AMERICAN ANALOG SET all i want for christmas

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apologies for the poor pressing quality. (the mastering is well done, though.)

not much to add on AAS.

next to SPOON, one of the essential Austin acts.

hard to imagine more relaxed yet tight and sensual indierock-music - even for a christmas-song.


listen.


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BARR the song is the single

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discovered thanks to the almighty Phil Elverum - on this podcast, uploaded by Caff Flick (they released the awesome NO KIDS / MOUNT EERIE split).

what a weird smart guy.



listen.


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PJ HARVEY kick it to the ground (4 track)

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Polly's voice always benefits from a sparse production.


listen.


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TRANSPARENT THING car

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a pleasant discovery, thanks to WJ.

they also did a split with Jessamine on Darla Rec. not really surprising.

note the quality-distinction between beer and red wine in the lyrics.


listen.

buy it as long as you can (for a ridiculously low price).


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HOOD redundant

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fabulous six bands-split 7"- the third and final Rebound-release.

Hood do what they have to do.

you won't read any disappointed comment on Chris and Richard in this blog.


listen.


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LES LUTINS laissez-nous vivre

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a Dave-gift.

mid-sixties yeye-beat from Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec.

is this an appropriate description? tell me.

listen.


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PENNY'S ELECTRIC WORKHORSES SONGS conflicts with blocks of the citizenry

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U. liked it a lot, and even managed to get one copy via Thrill Jockey's mailorder. i had taped her all the All City 7", to justify my label-completism-obsession.

James Bertram, who very much is PEWS, used to play in Lync, Red Star Theory and 764-Hero. Wikipedia tells me that he's also on the bass on Beck's One Foot In The Grave. he's also on a couple of Built to Spill recordings.


listen.


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LOW if you were born today

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the first time i went to a LOW-show was in may 1999, in Paris. they had started more than an hour before the announced schedule, the set was quite short, so when I made it to the Balle Au Bon péniche, a houseboat on the rive gauche bank, i literally heard the last chords of the encore. boy was i disappointed.

it was a small venue, Mimi, Alan and Zak were hanging around, no backstage space, and so, out of (at that time consistently growing) enthusiasm for their music, I accosted them.
they were quite sorry for me, and after i had told them i was living in Germany, they suggested to put me on the guest list for their show in Hamburg, opening for Mogwai.

so two weeks later, i took the train from Bonn to Hamburg. the show was amazing, apart from the physically violent sound-volume Mogwai imposed.


it was the real beginning of a LOW-commitment that abruptly ended with their first Sub Pop release. to this day, it's the band i've seen most frequently playing live (that is, eight times).

this 7" was highly sought after when it came out, and it's just thanks to my Normal Mailorder activity that i managed to get a copy. it's because of this very release that i discovered the Wurlitzer Jukebox label.
Qui l'eût cru?

check Zak's comic publishing - it's worth it!


listen.


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P:ANO pure evil

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it took me four years to get addicted to them.

the person that sold me that 7", L., who's friends with the people who released it (those people are also friends of, surprise, Dave), mentioned that the silkscreened covers were bleached in the sun.

Dave once posted here a whole live-set-recording he made in 2005 in Vancouver.
essential, of course.


oh, and as christmas is getting closer, here is some amazing older Julia & Nick side-project-stuff:



listen.


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GLO-WORM travelogue

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this song can be magic - on the condition that you're in love, no matter if it's returned or not.


listen.


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BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY southside of the world

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a Will Oldham classic.

the essential ingredient to this song: a concrete hope that doesn't fear to be dashed.


listen.


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MOUNT EERIE do not be afraid, you will be 'in the mountains', and 'in the mountains' means 'in the world', and 'the world', though dark, will hold you

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this is the first record i got from Phil Elverum. bought at the legendary Cheap Thrills store, one year after i had been at Mount Eerie's show at Sala Rossa (in the late summer of 2004, if my memory is right).

don't know why it took me so long. don't know why i started with this obscure live-recorded split 7inch.

a couple weeks later, i got No Flashlight. still my personal fave, and a record i consider to be immensely underrated.

i totally understand if you cannot stand this song due to its 'evangelical gesture', especially if that's something you've been confronted with in your life (i haven't).


listen.


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THE DIFF'RENT STROKES last nite [Strokes cover]

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casio deluxe - homage.

what you might not know.

U., we listened to that 7inch on a portable turntable at Görlitzer Park, on a barbecue party in the early summer of 2002.

remember that?


listen.


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VERSUS all in doubt [Flower cover]

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quite an untypical Versus-song - a coverversion of Flower, the band that Richard Baluyut used to play in.

on a split with Unwound. on Troubleman Unlimited !

listen.


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THE SCHOOL and suddenly

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Slumberland Records rose from the dead last winter.

since then, they've released some over-hyped stuff (The Pain Of Being Pure At Heart, Crystal Stilts, Liechtenstein), and a bunch of really charming Searching for the Now - split 7inches.

as you can see, this song is from #6.

a spirit of everlasting beginning that doesn't seem to know what finiteness means.


listen.

buy. (and listen there to a pushed mp3-version, if you want)


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PJ HARVEY wait

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recorded in 1989. and very much in that zeitgeist-spirit, if you aks me.

for the Polly-completist.


listen.


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AMP beyond

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a classic mid-phase AMP-song. detached Karine-vocals on that one.


listen.


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BRATMOBILE there's no other way [Blur cover]

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ten one-minute-songs = Teenbeat 100.

perfect tape-filler. and way different from what you might expect from Bratmobile.

and, just for fun, compare this obscure 55sec. Blur-cover to anything that, say, the Vivian Girls have released so far.
see?





listen.


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SHACK byrds turn to stone

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Michael Head and his brother.

listen attentively to what happens from 2:18 to 2:30. sounds self-evident? right you are.
now try to write such a bridge.
good luck.

(don't really understand the reasons for the byrd-spelling. any suggestion?)


listen.


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THE MAKE-UP the choice

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the song that introduced me to The Make-Up.

one of my alltimefaves.


listen.


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SMALL FACTORY so what about love

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the first 7inch i bought thanks to this very blog - Mike sent me this link where he's still selling some amazing stuff.

Small Factory are pure melancholic joy.


listen.


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KAIA my voice

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Team Dresch's femme fatale.

as she said on her first album: "finally a dyke- record for the whole family."

bought in the fall of 1996 at Normal in Bonn. On the advice of S.

timeless.


listen.


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TRUE LOVE ALWAYS r u coping w/ me?

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maybe the best song True Love Always have ever recorded.

physically pleasing breaks, semi-candid melodies played with some relaxed, yet precise Unrest-edginess that always keeps a distance.

boy do i love this song.



listen.


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DAN DEACON shoe faces

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genious!

one of my everlasting regrets: to not have been at his West Germany show a couple years ago.







from the recording of his current album:



listen.


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APPENDIX CALEDONIA [ aka Appendix Out ] the holiday atmosphere (qualified version)

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another Hayfever-pearl - a hidden Alasdair Roberts treasure.

enjoy.


listen.


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ASPERA AD ASTRA black in the eye

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psychedelic weirdos doing semi-melancholic pop music.

the first minute of the track is - to me - the incarnation of the Long-Distance-Lovers-Spirit inherent to the Tree Rec.-split-series.

if that's what you're living right now: listen to this song at 5am in the greyhound / train /airplane that brings you to your beloved one.


listen.


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