Reviews
Male Bonding - Nothing hurts (7.5/10)
Male Bonding is a band based in London, they're on the quality-driven Sub Pop label, which makes a lot of sense, because the grunge sound of some bands that were on the label in the nineties is definitely present here, although it's mixed here with some surf and African influences, which makes for an enjoyable mix. Short songs, varied album, this will not be a boring listen, I can promise you that.
"Weird Feelings" is a signature song, with a propelling bassline. The word that comes to mind when I want to try to describe this video, would be 'smegma'.
"Year's not long" is the opening track of the album. I found a pretty cool video of kids skating around in LA/Hollywood on old school skateboards, that seems to fit the music well. This is the demo version of the song however, the album version does have a better sound and production.
Abe Vigoda - Crush (7/10)
I checked out Abe Vigoda because Best Coast namedropped them. Their African guitar riffs remind me a little of Vampire Weekend, although Abe Vigoda focuses more on danceable rhythms. I witnessed myself that it's pretty hard to stand still during their live shows. Singer's voice gets some Robert Smith comparisons.
"Sequins" is the opening track of their latest album, it has a nice synth break in the chorus.
"Hyacinth girls" is actually an older track of their album "Skeleton", which was more guitar and less synthesizer-oriented.
Wavves - King of the beach (8/10)
Wavves is Nathan Williams' band, and the album sounds as shizophrenic as the man himself, from what I've heard. Rock, grunge, surf, girl groups, everything gets thrown into the blender, but every track seems to work in it's own respect.
"Post acid" is one of the rock tracks on the album, slightly elated. The video features an alien mask and some skateboarding.
"When will you come" and "Baseball cards" are 2 examples of the melodic, less rock-oriented tracks (like 'em both so much, couldn't pick just one).
Delphic - Acolyte (6.5/10)
Delphic are an UK band from the Manchester area, that get some New Order comparisons because they too fabricate danceable synthpop that is more suited to listen to than to actually dance to. A lot of the tracks are a bit long and mid-tempo, so the album gets a little monotone, but there are no real misses. "Counterpoint" with the nice synth loop is probably my favourite album track.
Bombay Bicycle Club - I had the blues but I shook them loose (8/10)
I featured a Bombay Bicycle Track on a previous blog post a couple months back. Their last album "Flaws" focuses on their acoustic side, while this 2009 album is an electronic indierock album. And a very good one, I might add. The singer - as stated before - looks a little like Chris Martin, but with an outrageously silly haircut, be sure to check out the videos. And this might be just me, but something in his voice and phrasing reminds me of Conor Oberst at times. On this album, this London outfit strikes a good balance between harder and softer tracks, you will hardly find a weaker track on this disc, I picked the three singles that have an official video, but I could've just as easily picked "Lamplight" or "Dust on the ground". Recommended.
Of the three tracks, "Always like this" is the atypical one, with it's groovy bassline, "Magnet" has a slight Snow Patrol-feel with those background vocals in the chorus, and "Evening Morning" has a nice buildup in the intro.
Random stuff
Mucky Pup
Random nineties band of the week/month, I had owned a tape of their "Act of faith" album, but (just like Helmet), I never had a friend or someone I knew that was on the same page with me as far as this New Jersey band went. They put out a couple of albums, had tons of line-up changes, and they had some ties to the hardcore scene (back in the day, I always felt like they sounded like a softer and, well, more fun version of the hardcore bands I knew back then), and some members of this band actually went on to play in Dog Eat Dog.
Lyrically, their first and last albums apparently dealt with some serious issues ("Short Attention Span" made the Headbanger's ball playlist), but the "Act of faith"-album I had on tape, is musically and lyrically not too far away from what The Bloodhound Gang was doing in their early days. I mean, the first track is called "Freakin' at the peepshow", the second one is "Mr. Hand" (featured below, the sound quality is pretty horrible, but if there ever was an anthem written for all the lonely, frustrated dudes out there, this was probably it), I forgot what the third track "Understand" was about, but the fourth track was called "Please don't burn the Johnson", with the lyrics "My johnson's on fire/I smell smoke/understand that this is no joke", I'm guessing you kind of got the point I'm trying to make here by now.
School Of Seven Bells
I got a hold of the last album by this shoegaze outfit (some tracks were already featured a couple of blog posts back); needs a couple more spins before I can write a review of it, but cannot resist sharing this track with you, the fourth song on their "Disconnect from desire" album. Not original in any respect, but a pretty perfect mix of Amusement Parks On Fire, M83 and My Bloody Valentine if you ask me. If you're planning on making a mixtape for a significant other anytime soon, you have to check this pronto. I also featured a live version, because uh..well, the singer's really hot.
