Time for an album of which I know every single word by heart. Well, except for that gibberish in Caralho Voador perhaps. This is an album that dragged me through the dark times after high school, and number 3 in my series Forgotten Classics!
Faith No More – King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime (1995)
On King For A Day… Faith No More perfected their patented “Fuck you, you suck and we are fantastic”-attitude. And with ‘perfected’ I mean PERFECTED.
There isn’t a bad song among the 14, and even better, every single song has its own unique identity. Hard rocking (Get Out, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, Ugly In The Morning), soultripping (Evidence), jazzynova (Star A.D., Cuckoo for Caca), poppy (Ricochet, King For A Day), pastich cliché (Take This Bottle, Just A Man), it’s all here.
And furthermore, I’m betting you have never heard any band ever take the piss more than FNM on this album! Some sample lyrics:
I deserve a reward
’cause I’m the best fuck that you ever had
and if I tighten up my hole -
you may never see the light again
- The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies
Sky is clear tonight
Sky is clear tomorrow
A star is out
I reach for one to sparkle in my hand
A star is out
I will not touch you, I am just a man
- Just A Man
Well whatever. You had to be there. Or something. Just listen, you’ll know what I mean. Also notice the ‘loud-soft-loud-soft-loud’ sequence the songs have. Cool.
I’m feeling dirty. Yeah, I’ve got that grimey, not showered in a week, feeling. It can only mean one thing… Grinderman’s new album is playing.
Skeezy. Shiny suits, greasy hair, and the smell of either cologne or Brylcreem — yeah, a y, no i, two e’s, no a’s — permeating the air.
Creepy.
But hey, it’s Grinderman and if anyone can get away with it, it’s these guys. Yeah, every song, save “Palaces Of Montezuma”, sound like it belongs in a Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino “joint”, but it works.
Go figure. And beside, the video for “Heathen Child” has boobs. Everybody wins!
Well oh well oh well, this is a long time coming, it seems, but here we are, Septemberonis two-thousand and tens and we finally have the long hyped, long bloggerined, long We Listen For You obsessed album by The Pass called Burst.
I kinda feel like they’ve been part of our collective blog consciousness for the entire span of this blogs life, between the EP singles, the videos, more videos, and I think another video, more singles, and now the album, proving my theory once and once again…. I would not want to be in a band. It’s exhausting just being on the receiving in of hype-maintenance — coincidentally, the name of my new mp3 blog aggregator “Hype Maintenance: So many blogs, someone’s got push the jizz mop.
*NOTE: To all you internet kids out there, a jizz mop was the mop at this ancient and extinct place called “an adult theater” that the janitor used to use to, uh, clean up after the sceezy patrons. Eventually, they were replaced by a piece of Kleenex and an internet connection… WHICH, for all you environmentally aware “green” peeps who are watching Jesus’s footprints in the carbon sand, saves on gasoline!
*NOTE ON THE NOTE: Really, does anybody really rent “adult movies” from the back room anymore?
Anywhozaldoozals, today we aren’t hear to talk about jizz mops, believe it or not, nope we are here to discuss Burst by The Pass — but now that we have talk about jizz mops, the word “burst” takes on a whole new meaning, eh?
So………… How is the album? I’ve got three words for you: Eff You In!
For those not able to follow along, FUN!!!! Like, super fun! Like really super fun — there, three words again, jeez!! Electro-pop shake your booty good times. I know what you are thinking, “electropop” & “dance”, really T? Does it have the legs to stand the test of time? Who cares! Just turn it on, turn it up, shake your ass, maybe grind up a smidgen to the unfortunate soul standing nearest you.
Just don’t forget the jizz mop.
REMINDER: FOUR MORE DAYS TO ENTER OUR FAN-SIGN CONTEST! WIN MONEY!
Okay… happy Friday and all but… before we begin, we got to discuss this.
“Forget You” instead of “Fuck You”? Really? “Fah-get”? Yes, I know censoring for radio stations still occurs, but c’mon. Word change-outs are the worse form of music censorship, don’t you think? Chaning “fuck” to “forget” completely kills the fun & impact & the viralnicity of the song. Better would’ve been clever blanking or, I don’t know, how about get creative and do really bad dubbing of stupid words like “fletch” or something.
But…. and this is crazy, I know, how about you just don’t change it. How about you realize that people get their music via iTunes, Amazon, Youtube, etc, be true to what you created, and let the dinosaur radio stations deal with turning down the volume at the scary f-word, s-word, and variation on the n-word.
Where “Fuck You” is a solid 4 to 4 1/2 wheelies out of 5…. “Forget You” is a solid dud. Sorry my friends. Lyrics matter.
Speaking of tsuruloosies…
We gots a new Sufjan song out on the loose! On the lamb!!!
After a rather annoying start, it settles into a not quite as annoying song. Not too shabby, but feels…. transitional. I think that’s it on the Sufjan songs until the album rears it’s head!
So, with that, let’s get on with the reason for the season of the pleasin! Sunday Psalms by The Shivers!
Oh man, where the hell have these guys been all my life? Some kind of modern bluesy reincarnate of Lou Reed, with all the swagger you could hope for, bottled up into something called The Shivers? Why yes, you DO give me shivers, of awesomeness! I could almost see these guys setting up in an old abandoned church down in New Orleans, testifying their sweatiness for the few down-trodden parishioners that happen to wander by….. now THAT’S a revival I could believe in!
“Peanut where have you been these past days?” How nice of you to ask! As a matter of fact I visited a music festival on a tiny as fuq island of the Dutch shores. The festival is called Into The Great Wide Open and there’s a photo impression pulled straight off twitter right here and another one over here.
The atmosphere was great, the company was nice, the weather was fantastic and the music was even better!
IT WAS FREAKIN’ AWESOME!
I saw a shitload of great artists and I would like to talk about them a bit now. Thank you in advance for your time and attention :))
Friday
Our day started off with Wolf Parade. How much better could a festival start. I’ve been wanting to see these guys live for quite some years now, but somehow kept missing out on them. Wolf Parade did more than a little okay, on what must’ve been a weird occasion for them. Daylight and scores of children on the festival grounds… WP are still like two bands rolled into one. But as long as both bands are as good as this, there are no objections on my part. Want to know what it was like? Then check out the full 58 minutes of Wolf Parade yumminess over at 3voor12 TV!
Next up was the one man band from Sweden The Tallest Man On Earth. I’m not really into this singer-songwriter accoustic folky stuff. But judging by the reviews online it supposedly was quite a good performance. Check it out in full right here and judge for yourself. Or don’t. Whatever.
Closing act on Friday were Caribou. And Caribou I like. I like a lot actually. Their recent album Swim is quite excellent and they didn’t disappoint live either. Want to know how good this set was? Then check it out over —> there!
Saturday
Well Saturday was just crazy! After the relatively easy start on Friday, things were really getting up to speed with no less than 25 acts doing their stuff on stages all over the island. We did a bit of cherry picking…
After sleeping in Saturday started off with an energetic performance by Pete and the Pirates. Who? Pete and the Pirates!!! Think We Are Scientists, Franz Ferdinand, the Rifles, that sort of music. Didn’t know them before the concert but since I’ve checked out their 2008 album Little Death, and it’s really kinda very good. A few samples of their goodiness:
Up next were the young Belgians of Balthazar who did an pretty decent set of songs. Sad thing about is that I couldn’t care less about them. Too unoriginal for my taste (Arctic Monkeys, dEUS etc.). Check out their concert here if you want to anyway.
Scram C Baby are a guitar rock band from The Netherlands, and a quite good one too I might add. We don’t have that many good bands over here, but this is definitely one of them. They played on a small stage in the middle of the forest, which was a nice change of scenery from the dark shitholes where they usually perform. An accoustic performance on the beach can be found over here.
I’m guessing most of you people won’t care much for Dutch rapping over jazz/funk sounds. Normally I wouldn’t either, but the performance Typhoon and New Cool Collective gave was fan-tas-tic nonetheless! Sunshine and massive amounts of entertainment; an excellent combination. Even though you won’t care, here’s the link to the entire performance anyway.
Next another Dutch act, and another good one! Moss are the Low Lands’ answer to Midlake, and they played a decent set. Nothing more, nothing less. Check it out over here.
We saw Belgian fossil Arno perform late at night and he SUCKED BALLS! Terrible, just terrible! It sounded like Tom Waits being raped by a mule. No linkage here.
And talking about sucking balls; Gonjasufi sucked them harder than anyone I have ever seen! It took him no more than 10 minutes to clear out the entire room. Gone. Everyone. Out the door. First class rubbish. Disappointing since I really like his album.
Luckily the weekend’s headliner was The Whitest Boy Alive, the Norwegian/German disco-rock nerds who I happen to really dig a lot! Their performance started off a bit shaky and Erlend’s talking took a bit of the pace out in the beginning, but once the flow got into them and the audience they were unstoppable. They even did a cover of Show Me Love by Robin S. which made the crowd go apeshit. Good stuff indeed! Some songs below to remind you again how good they are.
Sunday was all about sobering up and cleaning our little tent house. Nothing to report here. Oh wait, there is. We missed Modest Mousebecause we had to catch our boat. And supposedly they were fuqqin amazing! Well, can’t have it all right. Check out their set here if you want.
As you know, I like the occasional Killers song, already something that puts a dent in my “indie cred”, but I’m pretty sure today’s surprise obsession is going to wipe out any little bits of cred I had left. Yeah… I really like Flamingo by Brandon Flowers.
After the Weezer meh-fest yesterday and knowing that Flamingo was sitting on my iPod, I thought, for a second, that I might turn this weekend into TSURU’S GONE NEGATIVE week, but as I listened, at first I wasn’t offended or annoyed. I was pleasantly pleased. Surprised, I listened again, but harder, sure I would find some blemishes, some big sour pimples all primed for poppin’..
But all that happened was I liked it more. And then some more. Soon, my head started forming a connection, no not to the Killers and not to the holy Sufjan Stevens / Arcade Fire / Animal Collective trinity of Indie, but actually to Neil Diamond.
Yeah, “huh?” indeed.
Does he sound like Diamond? No. Does the music? No, well maybe on a few songs, after all Neil did cover quite a few genres in his career and so does this album, but that’s not what I’m referring to. Maybe it’s the “Vegas variety act” feeling of the album, the half-expectation of a group of hot & sweaty cougars and milfs and bachelorette party-goers throwing their panties on a small off-the-strip stage night after night as Brandon swaggers his collection of songs in a bedazzled blazer for a few bucks and free drinks.
Flamingo is the perfect name for this album. It’s the soundtrack for a low-budget film that takes place in shitty motels just outside the big money & gleem of mainstream Vegas, with maybe a trip or two to California to boot. Never quite in the spot light.
Am I doing a good job describing this? Probably not. Will you get the same feeling? Doubtful. Can I ask more questions that I answer myself? I sure hope not.
Anywhosals… that’s me and that’s how my brain heard this. It’s a simple pop album with flashes of dessert & country, but for some reason, in my odd little brain, it’s taken on a life much more interesting that that…
I’ve been in a relationship with Weezer since 1994 when I first watched their infamous “Buddy Holly” video both, on MTV and a bit later, on my Windows 95 machine. That album defined me then. It was the final blow to my Violent Femmes obsession as well as my “answer” to the grunge trend and the subsequent watered-down bands all the major labels were throwing at us to keep the flannel-lined money coming in.
I wan’t grunge. I was an oddball (hence the Femme obsession) and Rivers & I started a relationship that would be strong and healthy and tender for the next 11 years when it would start to waiver a bit, but still be pretty strong, well, until 2008, when it fell into a bit of a swirl, until it we would find ourselves pretty much were on non-speaking terms come last year.
We went our separate ways, promising to check in here and there on each other. Weezer finally left Geffen for freer pastures with Epitath and, apparently fueled by this breath of fresh air, put together a brand new spankin’ album featuring Jackass people, Ryan Adams, and even one-hit-wonder-yet-re-packaged-over-and-over-and-over-again Michael Cera.
“Memories”, the lead-off track to their new album Hurley with the now virally infamous album cover you see below made it’s way onto the intertubes and, though I was not in love, it had a familiar feeling, like hanging out with an old friend, yeah, we both have changed quite a bit over the years, but our history is still there, the good, the bad, and the ugly. No, listening to “Memories” wasn’t like the first time I heard “Undone (The Sweater Song)” but it wasn’t that bad.
Well, yesterday, the new album leaked (I think it’s a recording of a stream that made it’s way around) and with a knot in my belly, sweat on my palms, a nervous wince in preparation for what was about to flood my ear canals, I clicked play. Here’s what we heard.
Fun song, anthem-esque, sing-along, good times. The verse is pretty brutal cliche “hard-rhyming” etc, but the keyboard touch in the chorus makes up for it somehow. The slow wind-up thingy at the mid-2:00 mark is nice with the groan back to the chorus. Fun stuff. Very Jackass friendly.
2. “Ruling Me”
Ring-ring goes… your telephone. God this sounds like it could be playing at any mall retail store, slightly “California” sounding. Nice harmonies though I swear I hear some more Rivers auto-tune action going on during the chorus. Yeah, very, very mall friendly. Mall Rock, Weezer’s new genre?
3. “Trainwrecks”
Interesting intro, what do we have here? We are traaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaainwrecks. Is this a cover? Bon Jovi? No… Maybe some metal band’s version of a slow-song to get some Top 40 love back in ’89? Hmm…. can’t put my fingers on it. Please note my avoidance of calling the song a “trainwreck”! yay!
4. “Unspoken”
Uh oh, tender Rivers time. Bravado voice becomes higher-pitched cracking voice. Song’s fine. Was that a flute that just fluttered? No drums, here’s the keyboard-strings. Un oh, just after 2 minutes, I hear ballsy-Rivers again, here it comes, you can feel it. Yep. We just rocked out. Woo.
I think I need to take a little break…. One sec.
5. “Where’s My Sex?”
Sex-making is a family tra-di-tion. Gosh-dang this is greaaaaaat. Hey the keyboard’s back in the chorus! Sweet. Love the “Ooooooo!” harmonies, but man, oh man, cringe-worthy lyrics and the verse are, buh-bum buh-bum buh-bum buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-bum. Oh man. I’m hanging in there for the next “Oooooooooooooo!” But it’s so short liv- wait, just jumped into a little bouncy bridge thing. Oh wait, it’s abruptly back to the original song. “Ooooooo!” It’s done.
Ooo, sounds like a rough rough demo. Wonder when it will “take off” and “rock out”? Here we go! Oh wait, it’s a mid-tempo song. Not great, but man, not bad! Rivers sounds impassioned, like there’s spit flying out his mouth again, got a nice AM radio thing going on. Not bad. Okay, let’s get through the bridge. Slow down, build up, pull out the old tricks, please don’t blow this….. please? Please?????????? It’s over! Phew! Didn’t turn into another “rock song”! Yay!
What? That was the Ryan Adams song? Oh.
7. “Hang On”
We swore it was over, but just like I’m solar, you warmed up to meeee. Yeah. He went there. Interesting sound effects going on, almost Irish-y? But it’s not enough to save another Mall Rock song.
8. “Smart Girls”
Dammit. Another repeat name of song over and over and loud with amped up guitars song. I need an Orange Julius, stat!
9. “Brave New World”
Okay, I think Linda Perry helped pen this one. Let’s see how that works out. Rock out intro, settle down to the bass again while we annunciate. every. single. rhyme. Chorus just kicked in. At least they aren’t just yelling “brave new world” over and over. I’m sorry, I need to move on.
10. “Time Flies”
Album, proper, closer. Huh. Interesting. I like it. Different. Not sure what else to say about it. It’s neat. I really like it.
What about them Deluxe Edition songs…
11. “All My Friends Are Insects”
12. “Viva la Vida” (Coldplay cover)
13. “I Want to Be Something”
14. “Represent” (Rocked Out mix)
No. Uh, no. No, and sure, at this point, why not.
Final thoughts? Weezer’s done changed. Yeah, no shit. We are but mere acquaintenances after all these years. It makes me a little sad, but it is what it is. I’m sure you’ll see a song or two end up on a mixtape here and there, but yeah. We’ll see each other at a party, maybe have an awkward conversation or two, before spending the rest of the night with our real friends & deftly avoiding them, thankful when you see them leave. The last thing I’ll say on this….
But… not sure what I can pull off today, may all have to go down on Monday or something. Lots going on with BBQs, bike rides, boobies, and photoshoots alllll starting tonight!!!
So. For now and for now, we’ll focus on one trippy ass album that’s been coating my ear canals for the past couple days. I’m talking about an album called Phosphene Dream by The Black Angels!!!
Somewhere on the intertubals someone said these guys sound like The Velvet Underground fronted by Neil Young. Though, yeah, I get a bit of that lo-fi VU vibe here and there, for me, this is total Jefferson Starship/Airplane, Grace Slick and all, i.e. this is some psychedelic awesomeness and it absolutely rocks my trippin’ balls off!
So, tell you what… let’s end that right here because that’s all you need to know!
2. Haunting At 1300 McKinley
3. Yellow Elevator #2
4. Sunday Afternoon
5. River of Blood
6. Entrance Song
7. Phosphene Dream
8. True Believers
9. Telephone
10. The Sniper
Well… mostly. You see… well actually, before we go further, quick related side note.
I’m often asked by people going into bloggerin’ for advice on “how to be a successful blogger”, the first thing I usually tell them is to NOT name your site something that people can neither spell or pronounce. Yeah, yeah, it’s unique, whoop-dee-fucking-doo. Hooray for you, you made a new thinger.
English 101: S’s come BEFORE T’s, when a word goes “Ts..” people have no idea what to do. This means that, outside a little word o’ mouth from people who have stumbled upon us via Hype Machine or Elbows or, now, Shuffler, the only other way to get here was by searching for Tennessee State University radio and accidentally coming here — man, you Tennesseers must’ve been coooorn-fused!
But… I expect more from my friends, more from my nose, but not more from my friend’s nose — which I do enjoy picking. So, you can imagine my excitement to see “my reference” in the Pass video and, when my .027 seconds of viral fame came up, I saw this:
T-U-R-S-U-RADIO… right at the 0:47 second mark. See for yourself:
Here’s how it goes……… All you have to do is send in a Fan Sign photo! Yep, a photo of you, or your boobs, or someone, or something, or you neighbor’s dog, or… well, you get the idea, holding up some sorta fan sign with “TSURURADIO” in it AND SPELLED CORRECTLY!!! Kinda like what Drew is doing up there at the top of this post. You have until FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17th to enter by sending the photo (or hell, the video? why not?) to tsururadio (at) gmail (dot) com.
Then, we’ll pick our favourite and the winner will win…………………………….
WOOOOOOOT!! Right out of my pocket and into yours! So…. between ol’ Zach & myself, that’s a chance to win $80!!! Not too shabby. Can we get an applause?
Thank you.
So, get photographizin’!!!! BUT, before you run off to grab yer cameras, how about we check in on the intertubal interconnections of love potatos and see what’s going on out there in music land. That’s right, my friends, it’s time once again for………
TSURULOOSIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man, TSURURADIO (that’s T-S-U-R-U-R-A-D-I-O) is the gift that keeps on giving today! Looks like a lot has changed in hot & hyped land since our last tsuruloosie post, so lets check in and see what’s what. As always, I rate songs out of a possible 5 wheelies!!! Let’s pull up our front wheels and hop to it!
Just learned this is the guy from Gnarls Barkley. No kidding, eh? Nice song! Outside the fuck angle, it’s really just a sweet fun retro-goodness song. And I like that. here’s the vid that’s been floating around.
Yes, the “fuck” trend is getting old, wonder if they are regretting that name yet? Oh well. Song? Kinda reminds me of The Pass a smidge, actually…. That’s a good thing! YAY! Shake my booooo-tay!
Last one! Sufjan’s a tough act to follow… Ooo… I like this!! Sounds like Grant Lee Buffalo with a bit more push, more oomph! Nice!!!
Woo! That was fun!!! We haven’t had that much tsuruloosie success in a long time!!! Either I’m hip or you guys are just finally in my happy place — what took you? Let’s do it again sometimes? Until then, GO TAKE SOME FAN SIGN PHOTOS!!!!!
Cheers!
Tsuru
P.S. Zach, my friend, I know you were just making fun of the fact that no one can spell “tsururadio”…. I love you, man! I wish you nothing but success with WLFY and The Pass!
Happy hump day to you! We got a cool album going on between my eareums, something nice and rather depressing (considering it’s “their most optimistic record to date”) on a late & hot summer’s day, Tomorrow Morning by EELS!
This may be their most warm & happy and whatnot record of the trilogy or discography or whatever, but there’s still this undertone of melancholy, even when he’s barking out “MY BABY LOOOVES ME!” as he follows it up with “unlikely but true” or “and she’s smarter than you”, etc, yeah, real happy & optimistic there buddy!
Though “Spectacular Girl” is nearly uber-sweet & sugary bubble gum.
So, even though Mr. Eels seems to be finally pulling out of the slump of a broken relationship, getting laid, and what not, there’s still issues floating about. The result is a complicated emotional album that is quite relatable for all the less-than-arrogant misfits of the world. You know, the people who live under the umbrella of music obsessions that eventually lead to starting a music blog and stuff, etc, etc.
1. “In Gratitude for This Magnificent Day”
2. “I’m a Hummingbird”
3. “The Morning”
4. “Baby Loves Me” 5. “Spectacular Girl”
6. “What I Have to Offer”
7. “This Is Where It Gets Good”
8. “After the Earthquake”
9. “Oh So Lovely”
10. “The Man”
11. “Looking Up”
12. “That’s Not Her Way”
13. “I Like the Way This Is Going”
14. “Mystery of Life”
I’m on a roll here on TSURURADIO! Or as Ol’ Tsuru would say: “Peanut’s on fyarrrr!”
All right. Now that we’ve established that I’ve actually had somewhat of a series of posts for the first time in quite a while, what’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next! The second installment in Peanut’s Playground: Forgotten Classics that is!
And in typical fashion it’s a truly uninspired choice as well. People, please direct your attention to:
Judgment Night OST (1993)
Whaaaaat? A soundtrack? From 17 years ago? Are you nuts!? And it’s filled with music that’s never been featured on TSURURADIO before?? Peanut seriously. What. Were. You. Thinking…
And I haven’t even mentioned that the movie this soundtrack belongs to sucks balls. And I mean big-time Chuck Norris sized balls here! I actually saw it in the cinema with some girl, and all that remains from that night is a memory of her performing CPR on me during the halftime break. Man, that movie sucked!
So imagine my surprise when the soundtrack that went with it was actually quite good. To say the least. Besides the fact that this album was the first truly accomplished collection of (rock+hip/hop) crossover songs, it was also a excellent album. Even though each and every song is written and performed by different artists, as a whole they work really well together.
Most, if not every song is a classic in the genre (which is all but dead at the moment) but a few tracks stand out. My personal faves are Helmet and House of Pain’s Just Another Victim and Disorder by Slayer and Ice-T. The former because I think it’s the best example of classic crossover ever made. Ultra dry (Terry Date-style) guitar riffing and a hiphop act who were in their prime (Jump Around anyone?). And the latter because hey, it’s fuqqin SLAYER AND ICE-T!! Nuff said. No really. That’s nuff said!
I’ve said this too many times already these past weeks, but this album might not be your cup of tea either. Well BOO HAA to you! Try it anyway. You won’t regret it. Trust me on this one. Hell, trust me on every album I ramble about! Now go and listen. Shoo!
I’ll tell ya, nothing cures an upset stomach like riding a bike through some gross heat & humidity! Pedal & sweat that shit OUT! WOO! Feeling nearly 100% as we kick into this sunny last-gas of summer Tuesday! Almost time to pull out the arm-warmers & time to make sure that winter bike is tuned up and ready to go!
I’m actually getting excited for the challenge! I rode all last winter, but I hope to really keep this mojo going…. I’ve crossed the 4,000 mile mark for the year and I’ve got 4 months left to get another 2K in to hit my 6,000 mile goal! Going to be tough if winter comes early! EXCELSIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay… enough about bikes, most, if not all, of you could care less. What YOU care about is, more likely than not, los musica and my friends, we got the los musicas for you today!! Uh-huh! With Wilderness Heart by Black Mountain!
Ah, you see, THIS is how I like my classic rock, fresh, fun, ever-so-slightly proggy, and ass-KICKIN’! And, for the most part, this album rocks. Yeah, there’s your quieter tracks like “Radiant Heart” but just soon as you settle down, “Roller Coaster’s” fuzzy Detroit-style bass line kicks in and we are 70′s metal heads all over again!
My favourite track is actually the lead-off gem “The Hair Song”, there’s something awesomely familiar and refreshing about it at the same time. Like something Stone Temple Pilots would’ve recorded for Purple, mixed in with some Jethro Tull, and modernized for 2010! Yeah… take THAT music critics!
Bloggerin’ ain’t easy! Thanks to heads up via retweet from good friends gimmetinnitus, we learn by way of Pitchfork’s other blog Altered Zones as they blog about a blog post by another blog Gorilla Vs. Bear blog post on Montreal’s Grimes!
So, in this spirit, we will re-blog the blog post on the blog post from that first blog on our very own blog! Proving, once and again, BLOGGERIN’ AIN’T EASY!
Via Gorilla Vs. Bear:
More ethereal, eerily moving outerspace transmissions from Montreal’s amazing “cosmic-pop deity”Grimes, who’s firmly established herself as one of our favoritenew artists of 2010. “Weregild” + “Devon” are a preview of her magical new album, Halfaxa, which will be officially released byArbutus Records on September 30th at the Pop Montreal festival. Much thanks to our friends to the north Weird Canada and Leaning Trees for the heads up.
Watch a short documentary about Grimes called Human Hearthere, and you can still download her Geidi Primes tape for free courtesy of Arbutus here.
Via Altered Zones:
More ethereal, eerily moving outerspace transmissions from Montreal’s amazing “cosmic-pop deity” Grimes, who’s firmly established herself as one of our favoritenew artists of 2010. “Weregild” is a preview of her magical new album, Halfaxa, which will be officially released byArbutus Records on September 30th at the Pop Montreal festival. (via Gorilla Vs Bear)
Our personal take on Grimes? I’d have to go with….
More ethereal, eerily moving outerspace transmissions from Montreal’s amazing “cosmic-pop deity” Grimes, who’s firmly established herself as one of our favoritenew artists of 2010. “Weregild” is a preview of her magical new album, Halfaxa, which will be officially released byArbutus Records on September 30th at the Pop Montreal festival. (via Altered Zones via Gorilla Vs Bear (when did GvB get so “blocky”?))
Continuing my series of albums normally avoided by regular visitors of TSURURADIO with today’s selection:
Below The Belt by Danko Jones
I’m not quite sure if this is what ol’ Tsuru had in mind when he said: “Sure, come aboard. Your musical taste differs enough from mine to make this interesting!”
Just look at the site now. I’m ruining his indie cred one article at a time. Thanks for the opportunity mate. Much appreciated!
Anyway, Danko Jones. Mutthafuqqin Danko Jones. Corruptor of women. Bald headed devil in black. God I love this guy!
I remember the first time that I saw the dude perform live, at Rock Werchter in Belgium way back in 2003. I’d seen ‘over the top’ before, but this…this was ‘OVER THE TOP’! The man was posing, riffing, seducing, salivating, and belting out lyrics like this:
“Love it when It goes like boom!
And like that and like that and like that
Right behind ya…whoo”
and
“Beautiful girl, have your time
Just relax and wait a while
Ooh I caught you looking let’s start the cooking
You know what I’m saying?”
By now you must be thinking that I’m taking the piss here? Well I’m not.
Danko Jones fuqqin rocks. Nothing more and certainly nothing less. Balls to the wall rock and roll, and I like it. I like it a lot actually, and you would probably too if you drop the indie cred bullcrap for a moment.
So.. learning from his musical brethren amongst the internettals, Mr. Jesus Stevens is following up a surprise & very buzzable EP with a an album to make sure them twitters keep on tweetin’ about him! It sounds like it may be absolutely prog-tastic!
Well, the first song as “dropped” as well, making three Sufjan-bombs to hit the tubals within the past week or so. Kudos, my man… kudos. So, how’s the first track? Let’s tsuruloosie this bitch out of 5 wheelies and see!
Hot fucking sauce!!! Anyone who’s anyone knows, I’m not Sufjan lover of old, though I really liked that new EP. But holy shitake mushrooms growing out of Jesus’ ass this is gorgeous! Not prog at all, just Mmm….. Slow ee-lec-tronical yummy yum yum.
Just like my previous article on Big Boi‘s new one, this album by Kele might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
This is because Kele is the singer/guitarist for indie-rockers-on-hiatus Bloc Party, and they are a fuqqin amazing group! I might love them a bit more than the rest of the world does, placing their 2008 album Intimacy at the top of my year end list, but they are very good. Trust me on this one.
Anyway, getting back on track with today’s offering:
The Boxer by Kele
I take it you’ve listened to the Bloc Party song or already knew them. Well Kele’s album The Boxer…it’s NOTHING like Bloc Party has ever made!
Guitars? Not present. Angry punching beats? Nope. Breathtaking speeds? Nada. Hell, it ain’t even rock!
No, Kele has chosen the path of twisted electronics on his solo debut. And with good effect I might add. It isn’t the best electronic music I’ve ever heard, but he’s done well enough. Besides the trippy beats and exotic instrumentation, Kele’s finest feature is still his voice. Powerful and distinctive. Combined with his songwriting talent makes that The Boxer is one of this year’s better albums so far.
It’s also an album that benifits from repeated listens, as all great pieces of work need. I suggest you try it. And then try it again a couple of times. Then decide. Love to hear what you think.
If you know me, you know Thursdays are at once, my busiest days and also one of my favourite days. Why one of my favourites? Because I love that feeling of “next”. You know, like when you are next in line, next to the teller, next to the airline kiosk, next to get on the ride, etc. The pending event seems more real and the excitment and anticipation (yes, even with an airline kiosk) builds! So, what’s next? Well, Friday, of course!!!
BUT! At the same time, we try to live in the moment, don’t we? Try to focus on the now, even though the next is soooo close and right now is a new gem from Blonde Redhead called Penny Sparkle!
HOORAY!
Okay, so what do we got with Penny Sparkle? Really, just lovely, subdued, ethereal, nether-worldly actually, ee-leck-tronical style music. At times, it sounds very familiar, like on “Black Guitar”… I SWEAR I’ve heard this on some 70′s “art film” I used to try to watch through a scrambled reception.
Actually, with that mindset in mind — ah, such a good mindset, donchathink? — suddenly, Penny Sparkle is taking on this modern-twist to that 70′s “art film” music, so so so critical to my development.
I like the album even more now!
01 Here Sometimes 02 Not Getting There
03 Will There Be Stars
04 My Plants Are Dead
05 Love or Poison
06 Oslo
07 Penny Sparkle
08 Everything is Wrong
09 Black Guitar
10 Spain
I’m not sure what your days look like, but mine are pretty fuqqin boring from time to time. It’s not so much the weekends or my evenings, but during the day time seems to crawl by like a snail on high heels. Or as we say in the Nether regions: “Zoals dikke stront door een vergiet!”
To help the days along a bit I like my music to be ‘entertaining’, and no album released in 2010 has proven to be as entertaining as today’s highlight:
Sir Lucious Left Foot The Son Of Chico Dusty by Big Boi
Antwan André Patton a.k.a. Big Boi is best known for his work as one half of hiphop legends Outkast and as such is well know enough already. Therefore I won’t be wasting any more precious bytes on details.
I can imagine that a large portion of TSURURADIO’s readers aren’t fans of Outkast or Big Boi. Your loss. I’m serious. This might sound strange to you, but there do happen to be artists outside of the indie realm (whatever the hell that may be these days) who are actually worth your attention. Big Boi is one of them.
A foul mouthed but smooth, clever rhyming s.o.b. with a knack for choosing exactly the right guest vocalists, and most of all: he’s Entertaining (yes, with a capital E) and isn’t that something we can all use once in a while?
It’s been a while since I last posted on TSURURADIO. The reason for this is simple: lack of inspiration.
I’ve said this before and I will say it again. Inspiration for me is something that comes and goes, and unfortunatley I’m not able to tap into some hidden reservoir of ideas and energy. This in huge contrast to our leader Tsuru who seems to be able to write, bike, shoot, paint, sing and dance even while sleeping.
What isn’t exactly helping either is the ENORMOUS flood of new (and recently discovered old) music coming my way. In the past week my ‘what to listen to today playlist’ has exploded, and there is no end in sight. For someone who does most of his listening in the office it’s quite hard to really appreciate new stuff when there is so much to choose from. A lot gets lost in the mix.
Now this doesn’t mean that I haven’t discovered anything worthwhile. Because I have. And I will report on them as usual (read: semi-frequent). Today’s offering:
Before Today by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
Weird little album this is. A grower also. It gets better with each listen (untill you’ve had your fill that is). At least, that’s what I think. I actually remember laying it aside after the first two spins, and I will admit that it certainly isn’t suited for every occasion.
Ariel Pink and his Haunted Graffiti like to mix up the genres, and while this works for the album as a whole, I can imagine individual tracks won’t hit home. This is illustrated by the fact that Tsuru thought a song like Round and Round was merely “Kinda meh” but Neil found it good enough to include it in his (excellent) It’s a Hot Summer Night and I Want To Walk Around With You mixtape. And rightly so, just wait until 1:58 into the song to understand why.
So this album will split audiences, but I definitely belong in the “I LOVE IT” camp. Although it’s only August, I can safely state that this will be near the top of my year-end-list, if not at the top. Enjoy!
Allo & aloo! And how are you? I’m good, thank you for asking. It’s Tuesday, so there’s that. Started it off with a pretty sweet 30 miler bike ride today. Now I know the safety folks won’t like this but, when I’m alone I tend to (but not always) ride with headphones on. We won’t go into the debate of whether or not it’s safe, but know this… I ALWAYS assume there’s a car behind & I ALWAYS assume I’m invisible to the rest of the world. Between that in always knowing my surroundings, I feel confident that “hearing” a car behind me doesn’t make me safer.
Anywhosals, my point was/is that today, due to apparently all my headphones getting rather crappy, I put on the new Apple Earbuds that came with my replacement iPod classic (120gb! WOOT!). My friends, I forgot just how much those headphones suck. Suck balls. Suck monkey balls after a feces throwing fight with a 800lb gorilla!!! Dem’s big turds.
Windy, tinny, and generally blah. If you are listening to music on these things anywhere beyond your desk where you need to hear your boss bellow at you at a moment’s notice and you have a few bucks to spare, upgrade yer headphones. You will not regret it. AND, on the plus side, you won’t look like every. body. else. with. the. same. damn. headphones. hanging. out. their. head.
It’s critical! One listen to today’s gem, John Frum Alaska by Mexican Elvis on the earbuds & my normal noise-cancelin’ Shure bad boys and oh my. One might have thought the state of today’s music is in a sad state of affairs!
This is nice. Basically folkish, but not always, pop. A bit somber at times, but still fresh & engaging. Add in the nasally, slightly whiny “indie” vocal, and yeah, I’m in! Kinda matches the cloudy weather yesterday that seems to be back this afternoon — Oooo… maybe a rainy ride home? Been a while.
Trying to think of who’s voice this guy reminds me of… is it The Mountain Goats guy? Ugh. Going to drive me nuts. Oh well, c’est la vie, and what not!
But yeah, this is that slightly melancholy / Sunday at peace kinda music. Quite lovely…
01 he spent 3 years trying to enter the eurovision song contest 02 the washington dc
03 drop hawaii
04 friends
05 gore tex jacket
06 atonement cover
07 street lights
08 amongst us there‘s a cannibal
09 something overheard at the bavaria filmstadt
10 at 6.30 you come to me
11 say you‘re wrong
tsururadio. The musical obsessions, meanderings, and field observations of Aaron Tsuru most often presented in mixtape format, the way the good lard intended!
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