The Smiths - Dance With Octopuses (1986 Bootleg)

Really, it's The Smiths. That's all that needs to be said. This is a very good quality recording, and is probably my favourite Smiths bootleg (if my words mean anything to you). For those who care, I think this is from the 23 October 1986 show at London's National Club. Check out "The Draize Train," an instrumental jam where Johnny Marr really lets loose (the song also appears in a lesser form on Rank). Too bad this blog's namesake wasn't on the setlist; it's a really underrated song in their catalogue. The closing one-two punch of urgent renditions of "How Soon Is Now?" and "Bigmouth Strikes Again" is a real treat.

Of course, I have to give credit where credit is due; if you want Smiths boots, alternate mixes, etc., then you need to check out akiraware. Between the studio albums you should already have and this website, you'll have all the Smiths you need.

Tracklist:

1. The Queen Is Dead
2. Panic
3. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
4. Ask
5. Frankly, Mr Shankly
6. The Boy With the Thorn in His Side
7. Is It Really So Strange?
8. London
9. I Know It's Over
10. The Draize Train
11. How Soon Is Now?
12. Bigmouth Strikes Again

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Joy Zipper - Joy Zipper (2000)

From allmusic (4/5):

"Joy Zipper makes a couple of impressions before one has even placed the CD in the disc player. First, the title is intriguingly suggestive of something fun. Next, the CD cover features an evocative picture of a woman dressed in white with a small child, set against the backdrop of a beach. This leaves the listener in a receptive mood for Joy Zipper's debut, a lush mesh of songs that simply hypnotize. Guitarist/vocalist Vincent Cafiso, vocalist/keyboardist Tabitha Tindale, and drummer Charlie Chase create a dense layer of sound, much richer than their small number might suggest. "Booda" begins with a dreamy, back-tracked guitar, falls into a mellow grove, and then is brought to fullness by a lovely, wistful vocal by Tindale. In fact, most of the vocals by Tindale and Cafiso could be described as wistful. The harmony behind the lead vocal on "God" creates the sonic equivalent of floating, as though capturing the fleeting moment before one drifts into sleep. The oddly titled "The Power of Alan Watts" begins with the intriguing lyric "Alan Watts is dead" and then continues as an ode to the philosophy of the guru. There's a doubling of the tempo in the middle of the song, with driving bass and drums that keep the listener alert. Joy Zipper is very much a studio effort. Backing harmonies, bass parts, and guitars have been layered carefully, creating a cohesive sound for the entire album. Each pensive, dreamy song manages to be part of an intrinsic whole without being redundant. This lovely album will appeal to anyone who enjoys beautifully layered pop music."

Get it here.

Also:
Joy Zipper - American Whip (2004)

Cornershop - When I Was Born for the 7th Time (1997)

From allmusic (4.5/5):

"When I Was Born for the 7th Time is a remarkable leap forward for Cornershop, the place where the group blends all of their diverse influences into a seamless whole. Cornershop uses Indian music as a foundation, finding its droning repetition similar to the trancier elements of electronica, the cut-and-paste collages of hip-hop, and the skeletal melodicism of indie pop. Tying all of these strands together, the band creates a multicultural music that is utterly modern; it is conscious of its heritage, but instead of being enslaved to tradition, it pushes into the future and finds a common ground between different cultures and musics. Like Woman's Gotta Have It, large portions of When I Was Born for the 7th Time are devoted to hypnotic instrumentals, but the music here is funkier and fully realized. Cornershop hits an appealing compromise between detailed arrangements and lo-fi technology. There may be cheap keyboards and drum machines scattered throughout the album, but they are used as sonic texturing, similar to the turntables, synthesizers, samplers, sitars, and guitars that drive the instrumentals punctuating the full-fledged songs. When it chooses, Cornershop can write hooky, immediate pop songs -- "Sleep on the Left Side" and "Brimful of Asha" are wonderful pop singles, and "Good to Be on the Road Back Home" is an impressive, country-tinged tale -- but what makes When I Was Born for the 7th Time such a rich, intoxicating listen is that it balances these melodic tendencies with deceptively complex arrangements, chants, drones, electronic instrumentals, and funky rhythms, resulting in an album that becomes better with each listen."

Get it here.

Also:
Cornershop - Woman's Gotta Have It (1995)

Metric - Live it Out (2005)

From allmusic (3.5/5):

"In an effort to prove Metric frontwoman Emily Haines was not the only dominating personality behind the Canadian indie rock group's first album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, the second album hammers home the fact that it's more of a group effort. Production duties were handed to guitarist James Shaw and Haines' trademark synths take a back seat to screeching guitars and more cohesive playing as a quartet. Despite the added punk rock punch the guitar gives, the bite of their debut is dulled by a weaker set of songs, with only minor aesthetic changes to mask the slight sophomoric slump. Live It Out desires to be a major step forward (Emily Haines would release her first solo album, Knives Don't Have Your Back, a year later), but the best moments on the album are the ones that recapture what made the debut such a compelling piece of '80s retro -- showcasing Haines' trademark keyboards and her effective cooing vocals, which manage to sound both cloyingly sexy and gutturally raw at the same time. "Poster of a Girl" transforms a few rudimentary French lyrics and an unassuming keyboard intro into a spacy, groovy dance track. "The Police and the Private" is an effectively simple and haunting keyboard-heavy song that shows Haines' best vocal performances are the down to earth ones (something she thankfully discovered on her solo album). As with Old World Underground, Haines has a tendency for collegiate-level prose when the band gets political, and songs like the "Combat Baby" knockoff "Handshakes" have a smug, elitist attitude about them, without providing much insight into their political beliefs. The first single, the hooky "Monster Hospital," is a light-hearted punk song with great non-sequitur lyrics, but the overdubbed guitars and big production typically reserved for an alternative rock album don't fight the overall motif of Live It Out. There's a reason Haines was featured on the cover of Old World Underground and it's possibly this: she's what separates Metric from other '80s revivalist groups."

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Joy Zipper - American Whip (2004)

From allmusic (4/5):

"Joy Zipper's second album American Whip is as sun-kissed and blissful as their first. Which is to say very much so. Sort of like a sunny take on the Jesus and Mary Chain circa Darklands, the band works the same straightforward noise-dipped-in-honey-approach as the JAMC. Only instead of Jim and William Reid's sneers, we get Vincent Cafiso and Tabitha Tindale's sweet as sugar vocals and harmonies. The catch is that the candy is a cover for the dark and gloomy subject matter of the lyrics. You may never hear bubblier songs about drug use, dying, Alzheimer's, feeling like a mannequin and madness. Whether this is a good thing depends on how you like your lyrics. Some may find the content a bit jarring. If you can hack it, though, this is a solid indie pop record. No surprises to be had but plenty of melody, harmony and hooks. Plenty of happy-when-it-pains tracks like "Christmas Song," "Ron" and "Valley Stream" to hum as you contemplate the dark underbelly of life. Perfect for a really creepy summer day."

Get it here.

Spoon - Girls Can Tell (2001)

From allmusic (4.5/5):

"Time may not exactly heal all wounds, but it can lend the perspective and strength to channel pain into something positive. Such is the case with Spoon; their perennial indie rock underdog status and disastrous stint on Elektra have focused and tempered the trio's brash energy instead of crushing it. Their third full-length, Girls Can Tell, reflects the group's lean, hungry stance in its spare, spiky, immaculately crafted songs. "Take the Fifth" and "Take a Walk" take Spoon's smart, bouncy, slightly tough signature sound to another level; while the ghosts of the Pixies, Nirvana, and Elvis Costello still haunt songs like "Lines in the Suit," Girls Can Tell's sharp wordplay, barbed guitars, and appealingly raw vocals prove that the group embraces their influences without becoming slaves to them. Britt Daniel's increasingly eclectic and expansive songwriting comes to the forefront on "Everything Hits at Once," a taut, brooding pop song driven by vibes, keyboards, yearning, and pride; "Me and the Bean" suggests the direction alternative/indie rock should have taken after Nirvana's implosion. This album is also Spoon's most emotionally eclectic collection of songs, ranging from "Anything You Want," a sunny pop song drawn with just a few artfully placed strokes to "1020 AM," a brooding, slightly psychedelic piece of folk-rock that recalls Daniel's Drake Tungsten side project. "This Book Is a Movie," an appropriately tense, filmic instrumental, and "Chicago at Night," a slightly spooky pop song with winding guitars and an off-kilter melody, complete Girls Can Tell, making it Spoon's most mature, accomplished work to date and a fine balance of fire and polish."

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Cut City - s/t (2005) EP

"Cut City is an indie rock group formed in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2002 around the local Deleted Art label, sort of the Swedish counter-part to U.S. art-punk imprints like Three One G and Tapes Records. In May 2005 they issued a 4-song EP on the California-based Gold Standard Labs label. Drawing comparisons to groups such as Echo & The Bunnnymen and Joy Division as well as newer bands like Interpol and Editors they at the same time echo the past as much as the future."

This 4 song EP was the first one I picked up from Cut City around 2005, before they came out with Exit Decades (2007) and Narcissus Can Wait (2009) . All the songs on here do have a hint of Joy Divison amd Interpol, while being completely orginial at the same time. What really drives these songs foward are the beatutiful bass lines and druming, while the guitar parts and vocals are what give the songs their substance. This EP is the reason I love Cut City, and this EP is their best work.

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The Dø - A Mouthful (2008)

Genre: Indie Pop|Folk Pop

This is one of my favourite albums to come out this year. I don't feel like writing a complete review, so here are some snippets of Nick Southall's review on Drowned in Sound:

"First things first. The Dø are a Franco-Finnish duo comprised of Dan Levy and Olivia B. Merilahti. The band name is drawn from the initials of their first names. Their MySpace page lists their influences as “Bela Bartok, Jimi Hendrix, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Nico, Igor Stravinsky, The Who, Bird, The Last Poets, Coltrane, Björk, Monte !, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Mingus, Eminem, The WuTangClan, Lauryn Hill, Betty Davis, Queen, The Beatles, Tom Waits, Art Pepper, Toumast, Frank Zappa, Young marble giants, Duke Ellington, The White Stripes , Peaches, Michael Jackson, BECK, Joanna Newsom, Patti Smith.”

"Above and beyond that impressively eclectic list, The Dø sound, at various points, like a female Eminem backed by a brass band, like The Cardigans stripped to nothing but a jazzy guitar strum and a sexy whisper, like ‘Iko Iko’ by The Dixie Cups re-imagined by Pingu, like Moldy Peaches with a hint of continental sophistication, like ‘The Block Party’ by Lisa Left-Eye Lopez if she’d grown up listening to Pavement, like PJ Harvey on the moon, and like Os Mutantes at their most chilled-out."

"The secret of The Dø’s success, apart from the fact that Olivia B. Merilahti is a stupidly gifted, idiosyncratic and sexy singer more talented at imitating vocal ticks than Rory Bremner, is probably the fact that Dan Levy is a (not so) secret jazzer; there’s a musical dexterity and ability running through A Mouthful which makes them stand out from the crowd. (Not that their milieu is exactly laden with contemporaries.) What this means is that every one of the 15 songs here is interesting in one way or another; compositionally, texturally, rhythmically, emotionally, or any one of a myriad of other ways."

"A Mouthful is a resolutely pop album, in the old-fashioned sense; eclectic, characterful, audacious, addictive and irresistibly sexy in a sophisticated yet irreverent fashion. I’ve not heard anything like it in a long, long time, which is an enormous shame. Awesome."

Tracklist:

1. Playground Hustle - 2:55
2. At Last ! - 4:09 *
   
3. On My Shoulders - 5:21 *
   
4. Song for Lovers - 2:24
5. The Bridge is Broken - 4:42
6. Stay (Just a Little Bit More) - 3:06
7. Unissasi Laulelet - 2:19
8. Tammie - 3:15 *
   
9. Queen Dot Kong - 3:14
10. Coda - 1:57
11. Searching Gold - 5:10
12. When Was I Last Home? - 3:34
13. Travel Light - 4:02
14. Aha - 4:19
15. In My Box - 1:48

NOTE: Tracks with an * are highlights.

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