Mystery Jets announce ‘LP4′

I love Mystery Jets – this is no secret. So I’m i’m pretty chuffed that we wont have to wait too long for album number four. According to a fairly fauge post on their website, ‘LP4′ (I doubt that’s the final title) will be released in April 2012!!!! Check out the full statement below

“Winter has bestowed itself upon us and once again the weatherman warns us that we will soon be brushing snow flakes from our faces. We have returned from texas with dirty boots, a family member heavier (a beautiful young lady by the name of odessa) and a quiver of new songs. Admittedly less than we went out with (such are the worlds’ ways) but damn me if they aren’t some of our favorite yet.”

Early reports suggest the album will have a radically different sound to the group’s excellent 2010 album ‘Serotonin’ and there are even suggestions that the band have ditched pop in favour of country (this wouldn’t be too surprising a twist, they have tried prog and disco in the past afterall).

For now, remind yourself why you love them

 

Best Coast ‘Crazy For You’

Surely everyone know’s by now that I’m really looking forward to Best Coast’s debut album? Well now we know that it’s coming out on July 27th on Mexican Summer records, that it will include recent single ‘Our Deal’ and that it’s going to be called ‘Crazy For You’. Below is the tracklisting and head here to see the very cool album art (featuring Beth’s cat ‘Snacks’).

01 Boyfriend
02 Crazy for You
03 The End
04 Goodbye
05 Summer Mood
06 Our Deal
07 I Want To
08 When the Sun Don’t Shine
09 Bratty B
10 Honey
11 Happy
12 Each and Everyday

Bonus Track: “When I’m With You”

Julian Casablancas and Fourth Stroks album

According to an Julian Casablancas, in an interview with Clash Magazine, the Fourth Strokes album wont be out until January 2011. Considering they’ve been working on new material for so long this seems like a long time to wait, I was hoping  we might get to hear some new stuff this year. In more positive news the band are playing Isle of Wight Festival next month where they will play ‘at least one new song’ – if all goes to plan. Meanwhile Julian is touring the States, see below for the cool tour video and a classic Strokes video

Earth Vs The Pipettes – Coming Soon

To begin with let me say that The Pipettes are no more The Pipettes than The Sugababes are still The Sugababes. Both bands ceased to exist the moment all the original member left. Now the name simply provides a shelter for whoever want to use it, much in the same way a doorway provides shelter for any tramp that wishes to use it.

With The Pipettes this is more acceptable because the group have always been a post-modern twist on the traditional girl group, a mirror held up to both the manufactured girl groups of the last decade and the skinny indie boys with guitars. They were a glimpse into an alternate reality where The Beatles never arrived in America and Girl Power instead ruled the charts. In charge of it all was a man named Monster Bobby who held the strings in the same way that Berry Gordy made The Supremes or Phil Spector controlled The Ronnettes. And just as Gordy saw fit to replace Diana Ross with Jean Terrell,  so Monster Bobby relishes in continuing The Pipettes without Riot Becki and Rosay.

‘We Are The Pipettes’ was one of my favourite albums of the decade – it was everything a good pop record should be, witty, catchy, easily digestible, fun to dance to and a pure delight on the ears. It’s taken them four years to make a follow up (when I say them, I don’t actually know who I’m talking about cos I don’t actually know who sings on the album) but at long last it is nearly here. ‘Earth Vs The Pipettes’ is out on June 28th and it’s accompanied by first single ‘Stop the Music’. It is a better song than ‘Our Love was Saved by A Spaceman’ which was released as a free download a few weeks ago. Well I think it is, at least that song had something catchy about it, even if you only remembered it for the horrible synth and the tacky lyrics. ‘Stop The Music’ is just a bit bland and boring, something The (original) Pipettes never were.

I still have high hopes for the album, other tracks previewed live seemed to be in the older style rather than the new, synth based direction. Fingers crossed that ‘Earth Vs The Pipettes’ will be worth the four year wait.

Darwin Deez

Wow this guy is growing on me. I first posted about him back at the beginning of January and whilst I liked what I heard it’s only after hearing him again on the radio that I realized just how good he is. The song ‘Radar Detecter’ is just so, so catchy – I don’t want to like it but I can’t get it out of my head! Have a listen on his myspace

http://www.myspace.com/darwindeez

Congratulations MGMT

MGMT have announced first details of their second album, the follow-up to ‘Oracular Spectaclar’. The 9 track record (so much for double album) will be out on April 13th and it will be called….. ‘Congratulations’. Below is the tracklisting

1. It’s Working
2. Song for Dan Treacy
3. Someone’s Missing
4. Flash Delirium
5. I Found a Whistle
6. Siberian Breaks
7. Brian Eno
8. Lady Dada’s Nightmare
9. Congratulations

Siberian Breaks is apparently a 12 minute freakout that features 8 different songs in one whilst Lady Dada’s nightmare is an instrumental inspired by Lady Gaga. Things are going to get very weird. The stuff they have already played live is a bit more conventinal, displaying more of a surf rock sound fused with the modern psychedelia of their debut. I am extremely excited about this album, it could be mega. Below are live versions of a couple of the tracks.

Vampire Weekend – Contra!

For the last week or so I’ve been spotting an advert that seems to be everywhere – a Polaroid of a woman in a yellow polo shirt. No text, just a photo. When you click the photo it takes you to a website with the picture maximised but no other information. Until now. That is because the Polaroid has been revealed to be the cover of the new Vampire Weekend record. Not only was this a great advertising move by the band and XL (although the album is still months away) but it’s a great photo that fits in nicely to VW’s continuity.

This was not the only bit of Vampire weekend news today as now when you click on the advert it takes you to VW’s homepage which gives us yet more details of the album. The album is called ‘Contra’ and it will be released on January 11th in the UK, a lot later than expected. Below is the tracklisting…

01 Horchata
02 White Sky
03 Holiday
04 California English
05 Taxi Cab
06 Run
07 Cousins
08 Giving Up the Gun
09 Diplomat’s Son
10 I Think Ur a Contra

I’ve already heard live versions or demos of 4 tracks and if these are anything to go by then I wouldn’t expect a huge change from the band’s previous stuff. ‘Cousins’ sounded a bit like ‘Bryn’ from their debut and Run was like ‘Blake’s got a new Face’. ‘White Sky’ sounds most interesting of the tracks I’ve heard and shows a development from the more sophisticated end of ‘Vampire Weekend’. I certainly can’t wait to hear ‘Contra’ in full this Winter.

Michael Jackson – Pop’s greatest showman

I heard about MJ’s passing late last night and was in complete shock at what I was hearing. He had seemed to be in better shape than he had been since the early 90s, and I and many others were looking forward to seeing him In London both this year and next. I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon of people writing about Michael Jackson – The Sadness of his death speaks for itself and I find it hypocritical that the magazines and newspapers that destroyed him are now mourning his loss.

His passing marks the end of an era – Pop’s last great entertainer gone. He was truly the greatest showman of the 20th century and for me his work ranks alongside The Beatles as the greatest pop music ever recorded. He has been my hero since I first saw him on top of the pops in the early 90′s and I have put up with a lot of abuse for even liking him. Now I know the music will survive and all the rubbish that has been written will not. We have to look forward to a release of the material he was working on with the likes of Kanye West and Will I Am. Here is one of my favourite MJ song’s from his late Motown period, ‘Music and Me’.

Today is a truely sad day…

Mojo Honours List 2009

Well, It was the Mojo awards last night and as usual the recipients were a varied but deserving lot. I’m particularly pleased The Zombies ‘Oddesey and Oracle’ got an award, whilst it was no surprise to see Fleet Foxes, Elbow and White Lies take awards home. Below is a complete list of winners.

http://www.gibson.com/Files/AllAccess/images/mojo_logo.jpg

The MOJO Breakthrough Award
Presenter: New Order
Winner: White Lies

The MOJO Inspiration Award (sponsored by HMV)
Presenter: Terry Hall
Winner: Blur

The MOJO Best Album (sponsored by Ford Transit)
Presenter: Sir Peter Blake
Winner: Paul Weller

The MOJO Classic Album Award
Presenter: Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys
Winner: The Zombies – Odessey & Oracle

MOJO Vision Award
Presenter: Buzzcocks
Winner: Joy Division (documentary by Grant Gee/Jon Savage)

The MOJO Maverick Award
Presenter: Duff McKagan
Winner: Manic Street Preachers

The MOJO Hero Award
Presenter: The Bad Seeds
Winner: The Pretty Things

The MOJO Icon Award (sponsored by EMI Music Catalogue Marketing)
Winner: Phil Lynott – collected by Scott Gorham

The MOJO Outstanding Contribution To Music Award
Presenter: Mark Knopfler
Winner: Joe Brown

The MOJO Roots Award
Presenter: Judy Collins
Winner: Topic Records, celebrating 70 years
Collected by: Shirley Collins, Martin Carthy and Tony Engle

MOJO Catalogue Release Of The Year (presented by HMV)
Presenter: Tony Allen
Winner: Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue 50th Anniversary Edition collected by Erin Davis (Miles’ son)

MOJO Medal
Presenter: Yusuf Islam
Winner: Chris Blackwell/Island Records

The MOJO Best Compilation Award
Presenter: Corinne Bailey Rae
Winner: Take Me To The River – The Southern Soul Story (Kent)
Collected by: Stax/Atlantic legend William Bell

The MOJO Best Live Act (sponsored by José Cuervo)
Presenter: Bert Jansch
Winner: Fleet Foxes

The MOJO Song Of The Year
Presenter: John Cale
Winner: Elbow – One Day Like This

MOJO Classic Songwriter
Presenter: Bernard Butler
Winner: Johnny Marr

The MOJO Hall Of Fame (sponsored by Universal Catalogue Marketing)
Presenter: Joe Elliott
Winner: Mott The Hoople

The MOJO Les Paul Award (sponsored by Gibson Guitars)
Presenter: Jeff Beck
Winner: Billy Gibbons

The MOJO Lifetime Achievement Award (sponsored by Sony Music)
Winner: Yoko Ono

Download and Isle of White this weekend

So this Weekend sees the start of the big festival season in the UK with Download and Isle of White both taking place over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Download has what is in my opinion it’s best lineup yet with Faith No More, Def Lepard, Prodigy, Pendulam, Fightstar, Journey, ZZ Top, The Answer and Chris Cornell being the ones I would look forward to, if I were going ha ha. Luckily I don’t need to as the whole festival will be broadcast live from downloadfestival.co.uk starting on Friday with the official return of the legendary Faith No More. Obviously there is more than your usual amount of rubbish at Download and this year is no different, so if you are going avoid the Nu metal return bands – limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Korn and Slipknot – like the plague!

Isle of White also boasts a good lineup, with Neil Young, Pixies, The Zombies, White Lies, The Prodigy, Pendulam and Pigoen Detectives standing out for me. The guy from the charlatans is also curating a stage which has some pretty impressive new acts including The Horrors and ones to watch S.C.U.M

Have a great time if you’re going to any of those!