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Discography
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Scanners basically got all the right formula for my music taste: melodic, a little upbeat (even dancey), great guitar playing and great lyrics delivered by a girl singer called Sarah Daly.
Since the band's formation in 2004-ish, they've been doing the tried-and-true singles releases. They finally worked their way to their debut album, Violence Is Golden in 2006, all the while opening up for established acts like The Charlatans (a Britpop favorite here) and The Wedding Present.
With 2010 here, Dim Mak Records is releasing their sophomore album, Submarine next month. We have an advance promo that I've been listening to non-stop since December. I knew the instant I heard their opening track, "Jesus Saves", that they had me at "Each picture tells a story/we've seen it all before/it's either death or glory/of casualty of war.".
I believe their first single from the new album will be "Salvation", although an excellent track, I felt there were stronger songs. However, the song does feature some great lyrics like "I'll take you to my grave" (by the sound of the song it's more upbeat than depressing). You can sample a B-Side off their single by downloading the Don Diablo remix of the track on RCRDLBL. I found out about the free track via the Dim Mak mailing list.
I did download the remix and I'll have to say, it's very bass-heavy. The song sounds very different from the album mix, and doesn't really represent Scanners, in my opinion. What I like about Scanners is that they're lyrical, and the remix strips out all of the lyrics and made it into a techno dance song. There's a time and place for that, just not what I like about the band.
The electronic/dance thing does bring up an interesting point though: Scanners seems like a band that balance the electronic/synth and indierock. I really like that about them.
Other songs to consider for my new mixtape will probably be between "Jesus Saves", "We Never Close Our Eyes" and "Sleepwalking Life". There is one strange song called "Half a Mind (Dreamer Forever)" which is really good, except it's fades out suddenly at the end of the song. Kind of fitting for a 'dream' song, I suppose.
2010 is starting off wonderfully with Submarine. If you generally like British music, you'll find that Scanners will fit nicely in your collection. I know you'll probably forget when their album is release next month, so I'll make it a point to announce their touring dates (if any are announce) in the upcoming months. Watch this space.
01/05/2010 22:59:06 ♥ vu (
) ♥ myspace.com/scanners ♥ twitter.com/wearescanners
Watched Extras (the Rick Gervais comedy), Season 2, Episodes 1-3 last night. The one with Daniel Radcliffe was hysterical. I mean hard, out loud, laughing while I was home alone, funny. LOVED it. Gonna watch the next episodes tonight.
Had horrible nightmares last night. In the first, I found Skritches half eaten by a python. I slice the python in half, to get Skritches out, but woke up before I determined if she was already dead. Then I became paranoid (in real life) of snakes under my house. Not pythons, just snakes in general.
Once that went away, the next nightmare was of a german shepard mom & pup bathing in a tub. I stepped away and returned to find that the mother had died (not drowned, just died) and I felt sooooo horrible for her little puppy being there, not understanding why/how her mamma had died. I woke up, still freaked out, and Skritches made a sound that was rather like that of a dog making its last whine before dieing. Which freaked me out even more.
I can't remember the nightmare I had just before waking up.
Waking up was caused by the annoying neighbors going for their weekly 10:30am Sunday LOUD NOISES routine. They always do something at exactly 10:30 on Sundays which involves the doors and security gates (loud), and trashcans (flipping lids or dragging them around), and them talking to each other - always waking me up. I thought he was going to mow the lawn but he didn't - so I have no idea why he was dragging the trashcan around. A few minutes later, Moshi wanted back in the house so I decided to actually get up and was shocked to see that it wasn't 10:30am but just after 1pm. And I was still really tired. I went in the kitchen and that clock said it was 11am - which is when I realized I'd missed the first "1" on my digital clock (thinking 11a was 1p). That seems to be a new trait in me, seeing 10/11/12 as 1pm. Dunno what it's about but it's annoying.
On the plus side, I'm up and awake with enough time to goof off, take a quick shower, then check out the new Farmer's Market in the "California Heights" section of town (aka: the nice area - all well-maintained craftsman homes).
I'm still thinking about vacuuming but not actually doing it.
I MUST put my clean clothes back in the drier today (to remove wrinkles from 3 weeks on the floor), hang them all up, and mentally prep for the return to work tomorrow (a 5-day work week.? that's so mean!).
I got my mani/pedi and errands run yesterday. Had my fake eyelashes removed and I hate it... I'm so butt ugly without them!! The difference is dramatic and sad.
Last night I bought a discount ticket to Cirque du Soliel's "Kooza". I saw this show 2 years ago, in San Fran, with Miss Scotch ("in the library with the candlestick"). I don't remember much beyond the fact that I enjoyed it - and that the part with the calaveras made no plot sense to me. I considered skipping it (I try to see all Cirque shows twice, from different seat positions) but since I'm 99.9% certain I won't make it to CirqueCon (which will be in New York & Montreal this year), and the ticket was more than 1/3 off, I decided to go for it. I previously considered flying up to San Jose to see the newest show, Ovo, but work got in the way and I bailed on the idea. I need a couple days away from home so maybe I'll look into that again. Oh... I remember... I wanted to do a 1-day turn around trip but JetBlue's site doesn't return any dates for San Jose. Their map says they still fly there so I need to call them and find out what's going on. If JetBlue no longer flies from LB to San Jose, that screws up my plans.
Julie sent a message that she got us into the Tuesday night burlesque class. I have no idea what to expect but I'm going with "bad/embarrassing". I'm already planning NOT to attend the final, live performance, class. It would be different if I knew the instructor but since she's unknown in the burlesque community (if she were a regular performer and/or instructor, someone would have known her and she'd be on the 2 major forums), I'm gearing for bad things. Plus I haven't told work that I'll be leaving early on Tuesdays. And it was last night before it dawned on me that my knee might not cooperate. Should be... interesting.
Would someone get dressed for me? I swear, that's the hardest part of my day.
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Kordan, I’m still befuddled. When I finally sat down for a proper listen of Longing, my immediate thoughts were “where did I go?” and “how long am I staying for?” As I’m sure I mentioned in previous reviews, the power of Kordan lies in their ability to transport listeners to a strange, rich realm of multi-sensory experiences. Perhaps that’s an exaggeration; but for most of us, whose lives are defined by shopping malls, mid-size vehicles, Starbucks lattes, and the occasional wild night of domestic brews and bar darts, Longing feels like a vacation from the mundane. We will never be this hip, but for roughly half an hour we can pretend.
The Longing is essentially an elaboration of Fantasy Nation, Kordan’s first EP released July of last year. Same bag of tricks, that is. Dizzy, spacious sound layers over a steady beat—at the core, dance grooves with an experimentalist complex. Where Fantasy Nation tapped the club vein, Longing searches for the abstract quality of pop music. Listening to the album is like listening as a musician attempts to define city or love or life simply in audio. Of course, this reads pretentious, as does any creative adventure that involves conceptual thought. The reason I’m not harder on Kordan is simple: despite the possible pretense, I can’t imagine the band playing any other style of music than this ultra stylized pretty. There’s truth in purposeful cool, even if it’s easy to spot the GWBs (Girls With Bangs) and BWGs (Boys With Glasses) somewhere in the crowd.
Thanks to production magic or magic hands, “Fantasy Nation” and “Tokyo Tears” softened a bit from their EP debut: flavors steeped, mechanics fine tuned, less thrust more lust. Actually, compared to Longing, Fantasy Nation sounds decidedly reduced, as though Eisele and co. were practicing for grander occasions. Such is the occasion. Besides “Fantasy” and “Tokyo,” tracks like “Mirror” and the haunting “Shinjuku” stand out while in sum, the album remains fairly amorphous. Eisele’s distant vocals amidst the instrumental mixed bag keep Longing interesting, but I wonder what’s next for Kordan. Logically, the progression favors total ethereal bliss (as it is, the lyrics seem secondary), but I accept all bets.
For now, the band keeps busy with live shows in and around New York City. Visit their Website / Myspace / Facebook for more information. The Longing is set to officially release in February of 2010. You can preview the album here.
01/02/2010 21:38:20 ♥ lara (
/lara206.vox.com)
♥
kordan.tv ♥ myspace.com/kordantv
Augh - she did identical instead of mirror design! I knew I should leave them plain this week. Oh well.
If only I could stop thinking about how much nicer it would have been if I had someone with whom to share it.
Made it up to the ArcLight theater (which isn't nearly the "hot shit" venue I expected it to be) with just a few minutes to spare. It's really difficult to select your seat when you buy your ticket, esp when you've never been to the venue before. Fortunately, I made an excellent selection. I was annoyed that the matinee discount ($14 is DISCOUNT price?) doesn't apply on holidays... more annoyed that the cashier called the extra $1.50 a "holiday surcharge". (Bite me!)
The first preview featured my future husband, GAEL GARCIA BERNAL, so we were off to a good start (the movie is "Letters to Juliet" and Gael plays the a-hole boyfriend who's probably in only the first 1/4 of the film). I don't remember the rest of the previews - just that one was for a high intensity drama and people laughed at the end of the preview and I didn't understand why.
Broken Embraces started really really really slow. I probably spent 2/3 of the film wondering if it would be the first Almodovar film that I didn't like. But at the end, I LOVED it and was ready to watch it again. I love Almodovar's habit of foreshadowing things that never happen and including subplots that are never resolved... so non standard-American film! Also, I felt he used Volver to wrap up the subplots of a couple of prior films (don't ask me which, I don't remember). And this seemed to do the same - though I could easily be imagining it. All the same, it made me want to run home and immediately watch Women On the Verge.
- [3am update] Just got done watching Women and was surprised to find I was totally correct on that call - though he changed it up a bit. I'm impressed with myself cause I haven't seen that movie since it came out, which was 1988. Also surprising was realizing that a subplot in Women was part of the main plot in Live Flesh. Now I'm even more impressed at how he winds his movies together, plus bits of himself.
For the record: Penelope Cruz in a platinum wig? FIERCE HOT!! OMG PONIES!!!11!!11!!1!!! I am soooo envious. The hairstyles designed to make her look like Audrey Hepburn were shockingly accurate.
Between thinking about her and thinking about Gael, I decide I want to buy a copy of the movie where Gael played the devil (with a swedish accent). I really liked that film... Don't Tempt Me (had to look it up) [update: purchase complete. Plus I signed up for Amazon Prime (free 2day shipping, $3.99 overnight).]
After the film, I hobbled down the street to Fabiolus Cafe for dinner (owned by a Fabio but not the Fabio). I had no idea what they offered but spied the place on the way up and decided to check it out after the movie. I had an awesome Italian dinner (little pricey but worth it): Gnocchi with peas, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and chicken in a light parmigiano/wine reduction sauce; followed by tiramisu and cappuccino. A strange party of old peeps was seated next to me and the snippets of convo I overheard had me convinced they were both nutty and blowing smoke up each other's asses. Bizarre combo. Then I heard bits which implied they're in "the industry", in which case the combo makes perfect sense. They totally missed when the waiter made a joke about "fresh decaf coffee - we made it yesterday and it's still hot!" but I cracked up, causing one of them to stare at me for an extended time. I didn't think she was offended by my laughing but that she was, first, trying to figure out my "story" (dining alone - in a fairly romantic restaurant) and, second, judging my meal and my fat ass. That's okay cause judging the 3 of them as freaks kept me pretty entertained. And I actually got FULL, without finishing everything... quite the satisfying surprise.
The kitties are in and the heater is on. I'm totally content. Now to figure out how to spend the rest of the night (tv, Women on the Verge, or, The Hangover?).
- [3a Update] I watched both of them. I was disappointed with The Hangover - probably due to a combo of overhype and a woman at Julie's Mom's funeral telling me waaaaaaay too much of the story.
Once again, had a lot of trouble sleeping. I'm pretty sure my back is unhappy. I switched sides of the bed, which helped a bit while totally confusing the cats. I should have seen my chiro more than 2 months ago. I wonder if he'll be around next week; now that our workload is down, I should be able to get into see him.
The cats got me up around 8:30 to go out, decided to come back in around 10, and we all went into the living room and napped for a couple more hours with the Rose Parade on in the background. It had to let the parade repeat 1.5 times (not like there's anything else to watch) before I finally saw the snowboarding bulldogs. Like last year, I entertained thoughts of going up to see the floats tomorrow but I quickly got over it: lots of walking + lots of people (and all stopping at random) = PASS. Honestly, I only ever want to go to get closeup pics for people who've never seen the floats in detail.
Side Topic: I'm not a fan of McDonald's but I'm loving their new "chocolate" commercial. I've probably seen it over 30 times today and still chocolate it. Chocolate.
2:30p and I'm in my pajamas (no surprise there). I'm planning to shower soon so I can drag my butt to Hollywood to see a movie, maybe have dinner, and maybe go to a bar (but probably not on the last one). I'm hoping that getting out of the house today will make it seem more like a 3day weekend - which is important because I don't have another work holiday till May or June (sooooo faaaaar awwwaayyyyy!).
No other plans for the rest of the weekend. At least nothing that I remember. In fact, as far as I know, my first commitment of 2010 isn't till Jan 29 (Timbaland show).
Julie and I are possibly going to start taking a burlesque class on Tues night. We don't know if it's actually going to happen. She found it on Meetup.com and, as of yesterday, only 2 other people had said yes. We have no idea if anyone has actually paid. I've never heard of the instructor or studio, which makes me think it's not going to be good but it's not horribly expensive ($125 for 4 classes + a performance) so we figured we'd try it. Julie got an offer for 2-for-1 but, by the time I found out about it, it was the holiday and they were closed and we missed the offer. Oh well.
My first bit of productivity for 2010: I just looked up house cleaning services and found 2 places that I'll try calling tomorrow or Mon. Both are businesses, not individuals, and one is based really close by. I'll probably call them first. Keep your fingers crossed. I love saving money by not having a service but 8 weeks of no cleanings is REALLY showing. I should vacuum this weekend but I said that last weekend, and the weekend before, and never did it - so there's no reason to think I will this weekend either.
Q: On average, how many Oreo cookies can/do you eat in one sitting?
leave answers in comments.
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In 1999, the doomsayers predicted the end of the world as we know it - in the form of computers all over the world crashing because of the so-called millennium bug. It never made sense to me, I mean if it were a problem, couldn't you just change the date ?
I spent the New Year's eve in Vietnam, away from civilization. The next day, nothing changed. Not even an incident. All that scare were for thing. But it wasn't all for nothing, the Y2K bug inspired quite a few things - among them, music, televisions, and books.
WHO'S AFRAID OF Y2K?
geometrid.co.uk ♥ myspace.com
There was a period when I tracked down all the projects that were related to Belle & Sebastian, including The Gentle Waves/Isobel Campbell and Looper. Looper was was basically B&S's Stuart David and his wife, Karn, who actually met via penpalism (as told by their song, Impossible Things).
They did garner a bit of fame through "Mondo '77", a really great catchy "binary"-video gamey song (it's been featured in Vanilla Sky, video games, and anti-drugs commercials). But unfortunately, their third (and final?) album, The Snare did not have any really catchy songs. The ruder and darker themed album was due to David's book The Peacock Manifesto (whos character also appears on the cover and songs of The Snare).
Anyway, in 1999, Looper released a double A-Side called Who's Afraid of Y2K? and Up A Tree Again, which I picked up, among other singles, at a Flaming Lips show (Looper was opening up for the band).
Both are excellent songs, although there were two remixes of "Up A Tree Again". I normally don't like remixes, but these were pretty different from the original album (which actually sounds pretty stale compared to these upbeat mixes). The "singles mix" of "Up a Tree Again" was interesting to say the least, focusing mostly on the "la-na-na-na" section and DJ-scratches, while the Chocolate Layers remix was pretty much only the "la-na-na-na" section.
Looking back, I suppose "Who's Afraid of Y2K?" song was a bit of novelty. Ironically enough, the song was awashed in electronic quirks and beats - all the things that Y2K would've destroyed supposedly.
Currently, Looper's on hiatus. I haven't heard much in terms of a new David novel or Looper release. Most of the recent releases were made free on their website, geometrid.co.uk.
BRAVE OLD WORLD
dccomics.com/vertigo
I thought the concept behind this William Messner-Loebs-written Vertigo mini-series was interesting enough: a group of computer hackers working on a solution to the Y2K bug at the end of 1999 - only to find themselves in 1900.
The series explored some interesting concept, like what would you do, if you had all this computer/understanding of technology, only to be trapped in a world that still operated via candlelight? The women in the comics had it worst, let's face it, women didn't exactly have freedom back then. And if you were doing something strange, you're a witch and killed, etc.
So what's the group to do to try and back to 2000? They had to build a computer, by "inventing" their own technology.
Like I said, a very interesting concept. It sort of got a bit boring towards the end (by the last issue, I didn't really care for the characters so much).
Vertigo comics has yet to collect this in a trade, I suppose after the Y2K fiasco, it probably wouldn't be worth reading. I mean, we all know as fantastic as going back in 1900 would be, it didn't happen - just like the Y2K didn't happen. Still, if you want to re-live what it was like, or what Messner-Loebs was thinking back in 1999.
PREPARE YOURSELF FOR Y10K
Chances are, I'll be dead, so I wouldn't care so much what would happen. Wikipedia thinks it's a problem, but I suspect by the year 10,000, that our computing technology would be so advance, it wouldn't amount to anything.
Until then, have a great New Year. Take care of each other. I'll see you in 2010.
12/31/2009 22:29:36 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
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BRITPOPCAST #6: THE GIRLS OF BRITPOP (wave 2)
Second wave:
- Kenickie (Lauren Laverne - all girls band)
- Kenickie, believe it or not, was the only all-girls Britpop
band. There was another band called Fluffy around this era, but they
were more hard-rock than brit-pop. While Fluffy's ultimate was branded
with "eight tits no talent", Kenickie was more loved in general. While
their music is often more polished punk/pop early on, they shifted
their sound to more lounge for their second album. Obviously the band
was still in their infancy ... but eventually broke up shortly after
the second album.
- Lush (Miki Berenyi & Emma Anderson)
- In early Lush's history, they were two best friends, Miki
Berenyi & Emma Anderson. They were fanzine producers, and started
their own band based on their love of shoegazing music with their EPs
and debut album Spooky. You can hear their love of melodies as
they sing in and out. Of course, when you have two songwriters, they
often clash if they have other interests. In this case, at the time Split came out in 1994, some of the songs were clearly "britpop"esque. Even the naming of the album (Split)
was an indication, between aggressive pop songs like "Kiss Chase" and
"Hypocrite" - the britpop songs would later continue with "Ladykiller"
and their ultimate britpop moment with Jarvis Cocker on "Ciao!" While
I did tend to like the Miki songs, Emma did coin a few great pop gems
like "Shake Baby Shake" (which is about the love of her car).
- When we heard that drummer, Chris Acland committed suicide by
hanging himself, we all knew the band would be split up after this.
And it's true, they never quite recover. I was lucky enough to catch
them before the tragedy and continued to follow to see what the band's
been up to. The last I heard, Emma is in Sing-Sing, which had a great
pop song called "Feels Like Summer".
- Catatonia (Cerys Matthews)
- Since we previously talked about Catatonia in our previous Welsh Britpop bands, I'll only briefly mention them here. The thing with Catatonia for me was that each of their song was either a hit or miss... no inbetween feeling. I either hated or love it. But the songs I really love, I really love, so that makes up for them. I love the way Cerys sings, in fact, all Welsh people have a particularly weird accent to them and it's always a nice earful when you do hear them sing or talk. It's like they're speaking English, but learned it from another planet.
- Favorite songs: "Mulder & Scully", "I Am the Mob", "Karaokee Queen", "Road Rage", "Dead from the Waist Down"
- Theaudience (Sophie Ellis-Bextor)
- This was a very brief band from 97-99, fronted by Sophie
Ellis-Bextor - who went on to have a series of very successful
Eurodisco releases. I must admit, I never followed the band that much
- they arrived a little too late for me. I didn't buy their debut
album (it was never released in the US), but managed to get their debut
single, "I Got the Wherewithal". The song is quite good, and even
their b-side "Penis Size and Cars" is amusingly catchy.
- Bis (Amanda MacKinnon)
- I love this Scottish band. Although they were far too
"kiddish" in their cute unreadable spellings and anime-influence, they
were pretty damn cute and catchy. Songs like "Kandy Pop" topped many
playlist around this time, although in retrospect, looking back, it was
a pretty mindless dum (dumb as in DUM) song. Unfortunately, many
people, including myself, didn't regard Bis as a Britpop band, but
they're often grouped in. My favorite song: "Action & Drama"!
Honorable mentions:
- Black Box Recorder (Sarah Nixey)
- Very catchy/dancey, but not Britpop. Their bassist is Luke Haines, formerly of the Britpop band The Auteurs.
- Dubstar (Sarah Blackwood)
- This British act came out during the birth of Britpop, but they
were far too alternative-dance/electronica to be considered Britpop.
The singer is Sarah Blackwood, who, I reckon the band ditched toward
their later music releases.
- Sneaker Pimps (Kelli Dayton)
- Fluffy
- Republica (Saffron)
- Fat Les (Lily Allen sings on their last single???)
12/30/2009 03:45:48 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
Oh, wow... it's still Tuesday. I thought it was after midnight already but it's not. Whaddya know about that?!
Loathe:
- People who return to work after a vacation with as much asshole attitude as when they left
- Other stuff
- A feral/semi-feral kitty has been playing on the roof and in the attic crawlspace, just like Moshi did before I tamed him. On Sunday night, I heard a commotion but thought it was my cats fighting in the bedroom. Last night I was in the bedroom when it happened and it was distinctly coming from the roof and/or attic and I was sure I heard something jump on the water heater cover (again, cause Moshi used to do that). But I didn't know what type of animal it was because I have a decent sized ficus tree next to the heater so something could have been using the tree to get up/down. And there where lots of other noises that sounded like branches being gathered, and stuff being banged around. I figured it probably wasn't an opossum because they're usually more stealth. Around 2am, I got up for a Tylenol (brain wouldn't shut up; partial fail on the sleep med kicking but better than using prescription drugs) and came back to Espressa staring out the window. I thought she saw my reflection but when I turned of the light, I saw a "teenage" looking kitty run across the neighbor's roof. Although it was dark, I thought it looked like a grey kitty - also like Moshi.
- Tomorrow... Wednesday, Dec 30... is CRANKYPANTS birthday
I still haven't mailed your present and I'm too lazy to look for cute art to include in this post.
[15 min later] Huh... whaddya know... I lied:
