From 10cc to TDCC

Two Door Cinema Clubs song 'I Can Talk' might have been released back in November but having been reminded of it today by a friend I decided it was too good to leave off the blog so here it is in all its 2min 50sec glory with a brilliant video that reminds me of a story someone once told me about getting lost in their jumper when trying to take it off whilst on acid… don’t try this at home kids.

Reggae Holiday

10cc get all reggae for this their final number one UK hit in 1978 - Dreadlock Holiday, and 32 years later it is still as funky as ever.

A Mix Tape Education

Car Wash Hair was the song that introduced me to this band via a mix tape from a well musically educated older friend of mine back in 1990. I played it to death on my beat up walkman, it was one of the best mix tapes ever which included The Afghan Whigs, John Cooper Clarke, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Breeders, The Smiths, The Waterboys, The Jam and my friends’ old band Seven Little Sisters.

I still have the tape, but we lost touch, I often wonder where he is now...

Snow Joy Zipper Patrol

Ok, ok so it's a couple of days late, but this is one Christmas song I could listen too all year round. Set to footage of Geoffrey Jones' 1963 film 'Snow' Joy Zipper are reminiscent of Mercury Rev and some stoned snow journey home when trains had compartments and dining carts where you dressed for dinner.

Do we love you? Indeed we do!

Reputed to be the rarest and most sought after Motown record of all time with only two copies in existence, one of which sold recently for £25,742.00 yes, that’s twenty five thousand seven hundred and forty two pounds!

Listen here for free and check out the beauty of that multi thousand pound 45 spinning on the turntable.

Surrealist Punks

Based on the surrealist film Un Chien Andalou by Buñuel and Dalí the Pixies punk rock it up in away that you know the artists would have approved.

Are you sitting comfortably......?

One of the most amazing new artists I have heard for a long time.

Check out my review for tUnE-YaRdS debut album in DUMMY MAG

http://www.dummymag.com/reviews/2009/11/23/bird-brains/

DANGER! HATARI!

Feel like a trip through hot African back streets, just press play........

Buffalo Spring-Release

Avi Buffalo the Long Beach College Kids performing 'What's In It For?' - not the best quality but the only version I could find of the band together. If you closed your eyes you could imagine Neil Young had tip toed in on this Sub Pop new wave release due out in Spring 2010.

Click the link to go listen to them in all their glory and you can even donate to the fund to keep them in gas and food on the road, proper DIY, keep it going kids!

http://avibuffalomusic.com/music/

Rip It Up and Start 2010!

Edwyn Collins at his 1983 best! This Top of the Pops Video is TV Gold what with the inevitable cool dude in Wayfarers with hot back combed hair and denim jacket on the Sax – so cool he simply falls back into the crowd after his solo and the backing dancers clad in keep fit gear and white cowboy boots literally ripping it up in perfect time to the music, not to mention that girl in the red pom-pom dress....

Get Your Warpaint ON!

These girls are way cool.

Check out my review of their debut EP Exquisite Corpse in DUMMY MAG now.

http://www.dummymag.com/reviews/2009/12/12/exquisite-corpse/

The Rocks

Pure Mix Tape 1998. It still takes me back to oversize headphones and North London buses, dreamy and lost looking out the window.

Richard Hawley For Your Heart

'I will give up these cigarettes,
Stay at home and watch you mend the tears in your dress.
Have your name and rose tattooed across my chest
And be your lover for all time'

Frank Sinatra couldn't have sung this beautiful love song any better.

The Road Home....

It might not be cool but this song always reminds me of working summers at festivals with this really cool girl who had proper sailor tattoos, half of which she had done herself and driving back days to get home and laughing when this came on the radio and my friend in the front seat said it reminded her of this girl too and the girl laughed cos she thought we were so uncool. And I kind of liked that.

Mobile Disco Go!

Simian Mobile Disco's Audacity of Huge is the biggest chat up line ever from the man who seems to have everything, apart from the thing he really wants.

Weird Cassettes and Memory Tapes

With the light hand of a Balearic summer disco vibe mixed up with a vocal that hints at Neil Young and Fleetwood Mac, Memory Tapes, the fusion of Dayve Hawks two alter egos, Weird Tapes and Memory Cassette envelopes you in that classic old skool build up that has always been the real staple of dance music.

The song holds the pauses to look up and smile at your friends around you dancing in the sunrise before layers of instruments start drifting in and building the tempo until you’re all jumping up and down hands held high wondering where you found that burst of energy from, whilst knowing that it is going to be an amazing day.

Neon Mode

When Gruff Rhys from The Super Furrys and Boom Bip got together with the idea of producing an album all about the man who invented the DeLorean there was always going to be a great tune in their collaboration, and for me this is the one. I Lust U by Neon Neon takes a slice from the classic Depeche Mode song People are People twisting it up in 2008 electro style, making even an electric jellyfish competition seductive.

If you have ever had your heart broken...

Alex Turner turns the tables and sings this video as if he were the listener in front his bedroom mirror at home. The song is Arctic genius, deadpan, distant and yet so personal, it breaks my heart, and he knows why.

Either You're in or You're out

Out for the old skool disco massive! Man, your no one unless your in Gary's Gang!

Some Country for Your Soul....

So, of course, I love this version, but if I am really honest my favourite version is hearing it sung by an old friend of mine just the two of us in a room, and it makes me swoon.

Blancmange Blast From the Past!

This song hit the number two spot when The Reflex by Duran Duran was at number one in 1984. Blancmange may have disappeared since then but this song is a testament to the wonderful, soulful and hot electro pop they made.

Love Potion #9 and Funky Cold Medina

This classic cover by The Coasters and original by Tone Lōc may be from 1971 and 1989 respectively but are still singing about the same old thing, regardless of being doo wop or hip hop, a magic potion would still never go a miss...

St. Elmo's Drums

The new tune by New York darlings The Drums is a beautiful slice of 80's Brat Pack movie soundtrack swoon. A departure from their signature West Coast Beach Boys vibe, they embrace this new sound like naturals making me wonder what style they can't make their own.

‘Lets Go Surfin’ was a great introduction - but hearing ‘I Felt Stupid’ makes me feel that they are gonna be around for a whole lot longer.

The Cure, Crystal and A Perfect Girl

Ah! I really wanted to put on Maps - I Dream of Crystal but youtube wont let me so instead I opted for a bit of The Cure, been thinking about them a lot recently since listening to The xx's new album and just needed a bit of their magic.

I could listen to this band all night, forever, soundtrack to my youth, still got all the vinyl. Even now they take my breath away, from Boys Don’t Cry to A Forest to Lets Go To Bed and Catch.

Just amaze me,

they
are
so
cool.

Phenomenal!

So, I just realised that although I know I have loved this tune for a while I had never seen the video and so hadn’t realised just how cool the Phenomenal Hand Clap Band really are. They are Phenomenal, and this video makes me so want to be in their gang, even when they do get caught...

Master and Melodian

A good cover can be amazing and Nouvelle Vague do such justice to a Depeche Mode classic making it so effortlessly alluring and provocative, with added melodian.

Ohh, Let's Play Master & Servant....!

Drifting Over The Line

'What would you do, if you were me?
When it's suicide to stay,
And murder to leave......?' The one and only amazing Edie Brickell.

Comets and Skylarks

The Little Comets come into your life just like that - a short intense fire of sound, like every great pop tune. Somehow reminiscent of the 90's with lead singer Rob Coles' punching lyrics of broken love. He makes the biggest pain of life like accessible pop, as Shelley once said to a Skylark, 'Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought....'.

Sunday Sunshine

Ahhhh, what can I say? The clocks may have gone back today signalling the true end of B.S.T but listen to this and be transported back to a beautiful hazy summer evening, where your skin is hot with the days heat, lounging lazy days where the summer stretched on forever, for a life time. We have all had at least one that we thought would never end....And in Vivid Youth The Pastels / Tenniscoats do it perfectly.

Still Going Strong!

Here is one for all you crazy disco heads, Still Going are like so, well, still going on my laptop! This is a song to stick on when you get home with a group of friends, post night out, and you want to get the dancing started in your front room straight away - let it build up and then go wild! Just make sure you've got something good enough to follow it up with...

Something For The Weekend

The newest install from the Strokes front man and wonderfully named Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension is a getting ready to go out on a Saturday night kind of song. Changing into your sharpest gear, drink in one hand and this tune blasting out your stereo - the song ends, you click off your hi-fi, switch off the lights and close the door behind you. The next time your back there'll be a whole load more stories to tell...

First Tunes - The XX and Islands

I knew the first song had to be monumental, and this one has been my love for the last few weeks. Wish I could have shared it earlier. A dual vocal, by Romy Madley Croft (a nod to my co collaborator) and Oliver Sim. Sims gravel smooth voice lifts in half way and makes me want to dance provocatively, even if I am on my own.

Well, this blog was born of a fantastic drunken night out with a brilliant friend where I realised that due to spending over 40 hours a week listening to the radio and a pure love of music I would like to create a forum where I could pass on the great music I was hearing to others.

This will be a mixture of new tunes, old tunes that are new to me and old tunes I have forgotten about until the time of rediscovery, and therefore the Beat of The Week was born…… enjoy.