Big Orange Crayonmusical thingsVarious Artists Trolley Bus Music Tour Trolley Bus This comp has an eric Metronome song on it, therefore I bought it as soon as it came out. Luckily, the rest of it is just as lovely. I'm a happy boy. Trolley Bus is a record label run by Yoshi of Aikagi, so I was actually looking forward to this before I knew the track listing. It's probably one of the better compilations I've heard in a while: there's a good balance of bands that I know and bands that I don't know and it's just the right length so that I can remember the songs by the time I'm done playing it. Of course, my favorite song is "Why Should I Look at the Sun" by eric Metronome, but that's not being fair to the other bands. Some of my other favorites are "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle" by Nice Fellow which is a wonderful bit of that psychotically happy Japanese indie pop that I love and keep getting stuck in my head, and the last track "Different Endings" which has Mike Landucci of Blackbean and Placenta doing one song in your right ear while Aikagi does a different song in the left (the artist is listed as Mike Landucci vs. Aikagi). It's pretty much an international compilation, with the US and Japan being the most heavily represented, and there are also songs from Watoo Watoo (they're French, right?) and tons of others. If you're into either American or Japanese indie pop, this can serve as a great introduction to the other. I know, for one, that there are a lot of bands on here that I want to hear more from. Total score: 617 out of 617 |