Final Fantasy - Lewis Takes Action (Single - 2009)

Final Fantasy the name the of a young genius named Owen Pallett. He is a singer-songwriter, composer, and a violinist from the north of Canada. He is also known as the guy who does string arrangements for tons of great indie bands. His third album comes out on January 12th 2010 and it's called "Heartland". The first single we get to hear is "Lewis Takes Action", a beautifully arranged pop-song!

link | Lewis Takes Action

The Beach Boys - Ultimate Christmas (1998)

The Beach Boys

Ultimate Christmas

1998 | Capitol Records

---------- !Recommended! ----------

The fun-in-the-sun world of early Beach Boys songs seems about as antithetical to Christmas as two things can be, but that didn't prevent the group from releasing a classic Christmas album—titled, appropriately enough, The Beach Boys' Christmas Album—in 1964. Part original numbers ("Little Saint Nick," the bizarre "Santa's Beard") and part traditional holiday tracks, Christmas Album is a relentlessly pleasant effort that alternates between songs assembled in the early-'60s Beach Boys style and surf-free arrangements designed to make the most of the group's pristine harmonies. It can also be seen as an early, not-quite-successful attempt by Brian Wilson to one-up Phil Spector, who had released his own Christmas masterpiece the year before. Included here in its entirety, The Beach Boys' Christmas Album's 12 tracks sound as good as ever, but Ultimate Christmas warrants special notice for its inclusion of 14 previously unreleased, or just barely released, oddities.

link | Ultimate Christmas

These New Puritans - We Want War (Single - 2009)

Looks like These New Puritans have truly arrived. A force to be reckoned with in 2010. Coincidentally, Daniel Askill also appears to have hit his creative peak so far by directing this stunning visual piece. Glorious for the whole seven minutes. What an epic song!

link | We Want War (Better Quality Now / Real Version!)

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below (2009)

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Up From Below

July 2009 | Rough Trade

I heard the song "Home" of this album and immediately knew I needed to hear the rest. Well I have and it was not a let down. ESATMZ's have a fun sound, a little southern, a little indie, with poppy lyrics and a girl/guy singing duo. How can you go wrong?

link | Up From Below

guerolito's favourite song | Home

V.A - Indie Rock Playlist Covers (2008)

Tracklist
01 - Royal - Brainiac's Daughter
02 - Mates Of State - California
03 - Damien Rice - Creep
04 - The Automatic - Epic
05 - Boy Least Likely To - Faith
06 - Youth Group - Forever Young
07 - Love Is All - I Ran
08 - Hooverphonic - In Bloom
09 - Of Montreal - Jimmy
10 - The Futureheads - Let's Dance
11 - The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium
12 - The Raveonettes - My Boyfriend's Back
13 - Paramore - My Hero
14 - Electric Six - Radio Ga Ga
15 - Placebo - Running Up That Hill
16 - The Killers - Shadowplay
17 - Taken By Trees - Sweet Child O' Mine
18 - Guillemots - Take Me Out
19 - Keane - Under Pressure
20 - The Kooks - Young Folks

link | IRPC

OK Go - WTF? (Single) (2009)

link | WTF?

Hot Chip - One Life Stand (Single - 2009)

Hot Chip will be releasing their fourth album in February. It's called One Life Stand. It was recorded in Lanark Studios in London and will be released on February 8th in the UK. The second single (in the album version) is even better than the first one called "Take It In"!

link | One Life Stand

Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM (2009)

Charlotte Gainsbourg

IRM

December 2009 | Because
---------- !Highly Recommended! ---------- 

"IRM" is a musical collaboration between Charlotte Gainsbourg and Alt-Rock favorite Beck. Over the course of a year and a half of writing and recording together, Beck’s role grew to encompass all aspects of the creative process: He wrote all of the music and co-wrote the lyrics and produced and mixed the recording. Beck brought in many of his regular collaborators, including Joey Waronker and James Gadson on drums, Brian LeBarton on keyboards, David Ralicke on trumpet and Beck’s father, David Campbell, for string arrangement. IRM is Gainsbourg’s first album in nearly four years, following 5:55, which was released in 2006 to much acclaim, selling half a million worldwide.

It is, says Gainsbourg, the result of trying “very different things.” The songs, she adds, “are all in different styles but one proper album.”

link | IRM

NME - 5. December 2009

NME

Babyshambles
5. December 2009 | IPC Media

This week: The remarkable rebirth of Babyshambles; Yeasayer are the unlikely stars of 2010; The inside story on the "The XX" split........

link | NME 5.Dec

Shout Out Louds - Walls (Single - 2009)

It starts pretty strangely for a Shout Out Louds song... The only thing to hear is the singer's voice and a snare drum which are then joined by a piano. But then it grows and grows and...  ends in a  great, melancholic Shout Out Louds song! This is how we love them, our swedish friends! Their third album "Work" will be released in February of 2010!

link | Walls

Girls - Lust For Life (EP - 2009)

Girls

Lust For Life - EP

December 2009 | True Panther Sounds

San Francisco based Girls' song "Lust For Life", from their debut album simply called "Album", is one of my favourite tracks this year, among many others. This EP contains the main song and a good b-side called "Life In San Francisco". The best sound for winter days, because it reminds you of hot summer beach parties!

link | Lust For Life - EP

Spoon - Written In Reverse (Single - 2009)

"Written in Reverse" is the first single from Spoon’s upcoming seventh studio album Transference. The song will be available to purchase through iTunes today (December 1st) and available physically on 7 inch vinyl on the 5th of January with the b-side "Mean Red Spider". Good song! Can't wait for the album!

link | Written In Reverse (link removed by request)

Glasvegas - A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) (2008)

Glasvegas

A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)

December 2009 | Columbia

1. Careful What You Wish For

2. Fuck You, It’s Over

3. Cruel Moon

4. Please Come Back Home

5. A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)

6. Silent Night / Noapte De Vis

link | A Snowflake Fell

A great start in the new (christmas) month and thanks alot for your support!

eastENDER, John & guerolito

guerolitoplaylist 11/09

It's almost the beginning of a new month, so it's high time for the playlist of November, another month with great music! Once more the playlist summarizes the music posted here last month and adds some more great tunes you did not know before! Enjoy it folks!

1. Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
2. Cold War Kids - Audience Of One
3. Two Door Cinema Club - I Can Talk
5. The Futureheads - Struck Dumb
6. Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land
7. Hot Chip - Take It In
8. The Bucket - You're All I Want
9. Sia - You've Changed
10. Local Natives - Airplanes
11. Devendra Banhart - Angelika
12. Round Table Knights - Belly Dance (Mowgli Remix)
13. Them Crooked Vultures - Mind Eraser, No Chaser
14. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
15. Charlotte Gainsbourg - Heaven Can Wait (feat. Beck)
16. K-os - I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman
17. The Phenomenal Handclap Band - 15 To 20
18. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home
19. Basement Jaxx - My Turn (feat. Lightspeed Champion)
20. Yo La Tengo - You Can Have It All
21. Mochipet - Do Geese See God?
22. Dada Life - Happy Hands & Happy Feet (Alex Gopher Remix)
23. The Soft Pack - Answer To Yourself
24. Phil And The Osophers - Cheap Livin'

link | 11/09

Late Of The Pier - Blueberry (Single - 2009)

This is the first sign of the new album by Late Of The Pier that will be released early next year. The single is called "Blueberry" and it really shows a big step the band made since their debut "Fantasy Black Channel". I once had the honor to interview and speak to two of them, they're really nice young lads.

link | Blueberry

Blood Red Shoes - Colours Fade (Single - 2009)

Blood Red Shoes

Colours Fade
25. November 2009 | V2 Records

Colours Fade is the new single that the Brighton based band, Blood Red Shoes , released as a FREE DOWNLOAD from their website.

Independent music webzine The Music Magazine immediately commented that the band's sound had been boosted. Author Jamie Smith wrote: "We’ve been listening to it on repeat for about half an hour and can conclude it is BRILLIANT. It takes the tried and tested BRS formula and as they say, turns it up to eleven. It’s seven minutes long. It pretty much defines epic. It sounds HUGE!

link | Colours Fade

William Fitzsimmons Discography

William Fitzsimmons is one of the oddest people you will ever meet. Born the youngest child of two blind parents, William was raised in the outskirts of the steel city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Due to the family's inability to communicate through normal visual means, William's childhood home was filled with a myriad of sounds to replace what eyes could not see. The house was suffused with pianos, guitars, trombones, talking birds, classical records, family sing-a-longs, bedtime stories, and the bellowing of a pipe organ, which his father built into the house with his own hands. When his father's orchestral records were not resonating through the walls, his mother would educate him on the folk stylings of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel.

His music is really, and I mean really, amazing!

link | Until When We Are Ghosts (2005) Part. 1 || Part. 2
link | Goodnight (2006) Part. 1 || Part. 2
link | The Sparrow And The Crow (2008)

link | Heartless (Kanye West Cover) !!Highly Recommended!!

The Bucket

Great, yet unreleased song in an acoustic version! Get their EP some posts down!

The xx - Insects (B-Side - 2009)

"Insects" is a short song, falling a bit shy of the two minute mark. The xx are one of the hottest indie bands of the year so it isn’t surprising that this b-side of the "VCR" single is spectacular as well! Their dark, r&b inspired sound is still very much captivating. It’s impossible not to get drawn in by the soulful voices of Romy & Oliver.

link | Insects

Naomi Punk - N/A (Single - 2009)

This is from Seattle native Naomi Punk's debut. It's not like the rest of the album. It was recorded by her mom (who grew up and works in Africa) in a village in Rwanda and the sounds were manipulated and tweaked (subtly and effectively) by Naomi. The song features African school children chanting along with some lo-fi musical backing, percussion, and handclaps.

link | N/A