The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 264

The first week of work after the holiday break is over! Won't lie to you, it's never easy to return to routine, even more in this year of working from home and social distancing. But we believe we have overcome it quite well. Of course, with a serious lack of sleep, many emails to respond and some job inconsistencies, etc. But we don't want to bore you with personal issues, so here we leave you our new TOP TEN JUKEBOX full of new discoveries. In fact, except for The Treasures of Mexico, old acquaintances on the Blog, the rest of the bands have never appeared on the playlist. So, we encourage you to dive into the new sounds that we propose you and relax on this well-deserved weekend. Remember to join us at our Soundcloud page!

BloodBuzzed · Bloodbuzzed Jukebox 264

Direct links to 2020 Jukebox playlists

Week 250  Week 251  Week 252  Week 253 Week 254  Week 255  Week 256  Week 257 

Week 258  Week 259  Week 260  Week 261  Week 262 Week 263

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 204

Strike gold! Sometimes playlists look like a constellation of stars, and today is one of these rare cases. Our TOP TEN JUKEBOX is a mix between the stunning comebacks of beloved Blog bands, such as The Goon Sax, Line & Circle, Treasures of Mexico  Swimming Tapes or Egoism, with our regular dose of amazing discoveries, with names to follow closely, like Blades of Joy or Botschaft. All in all, plenty to choose, listen and enjoy. And remember, all the songs are available at our Soundcloud. (Join Us!)

Direct links to 2018 Jukebox playlists

Week 171  Week 172  Week 173  Week 174  Week 175 Week 176  Week 177  Week 178 
Week 179  Week 180  Week 181  Week 182  Week 183 Week 184  Week 185  Week 186
Week 187  Week 188  Week 189  Week 190  Week 191 Week 192  Week 193  Week 194
Week 195  Week 196  Week 197  Week 198  Week 199  Week 200 Week 201  Week 202
Week 203

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 161

Tired of the "groundhog flag day" we are stuck here? So are we. Really tired. Exhausted. Of fascism, repression and manipulation (outside and online). Of blatant lies. Oh, how we would love to have a magic receipt to put an end to it (it's going to last much longer, hope you realize) sometimes! Unfortunately, we don't have it. But instead, we can provide you with music, at least a humble escape or motivation, a bit of sunlight maybe? with our traditional TOP TEN Jukebox, full of bands we love and are back in action, like The Stammer, Gingerlys of The Treasures of Mexico, as well as our regular dose of new, exciting finds. Have fun (if you can) and remember, all songs are available at our Soundcloud. (Join Us!)

Direct links to 2017 Jukebox playlists

Week 126  Week 127  Week 128  Week 129  Week 130  Week 131 Week 132  Week 133
Week 134  Week 135  Week 136  Week 137  Week 138  Week 139 Week 140  Week 141
Week 142  Week 143  Week 144  Week 145  Week 146  Week 147  Week 148 Week 149
Week 150  Week 151  Week 152  Week 153  Week 154  Week 155  Week 156  Week 157
Week 158  Week 159  Week 160

The Indie Anthology 68: essential songs

Told you this section was going to be revitalized and, before we take a holiday break for about ten days here's another mesmerizing tune to add to our anthology. Well, as a matter of fact it is way more than just a tune. In my opinion, it's one of the best jangle pop melodies ever penned.

Song: I Had an Excellent Dream
Artist: The Dentists
Year: 1985

This past April, we had the pleasure to count with Mark Matthews from the amazing The Treasures of Mexico, answering our questions in the 'These Go to 11' section. But, Matthews, as we pointed extensively on that interview, has a jangle-pop pedigree that goes back to the middle 80s, as he was a permanent member of the The Dentists, a terribly underrated combo that gave us a bunch of gems, among them this mind-blowing 'I Had and Excellent Dream', an epitome of what an eternal jangle-pop tune is, and part of a truly masterful album, 'Some People Are on the Pitch They Think It's All Over It Is Now' (reminder: have to grab a copy, damn it!). Second one: a guitar starts ringing (thanks Bob Collins, also playing now at the Treasures, you are genius guitarist). Seconds five to-eight: you are irrepressibly hooked by that chiming guitar riff (it resonates, vibrates, hums and keeps going further, relentlessly), propelled by that groovy rhythm section. Second thirty: Michael Murphy starts singing and you, providing an fragility and melancholy to the otherwise blasting tune. Second one hundred and eighty: the chorus keeping exploding and you know you'll get stuck to the song forever. 31 years have passed and still sounds raw, exciting, slightly psychedelic, immediate and classic at the same time. Guitar pop as its best.

These Go to 11: interviewing The Treasures of Mexico

And here comes another great musician answering our questionnaire. Today we have the pleasure of having Mark Matthews, formerly on the amazing The Dentists and now leading the terrific The Treasures of Mexico. A lot of indiepop, you'll see. These Go to 11!

The Treasures of Mexico, indiepop hunters

Mark Matthews, The Treasures of Mexico
Do you remember The Dentists? If not, write down the name and add it to your "things-to-do" list, because they were a great, shamefully underrated jangle-pop band from Chatham, UK, active from 1984 to 1995. The combo disbanded, but former founder members Mark Matthews and Bob Collins kept very active in bands like Coax, Fortress Madonna, The Great Lines, The Claim... involving themselves into side projects and contributions until Mark began The Treasures of Mexico alongside Bob and Russ Baxter from Secret Affair, coming out with one of favourite records of 2015, the magnificent 'Holding Pattern', an effervescent and hyper addictive jangle-pop treaty, out digitally via our dear friends from Shelflife. With a follow-up in the works while their members keep themselves busy (with Bob Collins and the Full Nelson, World Beginning With X, Stuart Turner and The Flat Earth Society) all we can say is: cheers to the great musicians who never give up! Here we go!

1.First record that you bought (be honest)

The Flinstones goes punk!

Ok so the first record I bought with my own money was an LP by The Rezillos called 'Can't Stand The Rezillos'. I saved up, and had to cycle twice to a very small shop in the housing estate that was Twydall, where they had to order it. I think they only usually carried the Top 20. I saw The Rezillos on Top of the Pops performing their song 'Top of the Pops' and I just thought they were incredible. They looked like the cast of the Flintstones and sounded like a cross between punk (which I was too young to appreciate really) and glam rock, and the band were just whizzing about on stage like demented puppets, singing 'everybody's on Top of the Pops' which I didn't understand but liked the sentiment of. The LP is a gem, full of hooky power pop and from that I discovered the previous singles including 'Can't Stand My Baby' which is probably my favourite Rezillos song. 

Before 'Pirates of the Caribbean'... there were the Ants

2. First and last concert you have attended (be honest too!)
First un-chaperoned concert was probably The Monochrome Set at the YMCA in Tottenham Court Rd, London. Andy Warren had just left Adam & the Ants to play bass in the MS, and loads of Ants punks turned up to chant 'Ants! Ants! Ants!' at him every time there was a break between songs. He remains a bass playing hero. Last concert I bought a ticket for was probably The Luxembourg Signal in Brighton, if you discount local bands.

Madonna gets electronic

3. Guilty pleasure (song/band you shouldn’t like but you do, yes, it’s the embarrassing question)

Guiltiest is probably later Madonna - I especially like 'Ray of Light' and 'Music' but let's keep that to ourselves.

4. Most precious music item you own (collector mode on)

Would be my 1978 Rickenbacker bass instrument wise, and record wise I would say Blueboy by Orange Juice 45 on the Postcard label.

5.Favorite lyrics (not yours)
So many....'I dreamt about you last night and I fell out of bed twice', (Smiths), heard for the first time on John Peel, but really anything from Morrissey. Or 'You and I' by Wilco. Or Teenage Kicks. Or The Doors....I could go on and on....the other lyric that always sticks with me is Edwyn Collins on 'Consolation Prize'; 'I wore my fringe like Roger McGuinn's, I was hoping to impress. So frightfully camp, it made you laugh, tomorrow I'll buy myself a dress - how ludicrous

Malkmus, living up the 90s

6.Musician/s you would like to meet (should be alive, for obvious reasons, but you can choose a dead one too)
I really wouldn't be overly keen to meet anyone really. I've had chances to meet Andy Warren but never taken them up. I think maybe if pushed I'd quite like to meet the guys from Pavement, Malkmus in particular but any of them really. They seem pretty grounded and I feel like it would be a productive conversation. I met Liam Gallagher once mind you and we had a good chat about football. He was absolutely lovely.

7. Favorite artwork album (not yours)
Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. Love the Factory stuff.

Wes Anderson in the Republic of Zubrowka

8. Books or movies? Depending on your answer recommend us one (trick: you can choose both) 
Any movie by Wes Anderson and I recommend 'Grand Budapest Hotel' if you haven't seen it. I love both but Wes takes it for movies and Douglas Coupland would take it for books.

9. Release (of yours) you are most proud of
Well I think generally musicians are always most proud of the last thing they've done, otherwise there's not much point in going on. To that end, the song 'Let's Start At The Beginning' from the last Treasure album takes it, but obviously I'm most proud of the songs I'm working on right now.

10. What does it mean indie for you? (yes, the “serious question”)
That's a good question. Personally, I think the concept of "indie" needs to be retired as it died a long time ago. I still think of the original definition which was music distributed independently, outside of the major labels, but that quickly got into difficulty when artists like Kylie Minogue -genuinely indie at the time- started to take over the Indie chart. Then they tried "alternative" as a category and everything became subjective. I think music is just music now and it's not indie v. majors anymore, it's all changed, but the real battle is going to be hard product v. downloads. I dread the day that you can't buy a physical CD or piece of vinyl. Personally, I'd like to go back to vinyl and downloads. CD as a format holds no real interest for me.

11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 
Still making music and sending it out on CD to about 6 interested friends!         

 Zillion thanks Mark!

Discoverer 116: new indie findings

Back to our regular work mode and ready to propose you three new, exciting music finds in our discoveries' series!

The Treasures of Mexico. Here comes an unmissable one! The Dentists were a fantastic, criminally underrated and mostly forgotten indie band from Chatham, UK, active from 1984 to 1995. Coax, Fortress Madonna, The Great Lines, The Claim... Side projects and music contributions with several bands followed, proving that founder members Mark Matthews and Bob Collins were very far from done, luckily for us, from this unfair & cruel world (replace with word industry) called music. One of this new adventures has now crystallised, on which Mark has the control over the songwriting duties with the help of Bob and another usual suspect, Russ Baxter from Secret Affair. The Treasures of Mexico are here with debut album 'Holding Pattern', out just now digitally thanks to our dear friends from Shelflife. Melodic, janlgy, effervescent, upbeat, shimmery, delightful from song one to thirteen, is very hard to analyse the record with objectivity. It's the kind of music that made this humble blogger be writing this Blog. Needless to say, look for The Treasures of Mexico on our best-of-the-year lists.

Turnover. Hailing from Virginia Beach, Virginia, the band was born in 2009 with an initial demo surfacing that year, although first release, a self-titled EP, didn't arrive until 2011. Tours, a split record with Citizen and signature with label Run for Cover Records arrived in 2012, with whom they released debut album, 'Magnolia', a year later. A prolific combo, in 2014 they came out with another EP, 'Blue Dream', and a split with Ivy League, Maker and Such Gold. Finally, in this 2015 we can enjoy their sophomore LP, 'Peripheral Vision', out since May. Evolving from their pop-punk origins without losing their idiosincracy, Turnover has embraced the dreamy landscapes of Wild Nothing and the chiming guitars of our beloved Real Estate. The result is excellent: a pleasing, blissfully melancholic record, enjoyable from start to finish.

Funeral Advantage. Let's move to Boston, MA, to meet Tyler Kershaw. In 2013 he began his lo-fi bedroom pop project releasing a demo tape and split 7" with Caténine on Disposable America. But since then it has evolved into a full band with an impressive cv of gigs alongside Alvvays, Whirr or Craft Spells. This 2015 they have released the double a-side 'Not In My House / That's That' with The Native Sound and, in April, another split 7" with Former Ghosts, with debut album scheduled later in the year. Moody, reverb-drenched dreampop crafted with jangly guitars. Looking forward to Kershaw's band new tunes. Most promising.
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The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 57

After the Primavera Sound Festival's maelstrom we are back with our TOP TEN playlist, with the tunes we have been enjoying the most lately. Starting with one of our discoveries of the Festival, Núria Graham and continuing with another proof of Dunedin's great music, Astro Children, we have prepared a really diverse playlist. So, if you like indie-rock proposals you are in the right place, same as well if you are more a indie-pop listening type. As always, this is algo avaiblable at our Soundcloud blog page, please join us!

Direct links to 2015 Jukebox playlists
Week 36  Week 37  Week 38   Week 39  Week 40 

Week 41  Week 42  Week 43  Week 44   Week 45
Week 46  Week 47   Week 48  Week 49    Week 50
Week 51   Week 52  Week 53  Week 54    Week 55 
Week 56 

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 44

As we said, March is a month full of music! We have a really special concert this weekend, one of the most amazing discoveries last year, The Zebras. But first goes first, and for this new round of our TOP TEN playlist series we bring you a new song of our beloved Courtney Barnett (second album about to arrive!), the latest proposal of Honeyblood (we are devoted fans of their music), or the exciting, powerful comeback of Best Coast. But we haven't forgotten our discoveries' chapter, fully charged with bands like The Treasures of Mexico (what a superb find) or Field Mouse. Remember, this is also available at our Soundcloud blog page. So, join us!

Direct links to the previous Jukebox weeks

Week 1 Week 8 Week 15  Week 22 Week 29 Week 36  Week 43 
Week 2 Week 9  Week 16  Week 23  Week 30   Week 37
Week 3 Week 10 Week 17  Week 24  Week 31  Week 38
Week 4 Week 11  Week 18   Week 25   Week 32   Week 39
Week 5 Week 12 Week 19   Week 26   Week 33   Week 40
Week 6 Week 13 Week 20   Week 27   Week 34   Week 41
Week 7  Week 14   Week 21   Week 28   Week 35  Week 42