dont make lists

#307 - Silk Flowers - Running Out Of Rope

Yet another Captured Tracks band. Aviram & Peter of Soiled Mattress & The Springs. etc, etc, etc.

#308 - Kings Of Leon - King Of The Rodeo

Think this came out when i was 13. Maybe 14. Genuinely pretty solid album, the second one, played non-stop in combination with the two Metroid Prime Gamecube titles over the winter of ‘04/’05, massive massive nostalgia and one of the best videogame/music combinations i’ve had. They used to be capable of really good singles like this one. idk.

Promise my future posts will be 1000% more badass than this one.

#309 - Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say

Love the ridiculousness of this one. I love that the sample used is most famous for being used in the worst scene in television history. I love the subsequent Saturday Night Live Parodies. I don’t love the rubbish inevitable youtube parodies. I love the bit where he goes “TELL ME WHATCHA SAY-AH” like a spazz and also where he says his own name at the start. I love the fact that the title is actually “Whatcha Say”. I love the massively earnest expresion in every photo on google image search. Pretty sure I love Jason Derulo.

#310 - Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart

This is a choice, possibly/probably purely because of the music video which is one of the most chilling and atmospheric and incredible pieces of cinematography in the world, which coupled with this track, improve it tenfold. It’s pretty great in it’s own right but idk if it’d be her standout track had i not have it associated in my mind with the video.

#311 - The Bitters - Warrior

another captured tracks band. really good.

#312 - Burning Star Core - Benjamin

C Spencer Yeh is an individual I’m massively interested in but know almost nothing about. The couple of Burning Star Core recordings I have are brilliant (2005’s the very heart of the world, and 2008’s Challenger) but i’m yet to delve deeper into the vast BSC discography, or listen to a lot of the bands on his label, Dronedisco. It reminds me of when I first heard Blank Dogs and was overwhelmed by the amount of his releases, and ones on his label but after diving in I discovered loads of gold. Obviously this is an entirely different style of music but the optimism and principle are the same.

#313 - Hair Police - Interruption and Invasion

This is from Hair Police’s 2007 record The Empty Quarter. Noise music for fans of Wolf Eyes, some Black Dice, etc, etc, etc. Sounds pretty much completely evil. While I appreciate them lots, I don’t know a tenth of their vast discography, and I’m yet to see them live, despite them coming to my favourite venue in leeds last november.

#314 - Angelo Badalamenti - Endless Pursuit

Incredible. Bear with me on this one. A cut from the soundtrack of the infamous Nicholas Cage Wicker Man remake. Angelo Badalmenti is my favourite soundtrack composer in the world, obviously his work on Twin Peaks is (rightly) most appreciated, but his work on other Lynch films; The Straight Story, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet, etc is also incredible. His post-2000 work remains pretty impressive too with an updated CV including work on Mulholland Drive (possibly my favourite Lynch feature length), Evilenko, Life of Pi, etc.

So why this? A cut from one of the absolute worst films ever created? You’ll no doubt be familiar with this incredible youtube video, but (i don’t blame you here) probably won’t have seen the film. Please reconsider. That video doesn’t even contain a tenth of the comedy featured. I’ve seen it. Twice. And it’s genuinely one of the funniest and most entertaining couple of hours i’ve had watching a film. A large reason for this is Badalamenti’s score. Completely over-the-top and dramatic, working well to mock Cage’s awful overacting.

Pretty sure this piece accompanied Cage riding around on a bicycle and screaming at little girls. Amazing.

What would’ve been pretty good (or at least adequate) soundtrack to an average thriller hightens the comedy of Nicholas Cage’s faces. I applaud that.

#315 - Agaskodo Teliverek - The Girl With The Wax Ball

Really love this one. Was the only song I’d heard by them for a very long time until I picked up their album and was disappointed to hear everything else sounds a lot more retarded. Not that their retarded material isn’t great and retarded is what suits them. But this song sounds more grounded. Really like the spoken-word monologue and bouncy crash-bandicoot-soundtrack like opening.

Apologies for the late posts and lack of effort with this of late. If all goes to plan i’ll be writing drafts tomorrow to last me for a few weeks and normal service will then be resumed.

#316 - Flying Lotus - Parisian Goldfish

 This is so great. Roll on 20th of April and Cosmogramma.

#317 - Little Girls - Youth Tunes

Apologies for a late one today. Another lo-fi guitar band in the vein of nice face etc.

#318 - Joey Welz - Deal Or No Deal

I am so sorry. This is the worst song that’ll be featured on this. Except maybe one later. I spent 79p on iTunes to bring this to you, and a blank disc to make it mp3. The effort to bring you absymal music.

I first heard about Joey Welz searching for BARR on spotify (indie disclaimer). What I found was ultimately more depressing than the record I was searching for, which in itself is one of the most depressing things in the world (BARR’s Summary). But there’s something compelling about this. Some weirdo old guy singing about a gameshow, with genuine passion, dreaming about winning the total prize. It’s genuinely repulsive. LOOK AT HIM ^. idk how to describe how unsettling i find it all, or why, but the existence of this song almost reinforces my belief that there’s evil in the world. And that’s more of a reaction than 90% of the songs i write about on here give me, even though it’s overwhelmingly negative. I think anything that can make me lose faith in mankind is a pretty spectacular achievement, so i’m including it. I’m sorry.

#319 - Mission Of Burma - Youth Of America

PAAAAAAAAAAANCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

This is a cut from Mission Of Burma’s 2004 live record Snapshot. It doesn’t capture the highs of Vs./Signals era MoB or the Wipers original, but both of those are highs seen very very rarely in the history of mankind, so I’ll let them off for producing a more-than-adequate cover version in their fifties. I can think of very few (any?) other rock bands that still sound vital at that age. Ridiculously psyched to catch them at ATPavement later this year.

#320 - Holy Shit - New Colors

Holy Shit is Matt Fishbeck’s (formerly of the push kings) band, joined by Ariel Rosenburg (Ariel Pink) and Girls’ Christopher Owens (who is no longer in the band). Their first and only proper record, Stranded at Two Harbors, is one of the best pop records in the world.

This track mixes Flying Nun-style surf riffs with Ariel Pink production aesthetic, which for me is a perfect match.

#321 - XXL - Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw

happy valentines day

It’s strange. if you’d ask me abut XXL, i’d rave about them to the high heavens and hold their couple of albums up their with Xiu Xiu’s - certainly above Women As Lovers (and that’s a solid record) and possibly others. But for the purpose of this list, with collecting tracks, their work is probably more consistent and subtle than the work of Xiu Xiu (who will be featured much, much higher), and there’re very few artists you’ll see featured where i’ve found it so difficult to choose a standout track. There are no, say, Hives Hives, I Love The Valley, etc etc.

This is the first track from their debut record ¡Ciaütistico!.

I can’t recommend either of these collaboration albums enough. Buy them here.

#322 - Nico Muhly - Clear Music

Massive regret that I didn’t see Nico Muhly’s performance at ATP vs. The Fans II last year

#323 - Girls - Hellhole Ratrace

This is really really great. not 9.3 great. but good.

#324 - Nice Face - Thing In My Head

Yesterday I posted about Factums with mentions of Sacred Bones Records & “hipster faceless lo-fi stuff”. idk about hipster but nice face give me a decent platform to write further about facelessness and that label.

While Sacred Bones has a lot of overlap with other labels I mention (or will mention) a lot here - Captured Tracks, Woodsist, Not Not Fun, In The Red, ETC, the thing that seems special about them is their aesthetic is more defined. There’s almost an iconography to it. See, their artwork: Gary War, Factums, Zola Jesus, Children’s Hospital, The Pink Noise & Blank Dogs sporting some of the most gorgeous album covers of recent years. While this debut 7” from Nice Face doesn’t continue that trend, it’s still got a really great cover, designed by Mike Sniper (Mr. Blank Dogs / Captured Tracks).

Speaking of Mike Sniper, anonymity & enigma is a recurring theme in this whole scene, and none achieve it better than Nice Face - I have absolutely no idea who this is and no googling will give me an answer. While Zola Jesus, Blank Dogs, Dead Luke, et al retain mystique, they have proper names and faces. With Nice Face, there’s nothing. And that’s awesome.

Thing In My Head is great. It reminds me of the sounds my gameboy used to make when it malfunctioned on Pokémon when you discovered Missingno.

#325 - Factums - Take Drugs

Factums are a band who have released records on both one of the greatest labels of all-time (Siltbreeze) and one of the best new labels of the past few years (Sacred Bones Records) and have connections with the likes of Fruit Bats & The Intelligence. If none of those namechecks mean anything to you I suggest going here and here and here especially, before pressing play above. Because as good as factums do their whole hipster faceless lo-fi stuff (that’s as much of a description as i’m going to give), those links will open you up to a world of music that’s even better.

#326 - Zombie Zombie - A Land For Renegades

Pictures like the above usually mean a band are really rubbish. Doesn’t apply to Zombie Zombie so much. This track reminds me of soundtracks to 80s dystopian future films where the future is basically smokey back alleys and neon signs and sinister awful electro-nightclubs and the mosty aesthetically unappealing fashion in the world.

Not that this is true at all regarding The Warriors, which is a pretty great film. A Land For Renegades sounds like it should be on the soundtrack to that especially, which earns it a place on this list for sure