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For the last few months YouTube has been just another name being thrown around as a big, bad company involved in copyright scandals. Back in March, Universal Music Group chief Doug Morris stated that sites like YouTube and Myspace “are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars.” Come on, seriously? Are major labels really that money hungry for every bottom dollar that they’re willing to limit their artist’s exposure to potential new fans? God forbid they give access to view music videos without proper compensation to record labels. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used YouTube as a resource for outsourcing new bands for myself, or as a means to get others hooked on to music they may have never heard otherwise.

Well, it seems the folks at Universal aren’t that dumb. It was just announced that they and YouTube have partnered up to launch a new video-sharing website named Vevo.com later this year, which will be powered by YouTube with content supplied by Universal. While still free to the general public, both will share in revenue generated by advertising. Content will also still be accessible through YouTube on a Vevo channel through a special Vevo branded embedded player.

“VEVO will bring the most compelling premium music video content and services to the world’s single largest online video audience,” said Universal chief executive Doug Morris.

“We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world.”

As it stands, Universal’s YouTube channel is already the most watched on the site with over 3.5 billion views.

Google (owners of YouTube) CEO Eric Schmidt said they are “thrilled to be working with the Universal Music Group in what will surely be an exciting new service for consumers, advertisers, content creators and the music industry at large.”

In December, Warner Music Group pulled it’s videos from YouTube after no agreement could be reached on fees, while Sony Music Entertainment have recently worked out a new deal with YouTube this year.

As album sales have decreased, Universal has also been exploring new ventures with Myspace and Apple’s iTunes as a way to generate new forms of revenue. I guess it’s safe to say that cash really is king, and you have to do whatever to make yours. At least this time it doesn’t seem to be at the expense of the fans. Well, for now anyways.

And now…. Music from some Universal artists:

K-os – Burning Bridges
Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
Beast – Microcyte

#5 – Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, formally known as A Silver Mt. Zion – 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

While Menuk’s voice (and the band’s newest name) never ceases to piss me off, this album deserves some credit. It got a pretty bad rating from Pitchfork, and yeah, while it may come off as pretentious, I won’t deny it’s pretty damn good. This album defies a lot of post-rock themes; rarely having a quiet-loud build-up, but rather being consistently minimalistic and raw with defining influences from jazz, punk, and classical. And the vocal arrangements would’ve been good if I didn’t hate Menuk’s voice so much. But yeah. Something you don’t hear in post-rock every day.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band – Black Waters Blowed/Engine Broken Blues
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band – Blindblindblind

#4 – Sigur Ros – Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust

This may be a little biased as I absolutely love Sigur Ros, and I owe it to them for introducing me to post-rock in the first place, but hey–you really can’t go wrong with “Gobbledigook.” Granted it was the only song on the album that actually had an upbeat acoustic sound to it…but whatever. I’m so in love with Sigur Ros that I just don’t care. This album incorporates every Sigur Ros album I’ve ever loved (Agaetus Byrjun and () to name two), and yeah, even if it is a rather safe move on the band’s part, it’s still damn good and I’m proud to put it on this list. Check out the full review here.

Sigur Ros – Illgresi
Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook
Sigur Ros – Vid spilum endalaust

#3 – Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness

I am sure I’m not alone when I say that this album is probably one of the best rock albums of the year. A concept album revolving around ideas of sorrow, death, and religion (and those three intertwined), it is a very personal take on life through the expression of music. Personally, I enjoyed the second disc a lot better than the first as it’s a little more engaging. Leaning more towards a drone, shoegaze lo-fi sound, this album might not be considered “post-rock” in the typical term (avant-garde is likelier), but I’m still going to include it in this list. Read the full review here.

Have A Nice Life – Waiting for Black Metal to Come in the Mail
Have A Nice Life – Who Would Leave Their Son Out in the Sun?
Have A Nice Life – A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut

#2 – Tomcat Combat – I’m Okay, You’re Okay

You might remember my over-enthusiastic post on Tomcat Combat’s summer album, I’m Okay, You’re Okay. It’s full of energy, good tunes, and it keeps you on your toes. You can read the full review if you want, but basically I love this album because of it’s awesome dynamic rhythm shifts, something I’ve grown to appreciate in other music since listening to this album. Tomcat Combat are probably one of the lesser known and therefore unappreciated post-rock bands out there, so for the glory of all post-rock, please check them out!

Tomcat Combat – Pacer’s Club
Tomcat Combat – Ponies on Ice

#1 – The American Dollar – A Memory Stream

If you’re looking for a mellowed out, dreamy album that doesn’t actually scream post-rock, your best bet is with A Memory Stream. The piano and guitar melodies will hook you in and envelope you in their mellow but very saturated instrumentation. It is a fusion of great electronic music with post-rock concepts–one of the best ambient albums out there, and therefore, #1 on my list. Check out the full review.

The American Dollar – The Slow Wait (2)
The American Dollar – Lights Dim

I suppose I can’t say much about the “difference” in albums, because this album pretty much picks up from where Takk left off. I’ll comment about the one song with English lyrics, “All alright.” If you’re not paying attention, you’ll think Jonsi is just singing in Icelandic. He sings in the same airy and sad disposition that the lyrics are pretty much unintelligible. I had to do a quick lyrics look-up on Google to follow what he’s singing. The lyrics and music are pretty much depressing. I personally think it was a good choice to put it where it was; it ends off the album very nicely.

Overall, the album is pretty good—nothing too different from what you’d expect from Sigur Ros. I don’t want to say I got heated up over nothing; this is really a great album and I’d absolutely recommend it. The album is streaming online on their website for easy listening access.

Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust will be released this Tuesday, June 24. Definitely a recommended album for this year.

Sigur Ros – Vid spilum endalaust

Sigur Ros – Illgresi

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It’s really nothing you’ve ever heard from Sigur Ros before. What the hell happened to all the reverb, the distortion, the ethereal ambience? “Gobbledigook” is perky, lighthearted, more pop-like. No electric guitars, a full background choir…very different. Still, very nice! I actually do like it, and can’t wait to hear how the entire album will be like! There are two songs that are actually titled in English, and the band has mentioned that this album will be more “understood” by fans than their previous albums. Speculation ensues re: English lyrics?! I wonder how that’ll sound like.

The video for Gobbledigook is also interesting…a bunch of naked people frolicking in a forest. I guess nothing more can be said of that. My favourite part is when one of the girls is on her knees, playing with a pile of leaves. Hot. But on a serious note, I guess it does set a mood/theme for the song, even if I can’t understand what he’s singing about (is there still speculation that he’s singing in his “Hopelandic” language or is it really Icelandic this time? No matter.).

You can’t see the video in its entirety anywhere else but the official website, and even then you’ll need Quicktime to view it. There is a PG-rated YouTube version, but it’s just still pictures along the track. The video’s also up on DailyMotion but I don’t know how long that will last for.

Don’t forget to pre-order the album!

Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook

Sigur Ros, hailing from Iceland, was huge after their 1999 release Agaetis byrjun, followed by a fantastic () in 2002. After their 2005 release Takk…, there hasn’t really been new Sigur Ros material since. Hvarf-Heim (2007) is a two-CD compilation album that features a couple of new releases and live and studio versions of older tunes found from all four previously released albums. (Side note: Sigur Ros’ DVD film Heima was also released at the same time and is worth checking out, especially if you’ve checked out their music videos and enjoyed them). The first CD, Hvarf contains two unreleased songs, one song released as a single about a month before the compilation’s release, and two tracks originally featured on their debut album, Von (1997). The second CD, Heim, consists of six live performances of previously released songs.

Focusing on the unreleased songs…they definitely don’t shy away from what I’ve known Sigur Ros to be. There’s still the falsetto hums that accompany the guitar and bass melody, with great use of soft percussions, strings, synths, and chord progressions. And they still make use of the bow guitar playing. Sigur Ros sets itself away from the Jimmy-Page-bow-guitar by using a lot of reverb, making it sound more like the mating calls of a whale…it sounds cooler than I’ve described, trust me. That being said, Sigur Ros does use a lot of reverb overall to create that etherealness we all love. “Salka” definitely fits into the whole idea of “if you want to know what Sigur Ros sounds like, listen to this”. It incorporates everything Sigur Ros has put into their music from day one. “Hijomalind” is a little more poppish? I might say. There’s still the ethereal feel in it with the use of the synths, but it’s “harder” (and with Sigur Ros, you can’t really get that hard) and more “rock” than most of their stuff (its former title was “Rokklagio”–which means “The Rock Song”…go figure). Did I say “Hijomalind” was hard? Scratch that, “I Gaer” is harder and with the creepy twinkling melody and hard bass, it makes the song even so irresistible. “I Gaer” is a little creepy sounding at first, like what you’d expect in a horror flick with dead zombie babies (kind of creepy like their Von album).There’s some good incorporation of metal; makes it sound deathly beautiful, and Jonsi’s vocals are absolutely fitting in this type of sound.

Heim is nice. I mean niiiiiiice. I’ve never been able to see Sigur Ros live (I missed both chances back in 2005 and 2006), so it’s always cool to listen to what the differences between the studio and live versions of songs are (YouTube squishes everything into a minuscule file that it sucks out all the good acoustics). I friggin’ enjoy Heim to the max…the max! All you have to do is get a good pair of headphones and blast this shit up. It really is terrific, especially because it comprises of all the songs I really enjoy in each album. There’s barely any reverb compared to the studio recordings, too, so it’s super cool to listen to what would be considered their “raw prime.” Oh man…I want to see them live so bad. Anyway, enough whining.

Overall, I would say Hvarf-Heim is a suitable buy for die-hard fans of Sigur Ros. If you’re thinking about getting into Sigur Ros without having to buy each of the albums, this album might also be worth your while…though I would stick with checking out each album in itself because they offer so much more (of course!). Still, I for one am definitely proud of this purchase, and if you’ve been thinking about getting this album, well, stop! and get it, damn it!

Here are two songs, one from each side/CD (they were pretty much arbitrarily picked since I basically liked everything):

Sigur Ros – I Gaer (Hvarf)

Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun (Heim)

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