The Parallellograms/The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Split EP

Genre(s) - Indie pop
Origin - UK/USA
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 320 kbps
Size - 11.35 MB

I've been having other things on my mind than my blog, excuse me for the lack of updates lately. I'm not sure if that is changing very soon. Watch and pray.

Well I hope everybody knows I love The Pains, only on this here fine EP I have to admit they are being topped by their British splitmates. The Parallellograms play ultra-upbeat, ultra-simple, ultra-childlike but very noisy twee pop, with a rawness of production that would scare the lads of Von or Beherit. Pop the Bubbles is fantastic, gets me ready for summer (if only the weather worked along). As for the Pains, Kurt Cobain's Cardigan sadly is quite a nondescript song and I know they can do better than this. Also of course I prefer their more melodramatic songs.

1. The Parallellograms - 1, 2, 3, go!
2. The Parallellograms - Pop the bubbles
3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Kurt Cobain's Cardigan
   

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V.A. - Twee as Fuck (the Joy of Kittenhood)

Genre(s) - Twee, o'course
Origin - Mostly UK and USA
Year of release - Never officially; compiled in 2005
Bitrate - 192 kbps

Twee as Fuck is a rather infamous compilation of a great many twee songs by a great many twee bands, that circulates the internet but was never officially released. Apparently it is based off a list of "essential listening" indie pop songs in a 2005 article with the same title in Pitchfork magazine. Some gentle soul has made an mp3 comp out of it and that's what I can share with you now. Many of the bands I got to like when I first discovered the genre came from this compilation and I urge anyone with a fondness of the sweet, the simple and the shamelessly underproduced to check this out. Revolt into childhood? Yes please!

Cut in half due to size. Get both!

1. Television Personalities - This angry silence
2. Talulah Gosh - Beatnik boy
3. Tiger Trap - My broken heart
4. Rocketship - I love you like the way that I used to do
5. Magnetic Fields - 100,000 fireflies
6. Honeybunch - Mind your own business
7. Cub - Tell me now
8. Beat Happening - Our secret
9. The Softies - Hello rain
10. Glo-worm - Tilt-a-whirl
11. Heavenly - Three star compartiment
12. Tullycraft - Pop songs your new boyfriend's too stupid to know about
13. The Pastels - Mandarin
14. [oops, missing file!]
    
15. Blueboy - Boys don't matter
16. Wolfie - Hey, it's finally yay
17. Tiger Trap - Puzzle pieces
18. The Hit Parade - Hitomi
19. Rocketship - Your New Boyfriend
20. Barcelona - I've got the password to your Shell account
21. Black Tambourine - Throw Aggi off the bridge
22. Beat Happening - Bewitched
23. The Pastels - Yoga
24. Honeybunch - My contribution to the greenhouse effect
25. Small Factory - If you hurt me
26. Velocity Girl - Pop loser
27. Heavenly - Hearts and crosses
28. The Pastels - Different drum
29. The Vaselines - Molly's lips
30. Beat Happening - Indian summer
31. Talulah Gosh - My boy says
32. The Sea Urchins - Pristine Christine
33. Heavenly - C is the heavenly option
34. Boyracer - In love
    

Part 1 - Load it down (70.13 MB)
Part 2 - Load it down (72.09 MB)

Let's Whisper - Make Me Smile

Genre(s) - Twee pop
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 192/320 kbps
Size - 19.61 MB

Here is some unabashedly adorable, lo-fi twee (is there any other kind?) from wonderful WeePOP! Records, because it was such a sunny day today. And if you ask me, Let's Whisper is among the best out there. The Make me Smile EP does not exhibit the deliberate amateurish bedroom recording values and unsteady performance as some other bands make them, which I find a plus. The clarity and simple but capable instrumentation highlight the flawless compositions. Hey Sunshine and Ice Cream are really sunny and will bring a wide smile to your face that's impossible to wipe away. However, Dylan's Song and Tender Circles are brilliantly bittersweet and you'll have to put up a fight not to let them affect your mood just as much. In a nutshell: tender harmonies and happy-sad melodies galore.

1. Dylan's song
2. Open road
3. Hey sunshine
4. When you were eating ice cream
5. Tender circles
6. Dylan's song (demo version)
   

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The Smiths - Thank Your Lucky Stars

Genre(s) - Smiths music
Origin - Manchester, North West England, UK
Year of release - Nope.
Bitrate - 160 bkps
Size - 82.22 MB

Sooooo... The Smiths. Well, I like 'em. Here's a bootleg, recorded at 28-08-1986 at Irvine Meadows, Laguna Hills, Ca. This is a very good concert and exceptionally good recording, for an unofficial one. It has some of my favourite tracks from The Queen is Dead including Cemetary Gates, The Boy and - yes! - There Is a Light, and what may or may not be a funky instrumental Cyndi Lauper cover. If you like Rank, well, I think this one just a little better (all opinions I read agree with me), but that is of course personal. Morrissey is not as savage here but the tracklist suits me fine, and occasionally the band puts some over-enthusiastic security personell back in place. Who couldn't excuse the crowd for being a bit tempestuous, I mean, it IS the Moz on that stage. If you find this review a bit understated it is because I am too enthusiastic about The Smiths to properly put into words. Rest assured this comes preposterously, obsessively, unhealthily recommended.

1. Please, please, please let me get what I want
2. Still ill
3. I want the one I can't have
4. There is a light that never goes out
5. How soon is now?
6. Frankly, mr. Shankly
7. Panic
8. Stretch out and wait
9. The boy with the thorn in his side
10. Is is really so strange?
11. Cemetary gates
12. Never had no one ever
13. What she said/Rubber ring
14. That joke isn't funny anymore
15. Heaven knows I'm miserable now
16. The queen is dead
17. Money changes everything
18. I know it's over
    

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The Cavalcade - Meet you in the rain

Genre(s) - Indie pop
Origin - Northwestern England, UK
Year of release - 2009
Bitrate - 320 kbps
Size - 24.83 MB

I wanted to meet you in the rain/but you never showed/I've waited for most of the day/I hope that you know. This rather passive-aggressive end to a chorus line stands in shrill contrast to the sound of this delightful EP. On Meet You, The Cavalcade play calm, bittersweet little songs (generally a bit more bitter than sweet, but not begrudged at all) that are bound to conquer your thoughts and feelings, there is just no resistance. The jangly guitar and wonderfully imperfect vocals are the centerpoint but an important part of the musical experience is the chemistry between those and the limited keyboard touch-ups. It's over before you know it and you will most likely directly be tempted to listen to it again. Do it. It's no use fighting; surrender is not a choice, it's a given. Also warmly recommended to folkies.

The Cavalcade are signed to (among others) the wonderful Cloudberry Records with which I seem to share a lot of values in life.

1. Meet you in the rain
2. Voices
3. Rooftops & chaotic streets
4. This silent town
5. Nobody's child
   

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Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now

Genre(s) - Chamber pop
Origin - Ireland/UK
Year of release - 2005
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 48.23 MB

I like to think all music I post is special for some reason or another, but here's a group that is really quite unlike anything else that I know. The Johnsons play some extremely timeless romantic music that sounds like it belongs in an exclusive nightclub somewhere in the twenties or thirties. The star of the show is the enigmatic Antony Hegarty, with his magical, lilting one-of-a-kind voice that just suits the music so wonderfully. He is also the one laying down the plaintive, desolate piano tones, the music's main ingredient, supported by an understated bass and drums combo and sometimes a bit of brass and violin, lifting for instance Fistful of Love up to be the album's high point. While the melodies themselves are not usually so sad, the music is clearly intended for lonely nights of wistful yearning more than to spice up a party with. Well, I've tested, and it works: there is some fine nightly yearning to be had with Bird Now on.

1. Hope there's someone
2. My lady story
3. For today I am a boy
4. Man is the baby
5. You are my sister
6. What can I do?
7. Fistful of love
8. Spiralling
9. Free at last
10. Bird gehrl
    

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Rubies - Explode from the Center

Genre(s) - Indie pop ("disco-folk")
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 51.41 MB

In the beginning I had only a couple of Rubies' songs and no idea why this band would call their music disco-folk. They sounded like a regular yet professional folky twee band. But when I got my filthy pirate claws on Explode from the Center, it became obvious. I feel Electric is the only all-out dancefloor track, but the rest can't fully hide their influences either. It's mostly in the bass, which does, at specific moments, sound rather funky to the point it might indeed belong between the colour-flashing tiles on the floor and the sparkling ball dangling from the ceiling. And when the synths come in (only sporadically) you definitely know where you are. Rubies kindly provide us with utterly likeable music, overall more relaxing than energising, that doesn't sound out of place anywhere. Not anywhere nice, in any case.

1. Room without a key
2. Too bright
3. Signs of love
4. I feel electric
5. Turquoise
6. Stand in a line
7. Diamonds on fire
8. Silver mornings
9. The truth and the lies
   

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The Deirdres - Two Demos

Genre(s) - Twee pop
Origin - United Kingdom

The Deirdres are a bunch of hand-knitted puppets from Britain that play endearing, loosely-played noisy twee pop of a sort that jumps at you from unexpected corners. They don't stick to the plans and are all the more refreshing for it. Dinosaurs That Can Swim has a cool diy-cover courtesy of that wonderful little label WeePOP! who always have great ideas like this. The other demo, Poor Harmonies and Communal Clapping (which is exactly what it is!), seems untraceable on the webs but features the great Electro Magic and Sir Michael of Aspel, which rock my world with their deadly hooks and exquisitely poor harmonies. Yes!!

Dinosaurs That Can Swim (2007, 22.39 MB) - Load it down

1. Claire, are we safe to be on our own?
2. Hopeless is the venue
3. Fun to pretend

Poor Harmonies and Communal Clapping (200?, 16.40 MB) - Load it down

1. Electro magic
2. Fun to pretend
3. Shoop shoop
4. Sir Michael of Aspel
   

The Pastels - Up for a bit with the Pastels

Genre(s) - Twee pop
Origin - United Kingdom
Year of release - 1987
Bitrate - 256 kbps
Size - 58.54 MB

From the new Twee I rolled into the old and man, a lot has happened since the previous pop generation of the eighties and earliest nineties. That's not (at all!) to say it all got better from here, just... different - even though more and more new bands hark back to the old sound. The average old twee record was generally more British, more noisy, more emotionally ambiguous and more radically at odds with the world around it. So too the Pastels; they were among the very first. The music's pleasant and woozy, and it gets better every time you hear it. So if it's late and you still find yourself up for a bit, have some the Pastels!

1. Ride
2. Up for a bit
3. Crawl babies
4. Address book
5. I'm alright with you
6. Hitchin' a (ride)
7. Get 'round town
8. Automatically yours
9. Baby honey
10. If I could tell you

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Various artists - Rocking out against Voldemedia

Genre(s) - Wizard rock
Origin - USA, mainly
Year of release - 2007
Bitrate - 256 kbps
Size - 49.59 MB

What many uninformed nay-sayers don't know is that J.K. Rowling's beautiful universe is a very political one. This brilliant concept compilation is taking some of the political themes implicitly touched on in the later Harry Potter books in order to shake people awake in our own world, in particular about corporate media, a main tool of the privileged classes to dumb us down and divide us. The project was initiated by the Harry Potter Alliance for www.stopbigmedia.com and features ten wizard rock bands, ten tracks (and an introduction) about state repression, misleading and libelous publications, resistance and free press in Harry's world for ours to benefit from. The idea is maybe a tiny bit more interesting than the actual music, but it's good ol' comfy and cosy American amateur pop with lyrics about wizards in modern-day Britain so you need it.

1. The Harry Potter Alliance - Introduction
2. Catchlove - Potterwatch
   
3. The Remus Lupins - (Never) do what you're told
4. DJ Lovegood - Here's the scoop
5. Gred and Forge - Save the Quibbler
   
6. Harry and the Potters - Don't believe it
   
7. The Whomping Willows - The rebel call
   
8. The Owl Post and The Mudbloods - Owl post strike
   
9. The Sneakoscopes - Potterwatch episode 294
   
10. Roonil Wazlib - Voldemort controls the media
    
11. Tom Riddle & Friends - Quick quotes quill
    

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Self-titled full-length

Genre(s) - Dreampop
Origin - New York, NY
Year of release - 2009
Bitrate - 320 kbps
Size - 56.98 MB

Though I had kind of decided not to post any albums in the year that they are released anymore, the pull to share this is too strong, the world needs it too bad. With their self-titled debut, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart prove that simple recipes are usually the tastiest. They take the original shoegaze sound, a bit of Belle and Sebastian's melodic style and indie pop sensibility, and some surprising harmonies and synth-additions that strongly remind me of 80s rock. The music manages to be exuberant and sad at the same time, it's trippy and deceptively intense. This Love is Fucking Right! and A Teenager in Love both belong to the more melodic songs and they're quite beautiful, not in the least because of the delightfully fucked-up lyrics. Gentle Sons is an example of the harder tracks, with a very heavy stomping beat and intense psychedelic guitar play. Most of the others are somewhere in between but not less wondrous because of it. I wish I could force you to try it but you'll have to do it on your own accord. Love them forever, like I will.

1. Contender
2. Come saturday
3. Young adult friction
4. This love is fucking right!
5. The tenure itch
6. Stay alive
7. Everything with you
8. A teenager in love
9. Hey Paul
10. Gentle sons
    

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Tegan and Sara - If It Was You

Genre(s) - Indie pop/rock
Origin - Calgary (Alberta), Canada
Year of release - 2002
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 49.06 MB

Twins are awesome, who could be better to start a musical project with than your own twin sibling? I wish I had one. Tegan and Sara both have one, and it's each other, so they must be, like, the perfect band! They play pretty catchy indie pop/rock with sometimes a little bit folk mixed in, and other times a danceable beat. It's nothing revolutionary but it's just such easy music to relax to and feel content. Like Belle & Sebastian (but with a bit more chutzpah), or like drinking tea (but with a bit more caffein). Apparently long-time fans of the band can tell their voices and writing/playing styles apart and pick a favourite sister, but I'm not that initiated. Not much more to say; I'd pick out some highlight songs to describe but it's all just exquisite so I wouldn't know which to choose!

1. Time running
2. You went away
3. Monday monday monday
4. City girl
5. Not tonight
6. Underwater
7. I hear noises
8. Living room
9. Terrible storm
10. And darling
11. Want to be bad
12. Don't confess
    

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All Girl Summer Fun Band - All Girl Summer Fun Band

Band/artist - All Girl Summer Fun Band
Genre(s) - Twee pop
Origin - United States of America
Album - All Girl Summer Fun Band
Year of release - 2002

With all the metal these last few weeks, you're probably dying for something a bit brighter right about now. And what music is more diametrically opposed to metal (except maybe power metal, itself the indie pop among the extreme music subgenres) than twee?? It's been way too long since this blog has featured some good sunny picknick pop anyway, so I present to you, the All Girl Summer Fun Band ("they're having fun again!"). How can you go wrong with a band like that, the name is enough to cheer you up! But of course it's what's inside that matters. Simple, bouncy, starry-eyed songs about boyfriends, life's tiniest problems, boyfriends, fun stuff and boyfriends, it doesn't get much more twee than this. With jangly guitars and lyrics such as "Canadian Boyfriend, I don't mind making the trip / Canadian Boyfriend, I wanna change my citizenship", they will conquer your heart. Too bad it's only March, this stuff makes you feel like eating icecream and playing badminton.

1. Brooklyn phone call
2. Canadian boyfriend
3. Car trouble
4. Later operator
5. Cut your hair
6. Somehow angels
7. Theme song
8. It's there
9. Girl #3
10. Stumble over my
11. New in town
12. Cutie pie
13. Cell phone
    

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Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Band/artist - Belle & Sebastian
Genre(s) - Chamber pop
Origin - Glasgow, Scotland
Album - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Year of release - 2003

It's so easy to assume from the name that Belle & Sebastian are a boy-girl duo, and for a while, I fell for the trap. However, they're a full, seven-headed band that plays sophisticated indiepop - explicitly not twee, they don't take kindly to that label - that ranges from understated acoustic songs to more exuberant chamber pop compositions with trumpets, an organ and the like. Dear Catastrophe Waitress is my choice for uploading because there's not a boring track on it. I also think it's more easy-going than some of their other stuff; basically the album oozes positive vibrations in every direction from beginning to end. Through a real talent for songwriting, Stuart Murdoch and his gang manage to do this without making it sound forced or predictable. If you're looking to ease the mind and don't want negative or all too demanding music, this should be the release for you. Stressée, toi? Jamais!

1. Step into my office, baby
2. Dear catastrophe waitress
3. If she wants me
4. Roy Walker
5. (I believe in) travellin' light
6. Asleep on a sunbeam
7. You don't send me
8. Wrapped up in books
9. Lord Anthony
10. If you find yourself caught in love
11. I'm a cuckoo
12. Piazza, New York catcher
13. Stay loose
    

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The Weepies - Happiness

Band/artist - The Weepies
Genre(s) - Indiepop-ish folk
Origin - they live in Topanga, California. :)
Album - Happiness
Year of release - 2003

The Weepies is Deb Talan and Steve Tannen and I've been obsessed with this duo for a few weeks now. Both were beginning solo-artists - their separate works are also beautiful! [for links see below] - when they found each other based on similar musical interests, and the bond was so strong they even got married! Happiness is their debut, I am only just busy discovering their other stuff. This is the kind of music that many people see as happy and carefree, but can seriously get me down when listened to at the wrong moment. It may just be me, but the mood that this band creates seems very ambiguous to me... there's hope and sweetness, but also a lot of longing and pensiveness. Where the lyrics are positive the melody may be very bittersweet, like on the song Happiness, whereas Jolene (not a Dolly Parton cover), is sung quite sadly, yet has a really uplifting guitar hook. Of course, that contrast is what exactly what makes The Weepies so addictive. Not everybody's cup of tea, I imagine, but I will relentlessly try to force this down everybody's throats because it's just that good.

EDIT: this release prefers to be downloaded together with Stopped at a Green Light and A Bird Flies Out.

1. Happiness
2. All that I want
3. Vegas, baby
4. Somebody loved
5. Jolene
6. Simple life
7. Dating a porn star
8. Keep it there
   

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Tiger Trap - Tiger Trap

Band/artist - Tiger Trap
Genre(s) - Twee, indie pop
Origin - United States of America
Album - Tiger Trap
Year of release - 1993

Woohoo, happy twee pop for those who liked The Softies and Go Sailor, of course again featuring Rose Melberg. It's got a bit more of a bite than the aforementioned groups - faster, a bit noisier - but it's got all the exuberance and liveliness. You'll love it. Carefree music for the troubled mind. Forgive the short review but there really isn't much more to say and also I have a tummy ache. :(

1. Puzzle pieces
2. You're sleeping
3. Eight wheels
4. Supercrush
5. Tore a hole
6. Words and smiles
7. For sure
8. You and me
9. Supreme nothing
10. Chester
11. My broken heart
12. Prettiest boy
    

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Goya - Smak Słów

Band/artist - Goya
Genre(s) - Chamber pop
Origin - Poland
Album - Smak Słów
Year of release - 2005

Somewhere in history, the Polish have come to be stigmatised as being an unsubtle kind of people, but proponents of this generalisation probably never listened to Goya. Their name, I presume, is based on one of the more interesting painters in history, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, which is what secured my attention on them. The band plays calm, elegant pop revolving mostly around piano/keyboards and Magdalena Wójcik's beautiful vocals, and I find it to be very soothing to my agitated senses! There's a sense of longing in her voice and in some of the better piano melodies, but the album is not really sad, per se. I guess you'll just have to like it, to like it.

1. Mój
2. West
3. East
4. Smak słów
5. Trudne pytania
6. Jak...
7. Wiem
8. Było mineło
9. Spiesz się
10. Nie potrzeba mi nic
11. Posłuchaj
    

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Go Sailor - Go Sailor

Band/artist - Go Sailor
Genre(s) - Twee, indie pop
Origin - United States of America
Album - Go Sailor
Year of release - 1996

Yay, another one of Rose Melberg's twee bands! Damn, I love that woman. Here we have a much more upbeat vibe than the Softies, making this one of my favourite albums to sing along to, especially when I'm cooking. Singing while cooking is very liberating and it doesn't make such a mess as masturbating does so I encourage everyone to give it a try. Songs like Fine Day for Sailing, The Boy who Sailed around the World or Together Forever in Love are just so cute, catchy and happy that it would take even an exceptionally grim black metal person's every effort not to tap his feet along with the beat or even try out a few clumsy dance moves when he thinks no one's looking.

1. Last year
2. Fine day for sailing
3. I'm still crying
4. I just do
5. Bigger than an ocean
6. Silly
7. Long distance
8. Windy
9. Blue sky
10. The boy who sailed around the world
11. Don't go
12. Ray of sunshine
13. Together forever in love
14. Every day
    

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Raymond & Maria - Vi ska bara leva klart

Band/artist - Raymond och Maria
Genre(s) - Indie pop
Origin - Sweden
Album - Vi Ska Bara Leva Klart
Year of release - 2004

Here we have another great piece of soft guitar pop of a sweet and somewhat melancholic kind, quite like the Softies and more bands that I intend to post on here eventually. The difference, of course, is that Raymond och Maria - I believe I read somewhere that they were named after a swingers' club - are Swedish, very Swedish in fact, as all the lyrics are in their mother tongue. The track Ingen Vill Veta Var Du Köpt Din Tröja ("Nobody wants to know where you bought your sweater") is definitely the best and most beautiful, righteously becoming #1 in Sweden's top 40, but this is a wonderful album in its entirety.

1. Nej
2. Ingen vill veta var du köpt din tröja
3. Redan idag
4. Ingenting för dig
5. De alskar dig
6. Min pappa
7. Det gar aldrig att bli dumm igen
8. Vi ska blara leva klart
9. Som
10. Nar jag blundar
    

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The Softies - Holiday in Rhode Island

Band - The Softies
Genre(s) - twee, indie pop
Origin - United States of America
Album - Holiday in Rhode Island
Year of release - 2000

Like the previous Softies album I posted, Holiday in Rhode Island is a collection of rather nondescript but sweetly atmospheric love songs leaning to the depressing side, with only the first track really sticking out. And like It's Love, somehow that's not at all a problem as it is a comfortable musical backdrop for your rainy day reveries. I must say this album is the weaker one, though Sleep Away Your Troubles is probably their most beautiful song ever.

1. Sleep away your troubles
2. The places we go
3. These sad times
4. The beginning of the end
5. Just a day
6. Me and the bees
7. Holiday in Rhode Island
8. Favorite shade of blue
9. You and only you
10. Sturdies bay
11. Saint Agnes
12. If you stayed
13. Write it down
14. My empty arms
    

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