The Cold Cut

MGMT- Time To Pretend
MGMT- Electric Feel

It kills me that I think of this blog as a small taste of what's great about music 'now', yet I still miss out some truly brilliant bands, doing some groundbreaking stuff. The time constraints of being at a busy boarding school are the cause of this, but my circumstances don't make it any less painful. The first band I've completely missed out on recently is MGMT (short for management). A web-sensation, this band's popularity has rocketed over through a combination of web-publicity and great tunes, directly converted into sales across the pond.

'Oracular Spectacular' has been out in the US for ages, but the band's UK label held the release until the new year, and I think that was a good idea. MGMT have literally dominated the Hype Machine/Elbows popular lists for the last few months, and not without reason. 'Oracular Spectacular' is an album that's inventive, brave and most crucially, packed full of fun. I'm not averse to a simple tune... MGMT don't dress the songs up any more than is necessary, and are brave in their delivery. This is unashamedly great pop music. 'Time To Pretend' is surely the best song attacking stereotypical rock stars' clichéd lives of snorting coke with buxom hookers. Relentlessly powering through a great bass rumble, this is their best song to date.

Next for me came 'Electric Feel', featuring a throwback synth lick that is truly genius, a retro beat and falsetto. These varied songs are vital to the band's appeal, throwing some curve balls and mixing up the album, which I'm sure will be similarly well recieved in Europe. The band are already starting to make an impact over here, weeks ahead of the album's release. Tomorrow night they're performing on 'Later With Jools Holland', playing both 'Time To Pretend' and 'Pieces Of What'.

The album comes out on March 10th... pre-order it on Amazon. If you want to hear a couple more tracks, head over to the Hype Machine. Visit the band's website for more info.

Wow. 50000 visitors. Its hard to believe The Cold Cut has only been going for 10 months, but I feel as if this blog is at least beginning to make an impact. I had a few issues at first- I didn't focus enough, but music is quickly becoming an even more important part of my life, and I'm really glad that its the focus of this blog.

I just want to thank everyone who has visited The Cold Cut, from a one-time visitor to those of you who come here everyday. Regardless of your standing, I urge you to subscribe to my RSS feed, tell your friends, spread the word and comment. Your contribution means more to me than you would believe.

It happened very quickly- some pretty cool stuff started happening about 3 months into this blog's life. I've had Dev Hynes of Lightspeed Champion commenting, a producer of Lupe Fiasco's (The Black Mage, or Chris of 'Chris N Drop) new album commenting numerous times, been on Rolling Stone's blog and much more. Lately, I've started to receive loads of band submissions, something I'm truly grateful for- I hope my posts have helped you all in some way or another. My popularity is increasing, with the Hype Machine indexing my blog (I've been number 1 on the popular list about 10 times now!), regular Paper Thin Walls spots and popular posts on Elbows. The page rank is going up as well- just as a side note, if you want to exchange links, drop me a line...

I have serious plans for this blog... I recently bought a new domain, www.thecoldcut.com, which is not functioning just yet, but will soon be up. With the new domain I will keep Blogger hosting for now, but may eventually move to Wordpress so I can integrate a much better template. I've put more advertising on the blog to offset the costs of file hosting- I will hopefully soon be making enough to buy a yousendit premium account.

Thanks for a great 10 months. Long may it continue... This one's for you!

Led Zeppelin- Thank You

Britney Spears- Toy Soldier
Britney Spears- Gimme More
Britney Spears (ft. Pharrell)- Why Should I Be Sad?

When you spend a lot of time on the Hype Machine it's hard not to notice who's popular, and who isn't. One name I didn't ever expect to see on their front-page was Britney Spears, a woman who has been to hell and back. As the last bastion of consistently great music, I found myself laughing when I saw Gimme More on the Hype Machine popular page. Imagine my surprise, then, when I reluctantly opened my ears on the first listen and found myself thinking: "Hey, this isn't too bad!".

You would struggle to find someone who has been more persecuted over the last year or so, and not without fault on Spears' part. First she was too thin, then she divorced, then she shaved her head, then she was too fat, then she couldn't sing, then she couldn't dance, finally she was a bad mother etc etc...

Given this, Blackout (her latest album), comes as a bit of a kick in the teeth. Not only can she actually sing, but this album suggests that there may be a person under that newly bloated skin. She comes out with her fists raised, and amiably talks about her problems, ultimately winning some sort of victory. Blackout is a triumph, both for her in order to reclaim her place in the music industry and to talk about her own issues (K-Fed, child custody, body-weight and more). Admittedly, I've never been a real fan of hers: in her 'Hit Me' days, Britney was a bit more of an object than a musician, a distinction which she is obviously unhappy with, and one that is destroyed with this album. Guilty-pleasures abound, Blackout is a solid-pop album if nothing more, but I see it as Britney proudly flicking off the world and proving that she's famous for a reason. Check the tracks out (by following the links), and please tell me what you think: are you a fan of the hip-hop tilted songs? Do you like 'Gimme More'? What did you think of her (IMO Terrible) VMA's performance? Finally, 'Toy Soldier': potentially a brilliant single? You decide...

Music enthusiasts, unite. The new Hype Machine is being instated as we speak, but wont be open to the public until 10000 people are looking at the homepage at once. Got all that? In short, get over there now, and we wont have to wait an age to be back in touch with the music world again. Roll on 10000 viewers...

Unfortunately, time constraints and a slow computer at work experience mean that I can't do a full length post today, but there's a lot of fresh, interesting music to cover so I thought I should at least write something short. My Quick Tip for today is an Australian 5-piece band called Operator Please, comprised entirely of members aging between 17 and 19, not something you generally see in popular bands nowadays. Lead singer/guitarist Amandah Wilkinson formed the band to compete in her high school's Battle Of The Bands competition: "I picked people at random who I knew played an instrument, and they just said yes." and so the band was formed. Their music is quite an eclectic mix, mostly because of the instruments their band members play: the current lineup has the usual suspects (guitar, bass, drums, voice) and two unique choices, keyboard and violin: check out the bit in the download below where you get a full-blown violin solo). Together, these 5 instruments and Amandah's powerful voice make an interesting sound when coupled with their songs, which are fun, if a little childish at times (you've got to forgive them for that: they're all under 20!).

The age aspect is pretty funny actually: 17 year old drummer Tim Commandeur looks so baby-faced that his presence is often questioned during their gigs, and he has even been mistaken for Amandah's son... but forget the age thing- this is a band who made it big purely by force of will, and at such a young age they have already been picked up by EMI and are set to play the Carling: Reading and Leeds festivals this summer, having received a lot of plays (on NME, XFM and Radio 1) of their hit single "Just A Song About Ping Pong". It's been a large shock to the band, just as you would expect: receiving a record deal with EMI whilst you're a teenager isn't something most people could brag about in their lifetime. Their debut album will be out sometime later this year, but whilst you're waiting I would recommend you take a look at some of their EP's and singles. A good place to start is over at the Hype Machine... You can also buy their EP's on their site