The Trouble With Bassists

The latest news from MTV2 which I found pretty funny (in as much as hearing about someone breaking their hand can be funny)"We heard last week that Andy Nicholson (above) had pulled out of the Arctic Monkeys’ US tour, blaming exhaustion, and he was replaced by pal-of-the-band Nick O’Malley (of The Dodgems). But now Nick has broken his hand following some drunken antics." Maybe they should go White Stripes and just not have a bassist, it sounds almost like something out of Spinal Tap (just waiting for third bassist to be involved in a bizzarre gardening accident). EDIT: Actually this is far more funnier music news-wise heres a quote about it (try and guess who its about) "He added: "It was quite staggering. People said, 'Can you get rid of him?' 'Can you ban him?' Even people who say they are fans of his songs go on to express that they're sick of it."

MP3:
Arctic Monkeys-No Buses (or bassists)

Buy:
Who The Fuck Are The Arctic Monkeys? E.P

Mondays, Tuesdays, Happy Days etc

I received an e-mail earlier today Victor Scott wondering if I would like to post about his music, so I decided to listen to the music (especially given this is the first contact I've had from an artist who found out about my blog) so what do I think of it? Well I would say that never before have I heard so much genre-hopping on one album, I even wrote down a few clever words about a few of the tracks which are as follows: "minimalist Moby mixed with a dash of LCD Soundsystem and jangly guitars"(Gotta Go), "The sound of The Avalanches if they decided to make all their songs as bizarre and out there and above all with that same kind of twisted genius as Frontier Psychiatrist"(Airstream), "sounds like the opening theme to some obscure and probably naff 60s film set in Cuba but the sort that has a about 5 copies of its soundtrack in existance all on vinyl which sell at about £5,000 a pop on ebay" (Golf) and "if Beck in his Mellow Gold era had decided to write simple acoustic songs" (Mareel). This brilliantness continues to his album available right now on Brighton based SVC Records called 'Happy Days' (which is why I decided to use the post title) also available on itunes.

MP3s:
Victor Scott-Gotta Go
Victor Scott-Mareel

Buy:
Victor Scott-Happy Days (and get B-sides album free!)

"You built a time machine, out of a DeLorean"

They are the Ditty Bops a recent find of mine (although I also know that they've been posted about in a few other blogs) who certainly wouldn't be out of place on the Back To The Future with their very retro jazzy/folky sound with more then a hint of swing style, although their sound certainly doesn't sound stale in a similar way to the Pipettes sounding retro but still incredibly fresh heres their about me section on their MySpace "Amanda and Abby are from California. They started their band almost three years ago. Abby plays guitar and Amanda plays mandolin. They sing in harmony and are joined by their band of boys who play violin, upright bass, lap steel, and piano".Dude just listen to the music (you can find more on their MySpace page).

MP3:
Ditty Bops-Angel With An Attitude

Buy:
Moon Over The Freeway-Ditty Bops

Hello Kitty?

They are SaltLick Kitty purveyors of absolutely bizarre rock/pop I discovered them whilst I was looking through Channel 4's SlashMusic site for unsigned bands and artists, this odd outfit say they are influenced by "an eclectic mix of musical loves and influences" and it certainly sounds that way as they weave between punk-pop stylings sounding like a distorted Graham Coxon, to sounding like a hyper and keyboard happy Breeders, also sounding like a lot of other bands thrown in to a blender and served with a dash of insanity. They come from York as well as you will see on their MySpace site, which really doesn't mean anything so before this entry runs out of steam listen to these rock/pop/punk/insane cuts of SaltLick sound, you can find other sound from them on their sites.

MP3s:
SaltLick Kitty-Uhh-mong (other things)
SaltLick Kitty-I wanna be you

Buy:
SLKissMyA$$ their E.P

Bear of Greatness

Howdy again I have done two of my exams and have my last one next week so I decided to post on my slightly neglected blog (but seriously I had to cram) so the band I'm posting about have made some pretty cool fun music they are called Great Bear and have actually been around for a few years but (and even recently their guitarist decided to leave), as I said above their music is extremely fun stuff in the vein of Blur and Supergrass (and on Man Of The Moment they remind me ever so slighly of Art Brut with the 'story of a person in a song' style) definitely what I need after two exams back to back. They have pages on isound (where I originally found them some time last year) and myspace and are well worth checking out (even though they haven't posted since they made the post about their guitarist leaving so maybe their future is uncertain).

MP3s:
Great Bear-Man Of The Moment
Great Bear-Think You Love Me

Guillemots and the radio show

Aggghhh whos that, oh wait its me, this is just a quick post to say that Guillemots' debut album has a name it's 'Through the Window Pane' named after one of their tracks also it will be released July 10th (although thats probably for the UK but you never know), plus my show is 8-10am tommorow (UTC+1) on Junction 11 so make sure you listen, there is not going to be daily posts this week as I have exams at the end of the week.

MP3:
Guillemots-Made Up Lovesong #43

Buy:
you can't even pre-order the guillemots album yet

Its good to be of Montreal

Firstly can I just say this isn't a post about Of Montreal although I do enjoy their Elephant 6 kind of music (frankly it would make any one start jumping up and clapping their hands), instead it is about a band from Montreal named Lesley Lane who were formed in September of last year by Dears guitarist Patrick Krief (incidently that new Dears record looks set to be bloody briliant you may want to check here for details on that). So what do these dudes sound like? Well on first listen quite close to The Dears really but listen again and to more of their tracks on MySpace (they actually recently added me as a friend which is how I discovered them) and theres more to them they make down-beat yet also uplifting music that not only recalls their 'parent' band but also the sounds of Pink Floyd, The Smiths and Muse all in there, they certainly have a 'big' sound and could certainly go on to rank alongside their many illustrious neighbours, Montreal is pretty hot right now as you may have noticed from the amount of press been given it (although its probably been hot for a while its just the world and Pitchfork have just recently noticed it as is the way with these city 'scenes'). However you know somewhere thats not usually hot? Well Finland who won the Eurovision song contest last night (oh the Eurovision song contest its part endurance test part comedy music show) with these guys: yes indeedy Finnish death/heavy metal band Lordi who won with their 'classic' Hard Rock Hallelujah (perhaps you want to join them on MySpace, if you dare), plus an honourable mention should go out to the Lithuanian entry who repeatedly sung "We are the winners of Eurovision" and had a mad bald bloke dancing about at one point, and of course Terry Wogan (he is the main man).

MP3 (sorry no Lordi):
Lesley Lane-Bourre

Buy:
Lesley Lane don't currently have a CD out but will soon
if you want to download any Eurovision song go here

Got Any Instrumental, Experimental Post-Rock?

Certainly not like the Quo in any shape or form and to be honest I wouldn't have personally thought I would have like this lot from the description above but acting on a small tip-of from a small mention in NME I decided to take a look at this lot's site, they are The Hearing and they hail from Coventry (not a typo) and are clearly interested in creating a sonic masterpiece of some sort without the the hindrance of mere mortal vocals, I don't have any MP3s of them to post but if you head on over to their site you can listen to their Sound. In other news did anyone (who saw Later last night) find Gary Lightbody's performance with Martha Wainwright unintentionally hilarious well I did basically because he looked like a nervous schoolboy who had lost his guitar, actually something else thats pretty funny is the current indie 'war' between Razorlight and The Kooks, you certainly can't excuse NME for hyperbole on that 'issue' (cough cough).

MP3s:
Razorlight at Hype Machine
The Kooks at Hype Machine
Snow Patrol at Hype Machine

Buy:
Pre-Order Razorlight's untitled second album
The Kooks-Inside In/Inside Out
Snow Patrol-Eyes Open

NEWS FLASH: Analogue tapes develop ears

But don't worry Cassettes Won't Listen according to the name of the band I decided to post about (ahhh This Is Fake DIY, always there with a few MySpace tips) they are a bunch of New Yorkers with a talent for Indie Rock/Pop heavily tinged with electronica (and they have such a passion for electronica they also like todo remixes) and I've decided to come up with an analogy for their sound they sound like Death Cab and Hot Chip having a West-Side story style dance-off (well thats really rubbish but what are you going to do), actually to be homest you could substitute Death Cab for another indie band maybe even Tapes 'N Tapes (and I'll mention here that Tapes 'N Tapes once made a request for my show via the magic of MySpace). Anyway take a listen to these steaming-hot cuts of music because their worth a listen they don't sound like Beirut (but them I'm only mentioning that to attempt to get more visitors "sly").

MP3s:
Cassettes Won't Listen-Cutting Balloons
Cassettes Won't Listen-Where Did Go

Buy:
head on over to dope lotus records for details

People Of Santiago You Now Have A Band Named After You

Yes indeedy a band who recently befriended me on MySpace are People Of Santiago a band not from the capital city of Chile but actually from Newcastle and how often do you get actually good bands adding you to their MySpace friendlist, well not that often, they are a band with a sense of gravitas to their music they sound a bit like The Killers and Editors conjoined into one synth happy but moody band (in the best possible sense), there may be quite a lot of bands who are in this 'scene' but like many of them People Of Santiago certainly strive to carve out their own sound and I would say they just about manage it. So check 'em out.

Mp3s:
People Of Santiago-Light Floods The Room
People Of Santiago-Broadcast

Contrasting Cajun Dance Party

Cajun Dance Party aren't from West London you know, they have received quite a bit of press Steve Lamacq has played them on his show and the likes of Fake DIY and NME are fans, so what do they sound like? Well they sound quite a lot like a gentile version of The Strokes there is clearly a touch of influence from very recent acts like Mystery Jets and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (but with less madness perhaps) as well as sounding a bit like The Shins if they wrote a 'music for bars' concept album, get some more of their indie-pop goodness at their MySpace site (link is in their name). Aside from the sounds of Cajun Dance Party I highly advise you to listen to the Contrast Podcast especially because I chose a track for the most recent Best Of 2006 (So Far) 2 podcast which is the fantastic Stars Of Aviation track Marie et l'Accordeon, its some good indie-folk (and thanks to Stars Of Aviation for mentioning my site on theirs), even if that isn't your cup of tea theres plenty of different stuff on those brilliant podcasts coming from bloggers all over the world.

MP3s:
Cajun Dance Party-Buttercups
Cajun Dance Party-Colourful
Contrast Podcast

Buy:
any details will be on the various sites

Error 8-bit pop materpiece does not compute

Oh but it does it comes from The Lost Levels (and heads up to This is Fake DIY who hail this song as 'underground pop song we just can't stop raving about') its called 'The Early Sheets' and I wholeheartedly suggest you visit their MySpace site to have a listen basically it sounds like (and heres the quote) The New Pornographers, Electric Soft Parade, Eels and David Bowie all as selectable characters in the best ever NES game created. Whilst your on MySpace why not swing round to The Automatic's page to hear their upcoming beast of a single 'Monster'. Going back to This Is Fake DIY they have a Kaiser Cheifs cover available as a free download but the thing is that its cover of one of their unreleased songs named 'Heat Dies Down' its a cover by White Lies a completely unknown Belgian female artist in a totally stripped down version (just a girl and a guitar as they say). Finally I did my tenth radio show earlier today tracklisting and detail of how to listen again are here.

MP3:
White Lies-Heat Dies Down (edit: just realised this link is rubbish so go here instead)

Buy:
look on myspace sites for details

Radio Killed The Video Star

Well not really but this post is highly radio related firstly the artist that has been the subject of the 'Hottest Record In The World Right Now' on the Zane Lowe show, its Elusive by Scott Matthews a artist that has been plugged not only by Uncle Zane but also a favourite of Radio 2 (which to be honest isn't always a good thing but in this case it is) ,and this Wolverhampton born and raised artist deserves it. Scott Matthews is undoubtedly heavily influenced by the likes of Neil Young and Nick Drake (you can really hear Nick Drake particularly in this posted song) but still has a sound of his own I really enjoy the climaxes this song gently builds to basically so much better then James Blunt (you can hear some more here). So without James Blunt in mind the radio, you may have noticed from all the plugs on this here site that I have my own radio show which just so happens to be on tommorow morning (8-10am BST) you can listen on Junction 11 and hopefully listen live tommorow which will be my 10th show on which I've decided to play the best of the music of this century I have features that require listener interaction so it would be better if you listen live although it is possible to listen again here.

Mp3:

Scott Matthews-Elusive

Buy:

Scott Matthews-'Passing Stranger'

Lazy Sunday Post

Well I couldn't really be bothered to post about some new band or artist today so instead I just took a look at the news over at Pitchfork and NME and thought I'd post about Thom Yorke pretty surprising decision to release his own solo album in July called 'The Eraser' and produced by Nigel Godrich its apparently going to be quite electronic (so probably not like the bizarre cover version originally posted on When Apes Ruled The Earth and now here), this is strange because there is supposed to be a Radiohead album later this year and of course people may be thinking this is the end of Radiohead although Thom has rubbished these claims so probably not then. As for an album I'm excited about which is due to be out later this year (possibly October) is the third Shins album so I decided to post their cover version of the Postal Service's excellent 'We Will Become Silhouettes' (some new stuff from them would be nice too), they are touring the UK although I believe all dates have sold out (damm lack of money and upcoming exams).

MP3s:
Radiohead-Rhinestone Cowboy
The Shins-We Will Become Silouettes

Buy:
stuff by Radiohead
stuff by The Shins
The Postal Service-Give Up

a Yeti as Employee Of The Month

How could I follow up the Fyfe Dangerfield interview? Well by posting about a couple of brilliant bands one that I'm surprised hasn't got as much blog attention as it should and another that is currently unsigned comes from Edinburgh and makes completely 'out there' experimental jazz/rock. Firstly then we have Yeti a band fronted by ex-Libertines bassist John Hassall who make jangly/bluesy rock certainly not attempting to be Libertines 2, they should hopefully be releasing their debut album some time this year which can only be a good thing. The two Yeti MP3s and the bottom of the post I believe show two sided to the band's work firstly there is 'Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder' their one official single thus far which is frankly a perfect piece of jangly indie pop which will really stick in your mind and is perfect to just have on your MP3 whilst sinply being in the sun, the second piece of music (and you can find more on the bands website as well as here) is called very aptly 'Midnight Flight' this shows off the more bluesy end of the band's musical element, its driven by a simple but finger-clicky bassline and could almost be the theme tune to some 60s detective show once again very catchy but far more suited to night-time play, and as for night-time music.

The brilliantly named Employee Of The Month who came to my attention on the latest One Music Unsigned podcast they make instrumental music perfect for night-time listening a fusion of jazz and rock (it sounds like high potential for rubbish but its not) thats possible to actually listen too or simply have on as background music, its really ambient maaannnn (ignore that last bit and just listen to the sweet sweet music).

MP3s:
Yeti-Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder
Yeti-Midnight Flight
Employee Of The Month-Brainwave:Corrupted
Employee Of The Month-You Can Only Own What You Can Hold

Buy:
Employee Of The Month-Brainwave E.P
Yeti-Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder single

An interview with a Guillemot

unfortunately my interview with the small cliff dwelling sea bird got delteted by accident so you'll just have to make do with this interview with Guillemots front man which I did for Junction 11 (although entirely under my own steam) after their gig at the Brighton Audio on the 10th April, I'm not going to lie to you I'm not a proffesional at this kind of thing but I did manage to get some infomation. So here it is on the day this blog becomes a week old (wow what an anniversary):

featuring Fyfe Dangerfield, Me, other members of Guillemots (in background) and Joe (my friend who knew nothing about Guillemots but did just see the gig)

Jim: new album, debut album have you got a name for it?
Fyfe: yeah but it’s a secret we’re not telling anyone…it’s not called ‘Ethnic Sounds Volume 1’
Jim: That’s good because that would be commercial suicide
Other Guillemots member: I thought that was a good idea
Fyfe: yeah it’s a secret its one of are songs though…it’s the name of one of our songs (I think We’re Here is a good bet)
Joe: how many songs have you got?
Fyfe: quite a few for the new album
Jim: I got ‘From The Cliffs’
Fyfe: oh yeah that’s like a mini-album
Jim: yeah a mini-album
Fyfe: although two of the tracks on there will appear on our album but only one in the same form (Made Up Lovesong re-recorded and Trains to Brazil in its original form?)
Joe: we were discussing when does it become an album how long does it have to be
(we discuss ‘From The Cliffs’ briefly no real information)
Jim: the tour, how has the tour been so far?
Fyfe: been really good....yeah it’s gone really well
Jim: because you got a really good review in NME
Fyfe: yeah…sorry is this a trail of blood on the floor?
Jim: It could be blood it could be something else
Fyfe: yeah but umm the NME gave us a really nice review I was quite surprised
Jim: the press as been really good so far….
(venue manager comes in asks for T-shirt to be signed and talks about how his 12 year old Brother-in-law saw the gig as his first ever live gig and loads of other people interrupt)
Although we got back to the interview Fyfe was more interested in getting to his vegetarian lasagne I found out that SXSW was a traumatic experience for them (due to flights), that they were surprised and pleased that Carl Barat liked them and had just become MySpace friends, that they enjoyed listening to Nick Drake and Beastie Boys on their tourbus (when the road crew didn’t monopolise it) and that he was looking forward to playing with We Are Scientists because his girlfriend liked them although he had never heard of them.

MP3s:
Guillemots-Made Up Lovesong #43
Guillemots-Who Left The Lights Off Baby?

Buy:
From The Cliffs

The Good Reverend tells us...to dance

Yes its Reverend and The Makers a band currently being plugged by those crazy kooks at Radio 1 they are also friends with those Arctic Monkeys which probably helps, they come from a similar stable to The Streets and Arctic Monkeys in the singing about real life in real voice style but before you say "its been done" they are also quite a funky electro package with genuine danceability (particularly on 'Bandit') you can download some of their songs on MySpace (click the picture) as well as on their website. Moving along having read a post on My Old Kentucky Blog about The Rakes I thought its about time I mention them they are a fantastic and highly catchy number in their live form and on record, I would certainly say that Capture/Release is well worth some of your time, I'm posting a pretty cool acoustic version of recent single 'All Too Human' for your sampling pleasure, go join The Rakes' friend list, you know you want to. Coincidentally the next band I want to talk about are currently touring with The Rakes, The Young Knives a band who in my opinion have produced one of the best singles of 2006 with 'Here Comes The Rumour Mill' from the stumbling awkward guitar-drum combo at the beggining to the almost falsetto ending, for the most part they make angular art-rock with a pop edge although they have been known to go all acoustic and Kinks-esque (see 'Elaine' and some other songs on their MySpace page). I'm sure their debut album will be released soon, especially since Zane Lowe aka The Zipper played 'Shes Attracted To' as the Hottest Record In The World Right Now.

MP3s:
Reverend And The Makers-Bandits
Reverend And The Makers-He Said He Loved Me
The Rakes-All Too Human (acoustic)
The Young Knives-Here Comes The Rumour Mill

Buy:
Capture/Release:Remastered
The Young Knives' stuff

Keith, Valerie and the Monkey request

Hi again I thought I'd post about some MySpace 'friends' of mine a band named Keith who I first heard as the winners of 'Fresh Meat' on Zane Lowe. Well they are releasing an album later this month called 'Red Thread' (22nd May) this has been a long time in the making as they've worked with a few producers on this, and its looking like a potentially brilliant release of highly danceable indie although the vocals on this are actually fairly melancholic thus creating an interesting and fairly compelling juxtaposition between their shiny indie pop infused with a hefty dash of electronica. Overall worth checking out.Moving along then The Zutons have posted the video for the next single the superb 'Valerie' (I could just listen to it all day) and it features them in a prison its groovy watch it on windows media high or low or real player high or low. Their just a really fun bad and everyone needs some great fun music to jig about too. Next to talk about is the band I first read about in the brilliant blog Gorrila Vs Bear, so I checked them out and I wasn't dissapointed by their beautiful acoustic music, now the request thing on my radio show I have played the requests of a few bands and artists basically I contact them through MySpace asking for a request so on the show I first play a song by the artist (in this case 'Sheffield Shanty') and then play the request so what did Monkey Swallows The Universe ask for (or more particularly Nat the lead singer) well it was James with Laid, I hope you enjoyed that piece of information. One last thing though the post I did about Muse was deleted because I thought it was a bit too full of bile, I should say that I really love the music that Muse make in particular 'Unintended' which is an incredibly relaxing sublime piece of music, but they generally do the whole 'epic earth shaking' song incredibly well especially on Absolution. As for there new single well you can hear it here and here so I won't post it. Edit:Literally just added site meter this second


MP3s:
Keith-Hold That Gun
Keith-You (demo)
Monkey Swallows The Universe-Sheffield Shanty
James-Laid
Muse-Unintended

Buy:
Pre-Order 'Red Thread'
Buy 'The Bright Carvings'
Buy 'The Best Of James'
Buy Muse's stuff

Clean Ugly Non-things

Yes I brought the CD yesterday and also typed up my review on Last.FM so here it is: Yes indeedy just purchased the brand spanking new Dirty Pretty Things album (mmmm...new CD smell) Waterloo To Anywhere and what does it sound like well in some respects its like a colonic irrigation of all the crap that went with the brilliance of The Libertines(probably most obvious in 'Bang Bang Your Dead') but its also a clean slate for a new band to rise from the ashes of the Albion possibly a good way to decribe them is a more focused Libertines. Its certainly a record that doesn't slow down from 'Deadwood' to 'B.U.R.M.A' theres plenty of guitar-laden goodness (although perhaps it could have done with a couple of mellow tracks, then again maybe it would have broken the highly visceral focus of this album) and there really is no let off the songs stack up quickly almost like they are all intended to be single releases and before you know it the head rush is over, and what do you then? Press play again. Also maybe you would like to hear my show that went out just earlier you can here the first hour here and the second hour here, plus the tracklisting is here.

WMAs:
Dirty Pretty Things-Deadwood
Dirty Pretty Things-Wondering


Buy Waterloo To Anywhere
.

Gorgeous Indie Folk

This will be a fairly quick post for today about Amy Millan's upcoming album 'Honey From The Tombs'. Now I've only heard Skinny Boy and Baby I at her MySpace site but I can safely say that I am very excited about it (and if any record labels are reading this however unlikely that may be I would love to receive and review a promo copy of it, also I could play some tracks on my show). Anyway for those of you who don't know who I'm talking about she is a canadian singer and guitarist who jointly fronts the brilliant band Stars and also performs with the indie collective that is Broken Social Scene (both of which along with this solo album are or will be releasing stuff on the Arts & Crafts label in Canada, which is a very cool record label, also the home of Feist). Amy has incredible vocals which can be very husky and soulful but also at times quite light and bouncy, anyway its pretty damm gorgeous and soulful Indie folk from what I've heard. On other things I should be purchasing the Dirty Pretty Things album later on today so I may review it in a future post.

MP3:
Amy Millan-Skinny Boy

Buy:
Pre-Order Honey From The Tombs
Arts & Crafts Shop

Adapt to quick post

This is a band from Sweden called Antennas, and this is a quick post about them having found this one song on Popsheep it was a demo sent to them they describe it as "unapologetic power-pop" which I entirley agree with I think its great and decided to follow them (like a sheep if you will) by posting it.

MP3:
Adapt!-Antennas

Buy:
Sins-Antennas

"I've never been so happy to hear the French"

I was listening to the Radio 1 unsigned podcast yesterday when this band came up they are called Stars Of Aviation and they describe themselves as a 7 piece chamber pop group who are influenced by English and French Folk music, the song that was played was 'Marie et l'accordeon' (sung in french)which you can hear on their MySpace site. I would say that they produce some perfect breezy folk-pop (not always in french) which sounds a bit like Arcade Fire heavily sedated on morphine, just right for the on coming summer. In other news those "Finnish psych folk masters" who go by the name of Paavoharju have released a free to download E.P at miasma (Tuote-akatemia / Unien Savonlinna), they produce some of the best late night to twilight music in my opinion, they are in some respects musical cousins to Sigur Ros but if you listen to Sigur Ros in a darkened room these guys should be listened to in a pitch-black room, there was a comment about them on some Blog which I've forgotten just this second but it was along the line of they sound like "tuning the radio into some obscure radio station whilst driving along some remote country road at midnight"( and their on MySpace). Now on a completely different note there are some indie pop heroes I should mention, Bishop Allen a band that have been mentioned numerous times on the brilliant blog 'You Ain't Know Picasso' (link on the sidebar) they are producing E.Ps for every month this year so their already a third of the way through and from what I've heard and read about them suggests that they have been fantastic so far (so much so that I have decided to order them). They have a great fresh sound that recalls the likes of The Decemberists and The New Pornographers, but is still quite unique nonetheless, why not befriend them on MySpace.

MP3s:
Carol-Stars Of Aviation
Love Is Only In Your Mind-Stars Of Aviation
Nuo maisemat-Paavoharju
Mitä sinä et ole-Paavoharju
Corazon-Bishop Allen
The News From Your Bed-Bishop Allen

Free Download:
Paavoharju - Tuote-akatemia / Unien Savonlinna EP

Buy:
Stars Of Aviation Links
Bishop Allen Shop

Up The 'Heads, Tigs and trust We Are Scientists

The Futureheads are returning with their second album 'News and Tributes' and I'm very excited I really like the sound of 'Skip To The End' and I played it on my show last Tuesday, from the reviews I've read its apparently a more mature sounding album then their debut but in a good way, something quite odd about this release though is that on Amazon UK if you want to pre-order it you can only pre-order the import copy released in North America which you can pre-order here this is released on June 13th, but the UK release date is 29th May and you can't pre-order it on amazon yet, oh well I'm still buying it probably when it hits the shops. Aside from The Futureheads a great sounding up and coming band are Tigs, they have featured on many blogs already including a personal favourite of mine (Gorrilla Vs Bear) they have a great punk/ soul energy that touches on the sound of PJ Harvey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Nancy Sinatra (with a side order of Queens Of The Stone Age), definitely worth checking out, I even got a response from them when I asked them to request a song (over MySpace, more on this in another post) and the response I got was "you are a nice man. i hope you get laid this weekend." Which is a bit rock n roll I guess (no I didn't by the way). Anyway another band who are cool is the three headed juggernaught that is We Are Scientists, yep I heavily suggest you purchase there album 'With Love And Squalor' its a visceral fun ride not perhaps a brilliant album but very good nonetheless with decent hopes of a great future (also a brilliant live band so good I brought the T-Shirt) especially with the fact that they have a great sense of humour shown in their videos and on their site which I would regard as especially good to see as many of the bands in this current 'angular , new-wave' scene though very good often come across as being slightly humourless, anyway hopefully this blog should soon feature on the blog aggregators soon which should generatesome more interest in this blog, I mean there are a lot of blogs out there and the likes of Hype Machine and elbo are really brilliant for discovering new blogs to check out.

MP3s:
Skip To The End-The Futureheads
Don't Tell Me-Tigs
Something New-Tigs
Cash Cow-We Are Scientists

To Buy:
Pre-Order Skip To The End
Pre-Order News And Tributes (US only)
Buy With Love And Squalor

Why Won't You Give Me Your Love?

Ever since watching Lost In Translation I've considered Scarlett Johansson to be the sexiest woman in the world and now its 'official' according to FHM in the US (although Keira Knighley is certainly a deserving No 1 over here) and now theres a song that I can relate to which is by a lesser known band thats actually good by The Jai-Alai Savant it sounds a bit like the Mystery Jets and has a decent chorus check it out and be their MySpace friend.
Also I just realised the title is an oppotunity to talk about how good the new Zutons album is
Yep its 'Tired Of Hanging Around' an excellent album actually worth it to listen the whole way through, its different from the first album for which I still retain something of a soft-spot so I can't decide which is better.
MP3s
Scarlett Johansson Why Don't You Love Me-The Jai-Alai Savant
Why Won't You Give Me Your Love-The Zutons
Valerie-The Zutons

Buy 'Tired Of Hanging Around'

Edit: Heres the really cool video for 'Why Won't You Give Me Your Love?' (Abi looks great in this I have a bit of a thing for her as well)

¡Forward, Russia! gig and the start

Hi yeah I have a show called the Breakfast Session and am thinking about having some kind of audio blog this is probably for my benefit more then anything I want to have a page to go to which has links of blogs I like and other sites that rule. Also well I may as well plug ¡Forward, Russia! because they are brilliant and I just saw them perform a four song acoustic set at Fopp (which is the best record store chain ever), that was awesome, but after that they sat down and signed copies of their new single Nine, go and be their friend on MySpace. Keep on rockin' and listen to the Breakfast Session.