Already lauded by the British press, Does it offend you, yeah? is an Electro rock/New Wave/Punk band from Reading, England. Unlike other U.K bands, Does it offend you, yeah don't take themselves too seriously. On their myspace, they describe their sound as "an arcade machine thrown into a lake, A ZX Spectrum in a prison shower block (That soap on the floor…? it’s a trap)." If you haven't heard of them, their music can be described as a day-glo explosion of synthesisers and guitars that sounds like a bunch of horny robots and hedonistic humans trying to seduce each other. The band is made up of four members: Morgan Quaintance (guitar, synthesizers), James Rushnet (lead vocals, bass), Dan Coop (Synthesizers), and Rob Bloomfield (drums). Their Justice/Rage against the machine/Devo-inspired songs on their album, You have no idea what you're getting yourself into, will be sure to hook you the moment you listen to them.
Maria Mena has always been known as a rather brutally honest artist, even at the expense of exposing her innermost secrets and demons. This past July, she released her first two singles off her new album, Cause and Effect, in Europe. I'm not sure, however, if it will be released here in the states or not. Mena, who is known stateside for her 2004 hit "You're the only one"(you can view it here in case you don't remember it), gives listeners an honest look, with this album, into what has made her who she is.
After having a somewhat successful album here in the states with her 2004 hit, White turns Blue(which was a combination of songs from her first two albums: Another phase and Mellow), she chose not to release her fourth album, Apparently unaffected, here in the states. Which, I believe, was truly a shame since it was a good album and would have garnered her more hits and fame in the U.S. The first two singles from the new album titled, Cause and Effect, that have been released in Europe from her latest album, which is due to be released on September 16th in Europe, "Belly up" and "All this time", have gained heavy radio play in Europe. While Germany is the first country in which "All this time", a tune that finds Maria, in a way, writing to herself in an attempt to look at things in a positive view in a similar way that she did on her previous album's opening track, "Internal Dialogue", was released as the first single, "Belly up" was released as the first single in the rest of Europe. "Belly up", musically, shows the growth that Mena has experienced over the course of her musical career. While it still contains her signature pop sound and brutally honest lyrics that have been a mainstay on her previous albums, one can't help but hear the Imogen Heap influences on the song, among other artists. It effortlessly blends a sugary pop sound with soft rock touches here and there. I hope that Maria's record label releases the single in the US, though, because I think that it could easily become a top 40 hit. The song, lyrically, is a tune about the singer realizing that the relationship she has with her partner has run its course ("We lie belly up in the pool of us") even though she isn't quite over him ("I must say I'll always love you... even if it hurts"), something I know more about than I would care to admit. At times, one might feel like the song was almost specifically written about whatever relationship you have gone through at the time, which is rare with today's music.
Anyway, here is the first single "Belly Up" In case you wanted to also listen to the single that was released in Germany, here is the link to "All this time" (which is a pretty good single as well): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZE_67BRdmk
I was quite excited last month when I read that Santogold was releasing "Lights out", one of my favourite songs from her debut album, as her second single. Santogold, a Philadelphia native, has often been compared to M.I.A (who is also a friend of hers). But this song, in my opinion, proves that she isn't just an M.I.A carbon copy. It's quite different than most of the songs M.I.A has released, which aren't as mainstream as Santogold's music. There has been a flurry of new acts who have brought back variations of New Wave, one of my favourite genres of music, and have added their own personal touch to it, most notably The Sounds, Black Kids, Bloc Party, Stereo Total, The Epoxies (who are one of my favourite bands, but who are broken up as of sometime early this year), and a few other select bands. The song, with its chunky guitars and synthesizers, harkens back to early '80's New Wave, unlike most of the bands that have had strong New Wave influences. It's sort of something The Cars or The Go-Go's might have done.
Anyway, here is the music video for the song. It almost seems like it was shot in a hurry and doesn't look very creative even though they tried to make it that way with the different coloured walls and screens. I still like it, though. It's just not as good as I thought it might be.
It's been a while. I didn't have time to post anything the last couple of weeks because I was in Europe. It was fun, but exhausting. Now that I'm back in the states, I'll have more time to post.
Anyway, I heard this song in a commercial a few days ago, and it caught my attention right away. Carolina Liar's song "I'm not over" has played on the Hills, so you may be familiar with them already. Several blogs label them as the next big thing, but I wouldn't be so quick to pin them as the next big thing yet. Although, their organic pop rock is like a breath of fresh air. Here is the song "Show me what I'm looking for" that was on that commercial. Hope you enjoy :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpt_S6x-7-4
Faded Paper Figures is an Indie band form Irvine, California whose album, Dynamo, will be released this week. You can download their album on cdbaby now. Faded paper figures is a side project of these three musicians. You may be familiar with some of their previous work. Kael Alden, one of the members of the band, composed a song for a Lexus Commercial. (you can view it here). When I first listened to the album, I wasn't expecting for it to be as good as it is. I had heard about them before, but I wasn't sure whether they'd live up to the hype. They have a similar sound as the Postal Service and Stars, and I wasn't sure whether they'd be anywhere near as good as them. However, it wasn't only as good as I thought it was going to be-it's better. Many songs throughout the album lament on war for oil, societal problems, and pollution. The subject of love is used as solace throughout the album. songs like "North by North" and "Metropolis" are the stronger tracks from the album. I'm fairly certain I've listened to "North by North" somewhere, but I haven't quite remembered where. While perusing their site for lyrics (www.fadedpaperfigures.com) I found something interesting that they did: on specific words, they put links to several sites that relate to the lyrics. For example, on "North by north", a line goes, "Northern winters start tothaw;to islands on the sea, lands I've never seen. Things will get calmer-follow me". And on "thaw", they put a link to www.climatecrisis.net, as it relates to the line about global warming. I thought it was an ingenious way to give their fans a better understanding of the lyrics and make them aware of a cause that is important to the band (and in other lines, links to sites or videos they enjoy watching or are related to the song in some way or what have you). their site: www.fadedpaperfigures.com lyrics you can listen to their music at their myspace
"All the cigarettes that I have never smoked, and all the letters that I have never sent" is the refrain from Russian Red's opening track, "Cigarettes", one of the highlights from her debut album I love your glasses, which was released in June of this year here in the states. The song, a tune about regret, is just a taste of the beautifully crafted songs found throughout this album. Russian Red is the stage name of relatively unknown (at least here in the U.S) Spanish acoustic-folk singer Lourdes Hernandez (pronounced "ernandeth"), a 22 year old student from Madrid, Spain, who chose to sing in English rather than her native Castilian Spanish because she said that she felt that more people could recognize and relate to her music. Little information is available about Lourdes Hernandez online. But from what I could gather, she was a promising musical talent in Madrid, and Eureka records signed her to a record deal as fast as they could. When I first heard her lustrous voice while listening to a friend's online playlist, I couldn't help but wonder where the singer was from. I thought she could possibly be from Appalachia or somewhere in the states. But after I searched online to see where she was from, I was fairly surprised when I learned that she was from Madrid, Spain. You'd be hard pressed to find a Spanish accent in her voice, which is why I thought she was from the states. Most of the songs on the album are rather slow and mellow, soothing and gentle, even. The music seems to showcase her haunting vocals rather than try and hide or minimize them, something so many artists do these days. At first listen, her voice has similarities with Californian folk songstress Joanna Newsom and Massachusetts singer Marissa Nadler. But after listening to a couple more songs from the album, the Newson and Nadler similarities seem to fade, and one realizes that there's a uniqueness to her voice that becomes apparent after a few plays. I suspect that Russian Red won't be relatively unknown here in the states for long, for attractive young women with her talent don't stay unknown for long, which I believe will be the case with the 22 year old.
Russian Red is currently touring Spain in support of her debut album, I love your glasses.
You can check out her myspace here: www.myspace.com/russianready And this is my favorite song off the album, "Cigarettes": And this is the music video for her current single, "They don't believe":
Today was pretty uneventful. The highlight was hanging out with Jimmy, a friend of mine, and discussing, among other things, defenestration. My summer has been OHSO exciting so far *roll eyes*. July 21st can't come soon enough. After a rather uneventful day, I started browsing my iTunes library and came across a song I can't get enough of. After listening to this song on Conan O'Brien a while back, I missed when he had introduced them, so I didn't catch their name. Looking up the song by putting a line of their lyrics didn't cross my mind, so I didn't think about them too much until I watched a rerun of it the other day. As soon as I heard it, I made sure to remember their name. Anyway, the song, "Sour Cherry", by The Kills is a bit hard to describe. Clearly, they have strong Garage Rock and Post-Punk influences in the song, but it seems like they created a sound all their own. The lyrics can get a bit silly at times ("I'm a penny in a diamond mine") , but there's no denying that the song is 3 minutes of pure fun. I love that the song has a lo-fi feel to it as well. I'd definitely suggest checking out the song and checking out more songs from the band. They seem to go all over the place, musically, on their other songs. So I suggest, check out the youtube of the song here (I really should upload songs on here instead): "Sour Cherry" and their myspace
