One of the seminal bands of the 00’s they may be, but a b-sides band Arcade Fire aren’t. During their short career so far they’ve released two overwhelmingly brilliant albums that both deserve to be hailed as true classics of the current decade – and others – and that may partially be because they focus all their energy and inspiration on the songs that actually end up on the said albums. Despite releasing several singles you can count their b-sides with one hand’s fingers and some of those are even songs performed by other artists (not covers by AF, genuinely different artists sharing the space). Same thing goes for more non-canonical releases: there’s almost no non-album non-single rarities lingering around.

That’s not stopping us from going through some most of them because there are some fine songs there.

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I love b-sides, rarities and all this other material. They’re my special musical passion. Things that artists take time to write and record but which never get widespread releases, often verging on the border of being forgotten forever if it wasn’t for the most fanatic fans and b-side compilations. To quote the name of the Manic Street Preachers’ b-side “best of”, they’re the secret histories of these artists. Hit songs that arrived with the inspirational flow at the wrong time, stylistic experiments, drunken studio jams and yes, also average filler fluff custom-made to slap something on singles to give some incentive for people to buy them. Often they, if released on the last single of its parent album, also hint at the direction the artist is going to take on their next album.

MP3 posts are fun and this is one concept of them. Hidden treasures, going with the ever-popular “updated when I feel like it” update rate, are tiny collections of particular gem that are worth giving digging up and giving a special mention to – especially if the said artist hasn’t had a b-side compilation left or they decided to leave something out from the one they had.

Inspired by my recent find of one such gem, today we tackle on the already well-discussed John Frusciante. Frusciante’s never been much of rarities fellow, partly because of his very musically focused nature and partly because the guy’s only had about two singles during his entire career, and one of them was partially filled with songs he ended up releasing on the internet-only demos compilation From the Sounds Inside. But he does have something to offer.

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Hosting a summer party? Need something to play on the car during the hot, sunny days? Feel like just randomly shaking your ass to the groove in your bedroom when your significant other hasn’t yet got to share a summer vacation with you? Then look no further than Finland, or if you prefer it this post. Blossoms are here for you.

Blossoms are a band from Finland who believe in the power of love, boogie and sunshine. Their music is an infectious mixture of sunshiney pop, dance-enducing disco and sexually funkaliciously grooved out rock n roll. And of course, a whole bunch of good feeling: it’s all about fun! Funky bass throbs along a steady drum beat and a guitar groove, keyboards spicing up life here and there as frontman Aki sings about love and partying with his seductively macho and charismatic voice, with wonderful female backing vocals offering a gentle support at strategic moments. Sometimes the music gets slower (though not often), sometimes you get real rockers such as the hi-energy “Get Laid” (guess the subject matter!). While their output so far has been quite small – one EP, one single and one album – what they’ve let out is essential for your summer.

The band started their career with a self-titled EP, offering four songs of such magnitude that when this little blogger heard the samples and found out that his local music store is one of the few places that stocked the EP, he was off in an instant. “One Night” chugs on with its addicting funky poppiness and guest female dueting, rolling so deliciously that you’d never guess it was the band’s first recording. With its fantastic chorus and general feel-good greatness, it stands as the band’s greatest moment so far. Well, tied with “Beach” which ends the album. Beach could also be considered the band’s most serious song, starting with a gentle peaceful pace and declarations of romance to an epic crasher ending rocker of a beast with the repeated line “we’re all gonna go someday/don’t you know that”, at the same time celebrating life and defying the short time we all get with it. The two other songs of the EP complement the two highlights well, even if never threatening to dethrone them. And because the EP is pretty much unavailable anymore, check the end of the post for a mp3 grab of the whole thing!

The main Blossoms offering however is the also self-titled album released in 2006. One Night and Beach have been transferred from the EP and both have gained slight updates, beefed up, taken even further and hitting with even greater grooves, effectively creating the definitive versions of both songs. The aforementioned Get Laid storms with a primal lust through its hilariously energetic rocking three minutes, “Love Me for a While” is the centrepiece disco epic, “Sonando de la Luz” takes a mediterranean tinge and actually manages to pull it off, while “Celebration” is moreso a Blossoms version of Andrew W.K.’s “Party Hard” rather than the Kool and the Gang song of the same name. While the album might seem terribly brief, clocking only at 32 minutes, it’s the exactly perfect length for a non-stop summery party groove.

Blossoms themselves seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, with what their official website having been down for over a year now. This is a bit of a bugger, not only in general but because one of their very best songs – an 80’s tributing synth-funk thing – never got a studio recording. I had the chance to see the band live once and while I’m not usually the sort of person to go wow over live acts, that performance made me a Blossoms fanboy for a while. I’ve calmed down slightly now but when you get down to the suave dance moves of their music, you’ll understand the feeling.

Download Blossoms EP
MP3: Get Laid
MP3: Love Me for a While
Buy the Blossoms album from Record Shop X

The song that was supposed to be the lead single for the new Mew album but got replaced with another awesome song has now been released as a free mp3 grab for all. Rather than doing any sort of epic prog-pop quirkiness, the quite straightforward Repeaterbeater blows itself through in two and a half minutes. In that time, we’re treated with a high-energy drive and an awesome chorus. And it’s ridiculously addicting.

The No More Stories EP will see a release at the end of this month, featuring both Introducing Palace Players and Repeaterbeater as well as three other songs, samples of which you can check out here.

MP3: Repeaterbeater

First of all, apologies dear readers for our slight silence as we’ve all been quite preoccupied this week! To make up for lack of articles and mp3s, all which shall return next week again, here’s a little batch of things I’ve been powerplaying recently whenever I’ve had the chance to powerplay anything. They might not be as fashionable choices as Mag’s mathnoisetechnojanglepaganindierock delights or as immense of a treasurepile as Ipequey’s weekly chest of indie pop diamonds from today and the past, but they sure are gooood.

First of all, we have a little piece of the Finnish quirky pop group Regina. They released their third album Puutarhatrilogia recently and, well, it’s not really my cup of tea. Regina’s debut Katso maisemaa still charms me with its goofy, naïve-ish attitude but after the debut the band’s decided to grow up and take a slightly more mature, and a bit artsier, approach to their music. Which is great! For them anyway. They continue to develop as artists and that’s a good thing, and I can definitely see why people love their more recent albums, but I just kinda miss that fun little novelty charm that got me into buying the debut in the first place.

Anyway! “Saanko jäädä yöksi?” is Puutarhatrilogia’s centerpiece focus and the album’s best track, an artsy little pseudo-dance ditty driven by an irresistable piano melody, chopped vocal clips and Iisa Pajula’s quirky singing, mixed together with a brilliant burst in intensity as the drums finally hit the stage fully and interspersed with a random dancehall interlude. It’s quirky, it’s brilliant.

MP3: Saanko jäädä yöksi?
Puutarhatrilogia on Recordshop X

Kashmir is a Danish rock band who started off as some sort of funk-rocksters, if I’m reading my Wikipedia correctly, and then drifted into a more melancholy, melodic rock act. Zitilites is widely regarded as their best album and whilst it suffers from slight overlength mixed together with a bit too similar tempo all the way through, it’s an enchanting and good listen that’s been keeping me in its grips lately. The lead man Kasper Eistrup sounds like he’s been taking vocal lessons from Thom Yorke which makes the music occasionally sound like a long lost off-shoot album from Radiohead’s OK Computer era, but you know, that’s a good thing.

“Rocket Brothers” was a big hit in Denmark and a fairly audible thing elsewhere in Scandinavia too when it was released, and for a very good reasons: great melodies, excellent atmosphere, good chorus. It’s one of Zitilites’ best tracks and even if the rest of the album isn’t one’s cup of tea, Rocket Brothers is a brilliant song worth keeping anyway.

MP3: Rocket Brothers
Zitilites on Amazon

Right, let’s crack open that Manic Street Preachers chest a bit more now that Journal for Plague Lovers is pretty much out. “Virginia State Epileptic Colony” got a brief mention on my Journal for Plague Lovers review and now I’m gonna share the brilliance that it is. Mopeyman Richey’s indecipherable and sloganeering-filled lyrics featuring such amazing lines as “pig pig piggy!” are set upon a hilariously upbeat jangle pop backing that sounds like it’s taking the complete piss out of anyone who thinks the song was going to be something deep and serious. The chorus is pure awesomeness in its almost humorous singalong tone, and check out that plinky-plonky piano interlude! Journal’s got a strong lighter side and and VSEC’s a great example of that.

MP3: Virginia State Epileptic Colony
Journal for Plague Lovers on Amazon

Finally, something from that Danger Mouse / Sparklehorse / kitchen sink collaboration album Dark Night of the Soul that’s now making itself famous by all the legal dispute news that might prevent its physical release. Fortunately, it’s out there digitally already and let me tell you, outside the Black Francis / Iggy Pop -twofer weakspot around the middle-ish, it’s very very good. Mr Ipequey of our wonderful blog establishment might give you a bit more indepth account on the album’s bliss at some point, being an even bigger Sparklehorse lover than I am, but I shall give you a sample MP3 in the form of the album’s opening track – the Flaming Lips collaboration “Revenge”. It’s five minutes of chilled out, hopeful, dreamy orchestrated bliss and beauty, not too far from the brilliant Lips album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Easily one of the best songs of 2009? You bet. Just check out that sweeping beauty of a chorus. And mmmm, the atmosphere…

MP3: Revenge (feat. The Flaming Lips)

This was Flint’s random MP3 moment, hope you enjoyed this brief dabble in me making an mp3 update for a change!

Oh god how could I forget this? Okay so there’s been all those wild Manics news and new Doves album in a couple of days and all sorts of other stuff hogging my attention, but that’s not excuse for me to forget that April 1st marked the first day of Viola’s “one new track per month” project that you can download, along with their whole discography, from the band’s official music archives.

The new song is called “Cute Destroyer” and harkens stylistically more to the sophomore album Anything Can Stop Us with its wild mixture of electronic elements and energetic guitar rock. Outside the short, contemplative break halfway through, Cute Destroyer stomps through its three minutes with relentless fervour and furious energy. It’s a quick little blast that starts the band’s new era.

MP3: Cute Destroyer

A mini-update here, offering you a little mp3 treat. Treat in my opinion anyway. This most likely doesn’t mean absolutely anything to most of you readers but I had my all-encompassing playlist on shuffle and managed to unearth a treasure I had slightly forgotten as it randomly popped up on the player. “Kaikki nuoret tyypit” by Tehosekoitin, released in 2000, is a grand rock anthem about youth and rock ‘n’ roll that’s pretty much a legendary hit classic back in Finland. Rock and roll attitude, grand and epic buildups, fantastic singalong choruses and endless memories of countless summers with this playing on as well as witnessing a huge crowd on a rock festival jumping up and down to the song while all singing along to the chorus. It’s not summer at the moment but dammit, enjoy it nonetheless.

Something a little foreign and exotic for y’all. Give it a try, it’s a classic hit for a reason.

As for the band itself… well, I never really got into them as a full but then again, I can’t say I ever made much of an effort. But going through Youtube now has revealed me on a few other treasures so maybe I’ll owe myself to get their compilation one day. Shame it’s annoyingly hard to get from UK! Ah well, something to pick while in Finland again.

MP3: Kaikki nuoret tyypit