http://versesfromtheabstract.wordpress.com

this blog has now moved!

2009-08-30T08:16:00.002+01:00

Because wordpress beats blogger!
http://versesfromtheabstract.wordpress.com

all my old posts are on there as well.

Jamie XX remixes Jack Peñate

2009-08-29T13:50:00.003+01:00

Jack Penate's second album is awesome and The XX made one of the debut's of the year. The two come together on Jamie from the XX's remix of the new Penate single "Pull my Heart Away", one of the highlights of the new album. He adds in that lo-fi sound which is commonplace on "The XX" as well as some great subtle bass. One of the best remixes i've heard in a while. DL below.

Jack Peñate-Pull my Heart Away (Jamie XX Remix)

Drizzy, Ye, Weezy and Shady

2009-08-29T12:47:00.003+01:00

Toronto, Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans unite on this huuuge track. The internet has been going crazy for this, especially Eminem's verse which is outstanding. If Relapse 2 is more The Warning/his verse here than Relapse 1 we are in for a treat. Kanye is brilliant, as he has been all year and Drake holds his own well. Lil' Wayne has been pretty heavily criticised for his verse on here, but I think it's good. He only sounds substandard because the other 3 do so well. The ridiculous amount of material he is on kinda makes it fair enough if he sounds a little tired now and again...wiki says he has featured on 38 tracks so far this year. Fuck.

This track is brilliant. DL below

Forever feat. Kanye West, Lil' Wayne and Eminem-Drake

RIP OASIS

2009-08-29T12:30:00.002+01:00

After pulling out of V last weekend, rumours of internal divisons and fights between the brothers were widespread. Last night the band were due to play Rock en Seine in Paris but pulled out after an alleged altercation between the brothers involving smashed guitars. Then Noel posted this on the bands website last night:
"It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight," he said. "People will write and say what they like but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer. Apologies to all the people who bought tickets to the shows in Paris, Konstanz and Milan."

So Noel is out pending a make up. Which means Oasis are pretty much over. Admittedly the band have not made an album close to Definately Maybe or What's the Story since the 90s, but the band still have a vast array of brilliant indie-rock songs. I guess it's good they split now, rather than carry on and sound more and more like a far inferior version of themselves 10 years ago...Catch one of my favourite Oasis tracks after the jump.

Oasis-Slide Away

How I Met Your Mother to be aired by e4

2009-08-26T21:41:00.002+01:00

I have wanted to watch this for quite a while (since Sarah Chalke was in it) and now it is finally getting a proper showing in the UK. Aparently it was on fiver and bbc2 at some point but out of sync hmmm. How I Met Your Mother is being billed by E4 as a replacement for Friends (so was The Class though ahem...). I hope its half as good. Season 1 aired in the US in 2005, but will premiere on September 4th at 7.30pm on E4. Season 1 will be shown every weekday from then on. Not sure if they have the rights to anything further, very exciting anyways.

Catch up oclock

2009-08-25T19:17:00.004+01:00

So i havent really posted in 15 days, but I was away for 7 of them! In Madrid! Which is amazing, as is the above 7 floor superclub Kapital...a bit of a catchup of what I missed back home below...

Jay-Z reveals official tracklisting; 2 Blueprint 3 songs leak
So a couple of weeks ago I was misisnformed that this would be the official tracklisting for the Blueprint 3. I was pretty grossly wrong. The album will have 15 tracks and is much less Kanye biased than I originally thought.
Kanye features on 2 tracks and produced 7.
Timbaland produced 3.
The Neptunes produced 1 (very good news).
No.ID produced 5.
Swizz Beatz produced 1 and features on it.
The Inkredibles and Al Shuz produced 1 track each.

Features will include the above, Drake, Kid cudi, Alicia Keys, Young Jeezy, Pharrell, Mr hudson, J Cole and luke Steele from Empire of the Sun! No MGMT or Nas though! Full tracklisting on wiki.
The Drake feature produced by timbaland has leaked and it is amazing. The beat is so good, Jay kills it. "Tell Rush Limbaugh to get off my balls, its 2010 not 1864". no Drake verse but hey maybe we'll see a collab on Drake's album. Listen here
A less good track Reminder has also leaked, also produced by Timbaland. Listen here
This album is going to be so gooooood.

Arctic Monkeys release Crying Lightning, get reviewed by Pitchfork
So I'm still undecided on Humbug. Sure its a good album, but doesn't grab me the way both of their first 2 did. I think Pitchfork's review captures my feelings pretty perfectly, read here. Crying Lightning also got released physically, with an exclusive vinyl being sold through Oxfam, pretty cool!! Here is one of the bsides, a Nick Cave cover, Red Right Hand.
Arctic Monkeys-Red Right Hand

The Very Best's Warm Heart of Africa leaks and its amazing
I'm not even on it for African music, not even when I spent 10 weeks there this year, but this album is really something. I think its the clear Western influence (provided by Radioclit) in tandem with the Malawian vocals and sound of Esau Mwamwaya that really make this what it is, a contender for album of the year. The title track feat. Ezra Koenig has long been available, and on Rain Dance M.I.A. shows she can spit on pretty much any type of beat and sound amazing. Below is Chalo which sounds like it samples the theme tune to "Fun House"!!!!
The Very Best-Chalo

Good Shoes return; thank me for naming this blog after one their songs
Well...not the second bit...but the Mordeners have returned with a song that sounds pretty similar to their debut, but thats by no means a bad thing. Listen on their myspace now. The band tour this autumn, they are great live, you should go see them!

The XX release the XX
The XX have been hyped like a bitch by the blogosphere over the last couple of months, but for once it turns out the hype should be believed. The XX is a really good, very lo-fi album. The band play Leeds/Reading this weekend before supporting Florence and the Machine this autumn.
The XX-VCR

Simian Mobile Disco release Temporary Pleasure
I got myself pretty hypd for this so I guess I'm pretty disappointed overall. its a decent album but quite a bit is filler; here is one of the highlights.
Simian Mobile Disco-1000 Horses Can't Be Wrong

Frank Turner's Poetry of the Deed leaks very early.
...and its pretty great...except (as with his first 2 albums) the quality does slide towards the end...(excluding TBOMAMF). Sons of Liberty is truely a piece of genius, as are Live Fast Die Old and Try this at Home. I'm not posting any tracks because I'm scared of his record label, so here is a hypem link, there a few newbies there

The X Factor; best audition ever?

2009-08-23T14:52:00.003+01:00

I dont even watch the show, but randomly saw it last night. This guy has serious talent. Danyl to win!!

new (maybe not)prof green

2009-08-10T20:49:00.002+01:00

huge...i thought it was new but aparently (according to wiki) it was on a 2006 mixtape. Bside to his new single Hard Night Out, also big.

new kano-rock n rolla

2009-08-10T20:38:00.002+01:00

Someone's looking for a number 1.

Not exactly the direction I was looking for Kano to take, but its not bad...seems like Kano has jumped on the autotune bandwagon just as it is about to die out, or at least in the form he uses here....

the title of Lost 601 is revealed...

2009-08-10T20:15:00.001+01:00

LA X
Thats LA X
NOT LAX
Take note

elvis guest starring on the frank sinatra show in 1960

2009-08-09T13:02:00.002+01:00

Literally the best thing ever. This was his first public appearance after 2 years in the army and its bad ass. He had so much talent and versatility, I doubt there have been many better performers ever. Sinatra was also amazing singing Love me Tender all upbeat mashed up with Witchcraft. I wish I was alive back then. They sure don't make them like they used to.

david guetta ft. kelly rowland-when love takes over dj blame remix

2009-08-09T12:48:00.002+01:00

Every bit as good as it was on first listen. mp3 below

David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland-When Love takes Over (dj blame remix)

Its summertime!!

2009-08-08T10:29:00.003+01:00

for once its nice weather, here is a perfect chilled playlist to go with the sun!!

Jay-Z-Feelin' It feat. Mecca
The Roots-Episodes
OutKast-West Savannah
Notorious B.I.G.-Big Poppa
De La Soul-Eye Know
A Tribe Called Quest-Luck of Lucien
Q-Tip-Life is Better feat. Norah Jones
Nas-Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)

blueprint 3 gets cover and track listing

2009-08-06T14:57:00.002+01:00

Kanye West to produce 9/13 of the tracks, and both of the bonus tracks (which surprisingly include we made history). Tracklisting below:

1. "What We Talking About" Kanye West
2. "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" No I.D. 4:16
3. "Weigh Me Down" (feat. Kid Cudi) Kanye West
4. "Unforgiven" Kanye West, MGMT
5. "Run This Town" (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) Kanye West 4:35
6. "Empire State of Mind" (feat. Nas) Kanye West, No I.D.
7. "When It Comes to This" Timbaland
8. "Always" (feat. Drake) Kanye West
9. "Scenes from the Past" No I.D., Kanye West
10. "Everyday a Star Is Born" (feat. Mr. Hudson) Kanye West
11. "Already Home" Kanye West
12. "Forever Young" (feat. Mr. Hudson) Kanye West
13. "Thank You" No I.D.
Bonus tracks
# Title Producer(s) Length
14. "Sound of the 70s" Kanye West
15. "We Made History" (feat. Tony Williams) Kanye West 4:40

Producers in bold. Some very exciting potential collaborations there; a joint production by Kanye and MGMT, newcomers Drake and Kid Cudi featured, Mr Hudson on two tracks-he really is gonna be massive-, and another Nas collaboration!
The Timbaland collab will also be very interesting, the two have previously combined on such classics as Dirt off your Shoulder, Hola Hovito and Big Pimpin.

September 11th cannot come soon enough!

Reasons to be excited about the rest of the year!-September=part 2

2009-08-06T14:00:00.004+01:00

The remainder of Septembers excitements below...

Indie/Alternative
September 7th
Jamie T-Kings and Queens
So Sticks and Stones was amazing, as was the rest of that EP, and as is the second single from kings and Queens, Chaka Demus. Jamie T is ready to explode back onto the scene, with his unique style of indie/ska/rock/rap, and I fully expect it to be an improvement on the already brilliant Panic Prevention. One of the UK's finest, no doubt. Tracklisting here
Sample Track: Jamie T-Chaka Demus
Excitedness Rating: 9/10

Frank Turner-Poetry of the Deed
Another highly talented British solo artist, but one of an entirely different nature. Frank Turner's lyrical genius comes from his ability to write songs to appeal to a 1000 different emotions; nostalgia, empathy, anger, frustration, humour and more. First single The Road is hardly a classic, but I expect alot more, and I'm positive he will deliver. Tracklisting here
Sample Track: Frank Turner-The Road (video)
Excitedness Rating: 9/10

Zero 7-Yeah Ghost
Zero 7 are set to take a more upbeat approach with their 4th album, after mastering ambient/chillout dance over the last decade. It's been 8 years since their debut Simple Things, and its continued influence is telling of how good that album is. Very interested to hear the new direction the band are taking.
Sample Track: Zero 7-Everything Up (Zizou)
Excitedness Rating: 7.5/10

The Cribs-Ignore the Ignorant
Completing a stellar day for releases, The Cribs drop their 4th album, and first with Johnny Marr. First couple of songs have been very divisive; some claim Johnny Marr improves a flailing band, others that he ruins them. Neither of the new songs have the energy of some of the band's old stuff and they have certainly lost some of their immense live reputation since becoming a four-piece. Could be genius, could be shit.
Sample Track: The Cribs-We Were Aborted
Excitedness rating: 7/10

September 14th
The Very Best-Warm Heart of Africa
Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit's project are set to release an album next month. The former is Malawian, and sings in Chichewa, the country's national language; the latter are a production duo who have remixed diplo, santigold, m.i.a. and more. Only a couple of songs have been made available, including Warm Heart of Africa (also the album title) featuring the irrepresable Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend. M.I.A. is also expected to feature on the album.
Sample Track: The Very Best-Warm heart of Africa feat. Ezra Koenig
Excitedness rating: 8/10

Muse-The Resistance
The Resistance was described as "A beautifully recorded, strong, sweeping, fighting, uplifting, rocking, lilting and inclusive record about love." by Zane Lowe, but for us mere mortals only Uprising (awesome) and United States of Eurasia (Queen?) have been released. It's 3 years now since Black Holes... 3 years in whcih the band have probably improved and developed even more. Tracklisting here. Glastonbury headliners next year?
Sample Track: deleted
Excitedness Rating: 8/10

The Big Pink-A Brief History of Love
Highly tipped at the start of 2009, and now heavily hyped by the NME, are very much post MGMT indie, as many new bands have been this year. The album is streaming on their website all this week, I have listened once and wasnt overly impressed.
Listen to the album here

September 21st
Monsters of Folk-Monsters of Folk
Folk supergroup comprising of Conor Oberst, Jim James, M.Ward and Mike Mogis reunite with a self titled debut album which has Bright Eyes fans quivering with excitement. The band are touring North America and Europe in the autumn.
Sample Track: deleted
Excitedness rating: 8/10

Basement Jaxx-Scars
The two songs i've heard from this, Raindrops and the Santigold featured Saga are amazing. I have always found them a mixed bag, making some amazing dance tunes (Red Alert, Romeo, Jump N Shout), but also some painfully cheesy ones (oh my gosh, do your thing). I have high hopes for their 5th album though; joining Santigold on
guest duty will be Lightspeed Champion, Yoko Ono (!) and Sam Sparro.
Sample Track: Basement Jaxx-Saga feat. Santigold
Excitedness Rating: 8/10

we're both in love with a sexy lady

2009-08-05T18:38:00.000+01:00

Fuck the season 2 haters.

robbie williams returns!!

2009-08-05T15:58:00.003+01:00

At his best he made some of the best pop songs ever...at his worst...well, we all heard Rudebox...Robbie returns with a new single, Bodies, out on October 12th, with 8th album Reality Killed The Video Star out November 9th. Williams has worked with Ronson, Horn and all importantly Guy Chambers, marking the first time they have worked together since 2002's Escapology, i.e. when Robbie went shit. He is set to tour Europe early next year, with a number of dates at the O2, when Jackson was scheduled. Click read more to get a classic Robbie Williams mp3

Robbie Williams-Let me Entertain You

drake-so far gone mixtape

2009-08-05T15:34:00.003+01:00

This came out in February, but i heard the whole thing for the first time only this morning. I think i misunderestimated how good Drake is going to be and how much he is capable of. As Pitchfork mentions, this is real post 808s hip-hop, taking influence from a huge amount of artists creating what is an amazing mixtape. The Lil' Wayne influence is blatant, as is the Kanye West notably the quick switch between rapping and singing. But as well as being an awesome rapper (you can also hear some Jay and Biggie in the way he raps), he is an immense singer. Almost Maxwell good....and he has huge commercial appeal. When Thank Me Later comes out I fully expect it to be played everywhere. I cant wait. 4 x mp3s below!

Drake-Let's Call It Off (feat. Peter, Bjorn and John)
Drake-November 18th
Drake-Say What's Real
Drake-Unstoppable (feat. Santigold and Lil' Wayne)

Say Whats Real, in which he raps over Kanye's Say You Will, is haunting.
Lil' Wayne is on 4 tracks on this mixtape but gets destroyed by Drake on all 4. Considering Tha Carter 3 was widely regarded as the best rap album of 2009, Drake has done very very well.

new noah and the whale-i have nothing

2009-08-03T18:37:00.003+01:00

The new Noah and the Whale album has leaked a whole month early, and it's amazing. Charlie Fink's lyrics are beuatiful, inspired (I suspect) by his break up with Laura Marling. The Guardian has their review spot on. This is such a pleasant surprise for me, I was not a fan of their debut; my favourite song was 5 years time and it is clear they have come a long long way since then. I cannot wait to buy this on 31st August. Link below for one of my favourites, I Have Nothing.

(mp3) Noah and the Whale-I Have Nothing
Starts off a bit Bon Iverish dont you think?
Pre-order it: Amazon

new eminem-the warning

2009-08-02T12:42:00.003+01:00

The Eminem/Mariah feud takes another turn with this new Eminem track. Although it may just be a diss track, it is better than anything on Relapse imo. If you want to read about the whole decade spanning scandal, there is a very good summary here.
I think it was a bit silly of her to deny it in the first place, its obvious something happened, i dont think Marshall would have bothered to go on about it for 8 years if it was made up. Fair play to her though, Obsessed is a pretty funny song and so blatantly about him. Enough gossip talk...mp3 after the jump.

Eminem-The Warning (mp3)

We Were Promised Jetpacks-keeping warm acoustic

2009-08-02T09:16:00.004+01:00

The Fly TV on MUZU.

Special band. Short bursts is also on the fly's website.
edit: the player above is actually very good, you can watch numerous fly videos right here.

Reasons to be excited about the rest of the year!-September=part 1

2009-07-30T18:35:00.003+01:00

September is set to be a huge month for albums, both in hip-hop and indie/rock. Well established artists such as The Roots, Jay-Z, Frank Turner, Basement Jaxx and Q-Tip vie with newbies Kid Cudi, Wale and The Big Pink. Read alot more inside...

Hip-Hop

September 11th
Jay-Z-The Blueprint³
Hugely anticipated 11th album from one of hip-hops greats, released exactly 8 years after The Blueprint. A huge amount of material has been made for this, with productions from Timbaland and Swizz Beatz expected to add to the wealth of tracks Kanye has produced. MGMT, Mr Hudson and Drake will be among the guests. No tracklisting as yet, but don't expect anything we've heard (except DOA and Run This Town); i'm pretty sure Jocking jay-z, history and brooklyn go hard wont be there. Dont be surprised if Jay-z creates another classic album to further promote his credentials as the Greatest Rapper Ever.
Sample Track: Jay-Z-Run this town feat. Kanye West and Rihanna
Excitedness rating: 10/10

September 14th/15th
Q-Tip-Kamaal/The Abstract
After 1999's Amplified, Q-Tip made Kamaal/The Abstract set for a 2002 release date. Arista then decided not to release the album because of it's lack of commercial appeal due to its alternative nature. Q-Tip later complained that what he was doing on Abstract was the same sort of thing that Andre 3K did on The Love Below (released on Arista 2 years later). Long story short, Q-Tip has negotiated the rights and will release Kamaal/The Abstract next month. I wonder if this will sound as alternative/new as it would have done in 2002, rap has changed a hell of a lot since then. Still, its a (sorta) new Q-Tip album, so i'm excited! Tracklisting here.
Sample track: Do U Dig U?
Excitedness Rating: 9/10

Kid Cudi-Man on the Moon:The End of Day
I had almost lost all faith in Cudi before Make Her Say; it had been so long since his 2008 Mixtape A Kid Named Cudi, that I had almost forgotten how much potential he has. Alot rides on this album, not just for Kid Cudi who goes up against fellow newcomers Wale and Drake in Autumn 09, but for mentor Kanye West. No official tracklist yet, and release date could well change, but expect productions from Mr West, Will.I.Am, Dot da Genius and Just blaze and features from MGMT, Clipse and Snoop Dogg. Not sure how MGMT are gonna fit into rap songs on both this and the blueprint 3, we will see.
Sample Track: Make Her Say
Excitedness rating: 8/10

September 21st
Dizzee Rascal-Tongue 'N' Cheek
After 2 (nearly 3) UK number 1's this could well be the album that cements Dizzee at the top of the Radio 1 Playlist, and the charts. Whilst a good dose of artistic integrity may have been lost, he still retains every bit of his energy and cheeky appeal that contributed to the fantastic Boy in Da Corner. Having led British grime for the last 6/7 years, he is now leading the recent wave of grime "sell-outs", far ahead of Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk and even Wiley (whose last 2 albums, released within 7 months of each other, have both been very poor). Even if he is unashamedly poppy now, Dizzee Rascal is almost impossible to dislike. Tracklisting here.
Sample track: Dizzee Rascal-Holiday (feat. Chrome and Calvin Harris)
Excitedness rating: 7/10

Wale-Attention: Deficit
After being the next big thing for the last 2+ years, Wale finally releases his debut in September. He has released a mixtape every year since 2005, culmintating in the critically acclaimed "Mixtape About Nothing" in 2008 and "Back to the Feature" in June this year. This album promises alot, as Wale is probably the most talented newcomer around, and, whilst possibly lacking the raw energy of Kid Cudi, Wale is a better lyricist by a long shot. First single "Chillin" with Gaga is pretty diappointing, mainly due to the surprisingly awful Cool&Dre production. Kanye, Ronson, Q-Tip and 9th wonder are expected to join the duo on production duty for the album.
Sample Track: Wale-Nike Boots
Excitedness Rating: 8/10

September 28th/29th
The Roots-How I Got Over
In between being Jimmy Fallon's house band, the Roots have made their 9th studio album, How I Got Over. Black Thought has described the new album as more upbeat than their last 2 records, reflecting the band's relief at the end of the Bush administration. Guests are set to include Beanie Sgel, Chrisette Michelle and frequent collaborator Dice Raw. They have performed with a huge number of artists since they began on Jimmy Fallon, I am very keen to go and see them when they next hit Europe!
Sample Track: ">How I Got Over (live on Jimmy Fallon
Excitedness Rating: 8/10

Reasons to be excited about the rest of the year!-August

2009-07-30T18:32:00.003+01:00

2009 has been slightly underwhelming music wise so far. The rest of the year (especially September!) promise a huge amount though....all the releases I can think of that I'm excited for, with release dates and info for all.

August
Amanda Blank-I Love You (August 4th)
After collaborating with Spank Rock, Ghostface Killah, Santigold, M.I.A. and a fair few more, Amanda Blank is ready to release her debut. Expect production from Diplo, Dave Sitek, XXXChange and more (most likely Switch, Sinden etc).
Sample Track: Might like you better
Excitedness rating: 6/10

Simian Mobile Disco-Temporary Pleasure (August 17th)
Their first album was excellent, although overshadowed by Justice's superior effort, and after first single Audacity of Huge I have high hopes for their 2nd record. Tracklisting has been released already;the album is set to feature Chris Keating, Beth Ditto, Gruff Rhys, Jamie Lidell, Alexis Taylor, Young Fathers and Telepathe.
Sample Track: Simian Mobile Disco-Cruel Intentions (feat. Beth Ditto)
Excitedness Rating: 7/10

Arctic Monkeys-Humbug (August 24th)
Arctic Monkeys release their third studio album the monday before they headline Reading and Leeds, with a change of sound again. After the brilliance of their first 2 albums, Humbug has alot to live up to, but with the songwriting talents of Alex Turner and the exciting production offered by Josh Homme and James Ford, this could well be another album of the decade. A US tour has already been announced for the autumn, I can't wait for some UK dates! tracklisting already released, titles include Dance Little Liar, potion Approaching and Dangerous Animals.
Sample Track: Album now leaked
Excitedness Rating: 10/10

Noah and the Whale-The First Days of Spring (August 31st)
I was not a fan of their first album but, only 1 year later, they have already created at least one song that is better than the whole of their debut put together. The title track is outstanding, and gives me great hope that NatW will step up significantly for their second effort. Tracklisitng here. Blue Skies is the new single, and is also very good!
Sample track: Noah and the Whale-The First Days of Spring
Excitedness rating: 7/10

Nas and Damian Marley-Distant Relatives (unknown date)
The 2009 Rock the Bells headliners combine hip-hop and reggae on this Africa inspired album. Guests are set to include K'Naan, Young Jeezy (wtf?!?!?), Stephen Marley and Stevie Wonder and predicted track titles "Africa Must Wake Up", and "Count Your Blessings". I look forward to K'Naan (Somalia) showing Nas (Queens) and Damian Marley (Kingston, Jamaica) how to rap about Africa.
Sample Track: As We Enter-sample on myspace
Excitedness Rating: 8/10

September coming soon!!

comic-con 2009 round-up

2009-07-28T21:46:00.002+01:00

its pretty hard to decipher from the above picture, but ABC have confirmed the above as:
Faraday, Boone, Miles, Michael, Ana Lucia, Charlotte, Shannon, Desmond, Eko, Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Locke, Ben, Sayid, Libby, Sun, Jin, Claire, Hurley, Juliet, Charlie, Frank, Richard, Bernard and Rose
I am so fucking excited. Round up of Lost, Heroes, Fringe, Doctor Who and Torchwood's panels below...

LOST
Beginning with the best, the Lost panel was pretty revelatory.
In short (from DarkUfo):
1) Parallel with S1 and S6 - DL confirms many characters from season one!
CC: Says there is a way of discovery that they will have in play in S6
2) Faraday confirmed for S6!!
3) Will we see flashbacks to characters' childhood? CC says S6 will be different. CC won't describe what that point of difference is.
4) Richard Alpert's backstory is "involved"
5) DL: Juliet WILL be in final season.
6) Q: Is Man in Black's name "Esau?" Emerson: Might be too literal--but I like the way your mind works.
7) Food drop in S2 finale might be covered... DL: "Something we'll try to address."
8) We won't see much DHARMA in S6
9) Jacob has NOT appeared as another character on the show.
10) Dominic Monaghan appeared on the panel!!!!
Read Doc jensens write up here

The major talking point was of course the virtual confirmation that Charlie (and I suspect all the characters in the above poster) will be in Season 6. I am so excited to see how this is going to work and how major their roles will be. I think Season 6 is going to be epic beyond all proportions.
Emerson, Garcia and Holloway were all at the Panel, and from the clips I've seen, were all on top form. Emerson even read a fake script from Heroes and declared "what the fuck is this?". Legend.
Here is the death reel that preceded Monaghans appearnce:

Heroes
In comparison, the Heroes panel was pretty dull...
here is a promo for season 5, Redemption:

looks like they are going ti create some new mythology again with the stupid compass thing. Gurnberg and Qinto are far too good for this show! I hope Sylar breaks out of Nathans body early on so I dont have to watch Adrian Pasdar "act" for too long.

Fringe
What we learned:

Kirk Avecedo (Charlie Francis) will be on season 2 extensively
Leonard Nimoy will return in the premiere to play William Bell
Pinkner virtually admitted the original plan to make the show very accessible to all audiences was now out the window. :D

That's pretty much it!!

Doctor Who

John Simm will return as the master in the Christmas special(s)
Donna and Wilf will also return!
River Song will return next season, in some of Matt Smiths first few episodes.
New Waters of Mars preview clip! watch here

Torchwood
Nothing much, just general talks about CofE's excellent reviews/reaction both UK and USA. I reckon the fact they're even having a panel suggests there will be another season.

spread love its the brooklyn way

2009-07-28T20:26:00.003+01:00

1. how good is this!?
2. how different was the world in 1995! "time to get paid, blow up like the world trade", weird to see the crowd loving that line...things would be very different today...

remember me?

2009-07-26T08:25:00.002+01:00

get excited. now. more to come soon...

new jay-z, kanye west and rihanna-run this town (prod. Kanye)

2009-07-26T08:06:00.004+01:00

First official single from Blueprint 3. This could well be Jay-Z's first chart hit in the UK for a long time. It is very very very good. As pitchfork says, Kanye does kinda walk away with it...best verse I've heard from him since Graduation. mp3 below

Jay-Z-Run This Town feat. Kanye West and Rihanna

the only rapper to rewrite history without a pen

2009-07-20T19:57:00.002+01:00

From RapBasement:
"So who inspired Jay-Z to declare the "Death Of Autotune" Turns out it was none-other than Kanye West who used Auto-Tune for his entire "808s & Heartbreak" album. "He actually sparked the idea," Jay-Z says. "When he heard the beat he said, 'Man, this is just so hard! This has to be against everything -- no auto-tune, none of that type of stuff!' He didn't know what I was going to do or where I was going to take it, but it was actually his fault."

Jigga's says it's hip hop's job to set trends, not follow them. "In hip-hop, our job is once a trend becomes a gimmick, to get rid of it. We've done that since the beginning of time...Now people are using auto-tune even in Wendy's commercials, and it's like, 'Oh no! That has to go!' It's become part of main culture. It's the same thing like when the old lady in Oregon starts saying, 'bling, bling.' It's like, 'I'm never saying that again.'"
D.O.A. has grown on me so much since it's initial leak, Blueprint 3 is, along with Humbug, my most anticipated album of the latter half of 09. If you havent heard the chase and status remix yet, you can below...

I was there when Zane Lowe world premiered it at Glasto!
In other Jay-Z news The Game seems to be baiting him into some lame hip-hop feud. Over the last few weeks the Game has been dissing Jay AND Beyonce on pointless diss tracks/mixtapes...aparently he wants a lyrical battle...I have no idea why, Jay-Z is a more talented rapper whichever way you look at it. The Game should concentrate on making proper music and not pointless tyrades as he is very capable.

make her say video-cudi, kanye, common

2009-07-20T19:08:00.002+01:00

First good material Kid Cudi has released since A Kid Named Cudi mixtape. Features Kanye west and Common and samples Lady gaga.

beastie boys and nas-too many rappers

2009-07-19T12:05:00.002+01:00

"i never die, coz death is the cousin of sleep" ah awesome.dload below

Beastie Boys-Too many rappers ft. Nas (mp3)

basement jaxx and santigold-saga

2009-07-19T11:56:00.002+01:00

"you're just limiting all the possibilities" huge. listen here. dload below.

From the upcoming Scars,
Basement Jaxx-Saga ft. Santigold (mp3)

lost season 5 review!

2009-07-19T11:07:00.003+01:00

Its taken me a very long time to write this, too long. Lost season 5 was epic beyond all proportions. I think if I go on about it too much I will run out of superlatives for one of the, if not the best tv program of our. Season 5 managed to continue the flawless character development that is consistent throughout the show and combine it with fantastic action scenes, twists galore, a surprising amount of answers, and of course an overwhelming number of questions. The acting as usual was outstanding, particular praise should be reserved for Elizabeth Mitchell who managed to turn a character round completely in the space of only a few episodes. It is up there with Seasons 1 and 4, and the wire seasons 3 and 4 as the best piece of tv i’ve ever seen. Below I write a short bit about each character, a few awards...and a few ideas for Season 6 (the last ever season of Lost :’( )

Jack (Matthew Fox)
People complained about him being underused, but that wasn’t the case at all. Matthew Fox gave his best performance of the series, and kind of surprisingly, I was sympathetic to his cause by the end. Jack started and ended the season as a broken man, in both cases with a plan...albeit a pretty crap one. It is strange to think I always thought it would/should be Jack/Kate right up until this season. My mind has been changed majorly; there is surely no chance for them now. Jack has now essentially become Locke, and Kate can’t stand that. Upon his return to the island, Jack makes a feeble attempt to assert his authority, in that first scene by the coast with Sawyer, but fails. The leadership dynamic between the 2 is fantastic from Namaste onwards.
Character Development: A
Best moment of the season: Conversation with Kate after Faraday’s death, basically telling her he wants to erase any memory of ever knowing her.
Kate (Evangeline Lily)
I have always loved Kate, but Evangeline Lily was never one of the best actors on the show. That changed dramatically this season. Off island Kate annoyed me for the first few episodes, she was very different from the all action heroin we had seen on the island. But the old Kate returned, and almost returned as the moral centre of the show, taking the lead in the efforts to save young Ben, and being the leading faction of the “stop Jack” crew. Special mention has to be given to “Whatever Happened, Happened”, in which Evangeline Lily gave the performance of her life. A welcome return to the traditional flashback/flashforward format, the episode showed the chain of events leading to Kate giving up Aaron, in what was a pretty heartbreaking scene.
Character Development: A
Best moment of the season: The scene where she says goodbye to Aaron.
Sawyer (Josh Holloway)
Nobody on Lost has developed the way James Ford has. Sawyer has become a true hero. I thought maybe this season Josh Holloway would get the recognition he deserves with an Emmy nomination but alas not. Sawyer was the most consistently brilliant character of the season, both pre-Dharma, encapsulating the audiences confusion in the time flashes, and especially as Jim LaFleur. His struggle in the latter half of the season to protect all the losties in Dharmaville was fantastic. Special mention should go to the episode “LaFleur”. I was so sceptical when I heard the Juliet/Sawyer spoilers, before I knew of the 3 years time jump; I thought it was a point less plot device. However, due to immaculate performances from Holloway and Mitchell, Sawyer and Juliet became a believable, great couple. After just 1 episode, they were considered the best of the quadrangle couples on a poll on DarkUfo. Dynamics between Sawyer/Kate/Juliet in the finale also brilliant.
Character Development A*
Best scene: Sawyer putting Jack in his place in Namaste.
Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell)
Juliet has always been a good character from her “good cop” days with the others on Hydra island, to her betrayal of the others and her flailing relationship with Jack. I always expected her to die soon, and until season 5 would not have been too bothered. How times change. Who would have thought Juliet would be the hero of the season 5 finale? Mitchell’s portrayal of Juliet, especially in the last half of the season, was epic. The audience watched as Juliet witnessed the life she had built fall apart around her. On the island that Ben had kept her on, she was finally happy...until the o5 returned. Whether she’s dead or not (i think she is), Juliet’s story is ultimately tragic. On the sub, she is ready to finally get away...and then Kate turns up. Her performance in the finale was just immaculate and very very upsetting. I never thought I would be so upset by her death. Her flashback in the finale (notably not involving Jacob), the look she gives the sub as it disappears as if its her last chance of freedom, her conversation with Sawyer about how they were never meant to be, falling down the hole and the final scene banging on the bomb, were all heartwrenching. I think we will see some of Juliet in season 6, but I would be surprised if Mitchell were a regular.
Character development: A*
Best scene: Falling down the Swan hole.

Hurley (Jorge Garcia)
Over the years I have grown to love Hurley, and many believe as the only “good” person on the island. Garcia still knocks the emotional scenes out of the park (The Lie), and for comedy there is none better. Hurley and Miles interactions in Dharmaville were one of the highlights of the season.
Character Development: B
Best scene: Hurley explains the last 4 seasons of Lost to his mum in the Lie.
Sayid (Naveen Andrews)
After a season 3 demotion to a lesser role and a season 4 revival, Sayid shrunk into the shadows again for most of the season. He’s Our You was a fantastic episode, and gave us more great Sayid scenes than the rest of the season combined. In the Incident, Sayid seems resigned to death; he believes he has sinned too much to be forgiven. I would put alot of money on Sayid dying next season.
Character development B
Best scene: Sayid shoots young Ben
Sun (Yunjim Kim)
Very underused, not alot to say about her this season. Jin and Sun need to be reunited! I think they will be soon.
Character development C
Best scene: “Do you have any alcohol?” to Richard Alpert
Jin (Daniel Dae Kim)
Similarly to Sun, not much to say about Jin, except he’s alive! And he can speak English now!
Character development C
Best scene: Discovers Sayid in the forest and has to pretend not to know him.
Ben (Michael Emerson)
A third consecutive Emmy nomination says it all. Benjamin Linus is still one of the most interesti ng, complex, ambiguous characters in Lost. His performance in The Life and Death of JB was flawless, and Dead is Dead was out of this world. From having Locke round his little finger for 3 seasons, upon his return to the island Ben was bossed around and trodden on by the man he thought was Locke who eventually persuades him to kill Jacob!!! Dead is Dead was terrifying. I hope he joins with Jacob’s team next season, but i fear he will continue with Flocke.
Character development A
Best scene: Ben kills Locke
Locke (Terry O’Quinn)
Before his death, i really liked season 5 locke. After his death, he was one of the most terrifying characters i’ve ever seen. His determined, condescending, manipulative nature was alarming and when Ben told Sun “the thing that is about to come out of the woods is dangerous and I can’t control it” or something along those lines and Locke walks out, it was very disconcerting! O’Quinn gave a sterling performance, especially as Flocke, right up there with Holloway and Emerson.
Character development B
Best scene: As FL-kicking Jacob in the fire, As locke-falling down the well
Miles (Ken leung)
Finally Miles got a centric episode in Some Like It Hoth, showing the origins of his ability, how he first met Naomi, and strange interactions with Bram. His relationship with Chang (his father) was so well done!
Character development A
Best scene: All the scenes with Hurley
Faraday (Jeremy Davies)
A tragic death for a character I thought would last it til the end. Turns out his whole life has been manipulated by bitchface Hawking so he went to the island and was eventually killed by her. When the island was flashing all over the place, he acted as our guide, and vitally planted the idea of detonating the bomb in Jack’s head. One of the best additions to the show in season 4, he will be missed.
Character development A
Best scene: opening scene of the season, with Chang in the Orchid
Charlotte (Rebecca Mader)
Sad death, but mainly because of Daniel’s reaction. Good character, but it was her time to go.
Character development C
Best scene: Her death
Desmond! (Henry Ian Cusick)
He was barely in this season at all! Im praying he will be in season 6 majorly, I think he is still important and as Hawking said “the island isn’t done with you yet”. Desmond is a legend!
Character development B
Best scene: Saves Penny from Ben
Other characters:
Ilana-great addition, could be very important
Jacob-yayayayayayyay we finally saw who he was! Not some crazy old man, but a now deceased young one.
Jacobs nemesis-very scary, very disconcerting. Very important
Frank-so glad he came back, “We’re not going to Guam are we?”
Penny-Great as usual, don’t think we’ll see alot of her in s6, she has a starring role in FlashForward.
Bram-too soon to say
Radzinski-complete and utter dickhead
Horace-weak and feeble
Phil-best.death.ever.
Alpert-LEGEND

Awards!
Best character: Sawyer
Best actor: Micheal Emerson (Ben)
Best actress: Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet)
Best episode: The Incident
Best couple: Sawyer and Juliet
Best death: Juliet

Getting ready for season 6
• Comic-con is next week, Jorge Garcia will be there with Darlton, as will a special guest, Dominic Monaghan anybody?
• Jeff Jensen has written this awesome piece on 4 potential paths Lost could now take. Read it here
• Countless rumours are going round about old characters returning. Read about the latest one here if you dare (link). I can’t help but thinking that particular one isn’t true. I could see Charlie, Shannon, Eko, Boone et al returning in some way or another, but not Arzt! Unless everything is reset and the plane either lands at LAX or they relive the crash...
• I think alot of the major characters will die next season. Ben, Jack, Sayid, Miles, Ilana, are all goners imo.
• Claire will be returning for definite, can’t wait to see what shes been up to!!!
Only a few more months to go now.....

The Shape of things to come?

birthday sex-jeremih

2009-07-18T20:50:00.002+01:00

This is exactly the sort of song I shouldn't like, but theres something about it reminiscent of Usher back in the day. Read the lyrics below and have a good laugh, and dload the mp3.

"First, I'm gonna take a dive into the water deep
Until I know I pleased that body (body)
Or girl without a broom I might just sweep you off yo feet
And make you wanna tell somebody (body) how I do"
erm lol...
Jeremih-Birthday Sex (mp3)

Emmy nominations!

2009-07-18T19:33:00.003+01:00

30 rock gets 22 nominations! Big success for 30 rock, which will be looking to retain the "Best comedy" award it has won for the last 2 years, and the best comedy actor/actress awards won by Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey last year. I have watched season 1 over the past few weeks and it is the best US comedy made for a long time. Lost did well, gaining 6 nominations, including outstanding drama series. Jermaine also got nommed for best comedy actor!! Heroes notably lacked any major nominations, and despite its revival Scrubs was also largely ignored. Read the nominations below, and who I think will win!

Italic=who i think will win, bold=who i want to win
Major categories only:
Outstanding Comedy Series
Family Guy
30 Rock
Weeds
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
Flight of the Conchords
Entourage

Outstanding Drama Series
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Lost
Damages
Dexter
Big Love
House

Lead Actor in a Drama
Bryan Cranston - Breaking Bad
Hugh Laurie - House
Gabriel Byrne - In Treatment
Michael C. Hall - Dexter
Jon Hamm - Mad Men
Simon Baker - The Mentalist

Lead Actress in a Drama
Elisabeth Moss - Mad Men
Glenn Close - Damages
Sally Field - Brothers and Sisters
Mariska Hargitay - Law and Order: SVU
Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer
Holly Hunter - Saving Grace

Lead Actor in a Comedy
Jim Parsons - The Big Bang Theory
Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
Steve Carell - The Office
Charlie Sheen - Two and a Half Men
Tony Shalhoub - Monk
Jemaine Clement - Flight of the Conchords

Lead Actress in a Comedy
Toni Collette - United States of Tara
Tina Fey - 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - The New Adventures of Old Christine
Sarah Silverman - The Sarah Silverman Program
Mary-Louise Parker - Weeds
Christina Applegate - Samantha Who?

Best Reality Competition-dont care
The Amazing Race
American Idol
Dancing With the Stars
Project Runway
Top Chef

Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Late Show With David Letterman
Real Time With Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
William Shatner - Boston Legal
Christian Clemenson - Boston Legal
Aaron Paul - Breaking Bad
William Hurt - Damages
Michael Emerson - Lost
John Slattery - Mad Men

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Rose Byrne - Damages
Sandra Oh - Grey’s Anatomy
Chandra Wilson - Grey’s Anatomy
Dianne Wiest - In Treatment
Hope Davis - In Treatment
Cherry Jones - 24

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Kevin Dillon - Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris - How I Met Your Mother
Rainn Wilson - The Office
Tracy Morgan - 30 Rock
Jack McBrayer - 30 Rock
Jon Cryer - Two and a Half Men

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Kristin Chenoweth - Pushing Daisies
Amy Poehler - Saturday Night Live
Kristin Wiig - Saturday Night Live
Jane Krakowski - 30 Rock
Vanessa Williams - Ugly Betty
Elizabeth Perkins - Weeds

Outstanding Miniseries
Generation Kill
Little Dorritt

Outstanding Made-For-TV Movie
Coco Chanel
Grey Gardens
Into The Storm
Prayers For Bobby
Taking Chance

Outstanding Actor, Miniseries or Movie
Kevin Kline - Cyrano de Bergerac
Brendan Gleeson - Into the Storm
Ian McKellen - King Lear
Kevin Bacon - Taking Chance
Kiefer Sutherland - 24: Redemption
Kenneth Branagh - Wallander: One Step Behind

Outstanding Actress, Miniseries or Movie
Chandra Wilson - Accidental Friendship.
Shirley MacLaine - Coco Chanel
Drew Barrymore - Grey Gardens
Jessica Lange - Grey Gardens
Sigourney Weaver - Prayers for Bobby

Outstanding Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie
Ken Howard - Grey Gardens
Len Cariou - Into the Storm
Bob Newhart - The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
Tom Courtenay - Little Dorrit
Andy Serkis - Little Dorrit

Outstanding Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie
Marcia Gay Harden - The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
Jeanne Tripplehorn - Grey Gardens
Shohreh Aghdashloo - House of Saddam
Janet McTeer - Into the Storm
Cicely Tyson - Relative Stranger

How Elizabeth Mitchell isn't nominated I will never know.

Glastonbury 2009 review!

2009-07-18T16:20:00.004+01:00

3 weeks after an amazing festival, i recap my top 5 performances, other highlights and big misses.

my top 5 in no particular order...
1. The Maccabees @ Guardian Lounge

I was so excited about this performance after missing them on the Other Stage earlier in the day (due to a horrific Regina Spektor clash). I have seen the maccabees three times before and they were great all 3 times, but on the Guardian lounge they exceeded my expectations. Wall of Arms is my favourite album of the year, and all the new stuff they played was awesome...but it was 2 oldies that stood out somehow in what was one of the best live performances i've ever seen. Precious Time was just out of this world, so special, and after giving into crowd requests, Latchmere was immense (made probably even better by Orlando forgetting the words, and someone from the crowd going onstage and singing!). With Wall of Arms, The Maccabees have built on Colour it In both musically and lyrically and it is so abundantly clear that they are way ahead of the indie bands who broke through at the same time. The Maccabees are up there with the best.
watch their set on the other stage
(mp3)The Maccabees-Precious Time
2. Blur @ Pyramid Stage

Blur were outstanding. The band looked so happy to be back at the best festival of the year, back together as a band, and it was reflected in their immense performance. Turns out Tender is a huge festival anthem...at least now it is. The whole crowd singing along was pretty spesh. Wouldn't be at all surprised if Blur didn't make any new material/play any more shows after this year...we will see.
Watch Blur perform Tender, taken by someone in the crowd
(mp3) Blur-Tender
3. Badly Drawn Boy @ Avalon Stage

Playing half on his own and half with a band, Badly Drawn Boy played a great set on the Avalon Stage, a place he calls the "real Glastonbury". He was so good in an intimate venue, strange to think he has played the Pyramid before! He played mostly classics from his first 3 albums...the only three i've heard, so for me it was a pretty much ideal setlist, as well as Stone Roses and Jackson 5 covers! The Shining, track 1 from the mercury prize winning Hour of Bewilderbeast, is one of the best songs ever written in my eyes, so hearing it live (albeit with just an acoustic guita, not the full orchestra) was very special. He is one of Britain's great songwriting talents, i'll definately be going to see him on his next tour.
Really good fan recording of A Minor Incident
(mp3) Badly Drawn Boy-The Shining

4. Q-Tip @ Jazz World

Of all the people I saw at glastonbury, Q-Tip had by far and away the best stage presence of the lot. The leader of possibly the greatest hip-hop group of all time, A Tribe Called Quest, is 39 years old, and very very cool. He played almost a perfect mix of tracks from 2008's the Renaiscance, his debut Amplified and Tribe stuff. The crowd went sick for all Tribe Called Quest, especially Scenario and Check the Rhime. Sucka Nigga was immense, that song is so intelligent. Q-Tip is real hip-hop, reminding the world along with a select few that hip-hop is not about Flo Rida, 50 cent, soulja boy and other successfull talentless stars. Hip-hop is about De La Soul, Mos Def, Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots and other intelligent artists. Q-Tip never seems to be mentioned when people talk about the best rapper ever, but in terms of lyrical ability and stage prescence he is right up there with Jay, Nas, Biggie and 2pac.
A Tribe Called Quest-Sucka Nigga
5. Regina Spektor @ Pyramid Stage

It wouldn't be too crazy to say she has the best voice in music ever. Live she is captivating and does not falter once. Playing alot from her new album Far, Regina impressed a crowd that mostly only knew Fidelity, the closer to a glorious set. Far is perhaps a bit lacklustre in comparison to the rest of her catalogue, but live it all sounds amazing. Poor Little Rich Boy was immense, as was Laughing With... but Us was my favourite; it is my favourite Regina song, and with a live string section it couldnt really go wrong...
(mp3) Regina Spektor-Poor Little Rich Boy
Other highlights:
Maximo Park
Peter Bjorn and John-Objects of my affection (mp3)
Mr Hudson-There will be tears (mp3)
Easy Star All Stars
White Lies-Unfinished Business (mp3)
The Streets
N.E.R.D.-Lapdance feat.Lee Harvey and Vita (mp3)
Lily Allen
The specials
Dizzee Rascal
The Gaslight Anthem-the '59 Sound (mp3)
The Temper Trap
Bon Iver-The Wolves (Act I and II)the (mp3)
Amadou and Mariam
Tom Jones!

Big Misses
2manydjs
Mumford and Sons
Laura Marling
Animal Collective
Bloc Party
Jamie T
Black eyed peas hahahaa

too good for words

2009-07-11T19:40:00.002+01:00

Yes that title is about a remix of the David Guetta/Kelly Rowland banger. DJ Blame retains the summer feel, retains Rowlands awesome voice in this, but turns it into a dnb classic. wish i wasnt listening to this through my crappy laptop speakers...mp3 as soon as poss...epic stuff

mourn with me?

2009-07-09T22:12:00.003+01:00

He cant be dead!!?!?!?!!!? Episode 4 was amazing....did not expect Ianto to die at all, its fucking sad. I have loved Children of Earth so far.

jamie t-sticks and stones ep

2009-07-04T17:56:00.002+01:00

Released last Monday, jamie T gives us even more reason to be hopeful for the release of his 2nd album, Kings and Queens.

Sticks and Stones is already one of the best songs of the year, and the new EP contains 3 brilliant new tracks St Christopher, On the Green and the Dance of the Young professionals. Missed his slot on the other stage at glasto, but caught him on Zane Lowes live show Thursday night, he was amazing, playing Sticks and Stones and Back in the Game.
Here is On the Green from the new EP:
(mp3) Jamie T-On the Green
He has just announced a tour:
1st - O2 Academy - Bristol
2nd - Guildhall - Southampton
3rd - O2 Academy - Birmingham
5th - Northumbria University - Newcastle
6th - Rock City - Nottingham
7th - UEA - Norwich
9th - Barrowlands - Glasgow
10th - Uni of Lancashire/53 Degrees - Preston
11th - O2 Academy - Sheffield
13th - Manchester Academy - Manchester
14th - O2 Academy - Leeds
15th - O2 Academy Brixton - London
23rd - Limelight - Belfast
24th - Whelan’s - Dublin
tickets on sale now
hes so damn talented

bloc party-one more chance video

2009-07-04T17:32:00.003+01:00

watch/download below

Its not very Bloc Party, but I love pretty much any song with a piano loop. They are capable of more for sure, but I like this. They are like a machine for outputting new material, intimacy was released less than a year ago. Very interested to see how album no.4 will sound. Expect alot of remixes to come for "One More Chance".
(mp3) Bloc Party-One more chance

only 4 days gone in Juily so far, and i've already posted as much this month as I did last. :D
One More Chance is out August 10th on Wichita. Bloc Party play below Radiohead at Reading/Leeds.

new dizzee rascal, chrome and calvin harris-holiday

2009-07-04T17:11:00.005+01:00

Listen and download below, and i threw in a Dizzee classic as well.

Dizzee Rascal returns to prove he is still the best grime-pop crossover artist out there. I dont even like Holiday that much, until the last 30 seconds when its awesome (even though thats Calvin Harris doing), but compared to the awful records Stryder and Chipmunk have had success with, its brilliant. Be prepared to hear this all the time, everywhere. If this doesnt go to number 1, I will eat my hand. "Tongue "N" Cheek" is out September 7th, 4 days before Blueprint 3...i wonder which will be better....here is the mp3
(mp3) Dizzee Rascal-Holiday feat. Chrome (prod. Calvin Harris)
and a classic
(mp3) Dizzee Rascal- 2 Far feat. Wiley

anyone going to wireless tomorrow??

2009-07-04T16:56:00.002+01:00

Not only to you get to go and see one of the best live performers of his generation, you get to see him on this stage!! Aparently he's only playing 1h10m though, would be interesting to see the setlist. Wouldn't be surprised if he only played Through the Wire off TCD, lots of 808s methinks. Love Lockdown, Heartless, Paranoid, Amazing, Welcome to Heartbreak are almost guaranteed. Also, the rest of the line-up is pretty sweet. Q-Tip, Kid Cudi, Calvin Harris, Mr Hudson and Example are definately all worth catching. Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk will probably be awesome as well, as much as they both annoy me. Kanye mp3 below.

Went to see the Hangover last night, and they played this Kanye track, reminding me of just how good he is.
(mp3) Kanye West-Can't Tell Me Nothing
In one of the final scenes, at a wedding the singer sings 50's Candy Shop as well. It is brilliant, go and see the film!

next week=torchwood week=excitement

2009-07-03T17:28:00.002+01:00

For some unknown reason, the bbc decided to contradict itself with the new series of Torchwood. On the one hand the show has been promoted to BBC One, on the other it has been cut from 13 to 5 episodes, to be shown every day next week. I have never been particularly passionate about the show (can anyone really be?) but it should make a nice fill-in before the next Dr Who special airs in November time (the easter one was awesome). Oh and Owen and Tosh are dead (they were really annoying!) so that gives me pretty high hopes for next week! Below are a few tidbits from DigitalSpy and a trailer.

1. Children Of Earth has a slightly terrifying premise: all of the children in the world stop dead at exactly the same moment and begin uttering the message "We are coming." All of them. And all in English, too.

2. The "we" is revealed to be an alien race dubbed The 456, not heard from in over 40 years.

3. In addition to the children, there is one other person reciting the message - a psychiatric patient named Timothy White. What connection does this have to an incident in Scotland in 1965?

4. Captain Jack and Ianto are referred to as "a couple" on more than one occasion.

5. As the episode begins, Rhys is looking at new houses for him and Gwen. But by the end of the episode, she has a very large secret she needs to share with him.

6. Both Owen and Tosh make appearances.

7. We meet Ianto's sister, nephew and niece. How will he respond to confirmed sightings of him on a dinner date with a man?

8. We also meet Captain Jack's.... daughter. Yes, daughter.

9. By the end of the episode, both Jack and Gwen have something inside them. Both items will change their worlds forever.

10. The ending to the first episode is probably one of the most compelling cliffhangers the Whoniverse has ever seen.

i hope tosh/owens appearnces are short. and no. 10 is very exciting!
trailer

Torchwood: Children of Earth airs Monday-Friday 9pm on BBC One

does anyone really care anymore?

2009-07-03T17:15:00.002+01:00

i guess ive completely lost faith in the show. after a strong start to season 3, it petered out to become (in the last few eps of volume 4) worse than the abysmal season 2. I hated pretty much every character except Hiro, and didnt care for their fate. The show relied too much on Sylar, who wasnt given enough interaction with the other major cast members, and even Zachary Quinto's acting couldn't turn awful writing into exciting action on screen. I began the year writing reviews every episode, that will not be happening next season. I will watch volume 5, but i wont look forward to it in any shape or form. There are a few minor spoilers below, taken from a nice article by DigitalSpy, rounding up character by character plotlines for the next season. Unless something dramatically changes, this could be my last ever post on Heroes. I cant believe it was ever considered Lost's equal.

From DigitalSpy:Here's what's happening with the major characters when the new season starts:

Claire (Hayden Panettiere): is starting college in Washington, D.C. Gets two roommates, Annie (Rachel Melvin) and Gretchen (Madeline Zima), but predictably, Claire's new life is far from straightforward. In the first episode, she discovers a body on the sidewalk, the result of a mysterious suicide. Meanwhile, she's dealing with the fallout from her parents' divorce process.

Nathan (Adrian Pasdar):... is Sylar. But that doesn't mean Nathan's going to be through and through bad next season. "I think there's going to be a good redemptive nature to his behaviour this year," Pasdar told Sci Fi Wire recently. "It's nice to think it might end a little lighter. It's nice to think it might end with a martyrdom kind of behaviour thing in order to sacrifice himself to save the world."

Peter (Milo Ventimiglia): has alienated himself from those cloest to him as he embarks on a one-man mission to save the world, one person at a time. Peter also finds a romantic interest in the form of a powerful woman. This is rumoured to be a hearing-impaired character called Emma, played by The L Word's Deanne Bray.

Angela (Cristine Rose): Talking about episode 3, Rose told E! Online: "I learned that 20 years ago, Angela made a decision that is going to come back to bite her in her rear end. Angela tries her best, but she keeps screwing up." Rose added that in the same episode, there will be a "huge change" for Mama Petrelli.

Matt (Greg Grunberg): is feeling guilty over the Nathan/Sylar affair but is trying to live a normal life with his wife and son. Grunberg has posted on his Twitter saying that he has been filming scenes where Matt "beats up on Sylar". Matt also gets a new partner ( Battlestar's Rick Worthy), an experienced LA cop who Matt turns to for advice.

Noah (Jack Coleman), Tracy (Ali Larter):... and Angela, among others, are forming The Company 2.0. But this time, The Company claims to have good intentions, with the aim of uniting heroes around the world. But there's also a new, sinister organisation on the scene - one that treats people with abilities in a "dangerous and potentially deadly new way".

Samuel (Robert Knepper): is a brand new character, described as a "charismatic and evil" man who will "veer into the lives of all heroes". Check back in with Tube Talk tomorrow morning for an exclusive interview with the ex-Prison Break star talking about his new role!

one of the best scrubs moments ever?

2009-07-02T19:15:00.002+01:00

i decided to watch scrubs when i got in last night at half 2, im rewatching season 2 at the moment...

even if you were never commited to the jd/elliott storyline, you have to admit this is awesome. season 2 is so brilliant, i think it might be my favourite season of scrubs ever.

on another note, im glad the show is moving away from the hospital and will have a new name, itll make it more like a spinoff than a continuation of the show.

rabbit heart remixxxxx

2009-07-02T19:07:00.002+01:00

Jamie T remixes the most hyped artist of the year's new single. It is huuuuge. Mp3 as soon as i find one.

RIP Michael Jackson

2009-07-02T17:40:00.003+01:00

As the whole world now knows, Michael Jackson died one week ago today. It was pretty surreal hearing the news at glastonbury, and the jokes came a little too fast i think. Its been pretty much mandatory across the blogosphere to post some form of Jackson tribute, whether blogging about hip-hop, metal, indie, dance, dubstep, punk, i guarantee at least 90% of blogs will have written something about the late King of Pop. I guess that shows, despite the scandals, he was a unifying figure, and no matter what musical taste or background everyone can appreciate his genius.

If you are sick of the gazillion articles/comments in the media about the case and just want to read a select few from the journalistic elite, look no further.
Firstly, Charlie Brooker comments on the media reaction to his death, he is genius as usual. (read)
Secondly, published in the Observer on Sunday, a review by John Peel of Jacksons "Bad" Tour. (read)
and finally, from an up and coming blogger (who just so happens to
be my sister) a short article on Jacksons celebrity in comparison to the "stars" of today. (read)

I was going to post the jail dance Thriller video, but anyone who has ever been on the internet has seen it, so here is Man in the Mirror from the 88 grammy's.

and of course a couple of my favourite mp3ssss
Jackson 5-I Want You Back
Michael Jackson-Don't Stop 'til you Get Enough

best.festival.ever.

2009-07-02T17:34:00.002+01:00

MaximoParkMrHudsonReginaSpektorN*E*R*DTheMaccabeesWhiteLiesLilyAllenTheSpecialsTheStreetsQ-TipPeterBjorn&JohnDizzeeRascalTheTemperTrapBadlyDrawnBoyBonIverEasyStarAllStarsArtBrutAmadou&MariamTomJonesMumford&SonsBlur

full review coming this weekend!

drake

2009-06-23T21:35:00.003+01:00

very quick post, just heard this on westwood, its awesome. drake is the big hype hip-hop artist of 2009

i just wanna be successfull
his album is gonna own, hope he can get it out early unlike similar highly tipped new rappers, kid cudi and wale, who are taking fucking ages

glastonbury tomorrow!!!

2009-06-23T21:07:00.002+01:00

very very very exciting. been so distracted at work this week have just been thinking/planning glasto. Im so excited for loads of random bands, here are my probable top 10 excitements

Regina Spektor
The Maccabees
Q-Tip
Badly Drawn Boy
Bon Iver
Blur
White Lies
N*E*R*D
The Streets
The Specials

I've never really listened to Blur's back catalogue but i reckon they're the sort of band i'd probably love. Cannot wait for them. After N*E*R*D's confirmation that they are playing on the Friday, i had a bit of an excited day dream today. Mr Hudson, NERD and Q-Tip all playing the same day, linked with the Kanye rumours, and the fact that he is probably in the country, i thought maybe hed come on for all 3! would be so awesome. unlikely tbh....
glastonbury review to come after the festy!

autumn (fall in american) premiere dates

2009-06-20T17:14:00.003+01:00

Oldies
Lost-January TBC (ABC/Sky1)
Scrubs-January TBC (ABC/E4?)
Desperate Housewives-27th September (ABC/Channel4)
Heroes (eugh)-September TBC (NBC/BBC)
Fringe-17th September (Fox/Sky1)

Newbies
Flash Forward-24th September (ABC/?-probably sky1)
V-Midseason, Jan/Feb 2010 (ABC/?)
Cougar Town-23rd September, I won't be watching this, but loads of people will. (ABC/?)

im still gonna do a season 5 lost review/recap, before comic-con and a bit of a preview of the new seasons shows. There a couple of shows i'm thinking of watching before the new season starts, 30 rock (because its supposedly amazing) and How i Met Your Mother (because Sarah Chalke is in it), but not sure if ill get them in seeing as I intend to rewatch all of Lost, all of the Wire and buy the WestWing boxset...

the worst kanye verse ever?

2009-06-20T14:33:00.002+01:00

not quite sure why im posting this, as kanye is one my favourite rappers/producers but still...his verse is far too long, and his voice is shocking, its flat and dull, just not regular kanye. i actually like the original, once kanye finishes his mammoth bad rap it kicks off and is a pretty good beyonce song! youd think a track called ego would suit him, i guess not....still its nowhere near as bad as the video below, which would be the worst song ever, if it wasnt so funny.

sorry if you watched that and wasted 4 minutes, 22 seconds of your life

new lupe fiasco feat. matthew santos

2009-06-16T18:38:00.003+01:00

Excited much? Download the first single of Lupe Fiasco's 3rd album Lasers below....

Lupe Fiasco-Shining Down (feat. Matthew Santos) (mp3)
He's not retiring btw :D

A Tale of Two Seasons: Skins Series 3

2009-06-14T18:33:00.008+01:00

After an awful start, Skins recovered to make some of the best episodes it ever has. Series 3 was "A Tale of Two Seasons" with contrasts for me pretty clear cut, in acting ability and character development. Below I give a quick rundown on my take on each character/actor and then a few bests and worsts of the season.

Cook
Initially I hated him. My feelings about his centric episode remain the same. The whole storyline with Mackensie Crook was boring and ridiculous. It took 6 episodes for me to begin to warm to him. Partly because Freddie had revealed himself as a bit of a pathetic character, and partly because the Naomi-centric episode finally showed Cook as something over than a complete twat. Don't get me wrong, he is still a complete dickhead and not someone I'd want to be friends with by any means, but by the end of the series and especially in the last episode I was genuinely empathetic for his character, after it was revealed how much of a twat his dad (Super Hans!) is. Jack O' Connell also deserves credit for one of the best performances the program has ever seen, in what was one of the worst storylines the show has ever seen, the love triangle/quadrangle/pentagon/hexagon.
Best episode: Finale
Potential for character development in S4: High
Freddie
My issues with Freddie maybe stemmed from the fact all of his storylines were crap and unrealistic. Or perhaps the fact that Luke Pasqualino has a long way to go before he can match many of his co-stars acting level. His "relationship" with Effy is billed as some sort of epic romance, supposedly in contrast to Cooks sexually charged one. This had no basis whatsoever though, they must have talked about twice before they finally got together in episode 8. The short-lived relationship with Katie was also pretty rubbish and unbeleivable, it was almost as if they didnt want to bring in someone new as a love interest so they thought theyd use an existing cast member, resulting in a relationship we didnt see begin, and generally I couldnt see the point in. Finally got together with Effy in the end, I hope it lasts, or that boring storyline may end up continuing.
Best episode: Freddie
Potential for character development in S4: Low

Effy
Hmmm. Billed by many (myself included) as the star of s3, her character just didn't live up to expectations. Ok she clearly has issues, parents splitting up etc, but that doesn't justify her random and pretty twattish behaviour all series. She didn't seem to have any firm feelings about anything and was always flitting about, not making her mind up. Fair enough, that was probably what the writers intended, to show her indeciseveness and maybe even make the audience empathise with her. This worked sometimes (Pandoras episode in particular), but by the end, and after her centric episode where she was just a twat really, this was lost. Kaya Scodelario is an awesome actress and her character still has great potential. Here's hoping Tony returns sometime during s4 and sorts her out.
Best episode: Pandora
Potential for character development in s4: High
Naomi
Best Skins character ever? Lily Loveless is definitely the best female actor the starring cast has had i think. Naomis character was consistently brilliant throughout the story. I was worried that the lesbian storyline would be handled badly, but it was done in the best way possible, superb. Although peripheral in many episodes, when she did appear the character development and acting were stunning. Both her centric episode and the Twins were outstanding. I was disappointed not to see her, or the twins, in the last episode, hopefully she will take a more central role in season 4. One of my favourite scenes of the season was when she chose not to shag Cook, both actors showed their talent there.
Best episode: Naomi
Potential for character development in s4: High
Emily
2nd best character of the series. Hers was another brilliant performance, showing so much of her character with actually fairly little screentime. Emily is a doormat, always trodden on by her twin, longing for Naomi. Her desire, desperation and frustration with Naomi and her relationship with Katie were portrayed very well in both the Twins and Naomi's centric episodes. She was also great in JJ's episode, in which she randomly shags him, which was seemingly pointless and only used as a plot development in the lesbian love story. Ach well, another of my favourite characters ever.
Best episode: Naomi
Potential for character development in s4: High
Katie
We didn't learn anything about Katie until her centric episode when her relationships with Freddie and Emily were examined. I was intially indifferent to who I thought was by far the less interesting twin, and although I still think she is a bitch, am much more interested in her character after seeing some of the motivations behind her actions. The Freddie romance was stupid (see above) but apart from that its a big thumbs up. Megan Prescott was shaky at first, but excelled at the end.
Best Episode: Emily and Katie
Potential character development for s4: High
JJ
Another character who suddenly became interesting in his centric episode. His role in the fight between Cook and Freddie was really interesting, and his friendship with Emily also nice. Sometimes came across as a bit of a cliched autistic/aspergus character....and some of the writing for him was not the best.
Best episode: JJ
Potential character development for s4: Medium
Pandora
The worst character ever invented in anything ever. Pointless, boring, unrealistic, delusional, the list goes on...Pandora was my least favourite character of the series, and my least favourite on Skins ever. Her relationship with Thomas was godawful (how could anyone be attracted to her? This isnt a shallow judgement of the actress, its the character that is incredibly annoying). Then when she randomly shagged Cook, and then again....Glad we saw little of her after episode 4, her story was largely pointless and irrelevant to the rest of the plot.
Best episode: NONE
Potential character development for s4: Low
Thomas
Hard to judge, he was great in his centric episode but rarely appeared after that. His main storyline was the relationship with Pandora that I was not a fan of (see above). I hope that they don't get back together.
Best episode: Thomas
Potential character development: High

Best episode: Naomi
Best actor (male): Jack O'Connell (Cook)
Best actor (female): Lily Loveless
Best character: Naomi
Best relationship: Emily/Naomi
Worst relationship: Pandora/Thomas...but take your pick tbh

Predictions for season 4
Effy will cheat on Freddie with Cook
Cook will continue shagging Pandora
Naomi and Emily will split up but get back together
One or more of the past stars will return for a couple of episodes, Nicholas Hoult (Tony) seems the most likely contender. Dev Patel is the least likely.

Series 4 starts filming towards the end of the summer. I look forward to it.

humbug

2009-06-09T17:57:00.003+01:00

Arctic Monkeys 3rd album
1. "My Propeller"
2. "Crying Lightning"
3. "Dangerous Animals"
4. "Secret Door"
5. "Potion Approaching"
6. "Fire and the Thud"
7. "Cornerstone"
8. "Dance Little Liar"
9. "Pretty Visitors"
10. "The Jeweller's Hands"
Entitled Humbug, with Crying Lightning the first single. Release date close to their headline slot at Leeds/Reading. 24th August in the UK, 25th in the US....but randomly August 19th in Japan.
Im very excited...tour to be announced soon i hope!
Here is an mp3 from an acoustic session they did around the release of Flourescent Adolescent i think. Its Only Ones Who Know, which is one of my favourites from FWN, this version is beautiful.
Arctic Monkeys-Only ones who know (acoustic) (mp3)

she wants to move remix + extras

2009-06-09T17:22:00.003+01:00

I missed this 5 years ago. All star remix of N*E*R*D's best song since In Search Of, She Wants To Move. This seems to be the sort of thing DJ Khaled is going for...but Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman and Lil' Wayne (and that was the best I could pick from his discography on wikipedia) is no match for Mos Def, Common, Q-Tip and De La Soul. Anyway...link is below, as are a few more mp3s ive been listening to the last couple of days.

N*E*R*D-She wants to move (Remix feat. Mos Def, Common, Q-Tip and De La Soul) (mp3)

everyone was aparently hyping about this track a few weeks back, but i was away...so im only hyping about it now. skream remix of in for the kill, makes the song, which is pretty dam good in the first place, a whole lot better. Both are playing Glastonbury.
La Roux-In for the kill (Skream Remix)(mp3)

I'm still undecided on Passion Pit's debut. Whilst the Reeling and sleepyhead are contenders for tune of the year, the rest of the album hasnt grabbed my attention much yet. Here is a remix of the Reeling, by Miike Snow who released their debut last month.
Passion Pit-The Reeling (Miike Snow Remix)(mp3)

Finally, new Simian Mobile Disco. The follow up to their 2007 debut will be released on August the 17th, and this is the lead single, featuring Chris Keating of Yeasayer.
James Ford has been helping out on the new Arctic Monkeys album (he produced Favourite Worst Nightmare)which now has a release date, title and tracklisting!
Simian Mobile Disco-Audacity of huge (feat. Chris Keating)(mp3)

recent excitements

2009-06-08T12:17:00.005+01:00

Having a full time job makes it difficult to post on here, oh well im ill today so here are a few exciting pieces of music i've been listening to this week...

We Were Promised Jetpacks
Seriously good, scottish Frightened Rabbit esque indie. Remind me a bit of the Walkmen as well. Album comes out next Monday (15th), definately worth buying, its awesome. Here a couple of tracks for you to preview.
We Were Promised Jetpacks-It's Thunder and It's Lightning
We Were Promised Jetpacks-Conductor
Mos Def
"The Ecstatic" is out today, sounding good on first listen, especially the following track "History" featuring Black Star collaborator Talib Kweili. Aparently a Black Star album is scheduled for a 2010 release!
Mos Def-History feat. Talib Kweli
Jay-Z
D.O.A (Death of Autotune) has been released as a street single for the September 11 release of Blueprint 3. Although Kanye was speculated to be producing the entire album, this is produced by No I.D.
Have a listen here
Keri Hilson
Yeah you read it right. Knock you down is huuuuuuge. Ne-yo proves his worth once again.
watch the video here
Keri Hilson is gonna be massive.
Milburn
Live set just been released to the internet, recorded at Manchester Urbis in 2006. Here is I Know Something You Don't Know, a song which previously had only been heard live, or on bad mobile phone recordings. Over a year now since they split :(
Milburn-I Know Something You Don't Know (Live at Manchester Urbis)

still got shit loads to listen to and catch up on!!

Fringe Season One Review

2009-05-31T10:51:00.005+01:00

After a decent, albeit slightly haphazard, start, Fringe began to excel around the episode 10 mark, peaking in the fantastic "Ability" (ep14) and maintaining a very high standard right up to the season finale, "There's more than one of everything".

Fringe has quickly turned into one of my favourite shows on TV, and I'm relieved there is finally something that looks as though it can fill the huge gap in my TV schedule when Lost ends after next season. Fringe does brilliantly to combine individual interesting X-File like mysterious occurences each episode with overarching sci-fi lost-esque themes. The initial episodes were good, but it looked like it could be a down the line run of the mill cop drama with some sci-fi weird events going on. By the last few episodes it was clear this was nowhere near what this show is about. Like Lost, (although Abrams has little creative input into that show anymore) the show has already changed completely from where it started. While Lost took 26 episodes for a major game changer, Fringe introduced teleportation in episode 14 and the big mysterious powerful corporation (Massive Dynamic, to Fringe what Dharma is to Lost?) was introduced very early on. William Bell (sorry to keep comparing it to Lost but...Jacob?) took one season to appear...Jacob took 5. I wont spoil the final episode, but Fringe is firmly in the sci-fi territory now, the last scene was one of the best i've ever seen. Anna Torv, playing the main character Olivia Denham, deserves alot of credit, and has improved loads over the season.Joshua Jackson, John Noble and Lance Reddick were also brilliant.
If you've not seen it, use the long summer without new TV to start. Stream it on Fox if your in the US, or ninjavideo if not. DVD is out this autumn.

Season 2 has been confirmed. Aparently Kirk Acevedo has quit or been sacked. He plays Charlie Francis, a character that has been slightly underused...
Here is the trailer for season 2, beginning september 17th on Fox

Calling all Lost geeks

2009-05-31T10:39:00.003+01:00

Starting next week, Lostpedia, DocArzt and a load of other Lost fansites are partaking in a Lost rewatch involving watching 3 or 4 episodes each week leading up to the start of Season 6 in January. I rewatch everything every hiatus, and after very significant developments in the s5 finale now is definitely the time to go back and look for clues. Every single monster encounter, every odd character action, every dark/light reference can now be reanalysed.
Loads of bloggers will be posting about the episodes weekly, check out the Lost Rewatch homepage on Lostpedia here
I still want to rewatch all of s5 before i start rewatching the series, i might end up doing it simultaneously.

Be The One Be The One

2009-05-31T09:07:00.003+01:00

Jack Peñate returns with the second single (Be the one) from his new album entitled Everything is New out next month.

Summer 2007 I got a bit obsessed with Jack Peñate's Spit at Stars EP and the demos that had been released building up for his debut, Matinee. Matinee was then hugely disappointing, the old demos sounded shit on the album. But he's returned with something different and new, and its promising. Tonights Today, released in March, is brilliant, and so is the follow up single, Be The One....here is Be the One.
Jack Peñate-Be the one (mp3)

GLASTO LINE UP

2009-05-29T11:25:00.002+01:00

I'm admittedly 5 days late on posting about this, but it doesnt matter. Q-Tip headlining the JazzWorld Stage on the Friday! It's going to be amazing. The line up is brilliant, here are the bands im excited about.
Maximo Park, The Specials, Lily Allen, Fleet Foxes, Regina Spektor (:D), Bloc Party, Friendly Fires, White Lies, The Maccabees, Mr Hudson, Doves, Jamie T, Jack Penate, Q-Tip, The Streets, The Big Pink, Dan Le Sac, Annie Mac, Chipmunk, Timo Maas, Kasabian, Dizzee Rascal, Pendulum, Paulo Nutini, Pete Doherty, Peter, Bjorn and John, Passion Pit, Gaslight Anthem, Bon Iver, MWard, 2 Many DJs, La Roux, Wiley, Eric Prydz, Badly Drawn Boy!, Blur, Madness, Tom Jones, Amadou and Mariam, Prodigy, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, GoodBooks, Black Eyed Peas, Roots Manuva, Calvin Harris, High Contrast etc etc

Although there will be some baaaad clashes, notably Maccabees/Regina!
Q-Tip will play at least 3 or 4 Quest songs! Aparently he's played Check the Rhyme solo before, though im not sure how that'd work without Phife. Scenario is a definate, verses from the abstract, electric relaxation, award tour, bonita applebum are good bets.
Here is a live vid of scenario with Busta, absolutely sik.
the crowd goes so mental for Busta
Q-Tip is a great live performer from the vids ive seen on youtube. If the NERD rumours are true, i wouldnt be surprised to see Pharrell bust on stage and if Kanye makes an appearance with Hudson he may well come on for Q-Tip!
On Q's version of the line-up De La Soul were on the JW stage before Q-Tip, but not on anyone elses line-up. If its true...Buddy!

fan made video for little bribes

2009-05-26T17:00:00.002+01:00

Death Cab for Cutie - Little Bribes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

or watch it bigger screen here
This is seriously amazing, there are some quality fan made DCFC vids out there, i remember a wicked Coney Island one on youtube...

big roundup of the last 11 weeks part 1

2009-05-26T15:59:00.003+01:00

First part of a round-up of releases over the past 11 or so weeks

The Maccabees-Wall of Arms
Yes yes yes yes yes. The best release of the year? Pretty close. I really love this album, showing brilliant progression lyrically and musically from the pretty much immaculate Colour It In. Gutted I missed out on their tour and may well miss out on their October tour as well! My current favourite from the album...
The Maccabees-Can you give it? (mp3)

Maximo Park-Quicken the Heart
Mixed feelings about this one, Maximo's albums are always growers for me. I didnt really rate A Certain Trigger on first listen, but it became one of my favourite albums of all time! And Our Earthly Pleasures has improved a lot in the 2 years since it came out. I fully expect Quicken the Heart to be the same. At the moment, although the album has some quality tracks (Calm, The Kids are Sick Again, The Penultimate Clinch) it is let down by the less than average I Haven't Seen Her in Ages and Overland, West of Suez...For me it doesnt match either of the bands first two albums. I saw them on Friday and they were brilliant as usual, but the old tracks were sooooo mcuh better than the new ones. By the end of the year, I could be fully in love with it, but at the moment i'm not.
Maximo Park-Calm (mp3)

Eminem-Relapse
After 2 listens I really like Replase, it shouldt even be spoken about in the same sentence as the piece of shit that was Encore. I dont think Eminems ever going to match the brilliance of his fiorst 3 albums, but he does well to try. His flow is still ridiculously good when he wants it to be, but sometimes verges on the Ass Like That silliness that came to represent Encore. Randomly, a stand out track for me is My Mom, Dre's awesome production and Eminems top form throughout make up for the fact that he's talking about his mum AGAIN.
Eminem-My Mom

Jamie T-Sticks and Stones
Song of the year? His best so far? Cannot wait for this album/seeing him next month!
Jamie T-Sticks and Stones (mp3)

Passion Pit-Manners
Only listened once, I like it. Sleepyhead is by far and away my favourite, but the Reeling is also pretty good.
Passion Pit-The Reeling (mp3)

scrubs season 8 round-up

2009-05-21T09:13:00.003+01:00

A couple of weeks ago Scrubs "ended", below i give my brief thoughts on the finale, season as a whole and then potential for season 9

My Finale was a triumphant, brilliant piece of television. As a pretty big Scrubs fan, this episode was incredibly important for me, and they delivered. It was enough of a balance between comedy, genuinely poignant goodbyes and of course a bit of cheesiness thrown in; the combination that has made Scrubs what it is over the years. All JD's goodbyes were awesome. I'm glad Elliott and JD's relationship had been resolved a long time before so the finale didnt have to deal with that. The set up by Sunni for Dr Cox's speech on JD was so brilliant and that goodbye was great, as was Turks and the Janitors. Strangely enough though, it was Dorian's understated farewell to Carla that was the best of the lot. Carla has been underused over the last 2 seasons, but this scene harked back to seasons past and the development that JD has undergone throughout the course of the show guided alot of the way by Carla. Howver corny it was i loved all the old faces appearing in the corridor! Mandy Moore and Masi Oka were notable exceptions, oh and Tara Reid! And the weird screen thing into the future was ultimate cheese, but quality. The Finale was a perfect ending.

Season 8 overall was awesome. Started strongly, a bit of a dip in the middle but the end run of episodes was outstanding. It far surpassed season 7 (it amazes me how such a bad season was made by a crew/cast that have made such a good tv program), and probably season 6. JD became a real character again rather than a ridiculous caricature, and Elliott was almost back to her peak. This season contained some of the best patient storylines in a long time, harking back to the first few seasons where the patients stories clearly shaped the staff of Sacred Heart. My Last Words, My Lawyers in Love and My Finale were all brilliant, as were the 2 episodes in Barbados. Randomly, my favourite episode of the season didn't feature JD at all. My Full Moon was pretty much all Elliott/Turk and patient interactions and it was classic Scrubs. Seson 8 was a brilliant end to a brilliant TV program.

Then the news came that Scrubs would continue into a 9th season. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!!? I don't know anyone, especially hardcore Scrubs fans, who are happy with this news. JD and Elliott will return for 6 episodes in "transitional roles" whatever the hell that means. Turk, Dr Cox and the Janitor are all series regulars, and the interns are being promoted to starring status. This is not going to work. All the major characters are made by their interactions and relationship with JD, the show without him cannot fucntion. If they want to create a new show entirely about the interns, go for it. Call it something different. It isnt Scrubs. I will probably end up watching it. I dont know if Bill Lawrence is even gonna be involved, he has a new pilot with Courtney Cox in next season. If it is heavily intern based, then Jo/Denise had better be the central character, as she was by far the most ijnteresting character and best actor of the interns introduced in s8. I seriously cannot see s9 being a good thing, after the whole show was rounded up so well.
ah well, we will see.

africa playlist: what i've been listening to for the last 10 weeks

2009-05-19T10:16:00.006+01:00

its possibly a little hip-hop biased...and i decided to only include one song per artist otherwise it would pretty much have been the tracklisting of Ready to Die...

Top songs:
Aim-Good Disease feat. Stephen Jones
Its all about those soft trumpets and his awesome voice, brilliant chillout music.
Amy Winehouse-I heard Love is Blind
Winehouse at her lyrical peak, this song makes me laugh every time. The light guitar works perfectly with her voice and delivery.
Death Cab For Cutie-The New Year
It's taken me maybe 100 listens and 6 years to work out how good this song is. Amazing
Fleet Foxes-Meadowlarks
Its all about the voice on this. They will own Glastonbury
Jack Johnson-Banana Pancakes
In Between Dreams is pretty much essential beach music...and he has the knack of writing simple but quite beautiful lyrics.
Jay-Z-22 Two's
Ridiclously good.
Justin Timberlake-Take it from here
Is it sad that this is one of my all time favourite songs? He needs some Neptunes production on his third album because thats what made Justified what it is, a classic pop/r&b album. Take it from here combines chilled, brilliant guitar with Tmberlakes soft, smooth voice. Brilliant
Kanye West-Diamonds from Sierra Leone (remix) feat. Jay-Z
Both merk this song. Late Registration is an amazing album.
Mos Def-Do it now feat. Busta Rhymes
The only track on Black on Both Sides to rival Mathematics. The sparring between them is like a more militant version of Q-Tip/Phife Dawg, great prodcution by Mr. Khaliylas well.
Nas-The World Is Yours
My current favourite on Illmatic.
Notorious B.I.G.-Machine Gun Funk
The best rapper of all time. Only Jay-Z and Nas can come close.
A Tribe Called Quest-Electric Relaxation
Q-Tip might be playing glasto!!!
Zero 7-Destiny
Amazing song. Amazing lyrics. Brilliant.

Top albums:
The Notorious B.I.G.-Ready to die
Jay-Z-Reasonable Doubt
Zero 7-Simple Things
Kanye West-Late Registration
Frank Turner-Love, Ire and Song

new regina spektor

2009-05-19T10:09:00.002+01:00

The most talented female artist of her generation releases her 5th studio album, Far, on the 23rd of June. 2 songs (Laughing with, blue lips) have been released to the internet so far, both streaming on her myspace page
Listen to them here
She has got some European tour dates in July including T in the Park/Oxegen/Latitude...still hoping she'll play Glastonbury. Very excited for the release of this album.
Tracklisting:
1. The Calculation
2. Eet
3. Blue Lips
4. Folding Chair
5. Machine
6. Laughing With
7. Human of the Year
8. Two Birds
9. Dance Anthem
10. Genius next door
11. Wallet
12. One more time with feeling
13. Man of a Thousand Faces

im baaaaaaack

2009-05-18T12:49:00.003+01:00

the most satisfying lost death ever? phil was a dickhead

after an amazing 10 weeks away im back in Sheffield, back home. lots and lots to catch up on tv and music wise. yesterday i watched 9 episodes of lost back to back. it was amazing, im gonna do a whole season review/round up but probs not til june when i will have rewatched it all. all ill say now is that the incident was my favourite piece of television ever. lost continues to amaze me. ive also seen the last half of season 8 of scrubs which i loved, thought it was brilliant...ill be writing a season review soon...and thoughts on the plans for season 9...so ive got fringe, heroes and skins to watch and write about now...

...and music wise. eminem, maximo park, the maccabees, death cab, passion pit, jamie t, conor oberst and more have all relesed new material since ive been away and ill round that all up in one mega post soon enough. and im gonna see whats been hitting the charts as well (tinchy stryder has been number 1! for 3 weeks, something i could not have envisaged 3 weeks ago)...

im going away for 10 weeks!!! what to do....

2009-03-05T08:17:00.002Z

There will be no new posts on here for 10 weeks(!) while I'm away!
So heres a quick list of things to do...
TV
LOST
For news: DarkUFO/The ODI
For spoilers: DarkUFO Spoilers
For recaps: Erika/Lukhs/Doc Jensen/DarkUFO
HEROES (if you really want...)
For everything: The ODI
FRINGE
For recaps, news etc: FringeTV
For info: Fringepedia
SCRUBS
For everything: ScrubsHQ
SKINS
General info: E4Skins
Music: musicguide
and of course Peep Show will be back with a 6th season by the time I return!!!
Music
hypem/pitchfork/elbo/pma/billboard/nme

arab money remix

2009-03-04T14:15:00.003Z

the songs been around a while, but this video has recently been released. diddy is still a twat, and so is akon, but still love this song. Busta is also joined by weezy and swizz beatz, as well as ron browz, whose production is brilliant on this!!! t.i. randomly turns up in the vid as well, he must be off to jail soon?

lost season 5: the life and death of jeremy bentham recap

2009-03-03T14:24:00.003Z

"So you didn't make it huh?"

The long awaited "Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" covered what we should assume to be the majority (if not the complete) of Lockes time off island. As with Meet Kevin Johnson, the episode contained a big old flashback sandwiched between 2 short on island portions.....
On island part 1
Caesar is shown rumaging through a dark room (soon shown to be the Hydra island-Jack, Kate and Sawyer early s3 if you didnt remember), finding what looks like some pages from Daniel's journal! I like both Caesar and Ilanas characters already (she has a touch of the Ana-Lucia about her i think), he seems to be searching for something specific in that room, what was it? Locke is then revealed to be alive! (we all knew that was gonna happen right?). AND Ilana reveals 2 boats, very similar to those seen in "The Little Prince", the pilot and "a woman" (Sun?) have already taken one, i dont think it would be too much of a crazy theory to guess Caesar/Ilana is the person Juliet shot...
John meets Widmore
Loved this convo, after the excrutiatingly painful operation! Even more murky now as to who is good/bad, I was so sure Ben was "good" and I still am...but only just...Widmore tells John Ben exiled him from the island. Not sure we can believe this one. Richard seems like Jacob/the Islands right hand man, and it didnt seem as though he got on with Widders, so what happened there? Was he really their leader? Locke should have pressed him more on the "war" coming!
John meets Abbadon
Widmore introduces John to his driver, none other than my favourite actor in the world Lance Reddick (Daniels in the Wire)! I love his character and I was gutted when he died, some great dialogue between him and Locke before Ben shot him up good and proper. Hoping that is not the last we'll see of him.
John meets Sayid
John and driver mission it to the Dominican Republic, where Sayid is a charity worker building a house! This is a long way from the crazed, paranoid Sayid we saw in the s4 finale/early s5. What happened in between? And what went on between Ben and Sayid to make them fall out? Both key questions imo
John meets Walt-"The Boys Gotten Big"
I seriously hope we see more Walt, but im worried we wont. Loved the mention of Micheal, i am still holding out for seeing his charcter again. And Ben seeing them was awesome.
John meets Hurley
This was classic, Hurley assuming he was dead was comedy gold! Hurley then freaked out upon seeing Abbadon.
John meets Kate
This was a very cold scene, she was so horrible to him, very disdaining and patronising. Does she think Sawyer is even alive? He doesnt even get a mention from Locke, which is a bit of a waste of a huge potential persuasive tactic...
John meets Helen...well sort of...
After denying he knew of her wherabouts, Abbadon then manages to rummage up a grave in Santa Monia. Everyone (all the recappers) thinks this was faked. I agree.
John meets Jack
Another Jac/Locke showdown. Lockes Christian comment was the first we saw of him actually making any sort of impact!
John meets Ben
Brilliant scene between 2 amazing actors. Lots of questions arise as to why Ben didnt just let Locke kill himself. Was he always going there to kill him, or did he pop to the shops to buy that bleach? Did Ben think the island wouldnt have him back if he committed suicide? Was it the mention of Hawking that got to Ben? Also, how long had passed between the scene with Jack, and him killing himself?
On island 2
We go back to the island, where Caesar has assumed leadership status almost. Locke checks out the injured people and sees Ben!

LaFleur is the last episode im gonna be able to watch before Im away for 10 weeks! Here's hoping West African internet is better than its made out to be!!!
Lafleur is apaz Sawyer centric.
Promo

Sneak peek #1

sneak peek #2

after 2 episodes without them, Iam very much looking forward to the return of Swayer, Jules, Jin, Daniel and Miles! Big questions over who the woman in the hood is, that Sawyer is taking off!

skinsmusic season 3 episode 6

2009-03-02T21:59:00.002Z

Skins hits top form

Finally Skins has reached the heights it consistently achieved in the first 2 series. This was a fantastic episode driven brilliantly by the character of Naomi (Lily Loveless gave a great performance). Both of the "love stories" were well thought out and pretty believable for Skins. The way they are handling the lesbian storyline deserves credit, they could have made it down the line boy-fantasy lesbian kissing/more, without the complex feelings clearly involved, but they instead created a great emotional story of a confused relationship. The scene above was actually really touching, Emily has a pretty hoarse voice generally so I guess that helped with sounding emotional, but she sounded so desperate...and the last scene by the door was brilliant also...
I think all that greatness would have been ruined if Naomi had shagged Cook. We saw part of that scene in "coming up" bit of episode 1, so I was worried but thankfully she backed out!! Cook is unfortunately becoming more likeable, loved his line "You're...you know...clever", as to why he understands Naomi not having sex with him. The teacher storyline was equally great, and Olivia Colman was excellent as Naomi's crazy mum. There were a couple of things that did annoy me about this episode...but i have criticized this series enough...onto the music...

Vashti Bunyan – Diamond Day (mp3)
Audio Networks - Hard Rock
The Human League – Love Action
Art Brut – Good Weekend (mp3)
Experimental Dental School – Oakland Lake Legz
Asobi Seksu – I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me – One Little Indian
The Diskettes – Art (mp3)
Tujiko Noriko – White Film – Mego
High Places – Jump In – Thrill Jockey
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra – Believer
Electrelane – After The Call (mp3)
John Lennon - Instant Karma
Dodos – Walking
Liars – Mr You're on Fire Mr – Mute
Robert Wyatt – Just As You Are
Grouper – Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping
Gloria Jones – Tainted Love

Another bunch of great tracks there...I am gonna do my Lost recap this avo i think, last one before I go away for 10 weeks!!!

gold teeth-everybody

2009-02-28T13:39:00.003Z

Perfect indie pop. This is what the Guardian says about this song:
"Everybody has some of the currently popular tropical/Afrobeat flavours, with an electronic pulse, a lilting rhythm and Highlife guitar, but what makes it stand out is the lyric, which is self-pitying and stark where the music is anthemic and joyous: "Everybody wants to see that you don't even look at me/No, you don't even love me," complains the singer, turning the plaint into something strangely affirmative via an endlessly repeated "everybody is everybody" refrain, which will go down well as a chant in Ibiza or Ilford." mp3 below!

Gold Teeth-Everybody

check out their myspace

blinded by the lights nero remix

2009-02-28T12:27:00.003Z

I am not a dubstep fan at all, but this remix is something very very special. Annie Mac dropped this on the mashup last night, and I've ripped it (apologies for her talking over half of the song...). Also, she's been playing this Herve remix of Kidda for a while now, its maybe even better, i am a sucker for piano loops. catch both mp3s below...

The Streets-Blinded by the lights (Nero remix)
Kidda-Under the Sun (Herve Remix)

bon iver/the moldy peaches on a night out?

2009-02-28T10:24:00.002Z

I was in quite a chavvy bar last night and both Bon Iver's Skinny Love and the Moldy Peaches "Anyone else but you" got played at about 1 as it was beginning to close. Crazy times. Never expected to hear either of these beautiful songs while I was out! Both mp3s below

Bon Iver-Skinny Love
The Moldy Peaches-Anyone Else But You

skinsmusic season 3 episode 5

2009-02-26T17:25:00.003Z

You've got to hand it to them, they managed to make him even more of a twat

Cant remember whether i liked this episode or not...it was a whole week ago....
It was interesting to see Freddies backstory (not just because it involved Bob Fossil!) but as usual there was loads wrong with this episode. I find Luke Pasqualino (Freddie) such an unconvincing actor, they have created potentially the best character of the series but let it go to waste with someone who is maybe only an average actor. I do like the Cook/Freddie/JJ friendship triangle thing despite JJ being very annoying. I have to admit I do find cook/JJ's friendship entertaining...and before I get even angrier about his character, Jack O’Connell (Cook) is an excellent actor, the best of the new cast I think. I was so angry at Cook by the end, I didnt even guess it was gonna be him in Effy's room, I assumed it'd be some random, but I found myself surprisingly dedicated to Effy/Freddie as opposed to Effy/Cook.
That lovestory is also unconvincing. The whole "big romantic scene" in the lake as awful, that was pretty much the least passionate kiss on tv...ever....
Turns out there is no point in Josie without Chris as well...
Music was brilliant agin this episode, got me into a couple of new (to me) bands which is always good!
The Early Years – A Little More
Fat Segal – Sexxbombz Theme Tune
Timothy Victor – Juicing Down
Fat Segal – Tension Music
The Clash – Bankrobber
Jimi Hendrix-Voodoo Chile
Phosphorescent – A Death A Proclamation (mp3)(Daytrotter Session)
Boards of Canada – In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country(mp3)
Sparklehorse – It’s A Wonderful Life (mp3)
Carla Bruni – Le Ciel Dans Une Chambre –
Notwist – This Room –
Electrelane – Gone Under The Sea
Devendra Banhart – Now That I Know
Fat Segal As Yet Untitled Freddie Being Sick Ambient Composition
Stephen Fretwell – Darlin’ Don’t
Phosphorescent – I Am A Fully Grown Man (And I Will Lay Down in the Grass)
Fat Segal – Rim Licking – 1st song
Timothy Victor – Ass2Ass
David Holmes – Love Reign Over Me

The 3 mp3s are brilliant, all 3 of them were new to me, now i love them all! Stephen Fretwell also comes highly recommended.
read all about the music here
Naomi tonight...i reeeeally hope she doesnt fall for Cook...

lost season 5: 316 recap

2009-02-23T18:23:00.006Z

"We're not going to Guam are we?"

Another brilliant episode this week, despite the lack of island action. only a short recap this week as im low on time! Just a quick round-up of each of the characters in this episode, the mystery surrounding them this episode and who they represented from 815 on 316.
Jack
Representing: Himself, Locke (has he become a man of faith?), Boone? (got some action the night before the flight-ridiculous long shot)
Mysteries: Is Jacks granddad significant?
Kate
Representing: Herself, Clare? (Loads of people think she is now pregnant), Shannon? (long shot, but she did have sex the night before the flight)
Mysteries: What the hell happened to Aaron? My guess is Clare once agian visited her saying maybe she needs to go back, but she shouldnt bring Aaron. I think Aaron is either with Cassidy, or with Clares mum.
Sayid
Representing: Himself, Kate (police escort)
Mysteries: Why did he get the plane? Was he arrested for some crazy crime that meant he needed to be escorted to Guam of all places? Or was he maybe visited by someone ghostly to help persuade him?
Hurley
Representing: Himself, Charlie (guitar case)
Mysteries: What/who persuaded him to get the flight? my guess is he got a visit from ghost Charlie (i hope we get to see it :D)
Sun
Representing: Herself
Mysteries: Whats she done with Ji-Yeon? Probably left with her mum, not much of a mystery.
Ben
Representing: Hurley (late onto the flight!)
Mysteries: What happened at the dock? Did he go after Penny and get intercepted? I hope we find this out soon!
Caesar (AKA new guy)
Representing:?
Mysteries: Who is he? will he land on the island (yes)
Ilana (AKA Sayids escort)
Representing: The Marshall
Mysteries: who is she?
Locke
Representing: Himself?, Christian
Mysteries: Will he come back to life? How did he die etc etc (see next ep preview)
Frank
Representing: Himself (he was supposed to fly 815/matt parkman AKA seth norris aka the actual pilot)
Mysteries: Is he alive? The answer had best be yes! So good to have him back, although he does look very funny all clean shaven haha

head to darkufo for the usual recaps, spoilers etc

The next episode is entitled "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" and is very Locke centric. Thsi is what all the lost geeks (myself fincluded) got excited about way back in 2008 when the initial episode titles were announced.
Highlight the invisible text below for who is gonna be in this episode, guest star wise (pretty spoilerish, wish i didnt know tbh):
Walt, Christian, Charles Widmore, Abbadon
Watch the trailer below: (spoiler alert)

Crazily enough (in true lost fashion) I was playing on a pub quiz machine in a bar on friday night and the question came up:
Which of these is an Island in the indian Ocean?
a) gao
b) guam
c) gua
i got so excited haha

lafleur (ep8) has now been moved forward a week, meaning i can watch it before i go away :D:D:D:D, current schedule is in the calendar in the top right of the page.

farewell to the fairground

2009-02-22T10:38:00.004Z

White Lies - Farewell To The Fairground

White lies new single "Farewell to the Fairground" from their brilliant debut "To Lose my Life" is out on the 23rd of March. 2 great remixes below!

White Lies-Farewell to the fairground (Yuksek Remix)
White Lies-Farewell to the fairground (Rory Phillips Remix)

dr dre., t.i., nas

2009-02-20T17:38:00.002Z

defintely a demo, seeing as there is no dre verse on this and this is apparently gonna be on detox...pretty sure t.i.'s verse is gonna be dre's...dre famously doesnt write all his own lyrics, so maybe t.i. wrote the first verse for him?seems a bit of a strange decision when the best lyricist in rap is right there on the 2nd verse (nas btw). Love the beat anyway...tbh i wouldnt be surprised if detox wasnt out til 2010 :(
Dr Dre.-Topless feat. T.I. and Nas

skinsmusic season 3 episode 4

2009-02-19T18:26:00.005Z

about fucking time

episode 4 of skins, aparently pandora centric (but effy stole the show) was a big improvement on the rest of the series. Finally an episode worthy of Skins. And, for me, it was all about Effy.
At long last we saw the intriguing Effy we had in s1&2, the crazy, slightly messed up girl. Her parents (props to Enfield and Banks as usual!) break up was handled very well, the viewer could seriously relate to Effy going through this shit while her best friend blabbers on about losing some guy she knew for about a day...and then sleeps with the guy shes sortof seeing. Oh and shes finally seeing that Cook is a complete twat. Of course there was the much hyped lesbian kiss as well. Didnt really measure up to Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz...but that storyline is definitely getting interesting...and not just in a pervy way...
Of course i still have loadsa issues with the episode, but i did with old skins as well. The main one was the awful twister/sex scene with Pandora and cook...was that actually supposed to be romantic or what?
onto the music, brilliant as per...
Ida Maria – See You Through
Fat Segal – Teddy Bear’s Picnic
Fat Segal – On Blue
Lil Wayne– A Milli
Dr Dre – The Next Episode (feat. Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg) [mp3]
Fat Segal – On Blue
Henry Mancini – Moon River
London’s Burning
The Singing Kettle – One Finger One Thumb
Nancy Sinatra – Sugar Town
Kelis – Milkshake [mp3]
Britney Spears – If You Seek Amy
Steely Dan – Do It Again
Bon Jovi – Living on a prayer
Sugababes - Red Dress
The Saturdays - If This is Love’,
Lily Allen - The Fear
Girls Aloud - Jump
Ice Cube - Giving Up The Nappy (dug out)
Beastie Boys - Ch-ch check it out
DJ Kool - Let Me Clear My Throat.
Sex - N Dubz
Cat Power-Fool
Desiree Duvringe – Automation
Kanye West – Love Lockdown
Low – Breaker

read all about it here

tonights episode is Freddy...maybe he will get interesting/good at acting?

your championship im champions league

2009-02-19T17:58:00.001Z

estelle and kano, american boy live. kano absolutely merks it. still the number one uk mc for me!

lily allen: its not me, its you: repost

2009-02-19T17:34:00.002Z

Its taken me 2 weeks to really get into this album...but now I have...i reaally like it! Alot better than Alright,Still...much cleverer, much more mature, just better. Sean's review below + 3 x mp3s!

Review from Sean (regularly blogs at "There's affection to rent")
Before the release of her latest single, The Fear, it would have been easy to forget Lily's debut album due to massive media attention focusing on her apparently attitude towards drugs and sex. We forget how 2006's Alright, Still, led by debut single Smile, was the soundtrack to that summer. Her delightful reggae infused pop, combined with clever and witty lyrics, not to mention fantastic production from Mr Ronson, was refreshing amid the choas of teenaged indie bands.

It's Not Me, It's You shows a clear change of sound for Lily, evidence for her choice not to use Ronson as main producer. Musically, it's far more electro than her debut, more keyboards and synths than guitar and drums, though still bass heavy.

Lyrically, it's a definite improvement as well. Despite Alright, Still not being without it's lyrical highlights, INMIY shows Lily having grown up, and while the lyrics follow the same lyrical pattern of witty gibes at society they are far more focused and educated.

This album contains everything. From epic social commentaries about drugs (Everyone's At It), celebrity culture (The Fear) and racists (Fuck You) among other topics, to beautiful tracks about love (Chinese), family (Back To The Start) and the advantages of being single (I Could Say), all topped off with the likes of the fantastically witty and genuinley funny Not Fair.

Pop perfection in just over 40 minutes.

Best tracks:
I Could Say
Who'd Have Known
Him

9/10

read Metacritic-linked reviews here
Generally, reviews have been less postitive than for her debut, i think many critics overrated that album tbh. There is something so endearing about Lily Allen though...
Link time.
From a couple of live lounge sessions she did a couple of years ago
Lily Allen-Smile (live Lounge)
Lily Allen-LDN (Acoustic)
and a great Ronson remix of Smile
Lily Allen-Smile (Mark Ronson DC Remix)
From the new album:
none-deleted
And a pretty dubsteppy remix from herve aka the count...
none-deleted

kanye & cudi: welcome to heartbreak video

2009-02-18T19:50:00.001Z

KANYE WEST "Welcome To Heartbreak" Directed by Nabil from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.
that must have been ridiculously expensive...it was worth it, best video ive seen in ages! this isnt the next single, "amazing" is, dont know if this will get released or if kanye is just making vids for fun

lost: this place is death recap

2009-02-16T17:51:00.004Z

"I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner."

Another brilliant episode, alot to cover so ill get right to it...
OFF-ISLAND
The episode kicks off with our first view of Ji-Yeon since her birth, Sun really isnt a very dedicated mother is she? What's gonna happen to her once Sun is back on the island? After Sun threatens him, Ben gets his mind games on and persuades Sun that he can prove Jin is still alive. Kate and Sayid promptly storm off (with all the talk that not all of them will go back, im starting to think Sayid might not go back...its hardly like there is anyone on the island for him). Ben then drives Sun and Jack to Hawking's church, delivering a classic line "I didn't account for traffic" (Michael Emersons delivery makes those lines legendary). Jack tries to apologise for his role in Jin's (near) death, but she shouts him down, 3 years late ffs! Benry then throws a strop the size of which we have only seen in "The Other Woman" (I am very excited for the Ben/Juliet reunion), shouting about how he has been protecting them. From who? Widmore? The Economist? So ironic that what persuades Sun is the exact same thing Jin uses to dissuade her. And obvi Ben went to see Locke, cant wait for that scene (it'll be in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"-2 episodes time). Desmond then shows up, confimring ALL the theories that Hawking is faradays mum..and Ben doenst seem to know! We haven't quite got Desmonds reaction yet to Hawking being the woman from the jewellers who told him to break up with Penny. Cant wait for that! Now to the island....which was much more interesting again...
8 different time periods!!!
ON-ISLAND
Time period 1 (November 1988)
The Frenchies are listening to the numbers transmitting from the radio tower...listen to that voice, it sounds so much like Hurley! Coincidence? Later it does sound like Damiel actually...we will see :D. The dialogue on the beach was class, "First a boat, now a helicopter, next it'll be a submarine!". The group trek towards the radio tower, but are soon intercepted by Smokey himself! This whole scene was reminiscent of the losties in season 1, a new group on the island who have no fucking clue what the hell this lethal cloud of smoke is! Also, dragging Montand into the ground like it did to locke in s1, but this time it wins. And Montand loses his arm! I got pretty excited haha. Vozzek has a pretty god theory about Montands "im hurt" and the subsequent sickness here. Turns out Jin pretty much saved Rousseau's life by stopping her going down there...Oh yeah it was the temple btw, that Richard et al headed to in the s3 finale...and Karl/Alex/Rousseau were headed when they met Keamys gang...
Time period 2 (January 1989)
The pain of each flash got more and more accentuated this episode, it looks fucking painful. Jin emerges form the undergrowth to view the famed Black Smoke Rousseau raves about in the s1 finale. Jin heads to the beach, where he discovers Danielles music box (which Sayid will later fix), and some musical intstruments (important? probably), oh yeah and 2 dead bodies. he then sees the showdown between Danielle and Robert. Very unerving imo, the sickness is shit scary,we learn where Rousseau hears that the monster is a "security system". After finishing off the father of her child, she turns on Jin...and he runs off into the jungle. What happened to the Frenchies down there?
Time period 3 (Unknown)
The Jin and Sawyer reunion was brilliant, love their relationship throughout the series, and both of their delight at seeing rhe other was profound and genuine! Sawyer explaining the time travel to Jin was very funny, espesh when he stormed off talking Korean. After a quick translaton by Charlotte, the gang get back on track towards the Orchid. Daniel discusses the logic of going to the orchid, with almost a disclaimer for the producers..."Thats where we leave science behind..."
Time period 4 (Unknown)
Gut wrenching pain...and then....
Time period 5 (Unknown)
Nosebleeds all round, and Charlotte collapses ranting in Korean, prompting a crazyily fearful lok from Jin, and her own translation "This place is death". Bloody hell that was chilling. Her consicence then starts flashing a la Minkowski/Dessie.
Time Period 6 (Unknown)
Charlottes flashes get worse and she references the Lost stalwart Geronimo Jackson.
"Look for the well" turns out to be damn god advice, what was she doing near the well/orchid as a child? Danny stays with her, but the rest reach the orchid with Locke, Juliet comments on the luck the orchid is built...and then....
Time Period 7 (Unknown)
The orchid is gone, but the well is there. Jin tells Locke not to bring Sun back, and tell her his body washed up on the shore, while Juliet thanks him for his martyrdom and he descends the rope...Charlotte reveals her story to Dan. She was a Dharma child, but her and her mum took off (who is her dad?), and she had been searching for the island her whole life since....Then came my favourite bit of the episode...Charlotte (baby voice and all) tells Dan about a scary, crazy man who told her never to come back to the island...and that man was Dan! So i gues the island will land in Dharma times, leading to Dan working in the Orchid etc...Then she dies...sad times, but if any islander was to die im glad it was her.
Time period 8 (Unknown)
Halfway down the rope, a flash causes locke to fall, seriously fucking his leg up. Christian comes creeping round the corner (wish i hadnt seen "John Terry" in the opening credits!). Important things to note:

Ben wasnt meant to turn the wheel, Locke was. Did Ben know this? It also seems Locke was supposed to bring the o6 back..but Ben seems ot have taken over that job as well...
Locke, after being so headstrong this season, is following orders again..this time by Christian.
Christian cant touch Locke?
Who the fuck is christian really? Good/bad? Representing Jacob? Suppresing Jacob.
Unhinged wheel...john pushes it..i doubt we'll see him next episode...cant wait til The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

DarkUfo as usual is the place for all things lost

Promo for 316

Credits: DarkUFO | Lost Spoilers | SpoilerTV
Sneak peek #1

Where the hell is Aaron? Big one for the Jaters ^^
Sneak peek #2

i am so excited for 316!!!

skinsmusic series 3 episode 3

2009-02-12T18:30:00.003Z

Episode 3 was undeniably a big improvement for the series. a small recap an music guide below.

Episode 3 introduced Thomas (why wasnt this done before?) who is already my favourite of the new cast. Him and quiet twin are the only ones I like...although it does look a bit like they will fuck up the quiet twin lesbian storyline. Thomas provided a breath of fresh air, with the first real glimpses of a character with depth this series (Effy did in series 1 and 2, but not at the moment...). I do have quite alot of issues with this episode...
1) The Thomas and Pandora (eugh) love story is so ridiculously unbelievable...he had the pick of the girls why pick the ugliest most annoying one?!!!
2) Mackensie Crook's character continues to be pointless. Yeah he is a good actor, but I have no idea why his character was introduced, a crap, more unbelievable version of Mad Twatter from s1 (he only lasted 3 episodes, lets hope this one will follow suit).
3) the underground party. its like they had run out of "cool" places to have a party so went for a sewer...
4) None of them even like each other, yet they still hang around, and dont even seem to interact.
5) Thomas being sent back home. WTF? he had better be back soon.
The next episode is Pandora centric, aparently the girls have a party and Cook wants to get in. Sounds exciting...ahem...
I have been reading a few upcoming episode synopsis on wiki, and looking back over the last 2 series. It almost feels disrespectful how bad this is in comparison. I wouldnt mind (i wouldnt be watching) if this was a different show, with a different name, with no association to the original characters. Thomas seems to be the only character with anything like the depth or complexity that Chris, Jal, Tony, Maxxie, Michelle, Cassie, Sid, Sketch...even Anwar had.
Anyways...music! Really good this episode, nothing I was familiar with, but all great!
Mapaputsi - Kleva
DJ Zhao - Kwaito
Buraka Som Sistema - Luanda Lisboa
Kanda Bongo Man - Lela Lela
Skinned Teen - Pillow Case Kisser
Barry White - Gonna Love You
Toumani Diabate - Bi Lamban
Mamadou Cissokho - Kora composition
Kanda Bongo Man - Sango
Kanda Bongo Man - Isambe
Fat Segal - Desperate Housewives
Fat Segal - Class Drumming
Gregory Isaacs - Rumours
Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
Buraka Som Sistema - Sem Makas
Various Production - Diver
Aphex Twin - Untitled 10
Bhundu Boys - Ring of Fire
Mapaputsi - Kleva
Eye Adaba - Dramatico
Buraka Som Sistema - Yah

read about it here

catch the sneak peeks for tonights episode (if you really want to) here

The Ecstatic gets put back to the summer!

2009-02-12T18:04:00.003Z

Mos Def's new album, originally scheduled for 2008, then for this month, has been put back to June 2009 according to wikipedia. If it makes for a better album, fair enough. If the first 2 singles (links below) are anything to go by, its gonna be very very good. production set to come from Dilla, Kanye and Chad Hugo amongst others!

Mos Def-Life in Marvelous Times
Mos Def-Quiet Dog

this came on my ipod on shuffle today, and it is pretty much the best song ever...that isnt even an exaggeration...
Mos Def-Mathematics
if you dont believe me read the lyrics

Bring em out bring em out

2009-02-12T17:39:00.003Z

An oldie but a goody. Saw this on some random westwood countdown on the hits a while ago haha. Swizz Beatz production and sampling of "What More Can I say" is genius. 2 x mp3s below

T.I.-Bring 'em out
and the song it samples, what more can i say
Jay-Z-What more can I say

"im supposed to be no.1 on everybody's list, we see what happens when i no longer exist...fuck this"

Grammys 09

2009-02-10T17:30:00.003Z

All the talk was about Chris Brown/Rihanna's absence but there were some great performances...vids and mp3 below...

Estelle & Kanye-American Boy, the crowd are so placid, but still good!

Al Green, Timberlake, Boyz II Men and Keith Urban-Lets Stay Together

JT is surprisingly awesome on this! although Al Green's voice outshines him
Radiohead-15 Step

Gwyneth is on it! Brilliant.
Coldplay & Jay-Z-Lost?/viva la vida.

So good! Always preferred the acoustic version and the Jay-Z version to the album version!
And saving the best 'til last...
M.I.A., Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne, Kanye West, T.I.-Paper Planes, Swagger Like Us

M.I.A. is such a legend, apparently her baby was due on the night! Such a wicked performance. Jay does best! Anyone else think T.I. looks a bit out of place? His verse is my favourite on the song, but he was worst on the night.

And here is the album version of the brilliant 15 step.
Radiohead-15 Step

New Maccabees-No Kind Words!

2009-02-09T20:09:00.001Z

Its amazing, seriously, mp3 inside, or head to their website.

The Maccabees-No Kind Words
gutted im missing the above tour! hopefully they'll hit the festivals.

lost-the little prince recap

2009-02-08T17:25:00.003Z

Recap of the Kate/Aaron centric "the Little Prince" + preview of "This place is death"!

Phew, just watched this for the 2nd time, and it grew on me! Was actually a brilliant episode, very Jack/Kate based, loads of good scenes between them two and the o6 scenes were generally great...but on island events continue to excite me more!
OFF ISLAND (The Oceanic 6)
The episode kicked off with another scene from penny's boat, showing Kate's initial connection with Aaron, and it was HER idea to pretend Aaron is hers, rather than jacks idea. Although im sure it was running through Dr Shephards head. Kate talks of all the poeple theyve lost, and starts with Michael!!! You'd have thought Sawyer, Jin (at least they both got a mention from her), Charlie, Shannon, Boone, Ana-Lucia, Juliet, Clare and loads more would come before a murdering outcast!? Maybe it was just to remind us Michael exists (i would love him to return tbh, but hes dead). We pick up where we last saw Kate, chilling with Sun who has persuaded kate to meet with the lawyer Norton. I was shitting it that Sun still held a grudge against Kate and was gonna run away with Aaron or some shit, and when she got that package I first thought she was the one ordering the blood samples! Alas not! My sister (who I usually have to lecture about Lost) made a good point that Jack may well be the one Sun is after. the photos were of both Ben and jack, and if you watch next weeks promo it could point to Jack being the one Sun is mad at! We will see. Kate looked so hot throughout this whole episode mmmmmmmm. I liked the decoy of Clares mum, was pretty hilarious when she was like "who's Aaron?", I reckon she will find out at some point though, i have heard rumours the actress is returning sometime this season.

Moving on, Sayid once again (I make that 3 times in the last 5 episodes) shows his bad man moves to avoid more tranqulising darts and discover Kate's address on his attacker! Whats going on there? Who is attacking him? Widmores people? OR a third party? Sayid also reminds the audience "the only side he is on is his own" about Ben...could he really be doublecrossing the o6? I doubt it. Obviously some bad stuff has happened between them 2, cant wait to see that in a flashback hopefully. Nortons meeting with Ben in the car park was maybe my fave of the epi, "who was that?""Thats my lawyer" hahaha. Classic Ben. Its all set up for a dock showdown next episode, seems like Sun is the only remaining o6 to turn, which wont be too easy, but Ben has a few ideas im sure...

ON ISLAND
Time-zone 1 (Shortly after the crash, the night of boones death and Aarons birth)
Daniel knows more than he is letting on im sure of it, and so is Juliet. We did learn a fair bit about the nosebleed sickness Charlotte is having. Aparently the flashes throw your mental clock, and increased exposure to the island=your brain gets fucked quicker. Locke seems to think the Orchid is the key for him to get off the island, and tbh its a fair guess, so after Cahrlotte remembers where the hell she is they set off there. The time period they were in is classic Lost territory, as we soon learn, the night Boone dies and clare gives birth, the night Locke bangs on the hatch asking the island for instructions. Sawyer watching clare give birth was so emotional!! Oh and pretty well highlighted line from "Do No Harm", Kate telling clare "this baby is for all of us".
Time-zone 2 (After the O6 have left sometime)
Locke is so self assured these days, criticising his former selfs weakness, but appreciating it was necessary in order for him to become the person he is now. Season 5 Locke is great. Miles then gets a nosebleed prompting a very interesting convo with Daniel. Is Miles Candles son? Does Daniel know Miles has been on the island before, or is he guessing? Does Miles even know he has been there before? The beach camp is back but all wreckaged up. Who did it? Who took the Zodiac? Where the hell are Rose and Bernard? Ajira Airlines? Could the water have come from a plane the O6 flew back on? And the O6 took the Zodiac? And maybe it was the O6 shooting from the other boat! If so then Juliet shot one pretty good, who i wonder? Could it be another group?So many bloody questions!
"Thank the lord"
Time-zone 3 (The night Rousseaus crew crash on the island)
"I take it back"
Thrown into a stormy night, the losties head to the beach where Charlotte discovers fresh wreckage from a boat. Surely they are gonna put 2 and 2 together and work out its Rousseau's teams stuff? Locke sees the writing in French! Pan over the sea to the Frenchies dinghy type thing floating in the ocean, where they come across a body floating on some wreckage....JINJINJINJINJINJINJINJINJIN!!! I knew Daniel Dae Kim would be back in some shape or form, but I was so scared it would be as an apparition! Thank god he's alive! The current must have taken him into the islands radius or maybe he swam just in time for Ben to move the island! He absolutely shits himself when he relaises who's giving him water haha. I cant wait to see how Montand loses his arm, and how all Rousseuas team go the sickness! I hope they stay in this time period until the others take Alex away! I wonder if Dalrton always knew this would be how her backstory would be told...hmm...
The only thing this episode was lacking was Desmond!
here is a promo for "This Place is Death"

havent read any spoilers at all for this so its gonna be great :D

The Spirit of Apollo-N.A.S.A

2009-02-08T15:29:00.004Z

"N.A.S.A is an ongoing creative collaboration between two lifelong music aficionados, Squeak E. Clean ad DJ Zegon, and their friends, friends of friends and musical heroes. While N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America and contains a number of superstar artists from both coasts of the US, it is about as far from a tension-building geographical showdown as a record can get. Rather, their Anti debut The Spirit of Apollo was born with the righteous goal of bringing people together through music and art, and that is exactly what masterminds Sam Spiegel (Squeak E. Clean) and Ze Gonzales (DJ Zegon) have done. Brazilian funk provides the roots of the songs and binds them together into a cohesive whole, but from there, the imagination behind The Spirit of Apollo ranges far and wide. Unexpected collaborations abound on the eighteen track release. Tom Waits growls over Kool Keith, Karen O taunts while Ol' Dirty Bastard gives shout-outs to Wu Tang and N.A.S.A from the grave, and David Byrne, Chuck D and others expound on the evils of "Money." In spite of the range of performers, the pairings seem organic, inspired and make perfect sense on the first listen, never coming off as ironic or impulsive."
From www.anti.com

This is so good, immaculately produced and awesome guest appearances. Chuck D and David Bryne?, Karen O and Ol' Dirty Bastard? Crazy, but awesome collaborations. Em, Dre, Mos Def, Andre, Big boi, OutKast, Kanye, Weezy, Jay-Z et al are gonna have a tough time beating this for hip-hop album of the year. 2 mp3s below...

N.A.S.A.-The People Tree Feat. David Byrne, Chali 2na, Gift Of Gab & Z-Trip
N.A.S.A.-Hiphop Feat. KRS-One, Fatlip & Slim Kid Tre

The BPA-I think we're gonna need a bigger boat...

2009-02-08T11:27:00.003Z

The BPA or "The Brighton Port Authority" is an alias for musician Norman Cook who is better known as Fatboy Slim. The act debuted in 2008 with a collaboration with David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal titled "Toe Jam", along with a video featuring nude dancers with censor bars on them, making pictures and words with them.The soundtrack album for the TV series Heroes also includes BPA's track "He's Frank", with Iggy Pop as vocalist.The band's first album I Think We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat was released January 6, 2009 exclusively at amazon.com on CD, with downloadable format and other stores scheduled for a month later on February 3.

Although it has been pretty badly received by critics, I am a big fan of this album. It is, as Billboard (pretty much the only positive reviewer) says, brilliantly produced by Norman Cook, and the guest vocalists all work very well. It is much more chilled out than anything Cook ever did as Fatboy, some of the tracks are even Zero 7 esque in their production (Superlover). Would love to see the BPA at glasto this year, with at least some of the guest vocalists, would be pretty perfect.

2 x MP3s below

The BPA-Spade feat. Martha Wainwright
The BPA-Superlover feat. CagedBaby

bloc party gig review/girls aloud cover

2009-02-06T17:16:00.003Z

2 reviews from the previously hyped bloc party at manchester apollo, and a pretty special cover...

Seans review:
From the minute I heard Bloc Party's latest album Intimacy, second to falling for the London 4-piece all over again, I was curious, if a little worried, about how the heavy use of effects and keyboards would work out live. From the minute the band kick into opener, and new single, One Month Off my fears are eased, especially when this is followed by an epic rendition of Halo.

Bloc Party get straight down to business rattling through single Hunting For Witches, a rendition of Positive Tension that's up there with some of the best live tracks I've seen and Intimacy track Signs, which is as beautiful live as it is on record. Even Talons, one of the weakest tracks on the new album, is brilliantly frantic. The choice to play Waiting For The 7.18 is clearly one that not only pleases me, as the crowd sing and jump along to the chaotic ending.

Opener to 2007's A Weekend In The City, Song For Clay (Disappear Here) merges perfectly into indie classic Banquet as the immense first two thirds of the show crash to an ending. Unfortunately, the next few tracks do not follow suit. Ion Square is frankly boring, the only real highlight in single Mercury is singer Kele loosing his microphone while in the crowd and even airing of So Here We Are fails to recapture the atmosphere lost during the previous two tracks. Luckily final song of the main set Like Eating Glass saves the day.

The encore pretty much erased memories of the evenings down points, a brilliant cover of Girls Aloud's Call The Shots followed by singles The Prayer, Flux (unfortunately, the heavy synth fails to convey live) and the timeless Helicopter. The band return on last time for the insane Ares and a magic rendition of This Modern Love.

Bloc Party live is very much a game of chance. When you win, they are up there with the the best live acts on the planet, but when you loose, they are dull, boring and rather than conjuring up no atmosphere manage to remove any that had lingered from earlier in the night. Fortunately for tonight's attendees, they manage to win on pretty much every throw of the dice.

Bloc Party played:

One Month Off
Halo
Hunting For Witches
Positive Tension
Signs
Talons
Waiting For The 7.18
Song For Clay
Banquet
Ion Square
Mercury
So Here We Are
Like Eating Glass

Call The Shots (Girls Aloud Cover)
The Prayer
Flux
Helicopter

Ares
This Modern Love

edit: the Guardian review is from the night before
The Guardian's review:
When Bloc Party emerged in 2004, they were seen as indie drips, with Noel Gallagher comparing them unfavourably to contestants on University Challenge. Since then, the band have undergone a metamorphosis. Indie guitars have given way to distorted effects and eardrum-shattering volume. At times, it seems as though Bloc Party have been abducted and replaced by a quasi-metal band with a sticks-juggling drummer.

With guitarist Russell Lissack playing beautiful, plangent chords, vocalist Kele Okereke shouting as much as he sings, and bassist Gordon Moakes laying down reggae basslines over Matt Tong's hyperactive percussion, they sound so mismatched they could have met for the first time on the way in. But mostly it works. Sonic manifestos such as Ares ("We dance to the sound of sirens") have the crowd shouting along. This 90-minute set shows how they don't write songs so much as mashes of melody and groove, which are rendered here as an audiovisual barrage.

Though it can be mesmerising, the set is crying out for the more delicate strokes of their recent album Intimacy, or a gentler old song, such as So Here We Are. Still, as the amps are cranked up, the young crowd follow Okereke's requests to "go mental" - although at least one chap has his fingers in his ears.

Call the Shots was amazing
here is the mp3 of them doing it in the live lounge
Bloc Party-Call the Shots (Girls Aloud cover)

heroes volume 4: fugitives preview

2009-02-01T17:06:00.003Z

Sneak Peeks, a small recap and more below...

I almost can't be bothered with Heroes anymore after the downward slide it experienced at the end of Volume 3: villains, and the fact that Lost is back to show just how a flawless TV show can be made. Anyway, I will of course be watching. Remember the finale of Volume 3?
What happened?

Peter and Nathan clash.
Sylar holds Noah, Claire, Angela, Meredith and others hostage at Primatech.
Ando, Daphne, and Matt figure out how to save Hiro.
Knox and Flint help Peter destroy the formula and Mohinder's research lab.
Tracy saves Nathan.
The formula solves Mohinder's problems.
The hunt for evolved humans begins.

Thats what Hereoswiki says. Probably the only thing you need to know for the next series is that Nathan told the president about loads of people with abilities, starting off a hunt for them. Not sure how/why Nathan has suddenly gone mental, but Heroes doesnt seem to find the need for realistic character development so i'll just accept it. Also, how is Nathan gonna avoid gettin caught himself?
Heroes in a Hurry

Sneak Peeks #1-4 all together

"A Clear and Present Danger" airs Monday 2nd Feb on NBC/ Feb 26th on BBC2

Mylo: I'm Back (radio rip)

2009-02-01T16:54:00.003Z

Its a grower, its brilliant, so good to have him back :D...mp3 below...

Mylo-I'm Back (Radio Rip)

skinsmusic season 3 episodes 2

2009-02-01T13:34:00.004Z

If only...

Episode 2 was far and away the worst episode of Skins ever. Cook is such an unbelievable twat. Tony was a twat, thats true, but Tony was a beleivable twat. Nicholas Hoult is a miles better actor than whoever plays Cook but its not just that. Tony's character was someone we could relate to. He was the cocky, manipulative, hugely intelligent guy with the fit girlfriend. If we didnt know someone just like him, we could imagine. Cook is a down the line, one dimensional, boring, thick nobhead. I actually cant stand his character. This was his episode, the one in which we are supposed to discover his inner demons/feel compassionate for the character. But neither occured. Crap storyline as well. Skins has always been a bit unbelievable, but the brothel visit went to another level. I hope the ganster guy kills Cook, i really do. The other characters almost seemed to improve in the waken of Cook's shitness. Except for that ridiculous Abbey rip-off gangsters daughter.
Anywho...music...
Motorhead - Ace of Spades (mp3)
U2 - I Will Follow
Pink Floyd - Great Gig in the Sky
Queen - Don't Stop Me Know
101ec6 - Counter Stroke
Pink Floyd - One of These Days
Skallywags - It's Dead
Robbie Williams - Millennium (mp3)
Eve - Tambourine
Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
Fleetwood Mac -Songbird
Billy Idol - White Wedding
Marillion - Kayleigh
Fat Segal - Lake Control
Son Lux - Break

read all about the music here

the next episode does look quite good, Daniel Kaluuya wrote it so that should be interesting.

Lost season 5: Jughead recap

2009-02-01T12:26:00.006Z

Locke: You're name is Widmore? Charles Widmore?
Charles Widmore: What's it to you?
Locke: Nothing. Nice to meet you.

Fantastic episode of Lost this week. This was one of the best episodes ever imo, I loved it. Desmond centric episodes are always brilliant, and with the added bonus of alot of Faraday info, told very cleverly, what could go wrong? Oh yeah and CHARLES FUCKING WIDMORE.
Island times
Firstly, loved the explosion to kill off the few remaining redshirts (i assume there are still a few more, with Rose and Bernard, wherever they are). From the promo it did look like Smokey, but just some ww2 mines! The US Army theme has been threaded since Ana-Lucia and Goodwins convo on top of that hill in "The Other 48 days", where Goodwin flaunts a rather old-skool knife. Ellie is then introduced to us, is her accent meant to sound weird? Either the actress is American and trying to force a British accent, or she just has a naturally weird accent. Anyways, shes hot so all is forgiven. The "Science team" then taken to the main camp, conveniently past a grave, cue Miles' psychic abilities, 4 US Soldiers (we later learn that Rchard had 18 killed) buried. After meeting with Richard, Danny persuades him to let him disarm the bomb, by declaring his love for Charlotte. Faraday is led by Ellie (who he finds strangely familiar, cue Lost fanboys theories that she is his mum, ellie is short for Eloise, which is Ms Hawkings first name, could this spark her craze for time travel shit?), and tells her she needs to cover the cracks with lead and BURY it, he also mentions concrete. Does anyone remember all that concrete Sayid found in the Swan station? Could the button be to discharge the H bomb's radiation? I love how this links in (hopefully). Daniel is then saved (although if his rules are correct, she could never have shot him) by Jules and Sawyer.

Locke is coming into his own again in season 3, and the team up with Sawyer (Locke/Sawyer scenes are always great) and Juliet is a real treat. Dont know if this is significant but Juliet interrupted before Locke could tell Sawyer who shot him...probs not...but you never know with Lost. Juliet killed the next few scenes, with her Latin knowledge. The Others have been there a long long time. After young Widmore kills his pal (for coming close to revealing where "Richardus Alpert" and friends are), he leads them straight to their camp...nice one Charles. Locke then merks Widmore's comment " You think he knows this island better than I do?" by tracking him all the way to camp. Sawyer has been so consistently brilliant since...well forever..."i'm an other, you're an other"=lol. Lockes conversation with Richard was very important. It shows us why Richard went to see Lockes birth, and gave him those leader tests when he was a child, but Locke failed. Big questions as to whether Locke is really the chosen one, or Richard just thinks he is, because Locke told him he was. Bit of a mindfuck, but as soon as Locke mentions Jacob (it appears no1 knows much about him) Richard is fuly attentive. Also, how did Roichard go from shirted and jeaned looking pretty smart, to trampish jungle dweller we saw in Bens FB (c.1970s?). What happened? And of course how does he stay so bloody young? "just how old is Richard?" "OLD!" The Widmore/Locke reveal scene was immense (see the quote at the top), and we did learn quite a bit from young Widmore.
1. He does not like taking orders
2. He is willing to betray his friends/close associates
3. He was an Other. We all kindof knew he had been on the island before, but not with the others! Did he get booted off by Richard? Dis he set up Dharma to spite the Others? How did he get there in the first place, was he born there?
Ending scene, Charlotte collapsing like some sort demented flamingo. Got a feleing she will die this season, not yet though.
Off island: Dessies story
Baby Charlie haha, after Pace rather than Widmore!
We learnt a huge amount about Faraday, and Widmore off island as well. Firstly huge props to Sonia Walger and Henry Ian Cusick, their portrayals of Desmond and Penny are so good. Desmond is firmly my favourite Lost character at the moment.
Desmond heads to Oxford, where no trace of Faraday remains in the record. The Librarian woman=the same person as the woman who let Hurley on the plane in Exodus!
After a bit of his own research, Desmond finds all Dannys old stuff, covered up, and is confronted by a random cockney. Who does he work for? Who has been there before snooping aorund? Why is his equipment being kept and not thrown away?
The girl Daniels experiments put into the time travel conscious ws pretty shocking. A great guest star from her sister, and the reveal that Widmore is essentially keeping her alive. The Faraday/Widmore ties go way back. Is Widmore Daniels dad? Did Ellie and Charles get it on? Daniel is not a down the line hero, it is clear. His experiments/morals are dodgy.
Demond then storms into old Widmores office (Alan Dale has finally mastered a British accent), without a hint of the cowardice we have seen so often in scenes between these 2. He is clearly worried about Penny, and is surprisingly forthcoming about Hawkings/Daniels Mum's whereabouts. LA. Is she really working with Ben? or Widmore? its tough to know. unfortunately, Pens going to the LA, straight to Ben!

Awesome episode overall, the lack of o6 was good! Check DarkUfo for recaps.
The next episode is called "The Little Prince", standardly Aaron.
No sneak peeks as yet, but here is 1 promo.
"i saw Kate in the jungle"

jughead 3 x sneak peeks

2009-01-28T19:55:00.003Z

the 3 sneak peeks for tonights episode, entitled jughead

#1

#2

#3

skinsmusic season 3 episode 1

2009-01-26T20:55:00.005Z

A small rundown of my first impressions of the newbies, and a big old list of the music played (inc a couple of mpfrees)

Overall episode: Decent, nowhere near the old series highlights, but a good introduction to the new characters.
Characters I Like: Shy twin (Emily), Naomi Campbell, Effy,
Indifferent: Freddie (could be good, but he is a bit of a shit actor), JJ
Dislike: Cook (good actor, but very annoying, too much like a Chris/Tony hybrid, incidentally the actor knows Joe Dempsie who played Chris), Bitch twin (Katie, she seems to be a worse actor than her sister, and seems like a downtheline bitch), Pandora (good fo one episode, no more!, i hope the series doesnt run a theme with her mirroring the "Sid's a Virgin" storyline from s1.

And, more importantly, the music! As per usual it was excellent.
Fucked Up - Son the Father
Fat Segal - Freddie Theme
Fat Segal - Cook Theme
Asobi Seksu - Lions and Tigers
Timothy Victor - Lady Belles
Beyonce - Ring the Alarm
Britney Spears - Womanizer
Wu-Tang Clan - Shame on a Nigga
Method Man - Release Yo'Delf
Eugene McGuinness - Monsters Under My Bed
Timothy Victor - Roundview College
Wilco - I'm The Man Who Loves You
Fat Segal - Freddie Theme
Santogold - Shove it(mp3)
Fat Segal - Cook Theme
Liquid Liquid - Optimo
Soeur Sourire - Mets Tons/ Dominique
Fat Segal - Freddie theme/ Cook theme and Drums
Klaxons - Magick (mp3)
Asobi Seksu - Nefi and Girly

Read all about the music here
View the sneak peeks for episode 2 (Cook centric) here
Watch the "Coming up on Skins" preview for the next few episodes

Maximo Park announce new UK tour!

2009-01-26T20:25:00.002Z

May sees the welcome return to the scene for one of the Best british bands around, both on record and live. Dates and mp3s below.

The dates are as follows:
May 2009:
Thu 14 Newcastle - Academy
Sat 16 Liverpool - University
Mon 18 Southampton - Guildhall
Tue 19 Birmingham - Academy
Wed 20 Nottingham - Rock City
Fri 22 Leeds - Academy
Sat 23 Manchester - Academy
Sun 24 Norwich - UEA
Wed 27 London - Brixton Academy
Thu 28 Bristol - Academy
Noisettes and Stricken City are supporting.
Tickets on sale the 29th of January!

Maximo Park are a special band. A Certain Trigger is one of my favorite albums of all time, brilliant musically and Paul Smiths lyrics are superbly poignant. Our Earthly Pleasures was admittedly a disappointment, but the highlights of the album are most definitely up there with Maximo's best. Seen them 4 times live now, twice at Leeds fest and twice in gigs of their own. I am so pleased that i'm back from my travels for the Leeds Academy date! News on album no.3 to come very shortly, very exciting stuff!
From 2005's A Certain Trigger:
Maximo Park-Postcard of a Painting
From 2006's bside album Missing Songs:
Maximo Park-A Year of Doubt
From 2007's Our Earthly Pleasures:
Maximo Park-Our Velocity

Bloc Party Gig Preview!

2009-01-26T20:11:00.002Z

I'm so excited about this! Although this will be the 3rd time I've seen them, its the first time at their own gig! I am (probably for the first time) appreciating how good an album A Weekend in the City is. Silent Alarm is epic. Intimacy is very good. 5 x MP3s below!

From 2004's Silent Alarm:
Bloc Party-Like Eating Glass
From 2007's A Weekend In The City:
Bloc Party-Song for Clay (Disappear Here)
From 2008's Intimacy:
Bloc Party-Ion Square

Bonus:
Immense Diplo remix:
Bloc Party-Helicopter (Diplo Remix)
Great bside to The Prayer:
Bloc Party-England

A review of Bloc Party at Manchester Apollo will be appearing here sometime this weekend hopefully, courtesy of Sean

One Month Off is the next single to be taken from Intimacy, and is available to buy/download from today...

friendly fires-skeleton boy video

2009-01-26T18:35:00.001Z

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy

awesome. got this vid from Kanyes blog, how cool is it that he is posting about them?