Ethical Wrestler

With the fantastic plethora of wonderful mp3 blogs posting an unending supply of good new music I don't even know what to post anymore. It's all been done. Like am I going to post the alan braxe remix of heartbeat? I think I'll let the club dj's play that for you first. The Buzzcocks? When in Rome? Weird long electro tracks by Lindstrom? I can't think of anything to post today that would make any sense. So I'll round-up all my latest favorite posts by other bloggers.


The New Black has posted an amazing cover by Vitaminsforyou, of the Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go." I think the new black review is just about right.


The Swish Blog has posted an infectious example of unfinished indie scales called Another Number by The Cribs. The Theme from Chalets is pretty good as well.

Uncritical, always one of my favorites, has posted two great songs in his Wednesday, March 30th post. The Moneybrother song (they're building walls around us) is incredibly poppy and catchy and reminiscent of "crappy late eighties tv shows" (what's wrong with that?). The Boogers track is totally different and totally fun. Thanks for all the great posts Chris!

the SpoiltVictorianChild is consistently posting good fresh music, another regular favorite of mine for sure. About a month ago he posted The New Sound by The Capricorns in this post. I still really can't get enough of these "dracula synths." There's also a post for swedish synth pop girl Compute.


I promise to have something real juicy for all y'all by next wednesday. These sites ought to keep you busy for now though.

Ultrapost: Ragazzi, MIA, You Say party! We say Die!, the Five O'clock Heroes...

Ragazzi - Weekend: I was introduced to this band thanks to Chris at Uncritical when he posted "Ends" last summer. This song is new-wave synth pop at it's best, played by five guys who resemble Gary Numan. Weekend has priceless post-industrial lyrics coupled with a heart-wrenchingly-refrained-from-fist-pumping melody. In fact the whole album, Friday, seems steeped in dreamy post-industrial frustration and melodic refrain/sustain.. Like the song Ends (click to download), where the chorus succinctly deconstructs working class: "you sleep and wake up, you have your hair cut, you go out voting, yeah that's working, the home I live in, the wife and children, these are the things that can make me feel in love!" over the most intense synthesizer workout you're likely to hear in your life. The album also saw some superstar guests, Erland Oye literally phoned in his parts on The Partner and japanese musician/ex-geisha/photographer/vogue columnist Hanayo appears on Call and reply. The composition of this album was also aided with unbelievable production from Mario Thaler (producer for the Notwist and Lali Puna).
Click here to visit ragazzi's exciting website.
Click here to buy this cd from Schnitzel.

You Say Party! We say Die! - Apocolypse Meow: Nothing beats a post-apocolyptic joycore love song done by an artsy bike gang (I assume they ride bikes) from Abbotsford BC. Nothing except maybe one that's longer than a minute forty-nine seconds. The sincere naievety of the lyrics remind me of the nineties, but in a good way. This song's like Kathleen Hanna doing a cover of a Portishead impersonation. Maybe that's why I like this song so much, that and the rickety synth rythm easily finds a place in my heart.
Click here to visit You Say Party! We Say Die!'s website.

The Five O'clock Heroes - Head games: Title track from the debut LP of the Five O'Clock Heroes. Reminds me of The Jam, but not too much, not directly. Just enough that I'd play this song next to "In the City" in a DJ set or something. I saw them play in the basement of the Lit in New York about a year and a half ago and it was one of the 3 best shows I saw in 9 days, and I took in at least 20 bands. Yeah, the Five O'clock Heroes are awesome and I think they're touring the UK right now. In fact they are, Here's the dates:
March 25 Fri - Glasgow - The Barfly - headline show
March 26 Sat - Coventry - Colosseum (Groovy Garden) Club Night - with The Rakes
March 27 Sun - Stockton On Tees - Ku Bar Club Night - with 10,000 Things and The Paddingtons
Five O'Clock Heroes - Run To Her: Okay let's post another song. They recently released this as a 7" on Glaze records, you can probably find it in a store in the UK, or at their shows. Piccadilly Records is all sold out.
Click here to visit the five o'clock heroes website.


And in related news...
Aziz Ansari - MIA Story (featuring Eugene Mirman): I always held that a person knows they've made it in life two ways: you get assasinated, or you get parodied. Parody is usually a better option. M.I.A. has made it, Eugene Mirman gives a stellar performance, having me convinced he was MIA in this "experimental" comedy piece. It's obvious that's how MIA would behave when confronted by Ex-Onion intern, Aziz Ansari (they have a lot in common) outside the knitting factory. Seriously, this is funny.
Click here to visit Aziz Ansari's website.

France Wins 2-0

Bang Bang - Shoot the Model (teen remix): 11 months ago I heard Alan Braxe and Fred Falke's song Rubicon and I declared! it would be the number one summer jam of 2004. I live in Vancouver so Rubicon never really blew up the spot, unless the spot happened to be my living room. I know rubicon took off in other cities, and for all the right reasons - Campy disco beat and an awesome solo played on a cheap guitar. This version of Shoot the Model has all the elements for being the number one summer jam of 2005 (except it was released as a single 12 months ago in Europe, but whatever North America's supposed to be late). We have the standard new rock/house beat, real bass, and a hotter-than-sunburn guitar riff for a chorus. This guitar is the most amazing thing I have heard all year. Much like the Alan Braxe and Fred Falke track in question earlier, the chorus guitar sounds like one of those starter kit electric guitars with the speaker built into the body, like the one in Bart Simpson's closet. And somehow this cheap-ass guitar tone makes me want to strike the most intense hi-top crushing air-guitar pose and rock an extreme overbite. How can French people get away with this?
Click here to buy this single from Juno
Click here to buy the Bang Bang full length CD.
Click here to visit the label, Yellow.

Cut Copy Tour

If you happen to live in LA or Miami, Cut Copy will be coming by your city this week. Here's the dates:

Wednesday, March 23: LA - Moscow at Boardners
Friday, March 25: Miami - Revolver party

If you live in Europe then you are especially lucky because Cut Copy have decided to tour like mad through April and May with Simian Mobile Disco, Black Strobe, and Mylo. Here's the dates:

25 April - Notting Hill Arts Club (with Simian Mobile Disco)
29 April - Bugged Out, Barcelona (with Black Strobe)
01 May - Brighton Event (with Mylo)
03 May - Cambridge Junction (with Mylo)
05 May - Camden Koko Club (with Mylo)
06 May - Sheffield Leadmill (with Mylo)
07 May - Liverpool Academy (with Mylo)
08 May - Middlesbrough Empire (with Mylo)
10 May - Dundee Fat Sams (with Mylo)
11 May - Aberdeen Lemon Tree (with Mylo)
12 May - Glasgow Barrowland (with Mylo)

They've also released the Saturdays 12" in europe, and on expensive import in north america.

Cut Copy - Autobahn Music Box: I reckon everybody's heard Saturdays allready so why not post something from the opposite end of the album. This isn't some rocking floor filler like you should expect from their live performance, but it's more of a Roxy Music influenced post party jam. That said, Autobahn Music Box was immediately my favorite song from their debut full length Bright Like Neon Love.

Cut Copy - Bright Neon Payphone: Another one from the end of the album. I can't pin down who Dan Whitfords vocals on this track remind me of. I wish I could because then I could have something relevant and witty to say...nope.

Click here for Cut Copy's official website.
Click here to order Bright Like Neon Love.
Click here to visit Modular Recordings, the record label responsible for Cut Copy, Wolf Mother, Avalanches, Bumblebeez, and the Australian releases of Chromeo, Mahjongg, the presets, yeah yeah yeahs, etc. Awesome label.

Who's In Control?

Hot Chip - No More Master: Hot Chip's debut album "Coming On Strong" was really fantastic. It blew me away to be honest. It was this campy/sincere bedroom electrofunk album unsure of it's place in the world, and you know Alexis Taylor sang all those lyrics in front of a full length mirror. Now we have the new Hot Chip and it's shit hot. The boys have grown up some, stepped away from the mirror assuming control of the listener and given us an intelligently ridiculous and wonderful song. I wonder if this is an indication of their next full length.
Click here to visit the official Hot Chip website.

Fannypack - You Gotta Know: Here's the thing. About a year ago this guy gave me Grandia for the playstation one and told me I had to finish it. It is hands down the most annoying video game ever created. Non stop repetition of you killing birds, snakes and scorpions in the desert for 100 hours just so you can get strong enough to beat this lame boss. It's insane. I brought my playstation out of the closet to finish this game, lost two weeks of my life, put the playsyation back in the box and refiled it back in the closet. Now about a month or so ago I bought an RPG for my computer called Neverwinter Nights because I thought it would keep me inside, installed it and played it for a couple of days, went out and got drunk then forgot about it. I'm not really into video games, though sometimes I think I can be. This week my internet went down cause the modem broke or something so I couldn't post to this page or do any web related work. I decide to play Neverwinter Nights and it ruins my whole week. I lost my identity in the real world and had a hard time going outside. I listened to this record over and over without even realizing it while I battled this stupid video game and anytime I peeled myself away from it, this "you've got to know" hook was in my head. Yesterday night the internet works again so I put on this Kitsune X record minus the RPG thank god, and beheld the magic that is fannypack.
Click here to visit the official Fannypack website.
Click here to buy the Kitsune X compilation (both these tracks come off it) from Juno, or here to get it from piccadilly records.
Click here to visit the Kitsune website. This is a highly advanced website viewed best with a very powerful computer.

The T.A.L.A. Band Disband

T.A.L.A. Band - mystery track: So another Vancouver band (see Fuck Me USA)records an EP and breaks up before it sees the light of day. I wonder why this happens. I wonder why it only happens to my favorite bands in the city. Do I have a taste for tension? No, I just like post-punk/art-dance-rock/new-wave bands- you know how it is. With the T.A.L.A. Band we have the post punk/funk rythms, post punk guitar, and vocals like Mark E. Smith covering Ian Curtis doing an exaggerated impersonation of Robert Smith, but still original- sounding nothing like the above mentioned artists. It was all so perfect in 2004, complete with promises of seven minute sets at artsy fartsy skate shops. These kids were getting my vote as the best band in Vancouver. Then a week ago I got this CD with news the members of the T.A.L.A. Band had moved on to other projects. Let's hope they can start 4 bands as awesome as this.

Click here for another talaband song. html Target = blank.

And in related news, my favorite mp3 blog: Uncritical is finally back. Stop by and say hello.

No way man, Paul McCartney just doesn't DO italo-electro disco.

Paul McCartney - Temporary Secretary: Well actually, Paul McCartney does do italo electro. This is actually an official Paul McCartney release, released by Parlophone first in 1980 as a twelve inch b/w Secret Friend limited to 25,000 pressings, and again by Parlophone in 2003 as the Radio Slave edit, a single sided twelve inch limited to 500 copies worldwide. Now I recorded this version off the single sided 2003 release, but it's pretty much the same as the original track. From what I can gather, the Radio Slave edit has some extra hi-hat accents, some reverse snares, the arpeggiated synth intro has been extended, as has the entire track, by about 2 minutes. But that's it. Paul McCartney was actually behind this song and he actually released it in 1980. Many thanks to DJ Beef who played this song on his radio show a couple of weeks ago. That's where I heard it for the first time.
Click Here to check out the history of the original Temporary Secretary 12".
Click here to visit East Village Radio, the station that host's DJ Beef's show "Electrobeef" on mondays from midnight till 2am Eastern Standard Time. Or just click here to visit the Electrobeef homepage where all DJ beef's Mixes are available in mp3 or streaming format. Seriously worth it, seriously the best radio program.
Click here to buy this record off Gemm.



Charlie - Spacer Woman: Now if you are wondering just what Italo-Electro Disco is, this is one of the finest examples. I can't believe people were dancing to this in 1982, cause it's really fantastic electro with really fantastic lyrics: "I'm a spacer woman, don't you want to love me/ I don't want to hurt you, I just want to love you." This song was recorded off the vinyl version of I Robots compilation of early italo electro disco.
Click here to buy this album from Tunes UK.
Click here to visit the IRMA Group, the record label that the I Robots compilation is on.

Japanese Pop!

Ego Wrappin - Track Scorcher: This song is so much fun I can't even believe it. It's like they are at the international departures gate and they are going somewhere fresh. And since it's in Japanese, Ego Wrappin could be singing about dead birds for all I know, but I doubt it cause dead birds aren't this much fun. By the way, the track gets scorched at the 1:20 mark by an amazing wall of reverbed guitars.

Click Here to visit Ego-Wrappin's official site.

Click Here to buy this record off Juno.



Yukari Rotten - Break: I was so worried I would never get this record by the way Picadilly Records was talking about it, but I totally fluked out and found it on Jet Set Records. Now I have it and so do you. Yukari Rotten is Yukari Fresh, although I don't know what the distinction is between the two monikers. This song is the first single off her newest album called Me, this 12" also features remixes by Headman and Chicks On Speed.

Click here to buy this record off Jet Set Recordings

Click Here for an older discography of Yukari Fresh singles and compilation appearances.

Click Here to visit Escalator Records, the label Yukari Fresh is on. This site is especially good when viewed by Japanese speaking people.

Click Here to visit JetSet Records page of recommended J-Pop, the page where I found both the Yukari Rotten and Ego-Wrapppin singles.

Re: Re: Valey Style and soldout...

And once again these two tracks have been removed from my website. I will put up another post right away.