Kylie's Wonderful Life

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. This is the mp3 that Auden was writing for.

We wouldn't normally listen to Radio 1's 'live lounge' as it conjures horrific nightmarish visions of *whisper* Jo Whiley *shudder*, but we happened to catch Kylie's turn earlier today.

She covered Hurts' 'Wonderful Life'. The Kylie/Hurts connection has been ongoing for some time: Kylie featured on the duo's track 'Devotion', and Hurts have previously covered 'Confide In Me'. So it wasn't a shock choice of cover, but the results were surprisingly stunning.

Sounding like a lost 'Impossible Princess' era track, or something Nick Cave might have deemed too cheery for his Murder Ballads collaboration, 'Wonderful Life' is testament to Hurts' skills as songwriters. If, like us, you can't quite correlate Hurts' synth pop sound with their all too serious surly demeanours let Ms Minogue show you how it should be done.

And one final thing before you press play. If you're one of those people who do a 'pfft' noise when someone says Kylie's name, or dismiss her as rubbish without ever having listened to 'Put Yourself In My Place', or think you're too good for pop music...for your own sake put your preconceptions aside for 3 minutes and imagine that this is some hot new artist who the NME are bigging up.

Kylie Minogue 'Wonderful Life':

PS. Dear the wonderful singer and actress Kylie Minogue, this mp3 is all over the internet, but if you feel we're committing some heinous crime by having it up here just say the word and we will get it outta the way. Love, RobotPigeon

Listen to this, it is good

See. We told you so.

Here are the facts:

1. It's by Fallon and Felisha and it is called 'Lights Out'.
2. They used to be in a girlgroup called Cherish with their sisters.
3. Their sisters must be really pissed off that they have been ditched.
4. Unless they are both 'training to be teachers' now.
5. We like the line 'it was a nice turnout' because it is something our grans might say.
6. It is already out in America.
7. And has been written about in other places. Such as here. Where you can read more about it.
8. We just like it, that's all.
9. Hope that's OK with you.
10. Have a good evening.

As camp as a row of pink chiffon tents

The Joe McElderry video couldn't have been more gay if it had featured Joe riding a cock-shaped rocket through London Pride with his bum out. Lets be honest.

But it is quite good.

The influences of the 'Ambitions' video appear to be Same Difference's 'We Are One' (check the bunting) and Steps 'After The Love Has Gone' (a little bit of dancing on the street somewhere abroad).



And maybe we're getting old or just had too much oestrogen in our lunch, but there is something very warming about Joe McElderry and while the insane hand-waving is a little too 'HOLY SHIT LOOK AT ME I'M LIKE MIKA NOW AND I FOR ONE AM EVEN MORE SURPRISED THAN YOU', we think the video does the trick - visually speaking.

Daft Punk spew forth 20 glorious seconds of something from their Tron soundtrack

20 bloody seconds isn't enough to judge a cup of tea let alone a new Daft Punk track. Although after waiting five hard years for new Daft Punk material (longer for some that wasn't mostly terrible) after those long, bleak days the following miniscule taste of their Tron Soundtrack is sounding rather amazing.

Disclaimer: If this turns out to be some teenager dicking around with Fruitloops on their Macbook don't blame us. It sounds very Daft Punk-y and also very Tron-y.

Daft Punk 'Derezzed'

As you can hear it doesn't sound like 'Homework' (gritty French club tracks), it doesn't sound like 'Discovery' (space-aged electro pop) and it doesn't sound like 'Human After All' (two men frantically trying to recapture their glory days by banging a load of things together in a studio and then waiting for the cash to roll in).

We're very excited. Whether this is Daft Punk or some chancer out to ruin everyone's Tuesday, we do know that that the soundtrack will be released on 22 November and will probably make a better soundtrack listening experience than, say, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader original score.

Unless Lady GaGa or some-such is doing that one. You never know.

The Week That Was Last Week

Because sometimes we are just too busy to write about everything we have seen and heard. Last week it was mainly because we were in Sweden eating gherkin and mayonnaise flavour crisps (no, seriously)...

OK Go made yet another excruciatingly good video

Dear OK Go,
Bite the bullet and just make a film and the world will be a happier place.
Love RobotPigeon

Chris Moyles: just bugger off

Oh dear. Chris Moyles hasn't been paid his salary this month. So he spent 30 minutes crying about it on national radio, whilst a group of sycophants quietly "m-hm"ed their agreement and tried to walk the fine line between appeasing his ego/keeping their jobs.

We've never liked Chris Moyles. His humour is simple, vacuous and self-indulgent. His taste in music is so banal as to be non-existent. For us it's quite simple: we don't listen to him. But clearly a lot of other people do and so, much as it's not to our taste, no-one could really argue that he's been doing a bad job. However, his outburst yesterday morning shouldn't go un-noticed.

Can anyone imagine Anna Ford replacing the headlines with the news that she had a bit of a squitty tummy? Or Sue Barker pinching Andy Murray's bottom and asking him on a date on live tv? Moyles has abused his privileged position as a broadcaster.

It's not the first time either. We often wonder if people realise that every time he plays one of his hilarious (read 'heinous') jingles, in place of the music that he's supposed to be playing, he earns himself royalties. That's the equivalent of working in McDonalds and selling your own home-made burgers instead of Big Macs.

Forgive the 'soapbox', but this is important to music. Radio 1 is so influential in breaking music to the wider public that any decision over its future should be taken very seriously. Moyles is paid with money from TV Licences. If we had one we would definitely be writing a strongly worded letter to the BBC.

At least when Dave Lee Travis did it he quit.

Let's lighten the mood with our favourite radio presenter/clip/the best thing that has ever happened in the world ever.

Kelly Rowland finally gets EVERYTHING right with her 'Forever And A Day' video

'Commander' was an amazing song. The video however, was something of a monstrosity. Leather clad Kelly Rowland strutting around doing not a lot and for no apparent reason. Not good.

The 'Forever And A Day' video however, is brilliant. The only concept is this: 'Hello, i'm Kelly Rowland and my life is brilliant and I do things in the sun with my friends and also go to parties at night'.

The video also features the best sat-down dance routine of all time. Kelly Rowland is so cool she doesn't even need to get off her lovely bottom to bust a move. Oh yes.

Exhibit A: Slam it to the left.
Exhibit B: Shake it to the right.
Exhibit C: Chicas to the front.
Here's that routine in full (along with other bits). It's very similar to her 'When Loves Takes Over' video, but that was a worldwide 'smash', so no reason not to revisit former glories.



There's a brilliant iPad twist to the video as well, but that's secondary to the general brilliance of what we've all just witnessed.

Definitely our favourite Destiny's Child.

Does anyone want to be our date tomorrow night?

If you have read our blog more than once (hello mother) you will recognise these three names:

Fear Of Tigers
Visitor
Bright Light Bright Light

Now close your eyes and imagine them all on the same poster. Does it look something like this (you'll need to open your eyes again)?


No, nor did ours. Ours looked more like an explosion of projectile vomit and a diarrhea blowback of excitement at seeing these three people on the same bill.

Well guess what, it's not something you need to imagine. It's a real thing. And it's happening. Tomorrow. In London. At The Lexington. You can buy tickets here.

Blurry photos and youtube videos with us chatting all over them will no doubt follow...in the meantime you can find out why we like these people so much here, here and here.

Katy Perry sings on Sesame Street. It is amazing. The world forgets James Blunt did something similar once

There's not a lot we feel we can say about a video of Katy Perry singing 'Hot N Cold' as a duet with Elmo from Sesame Street other than:

WATCH THIS NOW



Words would have just complicated things. This video is one of our favourite things we have seen all year. The balance of utter shite and complete genius has never been in more perfect harmony.

The Week That Was Last Week

Because sometimes we are just too busy making a lasagna and corn flake crispy cakes and watching dreadful horror films to write about everything we saw/heard last week...

Kelly Rowland sang about 'Rose Coloured Glasses'
Kelly Rowland, everyone's second favourite member of Destiny's Child after Michelle Williams, follows up 'Commander' with this dance ballad about spectacles.



Not too sure about the shirt & tie combo, but she looks good when she smashes a window and butterflies come out of her armpits.

We've been meaning to write about this for ages and not got round to it
It's a song by Death To The Throne featuring Bjork on vocals. When we say 'featuring Bjork on vocals' it's actually more of a remix of 'Aurora', but we'll let Mr Throne get away with it because we really like it. Right click and save as here.

Willow Smith released a 'teaser' video
We mentioned 'Whip My Hair' last week. It's still brilliant, but releasing a video with lots of pictures of Willow in it was maybe a bad move. It's hard to imagine someone being a raunchy pop star when in actual fact they are a seven year old girl who looks like she should be at home cutting the hair off her Barbie dolls and being surprised when it doesn't grow back (as opposed to whipping it). It's here if you want to spoil the illusion.

Joe McElderry premiered his sort of first single, 'Ambitions', but actually it's not his first because he was already on 'Everybody Hurts', 'You Are Not Alone' AND 'The Climb', but this is the one everyone has been waiting for isn't it because it's his first proper release and not a cover (but it is). Oh.
We like it. Listen here.

And that is everything that happened last week.

Cheryl Cole's video for 'Promise This': has she ripped off Dannii Minogue something rotten?

Cheryl Cole's 'Promise This' is great. Unlike her R'n'B lite previous offerings it does what all decent pop music should do and offers a catchy melody with a progressive sound that makes you go "Hold on a minute, I don't have a bloody clue what the hell all that was about, but I like it. Let's listen again". The production could have been a bit tighter, but we're enjoying the hints of chip tune and above all else:

"Alouette gentille les ailes,
Alouette plumerai les ailes"

Brilliant. Although, whatever anyone says about this being some meaningful reflection on her time in bed with Malaria the song was clearly recorded a good six months ago.



The press have been raving about Cheryl filming the video for the single in LA, but rather than being blinded by the glamorous location (there's nothing in the video that couldn't have been done in a basement in Wandsworth) we were busy spotting similarities between Cheryl's offering and a certain other female X Factor judge's previous celluloid outings...

A close up of Cheryl's classy red designer high heeled shoes in her video for 'Promise This'

A close up of Dannii's classy red designer high heeled shoes in her video for 'So Under Pressure'

Cheryl dances with those soul grabbing things from the film 'Ghost' in her video for 'Promise This'

Dannii dances with those soul grabbing things from the film 'Ghost' in her video for 'Love & Kisses'

Cheryl has an intense romantic clinch in her video for 'Promise This'

Dannii has an intense romantic clinch in her video for 'You Won't Forget About Me'

Cheryl performs with her backing dancers in front of a dramatic backdrop in her video for 'Promise This'

Dannii performs with her backing dancers in front of a dramatic backdrop in her video for 'Love & Kisses'


Cheryl sports a glamorous red number in her video for 'Promise This'
Dannii sports a glamorous red number in her video for 'So Under Pressure'


Cheryl does an amazing jumping dance routine (that we will no doubt try and recreate in a club and break our ankle) in her video for 'Promise This'

Dannii does an amazing jumping dance routine (that we will no doubt try and recreate in a club and break our ankle) in her video for 'This Is It'

Cheryl reflects on her meaningful lyrics whilst the camera is close on her face in her video for 'Promise This'

Dannii reflects on her meaningful lyrics whilst the camera is close on her face in her video for 'Disremembrance '

Of course Cheryl really missed a trick not recreating the infamous drink spilling scene from 'You Won't Forget About Me'. Best. Dannii. Moment. Ever.

What follows may well be the greatest Rihanna single of all time (certainly the best Rihanna single of 2010)

Aha! That whole 'Only Girl' single must have been a giant joke right? We thought it was shit. The internet at large thought it was shit and we're guessing YOU thought it was a little bit rubbish as well.

But here's something amazing - Rihanna's new video for a song called 'Who's That Chick' which is 110% (we're working in X Factor maths this evening) incredible. Both the song and the video can be described as bright, brilliant and seriously fluoresecent. This is Rihanna the popstar we sort-of had back in her 'Shut Up And Drive' days. Albeit infinitely more amazing.

She said she was putting her 'Rated R' dark-days behind her with her new music and boy, was she right. She's basically turned herself into the black Katy Perry and we fucking love everything about it.

This might be our favourite Rihanna single of all time. It's certainly made the start of the weekend a little sweeter.



Already obsessed. And there's definitely a touch of the Guetta in this...

Here is some REAL music

We haven't watched Must Be The Music because we haven't got a TV (and even if we did it's on Sky so we still wouldn't see it), but there's been some interesting press surrounding the show recently, and our favourite phrase - REAL music - has reared its ugly head again. We would have kept our mouth shut on this, but they've made such a fuss about how real and important this music show is that we couldn't resist...

"Must Be The Music is a show like no other, you can get get your hands on the music performed by the acts right now – and by doing so you will be supporting real music talent. Support real music right now by downloading the tracks from the show!"

Must Be The Music is a TV show hosted by Fearne Cotton (*swallows vomit*) where musical acts are judged by Dizzee Rascal, Sharleen Spiteri (nee Texas) and Jamie Cullum. The premise is simple: it's the X Factor on a different channel.

The final is this Sunday and this is where it gets interesting. The judges, to generate some publicity because they feel passionately, have been quoted having a dig at the X Factor, which as we all know is the bastion of all evil and destroys music as we know it™.

According to the Sun, Dizzee said: "Our acts are not deluded people who have woken up one day and decided that they want to be the best singer in the world...We give power back to the artists. It's in their hands."

Now, we don't want to come across as bottom lickers of the music industry, but this strikes fear into our hearts. The industry, for all its evils, at least serves as some form of quality filter. And X Factor works precisely because the people who apply are those who (think they) have talent and don't know what to do with it. Simon Cowell might sign people to his label and steal all their money - but at the end of the day it's just a fast track into the industry and doesn't pretend to be anything else. We're pretty sure Leona's not hidden away somewhere crying in a grotty bedsit about how the show has ruined her life (although Shayne Ward might be).

We've listened to Must Be The Music's finalists. We couldn't wait to hear all this real music. What would there be? Underground grime with a twist of Latino? Indie disco infused with hip hop? Americana jazz dub step? Erm...


We're not ones to quash any form of music, but this assertion that Must Be The Music is somehow different, better even, than X Factor is what really grates. Just because someone can play the Eastenders theme on a piano doesn't mean they know how to structure a song. We won't single anyone out, but here's a sample lyric:

"We sing for the deaf and we dress for the blind."

Exactly. No-one just steps off the street and becomes a musician. The raw material might be there, but it takes time and nurturing to hone your craft. In some ways Must Be The Music could be more damaging than being mentored by Louis Walsh.

Off the back of the 'download the songs after the show' idea a few of the acts who have appeared have had chart success, but without the support of a label will this lead to a successful career or simply serve as a cruel taste of 'here's what you could've won'?

Call us naive, but if a thing such as real music exists it will find its way to the public. And not via a TV talent contest. It will probably be via a label who give the musicians a really bad deal - but that's more a reflection of the corporate world we live in than the state of the industry. 'Real' music doesn't survive in a fast track environment. We can't imagine The XX, Laura Marling or Metronomy applying for Must Be The Music. But what do we know. We only like fake music.

*dismounts high horse*

The debut Starsmith video which doesn't have Starsmith in it but at the same time, does

Producer Starsmith is best known for making Ellie Goulding songs sound all wistful and lovely. But his debut single is anything but 'wistful and lovely'.

'Give Me A Break' is a very good pop song which uses the age-old (at least ten years) template of a good producer taking a good sample from an old soul song, looping for three minutes and putting an exciting and modern new backing behind it.

The video is something of a triumph also and a good example of what can be done on a budget when at least one person involved has a good idea and everyone else involved has a lot of time to spare.



Please note: Cardboard cut-out of Starsmith not actual size. Yes, he is tall, but not in the freakish and frankly terrifying manner depicted here.

The only thing missing from this video is where they block a London Underground gate for five minutes trying to put their ticket in upside down

What follows is a well-meaning song which is accompanied by a jolly video featuring two people having a nice day out in London's bustling Leicester Square and South Bank.

We are writing about the following 'Haggstrom feat. Terri Walker' single because of the following reasons.

1. We like the song.
2. The video reminds us that living in London is actualy quite exciting and there is loads to see, do and is going on if you just break out of that routine of only seeing the street you live on, the one you work on and the occasional trip to some horrendous East London gay bar.
3. Terri Walker is a name we remember from a very long time ago. We believe she did a song called 'Ching Ching' (we were right she did, She was the VV Brown of her day - that day being 2003). Now, people like Terri Walker mystify us - and here is why. She was a moderately hyped soul singer who never had a hit single, won't have made her fortune and then disappeared off the musical radar. But where do these people go? They can't all be working on the Sarah Harding album? Are there legions of office workers out there who bore everyone with stories about how they used to be pop singers? How they were on SM:TV once? Is there office gossip about 'that new girl on reception and how she used to be in N*Tyce'? It's a mystery.
Anyway, however Terri Walker has spent her past seven years, we hope she has been happy and doing things she enjoys. Unless it's illegal.
4. It's been a while since we heard anything new from Diamond Cut - and Diamond Cut (yes indeed) has spruced up the following track in a 'radio edit' sort of fashion.

Anyway, all that aside - her is Haggstrom and Terri Walker's video for 'Be My Baby'. Neither person in this video is Haggstrom or Terri Walker.



As they say, that is really not bad at all. It also makes us definitely want to go for a walk on the South Bank this weekend. Maybe pop into the NFT for a coffee...

New Aeroplane video sums up our 'problem' with Gaga

There is no disputing the genius of 'Brown Eyes' and the entire Disc 1 of the Fame Monster album (bar 'So Happy I Could Die'). Our problem with Lady Gaga has always been her assertion that rather than being just a 'very good pop star' she is 'art'.

Sticking a telephone to your head or walking around with a tea cup is something that could be thought up in the space of a few seconds (our mum quite often drove to work with a mug of coffee on here Volvo dashboard). And Aeroplane, with their video for 'Superstar', seem to have inadvertently proved our point.

Lady Gaga on the cover of Vogue:

A screen shot from the Aeroplane video for 'Superstar', made several months prior to the Vogue cover, aping Lady Gaga and her 'art':

Anyway, we fully approve of people wearing meat. Only recently we fashioned a rather lovely tie from some calf liver.

Here's that Aeroplane video...

An absolute travesty of chart justice

Well it turns out 'what the hell does RobotPigeon know' indeed.


Unbelievable. Good job that boring dancing programme has started again eh?

Actually, we really shouldn't have hidden this right at the bottom of our The Week That Was This Week Post:

Willow Smith 'Whip My Hair':

Nine. Years. Old. Er, wow.

The week that was this week

Again, another week has gone by, and again real life has overtaken our blog life, and again we haven't had time to write about everything we wanted to. So again (gosh, we've been doing these for ages now haven't we) here it is in truncated form instead...

1. Following the Alexandra armpit fiasco there are no words:
After 'Beat Again' and 'Everybody In Love' (not to mention the Alexandra mash-up) we thought JLS were going to be our new favourite boyband™. Then they did the Sound Of Music song, and now this. We can't believe they come in sizes XS, S, M, L (that's because they don't). Here they are doing a promotional gig:


CONDOMLOLZ (Thanks, http://m.jezebel.com/)

2. Slaughterbrains done a new remix
Hooray! We have missed Mr Brains. Where has he been? Obviously off honing his remixing because this Panda People remix is understatedly sublime.



We'll put it in writing: Slaughterbrains could well be the big remixer to watch for 2011.

3. Chromeo done a nice picture for the cover of their album 'Business Casual' that's out next week.

4. In a week where Rihanna unveils the worst single of her career, she must be shitting a brick after hearing this
This is by a nine year old girl. That girl is the child of Will Smith. It sounds nothing like Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. It sounds everything like one of the best songs we've heard this year:

Willow Smith 'Whip My Hair':

And that is everything that happened this week.

Hold onto your hats, it's the new Charlotte Church single

There was talk of the Charlotte Church comeback suggesting she was picking up the wispy, ethereal pop sound of Siobhan Donaghy's incredible second album, 'Ghosts'. After all, all the signs were there - the dreamy photography, the bugs all over her face...

However, that all came crashing down when Charlotte Church instead sort-of-remade Texas' horrible 'Say What You Want' (The Worst Song Of All Time) with an exercise ball and one of her bedsheets instead.

What follows is rather disappointing. It is Charlotte Church's new single, 'Back To Scratch'. A song which is not about getting crabs for the second time.



We hope she has signed up for a second series of that Andrew Lloyd Webber thing that was on the BBC which made young girls sing old songs in dresses that go out at the sides before one of them flies off in a moon.

We didn't totally understand the concept.

Can I see some ID: Alec Carlsson

Alec Carlsson was born in 1995. That makes him 15 years old / the Justin Bieber of the dance world. When we were 15 we were listening to our Roxette 'Tourism' cassette on repeat to the point that we wore out the 'Never Is A Long Time' section and it snapped *sheds ancient tears down wrinkly old face*.

According to Alec's website:

"His father is a DJ & producer. When he was 9 years old, his father's music love touched him*. He first learnt to mix with his father's advices, then graduated to producing.
He is now expanding on this knowledge gained and producing his own Deep and Funky House."

*an unfortunate result of translation rather than a euphemism.

So what does he sound like? Well, we like 'Ploploplop Man', and not just because it has a title that sounds like a poo.

Alec Carlsson 'Ploploplop Man':

'OMG' is also suitably youthful in title and bloody amazing in sound:

Alec Carlsson 'OMG':

Obviously we've still got this "internet is killing the industry" thing hanging over our heads, but what we sometimes forget is that all these advancements in technology give young people (and old people) access to tools to make and promote their own music in ways that they never would have in the past. Sure, that throws up a lot of old shit, but in amongst that shit is sometimes a gem (like Alec), and it's worth crawling through the shit to find...you get where we're going with this.

Of course this could all be a clever marketing ploy, and it might be an 85 year old Robert Miles in disguise, but at the end of the day who cares how old someone is if their music is good.

Check out more of the very talented, and sickeningly youthful, Alec Carlsson on his Myspace or Soundcloud.

Thoughts on the new Marina & The Diamonds video

1. It was about time Marina & The Diamonds released a proper follow-up single to 'Hollywood' that sounds like a huge pop single instead of someone trying to entertain a load of kids at a birthday party even though you know that the people you are trying to keep amused need more than a balloon that looks a bit like a dog and a bucket of custard poured down your pants.

2. What follows sounds like a huge pop single.

3. What follows looks like a huge pop video.



It's basically Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video but with loads of pissed women instead of the undead.

We like this very much.

The world was never crying out for an emo Little Shop of Horrors but is a better place now one exists

The best musical in the world? Little Shop of Horrors - obviously.

The only 'emo' band we ever had time for? Panic At The Disco (pre and post exclamation mark).

So it was with some interest that we listened to to Panic frontman Brendan Urie's new project, Does It Have To Be Human, which is basically an emo covers project, and the covers are songs from Little Shop of Horrors.

Obviously, the potential for this to be a horrendous shambles was huge and no one was ever going to better the original 'Skid Row', but Urie's take (along with some other fellas called Dallon Weekes, Ian Crawford and Matt Glass from various American rock acts of various degrees of listenability) is completely bloody brilliant. It's big, brash and completely over the top - and we wouldn't have it any other way.

We look forward to hearing what they do with 'Suddenly Seymour'.

*sing it child*

Does It Have To Be Human 'Skid Row'

The Week That Was Last Week

It's happened again. We've been so busy that we've not even had time to do a round of all the things that we've been too busy to write about in the last (past) week. Mainly with weddings and pizzas and stuff this time...

1. Nadine 'why sing one note when eleven will do' Coyle has finally released a snippet of a track that will be sold alongside cucumbers.
Being late with doing this post means that we can slip in things which happened over the weekend and it looks like we are psychic/can time travel (we borrowed Anders off of Alphabeat's tambourine). So, after what seems like an age of fannying around in America, Nadine has finally let slip what she's ditched the biggest, most successful, well loved and highly lucrative girl band in the UK for:

Nadine Coyle 'Insatiable':


She has decided to sell the album solely in Tesco. This is because, Nadine says, "I think we have learned that the traditional model for selling an album isn’t the only way of doing things." and not because a real record label wouldn't sign her.

2. Britney made an advert for her new perfume.



The perfume is called Radiance, but the advert is about destiny, not radiance. We think Britney wrote the treatment for this herself on the back of her prescription because it is completely pointless and makes NO SENSE. Having said that we had to watch it five times over just to check we really had seen what we thought we'd seen. So maybe that's the point.

3. The Brandon Flowers solo album cover makes him look like Peter Andre

4. Chilly Gonzales released another video with more from his exciting film 'Ivory Towers'
Remember we are very excited about this. It's the film starring Chilly, Tiga, Peaches and Feist. We wish we were cool enough to be known just by our first name. In this snippet Peaches plays a violin without even touching it, and Chilly can't leave a game of chess until he's won. This happens to us ALL THE TIME.



And that is everything that happened this last week.

Absolutely the best video we have seen this year: The Toxic Avenger "N'Importe Comment"

This is so good that our mouth was agog the first time we watched it and we forgot to listen to the actual song, which (on second listen) we can confirm is also brilliant:



Our French is not great, but here is what we understood:

1. Something about a car
2. Something about a duck
3. A rude word for 'poo' (shit)
4. 92
5. Tonight

Sorry, we need to stop writing this boring old waffle and watch the video again.

This is a little old (two months) but so good it is worth a mention regardless of age

This week Missy Elliot protege Jazmine Sullivan crashed in to the Billboard Hot 100 with her new single 'Holding You Down (Goin In Circles)'. Well, we say 'crashed', it wobbled it's way to No.98, which isn't very good and won't be causing Rihanna any sleepless nights.

However, unlike Rihanna and other high profile R&B ladies, there's something we love about both Jazmine and this single. Maybe it's the Mary J. Blige 'Be Happy' sampling, the rough old-school production or Jazmine's husky, pained and soulful vocals. There's more soul to be found on this one single than in the rest of the US charts combined.

Jazmine's much more than Missy's current girl of choice. And she sampled Daft Punk once - so she's got our favour for sure.

Jazmine Sullivan 'Holding You Down (Goin In Circles)'

A free download from Amiina which is both quiet and utterly incredible

All of the music we listen to is exciting. Most of it makes us want to dance. Some of it makes us want to have a cup of tea and look at the rain for a bit with some new socks on. Some of it is Amiina.

Amiina were the four girls who added all the percussion to Sigur Ros songs. Then they did their own album and it was wonderful. It sounded like nursery rhymes and music boxes. Then the four girls recruited two new members WHO WERE MEN and then they gave away a free download from their forthcoming second album, 'Puzzle'. The download was called 'Over And Again' and it was utterly incredible.

'Over And Again' is a delicate, haunting and melancholic slice of Icelandic brilliance which makes the absolutely perfect listening as Autumn comes along and does it's thing (it's 'thing' being making our shoes wet and giving us runny noses).

Here is the song for a listening experience:

Amiina 'Over And Again'

And here is a link on which you can click, be taken to the Amiina website, enter your email address and own the song for as long as you live - or at least as long at it takes before your computer packs up and you lose all your work, MP3s and pictures you may or may not have taken of yourself for social networking sites. Such is life.

Click here for Amiina's website and download link.

The album, 'Puzzle' is out on 27 September and we are very excited about it. Very excited indeed - in the quietest possible way.

They're better now they've stopped doing the weird stuff: MGMT 'Congratulations' video

The last thing we thought we'd be doing today was blubbing over a rubber chicken/camel hybrid. Yet here we are wiping snot on our sleeve.



It's not what we expected from MGMT, but it's lovely. And great. And sad. And oh my God his leg fell off and then his beak and then he died *SOB*. The music reminds us of Flaming Lips' 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' and that can only be a good thing.

Pass me a tissue.

Look away now if you're sick of us gushing about Fenech-Soler...here comes an album review

Let's precede this by saying we're not a) related to, b) paid by, c) working for, d) friends with or e) sponsored by Fenech-Soler. We are just completely obsessed with them. Because they are fucking fantastic. So when the self-titled album popped through our letterbox we were more than a little over excited. We were so over-over-excited we nearly dropped it into our pasta bake. What follows is really just a love letter masquerading as a review.

Dear Fenech-Soler,
How do we love thee, let us count the ways:

1. The stuff that opens the album: is a song called 'Battlefields'. It starts all choral and relaxed, and you think "hmm, album opener", and then all of a sudden there's a squelch and a snare and a "Hey" and we're off at a pace. This is the equivalent of opening a present and not only getting what you asked for, but getting a puppy, a pony and an X-Box as well.

2. The stuff we've already heard: ('Stop & Stare', 'LA Love' and 'Lies' we're talking to you) We illegally downloaded these MP3s a long while ago and they're the reason we got excited about the band in the first place. We're still excited. We've just overplayed them a bit. 'Lies' is a pretty good yardstick of whether you're going to like this album or not. If you liked it you're going to be extremely pleased with this. If you didn't like perhaps you should sit in the corner and have a think about what you've done.

3. The stuff that's yet to come: We heard somewhere that 'Demons' is going to be the next single. Good choice. It's rowdy, it's got lyrics about 'demons' and 'running', it's got an oh-oh-ohh refrain. What more could you want from a second single? A pony maybe, but we already covered that with 'Battlefields'.

4. The stuff that surprised us: Hello 'Stone Bridge' and 'Walk Alone', you're sort of ballads, but ballads if they were written by a load of rowdy electro boys in sparkly outfits.

5. The other stuff: 'Golden Sun', 'The Great Unknown' and 'Contender'. One of these is our favourite on the album, one of these is over 5 minutes long, one of these contains a distorted horn section. All of these can be filed under b for brilliant.

In a musical landscape of ever shifting genre boundaries Fenech-Soler tick so many boxes it's a wonder their biro hasn't run out. The album combines pop hooks with dance riffs, indie lyrics with soaring vocals, guitar sensibilities with synth morals, and delivers ten tracks that feel like they've been lovingly crafted from the bones of the Gods of music themselves.

Do you think that's enough to get us a quote on the album sticker?

Love,
RobotPigeon

The album's released on September 27th on B-Unique. As you can tell we think it's passable. Here's a link to the HMV website where you seem to be able to buy it for one pence. Someone should really look into that.