speed of dark

Songs by the following bands grabbed my attention with both hands!

Cut Off Your Hands

Cut Off Your Hands are four New Zealanders with influences as classic as the Beatles and Phil Spector and as fresh as Franz Ferdinand and Futureheads. They'll be appearing at CMJ in New York this week, whisking through Europe, and then hit some dates Down Under.

Cut Off Your Hands: Happy As Can Be from Happy As Can Be EP (2008)

MySpace | Label: French Kiss Records
Buy at Amazon.com, iTunes, and eMusic


Made In China

It was a lot easier to get the MP3 "How Everything Works" than to find out about who made it, but now I know this sharp-edged, infectious song was produced by two individuals from New York, LK and Palumbo, who became disgusted with "everything except their families and sex." They are using their new album Sonic Blog V1.0 to lash out at all that disappoints them, no holds barred. They include themselves, calling "How Everything Works" an "autobiographical sob story." "Press 1 For English" is going to be very popular.

Made In China: How Everything Works from Sonic Blog V1.0
Stream tracks

MySpace | Website | Label: Recordburger Records
Buy at iTunes, hopefully other outlets soon.


All the Saints



The song titles "Sheffield" and "Leeds" on their album Fire On Corridor X (2008) emphasize the influence of echoey psycho-space Manchester sound of bands like the Stone Roses. I like "Farmacia" a lot too.

All the Saints: Sheffield

MySpace | Label: Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records
Buy at Amazon.com, iTunes, and eMusic