The Entire Past Week Was Dedicated To The American Analog Set. 10 Years Of Magic From Their Living Room...To Ours.

A.A.S Were Always A Bunch Of Guys (From Austin Texas) Who Hasn't Got Much To Say All The Time. & That's - My Kinda Fave Genre Of Human Material...



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A l l - R e l e a s e s:

Title: The Fun of Watching Fireworks - Full Album
Label: Emperor Jones
Release Date: 1996

Title: Late One Sunday & the Following Morning - Single
Label: Darla
Release Date: 1997

Title: From Our Living Room to Yours - Full Album
Label: Emperor Jones
Release Date: 1997

Title: The Golden Band - Full Album
Label: Emperor Jones
Release Date: 1999

Title: Through the 1990s: Singles & Unreleased - Compilation
Label: Emperor Jones
Release Date: 2001

Title: Know By Heart - Full Album
Label: Tiger Style Records
Release Date: 2001

Title: Updates - EP
Label: Tiger Style Records
Release Date: 2002

Title: Promise of Love - Full Album
Label: Tiger Style Records
Release Date: 2003

Title: Set Free - Full Album
Label: Arts & Crafts
Release Date: september 20 - 2005

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B i o g r a p h y:



Rising from the ashes of a previous living room band (which included, Ken, Mark, and Lisa), what was to become The American Analog Set recruited friend Lee on bass and began in earnest in the spring of 1995. Work was begun on what would eventually become The Fun of Watching Fireworks in the winter of '95 at the Legend House in Ft. Worth, TX. The record was comprised of songs they had been working on since their inception the previous spring. The majority of the record was done in about three weeks. Recording this album was kind of like trial by fire as none of them, except for Ken, had the slightest idea how to record a song, let alone an entire album. And although dedicated to recording, the members were actually living in different cities within Texas, making recording, practicing and playing shows a more arduous task than usual. Perseverance paid off, however, and Fireworks was released in the summer of 1996 on Trance Syndicate/Emperor Jones Records.

Ken and Lee moved to Austin soon after Fireworks was released, moving in with Mark with the intention of emulating The Monkees: one place to live, practice and record. Their dream of having a house which doubled as a place to practice and record was shattered rather quickly by their less-than-friendly new neighbors who complained to their landlord. As a result their second album, From Our Living Room to Yours, was recorded under the threat of eviction. No longer novices, and fearing the fate of the homeless, American Analog Set recorded quickly and diligently, releasing Living Room in the summer of 1997 on Trance/EJ, and Late One Sunday, (an EP recorded at the same time), in October of the same year as part of the Darla Records Bliss Out series. Upon release, the band toured the states extensively for the first time, until....



Early 1998 found the Analog Set broke, homeless, and scattered over the state of Texas once again. Rehearsals and shows were rare for a short while, but a summer tour with the Magnetic Fields gave the band a more structured schedule. Work subsequently began on what was to become their third album, The Golden Band, that winter. The album was completed in February and released the following July, resulting in the most consistent of American Analog Set's albums to date. A lengthy, strenuous tour followed, resulting in a couple months of some downtime for the AmAnSet. However, an autumn's worth of distance couldn't keep real life from moving forward and Lisa left the band at the end of 1999 to pursue a career.

The AmAnSet existed for a few weeks in that creepy no-man's-land common after a band member leaves. Shortly after New Year's Day, Ken, Lee and Mark began rehearsing with Tom Hoff who joined the band a few hours later. Tom picked up the large back catalog fairly quickly and they rehearsed through the spring as a four piece. The Set played all of two shows before Sean Ripple was asked to join the band as a guitar & vibraphone player, thereby completing the lineup. Although they managed only one show all summer, they polished the material that would eventually become Know By Heart. American Analog Set came out of hibernation in November with an album's worth of new material and a fresh spin on a few classics. Their show in November at the Mercury in Austin was followed by their first show overseas in Amsterdam the following week. The trip lit a fire under these kids, and shortly after their return they began recording Know By Heart. The group set out to make their fourth record a departure from their previous efforts and so the recording process drifted on for nearly two months. Whips were cracked, wills were broken, and a few of the members became intimately familiar with what's called "the overdub." Prompted by their crippling laziness when it comes to recording, the band also took time away from the tape machine to put together a collection of 7" singles and unreleased material called Through The 90's, which would be their last release for Trance/Emperor Jones. In honor of their new record and new lineup, the band chose Tiger Style Records as the new label to release Know By Heart; it hit stores on September 2nd, 2001 to much critical acclaim. In the year that followed, the AmAnSet spent 6 months on the road, marking the Set's first extended tour in Europe and the UK.



In between tours for Know By Heart, vocalist/guitarist Ken decided he wanted to go back to school, settling on a PhD program at Columbia University. Prior to the journey to New York City, a remix EP and tour with Her Space Holiday occurred in summer 2002. The EP, Updates, featured remixes from Styrofoam, Her Space Holiday and American Analog Set themselves. Ken moved to New York three days after returning to Texas at tour's end. Break-up rumors sparked like a wildfire, but AmAnSet were non-committal and had put in too much for too long to simply die out like that. In a surprise move, it became known to the crafty label execs in NYC that in between tours and the pending move, American Analog Set recorded their fifth proper full-length album Promise of Love. The songs on Promise mostly came together as a result of being on the road, as the band continued writing songs in a similar vain to the more expansive sound of Know By Heart.

And so it goes. After a year, Ken decided school was not where his heart was and began to focus more of his energy on The Set. Tiger Style released the lush soundscapes of Promise of Love in summer 2003, again prompting an incredible critical response that has established American Analog Set as a mainstay in the indie community. Internationally, Promise was picked up by Wall of Sound, who not only released the new album, but also re-issued Know By Heart. Prior to a massive tour of the UK, Europe and the US in summer 2003, Tom learned he would be unable to accompany the band on their trek, resulting in the hiring of old friend Craig McCaffery to replace him on the keyboards. The subsequent tour solidified American Analog Set's place as a tour de force on the road, their new line-up as fierce as ever.



Description From The Official Page Of A.A.S - Here.

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M P 3:

- "Hard To Find"

- "The Only One"

Live Music:

- "Always Wins" (Live, 05.06.2004)

- "Punk as Fuck" (Live at KVRX)

- "Kindness Of Strangers" (Live at KVRX)

- Choir Vandals (Live at KVRX)

- "White House" (Live at unknown)

- "Hailey" (Andrew Kenny demo)

- "I Must Soon Quit The Scene" (Live in Toronto, 2003)

- "New Equation" (Live in Toronto, 2003)

- Weather Report, Always Wins, Choir Vandals, Baby Julie Come home(Live Set at 3VOOR12, 2004)

Live Interviews:

- Studio Brussel interviews Andrew Kenny
(by Studio Brussel) 16:16, mp3, 11.1 Mb

- Interview with Andrew Kenny
(08.01.1998, by All Things Considered) 6:33, RealAudio, 0.4 Mb


v i d e o:

- Title: Weather Report (excerpt) (Live at SXSW)
Resolution: 160x120
Format: AVI
Time: 0:17
Size: 1.88 Mb

- Title: Come Home Baby Julie, Come Home (Live at Club 3VOOR12)
Resolution: 320x240
Format: RealVideo
Time: 6:44
Size: 24.4 Mb

- Title: American Analog Set Playing Live (at Bottleneck)
Resolution: 240x180
Format: RealVideo
Time: 59:43
Size: 65.5 M

- Title: Mellow Up Your Ass (interview and bits of playing live)
Resolution: 240x180
Format: QuickTime
Time: 20:58
Size: 19.6 Mb

- Title: American Analog Set Playing Live (at Maxwell's)
Resolution: 240x180
Format: RealVideo
Time: 52:33
Size: 57.6 Mb

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Listen To Full Tracks From The New Album At MORR MUSIC & Set Your Self Free...

A Recommendation > Radio Magnetic.

The British Radio Magnetic Offers To Ya:
Freak Folk...Dub...Broken Beat...Neu Jazz...Headz...Groove...Trip Hop...Deep House...Techno...& Other Indie & Electronic Bedroom Sounds...In Stream Or In Mp3.



Click On Logo To Launch Radio Mganetic...

A British Band Who Plays Soulfull American Sounds & Explore - Love - & - The Beach boys - Legacy.

By now, the beaches of Sunderland, England, must be redolent with post-punk herky-jerky. To be sure, native sons Field Music have much in common with the Mackems that came before-- not least their members, who include one former Futurehead plus a current Maxïmo Park drummer-- but rather than assail us with angularity, the region's latest exports aptly prefer prettiness. Indeed, "You're So Pretty", their 12-song, 38-minute debut's art-pop finale, is the album's best track, and also its buzzing, ornamented, just-too-brief-enough synecdoche. That song, like the album's other epiphanies, is a sparkling construct of whirring guitars, eccentric percussion, windmill-tilting bass, and Andrew Moore's piano embellishments. Dual lead vocalists Peter and David Brewis swap quixotic, often-falsetto harmonies as indebted to Pet Sounds as to "Hounds of Love". The lyrics tend toward the commonplace, which if not beside the point pretty much is the point: "You're so pretty/ I could talk to you all night", chime the Brothers Brewis, their sweet-nothings granted the wings of soaring melody.

Second single "You Can Decide" is the band's most immediately compelling track, with copious oohing, spastic handclaps, and eloquently stuttering chorus: "So if you know, you know, you know/ Let me." "Got to Write a Letter" benefits from slippery acoustic guitars and fairly sharp wordplay, though none as adroit as "I've given up thinking" from the album's rare sad song, the still-sun-dappled "Like When You Meet Someone Else". Opener "If Only the Moon Were Up" introduces a smattering of Revolver horn oompahs and GeoHa guitarisms ca. Abbey Road. I still say stupendous first single "Shorter Shorter" was, true to its name, the latter album's flip-side shortened, haunted and harried by imminent mortality. Meanwhile, the band's self-consciously complex, maximalist arrangements and Sparks- or even Yes-like vocal heights call up that suddenly-not-dirty (if prefixed with "hyper") word: prog. I'm just saying. After their first two singles, it's hard not to be let down by good-enoughs like the ambitious, briefly cacophonous "Tell Me Keep Me", string-laden "Luck Is a Fine Thing", and staccato, saxophone-blearing "17". More ephemeral than Clor, more cerebral than the Rakes, Field Music has, like the Magic Numbers, fashioned a distinctive voice and near-perfect arrangements, but the songs hint at greatness nearly as often as they achieve it. Pretty is pretty nice, but the promise of true beauty makes tough critics of us all. (Review By Pitchfork media)

That Man Has Got Nothing To Do With This Post.



"JANNNNGGGG!" Mmm, how Beatlesy. Or, if you're looking to be slightly more precise, how very 'A Hard Day's Night'y the opening chord of the opening salvo from the brothers Brewls and chums is. Still, what with them being leading lights-in-waiting of the whole new mainstream-swallowing indie revolution it's probably about time someone out of that gang so blatantly referenced the Fabs. But while Britpop first time round was excessively Lennon-lionising, Field Music have decided it's about time proper due got given to Sir Thumbsaloft instead. Correct!

Why, even Paul McCartney himself hasn't made an album this McCartneyish for some twenty-odd years now. Not only does the whole B-side, if we may be so vinyl-vaunting in our consideration, consist of tracks running into one another a la 'Abbey Road', but there are numerous Macca traits abounding herein. Often – see 'Pieces' or '17' – it's sufficiently melodic to make Hal sound like Einsturzende Neubauten. Given that it's bookended by 'If Only The Moon Were Up' and 'You're So Pretty', it'd be fair to say that, at times, it's sentimental as anything. And, even though it's not always the most out'n'out cheerful album of the year – the not-split-accepting rigours of 'Like When You Meet Someone Else' are particularly poignant – it still sounds relentlessly euphoric throughout, what with all the swoonsome piano, regal string arrangements and guitars probably piped in from the nearest Lear Jet. Why, to quote a lyric they're doubtless very fond of, there is no end to what they can do together.

All of which would count for, well, not nothing, but certainly not enough if Field Music didn't have a little imagination in their own right. Yet they do; there are continual instances of the kind of sculptured improv sparkling that the Betas and the Boos made their own, and Peter's lovely singing voice comes, as should be a delight to lovers of the Futureheads and Maximo Park – anyone with ears, in other words – with a deliciously soothing north-eastern twang that grounds the band's tales of love, loss and innocent lust ('Got To Write A Letter' is endearing like people just don't do nowadays) and makes them that bit more convincing. There's the suspicion that sometimes they're coasting just a touch, or even taking the proverbial – typewriter-as-instrument, anyone? – and there are certainly moments amid this journey, like the downright disappointing 'Tell Me Keep Me', where they really don't soar like they should. No matter on the whole, though; they've made some starry tracks, have Field… (Review By Playlouder)


Field Music Members.

Listen To:

1."You Can Decide"

2."Tell Me Keep Me"

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A Reminder - Give A Big Hug To: Angil.

Angil is a 26 years old french songwriter that already released more than 5 self-produced albums that were all critically acclaimed by many magazines and fanzines in France. His music could be describe as 'post modern folk' with a brilliant mix of his soft voice, acoustic and electric guitars, rhodes, flute, sax, cello with some surprising vinyl sounds. His next album "Teaser for: matter" -the first one to be released nationaly- should impose him as one of the great discovery of the year 2004.



One listen to the noir-esque, Chris Cacavas/Lloyd Cole-influenced "No More Guitars" and I was hooked. Angil composes moody, dreary pop music heavy on melody and class. This is strong music with an orchestral flare; in addition to guitar, drums, bass, and vocals, the sounds is filled out with strings, winds, brass, and very moody keyboards. I hear a bit of It's A Wonderful Life-era Sparklehorse, but this is much more calm and laidback. "A long way to be happy, Darlene said" is strong, guitar-led pop with a dark yet uplifting chorus - it's one of Angil's strongest compositions, in addition to the mesmerizing, epic "Dolaytrim." The keyboard-led cover of The Breeders' "Invisible Man" is also really well done. At times the disc can wander a bit, a few of the songs lacking strong hooks or variety; fortunately, nothing is too bad, and the vast majority of the album is worth your undivided attention. This is good music that's entertaining right off the bat - perfect for a twilight dinner at home alone. Teaser For: Matter could have been a contender for last year's best-of-2004 list if I had gotten to it earlier.

(Description & Review From Indieville & Unique Records)



Listen To "No More Guitars (Immerged Version)" mp3

Unique Records Home Page

The Homesicks Second Release.

The Homesicks are one of the best act in Tel Aviv at the moment - or maybe the best? sure, u'll find the new single "Michelle" truly astonishing! the b-side of the single called "Everybody Wanna Piece Of Me".
i know i do.

"Michelle" & the b-side



This is the first & only web release from the band.
"Feel The Thrill" is a blest invoked tunes from the 80's with a touch of the british art wave scene as Franz Ferdinand & Maximo Park.

"Feel The Thrill" & the b-side

ma own show review of those guys (written in Hebrew)

Such A Strange Geometry.

"I was allowed to ring the bell for five minutes until everyone was in assembly. It was the beginning of power" - Jeffrey Archer -

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The second album by The Clientele should be out next mounth, but i'v already got it (don't ask me how). the quote from above is a reference to the first time i'v heard the british band, in "Suburban Light" singles compilation that went out in 2000 at Pointy & again in 2001 at Merge records. i was astonished. i made myself clear that this is probably the best act in england at the time. The Clientele took the taste and sweet maiden smell of the soft 60's atmosphere and pour it on a magnetic & original ability of song writing craft that got bigger & bigger from listening one to the million...

"Suburban Light" 2000 - 2001

In "The Violet Hour" - the first official album from 2003 i got a little bit cynical. it took me two weeks to realize that this is not a romantic 'fast food' as the "Suburban Light" compilation, it was a long & sad story about loosing love to a new beginning - from the depth, out to the surface. i fell in love with this record but i can't realy listen to it anymore cuz it reminds me a girl i once knew. Well, no more fooling around. the new album by The Clientele is a bit messy. unfortunately there is no frame story inside. & there are no surprises. still, they are one of the best thing i'v heard for a long time from the british kingdom, but to keep it soulfull & to throw some gimmicks from the 60's is not enough, not this time.

"The Violet Hour" 2003

I was talking with the front man of the band - Alasdair Maclean - five month ago, & if u can read Hebrew so u'r lucky - here. Anyways, in this interview Alasdair told to me that the new album is gonna be "the best thing they'v don till now". but they'v broke my heart. it's not a bad album - sure it's a sweet one but my expectations were too high to get this kinda frozen situation. i'll keep listen to it for a wile thought i dont think there will be any second opinion, not this time.

"Strange Geometry" 2005

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" - Ralf Waldo Emerson -


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For Fanatics & Addicted Only!!! & for Comics Collectors...

The tale of the Ramones is as sad as it is weird. Four guys from down-and-out Queens adopted a common surname and the same juvenile delinquent uniforms as they blasted short, simple, sublime pop songs from cramped stages. Eventually some of the brothers-in-arms became bitter enemies. When Johnny stole his girl, Joey didn't fight him at the lockers, but wrote "The KKK Took My Baby Away". Therein lies a large part of the Ramones' charm: they made rock music with bored kids in mind, with short-attention-span song lengths, blunt guitar riffs, and unsophisticated lyrics. The band was self-aware, sure, but the Ramones always seemed genuinely invested in what might seem like the shallowest eddies of pop culture. In the process, they tapped the essence of rock music in its purest form.

Unfortunately, the movement the Ramones helped to jumpstart quickly got away from them, turning their practiced naivete into impractical nihilism. Their desperate hopes for mainstream popularity, which showed through in their professionalism and dogged work ethic, were dashed when the Sex Pistols made the new style a four-letter word. Instead of taking over the airwaves, they became a cult band, but always seemed too big for such a diminutive label. As their contemporaries imploded or exploded, the Ramones maintained a surprisingly consistent pace, continuously putting out albums but refusing to expand their sound too far beyond the template they established on their self-titled debut. The Ramones were the anti-Beatles: they resisted musical growth and maturation, and we're all the better for it.

Collecting 85 songs from 20 years, Weird Tales of the Ramones, which Johnny helped to curate, reveals just how little the Ramones' sound changed and just how little that mattered. Every song, from the first track ("Blitzkrieg Bop") through the last ("R.A.M.O.N.E.S."), shares the same basic elements: sharp, fast guitar riffs; punchy momentum; driving tempos; and handclaps or sha-la-las or some other nod to pre-album rock pop music. The Ramones' aesthetic has become such common currency, though, that it's easy to forget how raw they could sound, how tough and tender, how just a handful of elements could be recast in infinite variations.




If they were reluctant to evolve their sound, the Ramones constantly tested its flexibility. Phil Spector gives "Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?" the wall-of-sound treatment, and "Rock and Roll High School" is basically a revved-up Beach Boys song. In the 1990s, they covered Tom Waits ("I Don't Want to Grow Up"), the Who ("Substitute"), the Amboy Dukes ("Journey to the Center of the Mind"), and Love ("7 and 7 Is"), but best of all is their webslingin' version of the original "Spider-Man" theme, which originally appeared on the 1995 compilation Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits.

Like most box sets these days, Weird Tales is a multimedia package. A DVD contains all of their videos, most of them embedded in a 1990 program that includes short interviews with contemporaries (Debbie Harry, Tina Weymouth) and fans (former New York Yankees pitcher Dave Righetti, who doesn't seem to get the band). Most of the videos are just silly enough to fit with the Ramones' particular aesthetic, although "Something to Believe In" is a hilarious parody of stuffy mid-80s USA for Africa self-seriousness.

But this box set's real attraction, aside from the music, is the packaging, which includes a thick comic book inked by several artists including Mary Fleener (Life of the Party), Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), John Holmstrom (two Ramones album covers), and Sergio Aragones, whose work in Mad magazine was influential to the Ramones specifically and to early New York punk in general. Despite the reliance on the questionable narrative that the Ramones destroyed synthetic disco and bloated arena rock (which is truer as a personal listener reaction than as rock history), the comics avoid self-serving remembrances by fawning devotees and fussy rock-critic exegeses that often sanitize subversive artists. These strips are informative, imaginative, and-- oh yeah-- pretty damn funny. Moreover, this art form is the inky equivalent of the Ramones' music and image-- their scuffed Chucks, ripped jeans, Mickey Mouse t-shirts, and outlandish haircuts-- and reinforces their aura of permanent adolescence.

This sort of inspired cleverness keeps Weird Tales from eulogizing the Ramones or, worse, explaining away their mighty mysteries. And perhaps their lack of mainstream success during their lifetimes ensured a larger and posthumous triumph: in the thirty years since their debut, several generations of listeners have connected with their music in a very personal way without the interference of institutionalized nostalgia. Weird Tales makes it possible for future generations of pinheads, dropouts, glue-sniffers, brats, cretins, mama's boys, and punk-punk-punk rockers to discover the Ramones as if for the very first time. Gabba gabba hey!

- Review By Pitchfork media -



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If U Can't Afford Your Self A Vacation At The Moment Try This: Pic Travelling - By Pictures From All Around The Planet.