Review – Tape Club by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Let me just say, upfront: these guys have the best band name ever. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is just an awesome name. There’s something whimsical, something melancholic yet comforting about  the “Someone still loves you” part. Whatever you do, someone still loves you, you’re never alone. And then of course Boris Yeltsin, the President of Russia, who probably unfairly is best known for his little drunken dance. I’ve been saying this ever since they started playing. Now, since that beginning they’ve released three albums, and this is a new release by them. It is called Tape Club. It is a slice of American indie with these little guitars and a very soft-spoken voice. There’s also a hint of folk, especially in their earlier work.

(To read the full review, click here)

Bok Bok and Tom Trago collaborate on EP, Label

Bok Bok and fellow Dutchie Tom Trago are going to collaborate on an EP as well as a label. The EP will be called Night Voyage Tool Kit, and it will contain six tracks. Though this will be released digitally via Sound Pellegrino on the 31st of October, the two are also planning to start a label. This to release both their future collaborative efforts as well as things by other musicians. The label will also be called Night Voyage.

Public Lover to come with debut

Public Lover, aka the duo Bruno Pronsato and Ninca Leece, are going to release their debut album. The album will be called A Broken Shape of You, and it will be released on the 31st of January of 2012. This will be done by Telegraph Records. The album boasts eight tracks, including once called ‘The Same is the Same’ and ‘What She Saw’.

I was sitting at my desk when I heard a lot of commotion outside. I stood up, walked up to the window. Through the blinds I saw her. Out of the woods she came, with dazed eyes looking at nothing in particular and bloodstains all over her angelic white dress. She saw something in those woods, that much was certain. But what she saw, no one quite knew. Rumours immediately spread, but I’m not into rumours, no sir. I’m only into cold, hard facts. That, and I don’t particularly believe in giant Centipedes. I put a cigarette in my mouth, struck a match on the tiretracks, and then lit my fag with a lighter. It is as I thought, the Cartell boys were at it again. I’m a brave private eye, but the Cartell boys were out of my league. They had local government backing, plus they once dangled me out of a seven story window. So what she saw in those woods I would never know, but Mrs. DuValle was very happy when I found her cat in Mr. Langsky’s tree.

New Dirty Projectors album in 2012

The band Dirty Projectors has announced the successor to Bitte Orca. That album, from 2009, will be followed up by a new one next spring. In an interview with Spin the band’s Dave Longstreth said that most songs will be linked to the themes of horror and fear. So naturally, one of the songs on the new album is named About to Die.

It is often thought that the gladiators in Rome said Those who are about to die salute you. A breaking new research by L.P. Ubenstortze, however, sheds a new light on this. He says, Yes, they had to say that to whomever was in the ancient equivalent of the Royal Box, however the big boys – the ones that were most likely to bully your feminine kid if they would’ve been in high school today – often tried to get around it. For if they said exactly that, it would seem submissive and fatalistic. So what they often did was say something like Those who are about to die salute you, and then they just did not salute. Or Those who are about to lie salute you, Those who are about to pry salute you, or Those who designed that fabulous window treatment should stand here and die and salute you. A startling innovation came when some of them started to cross their fingers behind their back to indicate they didn’t mean it, something that has influenced playground activities amongst youth everywhere.

Leonard Cohen to release new album

Next year Leonard Cohen will release a new album. The influential Cohen, who is 77, last released an album in 2004. So eight years later he is going to be back in the mix with a little something called Old Ideas, an album which will contain ten new tracks.

Old ideas are what stagnates the world! New ideas, innovation, that is what you need. Otherwise the world will come to a standstill! This is what Roger Dubroski always said when his mother would serve him the same stew over and over again. All right, one day she said, you cook! So he did, and enthusiastically he started to mix spices and herbs and tastes and so on. However, after a few days he already got into trouble because there are only so many ways you can cook fish and chips. When another attempt failed – fish covered with basil and an orange sauce –  he was enraged, ran up main street, into a bookshop, and bought a cookbook. Not easy then, his mother said, only using new ideas, eh? Well, they are new to me, he muttered, as he slowly stirred his Asian broth according to Mr. Chow’s Thai and Japanese Delight for Stay at Home Mums Cook Book.

The Weekly Froth #14 (with Box Codax, Keep Shelley in Athens, and more!)

The weekly froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘Dawning’ by Box Codax

This song is by Nick McCarthy’s side project and forms one side of a split with artist Martin Creed. I must say, I quite fancy this. If you are expecting anything like Franz Ferdinand, you might want to expel those thoughts before you listen to this, for you will be sorely disappointed. It has this Nouvelle Vague ’50s vibe for me, though it has a hint of Franz Ferdinand’s slower work in it as well, especially in its diction and timing. The song starts with some really high vocals, which in essence is the chorus. The verses are a bit lower in that regard. I love the soft melancholy that the song embodies. The last thirty seconds, I lost a bit of focus there despite it only runs for four minutes or thereabouts. Aside from that, a terribly good song if you are up for it.

(To listen to this track and to listen to five others and read their write-ups, check here)