All the Good Times Past

What do all of these bands have in common? Not only are they excellent, but they also make it so easy to revive sweet memories of the good times we've all had.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults is currently playing shows in Los Angeles area, and if I were living there, I'd definitely see at least one.

I'd also try to catch The Mary Onettes. Their set yesterday at Union Hall in Brooklyn was awesome! It felt completely unreal, like I am not living in 2009, but instead in some wonderfully fictitious John Hughes-like film setting. And this song "God Knows I Had Plans" that I heard first yesterday sounds like it can totally change someone's life.

All The Good Times Past (click to download)

1. Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Our Younger Noise [Letting Up Despite Great Faults, 2009]

2. Reverie Sound Revue - Arrows [Reverie Sound Revue, 2009]

3. The Radio Dept. - We Climb the Higher Fences [Pulling Our Weights EP, 2005]

4. The Mary Onettes - God Knows I Had Plans [Islands, 2009]

PUT YOUR PHONES AWAY

I don't care how excited you are about watching The xx in a basement of the swanky Tribeca Grand hotel for free, but you DO NOT need to texttwit about it in live-time because,

1) You are missing out on the performance as you try to externalize it in the virtual world

2) I don't want fucking white light shining on my face when I am watching The xx

In a concert setting, or life setting, just PUT YOUR PHONES AWAY.

Shoegaze & hipsterdom

I feel crushed at the current state of shoegaze. It is apparently 2009's hottest Pitchfork commodity to have a "shoegaze revival" sound, an early 90's nostalgia that kids who look up to Pitchfork and the indie community as their divine word probably have no recollection of. What used to be music for old fogies is now music for the ever increasing hipsterdom of meaning-seeking youth. How did this happen? Could have MBV's reunion show last year contributed to any of this?

Maybe I am just too stubbornly sticking to the old, but how come the newer bands just don't sound as good?

Nostalgia (click to download)

1. Chapterhouse - Breather [Whirlpool, 1991]

2. My Bloody Valentine - I Only Said [Loveless, 1991]

3. Lush - Scarlet [Gala, 1990]

4. Ride - Vapour Trail [Nowhere, 1990]

About Pace

One day, I'll be able to strike balance between fast life and slow peace.

About Pace (click to download)

1. Boards of Canada - Roygbiv [Music Has The Right to Children, 1998]

2. Röyksopp - Happy Up Here [Junior, 2009]

3. Junior Boys - What It's For [Begone Dull Care, 2009]

4. Washed Out - Feel It All Around (Toro Y Moi remix) [Feel It All Around, 2009]

"Dancey"

It's always going to be a love and hate relationship for me and "dancey" music. However, this week I decided maybe I should just stop thinking about it and share some with you.

"Dancey" (click to download)

1. Shakira - "She Wolf" [She Wolf, 2009]

2. Basement Jaxx - "Raindrops" [Scars, 2009]

3. Metric - Help Me I'm Alive [The Twelves remix]

4. Gui Boratto - No Turning Back [Take My Breath Away, 2009]

You're probably thinking, "Shakira?"

Well, why not?

The track is extremely catchy, and except for a single major flaw that a friend at Acrobatics Everyday hilariously pointed out, I'm okay with listening to it. I stumbled upon a remix Calvin Harris did of the song, but The Twelves would probably do a better job.

Speaking of The Twelves, what the hell happened to their NYC show? I saw them live in September at Webster Hall, which is a decent venue on weekdays but a major disaster on weekends. On Fridays, they have an event called "Girls & Boys", which is absolutely one of the most unfortunate things I've witnessed in the city.

Staying classy at Girls and Boys (photos via Nicky Digital)

Even worse, The Twelves didn't even come on stage until past 2 AM, which means by then most people have already dwindled or simply lying face down unconscious. I was disappointed to find the Brazilian duo in such horridness, but was still ultimately delighted by their performance. Their remixes, even at the hundredths time around, still amaze me. This one of Metric I heard first at the show.

And Basement Jaxx? Will they ever make another "Red Alert"? Probably not, but this song is pretty fun, and has autotune and other formulaic sounds hopefully featured as a future hit party tune in some club.