Danielage: Volume VII [9/6/09-9/14/09]

If you're not familiar with Los Campesino's infectious brand of dancy indie pop, you owe it to yourself to give this Welsh septet (not a typo) a shot. As much as I love their mix of upbeat melodies featuring unusual instrumentation for pop music (violins and xylophones much?), I think it's their use of vocal dynamics between sugar-y sweet female vocals and lead singer, Garreth's attitude-laced, somewhat self-depricating, dare I say 'cheeky' singing that really puts them over the top. That and the fact that they have fantastic lyrics, filled with lots of obscure references and hilarious and odd imagery, have really lead to these guys exploding onto the indie rock scene over the last year or two, as proven by the two records they put out in 2008: "Hold On Now Youngster..." and "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed." Having already stated that a new album was in the works, due out in early 2010, I wasn't expecting to hear much from them for a while so I have to admit I was surprised when a new song of theirs popped up online earlier this week. I was even more surprised when I listened to it and found a slow-paced song dealing with the topic of battling with depression, something rather Un-Campesinos-like... or so I thought. With all that being said, I *wasn't* surprised to find that it's an amazing song, and a great sign that after releasing two stellar primarily upbeat records (about downbeat subjects), they can mix up their style and really grow as artists/writers. The song is called "The Sea is a Great Place to Think About the Future" and you really should give it a listen and prepare yourself for what could be the first great release of next year.

Los Campesinos - "The Sea is a Great Place to Think About the Future" (credit: wichita-recordings.com)

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Every year I take it upon myself to discover a few bands with a really deep back catalog and a great history behind them, fully emersing myself in them. I don't think I'm the only one who's heard about bands from yesteryear but never taken the time to look into them even though I'm aware that I'll probably like (love) what I'll find. Sure I'm "late to the party" on a lot of these groups, but better late than never. And the good thing with indie rock is that a ton of these bands that I've grown to love through such a process (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Pavement, etc.) end up re-issuing all their classic material. Heck, in the case of the first two, they manage to remain relevant by putting out stellar records in 2009, 25 to 30 years after they first broke into the music industry. My most recent "discovery" (which makes it sound like I've uncovered some super obscure band) is Boise, Idaho's favourite sons, Built to Spill, who've been putting out amazingly diverse guitar rock records for almost 20 years now and have built a reputation of consistency when it comes to releasing a solid album every few years.

I could probably write an entire entry about these guys and my current love of their discography (seriously go out and pick up "Perfect From Now On" (1997) and "Keep It Like A Secret" (1999), two amazing records), but I won't, just understand that they've written a ton of amazing songs contained within just as fantastic albums, managing to write both short, to the point, beautiful pop songs as well as sprawled out epic guitar jams, both of which benefit from brainchild Doug Martsch's virtuoso guitar playing and high pitched, laid back vocals. A new album, entitled "There Is No Enemy" is due out in less than a month, backed by a full scale North American tour (including a stop in Vancouver this November that I already have tickets for), and lucky for us, the first song from the album has seen the light of day. It's a mellow yet emotive number called "Hindsight", showcasing multiple elements of what makes Built to Spill such a great band (the one thing it's missing is some full on guitar rock-age but that's not to be expected on every track of course), and I personally like it a lot, check out a stream of the track below.

Built to Spill - "Hindsight" (credit: pitchforkmedia.com)

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Records I bought this week:













Matt & Kim - "Grand" (Fader)

I picked this up at the Everyday Music in Bellingham, which is far from my favourite record store but it's the only halfway decent one in northern Washington so if I ever stop off in the B-Ham, I pop in there and can usually find one or two things that I'm looking to pick up. The nice thing about this one was it was discounted because of some small creases in one of the corners which didn't bother me much. I spoke about the greatness of this Brooklyn-based duo last week so go check out what I had to say then and then keep your eyes pealed for the Bacardi commercial featuring their song.













The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Come Saturday" 7" (Slumberland)

Another new 7" single featuring a track off their amazing debut album from earlier this year, and another band I've previously featured in these pages. This is probably my favourite song off one of potentially my favourite record released this year, and it's matched with another great b-side titled "Side Ponytail." Only 1000 of these were made, pressed on really nice green vinyl. I picked it up (along with the following 2 records) at one of my favourite stores here in town, Scratch Records.













Times New Viking - "Move to California" 7" (Matador)

A band that definitely focusses on writing good melodies and standing out from the crowd, Ohio's TNV are at the forefront of the indie rock scene's current lo-fi obsession and they are without a doubt the lowest of the lo-fi. This band is not for those who demand good or even decent recording quality, focussing on channeling their energy into short, ferverous bursts of hiss-filled pop blasts. This 7" is a preview of their forthcoming album, the follow up to one of the sleeper records of last year "Rip It Off."













The Hard-Ons w/ Neil Hamburger - "American Exports" 7" (Red Lounge)

"America's Funnyman", Neil Hamburger is at it again, this time teaming up with Australia's Hard-Ons for something that's been missing from the music scene for far too long, full on 80s style Black Flag inspired (in more ways than one) hardcore married with the nasal delivery of one of the weirdest, underappreciate and in my opinion, funniest, comedians of the past decade. The Black Flag influence goes beyond the homage to the artwork of the Socal punk rock legends as the B-Side of this 4 song EP features a cover of "Six Pack" which is just downright surreal and yet still fantastic. Only 500 of these bad boys exist and I was lucky enough to pick one up, what a great find.

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I tend to not post much in the way of humorous videos or songs on here, but this past week I discovered something that's just way too funny to not share with everyone here. It's a mash-up of Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" with someone doing a spot-on Glen Danzig (Of The Misfits, Samhain and plain ol' Danzig fame) impression, adding his own take on some of the lyrics. In addition, a Danzig-esque guitar riff is placed over top of the original salsa beat and really just completes things. This isn't for everyone, that's for sure... fans of Shakira probably won't get much from it, fans of Danzig will probably find it funny, and of course fans of both will be on the floor dying...