Monday, September 03, 2007

Weekender : the international board of wishing

FREE MUSIC: Like your hushed, intelligent acoustica? Then you'll like Washington's The Caribbean, who namecheck the Go-Betweens in The Go From Tactical, from forthcoming album Populations, and sound reminiscent of their striped sunlight sound at its most stripped back, along with the Shins and the folky end of Americana in general. There's something very clever and subtle going on here.

HEY YOU GET OFFA MYSPACE: Maybe it's unfair to call Napoleon the new I'm From Barcelona just because they're both mob-handed Swedes, but there's the same full but organised atmosphere around their music. Mixed by Peter Bjorn & John associate Linus Larsson, there's that same tinge of melodic DIY indiepop that everyone in Sweden now seems to have as their birthright, but at the same time they're not wrong in proclaiming themselves a soul act. They've played London supporting Lucky Soul and are set for a UK release of their debut album out this week in Sweden, possibly through Ruffa Lane itself. Essentially, beat the rush.

VISUAL REPRESENTATION: This is the ironic age, where the closest we come on television to worlds colliding is the sort of inverted commas hanging heavy in the air around the already for Comic Relief as it was Jeremy Clarkson vs Lethal Bizzle (note to commenters: actually, the Bizzle probably knows exactly what's going on) How different are the days of TV-AM, when if it wasn't Toyah taking a blunt object to Echo Beach it'd be Anne Diamond or whoever facing up and talking down to Phil Oakey, Sparks (who the hell are those presenters?) or, good lord, Timmy Mallett and the Style Council, while Mad Lizzie would attempt to empathise with the London Boys or Bucks Fizz and occasionally Steve Strange would conduct a makeover. Andrew Castle knows precisely who Ben Folds is nowadays and it's no fun.

VIRAL MARKETING: Although it seems to have been around for some time due to leaking at about the time Tim Berners-Lee legged it down the patent office, Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam is still a week away from issue and Domino are reputedly pulling something of a campaign around it. That'll go down well with the Paramore kids. They've even commissioned a video for Peacebone which is about as easy to comprehend as the song is.

FALLING OFF A BLOG: Obscure videos and tracks from our shared pasts are what make up The Sound Of Indie, described as "one person's music collection laid forth for the world to hear". It's a well indexed one, certainly.

EVERYBODY GET RANDOM: Something for 50 Quid Man to lose an afternoon too, and while we usually shy away from major organisation-sponsored virals this one's too good to miss - replace the messages on the signs in the Subterranean Homesick Blues video with your own.

IN OTHER NEWS: Dedicated to the man who according to well placed sources apparently really has had his coffin given the catalogue number FAC 501, NineteenEightySeven, compiled by the Filthy Little Angels label that put out the Grease tribute last year and three years ago introduced the Long Blondes to the nation's record shops, is a selection of specially recorded covers of songs of that year. Wojtek Godzisz, formerly of Symposium, is as close as it gets to anyone you'll have heard of, but the rest of it strikes a balance well between the cool (the Replacements, the Vaselines, two Smiths songs) and the knowingly naff (Balor Knights' go at A-Ha's The Living Daylights is a highlight).

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