Remix Thursday: Justice 'Phantom II' Boys Noize remix

Can you remember in 2007 when Justice smashed onto the scene with their superb heavy electro joy! It was as though someone had suddenly given the stale dance scene a shot and told it to go home and think about what it had done wrong. We were back to great heavy electronic joy and Justice were our new French leaders of the revolution, they paved the way to German electro king Boys Noize who remixed their track Phantom II, give a listen to his results as its utterly brilliant!

Justice - 'Phantom II' Boys Noize Remix

Tuesday Track - Surfer Blood 'Swim'

Surfer Blood are great, they are young and full of superb tunes. Their album 'Astro Coast' is brilliant and definately worth listening to, I also think they are a great live band who are young and a breath of fresh air in the stale live circuit at the moment. So go ahead and check out their track 'Swim' below and let me know what you think!

Surfer Blood - 'Swim'

Tuesday Track - Omar Souleyman 'Jani'

So this is going to be a bit different to the normal track that we have had appear in the past few weeks but it comes from a Syrian dude called Omar Souleyman who has released more than 500 cassettes in his homeland! The track is actually very heavily influenced by dance music and will surprise you.

THIS WILL NOT BE TO EVERYONES TASTE but its amazing live and worth checking out. Plus look at the dude he looks ace! I saw him at ATP and he was amazing!

Omar Souleyman 'Jani'

Tuesday Track - Pavement 'Shady Lane'

Pavement have reformed and they are playing at the venue which graced them with their last performance just over 10 years ago. So for those of you that haven't yet dipped into the world of pavement I welcome you with open arms. This is a track called 'Shady Lane' which appeared on their album 'Brighten the Corners'. Its a pretty perfect introduction to the world of pavement, they have amazing songs with intricate lyrics and are truly great! How many people can include the lyrics "Tell me off in the hotel lobby right in front of all the bellboys and the over-friendly concierge"

Genius

Pavement - Shady Lane

Tuesday Track - Interpol 'Lights'

As many of you will know, Interpol are a band that are very close to my heart. I love their dark lyrics, their amazing guitar sounds and whatever people say I don't think they sound like Joy Division....well actually this track does definitely start a bit like Joy Division....anyways that's besides the point. This is the new track from Interpol available as a free download through their website and my blog!

Interpol - 'Lights'

Tuesday Track - Rolling Stones 'Plundered My Soul'

So it may seem strange that I'm still writing about Record Store Day, after all it happened a good 10 days ago. Last week I brought you Blur's new offering, this weeks its an unearthed single from the Rolling Stones. This was an outtake from the superb 'Exhile on Main Street' which I would highly reccomend to anyone wanting to get into the Stones. They are apparently going to repackage it to include this song so no need to fork out tons of money for the track just wait a few months and it will be yours.

Anyways enjoy......

Remix Thursday: Bynar 'Reflection of Puppets' Metallica vs NIN

I love a good remix and this one is top draw! It takes samples from Nine Inch Nails 'Survivalism', Duse 'Nackig', Sisters of Mixing 'New Cretia', The sisters of Mercy 'Lucretia my reflection' and the mighty Metallica 'Master of Puppets'.

Its an amazing creation what Bynar has come up with and definately worth a download and listen, you will find yourself loving the industrial grind which he has given the heavy metal monoliths. If you enjoy it make sure you check out Bynar's website

Now without further delay enjoy!

Bynar - 'Reflection of Puppets'

Tuesday Track: Blur 'Fool's Day'

I was as shocked as everyone to hear that Blur had recorded a new track and were releasing it on 7" in the UK. I woke up early on Saturday morning and headed down to the Record Store to try and purchase my copy of the gem, however the queue was too long. No 7" vinyl for me and no chance to listen to the new recording until later that day the announcement that they were making it available for free download! Since then I can say that I have been listening to this nearly on repeat, its great to hear a new Blur song and has just meant that I want to hear more of their new recordings. So without further delay click below and enjoy the masterpiece!

Blur - Fool's Day

PS. Sorry that I have been away for so long I am now going to get back onto my daily updates.

New Music Monday: SXSW Special

Most years I attempt to listen to all of the bands that are playing at South by Southwest Festival, this year I attempted to go through the list of 2,000+ bands but failed, I managed to get to the end of the H's and gave up the ghost. This is the list of unsigned bands that I thought were worth your time to listen to, I hope that at least some of them come out the other end and become household names!

Band Name
Location of band Genre "Track to listen to on their myspace"
Myspace Link

A Classic Education
Bologna ITALY Alternative "What My Life Could Have Been"
www.myspace.com/aclassiceducation

A Shoreline Dream
Denver CO Rock "New York"
www.myspace.com/ashorelinedream

Aaron Pfenning
Brooklyn NY Electronic "Drainstorm"
www.myspace.com/aaronpfenning

Alvarez Kings
Rotherham UK-England Rock "You me them us"
www.myspace.com/alvarezkings

Barcelona
Seattle WA Rock "Come Back When You Can"
www.myspace.com/barcelona

Boulder Acoustic Society
Boulder CO Americana "Give It Away"
www.myspace.com/boulderacousticsociety

Brasstronaut
Vancouver BC Soul "Slow Knots"
www.myspace.com/brasstronaut

Brazos
Austin TX Jazz "Tell"
http://www.brazosbrazos.com/

Bruce Peninsula
Toronto ON Folk "2nd 4th World War"
http://www.myspace.com/brucepeninsula

Colourmusic
Edmond OK Avant/Experimental "Yes!"
www.myspace.com/colourmusic

Cymbals Eat Guitars
New York NY Rock "Wild Phoenix"
www.myspace.com/cymbalseatguitars

Darker My Love
Los Angeles CA Rock "Two Ways Out"
www.myspace.com/darkermylove

Dignan
McAllen TX Rock "Two Steps"
www.myspace.com/dignan

Dinosaur Bones
Toronto ON Rock "Royalty"
www.myspace.com/dinosaurbonesband

Eagle Seagull
Lincoln NE Rock "Twenty Thousand Light Years"
www.myspace.com/eagleseagull

Final Flash
Montreal QC Rock "When the day turns black" www.myspace.com/finalflash

Givers
Lafayette LA Rock "Up Up Up"
www.myspace.com/giversmusic

New Music Monday - Swing Youth

This is the last entry for the next 2 weeks, this will be because I am going to be slaving through the SXSW bands list to put up my bands to check out if your going (I'm not annoyingly!).....Anyways check out Swing Youth they are a 4 piece from Watford who have a charming indie innocence sound which will take you back to those days where you skipped through fields of flowers when you were 16....actually its more likely to be the soundtrack to your friends house party.

Anyways check them out and pre-order their single from the link below

Swing Youth Myspace

Single - Pre-order link

Its only a quid

Tuesday Track - 'The XX Gon' Give It To Ya' (DMX vs The XX)

After mentioning on the blog last week that I thought it would be the perfect end to the mashup genre, I am clearly wrong. I am not a big XX fan, however when I heard this tune it made me love the track, well not the XX version but this insane one! DMX comes roaring like he did all those years ago barking into the track and gives it to us! Utter genius!!

'The XX Gon' Give It To Ya' (DMX vs The XX)

New Music Monday - Sunbirds

Sunbirds are a four piece from the UK, they have some amazing upbeat songs, the vocals are a mixture of Klaxon's meets Fleet Foxes, they harmonise through some chorus very well but with more of an edge and speed than Fleet Foxes but more talent than Klaxon's. The bass kicks through the songs which inevitably will lead to some ridiculous head bopping action as the guitar cranks over the top. Great songs, I look forward to checking them out at one of their forthcoming London dates.

Sunbirds Myspace

Remix Thursday - Ellie Goulding (Feat Theophilus London) Starry Eyed (Penguin Prison Remix)

Ellie Goulding will be a big star according to the BBC Sound of 2010 where she topped the billing. This last week she also won the Brits Critic's Choice, becoming the first artist to win both awards. Her album comes out in a couple of weeks time and this is a remix of her current single by Theophilus London (who was mentioned heavily in the Welcome to Brook-Hop article a few weeks back. Enjoy!

Ellie Goulding (Feat Theophilus London) - Starry Eyed (Penguin Prison Remix)

Beatles vs Hip Hop

A few years ago ‘Dangermouse’ broke onto the scene, the reason behind his sudden rise of fame was that he had taken samples from ‘The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ and mashed them up with an a capella ‘Jay-Z’ ‘Black Album’ to create the now infamous ‘Grey Album’. It was initially going to be released on a small run however what happened changed both the lives of ‘Dangermouse’ and the music scene. EMI intervened and tried to stop the music from getting out, but the cat was already out the bag. As a result they started to build a lawsuit against ‘Dangermouse’ should he release the album commercially (as ‘The Beatles’ hadn’t cleared any of the tracks on the album for use). This lead to Grey Tuesday in which a movement to try and restructure the music industry which lead to a large number of websites hosting the album on their page for free download, this along with the added coverage that the album had received through both EMI’s public outcry about using the Beatles music and the favorable reviews which they had started to receive from ‘The New Yorker’, ‘NME’, ‘Rolling Stone’ meant that it became one of the most celebrated releases of the year, it was named the best album of 2004 by ‘Entertainment Weekly’ and was hailed as the greatest success of the mashup as it mixed two very different genres together.

After that release the world started to see ‘The Beatles’ being mashed up with everyone from ‘Metallica’ through to ‘The Jonas Brothers’, most of these remixes are pretty horrific however it was clear that the mashup had been elevated to new lengths.



Cut to 2010; its been 6 years since we heard ‘Jay-Z’ vs ‘The Beatles’ ‘Grey Album’. It’s appeared on countless top 100 album’s of the decade lists and hasn’t been forgotten, however nobody has tried to take on the baton from ‘Dangermouse’s superb album. This was until I came across a new mashup album; at 26 tracks long it’s definitely a full length album which could took over 2 months to create as each track is superb. So, who did ‘Tom Caruana’ chose to remix against ‘The Beatles’? None other than the ‘Wu-Tang Clan’, in my opinion it actually works a lot better than the ‘Jay-Z’ mashup. He has taken tracks from all of the members of the Clan, not the huge anthems that you would have expected him to use, there is no ‘Gravel Pit’ seen on this album. Instead the 28 year old music teacher from Brighton has chosen to use tracks such as ‘Forget Me Not’ by ‘Inspectah Deck’ from his solo album that was released in 1999, this was the first track that I heard from the album and it completely blew me away, it uses ‘The Beatles’ track ‘You won’t see me’ the results are actually mind-blowing! What I love about ‘Tom Caruana’s mix is that he has audio samples of interviews within the tracks which breaks up the album and gives it an additional level which wasn’t found on ‘The Grey Album’.


Raekwon Tweeting about the album

I am not sure what will happen next, will ‘Tom Caruana’ become a household name over the next few years like ‘Dangermouse’ has? Maybe; who can really say? He has been interviewed by the New York Times and produced what would be a great end to the mashup genre; unfortunately I can’t see that being the case. However I would highly recommend you to download the album and give it a listen as ‘Enter the magical Mystery Chambers’ will blow you away! It is a true masterpiece.

Tuesday Track - MGMT Metanoia

MGMT have just announced that their second album 'Congratulations' will be released on April 13th, this isn't a taster of their forthcoming album but an EP that they released in the USA late last year, the track is a mere 13 minutes long, so put yourselves into a comfortable chair and get ready to be taken on a journey through the stranger trippier MGMT world than you experienced on 'Oracular Spectacular'. Enjoy and let me know what you think about it......

MGMT - 'Metanoia'

New Music Monday - Lonely Galaxy

Unfortunately I am unable to really tell you much about Lonely Galaxy. They have no pictures on their myspace or any information whatsoever a search on google only brought back bare minimum findings. However his/their? music is gorgeous. Their forthcoming single 'Have a Heart' is 7 minutes long, it begins with an organ playing something reminiscent of 'Interpol's 'Next Exit' opening to 'Antics' however it builds into the lyrics of "I've been feeling pretty low" the two songs on their myspace are signs that Lonely Galaxy should be kept an eye on!

Lovely Galaxy Myspace

Remix Thursday - Kid Cudi 'Dat New New' (Viking Remix)

This remix blew my mind when I first heard it, 'Kid Cudi' has been blogged about for the past year more than every other artist. He has several superb remixes of his work and has been collaborating with anyone who's happy to work with him. However it was the Viking remix of 'Dat New New' which blew me away, sounding like Daft Punk meets Justice with Cudi doing his thing its something that's just extraordinarily good!

Kid Cudi - 'Dat New New' (Viking Remix)

The most watched half-time in the world

I am of course talking about the small known American Football phenomenon that occurs at the start of February each year; the Superbowl. Since the superbowl began in 1967 we have seen a performance occur in the 30 minute half time of the game. During this period the pitch is cleared a stage is erected and a band performs a 15 minute set which is shown live to approximately 90 million people. Originally the show would allow a marching band to perform to entertain the crowd. However as we saw an increase in audience ratings, along with the cost to advertise we saw an improvement in the level of performers that were able to grace the centrefield.

For the first decade the performers were usually a university marching band who would sometimes be joined by a famous artist, Ella Fitzgerald performed in 1972 in a salute to Louis Armstrong, it would however be nearly 20 years until we would have another famous artist perform, as we then saw the era of a performance show, they would tend to be themed and offered a glimpse into the 1980s world of sports entertainment. The 90’s couldn’t roll around fast enough however with the movement into a new decade we also saw the start of artists performing at half time. We began with ‘New Kids on the Block’ and Disney characters, performing a remembrance of the first 25 years of the superbowl. Then in 1992 ‘Gloria Estefan’ sang as some gold medalists from the winter Olympics skated around mini ice-rinks, it was indeed quite an unbelievable show….that is I can’t believe someone thought that it would be a good idea!



The first global superstar to perform during the 30 minute gap was Michael Jackson, his performance in 1993 transformed the Superbowl, it was the first year in the sports history that viewing figures increased during the half time slot. He performed a medley of songs which would forever transform the allotted half time show.



The rest of the 90’s saw Diana Ross, the Blues Brothers, TLC, Aretha Franklin and lastly Chaka Khan, Gloria Estefan (who along with Justin Timberlake are only artists to have performed twice) and Stevie Wonder. We started to move into a younger pop audience at the turn of the millennium with Christina Aguilera, Enrique Inglesias, ‘N Sync, Britney Spears, May J Blige and Nelly. After U2 performed in 2002 a tribute to those who died on 11th September we returned back to pop music, with Shania Twain, No Doubt and Sting performing in 2003. It would however be in 2004 that the performance would cause the most controversy, at the end of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s show. The world was introduced to the term ‘wardrobe malfunction’ something used to describe seeing Miss Jacksons tit.



After the controversy surrounding the wardrobe malfunction the NFL started to move into safer territory, they elected to move into the geriatric rockers territory. The next two artists were British, a first in superbowl half time entertainment. We saw Paul McCartney perform some classic songs from his illustrious career, performing Beatles, Wings and solo material. The NFL was clearly pleased with the lack of controversy so booked The Rolling Stones to perform, with The Stones however came the largest stage ever to be mounted in Superbowl history, as you can see from below the 28 pieces that were needed to be assembled were completed and they performed a good show.





After the Rolling Stones however was one of my favorite performances, Prince returned with his own symbol and performed a superb medley of songs including a cover of the Foo Fighters ‘Best Of You’ unfortunately as much as I would have loved to put a clip below of the performance however Prince worked tirelessly to have them all removed, so unfortunately you will have to take my word for it. The NFL have clearly been feeling the pressure to keep these aged performers making spectacular half time shows, they clearly want to show the performances of artists who may not be there in a few years time, we saw Tom Petty perform a perfectly inoffensive show. It was then the Boss who took the show to another level, Springsteen and the E-Street band put everything into that performance and really made it something that everyone would be talking about after the game. I could only find videos from the audience which didn’t quite do as much credit as it deserves.

This year we saw The Who perform, I was very disappointed by both Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey’s voices as they seemed past it; however the light show was something that took away from their sub par performance. I can’t help but hope that in the forthcoming year they start to return to younger artists as we are definitely starting to run out of the geriatric generation!

Tuesday Track - Kasha 'Empire State of Mind' (England Mix)

Jay-Z has become the largest player in the game, 'The Blueprint 3' included some amazing collaborations none finer than with Alicia Key's on 'Empire State of Mind'. However I came across this mix last week and loved it, Kasha has taken the instrumental of the Jigga mans track and referenced everything about this city. Give it a listen and laugh at some of the finer points of our city! Anyone who wants another version of Empire State of Mind check out Snoop's version of the track!

Kasha - Empire State Of Mind (England Mix)


Kasha Myspace

New Music Monday - The Drums

I know its not exactly hot off the new music wagon, but they will still be an unknown band to a few people out there....The Drums are the US equivalent of Glasvegas, they sing melodic surfer rock songs which when you listen the the lyrics show a much deeper meaning; "Oh moma, I wanna to go surfing, oh moma, I don't care about nothing". They are definately a band who's album will do wonders when its released. They also have the amazing opening slot on the NME Tour which will inevitably open some doors into mainstream success.

The Drums Myspace

Remix Thursday - Owen Pallett 'Keep The Dog Quiet' Simon Bookish Remix

L-R Owen Pallett, Simon Bookish

What appears to be yet another big up of Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy)! This remix is done by Simon Bookish who is still to get the fame he deserves! It takes the track and adds many more layers including some great beats which the initial recording was lacking as well as really fooling around with the song itself! Not the regular heavy remixes that you have come to expect on this blog but a great one anyways!

Owen Pallett 'Keep The Dog Quiet' Simon Bookish Remix

Welcome to Brook-Hop

When Bob Dylan sang on ‘Ballad of a thin man’ the timeless lyrics “Something’s happening here, but you don’t know what it is”. Im sure that Bob wasn’t talking about the underground hip-hop movement that has been rejuvenated in Brooklyn. Hip-Hop first came out in the 1970s from the Bronx however it was in the 80s that it started finding mainstream succes, the golden age (late 80s-early 90s) saw some of what we now consider the finest ‘Old School’ Hip-Hop royalty break onto the scene. Suddenly it moved out of the subways and street corners and into mainstream media.

This scene however has been forever changing since those days, we have seen the rise in a handful of superstars. Once they have been hand picked we see millions each year spent on keeping them as the crème of the game, 50 Cent’s last album bombed if compared to his previous efforts, Lil Wayne’s new album this week is atrocious after his superb ‘Tha Carter III’, could this be the end of hip-hop as we know it? Artists like The Game, Flo Rida, Akon and Chris Brown have turned the genre into pop music trying to break bad. The clever lyrics and interesting beats have paved way for mainstream crap with awful rapping over the top. However, amongst all of this there is a new underground hip hop movement going on in Brooklyn!

The first artist to emerge out of the Brook-Hop scene (if Nu-rave stuck then I don’t see why Brook-Hop can’t!) was Theophilus London. I first heard about him thanks to one of my other favorite blogs Abeano (worth checking out if you haven’t already! Imran runs a superb ship over there!) I was fortunate enough to finally see him perform last night supporting Miike Snow, the guy looks straight out of the 80s! Sporting a flat retro cap and some cool shades as well as some debatable clothing that could have easily been left back then he brings a superb show, mixing some classic songs and giving it his smooth lyrics over the top. His remix of ‘Amadou et Mariam’ track ‘Sabali’ is exactly what I feel that African music deserves, he takes a superb song and turns it into his own. The reason I have used ‘Sabali’ as the main example is that I have a lot of love for African music and am disappointed in seeing a huge rise in African influenced bands but no more interest in the originators of the sound. The success that has started to fall to Theophilus London is largely in part to the release of his first mixtape ‘This Charming Mixtape’ which I highly recommend you to download! The rise of the free mixtape download is a central part to this movement, with more MCs becoming savvy to production techniques and teaming up with incredibly musically gifted DJ’s they are able to gain a following from the releases of these free mixes. I would say to open the door into this world download ‘This Charming Mixtape’ and just give one listen to ‘Hum Drum Town’, ‘Crazy Cousins’, ‘Sabali’ and ‘Day One Fans’ and you will be a Theophilus convert! His new mixtape will be available for download in a few weeks time he informed me yesterday.

Now whilst these artists haven’t gained the same buzz as Theophilus has, they are worth checking out, after all it’s not an artist that makes a scene but a plethora of them! I wrote about them a couple of weeks back in New Music Monday however I wanted to re-promote Rocky Business in this blog. They will be starting to create some ripples in the music scene when they release their mixtape shortly. Lyrically ‘SB’ seems more powerful than Theophilus, he annunciates his lyrics whilst going at a 100mph over self produced breakdance tracks as well as some rocking pop tunes, musically its all produced by ‘Johnny on the Rocks’ they will be ones to watch as they fine tune their songs before breaking further into the mainstream in months to come.

Have you heard of ‘Fresh Daily’ yet? No! Well go and change that! Coming out of AOK Collective (which is a consortium of musicians and artists, claiming they are NYC’s final answer to indie Hip-Hop, other artists to check out from this group are '8thW1', 'P.SO the Earth Tone King', '2 Hungry Bros.' and 'Homeboy Sandman'. I have only chosen two of the collective and if you want to check out any of the others click on their names to go to their myspace pages. ‘Fresh Daily’ has got some smooth rhymes and is able to roll through his lyrics keeping you hooked the whole way along. His album "Gorgeous Killer in crimes of Passion is definately worth listening to, you will get a real feel of Brook-Hop done well! The other artist that I am going to plug out of the AOK Collective is 'Nola Darling', this is not only because she’s got tunes but also because a female MC deserves love in this male dominated genre!

Lastly I’m going to throw a bunch of names that if you have enjoyed listening to some of the beats and rhymes from the Brook-Hop scene then they are also worth giving a listen to: 'Black Sheep'; 'Shinobi Ninja'; 'Ninjasonik'; 'Anton Glamb'; 'Memberz Only' and 'Johnny Nelson'. Something makes me feel we will be hearing a lot more out of Brooklyn in the next year!

If you managed to listen to all those artits you deserve a round of applause! If you checked one of them out I hope you enjoyed it!

Tuesday Track - Javelin 'STD Fury'

I heard this track and loved it! It reminded me of the Teenagers when I first heard it, lo-fi electro indie with some of the most shocking lyrics! I may have actually received a few strange looks from people in my office when I decided to put it on my speakers last week during work! However I definately think that it deserves the plays that I have been giving it....although now on my headphones instead of for the office's enjoyment!

Javelin - 'STD Fury'

New Music Monday - Gold Panda

Gold Panda is the brain child of producer/remixer Derwin, who has been ripping up VHS, old records and retro computer games to create a superbly delightful left-field sound. Clearly influenced by the far east and Japan in particular he will surely be looking forward to the Japanese tour he has planned. I will be down to see him play the Corsica Studio in London on the 20th April after his return from the East! If you're local I would advise you to check him out as well! Failing that have a listen to his superb songs on Myspace!

Gold Panda Myspace

Remix Thursday - Dragonette 'Pick Up The Phone' (Michael Van She Remix)

The original song sounds similar to an average Kate Bush modern day rip-off, the remix sounds like Kate Bush has made music with Felix Da Housecat with a 99p Flake thrown in for good measure! (I'm not sure why they needed the ice cream thrown in but the remix is damn good anyways!) Enjoy!

Dragonette - Pick Up The Phone (Michael Van She Remix)

Van She Myspace
Dragonette Myspace

TV killed the video star

When was the last time that you watched MTV? What was the show that you tuned in to see? Did you turn it on to catch ‘Cribs’? Or was it ‘My super sweet 16’? My personal favorite was always the classic ‘Pimp My Ride’ when Xzibit was at the helm it was good, however the true genius started when the UK decided to put Tim Westwood as the presenter of our version of the US classic. He ruined cars up and down the country as he brought his gangster persona to a larger audience laughing at him, my personal favorite clip was in found in his lead up to Jay-Z’s performance at Glastonbury when he proceeded to pimp Michael Eavis’ tractor in the ludicrous BBC Three coverage of Hip-Hop coming to Glasto, which went completely overboard with Westwood’s ridiculous world.



The point about all of the above was when was the last time that you watched MTV for its musical programming? MTV has lost its direction, after all Mark Knopfler was singing “you play the guitar on the MTV” back in the 80’s with Dire Straights. Nowadays the only mention we receive of MTV is an advert on a different channel for their new reality show or on within the news for their ‘Jersey Shore Punch’.

MTV did of course branch out with several different channels; we now have MTV 2, MTV Base, MTV Hits, MTV Dance all of which are genre specific. However if you ask someone what music they like, the response I tend to hear is “I listen to a bit of everything”; after all we are the iPod generation. MTV used to cover all the genres, if you wanted Metal you could tune it last thing at night and get your fix, if you wanted mainstream pop you just turned it on during the day. The final music affiliation that MTV has is all those damn awards ceremonies! How many times do you need to give Beyonce an award for a good video or Green Day for an album! Unfortunately all these ceremonies now look identical and the winners appear to win the same award on a monthly basis.

I understand that MTV has received a large portion of coverage in this week’s blog; however I still haven’t mentioned the largest TV element which killed the Video star. I am of course talking about the world’s most notorious A&R man, Simon Cowell. It’s ironic that he is mentioned in this blog as he is one of the main reasons why I am able to work at Sony Music, who without him would be in financial difficulty this year. They have successfully extended their contract with him this previous week which must have cost some unthinkable sum.



Whilst he has scouted some of the largest talent the UK has to provide, the X-Factor organisation has also released several classic ground breaking hit albums and singles which can now be located in your local Oxfam bargain bin. After all can you remember the timeless masterpieces of; G4, Andy Abraham, Journey South, Ray Quinn, Same Difference, Eoghan Quigg? If you can’t trust me your not missing out on much at all, however the crème of the lot is the first X-Factor champion Steve Brookstein who apart from having a huge amount of albums sitting in our warehouse is due to be announcing his 2010 UK tour shortly, I’m certain that it will be a mind-blowing success and receive huge coverage as he graces the UK with another superb album of covers! Unfortunately the success of the X-Factor has also led to a rise in popularity of talent shows that are trying to now find the next best; dancer, singer, fire-eater, farmer and dentist the UK has to offer! I am not sure how long it will be before we finally get bored of this shows format much in the same way that Big Brother no longer creates D-rate celebrities!

Tuesday Track - Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) - Lewis Takes Off His Shirt

Owen Pallet released two superb albums under the name Final Fantasy, however with his new album he decided to drop the Final Fantasy name and revert back to his original name. I saw him perform live last night at the Union Chapel (picture can be seen above) it was an amazing show, the acoustics were superb, the new songs are great and he once again amazes with his insane loops and building of beautiful music!

Owen Pallett - Lewis takes off his shirt

For those that want an introduction to a song you may know check out his amazing version of Bloc Party's - This Modern Love

New Music Monday - Rocky Business

On my musical journey of the past 7 days I came across Rocky Business. A duo from NYC they mix underground hip-hop and indie pop. Coming out of the same scene as Theophilus London I can’t help but feel that these two have a much more accessible crossover potential to the mainstream if they continue to record their music correctly. 'Army of Love' sound like the White Stripes have just met Outkast, which can only be a good thing! Their mix tape will be out soon and will definitely be worth a download!

Rocky Business Myspace

Listen to: Find Away

Remix Thursday - RATM 'Killing in the name of Sebastian' Remix

To tie in with yesterday's blog I decided to upload an old remix made in 2007 by Ed Banger's Sebastian. He remixed Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name of' giving it a superb electro sound. If you liked the christmas number 1 then you will definately like this. Sebastian is recording his debut to be released on Ed Banger Records later this year

Rage Against the Machine - 'Killing in the name of Sebastian'

Power to the People

This past Christmas saw one of the strangest chart battles in the UK to reach top of the charts for the coveted Christmas single. In the battle, we saw X-Factor winner Joe McElderry go head-to-head with Rage Against the Machine. In what was one of the strangest chart battles I have ever encountered, we saw ‘Killing in the Name Of’ claim the number one spot! This all started by a Facebook campaign which, by the end of its movement, had over 1 million followers.

What was surprising about this campaign was that although everyone seemed to feel passionate about the movement and was happy to join the group, the number of people that actually bought the single was considerably less than supported the cause. Of the 1 million people who were signed up to Facebook’s group and the countless of other supporters who aren’t on the social networking website but had heard about the campaign through one of its well publicised news stories, we saw just over 500,000 sales of the single. Half a million sales of a single is, of course, a monumental achievement and as such, was a deserved number one. However, that’s not actually half of the group that were campaigning so strongly for its chart success. Within the group, there would also have been likeminded people who purchased the track several times (I bought it 3 times from itunes using a Leona Lewis free downloads voucher….the irony! and once off Amazon at 29p!) If we consider the fact that everyone bought the single the legal 3 times from one retailer at the cheap price of less than a pint in Weatherspoons, the campaign was only actually won by just over 150,000 people. It is, of course, a monumental victory for those that started the campaign to choose such a tough battle going against Simon Cowell and the X-Factor juggernaut with a track that couldn’t be played on National radio due to swearing.

However, this has sparked a new movement with a new campaign that has come to light. Next month there is now a “The Smiths How Soon Is Now? For No 1 Meat Is Murder 25th Anniversary” campaign. Will this receive the same support that Rage received? Will the legendary British band have the same eagerness to support the campaign as Rage attained? Probably not with Morrissey and Marr not talking to each other and both still being heavily involved in music (Moz is solo and Marr is in the Cribs and Modest Mouse.) However, former drummer Mike Joyce has supported the campaign. If we look at last week’s sales, the number one single in the country was bought 87,000 times. At the moment, the Smiths Facebook group has nearly 11,000 members. If the Rage figures are anything to go by, they will need their group to grow heavily and everyone to support the song if its to see the number 1 spot that week.

By some great coincidence, there has also been a campaign to get Girls Aloud previous single ‘Untouchable’ to achieve top 10 status, supported by 9,000 strong. They want to see the only single the girl band released that didn’t make the top 10 achieve a spot in the second week of February’s charts. Have we reached the stage where online campaigns are going to become diluted? I wouldn’t be surprised if we also saw them abused by record companies trying to push a catalogue artist on the general public. I will be very intrigued to see if Girls Aloud can turn every single they have released into a top 10 success and if the Smith’s can mark their first ever UK top 10 hit!

Lastly, I have just found out that there is another campaign to get the Sex Pistol’s ‘God Save the Queen’ to number 1 for her majesty’s birthday. This campaign was started due to the chart excluding the track in 1977 where it would have reached number 1 for the Queen’s silver jubilee celebrations. This campaign has been backed by RATM’s founder and has already received great support with over 30,000 members already signed up. With her birthday being the 12th June, it looks like the most likely campaign to succeed. However, my support goes out to all of this online movements; I hope they are all successful to prove that the general public music buying population can still have their voice heard should they want to...
...and not have below-standard crap shoved down their throat!

The Smiths Facebook Campaign


Girls Aloud Facebook Campaign


Sex Pistols Facebook Campaign

the smiths - how soon is now..
Uploaded by robertjgunn.

Girls Aloud - Untouchable
Uploaded by jo-hann. - See the latest featured music videos.

Sex pistols - god save the queen (video)
Uploaded by radatdailymotion. - Sitcom, sketch, and standup comedy videos.

Cheers Jen for editing my crap grammar!

Tuesday Track - Mariachi El Bronx - I Would Die 4 U Prince Cover

Los Angele's hardcore band decided to take a new direction last year, they decided that they were going to become a Mariachi band! Surprisingly to all involved not only did their album actually sound pretty good but they also made a superb cover of the Prince classic! The purple one clearly didn’t allow them to cover the song, as it was omitted from the album, not surprising as he wanted to remove himself from the internet and tried suing any websites that hosted his music…..I hope he doesn’t track me down, although I wouldn’t mind him knocking on my door to try and convert me to a Jehovah’s witness doubt he would start to sign any of my LP’s though! I digress enjoy the cover!

Prince a Jehova's witness New story


Mariachi El Bronx - I would Die For You Cover

A superb documentary that shows the Bronx in both their lights and explains the change in direction

New Music Monday - Psychologist

Psychologist Myspace
Myspace with cover of PJ Harvey

London artist Psychologist sounds like a mix of Burial, Ambulance LTD, Portishead and Jose Gonzales. He does a fantastic acoustic cover of PJ Harvey's track 'Missed' but its his lofi electronic sound which make him someone to check out. He is yet to release anything and has a handful of shows booked in London, worth having a look if you get the chance.

Remix Thursday - La Roux I'm Not Your Toy (Data Remix)

I have decided to start more of a layout to the Week instead of putting everything up on Wednesday I have decided to spread it over 4 days, please see below for what will be uploaded to the blog each week:

New Music Monday: A link and small piece about a new artist

Track of the Week Tuesday: A Download or Link to a track that I'm loving this week

Blog Wednesday: An article about something music related

Remix Thursday: A download of a remix which I am enjoying or have enjoyed in the past





So without further delay this weeks remix is

UNAVAILABLE SO YOU NEED TO SEARCH IT YOURSELF AS POLYDOR ASKED ME TO TAKE IT DOWN....

La Roux rose to fame last year with her quiff, I mean electro pop sound. 'Bulletproof' and 'In for the Kill' made her one of the most popular artists of the year, her debut album was nominated for the Mercury Music awards she rounded the year off with a sell out tour, however its this Data Remix that adds the dirty electro sound that would have made me appreciate the album instead of just grown tired of their imitation electro pop!

Is the debut album always a bands finest work?

The La's only ever released a debut thus making it their finest work

Having compiled the top 100 albums of the past decade I was surprised to see how many of them were debut’s of the artists involved. Out of the 100 listed 47 were the first efforts by the respective acts, that’s an insanely high proportion. Now I do understand that this is my personal opinion however if you go through the NME, The Guardian’s, Rolling Stone’s, Pitchfork’s, Gigwise’s, Drowned in Sound or any other list you will find that it featured a high proportion of debut albums.

What is it that makes the debut album so popular? Are we excited by the fact that there’s a new band and hopefully a new sound or is it that we tend to classify bands albums against their previous efforts and thus will inevitably be disappointed when we liked their debut? Everyone always talks about the difficult second and third album but rarely about the difficult first album. Could it be that most artists have forever to work on their debut album but once the popularity has arrived the fans want to hear more and they have to rush the follow up albums? In an age where last year’s hype band is this year’s bargain bin product, with people consuming tracks instead of albums I am finding that more frequently the standard of the debut has to be exceptional to sustain the interest in the artist. After all can we really expect another great album to come out of Klaxons, La Roux, The Ting Tings or Black Kids? Most of the time once we have enjoyed a band, given them the success and become bored of their sound we will continue on our constant path of finding the next hot new act and consume their music until we get bored of them.

It is incredibly rare these days for a bands sophomore album to be as good as their debut, this week see’s the release of Vampire Weekend’s ‘Contra’ album which after the massive success of their incredible debut it surprising to read all the reports saying that this album is as good as their previous effort. Is this an exception or an anomaly? Looking over the previous year there are only a handful of follow up albums which I was more impressed than the debut album; The Horrors ‘Primary Colours’ , TV on the Radio’s ‘Dear Science’; Phoenix ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Mystery Jets ‘Twenty-one’ and not surprisingly Jay-Z’s ‘Blueprint III’ which is clearly better than his debut ‘Reasonable Doubt’. Jay-Z however brings me onto my next point, most artists who’s debut albums become popular tend to end up either living shortened careers (We are scientists, The View, Wolfmother, The Vines, Razorlight, The Magic Numbers, The Feeling, Maroon 5 to name a few) the fact is that once the debut soars to great heights and sells well the record labels expect the sophomore album to be of the same quality and sell the same figures as the debut did. This means that the bands have to either change their sound to fit in with the times or try to release a similar album which inevitably bores the fans and critics alike. Unfortunately the reality is that this will end with the band being dropped and their careers regularly ending.

If we look at some of the artists who are still releasing interesting and critically acclaimed work most have been backed by their labels and allowed to release several albums, rarely their debut has been their finest work, Radiohead and Jay Z have now been recording for more than a decade and are clearly writing some of their best albums as they have slowly made it to the top of their respective genres as opposed to instant fame of the debut.

In conclusion I think that the majority of the acts out there will release their best album as their debut due to the time constraints that they don’t have in developing their sound. If it’s a good album it will clearly influence others and create a sound which people jump to imitate which inevitably leads to a genre which will predominately only ever see the releases of lots of debuts (nu-rave anyone?). However for the artists that you will be enjoying in 5 years time I it’s probably worth starting to listen closer to those whose albums are good but not great, the artists which are interesting but not hip or cool, those that aren’t manufactured for instant success! How you can tell who’s going to be around in 5 years time is near impossible to tell, however I may as well have a stab in the dark about a few artists! I would say watch out for Lupe Fiasco, Empire of the Sun, I will stick with my guns and say that I think that Wily Mason will one day get the love that he deserves! TV on the Radio, Santogold, Regina Spektor and the Mystery Jets. I know that these artists are already popular however I think that we will not only see them produce better albums than they have already done but also end up becoming the top artists in their respective fields.....


L-R Top: Santogold, Lupe Fiasco
L-R Middle: TV on the Radio, Willy Mason
L-R Bottom: Regina Spektor, Empire of the Sun

Download:
Good Shoes - Under Control
Good Shoes released their debut in 2007, with fast guitars the south Londoners wrote an alright album which had some great singles and managed to get a decent following. This is the first single to be taken from their forthcoming album ‘No Hope, No Future’ out later this year. ‘Under Control’ has a great sound and feel to it and if the rest of the album sounds anything like this then it’s definitely going to be a good sophomore!

Unsigned band to check out:
Rogues Myspace Link
Having been a much hyped band for the past 12 months I cant understand why they don’t yet have a record deal! Rogues mix guitars, synth and dual vocals, clearly influenced by Klaxons they have written some larger pop songs which will inevitably land them a deal and you will find them hitting the top 40 in months to come!