A Podcast With Elbow/Rocky Vs Robocop

Apologies all around for the near-week of dead air but I’m afraid sickness and other unrelated stressed have rusted the cogs of the blog machinery. As I have been recovering I have been listening to my good friend Hannah Smart’s brilliant podcast The Lost Brigade. Originally started as a live radio show on Storm FM, it has now migrated to the no-studio boundaries of the internet in the form of a weekly dose of chat and music.

Last episode is themed around Elbow who just released their latest album Build A Rocket Boys! and it well worth listening to for anybody who is already a Garveyphile or anybody aspiring to be one. Earlier episodes are currently difficult to get but should be available for download soon.

Now that this bit of well-deserved nepotism is over, I leave you with the news that the brilliant Peter Serafinowicz is due to direct a music video for “Open Your Eyes” by Alex Metric & Steve Angello this Thursday and Friday and is looking for extras. Follow this PDF-link if you should be available in the London area and would like to see Rocky and Robocop battle it out. Who am I kidding – everyone wants to see that.

Those Dancing Days – Daydreams & Nightmares

You could make a fetching argument that this second album by Nacka quintet Those Dancing Days is angrier and more obstinate than their 2008 debut. First single, the excellent “Fuckarias,” would be a great Exhibit A in such a case with its scowling put-down chorus “You’re an uninvited clowed, a foolish puppy with a too long tongue” and thunderously intense tempo. If you want to, you could call it their “Brianstorm” and get away with it.

But the truth is that TDD were never ones for compromise, and Daydreams & Nightmares is not so much a darker and edgier album as it is a  natural progression of what they already set in motion three years ago. TDD makes power pop with a disarming directness to it, laden with memorable melodies and particularly catching rhythms. From opener “Reaching Forward” it’s a solid ride almost all the way to the end, catchy and accessible without sacrificing any of the substance. At times they channel The Cure in “Forest Of Love” and other times Florence + The Machine in “Keep Me In Your Pocket,” constantly to great effect.

TDD have grown into a more unyielding unit as a band and shed their twee teenage skin with grace, creating a easily lovable collection of fun pop tunes. More importantly, they are clearly having a good time doing it and that joy seeps through the headphones and will infect you and you’ll thank them for it. The bar has been set and we’ll see who manages to fly over it in the remaining 9 months, but until then this is the best 2011 has to offer so far.

Listen to Daydreams & Nightmares on Spotify.

Help Stepdad Make Their First Album

One of the finest releases of last year was Stepdad’s debut EP Ordinaire which you can still buy for the ludicrous price of $1 and it’s thoroughly worth every one of that dollar. If you’re at all partial to dancey, melody-heavy, vast hipster indie pop then you should stop reading right here and go and download the sucker. Then come back, because I know you’ll want to read the next paragraph.

So Stepdad made an EP and have since been touring like mad folk around the States while writing their first full-length album. Now comes the time to step into the studio and turn those words and ideas into tangible sound waves and to help them accomplish that goal they have managed to rope in Chris Zane to produce. Zane is probably most well-known for producing Manners for Passion Pit and his extensive work with Les Savy Fav and Mumford & Sons, so he should be well-equipped for the task.

Now they just need money and that’s where we come in. If you, like yours truly, fell in love with Ordinaire and want to help out financially for the follow-up you can do so on their newly opened Kickstarter pledge. They’re looking for a total of $4000 and you can pledge as much or little as you want and get bonuses depending on how much you contribute.

Visit Stepdad on their homepage where you can buy Ordinaire for next-to-damn-nothing.

Selling Your Dignity Is Rarely This Uplifting

New Foo Fighters Sounds Pretty Much Like Old Foo Fighters (Thankfully)

They never move out of line, never experiment too much, never stop being just the thing they always should be. Foo Fighters is not the most exciting band in rock, but at least they are a rock band through and through and god knows that’s all we ever want or need to them to be.

New album is called “Wasting Light” and comes out April 11th.