Because sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day to write about everything (or we ate too many hotdogs and had to have a lie down instead of writing anything)...
We think this might replace 'Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion' as our favourite film We got so excited about this we knocked our coffee over and ruined a lovely tablecloth.
Written and produced by Chilly Gonzales, to tie in with the release of his new album, 'Ivory Tower' is a film about chess playing brothers. WAIT, COME BACK. You haven't heard the best part. It stars Tiga and Peaches (two of our favourite people IN THE WORLD), as well as Gonzales himself, and is directed by Adam Traynor, from German-based hip-hop group Puppetmastaz. If the prospect of that does not excite you then you should go back to pruning your begonias.
Here's the trailer, which doubles as a music video. Oh everything about this is so very clever it makes our head simultaneously spin and hurt and explode and cry.
"I am a gay pastry and a racist cappuccino". Who says Canadians have no sense of humour? All it needs is a rendition of 'I Know Him So Well' and life will be complete.
What the fuck is Nicki Minaj on? The other day we posted the video to Nicki Minaj's 'Your Love'. Partly because we had nothing else to post. Partly because we sort of like it in spite of not liking it. Then we saw this, and she suddenly became as irritating as Paloma Faith. When will these people learn to stick to singing and not being all "I'm mad me"...
Chase & Status release a new single which we love just a little bit This has gone a little down the commercial route, but there's nothing wrong with that (who cares if something appeals to a larger audience as long as it's of the same quality). It's called 'Let You Go'. It features Mali. And if the record label were to give someone money to make a video to accompany the song it would look like this (beware the f bomb):
We're not sure why Jeremy Kyle Patrick Chase is supplementing his income as a taxi driver, but it must be very hot in his car as it makes him very sweaty...and then he goes to a club for a little dance. That is not going to cool you down!
There are, of course, a million remixes. If you want that dancey version that would be this:
Chase & Status 'Let You Go' (Brookes Brothers Remix)
And the drum n bass version would be this:
Chase & Status 'Let You Go' (Nero Remix)
And if you're having a party this weekend here is some music that might make you tap your feet a little LBCK, or Long Beach City Kids to give them their full title, are doing the French tip thing, but are actually Californian. Very confusing. 'Start' is like a Berocca in the form of a song.
I Am Noxious downloads seem to be as regular as Christmas and birthdays. We could go as far as to say that they are better than both because an I Am Noxious free download doesn't entail any awkward phone conversations thanking distant aunts for the £5 they slotted into a card with a picture of a speedboat on the front.
Over the past year it feels like we've given away an entire album of I Am Noxious tracks, so lets just say that that latest, 'Flashback Tears', is the Special Edition UK Bonus Track. If it was on a CD there would be a little sticker on the front announcing it.
The track sees I Am Noxious treading familiar ground (sombre vocals layered over simple but soaring, Ibiza-esque 90s house production). It's all very Hot Chip and all very grand. Should see us all into the weekend nicely - but also out of it and that's probably the best thing about I Am Noxious. His music both warms you up for an amazing time but works equally well bringing you down from the ceiling afterwards. A man of many (two) talents. Ups and downs.
I Am Noxious 'Flashback Tears'
(In case you need to ask, the little black arrow is what you need to click to download the track).
Remember the other day we mentioned Dancing Robot Music and their hair? Well, we have done some stalking detective work and we think it is George who has the BRILLIANT hair. We are still awaiting confirmation from an official source.
George?
Anyway. That is not important. This is:
As well as the brilliant Summer Vibes mix tape they put out they're also releasing an EP. Woohoo. It's called 'Nightmares'. Woo. It sounds like this:
Nice.
Also they have announced some club dates. Yes, we would like to come please and thank you. Copy. Paste. Ta. Da.
6 Aug - CAMP - London 20 Aug - 93 Feet East - London 17 Sep - Le Batofar - Paris 21 Sep - Area 51 - Manchester 23 Sep - Tutus - London
'My KZ UR BF' by Everything Everything is, in its original state, a baffling slew of grunts, yelps and an indie-lite chorus. We choose to pass on it, we're sorry to say, Mr Everything Everything.
So thank fuck Grum's on hand to make it sound like this:
Everything Everything 'My KZ UR BF' (Grum remix)
Phew. That's better. There's literally nothing that Grum can't sort out with some typically eighties beats and twinkly bits. Although we reckon even Grum would struggle to make a silk purse out of the sows ear that is the most recent JLS single *shudder*
Oh and speaking of Grum, when he's not making other people's music sound better than the original artist was able, he has also just released the following video. Which is bloody brilliant - both visually and more importantly, in the ears.
Obviously all 'Through The Night' by Grum is in need of is a Grum remix and the world will have what would quite probably be the most perfect piece of music of all time. In your face Bohemian 'so called' Rhapsody.
The key points of the new Royksopp album, 'Senior' are as follows:
1. IT'S REALLY LATE. This album was announced a year ago and was due out before the end of 2009. We can only assume the delay is due to Royksopp reeling from their 'Junior' album not achieving the massive crossover success such a breathtakingly brilliant pop/dance album deserved.
2. 'Senior' is not a breathtakingly brilliant pop/dance album.
3. Instead, 'Senior' is a glorious downtempo electronic experience, which makes the perfect counterpart to the relentless pop sounds of 'Junior'. There are moments of definite ambience.
4. There will be no hit singles from 'Senior'. Taking a track away from this album is like pulling a leg off a butterfly - you'd be left with an incomplete work of art or a meaningless strand which refuses stand up on its own.
5. 'Tricky Two' is an reworked and instrumental version of 'Tricky Tricky' from 'Junior', which originally featured Fever Ray and The Knife singer Karin Dreijer Andersson on vocals. This time around there is an opportunity to appreciate the bizarre brilliance of Royksopp instead of being bombarded by her 'i'm wacky I am' contribution.
6. Our favourite track is currently 'Senior Living' which sounds like wartime misery mixed with a hawaiian beat. Consider that if you will. The guitar is, in the words of Twin Peaks' Audrey Horn 'just dreamy'.
7. The whole 'Junior' 'Senior' concept would have worked a lot better if they had released the albums together and, in the meantime, had Robyn not come along and stolen their multiple album thunder by getting three albums ready for release in 2010.
8. We doubt we will see the inevitably planned 'Junior Senior' edition which would have been the year's (either 2009 or 2010 - we're not fussy) most essential electronic release.
9. The album is released on 13 September and makes the perfect soundtrack to see out the end of summer and welcome the damp gloom of Autumn.
10. The artwork is rather dull (see below) - but the promotional images are a lot more exciting (see above).
We basically love this album. It may well replace Riceboy Sleeps as our insomnia album of choice.
We've not mentioned Lissie on RobotPigeon before on account of her being a drippy bag who plays the guitar and sings maudlin old songs that don't make us want to dance.
However, being a drippy bag who play the guitar and singing maudlin old songs is not necessarily a bad thing (see Martha Wainwright), because we think Lissie is rather wonderful not only in a 'folky, country and western wonderful' sort of way, but also in the 'regular wonderful' sort of way.
We don't think that 'Cuckoo' is the right single for her to be releasing though, and we're judging this largely on the fact that so many of her other songs are much better. 'Cuckoo' is far too Shania Twain for our liking, and while she's releasing tracks aimed so squarely at Radio Two she may as well be launching them from a catapault at Terry Wogan's bedroom window, her truly stunning work is being left squandered on her album. And by this we mean the likes of 'Everywhere I Go', 'Little Lovin'' and particularly the truly beautiful 'Oh Mississippi' - which is most certainly our favourite female alt/folk/country and western song of all time apart from some of Dolly Parton's.
However, 'Cuckoo' has it's charms also. It is far from terrible, it's just far too 'Taylor Swift'.
Our heads are spinning today, but more from trying to decipher the line up of Performance than anything festival related ("Stop going on about that bloody festival" - the World, "Ok, sorry" - RobotPigeon).
Whilst some bands slog away relentlessly playing Barfly after Barfly after Barfly after Barfly etc, Performance are a band who seem happy to come and go. Joe Stretch spent some time writing books (our favourite Amazon review: "My only fault with it is that it did have a small period of a lull about three quarters of the way through."), Joe Cross and Laura Marsden went off to form Kiss In Cities who we have gushed about here and here, and keyboard player Hilary Marsden, oh, she left...
Anyway, now 3/4 of Performance have come back together and have done this:
Which is great, but we don't want a lift with them EVER. And there's a bloody good Tom Staar remix which sounds like this:
The single 'Unconsoled' is released on August 9th.
Welcome back Performance. Now stop fannying about with your line up or you'll end up the next Bucks Fizz. Actually, that wouldn't be so bad...
We know this is last week's news, but the new Robyn video is too brilliant not to give a quick mention.
Videos about a popstar on the road are usually saved for the fourth single (and are by and large dreadful) but 'Hang With Me' bucks that trend to be A. amazing and B. show Robyn as something other than a ferocious pop robot.
Ditto what Robot said below...and also I would like to add "UGH".
Anyway, been searching all day for something to ease the pain, and Dancing Robot Music's mix has pretty much done it. It features lots of the very wonderful people we saw at Secret Garden, including, but not limited to, Fenech-Soler, Example, Gorillaz and Alex Metric . It also contains some Little Boots. Sorry about that.
'Summer Vibes 2010 Mix' by Dancing Robot Music
Here's the track listing, which I quite literally just cut and pasted. Lazy.
01. Tom Staar - Console 02. Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow (Innocent Pleasure Remix) 03. Fenech-Soler - Stop & Stare (Jaymo & Andy George Remix) 04. Example - Kickstarts (Afrojack Remix) 05. Florence & The Machine - Drumming Song (Jackbeats Remix) 06. Tom Staar - Two Tone Simms 07. Yo Majesy! - Don't Let Go (A1 Bassline Remix) 08. TV Rock - In The Air (A1 Bassline Remix) 09. Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (TLGB Remix) 10. Crookers - Remedy (Jeuce Rework) 11. Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood Remix) 12. Gorillaz - Stylo (Alex Metric Remix) 13. Touche - Vampires 14. Fake Blood - Mars (Jackbeats Remix) 15. Fenech-Soler - Lies (Alex Metric Remix) 16. Riva Starr - I Was Drunk Ft. Noze 17. Miike Snow - Black & Blue (Jaymo & Andy George Remix) 18. Major Lazer - Pon De Floor (Dancing Robot Music Remix) 19. Drake - Over (Dancing Robot Music Remix) 20. Johnny Crockett - E for Electro (Hi Tack's "Flipperkast" Remix) 21. Blur - There's No Other Way 22. The Specials - Gangsters
Dancing Robot Music are George James and Andrew Collins. We're not sure who is who in the photo above, but the top one has nice hair and the bottom one has BRILLIANT hair.
We will attempt to write something better about them when the world stops spinning.
In the meantime you can find out more about them here.
There will be a review thing of Secret Garden Party at some point this week, but as things currently still stand, lifting our heads is proving something as a struggle, so anything involving writing more than 'oh look a new video by such-and-such band that we really like' is too much for our fragile bodies right now.
'Oh look, here's a new video by Martina from Dragonette who we really like'.
The theme of the video (which is actually for 'Fire In Your New Shoes' by US producer Kaskade) is generally of a woman rolling around on the floor with a look on her face which suggests she may be the most sexually skilled lady on the whole planet.
Normal service to resume shortly. Sorry. This is probably the most lacklustre piece of writing ever to appear on the internet :(
We're not actually here. We're in a field somewhere. We wrote this a few days ago and posted it using time travel.
So this is where we think "shit, shit, shit, we have to prepare a whole load of posts to pre-publish whilst we're away", and we trawl back through all the stuff we meant to write about but never got round to. Which has worked out rather nicely because we found this little gem. It was released in America at the end of last year, so we're hardly first past the post here, but fuck it.
It is a lady called Jinder. She has just signed to Ministry. Like all the best pop stars she is from Sweden (We went there once and it is a very small place. 'Pop Star' is a subject taught in schools there). This is her song and it is called 'Youth Blood'. It has lyrics about vampires.
Jinder 'Youth Blood':
That was great wasn't it? A little bit of an 80s vibe, some nice lyrics, a beat, a husky voice. MORE PLEASE.
Hopefully you didn't find this post too generic...there's plenty more where that came from.
Because sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day to write about everything (or we're busy at a barn dance)...
3OH!3 released an album We listened to it. Most of it was shouty rubbish. They're a bit like a male Ke$ha. But we loved that song they did with Katy Perry, 'Starstrukk' (sic), and there's something really intriguing about them. So it was sort of worth mentioning. Also, they look like they're really too old to be playing silly buggers and jumping around in fountains. And whoever came up with the '3 fingers, then an 'o', then 3 more fingers' logo thing deserves a medal for being so clever.
This is the biggest load of tosh we have ever seen "I THINK The Sun's Column Idol contest is a brilliant idea. Personally, I love writing - especially with my music. I love being creative and can sometimes find it hard to express my emotions so I do it through lyrics. Hearing the final product, or in the case of a columnist seeing your final piece in a newspaper, is a brilliant buzz. It gives me a real sense of pride to hear a finished song and it would be the same seeing your finished column in a newspaper. It's an amazing feeling." Thanks for that Diana Vickers... Take That got back together It happened last week actually. We couldn't really give a toss about it to be honest, but it's interesting from a PR point of view that after knocking Robbie back for years they relented when a tonne of bad press about Mark Owen and his wandering willy dented their popularity. Just saying...
Joe Danger put some new photos online He may have done this a while ago - we just didn't notice. He's also got some new songs on his Myspace player. You may remember Joe Danger from this post. We like him an awful lot. If you want to know why go here to use your ears to listen to his music.
And that was everything that happened this week (it really wasn't was it).
This is a song by Nicki Minaj, an American rapper and *ahem* singer. It's one of those songs that comes along every so often which we don't necessarily 'like', but is so infectious that it's hard to dismiss it entirely.
In this case they've sampled the "dooby dooby do do do ahah" bit from Annie Lennox's 'No More I Love Yous' and then inexplicably managed to put an even catchier hook over the top. If 'Your Love' is not going round and round your head after just one listen we'll be very surprised.
Two other points:
1. What a lovely video. It's nice to see people making an effort, whilst keeping the silk industry in business.
Sorry everyone but Robot & Pigeon have fucked off to Secret Garden Party to do things like this...
So, unfortunately, if there is a pop emergency we won't be around so much to bore you with our observations on the world of music. Instead you'll have to make do with generic things that we wrote last week and set to publish so it looks like we're still concentrating on our blog.
Normal service will resume when we have come back and had a chance to compose ourselves.
If you know where we live please don't use this as an opportunity to burgle us and steal our Daft Punk dolls. But could someone pop round and water the plants???
What comes to mind when you think of Dragonette? Big commercial pop singles that no one buys and leaves fans scratching their heads in the unfairness of it all?
Yeah, us too. Until we heard new single 'Our Summer Volcano' at least.
Because for now it seems that Dragonette have ditched the big, obvious pop sound and turned a corner into something altogether more alternative, more festival, more danceable and dare we saw it - more indie. We say this because their new single 'Our Summer Volcano' basically doesn't sound like 'Take It Like A Man'.
Now we don't mean 'indie' in the One Night Only sense of the dirty rotten word, more the Santigold sense of the word. Alternative pop music sung by a woman which is liked by more open minded fans of pop and indie music. Of which there are too few.
However, whether Dragonette are doing pop, indie or banjo-folk they are still amazing. And our summer is going straight onto our 'Now stuff' playlist on our iPhones. (Please don't rob us for it, just download it below).
Dragonette 'Our Summer Volcano'
And you can't argue with lyrics that reference Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' either. So no robbery and no arguing. Perfect.
Lets be honest, if you didn't think much of 'Dancing On My Own' you're not going to fall off your chair when you hear Robyn's new single, 'Hang With Me'.
It's basically business as usual for Robyn, although we wouldn't have minded seeing 'Cry When You Get Older' given a shot as a single, but she's obviously finished with 'Body Talk part 1' and already well underway on 'Body Talk part 2'.
At this rate, we'll still be happy when she's releasing 'Body Talk part 293'.
Bag Raiders have announced their debut album. Woo.
This is good news because of the following minute details.
1. Bag Raiders have released some amazing music. Enough at least to convince people (us included) that they are an amazing band. We make this statement on the strength of having heard no more than four songs but drastic, sweeping assumptions should not be sniffed at.
It is probably about time Chris Stracey and Jack Glass (for they are Bag Raiders) got something released though, it's been three years since they released this:
'Fun Punch'
Two years since they released this:
Turbo Love'
And a year since they released this.
'Shooting Stars'
Had they continued the same trajectory their debut album (assuming it would be 10 songs long) would not be ready until 2017. Now, while this would ensure a ten track album of nothing but incredible singles, we reckon their fans would probably be listening to something a little more sedate by that point. Jack Johnson for example. Coldplay at a push.
So hurrah. We expect the Bag Raiders debut album (called 'Bag Raiders') to be exceptional.
If Frankmusik/Vincent Frank's recent Twitter update is to be decoded and then the decoding to be believed, he has ditched the Frankmusik name and decided to work under his real name - Vincent. Other famous Vincents include Vincent Clarke of Erasure fame and also Tim Vincent of some old television show presenting fame.
Frankmusik is responsible for some rather brilliant pieces of edgy pop music (too edgy for the charts, mostly), but he is also responsible for that rubbish video with Holly Valance and some balloons, not to mention the 'romance' between the two which was strung out during the promotion of the single in question 'Confusion Girl'. He also did some brilliant singing on the Warchild single 'I Got Soul'.
So RIP Frankmusik, long live Vincent Frank and all who may sail in her.
Please note: This Tweet was posted at about 3am this morning, so there's a fair old chance this may have been influenced by booze or just a little strop.
The Limousines' new single 'Internet Killed The Video Star', with its obvious nod to Buggles, poses an interesting theory. If video did indeed kill the radio star, and rendered ugly people redundant to the world of music, has the internet and its simple gateway to a wealth of on-demand pop star access made MTV et al redundant?
Probably not. It's now even easier for anyone to film themselves on their mobile phone doing a Beyonce routine, upload it to Youtube and Tweet it around like a viral slut. Meaning, if anything, internet has created a whole world of video stars. Some of whom probably should have stuck to the dark recesses of the radio.
But really we don't give a toss about all that. We just want to post the new Limousines video. Here we are then...
We love The Limousines. They're plugging a gap where MGMT went off and became all experimental, and Empire Of The Sun went off and...where did they go again? There's a sense of a fun. A sense of trendy, but not too trendy. And they've got some bloody great songs to boot.
Good job there's an album, 'Get Sharp', released on 27th July then.
Because sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day to write about everything (or we're busy looking at something that's blowing around outside the window)...
Skream's great song and video: And not just because it has naked people in it (we wonder if Youtube have spotted the boob yet?)
Well done Skream, now maybe instead of being the man 'who made La Roux with that remix' he will be the man who 'made that rudey video'.
This looks shit:
We are going to get some of these for Secret Garden Festival next week The eyelashes, not the vaginal gel. Again, it's a product being marketed under the moniker of Cheryl 'malaria' Cole. It must be sad going through a divorce only to see your married name everywhere. For those who are interested there were no Nicola or Nadine eyelashes in sight, which means either a) they are the most popular b) they have been placed by the Germolene or c) nobody wants ginger or Irish eyelashes at a festival.
Pink fell off stage She really needs to sort out who she lets hoist her up in the air. Other things that need sorting include her potty mouth. There are words on the following video that turn the air blue - or pink, possibly 'LOL'...
Bright Light Bright Light announced his new single This isn't really our news, but we were excited nonetheless that Popjustice had launched a record label, Popjustice Hi-Fi, and not just because one of its first releases would be Bright Light's incredible 'Love Part II'. Well, it was mainly because of this fact, but also because we are fairly sure that some more pop music of an above average quality will be released through this venture.
Bright Light Bright Light 'Love Part II'
ALSO Bright Light Bright Light announced he's going to be supporting Ellie Goulding on her upcoming 21 date tour. Dates and tickets and all that boring logistical stuff, er, here. WE TOLD YOU he was going to be massive. Why does no-one ever listen to us?
The only thing anyone really needs to know about Cut Copy is that as bands go, they are one of the most relentlessly brilliant on the planet today. Their last album, 'In Ghost Colours' was so good, and so pop, that it could have been recorded by Girls Aloud. Or at the very least, by a Girls Aloud member gone solo. We pretty much wore it down until it was nothing but a nub.
But that was 2008. As you are probably aware, two year have passed. And in those two years Cut Copy have switched some of the full-on sparkly, electronic sounds of 'Lights & Music' or 'Hearts On Fire' for a more organic, instrument-based sound on new track 'Where I'm Going'. Such events can often signal a great band turning shit, but in the hands of these incredible Australians, even a change such as this doesn't result in a load of dreary old indie bollocks.
FYI: there is still much evidence of 'sparkly' and 'electronic' sounds on what follows.
'Where I'm Going' is exciting both on it's own merits and also as a taster for their third album. Which should, by all rights, be incredible and possibly a little more psychidelic and sixties influenced than we may have imagined when Robot and Pigeon were living in Tooting and playing 'In Ghost Colours' with the windows open.
Here are some facts about We Love Machines that we were sent by their PR. We have tried to embellish them slightly so as to be more informative:
1. There are two men in the band. One man is called Daniel. One man is called Timo. There are no 'women' in the band.
2. They have been a band for 12 months. That is one year. Or 365 days. Approximately.
3. They function as both a band and a DJ duo. DJing is a rather lucrative way of playing your ipod on shuffle to a room full of people.
4. They have just played Frauenfeld - one of the biggest festivals in Switzerland. We don't know any facts about this. *google* Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federazzzzzzzzz
5. They need a new biog written. We are officially offering our services (it will consist of the above four points copied and pasted into a word document).
If that 6 word headline doesn't get you all excited how about this:
Ok, so a shitty camera phone might not have been the best persuasive device. Here's how that should have sounded:
Sleight Bells 'Tell 'Em':
The guitar riff and heavy synths are a cheap trick - YES - but who cares. The layering of the sweet vocal over the dirty backing is genius and this track is explosive.
We will be at the London show, and if you live elsewhere in Europe ("Bonjour" "Guten Tag" "Hola" "Hej" "Sayonara" etc) here are those dates:
9 Aug, The Lexington, London 11 Aug, Oya Festival, Oslo 13 Aug, Way Out West Festival, Sweden 14 Aug, Flow Festival, Helsinki There are probably more on their Myspace, but we got bored of typing.
Note to self: we really must stop watching brilliant bands, getting really drunk and then forgetting to write about them because we have a hangover. We saw Picture Book about three months ago, and it only just came back to us yesterday.
They are bloody brilliant. They are a three piece. They are multi-instrumentalists. Think early Moloko, mixed with everything that Little Boots wanted to be, and maybe a splash of Nina Persson, and you're sort of close.
Here is a strange widget type thing (we've just pasted some html and hoped for the best) that lets you listen to Picture Book's music:
Like Sonia, they are from Liverpool. If you live there you have our sympathy they seem to be playing a lot of gigs and you really should go and see them. If you don't live in Liverpool we're tempted to say you should take a trip just so you can see Picture Book, but soon they will be massive and be on tour anyway.
When there is a release or something we will update you further. For now we just wanted to flag them up before we get drunk and forget them again.
Here is a Myspace type page The photo was taken by a lady called Anna Maria. We stole it from their myspace.
When we say 'new' there is very obviously nothing new in the video (even if it isn't outside the realms of possibility that this video was filmed last weekend in a trendy East London club). When we say 'Robots With Rayguns' the video is very obviously not their footage and nor do they appear at any point in the video.
Lets try again: What you just watched was a load of old stuff from the eighties stuck together and soundtracked by Robots With Rayguns's latest track, 'Change Of Heart'.
In this instance we can confirm that the track is new and is by Robots With Rayguns. It is a gloriously chilled out club tune inspired by the 1980s - like a lot of other electronic pop music seems to be at the current moment in time.
We don't expect the world to throw open its windows at hearing 'Change Of Heart', but it is definitely a pleasant way to spend four minutes of your day.
RobotPigeon were once planning to start a club night based around remixed TV theme tunes from the eighties. Then we realised that we couldn't just loop 'Run With Us' from The Raccoons and the Cuban Brothers remix of the Battle of the Planets theme tune all night long. So we gave up on the idea and never thought anything of it again until now.
Because, you see, if we were still planning a club night based on TV theme tunes, then we'd certainly need to include the MSTRKRFT remix of The A-Team theme tune on the playlist.
Now obviously, this isn't just a labour of love from MSTRKRFT, it's part of the promotional campaign for the new movie so we're guessing substantial sums of money will have changed hands to get us where we are today. But MSTRKRFT don't just take on any old remix project, and when they are involved you can usually be sure that their output will be fairly spectacular. Which it is. Their A Team remix is a full-on, ravetastic remix of an already legendary TV theme tune. It would make the perfect track to drop at 2am in the morning in a sweaty club and watch jaws hit the floor and arms hit the air.
It's just as well there wasn't a big screen version of EastEnders in cinema's this summer, because otherwise we'd probably be listening to some raved up mixes of Anita Dobson's seminal 'Anyone Can Fall In Love' right now :(
Here's the MSTRKRFT remix of The A Team theme - among some others. All of which are very good, but the MSTRKRFT is best.
Ellie Goulding perhaps hasn't set the charts ablaze with her 'folktronica' but we can probably put that down to 'Guns and Horses', the follow up to Top Ten hit 'Starry Eyed', sounding far too similar to Top Ten hit 'Starry Eyed'.
So what's there to do when your second 'proper' single doesn't crack the Top 25 and your debut album is in the 2-for-£10 sale in HMV? Well, releasing the best song on your album is probably your best option. And thankfully it's the one that Ellie has gone for.
'The Writer' is the big ballady moment from 'Lights' and while it's not often that sloppy slow songs rouse major interest in the singles chart these days, we reckon this will be more than enough to revive interest in the album and Ellie herself. Who knows, her record label might even splash out on a TV advert with a voiceover from someone from Radio One. Yes, 'The Writer' is that good and that important to Ellie Goulding's career.
The video isn't exactly a life changing experience, but instead just frames the song nicely and doesn't distract from the lovely brilliance of 'The Writer' with bells, whistles, guns or horses. Although you can never go wrong with a pony.
Here's Ellie Goulding in a field miming the words to her new single in front of a camera and a film crew.
Kylie released a standard album It's right there on the sticker. This is probably a clever marketing ploy to make people think "Oh God, am I really the sort of person who buys a 'standard CD', I must buy the 'experience edition'", but sadly it's more like a review of the album. There are some GREAT songs on there sure, but in the main it's a bit ho hum. Gosh, it's SO hard to write something even approaching negative about Kylie, but the album got to number one so what does she care what a stupid little music blog thinks. Lee Ryan loses the chance to release another album Thank God for Twitter and the direct, un-censored access it gives us into celebrities' brains. We've been following Lee's thoughts on how his single campaign has been going this week...
So he appealed to his fans... But their family and friends clearly didn't listen... And it went in at... And Lee was very sad... Which resulted in this gem... And he didn't waste any time... In fairness Lee's song was better than this... Follow Lee Ryan on Twitter
Thank God Kelis had already released her album Or chart positions like this might have stopped us getting one of the best albums of the year This makes us sad. It was a weird choice of a second single, there are better songs on the album, but hearing it in isolation on the radio made a bit more sense. NOW STOP FANNYING AROUND AND JUST RELEASE 'HOME' NEXT AND EVERYTHING WILL BE OK.
And that was everything that happened on the chart this week
It went a little bit like this: one pub garden, two of amazing new electro-band Safari (Ian and Sim - the others were off having dinner), one Robot, one Pigeon, one interview. We asked some questions. They gave us some answers. It's just the way these things work you know?
Topics discussed included their amazing debut single 'Quicksand' (in a publicity style manner there will be a link to buy it at the end), the band's relationship with J from 5ive, what smells make them feel physically sick, and which member of the band is most likely to pass out in the shower. All of which you are about to find out... Hello Ian and Sim. Tell us five basic facts about Safari and we will count them off on our fingers. Sim: Do you mean like “we’re vegetarian”.
No. About the band, not about your eating habits. Ian: There’s five of us.
That's one. Ian: What do we need people to know? We’ve got a single coming out. Oh no, it’s actually out. I’ve been used to saying for so long it’s coming out...Now it’s actually out.
Excellent PR. Ian: Three people get to go and have burgers, two don’t.
Good. Sim: We used to be another band.
Four... Sim: That’s why we chose the name Safari because it means ‘journey’. The whole thing's been a big journey for us. That should be an important fact – what our name means.
Congratulations, that is five moderately interesting facts. Tell us a bit more about this old, dead band. Sim: We were a band called Model Horror about a year ago. We did a few tours and stuff. We recorded an album whilst we were that band and once we’d finished recording it decided to change everything up to a different sound.
And now you sound like your single ‘Quiksand’.
What is ‘Quicksand’ a metaphor for in the modern world? Ian: These guys (the band) don’t know this...It’s about a guy in my work who does I.T and he always puts his foot in it and ballses up the whole show. I had a dream about him at the bottom of this hill fucking everything up. He’s saying “I’m burning dry wood” – I’m making a balls up. If he reads this he’ll know exactly who he is.
It’s the final series of Big Brother at the moment. If all five of Safari were in the house who would be evicted first and why? Ian: That’s a harsh question.
It can be for being a bad cook or something. Sim: We argue a lot. When we write we argue a lot. Id’ probably go for Rob. Ian: Ok. (Pause) Actually, definitely. Sim: We went on tour and he’s not the guy to be around, butt naked every night, strolling around. Ian: There were these showers at the back of a venue, you wouldn’t actually think to go and use them they looked like something out of Hostel, I heard a tccchhhhhh and thought ‘who the fuck is that’ and Rob’s sitting there in the shower with glass broken around him everywhere. Sim: He is disgusting. I cannot tolerate him. He’s out.
Safari are now looking for a new guitarist then? Ian: He’s wearing trousers with lion print on tonight. That sums him up really.
What smells make you feel sick? Sim: Rob Hardy. Ian: There was a smell where we recorded our album. It was like Weetabix and cold porridge. It was a dead fox or something, and when you smelt it you couldn’t stand up. Sim: I was going to say coffee on a hangover. Ian: No, dead fox.
TV show Glee has featured several artists' music prominently. If there was a Glee special on Safari next series what message would your music give viewers? Sim: Being optimistic, living in the moment I guess. We’re just going for it. Is that a message? Enjoy yourself? Ian: A standard 'church' message.
Hmm. Have you even seen Glee? Both: No.
Who is your favourite MP? Sim: Boris Johnson. I like people with a sense of humour. Ian: Who got kicked out because he punched someone? Sim: The BNP guy?! You can’t say he’s your favourite! Ian: (sarcastic) Yes Nick Griffin is my favourite. No, someone spat at him and he absolutely lost it. It was ridiculous.
We get what you mean: you were intrigued by the incident rather than the politician? Ian: (again with the sarcasm) Yes, I like seeing people get punched!
When you play shows do you prefer polite clapping or a drunken, vomiting, riot? Ian: If people have had a few it’s always more fun. You don’t want a whole group of people pissed ‘cos they’ll never remember you. We played a club night a month ago and we were on at midnight. It was one of ‘those’ nights. We wrote our names on people’s hands. We’ve actually got some cards done now. Sim: Little business cards for all the drunk people to put in their purse. Ian: Last week in London I was just putting cards in people’s bags.
You played at a rather trendy ‘pop up’ venue recently. How was it? Ian: It was a really good night. We got a mention in NME, Mathew Horne DJed. Sim: Properly. Ian: He’s absolutely sick! Sim: J from 5ive tuned up as well for a solid five minutes. Until he realised he was in the wrong place…
Did you put a Safari card in his handbag? Sim: No but I got a picture with him. Me and J from 5ive.
Were you a big fan of 5ive? Sim: No, and I told him that.
Boring old Thom Yorke recently said “music is dead” and warned new bands to stay away from the industry. Does this worry you? Ian: It’s quite a statement. The label we’re with, we’re the second band on their books, we’re not too worried. Sim: It’s nice to work with indies ‘cos they’ve got that energy about them. He knows what he’s talking about, I appreciate it very much, but you wouldn’t want to admit that being a new band. You might as well quit now if that’s the case. We’re very much alive thank you Thom Yorke.
We second that. And if you want to prove Thom Yorke wrong, and help Safari continue to make wonderful new music that isn't an 8 minute warble on bringing down the government, you should go:
HERE to buy Quicksand AND HERE to become all manner of social media friends with Safari.
It would be understandable if Sound of Arrows took the apparent failure of seemingly-similar Hurts as a bad sign for their future and the public's feelings towards electronic pop boys who come in twos. But after their Monday night show at London's Hoxton Hall, the Swedish duo have nothing to worry themselves about when it comes to their future as music's premiere pop pairing.
While Hurts took a sombre and serious approach to the marketing of their debut single 'Better Than Love', Sound of Arrows favour an altogether more mystical, imaginative approach to their visual and musical appeal - as last year's 'Into The Clouds' established with its soaring pop production and the fantastical imagery seen in the video.
Their Monday night show was a similar mix of incredible pop sounds accompanying visuals, with video footage of the boys climbing mountains, desolate landscapes and animated brilliance as integral to the show as Stefan Storm's vocals on amazing new tracks such as 'Disappear' and all the other songs we don't know the names of because they are so brand new.
An irrepressible ball of energy, Storm swaggered, bounced and grooved on the small stage of the theatre venue, showing off a new hat (see above) which he took off, tossed away, picked up, put on, took off, tossed away, picked up, put on (etc) throughout the show. He also ditched his jacket mid-show prompting fears of a naked finale. It didn't happen. PHEW.
Their new music is high concept, 80s themed pop. Thoughtful and meticulous, Sound of Arrows have honed their music to an intricate degree and yet managed to capture the feel-good sounds of the classic pop music that has inspired them. The Sound of Arrows? Nah, this is the sound of 2010.
Sound of Arrows 'Into The Clouds' (live)
PS. Bright Light Bright Light was supporting and he was amazing also.
1. She can't spell (a dangerous accusation to level when you've used 'embarrassment' in the post title). 2. She kept Kylie from being number one in the UK charts. 3. She is irritating as hell. 4. She goes out with one of the most irritating men in the world. 5. She writes a bloody catchy song.
As much as we don't really like Katy Perry we also kind of really love her songs. We're sorry, we try really hard not to, but over the past fortnight it's been a minor miracle if Robot or Pigeon hasn't burst into a refrain of "Daisy Dukes bikinis on top" whilst doing the washing up.
Luckily Hyper Crush have stormed in and done one of their 'let's take a really popular song and add in some of our own bits in the hope of scoring a bit of publishing'remixes. It sounds extremely similar to this: Katy Perry 'California Gurls' Hyper Crush remix:
Now we just need some rubber gloves and cleaning dishes may become a mildly enjoyable experience.
Yesterday John and Edward Grimes performed at Channel4's annual event, T4 on the Beach.
They sang a medley of 'Ghostbusters', 'Under Pressue' and 'All The Small Things'.
However, this is not the important part. What is important is that Edward performs most of the song WITH A BROKEN LEG after taking a tumble at the start of the performance.
Robot has considered taking days off work because he's banged his hand on a doorframe while making his breakfast, so this sort of commitment to the cause is admirable.
Tonight, the quite incredible Sound of Arrows are playing a live gig. That is TO-NIGHT. This very night. So literally in a few hours time.
This is quite a special event, since in the time between their last London gig they've been signed to a big record label and now have a whole load of amazing new songs for people to listen to.
You can go and listen to these songs, as performed by Stefan and Oskar, at Hoxton Hall, in East London.
If this isn't enough to encourage you to get out of the house on a Monday night, they will be supported by the also-amazing Bright Light Bright Light. His London gigs of late have range in quality from the extremely good to the quite spectacular, so we'll all be in safe hands as far as the warm-up goes.
Kerching! Jonsi sells some paint: Perhaps he will do an update of the BodyForm advert next?
In the words of Robot "at least it is a good advert". Wonder what colour Jonsi's lounge is. We're guessing 'Taragon Glory'.
Would you pay money for tickets to go and watch someone you have never even seen or heard before? We got a bit annoyed with all the 'real' music (Essay: Define 'real' music) fans banging on about Rage Against the Machine last year, but we have to admit this is taking things a bit far.
Why don't Syco just go the whole hog and do pre-order on the winner's single now as well?
Holy Ghost remixed LCD Soundsystem to promote their tour Holy Ghost are bloody amazing. Below is some evidence. It is a specially made video for their remix of LCD's 'Drunk Girls'. In a stroke of anit-literal genius it does not feature Bisto tanned Lambrini girls falling out of Flares and being sick on their cheese and chips, but instead takes JOUSTING ON BIKES as its subject. Wonderful.
We love Amanda Blank. She's pretty and rude and her debut album, 'I Love You' is amazing. We know this because we listened to it this morning to verify it's brilliance. It didn't take long - the album is only 30 minutes from start to finish.
Another reason to love Amanda Blank is for her refusal to stick to one type of music or even one way of performing her music. She's one of the few rappers able to hold a decent tune when she wants too - as she's proven by singing guest vocals on a new track by Eli Escobar, 'Love Thing Part 3 (Only You)'.
Her debut album saw her do hip-hop and pop - and now she's jumping feet-first and make-up free into the world of dance music. It's not exactly something that would get a dancefloor going at 4am in the morning, but would definitely sound really nice at about the 11:30pm mark when you're trying to decide whether you're drunk enough to dance yet.
Keisha Buchanon of Sugababes fame was thrown out of the band. She promised/threatened to record a solo album. She has now made good on those promises/threats.
Here's what we have to say about 'Fearless'.
1. It is a ballad. 2. 'Fearless' is nothing like a song that might have been on 'Sweet 7'. 3. It sounds like Sugababes. But not in a 'one third as good as the Sugababes' way. 4. 'Fearless' sounds like classic Sugababes balladry. File alongside 'Too Lost In You' and 'Caught In A Moment'. 5. So, in other words, it's very much 'Three' era Sugababes. 6. This makes us hope that Keisha could have an 'Ace Reject' tucked up her sleeve. 7. Oh, but we've yet to mention whether it's any good. Conclusion? Yes. It's very good. 8. The song sounds like the perfect debut single for a former Sugababe with just the right amount of bitterness in the lyrics: 'to say I knew you/to say I chose you/that won't save the day/what i've been put through/has made me see that you won't say the same' but with lovely production to hide all that from people who don't bother to listen to the words and will just sing 'Hmmm hmmm FEARLESS hmm hmmmm hmmmmm' when it is played on the radio. 9. 'Fearless' is to Keisha what 'Overrated' was to Siobhan Donaghy. A song with ambiguous lyrics which could either be associated with a rubbish relationship or being booted out of an international girl group. 10. What is funny is how much Keisha's voice sounds like Sugababes. 'Fearless' essentially sounds more like a Sugababes single than 'About A Girl' and 'Wear My Kiss' combined.
We got so excited about this we knocked our coffee over and ruined a lovely tablecloth. 
