Look, there's a new video for 'Magic' by Ladyhawke and that's a good thing, OK?

We’ll be honest with you, we had no idea that Ladyhawke was still even thinking about releasing any more singles from her debut album. But, she is, and she’s plucked ‘Magic’ out of the hat as her fifth single.

It’s like a dusty Empire of the Sun video but filmed ‘on set’ instead of flying Ladyhawke to some exotic location. It's amazing what you can do with a day's studio rental and a bag of flour.



This post is a prime example of how difficult it is to drum up any excitement about a fifth single from an album, anyone’s album. We love Ladyhawke, we love the album and most importantly we love ‘Magic’ but read those words above the video again – there is literally, nothing exciting in them. Things would be easier all round if popstars did one single (two at a push) from each album before packing it off to the knackers yard and moving on.

Also, we’d like to add that if ‘Magic’ somehow becomes a huge international hit single, we guess we can look forward to re-releases of all her other singles too. Imagine what we’d have to say about single number eight? We’re not wishing failure on Ladyhawke, we are just saying is all.

This might be the worst post we’ve ever put on RobotPigeon. Sorry.

Can someone please give Tru Colourz a record deal immediately? Pleasethanksandbye

OK, so everyone knows that Tru Colourz have been kicked off X Factor because one of them was secretly eight years old (or something) but that's not what we're bothered with right now. They've been invited back to audition next year AND THAT IS WHAT WORRIES US.

Things we know about Tru Colourz are these:

1. They are the only group in the history of all music to replace an 's' with a 'z' and not be completely shit.
2. They are generally quite exciting to look at.
3. They know their way around the accessories and scarves department in H&M.
4. They are pretty decent singers.
5. THEY ARE NOT X FACTOR WINNERS.

If this lot made it through live finals to as far as 'big band' week they'd be fucked. Totally screwed. 'Mack The Knife' by three dayglo Asian teens? It's a no from us, and we really don't want to see them in long dresses doing 'The Power of Love' on Celine Dion week (should such hell be unleashed).

So here's the thing.

Someone should sign Tru Colourz now, keep them away from reality TV, make them record some brilliant electro pop (a la Fannypack's seminal 'Nu Nu Yeah Yeah') and then roll that out onto the British public. They could never win a series of X Factor and the chances of a successful career for runners up who aren't called JLS are pretty slim. We know, we've seen the godawful Laura White video. Shudder.

Anyway, we like Tru Colourz and we have now outlined our rescue strategy. Cheers the music industry, you can have this one for free.

Here's the carefully executed news story which will guarantee extra viewers for this weekend's X Factor show.

Everybody working hard on Tuesday afternoon?

We have been studiously looking like we're transcribing a really long, in depth interview all afternoon. Robot is smiling at us and nodding and thinking 'Pigeon works so hard on this blog'. In actual fact we have spent most of the day dicking about on Twitter.

And good job too, or we wouldn't have spotted our friends Heads We Dance, Justin Faust, Bitfunk and Digital Foxglove also whiling away the online hours (instead of making fantastzing music).

They have been putting videos of animals doing funny things alongside the frankly round of applause worthy Justin Faust remix of Heads We Dance's 'You Are Never Alone With Model 21' (which we mentioned yesterday).

Here's the link to our favourite. Or you can just mute the below and play the track at the same time.



It's very funny when the chorus kicks in. And to think labels spend lots of money having long, boring meetings about what makes the perfect music video.

Slow news day.

Here's the new Rokysopp video that Pigeon was going on about yesterday

There's something a bit scary about Royksopp's 'This Must Be It' video and it's not just the threat of seeing an old man's wrinkly bottom at any second. The whole naked cult thing, not to mention some horrible screaming near the end of the video is really unsettling in a 'lets keep this song as far away from the charts and other commercial media outlets as possible' sort of way.

But going all alternative was the only option left for Royksopp after their disastrous attempt to connect with the record buying public with their amazing 'Junior' album. Their Robyn collaboration 'The Girl and The Robot' is one of 2009's most obvious pop hits but didn't so much sink without a trace as confuse us as to whether it had even been dropped in the water. Promotion for 'The Girl and The Robot' seemed to amount to nothing more than sticking the video on YouTube and hoping word of mouth would do the rest. It didn't. Obviously.

And while it might seem as if they've chucked loads of nudity into the video for their Fever Ray collaboration in an attempt to drum up interest, we can safely say that we've never been less sexually aroused around naked people than while watching this. In this instance, skin is scary.

Amazing though, really amazing.



Possibly still quite tied to it's Guardian exclusive - or so the beginning and ending of that clip leads us to believe...

Old music Tuesday: E'voke 'Arms Of Loren' (Steinway mix)

Tuesdays are OFFICIALLY the worst day of the week. Mondays aren't as bad as people make out because you've just had two days off. Wednesdays are obviously alright because from lunchtime onwards, you're closer to the next weekend than you are the last. But Tuesdays are proper no-mans land shit. So here's something old and amazing to cheer things up a bit...

In the thirteen years (ouch, old) since 'Arms of Loren' was released in 1996, we still remember that one of E'Voke was in Eastenders. We think she was a lesbian hairdresser. She isn't in it any more, things change - but one thing that hasn't changed is how completely amazing the song is. If there is due to be a proper 90s revival then this is Exhibit A in the case for ditching the 80s and everyone making 90s house records for a couple of years.

E'voke 'Arms of Loren' (Steinway mix)

Apparently, the song is still played in clubs today. Quite rightly so, although we're clearly not going to the right places because we've not heard this in years. We'd have melted with excitement if we had - and that's not the sort of thing you'll forget.

This Must Be A Hit: Royksopp 'This Must Be It' video

The new Royksopp video is all kinds of what-the-hell-is-this-National-Geographic? Until you see what bursts out of the floor at the end, and then it sort of makes sense. Sort of. There are some bums in it too.

The Guardian have it as an exclusive on their website if you want to see, but here are a few screen caps you can cut out and make into a flip book, and a stream of the track so you can sort of imagine it without having to click through and be force fed an advert:






We don't need to tell you how wonderful Royksopp and Fever Ray both are (although we sort of did by saying we don't need to because it clearly implies we think they are), so you know that their collaboration is going to be every shade of wonderful.

Sometimes it's hard to fathom living in a society where songs like 'Girl And The Robot' and 'This Must Be It' wouldn't be the biggest hits the world has ever seen : (

No need to toss the coin, we are already dancing: Heads We Dance Remix Compilation

You know what really annoys us at gigs? People who nod their heads along to the music. Either dance, or don't dance, but don't nod your head up and down like you're about to have a stroke. We're pretty confident this is what Heads We Dance are getting at with their name (or it could be to do with asking a young lady on a dinner date on the basis of a coin toss, but let's just pretend we're right).

Heads We Dance seem to be one of those bands who bubble under for years, writing solid songs (we've always had a thing for 'The Human Touch'), but nothing that really comes to fruition for one reason or another.

Then, THEN, one day everything falls into place and they sign a pact with the devil, eat a poisoned apple, write one of the best songs of the year and the frog turns into a princess. Or something.

Until that happens, however, the band have busied themselves with choosing remixers for their songs. And we have to say their taste is impeccable to the point that we wonder if Robot Pigeon actually chose the remixers for them in some unconscious psychic phenomenon.

Look at the tracklisting for 'Dance Technology', their remix collection:


Sidechains, Faust, Diablo, La Roche, Frankmusik...all bloody effing brilliant. They just need Fear Of Tigers, Fred Falke and Slaughterbrains and they'd have 'Robot Pigeon's Best Heads We Dance Remix Compilation In The World Ever 2009'. And, and, and it's free...

Get the whole remix caboodle here.

Can you tell we're a little over excited? Wait 'til we press play and this Sidechains remix gets going. It's got a string section people, STRINGS (nearly as good as bagpipes).

This is Heads We Dance's Myspace

New music Monday: Cassius 'Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes' (Don Diablo remix)

Mondays are generally not regarded as the most popular day of the week. Friday and Saturday have that pretty much sewn up. So here is something that might make the trip to school, work or the job-centre a little less painless...


Download: Cassius 'Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes' (Don Diablo remix)

That Cassius are still going after thirteen years and no hit singles of note is quite an achievement. In that time they've made a fair few decent tracks, 'I'm A Woman', 'Sound of Violence', 'Toop Toop' and 'Cassius 1999' included, but we're guessing they've been busy with a lot of other bits and pieces to really get themselves a proper back catalogue of amazingness together.

However, they can certainly add the Don Diablo remix of their new single 'Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes' to their slowly growing list of achievements. Don Diablo has taken the children's chants and turned the mooody original into something not unlike Justice's 'DANCE', with more guitars, more funk and a lot less in the way of lyrics.

We hope you make it through Monday safely. It's really not that long until the weekend.

Cassius at MySpace
Don Diablo at MySpace

Robot Pigeon chart: 27th Sep 2009

Robot and Pigeon have added together the number of plays on their ipods this week, and decreed that, in a world where everyone loves us and does what we say, this is how the chart should really look.

1.Sound Of Arrows - 'Into The Clouds (Fear Of Tigers Remix)'
First we had a crush on this song. Then it turned to love. Now we want to get married to it because it is beautiful and makes our lives complete. *Sigh*



2. Del Marquis - 'Runaround'
Aside from witty, intelligent and insigful interviews (and that was just the questions), Del Marquis also makes bloody good music. He sings and everything. It was just sheer jealousy which kept him from being No.1.


3. Get Far feat. H-Boogie - 'Radio'
We will not stop going on about this song until someone listens to us and releases it here. It will be as big as 'With Every Heartbeat'. WITH BAGPIPES. Put a Haggis in the video and the population of Scotland will buy enough copies to re-invigorate the music industry.


4. Chromeo - 'Night By Night'
Have you listened to this yet? It literally takes 8 seconds of your time before you realise it's going to be effing amazing, and it's free so there's really no excuse for not listening. Unless you're deaf I guess.



5. Alphabeat - 'The Spell'
Ok, so it's no 'Fascination', but then what is, was or ever will be? So let's just move on and enjoy 'The Spell'. It takes a few listens*, but once it clicks you realise Alphabeat are still beyond wonderful.
*See also: Cheryl Cole 'Fight For This Love'.


We'll see you here same time next week. Unless we decide it went really badly. In which case we'll delete this post and pretend it never happened at all.

Wolf Gang: A man, a cat and a very brilliant pop single

The problem with Mika is that he is shit. And while there is a touch of the Mika to London singer/songwriter chap Wolf Gang, this man's grasp on flamboyant, roof-rasing pop music is far more realistic than anything from the horrific day-glo world in which Mika exists.

But alongside the Mika reference, there's a good deal of Arcade Fire's drama and MGMT's unifying boy-pop to his new single 'The King And All His Men'. The song is absolutely enormous, with restrained piano parts building towards a bloody huge chorus with choirs and and drums and fireworks and all-sorts going on. Like the king and all his men of the title, the song marches along relentlessly towards an amazing crescendo - and more importantly, a proper ending as a little piano tickles away all the brilliance to nothingness. It will leave you a little bit breathless. It will also leave you clicking to play the song again.

It's quite special and it is released on 19 October. You can buy it here on a vinyl record.

We also like his because he has a cat in his photo. Sadly, not one dressed up to look like a person, but as non-dressed up pets go, we think the one pictured above is fairly special in or out of a little skirt.

Here is a link to his MySpace page.

PS. There are two other songs on his MySpace which are also good but neither of them are the single.

Del Marquis interview: 'Stalking is like anything in life; to be successful you have to NEVER give up'

As part of Scissor Sisters Del Marquis is not the woman, the one with the beard, Jake Shears or the other one. Del Marquis is the well dressed Scissor Sister with brilliant facial hair. He plays the guitar.

In the ever-lengthening gap between the second and third Scissor Sisters album, Marquis has busied himself on his own solo material, stepping out from the shadows of one of the world’s biggest bands into the spotlight. His 80s influenced pop music is a world away from his work with the band, but at the same time has all the hallmarks of great pop music that made Scissor Sisters so popular.

With his fourth EP, Runaround, on (virtual) shelves now we spoke to the man with the best sideburns in pop music about tuna, stalking and the lack of gays in pop…

Hi Del. We’ll cut to the chase – we love your facial hair. Could you please give us a short guide to mastering good beards?
If I ruin the symmetry, then I shave it all off and start again. Then I let my full beard grown in and re-carve the Chops. People in my neighbourhood, the men hanging on the street corners usually say 'Whatsup Wolverine!' And with the full beard, the ladies say, 'Ooh, you look just like Robin Thicke! Can you sing?'

And the answer to that is 'Yes' as you are now a solo recoding artist. Has there always been a frontman inside you, waiting to be unleashed?
On a perfect day when stars align, yes! But I'm not always 'on'. I need a buffer, and being the guitar player suits my personality; I can hide, sulk and be a bastard if that is my mood at the time. I'll continue to record my own music, but I wouldn't want fame for that on a world domination scale. With Scissor Sisters I get to explore my ego and prance around onstage in tight trousers, but then retreat to moody isolation – which is just fine thanks.

You’ve recently released your fourth EP. Why could you not just release a couple of singles and an album like everyone else?
I went into the recording process without much experience writing on my own. Lyrics were a first for me, singing was relatively new, I had less control over the direction; this was magical and I couldn't be that naive now if I tried. So long story short I ended up with songs that sounded wildly different, and decided I would group them thematically. I don't question the validity of the LP, but since I was independent of a major, I decide to have fun with the way music was presented.

There are a lot of remixes accompanying the new EP. Have you ever heard a remix and wished you'd thought of their ideas first?
Everyone's got their signature sound. Stuart Price did his 'I'm gonna put the entire mix through this filter' thing, Scissor Sisters and Pet Shop Boys do the 'I'm gonna sing background on all commissioned remixes'. My favourite remix ideas restructure the song and change the chords beneath the song, not only do you get to dance to a song, but it’s like getting a whole new track.

As well as mastering music and facial hair, you've also turned your hand to stalking famous guitarists. Have you ever met one of your previous stalkees at a later date and had to 'act cool' in their presence?
We were rehearsing next door to Echo and the Bunnymen last year, and Will Seargent came out to introduce himself and peeked out behind his hair to say 'oh, you’re the one who stalked us'. It was an innocent jab, but luckily they were nice and I got to listen to their set while I ate Thai food on lunch break; it was much different than waiting out in the cold to get a picture when I was 16.

Care to share any tips on being a good stalker?
Stalking is like anything in life; to be successful you have to NEVER give up. There is a network of fans in Japan who use some kind of network Blotter to let each other know when and where the Stalkee will be at any given time. Now that’s what I call organization.

What is your favourite tinned food?
Italian canned tuna in olive oil. But please, fans, don't bring me canned tuna on tour.

Like a lot of current artists, your music has a distinct 80s sound. Are musicians running out of new sounds to work with?
I've been trying to define what this decade means, in terms of popular culture. It is an age where, exponentially, more people are aware of design, music and fashion. This leads to whiplash references, where all archived sounds and looks are fair game. I'd call it the blender decade. And trust me, the 90's revival has already started if you haven't noticed... I was on eBay the other day trying to bid on a Boy London pullover, listening to PM Dawn and fishing out my 909 sample library.

Do you think admitting to being gay is still a tricky area for popstars and musicians today?
It shouldn't be, and honestly I think Scissor Sisters broke the last vestiges of that taboo. Although you should ask Mika about this, because his sexual ambiguity is like we’re still living in the early 90s. It is important to come out at the beginning without any sense of confusion, Otherwise you end up back-tracking or evading direct questions, like we saw with artists of the 80s and 90s – although we did end up with the Pet Shop Boy’s classic 'Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend' about George Michael. Your straight fans may not give a shit if you have sex with men or woman, but it is very important to young girls and boys that are struggling with their identity to have some artists identify as gay, bisexual or transexual. I hope we've done something along those line, which would make me very proud.

You’ve been working with RobotPigeon favourite Bright Light Bright Light. What can we expect from that collaboration?
Rod (Bright Light Bright Light) got in touch with me through his management company, and was just a really nice person who happened to be an extremely talented songwriter. We haven't gotten anywhere in terms of writing, due to schedules, and truthfully I haven’t broken down the wall to allow myself to write with other people. I'm still protective of my process and think that it will look ass-backwards to the outside observer, but I should probably start getting my hands dirtier with the process and see what happens.

Paris Hilton was recently included in the Oxford Dictionary of quotations saying 'Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in'. What words of wisdom do you have which could guide everyone through life?
If you can't give good face, give good ass.

It’s one we try to live by. Thank you very much, Del Marquis.


Del Marquis on MySpace.

The EP, Runaround, is on iTunes and everywhere else (does anyone use anywhere else?) RIGHT NOW.

A marvellous racket

Pigeon was woken up very early this morning by some idiots trimming their hedge at some awful hour and generally making a lot of noize (sic) with garden related power tools. The only upside to this is that we had an extra hour, of the remaining 145, to listen to the new Boys Noize album 'Power' on his myspace. It's only up there for a week, and after that you're going to have to pay real money for it. Which, by the way, we suggest you do because it's bloody brilliant.

What's nice about Boys Noize is that his noize is very distinctive. The last album, 'Oi Oi Oi', established the sound, and it was backed up nicely with several remixes which remixed the original so far into amazingness you wished Boys Noize had dragged those artists kicking and screaming back into the studio (we're thinking a Feist album full of Boys Noize’s take on ‘My Moon, My Man’ style tracks would have been the best album in the world ever ever ever). Now 'Power' steps the whole thing up a notch and gives us tracks undeniably Boys Noize, but all the more accomplished and accessible.

This would usually be the bit where we tell you which tracks we love, but it's kind of hard when there’s no standouts, and they’re all just wonderful. We’ll talk about a couple anyway just to show we really have listened. ‘Kontact Me’ gets right to that little bit at the base of your skull which tingles when you hear a gritty chord - we're chewing our face off already and we've only had peanut butter toast this morning. ‘Nerve’ is stupidly understated to the point of being subliminal. ‘Trooper’ takes Boys Noize into a whole new territory and had us stomping round the lounge in our pyjamas. You get the idea - we only have good things to say.

What's particularly telling of this whole album-preview-on-the-myspace thing is the play count of all the tracks. First couple aside (being the first tracks to auto load) all the album tracks on the player have pretty much the same number of listens. Usually on myspace you find a sporadic play count whereby someone’s clicked on a track and then get a bit bored and wander off to the toilet, but here it seems everyone's listening to the whole album. And honestly, when was the last time an album was so good that you stopped and listened to the whole thing in one sitting?

But stop reading this because we’ve already spent so long doing our spell check on this that there's now only 144 1/2 hours left to get your free listen in...

Go, go, go to Boys Noize myspace now. QUICK.

Oh look, a brilliant new band.Shall we write about them?Yes lets...

Let's cut to the key fact that makes Gypsy and the Cat so amazing - they sound like the cherished lovechild of Empire of the Sun and Fleetwood Mac. And like some musical Dorian Grey, Gypsy and the Cat sound both very old fashioned and very modern indeed.

The old fashioned part of their songs lies in their simplicity, their harmonies and brilliant songwriting. The modern bit is all in the production - there's lots of layers and lovely sounding swooping bits. It all sounds very familiar, but not in a tired way. Gypsy and the Cat's music is something that makes you feel immediately at home and comfortable with, so much so, it seems to reach into the back of your head and start tugging at old memories of their songs WHICH DO NOT EXIST BECAUSE THIS IS A NEW BAND. They remind us of sitting in the back of a car in the summer when we were seven years old in shorts, flip-flops and the memories of the music our parents were playing in the cassette player.

Some important facts about Gypsy and the Cat include that they are from Australia, called Xavier and Lionel (one name definitely cooler than the other) and they will be in the UK very to work with some producers on their album. We doubt we'll bump into them though.

As for the music, our favourites on their MySpace are:

'Watching Me, Watching You'
Sounds like something you'd hear on the credits of an eighties movie or on the radio while you're getting dumped by someone you really like.

'The Piper's Song'
The only thing missing from this one is Stevie Nicks. This one is very Fleetwood Mac. Amazing tune, amazing harmonies, amazing guitars.

'Til Tomorrow'
If nineties indie music had been produced by sleepy dance producers, it might have sounded like this starry little epic - instead of the boring old shit we all remember.

The general verdict on this lot is: GYPSY AND THE CAT ARE VERY GOOD AND WE LIKE THEM A LOT THE END.

Gypsy and the Cat at MySpace.

We think you're wonderful, show us the colour of your soul

The new Kiss In Cities video for 'Colours' is not a perfect example of pop video mastery but as a visual representation of a piece of pop music it is almost entirely a success.

Things the video achieves are:

1. Provides an eye catching collection of images to occupy your eyes while spending 3.57 minutes listening to the song.
2. Make Kiss In Cities seem like they are making pop music because they love pop music and not for reasons such as irony or 'cool'.
3. The mess of colours, special effects and other video what-not suits the song perfectly without over complicating matter or distracting from it's source material.
4. Acts as a bit of a mission statement for the band. The video says 'Hi! We're Kiss In Cities and we know a thing or two about pop music but we're not all stuffy about it despite our cool hair and clothes and we're happy to dance around like tits for a while'.
5. Allows people like us to write about a band we really like without re-treading ground from when we wrote about them last time.

Here's the video for 'Colours'.



*Round of applause*

Kiss In Cities at MySpace

Ke$ha has a lot of psychic fans in possession of video editing software packages

When we put up a load of fan videos for Ke$ha's completely and utter-fucking-ly incredible 'Tik Tok' single we never thought that the real thing would be exactly the same. EXACTLY THE SAME.

The 'official' video uses the lyrics so literally we're surprised Ke$ha doesn't bang a balloon when she sings 'make it pop' or start messing around with bricks and cement for the 'you build me up' line.

Here are the key moments of offending literal interpretation.

'Wake up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy'?
In a bath. IN A BATH. Do you see how rebellious she is? She slept in A BATH.

'Before I leave brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack'?
A plethora of toothbrushes. We will look into a regular feature on the tooth brushes of the rich and famous.

'Pedicure on our toes'?
DON'T SLIP.

'Tik Tok on the clock'?The 'finger waggle' is not an accurate timepiece.

'Gotta smack em if they're getting too drunk, drunk' ?
That's actual assault.

But all this is irrelevant. When a song is this good, she could have thrown some kittens in a river, eaten a turd, gone seal clubbing and then dug up the Queen Mother and we'd still love it. We think this girl is going to be H-UGE.

Ke$ha - TiK ToK

Just checking

You all know this is released on Monday, right?


Because pre-ordering it now is the equivalent of going back in time and someone saying 'Do you want to pre-order this piece of cloth, Jesus is going to wipe his face on it later and leave a big imprint on it.' Although, to be honest, the Turin Shroud would probably sound rubbish on a turntable.

1. Into The Clouds
2. And Beyond
3. Fear Of Tigers Remix
4. Gold Dust Remix

UK: pre-order
US: pre-order
Rest of world: tough shit

Brilliant new popstar alert (unless you live in Thailand - in which case, she's a bit old hat)

The world of j-pop is a scary old place. We've dipped our toes with Utada Hikaru a few times, but that's largely due to her specifically recording and releasing music for Western audiences.

So Thailand's Tata Young is a new one for us - even if she's been around the block a few times (she's pushing thirty, has released nine studio albums and is something of a superstar in her native country). In fact, she was probably recording when the 'block' in question was just a load of men working with diggers and scaffolding. But now Thailand isn't enough for Tata Young and she wants to be famous in Europe as well - and her new album 'Ready For Love' is made with those tricky and fickle Western audiences (ie us) in mind. Thing is, with songs as good as 'My Bloody Valentine' she might actually have a chance of success.

'My Bloody Valentine' is the sort of song that could have worked wonders for Britney Spears on her most recent comeback whatnot. It's a classy and brilliantly produced mid-tempo pop song that's full of hooks and charm, and with a video like this, given the right exposure on music TV, could be a huge hit single.

Oh, and there's a really nice twist at the end of it. Unless you're the fella of course. Poor chap.



More good TaTa Young music at MySpace

The Sugababes' coffin continues to spin

As if those photos of Jade Ewen with her ankles around her neck in the desert weren't enough to make you wonder whether anyone knows how to stop the Sugababes juggernaut from crashing headlong through a barricade marked 'dignity' and into the muddy field of shame on the other side, that Jade Ewen has decided to start talking about other, more famous popstars she doesn't like really doesn't sit too well with us.

Sure, to be a Sugababe you need some sort of spark (something Amelle demonstrated perfectly) but there's a difference between 'spark' and 'doing whatever it takes to make headlines and get yourself in the public consciousness'. So in what must be her first interview since joining the group, saying that she doesn't like Lily Allen and that: "She's not that talented and she's always slagging people off which seems unnecessary" seems both a cheap and clearly contradictory move by Miss Ewen. The idea must be that Lily will then respond on that MySpace blog of hers and the country will be divided into Team Lily or Team Jade and then the Sugababes will rise up and bring harmony back with some amazing new single or other. It seems like no one really knows what is going on with this group any more - not its members, not its management - and the only reason so much effort has been put in to preserve the Sugababes is the huge deal they've signed with Jay-Z's US record label (hence not knowing when to bow out gracefully and filming new videos in the American desert).

Even Amelle, Heidi and Jade must know the wheels have fallen off this whole project, but instead of riding high on the tail-ends of the Sugababes' success, they're all round the back with the rest of the staff pushing along this broken-down band.

Besides, Jade's never going to top getting smacked in the teeth with the end of a violin at Eurovision, is she (1:05-1:08)?

More than just a gas giant

Not to be confused sonically with Holst's Suite 125 (Op. 32.iv), Jupiter are a French duo making breathy-dancey-Electro-pop. If anything we'd say they're along the lines of Suite 125 (Op. 32.v). Or for those of you not familiar with Holst's back catalogue (why not people, this is one of Britain's greatest composers we're talking about here. If he was alive today he'd totally be in Xenomania) think the Beth Hirsch tracks from Moon Safari in a tumble dryer with Pleasure and Annie.

We mention them because they are currently jet setting across Europe (or, at least, the UK, Finland, Spain and then lots in France):

26 Sep - Proud - London
28 Sep - Urban Outfitters - London
3 Oct - dj set@ SimCity 2000 - Helsinki
9 Oct - Razzmatazz - Barcelona
24 Oct - Omega - Toulon
30 Oct - Karamasov - Nantes
12 Nov - Soirée Kitsuné w/ Autokratz @ Nouveau Casino - Paris
30 Nov - Point Ephémère w/Datarock - Paris

Er, let's take a closer look at those last two:

12 Nov - Soirée Kitsuné w/Autokratz @ Nouveau Casino - Paris
30 Nov - Point Ephémère w/Datarock - Paris

WITH Autokratz and WITH Datarock people. This tells you something. This tells you a] Jupiter are good and 2] Jupiter are going places (and possibly c] Jupiter are friends with Autokratz and Datarock).

We also spotted the remix of Anoraak's 'Nightdrive With You' on their myspace player, which is all kinds of lolzemgeemzing, and *whisper* better than the original:



Le Pigeon de Robot aime Jupiter.

Check Jupiter on Myspace

A dark and spooky new Mew-sic video

Mew are one of the best bands in the world. The longer we spend with their new album 'No More Stories' in our lives the longer we wonder how we lived without it. One of the best things about the band is how perfectly their visuals match up to their sound.

The video for new single 'Repeaterbeater' for example, is every inch as dark and unnerving as the song itself, and revolves around a strange, sweaty and unnerving tale of a hypnotherapy session gone wrong. Boys in bands with guitars don't usually get us very excited but there has always been something very special indeed about Mew. There's a lot of chatter before the music gets going, but it's worth it when it does.



Oh shit. We forgot to put any jokes in this :(

Free things we've been asked to pass on (before Lily Allen gets on her high horse again)

Look everyone, Jesus is premature. He must be because Christmas has come early.

Not only did we have the pleasure of being able to give you a wonderful Bright Light Bright Light track earlier in the week, but now the lovely Mau have given us some audible gifts:

Gold: Download 'Toboggan' by Mau
Frankincense: Download 'Toboggan Rockets Remix'
Myrrh (hard to spell): Download 'Toboggan Extended Dub Mix'

Careful not to click on the scantily clad young woman on the zShare page. She has a habit of flashing her mimsy all over your screen.

We listened to Mau some more last night whilst hanging out our kitchen window with a bottle of wine and some cigarettes. We think the neighbours really appreciated it if their calls of 'shut the fuck up' were anything to go by, which means another thumbs up from Robot Pigeon because our neighbours are a bunch of idiots.

Hooray for, and thank you, Mau.

If you didn't do it yesterday go to the Mau myspace page here.

Our Friend Dario

Vitalic's 'My Friend Dario' is one of a Jeremy Beadle sized handful of tracks ever to have existed (including Candi Staton's 'You Got The Love', Randy Crawford's 'Streetlife' and Hole's 'Jennifer's Body') which sounds as fresh and exciting on every listen as it did the very first time we heard it (sounds like some sort of Tampon advert). Let's relive that for a moment before we get on to the body of the post:

WARNING: Contains strobe lights and a hint of tits. IE: Not for big old wimps.
*Pigeon turns away and has a little cry*



See what we mean. Arrrrgggghhhhh it's SO good. Anyway...

Vitalic have the new album 'Flashmob' up for a listen on their myspace. We gotta be honest, anything with a title along the lines of 'Your Disco Song' immediately catches our eye, and Robot shoved the video up on here as soon as it hit the internet back in July (we believe this referred to as being 'on trend').

So what of the rest? Well, 'Poison Lips' sounds fucking good in a Donna Summer-has-a-fight-with-Vitalic-and-loses-esque fashion, 'Flashmob' racks up the 'here it comes, here it comes, here it comes tension' and we had to go for a wee half way through listening because we were getting so wound up (we'd like to put Slaughterbrains forward to remix this one please), and it's 'One Above One' that comes close to stealing Dario's crown. Thing is, this album seems a little more relaxed than previous release 'OK Cowboy'. All the elements are in place, someone just needs to turn the BPM up a notch on occasion. Get Fear Of Tigers on the remix case please.

Album's out on Monday kids.

Listen to the album at Vitalic's myspace

PS. Interesting Vitalic fact we made up: The point at which every Vitalic song jumps from being great to fantastic is 2min21...

The new Chromeo single is nothing short of spectacular

They might not be top of our list to take to the pub and get drunk with, but Chromeo are have been relentlessly brilliant throughout their career. However, it does seem that they'll get the shitty end of the eighties stick when they release their new album and Chromeo newcomers just roll their eyes and write them off as another La Roux follower. They've been doing the eighties thing since before Elly Jackson was wearing a quiff (ie 2004).

But regardless of the sound, there is only one way to describe the new Chromeo single 'Night By Night' and that is, 'FUCKING AMAZING'.

'Night By Night' has a similar pace to Madonna's 'Hung Up' or Annie's 'Songs Remind Me Of You' but without sounding like either. However, like both of those, it's pretty much a perfect pop single. The big guitars are brilliant, their vocoder has never sounded better and we are already thinking that this could end up being one of our favourite singles of 2009. Pop music needs more men like this working in it.

Here is 'Night By Night'. It's very special indeed. Download it for free from the player below.

Yes, this song does have bagpipes on it

We've written about H-Boogie before but if something's worth doing, it's worth doing over and over until everyone is sick of it. We are completely obsessed with H-Boogie's 'The Radio' and not just because it's got bagpipes on it.

Just to reiterate: it's got bagpipes on it.

'The Radio' is the perfect pop song simply because it's a huge dance song about a really shit break up. Favourite sad lyrics include:

BLUB! 'I'm sorry/I'm not willing so settle for half of your heart/i'm sorry/i'm not willing to settle for half of what's mine'

BLUB! 'I'm moving over/So she can fill this seat, it was never mine'

BLUB! 'No words can help me, so I seek help from my friend called the stereo'

Actually, that last one isn't very sad at all, but the previous two make up for it. We know that H-Boogie has a publishing deal with EMI but whether that will translate into one of those single-releasing-popstar deals that are so popular, we have no clue. What we do know for sure is that 'The Radio' is a complete masterpiece and the only track from recent years we can compare it to is Kleerup and Robyn's 'With Every Heartbeat'. Although technically, structurally and even sound-wise two completely different songs, the (broken) heart of the track is the same.

Italian producer Get Far is the man responsible for all the production, so we guess he should get the credit for the bagpipes (did we mention that this song has bagpipes on it?). It has been knocking around online for a while now, but some things are so good, rules about timeliness and repeating ourselves deserve to be thrown out of the window.

Here's the song in question. There are bagpipes on it. The video is essentially Kelly Rowland's 'When Love Takes Over' but done in a wood.

Mau : Wow

Don't judge a book by its cover. We had a nasty shock, for example, when we started reading A Clockwork Orange, and found it was not a heartwarming tale of a grinning, wind up citrus learning to love, but a vicious murderer what done a rape. With Mau (Man and Unable), it's more a case of not confusing them with a dreadful American teen-rock band.

These guys are all kinds of disco/dance/electro. And you can tell they know what they're doing when you see they've had remixes by omgamazalolz Heartbreak and Dubka (off of Cazals).

Mau have had two albums released already, but they actually were more towards the 'dreadful American teen-rock band' end of the scale. We are much more excited by the new stuff. 'Toboggan' and 'Yoyoyoyo' we have already listened to about 50 times today. Turn 'Yoyoyoyo' up really loud - we are sure a little bit of blood dripped out our ears (in a good way) when we did this earlier. We are excited to hear more, and we'll bleed for it if necessary.

By the way, their artwork is nice too. Although it is all well and good that they like robots, but we were thinking maybe they'd like to feature a pigeon in their next shoot. I'm very affordable.

Mau at MySpace.

FACT: This is the most exciting thing you'll hear all week/month

The general idea of a remix, as far as we've always thought, was to tart up a song, swap a few bits around and generally provide a decent alternative for people to listen to once they are sick of the original.

Someone didn't give Fear of Tigers the memo.

Fear of Tigers turned Visitor's amazing 'Los Feeling' into something so amazing that our heads nearly fell off. They managed to take something perfect and make it better - and it was not a one-off. They've done exactly the same to the similarly perfect 'Into The Clouds' by Sound of Arrows.

They have turned 'Into The Clouds' into an enormous eighties dance track, (which the good people of the 1980s wouldn't have known what to do with) and it makes us feel like our feet are a few inches off the floor. If we ever heard this on a night out, we should probably just go and enjoy a little dance, but our reaction would probably be to explode in a big, bloody, happy mess.

The video makes us wish we were both 14 years old again and also be able to fly. Sadly, the likelihood of being able to fly is more of a reality. *oldface*

Fear of Tigers brilliance at MySpace.
Sound of Arrows brilliance at MySpace.

We should have made more of a song and dance about this

When we put up our Bright Light Bright Light interview the other day, we buried an exclusive download halfway through it. We now reckon this was doing his Ace of Base mash-up 'I Saw The Same Old Lines' a bit of an injustice.

The track mixes his own 'Same Old Lines' with the Ace of Base classic, 'The Sign'. It kinda sums up everything that is brilliant about Bright Light Bright Light. He, like the track, has all the charm and talent of a traditional singer/songwriter but with the added cool of making it all electronic and modern. He's one of those clever people who hides genuine and complex human emotions behind brilliant pop music. And in this instance, the brilliant pop music is Ace of Base.

Download: Bright Light Bright Light vs Ace of Base 'I Saw The Same Old Lines'

Makes all that new Whitney twaddle seem a bit irrelevant

As far as 'quite good' female r&b singer go, Leona Lewis has got it pretty much sewn up. We can't somehow imagine Alexandra Burke or the suddenly-solo Keisha Buchanonononononon making the same impact across the world that Leona has.

Here she is on the America's Got Talent stage, kindly warmed up by Susan Boyle last weekend, singing that new single of hers - interestingly released in America before the UK.

"GIVE HER BACK YOU THIEVING AMERICANS."

She's definitely still amazing and nice to see that those catchphrases ('it's incredible to be here', 'i'm so thankful for all the support') haven't aged or gotten any less snappy during her time in the spotlight.

Two Girls. One Cup.

Sorry, that was crude, but we'd already photoshopped the picture.

Our point is that, following the departure of Keisha earlier this evening, Sugababes is now just a couple of girls plus that girl who did Eurovision, and then wanted to be a solo star, and then changed her mind and leapt in Keisha's grave instead. To be honest Jade Ewen was probably there with her shovel the moment 'Never Leave You' went to number 1.

Twitter, the bastion of social zeitgeist, seems awash with mourning at the moment. With good reason. Sugababes were important to music fans. And someone just gave the girls one too many injections of Propofol.

We remember the moment we first fell in love with Sugababes. Like, properly fell in love. Sure, they'd been kicking around the top of the charts with Overload et al, but this was our turning point...



We've always, always, always remembered this performance. Which is weird because we can't remember a thing about Hamlet (oh, the irony) and we were studying it at the time. This performance epitomises pop music with all the rules thrown out the window. Three teenage friends, performing with all the carefree attitude of a slot in a school talent show, come storming into the public conscious on the back of killer tunes, well meaning yet clumsy dance routines, and distinct, impressive voices.

The magic remained for all these years, in spite of the revolving door of members, because the music and the ethos remained strong.

Then the unthinkable (read that with a hint of sarcasm) happened. One of their albums under-performed(again with the sarcasm). The girls were quickly hurried away, the album swept under the carpet, and they came back a year later with a new 'America friendly' sound. We voiced our displeasure at 'Get Sexy' earlier in the year, and we really believe that behind all this 'Keisha the bully' nonsense it's the label who's to blame. Labels don't like to feel that they don't understand, that they're not in control. They should have left Sugababes to get on with it.

So now what happens? Sure, Heidi and Amelle have done a great job. Ten out of ten for effort, but come on, it's not your band. Not that Keisha would have ever claimed it was her band. Nor would Mutya. Or Siobhan. Sugababes was about an idea, an attitude, a vision. To carry on without any of those things, those original members, flies in the face of everything that was Sugababes. JUST PUT IT OUT OF ITS MISERY.

We'll end on a lighter note:
What do you call three random girls holding microphones?
The Sugababes.

Can we have the chalk with a side order of the cheese?

The second most important thing about this Alphabeat and The Ramones mash-up is that against all odds, it really works. We would never have guessed that Stine's voice would work so well alongside Joey Ramone.

The third most important thing about this mash-up is that it has probably been scheduled to appear online, to coincide with the beginning of the campaign for 'The Spell', for quite some time. We've rumbled their plan to fool gullible bloggers into writing about it.

Oh bugger.

BUT, the single most important thing about this mash-up is making us realise that 'Fascination' by Alphabeat is without question, one of the greatest songs of all time. It's 'You Got The Love', 'U Sure Do', 'Digital Love', 'Comforting Sounds' sort of good.

Here's the mix.

Alphabeat vs Ramones 'Blitzkrieg Fascination'

Here's an idea, why don't we do something literal

We are still waiting for Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok' video to make an appearance on the internet. In the meantime we will have to make do with the countless fan videos that are on YouTube.

What's amazing is how every single one is identical. Do teenage girls have a collective consciousness?

We doubt any of the following is a fair representation of how it feels to wake up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy.

Bright Light Bright Light interview: 'The bus driver was very solemn'

We could safely call Rod Thomas a pioneer of Welsh electro – since electronic pop music is hardly stampeding its way across the Severn Bridge at this current moment in time.

Born in the Welsh valleys, since settling in London he has perfected a brilliant, 90's influenced pop sound as Bright Light Bright Light – not to mention finding time to set up his own record label and keep up with his Ukelele practice. A true multi-tasker.

We sat down and spoke to Bright Light Bright Light and asked him questions about important things such as the state of the music industry and those ubiquitous wheels on the bus.

Hello Bright Light Bright Light. Is your name lifted straight from the film Gremlins?
Yes.

Good. We would have been very disappointed if there was a deep and pretentious meaning.
No. Not at all.

What happened to ‘Rod Thomas’?
Oh he died! I was working on music that was more pop, more dance floor, disco beats, more textures, but the thing is if you have a first name/surname moniker people presume you’re acoustic. So I thought I’d put my own name on the back burner. It’s nice to have a bit of distance so if people slag off your music it’s not you.

How many instruments can Bright Light Bright Light play?
*COUNTS ON FINGERS* 1. Guitar, 2. Ukelele, 3. Glockenspiel, 4. Piano, 5. Bass, 6. Recorder, 7. Flute.

You can’t have recorder everyone can play that.
Ok, discount that. All of those bar recorder, and then I do loads of programming as well.

Would you be able to do a one man band?
Maybe a tambourine and a ukelele. A tambourine under my foot, some cymbals between my legs, a ukelele, and a harmonica, and a drum. Yes, that would be fine.

Very good. So, as part of the new sound you’ve been working with Boom Bip? How did you get together? Was it the Welsh connection with Gruff Rhys?
(LAUGHS) He’s a bit of a Welsh-o-phile I think! I was a massive fan of his work and the Neon Neon record so my manager sent an email saying ‘Rod likes your stuff and would like to work with you...’

...And he’s a Welsh.
He didn’t know! He said ‘Yes, I really like the stuff. Do you want to come and work with me?’. So I did! I did two tracks with him. ‘A New Word To Say’ and ‘Disco Moment’. I did a lot of the production for ‘Disco Moment’ myself at home and then we got together and added loads of extra sounds and jigged it around a bit. He’s really nice and really talented.

And you’ve also been out to make lovely noises with the amazing Sound Of Arrows?
We played a gig together and we got on really well...So I went to Sweden. It was really spontaneous. When I was getting the bus to Stansted I was thinking ‘I’ve really only met these people once...', but they’re the nicest guys in the world. So funny and so lovely. We went to Stefan’s parents’ house on a lake in Sweden and just hung out. We went to a National Park and saw some Moose and Bears, and then they have a little cabin by the lake and we just messed around in the studio for a couple of days and wrote a song together

Were you writing for them or you?
For me really. We put the music together, then we produced it, then they did work on the production, and then on the bus on the way to the airport, it’s like four and a half hour bus, I wrote the lyrics.

Were there any lyrics about the wheels and the way in which they might have been moving?
No, none!

What about some lines on what the driver on the bus was doing?
He was very solemn.

Who else is on the Bright Light hitlist for future collaborations?
Gruff Rhys, but I guess that doesn’t really work with what I’m doing at the moment. Post War Years, I’d like to do something with them. I’m going to be working with a couple of the guys from Empire Of The Sun. Well, Pnau. And I’m working with Del from Scissor Sisters. Del’s solo stuff I really like so it’s a nice exchange and helping to rewrite his lyrics and he’s going to help me with lyrics for mine.

Our research informs us that you are a big fan of Ace Of Base. Why so?
A genuine love. They’re so catchy. Everyone couldn’t get them out of their heads. There’s something so amazing about that. When I went to work with Boom Bip he quoted Ace Of Base as really good song writing. Production as well. This is geeky, but if you’re putting together a song you have to have everything spaced so it isn’t too cluttered. You’ve got the beats, and the vocals, and you can hear everything perfectly. I mix ‘Same Old Lines’ with ‘The Sign’ and do it live.

RP exclusive download: Bright Light Bright Light vs Ace Of Base 'I Saw The Same Old Lines'

What’s your favourite food that comes in a tin?
Baked beans. I’m really, really addicted to beans on toast. I eat it at least 3 times a week

Is that indicative of the state of the music industry?
It was, it is cheap, but I find it really comforting. I would splash out on Heinz or HP though. HP three for £1, or three for £1.19, it’s gone up to now in the local. I won’t go with any other. I was on holiday with some friends when we were younger and we were really poor and we had chicken nuggets and beans in a tin. It was disgusting.

Well hopefully those days are behind you now. What’s the masterplan for the next few months?
Working on the album. I’ve got about nine songs finished. I want to get about sixteen or twenty and then whittle it down to eleven for the album. I’m doing loads of remixes as well. I’m really happy with a lot of the stuff I’ve got at the moment. So I guess the plan is to put the album together and put it out at the start of next year, and the single should be out end of this year.

So keep checking the shelves in your local Tower Records, Our Price, Virgin, Woolworths, MVC, Zavvi, HMV or Spillers. Thank you very much Rod, Bright Light Bright Light.


Bright Light Bright Light myspace
Self Raising Records myspace

Thank you the internet: Pharrell Williams fights a yellow puppet.

Sometimes we really love Twitter. It's so succinct and disposable. Much like a Haiku. Only less structured, and with more emphasis on characters than moras, and you probably wouldn't get a Haiku on the subject of your dog being sick. Imagine if this blog didn't have all the silly words and we just got on with what we were waffling on about without all the waffling words in the first place.

Here's what happened by way of a special treat when Mr Oizo reached 10,000 followers on his Twitter page today:



ROFLOLZMZING. We might post something wonderful when we reach 11 followers on our Twitter.

Ding Ding: Cole Vs Burke: Round 2

Unless you were a)up past your bed time last night or 2)stumbling in drunk from a night out, you might have missed the premiers of the Cole and Burke videos.

These campaigns are getting really interesting. There's no direct 'fight' as such, but (whilst everything is being scheduled very tightly) it would seem that Cheryl is the priority. Both her album and single are released so that they could topple Burke's, and Cole's video got screened first (and on ITV, rather than ITV2) even though it's released a week later. Confused? We're starting to think that's the idea. Gosh, we do enjoy a good Cowell mind game.

The videos are kicking around online this morning, but if any are going to be pulled before we finish this sentence those are they (pity the poor Sony/Polydor interns chained to their desk refreshing Youtube all weekend). So we'll post a few stills and live with the risk of having a man in black turn up on our doorstep with a removal notice and mind wiper:






And the slightly grainier quality Cheryl:





Personally, we prefer Alexandra's song AND video. Which makes sense if you think about it because Cheryl is probably getting a lot more say in her own campaign and can play it a bit more towards her own taste, whilst Alexandra's team will go straight for the collective jugular/ear drum. Which basically tells us that Robot Pigeon is a sucker for Syco's voodoo ear assaults. But we all knew that.

Ding Ding: Cole vs Burke Round1

When you go into a shop to buy an LP you look for a band you like. Failing that you look to see who is prettiest on the cover. So when Our Price put the Cheryl Cole and Alexandra Burke vinyls next to each other on the shelf here's what your choice is going to be:


OR:

That's one to Cheryl then. Though sleeves are all a bit irrelevant what with iTunes and all that digital stuff aren't they?

PS FYI RE 'VS': it looks like the release dates will be as follows:
12th October:
Alexandra: Single: Bad Boys
19th October:
Cheryl: Single: Fight For this Love
Alexandra: Album: Overcome
26th October
Cheryl: Album: Three Words