Amazing what a major label can do for your video! Hurts is releasing that old chestnut Wonderful Life as the official second single to be taken from Happiness and with it comes a brand-spanking new video to boot. To be honest with you, there is something about the original video that I love. I will admit this new video is beautiful on its own and the picture of the dancer from the original version was a nice touch though. What say you?
Yes friends. This is actually the artwork for the forthcoming debut record by our favourite boy toys, Hurts. Keeping the simple yet so chic black and white aesthetic the band has come to be known for. Happiness is out on the 6th of September via Major Label/Sony with the next single being…Wonderful Life! A new video is currently being filmed though I have to say it would take a lot to top the original video but I’m sure the new version will be grand in its own right. Come to think of it. Anyone notice a similar vibe being shared being the artwork for Happiness and the one from these boys?
When I first posted about Manchester’s The Heartbreaks, their single Liar, My Dear was just making its way through the blog circuit. The band’s familiar yet fresh sound was only beginning to melt the hearts of listeners here in the States in much the same way it already had begun in their native England. Fast forward just a few short months and the band has achieved a healthy bit of notoriety thanks to the strength of their live show and of course, the tunes. Their new single I Didn’t Think It Would Hurt To Think Of You is another winner with a chorus that sends your head spiralling and leaves you certain you were born in the wrong decade. Two singles in and it’s become pretty plain that the Heartbreaks certainly have found their own recipe for crafting lovely tunes that tug on your heartstrings. This gift shall serve them well as they forge a path for themselves through the jungles of the UK pop charts and beyond. Good one, lads!
“So tell me what you need
And I’ll accommodate
But if too long goes by
You just might be too late
An opportunity
You can’t afford to waste
So have the lines in your head first
For heaven’s sake”
I’m just going to put this out there right now. If you haven’t yet bought, downloaded or stolen Two Door Cinema Club’s debut record Tourist History, it might be about that time to seriously examine your priorities as a music lover. At the very least, you may want to reconsider how you find about your new music because there would absolutely no reason, no possible excuse whatsoever to miss out one of the brightest stories of 2010. The Irish trio who look they just graduated elementary school have compiled an album of some of the tightest and snappiest pop that is as sharp as a tack. Further evidence of this is presented here in the new single Come Back Home. It’s bands like these that remind you that keeping it simple isn’t a bad thing at all and the footrace to appear to be the more inventive/pretentious band out there in indie-land usually ends up becoming nothing more than a exercise in futility and indier-than-thou wankery.
That said, go get this record. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better pop record by a guitar band this year. Unless you’re talking about Total Life Forever by Foals. That record is bordering on modern classic status…
Didn’t I just get through writing about Veil Veil Vanish not even a couple of weeks ago? If you found yourself going head over heels after taking a listen to Modern Lust and realised that you simply cannot breathe without more Veil Veil Vanish in your life then enjoy the promotional film released today for another song! This one is called Anthem For A Doomed Youth and this one should also whet your appetite as you await the debut record by the band coming to you in the mail. Of course, that is assuming that you buy physical records these days. On a side note, it becomes really noticeable that Keven’s voice is strikingly similar to that of Finn’s from White Rose Movement. Am i right? Am I wrong? Am I just dreaming?
As part of a webcast by the band in 2007, this isn’t a new video but one I thought I’d post nonetheless. A spirited rendition of a Smiths song I’ve held near and dear for years in The Headmaster’s Ritual. A wonderful track in which Morrissey lays his old Catholic school to waste. There are some unforgettable lines throughout the song starting with “Belligerent ghouls run Manchester schools, spineless swines, cemented minds”. As a former student who found squeezed the wringer of the Catholic school system here in New York, I know all too well of how draconian the adminstrations can be and how relentless they are in molding young, impressionable minds with their programming.
Classic song by a legendary band covered by another band still writing their own legacy. Can’t get any better than that.
After the aural attack inflicted by the previous track we’ve heard from the Klaxons called Flashover, we now have a new track to gush over. This is one a bit more mellow but still one to savor. This one is Echoes. This song soothes and cajoles where Flashover pummeled and bruised. A bit more of a new wave kick here and sounds a bit more like something we would have heard on Myths Of The Near Future minus those NU-RAVE airhorns. This track will also be featured on the band’s forthcoming sophomore offering Surfing The Void which will arrive here in August. I still can’t get over the fact that this is a Ross Robinson produced effort, by the way. Give me some time to get over that one.
Quite orange. What you are looking at, dear friends, is the sleeve for the forthcoming reunion record by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark aka OMD. The sleeve was designed by the legendary Peter Saville but more importantly, this means we are this much closer to finally hearing some new music from the electronic pop pioneers! This is a wonderful day, my friends. A wonderful day indeed! The record is due out in September and will be the first OMD material since 1996’s Universal but the first featuring the true lineup (McCluskey, Humphreys, Holmes & Cooper) since 1986. Lovely.
Personally I’ve always been a fan of dark and cold electronic music. The mechanical sound of dystopia set to a motorik beat is the equivalent to a chorus of birds singing heralding the arrival of another day. That’s probably why I love bands like These New Puritans so much. No hope whatsoever to be found in the music. It’s the apocalypse you can dance to. You can only imagine how giddy I became when I came across Detachments! Take TNP and add a slight glimmer or hint of a hook and you’ve got Detachments. If anything, if one was to take the sound of early New Order or Fad Gadget and Cabaret Voltaire, throw them in a blender and you’ve got the sound of H.A.L., the single featured here. Arpeggiated hi-hats. Booming bass drums. Swirling synth pads of impending doom. Heavily reverbed vocals. It’s all here. Needless to say, this is highly recommended…
“Im the victim, of this day and age
I’ve forgotten how to feel
I’ve forgotten how to change
So I surrender, to the apple of my eye
I surrender to the wind, I will let the wind decide”
A band based out of England that takes their name from the nickname of the state of Indiana. Credit the Hoosiers for being original in that sense. Credit them also for putting out some quality singles. Case in point the new single taken from the band’s forthcoming second record The Illusion Of Safety. The one is called Choices and it’s everything you loved about 80s FM radio rock but with more taste and a lot less filling. Everything about the song and the video screams out major label backing but let’s not be so quick to dismiss the band or the music for doing so would completely ignore the fact this song is a single through and through with a knock-em-dead chorus. The video itself is a laugh riot especially the intro where singer Irwin Sparkes fumbles his lines pitching a fake Chinese beverage. Give this song a couple of spins and I dare you to hate it. Go on. I dare you.
if you are the copyright holder of any such media placed on this site and would like it removed, please feel free to get in contact with me
if you would like to submit material for consideration to be featured, you may also contact me
if you need advice on love, life, what music to buy, you can reach me at the same address. if it's a funny question, i'll even place it on the blog!
Stalk Me.