Shortest Concert Ever

Oh Jack and Meg, those crazy brother and sister/ex-husband and wife/whatever the hell their relationship is these days. They played a secret show the other day, which consisted entirely of one note. Rock stars these days…I ask ya…

Mercury Prize

So the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize Album of the Year has been announced. From the official website:

• Amy Winehouse – Back To Black  
• Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
• Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford – Basquiat Strings
• Bat For Lashes – Fur and Gold
• Dizzee Rascal – Maths and English
• Fionn Regan – The End Of History
• Jamie T – Panic Prevention
• Klaxons – Myths Of The Near Future
• Maps - We Can Create
• New Young Pony Club – Fantastic Playroom
• The View – Hats Off to the Buskers
• The Young Knives – Voices of Animals and Men

Make of it what you will.

Scrobbling

Are you a scrobbler? Do you use last.fm? Do you have an iPod? Do you find it really annoying that last.fm only scrobbles tunes you play on your computer and not tunes you play on your iPod? Yeah me too…

There is a solution. It’s a free app called Scrobblepod which scrobbles your iPod plays every time you plug it in. I’ve been using it for a few days and it works like a dream. Unfortunately, it’s only for Mac OS X at the moment, but I’m sure there’s a Windows equivalent out there somewhere.

Happy scrobbling!

Click

Two Lads From Belfast

Finally! Oppenheimer have released an album! I’ve spent far too long desperately clinging to my Breakfast In NYC 7″, and my iPod was getting kinda desperate for some bouncy electro-pop Oppenheimer genius. So buy this album for those occasions when you’re having a shitty day and your walking home in the rain; when you’re listening to Oppenheimer cranked up full, it’s always summer.

Check out their MySpace and buy the album dammit!

What The Fuck?

Did anyone see The Police on Live Earth performing Message In A Bottle? Was anyone else enjoying it before Kanye Wast came out and raped the song? Does anyone know who exactly thought that it would be a good idea? Does anyone else think that Kanye West went on stage with the intention of “freestyling” only to draw a complete blank? Does anyone else think that Kanye West had absolutely no business being on stage with The Police in the first place? Is anyone else sick of all these questions and just wants to see the video?

Fine…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9eDrsqCYCQ

Effort

You have no idea how long it took me to get those stripes up there just right.

Brutal Art

Or Art Brut. I don’t exactly know what their name means but they play some cracking tunes, and their new album “It’s A Bit Complicated” is absolutely no exception. For anyone who liked their debut “Bang Bang Rock And Roll”, IABC is a must. Darker, weirder, funnier and louder than their last offering, your gonna find yourself singing (or just….talking) along with most of the tracks. There are some definite stand out singles in the bunch (Pump Up The Volume, Direct Hit and Blame It On The Trains are some of my favourites) but the whole lot is pure turn-it-on-and-turn-it-up pop music decadence.

Art Brut’s homepage is here and their MySpace is here.

Also, here’s Eddie and Jasper rockin’ it to the Venga Boys:

Bat For Lashes

While perusing the video page of Digg this evening I stumbled upon a video for a song called “Whats A Girl To Do” by someone called Bat For Lashes. Normally, I get bored with videos after 30 seconds or so, but this one…this one was different. It looked like it belonged in Donnie Darko or some other suitably eccentric indie cult flick. And the song….the song was fantastic.

So after a few brief clicks, I find myself on Bat For Lashes MySpace intently listening to the songs there. They were simply breathtaking. She’s Imogen Heap, she’s Regina Spektor, she’s Joanna Newsome, she’s CocoRosie, all in a package that looks like it’s been wrapped by The Brothers Grimm (and I don’t mean the crappy 2005 movie with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger). I’m going to buy the album tomorrow and I’ve no doubt it’ll be on heavy rotation for quite some time.

Take a gander at her MySpace here, and why not take a peek at the video for upcoming single “Whats A Girl To Do” (set for release on July 9th) over yonder at YouTube.

Garden Party

I was lucky enough to attend Garden Party yesterday and got to see some great acts, many of which I’d never seen before. I was bopping away in the sweltering heat to the likes of Les Bien (with a full band I’ll have you know), Vitalic, Hot Chip, and the awe-inspiringly fantastic (or should I say fabulous?) Pet Shop Boys. Aside from the music there are the beautifully picturesque gardens to enjoy with so many little corners that you could almost spend half the day ’splorin and finding yet another tucked away marquee and relaxing to some deliciously laid back tunes.

The crowd was wonderful, the weather was perfect, the music was amazing. All in all I couldn’t have asked for more. I definitely recommend it for next year.

Bright Eyes: “Cassadaga”

Cassadaga is a little community in Florida which is famed for its psychic energy and is known as the “Psychic Center of the World”. For reasons presently beyond my comprehension, Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst) has decided to name his newest album after the center of possibly-fictional energies. Combine this with the constant religious imagery which pops up, one could be forgiven for hypothesizing that Conor is ready to believe nearly anything.

 

Regardless of this, the dude sounds like he’s been through some shit and the reason I count myself amongst his fans is that there has always been a decisive optimism underpinning his lyrics. He manages to reconcile the seemingly mutually exclusive facts that things suck, but it’s still worth it. And although religion and mysticism play their part in this fragile hopefulness, they don’t necessarily have to be responsible for it.

The whole record is larger-sounding than previous offerings, which is a direction many of the “singer/songwriter” ilk seem to be heading these day. The good thing about Cassadaga is that instead of drowning out the unpolished charm present in earlier records, it still feels intimate and personal.

Anyway, I liked it and am recommending it. Have a listen:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/brighteyes
Or you can buy it here.