Hot off the back of their new album release, which garnered some fantastic press as well as some less favourable, Daft Punk look keen to collaborate on new music with Nile Rodgers once again.

Rodgers has apparently, according to the Daily Star, found some lost music that he believes “they’d love to work on”. The unreleased material dates back his Chic days and has been stored away – until now. The veteran musician says he “trusts” Daft Punk as producers, which is why this stuff is finally being unearthed.

The unheard music is rather varied, according to the legendary guitarist: “There’s some solo stuff, tracks by Johnny Mathis and Fonzi Thornton, the soundtrack to a film called Alphabet City, and Chic recording in Stockholm.”

[via CMU]

Photo by Jason Williamson

With the release of his debut album Land Of CanAan via Bella Union some ten days ago, Marques Toliver finally put a good few people out of their misery.

For nearly two years anyone aware of this ethereal Florida-born talent seems to have been patiently waiting for more music, and a charismatic showcase at the utterly suitable St. Pancras Old Church last night definitely helped explain why.

Toliver had the bustling ailes captivated thanks to his relaxed performance style, twisting in vocals and funky rhythms from his accompanying band The Sometimes. hadn’t If he alluded to it, we would have remained blissfully unaware that this was a “warm-up” to his tour.

He is one of those players that appears entirely at one with his instrument; the classically trained musician uses the violin in such an intelligent way, regularly making it sound more than four-stringed. Backed by a soulful concoction of bass, guitar and drums, it was a versatile and brilliantly genre-defying set, the highlights of which included current single ‘Control’, a seemingly improvised ‘unplugged’ rendition of his through-line ‘CanAan’.

An impressive evening from a very obvious talent willing to take a direction relatively untrodden of-late – what’s more, Jessie Ware’s a fan.

Stream Marques Toliver’s debut LP Land Of CanAan on The Line of Best Fit now.

Photograph taken Jason Williamson in 2012.

The 17th annual Webby Awards was held earlier this week, celebrating the best in online culture and “excellence on the Internet”.

The web and music have long gone hand-in-hand, so much so that Tumblrcore is now conisdered a valid genre. Among the musical guests at the ceremony this year were Grimes, awarded ‘Artist of the Year’, Frank Ocean,  receiving the ‘Person of the Year’ accolade, and Tanlines performing live.

Here are a series of highlights from the event:

Grimes picking up her ‘Artist of the Year’ Webby and saying just a little over five words.

Tanlines perform live at the event.

Jerry Seinfeld wins Webby for ‘Outstanding Comedic Performance’.

Steve Wilhite given ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for inventing the GIF.

Tumblr win ‘Best Website Community’ and say ‘Fuck Yeah!’ as a response.

[via Stereogum]

With most festival-goers barely recovered from last weekend’s events, Brighton’s The Great Escape festival have plotted the dates for their 2014 outing.

The premium UK music showcase will return next year from 8-10 May. This follows 2013′s leg which saw the fest sell out for the first time in its eight year history.

“A huge thank you to everyone who made TGE 2013 so brilliant,” festival director Kat Morris said. “To all the incredible artists that played, to the panellists and keynote speakers who blew our delegates away, to every person that attended, our wonderful partners and our amazing production team. We are so excited to announce the dates for 2014 right off the back of this year’s festival and hope to see you there.”

Photo by Howard Melnyczuk.

Few could find a place for a Wii Remote or Sega Genesis controller in music but one-man band and musical prodigy Robert DeLong‘s seamlessly pilots his brand of bubblegum-EDM with these very tools.

The Seattle-born, LA-based musician, who mashes together an early 21st century indie-electro sound with the kind of pulsating dance that the US has taken to heart of late, once played in his high school jazz band but now finds pleasure in the kind of positive, musical expressionism that could only come from the Pacific Northwest.

We met up with DeLong last month for a studio cut of  ’Global Concepts’ – a track inspired, says DeLong, by Moombahton (Dave Nada‘s fusion of House and Reggaeton) – and taken from De Long’s debut album Just Movement, which is released on 1 July via Island/Glassnote Records. Watch the session below.

On the whole, one tends to associate Hoxton Square more with floppy haircuts, detached irony and a generalised contempt for one’s fellow man than joy, happiness and so forth. But tonight, for one night only, the fog of bitter cynicism is emphatically swept away by the blissful indie-pop whirlwind of Shugo Tokumaru.

On first impression, you wouldn’t necessarily expect this Tokyo-based songwriter to be particularly engaging- he comes across as a shy character, perhaps a bit of a daydreamer. But with his two friends in tow, he creates a sound as beautiful as it is quirky; a exuberantly melodic broadside of classic pop songwriting somewhere between the Beatles and Mercury Rev, combined with the slightly off-kilter eccentricity Japanese bands tend to do so well.

Shugo is undoubtedly a skilled musician, his intricate, light-fingered guitar playing recalling the marvellous Dustin Wong, but his bandmates definitely deserve similar, if not equal kudos. Yumiko Hishinuma, the wonderfully stoic glockenspielist/accordion player/glove puppeteer/all-purpose purveyor of instrumental miscellany does an fine job recreating the myriad (literal) bells and whistles that are Tokumaru’s trademark, and the endearingly nerdy Yoshinari Kishida’s infectious enthusiasm is almost as enjoyable to witness as his drumming.

The live arrangements are also a marked step-up from their recorded incarnations. Shugo has the occasional tendency to overdo the twee on record, but tonight, everything sounds perfect, from the impossibly lovely ‘Katachi’ and twinkly whimsy of ‘Parachute,’ to his signature, ukulele-centric cover of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star.’

A near flawless performance from an ever-impressive talent, Shugo Tokumaru may not change the world, but he certainly makes it a better place.

Photograph by Sara Amroussi-Gilissen

Following the release of Monomania earlier this month, Deerhunter have revealed that they’ll head to Europe for a flurry of live dates this October.

As The 405 point out, although no official announcement has yet been made, a series of shows have been posted of various ticketing and listing websites. Among those which have surfaced so far are UK dates in Leeds, Liverpool and Belfast.

More dates are expected to be announced shortly, with ticket sales details coming with it. Check the first handful of dates in full below:

October
12 – Empire Music Hall, Belfast, UK
16 – Leeds University Union, Leeds, UK
17 – East Village Arts Club, Liverpool, UK
23 – Übel & Gefährlich, Hamburg, Germany
25 – Feierwerk / Hansa 39, Munich, Germany
27 – WUK Werkstätten- u Kulturhaus, Vienna, Austria

German-born American rapper, J. Cole has brought his new album due date forward a week in a call of arms to Kanye West.

West’s preposterously-named Yeezus is set to come out on 18 June in the States, with Cole’s effort Born Sinner previously expected a week later. That all changed once he found out Yeezy had a new record on the way, however.

“I’m not going to sit [here]… I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album,” Cole said on the news. “It’d be like, ‘Oh and J.Cole dropped too, a week later.’ Nah. I’m going to go see him on that date. He’s the greatest. So it’s like, I’m a competitor by nature so it was instant, it wasn’t even a thought.”

It’s not the first time Kanye’s been caught up in a beef of this kind either, back in 2007 50 Cent bet West that he’d sell more albums with Curtis than Graduation did. Fiddy ended up eating his words and losing the bet.

Watch Cole’s recent performance on his LP’s title-track on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon below:

[via The 405]

Antony and the Johnsons‘ Antony Hegarty is to stage a solo art show from the end of the month at the Sikkema Jenkins gallery in New York.

Hegarty, known for his ventures into other artistic mediums, will host an exhibition called The Cut, based around themes surrounding his 2012 album Cut the World.

The work, a press release from the musician says, was inspired by Hegarty’s poem of the same name and attempts to “address universal artistic or social ideas and poetically suggests the healing potential of art”.

It’ll run from 31 May – 12 July, with more information available here. Until then, read ‘The Cut’ by Hegarty beneath:

The Cut
The cut on her face
The blood from under her skirt
A red fountain carries me
Towards my destiny
The cut in the sky
Out pour father’s eyes
Dive deep in the snow
Cold seed for the spring
Harvest of my creativity
The cut on her face
Portal of our race
Spurned majesty sighs
For that cut!

[via Pitchfork]

Ever outspoken, former Smiths frontman Morrissey has penned an open letter asking his fans to stop eating famously extravagant French dish foie gras.

Foie gras is a dish made from the liver of a duck or goose, which Morrissey – and avid vegetarian – has taken a certain disliking to. In the statement released via his semi-official fansite True To You, he applauds Prince Charles’ decision to stop serving the food at his formal gatherings, while turning his sights on the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, who he attributes it as a favourite meal of.

“It isn’t nice and you shouldn’t do it,” Moz opens the letter, before continuing: “Foie gras production is illegal in the UK, yet the ever-so-correct Fortnum and Mason have found suppliers in France who will keep their shelves stocked… would you please write to them/contact them and exert pressure on them to stop selling such a savage beyond belief ”product”.”

You can read the entire letter in full beneath:

“It isn’t nice and you shouldn’t do it

Congratulations to Prince Charles for banning foie gras from all his functions.
However, unsurprisingly, this most savage and cruel commodity continues to be the favorite “dish” of smiling mother-to-be Kate Muddleton (from whom, in fact, we expect no less.)
Foie gras production is illegal in the UK, yet the ever-so-correct Fortnum and Mason have found suppliers in France who will keep their shelves stocked – possibly with the hope that smiling Kate will wobble in and place an order for her unborn child.
Since Fortnum and Mason are now the only department store in London who are associated with the pitiless atrocity of foie gras, would you please write to them/contact them and exert pressure on them to stop selling such a savage beyond belief ”product”.

Fortnum and Mason
181 Piccadilly
London W1A 1ER, England

Twitter: @FortnumandMason

http://www.fortnumandmason.com

thank you!

Morrissey
22 May 2013″

[via Pitchfork]

The albums that stick with you, and I mean really stick with you, the one’s that become woven into the fabric of your very existence are often some of the most unassuming. More often that not, they enter your life under some magical circumstance, soundtracking it for months at a time and leaving an indelible mark on your memories. It is usually without warning they will seep into your consciousness evoking such strong emotional connections to a time, a place or a person that they can often be hard to return to.

One such album for me was Sam Amidon‘s 2008′s All Is Well. Ostensibly a reworking of traditional (mostly Appalachian) folk songs, the album possessed a rarified beauty in its fragility. Amidon’s voice breaks, the orchestra swells and the stories of heartbreak and loss unfold on an album so perfectly crafted in its arrangement and production would be, to my ears, impossible to follow up. In 2010 Amidon released I See the Sign. Markedly more immediate than its predecessor, it was a strong release yet it lacked the ineffable grace previously present.

Three years on and Vermont born Amidon is no longer recording with Reykjavik based collective Bedroom Community, but has moved to London to start a life with folk singer Beth Orton. Working with long time collaborator Thomas Bartlett (with who he recorded his first album) and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, this album tones down the lush orchestration and electronics of the previous two and instead brings out the more Jazz inspired elements of his work.

One of the many idiosyncrasies of Amidon’s past is his time spent studying under free-jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins and this influence can be very clearly heard in tracks such as ‘I Wish I Wish’ with it’s exploratory trumpet solo. That is not to say, however, that this is a Jazz record. There are certainly elements throughout but the strongest influence is still clearly his love of traditional music; the songs are performed with an almost reverential respect of the source material. Tracks such as the hypnagogic ‘Pharaoh’ and the beautiful title track showcase not only his love but his innate understanding of the appalachian vocal style. Each trill and warble evokes the beautiful but desolate landscapes from which most of these songs hail. On tracks such as ‘As I Roved Out’ and ‘Streets of Derry’, his playing (banjo and fiddle respectively) comes to the forefront and as with most of this album, is incredibly impressive.

While this album is by no means a huge leap forwards for Amidon (some could argue it’s a retreat to more familiar territory) , for me this is not a problem. What he does well here, and has always done well, is to embody traditional music; its harmony, its lyrical themes, and at the same time imbue the music with a vitality that never feels forced or disrespectful of its roots. Even the inclusion of a Mariah Carey cover (an unusual cover is commonplace on Amidon’s albums) doesn’t ever feel cheap or gimmicky and is handled with the same respect that makes this a truly sincere and beautiful album.

When we first heard Crystal Fighters‘ spirited foray into alt. dance with efforts like ‘Plage’ and ‘Champion Sound’, it was clear that we had something pretty special on our hands. The British/Spanish five piece spout youthful vigour, a penchant for sun-laced sounds and bounding pep of a puppy – even the most heartbreaking of their cuts is carried by a lightness and a golden haze.

Not only is their sound summer-bound, but it’s also insanely danceworthy – it’s the kind of organic club music that’s designed to soundtrack beach piss-ups in the sweltering heat, as you eat charred burgers and swill warm beer. They’ve got an original sonic identity that’s full of throbbing beats and luscious synths, but also the warmth of ukuleles and vocal richness.

Their debut, Star Of Love, polarised critics – some doled out 10/10s, others were keen to thrash them down. However, both camps saw potential in their sound, with many outlets patting them on the back for their original take on dance music and indie rock. They brought something to the table that wasn’t just fresh, but also amazing – apparently it was a concept record based on an opera “written by a man whose sanity disintegrated” before it could be finished. The LP was an engrossing combo of interweaving Basque folk and contemporary electronic music – and on the successor to Star Of Love, Cave Rave, we hear the familiar jangle of what made Crystal Fighters so fascinating in the beginning.

For Cave Rave, Crystal Fighters wanted to expand their horizons. They’ve brought in a host of authentic world instruments, like the txalaparta, the txistu and the Bolivian charango; they sought the wisdom of African musical icons and explored the sounds that cultures of the world have on offer, soaking in the variety, cherrypicking their favourite parts. There’s a notable Latin feel to the record (‘No Man’), there’s even some tribal percussion (‘LA Calling’). What has started to fade though, is their penchant for synths – this album careens away from the dance music aspect (as a genre) – but some efforts, like ‘Separator’ and ‘Are We One’ retain their techno streak, proudly showcasing pangs of dubstep and Calvin Harris pop hooks.

Other tracks, like the lead single ‘You & I’, eschew the synthetic. Sauntering through your speakers with the jauntiest ukulele intro you’ll ever hear, the track wears a splatter of reggae over straight-up indie-pop. With vocalist Sebastien Pringle’s adorable “I don’t need nothing else, no one else but you and I,” it’s plain to see that the cut is an ode to singular, relentless and all-encompassing love, told through tropical rhythms, backing vocals ripped from Lilo & Stitch and uplifting melodies. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more perfect summer tune. Opener ‘Wave’ features similar joie de vivre – it’s a sprawling paean of life and love, told via celestial guitars and atomic percussion.

Truthfully, for all of the global influences and toil, you barely even notice. There’s no time to pause and dissect the record, and just as you think there’s a gap to breathe, they drag you by the scruff of the neck and force your to grin and boogie. From start to finish, it’s a delirious pleasure, even if there’s a weak moment or slip in quality, you’re blind to it as their knack for eternal happiness and glorious melodies distract you. They’ve poured so much time and effort into Cave Rave – but you may never get a chance to appreciate that aspect of the album, because for all their intrinsic talent and informed attention to detail, their passion for pure pop is overpowering. It’s like someone trying to explain to you something in great detail at a party – it may be very interesting, but we’re sure you’d much rather just get another beer and dance like a loon.

Best Fit favourite MØ paid a visit to London’s prestigious Maida Vale studios recently to cut a live session for new music torchbearer Huw Stephens, broadcast last night on BBC Radio 1.

Performing new single ‘Waste Of Time’ alongside firm favourites ‘Maiden’ and ‘Pilgrim’, the young Dane continues to out perform her peers with effortless grace and swagger. Listen below.

London newcomer Scarper, debuts the first single, a lush, ambient mix of techno and 90s house off his forthcoming Unfurl EP.

Vintage synths create soft, fluffy melodies that sound like something a less moody Phil Collins or Paul Simon would have dreamed up. The first offering off labelhead, Scarper’s June release, ‘Bubblecloud’, winds through ambient keyboard keys and sharp metallic synths stabs taking listeners through a cloud-like existence all the way to the end. You lucky ducks get the very first listen here on Best Fit today.

Scarper’ Unfurl EP is out 24th June via Plexus Records.

Tracklist
01 Surfing The Cosmic Belt
02 New Blue Noon
03 Bubblecloud
04 Arabesque
05 Wavellite
06 Bubblecloud (Halftribe Remix)

“You just sit in your apartment watching Saved By The Bell and eating ramen noodles, and sometimes you spice things up by having Lucky Charms,” says U.S talk show host Conan O’Brien in his mock video response to Taylor Swift‘s recent single ’22′.

Not entirely happy that the representation of what it’s like to be a newly-graduated, perpetually-confused post-teen is truly depicted in Taylor’s track, O’Brien decides to hark back to what things are actually like when you’re at that age. Or at least what they were like back when he was 22.

“When you’re 22, the only reason you go out at night is to watch St Elmo’s Fire, which is out in the theaters and you’re excited because your favourite actors are in it: The Brat Pack.”

Watch the full clip below:

And for comparison’s sake, here’s the Swift original:

With their first album in nigh eight years dropping next month, Boards of Canada have continued their guerrilla marketing campaign by airing a first instalment of music from the record on a video screen in central Tokyo.

Following a series of now highly valued secret decoder vinyl releases, the electronic outfit premiered a new video earlier today in the Japanese capital at exactly midnight local time.

You can check out some fan footage of that below, via CoS. Meanwhile, new record Tomorrow’s Harvest is out 10 June via Warp.

West Londoner, Elliott Power,  shows he’s something of a complex character on debut track, ‘Sink/Swim’.

On the one hand we’ve got that sinister, Tricky-recalling vocal – a sort of clandestine threat, an assassins blade to the throat – while on the other we’ve got textured melodies; comprised of elastic popping synthesizers, muscular bass throbs and exotic hand percussion. Part trip-hop, part contemporary soul; it’s an intriguing amalgam and by the time we hit the smooth, RnB licked chorus, ’Sink/Swim’ is already bobbing away on the waves like a chest of 90′s encrusted lost treasure.

‘Sink/Swim’ is out 24 June via Marathon Artists, home to Jagwar Ma, Jamie Isaac and Childhood.

Summer Camp have confirmed they’ve completed their second full-length and follow-up to 2011′s Welcome To Condale.

“It’s official. Our album is finished. The masters have been signed off, the B-sides have been mixed. It’s on”, singer Elizabeth Sankey wrote on her personal blog. “There is always a waiting period of a couple of months after you finish an album,” she continues. “And that means we have ample opportunity to think back over the past year of writing and think about everything.”

Sankey proceeds to run through all the complications that arise from having a whole year to make album #2 when, with most debut LPs that borrow from previous tracks released on EPs, there’s not that prolonged period of writing and recording that comes next.

A summer playing festivals and then trying to record, she says, made the group make up short songs consisting of the “best bits” of music, rather than whole cohesive tracks. Going through different phases of music tastes, like listening to Toots & The Maytals, also seems to warp judgement also, making the group want to “put steel drums on a song” or insert “searing guitar solos”.

But despite the stress of “sobbing in a corner for ten minutes”, making “moodboards” or having nobody like the song you think is “not even the best song we’d ever written, the best song anyone, ever, in the entire world, had written”, it seems like it all manages to come together in the end.

Three of the “best” songs on the album, Sankey writes, were spawned from the “inevitable last month” when the bad had “officially ‘stopped writing’.”

There’s no set due date for the upcoming release, but it’s expected to be within the summer months. Until then, check out our Best Fit session with the group below:

Making another step closer to a promised second studio album, Clare Maguire unveils a gorgeously touching demo.

With vocal maturity far beyond her 25 years, ‘Changing Faces’ is three and a half minutes of emotion and honesty. The Annie Lennox influence is clear, but the cold simplicity and gentle catchiness of its chorus ensures any thought of the Closing Ceremony is quickly dashed.

Her intonation and controlled dynamics make this a quite stunning Best Fit Premiere – stream it below.

The Scottish Album of the Year Award (SAY Award) have announced that they’ll let the public help them decide on their final shortlist for this year’s accolade.

The ceremony, akin to the Mercury Prize, returns for its second year, with organisers revealing today that a public vote will be held to pick one of the ten-strong shortlist.

The shortlist, which cuts the longer list already revealed in half from 20 acts, will be made public on 30 May. The public vote will be held on 27 May via the SAY Award website, open for only 24 hours.

The eventual winner will be unveiled at ceremony in Barrowlands on 20 June, receiving a £20,000 cash prize. The full list of current nominees is as below:

Admiral Fallow – Tree Bursts In Snow
Auntie Flo – Future Rhythm Machine
Calvin Harris – 18 Months
Dam Mantle – Brothers Fowl
Django Django – Django Django
Duncan Chisholm – Affric
Emeli Sandé – Our Version of Events
Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic
Human Don’t Be Angry – Human Don’t Be Angry
Karine Polwart - Traces
Konrad Wiszniewski & Euan Stevenson – New Focus
Lau - Race The Loser
Meursault – Something For The Weakened
Miaoux Miaoux – Light of the North
Paul Buchanan – Mid Air
PAWS – Cokefloat!
RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost & Found
Stanley Odd – Reject
The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know
The Unwinding Hours – Afterlives

Following a series of reissues recently on Domino Records, Julia Holter is set to release her first album on the label later this summer.

Loud City Song is due for release on 19 August, the follow-up to 2012′s Ekstasis. You can check out its opener, ‘World’ streaming below, with the album’s tracklisting as follows:

1. World
2. Maxim’s I
3. Horns Surrounding Me
4. In The Green Wild
5. Hello Stranger
6. Maxim’s II
7. He’s Running Through My Eyes
8. This Is a True Heart
9. City Appearing

What’s the easiest thing to name your album? Album, like Girls did? Basically nothing, like Sigur Ros did? Or just settle for a good ol’ fashion self-titled effort? Well, things were a bit more complicated for Toronto electro-pop outfit DIANA who have been made to change the name of their self-titled debut after it emerged that there’s already an album called Diana by a band named Diana.

Not wanting to get sued, the group have now amended its title to Perpetual Surrender - perhaps a headnod to their out forfeit itself. It’ll still come out on 19 August via Jagjaguwar. You can listen to a cut from that LP, ‘Born Again’, streaming below.

[via The 405]

With data from streaming services soon to be incorporated in gold and platinum certifications, it was only a matter of time before there was a streaming-only chart countdown. And now music platform Spotify have done just that, launching two separate charts.

The first will be a simple rundown of its most played tracks throughout the past seven days, while the second will be the most shared songs via social networking sites. Each country will have their own different version of these.

This follows news that Spotify will start showing play statistics on many new tracks. It’s not yet known whether the company will do the same for albums, or whether or not they’ll launch an albums chart also.

[via CMU]

Jailed Pussy Riot member and political activist, Maria Alyokhina has taken a hunger strike vow in a protest against a Russian court’s refusal to let her attend her own parole hearing.

A local court in Berezniki ruled that Alyokhina must stay in her jail cell for the hearing that will take place from Wednesday through to Thursday. Via video link, the protester said: ”Let the troika sitting here – the judge, the prosecutor and the colony employee – decide my fate”, before announcing she will begin a hunger strike in response.

Last year, three members of the punk band were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and were sentenced to two years in jail following the performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The song requested that the Virgin Mary drive Russian president Vladimir Putin from power.

Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, have been named prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. Samutsevich was released in October.

[via The Guardian]

The Berlin leg of The xx‘s Night + Day summer gig series took place over the weekend, with the likes of Chromatics, Mount Kimbie, Kindness and Mykki Blanco filling the bill.

Another of the supports was Jessie Ware, who returned as day swiftly became night to perform a collaborative rendition of Stardust‘s ‘The Music Sounds Better With You’, before morphing it into Modjo‘s ‘Lady (Hear Me Tonight)’, all in front of a camera phone wielding crowd.

Watch the entirely unexpected performance below:

[via Gigwise]

Cali indie-rock outfit, Giant Drag returned for their first album since 2005′s Hearts And Unicorns earlier this year – and now will head to the UK for a supporting tour in September.

The band, fronted by Annie Hardy, released Waking Up Is Hard To Do via Full Psycho Records back in March and will play tracks from the release at show in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds and other UK cities.

It’ll be Hardy’s final performances in order to, as she says in a statement, “say goodbye to the band properly so I can concentrate on my new project Annie Hardy and the Psychos”.

The full touring schedule is as below:

September
12 Brudenell, Leeds
13 Deaf Institute, Manchester
14 Kazimier, Liverpool
15 Broadcast, Glasgow
16 The Cluny, Newcastle
17 Borderline, London
18 The Fleece, Bristol
19 Green Door Store, Brighton

[via DIY]

Charli XCX isn’t ashamed of her pop sensibilities. Heck, she even proclaimed the Spice Girls and Britney to be her biggest influences recently.

It’s no surprise, then, that the goth-pop songstress chose to cover Backstreet Boys‘ classic (of sorts) ‘I Want It That Way’ at an in-store event in Chicago.

Watch that below, via Stereogum.

Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs erupted from seemingly nowhere – one minute they were a tiny underground outfit from London making a racket in dimly lit venues, the next they were being touted for success by anyone ‘in the know’.

Stampeding through blogs and magazines alongside a plethora of other axe-wielding riffsmiths and rock revivalists, Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs stood out due to a sweaty amalgam of ’70s NYC art-punk (á la Television and Modern Lovers) and sashaying britpop quirks.

The ‘Charlie Boyer’ part of their nom de plume is apparent – but why is he surrounded by ‘The Voyeurs’ you ask? “The group was always going to be Charlie Boyer and the ‘somethings’. We had a few things in the air, but we chose Voyeurs because of the dark, sexual connotation. It’s really nice to have a sinister edge, something I always like in rock or pop or indie… and also truly because it rhymes… it’s slightly throwaway.”

We’re at their make-or-break moment: the release of their full-length debut, Clarietta. If it’s great, we’re going to see a whole lot more of CBTV, but if it’s anything but, given the cavalcade of guitar-focused bands releasing debuts this season, they could end up swallowed whole, never to be seen again. It’s a critical moment for the for the five-piece. “We’re excited,” says Boyer briskly. “It’s going to be good to start playing lots of good gigs. We’ve started getting good as a live band now.” His pace and repetition of ‘good’ indicates he’s more nervous than he lets on, but there is a shred of excitement in his voice. It’s a nervous anticipation.

There’s been a lot of mumbling and grumbling and ‘oo-er’ing at the new wave of rock’n'roll – with only fragments of sound to go on, the hype machine went into overdrive. But Boyer and his crew aren’t letting the high expectations of others stand in the way of them. “I wouldn’t say there’s been much [hype]. People are being positive, but repeating themselves as usual… ultimately it’s not up to us. We’re doing what we want and not caring what others are doing.” They’re fine doing what they want to do, but one thing they’re not keen on is being lumped together with Peace and Palma Violets et al. “I don’t like the idea of a ‘rock revival’. These things don’t ever stop. Every six months there’s a set of three or four rock bands and every time people say its a revival. Acts are just doing what they want.”

Boyer was like Augustus Gloop at the chocolate river when it came to recording, marvelling at the process and getting his hands really sticky. “I really enjoyed the writing stages. We still had loads of work to do by December as we had studio time booked in January, and we were in the rehearsal space five days a week writing and stuff, trying to get songs done. When it came to recording, I’d never been in a studio for that length of time, I really enjoyed it. It was good to just use all this different equipment and give the record a real sound.” You can almost hear his eyes light up.

The writing process starts very isolated, with Boyer taking the reigns solo before workshopping his noodlings with bandmates. “I write the basic guitar and vocal separately, and then the band decorate it. I do the primitive sketches before passing it on the the band to flesh out.” He’s confident in his process, almost proud of it. “I think one thing is that I like to work quickly, do something and then move on. The personality of the band is immediate, and I think the simplest way of doing things is the best, that’s true not just in music.” Strangely, for lyrics/lyricists, he’s focused more on the grammar and sound of words rather than the actual meaning – obviously that’s vital too – but he uses his voice as an almost instrument, as Jonsí of Sigur Rós does. “I like having fun with different words and cutting them up and using interesting phrases, there’s no massive concepts, I’m just trying things out that I know. I like rhyme too.”

The quintet’s influences are far-ranging from “’80s yuppie stuff is great, Japan etc. the bouffants and big makeup and shoulder pads. I like that. We all obviously like Velvet Underground… Syd Barrett is great lyrically… all the ’70s New York art-punk… all the way through to The Ramones…” The way Boyer talks, you can tell he’s really into his music. He’s almost tripping over his words to explain everything he adores.

Chatting through the creation of their debut, Boyer rattles off the facts: “We recorded it with Edywn Collins in his Hampstead studio over fifteen days in January. We did live takes. We’d play it through a few times and then I’d sing over the top. Essentially it was live, but we would occasionally add another guitar or an organ.” During the recording of Clarietta, Collins imparted many wise words upon the young Boyer in terms of songcraft. “I think me and Ed really agreed (and he drummed away) on the importance of only having what’s needed, cutting away any baggage. Tempo is important if you’re playing basic, primitive songs: if they’re too fast they sound apologetic, like you’re trying to get to the end, but too slow is lazy. We worked out the exact speed, it really makes a difference. He knows a lot about that stuff.”

After spending a good portion of last year touring, they feel like they’re in a good position for performing, as Boyer has already mentioned. As such, they’ve been accruing more gigs. “We’ve started to get festivals coming in. We’re getting bookings later ’cause were pretty small at the moment, but we have Reading & Leeds, Field Day, Hard Rock Calling… It’ll make the band even more of a band.”

In their evolution as a live force, Boyer has honed a few tricks that remain firmly up his sleeve (for now). “I guess we’re going to try and introduce new songs… an interesting cover we’re working on that we might bring out, or a few pipeline songs. We’re going to develop live versions. I quite like the idea of developing songs from the record, and even though we recorded Clarietta live, I like the idea of having the live versions evolve and warp. When we’re playing sounds four years later we want them to be set apart from the original, like Velvet Underground did. We want to revisit old tracks and move on to a strange version of the to keep things exciting. Obviously we’re going to do it a lot quicker though.”

Clarietta will be released by Heavenly Recordings on 27 May.

Odd Future-affiliated production duo, The Jet Age of Tomorrow will a free LP in the form of Jellyfish Mentality this week.

Due Friday, the pair (Matt Martians and Hal Williams) have collaborated with the likes of SBTRKT, Mac Miller, Kilo Kish and more for this third effort. OFWGKTA members Earl Sweatshirt, Hodgy Beats et al will also appear on the release.

You can listen to one of the tracks ‘On!’ right now below, with the full tracklisting beneath that.

1 Mushy
2 Special K (Wombats)
3 Warping Walls
4 Desert N’ The Dark (JAOT Dub) [ft. the Stepkids]
5 ON!
6 Juney Jones [ft. Mac Miller and Speak]
7 Panic on Pluto (interlude) [produced by SBTRKT and Matt Martians]
8 Not So Scary ft Kilo Kish
9 Love in Water
10 Lily Pads
11 A Place Where Lovers Go [ft. Jesse Boykins III]
12 Machines Machines (interlude)
13 One Take [ft Earl Sweatshirt and Casey Veggies]
14 SuperFINE
15 The Door’s Door
16 Asia [ft Mike G]
17 Squares
18 Wonderful World [ft. Domo Genesis and Vince Staples]
19 Naked [ft. Hodgy Beats]
20 Airport (interlude)
21 Telephones

Hot on the heels of recent single ’The Road I Know’, Azure Blue returns today with another offering of wistful nostalgia.

Lifted from the forthcoming album Beyond the Dreams There’s Infinite Doubt, ‘Willows and Pines’ sees Tobias Isasksson in contemplative mode – the track’s soft and steady synth backing building throughout whilst Isaksson’s soft croon mourns a love gone sour.

‘Willows and Pines’ is available now via iTunes and Spotify. Stream in full below.

A collection of previously unreleased material by the late experimental composer Arthur Russell is set to be premiered at an exhibition in Detroit this weekend. If you can’t wait for that, or simply unable to make it, you can listen to one of the highlights right now in the form of this alternate version of Talking Heads‘ ‘Psycho Killer’.

Previously unheard, the track features Arthur Russell on cello duty and David Byrne in typically brilliant form. Listen to all that below, with thanks for Dazed Digital for the stream.

More info on the Detroit event can be found here.

Despite being a disco legend, Giorgio Moroder had never got behind a pair of decks before. Until last night, that is, when the recent Daft Punk collaborator performed his first ever DJ set live in New York.

Part of the billing for Red Bull Music Academy’s night at Brooklyn club Output, Moroder spun some of his career-long back-catalogue, Donna Summer was in abundance, as well as Random Access Memories track ‘Giorgio by Moroder’.

You can listen to the entire thing, 75 minutes in all, below:

[via CoS]

With her new, and fourth, full-length due next week, Laura Marling is planning some special to celebrate the release – unveiling details of a series of upcoming Secret Cinema shows.

The multiple events, set to take place at surprise locations across East London from 13-26 June and 18-21 June, will feature actors, artists, dancers and more – as well as a live performance from Marling herself.

Tickets go on sale Thursday (23 May) at 1pm GMT, available via the Secret Cinema website. Listen to Once I Was An Eagle online in full via here.

Photo by Lucy Hamblin.

Possibility the coolest music lecturer since Kode9, Four Tet gave a talk at the Red Bull Music Academy recently on how he structures his sets.

Many an electronic producer has become stumped on how to transfer their bedroom or home studio made tracks to the dancefloor, but Kieran Hebden was on hand to give an informal audience of onlookers a few tips.

You can watch that seminar of sorts below, as well as a recent RBMA talk with Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder.

[via FACT]

London-based scuzz-pop types, Splashh have revealed details surrounding their forthcoming debut album release.

The record, entitled Comfort, will come out via Luv Luv Luv on 2 September. It’s available for pre-ordering here.

As well as this, the group have confirmed a flurry of live dates to precede the release. You can check those out in full below, with the record’s cover art beneath.

May
30 Newcastle, Think Tank
31 Glasgow, Nice N Sleazy

June
1 Nottingham, Chameleon
2 Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
4 London, Cargo
5 Manchester, The Soup Kitchen
7 Southampton, Lennons
8 Brighton, The Hope

[via CMU]

There’s a lot to be said for solitude. Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle once told me about his writing process and being on tour and said the key was to spend as much time as he could on his own and then the songs would come.

Martin Crane, the man behind New York-via-Austin’s Brazos seems to have learned something similar in coming to write his band’s second album Saltwater, a follow-up to 2009′s promising debut Phosphorescent Blues; the themes of the record – isolation, solitude, the sea – formed after a move to NYC found Crane working on a 19^th century sail boat and reading Moby Dick.

So far, so “screenplay by Zach Braff”. But given that Melville’s book spoke to Crane, and that he found himself listening to music that shared the explorative tendencies of that tome, we should be thankful for the inspiration that’s resulted in the hook and harmony-heavy tracks on this album.

Recorded with a new drummer and bassist, Saltwater manages to combine – often to sparkling effect – indie-pop hookery with the aforementioned explorative music of Pharaoh Sanders, Can and Harmonia to come across as a kind of rambling, transcendental version of The Shins.

Given they’ve also toured with Grizzly Bear it’s also interesting to hear echoes of Daniel Rossen’s writing in Crane’s music, mainly in the freewheeling nature of the majority of the tracks. We begin practically mid-song in opening track ‘Always On’, as bright synths bounce along with a quasi-Afrobeat kick and a flamenco acoustic guitar flourish. With barely concealed glee, Crane sings “yes, I’m gonna love you til you’re real” and sounds like he’s in the business of creating a companion for himself out of his isolated imagination.

It rolls along unanchored, and is joined in the carefree ranks by ‘How The Ranks Was Won’; that track driven by a motorik chug reminiscent of American Analog Set’s late-career output and is an absolute winner. That’s followed by a pair of crackers: ‘One Note Pillow’ is a jazz-flecked odyssey drenched in echoed harmonies that’s definitely been a result of some time listening to Veckatimest, while ‘Valencia’ is, appropriately enough, a summery and playfully Spanish-tinged track.

Each listen makes any flaws in the record more elusive. There’s the lovely and sad waltz of ‘Deeper Feelings’, the stunning cyclical guitar lines of ‘Irene’ – essentially a jam but addictive thanks to Crane’s engagingly human voice – through to the title track which shares the same freewheelin’ spirit as the preceding track, and again Crane’s lyrics and voice are the star attraction. It’s also the most overtly “about the ocean” song on the record alongside ‘How The Ranks Was Won’, but really – do the themes or inspiration really matter when the tunes are this good?

Crane, along with new Brazos band members Spencer Zahn and Ian Chang, haven’t quite created “transcendental groove music” with Saltwater but as a difficult second album goes, this is a total breeze rather than a mainsail-battering ocean storm.

East London noir-goths, O Children are set to team up with Deptford threepiece Drop Out Venus and noise-pop pair Crushed Beaks for a special show next month in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

The three bands will play London’s Cargo on 1 June as part of the Big Mix Festival, a celebration of music, comedy and more, all in support of the charity.

Tickets are free with a Big Mix wristband, or £5 entry without. RSVP for the event here and get tickets now here.

Listen to a track by each band below:

John Grant is an artist that inspires evangelism among his followers. You could see it when Midlake, self-confessed super-fans of Grant’s former band the Czars, coaxed him out of obscurity and into their studio to record his solo debut, Queen of Denmark.

It was apparent in the manner in which said album took off: there was a real, old-fashioned, word-of-mouth feel to its ascendency (living abroad at the time, I received various emails from people in the UK telling me I simply had to get my hands on his record). There’s the sell-out British tour and the fact that every time there’s a moment of silence in tonight’s jam-packed Shepherd’s Bush Empire, a gaggle of infatuated revellers will loudly declare their unconditional love for him. Throughout, I’m half expecting a pair of knickers to land at his feet, as he self-consciously shimmies his way through a stellar performance.

He emerges to the groan of a synthesizer that’s so sonorous, it feels like it’s coming from the bowels of the old Empire itself. The 4/4 backbeat to ‘You Don’t Have To’ ushers him toward the mic, the lights flickering fluorescent. New album Pale Green Ghosts is a departure, for sure, but it’s arguably not until you’ve seen him perform it live that you realise just how different he intended it to be. In a week dominated by the catfight over Daft Punk’s new record, the title track, performed to a mesmerising green light show, reminds us all what a great dance tune should sound like. The searing synth riff of ‘It Doesn’t Matter to Him’, too, bellow around the theatre: louder, dancier and bolder than you could ever have envisioned (although I’d hazard that anyone who’s heard it on this tour will only ever hear it this way again).

Grant’s gallows humour transcends both of his records and it’s to the fore tonight too. From the deadbeat anthem ‘Queen of Denmark’ to the goofy existentialism of ‘Sigourney Weaver’, Grant has a Vonnegut-esque ability to sugarcoat the most barbed and venomous couplets in comedy. Often, too, the melody Grant hangs the lyrics on is at odds with the content: Grant himself draws the comparison between ‘I Hate This Town’ (about depression and alienation) and Abba’s ‘Chiquitita’ (a slightly more trivial number about teenage heartbreak), before regaling us with his confusion over how the band’s Frida would clap as she performed live (of course, he had us all join in).

Between tracks, too, his patter has the power to thaw the most hardened hearts. ‘Ernest Borgnine’, he tells the audience, is about how he felt when he was diagnosed with HIV, before setting the audience off in laughter again with a joke and an anecdote about Borgnine, the hero he once got to meet.

“I hope you can feel this,” he tells the crowd, clasping at his heart as he takes leave of his encore. We can – everybody can. From the moment he introduces his Icelandic band and thanks the support act before singing a note, to the final moments of ‘Caramel’, this has been an extraordinary occasion marked by humility and warmth.

Over the past months, there’s been a hell of a lot lot written about Grant’s illness, his depression and his addictions. Tonight, though, has been about his remarkable ability to channel his many-headed demons into something positive and beautiful.

Photograph by Burak Cingi

Jacques Greene and How To Dress Well join forces to prove there’s still life left in the future garage revival with new track ‘On Your Side’.

The Montreal producer will release a new EP next month and the titular track features falsetto vocals from Tom Krell. The pairings love for house music and R&B respectively is the song’s foundation with sampled ‘yeahs’ running throughout alongside an ever rising bass drum loop.

On Your Side EP is out 3 June digitally and 1 July on 12″ via LuckyMe.

Apparently it’s impossible to talk about Daft Punk without hyperbole. You can set aside all the praise coming from critics, as much as that confirms my point.

Just look at “The Collaborators” video series about the making of the pair’s new record, Random Access Memories, and you’ll find the artists themselves tripping over each other to make the most exaggerated assertions. Todd Edwards claims that he moved from New Jersey to L.A. because of the recording sessions. Chilly Gonzales states that he doesn’t usually like to collaborate, but made an exception for “people who are in possession of some true key to the zeitgeist.” DJ Falcon simply stated that, “For me, they never disappoint.”

But perhaps the most hyperbolic statement about this album is also the simplest: that every hyperbolic statement may all be true. Daft Punk have not only made a career-defining album, but the smartest dance album since disco. Which makes sense, not only because Memories is a disco record, but also because disco was the precursor to EDM. Aside from the vocoder’ed vocals, you’d be hard-pressed (at least, on the surface) to believe this album came from the same guys who created the ecstasy-filled ‘One More Time.’

But then again, this is Daft Punk we’re talking about – the group that never does the same thing twice and rarely follows trends. Naturally, if EDM is what’s de rigueur, then Daft Punk can’t make an EDM record. Even if they’re the reason that, say, Skrillex has a career. No, not for Daft Punk. Electronic dance music is who they were. Throwing out  the samples (apart from album-closer ‘Contact’), recording on analog and bringing in Nile Rodgers to play guitar, Nathan East to play bass and J.R. Robinson to play drums – the duo go backwards in order to move forwards, and make a statement.

Two androids made dance music with emotion, basically. But they’re still robots, meaning that this music is as meticulous, as precise and fed through as much calculus as anything the Daft Punk have released. Now, this may seem odd if you consider the French duo’s comments about how dehumanized the process of making music has become. Such modern studio perfectionists as Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are forced to use computers in order to find the perfect sounds, and the duo has admitted as much. That said, computers aren’t the basis for composition. They aren’t an instrument, they are a tool.

Just one tool used in the making – “crafting” might be a better term – of this album. ‘Giorgio by Moroder,’ for example, is a nine-minute, multi-part suite that opens with a spoken-word intro by the titular Italian legend and closes with a paranoid guitar solo before fizzling into a bath of feed-back. In between you’ll find: a synthesizer making concentric circles around a sparse rhythm section, two different breakdowns (a short, jazzy outing and a percussion freak-out), orchestration and a second spoken word part. Is it over the top? Yes. Self-indulgent? Or course. Insists upon its self-importance? Absolutely. Features entire portions that are unnecessary? No question. And that’s the point, and why it works. In effect, Daft Punk have made a dance record that comments on the imperfect nature of humanity. In the case of ‘Giorgio,’ the observation is that sometimes life is frivolous, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun or surprising.

So, in other words, Random Access Memories is as much a progressive rock record as it is a disco record. Well, Daft Punk’s version of disco, anyway. Attentive listeners will discover that beneath this disco-based album lie shades of trap music drizzled over ‘Doin’ It Right,’ jazz fusion injected into ‘Motherboard’ and ‘Contact,’ and even AOR rolled into ‘Fragments of Time.’ None of it shouldn’t work. Combining progressive music with disco is by itself a tough order, and that’s especially true if you add any of the above ingredients. But Daft Punk make something work that shouldn’t because they’ve always been about the road less traveled.

This explains why on Memories, they had someone other than themselves sing into a vocoder. The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas appears on the synth-pop gem ‘Instant Crush’ with his voice filtered through their signature style, something that initially feels profane. No one sings into a vocoder! It’s practically been their trademark for two decades! But it works with Casablancas because the song’s about being frustrated by a relationship. “Now I thought about what I wanna say/ But I never really know where to go,” he sings over a tumbling melody. “So I chained myself to a friend/ ‘Cause I know it unlocks like a door.” Casablancas simply sounds reluctant to accept how perplexing life can be, especially regarding relationships. The vocoder, then, acts as a way to fully demonstrate how bemused he is. That he’s is the only guest whose vocals get this treatment suggests a mistake, one that precariously sticks out. It’s the kind of song you’d record assuming it’ll be a b-side. But to these robots, it makes perfect sense do something seemingly blasphemous and put it on an album. They wouldn’t be who they are otherwise.

It’s the same reason they had Paul Williams sing on ‘Touch,’ the assumed centerpiece of the record. A full-blown space rock ballad featuring a samba detour in the middle, it’s a track that, upon hearing, caused a fellow critic to remark Williams was a bad choice, as he lacks “the gravitas to pull it off.” That may be true, but may have also been the goal. Here, Daft Punk are going for groove, for living in the moment, and for blemishes. So, yeah, they could’ve used a superstar like David Bowie, but it wouldn’t fit. The robotic duo went slightly under the radar in service to a song that, lyrically, is simultaneously the most and least human thing Daft Punk have ever been a part of. “Sweet touch/ You’ve almost convinced me I’m real/ I need something more,” Williams sings over the somber piano coda. It’s beautiful and sad.

There’s that dichotomy, again: Robots making songs about feeling. Even when they make the perfect summer song, it’s got a pessimistic underbelly. ‘Get Lucky,’ featuring Pharrell Williams, is the breeziest thing Daft Punk have ever made. The itchy slink of Nile Rodgers’ guitar suggests a wonderful sunset that never ends. Yet, Williams sings of two people that aren’t exactly in sync with each other: “She’s up all night t’ill the sun/ I’m up all night to get some/ She’s up all night for good fun/ I’m up all night to get lucky.” Pharrell was quick to point out the meaning of the song goes beyond sex, but even if it isn’t, the boy and girl are clearly on different wavelengths. To the guy, the sparks aren’t there and result is disappointment. But he isn’t leaving: “ We’ve come too far/ To give up who we are.”

Album closer ‘Contact’ opens with audio from the Apollo 17 mission over the cautiously optimistic synth from The Sherb’s ‘We Right Tonight.’ The immediacy of the song is then thrust forward when the song begins its sprint as more and more synths are piled on each other. Omar Hakim’s drums stumble over themselves as they dash alongside. Suddenly, everything bleeds together into a sonic haze and begins an ascent straight for the sun. Pulses quicken. Then…it fizzles out in an anti-climax and the album is over.

Which is just another way for Daft Punk to comment on being letdown. This album is a perfectly imperfect vision of humanity as seen by two androids. It’s not cynical or calculating like a robot might view it but it isn’t cheery, either. Even when they sing optimistically about music and life, there’s a hint of inhuman over-simplicity: “Let the music of your life/ Give life back to music.”

Yet, as Todd Edwards observed, it’s somehow a robot duo that is ironically “bringing soul back to music.” Edwards sings lead on ‘Fragments of Time,’ the record’s most human song. Juxtaposed to a busy AOR arrangement, he speaks of being content even if that means siphoning off happiness from memories – be they real or digital. It’s this seemingly stark contrast that colours all of Daft Punk’s work. Despite the level of fastidiousness that’s standard to Daft Punk, Random Access Memories still sounds loose. The album doesn’t feel synthetic or disingenuous, as it perhaps should. So perhaps these two are cooler than anyone you know. Perhaps they are the cultural apotheosis everyone’s in awe of. Then again, to create music of this calibre, perhaps they really are two robots from another planet.

Former schoolfriends, Australian four piece San Cisco craft a melodic upbeat sound so infectious and sun-kissed that you’d think the spirit of a lesser-known Beach Boy has been grafted into their songwriting sessions.

Hailing from Fremantle, the three boys (Jordi, Nick and Josh) and one girl (Scarlett) make a sizeable splash in their native land a year or or back in the top ten and – as these things go – with a multi-million views YouTube clip. That success led to deals with Fat Possum and Colombia. So far so good.

We met up with three of the four a few weeks back when the band were over for some shows with Darwin Deez and they cut the angsty heartbreak anthem ‘Beach’ for their Best Fit Session; watch above.

With the record streaming a good few weeks prior to its actual release, at the tail end of a promotional campaign that seemed to go on forever, you’d be forgiven to feel like you’ve listened to the new Daft Punk album to death before it was even released this week. Luckily, however, there’s a new track you might not have heard to keep you entertained.

No BPM are pointing to this daydream-like track ‘Horizon’, claiming it’s the bonus track from the Japanese release from Random Access Memories. Washed synths, sorrowful robotic vocoder: seems about right.

 Listen beneath:

The bassist from David Bowie‘s Spiders From Mars band, Trevor Bolder has passed away at the age of 62.

Bolder joined Bowie’s live group in 1971 and can be heard on Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane, and Pin Ups. He later left in 1976 to join seminal hard rock outfit Uriah Heep, which he was a member of until 2011.

Bowie has called Bolder a “wonderful musician and a major inspiration for whichever band he was working with”, while overall “a tremendous guy” and “great man”.

Watch Bolder in the video for ‘Starman’ below:

Photo via Pitchfork

VIRALS returns from a mini US tour to release a new free download ahead of performances at a number of Field Day events this weekend.

‘Wax-Work’ is the final teaser before Hencher begins work on a full length album and has the kind of inescapable kinetic energy that has become VIRALS’ signature  over the past year or so. It’s a power-pop blowout with a motoring riff that shoots straight for the sun.

Hencher and band will play live on Friday (24 May) at the first of three FREE Field Day parties we’re hosting at the Shacklewell Arms this weekend, as well as at Field Day itself on Saturday (25 May).

RSVP to our Field Day Parties here.

Glasgow three-piece, Sparrow and the Workshop, aired the second single from the Murderopolis LP last month. Powered by a stomping, brazen guitar riff and Jill O’Sullivan’s searching vine-like vocals, ’The Faster You Spin’ is as stylish and sinewy as alt-rock off cuts come. 

The accompanying visuals are decidedly more sleazy: documenting the antics of a gaggle of call girls – or rather some middle aged men dressed up and donning politicians masks – as they spend a night fighting, flicking the V’s at one another and failing to secure any business in the process. The best bits? SNP’s Alex Salmond being chastised into leaving by the coalition is trumped onky by Bush and Blair arriving to double bitch-slap Vince Cable to the floor. Sublimely silly.

‘The Faster You Spin’ and Murderopolis are both set for release on 27 May via Scottish indie Song, By Toad Records.

Smith Westerns give yet another example of how guitar pop should be done, with their new song ’3am Spiritual’.

Taken from forthcoming album Soft Will ’3am Spiritual’ sees the Chicago teens arguably reach the peak of their powers, so far, with swaying melodies and an undercurrent of soft drums carrying the track before grand synths take hold.

There’s something communal and romantically nostalgic about this song, and if all that wasn’t enough, the real kicker comes with the keyboard, guitar noodling breakdown lifted, straight from the best 80s power ballads. Stream below.

Soft Will comes out on 24 June via Co-Op (Europe) 25 June via Mom+Pop (US).

Attention spans, huh? Boring! There’s a certain type of indiepop collective that sees fit to adopt a ‘kitchen sink’ approach to instrumentation and arrangement, as likely to draw from the cutesiest of fey pop as it is to draw from what The Waterboys dubbed ‘the big music’. You know the types: Bearsuit. Architecture In Helsinki. Los Campesinos! Bands who’ll veer from lo-fi jauntiness to mini-Arcade Fires to nonsensical electro within the space of a single verse.

To that list you can add Kill Rock Stars’ own Boats, a five-piece from Winnipeg with more ideas than is really fair. Like the aforementioned acts, their capacity for concentration is small. They’d rather drag songs backwards through hedges than bother with anything as deathly dull as revisiting a verse or chorus. An odd bunch? First impressions of third LP A Fairway Full Of Miners suggest that’s the case.

Much of this is down to head honcho Mat Klachefsky’s frankly bizarre voice – a strangulated, high-pitched yap that scratches eardrums like Wallace Shawn ingesting helium as a cure for laryngitis. Opening toe-tapper ‘Animated GIFs’ sees him wistfully advising us to “never ever change your font size,” shortly before a demented breakdown proclaims: “O frothy eater of sandwiches! Laminated hands will command you!” In short, it’s a little difficult to get a handle on his subject matter, although there’s an engaging quality to his delivery that makes him worth sticking with.

The rest of the band work more cohesively, applying mob shouts and sunny pop ‘oohs’ to the ADD-riddled backing. A chest-swelling trumpet line props up ‘Great Skulls’, while knackered old synths power the scrupulous power-chug of ‘Sad Legs’, and ‘Advice On Bioluminescent Bears’ features the soft tones of the glockenspiel – the indiepoppers’ traditional weapon of choice. Meanwhile climaxes and codas appear from nowhere, allowing individual tracks to flow powerfully and endearingly into realms that seem far from their starting points.

The dense attack of their melodies make for a somewhat heady brew – a little too rich to fully absorb on first listen, perhaps – and for all the expansive nature of their songs, Boats are far from genre-hoppers: it all sounds most assuredly like indie. But then again, they’re never going to be world-beaters; the only thing they seek to dominate is the madcap universe inside their collective imagination. And there they sit: rulers of all they survey. Oligarchs of delightfully batshit guitar pop. It’s worth paying ‘em a visit.