You Still Believe In Me

Presenting Dream Diary

2009-08-26T22:39:00.003-04:00

Stumbling Into Your Arms

2009-06-23T10:45:00.004-04:00

Air France has just unveiled GBG Belongs To Us, a "love letter in three parts" to their native Gothenberg. The three sections consist of an arresting, bittersweet Pet Shop Boys-esq dance single about tumbling along the city's hills and cliffs, a gorgeous video of city sights, and an essay explaining the different sections and spots around town.

The song is an update of Saint Etienne's 1991 track "London Belongs to Me," which painted a portrait of a magical, never-was London in which "it's too hot to even hold hands." The inspiration for Saint Etienne's cut came from Norman Collins' 1945 novel of the same name, which detailed the colorful lives of pre-WWII Londoners living in a terraced house. Here's to cities of the imagination.

The Sweetest Thing

2009-06-19T14:25:00.003-04:00

The best track from Camera Obscura's latest? I say so. As far as their big, hooky choruses go, this one is unusually democratic, with the whole band getting to chime in on the vocal "wooo's" for once. Like the new album as a whole, 'The Sweetest Thing' continues the band's progression away from slight and gentle towards big and bombastic, with string arrangements laid on thick and Tracey Campbell's voice sounding stronger than ever. The question is, what mysterious drug-addled (Scottish?) singer inspired her to write this?

Cría Cuervos

2009-06-05T12:08:00.001-04:00

Taken from Leti's blog...

You Hear Colors

2009-06-01T17:03:00.007-04:00

Any video that cribs completely from The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is good in my book. It's a new single from Montreal's CFCF, who make pleasant, evocative instrumentals that should be the background music to your daily chores. Ominous laundry folding is in order.

My Life, My Swag

2009-05-26T15:01:00.004-04:00

The cold, elegant boutique label Sincerely Yours has just released a duo of songs by a mysterious act called "jj". The video for "My Life, My Swag" and "My Swag, My Life" is below; for the pastoral second half, guaranteed to put a smile on your face, skip forward to 2:45. There's no information available about jj, who slightly recall an icy, Scandinavian Camera Obscura, but it's not a stretch to guess that they are likely of Swedish extract.

Terry Wants My Photograph

2009-05-05T10:28:00.004-04:00

If there was ever a song with a promo video that should have been extended into a full-length film, it's this black-and-white clip for Kirsty Maccoll's "Terry." In my mind, Kirsty's jangling, uptempo pop, always hinting at a fascination with the lost British working-class culture of the 1950s and sixties, makes her the Smiths' mid-eighties female counterpart. In "Terry," Kirsty ditches her spastic-dancing boyfriend, played to great effect by Adrian Edmondson, a.k.a. Vyvyan Basterd from The Young Ones, for the "tough as Marlon Brando" punk goon of the title.

Young Adult Friction

2009-04-30T13:48:00.004-04:00

New York's beloved The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have a new video for single "Young Adult Friction." It's the high point of their strong-throughout debut LP, with an immaculate keyboard hook churned out by Peggy on the Nord Electro and a captivating call-and-answer chorus. It's Smiths- and Belle & Sebastian-inspired lyrically: a bibliophile wet-dream fantasy of doing it "between the stacks in the library" among the "dust and the microfiche." The horsing-around video gives us a window into the Pains' favorite teen reading: books on suicide and Beverly Cleary's Fifteen.

Return To Saturnin

2009-04-16T01:29:00.001-04:00

Method Of Modern Love

2009-04-11T19:28:00.005-04:00

British pop geniuses Saint Etienne have a new greatest hits collection coming out, incidentally, with a glossy new single, "Method of Modern Love." The trio began their career attempting top-40 dance pop and now have come full circle, even as, funnily enough, a wave of "Balearic" indie dance groups attempt to make music that sounds like Saint Etienne 18 years ago.

Even better, in an interview Bob Stanley explains that the group is currently wading through their staggeringly large back-catalogue, preparing for the undertaking of creating remastered, expanded double-disc versions of all of their past LPs. I can't wait to hear what they unearth; this is truly something heavenly to forward to. Check out this über-great '90s photo montage:

Stalking Skills

2009-04-06T19:20:00.007-04:00

Liechtenstein, from Goteborg, Sweden, will be crossing the sea to do a show at Don Hill's as part of New York's early-May Popfest. They've got great songs with titles like "Stalking Skills" and "Apathy" that recall old bands like Dolly Mixture and The Shop Assistants. Plus they have promo photos in which they glower while drinking tea, and are spending the spring traversing the globe, playing at festivals and parties such as "The Wimp Club" in Dresden and "The Hamburg P!O!P! Weekender." What could be better? At their show I'll be hoping to acquire one of these tote bags.

There's A Country, You Don't Live There

2009-04-01T16:50:00.005-04:00

Last week Morrissey wrapped up a couple of New York performances; I had gone to see him earlier just outside the city at the historic Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey. The band's beefed-up, crunching renditions of old standards were missing the songs' on-record subtlety and charm. Morrissey struggled through costume changes and seemed out of breath, but his pipes were as good as ever. I think this tour is the end, or should be. I wish they had played:

Tears In Your Cup

2009-03-27T13:46:00.007-04:00

I like this just-completed video (specifically those big white letters contained within) from Finnish quartet Cats On Fire. They traffic in quick-footed indie pop and have an album coming out on the in-house record label of the wonderful London dance party How Does It Feel To Be Loved? Over the last few years, the HDIF imprint has put out a sequence of classy LPs inspired by the modus operandi ("Indie pop, Tamla Motown, Sixties heartbreak") of their club night. Oh, and, if you enjoy Cats On Fire, be sure to see them at their single U.S. tour date, a May appearance at Don Hill's.

Magic Carpet Ride

2009-03-25T20:45:00.001-04:00

Change Of Heart

2009-03-23T11:48:00.009-04:00

The amazing El Perro Del Mar has regrouped from underwhelming sophomore album From The Valley To The Stars and returned with a jaw-dropping new slow-groove single called "Change of Heart," which can be listened to and/or purchased here as well as on Myspace. A new album called Love Is Not Pop, recorded in collaboration with Rasmus Hägg of Studio, will be released in Scandinavia on April 1st. The songs were written "during a stay in Paris in October" and concern "the dream of a pure love in a dirty world." Oh, also, she's been spending her time performing at Morrissey tribute nights in Malmö and Stockholm.

Swissex Lover

2009-03-19T15:46:00.005-04:00

Fight Bite is from Texas and is hazy and beautiful with soft vocals, quaint drum machines, and chiming, buzzing keyboards. Listening to the duo’s songs feels like being wrapped in cotton candy gauze. One can almost see them huddled in a cool basement to escape the summer heat, surrounded by stacks of vintage synths.

They have just put out their debut album and are playing a bunch of SXSW shows, so they should be on your list if you’re going. Also, they do a cover of my favorite Madonna single, “Live To Tell.” It’s not that great, but, hey, nice taste. The below clip for “Swissex Lover” is pleasant, but even better are the livelier tunes tucked away on Myspace.

My Friend Bobby

2009-03-17T19:06:00.005-04:00

As spring readies to emerge, You Still Believe In Me has awoken from a long slumber. This is one of my favorite tracks produced by Joe Meek, the oddball British producer who churned out a slew of pop singles in the early '60s in collaboration with an assortment of no-name artists.

Meek was perpetually a bit out of step with conventional society; he was gay, a loner, worked independently of record labels, and struggled with depression and substance addiction. He had a fascination with the "other side," setting up tape machines in graveyards and claiming that the spirit of his idol Buddy Holly spoke to him in dreams. Meek's reverb-drenched, slightly off-kilter productions seem to emanate from some spooky alternate universe; he had no interest in merely capturing the conventional sound of a band in a room.

In 1967, on the anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, Meek killed his landlady with a shotgun and then turned it on himself. His sensitive, strange, desperate spirit seems to pour out of the speakers when one hears his recordings.

Anywhere Out Of The World

2008-12-27T20:00:00.005-05:00

As you lie on a futon or fuzzy sofa with a belly bloated with cookies or turkey or gummy Santas, think of the good times and hatch a plan for the year ahead. Maybe painstakingly pick a tie from your collection, but don't get too agitated.

Auton - "Slagskepp" from Viktor Sjöberg on Vimeo.

I Was Born On Christmas Day

2008-12-26T00:35:00.003-05:00

Saint Etienne's 'I Was Born On Christmas Day' has been around for fifteen Xmas's. Throw on a track jacket and gather around the fire.

We Loathe Disco, We Love Discotheque

2008-12-23T11:22:00.006-05:00

I recently discovered what I've been missing out on regarding Bad Dream Fancy Dress, a fantastic outfit who put out a single album on the greatly-mourned ‘80s pop label El Records. As El’s site explains, the individuals behind the vision are “Cally and Katz, two brilliantly intelligent and party-loving girls from Leigh-On-Sea in Essex.” Their LP is a mélange of handclaps, harmonies and unison chants, Casio drumbeats and faux-trumpets, all woven into tight, captivating arrangements in songs that explore the importance of dressing with “Flair” and the culinary condition of going “Curry Crazy.” Listen to their great singles via Myspace.

Unsung Genius

2008-12-19T17:36:00.007-05:00

The Ontario-based Mystery Hoard recently shed a ray of light on the unknown Florence Thomas, the sculptor who created scores of tabletop-sized dioramas of fantastical fairytale scenes on behalf of the View-Master company. Particularly in the '50s and '60s, millions of children have peeked through plastic View-Master scopes to discover panoramic 3-D photos of the tiny, vivid worlds which Ms. Thomas crafted from clay, wood, paint, and fabric. Many fans probably wished that they could step out of their awkward lives and into the world within the View-Master forever.

Below, Thomas' successor, Joe Liptak, shoots a Robin Hood scene.

Me And Mary

2008-12-08T12:38:00.007-05:00

Asobi Seksu have been kicking around New York for several years now and seem to get better and better with every new slice of music released. They've always seemed quite inspired by the poppier, feyer end of the classic shoegaze spectrum. Guitarist James Hanna is one of those with a gigantic pedal board packed with delay and modulator and overdrive contraptions--when sealed for travel, it must resemble the coffin of a child. Anyway, the band has just graced Myspace with a fabulous, churning new single titled "Me and Mary." Listen here.

Strangers Touching

2008-12-06T16:24:00.006-05:00

Picture snapper Richard Renaldi spent a year photographing strangers touching. On the city street and the beach, in parks and barbershops, people were asked to pose touching others whom they had never met. The resultant body language, and the emotions written across the subjects' faces, are quite interesting. View the series here.

History Of Love

2008-12-05T15:13:00.007-05:00

Stuck in my head lately has been recent discovery London's Still Corners. Their hazy, lilting single "History of Love" is gorgeous; it splits the difference between everybody's favorite band Beach House and the space-age mod-kitsch of Broadcast. It makes one feel as if you've fallen asleep while taking a molasses shower. Listen on Myspace here.

Time Will Not Wait For Me

2008-12-04T18:34:00.008-05:00

I love the Beach Boys' "Break Away," a song of both the triumph of self-realization, and wistfulness from the passage of time. It was a horrible flop disaster as a single and thus was never included on a studio album. The 'break away' in question is either the band's split from Capitol Records (who had under-promoted them for several years, as punishment for their refusing to write songs about surfing), or Brian's hug goodbye to reality as he descended into a nervous breakdown. They resemble New-Age cult leaders in their loose-fitted white clothing.

The Times Made An Irony Chart

2008-11-23T12:19:00.043-05:00

We have entered into an era of Roy Orbison songs ringing through the air, and truck windows plastered with technicolor decals of teary-eyed eagles against fluttering flags.

In a talk at the New York Public Library this past week, Joan Didion, described as 'the nation's poet laureate of disillusion,' lamented that the United States has become an 'irony-free zone' since the election. Innocence has become prized over the knowing detachment that (Didion thinks) is the mark of an insightful person in a fragmented world.

Amazingly, the the Times made a graph charting the decline of the term 'irony.' The chart is itself ironic and really adorable.

Run Away With Me

2008-11-22T15:56:00.029-05:00

It has become incredibly cold over the last few days in New York City, with the red lines on everyone's thermometers plunging below freezing. I ordered french toast this morning and then could barely eat it, as my hands remained a pair of ice blocks---two lobsters. Luckily, I discovered the perfect song for the moment: Jens Lekman's "Run Away With Me." Strangely, a friend has told me that this song is in seasonal in-store soundtrack rotation at Anthropologie. It's found on his 2005 USA Tour EP---200 copies were made, each with a photo negative taped to the front packaging (What are the photos of---perhaps a naked baby Jens?). Click here to listen.