"I feel a whole lot better," maintains a hoarse Wayne Coyne, apologising for being too ill to play the previous day's cancelled concert before informing us that "being sick is pretty petty" compared to the tornado disaster in Oklahoma, his home state. It is. He goes on to admit that "this is kind of a ridiculous event". It's certainly an odd event.
Sunday 01 March 2009
Throughout the 1980s, the Welsh had very little to celebrate and St David's Day was simply a matter of a bunch of daffodils on the coffee table. Rejoicing about our nationality was an infrequent occurrence, generally reserved for rugby victories. I was always bewildered by the way parents dressed their little boys for school concerts – rugby jerseys or miners' caps, as if the whole country revolved around rugby balls and our problematic coal industry. Nobody even thought of impersonating Tom Jones.
Sunday 03 August 2008
Friday 25 July 2008
Talvin Singh ('Ok' - Winner 1999)
People got to know my music that had never heard it before, so that is a positive point, and the Mercury Prize can stretch your career in that way, but I've never really taken much advantage of that because I've been on a bit of sabbatical from recording for the past few years. When I won you couldn't get my records for four months because the record company had never thought of me winning so they didn't stock up. So, for record sales, that didn't really help.
Tip to win: Burial
Monday 12 May 2008
Friday 04 April 2008
Jim Noir's dazzling 2006 album Tower of Love was basically just an aggregation of earlier EPs, so this is the Mancunian genius's debut proper. And what a debut, stuffed with whimsical beauty and gorgeous layered harmonies that Brian Wilson would kill for, each instrument and vocal painstakingly overdubbed by Noir.
Sunday 16 March 2008
'Stainless Style', a concept album about the life of motor mogul John DeLorean, comes encased in close-ups of a model with terrifying claws, sprawled inside an Eighties luxury car. The visual grammar matches the music: Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and LA hip-hopper Boom Bip have combined to create a peerless techno-pop opus that starts like a hybrid of Kraftwerk's 'Trans-Europe Express' and Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds' and, with the help of guests including Har Mar Superstar and Spank Rock, proceeds through pastiches of Miami booty bass, mid-Eighties John Hughes movie soundtracks and electro-crunk.
Sunday 09 March 2008
MGMT are, along with Vampire Weekend, the most droppable name out of New York City right now, and have been heralded with the loudest buzz of advance hyperbole of any NYC band since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, if not the Strokes.
Friday 07 March 2008
Thursday 24 January 2008
One of the bands at the forefront of last year’s new underage scene, Bombay Bicycle Club, were quick to make their mark in the summer when they stormed the Underage and Reading festivals.
Sunday 07 January 2007
Monday 27 December 1999
Tuesday 23 November 1999
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
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