‘Rain down, rain down…’ - Radiohead @ Glasgow Green, 27 Jun

Everything was conspiring against me enjoying Radiohead last night.
1. We arrived too late to see support act Bat For Lashes.
2. Touts (evil scum that they are) were selling tickets outside for a tenner, tickets we’d paid £40 for.
3. The bar queue was ridiculous: no beer.
4. It rained almost continually - that especially wet, West Coast, [...]

Ratatat - LP3

Rating: 4/5
During their four-year-old recording career, Ratatat have proven themselves true explorers; not always striking gold, but taking risks nonetheless. For the creation of LP3, the intrepid duo decamped from their native Brooklyn to the Old Soul studio in the Catskill Mountains, a dusty musical playground of Wurlitzers and harpsichords. It’s unsurprising then, that LP3 [...]

N*E*R*D – Seeing Sounds

Rating: **
One wonders why Neptunes duo Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo felt the need to revive their shot at rap-rock stardom that is N*E*R*D. It’s been four years since the modest success of second album Fly Or Die, and the world hasn’t exactly been waiting with anguished impatience on their return. But here we have [...]

And the Bowie/Bing award for most unlikely collaboration goes to… David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal

Yep, that’s right. The silver-haired Talking Heads legend and the East London merchant of grime both - inexplicably - contribute vocals to ‘Toe Jam’, a single from Brighton Port Authority, Fatboy Slim’s new ’secret’ alter-ego.
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s nakedness too:

Expect future contrubutions from Iggy Pop, Martha Wainwright and Jamie T.
Mr Zoe Ball [...]

New song from Radiohead… well, Thom Yorke anyway

Geeks might know ‘Super Collider’ as “an environment and programming language originally released in 1996 by James McCartney for real time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition”, but, to the rest of us, it’s the title of the new Radiohead song, currently receiving its premiere on their world tour.
Here’s a video, recorded by some over-enthusiastic fans [...]

June in singles: reviewed by The Twilight Sad

[Images: John Lewis]
Instead of my usual ramblings on the month’s singles for The Skinny magazine, this time we decided to let someone else do the slagging. The Twilight Sad are one of my favourite bands of the past year, and even produced The Skinny’s album of 2007. I met them before their gig at Tigerfest [...]

Interview: The Futureheads

When it emerged, some 18 months ago, that The Futureheads had been dumped by their record label, the news was met with disappointment by fans, but also by a wider realisation that this is the new reality for an increasingly cash-starved record industry. If your first album hits number 11, you’d better make damned sure [...]