Dreamy peaks

As you may have noticed from the slightly manic tone of that last post, I need a holiday. So I'm taking off to the Lake District for two weeks of leisurely walks and listening to Girls Aloud b-sides.

Normal business will be resumed on or around Friday, 13th February (oooooh, spooky!).

Byee,
mrdiscopop

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New music: Noisettes

Don't be frightened, readers! The cast of Play Away haven't been bitten by zombies - this is a band called the Noisettes. And, yes, you're right, that is what they used to call the hazelnut chocolate in a box of Quality Street.

Described on the Wikipedia as an "indie rock trio", they've been failing to reach the top 40 since 2006. Which, I admit, is very indie of them. However, their new single sounds a bit like Brand New Heavies (in the good way). It's called Don't Upset The Rhythm, and it goes a little something like this.



There is a video for this song, which is set in a Lost In Space-style cardboard cutout space scene. It has a segment where lead singer Shingai Shoniwa is hit by lightning (and survives!) and another bit where she stands on the spot as dancers gyrate next to her, thus giving the impression that she, too, is dancing. In the industry, this is known as "doing a Leona".

Sadly, Mercury Records have stipulated that 'embedding is disabled by request' - the absolute worst marketing decision since they took the artificial colours out of Smarties.

Luckily, Mazda are using the song in to sell their new car, and they have no qualms about letting people see that advert anywhere on the internet... Even if we juxtapose it with a picture of Hitler.

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"Important" U2 news

You may not be aware of this, but U2 have a new album coming out next week. You think they'd do some promotion, or a discreet interview on the BBC. Strange to have omitted such a crucial plank of their marketing, er... gangplank.

Anyway, I have spent the morning listening to No Line On The Horizon it on Spotify (it's legal, don't worry) and, terrifyingly, it's not completely awful.

Get On Your Kinky Boots, probably the worst song of 2009, is probably the worst song on it. One or two of the tracks, Stand Up Comedy and I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, veer dangerously close to being catchy pop tunes.

Unbelievable news, readers. Simply unbelievable.

Anyway, it turns out that the band have been playing a low-key set for a tiny provincial radio station this morning. If you want to hear them do a new song (Breathe - a bit like Simple Minds covering Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changing) and their last proper classic, Beautiful Day, I would click on this link. Or try this one for an MP3.



PS: If you don't know what Spotify is, I insist that you check it out. Here's a quick guide which I've adapted / plagiarised from Popjustice.

1) Spotify is a programme you install on your PC or Mac, which looks and feels a bit like iTunes.

2) It has songs from all the major labels and quite a few of the indies available for instant, high-quality streaming. Pre-release stuff, remixes, the entire Girls Aloud catalogue. It's amazing.

3) You can listen to full albums, or bounce around picking tracks at random.

4) It's completely s legal... but ad-supported.

5) You only have to listen to one advert every half-an-hour or so, so it's not too intrusive.

6) You can make playlists, like in iTunes, and share them with friends.

7) Even better, you can make "collaborative playlists" that people can add tracks to. The new additions appear instantly - so everyone gets to hear (or skip) your amazing choices

8) You can sign up and download it here. The ability to create an account seems to have a daily limit on it, but I've got a few invites to share if anyone wants one.

If you manage to download it and get it working, I've started a Discopop Directory playlist here (The link launches Spotify and takes you straight to the playlist). Add some tracks, and we'll all have a Friday night disco. No UB40, plsthxbye.

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Cheryl Cole inspires novelty song pt329

Many, many people (two in all) have recommended the following video to me today. It's a rapalicious ode to Cheryl Cole in a "comedy" northern accent.

Frankly, it's all a bit Takeover TV (crap Channel 4 home video series from the days before Youtube (youtube)) and it is certainly not a patch on Lily Allen's Cheryl Tweedy.

But I promised I'd post something about Girls Aloud today and this is better than rabbiting on about the frankly ludicrous decision to release Untouchable as their next single.



For the record, the correct order of attractiveness for Girls Aloud is as follows:


1) Nadine


2) Kimberley


3) Cheryl


4) Sarah


5) Nicola

And that is the last word on that, okay?

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New old Beatles bootleg!!

I am, as you may have gathered, a massive music geek. A nerd, a trainspotter, an anorak, a noddie, a saddo. When I get to interview pop stars, I usually waste half my allotted time talking about arcane synthesizers and the "craft" of songwiritng (nb: pop stars hate this, unless they're Natasha Bedingfield).

You know those classic albums documentaries where bearded producers sit behind a mixing desk fading guitar lines in and out, while explaining how Mick Fleetwood snorted an entire suitcases of cocaine off the back of a Rickenbacker? Best television ever.

So, it hardly comes as a surprise to find that I pored obsessively over those Beatles Anthology CDs a deacde ago, in thrall to John Lennon's early, casette tape demos of Strawberry Fields, and smiling in sympathy at George Harrison's ropey first attempt to play the sitar.

So, the discovery earlier this week of an unreleased, 11-minute outtake from the band's White Album sessions made my ears prick up like a pixie. It's an alternative take of Revolution 1 (the slow, bluesy version of the Revolution single) which segues into some of the Karl Stockhausen-inspired sound collage experiments of Revolution 9.

Unlike the album version, however, this isn't a cacophonous mess.

Some fans reckon it's a fake, but others point out that it matches almost perfectly a description of the song in Mark Lewisohn's exhaustive document of the Beatles in the recording studio, Recording Sessions (although I prefer Ian MacDonald's masterful Revolution In the Head).

Anyway, enough of me. You'll want to hear the bootleg. It was on Youtube (youtube) until EMI posted a "cease and desist" notice, essentially confirming that its real. But you can listen to all 11 glorious minutes on music blog The Talent Show.

I'll post something about Girls Aloud later.

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It's a slightly late Royksopp video

We mentioned Royksopp's squiggly new single, Happy Up Here over a month ago, and it was up for sale on iTunes at the start of February.

Now, safe in the knowledge that it's a bona fide Top 75 flop, they've put out a video. No wonder the record industry is in crisis, etc, etc.



Space invaders!!!

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