pop
Track: Rizzle Kicks – Lost Generation remix, plus new video
Alright then. We’re going to take this in reverse order. First up, DJs and studio partners Max Sanna and Steve Pitron have remixed Rizzle Kicks’ latest single “Lost Generation”, working their usual “club mix” magic (as purveyed for the likes of Jessie J, Sugababes, Robbie Williams and The Wanted) turning a “poppy hip-hop summer jam …
Track: Sam Smith – Safe with me
If I were to strip a Car down, I would find that if it were a Porsche it would have fantastic manufacturing, fantastic engineering and the best components available, and if it were a cheap car (can I apologise there, I know absolutely nothing about cars) it might be good, but the quality of the …
See: Ellie Goulding releases new visuals for current single, Burn
Me and royalties are not very close partners. In my pop career, as bassist to (the name doesn’t matter) a band that peaked by scraping into the indie top twenty towards the end of the 1980’s/early 1990’s, but still making rare appearances and even the odd recording, royalties don’t come easy to us. As I …
New Music: Heyward Howkins
No, I hadn’t heard of him either. But I think you should make the time and check out this deftly-arranged, warm pop-folk. Coming out of Philly, Heyward sings and plays guitar, backed by Severin Tucker on guitars, Charlie Hall on drums and Meg Morganelli on keyboards. They put a couple of tracks of their forthcoming second album, “Cut …
Feature: David Bowie is… exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
It was with some excitement, and a little trepidation, that I took the first train down to London for the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A. To start with I did not have a ticket and hoped that the queue for the daily release of tickets would not be too well formed when I got …
Track: Lolo, and listen to her track Weapon for Saturday
I was a very shy youth at school. Just when I changed school to secondary school, someone (accidentally) whacked me around the head with a golf club, and I ended up in hospital for weeks, and then not allowed to go to school in the afternoons for several months. Even worse, I lost large parts …
See: Gypsy & The Cat – It’s a fine line video, and album news
There’s two things that I’ve always been good at. One is dreaming, and I often think that maybe now that I’m a proper grown up, with children and everything, I’m possibly too old for dreaming, but I don’t seem to be able to stop. So every time I kick a ball it’s Wembley and I’m …
Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
In the end this album didn’t quite do enough. There was a moment when I thought “Modern Vampires of the City” might be really brilliant. But it has ended up just being very good. I’m sure the band are going to be devastated when* they read that. It boils down to a case of a …
Coastal Cities – Nothing Ever Changes
Listen, I just checked it and the weather forecast for today is mainly excellent for the UK. So do yourself a favour, get up, get up as soon as possible after now. Don’t fuck about watching telly or take ages trying to make coherent plans, just make a couple of phone calls and get some …
News: Tom Hickox to join Richard Hawley, Band Of Horse and others at Somerset House ‘Summer Series’
In my day it was called YTS. When you wanted to learn a ‘trade’ like plumbing, or typewriting, or being a zookeeper (probably) or a footballer, you signed up on a course that was part schooling and part learning on the job, and they (the government that is) paid you something like £17.50 per week …