Australia Hip Hop collective, Hilltop Hoods have announced that their fifth studio album, ‘State Of The Art‘, will be given a worldwide release on August 23.
Released through the crew’s own record label, Golden Era Records, the follow up to 2006’s ARIA Award winning ‘The Hard Road‘, will be celebrated with a series of live dates in July.
The group will be playing T In The Park Festival on July 10, Oxegen Festival on July 11 and a one-off show in London’s KOKO on July 13.
Australia’s church-band-turned-rock-outfit Violent Soho have released the brand new music video for their new single ‘Jesus Stole My Girlfriend‘.
The single will be released on July 26 through Ecstatic Peace! Check out the video below to hear the perfect fury-filled soundtrack for whenever you get dumped for Jesus.
Alfalfa Males Once Summer Is Done Conform Or Die
Boss Tuneage
www.myspace.com/hardonsband
A brand new 19 song album from Sydney’s perennial noiseniks The Hard Ons, and if you’re having a little trouble trying to unscramble the title, it reads a little better as “Alfalfa Males : Once Summer is Done : Conform or Die” – in other words three album titles in one, and as good a directive as any to the musical mission you are about to embark on.
There are big, burly punk rocking numbers, laden with chunky riffage and snotty fuck-you vocals that hit you right in the chops. There are sugar frosted songs dripping in melody and a general sense of feel good fuzziness. And then hellfire and damnation is unleashed to the tune of crushing bolts of frenzied cranium crunching noise to batter your senses in a brutal sonic attack.
Are you keeping up with all this? There are no half measures, and whether the boys are laying down some primo syrupy tuneage or shredding your senses, the delivery hits you like torpedo. And there’s some typically not-so-obvious humour, “The Media Frenzy That Followed” especially cracked me up and reminded me of a hilarious conversation about sport being like cuisine!! Whilst “Keep Talking My Eyes Aren’t Completely Glazed Over” is one of the best song titles you’ll hear all year!
It would be so fuckin’ easy for the Hard Ons to rest on their laurels and just rehash the old hits, but they refuse to comply and pander to the masses, and that’s why I always look forward to hearing what gonzoid jams they’ll come up with next. And this album is right up there, quality collection of songs.
Pete Craven.
Our good mate The Last Skeptik just put out a new video for his remix of David Lyre’s track Constellation.
The remix is lifted from Skeppy’s Same Day Different Shit record which is out now and features the producer’s reworkings of Daniel Merriweather, Marina & The Diamonds and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. amongst others.
A little chill time was needed to fully absorb the visual/aural intensity of Brothersport and its incredible accompanying music video. Now we’ve had time to let it sink in, Animal Collective have emerged from the waves with the brand new video for the live favourite ‘Guys Eyes‘. Don’t expect any mind altering visuals though, this one is a gentle re-introduction to the sound that for many defined the last year of the decade.
Head over to My Animal Home or look below to enjoy some chilled jams set to some skating, surfing and beaching. Good Summer vibes for all.
Pulled Apart By Horses
Transgressive
www.pulledapartbyhorses.com
If you’ve followed the progress of Pulled Apart by Horses over the past two years, their self-titled debut shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
The majority of the tracks have been set-list regulars since the band’s very early days; a few of which have been previously released in a different form, and others which fans will undoubtedly recognise from their live show. While some might consider this retreading of old ground a failing of Pulled Apart by Horses, I would argue that this is precisely what makes it the thrilling debut that it is.
Clocking in at just over 35 minutes, the eleven songs contained on PABH have been condensed, road-tested and significantly accelerated to recreate the raucous energy of their live performances. While the band could probably have holed themselves up in a studio and squeezed out an album’s worth of new songs, here we have a record that the band (and their fans) has lived with long enough to feel comfortable within. Old singles “Meat Balloon” and “I Punched a Lion in the Throat” might feel familiar, sure, but they’ve never sounded better and more polished than now.
Out of the new tracks, highlights come from “I’ve Got Guestlist To Rory O’Hara’s Suicide” and the equally brilliantly titled “Yeah Buddy”. The former is a snarling, straight-up punk number, frantic from the off before breaking down into its glorious shouted refrain – “Enjoy your fucking misery!” The latter, meanwhile, is the closest the album comes to a genuine pop crossover track, with good use of backing vocals and strong riffs as ever.
If its riffs you’re looking for, incidentally, you’ll be able to dine off this album for a very long time – or at least until they get around to recording a follow-up. The 7 minute “Den Horn” quite appropriately closes the record by taking the pick of these, and hammering it out for most of the songs duration. As the feedback trails off you should feel thoroughly battered and bruised from Pulled Apart by Horses, but it’s unlikely to stop you reaching for the play button again.
Sleekly Lion
It has been confirmed that one of London’s biggest nightclubs, Fabric, will be sold to a new company called Fabric Life. The team that runs the club currently will remain in charge.
Adminstrator of PwC UK, David Chubb stated the following:
‘This ensures that Fabric, an iconic London club, will stay open and continue to entertain. Through the sale of the business, the jobs of over 100 people will be saved. We kept the club open during the administration and this would not have been possible without loyal employees, clientele and suppliers. We would like to thank them for their support over this period.‘
And in an official statement from the club itself, Fabric had this to say:
‘The Fabric family is delighted to announce that Fabric is no longer in administration. Fabric has been bought by a consortium who fully back founders Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie’s vision; nothing within the scope of the Fabric ethos or team shall change. The consortium has formed a new company called Fabric Life Limited. After ten and a half brilliant years, we look forward to many more.‘
Sound Strike, a coalition of artists openly boycotting Arizona in wake of the controversial SB 1070 immigration law will feature an exclusive contribution from Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes pseudonym.
The song, entitled ‘Coyote Song‘ will be offered as one contribution to Zack De Le Rocha’s Sound Strike amongst others who are supporting the strike. These include the likes of Kanye West, Massive Attack, Spank Rock, Sonic Youth, Rage Against The Machine and more.
The song was described by Conor as concerning the lives of ‘two lovers separated by conditions that are out of their control, namely [government immigration policy]‘. You can hear more from him about the Sound Strike in the video below.
Conor Oberst for The Sound Strike from Producciones Cimarrón on Vimeo.
Ode To Illmatic
Free Mixtape
www.myspace.com/fashawn
It takes a brave man to do what Fashawn has done on Ode To Illmatic. The Fresno MC has taken beats from Nas’ seminal 1994 album and states in his introduction aimed to “pay homage to one of the greatest MCs in our generation” rather than bite the album. As great as his debut album Boy Meets World was, he could easily have fallen flat on his face by trying this, but, to his eternal credit, he makes a great job of it.
It can be quite hard to pinpoint why Fashawn is so good. His voice doesn’t have that distinctive twang of a Lil Wayne or Blueprint, he doesn’t try and be a punchline rapper nor does he aim to impress with verbal gymnastics. But when going in over these classic beats, he just seems to fit perfectly into the music. CA State Of Mind, his own take on NY State Of Mind and The World Is Yours highlights his ability over Premo and Pete Rock production and sets the benchmark for the rest of the mixtape.
The proof of his ability is that this mixtape doesn’t make the listener want to turn it off and put on the original. In fact, it makes the listener ride Fashawn’s version out and then play the original because it has come as a reminder of what a brilliant album it is. He even brings in Talib Kweli for a little cameo, replacing AZ on Life’s A Bitch. Fashawn doesn’t just hold his own, he takes another step up on the hip hop pedestal. All this fun for free? Baller. You can grab the entire thing, absolutely free, here.
Check out CA State Of Mind below for a taster while the mixtape is downloading.
Abjekt.
The hotly anticipated new EP from enigmatic emo-powerviolence supergroup United Nations was released today.
The band who are rumoured to contain members from Thursday, GlassJaw and Converge have entitled their new EP ‘Nevermind The Bombings, Here’s Your Six Figures’ and is the exact noise minefield reminiscent of early 90s screamo many had been hoping for from the group.
You can pick up the 7″ EP here. Each purchase includes one of three limited coloured vinyls and a free high quality mp3 download.