Christmas Crackers

Yes! Girls Aloud are hosting an ITV special this festive season:

The Girls Aloud Party (Sat 13th December @ 8pm)

This is excellent news and I will definitely be at home this Saturday evening, glued to the box...

7syd & Boottyboy

Fancy a pre-Christmas mashup or sixty?

Four great mixes found here:

sevensyd / boottyboy - mixes

(Currently working off that office party hangover with Boot Your Radio Vol. 2...)

Nothing against Welsh bands but...

I went and saw the Automatic the other week; good gig and all that. But when you say Automatic most people think "Monster" which I suppose is fair enough but I got to think The Alarm....and "68 guns".....another one hit wonder from the 80s.....wouldn't it be nice if the Stereophonics had followed the same Welsh rule...guess the curly haired drummer can't believe his luck now!

Now another thing that made me think of the Alarm was that their singer....Mike Peters(?)....had ridiculous hair which is sort of another 80's revival thing , currently pervading the music scene. No real point to this other than there's probably nothing wrong with one hit wonders although I do like "Steve McQueen" by the Automatic, probably because the aforementioned actor was really cool, well when I was growing up....and was in the Great Escape and Papillon, two of the best films ever.

Icelandic Music

For reasons I can't quite yet explain I'm going to this: http://www.icelandairwaves.com/

CSS are playing, and a few other people I've heard of but mostly its a load of Icelandic stuff I have no idea about. The only Icelandic music I know is the Sugarcubes/Bjork. Its all very exciting!

If you have any recommendations please let me know!!

Crazy P

Crazy P are great. The Unabombers are great. And this is great:



New album 'Stop, Space, Return' out in October. Nice.

Reading 08

Thought 'd share my annual Reading experience. My highlights were Late of the Pier, Blood Red Shoes, Last Shadow Puppets, Glasvegas, Crystal Castles and Cribs. Generally avoided the main stage but did see Subways, Automatic and British Sea Power who were good. Main headliners - nah. Listened to Henry Rollins' spoken word set...last time I saw him he was in Black Flag (supporting the Damned, those were the days) when half his "right on" audience weren't born. Entertaining though.

Biggest disappointment was Be Your Own Pet. Having released two no-nonsense albums but splitting up after this, I thought they'd put on a better show.

Nirvana covers are in (Feeder, Dirty Pretty Things) as are fake (hopefully) animal headwear and also circle pits - should help this tubby nation lose some weight.

Still don't get what all the fuss about Babyshambles/Pete Doherty is all about. Gave Simian Mobile Disco a listen, Fourstar mentioned them yonks ago, but a bit too rave-y for me.....tried to get a one man circle pit going but didn't work....

And I was called a dude by a fellow festival goer...hmm, freaky

Bloc Perry

Or Katy Party. Or whatever. Still mashup of the year so far:

Party Kisser.mp3

(should just play if you click the little arrow thingy)

Dug Back Up

So now you know: Meet Burial

For a while there's been some talk about who I am, but it's not a big deal I wanted to be unknown because I just want it to be all about the tunes. Over the last year the unknown thing become an issue so I'm not into it any more. I'm a low-key person and i just want to make some tunes, nothing else. My name's Will Bevan, I'm from south London, I'm keeping my head down and just going to finish my next album, there's going to be a 12-inch maybe in the next few weeks too with four tunes.

1, 2, 3, 4, Feist makes me love her more

This is the most charming and cheerful video clip ever.



I ask you - who else would you like to see on Sesame Street? And what version of their hit would they be singing?

I'm Not Sure Why I Like This

Oh yeah, I remember...apart from the obvious, it was written by Cathy Dennis, Max Martin and Dr Luke which makes it approximately 126% of poptastic perfection.

(Andy will hate it, obviously.)

My Bloody Valentine

I went to see My Bloody Valentine on Tuesday last week. It felt like a real event before we got there - lots of buzz about the previous gigs had already appeared in the form of reviews and facebook updates. We were given ear-plugs on the way in in readiness for the onslaught of noise they end every gig with. Anyway they played a blinding set mainly from Loveless, but with a fair few from Isn't Anything (my preferred album I think) and also from the EPs. Sounded really tight and the sound was loud but clear, recreating the sound off the albums fairly closely. But the last song, You Made Me Realise, is what it was all about. The middle section of this is just one chord which goes on for over 2o minutes. It gets louder and louder and the sound feels like something physical in the room with you, vibrating your internal organs and making every hair stand on end. There is no space left in your brain for thoughts so it becomes almost like meditation or a full mental reboot. It's not for everyone, I'd guess about 20% of the audience left before the end, and a lot stood with their hands over their ears, but for the rest it was a perfect end to a very special and unusual gig.

Tokyo Police Club and Mobius Band

Andy and I went to go and see Tokyo Police Club at the Scala tonight. And they were great, if you like that kind of thing.


Mobius Band

The support was an excellent three piece called Mobius Band. With a drummer and two guys who shared singing, playing guitar and playing the synthesizer. There were a few problems with the mix early on but they really created a great sound. I loved them. A kind of mix of melody and live wall of sound kind of thing. They don't sound like the Flaming Lips but I couldn't help but think of them. They perhaps build their sounds in the same way. An interesting band with a bright future.

Tokyo Police Club are a tight, efficient band who seem to really enjoy themselves. Like all great bands with a keyboardist, the guy looked like he was totally off his head throughout. Don't get me wrong though they aren't a keyboard band they are a fast and furious noise band. While the guitar is strong, the band lives by the sound of the drums and bass.


Tokyo Police Club

None of their songs on their album are over 3 minutes (except one which is only fifteen seconds over). They are fast, furious, controlled noise.

My only criticism was that the sounds were a bit samey. Andy assures me that this was a problem with the mix and that they needed to, "make the vocals louder, and perhaps turn down some of the noise". Andy's main complaint will probably be about the two sessions of synchronised clapping.

A good night out, I intend buying the albums which is a good sign.

Next week (Tuesday) I'm off to see My Bloody Valentine at the Roundhouse.

Get The Blackout Of Here

This is the most hilarious thing I have seen in a long time. Straight outta the mean streets of, er, Bolton I give you - BLACKOUT!


My eeeeeeeears!!! Christ on a tandem, that is truly hideous. They're just so ... Netto. But who knew Ian Dowie was packin da mad MC skilzzzz!!! Still, I'm pretty sure they might be the first, er, 'crew' to get a line in about Kit-Kats. Ahem. Sorry about that, do carry on.

Chew On That

[ALERT: noisy young people and their loud bang bang bang music oh my ears and look at what they're wearing never would have happened in my day I saw Wishbone Ash once etc and so on]

Following the excitement surrounding the Ocelot Mthrfckrs remix of Dragonette, I have since discovered a similarly talented chap going by the name of Chew Fu.

Here is a great mix by him: Chew Fu: My Palms Is Out Mix

Tracklist here: Palms Out Sounds: Chew Fu

Enjoy!

(P.S. it's got a ripped up bootleg of Steppenwolf in it to keep the grandads happy...)

Are you crying? I'm not crying, I work out.

Forget Spiritualized, the original and best by the nutter himself.

Perhaps a little more sentimental than your average post but a cracker none the less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ucN4DActxA

Hold Your Jar

Roll up, roll up, ubiquitous UK summer smash hit on its way:



Hot uber-producer Calvin Harris? Crossover grime star Dizzee Rascal? 80s synth stabs? Cowbells? Mis-spelt word in the title implying a certain amount of street txt msg cred whilst annoying the pedantic grown-ups? Check, check, check, check, CHECK!

Just you even try not to (at the very least) nod your head to that. Rinsin' out of every clapped out beamer from Camberwell to Edmonton...

AMVI

I've posted about this on my blog; it would be interesting (for me, at least!) to see the scores of the Dylan's Teeth faithful - even if you don't play an instrument, I wonder if a keen appreciation of music affects visual perception as well...

Associative Musical Visual Intelligence

Over to you...??

Deep Joy (Division)

I've not stumbled across this before but I really do like a good cover version:



I think there are albums out and that. Very good indeed.

Happiness is a monkey in a wig

I love Rex The Dog. He does amazing remixes of lovely songs. And sometimes he does videos to go with them. Look!



If that didn't make you smile then nothing ever will.

Dream On Pro

This made me chuckle, perhaps might ring a bell with those of you who have struggled with Reason, Cubase, ProTools, etc and so on:

Dream On Pro: Music Destruction Software

Festival theme...again

Didn't have a clue on the lyrics, artist, mix of previous entry but agree its "all gone quiet over there", so here we go.
Now I happened to catch some of the Radio 1 Maidstone weekend festival the other day. What really surprised me was how few naff bands were on it. Isn't this type of event supposed to be about boy bands and girl bandsand pop artistes that my kids like - well obviously not my kids as they have been schooled properly in music heritage. Maybe I am REALLY out of touch but surely bands like Raconteurs, Editors, Wombats are not mainstream?
Didn't see any crowd-surfing or signs of the "rougher clientele" chucking wee filled bottles at the Fratellis...and they plus all the others are playing Reading this year...
So does this mean that I have to get into obscure furry animal remixes of underground dance music......hmm
Still at least Be Your Own Pet are playing Reading.....

Sheets in the bedroom?

Seeing as you have all clearly been out enjoying the Great British Summer, I have a quest for you to drag you back to your laptops....

NAME THAT TUNE WHAT I DONE GONE AND HEARD ON THE RADIO PLEASE

Clues:

Female singer
Some sort of 4/4 house remix
Electropop band (I think)

Selection of lyrics as badly overheard by me:

"Girlfriend, with hypertension"
"Juice a secret?"
"It's risky, boozy ass"
"Try to keep it in positions"
"Sheets in the bedroom?"

Anyone? Please put me out of my misery in the comments...?

Big in Japa... China

They are the biggest band China at the moment. Good or bad? I'm plumping for good.

Band's called New Pants, song: You're My Superstar

The Frightful Follow-up

I can never remember if it’s supposed to be the difficult second album or the difficult third?

At the moment it seems that bands are being pushed much too hard into releasing that second album way before it’s ready.

We all know the score. You spend 5 years honing an absolute cracker, release an album, go on tour and then somebody says you’ve got three weeks to release album two. Because you’re half ways decent there’s one or two crackers that you’ve been working on. The only problem is that everything else sounds about as rapidly put together as Keith Richard’s wardrobe.

I thought the whole point of an A&R man was to look after the artists and guide them through these things without overexposing them or ruining their reputation. If the labels aren’t even doing that anymore their point is rapidly disappearing.

Festivals

I wouldn't say that I was eagerly awaiting news of the Reading Rock, or being modern Carling weekend, line up this week but as I already bought tickets I was interested. Metallica, Killers, Rage against machine bit non-plussed. Now lots of talking points I think:

Is it still cool or hip or with it enough to still do festivals or have they all been hijacked by corporate money and students (pah)?

Are the headliners actually important? (not for me certainly)

Is it OK to buy advance tickets so avoiding the Spring scramble?

Is anybody else going to Reading?

Isn't it always incredible how many people know the words of songs of bands I've never heard of?

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

Seventh Tree is the follow up to "Supernature", Goldfrapp's best selling album to date. Luckily the group haven't made Supernature II - The Revenge, but the critics haven't seen it like that.

Supernature moved Goldfrapp way into the mainstream. Madonna cited it as the principle influence for "Confessions on the Dancefloor". And so we find reviewers confused by this new direction for Goldfrapp. Whereas this album is, in many ways, a return to the place Goldfrapp call normal.

Alison's vocals seem on this album to be a cross between Joan Baez, Joni Mitchel and herself. You're just getting settled into a song when her trademark wail comes on reminding you exactly who you're listening to.

Goldfrapp are a group who suffer badly from press pigeonholing. So this album has been seen as a disappointing thumping dance soundtrack but that's okay because it isn't supposed to be that at all.

The closest I can come is Joni Mitchel does Lemmonjelly. But obviously that's not quite it at all either. Standout tracks like Happiness, A&E and Caravan Girl aren't even like each other.

It deserves to be a classic because this time Goldfrapp have toned down the things that sometimes make them difficult to approach. It seems their most balanced album to date. Certainly worth a listen, even if you've shunned the 'frap before.

Yahoo! Media Player

This looks interesting, given our discussions re: embedding content:

Yahoo! Media Player
Anyone want to give it a go? OK, I will. *puts script in template* Right then, just need an mp3...here's a silly old mashup I did a couple of years ago:

WithoutDoom.mp3

There should be a little clicky PLAY icon...oh, look there is. And what's that down at the bottom left? Yes, it's a nice floaty JavaScript player.

So essentially, if you want to stick some music on here, just link to the .mp3 (which can be hosted anywhere) and the script will do the rest.

You're welcome :)

American Pie (Chart)

Following on from the rap one:

Flickr: The SONG CHART Pool

There are currently 195 in there, but my favourite so far is this, even if it is more 'peach' than I was hoping (and that would never scan...)

All Gondry

One for Alex I feel - a few nice examples of the work of uber-video director (and Be Kind Rewind chap) Michel Gondry:

nialler9: Mirrorball, Michel Gondry

The Reason Music is Good #1

Have you ever seen anything so cute?

Singers that aren't really...

I went to the Forum last night and saw a blast from (my) past The Godfathers. Audience was like a harder version of a Madness concert. Great guitar based music and all that but the front man was never really (and hasn't suddenly become) a singer. Now on the long trek home a couple of bands came on my transportable music cassette pod walkie playman thingy being Ash and, very embarrasingly, Snow Patrol.....now these are also bands with singers who can't really sing. But in the case of Ash and the Godfathers it doesn't stop them being good bands. So I wondered what other bands fit this category. If I was being harsh you could say that Howlin' Pelle Kyssttommmhhhheeeennn from the Hives struggles in the singing department but is a great frontman. Jimmy Pursey, pre-using-the-form-of-dance, was a good shouter.

So do singers need to be able to sing?

C'mon, c'mon.....we're going down the .......etc

Ooh La La

So Girls Aloud are at it again:



I do wonder if they thought of the costumes before they wrote the song, I'm sure I would have done. And I bet the lovely Nadine can 'speak French'...

I'll get my coat.

Don't Look Back

I just bought my ticket to see Public Enemy playing 'It takes a Nation of Millions to hold us back' in its entirety. I'm quite excited about this. I've also been to the Don't Look Back concerts by Sonic Youth, Slint and Mudhoney, and although yes its predictable what they will play, it's also comforting to know you won't have to sit through endless mediocre new songs in your quest to hear a few old classics (Yes, I'm talking to you Morrissey)

So what album would you pay good money to see performed in its entirety? My starters for ten are:
The Smiths playing The Queen is Dead
Lou Reed and John Cale playing Songs for Drella

ElectroFeb 10

From the east end electro enthusiast: ten songs discovered recently that I rate (not necessarily new out). They are sorted, I guess in order of 'Electro Rock Agression' (if that makes means anything!). The last two definately aren't electro, rock or aggressive in any way. Please listen, enjoy, aquire or dismiss as appropriate :-)

Luxxury - Dirty Girls (need love too) - YouTube
Juliette & The Licks - Got Love to Kill [MSTRKRFT remix] - YouTube
Robots in Disguise - Turn It Up - YouTube
Villains - Thrilla - MySpace
MSTRKRFT - Easy Love - YouTube
Yelle - A Cause Des Garcons - YouTube
division kent - she's going places - last.fm
neon neon - raquel - Boomkat
the blow - parentheses - YouTube
Joanna Newsom - the Book of Right-On - YouTube

Don't

I rather liked this so I have blatantly nicked it.

Negative Music Quiz

Songs that begin with the word "Don't" - how many can you get?

1. Don’t Bang The Drum
2. Don’t Be Afraid
3. Don’t Cha
4. Don’t Cha Wanna Ride
5. Don’t Cry
6. Don’t Cry Sister
7. Don’t Dream It’s Over
8. Don’t Ever Leave Me
9. Don’t Feel Right
10. Don’t Get Carried Away
11. Don’t Go
12. Don’t Know How
13. Don’t Leave Me Now
14. Don’t Let Me Down
15. Don’t Let Me Down
16. Don’t Let The Sun Down On Me
17. Don’t Lie
18. Don’t Look For Me
19. Don’t Look Now
20. Don’t Make My Brown Eyes Blue
21. Don’t Mess With My Man
22. Don’t Phunk With My Heart
23. Don’t Put All Your Dreams In One Basket
24. Don’t Say Nothin’
25. Don’t Smoke In Bed
26. Don’t Stand So Close To Me
27. Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
28. Don’t Stop Movin’
29. Don’t Think Of Me
30. Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right
31. Don’t Wait
32. Don’t Wait Up
33. Don’t Want To Know
34. Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely
35. Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing

Answers (or the ones you are stuck on) in a post comment...

Logical Fallacies in music

All the kids are doing it these days. For example:

"Scouting for girls" have "Elvis isn't dead, cause I heard him on the radio"

What are your favourite examples?

Version Number

Flicking through records at a record shop - I'm so 90s retro - I found Mr Scruff's "Keep it unreal" for almost £0 so I bought a copy.

On listening it made me think of Mark Ronson's highly original sound but without being covers I was unable to get my fix of indie knowing references. I can't believe the cheek of this Mr Scruff going back in time and ripping off Mark Ronson. That's the kind of thing that will start making people think Mark Ronson hasn't had an original thought in his life. A dangerous game Mr Scruff - very dangerous.

Swedes for my sweet

Because I'm showing off about going to Stockholm tomorrow, I thought I'd take the opportunity to post some of my favourite videos from the land of herring, pornography and Electrolux.

Maia Hirasawa - And I Found This Boy:


The Sounds - Painted By Numbers:


The Cardigans - You're The Storm *AROOGA* lost classic alert:


Alcazar - Crying At the Discotheque:


And that, ladies and germs, is possibly the best video of all time. Also, it contains the line "When disco spreads like a bacteria..." and mentions Richard Gere.

Who are your favourite Swedes? Tell me!

More after the break...

She Amazed Me

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has encouraged the readers of his blog to write a song by simply asking them to come up with totally nonsensical rhyming couplets: Write a hit song

Amazingly from what they wrote, a song has emerged, been recorded and now there's even a music video:



Just how easy is it to write a song?

Just

So Mark Ronson has covered Radiohead's song:


And made a parody of it in the video:


The question we have to ask ourselves is: it it Just?

Last FM - what are we really listening to?

Fourstar's earlier post made me think how I've become strangely obsessed with Last FM and also the song count on iTunes. I love and also hate the fact I now know what I actually listen to the most rather than kidding myself I mainly listen to cool stuff....

So question is, what are your stats on Last FM, and do you need to justify them? I've been on it since April, total of 4300 songs listened to, and my top 5 artists over that time are:
1. Sonic Youth - 249 listens (partly induced by a bout of obsessive listening around the time I went to see them live, partly by the fact I have about a billion songs by them)
2. Burial - 127 listens (I blame fourstar)
3. Arctic Monkeys - 103 listens (I'm a little surprised by this)
4. Toots and the Maytals - 98 listens (my favourite summer reggae tunes)
5. CSS - 94 listens (just a great album)
http://www.last.fm/user/AlisonSakai/

And in case you're wondering my most listened song according to iTunes is Deep In The Horchata by Death Vessel, which I have listened to 34 times since getting a new computer and reinstalling itunes in Jan last year.

Rappy Birfday

With regular poster fourstar celebrating his birthday we must face the question:

"What is the greatest / worst birthday song of all time".

Free At Last.fm

I posted this on my blog too; could be a watershed moment:

Last.fm Blog : Free the Music

"As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website ... free full-length tracks are obviously great news for listeners, but also great for artists and labels, who get paid every time someone streams a song. Music on Last.fm is perpetually monetized. This is good because artists get paid based on how popular a song is with their fans, instead of a fixed amount ... we already have licenses with the various royalty collection societies, but now unsigned artists can put their music on Last.fm and be paid directly for every song played. This helps to level the playing-field—now you can make music, upload it to Last.fm and earn money for each play ... the business model is simple enough: we are paying artists and labels a share of advertising revenue from the website. Today we’re redesigning the music economy. "

Welcome to the future? Discuss...

The best song ever written...

...is Sugar Sugar by The Archies. Of course. Everyone knows that.



Name something better. Bet you can't.

On The Radio(head)

So Radiohead's Thom and Ed (with Jonny on the phone later on) took over Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio One show on 17th January.

What did Thom pick as his 'Hottest Record In The World'? Listen and find out!

Radiohead on Radio One

(You can thank me later :)

Facebook Dylan Group

If you like Dylan, you might want to join a Dylan group I started on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5957628170

"All self-promotion is shameless..."

A rock tragedy

Rocker broke back 'finding loo'

Supergrass bassist Mick Quinn was trying to find a toilet when he broke his back in a freak accident last year, he has revealed.

The musician sleepwalked out of a first floor window of a villa where he was staying in the South of France.

Quinn told ITV Teletext: "The first I knew I was in trouble was when I was in mid-air."

The 38-year-old suffered two broken vertebrae in the fall, and the band were forced to put their plans on hold.

The full story is here

[I just love that he told his story to ITV Teletext - rock and roll.]

My Bloody Valentine - another date...

Just a heads up - they've announced another date on Jun 24th. I've got my ticket booked...

Baby gets back

On random tonight Tender by Blur came on my iPod. It reminded me of a great moment at a Justine Frischmann gig (could have been Elastica but I can't remember). 13 had just come out and she was obviously pissed off by it. She said, "my ex just released an album of 13 tracks dissing me, I've written a song".

The lyrics were:

You hate me,
I hate you,
So why can't you just fuck off.

Repeat x10.



What is your favourite musical rebuttal?

Tube Diary: Stations with celebrity names

Look, they're all at it now:

London Underground Tube Diary

I've left a link to ours in the comments...

Let's stop raping Britney Spears.

This past few days we have seen more invasive pictures of Britney. But instead of her (ho ho) bald head or her even balder (ho ho) fanny, the pictures show her being wheeled out on a stretcher. Wheeled out from her huge mansion on the most exclusive part of Beverly Hills after a dispute over her children.

Aren't we tired of the bullying yet? Do we laugh at this? this rich bitch? Have you ever done something rash and woken up to regret it? The next day, don't we want to forget it and hide away? We feel shame and it burns our cheeks as we see our friends and coworkers again. We laugh, nervously, or apologise. Forget it, they might say. Or we avoid those people, those whom we can't face. We want the world to swallow us whole; not chop up our embarrassment up for easy digestion.

And I know she's made millions from it. From fame. We buy her products. And she profited it from it, so she owes us, right? Fame has become an open invitation into celebrities lives. We can come in, make ourselves at home. Not only that, we can go through your rubbish and take pictures of your children. And when you ask us to stop and leave, we refuse and feel indignant. You invited us, we say, and therefore you only have yourself to blame.

But Britney's been in the game long enough, surely. But when is it enough? We don't know we've had enough, until we've had more than enough. She will probably have the pleasure of dying before a phalanx of hungry cameras and the one time princess of pop will have no regal protection. Only then might we say how terrible it all is. Right when the guilt sets in.

The box is of celebrity is open and has formed a co-dependent addiction. It seems she cannot break free. Can you, weak and pathetic general public, reject the cult that you've joined without knowing?

Pigeon Fancier

So on the back of Andy's recomendation I've been listening to the Pigeon Detectives and I've been liking what I'm hearing.

Check a few of these out:

I Found Out



Romantic Type

Tubular Hell

When we all jokingly made puns of Underground stations I didn't realise that one of us worked for the undergound marketing board:




Sorry I slightly cropped the picture at the top I was rushing for the tube. That is MC Hammersmith, Eric Clapham, Whitney Euston and Lilly Balham.

It's a small world, but I wouldn't like to paint it.

Two Thousand And Great?

So what are your 'ones to watch' this year, then...?

Will we see a backlash against manufactured reality TV show stars? Will Nu-Rave disappear up its own glowstick? Has Emo finally had enough and locked itself in the cellar? And with 2008 looking like the year of money-spinning comeback tours for everyone from Boyzone to The New York Dolls, will any of them still rock it?

Over to you...