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Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy


awesome. got this vid from Kanyes blog, how cool is it that he is posting about them?
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The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and the highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.
1. The Streets-Everything is borrowed
Album no.4 was a big hit for me, far from perfect but a huge improvement on album no. 3. Heaven for the weather is a fantastic summery upbeat tune, and one of my favourites of the year!
Best track: The Streets-Heaven for the Weather
if you want to read a bit more, check my previous posts on The Streets

2. Friendly Fires-Friendly Fires
This album is essentially a blend of

Awesome pulsating electronic beats
fantastic soft vocals
surprisingly good lyrics
sparkling clattering electro-pop
so its awesome. Love this band, randomly found the album for about 5 euros in a record shop in Paris. Go and see them live on the NME tour (youd also get to see the amazing White Lies), they were great at Glasto.
Best track: Friendly Fires-Paris
Bonus: Friendly Fires-Paris (Aeroplane remix)

3. Kings of Leon-Only By The Night
For some reason a switch has turned in my head and I am suddenly not so keen on this band. First 3 albums are all brilliant, but I cant get so enthusiastic about album 4. I have gone from loving Sex on Fure to finding it really annoying, and it even annoys me when its played in a club. It is frustrating that a load of randoms suddenly think they're big KoL fans, after hearing two songs (hearing Fearne Cotton rave on about her two favourite bands being Take That and KoL is a good example of this). Anyway, they deserve any success they get because they are a great band, and this album does have some great tunes on it, it just seems to lack the energy of previous efforts.
Best track: Kings of Leon-Use Somebody

4. Kano-140 grime street
Hmmmmmmmm. You gotta feel sorry for Kano, he always seems to follow the wrong trend. Last years pop-slanted London Town didnt get him the recognition he deserves, yet both Dizzee and Wiley have had huge success this year from very poppy tunes. Then, as Kano returned to his grimey roots, grime appears to be pretty dead. Wiley seems to have left the genre completely, JME's album was awful and Skepta's average at best, no-one seems to be interested in the grime scene anymore (maybe Tinchy will get big, maybe not). This is quite a good album. Kano is blatantly the best grime MC out there imo, but his talent has never been maintained over the course of an album. album 4 anyone?
Best track: Kano-Hustler

Honourable Mentions:
Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue
Definately need top listen to this more as well! she is a fantastic singer and a very talented lyricist.
Jenny Lewis-Black Sand

Glasvegas: S/T
Im not a big fan of this album, but there is enough to like about it that I think I can be swayed towards really liking this band. I've heard they're crap live though.
This isnt even on the album, but its better than the album version tbh.
Glasvegas:-Daddy's Gone

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I promise, i'm on it

Paris is a brilliant, beautiful blend of brilliant electro and simplistic yet poignant lyrics. I am surprised Friendly Fires haven't completely engulfed the Radio 1 Playlist yet (although Fearne Cotton had this as her record of the week this week). This song was originally released in December 2007, I bet this will break them into the top 20. I can see the Klaxons similarity, except FF are alot more subtle, alot less mental and quite a bit better. Buy their debut now
Its only £5.98!!
Here are a couple of lovely long remixes, expect many many more to come.

Friendly Fires-Paris (Justin Kohncke Remix)
Friendly Fires-Paris (Aeroplane Remix)
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As reported in March,
Friendly Fires are one of the big new bands of the year. Their stock is rising after a handful of festival performances (great at Glasto), and is set to escalate further with the release of their self-titled debut, out today. Tracklisting....

1. "Jump in the Pool"
2. "In the Hospital"
3. "Paris"
4. "White Diamonds"
5. "Strobe"
6. "On Board"
7. "Lovesick"
8. "Skeleton Boy"
9. "Photobooth"
10. "Ex Lover"

Mostly vastly improved versions of the old demos, along with new single Jump in the Pool, which is brilliant. They are so far ahead of anyone else in the UK indie/electro scene at the moment. Here are their 2 singles; Paris (an indie electro posh boy attempt at a love song, they pull it off), and Jump in the Pool.
Friendly Fires-Paris
Friendly Fures-Jump in the Pool
tour dates this autumn, see them before they get annoyingly radio1 induced huge.
Southampton Joiners (September 24)
Northampton Roadmenders (25)
Hull Adelphi (26)
Liverpool Korova (28)
Preston 53 Degrees (29)
Glasgow King Tut's (30)
York Duchess (October 1)
Manchester Ruby Lounge (2)
Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach (4)
Oxford Academy (5)
Brighton Audio (6)
London KCLSU (7)
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an abridged version of the huge review i had planned. top 5 artists of the weekend, as well as notable mentions, and "big misses"
TOP 5 OF THE WEEKEND (In no particular order)
1. Jay-Z (Pyramid Stage: Saturday)

Proved all his critics wrong, without the need for any special guests. Brilliant, there is a reason why he calls himself "God MC". If he's not the best rapper alive, he's very close. Annoyingly, the BBC online coverage cut off the opening video, but it can be watched here
They also cut off pretty much anything political from the set, which was pretty annoying.
here is wonderwall into 99 problems. immense

I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me) feat. Pharrell-Jay-Z
2. Vampire Weekend (Other Stage: Friday, John Peel Stage: Saturday)

The best new band of the year, performed brilliantly both times, drawing a huge crowd on the Other Stage, and killing it on the John Peel. They are fantastic live, can't wait to see them at Leeds Fest and hopefully a UK Tour this autumn!! special band.


M79-Vampire Weekend
Walcott (Insane Mix)-Vampire Weekend
3. Laura Marling (Park Stage: Sunday)
Another of the best up and coming artists this year. She has one of the best voices in music, and amazingly she got every note spot on live. The lack of "Tap at My Window" and "New Romantic" were inconsequential, as she showed just how talented she is. I am hopeful for a new UK tour this autumn with a Sheffield date!
Go Go Gadget Flow-Lupe Fiasco
Other mentions:
Frank Turner-no song link
Molly's Chambers-Kings of Leon
Paris-Friendly Fires (great live, great new band)
Take Me Out-Franz Ferdinand
Creator-Santogold
Seasick Steve
Manu Chao
Tears Dry on Their Own-Amy Winehouse (started amazingly, ended horribly)
Leonard Cohen
Kids-MGMT (underwhelming, except this and Time to Pretend, both were amazing)
John Mayer
Neville Staple
Tapped feat. JME-Skream
Black and Gold-Sam Sparro
Big Misses
Wish I could have seen these
Fatboy Slim
A-Trak
Kid Sister
The Last Shadow Puppets (secret)
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One of my top tips for 2008 (after vampire weekend, mgmt, marling, lightspeed champion). They have some really good songs, quite dancey, quite indie, a little bit calvin harris but better and less annoying. I think they might get quite big coz some of their stuff is pretty radio friendly. They are also playing to Crystal Castles (shit, featured on skins) on the NME new music tour, and Team Waterpolo are also playing, not coming to Sheffield though.




Anyway, here is probably my favourite of their songs, on board and a good, long remix from nightmoves. im pretty sure Zane Lowe, Colin murray and Annie Mac have been playing then so you may have heard this.
On board
On board (nightmoves remix)

Myspace
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