Are you going to start a band?

Recently I have listened a lot to a couple of old favorites. If anyone out there plan to start a band, could you please try to sound like a mix of :

1. The Feelies
2. The Modern Lovers
3. The Clean, The Chills, the Bats and the other good Flying Nun acts.

I promise I will by your album.

Children making music vs. people who live in containers

So what's with all the children making music in London? There are quite a few of them around but I am not sure about the greatness of the child rock yet. Yes, I have listened to Cajun Dance Party.
No, I'm not impressed. Might change my mind though. People with good taste are raving about it. And that's what music appreciation is about, isn't it? To change your mind, be more open-minded, get out of the comfort zone and go to under-18 gigs, even if you are more interested in checking out what shoes the band members' dads are wearing, than the band members themselves.

No, these days I'm more into The Field and Panda Bear. Music that sounds like it's made by people who live inside a container.

Marissa Nadler@Spitz

So beautiful... Her voice, her guitar, her songs. One of the best things I've seen in a long time. She should be playing far bigger venues than this.

Marissa Nadler

Ugg rock

Hey kids! There's a new collective in town! And they've got Ugg boots! Yep, the antipodean ones made of sheep skin that Kate Moss made popular over here a couple of years ago. And they can play lots of instruments and all live in the same house! And they're almost up there with the mighty Fence collective! Especially Connan and the Mockasins (pictured below @ Old Blue Last last night).

Listen here:

Lawrence Arabia
Connan and the Mockasins
The Ruby Suns

Jacques Dutronc

Yesterday I tuned my LastFM into the chanson francais station and suddenly heard thisa great Jacques Dutronc-song called Hippie Hippie Hourrah. The legendary French songwriter who is mostly famous for Et moi, et moi, et moi and Le Cactus does some kind of psychedelic thing here in the vein of Status Quo's Pictures of Matchstick Men. Brilliant. Can't wait for the psychedelic revival when I listen to the track. Isn't Olivia Tremor Control playing Dusk at Cubist Castle in its entirety for ATP btw? Now they only have to convince Kula Shaker to do K.

Best new bands in NYC

NYC music mag The Deli asked some trustworthy people in their city what bands they think we should listen more to. List is here

Gig of 2006

Obviously there's music and there's music. Some music makes your heart bleed and some music stimulates your brain. Then there's music that makes you wanna dance like an idiot, rip off your clothes and throw yourself in a nearby canal. Music which makes your arms explode or melt. To me that mostly happens when I listen to lobotomized rock. And last time it happened was when Awesome Color played a gig in a tiny basement under a gallery on Brick Lane. Best gig of the year, if you ask me.

I saw them another couple of times in London after that but this was how they're meant to be seen. Insanely hot and sweaty venue with lots of people dancing. Everything on the border of breaking down, speakers almost blowing, microphones screaming. The drummer girl going mental and Derek, the singer and guitar player, creating some weird noises. It makes you understand why Thurston Moore signed them to his label Ecstatic Peace. The album doesn't tell what's going on here though - you have to see them live.

Information

Pitchfork gave Deerhunter a fine review. I agree and want to nominate them for best heavy rock album of this week.

Hurry hurry! Buy tix for Deerhoof and Band of Horses. Both are playing London in May.

A very great song that I've listened lots to lately is "Southern Comfort" off the Burial album. Dark dubstep which makes you wanna walk around Hackney in a hoodie under a heavy February rain for two weeks nonstop.

Must see the Draytones. Ideally you should listen to this type of garage rock when drinking too much beer and tequila. Dance Dance Dance.

Music to consider this week

Brightblack Morning Light. Listen to the gorgeous organ-based stoner shoegaze ballad on their myspace. They are from New Mexico. Hence peyote, sunsets and too much tequila and flutes.

Santa Maria. New album from former Concrete Maria Eriksson plus some other Swedes straight out of the Moomin forest. I never liked more than one or two of the Concretes songs but agree with Rough Trade honcho Geoff Travis - their cover of Stones "Miss You" is awesome. Also check out ex-Concretes singer Victoria Bergman's new stuff on Rough Trade here.

Lavender Diamond. On Rough Trade too. Beautiful but slightly boring folk music that sounds a bit like that old woman who traveled by horse carriage for five years to Donovan's commune on Isle of Skye, only to discover that all the hippies had left. Shame she didn't have a mobile phone.

The Foals. Not sure about the term "The nu-rave Battles" but they have some fine post/artrock tunes with nice guitars and efficient drumming. And they sound pretty intelligent. Maybe cause they're from Oxford.

Nudes. London rockers drinking Stella in the backseat of Jamie T's battered Opel Corsa. I like the singing.

Pacific! More brilliant gay disco from Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Apostrophes. Their song Eliot is as comforting as crawling under the stuffed tiger in that alpine chalet in the first Pink Panther film.