TENNIS

Denver husband/wife duo Tennis lived on a sailboat at some point — You get that rush of sun and wind in their Spector-esque ’60s girl-group summer pop, especially via Alaina Moore’s buoyant vocals.

New Concretes album due in October

Popular Swedish group The Concretes will release a new record in the Autumn, so reports a post on their BandCamp page. Good news, I think. The album will be called WYWH and is set to be released in October.
There's not much more information than that available but there is, fortunately, a track from the record free to stream and download. That's called 'Good Evening' and it will also be the first single. In terms of length it's about six-and-a-half minutes long and you can also listen to it below. It's a slow, slightly laid-back effort, but one which bursts through, albeit understatedly, towards the ending. Gentle.

Source : Pitchfork

Listen to Bloc Party's Kele Single "Tenderoni"

The time has come for us to hear the first single from Bloc Party singer Kele's solo album, The Boxer. It's called "Tenderoni" and, if you couldn't tell by that title, it's not just another Bloc Party track by another name. Producer XXXChange of Spank Rock makes his electro-freak presence felt, and I suddenly feel the urge to go to the gym. Listen right up there. The Boxer is out June 21 in the UK via Wichita/Polydor and June 22 in the U.S. via Glassnote. The "Tenderoni" single is out June 14.

Source : Pitchfork

ceo = Tough Alliance's Eric Berglund

ceo is a new project from Tough Alliance's Eric Berglund. And there's a ceo album and everything: White Magic is due June 28 in Europe, June 29 in the U.S., and July 2 in Australia and New Zealand. A cryptic (and possibly stoned) press release and message on the ceo website tells us, "ceo is the photosynthesis and an aria, it is silence and virginity lost in a gang bang. ... ceo is the ashanti and ceo is seinfeld. it is eucalyptus, neon and a smile," and so on. It is the first press release I've ever read to reference Ashanti, "Seinfeld", and gang bangs. Bravo.

White Magic tracklist-- featuring first single "Come With Me"-- is below:

1. All Around
2. Illuminata
3. Love and Do What You Will
4. White Magic
5. Oh God Oh Dear
6. No Mercy
7. Come With Me
8. ***

School of Seven Bells' New Album "Disconnect From Desire" Out This July

New LP from this New York dream-pop trio, made up of former members of On!Air!Library! and the Secret Machines. Produced by band member Benjamin Curtis.

Tracklist:

1 Windstorm
2 Heart Is Strange
3 Dust Devil
4 I L U
5 Babelonia
6 Joviann
7 Cammarilla
8 Dial
9 Bye Bye Bye
10 The Wait

Crystal Castles album gets title, cover, tracklist, release date

Having one self-titled record is de rigeur these days and probably always has been. Having two, well, that's less conventional for obvious reasons relating to clarity. Toronto glitch-core purveyors Crystal Castles have adopted that tactic, and have decided to go with Crystal Castles again for their forthcoming second LP. It'll be released on June 7 through Fiction, was written in various places around the world including a church in Iceland, a cabin in Ontario and a garage somewhere in Detroit. It was also produced by Ethan Kath of the duo and will be preceded by a limited edition 12" release of 'Doe Deer' on Record Store Day (April 17), which will in turn be followed by 'Celestica'. More information about the 'Doe Deer' single here.

Tracklisting :

1. Fainting Spells
2. Celestica
3. Doe Deer
4. Baptism
5. Year of Silence
6. Empathy
7. Suffocation
8. Violent Dreams
9. Vietnam
10. Birds
11. Pap Smear
12. Not In love
13. Intimate
14. I Am Made Of Chalk
Source : http://drownedinsound.com/news/4139685-crystal-castles-album-gets-title-cover-tracklist-release-date

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart announce new single

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have announced a new single, “Say No To Love”, which will be released on Slumberland on June 8. The B-side will be “Lost Saint”. The single will have its UK release on Fortuna Pop, but at the time of writing, we’re not sure if the two labels will release it on the same day. The Pains will go on a 2 week US tour this summer together with Surfer Blood and Hooray For Earth, both very good bands. The follow-up to their much acclaimed debut will be recorded soon after the tour. Kip from TPoBPaH says this about the sound of the single:

“In many ways, “Say No to Love” is pretty Pains-by-numbers. It’s got 3 chords, a fuzz pedal and lots of feelings. But instead of recording in the basement like we did for our album and both EPs, we recorded in an actual studio (Stratosphere Sound in New York). We tried hard to make it sound, as Peggy would say, “life affirming” and we’re pretty excited about how it turned out. We hope you are too.”

Oasis reveal 'Time Flies' singles collection cover art

Oasis have revealed the cover art for their forthcoming singles compilation album, 'Time Flies'. The cover art, pictured, features a photograph taken during one of the band's performances at Knebworth Park. They famously played the venue before a combined crowd of 250,000 on August 10 and 11 in 1996. 'Time Flies' will be released on June 14 and will feature 26 of the band's singles.


The tracklisting of 'Time Flies' is:

'Supersonic'
'Roll With It'
'Live Forever'
'Wonderwall'
'Stop Crying Your Heart Out'
'Cigarettes & Alcohol'
'Songbird'
'Don’t Look Back In Anger'
'The Hindu Times'
'Stand By Me'
'Lord Don’t Slow Me Down'
'Shakermaker'
'All Around The World'
'Some Might Say'
'The Importance of Being Idle'
'D’You Know What I Mean?'
'Lyla'
'Let There Be Love'
'Go Let It Out'
'Who Feels Love?'
'Little By Little'
'The Shock Of The Lightning'
'She Is Love'
'Whatever'
'I’m Outta Time'
'Falling Down'

David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Pay Tribute To Imelda Marcos?

'Here Lies Love' is a 22 song double-disc song cycle - improbably poignant, decidedly surreal, surprisingly thought provoking - about the rise and fall of the Philippines' notorious Imelda Marcos. It was conceived by David Byrne; composed by Byrne and British deejay/recording artist Fatboy Slim, a/k/a Norman Cook; and performed by a dream cast drawn from the worlds of indie rock, alt country, R&B and pop. Byrne's taste in collaborators is as imaginative as it is impeccable, including Cyndi Lauper (who recounts, to lighthearted disco beats, Imelda's courtship with Ferdinand Marcos), Steve Earle (as the power-hungry Ferdinand), Dap-Kings vocalist Sharon Jones (recalling Imelda's introduction into New York society) and Natalie Merchant (as spurned Imelda confidante Estrella, anticipating the onset of martial law). Along with vocals turns from such stars as Tori Amos and the B-52's Kate Pierson, Byrne works with rising indie rockers St. Vincent and My Brightest Diamond; New York chanteuses Nellie McKay and Martha Wainwright; and dance-music divas Roisin Murphy and Santigold. Byrne himself appears as the voice of imperialistic America on 'American Troglodyte' a send-up that wouldn't have seemed out of places in Talking Heads' True Stories. Byrne originally envisioned this as a musical theatre piece, to be mounted in disco and nightclub settings, reflecting the globe-trotting Marcos' taste for such velvet-roped spots as Studio 54 and Regine's. In 2006, he performed work-in-progress versions to enthusiastic audiences at New York City's Carnegie Hall and the Adelaide Festival in Australia. When more funding for a theatrical version proved elusive, While plans for a U.S. theatrical production continue to evolve, he has delivered this unique recording. 'Here Lies Love' has an effervescent disco feel, redolent of Fatboy Slim's own dance-floor anthems, with warm undercurrents of the Latin rhythms that have percolated through Byrne's recent solo work. The sunny arrangements act in counterpoint to the reality of the Marcos' increasingly repressive regime, reflecting the imagined inner life of the glamour-obsessed Imelda. Explains Byrne, 'For me, the darker side of the excesses are, for the most part, a matter of record. A lot of the audience is going to come with that knowledge already. What's more of a challenge is to get inside the head of the person who was behind all of that, and understand what made them tick.' Byrne offers no judgment and avoids the obvious - there is no mention of Imelda's infamous shoe collection. Many of Byrne's lyrics are, astonishingly enough, constructed from actual Imelda quotes, including the project's title, the words that Imelda, now returned to the Philippines from U.S.-assisted exile in Hawaii, would like to have inscribed on her gravestone. Byrne generously annotates each song in the CD booklet and illustrates the story with archival photos. In a detailed preface, he reveals what drew him to this subject and the bumpy route he took to launch the project and, ultimately, record this CD. The lavish booklet is indeed a page-turner, just as 'Here Lies Love' is a wonderfully old-school album that rewards start-to-finish listening. Once again, Byrne - beloved as musician, thinker and bicyclist-about-town - reveals the breadth and singularity of his vision.

Here Lies Love Tracklist

Disc 1:

1. "Here Lies Love" (ft. Florence Welch)

2. "Every Drop of Rain" (ft. Candie Payne & St. Vincent)

3. "You’ll Be Taken Care Of" (ft. Tori Amos)

4. "The Rose of Tacloban" (ft. Martha Wainwright)

5. "How Are You?" (ft. Nellie McKay)

6. "A Perfect Hand" (ft. Steve Earle)

7. "Eleven Days" (ft. Cyndi Lauper)

8. "When She Passed By" (ft. Allison Moorer)

9. "Walk Like a Woman" (ft. Charmaine Clamor)

10. "Don’t You Agree?" (ft. Róisín Murphy)

11. "Pretty Face" (ft. Camille)

12. "Ladies in Blue" (ft. Theresa Andersson)

Disc 2:


1. "Dancing Together" (ft. Sharon Jones)

2. "Men Will Do Anything" (ft. Alice Russel

3. "The Whole Man" (ft. Kate Pierson)

4. "Never So Big" (ft. Sia)

5. "Please Don’t" (ft. Santigold)

6. "American Troglodyte"

7. "Solano Avenue" (ft. Nicole Atkins)

8. "Order 1081" (ft. Natalie Merchant)

9. "Seven Years" (ft. Shara Worden)

10. "Why Don’t You Love Me?" (ft. Cyndi Lauper & Tori Amos)

Source : Amazon

Malcolm McLaren: R.I.P.

Malcolm McLaren, 22nd January 1946 – 8th April 2010. Malcolm McLaren is dead at 64, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Malcolm Mclaren was a raconteur, auteur, entrepreneur, provocateur, impresario, ambitious self-publicist, manager, artist, icon, conspirator, agitator and/or whatever else you want to call him. His legacy and its impact on both popular culture and 'alternative' speaks for itself, although he was often accused of over overstating his involvement in the birth of both punk and hip-hop.

Malcolm will be best remembered as the manager of the Sex Pistols but his career is littered with involvement behind the scenes and the creation of music, art, fashion and film. From his days working at Let It Rock! (later to be named SEX) with Vivienne Westwood, managing The New York Dolls and Bow Wow Wow. More recently he championed 8-bit chiptune (Wired feature by Malcolm McLaren), wrote the theme music for British Airways and composed 'About Her;' the lead track to Kill Bill 2 and co-produced the film adaptation of Fast Food Nation. He also worked with Spielberg on many of his big films and pulled out of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! at the 11th hour.

McLaren is survived by his son Joe Corre and his longtime partner Young Kim. Corre said that while funeral arrangements have yet to be made, McLaren had wanted to be buried in north London's stately Highgate cemetery, near where he was born. Malcolm died in New York (or Switzerland, according to AP) and his body is likely to return to the UK for his funeral.
Tributes:

"For me Malc was always entertaining, and I hope you remember that. Above all else he was an entertainer and i will miss him, and so should you" - Johnny Rotten

"When we were young and I fell in love with Malcolm, I thought he was beautiful and I still do. I thought he is a very charismatic, special and talented person. The thought of him dead is really something very sad." - Vivienne Westwood

"Without Malcolm McLaren there would not have been any British punk. He's one of the rare individuals who had a huge impact on the cultural and social life of this nation. He could be very charming, he could be very cruel, but he mattered and he put something together that was extraordinary. What he did with fashion and music was extraordinary. He was a revolutionary." - John Savage author of England's Dreaming

Thieves Like Us New Album "Again and Again"

Thieves Like Us are two Swedes and one American living in Berlin, Paris, and Milan. They are one of the only multi-nationals that won't exploit you. Mexicans love them. The French love them. Americans love them. The Japanese love them. Neither Andy Grier (vocals, guitar), Björn Berglund (synth), nor Pontus Berghe (percussion) live in their home countries, and none of them probably ever will again. They first met at a picnic in East Berlin in 2002. Since then, they have also lived together in London, Paris, and New York City. The trio can often been seen in and around night clubs, but they fit awkwardly there. Thieves Like Us were first discovered by the French imprint Kitsuné who released their single, "Drugs In My Body" in 2007. They make pop music with a vintage electronic feel. Many times it makes you dance. Other times it makes you feel strange and wonderful. Back in the day they probably would have signed a contract in blood with Factory Records. 2008's "Play Music", their first album, would definitely have fit the bill. BBC Music called it "consistently exciting ... a contender for electronic album of the year." A writer for the legendary entity Amoeba Music exclaimed: "I have managed to fall deeply in love with this band in a matter of weeks. It is getting to the point where I don't want to listen to anything else." They are just about to release their second album, "Again and Again", and continue their non-stop world tour.

Track list :

01 - Never Known Love
02 - Shyness
03 - Mercy
04 - One Night With You
05 - Silence
06 - Lover Lover
07 - Love Saves
08 - The Walk
09 - So Clear
10 - Forget Me Not

Bloc Party's Kele Okereke announces solo album details

Bloc Party's Kele Okereke has revealed details of his forthcoming debut solo album. The frontman, who records and performs solo under the name Kele, has named the album 'The Boxer' and will release it on June 21. A single, 'Tenderoni', is out on June 14. The album was produced mainly in New York with producer XXXchange. Kele told NME.COM that the record sees him embracing his interest in dance music. "I've been into clubbing for years," he explained. "I've said from the beginning I'm into dance, it gets me excited and I think this record is going to go some way to prove that to people, hopefully." For the full interview with Kele see the new issue of NME, out tomorrow.

The tracklisting of 'The Boxer' is:

'Walk Tall' 'On The Lam' 'Tenderoni' 'The Other Side' 'Everything You Wanted' 'New Rules' 'Unholy Thoughts' 'Rise' 'All The Things I Could Never Say' 'Yesterday's Gone'

Bloc Party are currently on haitus .

Band Of Horses "Compliments" Music Video

The first video from Band of Horses' upcoming album Infinite Arms.

The School "Is He Really Coming Home?"

The School's latest music video Is He Really Coming Home? from their debut CD Loveless Unbeliever.

These New Puritans "Attack MUsic"

Attack Music is the latest single to be released from These New Puritans latest album Hidden.

LCD Soundsystem "Drunk Girls"

Parlophone has uploaded an official version of the new LCD Soundsystem track on their YouTube channel. It's called Drunk Girls, taken from his upcoming album.

Delorean To Release "Subiza" Album In June

Last year, the sungazing Barcelona synthpop band Delorean landed themselves in our Best New Music section on the strength of their lush, gorgeous Ayrton Senna EP. This year, they are following it up with a full-length album called Subiza. Matador sub-label True Panther will release Subiza on June 8. The band recorded the LP in the Basque town of Subiza, so that's where the title comes from. Barcelona scene homies like John Talabot helped out, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs/TV on the Radio engineer Chris Coady mixed the album. Below, you'll find the album's tracklist. At the moment, the band is on tour in North America, opening for Miike Snow.

Subiza Tracklist :
1. Stay Close
2. Real Love
3. Endless Sunset
4. Grow
5. Simple Graces
6. Infinite Desert
7. Come Wander
8. Warmer Places
9. It's All Ours

Foals "This Orient" Music Video

Foals have made their new video for forthcoming single 'This Orient'.

The band had previously released track 'Spanish Sahara' as a teaser from their second album 'Total Life Forever', which is released on May 10.

The clip was filmed earlier this month with director Dave Ma - who was worked with the likes of The Horrors and Delphic along with Foals before - in east London.

"This Saturday gone we filmed the video for the first proper single from the new record," singer Yannis Philippakis explained of the track that is released on May 3. "It was, I think, the smoothest and least stressful shoot that we've been involved in so far."

He added: "There was even a time for an hour long lunch break, apparently because some of the technical crew were members of a union - a step towards what I can only assume is some kind of a tasty socialist utopia, where everyone enjoys free meatballs and actually gets paid for the 16-hour days they work."

Source : NME

Watch the video in full on the right now.

Cats On Fire with compilation of older songs

Cats on fire will release “Dealing In Antiques”, a compilation of old songs on Johanna Kustannus, 12th May 2010.
This is what Cats on fire’s Mattias Björkas says about the compilation: ”Dealing in Antiques is a comprehensive collection of Cats on fire songs of various origins. Some of them were brought down from the attic, and some of them up from the cellar. Some of them were simply brought forward to a more prominent place in the house. Some of them were polished a bit, but I have to say, there’s no use in polishing something that wasn’t shining in the first place. We never really had the means to make anything shine. But they were good songs. And they were ours.* *Except for the big, stolen mahogany piece in the middle.” As well as old material that has been released on various EP’s and singles, two new tracks appear on the collection, the download only track from last year ,“The Hague”, and Cats on fire’s version of White Town’s “Your Woman”.

Source : Eardrums

Here's Cats On Fire's rendition of Your Woman.

Teenage Fanclub confirm release date for Shadows

It's been a fair ol' while since Teenage Fanclub started work on their ninth studio album, Shadows. Over 18 months, in fact. They have revealed today, however, that the record will finally be released on May 31 through the band's PeMa label, and Merge in North America, where the release date is June 1. Brilliant stuff. We hope. It's their first record since 2005's Man Made, which made it to #34 in the UK album charts, man! Tracklisting below.

1. Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything
2. Baby Lee
3. The Fall
4. Into The City
5. Dark Clouds
6. The Past
7. Shock And Awe
8. When I Still Have Thee
9. Live With The Seasons
10. Sweet Days Waiting
11. The Back Of My Mind
12. Today Never Ends

Source : Drownedinsound

The Pipettes To Release New Album

British girl group The Pipettes, now a duo after going through several lineup shakeups, release their second album since 2006 debut We Are the Pipettes. The new album is titled Earth Vs The Pipettes.

Tracklist:

1 Call Me
2 Ain't No Talking
3 Thank You
4 I Need a Little Time
5 History
6 I Always Planned to Stay
7 Stop the Music
8 I Vibe You
9 Our Love Was Saved by Spacemen
10 Finding My Way
11 Captain Rhythm
12 From Today

Here's the music video of the single Our Love Was Saved By Spacemen:

Hot Chip's Latest Music Video "I Feel Better"

Here's the official music video of their second single from the "One Life Stand" album.

Veronica Falls

Hometown: London. The lineup: Roxanne (vocals, guitar), Marion (bass), Patrick (drums), James (guitar).

The background: It's weird to think that such a quintessentially British sound – the mid-1980s indie jangle of the C86 "anorak" bands – is now becoming so synonymous with New York acts, such as Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts and Pain, that anyone making that style of music today is going to seem to be in hock to the Americans. Cast a cursory ear over what Veronica Falls are doing and you might think, "Uh-oh, here come the first post-Drums band from these shores." Significantly, their debut single Found Love In A Graveyard – finally getting a release on Trouble Records, who put out records by Crystal Castles and Le Volume Courbe among others – was first issued by a US label. In fact, Veronica Falls are one of the British groups starting a process of reclamation. They actually hail from one of the original homes of this sort of twee shambles, Scotland – Glasgow, to be precise – where the Pastels came from. Funnily enough, Roxanne from Veronica Falls once worked in Glasgow coffee/music shop Monorail, in which the Pastels are apparently partners. Even funnier is that the C86 approach – based on a series of bands collected together on a cassette given away free (via coupons) with the NME in 1986 with a similar sound, if not ethos, that John Peel termed "shambling" – is proving so irresistible for today's generation. To be honest, we're bigger fans of the NME's C81 cassette that preceded it, and of the bands – Orange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera – that featured on it. They had a more original vision and a more multi-dimensional sound. In a way it was one specific Orange Juice lyric, from Simply Thrilled Honey – "worldliness must keep apart from me" – that provided the C86 bands with their entire raison d'etre, with its intimations of preserving well into adulthood the innocence and purity-of-heart of adolescence. But Orange Juice, albeit in their own amateurish way, were trying to forge a new formula out of Velvets drone-rock and Byrdsian pop, Philly soul and NYC disco, and their glad-to-be-feyness was never less than arch and multi-layered. Veronica Falls are a much straighter proposition than that. They're a ramshackle four-piece (bassist Marion learned to play in a month) offering garage band versions of 1960s pop romance. Starry Eyes is so earnest in its adoration ("Starry eyes, what can I do for your attention?") it could be a doo wop ballad. The single, Found Love In A Graveyard, tries to inject some edge into proceedings – it's about falling in love with a ghost – but the pallid, jejune female vocals and timid guitar strum make it sound like a kindergarten Siouxsie & the Banshees. Stephen is like the Pixies' Gigantic, only neutered and bled of all its original feral force. Beachy Head is also about looking back ("I'm gonna miss you"), this time at a place not a person, but it does at least have some oomph. On the whole, though, we'd say the coals won't be coming home to Newcastle just yet.

The buzz: "They're anything but revisionist in their approach. Theirs is a sound that is undoubtedly new, fresh and completely their own."

What to buy: Debut single Found Love In A Graveyard b/w Stephen is out now on Trouble.

File next to: The Pastels, Shop Assistants, Vivian Girls, Comet Gain.

Source : The Guardian

The School Release Debut CD "Loveless Unbeliever"

For years, all the fans of the best pop waited anxiously for that group that was going to occupy the space left between The Pipettes and Belle & Sebastian, heirs of the best pop from the sixties (The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Supremes) and the best Scottish pop (Camera Obscura, BMX Bandits). But it’s finally here, “Loveless Unbeliever”, the debut album of The School. And the Cardiff band, after the singles “Let It Slip” and “All I Wanna Do”, with which they conquered the critics and the public half the world over, in addition to creating uncommonly high expectations, have shown us that they’re the perfect spearhead of a sound that, even today, continues to thrill us. Once again with the production of Ian Catt (Saint Etienne, Trembling Blue Stars, The Field Mice, Shampoo, The Boo Radleys), they demonstrate their incredible ability with melodies and arrangements, releasing an album with more gems than a jewelry store, like “Valentine”, “Is He Really Coming Home”, “I Want You Back” and “Hoping and Praying”, songs that are uncontestable candidates to remain perennially in our stereos.


TRACKLISTING

1. Let It Slip
2. Is He Really Coming Home?
3. Valentine
4. I Want You Back
5. Is It True?
6. I Love Everything
7. Can't Understand
8. The One Who Left Me
9. Hoping and Praying
10. Summer's Here
11. Shoulder
12. All I Wanna Do
13. I Don't Believe in Love

James Yuill Returns With New Album "Movement In A Storm" In May

Electronic troubadour James Yuill is to return with his second album on May 21st. Some artists focus on pastoral songwriting, others focus on experimental electronic. Poles apart? Don't be so sure. James Yuill is a London songwriter whose debut album 'Turning Down Water For Air' proved that the acoustic guitar and the laptop are nothing but the same thing. Signed to Moshi Moshi, his blend of electronics and lilting songcraft turned the London singer into a cult sensation. Since then, James Yuill has toured continually whilst also becoming a notable remixer. Taking time out to focus on his own music, the songwriter re-worked several tracks into the 'Earth / Fire' EPs last year. Showcasing the two separate aspects to his songwriting, it allowed the London star to focus on his musical technique. Inspired, it seems that James Yuill went straight back into the studio to complete his second album. Due for release on May 21st, 'Movement In A Storm' is a stunning return from James Yuill. Issuing a statement to fans, the London singer seemed to be delighted with the results of recent recording sessions. "I'm so excited about the new album" he revealed. "Like all artists know It's a great (and frightening) feeling to issue new material out into the public domain." "I've tried to maintain the acoustic elements of the last record whilst advancing the electronic production. For example there are tracks that range from dance and glitchy electronica right the way through to an acoustic guitar instrumental. I hope people like it. " James Yuill is set to release 'Movement In A Storm' on May 12th.

Here's an audio clip of the lead track 'Give You Away'.

The Drums Release New Single 'Best Friend'

Hotly tipped American newcomers The Drums have spoken about their upcoming single 'Best Friend'. Moving from their native Florida to New York, The Drums swapped sunshine for music industry credentials. Since settling in the Big Apple the band haven't looked back, causing huge ripples across the Atlantic. Debut EP 'Summertime' was released last year and seemed to capture the youthful zest which a dose of sunshine brings. Since then, The Drums have become the names to drop after gaining entry to the BBC's Sound Of 2010 poll. Returning to the UK for a series of tour dates, The Drums have now confirmed details of a new single. 'Best Friend' is due for release on April 5th and in a new interview the band have revealed the story behind the song. Speaking to the NME singer Jonathan Pierce revealed that the track is an ode from one member of the group to another. "'Best Friend' is a special song to us," he claimed. "It is my favourite song that we have. It's the first song we wrote when starting the band and to write it with my closest friend, Jacob, makes it all the more sentimental for me." Continuing, Pierce revealed that he decided to put a twist on the tale and pretend that his band mate had died. "Rather than simply singing about our friendship, we decided to pretend Jacob died, and the song became much more beautiful to us," he said. "Jacob feels like he died a long time ago anyways. His soul belongs to hell." The Drums are set to release 'Best Friend' on April 5th.

Source : Clashmusic.com

Kisses

Kisses are Jesse Kivel (vocals) and Zinzi Edmundson (keyboards). Just behind Gorillaz, Foals and RJD2 in a list of the most blogged-about current acts, according to the Hype Machine, are Kisses, a new duo from Los Angeles who specialise in a sort of dreamy, wistful disco with a hint of 70s Guilty Pleasures about it – think Oh Lori by Alessi Brothers worked up into a high gloss by Gino Soccio. The name is revealing – Kisses. It's a reminder that, while funk was about sweat and sex, disco was about yearning and romance, ie ripe for the C86 treatment. Basically, if Summer Camp suddenly decided to pay tribute in song to Euro disco producer Cerrone, it would sound a bit like Bermuda, the debut single by Kisses. It's a lovely piece of sunny but sad dance music that reminds us of Everyday, the orgasmically forlorn French disco-ish track on Avalanches' 2001 EP, Since I Left You. The way that Jesse Kivel sings has invited comparisons to Jens Lekman, but the song – all charmingly cheesy keyboards, plaintive minor chords, drum machine clatter and lyrics about love not working out – also makes us think of Bernard Sumner jamming with Belle and Sebastian on the melancholy Balearica of Technique, or New Order when they went all Italian disco on The Perfect Kiss. Jesse Kivel is, with his brother, part of a Vampire Weekend-ish LA band called Princeton who we wrote about before Christmas. Now, he's one half of Kisses with his girlfriend Zinzi Edmundson, a writer and fashion blogger. They're a pop duo as well as something of a journalist tag-team – Kivel is a travel writer, and Bermuda was apparently written as a way of capturing the feeling of freedom that results from escape to far-flung destinations and the simultaneous sense of isolation and distance from loved ones and home. We're delighted to report that Bermuda is no fluke. Although they've only got a one-off deal to release the single with the superb Transparent label – home of Washed Out, Perfume Genius, Yuck and Active Child (the latter, keeping it in the family, have remixed Bermuda) – they've already assembled a debut album's worth of material, and it's titled (The Heart of the Night Life, which sounds like a Pet Shop Boys song waiting to happen) and ready to go, as and when they get signed, which we're presuming won't be long. There's one track called Kisses – come on, even Chic had their Chic Cheer – which proves the scintillating sorrowfulness of Bermuda was no accident. And there's another called People Can Do the Most Amazing Things that amps up the lugubriousness of Bermuda and puts the doleful into disco – if New Order's Movement had been produced by Moroder not Martin Hannett ...

Source : The Guardian

Here's a audio clip of their Bermuda 7" :

Tracey Thorn Releases New Album 'Love and Its Opposite' in May

Third solo album from former Everything But the Girl singer Tracey Thorn. Produced by Ewan Pearson. Features a duet with Jens Lekman on a cover of Lee Hazlewood's "Come on Home to Me", as well as appearances from Cortney Tidwell and members of Hot Chip and the Invisible.

Tracklist:

1 Oh, the Divorces!
2 Long White Dress
3 Hormones
4 Kentish Town
5 Why Does the Wind?
6 You Are a Lover
7 Singles Bar
8 Come on Home to Me
9 Late in the Afternoon
10 Swimming

Here's the audio clip of first single Oh, The Divorces!

Jens Lekman Contributes To Tracey Thorn’s New Album

Jens Lekman guests on Tracey Thorn’s new solo record Love And It’s Opposite (out May 17) covering Lee Hazelwood’s “Come on Home to Me.” The album’s first single “Oh, The Divorces”, Tracey sings “Oh Jens, oh Jens/ Your songs seem to look through a different lens/ You’re still so young/ Love ends just as easy it’s begun.” The album also features guest appearances by members of Hot Chip and Cortney Tidwell. This is Tracey’s third solo record since her days in Everything But The Girl. Coincidentally, Everything But The Girl’s first single way back in 1982 was a cover of Cole Porter’s song “Night And Day.” Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, and Secretly Canadian is of course based in Bloomington, Indiana. So while Jens may be from Sweden, and Tracey from England, it all comes back to Indiana. Six degrees of Indiana, people.

Stars Return With New Album

We can add another name to the list of big indie bands releasing new albums this spring: Stars. The arch, dramatic Canadian indie poppers will release The Five Ghosts, their fifth studio album, on June 22. This will be the first Stars album since 2007's In Our Bedroom After the War, and it'll also be the first release on the band's own new label Soft Revolution, which will be licensed outside Canada via Vagrant. All five members of the band contributed songwriting to the album, and Broken Social Scene/Apostle of Hustle member Andrew Whiteman makes a guest appearance. The first single, "Fixed", features lead vocals from Stars co-leader Amy Millan. In a statement, Millan says, "We have never written an album with this much cohesion and unity. It is the first time we've had the luxury of being together in a huge room writing songs off the floor." Before the album drops, the band will tour clubs playing The Five Ghosts in its entirety, as well as fan-chosen old jams "Take Me to the Riot", "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", and "Ageless Beauty". They haven't announced any of their dates yet, so keep an eye out. Below, you'll find the new joint's tracklist and a behind the scenes making-of video:

The Five Ghosts Tracklist :

1. Dead Hearts
2. Wasted Daylight
3. I Died So I Could Haunt You
4. Fixed
5. We Don't Want Your Body
6. He Dreams He's Awake
7. Never Been Good With Change
8. The Passenger
9. The Last Song Ever Written
10. How Much More
11. Winter Bones

Source : Pitchfork

The National Release "High Violet" Album This May

Drip-by-drip new information emerges about The National's new album, the follow-up to 2007's astounding Boxer. Earlier in the year they told us it'd be out in May on 4AD, but now the release date and title have been revealed, along with a website for the record. It's called High Violet, and will be out on May 11 in the US, which will probably mean a May 10 release date in the UK, maybe a bit earlier, maybe a bit later. The website for the album is at highviolet.com and features a few snaps, presumably taken from their time in the studio. Not much else, though.

Source : Drownedinsound

Fur Releases Witches Album

FUR (aka Bryce Isbell) was raised in Denver, CO and OC, CA. Isbell is currently based out of Denton, Texas. Witches will be Isbell’s third release under the moniker FUR. FUR’s sound has been described as “like nothing else I’ve ever listened to”, “mutant tapeloop disco”, “trippy”, “ethereal and psychedelic electronic music”, “beyond beautiful”, “hauntological”.

Tracklist:

1. Faces
2. Witches
3. Friends of Friends
4. Lackadaisical
5. Black Castles
6. Swimming
7. Haunted
8. Blood
9. Sleep
10. Tunnels
11. Cheer Fool

"...a thing of cold and enigmatic beauty"
-20 Jazz Funk Greats

"...sounds like boards of Canada communicating with spaceships...retrofuturist synths, drum machines, and some oddball samples..."
-Pitchfork

Belle and Sebastian Hit the Studio

Belle and Sebastian are back! After taking a few years off while Stuart Murdoch released his God Help the Girl project, the Scottish indie leading lights have returned to the studio and the stage. (Via Exclaim!/TwentyFourBit.) In an email sent out to their mailing list today, the band writes that they have been writing new songs in Glasgow recently and are about to head to Los Angeles to record a new album.

Source : http://pitchfork.com/news/38094-belle-and-sebastian-hit-the-studio-schedule-festival-dates/

Lightspeed Champion "Marlene" Music Video

Lightspeed Champion's latest album Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You. The first single is Marlene. Here's the videoclip.

Foals' "Spanish Sahara" Viral Video

jj "Let Go" Music Video

‘Let Go’ is featured on jj’s upcoming second album ‘jj n° 3′, which drops March 8th on Secretly Canadian.

The Lodger New Album & Single

The Lodger are to release third album and follow-up to 2008's 'Life Is Sweet', 'Flashbacks' via their own This Is Fake DIY Records next month. 'Flashbacks', produced by Richard Formby (who also worked on Wild Beasts' latest opus), is released on 26th April, with the first single from the record, 'Have a Little Faith in People', out earlier, on 5th April.

Lindstrøm & Christabelle "Real Life Is No Cool" Album Review

By Svein Brunstad

The Norwegian maestro of disco, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, teams up again with Christabelle (also known as Solale), and together they craft a masterful 10-song pop album. They have worked together since 2001, and begun working on the album before 2008’s epic Where You Go I Go To. Even though Lindstrøm is famous for his retro futuristic space disco, it never sounds like he’s working within a format. Real Life Is No Cool lacks the long masturbatory jams, and is tighter and more formal than his last few releases. The album is filled with new-wave pop melodies and piano house keys. It’s sharp and chunky with heavy stomping basslines and wobbly arpeggiated synths. Wrapped in a warm and organic analog production, it’s as dreamy as its title suggests. Christabelle has a sexy and whispering voice, and when she sings on top of Lindstrøm’s production, it sounds like they’re having a cosmic jam. Among the many stand-out tracks is “Keep it Up,” which has an ’80s Prince and Peter Gabriel sound. “Baby Can’t Stop” should be known to most blog hunters out there in various remixes, but the original is an amazing pop song which echoes Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” and Miami Sound Machine’s “Rhythm is Gonna Get You.” “Let’s Practice” is Christabelle and Lindstrøm’s Moroder/Summer moment, and never has such a reference sounded so good. With “Never Say Never” they also make room for a psychedelic trip, to a point where you check if there’s something wrong with your stereo. Like Chromeo, Lindstrøm masters ’80s funk and it’s often tongue-in-cheek. But it never sounds ironic. An album packed with so many references, could be used as a curriculum for modern disco music. This is easily an early contender for the best album of 2010, and one of the best electronic albums ever to come out of Scandinavia.

Source : http://www.urb.com/2010/01/29/32807

Josh Rouse Releases New CD "El Turista"

On February 16, singer/songwriter Josh Rouse will release El Turista, an album that finds him singing originals and covers in English and Spanish. The record draws on music from Cuba, Brazil, Spain, Venezuela, and more, and will be released on Rouse’s own Bedroom Classics label via Nettwerk. According to a press release: “Rouse mingles original tunes about life in Spain – and away from it – with a Civil War-era traditional American song (’Cotton Eye Joe’), that he heard Nina Simone sing, and two songs popularized by Bola de Nieve, considered ‘the Louis Armstrong of Cuba.’” “I know it’s kind of funny, this Midwestern guy doing Brazilian songs in Spanish,” says Rouse, who was born and raised in Paxton, Nebraska. He describes one track, the instrumental “Bienvenido,” as “originally sound[ing] like Nick Drake, but turned into Vince-Guaraldi-on-the-Mediterranean.” El Turista is the followup to 2007’s critically acclaimed Country Mouse, City Mouse. A Josh Rouse anthology, The Best of the Rykodisc Years, was released in 2008. Rouse will launch a U.S. tour in support of El Turista, with dates to be announced soon. Fans can get a sneak peak of the album by downloading the digital-only EP Valenca, which is out now. The new EP features the title track (which will also appear on the album), two out-takes from the album sessions (”Magdalena” and “Easy Street”) and an instrumental “Fiesta Morena” (pulled from a recent update on his Bedroom Classics Closet Archives site). El Turista Track List: 1. Bienvenido 2. Duerme 3. Lemon Tree 4. Sweet Elaine 5. Mesie Julian 6. I Will Live On Islands 7. Valencia 8. Cotton Eye Joe 9. Las Voces 10. Don’t Act Tough

Source : http://www.americansongwriter.com/2009/10/josh-rouse-gets-bilingual-on-el-turista

Here's the video clip of the current single Valencia and also an old track Quiet Town from Subtitulo album

LoneLady "Nerve Up" Album Review on NME

by John Doran

There isn’t just one reason why Manchester has been the UK’s premier city for producing killer pop and rock music for the last 35 years. Its strong sense of civic pride, ever-thriving club scene and sharp sense of self-awareness have been bolstered by its essential involvement in post-punk, indie, acid house and Britpop over the years. And while the ties that bind Delphic’s limpid house/minimal rock hybrid to the Afrobeat/ACR-like funk of Egyptian hip hop to the steady-as-she-goes indie of The Courteeners are merely conceptual, it is good to see focus return to the UK’s new music foundry again.

Another act who should have her name shouted from the top of the Arndale Centre but has no stylistic links to ‘New Manchester’ as such, is LoneLady. Known to her family as Julie Campbell, she was born on Manchester’s glamorously unglamorous Eastern Axis toward Prestwich and Salford (the birth corridor of The Fall and Joy Division), but despite London-centric taste-makers declaring the time right and the random act of her birth declaring the place right, she is defiantly her own woman. She even seems slightly at odds to her record label Warp; not, as has been suggested, because she plays guitar (the Sheffield label has long been home to acts such as and Gravenhurst) or because she’s a girl (Mira Calix and Leila might have something to say about this), but because she has such a peculiarly American sound.

Brutalist guitar plucking, stripped of nearly all effects, combined with odd staccato bursts of percussion and unobtrusively simple drum lines is all LoneLady (as the name suggests) needs by way of accompaniment. The nakedness of the music suggests a confessional nature, an intimacy that may make some feel uncomfortable. Yet ‘If Not Now’ and ‘Intuition’ are not the uncomfortable, accusatory howl of Hole but the tense, nuanced, psychological drama of 4AD art rockers Throwing Muses. Elsewhere the rock’n’soulfulness of ‘Early The Haste Comes’ combines with a loose disco backline that resembles pre-fame Gossip.

This is not to say that there isn’t a link to Mancunia’s musical past in LoneLady’s output. If she inhabits the same sphere of any other performer from those rainy climes, it is that of Linder Sterling, the post-punk musician and artist who fronted the underrated Ludus. Sterling, who not only designed the iconic cover to ‘Orgasm Addict’ by the Buzzcocks but has the pleasure of being Morrissey’s best friend, combined glass-cold vocals with a coolly analytical and unromantic lyrical style over jerky new wave guitars in a similar way. But as much as Ludus may have been an influence, we should celebrate LoneLady as the arrival of a fresh and invigorating voice whose talent transcends time and place and influence.

Source : http://www.nme.com/reviews/lonelady/11061

Delphic "Acolyte" Album Review on NME

by John Doran

The road to hell is lined with the burnt-out husks of groups who tried to fuse rock and dance. This alchemist’s quest has thrown up some atrocities over the last 20-odd years – older readers will shake their heads sorrowfully when the name of is mentioned, and none but the most mentally impaired will want to rush to the defence of Hadouken!. The main problem has been an inability of certain bands to see going dance as anything more complex than whacking a massive breakbeat and a fat acid bassline on to a guitar track. The bottom line is this: rock groups who treat house music as a wacky cousin are always destined to fumble the ball when they attempt to “go dance”. So perhaps it’s inevitable that historically some of the most satisfying experiments in this field have come from the other side of the tracks, as it were; from Underworld incorporating Karl Hyde’s Dylan-esque lyrics and fluid acid guitar to The Chemical Brothers’ obvious debt to John Bonham. Taking close note of this have been Delphic, who have avoided all the hallmarks of a cheesy crossover album and produced a cohesive and impressive debut. ‘Doubt’ is one of many highlights applying the light touch of Underworld circa 1996 to the kind of chiming New Order guitar work that wouldn’t be out of place on ‘Technique’, and the track ‘Halcyon’ pays obvious homage to rave pioneers Orbital. While there are a couple of tracks here that are close to filler, Delphic have proved that they are adept at This Kind Of Thing, which is cause for celebration alone.

Source : http://www.nme.com/reviews/delphic--2/11002