Villagers - Becoming a Jackal

Prepare for an enjoyable 3 minutes and 56 seconds of your existence. Taken from the brilliant watchlistentell.

BSITWT #103

Declan O'Rourke - 'We Didn't Mean to go to Sea'

If I had a Euro for every time I've listened to this song...*

http://www.declanorourke.com/

*...I'd have several Euro.

The Antlers - Monday 24 May @ The Academy

One of my highlights from the most recent Other Voices series, The Antlers are returning to these shores to appear in the Academy on 24 May. Their latest offering Hospice has received wide acclaim with lead singles 'Two' & 'Bear' earning repeated plays around these parts. Critics have particularly praised the narrative of the album which tells the story of a man losing a loved one to cancer. However, the album is not actually about cancer and the illness is in fact a metaphor for bad love. The story sits comfortably side-by-side the wholesome folk/indie soundtrack. Read more here. This one comes very highly recommended.

Tickets: €16.50 (+ booking fee) here.

The Antlers - 'VCR' (The xx cover)

The Antlers - 'Two'

http://antlersmusic.com/

YouTube Goodness

BSITWT #102

Crystal Castles - 'Celestica'

http://crystalcastles.com/

Later with Jools Holland - Tonight @ 11.45 - BBC 2

Everywhere

Everything

Brainy

Someone Great

BTBW Playlist - Scent of Summer - May 2010

1. Stornoway - 'I Saw You Blink'

2. Two Door Cinema Club - 'Something Good Can Work'

3. Jónsi - 'Go Do'

4. Villagers - 'Becoming a Jackal'

5. Frightened Rabbit - 'I Feel Better'

6. Efterklang - 'I Was Playing Drums'

7. Caribou - 'Odesa'

8. The Avalanches - 'Radio'

9. Mikkel Metal - 'Peaks And Troughs'

10. Husky Rescue - 'Beautiful My Monster'

11. Beach House - 'Silver Soul'

12. LCD Soundsystem - 'Dance Yrself Clean'

This one is for Melissa. Title contender.

Íoslódáil Anseo

Joanna Newsom - Later with Jools Holland

Absolutely spellbinding stuff taken from last night's show. Enjoy.

www.myspace.com/joannanewsomfansite

BSITWT #101

A classic from a real all-rounder.

James Figurine - Can't Be Sure (Sundays) (mp3)

Efterklang @ Whelan's - Sunday 25 April

If you can come up with a better way to spend this Sunday evening I will come to your house and cook you a whole meal of food. Tickets here. It's up to you now.

BSITWT #100

Caribou - 'Sun'

Taken from Caribou's splendid new album Swim and a fitting way to mark our 100th BSITWT. Caribou will appear on the EAT YOUR OWN EARS STAGE at Field Day, Victoria Park, London - 31 July 2010. We'll be there.

www.myspace.com/cariboumanitoba

Review - La Maroquinerie April 15th

Last night we had a treat in Paris' hipster mecca as Villagers supported Wild Beasts, both giving excellent performances. "Villagers" was in fact only main man Conor J O'Brien. In a "reverse Jape" move, Conor appeared on stage to say "Hi, I'm Villagers", which is just grammatically incorrect.... His performance allowed me to forgive the grammar though, as he offered a lovely solo guitar show, often going off-mic to give the room a genuine show of his superb voice. A passionate performer and story teller, he truly is one of today's Irish music stars, and I look forward to seeing a lot more of him.
Enjoy the video to Meaning of the Ritual below


Wild Beasts are clearly a flavour of the month at the moment, and with good reason on this showing. An extremely tight show, with two gifted vocalists among their foursome, and some seriously driving songs that drifted from Foals-esque turbo-charged drum/synth led belters to glorious electro-popscapes that nod back to the likes of New Order. If I had to complain, one could argue that there were times where it felt a bit repetitive, but all in all these guys put on a great show and seem to have the talent to be more than a summer buzz band. Check out We Still Got The Taste Dancin' on Our Tongues below, a true gem, more in the Foalsesque category from above.

BSITWT #99

Massive Attack - Babel

Three Tome Tunes

I am not going to put any of these tracks up as a BSITWT, although on another day they would all be worthy. They all come from a Mix that Donal Dineen has Soundclouded on the Fresh Air Festval Blog.
What Dineen has unearthed is really some of the finest electronica going. What really amazes is that upon listening to the MySpace or downloading an album from any of these artists, you realize that most of it is pretty average, but Dineen has uncovered this one idiosyncratic stormer that they managed to churn out in a moment of divine intervention.

1) Mikkel Metal - Peaks and Troughs
The "rest of the stuff is lame" comment above is less accurate in the case of Danish artist Mikkel Metal, who has had tracks remixed by the likes of Marcel Detmann. Peaks and Troughs evokes a train pulling out a station, chugging deliberately onwards, never quite reaching full pace. A bit like the Galway-Dublin train. Unlike said train, this is a truly beautiful piece of work.

2) Wave Machines - Turn the Lights On
Funky, fun, and bouncy, delightful vocals that border on Passion Pit novelty, but are infinitely more enjoyable*, this is track to dance and sing along to.


3) CFCF - You Hear Colours
Hints of Kate Bush's Running Up that Hill thrown in there at times, but that's OK! This is an uplifting track with wide rolling soundscapes; I am already looking forward to the first time I listen to this on a sunny day in the middle of nowhere.


*Sorry Passion Pit, your guy's voice is annoying

Snippets from the National's new album

The National have started to release new material from the album High Violet, which will be released officially in May.
Here you will find a link to Bloodbuzz Ohio, which has elements of the tenderer story telling side of Boxer, with lead vocal Matt Berninger's voice offering a reminder of why he enchanted us all on that soon-to-be-considered-classic album.





Below we see the more aggressive, upbeat side of the National's style, with a belting inaugural rendition of Terrible Love on the Jimmy Fallon Show recently



It even has elements of this storming post-rock anthem towards the end....