The Go! Team: "Grip Like A Vice"

Listening to The Go! Team is one my favorite things about summer. The new video for their new song "Grip Like A Vice" is pretty awesome and I've been watching it all day. Now I really want to go outside!

Stumble It!

Music is no longer important

WITH LOVE LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS MUSIC ANYWAY.

Stumble It!

The Tornados: "Robot"

Sweet.

Stumble It!

A small wealth of things

There's several wonderful and interesting things to speak of lately. The first of which involves Tyvek. After waiting and hoping and waiting and hoping, NYC's What's Your Rupture? -- the 2nd greatest label in the U.S. right now -- will be releasing Tyvek's Summer Burns, a four track 2x7"(!), on July 31st. I've mentioned my love for Tyvek a slight bit before, and I'll say it again, I LOVE TYVEK. If you're a fan of dirty distorted treble heavy guitars and simple fast-paced drums, then you'll probably love them, too. Think, perhaps, of a slightly wilder, Detroit-bred Television Personalities. Everything they've put out is mostly sold out, so if I were you, I'd jump on this one pretty fast. There's preorders up for the UK at Rough Trade, and you can also grab it digitally at iTunes RIGHT NOW if that's your thing. No U.S. preorder yet, which is kinda strange, but I'd imagine there will be one soon enough.

Summer Burns Tracklist:
01 Needles Drop
02 Frustration Rock
03 Give It Up
04 Air Conditioner

[MP3]: Tyvek :: Frustration Rock (Highly Recommended!)

In other What's Your Rupture? news, they'll be putting out a new Comet Gain 7" in September, apparently preceding a comp that WYR? will also release relatively soon after. More new WYR? stuff on the way from Fucked Up and Think About Life, too, but more about that later.

Onto Baltimore -- well, mostly. Australia/Baltimore's The Death Set have just put out a new EP titled Rad Warehouses Bad Neighbourhoods (which you can buy, here)and will be touring around the U.S. with Baltmore-based art punks Ponytail.
The Death Set, whom I've been pretty obsessed with as of late, play dancey noisepop with two guitars, a drum machine, and various samples. Their live show's amazing and they seem to have endless amounts of energy. Here's a track from their Intermission 7" released on Modular last year. Buy some stuff at a show, or here.

[MP3]: The Death Set :: Intermission (Highly Recommended!)

The only band I can think with possibly more enrgy would be Ponytail. I can confidently say that I've never danced harder in my life than when I saw these guys (and gal) play. They're basically always in double-time and vocalist Molly Siegel is probably the coolest frontwomen in the world right now. If you don't believe me then watch this. Videos can't compare to seeing them though, so if they're coming through you're town MAKE DAMN SURE YOU DO NOT MISS EITHER OF THEM. Listen to some songs on MySpace and, if you want to, buy their record here.

Okay, I think that's it for now. Enjoy your Friday!

Stumble It!

"World Heart" by Abe Vigoda

Abe Vigoda is a seriously awesome band.
Listen to them. Love them. Be their baby.



More Abe Vigoda on MySpace

Stumble It!

Immaculate Machine Caption Contest!

Immaculate Machine, as cartooned by IM guitarist/artist Brooke Gallupe himself.

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT THE APPROPRIATE MOMENT.

I haven't done a contest on Skatterbrain in quite a while, and this one's pretty cool, so it should be some great fun! So what is it? Well, Brooke from the fantastic Immaculate Machine was kind enough to draw us a cartoon to use for a contest. What you have to do is use your wonderful imaginations and think of something funny / vulgar / politically incorrect / funny / hilarious / witty / LOL / haha / wise / smartass / funny as a caption that would potentially go in the speech bubble in the lovely cartoon to your right. What's Kathryn got her hand in? Why does she have her hand in whatever it is her hand is in? WHO KNOWS! But write something and have fun! Brooke will be be observing your entries and in about a week he will choose his top three favorite and they will win some really, really great things!

HOW TO REALLY ENTER: All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your name, your email address, and your caption in "quotes." It's that easy!

THE GLORIOUS WINNINGS, PRIZES, ETCETERA: There will be three winners. The 1st place winner with the best caption will win a copy of the new Immaculate Machine album Fables, an Immaculate Machine flask, a Mint Records sampler, and a bunch of sweet Mint stuff. The two other winners will both receive copies of Fables. Okay, cool. Good stuff.

Click on the cartoon above to see a bigger, better, version. The contest will close in like, a week or so-ish. It's so hard to say with these things.

Also, if for some reason you haven't listened to Immaculate Machine, I would urge to to definitely do so right now and carefully immerse yourself in their wonderfully catchy, Canadian, triple-harmonied pop milkshake that is "Dear Confessor."

[MP3]: Immaculate Machine :: Dear Confessor (Highly Recommended!)

Immaculate Machine on MySpace!

Stumble It!

Hurra Torpedo: "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

I have no idea who Hurra Torpedo are, and I really don't even care, but this video is pretty much too awesome for words. Apparently it's not that new, but I've never seen or heard of it before, so it totally made my day. Cheers to the wonderful Andreas for finding it.

Stumble It!

HOLY CRAP OMG WHOA

If you throw a rock at the UK, chances are you might just hit a band influenced by 1960s pop music. However it's not too often you find a band these calling the Swell Maps and The Fire Engines some of their biggest influences! Sheffield, UK's Navvy play wacked out garage pop that actually reminds me quite a bit of bIG fLAME and maybe even a little of Yeah Yeah Noh. Vocalist Keith has also got a bit of David Byrne on his voice that I can't help but find to be almost hypnotizing. Navvy might not be for everyone, but I can confidently say they're probably the coolest band I come upon this year. No, I take that back, they're tied with Liechtenstein. Anyway, listen to "Navvy," by Navvy, it's awesome.



Angular Recordings should be releasing Navvy's debut EP sometime soon. It'll be four songs on beautiful white vinyl. Get excited!

EDIT: OH! I also just realized that this song reminds me a lot of Stump's C86 weird-as-shit-classic, "Buffalo". Okay, that's all. Carry on.

Stumble It!

The Lodger

The Lodger

The release of The Lodger's LP Grown-Ups not only marks the full-lenth debut from the Leeds-based indiepoppers, but it's also the first full-length record Slumberland has put out since the Aislers' How I Learned To Write Backwards back in 2003 -- almost four years ago! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited on both accounts!

Grown-Ups is a super-solid record from start to finish, every track oozing with that great 80s-inspired jangle pop they've been perfecting for the past couple years. Now, Vocalist/Guitarist Ben may be no David Gedge, and The Lodger may be Wedding Present, but they've got that rare gift of being immediately catchy without even trying and you really can't ask for from a pop band. It took me a while to decide my favorite moment from Grown-Ups, but I'd have to say that at the moment I'm pretty in love with "Watching". Give it a listen.

[MP3]: The Lodger :: Watching (Very Highly Recommended!!)

Grown-Ups is out now on Slumberland Records in the U.S. and on Angular in the UK, but you can only get the vinyl from Slumberland. If you're like me you'll want this on vinyl, so go do it!
Be The Lodger's friend on MySpace!

Stumble It!

Surefire Broadcast

(L to R:) Rodney, Dan, and Lisa of New Jersey's Surefire Broadcast.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Surefire Broadcast here before, but I think it was probably pretty brief. Well I've been listening to them a lot recently so I thought it might be a good idea to mention them again, and a little less briefly this time.

Surefire Broadcast play mostly noisy indiepop, in the vein of, well, all of my favorite bands. Had they been a little bit older back around the early nineties then it wouldn't be hard to imagine them on good ole Slumberland Records right alongside bands like Henry's Dress, The Swirlies, and The Aislers Set. When I saw them in Philly earlier this year they even played a Henry's Dress cover (though I can't remember which song it was now... perhaps if someone from the band sees this they could remind me), which was pretty awesome. Basically though, they're just really really good and there's just not enough bands out there still making this kind of pop. OH, and another interesting thing to note is that Rodney and Lisa happen to play two of the sexiest Rickenbacker's ever (see photo above), which just makes them even cooler in my book. They've released one exceptionally good five song EP titled Live From The A.M., which is actually sold out, but here's two of my favorite songs from the EP for your listening pleasure. If you like them go to their MySpace and be their friend and tell them how much you like them!

[MP3]: Surefire Broadcast :: Hey Baby! (Highly Recommended!)
[MP3]: Surefire Broadcast :: Through A Red Door (Highly Recommended!)

Surefire Broadcast on MySpace

Stumble It!

Oh my god are you for real?

The cute and lovely Nedelle.

Since hearing her new record, The Locksmith Cometh, I've been on quite the Nedelle kick recently, which has been really nice after not listening to a lick of her for probably six months. The record is just as good as I could have hoped. I've loved all of of Nedelle's albums up tot his point, but The Locksmith Cometh's poppier, slightly less folk-y leanings, might actually make this my new favorite Nedelle record. If you listen close enough, you might even notice a little bit of 60's girl-group influence, which is totally exciting! Nowhere is this more noticable then on the fantastic "Ghost Ships".

[MP3]: Nedelle :: Ghost Ships (Very Recommended!)

Also, as a bonus, here's my favorite track from her 2005 album, From the Lion's Mouth:
[MP3]: Nedelle :: The Natural Light (Also Recommended!)

You can buy The Locksmith Cometh from the Tangram 7s label for just $10

Stumble It!

Fanfarlo: "Fire Escape"

I hadn't heard of Fanfarlo until Tom mentioned their new single on Indie MP3 this past Thursday, but in less than a week I've managed to fall in love with them. They've got a real lush pop sound, no doubt enhanced by the inclusion of full-time trumpet and violin; not to mention vocalist Simon's absolute gift of a voice. Their new single, "Fire Escape", is out now on White Heat Records. It's backed with "We Live By The Lake." Go pick it up!

Here's the video for the single, "Fire Escape":

Stumble It!

FILL UP THE ROOM!

The release date of Saturday Looks Good To Me's new record, Fill Up The Room, has now been pushed back to October 23rd, due to the fact that Fred couldn't finish the artwork in time. However, the artwork has now been finished and I think it's probably my favorite cover art of the year so far. LOOK!



So, again, Fill Up The Room will now be out on October 23rd (Two days before my Birthday!) on the mighty K Records! HOORAY! There's a pretty good live recording of "Money In The Afterlife" up on SLGTM's MySpace right now, too, so you shoul go listen to it.

Stumble It!

Youtube videos that I like [6.8.07]

I haven't really felt like blogging to much lately, but I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos. I will now share with you some videos I've been watching pretty excessively for the past week(s). Some live, some not live, some old, and some new. FUN STUFF!

This first one is a real good one, I think. Might not be the greatest live recording in the history of live recordings, but due to the sheer lack of Broadcast videos -- and the ever increasing difficulty of actually finding them -- on YouTube, I was pretty damn excited to find this.

---

Never thought a video for this song ever existed. Happy as pie. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. Pam Berry. One day I'm gonna do a real good Pam Berry post. One day...

---

Betty Marie Barnes occasionally plays with Saturday Looks Good To Me and was on their record Every Night. She has a really good voice and is apparently a make-up extraordinaire. You can should listen to some of her solo stuff on her MySpace.

---

If you don't already know it -- Tyvek are REALLY REALLY AWESOME. This song is called "Mary Ellen Claims" and it's from an in-store they did at Passout Records in Brooklyn.

---

"Red Door" is such an ace song. That's it, that's all.



I hope at least one or two (or all) of these were new to you and you're day was enhanced greatly by viewing them. Take care and enjoy the weekend to the fullest.

Stumble It!

Mix For The Occupation

If you were lucky enough to be at one of the shows of Pipas' short tour this past May, well like two weeks ago, then you probably grabbed a copy of their new "May 2007 tour only" Mix For The Occupation EP. Clocking in at only, like, five and a half minutes total, it's barely even an EP, but it's three new songs and I like them all, so it's more than okay. I can say with much certainty that the last song, and title track, "Mix For The Occupation" is the prettiest one minute and forty-nine second pop song I've heard in recent memory. I really like it a lot. Way to go Pipas. If you've never listened to Pipas before and you like this then I would very much suggest that you go over to Matinee Records and buy their 2002 record A Cat Escaped, cause it's real good and you'll like it.

[MP3]: Pipas :: Mix For The Occupation (Quite recommended)

Pipas have a MySpace 4 real

Stumble It!