New Young Pony Club EP [Modular Interscope]

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Rating: 7.0

In the same spirit as Brazil’s CCS, British indie-electronic quintet New Young Pony Club is silly, irresistible fun. The clipped guitar chords, synth melodies and irresistible beats of their single “Ice Cream” demand booty shaking as much as its goofy, sexual metaphors (“drink me like a licker, come and dip your dipper”) make for the perfect, sassy sing-along. It’s no wonder the single sold out in the UK in three days and is no doubt destined for the sweaty, after-midnight throb of many nights to come. Their self-titled EP even includes the video for “Ice Cream”, in which the band’s three female members bop coyly atop a giant globe of rainbow-colored licorice (“I can make you ice cream, we can be a sweet team”), cat-sized dollops of whipped cream form a carousel around the drummer, and mounds of pink cotton candy loom behind stoic, mustachioed boys on bass and guitar.

New Young Pony Club Video and EP Stream

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Mum The Peel Session [single]

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Rating: 6.0

Mum, a laptop-savvy trio from Iceland, combine twittering idyllic beats and simple, often sinister melodies on their four song Peel Sessions EP. One of a growing group of artists recording with the legendary British producer John Peel, Mum has recorded a pleasant, if not particularly memorable, sampling of their moody electronic experimentalism.

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USOUNDS 2006 Top-Ten-A-Thon

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The Cape Buffalo: One of the most dangerous animals of 2006

Welcome USOUNDS highly anticipated Top-Ten-A-Thon for 2006. We will feature a top ten by a different staff writer every day until those fuckers run out. For the kick-off, here’s the top one viagra spam USOUNDS received this year (500+ times) which is particularly enjoyable because it’s subtle yet inspiring:

Hello Man, Don’t tell me why your meat is so small, I will better help you to make it really Bigger!

OK! Here’s our first staff top 10 brought to you by Mary Mulholland:

10. The Long Winters Putting The Days To Bed
I almost hate John Roderick for being such a perfect indie rock front man. Not only does he have the best stage banter I’ve ever heard, he’s also written a shockingly good album of impeccable indie anthems. Every one track on this album is fit to be a single.

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The Twilight Singers A Stitch In Time EP [One Little Indian]

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Rating: 4.0

Greg Dulli of The Twilight Singers and formerly the Afghan Whigs is highly public, bordering on boastful, about his alcohol-soaked, drug heavy past. If his history is intended to tell us something about his music, or vice versa, his music about his tumultuous past, The Twilight Singers’ EP A Stitch In Time has succeeded. A Stitch In Time is an aging rocker’s bar stool ramble; bittersweet story tinged with wisdom, wistfulness and folly.

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Isobel Campbell Milk White Sheets [V2 Ada]

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Eternally girlish chanteuse Isobel Campbell has fully embraced the legacy of folk music in her second solo album, Milkwhite Sheets. Artfully arranged traditional songs intertwine with like-minded new tracks to form a beautifully lonely album full of melancholic strings, delicate guitar picking and Campbell’s haunting voice.  

Unlike 2006’s Ballad of the Broken Seas project with Mark Lanegan, no song on Campbell’s latest album has the bluesy feel of a good bar song; Milkwhite Sheets would fit far better as background music in some rural, mom-and-pop craft store. These are truly lovely songs, homespun and fragile; it’s as if they might break if played too loudly.  
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