Metronomy - Not Made For Love EP

I'm having a hard time loving the new Metronomy EP Not Made For Love. It sounds a bit boring to me and that's not a qualification you could easily put on Metronomy before. Luckily there are some cool remixes that add salt and pepper to the tracks. RCRD LBL has a good remix of 'Do The Right Thing' here and this is the Astronomer remix of 'Not Made For Love'.

The Soft Pack - Pull Out + Sessions

I discovered The Soft Pack when they were playing on a festival curated by The Breeders. I can imagine Kim Deal sitting on a couch listening to the guitar solo in 'Extincion' lighting up another cigarette.

Below a video of a new song 'Pull Out'.

Here you can download a cool LaundroMatinee session with a couple of new songs and here you can download their Daytrotter session.

Prinzhorn Dance School - Crackerjack Docker EP

Cool PDS EP here. B-side 'Service, Service' has a guitar line that always sticks in my head. It's also on the session I posted before.

'Crackerjack Docker' remains their catchiest tune yet and the video is as well timed as their shouts and guitarlines.

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Stereolab - John Cage Bubblegum

Stereolab influenced Atlas Sound and Broadcast. 'John Cage Bubblegum' is one of their earlier singles. This version is from ABC Music Radio 1 Sessions.

John Cage Bubblegum

Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age

Broadcast have a new record out next year, this mini album with The Focus Group is out now. They'll tour in October with Atlas Sound. You can download a collaboration between them from Atlas Sound's blog here and a trailer of the new mini album here.

Kristin Hersh - Glass

New hunting Kristin Hersh song.

Glass mp3

Flinch - Faking / Jamie D / Skin Deep

Here are the three Flinch singles that I did find. All three are really good mid nineties guitarpopsongs. After their fifth single 'Skin Deep' the band broke up and formed Feline, they broke up again and formed Ultraviolet, and after that they became Die So Fluid.

Faking / Jamie D / Skin Deep

Flinch - Ordinary

I've been looking for this single since 1994 - so if you sell it please email me at youandmeintheecho@gmail.com.

Dirty Projectors - Jolly Jolly Jolly Ego

I saw Dirty Projectors today - a really nice gig. They played 'Rise Above' and the new single 'Stillness Is The Move' in a row and a couple of songs I didn't know yet. Their recent LP Bitte Orca is a weird and beautiful record. Here is a song from The Getty Address. Also check out their Daytrotter Sessions here and here.

Jolly Jolly Jolly Ego

The Sea And Cake - Parasol (Live)

Very good live version of 'Parasol' from Nassau. John McEntire's drumming is super cool.

Parasol (Live)

Wild Beasts - The Empty Page (Live)

Two Dancers by Wild Beasts is one of the most striking records released this year. I've been listening to it everyday since it's out. The songs are stuck in my head, more than the songs on last year's Limbo, Panto. The best song on it is 'The Empty Nest'. They just released a new single 'All The Kings Men'. If there is a record to check out this year, it's definitely this one.

Wild Beasts are playing on the London Calling festival in Paradiso on the 21st of November. I saw them there last year and that was a great gig.

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Parrot

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club release their second album this week, Love On An Oil Rig . After recording the album drummer Emma left and they added two new members. 'Parrot' is the first single off the album. Another single, 'Watching The Burglars' is also out.

Parrot mp3

PJ Harvey - White Chalk Live

In 2007 PJ Harvey released White Chalk, an intimate and introverted record. She challenged herself to write and record songs from quite a different angle than what she was used to. It's a beautiful short album, probably one of her best. It got a bit overlooked at the time, maybe because it didn't rock as bluntly as her previous work.

For this album she didn't do a big world tour, because she felt that she couldn't translate the intimacy of the record on stage everyday. Instead she performed by herself in just a couple of theatres. But she did do a lot of radio sessions and tv performances to promote the new work.

Here is a compilation I made of the best tracks from these sessions and below stunning versions of 'Grow Grow Grow' on a French tv show and 'The Mountain' in an early stage.

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Money Mark - Third Version EP

Money Mark's Third Version EP with the best version of "Sometimes You Gotta Make It Alone'.

Third Version EP

GusGus - Add This Song

Gus Gus are back with a new single and album, 24/7.

Daniel Agust does the vocals on the very strong first single 'Add This Song', and it immediately sounds familiar. They play in Trouw the 3rd of October. So I'm finally going to see them live.

Add This Song (12" Edit)

An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - Lights Out

An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump are from London, they are big music fans with a good taste. They DJ, organise clubnights and they have a blog with stories, demo's and music they like. Their sound is dark and grungy. I heard a new song the other day called 'Smear', and it sounded like Sonic Youth. They have just recorded a new single with Steve Albini in Chicago.

This song below is from their first EP 'These Sins'. There's also a cool cover of Sonic Youth's '100%' on it. Buy it from the band's myspace.

Lights Out

The Breeders - Safari EP

This is probably my favourite song ever. Funeral material. The drums are pefect, Kim's vocals are dreamy and sharp and the guitars get strange in the end. I love it how things start and stop all the time in this song. There are different components shifting over eachother, then stopping and coming in again. When I put it on, I always have to listen to it a couple of times in a row, it's super addictive.

This line-up of The Breeders here is also special, Tanya Donelly from Throwing Muses is still there, Kelley Deal joined, Josephine Wiggs and the drummer is Britt Walford from Slint.

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Life Without Buildings - Is Is & The IRS 7"

You either love or hate Sue Tompkins' vocals. She is a sound artist from Glasgow and was the singer of Life Without Buildings. She does spoken word performances that are like the repetitive way of singing she does with LWB, but the band provide a nice postpunk sauce for her word art. This perfect single was not on the Any Other City album.

Is Is & The IRS

Atlas Sound - Virtual 7" No. 2

Bradford Cox from Deerhunter works solo under the name Atlas Sound. Last year he released his debut on 4AD, 'Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel'.

He is a prolific songwriter who constantly records his music. He shares his music on his blog, some of that music is even better than the album, like this 'virtual' 7" .

Virtual 7" No. 2

Throwing Muses - Shark EP

Throwing Muses in their prime in 1996. This single comes from the Limbo album, one of their best. The b-sides are new versions of songs from Limbo. I think Kristin is pregnant in the live video below.

Shark

This is an acoustic solo version: Shark Solo

Electricity In Our Homes - The Shareholders Meeting EP

This is Electricity In Our Homes' first and best single, from 2007. Four short fast songs.

shareholders

Sebadoh - Bakesale

I saw Lou Barlow play an acoustic set upstairs in the Paradiso and he played Skull from Bakesale. Here are my favourite songs from that record.

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Hatcham Social - This Daring Light

This in an old demo from Hatcham Social. Nice cheap sound, good song.

This Daring Light mp3

Salad - Granite Statue

The 4th single from Drink Me. The b-side 'Rip Goes Love And Lust' is excellent.

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Granite Statue

Salad - Motorbike To Heaven

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Salad - Drink The Elixir

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Salad - Drink Me

After 'Your Ma' Salad recorded their debut with Mark Freegard as well. The photo's are by Martin Parr. I love this one a lot. Very good songs, very good ideas. Spikey guitar pop influenced by The Breeders and Blondie.

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Prinzhorn Dance School - Live Horn

This band got a lot of bad reviews for their debut album. One guy wrote that now a lot of these cd's are pressed and that there should be a good way to use them, like wiping your ass with them. Pitchfork understood this genius band a lot better.

The sound is super economic. The bass is the most prominent and then the drums. The guitar comes inbetween, really well timed. They recorded the album in an old building with a lot of fights.

This session is harder than the album. Especially the drums.

Live Horn

Salad - Your Ma

Salad's fourth single was produced by Mark Freegard who also produced The Breeders' Last Splash. They called it a triple A-side because they thought all the songs were equally good.

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Your Ma

Salad - Singles Bar

Cool collection of Salad's first three singles. A lot of good ideas. 'Diminished Clothes' and 'On a Leash' are especially good. The singer Marijne van der Vlugt was a VJ on MTV in the 90's. She got the job when she went to MTV to bring her band's video and they asked her to audition. She got tired of being asked about MTV in the end. But they played the video for 'On a Leash' a lot.

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Cake Like - Lorraine's Car

Single before the Bruiser Queen album. Funny b-sides.

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S*M*A*S*H - Spring 1994

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Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun EP

Excellent Throwing Muses EP from 1994. 'Crayon Sun' is a Latin Playboys cover, but the real deal here are the other two b-sides 'Red Eyes' and 'Like a Dog'.

Bright Yellow Gun

Kristin Hersh recorded these two songs acoustic last year in a studio. They're here:

Like A Dog

Red Eyes

Cake Like - Delicious

When Cake Like recorded their first LP they were playing together for just a couple of months. They were in artschool and started this as a schoolproject to get points. They found guitars and a drumkit in school and just started playing. Their boyfriends were in bands and they wanted to be better.

The songs on "Delicious' are simple, raw and tense. Lately An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump remind me of Cake Like.

It was released in 1994 on a Japanese label and was available on import. I remember finding it in a little record shop in Antwerp. It is one of my favourite records since.

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Crystal Stilts - Sycamore Tree

Crystal Stilts released a beautiful record this year. 'Sycamore Tree' is not on it.

This is from the Daytrotter Session.

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Kristin Hersh - Flooding (Live)

'Flooding' is a great new Kristin Hersh song. The 'yes to the flooding' is like the 'cactus' in 'Gazebo Tree'. I hope it's gonna be on the new album. Below a recent live version, recorded in York.

Flooding

Wild Beasts - All The Kings Men (Live)

Kristin Hersh - Opiates

'Punctuated with the punch of opiates'

MP3