Here’s the original Alternate video for Slowdive’s “Alison”

P.S. I mentioned on my last post about the latest Legends album being released on May 6th. Well, I messed up again and it’s actually being released here in the U.S on June 16th. May 6th was the released date for all the other cool countries I guess.  Sorry for the confusion.

Depeche Mode

Shake The Disease – Hooverphonic

Some Velvet Morning – This was a song that was performed by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra sometime in the late 60’s. When listening to this psychedelic song, you can’t help but get mesmerized by Hazelwood’s country vocals. The video is pretty classic as well. I mean the guy is riding a horse on a beach with what appears to be wearing some type of futuristic garb for the time, and Nancy looked like she just floated down from freaking space. I’m wondering who can cover this song and bring the same level of mystery to it? That band would be Slowdive and the song is off their album Souvlaki, which was produced by Brian Eno. Another band that also did a cover of the song was Primal Scream with Kate Moss, but I wasn’t too keen on it.

Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra

Some Velvet Morning – Slowdive

Superstar – That’s right people your reading it correctly and there’s nothing wrong with your eyes. I know it was sung by The Carpenters, but you’re just lying to yourself if you can’t admit how good this song really is. It’s a prime example of a hopeless love song and has been used as a measuring stick for all the other love songs that came after it. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but I hope you get the point. In 1994 a tribute album called If I Were A Carpenter was released. From then on my senior year in high school was playing Sonic Youth’s cover of Superstar very loudly in my 92 Civic. It was okay though, because it was Sonic Youth. Fast forward 14 years later and it now shows up on Juno’s soundtrack. I guess it was a good cover then.

The Carpenters

Sonic Youth

Strangers In Paradise – Now there are many cover versions of this song and I can’t really tell you who the original singer was, but the more popular one would be Tony Bennett. The remake that I really like was Saint Etienne’s version of the popular tune. They added their groovy 60’s style to the song and made it just really chill, and of course Sarah Cracknell’s voice made it bliss.  I found a video of Tony Bennett singing Stranger In Paradise to a collage of Hedy Lamarr on YouTube as an example. Goodness gracious, actresses now can’t even hold a candle to the way these elegant beauties looked back then. I also was lucky to find the Saint Etienne version as well, but it’s not the actual video.

Tony Bennett

Saint Etienne

Well, there you have it. Those are some of my favorite covers that I truly appreciate, but I was thinking of doing a part 3 sometime later. I think I opened a can of worms with this topic and I certainly have more songs to discuss. Until then…

This past weekend reminded me why I love the winter months coming up ahead; however, here in California there’s not really a true winter season. To me winter is just a reminder of those calendars in elementary school with the image of the snowman and leaves being swirled up with a bunch of lines symbolizing the cold wind. So, when there’s an actual day of dark overcast skies, a touch of sprinkles and a cool breeze, I tend to enjoy it more.

There’s always been certain songs that I listen to through the years that reminded me of winter, or I should say a California winter. So What I’ve done is made a playlist of songs that reminded me of cool winter bliss. I decided to use the Yahoo Music Player instead of the usual links to the Apple ITunes store. I searched around for a music plugin for Word Press, but couldn’t find one that I trusted and have heard of. I did some research and the Yahoo Music Player was suppose to be real easy to use and it actually really was. I wanted you, the listeners, to experience more than just the 30 second clip of music. Those measly tidbits is not a good representation of what I’m trying to get across here.  Just make sure that you have your javascript turned on and you should be good to go. You can either click on the play arrows, or on the music player that will show up on the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy the playlist titled Cloudy Days.

• Plainsong – The Cure
• But Not Tonight – Depeche Mode
• Just Like Honey – The Jesus and Marychain
• Atmosphere – Joy Division
• Primal – Slowdive
• Sarah – Mojave 3
• This River Will Never Run Dry – Moose
• Sometimes – My Bloody Valentine
• Ballerina Out of Control – The Ocean Blue
• The Process – Saint Etienne
• Here’s Where the Story Ends
• Vapour Trail – Trespassers William
• Catch The Breeze – Slowdive
• Blue Moon Revisited – The Cowboy Junkies
• Flowers in December – Mazzy Star
• Kinky Love – Pale Saints
• Asleep – The Smiths

Like my previous post on Air Formation, there are a number of  bands out there that are still preserving the shoegazing sound. I believe these bands are now defined as “Newgaze”, but they still keep the same principles of dream pop alive. This week I would like to share some bands that are worth mentioning and please, if you know some others, feel free to leave comments. Your recommendations will be much appreciated.

Malory

The first band that I’m really enjoying is a German shoegaze band called Malory. In my opinion, this four member band is probably one of the closest musicly to Slowdive that I’ve heard so far. It’s not really a big surprise considering this band proclaims their love for them, and you can definitely hear it in their music. I have two of their albums, Outerbeats and Not Here Not Now and a few of their songs off of the Third face.  If I would have to tell you to buy one album it would be kind of difficult for me. I think it’s safe to say that if you get any of them, you’ll be safe. The Third face album, which was released in 2006, is probably the most unique of the three. It has more of an electronic beat to it than the typical heavy sound layering found in most shoegazing music. Still a worthy album and maybe a sign of things to come.  Falling Shine and The Choice You Have from the album Outerbeats are some good examples. Underwater and Dany from the album Not Here Not Now are some fine tunes as well. Two song from the album the Third face worth  mentioning is Wake Up and Sleeper. I believe the band is finishing up their fourth album and is hopefully going to be release in last part of 08.

Please stay tune for more bands later in the week.

Here is a video of the song Sleeper.

This was probably one of the hardest posts that I have ever written. I know I only have four post, but believe me it was difficult. I decided to pick my all time top 10 Slowdive songs. Listed below, and not in any particular order, are my favs. I pretty much determine my prime cuts by nostalgia  and the all important I will never hit the skip button to this song on my ipod or cd player rationale. Yes, I took the scientific approach on this one. I also added some videos under the lists as a treat for you as well.

And as a cop out I added the honorable mention list. These songs should of been on the top 10, but the title said 10 and not 13, so I did as any other human would of done in this situation and found a work around. Here’s the list:

Videos

Alison

Ballad of Sister Sue

Catch the Breeze

Morningrise

Lately I’ve been listening to a band called Air Formation. Always looking for new music that is anything shoegazing, Air Formation is one of the few bands that is still making good dreampop music. Formed in 1998 from Brighton, England, they seem to have their own unique sound and they definitely have many catchy melodies. Like Slowdive, their name pretty much sums it up.

The album that I’ve been listening to is called Daylight Storms and was released in 2007. Songs like Cold Morning and The Dark has Fallen is a good representation of what the Air Formation sound is like. If you like bands like Slowdive, Flying Saucer Attack, Joy Wants Eternity, then this band is a must have on your playlist. Here’s the link to their official site. Enjoy.

Source: Artist Direct