More music picks for your Monday. If you like what you hear, use the links provided to snag it for yourself from Amazon. Doing so through us gives us kickbacks, and those help pay for stuff like more bandwidth. And also so we can buy more music.
From one of my favorite albums of last year, MTMTMK, here’s The Very Best. That’s the answer to what you get when you combine Malawian vocals by Esau Mwamwaya with production and such by the Brit duo Radioclit (somewhat opposite of Radiohead? — you must decide), otherwise known as Etienne Tron and Johan Karlberg. Normally I don’t like live performances where the majority of the music is canned–but dammit, they’re just having so much fun, yes? This is from KEXP out of Seattle and was recorded last August. Note…the MP3 bundle of the album is less than $6. (Amazon: CD; MP3; Vinyl.)
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And another band that thanks to input from my fellow Sound Boarders I grew to appreciate are The Vaccines. Primarily because their album, Come of Age, just wants to spend a good solid forty minutes rocking your face off. Then it can find its own way out, thanks so much. Sometimes you need rock–without it being rawk, you know what I mean? This is a live performance of “No Hope” from last year. And hey, in this one you can actually hear the vocals–a bonus! Bear in mind you can get the CD/MP3 bundle for the same price as the MP3s by themselves. So. (Amazon: CD/MP3; MP3; Vinyl.)
Next, live from Norwegian television, it’s the Norwegian Mikhael Paskalev with “I Spy.” And I keep saying Norwegian because that’s almost all I can find out about him, apart from the obvious: fun, slightly bouncy folk-pop goodness. That and his EP, Jive Babe, doesn’t appear to be available for purchase here in any shape or form, sadly. Spotify out of Norway taunts you and me as well. I’m sure that will be fixed eventually. In the meantime, the good news is the whole thing is available to stream via Soundcloud.
Next we have another band that wants to set off a rock grenade that you feel compelled to heroically throw yourself upon to try and save those around you. Less than two minutes, in, rocked and out. Very nice. It’s The Thermals and their new single, “Born to Kill,” from their album Desperate Ground, hitting in April.
More in the neighborhood of catching up on 2012 music–since, you know, there was a bit of it–another album I really enjoyed: In Time to Voices by Blood Red Shoes out of Brighton. As I observed on our podcast, I seem to have this thing for a giant wall of sound with a female vocalist in front of it. No idea why that works for me, but it does. Sample it here: “Two Dead Minutes.” Good news here as well: the MP3 bundle is just $6.49 as I type this. (Amazon: CD; MP3; Vinyl.)
And last but definitely not least: the band is Cherry Royale, out of Oakland. Their EP Say What?! is hitting this week and their first single, “Sugar Junkie”–a funk/soul track with tasty, tasty horns–is available from their Bandcamp page in a pay-what-you-want setup. And I dig this: “A limited edition cherry red 7″ vinyl pressing featuring the B-side instrumental ‘EKG’ will be available for sale in late February and includes a free download of the entire EP.” Nice.
