Nu Rave Brain Wave

I love that whiskey-drinkin, hilarious, angelic-voiced Caitlin Rose. She rules and this is her new video. It’s pretty awesome. You can check her at SXSW 2011.

mp3 | Caitlin Rose - Docket

I love doing year end roundup coverage and I’m still waiting to put up the bands to watch list, so I thought we’d highlight some of the great bands we discovered over the past year. Some of them made our 2011 bands to watch list, some of them didn’t, some of them aren’t even NEW but rest assured they all rule. As per the usual, you can download a great mp3 from each of the bands at the links.

The Strangers Family Band
Les Rallizes Denudes
Best Coast
Happy Birthday
Neverever
Caitlin Rose
Eternal Summers
Wild Palms
Harlem
Exlovers
White Fence
Spectrals
Cloud Nothings
Hey Sholay
The Invisible Hand
Fair Ohs
Monster Rally
Family Trees
Silver Machine
Tennis
Hot Spa
Fergus & Geronimo
The Jim Jones Revue
Superhumanoids
Jeffertitti’s Nile
Mind Spiders
Shimmering Stars
Young Sinclairs
Son of Rams
Guards
The N.E.C
Balkans
Velvet Davenport
Dominant Legs
The Splinters
Unouomedude
The Vaccines
The Babies
Ducktails
Las Robertas
Heavy Hawaii
Francois & The Atlas Mountains
Myelin Sheaths
Pete Drake
Mess Folk
Black Mekon
Man The Hunter
Navajo Bixby
Wetdog
Demon’s Claws
Cheveu
French Kissing
Whatever Brains
The Castillians
Bass Drum of Death
Dead Ghosts
Swampmeat
Sonny & The Sandwitches
Fanzine
Crusaders of Love
Wombs
Moonhearts
Bleeding Knees Club
Straight Arrows
Hello My Name Is Red
Sauna Youth
School Knights
Tree Hopping
The Meanest Boys
Friends
Ghost Outfit

And due to high demand you can download a track from each artist put into a zip folder right here.

2010 has been a pretty fun year for music. Every year, I discover more music, better music, and sometimes it cracks me up to see how my music taste grows and differs as the years go by, but I think 2010 has been a great year for new bands and kickass albums. I’ve compiled my list of 10 albums that I really loved, 5 EPs that just got to me, and then 30 songs that I’ve called Top Songs, but they’re just 30 songs that I liked a hell of a lot and came to me as I thought about it and scanned carelessly through iTunes. It’s interesting to note that half of my favorite albums are from California bands.

Top 10 Albums of 2010

10 Ty Segall | Melted | Goner

mp3 :: Ty Segall - Melted

09 Woven Bones | In & Out & Back Again | Hozac

mp3 :: Woven Bones - I\'ve Gotta Get

08 Dead Ghosts | S/T | Florida’s Dying

mp3 :: Dead Ghosts - When It Comes To You

07 Heavy Hawaii | HH | Artfag Records

mp3 :: Heavy Hawaii - Teen Angel

06 The Strange Boys | Be Brave | In The Red

mp3 :: The Strange Boys - Be Brave

05 Fool’s Gold | Fool’s Gold | IAMSOUND Records

mp3 :: Fool\'s Gold - Surprise Hotel

04 Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo | Subpop

mp3 :: Avi Buffalo - What\'s In It For?

03 The Soft Pack | The Soft Pack | Mexican Summer

mp3 :: The Soft Pack - C\'Mon

02 Harlem | Hippies | Matador

mp3 :: Harlem - Friendly Ghost

01 Happy Birthday | Happy Birthday | Subpop

mp3 :: Happy Birthday - Girls FM

________________________________________________________________

Top 5 EPs of 2010

05 Monster Rally | Monster Rally EP | Self Released

mp3 :: Monster Rally - Maori Mai

04 Unouomedude | Marsh EP | Self Released

mp3 :: Unouomedude - Buildings

03 Caitlin Rose | Dead Flowers EP | Names Records

mp3 :: Caitlin Rose - Docket

02 Sex Beet | EP | TBA

mp3 :: Sex Beet - Sugar Water

(note: this is totally not the artwork, as this isn’t released yet, but the EP is too good to not be included on this list.)

01 The Growlers | Hot Tropics EP | Everloving

mp3 :: The Growlers - Graveyard\'s Full

________________________________________________________________

Top 30 Songs of 2010:

01 The Babies | Meet Me In The City | Listen

02 Happy Birthday | Perverted Girl | Listen

03 Sex Beet | Stay

04 Friends | Make It Better

05 The Meanest Boys | Strangest Things

06 Tennis | South Carolina | Listen

07 Spectrals | Leave Me Be | Listen

08 Family Trees | Dream Talkin’ | Listen

09 Cee Lo Green | Fuck You | Listen

10 Sonny & The Sunsets | Too Young To Burn | Listen

11 Beach Fossils| Sometimes | Listen

12 Woven Bones | Wanna Tell Ya | Listen

13 Ty Segall | Bullet Proof Nothing

14 Surfer Blood | Take It Easy | Listen

15 School Knights | Lunch Money

16 Happy Birthday | Subliminal Message | Listen

17 The Growlers | Sea Lion Goth Blues | Listen

18 Unouomedude | Buildings | Listen

19 The Strange Boys | Laugh At Sex (Not At Her) | Listen

20 Mind Spiders | World’s Destroyed

21 Fair Ohs | Hey Lizzy | Listen

22 Fergus & Geronimo | Girls With English Accents

23 French Kissing | You Just Don’t Know What Love Is For

24 Sweaters | Fruit On The Vine

25 Demon’s Claws | Fucked on K | Listen

26 Swampmeat | Brand New Cadillac

27 Gaoler’s Daughter | Meet You On The Other Side of the World

28 Shimmering Stars | I’m Gonna Try | Listen

29 My Pet Saddle | Il Fait Beau | Listen

30 Cults | Go Outside | Listen

We all know how I feel about Bob Dylan covers, don’t we? Kind of grotesquely fascinated, mainly because I’m either going to hate it and think it’s the worst thing in the world (see: Crystal Antlers) or it’s going to be a decent cover by a band I hate (see: Metric’s Don’t Think Twice) and then I’ll feel guilty for liking it. However, a third option — a good cover, by someone I already liked — recently poked it’s head out of the woodwork, thanks to Nashville’s finest, Caitlin Rose.Under the guise Save Macauly, which by the way, I don’t know if it has anything to do with my least favorite Culkin, Caitlin Rose recorded this version of “All I Really Wanna Do” with added, um, what sounds like kazoo. You know you need this in your life. Her voice is ridiculous.

mp3 | Save Macaulay - All I Really Wanna Do (Bob Dylan Cover)

View More Photos | My Flickr

I don’t know how popular anything from Nashville is in the UK, let alone Brighton. I don’t even know if they could locate Nashville on a map – or more importantly, if even I could. But geography failures aside, what I do know is that Brighton can spot Nashville’s latest and best musical export from a mile away. Caitlin Rose came down to Brighton and played to a very warmed up, sold out crowd at The Latest Music Bar in Kemptown, Brighton.

She and her adorable band came onstage to a pretty warm welcome from a crowd clearly happy to be out of the rain. Small comment on Latest Music Bar — it’s one of the cutest venues in Brighton that doesn’t get used for enough great shows sadly, perhaps it can take the place of the fallen Freebutt? But the diminituive Rose and her band — electric guitar, slide guitar and bass — took the stage and made their presence known.

Rose is such a Nashville firecracker — and by that I mean, she’s a small girl but her personality is so large, her stage banter so hilarious (or should I say — pro?), and her vocals so booming, she hardly even needed the microphone. The gig started out slowly, not in terms of urgency or excellence, but with the slower songs off her excellent debut ‘Own Side Now’ — the beautiful ‘Learning to Ride’ (which she confirmed was NOT about Porn) fell into a Brian Ritchie cover which smoothly went into the cautiously assertive standout ‘Own Side Now’.

Then the mood changed and Rose and her band launched into the ‘party’ ones. Starting with ‘New York’ which makes me laugh aloud like many of her other songs, hearing her croon “I got lost on the lower East Side / because I pissed off my tour-guide” just cracked me up. Then it was all smooth transition into ‘Spare Me’ and then the incredibly gorgeous and invariably heartbreaking ‘For the Rabbits’.

If there was anything that seeing Rose live taught me — it’s that the girl has some fucking pipes on her. Not only is her voice as clear as daybreak but she has got some force live — she nearly knocked my socks off for having the audacity to stand as near to the stage as possible. ‘Shanghai Cigarettes’ one of the catchiest songs off her debut was a treat, although a little slower than on record. Rose’s band was so perfectly complimentary to her oversized talent — her slide guitar player in particular was incredible, the twang added so much of a refreshing country air to her bright songs that already have that influence. Instead of being overkill, it wound up sounding so fresh and taut.

Rose did a couple of covers over the course of the evening (‘I don’t write enough songs, basically’ she said) but missing was my favorite cover of hers — the Rolling Stones’ ‘Dead Flowers’ which was the name of her EP. However, she did play some earlier material which made my night as her EP is incredible and laid-back with a razor sharp wit that paved the way for her excellent LP. ‘Docket’ is one of my favorite Rose songs — it’s such a free-spirited vibe with maybe the best line written, “I got a fresh pack, I got a red Bic / The surgeon general can suck on my dick / woah oh oh”. Brilliant. Towards the end of the night, after a heartbreaking rendition of ‘Sinful Wishing Well’, Rose launched into the uber-crowd-sing-a-long of the year ‘Answer in One of These Bottles’ which united the whole crowd and confirmed that this gig was not only special but possibly one of the best of the year. Following that was the unexpected and similarly hilarious ‘Shotgun Wedding’.

As confirmed by tonight, Caitlin Rose is one of the most exciting ‘newcombers’ on the map right now. Her fresh take on country music, her DIY aesthetic, her down-to-earth-Southern-belle ehtos, and her wonderfully large persona — she’s just such a welcome addition to music. And oh… her voice. It’s just so damn good. See her live. Immediately.

Setlist:
Learning To Ride
Brian Ritchie Cover
Own Side Now
New York
Spare Me
For The Rabbits
Shanghai Cigarettes
Cover (I’m Alright?)
Docket
Cover
Sinful Wishing Well
Answer in One of these Bottles
Shotgun Wedding

mp3 | Caitlin Rose - Docket

Caitlin Rose // Shanghai Cigarettes from Stay Loose on Vimeo.

Watch Caitlin Rose‘s spectacular new video for her enchanting song ‘Shanghai Cigarettes’ above. I reviewed her album for Drowned in Sound here. She’s playing Brighton next Tuesday at the Latest Music Bar.

mp3 | Caitlin Rose - Docket

August has been a very strange month, but very good. I’ve been driving so much recently, 1300 miles in the span of about 10 days. Holy shit. These songs have been soundtracking my insane driving and the crazy move that I just made back to the UK and what not… You’ll never know the kind of satisfaction that lugging your own weight in clothing 5,000 miles gives you. However, you can listen to what got me through it below….

01 Kanye West – See Me Now
02 Velvet Davenport – When You Are Out
03 Eternal Summers – Pogo
04 Balkans – Bill Spills
05 Caitlin Rose – Shanghai Cigarettes
06 Magic Kids – Superball
07 Happy Birthday – Perverted Girl
08 Sweaters – Sky Mall
09 Chuck Berry – La Juanda (Espanol)
10 Wanda Jackson – Making Believe
11 Cee Lo Green – Fuck You
12 Unouomedude – Buildings

mp3 | Nu Rave Brain Wave – August 2010 Mix

Miss Caitlin Rose, Nashville’s best cigarette-smokin’, whiskey-drinkin’ bombshell, is coming back over to the UK this fall for some more dates to support her long-awaited (at least by us!) debut album, Own Side Now, on August 9th through Names Records. The album comes after her incredible ‘Dead Flowers EP’ of which you can read my review for Drowned in Sound. Don’t miss her…

UK Dates:
Thu 19 Aug London Camp w/ Sam Amidon £11 www.seetickets.com
Fri 20 Aug Green Man www.greenman.net
Wed 25 Aug Manchester Night & Day Café www.nightnday.org
Fri 27 Aug Birmingham Glee www.glee.co.uk
Sun 29 Aug North Yorkshire Moors The Band Room w/ Megafaun www.thebandroom.co.uk
Wed 1 Sept London Slaughtered Lamb www.electroacousticclub.com
Thu 2 Sept Bristol Bonaventure www.crhmusic.com
Fri 10 Sept End of the Road www.endoftheroadfestival.com
Sat 25 Sept Bedford Civic Theatre £12 www.beffordcornexchange.co.uk w/ Deer Tick
Sun 26 Sept Coventry Taylor Johns £8 www.wegottickets.vom w/ Deer Tick
Tue 28 Sept London Cargo £9 www.ticketweb.co.uk w/ Deer Tick
Wed 29 Sept Leeds Brudenell Social Club £7 www.theironwagon.co.uk w/ Deer Tick
Thu 30 Sept Manchester Deaf Institute £8 www.seetickets.com w/ Deer Tick
Fri 1 Oct Glasgow Captain’s Rest £8 www.pclpresents.com w/ Deer Tick

mp3 | Caitlin Rose - Sinful Wishing Well

Yes, guys, it’s about that time. 2010 is halfway gone, although I don’t know how that happened, and I’ve already taken five 11 hour flights, been to Austin and back, and just generally did the thang, y’all. And I’ve racked up some awesome records that have soundtracked my life lately, and I thought I’d share some of the best one’s of 2010 and the ones that have the best chance of making my end of the year list too. This one has no particular order in mind, just what came to me. If the album name is linked, it’s because you can download a track from the album and hopefully purchase this excellent music.

Harlem | Hippies
Happy Birthday | Happy Birthday
Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo
Monster Rally | Monster Rally
Woven Bones | In & Out & Back Again
Fionn Regan | The Shadow of an Empire
The Strange Boys | Be Brave
Best Coast | Sun Was High 7”
Caitlin Rose | Dead Flowers EP
Fool’s Gold | Fool’s Gold
The Soft Pack | The Soft Pack
The Growlers | Daytrotter Session
Gaoler’s Daughter | The Only Way To Travel
Surfer Blood | Astrocoast
Neverever | Angelic Swells

The lovely Nashville export, Caitlin Rose, has finally announced her debut album which will see the light of day via Names Records on the 9th of August. It’s entitled ‘Own Side Now’ and is the follow up to her amazing EP ‘Dead Flowers’ (you can read my review for Drowned in Sound here) which was released way back in ’08. If, like me, those songs whetted your appetite so much – you’ll be glad to hear that she also has a single, ‘For The Rabbits’, coming out ahead of the album release on the 26th of July. Rose will also be returning to the UK for some festivals in August and September. Let’s hope she adds some other UK tour dates for those of us who shun the British-Festival-Experience. Download a taster track from her album below…

UK Festivals
Fri 20 August, Green Man
Fri 10 Sept, End of the Road

DOWNLOAD -> Caitlin Rose - Sinful Wishing Well