Saturday 31 October 2009

What's Wrong With The Mainstream October '09 Playist


Here we go again, some months I struggle to put this playlist together and this is one of those months. The problem is I've been listening through all my old playlists and haven't been making much time for new music. It's not necessarily that there's not good new tunes out there it's just I've not had time to hunt them down. However I've got some beauties for you but I have tipped you off about some of them earlier in the month. This playlist is becoming more a round up of this blog over the month but I don't think that's a bad thing is it?

Let's start of with Magic Show from Electric Owls a catchy number that I would normally expect Neon Gold to be championing but this hit my inbox from Vagrant who have been sending me lots of quality tracks recently (the BRMC live album is on their label).


Talking of Neon Gold, Wolf Gang previously released the quality track Pieces of You with them, now on a brand new label Hit Club and he's come up with the goods again with this track.


If you've read this blog before you'll know my love of Yes Cassette and I've got another track by them for you to get stuck in your head. When you haven't heard a track for a couple of weeks and you wake up singing it you know it's catchy - every Yes Cassette song is like that. You don't realise how catchy they are until it's too late.


Some bands seem to understand how important the weekend is to everyone and Pistola kicks are certainly one of those. This track seems to have gone down well since I posted it earlier this month and just had to make it on to my end of month playlist. If you haven't downloaded it yet what are you waiting for?


I love how you the internet and Myspace has meant you can get in touch with bands you like and a lot of them are more than happy to hear from you. The Twees were one of those bands who've replied to me every time I've been in touch. With quality tracks like this I'll be keeping tabs on them.


PS I Love you have a terrible name, mainly because it's the same as a bad rom-com, to be fair I've not seen it but I'm pretty sure it's bad. The name may be bad but the sound they've got is pretty damn cool and you just hope they can put together 10 tracks that match it in a great album.


It used to vinyl and now it's the good old cassette tape. Recently everyone seems to be getting sentimental about the good old cassette. I've got countless t-shirts with cassettes on the front (which got lots of comments when I visited the States last year for some reason) and it's not the bought type people are reminiscing about, it's the good old compilation tape. I've spent many an hour turning my old mixtapes in to playlists on my iPod as I am sure many of you have. Not only has this spawned a lot of t-shirts but also a lot of band names. Mixtapes & Cellmates are another band named after the beloved cassette. Their latest release Soon is a piano rock, middle of the road number (not in a bad way) and is available for your listening pleasure below.


Anja from Haunted Stereo got in touch back in August and I checked out their Myspace site to see what they had to offer. They are a folk band who play a variety of strings and percussion instruments and show real potential. Having listened to a few of their songs a school report would say "could do better" but on hearing Cross The Sea they've hit form. A track that's mellow yet has a catchy riff and a beautiful sound. More of this please HS.


Staying with a bit of folkyness we've got Polynya, they are a bit more uptempo and with a bit of what sounds like record scratching it's a different sound to Haunted Stereo. They mix male and female vocals and have a varied album. In fact if you like this track I will give away the copy of the album and a t-shirt (small) that the band sent me to the first person to comment "give me that t-shirt man".

Oh and Polynya or Polynia (UK spelling) is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. Everyday is a school day...


Back to the synths now with Southern Belle and a sound that will become a clear reflection of the naughties, I wonder what will be the sound of the teens - is that what we're calling them?


...and on a similar theme we have Clock Opera. This song sounds like the band name more than the song title with all I can describe as a ticking synths.


I brought you a new Humanizer track earlier this month and rather than post that again I thought I'd post a new demo the band were giving away free. I think it clearly shows the recording process the band go through, creating the sound first and then laying the vocals over the top. If they don't make it as a band (I've got a feeling they'll be signed soon) then they could certainly do a line in soundtracks.


Of course to end I have a cover and this is cover like no other I have posted. It's from a Daytrotter Session that Carly Simon did recently and she was ably assisted by her son Ben. While it is listed as Carly doing the track it is actually Ben singing (I'm sure you would have figured that out pretty quickly). There are three other tracks available for download at Daytrotter if you like this. Oh and Martha Wainwright did a session recently which I haven't had chance to check out yet.


So that's it for now, if you want to make this playlist up to the usual amount of tracks add the new Vampire Weekend track that I blogged about this month and the excellent new track from Call The Doctor

4 comments:

thefreedomfry said...

I really love that song by Haunted Stereo :) so um, "give me that t-shirt man"...

John L said...

Sure will the freedomfry but it's for Polynya not Haunted Stereo. Do you still want it? send your details to whatswrongwiththemainstream@googlemail.com and I'll send it out to you

Unknown said...

I'm all for the 'Monthly Round-up', gives me time to listen and digest!

Schönberg said...

Some top tracks on there Jal, keep up the good work for all of us out there that don't have time/ are too idle to seach out good new music.

You're like Steve Lamacq, but with smaller ears...