Boat Behind - Kings of Convenience

FREQUENTLY I FIND MYSELF WONDERING whether there is a specific Genre of music which do I favour above all others. Those of you familiar with my views on Genre (without labouring the point, whilst convenient from the listener's point of view, I think Genre nicely exemplifies humanity's urge to place things into figurative boxes and make them conform to the 'rules of the box,' if you will) will note that I have less a favourite Genre of music, rather a particular favourite 'mood' of music. Boat Behind by the Norway-based "Kings of Convenience" is a brilliant ray of light into what was the quickly-becoming-stagnant favourite mood of mine, as I hadn't heard anything like this in some time.

Song notes:

• My favourite mood is, loosely, relaxed, acoustic music, sung sincerely and with a enjoyable sound and rhythm
• The double-bass and solo Viola in Boat Behind make it sound like you're in the basement of a tavern in Continental Europe some time before the second World War. But the singing is definitely modern, with close harmonies between the vocals of the two-piece group fulfilling the 'enjoyable sound' requirement of my favourite mood
• By a shocking burst of coincidence, this song makes me feel great, and puts me into my 'favourite mood'

Hope it does the same for you. (I'm rocking the Vimeo because frankly, I enjoy their work much more than YouTube)

But here's YT if you can't live without it.

Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (Up from Below - 2009)

Oscar's Ridiculously Hyperlinked Post in honour of Australia Day and Triple J's Hottest 100 Countdown - don't get put off

Unlike Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons, which was the outright winner of Triple J's Hottest 100 competition, Home (link below), by the 11-piece "Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros," came 15th. To be honest, for all of Little Lion Man's diverse appeal, Home is more creative and daring, all the while sounding like it is the brainchild of the "summer of love."

Oscar's song notes:

• It features whistling from the beginning – this makes it +100 more appealing to me – cf. Young Folks by "Peter Bjorn and John"
• It also features spoken word to music, halfway through the song - excerpt: "While you were sitting in the back seat, smoking the cigarette that you thought would be your last, I was falling deep, deep in love with you. And I never told you until just then."
• It's taken the place of this song (OK it's Talk Show Host by Radiohead) in my mind - that is, it's had that kind of effect on me!
• It's fantastically acoustic. I really couldn't believe that this was made in 2009 as they've got such retro influences
• It has sincerity, musically and (gasp I listened to the lyrics!) lyrically. It's a nice change from the standard "I got my pecs, I got limos, I got bitches, and all my limo's powered by bitch juice, and my spare pecs are in the limo."~

I suppose it's time to actually link to this song!

Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - YouTube, iTunes [yes it's that good]

(Other highlights from the Hottest 100 (read: some songs that I actually knew) are:

Blood - "The Middle East," (my other pick for this post!)

Blood Bank - Bon Iver,

and the 'shit' songs that none of you will like

Animal - Miike Snow,

I'm Not Alone - Calvin Harris,

Sleepyhead - Passion Pit,

Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Cudi feat. MGMT and Ratatat [IKR!])

Let 'Em In - Beatles/McCartney

In the case that you hadn't already noted, I haven't been posting on this online journal thing. There are many reasons for this (viral infection, lack of regular internet connectivity, the beach [it's awesome!]) which I won't bore you wit- continue to bore you with right now. However; I reject the assertion that I am "THE WORST," and suggested it be amended to "THE BEST."

In any case, my song! My dad brought out a McCartney Music DVD at the beach, and since then, both he and I have been humming, singing or just saying the words to "Let 'Em In." Maybe it's just us, but, if you're easily overcome by riffs or melodies, don't listen to this song, because it will BE WITH YOU FOREVER.

Anyway, it's a fun tune and it has some symbolism I think somewhere; I say some pretty vague things sometimes maybe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r0ANbSVa9k LISTEN TO IT NOW PLEASE

Where's Your Head At - Basement Jaxx

In keeping with my poorly-established tradition of short and sweet blog posts, unlike Lucy's epic textwall which will go down in history for its considerable length and multiple links (I have only one link), I thought I'd remind everyone about a pretty awesome tune that I overheard when I was standing outside the fence at 'Summadayze' (no, I didn't come up with the title, Thank You.) Protip: Don't buy tickets, just pack some chairs and a bottle or two and sit outside; you get the full experience, less the significant ticket price and having to rub shoulders along side the best of Adelaide social scene, all the while nursing the mandatory New Year's Day hangover.

Anyway, picture me, standing outside Summadayze, cursing the loudness (which was the same at my house). A remix of Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At" comes on the main DJ stage, and it almost totally made up for the sound-test of the subwoofers waking me up at half eight that day. I actually hadn't listened to it in full before, having just assumed it was a loop from some DJ disc of mixing material. Fun fact - I used 'Shazam' to get the artist (Basement Jaxx) while the DJ was 'mixing' the tune, expecting not to get any result. To my surprise, up pops "Where's Your Head At," complete with links to YouTube video and lyrics (somewhat unnecessary, I agree). Shazam is supposed to only be good for recordings, and not live performances, so I found it interesting that the DJ was doing so little mixing and pretty much just playing us (well, the people that bought tickets, whatever) some dance tunes, such that Shazam picked it up.

Anyway, listen to the two minutes of anxiety over the location of [his?] head. Also the music video isn't half-bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4hFwJm41h4

(Actually this is a better song! It features my two loves, Dominoes and Girls, and a favourite past time of mine, "falling!"

You'll find that these girls fall like Dominoes! THIS WAS ALWAYS HERE SHH)

A Community Service Announcement - Jonathan Boulet

Firstly, you're all dicks. Secondly, I have to admit I don't mean that at all, because listening to this Lied, which I am doing right now, empties your mind of every feeling, thought or emotion ever.

Also it's the free iTMS download of the week right now!

The dude has written and played every note in this song and his self-titled album, as well as having produced a bitch all by himself!

Excuse me; I have to go and listen to it again twenty thousand times (I haven't overlistened to it yet, and I'm doubting that it's possible!)

(Postscript: my brother approves of the song and he is in a real band.)