Cake - Fashion Nugget

"Fashion Nugget is the second album by Cake, here's a review , I actually was going to write my own review but its a Tuesday night and im watching football.... you know how it yea ?

This Album is purely sensational, although sensational's probably not the right word. It's great anyhow and you should buy it, here are some reasons why:

1. It's like nothing you've heard before.

2. It's Rock, Funk, Latin, Country, and bits of other flavours all rolled into one.

3. You'll like it too and you'll tell all your friends about it and then write an on-line review of it like this saying how I was right.

4. The lyrics are amazing. It could take years to fully understand what they really mean. There are so many metaphors and complicated words that if John McCrea (Lead Singer) came up to you and said "hello" you'd spend half an hour trying to think about it.

5. You won't put it down. It won't fall to the back of your CD collecion. It'll always be there for you.

6. I haven't seen a single bad review of it.

7. You should read the Amazon.com reviews. The Americans can't get enough of it.

8. I'm sick of commercial bands and although you wouldn't usually associate this with Indie bands like Stereophonics etc. because their music is so different, that's just what it is.

9. It's only rock and roll but I like it.

10. Admit it you can afford it. You never know, it might become you're desert island disc.

Your birthday cake's usually gone within a week but this will last for a long long time.

LISTEN NOW!

Frank Sinatra

The Distance

Friend Is A Four Letter Word

Open Book

Daria

Race Car Ya-Yas

I Will Survive [Cover]

Stickshifts and Safetybelts

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps [Cover]

It's Coming Down

Nugget

She'll Come Back To Me

Italian Leather Sofa

Sad Songs and Waltzes

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Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See

People tend to confuse the band Mazzy Star with it's singer Hope Sandoval. Truth be told, they've been right all along. Sandoval's languid, weeping willow voice is Mazzy Star; the name is a mere formality. With nods to Nico and the Velvet Underground, So Tonight that I Might See is vintage Mazzy. Remarkably, the recording produced a strikingly undanceable single, "Fade into You". The rest of the album sticks close to the single's plaintive, retro balladry. Though Sandoval rarely raises her voice above a sultry whisper, it's bright enough to hold your attention all night

There is absolutely no point in beating about the bush over the fact that Mazzy Star’s second record includes – nay commences with – what must stand as dream-pop’s crowning moment. Fade Into You is a song that has been described many times, forced into romantic context in many a big or small screen venture, yet somehow defies any real attempt to bind it with words.

“I look to you and I see nothing / I look to you to see the truth”; if this really is a love song – and a lot of people have taken that view over the years – then Hope Sandoval’s haunting lyrics posit love as a black, coma-like obliteration. This isn’t a fade into one perfect whole; it’s erasure of the self. Truthfully, though, it’s not clear what Fade Into You is about: Sandoval’s words are cryptic, speaking of emptiness and shadows, some grand psychological disappearing act. It's enigmatic, but almost unutterably beautiful, a languorously uplifting piano figure played over and over, shimmering under lambent slide guitars, something close to yearning in Sandoval’s oft dissonant voice.

It does, of course, unbalance the album, and has certainly given enormous numbers of people the wrong idea about Mazzy Star. Though woozy country trappings and soporific tempos characterise all Sandoval and David Roback’s work, they’re a far artier, more abrasive prospect than the totemic track suggests. So Tonight That I Might See may have less of a bad acid trip Doors vibe than debut She Hangs Brightly, but still: skip to the seven-and-a-half minute title song’s menacing guitar motif, erratic beds of feedback, and Sandoval’s diffuse mumble, and you’re got something more suited to soundtracking Apocalypse Now than The OC.

A cover of Love’s Five String Serenade is the only hooky moment to speak of beyond Fade Into You; this record’s heart lies with the foggy American gothic of Mary of Silence and Blue Light, the woozy, half-asleep country of Bells Ring and Blue Light. It’s an obtuse, atmospheric record, and if it’s inescapably overshadowed by its opening song, then that’s fair enough: nobody writes two of those in a lifetime

Oh and by the way i absolutely hate the words "dream Pop". Thanks :)

Fade into you

Bells ring

Mary of silence

Five string serenade

Blue light

She's my baby

Unreflected

Wasted

Into dust

So tonight that i might see

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Kitchens Of Distinction - Strange Free World

The forerunners of shoegaze????

This is one where persistence really pays off. The thick, swirling, dreamy waves of guitar are prominent on each of Strange Free World's 10 songs and this can be extremely overwhelming on the first listen. However, there are a selection of more immediate, striking numbers within the haze such as Railwayed, Quick As Rainbows and Drive That Fast that will keep drawing you back in and you gradually fall under the spell of the album's remaining tracks. 

Each massive swirl of the oceanic Hypnogogic and Aspray and the sharper, angrier edges of Polaroids will all become the best kind of ear candy, as well as the soundtrack to a perfect summer afternoon view Under The Sky, Inside The Sea. Matures like a good wine and there are no poor or uninspired tracks. For me, this is their best record. (followed by The Death Of Cool which is probably even more of a grower!) If you love to hear how the electric guitar can re-invent itself and tear up the rulebook then give this a go. 

A great record.

Railwayed

Quick as Rainbows

Hypnogogic

He Holds Her, He Needs Her

Polaroids

Gorgeous Love

Aspray

Drive That Fast

Within the Daze of Passion

Under the Sky, Inside the Sea

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Love Amongst Ruin - Love Amongst Ruin

After departing Placebo in October 2007, Steve Hewitt enlisted Lamb bassist Jon Thorne and his brother Nick Hewitt to begin writing and demoing new music at his home studio. Julian Cope collaborator Donald Ross Skinner was brought in to oversee and co-produce the recording sessions and the collective relocated to Moles Studio in Bath for three recording sessions with producer Paul Corkett over the summer of 2008. 

So far so good and nothing too outrageous yet yea .... now here's the catch..... 

The sessions yielded ten songs, on which Steve performed drums and lead vocals. Drums as he had played for bands such as Boo Radleys and famously Placebo for over 10 years is fair enough but now he was to take up singing duties as well... Everyone wants to be Dave Ghrol all of a sudden!! actually this is pretty cool and you should give it a listen.

As an aside Steve has just joined Six.By Seven and taken up drumming again.... cool as...

So sad (fade)

Alone

Running

Heaven & hell

Come on say it

Away from me

Blood and earth

Truth

Home

Love song

Bring me down (you don”t)

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Martin Grech - Open Heart Zoo

The title track of this appeared on a major advertising campaign for Lexus cars which brought Martin Grech loads of press attention, i actually think that track isn't really a fair reflection of actually what he's about! think post rock and metal are a fairer estimate of what you are getting here and you know...you won't be disappointed. I saw him support the excellent Oceansize sometime around 2005, a great gig. 

Here It Comes
Open Heart Zoo
Dalí
Tonight
Push
Only One Listening
Notorious
Penicillin
Catch Up
Twin
Death of a Loved One

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Radial Spangle - Ice Cream Headache

Radial Spangle were epic and intense the way Spiritualized and My Bloody Valentine were, however they got little or no press attention despite releasing 2 great albums inthe early 1990's, I was lucky enough to see them first on the bill supporting Stereolab and the afore mentioned Spiritualized at Portsmouth South Parade Pier , a quirky venue if there ever was one,

This was produced by long term friend and member of Mercury Rev and then The Flaming Lips Dave Fridmann, good enough on it's own to give it a listen i'd reckon!

Raze

Canopy And Shoe

Dream Problem

Drip

Snow

Birthday

Hand

Gutter Chain

White Paper Basket

Copper

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Eat - Epicure

Ange Doolittle and Eat's second period album , Epicure was released in 1993 largely to mass indifference even though it had some killer tunes.

The band itself had been inactive for the previous 2 years mainly due to them all hating the sight of each other, with bad and good drugs getting in the way and playing a major part too , 

Eat version 2 featured Ange on vocals however, so as The Fall lead singer said, as long as it Me and your granny on bongo's its still The Fall.... you get his sentiment yea....

Belly Town

Shame

First Time Love Song

Tranquilliser

Golden Egg

Bottle Blue

Fecund

Baby In Flares

Fist

Bleed Me White

Out People

Epicure

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