Writing a blog means you get a disproportionate amount of emails giving away free music, some good, some bad, some presented behind an impenetrable wall of PR guff, some with no explanation or justification at all as to why I should listen to them. It’s not unwelcome of course, but I rarely get the chance to post a fraction of the music I receive. Sometimes that’s because most of the music isn’t very good, but more often than not it’s because I haven’t the time.

So, that’s where Broken Biscuits comes in. Basically I’ll be hoovering up all the spare crumbs at the bottom of biscuit (or cookie) jar and throwing them into one nutritious post. Some of the bits are more morish than others, but from week to week (or however regularly I can/decide to do this) you should get at least get one new track from a new artist that you quite enjoy.

Let’s get things under way.

1. You’ve Got The Love – Florence and the Machine (XX remix)

The original is an unarguable classic, the Florence and the Machine cover – not so much. However, this goes some way to repairing that damage. Not strictly a remix, nor a complete reworking, it subtlety adds to the cover’s mood with some menacing sub-bass, laid-back, half-mumbled vocals that act as the perfect counter-point to Florence’s powerful which is cut-up and ‘glitched’ across the song’s understated climax. I never noticed how much the harps sound like the opening to Muse’s Bliss, either. A great track.

2. On My Way – The Sweet Serenades

Nervy, full throttle Swedish Power-pop. Your first thoughts probably immediately gravitate towards The Hives, and, to be honest, you’re not far off. Thundering drums, needly and nervy guitar lines perfect for the dancefloor and largely nonsensical and often wordless lyrics made for rhyme rather than reason. It probably won’t be your favourite song of the year, you probably won’t even remember it by the end of the year, but it’s a fun ride whilst it lasts.

3. Swimming – Mystery of Two
4. Repeat It
5. French Rocking Horse

Much more muscular rock this time. It’s still very much on the Indie side of the rock devide, but there’s some nice instrumental breaks and distorted guitar here. The singer seems to be trying to do his best David Byrne impression at times. Swimming is probably the pick of the three tracks.

6. Pirates – Penfold Gate

A four-peice Indie band from the Midlands with distinct storytelling lyrics. You’re probably thinking of The Arctic Monkeys, and, to be fair, you’re not far off. Only in this case the lyrics are no where as sharp and there’s a little less of that glorious instrumental interplay that marks the Arctic Monkeys out from being just another indie band. This track shows potential, though

7. New Wife, New Life – Truman Peyote

Frolicking afro-pop Foals/Vamp Weekend esque reverb drenched guitars, vocal harmonies, indistinct electronic rumblings and a recording of children playing. Quite Animal Collective. Great band name, too.

8. Passion III – Crash Overdrive
9. Hips, Lips and Microchips

Justicey, Daft Punkish Electro-House. You know the drill.

10. Santa Ana – Pi
11. New Shoes

Pi is a really awful artist name to have; in the sense that it sounds like pie, which is silly, that any search for said name is never going to result in the artist being the no.1 result until they’ve made it ridiculously big, ridiculously big enough to be bigger than a mathematical constant used to understand the fundamentals of the universe itself.

Anyway, Pi (eurgh) is some nice acoustic strummyness. Not really my cup of tea if I’m honest, but if you like sightly flowery singer-songwriterness, this could be for you.

Sorry for the lack of updates on the site in the past few days; I think I might have to treat myself to weekends off now I’m back at uni – too much reading and work to do that doesn’t involve scouring my inbox for new tracks or keeping abreast of the latest news in the pop world.

Anyway, I think it was a couple of weeks back that I commented on the upcoming release of Contra, Vampire Weekend’s sophomore effort. Back then I had to make do with a lossy live recording of an appearance on Jimmy Fallon or something or other. Now we have an actual studio track kindly given to us by the band themselves on that rather picturesque teaser site.

Horchata is a slightly strange and awkward affair, but in a good way, I think. It’s the only way you can really describe a song that opens with a couplet like ‘In December drinking Horchata/ I look psychotic in a balaclava’ yet retains the simplistic pop vibes of the original album without sounding all together the same.

The afropop influences are a little watered down, instead of tight, funky guitar lines we get soaring vocals, tinkling glockenspiel, the lush, stately orchestration of M79, and stuttering drums; it’s pretty much the aural equivalent of (what I presume is) that Pacific skyline. The slightly clunky opening lines might not have the same singalongability of tracks like Oxford Comma or One (Blake’s Got a New Face) but it’s a promising opening and shows the band retaining elements of their trademark sound but not being afraid to push it forward a little.

MP3: Vampire – Horchata
Websitehttp://www.vampireweekend.com/

Infront of a particularly loud and obnoxious audience, no less.

MP3: Beach House – Gila
MP3: Grizzly Bear – Knife

One of the best artist’s of the year remixing the one of the best artist’s of the year.

Nice.

From Pitchfork:

Animal Collective’s Josh “Deakin” Dibb had this to say about the track: “Phoenix has been a staple for all four of us since Dave [Portner, aka Avey Tare] and Noah [Lennox, aka Panda Bear] brought home United from the record store they used to work at. One of the records that would get us through some of those long cross country tour drives, we’ve listened to Phoenix’s jams many many times. We were all totally psyched to get asked to do this and it was super fun to work on it. All the best to those dudes.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection) is due in digital form in the U.S. via Glassnote/Loyauté on October 13. UK followers will be able to buy the remix record as part of a Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 2CD set out October 19.

Both parts I and II of Love is like a Sunset are one of the more organic jams on what is, for the most part, a highly wound and perfected portion of new-wave poppy goodness. It’s already halfway to being a Animal Collective remix in its original form. The slow instrumental layering, those warm fuzzy-felt synths, the nervy, interlocking guitar ticks and the cavernous break before the song’s triumphant crescendo of the song’s first part makes its title seem strangely, perhaps intentionally, ill-suited. The second part serves as a relieved coda to the ominous soundscape of the first; warm acoustic guitars take the fore and we finally hear a human voice. It’s an excellent mini-symphony that lies at the heart of a very pop album, a welcome pallet cleaner, a chance to clear your of those saccharine pop hooks for a few minutes before the album throws you straight back under.

The remix – as you’d expect from Animal Collective – makes it a little more alien, disorientated and generally disembodied from any human aspect the original had; AC’s fascination with the voice as an instrument runs deep here. The trails of Mar’s vocals tail off into the songs milieu and reverberate endlessly into a wordless mantra that creates a hazy, all enveloping wall of sound on which the song eventually rides out on once its initial spacey keys and tight drum groove are drowned out under it. It’s still Phoenix, but it’s also very Animal Collective. Perfect for late night introspection, as opposed to the original’s ‘new dawn’ optimism.

MP3: Phoenix – Love like a Sunset (Animal Collective Remix – Deakin’s Jam)

Well, more crazy than usual. Hollow Earth did have a certain groovy, proto-neo-funk style to it, but Flea from RHCP supporting a live tour of Yorke’s solo material? Insane. Expect a new Radiohead album for Christmas.

You’re spoiling us, ambassador.

hi
in the past couple of weeks i’ve been getting a band together for fun to play the eraser stuff live and the new songs etc.. to see if it could work!
here’s a photo.. its me, joey waronker, mauro refosco, flea and nigel godrich.

at the beginning of october the 4th and 5th we are going to do a couple of shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.
we don’t really have a name and the set will not be very long cuz ..well …we haven’t got that much material yet!
but come and check it out if you are in the area. we’ve also got locals Lucky Dragons playing.
all the best

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

MP3: Thom Yorke – All for the Best
MP3: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Mellowship Slinky in B Major

The lead single from Atlanta’s Tealights debut EP, Take us by Sea – due out tomorrow – is not what you’d immediately expect from the deep south of America. They’re lazy stereotypes, but when I think of Georgia I imagine primal, sweaty blues rock, or swaggering , bass-heavy Hip Hop. This EP is neither of those things, as you would imagine with a name like ‘Tealights’.

As a single, Exit acts as a perfect manifesto for the groups sound. Having heard the whole record (It’s good) it’s one of the strongest songs and showcases their dark introspective chamber-rock come baroque pop. The song opens with stuttering programmed beats which is almost immediately shattered by a cymbal crash. The song threatens to chug along as a typical sepia-tinged indie-rock number, but falters almost immediately as it is taken down by mournful cello and delicate, shimmering bells as the electronic beats return and stutter beneath the live drums which take a back seat to the songs understated melody.

The tracks are minimal and spacious, lead by lead singer Nancy Shim’s haunting vocals, sparkling guitars and filmic cello that’s augmented by a palette of electronic sounds that throb and pulse in the background, evocative of Asobi Seksu without the shoegaze, or a less overtly electronic, grandiose Portishead. Their sound isn’t wholly original, but they do an admirable job of carving out their own, frustrating to pin-down, niche.

Take us by sea is available to purchase here. I’m not sure of any digital distribution, but keep your eyes peeled. Their Myspace (posted below) has a number of other tracks from the EP.

And if you’re in the American South or West over the next few weeks, you could do worse than check them out live.

And some upcoming tour dates…

9/29 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Drunken Unicorn w/ School of Seven Bells (CD release)
10/7 – Asheville, NC @ Bobo Gallery
10/8 – Wilmington, NC @ Soapbox Laundro-Lounge
10/9 – Blacksburg, Va. @ WUVT Radiothon
10/10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Matchless
10/11 – New York, NY @ The Tank
10/13 – Saginaw, Mich. @ White’s Bar
10/14 – South Bend, Ind. @ Anchor Inn
10/15 – Forest Park, Ill. @ Murphy’s
10/20 – Atlanta, Ga. @ 529 w/ White Hinterland
10/31 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Highland Ballroom
11/11 – Mobile, Al. @ Alabama Music Box
11/16 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Modified Arts w/ Really Big Birds, Yellow Minute, and Belafante
11/17 – San Diego, Ca. @ Kava Lounge w/ Really Big Birds & Ghost Orchid
11/18 – Los Angeles, Ca. @ Room 5 Lounge w/ Reallly Big Birds
11/20 – Flagstaff, Ariz. @ Mia’s w/ Reallly Big Birds
11/21 – Albuquerque, NM @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge w/ Really Big Birds
11/24 – Hot Springs, Ark. @ Maxine’s w/ Reallly Big Birds

MP3: Tealights – Exit
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tealightstheband

Le Loup’s sophomore effort, Family, was released earlier this week. I’m not going to pretend to be too authoritative on the band or the album as I’ve pretty much just come across them today; I had to wikipedia the first sentence.

The tracks I have heard are pretty good, though. My little reconnaissance mission to Wikipedia revealed that they’re from Baltimore, which seems to be a strangely productive city in terms of cultural output of late. Initial impressions will probably remind you of Baltimore anyway; that’s not because their lyrics are concerned with The Wire, but they share more than a passing resemblance to fellow Baltimoreans Animal Collective, there’s the same reverberating, psychedelic, trance-like quality to their music.

It is, however, a little more organic and well, human than some of Animal Collective’s output, there’s little electronic tomfoolery; the songs are constructed largely from the usual arsenal of any rock band, but they still manage to create a sound that is far from typical. Melodically, the songs are sparse but slowly build into something that is larger than the sum of its parts as layers are built on top of one another before the songs eventually reach an understated crescendo and simmer down back from where it started. It’s a lot more understated and less celebratory and frantic than Merriweather which makes it perfect for those long, dark Autumnal evenings.

Gorgeous album art, too.

Check ‘em out.

MP3: Le Loup – Beach Town
MP3: Le Loup – Forgive Me
Website: http://www.leloupmusic.net/
Myspace:http://www.myspace.com/leloupmusic

In the 00s three rock groups have towered above anything else in the British rock scene: Radiohead, Coldplay and Muse.

Of this trio, Muse appear the poor relations. A lot less popular than Coldplay, a lot less acclaimed than Radiohead, but they pack stadiums and their albums aren’t panned; they aren’t innovators in any sense, but they fill an adolescent niche with a more straightforward, less dreary brand of riff-driven rock.

After reaching new commercial peaks with 2006’s Black Hole and Revelations you would imagine they would have the breathing space to indulge a little and follow in their peers footsteps, – perhaps not with a Kid A, but even Coldplay roped in Brian Eno and stuck a Delacroix painting on their album cover after the beast of X&Y – and here they do, to an extent, but unlike Coldplay, who tweaked so little that essentially nothing changed, or Radiohead, who managed to reinvent themselves, but retained the complex layering that made them great with guitars, Muse try a reinvention that falls between the two and still manages to come at the expense of what they do best.

Despite recent dalliances with a broader pop sound, they’ve always had riffs, and they’re good at writing them. Songs such a Plug in Baby, Citizen Erased and Stockholm Syndrome are, deservedly, rock staples. The riffs these songs are built around have been the catalyst for thousands of teenage boys picking up guitars and noodling away in their bedrooms – including, to an extent, me. A quick search for any Muse song will reveal – after the official music video or any significant live performance by the actual band – a legion of teenage boys and, in some cases, girls, offering their own slightly rusty, but spirited interpretation. The immediacy, grandiosity and, most of all, relative simplicity of these riffs means they occupy a special place in the zeitgeist of bedroom guitarists. They don’t have a Smoke on the Water, but people will more often than not play a Muse riif when they first pick up a guitar. They’re a wonderfully bombastic rock band. Matt Bellamy is arguably one of best riff writer’s of the decade. Muse own riffs. Why The Resistance has none is genuinely baffling.

The Muse of Citizen Erased or Micro Cuts is long gone, but that’s not to say their swing to the poppier extreme in recent years hasn’t been without moments of rock excess. Infact, they’ve usually done quite an admirable job of balancing out these two impulses. The disappointing and very pop BHaR had the wonderfully camp and overblown space-spaghetti western, Knights of Cydonia, whose whole existence is to serve as a platform for knowing crotch-thrusting guitar heroics and stadium packing chants.

The Resistance is without such self-effacing guitar heroics or self-awareness, and so the emphasis is switched onto the more nuanced aspects of the band’s songs. Matt’s paranoid rants about superstates and surveillance, or the eternal, angsty, struggle between the righteous ‘We’ and the Orwellian ‘They’ become cripplingly embarrassing when brought to the fore without any musical bombast to accompany it. Muse only really work in top gear. Matt’s lyrics are not what make the band great; they don’t really have much to say, the focus has always been elsewhere.

Due to the albums messy and confused sequencing (it’s essentially split into a pop suite, a rock suite and a ‘symphonic suite’ all of which could be unbearable and album-killing if you don’t like pop Muse, rock Muse or symphonic Muse) it takes four tracks and a good fifteen minutes before any kind of riffage is delivered, and even then it’s a rather tame imitation of Brian May; it’s an incitement of the albums problems that this isn’t the main problem. Critics will points towards the poppier intentions of The Resistance as its downfall – Undisclosed Desires inparticular – but it’s not the real problem. The opening pop suite isn’t great, but it does what it does well. Uprising is a mid-tempo electro pop stomp that evokes Goldfrapp without the sex-appeal; Resistance is synthy space-pop that continues the trend of the band doing their best Depeche Mode imitation; Undisclosed Desires is perhaps the highlight of the three, but it takes a while to stomach its heavily processed and sampled strings that initially make it sound like a poor attempt at Timbaland-esque R&B. However its stripped down, minimal production actually takes advantage of the technical proficiency of Bellamy’s voice which has never been particularly emotionally evocative or warm, but does sound right when placed amongst expansive synths and the mechanical percussion on display here. It’s also a bonus that he’s delivering some by-the-numbers tale of love and redemption rather than a vaguely embarrassing tale of black holes and Zetas.

The real disappointment of the album comes with the ‘Rock’ passage. I place Rock in scare quotes as it’s really a shockingly tame sequence for a band that prides itself on being pretty high-octane. The theatricality is there; the bombast and unapologetic bigness is present, but there’s really no riffs, no solos. Unnatural Selection comes the closest to providing the bedroom guitarists of the world with some new material; the guitar solo is the one instance when we get a taster of the wanky indulgence that make the band great, but it’s far, far too short, and the main riff sounds like they ate the notation for that riff in New Born, excreted it, and them awkwardly reconstituted it from the waste that didn’t take.

The whole album sounds like this to an extent, the influences are clear and sometimes border on near plagiarism, there’s the same old Chopin and Rachmaniov piano chops as there’s ever been, but this time we also get Queen, Depeche Mode, Timbaland, music from French Operas and well, themselves.

Barring a weird sequential blip with the French operatic car-crash that is I Belong to You/Mon Cœur S’ouvre à ta Voix, in which Matt proves he can sound even more mawkishly sentimental by singing in French, the album ends on the much hyped big ‘symphony’.

Those expecting a 25 minute piece with endless guitar solos, bass solos, drum solos, rich orchestration and perhaps some loose, stream of consciousness connecting narrative about the collapse of the European Superstate in the great Cydonian war off the shoulder of Orion, will be disappointed. It comes in at a slight 13 minutes and is quite, well, un-proggy. There’s very little overriding connection between the separate ‘movements’, instead we have Matt doing his Rachmaniov/Chopin shtick, slow, ponderous guitar arpeggios that go nowhere and some admittedly nice strings accompanying Matt’s falsetto gymnastics.

It’s a slight end of album lift, sure, but it’s symptomatic of the album’s larger problems: it doesn’t go far enough, it’s not loud enough, it’s underwhelming. When a symphony titled Exogenesis is announced by a band of Muse’s bombastic calibre, you expect more.

In the initial rush of opinion for this album there were a few snide remarks. Amongst those was the suggestion that this was the band cashing in on their new fanbase of Twilight tweens. This probably isn’t quite the case; there are elements of The Resistance that show a certain element of bravery and experimentalism, just into a pop landscape, which there isn’t anything necessarily bad with, unless you’re a snob about these things.

The Resistance isn’t the sound of Muse selling out, but it is a definite softening of their sound. In some cases this is a good thing; their pop stylings are far more streamlined, direct and un-confused, but it’s really staggering how much the heart of Muse is missing in this album as a result of this ‘feminization’ of their rock sound, and how poorly sequenced and messy the album is. It’s still exceedingly adolescent, high-octane and uncomplicated music, but in this case it’s edged a little closer to the Jonas Brothers rather than Led Zeppelin.

4/10

Another lazy post. I’ll get back on something a bit meatier for the weekend.

MP3: Big Boi & George Clinton – For Your Sorrows

Yo Gaga, I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but Madonna had one of the best sexually suggestive videos of all time!

MP3: Kanye West – Flashing Lights (Diplo Remix)