Archive for January, 2010
I think it's silly season on Youtube for record companies this week. There's
Lightspeed Champion dressed as Elvis doing “Devil In Disguise” (pictured), there's another video for the same song
as was posted a few months ago from Maps, Adam Green's gone
video mental (third in a week), and
Julian Casablancas' video for “The 11th Dimension” features daft headgear but – fairly importantly, I reckon – no actual sound. Er......
While 2008's debut affair
We Brave Bee Stings was all wide-eyed and tingling senses, synapses firing at new experiences and possibilities, this is a true follow-up, way more wistful, with hindsight the order of the day. This is an album that's learnt its lessons, but without getting maudlin; it's a bit more worldly-wise, but not quite yet world-weary. It was out in the States a few months ago, but it's also my runaway favourite...
Much as is the way for the singles, this seems to be a week of some fairly high-value releases on the album front, with follow up albums from
Vampire Weekend (the feverishly anticipated and thoroughly leaked
Contra) and
These New Puritans (the stringtastic
Hidden), as well as
Minor Love, the long overdue new long-player from
Adam Green and
Acolyte, the super-hyped debut from Manchester bleep outfit
Delphic. In the less...
I first came across
Plan B as part of that whole grime explosion from a few years ago, when Lethal Bizzle was seeing "Pow!" banned from clubs because it caused violence where before there was only calm, when Dizzee was about as far from pop as it was possible to be, and when Plan B was getting busy deeply upsetting everybody with some of the most viscerally raw lyrics ever delivered by anyone,...
There's some solid hipster names out on the shelves this week knife-fighting for your recessionary 7" hard-earned, including
White Rabbits' excellent "Percussion Gun",
Fyfe Dangerfield (off of The Maccabees) and his entertaining "She Needs Me" and the twitchy goodness of
Good Shoes' "Under Control". All worthy choices, we feel - but this week's headgear gets tipped towards San Francisco's 60s-tinged garage psychers
The Fresh And Onlys, Chicago's noisy and bombastic...
The schedule is now live on sxsw.com, but for your enjoyment or otherwise. this is the list of British bands playing SXSW 2010 that we've got together so far.
Let us know if you hear of anyone we've missed, there's probably loads, since there's no longer an easy-to-scan list sorted by country any more. Latest update sees not only Scottish wunderkids
We Were Promised Jetpacks added to the bill, but also Sheffield's...