foxy friday

Dr. Fox's Old Timey String Band - Kids (MGMT)

This is lots and lots of fun. Listening to it makes me want to be able to push some sort of "trad" button in iTunes and see what happens. Have a nice weekend everyone.

{MySpace}

latin conjugations

{via}


Freelance Whales - Generator ^Second Floor

This is the kind of song I want to flatten onto a little 7" vinyl, and hide behind a glass frame, high on the wall, so that some day, in the event of an emergency, I can look at it and remember how much it helps. Yes, it's very much an indie blogger's default soundtrack, layered with glockenspiel, group singing, and lovely lovely sincerity. But there's something charming about a song that is willing to take all those trappings and make something beautiful out of them nevertheless.

Freelance Whales are quite clearly very good, and are playing with Fanfarlo on their tour of the US. That should be a lot of fun.

fire bird

DM Stith - Abraham's Song (Bibio remix)

Have you heard this? Did you know how well this music lends itself to being cut up so other people can wrap themselves in it? I did not. But all of a sudden, three of my favourite remixes of this year are of DM Stith songs. Funny how that happens.

The Braid of Voices EP will be out on December 8th. Here is the tracklisting:

1. Braid of Voices (brass version)
2. Easy to be Around (Diane Cluck cover)
3. Braid of Voices (Clark remix)
4. In my dreams, I watch TV (Braid of Voices remixed by Ensemble)
5. Abraham's Song (Bibio remix)
6. I Heart Wig (featuring I Heart Lung)

The first two parts in this EP series, BMB and Thanksgiving Moon, are both spectacular, and are both out now, available here. The Michna remix of 'Thanksgiving Moon' is a particularly fine rework, as is Son Lux's transformation of 'BMB'.

where have you been

O Emperor - Po

This song starts off all woozy and understated, maybe a little drunk. Guitar strings are plucked like lights dancing around shadows, and the vocals shift and seethe around the lyrics, detailing the story of Po, and it's not long before you begin to feel like you're seated in the corner of some dimly lit pub watching someone stalk around, growing more and more interested by the second. It's testament to the band's abilities as musicians that they manage to keep the song this dark, and yet hike the tension as slowly as possible. It's done expertly, and it's almost reminiscent of The National, they way everything seems in line, down to the finest detail. And damn, but you've got to love that voice. It sounds like pulling warm clothes on when you're cold.

This is one of the best Irish songs I've heard this year. You can buy 'Po' right now, on iTunes, or by text. I'm looking forward to seeing what this band get up to in 2010.

Analogue Episode 1

the fall

"On 9 November, thinking to deal with the crisis, the Politbüro met and decided to relax travel restrictions. People would be allowed to travel freely and be prohibited from leaving the country only in 'special exceptional circumstances'. The session went on into the night. At this stage the regime had taken to holding a regular press conference with the international media. That evening, Politbüro member Günter Schabowski needed to get to it. He hadn't been to the session, but was hastily given a note of its decision to read out at the press conference.
When he finished, there was no visible reaction among the journalists in the room; all pens were poised, the boom mikes floated in the air. Then a question came from the floor: 'When will this new provision come into force?' Schabowski has baggy eyes and a face like a blood-hound. Embarrassed, he looked at the paper. He turned it over but found no answer. 'It will come into force... to my knowledge, immediately,' he said.
The decision was to have become operable the next day, after the border guards had been instructed on its implementation. But as soon as Schabowski had spoken it was too late. Within hours of his blunder 10,000 people were at the Bornholmer Bridge checkpoint on foot and in their Trabant cars, thronging the Wall. The light from the death strip showed up breath, exhaust. There was a symphony of horns. The guards stood at trigger point, but no orders came. Eventually, the supervisor decided to let the people through, on one condition. The guards were to place the exit stamp to the left of the passport photographs of 'the most importunate' (those at the front of the queue), so that they could later be identified, and refused re-entry.
The people didn't know and they didn't care. They streamed through into West Berlin. When the first few came back with cans of western beer to show where they'd been, the guards tried to stop them coming home, but it was too late, it was all over, and people from east and west were climbing, crying, and dancing on the Wall."



"Stasi officers were instructed to destroy files, starting with the most incriminating - those naming westerners who spied for them, and those that concerned deaths. They shredded the files until the shredders collapsed...
On 13 November, Mielke, aged eighty-one, became desperate about the waning of his world. He made his first and only address to the parliament. It was broadcast live. 'Dear Comrades,' he opened, and the booing began. Cries of 'We are not your comrades!' came from the newly independent minor parties. Then, as if he simply could not understand why he might be disliked, Mielke stammered into the microphone. 'I love,' he said, '- but I love all people. I put myself out for you...'
When they think of Mielke, East Germans like to think of this."

The Antlers - East River Berlin Wall

{From Anna Funder's excellent Stasiland, p. 65-68.}

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

This song looks like a lot of fun. The recorded version is even more joyous, filled with kind of sounds people only make when they are intent on keeping things as ridiculously happy as they are. It's the country tinge that makes it so surprisingly gleeful, because the only dances you could do would be a little embarrassing, and rather out-of-place in any city in which I've lived. But that's part of what makes this song so damn alluring - the idea that you could head off and find a new home elsewhere, somewhere that sounds like this.


Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - Home

The band are on tour now - you can buy their album here.

no strings attached

BellaJane - Marionette

Where did you buy your clothes?
I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the top and the dress are from different countries. And my mom bought these boots. Where did you get yours?
I didn't. I don't know. They were there this morning. Um, what's your style?
I dress like a girl in love. Don't you think?
I guess.
I feel pretty sure that's who I am today.
It is a very nice look.
Do you want it? You can have these now, I'm not cold.
It's the middle of November!
Well, let's go somewhere then.
Where? Wait, let's finish the questionnaire first. What's your biggest style peeve?
People who don't wear out their clothes. Wearing new clothes all the time is so slutty. Also, I hate the word 'peeve'. You don't remember me, do you?
What? Should I?
That Halloween party, last week. We met in the corner. We talked about clothes, yes, but also the infinite meanings of the colour blue. You cried. You made me cry. I was dressed as a marionette. You were really drunk. I think I was too.
Oh God.
You took me home. You didn't want to take off your clothes. You told me you'd see me again, and here you are. You told me you could love me, but never a marionette. Well, I'm not a marionette anymore.
Listen, I have to go. I have to do five of these questionnaires by tonight. I'll let you know if I use you.

BellaJane are from Dublin, and they are clearly very talented. They make songs that sound a little like unrequited love. This song is sweet and sad, and all the sadder for the strings that ring and ring, like a broken heart that won't stop beating.

all night

Sleep Thieves - City Lights

In the early hours of the morning we left the party, and started walking, and we walked all day. By the time we got back to our hometown, a shut-eyed little suburb out on the outskirts of the city, we noticed that things had changed. People were standing around, everybody we knew, or their parents, moving in lines, working in groups, working on buildings. It was like old footage of rubble women rebuilding cities after the war, but now they were fixing everything that had seemed to have gone wrong, removing the cracks in windows, polishing the signs in bus shelters, cleaning streets, replacing racist graffiti with smiley faces. It all looked so easy, the way they had a few words with the troublemakers, and left them smiling, and willing to help. They did all this merrily, like they were preparing all this for us, like Christmas morning. We walked past them all, trying to take it in, but the long night had left us with heavy eyes, and we were ushered to bed. By the time we woke, the town was empty again, and shadowed by the light of the moon. The day was gone.

Sleep Thieves are one of my favourite Irish acts at the moment. They have this lovely song, and others on an EP. You can download and stream them via their MySpace.