Enter Shikari – ‘The Paddington Frisk’

Friday, April 5th, 2013

Given it’s exclusive first airing on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 Show last night as “Hottest Record In The World”, ‘The Paddington Frisk’ earned an unprecedented 4 plays in a row from the DJ!

The video went live instantly after the first play and caused a storm amongst Shikari fans and bemused Japanese people alike…

Filmed in London under the direction of Love Vis-Art, the video tells the touching story of a girl, her noose, and her anthropomorphic crocodile.

‘The Paddington Frisk’ is the first release of 100% newly recorded material since the January 2012 release of the album ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’.

‘The Paddington Frisk’ was co-produced by the band and Dan Weller, and recorded in Lincolnshire in February of this year.

Enter Shikari’s special tour of (largely) lesser-visited UK & Irish towns and cities commenced last night at the Dorking Halls (in Dorking, would you believe) and continues through April into early May.

The band kick of a busy European festival season in June with their biggest UK festival billing to date, headlining the second stage on Saturday at Download Festival 2013. 

RETURN TO ENERGISER TOUR 2013

APRIL
Thur 4th – Dorking – Dorking Halls (Sold Out)
Fri 5th – Frome – Cheese & Grain (Sold Out)
Sat 6th – Plymouth – University (Sold Out)
Mon 8th – Falmouth – Princess Pavilion (Sold Out)
Tue 9th – Salisbury – City Hall (Sold Out)
Wed 10th – Weston Super Mare – Grand Pier
Fri 12th – Swansea – Brangwyn Hall (Sold Out)
Sat 13th – Ebbw Vale – Leisure Centre
Mon 15th – New Brighton – Floral Pavilion (Sold Out)
Tue 16th – Kilmarnock – Grand Hall
Wed 17th – Inverness – Iron Works
Thur 18th – Aberdeen – Garage (Sold Out)
Sun 21st – Galashiels – Volunteer Hall
Mon 22nd – Lincoln – Engine Shed
Tue 23rd – Scarborough – Spa. Grand Hall (upgraded from Ocean Rooms)
Wed 24th – Scunthorpe – Baths Hall
Fri 26th – Hatfield – Forum (Sold Out)
Sat 27th – Northampton – Roadmender (Sold Out)
Sun 28th – Peterborough – Cresset (Sold Out)
Tue 30th – Belfast – Mandela Hall 

MAY
Wed 1st – Derry – Nerve Centre
Thur 2nd – Cork – Pavilion
Fri 3rd – Dublin – Academy
Sat 4th – Lierpool – Academy (Liverpool Sound City)
Sun 5th – Coventry – Kasbah (Sold Out)

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Heaven’s Basement – ‘I Am Electric’

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

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Radio 1 – In New Music We Trust playlist
Radio 1 – Sara Cox – Record Of The Week
Featured on ‘Need For Speed: Most Wanted 2012′
On Tour With Black Veil Brides in Europe throughout April

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Heaven’s Basement - ‘Filthy Empire’ - Album Out Now on Red Bull Records

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Heaven’s Basement:  Web Facebook  -  Twitter

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Harper Simon – ‘Division Street’ – Out On Monday

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

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Harper Simon - ‘Division Street’(Play It Again Sam) - Out on Monday 1st April

Sunday Times – Album Of The Week
Q – 4/5

Uncut – 7/10
In session on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6Music show – 9th April

The return of Harper Simon – with his brand new album ‘Division Street’ – the follow-up to his critically acclaimed self-titled debut.

‘Division Street’ is a departure for Simon. It features a sound that’s much more driven by electric guitars than his alt country-flavoured debut. “The mission was to make the kind of rock ‘n’ roll record I would want to listen to myself,” he says. “Which sounds simple but is, in fact, incredibly difficult”.

‘Division Street’ was recorded with a small coterie of guest musicians, including Pete Thomas from Elvis Costello’s Attractions on drums, Nikolai Fraiture from The Strokes on bass, vocals by Inara George, Feist’s musical director Brian LeBarton playing synths, as well as Nate Walcott from Bright Eyes and Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen.

Produced by Tom Rothrock (Elliott Smith, Beck).

Harper Simon:   Web  -  Facebook  -  Twitter

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Dead Can Dance – ‘Anastasis’ Deluxe Edition and Brand New ‘In Concert’ Live Album

Monday, March 11th, 2013

DeadCanDance_AnastasisInConcertDeluxeEdition

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Dead Can Dance – ‘Anastasis’ deluxe double live edition, double live standalone CD and triple vinyl boxset

Year-long World Tour continues

Live at The Roundhouse in London on 2nd July

Dead Can Dance will release a deluxe live edition of their current album ‘Anastasis’ through Dead Can Dance/[PIAS] Recordings on 22nd April. The band has also announced a show at London’s Roundhouse on 2nd July.

The show follows the band’s Royal Albert Hall performance last October, which sold out in under 48 hours. Dead Can Dance’s current year-long world tour is their first since 1995 and features 85 shows across 4 continents. Performing to over 400,000 people, the band have appeared at some of the world’s most iconic venues incl. Sydney’s Royal Opera House, London’s Royal Albert Hall and New York’s Beacon Theatre. Dead Can Dance will also make various festival appearances this year and have confirmed slots at Coachella, Primavera and Roskilde.

“I would say without hesitation that this has been the most rewarding tour that we have ever undertaken,” notes Brendan Perry. “On one level it has been an absolute pleasure to perform in such beautiful locations with such a wonderful band and crew, but also to be able to connect on a personal level with the many devoted admirers of our art both old and new. It would seem in our case absence has certainly made the heart grow fonder and it has been an absolute joy to be given the opportunity to be able to share our music in the ultimate setting of the living work”.

Released last August ‘Anastasis’ is Dead Can Dance’s first album since 1996’s ‘Spiritchaser’ and has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.

Available on the following formats, the deluxe live edition of ‘Anastasis’ will be followed by a single ‘Children of the Sun’ on 1st July:

Dead Can Dance – ‘Anastasis (Deluxe Live Edition)’
2 x CD – CD1 : ‘Anastasis’ original studio album // CD2 : In Concert (60 minute 11 track live concert edit)

Dead Can Dance – ‘In Concert’ – Triple Vinyl
3 LP box – Full 90+ minute concert  spread over 3 x 180gm LPs with art print flats and digital download code of full album

Dead Can Dance – ‘In Concert’ – Double CD
2 x CD – Full 90+ minute concert over 2 CDs

Dead Can Dance – ‘In Concert’ – Digital Version
Full 90+ minute concert

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The Jim Jones Revue – The Sebright Sessions // Brand New Single ’7 Times Around The Sun’

Monday, March 11th, 2013

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The Jim Jones Revue :: The Sebright Sessions :: 8-11 May

’7 Times Around The Sun’ :: New Single – 13th May

Four intimate shows by The Jim Jones Revue with Special Guests at The Sebright Arms in Hackney, East London

’7 Times Around The Sun’ is the third single to be released from The Jim Jones Revue critically acclaimed album The Savage Heart produced by Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave & The Band Seeds). 

’7 Times Around The Sun’ is a great example of The Savage Heart’s musical diversity – no guitars (A JJR first!) – just piano, drums and a call and response gospel type vocal between Jim Jones and The ‘Revue. Lyrically Jim delves into the past and deals with the subject of overcoming drug addiction touching on a part of a personal journey that ultimately led to the forming of The Jim Jones Revue with Rupert Orton.

The Jim Jones Revue have built a formidable reputation as a live band selling out The Electric Ballroom and a host of other venues on their last UK tour last October.

To mark the release of ‘7 Times Around The Sun’ The JJR have curated a special event going back to their roots with a 4 date residency at The Sebright Arms  in the heart of  their home in Hackney.

Over four shows at The Sebright The JJR have hand picked a bill of friends, special guests, bands and DJs.

Among many highlights will be guest spots from Emma Richardson from Band of Skulls and Hollie Cook, DJs including Douglas Hart (The Jesus & Mary Chain) and Barry ‘Scratchy” Myers (The Clash tour DJ) plus many more guests and DJs to be announced nearer the time or on the night of the shows.

Support acts confirmed so far include John J Presley and The Rotten Hill Gang.

The Rotten Hill Gang show is a West/East London rematch after TRHG invited Jim and Rupert to play with them on a special Rotten Hill TV show directed by The Clash’s Mick Jones filmed in his West London studio and compered by Don Letts. One of the tracks they played together was Tin Soldier by The Small Faces which The JJR will play with Hollie Cook & Annie Bea on backing vocals.

More bands, special guests, DJs and surprises to be announced over the forthcoming weeks.

’7 Times Around The Sun’ is released by Play It Again Sam and Punk Rock Blues Records on Monday 13 May.

The Sebright Arms shows go on sale to JJR fans on Friday 8 March and general sale on Monday 11 March through www.wegottickets.com and www.ticketweb.co.uk

The Jim Jones Revue Sebright Sessions

8-11 May 2013

The Sebright Arms
31-35 Coate Street
London
E2 9AG
020 7729 0937

www.sebrightarms.co.uk

8pm Doors for all shows

The Sebright Sessions Schedule:

The Jim Jones Revue headline each night with the following guests and DJs ……

Wednesday 8 May

Guest Emma Richardson (Band of Skulls)
DJ Douglas Hart (Jesus & Mary Chain)
Support John J Presley

Direct Ticket Link  http://www.wegottickets.com/event/213010

Thursday 9 May

Guest: Very Special Guest To Be Announced on the night
DJ Lois Wilson (Mojo)
Support TBC

Direct Ticket Link  http://www.wegottickets.com/event/213011

Friday 10 May

Guest: Very special guest to be announced on the night
DJ Scratchy (Clash tour DJ)
Support: TBC

Direct Ticket Link  http://www.wegottickets.com/event/213012

Saturday 11 May

Guests: Hollie Cook & Annie Bea
DJ TBC
Support: The Rotten Hill Gang 

Direct Ticket Link  http://www.wegottickets.com/event/213013

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Texas – ‘The Conversation’

Monday, March 11th, 2013

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In their 25th anniversary year Texas release their brand new studio album ‘The Conversation’ through  [PIAS] Recordings on May 20th 2013.

The album will be preceded by the single also called ‘The Conversation’ on May 13th.

Texas’s eighth album, ‘The Conversation’ is their first in eight years and is the latest in a career that has seen the band sell over 30 million albums worldwide with a succession of multi-platinum albums ‘White on Blonde’, ‘The Hush’ and ‘Greatest Hits’.

This overdue return in 2013 clearly redefines and confidently re-introduces the band afresh with tracks written and produced by singer/guitarist Sharleen Spiteri and bassist Johnny McElhone and featuring collaborations with singer-songwriter Richard Hawley and Bernard Butler.

‘The Conversation’ is an album splitting its seams with the joy of a long-proven pop force creating a collection of songs rich enough in melody and emotion to deserve filing beside the best of the band’s previous million-selling hits.The album was recorded in Glasgow, London and at Richard Hawley’s studio in Sheffield where the seven tracks he worked on went on to form the backbone of ‘The Conversation’: a perfect marriage of Hawley’s 50s rock’n’roll frills and the timeless Texas magnetism to cast-iron melodies.

Texas will launch the album with three live shows in Glasgow, London and Paris, full details tba!

‘The Conversation’ tracklisting:

The Conversation
Dry Your Eyes
If This Isn’t Real
Detroit City
I Will Always
Talk About Love
Hid From The Light
Be True
Maybe I
Hearts Are Made To Stray
Big World
I Need Time

WEB: http://www.texas.uk.com/

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/texastheband

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VOTE ALT-J! Brits 2013: British Breakthrough Act

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Vote

VOTE!

For ALT-J in the Brits 2013 ‘British Breakthrough Act’.

HERE

Voting closes at 6pm this evening.

Brand New Track: Ghostpoet ‘MSI MUSMID’

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

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Two years on from the release of his Mercury nominated debut, ‘Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam’, Ghostpoet announces his second album ‘Some Say I So I Say Light’ which will be released on the 6th May 2013 through Play It Again Sam.

Alongside news of ‘Some Say I So I Say Light’, Ghostpoet premiered teaser track ‘MSI MUSMID’ on Gilles Peterson’s Saturday BBC 6Music Show.

Obaro says ‘MSI ‪MUSMID’ pronounced “M S I” “MUS” “MID” “is a track based on a dream I had where dimsum and noodles were life-long friends who kept squabbling all the time…I try in vain to make sense of it all.”

‘‪MSI ‪MUSMID’ is streaming now on both Ghostpoet’s website and Soundcloud, however it will become available as a free download once the song has been re-posted within the Soundcloud community 1000 times.

‘Some Say I So I Say Light’ was co-produced with the talented Richard Formby (Wild Beasts, Darkstar, Egyptian Hip-Hop) and pushes Ghostpoet even further in all directions, mixing the abstract and the concrete with uncanny skill. ‘Some Say I So I Say Light’ positions Ghostpoet alongside the likes of Tricky and The Streets – modern British auteurs who are as interested in pushing the boundaries sonically as expressing cathartic feelings.

www.ghostpoet.co.uk

www.twitter.com/ghostpoet

www.facebook.com/ghostpoetfb

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Spotlight: Matthew E. White’s ‘Big Inner’

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew E. White‘Big Inner’ (Domino) – Out Now!

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Just some of the amazing press love ‘Big Inner’ has garnered so far:

“Over seven elegant tracks, White and his musicians achieve the kinds of loveliness that Spiritualized, Lambchop, Cat Power and Beta Band have tilted at, at different times in the past, and quite often missed”The Observer ‘Album of the Week’ (5/5)

“A genuinely great artist”The Guardian ‘Album of the Week’ (5/5)

“A contender for album of the year”The Sun (5/5)

“A genuine classic” - Independent On Sunday (5/5)

“One of the great albums of modern Americana and one suspects that a reluctant start is born”Uncut ‘Album of the Month’ (9/10)

“A debut album of psychedelic gospel-tinged gems”Mojo (4/5)

“Incredibly accomplished”The Times (4/5)

“Pure quality”The Evening Standard (4/5)

“A hugely impressive debut”The Independent (4/5)

“An uplifting record, all the more enjoyable for its sense of restraint”Metro (4/5)

“White has sewn together a psychedelic patchwork from various indigenous sounds – cosmic soul and funk, morning-after blues – that’s as great as any of its obvious influences… cosmically knowing but with nifty footwork”Q (4/5)

“Many have tried to recreate the vibrancy and laidback groove of vintage soul-pop, but to absolutely nail it you need to be someone truly cosmic. Amy Winehouse just about managed it and Matthew E White is one other such person”NME (8/10)

“Soaked in a bygone age of classic country soul… one of the coolest cats you’re likely to come across in 2013″Music Week

“If you like Randy Newman and Lambchop, Big Inner will have a similar effect on you”The Sunday Times

“Bathe in the redemptive charm of an orchestrally dense paean to the seventies… somewhere between Nick Drake and Cat Stevens”GQ

“Some of the most soulful and uplifting indie music around”Stool Pigeon

“This is the kind of debut on which devotional followings are founded”The Skinny (4/5)

“Reading the classics will never guarantee making a classic album, but Matthew E White is one certainly one student that’s just joined the masters”The Line of Best Fit (9/10)

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Watch the official video for ‘Big Love’, here.

ENJOY.

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Your Humble Web Monkey’s Super Hot Cyber Ketchup

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Poppa Monkey here – at your humble service – with all the sexy sonic news that’s fit to print type into this interweb machine!

Without delay nor ado – on we go my mammalian mouse-handed 21st century botherers!

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The very fine folk of Drag City have signed underground skuzz kings Purling Hiss! Get. In.

DC are due to release Purling Hiss’ brand new longplayer – ‘Water On Mars’ – in the UK on March 18th.

Read! Label words:

“We know you’re hungry for a sneak peek at the latest and greatest batch of jams from Philly’s Purling Hiss – Water On Mars, they call it- and the dudes are apt to abide, mash-up style! Watch the thing, but watch out for yourself: crushed together, these tough tunes are likely to open a gateway of sorts from your cerebral noggin to an atmosphere removed of oxygen and air as we know it. So inhale deeply and prepare to hold it, while digging the static and the noise as provided by the only ones who can, Purling Hiss! Water On Mars is rife of hits and ragers, rippers and shredders. Guitars gleam and pile up on each other, combine with the avalanching rhythm section, and create something much bigger than the sum of their parts. Go ahead, preview this veritable pu-pu platter of Hiss-teric moods, from the gut-busting bellows of “Face Down” to the acoustic flatline of “Dead Again,” the anthemish surges of ‘Mercury Retrograde’ and ‘Rat Race’ to the wailing march-jam of a title track, ‘Water On Mars’. It’s all collected in one microwave tray of instant, slimy dinner, tossed with a secret sauce of wacked-out visual ingredients; just a little mini-taste of this extra-huge record coming out March 18th, on Drag City!”

Watch! the trailer below.

ENJOY.

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Crazy batshit sexy young people Bo Ningen and Savages have hooked up for a digi-only single – ‘Nichijyou’ (Stolen). Boy, do they make this old ape feel positively geriatric. Oof!

ENJOY.

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Brainfeeder / Ninja Tune recording artist Ryat has had her brand new video – ‘Owl’, taken from her album ‘Totem’ - unveiled exclusively by trendalista bible Dazed Digital.

Watch it, here.

ENJOY.

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Darkstar – newly signed to Warp Records – have a brand new album due out on February 4th - ‘News From Nowhere’. Here’s the video for ‘Amplified Unease’.

ENJOY.

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Harper Simon is back baby! With a brand new album – ‘Division Street’ – due out on April 1st on [PIAS] Recordings.

Here’s the first fruit - ‘Bonnie Brae’.

ENJOY.

Harper Simon: Bonnie Brae on Nowness.com.

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Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis makes a guest appearance in the (quite frankly effin hilarious) ‘Portlandia’.

Shhhhhhhh! Quiet everybody…..

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Akron/Family return with a brand new album - ‘Sub Verses’ – due out April 29th via Dead Oceans.

Check!

ENJOY.

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Phew! That’ll do for now. Time to recite your humble web monkey’s mantra. All together now:

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MUSIC! Get yourself down to your local record shop / internet webshop / high street retailer / mail order co. / digital download store and BUY MORE MUSIC!

Adieu for now!

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