Neighbors - New Waves

It’s an (unoriginal) thought that we return to often, but either the number of true creative types is drying up or there simply are very few new ideas left. Every note, every sound has been created before. Like cinema or theatre, pop music has now become an art form that can no longer makes radical strides forward, instead slowly evolving by rolling around in the muddied waters of the sea of influences. These days it’s not so much an equation of originality but the sum of the references that determines if a song is worthy of attention or not.

Which brings us to the subject of this new wave; Neighbors. We’re not talking about the people who live next door to us, nor some Kylie and Jason tribute band, but instead the vehicle for Brooklyn’s Noah Stitelman and his songwriting talents. Noah is assisted by four others - Evan Johnson, Brian Harney, Steph McParty and Anne Mino, and they make songs that may not be stunningly original (what is these days?) but have spot-on reference points. They've swam around enough in it all to create something just a tiny bit different – and these days that is really all you can ask for.

Listen to their best song Watergun and you’ll probably immediately think of a lighter version of The National in terms of Matt Berninger’s deadpan baritone vocals and melodic structure, but with musicianship that resembles OMD, Visage, or more recently James Yuill. Having worked with Kyle “Slick” Johnson (Modest Mouse, The Hives, Rogue Wave) Neighbors has created an odd mix, but it works. It really does. Elsewhere an older track Hooligans displays a weedier vocal that sits somewhere alongside Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys but the music has a more muscular hazy-electro-indie flow to it. We could go on citing these reference points to describe the music, but let’s get real here; there’s nothing duller than a show off and in particular a music blog showing off an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop music reference points. You’ve probably switched off already and just pressed play below.

So the discovery of this band is down to you – and you may find you like them. As someone once said “That’s when good Neighbors become good friends.”

Many of Neighbors songs (including Watergun) are available for free download from the bands website which you can find here.

Neighbors - Watergun

Neighbors - August

Neighbors - Hooligans from Paper Brigade on Vimeo.

Julia Stone - In The City Of Lights (Video)

The Chocolates and Cigarettes EP and the Heart Full Of Wine EP by Angus & Julia Stone are two of the most treasured recordings we own, and have endeared us to both artists ever since. There’s something about the sheer simplicity of the songs that is utterly beguiling. In the same way that the most beautiful women require no make up for a beholder to admire their loveliness, the music of this Australian brother sister duo is best enjoyed unadorned of production and complication – just two voices, a guitar or piano and a lightness of touch with other instrumentation. So it is with this song, City of Lights, performed by Julia Stone – a short homespun thing of delicacy.

Angus Stone is the boyfriend of actress and activist Isabel Lucas, probably best known for her role in Aussie TV soap Home and Away between 2003 and 2006. Now she is an ambassador for Protect Our Coral Sea and the two of them have created this video to accompany Julia’s song. They say "Protect our Coral Sea gives everyone a 'don't it always seem to go 'til you don't know what you got 'til it's gone' opportunity to protect our precious Coral Sea for our children's children to enjoy. We believe it is our duty, together, to protect & love these beautiful sea creatures and their ecosystems living in this great oceanic garden. Please sign the petition - it's quicker than brushing your teeth! We hope our video inspires you to help make the Coral Sea a safe haven for marine life. Thanks for your support!” Spend two minutes watching the video, a minute signing the petition (here) even if you live outside Australia and think that at least for three minutes today you’ve done something worthwhile.

Isabel Lucas and Angus Stone's Coral Sea Love - share with your friends! from Protect Our Coral Sea on Vimeo.

Music That Made Me #23 - Propaganda - Duel / Jewel

This choice in the series of Music That Made Me is not one, but two songs, but they are linked in a symbiotic relationship that demands that both are played together.

Propaganda’s A Secret Wish is one of the great (forgotten) avant-synthpop recordings of the 80’s, with Duel and Jewel forming important cornerstones of that record.

Once described as “Abba in hell” the two boys and two girls from Germany that were Propaganda made the very notion of two opposite couples true with this double edged song. On the A Side a light piece of hummable radio-friendly polished pop music, whilst on the B side a frantic and sexually tribal piece of percussive experimentation. Jewel was Duel’s evil cousin, formed from the very bones of its lighter half. Musical ying and yang if you like.

I first came across Propaganda on ‘youth’ music show The Tube on Channel 4 – essential viewing for any teenager with a passing interest in alternative pop music at the time. Probably 80% of the music I listened to then was British, with the only other European acts making a mark on my radar being Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre. Propaganda prised the cracks open a little wider. A super cool art school band that weren’t afraid to recite Edgar Allen Poe on their track Dream Within A Dream and appear enigmatically elegant in their photo shoots. In this day and age they’d probably be considered pretentious and false, but in the 80’s when naïve glamour and intelligence was a commodity to be celebrated, they were brilliant.

My memories of Propaganda are not of another person, relationship, romance or friendship, but of a time. That time was sitting in my bedroom alone, full of all the insecurities and worries a teenager has doing schoolwork, reading books and losing myself in this crazy, industrial sounding pop music and wondering how on earth Propaganda had constructed it all. Yet that period has become timeless, with Jewel / Duel and the whole of the A Secret Wish album still being something that gets me 25 years on. Not just because of nostalgia, but because of something more primal. If you’ve never heard it before, listen in particular to the last minute and a half or so of Jewel – it’s warped mechanical crashes, bangs, yells and lush synth work sound like some sort of glorious chaos.

The Saturday Surf #6

In a week when, depending on your perspective, you either stifled a big yawn or shed an excited tear over the fact that both Coldplay and the Kaiser Chiefs both aired new material, the musical event that got Breaking More Waves most excited, for at least 2 minutes anyway, was the first play of Nicola Roberts new single. Only 2 minutes? Well, the internet is a fast moving place and we all know that bloggers hump and dump tunes as if they were shafting easy whores. We’re basically the attention deficit disorder sufferers of the music scene aren’t we? Don’t answer that, we’ve already turned off and are thinking about something else.

For now though we’ve 100% signed up to Team Ginge, members of whom were thoroughly wetting their pants as Nicola’s debut single Beat Of My Drum got its first airplay last Thursday and revealed itself to be a slightly edgy and choppy mix of Daphne & Celeste, Diplo, CSS and Justice. We always knew that Nicola was the best member of Girls Aloud and this song 100% proves it. Those who frequent Breaking More Waves for cooler than thou indie, soothing organic folk or leftfield electro will despair of our love for pop music like this, but the world be a boring place if we were all gang banging LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire and whatever lo-fi buzz band the likes of Gorilla vs Bear and Transparent were kicking out this week. Beat Of My Drum is stupidly unadulterated, insanely fun pop music. Deal with it.

Watch the whole thing by clicking here.

Elsewhere this week, when we weren’t listening to Nicola Roberts, which to be honest wasn't a lot of the time, these tracks nearly but not quite got a full blog post. They form our weekly round-up that goes by the name of the Saturday Surf.

First up D/R/U/G/S is an act that we’ve been championing for a while now, putting the name in our 10 Ones to Watch for 2011. This remix of Love Lust by Family takes the original and subtly blasts it with scraps of white noise, roughing the track up like sandpaper. Nice.

D/R/U/G/S - Love Lust (FAMILY Remix)

Next is something from the other end of the musical spectrum. Last Sunday Bestival head-honcho Rob Da Bank ran a competition to win 2 tickets for his (nearly now sold out) musical extravaganza in September through twitter. The idea was simple; he posted the title of a song and anyone who wanted to enter then had 7 hours to write, record and post a tune with that title back to him. Devon based singer songwriter Alice Jemima, who we've been charmed with a number of times already took up the challenge of writing something called There's A Bee In My Lemonade. She ended up as runner up, but this simple little beauty has a sense of intimacy and charisma that should have rightfully put her in first place. Extra marks as well for incorporating bee and lemonade sounds at the start of the piece. Keep an eye out on the Da Bank twitter for another 'Song In 7 Hours' this Sunday - and your chance to grab some tickets for one of the best times of your life. (Hint - There really weren't many entries last week so you stand a good chance.)

Theres a bee in my lemonade by Alice Jemima

Finally for this surf, we've always longed to hear Ex Lightspeed Champion and Test Icicles man Dev Haynes rumoured unreleased album of Killers cover versions, but this Prince influenced jam, produced under his new name of Blood Orange is good enough to make us forget about that. It’s that attention deficit disorder again.

Blood Orange - Dinner