Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Little Shadow

Okay so originally I wanted to post something by Karen O, the lead singer of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, because she released this obscure little album of random tracks (I mean really random), but of course it's not on youtube and I'm a little too lazy at the moment to make a video. All of this to say that here's a track from Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This is, by the way, not the original track of Little Shadow, but the bonus track that's a little different, has more instruments and strings which is always good. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are awesome, much more upbeat than this song indicates but this is my favourite. Check out some of their stuff.

--Vivian

Scotch - Poppins

Okay brace yourself, because this is some good sh** coming up. My friend Sara showed me the music of her friend who's part of a group called Scotch. They're based here in Montreal, very local, very underground. They have a very jazzy smoky piano bar feel and some awesome awesome instrumentalists. The person who really takes the spotlight here, however, is the lead singer/piano/guitar, Declan O'Donovan. Not only does this guy have some tight tight piano solos, he has the sexiest voice you'll ever hear. The way he croons those lyrics, a weaker woman would feel violated. Okay, enough intro, just listen. If you want to check out their myspace (because it's really hard to find for some reason!) here it is: www.myspace.com/scotchisgood.

--Vivian

Denali - French Mistake

As previously promised, this is Maura Davis's other project Denali. It's a very similar sound as Ambulette, a little bit more ambient this time I think. I must be honest, I'm not a 100% convinced by Maura's voice, but it has its haunting moments. Good music nevertheless.

--Vivian

Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - The Maid Needs a Maid

About 99% of people in the indie music scene should know about Emily Haines: the talented lead singer of Metric. Well, since Metric is already the over milked poster child for indie music, I've decided to post a song from her side venture instead. This song has been stuck in my head all day.

Haines once said during an interview that as she was writing this song, she gained an understanding of WHY men need women, and why women need maids. She realized that what she really needed in life was a good wife (despite being completely straight), just to take care of her. I was just having the same discussion this morning with my roommate about how great it would be to have a good wife to cook and clean for me. (Don't worry Jeff, this is not a hint.)

--Vivian

Ambulette - When I See You

It's always sad when you find a great band that you love, find their EP, eagerly await their first full-length debut album, and then find out they broke up before such a cd was even produced. Such is the case with Ambulette, the indie band started by Maura Davis. Or so I thought. Prior to Ambulette, Maura Davis was also a part of another band, Denali. After some research, I found that Ambulette isn't exactly broken up? Or this was the indication on their Myspace page. I'm still a little cloudy on their status. The good news is that Maura Davis is also singing in another band Glös, for certain, I'll post both Denali and Glös music later on. Meanwhile, please enjoy the existence confused Ambulette.

--Vivian

Tilly and the Wall - Alligator Skin

It was a good day that I discovered Tilly and the Wall. They're an upbeat pop band from Nebraska, I mean, what can be more upbeat than having a tap dancer? That's right, one of the "instrumentalists" is a tap dancer, in replacement for a drummer. They're almost the same thing right?

I've been listening to this album on repeat the last few days, sure to drive my roommates mad soon. This is my favourite song off the album, hope you enjoy it!

--Vivian

Love is All - Movie Romance

Love is All is yet another indie band that emerged from Sweden, although they are currently signed on with an American record label. Their music is upbeat and umm... I'm not good at describing music past "Awesome".

I know one of my roommates find the lead singer's voice really abrasive, and I can see what she means, although it's weirdly addictive to me. I guess it's one of those, love it or hate it sounds.

Once again, video and sound quality not very good since I couldn't find a single one of their songs on youtube and had to make my own. I think you'll get the general gist though, and there's always Myspace!

--Vivian

Sutrastore - Ifuwannitoo

Welcome to our second trip-hop entry here on The Mix Tapes. Please correct me if I'm characterizing this genre incorrectly. For the life of me I can't figure out how I found out about Sutrastore, but I found their name on my Zune a few days ago, and thought "well I don't recall that name..." so I listened to it and it was the most pleasant surprise I got that day. Sutrastore's music features sometimes a female singer, sometimes a male singer; this is one of the only songs where they both sing together, and it sounds just divine. The girl has one of those raspy jazzy voices but it's so soothing at the same time. However, the thing I love the most about this song, is that solo at the beginning that sounds like a... harmonica? I could be wrong, but it sets a really nice mood for the rest of the song.

--Vivian

James Yuill - This Sweet Love

So I apologize for being so frazzled this holiday, I haven't really updated much being my connection at home is really slow, and I guess everyone else was busy with the holidays as well. Anyways, we're back.

This is James Yuill, an acoustic artist from the UK. I've always been a sucker for acoustics and the Brits, really what girl isn't? He's got this kind of geeky folk artist thing going on. This video is just an acoustic session with him, his usual stuff has electronic synthesizers as well. It's quite an awesome mix.

--Vivian

P.S. Happy New Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lydia - One More Day

For a while, every time I got on my computer my hands would go autopilot, searching for Lydia on my list of music and press play. Lydia is a group of six musicians from Phoenix, Arizona, with a beautiful layer of sound. I really don't think I can do them any justice by describing their music so please just let your mouse wander over to the play button.

--Vivian

Broken Social Scene - Hotel

Broken Social Scene is kind of like the Big Bang of music: a group of random really talented musicians traveling at high speeds crashing into each other, expelling a large amount of energy and creating something complex and beautiful at the same time. Or at least that's how I've always envisioned it.

It was funny how I actually came across BSS. I was in HMV, at one of those booths with a bunch of cds and a set of headphones, and I was looking for some new sound. One of the cds turned out to be pretty good so I found it on the supposed location and bought it. Thanks to the highly competent staff in retail, the cd (you guessed it, BSS) wasn't the same band I had listened to. Although it was a pleasant surprise, and I don't regret it one bit, I would still like to know who it was I was listening to at the booth.

So BSS is a Canadian group composed of x amount of people (this number tends to change randomly), and their sound is kind of experimental rock I'm guessing... I'm really bad at categorizing genres (I could say this is because labeling is bad, but in reality I just don't know my genres very well). Once again, one of those bands where it was really difficult to choose just one song to post. This is a hint to go listen to more of their stuff.

--Vivian

Rich Fantasy Lives - Lexy & Tony

First of all, this is a cover by two other singers, Lexy and Tony (that's all I know about them), the original artists are Tom Smith and Rob Baulder. I suggest you look up more from Rob Baulder (especially "Still Annoyed" a parody on Still alive from Bowser). He works often with Tom Smith, but Tom was recently hospitalized, so all his tours and songwriting stopped.

Secondly, I couldn't find a good video by the original artists or the cover artists, so I made this myself in windows media maker. I am pretty much computer illiterate, so it is just a picture.

The song itself reminded me too much of myself and my overactive imagination, and I am sure there are many people out there where this song hits too close to home as well. Ir is mostly directed towards us "geeks and nerds" with our dreams of being a princess or space hero, but holds meaning to many, if not all, other people as well. We fanyasize on some level, whether it's dreaming of just being rich, or being a midevil hero with magic powers. It is not weird, crazy, or psycho, it is normal, and we should embrace it. I love letting my imagination go in whatever direction it wants, and I follow it willingly. Without these "daydreams" we would not have creativity, art, or even the music we listen to on this blog. So enjoy it, and enjoy this song.



P.S. the "He wargames through weekends, leads armies and legions" part, is me all to well.

-- Jeffrey

Devendra Banhart - Carmensita

This is Devendra Banhart with Carmensita. Watch carefully and yes, that is Natalie Portman playing the princess. So yeah, this music video is a little strange, very strange as a matter of fact. I really can't get sick of it though, I must have watched like 5 times yesterday. It's also a really catchy tune, despite being in Spanish. Aside from this particular song, Devendra's cd itself is worth listening to, with some poppy catchy tunes like this one, and others that are more ambient. Give him a chance, man!

--Vivian

The Main Drag – A Jagged Gorgeous Winter

Hey team it's Matt, soon-to-be-resident metal head. Pretty much all you'll get out of me are various progressive and power metal, although I do deviate from my usual buffet of power chords and bass pedals at times, and kids, this is one of those times. It snowed in my hometown a few days ago and I was stuck outside; allow me to tell you how fun that was. "Pain in the left ass cheek" comes directly to mind but on with the show. A little electro-indie band out of Boston, The Main Drag gives us A Jagged Gorgeous Winter. I like their stuff and will be defiantly be shelling out my street-corner wages for a copy of their albums, Enjoy children!

--Matt

P.S. Don't mind the fact that this video just looks like someone's Christmas vacation slides, because it probably is.