Turncoat - "Wasted On You", "Between Classes"

Brighton band Turncoat [Adrian Imms (lead vocals, guitar, and keyboard), Chaz Newman (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), Luke Ellis (bass), and Alex Hobden (drums)] this week released "Wasted On You", the new single from the Regal Singles Club. It's a very catchy Britpop gem, rather like the 90s-era of Britpop, think Mighty Lemon Drops, Hurricane #1, and Inspiral Carpets. "Wasted On You" was released on a 7" limited edition vinyl. Sales of the vinyl are limited to 500 copies, but there are no limits on sales of the digital download.

You can hear "Wasted On You", and its B-side, "There Must Be Something" at the Banquet Records website . If you want to buy from an independent record store, Banquet's one option. The 7" vinyl is also available at many other places.

If "Wasted On You" is sunny cynicsm, "There Must Be Something" is hyper denial; the guitar feedback toward the end reinforces that. You can't hear someone's attempt to tell you their truth if you can't hear them. The music is more frenetic, the lyrics are harsher. It also sounds more modern than "Wasted", more in the "Interpol" family than the "Inspiral Carpets" family. (Not that there is technically an "Interpol family" as far as I know.)

You can also hear "Wasted On You" via the video:



Two Turncoat songs can be downloaded for free. Of these, breakup rock song "Between Classes" is the hit-in-waiting standout. It begins with the sound of a tape...rewinding? As in, "Let's go back to the start"? The first words mention going to the end...: "It seems like we've reached the end/There is nothing left to say or do." Imms sings plenty more, often quickly, accompanied by excellent rapid-fire guitarwork.

At one point Imms tells his ex, "Sometimes I think too much/But not enough/When all I needed was your touch/to stay."

...those are lovely and relatable lyrics.

Turncoat - Between Classes (right-click to save)

A few Britpop videos that sound (and in some cases, look) like distant relations of "Wasted On You": the clip for "Two Worlds Collide" by Inspiral Carpets bears some stylistic similarities to the one for "Wasted". Fortunately, the younger band chose to pass on the time-honored shaky-hand-cam technique:



Hurricane #1's Step Into My World:



The Mighty Lemon Drops - "Inside Out":

Saved by Zeroes and Ones

Saved by Zeroes and Ones is a playlist consisting of songs that include at least one of those numbers in both their title and lyrics. This rules out instrumentals, as well as songs that use "zero" and "one" as title fodder (because numbers are groovy) but foresake them as inspiration for lyrics (because they think they aren't that groovy?) There are still a whole lot of number songs. Certain numbers seem to inspire more songs than others; zero ("My Hero Zero", "Two Divided By Zero") and one ("The One I Love", "One Love") boast a particularly impressive list.

Although it's called Saved by Zeroes and Ones, this playlist doesn't contain the song "Saved by Zero". Numbers With Wings didn't include its namesake song either. This weird naming compulsion brought to you by my bronchitis-adled lungs and the numbers 0 and 1. As mentioned in the previous post, the file-hosting service I usually rely on for delightfully direct-linkable MP3s is down. Sorry about that. For the time being, you can't right-click to save files. The files have been uploaded, though. You can also listen to these tracks/download them at drop.io/savedbyzeroes. The password is hat. And, lastly, before the tracks, that, is, here's an allegedly-accurate text-to-binary translator. 011011110110111101101000001000000110110001100001001000000110110001100001 (Wow, that's a hell of a lot of numbers for a pretty short message.)

Saved by Zeroes and Ones:

1. Zero Zero - True Zero (on AM Gold) This is a fun New Wave song, propelled by bouncing synth and pouty, taunting vocals that bring to mind 80s movies written by John Hughes. Think Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club sort of romantic melodrama leading to a highly questionable ending. What? Oh, Andie so should have ended up with Duckie.

2. Reverbaphon - Nothing Beyond The Zero (on The Wire Tapper)

3. The Subways - 1am (Transgressive Single Version) (from the From the December 2nd issue of NME)

4. Michelle Shocked - One Piece At A Time (on Mojo: Cash Covered)

5. The Sugarcubes - A Day Called Zero (on Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!)

6. Tracy Bonham - The One (on The Burdens of Being Upright)

7. Patty Griffin - One Big Love (on Flaming Red)

8. Bobb Trimble - One Mile From Heaven (Short Version).mp3 (on Iron Curtain Innocence)

9. Lori - One Zero Zero (on the Heard Ohio Was Nice EP)

10. The Evan Anthem - Zeroes And Threes (on Sens)
Yes, the three seems random, but I like the song and it seems to work here... the fact that three is my favorite number is merely a coincidence.

Numbers With Wings Playlist

There's been a lot of talk about what a miserable cold and flu season this is, but where's the talk about what a miserable bronchitis season it is? I'm one of the many people who got the flu despite getting a flu shot, and now I have a raging case of acute bronchitis following what seemed to be a mild cold. I demand action... of some sort.

Specifically, as this unjust illness impacts the hat, I'm not well enough to polish off this post as nicely as I'd like, which bugs me (hmm, bugs me. Hilarious. Sigh.) I want to finish this post though; so I'm leaving a bunch of songs undescribed. What is this post, anyway? A playlist devoted to numbers, with one song each for the numbers 1 through 10. I've whimsically titled it Numbers With Wings even though that song is absent from the list. A spin-off post is on the way; it's devoted to zeroes and ones. I love themed playlists; when I'm well enough (if I'm well enough? sigh.) I intend to post more of these.

Another apology, I'm afraid - the file-hosting service I usually use for nice, convenient direct-linking, is down. So, hopefully temporarily, files aren't direct-linked. I'm not in any shape for researching this stuff now. Pictures of baby polar bears are about my speed at the moment (and Project Runway. Oh, I hope Rami is eliminated next.) The songs are uploaded though; in a couple places. You can also listen to and/or download tracks at www.drop.io/numbers; the password is Kofi's.

Numbers With Wings:

1. Eltro - On One (on Past and Present Futurists) Breezy electronica.

2. Controlling the Famous - Two Sides (on Automatic City) At first, "Two Sides"' back-and-forth guitar rhythm and swaying vocal delivery of redundant lyrics teeters on the edge between annoying and catchy. It reminds me of someone standing close to you and making a silly face, refusing to move until you laugh. However, they change it up pretty early on, adding to the early bare-bones lyrics. There's also some strong, beautiful guitar work. The chorus still bothers me a bit; I find the delivery somewhat grating. Fortunately, it disappears for a big chunk of the song... Ultimately, I think it's a quality song and works well here. I suspect it's a song I'll have to be in the right mood to appreciate (I guess the same goes for someone who makes a goofy face and gets all up in my face, as the kids say.)

3. AM-FM - Gone in Three (on the The Sky Is The New Ground EP) Power-pop breezy and pretty enough to be forgiven for a line like "Your mother was right and you were wrong" (Not bloody likely!)

4. Bright Eyes - Four Winds (on Cassadaga and the Four Winds EP)

5. Inspiral Carpets - Saturn 5 (on Devil Hopping)

6. Lupen Crook - Lucky 6 (on Iscariot The Ladder and the Petals Fresh From Roadkill EP)

7. Nikki Sudden - Seven Miles (on The Truth Doesn't Matter)

8. Alanis Morissette - Eight Easy Steps (on So-Called Chaos and was a single) Intense confessional lyrics ("How to keep people at arm's length and never get too close/How to mistrust the ones you supposedly love the most") are lightened by jaunty music.

9. Alison Krauss - 9 To 5 (on Just Because I'm A Woman)

10. XTC - Ten Feet Tall (on Drums And Wires) Good song, sadly I have no language in my lungs to describe it well. That is an XTC joke.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello Young Lovers! I'm on West Coast time (Westsiiide!) so this counts as just under the wire to wish y'all a Happy Valentine's Day, albeit not very promptly. Hope you had a wonderful, love-laden one.

Henry Mancini & his Orchestra - Love theme from Romeo and Juliet (good for the anti-Valentine's crowd too, rly)

Legitimate Blog Post Regarding She & Him

For those of you keeping track informally at home or for a study of some kind, please be informed that this should be considered today's second consecutive legitimate blog post regarding the forthcoming album, Volume 1 by She & Him, who I hear all the kids are talking about these days. Thanks ever so much.

(This will make as much sense as it ever will if you read the next post. Plus, there's an MP3 in that one.)

Say, Heard About That Forthcoming Album Dropping Soon?!?

According to a new study with the unfortunate title "Does Chatter Matter", blog posts written in advance of an album's release can significantly increase its sales.

The study, out of NYU Stern (unofficial motto: "we luv to blather about business"), focused on a sample of 108 albums released in January and February of 2007. The NYU Stern team found that when there were more than 40 "legitimate blog posts" before an album was released, "sales were three times the average", five times for major label albums, and six times for both independent and major label albums once the number of blog posts exceeded 250.

Coolfer mentions the unfortunate omission of digital music sales, noting that independent labels "have a higher digital share than major label releases". The researchers wrote that "information on digital music is difficult to obtain"; he believes they could have gotten Soundscan data, and it would have improved the study.

He has a good write-up about the study's findings, including that mainstream reviews tend to hurt album sales and that an artist's number of MySpace "friends" help album sales, but not as much as... "blog chatter".

But enough about that. We're all thinking the same thing, right? WHEN IS THE SHE & HIM ALBUM DROPPING?!?!11?!?! And we're all thinking it in all caps, for reals. But in case you've been, like, living under a rock or you just woke up from a coma, let me fill you in on what will definitely be the biggest music phenom to hit the planet since The Beatles (ask your parents or grandparents about THEM, haha!).

She & Him iz the name M. Ward (a.k.a. Matt Ward) & Zooey Deschanel are using for their musical collaboration together. Most importantly, they're both totally HAWT. Second, they're both really good singers. They must like working 2gether 'cause they called this album Volume One, which would be silly without at least a Two.

If you've got a really good memory, Matt and Zooey's project might remind you of an old album released a couple years back by another really cute pair of singers, Matthew Sweet (another Matt!!!) and Susanna Hoffs. That one was called Under the Covers Volume 1 so I guess they plan on making more too! (Hurry up, guyz!)

Unlike Susanna & Matthew, M. and Zooey's Volume 1 is NOT a covers album. However, they both recorded dreamy, unabashedly sugary 60s-style pop music, and included BEATLES covers on their albums (those guys are everywhere, srsly). Susanna & Matthew chose "And Your Bird Can Sing". She & Him went for "I Should Have Known Better". They also cover a song by The Miracles, "You Really Got A Hold On Me", but mostly, their songs are new. (Tho' "Sentimental Heart" sounds rly old-fashioned.) M./Matt produced the album.

According to all their Amazons, Volume 1 drops in the US, the UK, and Canuckialand on March 18th.

March 2nd at 8:00 PM She & Him have a "NOISE POP" concert in San Francisco, California at the Great American Music Hall.

In Austin (Texas), on March 14th (which is during a famous Austin music festival), She & Him have a set at the Merge Records Showcase at The Parish Room.

Here is a rly awesome song from the CD!

She & Him - Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

And here's a link to hear Zooey Deschanel act as guest DJ and be interviewed on KCRW's Open Road. During the hour-long show they play "Sentimental Heart", another song from the She & Him album, and some of the music that Zooey grew up with and that inspired her musical tastes. Dunno if they played anything else from the album. Unfortunately, the show crashed my (Firefox Beta) browser twice, and then I sorta gave up. 'Cause I couldn't forward past the parts I'd already heard; anything I did to interact with the show crashed it, like trying to pause, or raise the volume, and that just is not reasonable!

But it was good to hear as much as I did. And 1 funny thing is, like, the guy hosting the show is such a massive fan of Zooey, OMG. If he heard about that study, he might write, like, 251 blog posts about her/She & Him in 1 nite. Only, that many might not be counted as "legitimate", rite? I dunno. It would be sooo funny tho, if, like, he (or anyone!) did do that, and it did count, and increased the album's sales by six times!! Just one person! I bet by the end his hands would hurt so much! The posts would probably get super-short, like "She & Him are awesome", without even one exclamation point or he'd just photo-blog something he quickly slapped together, like She & Him with lil' hearts but giving up on thinkin' of something catchy about how you'll love them 'cause he's just too tired, haha. With that many posts, tho', they would have to get pretty repetitive after a while; some would probably seem a bit ridiculous. But i guess that's what ppl like, since a lot of posts is all it takes to influence ppl to spend their $. Ppl are so silly, am i rite?

Aimee Mann's Christmas Trilogy, Album News

Aimee Mann's funny, slightly massochistic Christmas Trilogy videos have just been added to YouTube. The trilogy documents Mann's quest to persuade celebrities to join her Second Annual Christmas Show's Los Angeles concert.

Paul F. Tompkins offers suggestions and support throughout Mann's odd journey. John Krasinski, Emily Procter, Patton Oswalt, Weird Al Yankovic, Bob Odenkirk, Fred Armisen, Ben Stiller, and Will Farrell co-star as (some version of) themselves. Michael Blieden directed.

Part one:



Part two:



Part three



Also recommended: Mann's recent DCist interview.

A few quotes:

"I think my favorite song, both as a song and as a song-I-like-to-play, is 'You Could Make a Killing.'"

On her next album, Smilers: "the 'concept' is really just to have each song be as different as it wants to be, and not worry about any kind of through-line. The through-line is really just the vibe of the instrumentation and the production and the musicians."

"The last record I got was probably the soundtrack to Oklahoma. I’m talking to a guy about turning The Forgotten Arm into a musical. Which is not by any means a new idea, but eventually I’m going to try to start working on that."

"I’ve sort of started working already on this other project: Besides the musical, I met with somebody from HarperCollins who wanted me to write a book, and she suggested I do a graphic novel. I was like, 'You understand that you have to know how to draw, right?' [Laughs] I mean, I draw a little bit, but that’s an even crazier learning curve."

Nevertheless, Mann's been taking cartooning lessons (from an artist named Joe Matt). She says her graphic novel - "Kind of an autobiographical thing" will "probably happen before the musical."

Before either, Mann is scheduled to play Bonnaroo sometime during June 12-15 in Manchester, Tennessee. Tickets go on sale February 16th. According to DCist, Smilers is "due out in March". Summer tour dates would not be surprising.

Aimee Mann would not be cool with a song of hers being posted because she opposes file-sharing. Singer-songwriter Shannon Campbell, however, who has a very lovely voice, has made her cover of "Save Me" freely available, along with about 100 other free MP3s, most of which are licensed under a Creative Commons deed. There are both original songs and covers, including songs by Radiohead, Tori Amos, Fleetwood Mac, Smashing Pumpkins, Tom Waits, and Phish.

Shannon Campbell - Save Me

LaVern Baker - "Playing the Game of Love"

I cut a LaVern Baker song from the Valentine's playlist at the last minute because it wasn't quite right, but I think she's aces. I just found a great YouTube video of her performing a different song, "Playing the Game of Love", on an old TV show for a bunch of dancin' teens. Both the song and the setting are sweet and cute as can be:

Valentine's Day Playlist

This one's early too... here's this year's ♥ Valentine's Day playlist. ♥ To snag the songs, go to the link above and use the password "Kofi'sValentine". At least a couple songs hint at the origin of the picture at the top of this post because I'm geeky like that.

Bonus Track: Consonant - Blissful

"U HAVE A BLOG" - Bitter Valentines, Robot Valentines, & More

Continuing our Valentine theme, it's not too early to switch to a Valentine's Day avatar. You can make your own candy heart with the ACME Heart Maker.

The real thing, NECCO's Sweethearts candy, is still available, as it has been since the 1860s. It's a part of many childhood Valentine's Days, but I think their product line has changed quite a bit since I was a kid, anyway. In my day, we didn't have the option of Smoothie Sweethearts with their "tempting fruit flavors" (Blueberry, Banana Caramel, Tropical, Peach and Strawberry Crème). Hmm. It sounds like "Banana Caramel" and Strawberry Crème could only be considered fruit flavors on some sort of technicality based on the inclusion of a fruit in their name. Hopefully kids don't start thinking caramel is a fruit and/or loaded with Vitamin C. To avoid any possible confusion, perhaps caramel should no longer be used as an ingredient in anything. (Full disclosure: I hate caramel.)

Also available: Valentine gum hearts and chocolate-flavor Sweethearts. The chocolate ones could go either way; they might taste all kinds of chalky and artificial or taste entirely delightful. Maybe they should have gone with regular hearts dipped in chocolate.

But what's this? "Real Chocolate Expressions", "Chocolate pieces with various colors cut in the shape of hearts with imprinted sayings". That's the stuff. I couldn't find any indication on their website whether it's dark chocolate (as it should be) or some lesser chocolate, yet either way it stirs within me a vague sense of resentment and loss about only having one kind of candy hearts as a kid. Sure, there was other candy, and a sea of Valentines, flowers, and other gifts from beaus, admirers, friends, and acquaintances—but where were my "[c]hocolate pieces with various colors cut in the shapes of hearts with imprinted sayings"? It doesn't seem right.

I guess everyone has something to be bitter about at Valentine's Day. Despair.com hopes to capitalize on such emotions with their parody candy hearts, dubbed Bittersweets - "The Valentine Candy For The Rest of Us". There are three varieties: Dejected, Dysfunctional, and Dumped. Each includes "up to" 37 sayings and comes in six flavors: Banana Chalk, Grape Dust, Nappy-Citric, You-Call-This-Lime?, Pink Sand and Fossilized Antacid. It's also made in a facility that processes nuts and peanuts. (Yum?)

"Dejected" sayings:

I MISS MY EX, PEAKED AT 17, MAIL ORDER, TABLE FOR 1, I CRY ON Q, U C MY BLOG?, LOSS LEADER, A FINE WHINE, MOMMY ISSUES, DIGNITY FREE, DORK MAGNET, PURE NAUSEA, WE HAD PLANS, MAIL ORDER, SETTLE 4LESS, I'M HOT INSIDE

"Dysfunctional" sayings:

ANNULMENT, I BEEN CREEPIN, HE CAN LISTEN, GAME ON TV, CALL A 900#, P.S. I LUV ME, DO MY DISHES, BOOTY INFL8N, PAROLE IS UP!, AWFUL INLAWS, SUB PRIME, I WANT HALF, RETURN 2 PIT, NO FIX 4 DUMB, RATHER DRINK, MUTUAL DISGUST

"Dumped" sayings:

I GOT SOBER, HE FIT U FAT U LEFT SEATUP, USED U 4 FUN, JUST A FRIEND, BACK 2 KENNEL, DORKA PHOBIC, U HAVE A BLOG, RUSSIAN BRIDE, CELEB8 THX2U, DOG IS CUTER, TRADIN YOU IN
FORGET WE MET, KISS A FROG, SHE IS 22!, HE HAS A JOB

It's truth-in-advertising that these are "bitter", but I wish they were funnier. On the whole, they seem more mean-spirited than clever or funny. I'm totally not bashing them because they bash blogs; those bits are highly original and terribly witty. They aren't the only good lines, though. That sound you hear? The collective chuckling of Wodehouse, Twain, and Coward, whose funnybones must surely be tickled by such gems as "DORKA PHOBIC", "DO MY DISHES", and "HE FIT U FAT". Comparing an ex's looks (or those of anyone) to a dog? That isn't bitter; it's... oh, what's the word? Ugly, and not in a superficial way.

I haven't perused their site much recently, but I do find some of Despair.com's funny and have bought presents there... but not for Valentine's Day.

NECCO actually beat Despair.com to the punch both with the idea of writing messages on candy hearts for sweet occasions, and with the idea of making those messages humorously twisted, and arguably mean. They did the latter in the 1860s with "humorously foreboding prophecies" for weddings like "Married in satin, Love will not be lasting" and "Married in Pink, He will take to drink". Hilarious, no? *crickets*

Yeah, maybe not. But NECCO's kinder and softer now. They come bearing a Valentine message game, not dire love predictions (well, not as dire, anyway.)



Plus, factory tours! ("Mix: The ingredients are mixed together until they turn into dough. (The consistency is soft like 'Play-Doh'")




Also on the Valentine beat, the CRAFT Blog, which tipped readers toward the Indie Fixx Valentine's Day Gift Guide. Their ideas include diamond substitutes (good), robot-themed presents (keen), and "anatomical heart" necklaces (yeeugh).

Indie Fixx also mentions the cute (and free) robot mini-valentines available at blissfully bitter. The eight cards range an emotional gamut; some of the messages are: "together for an unspecified period of time" (which I find pretty funny but not very romantic), "you've downloaded my heart.", "be mine, lust object.", "even robots have crushes", and "you're swell."

You can print out your Valentine(s), or, as blissfully bitter points out, copy and paste them "in an email or on your website". (If you do the latter, they also say a link/credit "would be greatly appreciated".) If you want to e-mail a robot Valentine, it's perhaps a mite easier to send a robot e-card, though the card selection is a bit smaller (5 choices, including an added "You're swooooonworthy!" card)

Until next time, hope you're feeling more sweet than bitter.