Yesterday, The Arctic Monkeys’ new single, Crying Lightning, leaked right before it was debuted on Zane Lowe’s BBC radio show. The single is from their upcoming album, Humbug, due to be released on August 24th.
I have to admit that, at first listen, I really liked the single. Without trying to sound repetitive of what other blogs have said, you can really tell the band has ‘matured’ their sound. Their new sound is quite a bit darker than previous albums and makes you look further into the song for other meanings (if that makes any sense). Crying Lightning is a lot different from I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor, and I think, a lot more interesting.
[mp3]: Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lighting
“Your past times consisted of the strange, and twisted and derranged…”
Recently found this on Last.fm. Apparently, they released it on their podcast some days ago. It’s a pretty good songs but not that much different from their previous stuff. I particularly like the strings at the end.
[mp3]: Voxtrot – Berlin, Without Return
“And still there was you, the center of me”
Spoon has released a new EP called Got Nuffin’. I absolutely love Spoon and I totally wasn’t expecting this. The EP has three different songs, and in my opinion, the title track is the best one.
The strong drum beat and guitar provide a nice repetitive background to Britt Daniel’s vocals.
[mp3]: Spoon – Got Nuffin’
“Got nuffin’ to loose but darkness and shadows”
As I’ve told you before, I went to the 1st day of the Hard Rock Calling festival where the headlining acts were The Killers and The Kooks. One day before this, I checked the Hard Rock Calling website and to my surprise, I found out Passion Pit were going to play there too. I was even more excited as I’d been listening many of their songs lately and had been dying to see them live.
The next day, I headed out to Hyde Park and got there at about 4pm (doors opened at 2:30pm). I managed to buy a Killers t-shirt and then headed straight towards the stage to see if I could get a good place to stand. By this time, it wasn’t too empty but not too full either. Passion Pit went on at about 4:45pm. I was impressed with their performance, but the crowd was awful. Many people were sitting down and they didn’t even move when they played Sleepyhead. Their loss, I guess.
After Passion Pit, the Howling Bells came on. Again, no one in the crowd even acknowledged their presence. Their performance was also pretty good, but they’re just not my type of band.
Following the Howling Bells, were The Kooks. As soon as Luke Pritchard showed up onstage, the crowd roared with excitement, a contrast to the previous performances. I have to say they were spectacular, playing mostly songs from Konk but also some hits from Inside In, Inside Out. The crowd was so thrilled that at the end, they started throwing plastic beer bottles at each other. It was pretty amusing if you didn’t get hit in the face or splattered with unknown liquids. Anyway, that’s all part of the Hard Rock Calling experience.
Preceding The Kooks and a long break, The Killers finally appeared. The whole crowd couldn’t help but shout as loud as possible. They started playing with This Is Your Life and the multitude of people watching went crazy. The Killers’ setlist was impecable. I never knew they had so many good songs.
Overall, it was a great day. Even though the crowd could have been more supporting in the beginning, the performances were outstanding.
I’m moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in about a month and I’ve just about realized that I’m going to miss this amazing city. From the wonderful friends I made here to all the great gigs — trust me, there will be many things to miss (not including the weather). But there are also things to look forward to in Rio. I’ll be able to go to the beach during the winter and, who knows, maybe I’ll even have the opportunity to catch Little Joy playing close to my house.
Before I move though, I’ll be attending Hard Rock Calling on June 26th to see The Killers, The Kooks, Air Traffic, Echo & the Bunnymen AND MORE. I’ll also be going to the Serpentine Sessions on June 29th to see Bon Iver. As you can probably tell, I’m pretty excited about these upcoming events. Not a bad ending to my stay in London.
All the songs are oh-so-fitting…
[mp3]: The Killers – I Can’t Stay
[mp3]: The Kooks – One Last Time
[mp3]: Air Traffic – Time Goes By
[mp3]: Bon Iver – Beach Baby
Besides Donnie Darko being an amazing movie, it has an epic soundtrack. All the songs are 80’s classics, but you can tell the director, Richard Kelly, handpicked each one of them. Every single song adds to the movie’s eerie atmosphere, from Echo & the Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon to Tears for Fears’ Head Over Heels. But of course, the song Donnie Darko is most known for is Gary Jules’ Tears for Fears cover, Mad World. It sums up all of the other songs into one haunting and beautiful tune. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it.
[mp3]: Gary Jules – Mad World
[mp3]: Echo & the Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
These two bands have been by far one of the most remixed bands of 2009, so I thought I’d put together some of their best remixes. Here goes…
[mp3]: Phoenix – Lisztomania (Holy Ghost! Loves Paris Remixomania)
[mp3]: Phoenix – 1901 (Immuzikation Remix)
Let me get this straight, I don’t like/listen to a lot of rap. However, when I find something good (which is really rare), I have to listen to it enough times in order to squeeze all the goodness out of it.
In my opinion, Chiddy Bang’s remix of MGMT’s Kids is pure perfection all the way from the sampled synths to the Asher Roth reference in the lyrics. Listen to it below:
[mp3]: Chiddy Bang – Kids (feat. MGMT)
“Somebody tell Roth that I don’t love college…”
Watch out for Dan Black, a Paris-based Englishman, with some serious electro-pop songs. He’s gonna become huge soon, since his highly anticipated debut album will be released in June. I discovered him in thesixtyone a couple of months ago, and haven’t stopped listening since.
[mp3]: Dan Black – Wonder
“You ran out through the corn, and your Smiths t-shirt got torn…”
[mp3]: Dan Black – Junk Food
“Maybe it’s a new age, maybe it’s a new wave, maybe I’m lost inside…”
