Introducing: Boy Crisis

Like my previous post Boy Crisis come from across the infamous pond however there is pretty much where the comparison stops with the previous band Amazing Baby. Oh, well they both come from New York but who doesn’t nowadays? Oh yeah and they (like Amazing Baby) appear in MGMT’s top friends on MySpace, lucky devils.

Totally different sounding to both the mentioned bands Boy Crisis delve more into an electronic. This 5 piece from New York are definitely going to be going places in the next year or so, you can just tell. ‘Dressed to Digress’ just happens to be my favourite song at the moment, the beats are pretty fucking hefty. “Let me love you like you’re the shit girl, you’re the shit girl” is not as bad as it sounds, it’s definitely a positive thing. 'Dressed to Digress' is 3 minutes and 10 seconds of pure pop heaven.

Having played a few shows with MGMT I imagine this band will be getting plenty of attention from music fans everywhere, it won’t be too long till’ the band are playing on these shores. Until then enjoy this beautiful piece of music…

Boy Crisis – Dressed to Digress

Introducing: Amazing Baby

This week’s NME focuses on top 25 bands from across the pond, I’ve not read the article or seen the list but Amazing Baby are a brand spanking new band from across those waters. From Brooklyn, New York Amazing Baby are so far an unknown quantity for most people I imagine. I don’t know a great deal about the band, y’know the vital statistics of the band like how many members, names and all that stuff.

However I do know that they’ve only played a few gigs in their short career thus far but they are getting plenty of attention from plenty of places. Today I discovered their website where you can download a 4 track EP titled ‘Infinite Fucking Cross’ for absolutely sod all. Pretty cool eh?

Amazing Baby sound very psychedelic at times especially on ‘Supreme Being’ which is one of the songs featured on that free EP. My favourite song so far is definitely ‘Head Dress’ which once again dips into the psychedelic bucket for its inspiration. I do believe the band is friends with MGMT and has already played a few shows with them. So expect NME to liken them to MGMT and tar them with the same brush as any band that comes out of New York at the moment. For the record I don’t think Amazing Baby sound much if anything like current New York successes Vampire Weekend or MGMT.

To download ‘Infinite Fucking Cross’ click right here.

Label Focus: Domino

Domino was formed in 1993 by Laurence Bell and Jacqui Bell and mainly brings out alternative music. Domino’s roster is one that any label would be extremely jealous, Domino Records UK has new artists such as These New Puritans, Wild Beasts, Lightspeed Champion and The Last Shadow Puppets.

Across the pond Domino USA boasts such talent as Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, The Notwist, Caribou and Yo Majesty. However more house hold names on the label include Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Sons and Daughters and The Kills.

Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand are arguably the two most successful bands on the label. Franz Ferdinand’s second album ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’ reached number one on the album charts and so did both Arctic Monkeys records. The Sheffield foursome have also provided two number one hits for their label (‘When The Sun Goes Down’ and of course debut single ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’).

Along with some commercially successful bands Domino has on his roster some older bands not to be ignored including Scottish twee indie legends Orange Juice along with fellow Scottish bands The Pastels and Josef K. Welsh outfit Young Marble Giants and the English band formed in the late 70’s The Television Personalities are also on Domino’s impressive catalogue.

One of my favourite artists on the label is influential American alternative band Pavement who although did not bring much success commercially for Domino have obviously influenced several bands throughout the years. There is no denying that Domino are one of the best labels around at the moment and they continue to sign new, fresh and talented artists.

Wall-E

Last night I finally got round to seeing the animation film of the summer and year, Wall-E. Sitting in front of me was a whole row of 5 year kids and sitting next to me a 60+ year old couple. Then there was me and my girlfriend both aged 20, there are not many films where this sort of situation occurs. Impressions of the “Wall-EEEE” voice can be heard every time the little fella pops up on the screen before the film starts. In between trailers and breaks crunching, slurping and the loudest rustling you’ve heard in your life. I basically want to leave and go watch The Dark Knight for the third time.

Thankfully the film begins and with this the noises stop, the crunching halts and the rustling is no longer an issue. Thank you Pixar for shutting up the incredibly annoying noises made by the general public because everybody in the room was fixed on this little robot cleaning up the world’s rubbish that had been left by the people who had left for space.

The premise of the film is very simplistic but underneath there is some really great hidden meanings and definitely some morals that can’t be ignored. The film follows a little robot named Wall-E who cleans up earth but has developed a personality and collects all sorts of things in his little “house”. Another newer robot is sent onto earth from space to check for signs of life or vegetation and Wall-E discovers a love interest for Eve (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). Eve discovers a plant that Wall-E has and then shuts down and Wall-E is now incredibly sad. Eve is taken back into Space and Wall-E manages to grab onto the spaceship she is taken back to space with.

In space we see a new world where everybody is overweight, lazy and technology rules the world, a very sorry state. However because a plant has been discovered they can move back to earth however the robots who rule space don’t want this to happen. Eventually of course Eve and Wall-E stop the robots along with the captain of the spaceship where everybody lives and they get back to Earth.

What is so great and interesting about the film is that for so long (I think around 40 minutes) there is absolutely no dialogue. However you’re still gripped by the two characters Wall-E and Eve and when there is some dialogue later on there isn’t much really. It is definitely has broken new boundaries for animation and will definitely go down as another hit from Pixar.

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Frigthened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight

Frightened Rabbit’s second album ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ is an album I over looked when it was released but so far this month I’ve been playing it a lot. The Scottish trio released the 14 track record back in April and have since released a couple of singles from it. Critically it has gone done extremely well with Pitchfork and NME both giving it 8/10 and Drowned in Sound giving it a 9/10.

The album is packed full with emotion that is something I notice the more and more I listen to it. You can really hear the pain that is going into some of the lyrics and through the vocals of lead singer Scott Hutchinson you feel his pain. Hutchinson has an amazing voice, it is very raw and his strong Scottish accent also adds to his vocals.

I’d not previously heard anything by Frightened Rabbit so when I first listened to the album I was pretty impressed. Opening song ‘The Modern Leper’ is as raw a song as I’ve heard so far this year and the pain continues with songs like ‘Feel Better’ and ‘Good Arms vs Bad Arms’.

Last single ‘Fast Blood’ is a powerful track and rolls on through the emotion and pain of the lyrics. ‘Old Old Fashioned’ is yet another great 3 minutes 43 seconds of pure bliss. We get an insight into Scott Hutchinson’s relationship in the lyric “I’ll turn off the TV, its killing us, we never speak”.

‘Heads Roll Off’ contains one of my favourite lyrics from the album: “Jesus is just a Spanish boy’s name. How come one man got so much fame?” a dig at religion possibly? Either way, I agree. ‘Heads Roll Off’ is fast becoming one of my favourite songs from 2008.

The album is full of other intense songs like next song ‘My Backwards Walk’ and another favourite from my album ‘Keep Yourself Warm’ which deals pretty heavily with relationships including this lyric: “It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm”.

This album has come to me as quite a surprise but I won’t be surprised if it appears in many top 10 of the year lists.

8.5/10

Wild Beasts - Limbo, Panto

I saw Wild Beasts once and to say I wasn’t impressed is quite an understatement, quite a time later I find myself listening to Wild Beasts. I wasn’t going to even listen to ‘Limbo, Panto’ because of my experience with them that I had before. However every one deserves a second chance right? I mean when I saw them live it could’ve been one of the worse days of their lives. Everything could’ve been going wrong that day so a second chance was definitely deserved.

Thankfully I did give the band a second chance because ‘Limbo, Panto’ is a pretty special record in today’s climate of bands. There are far too many bands like One Night Only, the Pigeon Detectives, The Metros etc etc etc. Not enough bands like Wild Beasts who are definitely not like the current crop of crap that is out there.

Even if you don’t like Wild Beasts you have to appreciate that they sound much different to a lot of stuff at the moment. For that I tip my hat off to them, it would be so easy for a band to be middle of the road much like the bands mentioned. Wild Beasts are certainly not middle of the road, I can’t quite believe that they are from Leeds. You would never know (this being a good thing) and at times you would mistake them for being from across the pond.

At times they sound like Editors circa the first album and at other times I can hear Arcade Fire but most of the time I just hear Wild Beasts. Newest single ‘The Devil’s Crayon’ was the song which made me listen to the album, after seeing it on MTV2 I decided it was definitely time for a listen to the album. However the newest single isn’t the only great song on ‘Limbo, Panto’ bizarrely named ‘Woeboegone Wanderers’ sounds like an obscure Sunday league football team, either way the song is pretty epic.

‘The Old Dog’ is yet another fine moment on the record and believe me there are many: ‘Vigil For A Fuddy Duddy’, ‘The Club of Fathomless Love’ and ‘Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants’ for example. What I will say about ‘Limbo, Panto’ is that I have to be in the right mood to listen to it but when I am in that mood ‘Limbo, Panto’ is a stunning album. When I’m not I have to turn it off and listen to something else.

7.5/10

Metronomy - Nights Out

I’m not really sure what to make of this album, I like a bit of electronic as much as the next person y’know but sometimes I find it hard listening to songs with no lyrics. Especially songs which are almost 4 minutes with no words (like ‘End Of You Too’ on this album). Having said for Metronomy the album would not work without those songs sandwiched in between other songs.

‘Radio Ladio’ is the first single to crop up as you listen to ‘Nights Out’ and to me it still remains the best single by Metronomy to date. When you heard it you knew immediately it was going to be a great hit for the band and since then I’ve heard it countless amounts of times in indie clubs and it always goes down extremely well. Rightfully so as well because it’s a really infectious single and you can’t help singing “R-A-D-I-OOOOOOOOOO. L-A-D-I-OOOOOOOOOO.”

‘My Heart Rate Rapid’ which was released as a single back in April and despite not being as big as the previous single is definitely as good as the previous song. When I first listened to it I was hooked immediately to some of the really toe tapping moments to the song.

‘Heartbreaker’ is going to be the next single and it is so far my favourite song on the record. Softer vocals and quieter music makes this song definitely an excellent moment on this record. “I heard she broke your heart, that girl’s a heartbreaker” sings lead singer Joseph. I’m getting the feeling Joe’s had his heart broken, poor guy.

‘On The Motorway’ is the shortest track on the album at 2 minutes 37 seconds but what it lacks in length it makes up for in quality. This song oozes cool, it feels like a typical Metronomy song. Current single ‘Holiday’ still is yet to grow on me but I have the feeling it could easily do so because there are some terrific moments in the song. You can’t help loving the vocals on this song, slowed down at times and really squeaky high at other times, such an interesting but at the same time fantastic combination. ‘Back On The Motorway’ and ‘On Dancefloors’ end the album on a high point for me.

Overall ‘Nights Out’ is a superb album and there are definitely more good spots than bad times, this is a record that would be perfect at a party.

7.5/10