Archive for December, 2009

Posted on December 30, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Oh, Mountain: they cut down his backyard!

On my last music discoveries I had the pleasure to stumble upon a bloke who still don’t give a shit ’bout the ghost of the music business and its now forgotten rules and still so genuine to write on HisSpace status: “They cut down my backyard”. That’s “Oh, Mountain” – alias for Eric Dina – a really nice human being from NewPort, that is slowly but inexorably becoming quite popular in the underground indie society made by iPhone oriented ambient djsetting and iTunes compilations. Here’s our interview. (more…)

Posted on December 29, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

St. Stephen Bells

Just the very day after Christmas, Bronson owner decided to make us a little gift with a great double feature:  a live show with Gjea & The Holy Ghost and The Clever Square. Two bands are connected, just like some American bands collective, having members of the two teams coming and going from one line up flowing into the other. (more…)

Posted on December 29, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Top 10 2009: More charts from the Walkers

2009 soon to be gone. And forgetten? Seems not, since other two Walkers has shown off their top listenings from this rich and chaotic year.  Which are the primary colours of the listenings of our reviewers? Here they come!  Seems like goths had their revenge at last rising the level of quality and pop humor on their music becoming even more kin on shoegaze and club anthems while folk and experimentation has possibly become the most recognisable mark of most of the top listenings that pretend to be labelled as fine and classy. Posh, possibly? Maybe. (more…)

Posted on December 28, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Penelope

The name Penelope always waved positive vibes to me. Fascinating princess from the past, there was a red hair girl with amazing blue eyes when I was in Ireland that a Japanese friend of mine kept call with that name all journey long. “Oh! Penelope” was also the name of a brilliant Shibuiya-kei project famous for a song called “Lait au miel”, and a strange connection from Ireland to Japan and to Japan to France leads me today to the path of a English lyrics oriented French band named – guess what – PENELOPE! We had an interview with Alain.

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Posted on December 23, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Lost in Liechtenstein

If you like melodies, indie music, c86 revival related stuff and Anorak whatever, it will be quite impossible for you to fall in love with Liechtenstein, the all gals band from Göteborg. Their songs were released by the glorious Fraction Discs and Slumberlands Records. I had the pleausure to talk with Renée (without having her to walk away), vocals and guitar of the team. (more…)

Posted on December 22, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Inner City Pressure

Tiny Tide were back to town with the full Zonda/Dendrix/Manuel/Leffe line up just to give another knock and let the city roll (“Hey! You were playing in MY ground!”, Do Not Cry For The Country Boy said). The name of the club was Giodì, and it’s a really new lovely lair,just the perfect stage for live acts so I hope to see more and more gigs in there as quick as possible. With possibly the best live version of “Needful Things” ever the live debut of “ValenTine Disco Night” was a blast, thought the band seemed a little bit lost in the Smashing Pumkinesque coda. It was great to see Porlock and Joe Pistocchi from the first members of the band shacking their heads and singing to the old classic like “The Psychopath At The Club” and Lacrosse cover “Go Ego Go”. (more…)

Posted on December 21, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

TCS: That’s all (in the lyrics)

“It feels great!” (Enrico, the new drummer, being asked how does it feels playing with The Clever Square)

Guess I can call myself lucky. You never know what to expect when you’re walking on a cold city covered by a snow trying to get some repair from a bad dark weather evening. You just push to the entrance of a cheap winotheque (a pub, I just made up the word in case you’re wondering) to get an unavailable glass of Porto, when you see one of the youngest promises of the Italian indie scene playing behind wooden tables crowded by such a young audience making us ashamed of our presence even claiming our fake age. (that’s it, we’re old!). Here they were: The Clever Square. (more…)

Posted on December 21, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Brightblack Morning Lights

It was a strange night indeed. You don’t get to see so many gigs on Monday, expecially in a small town like Cesena. Officna 49 decided to make us this gift, opening the doors for an exclusive night with and Brightblack Morning LightRio en Medio. It was a special moment, with all the music lover from the area fighting hard with the common Monday sloppiness to be there, facing a glacial weather rushing at the bar for a hot punch. A lot of familiar faces, local DJs and indie bands heroes, we were all ready for the show to begin. (more…)

Posted on December 17, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

ART!! BRUT!! TOPOFTHEPOP!!

First time I heard ’bout this fucking amazing unbelievable band was back in 2005, on the hype of Fracesco Ferdinand hype. Art Brut songs were devastating just like Babyshamble “Fuck Forever” or Kaiser Chief “I predict a riot”. Still “Emily Kane” had something more. That’s right: irony! Irony, energy and a posh driven cleaverness so britty tipical of the most poppish Pulp and Fall, though their leader Eddie Argos is ready to swear he only heard about them once journalists started to write about this comparsion on their reviews. (more…)

Posted on December 16, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Christmas Indie Ep from Japan

A Christmas Indie EP. A primise I made to Alessandro from Le Man Avec Les Lunettes on his radio show about a year ago. I tought it was gonna be simply a Split with Tiny Tide and HajimePop at first… but  Clownfish and Margarine Beam (Ayumi Nishina) from Japan joined the project. So here it is! For brand new christmas indie pop tracks from Italy and Japan. Enjoy and Rejoyce :)

You can download the EP… HERE! :)
Here’s some links to greet the bands:

TINY TIDE: http://myspace.com/tinytide

CLOWNFISH: http://www.myspace.com/clownfishjp

HAJIMEPOP: http://www.myspace.com/hajimepop

MARGARINE BEAM: http://www.myspace.com/ayuminishina