RIP Rowland S. Howard

The Australian guitarist was 50. Starting with The Boys Next Door he went on to form The Birthday Party with Nick Cave, where his feedback was a key element of their sound. He later collaborated with artists such as Lydia Lunch and Nikki Sudden...

Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll

Looking forward to the Ian Dury biopic starring the excellent Andy Serkis...

RIP Vic Chesnutt

The Athens, Georgia based singer-songwriter was 45. The wheelchair confined Chesnutt (he was injured in a car accident in 1983) apparently took an overdose of muscle relaxants and was in a coma since earlier this week...

Ladyflash...

Some of the samples used in The Go! Teams 'Ladyflash':

At 3:15 in Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewoods 'Down from Dover':


At 0:50 in The Soul Searchers 'Ashley's Roachclip':


At 1:49 in Fontella Bass' 'I can't rest':


At 1:36 & 2:00 in the basketball rap section of the movie 'Wild Style':


At 3:38 in Davey DMX 'The DMX Will Rock You':


Put it all together and you end up with The Go! Team's 'Ladyflash' - genius!!

The sam old sung...

Everybodystalking favorites The Happy Hollows - now also poster children for Samsung Mobile... I nearly fell off the bed when I saw this advert during the Laker game!

Decades...

Wasn't it Depeche Mode who said 'Well I know five years is a long time and that times change'? Well 10 years is twice as long and times have certainly changed for me - I live in a different continent for god's sake... Anyways, here are my 10 favorite LP's of the last decade (in no particular order...)

The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike

Sonic Youth guitars, 70's cop themes, Sesame Street, double-dutch chants and hip-hop - The Go! Team's post-nostalgia mash-up was the freshest sound of the naughties...

The Dears: No Cities Left

Who'd have thought the 'new Morrissey' would be from an ethnic minority - Canadian! Montreal anglophile Murray Lightburn and his excellent band bring previous efforts sharply into focus with an epic set of mellow-dramatic classics...

Radiohead: Kid A

How do you follow 'OK Computer' - the x-generations' 'Dark side of the moon'? You don't... 'Kid A' was an LP Radiohead fans either loved or hated as the band ditched the guitars in favor of chilling, eerie, subliminal electronica.

The Strokes: Is This It

The LP that made indie music hip. The New York press darlings transport us back to CBGB's circa 1977 with a garage rock classic.

Arcade Fire: Funeral

An emotionally wracked masterpiece that jumped seemlessly between chamber pop melodies and angular art-rock.

The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

All the Lips previously ramshackle efforts suddenly focused into one conceptual masterpiece.

Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning

Conor Oberst's clearest vision yet - an alt-country classic which gives his brilliant lyrics a sparkling platform...

Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of Bewilderbeast

The many layered award-winning folktronic classic bared repeated listening. He had some good hats too.

Gorillaz: Gorillaz

Hip-hop, pop and cartoons from the Hoxton supergroup. Apparently they were only doing it for the kids - and the kids loved it!

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

For me, the only listenable band in this god-forsaken beardy folk revival. A camp-fire classic to be sure...

Also worthy of mention were:

The Streets: Original Pirate Material - increasingly unlistenable output throughout the decade soured Mike Skinner's chances...

Broken Social Scene: You Forgot it in People - the Montreal quota was already used up by The Dears and Arcade Fire...

Portishead: Third - a little too scary for repeated listening...

Who made your Top 10?

Ninja sightings...

Rinocerose's  'Time Machine' featuring Ninja from The Go! Team:




Simian Mobile Disco's 'It's the beat' featuring Ninja from The Go! Team:



Yumi Yumi with 'I am right' featuring Kaori from The Go! Team:
 

Warpaint

Great version of 'Elephants' from the Equisite Corpse CD release party at The Echoplex on January 13th 2009...

The Rhone Occupation

The Rhone Occupation taming the caverous Echo Curio wall of sound with a nice version of 'A Place'...