Tsuru & The Bride Present… Aaron Loves Meghan Vol. 5: Aaron Loves Meghan Loves Aaron Loves…

November 20, 2011

Well my friends, it’s that time of year again! November is a key month in the world of Aaron Loves Meghan… it’s the month where we started dating, when we got engaged, and, of course, when we got married. And every year around this time we present our latest Aaron Loves Meghan mixtape!

For the newbs, on Nov. 17th, 2007, Megs & I were married and at our wedding (which I iPod DJ’d) we gave everyone there a mixtape called Aaron Loves Meghan and, of course, posted it up on tsururadio. Since then, we’ve had infinite fun creating a new mixtape together every year, some with themes, some with just the music we love to listen to together, whatever, and present it to you…

This time, as you can tell from the photo above, things got a bit messy… Thank the lardy I had my pencil handy and my lovely assistant to wind that cassette back up, eh?

So, for our 5th volume, we each put together a mini-mixtape for each other. Mine is Side Aaron Loves Meghan, her’s is side Meghan Loves Aaron. Then, when we were all done, we put them together and BLAMO! Awesome-o lovey dovey romantical super good times happy hour!!!

And yes, I know we are a little late getting this mixtape up for you guys… We’ve been a little busy with Baby going to Hong Kong for two weeks, then me to going China for two weeks, then both of us going on a MUCH needed vacation to the Galapagos Islands for a week (which was epic! Like a beachy vacation meets a tropically exploring vacation meets nature’s classroom). We even made a short film for you!

Don’t worry, as per usual it’s not a “talky” and it’s soundtracked by one my favourite songs, “2080″ by Yeasayer!

Okay, back to the mixtape!

Now, just as a little reminder… don’t read too much into each song! Sure, some are blatant love songs, of course they are, but some are just songs we love to sing together or to/at each other – though you can certainly see where October, where we only saw each other for one day, played quite a role in the music selection…

And with that, I think I’ll get to hurrying up to shuttin’ up and get this music going on as…

Tsuru & The Bride Present…

Aaron Loves Meghan Vol. 5: Aaron Loves Meghan Loves Aaron Loves…

SIDE A: Aaron Loves Meghan

1. Noah And The Whale – 2 Atoms In A Molecule
2. Allo Darlin – Kiss Your Lips
3. Iron And Wine – Tree By The River
4. REM – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
5. Primal Scream – Movin’ On Up
6. Rachel Goodrich – Na Na Na
7. The Rural Alberta Advantage – Two Lovers
8. Beirut – Port of Call
9. Feist – Graveyard
10. Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes – Home
11. Hard Drugs – Aline And Lloyd (Reprise)

SIDE B: Meghan Loves Aaron

1. Living Sisters – (You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am
2. Charles May And Annette May Thomas – Keep My Baby Warm
3. The Head And The Heart – Honey Come Home
4. Etta James – I Just Want To Make Love To You
5. Paula & Karol – Birds and Bees
6. Jenny And Johnny – Scissor Runner
7. The Pipettes – I Love You
8. Fiona Apple – So Sleepy
9. Summer Fiction – Throw Your Arms Around Me
10. My Morning Jacket – Wonderful (The Way I Feel)
11. Jarvis Cocker – Baby’s Coming Back To Me

That’s it! I hope you enjoy as much as we do… Here’s to year number 5 being as wonderful as each that preceded it!

Love,
Aaron & Meghan

tsurufoto presents… Calling All In Transit: The Very Best Of REM (According To Me)!!!

October 3, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by me.

I first really fell in love with REM with Green. 1988, I was what, 15? It was before the years of prog when I was still wading through the music world, trying all kinds of stuff, whatever tickled my cockles. I loved “Stand”, hard. Bought the record and wore the fuck out of the vinyl! Then I saw an uncensored version of “Pop Song ’89″ on a friend’s cable late one night and well yeah, I was a smitten kitten.

I didn’t dig into their older stuff at the time, I was still just a poor kid finding out what’s what, pulling away from Top 40, pulling away from the kids around me, dabbling in whatever sounded decent that anyone had a copy of a copy of a casette that I’d get my hands on.

But before I could really dig my teeth into them, Out Of Time came out and I was the first person to call them sell-outs. Big hits, MTV awards, rap, and “Shiny Mother Fucking People”. I said some mean things to my girlfriend about the album she loved. Of course, later, I learned to love that album.

Then Automatic For The People came out when I was living in this garage apartment in Tampa, doing the chef thing, riding bikes & my moped, living life (mostly at Joffrey’s, the local coffee shop). It was with AftP that I finally started digging into their back catalogue, mostly thanks to my neighbor who I’d sit on our little porch with and drink beers listening to him play old REM albums.

It was after that my love of REM became a genunine relationship. Looking back, it’s strange, I can remember where I was, what I was doing, etc, the first time I heard each of their new albums. From Green to Collapse Into Now. Strange, eh? I remember sitting in my living room playing New Adventures for the first time. I remember being in my car on a long drive home listening to Reveal. I remember having friends over for a dinner and playing Up in the background for the first time. I remember listening to Monster back in college in my apartment before digging back into studying and watching the premiere of the video for “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth” and seeing Stipe with his newly stiped hair. God I loved that album.

Wow.

And I love all their albums. From the mumbling old gems to the experimental trilogy post-Berry, to these last two kicks in the nuts, and everything in between. My favourites? Ooo… tough one, but I’ll narrow it down to three, Green, Automatic, and Reveal (yes, Reveal, a totally underrated amazing album, fuck off). I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. When you take into consideration their quality, quantity, & longevity, REM is easily the greatest American band… ever.

Yep.

Deal with it.

But sadly the boys have decided it’s time to move on from the band, do their other things instead of forcing it forward, good for them. But what does that mean for me, the life long fan??? One word: Mixtape.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy I hope you are ready for this! But I’m going to wager dollars to donuts you ain’t! Here’s what we did, we simply built the best REM (according to me) mixtape possible, 2.5 hours broken into 4 sides covering all the full releases and a bunch of gems in between! It’s the best god damn compilation of REM songs ever, for casual fans, people who lost track over the years, hard core fans, and people who ask, “R.E.What?”, all of you, it’s just awesome stuffed with epic! Yeah, you could say I’m pretty happy with the way it came out.

Stipe & the crew, thanks for an amazing 31 years, you soundtracked my life for 23 of them and I’m eternally grateful. Now, let’s send them off in proper tsuru-style as…

tsurufoto presents…

Calling All In Transit: The Very Best Of REM (According To Me)

Side A: Crazy What You Could’ve Had

Side B: Look Up What Do You See?

Side C: And Change Is What I Believe In

Side D: See You In Heaven If You Make The List

Full zip of the tracks. ;)

Feels good, doesn’t it??? Feels… fine.

Cheers,
Aaron Tsuru
Follow @tsururadio

tsururadio presents… summer mixtape!!!

June 23, 2011

By Tsuru

Photo of Cherry La Voix for tsurufoto nudiezine issue no. 7 by me! WOOT!

Ah summer. Hot, humid, sticky, sweaty sweaty swamp ass, bar-b-ques, shaken lemonade, fried snickers, fried dough, fried coca-cola, and even fried kool-aid.

Jazz fest, rib fest, community fest, asian fest, greek fest, indian fest, pride fest, fest fest. We get about 80 years on this earth, plus or minus, and we do the same shit 80 times, plus or minus. Summer is my least favourite season, if you could rank them. As a Floridian from Tampa, summer started in February and ended the day before February, car was hot, you were hot, house was hot, AC was never good enough, humidity sucks, and dear god…. the swamp ass.

Is there anything worse than that wet uncomfortableness lingering between your ass cheeks? Only thing I know to combat it is a good quick dry wipe in the bathroom.

Anywhosals, the one good thing about summer? The music…. Yes, as much as it’s silly & cliche, our funny little brains like to assign seasonality to music. Give it a clean quiet sound and you got yerself a winter album there, bud. Me, I’m an autumn.

Just kidding, I’m pale, I’ve got black hair, and green eyes, maybe I’m a winter? I do want to retire to Canada.

Where was I? Oh yeah, seasonality of music. Now, there’s no hard and fast rules, one man’s Spring gem is another mother of your baby’s brother’s Autumn classic. We are nothing but a culmination of our genetics mixed with our experiences & how we interpret them. For me, a bit of fuzz, a bit of bounce or rain or a bit of water & heat, basically, whatever makes me think of being outdoors or conversely, indoors in the AC, or, I suppose, swamp ass…

So here we go, one of our first ever “summer” specific mixtapes (I think, who the fuck can remember anymore). Led off by Dan Deacon’s “Snookered”… why? Because when I think of swamp ass, I think of Dan fucking Deacon!

My suggestion? Just click play on the soundcloud below and turn up yer speakers nice and fuck yeah. If you like what you hear, grab the zip and enjoy on your way to the beach, to the park, or on that road trip, or really whatever you do this summer! Sound good? Happy summer, my friends! Enjoy!

tsururadio presents… summer mixtape!!!

(full zip)

tsururadio presents – summer mixtape by tsururadio

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLAY GAPLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

01 Dan Deacon – Snookered
02 MGMT – Kids
03 Cults – Outside
04 Girls – Laura
05 G. Love And Special Sauce – Cold Beverages
06 Beck – Girl
07 Tapes N Tapes – FREAK OUT
08 Weezer – Holiday
09 My Morning Jacket – Circuital
10 The Avalanches – Since I Left You
11 The Shivers – Irrational Love
12 The Strokes – Is This It
13 Beirut – East Harlem
14 She And Him – Oh Boy
15 Summer Fiction – By The Sea
16 Laura Veirs – Saltbreakers
17 Iron And Wine – Biting Your Tail
18 Starfucker – Born
19 Jonathan Richman – Ice Cream Man
20 The Beach Boys – Barbara Ann

That’s it! Enjoy! Now…. go ride your bike, go take some pictures, and go have fun!

Cheers,
Aaron

Peanut’s Playground: What The Hell Is Going On – What’s Up With Dutch Music

May 18, 2011

By Martin

Peanut’s Playground is my bi-weekly verbal diarrhea. Every other Wednesday I plan to ramble about stuff I like (in my typically screwed up version of English) and hope you will like too. And in case you don’t… mweh.

The general consensus about Dutch music is that it sucks. Ok maybe not the general consensus, since there are a lot of people who don’t give a crap about Dutch music in general!

Whatever the public might thin,k my own opinion on Dutch music is well known. With the exception of a few great artists (most of which don’t record anymore) the majority of the tunes from the Nether regions sucks balls. I’ve always looked somewhat envious to our Belgian neighbors. The complete opposite of what is going in Holland is what’s normal over there. They have more great artists than sucky ones. At least it certainly seems that way.

Even though I think Dutch music sucks I’m still going to yabber a bit about it in this article. The reason for this is that somehow a bunch of very good artists have surfaced these past months, four of which I would like to introduce to you. All of them have ‘break-out’ potential and are definitely worthy of your attention.

First up are Amsterdam-based alternative rock band Alamo Race Track

I’ve written about them before, when they made my year-end list (top 5) with their second album Black Cat John Brown. They’ve just released their third long player called Unicorn Loves Deer on Excelsior Recordings, and although it’s completely different from their previous work, it’s an absolute winner! The melodies and instrumentation are both original and haunting. They might take some time to sink in, but when they do, they’re hard to get out of your head.

Alamo Race Track – Shake The Leaves

You can download their album here

Next up: Dazzled Kid

Dazzled Kid is the solo project of Voicst (alumnus of my 2009′ year-end list) singer Tjeerd Bomhof. Where his main band Voicst make fast paced rocking guitar pop, Tjeerd choose to tone it down a bit for this project, giving it a relaxed but still poppy singer-songwriter feel. Yes No Maybe is the lead-off single of his 2011′ debut album Fire Needs Air.

Dazzled Kid – Yes No Maybe

You can download the album here

Number three: De Staat

How does one describe a band that is totally indescribable? Because that’s exactly what the Nijmegen outfit De Staat are, utterly and completely unique and thus indescribable (to me at least). They call themselves ‘Musical Chameleons’ which sounds about right to me. You can stick any of a hundred genre labels on them and be right. There’s really only option left, and that’s to check out their second album Machinery asap.

De Staat – I’ll Never Marry You

You can download their album here

Last, but certainly not least. Dutch beauty Marike Jager

I’ve been in love with Marike Jager’s music ever since first seeing her play live back in 2007 (which feels like ages ago). Her somewhat quirky stage presence combined with a great voice and fine songwriting captured my interest from the start. Since then I’ve seen Marike progress into an artist Holland has not seen many of over the years. With each album and each performance she fine tuned here craft, resulting in her finest effort yet, this year’s Here Comes The Night. You really really should give that album some well deserved attention!

Marike Jager – Break The Law

You can download her album here

See you in two weeks!

- Martin

Link up with me here:

Peanut’s Playground: Forgotten Classics – 13. Mental Floss For The Globe by Urban Dance Squad

April 20, 2011

By Martin

Number 13 in my series of Forgotten Classics:

Mental Floss For The Globe by Urban Dance Squad (1989)

Hi guys. Sorry that I missed my slot two weeks ago. Life suddenly caught up with me and well, that’s just how things go sometimes. But rest assured, I’m making it up with a whopper of a classic today! One that you’ve probably never heard of before but hey, what else is new.

Forget about mainstream acts like Red Hot Chili Peppers or Rage Against The Machine. Urban Dance Squad were the true original crossover pioneers. The Utrecht (in the Netherlands) based group combined rock (guitars) with rap (vocals) and old-skool (scratching) and turned it into something completely new.

They actually had some moderate success too. Not over here in the Nether Regions, but in the States. Deeper Shade Of Soul from their debut album actually made it all the way to #57 in the Billboard Hot 100. Which to Dutch standards is really really fucking succesful.

Anyway, this band doesn’t do their thang no more (whatever the hell that means), so digging into their back catalogue is all that’s left now. And there’s no better place to start than here. Because if you don’t like this album, there is seriously something wrong with your hearing.

Download Mental Floss For The Globe here

1. Fast Lane

2. No Kid

3. Deeper Shade of Soul

4. Prayer For My Demo

5. Big Apple

6. Piece Of Rock

7. Brainstorm On The U.D.S.

8. The Devil

9. Famous When You’re Dead

10. Mental Floss For The Globe

11. Hitchhike H.D.

12. God Blasts The Queen

See you in two weeks!

- Martin

Link up with me here:

presents… she stands there stark naked mixtape!!!

March 18, 2011

By Tsuru

Happy Friday to ya, my friends!!! Man oh man have I been a busy little beaver lately. Work has been, well, work and nuttier than ever, but that’s work and who wants to talk about that? Not I said the fly! Now, sure, we got you a badass mixtape to finish off the week all proper style…

How’s THAT for a teaser?

But, before we get to that, let’s talk about the other busys keep us busy.

First up? Maybe you missed it the other day, but Baby’s auction to raise money for Japan ENDS TOMORROW!

The money from the winning bid and the matching moneys ALL go to the Red Cross to help out with Japan. They get a little moneys, you get a Kitsune (fox) purse for you or your honey-bunny, all with free shipping! Not too shabs, eh?

Eh. So..

* CLICK – BID – SHARE *

Next… maybe you missed it but TSURUFOTO NUDIEZINE Issue No. 4 has been released and is out in the wild!

WOOOOOOOT! And this time it’s a doozy! In this issue we got our zinexclusive mixtape, activities, amazing artwork, our articles on REM & a bad ass zine we came across, all kinds of randomness, and, of course, our super hot & awesome photo shoots with Nina, Isabella, Becca, & the awesome Lucy Dominga!

Now, you can get a taste of the photo sets with Nina & Isabella and Ms. Dominga over at our vimeo page full or saucy short films we’ve been making, BUT…. if you want a peek at Issue No. 5′s centerfold set, “How Olive Does Arts & Crafts”:

TSURUFOTO Presents… How Olive Does Arts & Crafts! (NSFW) from TSURUFOTO on Vimeo.

You are going to have to buy a zine…. ;)

Now… if that wan’t enough, oh my, let me tell you about last night. Yes yes, it was St. Patty’s day, but I really could care less about that part. First, anyone who follows the photo part of tsuru industries knows I get to work with some amazing people. Genuinely beautiful inside & out. Well, a couple of them do burlesque. Baby & I have been trying to go see them for, well, forever, but life & shit kept getting in the way until last night when we went to Circus and got to see not one, but TWO troupes perform! The Velvet Hearts featuring the uber-crush worthy Cherry La Voix AND the Ooh La Las featuring my newest friend Cherie!

One word. Amazing.

Bold, strong, beautiful pasty-adorned women flaunting the awesomeness.

And blowing our minds and melting our hearts. Needless to say, Baby & I are smitten kittens. Consider us groupies!!!

Speaking of beautiful women & smitten kittens, my friends, has I gots a mixtap’ems for yas today very much inspired by the love and beauty that seems to be following us around more and more. We had some fun with this one! Yeah yeah, sure, we got a new song or two that might be floating around your hip & hypem blogs here and there, but for the most part this one’s chock full o’ not-so-newness and not-so-knowness! Yep, we dipped deep into our pockets for some pre-double-digit 2000s goodness, maybe something from the 90s, and I think one or two from the 80s, and lots of fresh bandcamp goodness.

Just a little reminder that, yeah, new music is new, but loving and leaving the songs from a few years, months or days ago is not chicken soup for the soul. And remember, as loverly as the pitchforks and bloggerins of the world can be, there’s still so much out there just waiting and wanting to be heard over in the wide world interconnected intertubes of love canals like Bandcamp and etc.

So here we are and here we go as….

photography by me
modeled by tomagochi

tsururadio presents…

she stands there stark naked mixtape!!!

full zip

01 Noah and the Whale – Jealous Kind Of Love
02 Royal Bangs – Tiny Prince Of Keytar
03 Ween – Ocean Man
04 Beulah – Matter vs. Space
05 Bright Eyes – Shell Games
06 Here We Go Magic – Hands in the Sky
07 Radiohead – Nude
08 Violent Femmes – Black Girls
09 The Decemberists – O New England
10 Bill Callahan – Sycamore
11 Beirut – The Concubine
12 Peter Bjorn and John – Amsterdam
13 Paula & Karol – Ontario
14 Son Volt – Drown
15 The Do – Bohemian Dances
16 Jenny Invert – Still Life / Millet Seed
17 Tera Melos – Manar Was A Rat
18 Isaac and Hilltop – Antique Arms and Armor
19 Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s – Real Naked Girls
20 Joan As Police Woman – The Magic
21 Nicole Atkins & The Sea – The Way It Is

BONUS: David Cassidy – I Think I Love You

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Go ride yer bikes, go take lots of pictures, and we’ll see you before long…

Cheers,

Aaron aka Tsuru

Peanut’s Playground: Forgotten Classics – 12. Neon Golden by The Notwist

March 9, 2011

By Martin

Number 12 in my series of Forgotten Classics:

Neon Golden by The Notwist (2002)

It was way back in 2002 that Neon Golden by the Germans of The Notwist was named Album Of The Year by the good people of the Dutch (aren’t I the multinational blogger) music magazine OOR. At the time I had no clue whatsoever what this album was all about and why in god’s name it should be crowned ‘King Of 2002′. After all, wasn’t this the same year that also saw the release of instant classics like (amongst others) Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights, The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells and Cody ChesnuTT’s The Headphone Masterpiece?

Being fashionably late it took me more than two years to finally discover why so many people liked this album. Because it’s fucking awesome, that’s why! Look here, even the acid pissing wankers of Pissfork listed it in their top 10:

Realizing that The Notwist started out as a (mediocre) post-hardcore outfit makes the musical journey that Neon Golden takes you on all the more amazing. Nothing on the band’s previous four full length releases could’ve hinted at the greatness they would achieve with their fifth album. The fluency in the fusion of (subtle) electronics and guitar-driven pop music is impressive to say the least. The closest comparison I can think of is what Radiohead achieved on Kid A, but with a lot less experimentation.

The focus on the songs make the album a lot more lovable at first listen than its experimental counterparts, and somehow without becoming boring after repeated listens. Even after almost 10 years. Hell, Consequence is still one the best songs of the 00s!

So if you happened to have missed out the first time around (like I did), make up for it now. Check out the sample songs and spend your cash on a great album. You will not regret it.

Download Neon Golden here

1. One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You Understand

2. Pilot

3. Pick Up The Phone

4. Trashing Days

5. This Room

6. Solitaire

7. One With The Freaks

8. Neon Golden

9. Off The Rails

10. Consequence

11. Scoop

12. Propeller 9

13. Formiga

See you in two weeks!

- Martin

Link up with me here:

Peanut’s Playground: Forgotten Classics – 11. Sugar – File Under Easy Listening

February 18, 2011

By Martin

Photography by LittleFlair…

Hüsker Dü means nothing to me. Bob Mould means nothing to me either. That is to say, the music that the Dü and the Mould made/make isn’t really the music that I like the Bob to make. The music I love is this:

Sugar – File Under Easy Listening (1994)

1994 was a great year in music, and File Under Easy Listening (or F.U.E.L.) was one of its highlights.

Roaring guitars. Loud guitars. But also, beautiful melodies. A combination I’ve gotten to love, and few albums have gotten it better than F.U.E.L. Bob Mould’s voice has never been angelic or smooth or anything like that, but who knew how well it would fit melodic songs instead of just raging rockers. His gritty vocals over the infectious grooves and chords are exactly what keep this album interesting.

Every song is memorable. Memorable in such a way that even after listening to it only once it will have you singing along full force! The song structures are, without exception, simple and easy to grasp. But simple does not equal dull. It’s never dull! Better still, it keeps on surprising you, more than 16 years after its release.

All the traits of a timeless classic if I’ve ever heard one.

DOWNLOAD FILE UNDER EASY LISTENING HERE

1. Gift

2. Company Book

3. Your Favorite Thing

4. What You Want It To Be

5. Gee Angel

6. Panama City Motel

7. Can’t Help You Anymore

8. Granny Cool

9. Believe What You’re Saying

10. Explode And Make Up

Don’t forget to check out my other articles, in case you’ve missed them (which would be an absolute shame, because they’re great and shit).

Tudels,

Peanut

Link up with me here:

I’m taking the week off. Play us out Rachel Goodrich…

February 16, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by Marco Graziani

Hey kiddos. All this grammy talk has left me feeling kinda… done.

So, I think it’s time for a little mini-vaca. Spending the next week working on my zine and contemplating “what’s next” for this great tsurunation we call home. You know?

What is next? What is version 4.0 for TSURURADIO?

So, while I ~~masturbate furiously~~ search my soul and ~~take lots of nekkid pictures~~ take lots of nekkid pictures, I’m going to let the adorable adorableness of Rachel Goodrich play us out. You can’t listen to Goodrich without a smile on my face and it’s with a smile on my face that I, you know, search my soul and shit. You know that if I’m not at the blog, I’m at one of these places, right?….

Have a wonderful week and weekend and early next week. I’ll see you here again next week! But for now, go play along with Rachel: Twitter and BANDCAMP where she’s giving away her 3 song EP!

Rachel Goodrich – Na Na Na

Cheers,
T.
Where you’ll find me now….

An old crush & a new obsession with Let England Shake by PJ Harvey!!!

February 10, 2011

By Tsuru

Okay… I’m obsessed… like obsessed-obsessed over this new PJ Harvey album called Let England Shake.

I’ve had a crush on PJ Harvey ever since I could kinda see her nipples on the back cover of Dry.

Yep. That’s the one. She’s bold, brash, difficult, challenging, & strong. I love songs, I hate songs, it’s everything that comfort food isn’t to music.

I don’t always like her albums. But then Let England Shake shows up. I was already in love with “The Words That Maketh Murder”, but a song does not an album make.

Oh my. Oh man. This is so good.

It’s odd, weird — like “Revellie” during “The Glorious Land” — and it’s beautiful… Beautiful in that odd yet strong way Harvey herself is. It’s poetry (literally, from what I hear) meets quirk-rock music.

I’ve listened to it 10, maybe 15 times? And I can’t seem to stop. So, I’m going to shut up and listen some more…

Enjoy!

“Take me back to England & the grey, damp filthiness of ages, fog rolling down behind the mountains & on the graveyards, and dead sea-captains.” – PJ Harvey, The Last Living Rose

PRE-ORDER LET ENGLAND SHAKE NOW! & STREAM FULL ALBUM AT NPR!

01. Let England Shake
02. The Last Living Rose

03. The Glorious Land
04. The Words That Maketh Murder

05. All And Everyone
06. On Battleship Hill
07. England
08. In The Dark Places
09. Bitter Branches
10. Hanging In The Wire
11. Written On The Forehead

Written On The Forehead by pjharvey

12. The Colour Of The Earth

PJ Love!!!! Label | Official

Cheers,
T.

Peanut’s Playground: Forgotten Classics – 10. The Dears – Gang Of Losers

February 9, 2011

By Martin

Photography by shinelikestars00…

I was going to write about The Dears’ new album Degeneration Street but I opted to do a forgotten classic post instead. This is number 10 in my ongoing series honoring wonderful and often underrated albums:

The Dears – Gang Of Losers (2006)

The reason I’m not writing about the new album is because I really need to listen to it some more before judging. I already know it’s good but I still have to decide how good it really is. For Gang Of Losers I already made up my mind back in 2006.

Of all albums released in the noughties only two have made my all-time top 20 list, and this is one of those two. And in contrast with how many of my favorite music has captured my attention, this time it was the lyrics that pulled me in.

Frontman Murray Lightburn sings about being homeless. Being discriminated. Being deemed a loser. But also about optimism. About the things that are good in the world. And what makes his stories all the more impressive, is the fact that he’s live through it all. He’s actually been there, living on the streets, getting shit dumped upon him. And somehow, someway, this man has managed to make a series of fantastic albums of which Gang Of Losers is (imo) by far the most impressive.

Every song here is memorable. Instantly. And while most of the time this is a bad sign; this time it’s not. I’ve revisited this album at average at least twice a month since its release. And even now, almost five years later songs like Death or Life We Want You and There Goes My Outfit still give me goosebumps, and this is the main sign of a classic if you ask me.

DOWNLOAD GANG OF LOSERS HERE

1. Sinthtro

2. Ticket to Immortality

3. Death or Life We Want You

4. Hate, Then Love

5. There Goes My Outfit

6. Bandwagoneers

7. Fear Made The World Go ‘Round

8. Gang of Losers

9. Whites Only Party

10. Ballad of Humankindness

11. I Fell Deep

12. Find Our Way To Freedom

Don’t forget to check out my other articles, in case you’ve missed them (which would be an absolute shame, because they’re great and shit).

Tudels,

Peanut

Link up with me here:

Hey! Hey! Hey! The Palace Guards by David Lowery…

February 8, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by emememily…

I’m kinda obsessed over three albums right now. It’s making it quite hard to do this whole bloggerin’ thing, you know? Three albums are dividing my heart and time right now. So which shall we write about?

Hmm…

You know, you gotta go with who got there first. It’s only fair, donchathink? Besides, with all the break-ups going on in music with the White Stripes & LCD Soundsystems and stuff, it’s kinda nice to see all the old-timers making a go of it this year, take charge, kick ass, take a few names and such. We saw Cake, Ron Sexsmith, and Social Distortion already light up our eyes and we know REM and PJ Harvey are in the pipeline, but today it’s Camper Van Beethoven & Cracker leadman’s solo debut that’s swooning our ears & brainicles.

Yep, David Lowery’s The Palace Guards is out and it’s fantastic. I find it interesting when people have multiple bands for multiple styles or sounds. Cracker was always his roots rock band — oh man, I need to hear “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)” like stat…

One sec.

Ah… That’s better. Where were we? Oh yeah, Lowery’s got his original gig with Camper Van Beethoven as his quirkball band (Key Lime Pie is and will always be one of my favourite albums ever).

Considering that, as far as I know, both bands are still intact, Lowery doing “David Lowery” must mean these songs, on some level, just don’t fit with the C&CvB thing.

From an outsiders perspective, some songs like “All Those Girls Mean Nothing To Me” do sound like they could’ve fit elsewhere, but maybe it’s similar to the old axiom, “you can take the boy out of Florida, but you can’t take Florida out the boy” ’cause lard knows I tried… Lowery is Lowery so you could make a case for this whole solo thing being kinda silly. Hell, you could probably make a case that Cracker is Camper van Beethoven is David Lowery and vicey-vicey-versy.

I disagree though. I don’t have to understand the difference between the projects to understand the desire and need to keep them separate. People wonder why I’m spread out more than a 5 dollar whore on two-fer-one night.

snaps!

So, yeah, the comparisons will come in all the reviews, for sure. Hell, I think I just spent a couple paragraphs on it. And for that, Lowery, I’m sorry.

This album is really wonderful. The wonderfully odd (see: “The Palace Guards”). It’s unabashedly kuntry (see: “Raise ‘em Up on Honey”). And dear jeebus on a stick it can be absolutely beautiful (see: “Deep Oblivion”).

Okay, enough with the “see: Song” crap, just get it, play it over and over again. We old timers still gots it mother fuckers!!

DOWNLOAD THE PALACE GUARDS ALBUM NOW!!!

Track Listing:
1 – Raise ‘em Up on Honey

2 – The Palace Guards
3 – Deep Oblivion
4 – Ah You Left Me
5 – All Those Girls Meant Nothing to Me

6 – I Sold the Arabs the Moon
7 – Marigold
8 – Big Life
9 – Submarine

Ah…. and a little old school Cracker for you with “Low”:

yeah, that’s the stuff.

Click here for David Lowery love… He’s on the twitters too!

Cheers,
T.

Peanut’s Playground: Sweep, Swoop, Swept And Mondo Amore By Nicole Atkins

February 2, 2011

By Martin

Photography by SimonSawSunlight…

If there’s one lady in music who has swept me of my feet it’s this one!

Nicole Atkins – Mondo Amore

Besides the fact that Nicole Atkins is one great chica (check out her twitter if you don’t believe me) she also makes some bloody fantastic music as well!

Her 2007′ album Neptune City is among the very few albums from my year-end-list of that year that I actually still listen to. Listen to a lot actually. The combination of grand orchestration, lush arrangements and huge but lovely vocals has proven to be seriously addictive. That she’s able to add really memorable melodies to that mix makes her even easier to love.

Where Neptune City was like the pop-music version of a Vaudeville show, Mondo Amore is Nicole dragging the whole shebang over to the Jersey shores and kicking the crap out of the can-can dancers! Sure there’s her trademark swooping ballads to be found here (Hotel Plaster, Heavy Boots amongst others) but the majority of this album kicks ass and promisses to be just as addictive as her earlier work.

Go check her out if you haven’t done so before, you know you want to!

Download Mondo Amore here

1. Vultures

2. Cry Cry Cry

3. Hotel Plaster

4. You Come To Me

5. My Baby Don’t Lie

6. This Is For Love

7. You Were The Devil

8. War Is Hell

9. Heavy Boots

10. The Tower

Don’t forget to check out my other articles, in case you’ve missed them (which would be an absolute shame, because they’re great and shit).

Tudels,

Peanut

Link up with me here:

A little fire & brimstone with The People’s Key by Bright Eyes!

February 2, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by Harleen…

Someone once told me that Bright Eyes done broke up. I shrugged. I liked Bright Eyes fine, but I also liked his various solo stuff that was showing up, and figuring that Oberst hasn’t hung up his geetar for good, I didn’t really think much of it after that. But then suddenly there was a song that showed up, word of an album, then BLAMO fire & brimstone shows up on the intertubals and I was blown away…..

This is not a repeated-listening in one sitting type of album, like Hazards Of Love by our faves The Decemberists, this is more like a movie than an album. Our opening scene is quasi-religious meets sci-fi meets nut job sermon-of-sorts talking about time, universes, Sumerians, the bible, reptile aliens fucking slave humans to create counter-clockwise dimension-hopping babies… and Hitler.

Then the music starts… No, he’s not singing about the reptilian aliens or Hitler (as far as I can tell), but the mood, the movie’s aesthic, has been set, there’s a layer of darkness and wtf-ness that sits on top of even the poppiest songs on the album.

Periodically, our sermon on the mount shows up again, keeping us grounded in Oberst’s fire.

As much as I like the individual songs just fine, the album works best as an album. If I can’t listen to the whole thing, I find I don’t want to listen to it at all. That sounds like a bad thing, but it’s not. The same was true of Hazards Of Love. It was all or nothing. Yeah, sure, there was a song or two that fit on a mixtape or two, but really my preferred method of ingestion was every. single. course.

Yeah, I just dipped from movie analogies to food. Shake n’ bake, baby!

NOTE: Speaking of Shake N’ Bake… just made some for Baby & I the other night. First time in, what? 20? 30 years? since I’ve had it. Quite delicious! Quite delicious indeedy…

Anywhosals… Get this and enjoy. It’s really amazing….

1 Firewall
2 Shell Games
3 Jejune Stars
4 Approximate Sunlight
5 Haile Selassie
6 A Machine Spiritual (In The People’s Key)
7 Triple Spiral
8 Beginner’s Mind
9 Ladder Song
10 One For You, One For Me

While we are at it… some old Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes lovins: Official | Label

Cheers!
T.

Keepin’ on keepin’ on thanks to Long Player Late Bloomer by Ron Sexsmith!

February 1, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by Evie

We here at TSURURADIO are hard at work preparing for the launch of our next zine. It’s going to be beyond epic… One might even say “super epic”. On top of that, we are working on a special little presentation for you here but be on the lookout on Friday, Februrary 4th at http://tsurufoto.etsy.com — STAY VIGILANT!!!

WOOT!

It’s going to be our biggest and baddest zine yet! It’s a lot of work but fortunately I’ve got a sweet new gem of an album by long, long, LONG time TSURURADIO fave Ron Sexsmith and his latest LP Long Player Late Bloomer to keep me on task!

There is only one word for a Ron Sexsmith album you need to know, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”…… It’s like soaking weary feet in small tub of hot water and Epsom salt.

You know what you are going to get… Chill-tempoed (yeah, “chill-tempoed”, it’s a word.. I just created it) pop/rock. Like sweet AM radio tunes from the olden days of my youth that just fill the room with expertly crafted songs about love & life.

SIDE NOTE: The new Edie Brickell showed up on the internettals recently as well. Someone should really get these two together for a sweet little duet, amirite??

Anywhosals….. Enjoy!

1. Get In Line
2. The Reason Why
3. Believe It When I See It
4. Miracles
5. No Help At All
6. Late Bloomer
7. Heavenly
8. Michael And His Dad
9. Middle Of Love
10. Everytime I Follow
11. Eye Candy
12. Love Shines + the viddy…. Looks so familiar, eh? Fuck who?

13. Nowadays

Ron Sexsmith love: Official

Cheers,
T.

Peanut’s Playground: Gimme Some By Peter Björn And John, Something To Love That Is!

January 29, 2011

By Martin

Photography by complejo…

Everyone that has read more than one of my articles over the past 5 years will already know that this Swedish three-man-band has been one of my faves ever since discovering them.

So there should be no surprise to learn that I was extremely excited about their new album:

Peter Björn And John – Gimme Some

If you happen to be unfamiliar with Peter Björn And John’s music (which wouldn’t be that surprising), then I suggest you hop over to their website asap to get some free sample mp3s and videos: PBJ.com and then return here to read on a bit.

Go on.

I’ll wait.

*dumdidumdidumdidum*

Oh hello! Welcome back!

I can only imagine that you’re just as amazed as I was when first hearing their music. If you aren’t, well frankly I think there’s something seriously wrong with you and you should stop reading this and every other future article I write.

Gimme Some is the band’s 6th album (5th proper one) since their start in 1999. Their first glimpse of fame came when their track Young Folks (the whistling song) from 2006′ Writer’s Block was picked up by a massive amount of websites and radiostations. To date they have yet to deliver a bad piece of music, although I will admit that their 2008′ instrumental release Seaside Rock was sub-par to say the least.

After the bit more adventurous Living Thing from 2009 for Gimme Some the band have returned to what their good great at. Making energetic guitar driven pop/rock with hooks that are all over the place. The album is filled with potential singles, the best one of which has just been released as just that. Second Chance is one of the best songs you’ll hear this year, trust me on that one, and the rest of the bunch ain’t too shabby either. Enjoy!

Visit the band’s website to stay updated

1. Tomorrow Has To Wait

2. Dig A Little Deeper

3. Second Chance

4. Eyes

5. Breaker Breaker

6. May Seem Macabre

7. (Don’t Let Them) Cool Off

8. Black Book

9. Down Like Me

10. Lies

11. I Know You Don’t Love Me

Don’t forget to check out my other articles, in case you’ve missed them (which would be an absolute shame, because they’re great and shit).

Tudels,

Peanut

Link up with me here:

I said hell yeah to Said The Whale’s Islands Disappear!

January 28, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by Renee King

What? Wonderful indie-pop from Canada that I’ve never heard of? What? Been cranking out albums since ’07? How the hell is that even possible??? Seriously? It’s amazing what gets under the radar, isn’t it? There are just so so so many bands. You know, if we had as many bands available to us as we did back in the 80s/90s, we’d have a need for maybe 2, 3 blogs tops.

Though, I think music blogs are becoming obsolete — I mean think about it. Why do you need blogs when you got your massive massive social network of twitterers, facebookers, tumblrerers (assuming they can actually keep tumblr running), plus your pandoras, iTunes, last.fmers, various boards & forums, etc, etc, etc, etc, telling you, yeah YOU what to listen to? Blogs are becoming white noise. — the one thing keeping us in business is the sheer volume of bands out there your social group just can’t get to, that we music geekeronis suck in & spit out like dirty rapid-fire spit balls.

The commoditization of music meets the white noise of blogs and suddenly I can’t remember what I was loving the fuck out of just last week. Sad, eh?

But then you come across a little simple & simply awesome pop gem like Islands Disappear filled with one nugget after another of indietastic crafted tunes that apparently came out waaaaay back in ought-niner by Said The Whale and all that other bullshit just fades away……..

*happy sigh*

1. Dear Elkhorn
2. Gold in Them Plains
3. B.C. Orienteering
4. Camilo (The Magician)

5. Emerald Lake, AB
6. Islands Disappear
7. Black Day in December
8. Gentleman

9. False Creek Change
10. A Cold Night Close to the End
11. The Gift of a Black Heart
12. Goodnight Moon

13. Holly, ON

Whale love: Official | Twitter

Have a wonderful weekend, ya’ll! I’ll be a busy beaver wrapping up our NEXT ZINE (no. 3!), as well as getting some riding done and hanging out with my Baby. So, until next time!

Cheers,
Tsuru aka Aaron

Yeah, I’m kinda obsessed with Dye It Blonde by Smith Westerns…

January 27, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by effie-fay…

Let’s keep this one tight and to the right, shall we? Played this once on a whim, liked some songs, threw one on a mixtape, moved on, forgot about it. Until this week when I had that “oh yeah, forgot about you!” moment scannin’ ye ol’ iPodaroni. Then I pushed the play button and a little obsession of sorts took over. Yeah, I’m kinda obsessed with Dye It Blonde by Smith Westerns…

When it first gets going with one of their “singles” “Weekend”, you think to yourself, “alright, alright, not too shabby-dabby… not too shabby-dabby at all”. But then “Still New” gets going, and it kiiinda has the same vibe, that is until that lead guitar comes in dripping of 70s rock-operatics, beyoooo be-be-beyoooo! Then the jaunty “Imagine Pt. 3″ continues the feel. And so it goes. What’s interesting his just how, though it contains that hazy pop sunset overall aesthetic, the album seems to get more and more theatric the deeper we go!

Not sure how to explain it… Individually, the songs play as simple pop songs. But taken as a whole, it almost comes off as a rock-musical! Seriously. Don’t know another way to say express it. It feels like there’s a story here. Now, I haven’t quite got into the lyrics, so I could be completely full of shitake mushrooms, but it’s just wonderful.

Listen to the singles below, but really grab the whole thing, turn it up loud, and see for yourself!

DOWNLOAD DYE IT BLONDE

01. Weekend
02. Still New
03. Imagine Pt. 3
04. All Die Young
05. Fallen In Love
06. End of the Night
07. Only One
08. Smile
09. Dance Away
10. Dye the World

Smith Western love: Myspace? Really Smith Westerns? Time to get your shit together, you are too good for myspace.

Cheers,
Tsuru

Peanut’s Playground: Forgotten Classics – 9. Kyuss – Welcome To Sky Valley

January 26, 2011

By Martin

Photography by VexingART…

Everybody and his brother’s dog knows Queens Of The Stone Age. Well fuck Queens Of The Stone Age! There’s only band that Josh Homme should be known for and that’s:

Kyuss – Welcome To Sky Valley (1994)

There isn’t a band in history that has earned weirder tags than Kyuss. ‘Stoner rock’. Ehh what? Stones that rock? Sure. ‘Desert rock’. Last time I checked the desert it was quiet as fuck, so this makes no sense whatsoever. Oh wait, they had jam sessions in the desert you say? Well I sing in the toilet, so maybe that explains why I make shitty music…

1992′ Blues For The Red Sun might have gained the ‘classic’ label but this here Welcome To Sky Valley is truly the real deal when it comes to Kyuss. It hasn’t got anything close to something that could be considered a single candidate (although Demon Cleaner has appeared in the latest Guitar Hero game) but when it comes to fulfilling the potential that Kyuss had you need not look any further.

Sky Valley is split up in three ‘suits’, otherwise known as three Roman numerals on the back cover of the album. Seriously, there ain’t nothing more to it than that. And be glad for that! Most albums that work with ‘suits’ turn out to be pretentious and unlistenable pieces of crap, and this is not.

The sound is all over the place but at the same time it’s 100% Kyuss and unique in that way. Thrashing, laidback, psychedelic, rocking and thunderous. This has got it all. And all of this accompanied by the Southern wail of John Garcia and Josh Homme’s guitar played through a bass amp.

Welcome To Sky Valley is a unique and amazing album by a band that would’ve been completely relevant had they still existed today. In case you overlooked Kyuss back in the early 90′s, here’s your chance to redeem yourselves.

DOWNLOAD WELCOME TO SKY VALLEY HERE

1. Gardenia

2. Asteroid

3. Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop

4. 100 Degrees

5. Space Cadet

6. Demon Cleaner

III

7. Odyssey

8. Conan Troutman

9. N.O.

10. Whitewater

Don’t forget to check out my other articles, in case you’ve missed them (which would be an absolute shame, because they’re great and shit).

Tudels,

Peanut

Link up with me here:

Gramahawk by Modern Skirts and we are still in our PJs!

January 24, 2011

By Tsuru

Photography by Kalif Banane

It’s amazing anyone records in studios anymore, isn’t it? Last week, we went pretty deep into why you as a independent band, should delete your myspace page. The response has been overwhelming! Bloggers & band members joined up in a pretty united voice recognizing that diluting your band by spreading them all over the internet for the sake of being heard vs. focusing and directing your potential new fans to, at most, one site for news/tours/vids (like a blog) and one site to stream/embed/PURCHASE (like bandcamp).

The revolution is not over, we still have much work to do to get the word out. Do we start a facebook page (seems rather counter-revolutionary though)? A new blog? Just keep pointing people to our post that started it all? Keep an eye!

But, beyond that, this weekend I was listening to the new Modern Skirts album that found it’s way onto the intertubes of cyber love and I read somewhere that much (if not all) of the album was made via bedroom recordings.

If you hadn’t had told me, I’d never had known. As computers come, more and more as standard, with recording programs like Garage Band or with Audacity and what not free online, it’s amazing that anyone uses studios anymore. Don’t get my wrong, I’m grateful people do. Many many bands need to have that outside eye & ear at the helm, a professional system with professional people to help guide them along.

Sometimes we just don’t know when we suck.

But at the same time… not only has the demolition of the barriers to entry into the music world allowed for a seemingly infinite number of bands to try to make it, it’s also had to have made it so so so liberating for everyone, from your average schmo to your superbands to just plug in and go, upload & send, check done. A couple layers and you got a “full band” releasing a full song, never having to get out of your PJs. Pretty epic.

Seems to have done well for the Modern Skirts and their new album Gramahawk!

Apparently, after their last album, Modern Skirts felt the need to step back, do a little self-check action of sorts, then start tinkering around at home. The response seemed to be encouraging and before you know it, we got ourselves a full on gem!

The album is heavy on percussion and voice-play, which pulls them from the slightly more straight-forward pop we fell for on their last album. The mulit-leads still dominate (including the one guy who sounds like the guy from They Might Be Giants). But this time out, they are singing about their mad crush on Jane Child…

hot.

…break-ups, and, DUIs — which is also the name one of my favourite songs on the album, it’s almost like a military-carnival thing, pretty awesome-o! — hahahahahahhaha-EXCELLENT! To me, this is miminalist Modern Skirts kinda. Stark, rough, and really really fun.

01. Jane Child
02. Happy 81
03. Under Bridges and Overpasses
04. Bumper Car
05. DUI
06. Tape Deck
07. Glass of Water
08. American Gothic
09. Shipshape
10. Hitler on Wheels
11. To Be a Branch Davidian

Modern Skirt love: Tumblr!

Tour Dates:
1.21 – Charleston, SC – Tin Roof
2.11 – Raleigh, NC – Pour House
2.12 – Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor
3.4 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
3.5 – Atlanta, GA – Smith’s Olde Bar
3.11 – New Orleans, LA – Circle Bar

Previously…