CHOOONS Of The Week

my five favourite tracks of this week (in no order)

1.Courtship Dating - Crystal Castles

fantastic new song from these two beauts, far slower than their usual material, but still with the unique 8 bit synth lines, and screamed lyrics.






2.In The Heat Of The Morning - Last Of The Shadow Puppets

apparently a bowie cover, but i cant find it anywhere, and i assume its a very early one. still a quality song, with a hard hitting chorus that gets me singing everytime.




3.Take The Weight - Blood Red Shoes

great song from the new album, 'box of secrets'. my favourite part is just them singing, with laura one line behind, the song then erupts into the usual blood red shoes distorted punk riff.




4.Two Doors Down - Mystery Jets

like something from an ad in the eighties, a really catchy tune as well. this song has got me very eager for the forthcoming album, "twenty one".





5.Numerology - These New Puritans

strange at first, but after a few plays the song starts to evolve and becomes an odd hybrid of a dance/techno song. classic tune

Blood Red Shoes

in this instance, love is an understatement. i am in pure utter adoration for everything this duo are. their looks, their music, their attitude, and i do fancy the pants off both of them.

seen them live four times now, and each time, the bar has been raised. for example the last time i saw them was at northampton soundhaus on the 2nd of april, and throughout their set they kept dropping hints about how great the previous night had been because they had "half the audience" on stage with them. the venue management/security didn't seem happy with this encouragement for anarchy, but because the stage is about a foot off the ground their was nothing stopping us. just before their last song laura asked the sweaty crowd ahead of her if someone wanted to come and play cowbell with them. i gladly stepped up to the mark, and had the cowbell in my hands. about 30 seconds into the song however, a few mates of mine decided to leap up there with me, and within seconds so had the entire mosh pit. because thirty odd teenagers had scrambled onto a stage made for a band of four, the security team intervened and threw some of us back. steve and laura however seemed more invigorated than before and finished 'i wish i was someone better' with enough power to blow every amp in a ten mile radius.

their album is also on par with their staggering live performances. the opening track is a tune and a half, 'doesnt matter much' will have you gagging for more, and just begs to be released as a single with the catchiest chorus i have heard in a fair while. you wouldnt think the words "lowlowlowlowlowlow, yeah! yeah! yeah!" could make such a killer chorus, but they really do. another track well worth a mention other than those previously released (you bring me down, i wish i was someone better, etc) is new single, 'say something, say anything'. much a like the usual material but something about this one sticks out from the rest, a very catchy song, definatly worth a listen.

i'm dissapointed with their popularity, i cant work out what it is either, originally i assumed their wasn't enough musical depth, with only two instruments, and two people. some also claim they are "too rock for pop, and too pop for rock" which i can understand, but the recent success of all too similar band the tings tings dispels this thought. people have said to me that they sound like the ting tings, but its completely the other way round, and yet somehow blood red shoes have come out worse. i'm not saying the ting tings suck, far from it, but they have stolen blood red shoes thunder, and taken their place in popular culture.

www.bloodredshoes.co.uk

Doesn't Matter Much - Blood Red Shoes

Take The Weight - Blood Red Shoes

I Wish I Was Someone Better - Blood Red Shoes

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

having gone to see them at the summer festivals last year, you wouldn't expect that this band would be making the impact that they have made on the music scene over the past few months. i was a big fan quite early on when i heard via myspace that a three week old band who had taken their name from a sketch in the office, had received a staggeringly large record contract considering they had only played together a few times. i was however pleasantly surprised, and was hooked on 'lets make out' for a good month or two, but when i went to see them in the usually packed dance arena at reading festival, the place was barren, and they sounded nothing like their records, which did disappoint me.

luckily, they seem to have worked on their sound since, and have just released a great album, 'you have no idea what your getting yourself into'. a really universal album in my view, some fun tracks to sit and listen to, and some other tunes that'll get you and your mates jumping round the room like complete loons. i strongly recommend the album for anyone with an interest in electro, dance, rock, alternative tastes, although you might have heard the majority of the tracks before, as some of them have been lurking on the internet for a good year or so.

my favourite tracks of the album are 'with a heavy heart (i regret to inform you)', 'dawn of the dead', and 'weird science'. the first of which is a real party tune, and i'm sure would get any crowd reaching for the fucking ceiling, whereas 'dawn of the dead' reveals a slightly more musical side to the band, with actual singing as opposed to the usual screams of morgan quaintance. weird science is somewhere in between, but i remember having it blared in my ears as i skied down the alpes at christmas and it filled me with adrenaline. nothing on this album strikes me as bad, just some of the songs, 'being bad feels pretty good' for example, are just not as energy filled, and lack substance. so there, well worth checking out if your unfamiliar with them, and i'm sure after you say their name out loud a few times, you'll start adding "yeah?" to the end of sentences. funfun

if you are a fan its also worth checking out some of their remixes of some other classic tunes, links below, enjoy :)

www.doesitoffendyou.com

with a heavy heart (i regret to inform you)
dawn of the dead
weird science

remixxxes
the prayer
map of the problematique

Last of the Shadow Puppets

probably old news to everyone now, but only in the last few weeks have i actually started listening to these two geniuses collide, and what they produce is something truly special. only two frontmen with such talent could pull off something like this on such scale. miles kane does truly deserve almost equal recognition in this double act, because some of his work with the rascals, and even his earlier material in the little flames is commendable.

their relationship seems to be more of an infatuation with each other, and their similar musical interests spark song ideas that don't suit any common, or popular genre in modern music. breaking the mold as it were, but done so, in such a casual way. alex turner just seems to seep audio brilliance, into anything he is involved with.

i ordered the album purely based on my feelings for arctics, and rascals, but after a few listens through i couldn't get into it. i then reverted back to age of the understatement, and this time, it really got me going, but i discovered a gem of a song. the b-side to the single, called in the heat of the morning,is a very early bowie song, revamped, and covered beautifully by these two musical vagabonds

so there, the single and the b-side are my favourite tracks so far, but i'm sure with a few more listens the rest of the album will start to grow on me, but definatly a band worth checking out if you have a diverse musical taste, and want something organic, personal and utterly bohemian.

unfortunately they have said they wont be touring until autumn, but i'm still holding out for surprise appearances at the festivals this summer, fingers crossed. also, its definatly worth checking out their website aswell (link below) to see four exclusive live videos from the recording studio.

www.theageoftheunderstatement.com

the age of understatement
in the heat of the morning