Tag: Familiar Sounds

DEAFCULT vs. pinkshinyultrablast

DEAFCULT‘s Auras made it into every Best of 2017 Shoegaze list I came across, but I wonder if they named ‘Echoes’ for the not-so-subtle throwback to pinkshinyultrablast‘s BTWF*-era ‘Blaster’

 

 

*BTWF = Before They Were Famous

The Sorry Shop vs. My Bloody Valentine

While I agree that My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain should be exempt from any and all soundalike competitions, the sheer audacity of The Sorry Shop’s ‘Anxiety’ as it rubs up against a (probably oblivious) ‘You Made me Realise’ makes this comparison worth a listen.

 

NB: Added lols for ‘Anxiety’ itself being a cover of the Ramones.

Kennedy Green vs. The Field Mice

Y’allz are going to think I’m clutching at straws again but that’s because y’allz are DEAF zomg can you not HEAR the twee camaraderie between The Field Mice’s ‘Everything About You’ and Kennedy Green’s ‘Rocket Girl’? If not, then it’s probably bec…

Y’allz are going to think I’m clutching at straws again but that’s because y’allz are DEAF zomg can you not HEAR the twee camaraderie between The Field Mice‘s ‘Everything About You’ and Kennedy Green‘s ‘Rocket Girl’?

If not, then it’s probably because it’s illegal to sound too much like The Field Mice.

The Twilight Sad vs. Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I hold a firm, unwavering belief that any band with the word ‘yeah’ in its name is not worth listening to. It’s nothing personal, it’s a principle I apply to ‘kids’ and ‘hands’ in band names as well. Something about a lack of creativity in a name …

I hold a firm, unwavering belief that any band with the word ‘yeah’ in

its name is not worth listening to. It’s nothing personal, it’s a
principle I apply to ‘kids’ and ‘hands’ in band names as well.
Something about a lack of creativity in a name likely to reflect in
the music.

 

You can imagine I’m not the biggest Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan. That’s
why I needed someone else (My Favourite German™) to point out this
resemblance I know their song ‘Maps’, of course, but the name always
makes me think of the band Maps, which is unfortunate because
it makes the song a disappointment before it even starts.

 

Anyway, I’m not here to critique songs, least of all for no fault of
their own. If anything, the YYYs are the ‘good guys’ here because it’s
The Twilight Sad‘s ‘That Summer, At Home I Had Become The
Invisible Boy’, released four years later, that mimics their opening
percussion. Then again, it could be the beat is so common, it’s just
validating my principle of unoriginal name, unoriginal sound.

Tamaryn vs. Verve

There was something so familiarly primal about Tamaryn’s ‘Mild Confusion’ when I first heard it. I thought nothing of it for a year or two. Today, for the first time, I played it on my giant speakers and heard (the) Verve’s ‘Slide Away’. That’ll e…

There was something so familiarly primal about Tamaryn‘s ‘Mild
Confusion’ when I first heard it. I thought nothing of it for a year
or two. Today, for the first time, I played it on my giant speakers
and heard (the) Verve‘s ‘Slide Away’. That’ll explain the
animal instinct. Rowr.

Brief Candles vs. Mansun

I am telling you, Brief Candles’ ‘The Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes’ is going to haunt me till my dying day. The opening is EXACTLY like a Mansun song that I have been trying to place for the last four months. I have finally given up and settled…

I am telling you, Brief Candles‘ ‘The Patron Saint of Hopeless
Causes’ is going to haunt me till my dying day. The opening is EXACTLY
like a Mansun song that I have been trying to place for the
last four months. I have finally given up and settled on the surreal
segment midway through the album version of Six for the purpose of
this post, while simultaneously having convinced myself that it is IN
FACT from a live version of ‘Television’ that exists only in my
imagination. In my notes I’ve tagged it as ‘She Makes Me Bleed’ which,
I remember, made perfect sense at the time, but now appears an inane
notion.

Please, please tell me which Mansun song the first track is. Please,
please, please it’s driving me out of my mind.

Ambulance Ltd. vs The Cardigans

Let’s go for a twofer, shall we? As you recall I last said that Ambulance Ltd. were an unwitting guilty pleasure because of the inescapable poppiness of their songs. From the same LP as the last I give you ‘Sugar Pill’. A fantastic song with a hoo…

Let’s go for a twofer, shall we?

As you recall I last said that Ambulance Ltd. were an unwitting guilty pleasure because of the inescapable poppiness of their songs. From the same LP as the last I give you ‘Sugar Pill’. A fantastic song with a hook that eluded me for months till a eureka moment last week pinned it atop the Cardigans‘ ‘Erase/Rewind’.

Pop!

Ambulance Ltd. vs. The Flaming Lips

I’ve been on a bit of an Ambulance Ltd. kick lately. They’re not exactly a heavyweight band, but they still fall in my Guilty Pleasure Zone. I called them mindiegaze for the mainstream-indie-rock sensibilities that colour each of their songs. Take…

I’ve been on a bit of an Ambulance Ltd. kick lately. They’re
not exactly a heavyweight band, but they still fall in my Guilty
Pleasure Zone. I called them mindiegaze for the mainstream-indie-rock
sensibilities that colour each of their songs.

 

Take for example, the first track on their LP… a song called ‘Heavy
Lifting’. Its remarkable similarity to the second-most mainstream
indie-band in the world (The Flaming Lips) ‘s most mainstream
song (‘Do You Realise??’) is unmistakable.

Then vs. The Brian Jonestown Massacre

In this post-modern age, you’d think bands would know better to engage in the search engine gaffes that no doubt plague such blameless acts as The Who, The Band and The The to this very day by picking such ungoogleable names as…. Then. Admirably…

In this post-modern age, you’d think bands would know better to engage in the search engine gaffes that no doubt plague such blameless acts as The Who, The Band and The The to this very day by picking such ungoogleable names as…. Then.

 

Admirably unwilling to bend to the demands of publicity, this Macedonian-Catalan (! wtf !) duo are responsible for Happy  Cloud – a wonderful EP that I am happy to help spruik by leading you to their last.fm profile  from where you can nick the tracks for the princely sum of $0. Also helping them/Then out is the remarkable similarity their song ‘Oblivion 2’ shares with the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s ‘Wisdom’.

 

I can’t point out precisely what makes the two songs sound alike, but even if I’m imagining this, the mishmash still makes for a lovely listen.