Wednesday 17 July 2013

Part of you has everything I've had but couldn't keep.

Aaah The Velvet Underground. What a band. They're my go-to everytime I want a chill night either alone or with friends. This song in particular, never fails to bring me peace, despite it being quite sad (the song was meant for Shelley Albin, Lou Reed's first lover, who was already married - hence the line "It was good what we did yesterday, and I'd do it once again . The fact that you are married only proves your my best friend.").
So if like me, you're chilling in your garden watching the sun set, then I strongly advise you to listen to Pale Blue Eyes , you won't regret it.


That's what friends are for.

Good friends make you listen to good music. Now, I'm not a big fan or Rap music in general, let alone French rap so I was pretty sceptical when a good friend of mine told me about this band she was infatuated with. But Odezenne (formerly o2zen ) gives off a very sexy-funky-sunny  vibe and I gradually fell in love with their song Méli Mélo (whose best lyrics are not "Bla Bla Bla", I promise). So go check it out, nothing to lose for ya : If you're not french, then you can show off and be the coolest among your friends because you listen to "underground Frrrrench music" , and if you are French, alors profitez en, un bon groupe français qui chante toujours en français et qui sonne pas comme Emmanuel Moire, ça devient rare, foncez !
And go check their blogspot !

Tuesday 16 July 2013

WU LYF broke my heart and their songs heal it.

 When the news Wu Lyf had broken reached my ears, my heart shattered into pieces, and so did my dreams and hopes of them becoming one day my number 1 band. Their exctatic combination pure melodies and husky voice, along with mystic lyrics had serenated my ears for days until they fully give in and bow to its genius (can you imagine ears bowing? Well, this would look weird). But now my mourning is over and with the sun the urge to reconnect with their magnificient songs is impossible to resist. We Bros will always make me want to dance in a field in the setting sun -ideally a field in which a festival takes place, but hey let's not be too picky.


Monday 15 July 2013

The heirs to Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra ?


      No, maybe not just yet. But if anything approaches the genius of this sacred duo, it's Adam Green & Binki Shapiro's intimate record. The Moldy Peaches man and The Little Joy girl drew their songs naturally from their conversations, through which, according to Shapiro, they found at they were "each other's people". And their voices match as if they had been the response to each other's lullabies when they were still wearing diapers. Nothing new under the sun, but God this hauntingly beautiful song, Here I Am is very pleasant to listen to.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

It hurts when you start to become aficionados of artists who are younger than you. Seeing that I'm only 20, you'd think I would not have to face that issue any time soon, well unfortunately I do. The success of Sirs Jake Bugg, One direction, or even fucking Justin Bieber make you feel like you've pretty much wasted your life away. Then, of course, I'd rather be a little behind in what sometimes feel like a race, still vividly debating with myself about what I'm goona do with my life, between 2 episodes of an oiously daunting tv show, than end up like Rebecca Black. But that's the point.

The point is, that the Irish lads of The Strypes are very young (15 to 17 years old) and very talented. Their EP Blue collar Jane is a sometimes explosive, always dirty combination of blues and garage rock (go check the live version of Got Love If You Want It if you're not convinced playing the harmonica can be sexy - wait, seeing as the harmonica player is still underage, am I risking prison for this comment ?-).

They'll be opening for Arctic Monkeys during their UK tour, how cool is that ? Just wait and soon they'll be called the next saviors of rock'n roll... I'll leave with this song You Can't Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover, awesome combination of reasonably good lyrics, catchy melody, and juvenile energy.


Back to basics.

Alex Turner
As I said, this song is a classic, an anthem for all this crowd of british teenagers, singing  northern slang from yorkshire to devonshire. We'll qualify its creators, magic-making band Arctic Monkeys a Classic to our children (you can start by telling your sceptical parents and friends, as a training, as I do.).
After 4 number one records, after playing at the Olympics, and headlining most of the best festivals in th world, the Monkeys - whose 2007 performance had reveiced a qualified success- come back to Glastonbury to reconquer the Pyramid stage, no longer overwhelmed by the gigantic dimension of the iconic festival.
And on June 28th, 2013, Arctic Monkey are on fire. Just as we thought Alex Turner's guitar was going to burn into ashes, they cool down by bringing a...six-piece orchestra on stage to help them perform their oldie Mardy Bum. Way to win
over millions of weeping fans all over the world, while proving that strings in Rock songs are thightest thing ever.
Veni, Vedi, Vici.

.

Because you have to start somewhere, I'll start by making a point.

Alright, alright. You've probably heard the first song I'll post a thousand times, especially if you live in the UK, unless in 2006 you  were already hidden in a bunker preparing the 2012 apocalyspe (No judging, anxiety disorders happen.).
And I wanted to make a point very dear to my heart before I start. I don't mean to be a guru of Indie-obscure acts whose greatness has yet been revealed to the world. You may know the songs I'll post, you may not, but wether you discover a brand new song on this blog and make you wonder how you ever lived without it in your life, or you enjoy listening once more to a song you knew but forgot about, or never forgot about, or simply find my opinion interesting, I'll be happy. But as a music lover, and a music seeker, if you don't, I'll get over it.

And if the popularity of a song was an appropriate indicator of its quality, I think we would know by now.
And I think we ALL know songs that don't deserve the credit they're getting (EEEEH SEXY LADY).
However, praise from the mainstream does NOT mean that a song is not cool nor good anymore, just because more than you and your avant-guarde friends know it.

Enough rambling, I'll let Jack White brilliantly speak for myself :

"It’s ridiculous to champion underdogs and once they succeed to abandon them. Where’s your sense of longevity with the things you love? If you abandon a band as soon as other people like them, then you don’t love it for the right reasons. You like music for identity. You have an identity problem. [laughs] That’s not loving music. Loving art for its own sake means you don’t care what people think—which is exactly what they’re supposedly standing for."