Electric Roulette - the hip side of music and pop culture

Spotify playlist: Facial Fuzz

2009-11-21T19:04:35+00:00

Another Spotify playlist that's courtesy of David - Facial Fuzz.

Yes, we're in the land of the beard, a 15-track mix of psych, rock and folk, all held together by facial hair. Well, mostly anyway.

So if you fancy some Vanilla Fudge, John Martyn, Donovan and Blind Faith, you'll find it here - and much more.

Facial Fuzz playlist on Spotify

Listen to the new Brian Jonestown Massacre album for free online - now!

2009-11-21T18:50:24+00:00

We'll keep this brief. The Brian Jonestown Massacre has a new album out on January 1st 2010, it's called Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? and it's sounds pretty decent. How do we know? Easy - 'cos we've heard it.

And you can too. The entire album is being streamed online via the band's website, complete with 'interesting' videos for each track. Want to hear it? head off over to the official site.

Brian Jonestown Massacre website

Paul McCartney set to appear on X Factor

2009-11-21T18:39:21+00:00

The X Factor, love it or hate it, you can't really ignore it. Unless of course, you turn over for Strictly Come Dancing on a Saturday. But you'll not be doing that on December 13th if you're a Beatles fan.

Yes, that's the date of the X Factor final and if reports are to be believed, the final trip will be murdering shortened Beatles classics to get your votes, with Paul McCartney in attendance. You can stick your life savings on any three from Yesterday, Let It Be, Hey Jude and Twist and Shout. Well, you didn't expect Helter Skelter did you?

Obviously this could all be a load of tosh. The reports come from the Daily Mirror, who quote that old favourite, the 'industry insider', which is probably the programme's PR department drumming up trade: 'The big plan by Simon Cowell is to get Sir Paul for the final, which would be just fantastic. Everybody knows The Beatles wrote some of the best songs in history, so it would be a sensational end for the series.'

Good move or bad, it'll certainly gets bums on seats.

DVD Review: Young Soul Rebels (1991)

2009-11-21T18:27:41+00:00

Young Soul Rebels as a film I steered cleared of when it was released back in the early 90s. Yes, it ticked a few interesting boxes - soul music, a mixing pot of youth cultures at a turbulent time in British history, a decent plot on the face of it - but the critics were harsh and to be honest, they're rarely too wide of the mark. Saying that, time can often by kind to movies - is it the case here? Well, yes and no.

Directed by Isaac Julien and set in the summer of 1977, Young Soul Rebels focuses on two friends and pirate radio DJs (Chris and Caz, played by Valentine Nonyela and Mo Sesay respectively), one straight, one gay and both with ambitions as soul DJs, although not necessarily in the same direction. But the story kicks off in a park - whilst listening to the radio show, a young gay black man called TJ is murdered by a stranger, his radio cassette player stolen and dumped. The police are on the hunt for the killer, a hunt that will eventually take them (wrongly) to Chris.

But Chris (and indeed Caz) have other things on their mind. Chris wants to DJ on a leading station, hooking up with industry insider Tracy (Sophie Okonedo) in the process. Caz them starts a relationship with political activist and punk Billibud (Jason Durr), while both of them run the gauntlet of abuse from the estate's local skinheads. The friendship of the two 'Soul Patrol' DJs is stretched by their respective pairings and when Chris goes in the frame for the murder of TJ, he's on his own to fight it - just as well he has a tape that could save him and incriminate someone they both know well.

Plot-wise, Young Soul Rebels is a winner overall. I was drawn in by both the story and the relationship between the main characters, helped along by a top-notch soundtrack that mixes soul, funk and '77-era punk. In some ways, you can't ask for much more from a film that the director (in the booklet) claims is intended more as entertainment than historical document or political statement.

But it's a film not without its flaws. At times, it's very contrived and over-stylised, the cartoon punks are only matched by the cartoon skinheads and as for the killer? Well, you might guess, but you're probably none the wiser why he's the killer by the end of the movie. But they're not the biggest problems. The love affairs in the movie at times detract from the main story (and to be honest, neither are all that believable) and despite Isaac Julien's claim's that the film is entertainment over all else, you do get the feeling that there's a bit of political and social point scoring going on here. At times it works well, but on other occasions, it just seems a little too heavy handed.

So we're left with an interesting, entertaining, but far from fully successful movie. One to rent or borrow for sure, but I'm not sure it's something you'll keep going back to Young Soul Rebels if you buy it. The soundtrack on the other hand - well, that's something worth picking up.

Find out more about the DVD at the Amazon website

Cult clip: Teddy Boys in a London Club (1977)

2009-11-20T16:51:50+00:00

Whatever happened to the Teddy Boy? Granted, there's still a thriving rock 'n' roll scene, but if someone witha a drape jacket, crepe soled shoes and a duck's arse hairdo walked down your local high street, it would probably make the 6 o'clock news.

Not so in the mid-70s. The Teddy Boy scene was as big as punk in some areas - and battles between Teds and Punks were commonplace. Check out this superb film from '77, where Teddy Boys of the day talk candidly about their scene and about the 'upstart' Punks muscling in on their bad boy image. Marvellous stuff...

Free Blur Live 2009 CD in this week's Sunday Times

2009-11-20T16:15:13+00:00

What happened to the Blur reunion? Much hyped, it was all over in a matter of weeks - Glasto, some London outdoor gigs, couple of added shows and it was back to the cheese making, council chambers, folk music and whatever Damon Albarn does these days between Gorillaz outings. Blink and you'd have missed it. Or have you?

Well, not if you pick up the Sunday Times this weekend. The paper is giving away a free and 'exclusive' 10-track live CD with tunes taken from the above shows. If that's not enough, the paper is running a special devoted to the band and - even better - offering five extra free tunes as iTunes downloads the week after.

Want to see the tracklisting? It's over the page. Just remember, it's Sunday November 22nd 2009 - just in case you don't get round to reading this article until it's too late.

Times website

Tracklisting:

1. She's So High
2. Girls and Boys
3. Badhead
4. Beetlebum
5. Parklife
6. Out if Time
7. Song 2
8. Pop Scene
9. Tender
10. The Universal

Blakroc: The Black Keys featuring Hip Hop royalty!

2009-11-20T15:03:03+00:00

Let's keep this simple. One of the coolest bands on the planet, The Black Keys, are mixing up their Southern Refried Blues with the coolest members of the hip-hop community on the planet. Dig this: Raekwon, RZA, Mos Def, ODB, Q-Tip, Pharaoh Monch and a whole bunch more.

The project is called Blakroc and you can see a video of it by clicking these differently coloured words. Hip hop and rock don't always cross over too well... but by Gawd, this sounds outta the park!

DVD Review: Christiane F. (1981)

2009-11-19T17:15:11+00:00

If the government wanted to save a few quid on its anti-drug campaigns, it could simply place a bulk order of the newly-reissued Christiane F. DVD and show it to every impressionable teen in the country. Trust me, it would work far better than any number of clever ad campaigns.

I first encountered the movie some years back, renting it on the basis of a Berlin-era Bowie soundtrack. To say it shocked was an understatement, but because it's so shocking, Christiane F. is probably the finest movie about drugs ever made. Why? Well, in some ways, Christiane F. is a typical inner-city tale - arriving in a new town, broken home, wanted to to be hip, wanting to be popular and wanting to belong. But because it's so typical, it's all the more real.

Christiane's parents have split and she's living with her mother in a tower block that 'smells of piss and shit'. Life's grim, but for one thing - David Bowie. She's a fanatical fan and yearns to be where all the other Bowie fans hang out - the uber-hip Sound club in the centre of West Berlin. When her slightly older friend Kessi takes her there, she's in heaven. But it's the start of a steep decline for this 13-year-old.

At first it all starts so well - wall-to-wall Bowie, her first boyfriend (Detlev) and the chance to hang around with the cool kids, a bunch of hippies, punks and general drop outs. As they tear around Europa Center trashing windows and fleeing from the law, the sense of optimism almost bursts out of the screen.

But from taking 'trips', the big 'H' gradually takes hold of the gang. When Detlev goes down that road, it's inevitable that Christiane will follow. And on the night of the big Bowie gig in Berlin (on the back of seeing Detlev with another girl), she takes her first heroin hit. The first step onto the slippery slope.

And what a slope! Prostitution (straight and gay), drug thefts in stinking toilet cubicles, stealing from our family, dead bodies rotting in squats, physical and mental decay, the drug-fuelled decline of friends, the grim reality of shooting up drugs (and throwing up after), not to mention needles clogged up with blood and the pain and mess of trying to get off heroin. It's all here and more. Heroin chic it isn't.

Yet despite all of that, Christiane F. is an incredibly watchable movie. It's superbly acted (Natja Brunckhorst's performance as Christiane is as good as anything you'll see), very well directed by Uli Edel, has a top-notch and very appropriate Bowie soundtrack, a great piece of 'mock' live footage of Bowie (ripping through Station to Station), some wonderful shots of early-80s West Berlin and a story you really can buy into. Like the book (which you really should seek out), the movie version of Christiane F. doesn't make drugs sexy, it simply lays out the facts, no matter how hard they might be to swallow. The scenery might have dated, but this is still the definitive anti-drugs movie and would certainly be in my top 100.

Find out more about the DVD at the Amazon website

Beyonce and GaGa make hottest video EVER

2009-11-19T15:03:27+00:00

Okay boys and girls - get ready to drop your drawers, lose the laundry and jerk 'til you don't work. The ruling Queens of Pop Culture go head-to-head, pistol-to-pistol, rump-to-rump to make a video so HOT that you'll kill yourself in degraded disgust.

That's right, Beyonce and Lady GaGa have teamed up on Video Phone, which sounds like something from Liquid Swordz mixed with something altogether sexier. It's an immense slow-jam and sees Beyonce going from Barbarella, to dominatrix, to '50 pin-up. Click over to watch it... and make sure you take your clothes off first.

Review: Underworld vs The Misterons 'Athens'

2009-11-19T11:18:34+00:00

Electronic prog fans Underworld team up with some other people to make a compilation LP... what on Earth could possibly go wrong?

Underworld have been around since Jesus was in infants. They've not always been a dance act either (for the record, 'dance act' is a phrase that should be taken to the woods and shot). Which means, their taste in music is somewhat eclectic.

Teaming up with The Misterons (who feature Darren Price, longtime cohort of Underworld), we find ourselves with a compilation LP that is keen to show off that not everyone in the world of dance music sits around listening to the electronic pulse constantly... waiting to come up on Es and shouting "HAVING IT!"

So what we've got then is a noodly, slow burning jam of an album... slowly making its way to techno... and back again.

Basically, this a comp that will drive anyone who wants a straight dance mix mental.

Of course, anyone who has followed Underworld for a while will know not to expect anything less. I mean, the very premise of the band is slightly awkward. They're not really a band a all. They see themselves as something of an arthouse. They make films and commercials via their Tomato wing, they make thunderous techbip tracks with cut 'n' paste lyrics as well as making strange sound collages. We lap this shit up!

Well, some of us do.

Beginning with a languid, sitar heavy Alice Coltrane track, flicking into fzzzy Soft Machine kraut-esque jams, to Roxy Music, to freeform jazz, to a preposterously titled Laurent Garnier track to... you get the picture right?

This doesn't so much sound like an official compilation release on a record label, but rather, a compilation tape made for you by some record collector mates. That's not a bad thing as such. There's something refreshingly short-sighted about this. However, it does have a tendency to take itself quite seriously (but we should've expected that, right?).

In short, this is a sequence of tracks that veers all over the shop like a drunk judge behind the wheel of a Range Rover and he accidentally tuned into John Peel's late-night radio slot. Invariably, it ends up being upside in a hedge. Mercifully, this car crash is kinda fun. Somehow, this whole compilation is underpinned by a certain jazziness... which is pretty cool. There's not a hope in hell that this set of tunes will change your life, but it is a breeze to listen to. [MG]

Underworld Vs the Misterons 'Athens'
Release Date: November 24 Label: !K7

Tracklist: 01 Alice Coltrane: "Journey in Satchidananda [ft. Pharoah Sanders]" 02 Mahavishnu Orchestra: "You Know, You Know" 03 Squarepusher: "Theme From Sprite" 04 Soft Machine: "Penny Hitch" 05 Roxy Music: "2HB" 06 Detroit Experiment: "Space Odyssey" 07 Moodyman: "Rectify" 08 Osunlade: "The Promise" 09 Underworld: "Oh" 10 Laurent Garnier: "Gnanmankoudji (Broken-Afro Mix)" 11 Miroslav Vitous: "New York City" 12 Brian Eno & Karl Hyde: "Beebop Hurry"

Spotify playlist: Stare at your Shoes

2009-11-19T10:57:05+00:00

No prizes for guessing where this Spotify playlist is based - yes, Stare at your Shoes is in the era of miserable shoegazing indie.

The work of David Steel, it offers up an hour of music over 12 tracks, taking in the likes of the Pale Saints, Spiritualized, Loop, Ride, Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine.

Go on, relive your past, you know you want to. Just follow the link and sign into Spotify to hear it.

Stare at your Shoes Spotify playlist

Rock Family Trees

2009-11-19T10:56:08+00:00

Remember Rock Family Trees? It's one of the most brilliantly nerdy things to ever happen to rock 'n' roll and, you'll be glad to know that there's now a place where you can get lost in it all, hitting branches and roots on the way to the ground.

Rock Family Trees has a website and you can visit it by clicking this sentence.

Katie Price's Bushtucker Trial invents new niche adult interest

2009-11-19T10:50:01+00:00

Someone left I'm a Celebrity... Joe Bugner went in... Kim had a menopausal moment and blah blah blah. Let's face it, it's a lowest common denominator show isn't it? Well... you don't know the half of it...

All of this pales into insignificance when you consider that last night's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! invented a new type of... shall we say... Adult Interest.

Most adult movies deal in degradation these days. Whole clusters of well-wanged blokes stood around some lass, giving her a viscous shower... or someone crying while they defecate into a tin bucket while some old fella yanks himself into a eye-rolling foam... or that one with a lady dressed up as E.T. - it's all there if you search for it.

Yet, even the most filthy minded sorts who are into the most dreadful and niche interests must get bored, right? At some point, like normal sex, the whole process surely becomes a little passé?

Well, last night, they must have been hopping from foot-to-foot, hoping that their member may accidentally swing right up their arse because in Katie Price's bushtucker trial, we saw triple X action of the most weird and degraded level... and it was on ITV1 just after the watershed!

Y'see, Katie Price/Jordan/Peter Andre Tear Provoker was asked to enter a giant bottle filled with insects. As it turned, the insect fell about her, dropping into her mouth while she grunted and writhed.

The cameramen and producers, not to miss a trick, felt it necessary to zoom in on Price's ample cleavage and, even more surprisingly, got quite close to her... 'front garden'. It wasn't to difficult to imagine a load of mucky blokes from Walsall stood around the thing pulling themselves off like futuristic doggers.

On emerging from said giganto-bottle, we were then treated to Price getting down to her smalls and thrashing the bugs out from between her baps. Even One Of Ant and Dec had the cheek to quip: "We're not complaining!"

That wasn't all. A second live trial saw Price once again embroiled in some niche porn. She gagged and blubbled in some gloop, which sounded like the wrongest fellatio in recorded history... only to then jump in a hot-tub full of grinning Cayman. By the close of the second bushtuck, she was once again stripping off and flicking goo and dead maggots off her weird blow-up body, leaving half a dozen viewers in raptures and they slapped themselves unconscious at the thrill of a new niche arousal.

Of course, this new grud-stiffener needs a name. For the moment, I'm going for Pukkake -with the emphasis on the 'puke'. So well done ITV1. You've reached a new low. I have to blame you... because the only other person I can blame is... *points at self*... and that won't do at all.

Saint Etienne Present Songs For The Dog And Duck on Ace Records

2009-11-19T10:40:30+00:00

The members of Saint Etienne can certainly pick a tune, especially when those tunes are from the Ace Records archive, so Saint Etienne Present Songs from the Dog and Duck looks a winner from the off.

The second in a series (after 2004's Songs for Mario's Café), this is a tribute to Soho pubs - The Dog & Duck specifically being the pub of choice for the Heavenly label. So what do you get? Well, a soundtrack for a session in the Dog & Duck, reflecting the mood, the characters and the location.

In essence, that means an eclectic trawl through the Ace (in more ways than one) archives, throwing in everything from 60s pop instrumentals and pop to girl groups, obscure funk, classic soul, rough 'n' ready rock 'n' roll, a touch of glam and....Bill Oddie. Yes, that Bill Oddie. It sounds like a 'back to mine' classic in the making - see what you think from the full tracklisting over the page.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Album tracklisting:

1. Hi Flutin' Boogie - John Scott
2. Davy O'brien - Duffy Power
3. The Boy With The Way - Jamie Carter
4. Make Me Yours - Bettye Swann
5. I Was Born To Love You - Herbert Hunter
6. Walkin' Through A Cemetery - Claudine Clark
7. Strollie Bun - The Blonde Bomber
8. Jitterbop Baby - Hal Harris
9. Dancing Round The World - Little Richard
10. She Does Everything For Me - The Zombies
11. The Way Of The Crowd - Dan Folger
12. I Can't Get Through - Bill Oddie
13. Lay This Burden Down - Mary Love
14. Sweep It Out In The Shed - Little Ann
15. How Can I Tell You - Barbara Lewis
16. The Emi Song (Smile For Me) - Alex Chilton
17. Driver's Seat - Sniff 'N' The Tears
18. Midnight Flight 2 - Angelo & Eighteen
19. Good Time Comin' - Mustard
20. Hand Clappin' Time - Gino With Johnny Greek
21. Having A Good Time - Huey Smith
22. Varee Is Love - Ohio Players
23. We Belong Together - Robert & Johnny
24. Smoke Rings - Les Paul & Mary Ford
25. Pinball - Brian Protheroe

The Beatles and Comme des Garcons launch a clothing and bag collection

2009-11-19T10:35:27+00:00

The Beatles seem to be everywhere these days, from computer games to...well, more music reissues than you can shake a stick at. Oh yes, clothing too if you add in the forthcoming The Beatles x Comme des Garcons clothing and bag collection.

As you can see above (and from the images over the page), it's a range of clothing and accessories that use The Beatles' Apple motif and The Beatles logo in varying amounts. The initial range, which was designed by Rei Kawakubo, includes t-shirts, shirts and bags, all of which will likely appeal to fans of the Fab Four and leave everyone else running a mile.

Price? Well, when you're talking official Beatles gear and the Comme des Garcons label, we suspect it isn't going to come cheap. To find out for sure, check out Dover Street Market, which is selling the range from 27th November 2009.

Dover Street Market website

Via Retro To Go