Ok, so this is way overdue, I’ve had this sitting in my iTunes for quite a while and have been quite lazy in getting this out to you guys. So finally here it is, hope you enjoy it. Please subscribe to my RSS feed and you won’t miss the upcoming ones. June will be up soon as well. And coming for July will be a special edition, as all the music for that mix tape will be music I’ve collected while traveling the US and Canada.

Enjoy!

1. Friend – The Sleepover Disaster
2. Just War (feat. Gruff Rhys) – Sparklehorse
3. Sleepless – The Decemberists
4. Slow Jet – The Dead Sea
5. Sometimes I Realise – Engineers
6. Feels Like Summer – Johnny Foreigner
7. Tabasco Sole – The Voluntary Butler Scheme
8. This Land Used To Be My Land, But Now I Hate This Land – Pomegranates
9. Breathing Out – Doveman
10. Start/Stop/Synchro – Rose Elinor Dougall
11. Dog Days Are Over – Florence And The Machine
12. Make Light – Passion Pit
13. The Midnight Sun – The Warlocks
14. To Boldly Go – The Seven Inches
15. Laughing With – Regina Spektor
16. Obviously Cold – The Answering Machine
17. Eyes of Riot – Nokeys
18. I Wanna Kill – Crocodiles

(Song title/Artist)

May Mix Tape 2009

So this is the first in a series that I’m going to be writing and posting. All songs I talk about will be available to download in a zip file. So I don’t want you all missing out on all this goodness that I’m getting! If you stumble across this, please have a read, download and share what you think with a comment! All opinions are welcome.

Ok, so in not particular order I will try and do my best to give my opinion of the song and give you some links to their sites or myspace. All will start with the artist name and then song title.

1. Popface - Dreams Burn Down (Ride) – Well anything shoegaze at the moment is pretty good in my books, well actually not all is good, I’ve come across some not so good shoegaze. These guys are from Norway, I like this track, it’s simple and dreamy like. I guess a lot of bands from the Scandinavian area can have this affect on you. The mix of a distorted guitar and dreamy guitar leads are nice, and the vocals mix well with the track. You can check them out here: www.popface.no and www.myspace.com/popface

2. Brakes - Why Tell the Truth (When It’s Easier To Lie) – This 4 piece from Brighton, UK have had quite a lot of EP’s that I can see on their MySpace page but haven’t hit my radar until now. This song is of their album Touchdown, pretty basic rock but it works. www.myspace.com/brakesband

3. Neil Young – Just Singing A Song – Well it’s Neil Young, does that need an explanation?

4. The Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice - Surrounded – I really have a thing for harmonica’s in songs at the moment. And this popped up in my playlist so I decided to share with you too.

5. Dananananaykroyd - Watch This! – I don’t know about the band name but the song is good. I’ve heard a few other songs of theirs before and this one has stuck to me. It’s dirty, has shouting, great vocals that tie in with the guitar riff. Cherk them out here: www.myspace.com/dananananaykroyd

6. Dakota Suite - The End Of Trying Part II – Simply put it’s an instrumental, and I love instrumentals, ever since listening to Explosions In The Sky, I’ve always had a better appreciation’s for instrumentals, they really do tell a story.

7. SomaHigh - Lo Fat – Heavy guitars and synths!! Seems to be popular at the moment, indy dance anyone? Take this to a party and impress your friends with your street cred and dance the night way.

8. The Decemberists - Margaret In Captivity (Live SXSW ‘09) – Well, one of my favourite albums of the year goes to The Decemberists and their amazing album The Hazards Of Love. This is a live track from SXSW’09, would love to get my hands on the whole show. If you haven’t heard their album, go out and get it! It is so very much worth buying.

9. Mumford & Sons - The Cave – Strange band name I guess, but I like the song. There is definitely a banjo in there, interesting use of it too. Take a listen.

10. Anya Marina - Cut It Out – I’m a sucker for female singers. This track is pretty poppy but a great little listen.

11. Other Lives - Don’t Let Them – Great little intro, I love when tracks have a quiet beginning but turn into something epic. Well it may not be EPIC. But it’s a great relaxing tune with great vocals.

12. The Wendy Darlings - Eleasy (is my fantasy but wendy d. is paying me) – Awesome little punkish track with female vocals. Now this track does remind me of another song or band, but I cannot put my finger on it, at first I thought of Yeah Yeah Yeahs but it wasn’t them who I wanted.

13. The Coathangers - Killdozer – Now I’m pretty sure that’s all girls singing, either way I’m happy, again I’m a sucker for the girls on the mic. But this is very different from the other tracks. Very dirty female vocals, nice organ work in there too.

14. Black Moth Super Rainbow - The Fields Are Breathing – First song I’ve heard of this band before. Pretty electronic, especially on the vocals. Love it though.

15. Blue Roses - Rebecca – Ok, so I listened to this song today on my iPod (well iPhone). And immediately made it 5 stars and said, this is going on the mix. Continuing with the trend of girls on the mic. This was is a pearl, great voice and great song writer.

16 - Bat For Lashes - Use Somebody (Reprise de Kings of Leon) – Ok, so all the talk over summer was about Kings Of Leon, they got so much radio play and exposure, was a great album and credit to them to making it big over here. Another great artist to be getting more exposure over here is Bat For Lashes, and what better way to combine these to bands than a Kings Of Leon cover.

17 - Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs - 9,000,000 Bicycles – I thought it was a funny song title when it came up on my iPhone and had to listen to the whole song. Nice little song, with a scottish guy singing, I’m pretty sure it’s scottish. 6 million people in the world and 9 million bicycles!

Ok, so you can download the mix-tape in a zip file here, all mp3’s. Have fun, be sure to share and direct them to here to download. I look forward to what May will bring us. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

Download this months mix-tape here: 2009-04-mixtape.zip

One band that I’ve been keeping my eye on over here is Mercy Arms, they’re a bunch of 20 somethings from Sydney and as their Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/mercyarms) describes them as is: 2 Step/Showtunes. I first got exposure to them in 2005 when they supported The Strokes on their Australian tour. I really didn’t take much notice of them, but over the past year and a half, have made some waves that had put them on my radar. They’ve recorded an EP called Kept Low, if you can get it imported, get it!! And are about to give us their 1st full length record, they’re yet to be signed to a label, they were on Capitol but got out of that before they sold their souls. So I’m really looking forward to see how they distribute the record. Their myspace page has some tunes on there that you should have a listen, let me know what you think!

Well 2007 was another great year for music, come with me on this journey of a change in industry, 2nd albums, a reunited band and powerhouse dance acts! Here are my most favourite albums of 2007!

Radiohead – In Rainbows
What can I say? This was probably the most news breaking album of the year with the whole “pay what you want’ for the album. I loved how Greenwood just popped up one day and said, ‘oh we’ve finished the album it’s called In Rainbows and it will be out in 10 days” on their blog… what the?? 10 days? And it’s the start of a new era for music. Trent Reznor has also wanted to do this for a while, but he had to get off his label, which he now has done with the Remixes CD or was it Year Zero? Hmmmm… well I’m excited for the prospect of this new medium of releasing albums by major artists. Standout tracks for me would have to be: All I Need (my favourite), Bodysnatchers, House of Cards, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Go Slowly(CD2), Last Flowers To The Hospital(CD2) and Up On The Ladder(CD2).

Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist
Good return, and also AWESOME live shows, with unreleased tracks supporting too, as well as some new versions of old songs!! What they also did with this album as well was release multiple versions of it through different retailers and each one had a different bonus track, this was mainly done in the US, the australian iTunes store only had one, but it had all the bonus songs included. There are also a lot of video footage and interview with Billy and Jimmy (the only original band members in the lineup, but who really cares, I sure don’t because they produced a really strong album) about their song writing process and recording process of the songs. There is one song on there which is close on the 10 minute mark, that Jimmy did the drums in ONE take!! That’s amazing, and the song is really amazing as well, if you pick up the album listen to United States, it really is an epic track on an album that DOES come back to some original Pumpkin sounds!!

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Great release for their major label debut. I ended up ordering the special edition from the bands record label website and got a cool poster with it. I recently shared the album to a friend and she mentioned that it is really dark… Hmmm what do you think? I think some songs are, but a lot of them are pretty up beat as well, especially Keep The Car Running, which was a great track to get into the commercial world since it’s pretty much the poppiest of them all. I really love the last track though as well ‘My Body Is A Cage’ has some really intense moments. And I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing them live at the end of January as I have heard nothing but good reports when it comes to their live shows.

The Hives – The Black And White Album
A really heavily punk inspired i think, on some tracks, love it. This album really snuck in at the end of the year for me. I really don’t listen to the radio that much. Australia has a really good national radio station called Triple J which is a national youth radio station, but it is the BEST station to listen out for new music and albums. But yeah, somehow I missed this album when it was released, glad i got it though towards the end of the year.

Daft Punk – Alive
!!! What can I say, this live compilation is AWESOME!! and it makes me hate myself even more that i missed the live show when it came to Melbourne, 1st show sold out, they announced a 2nd show on the day before the 1st one… How am I meant to find that out? But seeing video footage and pictures from their shows was amazing, I will get the DVD of this eventually.

Interpol – Our Love To Admire
OK!! I will admit, the first listen of this album kinda bored me, but it really has to grow on you this album. Antics was GREAT! And so was Turn On The Bright Lights, but I thought it was kind of the same. BUT I was wrong. Favourite song on this would have to be: Rest My Chemistry, LOVE IT!

Kanye West – Graduation
Ok, not as good as Late Registration, but the whole battle between Fifty Cent and Kanye was great!! And I’m so glad Kanye won out. They really are different leagues though, I do not know why 50 went out and said those things saying if Kanye outsells him he will quit. Kanye is in more of the traditional Hip Hop sense, and is easier to listen to than the “Rap” of 50 and Kanye is WAY more commercial, that’s why it probably sold more, but yay! It’s got a lot of good tracks to bounce around to and dance.

Mercy Arms – Kept Low EP
Ok, so this is an Australian band out of Sydney, they supported the Strokes when I saw them in… 2006 (had to look it up) they were a very little unknown band then and I guess have really only grown in australia, but they’re a really great band, use a lot of different noises on the EP. I think influenced by Joy Division a bit, but who isn’t these days!!! They don’t have an official website but got songs up on myspace: www.myspace.com/mercyarms My favourite would have to be Shot Right Down, go check them out.

The Midnight Mass
Another Australian band, and friends of mine. they recorded an EP at their house, they got the coolest house, it’s an old 70’s Lotto winners house, pretty greek style but it’s pretty cool. it’s in the middle of nowhere so when they recorded they could pretty much be pretty loud, it was recorded by Michael Stavrou (McCartney, Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens) and assisted by Mat Robbins. and was mixed by: Scott Horscroft (Sleepy Jackson, Silverchair, Mercy Arms) Go to their myspace page and have a listen, AND make sure you listen to: Mock Company, www.myspace.com/themidnightmass

NIN – Year Zero
What a GREAT concept album, and it was really promoted well by Trent Reznor, leaving USB drives and whatnot in toilets of NIN shows… haha. I got to go to one of the small club shows NIN were doing around the world in Melbourne, and being a Spiral member, being able to get in early and get front rail for the show was amazing… at one stage i had trent screaming the song Piggy into his mic right infront of me in my face as he came out onto the subwoofer that was in front of myself and a friend, check out my pictures here: NIN on FlickrCapital G would have to be the standout track for this album, i haven’t got the remixes CD yet, might have to check it out soon.

The Polyphonic Spree – The Fragile Army
ONE OF MY FAVOURITE RELEASES OF THE YEAR!! And probably my most listened too as well. They’ve ditched the white/colourful robes for an all in clad black overalls costume and I love it, it’s a new turning point for the group. This is one tour I don’t want to miss out on when they come out again (missed them last time). This album is really energetic and soft as well on some songs like: We Crawl, and The Championship just makes me want to get up and jump around. They had Mike Garson play some piano tracks on this album (he’s worked with David Bowie a lot, recently on the Reality Tour, he also toured with the Smashing Pumpkins on the Adore tour). Now i watched the DVD of the making of the Fragile Army, and it’s amazing to watch as each stage progress in watching the album come together. At one point Tim DeLaughter had this song that they had been playing on tour called: Younger Yesterday (which is an awesome track) and were trying to work it onto the album but Tim was pretty much sick of the song, but the producer Steve Albini really wanted to get this song somewhere, so they had Mike Garson come in and experiment on the piano for the song, and it then turned into an amazing track, what Albini did was make DeLaughter fall in love with the song again, was amazing to watch.