Posts Tagged ‘ lyrics ’

The type of girl you wanna chew all of my Bubblegum by Clinic!

September 30, 2010

Photography by elearage…

Okay, some math…

Super-garlicy dinner = one gassy morning!
Super-garlicy dinner + bike ride = TURBO BOOST KITT!!!

Anywhosals…. garlic farts aside, you are hear to here (scratch that, flip it) some music. Well, we got something pretty amazing in our ears, a new album from Clinic called Bubblegum!

Wow.

How to describe this? Yeah, we can go the “reinvention” route or the psych-pop thing, but man, I’m not sure it gives it justice. This album (oh man, I’m already cringing with what I’m about to say) takes you on ~~a journey~~ — no, I can’t do that.

Fuck.

Okay, listen to “I’m Aware”. It’s a slow, drifting song, like the waves on some European beach on some 70′s foreign T&A art film. The bass is syrupy, the harmonies are lazy and beautiful, the acoustic guitars sweet and chiming, yet there’s a tension, like when they sang “and it’s goood.. and it’s gooood.. and it’s gooood..” like he’s holding back burning the entire movie theatre down!

What is that? Dreamy psych-pop? Yeah, see, really doesn’t quite work. There’s wirey syths, hazy day dreaming, quasi-noisy rock, but it’s the tug & pull, from vintage vibes to tender moments to “Radiostory” a spoken-word story on top of some soundtrack to a movie you’d have to stay up to 2am and sneak to watch on Showtime back in the 80s.

Is that a moog in “Forever (Demis’ Blues)”??? Oh my! Yeah, pretty amazing album and for that… 4 wheelies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m Aware

Bubblegum
Baby
Lion Tamer
Linda
Milk & Honey
Radiostory
Forever (Demis’ Blues)
Another Way Of Giving
Evelyn
Un Astronauta En Cielo
Freemasons Waltz
Orangutan

Clinic love: Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru

We’re back and we are listening to High Violet by The National!!!

April 20, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by nese sahin

Hi! We’re back! Did you miss us? Maybe a little, right? But the world moved on, the blogs moved on, life moved on, and holy shit on a mother fuckin’ stick did the music move on via leaks absolute world-wide pipe break down! There was Band Of Horses, The Hold Steady, The Delta Spirit, Minus The Bear, The Black Keys, Josh Ritter, Blitzen Trapper, Crystal Castles, and, of course, today’s topic o’ conversation, The National! WOW, right?

I know!

The only thing missing is my New Pornographers, but in a way, I’m glad. It would’ve been too much and lost in the mix and NP needs all our love & attention!

So… how was your weekend? Mine was GREAT! After a relatively easy ride up on Friday afternoon filled with great music & good times, it was family fun time on Saturday morning & Record Store Day all Saturday afternoon! Check out our haul:

Yep! You are seeing Destroyer, Plants & Animals, Lightspeed Champion, MGMT, Nancy Wilson, Pointer Sisters, a Feist shirt for Baby, a best of Pointer Sisters for her on CD (she REALLY wanted to hear Pointer Sisters) and an Arts & Craft sampler CD.

Pretty intense, eh? Then Sunday we hit Soundscapes and picked up about 4 or 5 more CDs! The Exciters, Sugar Pie DeSanto, (Soundscapes soul selection is amazing, it’s so hard to walk out of there without a handful of albums) Skip Bifferty, well… let’s just say, it was a rather musical weekend. It’s almost overwhelming to come back to Columbus yesterday to so many new albums. Where does one begin?

At the beginning, of course.

The beginning was determined by my curiosity and after the words beautiful, epic, amazing, etc, started flying about for High Violet, well, that’s where I had to begin!

Now, I wouldn’t call me the biggest The National fan. I like them, no doubt, & I’ve liked every album I’ve heard by them, but I don’t follow them, if you, well, follow me. I’m not really sure how they became such a hyped and huge band (huge in the indie/blog world that is), one minute you hear the occasional guy on a music board talking about them and maybe you have a few songs by them on a few mixtapes, but then Boxer comes along (and now High Violet) and suddenly they are the 2nd coming of indie-jesus!

It’s interesting.

Is it worth it? That’s between you and your ears, but to me, yeah, they are pretty damn good, so shame on me for not paying better attention to these guys! Maybe it’s because I’ve always thought of them as Arcade Fire + Coldplay + Morphine (- the saxophones), i.e, the emotional build-ups of Arcade Fire, the rolling pianos Coldplay, plus the seedy & sexy alley-darkness of Morphine (as well as the crooning vocals) but, again, just no sax.

Oh well. Here we are now and here is High Violet. Will it meet your expectations? Probably. It’s got elements of Boxer (see “Sorrow”) and it’s got what I believe to be is a progression of sound (see the lead-off “Terrible Love”), it’s got epic moments (see “Afraid Of Everyone”) , it’s got brooding transitional songs (see “Bloodbuzz Ohio”), it’s got a theatrical closer in “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”, AND it’s got the feeling of on-the-verge-of-something-big, like soon this will be playing in every Starbucks & soccer mom’s SUV come this winter or something. Really, if one thing can be said, it’s a beautiful & fulfilling album. That is to say, it’s “an album”, taken in at all 11 songs in a sitting. It rewards you for it. It patiently takes you up, down, & over from start to finish, something, in my opinion, that needs to be rejoiced & celebrated more often.

If there is one thing I hope a few people get out of Record Store Day and, by current example, High Violet, is that there is something beautiful about “the album”. It’s an old argument that we won’t rehash again today, but maybe after you load up “Terrible Love” and then later when “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks” finishes, if you were ever starting to doubt whether or not the album still lives, you’ll have just a glimmer of hope & let a little smile creep onto your face when “Terrible Love” starts back up again.

01 Terrible Love
02 Sorrow
03 Anyone’s Ghost
04 Little Faith
05 Afraid of Everyone
06 Bloodbuzz Ohio
07 Lemonworld
08 Runaway
09 Conversation 16
10 England
11 Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks

Some National love: Myspace | Official | Label

Oh, and some tour dates! WHEE!

4-22 Richmond, VA – The National
04-23 Richmond, VA – The National
05-05 London, England – Electric Ballroom
05-06 London, England – Royal Albert Hall
05-07 Paris, France – Le Zenith *
05-09 Berlin, Germany – Astra
05-21 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
05-22 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern #
05-23 San Diego, CA – Spreckels Theatre #
05-26 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
05-27 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre #
05-29 Quincy, WA – Sasquatch Festival
06-02 Boston, MA – House of Blues %
06-03 Boston, MA – House of Blues %
06-04 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory %
06-05 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory %
06-06 Washington, DC – DAR Constitution Hall %
06-08 Toronto, Ontario – Massey Hall %
06-09 Toronto, Ontario – Massey Hall %
06-11-13 Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo
06-16 New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall %
07-27 Brooklyn, NY – Prospect Park ^

* with Pavement
# with Ramona Falls
^ with Beach House
% with the Antlers

Man it’s good to be back! Cheers!

Tsuru

Fun in the sun, back to the grind, and we hearken with Volume II by She & Him…

March 15, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography “Florida Strawberry Festival” by Me!

WE’RE BACK! Whee! Our little weekend down in Flo-Ri-Da was perfectly perfect, just what the good medicine man ordered. Came in to a rainy Friday which caused a bit of detox and relaxation before the weather turned PERFECT, and I mean PERRRRRRFFFFFECT! Seriously, in the 60s, breezy, & super sunny and, as you can see from the photo above, it was the last weekend for Florida Strawberry Festival! Now, I’m not a huge “festival guy”, hell, SXSW sounds painful to me and I’m a music geek, but something about wandering around Florida’s most awesome collection of, uh, people with Baby, Mama & Sister Tsuru, and my young nephew was just too much.

There were strawberries (the reason for the season, but the Strawberry Shortcake was not nearly as good as I remember as a wee-lad)..

NOTE: Photos via TsuruBride’s & my Tumblr…

There were rides (nearly got sick on a kiddie-ride, seriously), including one that simulates what it would be like to be a hamster in a ball on water…

There was carnie-food, caramel apples, funnel cakes, fried-everything, etc, etc

And, of course, there was the midway games where I, yes ME, won Baby her very first carnie-prize ever! A cheap little Beanie-Baby-styled stuffed dog by hitting a balloon with a dart. Novi got a goldfish by my mom getting a ping pong in a bowl, a goldfish that later that night their cat, who I call “Big Moosh” as it looks JUST LIKE a larger version of our cat Mushaboom, tried to eat.

There was arts, there was crafts…

(Made that all by myself!), and there was relaxation & good times…. it was perfect.

Then last night we fly back into 30/40s & misty rainy weather? Ugh. AND work??? Double Ugh. Welcome back to O-H… I-O. But that’s okay, because just as quick as the cold & wet hit us, so did we wake up to a big wallop of sunshine via the newly leaked via NPR full album stream web rip of Volume II by She & Him!!!

The word they give She & Him is “sun-soaked” and that’s a pretty good one, I’m sure 99% of the reviewers will us it, it feels right. It feels sunny, for the most part, which, considering the weather we came home to, it just what we need to keep that March Florida feeling going, but to blanketly — is that a word? — call it sunny isn’t quite doing it justice. The word that comes to mind for me is “hearken”, this is hearken pop. Pop that hearkens back to by-gone eras, a time in, oh, I don’t know, late 70s, early 80s, when Dolly Parton & Charlie Rich were bringing various mixtures of pop + honky-tonk + R&B, but then you add in flavours and flourishes of girl-groups and you got She & Him. Volume II picks up just where Volume I left off and given the names of the albums, that’s exactly what it should be. It’s comfort food, adorable & sweet & delicious comfort food, yes…… She & Him is ice cream.

So, while other may compare She & Him to the sun, I will compare them to that frozen treat on the sun-filled day. What am I talking about? I have no idea. This much I do know, M. Ward has inspired me… See this photo?

And see him in their video for “In The Sun”?

Well, given that I’m just a few years from 40 and mustaches are still “in style”, I figured this may be my last chance to grow lip hair. It will be an uncomfortable and patchy affair, and in the end, I’ll probably shave it all off before it gets a real chance to begin, but for now, the great facial hair growth experiment of 2010 has begun. Expect photo updates for as long as I can keep it going soon. Right now, I’m at just under a week of growth, so not much to report yet.

Where was we? Oh yeah, She & Him. My only complaint on this absolutely lovely album? The opening track, “Theives”… guys, you REALLY should’ve ended the album on that one. It’s bittersweet, it’s got grand finale feelings, and then “In The Sun” is the perfect lead-off track! What were you guys thinking?????

Ah, oh well. It’s not my album, so I shan’t complain.

Well, as random as this post is looking, and even with this weather, I’ll tell ya, it’s good to be back & it’s good to finally have She & Him, so let’s get listening, eh?

*** STREAM FULL ALBUM AT NPR ***

1 Thieves
2 In the Sun [ft. Tilly and the Wall]
3 Don’t Look Back
4 Ridin’ in My Car
5 Lingering Still
6 Me and You
7 Gonna Get Along Without You
8 Home
9 I’m Gonna Make It Better
10 Sing
11 Over It Over Again
12 Brand New Shoes
13 If You Can’t Sleep

Some She & Him love: Myspace | Official | Merge

Cheers,

Tsuru

Vacations, mixtapes, new editions, and By Hook & By Crook by Shabby Rogue

March 10, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by Nicole Williams

Rainy morning today on my ride… Wanna see? Here’s me finally reaching work and de-layering in a sheltered area.

I love it though. Rain, mud… fun stuff. But damn to my thighs look MAAAASSIVE from that angle! Gotta love a man in tights though, right? The hawtness on two wheels!!!

Anyways, busy boy today! Bunch of running around at work, then I (yes, ME) got invited to a good-bye lunch for a co-worker! I know, weird, eh? That never happens. Good people, good times, but, given it’s bar food I’m about 10 minutes from food coma city so I better get all this out quiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiick.

Woo.

Think I just dozed for a sec!

C’mon T! SNAP OUT OF IiiiiizzzzzzzziiiiT! Oopah! Okay… 3 things before we get on today’s sweet ass album.

1. Baby & I are will be on a little mini-mini-vacation this weekend so no post from me on Friday. Awww… I know, I’m sorry, but I’ll be on a plane then see my mom & sis and doubt I’ll have time to jibber on about the latest album to coat my ear drums! BUT that leads me to number 2 (and number 3)…

2. I’ve got a little going-away treat for ya! Tomorrow we’ll presenting what I believe to be a pretty EPIC 2 hour+ mixtape! Just doing the final tweaking today, made a mistake when I pulled a 15 minute doozy for a 5 minute dinger, need to fix that tonight. It’s even got, not one, but TWO songs from the 80s? Holy shit! But that’s not all! Because of…

3. We got a new contributor to TSURURADIO! Yep, if the good lard’s a-willin’ and the creeks don’t rise, Dorice will be joining Grafista & Peanut and bring us the occasional column or song or album or thought or whatever from wonderful Toronto, Canada whenever the desire suits her! So, not sure when her first post will “hit the stands” but when it does, make sure to give her some sweet tender welcomes, okay?

Exciting stuff, eh? Yeah, I think so too!

And — yep, I’m going there — “speaking of exciting stuff”, how about that By Hook And By Crook by Shabby Rogue???

I like this (obviously). It’s been off & on in my ears for the past couple weeks. What’s most interesting about it to me is the variety of “genres” you get with this, it almost plays like a mixtape! Whether it be straight-forward rock of “Reason”, to the folk-rock, almost 90s Dylan/Wilbury-esque on “Every Light”, to the is-that-Irish-bar-rock? “Northern Lights”, to the acoustic indie-pop of “My Future With You”, it’s all over the place and normally that would spell disaster with a capital D and maybe even a capital T, definitely the R.

But it works. Not sure why… There’s a chemistry that seems to tie it all together that I can quite get the words out before my food coma truly sets in for good. But who cares what you call it, just listen, enjoy, and buy it!

01. Northern Lights
02. My Future With You
03. The Mountain
04. Old Man
05. My Life As A Secret Agent
06. Hidden In The Yard
07. Jack In A Box
08. Tales From The City
09. Every Light
10. Reason
11. By Hook And By Crook
12. Chamber Of Lights

Some Shabby Rogue link love: Myspace | BUY!!!

Cheers,

Tsuru

A bit of introspection & Down The Way by Angus & Julia Stone!

March 9, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by Elene

Introspection is a good thing, no? Last night I was told that every 100 years there’s a fresh batch of people on the Earth. Now, except for the mind-boggling few smoking & whiskey-drinking folks who somehow make it to 120, that’s pretty much true. So a question was posed to me. Why? Why do we make a, 1st, conscience decision to have a relationship with someone, not just girlfriends, wives, husbands, whatever, but also parents, your kids, friends, everything. Why do we do it? And 2nd, why do we work to keep them?

The easy answer is the animalistic one, no? It’s about survival, whether it be through genetics or through memories or or the scars we leave behind (good & bad ones), we want to make or leave a mark behind, it’s a formal of, well, not immortality, but certainly stretches our own brief existence out a bit further.

The other, also kinda mechanical, is our sense of duty. We have kids, we feel like we are supposed to stay around and raise them. We have parents, we feel compelled to “honour” them. We have friends and when a history exists, even when it’s not necessarily a good friendship anymore, duty compels you to keep going or give it another try orbe there for him/her at a time of need.

That makes sense and all, but what about beyond our instincts & duty? Why do I, for example, chose to maintain a relationship with my mom, but not with my dad? It’s not ALL good times with my mom. It’s not ALL good times with anyone, that’s not reality. Is there a scale? When the bad times outweigh the good times, is that when you bail on a job or an acquaintance? When the bad times are 2x the good times, is that when you drop the girlfriend or buddy? When the bad times hit 3x the good times, is that when family (not your kids) get dropped, but with a lifeline for redemption and recovery? And then with kids the scale is broke and no matter how bad the bad times are, you never drop ‘em?

It’s interesting. I don’t know the answer why I keep the relationships I do. If I said for the love reciprocation, that wouldn’t be true as some relationships don’t give you the love you crave, but I don’t bail on ‘em. It’s not about “passing my legacy” on or anything. Maybe it’s as simple as companionship? But again, the kid thing isn’t about that is it? We don’t have kids because we want another person around, do we?

I also don’t know “when”.. Sure, some you are born with and others are born into it (that goes back more to the “why” question), but say with Baby, “when” did I decide I’m going to stick with her? Not really sure. Sure, the easy answer to when & why is because she is the perfect woman for me, understands me, makes me happy emotionally, mentally, physically, and sexy-awesome-good-timesly, but what if she couldn’t anymore, say, she was in a car wreck and not able to do any of that, I don’t leave then, do I? Why not?

Because I love her. Well, yeah! Of course! But, the digger you deep, what does THAT even mean?

I guess the answer for me then to the “why” & “when” is love. I love my daughters, I love Baby, I love my mom, my sis, I love my friends. There are different kinds of love, I love Baby different then I love my cycling buddy — otherwise, man, that’d make for some awwwwwkward bike rides, eh? — but when the switch is turn on, no matter the lighting type or the wattage or the room it’s in, I guess THAT’S when I’m in the thick of it.

Huh. That was interesting. Thanks for helping me figure that out! Nothing like a bit of introspective vomiting to clear the metaphorical stomach, eh? Speaking of introspective, the soundtrack for all that up there? Well, it’s none other than Down The Way by Angus & Julia Stone!

This time, we got ourselves an Aussie brother & sister duo creating, what can only be described, as lovely, chill-out, introspective folk/pop (of course). Yeah, this isn’t “happy music”, but that’s okay. It’s that kind of music that “gets you thinkin’” (obviously). I love the exchanging male-to-female vocals, the quietness, the downtempo, just hitting the spot on a heavy-thinking kinda-morning.

*happy sigh*

1. Hold On
2. Black Crow
3. For You
4. Big Jet Plane
5. Santa Monica Dream
6. Yellow Brick Road
7. And The Boys
8. On The Road
9. Walk It Off
10. Hush
11. Draw Your Swords
12. I’m Not Yours
13. The Devil’s Tears

Some Angus & Julia love: Myspace | Official | BUY!

Cheers,

Tsuru

Epic Weekends, epic rides, and Junior by Kaki King… EPIC!

March 8, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by me! WHEEE!

Hey O! How was your weekend? Epic, I hope? I’m not sure of the full level of “epicness” of this past weekend but it was definitely an adventure! Photoshoots, arts & craft time, movies (ZOMBIELAND!!!), and, of course, a bike ride…. Or more specifically, an AMAZING bike ride!

Saturday, I pulled my long time cycling partner out of winter hibernation (I mean, it WAS going to be in the 40s!) and we tested out the 50 mile route of TSURURADIO’s SUPER AWESOME NO-FRILLS BIKE RIDE for BREAST CANCER on APRIL 3rd at PARK OF ROSES in COLUMBUS, OH!!!!

*phew* that’s a mouthful, eh?

It was amazing. The route is pretty, well, epic in it’s own way. It covers the gamut, it’s got a bike path start to get you all warmed up, a disgusting yet short climb into a subdivision, which we ride through for a bit then we head out to a main road up through Powell into Delaware (OH, not the state). It’s a long up and down straight stretch that will break down the minds of weaker men & women (the headwind heading north kept my legs working, hard).

After the first break at a Speedway (glamorous, eh), we soon start heading west. It’s a bit of traffic, but stick to the right and you’ll be fine. It pays off, as soon we start heading south and it was just beautiful. Country-style roads wide open until you get to Butts (which, though we didn’t HAVE to take it, we totally HAD to take it) and that takes you to Riverside which is exactly that, a beautiful stretch along Olentangy River, soon it’s back to work east and finally back South until, eventually, you get back to the subdivision, down the steep hill and back onto the bike path.

The only issue I see is if you are not used to riding near cars, you may be a little nervous, and we may need to cut the 25 mile down to 20 because a 25 mile route is become convoluted to get those extra 5 in…

Epic…

I like it. Alot. I know Tuck liked it. You can tell when at, say, mile 40 or so, you look over and he’s huffin’ & puffin’, kickin’ his own ass (which, in turn, results in me kickin’ MY ass to keep up), but there’s a ridiculous grin on his face! I had one on too. I’m sure we looked rather dorktastic! ha!

All-in-all, with the ride up to Tuck’s, and the ride to Park of Roses, then the actual ride-ride, then the ride back? 62 beautiful miles aka a Canadian Century (100 kilometers). Spring has sprung, my friends, even if it snows again, doesn’t matter, Spring has mother-fuckin’ SPRUNG! So happy, I could do a wheelie!

Source

We’ll be putting the official routes on the main ride page & on the Facebook Event page soon, so keep an eye!!!

Okay… Speaking of epic, my new favourite word, I was genuinely surprised and amazed at the pure epicness of Junior by Kaki King!

Holy crap!

Apparently this is Kaki’s 5th studio album?? Meaning I’ve been living in the dark! Ugh, what the fuck? Oh well, I guess it means there are 4 other albums I need to go check out, stat! but first, Junior. I don’t know if this her usual sound or now, I don’t know if this is some kind of evolution or return to roots or blah blah blah, but what I got is an amazing album that seems to blend that over-arching post-rock thing thing with female-led smart-pop/rock/folk.

It’s like Laura Veirs teamed up with Do Make Say Think or something?? Seriously. Her voice is reminiscent of Veirs as well, only compounding on to the analogy or metaphor or comparison or whatever the hell I wrote up there.

Whatever you call it, only one word can describe it… C’mon, say it with me now. On the count of 3. One… Twoooo….. Three!

EPIC!

1. The Betrayer
2. Spit It Back in My Mouth
3. Everything Has an End, Even Sadness
4. Falling Day
5. The Hoopers of Hudspeth
6. My Nerves that Committed Suicide
7. Communist Friends
8. Hallucinations from My Poisonous German Streets
9. Death Head
10. Sloan Shore
11. Sunnyside

Some Kaki King lovins: Official | Myspace | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru

Breaking up & Jet Lag by Josiah Wolf (you know, from WHY?)…

March 3, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by gabriele chiapparini

The Violent Femmes once sang, “breaking up, is easy to do” and maybe in a few cases that’s true, say, when she goes crazy & tries to run you over. Not a difficult decision there, though even in that situation, getting your shit out of the house certainly won’t be easy. Trust me, I know.

In fact, I’ll go on record to say that breaking up is hard to do. It’s a necessity though, when a relationship is over, any relationship, and can’t be repaired or evolve into a new kind of relationship, sometimes you just got say “goodbye”. Life’s too short to spend it in misery, eh?

Now, before you start wondering if I’m talking about Baby & I, ease up, we are stronger than ever, sickeningly so to many people (and to anyone who winds up in our company, I apologize.

Breaking up is important though. We should all go through it at least once or thrice, it’s a great opportunity to “move forward”, “start fresh”, and “reconnect with & rediscover yourself”. For the music lover, break ups are fantastic. Some of the best albums ever have come out of the lonely misery of an artist! Hell, my favourite Beck album, Sea Change, is miserable goodness!

Well, apparently Mr. Josiah Wolf (of WHY?) found himself at the end of an 11-year relationship. Add in a move from California to the midwest, and suddenly we’ve got ourselves Jet Lag, a wonderfully intimate & beautiful autobiographical-feeling break-up album.

Even the cover art has a “yep, here’s me” thing going on. Muscially, it’s folk/pop/etc-ish, really well crafted, lots of playing with timing, a few interesting layering bits, and what not, making it a really interesting listen on that alone. But I think lyrically is where this album will carry it’s weight over the long haul. There are lots of I’s and me’s and you really feel like he’s actually talking to you, spilling his guts for you. Take the lyrics called out in the label write-up “I guess it’s goodbye now/Did I guess wrong?/’I guess it’s goodbye’/Is a broken man’s song.” You feel it, he IS a broken man, this is his therapy session.

I don’t know, it’s sweet, sad, and highly visual. For all you coming in for a side-WHY? thing, you may be disappointed. Turn that shit out of your mind, and let Josiah get some thoughts & observations off his chest. You’ll be thankful you did.

1. The Trailer And The Truck
2. Master Cleanse (California)
3. The Opposite Of Breathing
4. The New Car
5. Skull In The Ice
6. The Apart Meant
7. That Kind Of Man
8. Ohioho
9. Is The Body Hung
10. In The Seam
11. Gravity Defied
12. The One Sign

Some Wolf love: Myspace | BUY!

Cheers,

Tsuru

Abba Zabba, Testicled, Martha Stewart, Wilbur Sargunaraj, the (hopefully) death of auto-tune, & American Ghetto by Portugal. The Man!

March 2, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by Becky

Jesus H. Huffinstuff Portugal. The Man!!!! Another album? Seriously? What is that, 12 in 2 weeks or something??? Yes, my friends, while the world sits around for 2 or 3 years for most bands to collect 2 singles & 10 filler tracks, while I try my very first Abba Zabba bar (undecided if this is “good” or not), Portugal. The Man have put out 5, yeah FIVE, full & glorious proper albums in the past 5 years that I know of — for all I know, there’s probably some solo shit & side-project stuff out there too).

Look, PtM, you are Alaskan, NOT Canadian, you are allowed to slow it down a notch.

Okay, it’s official, Abba Zabba bars suck. Too much taffy, not enough peanut butter. Sorry.

It couldn’t be better timing though that American Ghetto popped out yesterday (like the baby on the album cover). I’ve been on a Censoured Colours (proper Canadian spelling by me) kick for the past week or so (one of the best albums of the 2000s so far) and before I could wax poetically about it, here’s their latest!

In some ways, American Ghetto picks up where the Satanic Satanist left off, in the sense that they are still walking the streets with some giant testicled — hey Firefox, what do you mean “testicled” isn’t a word? — swagger, and, as Martha Stewart might say, “that’s a good thing”.

*must resist Mr. T impersonation*

That’s about where the similarities are, well, that and their distinct vocals, but not much you can do about that except abusing autotune. Oh, speaking of… now that this:

…is an “intertubal superhighway of love meme” can we please, Please, PLEASE stop with the auto-tune abuse??? Please? Thanks.

Back to Portugal. The Man (sorry guys) & American Ghetto, this time out I think our boys must’ve been inspired by the 6 or 30 or whatever months of darkness up there in Alaska as there’s just something “night time” & sexy about this album. Just got this late night, underground groove going on that is, as the kids say, “teh sexors”. I listen to “The Dead Dog”, and I can see walking into a poorly florescent-lit urban apartment complex basement where a select group of sexy types are working up a sweat, wiggly & squirming around to the music — all in slow motion, mind you.

But… I’m prone to an active imagination.

01. The Dead Dog
02. Break
03. 60 Years
04. All My People
05. 1000 Years
06. Fantastic Pace
07. The Pushers Party
08. Do What We Do
09. Just a Fool
10. Some Men
11. When the War Ends

PtM love, always with the PtM love!!! Myspace | Official | BUY STUFF!!!

Cheers,

Tsuru

Bryan Adams in my head? Oh my… And then we Fight Softly with The Ruby Suns!

February 8, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by xrawrxdeex

So I wake up this morning and this song is playing in my head:

Bryan Adams – Everything I Do (I Do It For You)

Yeah. I know.

But it got me thinking… Man, Bryan Adams ruled the world back then, didn’t he? Every damn ballad he could muster would be played every hour on the hour! And you can see it, every woman in the house, taking every scratchy voiced word sung to heart. I think there are two parts of the song though, that really GET ya… First that bridge

There’s no love – like your love
And no other – could give more love
There’s nowhere – unless you’re there
All the time – all the way

Really starts off from the gut, “there’s noooo loooove… like yoour loooove” and ends with that “alllll the waaaaa-Aaaaaaaay!” followed with that drippy guitar with a bit of lyric reiteration. Perfect heart tugging action.

But Bryan wasn’t done, any lesser song would’ve been satisfied, but no no, not our romantic troubadour, as he takes us to climatic emotional finale, laying it all out:

Oh – you can’t tell me it’s not worth tryin’ for
I can’t help it – there’s nothin’ I want more
I would fight for you – I’d lie for you
Walk the wire for you – ya I’d die for yoooooooooooooooooooou!!!

Then, ever so gently, “ya know it’s true… Everything I do… I do it for you.”

When Bryan Adams ruled the world, eh?

Fortunately, the world has moved on. Instead of Bryan Adams, we have Usher or Clay Aiken or something, I really don’t know, instead of “tell me have you ever really, really really ever loooooved a woman” we’ve now got “A girl like you needs somethin’ real, Wanna get you somethin’ from the heart, Somethin’ special girl, It’s my dick in a box.”

Times change, things change, yet it all stays the same.

Speaking of change, is it just me or has a new era of “weird pop” indie music been ushered in? I’ll put the blame on Animal Collective, but lard know who really brought the trend out of the woodwork. I’m certainly not complaining, as long as it’s real, it’s all good. But I was certainly surprised when I loaded up the new Ruby Suns Fight Softly, and was transported one funky odd trippy musical journey!

Maybe I’m just remembering them wrong? I remember “Oh Mojave”…

Hell, I think it even showed up in a Microsoft commercial or something for Vista. This one is a bit more E-lectronical than I remember and would fit right in with a Yeasayer, Dirty Projector, Animal Collective listening party!

For me, it works. Not sure why. This kinda “genre” can be touch and go for me, and sure there are times on the album when I ask “huh?”, but that’s okay. It’s good to challenge, branch out, not always live in the happy indie strum-strum world. Who better than The Ruby Suns to do that with?

Exactly.

Sun Lake Rinsed
Mingus and Pike
Cinco
Cranberry (via Subpop)
Closet Astrologer
Haunted House
How Kids Fail
Dusty Fruit
Two Humans
Olympics on Pot

Ruby Sun linkage: Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru

I’m a sleepy bear, going to wordpress?, & Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen, Only Not Tonight by The Go Find

January 25, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by turuncuaz

Oh my, I’m a sleepy bear today. After a wonderful and extraordinarily productive weekend of cycling & photography, we go to bed last night and sleep just won’t come. I wanted to ride in, especially with snow pending, wanted to beat it for one last road bike ride this week, but that would mean may 3 or 4 hours sleep and granted I don’t need/get THAT much sleep, I ain’t super man!

Coffee & more coffee, but man if the batch I got doesn’t taste like degreaser.

*sigh*

Okay, fortunately today’s gem, which has been circulating on my ipod for the past week or so, is hitting juuuust right for the sleepy place I’m in. BUT, before we get to that, got a little news-ish thing to share…

As some of you may have taken the time to notice, we are on blogger. It’s been an interesting experience, to say the least. Blogger has a history of deleting posts and, like in my good friend Rotch’s case, whole blogs. Granted, as far as I know, we’ve never had any deletions, BUT I do know that blogger has it set up where TSURURADIO won’t show up on certain searches has blocked Technorati and whatnot, SOOOOOOOO…….. for the past year probably, I’ve been backing up the site on my own server using wordpress. Just turn off the redirect to “blog.tsururadio.com” and work on it a bit, update the back-up, then turn redirect back on.

ANYWHOOSLE DOOSLE… to make a long story short (too late), I finally got the wordpress version looking pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, the importing of blogger posts don’t format perfect, but it’s readable! Check it out!

T S U R U R A D I O . c o m
aka NOT blog.tsururadio.com

What do you think? Not bad, eh? Pretty seamless? So, here’s what I’m going to do.

Double Post: For the next week, all posts will go up on both sites to make sure I even like posting via wordpress. If Step 1 = thumbs up, go to Step 2.
Set Up Aggregators to pull from the right feed. Once Step 2 is completed, go to Step 3.
Turn on redirects to go to new tsururadio.com! HOORAY!

Well, that’s the plan anyway. Your feedback, commentude, suggestions, and whatnots will be greatly appreciated!

Okay, before I either a) fall asleep or b) kill someone for a good cup of coffee, we better get to The Go Find and this sleepy little gem, Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen, Only Not Tonight!

I was having a hard time describing this one, it’s really just basic pop on it’s surface. It reminded Baby of Stars a little bit, which is a pretty good comparison to me too. I once heard Stars call themselves “lovers rock” in an interview a year or so ago, and I think that label fits pretty good here. Check out their label write-up:

“Imagine the sound of cereal hit by milk in the morning, only heard if you listen closely. A sound that is comforting and addictive. This kind of innocent image from a daily routine fits the music of The Go Find. It’s never offensive; it’s warm and soothing, but intriguing enough to grab your attention. Its beauty lies in small things.”

Romanticized a bit, eh? Exactly. Add in that the lead singer actually sounds a bit like Torquil and it all just kinda fits in place. This much I know, the “comforting” part of their sound is just what this tired boy needs right now.

Happy Monday everyone…. enjoy!

1 Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight
2 Love Will Break Us Up
3 It’s Automatic
4 Neighbourhood
5 One Hundred Percent
6 Stay
7 Lottery Man
8 Cherry Pie
9 Running Mates
10 Just A Common Love
11 Heart Of Gold

Go Find Link Love…
Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru…