Graham Wright of Tokyo Police Club fame has recorded an Ep entitled 'The Lakes of Alberta' in his spare time.

Being the generous type, he's decided to release the Ep for free online. To get your hands on it, go here.
(you can also splash out $5 on the high-quality mp3 versions if you so wish)

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Happy voting day! Let's celebrate by taking a look at the top five songs about voting.

(Don't worry, they're not as terrible as you think)

Click read more for the music.


5. Curtis Mayfield- Move On Up

Apart from the Mayfield's lyrics- urging aspiration and optimism, yet compromise ("Take nothing less than the second best")- this song has voting significance for those who've watched 'The Wire'. It provides the soundtrack to 'Cutty' Wise's election morning run in Season 4, and one of the pivotal moments in the series' political storyline. Classic use of music in TV- perfect for the scene, and really makes you think about the lyrics. You can watch the clip here.



Click for mp3


4. Tokyo Police Club- Your English Is Good

It's a bitchin pop-song, and Dave Monks' lyrics shamelessly rip the piss out of Politicians half-assed attempts to act sincere. "You don't need a change- you're future's with us!" and the oh so subtle refrain of "Give us your vote if you know what's good for you". Deadly.



Click for mp3


3. The Who- Won't Get Fooled Again

Pete Townshend seems a bit fed of up the same old shit, and 'Won't Get Fooled Again' is practically the ultimate anti-voting anthem. Apparently a British Labour government in the 70s got into power on the back of student riots demanding change. When Labour got in, they promptly forgot about all their promises and just did whatever the hell they wanted to do. Hmm, sounds familiar...
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" sums up Townshend's disillusionment with 'The System', and his coda is effectively him saying 'fuck this' and buggering off to live in a commune.



Click for mp3

2. Stevie Wonder- You Haven't Done Nothing

Good ol' Stevie Wonder becomes the voice of the people, preaching about how much of a failure & general arsehole Richard Nixon was. And as we all know, back in the day Stevie found it nigh on impossible to do anything without being incredibly funky. The lesson is: if you can't vote, buy a clavinet and recruit a backing band- it's the next best thing.



Click for mp3

1.Radiohead- Electioneering

One of my favourite Radiohead tracks, you can almost feel Thom Yorke spitting with disgust as he takes pops at every aspect of fake-smile politics. As always, his disgust is articulated to perfection: "Riot shields, voodoo economics, it's just business...".

Genius.

Best song about politics ever.



Click for mp3

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Catchy poppy rocky canucks release debut EP on indie-canadian label, it's really good. Sign to ultra-hip UK & US labels (Wichita & Saddle-Creek), release debut LP... it's really, really, good.

Pros:

• Consistently catchy 'our drummer drinks a lot of coffee' beat throughout the entire album.
• Tendency to sparingly bring in a yummy sounding piano at just the right time.
• Mixes up-tempo guitar-pop with a twinkly ethereal feeling. Which is good.
• Only one track on the album breaks the 3 minute mark. I like brevity.
  
• It seems each member of this band is capable of delivering a bitchin hook on their respective instruments.
  
• Your English Is Good has serious hit-single potential.

Cons:

• Some of the rockier edge from A Lesson In Crime has been lost (blame the glockenspiel?).
• A little bit too much 'Let's ALL sing the chorus!' & 'HEY! HEY! HEY!'. But just a little.
• A tad too sugary on occasion.
• Tough to come up with cons, it's really quite good.

A record for all occasions, if not all listeners. Expect Tokyo Police Club to get bigger- soon. Kudos to anyone who caught their show in the Hub last summer. It will soon be one of those enviable trophy-gigs.

Listen:

Tokyo Police Club- Juno


Click for mp3

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Here's the new single from Tokyo Police Club's debut album, Elephant Shell.

This is Tessellate:

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Tokyo Police Club rock. I didn't go see them play the Hub during the summer. More the fool am I.

Here's 'Nature Of The Experiment':




Click for song

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