Mersey Soul

Utterly underrated The wonderful La's carved some beautiful timeless melodies....





The story goes that the unusual tomb, mentioned in this song, in the shape of a black pyramid in the church of St. Andrew on Rodney Street belongs to a William McKenzie who lost his soul in a game of poker with the devil.

As the devil told him that he would come to collect it when his ‘bones were in the ground’ a terrified McKenzie thought to out wit the devil by being laid to rest above ground in the tomb. Folklore has it that he specifically asked to be seated at a poker table with a winning flush in his hand.....

Apparently this song was also a favourite of John Peel and always made him shed a tear for his beloved hometown. So much so that he always had to have a record lined up to play straight after to give him a moment to compose himself once more.

You really should've seen the other guy!

Nathanial Rateliff is a modern day Johnny Cash with a voice like the wide open country plains of North America that he calls home.

Full of lonesome cowboys and technicolor sunsets – he sure knows how to weave a tale…

Roaming around....

A haunting cover of the Kings of Leon classic - Scala & Kolacny Brothers strip down all the rock and roll to its bare bones.

Tragedy and love seem to go hand in hand walking the same path for some.

Light My Fire

Bedroom recluse musician Thomas Timothy Vernon-Kel better known as Tom Vek has finally, after six years, released his long awaited new album Leisure Seizure.

But this tune, which came from his previous release in 2005, complete with the most amazing video containing musician muppet creatures and an addictive hook was enough to keep me hanging on all these years...

Two minute perfection!

Mazes Summer Hits and The Buzzcocks Love you More are both examples of the perfect two minute tune.

Ambushing the room in a tight racket of guitars and drums wrapped up in a leather jacket with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth. Before you know it they have pinched the bottle of vodka from the kitchen table and left for a cooler house party on the other side of town...

Jump start my serotonin

Arab Strap never cease to amaze me with their intimate and descriptive story telling of drink, drugs, lost chances of romance and unrequited love...

Fallin Like Dominos...

I know its been a while but Beat of The Week is back and I’m starting you of in super hot style….

Metronomy pull you into their party with all the sexiness of Roxy Music and coolness of The Cure.

‘I call the shots,
till you wake up.

Count every second,
on every clock….

The hours come,
the hours go….’

I'd like to know if you got the notion.....

J U R A S S I C 5 ! ! ! !

Punk Boi

Big Boi takes a leaf out of Daft Punks book in this Cadillac, melodian, technicolor video.

Psycho Boys and Girls

Recommended by a friend today - can't stop listening to this brilliantly dark tune…

Beau and His Arrows!

Beau and The Arrows, Beau and Jasmin met when they signed up to a local college photography course where art was soon replaced by music. Their recent song Fix is a testament to the eternal incessant teenage powerful desire of lust and love that you think will never go away.....

So Wrong it's Right....

‘hate has brought me up
the stairs into your house
i'll not let hate be the one
to make me naked for you

my self-esteem
is heating up the room
you're intimidating as all hell
but i ain't scared of you

I know how you work
I am just like you
no matter what you say
our hearts are wrong
our hearts are wrong'

Old Friends and Fine Times

There are two old friends I always have in mind when I hear this song...

The first a teenage friend of mine. We used to listen to this in her room burning incense, piercing our noses and smoking roll ups before we would cycle up to traveller site in the deepest darkest countryside where we lived.

The second a good friend from a move to the city, he had long rocker hair and still lived at home, and he introduced us to some of the most wonderful people.

Both are still friends, I am lucky to say….. So this is for you, you know who you are x

Supreme Heart break

The Supremes 1966 number one hit full of the girls classic Motown heart break.

Crying Wolf!

On a hot summer night in Minneapolis Peter Pisano, in a surge of creativity, wrote the whole of what was to become the album Inter-Be, and thus Peter Wolf Crier was born.

Along with Brian Moen on percussion the songs feel as laid back the breeze floating across the rolling plains of the Midwest home they came from.

Who's your +1?

Funky Four Plus One More were ground breakers, not only were they the first Hip Hop / Rap group to receive a recording contract in the States but also the first to perform live on a national television broadcast.. to top it off they also had the brilliant female MC Sha Rock in the house!

Now that is funky.

Good to Go

Am loving both these versions of Lykke Li's 'I'm Good, I'm Gone' so I just thought I'd let you have both..

Oh yeah!

Dirty Doering!

Berlin's Bar 25 has become such an institution that they even have their own record label these days. This is the fabulous Dirty Doering with 'I Would' filmed in the iconic open-air summer clubs grounds. Unfortunately if you never managed to make it down this is as close as you are going to get as the club closed its doors recently to their riverside home awaiting their move to pastures new.

With thanks to my Berlin partner in crime, I had some fun there I can tell you..... especially in the confessionals.

Would you care to dance...?

M Ward takes this powerful Bowie melody and transforms it into an intimate sweet country love song for two.

'Lets sway while colour lights up your face
Lets sway, sway through the crowd to an empty space.

Because my love for you would break my heart in two,
if you should fall into my arms and tremble like a flower....'

King of The Killing Floor Blues

Chris Thomas King reels you in with his Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.

Boy, I do believe you sold your soul at the cross roads.....

Tokyo Tenniscoat

Having been a Tenniscoats fan for some time I was so happy to be introduced to this delicate and imaginative song by a good friend of mine recently. Saya leads you on a journey through the rainy streets of Ebuisu in Tokyo utilising fencing and drain covers as percussion making you realise that even the most mundane of things can become something beautiful.

You would be totally forgiven for falling a little bit in love with her..

Do Need Ya!

Having moved to New York from Tacoma after his parents house burnt down Brad Oberhofer has been making beautiful music in his bedroom in Brooklyn..... the creatively named oOOOoOOOo got me hooked but this boy has plenty of great tunes under his belt already, check out the beautiful Don'tneedya, if you don't believe me.

The Rockabilly Queen

Dated Elvis Presley, recorded with the likes of The Cramps, Elvis Costello, and Jack White, known as the First Lady of Rockabilly and had a street named after her.. That girl from Oklahoma done good!

Tainted Hits

Although a massive Northern Soul underground smash Gloria Jones' 1964 original version of Tainted Love never actually managed to chart in either the US or the UK, leaving that job to the infamous Soft Cell cover.

Regardless, this Motown classic has all the horns and attitude of a timeless hit.

Bass Head!

To start you off, I’m gonna take you back, back into time… On first hearing this song in 1991, like most people, I knew there was an amazing party out there along the side of some motor way or in a warehouse that I just had to find my way too..

With samples lifted from Pink Floyd, The Osmans and Talking Heads, The Bassheads - all cat suits and keyboard solos - created one of the ultimate early 90s warehouse dance floor classics in ‘Is there anybody out there?’

So where ever you are listening to this, turn up your head phones, think back, and try and sit still if you can!

F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O!

'Whisper my name,
and I yearn.
Take me in your arms,
start to burn.'

Sometimes a singer can utter a single word in a way that bowls you over every time, whether it’s Ian Brown screaming 'Adored' or Robert bleeding out the word 'Yearn'. Each time you know he means it with every shred of his soul.

L.A. Kisses

There is not much information out there about this L.A. duo at the moment. But I know one thing for sure, if they didn’t spend their teenage years sat in their individual bedrooms listening to The Cure over and over, and wondering if there was any one else who felt like them out there in the world, I would be very surprised indeed.

An incredibly solid and delicately hard song.

Have you got the moves?

Oh step up and give it your best Disco, ParaPara, Street Ballet, Wu-Tang, Crabcore and Waaking!

X-Factor, eat your heart out!

Anyone for a game...?

The husband and wife duo that make up Tennis can't have realised the voyage they were embarking on when they bought a sail boat and set sail for 8 months of the East Coast. With cooing mermaid girl group vocals about even keels and Coconut Groves 'Marathon' leaves you hanging for more.

But as they say in Tennis, love means nothing....

Betty Ford

Peter Fowler of Super Furry Animals artwork fame creates a breezy, psychedelic, swaying dreamscape of puppetry in this thoughtful reminiscent video of 1970s Kids T.V animation. Where, in front of your eyes, you can actually see the puppet protagonists becoming (self) aware..

Ohh, take me to The Starlake Cosmic Sun Owl Commune!

What's You're Tonic?

As we were packing up camp at the end of Secret Garden Party this year I could hear this blasting out of someone’s car nearby and making a mental note of the lyrics went on a song hunt upon my return.

Sounding reminiscent of a Stevie Wonder who’s just come out of AA Cold War Kids sing about the drinking trap right from the soul.

‘I promised to my wife and children
I'd never touch another drink
As long as I live

But even then
It sounds so soothing
To mix a Gin
and sink into oblivion’

Live Wires!

Unfortunately I could only find two live versions of this song on youtube currently, but it still gives a good idea of what to watch for from these three talented Swedish boys.

It might have taken them 10 years to complete this, their first album 'Fields' (released on 14/09/2010) but all the experiences they have gained in that time, I'm sure you will agree, have made the wait well worth while.

Holiday Warpaint

The wonderful, wonderful Warpaint whose album 'Exquisite Corpse' I reviewed for DUMMYmag last year still never fail to stop me in my tracks with this haunting and hazy tribute that carves chunks out of the Motown classic by Mary Wells 'My Guy'.

Strung together with beautiful harmonies and the ethereal simplicity of an acoustic guitar, it is effortless. Warpaint turn this sunny pop song into a darker, more haunting story that sounds more about a beautiful yet deluded stalker who has kidnapped the object of her desire in a bid to win his love, what ever it takes.

Smog Rising

Bill Callahan speaking to anyone who has ever found their way back up to surface from what feels like the bottom of a lake...

Out By The Ocean

'Now our hearts were on fire only two weeks ago
And our bodies were like live wires down on the beach in Mexico
But I came back to this city and you stayed home in LA
And then our two years of marriage
In two short weeks somehow just slipped away'

Weed and Trucks and Youth and Loss

Seattle based Mike Hadreas is Perfume Genius and in 2 minutes 50 seconds he manages to sweep you up into his heart with this intimate tale of youth and loss.

Teenage Dreams

Hailing from Australia Allo Darlin’ have called London their home since 2005, and you can tell that lead singer Elizabeth Morris has a fondness for the place...

'If Loneliness Was Art' is another '50s inspired love song from the other side of the world to Best Coast (featured next) but both girls are singing about the same kind of heartbreak boys that we have all dreamed about at some teenage time in life..

Best Coast West Coast

From the moment I heard this Surf Pop sounding song it transported me to a California Beach Boys time..

Bethany Cosentio's husky affirmations don't convince anyone, especially the object of her desires.

However much she tries.

Give it Some Brass!

How could Steely Dan have ever imagined that one day the De La Soul Boys would be sat in some NYC apartment listening to this and dreaming up some Hip-Hop and penning Eye Know?

Two classic from one song? Now thats good!


wil

Planets of Disco!

Venus Gang sure know how to make a smooth late night disco ball sound with this helping from 1978.

And how ever slinky it sounds, you so know it's not going to be the last tune of the night...

Je t'iame............

Isobel Campbell of Glasgow favourites Belle & Sebastian and Mark Lanegan of Seattle Grunge staple Screaming Trees and latterly Queens of The Stone Age collaborate once more and produce probably one of the most seductive songs ever made....

Just like a 2010 Serge and Jane.

My First Convention

The first festival I ever attended was Fairport Convention; I was 14 years old and with my first love. Having been introduced to the band by his Mum we travelled to Cropredy Oxfordshire and sang along with 'Meet on the Ledge', 'Who knows Where The Time Goes' and 'Farewell Farewell'.

I still have the original vinyl in my collection and Matty Groves was always my favourite, beautiful story telling and the biggest and maddest jam completes the whole second half of the song.

I was sorry to never have the opportunity to see Sandy Denny singing, but I did bump into Robert Plant there a couple of years later and got to see him sing Led Zep... So I guess I didn't do too bad really.

Pump Up Your KICKS!

Ahhh....Thanks to a nod from a good friend of mine I have been playing this tune non-stop for the last few weeks and am totally in LOVE LOVE LOVE with Foster the Peoples Pumped Up Kicks!

'Kicks is a paradise island cocktail of Beck, mixed with The Beach Boys with a slice of MGMT on ice in a retro martini glass with one of those brightly coloured paper parasols in it.

You can make mine a double.

Where Not To Wear White Denim!

These three boy rockers from Texas Shake Shake Shake it up down the junk yard.

Filthy and on Fire!

Breakbot Heartbreak

Thibaut Berland the young French producer and DJ is Breakbot and in Baby I'm Yours featuring the vocals of Irfane has created a real song for the summer, just leave on repeat...

How does that boy make heartbreak sound so good?

Once in A Sugar Bear Lifetime

Sugar Bear rip the iconic riff from Talking Heads 'Once in A Life Time' add some screeching sirens and scratches and totally scandalise it!

Gracing The Bumper

The Grace Jones controversial classic Pull Up To The Bumper almost 30 years old and still sounding as lithe, provocative and sexy as ever.

Oh! Miss Jones!

Join Our Club!

I must say that I was lucky enough to meet the Chapel Club boys to interview them for DUMMY Mag and Field Day Festival before their recent big London show (link to follow shortly) and that O Maybe I has been my Beat of the Week for some time now.

A perfect piece of pop noir all beautiful soundscape of soaring guitars that wash over you and are punctuated by Bowman’s impassioned vocal with perfect diction on the options that love and life present us all.

Keeping Your Cards Close to Your Chest

I've been waiting for this to turn up on you tube since I first fell in love with it two weeks ago. It’s just how Shelley once said:

‘We look before and after,
and pine for what is not.

In our sincerest laughter,
Some pain is fraught.

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought’

Where's Your Puffa Jacket?

I remember asking to get Raw Like Sushi on cassette tape for my birthday, my older sister hated rap music and seeing as she lived in the room next door to mine refused to buy it. Instead she decided to get Kylies’ first album this being because she liked it and knew I would just hand it straight back to her not wanting it myself. Needless to say I still went out and bought the female vocalists debut album of my choice and annoyed her by playing it to death anyway…

So here is Cherry, still sounding as fresh as ever with her 1988 smash hit Buffalo Stance.

Love You Lilongwi!

The Very Best, a collaboration between Esau Mwamwaya and the DJ/Production duo Radioclit created this brilliant fusion of dance hall, hip hop and traditional music of Malawi from where Mwamwaya origionally hails.

No wonder he has now worked with the likes of M.I.A, Vampire Weekend and Santigold to spread some more of that African musical magic.

Adoring the Rebellion!

Brooklyn based duo Savoir Adore get the remix treatment from the wonderful French Horn Rebellion on their recent UK release Bodies.

With a thumping base line, an old skool set of strings and dreamy uh-ha backing harmonies they lure you to get lost in the forest with them to dance under the full moon….Totally Disco Mystic!

Lady Electronix!

Taking their name from a song by Roxy Music, Ladytron tells Hollywood and fame like it is.

Often fleeting, sexy but always in the hands of others…

The Best Kind of Time Wasting

Ever since I woke up on my friends’ sofa to him blasting this out after we had been up all night, party time wasting, I have been meaning to post it up here. Roxy Music in all their 1973 glory.

Oh Mother Of Pearl, I wouldn’t change you for another girl….

Wax Your Soul!

It’s Friday, so here is a Friday night tune.

Apparently when recording their album in New York one of the boys from Soulwax wanted their girlfriend (Nancy Whang from LCD Soundsystem) to come visit so under the presumption that she would do the vocal on this tune (which she does, very well). So they got the record company to pay for her to fly over to NYC.

When she got there they realised they didn’t have any lyrics so decided to call it NY Excuse seeing as it really had been any excuse to get her there!

Taking a Deetour...

Bare with the long intro and entre Karen Young’s kaleidoscopic disco world full of flutes, keyboards and funk where it is impossible to not shimmy your shoulders and take your own Deetour!

Pittsburgh Boys

Hailing from Pittsburgh Nic and Josh, also known as 1,2,3 bring their sleezy sexy rock to London playing Koko tonight and releasing this, their debut UK single next month.

With an introductory guitar twang that Mr. G. Harrison wouldn’t have been ashamed off

they slink in,

before you know it,

and leave,

without even,

a kiss.

Let's go to the Psychic City!

YACHT remixed by Classixx’s have created the most amazing electro dreamy Psychic City full of the most wonderful friends ever.

Picture walking home with your shades on, it’s a sunny morning, and you’re a bit jaded from the night before when you get a call welcoming you back like you are the most important and beautiful thing in the world, singing:

‘Where you been darlin,
Darlin?
Where you been darlin,
Darlin?

We’ve be holding this moment for you.

I told you your dreams would come true…’

Any one got directions...?

Arab Strap Summer

Arab Strap with beautiful, deadpan story telling, haven’t we all known a weekend or at least a night full of the universal stories he recounts of weekends wasted?

Day after days rolling out where you never went to sleep,
Cos either you couldn't,
or you didn’t want to.

Went for the weekend,
lasted for ever,
high with my friends,
its officially summer.

Fools Gold or Fools Day.....?

My so favourite song of the moment, Albarn chats about his day over Coxons relaxed and beautiful guitar in this their first release for seven, yes, I said SEVEN years....

Fools Day is the first day in all our spring times...

So High Together!

Siriusmo are just like an old skool getto blaster, evocative, cool, reminiscent, and so of another time.

I love it.

Odessa

Caribou make sexy world music sounds that you are sure are already being emitted by the Sirens from Ibiza... Summer starts here.

To All The DJs!

The World's Famous Supreme Team got all the plimsolls dancing out of their God Damn Shoes!

You've got to love it, especially when they give a big shout out to ALL the DJs in the entire WORLD!!

Fix it Up!

'There not a problem that I can't fix,
Cos I can do it in the mix.

And if your man gives you trouble,
just you move out on the double,
and you don't let it trouble your brain.

Cos away goes trouble down the drain
Said away goes trouble down the drain'

Great lines and cool girls, but when I heard this tune growing up, I must say he was never the DJ I had pictured in my minds eye...!

Gamma Ray Guns

Beck sounding something like The Cure crossed wih The Adams Family does base line heavy black and white with effortless surealist style.

Shooting All Your Lazers!

Getting down with the Dance Hall, Major Lazer fill this classic with samples of kisses, ringtones, horses and call centre workers.

Believe me, they will make your jeans vibrate like a Nokia!

Shangrilaaaas!

Tha Shangri-Las are so in love with the local Danny Zucco, if only they knew that trying to tame that wild boy would only ever end in tears....

Meet Me Half Way...........

It is always good to be surprised and The Black Eyed Peas did just that with this amazing pop song about love and longing.

And the video isn't bad either...

Three Weeks and 40 Thieves

I know I have kept you waiting, but 40 Thieves make it all worthwhile...

So Don't Turn it off, Cos I kind of like it.....

Paper Peckham Romance

Groove Armada nail this take on the dance video. All the usual suspects are there, the grotty flat, the urban part of the city, the running mascara, but they get the switch perfect.

When you have had the most rubbish time and yet you can walk in a room and all of a sudden let it all go and feel free again, that is juxtaposition.

Broken Bells and High Roads

Compact with super mario sounds Broken Bells take you on an echo Neil Young high road adventure.

So what you gonna do at the cross roads...?

Did you keep you're receipt...?

Gang of Four struts up next to you like the hot boy or girl at a gig, dancing in the heat and sweat and then disappearing with a sly smile by the end of the song.

'Cos You're H-O-T!!

Database Vs French Horn Rebellion make you feel like you are in an old skool roller-disco where the girls are wearing blue and yellow roller boots and skirts that twirl and the boys are spinning round the floor at high speed in their Bauers trying to impress them whilst the coloured disco lights rotate the room.

Remember, the louder you scream the faster we go!

'So, how did you boys find America..?' 'Went to Greenland and took a left'

When I was four years old my Dad called me downstairs saying he had something he wanted me to hear. When I was there he proceeded to play me all his early Beatles 7" records, I was completly hooked, I learnt how to use the precious needle on the record deck and listened to them non-stop, taping them for the car and playing them for any one who would listen.

So this is for the man who started it all, M.J.B you rock the most.

xxxxx

An Alison and Iggy Valintines Romance....

As Valintines Day goes, Alison and Iggy sing about pure devotion.

VCR

When I find myself by the sea
In anothers company

by the sea

When I go out to the pier
Gonna die and have no fear
because you.....

You just know..

Run Around Who......?

Dion sings heartbreak 1960s in perfect doo-wop, no wonder the tune ranked #342 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Just watch out for that Sue.....

F-U-N-K doesn't get any Funkier then This!

So it's New York and its the 80s so get down on that lino and break those moves!!

Bronski Beat of The Week!

In homage to a good friends birthday today. Play this extended version and remember how amazing this song really is, oh and the next time you have a big house party and it's early in the morning, put this on and you'll get everyone up on the dance floor.

Got My Good Shoes On!

It's just the way my heart beats.....

Yea I Say!

Yeasayer pick up on the current passion for lifting some world beats and throwing them in the mix in this their current single Ambling Alp.

Definitely ones to watch in 2010...

A Contra Weekender

Vampire Weekend nail it with their second album, highlights are Giving up The Gun, Diplomat's Son and top of the list, I Think ur A Contra. World sounds enveloped in pure New York.

You can check out my full review in DUMMY Mag!

http://dummymag.com/reviews/2010/01/12/contra/

Donald's Damn Funky Dominos!

I had this brilliant tape when I was a teenager, the kind you taped of a friend who had taped it of a friend, who had taped it of a friend, and no one had ever seen the original it came from.

On one side it was proper old skool Terry Francis Garage and the other was just labelled 70s Funk. This was my favourite song but I never knew who it was by until last Saturday whilst in the pub with a couple of friends the DJ whacks it on, I got very over excited when he showed me the sleeve and after discussing the merits of the full length version I left very happy indeed!

So just do what Donald does, stand you problems all in a row, and watch them fall like dominos!

Double Vapour Trail

So when I was 14, my Art homework was to draw a picture of the thing I would most like to own in the world. I drew a pencil portrait of Mark Gardener from Ride.

When I was 26 my friend took me back stage to meet him. We stood, packed in a close corridor, and spoke but I never told him about the picture I had drawn all those years ago, too shy I guess.

He was beautiful.



For a good friend who will appreciate an amazing version on a most beautiful classic.

Disco Ditto!

'Call me up
We'll hang out
I’m down for whatever.
Tell me an I making myself clear?'

Ditto does Simian Disco magic on this pure retro, almost sounding like Ce Ce Peniston when she cries the word 'Finally'. Ditto nails her off the cuff advances almost like she is responding to the gentlemen singer from their previous tune 'Audacity of Huge'.

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.