Favourites of the Year

As 2010 is ending within hours, here is a run-down just a few of my favourite tracks of the year:


Nicki Minaj - Your Love - Started out as a guilty pleasure and became a staple on my Creative player (yes, I prefer Creative over iPod or anything else!). It's one of the best pop songs this year.


Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - Not In Love The album version of "Not in Love" is nothing spectacular, but throw in vocals by The Cure's Robert Smith and it becomes an epic masterpiece. Hands-down, my favourite track of all of 2010.


Manic Street Preachers feat. Ian McCulloch - Some Kind of Nothingness Probably my favourite off of the Manics' latest album Postcards of a Young Man. It's cheesy, but that's partly what makes it great. I put up this "alternative" Patrick Jones directed video instead of the official one, as it's way more amusing. ;)


Kylie Minogue - Get Outta My Way This will forever remind me of studying in the library with my gay BFF, as our study breaks would turn into parties for 2 when this track came on. It is one of Ms. Minogue's best.


Sky Parade - I Keep Coming Up So catchy, powerful and never fails to put me in a better mood. 2011 should be a great year for this band.

Happy 2011! xoxo

Happy Christmas!!!

Hope that those who celebrate Christmas are having a fun, relaxing day.....enjoy these Christmas-themed videos and eat more sugar cookies and mince pies..

The Holidays with....Little Annie

During her recent UK tour with Marc Almond, Little Annie answers the Christmas questionarie!

Which holiday do you participate in, Christmas, Chanukah, other?
Celebrate bith along with 3 kings, Kwanza, Russian Orthadox etc...its all one God.

What are your plans for the holidays?
Decorating, making pears in ammaretto and working,doing a bit a visiting, cuddling up with Sparky(thats when the animals talk, I keep telling him that) but mainly a great time for working. Painting ideally, have had so little quality painting time, Its quiet.

I live a block from where all the decorations ect are in NYC so that's my favorite holiday type thing, Im a sucker for the lights. I try to make it to midnight mass, but rarely do, so light a candle for the spirits..or hit my Godson's Irish bar and have a few spirits.

What was the best holiday present you ever received?
Goodness,thats hard to say. A paper mache nativity scene from Mexico and anything with the word Chanel in it....As corney as it sound hearing from loved ones is a gift not to be taken for granted, and the gift of being allowed to serve. Its such a tough time for alot of people. Serviice takes one out of that cell of self.

The best Christmas song is:
Favorite Christmas Songs are Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and This Christmas by Donny Hathaway...and last but not least is What are you doing New Years Eve, gorgeous song. This is maybe the 3rd year in the last God knows how many that I'm not doing a Christmas show, last few times we did a run for the whole month of December. Love those.....

What is on top of your wishlist?
Wishlist....hmmmmmmmm, for people to be safe and happy, healthy, peaceful..from there you could go anywhere.

Share a fond holiday memory from your childhood:
I have a memory of my sister Miriam and I, shes passed on now, lying under the tree as kids, looking up into the lights and decorations my moms used to make. It smelled so wonderful and looked truly magical and endless. Used to love driving around with my family as a kid looking at the lights. Love them lights..

At midnight on 1 January 2011, I will be...
New Years Eve will be working. Its the worst night of the year to be out, think I had two good times out on a New Years Eve in my life. Ideally, fingers crossed, God willing, I like to have the decks cleared of all the last years paper work ect, and make a fresh list of goals and projects for the coming year. Reflect on the tough stuff, be grateful for the good things..I know its just and arbitrary date but
again, while all the liteweights are getting hangovers (it really is ameture night drunk wise New Years Eve is) its a nice quiet time to be working. God I sound boring dont I....Anyway as I live in the Ground Zero of Christmas insainity (near Carnegie Hall, it took me 45 minutes to get from my building entrance to the drugstore two doors down...not cute!

Little Annie's myspace

The Holidays with....Eulogy Inn

David, the man behind psych project Eulogy Inn answers the Holiday questionnaire..

Which holiday do you participate in, Christmas, Chanukah, other?
Christmas on Mars is choice.

What are your plans for the holidays?
Hanging with Friends and family

What was the best holiday present you ever received?
Remco sound efx machine
http://youtu.be/SKMtMe-fyhY

The best Christmas song is:
Spectrum (Sonic Boom) - Santa Claus
It captures how I feel perfectly about this time of year.
http://youtu.be/k1etdqgngAM

What is on top of your wishlist?
Good health for all my friends and family.

Share a fond holiday memory from your childhood:
Sneaking out of bed early to see if I could spy a peek at Santa, but I just missed him, Toys everywhere, Mass Hysteria!

The perfect holiday party consists of:
A good wine, good music surrounded by good people.

At midnight on 1 January 2011, I will be...
Floating in space.

Sweet Jane: "Silent Night"

I am in love.

Sweet Jane - Silent Night.mp3

x

A few questions with: The Way Down

A Q&A with Ari, the bassist/vocalist from the brilliant Icelandic band The Way Down.

How did The Way Down come about?
That's kind of a long story, we formed the band after our last one quit in 2005. We had been getting increasingly frustrated by not being able to publish our music due to various fuck ups, so the original goal of the band was to finish a record at all costs. We managed that in 2007, put out a record called 'See You In Hell', which was published by Nonni on his Dead Records label. It gave us a starting point and we've kind of been progressing slowly from there.

Where did you get your band name from?
The name comes from line in a song with our old band, which was called California Cheeseburger, the song is called On The Beach. It struck me one day that there was a clever double meaning in the phrase. Most people think our name means something depressing, but it actually means 'the really cool', if you think about it.

Where's your favourite place in Reykjavik?
The downtown area, I grew up in the suburbs and I won't even go there to visit anymore. There's also a really nice museum next to the big church downtown that not many people know about that I sometimes take people to. Other than that, our flat and our rehearsal space are where we spend most of our time and have the most fun.

Where do your rehearse?
We rehearse down by the harbour, we got lucky and teamed up with a guy named Danny Pollock, notorious punk rock fella in Iceland. He's been building himself a studio these last few years and we get to rehearse there, it's rather luxurious, as rehearsal spaces go. We also made our new record there, so now we're officially not a one record band, another goal we made for ourselves.

What was your best gig so far? why?
We've had some good gigs, the one you saw was pretty good by our standards. I guess my favourite gig so far was at a local dive called Monte Carlo, a very seedy bar frequented by people with real alcohol issues and full of slot machines. Nothing nice ever happens there, but we showed up and played for the regulars and had fun shaking up the place. We got a lot of appreciation from people who you wouldn't usually see a rock gigs and it kind of felt like we did something nice that night.

We made a video from that gig (watch it here).

And the worst gig? why?
There's been a couple of those, I guess the worst one for me personally was when I lost my vocal pitch in front of a full house. It went on for the entire night, you could tell people just felt uncomfortable listening to it. Shit happens, I guess. We try to make sure we don't have bad gigs, but sometimes it's out of our hands.

When you guys hang out, what music are you probably listening to?
All kinds of stuff, really. Orri, our drummer, listens to a lot of new bands and is generally on top of what's going on, while we tend to obsess over older stuff. We like a lot of different kinds of music and we enjoy finding new bands or things we've never heard before. Guitar based rock, if I had to choose a genre, The Velvet Underground, if I had to choose a band. Or maybe The Cramps or The Who, we like lots of bands. Old country stuff too, jive, you name it.

What was the first album you ever bought?
'The Kids Are Alright' by The Who, when I was twelve. I still have it. It made me want to be in a band, I still love that record and the movie is great as well.

Any weird phobias and/or band superstitions?
Not band related, no. Riina hates the open water and I'm wary of stuff falling on top of me, personally, but that's neither here nor there. We're pretty easy going, as a band, we try to make the best of any situation we find ourselves in.

What's your band's fashion sense/style? Any favourite clothing shops?
I liked the clothes Nonni was bringing in through his Dead store, April 77, for example. Not a big labels person though and I hardly ever buy clothes. I guess buying clothes is a phobia for me, come to think of it. Riina gets her clothes from second hand shops, mostly. There's a newish shop here called Wildcat, which is pretty good, old school rock'n'roll clothes, she got cool boots from there the other day.

Describe your fanbase in 3 words:
Probably not sober.

What's the best thing about the Icelandic music scene?
I'm not a big fan of it. We're kind of on the outside looking in, we generally play when we feel like it and aren't really looking to make a mainstream impact. I find a lot of the stuff you have to do to get airplay and attention here distasteful and there's so little money in it that we might as well not bother. Maybe that sounds arrogant, but we really are just looking to please ourselves and have a good time playing music we like.

What's better - downloading, still buying CDs, or collecting vinyl?
Vinyl for the sound, no question. Streaming and downloading is useful and that's what we do the most these days, like most people. CDs I don't like so much, especially the standard plastic covered ones, they were a step backwards for music, I think.

Best band you've seen live?
There's so many good bands. The Jesus Lizard in 1991 were pretty great, The Hives in 2004, The Stooges in 2007, those were all great concerts. Lots of obscure bands in between, too many to list. Of newer Icelandic bands, The Caterpillarmen are pretty good, so are Hljómsveitin Ég.

Is there anything (previously unknown) about your band that you'd like to share with the world?
Not really, we feel very uninteresting now.

And what are your plans for the rest of the year?
We just recruited a second guitar player and are starting to think of our third record. The second one Icelandic Democracy is out now on the internet and will be published in the real world by Bad Taste early next year, so we're feeling good this winter.

Download:
The Way Down - Heart Over Soul.mp3
The Way Down - Maybe Tomorrow.mp3

Thanks Ari! x

The Holidays with...Hawkeye

It's that time of year again...the first up for this year's Christmas questionarie is Nora from the up-and-coming Portland psych band, Hawkeye.


Which holiday do you participate in, Christmas, Chanukah, other?
Well, despite my mixed heritage of Irish Catholic and Russian Jew, my family celebrated Christmas, probably because there were more specials for it on TV. It was and continues to be an excuse to get shit.

What are your plans for the holidays?
Well, there are a few good holiday parties and shows coming up here in Portland. Hawkeye is playing the Fuzzy Ball at the Wonder ballroom with a bunch of amazing bands (Pete International Airport, Go Fever, The Upsidedown, Happy Prescriptions, The Prids, Rick Bain and the Genius Position) Dec 17th. Come December 20th I celebrate my 21st birthday, which is a little known fact. Another show at Langano Lounge on December 23rd and a very special show on December 28th at Bunk Bar with good friends, Go Fever, to welcome our dear friend, Mara Deslauriers, who will be moving from Minneapolis. That's when the real holiday fun begins and we reignite our musical collaboration.

What was the best holiday present you ever received?
Well, as I said my birthday is right around Christmas so I often got one big gift to cover the two. I never minded, especially when I got my Gibson Les Paul Gothic.

The best Christmas song is:
Oh I don't know. One of the Raveonettes ones. I really like modern day Christmas music. The old stuff is good too. "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus" might be in play as a cover in a future Hawkeye set.

What is on top of your wishlist?
Health insurance and a job with tips, if the two are reconcilable.

Share a fond holiday memory from your childhood:
I'd rather not.

The perfect holiday party consists of:
People you know and care about, good music, and alcohol in that order. Weed is a given.

At midnight on 1 January 2011, I will be...
Probably playing a show at our bar, Langano Lounge.

Dead Skeleton's LJÓSBERINN

Another amazingly wicked track from the Icelandic band Dead Skeletons

And while you're at it, keep watching Nonni Dead and Anton Fjordon's online channel, Dead TV live from Reykjavik and Berlin. x