Blur to Re-unite.

Blur, that band from the 90’s who recorded more than “Song 2″ and who were definitely better than Oasis, are to reform next year to play a show in London’s Hyde Park.
The band, who effectively split after their “Think Tank” album in 2003, are working together again as a whole.
The show is set for July 3rd, but tickets sold out in around two minutes, so there’s been another show added on July 2nd. Expect Ebay to explode sometime around June 27th.

Here’s why you should be excited:

Oasis must be shitting themselves.

 

last song i heard – “over and over” – hot chip

It’s Diddy’s Vote That Matters.

P Diddy feels that his support for Barack Obama was the factor that lead the Democratic candidate to victory. 

He told the Associated Press:

“I felt like my vote was the vote that put him into office. It was down to one vote and that was going to be my vote. And that may not be true, but that’s how much power I felt it had.”

So we all have him to thanks, then.

Cheers Diddy.

last song i heard – “sofacore” – johnny foreigner

 

Feeder in Bus Crash.

Feeder could consider themselves lucky after today, when they managed to get out of their tour bus after a crash on the M62, before it exploded.

They were leaving that night’s gig in Glasgow and were on their way to Lincoln when the accident happened. The motorway has been shut down due to the accident.

Their tour is apparently unaffected, according to their management.

And I chose to post this as an excuse to put this video in, which is still is good as it was when I was 16 – enjoy!

 

 

last song i heard – “buck rogers” – feeder

 

Animal Collective’s New LP Gets A Tracklisting.

Animal Collective’s website changed recently, adding an almost cryptic video to the main page, as well as presenting the words “Merriweather Post Pavilion” and not much else.

Word is that it’s their next album, and is expected to be out in January of next year.

The tracklisting of the new album, according to 3/4’s of the band, is:

1 – In the Flowers 

2- My Girls

3 – Also Frightened

4 – Summertime Clothes

5 – Daily Routine

6 – Bluish

7 – Guy’s Eyes

8 – Taste

9 – Lion in a Coma

10 – No More Runnin’

11- Brother Sport

The band are currently on an extensive tour of Europe:

10/11 Berlin, Germany @ Berghain
10/12 Warsaw, Poland @ Fabryka Trzciny
10/13 Krakow, Poland @ Jazz Club Hipnoza
10/14 Prague, Czech Republic @ Archa Theatre
10/15 Vienna, Austria @ Arena
10/16 Ljubljana, Slovenia @ Menza pri Koritu
10/17 Bratislava, Slovakia @ A4
10/18 Zagreb, Croatia @ Teatat and TD
10/19 Belgrade, Serbia @ Dom Omladine
10/20 Skopje, Macedonia @ Mac MKC
10/21 Thessaloniki, Greece @ Principle Theatre
10/22 Athens, Greece @ Gagarin 205
10/23 Tel Aviv, Israel @ Zappa
10/24 Istanbul, Turkey @ Babylon
10/25 Valencia, Spain @ Greenspace Festival
11/06 Santiago, Chile @ Industria Cultural
11/08 São Paulo, Brazil @ Planeta Terra Festival
11/09 Buenos Aires, Argentina @ La Trastienda
11/13 Lima, Peru @ Centro Fundación Telefónica

You can see a video with the song “Taste” in it here.

 

last song i heard – “when you wasn’t famous” –  Bromhead’s Jacket

Might As Well Be Blockbuster.

While I’m in the video type of mood, here’s the one from the new single “Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants” by the excellent Wild Beasts:

last song i heard – “the old dog” – wild beasts

Words Fail Me.

Actually, no they don’t. 

Consider this:

Now…

- How can so many instruments sound like nothing at all?

- Why do I hear girls when I see men?

- Why do bands still insist on doing that awful synchronised guitar movement thing?

- These lot are apparently English, so why do they sound like an average U.S “punk” money shitting machine?

- What sort of Englishman says “lame ass”?

 

last song i heard – “terrible excuse for a song” by some terrible excuse for a band (or if you want to be accurate – “you got guts” by paige)

U.S > U.K?

It seems that every time you open a magazine, flick around music blogs or go to concerts, there’s always people drooling over the current “next big thing” that’s due to burst out of the U.K like a giant sweaty indie baby, covered in placenta and everything.

True, there are some good bands coming off the island, and there’s even more if you’re willing to dig a bit – I’d safely say about 75% of all the bands in the U.K never get a North American record deal, therefore, no CDs or tour-dates, “buddy.”

Still though, are British bands all that original? Some recent examples of “next big thing” hype bands from recent years include Arctic Monkeys (of course), The Klaxons and The Enemy (who are abysmal by the way).

Nothing too original there, when you think about it. In fact, most of the current indie-boy band trend, which seems to be on its final fatal decline, could be inspirationally traced back to no more than 5 or 6 bands, if you’re that bothered. Point is though, even though there’s still plenty of decent stuff, there’s only a handful of bands that are currently trying something different, outside of the box, if you will. One of them is Wild Beasts. Another is Fuck Buttons.

 It seems that these days that if you want music that is actually trying something different, you’ve got to go to the US.

 Consider Liars, Numbers, Deerhoof, TV on the Radio, Of Montreal, Animal Collective, Mastodon, Deerhunter, Les Savy Fav, Dan Deacon.

 So what’s going on? What’s with all this good American music, don’t they usually just sing about baseball and Miami?

 last song I heard – “the concept” – teenage fanclub

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out Soon: Best of the Best of the Best of The Smiths.

The Smiths are set to release another “best of” compilation, which will be the eighth from their short career. They released four actual albums. 

The album is the first time that lead singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr have collaborated since The Smiths spilt in 1987. Morrissey is claimed to have came up with the title – “The Sound of The Smiths”, while Marr apparently worked with the mastering of the album. However, other reports, apparently from Morrissey’s management, have claimed that Warner Music are releasing the album “without Morrissey’s approval or involvement.” 

The album will be released in two versions, with the second including two discs, the second of which contains b-sides and live recordings. 

In my opinion, if you already have “Louder Than Bombs” (or the actual albums, of course) don’t bother. If you’ve never heard The Smiths before, this would be a good place to start.

last song i heard – “bros” – panda bear

 

Bam! Kabloom! Bonk! Etc!

With all the mad talk of Noel Gallagher being shoved over by a man old enough to know better, it’s probably the biggest falling in news since the Berlin Wall (ha!).

Still though, the underlying fact that, the fella – Daniel Sullivan, 47, from Pickering, Ontario –  could have had a knife, then where would we be? Even more thug bouncers thinking they’re guarding the White House at our concerts? Another musician dead?

Seeing as the video is everywhere, here’s a couple more that you may not have seen.

Annoying Jamiroquai singer getting his due;

My Chemical Romance getting bottled by a good chunk of the crowd at Reading 2006;

 

last song i heard – “peg” – saturday looks good to me

 

This Is Turning Into MTV.

In the past few days I’ve seen a couple of great, original music videos, which seems to be getting more and more rare these days.

First off theres Norman Cooks new project, called the Brighton Port Authority, and their video for the single “Toejam”…

Then there’s this. An astounding video that has to be seen to be believed, though I’m guessing it only involved some kind of heart-shaped filter and not much else, but it’s a very good video, and that’s all I’m going to say about it. In fact I think I’m going to watch it again.

last song i heard – “colourful life” – cajun dance party