Beirut - Nantes
The Flying Club Cup,

‘Well it’s been a long time, long time now,
Since I’ve seen you smile.
And I’ll gamble away my fright,
And I’ll gamble away my time.’

Such a solemn melancholy. The wail of prolonged sadness and the crippling pain of long unrequited feelings echoes in his heart. He is the shadowy figure in the corner of the dark, deserted and smoke filled bar, only the silence of his pain fills the room. It’s been a long time. Such melancholy.

‘Nobody raise their voices,
Just another night in Nantes’

It’s been a long night yet he remains.

Mumm-Ra - She’s Got You High
These Things Move In Threes, 2007 (Columbia)

I won’t lie to you as that would be foolish, but this is one of my favourite tracks of all time.

A bold statement, I know.

From the eternal pain of unrequited teenage heartache to the bliss of bright lights and mental states of no compare, this song has always been exactly what I needed at the time. A song that speaks to you in extremes of emotion; a song that speaks to one’s heart with such honest words and resonates with one’s very core. The purest emotional medicine. The bliss, the pain and the fear. The greatest joy and the deepest low. Few songs can so reassure you and makes you feel understood, that your pain is shared in all men and that the longing is not in vain. That love is real, alive and burning true in all of us. Some songs just feel like they were written for you.

The Polyphonic Spree - Light & Day
- The Beginning Stages Of…The Polyphonic Spree, 2002 (Hollywood / Good)

Brick by brick is laid by delicate hands until one crashes mind first into a wall of pure joy, of hope and a sense of togetherness. The Polyphonic Spree sing like every note and every sylable is a celebration of the wonder of humanity with every performance being the next in an eternal series of rituals. Tim DeLaughter leads his band of merry men and women robed like the preacher he truly is, bringing an god-given energy and a feeling of brotherhood. ‘Light & Day’ is a hand waiting to be shaken, an invitation to cast aside religion, cast aside politics and just to give oneself over to joy and happiness. In the beauty of such pure musical pleasure why would one care for such earthly things.

(Wichita / Arts & Crafts)

I won this rather fetching Alabama Shakes poster in an NME competition on Twitter today. A wonderful band. It’s from their recent gig at The Boston Arms for the NME Awards Shows. Now it will take a proud place with my ever growing poster collection.

Dog Is Dead - Glockenspiel Song
Your Childhood EP, 2011 (Atlantic Records)

An amazing live band, very looking forward to seeing them again soon.

Allo Darlin’ - Dreaming
Allo Darlin’, 2010 (FortunaPOP! Records)

A wonderfully hope-filled track that will fill you with quite bliss.

Enjoy.

Animal Collective - The Softest Voice

Sung Tongs, 2004 (FatCat)

So beautiful.

That’s all I have to say.

Wow.

I, for one, am a fan of my meat and can not imagine a life without the daily enjoyment of eating a slaughtered animal. Some people though, for reasons of their own, abhor the killing of animals and the intake into their bodies of another creature’s flesh. Some of this people are also Indie. Here are a few of the better ones.

10. Thom Yorke (Radiohead)

9. Nick Zinner (The Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

8. Brian Bell (Weezer)

7. Morrissey (The Smiths)

6. Jaime Hince (The Kills)

5. Alan Donohoe (The Rakes)

4. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At The Drive-In/The Mars Volta)

3. Fiona Apple

2. Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes)

1. Johnny Marr (The Smiths/Electronic/The The/Modest Mouse/The Cribs)

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Released: 2009 
Label: Polyvinyl Records

I don’t know if you noticed, actually I high doubt that you did, but the first thing I ever posted in this Tumblr-ific blog was the first single from this very album. Why did I choose to pop the metaphorically sacred cherry of this endeavor with that song, of all the songs I could have, say, cherry-picked from. Why did I choose that one? Hmm, lets begin.

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