Radiohead cover Neil Young and webcast final NA date

First there was a Portishead cover, now we have a Neil Young cover! Radiohead played this rather nice Young cover at their Hollywood Bowl appearance on the 25th of August in their world tour which has, sadly, long moved on from London.

BONUS NEWS!!!

As I was writing this, this nugget of news came up on the internets from Dead Air Space…

Hello! To celebrate the end of a brilliant tour, we’re going to webcast the last show here in America. We’ll be playing live in Santa Barbara, at the Bowl. It’s one of our favourite places to play; I think we’ve ended tours there before, once even playing a cover of ‘ cinnamon girl ‘. It’s not too big, in fact it’s very intimate, a small arena with a dirt floor, set in pretty countryside. It should be a special night, for lots of reasons, and we’re going to try and share as much of it as we can on the webcast. Nigel, our producer, will be helping out getting it to you, so if it goes wrong….It’s live!

Thank you so much to everyone who’s come and seen us this year; it has truly been the most special and exciting tour for all of us.

Webcast details to follow…
x
Colin

Gotta love Radiohead for their last minute announcements! I might just stay up to catch some of it, just to reminise on one of the highlights of my summer, all bleary eyed and emotional…

Anyway! Keep your eyes peeled on Dead air space for linkage….

MP3: Neil Young – Tell Me Why (Radiohead Cover)

New Little Boots mixtape and other stuff

More news from the Little Boots front!

First things fist there’s a new mix titled ‘computer fairyland mixtape’ available here

Secondly, there’s a new Little Boots blog which looks like it’ll be a nice central hub for news, pics, videos, covers and free downloads. There’s a rather nice acoustic version of her first single, Meddle up there which I’ve uploaded below. Also a limited 7′ vinyl pressing of that single is available for the princely sum of £5 here.

Rehershals for a future live show are still underway but if you need to satisfy the urge to see her in the flesh she’ll be spinning CDRs at the following venues…

30th August – Offset Festival (GIRLCORE)
13th September – Nocturnal Festival, Los Angeles
18th September – Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London (with Heartbreak)

Linkage…

http://www.littlebootsmusic.co.uk/blog/
http://www.puregroove.co.uk/itemview.aspx?item=301

[Audio http://jorichards77.googlepages.com/meddleacoustic.mp3%5D

MP3: Little Boots – Meddle (Acoustic)

MP3: Little Boots – Computer Fairyland Mixtape (Mediafire link)

Long Blondes Compilation coming this Fall

The Long Blondes aren’t exactly the most famous of bands and they’ve only released two albums, both of which have lingered at the bottom, or outside, the top 40. So you wouldn’t say they are prime candidates for a compilation album.

But like plenty of post-punkers before them, they have a lot of loose change, a load of B-sides and other rarities floating about, out there on the internets, out of reach for the average music fan. To remedy this situation, they’ve decided to release a compilation of their early singles, uninventively titled – Singles. The release will feature 12 tracks and is due to be released on the 20th of October on CD and Digital Download formats.

And to sweeten the deal, the compilation will also include an unreleased track – Peterborough. And for those concerned for guitarist Dorian Cox’s welfare, according to a Pitchfork report on this story he’s “doing much better” and is “on the road to recovery”

Singles:

01 New Idols
02 Long Blonde
03 Autonomy Boy
04 Giddy Stratospheres
05 Polly
06 Darts
07 Appropriation (By Any Other Name)
08 My Heart Is Out of Bounds
09 Lust in the Movies
10 Separated by Motorways
11 Big Infatuation
12 Peterborough

[Audio http://jorichards77.googlepages.com/02AutonomyBoy.mp3%5D

MP3: The Long Blondes – Autonomy Boy

Kanye West – Good Morning Video

Starring the famous ‘Kanye West Bear’, designed by Takashi Murakami who directs this video. Very bold and psychedelic.

MP3: Kanye West – Good Morning

New Music: Playdoe

The New Music Feature has been disgustingly western and European so far, so I reckon It’s time to give it a more international feel with a bit of Bambaataaesque Hip Hop hailing from South Africa.

Playdoe are comprised of DJ Sibot and MC Spoek Mathambo, a duo who clearly don’t take their music too seriously and make sure it is about having fun first and foremost. Sampling a brand of Hip’Hop and Electro popularized by Afrika Bambaataa, George Clinton and Grandmaster Flash.

Their best known track, It’s That Beat, is an interesting blend of Dance and Hip Hop, with juddering basslines, arpeggiated keys, sassy female vocals and ridiculously absurd lyrics such as “Take a shit on your boss’ car”. It’s not exactly art, but it would be cruel to label such an accomplished and plain fun dancefloor banger as a novelty. Infact, the more I listen to it, I’m convinced it might be one of my favourite songs of the year.

The duo are currently on Tryharder records, along with Blood Red Shoes and Foals so they’re in good company. Definately one to check out for and a band to look out for in the future, especially with the recent success of other Hip Hop/Dance fusions in the past few months.

Check out It’s That Beat below and if you like it, make sure you download the Toxic Avenger Mix of the same song, I’m not sure if it’s better than the original, but it is more Justicey and heavier. Also make sure you check out their Myspace and listen to ‘Go Dumb Go Thick Mix’ which is pretty sexy.

Playdoe’s debut mini-album It’s That Beat is released by Try Harder on October 6. Download single It’s That Beat is available from September 22.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/fuckplaydoe

[Audio http://jorichards77.googlepages.com/PlayDoe-Its_That_Beat_128.mp3%5D

MP3: Playdoe – It’s That Beat

MP3: Playdoe – It’s That Beat (Toxic Avenger Mix)

Bruce Willis Is Dead

Well, not really, obviously. It’s just the title of the new Mr Oizo track that I previously mentioned in my Justice mix post. As you would expect from any Ed Banger record, especially one by the creator of flat beat, it’s a big and dumb electro record in the best way possible.

Huge bassline, ridiculous repetition, sloganeering lyrics and heavy programmed beats. You know what to expect.

Looking back at the track that made him (briefly) famous still fills me with warm feelings of nostalgia and memories of painful headbanging infront of the TV whenever it was inevitably repeated on the music channels. But even when I listen to it now, beyond all the ridiculous hype and the ‘coolness’ of Flat Eric, I can appreciate it for being a genuinely good piece of ‘minimal electro’ first, as well as a piece of marketing genius.

[Audio http://jorichards77.googlepages.com/BruceWillisIsDead1.mp3%5D

MP3: Mr Oizo – Bruce Willis Is Dead

Green Light Video – John Legend & Andre 3000

This is the first single from John Legend’s 3rd album ‘Evolver’ due on the 28th of October. It looks like it’ll signal a move away from his more jazzy/soulful style if this video and song is anything to go by. I’m not sure I dig the song completely which is why I didn’t post it when it first came out a while ago, the ‘Give me the greeeeeeen light” refrain is really annoying but apart from that it’s a pretty nice number, can’t go wrong with Andre 3000 and a short cameo by Estelle in the video, who has done a collaboration with Legend on the album.

MP3: John Legend & Andre 3000 – Green Light

Bloc Party – Intimacy: Out tomorrow!

Surprise! In an age where traditional rest/tour/promotion/release cycles are becoming ever more rapid, disjointed and in somes cases, non existent, It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that Bloc Party have taken little more than 18 months to release a new album. I mean 18 months is plain slothenly in comparison to Los Campesinos!. But still, at least they had the decency to announce their two a year habit a few months before hand, here Bloc Party have given us three days! (Which is made even shorten when certain, also slothenly, bloggers take two of those days to actually report it)

Anyway, it’s called Intimacy, the digital album is out tomorrow – with a physical copy available for the 27th of October – and two of the tracks are available for your listening pleasure already; The already infamous Mercury and the vaguely promising Trojan Horse, which has a sort of welcome return to the tremolo guitars and bouncing bass that Bloc Party made their fame on. Trojan Horse is linked and streamed below.

Exciting times!

Intimacy:

01 Ares
02 Mercury
03 Halo
04 Biko
05 Trojan Horse
06 Signs
07 One Month Off
08 Zephyrus
09 Better Than Heaven
10 Ion Square

Bloc Party – Intimacy is available for digital download on the 21st of August and a physical verision is available to pre-order for release on the 27th of October.

EDIT: Changed the download to 256kb file as a thanks for the hundreds of hits! And at the time of writing, No.5 on Hypemachine, cheers guys. (Shame this song is one of the few good tracks on the album eh?)
[Audio http://jorichards77.googlepages.com/TrojanHorse.mp3%5D

MP3: Bloc Party – Trojan Horse

RIP Isaac Hayes

Ok I’m nine days late, but to be honest, nine days ago this man wasn’t really relevant to me, musically at least. I was more than familiar with his voice-acting as Chef, Chocolate Salty Balls and his (unfortunate) membership in the church of Scientology. But as news started filtering through about his death I thought I’d investigate, two albums kept on coming up in tributes to him, the Shaft Soundtrack and Hot Buttered Soul.

I was already familiar with the Shaft theme tune, who isn’t? So I decided to check out Hot Buttered Soul and it is mindblowingly good, the cover of Burt Bacharach’s Walk on By is an invigorating reinterpretation of a pretty ubiquitous pop song. Hayes manages to transform and make the song it’s own with it’s soulful and gospel vibes, the only taint on the song is the criminal fading out of what sounds like a promising drum solo at the end which really could do with being streched out for another 2-3 minutes.

Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic is the other highlight is an extremely funky affair, with a groovy bass groove and a disgustingly good piano solo in the middle which rides beautifully on top of the relentless bass groove, it’s just one of those songs that you can never really pinpoint why it’s so good, there’s no single point that does it, it’s just in the groove, you know?

Then of course there’s The Shaft Theme, not on Hot Buttered Soul – which you should all buy immediately – but it’s futile trying to post about Isaac Hayes without mentioning it.

Unlike most big artists ‘most famous’ song, it isn’t an awfully watered down version of what the person does best. Infact it’s arguably his best work, the slow build up and layering in of those 16th note cymbals, the iconic wah-wah guitar, the flutes and then those horns – It’s perfect.

RIP

[Audio http://jorichards77.googlepages.com/IsaacHayes-ThemeFromShaft.mp3%5D

MP3: Isaac Hayes – Theme from Shaft

Justice Live at Amnesia, Ibiza

Justice just continue to impress and amaze don’t they? This DJ set was played in Ibiza earlier this month at Amnesia. It’s quite different to the ‘Fabric Rejected Mix’ in the sense that it is more raw, sweaty, dirty and club focused than the Fabric mix.

It’s not quite the magical mystery tour of pop music that was the Fabric mix but it’s a lot more intense and danceable than it predecessor, definitely one for the clubs and definitely one to turn up the volume for. Unfortunately, being a Radio 1 recording, Zane Lowe does turn up half way through to hype up the crowd, which slightly taints it. But it’s more than made up by the overall quality of the mix, the clearly improved DJing skills of the duo and the Mr Oizo inclusions, one of which being Flat Beat which brings back some happy (and slightly sore) memories of my childhood and a new cut ‘Bruce Willis Is Dead’, which sounds completely batshit mental.

MP3: Justice – DJ Set Live @ Amnesia, Ibiza

[Audio http://jorichards77.googlepages.com/06Phantompt.II.mp3%5D

MP3: Justice – Phantom pt.II