The Latest Obsession: Take Me to The Riot by Stars

Welcome to my latest (and long-running) obsession. today I'm blogging about Take Me to The Riot by Canadian indie dahhlings, Stars.

This, ahem, 'riotous' track was the first single shipped from 2007's In Our Bedroom After The War and began streaming on Pitchfork way back in July '07, long before the album's release date. From that first tantalizing stream I have been gripped by the sheer pace of this track, and have been including it on mixtapes and playlists for well over a year.

So, why should you care about the song? Well... Besides the twinkling piano opening and the gently intertwined octave-split vocals of Broken Social Scene proteges Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, there's the feel of the song; this is a work that unravels at a gently building pace, before a crashing, energetic burst of music takes over. Then of course, there's the brilliantly thought out, sing-a-long inducing chorus:

Saturday nights in neon lights
Sundays in the cell.
Pills enough to make me feel ill
Cash enough to make me well.
Take me, take me to the riot!
Take me take me to the riot!
And let me stay...

Ready to get taken to the riot? Grab the tune here:

Stars - Take Me to The Riot

I love Stars; from the Sheffield accent of Torquil singing about flat caps to the Final Fantasy re-working of Your Ex-Lover is Dead on the remix album Do You Trust Your Friends?, the band is full of hidden joys. Any friend of mine worth their hipster scout badge will know Elevator Love Letter from 2003 release Heart is both my favourite song possibly of all time, and top of my iTunes "25 most played" list at any given time. This is basically a heads-up: expect to see that song featured as an obsession at some point in the future!

Stars were generous enough to offer the album in digital format before its hard-copy release in 2007, so if you fancy owning just the electronic copy, get yourself here and buy it. For a proper hold-it-in-your-hands real copy with beautiful art-work and liner notes (including a story!), you can again buy it here! See? It's fun to support music!

Metal Wednesdays: 27th August 2008

Ok, ok; so it's Thursday. But you know how it is; I totally meant to post this yesterday but my girlfriend made me breakfast in bed, then we went to the cinema, and there was this Spanish bar having happy hour and cocktails were drunk... You get the picture. So here, in all its glory, I present The Post I Should Have Posted Yesterday:

Happy Wednesday homies! Welcome to the latest installment of our Metal Wednesday's series, and today we're talking about those sexy Finnish boys, Northern Kings.

Mentioned in the previous Metal Wednesday post, Northern Kings is something of a Euro-metal supergroup, formed from the diaspora of bands Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Charon and Teräsbetoni.

As you should be aware by now, I have more than a little fond spot for Marco Hietala of Nightwish fame so for me the album was a bit of a must-have. My girlfriend is also a mahussive Sonata Arctica fan; check them out, they're actually pretty awesome, and minus an odd obsession lead singer Tony Kakko (featured magnificently as a quarter of Northern Kings has with a mysterious girl called 'Dana', the band do achieve moments of greatness that bear more than a slight resemblance to early Sabbath or Iron Maiden. The long and short of this is; I like Northern Kings. In fact, for cheesy metal covers of mostly 80's songs (uh-oh, I didn't mention that's what it is, did I?), the album, Reborn, is infinitely listenable, and infinitely surprising.

While ironic cover-versions have been somewhat killed in the last few years, there's still enough fresh interpretation (and genuine, non-ironic love for the chosen tracks) on this album to get you to track 13. I will admit, however, to a dip in concentration during the middle of the album, with cheese-fests like I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight and the ghastly Phil Collins' dreariness that is In the Air Tonight providing little to enthuse over. Stick with it, though; final track Brothers In Arms is a joyous affair for what is actually quite a sad Dire Straits original, riotously affirming the damn good fun these guys must have had with Reborn, and the fun you're going to get if you grab a copy.

Enough of all that nonsense, here's a couple of tracks:

Northern Kings - We Don't Need Another Hero
Northern Kings - Don't Stop Believin'

As always, these songs are for sample only; please be kind and go buy the CD: Reborn by Northern Kings

Vacation Songs

Hello campers! First of all, my apologies for Metal Wednesday's no-show yesterday, we're taking a trip to the seaside and that means no time for blogging and mucho mucho mucho packing, arranging and sorting out the kitten etc! I can assure you next week we'll be back on track with a proper Metal Wednesday kicking off our return (probably no posts till then, sorry my guys and guy-ettes).

Now, as a peace-offering to you all for my lack of posts in the coming days I've put together a little bundle of vacation-inspired tracks for you to delight in. Summer might not be quite as hot as expected here in the UK, but we can still hitch a ride to Rockaway beach...

A little about the choice first; 'Rockaway Beach' is from The Ramones' 1977 album Rocket to Russia and has one of the best sing-a-long choruses for a car trip. Plus, as with most Ramones songs, you can learn it in about 30 seconds, so even the uninitiated can join in. 'Summer Skin' is from Death Cab's seminal album Plans and lusciously explores the fleeting world of summer romance over a lazy bass-line that bores into your mind. 'Holiday from Real' is a bouncy piano-driven track by Jack's Mannequin, side project of Andrew McMahon, originally from Something Corporate. It's getting featured here mostly for the line "She lets me drive her car so I can score an eighth from the lesbians out west in Venice". Our final track, 'Packing Blankets' by Eels is more about packing up your past and starting again than packing your suitcase, but it's so endlessly cheery it works perfectly for a road trip. Check the lyrics:

Today is a lovely day to run
Start up the car with the sun
Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen

The Ramones - Rockaway Beach
Death Cab for Cutie - Summer Skin
Jack's Mannequin - Holiday from Real
Eels - Packing Blankets
Bonus! The Ramones - Endless Vacation

As always, please be supportive of the artists, and if you like their work, you can buy it at the following locations:

Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology by The Ramones
Plans by Death Cab for Cutie
Everything in Transit by Jack's Mannequin
Dasies of the Galaxy by Eels

Five For Freaking Good Writing

In a nod to my band, and because it's a Saturday and I should be doing other things but my girlfriend is off doing doing her thing for the festival of Rakhri, I am presenting you with a choice selection of five songs with quite simply excellent song-writing. From my man Craig Finn to the excellent Joanna Newsom and the mythically minded Laura Veirs, this is an exercise in song writing genius, to inspire, delight and generally fill up your ears with.

We Speak in the store, I'm a sensitive bore,
You seem markedly more, and I'm oozing surprise.
But it's late in the day, and you're well on your way,
What was golden went grey, and I'm suddenly shy..

Joanna Newsom - Peach Plum Pear (Live at Bottletree)

I had a thought while I was sleeping
And I dreamed about a place for us to rest
Eternity under the old oak tree
But I go too far, I guess..

Eels - Ugly Love

Now she's pinned and way too shaky.
She don't wanna tell the doctor everything she's taken
The paramedics hovered over her like a somber mourning family
They gave her activating charcoal, they flooded her with saline..

The Hold Steady - The Chillout Tent

Dreaming we were stones in black stillness
Dreaming of the death of the sun
Waking to a world of white blindness
Painted eyes of the holy ones.

Laura Veirs - Don't Lose Yourself

And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Both our tender bellies wound in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern .

Iron & Wine - Resurrection Fern (For more on this excellent track, see this entry from Tha Bomb Shelter)

I feel like this feature is probably likely to become a regular, because if there's one thing I love it's a lyric that tells a complete story from start to finish. Regular readers might wonder why I didn't add any Death Cab, but to be perfectly honest with you Ben Gibbard writes so prolifically and so presciently it would be hard for me to choose just one track. I highly recommend checking out Company Calls Epilogue from the We Have the Facts... album. This song painfully explores a spurned lover on hearing the love of his life is marrying someone else, a concept repeated in much of Gibbards' work (check out the video for new song Cath... for more on this). You can't get more lyrically touching than his work on this song as his antihero charges into the wedding, too late to do anything about it:

Crashing through the parlor doors,
What was your first reaction?
Screaming, drunk, disorderly, I'll tell you mine:
You were the one, but I can't spit it out when the date's been set.
The white routine, to be ingested inaccurately.

For me, it's a terribly personal song but thankfully, my hero(ine) saved me eventually, crashing through my parlor doors to whisk me off to... sunny Shepherds Bush! But that's a whole other story. P.S. Liking it? Loving it? Pop over to Amazon and by yourself some albums then go see a show, check out the MySpace pages, and generally be supportive!

Falling down Narrow Stairs...

I wouldn't be much of a Death Cab fan if I didn't weigh in with my two cents on their latest and seventh sutdio release, Narrow Stairs. I have to start with a disclaimer, however, DCFC have played a part in many of the most memorable occasions in my life; from being the first gig I saw at the legendary Astoria (soon to be bulldozed!) to playing an integral part in my 'odd phase' of slight mentalness (I got myself sectioned once... it was memorable), so my impressions of the album are likely to be heartfelt!

First impressions, I have to admit, were a bit of a let down. Having spent some time not listening to the Cab, indeed deliberately avoiding them until my girlfriend hooked me up with the new album for my birthday, I was hoping for something a bit special. On first listening, that wasn't what I found. In fact, my overall impression was rather mediocre, and clearly something of a sophomore slump after the vastly popular Plans catapulted the band to fame in 2005.

The funny thing is, it was music blogs like this one (or should I say, much, much better!) that made me give it a second chance, and ladies and gentlemen, we have here a grower. From the spiraling out of control ending of opener 'Bixby Canyon Bridge' to the funky, bass driven 'Long Division', the album is full of gems that hit you when you're listening to shuffle, and right between Cyndi Lauper and Kings of Leon, Ben Gibbard starts seeping into your earage. Scary thought, but still quite a cool experience!

I want to share with you 'Long Division', and I probably will. But I am currently at work at the porn emporium (more on that another time) and don't have my labyrinth hard drive here. As always, if you like the album, be sure to buy a copy! You won't regret it, even if at first you think you do!

National Alert!

I have a confession to make that will startle most blog readers from last year. For pretty much the first few months after it landed, I hated Boxer by The National. It didn't seem as good as the hype made out; I didn't see it growing on me, in fact I pretty much ignored it. Thank God, then, for shuffle; one day coasting along the underground on my way to work, 'Fake Empire' gently drifted into my headphones, shocking me out of my blatant ignorance. Now, of course, I love Boxer.

Today, however, we're talking about The Virginia EP, The National's own mini-celebration of themselves; a kind of retrospective for the very recent past. The EP is essentially a collection of demo tracks, covers, live tracks and a couple of more than worthy new songs that could easily have nestled amongst Boxer's highlights. For those of us who haven't yet caught the much whispered-about live show, we get a whistful 'Fake Empire' that only makes you more jealous of the ticket holders among us.

I'm dropping you new track 'Blank Slate', a broody little number with a neat repeating bass refrain bolstered in the chorus with clean inter-woven guitar lines. For me it's the best track on the E.P, and if it brings in a few more National converts, more's the better.

The National - Blank Slate