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News

News: Website Relaunch

Morning all! It’s my mahoosive pleasure to inform you that our new website is now online! The new site should offer a cleaner, more easily navigated experience, and I really hope you all enjoy using it. We have big plans for future development, and we’re keen to take your ideas on board so please do get in touch with any suggestions or comments.

Massive heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the redesign – a lot of hard work has gone into the migration, and it’s hugely appreciated.

Some info for you:

  • Our RSS feeds have changed – the new link is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Spotisfaction;
  • Check out our Submission Guide here for details on how to continue submitting your playlists, reviews and features;
  • We’ve created a new Facebook ‘fan’ page to offer us more control over the updates we post there, so please like us and suggest us to your friends!

Major thanks from myself and the whole team for your continued support. We created this website and continue to update it because we really love what we do, but there’d be no point in doing it if none of you guys visited.

Love, etc.
Dave and The Spotisfaction Team.

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Reviews

Review: The Baseballs – Strike

Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk

Just humour me, here. In a throwback to the old school, German cover group The Baseballs have taken it upon themselves to re-introduce the good old juke box to the masses with a fresh bunch of recent smash hits re-imagined with a 50”™s twist. Going back a few years to 1995, a lounge cover music outfit The Mike Flowers Pops group made their name with their audacious attempt to outshine Oasis”™ immortal Wonderwall and gave themselves overnight notoriety. These days, is seems that only a few groups can summon the gall to attempt covers of such well known tracks. Nevertheless, The Baseballs have released a collection of efforts in their lively debut album “Strike”.

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Features Reviews

Feature: Tomorrow’s Sounds Today

Hi everyone, welcome to another edition of Tomorrow’s Sounds Today! For those new to the series, this is our collection of the best from the “What’s New” section of Spotify presented to you for your digestion on a fortnightly basis.

We have some real crackers for you this week, including some unusual choices showcasing our commitment to musical diversity. As usual we’ll present our top picks with a little breakdown for you, but please also take a look at the playlist linked at the end of the post for some little extras and teasers for you!

Wavves ”“ King Of The Beach – If you have already listened to the Best Coast album we did a review on last week then you are in for a complete treat with this piece. An epic work of positive, pulsing guitar rock that wouldn’t be out of place on a soundtrack for that drive to the beach for a surf weekend. Tones of other genre bands come out in all the tracks but at no point do they feel like they are lending too heavily from other peoples work. Turn this one up loud and feel the summer.

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Playlists

99 Spotisfaction Monday – 16th August 2010 – Thom Lavelle

Savage Henry has cashed his cheque.

And you know what that means. Yes, after 99 Spotisfactions and numerous features over the last 6 months, I am leaving the Spotisfaction team.

Since it’s birth back in February, Spotisfaction has grown from two frustrated 20-somethings swapping playlists into, well, what you’re reading right now – A fully featured music blog with news, reviews and a handful of dedicated and enthusiastic contributors. I wish Dave and the rest of the team all the best in the coming months and look forward to seeing the further growth of our little baby.

Right, so without further delay, here is Thom Lavelle, posting a Spotisfaction playlist for the last time.

Thom.

[Dave’s Note: Goodbye Thom, it’s been a massive pleasure my young sir. Stay safe, and keep us updated with your goings on. PEACE and TRUCKING]

99 Spotisfaction Monday (16 Aug) – TLavelle – Departure

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Reviews

Review: Best Coast – Crazy For You

Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk.

Such is their ubiquitous presence online, it is difficult to say anything new about Best Coast which hasn”™t been repeated a thousand of times before. “It seems like the whole internet is talking about the Best Coast album” tweeted their record company Wichita Records last month. I, my Spotisfaction friends, shall try to avoid talking about their hilarious twitter feed, or famous boyfriends or music blog hysteria surrounding this album and the current wave of ”˜low-fi”™ bands from America (er, well, starting from now). Let”™s just concentrate on one thing, Crazy For You, the debut album by Best Coast, the solo project of Bethany Consentino from California accompanied by Bobb Bruno on bass and Ali Koehler on drums.

Far from reinventing the wheel, or doing anything which would typically generate the amount of press attention as they have, Crazy For You finds it”™s virtue by sticking with traditional low-fi philosophy of keeping things simple. The album is a meeting point between slacker culture of the 90s and minimal production (it was recorded in just two weeks). The album is full of nostalgia, sing-a-long melodies and throw-away lyrics about life, love and summer and it is this that makes the album such an enjoyable listen. Opening single ”˜Boyfriend”™ wouldn’t have seemed out of place on alt.rock radio playlists circa 1994. Grungy guitars playing a 3 chord structured verses and that rare beast nowadays, a guitar solo! But as soon as second track ”˜Crazy For You”™ comes along, it becomes apparent that there is another era which Best Coast are paying homage. The track is a concoction of the Shangri-La”™s aptitude of all things sinister and the Beach Boys ‘Surfin’ USA’. You can imagine Bethany cruising down the Californian coast with her boyfriend, basking in the sunshine as she is singing to him “I would kill you but then I”™d miss you”.

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Playlists

98 Spotisfaction Friday – 13th August 2010 – Mike Sheldrick

Hi guys. Thom and I had the world’s most important debate today. A debate that has the potential to split our nation right down the middle. A debate so fearce and volatile that we’ve both had to have a bit of a sit down and a cup of tea to recover… That’s right, folks, a debate about which Limp Bizkit cover on Spotify was the best one (not including Richard Cheese or Vitamin String Quartet)…

I think it’s Faith, by some dude called George Michael. He’s taken the song and made it his own. Respect.

Anyway, today’s playlist is by Mighty Mike Sheldrick. Friday 13th? Overrated.

[David]

98 Spotisfaction Friday (13 Aug) – MSheldrick
Hit the link for Mike’s blurb.

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Features

Feature: What Statement; A Profile of Alien8 Records

Article by Richard Capener.

In my day, I say in an old man’s voice, there was a teenage ‘war’ around Gloucester: the individuals snobbily referred to as ‘chavs’ verses the punks and grebos. Verbal abuse and muggings ensued on both sides and blah blah blah.

Moral:

Musical communities, usually based on the clothes people wear and cliques, seem silly to me, who opts for a “Lets create whatever the hell we want, respect it and lend each other a helping hand” kinda mentality: communities defined by genre borders augment segregation.

What if a community was defined by its differences? What if viewpoints shifted from class ethics, clothes and cliques to what each individual believes to be music?

Montreal based label Alien8 Recordings “was founded in 1996 by Sean O’Hara and Gary Worsley, under whose operation the label continues to this day,” (www.alien8recordings.com/info). While their original focus was Montreal’s vangard, they’ve more or less dipped into every genre. And my oh my, I’m going to babble on for bit about some of their releases.

Far from the structureless jibberjabber (not that it’s bad – more on this later) most experimental communities offer, the last five years have seen Alien8 put out rock and roll. More or less. Take Anthologie Des 3 Perchoirs, the debut by the now defunct Duchess Says, and its rather indescribable track, AEAE (open.spotify.com/track/5MujNpEpKEfRrVBAfS7Bre). It’s made all the more exciting because the band believed, “Their goal was to insure a faithful representation of the message of the Duchess (or spiritual budgie) through a precise artistic dialog”. I don’t know what it means either but budgie-message sure makes for good tunage.

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Reviews

Review: The Megaphonic Thrift

Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk.

The Megaphonic Thrift are an enigma to the extent that their references are so forced as to pigeonhole them unfairly. Take these as given: “It’s the new project from the guy from the Casiokids.”[1] (yes, Fredrik Vogsborg is a founding Casioist), “Their name’s from Guided By Voices”[2] or “Their name makes me think of The Polyphonic Spree.” (they certainly share a certain psychadelia with both), and when we’re talking about their music, they sound “like… uhhh… My Bloody Valentine[3][4] or Sonic Youth[4]… kinda.” (Yes, they’re a little noisy) Fine, that’s done. Now forget all that.

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Reviews

Review: The Jolly Boys, The 100 Club London

Image courtesy of AltSounds.com.

The sheer joy of a septuagenarian Jamaican rocking a red suit, belting out classic tunes mento-style and dropping the occasional James Brown-style “huh!” cannot be fully expressed in words. Just smiles, laughter and applause which are heaped on The Jolly Boys by the sell-out crowd at esteemed venue The 100 Club on Oxford Street.

With a changing lineup over six decades, the Port Antonio mento band are experiencing a revival after hooking up with Jon Baker (Gee Street Records) and Mark Jones (Wall of Sound) in 2009 who introduced a repertoire of pop and rock tunes to bring the mento sound bang up to date. The feel-good, retro vibe has been a hit at Secret Garden party and Camp Bestival and was well received this weekend at Big Chill.

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Playlists

97 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 11th August 2010 – Kev Atkinson

Afternoon, all. Things are really kicking into overdrive with the website redesign. I feel like I’ve done nothing but code for the last couple of weeks, but there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel. We think that the new site will be a lot easier to use for you guys, and we can’t wait to unveil it finally! There’ll be an announcement closer to the time so keep your eyes peeled…

Last week I succumbed to the growing trend in our office which is the Graze box. If you’ve not seen these before, they’re a brown box filled with nuts, berries, olives and other such things. I’m not going to lie – it’s tasty and a lot healthier than my normal Tesco-fueled lunch binge, but I feel like a freaking squirrel. I’m campaigning for them to make bacon sandwich flavoured brazil nuts.

Anyway, today’s playlist is by Kev Atkinson and is an eclectic mix of old and new tracks, appropriately entitled “Spotisclectic”. I hope you enjoy.

[David]

97 Spotisfaction Wednesday (11 Aug) – KAtkinson
Hit the link for Kev’s blurb.

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Features

Feature: Does Britain Really Have The X-Factor Talent?

Image courtesy of The Daily Goss.

And first, the news! So recently it was announced that John and Edward, fronted by aging buffoon Louis Walsh are to release a second god awful travesty. Yes my friends. It is regrettably true that those two Irish pillocks (affectionately?) shortened to JedWard, have surpassed all logic and reason with their release of their personal answer to the Nuclear Bomb, a cover version of Blink 182”™s ”˜All the Small Things”™ (along side their new debut album). For those that may not know, John and Edward are 18 year old twins, who earned their reputation for covering poor renditions of tunes like the ”˜Ghostbusters Theme Tune”™ and ”˜Vanilla Ice”™s Under Pressure”™ during last year”™s series of X-Factor. The main problem was that they were at the time subject of much entertainment, because they simply weren”™t good enough. How they made it into the knockout stages was a mystery to many. Nevertheless, they battled through the rounds with their out of sync jumping and cringingly tuneless vocal musings. Surprisingly, they made it to the 6th knockout round of the competition. Thing is, these boys need no encouragement. It”™s not really a fair plan to expose them to the public in this way to be the subject of mockery. Whilst the novelty of watching these boys progress through the rounds bastardising tune after tune was admittingly entertaining at first, their sheer lack of quality soon became tiresome. To the point where, for many weeks, they were booed, live in front of an audience of millions. And now, as previously mentioned, they have landed a large record deal, 2 singles and an album. On what grounds? Success?

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Features Reviews

Feature: Classics Collected

Hi everyone and welcome to Classics Collected, sister piece to the Tomorrow’s Sounds Today article. With this piece what we’d like to do is highlight some classic albums available on Spotify and list a few each fortnight which we feel are worth dusting off and giving a listen if you haven’t for a while.

With all this good music available on tap it is easier than ever to indulge musical tastes, and with only so many hours in the day we know it’s only too easy to let great albums sit unplayed. We aim to rectify that!

This week we have 4 suggestions for you; 4 great albums that all made their impact in the day or went on to become classics but you may not have listened to for a little while.

Massive Attack ”“ Mezzanine

Many people might ask why include this album rather than, say, “Blue Lines”, which arguably had the bigger social impact even if it had less commercial impact. My main reason for including this album in preference is for me it was the stronger overall. One of the major things about this album is that it plays so well as a complete experience, which is rare. It also marked an important point both for the group and the genre. Returning from a period out of focus with a relative explosion of other groups borrowing from their early work, this album showed that the band still had so much to give.

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Playlists

96 Spotisfaction Monday – 9th August 2010 – Tudor Howell

Afternoon kids. So this week has been pretty exciting. We’re working on the website redesign, and the first few drafts we’ve been privy to have been awesome. I’m sure when it’s unveiled you’ll like it.

Today’s playlist is by Tudor Howell. Enjoy!

[David]

96 Spotisfaction Monday (9 Aug) – THowell
Hit the link for tracklist and Tudor’s blurb.

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Features

Feature: Gig Rig

Well it”™s Friday again, which can only mean that it”™s time for another instalment of the Gig Rig, after scouring pages of t”™interweb to find the finest selection of live music coming to a town near you. Highlights this week:

Booka Shade will be playing a one-off gig at the HMV Forum in London to make amends for their performance at the Lovebox festival, which had to be cut short due to crowd control problems. Tracks from the German duo”™s latest album, More!, have been featured in a number of playlists recently, and for good reason (it”™s frackin”™ awesome)!

Another artist who has been blogged about numerous times is Karin Dreijer Andersson (aka Fever Ray), who is also well known as vocalist for The Knife and her collaborations with Röyksopp. Her live performances are renowned for being a little on the theatrical and wacky side, and are sure to be quite an experience.

Placebo are currently on a worldwide tour playing at various music festivals across the globe, and will be stopping off in London on their travels. I”™ve found that some people seem to have an irrational hatred of the band, but personally I love their music and would love to see them live.

If shoegaze/post-rock is more your cup of tea (and you”™re in the London area) then I can thoroughly recommend This Will Destroy You and Red Sparowes.

Hit the link for this week”™s listings.

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Playlists

95 Spotisfaction Friday – 6th August 2010 – Rhys Howell

Afternoon folks. I”™ve spent a good portion of today listening to two local, home-grown acts – the mighty John Madden and Tom Mitchell, and our very own Ben”™s band Stressechoes. As such, I”™m feeling pretty awesome right now.

After Wednesday”™s call-to-arms, we”™ve added a few new people to our team and you can expect to see the first few posts from them shortly. There”™s still time to get involved with Spotisfaction, so if you”™re interested check out this post and give me a shout via email or Twitter.

Today”™s playlist is by Rhys, and is a lovely, meandering mix perfect for a Friday afternoon.

Love, hugs and mealy bugs.
[David]

95 Spotisfaction Friday (6 Aug) – RHowell
Hit the link for tracklist and Rhys”™ blurb.

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