Some distractions to last you the weekend...

:: Tina Fey lampoons Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live… And while it's brilliant, it's neither as funny nor as terrifying as the real thing


:: Here's a free download of Annie's superfantastic cover of Stacey Q's Two Hearts - Click here. Annie's album, Don't Stop, is due out this week, next week, sometime or never.

:: How popular is your name? Check out this site that tracks the popularity of first names (in the US) since 1880.



:: "When you hear a rhythm that is being played by an instrument you can’t identify but wish you owned, you are hearing Timbaland". A great profile of the super-producer, courtesy of the New Yorker

:: I was recently on a plane that was struck by lightning, and I'd have felt just a little bit safer if I'd had this guide to how land a jumbo jet handy.

:: Brad Walsh has remixified Britney's Womanizer and made it available for download. It takes a song that sounds like it was written by a computer program and makes it sound like the computer has had a psychological "episode". Full marks all round, particularly for (muso alert) "breaking it down in the middle 8" .

:: 10 People From Your Past Who Will Haunt You On Facebook.

:: The video for Alicia Keys and Jack White's Bond theme misses out on the one thing that would make it tolerable - footage from Quantum Of Solace.



:: Fans of Ferris Beuller are planning to recreate the film's iconic carnival scene at New York's Hallowe'en Parade on 31st October. If you're going along, get in touch - I'd love to get your photos on the blog at the end of the month!

:: Amazon's computers have begun phase two of their plan for global domination.

[via Photobasement]

Labels: alicia keys, annie, Britney Spears, film, links, Timbaland, tina fey, white stripes

Last time I saw Annie in concert, she was flailing about aimlessly behind a DJ while a largely indifferent St Etienne audience drank beer and talked amongst themselves. The Norwegian popster even walked off the stage a couple of times, such was the indifference of the crowd.

At the iTunes festival on Monday, there was evidence both of increased interest and that she'd stepped up as a performer - although she sometimes has the air of a head girl miming to her favourite Girls Aloud songs at the school concert.

The set began brilliantly, wrong-footing the audience with a grinding synth dirge (exactly the sort of thing that you'd expect to hear as Radiohead's warm-up tape) that transmogrified into skippy pop ditty Chewing Gum. Sadly, although the three-piece band was giving it their all Annie's wispy voice, awash in delay, never really managed to punch through.

Things got very odd with the appearance of What Do You Want (For Breakfast), an utterly baffling song which consists of Annie repeating the inquisitive title ad nauseam over a plonky techno beat.

Sadly, no-one shouted out "muesli" or "croissant" in response to her query.

After a couple of songs, however, things began to warm up. The deliciously dark stomp of I Want You To Take Me Home was the turning point, with the band settling into a groove and Annie striking a series of convincing rock chick poses with her mic.

Songs Remind Me Of You, the highlight of her forthcoming new album, was similarly the stand-out track of the live show - proving once and for all that it should have been the lead single, rather than the underwhelming I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me (in with a bullet at, er, number 54).

All in all, it was an uneven set and one which can't have won over many new fans. Which is a real shame because, while the hipster critics love her, the lack of airplay means the live arena is the one place she can connect with an audience.

[These beautiful photos are from Paul Jay's Flickr Stream]

Labels: annie, Music, Review

Honestly, you spend the best part of the morning writing a tidy little review of Annie's album, and then she goes and puts out a new video which makes the whole process of reviewing redundant because you can go and watch the video and make your own mind up regardless of all those carefully-chosen words I typed using those bleeding stumps I used to recognise as my precious fingers.

Here it is, then, Annie's "I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me" video.

Annie - I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me


Happy now?

Update - 1800 BST: Island have inexplicably removed the video from Youtube (youtube) , even though it was on their official Youtube (youtube) channel. This is going well, isn't it?

Labels: annie, Music, video

Plop! Look what has landed in the Discopop Towers letterbox. It's a sampler for Annie's sophomore album - and major label debut - Don't Stop. Four years in the making, it has left the poor dear looking a little bit worse for wear:



Don't Stop isn't out 'til July, but here's what we learn from these first five tracks.

I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me
Ugly text-speak typography aside, this a a great little pop nugget. A sonic sister to Annie's Chewing Gum, it suggests that writer/producer Richard X hasn't progressed much since Some Girls in 2004. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The song climaxes, for no apparent reason, with the sound of an ice cream van.
Key lyric: Ring-a-ding-a-ding-ding-ding-ding, Ring-a-ding-a-ding-ding

My Love Is Better
There are no liner notes on the CD, but I'm willing to bet my right arm that this is a Xenomania track. I've always found the team's non-Girls Aloud songs rather anonymous, but this one perfectly captures the feisty funk of the former Pop Stars finalists. The lyrics are basically saying 'I'm better than you, so ner ner ner' and, if I'm not mistaken, the actual Girls Aloud are hanging around on backing vocal duties.
Key lyric: Betting that your bark has nothing on my bite.

When The Night
Annie is experiencing some nocturnal angst, like dracula but without the blood lust. A classy, understated ballad that wouldn't sound out of place on the Pet Shop Boy's Behaviour album.
Key lyric: I'm burning like a moth attracted to the flame, but better that I burn than slowly fade away.

Marie Cherie
A song about nobel prize-winning radioactivity pioneer Marie Curie [are you sure about this? - Ed]. Another dramatic ballad, replete with sweeping strings and whispered harmonies. Serge Gainsbourg would be proud. And so would St Etienne. Me, I'm not so sure...
Key lyric: Her skin's like velvet cream. She never made a sweet sixteen.

Songs Remind Me Of You
The only track on this sampler that brings to mind the extended disco magnificence of Come Together from Annie's debut, Anniemal. Focused around a bubbling Giorgio Moroder bassline, the song is addressed to a former lover whose songs haunt Annie's every waking minute. It ends with a gong, as all great pop songs should.
Key lyric: How does it feel to hear your songs on the radio?

Can't wait to hear the rest of the material... You might be able to catch some of it at Annie's forthcoming UK DJ shows. Details on her Myspace page.

Labels: annie, Music, Review

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

It seems that pop is a bit in the doldrums at the moment, unless you count Take That (which we do) and Mika (which we don't). All those identikit curly-haired indie bands are hoovering up all the airspace and perfectly reasonable acts like Jamelia and All Saints are being pushed aside. The only hoover action they'll be seeing is in their front room, sucking up dust while watching The Box and weeping silently.

For the moment, there's not much we can do. Music is cyclical, and it is rock's turn to be in the ascendance. But there is hope on the horizon...

Norwegian singer Annie, whose Chewing Gum is the best record of the 21st Century (FACT!), has apparently signed a record deal with Island/Universal. That's the label behind Amy Winehouse, Mika, Sugababes and The Feeling - i.e. they are quite good at developing succesful pop acts.

According to a very old news story in another language [link] she's currently in the recording studio with Girls Aloud producers Xenomania. Annie is also expected to work with London-based genius Sir Richard of X (Sugababes, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, that one good song by Rachel Stevens). This could well be the best pop album ever.

Want proof? Here are Annie's last two UK singles, re-recorded for the time vortex that is PC game The Sims 2. Even in the game's made-up nonsense language, Simlish, they are sublime. You can get the original versions on her album, Anniemal. [link]



Annie - Heartbeat (simlish version) MP3



Annie - Chewing Gum (simlish version) MP3


Also, isn't this the best publicity photo in the history of big pink pop frocks?

PS: There are lots more MP3s in Simlish, including songs by Lemon Jelly, Timo Maas and The Faders, at the excellent fansite Sim Fantastic

Labels: annie, MP3, Music

:: Is this Britney Spears' new single? The title, Fed Up, doesn't stretch the boundaries of subtlety, but it's not a bad little pop ditty.


:: This is how the Simpsons would look if they were drawn by a more talented less original artist than Matt Groening [via 4CR]

:: Popjustice has the scoop on Norwegian popstrel Annie's latest assault on the charts. It is being masterminded by Girls Aloud, er, mastermind Brian Higgins. Fingers have been crossed in anticipation.

:: Need to know what that amazing piece of music they played on ER was called? Head on over to ER headquarters to find out. (Hint: It was David Gray or Snow Patrol, and it won't be half as good when it's not accompanied by a sexy doctor cutting open your spleen).

:: Atishoo! After years of anxiety and worry, scientists have finally carried out the vital research that proves your eyes cannot pop out when you sneeze.

:: Radio 1's Chris Moyles has been running a campaign to get former teen pop star Billie Piper back into the top 75. The song he's chosen is her rip-off of All Saints Never Ever. Not a bad choice, but I wonder if he knows it's about a vibrator?


:: I am very much enjoying the soulful sounds of London-based songstress Valentina. I asked her to be my friend on myspace a few days ago, but nothing has been forthcoming. How very rude. I am awfully nice, you know.

Labels: annie, billie, Britney Spears, humour, links

Tony Curtis has brought us a cake because, amazingly, this is the 200th post on the Discopop Directory! Only eight short months ago, I wasn't even sure what exactly the site was for. Now it's all more clearly defined: This is how I avoid the impulse to write any new music.

Having said that, I have some actual commissions at the moment (fingers crossed).

The most pressing issue, therefore, is that I need to replace my Korg M1 keyboard, which has died and needs to be destroyed. Can anyone out there recommend a new synth? I want something that will turn me into Harold Faltermyer, as opposed to Jan Hammer.

In the meantime, as a 'thank you' to the three or four people who read this site, I'm putting up an unreleased song from Annie for you all to download. Think of it as a sort of Annie-versary present! (Do you see what I did there?)

The song is called "The Wedding" and comes from a session Annie did for Sirius Satellite Radio. However, I purloined it from the ever-excellent fluxblog.org

Click here to download.

The song's quite sparse and electronic compared to Annie's current album. The lyrics and arrangement remind me a little of a dub version of Prince's "Let's Pretend We're Married".

Annie also performed this song during her (rubbish) support slot with St Etienne in June. All I remember of it from that night is that we drunkenly sang "When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney" over the top of it. You'll see why when you listen to it...


So, to recap, thank you all for reading. Have some free music, and wish me luck in writing some new songs. Finally, here is a picture of a cat in a toilet.

Fluxblog

Annie: Official site

Korg

Labels: annie, Music

Happy 60th Birthday, Debbie Harry! Our dads used to fancy you in the 70s, but the years haven't been kind.

Michael Jackson plans to "repair his image with a documentary". Doesn't he ever learn? (And wouldn't a plastic surgeon be more appropriate?).

Paula Abdul's erratic behaviour on American Idol wasn't due to drugs or alcohol. The poor dear has suffered a year of ill-health after a dodgy manicure. Like we haven't heard that excuse before.

Cabin Crew, who were responsible for the ubiquitous retooling of "Waiting For A Star To Fall" want to hear your opinion of their new material over on the popjustice messageboards.

And good news from Richard X - new Annie tracks, a Gwen Stefani remix and the next Rachel Stevens single are all on the cards. Yippee!

Labels: annie, debbie harry, Michael Jackson, Music, richard x

Summer calls for the air to be filled with light'n'breezy pop confectionery, so what could be better than a joint concert between Saint Etienne and Annie?

The Etienne have got a new album, Tales from Turnpike House, out on June 13th. The mini-tour follows that week:

Wed June 15th BRIGHTON Concorde 2
Thu June 16th LONDON Koko
Fri June 17th GLASGOW ABC
Sat June 18th MANCHESTER Northern College Of Music

See you there.

saintetienne.com

Labels: annie, Music, saint etienne