The Rural Alberta Advantage - The Ballad of the RAA -- Hometowns (2009)

Right now I'll be talking a bit about a Canadian band from Toronto with roots in Alberta. They released two full length albums until now and I'll be talking about the debut record back from 2009. Hometowns is an indie rock album that is characterized by very good vocals by Nils Edenloff (also guitar) accompanied with the backing vocals of Amy Cole (Keyboards as well) in some songs. The music is most of the time fast paced and has some folk influences to it as well if you ask me. The trio, besides the previously named two the band also consists of Paul Banwatt on drums, delivered a very well acclaimed debut album with Hometowns and the follow up album Departing was received well too.

The record starts off with a rather slow intro for the band, the first song does contain a very nice build up with awesome drumming combined with keyboards (of Amy) and strong vocals, but yes it is in general pretty slow and calm for the band. The second song Rush Apart contains some of the folk elements I talked about in the intro, it's a bit faster paced that the opening song and especially the guitar adds a folk element to it for me. The third track is a bit harder than the previous two and leans towards an actual (indie) rock song. The rest of the album actually is more and less a mix of these three types of songs. Namely songs that focus on keyboard and drumming with a bit of guitar to support this, songs that have some fast paced folkish sounding music and songs that lean towards actual rock songs. All these songs are accompanied by the awesome vocals of Nils supported by Amy at times. The better known songs on this record are Don't Haunt This Place, Drain The Blood and The Dethbridge in Lethbridge. As well as the song I'm posting here.

The song I chose to post is the Ballad of the RAA, which is basically the ballad of the band since the RAA stands for Rural Alberta Advantage if you didn't know this little fact already. It is the opening track of the album and contains an awesome build up like I said. As well do you immediately fall in love with the lovely vocals of Nils Edenloff. Enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

Young Statues - Eraser -- Age Isn't Ours (2013)

Young Statues is a New Jersey/Philadelphia based band that I know little to nothing about. What I do know is that they released the Age Isn't Ours 6 track ep last few days, and it doesn't sound bad at all after a few listens. It's an indie rock band with sometimes an emo rockish sounding touch to them if you ask me. The vocals are decent and the music is actually pretty good in my opinion. Nothing extraordinary but a very decent release that is worth to check out. It seems it's the third release by the band after a self titled album in 2011 and an acoustic ep last year, so more to check out if you like what you hear.

The song I'm posting is the first one on the ep, called Eraser. The quality of the video isn't great at all but I actually like it because of this, it adds some sort of charm to it. If you want to properly check the band out you can go watch this video of Spacism, which was featured on their debut album. Enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

BOAT -- Pretend To Be Brave (2013)

Right now I'll be talking about a Seattle based band, that has been active for quite a while. The Pretend To Be Brave is the 5th studio album since 2006 already. I honestly had no clue that there were any albums before the Dress Like Your Idols album from 2011. Above of that I always thought this band was French, don't know where I got these wrong assumptions but at least I read a bit about them before I started writing! 

BOAT is an Indie Rock band and the latest album isn't anything different. It starts off with Sharpshooters and Inside of an Aquarium which seem to be the better known songs by the last.fm community. Both are decent indie rock songs, but don't seem to stand out from so many other bands (like Built to Spill for example). It's an album that is worth to check out though, especially Hating The Criminal and The Big, The Bright are two songs I start to really like after three listens. But you'll have to listen a few times before you can start to really like them I'd say. It's easy to consider them good, but you'll easily forget about them because there isn't anything that makes them different. So I guess the biggest disadvantage this album has, is that it will be easily passed after a first listen because it isn't anything new under the sun. This comes along with a slight advantage though, if you like the genre you'll easily find yourself liking the band at a first listen and it will actually sound familiar in many ways although they are new songs. Anyways to conclude I would say that Pretend To Be Brave is a good Indie Rock album, especially after some extra listens you'll start to like it. I'd consider the band in general to be good as well both music wise and vocals. The Dress Like Your Idols album had the same problem as the Pretend To Be Brave one though. I knew I had it, I knew I liked it but beside the title song I couldn't remember any tune from it. So yes they are good, but nothing new. If you are looking for bands in this genre they are an excellent fit though.  

I don't think the album has any official video's so I'll be posting my favorite song by the band which is the Dress Like Your Idols song which is basically the only song I seemed to remember from the previous album. So I guess they have one song that stands out a bit. I left the song title out of the post's title because of the difference between the album I'm talking about and the album where the songs was taken from. Enjoy!

Official site 

last.fm artist page (second band)

Team Ghost - Dead Film Star -- Rituals (2013)

Now I'll be having it about a band created by Nicolas Fromaguea. Who was a co founder and member of M83 (until 2004). The music the band plays is a mix of a lot of things, it's electronic combined with indie rock as well as a mix with post rock influences at times. Which apparently is the Cold-Gaze genre according to NME (New Musical Express). Therefore I'm very intrigued by this french quintet. 

They tell on their site that their first album is out now, and obviously they mean Rituals. But a little research learns that We All Shine was released in 2011 already with 14 tracks on it. So I think you can speak of a follow up album in this case. Anyways for the great masses and for me as well it's the first thing you'll hear about Team Ghost so we can indeed speak of a debut album in many ways. And it's good, not all songs convince me after three listens, but the album in general is entertaining. Personally I love the post rock elements in them, it's a cool refreshing aspect in music like this for me. The vocals are decent, nothing too great but decent, and the sound of his voice grows on you with every listen. It's a pretty atmospheric record in few songs as well has it quite some tempo with the more faster paced electronic and post rockish tracks. The record actually starts off with everything I just mentioned. It has a very atmospheric/electronic intro. Which actually builds up to guitar work & drums that continues to build up to an eargasm. So you can immediately hear the post rock influences this album has. And all this in one song! Honestly it's an awesome opening track for me. Further in the record you get a mix of actual rock songs, actual electronic and very atmospheric songs. As well do you often get a mix of all the previous elements in one song which was the case in the intro. I would be posting the away (intro) song because it illustrates the mix between the electronic and the post rock music pretty well. But the song has no official video so I had to pick another one. 

And the video I picked for you guys is the hit song on the album and the most famous one. So of course it has an official video coming along with it. But honestly my favorite track is Away, Dead Film Star is good just less, simple as that haha. In general I'd stongely advice you to check this entry out, I'm enjoying quite a lot! Soooo enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

Hey Rosetta! - Young Glass -- Seeds (2011)

Tonight I'll be talking about a Canadian band. The reason for doing so is a Canadian fellow blogger and friend that made a bit of promotion for me a week or so ago. As a way of thanking her I said to give me a band, or few bands and I'd make a post about one of them. After some delay I received an ask in tumblr with a terrible message. I had to pick between Hey Rosetta! and Said The Whale. I was familiar with both bands, but I didn't listen much yet to any of the two, shame on me! Anyways after digging in the Seeds album and the Islands Disappear album I was left between the terrible choice of picking one of the two. 

In the end I decided for Hey Rosetta! and the Seeds album from '11 because of the extra spirit this record had. It's a bit faster than Said The Whale and while being late at night when writing this (I start to write and post on different times) I could use this extra energy the music gave me to keep me awake, haha. Anyways the record contains and the band in general plays indie pop/rock music. Music wise it's sounding very nice, with very catchy songs most of the time. But the vocals! The vocals are just plain awesome, remind me of Dry The River at times, or the other way around whoever you are more acquainted with, put simply: they sound alike to me in some songs. What I said before about the extra bit of energy this record has compared to the Said The Whale record has to be put in this given context. Don't expect a very fast paced record, it's still rather slow, but it has some songs with some extra pit in them like the opener with Seeds and New Sum (Nous Sommes) to name two. As well is the switch from the Downstairs song (which actually only is a build up) to the Welcome song done pretty energetic and they did it very nicely actually. Most of the time the record switches between two types of music. The a bit faster paces indie rock music and the slower indie poppy sounding songs. Personally I'm more fond of the first type of songs, simply because you really enjoy them on a first listen, while the slower ones need a few re-listens to actually start loving them. In general I'd strongly advice to check both bands out, if given the choice like now I'd say Hey Rosetta! but both bands are good. The Seeds Album of Hey Rosetta is the second full album of the band after the earlier released Into Your Lungs album and the Plan Your Escape ep. So If you like what you hear here from this six piece Canadian band there is more from them to check out!

The song was a bit easier to pick, I had again two choices for each band to pick from, and the Young Glass song by Hey Rosetta! was one of the options. At the same time this song already was my personal favorite on the record after a first listen. This stayed the same after a second and third listen so I'm quite confident I picked the right song and this time it was an easy decision, haha. Like always it's also a big plus that the video is an official one, at least I think it is. Enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Filomena's Tumblr

The Strokes - All The Time -- Comedown Machine (2013)

Right now I'll be talking about a very recent release from one of the major bands from the genre (indie/alternative rock). The Strokes as you can read in the title released the Comedown Machine album yesterday (if I'm not mistaken). To start off I'd like to say I'm a fan of The Strokes, especially the first three albums. But I don't often listen to them, I got the hard copies of the first two and planning to buy First Impressions of Earth someday soon though. The fourth album I'm not familiar with as well, it got mediocre reviews and well I listened less to music when it came out so I skipped this release, I'll pick it up soon promise. But yes I'd say I'm a fan of them, certainly not the biggest but I do like them. Back to the matter of the day: Comedown Machine. If I have to use one word to describe the record I'd use WEIRD. Seriously it's a weird record, not bad not good (yet) but weird. 

The record starts of with a very mediocre Tap Out for me personally, I have no clue about past singles supporting the album so it's my first listen to everything. At first listen the records start pretty weird for me the high vocals from Julian Casablancas aren't really my thing. Music wise the album sounds great but the vocals are plain weird in some songs, and I can't get myself over it. In the third song One Way Trigger the high pitched vocals are growing on me though, I still consider it weird but after the third listen I'm starting to have that click in my mind that is saying: well yes it is weird but it's actually pretty damn good. In between you have All The Time which is awesome, it's Strokes like I know them, first three albums I mean. Same applies for the fourth song Come Down Japan. The 5th tracks 80's Comedown Machine, is very atmospheric, or how to hell to describe it. It's not really what you expect from them but it's well done, again weird (for them) but good. afterwards you get again a classic Strokes sounding song with 50 50. And it continues like this you always have to make the switch between what the hell is this? and the sound you are used to by them. No it isn't a bad record, after a few listens you really come to like it. But it's not what you expect from them at all. So again I'd describe the record as weird, this might be because I skipped the previous release so my apologies if this is the case. But for someone only familiar with the classic sound of The Strokes it's a bit of a culture shock. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, but like so many bands they evolve I guess, let's just try to enjoy the new material as much as we enjoyed the old material.

The song I'm posting is unknown until now for me, haha. Well I typed all the previous before choosing out a song, I'm new to the record so I don't have a favorite song yet and I'm just gonna search for an official video. And the winner is All The Time, one of the songs you'd expect from them, and yes it's official.

Official site
last.fm artist page

Freelance Whales - Generator ^ First Floor-- Weathervanes (2009)

Right now I'm going to talk about a band hailing from New York, Queens to be more exact. Freelance Whales has been active since 2008 and has two studio albums out already. Diluvia which was released last year and the debut record Weathervanes that I'll be talking about here. The music they produce is a mix of indie, indie pop and folk elements which they do very well. To create the music they do they use a whole range of instruments, something you can see as well in the video I'm posting for you guys. Not only do they use the acoustic, electric, bass guitar and the drums. They add  the harmonium, glockenspiel, banjo, mandolin, synthesizers and so on. This creates a pretty unique and very good sound and makes them one of my favorite bands in the indie pop genre.

The record brings you 13 tracks full of quality, it starts off very slow with the song I'm posting having a very long intro  (in the video it doesn't take as much time as on the record) but at the end of the song you already you know you will absolutely adore the band. after this excellent opener the record continues to bring you catchy melodies with good combined vocals which works very well for the band. If you are one of the few that didn't hear about them yet I would strongly advice you to start listening to them. The indie pop/folk music combined with some more electronic tracks are quite excellent and explain why this album was critically acclaimed well. 

The song I chose is the Generator ^ First Floor track. Few reasons for this, it's the most known song by the band, it's the first song I knew by them few years back. And last but not least the video is absolutely lovely. So enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Kings of Convenience - Boat Behind -- Declaration of Dependence (2009)

Right now I'll be posting a band for Miri, who's been promoting me pretty nicely lately so thanks my love. It took some time to find the band to post about, Alabama Shakes & Bat For Lashes were close to winning the pledge. But in the end we decided on this Norwegian duo. Kings of Convenience is a music project that took me a very long time to like. But now I'm pretty fond of the soft acoustic indie pop/rock tunes they produce combined with some nice vocals of both of them. The album I'll be posting about here is the third studio album they brought out and it dates from 2009 already.  They are actually quite lazy, haha. Only brought out 3 albums from '99 until now. But, I guess, quality is more  important than quantity and it's certainly the case with these two.

The Declaration of Dependence album was the first one I started to like by them, right now I do like all three of them but this one stays my number one. I especially like the first few tracks on the record like 24-25, Mrs Cold and Boat Behind. The rest of the record is quit good but for me it's honestly more of the same so I often skip to another band after a few songs. But whenever I finish the record I don't regret any second of it! Like the band in general it's characterized by soft indie pop rock. If you're not really into this you might find them boring like I did at first. A few re-listens might overcome this issue though, at least it did for me. If you actually do like this kind of music you will really enjoy them a lot and you probably know them already.

The song I'm posting is Boat Behind, first choice would have been 24-25 but no official video available so this is slightly better then. It also is the first song I really started to like from the band which always is an extra reason to post a song for me. I assume most people know them already so I'm gonna stop here, just enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

Polarsets - Morning (2010)

Right now I'll be having it about a pretty new band. Well they are busy from 2009 or 2010 I think but they still are unknown to most people and they don't even have a complete record out yet. Polarsets is a trio based around Newcastle and are making music that is a mix of indie and electronic music. They are(or at least were) signed to Kitsuné records and they released their first ep, the exotica ep, around last summer. While this ep is pretty good with Tropics as my favorite track on it I'm not going to talk about it right now. 

This for the simple reason that all the releases, singles, before the ep were at least as good and in my eyes even a bit better. I love Leave Argentina and the Bside of that one Just Don't Open Your Eyes Yet is even better. The song I'm going to post here is Morning, not as good as the first two songs they brought out but it has an official video and it's still pretty awesome. 

So why talk or even post about this band when they didn't yet release that much in the past? Well their sound seems very promising and although it seems to take like forever to release the debut record I have faith in this trio. I don't even have 10 songs of this group and it's definitely one of my favorite bands at the moment. If you would doubt my opinion they supported Two Door Cinema Club and Ellie Goulding in the past, not bad for starters I'd say. Enjoy Morning!

Official site

last.fm artist page

The Dykeenies - Clean Up Your Eyes -- Nothing Means Everything (2007)

Up now is a Scottish band I simply adore since the debut album came out. I remember I used to be a demonoid user back then and I basically downloaded everything I didn't know in the indie category. Found some brilliant bands back then! Man I really miss that site, well alternatives enough of course. The band I'm going to talk about is The Dykeenies. The album I'll be talking about is Nothing Means Everything. 

The Dykeenies are a four piece originating from Cumbernauld (seriously where the hell is this place?), Scotland. The band has two studio albums out already Nothing Means Everything from '07 and Canyon of Echoes from '11. The debut record is one of my most played records of all times and I know all the songs by heart. The second one is less good for me, decent enough to put on occasionally but nothing extraordinary, maybe it needs a few more listens though. If you never heard of them I strongly advice you to start with the debut album and in particular the Clean Up Your Eyes, Pick You Up and New Ideas songs. The record in general is characterized by fast paced indie rock with some good vocals with an not too obvious but still oh so awesome Scottish accent, seriously what accent is better than this? 

The song I'm posting for you guys tonight is the Clean Up Your Eyes song. Two reasons, it's my favorite and it has an official video. Hope you guys enjoy!  

Split up last year, so no official or active site/profile anymore. =/
last.fm artist page

Say Hi (To Your Mom) - Laundry -- Discosadness (2002)

Next up is the Seattle based (America) band Say Hi, which previously was named Say Hi To Your Mom, I personally prefer the second band name, but hey who am I. It's an Indie Rock band that has been playing since 2002 and mainly consists of Eric Elbogen who does pretty much everything. When on tour he has a bunch of friends who help him out. But for the records he sings and plays pretty much everything himself. The record I'm talking about here is the first one Discosadness which came out in 2002. After this first release Eric released 6 more albums with Um, Uh Oh being the latest back in 2011. I never found any of his albums in local stores and even downloading used to be an issue so I'm only familiar with 3 of the first 4 albums, and having half of the fourth album. The later three albums I know nothing about but I definitely will try to find them some day soon.

The record is an easy to listen to Indie pop/rock album with very catchy melodies and lyrics. The record contains ten tracks, and all of them really are worth listening too, starting with The Fritz over The Pimp and the Sparrow, Laundry and ending with Blizzard and The Showdown in Goattown. Honestly I adore all of these tracks, I think it's his voice combined with the soft easy listening music that got me completely sold.

Only thing I can say about Say Hi and The debut album Discosadness is go check them out they both are amazing and a personal favorite of mine.

The song I posted here for you guys is Laundry, it's one of the best tracks for me among But She Beat My High Score, Let's Talk About Spaceships, & Hooplas Involving Circus Tricks (which are all three of the Numbers & Mumbles album if you would like to check them). The reason to pick Laundry instead of one of these is because Laundry was the first one I knew of Say Hi (To Your Mom). Soooo... Enjoy!

Official Tumblr

last.fm artist page

Bon Iver - Blood Bank -- Blood Bank ep (2009)

Today I'll be talking about an indie folk band from good old America, Wisconsin to be more exact. Bon Iver (where Iver is pronounced as the french word for winter hiver) is an award winning artist for best alternative album and best new artist recently, although they are already producing music for quite some time. I'm not gonna talk about one of the two full length albums  that came out yet, For Emma Forever Ago (2007/2008) and the self titled one (2011). Instead I'll be talking about my favorite release of the band which is a short 4 tracks ep that came out in 2009 and is a bit less well known than both the albums.

The blood bank ep contains 4 track including my favorite of the band and the one they named the ep after, Blood Bank. As well as a very alternative track Woods (go check it out to know what I mean). Besides these two it contains two very decent indie folk easy to listen to tracks that make you, or at least me, feel good and cheerful. 

Why Bon Iver today, well last night I listened to my music on shuffle and I came along Volcano Choir  which is one of the many other projects of talented singer-songwriter Justin Vernon (Vocals of Bon Iver of course). Which lead to the urge to listen to Bon Iver in general and more specifically the Blood Bank ep. I think the best thing of this ep for me personally is the length of it. Don't get me wrong I like the music I like Bon Iver, Volcano Choir and some of the other projects. But after a few songs I'm starting to get a bit bored so for me it becomes a drag to finish the albums. A problem you don't have when the ep only contains four tracks. Never the less if you are not familiar with anything named in this post go check it out. If you like Bon Iver you'll probably like Volcano Choir, if you like one release you'll probably like the other releases as well...

The song is like I said Blood Bank, special about the video is that it's a live video, not the greatest quality but decent enough to beat a video of the track with a picture on the background! So enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

Cut City - Such Verve -- Exit Decades (2007)

After my Pixies post yesterday I put my ipod on shuffle again since I had no desire to listen to anything specific. It took about 30 songs until I stumbled upon a Swedish gem I had forgotten about. Cut City is like I said a Swedish four piece band that produces music sounding like a mix of Joy Division, Interpol, Editors... Basically it sounds like a lot of bands that have Joy Division as their main influence. 

So why give them some attention if they sound like so many other bands? well because they were able to make me listen to their debut album a few times in a row. Exit Decades is a very decent, if not to say good, album produced in 2007 already. It contains a lot of good tunes like Damaged, Like Ashes Like Millions and the song I'm putting online Such Verve. So it's definitely worth checking. I will be checking some of the more recent albums myself in the hope to find some more good albums produced by them. 

Like I said the song I'm posting is Such Verve. Reason for this is simple, it was the song I stumbled upon while shuffle-ling my entire library. Good guy Ipod right? Enjoy!

Bandcamp page

last.fm artist page

San Cisco - Beach -- San Cisco (2012)

Again my apologies for being absent, had a stomach infection and didn't spend much of my time before a computer. What I did do is listen to some music since I had to spend so much time in bed. Mostly things I know for a very long time and very well but some of the things that came along are somewhat new discoveries. One of these new bands is San Cisco a four piece band from Australia. I knew them a while from the Awkward EP that came out earlier this year but I didn't spend too much attention on that one. Which was wrong of me, something I noticed in my bed after some extra listens...

The reason for changing my opinion about them so drastically was the album that came out last month. Like I  said I knew them from the EP and I knew they were at least OK so it was an instant download for me. And from the first listen I was pretty amazed by the album, in a good way of course. It's some easy listening indie pop rock in my opinion (if that is even a genre, but hey everything needs some kind of label, this is mine haha). Although I felt and still feel rather sick it made me cheer up quite a lot, mostly because of the music, lyrics didn't seem that cheerful but I need to listen more closely to the album to be a 100% sure about that. Anyways the San Cisco album is definitely an entry you guys should try out. It's for me one of the better ones of this year, although I'm not that up to date anymore, so I'm sure I missed a lot (working on it), nevertheless the album is still worth a shot no? The song I chose is the opening of the album called Beach, it shows immediately the good mood of the album and the switching between female and male vocals which works good for them. Enjoy!      

Official Facebook, since I don't see any site on the www

last.fm artist page

Alt-J (∆) - Breezeblocks -- An Awesome Wave (2012)

From the one year to the other, from 2011 to 2012. Like I said in the previous post the debut record of Little Comets was one of my favorites of 2011, the debut album of Alt-J is maybe my AOTY (album of the year) 2012, or at least one of my favorites of this year. The album contains lots of good tracks like tessellate, Breezeblocks, Matilda and so on. What makes these tracks so excellent in my opinion is of course the total package of the songs, but what makes Alt-J stand out from the rest this year is the sound of his voice, I really like the vocals a lot. To a lesser extent the use of unusual instruments/sounds make them stand out a bit as well.

If you didn't check this Leeds based band out yet you definitively should, at least on record they sound amazing. I would check them out live and they actually are coming to Belgium, few weeks back I saw the concert appear in the news letter of a local venue. I obviously got really excited and immediately went to the site to buy some tickets only to see the concert was sold out already, they scheduled them in the small venue where only like 100 people fit in and put some crap act in the main room that night, I was and am really pissed off for this. Because on record these guys really sound awesome so I was hoping for an excellent gig as well. Oh well if any of you guys saw them live yet feel free to leave your opinions in the comments. For now enjoy the song it's Breezeblocks, not my favorite which is Matilda, but it's the one I knew first by them and if I'm not mistaken the video is official, which is a big plus as well no?

Official site
last.fm artist page

Little Comets - Adultery -- In Search Of Elusive Little Comets (2011)

Up next  is, for me, one of the better releases from last year. With the "In Search Of Elusive Little Comets" the band, Little Comets, delivered a very catchy and like-able debut record in early 2011. The album features lots of songs with rather fast guitar-work combined with very good vocals and lyrics you just want to sing along too. At the other end the record also contains some calmer material, like the end with "Intelligent Animals" or "Her Black Eyes" which shows a bit of the range that this trio can handle. And if you ask me they can handle it very very well. 

While making this post I read a bit about the new album as well. The record called "Life Is Elsewhere" was released last month, and I honestly can't wait until I'm able to hear it. But this magical moment will be for tomorrow evening, so I have to be a bit more patient, haha. On a serious note I have to say that I really do have great expectations for this one, I'm very excited to hear the new material since the debut was that good... So let's hope they are able to meet these high expectations. Don't let me down Little Comets!

Anyways for this post I chose the song Adultery for two reasons: The obvious one is that I really like the video and the song itself of course. The second reason is the fact that it was the first song I knew by them. Combine both reasons and you have a winner, haha (I always find it difficult to pick just one song of an album). Anyways I hope you guys can live with my choice and are able to enjoy the song.  

Official site

last.fm artist page

Kodaline - All I Want -- The Kodaline ep (2012)

Few weeks back I was browsing the /mu/ board on 4chan when someone started a thread about this song. About how the video coming along with this song was so beautiful. After watching it, and hearing the song for the first time, I could only agree with the poster of the thread. This is one of the best music video's I saw in my life, I really like Swing Life Away by Rise Against (obviously), as well as the video for Give It All by the same band and the video for Memory by Sugarcult to name a few. And of course there are at least 100's of other good video's I saw in my life and probably 1000's more I didn't even see. But this one really left an impression on me, not only is it an excellent music video, almost a short film I would say. The song itself is very good as well. I like the build up of the song in general as well as the vocals, which are pretty high and somewhat fragile, which I'm usually not that big of a fan of but it works for Kodaline.

Anyways besides the song with the excellent video Kodaline seems like a new band with some potential, the rest of the ep isn't as awesome as this song is, but it's OK in general. The fragile voice combined with the excellent build up in All I Want leaves me longing for more so I'm looking forward to the first complete album by this Irish band. It seems they'll bring out another ep out first though, let's hope that one will be as good as this song. Enjoy the video and song!

Official site

last.fm artist page

M83 - We Own The Sky -- Saturdays = Youth (2008)

Next up on my blog is M83, for the simple reason that I'll be seeing them live tomorrow. Not to sure what to expect since I only know half of the albums. I do am some sort of fan of them, in a way that I really like to listen to it, but I do not know how it will sound live and what the atmosphere will be like. Especially in Belgium where most people don't know any good music and a lot of folks just are there to try something new, which makes the crowd often very boring. 

Maybe tomorrow will be better though, since M83 is the project of the French artist Anthony Gonzalez. Our countries are neighbors and i'm going to a venue that is in Brussels and has mostly french speaking visitors, so maybe just maybe they actually know this artist for once. Not that I know them that well, but probably I will know more than the majority of the crowd, oh well. If you wouldn't believe the Belgian crowds actually are bad... Then I can tell you out of my own experience that we are somewhat neighbors of the United Kingdom as well if you ignore the sea in between us. But the average Belgian person doesn't seem to know anything of the music coming from there, so I probably shouldn't get my hopes up too high for tomorrow. Anyways the most important is the band, if the gig itself is good I will be a happy man. For now i'd say enjoy the song, it's We Own The Sky of the Saturdays = Youth album, which is my favorite of the three albums that I know.  

Official Site
last.fm artist page

Florence + the Machine - Dog Days Are Over -- Lungs (2009 | live)

Post number 13 on my blog here, which happens to be the favorite number of one of my two main readers (Koen and Miriam). If you want to visit them you can go check their tumblr's out at: Koen and my girl. So for the first of those two I will be posting this song by Florence and the Machine, where I rarely listen to, to be frankly honest with you all. She is amazing I know that, but I'm afraid the music isn't really my cup of tea. I enjoy to listen to her occasionally but only for a few songs and then I put on something else. 

Anyways since Koen and I have different music tastes most of the time, with rarely any overlaps at all, it seemed the most logical choice to make to post this song. The reason for this is simple: we both think this is an extraordinary live video. The video is from back in 2010 where they played on Glastonbury and she gives the best of her self on the Dog Days Are Over song, she and the crowd are just amazing in my opinion and both seem to love to be there as well.

Florence Welch and the song are very well known to you all I assume and even this video has nearly two million views upon posting this. Everybody of you is aware of the Lungs album as well. So I think there is nothing more to say about the band by me, since I don't listen to often to her and her machine, and she is so well known already by everyone with a decent music taste. But I hope at least some of you people here didn't see this amazing live video yet, or well you could at least re-enjoy the video.

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The Joy Formidable - Cradle -- A Balloon Called Moaning (2009)

Up next is the band that introduced me to Post Rock, strange you might think considering they aren't anything like a Post Rock band. Well back in 2009 I really enjoyed this record by the Joy Formidable. I put it on an awful lot back then, and the album right underneath this one was the You Who Pretend To Sleep album of Joy Wants Eternity. If I listen to music I hardly search my library I just scroll and put something on so it doesn't stop after my selection is done, it just continues playing music. This was the case back then as well and I found myself listening a few times to the Joy Wants Eternity album, without me realizing at first. It sounded good as well and just seemed like a very long outro of the album I guess. Anyways that's how I got rolled into Post Rock to be honest.

Back to the Joy Formidable then, which is one of my favorite bands with female vocals. I'm not usually into this, but with this Welsh band it's a completely different story, Ritzy Bryan is just an amazing talented woman, not only musically on record but as well how she performs it live, how she is able to entertain the crowd while playing the songs I mean (whilst looking a bit crazy at times though, haha). Combine this excellent vocalist with a good drummer and bassist and you have a trio that is able to create some excellent indie rock. Which they did with this record back in '09, and later on repeated with the Big Roar that contained some new songs. Hopefully they will do the same when the next album comes out early next year. Enjoy Ritzy and the rest of her band!

Official Site

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