Fantastic Amy Winehouse remix

I'm in a bit of reggae mood this week (Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Lee Scratch Perry), so this remix of Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse's Valerie has been on near-permanent rotation at Discopop Towers. Check it out:



Apparently, the mix features some top British rapping talent in the form of Rukus (Antourage), Precha (C.O.V.), Alex Blood (Soul Alliance), and Malik (MD7). Not that I have a clue who they are. It could be Shaggy and MC Hammer and I probably wouldn't be any the wiser.

You can download an MP3 using the link below
Mark Ronson ft Amy Winehouse - Valerie (Baby J Remix)

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Cats + Internet = Funny

It only started in January, but comedy cat website I Can Has Cheezburger has become an internet phenomenon. As it is Friday, and I am in desperate need of a laugh, here are my top 10 photos from its short life-span. Have a nice weekend!











See them all at Icanhascheezburger.com

Many thanks to mrsdiscopop for her hard work researching this post, plsthxbye

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The most beautiful girl I have ever seen with a kebab

Were you among the 0.003% of the population who watched BBC Four last night at 9:30pm? If so, you will know that quirky new Kiwi comedy Flight Of The Conchords is superbrilliant.

The show is centred around two New Zealanders who have moved to New York to break into either (a) the music business or (b) sexy ladies underpants... whichever comes first. The actual comedy bits are hit-and-miss, but the show's songs are so funny you will laugh your leg off.

For example:



If you weren't among those 161,000 curious viewers with impeccable taste on Tuesday, you can catch a repeat on Friday at 11:00pm. And its probably on that BBC iPlayer thing too, if you can work out how to use it.

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New Alicia Keys video

Below is the video for Alicia Keys new single, No-One. Let's see how it holds up against the pop video cliché checklist.



In other words: Perfect.

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A thing about Leona "inspector" Lewis

Leona Lewis is a conundrum. Is she, as music mogul Clive Davis would have us believe, a truly international talent? Or is Jamelia right to call Leona "a poor man's Mariah Carey?"

Last night we got a chance to find out, as Leona did a "showcase" (sang some songs over a backing track) in the impossibly posh Madarin Oriental hotel in London.

Here are some things we scribbled on a notepad during the show.

1) That is a very nice dress.
2) Is she singing Bleeding Love or Bleating Love?
3) When you really think about it, there should be more love songs for and about sheep.
4) She really has got a beautiful voice, hasn't she?
5) Mariah would never have released this one.
6) Or this one...
7) And especially this one.
8) I wonder how much a good pair of hair straighteners costs these days?
9) That gospel choir is clearly miming But they seem quite happy about it, so that's okay, then.
10) I hope there is more champagne later.

In conclusion, Leona Lewis' new material is very good if you like that sort of thing (that sort of thing being slightly over-produced mid-tempo US balladeering)She may not be the new Mariah, but Toni Braxton may have something to worry about.

Listen for yourself: Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love (MP3)

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New Kylie material: Free MP3s!

Hello, my name is Kylie
I'm tiny and I'm smiley
People call me cute
I've learned to play the lute!
I'm Kylie, Kylie, Kylieee Minoooogue
(thems the facts, bozos)

That, I can exclusively reveal, is not how Kylie Minogue's new album, X, begins. But don't you wish it was?

It certainly beats "It's Britney, bitch" into a cocked hat. Or any other type of hat, for that matter.

Anyway, Kylie has put up the details of that new album - out on 26th November - on her Kylie.com website. According to Popjustice, it involves Calvin Harris, Eg White from Brother Beyond and Richard "Spice Girls" Stannard. One track, called Sensitized, has writing credits for Cathy Dennis, Guy Chambers and dead French perv Serge Gainsbourg - together at last!!

La Minogue recorded roughly seven squillion songs for the project, not all of which were deemed good enough. One person who's a bit miffed is Scottish dance guru Mylo - he of Drop The Pressure fame. On finding out his tracks didn't make the final cut, he slapped them onto his Myspace page, where you can download them for free.

The first one, Spell of Desire, is a groovy mid-80s club stomper with a fantastic extended coda. The second, In The Mood For Love, is like a ropey Donna Summer B-side.

But if this is the standard of the stuff they've thrown away, then the album should be really very good indeed.

Download the MP3s from Mylo's Myspace page

Update 26/09: The files have been removed from Mylo's site (see here), but you can still get get them by clicking on this bit of text. That is all.

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Prince: Still awesome

With mrsdiscopop and I getting engaged after seeing Prince in 2002, and last night being our fourth wedding anniversary - it seemed like a good idea to catch Prince's final concert at London's O2 arena.

We were right.

By my calculations, he got through 21 (a coincidence?) of his singles, plus a huge swathe of fan favourites like The Beautiful Ones, and teases of the "ones-he-shall never-play-again-because-of-his-religious-beliefs-or-something" like Darling Nikki and Gett Off. If I hadn't been there to celebrate my marriage, I would have married Prince instead.

Or as well. I'm sure mrsdiscopop wouldn't have minded.

The whole arena was awash with purple glowsticks from the minute the show started and, at the end of Sometimes It Snows In April, he changed the lyrics to say "As much as I wanna stay... All good things, they say, never last."

The aftershow was apparently amazing, too. We didn't go (too late to get tickets, and the ones on eBay were changing hands for silly money) but by all accounts it would have been a perfect end to the night. During the course of a three-hour set, he covered Rock Lobster - which is the tune we played while walking down the aisle in 2003 - and Amy Winehouse turned up to perform Love Is A Losing Game. Eeek!

I've already done a review of the 4th August show here, and The Daily Telegraph has sent someone along to every night of the 21-date run... Here are links to all of the ones available online:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21


Meanwhile, if you missed the shows, Prince has started putting up videos on his official website. Fingers crossed for a DVD release, then!

Setlist - Main Show I Feel 4 U Controversy Musicology Chelsea Rogers Le Freak/Sexy Dancer Somewhere Here on Earth Cream U Got The Look Prince at the piano I Would die 4 U I Wanna Be Your Lover Diamonds and Pearls Little Red Corvette The Beautiful Ones Under The Cherry Moon (instrumental) The Most Beautiful Girl In The World Sometimes It Snows In April Purple Rain Take Me With U Guitar Kiss Let's Go Crazy Nothing Compares 2 U 1999 Prince at the piano (part ii) Sign O The Times When Doves Cry Darling Nikki Alphabet St Gett Off (Housestyle) Irresistible Bitch Delirious The Ballad of Dorothy Parker Rasberry Beret Encore When U Were Mine Girls & Boys

Setlist - Aftershow Love Is A Losing Game with Amy Winehouse 7 Come Together (Beatles) Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones) Rock Steady (Aretha Franklin) with Beverley Knight Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) Shhh... All The Critics Love U In London Le Freak (Chic) / Sexy dancer / Movin' Chelsea Rodgers Misty blue (Eddy Arnold) Baby love (Mother's Finest) Kiss / Alphabet St Instrumental Get On The Boat Love Rollercoaster (Ohio Players) Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry) Anotherloverholenyohead Rock Lobster (B-52's) Villanova Junction (Jimi Hendrix) Peach / Rock Me Baby (BB King) Stratus (Billy Cobham) The Question Of U / The One What Have You Done For Me Lately? (Janet Jackson) Partyman It's alright (Graham Central Station)

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It has not been a very interesting week for music

So the best I can give you for the weekend is this video for Timbaland's new single, Apologize.



Sorry.

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James Blunt is a muppet

In this clip of Sesame Street one of the performers is a lifeless puppet with no soul. The other is Telly Monster.

The song is, however, brilliant.



PS: This wikipedia list of Sesame Street characters is one of the most diverting six minutes available on the internet. (Except for the porn, of course)

PPS OH MY GOD!!!! I have just discovered an entire Muppet Wikipedia!
I am now going to change the entry for "ma nah ma nah" so that it simply says:
Ma nah Ma Na (n.)
Doo Doo de-doooo doo

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Girls Aloud cover Wheatus - MP3!

At the bottom of this post is an MP3 of Girls Aloud covering of Wheatus's Teenage Dirtbag for Radio One's 40th anniversary album (what a mouthful that sentence was).

Girls Aloud cover version fanatics will be relieved to hear it is better than Walk This Way and I Think We're Alone Now. The band remain pretty faithful to the original, although they change the line "her boyfriend's a dick" to "his girlfriend's a bitch".

I'd have preferred them to say cuntrag, but I suppose that's never going to happen in any real way.

The album - Radio One, Established 1967 - comes out on 1 October, and the girls also pop up as backing vocalists on Franz Ferdinand's version of David Bowie's Sound and Vision.

They also get a slot on the second Radio One Live Lounge album on 22 October, doing Love Machine all acoustically like wandering minstrels from Elizabethan times, except really, really hot. In the meantime, there's a radio rip of that performance on a previous Discopop post.

That is all. Good morning.

Girls Aloud - Teenage Dirtbag (Radio One premiere) MP3

Download link one - Sharebee

Download link two - zshare

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Mika's least irritating video yet

Mika - Happy Ending


It's still quite irritating, though.

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Mark Ronson / Bob Dylan video

Here's the video for Mark Ronson's remix of Bob Dylan's Most Likely You Go Your Way.

The concept appears to be a journey through the key events of Dylan's life, except the cameraman is always in slightly the wrong place - so we see the poet of a generation from behind at the video shoot for Subterranean Homesick Blues, or catch a glimpse of his feet walking through Woodstock.

This is absolutely not a comment on the remix, and how it completely misses the point of the song by sticking Memphis horns all over it. Because it is actually very good.

So there.

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Kanye vs Justice. Who wins? You decide!

Last year, Kanye West got his knickers all in a twist because MTV had the audacity to give a prize to Justice vs Simian instead of him. According to the judges, or the public, or whoever votes for the channels European Music Awards these days, the dance act's lo-fi video for We Are Your Friends was better than Kanye's lavish Touch The Sky clip.

In a moment of unfettered genius, Kanye stormed the stage, grabbed some guy's microphone and ranted: "My video cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it, I was jumping across canyons and shit" (he means 'etc', not that he was jumping over a doggy poo - Ed).

MTV was unmoved by the playground display - Justice got to keep the award and, just to make a point, MTV refused to give Kanye any prizes at this week's US ceremony. Harsh.

As always, however, Kanye has the last laugh. For his new single, he has poached Justice vs Simian's video director, So Me, the very man whose microphone he stole at the MTV awards.

And the results are very, very good indeed. Think of a rap version of Sesame Street, and you will get the picture.

But here's the $1m question: Is it as good as the Justice video? Take a look:

Kanye West - Good Life


Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends

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MP3 Frenzy: Natalie Imbruglia B-Sides

Natalie Imbruglia's Greatest Hits album is out this week and, judging by the midweek charts, its going to go top 10 on Sunday. Which is good news, considering the single stiffed at number 24.

The album comes with a DVD (swoon), and four largely useless "bonus" tracks. Because a 10-song best of would be a bit of a rip-off, but the addition of a few songs you will never listen to again in your life makes it all better.

If you ask me (and I can't understand why Sony didn't call), Imbruglia should have included some of her B-sides instead of the new tunes. There are several surprisingly good off-cuts from her three albums so far, many of which deserve further listening… So, here they are:

Download Natalie Imbruglia: B-Sides, which comes in a mixture of MP3 and M4a (iTunes) formats.

Tracklisting:
1) Something Better
2) I've Been Watching You
3) Shikaiya (For Billy)
4) Cold Air
5) Hide Behind The Sun
6) That Girl
7) Identify
8) Why
9) Diving In The Deep End
10) Tomorrow Morning

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Isn't Amy Winehouse looking well?

Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse - Valerie

What do you mean "that's not really her"?

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Who the hell is Taio Cruz?

Great name, but who is he? Here is a list of things people have been saying about the up-and-coming British R&B star. Some of them are probably true:

There are several things people are saying about Taio Cruz, some of which are actually true:

1) He is "the new Craig David"
2) He recorded Umbrella before Rihanna, then had it stolen from under his nose by Jay-Z
3) History does not record why he was keeping the song under his nose, which is an area of the face better suited for sporting a moustache
4) He has been making music with troubled singer Britney Spears
5) Not that kind of music, you understand
6) Although who is to say he isn't acquainted with Spears' crusty duvet?
7) After all, she is hardly very choosy these days
8) By the way, crusty duvet isn't a euphemism for Britney's lady flower
9) Anyway, Taio also wrote Will Young's naff-o-rific Your Game single
10) He is "the new Babyface," says Dallas Austin
11) Taio's new single, Moving On, is hovering just outside the Top 40
12) He is not enamoured with the UK's urban music scene, and recorded his album in the US
13) Ironically, he does not enjoy CSI: Miami, preferring the home-grown charms of ITV's The Bill
14) Taio's favourite shapes are the oblong and the paralellogram
15) He is the "new New Young Pony Club", making the current New Young Pony Club the Old New Young Pony Club

Anyway, that single is actually quite good. You can tell it was recorded in the US, because it sounds like real R&B, and not like Jamelia's last album. He did a lovely acoustic version of it on Trevor Nelson's Radio One show last week, which you can listen to - or download as an MP3 - here.
[Taio Cruz - Moving On (acoustic)]

The video, however, is British all the way. By which I mean it is terribly cheap.

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Video meltdown

Alicia Keys shows Britney how its done at the MTV awards:


NSFW: Justin Timberlake's other award-winning video of the week
(warning: you will laugh out loud)


The IT crowd, a show I'm not overly fond of, spoofs those patronising anti-piracy ads you get at the start of Fox DVDs

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Who is this pretending to be Britney Spears?

And is she stoned?



As you can see, Britney's much-vaunted "comeback" performance at the MTV VMAs was a ghastly, embarassing spectacle. She appeared to be moving through treacle, barely remembering what to do or say, as the audience looked on in a kind of stunned disbelief (except for Rihanna, who was clearly laughing her head off).

All of which raises the question: Should Britney really be out promoting a single so soon after her spring/summer of madness?

Since her VMA appearance was announced, I've been concerned that La Spears would go even further off the rails if she had to endure the usual round of rehearsals, interviews, performances and photo shoots that would be required ahead of an album release. On this evidence, she shouldn't even be going round the shops for a pint of milk and, let's face it, a pack of Rizlas.

Here's what the internet is saying about the show:

"This performance is like the death rattle on a career that has been filled with potholes and it looks like she didn't even care... I dont really give a shit about Britney Spears, I just love the schadenfreude of it all."
Media Morgue

"She can no longer lip sync, which is a problem when you can’t sing."
Sit at home and rot

"If she had worn trousers, or even a skirt, the performance would have been reviewed a lot kinder."
Hullaballoo on the Popjustice forums

"The only impressive thing about it was how she managed to count her steps and lip sync at the same time. Multi-tasker that one is."
Fueled by Rice

"Intensely reminiscent of Paula Abdul’s rendition of Vibeology on the 1991 VMAs."
Rolling Stone

"Your beer belly looked hot!"
Perez Hilton

Update! Here is Britney in happier days, back at the 1999 (1999!) MTV Video Music Awards. Note the live vocals and awareness that she is in front of an audience.

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Jennifer Lopez - Do It Well video

J.Lo has always struck me as a low-rent Beyoncé. She works with all the right people, she makes all the right moves, she has an amazing bottom - yet the results are always a little underwhelming.

Perhaps its because her songs have very little to say (I'm from "the block"! I just want to be me! I'm a little bit Puerto Rican!); perhaps its because she's never been able to settle on a style (pop, R&B, eurodance, hip-hop - take your pick); or perhaps it's because her music never quite matches the expectation of her stellar reputation.

But what she gets right, almost without fail, is her videos. Lopez can dance like a whirling dervish, and her choreography is faultless. Put simply, there is a grace and ease that is never present in her try-hard songs.

It doesn't hurt that Jennifer Lopez is also quite photogenic.

Her latest clip is no exception to the rule - ho hum song, eye-tickling visuals. It is called Do It Well and here it is:

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Somewhat belated post on the Mercury Prize

The Klaxons, you say? Best album of 2007? Hilarious. Now tell us who really won...

Sure, Amy Winehouse is a hopeless wino drug bag these days, but Back To Black - recorded last year - is clearly a work of immense genius. Of all the albums on the Mercury shortlist, it's the one we'll still be listening to in five years time - and its light won't have dimmed one single watt.

On the other hand, you can sum up The Klaxons' longevity in two simple words: Jesus Jones.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories (except that one about Angela Landsbury being responsible for 9/11 - that’s definitely true), but don't you think it's odd that the Mercury panel was overseen by NME editor Conor McNicholas? That's the NME - which championed the Klaxons, booked them for its new bands tour and christened them with the clunking "new rave" tag. The NME, of course, stands to sell more issues with the Klaxons on the cover next week than they would with, say, Amy Winehouse. Hmmm...

But there is some solace to be taken from the band's win:
1) Their on-stage drunken acceptance speech is one of the pop highlights of the year (almost as good as their still-drunk appearance on News 24 this morning, where they chastened presenter Kate Silverton for asking questions about Winehouse instead of them).
2) Winning the Mercury Prize is pretty much a black kiss of death for any aspiring pop act.

In the meantime, at least the readers of Popjustice.com got it right - awarding Amy's Rehab their £20 music prize last night. Amy gets that sum in cash. And she will no doubt spend it on orange juice.

Here she is performing Love Is A Losing Game at the Mercury Awards last night. It will send shivers up your spine (in a good way).

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Is this the best advert ever?

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MP3 Frenzy: Utterly random September edition

It's been a long while since I posted a batch of fresh MP3s for your aural pleasure, so here is a selection of the songs I've been playing in the last 24 hours (I left out the Hootie and the Blowfish song, for reasons of taste and decency).

Gabrielle - Why?
I know what you're thinking: Gabrielle? Why? If I told you the song also features Paul Weller, you'd probably be sick into your shoes. But guess what? It's actually really good. So Ner ner ner ner ner to you.

Reverend and the Makers - He Said He Loved Me
I warned you all about this weeks ago. It is still brilliant, and headed north in the charts as we speak.

Groove Armada - Song 4 Mutya (Panic Remix)
This is the extended version of my favourite song of the summer, Groove Armada's Out of Control (Song 4 Mutya). This is a perfect example of how extended mixes used to be in the 1980s, teasing out all the hidden elements of the song into a joyous six-minute dance epic (I particularly love the New Order-esque guitar riff). This mix is also a little bit faster than the original, so your toes may get fatigue from all the tapping.

Bruce Springsteen - The E Street Shuffle
Don't laugh. I was brought up on the Boss and the Boss = ace.

Jennifer Lopez - Do It Well
This is the new single from Jennifer Lopez who, as we all know, is a triple threat. This means she can sing, dance and act, not that she is a terrorist who picks on the handicapped and rapes goats. Probably.

ZZT - Lower State of Consciousness (Justice Remix)
Here we have an instrumental remix of a song I have never heard by a band I know nothing about. It is rather splendid.

The Tough Alliance vs. Taken By Trees - Taken Too Young
An exceptionally pretty / haunting europop cacophony, with "ethnic" percussion, a spooky children's choir and a gossamer melody. It's beautiful, although ultimately destined for a Hed Kandi chillout compilation and nothing else.

All of the songs can be downloaded in one handy batch from zShare or megaupload. You can thank me later.

(Some of these songs were discovered on Pitchfok and disco delicious and Arjan Writes. So thank you to them.)

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Sugababes go retro

Here are the Sugababes performing a new song, Denial, live on the telly.



Regular readers will know I'm partial to a bit of the Babes, but I'm just not "feeling" this track. Maybe it's the bouncy 1980s bass-line, maybe it’s the syrupy harmonies, but it brings to mind the sort of tepid pop song you used to get free as a flexi-disc on the cover of Look-In.

Come back, Mutya, all is forgiven.

Except your solo album. That was awful.

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