Good Weather For Airstrikes

Shortly after arriving in the UK in January I got an email from one Mr. Jeremy Warmsley tipping me off about an internet TV show he’d launched with his flatmate Fay Buzzard. Built around intimate live performances from London’s brightest young songwriters, Welcome To Our TV Show is a really special look into the extended family of musicians that many of London’s brilliant folk and indie talents belong to. Episode 1 features performances from the Mystery Jets, Laura Marling, Noah & The Whale and of course Warmsley himself, while Episode 2 has Lightspeed Champion, Laura Groves, Emmy The Great and a duet between Emmy and Jeremy in the clip’s final scene. I’m still too incompetent to figure out how to embed YouTube clips on Wordpress, but you’ll find links to both parts of each episode below and I highly recommend you check it out.

Episode 1 (December): [Part One] [Part Two]
Episode 2 (January): [Part One] [Part Two]

The best part of all this, though, is Jeremy’s been kind enough to provide me with MP3s of all of the tracks performed and recorded on the show, and given that many of the songs performed are rare or unreleased material and covers, I’m really happy to make them available for download. Downloads of all of the songs from episodes one and two are available below, but you should definitely view the videos as well.

Episode One
MP3: “Flakes” (Live) – Mystery Jets
MP3: “To Cyril At Crunkmas” (Live) – Noah & The Whale
MP3: “Shine” (Live) – Laura Marling
MP3: “Going Out of My Head” (Live) – Jeremy Warmsley

Episode Two
MP3: “Boat Song” (Live) - Emmy The Great & Jeremy Warmsley
MP3: “Hooker Song” (Live) - Lightspeed Champion
MP3: “I Wish I” (Live) - Laura Groves
MP3: “24″ (Live) - Emmy The Great

Good news and bad news… Bad news: Despite the absurd amount of work that both Rya and I have put into it, the Great Top 50 Singles Project of 2007 has been abandoned. That said, I wouldn’t be completely surprised if it popped up here at some completely arbitrary point far removed from 2007 like July or some shit, so keep hope alive if you can even be bothered to care at this point. Good news: I’ve amassed a ridiculously large backlog of content to post in the epic amount of time spent on that Top Singles bullshit and now that I’ve put it behind me I can get back to my regular posting habits and start disseminating the aforementioned hot jams to the masses. Furthermore, we’ve got a shit ton of exclusive content lined up for you in the coming weeks, so stick around, will you?

Said exclusive content will begin later today or tomorrow, but here’s this in the mean time. I never thought So-Me could top “D.A.N.C.E.”, and then he raised the bar again with his video for Kanye’s “Good Life”. Then he goes and drops this shit on us? Out of control. Fuck YouTube, hi-res download below.

Video: “DVNO”
Artist: Justice
Director: So-Me, Machine Molle and Yourgo Tloupas
Watch: [Daily Motion]
Download: [Quicktime • 32 MB] [direct link]

Word on the street is dude’s got a live action feature-length film in the works. Excited much?

ALSO EXTREMELY IMPORTANT:

Dekker is a friend of mine from Clinton’s and he’s been putting on his excellent Apocalypso night at The Old Queen’s Head in Islington for exactly a year now, and to celebrate they’ve got an extra special line-up all ready to go for Saturday, featuring none other than Paul Epworth A.K.A. Phones A.K.A. Epic Man A.K.A. the fucking man headlining and yours truly getting things started on the ones and twos from 9-10:15 PM. My roommate and I have been DJing under the name Fresh Prints since… alright well this is our first formal gig outside of a few afterparties here and there, but I assure you it’ll be awesome. Anyone coming down (which you should, even if only to see Mr. Epworth do the damn thing from 1:30-2:45) shouldn’t expect any world class transitions or superior mixing skills on display during our set, but you can fully expect to hear jams of the extremely hot variety dropped in spades. Rounding out the night are a live performance from Miss Odd Kid and sets from the Magic Circle and Adventures Close To Home DJs, both of whom know how to put it down with authority, and of course Dekker himself. Set times are below, as well as one of Phones’ finest and most obscure remixes to get you in the mood. See you there?

MP3: “Never Felt Like This Before” (Phones Volt Version) - Shaznay Lewis

• Fresh Prints (9:00-10:15)

• Adventures Close To Home (10:15-11:30)

• Magic Circle (11:30-12:15)

• Miss Odd Kid (12:15-12:45)

• Dekker (12:45-1:30)

• Paul Epworth (1:30-2:45)
• Naomi // (2:45-3:30)

• Everyone (3:30-4:00)

Hey, so I think we can all agree the whole ShareBee thing got real old real quick, so I bit the bullet and bought a new hosting package and so we’re back to direct links again. Everybody wins and shit. Now listen to Rya:

Valentine’s Day is a touchy subject for me. I’m single, you see, and have been going through my “men are slime” phase for like, 38 years. But the Big V is a very difficult thing to ignore, and I have had a few too many hung over February 15ths in my day to only reaffirm this fact. This year, I had big plans for the day-long love-fest: to see The Hours perform at Sotheby’s for the (Auction) Red after party. Such notable artists as Tracy Emin, Murakami, Damien Hirst, and (my fave) Andreas Gursky donated their works to be auctioned off, with all proceeds going to Bono’s (RED) foundation. Those proceeds totaled up to a whopping $42 million bones, so there was a lot of celebrating to do. I didn’t bring my camera, because I thought it’d be a dick move - but that didn’t keep like, every other person there from taking arms-length shots of themselves and their fellow patrons of the fine arts. So, if you want to see how the event went down, hop onto over to some leathery, bottle-blonde, divorced, and loaded Manhattan woman’s Flickr - she’ll be glad you came.

Okay, back to me. I went to the party with my friend Tiffany, she’s also Persian, single, and into alcohol, so she made for an ideal partner in crime. The party started off great; there were celebs everywhere, but none that I pulled an MCA over (I met MCA of the Beastie Boys in 10th grade and cried so hard I almost passed out - awesome). The bar was open, and I took abundant advantage of that (champagne), and there were adorable finger-foods that not one woman (myself included) laid a finger on. Dessert was another story, and I’d like to take this opportunity to holler at the amazing mini-donuts. Shits were the size of like, a quarter and a little extra, but were a million bucks of flavor. Oh, and EVERYTHING was branded with the (RED) logo. Now that I think of it, everything was red - the theme was really apropos, but I was just too hammered to realize it at the time. Okay, that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

Featured artist Damien Hirst, famous for his - okay, you know who Damien Hirst is… and he’s got a giant boner for this band called The Hours. I had some reservations at first, because I was all “can I trust the taste of a man who made artwork out of gluing dead flies onto a canvas?” But I’m glad to say I can. Maybe I’m just too affected by “Gossip Girl,” but I have a sneaking suspicion that lead singer, Antony Genn (who’s been a part of such acts as Pulp and Elastica), banged at least 99% of the ladies in the audience. And he really worked that sexual tension; I mean, I think I was impregnated when we made eye contact. OKAY - now, I’m really going to talk about the show.

This is a great live act - there’s a lot going on onstage, and you can tell that they’re doing something more meaningful than just playing catchy, piano-driven tunes. They also happen to be a great looking band, altogether (shout out to the guitarist with red suspenders), and there was adorable girl drummer. The Hours are a lyrics band, and Genn made sure to annotate the songs’ meanings before diving into them - perhaps so the crowd could learn a thing or two as they swung their hips. Did they come off as pompous for having such a visible compassion for their music? In a word: Yes. But Genn’s onstage banter was successful in keeping them from being branded as too serious, namely when he anointed the crowd as a bunch of “rich motherfuckers” who wouldn’t understand the meaning of the next song, as it was about being “in the the gutter” - but he said it with a laugh, so he didn’t come off like an asshole. This, along with such powerful tracks as “Back When You Were Good” kept the crowd compelled - quite a feat, considering I was standing next to a dude who looked and dressed exactly like John Edwards. I also stood near Dennis Hopper for a bit, but that’s irrelevant. Would I see The Hours again? Sure - it’s meaningful music that I can showcase my moves to, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Okay, so then get this - Genn starts singing “Danny Boy,” which if don’t know, is a fucking AMAZING AND SAD Irish folk song. I had the privilege of singing it for my high school’s select chorus (lead alto, thankyouverymuch), so that was really exciting. But NOTHING prepared me for what happened next. Here’s something I held from you - during the show, I physically knocked into Bono (sorry, bud), so I knew he was in the audience. But then, he went on STAGE. And started to sing The Beatles’ “Revolution #9.” Okay. This is when I went mental. THEN they sang “All You Need Is Love” and I went DOUBLE mental. So basically, I witnessed history. I laughed, I danced, I took a camera phone picture.

Here are some songs I enjoyed from the night.

MP3s:
“Ali In The Jungle” - The Hours
“Back When You Were Good” - The Hours

Also, I meant to put this up as one of my favorite music videos of 2007, but… I forgot. And yeah, we’re well into ‘08 but Derek still hasn’t gotten his shit together and done his 2007 recap annnd now that I saw Bono, it’s relevant! I’m not a U2 fan, but I like this video for “Window in the Skies” and the song is alright, I guess. It features Beck not once, but twice, and Method Man “sings” the chorus. Dreamy?

With every passing day I get closer and closer to completing my Top 50 Singles list, but I’m also constantly coming across exciting new shit that’s begging to be featured on these here pages. Like what, you ask? LIKE THIS: Little Boots, y’all. How every blog ever isn’t currently in a perpetual state of shitting themselves over this remains a mystery, but Little Boots is what you get when Joe Goddard decides to take a break from crafting beats in Hot Chip and teams up instead with Dead Disco frontwoman Victoria Hesketh and it’s fucking excellent. “Stuck On Repeat” is the first single and it sounds like the best track Kylie Minogue never released, while the Joe Goddard production is on par with anything on Made In The Dark. This is the first massive track of 2008 folks, I can’t fucking wait to here this played out in the clubs.

MP3: “Stuck On Repeat” - Little Boots

ALSO AWESOME: PARIS
Rivaling “Stuck On Repeat” in the Awesome Things That Have Recently Happened To Me department was my trip to Paris last weekend. Thursday was pretty low-key while I did my best to regain my health so I could sufficiently rage the rest of the weekend, but Friday and Saturday ruled unbelievably hard. Friday morning was spent drinking wine up on Montmartre and drunkenly exploring the city which was awesome and all, but we crashed hard around mid-afternoon and woke up fully charged and good to go for the Crystal Castles takeover of the Paris Social Club that night. CC didn’t take the stage until around 2:30, so we were all kinds of good to go by the time we rolled up to the club, where the line was around the block and then some. Due to some kind of mix up/the band’s agent living up to his notoriously unreliable reputation we were left off the guest list despite promises to the contrary, but we were able to talk our way in regardless and made it to the stage just as Alice Glass and that other guy in Crystal Castles were taking the stage. And as expected, shit got real crazy real fast. The next forty minutes was pretty much just a blur of sweat and debauchery and more sweat, but one thing is for sure: those French kids flip their fucking shit for that band. Seriously, it was absolute pandemonium. “Air War” was the only disappointment of the show because the sound seemed to be a bit off, but “Alice Practice” fucking KILLED IT when it dropped mid-way through their set. In other Crystal Castles news, it’s a little bit terrifying how well this works.

MP3: “Alice Practice” - Crystal Castles

The rest of the night may or may not have actually happened, but we left the Social Club sometime between the hours of 5-7 AM and my ladyfriend and I woke up around noon on the couch of some kid named Pierce. I don’t even want to hang out with someone named Pierce, let alone wake up on their couch in a foreign city, but yeah… c’est la vie. Saturday was pretty cool too with more hungover adventures around Paris and cigarettes and baguettes on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower, and we were able to find time to make it across town and over to Colette, which rules because I picked up a seriously awesome, seriously limited edish Justice shirt there and realized it’s pretty much the greatest store since Major opened up a block from my house in Georgetown.

MP3: “Streets of Paris” - The Teenagers

Later we met up with our international modelfriend Matt Foley, who aside from being the best looking person I know also scored mad points by taking us to Showcase, a sufficiently ill spot right on the Seine with some of the best DJs I’ve heard in a long time keeping shit really real on the decks all night long. Basically the perfect end to our weekend sojourn. At one point the DJ mixed flawlessly from SebastiAn’s “Fool For Love” remix into that mammoth Soulwax remix of “Phantom Pt. II” and I think I died a little. But yeah, long story short: Paris was a pretty good time.

MP3: “Phantom Pt. II” (Soulwax Nite Version) - Justice

And speaking of “Phantom Pt. II” this unofficial, impossibly fan-made video for the track is totally perfect.

NME SHOCKWAVES HIT LONDON
Despite a glaring lack of sleep and the return of the deathvirus that had plagued my throat the week prior to my Paris soujourn, there was no time to rest when we got back to London because Les Savy Fucking Fav rolled into town for the NME Shockwaves Awards tour and absolutely destroyed the Astoria on Sunday night. Syd sorted us with all access passes and we managed to have a pretty ill time despite our aforementioned sleep deprivation, which wasn’t terribly hard as it was easily one of the best sets I’ve ever seen them play and the crowd was absolutely mental from the minute “The Sweat Descends” and “Patty Lee” dropped all the way until the epic final notes of “Rome” rang out over the audience an hour and change later. So yeah, good times.

We basically lived at the Astoria last week, returning on Wednesday and Thursday night for more NME insanity with Simian Mobile Disco and Justice, respectively. It’s hard to say which was better, as both tend to obliterate any audience in their path, but despite a good showing from Late of the Pier (who seem to have improved dramatically since I saw them with Hadouken last summer) on Thursday night, the edge has to go to Wednesday thanks to a remarkable set from the Whip and a solid effort from Friendly Fires. I’d not expected the Whip to be all that amazing live despite my love for their early singles, but they proved me seriously wrong. “Trash” absolutely slayed as their closing number, but the real surprise was “Divebomb”, easily my least favorite single of theirs to date, which sounded PHENOMENAL blasting from the brilliant Astoria soundsystem and set the tone for what would be one of the best shows I’ve seen in months.

MP3: “Divebomb” - The Whip

Then SMD took the stage and guess what? Dudes still know how to rock the party. Shocker, right? Mssrs. Ford and Shaw pulled out all their usual tricks - awe-inspiring light show, unfuckwithable dance jams, endless knob-twiddling, etc. - but it was the longest set and biggest venue I’d ever seen them play and shit was special. They fleshed out their set with a few excellent instrumental interludes, but they made sure to bring the hits in spades as well. “Sleep Deprivation” and “I Believe” bookended their set in triumphant fashion and remain my favorite works by the duo to date, and all the other highlights off of Attack Decay Sustain Release, as well as bits and pieces of a few of their more well-known remixes (read: “Magick” and “Ladyflash”) kept the crowd in a frenzy the whole night long. Their really wasn’t a dull moment the entire night, which has kind of become SMD’s calling card at this point - you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into when you head out to a Simian Mobile Disco gig, and that’s a fan-fucking-tastic time.

MP3: “Sleep Deprivation” (12″ Edit) - Simian Mobile Disco

Friday I was unbelievably pumped to see DatA do his thing at Egg just down the road from me, but all my friends decided to go to Fabric instead with Adam Freeland and I wasn’t about to see DatA by myself… so yeah, I’m still really bitter about I’ve got to admit that Fabric was an amazing time. My friend Allison is somehow friends with Adam Freeland, who was the headlining DJ that night and also has his own Fabriclive comp (so you know he’s legit), so we were able to bypass the lines and kick it with him in the DJ booth all night which was considerably awesome. I’ve started doing some DJing with my roommate and fucking around with Logic and Ableton (you know, so we can make some TOTALLY BLOGGABLE HITS), so it was cool to get a behind the scenes look at Freeland’s set and see just how much better he is than we’ll ever be. But yeah, dude played a pretty flawless mix of the hits (that Soulwax mix of “Standing In The Way of Control” might never get old) and some more obscure shit, and even though I’d rather have been listening to DatA melting minds with his “Minuit Jacuzzi” mix at Egg, I guess Fabric was cool too.

MP3: “Minuit Jacuzzi” (DatA Remix) - Tepr

I’m literally on DatA’s Myspace trying to figure out which distant European city I’m going to travel to see him play (Electron Festival in Geneva doesn’t sound half bad though), fuck my friends for logically choosing fly V.I.P. no-cover free-drink hook-ups at Fabric over Egg. I may never get over this. I mean, just listen to this shit.

MP3: “I Say You Can’t Stop” (DatA Remix) - Nelson

Finally, the new Mystery Jets single is perfect and timeless and everything you could possibly wanted to be, and the video is all that and more. Who knew Laura Marling could look that good?

I’m unbelievably sick today - it legitimately feels like I’m in a perpetual state of swallowing fire - so forgive me if I’m not exactly on form, but I just wanted to take a quick break from our proper Best of 2007 lists to highlight a track that easily would have broken my top ten of last year had it seen a formal release, but alas I’ve had to wait until finally receiving clearance today from our dear friends at Frenchkiss to post it. The song is “Jody” and it narrowly bests “Fools” as the most impressive track on their remarkable upcoming album, Visiter, showcasing Meric Long’s incredible guitarmanship and songwriting ability. Opening with a languorous riff that recalls Iron & Wine’s more sedated moments, I love how the drums come in off-beat and faster-paced and the guitar has to catch up to it, setting the frantic pace for the track after an intro that suggests a more relaxed experience. Spanning six minutes, the song is consistently evolving into new forms and is the most rewarding track on their upcoming album, even if it lacks the immediacy and contagious accessibility of a track like “Fools”. ShareBee is down today so we’re going zShare for the time being, hope that’s cool with everyone.

MP3: “Jody” - The Dodos

Elsewhere, I’ve already taken in a healthy number of shows in the short time since I’ve been here, including Make Model at the Water Rats (conveniently located right across the street from my flat) last Thursday. They’re a bit of a guilty pleasure, but put on a great live show and all six members seem as if they were born to come together and write chart-topping singles, so yeah, they make me pretty happy. Thus, you can imagine how pumped I was to find this bad boy in my inbox this morning, despite my considerable physical discomfort. Phones, how I’ve missed you.

MP3: “The L.S.B.” (Phones Latino Remix) - Make Model

Next, here’s a new band to get all excited about in 2008. Drowned In Sound have been championing them to no end as of late, but the blogs don’t seem to have picked up on it yet. Their demo EP, available for purchase at 7Digital’s indiestore, is pretty hit or miss in my opinion, but I’ve taken a definite liking to this here track. The Celtic Arcade Fire? Your call I guess.

MP3: “A Good Reason” - Broken Records

Finally, there’s this monster of a track, and even though I’m a bit late to the party I’ve got to do my part to get the word out on this masterpiece. Neither Antony nor his Johnsons we’re ever really my bag, and I’ve always found dude’s eerie-ass vocals to be a bit off-putting, but his vocal contribution on this track is actually perfect. Musically, it sounds like LCD Soundsystem (a long lost remix of the “Tribulations” instrumental, perhaps?), only with more brass and it’s not hard to see how the Brooklyn-based producer ended up signed to Murphy’s DFA imprint. But yeah, if you’ve somehow missed out on this to this point, heed my words and get on this shit.

MP3: “Blind” - Hercules & Love Affair

I’m off to Paris this weekend to see some friends and catch Crystal Castles on Friday night, but hopefully I’ll be damn near finished with my Top Singles list by the time I return.

What up world, sorry I’ve been gone for a minute. I neglected to mention it until now, but I’m spending the semester abroad in London and god damn it’s good to be here. I’m studying at NYU’s London program, living with my best friend from high school in King’s Cross down the street from the Scala and working at Lucky Number Music (Gotye, Sebastien Tellier, Seventeen Evergreen, et al) commissioning remixes and music videos (easily the best job ever), so yeah, shit rules pretty hard right now. That said, I’ve got so much to do these days that it’s been pretty hard to keep up with the site, and I don’t think I’ll be getting any less busy any time soon. I’m hoping my best of lists are still on the way (read: it’s either up here within the next seven days or it won’t ever see the light of day) and I do still intend to do whatever I can to keep this shit regularly updated, but don’t be surprised if things drop off a bit around here this semester. As long as I’m here I might as well drop a few hot jams for you though. I mean, yeah, I’m way busy, but I always make sure to find the time to keep my headphones tuned to the freshest sounds, so here’s some of what I’ve been spinning as of late. Oh and thanks to Rya Backer for being my only friend.

MP3: “Bullets” - Editors [Alternate Link]
So yeah, you’ve probably heard this track, but I may never have heard such a quintessentially British song in my life. I’m not sure what it is really, but this is always the first song I listen to getting off the plane at Heathrow and the last song I play before I leave. An underrated classic from 2005.

MP3: “Don’t Know What To Do With My Hands” - Fans of Kate [Alternate Link]
Go ahead and file this one under British As Shit as well. This one’s been sitting on my hard drive for nearly as long as “Bullets” only this track never got any love from anyone, and Fans of Kate disbanded within a year of its release, dooming it to the annals of obscurity for eternity. Whatever though, I still think it rules.

MP3: “Say Yeah” - Wiz Khalifa [Alternate Link]
Zack showed me a radio rip of this INCREDIBLE track over break and I came pretty close to soiling myself. Alright, it could be better, but endless props to any rapper with the balls to sample ’99’s Alice DJ trance-pop classic “Better Off Alone” on their debut single proper. Here it is in high quality.

MP3: “Divine” - Sebastien Tellier [Alternate Link]
This song is perfect. I wasn’t so sure what to expect after “Sexual Sportswear” failed to live up to its flawless title, but “Divine” restored my faith in the French maestro and the rest of the album, which I was able to pick up from Lucky Number last week, doesn’t disappoint. In other Seb Tellier news, the recently-revealed album artwork for Sexuality is either the best album cover of the last five years or the absolute worst. Thoughts?

MP3: “Happy Rabbit” - Breakbot [Alternate Link]
It remains to be seen just how much influence I’ll have in the remixes department over at Lucky Number, but if there’s one thing I’ll be pushing for from the start it gonna be getting Breakbot on a remix of “Divine”. Dude’s basically Justice if they wrote songs about the beach and summertime and pool parties and shit instead of the whole epic religious/heavy metal imagery they’ve chosen to embrace instead.

MP3: “On My Shoulders” - The Dø [Alternate Link]
Another Parisian act with a unique sound and burgeoning buzz are the half-Finnish, half-Parisian husband-wife duo The Dø. Their excellent debut album, A Mouthful, dropped in France last week, and though “Playground Hustle” is the track that made me fall in love with the band, it’s “On My Shoulders” that has carried the album into the Top 20 in France with its massive success as a single. It forfeits the playful bounce of many of the record’s standout tracks in favor of a darker, more dramatic vibe, but it’s a hell of a song and is just another reason to get very excited about the Dø in ‘08.

MP3: “Hangman” - Eugene McGuinness [Alternate Link]
Staying consistent with a B-side pedigree of remarkably high quality, “Hangman” - off the flipside of last year’s “Bold Street” single - is yet another brilliant track from Eugene McGuinness and another reason to start foaming at the mouth with excitement at the prospect of a proper Eugene McGuinness full-length arriving in late 2008.

MP3: “Rocks & Daggers” - Noah & The Whale [Alternate Link]
The PUSH club night - put on by my main man Imran Ahmed from Abeano Music and the lovely Young & Lost girls - at the Astoria is usually a good bet for a fun-ass Saturday night, but they outdid themselves last week with a Noah & The Whale/Vampire Weekend bill that’s easily the best lineup they’ve ever had. The sound quality eft a bit to be desired, but both bands persevered and failed to disappoint. “Rocks & Daggers” is the B-side to their brand new single “2 Bodies 1 Heart”, but for my money it’s good enough to be a single in its own right.

And speaking of Vampire Weekend, how fucking good is the new video for “A-Punk”? After that dreadful self-made video for “Mansard Roof” I was a bit worried about them, but this new one’s great. Sure, stop-motion is a bit sooo 2006, but that can be forgiven for a video that’s this much fun.

MP3: “Lightbulbs” (James Yuill Remix) - James Yuill [Alternate Link]
We had the pleasure of catching James Yuill at Chocolate Rain last Wednesday and despite us coming in with low expectations it actually kind of ruled. His songs are good and all but you can tell he’s got a serious knack for remixing, as was indicated by an impromptu mid-set interlude in which he dropped a certifiably bananas remix of “Harder Better Faster Stronger” and his mix of the Answering Machines “Lightbulbs” isn’t too shabby either. Further supporting this notion was the completely amazing rendition of Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” that he closed his set with. Apparently he’s heading into the studio to cut a proper recording of the cover next week, and I’m definitely going to see if I can talk to the Chess Club kids about letting me throw it up here, so keep an eye on this space and definitely see James Yuill if you’re in London, which shouldn’t be too hard since dude’s playing like 40 shows around town over the next few months.

MP3: “Pumpkin Soup” (Bloc Party’s Team Tiger Edit) - Kate Nash [Alternate Link]
So yeah, this kind of came out of nowhere. Not bad though.

MP3: “Cryptic” - Pin Me Down [Alternate Link]
While we’re on the subject of Bloc Party, guitarist Russell Lissack - who is also the brains behind the Bloc Party remixes - has a new project with New York City vocalist Milena Mepris called Pin Me Down, and “Cryptic” is the duo’s first single. It’s due out on Kitsune Maison’s GOLD Compilation February 4th and a proper 12″ release for the single will follow in March on the vaunted French house label. I could do with some different vocals I guess, but the guitars are all about that classic Silent Alarm-era Bloc Party sound, and there really isn’t anything more I can ask for than that.

MP3: “Get Lucky” (Outlines Remix) - New Young Pony Club [Alternate Link]
Finally, I’m reposting this absolute gem of a remix because it’s one of the best and most obscure remixes (though it’s more of a cover, really) I heard all last year and it got absolutely no love when I dropped it just after Christmas.
Yo that is a lot of fucking songs. I hope we’re back on good terms now.

So yeah, it’s been a while. I’ve been extremely busy over this holiday break doing absolutely nothing and listening to the Dodos and Noah & The Whale on repeat, as well as getting started on my lengthy-ass best of ‘07 lists. And since Noah & The Whale are all over said year-end lists, what better way to celebrate today than with a very special Christmas track from everyone’s favorite new British folk collective. “To Cyril At Crunkmas” is the band’s contribution to Puregroove’s Christmas Mixtape, which also features festive contributions from the likes of Lightspeed Champion and Eugene McGuinness. Those interested in hearing the rest of the tracks can hear them at the special MySpace pages Puregroove has set up for the mixtape - Side A is here and Side B is here - and Noah & The Whale’s cut is available for download below.

MP3: “To Cyril At Crunkmas” - Noah & The Whale [Alternate Link]

In other Noah news, the band recently became the first act to sign on with the lovely Young & Lost Club girls to put out their debut long-player. Young & Lost now have a deal with Universal and as a result are able to expand into the full-length market, and Noah & The Whale look set to become Y&LC’s flagship artist in 2008. Their first single since signing with the label two months ago will be “2 Bodies 1 Heart”, the demo of which I threw up here and extolled it’s brilliance when I first introduced the band way back when, and it was made available for download from iTunes on Christmas Day. The 7″ won’t drop for two more weeks however, but when it does it’ll come backed by the amazing “Rocks & Daggers”, which could do pretty well as a single in its own right. I’ve had the demos of these tracks for ages, and I recently acquired a solid grip of the re-produced album versions of many of their songs, and it looks like their as-yet-unannounced debut album is shaping up to be something very special. Get at the demos of “Bodies” and “Rocks & Daggers” below, and be sure to stream the finished version of the A-side on their MySpace or pick it up on the UK iTunes at your earliest convenience.

MP3s:
“2 Bodies 1 Heart” (Demo) - Noah & The Whale [Alternate Link]
“Rocks & Daggers” (Demo) - Noah & The Whale [Alternate Link]

Just wait until you hear the final versions. Seriously. Oh, and James Copeman’s gone and directed another fantastic video for “Bodies”, which you should once again check out here if you’re one of those Wes Anderson types.

And it wouldn’t be a Noah & The Whale post without some news on frequent Noah collaborator and often-time video co-star Laura Marling, who recently followed up her excellent My Manic & I EP with a lovely new digital-only single just in time for the holidays (a physical release will follow next month). The Manic EP has proven to be one of my favorite releases of 2007, and new single “Ghosts” unveils a new, fuller sound for the shockingly young singer-songwriter. Where “New Romantic” and “My Manic & I” made their money on bare-bones arrangements that highlighted her unbelievable vocal and lyrical talent, “Ghosts” is a whole new animal, demonstrating a pop sensibility only hinted at on her earlier releases. It’s opening verses embrace that familiar Marling sound, but before too long the track erupts into an unrestrained climax of group vocals (no doubt featuring the Noah & The Whale boys), pounded keys and galloping drums. Yet another awe-inspiring single from Miss Marling then, and its getting to be really exciting to watch these two acts as they rise to the top of this so-called new folk scene.

MP3: “Ghosts” - Laura Marling [removed]

And finally, it wouldn’t be a Christmas post without some kind of totally awesome sonic treat for you to flip your shit for, and I’m pretty confident I’ve got just the thing. We’re probably all at least mildly familiar with the most recent New Young Pony Club single, “Get Lucky”, by now (or at the very least you’ve heard the MSTRKRFT remix), but you seriously haven’t lived until you’ve heard the Outlines take on the track. In what is probably the best and most obscure gem I’ve come across all year, the B-side to the 7″ release of “Get Lucky” featured the “Outlines Remix” of the track, but this is more of a cover than anything else, as the French trio scrap all of the original vocals and instrumentation and start over from scratch. I was of the mind that “Get Lucky” was NYPC’s weakest single to date - I mean, it’s perfectly fine, but it’s just kind of there, y’know? - but in the context of Outlines’ jazzy hooks and those smoother-than-smooth falsetto vocals it’s all of a sudden like the best thing ever. Seriously, I’m physically unable to get enough of this shit. Merry Christmas and I hope you feel the same way.

MP3: “Get Lucky” (Outlines Version) - NYPC ((highly recommended)) [Alt. Link]

And finally, I’m going to take advantage of this whole Christmas spirit thing I hear so much about and cheekily direct your attention to that PayPal donations link over there beneath the secondary GWFAS logo on the page. I’m planning a fairly significant overhaul of the site for sometime in the first half of ‘08, complete with new reliable hosting that actually works, a classy redesign and a shit-ton of other new features, but those things don’t exactly come for free. Thus, whatever you feel like donating - $5, $10, sexual favors, etc. - would be more than appreciated, and I look forward to seeing you guys back here soon for our massive, empire-toppling, ship-sinking best of 2007 extravaganza.

I generally try to keep my passion for sports and, more specifically, the Washington Redskins, removed from these pages, but today one of the single greatest tragedies in National Football League history befell my beloved hometown team. Sean Taylor, perhaps my favorite defensive player of all-time, was shot in the leg at his home during a break-in in the early hours of Monday morning and died this morning in a Miami hospital after losing massive amounts of blood sustained from the wound to his femoral artery. No NFL player has died during the season since 1971, let alone one as critical to his team as Sean Taylor has been over the past four seasons.

Taylor was the heart and soul of the Redskins defense and was one of the most talented defensive players in the NFL. Drafted fifth overall in the 2004 NFL draft after a dominant collegiate career at the University of Miami, Taylor immediately established himself as one of the NFL’s most promising defensive talents and could have gone down as one of the greatest safeties of all time. His presence alone could shape an entire football game, and as a Redskins season ticket holder (and having attended the 2003 National Championship between Miami and Ohio State) I watched him establish himself as one of the most brilliant defensive talents football has ever seen. His absence over the last two games due to a knee injury sustained against Philadelphia two weeks ago is a primary reason for the Redskins current three-game losing streak, and this an unfathomably crippling blow to the team both on and off the field.

Surrounded by off-field controversy during the early years of his career, this season saw Taylor mature both as a person and a team leader after the birth of his first child. “It’s hard to expect a man to grow up overnight,” Redskins running back and Taylor’s college teammate at Miami told ESPN. “But ever since he had his child, it was like a new Sean, and everybody around here knew it. He was always smiling, always happy, always talking about his child.”

Words cannot do justice to this unspeakable tragedy (nor can music). I had my fill of DC this break and there’s a lot going on in New York this weekend, but I’ll be driving down for the Skins home game against the Bills this Sunday to pay my respects. Today the world lost one of the greatest athletic talents I’ve ever had the privilege to see perform, and he will be sorely missed by all those who ever had the pleasure of watching this young man play.

Their self-proclaimed “sketchy attempt at Christmas number one”, “Flakes” would never be able to reach that mark for obvious reasons, not the least of which being that you can’t purchase the single even if you wanted to (they’re giving it away for free download starting Wednesday). That’s not to say, however, that it doesn’t embody all the essential qualities of your classic Christmas number one, before the honor came to be routinely claimed by conveniently-timed debuts from your X Factor winners and larger than life pop stars dropping novelty one-off Christmas singles. Like “Mad World” in 2003, it’s everything Christmas number one should be - epic, powerful, timeless - but unlike Gary Jules surprise megahit, “Flakes” would hardly make a dent in the charts even if it were to see a formal release in the next month. That’s just the way it goes though, and it doesn’t mean “Flakes” isn’t one of the best songs you’ll hear all year.

Most of all, it reminds you what a weak year its been for quintessentially Britpop singles; it’s more affecting than anything since Guillemots bestowed the retro-pop masterpieces of Through The Windowpane unto the world in the spring of 2006. It’s slow to reveal itself, it’s brilliance shrouded in a delicate vulnerability (Stereogum cites the song’s “Buckley-ish vocals”) that gradually builds to an epic swell of “oh-oh-oh’s” that recalls the mood of Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House (could this be their “Knife”?) more than anything on the Jets’ 2005 debut. It announced itself to me as something Definitely Special from the start, but it wasn’t until last night during an errant venture through the Financial District that everything clicked. “Flakes” was playing as I crossed a rainy street near the seaport and rounded a corner directly into the shadow of 30-foot Christmas tree, and it suddenly become apparent that yes, in some utopian parallel universe, this really is Christmas number one.

MP3: “Flakes” - Mystery Jets ((highly recommended)) [Alternate Link]

And all that without a single mention of Erol Alkan’s production work on the track. I know, right? That’s mainly because regardless of production, “Flakes” would likely be able to stand alone as one of the year’s triumphant tracks even in its rawest form, but the cavernous mix of the vocals is a subtle touch that makes it just that much better. Mystery Jets upcoming second album will be Erol’s first full album production credit, and while he’s not terribly ostentatious on “Flakes”, it’s not the kind of track that needs a producer to make their presence known; subtlety is the name of the game here. That said, his nigh-on impeccable pedigree as a producer - both as a remixer and in rock music (”Fulwood Babylon”, anyone?) - suggests we have a lot to look forward to on the band’s upcoming LP. Between “Flakes” and last winter’s first taste of “Umbrellahead” and the “Elizabeth” demo, Mystery Jets’ as-yet-untitled sophomore effort is shaping up to be a potential classic in waiting.

MP3: “Half In Love With Elizabeth” (Electric Demo) - Mystery Jets [Alt. Link]

On a completely serious note, may Sean Taylor be in our thoughts tonight. ST21

Things have been slow here this week, but I’m home for the holidays and that’s just how it is. As much as I loathe Thanksgiving itself (the result of a general disdain for both turkey and the vast majority of my extended family), it’s definitely nice to get away from New York for a minute. DC has never been better and there’s honestly nothing more enjoyable than going around your room and accidentally stumbling across all the stuff you had to hide from your parents in high school (read: cigarettes, drug paraphernalia, condoms, illegal immigrants, etc.), but the best thing about being back in the Chocolate City is being reunited with my car and its iller-than-ill soundsystem. Gary and I took the Chariot 2.0 on a mid-atlantic university tour through Virginia and North Carolina over the weekend and you better believe I was rockin’ this mix the whole way.

Comprised predominantly of slammin’ rock and electro tracks that are ideal for driving at absurd speeds on dark highways, M3 Volume 16 is undeniably the hotness. With a nice array of tracks including well-established cuts from Test Icicles, the Strokes and Bloc Party, and more recent favorites from the likes of Danger, Fortune, and the Author, the mix is dropping heat all over the place. With Les Savy Fav bringing the fucking rock on “Slugs In The Shrubs” and “Raging In The Plague Age” at one end of the spectrum and Ghosthustler, Calvin Harris and Danger keeping it shit-hot at the other end with some bangin’ electronics, Vol. 16 has got it all. Looking past the more recognizable names on the tracklist, definitely don’t sleep on the excellent cuts from These New Puritans, Damn Shames and Late of the Pier either, and those of you who already wrote “Flux” off weeks ago (yeah, that was me too) would be wise to give it another chance because the 12″ version is 100% off the chains, owning the original in every possible way.

High Resolution Artwork: [Front Cover] [Back Cover]

Download: M3 Volume 16 [follow link]

M3 Volume 16:
01. “Circle Triangle Square” - Test Icicles [Alternate Link]
02. “Slugs In The Shrubs” - Les Savy Fav [Alternate Link]
03. “Heart In A Cage” - The Strokes [Alternate Link]
04. “Raging In The Plague Age” - Les Savy Fav [Alternate Link]
05. “Bully” - Fortune [Alternate Link]
06. “Taxi” - The Author [Alternate Link]
07. “Reactor Party” - ShitDisco [Alternate Link]
08. “Elvis” - These New Puritans [Alternate Link]
09. “Luno” - Bloc Party [Alternate Link]
10. “Dancing In The Aisles” - Damn Shames [Alternate Link]
11. “Busy Busy Busy” - Ghosthustler [Alternate Link]
12. “Bathroom Gurgle” - Late of the Pier [Alternate Link]
13. “Merrymaking At My Place” - Calvin Harris [Alternate Link]
14. “Flux” (12″ Version) - Bloc Party [Alternate Link]
15. “11h30″ - Danger [Alternate Link]