There is apparently a Japanese The Pains of Being Pure At
Heart cover band out there. It is cute. Check
them out.
Along with The Dodos new album will be of course a tour. I
will be attending the stop in my home town on the 7th of March.
Family Force 5 have done a Christmas single for the song God
Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. It is a fun version of the song. you should check it
out for yourselves.
Kind of funny but the Foo Fighters have copied the now
famous line from Chunklet, “Vinyl is killing the MP3 industry”, with out any
mention of Chunklet.
Daft Punk are releaseing a box set on vinyl for the Alive
1997 and 2007. It is a bit expensive for just two albums though, $130.
The Nerdist talked with OK Go recently. You can hear the
conversation at The Nerdist.
I did preorder the vinyl version of the Switchfoot album The
Beautiful Letdown. This is one of my favorite albums ever. I think I got a copy
in limited color too.
Remember this Friday, the Friday after Thanks Giving, is
Record Store Day Black Friday. I want just a few items this year. I will be
making a post about how my day went and what I purchased for music on the day.
Here we go...
This is a new album from the duo who started the group,
James Hoare (Veronica Falls) and Jack Cooper (of Mazes). I can’t seem to find
much information about the group. It is very underground at the moment. I heard
about the group through a music blog and bought it that day. I have liked every
thing that James has been a part of. This isn’t different but at the same time
it isn’t really much of a change from his other projects. This album pulls from
the music sounds from the late 60s and early 70s just like his previous
projects have. With this album we do get to hear a few different vocalists
though and this does keep my interest while listening. They did do a short tour
of the Midwest to the east coast here in the US but did not make it to my home
town during the tour. The album was pressed, limited, on solid red vinyl, CD
and DL.
There was one single put up at Stereogum
called Ten Street. The song has a garage rock feel with super fun guitar solos.
Pickup notes are used all over the guitar parts. This is not usually something
that I make note of but the pickup notes are so clear and put in the right
places. It adds so much to the song somehow. The big guitar solo is actually a
guitar duo and both are using the same distortion sound that brings me back to
the 70s sounding guitar distortion. The very end of the song is a slow piano
that actually reminds me of the end of the Faith No More song called Epic where
they played the song on the piano at the end to a fade out as well.
It is a good song and a good album. If youhave interest in a
modern take of the sounds of the late 60s and early 70s then this may be the
album for you.
This album has finally been released. The official release
date was October 24th of 2014 but there were some delays getting the
vinyl out to customers. I didn’t get my copy until last week. Actually the
album was fraught with delays. The band had recorded the album at the beginning
of the year and didn’t have a record company to support the album. They
actually asked fans for ideas on record companies because they had run out of
avenues to pursue at one point. They did obviously find a record company to
push the record. The vinyl was pressed on solid pink and translucent blue, 100
copies each, before going to standard black. I got a solid pink copy simply
because I already had a few records on translucent blue. The album has a
slightly different sound from their debut album and I kind of like it but at
the same time it feels like there is something missing.
There were two singles released from the album. The first is
called Skate or Die. It hits hard at the start with a super catchy synth and
guitar rif. When the vocals start the synth drops off but the rif continues on.
The chorus changes key but stays close to what the original rif is. It is a
great song that gives a nod to the new wave and synth pop sounds of the 80s.
The whole album is really a great album filled with punk and
new wave/synth pop sounds. If you like those stylesthen this is probably a good
album for you.
This is an EP that supports the latest album from The Pains
called Days of Abandon. There was supposed to be a few more singles after the
single for Simple And Sure but they fell through. Kip knows the fans want to
hear everything that they have put together so when the other singles didn’t
come together he decided to push out an EP with the rest of the B sides from
the recording of Days of Abandon. This is what is on the 10” vinyl EP, four B
sides and a demo version of Kelly. I was lucky enough to have seen the pains
while they were touring with The New Pornographers. I bought a second copy of
the EP and had him sign it. I will probably give my second copy to my
father-in-law to keep it in the family.
Of the five songs on this EP two have been pushed as
quasi-singles. The first of those two are Poison Touch. This is a song that was
supposed to be about Taylor Swift. I can see a correlation but I think that it
is more about the sound that she puts on her albums than being necessarily
about her specifically. The song is super new wave stutter step and has female
lead vocals to boot. It is a sweet, fun and just plain new wave pop sounding.
It is my favorite song on the EP for sure.
The other song that has been pushed is the demo version of
Kelly called the Winter Station Demo. I think that if Kelly had been given an
official 7” release this track would have been one of the B sides along with
one of the other B sides on this EP. This demo version has Kip singing the lead
vocals instead of female vocals that ended up on the album. The synth part is
also a bit different on this version but not by much. I honestly can’t decide
which version I like better. I think they both have their merits but at the end
of the day I think that Kip made the right decision changing the vocals to
female for the full length album.
I am so happy to have these new songs. I like to have
everything that a group puts out. I like having the B sides and remixes that a
group puts out whether it is an EP or a series of singles. I instantly bought
this just for that reason. I am only missing the split single from early in
this group’s career. I have a digital copy of this missing song but I would
like to get a copy of the 7” record someday.
That's all for now...
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