It's amazing the ideas some people come up with...

New York based music veteren Darren Solomon took one note, B flat, asked several musicians to compose a piece of ambient music with it, then upload the video to youtube. The result is a series of videos that while composed independently can be played in tandem, and in any order. It's also quite awesome, and very hypnotic.

Check it out here.

Big up to Happiness Machine who alerted me to the project.

continue reading>>

A wee little vid that shows that there's practically nothing new under the sun. Telling that the majority of these songs are absolute Guff as well



Cheers to Ollie

continue reading>>

It's strange how the smallest thing can make a song. I've often latched on to what could be considered a relatively minor element of a track and proclaimed it the source of all the song's greatness (or something suitably grandiose). I'm not talking about the obvious things, like the hook or the lyric, but something small which only occurs once or twice, and probably only for a second or two. A drum fill, a guitar/bass lick, the pronunciation of a certain word... maybe I'm getting terribly geeky here, but I seem to keep noticing them.

Click the readmore for a few examples of what the hell I'm talking about.



The song that made me think of this now is a timeless classic, but one which I've always thought has a definitive 'best bit'. We all know that the solo in Something by The Beatles is awesome, but there's a tiny flourish towards the end which is the absolute king of throwaway guitar flourishes. It happens twice, and then slightly differently a third time, but the first one is so effortlessly perfect that it gets me every time.

The Beatles- Something

...and the little thing

Bon Iver's Creature Fear is a juxtaposition of subdued verses with choruses that seem to want to explode with emotion. At the end of each chorus the bass seemingly can't take it anymore and spills into a funky little lick. It's awesome.

Bon Iver- Creature Fear

...and the little thing

I'm quite a fan of the Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium, and typically, most of its highlights come courtesy of the godlike genius that is John Frusciante. When 21st Century slows down for a few bars it's Frusciante's guitar that teases the chorus back in. I might be overstating it's greatness here, but it's possibly the greatest two seconds in the history of guitar playing.

Red Hot Chili Peppers- 21st Century

...and little thing

Another example of a lead-in to a section turning out to be the highlight of the song: I've always thought the bass in Glass Danse by The Faint was great- simple yet effective- but apparently the bassist couldn't resist getting a bit funky just before the second verse kicks in. Thank god for the irresistible power of funk.

The Faint- Glass Danse

...and the little thing


I can't seem to think of any more of these offhand, but no doubt they'll jump out again when I hear them. Am I being reeeeally over analytic, or does anyone else pick apart songs into minute fragments like this?

continue reading>>

Apart from having a name which reminds me of my teens, before the time of Internet when I had to jerk off to still pictures in magazines, Readers Wives have proven themselves good and noticeable enough to (as the cliché goes) make some wives around these here parts and lo and behold they've taken time from touring around Europe parts to come up with a dandy little mixtape.


Mixtape Goodness right here y'all

Tracklist

1. Tom Waits - "Tom Traubert's Blues"
2. Lou Reed - "Coney Island Baby"
3. Nirvana - "Oh Me"
4. Smog - "Rock Bottom Riser"
5. Sparklehorse - "It's A Wonderful Life"
6. Why - "Good Friday"
7. The Cure - "Pictures of You"
8. Yo La Tengo - "Our Way to Fall"
9. Paul Weller - "You Do Something To Me"
10. Oasis - "The Turning"



Readers Wives begin a 5 day residency in a place called Midem in a town called Cannes. The one in France. Their self-titled debut album is out now and available to buy in all the places that sell albums called Readers Wives by Readers Wives. Their myspace is here to check out some of their stuff.

continue reading>>

Been meaning to post on this one for a while... our friends over at Mp3Hugger & Indiecater have been very busy of late. Here's an update:

Indiecater itself has evolved into Indiecater Records, and alongside regular installments of their excellent compilation series (pictured), they've been digitally re-releasing lost and/or rare records. From the acclaimed debut from North Carolina's Red Star Belgrade to the excellent 'Youth Is Wasted On The Young' by our own Michael Knight, there's some absolute gems here.

Check them out in all their digital glory here. It's all delightfully cheap- each album is a mere 3.50 a pop, the latest release being from one-time 'Great Irish Hope', The Brilliant Trees.

December 1st sees the release of another Indiecater compilation, and keeping with the time that's in it, this installment will be Christmassy themed. That's right- Christmas music need not involve lyrics about reindeer! Woo hoo!

continue reading>>

When they're not selling shitloads of records and playing big venues and cavorting with Spiderman's girlfriends Razorlight like to read us (clearly) and to show how much they love us they've picked this weeks mixtape.

Click on the read more for goodness.



Download Here

1. Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen - Sam Cooke
2. Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers
3. These Days - Jackson Browne
4. Mother - John Lennon
5. Southern Man - Neil Young
6. Badhead - Blur
7. Tram No7 to Heaven - Jens Lekman
8. Sister Ray - Velvet Underground
9. Avalanche - Leonard Cohen
10. The Cinema Show - Genesis

Razorlight are currently on tour and taking their rock n'rolly ways to the Olympia on the 26th November. Their new album Slipway Fires is out this week and the single Wire to Wire is gettable here

Meanwhile check out below to see Razorlight themselves convince you to read our shit.

continue reading>>

I've (after several hours of pondering) completed Nialler's Musical Geneology chart. Give it a shot yourself if you really don't want to be working on a Monday.

Check it out in the read more.

The idea is to pick your favorite album from each year you've been alive, attempting to combine what you were listening to at the time and your thoughts now. Believe me, it aint so easy.

Here's mine anyways- the early years are going to have to be judged retrospectively, as my listening habits were pretty much exclusively The King of Pop, some Van Morisson (thanks, Dad) and a dash of the Beatles (until my older stepped in with Bon Jovi).

1982 Thriller (what else…)
1983 Power, Corruption & Lies- New Order
1984 Run D.M.C.- Run D.M.C.
1985 Raindogs- Tom Waits
1986 Slippery When Wet- Bon Jovi
1987 Appetite for Destruction- Guns’N’Roses
1988 Surfa Rosa- Pixies
1989 Doolittle - Pixies
1990 Ritual De Lo Habitual- Jane’s Addiction
1991 Blood Sugar Sex Magik- Red Hot Chili Peppers
1992 Automatic for The People- REM
1993 Vs- Pearl Jam
1994 Grace- Jeff Buckley
1995 The Bends- Radiohead
1996 Ænima- Tool
1997 The Colour & the Shape- Foo Fighters
1998 The Shape of Punk to Come- Refused
1999 The Fidelity Wars- Hefner
2000 Fevers & Mirrors- Bright Eyes
2001 Toxicity- System of a Down
2002 Lifted- Bright Eyes
2003 The Ugly Organ- Cursive
2004 Wet from Birth- The Faint
2005 LCD Soundsystem- LCD Soundsystem
2006 Return To Cookie Mountain- TV On The Radio
2007 The Flying Club Cup- Beirut
2008 Ritual- Jape (strongest contender so far anyways…)

Top 5 important albums that didn’t make it:

1994 Blue Album- Weezer
1995 Elliott Smith- Elliott Smith
1997 Ok Computer- Radiohead
1998 Adore- Smashing Pumpkins

Conclusions: Many good artists/albums were discovered after the fact. Also, lots of great albums have a tendency to come out in the same years, making a list like this very difficult to compile. Fun though, and much better than actually doing any work on a Monday...

continue reading>>

So after all that bullshit that Lars "shitface" Ulrich stirred up over downloading Metallica's music for free he has now turned around and said that "We're looking at how we can embrace everything, We want to be as free players as possible. We've been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor [of Nine Inch Nails] and in 27 years or however long it takes for the next record, we'll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the internet."

Bandwagon jumping mother fucker

continue reading>>

Do not mess with the Warlords of Pez.

A young scamp posted an unauthorised homage to the Pez in the comments section of their myspace on Wednesday, incurring the full wrath of the merciless Warlords.

This is the offending image:


And this is the Warlords' response (click to enlarge):


Point made.

continue reading>>

Finally here's the first taste of Scarlett Johannson's Tom Waits cover album.

The verdict is pretty good, and you can definitely hear the influence of TV On The Radio man Dave Sitek on production, which pleases me muchly.

The album, which also features David Bowie and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner, is released on the 20th of May.

Here's Scarlett's version:


Click for mp3

And his majesty Mr Waits' Rain Dogs original for comparison purposes:


Click for mp3

continue reading>>

As regulars may know, Clockwork Noise have been in and out of the studio for the past few weeks, knocking together songs for our much delayed 2nd release.

Mastering is now complete on two tracks, and where better to debut them than right here.

Here's the song from which this page garnered its name, egoeccentric:



Click for mp3

and this one's called Choose Your Words:



Click for mp3

Let us know what you think, we crave your love and acknowledgment!

You can check out Clockwork Noise on myspace here. Hopefully we'll have some live shows to announce very soon, so watch this space...

continue reading>>

Bass player Ira Trevisan (she's the one on the far right) has amicably left electro-rockers CSS. The band's drummer Adriano is taking over Bass duties, and they'll take a session-drummer friend with them on tour.

So presumably this won't affect their upcoming tour, which hits the Academy on May 7th.

Full band statement in the read more...





CSS is now a 5-piece!

CSS announce today that bass player Ira Trevisan has left the group for personal reasons. CSS drummer Adriano will take over the bass duties, and live the band will work with a session drummer (a friend of the band) from now on. The band said "It will be feroche!"

Talking about her departure from the band Ira said "I decided to move forward and dedicate more of my time to fashion and other projects. Just a big change of priorities, as I will never stop playing music. I am also a bit worried about climate change. People should care more and do something about it. I decided to fly less. CSS will always be in my heart. They said goodbye to their bass player, but they won a new life time fan. In health and sickness, in happiness and so forth. Blah blah blah, so help us God. "

CSS' second album will be released in the UK in July. They are back in the UK in May for a string of UK dates on the MTV Spanking New Music tour. More news on both the album and upcoming live dates to be announced soon.

continue reading>>

Apparently Guns N' Roses have finally delivered their new album Chinese Democracy to their record label. Axl 'I have no friends' Rose has seemingly been working on the album for the past three hundred years, and to be honest I never thought it would see the light of day.

One party that's bound to be sweating at this news is the people over at Dr Pepper, who recently promised a free can of said beverage for every person in America (except Slash) if the album was actually released this year.

According to The Rock Radio.com the band are now haggling over money (understandable considering the album has so far cost over 10 million dollars), and contemplating an offer to broadcast a reality show to coincide with the release. The show would follow the album's recording & long gestation period. How fun.

continue reading>>

Catchy poppy rocky canucks release debut EP on indie-canadian label, it's really good. Sign to ultra-hip UK & US labels (Wichita & Saddle-Creek), release debut LP... it's really, really, good.

Pros:

• Consistently catchy 'our drummer drinks a lot of coffee' beat throughout the entire album.
• Tendency to sparingly bring in a yummy sounding piano at just the right time.
• Mixes up-tempo guitar-pop with a twinkly ethereal feeling. Which is good.
• Only one track on the album breaks the 3 minute mark. I like brevity.
  
• It seems each member of this band is capable of delivering a bitchin hook on their respective instruments.
  
• Your English Is Good has serious hit-single potential.

Cons:

• Some of the rockier edge from A Lesson In Crime has been lost (blame the glockenspiel?).
• A little bit too much 'Let's ALL sing the chorus!' & 'HEY! HEY! HEY!'. But just a little.
• A tad too sugary on occasion.
• Tough to come up with cons, it's really quite good.

A record for all occasions, if not all listeners. Expect Tokyo Police Club to get bigger- soon. Kudos to anyone who caught their show in the Hub last summer. It will soon be one of those enviable trophy-gigs.

Listen:

Tokyo Police Club- Juno


Click for mp3

continue reading>>

2008 will see The Faint release their first album in nearly four years, and I for one cannot wait.

2004's Wet From Birth was pant crappingly good, and I'm not even going to attempt to describe how good it's predecessor Danse Macabre was, as words would simply fail to do it justice.

Word on the street is that the band are finishing up the mix on the new album, which is to be called Fasciinatiion, and a world tour will follow. Lets just hope they make it to Ireland as my wallet would hate to have to travel to see them again.

You can travel to the read more for a taste of Faint-y goodness.



From Wet From Birth, this is Desperate Guys:

continue reading>>

As can be seen from Bob's post below, No-Talent-Scumbag Pete Doherty has been sentenced to up to fourteen weeks of jail time.

Being a filthy knacker, Doherty (pictured right, with cowboy friend) has been in trouble with the law on several occasions in the past. In 2005 he spent four nights in Pentonville Prison on robbery & blackmail charges, telling the Sun upon leaving that he'd stay away from drugs and never return to prison.

Presumably this was just a case of feeding the reporter any old shit so he'd bugger off and let Doherty go about scoring some more heroin. Surprise surprise, Janruary 2006 saw the 'musician' spending thirteen nights under lock & key for possession of heroin and crack (classy).

more in read more...

Once more professing to 'sort himself out', he managed to crawl (covered in his own vomit, no doubt) all the way til October 2007 before being sentenced again, this time for drug possession and dangerous driving. Instead of throwing away the key as they clearly should have done, the court gave Doherty a suspended sentence, with the threat of at least four months jail if he persisted with his campaign of scumbaggery.

Instead of participating in a rehab course and reporting regularly to court as he had been ordered, Doherty elected to smoke crack and rob the elderly of their pension money (probably), and has now had the suspended sentence thrown back at him. He was due to peddle his filthy wares at the Royal Albert Hall on April 26th, and torture the good people of Glastonbury at the end of June, but now it looks like his only performances for the foreseeable future will be in the prison showers.

So good news for Glasto fans & Pentonville ass-rapists, bad news for London crack dealers. Lets just hope next time he goes away (and there will be a next time) he stays there for good.

continue reading>>

Beirut have canceled all their planned summer appearances, including various European festival dates.

The band's mastermind Zach Condon has posted a letter on their site explaining the cancellations, and it makes for fairly alarming reading.

Check it out in the read more...


April 3

A Letter from Zach

It's with great regret that I have to tell all of you that Beirut is canceling their summer European shows. My reasons for doing this are many, a lot of them personal, but I still feel I need to provide something of an explanation.

The past two years have been a mindblowing experience. From the first indications that people were putting songs from Gulag up on their blogs to our incredible tour of Australia and New Zealand that we just completed, everything that has happened has been beyond anything I'd ever hoped could happen with the music I wrote and recorded in my bedroom. Once things started happening, I decided I wanted to do everything as big as possible. So, I set about putting together a large band, and giving that band a huge sound, and making the most spectacular records we possibly could.

I know this can sound like an artist shithead kind of comment, but going through all that really does have its low points along with the highs. The responsibilities of gathering people around your vision, working with great people like those who work directly for the band and those at the label, wanting to insure that every show is as good as humanly possible so that every single person in the audience sees that we put in a real effort, all of that leads to a lot of issues in terms of doing right by people who have done you right.

It's come time to change some things, reinvent some others, and come back at some point with a fresh perspective and batch of songs.

Please accept my apologies. I promise we'll be back, in some form.

-Zach



So I guess we definitely won't be seeing the Flying Club Cup tracks live again then.
DAMN!!

continue reading>>

I'm a casual Hot Chip fan. What I've heard, I've liked. Made In The Dark is the first of their albums I've actually bought, and I can see myself buying more.

Pros:

• Experimental, production-wise. Lots of messing around that comes off reeeally well.
• There's at least six or six songs on it you'll want to dance to.
• Hook city. Bendable Poseable; Ready For The Floor and particularly Shake a Fist are catchy as hell, and kickass.
• While the album is about 60% party music, they also do 'mellow' quite well.
• It seems to be a grower.
  

Cons:

• Some of the up-tempo numbers are non-starters, and a bit 'same-y'.
• Nothing quite as good as Over and Over (can we hold that against them?).
• When the 'mellow' doesn't work, it reeeally doesn't work.
• Not much immediate satisfaction, for the pop-song-junkies out there.
• Tendency to shite on a bit.

When it's good it's very very good, when it's bad... well, you get the picture.

Listen:

The truly excellent Shake a Fist


Click For mp3

continue reading>>

It seems we're gonna have another one of those summers that start early and are over by June at the latest. Bastards.

We might as well try to enjoy it while it lasts, so here's something suitably sunny to go with it.

Alan Wilkis is a Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist who decided to create an album that fuses Stevie Wonder, Hall & Oates, Boston, Kraftwerk, and the Beach Boys.

Crazy? Probably. Successful? Surprisingly so.

A lot of Wilkis' stuff sounds like it wouldn't be out of place riding the charts of the 70s or 80s, and with the occasional dash of elecro thrown in there's something for everyone.

We all love a shamelessly sugary pop song every once in a while, so here's your RDA for Friday- this is Burnin':




Check out Alan Wilkis on myspace here.
Alan Wilkis' album, Babies Dream Big, is available now on iTunes.

continue reading>>

Beatles road manager and long-term head of Apple-corp Neil Aspinall has died.

Beatles fanatics such as myself will be familiar with Aspinall- a school friend of Harrison & McCartney- from the Beatles Anthology series, which Aspinall masterminded as well as appeared in.

Full obituary here.

continue reading>>