The End Is Near

It's almost every musicbloggers duty to wrap up the year and do a list of the best albums and so on. I decided not to number it since I actually don't see the point in doing it. How big is the difference between number 9 and number 8? It's minimal and out of relevance. So here you go, my year-end lists in no chronological order at all:

25 Best Albums 2008

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

Albert Hammond Jr. – Como Te Llama?

The Whip – X Marks Destination

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Lykke Li – Youth Novel

The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age Of The Understatement

Joel Alme – Master Of Ceremonies

Glasvegas – Glasvegas

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Veto – Crushing Digits

Little Joy – Little Joy

The Teenagers – Reality Check

Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line

Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night

Hästpojken – Caligula

Hot Chip – Made In The Dark

Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles

The Pigeon Detectives - Emergency

Bloc Party – Intimacy

Bille The Vision & The Dancers – I Used To Wander These Streets

The Notwist – The Devil You And Me

Black Kids – Partie Traumatic

Coldplay – Viva La Vida

Markus Krunegård – Markusevangeliet

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kind

Top 5 Best Concerts 2008

The Streets

Fleet Foxes

The Whip

Vampire Weekend

Glasvegas

…and the 3 worst Concerts 2008

CSS

The Kooks

MGMT

Top 5 Best Covers 2008

















Here is a little taste of some of the best songs from 2008:

Jag Är En Vampyr – Markus Krunegård
A Young Summers Youth – Joel Alme
The Queens Corner – Joel Alme
Kids – MGMT
Love Always Remains – MGMT
Oh! Vanity – The Charlatans
Sex On Fire – Kings Of Leon
Walcott – Vampire Weekend
A-Punk – Vampire Weekend
Built To Fail – Veto
Love Is Noise – The Verve
Trash – The Whip
Little Bit – Lykke Li
Viva La Vida – Coldplay
Standing Next To Me – The Last Shadow Puppets
Geraldine – Glasvegas
Flowers & Football Tops – Glasvegas
Homecoming – The Teenagers
Crimewave – Crystal Castles
Brand New Start – Little Joy

bruises on a dancefloor

Chairlift - Bruises

Hot Chip + Peter Gabriel = Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

It's finally here, the Hot Chip and Peter Gabriel cover of Vampire Weekends Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa! What do you think?

Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend Cover)


It feels so unnatural Peter Gabriel too...

Little Lady Joy

The Little Joy album and the soundtrack to My Fair Lady

Instead of being a good girl and go straight home and study, I went to the city and did some christmas shopping. Of course I ended up with more stuff for me than for others even though I don't exactly have the money to keep buying myself christmas presents. Atleast I can ease my guilty conscience by saying that my flatmate will enjoy the things I bought too :)

Now I really need to study. I have my last exam tomorrow morning and then I can finally go home for Christmas! Yaaay :D

Split Personality

Hmm, I can not decide if I like the fact that almost everyone is doing a christmas song or if I just think it is too much. Even almighty Glasvegas released a Christmas EP....I don't know. The latest one is The Wombats asking if this actually is christmas or not.

The Wombats - Is This Christmas?
Glasvegas - Please Come Back Home

Enough of Christmas already? Then enjoy this:

Albert Hammond Jr. - GfC

New Arctic Monkeys

Yesterday, a press release from the Blackout Music Management revealed that the wonderful Arctic Monkeys are as good as finished with their third album and that they only have to do some finishing touches to it in the beginning of next year. My guess is that the album will be released in spring 2009 but of course I hope it will be sooner. Anyway the album is probaly gonna be great and if not we can always listen to the first two or frontman Alex Turner's side-project The Last Shadow Puppets first album.

Winter Time

Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes (Rhythms Del Mundo)
I'm From Barcelona - Paper Planes
Glasvegas - Go Square Go
Elbow - On A Day Like This
Hot Chip - Over And Over
Blur - Girls And Boys
Ingrid Michaelson - Be OK
The Presets - My People
Markus Krunegård - Samma Nätter Väntar Alla
Vampire Weekend - Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
The Little Ones - Morning Tide
Kings Of Leon - Charmer
Coldplay - Life In Technicolor
Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler

(For those who haven't checked it yet, you can download all the songs in blue by a right click and then "Save file as...")

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People

(From The New York Times)

Continuing the movie theme with How To Lose Friends And Alienate People starring Simon Pegg, Kristen Dunst and Megan Fox. I read the book a couple of years ago and had been looking forward to the movie ever since I heard that Simon Pegg would star as Toby Young (Sidney Young in the film). He was absolutley perfect for the role and Kristen Dunst actually didn't annoy me as she sadly has a tendency to do. The soundtrack was pretty good too, so here you go:

Nino Rota - La Dolce Vita
The Killers - For Reasons Unknown
Electrovamp - I Love What You Do
Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
The Kinks - You Really Got Me


Peace!

Great Movie, Great Sound

(Scroll down to listen)

Garden State (2004):


Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights
Coldplay - Don't Panic


Across The Universe (2008):


T. V. Carpio - I Want To Hold Your Hand
Jim Sturgess - All My Loving


Driving Lessons (2006):


Sufjan Stevens - The Tallest Man, The Broudest Shoulder
Ben Folds - Jesusland


The Rules Of Attraction (2002):


The Cure - Six Different Ways
The Rapture - Out Of The Races And On To The Tracks

The Christmas Edition

It's time to get some christmas spirit and the best way to do it is to listen to some christmas song, don't you think? I give you something new, something old and something really old.


(Flickr: y entonces)

The Killers have done 3 christmas tunes through the years and the newest one features Sir Elton John and Neil Tennant from Pet Shop Boys. It's called Joseph, Better You Than Me and you can watch and listen to it here (I think it's kind of awful). However, the one from 2006 is way much better. It's not that much of a ballad and sounds more like a normal The Killers song. The video is great too (Watch).

Download:

The Raveonettes - Come on Santa (2008)
The Killers - A Great Big Sled (2006)
Judy Garland - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (1944)

The Judy Garland version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is the original recording but they are so many covers of this song. A really wonderful one is the Coldplay version.

ipod fun

Right now in my ipod:

Britney Spears - Phonography
Timo Räisänen - Creep
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Friendly Fires - Paris
The Last Shadow Puppets - Standing Next To Me
Mystery Jets - Flakes
LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You
Death Cab For Cutie - No Sunlight
Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
The Verve - Rather Be
Friska Viljor - The Streets Sounds Like
The Notwist - Boneless

I love the Britney song! Just ignore the lyrics, they're ridiculous, but the music sounds as if it could be a Veto song or any of the like. Wouldn't it be great if Veto made a cover of Phongraphy only with different lyrics? It would be perfect as one of those last songs the DJ plays before the club is closing (...keep dreaming)

The Fashion - Like Knives

Timo, Johnny and the Galaxy

1. Timo Räisänen - About You Now (Sugababes Cover)
2. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Around The Bend
3. Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa And Spinderella (and the Bloc Party remix)

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
Vampire Weekend - Kids Don't Stand A Chance (Chromeo Remix)
Glasvegas - Geraldine
Iglu And Hartly - In This City
Lykke Li - Breaking It Up (Familjen Remix)
Death Cab For Cutie - No Sunlight
Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down
Mando Diao - Down In The Past
The Killers - Spaceman
The Kooks Stormy Weather
Talk Talk - Such A Shame
Joel Alme - The Queen's Corner
Hästpojken - Utan Personlig Insats
The Ting Tings - Great DJ
Markus Krunegård - Jag är En Vampyr

Playlist from 19/11, DJ was Henning Furbach :)

November Rain

In this cold and rainy time of the year I would rather stay in bed all day, under a warm and cosy duvet with a cup of tea in my hand, in a room that smells of vanilla scented candles, and listen to some music, than go out in the chilly weather. I made a playlist that is suitable for that exact occasion:

Fleet Foxes - Meadowlarks
The Coral - Jacqueline
Crystal Castles - Tell Me What To Swallow
Joe Purdy - I Love The Rain The Most
Vampire Weekend - Ottoman
John Vanderslice - The Parade
Billie The Vision & The Dancers - Swedish Sin
Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah
Shout Out Louds - Impossible
Spoon - The Underdog
The Sea And Cake - Fuller Moon
Lykke Li - Time Flies
Elliott Smith - Sweet Adeline
The Troubadours - Gimme Love
Fredrik - Alina's Place

Ra Ra Riot @ Atomic Café

1. Ghost Under Rocks
2. Each Year
3. Dying Is Fine
4. St. Peter's Day Festival
5. Can You Tell

Brit brit

Cover of Circus from britneyspears.com

Another track from Brit Brits upcoming album Circus has leaked - "Kill The Lights". I think she is actually making a real comeback now. The Album is released on December 2nd - her birthday. (I only know that because my friend's birthday is then as well. And Lucy Lius, haha!)

Something Old And Something New

The Tough Alliance - Koka Kola Veins (2005)

Razorlight - Burberry Blue Eyes (2008)

Devo - Through Being Cool (1981)

The Steeples - Loosy Lucy (2008)

Oasis - Bag It Up (2008)

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - We Are Rockstars (2008)

Lily Allen - Mister Blue Sky (ELO Cover, 2007)

Band Of Horses - Our Swords (2006)

I'm Always Manic (When I'm Around You) - A Big Yes And A Small No (2008)

The Streets @ Muffathalle

Who would have thought that a hiphop concert can be so full of energy that your shirt's almost wet from sweat afterwards, because of the constant jumping along with the beat? Not me. Maybe it has to do with my opinion that you can not go as crazy on the dancefloor to a hip hop song as you can to, let's say, indietronic like Digitalism or to indierock like Bloc Party. But it doesn't matter because yesterday The Streets proved me wrong. I screamed, I jumped, I shouted and I went totally nuts. This made me realise that The Streets and his syndicate are not only artists, they are devoted performers too. When Mike got the whole crowd to get down on the floor or everybody to freeze in middance, I became convinced that wahtever he decides to do after the tour of his third an last album is over in 11 days, he will be succesful. Even though they have been touring since the end of summer and even though the drummer, John, almost wasn't able to perform due to a small Jägermeister intoxication, tonights show felt almost like their first. Neither when Mike Skinner took his shirt of and went crowdsurfing nor when he said that they really enjoy being here tonight it felt unhonest, practiced and like something he does at every show. To me it was original, original pirate material, and all in all it was a great performance which really exceeded my expectations and I must admit that according to me that was just a perfect example of how a sunday night can be best spent.

The Streets - Heaven for the Weather



Tomorrow: CSS concert!

There is a need for some Indie...

Friska Viljor - Old Man

Razorlight - North London Trash

Final Fantasy - Horsetail Feathers

I Call Shotgun - Indie Sweat

There is not much that can be found on I Call Shotgun on the Net, however the 3-man-group from Leeds have a really cool sound going on, and this song sounds like a real floorfiller to me and their other songs are not far from. Keep an eye, or better an ear, open for these guys deserve alot more attention...

Tomorrow: A short review of the The Streets concert

Black Kids @ 59to1