Top lists

Top of the week 27

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The most useless lists of the week aka things I enjoyed during the week.

ALBUMS:

1. Haruko: Wild Geese
I’m totally addicted to this album and hardly listened to anything else during the week. She is a great folk singer-songwriter from Germany and this debut album is simply stunning.

2. Wilco: (The Album)
Eventhough this was one of the most anticipated releases of the year, it has to settle for the second spot for the time being because of my Haruko addiction. I need more time to make up my mind, but based on early listenings I like it a lot. Seems like they are going back to the right direction. Everything until Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was great. Ghost Is Born wasn’t very good at all, Sky Blue Sky was already a lot better (apparently they realised that it would be an okay idea to actually have some songs on a record) and this new one seems like a return to the good old days. Looking forward to spend more quality time with this album during this week.

3-5. The Gaslight Anthem and Calexico back catalogues
I was just getting prepared for their Ruisrock concerts. The Gaslight Anthem was the better one this time around. Some have said that it isn’t that great live band, but I enjoyed it a lot. Nothing to complain with Calexico either. Just that I would have made a completely different set list myself. Out of my imaginary top 10 Calexico songs, they probably played just one or two.. But that’s just pointless fan boy talk. Sorry about that.

Other Ruisrock acts:

First Aid Kit was really good
Faith No More.. well part of it was good if not really good, but part of it was incredible shit. How about having some melodies and songs and not just shouting your lungs out.

SONGS:

I could just list all the songs from Haruko’s album..

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Finnish music

Baby Sweetcorn

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babysweetcorn
 
There’s some good news and some bad news about Baby Sweetcorn. Let’s start with the good news:

“The first four sold out recordings, namely Coming Up As the Night Comes Down, Rosary Principle EP, Small Hour Drama b/w Heart of Gold and There and Not Dare can now be downloaded from http://www.mediafire.com/babysweetcorn for free”

This is also a note to self. I need to go and download the first two because I don’t have them and probably have not even heard them. I can fully recommend Small Hour Drama and There and Not Dare. They are really great little records.

 
Then moving on to the bad news:

“It’s now ten years since Baby Sweetcorn’s inception and as some of you might have noticed we’ve been more or less inactive for the last year and a half. That said, now is as good a time as any to aknowledge and announce that Baby Sweetcorn has retired indefinitely. As always, the future is uncertain. For now, we’ll be pursuing other dreams. Thanks to everyone we’ve met along the way. Be seeing you.”

Ten years is a long journey for an indie band (or any band for that matter), but it’s always a bit sad to see a great band drift into retirement. Hopefully they one day decide to return, but even if they don’t, they can feel good about what they achieved. They’ve certainly left their mark to the finnish music scene. That mark might not be a big glamorous sign that everyone will notice, but a small symbol crafted with love and care is often more meaningful. Baby Sweetcorn wrote that symbol also to my heart with the excellent releases Small Hour Drama, There and Not Dare and Ghosts and Sunsets. Stylewise these three releases were a perfect match with my heart. Thank you Baby Sweetcorn and good luck with pursuing other dreams.

Baby Sweetcorn at myspace

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Top lists

Top of the week 26

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Time for the most useless lists of the week aka the things I loved during the week.

ALBUMS:

1. Dinosaur Jr: Farm
No reason to change a good concept. It sounds oh so familiar and it’s a great album.

2. The Lemonheads: Varshons
I love The Lemonheads, but I’ve got to admit that this cover album isn’t very good as a whole. It has its moments like the opener I Just Can’t Take It Anymore, but there just isn’t enough great material for an album. It’s not terrible and one could gather up a very good cover ep out of the material, but it’s still a very dissapointing release.

3. Kiss: Kiss / Dressed To Kill / Destroyer / Love Gun
Kiss addiction didn’t go away in a week.

4. Radio City: Class of ’77
This lost power pop gem is still on the playlist.

5. College Fall: 2009 European Tour EP
A tour EP that also contains a few tracks from their upcoming album.

SONGS:

1. The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You
2. The Lemonheads: I Just Can’t Take It Anymore
3. Kiss: Strutter
4. Duke & The King: If You Ever Get Famous
5. Dinosaur Jr: Over It

According to last.fm I’ve listened to I and Love and You 54 times so far. It seems I’m rather excited about the upcoming The Avett Brothers album. It’s again a really great song eventhough I don’t think that it’s is even close to reaching my imaginary top 5 songs by The Avett Brothers list.

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