+ it's come to my attention...

leigh's top words for record reviews:
languid
driving
understated/subtle (same diff)
ethereal
yearning

this means i either need a better thesaurus
or i really just like the music i like.

or perhaps that there i have the ingredients for my musical ideal?

one band checks them all off. not at once though, that would be a bit weird. i bet you can even guess who it is *looks below*

+ Touch Typist - Powwow 5: You Cannot Kiss A Laughing Mouth

very much an underrated local record from 2007, i like it more and more when i listen back. young band from melbourne, average looking blokes, perhaps lacking the necessary cool or quirkiness factor for it to have generated much hype, but a really impressive album nonetheless.

there goes that word again: understated. a lot going on - ethereal synths and pretty glitches, a really driving beat (be it drums, performed live on occasion standing up or by guitar or by tig's keys), a half-spoken languid-meets-laconic delivery in a distinctly australian accent from nick huggins to match his equally deft guitar strokes (bringing to mind the the amanset school of subtlety). all played down by a light, almost feathery touch - but by no means light-weight.

the cd btw was number 5 in the powwow series from sydney/melb label feral media. good work by feral.

touch typist myspace

+ 1 hour and 16 minutes in which to impress someone^

last week i made a mix for someone incredibly awesome whose own musical output has been formidable to say the least. it was an australian-only one which made it fun and a little easier, though of course it's always a battle to not just include friends' bands, even if they could easily fill 650mb with their awesomeness.

aside from the usual suspects (said friends), i was quite happy to include Drunk Hands (a relative pop ditty 'Gilltone' from the usually dirgy melbourne band), dynamic and possibly beat-heavy tunes from otherwise moderate indie rock bands like Touch Typist (Nostalgia is a Lake), and Aleks and the Ramps (i went 'Pisces vs Aquarius' instead of 'Brain'), the hauntingly insistent Because of Ghosts (Upwards! Forwards! Towards the Sun!), and i ended with the raw power of some live Scientists ('Blood Red River') for something a little bit different bit unusual.

^ i hope it works.

+ why? - alopecia

thanks to the fairy godbrother otherwise known as captain k-rad i am listening to the new Why? album, Alopecia and it's bloody awesome. it is very much what i was expecting/hoping for, though not nearly as dark and bleak musically as the 'single' (the hollows) or the opener (the voweks pt 2) might have suggested. yoni wolf has never been short of musical ideas but on earlier releases they sometimes sounded half-realised. last album was great, the song-craft had improved immensely and still maintained the slightly chaotic, anything-goes approach. now that essence is distilled even further, but as an album it works really well as songs blend seemlessly into another. anyway still digesting the record, i'm only on my 3rd listen as i type so more later.

+ 2007 in review

favourites:

* Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
* The Sea and Cake - Everybody
* Thee More Shallows - Book of Bad Breaks
* Kid Cornered - self-titled
* Aleks and the Ramps - Pisces vs Aquarius
* Bachelorette - Isolation Loops
* Mice Parade - self-titled
* Fridge - The Sun
* By The Fireside - The Great Hartford Fire
* Múm - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy
* Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
* Rand and Holland - Caravans
* The Tigers - Beautiful Forest
* Lymbyc Systym - Love Your Abuser

Honourable mentions:
* xoxo, panda - The New Kid Revival
* Akron/Family - Love is Simple
* Tuung - Good Arrows
* Odd Nosdam - Level Live Wires
* Apostle of Hustle - National Anthem of Nowhere
* The Go Find - Stars on the Wall

disappointments (ie i like yr old stuff better than yr new stuff):
pinback
arcade fire
band of horses (sort of, for the most part of good, but some duds)
okkervil river
machine translations
sun

overrated:
radiohead
animal collective
jens lekman

I went to see a lot of bands this year. some of the most memorable though:
* Founder, Midget @ Cad Factory
* Mice Parade @ Bottom of the Hill, SF
* Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males (Alpha Males farewell show) @ Northcote Social Club
* Lymbyc Systym, Boy in Static @ O'Nest, Tokyo
* Apples in Stereo @ Summerstage, NY
* Deloris, Charge Group @ Spectrum
* Tigers, Tucker Bs @ Hopetoun
* Adam Said Galore, Tucker Bs @ Hopetoun
* The Woods Themselves @ the Sando
* actually The Woods Themselves at any venue I've seen them in
* Aleks and the Ramps @ 303
* Kid Cornered, Joel Silbersher @ Last Bastion
* Aleks and the Ramps, El Mopa, Single Twin, Matt McBeath @ Edinburgh Castle
* The Evens @ Glebe Town Hall
* Aleks and the Ramps @ 2SER, live on Tape Relay
* Aktion Unit @ house show in Thornbury
* Bachelorette, Underlapper @ Ruby Rabbit (RR gets my vote though for worst venue in sydney EVER)
* Calexico @ The Basement

i've had the pleasure of listening to some amazing demo records last year too, and if they're anything to go by, the quality of 08 releases will be outstanding. look out for afxjim, single twin, the woods themselves and matt mcbeath.

post-edit 29.2.08: actually i didn't get around to really listening to the Of Montreal cd until recently but it pretty much goes to the top of the list as of today. yeh it's that good.