Ahhh Ghosh!!

Originally i was somewhat dubious of this but I came around...

BALLOOOOOOONS!!!

Possibly the diriest/most fowl mouth lady in the world and therefore one of my favourites, Amanda Blank, has just dropped the first clip from her debut album 'I love you'

disco to country to hip hop to... Feist.

Another cover - not particularily recent or anything, just a good one, especially on a Sunday. Canadian darling Feist and fellow canuck indie-rock dudes The Constantines team up to cover Dolly Parton and Kenny Roger's Islands in the Stream, which you might also recognise from 1998, covered in Pras' (feat Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard) Ghetto Superstar.

According to the Arts&Crafts page, "the song was recorded together in Toronto one chilly day in early February following a game of ice hockey and a round of hot chocolates." well. you can't really top that now can you? Listen here.

ps- did you know this song was originally written by the Bee Gees? makes it even better, doesn't it?

mmmm.... fragile.

Click here to listen to a cover of Empire of the Sun's Walking on a Dream by Kate Miller Heidke... some have described it as gentle, moving and even FRAGILE. quite a departure from the original, a throbbing egotistical heat-filled glitter fest.

Alice in Wonderland - consistently making your acid trips better... since 1865

Electronic artist Fagottron uses music and images from Disney's Alice in Wonderland to craft this song named "Alice"

88 Miles per hour

There's a bit of confusion about all the Deloreans out there and why not it is a rad name for a band and a time traveling car for that matter.

The front runner is probably Barcelona's
Delorean
but also worth a look in is Melbourne's Delorean.


Delorean from Barcelona - Deli

Up to a 11

From the wilds of freezing Russia comes a new toe tapper from
Fuzzy Pets.

Fuzzy Pets - Blow up your Head

Pineaples they really do grow on trees...

For lovers of long walks in the rain a new act from Denver called, Pina Chulada. Here's their very laid back track called "What you mean"

Pina Chulada - What you mean

glistening, sex-saturated synth-pop ...for kids!

Here's a hilarious and suprisingly catchy video of Montreal's favourite electrosynth duo, Chromeo, whose music has been described as "a shameless return to the glistening, sex-saturated synth-pop which ruled the eighties." (BBC music), lending talents to the kids show that will breed the raddest little bunch of up-and-coming music geniuses, Yo Gabba Gabba.

The show, created by child actor and lead signer of The Aquabats, Christian Jacobs (also known as MC Bat Commander) and Scott Schultz of 90s indie band Majestic, is presumably named after a Ramones' lyric (Gabba Gabba Hey) and is a tasty treat for the eyes and ears with segments like Biz's Beat of the Day, which teaches kids to beatbox, or host DJ Lance Rock getting crazy kiddies (who are now burgeoning youtube superstars) to dance to electro-synth pop. And all this within the confines of a set that looks like a the shiny 80s exploded all over a loud, brightly coloured vintage game show. amazing.

Other guests that have graced Yo Gabba Gabba's stage include The Roots, Jack Black, Of Montreal, The Shins, Shiny Toy Guns, Tony Hawk, Elijah Wood, Mates of State, The Clientele, The Ting Tings, comedian Rhys Darby, and more.

XX(X)

Their name probably conjurers thoughts of harder sounds, but The XX, create beautifully crafted mellow pop.
The combination of locals and sweeping soundscape remind me alot of Broken Social Scene, but hey that’s just me...
The XX - VCR

Broken Social Scene – Anthems for a Seventeen year old girl

Smith Westerns & Ratso

Check this little lo-fi gem from Chicago's Smith Westerns
Smith Westerns - Be My Girl


Here they are playing on what is possibly the greatest children’s television of all time
Chic-a-Go-Go.

Ghostwood

Ghostwood got back from london a few weeks ago and have started playing a bunch of shows, go on, go see them!

Red version, still a great song.

Red Version Video Clip

Jessica Hopper's new book

If this book came from anyone else I would be dubious, particularly after its cover art, BUT it is from Jessica Hopper.

Her Bio says
"Jessica Hopper is a music and culture critic whose work regularly appears in Chicago Reader, LA Weekly, SPIN, ANP and Chicago Tribune and has also been included in DaCapo's Best of Music Writing 2004, 2005 and 2007. She is also the music consultant for the public radio show, This American Life. Her widely-anthologized essay, "Emo: Where the Girls Aren't" was described as "influential" by The New York Times.

Holding fast to the music-is-my-life credo, Hopper has also done time as a tour manager, band publicist, DJ, touring bassist, Girls Rock Camp booster, and fanzine publisher. She lives in Chicago."

Above all this, she wrote what was easily the best column in Punk Planet until that sad sad day when the magazine folded, she gave an amazing portrait of the Chicago punk scene and still does to an extent at , tinyluckygenius aka the Unicorn's tear.

Hopper has just released a new book called "The Girls' Guide to Rocking: How to Start a Band, Book Gigs, and Get Rolling to Rock Stardom". And it is what it says it is, a guide to starting a band, talented or not, and what to do next.

Expose

WCCO "exposes" the Minneapolis hardcore scene in 1983...nothing more punk than Blow Darts?!?!

I want your blood!

TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone’s side project Rain Machine has put up the first track from his album due September 22 on Anti.
Rain Machine – Give Blood

If you can’t wait and need more Kyp in you life you can make your own thanks to Paper Foldables

Patrick Watson

The Falls festival line up was leaked today and in amongst all the hullabaloo about Grizzly Bear and Yeah Yeah Yeahs a couple of really cool acts slipped under the radar like Patrick Watson.




Ah what the hell for old times’ sake, the Schweppes ‘Burst’ ad featuring the Cinematic Orchestra - To Build a home

Family Portraits

Fan Art where will you stop. Here are some complete family portraits of some of the worst families ever portrayed on film...

Japandroids

Canadia's CBC radio 3 interviewed Japandroid in the smallest rehersal room in all of Vancouver.



Japandroid - Wet Hair

Check out CBC , they have a bunch of great small Candian acts up on their site.

Au Revoir Simone

3 peice Au Revoir had been pottering along producing some beautiful sounds but probably didn’t pop up onto alot of radars until they provide the amazing vocals for Air France’s epic rework of Friendly Fires Paris. I still think that that song will one day be used in a film as the music for a scene where the young pragmatist tries ecstasy for the first time and falls backwards into a crowd at a festival with their face beaming with a smile. Out of the back of that exposure Au Revoir Simone have come back with their new album Still Night, Still Light.

Au Revoir Simone - Shadows (The Teenagers Remix)

Air France have tried to pull of the double with another Friendly Fires remix, this time of Skeletons.
Friendly Fires - Skeletons (Air France Remix)

Modest Mouse

The first time I ever heard Modest Mouse I heard I was at Waterloo records in Austin I was on a blind date with a girl named Kendra and she played them to me. Both our parents had ambushed us at a dinner it became obvious they had planed the whole thing and it was embarrassing for all concerned, but then it turned out to be one of the best nights I’ve ever had. She was a professional lacrosse player, we almost killed a dear, we got moved on by police at make out point and we had brownies. She showed me how to play lacrosse and while we sat in some lawn chairs in an abandoned lot she told me about her ex boyfriend in jail for stat rape. I said I would call her, she said I probably wouldn’t, she was right.

Health

I like how at the newsagent they seem to gloss over softcore porn by calling them Health magazines...although that magazine entitled "Nuts" was a little less sutble.

Health, the band that made Crystal Castles who they are now, or vice versa, have a new one its called Die Slow.

Health - Die Slow

Fantastic!

Wes Anderson. Fantastic!

Noah and The Whale

I think i just fell in love with this band
Saw this first things this morning and pretty much everything else is having trouble stacking up it

The First Days of Spring Official Trailer from charlie fink on Vimeo.

Big Pink

Big Pink’s Velvet was a song you knew you were only going to be able to keep secret for a little while.
Their new single Dominos is going to make it even harder.
Playing Summer Sonic this weekend should have gone...


Big Pink - Dominos,









Plus just for old times sakes...

Magic Wands

A new one courtesy of the Awkward Turtle who is still sans internet...
Its LA duo Magic Wands with Black Magic.
Great song, but how did they get the cat to wear those 3D glasses!?