Sunday, January 31, 2010

Explorer 23 for January 30th

Not much change at the top.

Still on Twitter.


01 01 03 Vampire Weekend - Cousins (MTV Unplugged)
02 03 03 Tegan & Sara - Hell (FlyTv)
03 02 03 Avett Brothers - Slight Figure Of Speech (The Interface)
04 04 03 Kings of Convenience - Mrs. Cold (Amsterdam Acoustics, I apologize in advance for our Public Transport officials)
05 05 03 Philadelphia Grand Jury - The Good News
06 15 02 Bettie Serveert - Deny All
07 07 03 Phoenix - Lasso
08 23 02 Jonsi - Boy Lilikoi
09 07 03 Atlas Sound - Walkabout
10 11 03 Manchester Orchestra - The Only One
11 12 03 Cloud Control - Gold Canary
12 -- 01 Adam Green - Buddy Bradley
13 13 03 Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing
14 -- 01 The Paper Scissors - T-T-Time
15 -- 01 Tocotronic - Macht es nicht Selbst
16 14 03 Hot Chip - One Life Stand
17 18 02 eels - Little Bird
18 06 03 King Charles - Love Lust
19 -- 01 Riton & Primary 1 - Who's There?
20 10 03 Julian Plenti - Games For Days
21 -- 01 Two Door Cinema Club - I Can Talk
22 09 03 The Mess Hall - Bell
23 17 03 Los Campesions! - There Are Listed Buildings

Monday, January 25, 2010

eels - End Times



Eels – End Times

“Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss.” (Nick Hornby – High Fidelity).

Mark Everett wasn’t the most cheerful guy to begin with. Deaths of parents and siblings leave a mark and his music with the eels has always had a sad undertone. And don’t expect anything new on ‘End Times’. Let’s face it, even the title is depressing. The theme of the album is a divorce and the ensuing depression. Recorded mostly at home on a simple four-track the songs are simple and vintage E. Mostly just him strumming some chords on a guitar or playing them on a keyboard.
Starting in heaven he slowly spirals down into the phases that are part of breaking up, including locking yourself up in your house without much outside interaction ( the beautiful Mansion of Loz Feliz). They are emotions that we have all gone through, at one point he explains seeing a million trees at the side of the road and feeling just like one of them, but still feeling lonely. At least he has his Little Bird to talk to and we have the eels we can listen to, to let us know that even though we feel awful at times, there are millions more that feel the same.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Wide Eyed Explorer Chart for January 20

Finally we're at 23...

Also, come join us in Facebook (search for the Wide Eyed Explorer Group) and Twitter


01 03 02 Vampire Weekend - Cousins
02 02 02 Avett Brothers - Slight Figure Of Speech
03 05 02 Tegan & Sara - Hell
04 04 02 Kings of Convenience - Mrs. Cold
05 05 02 Philadelphia Grand Jury - The Good News
06 01 02 King Charles - Love Lust
07 10 02 Atlas Sound - Walkabout
08 13 02 Phoenix - Lasso
09 09 02 The Mess Hall - Bell
10 07 02 Julian Plenti - Games For Days
11 14 02 Manchester Orchestra - The Only One
12 20 02 Cloud Control - Gold Canary
13 11 02 Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing
14 22 02 Hot Chip - One Life Stand
15 -- 01 Bettie Serveert - Deny All
16 12 02 Mumford And Sons - Winter Winds
17 19 02 Los Campesions! - There Are Listed Buildings
18 -- 01 eels - Little Bird
19 15 02 The Seabellies - Orange X
20 16 02 Boy & Bear - Mexican Mavis
21 -- 01 Angus & Julia Stone - And The Boys
22 -- 01 Delphic - Doubt
23 -- 01 Jonsi - Boy Lilikoi

Monday, January 18, 2010

Vampire Weekend - Contra


Strong as Titanium

Know any other album that starts with a song about drinking a specialty Mexican drink? Not too many I suspect. Vampire Weekend’s second album opener ‘Horchata’ is the start of a fascinating and unique trip through the wonderful world of music. VM’s much anticipated second album ‘Contra’ does not disappoint for one second.

As on the first album the music on this one is at times sparse, but without ever seeming to miss anything. It makes the album feels like titanium: light but structurally very sound.

It’s a little too easy to name Paul Simon’s “Graceland” as the biggest influence, the quartet obviously takes the same African hints but makes it into it’s own unique style of ivy league rock. Keyboards abound, but never sounding to 80ish, weird African-like rhythms (California English) but always staying true to their own style. Music that is not your standard every day indie fare with lyrics that are different, but not so poetic that half of the time you have no clue what the singer is really singing about.

Another strong point is the length of the album, clocking in at less than 37 minutes. You can’t bored because it won’t last too lang. Where the Clash’s “Sandanista” is ruined by it’s 3 LP, length, you can play ‘Contra’ over and over again.

Sophomore slump? Not in the slightest, though lacking the freshness of the first album the new decade has started off strong with ‘Contra’, keeping alive the strong streak of great albums opening the year.

Rating: 4,5
Best Songs: White Sky, Cousins, Diplomat’s Son

MTV has a nice unplugged session with songs from both albums

The entire album is streamed on their MySpace page:

Monday, January 11, 2010

January 10, Happy New Year!

Let’s hope I will keep this up more regularly. Not weekly but every ten days!

  1. King Charles – Love Lust
  2. The Avett Brothers – Slight Figure of Speech
  3. Vampire Weekend – Cousins
  4. Kings of Convenience – Mrs. Cold
  5. Tegan & Sara – Hell
  6. Philadelphia Grand Jury – The Good News
  7. Julian Plenti – Games for Days
  8. Monsters of Folk – Say Please
  9. The Mess Hall – Bell
  10. Atlas Sound – Walkabout
  11. Camera Obscura – The Sweetest Thing
  12. Mumford And Sons – Winter Winds
  13. PhoenixLasso
  14. Manchester Orchestra – The Only one
  15. The Seabellies – Orange X
  16. Boy & Bear – Mexican Mavis
  17. The Automatic – Interstate
  18. Shout Oud Louds – Walls
  19. Los Campesinos! – There Are Listed Buildings
  20. Cloud Control – Gold Canary
  21. Funeral Dress – Belgium Is Burning
  22. Hot Chip – One Life Stand
  23. [insert your own favorite song]


King Charles is the only song left from the last list, but it’s a name to watch for 2010, mark my words. Avett Brothers have the best video of them all. Vampire Weekend will rule 2010 just as they have 2008. Concert reviews on both in the next weeks. Norway at #4, Canada’s most celebrated lesbian sisters at 5 and Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie at 6, another great video. The Mess Hall seems to have stolen a Blues Explosion riff (sounds like Afro?) but who cares. Other countries in the list: France and Belgium.