Next week, I'll start doing some end of year malarkey, because I'm sure that you're all just itching to know what my 33rd most favourite record of the year was. In the meantime, though, some good news! There's a brand new track from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly available right now for free. Sam's debut album, 'The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager' was a sleeper hit, and something I've played the proverbial shit out of over the last year. His song 'Once More With Feeling', in particular, makes me swoon every single time.
The new song, 'Waiting for the Monster to Drown' is from his upcoming second album, due in March and co-produced by Nitin Sawhney(!) and sho'nuff you can hear some nice electronic drum loops in there and it sounds like some canned violins too. It's all very plesant, except right at the end he starts screaming, which I could've done without. But as a taster, it's still oh-so-delicious. Second album? Call me Eager.
[download Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - Waiting for the Monster to Drown]
Birdsong calling my name
What's the use in making the bed?
Black Kids
Gainesville Common Grounds
November 27, 2007
It's nice that Black Kids are getting so much exposure. They're from Jacksonville, about two hours away from here, and so it means that my housemate and other friends know the guys from the band. It also means that at the end of their set, people were shouting "DUUUVAAAL!" at them, which you have to be from Florida to understand. After giving the world Limp Bizkit, it's nice to have something a little more credible to call our local band.
The downside of the massive hype machine already behind them is that they only have, like, ten songs, and so it's too soon to speak of them as the next saviours of music. Other people can debate the hype all they want. It's weird, though, that the band has played more shows in New York than in Florida (outside of Jacksonville), and next week have like six London dates lined up. Remember, they have ten songs.
But ignoring all that, we went to check 'em on Tuesday and they were pretty solid. Not spectacular, but really good. The band knows how to get people dancing, recalling in parts The Cure (Reggie has a Smith-like voice) and the Killers, with their twin synth onslaught. Also, if UK readers remember the band Younger Younger 28s, there's a touch of them in there too. I never, ever thought I'd bring up YY28s on this website. Just the two girls, one bloke approach on vocals, that's about it.
They opened really well and finished really well, with a bit of a lull in the middle. What are these guys? 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'? (I've been meaning to make that joke ever since the show a few nights ago).
People only know four of their songs, and they threw out the best known, 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You' very early, but others like 'Hurricane Jane' and the last one they played show that they've got some good ideas under that Afro. If you see them, expect nothing more than a good dance and you'll be golden. Also, throw shapes!
[download the 'Wizard of Ahhs' EP from their official site]
Thanks to Sarah for the pic - see her full set on Flickr.
More like "Dr. No Thanks"
I've got exams coming up very soon, so I'll either post a lot more in here, or even less than I already have been. In lieu of real content, here are some links that you should click, open, and subsequently read.
- The Kid begins his quest to review every Bond film. [Scharpling and Wurster]
- Bradley's Almanac offers two really great (new) live sets - The National(s) in a pub, and even better, Spiritualized in a museum. [Bradley's Almanac]
- Oh, so that's why we lost to Croatia. [BBC News]
- Last.fm is trying to make Lucky Soul the Christmas number one. Good luck with that. [Last.fm]
- Crispin Glover gets some props. Not mentioned: His eyeball collection. [Guardian Unlimited]
Bye!
Wouldn't have it any other way
Less Than Jake/Pepper
Gainesville Flavet Field
November 12, 2007
Not long ago, my housemate and I were talking about the band Bloodhound Gang, and about how their brand of juvenile, aimed-at-high-schoolers-and-frat-guys music is inoffensive enough, but are they really going to still play the same songs when they're in their 40s? When dudes are a lot older than their audience, and are singing about sex and drugs and booze, it gets a little embarrassing. Enter the evocatively-named Pepper, a band from Hawaii, who know their audience very well, and accordingly play a really dull brand of lightweight ska-rock which all sounds the same, and only talk about how they love getting drunk/high and getting girls to take their tops off and such. Also, they had a song called 'Dirty Hot Sex' (sample lyric: "get down on your knees, and don't forget the balls"). Maybe it's because, at 24, I was older than most of the people in the audience (it was a free show at a college campus), but I just didn't like it at all. Nicest thing to say about Pepper? One dude looked like the main trapper (on the right) from 'Cannibal: The Musical'.
Less Than Jake are pretty juvenile, too - they get people to make out on stage, talk about drinking an awful lot - but at least they know how to have fun. Again, I only vaguely know a couple of their songs and went along because it was free and close to my house and some friends were going, but I had a good time. I didn't quite get the skanking right - my elbows weren't quite hitting my knees - but it was fun regardless. They mentioned a few times that they are from Gainesville, and how they haven't played on the UF campus in twelve years. They went down very well, but like Tom Petty or Chris Leak, they could shit in a trombone and people in Gainesville would go nuts. They threw out lots of t-shirts and other merch from the stage, which is cool I suppose, and they finished, of course, with a massive singalong to their most a propos jam. A nice way to not study on a Monday night, don't know if I'd have gone if it had required any effort on my part, but certainly check them out if you're at a festival and there are no conflicts with bands you'd rather see.
[download Less Than Jake - Gainesville Rock City]
4play: The Sporting Life
Slow Down Ronnie - Mark E. babbles about snooker champ Ronnie O'Sullivan in a manner that is comprehensible only to Mark E.
Jamie Thomas - Camden's favourite son sings about a skateboarder. Good tune for a quick spaz out.
Tony Adams - One legend's tribute to another legend.
Mr. Carbohydrate - "Have you heard of Matthew Maynard? He's my favourite cricketer. I'd rather watch him play, than pick up my guitar".
Bonus: Post Match Analysis - A nice companion piece to 'Tony Adams'. Alas, there are no songs I can think of about Dixon, Winterburn or Bould.
[download Von Sudenfed - Slow Down Ronnie]
[download Graham Coxon - Jamie Thomas]
[download Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Tony Adams]
[download Manic Street Preachers - Mr. Carbohydrate]
[download Blak Twang - Post Match Analysis]
Saturday stuffs
Here are things on the Internet that I think are good.
- The last three episodes of Music Weekly have featured Ray Davies, King Creosote and Steve Mason - that's a pretty solid track record. The latest one, with Steve using the phrase "like Beelzebub in hotpants" is available here.
- Speaking of Steve Mason, you can download the single from his new project Black Affair for free from their website. It's electro-pop goodness.
- Neko Case is offering a new song on her site - it's a demo from the 'Fox Confessor Brings the Flood' days, but it sounds very robust and more developed than yer average demo. It's ace, of course.
- [download Neko Case - Behind the House (demo)]
- "I can't believe I'm skipping Gossip Girl for this shit." SAH liveblogs the Country Music Awards.
- Carrie from Sleater Kinney has a blog and it's great and you should read it. Lest you've forgotten:
- [download Sleater-Kinney - Entertain]
- Finally, I know I've not been posting much lately, but I've some good news: I've discovered what I'm going to do after I get my law degree:
The roar of far-off black jets
I can't explain it.
I really like the band Thursday. Have done for years.
I don't like any of the bands that they're often lumped in with, nor do I like much else that sounds like them. I don't know what makes them so special, but I've dug two of their albums - 'Full Collapse' and 'War All the Time' - a whole lot. The latest one, 'A City by the Light Divided' I could take or leave, but I still care enough to have bought their new rarities set 'Kill the House Lights' [buy].
As with most compilations, it's a little hit-or-miss. There's a handful of new songs - lead track 'Ladies and Gentlemen - My Brother, The Failure' (listen at myspace) is probably the most interesting, because it features backing from Tim Kasher out of Cursive. There are some demos, a couple of interludes which I could do without, and a version of 'How Long is the Night' with an extended intro, which again is a little redundant. I bought it over iTunes, so I don't get the DVD with live performances and documentary, so I feel dumb about that. This band are terrific live.
Here's the original, album version of 'How Long is the Night', listen to it!
[download Thursday - How Long is the Night]
Could we lose the brother's suicide?
‘The TV Set’ is a very, very dark comedy that isn’t intended for a broad audience at all and therefore came out on a small independent label and wasn’t really seen by many people. Fittingly, it’s about a television program, a very, very dark comedy that isn’t intended for a broad audience at all BUT gets picked up by a major network and then gets watered down to reach the broadest possible audience. There are big(ish) names in the film – David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver and Ioan Gruffudd – so it was a surprise that this film flew completely under the radar. It’s pretty good, no big laughs but a steady flow of chuckles. It’s interesting to see how the network television system works in all its ugliness. There are plenty of parts where, like Duchovny, you want to punch the suits in their stupid collective face. The thing is – who really cares? This film, with its many digs at the system, is aimed at such a narrow audience, that the focus group scene that’s played for laughs seems very appropriate. I enjoyed ‘The TV Set’, definitely, but one of the running punchlines is sleazy reality television shows, like ‘Slut Wars’, the network’s flagship show. Gruffudd’s character is kind of redundant, he begins as an exec who’s going to stand up for the writer’s vision, and then he bottles it. There is an imbalance between the serious, quite astute humour and obvious (dare I say… broad?) jokes. There’s an impassioned speech from Duchovny about the need for original and not lowest-common-denominator programming, and then he yells at his agent for not having seen ‘Taxi Driver’. I never saw director Jake Kasdan’s previous film ‘Orange County’, but I enjoyed his debut ‘Zero Effect’, and his profile’s about to get a lot bigger because he’s part of Team Apatow and this winter’s ‘Walk Hard’ is his too. Check out ‘The TV Set’, but don’t expect to get too much out of it.
Incidentally, series two of ‘Extras’ makes many of the same points in funnier ways.
This is it, this is it, this is it
I'm not the first person to write about Glasvegas, but I may well be the most handsome. I've been listening to their song 'It's My Own Cheatin' Heart That Makes Me Cry' a lot of times, and I'm still not sure how to put it into words. So I'll let Alan McGee do it for me. Do you think he likes exaggeration?:
"It's a DIY epic of pop regret, the sound of Scottish Morrissey singing Del Shannon's songs with Phil Spector arrangements and Jesus and Mary Chain fuzz meeting Noel Gallagher's anthem addiction. An utterly unique proposition and totally soulful." [from 'Viva Glasvegas']
Their are more downloads from the jukebox at their site, and they're all great, and I recommend them highly.
[download Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheatin' Heart That Makes Me Cry (Home Tapes)]
The pain of someone you love
Today's winner of the "Fantastic Music Videos that Samir arbitrarily remembered while walking to the bank this morning" is... 'Stop Your Crying' by Spiritualized (2001).
In context... It was the first new material they'd put out after 'Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space' was named NME's album of the year, and so there was more attention on the band than ever before. I remember hearing the song on XFM for the first time and shrugging a little. It's okay, but the lyrics never really struck me. Nice use of an orchestra and a gospel choir, though... And the cover art was pretty ghoulish. Luckily for me, the album 'Let It Come Down' is astonishing and has far better songs.
But then I saw the video.
Wow. It's one of those moments when cinematography and lighting, which really aren't considerations for music videos, play a huge part. Beginning with just a spotlight on Jason, to opening up and showing the whole orchestra and London Community Gospel Choir, through some gorgeous deep red lights casting huge shadows across the floor, to the huge floodlights... all the thought that went into this piece is majestic. Performance videos are usually the most boring, but this one gives me goosebumps every single time. The still images thrown in really capture moods perfectly - there's one of a beer bottle and a pair of shoes, one of a musician sitting down exhausted and slumped over his cello, one of the choir raising their fists in triumph... I'll leave it for you to watch the video without me saying anymore, but this: if you don't get goosebumps at the 2:54 mark in the video, then you, sir, are probably already dead.
[If the embedded video doesn't show up, click here]
Reading isn't just for squares
Two articles in this month's Observer Music Monthly are worth your attention.
Firstly, there's an excerpt from Slash's soon-to-be-released autobiography. I've never been much of a GNR fan, much less a Velvet Revolver fan, but I absolutely loved reading 'The Dirt', the Motley Crue chronicle, and I'm sure I'll get a giddy thrill out of this one too. In this paragraph, he's talking about either weird hallucinations, members of Hanson, or Jim Henson creations:
They always looked like the creature in Predator to me, but a fraction the size and translucent blue-gray; they were wiry and muscular with the same pointed heads and rubbery-looking dreadlocks. They'd always been a welcome, carefree distraction, but this hallucination was sinister. I could see them gathering in the doorway; there was an army of them, holding tiny machine guns and weapons that looked like harpoons.
Read the whole excerpt here.
There's also a great feature on Sigur Ros, where they get drunk and dance to Village People. It's interesting to see a usually quiet band get hammered and talk about politics and Duran Duran, especially after this emerged over the weekend. Read the feature one here.
Merry Little Fancy Things
Caribou/Born Ruffians
Gainesville Common Grounds
October 13, 2007
There are three of them, they all look about fifteen years old, and from what little we caught of them the other night, Canadian trio Born Ruffians are pretty damn good. Before their last song, someone shouted a request, and the drummer said "We were going to play a different song, but it blows our mind that people know our songs in Florida, so we'd be stupid not to play what you asked for" and I thought that was very sweet. They play songs chock full of energy, with hand-claps and whoo-whoos and were six layers of fun. I even bought the CD! They played a song called 'This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life', which was especially ace. Listen to a whole live set of theirs here and look out for an album early next year.
Dan Snaith, better known as Caribou, has some trippy visuals, and more importantly, two drumkits! Opening with 'Sandy' from his much-loved new record 'Andorra' [buy it], the band suffered from awful sound problems for the whole show. All of them at different times tried to get different levels adjusted, and the result was that vocals were very low and drums (two sets, remember) were really high in the mix. It was still all very enjoyable though - a little harder than on record. Lots of dancing, a couple of Manitoba tracks ('Crayon'!) and a brief encore. I'm not good with his song titles, so I can't give much more of a tracklisting, unfortunately. 'Melody Day' had the most recognition from the audience, of course, and saw more dancing. All in all, a good set but definitely hampered by poor levels.
Playing games in the rain
There's a great article over at the Guardian today about the reformations of several Britpop-era "also-ran" bands, like Dodgy, Kula Shaker and Shed Seven. None of them were ever particularly fashionable, but without them, there may be no Kaiser Chiefs or the View. But they're playing in front of bigger crowds now than ever before. Jim from Gimme Back My Head remains the only Northern Uproar fan in Britain, though.
Best sentence: "One single review said I stank of piss," sighs Witter, still as slender as before (and not noticeably odorous).
Also, look out for the Echobelly diss towards the end.
[download Dodgy - Staying Out for the Summer]
Tailor-made to suit men's needs
I've never seen The Cribs live, but if I ever get the chance, I should probably take a crash helmet along with me. Reports abounded last week of various onstage hijinks, with a passed out singer in the moshpit, and a hospitalised bass player (blood poisoning apparently... yikes). Add to that talk of fights with security guards, and you have a recipe for a mess-sipy. Ahem.
The band have a new single coming out soon, and here's a live version of it. 'Don't You Want to be Relevant' (which isn't on their unwieldily titled new record) will be released with 'Our Bovine Public' sometime in the near future. The song, in its live form at least doesn't really sound all that good, but see what you think. Two more live tracks from the same gig are streaming at 6Music.
[download The Cribs - Don't You Want to be Relevant? (live)]
That's pretty transformative right there
I'm sitting in my Art Law class and we're listening to 2 Live Crew.
Things are good.
Put olive oil on my face
The Forkcast today links to a new song from west London's Estelle, whose long-overdue second record is due out early in '08. The album, 'Shine', will have a lot of big American names helping out, like Wyclef and Kanye and Swizz and John Legend. Not bad at all! She moved to NYC and recorded it there - her blog has some fun stories about life there. Her accounts are touristy and easily impressed, but in a totally endearing kind of way. The new song, 'Wait a Minute', was produced by Will.I.Am and is better than his new song, so that's a plus.
[listen to Estelle - Wait A Minute] (myspace stream)
And lest we forget, here are two of her older songs. Her breakout single, '1980', which has a huge string motif and a Mel and Kim shout-out, and her duet with Blak Twang. I saw them do this live in a park, either 2001 or '02, at an anti-racism event which De La Soul headlined. Good times.
[download Estelle-1980]
[download Blak Twang ft. Estelle - Trixsta]
You don't have a backhand
In the overcrowded realm of the table-tennis themed gross-out comedy, Balls of Fury is probably still the worst. I laughed a few times, thanks to pre-movie drinking, but rest assured I still feel dirty from the laughing. The plot doesn't really need repeating - some mumbo about a fatty, the world's worst FBI agent, gay sex slaves, and Christopher Walken - the dude from 'Envy', lest we forget - in one of his weirdest roles yet. If you like people getting hit in the crotch, a suppository joke, Asian people being hilarious because they're Asian, a blind man falling over, a running stereotype about East German athletes/supporters, Cassandra's dad from Wayne's World 2 (Jeff?), and no sense, then check it out. The main guy is the dollar-store Jack Black, and there's a love story subplot which doesn't fit at all. Also, jackets which explode, and the old plot-arc I talked about before. The biggest laugh, though, was for our drummer-in-Def-Leppard impression when they played 'Rock of Ages' towards the end. 'Balls of Fury' is a harmless film but it's dumb as a brick and probably less ultimately satisfying. Even a brief appearance from 'Rambocky' star Patton Oswalt can't save it.
For a song download, go back here to that Operator Please song that I posted earlier in the summer which is entirely fitting today.
From poisoned cloud to poisoned dwarf
OK, so you've probably heard about the biggest news in the world ever ever, and though I'm excited and it may - hopefully - legitimately shake up the industry in terms of distribution, etc, I just have one gripe.
Still no Big Boots? Come on!
[download Radiohead - Big Boots (live)]
That spark of electrical something or other
Welcome to this week's episode of "Really Unlikely Childhood Friends". To my left, you have multi-million selling, Grammy nominated, Live Earth-playin' singer-songwriter KT Tunstall. I don't have anything mean to say about her, I'm just not that bothered. To my right, there's the far more interesting, and far less famous troubadour King Creosote, whose latest record 'Bombshell' -his 32nd(!) - just came out. It's strange to think that these two musicians, at completely opposite ends of the global music conscience, have been close friends for many years. Read an interesting interview with the pair of them here.
'Bombshell', then, is a very pretty record. The King writes simple songs with lyrics of heartbreak and sadness, with gentle guitars and arrangements that really need to be played repeatedly. It opens with an accordion, and there are plenty of great moments to enjoy. Check out the catchy first single 'You've No Clue Do You?', and 'Nooks', which is romantic in a dark-hearted kind of way, and the album's loudest moment, 'At the W.A.L.', with its repeated promise that "It's gonna be alright" before - get this! - some feedback and electric guitars. A voice that's sweet and lyrics that are anything but, chalk up another win for Scotland.
[download King Creosote - Spystick][buy 'Bombshell' (UK)]
Contending with this cheese on toast
Two things we already know:
- 'Witness' by Roots Manuva is the mothertruckin' JAM, and it should henceforth replace the national anthem at the beginning of sporting events.
- This year, reworking recent songs with full-on big band arrangements is the new black.
[download The New Mastersounds - Witness][buy '102%']
The voice of reason
According to their page on last.fm, people don't seem to really like the debut album from iLiKETRAiNS. This comes as a surprise to me, because while 'Elegies to Lessons Learnt' doesn't do anything new or shocking, it certainly takes the sound they've established already and makes a cohesive and solid record. There's plenty of history in the tracks, for geeks like me. In addition to 'Spencer Perceval' the album has 'Remnants of an Army', set in 19th century Afghanistan, a song about the Salem Witch trials, and other songs about renowned fakers Donald Crowhurst and John Stonehurst.
There's more to them that just an afternoon's worth of Wikipedia-ing, though. There are a lot of shorter songs, which is new for the band, and they usually succeed to condense their widescreen sounds into more accessible form. There's still the drama, the grandiosity, the icily detached vocals, but it comes off as more focused than before. Noisy, beautiful, profound... but enough about me. The album is pretty great too.
[download iLiKETRAiNS - Death of an Idealist] [pre order album UK/US]
Working for names above doors
I sort of missed this, but apparently last month a new Kathryn Williams album was released in the U.S. This is certainly a reason to be cheerful, even if it's a year since 'Leave to Remain' came out back in the Motherland. Kathryn is a singer-songwriter from the north of England who I saw live once at the swanky Queen Elizabeth Hall, and she was very good, and told some funny stories about the Beatles. She's made a series of gentle, folky and very pretty records over the last few years which are ideal for studying or feeling wistful to. There's a covers record in there, too, called 'Relations', which includes 'Spit on a Stranger' and 'All Apologies', but if you like this sort of thing, seek out her '02 album 'Old Low Light' because I think it's the best one, and I'm never wrong about anything.
Stream all of 'Leave to Remain' at her label.
[download Kathryn Williams - When] [buy 'Leave to Remain' UK/US]
[download Kathryn Williams - Wolf] (from 'Old Low Light')
Avarice is all that he's made of
Rejoice, for here's the new single from much loved Scottish four-piece Sons and Daughters, which just got its first play on 6Music earlier this week. It's produced by Bernard Butler who used to be in some band (McAlmont and Butler), and is the first taster from their second album 'The Gift', due in the new year.
And to answer your immediate question... No. They haven't become shit.
[download Sons and Daughters - Gilt Complex (radio rip)]
4play: Kill the Director
No, not the Wombats song that I just posted recently. It seems like a logical 4play step, after actors last week, to progress to the person calling the shots. Also, yesterday I phoned into the Best Show to talk about Uwe Boll, and that's quite exciting. Semantics: Mike Skinner singing "Mine's a Kronenbourg" doesn't count. Also, could've been: there's a Mos Def song that references "Woody and Soon-Yi at the playoff game". Stereophonics had 'Looks Like Chaplin' off their first record. Obv 'Clint Eastwood' again.
Today's selection is:
Sure Shot - Amongst the hundreds of shout-outs, they get mad hits like my man John Woo.
Kit and Holly - Great Neu! style beat, earnest lyrics and towards the end he keeps bigging up Alfred Hitchcock.
The End of an Era - "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?"
Stanley Kubrick - Nuff said.
[download Beastie Boys - Sure Shot]
[download Echoboy - Kit and Holly]
[download Team America - The End of an Era]
[download Mogwai - Stanley Kubrick]
and!
[bonus download Patton Oswalt - At Midnight, I Will Kill George Lucas with a Shovel]
Carried in the arms of cheerleaders
The National / The Rosebuds / Doveman
Orlando Social
September 10th, 2007
The first thing that Matt Barringer says is “This is cosy”, before America’s The National kick off with ‘Start A War’, a relatively gentle song from their wonderful and relatively gentle latest record ‘Boxer’. He’s right, it is cosy. The Social is an unfeasibly small place to be catching this band – it’s a sell-out but there’s only about 400 people here. Compare to the far bigger places that they’re playing in other parts of the world, including two nights at Shepherd’s Bush in London, and you can see how special this setting was.
In the live setting, the band really beefs up the ‘Boxer’ tracks – ‘Start a War’ rolls from its gentle beginning to a huge noisy climax, making it a great opener. ‘Squalor Victoria’, ‘Fake Empire’, and an accordion-assisted ‘Slow Show’ are all immense. Some of the album’s subtleties are lost to this heavier sound, which is a shame, but it’s very enjoyable all the same. In a place this small, the sound of the violin carries really well, so that nuance comes across nicely, especially on ‘Baby, We’ll Be Fine’, one of a handful of ‘Alligator’ songs. Matt’s deep, deep voice carries the slower songs, like ‘Daughters of the Soho Riots’ and ‘Racing Like A Pro’ and, to make the point yet again, the small venue suits those songs really well.
He has a really nervous, self-conscious stage presence, clinging to his all-white mic stand for most of the evening. He doesn’t seem too at ease talking to the audience, so chat is limited. Before ‘Mr. November’, we get “This song is about baseball… It isn’t really”. That song, with its sprawling lyrics about the English and cheerleaders and the great white hope, gets the most energy from both crowd and band, with Matt keeled over screaming the chorus. They don’t have any songs like that on ‘Boxer’, so it’s nice to hear how far they’ve come.
start a war / mistaken for strangers / secret meeting / slow show / brainy / baby, we'll be fine / all the wine / squalor victoria / racing like a pro / apartment story / daughters of the soho riots / abel / fake empire / about today... green gloves / mr. november.
Earlier in the evening, North Carolina’s The Rosebuds proved to be more than just an allegory to lost youth, by turning in an energetic set which had the crowd clapping and nodding. Nothing remarkable, but they did the job as far as support bands go. Unlike Doveman, who looked very sad while playing. His songs are better suited to smoky late night establishments, and this setting didn’t fit him too well. Most of them sounded pretty alike, with only the last song picking things up a bit. I’d be interested to hear his upcoming second record, but this wasn’t too hot of a set.
[download The National - Apartment Story (live)] [buy 'Boxer']
[download The Rosebuds - Get Up, Get Out] [buy 'Night of the Furies']
[download Doveman - Sunrise Medley] [pre-order 'With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead']
Live vault: SFA at Ocean (repost)
Man, you guys really destroyed my bandwidth on this the last time around. So here it is again, as two zip files. Get it while it's hot.
Tracklisting again:
(part 1)
[01 (A) Touch Sensitive]
[02 Sidewalk Serfer Girl]
[03 (Drawing) Rings Around the World]
[04 Receptacle for the Respectable]
[05 It's Not the End of the World?]
[06 Nythod Cacwn]
[07 Presidential Suite]
[08 Run! Christian! Run!]
[09 Fire in my Heart]
(part 2)
[10 Juxtapozed With U]
[11 The International Language of Screaming]
[12 Golden Retriever]
[13 Do Or Die]
[14 God! Show Me Magic]
[15 Calimero]
[16 The Man Don't Give A Fuck]
[17 Gwreiddiau Dwfn / Mawrth Oer Ar y Blaned Neifion]
Part 1 / Part 2
Like Beckham with the ladies
The Capital L's favourite emcee (no? maybe second? top five?) Kano is back with his second album 'London Town', which drops on Monday. Of course, when you name your album that, you at least know that I'll probably like it. Guests include Damon Albarn, Kate Nash, and a couple of times Mr. Craig David, which means it's a little more radio friendly than 05's 'Home Sweet Home'. The production is slicker, and it's definitely lacking some of that record's edge and sense of fun. I heard K on Zane Lowe's show last week, and he said that 'London Town' was the first song he wrote thinking of how great it'd sound live, and it's among the best tracks on the record. The sound, he says is like grime but slower. Sho'nuff, if you listen to the live version over at myspace, you'll see what he means.
I'm a little disappointed with the record, to be honest, so I've put up 'Typical Me' off the first record, to see how great he is at his best.
[download Kano - London Town] [pre-order album (UK)]
[download Kano - Typical Me]
4play: Big screen idols
With the exception of the gone-and-long-forgotten Hepburn, there aren't too many musical nods to film actresses that I can think of. Someone really needs to write a song called "Ashley Judd" or "Me and Kathleen Turner Down in the Schoolyard" or some such. I guess there's 'Lindsay Lohan' by Spank Rock, but technically, she isn't really an actress; and there's always 'Candle in the Wind' (original version).
For the fellas, though, there are some musical tributes to speak of. I couldn't find The Crockett's song 'James Dean-esque', despite my best efforts, but anyway, here are today's four.
Clark Gable - Here in the States, everyone who likes indie music seems to love the Postal Service, but they do nothing for me that the Notwist don't do better. Except write songs that fit this post.
Bill Murray - Rather than go for the ubiquitous 'Clint Eastwood', here's a song from the last Gorillaz record, but only the Japanese edition - I think. Who'll they write about next? Smart money's on Colin Hanks.
Bruce Lee - life kid suck from the box / drink from the box / the juice kid suck / life kid suck / the box / yeah / bruce lee
Kurt Russell - One of my favourite songs. "I want to be your hero - Pacino, De Niro and me".
[download The Postal Service - Clark Gable] [buy 'Give Up']
[download Gorillaz - Bill Murray] [buy 'Demon Days']
[download Underworld - Bruce Lee] [buy 'Beaucoup Fish']
[download Ultrasound - Kurt Russell]
And, since they're experts, here's a video about another A-Lister, from Adam and Joe. (As always, if you're reading a feed, the embedded video might not show up, so click here to see it).
I'm in Year 9 and I am doing my SATs
I'm surprised that, given M.I.A.'s recent album release and subsequent heavy blog coverage, very few sites have picked up on her label's new signing, Afrikanboy. From reading his myspace, you can tell that he's very young, has had immigration problems in the UK, and that he's very good at music. On that page you can hear him rhyme over Kanye's 'Two Words', plus this song, 'One Day I Went to Lidl'. It's about supermarkets, robbing supermarkets, eating chicken n' chips and talking on MSN. It's fucking fun. Look out for him.
[download Afrikaboy - One Day I Went to Lidl]
Burn your hands on the stupidity machine
- Fluxblog put up another snippet from The Best Show on WFMU, my latest obsession. When you're done listening to that, here's another - Tom's review of recent thriller Mr Brooks. It's both spoiler-heavy, and hilarious-heavy.
[download The Best Show on WFMU - Tom Reviews Mr. Brooks] - Jamie's doing his comprehensive-discography thing again, this time the focus is on Mansun. They're ok, I suppose, but even he acknowledges that sometimes their lyrics were "so bad that they're actually sublimely awful", so enjoy that.
- Hey Venus! made it into the album charts at #11 today, which isn't that bad, but Show Your Hand didn't even make the top 40? That's disappointing, innit? I know people don't really care about the charts much anymore, but still.
- Alex James has been writing a column for the Observer about cheese. I can't tell if this is more or less interesting than his recent autobiography, but it's probably more smug.
- There is a new series of The I.T. Crowd, and the first couple of episodes thereof have been funnier than most of the first series. Still running with Noel Fielding's "goth dude that hangs out in the office", though. Check out eps (if they're working) on tv-links.
- I saw Superbad recently. It was funny enough - always appreciate a good Orson Welles joke - but it didn't really have any heart. Jonah Hill's character was really unlikeable, and the whole "If we don't have sex before the end of high school, we will DIE" idea a) has been done before, and b) doesn't really resonate with me, maybe it's an American thing. There were plenty of funny moments, which I suppose is all you can ask for, but I've mostly forgotten about it already.
- Also caught The Bourne Ultimatum and it was every bit as bad-ass as you'd expect. I've talked about this summer's blockbusters already, so the fact that this one had a cohesive plot and wasn't just made for the money, and had Paddy Considine and David Strathairn makes it ace. Plus Paul Greengrass directs the shit out of it (This is praise).
- Candie Payne's new album is dead good, and I'm playing it quite a bit at the moment. Somewhere between good-period Concretes and Dusty Springfield, she's well worth a listen. Read an interview here, and watch her new video below.
- That's all! Enjoy the holiday tomorrow, Americans, and enjoy working tomorrow, rest of world.
