Shinobu

Ok, let's try this again to start things off. I featured this band last Friday as our technical difficulties began... but things are back on track now for sure. Below is the original writeup and links. Be sure to check the YouTube video for this song. Very entertaining.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>













There are quite a few more new people here so I just wanted to remind that Fridays, when possible, are reserved for straight up indie rock. Sometimes it's wonderfully reckless while in other instances it is just plain ridiculous. In the case of today's featured track, we have a demo that ended up on a full length release earlier this year. The band lists New Order among their influences so I am lead to wonder if this song "Regular Love Triangle" is a word play on the NO classic "Bizarre Love Triangle." I wouldn't have noticed had Michelle not brought to my attention that another song, "Julian Castle Agrees With Newt That Everything is Meaningless", contained some lyrics that might also bring a strong sense of New Order to mind. That comparison easily ends there since this is, in stark contrast, some in your face guitar rock. Around 3/4 of the way through this song a guitar solo kicks in that can only be likened to what might have happened if Black Flag's Greg Ginn had been the guitarist for Dinosaur Jr. Don't laugh... as chaotic as that sounds it is a welcome sound for the ears to digest. I like this band a lot.














Shinobu is a four piece rock band consisting of Mike Moroboshi (guitar/vocals), Matt Keegan (guitar), Bob Vielma (bass) and Jon Jing Fu (drums) from San Jose, California. I'm not sure when the band was formed but the first of several demo EPs was released in 2003. According to the Shinobu MySpace page, the song featured here today is actually a demo as I mentioned above. It is also included on the track listing of their September 2006 release Worstward, Ho! which is available on both Asian Man Records and Phat N' Phunky. If you visit the Shinobu website you will find that the band is all about fun in a tongue-in-cheek kinda way. Drummer Jon even has a Hot-or-Not page. Finally there is a YouTube video for you to enjoy.



If the above picture is any indication, this band is equally interested in throwing themselves around on stage as they are playing the music. Might make for an entertaining live set to check out.















MP3: Regular Love Triangle

Test... test... this is a test

test

*edit*

Woohoo! Looks like it works.

In which case:

FUCK YOU, EZARCHIVE!!!

We're back in business. Normal service (ie fully functioning links) will be resumed very shortly... later this week, in other words.

Goodbye To The Music Hosting Site From HELL...

If you visit MP3 blogs to find new music you might have noticed in the past 24 to 48 hours that plenty of the music files are slow or do not work at all. There are quite a few bloggers that use the hosting site EZArchive. For the past year, we have wrestled with the random yet constant server downtime and all around poor performance of this (our) hosting site while brushing it off as a minor inconvenience. Recently, customers were informed that there would be an upgrade coming and that we should expect great new things. These are the great new things: a) Lower audio quality that rivals the muddy sound of the myspace music player (it's actually worse). b) In an attempt to control bandwidth, we can only guess, they have switched over to the evil flash player. I still cannot figure out how to get a raw mp3 file URL for anything we've uploaded. In short, EZArchive fucked us midway through a contract and we are not happy. Instead of giving up or "dealing with it" we have decided to change to our own hosting site in order to keep the audio quality and reliability where it should be. This will take a few days of us trying to figure out this new service we signed up for.















Just in case you hadn't wondered... This is our music pit complete with my daughter's addition of cool keyboards...

Please excuse the lack of daily updates for the next couple of days. After almost a year of doing the MySpace group and this blog, we have somewhere around 300 to 350 music files that need to be transferred to our new host. All songs will be available once again in a few days. In the meantime, good friend Dean Tomihira is doing us a great favor in letting us stream his band's music. We originally featured Tomihira's 2006 release Play Dead in March and once again with an amazing cover of New Order's Mr. Disco in May. If you visit the Tomihira website you can purchase the Play for a mere $5 USD!! The entire release is exceptional and will be a part of the MML Best of 2006 review in late December. Also visit the Tomihira MySpace page for more songs from this San Francisco, California based musician. The Listening Room group and blog will be back up and running as usual at some point very early next week. Thank you for your patience. The new hosting site was highly recommended by a friend and looks promising. Have a good weekend.














Tomihira & Co.















Michelle had to fly in from London to sort the mess I created. She likes American beer.

MP3: World Class

Via Audio

Today's useless thought consists of the current weather change and the fact that I have bad knees that really hurt when it gets cold. Sadly, Advil is quickly becoming a food group that will carry me through another winter. I've been told that it's my age but have had this since my teen years. Anyway, enough with that and on to a quick writeup about the music. I have a folder on my computer desktop labeled "never played" for music files that don't get featured. Most of these gems are from bands that had little or no information or had a gazillion MySpace page hits once I checked their page. I wasn't sure how today's featured artist ended up there but it might have something to do with a small portion of their bio I remember now. I'm honestly not trying to take the piss here, but they mention that Chris Walla from DCFC messaged them on MySpace and later spoke about them in an interview. I'll admit that If Pitchfork mentioned my little blog I would shout it from the rooftops!! Well maybe not, but if Sixeyes took notice... *ehem*... All joking aside, this is a really good band that deserves repeated listens. As this song was nearing the 2 minute mark, the lovably benign charm of Low came to mind. This is great stuff.













Via Audio is the indie pop quartet of Jessica Martins (vocals, keyboard, guitar), Tom Deis (guitar, vocals), David Lizmi (bass, vocals) and Danny Molad (drums, vocals). They all play more instruments than I listed above and met while enrolled at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The band's debut self titled EP was released on the Kill Normal Records label in 2004. You can still get your hands on this release for next to nothing at Interpunk.com. Visit the Via Audio MySpace page to hear more music and get the latest show dates including a November 4 CMJ Showcase at Pianos NYC. Check the Via Audio website also and ...ooooh before I forget, there is also a YouTube video from 2005 of the song Mouth Shut.



I always respect a band that doesn't need to hide behind lighting (or lack thereof) to put on a good show.















MP3: We Can Be Good

Buckaneers

And now for something completely different. I've been lax in visiting some of my favorite music blogs so it was time to go MP3 hunting. After cruising around a few blogs I've had saved on favorites for a while and not finding anything that wasn't there the last time I visited, I decided to drink beer. Around 5 Pabst Blue Ribbons (I know it's trendy) later, and a half tub of Kalamata olives, I found myself on Swedesplease staring through my computer monitor as today's wonderfully unique feature made it's way into my ears. The vocals had me smitten almost immediately as the light distressed strings danced around them. This song has a very old soul that can sing to anyone if given a warm chance. I'll save my ridiculous comparisons for another day and simply let you take this one in....













Buckaneers (that's the way they spell it) are a group of six musicians that are part of various bands within the Stockholm, Sweden music scene. China Yggström (lead vocals), Calle Jensfelt (keyboards), Johannes Borgström (bass, vocals), Jonatan Jahn (drums, percussion), Teodor Borgström (guitars, vocals) and Victor Hvidfeldt (guitars, vocals) have been described as a "supergroup" of sorts but I really hate that term and am now wondering why I even mentioned it. There is no official website I could find so you will need to visit the Buckaneers MySpace page where you will find more music to hear and download. The songs there are much more in line with folk or alternative country but in a really nice way. There is no released material to buy that I am aware of, but that might change very soon if they continue putting out great music like today's featured track.













MP3: Cold Morning

The Vandelles

What do you do when you have little information about a band on MySpace that kicks you in the shins at first listen?? You post them on your MP3 blog and hope the almighty Hype Machine doesn't turn up 100 entries within the past month. In this case, with a couple of exceptions, I am safe and couldn't wait to get this up and playing here for y'all. First comparisons might be an easy call if you are (and who isn't) familiar with pre-cheese Jesus & Mary Chain stuff. I'll admit that I am a sucker for the levels of reverb you are experiencing right now but also have another fleeting thought. I'm an occasional Jon Spencer fan and am just guessing, but maybe one (or more) of the members of this band owns a Pussy Galore cassette tape or album? In any event, this is a retro-surf-punk-tastic song.













The Vandelles are the indie rock quartet of Sue (drums, percussion, drum machine), Jason (guitar, instruments, vocals), Dave (guitar, vocals, drum machine) and Lisha (bass, vocals) from New York, New York. Sue is the only member of the band with a non-private MySpace page and it's kinda cool since she has The Crystals playing there. From what I could figure out from my admittedly brief research, today's featured song was originally part of the Psychedelica Vol. 1 compilation released on Northern Star Records earlier this year. Of course there is also the compulsory Vandelles MySpace where you can listen to and download more music. All songs are very good and, as bonus, there is a Vandelles Annex MySpace with two more songs. The band's music is featured in the independent film Fractured. Finally, it is always a good day when I find a live YouTube video of the featured song here. Enjoy!!

















MP3: Lovely Weather

For Those Who Know

Now that all of the weekend family obligations are complete, I can move back into somewhat of a normal regimen of music searching for the blog/group page. I've not-so-recently abandoned my penchant for featuring bands that would fall into the shoegaze category for a couple of reasons. First off, for every good band I find there are at least 50 awful ones. Sometimes the music is just dreamy and/or swirling with that signature droning guitar sound... and then the vocals kick in and ruin the entire thing. In many cases, instead of working within the wall of sound, male vocalists make the unfortunate attempt to showcase talent that might be better suited for an evening of karaoke. Other times, it seems that anything with the slightest 80s feel is classified under the nouveau shoegaze banner (no guitars required). In the case of today's feature, there is nothing for me to whine about at all. In fact, this might just be one of the better examples I've heard when it comes to interpreting the classic early 90s sound. After listening to the band's EP, I had the almost impossible task of figuring out which track to feature since all songs were wonderful. You can hear and download all of the songs also... I'll explain below.













For Those Who Know are an indie rock trio from Austin, Texas. From reading just a bit, I gathered that band members Stephen Hablinski, Rick Vehslage and James Vehslage started creating this brand of music in 2003. Your first visit should be to the For Those Who Know MySpace page where you can download the band's entire 2005 self titled EP free for a very limited time. This 7 song beauty (in my estimation) was originally released through Christmas Mountain Records last year and is now available for $8 + $2 shipping surcharge (USD) through Peek-A-Boo Records. Also check out the For Those Who Know website for everything else. There is even a YouTube video of this very song that is a live performance with the studio version as audio. It's not a perfect match but enjoyable and might give you an idea of their live act.



Great stuff from yet another good find from Austin. Enjoy!
















MP3: Night At The Dance Club

Trentemøller

Around 6 months ago, this group featured plenty of indie electronica and I'm not sure how we got off track. I like to mix things up more than I've done recently and I think today's musician more than makes up for the lack of attention in that direction. I'm not even sure you can label this, or similar sounds, experimental any longer since the components involved are so recognizable. The artist today doesn't classify himself in that manner at all but, in many ways, does have a sound that breaks from the emerging norm. The static isn't overdone spraying from a laptop aimlessly and the clicks & blips aren't just there randomly. Instead, as many others are starting to notice, this is extremely well crafted music that takes just about everything you might despise about generic club music out of the equation leaving a stripped down ambient sound for your daily travels. The end of the year is quickly approaching and that means it's time for MML to start figuring out some sort of Best of 2006 shortlist. After listening to several tracks from this artist, I'll have to admit, I just might have found one of my picks. We'll see...



















Trentemøller is the music of producer, composer and remixer extraordinaire Anders Trentemøller from Copenhagen, Denmark. From what I gathered, after reading a few reviews, he has been honing his craft since 1997. Anders took a break for a couple of years but has since returned to an enormous reception. All you have to do is visit the Trentemøller MySpace page and look at the number of page views and song plays to understand the scope of this success. While you are there, check out 3 more songs from his debut full length CD titled The Last Resort which was released on Poker Flat Recordings earlier this month (10/6). Besides the song featured here and the three on his page, there is yet another song from the new CD playing on my very own 4casey4 MySpace at the moment. There is also a good video review on the Poker Flat website but it made me laugh since the guy doing it seemed like one of our cheesy American reality TV personalities. Anyway, take some time to fall into this track. At around the 2 and a half minute mark of this 7:44 song it really takes off. This is highly recommended.
















MP3: Take Me Into Your Skin

Oxford Collapse

Before I even start typing some sort of writeup for this band, I have to ask if any of you are you listening to the bass line of this song??? I am a bass player and have to say that this is insane good!! Listen closely. As I mentioned before I have family in town from overseas and will only be able to give a brief account of the musicians that we decide to feature. I figured we'd stay in Brooklyn, New York for another day to bring you the best rock song I've heard all week. It's not often that a band can keep the same vocal tone (male) throughout the entirety of a song and maintain my interest all the way through. These guys did it for sure. I usually play the best rock stuff I can find on Fridays and only hope you find this to be a good addition to the list. (Michelle says It's "a fucking excellent song" also.)














Oxford Collapse is not the name of some GBV song you can't remember enough to shout at the moon when wasted on cans of beer. Instead, it is the name of a wonderfully insane power trio from NYC that formed into an official band in 2002. Of course there is an Oxford Collapse MySpace page where you can hear more music and add on as a friend. There is also the band website where you can get tour/news updates. Their newest full length EP titled Remember The Night Parties was released on October 10th and is available from none other than Sub Pop records.















MP3: Please Visit Your National Parks

Low Lustre

Today I will need to cut to the chase with the writeup since I have company in town along with an extreme food coma from last night's dinner. I do these reviews at the end of the night and when the evening involves big late dinners with drinks you can probably imagine my zest in doing this. Before I fall asleep I will tell you that Low Lustre is the indie rock quartet of Nate Borgen (vocals/guitar), Matt Lein (bass), Mark Rode (drums) and Dan Haselbauer (Keyboards). The band is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota but as of September 1st of this year call Brooklyn, New York home. In some of the reviews I read, Low Lustre was compared to U2 but I don't hear it much at all. If I did, they wouldn't be featured here today. Instead, what comes to mind are classic artists from the Twin Cities such as The Placemats. You can hear the regional influence easily. Check the Low Lustre MySpace page for 3 more really good songs. These tracks are from their self (un) titled EP that was released a few months ago. The 6 song EP is available only through the Low Lustre website for $6 + s/h USD. I was surprised when I looked to find that Low Lustre is currently unsigned. Good stuff.















MP3: Dancing Blind

Iowa Super Soccer

More often than not, I seem to be finding music to feature already there within the MySpace group these days. We've invited hundreds (Michelle says thousands, more like) of bands to check this out based on their influences and initial impression, and I often spend evenings just going back through to listen. This group is, by no means, a numbers game. The group membership as well as on our MML MySpace page are both becoming a virtual record store. The good kind! In the case of today's featured artists, it was incredibly easy. All we had to do was read their thread that you can find in the forum section below. This is also another geographical first for the group and blog where music is concerned as Eastern Europe has gone mostly unrepresented here. It's always a fun part of doing this group to find good music in new locations. If there are more bands like this from the area, I would love to hear them.



















Iowa Super Soccer is a low key 5 piece consisting of Monika Mendak (vocals), Marcin Fluder (guitar), Michal Skrzydlo (guitar / vocals), Slawek Plotek (drums) and Blazej Nowicki (bass). As I almost mentioned above they are from Poland and formed in 2004. Today's featured song is one I downloaded from the Iowa Super Soccer website. This is a great track that slowly gains momentum at the 2 minute mark and builds on all the right levels for the second part of the song. Monika's vocals are definitely the sweetest attraction here. There are more songs on the Iowa Super Soccer MySpace page including one titled The River which will be a part of the band's upcoming November EP. There is also a really short clip of the band live on YouTube:



ISS is currently unsigned so you will need to contact them on MySpace to purchase the new EP. Their debut release is also available for £2.25 GBP ($4 USD). Give them a shout.















MP3: Morning

Punch And Judy

Sunday's classic was a good one and spilled into Monday since constant beer consumption during the course of any given weekend is not conducive to productivity on a Sunday evening. As consolation, we've posted a second Dag Nasty MP3 on the MML blog for you. The track is titled Typical and was what I can remember as the perfect "get over a teen break up" song. I need to mention that I've probably been dropped from the honorary Swede list since I neglected to feature my usual 2 or 3 Swedish bands last week. In moving forward I found a really good one to share that might bring me back in good favor. I wanted to keep the indie rock going for another day and this young band has jumping energy levels for sure. The first comparison that came to mind was Sonic Youth (vocals) mixed with a Jawbox era song structure. The track is just over 4 minutes long with the last minute building into a full blown screaming vocal attack that slows into what I can only liken to early ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Add bells to any rock song and I am sold completely. I could listen to this song repeatedly (especially the last minute or so.)















Punch and Judy are an indie rock quintet from Gothenburg, Sweden. Members Olof Astrom, Bjorn Vestlund, Daniel Sraneus, Edvin Thorbjornsson and Jonas Abrahamsson started making music in 2004 from what I could decipher from the Swedish language Punch and Judy website. This is yet another good example of an unsigned DIY outfit that blows away plenty of signed bands. Today's featured song is part of their 4 song 2005 EP titled Secondary. Last month P&J shared a bill with previous MML feature Backslick. If you visit the Punch and Judy MySpace page there is more music to download as well. Great stuff!!















MP3: You Better Know It's Coming Back

Dag Nasty

It's classic Sunday again!!... and today's feature will make some of you hardcore folks that are around my age smile and even laugh a little. During the mid to late 80s most of the original crop of hardcore punk bands did one of two things. Some of them simply folded while others made an attempt to embrace the mainstream. Bands started to mix 'n' match musicians in order to incorporate a slower melodic guitar sound since shaved heads and jack boots were quickly being replaced by mullet haircuts and Megadeth t-shirts at their shows. Yep... Hardcore was ending rapidly. The FU's became Straw Dogs, Corrosion Of Conformity watered things down with Ugly Americans front man Simon Bob and Dirty Rotten Imbeciles even came out with a release titled Crossover that would send even their biggest fans running. There was another part of the hardcore scene that evolved towards the ears of alternative college radio. This post-hardcore sound was largely a product of a few Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA straight edge bands that would later mistakenly be labeled emotive or Emo by people who like to create McGenres to sell bad new music to young people. Most of the bands, including today's featured standout, were simply moving forward in much the same way Husker Du did a few years earlier. Unfortunately, the stigma of being a band in either DC or LA was too much to overcome in much the same way people would think of the soon to follow Seattle Grunge scene. Simply put... People get sick of stuff. If you aren't already sifting through your old vinyl or cassettes for this and other classics from those days you may want to find them.













Dag Nasty was formed in 1985 and soon had a relationship with the legendary Washington, DC based label Discord Records. Their first release Can I Say (1986) was probably the only true hardcore album if you ask most fans. I had the privilege to see them that very same year on tour here in Columbus, Ohio with label mates Beefeater. The featured song today is from the third full length album titled Field Day which was released in 1988 on now defunct Giant Records. For the purpose of this writeup, and because I have the CD case in front of me, I will list the band lineup from that year. Peter Cortner (vocals), Doug Carrion (bass), Brian Baker (guitar) and Scott Garrett (drums). If you would like to hear the early material here is a great YouTube video of Can I Say featuring original vocalist Shawn Brown.



Another YouTube video can be found that features Peter Cortner in an impromptu acoustic version of "When I Move" from the 1987 release Wig Out At Denko's... here you go:



Even though the band is only a project these days, there is still an official Dag Nasty website which I recommend you visit, as well as a Dag Nasty MySpace that IS the real deal as far as I can tell. This album is a classic but don't go looking for deep poetic abstracts here. This is just a good rock band explaining, in simple terms, their constant transition as a musical entity.














MP3: Trouble Is
Bonus MP3: Typical

Gertie Fox

Nope, this isn't a cover of the 80s-tastic David Bowie song Modern Love. Instead, this is a really good young band from Southern California that seems to be a DIY outfit from the ground up. This might be a surprise since these artists list their location as Hollywood. If I've learned anything from doing this music blog/group, it would be that not all musicians from the coastal metropoli are inherently void of substance or created by monied third parties for mass consumption. In a refreshing turn of events, the corporate wolves (coincidence?) in Indie label clothing have decided to pursue a new breed of purposefully unassuming bands from small towns in an effort to market the unmarketable bland folk shite we are subjected to these days. I'm just waiting (hoping) for a new book that will falsely define a new generation in these terms. May I suggest the title "The Year Folk Rock Broke." The McDonald's commercials that are sure to follow in coat-tail effect fashion will inevitably feature fat teenagers with full beards and trucker's hats and will be highly amusing. Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked there so lets get started with the band o'the day.













Gertie Fox is the indie rock quartet of Todd Calvert, Ian Capilouto, Joseph Eugene Martin III and Matthew Molchany from Los Angeles, California. If you visit the Gertie Fox MySpace Page you will find more equally good downloadable songs and a simple, informative and to-the-point bio that doesn't attempt to describe the band as some sort of catastrophic ecstasy trip. Since GF is unsigned (not for long) you will need to go to their MySpace Blog to buy merchandise and music directly from the band. There is also a well designed Gertie Fox website for a ton of music to download. The folks at Fanatic Promotion are lending a hand also and have today's featured song on the Fanatic MySpace Page. I didn't realize Pure Volume still existed but it seems GF has a band profile there as well. Finally, there is a YouTube video of GF during a live performance at the Old Towne Pub performing "The Great Indoors"...



MP3: Modern Love

The Western States Motel

Update 10/13: I am just updating yesterday's artist with another good song. I had a bombshell hit me at work and need to digest the information. (Cincinnati seems like a nice place to visit... but moving there???) In other words, my office is closing in Columbus and if I don't move with it, I am job hunting come very early next year (right after the holidays.) I need some sleep....uggg.

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Before this writeup, I need to mention that Michelle brought her G4 PowerBook along for this visit. We ended up messing around with the music program on her Mac and are trying to figure out a way to involve my bass guitar through the Digitech BP50 bass processor I kick around with at home. If anyone is familiar with (real instruments on) the Garageband application please get in touch with us. Onward...When downloading music I sometimes mislabel the songs and since my desktop is full of various music files I had to do some searching to figure out which band to read up on. After having no luck with a myspace music search for a band called Southwest Planez, I finally realized that it was the song title and not the band name. This is a really nice song that's been stuck in the back of my head for quite a while now so I thought I'd share. The Pavement familiarity is easy to spot in the vocals, but distant at best when listening to this band entirely. For ears that love the low key, this one is a keeper.















The Western States Motel is primarily the music project of California native Carl Jordan. He currently resides in Los Angeles and enlists the help of friends for live performances. This Sunday, 15 October, TWSM will be playing at The Make-Out-Room in San Francisco along with previous MML featured artists Winechuggers for a mere $7. Now... If only N. Lannon happened to be in this lineup somewhere, it might just be the perfect gig. For more good music you can visit TWSM on Myspace and buy this summer's self titled 11 song debut release through CD Baby for $11. To give you some history, I will quote the official bio here...

"The Western States Motel began as a recording entity, creating soundtracks for unmade short films set in Los Angeles, backyard nature documentaries, and various vhs camcorder retrospectives. Eventually, a score was completed for a short documentary called "FOLSOM, CASH AND THE COMEBACK," which examines Johnny Cash's 1968 concert at Folsom Prison. You can find it on the "WALK THE LINE" special edition dvd. August 1st, 2006 saw the release of their self-titled debut album on their own Firebird Field Recordings label."


















MP3s: Southwest Planez & Powerlines - no longer available for download here, but you can get hold of them from the iTunes Music Store.

The Tranzmitors

I always say the write ups here will be short when I have less important matters to attend to, but this one will actually be shorter than my usual 14 connected paragraphs. Michelle arrived all the way from London today and we are going to do some late night beer induced grocery shopping for her 3 + week stay. Just a heads up that music will not be changed at midnight as usual. It will be sporadic at best but always a daily thing for you to check out. In other words... gotta hang with my girly while I can. That said, today's band is one I knew I was going to feature after only a couple of listens. They list some Brit-Pop (mod-ish punk) influences and it's not hard to hear within the general flavor of their music. They really don't sound like any of those 70s bands which is probably for the best. I am hearing more of an early 80s interpretation (which is not a backhanded statement at all.)















When you visit Vancouver, BC, Canada artists The Tranzmitors MySpace, you will hear some more good energetic tracks. There isn't an official website, but from the La-Ti-Da Record Label I read that there will be a re-pressed 7 inch single from the band very soon. There is also an active La-Ti-Da Myspace page for more good stuff. I truly wish there was more detailed information for this band. The music is wonderfully addictive and if there ever happens to be a sequel or re-make of the 80s-tastic movie Valley Girl, these guys need to be on the soundtrack. For some strange reason, the chorus of today's featured song also feels familiar to Dag Nasty's track Staring at The Rude Boys from the 1988 release Field Day. Please don't throw shit at me... I loved that album.















MP3: Dancing In The Front Row

Yoyoyo Acapulco

Well, the day is here and by the time most of you read this Michelle will be sitting in a airplane watching crappy Disney and/or Sandra Bullock light romance movies and eating airline food somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. That's right, the group/blog Social Director (the big boss) is shirking her responsibilities at the BBC and traveling from London to make life roses for yours truly during the next few weeks. I was watching her pack her case last evening via webcam while I cleaned my place and had today's featured music playing. I decided to post this band since they are sooo much fun and can stand on their own without any elaborate description on my part. The only comparison I can make is to a 90's favorite in the Louisiana outfit Squirrel Nut Zippers. Give me a song that starts with a Kazoo chorus and I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever have. This rocks out and any time an artist lists Black Flag as an influence, they score major points with me!! The following is a quote from the band bio...

"Yoyoyo Acapulco is a four piece band making songs with an old organ, some purple drums, a bass, kazoo, glockenspiel and one white ukulele. On top of this is the male or female voice of a male or female, making tunes you can dance, sing, sit or drink to. It is a quite new band, with its roots deeply hiding in the dark 90's with former members of One Less Star and Magnetic Silver Sleeves."
















Yoyoyo Acapulco is the quartet of Arne Martin Barlund (ukulele, vocals, guitar, glockenspiel, kazoo, percussion), Hans Sigbjørn Karlsen (organ, handclaps, cowbell, shouts), Ruth Mari Barlund (bass, percussion., kazoo, vocals) and Kenneth Melbø (drums, percussion) from Vestre Gausdal, Norway. If you check the Yoyoyo Acapulco Myspace there are 3 more great songs for your listening pleasure. The band has a spot on this Norwegian Music Site that doubles as an official website, but since I don't know the language I cannot explain anything further. They are booked to play their next concert on the 22nd of October at Samfunnshuset where they will present some new material. Also, before I finish here, there is also a YouTube Video to check out. This is a really great band but from the above quote they mention drinking to their music. I'll have to drink them under the table some day. Yes...all four of them.

























MP3: Kamasutra Tsunami

Lonely China Day

MML and the MySpace group are both a complete exercise in finding music from around the world. We've been accused of favoring international music instead of limiting ourselves to artists within the borders of the US (or the UK in my case! - Michelle) and we are ok with that. It really doesn't make a difference where a band is from. I just opened my MySpace to find that these guys had added me one day and here we are. If you are spending any amount of time wondering why we do what we do, then you have far too much time on your hands. We also have that time but keep forgetting the point. Ahhh yes... Good music. In this case, I have a band from China to feature. I really can't compare this music to anything (besides Arab Strap in a twisted way) but that is probably a good thing. Before I dig a deeper hole for myself with my silly review of a band this talented, I will quote a really good part of the official band bio...

"When it comes to exported music from China most think:

1) traditional World Music

2) Horrifying girl/boy pop groups sucking loli pops and wearing a blinding blend of neon

3) Karaoke bars... lots of Karaoke bars.Yes: Lonely China Day is from Beijing, China.No: They don’t play traditional Chinese music. They don’t suck loli pops. They never go to Karaoke bars…ever."















Ok... I'm sold. Lonely China Day is an indie rock quartet from Beijing, China. I'm not sure when the band was formed but the current lineup consists of Deng Pei (songwriter, vocals, guitar, programming), Wang Dongtao (guitars), He Feng (bass) and Luo Hao (drums). If you want to hear more, check out the Lonely China Day Myspace to start. They have a brand new self titled 2006 EP that you can purchase through Tag Team Records. There is also a Tag Team MySpace to visit for more great music. Finally, there is a Lonely China Day website for the best information. Jo tau (I think you say goodnight that way?)...Zzzzzzz















MP3: Thou

Velocity Girl

Late start to Classic Sunday but that's what weekends are for. This will be an abbreviated writeup and I'm sure, as usual, that the band won't mind since they...um no longer exist in group form. Sometimes getting signed to the coolest label at the wrong time can be a devastating or career ending experience. Today's featured artists made such a move during the early 90's and the press/attention were all over them initially. The eventual Indie backlash against anything Subpop, combined with what is known as the coat tail effect (MTV exposure to idiots) in collective behavior studies saw the band fold into obscurity at a rate I can only liken to the career of any 20 member rap group. The mid to late 90's were not a good time for indie rock bands and plenty of them, along with today's feature, were mostly overlooked in cheap exchange for mall-rat grunge. In other words, people are sheep.















Velocity Girl started out in 1988 as an Indie label trio in Silver Spring, Maryland that eventually became a 5 piece and went big-time for a short period of time. The lineup consisted of vocalist Sarah Shannon along with Archie Moore, Jim Spellman, Kelly Riles and Brian Nelson. The first singles, along with this song, were released on the Slumberland Records label. They would soon join the Sub Pop label to release three more full length CDs. If the song featured here today sounds familiar, it was part the soundtrack of the 1995 High School movie Clueless. Don't laugh...I actually like that movie. Besides the above mentioned link to Sarah Shannon's new music, the only thing I could find on myspace was a Velocity Girl Fan Profile. I found some of their videos on YouTube, too, and couldn't decide which one to post. So I'm posting all three.







Did I mention that I love this song?

MP3: My Forgotten Favorite (1991, 1993, 1995)