^v^

This is not the promised writeup on that aforementioned favourite album of mine!
I may or may not ever actually get around to doing it. THIS POST is moar aboot how I found a gnarls barkley song that I actually like.

My favourite album from 2008

I will write about this later, but here it is. Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel.

I hear hunters in the hills

THE DRONES

Are

the greatest Australian act to come forth in the last few years.

Holy shit. Give Shark Fin Blues, I'm Here Now or Nail it Down a listen and you will be converted! At least I hope you will, like I was. The best way I could describe the music would be a cross between garage rock, blues and punk fucken rock. Win ! GO LISTEN MOTHERFUCKERS!

Le Futureheads

I saw the Futureheads on Wednesday night. They were totally radddstix. Although their accent combined with mic-volume meant that their onstage banter was impossible to understand.
Highlights for me included The Beginning of The Twist, Area and Man Ray.
HERE IS THE SETLIST!:
On a side note, Ross Millard looks every bit as nerdy and intensely excited as you expect him to.
Woohoo!

THE HAWK IS HOWLING!

Every year I like to come up with one album which I think of as my 'Album of The Year' sort of deal. It's usually not the most blindingly brilliant release, but one that I just really really dug and stands out as my personal favourite. For example- 2005 came with what-will-be-remembered-forever classics such as Sufjan's Illinoise and Animal Collective's Feels, but my favourite for that year went to megarock album The Woods by now un-formed Sleater-Kinney. The point is, the album I 'choose' or whatever is usually something that stands out to me personally.

So far this year, I haven't been all that impressed. Disappointing releases by the likes of Wolf Parade (see pic-why Spencer, WHY?!!?!), Magnetic Fields and My Morning Jacket are all tousled amidst the Decent-to-great stuff by Beck, Atlas Sound and Xiu Xiu. But nothing has really stood out, until now.

Mogwai's newest one could have won me over on titles alone. The album is called THE HAWK IS HOWLING- one of the most badass titles I have ever read. But it doesn't stop there, gems among the tracklist include 'I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead,' 'The Sun Smells Too Loud' and 'I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School.' (I don't normally put in apostraphes for song titles but I thought it might get confusing with all the commas.) Strangely enough, many of the song titles fit the music they contain. The Sun Smells Too Loud is a bit druggy, sounding vaguely like a Boards of Canada track that has pumped up the testosterone, but you can definitely hear hints of sunshine and weird nostalgia/regret vibes. The mildly funny title of I Love You,... is actually quite downtrodden sounding, as if some insane lover really is plotting an insane attack.

I'm going to stop raving now and bravely (and tentatively) label The Hawk is Howling as My Album of 2008.

SOZ GUYS NO LINKS THIS TIEM










For the record, the last few 'album of the year'-esque titles have gone to the aforementioned Sleater-Kinney's The Woods, TV On The Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain and Sunset Rubdown's Random Spirit Lover.

I am a scientist

The new TV On The Radio album called Dear Science, is really nice. Their previous one, Return to Cookie Mountain, actually managed to be my favourite album from 2006, woohooo! This one is a bit less abstract and stripped down, but I'm finding with Dear Science, that my favourites are the slower, more melancholic songs rather than the I Was A Lover/Wolf Like Me types.

I have read Family Tree described as a Coldplay-esque piece, which I guess it kind of is. It has that big dramatic feel and super epic piano chords and strings etc., but it's still TV On The Radio! I am not that adverse to some Coldplay songs anyway... Love Dog is my other favourite- the beats are fucken amazing.

Lend an ear:

TV On The Radio - Family Tree
TV On The Radio - Love Dog

Diffenbachia

!!!STEREOLAB!!!

If there's been a way to build it
There'll be a way to destroy it
Things are not all that out of control
Stereolab - Crest

IF YOU ARE IN OVERCAST WEATHER TODAY LIKE ME THEN THIS IS THE SONG FOR YOU

ADMIT ADMIT YOU'RE SHIT YOU'RE SHIT!

It has come to my attention that although this blog is titled PUNK FUCKEN ROCK so far there has been not a lot of actual punk fucken rock featured. So here is my rectify! Buzzcocks are probably not as famous as The Sex Pistols or The Clash or The Ramones, but personally I like them better. Maybe it's because while yeah, it's 70's punk(or in this case, early 80's), it's also damn good pop music. So here are some trax from my favourite Buzzcocks album at the moment, A Different Kind of Tension.
Also, Pete Shelly is a Fucking Champ.

More actual punk rock will come eventually, I'm sure..

Buzzcocks - Sitting Round at Home
Buzzcocks - I Don't Know What to Do With My Life
Buzzcocks - I Believe

I won't fuck us over, I'm Mr. November!

I bought a bottle of wine yesterday, just because it was called "Arrogant Frog." It had won some award, or at least had a flashy sticker with something or other in french that I am assuming was an award. It didn't taste that great, I think. I'm not into wine that much. The point of this is that it reminded me of The National's song called All The Wine. I once was in the same city as The National and missed out on seeing them because I forgot to buy a ticket. This has happened to me several times, most recently with Parklife festival which will feature the likes of Peaches, Dizzee Rascal and Does it Offend You, Yeah? OH WELL.



So now I'm kind of in a nostalgia funk. I am kind of looking forward to going back to New Zealand at the end of the year but at the same time I know that when I get there I will want to come back. The National are good music for this. They are such a classy band. The video for Apartment Story which shows them playing at a Wedding is one of the greatest ideas ever for a music video because it suits the music so well.

LESSON OF THE BLOGPOST: don't put off buying tickets! I have a ticket to see The Faint in September, which is kind of exciting!

The National - All the Wine
The National - Baby, We'll Be Fine
The National - Mr. November

I'm not trapped in a box, I'm glancing at rocks, I'm dancing off docks

THE STREETS' NEW SINGLE IS HOT SHIT.

The truth I've told was silence sometimes
But whose soul does not hide any crimes
The Streets - The Escapist

Skippin' Little Stones

Soz, longtime no update etc.

YOU MAY RECALL recently or not so recently I guess one of my entries was about WEEN and how they are unfairly preconcieved as a novelty duo! But this is wrong. Ween are quite different from Flight of the Conchords, see?

Well. This entry will follow a similar theme of discrimination- N*E*R*D. THEY ARE NOT ONLY A HIP HOP GROUP! I mean, sure, their first album is kinda like that but it is also my least favourite. They make a meeeean pop song. Look at Wonderful Place from their second effort, Fly or Die. The title track is also good!

Their new one follows this trend but rather than lose momentum in the second half (as I feel fly or die does) it's solid all the way through. So don't just dismiss N*E*R*D as mindless rap music. They make rad tunes, yo. You Know What is funky. It is my favourite.

LISTEN.

N*E*R*D - You Know What
N*E*R*D - Spaz
N*E*R*D - Love Bomb

Box with Cross is Examinable

Every year during SWOTVAC/Exam period I latch onto some artist as my 'study music' as play the shit out of them. Previous stars of this ritual have been artists such as Decoder Ring, Autechre and Dntel. I generally prefer robotic, emotionless repetition to study to, you see. It helps with the concentration and memorisation of facts. For me, anyway.

This semester instead of finding some new light beatz to coach my note taking I decided to just chuck all of the previous study-fuel artists into one giant playlist and hit shuffle.
It's working out quite well. Not only am I studying efficiently, but I'm also rediscovering some choice tracks that I had momentarily forgotten.

GOOD LUCK WITH EXAMS TO ALL MY FELLOW STUDENTS.
Here are two of my favourites to help you out.

Junior Boys - Bellona









Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilities

Peen

I get the impression that Ween are largely written off as a comedy/novel music group, and not one that someone might listen to repeatedly for long-term enjoyment.
This is wrong.
Ween are not only amazingly versatile musicians who can do country music, showtunes, bizzare soundscapes (often all on one album) but also make mean ass pop songs that are up there with Jens Lekman or Sufjan Stevens' 3 minute wonders.

In particular, the album White Pepper is fucking amazing. Sure, it might be a parody on anything the Beatles ever did, but so is most modern music, and this shit is rad. Rather than front-loading all the good tracks at the front of the album, the thing is solid most at the beginning and ends of the record, with the only real lull for me being cheesy Bananas and Blow.

So yeah. Give Ween a chance. Start with White Pepper, it's grouse. Move on to the Mollusk, or Quebec. The latest, La Cucaracha might not be the best, but it's still got some choice cuts too.

Ween - Even If You Don't
Ween - Pandy Fackler
Ween - Stay Forever

LIGHTGLOBES WASH UP ALL ALONG THE BEACH

Because sometimes I'm a sentimental bastard too, damnit.
Some other songs that remind me of my birthday: The Cure's A Thousand Hours, Junior Boys' Birthday, Ryan Adams' Shadowlands. All really cheery tracks.

Something for Kate - Deja Vu

the slip

There is a new Nine Inch Nails album. It's very Bowie in that the first half are standard rock/pop songs and the second half are brooding instrumental types.
I like it. Especially the songs Echoplex and Head Down. You can download it for free at nin.com.
Did I mention that the album cover is one of the greatest I have ever seen?


Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

BANDFEST BANDFEST BANDEST

Hello, this is Luke! Again!

Tonight is Bandfest, the UQ Colleges annual Battle of the Bands competition, hosted by the college that I live at, International House. We have to organise the whole fucking thing and the other colleges bitch and moan etc. HECK YES.
Anyway.
My task in the Bandfest organisation was to select the house music to be played over the speakers between the bands. And pick the song/s for the air guitar competition (WOMAN!)
That was fun. I was only asked to undertake this task because everyone where I live knows that I am a giant music nerd. Album art is cool, ok?

In other news, Nine Inch Nails released a new song by some weird phenomenon, and it's not that amazing. I think Trent has gone completely off the hook and is just making music like crazy without actually listening to it afterwards. NOT THE WAY TO GO.

Here is a good knock knock joke that my friend Heidi invented:
KNOCK KNOCK/Who's there?
BOO/Boo who?
OH I DIDN'T KNOW MORRISSEY LIVED HERE!
Many lols ensue. ------>

Some music I have been addicted to lately are DFA Remixes of other songs. My favourites are She Wants to Move from N.E.R.D. (who I think are hideously overlooked as pop masterminds) and My Love from Justin Timberlake. BUT SRSLY, ALL DFA REMIXES ARE GOLDEN.

Finally, it's time to talk about new music o'clock. I got an album called Antidotes by a band called Foals and it's pretty good. They kind of remind me of Q and Not U and Bloc Party combined, featuring the brass section from TV on the Radio. Have a listen.


Foals - The French Open
Foals - Cassius








ENJOY!!

Come to Australia, that would be totally choice.

My favourite New Zealand band is a toss-up between Die! Die! Die! and The Mint Chicks. Luckily for me, Die! Die! Die! decided to pop over the Tasman to do a tour up the east coast and I got to see them. It was a good show, despite the fact that I had a few too many and was falling over even more than normal. The highlight of the show was either when he came into the crowd and I got a go on the mic, or finding $20 at the bottom of the mosh. Amazing all round- the only disappointment that there was no merch on sale for me to go around with Die! Die! Die! plastered across my chest.

ANYWAY.

The Mint Chicks are also great, and are touring NZ for the first time since relocating to the US late last year. It would be really, really, really nice if they could also pop over for a show ! Heck, I even got to see The Ruby Suns at the beginning of the year, for free!
I highly recommend checking out anything by either Die! Die! Die! or The Mint Chicks. They're not very similar though.

SONGS!:

Die! Die! Die! - People Talk
Die! Die! Die! - Blinding








The Mint Chicks - Opium of the People
The Mint Chicks - Fuck the Golden Youth
The Mint Chicks - Take It, I Don't Want It







So yeah, fingers crossed for The Mint Chicks in Australia!

The Greatest Song of All Time

If it isn't THE greatest song of all time, it is certainly one of them.
Because music really does sound better with you.

DOWNLOAD THIS SONG

START BLOGGING

Hello my name is Luke and this is my music blog LOLOLOL I am a nerd.

...
The new M83 aaand the new Kills albums are rad.
Maybe I will write properly eventually. MAYBE NOT WHO KNOWS NOT I

DOWNLOAD "HIGHWAY OF ENDLESS DREAMS" FROM M83's LATEST, "SATURDAYs=YOUTH"

THE CELEBRITY OF THE WEEK IS SPENCER KRUG!


TTYL