Athens66: 3/1/10

Geronimo! rock our Fuzzy Dreams

I've got an enormous rage these days (probably due to the fucked up political system here in Greece), so I need some fucking noise on my speakers. I found my remedy in a band hailing from Chicago by the name Geronimo! The gals just released their debut album titled Fuzzy Dreams and it simply kicks ass. Punchy garage guitars, power drums and an endless urge to scream at the end of each track. These guys bring back Seattle memories. Fucking yeah!!

Geronimo! - Design Yourself A Heart

Geronimo! - Feel me Up

Artist.Site

Things we Missed: CALLmeKAT

This is why we love (although never managed to attend so far) SXSW festival; it gives you the chance to discover new artists. CALLmeKAT is the solo project by Copenhagen-based Katrine Ottosen. She released her debut back in 2008 titled Fall Down (which we obviously missed). Her music is somewhere between experimental and dream pop, with a moody baseline and light jazz influences. Nothing extraordinarily new, but the way the music ties in with her sensual voice is what makes it stand out. She is currently touring the US and is preparing her international debut titled When Owls Are Out. Worth checking out!

CALLmeKAT - Not Awake

CALLmeKAT - Do your Trick

Artist.Site

Delorean Stay Close

Delorean are one of our most (if not the most) favorite Spanish bands. We got hooked to their EP Ayrton Senna last year and they are now ready to release a new album titled Subiza (out worldwide in June...but we'll post a review much earlier). Until then, here's their first track and video to accompany it, Stay Close.

Delorean - Stay Close

She and Him are back with Volume Two

I delayed reviewing this both because of this week's sickness and due to the fact that I wanted to give it a couple of more spins. The follow-up album of She & Him is finally here, elegantly titled Volume Two.

She & Him - Thieves

She & Him - In the Sun

To be honest, Zooey could have released Christmas carols and I would still dig it! To no surprise, the second album continues the 50's sweet melodies exactly where Volume One ended. It is more or less the same ingredients, Zooey's sweet voice and M.Wards' catchy and melodic tunes. However, as in their debut, they all sound so natural and fresh that you simply can't ignore them. Loved this one as well!

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Wye Oak are My Neighbor/My Creator

It's strange how I haven't posted about Wye Oak in the past. Andy and Jenn are from Baltimore and they already have two albums to show off (If Children and The Knot). They released a new EP this month, which i simply loved, titled My Neighbor/My Creator out on Merge label. A mix of indie rock, dream pop and folk with Jenn's amazing voice. Give it a go...I simply couldn't stop listening to it over and over again!

Wye Oak - I Hope you Die

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1st AllDay Online Party only on Poplie Radio

Poplie Radio decided to become the first radio station in history to have it's own name day. On April Fool's Day (1st April) tune in from 9 am in the morning for eighteen continuous hours of music emissions and endless lies and rumors. The festive mood of the day will be supported by various music news and many many gifts for the audience.

The program of the day is (yeap...we are playing early at 10am in the morning for a change):

09:00-10:00 –> Fresh Air
10:00-11:00 –> Athens66
11:00-12:00 –> lkrory21
12:00-13:00 –> Narita
13:00-14:00 –> Psycho Soul
14:00-15:00 –> Kool Thinks
15:00-16:00 –> John Streckfous
16:00-17:00 –> Good Times
17:00-18:00 –> Θέμης, Βαγγέλης
18:00-19:00 –> Tone Twisters
19:00-20:00 –> Big Lebo
20:00-21:00 –> Dust Road
21:00-22:00 –> NoiZine
22:00-23:00 –> Αλεξάνδρα
23:00-00:00 –> Blu Velvet & Gsus
00:00-01:00 –> Elafini
01:00-02:00 –> Spiral
02:00-03:00 –> Indiefunka

Tune in!

Feck off DMCA

I've been away for a couple of days due to sickness, but it seems that was the perfect timing from DMCA's point to start sending me notices. I've received a couple in the past but never two in a row in just two days. But wait, is it simply about the music I posted? (which of' course is not even hosted by me). Is it a coincidence that both notices were about the two albums I simply said they sucked big time? Isn't it very convenient that they only complaint about my reviews regarding the hopelessly boring Mumford & Sons album and the simply ridiculous and annoying new album of Liars? Guess if you're not big enough as Pitchfork, they demand that you suck up to them. Well guess what...feck off DMCA and your fecking censorship. We'll continue to say what we think about the crappy artists you so passionately 'defend'.

Apollo Ghosts @ Athens66 Shots

Frog Eyes // A Flower in a Glove
Role Mach // The Penitent Years
Collapsing Opposites // Stars and Rocks
Minutemen // My Heart and the Real World
Moby Grape // Ain't no Use

The Sonnets @ Athens66 Shots

At the moment we are tired of pop music being consumed as fast as it is forgotten. Therefore, we have listed five songs that we, not only at this very moment, but at all times, love. They all say quite a lot about The Sonnets and have - in one way or another - inspired our own music.

L O V E T H E S O N N E T S X X

Don Henley // Boys Of Summer

We are recording a cover of this at the moment.

Brideshead Revisited Theme

Gives us chills and summer thrills.

The Style Council // My Ever Changing Moods

Preferable the version with just Weller and the piano.

Francoise Hardy // Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles

The bluest pop song ever made.

Montauk // Holiday

The two young gentlemen from Stockholm who made a beautiful remix of Sebastian Said.

Video Round-Up

A beautiful Sunday for a video round up with new Hot Chip, Burns and old-school Swedish Rena Rama. Enjoy!

Holy Fuck all the way to Latin America

New Holy Fuck album (titled Latin) on the way and fresh new track from it (titled Latin America). Fuck yeah!!

Holy Fuck - Latin America

Artist.Site

Amandine @ Athens66 Shots

High Places take on Mankind

Finally it's Friday and I kept the most relaxing sounds for the start of the weekend. I'm referring to the new album from experimental electronic duo High Places. The band originates from Brooklyn and released their self-titled debut two years ago on Thrill Jockey records. They are now back with a new album (out on March 23rd) titled High Places vs. Mankind. Right from the start, the amazing opener The Longest Shadows sets you up for a beautiful journey out of the city. Pearson's voice and Barber's experimental sounds are simply a perfect match.

High Places - On Giving Up

High Places - Can't Feel Nothing (Remix)

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Lady Gaga and Beyoncé ride the Pussy Wagon

I never got into the whole Lady Gaga thing (Madonna has been there ages before her and with far better music). Nevertheless, if you're into Eurotrash music, bullshit lyrics and kitsch appearances, then you'll love her latest video Telephone featuring the multi-non-talented Beyoncé and (the star of the video) the original Pussy Wagon from Kill Bill! Somehow the video got 16 million hits in 4 days...tells you a lot about the musical taste of most people out there, including myself!

Mumford and Sons ... please oh please ... Sigh no More

Sigh No More is the debut album from London-based quartet Mumford & Sons, which has caused a big controversy amongst bloggers in the past few weeks. The album has been out since October of 2009 in the UK but was recently (February 2010) released in the States. The controversy was brought on by Pitchfork of'course (once again), which rated the album with a mere 2.1 out of 10. So what do we think?

I never miss a chance to dismiss Pitchfork, but on this occasion I will have to agree with them. Their music ain't bad, but there is a pretty good reason for that. Mumford (and their alleged Sons) simply copycat all the indie-folk bands out there (from Fleet Foxes to their co-townees Noah and the Whale) without actually adding anything new or different. They also try to combine American folk elements like banjos in their melodies, which to me sounds all too weird coming from a London-based band (enough with the folk-o-mania from urban bands!). As I said, I can see why some people loved their debut; probably because they missed out all the other indie-folk releases of the last couple of years! Next...

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The Liars are back with their crappy Sisterworld

We've been receiving and getting our hands on numerous great releases in the past 2 months, so I thought I would continue on the same track when I got the new Liars album. How wrong could I ever be? I don't care what Pitchfork and the other non-sense critics have to say about their latest album Sisterworld. I simply hate it. Enough with the 'We all want to be the next Animal Collective' bullshit. I want music that I can hear over and over again and not some crappy experimental shit that only critics love (although they'll probably never listen to the record again in their life). I'll admit there are a couple of songs (like Proud Evolution....although I would have preferred it as Pro Evolution!) that ain't that bad, but the rest of the album is simply unbearable. We tried to air it last night on our weekly show on Poplie Radio only to find ourselves throwing it out the window a few minutes later (what a mistake). Ignore, abort and trash this one! (and only to think that I was once a big fan of Liars)

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Pavement Quarantine The Past

There's not much to say about Pavement. They were they ultimate lo-fi underground rockers of the 90's and perhaps the best band to come out from that decade. Their recent reunion for a few concerts is not the best thing (I really hate these late reunions) but what can you do? They (or their label Matador) also decided to release a best-of album titled Quarantine The Past: Greatest Hits 1989-1999. The album features most of their hits (if you can call any of their songs a hit) such as Gold Soundz, Stereo, Cut your Hair, Shady Lane and many more (23 in total). However, if you haven't bought or listened to Slanted & Enchanted or Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, then there is simply no reason to buy this collection instead (these two albums were so much more). Leave the best-of collections to the labels and go out and buy the real deal. Pavement were and will always be the real anti-rock star legends of our generation.

Pavement - Gold Soundz

Pavement - Shady Lane

Pavement - Here

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Titus Andronicus go way back to The Monitor

When Titus released their debut The Airing of Grievances two years ago I was totally drawn into their mix of punk and shoegaze. It was a band that simply combined most of the elements I love from both genres in a totally unique way. So it is fair to say, I was more than excited to hear of their latest release titled The Monitor (out from XL Recordings). This one is however a bit different.

Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union

Titus Andronicus - Four Score and Seven (part one)

Titus Andronicus - Four Score and Seven (part two)

First of, the album is a reference to the American Civil War. From its title (USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy) to its ending track The Battle of Hampton Roads (the battle between the Monitor and the CSS Virginia) and perhaps even to the album's duration (65 minutes...the civil war ended in 1865), everything revolves around the Civil War. In this epic journey Patrick Stickles invites more than a few friends to help out (Hold Steady, Double Dagger, Vivian Girls, Ponytail, Spider Bags, Hallelujah the Hills, Wye Oak, the Felice Brothers, Deer Tick and Dinowalrus) and sets the pace with anti-punk tracks lasting more than 6 minutes each. But don't be fooled by all this Civil War references (backed up by bagpipes and fiddles), lyrics such as The enemy is everywhere, It's still us against them, You'll always be a loser and Funny that we’re doing car bombs after all of these years are obviously about today's fucked up world and not simply another history lesson. The Monitor is a highly ambitious project, which may not be for the everyday listen but it definitely managed to pull it off perfectly!

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Caribou is back for a Swim

We finally found the time to listen to the whole new album by Caribou titled Swim. We've already heard and seen Odessa endless times (it's simply that good), so we weren't surprised by the fact that the rest of the tracks are equally good. Ambient sounds, sporadic lyrics and groovy beats make up the scene for a sound that reminds a lot of the good old days of Royksopp. The record is out on the 20th of April from Merge label. Go out and buy it!

Caribou - Sun

Caribu - Odessa

Artist.Site

A Terrible Love from National

Finally...the National have revealed their first track from their highly anticipated upcoming album High Violet. It was aired yesterday on Late Night with Jimmy Falon and it simply kicks ass (wow...I haven't used this expression in ages). The track is called Terrible Love and the album will be out on the 11th of May on 4AD label.

Artist.Site Album.Site

PS. Thanks to Dustroad once again for twitting this!

Video Round-Up

After a long time, I finally got around to seeing some fresh videos the last few days. So here are some of the best we've seen from Yeasayer, She and Him, Hold your Horses! and Caribou (thanks to Dustroad, Homo Ludens and John Streckfous for posting/tweeting them to our attention).

MGMT are back in a Flash

Yesterday MGMT released thefirst track from their upcoming new album Congratulations. They have already played the self-titled track in various gigs around the world and are now offering for free a brand new track titled Flash Delirium. The track has many obvious Bowie influences in it, so I'm curious to see how the album will turn out. Congratulations is scheduled to be released on April 13th from Columbia Records (but I won't be surprised if it's leaked within the next week). Download the track from here.

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Chinese Christmas Cards from Barcelona

Chinese Christmas Cards are Joan and Mario, a fresh band from Barcelona that won the LEVI'S Unfamous Music Award last year (ok...I admit this is the first time I hear of this award). Despite that, the band make charming dream pop with simple yet highly enjoyable tunes. I really liked their tracks so why not give them a spin? Enjoy..

Chinese Christmas Cards - Welcome to Life

Artist.Site

The Pass to their Colors

When two of our favorite music sources (Weekly Tape Deck and Indie Rock Cafe) post about the same band, then be assured that they are worth a listen. We are talking about the new electro/ new-wave/dance-till-you-can't-stop phenomenon by the name of The Pass. They are from the land of KFC (Louisville, Kentucky) and despite this, their debut EP Colors (out on SonaBlast Records) is simply a non-stop party mover. We'll be eagerly awaiting their full album within 2010. Turn it up!

The Pass - Colors

The Pass - Crosswalk Stereo

Artist.Site

Music Stardust from Marion Cotillard

Couldn't help but re-post what I saw in Sterogum. And how could I not, when it comes to the collaboration of academy award winner Marion Cotillard and Franz Ferdinand. The track is Eyes of Mars and the video (which doesn't include Franz however) was just released as part of Dior's campaign (since Marion is Lady Dior as it seems). Enjoy!

The Sweet Serenades could Die Young on Grey's Anatomy

It's nice to see bands that you've spotted out slowly becoming more and more famous. We are referring to The Sweet Serenades who seem to have made their way to Grey's Anatomy latest episode. I can't say I'm really excited about the show (at least during the last couple of seasons) but at least it seems the quality of music they use remains high! The current track, titled Die Young, is taken from their album Balcony Cigarettes and is a charming duet with Karolina Komstedt from Club 8 (who are up for a new album in May...don't worry, we'll keep you posted on this one as well).

The Sweet Serenades - Die Young

Artist.Site

Sambassadeur are European

We've talked about Sambassadeur quite a number of times in the past. They are Swedish (from Gothenburg), they are signed to Labrador label and they play Swedish (no surprise there) pop. What else is there to know? I've loved their first two albums, especially their self-titled debut back in 2005, so was more than excited for their latest release titled European. Anna Persson is once again leading the tracks with her sweet voice and the melodies are as pure pop as they can get. Simply give tracks like Days and Stranded a listen and you'll immediately see why I always keep a copy of their albums nearby!

Sambassadeur - Stranded

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The Radio Dept. are Clinging to a Scheme

As you all know, our love for Swedish music is simply endless. But how can't it be with such bands as Radio Dept. We posted their latest single Heaven on Fire last month in anticipation of their upcoming album and finally the time has come. After 4 years in the making of, their 3rd studio album titled Clinging to a Scheme will be released on April 21st on our beloved Labrador label.

This album is simply amazing. It's actually more than a simple album; it's a small trip that makes you forget all your worries and problems. It's a musical journey from the 80's to the 10's, with dreamy pop melodies and minimalistic electronic sounds. It may took them 4 years, but it was definitely worth the wait. Hail Sweden (once again)!

Artist.Site Artist.Label

Portugal. the Man - American Ghetto

I'll admit it, Portugal. the Man are one of my favorite bands, so this review is largely biased (yet another one of those). They are also one of the most consistent and productive rock bands around. They've released 5 studio albums in the past 4 years and are currently offering their sixth titled American Ghetto (out March 2nd on Equal Vision Records).

Portugal. The Man - The Dead Dog

I always thought that their last album (well their 4th actually…since they released an acoustic album as well in the mid-time) the Satanic Satanist would have been the one to really make them more accessible and popular, especially outside the US. However, it seems that some bands are simply not meant for stardust publicity and are a better kept a secret (at least from the masses…since they are a big name for the rest of us). Their latest album may not introduce that many new elements to their music, but on the other hand it remains top notch like Satanist. Pure rock, with the usual folk and prog elements and Gourley’s distinctive vocals. Yet another great album for me in less than a year from one of the best bands out there!

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The Local Natives copy their Gorilla Manor

Local Natives are one of those bands that all of a sudden everybody knows , yet you were the last to discover after the hype was over (in other words after Pitchfork posted about them). This LA band is an obvious mix of Fleet Foxes meets Arcade Fire meets Vampire Weekend meets whatever indie folk band is currently selling records (or MP3s these days). Yet for some strange reason, I quite liked their debut Gorilla Manor. Probably because of the same reasons I just mentioned! I guess sometimes you simply need to copycat someone to get noticed. Let's just hope that on their next attempt they'll have something unique and fresh worth mentioning..

Local Natives - Wide Eyes

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Athens66 @ Poplie Radio - Take Eighteen

Another show (with a few technical problems this time) on Poplie Radio came to an end. Stay tuned next Sunday from 20.00 till 22.00 here for brand new music this time (that's it...our tribute to Canada is over along with the Winter Olympics!). [download link of the show below]

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