In the years this blog has existed I don't think there have been any Christmas posts. So why start now? Well, I happen to love Crocodiles, and they teamed up with Dee Dee from Dum Dum Girls for this Christmas song, actually a couple of years ago. But it is now being released on cassingle by Dream. Yes, a cassette single, which makes me chuckle. In that short-lived era in North America when the music industry didn't know how to move on from vinyl, major labels tried to make cassingles the answer. Oops. Anyhow, being a guy who had access to getting music at cost or sometimes free, I picked up some cassette singles, especially if they had unreleased b-sides. National Velvet, Grapes of Wrath, Metallica, Midnight Oil, and Jesus Jones are the only ones I can remember. They always seemed cheap and ultra-disposable, with thin cardboard sleeves the only protective layer, and if you had them kicking around in your car...well, you get the picture. Anyhow, I think only 100 of these Croc/Dum cassingles have been made, and the first ten were signed by the musicians. You also get a download card when you purchase.
Crocodiles' Brandon Welchez and Dum Dum Girls' Dee Dee are also going to be releasing a single on Febuary 5 under the band name Haunted Hearts.
Haunted Hearts - Something That Feels Bad is Something That Feels Good
A friend of mine recently suggested that rock was dead. Well, maybe some rock. But on this day, I want to give thanks for those who still rock that I haven't got to sharing.
Crocodiles - Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9). These guys' fuzzy brilliance knocks me down every time.
Redd Kross's triumphant return Researching the Blues, pounding, slap-happy, scowling, excellent distortion control. Nice Gil Morgan, too. Stay Away From Downtown is here as well so you don't think the album is a one-trick pony when it is actually a whole race-track full of trick ponies.
Social Distortion 's Gimme the Sweet & Lowdown. SD have been epitomising rock and roll since you were digging Olivia Newton John or Corey Hart or whatever, diving into your Lik-m-Aid, Twizzlers and Mr. Big bars, and the band hasn't swerved much from their thing. Why should they?
The Disciplines, Emily. Just one of Ken Stringfellow's fine projects, one for which he lets out his inner rocka rolla man.
Big Dipper is back! With a tune named after the prolific Guided by Voices mainman! Yowza!
King Tuff - Screaming Skull: The singer's voice reminds me of Mitch Easter (Let's Active), and the simple guitar and garbage-can drums are a perfect backdrop.
An old classic by Lloyd Cole gets the rock treatment by...Lloyd Cole and special friends.
Gloryhound's TKO Tokyo. Because we all need big dumb rock sometimes.
I know people have picked up on Japandroids, but some of you may have missed this older nugget, Art Czars. Perfect snotty noise.
Les Sexy - a double-shot of francophone punk from Winnipeg, St. Boniface to be more specific. "Fables" and "Chasseur" are simple, raw and have no need for backing tapes or auto-tuning. They remind me of my youth, before punk became pop, over-produced and weighted down with style and fashion. The album versions sound even better, seek them out.
Ruby by Cheap Girls, fine power pop + garage rock = perfect rock and roll.
Deer Tick's Born at Zero reminds me of the Replacements, not so much the sound as the attitude.
Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless. A primal chorus, a great bridge.
No Age - Fever Dreaming and You're a Target. Like Japandroids, I like to go backwards with No Age. Scuzzy gut-bucket ferocity with one, sped-up shoegaze with the other?.
Peter Buck's 10 Million BC might not be what one would expect from the former R.E.M. guitarman, but that's good, innit?
Everyone's got a best of the year list. Sorry, not here. But you do get a bunch of music that I loved in the past year (some of which may have been released prior to 2010, I don't care), some of which I've blogged about already, and some of which I didn't get to sharing. So here it is, Part Three (and of course by This Year I mean last year), come on back for the next parts.
Crocodiles: a perfect mix of psychedelia, Jesus & Mary Chain, and shoegaze euphoria still gets me stoked.
Cut Copy's name has come up in my endless search for fine music, but I ignored 'em, because with a name like that I stupidly guessed I was gonna hear techno or industrial-type sounds. I still don't know anything about the band, but this song sounds like a joyous celebration of something; the future? the road right in front of you? Re-claiming Gary Glitter's stomping beats for a pretty possibility party? For an email address, Cut Copy will give you this song for free.
Old 97's The Grand Theatre Vol. 1 contains this raucous, raw stomper, proving that not only can the band ace alt country and sweet pop, garagey rock is also in the arsenal.
Winnipeg's Telepathic Butterfliesseem to have skipped the last three decades in their quest to make sounds less fleeting than disposable pop. Reverb-drenched guitars, thick harmonies, literate lyrics and well-crafted tunes are a good start, and since thousands of people like you listened to their songs in previous posts on this blog, many of you agree.
The Thermals released their new album Personal Life and continued their fine tradition of short, hook-filled, rocky-road-flavoured gems. The band members have a sense of humour. They have conveniently provided useful terms such as mid-fi, post-pop-punk, and post-power-pop, among others, which you may apply or not as you see fit. Near as I can figure, The Thermals are a power trio from the future. And they wrote a song called Canada.
Urge Overkill came back to ready their first album in more than a decade, performed on Yo Gabba Gabba, and gave a away a new song, Effigy. Bring back the swingin' medallions and they will come, boys.
We've been loving Crocodiles for a while now, with songs like Neon Jesus I Wanna Kill and Summer of Hate giving us an energetic Jesus and Mary Chain vibe. This new one maybe slides more into the shoegaze era, My Bloody Valentine territory, but it's still quite good. The Sleep Forever single will be out on Fat Possum Records August 17 with b-sides California Girls and Groove Is in the Heart - I'm very curious about that Dee-Lite cover. The new album will be out September 14 and will also be called Sleep Forever.
Unlike The Rentals best-known tune, Friends of P, this tune does not offer a quick new wave revival. Honey Life is lush pop, with violin and hushed vocals propelling a pretty little ditty. The song is taken from the album Songs About Time: Chapter Three - The Future. It's a taster of an insanely ambitious project featuring "42 tracks on 4 LPs and CDs, a 72-page hardcover photobook, 52 short films on DVD, 2 Art booklets, a One of a kind roll of undeveloped film(?!), and much more" according to the band's website.
Has every possible band name based on the English language been used already? Probably not yet, but the tipping point may be coming soon. This series of posts is being created to ensure you can tell the which from the what.
Crocodiles are a much-buzzed-about band from San Diego who put out a little album called Summer of Hate. Flaunting influences like Jesus & Mary Chain and Echo & the Bunnymen on their sleeves instead of hearts, the band sounds like fuzzy joy that all the cool kids can like. Free mp3s for ya here courtesy Stereogum.
Alligators is a Seattle band coming at things from a much more smooth, dreamy hyper-melodic pop angle - sounds a bit like the pop genius of Nada Surf. Free mp3s here courtesy of Largehearted Boy. Unfortunately, there's another band called The Alligators that has received some attention. The band from Provo, Utah includes a female frontperson and is a little more herky-jerky indie pop than my Seattle pals. You grab some free mp3s here or here courtesy of You Ain't No Picasso and Skatterbrain.
mp3s will be posted for a limited time and are for promotional purposes only. If you like it, buy the albums, go to the shows, buy the t-shirts - support the artist so they can keep on keepin' on. Artists - if you would like an mp3 or video removed, please contact me directly at chrisyakchart@hotmail.com.
If you've got something Scruffy should hear, same email. Snail mail is cool too.
Scruffy the Yak 34 Allenby Cres Winnipeg Mb R2C 3J4
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