Where've I heard that before?

The Patron Saint Of Hopeless Causes Vs. Six by Brief Candles And Mansun

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Brief Candles vs Mansun.mp3 (1.09 MB)

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.

Sugar Pill Vs. Erase/Rewind by Ambulance Ltd And The Cardigans

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Ambulance Ltd. vs. The Cardigans.mp3 (1.07 MB)

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!

Heavy Lifting Vs. Do You Realise?? by Ambulance Ltd. And The Flaming Lips

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Ambulance Ltd. vs. The Flaming Lips.mp3 (827 KB)

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.

All this time I thought Mansun's 'Taxlo$$' was the most obvious
homage to the Beatles' 'Taxman'

Then along comes The Jam picking up the slack that Taxlo$$ lacks.

Check out the beat at the start of 'Start!'.

Eh? Eh!

Many thanks to that gem of a blog Lazer Guided Melody for this one.

Start! Vs. Taxman by The Jam And The Beatles

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The Jam vs. The Beatles.mp3 (375 KB)

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.

Oblivion 2 Vs. Wisdom by Then And The Brian Jonestown Massacre

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Then vs. BJM.mp3 (1.22 MB)

Oh, just HUMOUR ME. 

'Mouthwithout' and 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' may just share
TWO NOTES but they're the SAME NOTES so this is totally valid and I
will not hear any of your objections. Sorry about the unsatisfying
fade-out at the end... it really gets you in the mood for some TFF,
though, dunnit?

Similar chord progressions in rock music? Egad! I can see Theodor
Adorno smirking away at me from his place in space. Stop being so
smug, bro.

I can also see The Curtain Society scratching their heads at me
going '...really?' and Tears For Fears going '...what is this
"blog" you speak of?' and they can both shut it, as well. Jeez,
can't a girl point out the obvious without all this judging?

Mouthwithout Vs. Everybody Wants To Rule The World by The Curtain Society And Tears For Fears

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The Curtain Society vs. Tears for Fears.mp3 (751 KB)

Starrsha Vs. About You by Ringo Deathstarr And The Jesus And Mary Chain

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Ringo Deathstarr vs. The Jesus and Mary Chain.mp3 (504 KB)

This morning I found out that Ringo Deathstarr are supporting
the Smashing Pumpkins on tour. This is big news. It was so big to me
that I had to read the announcement thrice, take a step back and then
wallow for a few hours in an inexplicable 'they grow up so fast' daze.

It's not entirely inexplicable. R. Deathstarr were among the handful
of bands at the forefront of my neo-gaze studies a few years ago.
Unlike pinkshinyultrablast and Stella Luna, they didn't just abandon
us after a single EP. A couple of years later, along came a full
length called Imagine Hearts and, oh, just look at them now
*wipes tear*.

Here's an early track called 'Starrsha'. I've set it up against the
less energetic 'About You' by The Jesus and Mary Chain - for
obvious reasons.

Going For Gold Vs. December by Shed Seven And Teenage Fanclub

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Shed Seven vs. Teenage Fanclub.mp3 (434 KB)

All right, so we're all happy to accept that Ye Olde Britpop was
somewhat inspired by Ye Olde British Invasion Parts I and II. But are
we comfortable with the fact that YOB also had the tendency to seek
such inspiration from its comrades?

'course.

Here is Teenage Fanclub being magnanimous and sharing some of
the intro to 'December' with Shed Seven's 'Going For Gold'

While I am totes pro when it comes to identifying which hazy
unintelligible shoegaze sounds sound like which other hazy
unintelligible shoegaze sounds, I admit, beat-identification is not
one of my strengths.

HOWEVER, the other day I was sitting in on a friend's radio show and
he decided to play No Age's 'Glitter', I couldn't keep myself from
yelping 'My Sharona! That's the Knack!'. Now I don't know how
seriously I should take his encouraging exclamations of agreement
('OHMIGOD it IS!') but since the reaction was so involuntary, and the
reaction to the reaction so heartfelt, I figure I must be right.

Glitter Vs. My Sharona by No Age And The Knack

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No Age vs. The Knack.mp3 (289 KB)

I must confess I like The High Wire more than Sigur Ros despite the latter possessing significantly greater amounts of technical merit. It took about half a dozen listens before The Sleep Tape managed to whack me firmly on the noggin to say "OI PAY ATTENTION I am a good album... see?" (yes you are). Meanwhile Sigur Ros, in all their subtlety, don't really care what I think. They're all like "Soz, can't hear your neutrality over our ethereal otherworldliness" and then they emit some ethereal otherworldly sounds.

Given their detachment from the real world, I doubt they noticed the little 'Hoppipola' soundalike sitting quietly in the midst of 'Honeycomb'.

Honeycomb Vs. Hoppipola by The High Wire And Sigur Ros

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The High Wire vs. Sigur Ros.mp3 (659 KB)