Weekly: New Old

I shall start this post off with some very good news from my perspective. I was recently mentioned on Dave Cusick's Post Modern Rock Show, and Dave even played three songs that I posted a while back on his show! Download the MP3 here.

Okay -- so now for the new music part of this blog.
The new indie buzzword is Paper Airplanes. These guys are being hailed as "true" indie-rockers. While I am still not quite sure that that's supposed to me, I suppose it's a complement. And they certainly are disorderly enough to classify as indie-rock and filled with enough creative juices to keep them going for, hopefully, years to come. Listen to The Fences, or go to their MySpace page.

These guys, the Lovers are too damn sweet. When I listen to their music, I think that by some odd stroke of luck -- and some magic on the side -- Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg have been reunited. The guy has, from what I hear, a really skeezy French-looking mustache (no offense, French guys -- that's the stereotype speaking!), the woman sings with an incredibly sexy voice, the songs are totally French-lounge-themed, and everything about them is just so perfect. Listen to La Degustation, La Le, French Kiss, Basque Country, and Sex Club (Original Mix). "Come drink my wine."

Who would have thunk that Venezula would produce such edgy post-punk-inspired dance rock? I usually stray away from music that is from a Spanish-speaking country ... I don't know why. It's probably subliminally racist, but I would hope it has something more to do with a dislike for salsa, rumba, maracas, and those goofy-looking bass guitars that they play down there.
Todosantos neither play that stupid Mexican acoustic bass nor sing lyrics that I recognize as Spanish (they are more of this alien sort of yelp that doesn't sound like any language spoken on Earth to me ... )
I will admit that the song title, "Ian Curtis" was a big turn off for me. Who the hell names their song "Ian Curtis"!? But I downloaded it and, while I still don't know what the heck they're talking about, but I liked it. It's raw, I guess you could say. I feel like their whole image is too flarey to make songs called "Ian Curtis" to begin with, but who am I to judge some crazy Venzulean musicians, obsessed with post-punk, the Rapture, and James Murphy and his cronies? Listen to 1999, Ian Curtis, A Veces, Epica, and Dicimbre. There.

Woah -- this is a good band ... the Handsome Charlies. They play this stuff that sounds like Madness mixed with, I dunno, Dexy's Midnight Runners and the Jam. Really light, crisp mod guitar pop, offset with horns and a very smart style, influenced by the likes of the Monochrome Set and XTC. These guys are very good -- I am impressed. Listen to Perfect, Makes Me Love You, 81, and Coffee.

And lastly, I've got Woodbine to deliver to y'all (isn't that the name of a really disgusting, harsh flavored British cigarette?) ... well -- these guys are not, by any means, disgusting. They are rather mellow, playing music that reminds me of the tighter works of like, Mazzy Star. They're cool and chill and I like them. They put all these interesting, liquidy effects into their songs that really spruce the whole moody thing up quite a bit.
Listen to three songs that their label, Domino, have to offer.