7 Dollar Taxi - Do The Robot

If you haven't seen this video, you need it in your life - like I need to get a haircut in my life.



It's Swiss band 7 Dollar Taxi's new single "Do The Robot" - touring the UK right now. Highly recommended. Here's a b-side remix to whet your appetite further...

7 Dollar Taxi - Do The Robot (Megatron remix)

acloudofstarlings hollas greetings to Thrash Mountain.

Air (feat. Neil Hannon) - Somewhere Between Waking And Sleeping

I've been meaning to post this for ages but have never quite got around to it. It's from the latest Air album, Pocket Symphony, which came out like 6 months ago or something. It's a beautiful ride, all the way through, like La Femme d'Argent channelled into 2008. There are a couple of extra special tracks; the first features Jarvis Cocker as vocalist; the second is this one, with Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy. He's got such a beautiful baritone voice. Something about this track makes me think of "Our Mutual Friend" off Absent Friends: though they don't connect that well lyrically there's something I can't put my finger on that suggests a link. You'll have to forgive my idle musings. Well I guess you don't have to!

Air (feat. Neil Hannon) - Somewhere Between Waking And Sleeping

The Beach Boys - California Girls

I've been to the beach three days in a row now and I'm gonna make it four by this evening so I'm celebrating with this Beach Boys track. You can practically hear the heat rising off the sand in the intro. Forgive brevity, I just want to be outside!

The Beach Boys - California Girls

Jeffrey Lewis - Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror

I've already had a fairly pointless rant about how "antifolk" is the most useless description for music ever. Jeffrey Lewis, who is often described as "antifolk", might agree, but he sees it as a more positive thing: “I think it’s a cool title. The fact that no one knows what it means, including me, makes it kind of mysterious and more interesting than saying that you’re a singer/songwriter or that you play indie rock.”

Jeffrey Lewis - Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror

I just heard this on the radio on Jon Richardson's show on 6 Music and the lyrics drew me in. How's this for dense:

Today I went to Major Matt's to remaster my old album
And on the L train in the morning, I was pretty sure I saw Will Oldham,
He was wearin' the same sunglasses he had on stage at the Bowery Ballroom
Had he come to walk among the Williamsburgers of his kingdom
And like the burghers of Calais will a sacrifice be demanded?
To offer up our dreams and beg for mercy empty-handed?
And hapless in our hipness crowded 5 to an appartment
Relegate our dreams to hobbies and deny our disappointment
Cause The Stones in '65 want total satisfaction, kid
But The Stones in '69 see grace in just getting what you need
But if that's a victory then I'd hate to see what I'd look like defeated
Cause I know there are those among us who seem to get their dreams unimpeded
Today I went to Major Matt's to remaster my old album
And on the L train in the morning, i was really sure i saw Will Oldham,
He was wearin' the same sunglasses he had on stage at the Bowery Ballroom
Had he come to walk among the Williamsburgers of his kingdom
And you might say now there's a guy who seems to have their world laid out before him
Or you might say, he's just a rich kid or a fascist or a charlatan
But either way you say it if you look at indie-rock culture you really can't ignore him
And even if at first dismissive, after some listens you'll enjoy him
I was thinking this on the L train, intend on bursting my own bubble
How long should an artist struggle before it isn't worth the hassle?
And admit we aren't fit to be the one inside the castle
This quest for greatness or, at least hipness, just a scam
And too much trouble but then what makes on human being worthy of an easy ride
Born to be a natural artist you love or hate but can't deny
While us minions in our millions tumble into history's chasm
We might have a couple of laughs but we're still wastes of protoplasm
Today I was gonna waste some time and money to remaster some dumb old album
And on the L train in the morning, i was really sure I saw Will Oldham,
He was wearin' the same big sunglasses he had on stage at the Bowery Ballroom
Had he come to see the strife here in the gutters of his kingdom?
Where us noble starving artists are striving to feed our ego
Our mothers like our music our our friends come to our shows
And if our friends become successful, we'll consider them our foes
Go home to our 4 roomates after payin' big bucks for rockstars shows
What a nightmare! what a horror! i don't want no part of this
Get me off this crazy ride,
I'm gonna puke, I'm gonna piss! I'd rather kill myself,
I'd rather just relax or not exist
But you say you wanna do an e-mail interview? Oh what the heck, I can't resist!
'Hey, 'ma, guess what today, I did another magazine interview!
Honey, that's great, you're really famous!!' Yeah and I'm 27 too!
I kinda thought I was gonna grow up to do stuff that would benefit humanity
But it's getting harder to tell if this artist's life is even benefitting me
Cause I was gonna waste some time and money today to remaster some dumb old album
And on the L train in the morning, I was totally sure I saw Will Oldham,
He was wearin' the same big sunglasses he had on stage at the bowery ballroom
And since I was feeling in need of answers I just went right up and asked him, I said,
Will Bonnie Prince, Palace or whatever 'What do you think about it?
Is it worth being an artist or an indie-rock star, or are you better off without it?'
Cause I mean maybe the world would be better if we were all just uncreative drones,
No dead child, hood dreams to haunt us, a decent job, a decent home,
And if we have some extra time we could do real things to promote peace,
Become scientists or history teachers or un-corrupt police at least,
'Come on Will, you gotta tell me!!' I grabbed and shook him by the arm,
The L train was leaning Bedford with 10,000 white 20 somethings crowed on
He opened his mouth to speak but it was lost in the rumbling of the wheels
We were thrown together in a corner and I yelled 'Tell me, man, for real!'
You're living comfortably, I assume, even if you're not quite a household name
You've reached a pretty high level of success & critical acclaim
The L train got to first avenue and a bunch of people piled out
I was starring into his sunglasses and I was really freakin' out i was like,
Steamboat Willie Bonnie Prince of all this shit, you're like the king of a certain genre
But even you must want to quit like if you hear a record by Bob Dylan or Neil Young or whatever
You must start thinkin' 'People like me, but i won't be that good ever'
And I'm sure the thing is probably Dylan himself too stayed up some nights
Wishing he was as good as Ginsberg or Camus
And he was like 'Dude, I'm such a faker, I'm just a clown who entertains
and these fools who pay for my crap, they just have pathetic punny brains
and Camus probably wished he was Milton too or whatever, you know what i'm sayin'?!'
So Will, will you be straight with me now that it's just us 2 on this train?
Cause I was gonna spend some time and money today to remaster some dumb old album
And I saw you here on the L train
And I was like 'Hey, is that Will Oldham?' he must at least , have some perspective
Cause it's like, living in this town I get so confused & wound up & up tight
And I just don't know up from down
And then we'd reached the last stop and the subway was deserted
There was a long moment of silence and I let go of his shirt
I started to think that maybe I'd made some kind of big mistake
I tried to walk out onto the platform but by then it was too late
His sunglasses seemed to grow darker and still he hadn't even spoke
He just came right up behind me and put his hand around my throat
And threw me down onto the concrete and kicked my face in with his boot
And dragged me down onto the train tracks and tied my hands back with his coat
And I was slipping out of conciousness as he was slipping down my jeans
And he was punching me and humping me and I slipped off into a dream
So it might have just been a delusion
But I thought I heard him say something like 'Artists are pussies'
Then he climbed back up and ran away
So I lay there in the darkness on the train tracks cold and broken
The hours passed and I thought,
Well... maybe I won't remaster that old album
And then I started thinking maybe it really hadn't been Will Oldham
Even though he did hold my arms and fucked me just like Will sings in 'A sucker's evening'
But whether it was him or not I couldn't forget the words he'd spoken
'Artists are pussies', like we're wusses or we end up getting fucked
And other kinds of folks are dicks, tall, smart and strong
And born to fuck us up I know,
It sounds really sexist and stupid,
It's a terrible analogy but at that moment on the train tracks,
It made a lot of sense to me maybe it's just some kind of natural balance,
Like 2 types of mental gender that's gone on in all societies,
In one form or another like some dicks were born to conquer,
I probably would if I could but if i'm just a pussy, that's okay
Cause in a few months maybe, I'll put out something good.

David Bowie - Kooks

This lovely early Bowie album track inspired The Kooks' name. Don't let that put you off, though.

"Kooks" is taken from Hunky Dory (1971), which is probably best known as the album with "Changes", "Oh! You Pretty Things" and "Life On Mars", though it's consistently good throughout and regularly places highly on those lists of "Best Albums Ever" that magazines create to provoke the geeks into fighting. The album contains a number of pastiches, notably "Song for Bob Dylan" and "Queen Bitch", inspired by the Velvet Underground. This particular track was inspired by the birth of Bowie's song, Duncan Jones, and is written in the style of early Neil Young (Bowie was listening to Neil Young when he heard his son was born).

David Bowie - Kooks

Will you stay in our lovers story
If you stay you wont be sorry
cause we believe in you
Soon youll grow so take a chance
With a couple of kooks
Hung up on romancing

Will you stay in our lovers story
If you stay you wont be sorry
cause we believe in you
Soon youll grow so take a chance
With a couple of kooks
Hung up on romancing

We bought a lot of things to keep you warm and dry
And a funny old crib on which the paint wont dry
I bought you a pair of shoes
A trumpet you can blow
And a book of rules
On what to say to people when they pick on you
cause if you stay with us youre gonna be pretty kookie too

Will you stay in my lovers story
If you stay you wont be sorry
cause we believe in you
Soon youll grow so take a chance
With a couple of kooks
Hung up on romancing

And if you ever have to go to school
Remember how they messed up this old fool
Dont pick fights with the bullies or the cads
cause Im not much cop at punching
Other peoples dads
And if the homework brings you down
Then well throw it on the fire
And take the car downtown

Will you stay in our lovers story
If you stay you wont be sorry
cause we believe in you
Soon youll grow so take a chance
With a couple of kooks
Hung up on romancing

Will you stay in our lovers story
If you stay you wont be sorry
cause we believe in you
Soon youll grow so take a chance
With a couple of kooks
Hung up on romancing

Will you stay

Wave Machines - I Go I Go I Go

When I picture myself in an indie club dancing badly but not caring (the inevitable dance of indie lovers), this is the song I picture myself dancing to. It is a TUNE. Wave Machines are from Liverpool, play second hand keyboards, zithers and electric vibraphones. Catch them live in London and Liverpool in the next couple of months. Buy their 7" here.

Wave Machines - I Go I Go I Go

Leon Jean Marie - Bring It On

Bring it on, indeed. Here's some effortlessly cool urban funkiness from Londoner Leon Jean Marie. Me likey muchly. (You may have already heard of him from the cover of Daft Punk's Digital Love with Alphabeat and FrankMusic.)


Leon Jean Marie - Bring It On

Eels - Hello Cruel World

Here's a really early Eels track, released back in 1992 on A Man Called (E). E wasn't actually recording as "Eels" yet, so I guess it's not technically an Eels track but seeing as the sole constant member of Eels is E it might as well be. You certainly couldn't argue that it doesn't sound like the Eels!

Eels - Hello Cruel World

A Man Called (E) is a great album with some brilliant tracks and it's well worth picking up if you're relatively new to the Eels (which it's very easy to be given the length of their career). And if you have no idea who I'm talking about, check out the 2008 compilation Meet The Eels by clicking here and then clicking on the preview sampler button. Listen to the lyrics and be a stronger person.

Allo, Darlin' - Emily

"Jingle jangle, jingle jangle" - that sums up the music. "Bastard indie ex boyfriend" - that pretty much sums up the lyrics. But it's also fucking lovely and witty and wise. And that's why I'm posting it, dear listener.



Formerly known as The Darlings, Allo Darlin' is the band surrounding Londoner Elizabeth Darling. They released an EP as The Darlings back in November 2007, from which this track was taken. If you like this then the seemingly lovely Ms Darling has a page on her website where you can listen to and even download her recent demos for free.

Allo, Darlin' - Emily

Hot Seconds - Went To India

Hot Seconds release their new album tomorrow. Here's track 4; a magnificently sneery look at indie people, possibly including a bit of caustic self analysis, given that James Love (who I think writes most, if not all, of the lyrics) is actually born in the UK (see the last line of the first verse - lyrics below). The bass line to this song is awesome, proper stonking awesome. It's so stonking you could build a castle on it. No, I'm not quite sure what I mean either but bear with me.

If you like this (and I think you will, people of the internet), you can stream the whole album at http://www.hotseconds.net/music/.

Hot Seconds - Went To India

I went to India to find myself
I'm so spiritual - can't you tell?
Square pegs, round holes, not a problem for me
I'm Silver Surfer, Wolverine and the Fantastic Three
I'm so cool man, I live rock and roll
I dress retro and I walk with soul
I'm so broke that I could just give in
I was born in Suffolk county but I say Brooklyn

You live your life so fast
You're so cool
You live your life on the edge
You break the rules
Your life is better than ours
You're gonna fly out to Mars
And be a star in the stars

I just got up does my hair look ok?
I've got a guitar but I don't know how to play
I'm so in it will soon open wide
I live in Scarsdale but I say Lower East Side
You know I'm tortured, would you like to buy a poem?
But it's not my best work here than I'm showing you
I know that band and I can dig
But I stopped listening to them when they got big

Bella Koshka - Home

I haven't had anything ambient/chill-out on here in a long time, if ever, but this is proper lush*. Bella Koshka are a Minneapolis, NM, band who released their album Slow Dancing On The Ocean Floor earlier this year and another EP is due out early 2009. You can buy Slow Dancing direct from the artist by clicking a link on their myspace and yey for that. I'm always surprised how few artists sell cds direct - cut out the middleman people!

Bella Koshka - Home

* As I write that I imagine "proper lush" said with a proper good Welsh accent - think Gavin and Stacey. If you haven't discovered that show yet then you are missing out on a treat.

Jaguar Farm - Land of a 1000 Lakes

Here's a proper bit of mental for a Wednesday (after all, let us not forget, children, that Wednesday is Mental day). Jaguar Farm is Alexander Ladrola from Los Angeles. He writes quirky electronic shoegazey electro pop WHICH IS WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS PEOPLE. I'm really keen on this Land Of 1000 Lakes track though I have literally no idea what to make of it. It starts off sounding pretty cool with some piano chords and then in comes this crazy assed vocal and then it just cuts out at around 55 seconds with no warning. It sounds like the offspring of a bad trip.

Just checked the old last.fm machine and he's only got 108 recorded plays - let us venture forth and double it, my friends! I'm gonna post two tracks, just cause I'm nice. Autobus is the second track, an awesome whirry clicky instrumental.

Jaguar Farm - Land of a 1000 Lakes

Jaguar Farm - Autobus

Ida Maria - I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked

This song is so damn good. I'm posting it now because I know in a week I'll have heard it a billion times and will be wishing only I knew about it (it's on the A-list at Radio 1, which means it's going to be totally unavoidable for the rest of the summer). There's nothing like overexposure to something you love to weaken the emotion. Oh well. We're making the most of the moment. And in the moment this song is undeniably fantastic.

I should explain: for those of you reading this who aren't from the UK or Scandinavia, Ida Maria is going to be big. She's been tipped for success for a while, but passed me by. I'm now joining the SS Ida Maria, but everyone else has got there before me and there's nowhere to sit but in the lifeboat.

Ida Maria is from Mesnay in Norway. She released her debut album, Fortress Around My Heart, back in May. She's got a few upcoming gigs in the UK and Scandinavia this month.

Ida Maria - I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked

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Now playing: Semisonic - Act Naturally

Late Of The Pier - Space And The Woods

Oh my good Lord what a stonking bass line these boys have put in this song. I'm dancing around the farm like a monkey on crack.

Late Of The Pier are an alternative electro pop band from Castle Donnington, which is kind of a small village in Leicestershire (population 7000), but is also called the "home of metal" because it hosted the Monsters of Rock festival back in days of yore, back when men were real men with long sweaty hair, taking their shirts off and scrumming around in the dark amidst the flashing lights. Their debut album is released on the 11th of August and I can guarantee they'll be on here again because I am liking them muchly muchly muchly.

Late Of The Pier - Space And The Woods

There is some seriously good music around at the moment! I've got some stonking tracks lined up.

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Now playing: Hot Seconds - Went to India

Bikini - Tonight

Since I've started this blog I've been getting a surprising number of emails from bands promoting their music (I suspect this is largely because I'm relatively easy to contact!). Anyway, I always listen to a track or two but usually they're a bit crap and I feel like I've wasted those minutes. This morning, to my surprise, I got one I actually liked.

Bikini are a Canadian band who purport to sound like this:



I can't help but be amused by that. Bikini's E.P., Concerning the number 7 and your love, is released tomorrow.

Bikini - Tonight
Bikini - 1234 (Feist Cover)

[EDIT: Links moved (due to massive bandwidth consumption!) but still active]

Richard Ashcroft - Slow Was My Heart

I don't know if anyone has heard but apparently the Verve are back together? Someone also mentioned a new Coldplay album, but I don't anything more about that either.

Richard Ashcroft - Slow Was My Heart

For Tess.

Slow was my heart
And so you had gone

So we move on
Please stay strong

It keeps on turning yeah yeah for everyone
We keep on learning yeah yeah to kiss the sun

Weak was my strength
Your hand I should have lend

So we move on
Please stay strong

It keeps on turning yeah yeah for everyone
We keep on learning yeah yeah to kiss the sun
Like everyone

Fly, fly my plane
To an eastern runway

And tell me why
Love must die

It keeps on turning yeah yeah for everyone
You keep on learning yeah yeah to kiss the sun

I'm just like everyone
(Keep on learning yeah yeah)

Katherine Gehl - A Pound of Kumquats

I get a kind of thrill when I start listening to a track I've found and then check out the last.fm page and see that hardly anyone else has listened. In the kind of world where people like Radiohead have almost 110 million individual recorded play counts there's something special to be said for listening to an artist that has less than 300. Celebrate that difference! Katherine Gehl is one such artist. And the thing is, quantity of play counts is not necessarily an indicator of quality. There's something delightful about Katherine Gehl. Bits of this track are undeniably a bit shambolic but, let's be fair, she's playing what sounds like a Casio keyboard. Shambolic is how you play them. Let's get her a few more play counts!

http://www.last.fm/music/Katherine+Gehl

Katherine Gehl - A Pound Of Kumquats

Laura Viers - Spelunking

Of all the presents I got from my ex, this is perhaps my favourite. It's a track from Laura Viers' 2005 album, Year of Meteors. The second verse is one of the most special things I have ever come across.

If I took you darling
To the caverns of my heart
Would you light the lamp dear?
Would you light the lamp dear?
And see fish without eyes
Bats with their heads
Hanging down towards the ground
Would you still come around
Come around?

And as he lights the lamp, a subdued and echoey electric guitar enters, spilling light all around.

Laura Viers is touring the UK this month, starting in Winchester tonight! Well, I say the UK, she's basically touring England. I know that's synonymous to a lot of people who aren't from the UK but, please, bands of the world, remember that Wales and Scotland and Northern Ireland also exist and would welcome you with open arms and probably legs, if I'm honest.

Laura Viers - Spelunking

Best Friends Forever - Abe Lincoln

Sometimes shuffly indie bands sound very studied in their shuffliness, as if they've decided that awkward and clunky is somehow the sound for them. I must be honest and say that in the first few seconds of this track I thought it was one of those bands.

But.

(And as you can see it's a "but" important enough to get it's own paragraph.)

BUT the lyrics in this track, Abe Lincoln, are really good. They're funny, charming, and idiosyncratic. They actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times. They don't sound like someone trying too hard, they sound like a bunch of teenagers or early twenty-somethings sitting around and writing a ridiculous, funny, charming, and idiosyncratic song.

Best Friends Forever are a pop trio from Minneapolis, MN. They'll be on acloudofstarlings again cause they're fucking awesome!

Best Friends Forever - Abe Lincoln

Dennis Wilson - Dreamer

Another lush track from Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue album, re-released earlier this month. Apparently the deep buzzing that accompanies pretty much throughout is a bass harmonica.

Please forgive brevity; I am so very tired and sore after my operation...

Dennis Wilson - Dreamer

After that relatively religious orientated track, here's something to redress the balance...

David Bowie - Bring Me The Disco King

There's something about this track that makes me ache. It's beautiful. It's the last track of David Bowie's most recent studio album, Reality. The lyrics are obviously nostalgic but couched in typical Bowie suggestive ambiguity. You can easily spend hours trying to pin down exactly what he means, but I'm starting to think that to do so is to miss the point.

David Bowie - Bring Me The Disco King

You promised me the ending would be clear
You'd let me know when the time was now
Don't let me know when you're opening the door
Stab me in the dark, let me disappear

Memories that flutter like bats out of hell
Stab you from the city spires
Life wasn't worth the balance
Or the crumpled paper it was written on

Don't let me know we're invisible
Don't let me know we're invisible

Hot cash days that you trailed around
Cold cold nights under chrome and glass
Led me down river of perfumed limbs
Sent me to the streets with the good time girls

Don't let me know we're invisible
Don't let me know we're invisible
We could dance, dance, dance thru' the fire
Dance, dance, dance thru' the fire

Feed me no lies
I don't know about you, I don't know about you
Breathe through the years
I don't know about you, I don't know about you
Bring me the disco king
I don't know about you, I don't know about you
Dead or alive, bring me the disco king
Bring me the disco king, bring me the disco king
Bring me the disco king

Spin-offs with those who slept like corpses
Damp morning rays in the stiff bad clubs
Killing time in the '70s
Smelling of love through the moist winds
Don't let me know when you're opening the door
Close me in the dark, let me disappear
Soon there'll be nothing left of me
Nothing left to release

Dance, dance, dance thru' the fire
Dance, dance, dance thru' the fire
Feed me no lies
I don't know about you, I don't know about you
Breathe through the years
I don't know about you, I don't know about you
Bring me the disco king
I don't know about you, I don't know about you
Dead or alive, bring me the disco king
Bring me the disco king
Bring me the disco king, bring me the disco king
Bring me the disco king, bring me the disco king
Bring me the disco king, bring me the disco king

The Dresden Dolls - Night Reconnaissance

Nothing is crueller than children who come from good homes
Gotta forgive them, I guess, but whose side are you on?
Driving around my hometown, I remember it all
Dropping my lunchbox and tampax all over the hall
And they said...

You are a socialist cokehead, we know from your clothes
You are a Satanist worshipper, oh, that's evil
You think you're poet, a folksinger, ???
A volleyball player?! you've got to be kidding us all

So we hide from the cunts
On a night reconnaissance
Steal flamingos and gnomes
From the dark side of the lawn

No one can stop us
The script is a work of genius
No one has bought the rights yet but
We're not giving up
Every unwanted lawn jockey fits in the script
Directed by Spielberg and starring the masochist club

Marion looked like hell
Stuck in that ridicules shell
Give us some light and god's pure love
We know what you've been dreaming of
Give us some light and god's pure love
We know what you've been dreaming of
Give us some light and god's pure love
We know what you've been dreaming of
We're taking you to Hollywood
Hollywood

And we hide from the cunts
On a night reconnaissance
Steal flamingos and gnomes
From the dark side of the lawn

One is a socialist cock-head they dressed in my clothes
One is a Satanist worshipping who's evil
One is a poet who starts up a band of his own
One is a volleyball player with both of her wrists broke

And we hide from the cunts
On a night reconnaissance
Steal flamingos girls and gnomes
From the dark side of the lawn

And we give them good homes
Give them love they've never known
In the loft, in the lawn,
In the town where I was born
In the loft, in the bar,
In the town where I was born

How's that for a set of lyrics? What I particularly like about this song is that before reading the lyrics I thought she was singing "Nothing is cooler than kids from good homes" in the first verse, and "And we hide from the guns" in the chorus. I never know whether bands do this on purpose but it adds something else for us to get our heads around and that's always a good thing.

/obligatory paragraph about band which I don't particularly feel is necessary when the lyrics are that interesting

blah blah blah ... so-called "Brechtian Punk Cabaret" ... yada yada ... Boston, MA ... flim flam flim flam ... don't call them "gothic" ... schnuzz schnuzz ... map of Amanda Dresden Doll's teenage soul...



The Dresden Dolls - Night Reconnaissance