Founded in the early 60’s and recently back from the grave, The Remains. They recorded a whole bunch of rock ‘n roll albums with some very tight songs on it. Check it out on their very straightforward site.

To get an idea what they sound like; it’s the Beatles shaking hands with the Stones. (I just realized how absurd that phrase sounds.)

The Remains – Let me through

Or am I?

The Dirtbombs, one of the many great Detroit garage revelations. They have the same dirty groove, if not the dirtiest among them. I have listened to this song very often, so I might sound a little biased but this is the kind of song you’ve got to hear a couple of times until you get the hang of it.

I love their dry sense of humor and distorted sound layers, making the guitars sound like a bulldog with a terrible cough. They also have an unusual line-up in the band: A singer, a guitarist, 2 bassists and 2 drummers. I bet seeing them live is quite the party!

The guy dancing to the song is not your average joe. His goal is to dance in different cities for some kind of veggie cause.

The Dirtbombs – I’m through with white girls

A gritty dirty young blues genius from Australia. It’s not easy to find some decent footage on this guy, youtube doesn’t have any exceptionally great tunes . But I’ve picked out one of the finest they had, just to give you guys some idea how he sounds like. Take in mind that this is nothing but a fragment from what he is on stage. If you ever have the chance to see this wonderful person on stage, don’t doubt the fact that you’ll have one motherfucker of an evening.

The sounds not great, but you’ll get the idea: Ash Grunwald – 1976 Coaster Van

After an evening of heavy drinking comes that terrible morning after again. Well this is what I listen too, to ease the sickness a bit;

Ryan Adams – Hotel Chelsea nights 

After the song, there seems to be a little excerpt of Ryan goofing around in the studio. Some weird footage during the song too, anyway the sign says music discovery…

A new song by the strokes, it’s supposed to be a Jim Morrison homage of some sort, but I for one think you can widely interpret that. It’s just a great song. Julian is really pushing his voice to the limits here.

On the other side performed by the Strokes.

This one’s a Marvin Gaye cover together with Eddie Vedder. The original is also worth your time, but then again, Mr. Gaye often sweeps me of my feet.

Mercy, mercy me – The Strokes and Eddie Vedder 

(btw, the footage is from the late 80’s/early 90’s series: Captain Planet, very hilarious show. One of the first educational Super Heroes.)

Well it’s about time I throw in a few cult bands. For the obscure music-hunters among us, today I am your servant…

The Chameleons, could’ve, would’ve and should’ve been big. They never were for some dark reason.

Second Skin;

The following band has a very interesting guitarist, but I’m not a big fan of all their work. Gang of four.

To hell with poverty

This is a little more my kind of song. Performed by the Kitchens of Distinction.

Drive that fast

The Stone Roses conclude my post with this rock anthem.

Love Spreads

The Editors‘ latest album is yet another bullseye. Not only their distinct sound but also the profound and deep lyrics Tom Smith delivers are beyond compelling. Very few people are able to write about death and loss, on the same level he does. Some excerpts from the song bones that I find moving;

In the end all you can hope for
Is the love you felt to equal the pain you’ve gone through

Bones, starved of flesh
Surround your aching heart
Full of love

I’m going to skip the whole comparisons with Interpol, because as you can see, that’s irrelevant.

The song bones, with some random video footage;

An incredible acoustic version;

And a pounding live version (a bit sad that guy has to screw the beginning of the great video over);

These fine young lads from Iowa are probably born a few years to late (i’d say about 40) cuz their sound is as retro as crystal chandeleers.

The long awaited album review;

They start off by introducing themselves with a rock ‘n roll Hendrix-esque vibe. It’s fun and such, but I don’t think you’ll play this particular song quite often. Frustrating sound, their second track on the album, opens with a bass as fat ‘n greasy as a mexican cab-driver. They are known to surprise us with a sudden change of pace now and then and this one is probably their signature song, when it comes to changing the tempo. The following song tries to bring back the spirit of Jimi Hendrix and eerie enough, I think they actually succeeded. Luckydutch shreds all boundaries between blues and rock to pieces. Lickslit, another instrumental, is bayou meets pshycadelic rock, a mixture that seems to work really well. Mistreating Queen and Whatever happened are much alike, same pounding drum beat and shrieking guitar violence. Next in line is Timebomb, a darker sound, here he reminds me a bit of Wolfmother, the guitar almost sings along to the song. Deep blue see is a BB King anthem of some sort, with a classical sticky blues rhythem. The next oriental excerpt is called Ordovician Fauna, a mentally disturbing vibe rings through your head after listening to this reminding you to not do drugs, or is it the other way around? Fuse, again another instrumental powerhouse, concludes this psychadelic journey, suddenly giving me meaning to the statement “Blues Explosion”.

In my humble opinion, the singer could use a little more power or confidence in his singing voice, he’s more of a guitarist then he is a singer, which often takes away the credibility and durability of the songs, but on the otherhand it kind of suits the music as well. You decide…

Silversun Pick-ups, or simply sspu, is a californian rockband, that brings this fresh breeze of scorching “noise-rock”. Lazy eye is their current radiohit and in case you were wondering, the band has in fact a male leadsinger (Brian Aubert). Altough he has a feminine singing voice, he doesn’t quite look that way.

A catchy guitarriff, tight drums and a fat bass, they’ve got everything they need to become a legendary rockband.

Home alone, allowing me to sing along without any natural shame. Cranked up the volume to eleven (Spinal Tap anyone?). I let my hair fall before my eyes, a bit like the young Paul Weller and start singing the last bit of air out of my lungs.

This is the song that made me do it;
(Check out Morrisey’s Version too.)