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| Saturday 15th March 2003: Work In Progress
As you may have noticed, I haven't updated the site yesterday. The reason for this is, that I'm working hard to add some content to the site, except for just some MP3's and charts. Talking about charts, check back tomorrow to see my new top 20's for next week.
MP3 Of The Day: The Shins - Know Your Onion
The Sub Pop label is a great indie label, with bands like The Baptist Generals, Beachwood Sparks and Hot Hot Heat. They also released album by legends like Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan, Nirvana and The Walkabouts. One of the newer bands on the label are the Shins. If you're into Elliott Smith and Badly Drawn Boy, be sure to check out the video of New Slang at the Sub Pop multimedia page. Unfortunately the song isn't available as an mp3, but Know Your Onion is. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Thursday 13th March 2003: Hit Song Science
Hit Song Science is a Spanish invention which can predict the hit-potential of songs. Apparently, it foresaw the rise of Norah Jones way before she won eight grammy's. Read more about this non-news at ZDnet.
MP3 Of The Day: Myracle Brah - Isn't It A Crime
One of the most interesting recordlabels of the last years is Not Lame. Recently they released Down With Wilco by the The Minus 5, before they were responsible for albums of bands like The Rooks and Myracle Brah but to name a few. A song by the last band is available from the site of another record label, Rainbow Quartz. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Wednesday 12th March 2003: White Stripes review
I've put a review of the new White Stripes album online at the album reviews page. You can expect more reviews the next few weeks.
MP3 Of The Day:
The White Stripes - Jimmy The Exploder
A somewhat older song by the Stripes is available at Epitonic. Jimmy The Exploder is taken of their self-titled debutalbum. I was actually planning on putting a more recent song on the site, but I couldn't find any legal links. If you come across a more recent mp3, please send me an e-mail. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Tuesday 11th March 2003: Bright Eyes video
You can watch the new Bright Eyes videoclip at MP4.com. The song is called Bowl Of Oranges and comes from the Lifted album. You can go directly to the video by clicking this link. There are more interesting bands on the site, The Raveonettes, Sigur Rós, Interpol and Hot Hot Heat for example.
MP3 Of The Day:
Bright Eyes - From A Balance Beam
I've already put a link to a mp3 from a Saddle Creek band on the site last week, but I wouldn't keep this from you. From A Balance Beam was the first single to be extracted from last year's Lifted. Singer/songwriter Bright Eyes was born in Nebraska (in 1994 according to AllMusic) as Conor Oberst and played in the bands Desaparecidos and the no longer existing Commander Venus. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Monday 10th March 2003: High Fidelity
Nick Hornby's High Fidelity has been my favourite book for years and yesterday I've finally seen the screenversion for the first time. I liked the book so much because, besides the entertaining writing, it's about a record store holder and the book mentions a lot of alternative bands and songs. A small selection of names mentioned in the movie: Beta Band, Dickies, Pavement, Radiohead and there is also a very interesting poster in the living room of the main character, as you can see below:
I've never heard of Claudia Malibu and I only know Ladybug Transistor by name (read: AllMusic), but it's very nice to see the name Of Montreal in a regular Hollywood production. In the upper right corner is also a very hard to recognise Pavement poster.
MP3 Of The Day: Of Montreal - Pancakes For One
The American Elephant 6-scene may not get a lot of attention from the media, the really nice bands will get their own fanbase anyway. Take Of Montreal for example, from which you can encounter posters at the most unexpected places (in Hollywood-films or in my bedroom for example). At the end of 2002 the band released their CD Aldhils Arboretum, followed up already by rarities-album Then Who Will Protect Big Oil, Our Children?. From the first mentioned album you can download a free track here. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Sunday 9th March 2003: Weekly Charts Updated
Today I've updated my weekly Singles- and Albums-charts. The highest new entries are The New Pornographers at the singles and Calexico at the albums.
MP3 Of The Day: Calexico - Sunken Waltz
Calexico is a band that mainly consists of Joey Burns and John Convertino, together with a collective of musicians who take care of the few insturments the men can't play. Burns and Convertino, who are also known as the rhythm-section of Giant Sand, have recently completed their new Calexico album, titled Feast Of Wire. The song Sunken Waltz is the first track of the new album, and it's available for download at the City Slang website. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Saturday 8th March 2003: Dutch Version online
It took some time, but I've completed the Dutch version of the site. Whilst translating all the pages I've also made some minor adjustments to the English pages. From now on I will update the site in two languages every day (I hope).
MP3 Of The Day: Cornershop - Lessons Learned...
Today's MP3 Of The Day is again from Epitonic. This is a great website to listen all sorts of music for free legally.
Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III sounds a bit rougher than the average Cornershop song. The help of guest-musician Paul McGuigan (ex-Oasis) makes the band sound less like Gus Gus and Cornelius and more like T. Rex, Ocean Colour Scene and of course Oasis. Mixing Britpop with a great 70's riff, this is one of my favourite songs of 2002. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Friday 7th March 2003: New CD's: For Stars and My Vitriol
Today I enlarged my record collection with two more cd's. The first is We Are All Beautiful People by For Stars for €2. The other is My Vitriol's debut Finelines for €3, which is an album I wanted to get my hands on for a little while now.
MP3 Of The Day: For Stars - How It Goes
Belle & Sebastian, The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev (and even the more laid-back songs of Radiohead and Grandaddy) are some of the names that come to mind while listening to For Stars. The San Francisco-based band consists of guitarist Mike Young, bassist Christian Preja, percussionist Tommy Cassey, drummer Nick Fritas, keyboardist Dan Paris and of course singer/guitarist Carlos Forster. One of his best tracks ever is How It Goes of the We Are All Beautiful People CD, which is available for download at Epitonic. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Thursday 6th March 2003: Dutch Version
This weekend I hope to finish off the Dutch version of the site. This won't be an awful lot of work, but I still expect it to take a few days. When it's completed I'll start adding some more content to the page, including album- and live-reviews.
MP3 Of The Day:
The New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed
The New Pornographers are a Vancouver-based supergroup, including singer/songwriter Neko Case and members of Zumpano, The Evaporators, Limblifter and Destroyer. This year they will release the the long anticipated followup to their debut Mass Romantic. The album will be called Electric Version and will be distributed by the legendary Matador Records. One of the songs on the album is called The Laws Have Changed, and is put online as an MP3 by the label. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Wednesday 5th March 2003: Guestbook online
I've just added a guestbook to the site. If you have anything to comment or suggest, feel free to drop by and sign it.
MP3 Of The Day: The Faint - Agenda Suicide
Last year, Omaha, Nebraska based record label Saddle Creek released the album Danse Macabre by The Faint. The first track of the album came out as a single, but received little airplay. Agenda Suicide, as the track is called, brings to mind the catchiest 80's synth pop, as well as more recent bands like Hot Hot Heat or The Walkmen but to name a few.(AllMusic Entry)
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| Tuesday 4th March 2003: New YYY album
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have announced they will release their debut full length Fever to Tell on April 29th. The album will consist of 11 new songs by the garage rock band, who have already released two EP's, Machine EP and Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP. Guitarist Nick Zinner on NME: "Some of it is quite dark and quite noisy. It's a little bit like 'Machine', but not really. It's rock, so it's very loud and aggressive. But then there's also that tender, sensitive side to us. It still sounds like us, it's not that it's like Girls Aloud or anything!" The song 'A Date With A Night' will also be released as a single, including a non-album track and a cover of 'Bang' by Little Friend. Read the full story at Pitchfork.
MP3 Of The Day: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Bang
Here is an old song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, coming from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP. This excellent five-track mini album was released on Wichita Recordings in 2002. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Monday 3nd March 2003: Turin Brakes
Today is the release date of the new Turin Brakes album Ether Song. You can watch and listen to some of their new songs on their official page. I'm looking to hear their songs live on the 21st of April, when Turin Brakes play in the Melkweg in Amsterdam.
MP3 Of The Day: Ozma - Korobeiniki
You'll probably recognise this song after the first few tones. It's a traditional Russian folksong that was featured in the legendary game Tetris. This is an instrumental version by Ozma, a Weezer-influenced powerpop-band from Pasadena, California. (AllMusic Entry)
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| Sunday 2nd March 2003: Big Update
I've updated most of the pages and made some small adjustments to the lay-out. As of today I will publish my top 20 singles chart on a weekly basis. I'll also maintain a monthly updated albums chart. My record collection is now online and will be updated when I've purchased some new albums.
The Das Pop concert was very nice. They really got the crowd excited with their 80's-influenced danceable rock. I'll add a review of the gig somewhere next week.