Grandaddy are to release a deluxe edition of their seminal album The Software Slump.
Originally released in 2000, the album’s new edition will feature two discs. Disc One is the original album as everyone knows and loves it.
Disc Two features non album singles, B-Sides, EP tracks and two unreleased demos – Beautiful Ground and Hewlett’s Daughter – and even the original introduction to He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot, which was dropped before release.
With so many extras, this is no ordinary re-issue, so get on board. It is released on Universal/V2 on August 22nd.
Foreign Beggars will be playing an exclusive London show at Koko.
The crew, who have been wowing crowds for years and whose last album United Colours of Beggatron won plaudits across the board, will hit the venue on November 3rd with support from Lazer Sword.
Currently running dancefloors alongside Skrillex, Flux Pavilion and Vato Gonzalez, it’s a show that shouldn’t be missed and with early bird tickets on sale here, you’ve got no excuse.
Just in case you needed to know how heavy it’s going to be, watch the video below. BLAAAAOW.
It was only 2 weeks ago that Mastodon’s singer Brent Hinds featured in a hilarious restaurant advert and now, the internet has exploded in delight at the release of their new and Fragglerock-breaking video for Deathbound that is a must see!
The now prestigious Meltdown is an annual festival staged at the Southbank Centre in London. In the past, the festival has been curated by the likes of Scott Walker, Ornette Coleman and David Bowie. Jeff Buckley’s final appearance in the UK, before his death, was famously at Meltdown in 1995 but this year’s event was organised by former lead singer of The Kinks, Ray Davies and his line up didn’t disappoint.
Supporting American garage rock legends The Sonics in the Royal Festival Hall are art punk Situationists Wire.Embarking on a set filled with flurries of distortion and clanging drones, Wire’s performance contains several tracks from their latest album. The radical four-piece continue to wind down to punk’s underworld with empowering chimes and jangles. Lead singer Colin Newman’s pessimistic vocals in the title track of new album ‘Red Barked Tree’ is a highlight of the evening for the London band. ‘Outdoor Miner’, from the classic 1978 album ‘Chairs Missing’ is as gloomy and heartfelt as ever.
The London band return to the stage from an encore with their final song ‘Pink Flag’. Despite enthusiastic demands from the crowd for more songs from the band’s earlier albums, Wire are more interested in continuing to experiment and play newer material. Emphasising this new direction bassist Graham Lewis ends the song by telling the Southbank crowd that “that’s about as pink as it gets”.
Introduced by Ray Davies as a group that are a “big part of American history” and “a rock band that were around way before The Kinks even had a car” The Sonics enter the stage. Opening with thunderous renditions of The Brandos’, ‘He’s Waiting’ and Barrett Strong’s ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ it is plain to see why the band’s stripped-down approach has influenced a lot of people in the rock music world, including the likes of Iggy Pop and Kurt Cobain.
Songs like ‘Cinderella’ and Little Richard cover ‘Keep A-Knockin’ (But You Can’t Come In)’ are delightfully raucous and garage rock classic ‘Strychnine’ prompts a large amount of the audience to swarm away from their seats and be able to dance closer to the stage. This is followed by the exhilarating ‘Lucille’ and the gut-wrenching ‘Psycho’. The latter is frantically performed and filled with lead vocalist Gerry Roslie’s signature neurotic screams.
Richard Berry’s warming ‘Louie Louie’, suitably the song that led to Ray Davies conceiving ‘You Really Got Me’, is the first song performed by the band after the encore. The sinister ‘Bad Attitude’ is the best of the bunch of new songs available on the latest EP release ‘8’ which is followed by their flagship tune ‘The Witch’. Raw and penetrative, the performance of this song epitomises what the Tacoma legends were all about. The Sonics were way ahead of their peers and predecessors, and tonight they lit the room. They played hard, they played fast, and it’s good to see them back.
So, this is the moment at Glastonbury Festival last night where Lauren Laverne gets rightfully trumped by Zane Lowe after talking crap about Beyonce and Kool and the Gang without even letting him speak about his favourite band QOTSA (who absolutely killed it btw).
Thanks to the rise of blogs, there are so many rappers that have peppered the web in the past few years yet it’s nigh on impossible to keep track of them all. So we have decided to give you guys the heads up on rappers that are coming through that you definitely need to keep an eye and ear out for. Sometimes all it takes is that one track to hook you, getting you to press the rewind button so you can learn all the words straight away and sometimes it’s more of a slow burn, letting the music wash over you, submersing yourself into it before something clicks and you declare yourself a fan.
The list below is by no means gospel, but amongst all the names that you’ll be hearing sooner rather than later, there are some rappers who stand head and shoulders above the rest, and they can be found here. You won’t see any mention of the likes of Tyler the Creator or Jay Electronica because they’ve already grabbed the mainstream’s eye but hopefully there will be someone below that will get you interested!
So, without further ado, here is a list of the top five rappers you need to get into:
Yelawolf is certainly the best new rapper out there at the moment. He’s not hit the mainstream quite yet, but with the ink drying on his contract with Eminem’s Shady Records it can’t be fair off if the talent he showed on his Trunk Muzik mixtape [and it’s re-released with additional track half-brother Trunk Muzik 0-60] is anything to go by. He can switch up to double-time at the drop of a hat or he can run it slow like he does on Pop The Trunk below. Lazy journalists will no doubt refer to Catfish Billy as “The New Eminem” but pay no attention to that, he’d much rather rap about Chevys and getting drunk than murdering his Baby Momma. Alabama is well and truly on the map thanks to Yela. Get involved.
Already one album down, Fashawn is working hard on mixtapes having recently released Higher Learning 2 and Grizzly City 3 before releasing his sophomore effort. The Fresno MC might not be the brashest of rappers, but his smooth flow and beat selection are top notch. His debut Boys Meets World featured production by Exile, who provided the perfect backdrop for Fashawn to go in over, from sunny melodies to songs about suicide. If he continues the way he’s going, like he has over J. Cole’s beats, there will be a hell of a lot more people smiling their way down the street. If the track below doesn’t get you bouncing, you’ve got no soul.
Maryland’s Phil Ade has burst onto the scene in the past couple of years through his stellar Starting on JV and The Letterman mixtapes, showcasing his ability to rap over a diverse selection of beats before his Twitter-friendly #PhilAdeFriday tracks, which were released for free through the social networking site every Friday came to prominence at the start of 2011. He’s now put them into a mixtape of their own, with some tracks featuring him rapping over famous beats from the likes of Ice Cube and Mobb Deep and will be dropping his new album A Different World on July 12th. Check out the track below for some early LL Cool J influenced shit.
LA’s TiRon is another rapper who gives the listener a big beaming smile, he just seems to be having so much fun when he raps and it’s that infectious positivity that grabs the listener. From songs declaring his love for food or trainers to tracks discussing the importance of having a Wingman when trying to bag a chick at a party, TiRon [and his running mate Ayomari] delivers perfect call-and-response style tracks which bump along nicely whether you’re in the mood to get hype or whether you want some beats playing whilst you’re cleaning your flat. The track below is a perfect example of what to expect from the guy that brought the world his MSTRD and Ketchup mixtapes as well as T&A, the prelude to the debut album Sucker For Pumps which is a collaborative effort with Ayomari.
Ohio rapper Stalley could have been a high-standard basketball player before injuries curtailed his sporting career. But the NBA’s loss is hip hop’s gain. He has got a fantastic flow, progressing from a backpacker delivery to straight up fire and back again with consummate ease and his beard shouldn’t be underestimated. His latest mixtape Lincoln Way Nights (Intelligent Bass Music) is the best example of why he’s such a competent and impressive MC, showing his dexterity over a number of different styles whilst all the while maintaining his own voice across the entirety of the 16 tracks. Check out Hercules below, the beat will get you immediately and once that’s hooked you’re in.
Joan of Arc appear on stage looking exhausted. Their supposed 7 hour flight from Chicago was a disaster, turned into a 16 hour travel nightmare that left all of their luggage and equipment stranded in Atlanta. “I haven’t slept in 36 hours,” groans Tim Kinsella, founder and only constant member of the band, after only the first song of the night.
The conditions are far from ideal, but having been staples of Chicago’s prodigious alt. Rock scene for the past two decades, the members of Joan of Arc are more than equipped to deal with such setbacks. Borrowing the instruments and backline from Hot Club De Paris, the band are in surprisingly good spirits, as though the trauma of the day has been taken into their stride, incorporated by Kinsella’s awkward, irreverent crowd interaction. While this show might be rough around the edges, this almost suits Joan of Arc, a band who by their very nature avoid sounding clean and precise.
Beginning with a trio of songs from recent album, Life Like, fans are kept happy by what is easily some of the best work of their career. It’s difficult to objectively explain what’s so great about Joan of Arc; there are virtually no hooks, they often sound off key and their time signatures are all over the place, yet their unique take on melodic 90s emo is engaging and almost entirely of its own. The band tune up frequently between songs while Kinsella improvises with some tired attempt at banter, but the room is forgiving and full of love for this cult band.
The real highlight of the night is saved for the final stretch, though, as the band look to the past with covers of Kinsella’s previous band Owls. Running through both What Whorse You Wrote Id On and Anyone Can Have a Good Time, the mood is transformed from appreciative to a mass sing-along from one of this reviewer’s favourite records of all time. Having never seen Tim or Mike Kinsella perform in any of their many capacities, it’s an absolute joy to witness Joan of Arc celebrating different aspects of their legacy. Now, surely it’s about time we saw that Cap’n Jazz re-union come over to the UK…
Wolves Like Us have put a video up online for the track Deathless.
The track is taking from the Oslo band’s new album Late Love, which is out now on Prosthetic Records and has had a good few plays in the Crossfire office.
Fucked Up have released their first ever music video.
Taken from their recently released album David Comes To Life, Queen of Hearts was shot in a remote schoolhouse in Canada. You can check out the full HD version by clicking here with the YouTube version below.
Meanwhile, Fucked Up have announced some August UK dates, including festival slots. Here they are:
Wednesday – 24 – UK, Portsmouth – Wedgewood Rooms
Thursday – 25 – UK – London, XOYO w/ OFF
Friday – 26 – UK – Leeds, Leeds Festival – NME Stage
Sunday – 28 – UK, Reading – Reading Festival – NME Stage
Grandaddy are to release a deluxe edition of their seminal album The Software Slump.
