May 2008 Archives

I never thought I would catch on to the Gypsy Punk movement, but after getting Gogol Bordello's song "Through the Roof N' Underground" stuck in my head for almost a week - I'm certainly wanting to give his other songs another go on my Mp3 player. If you haven't heard of this band before, this song is a great introduction. It's not something you'll love instantly, but it's the sort of song that grows on you - like moss on a rock or mold on a two week old sandwich that you left in your bag.

One thing I absolutely love about it is the singer, Eugenet Hutz's, thick Eastern European accent. Never mind the rest of the lyrics, but singing out the chorus ' Ooohoohoooh through the roof, underground' in an Eastern European accent over and over again, makes it so much fun. My favorite Nevermind the Buzzcock's regular Phill Jupitus describes the band as "a bit like The Clash and The Pogues having a fight... in Eastern Europe".

As with many Indie music songs - the first major exposure that this song gets is on a film...an Indie film. Here's a clip from "Wristcutters: A Love Story" which features Gogol Bordello's song prominently. Set in an afterlife for people who committed suicide, friends Zia- the wristcutter, Mikal - the druggie who OD'd, and Eugene - the Russian rocker who's successful suicide attempt was electrocution via beer on his electric guitar,  go on a road trip through the afterlife wastelands. The only music they have on  the road is a cassette recording of Eugene's band that he had on his pocket the day he killed himself . Not entirely bad when it's Gogol Bordello's "Through the Roof N' Underground". I'd highly recommend watching the film too. The clip, just right after the cut.

If I had a choice of picking just two instruments to create the perfect song, I would choose the drums and the bass guitar. I'm  partial to the drums, since I play the drums myself and would actually appreciate a song with just drum playing. That said, I'd love to hear a group that can pull off songs with just drums and vocals - could that really work?

Though I haven't had the chance of making the perfect song - this band comes quite close. Enon's "Knock That Door" chooses my recipe of drums and bass with a few sprinklings of keyboard sound effects for added flavour. Not only that, you get an added dose of sweet with Toko Yasuda's Japenese inflected vocals. It works really, really well.

  Listen to Knock That Door

I admit, this is cheating. To make up for the three days I missed - I'm featuring 3 songs from one band. Two bands actually, but the two songs are the same song - and the same vocalist in the band sang that song under a different name. So technically it's just two songs from one band or if you think about it the other way, three songs from two bands.

I'll probably just go right ahead with the songs..

 Listen to So Kind Stacey (Carol Cleveland Sings)

This one's from the band Carol Cleveland Sings. I got it from the archives of the SongFight site where it actually became an entry to the weekly challenge : make a song entitled 'So Kind Stacey'. I didn't win, but Carol Cleveland Sings paved the way for a newer and more popular version of the song by the Spinto Band (still sung by Carol Cleveland a.k.a  Spinto Band vocalist Thomas Hughes).

 Listen to So Kind Stacey (Spinto Band version)

So, which version do you guys like better? For me - and I am only saying this because I care - there's a lot of decaffenated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.

You can view a spiffy video of one of their songs - "Oh Mandy" another song with a girl's name, about a mandolin, played with a mandolin, after the cut.

As promised, I've got another song featured on the site. This time from a group from Portland, Oregon called The Kingdom.

"I Am Constellation" comes from their debut album Unitas - an album named after the American football legend Johnny Unitas. I haven't listened to the full album myself, but seriously, am I the only one who thinks they might've been more inspired in that Pete and Pete episode 'Space, Geeks and Johnny Unitas' than Johnny Unitas himself when they made this album?

I figure it's only me. Although, I have a nagging feeling that Johnny Unitas - aside from being an ambassador for intergalactic friendship (as proven by that Pete and Pete episode) is somehow related to the indie music movement. See, The Kingdom, inspired by Johnny Unitas, made this song called "I Am Constellation" which they featured in their debut EP. They followed it up with a full album called K-1 that has a song called "Polaris". Polaris, aside from being the Northern Star, is also the name of the band that played the title song for the TV series "The Adventures of Pete and Pete".  The series had an episode entitled "Space, Geeks and Johnny Unitas" which aired in  1991. Coincidence? Most probably yes, though I bet I could get a nice six-degrees-of-Johnny Unitas search engine up  if I could. Everything would eventually lead up to either this band or Polaris.

Before I get further derailed from finishing this currently non-existent Indie Music Database on theindiemusicdb.com, I probably should let you guys listen to this wonderful song:

  Listen to "I Am Constellation"  | Download at eMusic | Download at Insound

Well...it's coming. After several months of thinking, planning and procrastinating, I've finally managed to get the blog  up. But hey, it's totally indie, there's a bit of music, the database part.. just needs a bit of work. Call this a pre-beta version (if there ever is such a thing). In the next few weeks, this site will probably make more sense. Until then, there's this blog..and a nice link at the top if you guys have any stuff that you want me to include in the database (like information on bands and discographies). Yes, the title of the site is what it's supposed to be - any relevant information that you have, shoot them over to me. In a nutshell, this site is....well, you guys should be able to figure it out as I build it. It'll be a nice work in progress, you'll see stuff getting better and better (hopefully!) as the days go by.

So, to anyone who's stumbled upon this, I give you my warmest welcome :) And of course what's a site about music without the music? As part of this site's first 100 days of being - I'll be featuring one song a day.

What better way to start this off  by a song from the aptly named Swedish band I'm From Barcelona.  I first encountered this song on the Believer Magazine's 2007 music issue. "The Painter" is a song about a street painter, caught in a moment of plight as cops descend looking for permit-less street artists to arrest. But before he flees, he dishes out a couple of wise words to passers-by - 'Don't give up on your dreams'.  Yeah, we've all heard that before - though the way he sings it, in all earnest, it makes you feel that's there's still hope out there. (And there is! - note my enthusiasm, I just listened to the song a few minutes ago). The YouTube clip below is a live version of the song performed by probably the happiest band in the world. In their official website, they've actually got 29 band members listed. I'm not sure if all 29 actually go on all the tours, but the main guy Emanuel Lundgren (the one who oddly looks like Bill Hader) is their main frontman. He tries to organize the group and cue the lyrics for maximum audience participation - and it feels like everybody in the audience is part of the band: