Tokyo Police Club to Work on New Album

That's right, they're at it again. Looking for a follow-up to their 2008 release of "Elephant Shell", they've hit the studio in New York and seems to be really excited about the developments (what band doesn't?). They've been playing a lot of their songs on tour, here's where to catch them:

• August 09, 2009Virgin Festival Alberta - Calgary, AB
• August 14, 2009The White Rabbit - Newmarket, ON
• August 15, 2009The White Rabbit - Newmarket, ON
  
• August 29, 2009CNE - Toronto, ON
  
  

Phoenix getting better with time

Just listened to some albums by a great band out of France called Phoenix. They've recently become popular and have just put out an album called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Listening to one of their earlier albums, Alphabetical left me a bit underwhelmed, I'd have to say. They struck me as a middle of the road R&B kind of sound. The singer (Thomas Mars) couldn't really shine and nothing stuck out for me at all. Then, I put on Wolfgang Amadeus. This was more like what I was looking for. Plenty of tight beats and some neat guitar. Its really great high energy music and Thomas really felt more like he was in his element. A few songs I'd reccommend: 1901, Long Distance Call, and Liztomania.

Also would like to give a shoutout to a great blog I've recently read which is quite similar to mine: Sixeyes Music Blog props!

The Tellers

Image via Wikipedia

I've never really had much of a reason to go to Belgium before now. After I got "Hands Full Of Ink", I would totally be down with going there whenever. The Tellers originally started as a guitar duet out of Brussels (Charles Blistin and Ben Baillieux-Beynon), and now they've added a drummer and bassist to the lineup (Kenley Dratwa and Francios Gustin, respectively). It's really great how they keep the songs so simple and yet do so much with them (I know that sounds stupid, ok). The first track I heard by them was More when I bought FIFA 08 (which has a suprising amount of good songs... I guess to make up for the shittiness of the Madden ones lately...)

Then I got the album, and no suprise the rest of their work is absolutely amazing as well. Some songs of note... "Second Category", "Hugo", and "Want You Back"

Here's the lyrics to that first one:

She won't come back with love in her sack.
Not a single picture of you in her wallet
The letters you wrote aren't pinned up her bed.

Some's got a pain in the eyes,
Some are happy.
Don't try to lie
Cause i know I'm right, you're in the first category.

Locked up in your room, well they say you are lazy
Well, if you were lazy you wouldn't be
Digging your grave, oh, just in case
You would've died of being lonely.

Some's got a pain in the eyes,
Some are happy.
Don't try to lie
Cause i know I'm right, you're in the first category.

Some's got a pain in the eyes,
Some are happy.
Don't try to lie
Cause i know I'm right, you're in the first category.

Well, I admit it looks a bit like Hollywood
and life would be better if I would
This ain't useless and this ain't fake
So try to be the one, for god's sake.

Some's got a pain in the eyes,
Some are happy.
Don't try to lie
Cause i know I'm right, you're in the first category.

Some's got a pain in the eyes,
Some are happy.
Don't try to lie
Cause I wasn't right, you're in the second category.

Los Campesinos!

Recently I've gone on sort of a tangent on British Pop bands, I just love the high energy and the really catchy melodies. One of my favorite of these type of bands is Los Campesinos!, from Cardiff, UK. I just got their album, "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" and I must say, it was quite a toe-tapper. Some cool things about them: I like the contrast between the male and female voice, and... THEY USE A GLOCKENSPEIL!!!

Oh, and they're going to be in NY at Webster Hall in August. TAMN... I'll need to make a trip up there to see them live. Also, I've been trying out this site that lets you stream different songs for free, looking to see if it's even worth the trouble, you can check it out here.

These United States

Recently heard a great album, one of those you can listen to the whole way through (which are becoming increasingly rare these days...). It's called "A Picture Of The Three Of Us At The Gate To The Garden Of Eden". It's by a band called These United States, and has a pretty original sound, lots of quirky guitar riffs and some real cool piano parts.

Some of my personal favorite songs are "First Sight", "The Business", and "Diving Boards Pointed At The Sky". I love the bluesy sound and mellow beats. Would absolutely recommend seeing these guys live, seems like their sound would really sound amazing in person.

This is in no way a reflection of my musical taste

It's a shame this is my first posting and it's not even really about good music I've heard lately, but I feel it still warrants some discussion. For those of you who haven't heard of this guy Mark Gormley, here's his music video for a song of his called "Without You":

Okay, so you can prob tell as soon as the song starts, this is not what you would call a musical masterpiece, but I give the guy props for putting his stuff out there. What I find so astonishing is the comments section of the video, it's filled with all sorts of positive comments and praise of Gormley's "talent". It's as if the entire youtube community just decided to post sarcastic comments on this video.