When It's Time To Party We Will Make a Contextually Appropriate Playlist

Image copyright www.markstivers.com

Today's post is by guest contributor Tom. Enjoy!

Over the last few years, my party playlist has been the soundtrack to every party I've hosted and to every party where the host's asked if anybody has an iPod handy. It's about 4 hours of music that's been carefully honed so you can easily just dump it on the speakers on shuffle and ignore it. Inevitably somebody will eventually get drunk and switch it to their own music or search through for an Akon track you don't have, but the longer the playlist can last before that happens, the better I've done.

I'm not gonna pretend like I'm the king of music and that my word is final, but I want to share a few of the lessons I've learned while making this playlist.

RULE NUMBER ONE: BE / INOFFENSIVE / BE BE / INOFFENSIVE.

At most parties, around 80% of the people there don't give a shit about what's playing so long as they don't find it obnoxious to listen to. They won't touch the music until they hear something that pisses them off, so your number one job is to avoid pissing them off. Don't put on any heavy metal, because most people don't like heavy metal. If you put on rap music, it has to be rap music you can dance to. Skee Lo – I Wish is in, Kanye West – POWER is out. I had to cut off most of the outro to Cornelius – Count Five or Six because while it's a perfect party song the ending is so annoying and so long that everybody complains.

RULE NUMBER TWO: IT'S NOT YOUR PARTY PLAYLIST AND YOU CAN'T CRY IF YOU WANT TO

You have no idea how much I want to put Mindless Self Indulgence – Clarissa on the playlist, but I have to resist. The playlist isn't for me. It's for every party ever. It's for the art students and the gay dudes and the surf club and the nerds everybody in between. Nobody else likes Mindless Self Indulgence, so I have to leave it out.* You have to sacrifice some of your personal sacred cows if you want your playlist to be accessible to most people.

RULE NUMBER THREE: THERE AIN'T NO PARTY LIKE A SHIT CLUB PARTY**

Putting in songs that only have appeal for nostalgic/drunken singalong reasons is dangerous. People love to goof off and sing along to Mr Brightside or Don't Stop Believing or whatever, but only when they're drunk. If you overload your playlist with nostalgia-fueled songs that don't really hold up, people will lose interest. Same goes for ironic songs. Asher Roth – I Love College is fucking hilarious but it's only going to go over well in specific situations. Obviously you can put in Blur – Song 2 or Gary Numan – Cars, because those songs are still awesome. Just be smart about it.

RULE NUMBER FOUR: YOU! ME! DANCING!

Most of the playlist should be songs that not many people know but that anybody can idly dance along to. This is crucial for three reasons. 1: Songs that everybody knows are boring. The real reason for this playlist is to show off how cool and sexy you are with your taste in little-known bands. 2: Nobody really dances at parties, but the music may as well be white noise if it isn't making people involuntarily move to the beat. 3: If somebody has heard of the obscure song you've put into the playlist, they'll get excited and start a conversation with you about it. It's almost impossible to talk to people about music if you don't have a jump off point, and “OH SHIT! THIS BAND! OH SHIT!” is the perfect jump off point.

RULE NUMBER FIVE: EVERYTHING SUCKS (WHEN YOU PUT TOO MUCH OF IT INTO THE PARTY PLAYLIST)

Try not to have more than one song by any given band. Everybody can handle one Daft Punk song, but people that aren't fans will get annoyed if they have to listen to three or four. Same goes for extremely similar bands. Just because Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures are technically different bands doesn't mean that people won't hear Josh Homme's voice twice in a row and get mad at you.

RULE NUMBER SIX: YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY (KEEP YOURSELF MENTALLY DETATCHED FROM THE STATUS OF THE MUSIC OR YOU'LL) DIE!

Of all the rules, this is the one I'm the worst at. When you put on the music, you have to let go. The music will always be in control of the person who's the most stubborn (unless I'm hosting the party because I can put the music on my laptop and turn off the internet), so if you don't want to spend the whole party stood by the speaker jack, scowling at people who get their phones out, you have to let it be. Somebody will put on their favourite song with complete disregard for how it fits into the party atmosphere and you have to smile and ignore it. Don't be that person. If you can help it.

RULE NUMBER SEVEN: HEY HEY HEY HEY / PARTY PLAYLIST EVERY DAY

You can never stop adjusting the party playlist. The party playlist is organic. The party playlist is constantly in flux. While writing this, I removed Yuck – Operation and added Yuck – Get Away (what was I thinking?!). The public opinion of an artist can shift suddenly and violently (See: Lana Del Ray), so if you want to be ready to start a musical party at any given moment, you have to be on top of that shit. Put any song that sounds like it might be good at a party into the playlist and then see how you feel about it in a few days. Once you've got a good few hours of solid stuff, you can start chopping and changing without too much sacrifice.

CONGRATULATIONS

If you did it right, you're now equipped with a valuable tool to get you through any party or party-like situation. All you need to do now is live every moment as if it's party playlist time. Godspeed.

*I snuck in Jaguar Love – Cherry Soda which is usually extremely unpopular. That's because if the one other person I know who loves that song is there we'll have so much fun that nobody dares touch that dial.

**Some of this one is related to the fact I've got my playlist set up to go on shuffle, you might be safer with nostalgic songs towards the end of your playlist if you've got something carefully crafted with an order and stuff.

Tom is a regular contributor to Oh No Video Games and can be found on Twitter.

EP Review: Fine Young Firecrackers - From the Ground Up

It's not often these days that I sit down and listen to a new band for the first time and simply devour an entire record by them. Sure, I quite regularly come across a band that has been kicking around for a few years (or decades) and listen to a seminal album that blows me away, but I just haven't found myself that wowed by 'new music' in the last few years. Many are the times that I have lamented to others that music these days just doesn't appeal to me as it did even a few years ago.

Take 2003 and 2004 for example. In those years alone, five albums were released that I would struggle to justify leaving out of my top ten favourite albums of all time. For the record, in case anyone cares, they are 'Deja Entendu' by Brand New, 'Where You Want To Be' by Taking Back Sunday, 'Futures' by Jimmy Eat World, 'Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge' by My Chemical Romance and 'Watch Out!' by Alexisonfire.

In the case of all of these records, bar Taking Back Sunday's, they were the first full albums I had heard by the bands after they had made the breakthrough. Each one in turn knocked me clean out of my socks, just for me to put them back on again and dust myself off in time to get knocked right back out of them again. It was almost unfair.

Now, I'm not trying to pull a grandad and say music was simply better in my day, rather that some of the styles of music I am inclined to listen to on a regular basis have evolved in a direction that doesn't appeal to me as much as the form it was in from about 2001-2006 (and if you can't work out what one of my favoured genres is from the list above, then I recommend a trip to Wikipedia and YouTube, post haste!) But that's the way music works, it constantly evolves in to new styles and trends and no-one is guaranteed to like the new direction it is taking, even if you liked where it was before.

In a way I'm quite grateful for this. Whereas before I was tied to listening to only a couple of genres on a regular basis, interspersed with the odd album or song from other styles, now that I can no longer rely on this narrow field for my kicks, I have had to expand my listening to include a much wider variety of music, and it's thanks to this that I feel more able to offer opinions about music on a blog like this.

However, this post isn't about why I became a blogger. For the first time in a long while, the other day I was introduced to a new band that I knew I was going to love within 30 seconds of the start of the first song I heard. The band in question is Fine Young Firecrackers, to whom I was introduced by an old work colleague. I was directed to a link where I could download a four track EP, 'From the Ground Up', which I instantly fell in love with.

A five-piece pop-punk act from Liverpool, Fine Young Firecrackers are full of the sort of youthful energy that has been sorely lacking from the genre since the likes of Blink 182, Green Day, the Offspring and Sum 41 grew up as bands and ditched the light-hearted and vivacious sound that characterised their earlier work.

With this EP, Fine Young Firecrackers' sound will inevitably be likened to the earlier works of bands like Fall Out Boy and fellow British pop-punkers You Me At Six, particularly with the last track of the EP, 'Landslide'. However, the songs offer so much more than this comparison suggests.

Blending at times a forceful drive to the guitars that is reminiscent of the more visceral aspects of Brand New's 2001 debut album 'Your Favorite Weapon', or the melodic hardcore of the Movielife's 2003 swansong '40 Hour Train Back to Penn', whom the band themselves site as an influence, with a similarly characteristic flowing vocal style as Dallas Green of City and Colour (and formerly Alexisonfire, RIP), all of the songs have a lot more bite to them than many of the bands that are currently putting out similar material.

'Landslide' in particular is a delight. After three minutes of fast-paced punk rock it isn't afraid to hit you hard and out of the blue with a cheeky, measured breakdown right at the end, and that itself characterises why this band is surely destined for greater things. They simply aren't afraid to occasionally ditch the traditional pop-punk methodology and hit you with something new and unexpected, which is very refreshing indeed.

Keep your eyes on these ones. I have a feeling that if they can keep on top of their obvious potential and use it to develop their sound for a full length release, you might be hearing a lot more from the Fine Young Firecrackers.

'From the Ground Up' is available as a free digital download here.

The Never-Ending Nostalgia Trip

At the Drive-In's 2000 album,
'Relationship of Command'

Coachella has a lot to answer for, and we should probably be grateful for that. Well, most of us at any rate. This year's line-up announcement brought us the news that two of the finest alternative bands that the 1990s produced were dusting off their back-catalogues after the best part of a decade away and were reforming for the festival and beyond. At The Drive-In and Refused, kindly take a bow.

I didn't get a ticket. I'm deeply upset at this, as the rest of the lineup is just stellar, unlikely to be matched by anyone else this year. But this comes as no surprise to me, I haven't actually been to a festival since Coachella in 2007, spurred on by the comeback of Rage Against the Machine. The festival has made a name for itself with similar stunt-booking throughout the years, coaxing bands out of self-imposed "hiatuses" to come and play for the adoring masses under the beautiful Californian sky (see Pixies and RATM).

On the one hand, this is brilliant for fans like me. People who were late to the party, too young, or simply unaware of the brilliance of bands such as ATD-I to venture to a gig in their heyday. The opportunity to hear songs such as Pattern Against User, Pickpocket and the like live for myself is an utterly tantalising prospect. To the cynics and the jaded fans who were there before, it's potentially nothing more than a nostalgic cash-in, sullying the "legacy" that they had left behind. A legacy that is in the very DNA of every post-hardcore band that seemed to follow.

So the question is, why now? 2000's Relationship of Command was the band's breakthrough album, but ultimately led to the "indefinite" hiatus that has now come to an end. From their ashes came Sparta and the more-renowned The Mars Volta, perhaps best conveying where the band's priorities lay. I'm a novice when it comes to Sparta, but I did enjoy the first two Volta albums. Alas, every subsequent track I've heard since is the literal embodiment of guitar masturbation, with little to enjoy or even love unless you're on copious amounts of hallucinogenics. Which is probably the point.

In that case, I'm relieved that ATD-I are back. The news brought an endless stream of quoted lyrics and puns on my respective social media feeds, vocalising the sheer delight many of my peers felt. The most interesting response I heard was that it was a sign that modern-day bands have "failed", that we need bands like Refused and ATD-I to stoke the embers and restore some passion, vigour and violenc e to a music scene that holds Ed Sheeran aloft as some sort of hero. I'm inclined to agree, we might need them now more than ever.

If it is a cynical cash-grab, we'll know soon enough. But I just hope that the fire has returned, that they still have something to say and that any new material captures that sheer anger, energy and passion that made us fall in love with them in the first place. And make the lyrics as nonsensical as you need them to be, we'll be screaming along to every word.

We Used To Talk About Girls Who Played Guitars

Hayley Williams of Paramore performing.
Image copyright www.noisetrend.com

I would like to start this post off with a disclaimer. I don't listen to music made by girls. Now, before people start wildly accusing me of sexism, I would like to clarify this disclaimer somewhat.

My reasons for this are not because women are inherently inferior and are lacking the gift of musical ability that is so virulently apparent in men. It's not even because I think music made by women is bad, at least not any more. It certainly isn't because I am sexist, at least not consciously. In fact it is simply because the female led music I was exposed to when I first started to develop my music taste was, to put it bluntly, shit.

By the time I reached 14 or 15, the age where I started to make rational decisions about music (as my dad gleefully regales everyone in reach, I was a huge Spice Girls fanboy until I was 11) music television channels were in the ascendency and I got in to a lot of my early favourite bands through the likes of Kerrang and MTV2.

Back in my day (when all this were fields) the sort of female artists and women-led bands that were appearing on these kinds of TV stations were the likes of Avril Lavigne and Evanescence, both of whom, at best fall in to the same category as a lot of the generic tripe that Kerrang was pumping out around that time (Stain'd anyone?), and in the case of Avril Lavigne that is being VERY generous. The best that they could dredge out of the archives was 'Celebrity Skin' by professional-crack-addict-fronted grunge monkeys Hole. 

Furthermore I just didn't understand bands like Garbage, and I simply wasn't keen on the likes of Sleeper and Elastica, just as I was never really a big fan of most other Britpop artists. Literally the only song by a band whose singer was a woman that I saw on the likes of Kerrang and can remember thinking was even remotely passable whilst I was still in school was 'Take It Off' by the Donnas, and it's hardly Bohemian Rhapsody.

Adolescent me took one look at what was on offer and said “Is that the best you've got?” Of course, in hindsight, I was wrong, but at the time it was all I had. This was in the heady days when, as a young boy living in, essentially, the middle of nowhere in North Wales, my internet access was limited to dialup access and a Napster account. I remember being in awe of a friend who had 24 hours of mp3s on his PC.

As such, my only real option for new music was to buy it. Heady days indeed, but as a teenager without a job I could only afford to buy music I liked, or at least music that was similar to what I liked. Unfortunately, when I was 14 I fell in to the pitfall of grouping things in to genres, and thusly placed all female rockers and rock groups in to the same boat. The boat for music that is enjoyed by girls (that are smelly and probably have some form of lurgy).

The strangest thing is that there are a number of artists who are considered legends that at this time I wouldn't have hesitated to listen to. Nina Simone, for example, used to be (and still is) a big favourite of mine. I could happily stick on a Blondie album and go about my business, but for some reason because they were legends they transcended my image I had of women in rock at the time. It was like the rules I had for them didn't apply to everyone else.

This was equally true of other genres of course; I didn't like Fat Boy Slim or Eminem for example, so I didn't go out and buy any house or hip-hop albums either. Also, until recently I had mostly dismissed classic rock as being a genre that merited no investigation whatsoever, despite a predilection for the odd Led Zeppelin album. But none of that makes the generalisation that all female rock bands are rubbish any more right or justified. Sadly, for whatever reason, this is a stereotype that I haven't managed to shake out of my brain, at least up until quite recently.

Even today, if you look at the 300 or so artists in my iTunes library that have more than one song in their list, only 14 of them are exclusively female or have a female vocalist in a prominent role alongside a male singer. And one of them is the Black Eyed Peas, who shouldn't be counted on any list ever. That's just 4.66% of my entire music catalogue. 14 year old me would probably have worn a smug grin when hearing that statistic, but honestly, 26 year old me is just ashamed.

There have been times, in the years since when I have listened to female artists, whether because I wanted to or because I was offered no choice, and they have largely failed to change my mind. Particular examples I can remember were KT Tunstall, whom I found no better than OK, and Regina Spektor, whom I completely failed to get, and still do to this day. Of course, some artists slipped through the net and got a fair hearing like Azure Ray and Straylight Run, but I always considered them exceptions to the rule, and it was usually on the basis that they were connected in some way to another band I liked. Despite the likes of the legends I mentioned earlier, even seminal artists like Fleetwood Mac have only really recently become staples of my listening habits.

Sadly the stereotype was so firmly in place that it never once occurred to me that maybe I didn't like Tunstall and Spektor not because they were female artists but because they weren't playing the kind of music I enjoy. Subconscious sexism for the lose.

I am glad to say that, thanks to friends introducing me to new artists, and a general desire to listen to new music, my eyes, or should I say ears have been opened over the last year and this will be reflected in a couple of upcoming articles on this very blog. One even pointed out a few bands I didn't realise had prominently contributing women, such as Sonic Youth. I am, however, concerned that the image of female musicians that is being peddled by the music industry hasn't really changed that much since I was younger.

The likes of Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson are at best being portrayed as lightweight bubbly sex symbols who rely on others to write their songs for them. The industry needs more stronger women like Rihanna and Lady Gaga to come to the forefront and change the image of female pop musicians, but in such a male dominate industry, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't, unless it becomes obvious there's a massive profit in it.

Sadly, the state of rock music isn't much better. The only band with a female vocalist that is in the mainstream rock scene today that is reaching a worldwide audience that comes immediately to mind is Paramore. While they of course are far from the first to break through, and are considerably better than a lot of what I was exposed to when I was first listening to proper music, they are one of the biggest bands to come around since the internet became a real driving force in music distribution and as such carry a large weight of responsibility on their shoulders to really change the image of women in rock for the better.

They won't be able to do it alone however. I'm hoping that the Paramore juggernaut, coupled with the rise to popularity of groups like the Naked and Famous and Warpaint, both of whom were high up the bill at last year's Reading and Leeds festivals; Flyleaf, who are making a big splash just below the surface as a screamo band to watch; and the likes of more established artists such as Tegan & Sara helps to serve as the first broadside shot at the institutional sexism that runs through the music industry.

Here's hoping, because people deserve to realise straight away that a lot of ladies are making a lot of good music out there, not twelve years too late. I'm glad I escaped the perceived image I had, and I know that others will be too. Girls are still smelly, though.

Looking Forward To Go Back - Albums of 2011 (Part Two)

Continuing from last week, the following selection is the quintet of records whose luminescent brilliance rendered most records released last year a distinct second-best.

5. Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos/Ravedeath, 1972

Is it cheating to include two records here? Nah. Ravedeath, 1972 and Dropped Pianos are of a piece with each other, the former created as a result of Hecker's manipulation of the sound of a pipe organ in an Icelandic church, the latter its spectral blueprint created in the studio on piano and computer prior to entering. Of the two, I prefer Dropped Pianos, mostly because it feels more direct, though Ravedeath is the one you could really get lost in. One of my favourite bands, Deftones, have a track called Digital Bath. This is what such a thing would actually sound like. Rubber duck not included.

4. Locrian - The Clearing

A shadowy unit operating across various media, including cassettes and even VHS, Locrian have become more streamlined in an operational sense, even if their music has continued to set them apart from most other avant-rock bands. 2010's J.G. Ballard-referencing The Crystal World was a haunting artifact that appeared to signal the crepuscular inevitability of the end times, and although The Clearing is an altogether more sober record, with a few more shards of light, it too has its fair share of nasty left turns - witness Chalk Point's descent into abrasive noise, a vicious counterpoint to its gentle, diffident opening segue.

3. Gnaw Their Tongues - Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus

As with Locrian, Gnaw Their Tongues require serious effort on the part of the listener and fly in the face of any social music-sharing apps, such is his obdurate approach. Solemn readings of death-obsessed erotica and bizarre incantations can just about be made out from within a horrific attack on the ears, which sounds like a demon being let loose on an unsuspecting orchestra, or an industrial-strength play session in a BDSM rubber-room, depending on your preference. The combination of Grand guignol horror mixed with a sense of the cerebral and perverse is what ultimately keeps you listening, and guessing.

2. Friendly Fires - Pala

In case anyone thinks my music habits has turned me into the very worst of internet trolls, only coming out from under my bridge to chew on guileless livestock and Adele albums, let me state for the record that Pala is the most fun you can have with your pants up. It takes the ear-for-a-good-hook approach that set them on their winning ways for the first album, and running with it to see where it leads them. Pala doesn't put a foot wrong from the Afrobeat excursions of Pull Me Back To Earth to the brilliant 80's pop of Hurting, sounding not too dissimilar to something Alphabeat would make. Its peak is perhaps Hawaiian Air, a pop monster with a chorus the size of a planet that in a fairer world would have been this year's festival anthem. I'm already looking to their next audacious creative leap.

1. Enablers - Blown Realms and Stalled Explosions

In a year when the nursery rhyme simplicity of PJ Harvey (in itself, not a bad thing, see below) could gain plaudits and awards, it's nice to see a literary-minded group not afraid to challenge themselves and their listeners and put out some of their best work to date. Their modus operandi, penumbral neo-noirish vignettes, remained mostly intact (see opener Patton), but seemed to speak to vocalist and poet Pete Simonelli's personal experiences and relationships rather than discussing slightly-offhand ciphers. Added to Simonelli's searching lyrics was this record's ace-in-the-hole, the piercingly emotive soundscapes, the best of which brought me to the brink of tears, particularly on the album's highpoint Career-Minded Individual, a discussion of a wistful morning between two people with much left unsaid almost impossibly heightened by the backdrop that surrounds it, culminating in a wordless epiphany.

Honourable Mentions

Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
This Will Destroy You -Tunnel Blanket
The Weeknd - Echoes of Silence
Nicholas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
James Blake - James Blake
Mastodon - The Hunter

Some quality albums that missed the cut for either being promising but not-quite-spectacular or hadn't bedded in properly when I was compiling. Such a fate was particularly true for Waits' Bad As Me, and if I was doing this list a month or two down the road, I would fully expect it to occupy a spot in the Top 5. For some aficionados, anything the man does is already sealed in at No. 0.

Dishonourable Mentions

Unfortunately, this year carried a sackful of disappointments from artists who'd previously not blotted their respective copybooks (for the most part) but took 2011 as a ripe opportunity to pour all the ink out, possibly while calling me rude names in an errant fashion and earning themselves a swift detention (and this laboured metaphor).

Chief among them were Fleet Foxes, for the limp-wristed Helplessness Blues, almost a parody of the strident, sonorous melodies that had informed their previous work. Despite being in many ways a Robin Pecknold solo album in all but name, it only served to underline his shortcomings as a songwriter in a dismal, rote fashion. Sadly, this was not the only record to put me in a strop.

Battles - Gloss Drop

If you want to hear how to follow up a record as giddy yet cerebral as Mirrored, then you'll be wanting a copy of former Battles member Tyondai Braxton's dizzyingly inventive Central Market. If, however, you want a laboured mess that takes a winning formula, and mangles it beyond recognition, then knock yourself out with Gloss Drop. John Stainier, how could you?

Bon Iver- Bon Iver

Justin Vernon's Bon Iver project looked a little shaky last year, and unfortunately his self-titled album mislaid what was undoubtedly the strongest element of For Emma, namely that God-like voice and buried it under a hodge-podge of vaguely 80's sounding arrangements that went absolutely fucking nowhere and took a considerable amount of my time doing so. I'd have been inclined to forgive him, except for his involvement in the similar-but-superior Gayngs. I will, say, however, that the songs form his self-titled release have been re-worked much better live so the blame may lie chiefly with the production.

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter IV

WTF happened? Tha Carter IV was the worst end to a quadrilogy since Alien: Resurrection.

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Something of a baffling success, Let England Shake pared down a great many aspects of Polly-Jean Harvey' music, but lost much of its lustre too. The deliberately simplistic lyrics made sense within the scope of what she set out to do, namely to convey the universal horrors of war, but coupled with its score, everything seemed incredibly slight and less than the sum of its parts. Although I found it difficult to get through, her last album, White Chalk, was growing on me again this year, so maybe I heard it at the wrong end of the cycle.

Song of 2011

Lana Del Ray - Video Games


*burn*

Actually, it was Once We All Agree by James Blake. The most affecting piece of music I heard all year, the opening track from the Enough Thunder mini-album was heart-breaking and left me reeling. Words can't do it justice, so if you haven't heard it, I implore you to do so now. If this is an indication of his future work, then I'll be in raptures when it hits. His dance work's pretty good too.

Bands That Made Me Go 'Ooh' 2011, Part One: ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

Worlds Apart

2011 was, in many ways, not a great year for me and new music. I spent a good portion of the year out of the country, and therefore deprived of access to original sounds for one reason or another. As for the rest of the year... well, I don't have an excuse really. I'll blame it on dinosaurs.

In spite of this, there were a number of bands or albums that I discovered over the course of the year that caused me to incredulously declare “How have I not listened to these guys before?!” This was usually followed by my running around, grabbing everyone I knew that liked said artist and cursing them for not tying me to a chair and forcing me to listen to them at gun point, before accepting that being late to the party was probably my fault. Or, at worst, those pesky dinosaurs were up to their old tricks again.

Anyway, I have picked five of the best of these albums to talk about, and will be doing so in the coming weeks. Without further ado, let us begin.

5. ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – Worlds Apart

Trail of Dead are a band with whom I have had minor dalliances in the past, and as this was really meant to be about newly discovered bands they only warrant the bottom spot in this list. The album was just too good to leave out, really.

The Texas pioneers are perhaps best regarded for being part of the second wave of the American post-hardcore movement along with bands like Hot Water Music and At the Drive-In. Walking in the mighty footsteps of Fugazi and Embrace they are partly responsible for expanding the scene in the US and, indirectly, for the rise of the emo scene as we know it today, which isn't as bad a thing as most people might try to tell you.

Given my affinity for more modern post-hardcore bands, in particular British acts such as Hell is for Heroes, Reuben and Funeral for a Friend all of whom can trace a direct lineage to Trail of Dead (with HifH even going so far as having members of the band appear in the video for the single Night Vision) it is perhaps surprising that it has taken me this long to get round to them.

Whilst on some occasions for this feature I will be discussing bands whose entire catalogue has wowed me, in this case, it is one specific album which has caught my ear. It has made picking an album for the article easier, but also makes me wish that I had been blessed with the prescience to expand my listening that little bit further back in 2001 when I first really got in to the scene. That album is 2005's World Apart, which has come quite late in the band's career. It is actually an album I have had on my iPod for some years now, but for whatever reason have never really managed to get past the opening few tracks.

The album itself starts off with 'Ode to Isis', which is little more than a prelude to build up to what is to come. As that soars to its crescendo the band bursts in to life with 'Will You Smile Again?' This is a curious song which just as easily could be split off in to two separately coherent songs around the 1.45 mark, but works equally well as one. In fact, the raucousness and urgency of the first part of the song counterbalances the more relaxed and methodical latter half quite well to create an interesting flow that is reminiscent of some of The Cure's work.

Up next is title track 'Worlds Apart' which offers a scathing indictment of corporate America in the post 9/11 world. Celebrity and consumer culture come under heavy fire from Conrad Keely's vitriolic lyrics in what, for me, is the stand-out track of the album. It is a sharp, but short example of why these guys have influenced so many bands since they formed in the mid-90s. Despite the fact it could perhaps have benefited from another verse, it is a powerful song.

Other notable songs include the sweeping 'The Rest Will Follow', which shows the band's more mainstream rock sensibilities and its follow-up track, 'Caterwaul', which is reminiscent of Blur's heavier offerings. The rest of the album is filled out with the sort of fare you would expect from a band that, by now, more than knows their way around a post-hardcore record, and has had, at this point, over a decade together as a band to develop their own twist to a sound that they largely invented themselves anyway.

Mixed in there are some surprisingly floaty offerings that wouldn't be out of place on a Radiohead or Modest Mouse album. These songs give the album a unique balance that really adds something to its sound as a whole, and offer a broader appeal to those that feel less inclined towards the heavier songs the band are renowned for. Finally, just for good measure there's a short Eastern European folk-style song in there too.

Overall the album gels very well as a single piece of music. The rapid and repeated switch between the more fast paced punk infused songs and the lighter, more flowing indie riffs in songs like 'The Best' and 'The Lost City of Refuge' provide an interesting back and forth that is often missing in bands these days and shows a depth of talent that a lot of artists would give their right leg for.

I would recommend it for anyone who is a fan of post-hardcore generally, but also for those who would like a bit of an insight in to the sort of sounds that have inspired a lot more of the modern rock scene than you might imagine.

Looking Back To Go Forward - Albums of 2011 (Part One)

Here at Bobbins Towers, we've been casting our minds over the last year, attempting to make sense of the flurry of music released and distill it down in notational form so we can officially make peace with 2011, seal it off for good, and batten down the hatches to prepare ourselves for the next onslaught of crazy sounds. As this list is reaching you ocularly in January of 2012, rather than December last (or even November, as it is for some obsessive bastards and their list-seeking thrills), you'll no doubt surmise that this means we do things a little differently - and slowly; so it is with our undisputed Album of the Year. An album that was elsewhere neglected in lists, perhaps because the sheer scale of its impact hadn't been properly processed when the typing frenzy began. I'm talking, of course, about Boston Legal alumni William Shatner's opus Seeking Major Tom.

On every conceivable level, William Shatner's Seeking Major Tom spoke of a defining artistic statement. The heroic cover art, the maddeningly obtuse roster of special guests (Bootsy Collins, The Strokes' Nick Valensi and Sheryl Crow?!), the heightened sense that we were lucky enough to be hearing a rock opera in extremis, to say nothing of the octogenarian's phenomenal vocal range on the Black Sabbath classic Iron Man. For those of you who didn't think he had it in him, shame on you. For the rest of us, it was a record truly worthy of the adjective Shatneresque, and nothing else that was unwary enough to set foot in 2011's release schedule stood a chance. Bill, we salute you.

And yet, one man cannot drive music on alone, the very embodiment of a thankless task, and luckily 'TekWar Will' was aided and abetted by several other fantastic artists in other spheres. While not quite the supernova of quality as the above, they could at least co-exist in the same solar system. So without further ado, here's a grouping of 10 personal highlights (excluding my Top 5, to follow shortly) from the last year. It is by no means definitive, but a good indication nonetheless of what was keeping my interest these twelve months past.

15. Shangaan Electro - New Wave Dance Music From South Africa

The title pretty much sums up everything you need to know here. A compilation of upbeat and exuberant acts that make incredibly beatific music that often sounds like it's moonlighting as a soundtrack for a never-released Mega Drive game. Certainly one of the most purely joyful records you're likely to hear this or any other year.

14. Opeth - Heritage

To say this album split the Opeth fanbase down the middle would be excessively generous, as many long-term fans derided the overt prog-rock and psychedelic (i.e. non-metal) influences that laid the foundations for Heritage. But this was merely the fruition of a long-held love of '70s music from frontman Mikael Akerfeldt that had been signposted before on 2003's Damnation. Speaking personally, the likes of The Devil's Orchard were a welcome sign of invigoration within the band's ranks following their last album Watershed, which was a bit of a stinker by the band's imperious standards.

13. Polar Bear Club - Clash Battle Guilt Pride

Did I mention I really, really love Hot Water Music and their creamy post-hardcore goodness? No? Well, I do. The astute will have already cottoned on to the fact that this band is not Hot Water Music, but they tread a similar line in melodic, gritty punk rock that tips the hat to the Gainsville, Florida natives but marks out some space for themselves. Worth it for the opening trio of songs alone.

12. Tyler, The Creator - Goblin

A record dismissed by some as an overlong, overcooked mess, Goblin is certainly not without its flaws. Bracing and often highly distasteful subject matter combine with a slow languorous pace to create a record that is self-indulgent but admirable for bucking many of the expectations it was saddled with prior to release. The trick is to see 'hits' like Yonkers, She and Tron Cat for what they are, relative light relief on a record of bracing nihilistic thought. This is album as personal exorcism.

11. Grails - Deep Politics

While this record may not be openly political, at least not in the conventional wisdom, it is at least deeper than Rick Santorum (fnar). From the inscrutable and faintly ominous cover artwork to the constantly evolving series of sonics held within it, Deep Politics follows its own singular path, with scant regard for conventional song structure or the easy path. Though not as intoxicatingly dark as the band's ongoing Black Tar Prophecies series, the likes of I Almost Grew My Hair and I Led Three Lives in particular compel the listener to submit, like a particularly pesuasive dom (or domme).

10. Decapitated - Carnival Is Forever

A welcome return from a band previously bedevilled by tragedy and setbacks, Carnival Is Forever also saw Poland's death-metal kings branch out, interspersing their alternately technical and groove-centric extremity with some inimitably weird designs, and granting them a new lease of creative life in the process.

9. Machine Head - Unto The Locust

Never really 'got' The Blackening. Yup, I know. Probably renders my opinion on this Machine Head record invalid 'n' all, but I didn't get round to listening to it properly. This however, is immense, some of the most crushing material this band has ever concocted, and it all seems somehow nastier in places. Certainly, the band are in a more adventurous mood than they've ever been and it pays dividends throughout.

8. Wild Beasts - Smother

This album has drifted in and out of my favour since it was released last May, but in the last few weeks it started to make sense all over again. Fittingly, for an album filled with the longueurs of besotted lovers and sexual partners, it takes its own sweet fucking time, but when tracks like End Come To Soon finally lock on to the listener's limbic system, it hits with an almost metronomic precision. I'd still rate the band's barmy debut Limbo, Panto above this, but this is a band who might only be at cruising speed still, their creative well far from fully tapped. Interesting note: this album was recorded in Snowdonia, which should be henceforth exploited for tourist purposes.

7. La Dispute - Wildlife

A new discovery for me this year, Michigan's La Dispute craft a heady brew, taking influences from Glassjaw to meWithoutYou to Shellac and then run with it into the penumbra. And even if they don't fully transcend those influences, the power inherent within the likes of a Departure and the boy-with-a-gun storytelling that propels King Park, are gripping enough that it doesn't matter. As with Wild Beasts, they have their card marked as ones to watch.

6. Rustie - Glass Swords

An album with a spiritual home in the eighties, a mindset linked to nineties rave, and the production techniques of today, Glass Swords could have been a horrible mish-mash. Although it occasionally skirts dangerous territory, it never gets sucked in and keeps a tight rein on proceedings. Anyone who believes that dance music is creatively bankrupt or simply not fun anymore should give this record a listen, and then slap themselves silly for being seven shades of wrong.

To be continued...