The Tape

O hai, i dint c u dere. gots 4 u a new tunez of hooman highwai, sideprjct uv islands, haz guy name nick thorburn. lawl. song is so gud i luv it. sry not haz mp3, only wai to here teh song is in link.

Human Highway - The Sound

also gots 4 u cover of “teh final countdown” frum matt n kim. sooooooo gud.

The Final Countdown - Matt and Kim

Also haz relly gud song of folk-rock style, is friends with Bon Iver. veri soft n purty.

Human Hands - Bowerbirds

kthxbai

Here are a couple tracks that have had me crying or booty shaking recently, along with some music that will be played at Coachella, a mere 9 days away.

First we have a track that shows up in the middle part of a Venn diagram, as it has been having me shaking my booty and will be performed at Coachella. A really amazing song by Nick Diamonds and the boys, the track shows a noticeable Ennio Morricone flavor. A logical, larger, grander step in Islands history, it shows a progression that can only get even better.

Islands - The Arm

Next we have the lead track from Cut Copy’s new LP, In Ghost Colours. It’s amazing. nuff said. I feel a little Daft Punk.

Cut Copy - Feel The Love

Nearing the finish is a track by The Dodos. Their new album Visiter is one of the best albums I have ever heard in my life. “The Season” is a song most bands only hope they have the range and genius to record. It’s simply beautiful. The last two minutes of the song, which I imagine as a journey of some sort are so emotional and tangible. Look out for the line”I hope you’re well, as I am fine.” A more powerfully delivered lyric I would have trouble finding in my library. Sorry about mediafire, it’s more than worth your extra time.

(mediafire link) The Dodos - The Season

And finally, the new song by Wolf Parade. I feel that last time I exhausted myself, so for your sake and mine just read this, see this

and hear this.

Wolf Parade - Call It A Ritual

(As a disclaimer for what is to come, I would like to note that I read Pitchfork every day of my life, usually around when I wake up in the morning, and I find them to be an invaluable, reliable, and prompt source for important news in the independent music world, although I do find that their Reviews section tends to be utterly wrong, with the number score often contrasting the demeanor of the article. Read on, brave reader.)

Pitchfork, the bane of everyone not Radiohead, has taken a shot at Wolf Parade. They think that the title of Wolf Parade’s new album, Kissing The Beehive is stupid. Read here. Now, I can’t speak for the rest of the staff here at The Tape, but convinced as I am that Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug shit gold

compounded with the fact that Wolf Parade’s sophomore masterpiece (I say that without hearing a note of it) is coming out ON MY BIRTHDAY (June 17th) makes Pitchfork’s article inexcusable. They have earned the lowest stamp of disappointment I know to give.

Dear Pitchfork,

Regarding the Johnathan Carroll novel of the same name, I ran to the local library after hearing the news, devoured the 1997 book Kissing The Beehive, and am not convinced that the album bears any relation to it. It may be a coincidence since the book is a cold case murder mystery with fairly flat dialog and a bad attempt at a twist ending. It is a quite entertaining page turner with many interesting ideas and philosophical points but I doubt it has inspired the new album.

In other Loosely Connected Canada news, Handsome Furs are touring America  and I am not seeing them seeing them not seeing them, Wolf Parade has designed a charity T-Shirt, and in case you didn’t take the time to read P4K’s crock of turd, Kissing The Beehive drops on June 17th from Sub Pop with a tour planned for July and August.

We here at The Tape are big fans of Daytrotter, the music blog run by a small recording studio in Rock Island, Illinois. Each week, 3 bands on tour in the area record songs, some previously released, some to be released, which are posted on the internet for free, waffle fries status. It’s a wealth of intimate takes and obscure rarities and covers. This week one of our favorites, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin played four songs from their upcoming Pershing LP, out on Polyvinyl April 8th. SSLYBY are familiar with the Daytrotter format, as they were in fact the first band to ever be on the site back on March 28, 2006, only 3 days shy of exactly two years from their encore session. You can pick up the songs and original artwork from the session (for keepers of meticulous iTunes’s) at Daytrotter’s March 31, 2008 SSLYBY Session and their original March 28, 2006 Daytrotter de-virginizing Session which features an early version of Pershing highlight “Modern Mystery.” As a special Tape bonus, we also have for you fans out there an early version of “Boring Fountain” another great track from Pershing.

SSLYBY - Boring Fountain (demo)

Hope this whets your appetite for Pershing. For a teensy bit more about the new album check out our review with Philip Dickey of SSLYBY

This is not the cover of No Age’s upcoming LP Nouns

LA’s resident noise-fuckers No Age released their acclaimed EP collection Weirdo Rippers last year. Soon we’re getting their first full-length, Nouns. A taste of what to come is up on their MySpace, titled “Eraser.” I find it odd that residing in LA, none of the Tape has seen No Age in their resident LA club  The Smell, besides once on a world tour with Liars at the El Rey. They rule the school and stole the show from Liars.

No Age’s MySpace - Eraser 

Straight from Columbus, Ohio, home of Our Cat Philip and Erin Studer, come Blastronauts, an up and coming indie-pop-rock act. They look like this:

They sound good, they sound funky, and they sound like this:

Blastronauts - In a Fire

half rapped vocals play over a tight cymbal, riffy guitar, and intermittent “woo, woo hoo!’s”

slightly cheesy, funfunfun, look for their debut coming out soon, which should look something like this:

No! This post doesn’t have anything to do with racial equality, cats, or Phil Collins. It’s the genesis of my new weekly, Discovery Duecedays!?!

This week, appropriate to the current political tornado, it’s Columbus, Ohio natives Our Cat Philip. (See Above)

Their website lets you know, “Our Cat Philip is a really good band…. We promise” and they look like they aren’t chronic liars, like much of the music industry today.

Led by two pianists, OCP (Ordinary Clown Posse anyone?) roll with instruments including bass cello, banjo, and other stuff besides guitar giving them an interesting and original sound. Their EP I Am Made of Steel is available on their website, for free, just how we like our music and waffle fries.

Standout track “Call The Moon” leads on with a Broken Social Scene vibe and a wonderful conclusion. Check it out all the way to the end. The real gem here is “Time is Just A Healer for the Sick” Take my word for it. I can’t wait to see what these boys do next, right after they finish college.

Our Cat Philip - Time Is Just A Healer For The Sick

Our Cat Philip - Call The Moon

Our Cat Philp Website

I Am Made of Steel EP and other songs

EDIT: ALERT ALERT

OUR CAT PHILIP’S COVER OF SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN’S “HOUSE FIRE” IS BEAUTIFUL AND PIANO LED PLEASE YOU LISTEN JAGSHEMESH

Our Cat Philip - House Fire (Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Cover)

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

A name.

A band.

A legend.

SSLYBY (sly boy, silly bee, Sicily bye) have just released their sophmore effort,

The art is interesting to say the least. I’ve had multiple people tell me it looks like anything from feces to leaves. moving on…

SSLYBY has been one of my favorite bands for a long time, as evidenced by my last.fm page on which one can see that SSLYBY is my 5th played artist, a mere 20 or so tracks away from the 4th, Radiohead. So how is it that I listen to a small indie pop band from Springfield, Missouri as much as the arguably greatest band of our time? The answer is not a conscious thing for me. SSLYBY make me feel good. They are a good band. They are not world famous nor revolutionary in their style nor instrumental masters. But the boys from Missouri trying their best to sound like what life is really like make them more genuine and real. In the coming decades one can only hope that with a generation of children reared on auto-tuned manufactured hits by artificial fronts for teams of hit-factories like Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers, real bands like SSLYBY can continue to exist and create music, that while not completely shocking, can make people feel tangible emotion. A song by [Sony music-thinktanks] may make it to the top on the ringtone downloads charts, but Broom and Pershing sound like a summer day. Not a notification that someone is trying to contact you, but the sound the ocean makes when it hits the shore. The sound that is made when all of your friends pile in the car to go to Coachella.

And now, the review.

Pershing is certainly a step in a different direction for SSLBY. Broom had its share of poppy runners, but the real (i.e. people who didn’t just get “Oregon Girl” from the OC soundtrack) fans gathered around songs like “House Fire” and “Anna Lee.” Pershing seems to be dominated by songs like “Oregon Girl” again, and in that sense, it works quite well. Lead single and opening track “Glue Girls,” along with “Boring Fountain,” “Modern Mystery,” second single and strongest track “Think I Wanna Die,” and “Oceanographer” all seem to go after the “I’ve been around the world but I never seen another Oregon girl” tack, although “Oceanographer,” the longest song on the album at 4:45, is bogged down by itself. “Glue Girls” and “Think I Wanna Die” particularly pull it off. “Boring Fountain” “Dead Right” and “The Beach Song.” are all great tracks. “Some Constellation” is a nice quieter song, and “You Could Write A Book” is also a staple SSLYBY song, harmonies and tight hooks all the way through. The album really shines on “Think I Wanna Die” and especially quasi-closing track “HEERS.” HEERS is the one that particularly matches the style and emotion of “House Fire”.

So is Pershing good? Yes. Is it great? Yes. Is it amazing? Most of the time, yes.

Seattle band Fleet Foxes is causing quite a stir with their much blogged jams. Their debut Sun Giant EP was recently graced with an (drumroll please) 8.7 from Pitchfork. TA DAAA.

non-EP track White Winter Hymnal shows real promise for this little group.

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

Fleet Foxes Myspace

Our third favorite canadian band, Born Ruffians, just dropped their new album, Red, Yellow & Blue. The curiously In Rainbows-esque cover art is below. It really is a great album and surpasses by far their self titled ep, which was found in the Amoeba clearance for 3 bucks. shame.

Red, Yellow, and Blue is really a step up from the EP. Y’all know I’m a sucker for yelpy Canadian indie rock, but this album really stands on its own. The band, though it is only drums, guitar, and bass, sounds expansive and deep. Harmonized vocals and rounds make for more interesting sounds on many tracks, like Barnacle Goose. There really isn’t an obviously weak track, maybe Badonka Donkey, but the real standout is “I Need A Life” This song it just amazing. Emotional, raw, and full of that Born Ruffians energy you all know and love. Back and forth vocals speak lines like “my cup is half empty, been that way all my life.” and “the sun is shinin’ but we stay inside, stay in bed till we feel alright” but after all these seemingly dreary lines, the truth comes out: “oh but we go out at night.” Born Ruffians may be not such a ridiculous name, cause these kids were born to party.

Born Ruffians - I Need A Life