Archive for the ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ Category
AWmusic’s Top Songs of 2008 pt 2: #51-75
I forgot to mention that these top songs are still very personal opinions despite trying to take as many suggestions of the rest of the writers. I’m not sure how people will respond to the list, numbering isn’t quite as important as inclusion. I like taking suggestions as there will be millions of tracks I likely missed. As is the goal with this list, 10-limit descriptions included.
Previously:
#76-100
Next in the series:
Part 3: #26-50
Part 4: #1-25
Numbers #51-75:
#51 Creator by Santogold w/ Switch and Freq Nasty (myspace/video -unofficial was canceled?)
The intro is risky, brave and wildly effective.
#52 Crystal Stilts by Crystal Stilts (myspace)
A song should be good if it’s your band name.
#53 I Wish I Could Keep You by Little Pictures (myspace/live)
This song makes me wish I was a kid again.
#54 In The Kitchen by The Pomegranates (myspace/live -poor visual quality)
A song I want to play on the guitar.
#55 Never Miss A Beat by Kaiser Chiefs (homepage/video)
The kids on the street, are scary! Shiiet.
#56 Death To The Los Campesinos! By Los Campesinos! (myspace/video)
“I’ll be control-alt-deleting your face with no reservation”.
#57 Marry Me Annie by Matthew and The Arrogant Sea (myspace)
Hey Annie, I’m serious, MATAS is a great band.
#58 Whiite Fantaseee by Slim Twig (myspace)
How about an Asian fantaseee?
#59 Dance Dance Dance by Lykke Li (myspace/live with Bon Iver)
Lykke Li’s hips lie and she’s shy. I’m in love.
#60 Galaxy Of The Lost by Lightspeed Champion (myspace/video)
Emmy The Great makes this song gold. Weird video.
#61 Skinny Love by Bon Iver
Bon Iver should try BBW. Morbidly Obese Love anyone?
#62 Good Time by Brazilian Girls (myspace/video)
I just want to have a good time too.
#63 Can’t Shake It by Kate Miller-Heidke (myspace/video)
I can’t dance either though this song is danceable…
#64 New Soul by Yael Naim(homepage)
I’m a new ipod product with a new catchy song.
#65 Boneless by The Notwist (homepage)
Great song off a slightly disappointing album.
#66 Shadow Falls by Hello, Blue Roses (myspace/live)
Awesome duet, too bad they were bashed by Pitchfork.
#67 Get Better by Mates of State (myspace/video)
“Forget your politics for awhile”. 2008 was a tough year.
#68 Xavia by The Submarines (myspace)
The Submarines don’t let me down in this song.
#69 Home Sweet Home by Those Dancing Days (myspace/video)
A perfect holiday song.
#70 Not Your Savior by Peasant (myspace)
Peasant keeps it honest, leave him alone.
#71 Call It A Ritual by Wolf Parade (myspace)
I enjoy Spencer Krug’s metaphorical writing.
#72 Black Rice by Women (myspace/live)
Best Song that ends in a whimper.
#73 The Rip by Portishead (homepage/video)
Just beautiful.
#74 That’s Not My Name by The Tings Tings (myspace/video)
Wait..what is her name again?
#75 Gila by Beach House (myspace/live)
Giiiiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Kaiser Chiefs – Off With Their Heads Review
The Kaiser Chief’s third album, Off With Their Heads went to number #2 on the UK charts in terms of sales. They’ve been a mainstay since their debut release Employment which was an album I liked quite a bit and still listen to once inawhile. However, their second release, Yours, Truly Angry Mob definitely disappointed me (and that one went #1) and was a big step back.
I wasn’t sure what to expect since the Chiefs were in limbo of having me as a fan. As popular as Mark Ronson is, he’s doesn’t exactly instill some respect nor do I care who’s doing the producing. However, initial listens were very good. I was specifically addiction to the track “Never Miss A Beat” before finding out that it was the albums first single. A lot of the album is catchy, which isn’t a surprise considering the Kaiser Chiefs past tracks. On the first few listens, I was about to sing my praises on how good this album is. They do have different approaches to satisfy what makes a good pop song and almost each song on its own at first glance comes off as sounding pretty good.
That explains a lot of the positive reviews, HOWEVER this album does poorly when it comes to replay value. It went really downhill after the 5th listen on, for comparison sake it’s very similar to Employment but this album got me a lot more bored. Part of the problem in my opinion is that when repetitive lyrics don’t have the qualities of becoming some sort of anthem (like most of the songs on Employment) a lot of these songs become dull very quickly.
I think that’s ultimately the case. The Kaiser Chiefs don’t bring that much to the table and are a very mainstream band so they have to be spot on when it comes to their execution. It works at first and does work for a few tracks, like Remember You’re A Girl and the aforementioned first hit but there’s got to be a reason why I can’t really listen to much else.
Rating: 3 out of 5
A lot of potential hits here but as an album, it’s difficult to listen to now and that’s a pretty important quality. In some cases I would say that the Kaiser Chiefs have returned to what made them great but there’s still something missing. It might be due to the lack of range when it comes to singing and overall variety of sound.
Back 2 School/End of Summer Playlist
Summer has basically ended with me wasting it and not working all. My summer ended in July as I injured my knee and wasn’t really able to have fun for the last month. I’ll try… to go back to some concerts but standing around is still a bitch.
Filling in for Joe who needs a break before school starts, I’m holding onto the albums I review for tomorrow 
so enjoy this playlist. Most of them are recycled MP3s from other posts and rather short songs but it’s better then nothing right?
Constructive Summer by The Hold Steady – We’ve had a constructive summer for this blog didn’t we?
Stuck For The Summer by Two Hours Traffic – I was stuck at home for a good 5 weeks
It’s That Time Again by The Dodos
Brain Burner by No Age
Learnt My Lesson Well by Kaiser Chiefs
We’ll Never Sleep (God Knows We’ll Try) by Rilo Kiley
Insane Ft. Warrior Queen by The Bug
This Is Not A Test by She & Him
It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career by Belle and Sebastian -They’ll be saying that about me when I spend more time on this blog then on actual school
Holiday by Chaingang – hopefully you enjoyed your labor day!
The Dark Knight Playlist and Review
I dislocated my knee Thursday night so all I’ve got to do is stay at home on my bed. I figured I’m about a week late with the playlist and review, who needs my input? With the extra time “presented” to me, I changed my mind. It also “puts a smile on my face”
The Dark Knight has been a huge critical and financial success, grossing just under $160 million in an opening weekend, critical praise of 95% and becoming the #1 movie on IMDB. So better late then never with my review and playlist?
My playlist tried to involve some key quotes surrounding the movie. Granted the real soundtrack is great but let’s give the movie a good playlist anyway.
1. The Thieves They Are Everywhere by Bridges and Powerlines
2. Pencil Rot by Stephen Malkmus
3. Only Clowns Are Scary by I Love Math
4. Boy With A Coin by Iron & Wine
5. Smile Like You Mean It by The Killers
6. Knights of Cydonia by Muse
7. I’m Your Villain by Franz Ferdinand
8. The Angry Mob by Kaiser Chiefs
9. Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads
10. No Key, No Plan by Okkervil River
11. Black Heroes by Ratatat
Here’s the movie review below (CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!)
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Indie Playlist for UFC 83 St. Pierre vs Serra
UFC 83 is happening this Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Canada’s first UFC event which I will be catching with some friends and I have to get this out of the way since I won’t be posting for a week (exams!).
I’m pretty excited and I hope MMA finally gets approved in the province of Ontario so we can get a event here in Toronto. Either way, I hope UFC comes back soon. I’ll be making picks in addition to having a tribute mp3 to the main card fighters.
Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra
1. Midnight Surprise by Lightspeed Champion
-Can Matt Serra pull off the 2nd upset?
2. Frenchy’s By Holy Fuck
-Calling GSP Frenchy insulted him big time
3. Home Field Advantage by Drive-by Truckers
4. If I Faltered Slightly Twice by Of Montreal
-Georges is too good, everyone or almost everyone has St. Pierre taking this one easily. When the pressure is on GSP performs.
Winner: Georges St. Pierre in 5 round round war. I love Matt Serra as well to be honest and he has world class skill and will frustrate St. Pierre at times. It may be boring….
Michael Bisping vs. Charles McCarthy
5. Sing! Captain by The Handsome Furs
- For Charles “Captain Miserable” McCarthy
6.Everything is Average Nowadays by the Kaiser Chiefs
-For Michael Bisping getting mad that McCarthy called him average, such a huge insult.
Winner: Bisping by 2nd round TKO. Rooting for McCarthy though.
Rich Franklin vs Travis Lutter
7. Don’t Weigh Me Down by Broadcast 2000
- Lutter better make weight, he didn’t against Anderson Silva when he had a title shot on the line.
8. Can’t Lose by We Are Scientists
Franklin’s career can probably take only one more loss.
Winner: Travis Lutter by Armbar in Round 3. Picking an upset here.
A pretty weak card but I’m going to see this one anyway because it’s in Canada. The Montreal crowd should make this an event to watch (I envy their atmosphere).
Playlist for Valentines Day
Valentines Day is great some people as it’s supposed to be a day of love but it can be a reminder on just how much it sucks to be lonely and single. Some might say it’s just a corporate ploy just for people to buy lavish gifts on some arbitrary day that I have no idea where it originated from (don’t feel like wiki-ing this one). For me personally Valentines Day, comes and go. I’m really indifferent about the day, it’s nice to see the love in the air but I can see how one can despise it as it’s really great to be with someone. I’ll do a list of some good love songs or ones that are of the “love sucks” variety.
1. No One’s Gonna Love You by Band of Horses
Such a misleading title but have you ever felt the need to say to your lover “no one is ever gonna love you like I do” because that perfectly describes how head over heels you are?
2. I Don’t Love Anyone by Belle & Sebastian
One of my favorite songs and one that makes me feel good about being alone and single.
3. Lover I Don’t Have To Love by The Bright Eyes
This song is dedicated to those who aren’t looking for a relationship but are just looking for flings and not being emotionally tied to someone.
4. First Day of My Life by The Bright Eyes
Arguably one of the best love songs out there.
5. Crown of Love by The Arcade Fire
One of my favorite Arcade Fire tracks. Mainly about the inability to love just one person and usually involving moving on to the next person and the next.
6. Everyday I Love You Less and Less by The Kaiser Chiefs
Sometimes love does wave and this song perfectly describes it an upbeat manner.
7. Song For A Sleeping Girl by the Devics
This song describe the feeling of sleeping next to someone and really the sheer enjoyment of watching someone sleep. It’s one of my favorite love songs.
8. Modern Girls & Old Fashioned Men by The Strokes and Regina Spektor
Needed an excuse to include this awesome song, it’s about love so it fits.
9. What I’m Trying To Say by Stars
Saving you love someone is harder then it looks (when you whole-heartedly mean it).
10. Girl Inform Me by The Shins
This one goes for us guys who don’t really “understand” women and just sometimes need to be told!
11. I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You by Jens Lekman
Pretty self-explanatory.
12. You Were Meant For Me by Jewel
I love this song, not ashamed heh.
13. Strange Powers by The Magnetic Fields
Some people just hypnotize you.
14. Love Astronaut by Murder Mystery
I like the line “I go looking for love but is it looking for me?”.
Playlist Dedicated to Posties + Money Draw!
Recent developments that have altered the way I blog (discontinued my two other blogs) is the non-sense with Google punishing blogs for having paid content. This has affected me personally. Just know that this music blog would not be possible with the money I made from paid blogging. I can host my own songs and I can purchase albums for reviewing whenever I want (a HUGE luxury).
If you’ve come here from the Hype Machine or Elbo.ws, posties is a name that was given for paid bloggers usingPayPerPost which acts as the driving force to making us an incredible amount of money. The community has some really nice people and are really are deserving of having their spirits lifted for the holiday season will all the crappy turmoil recently faced (there have been some unfortunate issues).
Here my playlist dedicated to the Posties with some of my favorite artists:
1. Up Against The Wall – Peter, Bjorn, and John
2. The Moneymaker – Rilo Kiley
3. A Time To Be So Small by Interpol
4. Thief – Our Lady Peace (because Google is one)
5. Nothing Better – The Postal Service
6. Good People by Jack Johnson
7. The Angry Mob – Kaiser Chiefs
8. My Rights Versus Yours – New Pornographers
9. The Comeback – Shout Out Louds
Anyway the contest is going to be a drawing with:
Prizes: 1st place prize of $21.63 by Paypal and a (to offset fees) 2nd Place Prize A Blog Review with a a playlist dedicated to your blog much like this playlist.
Eligibility: Posties ONLY. A lot of outsiders will see this post due to having this post parsed by music aggregators but I just can’t see an outsider winning without me feeling bad. So just enjoy the mp3s 
.
How to enter: Easy, leaving a comment gets you an entry. Subscribing to my feed (by e-mail) and letting me know will get you another entry. You can blog about this if you want but it’s really not necessary as this feels separate from my normal type content but it will give you another entry. You don’t have to choose the blog now to be reviewed as I will just ask the second place winner.
Contest ends: December 11th. I am going to be busy until then as it’s after two exams but if you have any questions/concerns just drop a line.
Kaiser Chiefs Cancel Tour To Record New Album
I was thinking about seeing the Kaiser Chiefs but they had canceled the most of their US tour to apparently record a new album which will probably be out in 2008. This seems pretty fast to do a new album already but I wasn’t much of a fan of Yours Truly, Angry Mob (I did like some stuff, yes) and it was a huge disappoint because I liked Employment a whole lot. Apparently they put on great shows as the fan interaction is one of the best.
I am looking forward to some new stuff and hopefully they are good.
I am going to post the music video for Oh My God and Lily Allen’s cover of it which I also really dig.
Oh My God By the Kaiser Chiefs:
Oh My God Cover by Lily Allen(download):
Kaiser Chiefs Yours Truly, Angry Mob Review
The Kaiser Chiefs released their much-anticipated follow up to Employment that had lovable catchy tunes such as I Predict A Riot, Everyday I Love You Less and Less, Oh My God etc. I can keep going on and on how I liked the Employment so much.
With Yours Truly Angry Mob, it really lacked those addictive catchy pop songs and it didn’t really have me singing along regardless how different the lyrics were like I Was Born To be a Dancer.
This album received harsh reviews on Metacritic and receiving a 61 score. I am not going to say it’s bad album because there are some songs I liked but this is not an album I would say this album is nothing special if not forgettable in my opinion. I hope that the Kaiser Chiefs come out with something better so I can place them back on my favourite bands list. I give it a 3.5 out of 5.
My favourite song on this album happens to be shortest as it probably reminded me the most of Employment called Boxing Champ at 1 minute 31 seconds. Check it out below.
