I just want to say that I'm ridiculously excited for The Darjeeling Limited to start playing here next week. In celebration of this, here are some songs off the soundtrack.
I have most recently fallen in love with a variety of Swedish pop music, I'm making a couple super huge mega posts about them. Here's part one of my favorites, in random order.
Pelle Carlberg Let me explain why I like him so much. He's like a more mature Jens Lekman with more bounce in his step than sadness in his look. His songs make me happy, mostly because of their bubblegummy flair and witty lyrics. Here's a song he wrote, and Ida Maria joins him on the video:
One of the best things about his new album, In a Nutshell is the song "I Just Called to Say I Love You," which has a cutesy harmonica along with these opening lyrics:
If I ever get happy, my songs will start to suck But if I ever get happy, I won't give a fuck
To listen to more Pelle, head over to his myspace page. It's worth it, I promise.
The Radio Dept. Having some renewed notoriety of late due to the Marie Antoinette soundtrack, I checked out Pet Grief, and it was one of my favorite albums of last year. Here's "Pulling our Weight" from that very soundtrack:
I personally adore the track "Pet Grief" the best, but if you've ever delved into shoegaze pop, it's pretty hard to not love them. While a bunch of groups are eager to compare them to My Bloody Valentine, I think The Radio Dept. offers a much cleaner and less experimental (though absolutely still in the same shoegaze vein) look at their music. Unfortunately, someone hijacked their myspace page, but here's my favorite track, just for you guys:
Hello Saferide I think Annika Norlin is nothing short of adorable. She's probably as equally poppy as Pelle, if not moreso, but she has the gripes/celebrations of a modern girl. She just came out with a new single called "I Was Definitely Made for These Times," which you can hear if you go to the Regal Records myspace page (it's the third song on the list). I've really fallen for the new song of late, mainly because of the lyrics and catchy beat (which was apparently given to her by Jens Lekman. <3 Here's the song "The Quiz," if you'll excuse the awkward-looking night vision camera:
Jens Lekman He's probably the most popular among indie kids of the names on this list, and for a good reason, of course. I got a hold of Oh You're So Silent Jens and fell in love with it right away. Mainly, of course, because his songs are pure romantic mush, which Pitchfork also recognized, writing:
Jens Lekman does not have a girlfriend. This seems to be an injustice on par with the Sony rootkit fiasco and the cancellation of "Arrested Development".
Because really, the guy's songs are absolutely heartfelt and a little sad. Don't get him completely wrong, though, he can be plenty catchy for being a little down in the dumps. Here are a couple tracks for you guys.
If you found any of them enjoyable and want even more Swedish goodness, pop over to Swedes Please, which is a great music blog about that very subject.
In case any of you weren't aware, The Format is celebrating the anniversary of the release of their album Dog Problems by giving our free copies of it on the internet! If you want it (something I highly recommend), pop over to their website. Here's one of the best songs from the album, complete in both youtube and mp3 formats. Enjoy!
Speaking of other downloading, don't forget that both elbo.ws and hype are awesome blog aggregators bound to find you all kinds of information and mp3 files. If you're more into sampling entire albums, I'd suggest sites like bolachas grátis and Dick Darlington.
Album leaks have been popping up all over lately, and I feel called upon to comment on at least a few of the most recent ones.
First and foremost, I adore John Vanderslice, and his new album Emerald City (which releases on July 24th) is a shining example of his stunning use of analog sounds. The slow pianistic lull of this album, while much unlike some of his earlier albums, has a sweet melancholy finesse. The blurb from barsuk records (click there to be sent to the page about this very album) states:
John Vanderslice wrote the bulk of his new album while knee-deep in legal limbo after a visa application for his girlfriend, a French national he met in Paris, was rejected by US Immigration.
The songs and themes in emerald city are fueled by an era of deep insecurity and paranoia; they develop in front of a backdrop of ritualized and mythologized current events. Lyrically, JV's characters and storytellers track Manifest Destiny from burning wagon wheels to two-bedroom homes with full amenities in Bakersfield, California. Along that rough road, there are bewildered commemorations, peace-lovers and revenge-lusters, psychotic reactions to unnamed episodes, and the grief-stricken and the vengeance-hungry wrapped up in the same skin. Weaving throughout the entire album is the ever present danger of opposition. But at its simplest, and captured with straight autobiography in album closer central booking, emerald city is made up of JV's love songs — confused and angry, afraid and defeated. The red tape tie-up for JV and his girl remains unresolved.
In the midst of such problems, however, Vanderslice has undoubtedly turned up a gem. A couple songs that left me wanting more include "Central Booking":
I got your letter with the stamp of Godard I'll never open it, I know how dead we are Splotches of ink are not tears, they're not blood And hope, okay, one's not physical love
To be fair, I can only assume he sings "Godard" as those lyrics are as yet uncomfirmed, but I adore the defeatism of this little song.
"Numbered Lithograph" is actually a song I first heard him perform live when he came to the Local 506 with St. Vincent, and it didn't have all the interesting quirky background sounds: I really dig those. For comparison's sake, here's a youtube video of him doing it live on tour. Aside from which, the line "I've never been lonelier" is catchy enough to keep the song in your head all day.
Your cell phone, it shuttered and blinked It was your boyfriend again I've never been lonelier
Other facets of this album include "White Dove," which has been more widely circulated than most anything else on this album. One of my favorite songs on the album is "Tablespoon of Codeine," with its toe-tappable beat and woven piano interludes. I'm in no way trying to ignore the genius of "Kookaburra," "The Tower" or "The Minaret," because they are all fantastic additions to this album, they just didn't hit me as hard as a few as the others. In conclusion, buy this album. You won't be sorry.
I also want to talk about St. Vincent's new album, Marry Me (releases July 10th). Annie Clark is awesome, when shredding up a storm on a guitar or sweetly playing the piano. I've been rather addicted to the album's eponymous track, "Marry Me," it's a simple piano-handclap number, with quite a wit for lyrics like:
Come one, let's do what Mary and Joseph did ...without the kid
I'm jealous of this guy named John she keeps proposing to, really, 'cause even I'd marry her in a hot minute. Her lyrical selections continue to amuse, as in "Human Racing":
Romeo, where'd you go? It's been years and still no sign But I'm keeping hope alive Juliet, how you been? You look like death Like you sure could use some rest
I find songs like "Your Lips are Red" painfully compelling despite such a simple song concept simply because she manages to breathe such life into the song towards the end: at the John Vanderslice show she opened, for example, it sounded like she was going to have an orgasm on one of the repetitions of "your skin's so fair, it's not fair." And that kind of passion is both undeniable and fascinating. Anyway, have a listen to three of the songs on her myspace page. Here's a bonus, too.
