Donkey

"We had this friend in Brazil and she always went around calling people a donkey, like 'oh you're such a donkey', and in Brazil a donkey is a stupid person so that's where it came from" -- Lovefoxxx

Okay, Lovefoxxx has explained why the album is called "Donkey" but this is a rather strange title for CSS' second album. Their sound is much more tight and adult, and the risque, sometimes potty-mouthed lyrics have gone out of the window. "Cansei De Ser Sexy" would have been a better title for this one but I'll let it slide this time...

It's been a tough couple of years for the Brazilians: Ira Trevisan left the band and returned to fashion design citing "environmental issues" and they sacked their long-term manager Eduardo for incompetency after they ended up financially in the red despite massively successful world tours that saw them rocket to fame - as a result the band claim that they spent their time without hardly any money in strange cities and sleeping in rubbish motels. Ira was in a relationship with Eduardo. A lot of these hardships are reflected in this album.

"Rat Is Dead (Rage)" is a somewhat lyrically melancholy song that seems to touch upon fighting and desperation and I can believe that the rat of the title is Ira. Opener "Jager Yoga" sees singer Lovefoxxx sing "Don't mess my holiday!" angrily as if speaking to Eduardo when he was messing around with the finances. New single "Left Behind" seems to be a song about moving on, but reflecting on the past, commenting on the bad memories that still haunt them (Lovefoxxx recently broke down in an interview after being questioned over the past couple of years, saying that she was angry over what had happened).

Luckily, they still haven't lost their fun side. Nearly all of the melodies on the album are upbeat and happy despite the dark undertones and tracks like "Move" (my personal favourite song, with Lovefoxxx rapping towards the end), "I Fly" and "Let's Reggae All Night" showing that they still haven't lost their touch for danceable indie-pop, despite being tighter as a unit.

Their debut "Cansei De Ser Sexy" was a brilliant mess but this is a testament to how far they've come in such a short space of time. In a way you can only thank Ira and Eduardo for turning the band into this much more grown-up and yet still utterly fun group. They still look like they're having fun - I still am as well.

What I'm Listening to Right Now - "I Fly" by CSS

Globalisation!

Thanks to Bridging the Atlantic I've come into contact with The White Eyes, a rock band from Taipei, Taiwan. Imagine a box where you throw in Asobi Seksu, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric. Fuse it together with some radioactivity and you'll get this - fun, no-nonsense rock that can be understood by everyone, even if the lyrics can't!

Yep, this is both danceable (mainly, with the exception of "All the Things" which is more like Asobi's "Exotic Animal Paradise" i.e. slow-burning, fuzzy but brilliant) but at the same time you can rock to it which is a nice bonus. It's odd how rock music usually makes you want to pogo and head-bang but this does what Hot Chip makes you want to do - swing your hips around. I think that's why I like them. They're not just like any old rock band.

Unfortunately all I have to offer is some tracks on their MySpace site (where you'll see that they have a large array of famous friends including Ladytron, Peaches, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Gossip) - luckily if you really want to you can download some of the tracks. Unfortunately for me this doesn't include "All the Things". Super-unfortunately is the fact that they'll probably never get any of their stuff released here. Super-bad but hopefully we'll all cope...

What I'm Listening to Right Now - "Rookie Agogo" by The White Eyes

Whee! This was my 100th post so special thanks to everyone who has supported me on Jamjarsuperstar and will hopefully give their massive support in the future!

Fortress Round My Heart

"Make it more yellow!" -- Ida Maria Sivertsen

Yeah so can we please forget about "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" - I appreciate that it's a fun song that's not designed to offend (I just said that a song about being a stalker was great in my last post, so I'm no prude) but hey, the riff is taken straight from "Turning Japanese" and she runs out of lyrics to sing about halfway through. It's not really Ida.

And neither is the title of this debut album! I can hear that it's taken from the opener "Oh My God" but it must be an ironic title surely; no one can sing about being drunk, religion, romance and such like and still name their album as if it's a closed, detached affair. It's plunging into her mind, a mind that has obviously been affected by living in a tiny Danish town where there really was little to entertain a creative young mind.

"Drive Away My Heart" was the first track I ever heard by Ida (pronounced Eeda, not Eye-da) and it it's more reflective of the way she writes in comparison to "I Like You So Much Better". Unfortunately everyone seems to have latched on to this song instead of her better ones. You can tell I'm infuriated! Still, if you want mad then you could also go for "Oh My God", the opener to the album. I like this song because it's not as stupid as that song. Yeah, you know the one I mean.

Other favourites of mine are "Stella" and "Queen Of The World". She's taking rock and becoming the Danish queen of it. I think Queen of the World is a bit ambitious just yet - the NME dissed her album just one week after saying it was going to be great in an interview with her.

Special congrats to her synaesthesia that helped her create the album - apparently she wanted to see yellow when she heard her music. And got it. Aside from that song this is a great debut. I can tell I'll be enjoying it for a while yet...

A Kiss In The Dreamhouse

Siouxsie and the Bashees get obsessively, twistedly romantic.

Yeah, you heard me right - "A Kiss In The Dreamhouse" is filled with romantic ideals but turned on their heads in a topsy-turvy world where breaking into your would-be lover's house and rummaging through their belongings is an acceptable past-time.

Well, actually this isn't true at all - on "Obsession" Sioux sings menacingly about being that stalker, but at the same time becomes the harassed woman (I assume it's a woman) and shouts at the man to leave her alone. This must be one of the darker songs on the album, a departure away from the goth-rock of 1981's "Juju" (in my opinion the best album by this brilliant but unfortunately now defunct band) and a step towards the more experimental nature of "Kaleidoscope" and to a lesser extent "Peepshow".

"A Kiss In The Dreamhouse" is an appropriate title for an album that sounds more like a descent into a mad world of illusion rather than reality - in this world, anything could potentially happen. It's a little like being on some crazy roller-coaster - I can imagine being in a garden while the recorder on "Green Fingers" plays, the peaceful flat part where you feel safe but then there's a spiralling descent when "Circle" plays. This song in particular has a rather hypnotic effect. The same synth notes are played over and over and over throughout the song, only broken by Siouxsie Sioux's musings on corrupted children and teenage pregnancy. Actually, it could be a good song to play if you're desperate to get to sleep - it's rather like counting sheep. Pink sheep.

"She's A Carnival" gives a nod to their old form, being one of the more poppy songs on the album but giving into an almost creepy circus theme at the end - it gradually becomes faster and faster until you can imagine being there. "Painted Bird" wears a similar costume - this is probably the best song on the album, particularly if you're not quite sure where to start. It gives more room for guitar playing, and being, if you like, a "standard" pop-rock song.

I struggle to use the term "pop-rock" when describing anything by the Banshees though. You can't put them in one category, and every album is a ride on a different train. Rather like a goodie bag, all the treats are sweet but you never know what you're going to get. Luckily, you can't go wrong. Dive in.

Was Awarded....

This....



1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the ward itself.

4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico"blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) To show these rules.

Yeah it's an Arte Y Pico that I got from Babooshka although I thought you could only give this to photographer. Obviously I'm mistaken.... So, here's the peeps I want to pass on my award to (and why!) - since I'm not a photographer I thought it would be okay not to pick others, so hope this is okay:

1. Brett - Lovely photos, lovely tunes, just great really (again, congrats on blog of note!)
2. Tara i.e. Diva On A Diet - Come on and write something new, you're so funny and have great looking food!
3. Noelia - You're totally random but we love you for it
4. Tina - I can't miss out one of my longest-serving blog mates
5. Tairebabs - Your post on Cortinas was funny but you've written some great stuff anyway...

This Silly Meme

Well Daryl over at New York Photos did this meme and said that anyone could do it if they wanted - I've taken it upon myself but find it hard to thin of 5 songs that I'm really really embrassed about liking. But I do know one - and I'm not proud.

It's "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.

Ewww, I suddenly feel so dirty! Thing is I've got some pretty decent memories attached to this song, so I guess it's a bit more acceptable. Hmmm.... Maybe I'm just not really into bad music.

Anyone anywhere can do this if they really want to - name 5 songs that you'd be embarassed to tell your friends that you like.

I heard the new song by The Streets earlier and thought that it was awful. I would be embarassed to say that I liked anything by The Streets - shocking since when "Dry Your Eyes" came out everyone loved it apart from me. There was this big song-a-long and I thought "oh god, don't make me sing along to this awful song, just because it's all melancholy doesn't make it good!" I'm not even going to go any further. I'm not even going to describe the song... Okay, actually I will:

Imagine a cartoon sound as a beat (think along the lines of a character falling over), make it slow, then add Mike Skinner's rapping in the slowest form ever so that every single syllable is dragged over three lines and then add some gospel choir in the chorus with one of the male gospel singers screaming random words over the top - and imagine it even worse than that.

Yep, it really is that bad... I feel for anyone who is a fan of The Streets. Rapping needs to be fast and/or close to singing so that it doesn't sound like you're addressing your audience as morons... Give up, Skinner!

The Good Kind of Court

I've found the only type of court that can be deemed as good - Magistrates. The band, that is. They're from Essex and list their influences as Talking Heads, David Bowie, Prince and A Tribe Called Quest. Not a bad bunch to be inspired by at all, but what matters is whether they're any good or not.

Well yes, they are pretty good indeed. You can tell that their influences have had a huge impact but they're not stuck in a retro world by any means. Their songs sound modern with a slight twist, miles better than electronic pretenders like Late Of The Pier who just seem to throw together crazy sounds to make incoherent tracks that go nowhere and bore you after about ten seconds. Crazy synths and a good beat are a decent place to start if you want to make it in the now crowded electro world. But Magistrates are a bit simpler than that. Accessible, you might say...

So all in all it's not bad and really pretty addictive stuff - considering their lead singer was working in Morrisons supermarket as a butcher a few months ago, they've come a long way, baby. Here's the video to new single "Make This Work", making split screen action cool again. Even if it is filmed in the bedroom where they make all their music: