'TO FIX THE GASH IN YOUR HEAD' (GRIME REAPER REMIX)

Um...why didn't we put this on the 10" or at leat the yellow 12"? It's fucking amazing. Sorry about that. Anyway, here's a remix of A Place to Bury Strangers' single 'To Fix the Gash in Your Head' by London-based 18 year old producer Grime Reaper who is the guy JME goes to when he is sick of being handed third-rate trash made on Fruityloops and fancies riding over some really weird, but incredibly moving chord progressions.

Download:

'To Fix the Gash in Your Head' - A Place to Bury Strangers (Grime Reaper Remix)

PENS

The other day while I was out doing some shots with my buds in a bar, when I bumped into my friend Kev who told me that I had just missed a really cool band called Pens. I was kind of only half listening to him because I was also trying to work out why the cigarette machine kept on spitting my money out, at the same time as being drunk out of my face. Anyhow, about a week later my subconscious kicked in whilst surfing the internet and I went and checked out their My Space.

I think a couple of the girls in Pens used to be in Look Look Dancing Boys and whilst the phallic obsessions from that band remain, the songwriting is like a million times more on point. Pens are pretty much the aural equivalent of doing shots of tequila with someone you've just hooked up with at Club Motherfucker. They don't have any tracks up for download right now, but go see them live or check out the tracks over at their My Space or something.

DEATH OF YOU - COMANECHI (TAPEDECK REMIX)

Here's a remix we did a while ago for our friend Akiko's band Comanechi. She's also in another really fucking good band called Pre whom I sure you've seen play live at some point in your life. Yesterday, whilst wasting my life, I stumbled across her blog where she basically shows off about hanging out with every cool band who has ever been mentioned on Pitchfork or played at The Smell - so obviously it's one of the most entertaining reads on the internet.

Download: 'Death of You' - Comanechi (tapedeck remix)

AMAZING BABY

I seriously never understood why everyone had such a massive problem with A.R.E. Weapons, but I reckon that those same people will have an even bigger problem with Brooklyn's Amazing Baby because they kind of look like A.R.E. Weapons, but with the added bonus of having a super hot girl thrown in for good measure. They also have the good courtesy of sounding like Royal Trux covering Hawkwind.

Download: 'Pump Yr Brakes' - Amazing Baby

PLIES

If you're a rapper and you want me to really like you, I suggest you sound a bit like Nelly with some mid-90's Ca$h Money vibes thrown in.

$49.99

Wowzers. I hope you got one whilst they were still available.

NEW LILLICA LIBERTINE!!!

Our boy Lillica Libertine is really tearing it up right now. Along with being booked for Glastonbury, doing a prime-time Radio One session and being everywhere from NME to Mixmag, he has time to make really amazing tracks which single-handedly introduce slap-bass into the world of weirdly complex electro music.

Download:

'Love Affair' - Lillica Libertine

VIDEO HIPPOS

I freely admit that all my knowledge of Baltmore City comes from watching 'The Wire', but it seems like a totally depressing-as-shit place, which is weird seeing as most of the music coming out of there at the moment seems to be super-positive.

Videohippos come hot on the heels of other Baltimore acts like of Dan Deacon and The Death Set, but I kind of like them better than those guys, mainly because the two band members call themselves 'Iron Soul' and 'Soul-less Beast', and also because they're currently asleep on my couch and so far have left my front room much tidier than The Death Set did when they stayed-over.

I seriously reckon it's impossible to dislike a band who sound like a mix between Mudhoney, No Age and early-The Cure, so go do yourself a favour and check out their MySpace now.

MANOWAR

It's nice when something lives up to your expectations. About five years ago, I was running the metal section in HMV, whenever I'd come across a Manowar album I'd think something along the lines of: "These guys have serious steez, I really need to check them out some day".

Well, half a decade later and I finally got around to checking them out, and this shit just blew my mind apart (especially the very cautious chainsaw battle about halfway through.)

EX MODELS

I once watched Ex Models clear a venue from it's 500+ sell-out capacity, down to (and I swear down I'm not exaggerating here) less than 25 people by the middle of the first song of their set.

Admittedly they only played one song in their set, and this consisted of a single chord being chugged for over an hour whilst the band stood virtually motionless centre-stage, evidently in an attempt to piss off the bunch of haircuts who had obviously only come to see support act Test Icicles.

Funny thing is, listening to Ex Models' 2003 masterpiece Zoo Psychology now, you release where Test Icicles got at least 55% of their ideas from (the other 45% being Korn - obviously), and where Liars got at least 82% of their ideas from (the other 18% being wearing gold Christian Joy leggings - obviously).

LAMING-OUT

I think Black Lips are OK. They're a pretty charming, pretty unoffensive poppy garage rock band. However, the other day whilst reading some website or another, I noticed that one of the members of the band said the following, after someone suggested that it might not be too cool that one of their tracks was going to be used in a Tesco commercial:

“If it's not written specifically for the commercial then why not? I don't care when I see songs that I like in commercials, I'm like, ‘Well, at least they're using a good song and the person who wrote it got paid.’ They're not, like, jingle writers...I saw ‘Search and Destroy’ in a Nike commercial; he wrote that song 30 years ago, it's not like he wrote that song for Nike. They might as well use it. Good for Iggy Pop. He deserves it.”

In theory, there doesn't seem to be too much wrong with he's saying, but he's missing the point. It's not so much the selling out that bugs me so much, it's more that it's fundamentally a lame thing to do (a feeling perhaps the band are all too aware of due to the lengths they go to in this interview to point out that their track was pulled from the advert due to their lyrics being "too controversial").

When you believe in a band only to find out that they're cool with their song being featured in an advert, you lose a little bit of respect for them no matter how much they want to justify their actions. You die a little inside and like that band's music less as a result. Like when you saw this on TV for example:

Earning money from being in a band is a very cool thing to happen to someone and you shouldn't begrudge anyone this. If a good band sells some records then I'm happy for them. Hell, if a shit band sells some records and makes some money I'm happy for them - let them get on with their lives and go to hell afterwards. I don't beef the guy who runs the shop round the corner for making a buck. However, just as I wouldn't let a corporate clothing brand design our record sleeves, I sure as hell wouldn't let them use any of our music in an advert. Why? For no other reason that it sucks dick and is cheesy.

I mean, seriously, go to the Converse website and you will be confronted by an image of Pharrell Williams, Julian Casablancas and Santogold and the immediate reaction of your mind is to think "Wow, you three are lame to tha x-treme!".

If I ever see this type of advert and I'm with another person, or group of people - be it at the cinema, on TV, on a billboard - invariably someone will comment on how shit it is. So, if you've ever lent yours music or your image to an advert, the fact is, someone, somewhere will be taking the piss out of you long, long after the money has run out. Why the fuck do you think no-one watches TV anymore? They think the adverts are lame.

(Footnote: I know this makes no kind of sense, but none of the above applies if you are Nas).

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS - LIVE IN AMSTERDAM

Click here to see a really well shot show of A Place to Bury Strangers live in Amsterdam. There's lingering shots of the cymbal stand and everything you need in a rad concert film

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS ON PEREZ HILTON

It's an unlikely link-up I know, but weirder things have happened, like Scarlett Johansson doing an album of Tom Waits covers, produced by the dude from TV On the Radio for example. Read about it HERE.

THA CARTER III

YES! Look what just landed in my hands.

Thanks to Lil Wayne for sending me a copy in recognition of the fact that I liked him before any other white person in the UK .

P.S. I've only listened to it once, but it's not as good as 'Tha Carter' or 'Tha Carter II'.

I LOVE THE SHIT OUT OF THIS.

LILLICA LIBERTINE AT GLASTONBURY

Meal Deal artist Lillica Libertine has just been added to the bill for this year's Glastonbury Festival. He'll be playing on the Radio One Stage over the weekend.

Stay tuned for more details.

This makes him one of about two black artists on the bill (the other being Jay-Z).

Amazing.

You can download his remix of tapedeck's single 'Destiny' from here.

BODEANS

Seriously, one of the main reason we started this label was because of Bodeans. If you've never fucked with Bodeans before, seriously you should. With sushi eating dickwads overtaking the city, it's pretty refreshing to see a chain of restaurants who are proud to stick up two-fingers to the government's continual efforts to convince us that alcohol and obesity are bad for us by sticking a picture of a fat dude pounding a bottle of Bud on their website.

Trust me, I've eaten at some of the most badass diners in the whole of New York and Bodeans is up there. However, here's a tip: never sit downstairs. Only arseholes sit downstairs; the type of arsehole who would probably order a tuna steak with roasted vegetables from a rib joint.

See, here's a picture of upstairs. It's full of salt-of-the-earth kind of people, who probably like listening to The Hold Steady and eating burgers.

Now contrast this with the picture of downstairs. Look, it's full of the type of people who like ambient lighting and being an arsehole:

P.S. I once went to Bodeans on my own; had a Boston Butt, a Coke and watched the world go by from my uncomfortable window seat. At my last reckoning, that's pretty much the most manly I have ever felt.

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS VINYL IN PITCHFORK (THE SAGA CONTINUES)

It's the summer of sequels (hello, 'The Dark Knight', 'The Incredible Hulk', 'Tha Carter III'...and hell, hopefully 'Cuban Linx 2',) so Pitchfork decided to get in on the act and run the second installment of the incredible interesting story involving Meal Deal, a record pressing plant and the volume of A Place to Bury Strangers' music. You can read about it here.

P.S. If you came here by clicking the link in Pitchfork's article, then maybe don't click the link on this page otherwise you'll be doing an Aaliyah and going back n' forth all day.