Oh No! Oh My! do Daytrotter

In these early days, on my own in the night, I find some strange things to put up for review. Here’s something new. Oh No! Oh My! hitting up the Daytrotter.com sessions.

So for those of you who don’t know Oh No! Oh My! are a trio of indie rockers from Austin, TX. who, for the past four years, have provided some good solid indie rock for the masses to enjoy, combining quirk with melody. Daytrotter on the other hand is a site that offers semi-live sessions of bands that pass on through their base in Illinois, for free, thrice a week.

This week, so far has seen Architecture in Helsinki on Monday, with a lovely semi-live version of Heart it Races being amongst the tracklisting, while today’s was Oh No! Oh My! which is obviously why I chose them over my favourite indie multi-piece.

 I’ll admit, from the outset, that I am no Oh No! Oh My! fan. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s more along the lines of I’ve never had the time for them much; so I was highly surprised when I got my hands on their Daytrotter Session today. I’ll keep it short and sweet, because, like a good poem, it deserves to be listened to, not read about:

The choice of songs compliment each other perfectly.
The choice of instruments that the band actually uses is beauty in itself.
My only problem is that the songs lose all lyrical meaning because I can, personally, never focus on squeaky vocals; blame that on it being semi-live.

Overall, it’s alright. Check it out if you’ve never heard them before; after all, what’s the harm. While you’re there, browse the archive. Some of the bands they’ve had are frankly amazing.

I’d have to give them a 6 out of 10, though. Not too shabby.

British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?

To the unsuspecting reader, it would appear that Monday is British Sea Power day, but, it just so happens that when we started up, Waving Flags was just out, and today saw the release of their new album.

Do You Like Rock Music? suggests there’s going to be an obvious album theme: Rock music. Then again, this is British Sea Power, so it’s not going to be a straight forward album.

Opening track All In It will either draw you in, or push you away. It’s a polariser; you either think you want more from these guys or less. Strangely, I must say that Yan sounds a fair bit like Tom from Editors in this track. Enough about that though, because the true power of this album comes in for Lights Out for Darker Skies.

Do I like rock music? Well, if your idea of rock music is ‘Lights Out…’ then frankly, I bloody love the stuff! It’s like what every good rock and roll song should be like; none of the gristle and crap, and more of the passion and oomph.

Even No Lucifer is a brilliant piece of music, making me smirk, which songs never do. A song that can incorporate the Hitler Youth into them gets some kudos for being lyrically clever. Matisyahu once made me smile by using the line “They never gassed me”, and now these boys get credit for that wonder.

I can honestly say, if I did a song by song, I’d tell you I love this album. I am inherently biased towards British Sea Power mind you, but, even if I think of it on a totally impartial scale, the goods still outweigh the bad.

With songs about H5N1 (or Bird Flu), the Hitler Youth, being young, Atoms; it’s all here. Do You Like Rock Music? basically provides you with a question: Do You Like It? The answer should be obvious. You either do or you don’t. I went in liking it, I came out loving this. I don’t know if that was because I went in as a British Sea Power fan, or because in some places it became more Post-Rock than simple Rock.

So, I say, go in, listen to Do You Like Rock Music? and by the end, your answer might not be a wholehearted yes, but, you should be swaying towards it. What this album lacks in cover art, it makes up for in creativity.

I give this lovely twelve-tracker a decent 8 of 10.

Retrospective #1 – Perfect Day, Lou Reed and Friends

When you’re all on your own, and you’re writing a blog, that’s daily, and trying to keep on top of things, it’s quite hard. So, today I’m going to not look at ‘new’ things. I’m going to be retrospective.

On this day, well, this date, ten years ago, Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, performed by ‘Various Artists’ including Mr Reed, David Bowie, Elton John, Bono, Boyzone, and Tom Jones, among others, hit Number 1 in the UK.

I’d like to think it was a good cover; I really would. I’d like to believe it was good. I am sorely mistaken.

It was damned excellent on the part of Children In Need. The fact that they had 20 or so artists, all doing the same song, in their own style, was something in itself, but to splice it exactly so that these people would compliment each other as the song went on is pure genius.

Bowie’s line of “You made me forget myself…” is perfect for him. There are spoken word parts, belting solos, operatic moments, down-tempo country-twanged moments. It’s the perfect song to be ‘timeless’, as far as covers go. I’m not a cover song fan, but this won me over back then, and it still wins me over now.

The original was good, no doubt there, but, strangely, this cover, in its own way, was much better. The complimenting sounds of low to high to low, in the vocals, as it goes along is fantastic, and what’s even better, people remember this song; at least the British do.

I’m not going to rate it, because you can rate what has already been reviewed possibly a thousand times over. That would be a ripple in the pond, rather than a splash.

Vampire Weekend – Mansard Roof

Wow, we almost missed a day. That’s what happens when you have a co-writer whose internet connection is partially frazzled. I suppose I can’t blame him for technological mishaps, he tries.

So, as a last minute, totally unprepared piece of aural delight, I’m going to take that ‘Itunes Exclusive’ that’s now up by Vampire Weekend and plow through a quickie review.

Now, everyone is kicking up a big fuss about Vampire Weekend, and I don’t see what is so brilliant about them. In all honesty though, I’ve not heard much by them, so I shouldn’t judge so harshly based on this one single. In all frankness, I feel that I’m the one listening to it, so my opinions should be swayed by it, and they really struggle to fall on the side of good or bad.

The song, Mansard Roof, is a short piece of piffly indie pop that deserves no more mention than other short pieces of piffly indie pop. It’s like if you see a dog going for a walk, you don’t think “WOW!” everytime you see it; it’s routine. It’s not out of the ordinary. The song is, simply put, bland. It’s by no means terrible, but it sounds to me like a poor take off of bands like Beirut and, strangely, Panda Bear.

I say, as if my word is law on this one:

Get it if you must, but really, if this is Vampire Weekend, they are by no means special at all. I think all those bigwigs who said they’d be something big in 2008 should think again, and think about how many people would cope with this monotony for more than five consecutive plays.

I give it a mediocre 4 of 10.

British Sea Power – Waving Flags E.P.

First, apologies for being a day behind on this one, but what’s a day in the blog world? Oh, a lot? Really. Okay. It won’t happen again.

British Sea Power, one of the best alternative bands to come out of ‘the North’ (that is Northumbria, England, to be exact) in forever. It takes a lot of doing to make a band this listenable in the Alt-Rock genre, and still make them have a more ‘rock’ sound than the popular indie bands.
The boys of BSP released Waving Flags, the first single off their upcoming album Do You Like Rock Music?, yesterday and it is surprisingly good. I realise we are behind the times, what with the professionals like Zane Lowe and other music journos having their grubby little mits on it for the last god-knows-how-long, but, this is legality and all done on a shoestring budget.

The single itself, as has been stated by innumerable sources, is amazing. It’s been compared to the Arcade Fire, and the person who said that should be shot; it is nowhere near the farce that is the Arcade Fire. If they need seven people to make a decent song, then to make a song with four people, that is as good as one made by seven ‘talented musicians’, is really an achievement.

If you go and buy it, the CD format comes along with the ‘B-side’ extra of an 8 minute long track called Everybody Must Be Saved, and I suppose it falls into the same category as the 14 minute long monster-track Lately from The Decline of British Sea Power, in that it’s a good song, but it’s also good background music. This second track is almost more experimental, reminding me of Animal Collective, if they were more mature.

I’ll go along with the general flow, because, aside from the Arcade Fire comment, the general feeling with this single is right: If enough people heard it, it would be the single of the year, or at least a close contender for those laurels. It should at least be better than the overplayed trash that was Kaiser Cheif’s Ruby, eh?

Since I’m fond of giving a rating to everything, I decree that Waving Flags, as one of the first singles of 2008 that has reached my impure ears, should recieve no less than a high 9 of 10.

Now, I recommend you all hit Itunes, and anywhere else you can get your hands on this, and download it, legally!