I wouldn’t say that Bill Majoros, otherwise known as The Foreign Films, is anything like Kitano, or Japanese films, but his music would can certainly fill my time like Kitano did.

Marjoros’ former band Flux A.D. included Julie Fader (Feist, Great Lake Swimmers) and Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck) and has toured much of North America in various guises. Now he’s montaging all his experiences and sounds into a new soundtrack of his life as The Foreign Films.

Out of Marjoros’ songwriting skills and crunchy compressed vocals comes forth a mix of jangly 60′s guitars, 80′s new wave and soul bass riffs. It’s a refreshingly infectious summery feeling that will hopefully take him as far as the land of the setting sun.

He recently released the EP Fire From Spark which features appearances from Kori Pop and Alex McMaster (Arcade Fire). Courtesy of Bill, here is my highlight from the release, Lucky Streak, a catchy number which oozes class, so much so that it wouldn’t go amiss on a James Bond soundtrack…

The Foreign Films – Lucky Streak (mp3)

You can buy Fire From Spark from Bandcamp and follow The Foreign Films on Twitter

British rock has taken a slump recently, there’s nothing new getting too far, but lets hope that changes. We’re due a new pop rock band soon. Actually what was the last great pop rock band? Arctic Monkeys I guess.

The Van Doos are a London based group and one of the rare breed that are not stuck in the gradually grating dickhead East London vibe. Maybe it’s cause one of the members is from York, like me. Don’t worry though, they don’t sound much like the only musical greatness from York since the medieval ages, Shed Seven.

Well they’re very new, so their isn’t much out there about them at the moment, so I’d say the best way to get to know their music is to listen to their new release, Is This The One, which I’m addicted to already:

The Vand Doos – Is This The One (mp3)

Download Is This The One for the price of your email address

Their first track, another great pop rock number Tenterhooks, is on soundcloud – oh and here it is:

The Van Doos – Tenterhooks by The Van Doos

So with it’s big gridded cities and vast open spaces comes big gritty rock and vast vicious voices like Dallas Frasca‘s. She’s already a critical and chart success in Australia, landing the coveted Music Oz Artist of the Year and also won Blues and Roots Song of the Year. Yes – Dallas is old school, and the kind of school you’d move home for so your kids become awesome.

We may not know much about Dallas Frasca in the UK – but I’m sure she’s getting past the earth’s core with that tunnel she’s digging herself – and will pop up here before we know it.

Of all the things I could have done in Australia is have a Civil Partnership, although it had to be at the British Consulate – the government down under regrettably still forbid civil unions. Still, it wouldn’t surprise me if  Australia’s gay bars are full of men ironically singing along to her single I Like it Better When Your Straight (sorry Terry Jones, this song isn’t actually about sexual re-orientation). Gayness aside – I love this song, simple rootsy rock – propelled by Dallas’s rough and deep vocals. Hear for yourself on the video:

Sadly Dallas’ album Not for Love or Money is hard to come by in the UK, but in the meantime you can download Til The End I’ll Walk Proudly courtesy of Dallas herself for free from holeytonal

Dallas Frasca – Til The End I’ll Walk Proudly MP3

1. Detune their standards until Jedward sound like Marvin Gaye reincarnate.
2. Can pick a cherry from a turdy fog but are so useless at admin record companies burn all their applications in the town square so they can’t even be kept on record for any A&R jobs. Ever.
3. Become incapable of tasting anything let alone music – after hearing so many singer song writers performing edgy acoustic versions of Hey Ya by Outkast their brain has imploded and only survive on a zombie motor function enabling them to turn the knob up to 11.

Although Manchester rockers Everything Everything will never know which category the sound man from their debut gig in 2007 fell into – they thankfully listened to his praise despite a baffled response from the crowd and carried on.

I’m sure he was s cherry picker – as today Everything Everything look set to be one of the biggest bands to arrive in 2010. Pigeonholed into indie, the band are justifiably uncomfortable with the labelling. There’s much more than the jangly guitars – pop, dance and experimentalism all make an appearance. You may hear some Futureheads and Metronomy on their records – but most noticeably Everything Everything take some breathtakingly bizarre musical turns. Genuinely fascinating and fun listening.

Their debut album Man Alive comes out on 30 August and is available to pre-order on Amazon.

Here is the current video for their latest single MY KZ, UR BF. I’m quite scared of lead singer Jonathan Higgs’s head tilt – but I do love his voice:

I’m a big fan of experimentalism within pop aesthetics, rather like Yeasayer’s great album Odd Blood. What Menomena adds is their ability to create a more natural palette of colours to entice our ear buds with.

Somehow their songs are architectural masterpieces despite their unique drafting methods. It’s complicated – using software called Digital Looping Recorder (Deeler) programmed by band memeber Brent Knopf. Menomena‘s drummer Danny Seim‘s explanation of the process will be far better than anything I can muster:

“First, we set the tempo of the click, which is played through a pair of head phones. We then take turns passing a single mic around the room. One of us will hold the mic in front of an instrument, while another one of us will lay down a short improvised riff over the click track. We usually start with the drums. Once the drums begin looping, we throw on some bass, piano, guitar, bells, sax, or whatever other sort of noise maker happens to be in the room. Deeler keeps the process democratic, which is the only way we can operate”.

Mines is one of those rare albums you’ll be able to come back to time and time again and still find treats you haven’t heard before amongst its many milliseconds of aural pleasure.

You can buy Mines on Amazon or listen on Spotify.

If you’re really lazy you can listen to one of my highlights from the album,  Five Little Rooms here – but I’d suggest you download it in exchange for your email address and take it with you everywhere:

Menomena - Five Little Rooms mp3

Menomena UK Tour Dates

For those of us in the UK you can see them at the following dates:

• 11/29/10 – London at XOYO
• 12/01/10 – Manchester at Deaf Institute
• 12/02/10 – Glasgow at Arches
• 12/03/10 – Liverpool at Kazimir
• 12/04/10 – Leeds at Brudenell

He laughed mockingly when he dealt me the news. I cried a little inside.

My only hope is that Dead Confederate, one of my favourite bands, come back to tour the UK to promote their new album Sugar.

Two years ago I wrote about Dead Confederate and their debut album Wrecking Ball came in as runner up in my top 10 albums of 2008.

So I was frothing at the mouth reading the glowing Love Shack, Baby review of Sugar. 24 August, the release date, is a day on which I will be more happy than any of the dance scenes on Glee.

You can download the single Giving It All Away for the meagre price of your email address:

Other than the museum I struggle to come up with a reason why you wouldn’t visit Seattle – it’s lovely and also where Nate Moceri of Frame the City comes from.

Moceri now resides in Portland – and as Frame the City grafts some slick laid back electro rock. The mixture of Moceri’s distant but compelling vocals with well written songs work perfectly and keep me coming back for more.

Memories of his hometown’s rock legends are conjured up by Moceri’s voice – you can find out more about Seattle’s musical past at the Museum there. No wait – look it up on Wikipedia instead.

Frame the City released their first album Someday We Will All be the Same in Janruary 2009 and the We Were Wolves EP in February this year, you can buy both from Amazon. Katie Byron and Ashley Ennis frequently collaborate with Nate as guest vocalists and Frame the City are currently in the studio recording their next EP.

As a preview here are two tracks courtesy of Nate. We Were Wolves is one of the most gorgeous tracks I’ve heard for a long time. It’s no surprise from both of these songs that Nate has previously been on MTV’s books for songwriting and composing. Hopefully before long Frame the City will just be on MTV.

Frame the City – We Were Wolves mp3

Frame the City – Wearing Jeans to Bed mp3

You can like Frame the City on Facebook.

Its a wrap

Student debt sucks. I finished attempting to increase my brain capacity over four years ago and am still about as close as world peace to paying it off. To avoid paying it back I may soon take the approach of the members of DOM and remove my surname from the face of the earth.

Erik, Bobby K and front-man Dom are from Worcester, Massachussets and since forming early this year are now going on tour supporting Ratatat. No – they won’t tell us their second names.

Dom himself is quite eccentric – he’s writing a soft-core porn script, still collects food stamps and dreams of DOM being signed to ‘Lil Wayne’s label – you can learn more about him through his interview with Pitchfork.

I admire that the band is ambitious – they admit their music is developing and are keen to record in a studio to break out of their lo-fi limitations. Still, they have the strong foundations to create some great hits – I’m sure they’ll repay their debts before they know it.

Here’s the first track from their EP Sun Bronzed Greek Gods and the one everyone’s downloading. Although not quite the “YMCA” pop anthem Dom was aiming for – it’s better than anything on MGMT‘s new album.

Dom – Living in America mp3

Buy Dom’s EP Sun Bronzed Greek Gods on iTunes

Follow DOM on Twitter, oh and Follow Me

The Copenhagen 5-piece, Veto, create electronic rock driven by massive hooks, synths, bleeps and pounding beats. With Troels Abrahamsen‘s soaring vocals lushly complimenting the textured landscapes.

I’m really going to have to listen to something else soon – I’m starting to feel sorry for the rest of my music collection.

There is so much to find on this album – every track has its moment. I especially love that despite Crushing Digits’ racy nature, Duck, Hush And Be Still, the last and most subdued track on the album, is stunning. It feels like a perfect ending.

Crushing Digits is released in the UK on 20 April and is available to pre-order on Amazon.

As I’m sure you can’t wait, have a listen to my favourite track from the album, Crooks. Its the filthy little guitar licks that do it for me:

Veto – Crooks mp3

Oh, and here’s an exclusive treat just for you:

Veto – Built To Fail (Tomboy remix) mp3

I haven’t had that feeling since listening to OK Computer, but Wrecking Ball by Dead Confederate certainly came close. Since my previous post about them they have created a musical behemoth which is sublime, beautiful and amazing.

There’s No Need For Prunge

Crudely, this album could have happened if Pink Floyd collaborated with Nirvana, making err, Prunge – no don’t be silly. But it is fascinating to hear Dead Confederate‘s influences mix together so seamlessly.

Paranoid About Your Size?

Out of the 10 songs, only three are less than five minutes, and Flesh Colored Canvass holds your attention for over 12 minutes. My friend commented that “if you’re planning on writing 7 – 12 min songs maybe take a leaf out of Radiohead’s book and diversify a little“.

I absolutely adore Paranoid Android, but on closer inspection its just three songs stuck together. Where Flesh Colored Canvass triumphs is through its peaks and troughs, leading to build up only to fade to the ether, rather like the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

Can You Hear the Dead?

To fully appreciate Wrecking Ball, don’t put it on whilst doing something else. Give it the attention it deserves. If you don’t you’ll miss everything special about this album.

Now follows, Goner, a track from Wrecking Ball. I know there’s a recession on the way, but you really should buy this album.

Dead Confederate – Goner (mp3)