Explorer 29 for August 30th

List has expanded to 29. Hopefully I'll make another one on September 10.


01 05 03 Darren Hanlon - All These Things
02 09 03 Hungry Kids of Hungary - Wristwatch
03 -- 01 Interpol - Barricade
04 02 03 The New Pornographers - Crash Years
05 01 04 Vampire Weekend - Holiday
06 12 02 Devo - Fresh
07 -- 01 Blood Red Shoes - Heartsink
08 03 03 Archie Bronson Outfit - Hoola
09 19 02 Ash Grunwald - Walking
10 -- 01 Cee-Lo Green - No One's Gonna Love You
11 27 02 Kula Shaker - Peter Pan R.I.P.
12 25 02 The Divine Comedy - I Like
13 22 02 DeWolff - Don't You Go Up To The Sky
14 07 04 Local Natives - World News
15 -- 01 Frank Turner - Try This At Home
16 04 05 The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
17 08 04 The Drums - Forever And Ever Amen
18 24 02 Radical Face - Welcome Home
19 -- 01 eels - Spectacular Girl
20 17 03 Lola Kite - Different Story
21 -- 01 The Sore Losers - Beyond Repair
22 -- 01 School of Seven Bells - Windstorm
23 -- 01 Tegan & Sara - Northshore
24 17 02 Kylfa - Moon Boogie
25 11 03 She & Him - Thieves
26 -- 01 Magic Numbers - The Pulse
27 10 03 The Lodger - Have A Little Faith In People
28 23 02 The Charlatans - Love Is Ending
29 -- 01 of Montreal - Coquet Coquette

Explorer 23 for May 20th

With a break but a new list. A new #1, The National jumped straight into the lead with love favorites Blood Red Shoes not far behind.


TW LW #1
01 -- 01 The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio (1x#1)
02 01 03 Darwin Deez - Radar Detector (1x#1)
03 -- 01 Blood Red Shoes - Don't Ask
04 06 03 The Antlers - Sylvia
05 05 04 Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
06 03 04 These New Puritans - Attack Music (2x#1)
07 09 03 Morning Benders - Promises
08 15 02 The Soft Pack - Answer To Yourself
09 02 06 She & Him - In The Sun
10 08 04 Fang Island - Life Coach
11 16 02 MGMT - Flash Delirium
12 04 06 Mumford & Sons - The Cave (1x#1)
13 11 03 The Salvadors - Atacama Disco
14 07 05 Hold Your Horses - 70 Million
15 19 02 LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls
16 10 06 Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
17 -- 01 Angus & Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane
18 -- 01 Harlem - Friendly Ghost
19 23 02 The Last Dinosaurs - Honolulu
20 -- 01 Cloud Control - This is What I Said
21 -- 01 Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! - Little Cowboys, Bad Hombres
22 -- 01 Lisa Mitchell - Oh! Hark!
23 14 05 Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Get Better

Explorer 23 for March 20

01 02 04 Surfer Blood - Swim
02 07 02 The Soft Pack - C'mon
03 01 04 OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
04 03 03 The Antlers - Bear
05 04 04 Blood Red Shoes - Light It Up
06 10 02 These New Puritans - We Want War
07 11 03 The XX - VCR
08 12 02 Futureheads - Heartbeat Song
09 14 02 Wild Beasts - We Still Got The Taste
10 16 02 The Twilight Sad - The Room
11 18 02 Field Music - Them That Do Nothing
12 -- 01 She & Him - In The Sun
13 06 03 Beach House - Norway
14 18 03 Girls - Morning Light
15 05 03 Deep Sea Arcade - Don't Be Sorry
16 22 02 Hungry Kids of Hungary - Let You Down
17 09 03 Washington - How To Tame Lions
18 -- 01 Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
19 -- 01 Tegan & Sara - Alligator
20 -- 01 Mumford & Sons - The Cave
21 23 02 Tunng - Hustle
22 -- 01 Liars - Scissor
23 -- 01 Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn ;)

Everything With Little

Blood Red Shoes in Paradiso, Amsterdam on March 17th, 2009

According to drummer Steven Ansell the Paradiso show was the biggest they ever headlined. Touring in support of their new album “Fire Like This” the show was loud, tight and energetic. Warm-up act “Pulled Apart By Horses” was fitting and at times I wondered if this was how Nirvana sounded about 20 years ago in this same venue.

Blood Red Shoes have perfected the art of doing everything with the bare minimum. It’s not a band you go to watch amazing musical ability. Laura-Mary Carter’s guitar playing is simple: easy riffs and chords that most accomplished players will be able to play, but she plays them loud, she plays them tight and she plays them well. No Springtime guitar unfortunately, that would have been a real treat. Steven Ansell uses his drumkit entirely to give the music something extra. You never miss any other instrument with both getting everything out of their instruments. They are not the best singers, in fact the singing doesn’t really add anything, but they sing anthems that people can anticipate, jump around on and sing along. Their mix of grunge and punk rock doesn’t sound very English but their unique setup allows them to have an own style that might not be very inventive, but very effective as a live band.

A few times both mentioned how much fun they were having and the crowd seemed to enjoy it as much as the band. Dozens of people jumped off the stage into the audience to be carried far into the room. At times you could see more people looking at the surfers than the band.
After the show ended Ansell decided to top his great night out with a jump into the audience and was carried all the way to the end, followed a few minutes later by Laura-Mary. It seemed a fitting tribute to the sometimes crazy crowdsurfers.

Explorer 23 for February 10

01 01 04 Vampire Weekend - Cousins (Letterman)
02 06 03 Bettie Serveert - Deny All (DWDD)
03 02 04 Tegan & Sara - Hell
04 15 02 Tocotronic - Macht es nicht Selbst
05 -- 01 OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
06 03 04 Avett Brothers - Slight Figure Of Speech
07 08 03 Jonsi - Boy Lilikoi
08 -- 01 Surfer Blood - Swim
09 12 02 Adam Green - Buddy Bradley
10 04 04 Kings of Convenience - Mrs. Cold
11 05 04 Philadelphia Grand Jury - The Good News
12 14 02 The Paper Scissors - T-T-Time
13 07 04 Phoenix - Lasso
14 -- 01 Blood Red Shoes - Light It Up
15 09 04 Atlas Sound - Walkabout
16 17 03 eels - Little Bird
17 13 04 Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing
18 16 04 Hot Chip - One Life Stand
19 10 04 Manchester Orchestra - The Only One
20 19 02 Riton & Primary 1 - Who's There?
21 -- 01 Los Campesinos - Romance Is Boring
22 -- 01 Jamie T - The Man's Machine
23 -- 01 Lightspeed Champion - Marlene