Category: Music

From the home office in London, here’s this week’s Top 10 song list!

1) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
2) Katy Perry – “The One That Got Away”
3) Ambra Red – “It’s Just A Dream”
4) Blouse – “Videotapes”
5) Teddybears – “Cobrastyle” (feat. Mad Cobra)
6) Marsheaux – “Summer”
7) The Raveonettes – “Hallucinations”
8) Marsheaux – “Breakthrough”
9) She & Him – “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want”
10) Marsheaux – “Exit”

From the home office in London, here’s this week’s list of Top 10 songs!

1) Lana del Rey – “Video Games”
2) Marsheaux – “Pure”
3) Marsheaux – “The Promise”
4) Nina Gordon – “Straight Outta Compton”
5) Marsheaux – “Summer”
6) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
7) Marsheaux – “Destroy Me”
8) Joy Division – “Disorder”
9) Freezepop – “Pop Music is Not a Crime”
10) Marsheaux – “Faith”

I’d never even heard of the Greek electropop band Marsheaux until the middle of last November. But since then I’ve listened to them 304 times according to Last.fm, an average of five songs a day. Heck, I’ve even become one of their “top listeners” on Last.fm:

So… what’s the appeal? Well opinions about music vary, of course. But if you’re a fan of female-led, throwback 80s electropop, Marsheaux is Leonardo Da Vinci, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and Albert Einstein all rolled in to one. Check out “Summer”, the track that initially caught my ear:

Beats, beauty, atmosphere… it’s all there! The music… almost seems like a musical security blanket. Or a pair of comfy slippers. Or a favorite old sweater. Or a hot bowl of chili on a cold winter’s night (substitute your favorite soup as needed). Check out this tune, “Stand By”, also from the album Lumineux Noir:

Cool, hip, beautiful… what more is there to say? The band also does a few covers, too. Here’s their version of When In Rome’s “The Promise”:

Here’s one last tune, an older song of theirs called “Dream of a Disco”, which sounds like a beautiful, updated Flock of Seagulls:

The band, whose name comes from the first syllables of the band member’s names – Marianthi Melitsi and Sophie Sarigiannidou – really is all kinds of awesome! Check out their MySpace page here and their Last.fm page here.

Here are my Top 10 songs for the week, courtesy of the good people at Last.fm:

1) Lana del Rey – “Video Games”
2) Ambra Red – “Killer Princess”
3) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
4) Marsheaux – “Summer”
5) Blouse – “Videotapes”
6) Ambra Red – “She’s a Model”
7) Ambra Red – “Game Over”
8) Marsheaux – “The Promise”
9) The Sound of Arrows – “Into the Clouds”
10) Ambra Red – “It’s Just A Dream”

 

As 2011 draws to a close, it’s time to look back at the year in music. Below is my list of Top Ten albums for the year; following that is some commentary about good albums that didn’t quite make it, and bands I’m going to be looking at closely in 2012!

As always, remember that this list is about complete albums and not individual songs. Yes, there may be songs out there from 2011 that I liked better than anything on this list… but, as a whole, the following ten albums are my favorite of the year!

#10: M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

M83 is a band I always wanted to like. Why not? They’re all French and sophisticated, doing their own special brand of electronic shoegaze. But I’ve never met an album of theirs I liked all the way through… until now. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. is a delight from start to finish. And I’m happy for them! The music of M83 (named after spiral galaxy Messier 83) has been featured in dozens of films, TV shows and video games; I’m glad to see them put out an excellent product.

#9: Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place

Julianna Barwick is an American musician who was born in Louisiana and grew up singing in church choirs before moving to (where else?) Brooklyn. It’s kind of hard to pin down her exact sound. To me, she certainly sounds a bit like Elizabeth Frazer of the Cocteau Twins singing over the late 70s\early 80s ambient work of Brian Eno or Harold Budd. But it’s not that simple. There’s certainly some Björk, Enya and maybe even some Danielle Dax thrown in for good measure. In spite of all the comparisons, I think she has a totally unique sound that’s both ethereal and otherwordly. It sounds like something 4AD would have put out in 1984… and I mean that as the highest possible compliment! On the negative side, Elizabeth Frazer\Enya singing over very mellow Eno\Budd isn’t something you can throw on at a party or on a whim. But that’s cool. Different is good sometimes.

#8: Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

Swedish musician Lykke Li (real name: Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson) has been an indie favorite ever since her tune “Little Bit” hit the scene in 2007. But her second album, Wounded Rhymes, just hit it out of the damn park. Like Björk, Li has a tendency to kind of go all over the place with her music, a trait that was held in check better by this disc. And I don’t know why, but I just love this woman’s lyrics: cold, dark, and sometimes just plain clever. “Like a shotgun needs an outcome” is my favorite line for all of 2011.

Continue reading “My Top Albums of 2011”

Brooklyn-based band Asobi Seksu came to Charlotte last night! Here’s a picture of me with lead singer Yuki Chikudate:

 

My current obsession:

One of my all-time favorite bands, R.E.M. have broken up after 31 years together!

From the band’s official website:

As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.

Even though I haven’t really kept up with them in the past few years, it’s still sad news. They were just one of those bands I always expected to be around forever. It therefore only seems fitting to send them out with their first big hit:

Good luck guys. God bless, and thanks for all the great tunes over the years! Fables of the Reconstruction will always be one of my all-time favorite discs!

Such a pretty song… too bad it’s almost forgotten.

You met a new friend in the Canyon or so you wrote,
On a blanket in the cooling sand you and your friend agreed;
That the stars were so many there, they seemed to overlap.

The Painted Desert can wait till summer,
We’ve played this game of just imagine long enough, wait till summer.
When I am sure the rain has ended, the blooms have gone,
Everyone killed by the morning frost.

Was a cactus blooming there as you watched the native boy?
In a Flagstaff trailer court you wrote the line,
‘He kicked a tumbleweed and his mother called him home
Where the Arizona moon met the Arizona sun’.

I wanted to be there by May at the latest time,
Isn’t that the plan we had or have you changed your mind?
I haven’t read a word from you since Phoenix or Tucson,
April is over will you tell me how long before I can be there?