Forget It - Fabulous Rudies

I apologize for not posting in a long while. I've been distracted by the Christmas rush and general laziness when I get home to my computer. That and it's a little hard to think of music with Christmas Carols running through my head.
Today I bring you another Ska band. This is the first (and only) Ska band I have seen live, and they are what first got me into the genre of music. But independent and not being big named, have little to show other than a MySpace page and a low-budget video. But that's what this site is for, bringing you these Indy Bands.
The Fabulous Rudies are a jolly bunch. instead of seeing a mosh pit, people were dancing with each other. This is one of their slower songs, but I added an extra "live" footage of my favourite song by them.

-Jeffrey-

Faded Paper Figures - Metropolis

Meet my latest obsession, Faded Paper Figures. They are some of the most upbeat sounds you'll listen to, and it's effing Christmas-time so that's pretty hardcore upbeat. Faded Paper Figures is composed of two main guys playing guitars, keys, drums, vocals, and machines, with an occasional female guest that adds support vocals. They're from the state of California, not surprising, since you can practically taste the sunshine in their music.

--Vivian

The White Tie Affair - If I Fall

I saw these guys on "The Hills" and fell in love with them instantly.. who knew you could actually get something useful out of that show.

-- Jocelyn

Sugarcult - Pretty Girl

It was quite a reminiscent moment when I found Sugarcult. Their sound reminded me of my Jr. High/early High School years, back when I thought The Used was the ultimate in music. Sugarcult is pretty simple, some electric guitars and catchy lyrics, but although they're not part of my usual indie mix, they've made it as a regular into my playlist.

This is one of their softer songs, I'm not sure why it's done to clips from Titanic but... whatever. Enjoy.

--Vivian

Daughter Darling - Shattered

Alright, sorry about the inconsistent posts, it's the holiday season and I'm a little frazzled. So this is Daughter Darling, my first Trip Hop experience. I'm definitely still a little confused about the definition of this genre, but so far Daughter Darling have been a good start for me. The vocalist you're listening to is Natalie Walker, matched with a few hip-hop artists.

I apologize for the quality of the sound on the video, sources were limited.

--Vivian

Crush 40 - Open Your Heart

Sorry for the late update, but Christmas is a hectic time for everyone. We will try to keep our posts up to date, but please excuse us if we have a bit of trouble.

Alright, on to the song! Crush 40 has 2 CD's and have been around for a few years, but the music that they only seem to be really known for is what they have written for the Sonic video games. Open Your Heart was originally done for Sonic adventure on the Dreamcast, but was remixed for the CD "True Blue: Sonics Best Music Hits." Crush 40 does a lot of good music that is both fast paced, but has deep emotional meaning to it, and I'm not just saying that to try and promote video game music, check out their pre-sonic stuff, or anything else they have written. It is all good.
Now the video itself that I found....
I filtered through countless sonic AMV's and VMV's until I found this: Doctor Who. I hope Vivian appreciates this.

--Jeffrey

Tokyo Police Club - Cheer It On

As you would probably guess from the music video (a bunch of guys standing in the cold trying to thaw their hands with their breath while they play), Tokyo Police Club is pure CANADIAN awesome, from Ontario specifically. Having only been together a few years, they've risen quickly from obscurity to playing David Letterman.

Their sound is raw and the singer's voice might seem a bit abrasive at the beginning, but trust me, it grows on you. Enjoy!

--Vivian

Super Mario Sliegh Ride

Yeah, Christmas is coming up and you're gonna be sick of hearing the music, but this is different! It's Mario Music blended with x-mas music. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out great and smooth, you hardly notice the transition between the Mario song and the Christmas song.
Happy Holidays!

--Jeffrey

The Working Title - Something She Said

Music today is brought to you from the far corner of South Carolina. Unfortunately, despite having toured with some really big names (Our Lady Peace, Circa Survive), and at one point being signed by Universal Records, The Working Title never did catch the whirlwind of fame. Their sound is simple, with catchy lyrics and a mature voice to deliver them, so hopefully one day things will start going their way and they can climb up from obscurity.

--Vivian

John Sykes - Cautionary Warning

Okay, so many of you probably know about John Sykes, either from Thin Lizzy, Whitesnakes, Badlands, or half the other 80's hair metal bands out there. But what most people didn't know, is that he has come out with his own independent work.
He launched his CD "20th Century" to go along with his promoting a new T.V. show. And by T.V. show I mean Japanese anime.The anime itself is pretty good, as far as these types of shows. It's called Black Heaven: Heavy Metal Saves the Universe. The show references John Sykes career in a few ways, His bands breaking up to be with their families, members dying from drugs, marrying a roadie. But like all anime's it goes over the top (like using this song to power an intergalactic plasma cannon to fight aliens...)
Anyways, here is one of John Sykes latest works, and check out the anime if you're interested and really like this song (seriously, it's played at least 3 times in each episode).
I also added the instrumental version underneath. I prefer that version, but the lyrics aren't bad either, so take your pick!

--Jeffrey

The Morning Benders - Waiting for a War

This is The Morning Benders, yet another one from my seemingly endless list of obsession targets. Today, I found out they're going to be playing here in Montreal at a local club on, of all days, Valentine's Day and more importantly, MY BIRTHDAY! Can you say destiny?

So The Morning Benders are an indie band brought to you from the sunshine of California. They're recent debut album, Talking Through Tin Cans, is one of those few albums nowadays that are worthy of the ~15 dollars support-the-recording-labels fee as I like to call them. They toured with another favourite band of mine not too long ago, Ra Ra Riot, and are quickly making their way up from the depths of the unknown.

--Vivian

Paul Brandt - Alberta Bound

Paul Brandt!! " My Heart has a History" . Love it. He is a classic, and in my opinion, on of the sexiest voices in country music! You would think he is some big burly rough farm boy with a voice like that... But unfortunately... he is not. Believe it or not, he used to be a nurse in a small town in southern Alberta! Haha! But he is awesome. One of those big stars who can fill huge stadiums for concerts, but then will do a small, free fundraiser at the local UFA for a children's wish foundation. He has a lot of new, interesting stuff. I am also including "Alberta Bound" just for kicks... This came out in 2005 at Alberta's centennial year, and brought out a lot of patriotic pride in us country folk. Haha... enjoy! :)

--Karah

The Black Mages - Maybe I'm a Lion

Yes, another video game cover from Jeff.
But this one is a bit different. If you haven't heard of the Black Mages, they are a band put together by Nobuo Uematsu, the man who has written almost every song for the Final Fantasy Series since the 8-bit FF1. He put together the Black Mages to showcase his best works, and to not have them simply titled as "Video Game Music." The bands song list is mostly taken from older Final Fantasy soundtracks and re-worked, but they have a few original songs as well, there is usually one or two on each CD.
The song that I have picked is taken from Final Fantasy 8. To be honest, I had trouble picking which song to post, as I like many of them. In the end I chose this one because it has a great flow of energy, always stimulating, and a great guitar solo (which I am always a sucker for).
I hope you enjoy.

--Jeffrey

Five Iron Frenzy - Every New Day

Stressed for exams... no time to find quality indie music... So here's my favourite song from grade 8.

--Vivian

Mindless Self Indulgence - Faggot

So another name with a rather rude title, but what do you expect from a genre called "punk"
I will be surprised if anyone who listens to punk hasn't at least heard of this band (MSI for short_. Many popular bands, My Chemical Romance for one, started their career by opening for MSI. That's not to mention all the bands who list them as inspirational (well, punk inspirational) such as Sum 41, Rammstien, and Linkin Park.
So here is one of my favourite songs by them. It is fast and intense, just the way I like it :D
There is no video of this song, only live performances or anime videos. Being against these, here is a picture of the band!

--Jeffrey

Alive in Wild Paint - A Vespertine Haunting

You are listening to Alive in Wild Paint. At least I am. They were another one of those bands that got selected during one of my crazy whirlwind phases to gather as much music as I can in a 2 hour period. Then they got lost in the maelstrom that is my music collection, until I uncovered them again this week. Now I'm listening to their album on repeat.

The lead singer (you'll excuse me if I don't go wikipedia his name) has one of the most emotive voices I've ever heard, and the beautiful thing is when you look up youtube live performances of this band, his voice is just as spectacular without any processing. You've gotta love a true voice that's beautiful raw or manipulated.

--Vivian

Ryashon - Become the Storm (Ryu SF2 theme)

More nerdy/metal stuff from me.
Ryashon is an up and coming metal band, and by band I mean 2 guys. They have been turning out their own tunes for a short while, and are getting ready to release their first CD before the end of the year. This song in particular is a metal cover Ryu's theme from Street Fighter 2 (don't ask me how excited for Street Fighter 4 I am, the answer is usually Hadoken).
Their music involves a few covers that they have released on the internet, usually from video games (and a hilarious one of Chocolate Rain). But their CD will include almost all original music by them.
Being only two members strong, they are very focused on perfecting their instruments,so there is few vocals (if any) and all talent. They have been described as not only metal, or techno ( a few of their songs), but Melodic as well.
So listen up, in the meantime I shall keep checking their blog until the CD is out.

--Jeffrey

Ra Ra Riot - Can You Tell

Ra Ra Riot is the first band I've noticed that has "healing" as their description on Myspace. I'm not entirely sure what it heals, but I'm just going to go ahead and put a disclaimer here that TMT is not responsible if you decide to turn this up instead of going to the hospital should you somehow unfortunately damage your body in the process of visiting our site.

Okay then, moving on. Ra Ra Riot are close friends with another band I've posted before, Vampire Weekend, and you can kind of hear the similarities in their sound. Although they are still very distinct. My favourite part is definitely when the violins play a counter-melody against the voice. My heart skips a beat everytime I hear that part.

This is my current obsession from them, I played it on repeat about 5 times before I stopped myself in case I get sick of them. Woot.

--Vivian

Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah

Well I'll admit that this is probably one of the most blasphemous bands out there (they have a song titled: The Devil is a Loser and he's my B***h), but this one song is just so great it gets stuck in my head and makes me ready to rock out.
Lordi has been around since 1996, but didn't hit their first breakthrough until 2006, during the Eurovision Song contest (something really great that non-UKers should check out, a big music contest/concert). The contest was mainly dominated by pop and folk songs for decades, but this Heavy Metal Band came out of nowhere, broke contest records, and was the first Hard Rock Bands to win the Eurovision Contest (and the first Finnish band as well).
These guys do almost anything public in their costumes. It's they're symbol, and they say that they were inspired by KISS for much of their influence. In their costumes they are rock stars, but in there everyday cloths, nobody knows that they are a heavy metal band. Their music videos are also well known for being different, almost always being a horror movie of it's own. This video being a small exception, they have two versions of it. This was them hosting Eurovision '07, check out their other video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdItwaLrv1U Youtube sold-out and I can't post the other (better) video)
Lordi is currently touring the U.S.A.

--Jeffrey

Heidi Newfield - Johnny and June

My latest country favourite... "Johnny and June" by Heidi Newfield. It makes me happy. I hope it makes you happy too. (Yes, the music video is typically country... get over it.)

--Karah

Rise Against - Re-Education (Through Labour)

Yeah I know I've posted Rise Against before, and this isn't just because they're my favourite band and I just happen to have tickets to see them next week. No, this is in support of the Progressive Coalition of Canada.

Conservatives have done, as always, a superb job at spreading false propaganda to their ever willing sheep, and it's this same smear campaign technique that got them increased support in the last election. Progressive Canadians, it's time to stand up against the lies, it's time to spread our own message.

First of all, arm yourselves with knowledge. Refer here. This is democracy in action, be aware.

Start an argument, stir up some shit. It's time to get this tyrant out of the power seat.



If you want a quick brief on what this is about, check out:

--Vivian

1337 STR33T Boys - Yuri Only One

So... many... nerdy... references...
Not even I know all of them.

Before people go off thinking that this is a joke or something, no, this is a real band, and they make a lot of songs like this. Is it super cheesy, dorky, and nerdy? Yes, it sure is. But the point is, they are making songs that they can relate to and have fun singing. We've heard of "Nerd Metal" "Geek Rock" and maybe some "Video Game Rap", well prepare yourself for "Nerd Boybands!"
1337 STR33T Boys preform in many shows around the U.S.A. and Canada, and by shows I mainly mean anime and gaming conventions. They do all their songwriting, video animation, and even write their own online comic.

This song probably isn't for the masses, but this is more proof that the "Nerd under culture" is growing and becoming more mainstream in this decade.

--Jeffrey

Broken Records - Lies

I found Broken Records not too long ago, but I'm already hooked. Unfortunately, they're still very small and only have 4 available songs that I could find. They're an indie band out of Edinburgh, Scotland, and you can definitely hear it in their sound. The strings set a wonderful underlay for the song as the singer's voice just soars over it. Lend them an ear, you'll get hooked as well I'm sure.

--Vivian

Amber Pacific - Poetically Pathetic

So I honestly don't have much to say here. I just found this band earlier today and wanted to put this song up. The band has a few CD's out, so they're not new or anything.
I like this song. I have read a few interpretations of it, but what I think it is trying to say is: "We're not living a perfect life, but I love you. I can say I love you in so many cheesy ways, and I will, but I love you" or at least that's what I think. I am hoping to hear what other people think, as I am still turning the cogs in my head...

--Jeffrey