December 2011
39 posts
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Video: Eugene McGuinness - Lion
He’s back! He’s finally back! A deep-rooted fandom of the London-cum-Liverpool lad, which began with debut Early Learnings…, is not in vain!
Well, from the sounds (and looks) of comeback singles “Lion” and “Thunderbolt” - the latter is free on his Facebook page - he has lost none of his lyrical prowess. How can anyone not find I’m sitting on the...
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Video: Dog Is Dead cover a Christmas classic
It’s been a fantastic couple of years for Dog Is Dead; the grotesquely named but incessantly gleeful Nottingham five-piece have gone from supporting fellow viral behemoths OK Go to receiving major plaudits and airplay from several BBC DJs. They even starred as themselves in Skins (no, really).
Now, despite their rather infuriatingly lax attitude to actually recording anything...
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Material: Odd Future members' new project releases...
Call them what you like, OFWGKFA are a busy lot. Now two of them have formed a new project, who go by the entirely Google-unfriendly the Internet.
The project, made up of Syd “Tha Kyd” Bennett and Matthew “Matt Martians” Martin, is an odd one. Despite being far less abrasive than previous work by the collective, it uses ridiculously stark track names (that you can read...
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Listen: New Madeon track aired by Pete Tong
So, French child prodegy Madeon has released a new track. It’s called “Icarus”, and comes after months of teasing and prodding across the internet, sending Hype Machine into absolute meltdown… And, wow, it is it a doozy.
Following in a very similar - but very good - vein as the rest of his work, the track is however a much more dynamic beast. Mixing calm with rapture,...
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News: Beach Boys to reform
In news certain to make women in their sixties squeal in unison across the globe, quintessential pop band The Beach Boys will be reuniting in time for their fiftieth anniversary next year.
The Hawthorne, California-based group will be embarking on a tour with - you guessed it - fifty dates across the world, with a special performance at the Grammy Awards in February.
Founding member Brian...
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Video: Givers play "Up Up Up" in live session
Sorry I skimped today, can never find the time at the weekends…
This is a pretty old video, from June-time, of the most twee live performance you’re likely to see for a long long time - but it’s still ace and well worth watching.
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Material: Bombay Bicycle Club record, uh, reggae
Well, okay, it’s not officially reggae. It’s been put down as “rub a dub”. Their guitarist Jamie MacColl seems to be pretty adamant that they avoid tarnishing the genre’s reputation; in an interview with NME, he said this:
I don’t know why we didn’t just put reggae – but if I saw “Bombay Bicycle Club reggae version” I’d probably run for...
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Video: Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - The Copper Top
This song is from Everything’s Getting Older, an album I unfortunately have yet to listen to all the way through, and therefore did not include on my Albums of the Year list.
“The Copper Top” is a spoken-word story of a funeral, with the copper top in question being the decaying roof of an old building. The thick-as-mustard Fife accent only adds to the charm, and the simple...
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Material: Sleigh Bells' single debuts on Radio 1
Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss, or Sleigh Bells to you and I, have had their new single “Born To Lose” played by Zane Lowe on his Radio 1 show.
The song is a drum machine-based onslaught, with power-chord guitar driving through Krauss’s dulcet tones. There is (of course!) some shouting in here too, for those of you who like that sort of thing. It’s the first single off...
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News: Justice's label gets angry over cover...
French Daft Punk tribute band Justice’s Ed Banger Records label has hit out at fans, who seemingly aren’t all that keen on tasteful nudity, via their Facebook page.
Pedro Winter ranted:
For some reasons, some of our “fans” complained about the nude girl on the Justice new single cover…. Facebook deleted the photo and sent me some warnings...
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News: Muse want to "do something radically...
Disclaimer: I really, really dislike Muse. I dislike their brand of “the world is going to die” rock that they’ve been doing long before The-bloody-Resistance. I don’t like Matt Bellamy’s voice, either. It sounds like he should be narrating audiobooks to song or something.
That said, their bassist, Chris Wolstenholme, has heavily suggested the band are going to...
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Video: Alessi's Ark plays "Time Travel" for Green...
Not content with a great debut album, 21-year-old Alessi’s Ark released a second earlier this year through folk specialist label Bella Union. The new record, Time Travel, was co-produced by Alessi herself along with David Wrench.
Here’s a session for folk festival Green Man, recorded a couple of weeks ago, in which she and her band play a lovely version of the second album’s...
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News: Amy Winehouse tops album chart
Lioness: Hidden Treasures, a collection of unreleased songs recorded by Amy Winehouse before her early death this year, has displaced Olly Murs from the top of the UK album chart.
A mix of covers and original work, the album was compiled by close friends of the singer, Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi. Profits from the record’s sales will be given to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, set up to...
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News: Lana Del Rey to tour Australia
Big-lipped songstress Lana Del Rey is set to undertake her first tour of Australia in the new year.
I must admit, I’m not a massive fan of her work, but her popularity has taken such a massive rise over the past year it’s hard not to know who she is. She has called herself the “gangsta Nancy Sinatra” online and cites Kurt Cobain, among others, as her influences.
Her...
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Listen: Air collaborate with Beach House
One of the most un-Googleable bands in the history of mankind, French ambient craftsmen Air have made a new track with help from Victoria Legrand, who you might know better as the quine from Beach House.
The song is one of several written by the duo for the soundtrack to an adaptation of silent film Le voyage dans la lune (The Voyage to the Moon). The new film is made from stills uncovered in...
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News: The X Factor is finished
HOORAY
Now for the Christmas number one and subsequent new-entry-at-number-seventeen and record label dumping by Easter. JOY!
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Albums of the Year: #5-#1
So here it is. My final five albums of the year… I feel incredibly guilty for this list, really, as I’ve just noticed I’ve missed out Girls’ stunning Father, Son, Holy Ghost mainly because I hadn’t actually heard it in its entirety. Which is a damn shame, but I can’t really review what I haven’t heard. I’ll go listen to it, don’t you worry.
I...
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Video: Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness
Probably a bit far behind, but whatever. Great idea, executed bloody well.
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News: Nick Cave's Grinderman announce split...
After the landslide of critical acclaim following their second record’s release in 2009, alternative rockers Grinderman announced they are set to disband altogether.
54-year-old vocalist Nick Cave, who found fame in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, told the crowd at the Meredith Music Festival in Melbourne that the band are “over”. “See you all in another ten years when...
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Albums of the Year: #10-#6
Here we are, then, into the top ten… Be sure to let me know if you disagree or think I’ve missed something, of course!
#10: British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall
After four albums’ worth of trying to hammer themselves into the mainstream public consciousness, British Sea Power’s fifth doesn’t do as well as Mercury-nominated Do You Like Rock Music? sales-wise, but...
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News: Blur to receive lifetime achievement BRIT
Damon Albarn might have moved onto (arguably) bigger things with Gorillaz, and Alex James might now be more famous for, uh, owning a cheese farm - but Blur have managed to land themselves a BRIT award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
Blur were, of course, practically the only proper guitar band going in the UK in the early nineties. From their shoegazy debut Leisure in 1991 through to...
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Material: The National début new work on Canadian...
Right now in the middle of a hectic winter tour of Canada and northern United States, The National are still proving their songwriting skills aren’t dipping in the interim. These live recordings, broadcast on Canadian radio station CBC’s show Q Live, is a perfect showcase of why the band are a must-hear-live act.
Beauty is a given when one brings up the group’s music, but the...
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Albums of the Year: #15-#11
Part two of my mammoth list of albums of the year now… Don’t worry, the top ten’s not too far away. Here are some more that didn’t quite fit that high.
#15: Sleepingdog - With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields
Sleepingdog, also known as Chantal Acda, saw her April release predictably shunned commercially (and, incredibly, critically too) - people like...
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Listen: Spectrals release rather freaky Christmas...
Still not afraid to sound like they’re stuck at the bottom of a canyon, dream-pop duo Spectrals have recorded a really quite lovely Christmas-themed track called “It’s Xmas and I’ve Got Everything I Want”.
In the scuzziest Christmas song you will ever hear (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), the brothers from Heckmondwick are sure to soak everything, even...
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Albums of the Year: #20-#16
And it’s that time of year again. For me, this is the point where I stop blogging and let it die - but not this year! I promise! Ooh, dear…
Anyway, this year has been fantastic in terms of great music. It’s the first year in forever that the winner of the Mercury Prize actually deserved the title. It’s the first year in forever that the Grammy for Album of the Year went to...
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Material: Islet release free download album teaser
I’m cheating a little bit since this was actually announced on November 7, but here it is anyway. The sort of band who make critics stop and question their purpose life, Islet have released a delectable free sample of their first full-length LP, Illuminated People.
In keeping with their earlier releases, “This Fortune” retains the excitingly low-fidelity...
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Material: Miike Snow release new track "Devil's...
Miike Snow have always been something of a guilty pleasure. They make music in a genre that not two years ago was obscure enough to be “cool”, but managed to pull it into the public eye and now all of a sudden they’re shunned by the same people who once worshipped them. Sound familiar, eh, Example?
Anyway, building on from their massively successful self-titled album released...
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Material: IndianRedLopez - Prometheus
Sometimes it’s difficult to believe musicians are real people. It’s difficult to imagine that they live the same life you do, buy stuff from the same shop round the corner, or, in my case, use the same recording studio.
IndianRedLopez are four pretty cool dudes from the same city as me. This track was produced and mixed by award-winning Aberdonian producer Iain Macpherson, the same...
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News: Guided by Voices pull out of 2012 festivals
After a day’s worth of kerfuffle as to whether or not Guided by Voices were actually splitting up, the group announced via their official Facebook page that they will not be able to play at either Primavera in Barcelona or ATP/I’ll Be Your Mirror in London.
The band cite “personal reasons” for the change of heart but stress that they are “not splitting up”,...
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News: Nirvana back fans' bid for Christmas No. 1
Washington-based grunge rock outfit Nirvana have given their personal backing to a bid to get 1991 single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to number one at Christmas.
The campaign is in aid of children’s charity Rhythmix, who over the last few months have been involved in a highly public spat with Simon Cowell’s company Syco. A group on his talent show The X Factor were...
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Emerging: Soviet Dance Reunion
He might look like someone who might mug you on the way home from the pub (no offence or nothing, promise), but this seventeen-year-old Scot is an absolute genius with music. Having already received props (and plenty airplay) from Radio Scotland DJ Ally McCrae, I reckon it can only get better for the Dunfermline lad.
Here’s a track from his Soundcloud to show you what I’m babbling...
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Video: SBTRKT - Pharaohs
Another old video, unfortunately, but it’s not very old so it’s okay. I just remembered how much I adored this song; the trickery used in crafting what is on the surface a very simple tune truly boggles the mind. Like all of his work, it’s only a small part of the majesty of his eponymous debut. Enjoy…
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List: Adele dominates best-sellers
Sorry, but I had to post this, even though Adele is pretty much the music equivalent of Marmite (except I would hope Marmite isn’t all over the goddamn place all the freaking time). Her second album, imaginatively titled 21, has just broken the record for the best-selling album of the twenty-first century.
Of course this was far from unexpected; having your music used as soundtrack to...
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Spotlight: Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N2 It
Mike Hadreas is a very easy-going man. His first album as Perfume Genius was deceptively slow; it covered so many aspects of loneliness and depression within its eleven tracks that it was hard to take it all in at once. And those who tried to do so hated it. Those who just let it wash over them, however, acclaimed it instead.
Here’s “No Problem”, the first track I ever heard from Perfume...
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Material: First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar
Signed to the absolutely relentlessly wondrous record label that is Cardiff-based Wichita Records, Swedish duo First Aid Kit have never ceased to amaze with their woodsy, harmony-fuelled folk pop. They proved to the world with The Big Black & The Blue that they meant business; an unremittingly heartfelt record driven by vocals and dreamy guitars. The Lion’s Roar, then, would surely be...
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Local: Kilau Kristmas Kompilation 6
A whole bunch of Aberdeen bands have rallied together to raise money for local cancer charity CLAN.
The CD is, as the name suggests, available to buy from the Kilau coffee shop on Little Belmont Street, for the very reasonable price of £5.
The artists, in no particular order, are:
Kitchen Cynics / Foxhunting / Jim Ewen / Some Cast Fire / Mondragon / Daemons / Dusty Valentino / Seas, Starry /...
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Video: Dry the River - No Rest
I know it’s old, but it’s just such a great song.
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Material: Florence and the Machine covers Drake
I’m going to introduce this by pointing out that I really dislike Drake. No reason in particular, I just don’t like his music or the way it’s presented. However, Florence’s take on “Take Care” is starting to make me change my mind in that regard…
The take Florence puts on what is unashamedly a chart-friendly hip-hop track is surreal, but perfectly...
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BBC Sound of 2012 Shortlist unveiled
The BBC unveiled its Sound of 2012 longlist yesterday, and once again it’s a good mix of folk we’ve never heard of and folk we have. Niki & the Dove, Dry the River and Skrillex especially we can agree with. Have a look at the link above and you can access videos from every single one of them.
A$AP Rocky / Azealia Banks / Dot Rotten / Dry The River / Flux Pavilion / Frank Ocean / Friends /...