Monday 26 January 2009

Emmy The Great - First Love

Great song and I'm hopefully seeing her play on the 20th February.

Friday 16 January 2009

Animal Collective - My Girls

Here is a track from Animal Collective that is currently sending bloggers the world over absolutely crazy. I am in full agreement with the hype, as this track is definitely something special. It's more poppy that the last record, but sound as if the band have brought together alot of their previous experimentation into a more focused song. Pitchfork have already given Merriweather Post Pavilion, which this is from, a 9.6! Big praise from the 'fork, so keep your ears peeled!



Animal Collective - "My Girls"

Yellow Sticky Notes

Being a massive user of these little things, I found this video has really captured my imagination. Currently I'm leaving more than my usual share of notes around, due to revision! This is a small video by Jeff Chiba Stearns; check out more of his work here.

Tuesday 6 January 2009

Minus The Bear - Acoustics EP

This EP is a little slice of goodness that 2008 almost passed by for me. Luckily I managed to stumble across it as I peeked around another corner of the world wide web, and how glad I am.

"Acoustics" features a single new song, "Guns & Ammo", which kicks off the EP and it is to the same standard that long time fans will be used to. The highlight of the track for me is actually the delicate vocal, something that doesn't always stand out for me in MTB's work.

The rest of the EP is made up of 6 reworked songs, all in the acoustic format. "We Are Not a Football Team" sounds much like the original, at least in terms of notes and tempo but other songs, like popular "Pachuca Sunrise", are given the treatment of a whole new arrangement. With musicians of such a high calibre, all the songs here benefit from their reworkings. What is lost in effects and atmosphere, is gained in clarity and feeling.

Overall, this EP is definately worth a listen and the few pounds it would set you back to actually buy could be easily spent on worse things. While not filled with new material, it is still a very pleasing 26 minutes of music.

Minus The Bear - "Guns & Ammo"