Hipsters unite, come align for the big fight to rock for you

Well I've been back in New York for a few days now and I've been so busy that I haven't been able to post anything until today. My cousins and I went out last night to celebrate Jeazette's 24th birthday. We went to this place called Star 64 and danced to some old school hip hop, reggae, and r&b. It was a blast. We got home at 5:30 though, and had to get up early for church, so I'm way tired.

So lets discuss the Pumpkins reunion that is rumored to happen at this year's Coachella festival. It would be SO amazing for me and tons of other Pumpkins fans if Billy, D'arcy, James and Jimmy were rocking out on stage together again, playing favorites like Cherub Rock, I Am One, and Bullet With Butterfly Wings (Billy, you still owe me a live performance of Mayonaise). Even though I consider myself very fortunate to have seen the Pumpkins at all while they were together, I never saw a show with all four original members on stage (the first time sans, Jimmy, the second, without D'arcy). Has enough time passed by to heal all the bad blood between those four people? Jimmy is down for the reunion, which is great because I think few drummers could even attempt to fill his spot. The man is like a machine on those things. But what about James and D'arcy. James seems happy doing his thing in New York, and no one has heard much from D'arcy ever since she left the band. I guess all we can do is wait and see if the rumors are really true, and if so, which Pumpkins decide to come back to the patch (haha, get it, Pumpkin patch....). To read more about my Pumpkins love go here and here and here.

Friday, I watched She Wants Revenge perform on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. I always like watching the live performances from Morning Becomes eclectic because host Nic Harcourt always does short Q and A's with the band in between sets. It's a good way to find out about newer bands that you don't know a lot of stuff about. Anyway, singer Justin Warfield said something really interesting about the kind of music he wanted to make. He mentioned Depeche Mode as an influence, and said that even if you took away all the synths out of DM songs, and just played the songs acoustically, they'd still be really great, really powerful songs. And it's very true. Justin said that he wanted She Wants Revenge songs to be just as meaningful to people, even when stripped down to the core. Nic Harcourt also asks the band about being compared to Interpol, Editors, and bands of the like. It's so funny because, I recently commented on a mistake that NME made on their website, where they put up a picture of Bloc Party with an article on Test Icicles. Besides the total ridiculousness of calling Test Icicles a "non boring Bloc Party," I think a lot of journalists are lazy and tend to use one band to describe every other band in a genre.

To watch She Wants Revenge's performance on Morning Becomes eclectic, go here.

In the LJ Test Icicles community, someone posted pictures from a recent show they went to. The Test Icicles are currently headlining a tour with Damn Arms and Help! She Can't Swim. I'd never heard of Damn Arms or Help! She Can't Swim, but since they're on tour with Test Icicles, I decided that I should give them both a listen.

Damn Arms are a new wave indie act from Melbourne, Australia. The group is made up of former members of Snap! Crakk! and they recently released an EP called Patterns. To listen to some tracks from the EP, visit the band's myspace page.

Help! She Can't Swim is a band that I wish I had heard of a long time ago. Their sound is definitely a perfect fit for touring with Test Icicles, as some of their songs express that sort of frantic and explosive vibe that many Test Icicles songs have. HSCS have a fantastic singers in Lisa Francais and Tom Denny, who sing as well as they wail. I hope they make it around to the states at some point. They have a few songs on their myspace page, but you can listen to two of them below.

Help! She Can't Swim- Knit 1 Pearl 1
Help! She Can't Swim- Little Boy On High Building

And if you haven't listened to Test-Icicles you should, because they're amazing. Check out a couple of songs here. Circle, Square, Triangle is one of my faves. Test-Icicles will be on tour in the states this spring, so you should go out to see them if they're in a town near you.

March 2- Mercury Lounge (New York, NY)
March 3- Northstar (Philadelphia, PA)
March 4- Sonar (Baltimore, MD)
March 6- Nuemo's (Seattle, WA)
March 8- Lola's Room (Portland, OR)
March 9- Popscene (San Francisco, CA)
March 10- Spaceland (Los Angeles, CA)
March 11- Casbah (San Diego, CA)
March 13- Triple Rock Social Club (Minnepolis, MN)
March 14- Logan Sqaure Auditorium (Chicago, IL)
March 16- SXSW (Austin, TX)
March 17- SXSW (Austin, TX)
March 18- SXSW (Austin, TX)

But if your hopes should pass away, simply pretend

This afternoon on my favorite radio show, The Retroplex, I found out that both Paul Young and Susanna Hoffs are celebrating birthdays today. Paul is 50 and Susanna is 47. Even though I'm aware that the 80s were a while ago, it's still weird to think that the girls in the bangles are middle aged, or that the guy who sang Everytime You Go Away probably has wrinkles now. Growing up, I always wished I was a teenager during the 80s, so that I could've gone to lots of Cure and Duran Duran concerts. But I think music is a lot more interesting now, and so I'm happy to be a teenager of the 90s.


The Bangles- Hazy Shade of Winter

Paul Young- Every Time You Go Away

Paul Young's biggest hit in America was of course Everytime You Go Away. But did you know that he didn't even write it? Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oats) actually wrote it.

The live Bloc Party DVD, God Bless Bloc Party, comes out today. I think when I go back to New York I'll buy it. Adhalia, we're going shopping tomorrow!


Oh and here's an MP3 of the new Pretty Girls Make Graves song, if you're too lazy to go listen to it on their myspace page.

Pretty Girls Make Graves- The Nocturnal House

I've noticed that lots of bloggers are mentioning PGMG in their posts, which makes me very happy. I'm going to be ridiculously excited when the new album comes out. But yeah, you've got at least another 3 months of me talking non stop about it, so you'll just have to bear with me.

Finally, Morrissey has announced a crap load of tour dates in the UK. He'll hit the road in April in support of his upcoming record, Ringleader of the Tormentors. Seeing as how I'm in the US, I'm hoping for a tour of the states this year as well. I took my 16 year old cousin to see Morrissey in 2004 and she had a blast. I told her that if he toured again, I'd take her. He puts on a phenominal show. So if you're in any of the following cities, you better go out and see the Mozzer live.

04-18 Salford, England - Lowry
04-19 Llandudno, Wales - North Wales Theatre
04-20 Leeds, England - Town Hall
04-22 Aberdeen, Scotland - Music Hall
04-23 Stirling, Scotland - Albert Halls
04-25 Dundee, Scotland - Caird Hall
04-26 Greenock, Scotland - Town Hall
04-27 Glasgow, Scotland - Academy
04-29 Whitehaven, England - Civic
04-30 Gateshead, England - Sage
05-03 Sheffield, England - City Hall
05-04 Grimsby, England - Auditorium
05-06 Manchester, England - Apollo
05-07 Manchester, England - Opera House
05-08 Manchester, England - Bridgewater Hall
05-10 Halifax, England - Victoria Hall
05-11 Blackburn, England - King Georges Hall
05-12 Liverpool, England - Philharmonic
05-14 London, England - Palladium
05-15 Cardiff, Wales - St David's Hall
05-17 Reading, England - Hexagon
05-19 Portsmouth, England - Guildhall
05-20 Birmingham, England - Symphony Hall
05-21 London, England - Palladium
05-23 Truro, England - Hall For Cornwall
05-24 Cheltenham, England - Town Hall
05-25 Oxford, England - New Theatre
05-27 Kings Lynn - Corn Exchange
05-28 London, England - Palladium

Here's my rad Morrissey belt buckle. I love it.

By Request

I got an email from James asking me to post repost The String Quartet Tribute to AC/DC cover of You Shook Me All Night Long. So here it is.

The String Quartet Tribute to AC/DC- You Shook Me All Night Long (from Back in Baroque)

If you missed my String Quartet Tribute post, well you really missed out. :)

More stuff later.

Check on me tonight

I've been trying to post all day, but my mother keeps coming into my room every 2 minutes to tell me something, or to stuff something else into one of my suitcases. So, this is all I've got for today.

These songs remind me on New York:

My cousin Jeazette has this song as her ringtone. I think she decided to download it onto her new phone because our 11 year old cousin Michael was singing this song in the car one day, and we all said, "Haha, was Michael REALLY just singing that."

This song was played at the Christmas/New Years dance. All my cousins knew the words to the song, but I had never even heard it before. Of course, none of them knew the name of the song, so I had to find that out on my own. The dance was way fun by the way. You can see pictures here. Below is a picture of Jeazette and I.

And I always see the video for this song when we're flipping through the music channels.

P.S. Oh and remember how I mentioned American Hearts in my post yesterday? Well Beathanne at Clever Titles Are So Last Summer posted it today, so check it out.

My heart swims in a sea of devotion for you

I'm back in Atlanta ya'll! But only for a few days. I'm going back to New York on Tuesday. I should be getting a laptop this week. But even if I don't, I'm still going to try to get back into posting every other day or so. But don't hold your breath or anything.

Pretty Girls Make Graves uploaded a new song on their myspace page. It's called The Nocturnal House and it's great. They also have their new site up and HOLY SHIT I see new merch that I MUST have. Especially this:



I have this shirt, but mine has red on it instead of white, so I think I need this too.



Also Happy Birthday wishes go out to my favorite ATL frontman Jordan Jeffares who celebrated his 25th birthday this past week. Jordan and his band Snowden are going to Austin tomorrow to make a record. I can only imagine how awesome the music they make down there is going to be and I can't wait to hear it. But for now, I'll keep listening to Anti Anti and Like Bullets on their myspace page.

My other ATL favorites eNTERTAINME.nt recently put up a rough mix of the b-side to their upcoming single. It's called The Wasteland Horror (I think). You can listen to it here. Again I say, what would we ever do without Myspace?

I haven't been able to visit my favorite music blogs since I've been in New York, so I'm trying to catch up this weekend. It's probably an impossible task, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. I noticed that Clever Titles Are So Last Summer recently posted about Piebald, and reading that post made we want to listen to their super catchy anthem American Hearts. But I couldn't find my cd anywhere. However, I did find my Go Sailor cd, which I haven't listened to in FOREVER, so that was just as good.

My friend Ariel was the first person to introduce me to Go Sailor. She loved their song Bigger Than An Ocean and suggested that I play it during one of my DJ shifts at WUOG. So I did, and I totally fell in love with it too.

Go Sailor was a twee pop band made up of members of Tiger Trap, Henry's Dress and Crimpshrine. They only released 2 EPs and some of their songs appeared on a couple of compilations. But all of their material was re-released in 1996 on their self titled record, Go Sailor (Lookout!).

Go Sailor songs have great melodies and all the cutesy love lyrics that you tend to hear in twee pop songs. If you're a fan of groups like The Softies and All Girl Summer Fun Band, you'll definitely dig Go Sailor. Their self titled release is great from start to finish, but the highlights for me are the songs I've posted below.

(from Go Sailor)
Go Sailor- Last Year
Go Sailor- Bigger Than an Ocean *highly recommended*
Go Sailor- Together Forever In Love

We keep moving

Thought I'd stop in quickly and let you guys know what's been going on. I've been in New York for three weeks now, and I'm having a blast. I've been spending loads of time with my awesome family, seeing new places in the city, and pigging out on the best chinese food ever. This weekend, I went to my very first New York show/surprise party. I saw C.B.C. , Leaders, and Burbis at The Trash Bar in Brooklyn. Jenny had a surprise party for Carlos there and much fun was had by all. Oh yeah, Carlos just turned 31 so go wish him a happy birthday.

C.B.C. does acoustic covers of rap and hip hop songs. They were AWESOME. Their set list included:

Notorious B.I.G.'s Big Poppa, Nice & Smooth's Sometimes I Rhyme Slow, Ciara's Oh, Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby, R Kelly's Ignition Remix, Biz Marke's Just a Friend and The Geto Boys' Mind's Playing Tricks on Me just to name a few. They also did this amazing medley of Jay-Z songs including Dirt Off Your Shoulders, Izzo, and Big Pimpin. If you're ever in New York, and these guys are playing a show, you must see them play.

Burbis gave away cds at the end of their set, and so I thought I'd post the songs from it here. I especially dig the track I left my heart is Sri Lanka (Slumber Mix).

Burbis- The Surf Song
Burbis- Luca Brasi Sleeps with the Fishes
Burbis- I Left my Heart is Sri Lanka (Slumber Mix)
Burbis- There is No Life Left in This Monster a.k.a. Hotpants

In other awesome news, I made it onto Pretty Girls Make Graves' top 8 on myspace! How did that happen? I have no idea, but it's awesome. Check it out here. The band's official site is supposed to be relaunched shortly, and I'm very much looking forward to it. The band has also posted some tourdates for Australia in their latest blog entry here.

And here's the cover for the new album, Elan Vital.

The We Are Scientists record, With Love and Squalor, will be released in the U.S. tomorrow. If you've heard the entire record as I have, then you know it's awesome.

Yep, so I guess that's all for now. How are you guys? I hope you all had a great holiday.