STAR SLINGER - TAKE THIS UP

Star Slinger has released another hot beat called 'Take This Up', a disjointed bevvy of little highly strung beats in a vein similar to his first digital-only LP Volume 1, except with a more mainstream dance feel than Volume 1's quasi-spaced out charms. Download it free below.

(I say 'another'. They don't come nearly often enough!)

Tennis- 'Tell Her No' (The Zombies cover)

Tell Her No by tennisinc

Ahhh it feels good to be back.

I had an email Q&A exchange with the awesome Lucky Number Music (home of Caged Animals and Friends), which was rudely botched by a website I occasionally do some writing for- but never mind: my musical mojo is still intact. I’m going to endeavour to bring you everything great and spongy that I’ve heard of late, for your great and spongy ears!

The first piece- saying that- is lifted from gorillavsbear.net- a recent post about husband and wife duo Tennis, who we featured earlier this year on the site.

They’ve covered (download here) The Zombies’ 1965 chart hit ‘Tell Her No’. It’s a classic Beatles-cum-Beach Boys-esque song but with a cruel anti-romance twist. The lyrics go: “And if she tempts you with her charms, Tell her no, no, no […] Don’t hurt me now for her love belongs to me.” It could have fitted pretty well on their debut LP Cape Dory if you ask me, due to all the 60s-style throwbacks.

A follow-up to 2011's debut is in the pipeline. Here’re some words:

“We’ve spent the last several months writing and preparing for what we hope will keep us busy all winter. We will be announcing a Forest Family release in the next couple of weeks as well as tour dates to make up for the Vaccines tour cancellations. Also, we are excited to announce the existence of our next album (produced by our new friend Patrick Carney coming out early next year. In the meantime, we made this cover of the Zombies “Tell Her No.” It’s been a long time favorite of ours and is the best use of a lone-clap we’ve ever heard.”

death masks stares

Folk-rock with a slightly baroque feel is what my friend Jonny deftly described as ‘In the woods’ music. Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Woods, Dry The River, all that sort of stuff……basically any band that would play at End of the Road or Green Man festival if you want to be sweeping.

It feels like I haven’t heard something like this in ages. Merseysider Thom Tyrer’s project sounds like a track from Woods’ At Echo Lake from 2010, tumbling with carefree jangling guitars and the weary reflections of autumn.

‘Stares’ is part of a four track cassette tape & free digital EP called I Know A Short Cut that is available on Tyrer’s bandcamp. An LP will be released later this year.

Death Masks- Stares

apple vs apples vs apple vs apple ends!

There doesn’t really need to be an excuse to talk about The Beatles but it’s worth having one anyway. With the full catalogue licensed for itunes and John Lennon’s solo material on Spotify for the first time ever, this can truly be said to be the week that the band went digital. The most coveted discography worldwide was the subject of over seven years of litigation until last Tuesday, when it finally drifted down the 320kbps river and into the expansive online sea, never to be seen again.

The periodic media, fan and industry probing which somehow went on for years- and led even the ever-indifferent Ringo Starr to suggest that he gave a little more than a shit about something; anything, (“particularly glad to no longer be asked” apparently) for once wasn’t asking anything, and out came the press release.
The Beatles sold 450,000 albums and 2 million individual songs in the first week, although perhaps more impressively, all 17 albums, which were released at once made the top 100 albums on itunes.