Sam's Christmas Mix

Ok Shits & Dicks, here’s the scoop. I am a dirty whore of a wannabe-trendoid scenester. However, this is that nice little Fire!y area where its dance, house, & indie faggory which I know deep down you all love to death but just can’t admit it yet. I hope you enjoy my little compilation. Love! I mixed it up and made it crossfade nicely for y'all and you can download it HERE (83mb, but its pretty 'dope' so its worth it.):

http://download.yousendit.com/7CC1C4A91BD75565

here's the tracklist.

1. Q & Not U - So Many Animal Calls

I wanted to take a step back and start the mix with something that wasn’t just this years buzz band or buzz sound, so I went with these dudes.

2. Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Jess & Crabbe Remix)

I only put this one in because I wanted to show off Daft Punk track that probably noone had their greasy paws on yet. I was almost going to attempt a remix myself, but who has the time? Also a crabbe was part of this remix team, which is awesome. Ignore the russian rave-chant announcement halfway through.

3. The Presets - Are You The One? (Simian Mobile Disco Remix)

These guys were a slightly late discovery of mine, I love it when dudes try to be heaps cocky and sexy. Wait… I don’t like that. Anyways, this track is pretty cool.

4. Out Hud - The Stoked American

Out Hud are climbing the ladder of my favourite groups extremely rapidly. This isn’t even their best song, I just wanted to spring something unexpected on youse guys. I’m thinking Architecture In Helsinki meets !!!. That can only be a good thing.

5. Mountains In The Sky - Stealing Through

I think just about everyone has heard my ranting about these guys by now. They are so fucking great. Haha, orchestral Trip-Hop madness at its finest!

6. Air - Kelly Watch the Stars

Possibly the lamest song of all time. I love it to death.

7. Goldfrapp - Beautiful

Anyone getting into electronica must listen to these guys, I don’t care how grossly overproduced it is; its like a Unicorn learned to play synth while kissing a Wizard on a rainbow lake.

8. Midnight Juggernauts - 45 & Rising (Cut Copy Remix)

This one is disgustingly scene, but whatevs. The point is, Australia is now making some decent indie dance pop. I really wanted to put “Going Nowhere” by Cut Copy on, because that song is amazing, but I figured it was “Old Hat”.

9. My Disco - Calling Cure

I love this band. So simple yet so confusing, doing so much with so little, if you know what I mean.

10. Kasabian - Shoot the Runner

Hahahaha. I’m going to hell. But wait till about halfway where it becomes all electronic and… well, tits.

11. Hot Chip - Over & Over (Maurice Fulton Remix)

This is another case of me opting for a remix over the original, so people can expand their mp3 collections. This has the craziest bassline I’ve encountered in popular music. Dig it.

12. Who Made Who - This Space for Rent

Posted purely for Josh. Octave bass is hypnotic.

13. Cap’n Jazz - Oh Messy Life

How fucking great is the guitar line at the beginning of this track?

14. Explosions In The Sky - First Breath After Coma

This one goes for ages, but it is really beautiful stuff. I’ve decided all you need to do is name your band “Something in the Sky” and I’ll like you.

15. Portishead - Theme from “To Kill a Dead Man”

I love Portishead. This one is instrumental, and pretty much totally different to all of their other stuff. Regardless, this song has an awesome name.

Enjoy. - have an awesome new year! <3

Christmix Playlist

Ok, so I couldn't be bothered writing and printing out playlists to give to you individually, you couldn't be bothered reading them and carrying them around. This is easier for all of us. A foreword i believe is in order:

Now most of us are doing a playlist for eachother in one form or another and I've already heard Sam's, he's got all sorts of fancy-dancy crossfading which, from the perspective of flow and coolness, shits all over my dinky Christmix flow, it is actually amazing. I hope you'll all take into account that I've attempted to merge a whole bunch of different stuff including Indie, Dance AND Jazz into a hopefully cohesive compilation. So, ya know, give me a chance for the love of god. Ok, so I've blabbed on enough, lets get this party started.

1. Shout - Tears For Fears

Lame? Shut your fucking mouth, this is an amazing 80s track, the layering and parts are to die for. Ok, maybe it is a LITTLE lame, I'm aware of the tongue und cheek but if you can look past the cheese its pretty fucking great.

2. Candy Cut - I Heart Hiroshima

Ok! Now we're rolling. Cutsie guitar indie from Oz. These guys won't blow your mind but they will make you dance around not unlike a ewok...and thats one hell of a way to dance

3. Get Up - Sleater Kinney

Again, I'm not in-love with these gals but this song is really great, layering wise, combines a lot of simple elements into a really pacey song.

4. Running, Returning - Akron/Family

I found this track on a free compilation I received, gotta love those percussive choirs of what sounds like sumo wrestlers and upon later inspection IS in fact sumo wrestlers. What a world. I'm also lying about the sumos, we all know they're not real.

5. Holy Names - Pretty Girls Make Graves

I dunno, before their second guitarist left these guys were kings/queens of the two guitar indie interplay. I would have put All Medicated Geniusus on this but that one was been played to death

6. Losing Friends - Death From Above 1979

Yes I know, everyone knows I like these guys but this track is off their first EP I think so theres a chance less of you have this, very dirty and thrashy.

7. The Next Realm - Nine Days Wonder

I got this track off a mix someone else made for me. God knows what the singer is saying but gotta love the post-punk groove

8. December - Regina Spektor

She's great, especially when she feigns an english working class accent and talks about houses.

9. Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp

You thought you knew Goldfrapp? You were wrong.

10. Track B - Duet Solo Dancers - Charles Mingus

Ok...this is just so evil and great and morbid and sleazy and cacophonic (in parts) and swooney in others. Love love love love love love.

11. Give Me Every Little Thing - The Juan Maclean

Such an amazing synthy/video gamey/parliament of funky (vocally speaking) dance track. This replaced the original MSTRKRFT track I had intended.

12. On Power Off - Snap! Crakk!

I still like Damn Arms better but thanks to me boi Tim I've introduce those who don't know these fine (and no longer in existence) fellows to you.

13. Tombstone - Midnight Juggernauts

Yes, its lame, its scene, leave me alone, its great

14. Killer Kat - Expatriate

Once again, another fairly lame track and these guys seem to be getting worse and worse but the bassline is to die for and well, to be honest, I still think its a pretty great track

15. See Carolina's Fastest Trees - We Versus The Shark

Oh! Indie-faggotry grows some balls and musicality. If this doesn't wake you up then I probably wish you were dead anyways...

16. The People Fight - Nobuo Uematsu

Lol, Final Fantasy 7 music revamped and made all classically. C'mon, shut up, this is fucking amazing.

17. In A Sentimental Mood - John Coltrane, Miles Davis & Duke Ellington

Whoo baby, jazz has never been so tasty. We're winding up now, I thought I'd give y'all a nice little break before I finish you off.

18. Forever More - Moloko

Throbbing, grandoise, sassy, dancey? Moloko? Yep. Wait...that's stupid. Ok, more exposition. This is the best finisher I could think of and I think I'm pretty great cause its an amazing closing track. I know I've put you through a lot, this is not a short mix and maybe the rapid genre changes have been a bit jarring but fuck, if nothing else you're all a bit better for the education. This track is amazing, if there's one thing we should drop to our knees and worship Moloko for it's their mastery of the musical build-up, this song is a perfect example.

I hope you enjoy the mix.

New !!! leaked!!!

Okay, so the new !!! has leaked. Suffice to say, its the best thing theyve ever done. I wasn't personally a huuuuge fan of Louden Up Now, but this is just gold. Its called "Myth Takes". It will be a classic, just watch. It totally combines the smoothness of Out Hud with the glitchy funky beats of !!!. Best thing? Its pretty evenly spaced. 10 tracks. Longest track is 8 mins. I'm not that big a fan of 10 min+ opuses like !!! and Out Hud have a habit of doing. Anyway, I'd post a song on here, but I'd get in trouble...

The Real V Festival Announcement

So, people were lied to, mistakes were made, babies were accidentally cooke...d.... whoa.

So yeah - here's the official one. no Who, dammit! also, that adelaide stuff was probably a crock of tits as well. oh well, we still get a quarter of the Rapture coming down our way.


Pixies
Pet Shop Boys
Groove Armada
Gnarls Barkley
Soulwax - Nite Versions
2manydjs
The Rapture
Phoenix
Softlightes
Bumblebeez
Mercy Arms
The Temper Trap

Metal Hearts

So ok, everyone knows that Cat Power's best album was Moon Pix. Sure, You Are Free is pretty good too, The Greatest...wasn't really. I mean, Cat Power mixed with happiness and steel lap guitar? I dunno Chan, I just don't know. That aside, Moon Pix is amazing in the fragile futility it sends right through my stereo speakers (or in this case, computer speakers).

So what happens when you mix Moon Pix with Portishead's Dummy (undeniably far better than 2nd album "Portishead")? Well, you get the band Metal Hearts. I mean, it has all the depressive strains of both Moon Pix and Dummy but takes the jangly guitar of the former and the slick beats and brass sounds of the latter and creates a whole new way to be blue. These guys have been a godspend and further reinforce my theory that depressing music keeps you cool (which is pretty much invaluable in this fucking grotesque weather). I'd put a song down for everyone to download and listen to but I don't know how. If anyone is interested/reading this go to www.myspace.com/themetalhearts

Thats all.

B.

The Construction of a Christmix

Ok, so, I WAS writing a good set of instructions (or proposals) as the how one might (should) go about constructing a Christmas Mix but then some of my dumb friends (you know who you are) came around and I forgot to send/save it. So here's my second go.

Now, for those not familiar with the idea of a Christmas Mix (I would have thought it was more or less self explanatory but hey, some people are just slow), the basic idea is a mix...OF SONGS...that you give to your friends...AT CHRISTMAS. Yeah, its the cheap alternative for the Music-wanker. Having said that, in my construction of such a mix (thats right, I'm getting in early) a few things occured to me, I shall now outline them because I have nothing at all better to do.

First of all, the rules that apply to the construction of a normal mix are suddenly turned on their head to some extent. In some ways you're given more leniency in making a Christmas Mix, but in other ways you're entirely too constricted in what you can and cannot do.

For example, the idea of the Christmix (I'm gonna call it that from now on, haha, it looks like CHRISTmix, haha, what is that? funny! Shut up.) is that you'll be sending it out to your closest friends. As a result the pressure to be all "scene" and display your entirely too obscure tastes in music is not half as great. These people are your friends hence, they know you're a Music-wanker (I could perhaps come up with a more eloquent title for such a person but Music-Wanker both embraces Australian colloquialism and cuts right to the heart of the description). In a Christmix for friends, the song choices open up to include songs that have some sort of significance (in jokes n'such) and so, in this way, the pressure is off.

It is however reapplied (not unlike a moist towelette) when you consider what songs you ARE going to put on the mix. Remember, because these bastards that call themselves "your friends" would typically listen to the same stuff as you (didn't music bring you all together? Just like Michael Jackson?) the selection of songs required to make a cogent mix is suddenly made harder on the grounds that most of these people know most of the stuff you like. You want to surprise and delight these people (and make up for the fact that you're spending all of 3 dollars on their present).

Of course, now is your chance to unearth all those little songs you've discovered and kept well hidden, squirreled away, just for a moment such as this! For those who haven't been saving songs for a rainy day, may God have mercy on your soul. The only problem with these hoarded songs is they can often be of an exotic variety (a reason why they've not made it onto any of the other mixes you've made) and so, will they flow well together? Anybody who knows a thing about making a mix will know, flow is OH SO important.

Anyways, they are some of the things that have occured to me whilst I've been constructing my Christmix. Now I have to go back to doing whatever it is that I do.

B.

Out Hud

Yes, we've been decidedly less "scene" and more "old hat" lately, but never you mind, dear reader - come christmas mix time (there will be a detailed explanation soon on "christmas mixes" soon) there will be plenty of shiny new crap to digest. You'll love it.

But for now, let me share my love with you for Out Hud. To start, think !!! with most the university dropout 'sass' removed. Also mix in some trip hop, millions of layers of synthy sounds, and some amazingly hot, drawn out ambielectro grooves. Out of California (in the U.S), and having the general DFA/LCD Soundsystem links most of this scene has, these guys are simply incredible.

Their newest works (i think they've broken up/are dormant now) Let Us Never Speak of It Again picked up the pulse a bit on 2002's S.T.R.E.E.T.D.A.D but the general vibe is still there and its incredible. I'm loving the instrumentation, as synthesised as it all is. Its just on the cusp of danceability. I find myself as i type, bopping away like a knob though. the grooves are perfect, but don't have that intense, loudness to it that you drop acid to and thrust people you don't know and get kicked out of da club.

Regardless, get into it.

Hair Dude, You're Stepping On My Mystique.mp3
Buy

Thoughts and accounts

Am I allowed to comment back on posts past (posts of winters past?) without having to put it in a comment? Is that correct procedure? Damn fucking right it is, I'm a member of this fucking blog and I'll do whatever I deem fit and necessary.

FIRSTLY, Sam, you're hilarious, your wolf stuff, gold. "Go listen to some Steppenwolf, or don't. i don't care." I L-O-L'd at that. Also at the Guitar Wolf stuff. Did you know their bass player died of a cardiac arrest? THATS how much they rock. Apparantly their show was amazing, they get people up to play guitar, even if the people don't know guitar, amazing.

So I went to my sister today and came away with two records of some promise in amongst a whole bunch of techno. 1. Buena Vista Social Club (Old South American men playing fine sassy mambo, I suspect perhaps formally belonged to mother dearest) 2. Magnolia: The Soundtrack (whole lot of Aimee Mann, I pretty much plucked it out of the bunch because Sam puts all his shiny dollars on that one song they flog in that movie (Oh P T Anderson, you're my hero)). I nearly made off with Tom Jones: Reload (I'm not kidding) based purely on that duet of that Talking Heads song done by him and The Cardigans (The Cardigans = highly underrated swedish pop band). My sis however asked if she could borrow it back because she likes the Sex Bomb duet Tommy does with Moose T or whatever. How much musical prowess a Moose could have I'll never know, still doesn't change the fact I was STOOOOGED.

Regardless, I have faith my heart will find a way to live on. Goodnight sweet chillins.

B.

V Festival

So, it looks like V festival had an announcement leaked early. According to Onion magazine, The Pixies and The Who will headline this event.! Wow. Also Phoenix are on the bill. There is going to be a spinoff show in Adelaide with these 3 bands at least playing at War Memorial Drive. Pretty exciting stuff, no?

Wolf Bands

So, i'm bored. So i decided to catalogue all the 'Wolf' bands that have been scenehopping recently (yes, some are from last year), and ramble accordingly.

Wolf Parade: I started with the best. This band would probably get my nod for best LP of last year, and they're everything the words "Wolf" and "Parade" suggest they are. I doubt anyone reading this hasn't heard of them, but you can never be too careful so BACK OFF. Based in Montreal, Canada - these guys helped take indie to wonderful places for me, also producing the wonderful offshoot project, Sunset Rubdown. Anyways, if by chance you've been living under a rock that a tree fell on, here's a track to get the juices pumping.

Fancy Claps
Buy

Wolf Eyes: Ok, so it's noise rock. Like, REALLY noisy music. Very loud. I don't listen to them, but i think its worth going to see them anyway because apparrently "it will fuck your shit up". I know a few who saw them here in Adelaide recently, and i heard funny stories about them inducing vomiting, panic attacks, the whole shabang. Im SO going next time. Two links. Buy, and "Mothers against noise".

Buy
M.A.N

Wolves in the Throne Room: Posted purely because this is the best band name ever. I know nothing except they''re some kind of metal band, and they have such a bitching name. The imagery this name conjures up is straight forward, yet so bizzare that I find myself going on tangents of thought, to deduce just WHY those wolves want to be there. Do they want to overthrow the king? To this day it still haunts me.


Wolf & Cub: Adelaide represent! Ok, so theyre getting buzz, its awesome, etc.... But they're actually pretty good. 2 drummers, too many effect pedals, and a nice big wall of sound to contend with. While that sounds snide, it should be said that these guys are doing stuff that sets them apart to any band in Australia, and i'm very glad they're getting rewards for it.


Buy


Wolfmother:












Steppenwolf: DUH. The band responsible for "Born To Be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride". Need i say more? Yes? No. Go listen to some Steppenwolf, or don't. i don't care.









AIDS Wolf: Apparrently wolves like noise. Who knew?











Guitar Wolf: originally consisted of Seiji (Guitar Wolf), Billy (Bass Wolf), and Narita (Drum Wolf). Narita quit the band to be a fortune teller. When this is the first line of a band's wikipedia article, you know they're something special. Did anyone catch this show?

Suggest more!

Cake on Cake

Okay, so I'm gonna post about a non-electro/discopunk/synthyfag band this time. What?! Have I gone nuts? "Art", you might say, "why have you forsaken your giver, your mother, your secret lover that is dancepunk?" and then you'd weep. To which I'd reply "Well, unnamed reader, stop crying (and then I'd slap you around a bit cause thats how I roll), because this band called Cake on Cake is some pretty awesome, pretty stuff".

Its one girl from Scandinavia who plays some terrific, sleepy, cooing twee pop. She plays pretty much every instrument ever made: all voices, organ, piano, keyboard, rhodes, clavinet, metallophone, xylophone, recorder-flutes, cat & canary-flute, melodica, harmonica, guitar, mandoline, egg, claves, wood-block, tambourine, bells, triangles, cymbals, tablas, hand-drum, snare-drum, electronics, kazoo, sea-shells, hand-clap, lamp-shades, glass-animals. I didn't make that up. Hahah, "egg". "Hey dudes, I play egg in a band!". But seriously, this girl is like milk & honey. Check her out. But don't marry her. I do that.

Her new album's called "I Guess I Was Daydreaming"

http://www.myspace.com/cakeoncake

My Disco

Wow, i just bought Cancer today, and this its pretty darn rad. It reminds me very much of "Threw us in a trench" era Liars. Also some Minus the Bear, its just beautiful. The bass player just jumps right out and provides most of the melodies, and is carried beautifully by the drummer (the defining feature in this Senators opinion), who pauses and adds extra beats on his bars for no apparrent reason, its the thinking man's indie rainbow snowstorm. Add some erratic screechy lead guitar and you got My Disco. Menacing and grim sounding to boot! - that's all you need.

A Marker.mp3
Buy

Treasure Island Dizzy

Okay, EVERYONE go listen to Treasure Island Dizzy RIGHT god damn now. Seriously, where did these guys come from? They make the most addictive, fun, hyper, danceable NES-like tunes! I seriously could not stop hopping around my house to them. This is the kind of music I want to make, seriously.

www.myspace.com/treasureislanddizzy

These guyses' live show... must... see... how.. they do... it..

Blood Brothers

Ok, with Young Machetes the jury is still out on the verdict as a whole, HOWEVER! Camouflage, Camouflage and Set Fire to the Face on Fire are AMAZING tracks. So faggy and aggressive.

Underrated Crap

Here are some fairly mediocre bands that happen to get things right on more than one occasion but due to their, lets say, 50/50 crap to good ratio are often overlooked.

Kashmir. Ok...so they sound like Radiohead's younger brother if he were dropped into a vat of boiling pot of pop-music water...then nearly drowned but at the last minute were retrieved, never to be quite the same again. These guys have been around for a looong time, like...I think they were called Nirvana before Nirvana, no kiddinz!

But yeah, Zitilites was, ya know, not a GREAT album. But it had Surfing The Warm Industry and Melpomene on it and they're pretty fantastic tracks. Also, No Balance Palace was, while formulaic and a little lame, still quite nice to listen to. Sure, David Bowie and Lou Reed make appearances but we can't hold THAT against them can we?

Ah, here's a good one, Placebo: Yes yes I know, they ARE god awful. HOWEVER, Without You I'm Nothing is actually pretty good overall. Ok, so Brian Molko (or whatever) does eventually bring me to a junction whereby I have to either decide to take some drugs, have a sex change because I'm so terribly confused, or kill myself BUT I dunno, Ask For Answers and Brick Shithouse are pretty great songs. Ok, I just realized Placebo are exceedingly (and undeservingly) famous but I dunno, they SHOULDN'T be...so I'm going to treat them as if they're not...and thus deserve to be...or something. shut up.

One more, The Stills: Ok, Logic Will Break Your Heart is an AMAZING album and so I hesitate to put these guys into a "lame" category at all. Ok, so its a bit like very bland indie/alt but damn, its so good. The only reason I'm forced to condemn these fine Canadian lads to "Lame-acropolis" is because their second album, Without Feathers or something, was the most god awful trip ever. There is like ONE salvagable track on the entire thing, its sad.

Anyways, thats all from me!

Nintendocore

Hiya all, Art here.

Peep this: I've been getting into Nintendocore. Originally a term coined by the dude from the band HORSE the Band, its basically any band which draws heavily upon video game music, mashing it with any number of modern trends like screamo, new wave, etc. And we all know how fucking amazing game music can be, I mean, the shit those dudes did with the limited technology they had --- a lot of old game music is kinda on the same scale as if you hypothetically took a single sheet of white paper, and folded it to build a fully functional version of the WW2 warship HMS Amethyst, complete with working turrets, and "Simon", the ship's cat.

So let's review some nintendocore bands:
the aforementioned HORSE the Band. Fantastic screamo, though with the wonderful difference in that they use (so I'm told) a Korg MS2000 with a SID chip built in, which emulates Commodore64-ish kinda bleeps and bloops. This makes them sound like the game "Contra", if the two dudes in it screamed as they mowed down wave after wave of alien scum. One of the coolest things about any band ever is about this band: they wrote a song about the Mega Man villain, Cutman.

Totally Radd!! is also pretty... rad. These dudes have more in common with new wave, sometimes sounding like a nerdified Cure/Flock of Seagulls cover band, although busting out better synth/keytar grooves. The lead singer is an awesome fat dude with a beard, and *apparently* he once got into a fight with Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav. I would have given anything to have been there. But anyways, these guys aren't afraid to scream along to the theme from Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and I love them.

Wizardzz is an awesome side project of the bass-player from Lightning Bolt, in which he plays drums and another dude plays synth. Its incredibly epic and proggy and awesome, but what is most awesome about it is the apparent concept behind their album, "Hidden City of Taurmond". It plays and sounds like a soundtrack to one of those old awesome PC adventure games, where you're in a strange hilarious world and have an inventory and stuff and use commands like TAKE, PULL, OPEN, etc. The song names are all like, "Jelliper Lilly Field", and "Do Come In", which sounds like a kindly old innkeeper inviting the player into his inn. Anyways check it out.

Gravy Train!!!! is another band on Totally Radd!!'s label, Retard Disco, which is the place to be if youre a nintendocore band. GT!!!! is however a bit detached from games per se, focusing more on being a slutty, sexy girl/boy electro band, more on par with bands like Numbers or Robots in Disguise.

Thats all for now.

Supersystem

So yeah, two (or more) albums in and these guys finally get thrown to my attention, and its fucking cool. The synth leads, thick layers, shouting americans, it has it all. Reminds me of the Canadian scene i suppose (maybe Midnight Juggernauts meets Wolf Parade?), and i'm starting to hear them everywhere. Get involved.

White Light/White Light
Buy

MSTRKRFT

This is pretty self explanatory.

Damn Arms

Now THIS is what Australian bands should all aspire to be. Haha, this was one amazing show (all those weeks ago.) Synth-tinged, screamy thrashy indie with amazing BPM. Can't wait to see these dudes again.

Also, looking forward to December 31, where Mattie B Safer and Ewan Pearson are coming down our way to bring in the new year.

Test Pattern.mp3
Buy

ascii.disko

A friend showed me this outfit this week also, nice indie-rave electro stuff from Germany. Reminds me of the Kraftwerk Presets, if y'all can imagine such a thing. I'm going through a bit of a "dancewhore" phase as it stands, so expect more.

Black Metal.mp3
Buy

Mountains in the Sky

I saw these guys play a show at Rocket Bar in Adelaide and it was amazing stuff. Its basically just one guy, but he has a drummer and an on-again-off-again second keyboardist, i've heard them referred to as "Blip-Hop". The mood at the gig was a bit down but the music itself just blew me away. It reminds me a bit of Portishead meets The Avalanches.

They have 2 EPs, "Celestial Son" and "Accipio". Make sure you don't ever miss them.

Rupture.mp3
Buy