Oh yes. My favetoid track from Oracular Spectacular has gone and gotten itself a proper video.
It features the MGMT chaps having a party that looks like a cross between Peter Pan and, um, A Midsummer Night’s Dream…? Also, the moon on a string. Also, multi-coloured body paint. Also, the moon exploding and motorbikes flying out of it.
This is another one of those instances when I should have just said “just watch it”. So just watch it, after the clickness.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday May 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

The Sunrise Festival, which was due to take place in Somerset this weekend, has been cancelled due to extreme weather conditions (i.e, rain).
A brief message on the festival’s official website prefers to use the term “postponed”, focusing on the fact that the organisers fully intend to return for the 2009 festival season.
Small consolation for those who were readying their tents and whatnot for this weekend, but they proclaim that they are “determined to honour every ticket that we have sold.” That implies that tickets for this year’s event will be valid at next year’s, but I imagine it’ll be a while before this can be confirmed.
[source: Gigwise]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday May 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

The big names are really stacking up for old Nelson’s Big Birthday Bonanza at Hyde Park on June 27th. The latest addition is plucky up-and-comer Amy Winehouse, who joins a bill already featuring Razorlight, Sugababes, Leona Lewis, Annie Lennox, Queen and Simple Mindzzz.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday May 30th, 2008 at 10:59 am

Sing yowly hosannahs! Sigur Ros’s new album will contain a song sung in English.
Big woop. For me, it’s too little too late. With the much-worshipped Icelandic squeakers having spent years gurgling away in their precious little made-up language, I lost interest a long time ago. Am I the only one who thinks “Snow Patrol fronted by Pingu”?
I know that their songs can be uplifting, touching, poignant. And using non-lyrics allows people to project whatever they like onto the songs meaning-wise. But is this not… well, cheating?
Not for the Ros any of that sweating over poetic verses, or making sure lines scan. Nah, just chuck in another “Aiau scrrreeeeeeeeeeeeee!” That’ll do.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday May 30th, 2008 at 10:13 am

Just to round off today’s hip-hop theme, a lil’ bit of fun with Westwood. We’ve all tried to do his voice, but you have to be a real vicar’s son to pull it off convincingly, methinks.
At least now you can practice with this handy soundboard, which is chock full of soundbites of Mr. Westwood’s special brand of enthusiasm. It even has the exclusive “bomb” blast!
Click here for the Westwood Soundboard. You may want to warn your colleagues.
[image: bbc.co.uk]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday May 29th, 2008 at 10:58 am

What the hell’s Tricky been up to for the last ten years or so? Well, let’s not worry about that now, because his new single is, frankly, ‘mazin’.
For a start, the lyrics begin with him graphically describing his own birth. My mistake was to be eating cereal at this point in the song. Thankfully the video forgoes literalism for this particular verse.
“Council Estate” builds and builds with scuzzy guitar and pummelling beats, a bit of a semi-bassline interlude, and lyrics encouraging young men to not be rubbish and stuff. As comebacks go, it doesn’t get much better. Check it out over the page.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday May 29th, 2008 at 10:35 am

We’ve got a category on this here blog called Hip-Hop Isn’t Dead, and it’s been brought to my attention that recently I’ve neglected it somewhat.
Let’s remedy that by having a lil’ peek at Wu-Tang Clan main man RZA’s new video. The track “You Can’t Stop Me Now” is one of those numbers that transmits the message “Hello, I’m brilliant. Here’s why, starting from the beginning”.
It’s a common trope in hip-hop, and maybe that’s why it’s a bit disappointing to hear GZA resorting to it. Yes, we know Wu-Tang were great back in ‘93, etc. We’ve got Wikipedia for this stuff.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday May 29th, 2008 at 10:07 am

I haven’t watched Gavin Rossdale’s new video, I’ll be honest. I clicked onto YouTube to have a look and, of course, checked out the comments first to see how rabid they were (it’s a past time of mine).
Lo, there was someone asking the poignant question: “Is this Gwen Stefani’s husband?”
I mean, as claims to fame go, I wouldn’t pass it up. But it can’t be easy for a rock star who once sold millions of little round things to know that this is how he’s recognised by younger music fans.
Maybe I’ll give his video a watch. I probably should - it might contain snuff or animal rape or something, and I’ve just gone and posted it over the page. If you watch it could you let me know if any puppy-fiddling goes on? Ta.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday May 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Some pretty grim reports from Gatecrasher at the weekend. Saddest of all was that a man was found dead, with the cause of death as yet unreported.
Due to the weather the main stage was shut down on the second and final day, meaning the assembled revellers missed out on The Chemical Brothers and Hot Chip. Despite a surprise appearance from Lily Allen and sets from Justice, CSS and Dizzee Rascal, many punters are now appealing for refunds - it’ll be interesting to see if any of them receive them.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday May 28th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

What did you do with your bank holiday weekend? Some decorating? Shopping? Crystal meth-ing? Me, I spent a frankly ridiculous amount of time playing about with a website called Mixwit.com.
Now, Mixwit comes hot on the heels of the slightly vulnerable but much-loved Muxtape. The vital difference with Mixwit is that you don’t need to upload any tracks, because it uses a couple of search engines (Skreemr and Seeqpod) to source songs already out there on the web.
So it basically takes The Hype Machine’s aggregating functionality and adds the ability to create as many playlists as you like, for free. You simply search for a song and, from the list of results, drag it to the adjacent field to add it. Marvellous.
Check out one of my mixes after the click…

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday May 28th, 2008 at 10:48 am