Neapolitan

band: Soviet Soviet
from: Pesaro , Italy
album title: Fate
released: 2013

band members:

• Alessandro Costantini - vocals, guitar
• Alessandro Ferri - drums
• Andrea Giometti - bass, vocals

tracklist:

1. Ecstasy 3:03
2. 1990 3:10
3. Introspective Trip 2:53
4. Further 2:57
5. Gone Fast 4:00
6. No Lesson 4:26
7. Together 4:07
8. Hidden 3:23
9. Something You Can't Forget 3:24
10. Around Here 2:07

The album opens with drum rolls on hi-hat which immediately brings to mind the drum style Stephen Morris, and from that brief moment you can assume their influence and know where they are going. The bass has that liquidy chorus sound of Hooky. The sound of the singer's voice lies somewhere between Stan Ridgway and John Lydon. The band is mercurial switching between Post-Punk a la Joy Division and suddenly segueing into soaring Shoegazing echo-y strumming. It's a pretty fast pace and solid album. ... and the band is from Italy and not from Russia, an important distinction to be made considering the name.

Soviet Soviet - Ecstasy

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Neapolitan

band: exlovers (also stylized as ex lovers, ExLovers)
from: London, England
album title: Moth
released: 2012
members:

• Danny Blackman
• Brooke Rogers
• Laurel Sills
• Peter Scott
• Christopher Woodhead

tracklist:

• Starlight, Starlight
• This Love Will Lead You On
• Emily
• Just A Silhouette
• Blowing Kisses
• Unlovable
• I Wish We'd Never Met
• You Forget So Easily
• You're So Quiet
• The Ruins

exlovers - You Forget So Easily


Dream Pop meets Cuddlecore, fall in love, & then become exlovers. Last.fm says they draw upon their influences such as The Cure, Teenage Fan Club, My Bloody Valentine, and Elliot Smith. Not sure if that is true, or an opinion of the last.fm reviewer - interesting though cause you can hear some of that in thier songs. You can also hear the guitar playing similar to Johnny Marr from The Smiths, and the singer has that soft voice like Dustin Reske from Rocketship.

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Neapolitan

band name: Afternoon Naps
album title: Parade
tracklist:

1. Plum City Fight Song
2. Beach Bums
3. The Day We Started
4. Mitten Fingers
5. Seasons May Change
6. The Fall Companion
7. Catholic School
8. Discoverse
9. Bubblegum 45
10. Digitally Altered Sunset

I really like this album, it's one of my favorites. The best way to describe their sound is a mix of My Favorite and The Smiths, with a good dose of 60s Pop sensibilty.
Plum City Fight Song - A nice bright sounding gutiar, "string" sound from organ, and light touches of a xylophone are the backdrop for a sincerely sung lyrics. The opening track is a bit low key, but that quickly changes with the next song.
Beach Bums - Starts off like Mystery Achievement then it settles into more of a 60s Pop song, it has a Motown beat to it.
The Day We Started - Has a Housemartin meets Betty And The Werewolves feel.
Mitten Fingers - The in and out swell of the synthesize reminds me of the in-between part of songs on "A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness" album. The chorus definitely very similar to My Favorite.
Seasons May Change - has the feel of Love Is All Around by The Troggs
The Fall Companion has those clear clean Peter Buck arpeggios.
Catholic School Starts right off with a Carl Wilson 12 String riff, then it settles into a Johnny and the Hurricanes solo, especially the organ solo. The "I hate school" lines is a bit cheesy, but humorous.
Discoverse - The title is Disco + verse, and the song does have a Disco sound, but it's blend with Electroclash.
Bubblegum 45 The song has a Sunshine Pop sound overall, especially the "bah bah bah" intro, and the flute solo. But the rhythm guitar tends be more like The Smiths and the drum is doing a break beat with a shuffle feel.
Digitally Altered Sunset a mellow ending to a pretty much up-beat album.

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Neapolitan

Tour de Force

tracklist:

1. Sleeping Beauty
2. Flowers
3. If You Wonder
4. Marian Shrine

band members:

• Tomas Kubowicz
• Anton Lindberg - bass
• Alfonso Tammaro - drums

The Ruling Class 7"
A. Umbrella Folds
B. Shame or Pride


Graceless

tracklist:

1. Sleeping Beauty
2. Flowers
3. Diamonds In Ashes
4. The Big Blue
5. Marian Shrine
6. Back In Bloom
7. Wishes
8. Down
9. If You Wonder
10. End Time

band members:

• Tomas Kubowicz - lead guitar, backing vocals
• Jon Sutcliffe - vocal
• Andrew Needle - rhythm guitar
• Lewis Jones - drums
• Jakub Starzyński- bass

No Illusions

tracklist:

1. Black Infinity (Upside Down)
2. The Only Faith Is Love
3. No Illusions
4. Drifting
5. One Day
6. Past Paradise
7. Queen Supreme
8. Love Can't Save You Now
9. The Tape Of You
10. Another Man Fades Dawn

band members:

• Tomas Kubowicz - lead guitar, backing vocals
• Jon Sutcliffe - vocals
• Andrew Needle - rhythm guitar
• Jakub Starzyński - bass
• Lewis Jones - drums

promotional videos:

SULK - Flowers from Graceless track 2


SULK - The Big Blue from Graceless track 4


SULK - Wishes from Graceless track 7


SULK - Black Infinity (Upside Down)
from No Illusions first track


I am always looking for a band on YouTube, sampling songs, until I come across something I like. If I am lucky the band not only has one good song got my attention but the album have a bunch of half decent songs. Sometimes it seems hard to find a band that I like everything they do, and sometimes it they seems easy to find once I find them. When I do I feel lucky to stumble across a band like that. I feel like I hit pay dirt. When I think about what it is about them I like it is that they are stone throw away from a band I like. They are like a bunch of roses where being roses they are just like any other but have their own unique color. They the take two styles and blend them in their own. They make something that sounds not only familiar but something one can draw a direct link to other bands. They have something fresh and exciting to offer.

The history of band that assumed the mantle for Brit Pop starts in Norrköping, Sweden with the guitar player & song writer Tomas Kubowicz. He got hooked on music through his friends He said "The Stone Roses was kind of an introduction - I never had any high thoughts of their debut album when I first listened to it, but when I picked up the album again a couple years later and had a listen, it totally exploded. It's a masterpiece. I've never left them since."* He moved to Stockholm where he met the bass player, Anton Lindberg. The both of them headed to London, in 2006. They bucked the music scene which was mostly Post-Punk and Libertine-esque bands. They found a drummer Alfonso Tammaro. The trio caught the attention of Mark Wallis and had the opportunity to record with him. He worked with the like s of Travis, The Smiths, U2, Talking Heads, The LA’s and The Go-Betweens.** I'm sure of details with the original line up of The Ruling Class, but it seems the only surving member was the originator of the band, Tomas Kubowicz. He brought Jon Sutcliffe on vocals and brought in the rhythm guitar player Andrew Needle Somewhere along the line there was in personnel change for bass and drums, with Jakub Starzyński (bass) and Lewis Jones (drums).

Without saying first impressions are the most lasting, and the first songs I heard by The Ruling Class & Sulk are my favorites. Listening to Flowers you can immediately hear a connection to the song Waterfall by the Stone Roses, but at faster pace, with the funky/psychedelic bass playing in the style of Debbie Googe and the soft creaminess of a delivery reminiscent of The Charolettes. They one of my favorite bands, and I hope if you check them out they that type of band you are exactly looking for...

references:
shelflife records: the ruling class tour de force
Mark Wallis - record producer - remixer - engineer

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Neapolitan

Raised By Wolves

released: July 25th, 2005
tracklist:

1. Raised by Wolves
2. The Start of Something
3. Missing Pieces
4. Long Haul
5. Wrecking Force
6. Warmest Part Of Winter (bonus track)

Voxtrot

(Voxtrot can be found on Spotify)
chronology:
...catalog spot:debut released: 2007
members:

• Mitchell Calvert
• Jason Chronis
• Jared Van Fleet
• Matt Simon
• Ramesh Srivastava
  additional musicians: Tosca String Quartet
  strings arranged by: Jared Van Fleet, Voxtrot
  

from: Austin, Texas
found on: spotify
tracklist:

1. Introduction - 3:32
2. Kid Gloves - 4:23
3. Ghost - 4:48
4. Steven - 3:27
5. Firecracker - 3:43
6. Brother in Conflict - 4:04
7. Easy - 3:35
8. The Future Pt. 1 - 3:41
9. Every Day - 4:25
10. Real Live Version - 4:00
11. Blood Red Blood - 4:13

• Loan Shark - 4:08 (iTunes only)
• New Love - 4:06 (iTunes only)

Voxtrot - The Start of Something
Raised By Wolves track 2


Voxtrot - Ghost
Voxtrot track 3


Voxtrot was an indie band started by Ramesh Srivastava. They're from Austin, Texas. The started around 2003 and have disbanded in 2010. The first song I heard by them was "The Start of Something" from the EP Raised By Wolves. The song has a a Motown sound via The Smiths, and even the vocal style pays homage to Morrissey. I am especially fond of Ghost, it features a piano. It also has a nice string accompaniment. There is a nice bass and drum interplay that almost Prog Rock-ish, or a slow down Shoegaze bass & drum pattern. Ramesh puts a lot of effort in crafting his lyrics and as much effort in delivering them. I think he is a talent shouldn't be over-look and I think both songs are worth checking out.

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Neapolitan

album title: Drugs
released: Oct, 2014
tracklist:

1. Poison
2. The 80s
3. Tony Stark
4. The Cowboy
5. Half Life
6. Billy Shakes
7. Exploda
8. Bad Directions

album title: The Symposium
released: April, 2017
tracklist:

1. Streems 04:15
2. ACL 04:39
3. Soft Love 05:30
4. The Physical Attractions 04:44
5. Creeper 04:11
6. Based 02:43
7. Nino 2 03:04
8. Synth Song 03:14
9. Red River 03:22
10. Starfall 03:58

The Symposium on Audiotree Live (Full Session)

published on: Sep 7, 2016

1. 00:37 - Red River
2. 5:43 - Tony Stark
3. 10:13 - Synth Song
4. 15:28 - Streets
5. 21:54 - The Cowboy

The Symposium definitely have a Strokes influence, which the admit to during the Audiotree session. Even though Weezer wasn't brought up, there are a few songs that remind me of them like ACL, Red River, Song Love and Streets. The Physical Attractions has a Pinkerton vibe to it. Tony Stark's a song I have to play over and over again. It has nothing to do with Iron Man, it's more about advice for someone in love. Streems has such a catchy tune. It changes over rather abruptly to the outro. In between the songs on the album they have short instrumental interludes, and they're done throughout the album. I'm not totally convinced they are necessary. They border on being album filler, however there no songs that can be considered actual album filler. I really looking forward to hearing more from this band.

The Symposium is my favorite album so far for 2017. I would recommend this band to any Weezer or Strokes fans, maybe Mrs. Tristan Rosenstock, (if he hasn't heard them already).

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Tristan_Geoff

Thanks bud I'll definitely check them out!

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YW Fam: All MB Music Projects Under One Roof

Emo/Pop Punk Journal

Techno Journal

Zhanteimi

Hey! You stole my idea!

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Zhanteimi

LetsTalkMusic

Neapolitan

album title: Pleasure
released: 1981
tracklist:
01 Getting Nowhere Fast 0:00 |||||||||| ||| ||
02 Warm Girls 2:01 ||||||||||||| ||| |
03 Politics 6:06 |||||||||| ||
04 It's Fashion 9:24 ||||||||||
05 Go for Gold 11:49 |||||||||| ||
06 Pleasure 15:12 ||||||||||||| ||
07 Too Big for Your Boots 18:01 ||||||||||
08 I'm Beautiful Now 20:51 ||||||||||||| ||
09 Waterbed Babies 24:25 ||||||||||||| ||
10 Fun-City Teenagers 27:49 |||||||||||||
11 £600,000 30:41 |||||||||||||
12 Heaven 33:30 |||||||||||||
13 China Blue 37:19 |||||||||||||
14 Fast Boyfriends 40:25 ||||||||||||| ||
15 She Flipped 43:15 ||||||||||
16 Goodbye to That Jazz 46:42 ||||||||||
17 This Train 50:27 ||||||||||

|||||||||||||
I thought I would experiment a little for this entry. Taking an idea I've seen on found on some tape decks and recording console, I am using green and red vertical bars to approximate in text the look of a LCD meters. I am rating how much "pleasure" I derive from the song. The green is good to really good, the red is like extra credit and this rating is only relative to the songs on the album. I gave every song ten green vbars, basically 5/5 rating. The red vbars gauges how each song compared to other songs on the album. This is a rough estimate, I could tweak them forever, depending on my mood. I thought it would be important to have a visual aid to show what I think of each song, and this is the best idea I've came up with, I hope it is easily understood and not confusing to anyone.

Girls at Our Best! are one of the bands that had the distinguished honour of being recorded live for the John Peel Sessions on February 17th, 1981. They only put out one album. Knowing that leaves me wanting more. As for a debut album goes, I feel they knocked it out of the ballpark. They're from Leeds along with Gang of Four, Delta 5 and Soft Cell, who were also active at the same time. Discovering GaOB! was like finding another puzzle piece that fits perfectly to surroundings -- to what I already know and like about UK music at that period. They blend New Wave and Post Rock nicely. Their sound isn't as edgy as Gang of Four, but still have considerable amount of energy that make them a faster pace band than say The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Warm Girls was the first song I heard and I played it dozens of times before I ever made a move to listen to their album.
Fun-City Teenagers sound like a collaboration of Sunforest and the Housemartins, with the Ants singing background vocals.

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Neapolitan

band: Garmarna
members:

• Stefan Brisland-Ferner
• Emma Härdelin
• Jens Höglin
• Gotte Ringqvist
• Rickard Westman

album: Guds Spelemän
tracklist:

1. Herr Mannelig (Sir Mannelig) – 6:22
2. Vänner och Fränder (Friends and Relatives) – 5:11
3. Halling från Makedonien (Halling from Macedonia) linstrumental – 2:45
4. Min Man (My Husband) – 4:20
5. Varulven (Werewolf) – 4:55
6. Hilla Lilla – 6:19
7. Drew Drusnaar/Idag som igår (Today as before) – 2:46
8. Njaalkeme (Hunger) – 5:05
9. Herr Holger (Sir Holger) – 4:58
10. Guds Spelemän (The Fiddlers of God) – 5:27

Garmarna - Vänner och fränder

Halling från Makedonien instrumental




band: Gjallarhorn
genres: Folk, Traditional, Neofolk, World music
members:

• Jenny Wilhelms – vocals, fiddle
• Christopher Öhman – viola, fiddle, mandola, vocals
• Tommy Mansikka-Aho – didgeridoo, percussion
• David Lillkvist – percussion

other personnel:

• Jakob Frankenhaeuser – Didgeridoo, Percussion, (additional) vocals
• Marcus Söderström – Double Bass
• Okay Temiz – Percussion
• Wincent Högberg – Percussion, Recorded By, Producer
• Adrian Jones - Viola, Mandola
• Tomas Höglund - (additional) vocals
• Martin Kantola - Recorded By, Mixed By, Mastered By

album title: Ranarop
tracklist:

1. Intro 1:27
2. Konungen Och Trollkvinnan (The King and the enchantress) 5:20
3. Herr Olof (Master Olof) 4:14
4. I Fjol Så (Last year) 3:05
5. Solbön-Åskan (Prayer for Sun/Thunder) 6:28
6. O-Vals (Non-Waltz) 3:39
7. I Riden Så... (Ye ride so carefully) 4:28
8. Sjöjungfrun Och Konungsdottern (The Mermaid and the princess) 6:40
9. Folkessongen (Folk song) 4:25
10. Elviras Vals-Oravaismenuett (Elvira's waltz - Oravais minuet) 5:12
11. Eldgjald (Gjalder song) 4:13
12. Ramunder (finlandssvensk ballad från Nyland) 4:05
13. Kulning (Calling) 1:49
14. Reindeer Dreaming (From The Film By Antii Haase) 7:04

Gjallarhorn - Konungadottrarna


I really haven't spend much time investigating Scandinavian Folk music. I came across Gjallarhorn on a compilation CD. I loved them first time I ever heard them. The comp contained the song "Suvetar." I never heard a song with such powerful sound. Everything about the song: drumming and didgeridoos and singing (the harmonies, the counter-point) everything about the song just sounds epic. I found out about Garmarna recently on YT. I love how Emma Härdelin sings, even the way she rolls her R's. She's what hooked me in. They are two of my favorite bands but I have to admit I say this is without much comparison to other bands in the same category. I am not one for rating albums but I would guesstimate around 9/10 for both.

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