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What would you do to the Kings of Leon?

OK so the competition was a roaring success. It was all very one sided though and you seemed to want to give them pain and much shaving. Maybe you’d want to redress the balance? Maybe you’d just want them to do something mundane like send them to the shops and get them to buy you a paper and a chocolate bar?  Anyway here’s the winning answer…. The prize is on its way. Feel free to add comments or post up more answers….. Phil x

‘It was nearly midnight, and the Kings of Leon boys were asleep, Caleb was dreaming of Caleb, Jared was dreaming of Jared, Matthew was dreaming of Matthew, and Nathan was dreaming of a biiiiiiig pile of money sitting safely in the Bank of Followhill following another big royalty cheque from the sales of their innovative and groundbreaking masterpiece ‘Only by the Night’.

That night though, all was not right. Things were the same as always: Caleb was dreaming of Caleb, Jared was dreaming of Jared, Matthew was dreaming of Matthew, and Nathan was dreaming of a biiiiiiig pile of money, but something was amiss. It seemed like Mephisto, the forgotten Followhill, wasn’t asleep in his usual place behind the treasured Brit and Brat award trophies the Kings (of Leon) had been presented by grateful peasants over the years. Of course, because there were so many trophies (the pathetic public were that grateful you see), none of the brothers (and ‘cousin’) had noticed Mephisto’s absence in their rush to get to dreamy land.

Mephisto was in fact, downstairs with his mother, getting a very serious conversation indeed. You see, whilst Caleb was dreaming of Caleb, Jared was dreaming of Jared, Matthew was dreaming of Matthew, and Nathan was dreaming of a biiiiiiig pile of money, Mephisto’s mother was telling him a dark family secret, that he, Mephisto, was the spawn of a devilish pact, a pact formed in 2006 when Nathan, Caleb, Jared and Matthew were involved in unholy relations to get their great musical ability. Disappeared did the country garage riffs of their natural ‘talent’, the public just weren’t interested enough, and in came their incredibly inventive, original, groundbreaking tunes presented to them in the spirit of Mephisto. Mephisto, it seemed, was the invisible talent behind the great Kings of Leon sound, and the secret to their phenomenal talent.

Unfortunately for the kings, Mephisto’s power, delivered to the Kings in the form of a simple stroke of each member’s body each night before sleep, also had the power to destroy beards. This lost them the unique visual edge they craved, but thankfully gave them a clean faced look that all the real tastemakers – bankers, estate agents, children… normal people – could relate to, as well as the music that real music lovers – bankers, estate agents, children… normal people – could rock out to on a Saturday night in Oceana.

Mephisto didn’t take this news well, if it wasn’t bad enough being compared to your phenomenally talented brothers all the time he didn’t want to find out his brothers were actually his fathers, and he didn’t want the pressure of being the source of the Kings’ phenomenal talent on his young shoulders. It was hard for Mephisto, his life created and ruined… by Kings of Leon.

So if I could do anything to Kings of Leon, I’d tell them to not fuck Satan and not incestually rape children.’

Gareth x

Filed under: Competitions/promotions, General shite

top 10’s for 2009!

It’s back!! We want to see your top tens for 2009.  Some folks are doing best of the decade but I figure with xmas looming and you’ve probably got presents to buy and you’ve not got the time to get a list together. Bit of a tall order that one!  Though we may well talk about what the more defining moments of the current decade were next time?

Anyway here’s some staff top 10’s. More will be added when they’ve done ‘em!

I’m far too useless to get together a top 10…. it’s too hard! So this year I’ve got a top 13 and in no particular order they are

atlas sound- logos (CD/LP 4AD)
Bat for lashes- two suns (LP/CD Parlophone)
Natural snow buildings- Shadow kingdom (LP/CD Blackest Rainbow)
Le Lendemain- Fires  (CD Home Normal)
James Blackshaw – The Glass Bead Game (LP/CD Young God recs)
Broadcast & The Focus Group – Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age (CD/LP Warp)
Olafur Arnalds – Found Songs – (CD/ 10″ Erased Tapes)
Nils Frahm -  Wintermusik (CD Sonic Pieces/ Erased Tapes)
A Hawk and a Hacksaw – Delivrance (CD/LP Leaf)
Various- sound of wonder (CD/LP Fimders Keepers)
The Flaming Lips- Embryonic (CD/LP WEA)
Roj- The Transactional Dharma Of Roj CD (CD Ghost Box)
Haruko- Wild Geese (LP/CD Bracken)
there’s been about a thousand great reissues this year which I’ve avoided in favour of new music…. Also there have been about a billion drone releases and I decided to leave those out as I couldn’t choose which was best….. Some top records out this year and I think next year is looking even better. Chin chin folks!

Phil x

Here’s Business Lady’s top 10!
My top tizzle for 2009…

1. Deerhoof – Offend Maggie
2. Chain and the Gang – Down with Liberty…Up with Chains!
3. Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights
4. Gay Against You – Righteous Signals/Sour Dudes
5. DOOM – Born Like This
6. Lucky Dragons – Open Power
7. Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship
8. Bill Callahan – Sometimes i wish we were an eagle
9. Thee Oh Sees – Help
10. Ducktails – Landscapes
Here’s Brett’s topness
Brett’s top ten in no particular order:

Sheckleton – Three EPs
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Various – Ghana Special box set
Legowelt – Vatos Locos
Six Organs of Admittance – RTZ
Magik Markers – Balf Quarry
Jim ‘O Rourke – The Visitor
The Vaselines – Enter the Vaselines
Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
Sylvester Anfang II – Sylvester Anfang II

Some others which would’ve probably been in there but for some reason or other:

Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights (only just got the bastard vinyl in)
Sunn 0))) – Monoliths & Dimensions (ditto)
Pangaea – Memories (it’s a 12″ and everything else in there is an album so it seemed wrong to put it in there)
Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age (need to listen to it more)
Majeure – Timespan (see above)
Natural Snow Buildings – Shadow Kingdom (it’s 14 hours long or something so I end up never really sitting down with it the way it deserves)

Brian’s fun-ness

So many sexy sounds whispering sweet nowts into me ear. This lot made the most sense in no particular order of preference. Sorry to all the gems I forgot…..

1/ Love Is A Liability by Falty DL: CD/2LP on Planet Mu
2/ Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age by Broadcast & The Focus Group: CD on Warp CD/LP
3/ Grass Widow by Grass Widow (LP on Make A Mess)
4/ Love Comes Close by Cold Cave: LP?CD on Matador
5/ Them Crooked Vultures by Them Crooked Vultures: CD/2xLP on Sony
6/ Three EPs by Shackleton: Triple LP/CD on Perlon
7/ Dirty Money EP by Soom T & Disrupt: 12″ on Jahtari
8/ The Orchard by Fire On Fire: CD on Young God Records
9/ Fires by Le Lendemain: CD on Home Normal
10/ Monsters & Vortices by Posthuman: 12″ on B12
11/ Khate- Pareidolia LP on SMTG LTD
12/ Memories by Pangaea: Astonishing 1 sider 12″ on Memories
13/ The Raincoats by The Raincoats: LP/CD Reissue on We ThRee
14/ Against Entitlement by Lazarus Clamp: LP/CD on Little Red Rabbit
15/ Anything by Celer (Dani Baquet-Long RIP & thank you x)

Filed under: General shite, Music

what you getting excited about then?

What releases are getting you well excited then? Anything coming up that looks particularly tasty?? Anything that you’ve just received that is blowing you off big style? I’m well excited about the new Natural Snow Buildings album. Just got some tasty LP’s on Revenant of old US folk music which are well nice as well. I just can’t leave them alone! The new Hope Sandoval is lovely ‘n all…. New Vivan Girls is a bit special too….way better than the last album. There’s loads coming out… quite intrigued by the new Jim O Rourke but we’ve not heard it yet. Owt you lot fancy?
P x

Filed under: Good music

Videogeddon

Hey there, let’s make a page that’s got shitloads of links on it! The best internet pages are surely the ones that leave you with tabs and windows splattered all over your desktop. So post up your bestest music-related Youtube videos (preferably not promo videos unless they’re extra special ‘cos that’s been done to death everywhere else), perhaps something like these:

Alchemists of Sound – BBC Radiophonic Workshop documentary

Amazing John Lydon and Keith Levene interview

Jon Spencer Blues Expolsion live on French telly

Kraftwerk getting cycled around recently

Let’s be avin em!

Brett xxx

Filed under: Uncategorized

Do you think vinyl will just end up being a luxury item??

Regular viewers of the site will have noticed how much vinyl has rocketed up over the last year or so. A lot of this has to do with the weak pound but these days a lot of labels are doing bespoke editions of 100 ish which will cost you 30 quid plus. Our album of the week this week is 22 quid (we’re taking a bit of a hit on that believe it or not as we wanted the music out there), the new Sublime Frequencies LPs are 30 quid ish. Vinyl is getting well expensive!! Those Animal Collective boxes were 77 quid after shipping to the UK for a triple LP.  That is fucking expensive. So do you think vinyl is gonna price itself out of the market? Or are these bespoke editions gonna keep the physical format alive? You’d think with the world in recession that folks wouldn’t be able to afford to buy these limited editions but they’re selling out like flies. Fusetron sold out of the Animal Collective box set in 2 hours apparently. Crazy times…..
P x

Filed under: questions questions

What's touching your winkie right now?

Anything really exciting grabbing you these days?? It seems there’s loads and loads of new things out each week. So much in fact it’s hard to keep up with everything, but amongst the plethora of releases some goodness shines. The new D_rradio and A Hawk & A Hacksaw albums are stunning….  Am still completely and utterly obsessed by Natural Snow Buildings… That Peter Wright album from a couple of weeks ago was quite amazing.  Oh and I’m struggling to not play Bat For Lashes all the time as well. I got some amazing reissue on Sub Rosa of Pakistani sarod music which makes me feel like I’m in an opium den… nice…. Omar Souleyman is doing it for me big style… I can’t wait for that 1st album to come in on vinyl.  Those Mississippi LP’s are pretty awesome too. All the comps are well worth getting if you’re into archive blues and gospel gear! There’s loads of cool stuff out!!
Phil x

Filed under: Good music

Did you know this?

Did you know that major chains like HMV etc have the music distributors by the balls? You probably did as distributors need to get sales and the pitiful sales they get from independents won’t pay for a cup of tea. But did you know that indie labels pay for extra discounts that HMV get? This is a practice that ‘apparently’ all distros use. So as well as getting full sale or return with distros they also get extra discounts funded by labels without labels permission. Now I’m sure most won’t care but don’t you think labels should have the choice where the extra discount should go? There’s tons of things out each week and different shops will do better with different releases.  For example I can’t imagine HMV’s selling many merzbow releases so why not give the labels the choice to decide who to give the discount to instead of automatically giving it to the big boys? Surely that would generate more sales for artists and distros if it was targeted more?

By the way this doesn’t stem from us wanting bigger discounts (though it would be nice!). It comes from labels who’ve just found the news out and were horrified they weren’t supporting the indies

Well this may seem a but boring and industry like but it’s an interesting point and we’d like to know what you think.

Filed under: questions questions

What's the last truly groundbreaking record you heard?

tricky one this as almost everything is recycled these days which I suppose is better for the environment ‘n all but your ears feel well bored.

I think the last thing that I heard was truly groundbreaking was probably Windowlicker by Aphex Twin. I can’t really think of another record that’s come along that just sounds like it’s totally a new thing.

Am well into that Natural Snow Buildings album on Students of Decay by the way. One of the best things I’ve heard in ages!!

Filed under: Good music, questions questions

Ghostbusters 2

What did you think of Ghostbusters 2?

Filed under: General shite

How do you see the state of music currently?

Do you think it’s in good health?? Sure sales might be down but there’s more people than ever making music and that has to be a good thing?? And if people are downloading more music for free than they used to buy does that mean they’re enjoying more music? Or perhaps they’re enjoying it less as they don’t have the time to enjoy it??

Now more people are making music do you think that’s a good thing? Now you don’t have to go into studios, you can record at home with a computer and some decent microphones.

Where do you see things going??
What do you think? I don’t think anything anymore. I just listen to what other people say and go with the most popular opinion
P x

Filed under: Uncategorized

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