Electric Feet, by 28 Boulevard, of Cambridge, England, contains just the right mixture of fuzz, aggressive guitars and pop bounce; also excellent are the visuals on this video. Though some of them veer sharply into “unintentional hilarity” territory aka “I may have made a tiny yeeeek! noise when the silhouettes were filled with their faces.”
Electric Feet is from Sunclouds, due out April 7, 2014, though you can listen to additional excerpts at their Soundcloud page.
Rosanne Cash & The Thread, backstage at Carolina Theater in Durham, North Carolina, with A Feather’s Not A Bird, from her new record The River & The Thread, or: the CXCW set I wasn’t quite sure was real until I clicked play.
The Mercy Beat are (possibly international) gentlemen (and maybe ladies?) of mystery for right now, so all I can tell you is 1) they are currently in Los Angeles 2) this is their most recent song and 3) it is mellow and lovely.
Also, I am pretty sure the sly echo of “Mersey Beat” in their name is not an accident. And I have a very strong suspicion that I should know that voice.
And here, for anyone who might need it, is a little music video pep-talk: Keep On Keeping On, by Travie McCoy (Gym Class Heroes) featuring Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco). I am thoroughly biased by generalized affection for them both, but the video is sweet and beautifully lit and so charming I didn’t even really care that the wings bb!Travis sprouts at the end don’t really look like swan wings.
In fact the only quibble I have is that the backflip(s) that happened behind the scenes didn’t make it into the final product.
![Travie McCoy: Keep On Keeping On ft. Brendon Urie [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4QDECwqKE0g/0.jpg)
I look forward to Two Mule Blues‘ Couch by Couch West set every year at least in part because I want to see what they are going to blow up/set on fire. Spoiler alert: it is usually a couch. But the method changes. This year they performed Old Vinyl and Innocence and I am not quite sure how they lit the couch on fire – blowtorch? – but they did.
True confession: I had regarded The Orwells with grumpy disdain for some time – possibly I listened to an off-track on a bad day, somewhere along the line – but recently I did a blind listen-test 1, and, readers, they passed.
Then yesterday I was poking around among Eddie O’Keefe’s videos and found this one, for Halloween All Year, which is a sentiment I can get behind:
The ORWELLS – Halloween All Year from Eddie O'KEEFE on Vimeo.
1 I dropped two of their tracks into the middle of a Soundcloud playlist, scrolled back to the beginning, pressed play and opened a new tab. Halfway through Who Needs You I thought Hold on, who is that, they’re pretty bad-ass, and clicked back to find out.
It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.
In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.
Poeticat, my favorite purveyors of slam poetry set to music, are back with a new single entitled Third Arm, for which they have made the video/short film below, wherein a nerd becomes a super hero with, you guessed it, a third arm. His costume is very orange; the villains have amazing wrestling masks; the whole thing is awesome.
http://youtu.be/wi23is3obkQ
They will also be releasing an EP in April. Meanwhile, Ivo Ramalho (bass) is here to tell us about the books, music and drink he loves best.
A Good Read
You won’t get a reading lecture from me as I have a bit of a problem with reading. The thing is that I have the memory of a goldfish and have read so many amazing books which I automatically forget about. However, Life of Pi [by Yann Martel], Shantaram [by Gregory David Roberts] and The White Tiger [by Aravind Adiga] are good exceptions to this rule, probably because they are set in India.
I am also a sucker for crime novels, I love a good page turner, and hands down The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy [by Stieg Larsson] was probably the best I have ever read; just literally couldn’t put those books down.
And on a sentimental side of things, the Harry Potter [series by J.K. Rowling] as to be up there. These books were a big part of my teenage years and start of adulthood, and I remember the joy I got from reading them, it was amazing! No shame here whatsoever.
A Good Listen
This is that hard question to ask a musician, so I’ll try and keep it short. Absolutely anything by the Red Hot Chili Peppers have ever released. Listening to the evolution of the band’s sound throughout the years is amazing. The trio Flea-Chadis-Frusciante, is for me, absolutely flawless. No words needed, just listen to Stadium Arcadium, what an album!
System of a Down, for the attitude and the amazing fusion of eastern sounds with heavy metal music. The mix of great vocal harmonies with heavy riffs and powerful drums.
Skunk Anansie, for me, one of the best bands to ever come out of England. Great lyrics, great music and the fantastically raw vocals by the amazing Skin.
Bob Marley, for bringing reggae into the main stream, and for making me want to listen to more and more reggae.
![Bob Marley - Three Little Birds [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9qqDuEP4okw/0.jpg)
Ben Harper during his period with “The Innocent Criminals”. 5 great albums.
Anything that has come out of Motown Records, from Diana Ross to MJ.
A Good Drink
The day doesn’t start until that cup of black coffee has been assimilated by my body. Then, after that, anything that the day brings. From water, to beer or scotch, to home-made Serbian +50% fruit liquor (Rakija).
Against Me! has had a hot streak of startling and beautiful lyric videos lately; this one is for Black Me Out from Transgender Dysphoria Blues. Everything about it is perfect, from the font choice to the sharp angles of the cut-outs to the quick cuts to shots of Against Me! playing the song. It’s a roar of defiance combined with a bloody and toe-curling lantern slide show, and I love it.
One of the (very many) reasons I love Couch by CouchWest is it brings all sorts of awesome new-to-me bands my way, such as Ned Van Go, of Nashville. Here they are with Mountaintop Removal, proving it is totally possible to tear it up while also chilling on a couch, or keg, or speaker, as the case may be.
Love Kin by Guantanamo Baywatch is a great surfy rockabilly tune, and one half of a double-A single release; the other side is Mama by Shannon and the Clams.
You can follow GB’s shenanigans on Facebook, but be warned, that page is not safe for work or persons with delicate sensibilities.
