11.5.06
9.5.06
News (09/05/06)
- Chinese Democracy will be out this year, says Axl Rose. Sounds in no way familiar.
- Take That to release new album.
- The Pipettes' album details emerge (In brief: We Are The Pipettes, July 17th)
- TDK Cross Central has more names announced, all the good bands one one day (phew)
- Britney Spears gets to see that freakish sculpture thing of her.
- Alex Kapranos to release cookery book.
Chartsengrafs (09/05/06)
Sunday just gone: Gnarls Barkley made it 6 weeks at number one in singles (knocked off by Snow Patrol in albums), though selling a now merely quite high 50,000 copies. RHCP just about edged out Beatfreakz for 2, The Kooks were STILL at 11, Feeder were as midtable as ever at 12, and LL/JLo 15 on downloads. Outside the top 20, We Are Scientists, Michael Jackson, Panic! At The Disco, Goldfrapp, T-Pain, Captain and at 40, ¡Forward Russia! failed to even get the biggest hit of the week for a band with ! in their name. No sign of any ¡-weilding competitors though.
Sunday coming: 7 weeks and counting looks certain for Gnarls Barkley. LL Cool J will climb to 2, Pet Shop Boys will continue to make the top 10 on the basis of a huge fanbase a la Depeche Mode (although they're not yet quite as ignored generally). Daz Sampson will be just outside, ahead of a possible rise (or fall) when Eurovision is on TV next weekend, together with Boy Kill Boy. Outside the top 10 that is, not on Eurovision. The Upper Room's surprisingly not boring single, Delays, The Beautiful South and Graham Coxon round out the forthcoming top 40 entries. And Bat For Lashes' The Wizard is nowhere, being download-only, but is brilliant nonetheless.
In the albums Red Hot Chili Peppers are unsurprisingly heading for 1, Dirty Pretty Things for 3.
Meanwhile in other chart commentaries, James Masterton is excited about 'the fact that the release of the most exciting record of the year is just two weeks away.' It seems likely that he may mean Sandi Thom's. OH THE HORROR.
Sunday coming: 7 weeks and counting looks certain for Gnarls Barkley. LL Cool J will climb to 2, Pet Shop Boys will continue to make the top 10 on the basis of a huge fanbase a la Depeche Mode (although they're not yet quite as ignored generally). Daz Sampson will be just outside, ahead of a possible rise (or fall) when Eurovision is on TV next weekend, together with Boy Kill Boy. Outside the top 10 that is, not on Eurovision. The Upper Room's surprisingly not boring single, Delays, The Beautiful South and Graham Coxon round out the forthcoming top 40 entries. And Bat For Lashes' The Wizard is nowhere, being download-only, but is brilliant nonetheless.
In the albums Red Hot Chili Peppers are unsurprisingly heading for 1, Dirty Pretty Things for 3.
Meanwhile in other chart commentaries, James Masterton is excited about 'the fact that the release of the most exciting record of the year is just two weeks away.' It seems likely that he may mean Sandi Thom's. OH THE HORROR.
8.5.06
News (08/06/05)
- Grant McLennan of Go-Betweens dies.
- French fight for free copyrighted music downloads, or at least no hobbling DRM.
- In other music-related legal battle news, Apple beat Apple.
- The Sleepy Jackson to play UK tour, hopefully not be as godawful as when I saw them in 2004.
- Liverpool FC get Ian McCulloch to cover Ring Of Fire.
- People continuing to buy Dark Side Of The Moon.
Muse/Britney continued
Seems that I wasn't too uniquely perceptive in noticing the similarities between Muse's new single "Supermassive Black Hole" and Britney's "Do Something"... just about everyone on this fan forum noticed too, and one of them has even made a mix of the two songs together (bottom of the page) which is certainly briefly amusing.
Editors: Officially just taking the piss now
Just got an email including this:
"'Blood' will be the final single release from Editors' 'The Back Room' on June 19th. The single will be released on 2 new formats with brand new B-sides and artwork (both formats will be printed in a special metallic ink) from its original release in July 2005."
That makes 7 singles released from The Back Room: "Bullets", "Munich", "Blood", "Bullets", "Munich", "All Sparks", "Blood". Only the first of which was limited edition (presuming that "Blood" doesn't deservedly flop this time) didn't make the top 30.
I mean, no-one has to buy them, but has any other band even ever beaten this?
"'Blood' will be the final single release from Editors' 'The Back Room' on June 19th. The single will be released on 2 new formats with brand new B-sides and artwork (both formats will be printed in a special metallic ink) from its original release in July 2005."
That makes 7 singles released from The Back Room: "Bullets", "Munich", "Blood", "Bullets", "Munich", "All Sparks", "Blood". Only the first of which was limited edition (presuming that "Blood" doesn't deservedly flop this time) didn't make the top 30.
I mean, no-one has to buy them, but has any other band even ever beaten this?
7.5.06
The Picture Show (07/05/06)
Yes, I haven't completely abandoned it. Click pics for videos as ever.
Another great video from an endearingly daft Japanese electro/pop/punk/indie/whatever group, who thanks to a support slot with Kaiser Chiefs might even get somewhere in the UK now.
This is the other, Irvine Welsh directed video, not the one which is getting all the music channel play that sounds like "Even Better Than The Real Thing". The video here is impressively creepy and that fits the song, Keane still hampered a little by dodgy lyrics but making a valiant attempt to take forward all the best bits of Hopes And Fears (the atmospheric electro ones) rather than just doing more identikit anthems.
A more straightforward song than most on their debut but pretty good nonetheless. The video sees them all very smartly dressed and getting married. To the same person.
Another great video from an endearingly daft Japanese electro/pop/punk/indie/whatever group, who thanks to a support slot with Kaiser Chiefs might even get somewhere in the UK now.
This is the other, Irvine Welsh directed video, not the one which is getting all the music channel play that sounds like "Even Better Than The Real Thing". The video here is impressively creepy and that fits the song, Keane still hampered a little by dodgy lyrics but making a valiant attempt to take forward all the best bits of Hopes And Fears (the atmospheric electro ones) rather than just doing more identikit anthems.
A more straightforward song than most on their debut but pretty good nonetheless. The video sees them all very smartly dressed and getting married. To the same person.
6.5.06
Popworld
I saw the new Popworld for the first time this morning (yeah, 10am is waay too early) and it was ok - liked Pet Shop Boys' performance with orange jumpsuit wearing and Bush/Blair-masked dancers, and it was even pretty funny in places but Alex Zane and Alexa Chung would surely be a much more comfortable fit if they weren't trying so hard to take the roles of the previous presenters - 'Alexa's big pink box' in particular fell totally flat and I'm sure that more of a change of style (while still not turning into cd:uk) would fit better than trying to replicate the past.
News (06/05/06)
- Fall Out Boy 'blasted' for 'liberal homosexual rally'.
- My Latest Novel tour in May.
- Bono gets to edit The Independent.
- Radiohead premiere more new material in Copenhagen. '4 Minute Warning was the most instantly memorable new song, a classic pop tune'... classic pop tune? 4 Minute Warning? Can it be?
5.5.06
Free music Friday
Highlighting some of the most interesting legal, or less so, music out there to be downloaded...
MyselfMyself offer downloads of all three new Radiohead songs played at Friends Of The Earth's recent Yorke and Greenwood-featuring event at Koko. A setlist including "How To Disappear Completely", "Pyramid Song" and "Gagging Order" doesn't quite sound worth the £55 asking price (what, no "True Love Waits"?) but mouthwatering nonetheless.
Anathallo don't quite have enough of a unique identity yet to be truly great but their album Floating World, positioned somewhere between the Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens in sound, is very enjoyable indeed. See for yourself as their myspace kindly has songs to download as well as listen to. "Hoodwink" is especially good. (thanks to Sweeping The Nation for the recommendation)
And, speaking of Sufjan, Pitchfork offer a new song from his forthcoming album of bits that didn't quite make it to Illinois (see Stereogum for another). It's not an idea which excites that much, to be honest, especially if it delays another proper album further, but this song does sound reliably grand.
Finally, on the ever enjoyable strange Live Lounge covers front, Van Tango has Goldfrapp's 'Oompa-Ska' version of The Ordinary Boys' "Boys Will Be Boys" (it's just above the Joss Stone pictures) and You Ain't No Picasso have We Are Scientists attempting to tackle Sigur Ros' "Hoppipolla". Words fail me.
MyselfMyself offer downloads of all three new Radiohead songs played at Friends Of The Earth's recent Yorke and Greenwood-featuring event at Koko. A setlist including "How To Disappear Completely", "Pyramid Song" and "Gagging Order" doesn't quite sound worth the £55 asking price (what, no "True Love Waits"?) but mouthwatering nonetheless.
Anathallo don't quite have enough of a unique identity yet to be truly great but their album Floating World, positioned somewhere between the Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens in sound, is very enjoyable indeed. See for yourself as their myspace kindly has songs to download as well as listen to. "Hoodwink" is especially good. (thanks to Sweeping The Nation for the recommendation)
And, speaking of Sufjan, Pitchfork offer a new song from his forthcoming album of bits that didn't quite make it to Illinois (see Stereogum for another). It's not an idea which excites that much, to be honest, especially if it delays another proper album further, but this song does sound reliably grand.
Finally, on the ever enjoyable strange Live Lounge covers front, Van Tango has Goldfrapp's 'Oompa-Ska' version of The Ordinary Boys' "Boys Will Be Boys" (it's just above the Joss Stone pictures) and You Ain't No Picasso have We Are Scientists attempting to tackle Sigur Ros' "Hoppipolla". Words fail me.
Yahoo/Launch outdo themselves
A review of Captain's 'debut single' Broke? Easy enough mistake to make.
A review of Panic! At The Disco's 'debut single' But It's Better If You Do? Erm....
A review of Panic! At The Disco's 'debut single' But It's Better If You Do? Erm....
4.5.06
News (04/05/06)
- British albums accounted for almost half of UK album sales last year, most since 1998. This is apparently accounted for by the success of 'rock', which apparently doesn't include James Blunt, Robbie Williams or Scissor Sisters but does include Keane, Coldplay, KT Tunstall and Gorillaz. Weirdly and slightly worryingly this is just a KT Tunstall out from defining all the ones that I bought.
- New RHCP album leaks (2 hours? Like the last one wasn't way too long already); Flea gets very upset.
- Killers' next album 'one of the best albums of the past 20 years'. Right then.
Worth looking at
Goodhodgkins' analysis of Pitchfork's reviews, not least for the revelation that the band that they have reviewed the most times is KISS.
3.5.06
News (03/05/06)
- Warner and EMI merger off, for now at least.
- Muse now title album, it's out July 3rd and called
Butterflies And Hurricanes'Black Holes And Revelations'. - David Bowie 'fed up with industry'.
- Britney pregnant again. (news from Drowned In Sound, no less)
- Liam Gallagher: Oasis 'not the biggest band in the world' shocker.
2.5.06
The Big Ask at Brixton Jamm (28/04/06)
Seeing Guillemots again and supporting a cause (Friends Of The Earth) without having to pay £55 for the honour like for their Yorke/Greenwood show was reason enough to head out to Brixton late at night (first band on at ten, though we didn't quite make it by then) and brave buses home at 2:30am, which turned out to be not as bad as expected anyway.
Walking in to Polar Bear's set midway through a very long droney experimental piece doesn't give a very good first impression but they turned out to have a very wide range of tricks up their sleeve, making their instrumental jazz (something I'm sure I'm not alone in knowing very little about) very approachable and enjoyable with complete with great playing and some cool electronic flourishes.
The Bellagios (featuring Guillemots' Aristazabal's boyfriend) slightly outstay their welcome in the end but their enthusiastic hip-hop, if somewhat indecipherable, is funky and dancable and great fun all round, especially with constant interaction between the four vocalists and between them and the audience
Somehwat surprisingly they seem to attract more of an audience than Guillemots - perhaps it's just coming on at gone 1am which is the problem. Whatever, they choose to play a slightly shortened (i.e. only 75 minutes!) set including large sections of potentially tiresome improvisation (it's that kind of night) and yet are almost as stunning as in their full glory at King's College a month ago.
Dropping most recent single We're Here to make room is actually a great move because they don't seem to have worked out how to play it yet, and they spread the improvised songs out, although Fyfe in particular has such an amazing gift for melody that there's almost no need. Only the squealing saxophone eventually becomes wearing, but they still have everyone on their side, playing more fantastic than ever versions of Trains To Brazil and Made Up Love Song #43, overdoing the usual pause in the middle of Who Left The Lights Off, Baby? to a ridiculous degree and once again showing why Sau Paolo needs to be released as soon as possible.
(usual thanks to Ada for photos)
Walking in to Polar Bear's set midway through a very long droney experimental piece doesn't give a very good first impression but they turned out to have a very wide range of tricks up their sleeve, making their instrumental jazz (something I'm sure I'm not alone in knowing very little about) very approachable and enjoyable with complete with great playing and some cool electronic flourishes.
The Bellagios (featuring Guillemots' Aristazabal's boyfriend) slightly outstay their welcome in the end but their enthusiastic hip-hop, if somewhat indecipherable, is funky and dancable and great fun all round, especially with constant interaction between the four vocalists and between them and the audience
Somehwat surprisingly they seem to attract more of an audience than Guillemots - perhaps it's just coming on at gone 1am which is the problem. Whatever, they choose to play a slightly shortened (i.e. only 75 minutes!) set including large sections of potentially tiresome improvisation (it's that kind of night) and yet are almost as stunning as in their full glory at King's College a month ago.
Dropping most recent single We're Here to make room is actually a great move because they don't seem to have worked out how to play it yet, and they spread the improvised songs out, although Fyfe in particular has such an amazing gift for melody that there's almost no need. Only the squealing saxophone eventually becomes wearing, but they still have everyone on their side, playing more fantastic than ever versions of Trains To Brazil and Made Up Love Song #43, overdoing the usual pause in the middle of Who Left The Lights Off, Baby? to a ridiculous degree and once again showing why Sau Paolo needs to be released as soon as possible.
(usual thanks to Ada for photos)
Chartsengrafs (02/05/06)
Sunday just gone: Gnarls Barkley made it 5 weeks at number one and showed little sign of showing down, also indeed taking the album top spot. The Raconteurs were highest new or semi-new entry at 4 which is strangely better than The White Stripes have ever managed, also beating Dirty Pretty Things by one place and Snow Patrol by 3. Beatfreakz got beaten by the actual Michael Jackson (although on downloads, not for real), and Ultrabeat arrived at number 35, possibly through some kind of time-travelling wormhole. Sigur Rós crept to 44 ahead of a full Planet Earth-backed release this week. Arctic Monkeys non-eligible EP does seem to have avoided records to the extent that even the usual sources so far have no clue as to how many it actually sold.
Sunday coming: Gnarls Barkley still to be number one of course, at least in the singles (Snow Patrol to inevitably take his place in the albums) ahead of Red Hot Chili Peppers' latest attempt to make a video better than the associated single by the largest possible margin at 2. Beatfreakz and Feeder (what, still?) also heading for the top 10, Panic! At The Disco (not yet sounding as amazing as their last single), We Are Scientists and Goldfrapp (what, still?) for the top 40.
Sunday coming: Gnarls Barkley still to be number one of course, at least in the singles (Snow Patrol to inevitably take his place in the albums) ahead of Red Hot Chili Peppers' latest attempt to make a video better than the associated single by the largest possible margin at 2. Beatfreakz and Feeder (what, still?) also heading for the top 10, Panic! At The Disco (not yet sounding as amazing as their last single), We Are Scientists and Goldfrapp (what, still?) for the top 40.
1.5.06
News (01/05/06)
- Glastonbury to attempt to expand even more.
- But Coachella might be ending, or at least moving.
- Will Young most popular UK artist of all time according to commercial radio listeners. Seriously, he's pretty good nowadays but is this a month late or what?
- Katie Melua gets a tulip named after her, as 'the people of The Netherlands love her'
The verdicts - Snow Patrol's 'Eyes Open'
A new regular feature looking at the range of opinions on a new album, starting with Snow Patrol's fourth. Because Metacritic doesn't read blogs. Or teletext, although I'm a bit too late to remember anything more than that they gave it 8/10, sadly.
It might be updated in a couple of weeks when there are more opinions out there too.
The Times goes for 4/5 but seems a little unsure - it says Eyes Open 'takes Final Straw and projects it on to a larger canvas' and as a result 'feels like a nerveless triumph.'
The NME give it a grudging 6/10, similarly bemoaning its '[tackling of] the familiar musical ground of 'Final Straw' with verve but little variety'.
And Observer Music Monthly (3/5) are even less generous: 'Big, bold, cleverly-executed, thoroughly hollow stuff'.
Meanwhile on the blogs, where generally speaking those bothering to comment on the full album are by definition those who enjoyed 'Final Straw,' the reaction is a little more positive but still not ecstatic.
Musicisnotdead reckon 'the more polished sound fits them well' and that they are now 'sounding like the soundtrack to a coming of age movie'.
The Razor Wire, meanwhile, suggests that while it 'surpasses Final Straw in terms of listenability [...] the band may have slightly dumbed down their sound in order to attract a legion of new listeners'.
And Good Weather For Airstrikes also cautiously celebrate its 'decidedly major-label feel, absolutely dripping in production flourishes', ending on the suggestion that 'Eyes Open sees Snow Patrol finally finding their niche as the UK's next great arena-rock band, somewhere in between Coldplay and Muse'.
It might be updated in a couple of weeks when there are more opinions out there too.
The Times goes for 4/5 but seems a little unsure - it says Eyes Open 'takes Final Straw and projects it on to a larger canvas' and as a result 'feels like a nerveless triumph.'
The NME give it a grudging 6/10, similarly bemoaning its '[tackling of] the familiar musical ground of 'Final Straw' with verve but little variety'.
And Observer Music Monthly (3/5) are even less generous: 'Big, bold, cleverly-executed, thoroughly hollow stuff'.
Meanwhile on the blogs, where generally speaking those bothering to comment on the full album are by definition those who enjoyed 'Final Straw,' the reaction is a little more positive but still not ecstatic.
Musicisnotdead reckon 'the more polished sound fits them well' and that they are now 'sounding like the soundtrack to a coming of age movie'.
The Razor Wire, meanwhile, suggests that while it 'surpasses Final Straw in terms of listenability [...] the band may have slightly dumbed down their sound in order to attract a legion of new listeners'.
And Good Weather For Airstrikes also cautiously celebrate its 'decidedly major-label feel, absolutely dripping in production flourishes', ending on the suggestion that 'Eyes Open sees Snow Patrol finally finding their niche as the UK's next great arena-rock band, somewhere in between Coldplay and Muse'.
Captain - Broke
I had no idea til I bought this (very good) single today that it was produced by Trevor Horn, surprised the fact hasn't got more attention.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)