love me hold me

It’s actually summer now. It really truly, finally is. Two barbecue’s in, so it must be. More to come I hope, June begins tomorrow and this year better be hot and not shit like last year. Anyway, I’m liking the music i hear, listening to songs on repeat till they get old never gets old in all honesty. Don’t worry, that wasn’t a contradiction.

Well this a short post to end the month, listen and enjoy this Hot Chip remix, my new favourite summer song. It’s luuuverlaaaaay. Just nice and calm and relaxing shizzle that works well with summer afternoons. I need to fork out for those ipod speakers…..

The Rolling Stones – I’m Free (Hot Chip Remix)

Got to admit it’s getting better

…getting better all the time, it can’t get no worse.

Yeah, Beatles lyrics. But It describes my feelings looking at the current Reading Festival lineup. Hell yeah it’s good. But with Glasto pulling out a blinder of a lineup, I wish i could’ve afforded tickets to both. They even have SPINAL FLIPPING TAP. How the hell did Eavis pull that out of the bag?!?!

Quiet, I need to content myself with what I already have. I’m seeing my favourite band ever, RADIOHEAD! they will be the best thing ever, I just know it. Plus, Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon, two other bands I’ve been dying to see live for a long time, are on the line-up. It’s pretty much a perfect set of headliners, I’m just wishing the rest of the line up gains some more, great additions. I already posted about the first lot of the lineup coming out, but there are some new additions, plus still more space on the already-epic looking bill.

Newbies include; Passion Pit, Metronomy, The Virgins Dananananakroyd, two sets from Alexisonfire, the Rakes, Lethal Bizzle and the Horrors. So Yeah, i’m pumped up about it, just hoping for a couple more, maybe Animal Collective? or Bon Iver, don’t say they dont have slow acoustic stuff because they’ve had Conor Oberst and Seasick Steve before, plus the other stages have not been revealed. For me, there is definitely going to be some heavy weighing up of options of what to see/hear.

Well, here are some mp3s from three of the attending bands;
Kings of Leon – Woo Hoo
Alexisonfire – Boiled Frogs
The Virgins – She’s Expensive

Danze Ferdinand (Blood Review)

Blood iz Dub, and good Dub at that. Now, I love pretty much the entire body of Franz Ferdinand’s work, they’ve been consistenly good over three strong albums that have each held some amazing tracks. The most recent, Tonight, is already one of my favourites of this year, as soon as i heard about this dub version, I was intrigued and a little confused. Could anyone seriously make a dub version of Franz and it still be good? The answer most definitely is yes.

Now, for those who had the special edition of Tonight, you will probably already have heard/dismissed this spin-off release. Well it is getting it’s separate release with an extra track too. It’s proper good though, I’ve been listening to the tracks almost constantly, I just feel that this is, as well as a great addition to what the Franz have already done, it’s almost the necessary accompaniment to the album, I’m not surprised that they’ve decided to release it separately as it is indeed pure brilliance. Franz Ferdinand songs are oddly enough suited to the reworks.

Tracks like “Die on the Floor”, which is a re-working of “Can’t Stop Feeling” grinds along to the dub infused beat, it’s guitar parts perfectly suited and just work well to enhance the original tune. My personal favourite so far, has to be “If I Can’t Have You The Nobody Can” (Turn It On), the echoing ‘It ain’t eaaasy being blues…’ line is a part especially good, the whole rework is literally like disassembling the song and drifting in and out of it while putting it back together. Madness, it sounds, but it just works. There’s also the reworked intro to “Send Him Away”, here titled, “Feel The Envy”, which is too dub, the intro ahh, its just so great.

This album, brought a smile to my face, figuring out which songs were what and all that was good, it’s like a timely release, being a retrospective upon the album and probably, (hopefully) reminding people that Franz Ferdinand are still on form.

Die on the Floor
Feel The Envy

Synchronised drumming + more

Okay, roundup of some stuff for y’all to hear. Or maybe hear again, as might be the case.

White Rabbits -Percussion Gun
This song’s grandiose-inducing video does well to highlight the epic nature of the song, pretty much attributed to it’s synchronised drumming. I can’t help but think of Adam & The Ants’ Stand and Deliver when it kicks in, but the song is actually amazing. From it’s well working faux-Grizzly Bear harmony and a big piano input addition make this as brilliant as it is. Ahhh today I’ve been listening to it almost non-stop.

Grizzly Bear – Too Little Too Late (JoJo Cover)
Old, I know, but for those who haven’t heard it, plus especially as Grizzly-fever is getting into full swing approaching Veckatimest release, this is an amazing cover, turning a bland-ish R&B chart-topper into something amazing, both musically and also highlighting the meaning beneath the lyrics, it becomes instantly solemn.

The Streets – Turn The Page
It’s a classic track, but it’s one of the best by Mike Skinner and co, I remembered it because last friday I was at my college’s film & media awards (i won best editing for horror!) and the best overall music video went to one made for this song, it was actually awesome so that a bonus.

Iron & Wine – God Made The Automobile
One of my favourites off of the new Iron & Wine album. Not much else to say other than it’s loverlaaay.

Veckatimest Review

“Eaaassssssssaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy”
As the release of Grizzly Bear’s undeniably phenomenal album draws to a near, I thought it fit and proper to review it, seeing as it is heads on favourite currently, to become my album of the year. It’s been in my best album section for a while now. So far this year, nothing else I know of has been released that comes as close as this does to being both all round brilliant as well as beautiful, beautiful music, full of perfect harmonies and talented instrumentation.

I’m practically in love with it, it is a great album that everyone should own, and physically to boot, the CD release is something I will be purchasing as soon as i can. The highlight for me, though, is ‘Two Weeks’, simply outstanding song on this album, it just reeks of quality production and talent. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t familiar with the work of Grizzly Bear before I came across Veckatimest and this album, particularly that song, come across as the perfect point of entry to listening to them, ‘Two Weeks’ is practically the perfect brand of folksy harmony pop that could ever be made and it just will be certain to draw people in.

Other songs I am particularly fond of include the previously posted ‘Cheerleader’, the 4th track and ‘Fine for Now’, which opens with possibly a better vocal harmony than ‘Two Weeks’, as well as being this amazing track to listen to, lyrically the repeating “there is time, so much time” ahhh it’s just great. Beautiful music. I also really love the song ‘While You Wait For The Others’, an mp3 of which is below, is rather distorted guitar intro is fantastic, contrasted against the vocals as well provides for a great song that builds and builds, becoming this amazing tune.

I can see this becoming, and hopefully so, a big success. I cannot sing the album’s praises loudly enough. As the release approaches (out the 25th here in the UK) I wish all the readers go and purchase the album, it’s fantastic. Here’s their equally fantastic recent performance on Jools Holland;

MP3:Grizzly Bear – While You Wait For The Others