A Baltimore Based Indie Music Blog
The other day our friends Butter Team highlighted an ace cover of The Zombies’ classic “Hung Up On A Dream” by The Tough Alliance. TTA have always had that 60s pop sound wrapped in modern electronic psychedelia so this cover comes off perfect. Enjoy!
mp3: The Tough Alliance – Hung Up On A Dream (The Zombies Cover)
I’m taking a break from the blog for a few days to concentrate on life, love, family, and food. I hope everyone out there has a holiday full of happiness. I leave you with a small playlist of songs that might not make it into the standard radio station’s wintertime set. Enjoy!
mp3: Bishop Allen – Winter Coat
mp3: Blitzen Trapper – Christmas Is Coming Soon
mp3: Pas/Cal – I Wanna Take you Out In Your Holiday Sweater
mp3: Ugly Cassanova – So Long To The Holidays
mp3: The Pixies – Holiday Song
mp3: The Octopus Project – Exploding Snowhorse
mp3: Mobius Band – Snow on Snow
mp3: School Of Language – Extended Holiday
mp3: The Tough Alliance – Holiday
mp3: The Walkmen – Seven Years Of Holidays (for Stretch)
mp3: Sea Wolf – Winter Windows
This week seriously tested my patience. A crazy schedule swirling around my brain for much of it made my tolerance level very small. Then come to find out that low and behold some bastard hacked this very site you are on. Wah?!! So who ever you are or where ever you came from hacker… I’m on to you (imagine some shifty eye movements with this phrase). Don’t let me catch you ’round these parts again. Ya’here? Thankfully there’s been some grand music passing by my ears lately to calm me down. Segway…
mp3: The Tough Alliance – Neo Violence (Shazam Remix)
mp3: Radiohead – Reckoner (Telepathe Remix)
mp3: Metronomy – A Thing For Me (Sinden Remix)
image by Filippo Minelli
I’ve just started to be really impressed by Sweden’s The Tough Alliance. A few months back I had the pleasure to listen/review their debut LP The New School (it was finally released stateside – here’s the review). I compared their sound to a futuristic android version of The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. A few weeks ago I was also lucky enough to get my ears around their 2007 release A New Chance. This album has TTA’s unique sound painted all over it, but with an influx of samples, heavy world music, and club/house beats. At first these manipulations were off-putting, but after soaking it all in, I’ve come ’round to it as of late.
mp3: The Tough Alliance – A New Chance
mp3: The Tough Alliance – Miami
Here’s a story:
So it’s the future. Yup. Music has become stale and overplayed. The world government, in search of musical inspiration to try to curb the spike in the suicide rate, decides to spearhead a project in which the amazing and Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) is brought back to life. Using advanced robotics and loads of plastic surgery, the legendary Wilson (who was put on ice a century ago just in case this happened) is revived only to find himself in a much different world void of nature and sunlight. He asks the doctors immediately, “Why did you bring me back?”
They reply, “To restore world order. You’re our only hope.”
Wilson ponders this for a moment, then says, “Why do I have a European accent?”
They reply, “It’s the future…everyone has European accents.”
To which Wilson replies, “I see, well if it’s like you say it is then I’d better get started. Bring me my piano.”
They reply, “This is the future. No pianos. Only computers.”
Then Wilson says, “Ooookaaay…bring me a computer…and some drums.”
They reply, “This is the future. No drums. Only computers.”
This is the point where Brian Wilson could have went into shock, but like the legend that he is, Wilson pressed forward to record Pet Sounds 2: The Electric Boogaloo…and peace was restored…or something.
Okay. Back to reality. This story is a representation of the feeling I get when I listen to The Tough Alliance or TTA from Sweden. Their debut, The New School, has just been released in the US for the first time through the Summer Loves Unlimited label. You should check it out. It will tell you a bedtime story for the ages.
mp3: The Tough Alliance – The New School
mp3: The Tough Alliance – Holiday
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