Me Old Mate

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Bye Bye Bayou by LCD Soundsystem

Bye Bye Bayou is LCD’s first single in over a year. Featuring the smooth beats we have come to expect from Mr. James Murphy, this single is actually a Suicide cover. Suicide were an influential 80’s No Wave duo, also from New York. This track is more toned down and minimalist than what many Sound of Silver fans will be used to, but its no less danceable and offers a peak into the third and possibly final LCD Soundsystem LP.

(10 plays)

#

Air France remixes St Etienne

The new Air France remix of Spring by St Etienne is available to listen here. Taken from this limited run 12”. Spring is one of many beautiful tracks off of St Etienne’s 1991 debut, Foxbase Alpha and this remix is a wonderful, distinctively Air France reinvention.

#

The Drums are a four-piece from Brooklyn. This song is called Lets Go Surfing. Its highly infectious. It has quite a dandy video too, see.

#

Daytrotter - The Tallest Man on Earth

The Tallest Man on Earth recently recorded a daytrotter session and the results are typically brilliant! The session includes three songs from the wonderful Shallow Grave, and one unreleased track, I Want You. Please, do enjoy.

#

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Higher Than The Stars EP
The Pains’, with this latest EP, consolidate their position as one of the best bands to emerge in 2k9. Doing what they do best, Higher Than The Stars delivers four wonderfully breezy pop songs to peruse over, lust over, and comprehend your place in the universe. Although similar in execution, these new tracks seem distinctively more angst-ridden to those released earlier this year on their self-titled debut, but where many fail to emulate a ‘Smiths-esque’ sound, The Pains’ triumph in making it their own. Uploaded for your listening pleasure is the track, Falling Over. Also featured on the EP is a St Etienne remix of the title track; a worthy inclusion.

(15 plays)

#

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

From The Vault #2

La Plus Belle Pour Aller Danser by Sylvie Vartan

This is a really pretty song by one of the more well known yé-yé girls. Sylvie’s wonderfully controlled voice sings of dreaming to be The Most Beautiful to go Dancing. It’s splendid nostalgic pop thats fun for the whole family. For the lads reading, I would recommend playing it to that special lass you are enamoured with. It will make you look cultured and romantic, if not a little too well knowledged on French female pop singers from the 1960’s.

(22 plays)

#

Muse's, The Resistance

Its hard to take Muse’s latest album seriously. Sure, if you are one of the many die hard fans, you are going to lap this shit up and have potentially whizzed your pants out of sheer excitement after reading the title of this post. I hate to disappoint you, but this latest effort by the English rockers sounds like a parody of the predictable image they have propagated over the last fifteen years. Don’t get me wrong, that image is very successful and downright enjoyable to experience. Hell, I rate a Muse set I caught at a festival a couple of years back, as up there with some of the finest I’ve seen, if only for shear musicianship and stagecraft.

But Muse, the success of that image relies heavily on the expectation of reinvention. What we see in The Resistance is everything we’ve already heard before, emphasised to a level we have never seen before. The result is a caricature, and it reminds me of a little band we all know that starts with the letter N and ends with the letters ickelback. Sorry Muse, The Resistance just doesn’t cut it.

#

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Islands by The xx

Its official. I am joining the xx bandwagon. These talented young folk from London are ‘so hot right now’ in the blogosphere. Its breathless, stripped-down indie pop that begs to be listened to over…and over again. This is a great example of a new band that deserves the hype that they are receiving for they play a brand of music that isn’t just another carbon copy of ‘everything-we’ve-already-heard-that-has-proved-to-sell-records-to-cashed-up-indie-kids’. The xx’s debut, xx is out now. Enjoy a nice change.

(24 plays)

#

Boat Club are living the dream. Playing shows on a boat on a beautiful German summer’s day. Sure there is this underlying, pretentious Mansard Roof video vibe going on with the coupling of boat and preppy attire, but its the sort of imagery that is difficult to feel vehement about. Its pure bliss, sunshine and good times.

Boat Club hail from Gothenburg, SE. Their debut EP, Caught The Breeze is available from the Luxury label site

#

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

From The Vault #1
Cigarettes and Coffee by Otis Redding

Sure it might be a little cliché to pick a song like Cigarettes and Coffee for the inaugural From The Vault but its hard to ignore the utter pure emotion evoked by Otis’ amazing, famously powerful vocals. Funnily enough, it’s a perfectly appropriate song for melancholic cigarettes and coffee at 3am. It’s pleading and frank. You can almost believe from this track alone, that Otis’ felt more in his tragically short life than most of us ever will.

(12 plays)

#