Still Kissing!

I am kissing just as well, if not moreso, than ever! Unfortunately, it will no longer be at stillkisseswithsaliva.blogspot.com. Today's post at Quick, Before it Melts marks my first there, and I've already got two more ready, so expect some more kisses very quickly! I will be running under the MattSKwS moniker there and over at Our Last Quarterstance (which is back from hiatus), and you can find my album reviews at various webzines. If you ever need to get in touch with me, you can email me at mattskws@gmail.com.

Cheers,
Matt, SKwS

The Morning Benders

Just thought I'd point yous guys' direction toward Berkley's Morning Benders. They make some delicious pop that I ought to have posted about when it was warmer out, but what can you do - they're still good tunes.
Show tonight for all of my San Fran readers, they're on a 9, opening for Pitchfork-approved Figurines at the Rickshaw Stop.




Mp3s:
Grain of Salt
Heavy Hearts

October Mixtape

So...this mixtape really has little to do with October. Some of the songs are tracks that were just released this October, but the majority of them are songs that I've just been listening to a lot. But yeah, they don't sound "autumn-y" or anything like that, they're just really good songs that have been getting some playtime at SKwS Headquarters.

Here's the tracklist:

01 Casey Dienel - "Cut Your Hair" (Pavement cover)
02 Art Brut - "Nag Nag Nag Nag"
03 Pink Nasty (ft. Will Oldham) - "Dont Ever Change"
04 Albert Hammond, Jr. - "Hard To Live (In the City)" - It sounds pretty much exactly like old Strokes with a new vocalist. Is that a bad thing? I'm not entirely certain. It's fun retro-guitar pop.
05 Of Montreal - "The Party's Crashing Us" - Are these guys due to make an absolutley kick-ass album or what? They've been flirting with greatness for years now but haven't been album to make a consistent enough album that I could consider it awesome. New album due out soon; here's hoping.
06 Kim Jong-Il - "I'm So Ronery"
07 Lifter/Puller - "Space Humping $19.99"
08 Destroyer - "Watercolours into the Ocean"
09 Peter Bjorn and John - "Amsterdam"
10 Various - "Hater"
11 The Little Ones - "Lovers Who Uncover"
12 Nina Persson - "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" (White Stripes cover)

Sorry you guys for those songs not working. I am again un-hosted. Un parado, if you will. Regardless, here's the yousendit version of the .zip for this mixtape:

October Mixtape.zip

Also, I'm experimenting with a new host. Here's the Art Brut mp3 through them - tell me if it's working for you guys.

Art Brut - Nag Nag Nag Nag

Xiu Xiu/Devendra Banhart

I told you entirely too long ago that I'd be running this piece, so here it is.
Devendra Banhart and Xiu Xiu, two of the weirdest and most popular indie rockers, did a take on each others' songs. Devendra took on Xiu Xiu's "Support Our Troops OH!," one of the most frightening tracks on an already frightening album, while Xiu Xiu took on Banhart's beautiful "The Body Breaks."

Devendra Banhart - "Support Our Tropps OH!" - Pulls it off in traditional Banhart style, and manages to turn the creepiness down. Not that it's still not creepy, mind you. It's just less so 'cos we don't have Jamie's entirely-too-human voice on top of it.
Xiu Xiu - "Support Our Troops OH!"

Xiu Xiu - "The Body Breaks" - Really sounds like any other Xiu Xiu track, dance-able beat, Jamie's fragile vox and all.
Devendra Banhart - "The Body Breaks"

Tomorrow I'll hook you guys up with a mixtape of songs that have been awesome around here lately.

The latest Contrast Podcast is up! Head on over here to listen. My contribution was...

Annuals - Bleary-Eyed

Art Brut and We Are Scientist Split EP

I told you the other day that I would hook you up with some split EP tracks. Enjoy.

Art Brut - "The Great Escape" (SKwS Recommended Track)

The original is perhaps my favorite WAS song, but that isn’t saying much given that I’m not a big fan. Regardless, Eddie and friends give it the Art Brut treatment – in your face punk guitars and Argos’s speak/yell vocals. The “Freebird”-esque guitar solo is the icing on the cake, however. It would have fit right in on BBR&R.

We Are Scientists - "Bang Bang Rock and Roll" {(SKwS Top Track)}

Though not a fan of WAS, I must confess that this cover is one of the best I’ve heard in a while. In response to the lines in this song, “I can’t stand the sound of The Velvet Underground,” Art Brut’s tour mates do this song in Lou Reed fashion. The vocalist does his best imitation of the man, and they slow it down into a druggy, offbeat track. Excellent.

Originals:
We Are Scientists - "The Great Escape"
Art Brut - "Bang Bang Rock and Roll"

Art Brut’s myspace, where you can hear the new track, “Nag Nag Nag Nag”

We Are Scientists' myspace.

Tune in tomorrow/the next day/soon for the next installment in this series - Xiu Xiu/Devendra Banhart split EP!

Throwback Thursday: Blood on the Wall

I know, I know, I've been failing on my other feature lately, but I'll get one up this weekend hopefully. This one's gonna be cool, too. I take a song that received a bit of praise and/or hype from last year or two ago that has fallen off the radar. Like, Blood on the Wall's "Mary Susan," for instance. And then I talk about the band/song and post the song and maybe some others. These songs are good songs, by the way, not songs that fell off 'cos they aren't so good (ahem, Beirut - never really liked those guys).Blood on the Wall's Awesomer (released 2005) received a "Recommended" rating from Pitchfork, and track "Mary Susan" received a fair amount of hype. This trio from Brooklyn sounds pretty much exactly the same as the Pixies, but with some more noise and some less new wave. Their album found its way on pretty much no one's year-end lists, and neither did the stellar "Mary Susan." This leads me to beleive that many people have missed out on this stellar (if derivative) song (which is the whole idea here - these songs are good, but they have been forgotten). So here it is.

Mary Susan {(SKwS Top Track)}
Reunite on Ice (SKwS Recommended Track)

Oh and by the way, Digsy over at Q,BiM is doing a Kasabian contest which runs out tomorrow! So hurry up and win some playing cards and other such Kasabian-related goodies!