100bells: Oldies

Here are some awesome oldies for Christmas, from my favorite cheesy compilation CD (which I got for free in the mail from some random place, many years ago. I still don't know where it came from, it was like a surprise gift from Santa himself!). The Louis Armstrong is one of my absolute favorites, I love singing along in my crazy Louis voice. And the Lou Monte - well, you just have to hear it. It's either the worst / stupidest song ever or pure genius. But I feel I should warn you: if you listen to it once, you'll have it stuck in your head for months, be careful.

   Louis Armstrong - Zat You Santa Claus
   Lou Monte - Dominick The Donkey

New Band Day: Elvis Perkins

There's almost no chance you all don't already know about Elvis Perkins, singer-songwriter son of Anthony Perkins. But I just found out that Elvis' debut album, Ash Wednesday will finally be released in February 2007 by XL Recordings, which is pretty exciting. His songs are stunning, somehow full of joy and sadness at the same time - be sure to have a listen to "Ash Wednesday" and "While You Were Sleeping". There's two myspace pages for Elvis, where you can listen to some of his songs, and I'm sure searching The Hype Machine will get you all the music you'll need to tide you over until February.

100bells: Emusic's Best Of The Holidays

If you're looking for a wide variety of holiday music to get you feeling all jolly, check out emusic's "The Best Of The Holidays" list. They've got everything from Rosemary Clooney to Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas (one of best Christmas albums of all time) to Kill Rock Stars Winter Holiday Album. There's something for everyone - Santa would be proud.

Soundtrack Day: Like A Knife In The Water

I've been looking through my ridiculous CD collection, reminding myself what came out this year in preparation for the big year end lists. I had totally forgotten about The Futureheads' News And Tributes! The Futureheads are absolutely fantastic and that's all I have to say about that. This is one of my favorites from the album.

   The Futureheads - Favours For Favours

100bells: Donkeys and Fires

Ho, Ho, Ho! I have a couple of indie Christmas gems to share today. I don't have much to say about these songs, just get them and get all Christmassy with your bad selves.

First up, Miss Holly Golightly and her charmingly country "Christmas Tree On Fire" - couldn't you just imagine Loretta Lynn singing this oddly morbid, yet very jolly, holiday ditty?

   Holly Golightly - Christmas Tree On Fire

And for the more, ahem, traditional Christmassers, we have The Boy Least Likely To and their Christmas tune, "Little Donkey". As Rough Trade describes it, it "tells the Christmas tale of the Journey to Bethlehem, but from the donkey’s point of view". Ah, who could be more perfectly adorable at this time of year than The Boy Least Likely To? Buy it for almost nothing over at Rough Trade Digital.

Poptastic Day: 1.21 Gigawatts

I had a very busy, slightly aggravating day and had absolutely nothing Poptastic to share. Nothing. But then I figured I'd relax for a little while and watch Back To The Future and hope something came to me. How was I to know that the movie itself would supply me with Poptastic goodness? Huey Lewis, baby! The movie has two Huey Lewis & The News songs in its soundtrack. "The Power Of Love" went on to be The News' first #1 single. I'm sure it's nice to have a hit single, but we all know "Back In Time" is way cooler - c'mon, he's singing the plot of the movie! (They really don't make movie themes like that anymore, like "Ghostbusters", it's a damn shame.)

Oh, and if you want to see something really cool, check out this timeline of all the Back To The Future time travel that someone went to the trouble of making. Awesome.

   Huey Lewis & The News - Back In Time

Album/Single Of The Month: Brakes & Cold War Kids

I had a terrible time picking an Of The Month album for November. I only bought three albums last month - Brakes' The Beatific Visions, The Long Blondes' Someone To Drive You Home, and The Magic Numbers' Those The Brokes - and they're all deserving in their own way. Many an indie dork waitied as long as two years for The Long Blondes debut, which could easily have been a disappointment after such anticipation. Of course it wasn't. Even though most of us had heard some of these songs already, in some form or another, Someone To Drive You Home still sounds fresh and fabulous - like Blondie, Nancy Sinatra, and Franz Ferdinand cast in a 50s b-movie. On the other hand, The Magic Numbers (possibly one of my all-time favorite bands) released their (according to pop music mythology) "difficult" second album and succeeded. Even I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to their beautiful debut but they still know how to charm us and break our hearts.

Despite all my gushing, both The Long Blondes and The Magic Numbers definitely show their influences strongly. Both do what they do very well, but they build on existing sounds and styles. But Brakes? They just blow me away with their originality. They don't fit tidily into any one genre so a clever comparison to other bands just won't work here - which is a big part of what makes them so great. Their influences? Equal parts Johnny Cash and The Clash, maybe, but who knows what else went into the mix to make them sound the way they do. Brakes originally started as an odd sort of supergroup - members of existing bands who released a 26-second single on vinyl - who have have come to overshadow and outshine the bands they used to play with. They're political without ever telling us what we should think. They write nonsense lyrics ("Spiky, Spiky - Youch!") but manage to say more about the state of the world than nearly anyone else recording music right now ("Who won the war? What the fuck was it for?"). They sing sweet country songs about beautiful women and lost love. All this and much, much more in under 30 minutes. It's bound to be high up on 100b's end of the year lists - as well as most others', I'm sure - and is more than worthy of Album Of The Month.

The single of the month was also tricky, but I managed to get it narrowed down to two over a week ago. But then I got stuck and didn't know what to do. The Noisettes' "Don't Give Up" is exactly the thing singles were meant for - it gets you all riled up and is perfect for crazy dancing - it's all set to be an anthem. (You can listen to it over on their myspace page, free of charge.) I very nearly picked it as the single of the month, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I am quite obsessively in love with Cold War Kids and I just couldn't pick something else for a month when they released a single of their own. "We Used To Vacation" is kind of funky, very sad, and perfectly shows off their incredibly original sound. If you don't have Robbers & Cowards (Cold War Kids' debut album) yet, check out this single and you'll be hooked, I promise.

New Band Day: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

It was nearly a year ago now that I sat, warming myself by the glow of my laptop, searching for information about this odd little band I had read about - Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. All I knew was that they were three kids who were playing some old-school country / rhythm & blues / rockabilly stuff. A year later, I've finally found out a bit more about them. I know now that they're all siblings and that they're 13, 16 and 18 years old. They sometimes play with their parents and they record in their house. They've also released two singles, one you shouldn't even bother looking for unless you're ready to go straight to ebay ("Honolulu Rock And Roll", released last year), and "Mean Son Of A Gun", released this past September on CD, for download on iTunes (UK, at least), 7" vinyl, and 10" 78 RPM vinyl. Nice - I didn't even know they still made 78s.

It's ridiculous that three kids - the youngest of which is literally half my age - are this talented already. According to their artist page on Sunday Best, the three of them play nine instruments between them. If that wasn't impressive enough, that list includes the ukulele and the trombone. And I don't know which of those gals is their singer, but she's got a mean growl that just knocks your socks off.

Listen to their latest release, "Mean Son Of A Gun", in its entirety over on their myspace page.

Soundtrack Day: Jam Roly Poly

I've spent most of the week working on crap with Upstairs Downstairs on in the background. Every time the lovely Mrs. Bridges serves her famous jam roly poly for the servants' dessert, I think of this incredible song from the fantastic Sympathetic Sounds Of Toe-Rag Studios compilation. Mr. Liam Watson is kind enough to provide a brief description of each song in the liner notes, and here's what he has to say about "Puddings And Pies":

Gustav Temple is the man behind British literary publication The Chap. Although not normally associated with popular music, Mr. Temple had teamed up with Scottish entertainers, The Blades, for an enthusiastic and celebratory number concerning the pleasures to be found in the average British larder.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm willing to bet that this is the only song in the history of popular music that makes tapioca sound like something to dance about.

   Gustav Temple & The Blades - Puddings And Pies