Rewind the video : Pepper - The Butthole Surfers

A weird song by a band I didn't know at all, in 1996 I was struck with astonishment. It has something spell-bounding about, if you know what I mean... I have since grown to like The Butthole Surfers...
And I own an orange-red picture vinyl disc of this single, which just goes so well with the extravaganza of the band and the song...

You can buy the album Electriclarryland which contains the song, here

Slowing down a bit...

Due to troubles in my personal life which I'm not sure yet how much I wanna tell about here, I won't be able to post as much as I did the last weeks and months (I do realise I've always been quite irregular in my posting here...) Hope to bring you fine tunes now and again though...
This is the song I've been singing along all week :



Kids (mp3) - MGMT

Buy their album Oracular spectacular here

Low

Last year, I saw them at Pukkelpop festival : Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker (his wife) and Matt Livingston. Together they are the wonderful, magnificent and very underestimated Low.
Some months ago, I saw the documentary You may need a murderer, about this band. Filmed by David Kleijwegt, it shows how this Mormon band, around husband and wife Sparhawk and Parker, struggles to find a balance between their beliefs and their need to make exactly the songs they are making, how Alan Sparhawk has struggled (and still does) with his demons and how the couple struggles to maintain a balance between making music and touring on one hand, and their family life (with children) on the other hand.
The song after which the documentary was named, Murderer, is one of the most intruiging songs of last year, and in the documentary Alan explains how their closest friends and relatives were shocked by the lyrics, considering it even blasphemous.
They way they play the song and the way the words are sung, intensifies the feeling that crawls through every line of it.

This is a video for the song, with images from the documentary No end in sight :


These are the lyrics :

One more thing before I go
One more thing I'll ask you Lord
You may need a murderer
Someone to do your dirty work

Don't act so innocent
I've seen you pound your fist into the earth
And I've read your book
It seems that you could use another fool
Well I'm cruel
And I look right through

You must have more important things to do
So if you need a murderer
Someone to do your dirty work

Enjoy these three songs from the album Drums and guns :

• Murderer (mp3)
• Hatchet (mp3)
• Take your time (mp3)

You can buy the album here

You can watch the documentary here

Free music : Scala

The all girl choir Scala, with the Kolacny Brothers, has a new album. It will be out soon in a de luxe edition, because the regular (digital) format is available for free download on their website. Just fill in your name and e-mail, and you receive a link to download all the songs on the new album.
Contrary to their previous albums, it's not a cover album. This time, the Kolacny Brothers wrote all of the songs.
If you want to know what they sound like, here's a teaser :

• their cover of Smells like teen spirit (Nirvana)
• their cover of With or without you (U2)
• their cover of Friday, I'm in love (The Cure)
• their cover of The bitter end (Placebo)

To download the album, go here

Rewind the video : Off the record

It must have been Sunday that I woke up with an irresistable tune locked in my head on endless repeat. But you know how it goes : you just don't seem to find the right words to the song. You keep wondering to yourself : "but which song is this ?" You almost go mad trying to find it. And then all of a sudden, it hit me (after about half a day). It was this great song :

More Videos

Off the record (mp3) - My Morning Jacket (from the album Z)

Although I have to admit I don't really get the lyrics (well, English is my second language after all...), I really like the atmosphere of both song and clip.

For your enjoyment, I have added the live version from their live double album Okonokos :

Off the record (live) - My Morning Jacket (mp3)

You can buy the albums Z and Okonokos here

Another animated clip

I admit : this one is a bit older than yesterday's clip (Chad VanGaalen's Molten light), but I have chosen to post it as there are some similarities which I wanted to share with you...
M Ward's Chinese translation is, of course, also accompanied by a delightful animated clip, and as is VanGaalen's clip, it tells the story of the song with simple yet appealing drawings.
The stories of both songs are as blinking, shining diamonds, with a clarity that makes the beauty so easy to see. They both strongly depend on the literary style characteristic of repetition.
And both songs and clips have an outstanding concurrence of atmosphere : each (light) change in atmosphere in the song is captured amazingly in the clip.

Enjoy : Chinese translation - M Ward (mp3)



You can buy the album Post-war here

Here are the lyrics to both songs :

Chinese translation - M Ward :

I sailed a wild, wild sea
climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met a old, old man
beneath a weeping willow tree
He said now if you got some questions
go and lay them at my feet
but my time here is brief
so you'll have to pick just three

And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long
and then the sun went down
and he sang for me this song

See I once was a young fool like you
afraid to do the things
that I knew I had to do
So I played an escapade just like you
I played an escapade just like you
I sailed a wild, wild sea
climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met an old, old man
he sat beneath a sapling tree
He said now if you got some questions
go and lay them at my feet
but my time here is brief
so you'll have to pick just three

And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long
and then the sun went down
and he played for me this song


Molten light - Chad VanGaalen :

They dumped her body into the molten light
Floated to the surface and it did not ignite
She rose up slowly and walked to the shore
She stood up on the bank and whispered

I'll find you and I'll kill you
I'll find you and I'll kill you
I'll find you and I'll kill you

They ran back into town and hid in the church
They explained their situation and they feared for the worst
The priest told the brothers that she could not be killed
She flew out of the stone cold ground and

She'll find you and she'll kill you
She'll find you and she'll kill you
She'll find you and she'll kill you

Oh oh oh oh...

There was a knock at that door that shook through their hearts
She blew it right open and put it apart
She shot a string of flame from the center of her chest
As she watched their bodies burn she whispered

I found you and I killed you
I found you and I killed you
I found you and I killed you

Molten light

An extraordinary magnificent animated videoclip accompanies the delightful song Molten light by Chad VanGaalen.

Enjoy Molten light - Chad VanGaalen (mp3)

You can buy the album Soft airplane here

Music for one apartment and six drummers

Better check your appartment after returning from a walk...

Isaac Hayes aka Chef

Some days ago, Isaac Hayes died. I'm sure you can find a lot of dedicational posts in the blogosphere, and it's not an artist I have much to say about, or to add to all that.
But to me, Isaac Hayes will always be the man behind one of the best South Park characters : Chef.
This is the song that says it all : Chocolate salty balls (mp3)

You can buy the album Chef Aid : The South park album here

The House Of Love

Sometimes the simplest things are the most beautiful and the most treasured. A simple melody, in harmony with a relaxing voice and musicians who don't seek the headlights but just all play their part in making a song work : what more could one hope for in a pure pop song ?
True masters at this are The House Of Love, an English band active initially between 1986 and 1993. In 2005 they re-united.
From the moment I first heard them, I liked them. They have a charm that captures you right away. They know how to play a good tune, and they don't make a big fuzz about it all : it's all just simple and very, very good !
I have added some of their most famous tracks, together with an acoustic performance they gave for a Dutch radio show (2 meter sessie for 2 meter de lucht in with host Jan Douwe Kroeske) :

• The girl with the loneliest eyes (mp3)
• Shine on (mp3)
• Feel (mp3)
• Beatles and The Stones (2 meter sessie) (mp3)

You can buy their greatest hits album here

The 2 meter sessies album seems to be unavailable currently

Fleet foxes

They sound like they were making music in the same era as The Band, early Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, but actually, they just released their first album.
Fleet Foxes are truely the next big thing !
Enjoy their fantastic song : White winter hymnal (mp3)
Buy their debut album here

Big in Belgium : Headphone

They are one of the rising stars of the Belgian alternative scene : Headphone !
I really, really dig their newest single, She is electric, which has just about all the right ingredients to make it here and anywhere (if promoted properly, as beautiful music in itself is not enough to conquer the ears of foreign music lovers, in today's giant mass of musical production). This is the video for it :


Enjoy these tracks from their debut album :

• She is electric (mp3)
• Ghostwriter (mp3)
• Film (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Zombie Zombie

Was it shear coincidence that led me to this song and (later on) to its magnificent, animated video ? That I don't know, but what I do know is that got drown into the dense, blood-drawing atmosphere of this instrumental song immediately.
The video seems to have captured that spirit very well, as it is a stunning exhibition of how you can create a thrilling story with as little as a couple of play figures, home-made models and a lot of creativity. It's a remake of John Carpenter's film The thing in stopmotion with G.I. Joe dolls...

Enjoy this song : Driving this road until death sets you free - Zombie Zombie (mp3)

Zombie Zombie is a French duo consisting of Etienne Jaumet and CosmicNeman who have their own record label (Boomboomtchak! Records), based in Paris, France.

You can buy their album here

Eels

E : what a man ! Eels : what a band !

I've become even more excited about this band and about its singer after watching a documentary (Parallel worlds, parallel lives) about the search of Mark Everett ("E") to get to know his dead father better, and to understand the psychics theory he constructed. Although his father turned out to be a famous scientist, Mark never knew this as a child and never got to know his father. What's so excellent about the documentary, is that mixes images of this search and the explanation of the theory of Hugh Everett III with songs by Mark and his band. You get to appreciate the lyrics better put against this background, I feel.

I have collected some covers by Eels, for you to enjoy :

• I could never take the place of your man (Prince cover) (mp3)
• Get UR freak on (Missy Elliott Misdemeanor cover) (mp3)
• Sweet home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover) (mp3)

You can buy Eels albums here

Teach me tiger !

Back in 1959 April Stevens caused a bit of an uproar with her newest song, for its supposed sexual suggestiveness. Of course, today that would only be good for the sales figures, and I have no doubt nobody would even notice it nowadays... (lyrics)

Teach me tiger - April Stevens (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Someone even made a nice video on YouTube featuring the song and two German soccer players (Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings) :

Lazy Monday : Luka Bloom

Quite impressive : one guy playing guitar and singing, on the giant stage of a rock festival, and still getting more than half of the public's attention !
That's exactly what I saw Luka Bloom do once (in 1992, when the festival also featured -among others- Smashing Pumkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lou Reed and Bryan Adams).
Today is just the day to listen again to his beautiful album The acoustic motorbike (probably the most poetic description of a bicycle ever...). On this album he plays covers of Elvis Presley (Can't help falling in love) and LL Cool J (I need love), and 10 of his own songs. I would still suggest anyone to buy this album, cause it will never bore you.

Enjoy these tracks :

• You (mp3)
• Can't help falling in love (mp3)
• The acoustic motorbike (mp3)

Here's the video for the LL Cool J cover I need love :

You can buy the album here

The Nits

In the winter of 1989 I discovered a Dutch band that made pop music with a lot of brains. They sounded like they had attented art school, but still there music wasn't arty farty or difficult, it remained pop music foremost...
The Nits have recently released a new album, with their original -and most successfull- members all aboard again. Doing the dishes lives up to the expectations.
However, if you wish to get acquainted with them and hear what they are capable of, the best introduction remains their 1989 live double album, Urk, which did the trick for me anyway.
I hope you'll enjoy these songs :

From Doing the dishes : The flowers (mp3) is their first radio release in The Netherlands for the new album

From Urk :

• An eating house (mp3)
• J.O.S. days (mp3) : probably the best song about football (soccer for most of you non-Europeans) EVER !
• Nescio (mp3)

This is the original video clip for probably their best known song (In the Dutch mountains) :

You can buy their music here

The Clement Peerens Explosition

The Clement Peerens Explosition started as a joke by the men who made a hilarious radio comedy show, Het leugenpaleis, on Studio Brussel. And then they became so popular that they made some more songs, and after a lot of years in which petitions were being initiated for them to have a reunion, they did indeed return to stage earlier this year.
Their band leader, so-called Antwerp pop and rock expert Clement Peerens (his real name is Hugo Matthysen), claims after all they do no more play some AC/DC riffs in reverse order, adding lyrics in the Antwerp dialect.
Enjoy :

• Vinde gij mijn gat (niet te dik in deze rok)? (mp3)
• Dikke Lu (mp3)

You can also watch them at their reunion concert, singing probably their biggest hit (Vinde gij mijn gat..., which means something like "You don't think my butt's too big in this dress, do you ?")

It seems impossible to buy their music on the internet, but keep searching, maybe you'll have some more luck...

Rewind the video : Spoon

Enjoy the video for Spoon's You got yr cherry bomb. I saw and really enjoyed this band at the Pukkelpop festival last year...

Video : Wanna be myself - GTA

GTA, an Oxford (England) based hip hop group, has released their new track Wanna be myself for which you have just watched the video (or are about to...). They released one EP before (Love is here) and have played in support of KRS-1, Amp Fiddler and Flavor Flav.

This track is featured on their forthcoming debut album The way. It's a track with potential, I would say, as it has a good vibe, sounds quite well and sticks to your memory like a Post-It to a mirror...

The track will be available on iTunes, Napster, etc... from the 14th of April)