The Cold Cut

I know I posted about Interpol only a few days ago, but whilst trawling through the hype machine for the latest up and coming bands I saw a link to a blog offering the whole of Our Love To Admire as a zip file. Now, I don't agree with what this blogger did, but he will remain anonymous; posting a whole album doesn't build hype or promote a band- it just gives people something for free which should cost £10. I downloaded this zip file with a promise to myself that I would still go out and buy this album when it comes out in a few weeks.

Now that I've made clear how I feel about this, I can get on to the album, which I have to say is fantastic. Interpol have really picked up their game since their last album Antics, which didn't really have a lasting impression on me (I suppose you could call this Antics 2.0). With Our Love To Admire, they have produced an album which on the first play is as good if not better than Turn On The Bright Lights. That is quite a large claim to make at this point, but I am confident with my view on the album, even if I have only listened to it two or three times. It is at this point that I should probably mention that Our Love To Admire doesn't really shake up their basic formula; it's an Interpol album, through and through. However, that doesn't stop it from being great- despite the sub tones of sex, drugs and death which run strongly through this album, an inexplicably happy feeling accompanies each listen of the tracks. I don't have time today to run through the album track-by-track but special mention should be given to Pioneer To The Falls, the opening song, which features twinkly piano and a guitar riff I'm sure I have heard somewhere else, but regardless of the (possible) plagiarism, it is a fantastic song, and should be the next single. Another must listen tune from the album is No I In Threesome, which again shows that the band have decided to incorporate piano into their songs the third time around, something which they have mentioned in recent interviews. I have included a few lines from this track, which is obviously about sex, alongside other songs on the album such as Rest My Chemistry and Pace Is The Trick.

The new Interpol album Our Love To Admire was leaked in good quality yesterday. I had an inkling this might happen, and I manged to get most of the 11 tracks through various means. The verdict? Its very, very good; I'm going to include a selection of the best songs, but this is only in order to promote the album before its release (not reduce sales) on the 9th of July. Please be sure to pre-order or buy the album on its release here. If you want to download all the files below from one page, visit this page, and you can also get their excellent single, The Heinrich Maneuver, at the same time.

Interpol- Rest My Chemistry.mp3
Interpol- Pioneer To The Falls.mp3
Interpol- No I In Threesome.mp3
Interpol- Who Do You Think?.mp3
Interpol- All Fined Up.mp3

I know it officially started yesterday, but I don't think its fair to say Glastonbury is in full swing until the first band plays on Saturday. It has, however, already been predicted that there will be a shit storm of weather this weekend at the festival site, as there always is at Glasto. It might even be fair to say that Glastonbury isn't what it is without at least a day of crappy weather, and many people associate their best festival experiences with the permanently sodden Glastonbury fields.


What is it about rain that causes people to associate them with good festivals? I know from Lowlands festival last year that rain can have a weird affect on people in festival situation; on the last day of the 2006 festival it pissed it down for 5 hours. Yet rather than dampening (sorry, bad pun) the mood of the festival, everything seem to pick up- we were all content watching the bands with only our black bin bags as protection from the storm that was attempting to ruin everything. It's also important to remember that despite occurring in the summer months, all festivals in the UK have ground rules written in stone. These are:
1) Bring wellies
2) Bring a waterproof
The rest is really up to you, but if you forget either of these and it rains, you're in a very bad place.


Despite the large possibility of rain this weekend, I'm sure Glastonbury Festival 2007 will be one to remember; my brother and sister are both there are the moment, and the lineup looks fantastic. 200 different bands are playing over the next 3 days, and I can't really see anyone missing out of the current crop of good bands. I've included a couple of photos from Lowlands last year, and Glastonbury in general.

Never in my life has a band tortured me this way... Whilst doing work experience at Comic Relief last week, a little email popped up stating someone in the office was offering two excellently positioned standing tickets to Muse's opening night performance at Wembley Stadium. And the price? £45 each. That might seem expensive to some, but considering the prices for tickets on eBay are £300 a pair they were actually very cheap considering the gigs were literally days away. I was so tempted to ditch going back to school the next day in order to see these guys again; I really thought that the cheap tickets were a bit of a sign.

Well, of course I ended up turning down the tickets and traveling back to boring old Cheltenham the next day. But this hasn't stopped me from watching numerous Youtube videos and listening to live recordings of the two concerts. I've read people's thoughts on the performance and most quotes have been along the lines of "the best gig I've ever seen in my life" or "unbelievable". The thing that makes Muse so different is their sound is no different playing in a small venue of 1000 people as they are playing in stadium venues like Wembley to crowds upwards of 20000; of course stadium performances are more of a spectacle (see image at end of post) but this band is just as comfortable in either situation. I've watched many of the songs featured in their 2-hour long set and I can't wait for some good quality footage to be shown on TV. Anyway, I've included a live recording of Map Of The Problematique during the Saturday performance, which is being released as a single later this week.

Muse- Map Of The Problematique (Live At Wembley).mp3

I kind of missed a large event on this blog a couple of days ago, but I can't really let 1000 unique visits to this site pass by without saying anything. Thanks very much to those of you who have been coming back to this blog frequently, and I would just like to urge you to tell anyone and everyone about it. As a gift to those who keep coming back, I hope to put some exclusive tracks up over the next week or so. Also, please don't miss out the opportunity to subscribe by RSS. Again, thanks, and I hope this blog continues to grow. Finally, please feel free to comment on my posts; its nice to know that there is someone on the other end...

French dance music is very hip right now. Oh yes, Britain's greatest rivals from across the pond are churning out crossover dance hits effortlessly; most of us have heard Justice's hugely commercial single D.A.N.C.E. by now, an excellent song which will no doubt be unbelievably irritating come August. But don't for one minute think that this song came about through a bit of luck; no, Justice have got a truck load more songs to back them up, and their new album notoriously titled † has been receiving great reviews in all the major music magazines. And who can forget last years Never Be Alone, a massive hit in its own right, for which Justice were half responsible, alongside Simian Mobile Disco.

I will, without a doubt, be buying the album when it comes out: I've only heard a couple of tracks but I certainly haven't been disappointed. I suppose it is with this admission that it has fallen to Justice to be Daft Punk's natural successors as the saviours of French dance music; There's been a relatively dry spot in terms of great dance tunes since the likes of Homework and Discovery in Daft Punk's better years. Well, you only need to click the links below and download the two tracks I've include by Justice to see that this is all about to change. Enjoy, and please comment if you love Justice as much as I do. Also, has anyone out there heard the new Simian Mobile Disco album? Any good?

Justice- D.A.N.C.E.mp3
Justice-Me Against the Music.mp3

If you have been tuning into the radio or following music at all lately it would have been hard to not hear about the latest band, Battles, who many people are stating have revitalised modern music and are the "sound of the future". This is a pretty bold claim to make, and I was fairly sceptical at first: NME described the band as something along the lines of "puzzle-pop mentalists who masterfully drag music into the future" and named Battles' first single Atlas as their track of the week. Well, I've listened long and hard to their debut album Mirrored and I can honestly say that these bold statements are all completely false, and the people who made them must be seriously delusional. I can see a certain spark in many of the songs on Mirrored but its unfair to raise the band's hopes by naming them as 'the sound of the future'; the songs are on the whole great, with a huge amount going on in each track, and I can see the band having staying power. They will not, however, influence music in the way that some particular music journalists (if you can call them that) have stated.

The main reason for this is that this album can't really be compared to anything before it; in order to influence music in the way stated it has to be fresh but retain some sort of resemblance to the current idea of music. Mirrored features no discernable lyrics or structure, merely a thronging mass of instrumental backing and Tyondai Braxtons wierd vocals, and whilst being new, doesn't have any memorable licks or elements to each song.

So, there you have it- whilst being fun, Battles are a band that are so different to anything you've ever heard before. I have to hand it to the band; they've been pretty brave and in some people's eyes its obviously payed off. If only they could somehow manage to convert the sceptics like myself, the music world would be their oyster. Take a listen to their stuff, and see what you think? I'm sure there are loads of fans out there; if you are, try to convert me....

Bright Eyes, now a famous band in its own right, was originally started by Conor Oberst principally as a showcase for his talents. Drawn to music from an early age, Oberst was clearly a musical prodigy by the age of 7 after taking a particular liking to his brother's collection of the Cure vinyls. At the age of 13, he released his first solo album, and continued to release more until he formed Bright Eyes in 1998. For the last 9 years, the band, and Oberst in particular, have failed to meet their full potential as musicians and songwriters... however it was to my great pleasure when they lived up to expectations with their latest album 'Cassadaga'. I've just heard one of the great tracks off this album, Four Winds, which is included below. Click the link to download this great track, which has country tinged backing guitar with some very poignant lyrics:

"The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together you get close to the truth"

Bright Eyes- Four Winds. mp3

I'm would be lying if I said the last few days haven't been very difficult for me. I made a vow at the end of last week to leave blogging as my I had 9 exams over the last 4 days. Well, it seems that there were some forces which conspired against me, as no sooner had I shut my laptop after posting 'See You In A Week' than a massive amount of new and interesting music made its way onto the net. Well, I've decided that a lot of this music is too good to be missed out, so I am going to play catchup over the next few weeks.

It turns out I have got some really big exams at school this week, so I am going to have to turn my attentions to studying for this week. I will have finished by next Friday, but I don't foresee myself doing any blogging over the next few days. Thanks for reading, and watch this space...