You gotta love the Brits

Both lead singers of emo-punk bands My Chemical Romance and Panic! at the Disco were pelted with bottles at last week's Reading Festival. Panic! had to stop their show seconds after starting when Brendan Urie was hit in the head - you can see footage of the bottling here. You have to love the Brits - when they think your music is shit, they'll let you know.

Like a Dream

Sanctuary is releasing a shoegazing retrospective entitled Like A Dream: The Story of Shoegazing. This 16 track disc will feature Ride ("Like a Dream"), Slowdive ("When the Sun Hits"), Catherine Wheel ("Black Metallic"), Lush ("Sweetness and Light"), Curve ("Horror Head"), Cranes, Chapterhouse ("Pearl"), Telescopes, and Ultra Vivid Scene ("Mercy Seat"), among others. This compilation is worth picking up for "Black Metallic" and "Sweetness and Light" alone.

The Independent wrote a nice piece about the shoegazing scene and this disc, and interviews Emma Anderson of Lush/Sing-Sing. Anderson, whom I met after a Sing-Sing gig in London (I, unfortunately, was speechless, as Lush was one of my favorite bands ever - all I could think to say was "the first Sing-Sing album was really good" instead of "Spooky changed my life"), provides a nice overview of the scene during the early 90's. In addition to Sing-Sing, she also DJs a "shoegaze" night in London. She'll mix in more than just shoegaze though. "After all," she says, "how much Slowdive and Telescopes can you listen to in one night?"

"Free" music on SpiralFrog

Universal Music Group has signed a deal with free online music provider SpiralFrog. Instead of charging for downloads, SpiralFrog will be supported by ad revenue. Universal has jumped on board, and will offer its catalog to SpiralFrog. Upside: customers will be able to download an unlimited number of Universal songs to their computer and one other device. Downside: users will not be able to transfer those songs onto a compact disc, and they must visit the site at least once a month to maintain access to their music. The service begins in December.

Sounds interesting, but I'm a big fan of putting digital tracks on to a CD, so SpiralFrog will not work for me. That's a huge downside.

Glimmer in New York

The Glimmers (f/k/a The Glimmer Twins) will be DJ'ing in NYC on Friday and Saturday. On Friday they are DJ'ing at APT (49 W. 13th Street) with support from Eamon Harkin, DJ Spun, and Carmine P. Filthy as part of Even Further. On Saturday they are DJ'ing Warm-Up at P.S.1. in Queens. Their sets are all over the place - they play new beat, early acid house, disco, new wave and classic rocknroll - but the sets somehow manage to remain cohesive. They've also remixed a bunch of heavy-hitters, including Bloc Party, The Killers, New Order, Frank Popp Ensemble, Roxy Music, Isolee, Phoenix. Definitely worth checking out this weekend.

Kasabian back in the U.S.

Kasabian is set to tour America in support of their sophomore effort Empire, which is released in the U.S. on September 19th. I've only heard the title track, and I hope the rest of the album is better, as "Empire" is pretty bad. Disappointing, considering how great Kasabian was. They hit Webster Hall on September 20th. The tour will be without original member Chris Karloff, who left the band in July due to "creative differences."

Why does Vegas love Fergie?

I was in Vegas this past weekend, and all I kept hearing over and over again was Fergie's "London Bridge" song. It's possibly the worst song of all time. Can you imagine the song writing scene for that one? "Hmmm...what should go next...how about 'Oh Snap!'" Awful. I'm not sure why it was played over and over again everywhere I went out there, including 4 times during a day at the Pool at the Palms.

Come to think of it, I didn't hear much good music at all while I was there. Mostly crap hip-hop and pop-hop. The only bright spot was the 15 minutes of decent rock at the Hard Rock - we walked in while "Fools Gold" was playing.

CMJ Music Marathon Lineup

The first wave of artists performing at CMJ was announced:

The Knife
The Slits
Hot Chip
The Black Keys
Madlib
Ben Lee
Deerhoof
Blonde Redhead
The Boy Least Likely To
Blue Cheer
Joseph Arthur
Erase Errata
Green Milk from the Planet Orange
Holly Golightly
Cold War Kids
Silversun Pickups
Califone
White Whale
hellogoodbyeAnathallo
Dr. Dog
Professor Murder
Archie Bronson Outfit
Keren Ann
Brother Ali
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Oakley Hall
These Arms Are Snakes
Micah P. Hinson
Portastatic
P.O.S.
Cloud Cult
Jason Forrest Band
Thunderbirds Are Now!
Strike Anywhere
Percee P
Mute Math
Suzanne Vega
Extra Golden
120 Days

More to come too. Nice.

Damon, The Verve, and The Clash = The Good, The Bad, and The Queen

Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz) , Paul Simonon(The Clash) , Tony Allen and Simon Tong (The Verve) have formed a side project called The Good, The Bad and The Queen. Their first gig will be an appearance at theRoundhouse in London on October 26th as part of the BBC Electric Promsseason at London's Roundhouse. (Tickets for the 26th October gig go onsale at10am on Wednesday 16th of August, priced £15 and can be found here.

Says Damon:

“The Good The Bad and The Queen, it's... it's a story, it's not a band. I'm very very proud of this record and I think it's worth while putting it out. It's a very English record, it's the first time I've really written about home, since sort of Parklife. I've always wanted to play the Roundhouse. You know, I love the idea that you have to be something that hasn't been heard before.”

The Good, The Bad and The Queen, produced by Danger Mouse, is due out in 2007.

Interpol to Capitol

Interpol has apparently signed with Capitol Records, ending their tenure with super indie Matador. (Coolfer via Hits). What does this mean? I have no idea, but I'm sure the third album will sound more like Antics than Turn on the Bright Lights - i.e., more singles, less doom.

Corrosion round-up

Pretty good night at M1-5 last night for Corrosion's The Smiths vs. Depeche Mode night. There were a couple of girls making some great requests. That's always a good thing. And M1-5 itself is pretty nice - a really huge space! Here are my sets:

Set One

Cities - A Theme
The Daysleepers - Mezmerize
The Diggs - Massachusettes
Suede - Attitude
Oasis - Supersonic
New Young Pony Club - Get Dancey
New Sense - Ready to Leave
Morrissey - Tomorrow
Depeche Mode - Lillian
Portishead - Wandering Star
The Stone Roses - Fool's Gold
The Farm - Groovy Train
The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again (request)
Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth (request)
Kasabian - Processed Beats
The Soup Dragons - Divine Thing
The Clash - Rock the Casbah
The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Pulp - Do You Remeber the First Time? (request)
New Order - Age of Consent
The Smiths - This Charming Man (New York Vocal mix)
Morrissey - Suedehead



Set Two

She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart (Peel Session)
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus (request)
The Cure - A Forest (Tree Mix)
Cut Copy - Saturdays
Pulp - Disco 2000
The Smiths - What She Said (request)
Blur - There's No Other Way
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Kiss Them For Me (request)
Joy Division - Digital (request)
Ian Brown - Love Like a Fountain
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Head On
Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence (request)
INXS - Don't Change
Franz Ferdinand - Come On Home
New Order - True Faith
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
Goldfrapp - Strict Machine
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry (request)
Blur - Boys and Girls
The Rapture - Sister Saviour
The Sunshine Underground - Dead Scene

Corrosion at M1-5 this Saturday, August 12th)

This Saturday, I'm DJing the Corrosion party at M1-5. It's the standard New Wave, Electro, Indie stuff, but as this is The Smiths vs. Depeche Mode night, there will be a lot of The Smiths and DM. It starts at 10pm and goes to 4am. M1-5 is in Tribeca just below Canal Street.

PureVolume - better than Myspace Music?

I was recently made aware of PureVolume by Jeff of The Daysleepers, who sent out an email about the band's page on that site. He said that the band felt that PureVolume was a better site for hosting their music. So I checked it out, and I have to agree. PureVolume is a much sleeker and cleaner site than MySpace Music. An easier to use music player that doesn't have trouble "buffering". Seems more professional. Easier loading of pages. No annoying flash graphics or animation. No annoying ads. No annoying "friends". (There are both ads and friends, but the key word is "annoying" - the ads and friends are much more subdued). Right now it appears that most of the bands on Pure Volume are relatively unknown indie types, but it also includes more well-known bands such as Panic! at the Disco and the recently-litigious Hawthorne Heights .

PureVolume seems to be a great alternative to those who are sick of MySpace. (Kings of A&R had a good post about MySpace)

Goldfrappisizing commercials

I just saw two separate commercials using Goldfrapp tracks. The new LG Chocolate phone/mp3 player offered at Verizon (which looks kinda cool) used "Strict Machine, and a Loreal commercial used "Fly Me Away." Not bad - I bet Alison and Will are picking up some nice change on those sync licenses.

New Bloc Party anyone?

Just the other day, my iPod shuffling landed on Silent Alarm, which, surprisingly, I haven't listened to in a while. I then thought to myself, when is Bloc Party's next album dropping. Well, according to fan site BlocParty.net, it will be released sometime early next year. It's being produced by Jacknife Lee (who did a great remix of Elkland's "Apart"). The band will not determine the final tracklisting until after the mixing is completed, but the final tracklist will come from the following:

A Prayer To The Lord
England [formerly Blue Moon]
Hunting For Witches
It Started In An Afternoon
Kreuzberg
On [formerly Wet]
Seroxat
Song For Clay (Disappear Here)
Sunday
Uniform
Waiting For The 7:18
We Were Lovers [formerly Cells Shaped Like Stars]
Where Is Home? [formerly Perfect Teens]

Modest Marr

Probably old news already, and I'm sure the post title has been used hundreds of times already, but Johnny Marr is joining Modest Mouse. He'll play on the upcoming MM album and tour with the band in support. Marr has had a history of joining other people's bands, most notably The The, and has also formed his own in the post-The Smiths years (Electronic, The Healers). I'm not a big fan of MM, but I'll likely see them on tour if Marr is there.

Thievery in New York

Thievery Corporation is playing two live shows in NYC on Sept. 24th and 25th at Webster Hall. These shows will be with Thieverys full band of percussionists, sitar, horns, and a myriad of vocalists. The pre-sale began at noon today and go on sale to the public on August 5th. The password is: versions

Tickets here:

9/24 - 9/25 dates

Goldfrapp remix album

Goldfrapp is releasing a US-only remix album on October 17 called We Are Glitter. The Flaming Lips remix of "Satin Sheets" will be released as a single in the UK though. Full tracklist is:

"Satin Chic" (Bombay Mix by the Shortwave Set)
"Lovely 2 C U" (T. Raumschmiere Remix)
"Ooh La La" (Benny Benassi Remix)
"You Never Know" (Mum Remix)
"Satin Chic" (Through the Mystic Mix, Dimension 11 by the Flaming Lips)
"Number 1" (Alan Braxe and Fred Falke Main Remix)
"Fly Me Away" (C2 Rmx 4)
"Ride A White Horse" (FK-EK Vocal Version)
"Slide In" (DFA Remix)
"Strict Machine" (We Are Glitter Mix)

So the DFA mix will finally be heard. (I have it - it's not that good - just a lot of percussion with Alison's vocals on top).

And better yet, Goldfrapp is plyaing the Roseland Ballroom on October 18th. Tickets are on sale today (August 4th) at 10am.

People Love Brooklyn

Even in Copenhagen, people love Brooklyn. (From a mannequin at a trendy store there - note that the t-shirt is 899 Danish Kroner - that's one expensive tee!)