New song out from Phoenix!

Well, it is no big secret that the new Phoenix album, entitled ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’, will be released to the world on May 25th, 2009 – the date has been splashed across their official website for quite some time now. I don’t know about you, but I’m eagerly awaiting the day when I can get my grubby little paws upon it (90 days to go!)

At the moment, you can download a new tune entitled ‘1901’, a song presumably off the new album, from their official website. It’s a catchy little ditty, much like all their great songs, but, stylistically, there is a noticeable difference from the songs off their last long player, the great 2006 release ‘It’s Never Been Like That’.

Do I detect a bit more synth? Most of the songs off the last album were ‘guitar songs’, with little reliance on keys or other effects. I detect a different sense of direction going by this new tune. Don’t get me wrong, it is definitely not bad, in fact, it is actually quite good.

Anyway, indulge yourself in a download and have a listen and let me know if I’m completely off the map.

Meanderings

Hey there. Well, I’ve made it back home in earnest, and lazily settling back into Brisbane life, hanging out with old friends, and generally trying to get my usually hectic life back into some kind of normality. I hope to get involved in ‘the scene’ again at some stage, and go check out some quality local bands (actually, I got to see the great ‘Mexico City’ just last weekend, and was pleasantly entertained).

I’m a bit stuck for subjects to write about but I guess I’ll mention a great song that I have been listening to on loop. It’s Elvis Costello’s “Two Little Hitlers” from his seminal 1979 release “Armed Forces”. It’s a great little ditty of a number with a stellar chorus melody. Gotta love those hooky little melodies, right?

In other news, I head to the ‘Golden Plains’ festival in fire-torn Victoria in about two weeks with a few friends, and I’m looking forward to having a great time. ‘Of Montreal’ are playing and I’m extremely excited about seeing them (I might even try make it to their Brisbane gig which is a few days before). I caught them in London for the first time a few months back, and good lord, it was a crazy gig.

The second part of the Golden Plains lineup is due to be imminently released. Lets hope its as good as the first.

The Anti-Valentines Day Mixtape.

Many ‘lovers’ will be celebrating valentines with mountains of flowers, soppy hallmark cards and overpriced jewellery. Many more will be lying around moaning about commercialism, crying into pillows, or getting raucously drunk and whining about how foolish the whole event seems to be. Unless something dramatically changes in the next few days, I will definitely be in the latter category. How sad, right?

Well, it got me thinking. What is the perfect mixtape for someone who might not be the most happy chappy come the 14th of February? I guess the tunes don’t have to explicitly on the subject of Valentines day, just about subjects not usually associated with romantic love or lust, perhaps tunes about the disillusionment that is inherent with broken relationships. Some might suggest digging around the Magnetic Field’s ‘69 Love Songs’ compendium and that is, I think, a great place to start (despite the fact that they are songs about love songs, many of them deal with falling out of love).

For what its worth, here are a few songs that I think would be a great addition to any such mix.

1. The Magnetic Fields – I Don’t Want To Get Over You

I envy Stephin Merritt. I don’t know how he writes lyrics of such good quality. They are just too clever. They are just too correct. It almost annoys me. This song has some brilliant lyrics that divinely sum up the yearning that inevitably follows being dumped. For example, ‘I should just take a sleeping pill and sleep at will and not have to go through, what I go through. I guess I should take a prozac right and smile all night, at somebody new’, and so forth. Love this song, and it is probably in my top five Magnetic Fields songs that ever graced the cassette deck.

2. The Cure – In Between Days

This is definitely my favourite Cure song. I think it has one of the strongest intros to a pop song ever composed. When that closed high-hat snaps in, well, I feel the urge to go mental. Anyway, you can see by the lyrical content that it concerns some kind of relationship breakdown complete with the denial and regret cycles that so often occur with relationship breakdowns. For instance, the lyrics ‘Go on, Go on, just walk away’ at the beginning of the song, followed then by a later stanza that counteract the earlier lyrics 'Come back, Come back, Don’t walk away'. Perhaps I’m getting slightly too deep here, but I’d thought I’d just highlight these small aspects of what is a great pop tune. Who knew that such depressing subjects could be so dance-able?

3. Burt Bacharach / Hal David - I’ll Never Fall in Love Again

What a tune! This classic pop number involves itself with all the alleged traps of falling in love, for example, 'What do you get when you kiss a girl? You get enough germs to catch pneumonia'. Hal David, you got that spot on. I’ve avoided kissing girls for this EXACT reason. Pretty much a great tune to take the edge off falling in love. Yeah that’s right; this song gives love (and Valentines Day) THE BIRD!

4. Billy Bragg - Valentines Day is Over

Admittedly, I do not know this song all that well having only really listened to it on a handful of occasions. However, I believe it warrants being on my list for the title alone. The lyrics pretty much consist of Billy Bragg giving some sage like advice to men on how to treat their woman, with the consequences if they are not up to scratch. Not the best Bragg song, in my own humble opinion, but certainly one of the most relevant to this blogpost

....And I almost can’t resist....

5. Genesis - In Too Deep

OK, I’ve already discussed my Phil Collins obsession before on this very blog, so you simply must allow me this guilty pleasure. It is a bit of a cheesy 80s ballad, but come on, that chorus section just weeps smoothness. Apparently a song about Phil Collins and his ability to deal with relationship. Many of Collins’s tunes deal with this issue. It also seems that the guy has a legion of wives with matching divorce certificates. Perhaps he just marries women, breaks up with them, so as to manufacture a string of pop hits about the experience. Sounds like this is his method. Hrm, anyway, yes the song. Suitable for an Anti-Valentines day mixtape. Marginal at best, but I’ve quickly run out of ideas.

...*edit* I almost forgot....

6. Roy Orbison - Crying

Bah, how could I forget this song. This really should be my number one. I love Roy, and if I was a homosexual and a necrophiliac, I'd probably dig him up and make love to him. This is my favourite song of his, and it is probably the most suitable for this anti-valentines day mixtape list. Could you really argue with its brilliance?

Happy Valentines Day (losers:P)!

Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista

It has been a while. I humbly apologise for my lack of posts. I have been travelling back home to Australia after a stint in London. During the travel time, I stopped off in Thailand for near on three weeks. This post has been lurking in my blog directory for some time, and I might as well go ahead and post it.

Really, there is nothing I like more than a bit of Finnish Pyscho-Folk. I say that as if I know a lot about the genre, but actually I’ve only listened to one group that fits in that particular category, and this group is the obscurely named Paavoharju.

More of a recent discovery, Paavoharju’s second record ‘Laulu Laakson Kukista’, which apparently means ‘A Song about Flowers of the Valley’, is strangely beautiful piece of work, chock full of unpronounceable Finish song titles all which provoke fleeting feelings and distinct imagery.

For me, many of the tracks sound like they would fit in well looped over some bizarre goth art installation, or perhaps some kind of silent film. Perhaps a film with the camera set upon aged watercolour paintings, hanging patiently on drab brown wooden walls. Paintings, hanging there, not explicitly for artistic value, but rather for individual sentimentality. Perhaps a war film. Geeze, perhaps any film.

For me the highlight is the third track ‘Tuaksu Tarttuu Meihin’. I have no idea what the title means, but layers upon layers of differing sounds combine to construct a rich and fascinating tapestry. Pianos, vocals, voice samples and what almost sounds like carnival music, interlace and produce a truly unique sounding track.

Paavoharju don’t explicitly seek to have you dancing around your bedroom and this isn’t a typical pop album. On many songs, 'Ursulan Uni' being a pertinent example, siren-calling female vocals drip wet across electronic beats. Everyday sounds like trains and traffic blend meticulously in the sonic landscape. It is quite intoxicating. I am also particularly am fond of ‘Salainen Huone’, an extremely short track that features crow calls and imperfectly recorded guitars. It makes me think of gothic graveyards.

This kind of record is the perfect book-reading music. It doesn’t assault your ears. Rather it sublimely informs you of all the little component parts of existence that occasionally might slip by your consciousness.