This is more an excuse to post Christina's wonderful album artwork than it is to talk about the new single 'Not Myself Tonight'.
Let's be honest: it's no 'Dirrty' (if anything there's a Timberlake 'SexyBack' lift in there). But let's be honest again in the space of two sentences: it's hard to know what we would have wanted from an Aguilera comeback. She can't be a slut any more now she's had a baby, and we certainly wouldn't want any more of that "I'm a 50s starlet with a trumpet" nonsense.
It's not that the song is bad: it's the sort of thing The Saturdays would kill for. The problem is that it's not really up to the standard we'd expect for a lead single off a new album from a global superstar.
Christina Aguilera 'Not Myself Tonight': (Click her face to play)
Or maybe it's not fair for us to make a snap judgment on the song on the basis of 6 or 7 listens over our Weetabix. Such is the disposable nature of 'pop' music coupled with the notion of the internet as a place to 'listen' to music. In the olden days we would have heard this once on the radio, had to wait a few hours to hear it again, waited a month or so for the single to hit the shops before we could play it to death etc etc... What we're essentially suggesting here is that sometimes we frivolously dismiss music simply because it is so readily available.
On the other hand maybe it is just shit.
See you back here in a month and we'll let you know.
PS. Does she really drop the f-bomb? It will be interesting to see what happens when this hits radio.
In our previous guises as solo bloggers (don't go searching, you won't like what you find) Robot & Pigeon both banged on about Ocelot quite a bit. Aside from the odd slamming remix, we thought they had sort of vanished. This may be bad blogging research on our part, it may be laziness on the band's part. Whatever, then we spotted 'Beating Hearts' and we wept with joy and that's really all that matters.
It's got driving beats, it's got catchy vocals, sparkly twinkly bits (that's the technical term) and then builds to a horrifically exciting finale. It's also got a shit load of wonderful remixes by Louis La Roche, Blende and Soundforce.
Here is 'Beating Hearts':
Ocelot 'Beating Hearts':
And here's the rather good Louis La Roche remix:
Ocelot 'Beating Hearts' Louis La Roche remix:
It's the first single from the band's album. Find out all the boring things like release dates from their Myspace.
Pigeon already (prematurely) said Fenech-Soler are his favourite band of 2010, but very close behind are Chew Lips. We first saw them at Secret Garden's Bacchanalia Ball in 2009 where frontwoman Tigs called us all "a bunch of fucking weirdos". To be fair she was right, and we quite liked her frank approach to making new fans. Well, it's better than a Street Team.
If we had to use a lazy comparison for the album 'Unicorn' we'd go along the Yeah Yeah Yeah 'It's Blitz' route. And if we had to actually do some work and write a description of it we'd call it: an album that should be turned up so loud you purposely and knowingly damage your own hearing in order to gain some short term audible enjoyment.
All this is a long winded way of mentioning that the single 'Karen' is released today. No exaggeration, this is the track that makes Pigeon jump up and shout "I LOVE this song" every time it comes on. It sounds like this. "I LOVE this song". Chew Lips 'Karen':
And there's a rather good Drum & Bass style remix by Netsky kicking around too:
Chew Lips 'Karen' (Netsky remix):
There are two other things we want to say about Chew Lips.
1. Their artwork is fantastic. We will be buying a vinyl so we can put it in one of those overpriced frames you get in Urban Outfitters.
2. Chew Lips are nothing if not pro-active when it comes to promoting themselves. If you buy the 'Karen exclusive single bundle' from their website (*insert helpful link here*) you get *deep breath* a limited edition 'Karen' Vinyl, a set of three postcard prints with a personal message from Tigs, the 'Karen' digital single (official track + 3 remixes), a signed Chew Lips poster and a pair of inline skates EACH. We made the last bit up, it was a sad attempt at referencing Pat Sharp helmed game show Fun House. Sorry.
We want Chew Lips to be huge this year. We have thought of a novel way of making this happen. You could exchange money you have earned for music they have spent their time making. Here are some handy links to help: Buy Unicorn here. Buy 'Karen' here. Buy the 'Karen exclusive single bundle' here.
This is what we'd refer to as something that is 'rather good indeed'.
Visually arresting without forgetting that it's supposed to be complimenting the music rather than overpowering it.
Speaking of which we've forgotten to listen to 'Accapella' for a while, but it still sounds fresh and exciting even after a few months absence *puts it back on iPod playlist*.
To warn you, Kelis' boobs are pretty much 'in your face' towards the end of the video. If you don't like mammary holders look away now...
Thinking about it, Kelis is generally overlooked when it comes to brilliant female performers. She's been around since Robot & Pigeon were in school (we're a lot older now), and is still turning out inventive, exciting music which has longevity. Here is some proof in the form of a 'Kelis is pretty wonderful play list'.
Jonsi Birgisson, the melancholy powerhouse who has fronted Iceland's most dearly cherished musical export, Sigur Ros, for 16 years has flown the nest and gone solo. But as the lead singer of such a distinctive and genre defying quartet, it would be all too easy to expect Jonsi's solo debut, 'Go Do' to be simply the next Sigur Ros record with expenses spared by roping in session musicians instead of fully paid-up band members.
But this is not the case.
Sigur Ros made their name with haunting epics such as 'Hoppipolla', 'Svefn-g-englar' and 'Vaka'. Or at least, these are just a trio of the tracks that have graced the band's five albums. Jonsi's solo work however, takes a more positive, uplifting stance, perhaps proving it was his Sigur Ros bandmates who were the grumpy old sods while all he wanted to sing about was running around fields and jumping on trampolines. Jonsi's optimistic sound has already been heard in singles 'Boy Lilikoi' and 'Go Do', two stirring anthems encouraging us all to get on with our bloody lives and not sit around wallowing about things - advice which perhaps he has taken himself. The optimism continues in the pounding brilliance of 'Animal Arithmetic' and the bleakly titled 'Sinking Friendships'.
Of course, the epic sound of Sigur Ros hasn't been quite thrown out with the bath water - 'Tornado' and 'Grow Till Tall' rival some of the band's biggest compositions with soaring orchestral production and of course Jonsi's angelic vocals. There's darkness on the record as well, with tracks such as 'Kolnidur' offering the shade to contrast all the general cheer on display.
'Go Do' is not quite the next Sigur Ros album and yet not quite an album which breaks enough ties with Jonsi's past to convince those who thought Sigur Ros were a bunch of whiny bastards to give this record a whirl. (Outdated reference, we know).
However, whether a fan of Jonsi's previous work or not, there's no questioning the beauty of 'Go Do', a record which effortlessly tugs the emotions that so many other bands and artists strive endlessly for. A work of true beauty.
Pigeon has had Kisses' 'Bermuda' kicking around his itunes for a little while now, and it was only when Robot started bellowing from the kitchen "oi. Oi. OI! What is that song you're listening to? It's good" that it came to our attention we'd been playing it for our own listening pleasure, but had neglected to actually write about it. Sorry/Whoops etc.
Kisses are a man and a lady called Jesse and Zinzi. We've found a few other songs by them scattered across the world wide web, and there's talk of an album (called 'The Heart of the Nightlife'), but the track you'll find easily is the single 'Bermuda'.
You'll also find it just here: Kisses 'Bermuda'
There's a Caribbean-sitting-on-the-beach-drinking-sangria-out-of-coconuts-and-trying-not-to-get-sand-on-your-towel vibe to their music (we believe the technical term for this is 'Baleric'), but throw in some pop sensibilities and a male vocal reminiscent of Joy Division and/or Morrissey and you're halfway there.
We're excited to hear more. If it's as good as 'Bermuda' they'll get more than just kisses (but nothing below the waist on a first date, ok?). Listen to 'Bermuda' on Kisses' Myspace. Pre-order 'Bermuda' here
How the hell will Fearne Cotton get her lips around the title of the new Kyte single? The answer is that she won't - because it's unlikely to ever find it's way onto the Radio One playlist, so we'll all be spared the sounds of her attempting to pronounce 'IHNFSA' live on the airwaves. Is radio even broadcast on 'airwaves' these days? Or is just flung out on electronic thingys that go into our brains and make us all get nosebleeds. We just don't know (and we shan't be investigating either).
So, in the absense of any likelihood of hearing the Kyte single on the radio, here's the new video. The internet suits this much better because we can just write 'IHNFSA' and not attempt to say it ourselves. It sounds like someone trying to hold in a sneeze - with only marginal success.
It's not quite 'Telephone' but that, quite frankly, is a bloody relief.
Hello. Robot is back. You may not have missed Robot but Robot has been to Las Vegas. All there is to report on the trip is that Fear of Tigers' amazing 'The Adventures of Pippi Longstrum' is the soundtrack to the Avon make-up adverts and that former American Idol finalist Jasmine Trias is playing gigs in TGI Fridays. *formerly-slightly-famous-sadface*
Here is the something interesting though - there is a new song on Robyn's website called 'Fembots'. It is not a very good song mind you, more a 'Cobrastyle' or 'Konichiwa Bitches' than a 'With Every Heartbeat' or even a 'Handle Me' and serves only as an introduction to her new whatnots and is an interesting little signpost that announces a new album is going to happen.
And all this is good news. Because the last was slightly beyond incredible.
This is the video for next Dragonette single 'Easy'. When we say 'single' we're not really sure what we mean because Dragonette throw things out and about the internet willy nilly whether they have a proper release or not. But to be honest you should just be buying the album because, as with everything the band touch, it is fucking wonderful. Here is a handy link to buy it if you are a bit lazy. And here is the video.
Sometimes there's a fine line between a work of creative genius and a big old mess. Some people look at Pollock's 'splatter' paintings and see complex fractal dimensions, whilst others might look and think "that man has just sloshed a load of paint around on a canvas". No we've not been watching too much of boring BBC4, this analogy is simply a reference to the new The Young Punx album 'Mashpop and Punkstep'(*insert obligatory release date plug*) which is released today.
The album, as you might have guessed from the title, is a fusion of genres and styles. Opener 'You You You' breaks for a Cuban section, 'O Mio Babbino Caro' samples Puccini's aria of the same name (not one of his best, we may add, we are more prone to a bit of 'Vissi D'Arte Vissi D'Amore'), 'Ready For The Fight' features rapper Count Bass D, and so on and so on, with a variation in sound to pretty much every track.
So is this mash of styles a work of genius or a big old mess? The Robot Pigeon response to that question is: a bit of both.
There are certainly tracks that we absolutely adore and will repeat to death, like this:
The Young Punx 'Final Destination':
And we LOVE this:
The Young Punx 'Burn Burn Burn':
Other highlights are 'Ready For The Fight' which we've talked up previously, 'SugarCandySuperNova' which is as downtempo as it gets, 'Simple Pleasures' which fuses elements of Shampoo with Zig & Zag and McFly...in fact, there's something good to say about every track, but the album as a whole doesn't seem to gel.
The (God like) Phonat has co-produced the album, and it certainly feels like each track has been worked individually to perfection, but then no-one has worried too much about how the whole thing fits together.
We want to like it, we really, really want to like it because when it's good it's so so good, but listening to the album from beginning to end has got our head in a right old spin. A bit of hip hop here, some electro there, Cuban here, dubstep there. It's like a schizophrenic in anaphylactic shock having an epileptic fit.
If you look at each track in isolation there are indeed some beautiful fractals, but looking at the whole album overall "that band have just sloshed a load of musical genres around a cd". Then again, it's not every day you get compared to Jackson Pollock is it? Creative genius or a big old mess? We suggest you listen for yourselves and decide. After all, with so many genres covered, it's likely you'll find something you like.
Over on Youtube ALEX4NDR00 has edited the Lady Gaga 'Telephone' video to fit with the rather wonderful Alphabeat remix.
Good points: It cuts out nearly six minutes of the boring stuff. Bad points: You still get to see her V-jay-jay and Virgin Mobile is still prevalent in pretty much every frame.
What are the customers of Pak's Wig Shop listening to now that they have played their Meat Loaf CDs to death? Let's see shall we?
Please note: It was not actually Ellie Goulding counting some money beside her car. We have simply Photoshopped (uncanny, we know) her head on to protect the identity of the innocent man in question.
So, quite a change from last time. First we have a double spread for JD Sports. We'll ignore this as a)it is not music related and b)we have never exercised in our life. Young Money - 'We Are Young Money': We won't lie in order to sound cool, we do not have a clue who Young Money are. Let's investigate: "Founded by Grammy Award-winning, critically-acclaimed, multi-platinum rap superstar Lil Wayne, Young Money Entertainment will introduce the world to hip-hop’s hottest new collective with the release of We Are Young Money, one of the most anticipated albums of the year." So there we go. One of the most anticipated albums of the year. Released in Februray. Being promoted in March. Make of that what you will.
No-One Knows About Persian Cats: First we thought this was another band we'd never heard of. Then we found out it's a film. Kasi Az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh, to give it its proper name, is about Iranian musicians. Perhaps one for a contemplative Sunday rather than a partying Friday?
Laura Marling 'I Speak because I Can': Ignore the first 25 seconds of this video which will suck each and every particle of excitement/personality out of your life, and just listen to the song, which is beautiful.
Sometimes you don't need nine minutes of product placement and Beyonce to distract from lyrical prowess. Conversely you wouldn't want to throw yourself around the dancefloor like a loon to Laura Marling, but that is the beauty of the diversity of music, right? Right Pak's Wig Shop?!
And who gets the special plastic encased slot this week?
A wonky Lovebox poster. If we could amalgamate all three days of Lovebox into one our line-up would be: Chew Lips, Crookers, Wild Beasts, Empire Of The Sun, Peaches, Grace Jones and Chromeo.
DatoStrøm have a wonderful motto on their myspace. It goes like this: "Save the world with your dance moves and your beautiful eyes". They've obviously never witnessed Robot in a club or caught Pigeon's wonky stare, but it's a nice sentiment and is kind of indicative of their lyrical prowess.
DatoStrøm first came to our attention when Diamond Cut remixed their, frankly effervescent, track 'All I Never Needed'. That was the only track on their myspace at the time, and we waited and waited and waited to hear some new music. As we were waiting 'As We Were Waiting' arrived in our inbox. It was worth the wait: DatoStrøm: 'As We Were Waiting'
It's a downtempo affair, with Tobias' stripped back track providing an ethereal, hypnotic mood, whilst David's vocal compliments with an assured, distinct tone.
That was almost an attempt some real journalism. Sorry. Let's talk about something a bit more frivolous. We like the funny line through the 'o' in their name. We might start doing that too. www.røbøtpigeøn.cøm If you're waiting to look at DatoStrøm's Myspace it's here.
Ok, I am just going to say it and I'll have to delete this post and pretend it never happened if I am proved wrong in the next 9 months: Fenech-Soler are fucking wonderful and are Pigeon's favourite band of 2010.
I love everything they have done to date. I am even willing to forgive the sparkly tops in this video for 'Stop and Stare'.
In the picture on the right you will see a man and a lady sitting at a table having a lovely glass of orange squash (double concentrate if they're lucky).
The man and the lady are called Victoria and Jacob (we assume Victoria is the lady and Jacob is the man, but this remains unconfirmed). We're not sure what happened after this photo was taken, but we like to think they went up to the bedroom and recorded a lovely song called 'With No Certainty': Victoria & Jacob: 'With No Certainty'
Lovely, non?
Not only lovely, but also a little experimental and extremely interesting. There are some more songs on their myspace page and we've found ourselves continually drawn back to listen to them. We think they are going to be big (not in an obese sense, more in a popularity way). They have the rare quality of being musically interesting, yet mainstream friendly.
There are lots of London dates on their Mysapce page. We will go and watch them and have a glass of double concentrate orange squash and report back... 'With No Certainty' is due for release on 5th April. Victoria & Jacob on Myspace
You will remember Bright Light Bright Light from our, frankly wonderful, interview last year. He told us he had been working with Boom Bip from Neon Neon and said "I promise when the track is finished you can have it". He didn't actually say that, we're lying, but he may as well have because he is now giving it away for utterly free. It is called 'A New Word To Say' and it goes a bit like this: Bright Light Bright Light 'A New Word To Say'
Wonderful, right? And the fact that he has a snazzy new 'talk to the hand' picture, and that he is playing shows like so:
20/03/10: Sink The Pink [DJ Set], London 03/04/10: Sink The Pink [DJ Set], Vogue Fabrics, London 12/04/10: The Lexington, London 13/04/10: FLUX=RAD, Cardiff 15/04/10: Night & Day, Manchester 17/04/10: The Forum, Tunbridge Wells 24/04/10: Unit, Southampton 30/05/10: New Sound Wales Showcase, Chapter Arts, Cardiff
Must mean that the album is nearly ready. Er, exciting.
You can get tickets for the London shows right bloody here. They're a lot more reasonable than those recently released Gaga tickets.
Get the track for free by clicking this (it is what we call a 'link')
Don Diablo's promo campaign for his forthcoming single 'Teen Scream Machine' has taken the clever tact of creating a mash up to go with the usual remix package. In this instance Mr Diablo has fused his own track with Missy Elliot's 'Lose Control'. This is clever because 'Lose Control' is 101 shades of wonderful, and so whatever old tat you throw behind it, it is still going to sound at least 50.5 shades of wonderful. Let's see what happens here shall we?
Don Diablo vs Missy Eliot 'Teen Scream Control'
Do you know what, we pretty much <3 that in the face.
The only problem using 'Lose Control' in this mash up is that rather than make us rush onto iTunes to pre-order Diablo we're going to root around under our bed for our copy of Missy's The Cookbook.
We have written about 'The Radio' by Get Far featuring H Boogie on several occasions.
We have done this because it is amazing.
The single will be released on 17th May 2010 and we know this because the following arrived in our inbox this morning.
GET FAR ft. H-Boogie ‘The Radio’ Monday 17th May 2010 Island Records
UK dance music has a statuesque new queen in the shape of Hammersmith singer H-Boogie AKA Haidara Swaray.
We won't dwell on the conotations of 'statuesque' but will on Hammersmith. Basically if you hang around outside TK Maxx you might get a glimpse of H Boogie.
With a ‘futuristic punk rebel’ style that takes magpie style from everything from Vivienne Westwood’s swashbuckling chic to 80s movies dystopias (think Mad Max) H is going to light up the club world.
She's got spiky hair sometimes.
She’s taste the Top 10 before as singer/writer on 2007’s massive ‘Love Had Gone’ with Dave Armstrong.
Chart history disagrees but we shall not argue.
Her 2010 debut is with one of the biggest worldwide hit-makers in dance music Mario Fargetta AKA DJ Get Far. Responsible for a run of hits with as The Temperer ft. Maya ‘Feel It’ got to number 1 in the UK and in many other territories (with its clever sampling of The Jackson’s ‘Can You Feel It’). Follow up single ‘If You Buy This Record’ was equally successful.
The Tamperer were quite good - this is the truth.
'The Radio' with its plaintive tale of taking solace in the radio for a broken heart is shaping up to be another worldwide hit - already flying in Europe it has had over 2 million Youtube views.
People who live abroad think this song is OK and if you've been on holiday recently you might have heard it.
‘I only like to make music that makes you wanna dance and feel good at the same time’ says Fargetta. With a radio show on one of the biggest station in Italy Radio Deejay, where he has worked since he was 16, Mario DJs at the biggest house clubs in the world.
The man who made the song is no idiot when it comes to dance music.
‘The Radio’ is H-Boogie’s rocketing starting musical salvo for 2010 with more material with new producers due through the year. Keep your eye on this strong new club queen as she gets set to run the radio.
We have no idea what a 'rocketing starting musical salvo' is when it is at home BUT WE KNOW WE AGREE.
However, here is how we would sell the single, if we were working on H Boogie's PR campaign:
The Bedingfield with less facial hair is back. This is a good thing if you remember how good Natasha Bedingfield songs like 'Unwritten' were but not so great if you remember 'I Want To Have Your Babies' (which sticks in our head mostly because the video featured Nadine Coyle going past in a speedboat).
'Shoot For The Stars' is her new single and it is a decent, mid-tempo ballad which isn't going to offend anyone and will probably get her onto Radio One if only for a live session. It also has some brilliantly silly lyrics about painting with emotions. This would be the good.
However it is beyond us what she is doing with her voice. Perhaps a lozenge might help sort that croak. She can't complete one line without her voice skidding off somewhere else - we guess it's meant to sound emotional ('boo hoo hoo this is more than just a pop song it's real life for me lolz') but she just sounds a bit daft. This would be the bad.
And the promised 'ugly'? Hmmmmmm... She's actually quite pretty isn't she? We have backed ourselves into a corner with our own headline. We could go back and change it but perhaps we'll just embed the track and leave it at that.
And it is the part that reminds us that Lady Gaga, like every other popstar, has a bank account and is happy to sell mobile phones to make sure she has plenty of cash in it.
And here are the other nine gruelling (if brightly coloured, well choreographed and nicely dressed) minutes.
We'll be honest, 'the singles' aside, we thought MGMT's debut Oracular Spectacular was a bit of an over-hyped disappointment. Now, following a series of leaks from their second album, the band have put a track online as an official free download. It doesn't classify itself as a single or anything, it's just a track, so it doesn't give much indication of, well anything at all actually. It's called 'Flash Delirium' and it sounds similar, if not identical, to this:
Here are some things we think about it in a chronological we-are-listening-to-it-as-we-type-type-fashion:
0:00-0:19 All very John Shuttleworth to begin with. 0:22 Bit of a mess. 0:34 Sort of a 1960s mess. 0:40 Actually we're quite enjoying the mess. 0:51 And now a hint of Pulp. 1:03 Actually very Pulp (Different Class era). 1:42 Bit Fraggle Rock. 1:51 There's that silly casio again. 1:57 Oh and a flute! 2:10 Trippy. 2:24 Trippy and dull. 2:37 Bowie. 2:52 That's a bit more MGMT. 3:07 There's the 'hint of a tune' we were after. 4:01 What a noise.
So, overall, bit of a mess. What did the press release say again?
"Congratulations is the successor to Oracular Spectacular...and is a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence...MGMT unlock a new musical world whirling in its own space/time grid infused with hints of music from the past five decades. Soulful and complex, Congratulations is a surprising and delightful quantum step forward in MGMT's ongoing pop revolution."
Translation: Let's pass it off as an arty project using some convoluted guff which actually means "OK, we know it's a bit of a mess". Congratulations is out on Monday 12th April.
UPDATE: We've had about five listens now, and it actually starts to make a bit more sense.
It's still not going to be very fun on Singstar though is it?
No I am not a Robot, I am a Pigeon. Robot is off somewhere watching Glee. Marina & The Diamonds is not a Robot either. We know because she wrote a song called 'I Am Not A Robot'. Then Passion Pit remixed it. And now it sounds not wholly dissimilar to the Van She remix of Feist's '1,2,3,4' (which, let's be honest, is one of the best remixes of all time).
Marina & The Diamonds: 'I Am Not A Robot' Passion Pit remix:
We're not entirely convinced by Marina. There's something we just don't get™ that everyone else seems to. Maybe it was the lyrics to 'Hollywood' that put us off: 'queen/dream', 'brain/rain', 'scene/dream' (The Sugababes called, they want their rhyming dictionary back.)
This remix, however, is a step in the right direction. Or, at least, it's a step more in the direction we would like. But then Marina probably doesn't give a shit what direction we want her to go in does she?
If you are in London on Wednesday, and you're not planning to be at home watching 'Relocation, Relocation', can we suggest you take a trip to The Flowerpot in Kentish Town to watch Teenagers In Tokyo who we like very much. Here are two reasons why:
1. Teenagers In Tokyo are very good. B. The Flowerpot is free.
We can demonstrate reason 1 by linking to this and embedding this:
And we can demonstrate reason B by doing a low-res screengrab of this:
More on Teenagers In Tokyo here More on The Flowerpot (probably our favourite London venue. Other venues take note: they once gave us free biscuits) here
Over the past few weeks Lady Gaga has been drip-feeding media outlets (blogs and others) with pictures from her moderately-awaited video for 'Telephone', announcing and then missing debut dates and has now even made a TV commercial to promote the debut of this monumental moment in music history.
Except, it's not that monumental at all, is it.
Lady Gaga is amazing, yes. A duet with Beyonce is further amazing still - but these were amazing in November 2009 and people have been buying and listening to the track ever since. We are accustomed to the track's brilliance, we are no longer excited by it.
The video will air, be no doubt amazing and we will all think 'wow, that was a visually engaging few moments of my time' before getting back on with our lives. Numerous blogs and websites will post the video, some will analyse it through screengrabs or carefully thought out comments on the goings-on in the video and that will be end of it. No one's life will be changed and after a few plays it will simply sink into being on regular rotation on The Box.
We do think Lady Gaga is amazing, yes, but her overblown ego is what grates on us. She's a true pop icon and possibly the most interesting pop star on the planet, but the pomp and ceremony with which she moves and acts should be earned - not demanded after one and a half albums. This is a music video for a good song we've all been familiar with for over four months - not some holy visual grail of modern music. Which would probably lead us into a few lines about that bloody tea-cup she carries around BUT WE WILL REFRAIN.
Here are the 11 seconds of video footage which have 'got our backs up' this afternoon.
Gaga - get a grip.
PLEASE NOTE: We are quite looking forward to seeing the video.
Most of this collaboration between manic eighties-obsessed DJ Futurecop! and hip-hop newcomer Keith Masters works. And when it does it REALLY works. It can be quite brilliant in a gigantic, eighties-techno / hip-hop hybrid sort of way - which as a sub genre isn't the most straightforward so we should cut them some slack here.
Sadly, when it doesn't quite work, it just sounds like someone shouting over the end of a movie.
Basically, their '1988 Girls' track is 75% amazing and 25% a hurried mess. So those numbers are pretty favourable, yes?
Not that there's anything wrong with Diamond Cut remixes of either Candle Thieves or Radio Ink, but we have saved the best for last here on this mini-celebration of the work of Diamond Cut. His remix of 'My Face' by Starrset is nothing short of spectacu-bloody-lar.
Starrset are the sort of men who have pictures of women in bikini's standing very close to each other on their MySpace page among other generally HETEROSEXUAL layout elements.
Sexuality aside, 'My Face' by Starrset is 100%, start to finish, jaw-droppingly brilliant. It's a europop-inspired hip-hop track, which is generally where the band themselves find themselves positioned, but where Diamond Cut succeeds in his remix of 'My Face' is in throwing out any notions of being 'inspired by' and goes full-throttle into the euro-pop territory. He turns the song, at approximately 200mph, into a gigantic electropop house monster which is quite possibly one of the best tracks we've heard so far this year.
It's futuristic, relentless and plucks some seriously memorably vocal hooks from the original. This is quite simply incredible.
Things that have surprised us in life include the following:
1. Bruce Willis being dead all theway through The Sixth Sense. 2. The unexpected popping of balloons. 3. No one buying much of Operator Please's music.
If you frequented indie-disco venues approximately two years ago, you will probably be familiar with 'Just A Song About Ping Pong'. An amazing pop-punk song about table tennis (it wasn't - it was about giving blow jobs).
If you dug deeper into this song you will have discovered that it was by Operator Please - a young Australian five-piece who are perhaps the only band to truly make music that is as much 'indie' as it is 'pop'. You will also have discovered that they recorded and released other singles - 'Get What you Want' (shouty amazingness) and 'Leave It Alone' (furious violin-led masterpiece). There was also an album - 'Yes Yes Vindictive'.
They are now back with a second album, 'Gloves', and on the evidence of new single 'Logic', it will be business as usual for Operator Please. This means we expect it to be amazing.
'Logic' is a near perfect slice of punchy, guitar-driven power-pop which will put a snarl on your lip and a spring in your step. This, we freely admit will leave you looking like a complete pillock but that is not our problem.
Here is the video for the song in question. There is little question that lead singer Amandah is a bloody brilliant frontwoman and that this is a very fashionable band.
We love Operator Please and are very excited about the new album. Welcome back you brilliant Australian teenagers, we hope the lack of interest us Brits showed you last time around will not affect your decisions over releasing music in the UK, (regards, RobotPigeon).
Australia isn't bad when it comes to pop music. Sneaky Sound System, Holly Valance, Rogue Traders, those Minogue women, Gayle & Gillian - there's a decent legacy of ladies from down-under who are generally pretty good.
Now Radio Ink isn't a woman so much as it is a woman standing in front of some men singing while they make all the music. Their MySpace tags them as 'New Wave / Electro / House' but we'd just like to tag them as: BLOODY BRILLIANT.
Their involvement with Diamond Cut (for it is he) on two of their tracks has resulted in the following:
ONE amazing club track that could oh so easily have been recorded by any of the Aussie pop people mentioned above and ONE brilliantly retro eighties ballad which sounds like Gwen Stefani's 'Cool' but after being given a bit of a kick up the bottom.
Here's the one that will make you dance.
Radio Ink 'Give Me What You Got' (Diamond Cut remix)
And here's the one that will make you call your ex and tell them you love them very much.
Radio Ink 'Wish U Were Here' (Diamond Cut remix)
Very, very amazing. Watch this space - or more accurately, watch this band.
Both of these young men have been touched by Diamond Cut.
This isn't as homoerotic as it might sound - they are the band Candle Thieves and Diamond Cut has remixed their already-pretty-amazing 'We're All Going To Die' into something far more charming and heartwarming than a song about dying has any right to be.
The song actually isn't all that bleak and it's basically about getting off your arse and doing something with your time. There's two versions of we're all going to die that have been vying for our attention, but the Diamond Cut Slow Jam remix is probably our mix of choice. The softer side of Diamond Cut suits thoughtful boys' lyrics about life and general introspective whatnot slightly more than his usual 80s rave-a-thon sound.
And here it is.
Candle Thieves 'We're All Gonna Die' (Diamond Cut remix)
Most pop bands celebrate their decade anniversary by re-forming, releasing a greatest hits and going on a tour. Not so for Shy Child, who never split up in the first place and then completely forgot it was even their anniversary (much like our parents).
Shy Child have released 3 albums together across various indie labels and international territories, yet it's their forthcoming fourth, 'Liquid Love', that looks set to propel them into the public conscience.
We recently spoke to Nate (who does drums) and Pete (who does vocals). They told us all about steering wheelchairs with their tongues, what the hidden message in 'Avatar' really was, how to save a dying goldfish, oh, and some stuff about music as well...
Hello Pete and Nate. Welcome back to London. What do you look forward to most about coming here? Nate: Every time we come here I make sure to go to Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum. Pete: It’s fucked up. I went there and looked really close up, like up their noses. They didn’t sculpt the hole. I hate to destroy the illusion.
Perhaps they are trying to stop the wax celebrities from getting a cocaine habit. Is there anything you don’t like about London? Pete: I can’t find fruit easily. I ate breakfast yesterday and I said can I have some fruit please and she said "We have prunes and stewed apricot". I have never had a prune.
They serve them in Hospitals. Very good for digestion. Nate: We weren’t in hospital. Pete: We’re staying in a weird old hotel. Nate: It’s like grandma’s house. If grandma ran a mental asylum.
So Shy Child have been together as a band for 10 years… Pete: That’s so fucking weird!
Is that a surprise? Pete: Hell yeah! Nate: Happy anniversary! Pete: Let’s be clear. We didn’t start as a band, quote unquote. Like we were just fucking around for many years. Nate: Well, we were playing some shows, it’s now just a lot more shows.
Do you have any plans to celebrate this momentous occasion? Nate: Well we only just found out about it.
We want to know about your new album. It's called 'Liquid Love' is that something rude or is it poppers? Pete: Poppers, yeah I realized that, it’s not poppers. Take the classical metaphorical approach: the nature of love is amorphous, it’s not a firm concept in one’s life. Nate: It’s fluid. Pete: You can love your partner but also hate them at times. Much like my love for music. (PAUSE) But it also means cum.
You ruined the magic there. So what have you done to ensure 'Liquid Love' is your best yet? Pete: Oh shit. (PAUSE) Well first of all we actually wrote songs as opposed to elaborate jams. They’re actual songs referencing more traditional pop structures. There’s more of an appreciation of pop history that we might not have appreciated before. I never realised it’s important in life to recognise the canon. I like that. People like that. Do you think you’ll be embraced by the pop world now? Pete: It’s the only genre. It’s the only relevant music.
At the moment all the big pop singers are number one on a charity record for Haiti. Would you like to have featured on it? Pete: It’s really late 90’s misery. I dunno, it’s a troubling thing. That sells though. White people feel guilty about their lives. That’s why Avatar was so huge, because it was like, let’s save this weird race. The point of the movie is alleviation of white guilt. We’re here, we’re saving the people, their big tree died and I’m a white man and I’m helping them live. Nate: We watched T2 on TV last night and it’s way better.
Why do you think so many white men are currently making electro pop dance music when dancing has never been something, stereotypically, white men can do? Nate: Maybe this is the way that they can, we can, get our dance on. We can’t do it on the dancefloor so we get behind the music . Pete: All music is ripping off black people isn’t it? Am I going out on a limb here? Let’s be realistic the only white person in music is fucking Randy Newman. Nate: He’s kind of ripping off…something. Pete: Whatever, the whole music business is based on that, from Elvis to whoever.
Tell us about this keytar (a keyboard on a string) we have seen you playing. Pete: I found it on ebay. I thought it was cool to play, and then it became more a utilitarian thing because you can do more with it and move around with it and use pedals with it. Then the more I played it the more it broke and I realised it was a plastic piece of shit.
So if you’re back on keyboards will you be stuck in one spot? Pete: I’m still gonna move around, I’ll do my best.
You could sit in a wheelchair with the keyboard on your lap. Nate: Yes, there are wheelchairs you control with your tongue. You can play and you can drive it with your tongue. Pete: They’re blowing dude, that’s not their tongue, they’re blowing. You think they steer with their tongue?! Finally, our Goldfish is floating upside down. Do you have any tips to save him? Nate:Fish do that, standing on their head. Pete:He’s just chilling. They’re just hanging out. Nate: How many poor innocent fish have been flushed away because they’re just hanging out? Pete:Maybe they had a better life after that.
Thank you Pete & Nate Shy Child.
The music sounds a lot like this, which is the wonderful 'Disconnected' as remixed by Ocelot (download it by clicking the 'down' arrow if you like music you haven't paid the artist any money for creating).
'Liquid Love' is out on 15th March and you can pre-order it here.
A little while back you might remember a minor furore over OK Go not being able to embed THEIR OWN WONDERFUL VIDEO for 'This Too Shall Pass'.
Now, in what we can only assume is a swipe back at their label, they have made a second, even more incredible video. And it's fully embedabletastic. This is it:
This will be all over every blog in the world, but good, quite frankly, because we can only really express our wonder at this using an expletive. Cover your eyes: this is *BEEP* *BEEPING* *BEEPUNTING* *BEEPING* BRILLIANT.
In a time when people are complaining about a lack of money in the industry, OK Go are proving that invention and creativity are far more important than cold, hard cash.
RP <3 OK Go in the face.
Once again, the links to buy their music are Here, here, here, here, here, here, you get the idea...
Marketing is a bizarre thing. Today we were sent a press release about Pete Wentz shaving off his beard live online to celebrate the release of someone or other's album.
The notion that a human being was paid money to come up with that idea, and that another human being was paid money to approve that idea, and that another human being was paid money to write words about that idea, and then send those words out to other human beings (who don't get paid any money) to blog about that idea, is quite frankly more depressing than the eleven emails offering us personalised Cialis.
Our interest in marketing strategies within the music industry (thankfully) extends beyond a bassist-from-a-defunct-pop-band's facial hair. In fact, it extends as far as our local wig shop (where Pigeon gets his weave), whose adjacent billboard is regularly updated with posters advertising what is new in the world of cutting edge music.
Here is how the billboard was looking at the end of last week:
In what may be a sad indictment of the state of our lives, things like this genuinely interest us. Let's take a closer look. From left to right you have: Ellie Goulding - 'Starry Eyed' (Polydor) - The Pak's customers got this to Number 4 this week.
Meat Loaf - 'Hang Cool Teddy Bear' (Mercury) - This gets a DOUBLE SPREAD. Just as well, because those bald ladies appear to have frantically attempted to remove said Meat Loaf posters for their bedroom walls.
Owl City - 'Ocean Eyes' (Island) - Come on now, even the patrons of Pak's know he's a one hit wonder.
The Big Pink - 'A Brief History Of Love' (4AD) - It would appear Pak's wig shop is the prime location to shift a few extra copies of an album released in September of last year.
Chris Ofili - This is not a pop star. It is an artist who makes pictures out of elephant poo.
Now you might think the excitement stops there. NOT SO dear readers, for there is an extra special place reserved for only the finest pop stars requiring that vital sales boost from Pak's. And this week the glass encased top spot is reserved for...
*insert drum roll/the sound of several readers closing their browser window*...
It is quite amazing how this ordinary customer of 'the Polish Off Licence' blends seamlessly into the artwork for Erik Hassle's album, thus emphasising how quirky and outsiderish he really is. Marketing money well spent by Island.
We will, of course, keep you updated on the further adventures of Pak's Wig Shop and its adjacent billboard.
This is more an excuse to post Christina's wonderful album artwork than it is to talk about the new single 'Not Myself Tonight'.
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