Cover This

So here we are, months since the last post, and i am once again am driven to apologize to the meager readership that Brett and I maintain (even i barely read this stuff). But this is the last one. After this i will not apologize for our lack of constant updating, and chances are if you do read this blog, then you know Brett and I well enough to accept that.

My lack of posting recently, and always, has never been because i don't have the time to write a little diddy like this (i do), or that i don't have any new music to share (i do), but that i just don't. I hope to remedy this soon and i plan to increase my posting to once per week! Now i can't speak for Brett, and i don't know about the current favorites and upcoming shows being updated as frequently (that requires more effort) but i will do my best to make this at least something i can be proud of (regardless of who even reads this).

Moving on. I was inspired to write this post after hearing a cover today by The Kooks. Covers are kinda hit or miss for me. For instance, at the Bon Iver show that Brett and I never reviewed, the opener Tallest Man on Earth, played a great cover of "These Days" by Nico (a classic cover piece). However, Bon Iver played a cover as well of a song i sure as hell didn't know, and though it was nice to have them play another song, i would have rather had them play a song they wrote or that i could at least recognize. Granted it is a bit selfish of me, i imagine most people would agree.

The Kooks cover though, which i came across today on a new music site, the name of which i will not divulge in fear of you cutting out the middle man, was of an MGMT song. Not just any MGMT song at that, but one of my favorites, "Kids." I gave the song a listen and enjoyed the acoustic style and very accented voice of the Kooks, and appreciated their take. I thought, this should be shared with an even smaller audience, and so i will upload it below.

But thats not all! I decided that in this post i should include some other covers that make the whole idea work for me, and so those are also included for your listening pleasure. Please enjoy.

The Kooks-Kids (MGMT cover)

The Submarines-Waiting for a War (The Morning Benders cover)

The Botticellis-Here I Go Again (Whitesnake cover)

Ben Gibbard-Complicated (Avril Lavigne cover)

P.S. If anyone could please try these links for me and let me know how they work that would be great. Thanks.

Pomegranates; rich in antioxidants and rock

There has been quite a lull in the posting schedule for this blog, but considering our readership is limited and the fact that Brett and i are avid practitioners of laziness, we request some slack. In truth, Brett and I discussed quite a number of things that we thought we should write posts about, but thats as far as we got. We had this great post about our top albums of 2008, but as you can tell it never made the blog itself.

I don't quite have a top album list for you today, but i do have a review of a band who would have definitely made the cut. The Pomegranates are a four piece from Cincinnati that make incredible indie rock. The arrangements are lush and complex, often containing very distinct parts that draw the ear this way and that. Personally, it took a while for me to enjoy the album, but looking back on it, i don't really understand why. There is not a single track i would skip, but there are certainly songs that stand above the rest. "Appreciations" has a guitar riff that makes me smile every time it comes on. In fact im sure plenty of innocent drivers have had to see me air guitaring (and/or air drumming) my way down the highway to this song. The slow track, "Desert Hymn" is beautiful in both lyrics and instrumentation. The closer to the album, "Thunder Meadow" was my first introduction to the band and is the real reason i even followed up on getting their album.

I have included two tracks below, and i really hope you enjoy them and get your hands on one of my top albums of 2008.

Pomegranates-Thunder Meadow

Pomegranates-Desert Hymn

P.S. They are playing in Philly on the 23rd of February at the Kungfu Necktie for only $8! Unfortunately its 21+, but if you can make it, i would suggest it.

The BPA Blast from the Past (Well From This Summer Anyway)

Isn’t it funny how listening to a song a second time gives you a completely different experience from the first time you heard it? Countless times I have listened a song, or an entire album for that matter, and disliked it the first time only to come back to it a second (sometimes third or fourth) time and wonder why I didn’t like it in the first place. Well, it has happened again. This summer I heard a little ditty by The BPA (The Brighton Port Authority) another pseudonym for Norman Cook a.k.a. Fatboy Slim. The particular song I heard featured David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal laying down the vocal tracks and was entitled “Toe Jam.” It was originally released in July of this year and I remember hearing about it through the likes of Pitchfork Media. I remember the song being a fun to listen to, but nothing very memorable. Recently I was perusing Pitchfork.tv’s best music videos of 2008 when I saw the video for the aforementioned song. Perhaps it was all the beautiful, naked women, or the clever use of censor bars, but this time the song really got me. The light poppy beat paired with Byrne’s lyrics and an interlude from Rascal make for a highly listenable song. Upon hearing this song again I decided to do a little research on The BPA and found this up on their website:

The Brighton Port Authority were an outfit who built a huge word-of-mouth reputation on England's south coast from the early 1970s onwards before petering out in the mid-'90s. From what can be easily pieced together, they were a loose-limbed jamming unit, originally known as the Brighton Phonographic Association. At its core were local musicians Norman Cook and Simon Thornton who gathered various singers and session men around them, built the rather ramshackle BPA studio, and would occasionally hold multi-day warehouse parties from which their semi-legendary reputation stems.

The BPA certainly has a reputation and they live up to it on this song. “Everyday is fucking perfect, it’s a paradise,” Byrne’s lyric pretty much sums up the songs upbeat rhythm and theme. Dizzee keeps the lightheartedness going as he raps, “I'm skankin, I'm Bazzer Raseal, I'm drunk off that heathenisms/I ain't sober, I don’t mix with coca cola, or sober.” All in all “Toe Jams” delivers a jocular tune that brings a little bit of summer (appropriate to its release date) to your cold December days.

It has been a while

It has been a couple days since the last post, and i feel bad. If there is actually anyone reading this you must think that Brett and I are the worst bloggers around. If that is indeed your thinking, i say that i am a bit hurt, and i hope that you will give us another couple chances (we are bound to let you down again sometime).

If you are kind enough to let this delay slide i would be grateful and i offer this track by Little Joy as a consolation for our lackadaisical blogging schedule. This track oozes beachside lounging and has been on repeat on my iPod for the past couple weeks. In fact i wake up to the Little Joy album on a regular basis and i am still not tired of it. I hope that with this song flowing out of your speakers you will not only forgive Brett and I (I know i have), but have a better time getting through these dreary winter days.

Little Joy-No One's Better Sake

Gentleman Auction House does Christmas a favor.

I hate Christmas music. Every year, months before Christmas is even at our doorstep, the music starts to take over radio stations and store speakers. I cringe at the sound of constant songs about Santa and his reindeer. I wasn't always this bitter towards it, but time has changed that, because one can only listen to Christmas music every year for 20 years before they feel like living in a cave to avoid the holiday altogether.

Anyways, all that exaggerated distress aside, I am happy to introduce some Christmas music that I rather enjoy. Gentleman Auction House, a band that I have a few songs of from their full length album (a post on that will come once I acquire it in its entirety) has come out with a small collection of Christmas songs titled Christmas In Love. I came across this EP(?) yesterday and after waking up to this morning I decide that it is a step in the right direction for holiday music. Some of the songs are cheesy lyrically, which is to be expected, but the musicianship is obvious GAH (indie rock with a hint of punk). There are two downloads below so that you can decide for yourself whether this is worthy of the term "better Christmas music."

Gentleman Auction House-Don't Want Another Christmas (Like Last Christmas)

Gentleman Auction House-Christmas In Love

P.S. Is it just me or does the lead singer kinda sound like Conor Oberst?