Aesecakes

joined 1 year ago
 

This is the first song I ever heard from this band. It was on a cassette compilation that I bought in about 1990 and from that moment I was hooked.

The two songwriters, Shayne Carter and Andrew Brough juxtaposed jangly 60's guitar and melodies on one had, with brooding, post-punk sensibilities on the other. This produced a couple of beautiful albums of great texture, lyricism and gravitas. However, the strain of having rival songwriters took its toll with a reshuffling of the band that led to Brough splitting to form the jangly combo, Bike. The remainder of Straitjacket Fits then pursued a more muscular sound for their third and final album, with a new guitarist.

She Speeds was voted #9 in a list of greatest New Zealand songs and the band was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

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Wikipedia

 

A Dunedin band on the fabled Flying Nun Records who only put out a handful of songs prior to the untimely passing of one of the guitarists, Wayne Elsey. The remaining members of Doublehappys later formed Straitjacket Fits, who went on to wider acclaim.

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LA’s Tennis System borrowed the DeLorean and traveled back to 1990 from 2018 for this track.

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Am inspired to post this because of the new Song Exploder episode which has Archie, Marry Me as its subject.

Will get to see them play for the second time, in December!

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Those who like Slowdive (there seem to be a few on here) will probably know this alt-country band formed by former members, Neil Halstead, Ian McCutcheon and Rachel Goswell after they were dropped by Creation Records. They were joined by keyboardist Alan Forrester and Chapterhouse guitarist, Simon Rowe and picked up by 4AD.

They put out some really impressive music across 5 studio albums. This song is my particular fave because in provided a soundtrack to a period in 2001 in British Columbia, that I spent hanging out with a German girl on the north shore of Vancouver. It's so evocative for me.

Soon after she (and her sister) went back to Germany, I saw Mojave 3 play at the Starfish Room. I also got to a few of their shows England after I moved there to live.

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As an outlier in a largely British scene, it's said that Boston shoegazers, Drop Nineteens, were more popular in Europe than in their homeland.

Winona is from the 1992 debut album Delaware. A second album being released in 1993. Apparently, their third is coming out in November. I had a listen to the available track on Bandcamp and it's quite good!

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The 5.6.7.8's released this cover version of a 1959 track, first performed by the Rock-A-Teens, on the Bomb the Twist EP.

Most of us, including me, know it from Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)

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I once sub-let some rooms to a couple of Swedes who were around the same age as me and were studying at a local university for the year. This led me to joining in on a lot of the uni's Scandinavian Society "activities". It was a really great year!

A Norwegian guy I befriended, handed me a couple of "Turboneger" CDs. I was slightly concerned at first, but then I deciphered the Norwegian humour and really got into it.

Fast forward 3-4 years, and I found myself in the front row at a couple of Turbonegro gigs, high-fiving the sweaty, sweaty leather glove of former lead singer, "Hank von Helvete" (RIP) and marveling at the licks of lead guitarist "Euroboy", both seen in this vid of a set at a German music festival. Fun times.

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I must rewatch this.

Archived version in case of (future) paywall.

 

I admire Kristin's long career with some great songs and a strong independent spirit. This is probably her best known track…but's worth seeking out some of her other solo releases, as well as Throwing Muses, if you don't know her music.

She is quoted as saying:

"Throwing Muses functions as a noncommercial musical enterprise, focusing on touring over record sales and airplay. In a 2014 interview, Hersh stated: "As far as I'm concerned, music is not a commodity. It's something that people have earned by being human. They have a right to hear it, and a right to share it, as they always have in churches and parties. That's how music happens."

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Posting this Descartes a Kant song led me down a rabbit hole to Polysics, from Japan. Despite being around since 1997, I have never heard of them before…which is such a great thing about music discovery. Posted this track because it's a cool video and has certain similarities to the DAK video.

I can really hear links to lots of other guitar/electronic groups out there. What influences and similarities to other bands do you hear?

I might stick around in Japan for a while and post some more tracks from bands I know.

 

There's a large seam of jangly indie (if that's your thing) to mine from bands in Asia. This Indonesian band is a find that my music searching shovel unearthed recently.

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