International Indy Rock and Roll (Now with 300% more keyboard)

Fearless
By The Bravery

I first heard this song on the trailer for the awesome Russian vampire movie Nightwatch. It's a rocking little song that I originally thought was about sitting around pretending to be tough, but generally being clumsy (hence probably why I connected with it...) but really, I'm pretty sure its about nothing at all.

But still, you can't beat the cockiness of a line like: "And I know that's why you love me, Chicka"...

Letter From An Occupant
By The New Pornographers

I've had the pleasure of seeing Canada's foremost super group play live before and its pretty damn cool... They are made up of seven musicians from popular bands (in Canada I guess... I don't really know any of the bands they are from:S) and one independent film-maker. It makes for a crowded stage, but it also mean some rather large and full sounds. Its kind of like the opposite of the Arcade Fire, also Canadian, and I'd like to see them battle each other to the death in some kind of musical/gladiatorial combat.

Either that, or join together to form an even larger and more ridiculous stage band. And then save the world from aliens and SARS.

Sorry About The Noise
By The Jessica Fletchers

Despite their easily recognizable pop culture reference name, I don't really know that much about this Norwegian band... Except that I thought they were a small American indy band that never mand it too big. But in actual reality they released 4 albums and are pretty well known in Norway.

It just goes to show that Eurovision is not a good indication of music is actually like in Europe.

Swedish garage punk rock Wednesday: Breaking out in The Hives.

Main Offender
By The Hives

Once again I'm a little lost as to what to write... Much to my dismay I've never seen these guys live so I don't have any 'possibly fictional' tales of rock and roll hi-jinks this time around. However, The Hives are one of my favorite bands, and damn good at what they do (which is rock out, co-incidentally), so it seems a waste not to feature some of their songs.

This one is off of their first major album 'Your new favorite band'. Pay special attention to the lyrics, because I'm pretty sure they make no sense at all.

Missing Link
By The Hives

Missing link is off the second tour de force of an album (and my favorite), Tyrannosaurus Hives. It was hard picking just one song from this album, but that's why I'm here... making the tough decisions. Also for listening pleasure please consider 'Dead quote Olympics', 'B is for Brutus' and 'Two timing touch and broken bones' from the same album. Actually, just make that the entire album, just to be safe.

The reason I'm so dismayed that I haven't seen The Hives live yet is because apparently they do one of the greatest rock shows of all time. Rolling stone rated it as 8th best ever or something. Apparently this is due to the lead singer, 'Howling' Pelle Almqvist, engaging in what he has dubbed "Colorful idiocy". Such a display can be seen below, in quote form (I got this from Wikipedia, so it's gotta be true):

Pelle: "I'm out of control! Tell me to take it easy!"
Crowd: "Take it easy!"
Pelle: "No, I wooon't!"

I think that pretty much sums it up.

Bigger Hole To Fill
By Delta Goodr- I mean The Hives

This one's from their latest album, "The Black and White album", which is a reference to the band's need to have a different uniform every time they go on tour, but always only in black and white. This album's also pretty rad, but I don't like it as much because they felt the need to mess with the timing in some songs. It's not in this one, put for others they are there rocking out and then suddenly BAM... songs at half speed for some reason. It throws out my dance steps.

Anyway, every time I hear this song I think of this first person shooter I'm going to make one day. One of the characters will be an assassin who kind of looks like Andy Warhol and dresses like a French punk. At some point in the game, his henchmen (dressed similarly, but also wearing mime makeup) manage to jump you and capture you. When you come to, you are tied to a chair and assassin Andy does a song and dance to this song, with choreographed mime dance moves.

I don't really have any little stories for these songs... but I'm gonna play them anyway.

A Perfect Sonnet
By Bright Eyes

It's a shame Conor Oberst is pretty much the definition of emo, because he writes some incredibly beautiful stuff. This is some of that stuff.

Eleanor Put Your Boots Back On
By Franz Ferdinand

Who would have thought that a bunch of art pop lads could write a song like this. It also reminds me of The Warriors because of its references to Coney Island.

Little Wing
By Jimi Hendrix

I've already mentioned that Jimi Hendrix is Black Guitar Jesus. Enough said really.

Songs I totally forgot about, but then one day remembered randomly, and made a note about it on my phone...

Arms Around Me (Live)
By Jens Lekman

Also known as the Avocado song.

Jens Lekman is an unbelievable lyricist. There are so many clever lines in this song... so much so that I'm willing to forgive that the only instrument is a ukulele and it's in terrible quality (I can't help it.. its a super hard song to find). He has released a proper album version of this one, but he's made ridiculous changes to the lyrics, cutting so much good stuff and filling it is with pop psychology nonsense, that its almost a crime. Also, the album version sounds like a gay rainbow.

I can't remember the exact circumstances that led to me remembering this song and then writing it down. I might have been looking at avocados...

My Heart Is On Fire
By The Dirty Secrets

Also known as the band I mistook for Franz Ferdinand.

Unlike Franz though, these guys are from Perth. I know I'd heard these guys on the radio a bunch but just generally forgot to keep an ear out for the band name. I think I was at some housewarming party and it came on in the background, so I quickly jotted down the chorus (it's pretty easy to remember) and the rest is history.

Coincidentally, while checking that these guys were actually from Perth, I found out I just missed a show by them and another cool Sydney band called Sparkadia (more on them later, probably), as they played at the troubadour on Tuesday night. I really have to pay more attention to these things.

Go For Blue
By Pepe Deluxe

The scene: some Chinese restaurant in the valley.

The time: dinner before Drew's band played one time.

The reason: I've no idea. I just got the "All the colours all the colours all the colours..." bit stuck in my head. I didn't mind though, its a cool little song. Also, blue is my favourite colour, so naturally I'd go for it. So it's come full circle, the colour wheel is complete.

I kinda wish it didn't have the evangelist breakdown section in the centre though... It's like a musical blitzkrieg for all of it, except the part where it stops to take a breath and issue life advice.

A moment of clarity and 200 solemn faces...

Silver Street
By Ben Folds

Or in this case, the moment of clarity.

I remember dling the original demo tape Ben Folds recorded before starting Ben Folds Five and this song blowing me away. I could never understand why this song never made it to an album. Sure, it eventually made it to the 'Ben Folds Live' album, but it totally doesn't count.

Anyway, up front it's a song about someone who is stuck in the same place. trying to justify his existence by securing his position year after year, accepting his short coming because 'thats just how it is'. But to me, this is a song about being too cocky... thinking you have everything under control but in reality, everything is just falling further and further into fantasy land. It's hard to maintain objectivity when you only have one point of view...

Deadwood
By Dirty Pretty Things

Ok.... So my 200 solemn faces are just songs I've been listening to alot lately, but I'm sure I can assess some meaning out of them. I mean... what is psychological assessment if you can't bust out a little pop-psychology every now and again.

So... according to my 'back-of-the-cereal-box-psychology-degree' assessment, this song is about my inability to let go of the past and focus on the more important aspects of my life. What they are at the moment, I have no idea. I'm no psychologist...

Razorblade
By The Strokes

Yeah... I dunno what this has to do with anything....

If anything, it's an indication of me putting too much importance in other peoples feelings, but at this time of night, it's too late and too cold to put any faith in my cognitive abilities.

The long and short of it is that all of these songs are good songs, and indeed, are all from extremely good albumst I'll have to share with you sometime. But for now, this is the best I can manage. Not that I mean this in a bad way, but I hope these songs get stuck in your head as much as they have been stuck in mine the past few weeks.

Songs that always put a smile on my face.

Rhythm Bandits
By Junior Senior

This could technically also star in a "Band's I get an entirely unjustified amount of crap for liking" post (along with The Grates and others) but honestly, I don't know any other song that makes me want to dance more than this (with the possible exception of move your feet, also by this band).

Anyway, Junior Senior is kinda known as a gay/straight band, since one of them is gay and one of them is straight. Also, one of them is old and one is young, which I imagine with my Sherlock Holmes level of deduction, is where they got their name from. Which is which is obviously a mystery (except i would be money that the younger one is in fact Junior, and vice versa). Also, it's dancey, it's fun, and I'm not going to let the fact that channel 10 bought the rights and play their songs for every 'trendy' show they are putting on this year ruin it for me.

Also... Rhythm is a ridiculously hard word to spell.

Planet Of The Wolves
By GuitarWolf

This is my "I'm about to kick absolute ass" song. I seriously know no other song that is anywhere near as bad ass or as rockin' as this song is. Play it and run through it now with me:

First section: Long shot of a desert, it pans to some guy in the distance riding a motorcycle, every time a wolf howls its super imposed on the shots...

That first big chord: PLANT OF THE WOLVES is show in big bold letters on the screen...

That bit after the chord but before the rest of the song: I kick in some door and look bad ass.

The rest of the song: Ass kicking.

Underwater's Where The Action Is
By Kelley Stoltz

Ok ok.... Imagine this. The little mermaid (the movie) is remade, but with Muppets, and halfway through the movie there's some party in the middle of the sea. And a young Bob Dylan is there, capable of breathing and singing underwater without the need of any visible breathing apparatus. This would be the song he sung.

Honestly, I don't even know how this song got on my computer... I don't remember d'ling it. I know the boys wouldn't have d'led it and my sister had no idea who it was... It's like the happiest accident that ever happened.

The lyrical stylings (err... covers) of Mr. Richard Cheese.

Welcome to the Jungle
As originally done by Guns and Roses

This song should surely be a staple of any good night out in Townsville, but please enjoy this slightly classier, less Mad-Cow-ier version of it. It's got everything that was good about the original, plus a horn section and cameos from all the old favorites such as "Jungle Boogie" and "The lion sleeps tonight".

I think this was probably the first song I heard by this guy, with the possible exception of "Down with the sickness" from the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack.

Been Caught Stealing
As originally done by Jane's Addiction

It was hard to pick what songs to put up with this lot, not only because he has so many awesome ones, but also because it's even better if you know the original song beforehand. I was considering doing a "before and after" thing where I put up the original and the cover but I have nowhere near the space needed for that kinda thing. The point I'm trying to slowly reach in this meandering paragraph, is that I'm pretty sure you know this song.

Also... Poor doggie.

Creep
As originally done by Radiohead

Mr. Cheese is also sometimes a little bit of a pain in the ass, in that he does a couple of versions of the same song (for some entirely unknown reason). Anyway, it's often a case that one has really crappy midi music, but awesome stage presence-y stuff and the other one has actual instruments. I'm pretty sure this one is the latter. Also, I know you don't know any Radiohead, but I'm pretty sure you'll know this one. If you don't, I'll send you the original sometime.

Don't worry about missing out on the other one, the best bits of it are all Radiohead jokes you probably wouldn't get at the moment. Maybe one day tho, when the time is right, I'll play it for you, and it will give you as much joy as it has given me.

Special Bonus Track!
The Theme from Friends
Originally by someone or other I dunno I can't be bothered looking it up on google.

Dear God. He makes it sound so sincere!

(Also, I think it was the Rembrandts).