One of the many perks of writing such a hugely successful blog is all the free stuff that piles through my letter box. On one occasion the blonde one out of The Ting Tings sailed through my flap and landed on the mat. Behind her dropped an envelope containing two free tickets to see Fujiya & Miyagi and my heart sung out with..."who?" But seeing as I'm so eager to broaden my horizons I went along anyway and had a mighty good time. The stand-out track was called 'Knickerbocker', a song so hypnotic it might actually take over your brain and make you eat only ice cream until you sweat mint choc chip. The video is very useful as it visualises all the words, thus making it entertaining to thick people. Everybody; "vanilla, strawberry, Knickerbocker glory".
Next up is a song by The Walkmen called 'In The New Year'. A few years ago The Walkmen released a single ('The Rat') that was so impossibly perfect that no-one brought it. No-one dared sully it's perfection by actually listening to it or handing over money in exchange for ownership. Since that moment, The Walkmen have tried to make less and less interesting music in the hope that it would equal sales and it hasn't so they've gone back to what they know. Thank God for that. No, really, do it now.
Don't have nightmares.
Do you remember where you were the day Destiny's Child broke up? I know I do. I was busy preparing myself for the imminent domination of a certain Miss Beyonce Knowles; singer of songs, magician of movies, winner of wars (OK, the second one doesn't really work). When I first heard 'Crazy In Love' I thought all my hopes/fears had been realised in three beautiful minutes and for a few months Beyonce was indeed the Queen of just about everything humanly possible. Then, suddenly, antipathy set in and the music sagged and the albums spluttered and things got so bad that Kelly Rowland was allowed to release music and people were allowed to buy it. Beyonce even threw some scraps from her table, giving hints that a reunion may be on the cards. Oh holy goddess, how you tempt those beneath you, etc, etc.
Things must be pretty bad right now, because the third member of Destiny's Child (yes, there was a third member), Michelle Williams, has snuck out from the shadows with a brand new single. And it's not gospel. (For those that don't know, when the band first took a break it was decreed by them all- or just Beyonce- that Kelly Rowland would release R&B music, Williams gospel and Beyonce pop music. Mmm, who got the short straw there?). Anywho, she's back, and I hope for her sake that Beyonce hasn't heard this because 'We Break The Dawn' is a big, shiny R&B hit that makes a mockery of most of B'Day.
The album's called Unexpected. In your face Knowles.
Gargantuan man/woman/hermaphrodite singer Antony (along with his Johnsons) have announced details of their new single entitled 'Another World'. The single is out in the UK on 7 October and will be backed with four other songs, which probably means it's chart illegible but that means diddly squat to someone who sings mainly about breast amputation and death.
Here's the cover. Unsurprisingly it mixes decadence, campery, melancholy and monochrome:
Here is the EP's full track listing:
01 Another World
02 Crackagen
03 Shake That Devil
04 Sing for Me
05 Hope Mountain
Antony & the Johnsons last album, the Mercury prize winning I am a bird now, was one of my personal favourites of that year and I don't mind saying I'm pretty damn excited about the follow-up, The Crying Light, due in January 2009. The band will also be touring in October in venues big enough to house a full symphony orchestra. So not the 100 Club then.
A reminder of that voice:
Bored of all this pop talk? Think perhaps Will Young is a bit too mainstream for your tastes? Well, don't ever say that Musick doesn't do versatility, and to prove it, here's the rather wonderful new video from everyone's favourite band, Stereolab.
The song is called 'Neon Beanbag' (beat that Gareth!) and is taken from their bouncy new album Chemical Chords, which is out now. It looks exactly like you'd imagine a Stereolab video to look like, which is only a good thing surely?
Here's a brighter, even more Stereolab Stereolab video for 'Three Women'.
So many pretty colours.
It's always nice to encourage debate, especially when it's to do with music. Plus, that's kind of the whole point of writing a blog in the first place. So, I was pleasantly surprised to be told that there had been 20 (!) comments left underneath what seemed like a fairly harmless post about Will Young's new single. Now, 20 comments isn't really that many in the grand scheme of things, but here at Musick that's the comment-leaving equivalent of a gold medal (always there with something topical to anchor the point).
What was more surprising is that the post seemed to unearth some passionate vitriol amongst the Gareth Gates fans out there, who seem to have taken umbrage at my suggestion that Gates has been relatively unsuccessful of late. He has, of course, appeared on Dancing On Ice (the show and the tour), taken part in a celebrity golf tournament and moved from an apartment to a house. That's me well and truly told. There were also some strong comments directed at Will regarding his part in Gareth's musical downfall, as if Will has some stranglehold on the media or people's ability to hear.
Personally, I think this is what killed Gareth's singing career...
'Go Your Own Way' (ah, that title says it all doesn't it?) was Gareth's second album and contained no less then 19 songs. It reached number 11. Note to record companies; don't let your 'artist' release a double album. Ever. Especially if said singer is Gareth Gates whose main appeal at that time was to a very young demographic, not known for high attention spans.
This probably didn't help either...
Sorry.
Six years have passed since Will was crowned Pop Idol winner, perhaps it's now time to let this bloody battle die, along with the hopes of so many reality TV stars.
Here at Musick, we don't like poking fun at the obvious. It's not pretty, it's not fair and it makes us look really bad in the process. BUT there are always exceptions to every rule, and I think I've found the get out clause right here.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the return of Oasis.
Hey Noel, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club called, they think they saw you outside their studio the other day. Yeah, they want their b-side back. Cheers.
I had high hopes for Bloc Party after their debut album Silent Alarm, yet somehow they managed to balls it all up with the deeply depressing (not in the way they wanted) A Weekend In The City. Since then they've released 'Flux', a song not a million miles away from Cher circa 'Believe', and current single 'Mercury'. Both songs are musically quite interesting- lots of electronic blips and bleeps mixing with the guitars- but both suffer from some horrendous lyrics, a problem that hampered their second album. But, perhaps to disguise this fact, they've announced that their third album, Intimacy, will be released this Thursday via download and then 'properly' in October. Unlike Radiohead's attempt to destroy the record industry, fans will have to pay a set amount for the mp3s, five English pounds to be precise.
For those that can't wait two whole days, the band has released a taster of things to come with 'Trojan Horse'. It's got electronic blips and bleeps that mix with guitars and is hampered by some atrocious lyrics...business as usual then.
