Pendulum were playing a DJ set in my city tonight. Instead of seeing them, I stayed in with a friend and we ate pizza and watched crap films. Life is good

I feel like I should like Pendulum, but their tracks have very rarely done much for me. They sound a bit like a badly done Prodigy and Killing Joke mashup: in theory that should make them a rolling train of unstoppable awesomeness, but instead it seems to make them have lots of fury and no direction. This said, I've only heard about half a dozen of their tracks, so maybe I've managed to miss the best ones, or just wasn't feeling receptive.

Been listening to/watching these three:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubi0xRMT5Hk
"Try Being a Lady". This is badass distilled. Take notes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHNAFRg6jYA
"The Littlest Birds", the be good tanyas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9r9sQ6PHOM
"I'd Rather Dance With You." WATCH THIS VIDEO. it is adorable like a basket of baby rabbits.

oh hay double post, I didn't see you there.

I have been listening to Nitzer Ebb today, because I am hungover and thus identify with the whole fire fire FIRE OW OW OW MUSCLE AND HATE

you can watch pretty Nitzer Ebb-man prance around singing his intense song here

Internet radio is devouring my listening tastes. I got a Squeezebox radio player for my kitchen at Christmas and I now listen almost entirely to my Last.fm channel and recommendations. I've discovered that there are a lot of tracks that I quite like from going to clubs that were all done by Covenant. I feel I really should have known that before now.

I can't get into internet radio at all. I have a lastFM account that I almost never use; I tend to have my music collection with me at any time and prefer it to low-quality/ad supported stuff, even if it means I don't get as wide a variety.

I went on a wee shopping spree recently in HMV since I haven't bought any new music in so long; I caught up with a few old favourites by getting Biffy Clyro's new "Only Revolutions" which was better than I was expecting (I wasn't such a big fan of Puzzle, their last one, compared to the genius of Vertigo of Bliss) and Muse's "The Resistance" which wasn't quite everything I had hoped for in a new Muse album, but was good nontheless.

The biggest excitement in my little group of new albums, though, was managing to get a hold of the special edition of Bat For Lashes' "Two Suns". Two new songs, a couple of covers and some live tracks add to what was possibly my favourite album of last year by one of the best live performers I've ever seen.

Fascinating tune, much like many of RDJ's EP tracks. Tiptoes up to the line marked 'just noise', creeps along it, then says 'f@ck it' and dives straight over. Lovely.

I've been all over various Guitar Vader tunes whilst trying (and mostly failing) to update iTunes on my PC. Smashing stuff that took me right back to my first playthrough of Jet Set Radio on the Dreamcast. Made me less inclined to letterbomb Apple.

Velvet Underground. Ridiculous amounts.
Heroin... actually sounds like heroin, it's so perfect.
And Venus in Furs... sexiest song ever? Umm yes.

Been hammering the Foos back catalogue and remembered that In Your Honour actually isn't that bad. Unlike Echoes, which is.

On the subject on internet radio, I'm really liking we7.com cause they've got loads of stuff including some comedy albums. Their "More like this" is pretty predictable though, Pandora was about the best for that I've found, but then they pulled out of the UK.

Currently looking forward to getting my hands on the Paul Durham/Black Lab complete back catalgoue, which I'll be ordering as soon as my flatmate is back from Spain.

It's sexy, yes. But in a very, very wrong way. Which, of course, makes it even sexier.

Creating little rainbows of joy between my ears this week have been The Decemberists, Annie, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Urusei Yatsura, Erase Errata, Devin Townsend/Strapping Young Lad, and Slow Down Tallahassee. Funs.

I think Close To Me is one of the sexiest songs on the planet. It's the heavy breathing. And the moaning.


>_> brb


So today I have been listening to this which is a track performed live from the National's new album High Violet. It sounds like the National. It is performed by the National. And it means they are touring again soon. I am one happy bunny.

I've been all over this tune lately. Just on the right side of silly to be actually good. Which means I love it, of course.

Schubert's a minor sonata D784. Howard Shelly on a fortepiano...

LCD Soundsystem (the eponymous album and Sound of Silver). Absolutely love All My Friends and Someone Great. Rest is awesome also.

The T.I.T.S./Leopard Leg vinyl double album 'Throughout The Ages/The Seven Sistered Sea-Secret Of Shh Shh Shh', seeing as I'm finally getting round to ripping it after buying it last autumn. Vinyl ripping is a lengthy process, but fun. However, I wish I'd started with something a little more accessible, given that Leopard Leg quite like their 20-minute free noise jams...

I'm onto The Pipettes and The Long Blondes right now. There's a comic called Phonogram, about post-modern magic and music. The first series was all Britpop, a genre I grew up listening to so I had the soundtrack ready, always lurking in my head. Emo is my drug of choice these days but Britpop will always have that nostaligic power, no matter how bad it is I'll always forgive.

The second volume, The Singles Club, is less my personal taste, so I'm having to YouTube a couple of songs every chapter. This issue's set almost entirely in an indie club holding a Female Vocalists Only night. Not my stuff but I'm enjoying listening to something different. I can always tell myself the comics made me do it.

If you like comics, music and awesome and have not read Phonogram, I think maybe you should?

Blonde on Blonde. What's that, university?

So I've recently become obsessed with Maroon 5.... is that a crime!??
Also pretty addicted to the song "bulletproof" by laroux.

I don't think we can be friends any more. I really don't. Sorry.

If it helps, I'm listening to them to gain a deeper understanding of comics.

Pipettes <3 <3 <3

I'll take my knocks, Daria. It won't kill my love for what is basically The Bangles with indie guitars.

On this day I've fallen completely under the spell of JJ - an act I knew nothing about until their album dropped through my door thanks to the Rough Trade Album Club. They gave me their new album 'No. 3', and, as a bonus disc, their first album, 'No. 2'.*

Both are amazing - like Saint Etienne if they stopped giggling at the back of the class and hung out in the library with Fever Ray - and I've been bouncing back and forth between them all day, trying to decide which one I like most. Final answer - the one I'm listening to at the time.



*For those as confused by this numerical oddity as I was, 'No. 1' was an EP.

At this precise moment in time I am listening to Boom Boom Boom by Nachtmahr, an Austrian harsh EBM group

Eh, NoFX. Over and over again, as per usual. Whenever I start going through their songs that I don't know (know used loosely, I've listened to them all), I seem to find a gem. Though, I just found out some of the lyrics to The Separation of Church and Skate are "I want conflict, I want dissent!" rather than "I woke up left, I want to sin!", which is how I've been singing it since I was about eleven. First song of their's I've ever heard. THUG 1 ftmfw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krZyeldj7tQ

Hadag Nahash - California. Aaaooooooooooooaaa...

Madonna - Jump

a nice choice for three in the morning.

my brother made me a really, really good mix and shoved it in my hands as I got on the train to go, and now I'm home and listening to it and avoiding responsibility and all different kinds of wistful.

it's got freelance whales, paul baribeau, nina simone, carla bruni, blackalicious and ...and you will know us (etc) on it.

right now it's on yeasayer. somehow all of these things work. I've got a great brother. and I am now wistful as BALLS.

*shoves excess wistful love-energy to internet*

Xploding Plastix. Over and over and over and oh god I love them so much.

Scars on Broadway. <3 ..Apparently I'm a little late in discovering them, but oh man. <3

So, I love Moby. Loving Moby is always seen as a lame thing, because he is uncool. However his last album, Pale Horses, is good listening. It's not very complicated, it could have been made by anyone, but it IS good. Especially Shot In The Back Of The Head.
I have been listening to Pale Horses.
I have also been listening to Flying Lotus, Seabear, Scout Niblett and The Cure.

Tom Waits, the Doors, various blues. Hollered along to with a whiskey in my hand.

ALSO: Daria, recommend me some Seabear?

Caribou isn't so bad - that, and a healthy dose of Sia.

Lots of They Might Be Giants' kid stuff. Why? Pwns the hell out of reading a textbook.

Didn't notice this!
The Ghost That Carried Us Away (album) and We Built A Fire (also an album).
Start, if you're finding tracks, by listening to Arms from The Ghost... as it's lovely


So! I am freeeaking out about exams for the last week and a bit, and it will continue until Tuesday. I started off listening to a playlist of Seabear, Scout Niblett, all The National I could get my hands on, Moby, TV On The Radio, Final Fantasy and Entertainment For The Braindead. However it got to the point yesterday when I wanted something more than heavy guitars and wailing, or twinkly violins. So now the playlist has Buraka Som Sistema, Xploding Plastix, Dälek, DJ C, Fela Kuti, London Elektricity, DJ Hype, Filthy Kicks, Octa Push, DJ Zinc, and Baku. Not sure which playlist helps more with revision, but I am enjoying the extra beats.

Heartbreak music, because I am a fool and I do not want to do what is good for me. Tallest Man on Earth. Over and over.

Sounds a lot like my method:

Feeling really down?
Low as low can be?
Emotional pain?
Play heart-wrenching, tear-inducing music on repeat late into the night/early morning.

One of the CDs I made InKy is entitled "Songs Wot Make Me Cry" and is perfect for that kind of stuff.

Earlier this evening I was listening to the installation CD for age-old-game, 'Micro Machines 2'.

With a track of data, followed by six tracks of suitably accelerating pop-rock instrumental, it makes me yearn for the days that games always had a soundtrack AND often on the CD itself.

At one point did this stop? :/

I followed it up by listening to the 'Destruction Derby' CD, which is full of absolutely crud musically. Pft.

Yesterday, I was listening to Frog Pocket. Today it is Ólafur Arnalds. MmMMm, violins

*googles*

PRETTY!

I have moved on. Dan Savage is a freakin' genius and I should just do what he says all the time. Celebrating with Coco Rosie and Pomplamoose, pink-colored girl voices.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

<3

A Day to Remember, Silverstein, and Enter Shikari.

Silverstein, though I realise Screamo is by no means everyone's cup of tea, really has an amazing concept with their album Shipwreck in the Sand - They made the entire album tell a story, complete with plot twist. Awesome.

And a very good CD it was too, as were the others.

Today I had what can best be described as a revelatory experience. I popped 'LIVWE!!!' by Boredoms into my ears, and then lost all rational thought for the full 40-minute glory of it. Keyboards, choir and frantic drumming, merging together into something more mind-expandingly gorgeous than mere words could ever describe. Check it out, yeah?

[EDIT] Loved it so much, I popped up a new review on Amazon.co.uk. Right here!

I've been listening to 300MB of tunes that I'm trying to organise into a decent order for a mixtape. Yes, I know that's a lot more than you usually get on a mixtape, but it will be UTTERLY AWESOME. It also has 'Your Woman' by White Room on it.

I fell asleep with the radio on and slept through three hours of the Lex and Terry show. *cringe* Later today I'm going to get a new sort of lobotomy, just in case anything they've said has stuck in my mind. The degree of idiocy...

Is that for your Mix Tape Blind Date buddy? And did you mean White Town? Were you distracted by KLF while you were writing?

I was thrown into the wonderful treat of recommended music yesterday by MrNiceGuy, until the early hours of this morning.

The pleasing sounds included work from: Lisa Gerrard, Martika, Sinead O'Connor, Enigma, Cock Robin, Bruce Hornsby, Crosby Stills & Nash, and many others.

I aspire to own something equalling his music collection one day.

The K&D Sessions by Kruder and Dorfmeister because it is lovely

Irritating amounts of Beethoven, Tippett and Gabrieli...

Oh the pains of studying a subject you enjoy...

Sia - We are born

It's happy clappy upbeat music rather than their previous downtempo-y stuff but it's totally awesome