Explorer 50 for October 1st.

We're changing from 10 days to every 15, means more songs for you good people!


01 04 02 Kings of Leon - Radioactive
02 01 02 I Am Kloot - Proof (2010)
03 02 02 Cee Lo Green - Fuck You
04 06 02 Male Bonding - Weird Feelings
05 05 03 Blood Red Shoes - Heartsink
06 09 02 Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes
07 14 02 Wavves - Post Acid
08 -- 01 Belle & Sebastian - I Want The World To Stop
09 03 05 Darren Hanlon - All These Things
10 -- 01 Arcade Fire - Ready To Start
11 07 04 Ash Grunwald - Walking
12 10 04 Kula Shaker - Peter Pan R.I.P.
13 22 02 Morning Benders - All Day Day Light
14 08 03 Frank Turner - Try This At Home
15 15 03 Tegan & Sara - Northshore
16 24 02 Baths - Lovely Bloodflow
17 -- 01 Tokyo Police Club - Bambi
18 -- 01 Fight Like Apes - Hoo Ha Henry
19 27 02 Anne Soldaat - Born To Perform
20 23 02 Antony & The Johnsons - Thank You For Your Love
21 33 02 Cabins - Catcher In The Rye
22 -- 01 Kele - Everything You Wanted
23 19 03 School of Seven Bells - Windstorm
24 -- 01 Space Siren - This Radar
25 12 03 Interpol - Barricade
26 -- 01 Serj Tankian - Left of Center
27 25 03 Lola Kite - Different Story
28 28 02 Riva Starr feat. Noze - I Was Drunk
29 13 04 The Divine Comedy - I Like
30 -- 01 Strange Death Of Liberal England - Rising Sea
31 32 02 Tim Knol - Sam
32 35 02 The Count & Sinden feat. Mystery Jets - After Dark
33 11 05 Hungry Kids of Hungary - Wristwatch
34 -- 01 Band of Horses - Factory
35 16 04 Radical Face - Welcome Home
36 -- 01 Pond - Annie Orangetree
37 -- 01 Eagle and the Worm - All I know
38 -- 01 Grinderman - Heathen Child
39 -- 01 Little Red - Rock It
40 29 03 eels - Spectacular Girl
41 -- 01 Dan Kelly - Hold On, I'm Coming On
42 -- 01 Cloud Control - There's Nothing In The Water We Can't Fight
43 20 05 The New Pornographers - Crash Years
44 17 04 Devo - Fresh
45 18 04 DeWolff - Don't You Go Up To The Sky
46 -- 01 Beach House - Lover Of Mine
47 30 03 of Montreal - Coquet Coquette
48 -- 01 Washington - Sunday Best
49 -- 01 !!! - AM/FM
50 -- 01 The Brute Chorus - Heaven

Titus Andronicus & Surfer Blood in Bitterzoet

True fans of the blog will know that Bitterzoet isn’t exactly my favorite spot to watch live music in Amsterdam. It has however hosted two great shows so far: These New Puritans and Titus Andronicus. TA was on a double bill with Surfer Blood who played last, but the more lasting impression was made by the 5-some from New Jersey.

When I got my ticket it was just for Surfer Blood. Their song “Swim” is #1 over the first 4 months of the Explorer 23 and their album is good, although at times uneven. So was their show. Frontman John Paul Pitts has looked into Ezra Koenig’s book of stage presence and moves and the band is youthful and fresh as the album is. “Swim” & “Catholic Kids” are great songs and potential anthems but the overall quality of the songs just doesn’t cut it compared to opener Titus Andronicus, who’s excellent 2nd album I’ve discussed a few weeks ago. It was a very pleasant surprise that they were added to the bill. As if you’re buying some fries in a restaurant and getting a juicy steak with it for free.

Starting with “A More Perfect Union” the band took off and never looked back. Bitterzoet’s stage is too small for a band with this energy. You can’t even fit 4 guitars on stage, the bass player had to stand sideways to leave some room for the jumping around of the other members. A collage of guitar sounds, piano and at times violins let to beautiful noise, broken at times by awesome breaks. You never know when a song is ended before the next one starts. They leave you guessing. The high energy led to some jumping around in the room too where a few glasses did not live to see the end. Yes, another great use of the Bitterzoet glasses: a potential danger for enthusiastic dancers next to being a nuisance during quiet shows.

Playing songs from both albums the power was more in the energy than in the songs itself, for that the lyrics were not easy to understand and the theme of the second album, war, didn’t quite get through to most of the audience. Highlight of the night, and one of the highlights of the year, was when singer Patrick Stickles joined the dancers on the floor during “Titus Andronicus” shouting ‘Your Life is Over’.

Surfer Blood may have more mass-appeal and hit-potential but the band that made a much bigger impression was Titus Andronicus. Both bands will hopefully play bigger venues next time around.

Explorer 23 for March 30

01 -- 01 These New Puritans - Attack Music
02 01 05 Surfer Blood - Swim (live on KEXP)
03 02 03 The Soft Pack - C'mon (live on KEXP)
04 07 04 The XX - VCR
05 20 02 Mumford & Sons - The Cave
06 09 03 Wild Beasts - We Still Got The Taste (Jools Holland)
07 12 02 She & Him - In The Sun
08 10 03 The Twilight Sad - The Room
09 11 03 Field Music - Them That Do Nothing
10 04 04 The Antlers - Bear
11 18 02 Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
12 05 05 Blood Red Shoes - Light It Up
13 03 05 OK Go - This Too Shall Pass (backwards)
14 16 03 Hungry Kids of Hungary - Let You Down
15 13 04 Beach House - Norway
16 19 02 Tegan & Sara - Alligator
17 -- 01 Hold Your Horses - 70 Million
18 -- 01 Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Get Better
19 -- 01 Local Natives - Airplane (not official)
20 -- 01 Yeasayer - O.N.E.
21 -- 01 Sunderbands - We Only Can Because We Care
22 22 02 Liars - Scissor
23 -- 01 Fanfarlo - Harold T. Wilkins

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

Reverb on high and the let the sound echo through your house and head: here’s another new American band which has looked into the long history west-coast surf, garage and beautiful Beach Boys melodies, even though they Surfer Blood hails from Florida. Where the Soft Pack (earlier reviewed) stray more towards the dark garage and the Drums to pop, Surfer Blood is more adventurous.

That they like a dare is evident from the first song which believe it or not is actually about surfing. The surf sound is continued in the single, and Explorer #1, ‘Swim’ with its multitracked guitars and vocals to give it a spacey sound. The break in the middle is absolutely brilliant. The same recipe is used in ‘Twin Peaks’ which is almost a copy of ‘Swim’. But if you copy something great, it’s still very good if you do it well.

That they can go into other styles is evident in ‘Take it Easy’ which could easily have been on the latest Vampire Weekend record. ‘Catholic Pagan’ has the funny lyrics working for it and is the most Weezer-like song and the instrumental ‘Neighbor Riffs’ would not be out of sync on a Pixies/Breeders collection of B-sides or even a Pavement throwaway album (and I mean that with the greatest respect).

There are a few songs that are forgettable and will make you press skip sooner rather than later like ‘Harmonix’, ‘Slow Jabroni’ or ‘Anchorage’.

Best song on the album might be the shoegazing ‘Fast Jabroni’ which evokes Santogold’s ‘Lights Out’. The extra instrumentation and supereasy but effective solo make it a song to be remembered.

It’s an album to be remembered. If you delete the forgettable songs you will still end up with a great album. (4,5 stars)

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 ;)

Return of the Surfrock

Good to hear that some young dudes in the US are listening to some good old garage rock with their guitar amps turned to 11 on the treble/reverb. Guys who like music but could probably work with you in the office doing some boring desk job, but with a side that not everyone at the workplace knows about.

The Drums have had some success with their phenomenal single "Let's Go Surfing". Album is good, but at times too poppy. Surfer Blood will be discussed in a later post about their great "Astro Coast" album. Their "Swim" single is currently riding high in the Explorer 23.

Two weeks ago the Soft Pack played a very short and energetic show in the Paradiso upstairs room. 40 minutes, almost no breaks, loud and fast and with no encore. That is rock and roll like it should be.

Their self-titled debut-album is a wonderful collection of garagesurfrock. Starting with the single 'C'mon' (sing along everyone!) and 9 other great tracks the album clocks just over half an hour. Perfect length for this type of music. There's great rhythm and some nice twangy guitar riffs. And of course the surf-organ is present adding some authenticity to the record.

Garage Rock and surf rock prop up about every 15 years and it's good to see that a music style that is based on just a few chords and an abundance of energy still lasts and is still reinvented to fit the 21st century. Drums, Soft Pack and Surfer Blood are certainly doing that. Going to be the summer of surf!

Explorer 23 for March 10

For everyone who has been waiting a while now: Explorer 23 comes out every 10th, 20th and 30th of the month ;).

New list, new entries, new #1. All thanks to an instantly legendary video. Enjoy!

As always, look for the Wide Eyed Explorer on Facebook and Twitter.


01 04 03 OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
02 08 03 Surfer Blood - Swim
03 01 02 The Antlers - Bear
04 06 03 Blood Red Shoes - Light It Up
05 12 02 Deep Sea Arcade - Don't Be Sorry
06 03 02 Beach House - Norway
07 -- 01 The Soft Pack - C'mon
08 02 02 Girls - Morning Light
09 06 02 Washington - How To Tame Lions
10 -- 01 These New Puritans - We Want War
11 -- 01 The XX - VCR
12 -- 01 Futureheads - Heartbeat Song
13 07 02 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home
14 -- 01 Wild Beasts - We Still Got The Taste
15 15 05 Jonsi - Boy Lilikoi
16 -- 01 The Twilight Sad - The Room
17 10 04 Tocotronic - Macht es nicht Selbst
18 -- 01 Field Music - Them That Do Nothing
19 20 02 John Butler Trio - One Way Road
20 09 05 Bettie Serveert - Deny All
21 05 06 Vampire Weekend - Cousins
22 -- 01 Hungry Kids of Hungary - Let You Down
23 -- 01 Tunng - Hustle

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