Alive - the Morning Episodes

Anyone in need of a sunshiny song? With the rainy weather being a bummer and all, we are stuck at home. However, on the brighter side we have more than usual amount of time to discover good music.  And speak of good music, here's a good song.  Hear what we have to say after the jump, then we'll compare notes on the comments.

"Alive" from the Morning Episodes calls to mind the pick me upper lyrics of Jacks Mannequin and the minor electro warbles of LCD Soundsystem.  It is a lot more like the danceable indie tunes that you like, only with less dancing and more clapping (maybe because it is more pop rock than dance). For some reasons, this song will make you mentally clap your hands in the air.  There's enough sounds on this song that makes it lively in a contagious way.  Yes, quite appropriately titled, this song will make you feel alive.

The songs video will be out soon, check out the teaser.



Follow the Morning Episodes here.  And listen to more of their songs here.

Playlist: Lazy Day, It's Raining Outside

This blog has been awfully quiet for a month but it's back with a few whimsical songs gathered together.  I guess rainy days make you listen to music even more than any ordinary day. Look out the window, play these songs and later go back on this blog and tell me what you think.

Kids - MGMT
What I like about MGMT is they are one of the few psychedelic bands that has really good vocals.  "Kids" is perhaps one of the fan favorite and overplayed MGMT songs. Described as "noisy, New Order-style synth jam", this song is incredibly catchy and will definitely cheer you up.


Percussion Gun - White Rabbit

Back story: I discovered this song while I was looking Frightened Rabbit songs.  I accidentally clicked this song in the search results. And I was like, "not bad".

Dominated by drum beats this song transitions from single instrument to another. It is fun guessing what instrument the band will use on the next lines.  For the most part it is a upbeat.  The vocals is not much to be noted of but the whole song is worth the discovery.  It will definitely give you a Eureka moment as a music fan.


Little Secret - Passion Pit

If you can't go out because of the weather outside, play a Passion Pit song and dance along to it.  "Little Secret" is sprinkled with the same electro warbles that brings a signature whimsy to most of Passion Pit songs.  Frontman Michael Angelakos at some point of confidently screams and it's very contagious.


Cold Wind - Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire is Arcade Fire.  If the rainy day is perfect to listen to indie songs, they're the perfect band to listen to on rainy days, and on other days too.  Although this song for the most part is mournful, it still managed to sound a little bit pop which makes if easy to listen.  Arcade Fire is brilliant.


Epilogue - The Antlers

"Epilogue" sounds like it is being sung inside a quiet bedroom which fits the mood of the theme and setting of the song.  Though it comes off a very sad song, it has the air of sincerity in its entirety and even almost crying at some point.  This seems like a two part song with it's first part being the minimal instrumentation along with the whole desperate pleading. The song strangely ends with a short positive whimsical notes.


Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect - The Decemberists

Off of their 2002 album Castaways and Cutouts, "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect" is a lyrical gem.  Colin Meloy's vocals is meant to tell the tale of a castaway lover.  The song creates interesting imagery with its stories complete with glorious characters and settings accompanied by swirling guitars. This song is a great indie folk song from a great band. Listen to this on a rainy day while looking out the window and you will feel you are inside the song.

Also, props if you've heard this song on How I Met Your Mother.


In The Cold I'm Standing - m83

This song starts out almost like a John William piece. When this song comes up in your playlist it will make you go "what is this song?".  M83's music is almost theatrical but still manage to lay in the pop border.  Add this song on your playlist for a little surprise.


Sunday - Yuck

I personally love Yuck and how I think their music is a bubbly kind of folk.  They have been criticized as unoriginal but judging on how fresh they sound to  my ears, they are one of the most unique bands right now.  If you love Bob Dylan, you must love Yuck, not just because vocalist Daniel Blumberg looks like the young Bob Dylan but because if Bob Dylan's music has a grandson it would be Yuck's music.

Sunday is from their demo so it sounds raw as it gets.  With the jingly jangly  instrumentation and the unassuming vocals, Sunday is a song to hang out with while sipping a cup of tea and just lazing out not just on a Sunday but any other day.


This Modern Love - Bloc Party
With quick drums and minimal vocals, this song will make you listen to more Bloc Party songs. This Modern Love came from one of their best albums so far, Silent Alarm. It has the right amount of snappiness that most Franz Ferdinand songs have and the vocals that most indie songs have.  You will find yourself having visuals of a neon lighted streets and people walking fast then you open your eyes and caught yourself tapping your toes along to it.

How bout you? What are your rainy day songs?

PS: This playlist is especially dedicated to my friend James, who is every day asking me for song recommendations, which I gladly obliged.

Alone - Claudiox

If you dig electro rock, read on. 

The sound that this track creates is what you will get when industrial rock molests electro indie. "Alone" is a sort of a genre mash up. It's like a creative experiment gone right. It opens with a playful note only to break into a brutally frank confession of loss. With the right amount of whimsy, angst and eventually, positivity, this song grows on you every time you listen to it. 

If you like Nine Inch Nails and Passion Pit, then you need to listen to this song.

If you like his music, follow Caludiox on Facebook.

The Green Room - The Tins

       

         

One song that sounds like a whole album.

It's keyboard and guitars blending with each other has the different kind of uplifting harmony that makes you soar with the song for the whole seven minutes. The switching tempo, binary vocals and the insightful picturesque lyrics creates a roller-coaster trip.

This is a release from their 2010 EP, "Tins".

For more about the band, like their official Facebook page.

Jack of All Trades - Bruce Springsteen feat. Tom Morello

Jack of All Trades is a track off of Bruce Springsteen's new patriotic album, "Wrecking Ball". He had a little help making this track gut wrenching from Tom Morello's trademark shredding.

Some links don't work,but this one will.

This track is much like the vintage Bruce Springsteen, it is best played in an open arena with thousands of people and a flag waving. However, there's a bonus Tom Morello solo towards the end. Bruce Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine, imagine the rate it will cause on the anthemic meter.

The whole album sounds like this, which is a great thing.  With most iconic artists deviating from their own original sounds, it is a great channel for the new generation to get to know the classic Springsteen.

Even though newly released, this track is already a relic of arena rock.

Nico - Evening of Light

                       

Evening of Light - Nico

I came across this song on the pages of Mainlines Bloodfeasts and Bad Tastes, a Lester Bangs reader.  This is how he described it.

A trickle of harpsichords out of the sky which drop gently at first and gradually increase in volume and presence in the mix until they seem to almost lacerate, punctuated occasionally by the shiftings and groaning of bowed basses like famished carnivores in some deep bog from which they ascend with by-now violent intensity of the harpsichords, now accompanied by some electronic gnashing noise which sounds like someone’s nerves are being roasted on a spit. All of this gets more and more intense until the violas return to arch up in a series of twisted pterodactyl shrieks, the hapsichords pounding down like murderous hailstones, the basses sounding militant air-raid, two-note alarums before crashing to their own death, the whole sucked away by a series of hissing, clicking, buzzing electronic processors, simply more dead information being disposed of. 


Nico’s concept of love: While she lies interred in the endless wastes of the arctic night, she has sent and insect to the object of her affections, to kiss his heart. But even the insect must die before it can reach him, the soft rustling of its gentle wings stilled under drifts that eventually preserve its frozen corpse for eternity under a snowbank that becomes an ice mountain, the insect and Nico having become one in endless sleep, for they were the real lovers in the first place after all. 

- Your Shadow is Scared of You: An Attempt Not to Be Frightened by Nico, Lester Bangs

Let Me Speak - The Liberty Jam

Tired of all the depressing ass songs with self flagellating lyrics?  Listen to this.
       
                  


This song has spirited beats and contagious optimism it is almost anthemic.  Bands should make music like this.


Like them on Facebook: The Liberty Jam  and tell them what you think about their music.