From November 8th to December 10th, The Ian Fays from California will be touring Europe. They have been invited by their Italian Record Label Homesleep. The Dutch tour is organised by Living Room Records. The Dutch all girl band The Cuties will support the Ian Fays most of the time in Holland.
To support this tour and the existence of female indiebands, Dutch musicweblog Stereo invites you to come and get your do(wnload)-it-youself mp-3 compilation. Stereo directs you to the greatest undiscovered sounds on the web. And the best thing: the CD is free (and it's legal).
This 20th download mp3-cd features bands that are girls-only. It's called Stop Staring At My Tits - an excerpt form the Ugly Boy song by The Cuties (not my words). There is a sleeve here and all the tourdates you'll find at the myspace of The Ian Fays. Hope you enjoy the CD and to see you at one of the gigs.
1. Slumber Party - 10-9-8-7-6-5-4
Slumber Party - a Detroit outfit centred around Aliccia Berg - always seemed to operate along the more dreamy edges of garagerock. In this track off of their new album, Musik, they seem to sound both more elementary and more out of this world. 3-2-1-go!
Download it at Killrockstars
2. El Perro Del Mar - God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)
Playful, and kinda spooky, song by one of the most unique musical talents of recent years. In ánd outside Sweden. You Gotta Give To Get is El Perro Del Mar's most recent single.
Download it at Hybrism
3. Magneta Lane - Broken Plates
Apparently a backstage meeting with the Libertines inspired this Canadian threesome to form a band. Pete Doherty c.s. don't seem be much of an influence musically, though. Broken Plates is a sharp and nicely punkrock ditty which, if one were very lazy, one could compare to bands like the Pretenders and Sleater-Kinney.
Download it at Insound.
4. The Ian Fays - Empty Alcohol Bottle
Not exactly the kind of music the people who sell audio-equipment would use to convince you of the quality of the wares they have on offer. But we, fans of proper music, obviously don't care about things like that and instead we know that the lo-fi-ish sound only adds to the intimacy of lovely songs like this.
Download it at Homesleep.
5. Justine Electra - Defiant & Proud
This isn't particularly a shining example of state of the art hi-fi recording methods either. And it's from an album called Soft Rock. Go figure. Justine Electra is originally from Australia but, like so many other creative people these days, operates from Berlin.
Download it at City Slang.
6. Erase Errata - Tax Dollar
Raw, concise but still danceable, cowbelldriven postpunk from San Fransisco. With screechy guitars and sloganesk vocals thrown in for free. You can find this also on Erase Errata's recent third album, Nightlife.
Download it at Kill Rock Stars.
7. OOIOO - UMA
The facts: OOIOO is Yoshimi P We's óther band. You might know her as the percussionist in the Boredoms (or as the inspiration for the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots). Here too she doesn't seem particularly interested in the path of least musical resistance. Although. UMA might sound like, to our western ears 'typically' Japanese, freaky noiserock but those tribal drums and call-and-response vocals kind of make it into a cheerleader chant. Admitted, a cheerleader chant from a different dimension. And with weird electronic bleeps. But still.
Download it at Spin.
8. Neko Case - Star Witness
One of my favourite singing voices in music history, no contest. I love her contributions to the powerpop oeuvre of the New Pornographers just as much as the more traditional country-stuff under her own name. Star Witness can be found on her most recent solo album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood.
Download it at Anti.
9. Au Revoir Sumone - Backyards Of Our Neighbours
Apparently electronic instruments can sound really, really tired too. Maybe Annie, Erika and Heather - for they are Au Revoir Simone and this a track off of their album Versus of Comfort, Assurane and Salvation - should give their synthesizers and drumcomputers an early night. Although, they do sound really, really beautiful this way.
Download it at aurevoiresimone.com.
10. Emily Haines - The Lottery
You might recognize Emily Haines as the singer in the Canadian band Metric (or as the voice of Broken Social Scene's Anthem For A Seventeen-Year Old Girl). Doctor Blind is, as far as I am concerned, one of the high-points on her debut solo-album, Knives Don't Have Your Back. But then again I am the type of person who occasionally just likes to stare out of the window all melancholy to the sound of a couple of buckets of depressed violins and some autumn-y pianos.
Download it at Filter Magazine.
11. Winter Took His Life - Lucky Star
Not the most optimistic bandname ever but it really suits a not particularly upbeat, but still very beautiful and dreamy campfiresong like this. Calling herself Winter Took His Life Swedish Susanna Brandin has so far released a couple of ep's.
Download it wintertookhislife.net.
12.Bobby Baby - Lucky Moments
It's 2006 and apparently there are still people who think electonics can't sound sweet and adorable. Those people should listen to this very sweet and adorable little tune by Bobby Baby. Very few things are as sweet and adorable as the way that drumcomputer skips about between the guitar strumming. Woo-hoo.
Download it at bobbybaby.net.
13. Jennifer O'Connor - Today
Sometimes things are quite simple. Female singer/songwriter feels a bit down, gets acoustic guitar and writes heartrendingly beautiful song (and records it in a studio and a recordcompany releases it on a cd, which you can buy in the store and they post a song on their website as a free download and it happens to be the same song etc. But hopefully you get my point).
Download it at Matador Records.
14. The Blow - Pile Of Gold
This is how I prefer my popmusic. Electronic and shiny and modern but also weird and itchy and jittery. You can find it on The Blow's recent Paper Television album.
Download it at K Recs.
15. Miss Kenichi - Arrived
Katrin Hahner is Miss Kenichi. She has a guitar and little else. A lot of the lovely gloomy atmosphere of this song is to be found in the quiet bits inbetween the guitarchords. A beautiful case of making more out of less.
Download it at Kitty-Go.
16. The Cuties - Ugly Boy
Not exactly the cutest moment in the, still young, oeuvre of this Rotterdam foursome. But, let's be honest, ugly boys just don't fit in the bands' eternally sunny, flowerfilled and rainbowcoloured world and you're bound to turn a little less cute, for a couple of minutes.
Download it at Living Room Records.