Stone the Crows

I’m sure you’re all well acquainted with ‘Never be Alone’ – the Justice vs Simian track that’s been slaying dancefloors for 18 months solid.

Well I gave another listen to the original the other day, and remembered that it’s rather good itself. If you’re over familiar with the remix, I think you’ll find this a refreshing change. I actually prefer this now…..

SIMIAN – NEVER BE ALONE

‘Never be Alone’ was taken from the band’s second album, ‘We Are Your Friends’ – which was quite a shift in sound from the pastoral folkiness of their debut.

This is the opening track from that first album (‘Chemistry is What We Are’), which has plenty of hints of The Beta Band, whilst the funereal chanting in the second half of the song is somewhat reminiscent of Arcade Fire…

SIMIAN – DROP AND ROLL

Although it sounds quite different to ‘Never be Alone’ I still keep expecting it to break out into ‘…because we. are. your friends!’

The band have sort of split up (literally) after being dropped by their label. Half the band are in a new outfit called ‘Garden‘, while the other two are now rocking dancefloors worldwide as ‘Simian Mobile Disco‘. I’ve heard a couple of their mixes as MP3s, and if I was booking a disco right now they’d be top of my list.

The mobile disco arm also contributed a fantastic track to the last but one compilation on (where else) Kitsune. I’m having to resist posting that track (The Count) with all my might, as otherwise i’m going to end up posting every track from both ‘X’ and ‘Maison’. Just buy them both instead! You must know by now that they are quality records.

I have to point out that my next mix is going to be a bit delayed… my decks are currently powerless while we do a bit of rewiring work.

That’s also the reason for the lack of effort that’s gone into this post!

I’m probably making this up

Another trip into town last night to check out We Are Scientists at King’s College.

Just before arriving, I realised with delight that Test Icicles were the support act, making it an excellent night for fans of good band names. And also a good night for unexpectedly catching a band I wanted to see. After all, they are the fifth best band in the UK (or something). And have also recently scored a top twenty hit.

Well seriously folks.. what the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?

They are TERRIBLE.



They certainly polarised opinion in the venue – with audience reaction running the entire spectrum from fucking god-awful all the way through to worse than my most vivid, most horrific nightmares.

My mate Steve told me beforehand that all they do is fuck around on stage and don’t even have their instruments plugged in. And for some reason i didn’t believe him. But yeah, all they do is fall into the crowd a couple of times while a backing track plays. Now I enjoy a tuneless racket as much as the next guy, especially if the perpetuators are willing to degrade themselves for my pleasure in the name of rock ‘n’ roll – but I’m afraid I just spent the entire performance bored stupid. It was like a bad sixth form art project. With even one decent song I could have forgiven them, but they are basically three twats shouting incoherently over a drum machine. Great.

Even the youthful crowd, mostly free of the cynicisms of age, were not impressed. The band left the stage to silence, save for two people frantically cheering (art students, clearly) and a far larger number of boos.



A joke without a punchline. Anyone who tells you they are anything but awful is lying.

We Are Scientists on the other hand were excellent. I get the feeling they have two fantastic singles (‘Great Escape’, ‘Nobody Moves’), a couple of other tracks that don’t quite hit the same heights, and the rest of their material is slightly ‘album tracky’. The good stuff is great though, and it was a hugely enjoyable show. Even disregarding the music they’ve got enough charisma and jokes on stage to own any crowd. I won’t attempt to repeat any of their banter… just believe me that they were / are very funny.

Having barely made it through a very heavy weekend I couldn’t muster the energy to join the sweaty nubile teenage students down the front, but by the end of the gig I had a spring in my step. And when I left, the frozen London air felt a good ten degrees warmer.

If the Scientists are experimenting in a town near you, do poke your head in and say hello…

If you managed to get tickets to the NME tour in February (I did!) you’ll be able to see them then.

The Moog Groove

A post on Kev’s site a couple of weeks ago (Best Foot Forward) brought back some memories, and led me to dig out a corking record i’d all but forgotten about.

It’s a collaboration between Stereolab and Nurse With Wound, on the groop’s own Duophonic label. And it’s just amazing in so many ways. Not least because it’s one of the most beautifully packaged records I own – a great photo imprinted onto a stunning sealed foil wrapper. It’s almost too sexy to open (this picture really doesn’t do it justice).

The record itself is built around a fairly simple groove, however there are so many elements drifting in and out of the mix that the 10 minute duration fairly flies by. I could say this about 90% of the tracks I post here, but I really can’t recommend this highly enough!

‘Scuttle’

STEREOLAB & NURSE WITH WOUND – SIMPLE HEADPHONE MIND

To get the full benefit of this record, you should really listen to the B-Side (Trippin’ With The Birds) as well, which follows on from side A to form a 30-minute groove. But you’ll probably need to go spending money on ebay to do that.

Stereolab of course have been churning out their brand of analog krautrock on albums and limited 7 inch singles for nearly 15 years now. I did have a phase of being massively into the band, however after buying five or six albums, and a good couple of inches worth of 7 inchers I realised that I really didn’t need any more Stereolab in my life. I may be wrong of course, and if you feel that any of the last few albums will enrich my life then please let me know in the comments!

If you’re looking to buy a couple of Stereolab albums, i’d recommend ‘Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements‘ – which contains the awesome ‘Jenny Ondioline’ – and ‘Refried Ectoplasm (Switched on Vol. 2)‘ – a compilation of early rare singles, and probably their best album.

I’ve not talked about Nurse With Wound much, but that’s because I know next to nothing about him except for his two collaborations with Stereolab.

However thanks to teh interweb, I now also know that
1: He’s released an awful lot of records
2: He looks like that fella from the Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band
3: He’s got through more band members than Mark E Smith (click on the ‘people’ tab)

Anything else I need to know?

Top of the Hots

Mike at Take Your Medicine has compiled a list of the 40 ‘hottest’ acts in the UK. Some bloggers clearly have confused ideas of ‘hotness’, and voted Tangerine Pop Machine ‘Girls Aloud’ in at #1 – the list is worth a look though, if only as a reminder of some bands I keep meaning to check out : Patrick Wolf, HAL,¡Forward, Russia! and Jeremy Warmsley.

I did vote, but I was a bit confused about the question.

10 – Paul Epworth
9 – Gorillaz
8 – Aphex Twin
7 – Super Furry Animals
6 – Basement Jaxx
5 – Maximo Park
4 – Joy Division
3 – Arctic Monkeys
2 – Boards of Canada
1 – Radiohead

I guess if it shows anything, it’s that the UK music scene is in rude health. I’d take our 40 over the American one any day…

Fly me to the Moon

According to today’s Guardian, this is how to make the ‘Ultimate Paper Plane’.

Now i’ve just spent 5 minutes creating this bad boy.. deep in concentration.. pulling some extreme origami moves.

And it’s crap.

If you want a paper plane that flies up vertically then dive bombs straight back to earth it is indeed the Ultimate. Otherwise my testing has proved a standard ten-second bodge job to be vastly superior on every level. (except the ‘floating up vertically before crashing to the ground’ level)

Let me know if you fare any better….

Wide Eyed and Open Mouthed

I ended up going to see Clor at Cargo on Friday night, rather than braving the subterranean funk of OurDisco. In hindsight I think this was a good choice, since Clor were excellent, and Delia & Gavin were apparently not at all excellent.

I haven’t totally fallen in love with Clor’s album as yet. Although most of it is extremely good, just when I start falling under its spell a track pops up that screams ‘filler’ and sends me reaching for the ’skip track’ button. But in the confines of a half hour set they were just about perfect, and showed they have more good songs than I first credited them with. ‘Good Stuff’, ‘Outlines’, ‘Lost & Found’ and ‘Danger Zone’ were all great, and would have graced any stage. The band were tight as a clingfilm jumper, and pretty good to watch as well. The only downside for me was the couple standing next to me exuberantly snogging throughout the entire set in a ‘look at us, we’re good looking and we’re gonna have sex later’ kind of way. It wouldn’t normally bother me, but I was getting a bit too involved in their elbows and hair for my liking.

Highlight for me was ‘Making You All Mine’, which I think they played second if that sort of thing is of interest to you. ‘Danger Zone’ was also excellent, and is a gem i’d overlooked on the album. It does suffer in comparison to the Kenny Loggins classic though!

CLOR – MAKING YOU ALL MINE

As we’re on an electro pop tip, i’ve recently heard some new tracks from Hot Chip (YAY!) which I have to share with y’all, as they’re rather amazing.

I was and still am head over heels in love with last year’s debut album, ‘Coming on Strong‘, but i’ve found most of the stuff i’ve heard since then – particularly their contributions to the Kitsune ‘X’ and ‘Maison’ albums – a bit underwhelming. The three tracks i’ve heard from the new record sound awesome though.

‘Over and Over’ has been around for a while on some 2 Many DJs mixes – and doesn’t disappoint at all in its full length version. If there was a Brit award for ‘Best Kazoo Solo’ it would certainly be walking off with the prize next year. You can still pick it up on the very limited ‘Barbarian EP’ – which is still just about available from Juno. For some reason I’ve not bought it yet (well – for one good reason – i’m skint) however my credit cards are beginning to display the warning signs of an upcoming large order. I also must get the Poni Hoax 12″, the DFA Gorillaz mix, all the Ed Banger records I can find… and well, there’s plenty more on the list.

I think ‘Over and Over’ is being re-released soon on DFA Records with a DFA mix included. That’s something I can’t wait to hear!

But back to the new songs… ‘The Warning’ is just that. Alexis and Joe threaten that ‘Hot Chip will break your legs. Snap off your head’ like a couple of very polite gangstas. You almost want them to do it.

The track i’m going to post up is also awesome, and is pretty much Hot Chip in a nutshell. A bit lo-fi, a bit funky, loads of nice harmonies, loads of lyrical snippets that stick in your head and an addictive groove. Superb. One of my biggest regrets these last couple of years is that despite numerous attempts I am still yet to see these guys play live.

HOT CHIP – AND I WAS A BOY FROM SCHOOL

I don’t know what the album’s called, or when it’s coming out… but I reckon it’s going to be great.

___________________________________________

Lastly I was a bit surprised to see this:

2,777 downloads? Crickey! Did someone post the link up somewhere else? I can’t believe it would have got that many downloads from here… I was anticipating more like 50!

I guess I ought to start thinking about doing another one soon…

EDIT: Just found some info on the Hot Chip / DFA collaboration. It’s out next week.

Hot Chip
Over and Over PRE-ORDER

THIS ITEM IS A PRE-ORDER AND WILL SHIP ON OR NEAR THE NOVEMBER 29TH RELEASE DATE.

LIMITED EDITION. ONLY 1,000 COPIES! This heavily sought after two track release from Hot Chip delivers some amazing music. London’s self styled R’N Bedroom electro team has created a music style and scene for all fans and are a great addition to the DFA/ Astralwerks discography. This release is limited to only 1,000 copies and includes the track ‘Over and Over’ and ‘Just Like We (Breakdown)’ (DFA Remix) which gives you a taste of the future Hot Chip album and an exploding remix by the DFA camp. The track ‘Over and Over’ bounces you into gear with grooving percussion, thunderous bass line and winding guitars. ‘Over and Over’ will also be the first single off the sophomore album out in spring of 2006. The second track is ‘Just Like We (Breakdown)’ (DFA Remix) and is a prime example of why DFA and Hot Chip are working together.

(Young) Guns of Brixton

Next spring’s NME ‘Brats’ tour is rumoured to be featuring:

Arctic Monkeys
Maximo Park
We Are Scientists
Mystery Jets

Tickets are rumoured to be going on sale today.

I guess here is the best place to check for news…

Re-Re-Rewind

I wouldn’t normally go back to things i’ve posted before, principally because no-one has ever asked for anything to be reposted! There is ONE EXCEPTION though… I’ve now been asked for ‘Geek Love’ by Bang Bang Machine 7 times in total – including three times in the last two days!

The latest plea came from a desperate gentleman who needs it for his wedding….

“…I’m now getting married in 2 weeks to the girl I met at University back in ‘91. Geek Love was our anthem. We’re running the disco at the reception and I’ve been looking everywhere for a copy to add to the wedding playlist with absolutely no luck.

The daft thing is, my old flatmate is now my bestman and although I’ve asked to borrow the record on a few occassions, he keeps forgetting to bring it over. Frankly, even if he did my old Audiolab amp has died and my Dual turntable is now buried in the loft so I don’t know how I’d rip it anyway.

So, I’m wondering if there’s any chance you might be able to send me the mp3 so that I can play it at our wedding?”

How could I refuse…

So by popular request:

BANG BANG MACHINE – GEEK LOVE

BANG BANG MACHINE – GEEK LOVE (7 Inch Edit)
(in case the 10 minute original is a bit long for the disco!)

I hope you have a long and geeky life together. If you’re listening to records like this, i’m sure you will.

original post

I had the misfortunate this evening, despite my better judgement, to sit through the first episode of the new series of ‘Little Britain’. What a load of old toss.

The merits, or otherwise, of the series were debated in The Times today.

Caitlin Moran led the prosecution.

She seems to miss the point though, claiming that the show isn’t any good because their portrayal of women is degrading. Eh? Listen ‘love’ (see what i did there?) , I don’t give a flying fuck who they ‘offend’. Most good comedy does offend someone. They’re not there to provide a balanced view, or to portray as many awful male characters as female. They don’t have any social responsibilities. They’re there to make me laugh, and it’s this that they fail at dismally. Their sketches are, frankly, desperately unfunny – relying entirely on a funny costume or premise rather than actually bothering to write a decent script. It’s pre-school comedy. I could excuse this if the duo weren’t so horrifically overexposed, however each time I switch on my TV or radio the irritating pair (well, Walliams in particular – see, even his name is annoying) are invariably there being fawned upon by some halfwit ‘host’ with his tongue a fair distance up their rectums.

So what do the braindead freaks who enjoy this show see in it? Well Tim Teeman (?) was clearly the only person they could find to defend it. Although by the end of that article you sense even he’s given up trying to pretend he finds it funny. Apparently it ‘takes on British foibles and stereotypes and colours them in with a highlighter’. Oh yeah, like that famous British stereotype of old ladies pissing all over the floor of Tescos. Or transvestites with beards. Oh how funny that was. The first 15 times.

It’s the comedy of repetition, so that braindead viewers don’t have to think. As soon as the sketch has been set up, everyone watching knows exactly what’s going to happen… and what’s going to be said. And of course they can join in by chanting the shit catchphrase at the TV. Like the Fast Show and Harry Enfied I sit there wondering quite what the joke is when you already know the punchline.

The sad thing is that this is held up as the best in British comedy. And the sadder thing is that at the moment it probably is. I am tuning into America for my kicks now… ‘Arrested Development’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ are the two funniest programs EVER. And having not watched it for years, I have recently discovered that South Park has become, well, hilarious. I’ve been availing myself of the Torrents available here. And I do love myself a bit of Futurama. Yes, I never thought I would say it, but you guys actually seem to be a hell of a lot funnier than us. So you may at last have something to gloat about other than the quality of your dentistry!

Speaking of Arrested Development, can someone in America let me know once and for all if this third series is ever going to get finished? I keep hearing contrasting reports. Mostly of the bad kind unfortunately

And also – how are you guys finding this ‘Little Britain’ thing they’ve got going on? (not THAT Little Britain…) Personally I found the joke a bit tired after half an episode, and six episodes in it shows no sign of going away. I don’t mind laughing at us Brits.. let’s face it most of us are fuckin’ idiots. I’m just finding the whole set up a bit clumsy, which is very unusual in a program where every single line and every single shot is as sharp as they come.

You mean something to someone somewhere

This is something a bit special..

Although I got this track on a CD given away at the Camden Crawl way back in the spring, I never actually made it through to the end of the CD ’til last week, when driving home from work in the dark it sounded like just about the most beautiful thing i’d ever heard.

Although the band are signed to Warp – home of all that is great and good – Gravenhurst’s acoustic torch songs are about as far from Autechre as you can get. Once again an unusal signing for Warp, Gravenhurst are indicative of the label’s new found love of actual songs with choruses and verses and guitars and things.

This song is from the band’s second album, ‘Fires in Distant Buildings’, which came out a few short weeks ago. I don’t want to ruin it for you by clumsily attempting to describe it. Just make sure you give it a listen – it’s without doubt one of the best things i’ve heard this year.

GRAVENHURST – ANIMALS

Once you’ve been blown away by that, you will probably want to watch the video for new single ‘The Velvet Cell’. Luckily you can do so here. (Although on my PC it took ages to download)

And here’s a standout track from last year’s debut album, ‘Flashlight Seasons’, which came to my attention after unexpectedly lighting up the breathtaking (125 track!!!) mix CD that came with the Warp DVD.

GRAVENHURST – BLUEBEARD

The band are on tour now to promote the new album… worth checking out if they’re in your area i’d say…

30 Nov Leuven, Stuk
1st Dec Paris, Tryptique
3rd Dec Amsterdam, Melkweg
4th Dec Koln, Gebaude 9
5th Dec Munich, Ampere
6th Dec Zurich, G5 Club
7th Dec Milan, La Casa
9th Dec London, Bar Academy TISCALI SHOWCASE info
10th Dec Nottingham, Social
11th Dec Glasgow, Nice N Sleazy

• Thanks to Alex for pointing me in the direction of a new Carl Craig mix available to download on Beats In Space
  

• My email is a mess… which is probably why, if you’ve mailed me before, i’ve not replied. In attempt to get more organised, in future please send submissions etc. to: james at headphonesex.co.uk

Watch it, he’s a prestidigitator…

It’s getting cold outside, but I’ve heard some cracking songs this week, and have three days of super hotness for you. Well, if I manage to write the posts that is.

Ebay is often a good way of spotting the bands that are about to take off… and judging by how much the debut single by Guillemots is currently going for, you may be wise to keep an eye on them next year.

This is the lead track from that debut single, and is a glorious slice of 80’s style guitar pop. I don’t really remember Aztec Camera much, but I can somehow see them performing this on Top of the Pops surrounded by loads of balloons and badly dancing girls with bad perms.

That may be a mangled combination of disparate memories, but this does take me back to the 80’s, and not in a bleepy synthesised way. I could see this playing over the closing credits of a John Hughes teen movie, maybe while watching Molly Ringwald disappear into the distance.

I really love this, despite the band apparently being once described (according to their website) as ‘a stupefyingly bad mix of Keane and Kenny G’!!

GUILLEMOTS – WHO LEFT THE LIGHTS OFF BABY

There’s a new single coming out at the beginning of December… you can watch an exerpt from the video and download a selection of tracks here.

I reckon i’m going to head back to OurDisco this weekend, where there is a DFA night with Delia & Gavin playing live. The main reason I mention this is that if you look on the top 10 chart on the frontpage, you’ll see at number one a Justice remix of Franz Ferdinand. Needless to say i’m quite keen to hear this, so if anyone manages to get a copy please feel free to send an mp3 in this direction ,-)

EDIT: THANKS COMMENT DUDES / CHICKS – that was some fast service! Here is da JUSTICE

They’ve cut Franz and the Ferdinands beyond all recognition… it’s a badass growling electro-glitch-hop monster. Sounds a bit like Wildchild’s ‘Renegade Master’ to me.

How I love Justice.