22. Februar, 2010 – LUXEMBOURG, Luxemburg – ROCKHAL
23. Februar, 2010 – ROTTERDAM, Niederlande – AHOY
25. Februar, 2010 – BRÜSSEL, Belgien – FOREST NATIONAL
26. Februar, 2010 – OBERHAUSEN, Deutschland – ARENA
28. Februar, 2010 – HAMBURG, Deutschland – COLORLINE ARENA
01. März, 2010 – KOPENHAGEN, Dänemark – FORUM
03. März, 2010 – OSLO, Norwegen – VALHALL
04. März, 2010 – STOCKHOLM, Schweden – THE GLOBE
05. März, 2010 – GÖTEBURG, Schweden – SCANDINAVIUM
07. März, 2010 – HELSINKI, Finnland – HARTWALL ARENA
08. März, 2010 – ST. PETERSBURG, Russland – ICEHALL
10. März, 2010 – MOSKAU, Russland – OLYMPIC STADIUM
14. März, 2010 – LODZ, Polen – SPORTS HALL
15. März, 2010 – PRAG, Tschechei – TESLA ARENA
17. März, 2010 – LILLE, Frankreich – ZENITH
18. März, 2010 – LYON, Frankreich – TONY GARNIER
20. März, 2010 – NANTES, Frankreich – ZENITH
22. März, 2010 – NICE, Frankreich – NIKAIA
23. März, 2010 – MARSEILLE, Frankreich – ZENITH LE DOME
25. März, 2010 – TURIN, Italien – PALA TORINO
26. März, 2010 – PADOVA, Italien – PALASPORT
28. März, 2010 – ZAGREB, Kroatien – ARENA ZAGREB
30. März, 2010 – WIEN, Österreich – STADTHALLE
31. März, 2010 – ZÜRICH, Schweiz – HALLENSTADION
02. April, 2010 – TOULOUSE, Frankreich – ZENITH
03. April, 2010 – GENEVA, Schweiz – ARENA GENEVA
05. April, 2010 – BARCELONA, Spanien – PALAU ST JORDI
06. April, 2010 – MADRID, Spanien – PALACIO DE DEPORTES
07. April, 2010 – LISSABON, Portugal – ATLANTICO
11. April, 2010 – ROM, Italien – PALALOTTOMATICA
12. April, 2010 – MILAN, Italien – MEDIOLANUM FORUM
14. April, 2010 – PARIS, Frankreich – BERCY

Marina was up first for a brief, but brilliant twenty-minute set. She’s got one of the best and most unique voices I’ve heard in ages, and her powerful vocals easily won over those lucky enough to be there earlier enough for her set, tracks like “We’ve Got Obsessions” and “Simplify” standing out as some of her more awe-inspiring highlights.

MP3: “We’ve Got Obsessions” (Demo) – Marina & The Diamonds
MP3: “Simplify” – Marina & The Diamonds

Next came criminally unknown up-and-comer Nick Mulvey, who’s one of the more special talents I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live this semester. I first caught him at Cross Kings pub (the closest you can get to Brooklyn in North London) in February, but this was the first full-length set I’d heard him play. Given the nigh-on unfathomable hype surrounding Vampire Weekend and the current music climate, you could be forgiven for passing off any indie act rocking an afrobeat influence as mere bandwagon jumpers, but tagging Nick Mulvey as such would be doing the young London troubadour a significant injustice. For starters, he just finished a degree in ethnomusicology focusing on African music and has been making a name for himself as a percussionist in award-winning modern jazz four-piece Portico Quartet for a few years now. Then there’s the small fact that he’s fluent in Congolese… yeah. He’s also one of the more gifted guitarists I’ve ever seen in a live setting, so yeah, it’s safe to say Mulvey’s one to keep an eye on. All of Mulvey’s talents are on display on “I Didn’t Have Time”, which bounces along on sunny guitar melodies and his unique bilingual charm, and it was easily the highlight of his thirty-minute set last Wednesday.

MP3: “I Didn’t Have Time” – Nick Mulvey

Finally, it was time for Gotye to take the stage and fuck if he didn’t put on one of the more amazing shows I’ve taken in during my time here. Easily the most impressive one-man show I’ve ever seen, Gotye bounced back and forth between keys, a sampler and his drum kit, with captivating visuals (like this and this) projected behind him all the while. The drums were and always will be his first love, a point made obvious during his hour-plus performance, in which he frequently returned to the kit to pound out drum solo after awe-inspiring drum solo to take his songs to a whole new level of brilliant intensity. Singles “Heart’s A Mess” and “The Only Thing I Know” were incredible early highlights, but it was underrated album track “Thanks For Your Time”, which stole the show during the main portion of his set with its streaking strings samples and Wally’s piercing “Oh, oh!” backing vocals.

MP3: “Thanks For Your Time” – Gotye
MP3: “Hearts A Mess” – Gotye

For the encore, Nick Mulvey returned to join Wally on the stage for a collaboration the duo had spent the entire day working on in the garden behind the office. A Mulvey-enhanced acoustic version of “Puzzle With A Piece Missing” was a change of pace from the rest of the set and lacked the energy that made his main set so stimulating, but it was more than made up for by his collaboration with Mulvey on a brilliant cover of Paul Simon’s “Gumboots”, which also featured the talents of Gideon Brazil on saxophone. Rounding out the night, Mulvey left the stage as Gotye and Brazil launched into a truly awe-inspiring rendition of future summer smash “Learnalilgivinanlovin”, on which Wally just destroys the drums and unleashes his most impressive vocal performance to date, and it provided the perfect end to one of the best nights of music one could as for.

MP3: “Gumboots” – Nick Mulvey

Dude is a special talent, folks – remember the correct spelling because the rest of 2008 belongs to one man, and his name is Gotye.

We’d been planning on skipping Friday, as Les Savy Fav were set to play a warm-up gig in Oxford that night and we were just going to hitch a ride down to Camber Sands with them, but at the last minute everything fell through, as their booking agency somehow forgot to submit their working papers. I’m still not sure how they sorted it so that they could still do ATP, but we met Syd and company at Camber Sands Saturday, the only band of significance missed during the opening day of the festival being Vampire Weekend, and considering I’ve seen them nearly 20 times now, it wasn’t that big a deal. Saturday totally ruled, but as all the bands I saw I’ve already reviewed in these pages for (or you’ve surely read countless reviews of elsewhere), I’m gonna be sparse with the details (do you really need me to go on about how good Les Savy Fav are live again?). Yeasayer was an unexpected highlight, with “2080″ going down as the best song of the festival and one of the best songs you will ever hear in a live setting. That chorus, those shouts, that energy… shit was unreal. The only letdown of their set was the absence of the visuals that have been taking their live show to new heights over the past few months. The man responsible for said visuals – which are unbelievable, by the way – is my main man and good friend Sam Muglia, so to say we were bummed when the extension cord came up like two feet short is an understatement. Still a great set and one of the highlights of the festival though.

MP3: “2080″ – Yeasayer

Beyond that, the festival was everything you’d expect. Hot Chip ruled, Of Montreal ruled, Les Savy Fav REALLY ruled, the Hold Steady ruled and Black Mountain were decent but threw a damn fine party at their chalet Saturday night. Aside from the highlights, I wasn’t really feeling the Black Lips, whose antics were decidedly tame considering the legendary stories of golden showers and broken equipment I’ve always heard surrounding their live reputation. Also, we overslept because we’re fuck-ups and missed Bon Iver on Saturday (and then Jens Lekman on Sunday), and we tragically had to leave before Caribou’s festival-closing set Sunday night, as my roommate (who moonlights as the better half of Fresh Prints) and I both had finals the next day and needed to catch the last train home. Thus, there’s no real reason for me to post this, but I’ve been listening to it too much recently not to give it some love.

MP3: “Melody Day” (Four Tet Remix) – Caribou

All in all, it was easily the best weekend I’ve had yet in England. The beach (the “sands” in Camber Sands) ten minutes from the holiday centre was unreal, the largest stretch of sand in all of England, and the weather was the best I’ve ever experienced in Britain. 80 degrees and sunny, and people are swimming in mid-May. In England. Crazy. Granted, I’ve never seen more frighteningly pale bodies in my life, but it was nice just to take in some cosmic rays and get away from the city for a little while. More live reviews from the past wee (including Gotye’s debut UK gigs and the Great Escape) to come as I recover from finals and get back on track.

THINGS TO MAKE THIS POST SUCK LESS
I’m really not a fan of my live reviews, so here are some bonus jams to keep you coming back for more. Kicking shit off, here’s a collaboration that remarkably few blogs have picked up on, given the immensity of the names involved. Fresh off last summer’s chart-topping megahit, “With Every Heartbeat”, Kleerup’s back again, swapping Robyn for her shit-hot understudy Lykke Li on “Until We Bleed”. It doesn’t immediately stop you in your tracks like “Heartbeat” did, but it’s refreshing to her Lykke’s vocals in a new sonic context and “Bleed” is a damn fine single in its own right.

MP3: “Until We Bleed” (ft. Lykke Li) – Kleerup

I’ve been searching for some Fyfe Dangerfield solo material for as long as I remember, and now James has done us all a SOLID solid and brought this into the collective consciousness of this here blogworld. While not an original composition per se, this here cover is a fucking gem. I’ve never been much of a Larrikin lover, and was significantly less sad than many of my contemporaries when they broke up last year, but the original version of “Well, Love Does Furnish A Life”, featuring Mechanical Bride on backing vox, was the closest thing I had to a favorite track on their first and final record, The Freedom Spark. Fyfe’s interpretation treats it with a gentle introspection that seems more fitting of the lyrics, and it stacks up quite nicely with any of the more sentimental moments on Red.

MP3: “Well, Love Does Furnish A Life” – Fyfe Dangerfield

At the polar opposite end of the sonic spectrum, here’s the bangin’-est remix I’ve heard in a minute. I’m not exactly trailblazing here, as this has been making the rounds for a good bit now, but if there’s one track that’s absolutely destroyed dancefloors during our sets, it’s when we mix from the Robyn remix of “Sexual Eruption” into this bad boy and lay waste to anyone in a 40-foot radius of the DJ booth.

MP3: “Lights & Music” (Moulinex Remix) – Cut Copy

MP3: “The Black Morning” – Post War Years
MP3: “You And Me Both” – Post War Years

In other news, Lykke Li’s debut UK single “I’m Good I’m Gone” hit the DJ circuit this past week with the circulation of the remix EP that will be supporting the single when its out via 679 June 2nd. Highlights include a remarkably decent Black Kids remix, but anyone throwing that up on the blogs is likely just trying to melt the hype machine with a track uniting the two biggest blog superstars of the new year, since it’s Fred Falke’s epic rework that completely steals the show here. Wait for the 4:20 mark when the lows drop out and Falke gets all atmospheric on your ass, before bringing the beat back harder then ever 40 seconds later. This is gold, folks.

MP3: “I’m Good I’m Gone” (Fred Falke Remix) – Lykke Li [link removed]
Finally, here’s another Good Weather exclusive courtesy of the I Was A Cub Scout bros and our friends over at Abeano Music. “Close To Me” is an undoubtedly unfuckwithable classic, but the Cub Scout guys do a pretty great job on this just-finished cover, the result of some found studio time and creative restlessness as they bask in the critical acclaim for their debut album, I Want You To Know That There Is Always Hope. They stay pretty faithful to the original, but that’s hardly a bad thing, and this is a great track to rock in this remarkably glorious springtime whether we’ve been enjoying for the past few weeks.

MP3: “Close To Me” – I Was A Cub Scout [exclusive]

ATP ruled harder than you can even imagine. Full report in the coming days, assuming I can find some time between finals tomorrow and heading down to Brighton for the Great Escape on Thursday.

There was no shortage of great shows in London last Monday, but without a doubt the hottest ticket in town belonged to Sebastien Tellier’s sold-out performance at the Scala, featuring support from none other than shit-hot industry darling Lykke Li. Having already seen Lykke kill it in intimate venues around London on multiple occasions and with the news that Tellier had added a live drummer to his already solid synth-and-guitars live set up, I went in with high-ass expectations, only to be treated to one of the best shows of the year.

First and foremost, Lykke Li is a fucking superstar. Every time I’ve seen her seems to be better than the last, but she set the bar ridiculously high this time out, winning over an audience at a show that sold out before her name was even added to the bill. Every single song owned its studio-recorded counterpart, and while “Little Bit” and set-closer “I’m Good I’m Gone” went off every bit as brilliantly as expected and more, it was future single “Breakin’ It Up” that stole the show. Curiously left off the set list at previous shows I’d seen her play, it stole the whole damn show on Sunday night, and sounded like a whole new song when compared to the version found on record. Tweaked and reproduced a bit, this could be a huge single after Atlantic inevitably ride “I’m Good I’m Gone” and “Little Bit” into the ground in a few months’ time.

MP3: “Breaking It Up” – Lykke Li

Aforementioned closer “I’m Good I’m Gone” was, as expected, brilliant as well. The song’s “I know your hands will clap” lyric seems tailor-made for audience participation, but I guess I was the only one lame enough to throw up the handclaps she was fishing for. Lykke pointed to me with her drumstick and we had some serious eye contact for a solid 7/10ths of a second or so and I kind of felt like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Timberlake concert. For serious.

MP3: “I’m Good I’m Gone” (Sumo Edit) – Lykke Li

Then it was time for Tellier to get his sexy on, and he took the stage a short time later and launched into “Kilometer”, which sounds like it was nicked straight from Justin Timberlake’s songbook (or rather, Justin Timberlake’s songwriters’ songbook), and provided the perfect lead-in to what would prove to be a phenomenal set. Sexuality’s a great album in its own right, but I really can’t stress how much better every song sounds live when those massive and unrelenting synths are just washing over you, in that deep kind of visceral way. “Divine” followed shortly thereafter and totally slayed, with Sebastien rolling around the stage and giving a little preview of the antics to follow. Things got filthier and filthier as the set went on, as we were treated to the sight of Seb spanking the piano, fellating the microphone and, uh, stimulating the mic stand. There were also sex noises. Lots of sex noises.

MP3: “Divine” – Sebastien Tellier

He closed with an empire-toppling medley of “La Ritournelle”, which saw him solo on the piano for the song’s first half before bringing in a barrage of drums and synths after his first vocal refrain, which slowly decrescendoed into the opening notes of Sexuality-closer “L’Amour et La Violence”. Then it was off the stage and outside for a cigarette (I’m making a pretty safe assumption here) before he returned for a rousing performance of “Sexual Sportswear”. Words cannot do justice how amazing this track sounds with live drums, and as there’s not much for Seb to do on this one given its lack of vocals, he threw in some sex noises for good measure. Naturally.

MP3: “Sexual Sportswear” – Sebastien Tellier

Back to the grind then for a few more exams and then driving down to All Tomorrow’s Parties with the Les Savy Fav bros next weekend. Pumped.

Now here we are revisiting “Space and the Woods”, which will see a re-release as a double A-side with a shiny new production job from Mr. Alkan, along with long-time live favorite “Focker” in mid-May. And GOD DAMN if this isn’t the biggest record of the year, if not longer than that. Erol’s gone and made this shit huge, that synth line standing out as one of the hottest moments in music this year and Prest actually sounding confident enough to sell lines like, “I’m shit-hot, so say what you think about me”. In fact, shit-hot would be a damn fine way to describe this song, which just might be the best dance-rock single this side of 2005.

Not content just to polish up a previously released track, the single comes with a second A-side in the form of “Focker”, the band’s most electro offering yet and fully worthy of a full-fledged single release in its own right. Erol works his magic again here, but they hold out until the song’s epic final moments to really lower the boom, getting all LA Priest on your ass and obliterating everything in sight with an all-out electro freak-out of epic proportions. Literally, this shit is incredible and might be one of the few singles I’ve ever heard where I can actually enjoy the instrumental every bit as much as the original (seriously, try it for yourself below). A double A-side automatically implies you’ll be getting more than your fair share of hotness on both sides of the record, but this is just absurd. Ten out of ten, bitches.

More Kate Bush than Kate Nash, Marina writes, sings, records and produces haunting piano-based tracks in her bedroom and the results are totally ace. Though I’ve heard but a scant three tracks, I don’t think it’s too soon to declare her a special talent worth writing the fuck home about. Tracks like “We’ve Got Obsessions” and “Hermit The Frog” establish her as a beacon of hope in the oversaturated and increasingly dull London singer-songwriter scene, her endearing personality shining through in her winning lyricism, and her powerful vocals and excellent lo-fi production validating her as the total package. Below is “We’ve Got Obsessions”, arguably her strongest track and, somewhat surprisingly, my most listened to song of 2008. Vulnerable, beautiful and damn near perfect. I get chills every third listen or so when that part when the beat drops after the first verse hits.

To quote a breathless Zane Lowe after the conclusion of the first-ever radio play of Guillemots new single, “Get Over It”: “Did you see that coming?” And to be perfectly real with you, no I did not. To say “Get Over It” exceeded my already high expectations would be a significant understatement; this is some “Trains To Brazil” next-level shit right here. “Get Over It” unequivocally marks the pinnacle of the band’s commercial viability to this point in their career, while in now way suppressing their seemingly endless fountain of ambition.

Driving guitars, oscillating synths and the union of Fyfe and Aristazabal’s soaring vocals converge to create a track that, like all great Guillemots songs, is equal parts timeless and forward thinking. And just like “Trains To Brazil”, the message is beautiful: Don’t let anything get you down – get over it. But in the same way the euphoric optimism of “Trains was tempered by overt references to terrorism and the anxiety of life in a post-9/11 (or post 7/7) society, Dangerfield doesn’t hesitate to admit that his advice is not the easiest to follow, even for him. “I want you, I want you like I’m 18″, or hero confesses, before going on: “In another life I’m drenched in sweat with you”, alluding to a past love gone but seemingly not forgotten. It’s this lyrical depth that makes Dangerfield such a special songwriter – the brilliant instrumental and basic lyrical sentiment of “Get Over It” ensures it success from square one, but as always, Guillemots refuse to settle for good enough. It’s this desire to push boundaries and achieve perfection that make them such an exciting band to follow, and the single is all the better for it. An immaculate lead single then, and if the rest of the songs on Red, its parent album, are half this good, then Guillemots just might be usurping Bloc Party in my pantheon of favorite bands before the year is out.

MP3: “Get Over It” – Guillemots

Seriously, the first time I listened to this song the clouds parted, everyone around me broke into synchronized dance and I was sliding down rainbows and riding unicorns and shit. Granted, that could have been all the LSD, but I’d like to think this track has some serious magic in it.

MYSTERY JETS VS EROL ALKAN VS SWITCH
In other British indie-pop news, Mystery Jets released my frontrunner for album of the year last week with their sophomore effort, Twenty One. Singles like “Young Love” and “Two Doors Down” are guaranteed to be huge records in the UK, but lead-off track “Hideaway” is the real stunner of the bunch. One of their darker, more rocking efforts to date, it’s my current favorite track on the album and the news that a Switch remix will be dropping soon and this trailer have me beyond pumped. DJ Neoteric also debuted the remix in his latest mix, but according to the Jets the track doesn’t exist as a lone MP3 anywhere outside of Erol, Switch and Neoteric’s respective hard drives. Keep an eye on this space though…

1. Les Savy Fav, Let’s Stay Friends
2. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
3. M.I.A., Kala
4. Kate Nash, Made of Bricks
5. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Falling just short of this list was Bloc Party’s Weekend In The City and that phenomenal Okkervil River record, and we should make a point not to forget The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinnes any time soon as well.

BEST ALBUM OF 2008(?)

The past two years saw incredible debut albums taking the top spot as my favorite albums of their respective year, with Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm blowing everyone away in 2005 and Guillemots’ Through The Windowpane taking the top honors last year, and 2007 would have been no different had XL gotten their shit together and managed to release Vampire Weekend’s monumental debut LP a month earlier in 2007, rather than waiting until the end of this month to drop the music listening world’s collective jaw. However, the band’s now-infamous Blue CD-R never did see a proper release in ‘07, and thus all eyes (read: mine) are on their upcoming eponymous debut to grab top billing in ‘08.

The Blue CD-R was pretty unfuckwithable in its own right, but their debut LP proper is all kinds of amazing, with two excellent new tracks (including “M79″, possibly their finest work to date) and an actual decent mix of “Walcott”, which easily would have been the best track on their demo had it been given the mix it deserved. All the tracks have been reproduced and properly mixed this time around as well, and though the differences are subtle, they really bring the songs to life and give them the full-bodied sound they deserve. “Campus” and “Walcott” benefit the most from their reincarnation on the album, but the whole thing is pretty remarkable from start to finish. The album was released on Monday, so at long last I can finally share the new recordings. Here’s “M79″ and “Campus”, two tracks that would easily stand out as singles in almost any other band’s repertoire, but will likely go without the spotlight thanks to the incredible standard of quality that’s maintained throughout the album. Oh and when I was listening to “M79″ with Zack over break I promised him I’d go all Pitchfork and be a douche and describe it as “afro-classical”, but I mean, it is. There, I said it.

MP3s:
“M79″ – Vampire Weekend
“Campus” – Vampire Weekend

Obviously, you can’t declare the album of the year when it’s not even February yet, especially since 2008 is already shaping up to be another excellent year for music. Between Vampire Weekend and the Dodos’ Visiter, we’ve already got two albums on par with (if not better than) nearly all of the records in my top five for 2007. And yes, the Dodos album really is that good. Furthermore, there are plenty more releases due out in the first half of 2008 alone that have me seriously, seriously excited. Here are four releases I’m anticipating more than anything else. They are:

21, Mystery Jets
There’s been much talk about this album already as a result of the hype generated by the tracks released by the band since Making Dens dropped in 2006, and while that album was truly a brilliant record in its own right, 21 is shaping up to be a potential instant classic. “Umbrellahead”, the only new track included on Zootime, the band’s US debut early last year, was an extremely promising step in the right direction, but shit started to get really real when the Jets released “Flakes” last December as a free download. Their self-proclaimed “sketchy attempt at Christmas number one”, “Flakes” demonstrated that the band reallly do have the potential to release a world-conquering Christmas number one and was arguably their best track yet. Thus, I was already beginning to froth at the mouth with excitement for their upcoming sophomore record proper (Zootime doesn’t really count, folks), 21, and that was before I got to listen to a few pre-mastered tracks in a brief listening session at an undisclosed location.

And ho-ly shit. Of the three tracks I heard, among which were lead single “Young Love” (due out around March I believe) and the incredible “Two Doors Down” (the likely second single), it was immediately apparent why 21 is already a legitimate contender for album of the year honors in 2008. “Young Love”, a duet with the always lovely Laura Marling, is nothing short of amazing, riding an opening bass riff that sounds downright Motown at times and like nothing else I’ve heard done in Britpop since Guillemots burst onto the scene with Through The Windowpane in 2006, while the unrestrained percussion of “Two Doors Down” (in which our protagonist falls in love with a girl banging away at her drum kit two doors down from him) brilliantly reflects the song’s storyline while at the same time providing the foundation around which Mystery Jets build one of their finest narrative masterpieces yet. Oh and let’s not forget that Captain Erol Fucking Alkan is manning the boards on this one, his first time producing a band for a full record, and from the sound of it it’s shaping up to be some of his best production work yet. Mark my words, this record is going to be amazing.

MP3s:
“Flakes” – Mystery Jets
“Umbrellahead” – Mystery Jets

Red, Guillemots
Speaking of Guillemots, the masterminds behind my favorite record of 2006 (and one of my favorite debuts ever) are back at it and will be releasing their hotly anticipated sophomore album late this March, preceded by lead single “Get Over It” on March 17th. Sadly I haven’t gotten to sit in on any super fly V.I.P. listening sessions for this one, but I was in attendance at Koko last June when the band reduced me to a blithering idiot with the brilliance of “Standing On The Last Star”, one of the new songs slated for inclusion on Red. You can find some extremely shitty footage on YouTube, but don’t even bother – nothing can do this track justice short of seeing it live or, hopefully, hearing it on record. We’re talking some next level, Britpop-goes-disco shit people. I can’t. Fucking. Wait.

Sadly I’ve got nothing to share from the upcoming record, so here’s a modern classic off their last one. Surely you’ve all heard it by now, but more and more I’m begginning to realize that “Trains To Brazil” is my favorite song of all time, so if even just one of you has yet to be touched by its graces then I’ve done my job. And when I say “favorite song of all time”, I don’t mean it’s up there near the top or it’s one of my favorites, but rather I believe it’s truly my single favorite song of the last 2,000 years. It has a lot to do with the memories it’s linked to – walking around UVA (and then Notting Hill a year later) in springtime listening to it, drunkenly yelling out the lyrics with my friends at parties in the summer, dancing in a sparse crowd of barely 40 people at the band’s Koko gig last June – but it’s the song’s unimpeachable message that makes it so enduring: whatever’s got you down, get over it because life is fucking beautiful. So yes, please do enjoy that below if it’s somehow evaded you to this point, along with the band’s crazy-awesome cover of the Streets’ “Never Went To Church” from a little while back.

UPDATE: A one-minute preview of “Get Over It” is now streaming from the Guillemots’ MySpace page and SWEET JESUS… I’m pretty sure this is what it sounds like when an angel gets its wings.
MP3s:
“Trains To Brazil” – Guillemots
“Never Went To Church” – Guillemots

Couples, The Long Blondes
So Someone To Drive You Home was an awesome record and all, but I definitely cried myself to sleep a few nights back in early 2006 when it was announced that Erol Alkan would not, in fact, be producing the record despite his awe-inspiring production work on the band’s B-sides. But things have a way of working themselves out it seems, and the Blondes seem to have gotten it right the second time around, even if it seemed like the only logical thing to do considering two of the Alkan-produced B-sides (that’s “Five Ways To End It” and the amazing “Fulwood Babylon”, for those of you who aren’t up on your Long Blondes’ B-side pedigree knowledge) rivaled damn near everything on their actual record. And again, I’ve got nothing to share from the LP at this point, but Couples lead single “Guilt” drops March 24th and the record follows on its heels shortly thereafter. Suffice it to say, March is shaping up to be the greatest month in history.

MP3s:
“Fulwood Babylon” (Erol Alkan’s 12″ Edit) – The Long Blondes
“Five Ways To End It” (Erol Alkan’s 12″ Edit) – The Long Blondes

In other news, WHY THE FUCK DO GUILLEMOTS AND THE LONG BLONDES HAVE TO BE PLAYING AT THE SAME TIME AT DIFFERENT VENUES ON THE OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE CITY ON THE SAME FUCKING NIGHT. March 11th confronts me with what could possibly be the most possible decision of my adult life.

Little Death, Pete & The Pirates
Okay, so this probably won’t be in the running for album of the year come December, but fuck if I’m not still counting down the days (nay, the hours) until it’s release February 11th. I mean, have you heard the singles off this record. “Come On Feet” had me pretty excited when Mssr. Pea-ness beat everyone to the punch and dropped it last summer, but then “Knots” came along in October and still hasn’t fallen out of heavy rotation on my iPod. I mean, I reviewed it as an 8 out of 10 in early October before realizing I was only listening to the fucking demo. Then I finally got my shit together and tracked down the finished version, and it was like I’d been wasting my time with Kirsten Dunst when I really could have been getting with Natalie Portman all along. Both are great, y’know, but everything about the single version is just a little bit better in every regard. Now, two weeks prior to the album’s release, new single “Mr. Understanding” is streaming on the band’s MySpace and is freshly available for download from both the US and UK iTunes stores and yeah, it totally rules as well. Factor in “Bright Lights” (also streaming on the Pirates’ MySpace) and “She Doesn’t Belong” (available as an exclusive download from Shattered Satellite), and this is shaping up to be one of the finest British guitar-rock debuts in a longgg minute.

Furthermore, I had the pleasure of seeing them last night at the Borderline with my ladyfriend Kelly and they put on easily the best and most fun show I’ve seen since I got here (and please keep in mind I saw Vampire Weekend twice two weeks ago). They opened with “Knots” and closed with now-classic debut single “Come On Feet”, both of which slayed in a live setting, but it was the two new songs from their MySpace, new single “Mr. Understanding” and album-closer “Bright Lights” that were the true highlights of the evening. They rounded out their setlist with a few of the new album tracks as well, and if they’re able to capture the live energy of the tracks on the record, then we’re in for a fucking treat when Little Death drops in a few weeks’ time.