Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Top Albums of 2014, part 1: 31 - 60

Only a few hours are left on the clock for 2014 and the party is about to begin here at Cool Music Central HQ! The soundtrack, of course, is the countdown of all our favorite albums of the year, starting with White Lung's mini LP "Deep Fantasy" at number 60 and continuing all the way up to the number 1.

As usual, we are keeping the presentation of our Top 30 Albums of the Year for the special first post of the New Year. For the farewell of 2014 we are unveiling today the second half of our list, up to number 31 where you'll find EMA's "The Future's Void".

Fifty more worthwhile albums we've listened to so far this year are also mentioned at the end of the list, bringing the total number to 110! And I'm sure there's quite a few more to be discovered as we go through all the other end-of-the-year lists out there. Not bad at all for 2014 as far as music is concerned.

Time to get this party started: here are the 30 albums that bring our countdown from number 60 to number 31:

Top Albums of 2014: 31 - 60

31. The future's void - EMA
32. Plowing into the field of love - ICEAGE
33. Grassed inn - BLANK REALM
34. The hum - HOOKWORMS
35. Held in splendor - QUILT
36. Worship the sun - ALLAH-LAS
37. Tomorrow's hits - THE MEN
38. Beauty & ruin - BOB MOULD
39. The physical world - DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
40. IX - ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
41. Revelation - THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
42. Wig out at Jagbags - STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
43. We come from the same place - ALLO DARLIN'
44. At best cuckold - AVI BUFFALO
45. Lese majesty - SHABAZZ PALACES
46. Pe'ahi - THE RAVEONETTES
47. Wild crush - ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT
48. World peace is none of your business - MORRISSEY
49. Days of abandon - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
50. Hour of the dawn - LA SERA
51. Initiation - HAUNTED HEARTS
52. Alvvays - ALVVAYS
53. Trouble - HOSPITALITY
54. July - MARISSA NADLER
55. Darlings - KEVIN DREW
56. Indie Cindy - PIXIES
57. Diploid love - BRODY DALLE
58. …And star power - FOXYGEN
59. Motivational jumpsuit - GUIDED BY VOICES
60. Deep fantasy - WHITE LUNG

More good stuff we've listened to this year:

Barragan - BLONDE REDHEAD, Love letters - METRONOMY, Taiga - ZOLA JESUS, After the disco - BROKEN BELLS, Turn blue - THE BLACK KEYS, Teeth dreams - THE HOLD STEADY, The voyager - JENNY LEWIS, Upside down mountain - CONOR OBERST, Psychic 9 - 5 club - HTRK, Luminous - THE HORRORS, Cheatahs - CHEATAHS, Cursing the sea - SEPTEMBER GIRLS, Clear Lake Forest - THE BLACK ANGELS, The Other I - 2:54, Distractions - A VICTIM OF SOCIETY, Marginalia - BABY GURU, Native echoes - BEACH DAY, Morning phase - BECK, Underneath the rainbow - BLACK LIPS, Our love - CARIBOU, A new nature - ESBEN AND THE WITCH, Do what you want to, it's what you should do - FLOWERS, You're dead! - FLYING LOTUS, Brothers and sisters of the eternal son - DAMIEN JURADO, Everyday robots - DAMON ALBARN, Artificial sweeteners - FUJIYA & MIYAGI, Honeyblood - HONEYBLOOD, Heartstrings - HOWLING BELLS, Tyranny - JULIAN CASABLANCAS + THE VOIDZ, I never learn - LYKKE LI, Wooden aquarium - MAZES, Secret science - MECHANIMAL, Rave tapes - MOGWAI, My Drunken Haze - MY DRUNKEN HAZE, Cosmic logic - PEAKING LIGHTS, Carnival of souls - PERE UBU, Bestial burden - PHARMAKON, Royal Blood - ROYAL BLOOD, Words to the blind - SAVAGES AND BO NINGEN, Suck my shirt - THE COATHANGERS, Encyclopedia - THE DRUMS, Feel something - THE HISTORY OF APPLE PIE, Close to the glass - THE NOTWIST, Drop - THEE OH SEES, Ultimate Painting - ULTIMATE PAINTING, Present tense - WILD BEASTS, Refractory obdurate - WOVENHAND, Shriek - WYE OAK, Angel guts red classroom - XIU XIU, March - FÜR IMMER

The future may be void but 2015 is just around the corner: pop the champagne and prepare for our 2014 Top 30 list in the next few days...

EMA - So Blonde

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Top 50 Tracks of 2014

Merry Christmas everybody! Just a few days are left in the 2014 calendar which means that it's time to go through our record collection once again and select our favorites from the past 12 months. 

We are starting today with the list of our Top 50 Tracks of the Year and we'll continue with the albums in the next few days. As usual, the rule for our annual track selection is to include only one song per artist or group and also we tend to favor tracks that were released as singles or EPs over album tracks.

Without any further ado, here are Cool Music Central's Top 50 Singles of 2014:

1.  Disco//Very - WARPAINT

2.  Satellites - EMA 


3.  Rimbaud Eyes - DUM DUM GIRLS 


4.  Feel - TY SEGALL 


5.  Do You - SPOON 


6.  Digital Witness - ST. VINCENT 


7.  Water Fountain - TUNE-YARDS


8.  Mesmerise - TEMPLES 


9.  Ben's My Friend - SUN KIL MOON 


10. Lazaretto - JACK WHITE 


11. Taking Chances - SHARON VAN ETTEN 
12. Hi-Five - ANGEL OLSEN 
13. Talking Backwards - REAL ESTATE 
14. All The Rage Back Home - INTERPOL 
15. War On The East Coast - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS 
16. Bury Our Friends - SLEATER - KINNEY 
17. Oxygen - SWANS 
18. Pro Anti Anti - LIARS 
19. Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck) - RUN THE JEWELS 
20. Tied Up In Nottz - SLEAFORD MODS 
21. Detonation - THURSTON MOORE 
22. Drown With The Monster - WHITE LUNG 
23. Hot And Cold - EX HEX 
24. Lariat - STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS 
25. Algiers - THE AFGHAN WHIGS 
26. Scum, Rise! - PROTOMARTYR 
27. Sunbathing Animal - PARQUET COURTS 
28. I'm Not Part Of Me - CLOUD NOTHINGS 
29. We Are Floating - ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT 
30. Under The Pressure - THE WAR ON DRUGS 
31. Was It A Dream - MARISSA NADLER 
32. Romance And Adventure - ALLO DARLIN’ 
33. The Littlest League Possible - GUIDED BY VOICES 
34. Losing To The Dark - LA SERA 
35. Don't Mess With Me - BRODY DALLE 
36. Bagboy - PIXIES 
37. Fever - THE BLACK KEYS 
38. Trainwreck 1979 - DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 
39. The Lord's Favorite - ICEAGE 
40. How Can You Really - FOXYGEN 
41. Istanbul - MORRISSEY 
42. Strange Weather - ANNA CALVI 
43. Orion - 2:54 
44. Rockets And Jets - HOSPITALITY 
45. Simple And Sure - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART 
46. American Horror - SPEEDY ORTIZ 
47. Archie, Marry Me - ALVVAYS 
48. 501-415 - ALLAH-LAS 
49. Hundreds Of Ways - CONOR OBERST
50. Happy Idiot - TV ON THE RADIO

You can stream our Top 50 list here.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Morrissey, live @ Tae Kwon Do (Athens, December 15, 2014)


The grand finale of 2014's live music season in Athens belonged to Morrissey who delivered a great 90-minute set to a packed Tae Kwon Do arena on Monday night. 


The show which opened and closed with two of The Smiths classics, "The Queen Is Dead" and "How Soon Is Now", featured several songs from his latest album "World Peace Is None Of Your Business", including some of its lesser known bonus material, but also revisited his past work for a few older crowd favorites like "Suedehead", "Everyday Is Like Sunday", "Certain People I Know" or the more recent single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" which you can watch below:

Morrissey - I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris, live @ Tae Kwon Do (Athens, Dec. 15, 2014)

Although the show's set list was certainly not "the best of Morrissey", the majority of his fans seemed to enjoy every minute of it and when he threw his shirt to the crowd for his traditional farewell, the loud cheering confirmed the success of the show.




Morrissey and his band played:

The Queen Is Dead, Suedehead, Speedway, Kiss Me a Lot, Staircase at the University, I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris, World Peace Is None of Your Business, Neal Cassady Drops Dead, One of Our Own, The Bullfighter Dies, Scandinavia, Yes, I Am Blind, Everyday Is Like Sunday, Smiler with Knife, Asleep, I'm Not a Man, Certain People I Know, Trouble Loves Me, Meat Is Murder. Encore: How Soon Is Now?

Morrissey, live @ Tae Kwon Do, Athens, Dec. 15, 2014

Sunday, December 14, 2014

New Releases: November - December 2014

We are just a week away from the start of the countdown of our favorite Albums and Tracks of the Year. Meanwhile, let's have a look at some of the latest and most interesting new releases of 2014:

Albums

Seeds
TV ON THE RADIO - Seeds
PARKAY QUARTS - Content Nausea
HOOKWORMS - The Hum
2:54 - The Other I
ARIEL PINK - Pom Pom
DEERHOOF - La Isla Bonita
BO NINGEN AND SAVAGES - Words to the Blind
GIRLPOOL - Girlpool
THE WHARVES - At Bay
VIRGINIA WING - Measures of Joy
CULT OF YOUTH - Final Days
DIRTY BEACHES - Stateless
I LOVE YOU BUT I'VE CHOSEN DARKNESS - Dust
MARIACHI EL BRONX - Mariachi El Bronx 3
FOO FIGHTERS - Sonic Highways
SMASHING PUMPKINS - Monuments to an Elegy
THE SAINTS - King of the Sun / King of the Midnight Sun
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - I'm in Your Mind Fuzz
MAGIC CASTLES - Sky Sounds
SWEARING AT MOTORISTS - While Laughing, The Joker Tells The Truth
THE VOYEURS - Rhubarb Rhubarb
SUPERFOOD - Don't Say That
SMOKE FAIRIES - Wild Winter
THE POPGUNS - Pop Fiction
MY DRUNKEN HAZE - My Drunken Haze
DEAN BLUNT - Black Metal
CLARK - Clark
ARCA - Xen
ROYKSOPP - The Inevitable End
WU-TANG CLAN - A Better Tomorrow

Singles & EPs

Oxygen EP
SWANS - Oxygen EP
50 FOOT WAVE - Night Blooming EP
JACK WHITE - Would You Fight For My Love? / Parallel
SLEATER-KINNEY - Surface Envy
LONELADY - Groove it Out
ST VINCENT - Pieta / Sparrow
THE BLACK ANGELS / SONIC JESUS - Molly Moves My Generation / Lost Reprise
ROYAL BLOOD - Ten Tonne Skeleton
MOGWAI - Music Industry 3 Fitness Industry 1 EP
SEPTEMBER GIRLS - Veneer EP 
SLEAFORD MODS - Tiswas EP
THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - +- EP
THE DECEMBERISTS - Make You Better
SUN KIL MOON - The Possum
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - Quails and Dumplings
KIM DEAL - Biker Gone
BODY / HEAD - The Show is Over
JOANNA GRUESOME / PERFECT PUSSY - Astonishing Adventures EP
THE COATHANGERS / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES - Sex Beat / Energy Drink and the Long Walk Home
FUCKED UP - Paper the House
FUCKED UP - Sun Glass
BUZZCOCKS - It's Not You
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - Cellophane
KASABIAN - Stevie
THE CHARLATANS - So Oh
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS - In the Heat of the Moment
THE VOYEURS - Stunners
GET WELL SOON - The Lufthansa Heist EP
GET WELL SOON - Henry - The Infinite Desire of Henrich Zeppelin Alfred Von Nullmeyer EP
GET WELL SOON - The Greatest Hits EP
DRACULA LEGS - Sand to the Beach / Death of Age
WOLF GIRL - Mama's Boy
LAWRENCE LINDELL - Baobab

Jack White - Would You Fight For My Love?

Monday, December 08, 2014

Plisskën Festival 2014 - Winter Edition (Athens, December 4, 2014)

The winter edition of Plisskën Festival at Iera Odos celebrated the fourth anniversary of the event with performances by Swans, Simian Mobile Disco, The Bug, Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Son Lux.


The protagonists of the night were Swans with a magnificent two-hour set featuring for the most part new material. It's well known to their fans that the band is using its live shows to gradually shape its new songs, and its headlining appearance at Plisskën was no exception.


Next to their latest impressive noise constructions, we also got to hear two compositions taken from Swans latest album "To Be Kind", the majestic "A Little God in My Hands" (which you can watch by scrawling at the end of this post) and "Just a Little Boy (for Chester Burnett)". Another awe-inspiring performance by the legendary New York band that shows no signs of slowing down ever since making its comeback four years ago, about the same time that this festival took its first steps.


Swans, live @ Winter Plisskën Festival 2014
Before Swans, The Bug with Flowdan mixed electronic noise with hip hop beats, Jamaican dub and reggae legend Lee 'Scratch' Perry played his first ever show in Athens, while Son Lux opened the evening with upbeat electropop. Something for everybody in the winter edition of the festival which hopefully will be back at the start of the summer of 2015 with a full line up.


The Bug featuring Flowdan, live @ Winter Plisskën Festival 2014

Lee "Scratch" Perry, live @ Winter Plisskën Festival 2014

Son Lux, live @ Winter Plisskën Festival 2014
Swans - A Little God In My Hands (live @ Winter Plissken Festival 2014

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Listening Habits 10-11.14

The end of November brings us to the start of the festive period for music lovers everywhere: the time to share your favorite music with the world by making "Best of" lists! CMC will, of course, honor this tradition as well, but (sticking to our own habits) we will wait until the actual end of the year before we finalize our ever evolving annual list.

In the meantime, we bring you a Top 15 of our favorite albums for October and November 2014 featuring some strong candidates for the annual Top 50:

At the top of this list we have the seventh and, in our opinion, best solo album by Ty Segall. The extremely prolific musician took his time in the making of "Manipulator" (14 months is quite a long period for his usual standards) and the results are truly outstanding: 17 tracks clocking close to an hour of non-stop garage rock brilliance, not encountered since the heyday of The White Stripes a decade ago. It’s just three months since the release of this album, but "Manipulator" already sounds like a classic to our ears: the crowning achievement so far in Ty Segall’s impressive, ever increasing body of work.

Mary Timony has been among my favorite musicians ever since I first noticed her work with Helium in the early '90s. I still remember being blown away by "The American Jean", an early single I discovered in the Rough Trade Shops compilation "Unnecessary Niceness" sometime in the summer of 1993. Twenty-one years and many excellent albums later, Timony is delivering the goods once again with her fearsomely rocking new outfit Ex Hex and their awesome debut LP with the self-explanatory title "Rips". Lock up your sons, Ex Hex are casting some pretty irresistible spells out there!

In our Top 5 you will also find Thurston Moore’s latest solo effort channeling his Sonic Youth self with the help of his old band mate Steve Shelley, My Bloody Valentine’s bass player Deb Googe and Nought / Chrome Hoof guitarist James Sedwards, Shellac’s return after seven years with "Dude Incredible", their best album since the early '00s, and Goat with "Commune", the Swedish collective’s imaginative second effort, going deeper into our collective, primitive subconscious.

Here are all the autumn 2014 additions to CMC’s record collection:

Top 15 Albums

1.   Manipulator - TY SEGALL
2.   Rips - EX HEX
3.   The Best Day - THURSTON MOORE
4.   Dude Incredible - SHELLAC
5.   Commune - GOAT
6.   Brill Bruisers - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
7.   The Hum - HOOKWORMS
8.   Plowing Into The Field Of Love - ICEAGE
9.   IX - ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
10. The Physical World - DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
11. At Best Cuckold - AVI BUFFALO
12. …And Star Power - FOXYGEN
13. Barragán - BLONDE REDHEAD
14. Taiga - ZOLA JESUS
15. Strange Weather EP - ANNA CALVI

Top 15 Tracks

1.   Feel - TY SEGALL
2.   Waterfall - EX HEX
3.   Hide From The Sun - GOAT
4.   Dude Incredible - SHELLAC
5.   The Best Day - THURSTON MOORE
6.   War On The East Coast - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
7.   So What - AVI BUFFALO
8.   On Leaving - HOOKWORMS
9.   Trainwreck 1979 - DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
10. The Lord's Favorite - ICEAGE
11. Ghost Rider - ANNA CALVI
12. How Can You Really - FOXYGEN
13. Hunger - ZOLA JESUS
14. Dripping - BLONDE REDHEAD
15. The Dragonfly Queen - ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD

Have a listen to our October - November Top 15 here:


Sunday, November 23, 2014

Cat Power, live @ Fuzz Club (Athens, November 21, 2014)


The long overdue comeback of Cat Power to Athens, Greece, for a live show has finally happened (she had first played here in a tiny bar at the beginning of the '00s). 14 years later and with several more excellent albums to her name (the most recent of which, 2012's "Sun", was Album of the Year for this blog), the 5-months pregnant Chan Marshall was back in town, sipping tea and facing solo a much larger audience, this time on the stage of the nearly full Fuzz Club.


With only her guitar and later a piano, Chan Marshall performed more than thirty of her own songs as well as several cover versions, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Paths of Victory", "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and "Sea of Love", in a two hour, 45 minutes performance that was warmly received by her audience.


It is well known that performing in front of a crowd has always been a challenge for Cat Power, who had to deal with severe stage fright at her early career. You might expect that the wide recognition of her unique songwriting talent and the relative commercial success of her music ("Sun" reached the Billboard's Top 10 in the US, making it the first record in the twenty-something history of Matador Records to achieve such success) would give her a greater level of confidence, but it was obvious from the many times she felt the need to apologize for something during her performance that she remains a loveable mess when it comes to live gigs.


However, and despite her final apologies at the end of the marathon set for feeling she had not connected enough with the audience and for lacking in energy, the rapturous applause of the fans must have shown her that her heartfelt and sincere performance had resonated with them and, sometimes, a song performance that might be lacking in acoustic perfection is more than welcome when it comes from the heart. And there was never any doubt where Cat Power's music comes from.

Chan Marshall with her bouquet of roses, apologizing(!) after a great, heartfelt performance
Another plus to this out of the ordinary night, was the solo performance of local artist Nalyssa Green, who presented her noir pop melodies with the help of synthesizers, theremin and guitar. She also included a few cover versions to her set, most notable of which was a faithful rendition of PJ Harvey's "Rid Of Me", a brave selection indeed.


Nalyssa Green, live @ Fuzz Club
It's hard to name all the songs in Cat Power's set, but I noticed that the record with the most entries in the set list was 2003's "You Are Free" (perhaps her favorite?), from where we got "I Don't Blame You", "Good Woman", "Werewolf", "Fool", "Names" and "Maybe Not", which you can watch below along with the Dylan cover "Paths of Victory" (from her latest album, only "3,6,9" made the cut - I would expect at least "Ruin", but I guess you can't have it all...).

Cat Power - Paths of Victory / Maybe Not (live @ Fuzz Club, Athens)

Check out also here my review for mixgrill.gr with many more photos from the show.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Public Service Broadcasting, live @ Six D.O.G.S (Athens, November 15, 2014)


Public Service Broadcasting are gearing up for "The Race For Space" (their second album, scheduled for February 2015), but before their space program begins, the eccentric London electrorock duo of J Willgoose Esq. and Wriggleswort brought to Athens for the very first time their very informative and certainly entertaining show.


The 60-minute broadcast, which was preceded by the electronic beats of local duo ice_eyes, began with images of Second World War London as the band started their set with "London Can Take It" off "The War Room", their 2012 EP that first brought them to our attention.


More educative war stories from the same EP came later on in the show with storming renditions of "If War Should Come" and my personal favorite PSB track, "Spitfire", which also appeared on their debut full-length "Inform - Educate - Entertain", the album with which the band made its mission statement known (and landed in our Top 20 list of 2013).


Most of this album's tracks were present in the duo's set list with the krautrockin' "Signal 30", "The Now Generation", "Theme From PSB", "ROYGBIV" and the excellent set-closer "Everest" being among the highlights of the show.

No tracks from the new album were revealed as it seems PSB are guarding closely the secrets that can win them the coming space race. We did get a song in Dutch, though, about ice skating, their Record Store Day single "Elfstendentocht, Part 2". I guess we'll have to wait until their next visit for some space age edutainment. Looking forward to it!


Check out below "Spitfire" from Public Service Broadcasting's first ever Athens gig:

 Public Service Broadcasting - Spitfire (live in Athens)

Sunday, November 09, 2014

Jams Run Free: The first 100

After almost three years of publicly declaring our love for certain songs on This Is My Jam, picking one favorite track (old or new, but mostly new) each week, we have finally reached the milestone of 100 jams! The first selection, back in December of 2011, was "Nate Will Not Return" from The Fall's latest LP at the time, "Ersatz GB", while the 100th is "Waterfall", one of the standout tracks from the album "Rips", the excellent debut LP by Mary Timony's new band Ex Hex.

 To celebrate the occasion, we have compiled for you a Spotify playlist with 50 of these special jams, containing one song per artist/band and focusing on new music selections. To check out the complete list of all our 100 jams, you can visit our page on This Is My Jam here.

Let the jams run free:


The title of this playlist is, of course, borrowed from this Sonic Youth track (which I should be jamming in the near future):

Sonic Youth - Jams Run Free

Monday, November 03, 2014

New Releases: October 2014

Round-up of the most interesting albums and singles released in October 2014:

Albums

THURSTON MOORE - The Best Day
MARK LANEGAN BAND - Phantom Radio
EX HEX - Rips
ICEAGE - Plowing Into The Field Of Love
FOXYGEN - ...And Star Power
ALLO DARLIN' - We Come From The Same Place
PEAKING LIGHTS - Cosmic Logic
CARIBOU - Our Love
FLYING LOTUS - You're Dead!
RUN THE JEWELS - Run the Jewels 2
ZOLA JESUS - Taiga
JULIAN CASABLANCAS AND THE VOIDZ - Tyranny
…AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD - IX
ULTIMATE PAINTING - Ultimate Painting
KEVIN MORBY - Still Life
JOHNNY MARR - Playland
THE CHILLS - Stand By
LOLA COLT - Away From The Water
PHARMAKON - Bestial Burden
MEATBODIES - Meatbodies
THE TWILIGHT SAD - Nobody Wants to be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave
THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE - Mended With Gold
BASS DRUM OF DEATH - Rip This
MELVINS - Hold it in
WEEZER - Everything Will Be Alright in the End
CHICKS ON SPEED - Artstravaganza
MECHANIMAL - Secret Science
LEE RANALDO AND THE DUST - Acoustic Dust
THE CORAL - The Curse of Love
THE FALL - Live - Uurop Viii-Xii Places in Sun and Winter, Son

Singles & EPs

SPEEDY ORTIZ / CHRIS WEISMAN - LAMC #14 

ALLO DARLIN - Bright Eyes
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - Abandonment Issue EP
INSTITUTE - Salt EP
SLEAFORD MODS - Fizzy
DANNY BROWN - Smokin and Drinkin
VINCE STAPLES - Hell Can Wait EP
EAST INDIA YOUTH - Hinterland
KING CHAMPION SOUND - Songs for the Golden Hour EP
THEPARADE - Connector
THE POPGUNS - Lovejunky
JOHNNY MARR - Easy Money
THE CHARLATANS - Talking in Tones
PETER BUCK - Opium Drivel
CHUCK PROPHET - Tell Me Anything (Turn to Gold)
THE WYTCHES - Burn Out the Bruise
DRESSMAKER - Glass EP
ADVENTURES / PITY SEX - Split
KODE9 & THE SPACEAPE - Killing Season EP
RED SNAPPER - Card Trick EP

Thurston Moore - Speak To The Wild

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Lee Ranaldo, live @ Parnassos (Athens, October 27, 2014)


Lee Ranaldo's work with Sonic Youth has played a major role in shaping noise rock as we know it. In the years following Sonic Youth's hiatus, we have come to know a much different side to Ranaldo's song writing talent, as his last two solo records, "Between The Times & The Tides" and "Last Night On Earth" found inspiration from the classic rock and folk of his teenage years.


With his latest release, the album "Acoustic Dust" featuring acoustic recordings captured in an apartment in Barcelona, Ranaldo has stripped his songs down to the bare essentials and for the shows he currently plays in support of this record, he has gone as minimal as it gets: just an acoustic guitar and his voice.


Despite this simple acoustic setting, Ranaldo's performance is still electrifying and his songs retain their weight and resonance, making the transition from their loud, electric incarnations to this evening's quiet folk renditions seem natural. The stories that Ranaldo tells about them as he introduces each song, make the intimate show seem more like a gathering of friends where childhood memories are shared and thoughts are expressed through simple but moving music.


The end of the 90-minute set that included highlights from both his solo records and a cover of Neil Young's "Revolution Blues" left his audience satisfied and happy to have witnessed this very different side to Lee Ranaldo's work: from Loud, he has now gone to Quiet. Does this mean that Loud is going to follow again soon? Let's wait and see...


 Lee Ranaldo - Tomorrow Never Comes (live @ Parnassos Literary Club - video by lemonostiftis)

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Found Sound Vol.14

Found Sound brings you the best new music we discover by going through our mail. The series makes its long overdue comeback with fresh sounds from Mechanimal, Children Of Leir, Bongley Dead, Mumblr, Gosh Pith and tohska. There's something for everybody, have a listen:

Mechanimal - We Come Alive


Mechanimal describe their sound as "drone 'n' roll", an inspired mixture of electronic, industrial, post-punk and krautrock music. The Athens, Greece, based group has just released its second album "Secret Science" and "We Come Alive" is the first single.

Children Of Leir - Black Annis


Black Annis, as legend has it, was a hideous blue skinned, hag-like creature that haunted The Dane Hills area of Leicester. This fearsome, human flesh-eating, monster is also the inspiration behind a fine psych rock track which will be released as a double A-side single by Children Of Leir on October 27th on 7'' vinyl. Look for it on their Bandcamp site here.

Bongley Dead - A Better Daybreak


I don't know much to tell you about Bongley Dead except that they are a quartet from Ponte Buggianese, Italy who left us a link to their third demo on the comments of our review of Ty Segall's recent gig. "A Better Daybreak" is the first track on this very promising demo that brings to mind the guitar-heavy sound of the American underground rock of the '80s.

Mumblr - Got It


"Got It" is the catchy opening track of the album "Full of Snakes", the debut of Philadelphia foursome Mumblr. The record tackles the struggles, fears, and confused emotions of transitioning from youth to adulthood, a subject matter that has given us some fine angst rock over the years. You can stream the whole album here.

Gosh Pith - Waves


A wide and varied spectrum of influences, from Detroit hip-hop and techno to The Smiths, Bauhaus, and the Strokes, have inspired the sound of Gosh Pith. The unsigned group recently released its first single "Waves" which is available as a free download on their Soundcloud page.

tohska - Lacuna Bloom 


Some relaxing, ambient drum & bass sounds for the ending of the 14th edition of Found Sound. "Lacuna Bloom" is the most recent single by New York-based artist tohska, a track about exploring the human mind, and a fine soundtrack as we roll the end credits.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Marissa Nadler, live @ Six D.O.G.S (Athens, October 8, 2014)

Marissa Nadler's latest album is called "July" but its melancholic disposition certainly makes it a much better fit to an autumn night. In that respect, the timing of her visit to Athens for the live presentation of this fine work couldn't have been better.

The angelic-voiced Nadler presented her songs with just an acoustic guitar and the help of Janel Leppin's cello or keyboards. This minimal setting proved more than adequate to do justice to her music, as her astonishing vocal performance is enough to carry the full emotional impact of her delicate songs.

For little more than an hour we enjoyed moving renditions of the majority of the material from "July", with "Dead City Emily" and "Was It a Dream", two of the finest songs of this year, being among the highlights of this intimate performance.


After a brief encore, with one of her few visits to her past material, Nadler and Leppin waved us goodbye, closing a truly enchanting night drenched in autumnal red colors, as you can see in our gig photos.


Enjoy below the live acoustic version of "Dead City Emily" from Marissa Nadler's Athens show:

Marissa Nadler - Dead City Emily (live @ Six D.O.G.S, Athens)


Sunday, October 05, 2014

New Releases: September 2014

Round-up of the most interesting albums and singles released in September 2014:

Albums

Dude Incredible
SHELLAC - Dude Incredible
INTERPOL - El Pintor
BLONDE REDHEAD - Barragán
ALLAH-LAS - Worship The Sun
AVI BUFFALO - At Best Cuckold
GOAT - Commune
DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 - The Physical World
FLOWERS - Do What You Want To, It's What You Should Do
MAZES - Wooden Aquarium
ESBEN AND THE WITCH - A New Nature
THE HISTORY OF APPLE PIE - Feel Something
THE VASELINES - V is For Vaselines
LAETITIA SADIER - Something Shines
CASSIE RAMONE - The Time Has Come
THE DRUMS - Encyclopedia
STARS - No One is Lost
HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER - Lateness of Dancers
PURLING HISS - Weirdon
APHEX TWIN - Syro
THOM YORKE - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes
KAREN O - Crush Songs
HALF JAPANESE - Overjoyed
PERE UBU - Carnival of Souls
BUZZCOCKS - The Way
INSPIRAL CARPETS - Inspiral Carpets
TEENAGE GUITAR - More Lies From The Gooseberry Bus
TWEEDY - Sukierae
RYAN ADAMS - Ryan Adams
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - Singers Grave - A Sea of Tongues
SHE KEEPS BEES - Eight Houses
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND - This is My Hand
PERFUME GENIUS - Too Bright
BALLET SCHOOL - The Dew Lasts an Hour
MECCA NORMAL - Empathy for the Evil
DIE! DIE! DIE! - Swim
KING TUFF - Black Moon Spell
THE UKIAH DRAG - In the Reaper's Quarters
PC WORSHIP - Social Rust
SO COW - The Long Con
THE JUAN MACLEAN - In A Dream
LYDIA AINSWORTH - Right from Real
LITTLE TORNADOS - We Are Divine

Singles & EPs

Joanna
FLOWERS - Joanna
INTERPOL - All the Rage Back Home
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Give Us A Kiss
THE VASELINES - High Tide Low Tide
WOODS / MV AND EE - Green is the Colour
CARIBOU - Our Love
MOONFACE - City Wrecker EP
JOANNE GRUESOME / TRUST FUND - Split EP
TERRY MALTS - Insides EP
RYAN ADAMS - 1984 EP
THE DRUMS - I Can't Pretend 
HUDSON MOHAWKE - Chimes EP
SALT CATHEDRAL - Oom Velt EP
YOUTH CODE - A Place to Stand EP
SPRAY PAINT - Cussin'
POST WAR GLAMOUR GIRLS - Gustave
MENACE BEACH - Tennis Court / Lowtalkin'
THE MAGIC NUMBERS - E.N.D.
THE JUNE BRIDES - She Seems Quite Free
THE PRIMITIVES - Spin-O-Rama
HELEN LOVE - Pogo Pogo
PEACE - Lost on Me
SPRING KING - Demons EP
JOHN MCCULLAGH AND THE ESCORTS - Box of Tricks
PARQUET COURTS / FUTURE PUNX - LAMC #13

Interpol - All the Rage Back Home


Flowers - Joanna

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Listening Habits 08-09.14

It's certainly no small feat: 8 albums into an 18-year recording career, Spoon remain at the top of their game and deliver once again one of the best rock records of the year.

The ten tracks (9 originals and one cover) on "They Want My Soul" create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, complementing each other and making for a pleasurable listening experience from start to finish that will have you hitting the repeat button again and again.

Our August - September top albums list also includes Interpol's "Elpintor", their first album as a trio, which several reviews have hailed as a return to form. Personally, I don't think they have ever lost it, but if you have a record as awesome as "Turn On The Bright Lights" for your debut, you should prepare for the fact that people's expectations for your band will tend to be rather unrealistic. Thankfully Interpol don't seem to mind and get on with the business of making fine records, with "Elpintor" certainly not far from that early career high mark.

Our Top 5 is rounded up by the melodic California garage-pop of "Worship The Sun", Allah-Lahs' sophomore effort, the grunge-punk aggression of Canada's White Lung who have justly seen their profile rise with the explosive "Deep Fantasy", their third LP, and the experimental, laid-back hip hop sounds of Shabazz Palaces's "Lesse Majesty". 

Here's the complete Top 15 Albums list for August - September 2014:

Top 15 Albums

1.   They Want My Soul - SPOON
2.   Elpintor - INTERPOL
3.   Worship The Sun - ALLAH-LAS
4.   Deep Fantasy - WHITE LUNG
5.   Lese Majesty - SHABAZZ PALACES
6.   Pe'ahi - THE RAVEONETTES
7.   Initiation - HAUNTED HEARTS
8.   Hour Of The Dawn - LA SERA
9.   Beauty & Ruin - BOB MOULD
10. Revelation - THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
11. Luminous - THE HORRORS
12. World Peace Is None Of Your Business - MORRISSEY
13.  The Voyager - JENNY LEWIS
14. Upside Down Mountain - CONOR OBERST
15. Clear Lake Forest - THE BLACK ANGELS

Top 15 Tracks

1.   Food For Clouds - THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
2.   Do You - SPOON
3.   All The Rage Back Home - INTERPOL
4.   Drown With The Monster - WHITE LUNG
5.   501-415 - ALLAH-LAS
6.   Killer In The Streets - THE RAVEONETTES
7.   Johnny Jupiter - HAUNTED HEARTS
8.   Losing To The Dark (mp3 via Stereogum) - LA SERA
9.   I Don't Know You Anymore - BOB MOULD
10. Kiss Me A Lot - MORRISSEY
11. Head Underwater - JENNY LEWIS
12. Hundreds Of Ways - CONOR OBERST
13. Hot And Cold - EX HEX
14. I See You - THE HORRORS
15. They Come In Gold - SHABAZZ PALACES

Spoon - Do You

Listen to our latest favorites on Spotify:


Sunday, September 14, 2014

Moon Duo, live @ An Club (Athens. September 11, 2014)

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Start of the autumn live music season at An Club with a fine performance by San Francisco's Moon Duo. The band may have started its journey as a duo comprised by Wooden Ships' leader Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada but now, at least on stage, they have been transformed to a trio with the addition of drummer John Jeffrey whose powerful, metronomic pounding has replaced the drum machine beat.


The drums may have increased the dynamism of Moon Duo's live sound, but the heart of their music remains the interplay between the repetitive, trance-inducing sounds coming from Yamada's  keyboards and the buzzing riffs, delivered with surgical precision from Johnson's guitar.


The splendid mix of hazy psychedelic melodies, krautrock repetition and Suicide intensity has become the trademark sound of Ripley Johnson, whether he is playing with Wooden Shjips or Moon Duo.

With Moon Duo the less is more approach is applied and by sticking to the bare essentials of this heady recipe, the song may seem to remain the same from start to finish of the 70-minute set, but the intensity is multiplied and the appreciative applause at the end proves that their trance-mission has been accomplished once again.


Sample Moon Duo's An Club trance-mission below and click here for a taste of Wooden Shjips in action three months before at Plissken Festival:



Moon Duo's Ripley Johnson