Here's a new track from those cheeky New York rascals Vampire Weekend - who picked up a Q Award for best video earlier today.

It's called Ottoman, and it features on the soundtrack to forthcoming Michael Cera film Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. The song has been tucked away in the Vamps' live repertoire for quite a while - and in fact predates a lot of the material on their eponymous debut album.

You will also be "interested" to find out that it is the original source of Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa's brilliant / inexplicable lyric, "Feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too". Here it is:




And, in case you haven't seen it already, here is that afroementioned best video of the year - directed by the Hammer & Tongs team, who did the animated milk carton for Blur's Coffee and TV, and the not-quite-as-good-as-it-should-have-been Hitch-Hikers' Guide film.

Vampire Weekend - A Punk

Labels: MP3, Music, vampire weekend, video

Here's a quintuple dose of awesome to kick off your weekend:

1) Alesha Dixon's new single
Through the medium of mambo, Alesha is reaching out to her two, distinct audiences - (a) People who mourn the passing of Mis-Teeq (b) People who only know her because of Strictly Come Dancing.

The Boy Does Nothing is the name of the song, and I can prove to you how amazing it is in just 20 seconds:



There's more on Alesha's MySpace.

2) Ninja Cat is comin' to getcha



3) Ben Folds Five and Regina Spektor
My two favourite people who sit behind a piano and sing at the same time have sat behind two pianos and sung at the same time as each other. Result = Brilliance.

Ben Folds - You Don't Know Me (feat Regina Spektor


4) Barack Obama visits the West Wing
Aaron Sorkin takes time out from writing a movie about Facebook (the mind boggles) to imagine what advice The West Wing's Jed Bartlett would give the current Democratic Presidential Candidate.

:: Jed & Barack [New York Times] Warning: Socks will be blown off.

5) A Girls Aloud video with a budget in excess of £2.50

Girls Aloud - The Promise


Trivia: I interviewed Kimberley yesterday. She was tired, but very polite.

The End.

Labels: Alesha, ben folds, cats, Girls Aloud, MP3, Music, regina spektor, west wing

Without make-up and without Nadine (shingles, apparently) Girls Aloud have just made their third trip to Radio 1's Live Lounge, which was temporarily relocated to Jo Whiley's garage for some reason.

As ever, the format is to perform the new single (Promises: Growing on me all the time) and a cover (One Republic's Apologise: Screechy).

The girls did pretty well without their vocal lynchpin, especially as it was their first ever performance of the new song. Have a listen and let me know what you think...

:: Girls Aloud - The Promise (live lounge)
:: Girls Aloud - Apologise (live lounge)





More pictures over at the Radio One website. I covet Jo Whiley's bookcase, by the way.

Labels: Girls Aloud, live lounge, MP3, Music

The Killers have made an amazing career out of one (admittedly brilliant) trick - sounding a bit like New Order and Joy Division at exactly the same time!

Many thought their last album, Sam's Town, was a bit on the ponderous side. It aimed for the epic sweep of Bruce Springsteen's middle America anthems, but it was suffocated by its own ambition, wrapped in a woolly blanket of pretension and drowned in a black lagoon of muddy synths.

So for third album, Day and Night, the band sought out the talents of Stuart Price (whose nimble fingers once tweaked Madonna's knobs) and flicked the big red switch marked "pop".

Sadly, it hasn't worked. The record's first single, Human - which premiered on Zane Lowe's show on Monday - is a yawnsome retread of their earlier efforts.

It starts with that same, tired fuzzy synth sound, and a lyric that wants to be profoundly mystical but actually sounds like the daft ramblings of an agoraphobic nutjob ("sometimes I get nervous when I see an open door").

Things pick up when the chorus kicks in - with a thumping drum beat that suggests an awesome club remix is on the cards - but the melody is a bit of a dirge. Perhaps inadvertently, Brandon identifies the band's biggest problem - a desire to be important that outweighs their pop instinct. "Are we human, or are we dancers?" he wails.

Why can't we be both, Mr Flowers? Why can't we be both.

:: The Killers - Human (mp3)

Labels: killers, MP3, Music

Hello! I am now back from the beautiful French Riveria and ready to start bringing you more top tier writing about music and that.

But, first things first, here's that Girls Aloud single that premiered while I was away (why didn't they check with me first???)

It's called The Promise and, in Nadine's words, it is "mouuure on the sexties kinda feel-good vibe that's happenin' neow wi' muuuuusic, but it's still Girls Aleeouwd."

Translastion: It's a bit like I Can't Speak French but with Mark Ronson horns in it. I kind of like it. Kind of.

The song is undeniably catchy, and it's interesting to hear them lead off a new album with what counts for a ballad in Girls Aloud world. But with weaker vocal performances it could be a Kylie track.

But, given that the band's "comeback" singles always underwhelm (Long Hot Summer, The Show, etc) I've still got my fingers crossed for a storming second single at Christmas (Biology, Love Machine, No Good Advice, Call The Shots).

Lots more to catch up on - including Jack Black and Alicia Key's Bond theme - so keep coming back!

:: Nadine interview (mp3)
:: Girls Aloud - The Promise (mp3)

PS - I must give a huge, gargantuan, planet-sized thank you to Lisa, who sent me an mp3 of the song while I was away from the British airwaves. She is marvellous, and no mistake.

Labels: Girls Aloud, MP3, Music

Lauryn Hill's follow-up to The Miseducation Of... has suffered delays of Guns N' Roses-esque proportions. But now, thanks to R&B supremo, we have the first new material from the tiny soul diva since that disastrous Fugees comeback in 2005.

The Roots drummer posted a download of an eight-minute opus, World Is A Hustle, on his Twitter feed last night, which I suppose makes it a semi-official leak.

And it's really, really good - a funky Fender Rhodes Blaxpolitation groove about the depressing mediocrity of the modern world and the crippled careerist politicians who run it at the behest of the multinational corporations.

While this sounds dangerously close to the tedious sloganeering of Hill's MTV Unplugged album, World Is A Hustle is rescued by a magnificent melody and a strong, soulful vocal from the reclusive diva.

Apparently, there's more to come - Hill's partner, Rohan Marley, recently said: "She writes music in the bathroom, on toilet paper, on the wall. She writes it in the mirror if the mirror smokes up.

"She writes constantly. This woman does not sleep."

If it's all as good as this, then it'll have been worth the wait.

?uestlove's Twitter feed
Lauryn Hill - World Is A Hustle (MP3)

Labels: lauryn hill, MP3, Music, the roots

The Kaiser Chiefs were, in my opinion, unfairly maligned as a novelty act when they started out. Here was a band that recognised the inherent greatness of the singalong chorus and "the bit that goes wooooo" (technical term). Being accessible shouldn't be scorned.

The criticisms clearly stung, though, and the Chiefs responded with a world-weary album about how everything is average nowadays.

It was, with a dose of irony that Alanis Morisette would appreciate, profundly average.

So, to recapture their mojo for album number three, the Leeds lads enlisted the talents of Mark Ronson, banned him from using trumpets and set about crafting some raucous, shouty nonsense - although they sadly missed the opportunity to enlist Alesha Dixon for a guest spot.

Judging by their new single, Never Miss A Beat, they've remembered exactly what made them great in the first place. Choppy guitar licks? Check! Nonsense lyrics? Double check! (What do you want for tea? I want crisps!). Big wooshing noise to herald the arrival of a final, rousing chorus? Triple check!

The only fly in the ointment is Ricky Wilson's dry delivery, which is laden with more knowing ennui than a minibus full of French philosophers.

If someone could pop round his flat with a case of Red Bull, rub some deep heat into his eyes and poke him in the tits, that would be marvellous.

Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat (mp3)

Labels: kaiser chiefs, MP3, Music

Friendly Fires may have taken two years to record their debut album - but it turned out to be a good thing, as otherwise they'd have been branded with the cursed "Nu Rave" tag and sent straight to the dumper.

For while these St Alban's boys do bear a passing resemblance to the Klaxons' sirens-o-clock noisefest, they also bring to mind the noodly synth superness of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem. Singer Ed Gibson describes their style as "psychedelic, funky, groovy house". Thankfully it sounds nothing like that, either.

Their excellent new single Jump In The Pool is out on 1st September, and the band endured a day semi-drowned in a 20ft deep tank of water to make the video. Check it out:

Friendly Fires - Jump In the Pool


Friendly Fire's album is also released by XL Records on 1st September. Have a look at the video for their previous single, On Board for more dance-rock excellence.

And if you like what you hear, Spinner.com has a free, legal MP3 of Jump In The Pool.

Labels: friendly fires, links, MP3, Music, video

Aussie teen star Gabriella Cilmi has been opening her pipes in Radio One's Live Lounge. She did her Anastacia-esque single Save The Lies (Good To Me) and a twinkly cover of Ne-Yo's Closer. All very nice if you like that sort of thing.

Here are some MP3s for evaluation purposes.
:: Save The Lies (Good To Me)
:: Closer

For those of you asking "Who the flip is Gabriella Cilmi", this is Gabriella Cilmi:

Gabriella Cilmi - Sweet About Me


This is surely the most perfunctory post on the blog ever.

Labels: gabriella cilmi, live lounge, MP3, Music, video

Here five things that the new Keane single, Spiralling, remind me of:

1) I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me by Nik Kershaw
2) Emilio Estevez dancing in The Breakfast Club
3) The "work" of Tears For Fears
4) That talky bit Bono does in Bullet The Blue Sky
5) The 1980s in general

In other words, it is genuinely very good. If you're not convinced, let me remind you that it's produced by Stuart "Confessions on a Dancefloor" Price and direct you to the Keane website, where you can download it for free until 11th August.

Top marks all round.

Labels: keane, links, MP3, Music

When a band calls themselves Amazing Baby, you can only hope and pray that their music justifies the sheer brilliantness of that name.

Luckily, Amazing Baby are... er... amazing, baby.

Their first EP showcases a knack for the sort of spaced-out electronic prog nonsense that The Flaming Lips and MGMT do so well - in fact, they were in a band called Misogynistic Pineapple (another great name) with MGMT at university. The differences are twofold: Firstly, frontman Will Roan can actually sing. Secondly, their choruses sound like 1980s dadrock.

I know. Awesome, right?

If you want to hear more about the band whose ideal gig would be inside a volcano, try their Myspace page: (it's here), or score some free MP3s from their official website.

Labels: amazing baby, mgmt, MP3, Music

Bloc Party are one of those bands who constantly defy expectations. Starting life as a jittering little indie band in the Franz Ferdinand mould, they blossomed into something altogether more captivating with the gothic chords and tribal rhythms of their second album Weekend In The City.

Last year, they signposted another new direction last year with the pulsing electronica of one-off single Flux - whose autotuned vocals and bubbling Giorgio Moroder bassline resembled nothing more than the world's most fucked-up eurodisco track.

Now they’ve got some new material, which was unveiled on last night's Zane Lowe show. Called Mercury, the single augments Flux's template with discordant brass stabs, sinister synth basslines and some fantastically cheap vocal samples.

With dramatic John Lydon-esque urgency, singer Kele Okereke rants about "bleeding gums", "scars on my shins" and "veins protruding" - suggesting that he's still preoccupied with the dual themes of conflict and social decay.

Unless I've completely misunderstood and he's actually talking about scurvy.

Either way, it is a huge track - one of those ones you'll stick on repeat just to make sure you didn't imagine it. Brilliant stuff.

Bloc Party - Mercury


Bloc Party - Mercury (MP3)

Labels: bloc party, MP3, Music, video

Crivvens! This is officially the 1,000th post on Discopop Directory. The majority of the content has, if I'm honest, mostly been flim, flam and piffle. But that's what the internet was invented for, surely?

To celebrate our first millennium, here is a Muxtape with the top 12 tracks from the first three-and-a-half years of the blog's lifespan (click on the picture or go to discopop.muxtape.com to load it up).



And for those of you who don't "do" the whole Muxtape thing, here's the whole lot in MP3 format. Don't tell the record labels, though. They'll cut me up and spread me on their toast.

TRACKLISTING
1) Nelly Furtado - Maneater
2) Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
3) Girls Aloud - Biology
4) Dragonette - Competition
5) CSS - Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above
6) Amerie - Gotta Work
7) Goldfrapp - Number 1
8) Annie - Heartbeat
9) Robyn - With Every Heartbeat (acoustic)
10) The Cardigans - I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer
11) Regina Spektor - Samson
12) Radiohead - Nude


And, with that, I'm off on holiday for a week. See you again on 23rd June!

Labels: cats, discopop, links, MP3, Music

Over on MySpace, CSS have put up an sampler for their forthcoming album, Donkey (out 21st July). It sounds pretty amazing, in a not-very-much-development-from-the-last-album kind of way.

"We didn't come into the world to walk around, we came here to take you out," declares Lovefoxxxxxxxx in that glorious shouty-singy voice she has. Other songs feature the same Pixies-esque guitars as lead single Rat Is Dead, and (kitsch alert!) a wonky 80s synth.

There's nothing with the sing-a-long quirkiness of Alcohol or Off The Hook, but its shaping up to be a great summer album.

Listen to / Download the sampler on the CSS Myspace page

Labels: CSS, MP3, Music

History Lesson:

Mash-ups were essentially the musical genre that finally fulfilled the promise of punk - anyone could make one if they had a computer, regardless of musical skill. All you needed was two songs in the same key (or not, who cares?) which you played at the same time. Hey presto, new song!

The good ones - Richard X's Freak Like Me, Freelance Hellraiser's Stroke of Genie-us, Danger Mouse's Grey Album, and the whole 2 Many DJs project - were proper artistic statements. The bad ones just ended up being a random Eminem a capella over a random instrumental. The scene's nadir came when someone put Lose Yourself over the theme to Grange Hill, marking the moment when innovation was replaced by cheap novelty.

But every now and then a mix pops up that makes you re-evaluate the ennui that set in. Here is one such mix:

Wouldn't It Be Nice To Have A Finger of Fudge?


It's from an album by Mark Vidler, aka Go Home Productions, whose day job is remixing hits for the likes of David Bowie and Alicia Keys. He's done a whole album of the stuff, called Spliced Krispies, which you can download free on his website.

Here's my other favourite, which splices the Rolling Stones with the Temptations to make a thoroughly modern-sounding protest song.

Rolling Confusion

Labels: links, MP3, Music

Bonkers Brazilian Bopsters CSS have made their new single, Rat Is Dead (Rage), available for free on their website. (How clever! Someone should tell Chris Martin about this amazing idea, etc). It is literally quite good, and you should do the whole right-click-save-target-as thing now.

The success of the indiepop scenester's first album means they've been able to spend some proper money on coke and whores the follow-up. So what do you get for your dollar?

Well, sonically, the single is a retread of live favourite Patins. It bursts into life with a barrage of scratchy distorted guitar and that not-talking-but-not-singing thing that Lovefoxxx does so well.

The lyrics have something to do with a girl "smashing all the glasses on the mirror" and a dead rat - i.e. it's batshit crazy. But the gargantuan singalong chorus ("I know, I know, I know he will never hurt you again") is bound to go down well in the moshpit come festival time.

But the rough edges that gave CSS their quirky lo-fi charm have been smoothed out somewhat. Everything is a bit too in time, a bit too polished, a bit too whatever the opposite of ramshackle is (unramshackle? eweshackle? shackalackaboom?)

My guess is that CSS have ironed out their creases in an attempt to get mainstream radio play, so it'll be interesting to see how the single fares. As I write, it hasn't popped up on the Radio One playlist and XFM has only added it to their upfront list.

What do you think? Does it deserve to be heard more widely?

Labels: CSS, MP3, Music

Geri Halliwell, it has already been established, is 100% banana sandwich hic dong woof woof mad.

The former Spicette, who once admitted to having "growing pains in my brain", dresses like a fairy, speaks in constant streams of misunderstood psychobabble, pretends to be under 50 and shops at the supermarket of insane. Where she buys plums made from batteries, slides down sugarcane bannisters, and sneaks llama trousers onto the cheese counter.

So it comes as no surprise to learn that her children's book Ugenia Lavender is a work of unhinged geniosity. Her ten-year-old heroine sets off to rescue tigers and explore deserted islands - all while "inspiring" her readers by burdening their tiny minds with meaningless advice like: "To get off the pity pot, get grateful".

What on earth is a pity pot?

On second thoughts, I'm not even sure I want to know...

Always true to her musical muse, Halliwell has recorded a theme tune for her literary phenomenon, which you can hear in full on the karaoke section of her website. Watch out for lyrics such as "zonkoids are so terrible" and "avoid dog poo".

I hereby present a 30-second taster, which will terrify you to your very soul (although, I admit, it's quite catchy).


Geri Halliwell - Ugenia Lavender theme

Labels: geri halliwell, MP3, Music, spice girls

Annie. It's not a name that inspires thoughts of glamour and audacious flamboyance, is it?

No, it's all curly ginger hair and plucky orphans in rags, or rake-thin walking neuroses in angsty Woody Allen films*.

Which means Norway's premiere pop export has her work cut out for her as she launches her second album in a bid for global fame.

She made small waves with her previous effort, Anniemal, in 2005. It's perky, dancey hooks were the stuff of Rachel Steven's dreams. All shimmering synths and club-heavy kick drums, it attracted all the right music bloggers and set tongues wagging in a variety of professional publications, too.

Stylus magazine, in a ten-out-of-ten review, called it "a warm album, a comforting album, a lovable album, an adorable album, a living, breathing, human album". It is also quite a good album for dancing.

The title for her forthcoming LP hasn't been revealed yet, but we do know it features collaborations with Richard X (Sugababes, Pet Shop Boys) and Xenomania (Girls Aloud).

The first preview of the new material comes at a gig in London's Circus club tomorrow night... And Annie recently started streaming a clip of first single I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me on her Myspace page.

To save you getting RSI in your mouse-clicking finger, here is that clip in it's entirety. You can thank me later.


Annie - I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me

UPDATE: This isn't out 'til 9th June. 9th June!!!!!111 Talk about a slow-build promotional campaign. I wonder if someone at Universal has been studying how Robyn did so well last year???

* There is also Annie Lennox

Labels: annie, MP3, Music

Readers of the music press will have noticed that REM's latest album, Accelerate, is being hailed as the band's latest "return to form". If you examine the small print, however, the form they're referring to is that of early albums like Murmur and Fables Of The Reconstruction - both superb, but both lacking in the songcraft and emotional impact of Automatic For The People.

But then, the critics always cite the band's detached, pre-millennial masterpiece Up as a career lowpoint, so what do they know anyway?

Accelerate, it turns out, is just an above average latter-period REM album. A vast improvement on the dismal Around The Sun, but no better than, say, New Adventures In Hi-Fi or Reveal.

The band have just been in Radio One's Live Lounge. They were in unusually upbeat form, with Michael Stipe admitting to being grumpy for an entire decade because he couldn't find good vegetarian food in the US. He also revealed the Chris Martin came up with the title for their latest single...

The band then performed that song, Supernatural Superserious, and a cover of The Editor's stately Munich. You should listen to them both, because they are beautiful.

:: REM - Supernatural Superserious [MP3 link]
:: REM - Munich (live lounge cover) [MP3 link]

Labels: MP3, Music, rem

Just a quickie - Estelle doing her American Boy song, acoustic-style, and the Foals doing Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl song, indie-style, on Rrrrrrrradio One's totally faborific Live Lounge.

:: Estelle - American Boy (acoustic) [mp3]
:: Foals - Hollaback Girl [mp3]

I thank you.

Labels: estelle, MP3, Music

Here are six words I never thought I'd type: The new Guillemots single is amazing!

You remember the Guillemots, right? They had a Brit nomination and everything. Not ringing any bells? Maybe you remember that in every article ever written about the band, someone mentions that they once used a typewriter as an instrument. Tres avant garde, non?

Anyway, they've got a new album coming out and the lead single, Get Over It, sounds like those amazing indie-pop crossovers of the 1980s - like Electronic, New Order, The Cure, Billy Ocean (just kidding).

Sadly, nobody plays a typewriter on it. Instead, the band rely on two of pop's most fundamental elements: A shouty chorus and a bit that goes "wooo-woo".

For good measure, they also use the "spooky funfair" sound effect from Scooby Doo. Superb.

This Spanish website has an MP3 of the track. If you are anti-piracy, you'll have to settle for a live performance on Jonathan Ross, which completely robs the song of any subtlety.

Guillemots - Get Over It

Labels: guillemots, MP3, Music, video

If reports are to be believed, the entire world of indie has gone into meltdown over a Girls Aloud B-side. The song in question is called Hoxton Heroes, and the band have only released a 30-second snippet so far. Here it is:




And here are the lyrics:

You're off your face like you're number one
How many tracks have you sold? Hmmm, none
Walk round the place like you're number one
So why don't you write a tune that we can hum?

Just 'cos your dad knew the Rolling Stones
You've got the Primrose set in your cellphone
Don't kid yourself you're an indie clone
We've seen it before, get a sound of your own.

How inflammatory, eh readers?

Over at the NME messageboards, 'ver kids' are up in arms because (brace yourself) the title is lifted from the lyrics of an indie record.

"Why steal the title from a hadouken! song?" asks Alexelworthy. "You sad sad under-acheiving bunch of whelks."

NB: Girls Aloud were not molluscs last time we checked.

On the girl group's Myspace page, someone has even gone to the trouble of signing up and applying to be added as a friend in order to post the following sage thoughts. "THATS A DISGUSTING TRACK! AND THAT SONG SOUNDS RUBBISH ANY WAY. AND THATS COMING FROM A MUSIC STUDENT! WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT YOU SLUTS!!!"

Sadly, this sexism reflects the general tone of the debate. Alisoon Fersure calls Girls Aloud "tarts", Kay123x notes they are "bimbo clones" while Zoo-niverse says they "give women a bad name".

What this has to do with anything is unclear. Perhaps women's opinions don't count unless they look like Beth Ditto.

But my favourite comment of all is this: "pop = no credibility, indie nd anything else = credibility. u suck". From next week, the NME will be using this gem as their strapline.

But, while it's endlessly amusing to watch a group of teenagers having kittens over a pop song, what they all seem to be missing is that it isn't even an attack on their precious indie heroes.

It's an attack on bad indie, and the hangers-on it attracts. It's about the Kooks copying Razorlight as their drama school dissertation. It's about talentless liggers like Peaches Geldof and Kimberley Stewart latching onto these bands and claiming kudos because "their dads knew the Rolling Stones".

Hadouken! have even come out in defence of the song on their own website. "Hadouken would like to distance themselves from any offensive remarks and criticisms voiced by their fans towards the five ladies collectively known as Girls Aloud... Should the girls require any assistance or support in the epic battle against the evil forces of indie rock, particularly on their forthcoming tour, Hadouken would be keen to oblige in any way possible." (this comment was quietly removed overnight. I have no idea why).

But, as always, the last word should go to the eminently sensible Peter Robinson over at Popjustice HQ.

"The song might make more sense if melodic guitar music hadn't decimated the pop landscape and if Girls Aloud hadn't been quite happily embraced by most portions of the Hoxton set. Basically, it would need to be sung by Westlife six years ago to make real sense - but it is an 'enjoyable romp' nonetheless."

Exactly.

Labels: Girls Aloud, MP3, Music

In which we find some of my favourite upcoming singles, retooled by some of the nation's foremost knob twiddlers.

:: The Ting Tings - A Great DJ (Calvin Harris mix)
Sproingy disco beats + shouty chorus = arms-aloft party anthem.

:: Duffy - Mercy (Thankful mix)
Better because it is longer.

:: Kylie - Wow (CSS remix)
This doesn't add much, save a few synth noises and a cowbell, but it frames Kylie's vocals much more sympathetically than the original.

:: Snoop Dogg - Sexual Eruption (Fyre Department mix feat Robyn)
Yes, that Robyn! She's turned Snoop's superfly 70s porno talkbox ballad into a europop 90s porno talkbox ballad. "Snoop Dogg, I'm going to sex you up," she trills. Amazing.

:: Janet - Feedback (various remixes)
The R&B one, the dance one, the Timbaland one. They're all here.

Labels: calvin harris, CSS, duffy, Janet Jackson, kylie, MP3, Music, Robyn, snoop dogg, Timbaland, ting tings

Tennessean teen-rockers Paramore are finally getting round to releasing their US hit single Misery Business in the UK - only eight months after it first hit the US charts.

As I mentioned back in July, it sounds a bit like Avril Lavigne, and the band have been known to attend Sunday mass.

They appeared in Jo Whiley's "live lounge" last Friday and did some acoustic warbling. Here are the results.

:: Paramore - Misery Business live [mp3 via Sharebee]
:: Paramore - Love's Not A Competition (Kaiser Chiefs cover) [mp3 via Sharebee]

Labels: MP3, Music, paramore

Gnarls Barkley have been secreted away in a studio for the last couple of months concocting their new album, The Odd Couple.

According to Billboard, the album has been recorded with live musicians to give it a more organic feel than the million-selling St Elsewhere.

But the first taster, Run, sounds very much like the sampladelic hip-hop soul of their previous work, and it's all the better for it (I love those playground samples). Billboard reckons it has been leaked on purpose, which makes the record company's policy of suing the asses off anyone who downloads it even more perplexing.

Risk your savings by clicking on the following links:
:: Gnarls Barkley - Run (sharbee)
:: Gnarls Barkley - Run (zshare)

Labels: gnarls barkley, MP3, Music

Listen here you mad bastards, the fabulous Ting Tings have just made their fabulous new single (A Great DJ - C-listed at Radio One!!!) available as a fabulous free download on their fabulous MySpace page.

Fabulous!

Labels: MP3, Music, ting tings

Not many songs can pull off the double trick of being catchy and sounding like they've been beamed directly from outer space.

At one end of the scale you get The Feeling who make perfectly appealing little pop songs without ever breaking open the box marked "sonic adventure" (erm, isn't that a computer game? - confused ed). At the other end of the scale is Bjo