Air will release their new album Love 2 in October.
The French duo’s new record will be their first since Pocket Symphony in 2007 and will be preceded by the single Do The Joy on July 7th and Sing Sang Sung on August 25th. The tracklisting is:
‘Do The Joy’
‘Love’
‘So Light Is Her Footfall’
‘Be A Bee’
‘Missing The Light Of The Day’
‘Tropical Disease’
‘Heaven’s Light’
‘Night Hunter’
‘Sing Sang Sung’
‘Eat My Beat’
‘You Can Tell It To Everybody’
‘African Velvet’
Cliffs Pavillions
Southend
21.06.09
Spending an afternoon walking along a beach with no sand, looking out to a sea with apparently no water doesn’t sound like the most thrilling of afternoons. However, after having passed a granny asleep in a car on the side of the road, discussed the use of beach huts and eaten a Wimpy [they have knives and forks!], Southend didn’t seem so bad.
Having seen Blur many times since the first time I caught them when I was 11, I knew that a great show was on the cards. The excitement bubbling away walking into the strange venue [was there a prom downstairs?] was huge despite the ridiculously bad support. Then the lights went down and the party really started.
Blur are a band that could easily have played an hour of tunes, thanked the crowd and left everyone happy. But that’s not how they are doing things now for this reformation tour. A two hour set followed, with hit after hit being played, everyone singing along, even to the ballads and not one song let the set down or created a lull.
From the opening golden oldie She’s So High right through to Think Tank’s Battery In Your Leg, all the hits were played. But the strength of the set came in the form of the album tracks that wouldn’t have been expected. The superb Trimm Trabb thrashed around into a wall of sound, Badhead‘s horns had everyone swaying and Advert made sure no-one was stationary, proving that though into their 40s, these Essex boys are the shining lights of their generation.
The smiles on the faces of the crowd were mirrored on stage and the genuine warmth and enjoyment felt by the band gave the set that extra little bit of fun. The greatest band ever? They just might be…
Abjekt.
Maylene and The Sons of Disaster have released two new tracks.
Step Up [I’m On It] and Harvest Moon Hanging are taken from their upcoming new album III which is released on July 6th. The tracks can be heard by clicking the titles above and below is a video of a track from their album II to give you an idea of just how awesome they are.
Raging hardcore, tight jeans, sweat and teabagging. Limp Wrist played Brixton and ripped it up, watch the footage below and read a live review of the Brighton show here.
Not only was there a swarm of bees flying low over the Download Festival at one stage but it’s now come to light that a small tornado also ripped through Brown Camp. Watch the footage below for the phenomenon.
Islington Academy
17.06.09
As if playing your first ever show in the UK wasn’t daunting enough, imagine being a hip hop artist supporting the Bouncing Souls, facing a room full of punks.
It didn’t bother Doomtree member and Rhymesayer signee P.O.S one bit though on Wednesday as he kindly asked anyone who wasn’t interested in opening their mind to rap to leave the room. “If you want to stick around, then awesome, let’s have some fun,” he proclaimed, and fun was exactly was what was had.
Backed up ably by the twinkle-fingered Plain Ole Bill, the Minneapolis rapper burst through tracks from his latest album, and my album of the year by light years, Never Better, hitting the crowd with a non-stop barrage of words. If he was worried that the crowd wouldn’t be into it, halfway through the second song he would have been calmed, as the room had filled out and a good half were batting their hands in the air to the beats.
Even the straight up hip hop tracks Savion Glover, which saw P.O.S hit the MPC and Plain Ole Bill delivered the cuts, and Stand Up, taken from his second album Audition, went down well. By the time he had finished, no-one was in any doubt that they’d just witnessed arguably the brightest light in independent hip hop and the rap world as a whole.
On this form, there is nothing that can stop P.O.S from battering down the door of every closed-minded music fan. The smile on his face spoke a thousand words. The smile on mine hasn’t left since.
Abjekt.
Returning to the UK for the first time since blowing Crossfire away at ATP: The Fans Strike Back last month, Grizzly Bear have announced plans for a UK and Irish tour in the autumn. The tour announcement follows the Koko show in August selling out soon after details were released.
August
18th London KOKO
November
1st Dublin Vicar Street (November 1)
2nd Glasgow ABC (2)
4th Manchester Cathedral (4)
5th Leeds Metropolitan University (5)
5th Bristol Anson Rooms (6)
Here’s the video for single ‘Two Weeks‘:
Engineers are back! Four years after the release of their debut which caused a real flap amongst the press and general public alike, the band return with their epic second album, Three Fact Fader.
Released on July 6th, the 13-track album was co-produced by Ken Thomas (Sigur Rós, M83, Maps) over a period of two years and comes packaged in stunning artwork by legendary music photographer Tom Sheehan. Single ‘Clean Coloured Wire‘ is due for release on July 20th and the band will also be playing their first live show for two years at Bush Hall in London on Friday, July 10. See you there!
Here’s the video for ace single “Forgiveness” from their last album:
Graffiti legend Iz the Wiz passed away recently.
The writer, who was one of the original Kings of New York and influenced many, many artists had struggled with kidney failure. A true legend gone.
Anti-Pop Consortium will release their new single for free.
Apparently can be downloaded from here and is taken from their new album Fluorescent Black, which is out on September 29th.