Caught in the Net: A head that never stops talking
And you may find yourself giving a speech at one of the most highly respected academic conferences in the world about the intersection between architecture and music, as one of Talking Heads frontman David Byrne's most famous songs did not begin. Following his enthralling conversion of London's Roundhouse venue into one giant musical instrument a little over a year ago, Byrne gave a talk at a recent TED conference which baffled and impressed critics in equal measure. Far from burning down the house, Byrne claims, we should be investigating its effect on the acoustics of the musical experiences we love. Jumpy and caffeinated as ever, the lecture, recorded in February but only released last week, deserves a watch, at ind.pn/aVlvH9
The venerable Tel
Who would choose the nation's most-hated building, the former millennium dome, as the location for their England World Cup song video? Terry Venables, of course, who's joined a motley crew of musicians benefiting from the lack of an official national song with their own offerings. After 2006's "World at your feet" by Embrace, the FA's ambivalence is understandable, but this year a few alternatives are attempting to fill the gap; Dizzee Rascal and James Corden have hit number one with "Shout for England", joined by rerelease success for The Lightning Seeds with "Three Lions" and New Order's "World in Motion". We've collected together the options; vote for your favourite at ind.pn/worldcupsongvote
Fire in the hold
"The band most bands want to be", reads Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's introduction to a new song from Arcade Fire, who are due to reclaim their throne as rock royalty with their forthcoming LP release The Suburbs. On the evidence of the latest teasers from their new album, available to stream at ind.pn/bZT3PI and ind.pn/9h6pc4 it's hard to see how anyone's going to unseat them for some time yet, with an unnerving intensity at odds with previous leaked single "Month of May", at http://ind.pn/cyIIiP .
It's OK ya, for OK GO's release
Deliberately and endearingly homemade-looking stop-motion music videos have been around for a while (Coldplay's "Strawberry Swing" and Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance" are the best recent examples), but if there's going to be one surefire mainstream hit from the genre it's OK GO's latest effort. Hoping to emulate the successes of past hits like "A Million Ways" and "Here It Goes Again", which made the band's videos some of the most viewed online, "End Love" from the album Of The Blue Colour of the Sky depicts the band parading around a park in Silverlake, California. With a social media campaign encouraging users to spread the video around the web, it's fair to presume they have another success story.
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