Ken Nordine. Now he's done a large amount of commercial work but he also created a little thing known as word jazz. Now i know word jazz sounds like some kid in a black beret reciting plagiarism filled poem to an empty cafe on a Tuesday night, but Mr.Nordine has worked for over 80 years thanks to his voice, and his voice can pull off word jazz with authority.

Back in the 60's i think, he was commissioned to do a series of paint commercials that was just him reading Dr.Seuss-esque poems about the colours over a dreamlike background of cool jazz. The adds were so popular and highly acclaimed that he wrote about 30 or so and made an album of it.

The entire album has a dreamlike quality to it, which makes sense seeing as all the material was written at 3am on sleep deprived nights. This is something to listen to while falling asleep so his smooth ringing voice can lull you to sleep, or while taking powerful psychedelics so his voice can calm you while his words take you to strange new worlds of anthropomorphic colours. You'll either love of hate this.

Ken Nodine - Colours

Efterklang (the Danish word for remembrance and reverberation)

Efterklang are a Danish musical group who I'd probably class as a collective along the lines of The Polyphonic Spree, and The Spree are a good comparison. Upbeat and swelling with every sound they can possibly make, this album is a testament to the blurred line that the union of organic and electronic can form. It is positively symphonic is sound and arrangement each note is carefully placed within a palatial amount of space. This is probably the most luscious album i've ever heard and certainly one of the best. The hushed choral vocals that meander through the songs do well not to draw attention away for the complex and intricate melodies. It is intelligent, beautiful and life affirming. It sounds like the soundtrack to the greatest movie never made. I recommend you start with the track 'Mirador'

Efterkland - Parades

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Who says synth-rock is dead? it just isn't feeling very well right now

The Birthday Massacre are two thirds of a great band. Any description of them usually throws around works like industrial. These are the bad parts, every so often the guitarists feel the need to start thrashing and when they do it hurts, because when they do the synth and electro side cuts off, I assume out of a certain musical embarrassment and a sheepish desire not to be mixed up with some bland by the books industrial thrashing for thrash's sake "heavy-ness". In the first album Violet it was quite a problem where is ruined some potentially great songs such as 'blue'. Luckily the next album Walking with Strangers has less, and fingers crossed the next album will have even less.

That's the bad part, now lets talk about why i like these guys regardless. They do the electro synth part well, really well. The word Goth also gets thrown around when describing them but pay no attention to that, it's kinda right but it will lead to mistaken preconceptions and if your anything like me, you'll start sneering reflexively. There is a sense of whimsy-meets-reality harshness that could be called goth but really shouldn't be.

I would recommend getting Walking with Strangers first and simply accepting the fact that for at two or three points your going to have to press the next button. This shouldn't deter you because the rest of the album is so good. Once you've listened to Walking with Strangers imagine that ration of 70-30 good to bad changed to 35-65 and you've a pretty good idea of what Violet sounds like.

The Birthday Massacre - Violet

The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers

You know it's a sin this not being ready, this not being up to it

Lately it's been infrequent and unsatisfying, no I'm not talking about your fat promiscuous mother, I'm talking about my posting habits. Well rest assured i haven't simply been lying in bed eating pie, though there has been plenty of that. I'm building up a bank of posts, I'm up to about 10 so far and I'll probably do another 10 in the next week, this way i should be able to guarantee you a Monday/Wednesday/Friday upload till pretty much the end of the year regardless of how much lying in bed and eating of pie happens in my life. And for my next trick, watch me disappear!

*poof*!

Two hours into the month and six albums, good hustle, good hustle.

I have a treat for you, this is so far my choice as album for the year of 2008 and it is currently head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, barring a phenomenal new Modest Mouse album i don't think my choice will change, actually even with a new modest mouse album that beats everything else they've done at best it would match this album. Brian Scary and the Shredding Tears with their second album Flight of the Knife. I've spoken to a few people about this and read a few reviews online and it's been described as simiilar to David Bowie, The Beatles, The Who, Queen, ELO, Alan Parsons and according to one person Ozzy Osbourne. The one thing you'll find in common is that every compares it to the greatest bands they like. It's only their second album but it sounds both so mature and yet incredibly inventive. If you download only one thing from this blog make it this. I think in a dozen or so years we'll still be listening to this and remarking how great it was .

Brian Scary and the Shredding Tears - Flight of the Knife

Please, i'm the coolest cat alive. I could even play jazz on bagpipes, hmm, bagpipes....

Now at first glance the idea of jazz bagpipes sounds like a simply terrible idea, i was in the same boat myself at one point but then i realised i had not lived until i heard chim chim cher-re on bagpipes. After listening to this you'll be wondering why there isn't a whole lot more? Now i can't do justice to this black kilted viking helmet wearing madman so i'll just say his wikipedia entry is worth reading.

Rufus Harley - A few scattered recording i found from god knows where.

In the beginning there was nothing, not even time / No planets, no stars, no hip-hop, no rhyme.

Scientist turned gansta rapper MC Hawking is in the hizzouse. If you don't love physics, and the idea of Stephen Hawking busting out phat rhymes doesn't sound like the greatest idea you've ever heard this is probably not for you.

MC Hawking - A Brief History of Rhyme

The Punters Club Irregulars

Who says australia can't produce wonderful indie-pop? i'm fairly certain no one and this is due in no small part to The Lucksmiths. If you like The Smiths you'll enjoy the clever wordplay and witty lyrics found in all their work, if you like Belle & Sebastian you'll enjoy the underlying music. And seeing as everyone likes The Smiths and Bell & Sebastian you have no excuse not to get this.

The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners

Swing revival should have never died

Squirrel Nut Zippers is the name of this quirky jazz fusion 1930's swing band. For those of you into fusion all you really need to know is that Andrew Bird is listed as an honourary member. For the rest of you all you really need to do is watch this clip



Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot

Murder.... by death

Okay so murder by death are a four piece rock band from Indiana and yes they took there name from the 76 comedy movie. Descriptions of them range from punk rock to alt country but the only word that really describes them is Western. I used to have an early concept album by them that was about the devil waging war on a small town in Mexico but checking my audio folder it seems to have disappeared into the ether. Not to worry the album i still have is far better produced and overall a superior album despite not having the astonishingly good song "devil in Mexico".

In Bocca al Lupo is the name of the album and comes from an italian phrase meaning "into the mouth of the wolf" according to no lesser source than wikipedia. The themes of this album are sin, redemption and guilt with every track tying nicely to those themes. Brother and Shiola are probably the stand out tracks with brother being a rock song about the bonds of brotherhood being stronger than the law and shiola having to my ear a fairly dead-on job at pretending to be johnny cash.

Murder by death - In Bocca al Lupo

Albums you should have by now Vol.1

In 2003 Rolling Stone declared this album to be the greatest of all time

The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers


A stunning example of indie rock breaking into the mainstream without sacrificing anything.

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Nathaniel Merriweather presents... Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By

Okay so first of all with the band members, Nathaniel Merriweather is actually Dan the Automator from Handsome Boy Modelling school, and Chester Rockwell who has a few speaking parts is Prince Paul. The male lyrics are sung by Mike Patton(Faith no more) and the female vocals come from Jennifer Charles with Kid Koala on the turntables.

If you were to take the slower and funkier tracks from Handsome Boy Modeling School like 'the truth' and 'once again' and make an album of then with premise being sex, you'd have Lovage. Even though the album as a whole can't seem to decide whether or not it's a homage or simply mocking all those old soft R'n'B crooners from the 80's that thankfully have dissapeard, it's still a very interesting concept album with good production that is so different from most everything else that it deserves at least a one off listen from everyone, the tracks 'strangers on a train' and 'everyone has a summer' alone save the album for me. On a side note i'm not sure how much of good album this would be to make love to your old lady by, it's possibly the best or worst thing you could try. If you did try it, leave a comment.

Nathaniel Merriweather presents... Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By

Better than Ezra; or, those guys with that song from the X-Files movie

Better than Ezra are an alternative rock band from New Orleans, Louisiana. Since the early 90's they've been making some good music and seem to have mostly stayed off the grid of mainstream awareness. This is a 'best of' album released in 2005 that covers just about all the highs these guys managed to hit and does a better job of showing the band's style than most 'best of' collections. This is solid, good for all occasions rock that will probably feel most at home as the background noise for a group of friends who can't seem to agree on the choice of tunes.

Better than Ezra - Greatest Hits

Pure Imagination

This is for the music makers...
This is for the dreamers of dreams...

Willy Wonka 1970 Original Soundtrack

It's all about lounge

Lounge against the machine is the first album by Richard Cheese and as far as first albums go it's really quite something. Richard Cheese is the LA based comedian Mark Davis and his backing band Bobby Ricotta and Frank Feta are actually Noel Melanio and Brian Fishler.

The entire premise behind Richard Cheese is what would happen if you took Metal/Rap/Pop songs and covered them in the most over the top swanky lounge style possible? well the answer is some very funny songs and some surprisingly good music. If your anything like me you'll listen to it a few times to laugh at how deadpan lines like "here's one for the ladies, RAPE ME!" but after a little while you'll stop listening to the lyrics and just appreciate such a well done over the top style of lounge. This is an album i can thoroughly recommend to everyone, you'll come for the kitsch and stay for the camp.

Richard Cheese - Lounge against the machine

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Interconnected Networks

Trip Hop, Jazz and Electronica

Tryad are an interesting group. One of the first groups to release all their music and the creative commons license back in 2005. They formed online without meeting each other and have made to excellent albums so far. Luscious vocals, intricate rhthyms and richly textured sounds.

Tryad - Listen

Stupid is as stupid does; and Lester's done it all

Well these two albums are one's i've had on near constant repeat for the last two weeks. Josh Woodward is another of those indie-folk-rock singer/songwriters that have popped up like weeds over the last half dozen years with the notable exception of actually being good. I have two albums for you hear today the first being 'Dirty Wings' which is the more rock orientated of the two.

I suggest you download 'Dirty Wings' first of the two to decide if you like the mans style, before moving on to 'Not Quite Connected' which is a lighter poppier recording.

Josh Woodward - Dirty Wings

Josh Woodward - Not Quite Connected

Organic Plastic Music

The words "Japanese" and "jazz fusion" don't usually go together. But if at any point in time you have been in a car with me, and i have been in control of the music, you've heard this music before. This gem of a recording is the first album by this japanese jazz duo, and may not initially sound like good driving music but is well worth trying. I especially recommend track 6 'happy valley'


Orange Pekoe - Organic Plastic Music