Vacuuming Asteroids and Venn Diagrams

This was shown on MTV back in 1995. What I would give to see something like that nowadays!

Although this is even cheesier!

Which of the two videos is better? Which of the two bands do you like better? Discuss.

Lamspshade Singer Goes Solo and 80's!

The female singer of the danish indie/new wave/postrock/noise band Lampshade has heard her solocarrier calling. The project's called asinrebekkamaria and the music is very 80's, as in dancable and dirty. Her beautiful voice always touches hearts and this time it will also touch your feet.
Check her myspace if you like good electro of if you can't wait for the third album of Lampshade!

How Terribly Strange To Be Seventy, part I

Why is all (well, almost all) pop music about being young and sad or young and partying? Seems a bit superficial to me and, on a more universally individual note, quickly dated. What if you find your love (or money, or ..., depends on what you're running low on), or the party's over, ah, what then? How Terribly Strange To Be Seventy will be the list to show you 'what then': a collection of beautiful songs loosely based on the 'old age' theme. Please add to this list!

The first one is 'Old Friends' and 'Bookends Theme' by Simon & Garfunkel, from which the title of this post is derived. Notable detail: it is said that Art Garfunkel himself is now 67, almost there..

Old Friends

Old friends, old friends sat on their parkbench like bookends
A newspaper blowin' through the grass
Falls on the round toes of the high shoes of the old friends

Old friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settles like dust on the shoulders of the old friends

Can you imagine us years from today,
sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy

Old friends, memory brushes the same years,
silently sharing the same fears


Bookends Theme

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They're all that's left you

Hot Chip

All bloglove and hyperbole aside, the new Hot Chip is actually very good. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting it to be that good. Thanks for dissapointing me though.

By the way; is it me or is anyone else also hearing a bit of Dan Deaconism in some of the new songs?


No. 1 guys: Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor (mp3)

Not so danceable, not not so great: Hot Chip - One Pure Thought (mp3)

A remix of a bonus track that's a cover: Tracy Thorn - Kings Cross (Pet Shop Boys cover) (Hot Chip Remix) (mp3)

This is one of their more interesting remixes: Caribou - She's The One (Hot Chip Remix) (mp3)

Kevin Barnes's management

As a devoted follower of everything produced, touched or even mentioned by Of Montreal, I recently put my hands on MGMT, formerly known as The Management. In 2005 this group, consisting of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden (I guess both of Dutch descent?) went on a tour with His Royal Godness Kevin Barnes And The Band, which I cannot imagine having done any harm to their music.

Having peddled their Time To Pretend EP for three years, nowadays they're definitely for real.

MGMT's debut album was released January 22nd and it's definitely the first release of 2008 I'm really, really excited about. Think Of Montreal, add some eighties panache and maybe even a little Broken Social Scene.

MGMT - The Youth (mp3)

MGMT - Time To Pretend (video)

Guillemots return

After the release of their most recent single Annie, Let's Not Wait in January last year, and the following months of touring during last summer, Guillemots migrated south. Or north, I'm not quite sure, since they're literally from all over the world. Whatever they did, they most certainly did not hibernate.

Their new clutch contains eleven eggs, two of which have already hatched! Get Over It, the first little offspring to fly out in the UK on March 17, and Kriss Kross, placed for adoption right here!

The remaining little brothers and sisters are expected to fly off on March 24. Let's hope these eggs are just as well fertilized as those of the aforementioned early birds!

Nine times more!

One of my favorite records in 2005 (and 2006) was Swedish indie pop band Love is All's 'Nine Times That Same Song'. Jumpy rhythms, chaotic saxophones and charmingly energetic vocals by the charismatic lead singer Josephine. It took some time before the record caught on and recently they released a remix album to simmer down the angry mobs demanding a new album (which was gasoline on the flames for some since the remix album wasnt very good). But the follow-up seems to be in sight, rough drafts of new songs are streaming on their myspace! If you ever get the chance, go see them live, trust me, you'll thank me for it.


Of Montreal - Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up (Love Is All cover) (mp3)

Love Is All - Felt Tip (Hot Chip Remix) (myspace)

Love Is All - Busy Doing Nothing (myspace)

Sufjan Stevens rare B-Sides And (live) Tracks/Hidden Treasures

Treasures are not to be hidden in the ground, they are there to be found. Just like some beautiful songs of the great and holy Sufjan Stevens. I won't spend too much words, because these songs speak for themselves. You can download these special tracks all at once, here in this zipfile:
- Adlai Stevenson (alternate version)
- All Delighted People
- Borderline
- Bushwick Junkie
- Chicago (acoustic version)
- Damascus
- God’ll Never Let You Down
- How Can That Stone Remain?
- I Can’t Even Lift My Head
- Jupiter Bad June (Live)
- Many Guides (Live)
- Niagara Falls
- Opie’s Funeral Song
- Pickerel Lake
- The First Full Moon
- The Friendly Beasts
- The Lord God Bird
- Variation on Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park
- Wolverine
- Woman At The Well
- The Brooklyn Queens Expressway 3 (Live on WYNC)
- The Brooklyn Queens Expressway 6 (Live on WYNC)
The last two tracks are live versions of music Sufjan made for a film (yes, he can do everything)!

In this zipfile are some great covers Sufjan did:
- Free man in Paris (Joni Mitchell cover)
- Lakes of Canada (The Innocense Mission cover)
- Ring Them Bells (Bob Dylan cover)
- She is (Tim Buckley cover)
- The One I Love (REM cover)
- What Goes On (Beatles cover)

(With thanks to The World Forgot for some of the tracks, great blog by the way)