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Damn you pro tools...

...and other production processes we don't know the name of.

Right, so this post will tangent (into Ariel Pink and Songs: Ohia!) but it is mainly about how awesome Mika Miko are. They are very awesome. They are from LA, and everyone from there thinks they a cool, and everyone in LA is cool.

For example, they would probably end that sentence with 'do the math' or 'go figure' or something. That's the kinda cool we're dealing with here, folks.


They consist of five girls (look up! lots of girls!) and play the kind of ace pop punk that everyone thought the Misfits had already perfected. This means it's proper punk, but still quite pop without being in a gay Blink 182/Green Day not-at-all proper punk way. Er, gettit? They have an album, called 'C.Y.S.L.A.B.F.', however the following song isn't on it for some daft reason.


Mika Miko - Forensic Scientist

Now, we happen to think that's one of the best pop songs we've heard all year, the little bleeps, it's energy... it just makes us go urgh! However we are aware sound facists who only listen to music in a padded room with £500 headphones might be a little perturbed. You're idiots. Fuck off.

Indiecunt's policy towards music revolves around great songwriting, not recording techniques. You should do too, here are some reasons why:


Songs Ohia - A Window Sang The Stars Down


Ariel Pink - For Kate I Wait

Ahh, Molina you little legend. Anyway back to Mika Miko... umm, there're still awesome! Annoyingly, although they've been around for awhile, we thought we were onto a bit of a 'blog exclusive' with them but, darn it if 20 jazz funk greats hadn't got their first last month. They put up a couple of songs to download and wrote some stuff. It's probably not as good as this stuff... but still, it's pretty good.

buy it at insound!

Youtube's pro bono.

The 'Youtube Underground Contest' sounded awful, but it is in fact rather fantastic. We were expecting thousands of white, American college kids rapping but no, you get stuff like this...


Mike Willis - The Long Way

Things that are brilliant about this video:

1. The way initially blurred camera focuses on a shot of tall grass.

2. The way that at the 32 second mark you can caption the kid with comments like "hey, you missed the turning", and pretend the creepy old man laughed knowingly.

3. Its Myspace 'tags': myspace tags:

country family highways long roads grandfather singer singer/songwriter songwriter love cute guy story dancing kids

4. The fact it makes the 'rest of the world' feel better about not being American.


Kay Merryweather - Lick It Like It

Things that are brilliant about this video:

1. We can conceivably picture Lily Allen doing this when she stops being good.

2. Kay looks a bit like heroin addict who just made the video as part of some TV program where addicts are rehabilitated through empowerment and creativity.

3. The fact she licks the ice cream after the cat.

4. It has at least 3 more notes than a Jet song.


Desk Top Story - So Easy

Things that are brilliant about this video:

1. You just know that guy at the start is one of those complete cunts who constantly makes sarcastic remarks that don't really make sense. Bet he edited the video too.

2. The fact Disney would probably think this is too cheesy.

3. The line:

"I loved him so madly/he was a dream come true/I loved him like no other/One day I said it's all over now."

4. The fact it's from a musical. As in, there's more somewhere!


Hello Dots - Bible Camp

Things that are brilliant about this video:

1. It's title.

2. The fact that, unlike the studio version on their Myspace, it doesn't sound that terrible.

Etc etc ad infinitum.

(oh boy are we digging our latin today!)

I N D I E C U N T - P O D C A S T : T W O

Thinking about calling these Cuntcasts... we think however, that might invoke thelegal area of defamation. We don't want to be sued. Legal experts, advice?

Well, this is the 'November Indiecunt Podcast', hurrah and yippee and etc etc. It's a bit a longer than the last one but not as long as those 'take your medicine' ones. It has some fine, varied music that's new or there abouts and it's better than those 'take your medicine' ones.

Er, it's personal.

Indiecunt November Podcast

Download
Length: 30 mins.
Weight: 29 mbs.

One: The Wombats - Moving To New York. Link

Two: Pull In Emergency - Backfoot. Link

Three: (We don't know the artist, but the songs either called 'Jezto Dernie' or 'Jetzt Orde Ne'. From a French clubs Myspace.) Link

Four: Van She - Kelly. Link

Five: The Little Ones: Cha Cha Cha. Link

Six: Bolt Action Five - Tree Friend Tree Foe. Link

Seven: Alamo Race Track - We Like To Go On. Link

Eight: Thomas Tantrum - Pshandy. Link

NME calls The Knife new wave. Guffaw! Guffaw!

We had questions. We needed answers.

Indiecunt Interview

So, what the fuck is new rave Wikipedia?

New Rave, as coined by British music magazine NME, is a developing style of music fusing elements of electronic dance music and rock. It has similarities with US-led style Dance-punk.

Oh right, thanks. But wikister, how 'bout some examples

Bands associated with New Rave:

* Klaxons
* Silverlink
* Shitdisco
* The Presets
* Vitalic
* Goose
* New Young Pony Club
* Hot Chip
* Datarock

Aww man that's awesome. Wiki-d you might say! Got anything else?

References

1. ^ Guardian

External links

* NME

Nope, then. Thanks wikipedia!

Indiecunt Interview

Now, as you can see new rave is this brilliant thing that is so great it doesn't really make any kind of coherent sense...

just...


like...


The Knife!?!


Ah ha!! NME, hats off you are genius' and we humbly retract our earlier guffaws. Here, have some Knife mp3's - no, go on, take them, ha ha. Please, seriously just have them. For God's sake, it's not much. Now, take it! And don't you dare leave it here. Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I miss your uncle Ben so much...

Oh. No that's Spiderman 2.


The Knife - Kino

The Knife - Parade


The Knife - High School Poem

BuyBuyBuy

English is so shit.

The Fryars post reminded us of Nightmare Before Christmas, so we went youtubing.

And we found this...


Oh. My.

Here's the Italian version


Japanese!


This could run and run...




... but maybe it shouldn't.

Fryars in NME.

Long time readers (umm) of Indiecunt will remember we likely Fryars lots. Look right, we even Myspace link! We wrote a couple of months ago:

He's basically nailed the art of a killer melody and usually fills them with electro-esq piano bits or fuzzy guitars; his voice, a wonderful croon could be described as Morrisey put through Julian Casablanca's patented voice distorter if it wasn't so much goddamn better.

We thought that was very witty back in September...

Anyway a few weeks back we had a 'PR encounter' and got sent a Fryars demo ep! It was all so terribly exciting receiving it, we forgot all about actually posting something about it. Which was a bit rude, so in honour of Fryars NME debut we're going to do a review!

*INDIECUNT REVIEW*
frYars - Dark. dark. Summer

Right, so how do we do this? Umm we like the title, especially the creative capitalisation. Also, it came with a nice cover with drawings that remind us of ' The Nightmare Before Christmas'. Thumbs up for presentation, then. (Oh also, we liked the fact it didn't get stolen en route by Merseyside postal workers. They are thieving cunts.)

(THIS LINKS WORK!)

Track 1: The Ides.

We have to confess this song could be produced by Mr Oizo/DFA/Paul Epworth, include a gospel choir of angels and have the ability to somehow audibly induce orgasms and we would still prefer the older Ladyfuzz remix of this song. On the plus side however, they've added some great handclaps and some ethereal background singing and James Jam, the legend that is, recommended it... so you know.
4/5

Track 2: Polystyrene.

Another re-recording of a previously available song but happily, while the original sounds god awful this sounds great. If we were DiS we'd probably describe the opening piano chords as 'urgent', and might reference an ambulance siren as some kind of metaphor. The chorus is more restrained, bringing in those synthetic flute noises they have in Japanese pop and some way 80's keyboards, you know the ones that sound like miny explosion. We like, even if it lacks a little fullness.
3/5

Track 3: The Box.

This is ace. Like the electro equivalent of Bright Eyes playing Lua. It's solely Fryars, a timid sounding drum machine and a cheap Casio keyboard set to organ. It's lovely, simple, affecting music that is given a wonderfully melancholic naivety by an excellent vocal performance. We like!
5/5

Track 4: Of March.

Or the one with the great hook. Of March definitely has a more indie guitar vibe, it's not quite a club anthem, it's a tad more subtle than that, but it does have a proper 'banging' chorus that lurches around like all the best pop. It's the most instantly accessible song, so in lowest common denominator terms that means it's: s'alright.
5/5

Track 5: Groves.

This ones weird, all bending synths and broken drums loops, but has a cute as a button chorus that reminds us a bit of the weird feedback sounds and reverb Doves used to use. We especially like the outro, with its crackling percussion and almost 16bit video game keyboards.
4/5

(Download: left clicky song titles)

So some cracking bits of music really, especially for a demo. (You should hear our Milburn demo from a few years ago, it's fucking awful and it cost us a fiver and we only bought it because we were drunk. Damn you Milburn.) So Indiecunt's first review recieves 21/25, which we think could possibly mean it is 84% amazing. However that sounds way to low so we'll say it's 92% amazing.

*INDIECUNT REVIEW*
frYars - Dark. dark. Summer

Sooooo, that's the review...


We don't like doing reviews.


:(


(Thanks, Jo)

OMG!!! Long Blondes tracklisting!!!!

Indiecunt loves Long Blondes. They are perhaps the perfect Indiecunt band, they're pop... but not. Gettit? They have lyrics about bitterness and envy and loneliness and other nasty things delivered over some of the catchiest, melodic hooks this side of Ode to Joy.

This is what unites Shangri-Las, The Beatles, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead etc who are good. But exactly the opposite of what unites The Bravery, ELO, The Automatic etc who are detritus. Now do you see?

Anyway yay! We finally know what’s on one of the albums of the year.


Someone To Drive you Home (Buy/Preorder)
1. Lust In The Movies
2. Once And Never Again
3. Only Lovers Left Alive
4. Giddy Stratospheres
5. In The Company Of Women
6. Heaven Help The New Girl
7. Separated By Motorways
8. You Could Have Birth
9. Swallow Tattoo
10. Weekend Without Makeup
11. Madame Ray
12. Knife For The Girls

Quite possibly 78% of those songs should be singles, that go to number one, for weeks. It’s not all peaches though, we have complaints.

1. There’s no ‘Last Night in Northgate Street’. They may well be saving it for some b-side, but seriously who buys cd singles anymore?

2. Cunty, stupid record execs types are obsessed with placing the best (read: most commercially viable) song at number seven. They do this because they think people are retards and might forget halfway through a record that they actually quite enjoy it. (This is more an observation than a complaint)

3. Either Amazon or Long Blondes seem to possess the mistaken belief that ‘You Could Have Both’ is called ‘You Could Have Birth’. The name may have changed of course, but that would be silly...

4. ‘You Could Have Both’ (or Birth or whatever) isn’t the last song. This is because ‘Knife For The Girls’ is the last and wouldn’t fit into the album in any other place. Obvious solution: scrap ‘Knife…’, stick ‘Last Night…’ on instead and put ‘You Could…’ in it’s rightful place.

5. In the process of re-recording all the tracks and adding ‘depth’ (and possibly ‘warmth’) to the sound they’ve decided to hire whoever does the synths for Coldplay songs on a few tracks. ‘Weekend Without Make Up’ now sounds like a Killers song, for example. :(

6. Slight tangent here but LONG BLONDES VIDEOS ARE RUBBISH and they deserve better and it needs to be sorted out. Even using ‘tour footage’ (i.e. filming the band rocking out a crowd of hired actors) would be better than this or this. Annoyingly even the humungous cunt that is Alex Zane made this point.

7. Urgh! For some insane reasons ‘Fulwood Babylon’ isn’t on there. Let’s blame b-sides again, they are so evil.

8. The cover’s quite good... but we think maybe the Klaxons cover will be better.

For those that don’t propel Long Blondes singles to the giddy heights of the top 30, here are the b-sides your being denied. (Right Click monkeys)


Long Blondes - Fulwood Babylon


Long Blondes - Last Night In Northgate Street

Umm, so anyway we really do love you Long Blondes. We just care. Lots and lots.

(Oh and 'Once and Never Again' is out today. It's amazing, b-sides, rubbish cover and all.)

From whence does genius come?

We can't remember, maybe 'rich girls are weeping', maybe not. Still, for some reasons we have a 'The Thermals' mp3.

And it's amazing.

The Thermals - A Pillar Of Salt (Download, Right Click)

Their other stuff sounds alot like this but that's fine (we wish Gnarls Barkley made all their stuff sound like 'Crazy'), because they have a great sound.

If we were to try and - 'define' - their - 'sound' - we might say:

Think... pop punk's nasal influenced Decemberist vocals, in a toy shop with The Undertones, and everyone's jumping on the Kaiser Chiefs keyboard player's head screaming "Now you know! Now you know!!" and having a banging time.

But we're not Zane Lowe.


The Thermals - Returning To The Fold (Download, Right Click)

They have a few albums, the rubbishly titled 'The Body the Blood the Machine' (out last month), the fantastically titled, 'Fuckin' a' and the we're not that bothered titled 'More Parts Per Million'

Marie Antoinette. Basically, a music video.

But a good one.

You should watch this film, it's very pretty and will make you want to live in France and be rich. While the minuses are there (it's a simpering vat of shallow, vapid trash/nonsense/ego) it has some nice music.

Remember those delightful little piano bits from Drukqs (BUY!), they're there! As are Phoenix with a song that isn't as good as the one they had on Lost In Translation. Maybe it's their only good song. We don't know.

However the totally amazing brilliant highlight is when Siouxsie and the Banshees', 'Hong Kong Garden' comes on complete with an orchestral, instrumental intro thing!

Look we uploaded it to youtube for you and everything!


Are not we great? ARE WE NOT?!

Fact: pigeons are the most underrated of natures vermin!

Look at it walk! HA HA AHA HA! They are just soooo brilliant!

Anyway continuing indiecunt's total lack of indie policy (nb: most of it's shit) here's the 'Lucky Lucky Pigeons'. So named we presume because while it must be great being a pigeon, it must also involve a certain degree of luck to actually be a pigeon.
(Honestly, it's hairspray.)

So, these girls are from Sweden and they have amazing song titles.


Lucky Lucky Pigeons - 'Who Smells Marshmallows'



Lucky Lucky Pigeons - 'Keep On Kingie'

They have an ep on itunes, Happy Birds Day. It's your money...

And that's it really. We have no idea if any of this is good, but it makes us happy.

(Thanks Owen)

North Korea tests nuclear weapons. (Not the bad news)

There's a Klaxons conspiracy!


Indiecunt watched the video for new single magick, directed by uber-awesome Saam on the production companies website today. (Go check his efforts at Bigstereo, now!)

But later, when we went to get the link to post and add rubbish comments, it had gone! Like vanished!

Why, why did this happen? The video's quite good too, in one bit one of the Klax adopts a Come To Daddy monster pose, but with day glo paint spewing out of his eyes like a fountain. It's much better than the new Girls Aloud effort.

The singles out 30th October, so if you have mtv or something you might see it around then. But this needs to be explained, please.

(NB: This may involve Peaches Geldof turning all Ono/Love/Spungen on us. If so. damn you peaches you stupid named, silly stupid thing!)

Update: Video now up for some reason. Way more gay than we'd previously noticed.

Dance producers like GTA: Vice City. Alot.

Maybe not this week, but maybe in a future week, Infernal will release a new song. You will remember 'from paris to berlin', which they wrote. They didn't write their new song though, it's a cover.

It's from the 80's and was originally sung by Laura Branigan. Infernal obviously found this annoying because they put new modern vocals on it and a new modern drum beat and then made a 'sexy' video.

They probably said something like "hey presto!" when they did this.

The song featured on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which is a video game and is set in the 80's. It has a very good soundtrack (BUY!) also set in the 80's, which is in the process of being extensively raped for dance covers. This isn't good.

Here's lots of youtube to videos to extenuate the point that this really isn't good.


Infernal - Self Control (cover Laura Branigan - Self Control)


Max Graham - Owner Of A Lonely Heart (cover Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart)

United Nations - Out Of touch (cover Hall and Oats - Out Of Touch)

Vandalism - Never Say Never (cover Romeo Void - Never Say Never)

Room 5 - Make luv (cover Oliver Cheatham - Get Down Saturday Night)

There's also a Electric Light Orchestra song on there. Life sucks sometimes, huh?

Indiebitch? Popcunt? Confusing.

The kids dig indie. The record companies dig the kids. Thus, Girls Aloud cover the Kaiser Chiefs' terrible 'Oh My God'. Urgh. Why can't Xenomania produce a good cover? They wrote Biology! It can't be that hard, surely?

Lily Allen's already been there, anyway.

Lily Allen - Oh My God (Kaiser cover)

That's okay, this isn't.

Lily Allen - Naive (Kooks cover)

What would've been great is Girls Aloud replying to Arctic Monkeys rubbish cover -

Arctic Monkeys - Love Machine (Girls Aloud cover)(Thanks,Rich Girls Are Weeping via Hype)

... with something really good but damnit again, someone got there first. Bloody Sugababes.

Sugababes - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor (Arctic Monkeys Cover)

Some Advice:

Girls Aloud, cover this:
New Pornographers - Mass Romantic

Imagine that electro pop-ified! With a dance routine!

Boring indie bands, cover this:

S Club 8 - Fool No More

BUT NOT IRONICALLY!!!

Oh, and in other 'pop fucking indie' news, Peaches Geldof (the one without the soul) and one of the Klaxons got it on, apparently. A hugely disappointing development, Indiecunt is rethinking it's Klaxons rule policy