Been around for a few days now, but here's the first taste of what hotly-tipped noiseniks Sleigh Bells' debut album might sound like:

Tell 'Em

D'you like it? Seems to retain the ear-battering effect of their primitive demos, which can only be a good thing.
The song will appear on Treats, set to be released on May 11th on N.E.E.T., the label set up by M.I.A, as previously mentioned.
Here's the Myspace

Swim

I chatted about Caribou before, but the release of Dan Snaith's latest album, Swim, warrants further attention. I won't bother going into too great a depth, but rest assured it's worth checking out, providing an ideal companion piece to Four Tet's There Is Love in You, with its similar blendng of musical genres, from techno to krautrock, but differing from Kieran Hebden's project in its greater emphasis upon vocals and lyrics, developing themes revolving in particular around love; both lost and found. The result is a heady concoction of evocative electronica that marks a new direction from previous Caribou output, whilst retaining the hallmarks and qualities that made Dan Snaith such a distinctive musician to begin with.

Born free- but it may not end that way

Q. Is the new M.I.A. video, directed by Romain Gavras, pointlessly violent?

A. No.

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

The almost-nine minute long video to the Sri Lankan stars most recent song, one which features a prominently looped sample of Suicide's Ghost Rider, shows scenes of police brutality, naked flesh, lots of explosions and a suitably bloody ending. Showing a succession of police raids and the deportation of a bunch of ginger teenagers to some kind of death camp, where they must run through a minefield, goes straight for the jugular in its efforts to get its point across. The point is clearly one about oppression, brutality and violence in the world, and in particular that aimed at particular groups of people, reflecting both the troubles of M.I.A.'s homeland, as well as the lyrics of the original Suicide song, "America, America is killing its kids". The fact that it was also made by Gavras, who shot this notorious video for Justice, also helps to explain the ultra-violent social commentary of this "promo" (I don't see it getting played, unedited, on MTV anytime soon).
As well as making apt political and humanitarian points, the video suits the menacing groove of the track's sampled backing, as well as M.I.A.'s snotty, punky vocals, and her assertion that she was "Born Free"- which is also the title of the track as I have forgetfully neglected to mention.
It's a far-cry from the lazy, slacker vibes of breakthrough hit Paper Planes, although Maya's predilection for sampling classic bands seems to have remained. The grittier, more lo-fi approach to the recording is also perhaps the result of getting into Sleigh Bells, recent signees to her N.E.E.T. label, whose sound is not too dissimilar in it's brutal fuzzed-out approach.
Born Free will probably be appearing on M.I.A.'s third album, which is as yet untitled, due out on June 29th in the USA, not sure about the UK release date.

I like short shorts

As wiser men than me once said, it's "summer, summer, summer tiiiiiime" (hats off to you Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince). Stop me if I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, it is only April after all, but it does feel like summer in all but name. My exams are over for another year, I wore shorts for the first time of 2010 (subjecting my skinny legs to the sun was traumatic for them), yesterday was also the first cricket game of the season and it don't get much summer-ier than that folks. Here's a short guide to summer, with some musical accompaniment to provide this post with some kind of justification.

To quench your thirst for cricket-related popular music (don't lie, everybody has such a thirst), look no further than The Duckworth Lewis Method, a recent project involving The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon.

No media represents summer more than the humble polaroid, turning anything it touches into a hazy, lazy summery paradise, transporting you to what my friends and I call 'polaroid world' (snappy, i know). So sit back and let Ted Leo take you to your very own polaroid world (so corny).

Another reason behind my summery disposition is the fact that I have, this very night, booked my summer holiday flights, which include a Stockholm stop-over, home of all the best tropical pop (and beautiful blond babes, obv). A summer soundtrack of Air France and the gang (maybe not Fever Ray so much...) surely beckons.

Personally, I'm hoping for a summer filled with sun, friends and short shorts, a little something like this in fact.

...into the exam room

I'm currently in the middle of some pretty sweet exams, so thought I'd share the pleasure with a little selection of songs.

1. LCD Soundsystem- Tribulations
2. Justice- Stress
3. Belle & Sebastian- Wrapped up in Books
4. The Concretes- Lonely as Can Be
5. Art Brut- I Will Survive*

A fitfully depressing mix I feel. When it came to exams, my old history teacher used to tell us that before you could listen to the Andrew WK A-side, Party Hard, you had to first listen to the B-side, Work Hard. I think he made it up, or it was on some really limited edition vinyl somewhere...

*i put very little effort into choosing these songs, and they were done purely on the merits of their titles, rather than any lyrical content. But you can still listen to and enjoy them. I'll let ya do that.

Yeah it is

It's sadly only too easy to imagine the lead single, Drunk Girls, off of LCD Soundsystem's latest (and possibly last?) album soundtracking "hilarious" frat-boy parties in sub-American Pie (and that's pretty low) films. The irony, the wit and the cynicism that runs through all that James Murphy does will be overlooked for the simple match up of lyric with picture, which, as well as being simplistic, is misleading in that the single is not representative of the album as a whole, being very much an anomaly with its raucous, catchy, shouted vocal line. By contrast the rest of the album is a far more restrained, melancholic affair that rails against hipsters ("talking like a jerk, except you really are a jerk"- ouch), the music industry ("you wanted a hit, well maybe we don't do hits") and life in general. If Drunk Girls corresponds with North American Scum from the incredible Sound of Silver album, then the rest of the new tracks continue in a vein similar to songs such as Someone Great, All My Friends and New York I Love You. Comparisons have been made with everyone from Iggy Pop to Lou Reed to Talking Heads, but the beats remain great; familiar handclaps, squelchy synths and funky bass-lines. Murphy's louche spoken-word pieces such as on opener Dance Yrself Clean, or impassioned sung vocals on closer Home, which is an easy highlight of the album, continue to impress, although is it just me who thinks his singing voice sounds a little like Casiotone For The Painfully Alone at times?

What LCD does so well, and what makes them a great (and i truly mean that) act, is that they temper their cynicism, wit and irony with an unparalleled sense of sensitivity and sensibility. Its this that made tracks such as All My Friend so amazing, lending them a tenderness that many other bands would have been unable to inject, and which sets them apart from the New York hipsters they send up in their songs, most notably on their breakout Losing My Edge, still a classic to this day.
Perhaps it's for the best that LCD are calling it a day, leaving on an undoubted high, before descending into self-parody and losing what made them so special.

LCD Soundsystem are currently touring the UK and Europe, and you can listen to the album in full being streamed on the DFA website.
Here's a song for you to download though - Home

Atoms for Joy

At last night's Oakland gig, Thom Yorke and his new band the Atoms for Peace, treated the crowd to a second encore consisting of the Joy Division classic, Love Will Tear Us Apart- everyone's favourite alternative love song. The cover is commendable for it's no-messin' approach, adding little to the original, perhaps the best approach to tackling the nigh-on-perfect-already Joy Division. Yorke's vocals are also of interest, seemingly plummeting new depths in their Curtis-mimicking, a far cry from his usual falsetto.
It's this kind of thing that just makes me kick myself even harder over this missed opportunity.
First read about this over at Stereogum.

Liquid Liquid

If Alan Partridge made music, it would, undeniably, be "liquid". It may even sound a little like New York post-punkers Liquid Liquid, a band who are currently going through a revival of sorts. They recently made their first ever television appearance, a pretty remarkable feat in this modern, technological age (is that some kind of social/cultural commentary?!), on Jimmy Fallon, playing their classic track Cavern. They will also be headlining this years Offset Festival in London, a festival that seeks to unite the great post-punk bands of yore and their young, upstart, modern counterparts on one billing.
This live video of Liquid Liquid playing to the Fallon audience showcases their greatness, delivering a style that feels like a primitive, authentic drum and bass; all bongos, disco beats and a rumbling, funky bass-line that's right up in the mix. Salvatore Principato delivers his clipped, staccato take on vocals over the top, telling us that this is "something like a phenomenon". The emphasis is on the sound and rhythm of the lyrics, as opposed to the content, which, along with the heavy bass and drums, amounts to a rhythmic assault of astonishing proportions.

Here's the Fallon performance:

Summer of love

The inevitable has happened and the shores of Britain have produced their first 'chillwave' band, the appropriately-named Summer Camp. Their songs channel the same sense of nostalgia as American counterparts such as Washed Out and Toro Y Moi, bands they admit to admiring, telling tales of first love and sounding as if recorded onto battered cassettes, rendering them tender and raw. The band had, almost by accident they claim, retained their anonymity, but have since revealed themselves as Jeremy Warmsley (of Jeremy Warmsley fame) and Elizabeth Sankey (of Platform magazine fame). Whilst still an unknown quantity, there had been speculation that the duo were in fact Swedish, and it's not hard to see how such confusion arose. Summer Camp's music bears many similarities to the tropical summer jams that bands such as jj and Air France excel at, although the duo also cite other influences as diverse as Motown and The Cocteau Twins.

Summer Camp are surely the band to soundtrack the fast-approaching summer, which will obviously be the hottest EVER, their wistful nostalgia perfect for those lazy, hazy summer days, even if they won't be spent at a real summer camp. Alas, if only I were an American kid...(my uncle works here- the lucky, responsibility-shy bastard)

The video for their single Ghost Train (out on Moshi Moshi) evokes perfectly their sound, with it's depiction of teenage frolics on an '80s beach.

Summer Camp - Ghost Train (viral) from Paddy Power on Vimeo.

The band are currently on tour with fellow Moshi Moshers Slow Club. 

You can download Ghost Train, and check out their Myspace for other tracks. 

Ariel Pink strikes gold

Ariel Pink has always had an ear for a juicy hook, but due to his preferred method of home recording they've often been buried by the crackle and pop of the tape, a sound we've all become accustomed to after the recent glut of lo-fi/chillwave/whatever. But just as all these other bands break, Ariel has released an out-and-out pop gem, Round and Round, all silky melodies and relaxed backing, recorded in a more conventional manner that leaves it sounding like a great lost '80s soft rock classic. This stylistic change coincides with the band's signing to 4AD, quite possibly my favourite indie label of all time, well for the moment at least. I'd intended at some point to do a proper piece, maybe with some actual research and stuff, on 4AD, but then i couldn't be bothered, so this Ariel Pink track serves as a nice reminder that I should probably do that at some point, and that anyone reading this who hasn't before, should go and check out anything on 4AD (start with Cocteau Twins, can't go far wrong with them and they're a perfect example of the original sound the label pioneered and promoted).
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti have just finished a US tour and are supposed to be heading off on a European jaunt at some point, along with releasing their 4AD debut full-length, Before Today, on June 8th.
Myspace and official website here.

Download Round and Round here

Drove my Chevy to the levee... and found the Mystery Jets (OMG!)

On Thursday 8th, the Chevrolet Spark Unscheduled Tour kicked off on schedule (a-ho-ho-ho) at London's Vinyl Factory. The tour, which was some kind of promotion for Chevrolet judging by the name and the liberal placement of various 'Chevys' around the venue, was headlined by Eel Pie Islanders The Mystery Jets. If I'm being honest, this was the first I'd heard of them since the release of their second album, Twenty One, over two years ago, but according to the band themselves they have a third due out in July.
On their debut, The Mystery Jets created some fine ramshackle indie pop, with a few proggy inflections. They fitted into a vibrant and productive scene, sometimes known as Thamesbeat, but were one of the few bands to emerge unscathed and un-imploded, ready to release their second album, a father-less effort that this time took its cues from the '80s, with the high-gloss production on singles such as Two Doors Down,  ensuring considerable radio airplay.
When the band took the stage on Thursday, the visible grip of the '80s remained, with all four members resembling Duran Duran after a five day bender, all big suits and wonderful shirts. Their live sound inevitably retained little of the sheen of their records however, but the eternally catchy hooks of older songs such as Half in Love With Elizabeth, Flakes and Young Love ensured the crowd were in fine voice throughout, even inducing some into a spot of crowd-surfing. Four new songs were given an airing, including Bounce and Serotonin, all of which fitted into the set well. One (which i didn't catch the name of) was a particularly sweet, slow arms-in-the-air number, the kind that you can imagine becoming a future live favourite, and the summer festivals will surely treat them kindly, helped by the timely arrival of their third album, which is sure to be a success on the back of what was witnessed in the Vinyl Factory.



Check out their Myspace for updates and tour dates

A geography lesson from The Fall

The Fall are like a post-punk roundabout, new members constantly coming and going, with Mark E Smith directing traffic from the centre (directing may be doing him a service). Despite their heavy rotation of members, they continue to make great music, and from the name of this blog, it's clear I'm a fan of the band that's "always different;... always the same" as John Peel famously said. One new track that they've been airing live has particularly caught my attention however, titled I'm Not From Bury. The reason for my interest is an old familial connection with the Lancashire town, with far too many horrible Saturday afternoons spent at Gigg Lane watching the Shakers slide to another inevitable defeat. I was therefore a little hurt to hear old Mark E making great pains to tell us he didn't hail from the jewel in the northern crown, but was instead from Salford. The track itself is pretty ramshackle and clocks in at over 6 minutes in its live incarnation, but I'm sure it'll get cleaned up and cut down a little before the release of new album Your Future Our Clutter on April 26th (well, I assume this track will make the cut).

Watch this live performance, and then click on the download below it if you want:


I'm Not From Bury
and this is their latest single, released at the end of last year and also set to appear on the new album:
Y.F.O.C./Slippery Floor

This is a brilliant Fall website, with anything you want to know

What became of the likely lads?

Well they only went and bloody reformed didn't they (inspired in no small part i'm sure by a £1.2 million pay packet). News that The Libertines are to get back together to perform at the Reading and Leeds Festivals this summer will no doubt have caused a generation of skinny, white indie kids to squeal with excitement and dig out their old "Pete's Innocent!!1!1" t-shirts. I just wish I could be 14 years old again, maybe then I'd be a little more excited, but sadly I outgrew my obsession with the band a few years back when I began to appreciate the sheer scale of their legacy, not something to be proud of tbh (remember these guys? No, i thought not). Their debut album Up the Bracket was pretty special however, and along with their American buddies The Strokes they helped in the transformation of "indie" from an ideology into a genre, again perhaps something they should not be so proud of. Despite this, a small part of me rejoices at the idea of a reunited Pete, Carl, Gary and the other one, back on stage together at last. I remember a few years ago I was at the Get Loaded in the Park Festival in London, where Carl Barat's Dirty Pretty Things were playing, and a secret Pete Doherty set was announced. A huge crowd gathered and sat through a truly atrocious set by Remi Nicole, only to be informed by a brave member of staff that Pete wouldn't be turning up. All my, and the crowd's, hopes of witnessing a reunion were dashed by that announcement, so I'm only to glad to see a reunion that looks like it will actually go ahead.
Have a look at this recent interview, in which Pete hogs the microphone (a little cringily) although he seems pretty lucid and almost witty at times.