From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V7 #13 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Friday, January 19 2007 Volume 07 : Number 013 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] my 2006 list [Aaron Mandel ] Re: [loud-fans] my 2006 list ["Roger Winston" ] Re: [loud-fans] my 2006 list [2fs ] Re: [loud-fans] my 2006 list [Aaron Mandel ] [loud-fans] subject headers [CertronC90@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:05:00 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: [loud-fans] my 2006 list My list of 2006 releases, with links to mp3s or streaming pages or whatever I could find. 01 ABOUT - Bongo Dutch laptop pop with electronic noise. Sounds just like the dB's did after that tragic accident with the Nintendo and the jet engine. http://whataboutabout.com/download.php?file=1 http://whataboutabout.com/download.php?file=3 02 THE HOLD STEADY - Boys And Girls In America This is the point where I fell in love with the whole Hold Steady project, rehabilitating bar-rock, talking about themselves in songs, whatever. http://boysandgirlsinamerica.com/mp3/The_Hold_Steady-Chips_Ahoy.mp3 03 DELAYS - You See Colours Their first album put me to sleep, and despite continuing to give it second chances, I can't clearly how see how they got from there to holding my attention over a whole 5-minute song. And that was the single! http://myspace.com/delays ("Valentine" is from You See Colours) 04 ANAMANAGUCHI - Power Supply One of many free internet releases by 8 Bit Peoples, a label who specialize in music that sounds as though it came out of a Game Boy, usually because it did. 8BP's records sound much more distinct from one another than you might think. http://8bitpeoples.com/discography_gfx.php?artist=Anamanaguchi#8BP065 (The whole EP is a free download.) 05 HIS NAME IS ALIVE - Detrola HNIA have swallowed their own tail, and it's awesome! Sounds like the good parts of Warren Defever's whole career rolled together (if, of course, you like the right parts of his career). http://myspace.com/hisnameisalive ("Cats" is from Detrola.) 06 ROBBIE WILLIAMS - Rudebox After spending all day playing this album, I went back to see if Robbie Williams had always sounded like this and I'd just missed out. Answer: noooo. Only one song on Rudebox approaches the mawkish depths which apparently used to be standard for him. http://youtube.com/watch?v=hmQwtcB40j4 07 BOB HILLMAN - If You Lived Here You'd Be Home RIYL: Freedy Johnston, Richard Butler. Why do these people all have MySpace pages instead of real webpages? http://www.myspace.com/bobhillmanmusic ("My Satanic Friends" and "Celebrating Nothing" are from the new album.) 08 BIT SHIFTER - The Information Chase Another 8 Bit Peoples release. Bit Shifter traffic in the same kind of anthems as Anamanaguchi, but a little colder. My favorite one-year-old found this record fascinating. http://8bitpeoples.com/discography_gfx.php?artist=Bit%20Shifter#8BP059 (The whole EP is a free download.) 09 SUBTITLE - Terrain To Roam Mechanical-sounding rapper who I find highly engaging, even when he starts rambling about how Western medical practice is all just a marketing ploy. http://myspace.com/subtitle ("A Surrealist Life" is from Terrain To Roam.) 10 XIU XIU - The Air Force They've got the every-other-album thing going on. Odd-numbered ones are ultimately kind of poppy; even-numbered ones are sloooooow. This was their 5th, and while it doesn't have the shock of novelty the first one did, I think it's their best. http://www.killrockstars.com/bands/xiuxiu/audio/BoySoprano.mp3 11 THE BLOW - Paper Television After the perfection of Poor Aim: Love Songs, this was ever so slightly a disappointment. I do seem to like it more the more I listen to it, so perhaps I'll eventually kick myself for saying that. In any case, the partnership between Khaela's songwriting and Jona's beeping noises seems rock-solid now, and they've finally gotten the attention they deserve. http://www.krecs.com/html/press/medialisten.php?interest=139 12 MOMUS - Ocky Milk Is this is the new Momus? Maybe I tuned out too soon. Gentle, funny, musical, and yet unmistakably a different guy than the last time one could say all those things about him. (Though enthusiastic about posting songs to his website, he doesn't seem to offer anything from Ocky Milk as a sample. The website is http://imomus.com.) 13 THE PAPER CHASE - Now You Are One Of Us This has the same harrowing feel as that first Xiu Xiu album, except that they use familiar horror-movie tropes as the metaphors. At least, I think they're metaphors. Maybe that's what makes it so scary. As relationship crisis songs these would be overblown and as retellings of horror movies I don't know how much they'd speak to me, but they overlap in the part of each narrative that the Paper Chase want to emphasize: the part where you have to act without knowing what's happening. http://www.thepaperchaseband.com/weknow.mp3 14 SWAY - This Is My Demo British hip-hop. Possibly the best part is his quest to find "some bloke called Kazaa" who he's heard is stealing his records. http://www.swaydasafo.com/media.cfm (I think all of the songs there are on the album.) 15 MATISYAHU - Youth This would have rated higher except that religious fundamentalism turns me off even when its intentions aren't terrifically radical. And, to be fair, some of what sound like condescending attempts to 'talk to the kids' are probably just Matisyahu's actual diction since he's, what, 24? http://www.matismusic.com 16 THE DRESDEN DOLLS - Yes, Virginia http://dresdendolls.com/downloads_n_lyrics/mp3/DirtyBusiness.mp3 17 DESTROYER - Destroyer's Rubies http://mergerecords.com/band.php?media=true&band_id=29 18 WE ARE SCIENTISTS - This Scene Is Dead http://wearescientists.com/player 19 SCISSOR SISTERS - Ta-Dah! http://www.scissorsisters.com/media (There's barely anything there...) 20 KEENE BROTHERS - Blues & Boogie Shoes http://gbv.com/sounds/deathoftheparty.mp3 21 CEX - Actual Fucking http://automationrecords.com/downloads/Cex-baltimore.mp3 22 THE KNIFE - Silent Shout http://www.klicktrack.com/shop/release.jsp?r=8374&cp=74 23 EMM GRYNER - The Summer Of High Hopes (emmgryner.com has a few songs buried in the Flash nonsense.) 24 RANDOM - Happy Ending After All http://8bitpeoples.com/discography_gfx.php?artist=Random (The whole EP is a free download.) 25 TV ON THE RADIO - Return To Cookie Mountain (Couldn't find anything.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:53:54 -0700 From: "Roger Winston" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my 2006 list Aaron Mandel on 1/18/2007 2:05:00 PM wrote: >03 DELAYS - You See Colours > >Their first album put me to sleep, and despite >continuing to give it second chances, I can't >clearly how see how they got from there to holding >my attention over a whole 5-minute song. And that >was the single! > >http://myspace.com/delays > >("Valentine" is from You See Colours) Interesting - I had the exact same feelings about the first album (which at least showed they did have potential), but have not heard the second one. I noticed glenn had it on his list as well. Is it available domestically? I can only find the (expensive) import. It's not on eMusic. MySpace.com is blocked at work these days, so I can't check their page. Latre. --Rog - -- FlasshePoint, yet another blog among millions: http://www.flasshe.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:58:58 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my 2006 list On 1/18/07, Aaron Mandel wrote: > > > 02 THE HOLD STEADY - Boys And Girls In America > > This is the point where I fell in love with the whole Hold Steady project, > rehabilitating bar-rock, talking about themselves in songs, whatever. > > http://boysandgirlsinamerica.com/mp3/The_Hold_Steady-Chips_Ahoy.mp3 I dunno... I sort of liked their earlier stuff, when they sounded more like they'd been playing a lot of Thin Lizzy records - but this one, every song I've heard is just creepishly Springsteenian: if Bruce were dead I'd call it graverobbing. And though I'm middling on Springsteen (I appreciate him more than I enjoy him), that's not the problem: it just feels wrong somehow, as if I've stumbled onto someone else's erotic e-mail intended solely for the object of their attentions. > > 05 HIS NAME IS ALIVE - Detrola > > HNIA have swallowed their own tail, and it's awesome! Sounds like the good > parts of Warren Defever's whole career rolled together (if, of course, you > like the right parts of his career). Yeah, me too - the "funk" thing seemed somehow slightly off, though not terrible - and dialing down the weirdness made them almost normal. I didn't go to HNIA music for "normal." > > 07 BOB HILLMAN - If You Lived Here You'd Be Home > > RIYL: Freedy Johnston, Richard Butler. Why do these people all have > MySpace pages instead of real webpages? Welcome, Aaron: you are now officially Old. > > 12 MOMUS - Ocky Milk > > Is this is the new Momus? Maybe I tuned out too soon. Gentle, funny, > musical, and yet unmistakably a different guy than the last time one could > say all those things about him. > > (Though enthusiastic about posting songs to his website, he doesn't > seem to offer anything from Ocky Milk as a sample. The website is > http://imomus.com.) You might also check out his livejournal site Click Opera < http://imomus.livejournal.com/>, where he occasionally posts works in progress, non-album tracks, and goofs. If you like this, I suspect you'd like the previous two CDs in the informal "Story of O" trilogy: 2005's _Otto Spooky_ and 2003's _Oskar Tennis Champion_. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:04:14 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my 2006 list On Thu, 18 Jan 2007, Roger Winston wrote: > Interesting - I had the exact same feelings about the first album (which > at least showed they did have potential), but have not heard the second > one. I noticed glenn had it on his list as well. Is it available > domestically? I don't think so, no. At best, it looks like a used copy from amazon.co.uk will run you about $15 after shipping. a ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:51:37 EST From: CertronC90@aol.com Subject: [loud-fans] subject headers Just a note asking you please excuse the "short bus" imagery. It was self-deprecation, but not very kind towards Special Ed. children, and I of all people especially shouldn't say that, since I'm planning on going back to school and getting my Special Ed. certification! Luckily, AOL said I just had to change my security question and passwords for my account, but good luck AOL Loudfans trying to get through their automated system to a live citizen of India if you aren't a paying customer. I had to lie and say I was a paying customer to get through the filters. - --Mark "I've been playing with Photoshop a lot lately. I've been putting my head on the bodies of pictures of fluffy kitties, and in one pic I put my head on one kitty and a big burly moustached man's head on the other." (overhearing the Buzzcocks jacket kid at work tonight) ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V7 #13 ******************************