Vampire Weekend - Walcott -- Vampire Weekend

Right now we'll be talking about an American indie rock quartet from New York. Vampire weekend is one of the best bands in the genre for the last few years with an excellent debut album, which will be talked about here. As well as a very good follow up album. Next month the third album will be out, and let me tell you I'm looking forward to it! On their official site (link below) you already have two new tracks you can listen to if you didn't already. Or you can just click these youtube links: Diane Young & Step. Both sound a bit strange to me, but I had the same with the Contra album and I ended up loving that one!

Anyways post is about their debut record that came out in early 2008 so lets talk a bit about that one. The self titled record contains hit singles on it like Mansard Roof, A-Punk and Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa and is characterized by fast paced indie pop rock with a lot of world music (sounds) mixed trough them. In general it's one of my favorite albums of the last 5 years, and probably of all time as well. The record doesn't contain a single bad track in my opinion and Ezra Koenig has such lovely and unique sounding vocals which makes the record even more brilliant. 

The song I chose to post is Walcott. It wasn't my favorite song on the record at the start but after seeing them twice live I absolutely love the song and it became my favorite song by Vampire Weekend in general. It's just brilliant how they bring it live combined with the atmosphere of the crowd, or at least at the gigs that I went to it was! The video is an acoustic/live version of both this song and of One as well. It's a video from a take away show they did for Lablogotheque. So enjoy and feel free to look forward with me to the new material!

Official site
last.fm artist page

BEAT!BEAT!BEAT! - Fireworks -- Lightmares (2010)

Up next is the first band from Germany. We came close with Germany Germany like a month ago but that is actually a Canadian project like I said in that post. This time it's about BEAT!BEAT!BEAT!, not sure if the capital letters are necessary as well don't I know if there should be a space behind every exclamation mark. I found a lot of different options on how to spell their name, but this is how I know them, but feel free to correct me in the comments. 

The band is from the region of Cologne, which actually is close to the border with Belgium. So we almost had an extra excellent band in our small country. So close! The band plays Indie Rock and has released an ep, named Stars in 2009. Their debut album, Lightmares, is the album I'll talk about briefly here. It's a very good record in my opinion with catchy tunes on it. It mostly is indie guitar rock, but this is mixed with songs that have a more synthesizer, poppy character really. Vocals are very decent as well and it manages to entertain you for about 40 minutes. Better known songs on the record are Fireworks, We Are Waves and You're a Designer. Where the last of these three is one of the songs that focuses more on the synthesizers while the others are regular indie guitar rockish tracks. After this very decent debut records it's a bit silent around these four lads, and I sincerely hope they are still active! 

The song I chose to post for you guys is Fireworks, which was on the ep as well. Whilst it's not my favorite by the band it is a very close second. My favorite track is One Day In The Woods, but it isn't on the album. I don't know if it came out before or after the album really, I just found out about them in 2012 so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, haha. But yes, if you like Fireworks feel free to check out the other video as well (click the link), and certainly check out the Lightmares album. It proved difficult to find a working download link, but it's worth it! Enjoy

Official? Facebook

last.fm artist page

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down - Don't You Fake It (2006)

Nostalgia on the blog right now, I am listening to a band that I haven't listened to in years. But a band I used to love a lot after their debut album Don't You Fake It. I gave up on The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus with the follow up album Lonely Road though. Mainly because my taste in music had changed between 2006 and 2008 but partly because the album was a huge disappointment for me as well.

The debut album by the band is by far the most known album I think, and for me by far the best album they produced. The record is in the emo rock sphere and contains hit songs like Face Down, Your Guardian Angel and False pretense. The music is characterized by pop punk rock (or something in between these three) with fast and simple sounding riffs, and choruses easy enough to sing along to. It's easy to start to like the record if you are a fan of the genre and bands like Story of the Yeah, Escape the Fate, Anberlin, stuff like that. For me it's still a good record since I have some history with it while I was a teenager, but if it came out now I'd probably pay little to no attention to it. In general I'd still advice to listen to the album if you have a soft spot for the genre, like I do because of my past. If not, you better ignore this post you'll not like the band, haha. 

The song I'm posting is the most famous song they produced, Face Down of course. It isn't my favorite song by the band, which probably will be Your Guardian Angel or Grim Goodbye. But if I think about the band the first song that comes to mind is the Face Down song, since it was the one that got them famous for a short time back then. Enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors -- An End Has A Start (2007)

Up next is one of my favorite bands of all time, with for me the best album they made so far. I had little to no inspiration today so I let Miri decide what I should post. And lets face it, she did well! Not only is this band one of my top 3 most played bands of all time, as well did she pick the right album from them to talk about. 

The album is a former number one album in England and the second album made by the band after the debut album The Back Room of course. The album is characterized by the indie rock and the post punk revival music the band plays, with the pretty unique and awesome vocals of Tom Smith obviously. Back in the post about Joy Division I said he reminded me of Ian, or the other way around... This still is the case and again I will say that they are basically Joy Division on speed, a description others often gave them over the years. The album contains hit songs like Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, An End Has A Start and The Racing Rats and it made me absolutely fall in love with them. I bought The Back Room short after its release but didn't give it much plays back in in 2005 and 2006. I did give them a lot of attention in the summer of 2007 though, for the simple reason they were coming to Pukkelpop and I was planning to see them live. In the two weeks before Pukkelpop I played their material an awful lot and I absolutely fell in love with An End Has A Start that came out two months earlier.

The song I chose to post is Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, because it's after Swing Life Away my favorite track I'd say. The last few days before the festival I had it constantly on repeat and when they finally played it live I just closed my eyes and had goosebumps for the total duration of the song. So it was an easy choice to make I'd say! Because of this I have picked a live version of the song as well. Before I conclude this post with an enjoy, I'd like to say that new material should be coming later this year. It's not officially announced I think but few media mention a fourth album for later this year. Enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

The Wombats - School Uniforms -- The Wombats Proudly Present: A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation (2007)

One of my all time favorite bands now, with their debut album The Wombats Proudly Present: A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation. The band consists off Matthew Murphy, Daniel Haggis and Tord Øverland-Knudsen and was formed in Liverpool. The trio plays some of the most catchy indie rock music out there and the band obviously is one of the most known acts because of this. I fell in love with them a year before this release, when the Girls, Boys & Marsupials release came out as well as with some of the earlier released singles. Not sure if the Girls, Boys & Marsupials record is the debut album or not, this one only came out in Japan so I guess it's open for discussion but I guess for us Europeans the actual debut album was The Wombats Proudly Presents...

The record contains most of the songs that already where on the Girls, Boys & Marsupials with some new ones like Kill The Director and Lets Dance To Joy Division to name two of them. Which were of course excellent additions to an already excellent album. Which created an awesome debut album, which was followed up by an excellent second album as well last year. The record is known by all of you I assume so I won't bother you any longer by talking about it then.

Only thing left to say is which song I'm posting, and this will be the School Uniforms songs, because of one part of that song I adore. I simply love to sing along to "I remember short skirts, long hair, my hormones flying everywhere". I hope you guys do as well. No official video of this track, so am uploading a live version, not the best quality but we all know the song right? soooo enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page