Thursday, October 27, 2011

David Mead - Live from Ivy League Studios (Video)

Three wonderful songs, great performances and beautiful videos from David Mead - Live from Ivy League Studios:






Thursday, October 20, 2011

Review: Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

So here it is: the new record of Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
The more successful they got, the more skeptic I was regarding their new records. Viva La Vida was a little highlight after X & Y, which I never liked very much, while Parachutes is still one of my top five records.
When the Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall EP came out, I was disappointed. It was like they became the new U2. So when the full record came out yesterday I listened to it immediately.


01. Mylo Xyloto - The intro - leading to...
02. Hurts Like Heaven - I bet it's the third single. I hope so. It's a good, upbeat song. This has something of the Coldplay I liked.
03. Paradise - Obvious single number two. Better than the first single.
04. Charlie Brown -
Still not sure if I like it.
05. Us Against The World -
Still not sure if I like it, too.
06. M.M.I.X. - Kind of an interlude to...
07. Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall -
The first single. It's okay.
08. Major Minus
- It's nice to see a darker tune. The chorus reminds me of U2 a lot, though.
09. U.F.O. -
A little ballad in the middle of this wall-of-sound-record.
10. Princess Of China -
Is this really Coldplay? Really?
11. Up In Flames -
Beautiful song.
12. A Hopeful Transmission
- Again an interlude.
13. Don’t Let It Break Your Heart
- It's okay. Not much more to say.
14. Up With The Birds
- The closing song is again slightly great.

Closing comments: 
For me Mylo Xyloto has some good songs, but sadly the "not so good" songs are on the majority. I asked myself if I'm too harsh with the band, so I played Don't Panic, Yellow, A Warning Sign and Amsterdam right after finishing Mylo Xyloto:
Altogether the reocrd has not the quality of the old songs (after the second or third listen).

How do you think of it?

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Short Review: Feist - Metals

Five years after The Reminder Leslie Feist is back with a new album. The Reminder was successful for a a surprisingly long time. Here in Germany it was in the Top 100 LP charts for longer than two years.

Metals, the new record, is darker and at the first listen partially not as catchy as its forerunner.


1. "The Bad In Each Other"

2. "Graveyard"

3. "Caught A Long Wind"

4. "How Come You Never Go There"

5. "A Commotion"

6. "Bittersweet Melodies"

7. "Anti Pioneer"

8. "Undiscovered First"

9. "Cicadas And Gulls"

10. "Woe Be"

11. "Comfort Me"

12. "Get It Wrong, Get It Right" 


Highlights: The Bad In Each Other, Graveyard, How Come You Never Go There, Anti Pioneer

Brandon Schott - 13 Satellites

I was lucky to get a digital advance copy of Brandon Schott's new record 13 Satellites.



It's surely a very different album than his last one Dandelion. And here's a short review:

01 Annie - A beautiful intro.
02 Early Morning Light - Do I hear The Beatles here (in 1967 - 1970)? Great tune.
03 Full Circle Night - Could be a great radio single.
04 This Is Home - Beautiful balled and lyrics!
05 Flowers Fading - My favorite so far.
06 A Daydream (or A 2AM Serenade) - Nice chorus!
07 Building A Boat
08 Satellite - The song is out for some time already at soundcloud. And it's catchy. Good choice for a first single.
09 Exploding Angel - Again very beatlesque.
10 Louise St. - A short, mostly instrumental song. A little gem.
11 All The Way Down - What a chorus! Already after the first listen it's stuck right in my head!
12 My Love Won't Let Me Down - The last "proper" song on the album.Gorgeous.
13 Fading (Outro) -Well, is the 13th satellite. It's kind of an outro-medley. And a good way to finish the album.


The crowd funding campaign at indigogo.com was again a great way to promote the album release (see also David Mead - Dudes and Bleu - Four).

You can order it here. It's a nice bundle: you get the album 13 Satellites along with his record Golden State and (Is this all Brandon? No, you get also) ... a kazoo!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Poll - Which artists you would like to see performing together again?


  • Bleu & Mike Viola
  • Fran Healy & Andy Dunlop & Dougie Payne & Neil Primrose as Travis
  • Ben Folds & Darren Jesse & Robert Sledge as Ben Folds Five
  • Jason Falkner & Andy Sturmer & Roger Manning Jr as Jellyfish
  • Ben Lee & Ben Kweller & Ben Folds as The Bens
  • Justin Currie & Ian Harvie & Andy Alston as Del Amitri
  • Any other artist (post it in comments)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Saturday, October 8, 2011

+ + + News October 2011 (Ben Folds, Bleu, Mike Viola, Ben Lee...) + + +

Ben Folds - The Best Imitation Of Myself
Ben Folds brings you his three disc best of compilation (CD1 is the Best Of, CD2 is a live compilation and CD3 is rare stuff as well as new songs by Ben Folds Five!) - it's out October 11.

There is also his Fifty-Five-Vault - a selection of 56 (yes, fifty six ;-) rare songs from the early Ben Folds Five era until today. It's already available here. It's mainly demos, live and unreleased stuff.

Bleu - Besides 
In November Bleu will release his B-side compilation Besides. It's only available on vinyl and digital download, and only on his website


Ben Lee
The new album of Ben Lee is out October 11, it's called Deeper Into Dream.

Jellyfish 
The two Jellyfish re-releases of Spilt Milk and Bellybutton only on vinyl are sadly delayed until January 12 2012.


Mike Viola
Electro de Perfecto - the new record of Mike Viola - is out on CD and digital download, the vinyl will be out November 8.

Mike put out a lot of songs on social network (facebook, tumblr, soundcloud etc.) in the last months, which you won't find on the new record.  
Pop Fair created a wonderful collection of these songs called Chemical Night here.

Chemical Night
1. Find Somebody to Love (Bonus track from "Lurch")
2. Something Electric (Bonus track from "Lurch")
3. Chemical Night (Unreleased track from Mike's MySpace page)
4. This is Life, This is Love (Track from "The Right Track" compilation)
5. Unbroken (Non-album track released on EMI Music Publishing Site)
6. Water By the Bed (Track from "Peace" compilation and on the "Hang On Mike" re-release on vinyl)
7. Burn at Both Ends (Non-album track from SoundCloud)
8. Superkid (Acapella) (Unreleased track from Mike's MySpace page)
9. Time For Everything to Change (Unreleased track from Mike's Facebook page)
10. Bee Vee (Intro) (Unreleased track from Mike's Facebook page)
11. Happiest Day (Non-album track released on EMI Music Publishing Site)
12. Motel Mood (Bonus track from "Lurch")
13. Smile (Non-album track from SoundCloud)

With the other tracks that surfaced in this time, I created a second collection:

Start Of Something
01 Start Of Something (from Soundcloud)
02 Loving You Baby (with Kelly Jones) (from Soundcloud)
03 Be My Baby (from Soundcloud)
04 Burn at Both Ends ('Radio' Edit) 
05 So Much Better (Demo)
06 Chemical Night (2nd version)
07 Virginia (The Nines cover) (from Youtube - sadly there is no better quality version, it's a great cover)
08 No Surprises (Live)
09 Soundtrack Of My Summer (Live)
10 That Thing You Do! (demo)
11 Let's Have a Baby (demo - writing in progress #1) (from the "Hang On Mike" re-release on vinyl)
12 Dollie and Jane (live) (from Youtube - a proper studio recording would be great)
13 Little One (a beautiful lullaby from Soundcloud, worked on my daughter very well)

Pop Geek Heaven online

Finally, the new website of Bruce Brodeen (Not Lame Recordings) is online, it's Pop Geek Heaven.