The Devil Has The Best Tuna

Bewildering

2012-01-27T18:44:00.001+01:00

Bewilder
From: Southampton, United Kingdom

There are a bewildering range of musical genres with new ones seemingly coined each day. It's perhaps fitting therefore that Southampton band Bewilder's music twists and turns between post rock, math rock and ambient rock with the dexterity of a double jointed snake covered in engine oil. They also have a collection of the best song titles this side of a Morrissey note pad.

If Grandaddy had been born within spitting distance of the Bargate building and had a degree in applied mathematics they'd sound like Bewilder, probably.

Prepare to be Bewildered.

Go Try

MP3 - Bewilder - What's The Most You Ever Lost On A Coin Toss
MP3 - Bewilder - I'm A Kid, That's My Job
MP3 - Bewilder - Hard Working, Alpha Male, Jackhammer
These tracks are linked direct from the Bewilder Last.FM site and are therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Bewilder - Would You Like To Talk About A Possible Lunch Trade? by Art Is Hard Records

Go Visit

Bewilder - Facebook : Bandcamp : Last.FM

Top Trumpets

2012-01-26T17:59:00.000+01:00

Trumpets of Death
From: Leeds, United Kingdom

Regular readers will know how much I love off the wall reworkings of classic songs. Hell my favourite track from last year was King Q4's stunning re-imagining of Shocking Blue's Love Buzz. So as you might expect I fell head over heels in love with Trumpet of Death's oddball cover of The Crystal's He Hit Me It Felt Like A Kiss. If you're going to cover a song make it your own otherwise you might as well just book a slot on Cowell's Karoake Factor and boy do Trumpet of Death make He Hit Me their own.

Go Try

Trumpets Of Death - He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) by Trumpets of Death

Trumpets Of Death - Jason by Trumpets of Death

Go Visit

Trumpets of Death - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Trumpets of Death
Jason

Insect Symbols

2012-01-25T18:47:00.000+01:00

Termites

From: Bristol, United Kingdom

Termites is a gang of four multi-instrumentalists with a fine line in art rock so uniquely British it was probably raised on bangers and mash. It sounds like they've been holed up in the Redcliffe Caves with only the Young Knives debut album and the collected works of XTC to keep them company. There was a time when the NME would be having multiple orgasms listening to the likes of Clockwork Meat. Unfortunately they're now little more than a weekly version of Mojo so it's left to the blogosphere to wax lyrical about bands like Termites.

In an era in music when conformity is celebrated and originality is almost instant career death Termites have opted for the road less travelled.

Go Try

Termites - Clockwork Meat by Sink & Stove

Termites - Ammo by Sink & Stove

Go Visit

Termites - Facebook : Website

Go View

Termites
Lorry Crash

Totally Bogus Man

2012-01-24T18:01:00.001+01:00

Bogus Pipeline
From: Cambridge, United Kingdom

According to wikipedia the bogus pipeline is a technique used by social psychologists to reduce false answers when attempting to collect self-report data. It's also the name chosen by Russell Taysom the male half of Cambridge artrockers Micropenis (first featured on the blog back in 2008 Small But Perfectly Formed). It'll look much better on a badge and t-shirt than his previous band and googling it is a lot less embarrasing.

Bogus Pipeline are so fresh off the press that they don't have any of the standard accoutrements of the modern band. There's no Facebook, Myspace, Last.FM or Bandcamp site. The only sign that they exist is a solitary track on Soundcloud. Obsolete Currency is a sleazy electro glam stomp that sounds like Micropenis in glitter boots.

There's nothing bogus about Bogus Pipeline they're the real deal.

Go Try

Obsolete Currency by Bogus Pipeline

Go Visit

Bogus Pipeline - Soundcloud

Free The Brighton Twee

2012-01-23T17:28:00.001+01:00

Foxes!
From: Brighton, United Kingdom

Who would have thought that a cassette tape (yes it was that long ago) given away free with a weekly music inkie (the NME since you ask) would still hang like the proverbial albatross around the necks of any band daring enough to jangle rather than rock? Any vaguely twee band with cute, usually but not predominantly, female vocals are casually dismissed with the accusation that they're little more than C86 revivalists. If they can body swerve that they open themselves up to the charge that they're Sarah Records fellow travellers.

On their self titled debut album Foxes! don't really help themselves. They jangle more than a wind chime factory in a hurricane, they have more than the requisite quantity of cute, female vocals and a track called 'The Panda Bear Song'. They even include a song about breaking down in tears when a friend said he'd vote for Borderville in the battle of bands ('Alex Badamchi').They couldn't be more twee if they wrapped themselves in Cath Kidson wallpaper and performed at a Laura Ashley garden party.

But it's not all fun, sun, cherryade and summer dresses in the world of Foxes!. 'Who Killed Rob' may sound sweeter than a honey coated barley sugar twist but it's a tale of a cyclist being knocked down. 'It's Ridiculous, Adam' is Lesley Gore's tear jerker 'It's My Party' re-imagined for the 21st century, a wedge of casio pop that'll have your feet dancing while your heart breaks. The album's final track 'Descartes' includes references to headstones, drowning, suicide, canine anal cancer and dying goldfish. Not even miserable old Morrissey dared to write lyrics about anal cancer, or dying goldfish come to think of it!

What sets these cunning canids apart from their twee compadres is that they don't stick rigidly to the suffocating twee template. 'Oh Rosie' is a frantic rockabilly pace setter that rocks like it's life depends on it before reaching an anthemic climax. 'Welcome To The Jivin' starts off like a 1950s commercial before settling into a 1960s pure pop groove.

Don't be put off by the twee coating there is more to these cunning canids than meets the eye. From surprisingly dark subject matter to the occasional foray into rockier territory Foxes! is the first truly post twee album. Now can we all forget C86 and set our bands free to be twee.

7.5/10

This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.

Go Try

foxes! - The Panda Bear Song (earliest recording) by foxesfoxesfoxes

foxes! - Who Killed Rob? (original home demo version) by foxesfoxesfoxes

foxes! - Alex Badamchi (original home demo version) by foxesfoxesfoxes

Go Visit

Foxes! : Myspace : Facebook : Last.FM

Go View

Foxes!
Oh Rosie

Foxes!
Who Killed Rob?

Foxes!
The Panda Bear Song

Video Killed The Radio Star 22nd January 2012

2012-01-22T22:00:00.005+01:00

Biggs
The Drop

Gang Colours
Fancy Restaurant

gang colours - fancy restaurant from samuel craven on Vimeo.

Mr Fogg
Stay Out Of The Sun

Alright Alright
Bingo Bango

The Devil's Round Up 22nd January 2012

2012-01-22T17:26:00.016+01:00

This week's round up of the tracks I haven't had the space to post...

Useless Eaters

From: Memphis, United States

Old school punk from Useless Eaters that proves the guitar isn't dead it's just taking a short sabbatical in the birthplace of rock 'n' roll.

Go Try

Useless Eaters - At The Parkette by southpawrecs

Incredible Weapons
From: Winchester, United Kingdom

I Wanna See You Every Day fizzes like a box of alka seltzer in a bath of coke.

Go Try

I wanna see you every day (demo) by incredibleweapons

The Shamefaced Sparrows
From: London, United Kingdom

The Shamefaced Sparrows are a reminder of that buzz you got when you first heard the Libertines.

Go Try

Murder In The Dollhouse (Demo) by The Shamefaced Sparrows

This Is The Now
From: Brooklyn, New York, United States

I Wish I Was A Banker is the point at which the Velvet Underground and the Occupy movement meet.

Go Try

MP3 - This Is The Now - I Wish I Was A Banker
This track is published with the permission of Sneak Attack Media so please don't claim breach of copyright

The Hysterical Injury
From: Bath, United Kingdom

The Hysterical Injury are the best noisy brother/sister duo since the White Stripes.

Go Try

The Hysterical Injury - Maths by Strummerville

Bully For You

2012-01-21T18:51:00.000+01:00

Gorgeous Bully
From: Plymouth, United Kingdom

The more sanitised, synthetic and computerised mainstream music becomes the more the discerning music lover yearns for something a little more authentic, a little more organic. In 2012 too much music sounds like it's been factory produced and packed full of more additivies than a family sized pack of Monster Much. Thank god for labels like Art Is Hard Records who have an enviable record of unearthing genuine little hand made organic gems like the prolific lo-fi maverik Thomas Crang aka Gorgeous Bully.

In a perfect world Crang's heart on sleeve warm, fuzzy felt bedroom pop would be the staple diet of Radio 1 DJs and potty mouthed hip hoppers and auto tuned poppets would be relegated to the musical margins.

Go Try

MP3 - Gorgeous Bully - Beauty Don't Give A Shit
MP3 - Gorgeous Bully - Gorgeous Bully
MP3 - Gorgeous Bully - The Art School Kids
These tracks are linked direct from the Gorgeous Bully Last.Fm site and are therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Gorgeous Bully - Never Cry by Art Is Hard Records

Go Visit

Gorgeous Bully - Facebook : Bandcamp : Last.FM

Go View

Gorgeous Bully
Beauty Don't Give A Shit

Buffalo Tom

2012-01-20T18:14:00.000+01:00

Boy or Bison
From: Manchester, United Kingdom

It's difficult being a blogger with a mission to bring you unheard, unknown, unfamiliar music from Manchester when there is another brilliant blogger from that fair city who has his finger so far on the pulse he could be a cardiologist. The Pigeon Post has already covered surf poppers Boy or Bison so you may already have stumbled across their ramshackle garage rock. If not then you're in for a treat. If the Fonz was into indie then Boy or Bison would probably be his favourite band.

Go Try

Boy Or Bison - make me go by MorrisSix

Boy Or Bison - Fog Of Love by MorrisSix

Go Visit

Boy or Bison - Myspace

Go View

Boy or Bison
Ivory Wave

The Prefab Four

2012-01-19T17:52:00.000+01:00

The Prefab Messiahs

From: The Past, United States

The past is a veritable treasure trove of brilliant unheard, unknown and downright unbelievable music. Thanks to the internet it is becoming easier to discover sounds that have been hiding their light under bloody large bushels for decades. Tonight's featured band the unbelievably amazing Prefab Messiahs formed way back in the early 80s and have been have been missing in action for far too long.

The Prefab four have just released Peace Love & Alienation a compilation of newly remastered tunes from the early 80s on Fixed Identity. Their psych garage mash up of The Television Personalities and the 13th Floor Elevators couldn't be more on trend in 2012 if they'd arrived wearing pajamas with the world's biggest scouse brow.

Put your hands together for the second coming of the Prefab Messiahs.

Go Try

Don't Go to the Party by The Prefab Messiahs

Desperately Happy by The Prefab Messiahs

Go Visit

The Prefab Messiahs - Facebook : Myspace : Last.FM

Go View

The Prefab Messiahs
Desperately Happy

Striking A Blow For Freedom

2012-01-18T09:00:00.000+01:00

Bare Wires

2012-01-17T18:24:00.000+01:00

Bare Wires
From: Oakland, California, United States

It's time to dust down your platform boots, dig out your feather boas and cover yourself in glitter because glam rock is back in the shape of California garage rockers Bare Wires. Their nu glam anthem Don't Ever Change sounds like T-Rex giving Slade a platform soled kick in the goolies. If this doesn't brighten your day then you need psychiatric help.

Go Try

Bare Wires - Don't Ever Change by Robot Elephant Records

Go Visit

Bare Wires - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Bare Wires
Family Heat

For Better or Worse

2012-01-16T17:28:00.000+01:00

Husband
From: Bologna, Italy

I've been thinking for some time that the world needs a song that blends the Stone Roses effortless cool and pop savvy with the electronic stylings of Giorgio Moroder and lo and behold Italian duo Husband pop up with the awesome Love Song. If it was any cooler it could solve global warming. It's a little early to be identifying cast iron certainties for the Devil's top 10 of 2012 but if this doesn't feature then all I can say is it's going to be an incredible year for music.

Go Try

01 Husband - Love Song by Robot Elephant Records

Go Visit

Husband - Myspace

Go View

Husband
Slow Motion

Video Killed The Radio Star 15th September 2012

2012-01-15T21:35:00.004+01:00

Papercutz
Disintegration

Steaming Heathen
Put An End To This

PLUGS
Black Microdots

AV FOR PLUGS - Black Microdots from Alden Volney on Vimeo.

The Devil's Round Up15th January 2012

2012-01-15T17:51:00.018+01:00

This week's round up of the tracks I haven't had the space to post...

Band Of Skulls
From: Southampton, United Kingdom

When I read that Band of Skulls were blues rockers my heart sank but then I heard Bruises and my heart soared, it's a solid slab of melodic rock which deserve a special place in your ears.

Go Try

Band of Skulls - Bruises by Vagrant Records

The Oh Sees
From: San Francisco, United States

Frantic, manic unhinged psych flecked rock from San Franciscan garage rock archivists The Oh Sees.

Go Try

Thee Oh Sees - The Dream by All Tomorrows Parties

Doldrums
From: Montreal, Canada

Canadian's Doldrums electro-hallucinogenic anthem I'm Homesick Sittin Up Here In My Satellite sounds like Bjork arm wrestling Portishead. It's time to get down with Doldrums.

Go Try

Im Homesick Sittin Up Here In My Satellite by DOLDRUMS

Etc
From: Singapore

Wonky geek pop that wears glasses and gets changed in a telephone box.

Go Try

Etc - Superhero Incognito by Strummerville

Container
From: Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Breathtaking techno with more beats per minute than a jackhammer after a power surge.

Go Try

CONTAINER - "Refract" (demo version?) by CONTAINER

Someone's Gonna Die
From: Cologne, Germany

Someone's Gonna Die! were a shortlived German duo who have thankfully resuraced via Soundcloud. Their short, sweet anti-folk songs are reminicent of The Moldy Peaches, Das Schimmelige Pfirsiche anyone?

Go Try

Birds by Someone's Gonna Die!

Pamela
From: San Francisco , United States

Lo-fi scuzzy, grungy garage rock that's as raw as a skinned knee.

Go Try

Desert (I need to get out of here) by Pamelaaa

Port Salut

2012-01-14T18:04:00.001+01:00

Haiku Salut
From: The Derbyshire Dales, Derbyshire, United Kingdom

Haiku Salut are three winsome young lasses from the Derbyshire Dales who claim to be influenced by the Spice Girls which must be a joke because they are about as far from the Spice Girls as it's legally possible to be without having testicles and 5 o'clock shadow. They're the nice girls, sporty nice, posh nice and baby nice if you like.

Vowels as Clear as Church Bells is just beautiful it'll give your tear ducts a good work-out. Secret Forever couldn't be more Parisian if it wore a beret, a black and white jumper and changed it's name to Miou-Miou.

You would usually see me running a mile to escape instrumentals, especially those that make use of accordions, organs, ukeleles and glockenspiels, but there is something about Haiku Salut tham makes me love them.

Go Try

Vowels As Clear As Church Bells by HaikuSalut

Secret Forever by HaikuSalut

Go Visit

Haiku Salut - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Haiku Salut
Secret Forever

Brass In Pocket

2012-01-13T17:21:00.000+01:00

The Pocket Gods
From: Londinium, United Kingdom

Scratch the surface of the stagnant British music scene and you'll uncover some hidden gems. The Pocket Gods were first championed by the late, great John Peel over 7 years ago and they're still serving up huge helpings of their unique world view with songs like Survival of the Shittest which sounds like the diary of a depressed Tourettes sufferer with a lo-fi musical companion. It's bleak and oddly beautiful. Deapite this, and the self explanatory Wierd Shit, it's not all expletive laden lo-fi indie punk. Trailer Park On Mars lands somewhere between Nick Lowe and Spizz Energi, while The Hopton Hop is pure rock 'n roll passed through a slacker filter.

They may not actually fit in your pocket but The Pocket Gods are good to carry around with you in case you need an emergency shot of wry, lo-fi indie punk.

Go Try

survival of the shittest by the pocket gods

Trailer Park On Mars by the pocket gods

Go Visit

The Pocket Gods - Facebook : Last.FM

Go View

The Pocket Gods
Wierd Shit

Tiny Timbre

2012-01-12T17:53:00.000+01:00

Tiny Ruins
From : Aukland, New Zealand

Those who know me will vouch for the fact that I'm rarely lost for words but New Zealand folkie Hollie Fullbrook, via her Tiny Ruins pseudonym, leaves me speechless. Her pitch perfect Little Note is just such a simple, well written, beautifully sung, perfectly played song. Hollie makes this music lark seem so simple you wonder why everyone can't be this good. I then stumbled across her imaginatively titled Priests With Balloons and was completely blown away.

I've decided not to do a top tips for the year in 2012 because my predictive capability is slightly below that of mystic madge on Blackpool prom. If, however, I had consulted my second hand, ex-display model crystal ball I'm sure that Tiny Ruins would have been the first to appear after the mists had cleared.

Go Try

Tiny Ruins - 'Little Notes' by SpunkRecords

Tiny Ruins - The Priest With Balloons (Live on Radiant) by RadiantSydney

Go Visit

Tiny Ruins - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Tiny Ruins
Adelphi Apartments

Friend or FOE

2012-01-11T17:22:00.003+01:00

FOE
From: Fleet, Hampshire

FOE, the one woman pop vehicle for ex Arthur singer Hannah Shark, works with SASO to make the Breeders' Bang On sound like the Ting Tings on a downer. An intriguing re-working which works, just.

You better make friends with FOE now because it won't be long before she's massive.

Go Try

Bang On (Breeders Cover) - SASO and Foe by FOE

Go Visit

FOE - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Flying Nones

2012-01-10T18:01:00.000+01:00

Nones
From: Chicago, United States

Nones Defectating Grey is atonal post punk which sounds like Madness being thrown down the stairs and landing on The Pop Group. Wife Meat is the type of wonky, skronky, wilfully uncommercial punk that would have burst from the radio when John Peel was alive.

It might not be your cup of char but give thanks that bands like Nones still exist because if they didn't the world would be a dull, dull place.

Go Try

Nones - Defecating Grey by HOZAC RECORDS

Wife Meat by NONES

Go Visit

Nones - Facebook : Last.FM

Do I Need To Draw You A Picture?

2012-01-09T17:52:00.000+01:00

Diagrams
From: London, United Kingdom

Side projects are usually a means of branching out from the suffocating restrictions of being a small cog in the bigger wheel of the band. They're a means for an artist to express themselves, go their own way, expand themselves musically. With his Tunng offshoot Diagrams, Sam Genders dares to be different, on his debut solo album Black Light he plants his feet firmly inside his comfort zone preferring to photocopy the Tunng template and serve up a blend of English folk and gentle electronica, or folktronica as it has been somewhat obviously termed, familiar to fans of his main groups oeuvre.

The album opens with the mid paced, riff driven 'Ghost Lit' and the faster paced 'Tall Buildings' which sound like collages created from crumbs that dropped off the Sufjan Stevens' kitchen table. Genders' warmly melodic voice is cut from the same cloth as Sufjan's making it difficult to ignore the similarities to the Detroit troubadour. 'Night All Night' is located closer to Midlake territory, its heavily repeated, and somewhat inscrutable, chorus could be kindly called naggingly insistent or, less kindly, rather annoying.

On the funky, or at least as funky as folktronica gets we're not exactly talking James Brown here, 'Antelope' Genders throws everything but the kitchen sink in an effort to raise the album above the ordinary and dispel those Sufjan comparisons. This approach succeeds as it's head and shoulders above most of the tracks on the album with the notable exception of the title track which is almost worth the entry fee on it's own. 'Black Light' is one of the few tracks on the album to break free of the folktronica straightjacket, fizzing and popping like a rice krispie cake in a glass of Coke.

A few years ago folktronica felt modern and interesting. It was a breath of fresh air bringing new life to a rather tired and unfashionable genre. Unfortunately it's quickly become as formulaic and as dull as it's progenitor. Black Light is not a bad album, if you're a fan of Tunng or Sufjan Stevens. I just wish that Sam had taken a few steps out of his comfort zone and let his hair down a little instead of producing an album that could easily have been the latest Tunng album.

5/10

This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.

Go Try

Diagrams 'Antelope' by diagrams

Diagrams - Black Light - Night All Day (full time hobby) by pdis_inpartmaint

Go Visit

Diagrams - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Diagrams
Antelope

And here are a couple of tracks from Sam's main band Tunng

Woodcat by tunng

Run, Turn, Follow by tunng

The Devil's Round Up 8th January 2012

2012-01-08T18:33:00.003+01:00

This week's round up of the tracks I haven't had the space to post...

Obedient Wives Club
From: Singapore

Pop sieved through a fuzzy filter from a band that'll have the feminists fissing.

Go Try

Obedient Wives Club - This Is It by happyteardropmusic

The Phantom Family Halo
From: Brooklyn, New York, United States

"This stuff is useful and should be available by the vat on prescription, because it’s good for the mental health." So spake the god of Kraut Rock Julian Cope and who am I to disagree with the almighty?

Go Try

"White Hot Gun" - THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO by AngieFigure8PR

Gutter Parties
From: Hobart, Australia

The amazing Gutter Parties make electronic music so organic it should come with a recommendation from the soil association.

Go Try

Gutter Parties - 'Glow Slowli' - 2011 (AMDD063) by AMDISCS

Female Band
From: Brooklyn, New York

And Only I, Know Why from Brooklyn's Female Band is so lo -fi it's belo-fi. It's cooler than a Velvet Underground ice sculpture.

Go Try

And only I, know why by femaleband

Video Killed The Radio Star 7th January 2012

2012-01-07T22:00:00.004+01:00

First Aid Kit
The Lion's Roar

Those Lavendar Whales
Growth In Question

Those Lavender Whales - Growth in Question from Lunch & Recess on Vimeo.

Internet Forever
Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Tape Alarm on Vimeo.

The Heavenly Spheres
Time Flies

Inspired and the Sleep
Running

Oops Oh My

2012-01-05T18:31:00.000+01:00

Oh My
From: London, United Kingdom

I know that I'm going to regret this but I just can't resist this disposable little number from Saturdays worshipping London duo Oh My! It's not the usual fare you'll find on the Devil's blog but it's lively, upbeat, throw-away pop that'll blow away your post festive blues and get you prancing round your bedroom in your pop socks and whatever else it is you young dudes wear these days. It's Shampoo's Trouble for the TOWIE generation and I like it.

Go Try

Oh My! - Bad Date by PurplePR

Go Visit

Oh My! - Facebook : Website : Twitter : Last.FM

Go View

Oh My!
Bad Date

Steps Greatest Hits

2012-01-04T18:14:00.000+01:00

Son Step
From: Philadelphia, United States

Frequently when a band describes their sound as experimental it's little more than a cover for a lack of expertise in their instruments of choice, a prelude to self-indulgent, structureless meanderings or simply evidence that what is about to follow prefers style over substance. That's not the case with Phillie four piece Son Step. Their 'experimental' folk is innovative without becoming self indulgent, meandering but within a recognised structure.

Every Son Step track includes something slightly off centre turn potentially run of the mill songs into something much more exciting. The simply stunning Forks has it's intertwining whispered vocals, Big Buck Hunter it's urgent jungle drumming, discordant guitar strumming and throat shredding vocals and my personal favourite 45 Degrees has it's funky, wonky (fonky?) guitar stylings and off key whistling.

Step out of the ordinary into the slightly twisted world of Son Step.

Go Try

son step - forks by sonstep

son step - big buck hunter (live in brooklyn, 2011) by sonstep

son step - "45 degrees" by sonstep

Go Visit

Son Step - Facebook : Website : Myspace : Reverbnation : Last.FM
Go View

Son StepForks

Joy To The World

2012-01-03T17:19:00.001+01:00

Muscles of Joy
From: Glasgow, Scotland

The brilliant Everett True may have had a little too much pre Xmas egg nog when he called Glasgow all female septet Muscles of Joy "the greatest band of 2011". They're not even the greatest band in Glasgow, that is surely the incomparable John Knox Sex Club. They are however one of the most intriguing bands to have emerged over the past 12 months. They are an uncategorisable combination of post punk, old school Americana and Celtic folk. There isn't a genre that they can neatly fit into and I'm not sharp enough to try to invent one.

Water Break-Its-Neck is the strangest track you'll hear all year, maybe even all decade, a 10 minute epic which sounds like a bath running in a monastory for about two minutes, comes to life after about four minutes and after about six minutes it starts to sounds like a Celtic choir going through it's vocal exercises before a concert. . It is ambitious and curiously hypnotic like the aural equivalent of a lava lamp. It's marmite music, there's no middle ground with Muscles of Joy, you'll either love it, hate it or scratch your head and wonder. By comparison the sinuous, sensual Au Pairs like post punk of Coins Across His Hips is trad dad rock.

Muscles of Joy the greatest band of 2011? No! Muscles of Joy one of the brightest prospects for 2012? Most definitely!

02 Water break-its-neck by Muscles of Joy

04 Coins across his hips by Muscles of Joy

Go Visit

Muscles of Joy - Myspace : Facebook : Last.FM

On Fire

2012-01-02T18:24:00.001+01:00

Tiny Fireflies
From : Chicago, United States

Tiny Fireflies are Lisle and Kristine from the Chicago indiepoppers Very Truly Yours. They are also Lisle from Fireflies and Kristine from Tiny Microphone. Together as a duo, they are Tiny Fireflies. See what they did there? That's democracy in action! Together they make beautiful music that's like chicken soup for the ears.

Your Love gently caresses your ears with melodies so sweet you'll have to floss after each listen. Kristine's child-like voice could melt the heart of a tyrant. So Sad to Say Goodbye is poppier than mile long bubblewrap in a primary school. We Made A Pact is dream pop so ethereal it's virtually see through.

Tiny Fireflies are a great way to start the new year.

Go Try

Tiny Fireflies - "Your Love" by SeeThemPlay

So Sad to Say Goodbye by Tiny Fireflies

We Made a Pact by Tiny Fireflies

Go Visit

Tiny Fireflies - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Tiny Fireflies
Snow

If you like Tiny Fireflies check out their other bands...

Girls Tell You Secrets by Very Truly Yours

Love So Pure by misterfireflies

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://tinymicrophone.bandcamp.com/track/books"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Books by Tiny Microphone&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;am&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T12:00:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year From The Devil Has The Best Tuna

What better way to see in the new year than settling down with a glass of something alcoholic in the company of your nearest and dearest and listening to this weeks new year themed round-up of tracks I've not had space to post.

Cepia
From: Minneapolis, United States

Cepia's Hootenanny is a little more ambient and altogether cooler than the annual Jools Holland Hootenanny.

Go Try

MP3 - Cepia - Hootenanny
This track is linked direct from the Cepia Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Fox Hands
From: Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States

Here's a slice of minimalism to welcome in the new year courtesy of Virginia's experimental noise artiste in residence Fox Hands.

Go Try

MP3 - Fox Hands - New Year's Eve
This track is linked direct from the Fox Hands Last.FM site so please don't claim breach of copyright

The Leaf Library
From: London, United Kingdom

We're welcoming the new year in with a glut of instrumentals. After the ambient and experimental offerings from Cepia and Fox Hands comes a wordless slab of indie AOR from London's Leaf Library.

Go Try

New Year (Old Year) by The Leaf Library

Viva Brother
From: Slough, United Kingdom
Every New Year's party needs raucous, rocking anthem to belt out after imbibing a little too much alcohol luckily grot rockers Viva Brother have arrived fashionably late to provide just such an anthem.

Go Try

New Years Day (Demo) by Viva Brother

New Years Day
From: Anaheim, California
Now the party has really started with this pop punk cover of the Depeche Mode classic Enjoy The Silence courtesy of the festively monickered New Years Day. If this doesn't get your gran shaking her tail feathers then you need to get yourself a new gran.

New Years Day - Enjoy The Silence by pikeyjae

The Devil's Top 10 (ok 20) Tracks of 2011

2011-12-31T18:24:00.000+01:00

Yes it's that time of the year again when us bloggers look back over the past year and pick those tracks that have made us glad to be alive. It's been an incredible year and there were so many tracks on the shortlist that it could easily have been a festive fifty. So what started out as the Devil's Top 10 quickly turned into a Top 20 and I still couldn't find room for incredible tracks like The Bird & The Monkey's hymnal Lord Is Gracious, The Wind-Up Birds gritty In A Yorkshire Call Centre I Knelt Down And Wept and The Young Things rocking All My Friends Are Junkies.

So here they are, the Devil's 20 favourite tracks from the underground. This is my choice and mine alone there have been no phone votes, no balloting, no semblance of democracy at all yet, unlike the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year, woman are fairly represented.

1. King Q4 – Love Buzz

The track of the year is a cover of a Shocking Blue song which was covered by Nirvana on their debut album. A cover of a cover as the track of the year! Has pop truly eaten itself and all we have to look forward to are endless regurgitations of the same old songs? Does this represent a lack of creativity, imagination or maybe the X Factorisation of the Devil's blog? The fuck it does have you heard this? With their Flying Lizard's like re-imagining of Love Buzz King Q4 show that cover versions can be creative, imaginitive and interesting. If only all covers could be this good.

So a track that was both the song of the year and the cover version of the year, in these straightened times even the Devil's blog gives you two for the price of one.

Go Try

King Q4 Love Buzz by King Q4

2. Warpaint - Undertow

It's the second time Warpaint have made the Devil's top three tracks of the year making them the first band to twice in the Devil's top ten tracks of the year. If they keep churning out songs like the ethereal, powerful and beautifully fragile Undertow they'll be a regular fixture in the Devil's top tens for many years to come.

Go Try

Undertow by warpaintwarpaint

3. EMA - California

California starts with what sounds like an echo of gunfire and a cursory ‘fuck California’ as Erika chronicles her love/hate relationship with The Golden State. It’s a stroke of genius which sounds like a cut n shut of the Velvet Underground and Sinead O’Connor. The third best track of the year from the Devil's album of the year.

Go Try

EMA - California by RoughSide

4. The John Knox Sex Club - Honestly The Beast

With a name that conjured up images of puritanical clergymen indulging in illicit and nefarious practices in a dingy back street basement Scottish contrarians The John Knox Sex Club were never going to be dull. They already have a clutch of brilliant tracks that defy pigeon-holing. If I didn't restrict myself to one song per band they would have dominated this year's top 20. Honestly The Beast is just the best of of a brilliant bunch.

Make a new years resolution to join the John Knox Sex Club today, you have nothing to lose but your innocence.

Go Try

John Knox Sex Club - Honestly the beast by The 405

5. Francobollo - I Found A Bike Today

Francobollo's I Found A Bike today is so catchy that scientists are in a race against time to create a vaccine.

Go Try

I Found A Bike Today by Francobollo

6. The Jonbarr Hinge - Spinning Rocks

Spinning Rocks was a gloomy indie anthem for 2011 with the less than reassuring chorus 'nothing's going to be ok'. No-one summed up the gloom that engulfed the globe in 2011 better than the Jonbarr Hinge.

Go Try

The Jonbarr Hinge - Spinning Rocks by The Jonbarr Hinge

7. Skinny Girl Diet - Sunburn

The sensual, fluid Sunburn from London trio Skinny Girl Diet weaved intricate post punk patterns with possibly the best line of 2011 "you're sunny but you're not warm".

A new year, a new you, treat your ears to the Skinny Girl Diet in 2012.

Go Try

Sunburn by Skinny Girl Diet

8. Perfume Genius - All Waters

Perfume Genius's emotional All Waters sounds like Antony and the Johnsons at a funeral. If it didn't make your eyes gush like a waterfall during the monsoon season and your heart a little sore your name's probably Ebeneezer (pre the visit from the ghosts!). This is the track that moved me more than any other in 2o11.

Go Try

Perfume Genius - 'All Waters' by The 405

9. The Kindling - The Dancers

The Kindling were one of my choices for the Glastonbury emerging talent competition but they unfortunately, and unfairly in my view, missed out. Dancers sounds like it's just emerged from Bon Iver's cellar after a night on the lash with David Bowie and may have been just a little too off the mainstreams beaten track for the ETC judges.

It may be small consolation but at least they can console themselves with a well earned place in the Devil's prestigious top 20 tracks of 2011.

Go Try

dancers by The Kindling

10. Twin Brother - Lungs

The amazing Lungs sounded like Twin Brother has adopted some mathematical formula for the perfect indie sound. TS + AM = IPP (The Strokes plus Arctic Monkeys equals indie pop perfection).

Go Try

Lungs by Twin Brother

11. J Treole – Skydive

J Treole was one of the finalists in the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Contest and, in my opinion, the judges erred in choosing Treetop Flyers over J Treole. Skydive lives in a world of its own, a world where Jazz and Hip Hop joined forces to liberate the world from the sense dulling bump 'n grind merchants, the offensive, ignorant prattlings of Tyler the Creator and the karaoke pop of the Cowell machine.

Unfortunately in this movie the good guys don't win and J-Treole called it a day in June this year leaving Skydive as a reminder of what might have been.

Go Try

Skydive by J-Treole

12. Sunbears - They Think They're Soooo Philosophical

Turning on the news in 2011 was a ticket to depressionville. Thankfully we had the uplifting pop of Sunbears' They Think They're So Philosophical to cheer us all up. It sounded like The Flaming Lips on happy pills delivering a tribute to Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and will hopefully be available on prescription in 2012!

Go Try

Sunbears! - They Think They're Soooo Philosophical by The 405

13. Pepe Deluxe - The Storm

The Storm from Finnish oddballs Pepe Deluxe sounds like the theme tune to a cult TV series from the 60s. It doesn't sound like anything else that will have found it's way to your ears this year which is a bloody good reason for it to make the top 10 tracks of the year. There's a fine line between genius and lunacy and with The Storm Pepe Deluxe straddled it with the agility of a Russian gymnast.

Go Try

Pepe Deluxé, "The Storm" by asthmatickitty

14. The Angry Years - Dress Yourself As Someone Dead

'Dress Yourself As Someone Dead' was the perfect party song, for kohl eyed gothic grave huggers. For the rest of us it was simply a brilliant track.

Back in January I predicted that 2011 was the year to get angry, well 2012 is the year to get even angrier.

Go Try

Dress Yourself as Someone Dead by The Angry Years

15. Love Inks - Blackeye

On the sub two minute Blackeye Austin minimalists Love Inks channelled the haunting post-punk of Young Marble Giants and the paisley underground stylings of Mazzy Star with a short, sweet and melodic tune masking it's brutal and violent subject matter. If you find a top 20 which doesn't include this it's not worth the paper it's not printed on.

Go Try

Love Inks - Blackeye by WorkItMedia

16. -Tyburn Saints - You've Gone Stray

Tyburn Saints' You've Gone Stray sounds like the theme tune to a slasher film written by Nick Cave. With the extravagantly moustachio'd Johnny Gimenez's deep tenor reaching the parts other voices cannot reach it could well be the sexiest serial killer based love song ever written. If not it is most definitely the sexiest serial killer based love song of 2011.

Go Try

You've gone Stray by Tyburns Saints

17. Karaocake - It Doesn't Take A Whole Week

With their vaguely disinterested female vocals surfing effortlessly over a quasi orchestral electro backdrop Karaocake sounded like the late, lamented, Trish Keenan teaming up with Jean Michel Jarre. It's bipolar pop, melancholic and yet curiously uplifting.

In an era when the masses are starved of decent music let them eat Karaocake.

Go Try

Karaocake - It Doesn't Take a Whole Week by Clapping Music

18. Furta Sacra - Boneman

Furta Sacra's Boneman channels the spirit of Captain Beefheart to create on of the strangest, oddly captivating tracks of 2011. is one of the strangest yet oddly captivating tracks of 2011. It's best experienced with the frankly bonkers video.

Go View

19. Bleeding Knees Club - I

2011 was the year of surf pop. It was all over the blogosphere like the proverbial rash. Ironically it was usually produced by pasty faced young boys from landlocked urban deserts who had never even seen the sea let alone stood on a board! Unlike most of their peers Bleeding Knees Club used The Beach Boys as a springboard rather than a prison. 'I' is surf so lo-fi it's belo-fi and was without doubt the best surf based track of 2011.

Go Try

I by Bleeding Knees Club

20 - Raven Fur - Hammer & Tongues

Raven Fur came from nowhere with Hammer & Tongues a blisteringly magnificant songs that sounded like the scrapings off the floor of the original vintage Roxy Music's rehearsal room. It's the sound crawling from the basements of good old London Town, arty rock that's cooler than an inuit nudist's nether regions.
Go Try

Hammer & Tongues by RAVEN FUR

So that's it 20 idiosyncratic, occasionally bonkers but always brilliant tracks offered in evidence to prove that there is life away from planet mainstream.

Last year I wished for the smile to be wiped off Simon Cowell's face (it was with the ratings for 2011 X Factor), Cheryl Cole to disappear from the face of the earth (she's certainly been a lot less visible) and for Frankie Boyle to disappear up his unpleasant backside (mission not yet quite accomplished but there's still a few hours of the year left and I live in hope).

Given my success last year I need to choose my targets carefully. The Devil's wish for 2012 is for the arrogant smile to be wiped off Piers Morgan's face, for Tyler the Creator to disappear from the face of the earth and take his homophobic, misogynistic lyrics with him, and for Sir Alex Ferguson to announce his retirement and Man Utd to end the 2011/12 season empty handed. Is that just too much to wish for?

Here's wishing all the Devil's readers a healthy and prosperous 2012.

Best Videos Of The Year

2011-12-30T18:10:00.000+01:00

After last night's top 5 albums of the year tonight's post brings you the five best videos of 2011. A collection of the most interesting, innovative, thought provoking, witty and imaginative videos that caressed the Devil's eyeballs in 2o11.

1. Rugged Wilderness & Mountain Man No More - Dropping Feathers

Unsettling, thought provoking and elegiacally beautiful if there was a better music video in 2011 then I missed it.

Go Try

Dropping Feathers by ruggedmountain

2. Fulton Lights - Staring Out The Window

The video for Fulton Lights 'Staring Out The Window' had anthromorphic blackbirds playing instruments, forming a band and appearing on Top of the Pops what's not to like? I am however waiting for their next video which could possibly be of a man shouting Fulton Fulton while the band chase deer. Or maybe not.

Go Try

Staring Out the Window by FultonLights

3. The Wind-Up Birds - Round Here

Not the most expensive video you'll see but it's portrayal of a dull and monotonous existence was perfectly pitched for a year where the world was constantly teetering on the edge of economic meltdown.

Go Try

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://thewind-upbirds.bandcamp.com/track/round-here"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Round Here by The Wind-Up Birds&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

4. Appetite - Tussy

The eyes have it. One of the most imaginative videos to hit Youtube in 2011. Why watch a video of a man shouting at a dog chasing deer when you could be feasting on Appetite's Tussy?

Go Try

Appetite - Tussy (Scattered, Smothered, Covered) by SelfGroup

5. Amanda Palmer - Map of Tasmania

The video that made me smile more than any other I saw during 2011, who would have thought women lifting their skirts to show could be so entertaining?

Go Try

Map Of Tasmania - Amanda Palmer Remix by -bestkeptsecret-

The Devil Surfs The Zeitgeist

2011-12-29T18:16:00.002+01:00

Over the next couple of nights I'll be revealing my top 5 albums, my top 5 videos and then, on New Years Eve my top 10 tracks of the year. Tonight it's my favourite albums of the year in partnership with the Hype Machine's annual zeitgeist survey.

In a year when there have been so many amazing albums picking a top 5 has not been an easy task but, after much deliberation, procrastination and perambulation I finally plumped for...

1. EMA - Past Lives, Martyred Saints

In a year when there were a lot of albums that hit the sweet spot somewhere between good and great there was one album that landed right in the place reserved for instant classic. That album was EMA's Past Lives, Martyred Saints, an album that from the first time you heard it you knew that you were in the presence of greatness. It's a thing of rare beauty so astonishing that it sends your whole world out of kilter.

Past Lives, Martyred Saints takes the alternative rock heirlooms handed down by Sonic Youth and Nirvana, buffs them up a little till they shine and puts them on show for a new generation to enjoy. In a year of great albums this was the one that stood out like tie die shirt at an Amish funeral.

Go Try

EMA - Milkman by souterraintransmissions

2. Austra - Feel It Break

Austra's debut album Feel It Break was lyrically impenetrable and sonically heavy with ballistic beats that thumped like the heartbeat of a heavyweight champion. Across eleven tracks that were so on trend they could be wearing Philip Treacy titfers, singer Katie Stelmanis’s voice swoops and soars from ecstasy to pain and back again. Katie’s vocals turned an album that could have been languishing in mid-table obscurity into a work of art challenging for the top of the 2011 table.

Feel It Break is a powerful, emotional album that creates its own mood and is one of those rare albums that will sound just as good in 10 years time as it does the moment it first caresses your ears.

Go Try

Beat and The Pulse by Austra by goincase

3. Wounded Lion - IVXLCDM

2011 wasn't the most upbeat of years. As the world teetered on the edge of economic armageddon we all needed something to to distract us and Wounded Lion's album IVXLCDM arrived towards the end of the year like quirky manna from indie heaven.

It was like an all you can eat indie banquets with a menu that mixed up influences with the finesse of a gourmet chef. As these influences included Talking Heads, Liars, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Modern Lovers, grunge, Joy Division, They Might Be Giants and The Dead Kennedys, how could it fail to impress?

If your musical palate is feeling a little jaded then stick IVXLCDM on your iPod and regain your appetite.

Go Try

Wounded Lion - I'm Sad by Gilded Gutter

4. Le Butcherettes - Sin Sin Sin

Sin Sin Sin is infused with the sweat from the walls of CBGBs in the late 70s, the snotty sneer of the Sex Pistols, the brash, fuck you attitude of early Blondie and the feminist tinged politics of riot grrrl. There is, however, more to this album than mere punk rock revivalism. On Sin Sin Sin Le Butcherettes go beyond the rama lama ding dong, one, two, three let’s go punk rush. While their sound may be based on punk it’s a launch pad rather than a straight jacket.

Sin Sin Sin gives you a taste of how a festival line up of Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, The Kills, Hole, Blondie, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bikini Kill, Blondie and the Dresden Dolls would sound. It’s a feminist tinged, punk singed statement of intent that pays due respect to the band’s heroines without stumbling into pastiche.

Go Try

Le Butcherettes - New York by Cargo_Promo

5. The Boxer Rebellion - The Cold Still

Other than the Wounded Lion album the Devil's top 5 of the year are all rather serious and/or angry records and the album at number 5 is no exception.

With themes of excessively obsessive love, paranoia, betrayal and 'the beast within' The Boxer Rebellion's The Cold Still is a serious album from a serious bunch of young coves.

The Cold Still is glum rock par excellance and they don't come much more glum than the shocking Locked In The Basement which could be the lead track from a rock opera based on the life of Josef Fritzl.

Go Try

02 Step Out Of The Car by ThatEricAlper

So that's it 5 top albums from 2011 that you really need to get in your life and cherish like rare jewels. A top 5 that reflects the paranoid, angry, confused and at times belligerent mood of the year with the odd quirky diversion. If you were expecting to see albums featuring frivolous songs about birthdays in May or post break-up sex then you need to look elsewhere (try NME or Mojo).

Frond Memories

2011-12-28T17:23:00.000+01:00

The Bevis Frond
From: London, United Kingdom

When Nick Saloman released his last album as The Bevis Frond Facebook was restricted to students of Harvard College, you went to MTV not YouTube to watch videos, twitter meant an annoying sound (nothing new there then) and the cloud brought you rain not entertainment. It's a much different world that greets The Leaving Of London the new Bevis Frond album, and yet it doesn't sound dated, timeless yes, but not dated.

Over its 18 tracks The Leaving Of London hops genres with the dexterity of a frog on red bull. From guitar freakouts to lo-fi folk, from psych tinged rock to power pop/punk it's the song, not the sound that matters. The album opens with a plummy voiced announcer asking 'everyone has a favourite tune, is this yours?' leading straight into the upbeat, Bandwagonesque esque power pop of 'Johnny Kwango'. What a start, I defy you to answer plummy's question with a no. The album is at it's best on tracks like 'Johnny Kwango', 'Preservation Hill' and 'Barely Anthropoid', when Nick gets in touch with his jangly side, his inner Byrds.

As might be expected from a band releasing their first album for seven years their frame of reference is well established, rather than up and coming, artists . Starting off like a less angry Eton Rifles 'More To This Than That' would once have been called New Wave (ask your dad). 'You'll Come' with it's stuttering guitars and fast paced delivery sounds like Elvis Costello at his most acerbic. 'Speedboat' opens up with some Bevis copyrighted backward guitars before morphing into another Costelloesque upbeat pop rocker. If it doesn't get your toe tapping then you need to see an orthopaedic doctor. It's not all fast, furious, rock or power pop. On the hauntingly beautiful title track and the achingly sad 'The Divide' it's just Nick and piano and Nick and acoustic guitar respectively. There's not an electric guitar in sight. It's tracks like these that add variety to the album.

Seven years is a long time in life, let alone the transient, ephemeral, fashion focused music industry it's therefore no surprise that The Leaving Of Liverpool is untouched by dubstep, witch-house or any of the other million and one genres that have risen and fallen since the last Bevis Frond album. It's therefore understandable that, on the self deprecating 'Too Kind', Nick worries about his musical relevance today. Well Nick, despite the odd self indulgent guitar solo on 'Reanimation' and 'Too Kind' itself, you don't need to worry. As they say on Match of the Day form is temporary but class is permanent.

This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.

6/10

Go Try

The Bevis Frond..Reanimation.. 27th November 2011 Wurzburg Matinee. by slightreturn2003

Go Visit

The Bevis Frond - Website : Last.FM

Rafting Weekend

2011-12-27T17:08:00.001+01:00

Porcelain Raft
From: Brooklyn, New York

Get your tin hats on because the blogosphere is about to go nuclear over Porcelain Raft, the solo recording project of Mauro Remiddi, once of cosmopolitan multi-continental psych pop outfit Sunny Day Sets Fire. On debut album Strange Weekend Mauro sculpts delicate, dreamy soundscapes out of the finest clay like a refugee from a 4AD seminar with a full compliment of the de-rigeur glitchy beats designed to dampen a blogger's nether regions.

Album opener, the perfectly named 'Drifting In and Out', does exactly what it says on the tin, drifting in and out like a muscular Cocteau Twins. It's so 4AD it could have been designed from a template provided by Iwo Watts-Russell. With it's gently strummed acoustic guitar, choir of angels backing vocals and washes of synth 'Shapeless & Gone' is the point at which alt-folk and dream pop shake hands and form a temporary alliance. It sounds like a lost T-Rex classic re-mastered for a modern audience. Two songs in and you can understand why the blogosphere are going all a quiver over Porcelain Raft.'Is It Too Deep For You' has its dials set for the centre of your heart. With beats that crack like a gun shot, tremorous vocals and harsh synths it stirs emotions you thought you never had. It reminds me of Phil Collins' 'Something In The Air Tonight'. Not the coolest of references I grant you but it shares the emotional intensity of the Collins' classic making it one of the album's stand-out tracks. On 'Put Me Into Sleep' Mauro persistently demands to be put into sleep and it's not clear whether he's simply suffering from insomnia or is so desperate that he wants someone to help him to end it all. There's a haunting desperation to his vocals which merely adds to the confusion.

Remiddi's vocal agility is so impressive he could easily carve out a career as an impressionist if he doesn't make his millions from Porcelain Raft. One minute he sounds like John Lennon (the anthemic 'Unless You Speak From Your Heart') the next you'd swear he'd swallowed a Julee Cruise pill ('Backwords'). It's this variety that sets Strange Weekend apart from the crowd, sets it apart from it's dream pop cousins and their suffocating waves of vaporous vocals.

Unlike the cosy, comforting, slanket and cocoa dream pop churned out by peers like Beach House Strange Weekend has a darker side, an edgier side. You can wrap yourself up in the ambient, warm washes of sound but you can never quite relax. There's always a jagged beat or a sharp vocal to shake you out of your comfort zone. Strange Weekend is a spiky little gem amongst the soft-edged faux pearls of their dream pop peers.

7.5/10

This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.

Go Try

Porcelain Raft - "Shapeless & Gone" by ccconr

Porcelain Raft - Backwords (Daytrotter session) by asleep in the back

Porcelain Raft - Put Me to Sleep by CrazyCow

Go Visit

Porcelain Raft - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Porcelain Raft
Put Me To Sleep

Boxing It Off

2011-12-26T18:00:00.000+01:00

There are a mighty 366 days until Christmas so sit back and relax to some Boxing Day related tunes courtesy of your favourite mephistophiles related music blogs.

MP3 - Grape Digging Sharon Fruits - Boxing Day
This track is linked direct from the Grape Digging Sharon Fruits Last.FM site so please don't claim breach of copyright

If you like this then go visit the Grape Digging Sharon Fruits Last.FM site for more.

MP3 - The Baseball Field - It's Boxing Day, Helena
This track is linked direct from the Baseball Field Last.FM site so please don't claim breach of copyright

If you like then go visit the Baseball Field Last.FM site for more.

CYNE - Boxing Day by TheWordIsBond.com

Until Boxing Day by Captain Polaroid

Holiday Hipsters
Carol of the Boxing Day

The Pineapple Thief
Boxing Day

Christmas Video Killed The Christmas Radio Star

2011-12-25T21:09:00.001+01:00

Picture courtesy of deviant art by sixhundredsixty for more check out http://sixhundredsixty.deviantart.com/

The Wind-Up Birds
Working Christmas Day

It's better to give than receive so go visit indie contrarians the Wind-Up Birds bandcamp site http://thewind-upbirds.bandcamp.com to download their Christmas single, Working Christmas Day with all proceeds going to Barnardos. Not only do you get a great Christmas song you get a nice warm glow from doing your bit to help those less fortunate than yourself.

The Devil's Christmas Round Up 25th December 2011

2011-12-25T16:14:00.000+01:00

Happy Christmas from The Devil Has The Best Tuna.

Today's weekly round up of tracks I've not had the space to post has a distinctly festive feel.

Slothbear

From: Valley Stream, New York, United States

A slacker rock version of the Bing Crosby classic? Alas no but Slothbear still serve up a seasonal treat.

Go Try

MP3 - Slothbear - White Christmas
This track is linked direct from the Slothbear Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

You Say France & I Whistle
From: Stockholm, Sweden

You Say France & I Whistle go all Scrooge on us with a Christmas song about trying to escape the festive clutches of Santa, Rudolph and Christmas for the sanctuary of the beach and inadvertently serve up a modern festive classic.

Go Try

MP3 - You Say France & I Whistle - Christmas
This track is linked direct from the You Say France & I Whistle website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Christmas
From: Olympia, Washington, United States

Winter from the festively monikered Christmas could rock Santa's grotto to it's very foundations.

Go Try

MP3 - Christmas - Winter
This track is linked direct from the Ms Valerie Park Distro website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Dead Gaze
From: Mississippi, United StatesIf the Dead Gaze version of Silver Bells was on constant rotation in the malls of the world trudging around searching for the perfect gift for your would be a much more pleasurable experience for us indie types.

Go Try

Dead Gaze, "Silver Bells" by The FADER

Advances In Mathematics

From: Manchester, United States

Looks like someone got Advances In Mathematics a novelty tie last Christmas.

Go Try

02 Sad Xmas Present by advancesband

Spectrals
From: Heckmondike, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Like all the best Christmas Days, the festive tune from Spectrals starts off all lively and jolly and ends in the kind of misty fug you get after indulging in too many mince pies and glasses of sherry.

Go Try

Spectrals - It's Christmas and I've Got Everything I Want by Slumberland Records

Miss Massive Snowflake
From: Portland, Oregon

Miss Massive Snowflake gets out the tents and pitches them right in the middle of Christmas.

Go Try

MP3 - Miss Massive Snowflake - Occupy Christmas

This track is published with the permission of Silber Media so please don't claim breach of copyright

Peachcake
From: Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Peachcake pose the eternal Christmas question but unfortunately for all the kids out there they don't provide the answer so let's hope Santa doesn't lose his sleigh.

Go Try

What Happens When Santa's Sleigh Gets Lost?! by Peachcake

Tiny Tide

From: Cesena, Italy

Tiny Tide do all their shopping in Lidl and Aldi.

Go Try

Cheap Christmas by tinytide

The Birthday Kiss
From: Aberystwyth, Leeds, Sheffield

Understated, warm and cosy the perfect end to a perfect Christmas.

Go Try

Sentimental Christmastime by The Birthday Kiss

The Devil's 2011 Retrospective - November & December

2011-12-24T22:02:00.000+01:00

In November Dr Conrad Murray was found guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, Greece & Italy replaced their leaders with EU puppets and the Occupy Wall Street camp was finally cleared, but not before they'd inspired anti globalisation protester across the, err, globe.

November also saw some great tracks on the Devil's blog from Francobollo, Pepe Deluxe, The Lovely Eggs, Cloud Nothings and The Reject Club.

I Found A Bike Today by Francobollo

The Storm (Radio Edit) by Pepe Deluxé Official

Cloud Nothings - No Future / No Past by Wichita Recordings

Puppets Are Better Than People - The Reject Club by LORD NUMB

The Lovely Eggs - Allergies by Too Pure Singles Club

And finally we reach the final month of 2011, December the month when the people power that had shaken much of the world finally reached Russia, Cameron said no to Europe, although it's not actually clear what he's said no to and Father Christmas made his last minute preparations for his busiest night of the year.

It was a truncated month for music but the Devil still managed to find time to squeeze in some great tracks from Mark Stewart, Zulus, Sunbears, Perfume Genius and The Last Royals.

Picking a top 10 for 2011 just became even more difficult.

Mark Stewart - Nothing Is Sacred by theQuietus

Zulus - Illiterate Eyes by Fat Cat Records

Sunbears! - They Think They're Soooo Philosophical by The 405

Perfume Genius - 'All Waters' by The 405

Always, To Belong by TheLastRoyals

The Devil's 2011 Retrospective - October

2011-12-23T17:41:00.000+01:00

In October Gadaffi died and the world seemed both a safer and yet strangely more dangerous place. The world also lost one it's most creative innovators with the death of Steve Jobs after a long battle against cancer.

The Stone Roses became the latest zombie band to rise from the grave for a final pay day not realising, or even worse not caring about, the irony of the line 'the past was yours but the future's mine'.

Meanwhile just a little off the radar of the zombie rock loving mainstream press were the obscure delights of Mummy Short Arms, Polar Sets, The Bird & The Monkey, The Jonbarr Hinge and Raven Fur.

The Bird & The Monkey
Lord Is Gracious

Kids On A Crime Spree - To Mess With Dynamite by Slumberland Records

LENI by FLASHFIkTION

MUMMY SHORT ARMS - Change by Flowers In The Dustbin

The Jonbarr Hinge - Spinning Rocks by The Jonbarr Hinge

Odonis Odonis - Busted Lip by Odonis Odonis

Hammer & Tongues by RAVEN FUR

The Runner by RAVEN FUR

Teenage Kicks by Bonfire Nights

Bonfires by Polarsets

Wax Idols
Human Condition

Pushy Parents
Secret Secret

Schonwald
Slow Milk

It's been around for a couple of years but I first heard it in October this year and therefore it can be included in the 2011 retrospective. OK?

There Will Be Fireworks
We Sleep Through The Bombs

Yet another track that has been around a couple of years but I only stumbled across in October which is why it deserves it's, belated, place in the 2011 retrospective.

The Devil's 2011 Retrospective - September

2011-12-21T17:44:00.000+01:00

REM announced that they'd split up, PJ Harvey deservedly wins the Mercury Prize for Let England Shake and protestors occupy Wall Street before the movemenr crosses the Atlantic to occupy space outside a symbol of the globalised capitalist world, a church (erm you sure you got that right ed?).

The musical delights that found their way into my ears included the out there 7 Day Weekend, the brilliant John Knox Sex Club and the difficult to pronounce mnemotechnic.

MP3 - 7 Day Weekend - After Dinner Mint
This track is linked direct from the 7 Day Weekend Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Julia Of The Sun Mud by Tunabunny

Wrecking Ball by United Fruit

Daily Life - Spirit Animal by Smalltown America

Dear Brittle Lights by mnemotechnic

Paper Aeroplanes - Tuesday by ForFolksSake

Trophy Wife - Wolf by crackmagazine

KICK TO KILL - Black Kisses by Flowers In The Dustbin

Bearsuit - Princess, You're A Test by Fortuna POP!

Little Comets - Isles by sevensevens

John Knox Sex Club - Honestly the beast by The 405

Vacation - Neutral Acid King by vctn

New War - Ghostwalking by theQuietus

The Devil's 2011 Retrospective - August

2011-12-20T17:43:00.000+01:00

In August the UK saw the most serious bout of civil unrest in a generation and the US saw it's credit rating reduced and Hurricane Irene battered the US flooding parts of New York.

With so much going on music was always going to struggle to divert the attention of a worried world. While most bands chase to seek salvation in noise (Ouch My Face), Cold War Kids indie (Hey Sholay) and 1950s crooning (Post War Glamour Girls) The Indelicates clearly thought if you can't beat them join them with the unsettling 'Somethings's Goin' Down In Waco'.

Junkyard - Ouch My Face by Beautiful Eskimo Records

Crrreep by Post War Glamour Girls

04 Postcard by GilesThomas

The Bears, The Clocks, The Bees by Hey Sholay

The Mantles - Situations by takethepills

Something Goin' Down In Waco - The Indelicates by FollyOfYouth

John Knox Sex Club - William by sways

Seasons Change, So Do We by TheCastells.