Didn't Planet - We're Going Nowhere

So, new band number two: Didn't Planet. They started as a cover band, after ten years they began to write their own songs which lead to the record We're Going Nowhere. It is a concept album about being a cover band.

Being a cover band is explained by Didn't Planet: "We know it ain’t easy. Friends that 'promise to be there on Friday night… REALLY!' bar owners who inexplicably can’t remember who you are after 7 years of booking with them, countless requests for songs you don’t play, and even more countless requests to 'turn down the drums.' Add to that the sheer number of us out there... if cover bands were pigeons, Greater Boston would be Harvard Square at lunchtime. Thousands, identical to the untrained eye, all vying for the same French Fries."

Musically Didn't Planet is settled somewhere between alternative rock (Green Day) and power pop (Fountains Of Wayne).

Now for the songs:

MaryAnne(e) and We're Going Nowhere are power pop gems.  
California and Over You are very catchy and have a strong FoW feeling.  
Adam could be the next Green Day single (which not a bad thing to say, is it?).  
Kinda Got It Goin' On reminds me of the old days of rock 'n' roll, nice!
The record closes with a nice little song Someday I Might.

The only negative thing about the record: I don't like the first track. It's not a proper track, more like an intro. That could have been left out. Well, that's just a small complaint.

Overall: A great effort for a first record! Keep up the good work!

Listen here:

Official site: www.didntplanet.com

Mike Viola Returns Again To The Time Machine

This is the third time Mike Viola is guest at The Time Machine with Michael McCartney. Listen here:

Teitur - You Never Leave LA (HD Official Video)

Dustin Cann - Want

You never heard of Dustin Cann? Me neither. Til today. Listen!
Dustin, this is a extraordinary first single. Keep going!



Official website: www.dustincann.com

Ben Folds Five & Fraggle Rock - Do It Anyway [Official Video]

Ken Stringfellow - Danzig In The Moonlight

Ken Stringfellow is a musician, songwriter, producer and arranger with more than 20 years of music experience. His band The Posies releases critically acclaimed records since 1988, he was part of rock legends Big Star and spent ten years on the road and in studio with R.E.M.

Ken's onstage and on-album appearances range from Snow Patrol to Neil Young, Patti Smith and Death Cab For Cutie.

He even had time to put out three solo albums - 1997: This Sounds Like Goodbye, 2001: Touched and 2004: Soft Commands.

Ken is set release his fourth album, "Danzig in the Moonlight" October 1st on Lojinx in Europe. By the way, I love the wordplay with the album title. I wonder how many people misread it.

Track list:

1. Jesus Was An Only Child
2. 110 Or 220 V
3. Superwise
4. Shittalkers
5. History Buffs
6. You're The Gold
7. Drop Your Pride
8. Pray
9. 4am Birds - The End of All Light - The Last Radio
10. Odorless, Colorless, Tasteless
11. Even the Forgers Were Left Fingering the Fakes
12. Doesn't It Remind You of Something (feat. Charity Rose Theilen)
13. Savior's Hands
14. You're A Sign

Jesus Was An Only Child is a stunning opening track, starting very relaxed and filigree but suddenly bursts out into something completely different (no, I won't mention Bowie here!). 110 Or 220 V gives you a great acoustic feeling. The next three songs Superwise, Shittalkers and History Buffs are my personal highlights from the record. All three are extremely catchy, with wonderful harmonies and lyrics. Drop Your Pride is a dark and splendid song, Pray is a perfect radio single: it's easy-going and laid-back which isn't a bad thing at all. You're A Sign closes the record with a beautiful ballad, that's alone worth buying this album!

Preorder "Danzig In The Moonlight" here: www.danziginthemoonlight.com

Sunday Sun - EP I & EP II

"Sunday Sun provides the ideal soundtrack for carefree days with timeless pop songs to fall in love."

This is from the official website from Sunday Sun. Though it looks like a cliché, it fits perfectly to them. The band is the brainchild of Koen-Willem Toering, Yoshi Breen, Wouter Rentema and Jan Strasbourg, they come from the Netherlands (you may suggested it already).
EP I and EP II are already out - EP III is released on October 12, 2012. And I highly recommend them to you. Please listen below.

By the way: thanks to Miyuki who introduced them to me. I'd missed so much good music without your help!

Official website: www.sundaysunmusic.com

New Music - August 2012

There are loads of new record releases either out this month or coming in the next weeks. Let's start with...

Freddie Mercury - Barcelona (Special Edition)

“I’m moving into opera now. Forget rock and roll”

Freddie Mercury (1987)

25 years after the original release, Queen singer Freddie Mercury’s Barcelona album recorded in collaboration with Spanish operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé, is to have a special re-release.

The record will get a fully orchestrated rework.

It'll be available on CD, CD Special Edition (CD1: A full orchestrated rework of the Barcelona album, CD2: Rarities from the Barcelona sessions, CD3: Barcelona instrumental version and a DVD with videos and interviews) and on vinyl (release: September 3 2012). Listen to the samples here:

Aimee Mann - Charmer

Aimee's all new record Charmer is available for preorder (release: September 18, 2012) on CD and Vinyl (you can also get things like a Charmer turntable slip mat and a free art print).

Listen to samples from Charmer here or watch the official video here:

Ben Folds Five - The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind 

The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind is out on September 18 2012 on Vinyl & CD. You still can preorder it from Pledgemusic.
It's Ben Folds Five's first record since the 1999 The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.

Track list:

1. "Erase Me"    

2. "Michael Praytor, Five Years Later"

3. "Sky High"  

4. "The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind" 

5. "On Being Frank"

6. "Draw A Crowd"

7. "Do It Anyway"

8. "Hold That Thought" 

9. "Away When You Were Here"

10. "Thank You For Breaking My Heart"  

The Darkness - Hot Cakes

Hot Cakes is out now on Vinyl, CD and Special Edition (including four bonus tracks).

 
Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension

The release of Music From Another Dimension is slightly pushed back to November 5 2012. The first single is Legendary Child - and it's an instant Aerosmith classic!

Track list:

1. LUV XXX 

2. Oh Yeah 

3. Beautiful 

4. Tell Me 

5. Out Go the Lights 

6. Legendary Child 

7. What Could Have Been Love 

8. Street Jesus 

9. Can't Stop Loving You (feat Carrie Underwood) 

10. Love Her A Lot 

11. We All Fall Down 

12. Shakey Ground 

13. Closer 

14. Something 

15. Another Last Goodbye

Bleu - It's Not Over ('Til it's Over And Done)

One of the two singer songwriters that were the initial reasons for this blog* - Bleu McAuley - will have a new record out. It is set for February 2013, and the first song from it - It's Not Over ('Til it's Over And Done) - is streaming on soundcloud. It's musically located somewhere between Four and Redhead. The song is more electronic, powerful and gripping. If this is an indication for the direction of the new record, I'm jazzed!
Icing on the cake: It was written by Bleu and David Mead!

* The other artist is not hard to guess by means of my last posts...

Mike Viola - Future Horror Hockey Game

On August 15th 2012 there was a Mike Viola web show at stageit.com (Notes from Underground #3). The result of this show was the song Future Horror Hockey Games.

It's a song about a tip fight of two guys - Alex & Andy - at this web show (and yes, one of them is me...). The song is available here:

Lyrics - Future Horror Hockey Games

Andy is a super fan from Germany
Alex just finished college with a bachelors degree
This song is the story of how they lost themselves
It starts on August 15th 2012

They were bidding in an online forum for the song I am singing now
The bidding started innocent but ended in thousands and
Thousand of tokens neither could afford
But it's so hard not to rush in
Once you open that door

There was  a secret weapon that Alex had in mind
Launched at the last second at a very specific time
All the fans around him would cower at his feet
Except for one called Leschnik he was impossible to beat

Andy used his super powers at the end of the fight
Coffey just finished college so he'd been up for 3 nights
He fell asleep at his computer right before the official end
Andy did not stop punching he never got up again

So here we are forever the subject of this song
Love is so mysterious it'll never do you wrong
If your a fan a dad a mother everybody wins
As sure as there are guardian angels on the head of a pin

Paul kelly and the messengers costello crowded house
squeeze before that rolling stone review that smoked them out
the clash the cars the who gordon lightfoot joni mitch
Grahm Parker and the Figgs would definitely make the list

the list of people let in to a very secret club
Where men smoke hand rolled cigarettes right down to the nub
Where women are called ladies and go powder their nose
In a table by the kitchen their sits a girl named Rose

Let's sing about the strange case of Baby Katie Blade
her mother Rose was generous she gave and gave and gave
but Andy and Alex just treated her like dirt
said "go back to your garden before somebody gets hurt"

Mike Viola: Blue Thumb album on vinyl & StageIt online shows

The Blue Thumb album on vinyl

The long lost Blue Thumb album of The Candy Butchers will be released by Mike Viola this Christmas.

It'll likely include the album on vinyl, a CDR and also bonus tracks. Stay tuned!

Some words of its development and the sad end of the project:

After the recording was finished the album was mixed and re-mixed several times and a potential single pulled and mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Lots of money was spent. Sadly, Blue Thumb went belly up (“it wasn’t our fault!”) and the Candy Butchers debut album was never released.

Our manager shopped the finished record around but we had amassed such a debt from all the re-mixing (a decision made by the powers that had been) nobody wanted to sign us cause they’d be taking on all this debt. It was crazy. I was sitting on this record that was basically my life’s work up to that point. Knowing in the back of my mind it would never be released. 

See also mikeviola.com and his Facebook posting.

StageIt shows - Notes from the Underground

If you never had the chance to see Mike Viola live, here's the closest thing to a live gig: StageIt. Five shows ("Notes from the Underground") were scheduled, two of them are already over. You can pay what you can for it. Each of them lasts about 50 minutes. It's worth every penny you can spend!

http://www.stageit.com/mikeviola