Who doesn’t love a good indie Christmas song?

1. Christmas Party – The Walkmen
2. It’s Only Christmas – As Tall As Lions
3. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – Damien Rice
4. Splitting up Christmas – Kevin Devine
5. Christmas Time is Here Again (Bring Out the Joy!) – My Morning Jacket
6. Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved it!) – Sufjan Stevens
7. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – Thrice
8. White Christmas – Bright Eyes
9. Jinglebell Rock – Arcade Fire
10. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – The Polyphonic Spree
11. It’s Christmas Time – Yo La Tengo
12. Holly Jolly Christmas – The Format
13. The First Noel – Bright Eyes
14. Get Behind Me, Santa! – Sufjan Stevens
15. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Death Cab for Cutie
16. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Daphne Loves Derby
17. The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes
18. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Bright Eyes

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Duński duet właśnie zakończył koncertowanie w Stanach Zjednoczonych i już w najbliższą sobotę rozpoczyna europejską cześć trasy. Zespół promuje swój ostatni, czwarty, krążek In and Out of Control (Fierce Panda / Vice), który ukazał się w październiku tego roku. Polscy fani The Raveonettes będę musieli pofatygować się za granicę żeby zobaczyć ich na żywo, a RockCity247 szuka gorączkowo kolejnego zespołu z Danii o którym moglibyśmy jeszcze napisać w tym tygodniu.

video | myspace.com/theraveonettes

The Raveonettes fueron el primer grupo del que hablamos en este blog (el primer post correspondió a la malograda Fabchannel) gracias a su canción de Navidad de 2008, y ahora, casi un año después nos volvemos a hacer eco de su trabajo gracias al magnífico quinto álbum que lanzaron el mes pasado, In and Out of Control y que apunta a ser uno de los discos del año.

Desde una primera escucha, las gélidas canciones de In and Out of Control resultan pegadizas y atractivas al oido, a pesar de su frialdad a la hora de transmitir emociones consiguen hacer que se te empiece a mover la pierna bajo la mesa al ritmo casi dance de muchos de sus temas. Y es que ese es otro de los motivos por los que destaca este trabajo, y es que sería difícil poderse quedar con una sola canción o destacar un hit. Su primer single es Last Dance, pero como adelanto ya dieron Suicide, pero Bang!, Gone Forever, Boys Who Rape o D.R.U.G.S también podrían haber sido utilizado para estos propósitos, debido a la inmediatez de los temas.

Sin embargo, la animosidad y bailabilidad con cierto toque retro y festivo de sus canciones contrasta enormemente con el oscurantismo de las letras, algo por otra parte ya habitual en The Raveonettes, que hablan de violaciones, abusos, machismo, maltrato, drogas y vidas abocadas al suicidio. Todo esto lo explicaba en la presentación del disco la vocalista Susan Rose Wagner:

Es una mezcla bastante extraña de cosas antiguas y modernas, tristes y felices… trata de violaciones, amor perdido, violencia, suicidio, sin que importe un bledo lo que los demás piensen de uno y lo más importante, siendo diabólico y angelical al mismo tiempo.

Dentro de In and Out of Control existen dos temas que destacan por salirse del marco general del disco pero no por ello desmerecen en absoluto al resto de las canciones, hablamos de la triste y meláncolica Oh, I buried today y el tema más noise de todo el álbum, Break up Girls! En general, un disco que hay que escuchar si o si y al que esperamos ver en directo (al menos, en Barcelona podrán hacerlo el 19 de Diciembre).

Myspace de The Raveonettes
Página oficial de The Raveonettes

I took my dog for a walk … all the way from New York to Florida … I said to him, “There. Now you’re done.”

- Steven Wright

Fetch, Finn! Now sit, Sunny! Stay. Good pups!

That’s right, in a deliberate attempt to boost our Arbitron ratings Great River Radio has turned the show over to our dogs. Well, not the entire show. Our “Confluence” segment this week has a canine theme. We’ll have dog-related songs from Big Mama Thornton, Page France, Josh Ritter, Uncle Tupelo and Louis Armstrong. And as always we’ll mix in a few listener requests, including selections from Patty Griffin and John Hiatt. But despite their best efforts, Finn and Sunny won’t run the entire show.

There’s a Great River Radio tradition of digging through mountains of MP3s to bring you some of the best new music around. We’ve been working extra hard this week to unearth new tracks from Richmond Faintaine, The Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, Dirty Projectors, Tom Waits, Sharon Jones, Har Mar Superstar, Martha Wainwright, Girls, Echo & The Bunnymen and the Raveonettes. Haven’t heard of some of these artists? That’s OK. Give us a listen, and you might discover a new musician to add to your own heavy rotation.

Great River Radio will be “live” today from 4-6 p.m. (CST).

Brian/Dan

P.S. Great River Radio will be off next week for Thanksgiving. Give thanks and have a great holiday with family and friends!

Playlist

Maybe-Ingrid Michaelson
Crown of Ages-The Ettes
Ten Thousand Words-The Avett Brothers
Green Grass-Tom Waits
Stranded In Your Love-Sharon Jones and Lee Fields
So Hard-Martha Wainwrights
Lust For Life-Girls
8th Wonder-The Gossip
Tall Boy-Har Mar Superstore
Take It In-Hot Chip
Hound Dog-Big Mama Thornton
My Dog & Me-John Hiatt
I Wanna Be Your Dog-Uncle Tupelo
Dogs-Page France
Feed The Dog-Honey Is Cool
To The Dogs Or Whoever-Josh Ritter
Yellow Dog Blues-Louis Armstrong
Heavenly Day-Patty Griffin
I Will-Brandi Carlile
The Underdog-Spoon
The Preacher-Brother Ali
The Chosen One-The Raveonettes
I Think I Need It Too-Echo & The Bunnymen
Wild Girl-Rickie Lee Jones
Island, IS-Volcano Choir
Stillness Is The Move-Dirty Projectors

The Christmas Song by the Raveonettes has to be one of my all time favorites. I have searched and searched the internet to find a version that I can embed into this post. Unfortunately, I was only able to find a link (and a really bad duet). So please check the song out here.

It’s the holiday season!!!! yay! I love the holidays so much (probably because I like buying things) and I can’t wait to get my hands on some presents to wrap. Wrapping presents and doing holiday shopping is my stress reliever and I love it. The only sad thing is that this year everyone has told me not to get them anything, so i have very little to buy

I know money is tight and the economy is bad, but still. I get so much joy out of it that even if I’m just hunting for a ten dollar bargain.

Ilana has never had a christmas tree before (she’s jewish) and has always wanted one. Of course I also love putting up christmas trees and have done so every year of college with the exception of freshman year. Here are some pictures of those trees:

The Surfer tree

The modern tree

The “only put 3/4 of it together tree because it was to big around for the house” tree

So of course I picked up a tree for our apartment and spent a bajillion hours picking out ornaments instead of working. I also think I got our tree for the price of a 24 pack of coke. When I was checking out, the woman checking me out said the she had accidentally ran the coke through twice. It wasn’t until I was driving home that I realized that she had accidentally taken the christmas tree off instead of the second coke pack when trying to correct the error, so that was awesome.

And of course Ilana and I both had a rough day and had to put the tree together as soon as I got home so here it is! The picture doesnt do it justice but our ornaments are ocean blue and copper!

En esta ocasión, la recopilación no empezó por una canción, sino por la portada. Estaba repasando las fotos que hice los últimos meses y me topé con la que he utilizado para este disco. La retoqué un poco, elegí un nombre y, de ahí, surgió Prince y su Sign ‘O’ The Times.

Después, todo fue ir encadenando canciones, hasta que con el Mr. Suit de Wire se cerró la enésima recopilación que os dejo en el blog: una selección de temas más indie de lo habitual (con toques pop, punk, new wave, etc.) y muy entretenida desde mi punto de vista.

Haz clic en la portada para descargar Modern Times

Prince, Young Marble Giants, The XX, Giant Sand, Pavement, Stephen Malkmus, Iggy Pop, The Wave Pictures, Papas Fritas, Violent Femmes, Patti Smith, The Pastels, Nick Lowe, The Stranglers, Kashmir, Sebadoh, Wolf Parade, The Undertones, The Polyphonic Spree, The Raveonettes, Tegan & Sara, The Breeders, Veruca Salt, The Manhattan Love Suicides, Frank Black y Wire son los cantantes y grupos que he incluido en Modern Times, que, como siempre, os la podéis descargar pinchando en la imagen de la portada.

AQUÍ tenéis el listado de canciones. Espero que os guste.

P.D.: La foto es de una tienda de juguetes y objetos antiguos que está en el barrio de Chueca.

I’ve always been pretty hardcore about holiday excellence. Sign me up for anything involving gingerbread or latkas (yum!). Despite not being the most religious person in the world (I make cafeteria Catholics looks like the Pope), I have to admit that some of my favorite tracks have come from seasonal fervor. So here are the songs rocking my holiday playlist this year:

1. “The Little Drummer Boy” performed by David Bowie and Bing Crosby – I know a lot of people come down on this song for being overplayed, but honestly I could just put this song on repeat for the next month and be perfectly content. Bowie’s silky voice along with Crosby’s bassy bliss is just holiday perfection for me.
2. “Frosty the Snowman” performed by Fiona Apple – I just love the simple jazz guitar and vocal arrangement on this song, somehow transforming one of the hokiest ditties known to the Western world into a song that is both playful and interesting.
3. “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues - A folky indie rock classic that I can’t go a year without.
4. “O Come O Come Emmanuel” performed by Sufjan Stevens – This has always been a favorite Christmas song of mine, somehow transcending my aversion to the sometimes sickening hymns of my Catholic upbringing. One of the most gorgeous classical hymns ever written, this song is given a sweet intimacy in Stevens’ stripped-down rendition.
5. “Rock of Ages” performed by Ben Kweller – Another sweet rendition of a classic, this time a Hanukkah song. Also gets bonus points for its affiliations with a certain TV show that was a high school not-so-guilty pleasure.
6. “Nutmeg” by Stephen Colbert and John Legend – Aside from being hilarious, this is a pretty rad song. I would argue it was one of my favorite R&B tracks from last year.
7. “Another Christmas Song” by Stephen Colbert – Yep, another Colbert song. Mocking the velvety jazz Christmas standards every American grew up with, Colbert actually created a catchy and ridiculously funny tune.
8. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” performed by Mariah Carey – Remember when Mariah was awesome? Listen to this and you will.
9. “Come On Santa” by the Raveonettes – I have nothing insightful to say about this track. It just makes me feel cool enough to pull off Kanye glasses and not look like a jerk.
10. “Christmastime is Here” performed by Au Revoir Simone - See above item regarding cool factor.

Expect more obnoxiously holiday-themed  posts in the coming weeks!

The Raveonettes – In And Out Of Control

Produced in a lively, crisp style that emphasizes varietal character without the use of new oak, it has a sleek, juicy finish.

Grade: B

Listen to this while:  Hanging family pictures by candlelight.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DJ-HERO CONTEST [LINK]

The Raveonettes are back with more noise-pop bliss. In and Out of Control is their fifth studio album, and it proves it won’t be their last. They went back to a more minimalist and raw approach to this album. Some of the song material is a little harsh at times, but that’s what one would expect from The Raves. They have a great live show too. Culture Bully has a very detailed review on their performance at First Avenue back in October.

The Raveonettes – Bang!
The Raveonettes – Last Dance

Myspace
Buy

1. “Bang!” – 2:54
2. “Gone Forever” – 3:36
3. “Last Dance” – 3:47
4. “Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)” – 3:04
5. “Heart of Stone” – 3:55
6. “Oh, I Buried You Today” – 1:22
7. “Suicide” – 3:13
8. “D.R.U.G.S.” – 4:30
9. “Breaking into Cars” – 3:08
10. “Break Up Girls!” – 4:00
11. “Wine” – 3:41
12. “Echoes” – 3:27 [iTunes Store bonus track]

[RS] [MU]

Some Days Are Better Than Others is a movie coming out which features Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney and James Mercer from the Shins. The thing is, it looks pretty darn good. Check out the trailer here.

Mew is straight-up awesome. And they, too, can act.

Fool’s Gold released a video for “Suprise Hotel” a while back, but have a newer version that is way more fun.

The Röyksopp video for “This Must Be It” is… well, you can pick your own adjective. But it features Karin Dreijer Andersson and despite the loincloths, is a pretty badass track.

If you haven’t picked up In And Out of Control by The Raveonettes yet, quit being a silly-billy and get on that.

Here’s a video from Asobi Seksu for “Transparence” from the Hush album released early this year.

The Raveonettes – “Suicide”

Crocodiles – “Summer of Hate”

The Raveonettes and Crocodiles are playing at Bimbo’s in San Francisco on 11/9 in support of their new LP In And Out Of Control [Vice Music], and I’ve got two tickets to giveaway!  A great line up. First person to email me at theocmd@gmail.com wins.

Swedish indie-pop-act Sambassadeur will release their new album early next year, and as always, their great label Labrador offers the first single, Days, as a free download. Again, an uplifting and very entertaining song. Bring on the rest!

http://www.myspace.com/sambassadeurtheband

Sambassadeur – Days (MP3)

There’s also something more from The Raveonettes. Following their rather great new album In And Out Of Control is a left-over song called The Chosen One, and I can’t really see why they haven’t included it on the album. In my opinion, it would have fit perfectly. Anyway, it’s available for free, and so you can add it to the album-playlist yourself!

http://www.myspace.com/theraveonettes

The Raveonettes – The Chosen One (MP3)

Hawksley Workman, Canadian singer/songwriter who some of you might remember from his 2003 hit We Will Still Need A Song, will release his 1999 debut-album in the US for the first time on November 17th. If you’re interested in For Him And The Girls, check the Shorefire link below for more information. Maniacs, the first song on the album, is a somewhat strange thing, and as a Swiss I can honestly say that it’s a good thing Hawksley didn’t pursue his yodeling career!

http://www.hawksleyworkman.com/

http://www.shorefire.com/clients/hawksleyworkman/

Hawksley Workman – Maniacs (MP3)

posted by:  audra

apparently i’m real good at list-making.  it’s easier, maybe?  this one is not bulleted, but i have faith in you.

whatever, martha!  awesomest show EVER.  maybe not ever, but it’s close.  want to know a secret?  i kind of want to be martha stewart.  i do.  doesn’t every girl want to be attractive, make her own laundry detergent from garden soil, cultivate her own hybrid lilies, make halloween-themed pasta (riga-boni!!), AND launder the sheets every day?!  this show starring martha’s jaded daughter alexis and her adorable, sarcastic friend jennifer takes everything martha does & debunks it like the guys on ghost hunters…and it’s hilarious.  i heart it. 

right?!  fine living network, my domestically challenged beauties.  you will love it.  i promise.

black eyed peas meet me halfway.  god, i hate myself.   is this old-ish or new?  i don’t even know…but i do  know that every time i switch the radio to z100, it’s on.  which is embarrassingly often.  i can only take so much fever ray & animal collective, you know?  it’s SO good…but the video is terrible…brace yourselves:

i wonder if the yyy’s know that they totally stole that maps guitar thing?  hmm.  anyways, my absolute favorite, favorite, FAVORITE song of the moment is this:  the raveonettes breaking into cars: 

i think i put it on my myspace awhile ago…and calm yourself–there’s not a video just yet.  it’s fucking so delicious that i would totally die for them.  fucking BRILLIANT.  love, love, looove.  lyrics are simple, but the sound is dark & sexy like 60s film noir.  the whole record…even the more ludicrously titled songs like boys who rape (should all be destroyed).  a good portion of the tracks are about heartbreak & things you can’t have…always delicious.  i’m a total lyric snob, and upon first listen i thought it was rubbish.  but i kept listening, because they’re like my favorite band EVER, and i wanted to like it.  now i love it for real.  i do!  the raveonettes – in & out of control.  buy it now.  it will make you look cool…because they’re so amazing.  believe it!  what?  i need something to balance out the black eyed peas…

my shower.  when sam & i moved into the house in september, the shower water pressure was AWFUL.  it took ten minutes just to rinse all the shower gel out of my naughty bits.  it was really upsetting, considering our old shower would pelt your clit right off if you turned the water on all the way.  then, one random sunday, i turned on the shower and there was suddenly crazy awesome water pressure.  where did this come from?!  did someone switch a pressure switch?  my theory is that my household ghost was concerned for my well-being–i no longer could have precious “intimate” showers with myself.  now i can, once again.  it IS just deep crevice-cleaning with perks, afterall.  anywaysies!  not only does it come with that  now, but i can shower in half the time! 

pouring salt on slugs.  these fuckers are everywhere.  and i thought the spiders were bad!   now that the icky spiders have gone along their way, i’m now finding slugs on our back patio.  in droves.  i’ve killed at lease a dozen of them in the past month.   last weekend, one of our friends actually petted (petted!!)  one, stating that it was a ‘leopard slug’, or something.  unless it’s wearing a leopard fur coat, i don’t want it on my fucking patio. 

neighbor betsey.  i’m pretty sure we’re meant to be besties.  oh my god, betsey my bestie!!  gross.  it’s too perfect.  she lives across the street.  long black hair, long bangs, super-skinny, retardedly hip…god forbid i ever actually meet her and she reads this blog.  i would die.  like, die-die, not like ‘i die’-die.  jesus christ, how horrifying!  i mean, it could happen, right?!  k-fed stood on my FRONT LAWN last weekend for god’s sake!  you just never know what may happen….

Ok, Paste. You got 50 slots to fill with what you thought were the best albums from 2000-2009. I wrote a top 10 list, so there were some great albums that just barely missed the cut–and they didn’t make your list, either, Paste. I mean, with 40 more slots to fill than I had, you could have at least included the following.

21. Gorillaz — Gorillaz (2001)

20. The Dresden Dolls — Yes, Virginia (2006)

19. Belle and Sebastian — The Life Pursuit (2006)

18. The Black Keys — Attack and Release (2008)

17. Stereolab — Chemical Chords (2008)

16. Muse — Absolution (2003, U.K./2004, U.S.)

15. The Raveonettes — Lust Lust Lust (2007, U.K./2008, U.S.)

14. Rufus Wainwright — Want One (2003) [made the Paste list]

13. The White Stripes — Get Behind Me Satan (2005)

12. Regina Spektor — Begin to Hope (2006)

11. Loretta Lynn — Van Lear Rose (2004) [made the Paste list]

01. Greasing The Wheel // Puny Human
02. Sonic Sex // Maniqui Lazer
03. I Gave You My Love // Puddy
04. La Ruta Torcida // El Cumbiampiro
05. Zombies // The King Khan BBQ Show
06. Spacechemo // Titan
07. Circo Podrido // Valentina Fel
08. To Boldy Go // The Seven Inches
09. The One That I Want // The Boy Least Likely To
10. Por Medio De La Lectura // Los Amparito
11. Quiet Dog // Mos Def
12. Pain // Higher Than The Stars
13. I Feel Cream // Peaches
14. Lisztomania // Phoenix
15. You Clapper // The Emperor Machine
16. Last Dance // The Raveonettes
17. Handclap Band // The Phenomenal

Ok – so WordPress is being a butt and won’t take the code for embedding this file.  Link to it by clicking the image below please:

Last night I had the privelege of seeing some really good music at 96.5 the Buzz’ Halloweenie Roast!

Tell Em What Your Name Is!

And I recorded this video of him and his band, The Honeybears, getting down.

I love their music! 

The Raveonettes set was really loud (almost to the point of distortion) – but they still rocked the house that night.  The female vocalist in the group kept giving me the eye (haha – and everyone else – but still).

A Flock of Seagulls really surprised me because they made some songs back in the 80’s that I didn’t realize I knew (you know… “And I ruuuu-uu-uuun – I run so far a-waaaa-aaa-aaay…”).  It was nice to see some classic musicians on stage still loving what they do and making crowds dance.  People in the parking lots in the back were clapping and stuff – it was pretty cool.

Last was the group JET.  If you don’t know who they are, shame on you.  Look them up – you may know who they are and not realize it (“I say 1,2,3 – tell me honey come with me – because you look so fine that I really wanna’ make you mine…”).  They performed their hits as well as some tracks off of their new album that’s not as known yet.  Funniest thing, right before JET was about to come on stage – this drunk girl dressed as a playboy bunny tried to force her way up to the front and we all just kind of gave her this ugly face like “you aren’t getting up here - there’s no room.”  She’d bump people and try to squeeze in, and look the person or people she’s bumping in the face and say “Sorry” in a cute little voice like that made everything kosher.  I thought this one guy was going to beat her up or something because she kept saying “I said sorry” much to the vein of one of my favorite Talladega Nights scenes (being rudely polite – lol):

Oh well – concert politics I guess…  That’s my report until next time.

Greetings ladies and germs, I hope everyone is ready for Halloween! I am almost ready to leave town on Friday for New Orleans — for work, but I am hoping to spend a few hours out Halloween night!!

I’ve got some good grabs and stabs to share, so let’s get to the listing of things.

Grabby:

• First, get schooled on Halloween via Wikipedia.

• Slutty Halloween Girls save a life. (work safe)

• A different sort of costume…for the boudoir (wink!!), from Dollhouse Bettie. (thanks Kelly!)

• Alkaline Trio’s cover of The Misfits Halloween…with a crazy stick man “video”. Perhaps ignore the video and just enjoy the music, mmmkay?

• Boots. I am still thinking about them. A lot.

• Cupcakes. These are really good. Make them and share.

• Russell Brand interviews Dita Von Teese, and it’s just kind of cute. Surprisingly, he actually doesn’t say anything that off color to her.

• New Raveonettes album. Pretty good stuff. Wacky video. Ricky be warned, there are birds — but it’s worth it.

• Sarah Haskins reports why women love vampires.

Stabby:

• The vampire/Twilight obsession extends to adult women stealing life size cut outs of Twilight star Robert Pattinson from Nordstrom, where the cut outs promote a line of Twilight clothing. Yeah…something is sucking the life out of me, and I think it’s all the hype over Twilight.

• Parking tickets.

• My Macbook Pro speakers randomly switching to headphone mode while I am sitting here writing this. Yay.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!