<::::silverese::::>

Abe Vigoda on a sunny day

2009-03-15T12:08:00.002+00:00

Trinity in the sun.

Happy day.

(Take me home) I know I want it!

It's barely credible that the same band produced this cover:

Wild Heart

xxx

without you...

2009-02-28T11:42:00.004+00:00

I should be working, but this is just too gorgeous to wait.

Mystery Jets & Esser - In Between Days

As is this.

The Get Up Kids - Close to Me

(both from Pictures of You - a tribute to Godlike Geniuses The Cure, free CD with NME UK)

xxx

Garden Airplane-Trap

2009-02-24T22:26:00.004+00:00

In a surrealist mood.

Mission of Burma - Max Ernst

(from Signals, Calls and Marches)

Play Exquisite Corpse! It's more fun than the name suggests.

xxx

AAAAAAAAAANT TEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-21T09:11:00.004+00:00

AAAAAAAAAANT TEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(from Super Roots 10 - good luck finding it)

Photo: Kelzan

xxx

AAAAAAAAAANT TEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15, she's under age, that's raw

2009-02-19T10:26:00.004+00:00

Dizzee appearing on a one-off Shooting Stars episode a little while back was incredibly embarrassing. Man of his intelligence and perception shouldn't be making a fool of hisself. That said, I would have enjoyed him performing this with George Dawes doing Shystie's part:

I Luv U

from Boy in da Corner

xxx

(that picture just gets more and more disturbing)

Just Like Yesterday

2009-02-18T10:13:00.007+00:00

This time, the house isn't yellow, in fact the wood isn't painted. Early in the morning, very little light penetrates the branches, throwing soft shapes on the floor. No matter how convincing and comforting you may sound, Ed, the truth is there in the title: Two Weeks. And that's all we have. Until next year.

What I love about this song, though, is that, despite being a heterosexual male, from the very first second I feel like Ed Droste is my lover, and I love him more for trying to reassure me, even though we both know there's no point. If I feel lazy, I can just sink into his voice.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

(live on Letterman, studio version on the forthcoming Veckatimest)

xxx

Man

2009-02-17T20:22:00.007+00:00

Been a while, yes?

Ever mind the Rule of Three
Three times what thou givest returns to thee
This lesson well, thou must learn

Thee only gets what thou dost

I joy, that in these straits I see my west;

For though those currents yield return to none,

What shall my west hurt me? As west and east

In all flat maps - and I am one - are one,

So death doth touch the resurrection.

John Donne, 'Hymne to God my God, in my Sickness

I could listen to this beat loop for hours and hours. But then that's the point - silence.

"Did you know when I wanted?"

Portishead - Silence

(from Third)

xxx

(maybe more frequent posts, we'll see)

2008's Most Favouritest Albums

2008-12-15T18:59:00.006+00:00

My turn! These are firmly favourites, as opposed to "the best", and I'm sure there's a fair few that might make you, dear reader, think "huh?!", but whateverrrrr.

Just missed out:
Beck - Modern Guilt
She & Him - Volume One
Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

Here's my top 10. Many, most, have been written about at length before, some on these very pages this very day by Joe. So I'm not gonna talk about all of them. Just some of them.

10. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

9. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend - fun fun fun bouncy fun

8. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cardinology - yeah, so you probably didn't expect this, you probably don't think it's that good, maybe it's not the bestest album ever, i mean it's probably one of his weaker albums to be fair. but i like it. a lot. and i've listened to it a lot. both of which are things which feed into each other and make me listen to/like it more. especially lyrically - especially "cobwebs" and "stop" and "crossed out name". and there's "magick", and two-and-a-half minute radio pop-rock thing which is pleasing. and i saw them live, which obviously helps. so yeah. i like it. a lot.

7. Kanye West - 808's & Heartbreak - well obviously this is kinda divisive, but i figured that 'divisive' would mean that some people would love it, and it would get on a fair few year-end lists. but it doesn't seem to have done. UNTIL NOWWW!!! umm, yeah - well i just admire anyone who can completely and utterly change their sound, even/especially if that new sound is one that they actually CAN'T DO. coz kanye totally can't sing. but that doesn't mean that the album doesn't work. it has really good songs. "sung" more than adequately. period. a'rite?

6. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

5. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III

4. Mystery Jets - Twenty One - it's happy and real and unpretentious and young and unashamed and exuberant and eighties and pop and sad and beautiful and summery and happy. they were a highlight of glastonbury, above all because they looked like they were having a brilliant time on stage. enthusiasm is infectious. the entire crowd seemed to know all the songs. unsung heroes. or sung quite a lot in my room. in bad falsetto on "flakes" and "behind the bunhouse", the latter a song so embedded in my head that i always end up calling nearby favourite pub the bun shop 'the bunhouse'. ah well.

3. Lightspeed Champion - Falling Under The Lavender Bridge - again with the kanye praise - this couldn't be more different to test icicles. and dev has left behind his old proto-nu-rave identity much more successfully than kanye did his former graduating rapper. not that test-icicles sold a million copies of their album in the first week. imagine if they did... aaaanyway, back to reality - another album that feels to me unashamedly young, another band that i've been really happy when watching live. a soundtrack to my life, complete with lyrics that i may have on occasion taken as my own and projected my own life on to. also, he has a really really good blog.

2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science

1. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive - Like the other albums except better. Strong melodies, varied instrumentation, think-making lyrics. and an ecstatic live show back in july. this was my summer album, my summer-in-America album, my constructive summer album. A moment: on the train from LA to San Jose, after four weeks travelling alone, from Montreal in the North to Monterrey in the South, via New York, Nashville, Austin and others - I put on Stay Positive: "We're gonna build something this summer". I totally did. Y'know, in a metaphorical sense. Unashamed surrender to self-satisfied clichedom. Whatever. Stay positive.

And here's a load of other albums I liked, in lower case coz i was feeling lazy:

nick cave - dig!!! lazarus, dig!!!
lykke li - youth novels
coldplay - viva la vida...
scarlett johansson - anywhere i lay my head - am i supposed to like this or not? oh, the dilemma. whatever. i like it.
fleet foxes - fleet foxes
laura marling - alas, i cannot swim
kings of leon - only by the night ok, sliiiiightly disappointing due to unrealistic expectations, but still. song for song, it surpasses most of the albums here. apart from the high school musical 3 soundtrack.
weezer - weezer (the red album) whatever, i liked it. it was fun.
girl talk - feed the animals
high school musical 3 OST don't you dare dispute this. seriously. me and my army of twelve-year-old girls will TAKE YOU DOWN. don't you dare ask why i have an army of twelve-year-old girls either.
ben folds - way to normal just, like, my opinion, man, but i kinda preferred the fake leak. does that make me a pretentious and bad person?
bloc party - intimacy
flight of the conchords - flight of the conchords
conor oberst - conor oberst
dr horrible's sing-along blog OST (joss whedon et al) - this counts, of course it counts, why shouldn't it count?
noah and the whale - peaceful the world lays me down
spiritualized - songs in A&E
raconteurs - consolers of the lonely
mgmt - oracular spectacular
last shadow puppets - the age of the understatement
santogold - santogold
hot chip - made in the dark

yay end of year post yay

2008-12-15T13:07:00.004+00:00

Arbitrary end-of-year list. Hooray. It might get us on Hype machine.

This was actually quite hard. The strength of this year's recorded output struggled to match up to that of the two years before it, and although I enjoyed all 10 of these albums quite a lot, most of the music I downloaded this year was older stuff I wanted to get into. Some of the most acclaimed music this year came from fairly obscure sources and I only got them within the last week or so. As such, I should point out that I've enjoyed what I've heard so far of Islands, Frightened Rabbit, The Very Best, Ponytail, Deerhunter, that National EP, Portishead, the Jonny Greenwood soundtrack to There Will Be Blood, Adem, Department of Eagles, and Sigur Ròs but haven't listened to them enough to give a fair account of them. Sadly I've also not even heard the Vessels, Abe Vigoda, No Age or Bug albums yet, so they're still on the to-do list. In any case, these were the albums that I did enjoy:

10: Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

Best instrumental album of the year, boiling music down to comforting noise, warming even as it confuses. 'Bright Tomorrow' may have caught people's interest, but 'Colours Move' was the finest moment here. Respect also for the brilliant cover of 'Mogwai Fear Satan' released on their split EP with Mogwai.

9. Marnie Stern - This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That

Once you can get past the preconceptions of 'my God, she's female', and indeed the technical wizardry of it all, you reach the conclusion that, much like the Ponytail LP mentioned above, this album is full of entertaining, experimental pop music. It's ultimately a hell of a lot of fun. Stern's records are also further proof that Zach Hill's astonishing drum work is most succesful on albums which contain choruses, like They Mean Us, his excellent album with Rob Crow under the name of The Ladies. Highlights: 'Steely', 'Roads?...', 'Prime'.

8. Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

Inevitably, the sparkle and excitement of these songs has waned a little since their first hearing, hence the album's lower placing in this list. The only other complaints I could have would be the pointless 'Mad Dogs' and the odd decision to re-record some of the original versions (most of which work well, like the added harmonies in 'Random Firl' and guitar solo in 'Bears') but not others. Aside from minor quibbles, this is a fascinating, thrilling ride travelling at around 1 genre per minute. 'The Enemy Are The Future', the oddest thing here, may also be the greatest: from lounge jazz to Justice in 3 minutes. The most exciting new British band since the Futureheads first appeared.

7. The Week That Was - The Week That Was

Pete Brewis will probably never be recognised for his work with Field Music and this album, probably the best thing he has produced. Acclaim for the record was slow to arrive, and although many blogs caught onto the record eventually, The Week That Was has largely been ignored in end-of-year polls. Brewis is an expert at innovating with sounds not normally heard on pop records, but there is a simplicity and coherence to everything on this record. In 'The Good Life' and 'Scratch the Surface', Brewis also managed something that always eluded Field Music: brilliant choruses. An excellent curio that survives multiple listens.

6. Destroyer -Trouble In Dreams

I really don't understand why Dan Bejar still contributes to the New Pornographers. Regardless of whatever happened to Newman's songwriting abilities on the weak Challengers, for the first time Bejar's contribution was the best, particularly 'Myriad Harbour'. Meanwhile, to relatively little fanfare, he produced another brilliantly unique and enjoyable record, if anything a slight improvement on Rubies because of the greater focus of its songs, less rambling than the likes of 'A Dangerous Woman...' and 'Rubies'. 'Cathedral sick of the sky again' also happens to be my favourite lyric of the year. We should treasure him more than we do.

5. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life

Punk albums have no right to be this challenging, intelligent and reflective. Lyrically, Pink Eyes expresses the same anger with the oppression of everyday life as the majority of his fellow punk singers ('Hands up if you think you're the only one/We've all got our fucking hands up) but is capable of much more, as in the majestic 'Royal Swan', a song any young angry teenager with a guitar should hear. Chemistry is an album aware of Fucked Up's remarkable but terrifying live reputation, and plays with the expectations of anyone new to the band: even experimental hardcore bands like Hüsder Dü never dared to open and close their records with a minute of solo flute. A step forward from the already good Hidden World, but considerably more cohesive than the wandering Year of the Pig, this is a group at the peak of their powers: an astonishing feat, considering the fragility of the group. If they can hang together long enough for a third album, it'll be world-destroying.

4. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

Even the Hold Steady's weakest release beats most other bands' releases. When you rely on a very repetitive sound (fast rocker, slow bluesy number, repeat), you need to come up with great lyrics and great melodies. The former will never be a problem with Craig Finn around, but the second is a worry: 'Lord, I'm Discouraged' as a carbon copy of 'First Night' being the guiltiest canditate. It's in this spirit that the band include harpsichord on 'Cutters', or leave their sound wide open on 'Both Crosses'. It doesn't always come off, but Finn is on top lyrical form, and his band still come up with five fantastic riffs per album. I fear that they will begin to run out of ideas from now on - no band has ever made 5 brilliant albums in a row - and if that turns out to be the case, 'Slapped Actress' is an incredible swansong.

3. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

Their strongest release since Asleep in the Back, and maybe their best record to date. All the elements of rock ('Grounds for Divorce'), rapturous sweeps and singalongs ('One Day Like This'), and fragile but proud balladry ('Some Riot') have always been present in their music, but this album embodies them at their greatest, not putting a foot wrong. Elbow now rival Radiohead for the title of best British group still recording, and they deserve the accolade.

2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science,

Although it seems hypocritical now, given my hyperbolic praise for the album at the time, Return to Cookie Mountain was actually quite a patchy album. Peppered with wonderful songs, a lot of ideas was crammed into a small place, and often melodies suffered as a result. Dear Science, exposes all those faults by being the exact opposite: concise, accessible and superbly written. Every song is perfectly judged here, for the first time since their Young Liars EP. This is a band flexing its muscles, showing the world how masterful they are at any song they care to write.

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

I appreciate that this was released last year and that it may seem strange that I include this album and not In Rainbows, but whereas I was listening to Radiohead from October last year, Bon Iver didn't enter my life until 2008. He won't leave any time soon either. The incredible falsetto of Grizzly Bear, the gentle and intelligent innovation reminiscent of Radiohead, the songcraft of Sam Beam: all these factors combined produced an album that was tiny but unbeatable. No song has ever threatened quite as much as 'Skinny Love'. The Blood Bank EP is equally good, and hints at a very bright and significant future.

Honorable mentions:

Cajun Dance Party - The Colourful Life

Cool Kids - The Bake Sale

Girl Talk - Feed The Animals

Dodos - Visiter

Nick Cave - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Dears - Missiles

REM - Accelerate

Coldplay - Viva La Vida

Bloc Party - Intimacy

both Los Campesinos

Biggest disappointments:

MMJ - Evil Urges

Fleet Foxes

¡Forward, Russia! - Life Processes

Guillemots - Red

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night

Cold War Kids - Loyalty To Loyalty

Best songs:

Pink Sabbath - Dananananaykroyd

Dears - Savior

Fucked Up - Royal Swan

Wrens - Sleep

Friendly Fires - Paris

TVOTR - Lover's Day

Elbow - Some Riot

Biffy Clyro - Mountains

Destroyer - My Favourite Year

Hold Steady - Slapped Actress

That's all. xxx

Current Obsession - Florence & The Machine - You Got The Love

2008-11-06T16:25:00.008+00:00

So there haven't been any posts in like a month, more, whatever.
But for some reason, and I certainly ain't complaining, this site still gets a certain amount of hits, even the occasional encouraging comment (thank youuuuuuuuuuuu!). So I figured I'd use this platform to share something that I feel is worth sharing.

I'm currently listening to this song on repeat, coz it's amazing. I've already blogged about Florence & The Machine. I still feel guilty for describing 'Kiss With A Fist' as "a song about domestic violence" (I just changed that description, btw), despite being aware of the fact that it obviously isn't meant to be taken literally, and then reading this, her myspace blog post headed "Kiss with a fist is NOT a song about domestic violence." Would it be totally arrogant of me to wonder vaguely if she had actually read my blog?? If you are, Florence, I am unabashedly sorry. Also, you're awesome! Yay! You make me want to jump up and down exuberantly and scream, in a good way.

mp3: Florence & The Machine - You Got The Love (Live at Bestival)

It's the Candi Staton song! Candi Staton whose new album is a "praise and worship CD". Gosh. Watch the video of Florence's version right here:

Good, isn't it? Actually, "good" doesn't cover it. Just as soon as I finish this darned essay I'm going to put this on really really loud and bounce around. I mean, the act of putting the song on later would require me to switch it off first, but anyway... Aw man, I so need to do this essay. Meh.

Another Happy-Making Thing: She's got a new video! Yay! *checks YouTube* - Correction - the video has just been taken down. Sad! It's for the new single, Dog Days Are Over, and it's really good, the video makes me think of this video, except on a lower budget. I hope it shall return soon :(

I'm Not Dead

2008-11-06T16:24:00.000+00:00

See?

In which we get a little political on your collective: Introducing... Random Sanity

2008-09-28T22:32:00.004+01:00

Keeping it simple, direct and (fairly) short (by my standards anyway)

Random Sanity are a three-piece from California.

This is an important song of theirs.

I advise you to listen to this song, especially (but by no means exclusively) if you are able to vote in the forthcoming US Presidential Election.

Here's the mp3:

mp3: Random Sanity - We The People

Here's their myspace.

Here's the video:

Maybe this blog doesn't get thaaaat many readers, maybe most of the readers aren't even from the US, maybe out of those who are from the US, the vast majority are planning on voting Democrat on November 4 anyway. But, as inappropriate as it might be to quote Tesco at this juncture, every little still undoubtedly helps.

Of course, it helps that the track is impressive enough on its own merits to stand independent from its political message. The band are very close to finishing a brand new album, and it's worth pointing out that 'We The People' is by no means the sum total of who Random Sanity are - the few other demos that I've heard show great potential (and I mean that in a hopefully-not-patronising way, as in they make you think "wow, these sound great already, and this is just a demo. Imagine the possibilities..."). But right now, there could scarcely be more at stake, and this song succinctly tells of the disasters of the Bush administration, both within the US and around the world, without forgetting the vital truth that now is the time to "make a stand", to "make a choice."

Please spread the message.

P.S. If you're bored of pro-Obama music blog posts - well, apologies I guess. But there's music as well. So, y'know, yay.
If you think this is earnest, typical liberal, etc etc - well, I guess it is. I dunno, whatever dude. But as far as I'm concerned, all this should not take away from the fact that this is IMPORTANT. I hope you agree with that, and even if you agree with nothing else, I hope you understand the motivation behind this post, and respect people's right to write similar blog-posts, magazine articles, billboards, comic books, whatever, no matter what their political views are.

It's not the end of the world?

2008-09-10T16:57:00.006+01:00

Can ya hear me now????

From Excellent Italian Greyhound

Possibly for the first time since 1969, today saw a single event which, regardless of its success, demonstrated the greatness of human achievement, of humanity. We live in a world full of the darker side of what we have done: the consequences of our advancements, two hemispheres moving at completely different speeds from vastly separated starting points. Not that there have not been examples of humanity's ability to withstand attacks from within, in Europe in the first half of this century just as much as in Africa and Southern Asia now, and also from without, seemingly with ever greater frequency due, indeed, to the damage our environment has taken and is now inflicting back upon us. Today was an example of humanity being able to create, to explore itself and its past, just as the space program did, just as the cartographers of the pre-industrial era did. Of course, the world was never going to end today. If it had, however, humanity would have destroyed itself in its finest moment. Considering the future ahead of civilisation, maybe it should have ended today.

On a lighter note:

Normally I will not talk this much. ENIGMA!!!!!

xxx

ohhhhhhh so sad so sad so sad so sad sad sad sad

2008-09-08T19:03:00.002+01:00

Grandaddy - A.M.180

http://www.freewebs.com/alextownsendphotography/

No kisses yesterday. I don't know why either.

xxx

shut the door, i'm cold

2008-09-07T20:51:00.002+01:00

The Dismemberment Plan - You Are Invited

From Emergency & I

I ate from the Family Tree. It was gorgeous.

hey man, slow down

2008-08-16T22:45:00.008+01:00

Grizzly Bear - While You Wait For The Others

*applause*

xxx

bye bye bye, i'm going away now. have a radiohead song!

2008-08-15T01:00:00.006+01:00

I'm going to America, leaving in about 6 hours. And I should probably sleep in between now and then, so I'll keep this brief. I'm not gonna back from about 6 weeks. I figured I should tell you, my devoted readers. Y'know, all three of you or whatever :)

But I might write a little from time to time over the next 6 weeks, and more importantly, hopefully Joe might continue his contributions, which I have to say are awesome and awesome and good. Not like, the first one's awesome, the second one's awesome and the third one's good, just that all three can be described, individually and as a whole, as "awesome and awesome and good". So there.

Here's a beautiful song:

mp3: [mp3 removed]
(from Hail to the Thief)

And here's a song:

i know you're on to something

2008-08-14T18:05:00.002+01:00

http://www.thedears.org/files/

http://www.woostercollective.com/

xxx

Snoop Dogg in Bollywood - the video is here. And AWESOME.

2008-08-08T23:08:00.003+01:00

Snoop's sex is most definitely on fire.

"Singh is King / And Snoop D. O. Double-G is also the King, ya dig what I mean?"
Yes Snoop, we most definitely dig what ya mean. No questions asked.
There's a moment at 4:20 where he's playing the bongos that made my stomach muscles hurt. With laughter.

*resists urge to end words with '-izzle'*

i was just waiting for you

2008-08-08T19:40:00.003+01:00

The Wrens - Sleep

from Rock the Net

Excuse me, sir, but I think you'll find that your sex is on fire.

xxx

Late of the Pier - 'Heartbeat (Hot Chip Remix)'

2008-08-06T21:20:00.004+01:00

Late of the Pier and Hot Chip are possibly the two most exciting names in British electronicky-indie. After a run of brilliant and eclectic singles, Late of the Pier are finally about to release Fantasy Black Channel, their pretty-much-brilliant debut album, the third of two-and-a-half Erol Alkan-produced 2008 indie records (the equally brilliant Twenty One by Mystery Jets, plus half of the slightly underwhelming "Couples" by The Long Blondes).

'Heartbeat' is the pre-album single (you can download it and watch the video here). This is the Hot Chip remix (yeah, I kinda said that already didn't I?). Despite my adoration for Hot Chip as an artist in their own right (they were one of the highlights of Glastonbury this year), their remixes (Winehouse, Ladytron &c) have thus far somewhat failed to stick with me. This here's my favouritest one so far. It's slightly strange, almost like three or four separate remixes glued together, but manages to pull off the twin (often seemingly mutually exclusive) goals of remixery: be different from the original and still end up as a coherent whole that works in its own right. What d'ya think? Please leave comments. Please...

mp3: [mp3 removed]

(buy Fantasy Black Channel here)

Biffy Clyro's New Single - 'Mountains'

2008-08-06T00:05:00.004+01:00

Is this not the greatest artwork EVER? Two lions wrestling each other. In the ocean. Beneath an iceberg. Or maybe the whole thing's in the sky and the 'iceberg' is just some crazy light effect. Whatevah. And it looks a bit like the Jaws poster. Doesn't it just scream "MANLY BEARDED MAN" or something like that?

Anyway, only 14 months after the release of the fantastic Puzzle, Biffy bring us another single, which is out on August 25. No clue if anything else will follow in the near future, but I'd guess that this is just a inter-album stop-gap. But that would kinda imply that the song sucks a little, and that would be a falsehood as big as them lions.

Biffy have turned into a massive great singles band, and this continues their run. I'd listen to it again in order to be able to say something more detailed and clever about it, but I'm currently listening to the Bon Iver album, and I don't want to disturb it's quiet brilliance with the bombast of Biffy. So just download, listen and be happy, yo.

mp3: [mp3 removed]

(go to their official site and buy tickets for their December tour, it's gonna be more than semi-mental - see, Biffy fans, I did a jokey-jokey - "hahahahaha" is the noise you should be making right about now...)

Oh, and you can watch the video here. Yay!

New Kings of Leon! New Kings of Leon! New Kings of Leon! 'Sex On Fire'! 'Sex On Fire'! 'Sex On Fire'!

2008-08-05T23:53:00.003+01:00

Me tres excited about the new Kings of Leon album. Zane Lowe shares the sentiment, this being his Hottest Record In The World Right Now last night. He called them something like "the greatest back-catalogue band of their generation", which, even if it kinda sounds like a back-handed compliment, I think is a fairly succinct way of summing up the fact that they have one of the solid-est repertoires of any band that have been around for a similar length of time. This is the myspace rip of the new single, out to download September 8 if I remember correctamente:

mp3: [mp3 removed]
(from their MySpace)

As far as I'm concerned, they still haven't put a foot wrong, and I trust the album will see their altissimo standards maintained and surpassed. Objectivity schmobjectivity.
On a scale of ace-ness of first singles off Kings of Leon albums, this probably rates somewhere higher than 'On Call', but despite the brilliance of the title, for me it doesn't quite hit 'The Bucket' levels of bliss. But still, this is my most anticipated album right now. So there.

Muse & The Streets create music together for your listening pleasure or otherwise - 'Who Knows Who'

2008-08-05T23:32:00.003+01:00

Wikipedia says that this leaked "early in 2008", which somewhat steals my thunder, but this record was Zane Lowe's Hottest Record In The World Right Now earlier tonight, and the news of its leak only just hit NME.com - well, here it is:

mp3: Muse & The Streets - Who Knows Who

This isn't slated to appear on Everything Is Borrowed, the new Streets album, out September 15. I don't know how/if it will be released, but the presence of everybody's favourite live band Muse is surely enough for a certain amount of sales, and therefore, from the record label's perspective, should warrant some kind of release. I can picture the advertisement on iTunes already...

Anyways - is it any good? Yeah I guess. I was never a maaaassive fan of Mike Skinner, and this is certainly The Streets feat. Muse rather than vice versa, for there aren't any Matt Bellamy vocals. Rage Against The Machine is the obvious reference point, but a very much British-ified version. If you're one of the many thousands of hardcore Muse fans then you're gonna download this, but I'm not sure you're gonna love it. I think the respective fan bases of Muse and The Streets don't cross over a huge amount. On a Venn diagram the middle bit would be fairly small imho. I could very well be completely wrong, especially given the fact that The Streets supported Muse at one of their Wembley dates in 2007. Your call...

Brand New Kings of Leon ('Crawl') - Plus Something KOL-Related You Might Have Missed (and it's good, trust me)

2008-07-29T00:20:00.003+01:00

So you can download 'Crawl', the first track from the forthcoming Only By The Night, and the track with which they opened their brill Glasto headline set from their official site right now.

It's great, too early for a definitive comment yet, but one thing you should make sure to do is to watch the two-minute clip that's also on the site. It's a preview of some forthcoming album-related 'home movies' which are gonna be broadcast starting September 1st. And while it's a vaguely-voyeuristic pleasure to see the Followill boys relaxing in hammocks, drinking, playing golf, recording and drinking, what's BLOODY AMAZING is the song in the background, or the 90-seconds of it that you get to hear. Caleb was damn right when he said this album is gonna sound huge (or maybe it was Because Of The Times that he said that about, I don't rightly remember - not that that album's exactly small as such). The most obvious point of reference is U2, but not in a silly-pompous-Bono way, honest. Oh well, the video's also right here for your pleasure, so, y'know, be pleasured:

P.S. If you wanna check out a live version of another Kings of Leon track - Manhattan - go on and clickety-click your sweet way over here :)