Today's Hotness: Ski Saigon, Urusei Yatsura, Mincer Ray

>> One of the more mysterious and evocative projects we've followed here at Clicky Clicky in recent years has been Mooncreatures. Although the music and premise of its final long-player was exciting, we were disappointed when the London band and the LP's fictive narrative intersected in reality, and Mooncreatures announced (sort of?) it was no more. Anyway, band mastermind Rhys Griffiths has returned with the even higher-concept project Ski Saigon, whose debut release Brings The Storm Cloud is due toward the end of the summer. The six-song set is inspired by '60s Cambodian pop music and concerns a fictional historical (wait, what?) narrative about French soldiers tiring of the tropical climate of Cambodia in the mid-20th century and setting about creating indoor snow skiing facilities in Saigon and Phnom Penh. Really, you just read that. Brings The Storm Cloud opens with a short, shimmering audio approximation of those blurry scene transitions in film and TV that suggests the commencement of a flashback. As soon as listeners have oriented themselves to the tune, "Wintergarden," it vanishes, and then the EP begins in earnest with the ensuing, fully realized "Sweet Dreams In The Botanics." The mid-tempo swayer rides a steady canned beat, above which sustained synth and simple guitar chords and a pleasantly lazy lead guitar obscure hushed lyrics. The tune's escapist fantasia is amplified by a 45-second coda wherein the aforementioned synth chords give way to an insectoid drone and -- curiously -- the sound of water (although we expect it is easier to present the sound of water than snow). Art Is Hard Records issues Brings The Storm Cloud Aug. 26 in a limited edition of 100 32-page book/CD bundles, as well as a digital download. Pre-order the book here, and click through the embed below to acquire the digital files. The demise of Mooncreatures felt very premature, and we're quite excited by the possibilities presented by Ski Saigon, either as an ongoing project or at least as a sign that Mr. Griffiths has no intention of quitting music any time. Stream the aforementioned "Wintergarden" and "Sweet Dreams In The Botanics" via the Bandcamp embed below.



>> We've been holding out hope for a good six years that the mighty Glaswegian indie rock combo Projekt A-Ko would return to us. Imagine our surprise when we received word in our inbox earlier this spring that not Projeckt A-Ko, but the trio's notable, '90s-spawned (and we suppose better-known) precursor Urusei Yatsura, would beat the three to the new release bin in September. Well, technically, it's old music, but it is nonetheless exciting. On Sept. 2, the choicest cuts from Urusei Yatsura's highly regarded BBC recordings (which included, among others, five sessions for John Peel and three for Steve Lamacq) will be released as an LP via London's Rocketgirl. The press materials accompanying the announcement speak, with the benefit of distance and hindsight, of Urusei Yatsura's music shining particularly bright when recorded under the constraints radio sessions necessarily present. And it is hard to argue with the results. Fans can hear a particularly fizzing iteration of the rocking 1996 A-side "Phasers On Stun" below. Rocketgirl will release You Are My Urusei Yatsura on 12" vinyl, CD and as a digital download Sept. 2. The LPs are pressed to snappy neon pink media and available in a very limited edition of 300 pieces, so you had better get to pre-ordering if you want this. To be fair to Urusei Yatsura/Projekt A-ko's Fergus Lawrie, he has produced new music over the last seven years, including some engaging "haloed guitar" guitar noise pieces with his project Angel of Everyone Murder. But given the blinding excellence of Projekt A-Ko's sole LP, 2009's Yoyodyne [hypertext!], we remain hopeful that that...erm... project will also be resuscitated. In the meantime, we've the Urusei Yatsura collection to look forward to: stream the aforementioned "Phasers On Stun," recorded for the BBC Evening Session May 8, 1996, via the Soundcloud embed below. Speaking of, fans should pay VERY close attention to the UY Soundcloud, as it features a trove of material, including some cuts found too late to be considered for inclusion on You Are My Urusei Yatsura, like this magical acoustic take on "Burriko Girl."



>> The charm of lo-fi, and particularly '90s lo-fi, is that it characteristically sounds thrown together, but still sometimes fumbles its way to transcendence. Sometimes that's just the sound (the example we think of it this Perfect Pussy interview that describes recording clean basic tracks and then layering noise), and sometimes things are actually, you know, thrown together (see every live thing Crazy Horse did with Neil Young). Although we've previously deemed the act mid-fi, Mincer Ray's delightful, be-flanneled recent digital EP Early Morning Am Moritz firmly falls within the latter category. A brief note at the Berlin-based act's Soundcloud reports the short stack of songs was "[c]onceived & recorded to cassette in 3 hours & 47 minutes (more or less)." The collection commences strongly with the yearning, mid-tempo, and alt.-countrified strummer "Everything Is Green," a should-be hit whose straightforward presentation can't hold down the sweeping melody of the big, lovelorn verse. With almost no warning the verse become its chorus, which points to an anthemic, ripping guitar solo that aspires towards David Pajo's amazing face-melter from Palace Brothers' epic "Horses." The balance of Early Morning Am Moritz isn't quite as memorable, although the concise basher "Ned Norris" is bracing to the point of infectious and the loose and gritty "Dine" wouldn't feel entirely out of place on Viva Last Blues. Mincer Ray's EP hit the Internerds in late June, and you can stream the entire thing via the Soundcloud embed below (click through to download all five numbers as .wav files). The set is also now available on cassette via the Chicago and Berlin-based Shaky Tooth Tapes. We last wrote about Mincer Ray right here in 2014.

Five: Projekt A-ko's Yoyodyne

There has been a 57:32-sized gap in the 21st century Internet for years, and it has been a source of regular disappointment, not being able to easily recommend to the attention of friends one of our very favorite records, Glaswegian noise-pop act Projekt A-ko's titanic 2009 full-length Yoyodyne. The album was released five years ago yesterday, and while we have very happy personal associations that go along with the record, Yoyodyne is remarkable for a number of reasons any indie rock fan can grasp: amazing hooks, massive guitars, visionary songcraft, engaging dynamics and mind-boggling lyrics. We named it our second-favorite record of 2009 here, and band fronter Fergus Lawrie kindly wrote a track-by-track guide to the record for Clicky Clicky readers here back in the day.

While the album has a purposely glacial opening fade-in that may stymy impatient listeners (an homage to bygone Boston chimp rock heroes Drop Nineteens and the title track to that band's watermark 1990 LP Delaware), Yoyodyne presents an embarrassment of hits, all in a row, straight across the record. Commencing with the alternately skittering, dreamy and thunderous "Hey Palooka!" and closing with the uncharacteristically spare, powerfully poignant and horribly resigned ballad "Don't Listen To This Song," it's impossible for us to pick favorite tracks from the album. But we've certainly got favorite moments, moments we carry around with us every day. There's the break-down at the beginning of the second verse of "Palooka!," when Mr. Lawrie sings "and all the stars are out, they kiss you on the mouth, they kiss you on the...." There's the repeated observation "every day you fail" in "Nothing Works Twice;" the barreling beginning of "Supertriste Duxelle;" and the repeated exclamation "Dear God" in "Here Comes New Challenger!" (the second of two songs on the album whose title contains an exclamation point, from an album on which every song title could just be piles of exclamation points). The album does not let up.

Maybe you've noticed: we unreservedly love Yoyodyne. Sure, it reminds us of spring, it makes us think of the birth of our daughter, but most important of all it is fucking awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we asked Lawrie personally if we could post the record to YouTube for a while so people could have a listen and then buy it. It's excellent, and people need to hear it, and we are thrilled to have received his consent in time to post the record for this anniversary. While a follow-up was mentioned as soon as Yoyodyne was released, and in the intervening years has apparently been started and stopped numerous times and as recently as two years ago, and there is a fairly active rumor mill regarding new music from the trio, there has not yet been any formal successive release from Projekt A-ko. Mr. Lawrie's interests have led him deep into both documentary work and Glasgow's improvised noise scene, and besides a thrilling cover of Drop Nineteens' "Winona" that was emailed to certain fans years ago, the wait for new music from the act has been, well, a wait. But we'll always have Yoyodyne, and we continue to be hopeful that we have not yet heard the last from Projekt A-ko.

Buy Yoyodyne here.

Projekt A-ko: Facebook | Last.FM | MySpace

Related Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Fergus Lawrie On Album Of The Year Contender Yoyodyne
Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko
Projekt A-ko Is Awesome And This Is A Post About Them

Young Adults, Grooms, Ovlov and Soccer Mom | Great Scott, Boston | 11 July



We snuck a sideways reference to Ovlov into our Speedy Ortiz review last week -- despite the trio not hailing from Massachusetts, which was sort of the point we were making -- as sort of a last-ditch effort to make a timely mention of the rising Connecticut grunge-pop goliath. The act released its full-length debut Am a week ago, but our plate had been too full to really give the LP the attention it deserved. By Saturday, however, Ovlov had been added to this Thursday's upcoming white-hot Grooms/Young Adults/Soccer Mom bill, and voila! A new news peg was born. Ovlov itself is by no means new, as its Bandcamp bastion offers a couple EPs and a single, the earliest of which arrived in 2009. However, Am has significantly raised the profile of the act, presently a threesome of brothers Steve, Theo and Jon Hartlett (as the youngest of three boys, this writer can only imagine the fisticuffs that occur in the van). Theirs is a refreshing and thrilling collection of songs, one surprisingly nimble given the degree of sludge tossed up across the stereo field. It's the kind of record that we expect you'll see compared a fair amount to Dinosaur Jr.'s classic You're Living All Over Me, and we're willing to submit that, goddamn, that's not too far off. It is big melodies and a precise rhythm section that move Am relentlessly forward, and we think that once you latch on to the Soundcloud stream embedded below, you'll find it hard to stop listening. We direct your attention to the opener "Grapes," as it touts the tunefulness of Swedish pop geniuses The Wannadies and the raw power of Glaswegian noise-pop titans Projekt A-ko. Another of the many highlights of Am is the slack strummer "Where's My Dini?", which is one of several tracks that features vocals from Speedy Ortiz fronter Sadie Dupuis. Exploding In Sound Records released Am July 2, and it is on offer as a limited edition 12" vinyl LP (purportedly pressed to "piss yellow" and "swamp green" media) and digital download. You can purchase one or both via Ovlov's aforementioned Bandcamp page right here.

Of course, Thursday night is about much more than just Ovlov, as Clicky Clicky stalwarts Young Adults and Soccer Mom are also slated to perform, and the evening is top-lined by the New York band every band seems to want to be playing with these days, Grooms. All of the above happens at Great Scott in Allston, and as of this writing tickets are still available. While we were at the beach last month Young Adults issued a pretty sweet video for its tune "Spectre" that is well worth your eyeballs, check that out right here. As for Soccer Mom, the band is allegedly in the midst of recording for a future release, and we're hopeful that there may even be new music to hear from the band before the year is out (a man can dream, can't he?). Anyway, go to Great Scott Thursday, make that your way of taking a stand against The Man, at least this week. It's the big, big show in Boston Thursday, and all the dizzles are at this Facebook event pizzle.

Today's Hotness: Big Deal, Whirr, Projekt A-ko

>> Please do not construe our silence on the release of Big Deal's full-length debut Lights Out as anything other than a lack of time on our part. We followed the band closely through the release of their early singles in 2010 and 2011, and wrote about Big Deal most recently here in October. We are pleased that the charming and hazy full-length Lights Out lives up to all that early promise. As Mr. Yang pointed out in his spot-on assessment here, yes, the London-based duo is working with a limited palette (two voices, two guitars), but through some beautiful alchemy the melodies, production and performances meld into the proverbial sum-greater-than-its-parts. Perhaps it is the performances -- earnest, hurt, lovelorn -- that make songs like "Chair" and "Cool Like Kurt" so powerful. The latter song so magically crystallizes the feelings of fragile, youthful romance: uncertainty, longing, the fleeting nature of the enterprise. Out of context this lyric is a little creepy, but we can't think of any more perfect way to sum up feelings that at this point in our lives are barely accessible via memory: "take me to your bed, don't take me home, before this is oh, before this is over." Lights Out was finally released in America on Mute Jan. 24 in the wake of an eponymous EP; the set was issued in the UK Sept. 5. Big Deal plays what we believe are its first U.S. shows next month (full dates below), despite male half of the duo Kacey Underwood being an American. The band has completed a new video for the song "Talk," which you can expect to see online soon. In the meantime, in case you've forgotten what it sounds like, you can stream below. Dig in.



03.11 -- The Glasslands -- Brooklyn, NY
03.12 -- Mercury Lounge -- New York, NY
03.13-03.18 -- SXSW TBA -- Austin, TX
03.20 -- The Echo -- Los Angeles, CA

>> Pun Canoes was the first outlet we saw to report that Whirr's hotly anticipated full length Pipe Dream will be released by Tee Pee Records March 13. The venerable publication characterizes the set as Whirr's second full length, but we think that is incorrect: the act -- when it was going by its previous nomme de rock Whirl -- released its Distressor EP in 2010. So, right, this will be its first full-length. Pipe Dream contains the title track from the excellent June EP, "Junebouvier" (but not the b-side "Sundae") that we first wrote about here in September, as well as eight other numbers we are very eager to hear. Peruse the full track listing at Pun Canoes right here. Whirr will tour out to Austin in March for the obligatory strand of SXSW performances, and full dates are posted right here. "Junebouvier," in case you missed it, is a stunningly beautiful dream-pop track that we highly recommend (having included it during our October New Music Night set). Listen to it:



>> Projekt A-ko fans have reason for optimism, as an email this week from fronter Fergus Lawrie states that progress has resumed on a new album. Lawrie, as we wrote here in October, has been keeping busy with noisier, improvisational pasttimes including Angel Of Everyone Murder. A video featuring that project is included in a new DVD from Kovorox Sound titled Video Vomit Volume 1. As for Projekt A-ko, Mr. Lawrie says a new track may be posted online "in the next couple of months." The new song would be the first since the release of the fan-only cover of Drop Nineteens' "Winona." Projekt A-ko's towering, monumental, incredible, terrific, etc. full-length debut Yoyodyne! was our second favorite record of 2009. It is mammoth.

Today's Hotness: Travels, Projekt A-ko, The Jonbarr Hinge

>> Fans of hazy, dreamy minimalist indie rock rejoice! Boston duo Travels will release Dec. 1 a limited edition, 7" vinyl single and download package. The A-side of the single, "The Sun Shines Down On Me," is a Daniel Johnston cover, and the flip is a gently bouncing strummer titled "Stencil." The single comes with a download code to get digital versions of those songs as well as three more, turning the whole shebang into a digital EP, no? But wait, there's more: the physical package also includes a 7" x 7" colored still from an animated video that will be released concurrently with the single. Physical copies are limited to 150 pieces, and fans who pre-order now will get the disc, video still and downloads for $8 or 8 Euros, depending on which currency you rock in your locale. And it appears you can opt for just the digital version for $6, based on the pricing at this Bandcamp page. "The Sun Shines Down On Me" was first released by Johnston on his 1982 collection Don't Be Scared. Travels, you may recall, is comprised of Mona Elliot and Anar Badalov, who previously played with Victory At Sea and Metal Hearts respectively. We reviewed Travels' third full-length Robber On The Run right here in May 2010; the duo released a sophomore long-player The Hot Summer in 2009. Stream both songs from the forthcoming physical single via the embed below.



>> There's some news about -- well, tangentially related to -- the mighty Projekt A-ko. As we reported here in July, the Glaswegian indie trio earlier this year scotched efforts at completing a sophomore full-length, but fronter Fergus Lawrie (formerly of Urusei Yatsura), has been quite busy with other things. For starters, he and two partners have completed a documentary titled "Send/Receive" that chronicles experimental music in Scotland; the entire thing is available to watch at this tumblr. Additionally, Mr. Lawrie has a new band called Angel Of Everyone Murder, which is slated to soon release an album of "lo-fi drone shoegaze noise rock" via the label Kovorox Sound. In an email Lawrie told Clicky Clicky "the new band is entirely improvised," and its music is "mainly long (20 mins) single chord drones, no drums, just bass and [two guitars], but very textural, using specially modified 'halo' guitars I've built." All of the new music is recorded live in a rehearsal room, and Lawrie states its "quite different" from the brilliant indie rock on Projekt A-ko's immaculate 2009 full-length Yoyodyne. We've heard one of the new songs, "Child Of Nameless Time," and can report the fourteen-minute track is mid-tempo and boils like piles of charred snowflakes in hell. Read Lawrie's track-by-track dissection of Yoyodyne right here and watch the Projekt A-ko Facebook page for more information about how you can hear new music from Angel Of Everyone Murder.

>> It has been a year-and-a-half since we've mentioned The Jonbarr Hinge, the relatively new, full-band project that counts among its number Ben Parker, who is likely (hopefully?) better known for his hand in fronting Superman Revenge Squad and the legendary Nosferatu D2. When the last batch of The Jonbarr Hinge songs were released on a relatively unsuspecting world in early 2011, we were too tied up toiling away at an undisclosed location to make mention of it. But several days ago the Hinge unveiled three new songs on its Soundcloud page, "Limp Heart," "Spinning Rocks" and "Body vs. Brain." Each presents an exciting new face for the fledgling act, which despite our prior speculation remains unsigned (to our knowledge). Perhaps the strongest of the new tracks is the Parker-sung "Body vs. Brain," which boasts wonderful, shimmering guitar melodies in the verse that remind us of John Squire's guitar work in "Waterfall," among other Stone Roses tunes. The newer Hinge material introduces a bit more of a swinging feel to the proceedings, helped along by some able bass playing by Parker. The verse of "Limp Heart" rocks a bit of a Zombies groove. If you never heard the first three tracks The Jonbarr Hinge posted, you are missing out. Fortunately, all of the tunes are at Soundcloud, and we highly recommend you check out the nervous rocker "Looks Like A Nail." The songs features some of Parker's patented vitriol ("fed up with this city, get out of this city"), but tempers it with some sweet, melodic, mid-tempo passages. And, of course, some "oohs," "ohs" and "la la la la las." We're eager to hear more from these guys. Fans in the UK can catch them tomorrow (or today, if you are actually in the UK) at Oxjam Shepherd's Bush Takeover, which benefits Oxfam. Takeover details right here.

"Body vs. Brain by The Jonbarr Hinge

Today's Hotness: Mike Quinn, Projekt A-ko

>> We were excited to hear from Mike Quinn, who in the prior decade fronted erstwhile Scranton, PA-based indie rock champions Okay Paddy. That band's 2006 set The Cactus Has A Point [review here] was one of our favorite records of 2006. Around the time Okay Paddy hung up its gloves for the last time, Quinn moved on to the more trad-leaning folk/vaudeville/bluegrass concern ...And The Moneynotes, which put out a couple nifty, sometimes wacky, releases including New Cornucopia!, which we reviewed here in late 2008. Well, all that set-up is just to contextualize the news that Mr. Quinn is back with an enjoyable solo set called Magico, which was released June 7.

The collection is proof positive that Quinn continues to both embrace traditional, roots-leaning styles and possesses a charming sense of humor. The uptempo, harmonica-appointed, acoustic strummer that opens the record is titled "Big Shit." We have no idea what the shambling rocker "What It Wud" is about, but Quinn's diction delivering lines like "then maybe we oughta go out to Fairmount Park, see if they got any chocolate sauce like they did before" is either aping Adam Sandler's portrayal of the undersmart or sorta satirizing a Pennsylvania accent, to brilliant effect. The highlight of Magico has to be "The Devil Has A Heart," which commences with shuddering slide guitar and buries a pretty piano melody before setting a wickedly jaunty groove. As with much of Quinn's recent work, the chorus sounds best when hollered with thick glass beer mug in hand. We've embedded the curious video for the tune above, in which Quinn appears to imagine a series of lonely accidental deaths out in the beautiful Pennsylvania wilderness. Buy Magico from Bandcamp right here.

>> It can't all always be good news, dear readers. Word came down Monday from amazing Glaswegian indie rock underdogs Projekt A-ko that a planned second album has been, ahem, scotched for now. Fronter Fergus Lowrie, he formerly of '90s luminaries Urusei Yatsura, contacted folks who had paid for a pre-order of the album last year, stating with admirable frankness that "[w]ork, births and deaths have all played a part in the delay, but the main cause has been a continuing evolution in my understanding of tone and texture. Multiple recording sessions have been ditched and each time I seem to be moving further away from any destination. Until I can work out where I’m at I can’t guarantee when (or even if) the next Projekt A-ko album will be completed." Mr. Lowrie continues working with his experimental noise outfit Obscure Desire of the Bourgeoisie and has devoted a lot of time recently to co-producing a documentary about the abstract noise scene in Scotland. "This exposure to experimental music has made me think long and hard about my own musical assumptions and experiences," Lowrie wrote. All of that said, he has left open the door to perhaps one day getting a second Projekt A-ko record completed, and we are quite hopeful this happens. The trio's debut Yoyodyne was our second favorite album of 2009.

Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko, Superman Revenge Squad

>> Fans of Glaswegian indie rock heroes Projekt A-ko received a thrill Sunday when an email went out to purchasers of the band's towering 2009 debut Yoyodyne. The email included a link to an only-recently completed cover of Drop Nineteen's landmark tune "Winona," which was featured on the erstwhile Boston band's 1990 Caroline Records debut Delaware. The email from Projekt A-ko also announced the band was taking pre-orders for a planned sophomore set that is to be complete by the end of the year; 10 pounds gets the you the record shipped anywhere in the world. If you want to get in on the pre-order action, here is a Paypal link. Buy early and buy often! The Scottish trio released its debut full-length almost exactly a year ago on April 20, 2009.

>> We saw some message board chatter earlier this month that the planned new EP from superlative English songwriter Ben Parker's Superman Revenge Squad will be issued by the label Smalltown America. And it turns out that chatter is in fact true, according to Mr. Parker, who we emailed for more information. Parker reports that Smalltown America is definitely interested in releasing Superman Revenge Squad's planned Dead Crow EP, which we first wrote about here in March. However, the EP had yet to have been recorded when we corresponded with Parker, and he noted that there's always a possibility the label might not like it once it's done ("it's probably the most down-beat stuff I've written," says Parker). We're thinking that's fairly unlikely. Superman Revenge Squad released two records last year, Hmmmmm... Meet the 'All New' Superman Revenge Squad and We're Here For Duration... We Hope! Additionally, the sole full-length recorded by Parker's prior act Nosferatu D2 was finally issued to substantial acclaim the same year [review here].

Clicky Clicky's Top Albums Of 2009

So that was 2009, huh? Besides all the day-job stuff, we'd be happy for another year just like it, musically and personally. We loathe when people say "this year wasn't very good for music" or crap like that, because, frankly, if you're saying that you weren't trying hard enough. There's always more music, and there is always great music. But enough of that rant. We're pleased with the array of artists we spotlight below; we hope you'll find some things here that had escaped your attention heretofore, and that you derive as much enjoyment from listening to them as we do. For those who are curious, here are links to some of our prior annual lists [2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2002]. Thanks for reading Clicky Clicky in 2009, and special thanks to Michael Piantigini, Jay Kumar, D.P. Dean, The Good Doctor and anyone else whose writing made these electronic pages better during the last 12 months. We're grateful for their help, and we're grateful to our readers. See you in 2010.

1. Johnny Foreigner -- Grace And The Bigger Picture -- Best Before

Unsurprisingly, Johnny Foreigner's wonderful, epic sophomore effort Grace And The Bigger Picture tops our list of best records of the last 12 months. We already named the Birmingham, England-based noise pop trio's 2009 release one of the best records of the decade in October, and the band's prior releases topped our list last year and was runner-up in 2006. Grace And The Bigger Picture was exactly the record we were hoping the band would deliver as a follow-up to it stellar debut: loud, brash, aggressive, tuneful and articulate. There are some surprising turns on the set, such as the beautiful, piano-led ballad "More Heart, Less Tongue," and an abundance of awesome anthems. The ambitious three continues to impress, and we're eager to hear what comes next.

[review] [listen] [buy] [MP3: "Feels Like Summer"]

2. Projekt A-ko -- Yoyodyne -- Milk Pie

As far as surprises went in 2009, this was the biggest and the best. The apparently still-warm embers of Urusei Yatsura here are reignited under the moniker Projekt A-ko, a trio led by Fergus Lawrie. The trio not only put out the second-best record of the year, but frankly they arguably put out the best Dinosaur Jr. record of 2009, as well (we're huge Dinosaur fans, so this is saying a lot). Yoyodyne is graceful and cacaphonous, literate and blunt. The band cobbled the set together in free time with no budget, and released it on their own label with almost nil publicity, which means too few know that this gem is out there. Which we suppose is one argument for being affiliated with a reputable record label. But that is a discussion for another day. Yoyodyne is filled with incredible songs, a treat from end to end.

[review] [listen] [buy] [MP3: "Ichiro On Third (Demo)"]

3. Nosferatu D2 -- We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise -- Audio Antihero

We had no idea this record was at long last getting its official release in 2009, although we were quite familiar with the stunning music it contains. While his earlier trio Tempertwig is quite respectable, it is with Nosferatu D2 that fronter Ben Parker established his legacy. Let's quote ourselves, shall we? "Here is England's greatest contemporary lyricist, Ben Parker, coupling his words and fairly singular guitar playing with the punishing drumming of his brother Adam to create perhaps the greatest unheard record of the decade. The contents of defunct duo Nosferatu D2's We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise -- recorded years ago but only now available in stores -- seethe and brood with startling intensity, as Mr. Parker's narrators botch relationships, asphyxiate under the weighty, numbing press of an increasingly homogenized consumer culture, and second-guess their way into oblivion." It's a brilliant effort, it's important music, and the record's release hopefully in some way affirms to a broader audience that Mr. Parker is one of the best songwriters in England today.

[review] [listen] [buy] [MP3: "Springsteen"]

4. The Beatings -- Late Season Kids -- Midriff

A tour de force of American indie rock. To quote ourselves: "The title to Boston-slash-New York rockers The Beatings' sixth full-length evokes the surging success of a pro sports franchise making all the right moves perhaps when least expected. Nearly a decade into the band's career (and well into certain members' thirties, marriages and parenthood) is an unlikely time to have created its best, most confident record -- and yet here it is. Late Season Kids is a triumph crafted by a quintet whose tenure is longer than many -- if not most -- big-leaguers and rock acts alike." Local fans should note the quintet returns to the stage Jan. 23 at Great Scott in Boston.

[review] [listen] [buy] [MP3: "Bury You"]

5. Dananananaykroyd -- Hey Everyone! -- Best Before

The most overtly awesome band in the UK, there is just no denying Dananananaykroyd, no debating the potency of its masterful songwriting, brilliant chops, spectacularly boundless energy. We've got a soft spot for bands whose first word on their record is their own band name, and Dananananaykroyd earns points for that here, too. Hey Everyone! is a blitzkrieg of positive-vibes and surprisingly jangly post-hardcore/screamo. It's somewhat surprising that this is a formula that few if any other combos have hit on. As a sidenote -- we're sure this is among the worst times to invest money in breaking your UK-based band in America (presuming you stand to gain financially from doing so), but Best Before Records, home to both Dananananaykroyd and Johnny Foreigner, needs to figure out how to get these bands into America. Because America has been deprived for too long.

[review] [listen] [buy]

6. Calories -- Adventuring -- SmallTown America

Ten sing-alongable punk anthems from another stellar Birmingham-based trio, all killer and no filler. In the time it takes you to read this Top 10 list you could have listened to most of Adventuring, with time left over to make a delicious cake ("Jesus was waaay coool"). Calories' melodic, agressive approach gives the appearance of being simplistic, but in fact between changes in tempo and dynamics there is a lot going on here. There is cleverness in not appearing over-clever, and Calories will hopefully begin to garner a much deserved reputation as one of the smartest indie punk bands working. Look for the band's sophomore full-length Habitations to street in England in March, as we reported here last month.

[review] [listen] [buy]

7. Cold Cave -- Love Comes Close -- Matador

This is the most recently released record that made its way onto our list, and only last week did we throw a record off the list to make room for Love Comes Close, which so persistently had us reaching for the IPod lately that we had to include it. Although not as graceful and understated as The xx, Philadelphia-based synthpop concern Cold Cave's music has a similar way of sinking deep into your conciousness, getting comfortable and residing there. The tracks on Love Comes Close at turns recall darkwave-era Depeche Mode or early New Order, with a little more grit and a little less sophistication. So it is kind of surprising that Cold Cave's primary songwriter, Wesley Eisold, once fronted hardcore acts and has songwriting credits on a Fallout Boy record. We don't recommend people try listening to the quartet, we challenge them to STOP listening. And we have a feeling that if we had spent more time with their record before making our year-end list it would have ranked even higher.

[review] [listen] [buy]

8. The Answering Machine -- Another City, Another Sorry -- Heist Or Hit

The long-awaited full-length from this scrappy Mancunian quartet did not disappoint. In fact, during the wait that started with the release of the band's third single "Silent Hotels" way back in 2007 the band added significant dimension to their guitar-pop foundation with the addition of a flesh-and-blood drummer and sharp focus on songcraft. Sure, we were disappointed that the Tony Hoffer-produced demo "Romantic And Square" did not make its way onto Another City, Another Sorry, but that just means the band has one more amazing track in its back pocket to use for a single or the next album. And speaking of next albums, an email from a publicist earlier this month indicated that a 2010 release from The Answering Machine was TBD, which we'll take as a positive sign that the young band is fired up and ready for album no. 2.

[review] [listen] [buy]

9. Morrissey -- Years Of Refusal -- Universal

We're not the sort of Morrissey fan that glad-hands every successive release of the former Smiths fronter. In fact, we're of the opinion that the fans and critics that annointed 2004's You Are The Quarry as Morrissey's great come-back were premature, even wrong. Instead, it is Ringleader Of The Tormenters that truely displayed Morrissey once more at the peak of his powers, which powers, in our opinion, markedly waned not long after the dawn of the '90s. 2009 brought us Years Of Refusal, and it is a barn-burner. It certainly would have been improved by Visconti's production, but nonetheless the record is aggressive ("Something Is Squeezing My Skull"), smart-alecky ("It's Not Your Birthday Anymore"), dour ("I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris") and brilliant all at once.

[review] [listen] [buy]

10. Fleeting Joys -- Occult Radiance -- Only Forever

A masterpiece of sculpted guitar and angelic vocals. Sure, you've heard this sort of thing before, but we don't think you've heard it done as well or as recently as Fleeting Joys' 2009 stunner Occult Radiance. Tidal waves of guitar, nods to contemporary gothy psyche/space rock, but mostly it is incredible song writing that makes this one of the best of the year. The Northern California-based duo make only rare live appearances, making this record all the more important as a document of the greatness of Fleeting Joys.

[review] [listen] [buy]

Clicky Clicky's Top Songs Of 2009

Here it is, our annual salute to the greatest of the (contemporary) greatest: our most-listened-to tracks of 2009. The usual rules apply: each band only gets one song, so despite the fact that most of our Top 10 most-listened-to 2009 tracks in ITunes are from Johnny Foreigner's superlative Grace And The Bigger Picture, only the most-played track gets a slot on our list below. The main reason for doing this list is to spotlight great songs that might not have been on an album that warrants best-of-the-best status for the year. The inclusion of George Washington Brown's "End Of The..." is a perfect example, as the tune was released on a Slumberland split single, not the sort of thing that ever makes a year-end albums list. Even so, our Top Songs list does shed light on certain albums that will be on our year-end list. That said, if you've regularly read along this year, you probably already have a good idea of what the albums list will bring. You'll know for sure a week from today. But for today, here they are: Clicky Clicky's Top Songs Of 2009.

1. Johnny Foreigner -- "The Coast Was Always Clear" -- Grace And The Bigger Picture

We'd call this the anthem to end all anthems, except that given the band's track record we expect there will be a song equally as good if not better released by Johnny Foreigner in the future: the act is among the most consistently excellent combos in indie rock today. In 2009, despite intense competition from itself and the rest of the acts on this list, the number one anthem is "The Coast Was Always Clear." We long harbored fears that the album version of this track could not possibly compare to the YouTube version with Dananananaykroyd or the New Slang 2008 bootleg version we played to death last year. Those fears were unfounded. The layered lines in the coda ("He's half asleep for you" and "I'm not done holding hope in my hands") are among the most beautiful musical sentiments of the year. And sure, the tune structurally is similar to the final track on the band's first full-length, that doesn't detract in the least from the series of spine-tingling moments in "The Coast Was Always Clear," which seems to somehow have about four different choruses. That's just how Johnny Foreigner rolls, and we look forward to new music from the Birmingham, England-based noise-pop titans in the new year.

2. The Beatings -- "All The Things You've Been Missing" -- Late Season Kids
Download MP3 (with thanks to the band)

This is a classic E.R.-led screamer from the storied Boston quintet, and it is filled with visceral moments that make you feel like you are shedding your skin. And then, when the chorus hits and the guitars cascade around you through curtains of reverb, you are born again. We're not sure why this track is wedged in the middle of Late Season Kids, but then again, it's not like the rest of the album sucked. As we said in our review of the set earlier this year, The Beatings really have no business being this good this late into the game. "All The Things You've Been Missing" sets the new high water mark.

3. Projekt A-ko -- "Hey Palooka!" -- Yoyodyne

Deciding which track is best on Projekt A-ko's shockingly good debut is like deciding which nine fingers to cut off. Every track touts its own revelations delivered via squawling guitars and brilliant disjointed lyrics. So although for months we believed that we'd select "Here Comes New Challenger!" for our year-end list, it is Yoyodyne opener "Hey Palooka!" to which we ultimately give the nod, primarily because we've been unable to get these lines from the second verse out of our heads since March: "and all the stars are out, they kiss you on the mouth, they kiss you on the." Full stop. It's a sweet sentiment. And as we'll always tie the release of Yoyodyne to their birth of our daughter, that sweet sentiment carries a lot of weight. It also helps that the slow build of the song's opening is an homage of sorts to the opening cut on Drop Nineteens' earthshaking 1990 debut Delaware.

4. Favours For Sailors -- "I Dreamt That I Dreamt That You Loved Me In Your Dreams" -- Furious Sons

2009's shooting stars flamed out and lodged themselves in the soil long before the end of the year rolled around. One of a crop of contemporary English bands indebted to some of Pavement's more tuneful moments, Favours For Sailors released the Furious Sons EP on Tough Love Records in March, but by July the London-based quartet had called it quits. This tune is a melodic, uptempo guitar anthem with clever lyrics that beg to be stumbled over in the chorus. The real pay-off is in the final moments, when singer JRC drops in the last kick "...but you don't." It's fitting emotional punctuation that parallels the dashing of fan hopes by the announcement of the band's dissolution. Let's see, what else: nice harmonies, there's some kick-ass tambourine work... uh... we think the lead singer looks a little like Greg Kihn. And Favours For Sailors were not afraid to bring the chorus back over and over, because they knew they had a killer on their hands.

5. Dananananaykroyd -- "Black Wax" -- Hey Everyone!

This is one of those tracks that is so good it doesn't matter that you can't tell what the hell the singer is saying. Sure, Dananananaykroyd's dual fronters tout Glaswegian accents, but they are also excitedly hollering, and even when the words take shape in your mind ("write your name in cellophane strips something something blah blah blah"), it is hard to figure out what they are on about. But with Dananananaykroyd none of that really matters, as the band's singular mix of maximalist hardcore energy and wonderfully saccharine hooks makes the end product undeniably arresting. The sextet also made a killer video for this track, incidentally. As we get older we are finely tuned into things we perceived as redemptive or transformative, and the crescendo two-and-a-half minutes into this track certainly qualifies as the latter if not the former. But even that is secondary to the overall electrifying vibe and delicious guitars that make this track one of the best of the year.

6. The xx -- "Basic Space" -- xx

Twenty-five years ago this song would have been perfect for use in a television show that was trying to depict music of the future. It's sort of space age, but it is minimal to the point of being almost transparent. Between the electronic beats, diaphanous house keys, understated bass playing, reverbed guitar and murmured vocals, the London trio (a quartet for most of the year until the departure of keyboardist and singer Baria Qureshi) somehow crafts one of the most gripping, darksexy tracks of the year. We had the pleasure of taking in The xx's sold-out Boston show at the beginning of December and report with pleasure that the band is even more of a sensation live. Not because of the somewhat affectless performances, of course, but because all of the elements of the record were powerfully underpinned by the electronics being blasted, bass-heavy and at gut-level, through the house sound system. The embiggened beats and tones provided an added dimension of shadowy aggression to the music which was exciting. It also made our insides wiggle, and we liked it.

7. Fleeting Joys -- "You Are The Darkness" -- Occult Radiance

Another year goes by in which we wonder when Fleeting Joys will finally get wide recognition they deserve. Certainly if "You Are The Darkness" can not break the Northern California-based duo into the broader underground, then we don't know what will, because this track is as fine a shoegaze anthem as has been written. It's up there with Ride's "Taste" or Lilys' "Claire Hates Me" (well, nothing is as good as "Claire Hates Me," but it's in the ballpark). Sculpted guitar guitar, breathy vocals with perfectly layered harmonies: it doesn't get better than this.

8. The Answering Machine -- "Another City, Another Sorry" -- Another City, Another Sorry
Download MP3 (with thanks to the band)

While this Manchester, England-based quartet is generally wired for writing pop-leaning tracks, the title tune to its long awaited 2009 full-length debut is an outright scorcher, and the most exciting two-and-a-half minutes from a very good album. "Another City, Another Sorry" also shows the band's acquisition of an actual drummer (early on it relied on a drum machine) paying huge dividends -- it's the sort of track that swings and bashes along in a way that only a live drummer can pull off. The manner in which the accompaniment drops off and spaces out during the last pre-chorus launches the anthem into a final driving salvo that defies you not to sing along. If The Answering Machine did nothing more than release this track in 2009 they could still call the year a huge success.

9. Morrissey -- "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" -- Years Of Refusal

There is actually something very heartening about a misfit misanthrope that continues to persevere into middle age. It suggests that one need not capitulate to the square world, that one can live life on one's own terms for as long as they choose to. And so when Morrissey sings "I know by now you think I should have straightened myself out,thank you, drop dead," it just feels good. Thanks Moz. Sure, the latter half of the track is a litany of drugs and problems, but hey, we didn't say the guy was *thriving*, we said he was giving life what for. Years Of Refusal may be the most straightforwardly rocking set Morrissey has ever released (although fear not, it still has many interesting dimensions), and this lead track is its best calling card.

10. George Washington Brown -- "End Of The..." -- Searching For The Now 6
Download MP3 (courtesy of Slumberland)

Eighty-eight seconds of fuzzed-out glory with brilliant lo-fi production. Despite the entire proceedings being rendered as a tinny mess, this song is brilliantly realized. We love the slap-back on the voice, the crazy space key-chain noises, the Boyracer-esque vocals. A masterpiece, and perhaps the best track Slumberland issued in 2009, which is saying something, since the label is kicking several different kinds of ass lately.

Today's Hotness: Projekt A-ko, Pants Yell!, Shout Out Louds, She Sir

>> We were rapping with our tweeps last week on the Interzizzles about the wonderful Glaswegian indie rock trio Projeckt A-ko, who released the superlative full-length Yoyodyne this past spring. The discussion reminded us that when we had communicated with band fronter Fergus Lawrie last he had mentioned that writing and recording for a new Projekt A-ko was already in the works. We checked back in with Mr. Lawrie last weekend, who provided us with an update on all things A-ko. Recording started a year ago at The Diving Bell studio in Glasgow, at which time drum tracks for five cuts (including the oft-discussed cover of the amazing Drop Nineteens classic "Winona") were recorded. In August Projekt A-ko returned to work and committed to tape bass and rhythm guitar tracks for the aforementioned five cuts, and the band hopes to finish eight songs by Christmas. The plan is to record some additional songs in 2010 and aim for a June release. Lawrie reports that the new songs are "heavier and deeper" than the material on Yoyodyne, and offers My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and Smashing Pumpkins as reference points for the sound. Touring is still not in the cards for Projekt A-ko, sadly, as the band members have other commitments, although Lawrie notes he has felt conflicted when turning down gig and tour offers. While we wait for new Projekt A-ko music, here's an awesome non-album track called "Our Teenagers Need Healthy Touch."

Projekt A-ko -- "Our Teenagers Need Healthy Touch"
[right click and save as]
[buy Yoyodyne from the band right here]

>> Cambridge, Mass.'s own twee pop stars Pants Yell! will release their fourth album (and Slumberland Records debut) Received Pronunciation Nov. 10, and the trio is promoting the release with the MP3 "Cold Hands." Our quick and first impression of the track is that it's not immediately hooky, but the production is spectacular and tight and the guitars are heavier and generally sound amazing. Pants Yell! hit the road the day after release day for a nine-day tour of the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. We're posting the tour dates below.

Pants Yell! -- "Cold Hands" -- Received Pronunciation
[right click and save as]
[buy Pants Yell! records from Newbury Comics right here]

11/11 -- Bronxville, NY -- Sarah Lawrence College
11/12 -- Philadelphia, PA -- University of Pennsylvania
11/13 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat (SLR 20th Anniversary show)
11/14 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Bell House (SLR 20th Anniversary show)
11/15 -- Bethlehem, PA -- Secret Art Space
11/16 -- Cambridge, MA -- Zuzu
11/20 -- Portland, ME -- Space Gallery
12/05 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Bruar Falls

>> Swedish indie pop phenoms Shout Out Louds return with its third full length Work, which will be issued by Merge on Feb. 23 in the U.S. The set was recorded with Phil Ek, whose work you know from classic albums by Built To Spill, Modest Mouse and Unwound. You can watch a short preview promo of Work right here. Shout Out Louds' sophomore set Our Ill Wills was released in 2007 and the record closed with the amazing brooder "Hard Rain," and we are hoping as hard as we can hope that the new record will pick up where "Hard Rain" left off, because that track is amazing.

>> We ran this out our Twitter feed the other night, but it is worth repeating here that Austin, Texas-based shoegaze luminaries She Sir have pushed the release of their sophomore set Go Guitars to next summer. But in the near-term the band intends to issue the four-song, digital and vinyl Yen EP, and you can hear two of the tracks "Ginger" (sadly not a Lilys cover, but still exceptional) and "Lemongrass" at the band's Internet Home Page right here.

You Know That One Band We Really Like, Johnny Foreigner?

Johnny Foreigner will headline a tour of the UK in October to celebrate the release of their sophomore full-length Grace And The Bigger Picture, an album that we expect will be our favorite of the year (although it already has stiff competition in the form of Projekt A-ko's absurdly perfect Yoyodyne). Grace And The Bigger Picture will be released 26 October in the UK on Best Before Records. It is preceded 12 October by a second single from the set, "Criminals," whose tiny cover art you can see here. The first single, "Feels Like Summer," was released to the Internet for free last month.

Fergus Lawrie On Album Of The Year Contender Yoyodyne

[PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Woodward/Crimson Glow Photography] We've raved about Projekt A-ko's towering debut Yoyodyne so much already that a review at this point would be superfluous. Instead, we've asked band fronter Fergus Lawrie for a track-by-track breakdown of the record, whose official release date is Monday in the U.K. Mr. Lawrie was kind enough to oblige, but first we do have these remarks: if there is anything disappointing about Projekt A-ko's full-length debut it is that, at least for the time being, the band is solely a recording unit, and no touring to tout the record is planned. This is a shame, as we believe Yoyodyne is the best record released in 2009 to date. Lawrie, et al.'s potent amalgamation of early (read: good) Mercury Rev, Teenage Fanclub and mid-period Dinosaur Jr. would certainly win fans were the band to snag a slot on a hot tour supporting, say, Dinosaur, or Johnny Foreigner, or... well, it doesn't really matter. There's no tour to look forward to for now. There's also no distribution, no press agents (beyond some help from Darren Walker of Filthy Little Angels, who initially hipped us to the record), no advertising -- Yoyodyne is wholly DIY, released on Projekt A-ko's own Milk Pie imprint, only available by Internet order and in select shops in Glasgow. The good thing is there are more recordings in the offing, including what promises to be a shattering cover of Drop Nineteens' "Winona," which is one of Lowrie's all-time favorite tracks (and one of ours, as well). So we've that to look forward to. Now let's see what Lawrie has to say about the songs on Yoyodyne.

Track One: Hey Palooka!

"How’s it feel to be surreal, how’s it feel to be corporeal?" The oldest song on the album written (as a development from Urusei Yatsura songs "Plastic Ashtray" and "Majesty") as part of an ongoing effort to get to grips with "Winona" by Drop Nineteens, an all time favourite song of mine -- we’re working on recording a cover version just now. The long intro to "Hey Palooka" is kind of meant to be intentionally frustrating to people who expect bands to put the obvious "hit" song at the front of the album. The tracklisting was devised by my friend Captain Polaroid as I felt too close to the songs. I think he did a great job of creating a flow and making the album a real grower. Also includes the phrase "pyroclastic flow" (thanks to Kenny!).

Track Two: Nothing Works Twice

"A unique confluence of movement and time -- or not." Sardonic attempt to acknowledge the futility of being in a band coupled with a warning to stop being in a band whilst still being in a band, doh! At one point we actually literally rip off Pixies as opposed to being "heavily influenced" by them or whatever...

Track Three: Supertriste Duxelle

"A gown of Martian spores." Possibly a Stereolab song with the drone surgically removed. Lyrically seeking synthesis of retro / sci-fi / historical / hardboiled / personal / microbiological inspirations. I tried to be fearless with words for these songs even if it meant overdoing it a bit sometimes.

Track Four: Here Comes New Challenger!

"Hey Keiko, give a little milk!", "I tried, but my tears were wine." A light-hearted romp through mortality and the human condition. All post-modern pop is self-aware and in this case the last verse serves as a critique of the song itself [This is totally our favorite part, too -- Ed.].

Track Five: Xavier

"Wish I had a luminous left arm!" An historical epic. A long time was spent structuring this song and I guess it just about hangs together. References include 1) a saint who lived in a cave in Fife and copied the Bible by the light of his glowing right arm and 2) The Bangles. The guitars actually sounded even more foul and brutal until Steven Ward -- who did an incredible job producing and engineering the album -- ditched a couple of Fender Twins we’d used in the recording from the mix. I love Elaine’s vox on this song, especially at the end. It's been great having her start to sing and I hope she’ll be doing a lot more.

Track Six: Molten Hearts

"Eyes like atomic decay, hearts melt like snow bouquets." Finally, the secret truth about Dr. Phibes and Vulnavia! This was the last song written for the album and a lot of fun to record and play; I’d love to play it live. The drums and some of the guitars + vox for this and "Ichiro," "Scintilla" and "Black Empire" were recorded at CaVa studios in Glasgow by Geoff Allan.

Track Seven: Scintilla

"Jars of State moonshine." Drunken Cosmonaut fires death ray at random, or thinks he does. We had a "2001: A Space Odyssey"-type arrangement for the middle drone, but it made the section too exciting so we dropped it in order to save all the extra instrumentation until the end of the album. The Tommy Cooper-style guitar solo was completely unrehearsed and done in one take -- I’m not sure whether to be proud of that or not...

Track Eight: Ichiro on 3rd

"The mind democratic, the heart is a fascist." Ichiro Suzuki [outfielder for the Seattle Mariners, according to Wikipedia -- Ed.] trapped in the jaws of America. He fantasises about a past lover before hitting a home run. He runs towards Japan. Too late, he’s already dead!

Track Nine: Otaku Blue

"Kevlar Superstar do your vinyl best." Underground Celebrity-obsessed geek thinks he's a robot. The alternative stars sing to him from the chorus to try and make him see sense. Nearly all the vox for this album were done in one take (yeah, I know, it shows!) apart from the little scream before the final verse which I had to do about 12 times before it sounded remotely convincing. That was in The Diving Bell with Marcus Mackay, who recorded some of the guitars and vox [he also recorded Frightened Rabbit's Sing The Greys, or at least parts of it -- Ed.]. My voice is knackered from belting out "Kewpies like Watermelon."

Track Ten: Utopia

"Anatomise thy foppery, just don’t fake on me now." Yes, the chorus is a Swirlies reference! It's possible the album breaks out in a fit of optimism at this point before collapsing into noise. We used a lot of effect boxes in a feedback loop to create the sonic squiggles at the end.

Track Eleven: Black Empire

"No man is an island but I am an isthmus." Some nice crisp drum fills from Ian. The distorted vocals were created using a baby monitor.

Track Twelve: Yoyodyne (Scintilla II)

"You only really exist in the days you fight." These last two songs were arranged by my friend Richard Spiller, an amazing musician who does a lot of music for TV shows. "It is nice party after all" is a line from a Bollywood film I was watching one night, "Angelica of despair" from an online poetry generator. Oedipa Maas from "The Crying of Lot 49" makes a brief appearance. I particularly like the arpeggio which decays into nothing at the end of the song, inspired by a visit to Glasgow’s premier minimal art/sound/noise festival Instal. Entropy in action.

Track Thirteen: Don’t Listen To This Song

"I made you love me then I let you down." I wrote the lyrics for this on the train to the recording so they’re kind of scratchy and unfinished, but it suits the song. This song is a spell. Don’t listen to it -- it can only work if you do, like using the video in "The Ring" or the disk in "Pulse" or the phone no. in "Cell."

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, Projekt A-ko, The Beatles

>> The wait is over, and it was surprisingly short: the first single from the planned sophomore set from Birmingham, England noise-pop titans Johnny Foreigner will be for the new tune "Feels Like Summer." The single, which will be issued by Best Before Records in the UK in May, is likely to appear on the forthcoming record, which according to our intrepid KSDS colleague Luke Cotton will be released in September or October. Mr. Cotton, who saw Johnny Foreigner Monday night at Islington Academy in London, also reports that the tune "Custom Scenes And The Parties That Make Them" has definitely been re-christened "Criminals," as first reported by another KSDS correspondent last week. Johnny Foreigner's fourth and final single from their smashing 2008 debut Waited Up Til It Was Light was the double A-sided, digital-only "DJs Get Doubts" b/w "Lea Room," which was released in January. The band completed its planned second full-length last month; it was recorded in Brooklyn with Alex Newport, who is most famous to us for recording Knapsack's This Conversation Is Over Starting Right Now.

>> As we typed today's post last night we were obsessing over how amazing the Projekt A-ko full length Yoyodyne is. We received it in the mail Tuesday and are blown away by the tracks that are new to us. We also think the mixes for the promo tracks are jazzed up and ring clearer somehow -- maybe we just ripped higher quality MP3s than what the promos offered? But anyway, you must stop at nothing in your efforts to acquire this record. We hear from band fronter Fergus that after the album's official release date (April 20), the free MP3s and free worldwide shipping go the way of the dodo bird, so make certain to avail yourself of his waning largesse. When you are rocking out to awesome tracks like "Xavier," "Scintilla" and "Utopia" (the latter of which seems to name-drop our favorite Versus record) you will thank us. Repeatedly. It is only 10 pounds, you can buy it via Paypal, and this very well may be dollar-for-dollar the best thing you buy this year. Maybe -- let's not forget about that Johnny Foreigner record in the pipeline.

Projekt A-ko -- "Molten Hearts" -- Yoyodyne
Projekt A-ko -- "Supertriste Duxelle" -- Yoyodyne
[right click and save as]
[buy Yoyodyne from the band right here]

>> There's really nothing left to be said about The Beatles, so we'll say little beyond the fact that we've started to listen to their records before bed again -- as we did when we were about six or seven years old -- and have been enjoying it immensely. So much so that we are currently beaming Magical Mystery Tour to our still in utero baby via the IPod as we type this. You've likely seen the reportage from Tuesday about The Beatles catalog finally getting reissued in remastered form this coming September. If you haven't read said reportage yet, we think the most complete write-up is this one at WogBlog. The 14 remastered albums will be sold in a few different configurations, including a boxed set, and we expect a lot of people will get that boxed set come the year-end holidays. We hope we are one of those people, even tho we already have a lot of the CDs already. Curiously, we have no copy of Revolver on CD. Just vinyl. Weird.

Projekt A-ko Is Awesome And This Is A Post About Them

We suppose we should start at the beginning of the story, which is this: when we were music director at the radio station of our small liberal arts college in Connecticut in 1996 we took delivery of copious excellent records. And in those days, pre- ubiquitous Interhoozle and MySpazzz and all that, one reliable indicator of whether the indie rock you were about to hear was any good was what label it was released on. So when we saw a new CD EP come through the door that spring from the very respectable Che Records, we took notice. The disc was Urusei Yatsura's Plastic Ashtray EP [video], and like all good things in 1996, we almost immediately took it into the auxiliary studio and copied it to cassette tape, the now quaint storage media. We played that tape to death, and always maintained an interest in Urusei Yatsura while not actually hearing any of the ensuing recordings. Along the way some legal friction with a Japanese comics outfit or some such forced the band to drop the "Urusei" from its name for releases in certain markets, but otherwise the Glaswegian foursome continued to make and release records until 2001, during which we moved around a lot, played some cards, had a few jobs and largely forgot about the band. That is, until about a week ago, when Parisian blogstress and Johnny Foreigner fan Veee sent us a message asking if we were hip to the band. Almost the same day we received an email from a fellow in England saying something about a few bands and mixed in there was the name Urusei Yatsura, who we had only a week or so before seen used as an RIYL for the rising British band Wet Paint. So we thought, hey, that's weird, everybody's talking about Urusei Yatsura nowadays, and then we doot-doot-dooed like Homer Simpson for about a week before going back to the email mentioned all the way back in the previous sentence.

Upon further review, we learned that said email was indicating that three former members of Urusei Yatsura had formed several years ago the new combo Projekt A-ko. The new trio -- Fergus Lawrie on guitar and vocals, Elaine Graham on bass and vocals, and Ian Graham on drums -- will release the full-length Yoyodyne April 20 on its own Milk Pie Records, and we've heard a few tracks from it, and they are amazingstunningawesome. There are a couple non-album MP3's at the Yoyodyne microsite, and even those are awesome. Yoyodyne took three years to write and record, and the tracks "Here Comes New Challenger!" and "Nothing Works Twice" have been selected as singles from the 13 cuts, although it is unclear whether that means they are, you know, actual singles coming out on vinyl and whatnot, or just the band saying "hey! radio programmers! play these tracks!" It's a little confusing because these tunes have already been issued: Filthy Little Angel records released a Projekt A-ko/Horowitz split EP in February 2008 in an edition of 200 vinyl copies which contained the tracks "Nothing Works Twice" and "Goodbye Sunlight" on it. We will spend most of the weekend thinking of ways to justify spending six pounds sterling for that. Then in March 2008 Broken Tail Records issued a four-band EP Four By Four More, which contains that cracking Projekt A-ko track "Here Comes New Challenger!" We love this tune so much we are offering it for download below along with one of the non-album tracks we turned up at the band's site. Yoyodyne is already available for pre-order, and its 10 pounds sterling price includes worldwide shipping, which means we'll have a second import expense to torture ourselves over all weekend. Oh well. Expect to see a lot more about Projekt A-ko here at :: clicky clicky ::, as we're quite taken with them.

Projekt A-ko -- "Here Comes New Challenger!" -- Yoyodyne
Projekt A-ko -- "Our Teenagers Need Healthy Touch"
[right click and save as]
[pre-order Yoyodyne from the band right here]

Projekt A-ko: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr