FREE MUSIC: In the week when the Mooney Suzuki release a new album to no attention whatsoever, some up to date psychedelically flavoured rock'n'roll comes from New Jersey's The Special Pillow. Your Dead City revisits those halcyon days of The Hiss meaning something to someone but remembers to bring the pre-reformation late Dinosaur Jr buzzpop edge.
HEY YOU GET OFFA MYSPACE: There's a bit of hype building around Eugene McGuinness at the moment, largely due to having a YouTube viral hit with current single Monsters Under The Bed. It's in this month's top 40 most viewed in the UK, whatever that actually means. Besides such Flash Video notions, the Liverpool-based 21 year old has plenty going on in a starter pack Jeremy Warmsley style, sounding a touch at times like a Jamie T who's not finding the world falling apart round his Cockney ears, plus a sure hand with monstrous cabaret-esque laptop effects and a Shins-esque quirky pop disposition (is that a Dennis Wilson influence on Vela?) With Domino releasing a mini-album in August, put a reasonable amount of pretend money on him producing something extraordinary given time.
VISUAL REPRESENTATION: Continuing on the television performance theme, there are many and varied ways in which a band can royally mess up their big telly moment. You'll have seen one with Win Butler's narkiness on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross last week, the latest in a long tradition starting in 1969, Bob Harris here introducing the famous A Happening For Lulu performance, firstly a properly constructed Voodoo Chile, then the famous segue from Hey Joe to Sunshine Of Your Love. Similarly a band may decide to trash their equipment, like the Posies on The Word, or let 'em all on, as with Symposium on Top Of The Pops. Eamon Hamilton, back when he was British Sea Power's Official Fleet Reserve, went for a wander around Jools' studio - actually, whatever did become of the Patrick Mooreheads, here seen clearest at about 1:25 engrossed in a card game of their own? Do let us know if you do. The big opportunity, though, comes when a band have to mime and get to show displeasure or decide they can really do something here. The role reversal Roll With It and All About Eve's monitor-muted Martha's Harbour are virtually part of the national heritage now, but a couple of personal favourites are Fish out of Marillion enlisting audience help on Lavender - a bad throat, he later said - and Muse's not strictly accurate New Born, with Dom and Chris transposed, on late period Live & Kicking. See the way the magic Bellamy fingers glide across the keys at the start.
VIRAL MARKETING: REM have been doing these 'Working Rehearsals' in Dublin this week, bringing out some old material and trying out some new songs they're in the process of recording. First hand accounts are good, reminding some of the Fables Of The Reconstruction/Life's Rich Pageant era, but see what you make of in progress versions of Until The Day Is Done, Living Well's The Best Revenge and Horse To Water.
FALLING OFF A BLOG: In the email making us aware of The Pop Register its maintaner prosthyletizes that "I want music enthusiasts to forget the stigmas - pop isn't always about dumbing down and hitting the masses - its about a fun way of producing genuinely appealing and exciting music." Which basically means it's a knowledgeable and fairly eclectic new music blog, and you can't have too many of those.
EVERYBODY GET RANDOM: From the desk of now former XFM DJ and definitely former Jesus Jones keyboard player Iain Baker comes Shadow Globe Radio. Currently in its beta version, it's dedicated to finding and playlisting the best new music and getting its users to vote for their favourites, the not particularly great but we're aware we're in an online minority on that front Silversun Pickups currently leading the race for the first proper playlist from, essentially, every band you've heard a whisper about in the last couple of months.
IN OTHER NEWS: The other festival we bang on about is Summer Sundae, five weeks away from the weekend just gone and, we hear, selling nicely. That we know about: what is also happening this year is a week-long Fringe Festival around Leicester up to the day before the shebang begins. Highlights include The First International Kinky Judge Fair alldayer starring Thomas Trux, Misterlee and the Hellset Orchestra, a Drowned In Sound night headlined by Public Relations Exercise, Foals supported by Tired Irie and the Official Fringe Festival Warm-Up, spanning four venues on the Thursday night. For a mere one of your English pounds (and most of the tickets are being reserved for outsiders) there's a bill featuring assorted local favourites (the Dirty Backbeats, Redcarsgofaster, The Displacements), the long lost My Drug Hell, Scott Capurro headlining a comedy stage, surprises, fun, hoopla and compere duties from Dave Bartram of Showaddywaddy, which should be worth the admission itself.
1 comment:
it's going to be redcars' first gig in about 6 months, and our penultimate gig ever.
should be good.
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