TOP 10 NOW: \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\shawty got poll poll poll poll poll poll poll (part II: 2008 ALBUMS)/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

i had totally slept on torche but a friend raved them up last year so i got meanderthal and then the rest of the stuff. they're pretty great. i think the "power pop" thing gets a little overstated -- some songs yeah, others not so much -- but they are good with a hook. (i said on another thread that sometimes they weirdly remind me of big country, that '80s big-rock sound.)

(xpost -- hey, an album lou1s j@gger and i both like.)

someone somewhere (might have even been on ILX so whoops sorry if so) described it as what modern pop-rock would have sounded like if the melvins had blown up instead of nirvana, which i think is kind of brilliant.

Re: The Chap

I repped hard for Ham a couple years ago, but the new one just kind of goes in one ear and out the other. : /

Not an official video btw. Someones just made it to put on youtube

I think the new one's a little better than Ham, although "Now Woel" is genuinely one of my favourite songs of the decade

oh and yeah everyone listen to "Amnesian"

m@tt i think you would dig the torche.

― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten), Thursday, February 12, 2009 9:28 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i'm sure i would. i would also like the jay reatard singles thing i just haven't gotten around to buying it yet....those 2 were def ones i wanna check out....i've almost bought boris records just because of the sexxy vinyl but chickened out.

Pics of the Torche vinyl from the metal poll thread
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3129/2704704683_8e51e6187b.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3292/2705526294_e195131a1e.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/2705525754_4f50349416.jpg?v=0

Pic disk version
http://www.earshot.com/images/torchevinyl.jpg

http://www.roboticempire.com/store/images/store/meanderthal_2ndpress_spread.jpg

except for pfunkboy i can't really figure out who's voting for this stuff.

― call all destroyer, jueves 12 de febrero de 2009 11:40 (2 hours ago) Bookmark

you can blame me for Lau Nau as well!

^^^
...me too

what modern pop-rock would have sounded like if the melvins had blown up instead of nirvana

Yeah, that sounds about right to me. Huge Seattle-ish Man Rock vibe to them, eh?

I don't know who Ne-Yo is either, but based on the comments here I assume he's an rnb singer? I haven't been actively following pop music lately.

Steve Brooks describes the band as Stoner Pop or Sludge Pop Some sludgeheads dislike the fact the vocals are poppy of course and call it "gay". Steve Brooks is gay btw so he doesnt give a shit.

1st Torche album is probably poppier (and awesome)
His old band Floor were a terrific sludge band.

Tuomas are you familiar with the Finnish bands that made the list?

I barely have any idea what most of the stuff that's been placing is. So far there have only been 4 albums I've heard, 3 of which I voted for.

xp: Ne-Yo is an R&B singer-songwriter who is known just as much for writing hit songs for others (Beyonce, Rihanna, Mario among others) as for himself. His style of songwriting is very precise and formalist, each song strongly based around a central theme. His voice is smooth and mid-powered. The styles on the album range from a song-based Chicago house track to popping quiet storm to sickly treacle.

In fact, besides Gas and Alex Moulton I haven't heard anything from this list yet. I was supposed to get that Luomo album, but I never did.

(I guess I should feel some sort of pride that there's 3 Finnish acts in the top 50-25. That's quite rare I think.)

(xx-post)

don't know who Ne-Yo is, sorry

― Le Bateau Ivre

yeah, it would help if the entries were like "urban singer-songwriter ne-yo", or "american grunge band torche"

"grunge"

25 - Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster
123.5 points, 14 votes, 3 #1 votes
22 in P&J, 30 in p4k

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9595/loscampesinosholdoncovekr1.jpg

Album streaming: http://www.last.fm/music/Los+Campesinos!/Hold+On+Now+Youngster...

Incredibly youthful and smartass, when I first heard them I think I said they were like the European equivalent of similarly jocular and snappy pop-punk bands in the US, like Fallout Boy, but much, much better. Still, I can't help but think that an album this joyfully bratty will age horribly as economic conditions worsen and the youth of the world goes from utopianism to disillusionment over the next few years. Will make an excellent time capsule, regardless.
- cunga

Tuomas are you familiar with the Finnish bands that made the list?

I know and like Luomo/Vladislav Delay, but I'm not at all familiar this new Finnish folk trend. The only Finnish folk/psych act from the 00s I know is Kuusumun Profeetta, but they seemed to have gotten less attention than the Fonal records artists. I tried to listen to some Islaja album once, but it sounded too messy and artsy for my tastes.

I already said Torche classed themselves as Stoner Pop or Sludge Pop and not as a metal band and certainly not Grunge.
x-posts

xxp "-/

No hate here, but I don't get what sets Los Campesinos apart from about 500 other bands just like them.

But here's my favourite Finnish folk song ever, from 1972:

(several x-posts)

i love love love islaja for that time i saw her at sónar - she was playing sónar by day, i was wandering around in a fucked-up haze, hadn't slept for the entire festival and it was SO HOT, and then i stumbled across her playing this gorgeous soothing music in a cold dark stone room, and it was just what i needed.

Tuomas, if you're actually interested in Ne-Yo you should check out his first album, which is way better than YOTG (which is actually my least favorite of his albums), and has his signature solo song "So Sick".

one of los campesinos was my successor as tv editor on my student paper (a couple of years later) - i feel so guilty, as if i may have inadvertently nurtured their repulsive music

Also, check out "Closer" off the new one. (that's the house song, it placed in the singles poll. it's great) xp

Tuomas, if you're actually interested in Ne-Yo you should check out his first album, which is way better than YOTG (which is actually my least favorite of his albums), and has his signature solo song "So Sick".

i was actually surprised to realise recently, given how much i love in my own words, that year of the gentleman has pretty effectively supplanted it as my favourite ne-yo album.

ah crap i see that i have now tarnished torche with the "getting mentioned in the same sentence as nirvana/melvins" grunge brush.

they arent that at all, i hear more jawbox filtered through sludge/drone maybe?

And here's the father of Finnish folk-rock, Pekka Streng. I think all these nu-folk artists are influenced by him:

I think I'll check out Ne-Yo, sounds like it's the sort of rnb I enjoy.

hey hey my my
torche are grunge band

^ trolling

If you have heard the previous band Floor you will hear where Torche came from.

Also, check out "Closer" off the new one. (that's the house song, it placed in the singles poll. it's great) xp

'closer' is very great but i don't feel it's particularly representative of YOGH. 'single' and 'mad' are, but i think the album's heart is in the more delicate, thoughtful second half - 'part of the list', 'back to what you know', 'lie to me'.

Yeah, Ne-Yo's whole sound (less so now than when he appeared tho) is basically based on Michael Jackson's "Human Nature", if that gives you an idea.

xps

'closer' is very great but i don't feel it's particularly representative of YOGH. 'single' and 'mad' are, but i think the album's heart is in the more delicate, thoughtful second half - 'part of the list', 'back to what you know', 'lie to me'.

― lex pretend, Thursday, February 12, 2009 2:10 PM Bookmark

Not representative, but I didn't say that. I just said Tuomas would probably like it.

"So You Can Cry" is my favorite track off of YOTG... but nothing on that album really touches the hilights of his other albums to me, like "Mirror," "Say It," "Because of You," "When You're Mad," "Make It Work",... overall I found it pretty boring. And I found myself more annoyed by Ne-Yo's limited vocals than usual.

SO happy for Los Campesinos! I know it's a marmite thing but it's pretty much perfect for me right now.

Also, really need to check out the Ne-Yo. I liked the singles, but for some reason, I've never really paid attention to male rnb singers the way I have to the ladieez. I guess I should check out the dream as well while I'm at it.

Torche got 3 #1's. That's a lot for a non-top twenty placing album.

Because of You didn't do much for me. By far his leastest album, but I will rep for his first above the new one and for "Closer" until I die. "-/

ha! i just remembered i had downloaded torche like a long time ago. i think i only listened to it a couple of times then forgot...but yeah this is awesome.

Are there any bands to come you haven't heard of, musically?

xxp: Ne-Yo's album is alright, but The-Dream's is like blazing brilliance all over the place, but not in a way you'd probably understand if you aren't into mainstream r&b in the first place.

i think YOGH feels more...sumptuous than the debut, hence me loving it more. agree that the second is the weakest (out of three great albums!) but it still has 'because of you' and omg 'addicted' on it. "no / i / am / not / i'm not / ADDICTED TO SEX! / but girl i guarantee / that if you lay with me / you just might be, ayyy"