Posts Tagged: The Kooks

Listen / MP3 / Music — 3 Comments
6
Aug 09

The Rifles – The Great Escape EP

The Rifles The Great Escape EP listen
Say hello to the newest cheeky Brit pop band to cross the pond.

Perhaps best described as a hybrid of The Kooks and The Arctic Monkeys (with a touch of The Cold War Kids), The Rifles are looking to break through to North American audiences.

Presenting The Great Escape EP — an energetic, light-hearted sample of what The Rifles have to offer.

I thoroughly enjoyed all four featured tracks. The Rifles exude a jangly, playful vibe that is conveyed in each of their sample tracks. Short guitar licks and light, upbeat percussion give the EP an all-over energetic, slightly retro grunge-band feel.

The band was formed in 2004, and their debut album, No Love Lost, peaked the UK charts at #26. The Rifles recently signed with Nettwerk in North America and will be touring our side of the Atlantic come autumn.

Pleasant, and feel-good, if this EP is any indication to what the LP will sound like, I think there’s room for The Rifles to make a name for themselves and capture the hearts of North American Indie fans everywhere. Keep an eye out for this fantastic four; they’ll be doing big things in the next year.

Read on for the tracklist and mp3s Continue reading →

Covers / Feature / MP3 / Music — 21 Comments
6
Jan 09

The Thinking Man’s Take On: Covers

I’ve long been a fan of cover songs, and I’m proud of it. I guess it stems from my embarrassing roots as a pseudo-hardcore Dave Matthews Band fan.  It began, most likely sometime in during those awkward, braces + flannel + voice-crack Middle School years, when “Dave” personally introduced me to Lyle Lovett (If I Had A Boat), Willie Nelson (Ain’t It Funny How Time Slips Away), and the great Johnny Cash (Ring Of Fire). As shameful as admitting to once being a Dave Matthews fan can be, if it led to me loving covers I’m willing to do it.  Hi my name is Chris, and I love covers.

There’s something about a good cover song that is just perfect – and difficult to capture. Some people hate covers with a passion, while others hunt them down like it’s their job. Some uphold them as worthy endeavors, others bemoan them as commercial pandering. Covers, like remixes, provide upstart musicians with a chance to prove their mettle in the context of a familiar tune. On the flip side, they allow established artists to take a step back, mess around in the studio one day, and release a song that is held under a smaller magnifying glass than usual. They exist on the fringe of the sphere of music criticism, and often seem more frivolously hobby-ish than painstakingly business-like.

Which is, of course, probably why we like them. Covers capture the essence of making music – the first time you hummed a tune that you heard on the radio, the strumming of some Nirvana chords on your first acoustic guitar, the complete freedom to do whatever you want with a song. But as with all good things, there is a method to the madness. Not all covers are created equal, and some suck pretty majorly. In my mind, here are the dos and don’ts of making a great cover:

Continue reading →

Best of 2008 / Covers / Feature / MP3 / Music — 37 Comments
30
Dec 08

Pretty Much Amazing’s Best Covers of 2008

Pretty Much Amazings Best Covers of 2008 best of 2008

I couldn’t do the whole “Best of 2008″ party without including some of my favorite covers, especially since 2008 was such an awesome year for cover-heads. I have featured all of these covers on Pretty Much Amazing before, you if you’re an avid reader, you might already have them. If you saw them on the blog and DIDN’T download them: shame on you, butthead, these are the cream of the crop and my absolute favorite covers of 2008. Without further adieu, here are my favorite covers of 2008 (in no particular order) Continue reading →

Listen / MP3 / Music — 9 Comments
27
Dec 08

The REAL MTV- Music on TV

And here begins yet ANOTHER weekly PMA post. Every week, I’ll be taking you through the music of 90210, Gossip Girl, and my personal favorite, Chuck.

Since all three shows are on a quick hiatus, we’re going to jump backwards in time, covering the second-to-last episodes of GG and 90210, along with the music selection of the first third of Chuck’s season two.

Let’s start with Gossip Girl. Season two’s episode twelve, “It’s A Wonderful Lie,” heavily featured tunes from a major band on the rise, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Their most popular song, “Around the Bend,” has recently been featured in an iPod commercial. The band’s other songs aren’t quite as good, but slow jam “Hero” works well in the show’s context and “The Sun Ain’t Shining No More” is certainly good enough to gain a ton of new fans.

GG also used a song by Brit band The Metros. Their sound is nothing new, very Kooks-y, but that doesn’t mean its bad. The song, “Sexual Riot,” is a very fun track.

The episode’s best song, “Breakdown,” comes from a new-ish band called Deerheart. Kasey Truman’s heavy vocals carry the sweet and heartwarming piano-headed track. It’s perfect for background music to an important moment in your life. Or just for background music to Gossip Girl.

Gossip Girl Episode 2.12: “It’s A Wonderful Lie” SONGLIST: Continue reading →

Covers / MP3 / Music — 18 Comments
28
Oct 08

Cover Tuesday 19

Cover Tuesday 15: is Back! Best Covers of Summer 2008 covers
Unless you can pull an awesome cover off!

Moby – Creep (Radiohead cover): Last week I asked for a good “Creep” cover, and many of you came through! Moby’s cover of “Creep” was by far, my favorite. Another contender was Prince’s cover. Being there in the flesh to witness Prince cover Radiohead was just amazing — no mp3 rip can compare. 

Ryan Adams – Wonderwall (Oasis cover): This is pretty fantastic, especially since I’m going to see Ryan Adams and the Cardinals open for Oasis later next month. I’ve been debating whether or not this cover is actually better than the original. Can a 90’s megajam that’s as cult-worthy as “Wonderwall” really be trumped by the likes of Ryan Adams?

The Kooks – Young Folks (Peter, Bjorn and John cover): Ok this is definitely my favorite cover of the week. The Kooks are a responsible for some remarkable covers. Remember them doing MGMT’s “Kids” or Coldplay’s “Violet Hill”? How can you forget.

Goldfrapp – It’s Not Over Yet (Klaxons cover): Goldfrapp is one of my favorite female vocalists of all time — can her voice get anymore perfect? I got some backlash last time I used this one, but hey, lemme give it another go: File this under the “better than the original” category. 

Muse – Feeling Good (Nina Simone cover): The last time I heard a good Nina Simone cover was when the Arctic Monkeys did “Diamonds Are Forever” at Glastonbury. Can the Arctic Monkeys compare with the raw engergy of Matt Bellamy and his Muse? No, of course not, that’s crazy talk. 

Download the songs below: Continue reading →

MP3 / Music / Remixes — 1 Comment
23
Oct 08

SPIN.com’s Top 25 MGMT Remixes

SPIN.com chooses its Top 25 MGMT Remixes. I like them: 

  • “All My Children” (MGMT vs. LCD Soundsystem), Immuzikation
    Immuzikation, a.ka. Athens, Georgia’s Alfredo P. Lapuz, Jr., is the mash-up man of the moment, and this extended massaging of LCD’s “All My Friends” (basically a mash-up of Steve Reich and New Order, anyway) with MGMT’s “Kids” is a fascinating mix of aging hipster regret and childlike hipster nostalgia. The soundtrack to a changing of the guard? (DOWNLOAD MP3)
  • “Nasty Feel,” MGMT vs. Justice vs. Notorious B.I.G.
    Brooklyn duo ddpesh modestly describe their music as “Daft Punk plus Premier’s beats divided by the Chemical Brothers” (um, good luck with that, fellas). But this hilariously ingenious mash-up of Biggie’s “Nasty Boy” with Justice’s remix of MGMT’s white-soul wafer “Electric Feel” gets a damn sight closer than anything they’ve ever done before. Never thought I’d hear Frank White “freekin’ these bitches like Jodeci” over the hackey-sack slow jam of the year. (DOWNLOAD MP3)
  • “Kids” (We Don’t Care EP version), MGMT
    The original, cheaply made version sounds like actual guileless kids stumbling into magic — the singing’s less affected, the drama less studio-enhanced, and when the vocals kick in after the electro breakdown and sound of children playing with about minute left to go, you honestly stop caring for a second what the hell they mean by a family of trees wanting to be haunted! (DOWNLOAD MP3) Continue reading →
Listen / MP3 / Music — 10 Comments
29
Aug 08

New Kooks – Kids (MGMT cover) / Friday Covers

New Kooks Kids (MGMT cover) / Friday Covers listen
I’m really starting to dig Australian radio! First, Triple J gives us Vampire Weekend doing Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere,” and now the Kooks were just in the studio and covered MGMT’s “Kids.” Thanks to PMA reader John Beohm for the tip! Download the cover below along with some other great covers:

Kooks – Kids (MGMT cover) .
Mystery Jets – The Pioneers (Bloc Party cover) .
Axl Rose & Bruce Springsteen – Come Together (Beatles Cover) .
Coldplay – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (Kylie Minogue cover) .
Smashing Pumpkins – Landslide (Fleetwood Mac Cover) .

Listen / MP3 / Music / Remixes / Uncategorized — 3 Comments
11
Jul 08

Top 10 on Friday

Top 10s that are burning up in the charts that we actually care about

Elbo.ws

Top 10 Elbo.ws Tracks
1. Mogwai – The Sun Smells Too Loud
2. Bloc Party – Mercury
3. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
4. Takka Takka – Everybody Say
5. The Great Northwest – chief john
6. Albert Hammond, Jr. – GfC
7. The Presets – Talk Like That (Miami Horror Remix)
8. The DUTCHESS AND THE DUKE – Reservoir Park
9. Earlimart – Song For
10. The Verve – Mover

The Hype Machine

Top 10 Hype Machine Artists
1. Beck mp3 | Walls
2. Bloc Party mp3 | Flux (JFK Remix)
3. Black Kids mp3 | Hurricane Jane
4. The Kooks mp3 | Violet Hill (Coldplay Cover)
5. Pnau mp3 | Embrace (Fred Falke & Miami Horror Remix)
6. Bruce Springsteen
7. Late of the Pier
8. Midnight Juggernauts
9. My Morning Jacket
10. Ratatat mp3 |Bird-Priest

last.fm

Top 10 Last.fm Rising Tracks
1. Dirty Pretty Things – Tired of England
2. Equilibrium – Blut Im Auge
3. Sky Eats Airplane – Long Walks on Short Bridges
4. The Subways – Alright
5. YUI – Summer Song
6. CSS – Rat Is Dead (Rage)
7. Air France – Maundy Thursday
8. Sky Eats Airplane – The Artificial
9. The Subways – Girls & Boys
10. Air France – No Excuses

Listen / MP3 / Music / Random — 7 Comments
9
Jul 08

When Coffee Dreams, It Dreams of Chocolate.

When Coffee Dreams, It Dreams of Chocolate. listen

So I just forced to got around to trying out this Hershey’s and Starbucks love child at work this morning… and they’re DAMN GOOD. It’s like dramatic good, almost over-dramatically good. You know that kind of good that’s sort of pretentious-bitchy, but you love it anyway? Yeah that kind. My personal favorite is the Mocha Dark Chocolate bar, but the Milk Chocolate Chai Truffle is also delicious. They also have chocolate covered coffee beans, stay away… they’re kinda weird. Just weird. It may be that I’m sort of a chocolate snob and I harp on milk chocolate a lot (unless its blended with chai, of course).

I strongly suggest you grab yourself a box of these goodies… oh and they’re also a great gift!

The reason I brought them up in the first place was that I love listening to music while devouring (yes, devouring) goodies. I kind of hand-picked the next few tracks (with help of the Hype Machine) to help savor my chocolate, and I was bored.

Beck – Orphans
Bloc Party – Mercury (hey, it’s a grower)
Black Kids – Partie Traumatic
CSS – Move
The Kooks – One Last Time

Headline Shorties / Listen / MP3 / Music / Music Festivals / New Releases / News — 8 Comments
7
Jul 08

Here’s to hoping I won’t have to do THAT again!

Hello everybody!

I think (keyword: think) Pretty Much Amazing is ready to open for business. I have the theme figured out and everything in place. There are a few details that kind of suck (big time). For example, due to technical difficulties — really stupid ones — all posts from April to late June are lost. This is extremely depressing, but it hasn’t brought us down yet.

I do want to make it clear, just in case I already haven’t, that this blog has been temporary shut down, twice now, due to the massive server load we carry out every day. At one point in May and June, the server couldn’t take it anymore and my host had to give me the boot. All these fancy words like server and hosts confuse me just as much as it does you, so it took me quite a while to figure out what my b-plan was. Hopefully I have chosen a stable host that won’t implode with PMA’s traffic load. :)

But enough of the unpleasantnesses, lets move on to the music. I won’t even attempt to catch everyone up on what has been happening in the music world over the last few weeks. I trust that you guys have been scattering around the internet educating yourself… at least a little?

I’ll compromise, I’ll cover what’s been going on over the last few days.

Michael Jackson Akon Hold My Hand

Nothing has been more excited or buzztastic as that new Michael Jackson / Akon collaboration, unsettlingly called “Hold My Hand.”

I really don’t know if this is a Michael Jackson song or an Akon song… I’ve seen it both ways. Clarification? The song isn’t that great, but it’s good enough to deserve the attention it has been getting.

I hope I don’t get into too much trouble:

Michael Jackson & Akon – Hold My Hand

Jay-Z

This is probably equally as “shocking” and way more bad ass than MJ and Akon: Jay-Z covering Oasis’ supermegaultra-famous “Wonderwall” live at Glastonbury.

YouTube Preview Image

What a great way to wrap up the semi (ridic) beef.

He also covered Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”, catch the mp3s down there.

Jay-Z – Wonderwall (Oasis Cover)/99 Problems – Live @ Glatsonbury
Jay-Z – Rehab (Amy Winehouse cover) – Live @ Glatsonbury

Bloc Party - Mercury

And more recently, Bloc Party unleashes new single and video, “Mercury” to disgruntled fans, or at least one.

After a little pre-release hype, Bloc Party let another electro-inspired single on Zane Lowe’s radio show. “Mercury,” much like “Flux” hints to a massive electronic shift in the band’s upcoming, third album. I think Mr. Frank is spot on when he wrote:

Techno has made quite a resurgence in popularity over the last couple years with the likes of Justice and SMD gaining considerable notoriety from the press and fans alike. It’s kind of a turn off though when a talented British rock band like Bloc Party begins to eschew the natural direction of their music in order to cater to the everchanging trends of the music industry. A move which is usually followed by departure of their core audience, the ones that loved them for their first couple albums, which I thought were both excellent (Silent Alarm more so than Weekend In The City).

Maybe this song leaves more than one fan feeling a bit “disgruntled.” Download the song below, along with some key info about ‘Mercury’’s Aug. 11 release.

Heavyweight Mercury 12”:
A. Mercury (12” Version)
B. Mercury (12” Intrumental)

Mercury CD Maxi:
1. Mercury
2. Mercury (Hervé is in disarray Remix)
3. Mercury (CSS Remix)
4. Mercury (Flosstrodamus Remix)

Mercury Heavyweight 7”:
A. Mercury
B. Idea For A Story

Bloc Party – Mercury

And a couple of cool covers thanks to British radio.
The Last Shadow Puppets – S.O.S (Rihanna Cover)
The Kooks – Violet Hill (Coldplay Cover)