Distracted.. by (familiar) music.. mostly. But here's what's swept in...

Hey, snow! Coldness! Lost your old woolly gloves? Try the new single from Camera Obscura for size.. there, how snug is that?

'New bands don't really come out of Belfast because of the fact that they are useless' - Think Small chats to exceptions to the rule, pop lovelies Language of Flowers...

'As the sound travels from larynx to lips, it’s impeded by at least three obvious flaws — a slight lisp, a tendency to waver, and consonants that are alternatively dull or overdefined.' Groan.. the LA Weekly gets all ponderous on Joanna Newsom's derriere. (And flaws, as we all know, are the invariably the best bits about most things/people.) But the piece does eventually get a little closer to the point: 'Observe how such intellectually complex, well-structured music is so effective at touching the heart, and shattering it into a million tiny pieces'.. loads more where that comes from here...

...and if you haven't already, check out the q&a with Joanna in the latest edition of Chickfactor...

Here's a cool, more-ish slice of electro-pop from San Francisco's Hey Willpower...
Hey Willpower / Hundredaire mp3

"We hear from people a lot who give birth to our music..It seems to me that’s one of the best compliments we get." Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails you're thinking but you'd be wrong.. 'tis the voice of Hem, Sally Ellyson speaking in a big cover story feature in the latest edition of Playback magazine of St. Louis. 'Simply discovering music like this, finding a band that goes against the commercial grain and weaves its own unique musical tapestry, feels somehow reassuring,' they purr, accurately. Rather generously, the whole feature's available here...

'Oh-h-h ye-a-h-h-h, Kirsten...'
Assured-but-a-bit-safe jangle-popsters The Vessels have shuffled their pack slightly and re-emerged as Brinkman, seen recently opening for The Magic Numbers. They're actually not much different from before.. a bit fizzier, a bit more Crazy Horse-frazzled maybe. It's hardly an inspired new sound but does have a lazy appeal to certain blokish weaknesses.. only reinforced when shaped in the form of paeans to the likes of Kirsten Dunst...
Brinkman / Kirsten Dunst mp3

Actually, Brinkman's sound mostly serves to remind this blog of what was lost with the demise of the Mayflies USA.. what a jaw-slackening guitar-pop debut Summertown was.. still sounds great...

Bunky!!! Crazy name, crazy band? Check out Chuy from their upcoming debut Born to be a motorcycle via Asthmatic Kitty. Some kind of fabness...
Bunky / Chuy mp3

...as is this news from the same source: 'Also, Sufjan [Stevens]’s new record is right around the corner.' That's Record of the Year sorted nice 'n' early, then (no pressure, Sufjan)...

A mini Swedish pop armada's headed this way.. shame it's not The Legends or The Radio Dept, but still...
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names [site]
Mar 14 - London, Beach Club
Mar 15 - London, Metro Club
Mar 16 - London, Barfly
Mar 17 - Brighton, Sweden Made Me
Sambassadeur [site]
Apr 7 - London, Windmill/Brixton
Apr 9 - London, Betsy Trotwood
I know, I know, 'Always bloody London...'

One quarter of The High Water Marks - the singer - is also Scandinavian; another quarter is Jim Lindsay from Oranger and another is Apples in Stereo's Hilarie Sidney. How fruity is that? Find out at the Windmill in Brixton March 6...
The High Water Marks

Since it seems to be guided by the kind of just-so instincts reallyrather is constantly scanning around for, it's pretty heartening to learn that Jeff Bell's nascent endeavour Keep Recordings continues to thrive. It had crossed this blog's mind to fire off a load of questions to Jeff for a sort of 'Heroes of '04'-type feature (the uber-sweet Weepies were also candidates). Never got round to it, of course, but that's ok since Slightly Confusing To A Stranger have had precisely the same idea and what's more they been and gone and done something about it...

[And yes there was supposed to be something else but.. this blog has been.. distracted]

Warning: total supergoodness overload...

March 15.. doing anything? Cancel it. Put this in your diary with a great big curly border all the way round it: Rilo Kiley headline at The Borderline. Does it get any better? Well, actually...

..and reallyrather is not making this up, how about a Jenny Lewis solo record with Matt Ward - as in Matt Ward! - producing? It's happening, probably right now this moment, at Portland's Jackpot! Studios. Larry Crane the owner said so last week: "Right now I'm working on a project with Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley and Matt Ward's producing it, and it's just a pleasure, it's totally awesome. Jenny is a great singer and has great songs and we've had some cool musicians come in and play on it." Bereft, basically...

..a condition also brought on lately listening to Matt Pond singing lines like this:

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place

Tell me about it, Matt, tell me about it. Not his words tho', Jeff Mangum's; Neutral Milk Hotel's In the aeroplane over the sea is one of several covers on matt pond PA's deliriously attractive 20-minute 7-track mini-album Winter songs. Following up last year's near-flawless Emblems, the band are clearly on a roll and here they set about nailing their wintery inclinations. Aah, snowiness and cosy confinement - in nothingy London's so-called winter this blog has had to improvise with the only props to hand: Craig Thompson's illustrated novel Blankets and a little snowscene shaker thing.
In the aeroplane.. is wrapped in a glorious swirl of cello and spangly arpeggio guitar. Lindsay Buckingham proves another v. compatible source, his Holiday road here decked out with jingling bells. A couple of short, mood-enhancing instrumentals bookend the blockier 4/4 strum of Neil Young's Winterlong, it's heavier tread making deeper snowprints, helped by lines like 'You seem to be where I belong'. But even in this sort of company Snow day, the only new original in the set still stands out with it's crisp melody and motive, pattering drums. Get Winter songs now, before the leaves start to appear...

And if you like mpPA you'll be predisposed to Sky signal, the debut album from Audible. This band's formed around ex-mpPA'ers Mike Kennedy and Jim Kehow; listen to something like Sunday bell and the DNA is clearly traceable...
Audible / sample tracks

And here's a stack more new sounds worth hearing:

Absentee - Rainy days swimming [site/sound]
Seen live earlier this year peddling a hybrid Willard Grant Conspiracy-meets-The Tyde sound, this is a mildly addictive sliver of narco-twang, the singer's baritone offset by delicious girlie bv's...

Hotel Lights - I am a train [site][sound]
Which will jolt you comfortably back to life in a Gingersol/Pete Yorn kind of way...

Kate Sikora - 10 hours [site/sound]
Check out this scuzzy, chunky, low-slung little mover.. more tidy goodness mined from MySpace.com...

Norfolk & Western - From the interests of few [site]
Sort of where we came in with Absentee.. woozy, woody folk-pop from the upcoming new record...

..and Bosque Brown - Still affraid [site/sound]
Oooooo! A quick web search shows that reallyrather is still the only one in the queue for this Damien Jurado-produced debut from Texan Mara Lee Miller, due April 5. Listen to Still affraid and get in line...

And if you like the sound of that you'll definitely want that Shelley Short record, Oh, say little dogies, why, a big scorer round here in '04 [buy]. Here's a lovely pic of Shelley doin' it for the people somewhere last month. Twinkle, twinkle etc...

Featuring a cute dog, a cute kid and - it gets worse - Dave Matthews.. yes, the new Wayne Wang film Because of Winn-Dixie (which opens next week in the US) has all the makings of an utter, utter, utter DOG! Literally. So why bother mentioning it? Well, Opal's blues, the lead-off song on the soundtrack is the first new material in a couple of years from The Be Good Tanyas...

In bed, do you lay under an afghan
Humming and wait to find if the day ends
Without a massive array of self-deprecations
Oh no, wait.. it's me who does that
Wistful, yearning and cello-powered, Carolyn Berk aka Lovers has a new-ish website - look & listen...

Viva Voce's Lovers lead the way was a nearly album a couple of years ago. The brightest part of everyone, that was great (still is, I checked). If all the songs had been cut down to three minutes it could've been a contender. But they mostly outstayed the amount of welcome this blog extends to this type of eclectic synth-sizzled indie pop. But what's this? Their latest ep Alive With Pleasure has been picked up by yet another UK indie label reallyrather has never heard of (Full Time Hobby) and Kevin and Anita are a-comin' over. The Water Rats will do nicely (shame about Tegan&Sara, tho'):
Mar 1 London Water Rats (w/Tegan & Sara)
Mar 3 Rough Trade Records, Covent Garden (Instore)
Mar 5 London Hope & Anchor, Islington
Viva Voce and their no-nonsense tambourine-wielding

So you've read this now read these: new mags galore! Out now, Plan B magazine with them Smoosh kiddies on the cover... Out next week, an all coloured-in Comes With A Smile.. and a new Chickfactor with a great pic of 'Girl of the Year' Joanna Newsom and other tasty, tasty features...
Oh, and there's something else reallyrather was mildly bursting to tell you about.. next time, next time...