New chilled out track from New Mexico superband Beirut. Zach Condon and Co. announced the release of a new single through the label Pompeii a few days back. Turns out the track ‘East Harlem’ was featured on the band’s Live At the Music Hall of Williamsburg album.
Tag "Indie Rock"
“Eureka”, released March 15th, is the third album from the Vancouver based band Mother Mother. I’m really digging this band’s sound, somewhat like a contemporary velvet underground. Check it out.
Shout out to Karl (good luck in BC)
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The Stand: Download
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Aspiring Fires: Download
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Baby Don’t Dance: Download
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What’s good peeps? This is the second edition of a new series we here at SpacePack are trying out. The ten part series will showcase some of our favourite albums, and the artists that crafted them, of the last decade. Looking back, we’ll check out albums that we (Rich, Kenny, and myself) found to be particularly influential, creative or that remain staples in our music collections.
When this series was first proposed, I had a ton of albums in mind that I wished to showcase. However, when I was flipping through my iTunes library, a piece of album artwork came up that set my mind straight. The image you see above is the album cover for the 2006 debut release Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not from the English indie rock group Arctic Monkeys. The pure awesomeness of this album is hard to do justice with words, but here’s my best stab at it.
When listening to this album, there is really one thing to keep in mind; Whatever… is intended to be a concept album that focuses on the behavior of night clubbers. Essentially, it’s all about Saturday night and Sunday mornings.
Take the opening track Leave Before The Lights Come On for example. One of the lines front man Alex Turner sings is ‘Quick let’s leave before the lights come on ‘cos then you don’t have to see what you’ve done’, a clear tale of a one night stand and the next morning’s realization of what the fuck did I do last night?
The band kicks it into high gear with their next track and arguably greatest hit to date, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor. Following the perspective of an eager club goer (I sometimes like to think that the album follows the perspective of the bloke pictured above), this track takes a realistic view of night club romancing ‘Oh, there ain’t no love, no Montagues or Capulets/Just banging tunes and DJ sets and/Dirty dancefloors, and dreams of naughtiness!’ Who ever said chivalry was dead?
Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Many of the tracks follow similar themes of the Northern England night scene but each framed in a different way. The track Dancing Shoes is about people always looking to pull when they go out however much they mask it. Still Take You Home is exactly what it sounds like, the trials and tribulations of romancing a girl, if only for an evening. Perhaps You Couldn’t See for the Lights But You Were Starring Straight At Me is not only a long ass title for a song, but also discusses the common behaviour of guys when a pretty girl is around, cracking jokes and peacockin’ to get here attention. I’m pretty sure everyone can relate with this one.
Riot Van takes a more mellow departure from the album up to this point. It’s a real slow burner of a tune and marks a change in mood for the album.
Mardy Bum is one of my all time favorites, not just on the album but in general. It has a beautiful guitar hook and I believe is the first song on the album that doesn’t directly talk about pulling girls on the night scene. I had to do some digging on this one, but ‘Mardy’ is English slang for ‘moody’. Not exactly sure how this relates to the song, moody bum anyone?
The album comes to a close with another fantastic standout hit that challenges Mardy Bum for supremacy of ‘favorite song’. I can pinpoint this track as the one that turned me onto the album as a whole rather than just the singles. Favorite line, There’s only music so that there’s new ringtones. Ha!
Arctic Monkeys – A Certain Romance
All in all, the superb drumming of Matt Helders, the rhythmic basslines of Nick O’Malley and Andy Nicholson and the definitively English vocals of Alex Turner set this album head and shoulders above all others (at least within the past 10 years). Whether it be peacocking yourself to the opposite sex, burning tile on the dancefloor, or being thrown into a riot van, the Arcitc Monkeys tell one hell of a story through each of the tracks on this album. It took a lot of restraint not to post all songs from this album, so if you like what you hear I strongly urge you to go out and buy Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not, she’s a beauty………even in the morning after.
Keep an eye out for the Arctic Monkey’s upcoming release Suck It and See. LOL!
Cheers!
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Quickly wanted to drop off a track from Foster The People‘s debut Torches. The highly anticapated debut album from the Los Angeles group has eleven tracks including the hit single ‘Pumped Up Kicks’. Audio below of the last track off the album ‘Warrant’.
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The Swedish indie group, Peter Bjorn and John are back with a new album entitled “Gimme Some”. It was released March 28th of this year and is said to be a departure from the catchier pop inspired albums of their recent past (eg. Writer’s Block – Young Folks). Instead the group opted for a dirtier sound, which they claim is more in-tuned with their musical roots than their more popular endeavors. The songs on this album are full of energy and catchy melodies making for an overall enjoyable listening experience.
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Don’t Let Them Cool Off: Download
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Breaker Breaker: Download
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Second Chance: Download
So I was on a field review for my work yesterday and we visited this beautiful old heritage house built in the 1870′s. The thing that really struck me about this building was it’s stunning roof line. I would latter learn that this shapely roof line is called a ‘Mansard Roof’. Here’s a picture of the building we surveyed with the Mansard Roof on the right (hint: the building is located somewhere in downtown Toronto),
Well the first thing that came to mind when hearing about this ‘Mansard Roof’ was the similarly titled song from the American indie rock band Vampire Weekend. The song appears on their eponymous titled debut album Vampire Weekend and it is a gem. It’s always crazy making connections between everyday life and what you hear in music and I feel it makes the songs more personal and easy to relate to. Anyways, that’s your lesson in architecture for the day. Enjoy the song,
Vampire Weekend – Mansard Roof
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Been riding that indie wave as of late, largely due to Foster the People’s Pumped Up Kicks. Man that’s a catchy chune! Well here’s another really cool indie track from UK based band We Are Trees, consisting of lead singer James Nee and Josiah Schlater. This song has been getting mad play on my early morning subway adventures. I find it’s a perfect track for zoning out and simply forgetting where you are in space and time as the laid back vocals and simple yet catchy hooks lull you into a dream like state. Dig it!
Favorite line – It starts with a kiss but it ends with a bitch. Truuuuuuuue
We Are Trees – I Don’t Believe in Love
The song appears on their EP Girlfriend. Support the band through their website, We Are Trees.
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PJ Harvey is a master of experimentation. A seeker of originality, Harvey’s sound is never duplicated from album to album. This is true for Let England Shake. Her music is the result of a combination of influences like fellow english poet T.S. Eliot and musical groups the Doors and The Pogues – as well as being inspired by paintings from Salvador Dali. Directed by the art of these past visionaries, PJ Harvey takes a critical stance on contemporary political turmoil in Afghanistan and Iraq – and does so effectively. Let England shake is considered to be one of the best albums of 2011 so far, take a listen and see if you agree.
The Last Living Rose: Download
On Battleship Hill: Download
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The Cave Singers are back with a new album entitled “No Witch”. It seems to be an aggressive departure from their other stuff. A few tracks have Tool-like deep guitar riffs, followed by “I Am the Walrus” sitars only to be constrasted by what sounds to be James Brown’s Church Choir. This album has a diverse array of sounds and is very interesting to listen to, i suggest you check it out.
Outer Realms: Download
Black Leaf: Download
All Land Crabs And Divinity Ghosts: Download
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