Alouatta

Another week of adjusting to the new house, with a weekend mountain of heavy-duty yard work to complete, left the both of us tired, absent from the blog and almost yearning for a plate of red meat for this Monday evening. Instead of feeding our carnivorous nature with unhealthy food, it was decided to post a highly palatable rock band from Sweden. Alouatta is a post-hardcore punk quartet from Stockholm consisting of members Karl Burhe (vocals, guitar), Robert Bäckström (bass), Fredrik Eriksson (guitar, vocals) and Zet Enochsson (drums). The band has a year under their collective belt with their 2007 CD-EP, titled Manos Arriba!, as well as brand new 7" vinyl single, aptly titled Animal. If you are already listening to the new lead track and are any type of early to mid-80s hardcore fan, you might actually find yourself thinking of some of the better moments in the career of John Sox/Straw Dogs... or even the FUs. It just hit me that way. For more new music and information, be sure to check out the Alouatta MySpace page and also give Karl a good kick to the shins for sending us this song... our computer speakers and ears thank him. The most recent live performance took place last month at a Kristinehamn event known for the past three years as Widow Street Festival, and there are European and US dates (Cincinnati??) planned for the semi-near future. Volume up please....

MP3: Animal

AC Berkheimer

Oh, we've been waiting for a few days to unleash this one on you. It really doesn't get much better than an easy writeup of a band this good... and we only needed to return to our friends in the Netherlands, Subroutine Records (Subroutine MySpace), to make it happen. AC Berkheimer is the indie rock quartet of Gwendolien (guitar, vocals), Valentijn (guitar, vocals), Dagmar (bass, vocals) and Remco (drums) from Rotterdam. The band has been around since 2005 and now has a brand new release, titled In A Series Of Long Days, which can be purchased by visiting the above mentioned links as well as the AC Berkheimer website or the AC Berkheimer MySpace profile. The following tracks belong to this outstanding new offering and don't be surprised if you hear anything from Superchunk (in the guitars) to some of the dreamy musical influences we love so much from the early to mid 1990s. The next live performance will take place July 6 as the band takes the stage at a local Rotterdam event known as Metropolis Festival. Have a listen to this...

MP3: For He's Not There
MP3: Ordinary Days

Disco Ditto

Often times, while sorting through potential artists for upcoming music on the blog, we end up choosing music that is not brand new. The songs can be a couple of years old, a distant memory by today's music blog standards, but might not have received the exposure we believe they deserve. Enter our featured artist-o-the day. Disco Ditto is primarily the music project of a multi-instrumentalist songwriter from Singapore, who is simply known to us as AZ, along with additional musicians Mar (bass), Bach (drums) and Fid (guitar) to complete the full band lineup. In 2004, AZ was an active member of the band Valium as well as Athena Flight. During the years that followed his primary focus on those bands, a decision was made to continue collecting thoughts and musical ideas to funnel into a new soundscape. You can listen to the results of his labor, over what he describes as a "busted" computer, by visiting the Disco Ditto MySpace page. There is also a Disco Ditto AMP profile for more info and music. From what AZ explained to me, we can expect new tracks in the near future.

If you have the chance, we highly advise having a cold glass of water or early cocktail while lounging out in the sun on any given grassy surface while listening to the following 12 minutes of music... enjoy.

MP3: Drift (live)

Bonus MP3: Athena Flight - Away From The Sun

The Very Sexuals

As much as Michelle and I would have loved to continue our quest for the perfect chemically restructured lawn/garden and non-disastrous IKEA assembly within our new (old) house, we simply couldn't resist some recent communication with several long time friends of MML. Yes, this means we have returned for another round... and there is plenty of catching up to do, so let's get to it. We originally featured Eindhoven/Noord-Brabant, Netherlands outfit The Sugarettes (Sugarettes MySpace) in January of 2007, followed by another visit/review in September later that year. Most recently, we presented a new YouTube video by the band and... wait!! Why am I telling you about The Sugarettes?? Here is the deal from what we just learned first hand. Some of the artists from that band have created a new project, The Very Sexuals, and the music is well worth repeated listens. Joep van Son and Cox Dieben have returned with this updated offering, along with new bandmates Pien Feith, Niels Philipsen and Rob Bours. The debut album, released by one of our favorite labels, Subroutine Records (Subroutine MySpace), is titled Post-Apocalyptic Love and is available completely free for download if you visit The Very Sexuals website. Also contributing to the new release is Iskaa of the band Foam as well as Oscar Kocken who seems to have an endless supply of music endeavors of his own. You can also get updated news from the band and listen to more music by adding The Very Sexuals MySpace page to your vast collection of virtual friends... they will take good care of you.

Since all of the songs contained within the new release could easily work as a potential highlight, we decided to go with a last minute theme and post the two tracks that have famous musicians listed in the title... Post-Apocalyptic Love is an effective study of the band's influences and solid collection of energetic anthems we can easily recommend.

MP3: Bowie Eyes
MP3: Billy Idol Look-Alike Contest

MML Blog Update: Moving Days...

No no, we are not moving the MML music blog. We actually love our little home here on Blogger and plan on sticking around for quite some time to come. In case you aren't familiar with our current situation, Michelle and I decided to brave the over-hyped and mostly media driven "credit crunch" in order to take advantage of a truly wounded housing market. The result of our latest endeavor ended up being the purchase of a Dutch Colonial Revival style home that was built in 1920. It's a well cared for old house, but it will need some work for sure... pictures to come. The only drawback of our relocation is that we needed to leave downtown Cincinnati in exchange for a more quiet set of surroundings. The neighborhood is actually a city, inside of Cincinnati, called Norwood and our new digs are well within walking distance of Oakley and Hyde Park Square. Because of the close proximity to those two neighborhoods, I consider this specific area of Norwood to be up-and-coming and a smart decision for the long term.

Anyway, since our move started a week ago, we've had no access to our personal/MML email or even any of our Myspazz accounts... so if you've sent us a message or music to feature, we simply haven't seen it. Actually, I was only able to post this update because my computer firewall at work just so happens to be down for maintenance today. Hurrah!

Once we get some more boxes unpacked, master the art of lawn mowing/weed whacking and get our new home office wired for sound, we will be back up and running with what we should probably refer to as a re-launch. There will be no balloons or party favors (unless you buy them yourselves), however, we will have plenty of excellent new music to share.

We should be back in just over a week... seeya then!
The Milk