YouTube Rodeo: Tellison's "Collarbone"

London-based emo standouts Tellison first popped onto our radar when it was announced they would be touring alongside Johnny Foreigner in October 2009. However, by that time the seven-year-old quartet had already issued a full length and numerous singles. Tellison's forthcoming vinyl single "Collarbone" b/w "Mountain" will be released by the increasingly formidable British indie Big Scary Monsters Nov. 22. The single -- available for pre-order here right now -- comes with a digital EP that includes three additional tracks, "Experience," "Edith Wharton (2XL Remix)" and "Collarbone (Rolo Tomassi Remix)." All that for four pounds, although for a bit more BSM will sell you a t-shirt bundle. Tellison recorded its sophomore full-length record from June to August 2010, and "Collarbone" is included on the set, but we haven't turned up any release information -- or even a title -- to share as of yet. If "Collarbone" is any indication, the collection will be a barnburner.

Muxtape No. 6: The Plans That Had To Fall Through

The weekend winds down at :: clicky clicky :: headquarters, but not before a new Muxtape has been posted for your listenification. Our thoughts, impressions, false memories and alleged recollections are below, and you can listen to the whole shebang right here.

1. Flaming Lips -- "Hit Me Like You Did The First Time" -- Hit To Death In The Future Head
(If you listen, this song has everything: piano, strings, slide guitar. And a provocative title to be sure, but at this stage in the band's career this was relatively tame, and the lyric makes it all innocent enough. Thrash is largely dialed back on this tune and what you have isn't an ode to masochism, just a whimsical, almost romantic request regarding those early days of a relationship. Or something. Flaming Lips gained acclaim at the end of the '90s, but more and more we believe people paid attention at the wrong end of the decade.)

2. Love As Laughter -- "I Am A Ghost" -- Laughter's Fifth
(We appreciate blunt declarative writing. This is one of the reasons we like legal writing. And of course the Wall Street Journal. Hell, it is the main reason we like Minor Threat's "Filler." This song is a far cry from "The Youth Are Plastic" and "Singing Sores," tracks from the band's debut in the mid-'90s. Here we have a scruffy, no-frills indie rocker with a great introduction -- a great set up for the ensuing bash n' pop. "I float throughout your house at parties." More people should be paying attention to Love As Laughter, whose sixth set is slated for release later this year.)

3. Karl Hendricks Trio -- "The Overweight Lovers" -- The Jerks Win Again
(We really wanted to post "The Summer Of Warm Beer," but the track -- from the same 2003 set -- is 13 minutes long and way over Muxtape's 10MB per track limit. But this song has its own substantial charms and presents a serviceable representation of the meandering electricity and riffage that characterizes this fine record.)

4. Lefty's Deceiver -- "Ex-Patriots" -- Cheats
(The final incarnation of Lefty's produced its most straightforward collection of songs. The lyrics on Cheats are compelling and particularly evocative, although the gut-level attack of early genius tracks like "H to Hg" is not left out either. It is hard to pick a favorite from Cheats, what with the hypnotic nostalgia of "Years And Years Ago," the affecting yearning of "East Coast Traffic." The chorus of this number provides us with the title of this Muxtape. The band reunited around last Thanksgiving for a single show and we missed it because we were out of town, which was disappointing. That said, there have only been a handful of shows that were as exciting as the record release party for the band's debut 45, which we did see, so we've got that going for us.)

5. Wendyfix -- "Over + Upward (Ridge)" -- King Size Demos
(A quick waltzer and a highlight of the esteemed and mostly unreleased discography of this erstwhile Evanston, Ill.-based trio. Particularly as the second verse rolls around the bass and guitar complement each other wonderfully in carrying the melody. Little idea what singer Ted Pauly is on about here, but we always thought it was something along the lines of construction equipment coming and leveling a nice place and replacing it with a newer, less nice place. "Powerless to stop progress..." and all that. Look for the video on YouTube.)

6. Luna -- "Sideshow By The Seashore" -- Live
(Originally on the self-titled EP whose cover took cues from the now largely forgotten soundtrack to the film "Kids." An EP we'd like to acquire in the popular compact disc format. Although the live set from which this track is taken is no slouch and has a whole lot of super tracks. We really like the lyric in here "all the comforting words provide no comfort." A sentiment that has been abstracted in countless other indie songs, here Wareham just comes out and says it.)

7. Lilys -- "Your Guest And Host" -- Eccsame The Photon Band
(A friend familiar with the early Lilys catalogue recently expressed some reservations about Eccsame The Photon Band, and we think this is too bad. The record is really a fully realized work of genius, not the least of which because of some uncompromising, spacey production. Although superlative songs certainly don't hurt, right? Few if any have presented a confidence-inspiring track list for this set, which includes a handful of interstitials. As such, every time we re-rip this CD (we're upgrading tracks to 192Kbps a bit at a time) the suggested track listing comes up slightly different. We ask this on the blog almost weekly, but when will someone figure out how to rescue the rights to the Lilys Spin Art catalogue from whatever bankruptcy-inspired purgatory contains it and offer up expanded reissues?)

8. Yo La Tengo -- "Tiny Birds" -- Summer Sun
(This record is relatively maligned within the Yo La Tengo canon, but there are actually quite a few tracks we come back to, particularly this one. Is McNew singing this one? We can't say his name any longer without thinking of the Danish band Mew and laughing, but that is another story altogether.)

9. Human Television -- "Look At Who You're Talking To" -- Look At Who You're Talking To
(Nice string arrangements here. Members of Human Television were part of one of the more recent iterations of Lilys. This track and the band's "In Front Of The House" share some lyrics, and we've always wondered which song came first. The latter tune is an upbeat indie popper, markedly different in tone from what is going on here. To quote John Bender in "The Breakfast Club," feeling bad feels pretty good.)

10. REM -- The Wrong Child -- Green
(Album track from the popular American alternative rock act Rapid Eye Movement, or something like that. The piano, twelve-string and strings do a good job of keeping the mandolin in check. Stipe's layered vocal is pretty affecting, particularly when he hits the chorus. We're not crazy about the soaring "okayyyyyyyyyy," but we expect that the lyric "I'm not supposed to be like this" resonated strongly with the late teen crowd when this set was released. It certainly did with us.)

11. Karate -- "What Is Sleep?" -- Karate
(Question number one on this Muxtape. We don't have any larger reason for including it here -- we're not suffering from insomnia or anything. We just think people have forgotten that the first few Karate records were filled with great songs. We saw Karate in 1997 before going to Europe back during the time when it was a four-piece act and they really tore it up. This number has arresting dynamics: the jarring breaks and the songwritery verses present a hard contrast; a love song you can rock out to; an indie power ballad. Not the mixtape-for-your-girlfriend slam dunk that "Today Or Tomorrow" is, but still a dynamite track.)

12. Eddyfink -- "Will I Get Through Today Without Being Kicked In The Knickers?"
(Question number two on this Muxtape. A hook-laden, jittery number from a now defunct act written for a compilation that celebrates a British telephonic information service. From what we recall you could either ring or text the service and it would provide an answer, for free or for a nominal fee. No matter. We love the paranoia of the title question -- not too mention the chorus's "I can't take this anymore" -- and we love thinking about what the person working the phones that day would think upon receiving such a question. The world view of the comically victimized makes for a very fertile set of parameters from a narrative standpoint. Surprisingly deft vocal harmonies for a rock band that isn't, you know, The Eagles, too.)

Perhaps Everyone DID Have It In For Eddyfink...

[PHOTO CREDIT: Stew Ruffles] We've been doing a lot of separating the performance from the songwriting lately, particularly as we revisit songs we remember enjoying on radio and mixtapes during our childhood ("Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple, anyone? Actually, bad example -- that song is awesome). Additionally, we've come across some bands recently that have written great material who aren't presenting it exactly as we'd like. Sure, to a certain extent every band is an acquired taste, and we should just be able to give them all several ample fair shakes. But the truth of the matter is we aren't 11 years old anymore, with scads of time to spend in our rooms staring at the speakers.

Point is, while we have been significantly jazzed by certain songs of bristling British indie rock quartet Eddyfink, an act we discovered one day in July, only to read -- the same day -- that the band had just broken up, we also have some reservations. What's our beef with Eddyfink besides the fact that we didn't get a chance to follow their career at all while it was happening? Well, we think it is the vocal delivery of singer Andrew Pisanu. More use of falsetto than we care for, and occasionally a bit emotional for our tastes. Balancing that out for us, however, are some great songs.

The band's MySpace proclaims it trades in "anthems for the underdog," but we think their best material is deeper and darker than that. The video clip for the track "Do I" opens with a cartoon drawing of a shipwreck and features castaways bleeding blue blood from their mouths. And then there's the excellently titled "Will I Get Through Today Without Being Kicked In The Knickers?" [read our post about that here]. We loved the persecuted paranoia of that song, opening as it does with the ominous line "It's happening again..." before pleading "I can't take this anymore, is there a number I can call, someone to help me through it all?"

Well, imagine our surprise to hear the same white-knuckled urban agoraphobia expressed as brilliantly in a tune the now defunct Eddyfink posted to its MySpace garage more recently called "In For Me." Again, we're a little put off by the vocal delivery. More importantly the song has an absolutely bulletproof lyrical shtick. In the choruses Pisanu lists off the names of ENTIRE TOWNS that have it in for him: "...Nottingham, you know they've got it, Canterbury, they've all got it, Coventry, you know they've got it in... they've all got it in for me..." Pisanu lists TWELVE cities in the UK, and they all have it in for him. Like we said, brilliant. It's pop mixed with urban psychosis, cities as monsters with people for teeth. Incidentally, there is a video for the clip here at YouTube, but it works the funny like an old Men At Work video and kinds of turns us off; however, there are nice shots of the band performing the track spliced in as well. At their best, during its six-year-career Eddyfink was a songwriting force. We're sad to have missed the whole thing, but we're hopeful more recordings will make it to the band's MySpace. For now, here's an MP3 of "In For Me."

Eddyfink -- "In For Me" -- MySpace download
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[buy Eddyfink songs from ITunes here]

Today's Hotness: Joy Division, Johnny Foreigner, Distophia

>> With the American release of the hotly anticipated Ian Curtis biopic "Control" edging closer, plans have been announced to re-issue post-punk legends Joy Division recordings in expanded editions. Read this NME item for track listings and a bit more information. We got in to Joy Division when cassettes were still a viable format, and as such we don't have these records on CD. As such, we're excited to get these, although we are apprehensive that remixing or remastering might alter the records. We'll see what happens. We're curious what effect if any the death of Factory Records impresario Tony Wilson Friday will have on the release of these reissues. "Control" debuted at Cannes in May; it will have its U.S. premiere Oct. 10 at the Film Forum in New York City. The songs comprising the soundtrack to the film are listed here.

>> Here's your weekly Johnny Foreigner update. The stellar Birmingham, UK noise pop trio did not win the Road To V competition we previously mentioned here. The upside? According to a MySpace post this apparently frees the act from a restriction that required it to remain unsigned while they were involved with the competition. Labels would be idiots not to snatch these guys up. Johnny Foreigner has tons of amazing material, they play tons of gigs, and we expect signing has got to be around the corner.

>> Argh. Another great UK band discovered and found to have broken up in the same day (this previously happened when we discovered Eddyfink last month; more about Eddyfink's brilliant "In For Me" later in the week). This month the find, via a post on the Just Gimmie Indie Rock blog that Johnny Foreigner mentioned in a recent post, is the newly erstwhile, two-MySpaces-having Birmingham quartet Distophia. Based on comments on its MySpace hacienda Distophia seems to have recently broken up. Head here to download the compelling track "Evil Baroness."

>> That A-Sides tour in October we've mentioned previously will be with The Velvet Teen and Say Hi (To Your Mom), which we remember being called simply Say Hi To Your Mom (no parens) when we reviewed their record Ferocious Mopes for Junkmedia here two years ago. According to the most recent news item at its web site, Say Hi To Your Mom is officially changing its name to simply Say Hi as of September and will release a fifth record in early 2008. Anyway, prior to the dates with TVT and Say Hi, The A-Sides will tour out to the west coast supporting vegan posterman and indie rock force of nature Ted Leo. You can check out those dates here. Incidentally, this song never gets old:

Say Hi To Your Mom -- "Let's Talk About Spaceships" -- Numbers And Mumbles
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[Buy Say Hi records from the band here]

>> This Is Happening To Me has some pics of Dinosaur Jr. in Japan, performing, being mobbed by fans in the streets. Apparently people are just running up to J. Mascis and hugging him? Anyway, cool pictures are here.

Today's Hotness: Eddyfink, Takashi Murakami, Meneguar

>> [PHOTO CREDIT] The brilliant Keep Hope Inside podcast turned us on to this band Eddyfink Monday. So we went over to their MySpace page Monday. On Monday the British quartet posted a message to its MySpace saying it had broken up. Talk about missing the party... Anyway, the band this spring had submitted a song for a contest in the UK for a mobile phone service that answers questions that you text in, or something, and Eddyfink's submission was chosen as one of the ten best. And you know what, the song is great. It's called "Will I Get Through The Day Without Being Kicked In The Knickers?" and you can download it for free right here along with the tracks of the other finalists. We'll save you the trouble of clicking over and just re-post the Eddyfink track below. It is even a bit better than the tracks on the only other proper release we could find for the band, the Immuno EP available via ITunes.

Eddyfink -- "Will I Get Through The Day Without Being Kicked In The Knickers?" -- AQA 63336 Greatest Questions
[right click and save as]

>> We aren't big into visual art, but one of the guys we dig on heavily is Takashi Murakami, whose solo show we saw at Boston's MFA in 2001. The New York Times refers to him as "Japan's answer to Andy Warhol," which we can sort of understand, with some reservations (including precisely which culture pioneered factory-type art production, which culture's art first dealt in repetition of images, but we digress...). We expect not many American mainstream music fans knew of Mr. Murakami before today. But that number will grow exponentially with the release of the next Kanye West album, apparently, as Murakami created its distinctive sleeve design. You can have a look at it over here at The Gum In Stereo. For a look at more of Murakami's work, hit this link; Wired printed a very good feature about him several years ago that is still online here. We're heavy into the Mr. D.O.B (and particularly the amazingly titled print series he is featured in, "And Then, And Then And Then And Then And Then."), and we're heavy into Murakami's theory of the "Superflat," which is sort of amazing since we have zero familiarity with manga (don't really know where to begin; studied pre-modern woodblock prints in undergrad). But that's probably enough art talk for one day. Needless to say, the crass commercialism of Kanye West's music is nicely complemented by Murakami's ideas of art as commodity.

>> We don't know if we've actually reported the release date for the forthcoming Meneguar record Strangers In Our House. A recent posting at the band's web site says the set will be on shelves in early October, which we suppose means either Oct. 2 or Oct. 9. And which we suppose means the record will arrive just in time to be ignored on all the critics' year-end lists. No matter. A message at Troubleman Unlimited's site posted last week says that Strangers In Our House is going to be its next project after a short summer hiatus. We can't wait to hear it.