Meal Deal

NEW SINGLE: 'STREAMS' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2011-03-02T17:47:00.003Z

'Streams' - A Grave With No Name by alaxander

'1998' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2011-02-11T10:20:00.001Z

'1998' - A Grave With No Name by alaxander

'You, Me, Dead in a Sharks Cage' - A Grave With No Name

2010-11-29T22:04:00.004Z

Recorded to computer: 29/11/2010

Download

'WE PASSED THE MOON' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-09-22T19:38:00.004+01:00

'We Passed the Moon' - A Grave With No Name

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME - YUCK UK TOUR SUPPORT

2010-09-07T15:46:00.005+01:00

I am really happy to hear the news that A Grave With No Name will be supporting our good friends Yuck on their UK tour for the following dates:

9/10 - Stealth - Nottingham, UK
10/10 - The Slade Rooms - Wolverhampton, UK
11/10 - Captain's Rest - Glasgow, UK
12/10 - The Head Of Steam - Newcastle, UK
14/10 - The Harley - Sheffield, UK
16/10 - Nation Of Shopkeepers - Leeds, UK

We will also playing a one-off show with them at White Heat, London on 14th September.

WOODEN LOCKET - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-08-11T21:32:00.005+01:00

Recorded at home: 11/10/2010

'WOODEN LOCKET' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

'THE OUTDOOR TYPE' (THE LEMONHEADS COVER) - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-07-08T16:20:00.005+01:00

Alex Shields: vocals, guitars, percussion
Anupa Madawela: drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica
Tom King: bass

Recorded at The Marathon, and Meal Deal Drive Thru, Summer 2010, by A Grave With No Name and David Payne.

'The Outdoor Type' (The Lemonheads Cover) - A Grave With No Name

'STREAMS' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-06-28T08:43:00.002+01:00

This is a demo of a song that will be on the next record.

'STREAMS' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

'FEATHERS' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-06-24T14:29:00.002+01:00

'FEATHERS' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

'CROWS' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-06-18T19:05:00.002+01:00

Recorded to 4 track, June 2010.

'Crows' - A Grave With No Name

WHITE GLASS - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-04-26T11:40:00.003+01:00

'White Glass' (interlude) - A Grave With No Name

'UNTITLED' - HYPE WILLIAMS

2010-02-05T11:44:00.000Z

A WINTER NIGHT WITH ETERNAL SUMMERS

2010-01-28T12:57:00.003Z

Thanks to our buddies over at Weekly Tape Deck for posting this.

You can pre-order Eternal Summers' 'Seasons' E.P. here.

'GEMS' E.P. - Marvellous Macc Mello

2010-01-22T07:56:00.002Z

Oh shit, it's here.

Download: 'Gems' E.P. - Marvellous Macc Mello

NEW VIDEO: 'SECRET LANGUAGE' - ETERNAL SUMMERS

2010-01-21T12:56:00.004Z

Here the brand new video for the track 'Secret Language' which is from Eternal Summers' 'Seasons' E.P. due out on Meal Deal on 22nd February 2010.

You can pre-order the E.P. here.

'I KNOW HOW LONG SHE HAUNTS THIS PLACE' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2010-01-04T08:32:00.005Z

Recorded to digital 4 track at my parents' place, 27/12/09.

Photo by: Clémence Polès

Download: 'I Know How Long She Haunts This Place' - A Grave With No Name

'KHONNOR' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-12-23T11:38:00.006Z

This was the first A Grave With No Name track I ever recorded.

It was inspired by the amazing music of Khonnor, who made an album called 'Handwriting' 5 years ago, when he was 17 years old.

Download: 'Khonnor' - A Grave With No Name

MEAL DEAL: TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2009

2009-12-18T10:30:00.005Z

10. 'Primary Colours' - The Horrors

‘Primary Colours’ is by no means the records that anyone could have expected The Horrors to make, not one note on their debut ‘Strange House’, suggested this could happen. This is the sound of a band pouring molten lava over their record collections, and letting it fuse back together as a truly unique, glowing whole.

09. 'Love Comes Close' - Cold Cave

Some interesting things I’ve heard about Cold Cave this year:

1) Main dude Wesley Eisold not only used to be in Some Girls, and Give Up the Ghost, but more interestingly only has one hand.
2) He also has four houses and is a multi-millionaire as a result of suing Pete Wentz.
3) A friend of mine saw them live and described them as, “a bunch of goths in cagoules”.

I don’t care what percentage of these facts are true, because they all heightened my enjoyment of ‘Love Comes Close’ considerably this year.

08. 'Deeper Than Rap' - Rick Ross

As far as I can make out, this is a concept album about being rich and being very pleased about it.

07. 'Childish Prodigy' - Kurt Vile

Whilst focus seemed to fall on the high-volume of Kurt Vile’s output, more interesting was the quality and subtle radicalism of his music. ‘Childish Prodigy’, although bearing all the hallmarks of being tossed-off in a couple of days where he wasn’t drinking Buds and smoking packs of Lucky Strikes on his front-porch, is a total home-run, shaving the worthiness and conservatism from Classic American Rock and revealing the howling hurt beneath the demin.

06. 'Monoliths & Dimensions' - Sunn 0)))

Sunn 0))) could go on making the same record for the rest of eternity, and everyone would quite rightly shower them in adulation, whilst excitedly talking about their “intense” live shows. I’d never accuse them of coasting, but ‘Monoliths & Dimensions’, is an unexpected, mammoth step into new realms for Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson. This is a truly, (as the title suggests) monumental, record, adorned with choirs, strings, woodwind and organs, which perhaps for the first time in this band’s career, allow a crack of light to enter into their impenatrable black space.

05. 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' - Animal Collective

It’s likely that you have overplayed this record and are just as sick of hearing about it as I am, but nonetheless…

04. 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt.II' - Raekwon

Seeing as he’s no stranger to stealing from American-Italian culture, I don’t feel too bad lazily comparing Raekwon to Rocky. After being universally recognized as the heavyweight champion, with the release of his classic ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’ in 1995, Raekwon took his eye off the prize, became fat(ter), complacent, and after a couple of very mediocre LPs, nearly coasted his way back into obscurity over the following decade and a half. Long mythologized for years, ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt.II’ emerged in 2009 as a towering creative success; more than worthy of the ‘Cuban Linx’ tag and packed with the type of hard-boiled crime sagas and expansive, dusty, emotive soul beats that made every single one of those first wave of Wu solo albums so essential back in the early 90’s. I couldn’t really be bothered following that Rocky metaphor through there, but you probably know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever wasted 90 minutes of your life watching ‘Rocky Balboa’ hungover like I have.

03. 'xx' - The XX

Most people reading this, are going to be at least partially familiar with this record, so little more needs to be said about its aesthetics. What can’t be reiterated enough, however, is the quality, depth and emotional depth of this set of songs. Truly moving, stark and beautiful, whilst one of the best displays of straightforward songwriting in recent memory, ‘xx’ is truly a landmark debut.

02. 'The Floodlight Collective' - Lotus Plaza

Whilst Atlas Sound’s ‘Logos’ garnered all the attention, Deerhunter’s Locket Pundt, quietly released this stunning collection of sunny, reverb-drenched, songs under his Lotus Plaza moniker. Where it’s impossible to detach Cox’s music from his cerebral cortex, Pundt’s delicate set of songs, packed a emotive punch by virtue of their subtlety and lack of ego. It’s no easy feat outshining Bradford Cox, but on ‘The Floodlight Collective’, Locket Pundt manages exactly that.

01. 'Alphabet 1968' - Black to Comm

With ‘Alphabet 1968’, Marc Richter crafted the most sonically interesting record of the year, but also its best. Architecturally, this is a record that truly exists in three dimensions, with found-sound and ambience bristling through the stereo field, adding layers of poignancy to the aching folds of melodies beneath its surface. A record that subtly became my favourite of the year over the recent months, and one which I’m still looking forward to learning more about.

'SIDETRIPPING' - DEEP SHT

2009-11-26T10:00:00.002Z

This brand new Deep Sht song is incredible.

Download: 'Sidetripping' - Deep Sht

Order: 'Weird You' E.P. from No Pain in Pop, here.

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME - DUMMY MIXTAPE

2009-11-23T13:26:00.006Z

A mixtape, first published by DUMMY magazine.

1. 'Krusty' - Papa M

2. 'Candy Girl' - Trailer Trash Tracys

3. 'Fruit Bats Forever #7 Excerpt' - Hype Williams

4. 'Portofino' - Teengirl Fantasy

5. 'Her Open Heart' - Natural Numbers

6. 'Like Lovers' - Celestial Bodies

7. 'The Man From the Anthill' - Khonnor

8. 'Sunday Night' - Lotus Plaza

9. '21st Union' - Arch M

10. 'dlp 1.3' - William Basinski

Download: here.

NEW VIDEO: 'LOVERS ROCK' - GENTLE FRIENDLY (DIRECTED BY ANUPA MADAWELA)

2009-11-16T11:09:00.003Z

Gentle Friendly's incredible debut album 'Ride Slow' was released last week through Upset the Rhythm, and this is Anupa Madawela's video for its most poignant track 'Lovers Rock' which I'm going to guess has everything to do with Sade album of the same name, (although I doubt she ever had exploding baby-doll heads in any of her videos).

'SASKIA/YOU'RE GONE' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME (VIRTUAL 7")

2009-11-10T10:26:00.008Z

A. 'Saskia'//B. 'You're Gone'

Download

COME TO THIS

2009-10-20T15:32:00.000+01:00

'SAMMY' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-10-16T07:53:00.003+01:00

'Sammy' - A Grave With No Name

'SUMMER CABIN '#2' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-09-28T10:12:00.001+01:00

'Summer Cabin #2'

AN EVENING W/ ANIMAL COLLECTIVE & MEAL DEAL

2009-08-12T15:32:00.000+01:00

'THE SUN RISES' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-08-10T09:29:00.001+01:00

'The Sun Rises'

hype williams / hounds of hate 'deuces' mixtape.

2009-07-16T13:40:00.007+01:00

Naming yourself after the world's most expensive video director and then sounding like the world's least expensive band is fucking cool in my book.

Hype Williams MySpace

Hounds of Hate MySpace

Download: hype williams / hounds of hate 'deuces' mixtape

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME E.P. LAUNCH

2009-07-16T13:20:00.005+01:00

A Grave With No Name released their self-titled E.P. on Monday through Popular Recordings and will be having a launch show at White Heat on Tuesday 21st July to mark the release.

Support comes from ex Semifinalists and awesome artwork dude Ferry Gouw's new band Celestial Bodies and The Rayographs.

DJs: The Big Pink, No Pain in Pop and Feeding Time.

You can order the E.P. right HERE.

Advance tickets for the night are right HERE.

DAVE PAJO

2009-07-02T10:32:00.015+01:00

Asides from my really impressive A-Level grades, my CV is a pretty boring read. Dave Pajo’s however reads like a porno mag for people who jack off over Stereogum each morning. It’s pretty unreal, as well as his various solo guises Papa M, Aerial M and Pajo, the dude has played guitar with: Slint, Zwan, Tortoise, Stereolab, Bonnie Prince Billie, Royal Trux and Mogwai. He’s also played with loads of bands that I haven’t heard of and started a terrible metal tribute act called Dead Child – oh yeah, and he’s also currently playing live with Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Here’s my top ‘Dave Pajo is my hero’ moments:

Zwan

After the acrimonious dissolution of the Smashing Pumpkins in a fireball of heroin, sacked members and not being very good anymore, Billy Corgan bizzarely called on Dave Pajo, Matt Sweeney from Chavez, Paz Lenchantin from A Perfect Circle and seemingly the only guy in the whole world who could bear being near him for a prolonged period of time, ex-Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlain. I guess you could call Zwan a supergroup of sorts, if your definition of a supergroup involves half the rhythm section of a Tool side-project, and the guitarist from an overrated math-rock band.

I don’t care what anyone says, Zwan’s singles fucking kicked-ass, and there was definitely a perverse pleasure in knowing how pissed-off all those ‘Spiderland’ geeks must have been to see Dave jamming along next to Billy Corgan onstage. The band broke-up, in all likelihood, because Billy Corgan was being a dick again, but he claimed it was down to “…sex acts between band members in public. People carrying drugs across borders. Pajo sleeping with the producer's girlfriend while we were making the record” – i.e. Billy Corgan split up Zwan because Dave Pajo was being cool.

‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’ – Tortoise

I like to think that I am not incredibly boring, so I make the effort to dislike jazz and post-rock like everyone else. Unfortunately, I did allow ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’ to grow on me, to the point where along with everyone else who has a semi-decent record collection, I think it’s something of a masterpiece. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that I don’t like any other of their albums and this is the only one in their catalogue which Dave Pajo plays on. If you’re looking for immediate kicks, go elsewhere, but seriously this album absolutely rules even if it does take about four hundred listens before you really ‘get’ it and features a whole bunch of xylophone solos.

'Whatever Mortal’ – Papa M

Dave Pajo released a whole mass of music under the names Aerial M and Papa M around the late 1990’s-early 2000’s (most heavy weed smokers think the letter M has some form of mystical significance apparently) – all of it is very good, but ‘Whatever Mortal’ stands out as my favourite album he has ever been involved in – it’s his folk album and also marks his first vocal performance. I’ve listened to this album non-stop since I bought it way back in 2001 – people talk about overlooked masterpieces, but seriously, this runs a train on pretty much every sad-dude-with-a-guitar album ever recorded.

VIDEO: 'STONE SETTING' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-06-24T09:27:00.000+01:00

Directed by Anupa Madawela

THE BEST RAP ALBUM OF ALL TIME?

2009-06-23T17:04:00.002+01:00

‘D.O.A.’ has pushed the hype for ‘The Blueprint 3’ to unbelievable levels – but forget that shit, Spotify exclusively brings you the real Jay-Z classic you’ve all been waiting for since ‘Reasonable Doubt’. ‘Tribute to Jay-Z’.

I’m not exactly sure who the un-named MC on ‘Tribute to Jay-Z’ is, but he must have Lil Wayne, Drake, T.I, Rakim and Raekwon pretty much shitting their pants because he’s better than all of them put together.

Even the ghost of the late Notorious B.I.G. came back from the grave to release this official statement:

“There have been a lot of people claiming that I am the best M.C. of all time, and until now they were right. However, I have come back briefly to just let you know that I gracefuly accept that I am now #2 and I fully admit that the rapper on ‘Tribute to Jay-Z’ is about 6 or 7 times better than me. P.S. Can someone lend me ‘Notorious’ on DVD?”.

Spotify Link: 'Tribute to Jay-Z'

DOWNLOAD: 50 CENT 'WAR ANGEL' LP

2009-06-23T16:28:00.002+01:00

I kind of liked ‘Get Up’, in fact, if I remember correctly, I think I claimed that it was the best song I had ever heard, but in the 8 months since its release, I’ve forgotten how it goes, ‘Before I Self Destruct’ still hasn’t dropped and the world was hugely unimpressed by Eminem's album.

In the meantime, 50 has recorded this street LP which is available for free download from his website Thisis50.com. It’s pretty much the best thing since his debut ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and sees him back to doing what he does best, i.e. it isn’t the steaming pile of shit that was ‘Curtis’.

Having said that, when artists release these pretty-good street albums, it usually means that the official album they’re preceding is going to be nearly as bad as that Pharrell solo album you forgot existed.

Download: 'War Angel LP' - 50 Cent

THE FADER

2009-06-16T07:55:00.003+01:00

There's an interview with A Grave With No Name over at The Fader right now.

ENIGAMI

2009-06-14T00:26:00.002+01:00

'SOFIA' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-06-05T13:06:00.002+01:00

'Sofia'

'STONE SETTING' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-05-05T13:08:00.005+01:00

Stone Setting

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME LIVE - ICA, LONDON, 23RD APRIL 2009

2009-04-28T13:27:00.002+01:00

Videos from the last night of The Big Pink tour.

PACIFIC GHOST - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-04-24T18:48:00.002+01:00

'Pacific Ghost' - A Grave With No Name

'OCEAN GHOSTS' - NATURAL NUMBERS

2009-04-06T13:10:00.004+01:00

After announcing the demise of his recording alias, Natural Numbers, Trevor Fitzhugh has re-emerged like from the flames of non-existence with the ‘Ocean Ghosts’ E.P. If certain rappers are allowed to keep on saying they’re retiring and then coming back, then it’s all fair game in our eyes.

Originally conceived as the full length follow up-to out #14 album of last year ‘Forest Diving’, ‘Ocean Ghosts’ has now been scaled-down to an E.P. and leaked onto the internet as a free download over the weekend. Over its 23 minute run-time, Trevor brings together Fennesz-like ambient sketches, pulverizing hardcore and a Q and Not U-esque-emo jam, before waves of guitar straight off ‘Loveless’ splash themselves over closing track ‘Powhattan’ – probably my favourite song of the year so far incidentally.

‘Ocean Ghosts’ will be release physically at some point in the future, so keep make sure you pick up a copy when it is, but for now, you can download the whole thing for free below.

Download: ‘Ocean Ghosts’ – Natural Numbers

NO PAIN IN POP COMPILATION

2009-04-03T09:25:00.004+01:00

The guys at No Pain in Pop have taken it upon themselves to compile a compilation of everything that’s brilliant about music. From Abe Vigoda’s tropical punk, Banjo or Freakout’s digital vortex of sound, Health’s motorik noise jams, Telepathe’s ice cold Brooklyn melancholy, right through the trashed keyboard punk of Gentle Friendly, A Grave with No Name’s 8-track grunge soundscapes and hiccupping, diced two-step from Sunni Geini the compilation literally never puts a foot wrong asides from maybe not featuring a really good morally reprehensible rap song. It’s straight up 10/10 awesomeness all the way through and the world needed this so, so badly.

The standout moment comes from the reverb-laden world of Trailer Trash Tracys, and you can download it below, but you may as well come to the launch party on Saturday night, pick yourself up a copy, lose it along with your favourite hoodie that you stuffed under the DJ booth and then order a replacement online straight from the dudes themselves.

Download: 'Strangling Good Guys' - Trailer Trash Tracys

VIDEO: 'THE UNDERPASS' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-03-26T09:45:00.003Z

This video was directed by Anupa Madawela.

EXCLUSIVE BLACK ANT BEAT TAPE

2009-03-24T10:13:00.007Z

With Natural Numbers (hopefully temporarily) retiring, it looks as though Black Ant has no challenger to the “Young, Innovative & Really Awesome Heavyweight Champion of the World” belt. Ant kindly laced this exclusive beat tape for us at Meal Deal this week, and despite clocking in at only 4 minutes, this is the shit that you should be bumping on your i-Tunes this week, regardless of the fact that new DOOM album dropped yesterday. As Ant says himself “teachers know me for it. students bob they heads to it. bitch niggas try to mock, and recreate, but no one appreciates. cause them niggas ain't black ant. Face of a champion”

DOWNLOAD: 'Big Meal Beat Deal Record' - Black Ant

NATURAL NUMBERS (R.I.P.)

2009-03-23T17:43:00.004Z

It’s with great sadness that we report the (in our mind) premature demise of one of the most for real, innovative and downright awesome musical projects of the past 5 years, Natural Numbers.

In light of his blog post/suicide note, we realize the irony of what we’re doing here, paying tribute to his music, but, come back soon Trev, we already miss you already.

"over the past few months, i've been feeling increasingly like my popularity and interest in my music has just been a product of blogs looking for the next noise pop project -- i don't know any other way to put it than i am completely sick of the hype around this genre. just like every other underground music trend, it will be dead when music journalists migrate to the next "big thing."
i hate feeling associated with that. i hate feeling like a hype artist. the subsubgenre that i feel pigeonholed into already has annoying conventions and stereotypes (punk has once again been co-opted into a certain sound and image, not a body of ideas and actions), all of which i hate the thought of being affiliated with.
i'm not quitting music, but i am moving on to other projects. my first 3 releases were born completely out of hate, and i want to move away from that. this was fun, but at the same time, i feel like it's the right time to move forward.

RELEASES THAT HAVEN'T BEEN RELEASED YET:

they'll be posthumous. this includes my splits with old blood and fungi girls. ocean ghosts will be re-written, re-ordered, renamed, and released under a new project.
i hope none of you feel like you're being cheated out or anything, and if you do, i'm sorry, but it's the right time for me to move on.
-trevor"

SIMULACRUM OF A SIMULACRUM OF A SIMULACRUM

2009-03-18T15:50:00.004Z

Remember when Bradford Cox weighed in on that quite boring leak surrounding Animal Collective's 'Merriweather Post Pavillion'? No? OK, well he did, and the board members of the Deerhunter forum took it upon themselves to follow his advice like he was some delay-pedal wielding Pied Piper and have made their own version of the forthcoming Lotus Plaza (aka guitarist Lockett Pundt from Deerhunter) album, ‘The Floodlight Collective’. Come on guys, would you jump off the edge of a cliff using a crisp packet as a parachute if Bradford Cox told you to do it?

What's even more interesting is that a track from the Lotus Plaza album, ‘Bragging Party’, was originally recorded by Kim Deal’s band The Amps, so effectively what we end up with is an internet forum nerd covering The Amps in the style of Lotus Plaza.

You can download the entire album here, or check out the weird photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy below, to be fair, it's pretty damn good.

Download: 'Bragging Party' - Spidermums

CLOUD FOREST

2009-03-10T16:12:00.002Z

I literally know nothing about Cloud Forest other than the fact that I recently stumbled across their My Space page by complete accident, I think that they totally rule and they kinda remind me of the now sadly defunct Yellow Swans a little bit.

Download: 'Green Mountain Trek' - Cloud Forest

READING RAINBOW

2009-03-09T16:24:00.007Z

Google informed me this morning, that there is some massively rubbish TV show called Reading Rainbow which is designed to help kids read, maybe not by coincidence, when Rob Garcia and Sarah Everton get together they call themselves Reading Rainbow and write songs called things like 'Feral Kids'. As well as being bffs with forthcoming Meal Deal artists Eternal Summers (that's an exclusive right there for you), they also write the kind of jams that bring to mind Times New Viking jamming with The Velvet Underground and Sun Ra underneath a gauze of reverb and shitloads of tape hiss and have dropped an amazing album 'Songs to Sing', a self- released CD-R album which you really should pick up from their My Space.

Download: 'Feral Kids' - Reading Rainbow

'WHAT DIDDY TOLD YOU IN '95' - TAPEDECK

2009-03-05T16:50:00.003Z

This is the first thing I ever did under the name tapedeck and I just found it on my hard-drive. I think it's kind of endearing, in a hardcore band's first record kind of way.

Download: 'What Diddy Told You in '95' - tapedeck

BLACK ANT

2009-03-04T16:18:00.005Z

It’s pretty much impossible to approach the concept of left-field, instrumental hip-hop without thinking of the late J Dilla, and although it’s more than likely that Black Ant owns a well-worn copy of ‘Donuts’, it’s also more than likely that Black Ant has a really bad case of weed psychosis too. This is hip-hop with one foot in the thuggish aesthetics of the Diplomats, and the other in the grainy, no-fi, soundscapes last heard coming out of the broken sampler of the newly re-christened DOOM.

Head over to Black Ant’s MySpace, now to download a whole world of shit...

VIDEO: 'NOT SO PRETTY' - ROGUES

2009-03-03T13:22:00.005Z

People have so much goodwill towards bands who look cool, that sometimes they totally forgive them for not having any good songs; take The Virgins for example. Rogues however do the double whammy by looking really, really cool in a 'Generation Terrorists'-era Manics meets 'Pirates of the Caribbean' kind of way, and then have audacity to have the awesome songs to match. Their debut single 'Not So Pretty' could mark them out as this generation's answer to Duran Duran...the tunes; the looks; the girls; the drugs...the bastards.

Video directed by Anupa Madawela

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME TO SUPPORT THE BIG PINK.

2009-02-27T15:54:00.003Z

Following on from posting the brand new The Big Pink video earlier this morning, we're stoked to announce that A Grave With No Name will be supporting them on their forthcoming UK Tour.
The Dates are as follows:

15 Apr: LEADMILL, SHEFFIELD
16 Apr: KING TUTS, GLASGOW
17 Apr: RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER
18 Apr: CRAWDADDY, DUBLIN
20 Apr: COCKPIT, LEEDS
21 Apr: ACADEMY 2, BIRMINGHAM
22 Apr: ACADEMY 2, BRISTOL
23 Apr: ICA LONDON LONDON

FUR.

2009-02-27T13:34:00.005Z

This isn't a post about some obscure Italo Disco producer, it's just a picture of my friend Giancarlo that I like.

Photo by: Clémence Polès

VIDEO: 'VELVET' - THE BIG PINK

2009-02-27T13:28:00.004Z

This isn't an exclusive, or anything, in fact we jacked it directly from Pitchfork, but hell, what has the world come to if you can't support your friends' music video that visually shows (in black & white of course) what it's like coming-down in Hackney after partying it out really hard with models?

'SHADE' - LILLICA LIBERTINE

2009-02-20T10:30:00.002Z

I love experimental music and everything, but sometimes you know, it just doesn’t make you feel like you’re rushing on four tonnes of ecstasy. Therefore it’s great to have Lillica Libertine back to serve us up a Throbbing Gristle meets Modeselektor sandwich, with its disco industrial clatter finely tuned into a straight up commandment to lose your shit seriously, seriously hard.

Download: 'Shade' - Lillica Libertine

'THE PASSING OF A DAY (INTERLUDE)' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-02-17T09:52:00.003Z

peace

'FROM STARLIGHT TO SENTIENCE' - BANJO OR FREAKOUT (HIGH PLACES COVER)

2009-02-16T13:15:00.005Z

Things have really been haeting up for out good friend Banjo or Freakout recently, and last I heard he was locked away in the studio putting the finishing touches to his debut album. This cover of High Places' amazing 'From Starlight to Sentience' which appeared on his blog brushes the original with understated grace, a little bit of feedback and totally and utterly rules.

Download: 'From Starlight to Sentience' - Banjo or Freakout (High Places Cover)

'HORSES' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-02-10T13:51:00.002Z

'Horses' - A Grave With No Name

From Mt.Jade.

'ZACHARY' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-02-05T09:35:00.004Z

This was recorded in Anupa's flat above the Marathon Bar in Camden, London. We layed down our parts in one take, and then drank wine whilst listening to 'Nebraska' by Bruce Springsteen until the early hours.

Alexander Shields: acoustic guitars, electric guitars, percussion, vocals

Anupa Madawela: drums

Tom King: bass

Download: 'Zachary' - A Grave With No Name

JEANS WILDER

2009-01-28T13:54:00.002Z

With his distant melodies appearing as if they were recorded beneath the floorboards of a derelict house, Jeans Wilder is the lonely guise of San Diego's Andrew Caddick. With songs brushed in dust and solitude, it could be none more apt that he has chosen to entitle his forthcoming tape due through Night People "Antiques'.

DOWNLOAD: 'International Waters' - Jeans Wilder

DOWNLOAD: 'Tough Guys' - Jeans Wilder

THE TOP 5 MOST OVERRATED RAP ALBUMS OF ALL TIME

2009-01-27T16:23:00.003Z

First of all, obviously all UK rap albums have been disqualified from this list. I mean, I honestly can’t even be bothered to put finger to keyboard to describe why Run Come Save Me by Roots Manuva isn’t that good, and it’s pretty evident to anyone who isn’t a drum n’ bass fan from Bristol that Skinnyman is fucking rubbish. Secondly, although it didn’t make my list, I do think that Illmatic by Nas is a bit overrated, but I think that’s more to do with the fact I don’t listen to lyrics and jazzy saxophones give me a severe migraine.

5. ‘Paid in Full’ – Eric B & Rakim

Rakim is often praised for his complex internal rhymes, his literate imagery, his velvet smooth flow and unpredictable off-the-beat rhythms. What Rakim is rarely praised for, however, is having any good songs. If you can hum the tune of one other track on this album asides from ‘Paid in Full’, I will quite happily remove this album from the list and replace it with another De La Soul album .

4. ‘The Low End Theory’ – A Tribe Called Quest

Again, I suppose this comes down to me hating jazzy saxophones, but seriously, who in their right mind, would make an album that features a jazzy saxophone on every single track? Can’t you give me a break from jazzy saxophone for like ten minutes? Just ten fucking minutes dudes. Seriously, even Kenny G albums don’t feature as much jazzy saxophone as this does.

3. ‘All Eyez On Me’ – 2 Pac

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who ran all the way home from the record store with this in my hands, excitedly ripped-off the packaging, put the disc in the player, immediately fast-forwarded to ‘California Love’ and then nearly cried with disappointment when it transpired it was some shitty remix and there were no other good songs on the album.

2. 'Three Feet High & Rising' - De La Soul

This is pretty much the most pussy rap album ever made. In fact, the only album in the entire recorded history of music that I can immediately think of as being more more pussy than this, is ‘Bryter Layter’ by Nick Drake.

1. ‘It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’ – Public Enemy

The most annoying thing about Chuck D is that he doesn’t seem to realize that if black people really wanted someone to marshal considerable revolutionary force, fierce intelligence, and a boundless vocabulary into the world of rap music, they would pick someone with a sense of humour and good dress sense. Like Chris Rock for example.

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME/NATURAL NUMBERS CASSETTES

2009-01-26T13:46:00.007Z

A Grave With No Name/Natural Number Split Single (free download)

very ltd. edition red cassette (100 copies only):

'Sleep Through Today' - Natural Numbers

'The Tapes Inside My Closet' - Natural Numbers

'Silver' - A Grave With No Name

'The Underpass' - A Grave With No Name

Click here to order.

A Grave With No Name are playing a show alongside the awesome Lucky Dragons and Crystal Antlers tonight. Go here for more info.

DJ TEENAGE WOLF MIX

2009-01-21T14:26:00.007Z

About a year ago, Seb was in Texas and described hanging out at a party where this dude was djing as mix between being in Kids and Superbad. That kind of makes sense seeing as this awesome mixtape sounds like a Kid 606 album tanked on Budweiser and stripped of it's distortion.

DJ Teenage Wolf is also part of the Culnsweet Art/Dj collective who throw monthly parties in Austin Texas & Mexico and he should be dropping his debut E.P. with them real soon.

Download: DJ Teenage Wolf January Mix

Tracklisting:

hijack & flinch - check this

oliver $- the greatest

Loveys & yussef-insects

campbell- Slush Puppy

pette Vaydex-My orange Vacuum Cleaner

aninki- Heavy Sound

WolfGang Gartner- FlashBack

Dj Spin Laden- Whip That(Ruff Edit)

Aniki- Evil Nuggest ( Van Villian remix)

Tom eq - Skewer

Lazy Bass- Never Thinking

Norrit- Feel The Rhythem ( Dubbel Dutch remix)

A1 BASSLINE VS KID CUDI VS CROOKERS VS RUSKO

2009-01-16T10:41:00.007Z

Bored of 'Day n Nite' yet? No? We are a bit, but here's a lil free bootleg from our boy A1 Bassline anyway, which is about is so stupidly fun, that we just had to share it with you. As Christian says in his own words...

"Also seeing as i keep on saying im going to be giving free tunes out and never do, i made a bootleg of day n night. I sampled the rusko intro and made my own drop, let me no what you think!"

Download: Day N Night Vs Rusko Vs A1 Bassline Bootleg

You can buy A1 Bassline's Meal Deal release 'Girl Thing' from here. Unfortunately the 12"s are still on lockdown in Pinnacle's broke-ass warehouse, but they'll be available soon with a bit of luck.

And just because we're in a good mood, here's another free remix of the lead track by our family A.T.L.

Download: 'Girl Thing' A1 Bassline (A.T.L.'s Women Behind Bars Remix)

'YES' - LIL WAYNE FEAT. PHARRELL

2009-01-15T14:58:00.005Z

Only an additional verse from Kanye West could confirm my suspicions that this track was tailor-made for The Fader blog. Regardless, it sees Lil Wayne back in furious form after the half-hearted, auto-tuned mess that was 'Dedication 3'. Also, Pharrell seems to have been bothered to actually be good for pretty much the first time since that Clipse album a couple of years back. If he makes another jam as good as this, I'll consider forgetting how bad all the tracks he produced for the Common album were.

Download: 'Yes' - Lil Wayne feat. Pharrell

I DON'T WANNA (SMOKE MARIJUANA)

2009-01-15T14:09:00.005Z

This track came out as a 7" nearly a year ago, but seeing as the rather awesome Nodzzz have just released their debut album packed full of awesome 1980's New Wave jams that sound like The Knack eating out Nick Lowe, I thought it was as good an opportunity as any to post it here.

P.S. I'm not into pot myself, but that time my friend Simon's brother Nick made those hash cakes and then felt so high he thought he had shingles was pretty funny.

Download: 'I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana)- Nodzzz

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCERS - MONEYBLIND (BEAT TOTEM FOREST FLOOR REMIX)

2009-01-08T23:04:00.003Z

A song that's been haunting my hard-drive, going under the project name Beat Totem.

Hope you like.

Seb

Download: 'PSA - MONEYBLIND (BEAT TOTEM FOREST FLOOR REMIX)

'LAVENDER' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2009-01-08T09:40:00.003Z

I wrote and recorded this track in about 40 minutes when I was back at my parents' place last night.

Download: 'Lavender' - A Grave With No Name

We are also playing a show on Tuesday in support of our good friend Banjo or Freakout's single launch.

ETERNAL SUMMERS

2009-01-06T13:50:00.002Z

Originally hailing from DC, but now residing in the mountainous areas of VA, Nicole Yun started recording these “simple and pretty songs” along with her good friend Gary as a contrast to her other “more electronic and intense band” Mommies. Now, Eternal Summers are making some seriously sweet sounds inspired by the likes of Stereolab, Spoon and David Bowie and coming off sounding like a more heartfelt, more stripped-down Giant Drag, or even those early awesome Throwing Muses records.

Here’s an exclusive track from their self-titled E.P. due to drop on 14th January:

Download: ’Able To’ – Eternal Summers

THE MAIN THING THAT RULED ABOUT YESTERDAY...

2008-12-28T09:02:00.003Z

I bought a massive poster of a naked blonde woman sitting on a guitar amplifier, which I then put on my wall at an angle when I came home drunk out of my mind.

TWO ALBUMS THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN IN OUR ALBUMS OF THE YEAR AND THE REASONS WHY THEY WEREN'T.

2008-12-28T08:19:00.008Z

'Folie à Deux' - Fall Out Boy

Reason why it's not on the list: I only bought it yesterday.
Approximate position it should've been in our albums of the year list: #17

This was released real late in December, in the one week I had to cut back on spending money on CDs in order that I could buy my Nan a real nice bag from Gap that she will never use. This is the usual 9/10 shit from Pete Wentz and the guys...actually to be honest, I'm actually only listening to this for the first time and what's more, I'm only up to track 3, but come on, it's Fall Out Boy and they are the kings of not knowing how to write a crappy album.

'Temper' - Benoît Pioulard

Reason why it's not on the list: I am a massive spastic.
Approximate position it should've been in our albums of the year list: #11

This is so fucking annoying. Ever since I received a promo copy of this from Kranky way before it's release, I made a point of telling everyone how awesome this album is, for the following two reasons:

1) It is awesome.
2) I didn't want there to be any doubt in anyone's mind that I liked this record before everyone else.

Anyway, I got so caught up in writing the world's best summary of this album, that it became an albatross round my neck, my very own 'Chinese Democracy' if you will. I was constantly writing, re-writing and pushing my amazing talent for punctuation to its absolute limit in order that I give this record the review it deserved. In terms of literary worth, my short paragraph on 'Temper' was going to be the 'Ulysses' of glib blog-reviews. Then to cut a long story short, I accidentally deleted it from the rough draft of our albums of the year list, and only realised my error when it scored really highly in the albums of the year list on my friend Daniel's blog. This then became annoying on yet another level, because Daniel knows more about music than anyone else I have ever met in my life, yet I reccomended this album to him, and then he ends up looking like the Benoît Pioulard champion.

MEAL DEAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR PART TWO: 25-1

2008-12-22T16:24:00.012Z

25. ‘Skeleton’ – Abe Vigoda

A ‘tropical-punk’ band hailing from, wait a minute... a bit more.... more.... more….....more…..The Smell!!!!…Abe Vigoda have perhaps turned in the best album of all the bands hailing from the scene. A joyful, and cacophonous rush of noise, melodic yelps and trebly-guitars which sound like steel drums. That they are all really, really tiny hispanic dudes just makes them so much more endearing than No Age.

24. ‘Rip It Off’ – Times New Viking

Somehow causing controversy in the indie blogosphere by their decision to cake their record in saturation, tape hiss and distortion, what many of these whining bloggers forgot to realise is that making your record sound this shitty when the songs beneath it are this good is a massively cool thing to do. Even if you back-pedal those volume dials about ten-notches, you’re still left with a seriously mean collection of art-school, lo-fi jams that sound like a bit like early Sebadoh if they got laid more and had a really hot girl singer.

23. ‘New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)’ – Erykah Badu

My view of Erykah Badu prior to this album? Well let’s put is this way, I thought anyone who was the musical inspiration for India Arie’s career needed to have their vagina cut off. That was until this phychedelic masterpiece dropped. With the Madlib and 9th Wonder helming much of it’s production and the presence of the late J Dilla felt largely throughout, ‘New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)’ comes across like Sly Stone’s ‘There’s a Riot Goin’ On’ only with more knocking drums and way less sexism. As a side note, I would’ve enjoyed it even more with the sexism.

22. ‘Third’ – Portishead

Whilst sections of the press would have you believe that Portishead’s third offering is the missing link between Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’ and ‘Black One’ by Sunn 0))), truth be told ‘Third’ is no massive departure from their previous two records. If anything, I’d hoped that they would have time to rewire the genetic infra structure of music in the nine years since their last album, but instead we get a band who have used the time to meticulously construct an album which plays to their strengths whilst almost totally shedding the tag of tastefulness which has plagued them since their debut became a favourite of the dinner-party set. What has always set Portishead apart from their peers (without ruining any surprises, you won’t be seeing the new Tricky album anywhere in this list), is Geoff Barrow’s endless ability to use musical genres as instruments in themselves – this way we get Italian horror score synths sitting on top of drone guitars and dusty drum loops without ever sounding like anything other than themselves. A massive triumph.

21. ‘Mountain Battles’ – The Breeders

A new Breeders albums gives me a fresh opportunity to say “The Pixies kind of suck”, which is something I really enjoy doing. Anyway, ‘Mountain Battles’ is thing of low-key beauty (as nearly all their albums are) – it’s refreshing to hear a band, especially one whose members must be well into their forties, just plug in, knock out a few 90's college-rock jams and then put their instruments down for about six years before doing exactly the same thing all over again.

20. ‘Dear Science,’ – TV On the Radio

I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that these guys try way too hard to be clever to turn in a truly classic album, but ‘Dear Science,’ was their most convincing LP to date, trading in the echoed-out haze of ‘Return to Cookie Mountain’ for a taughter more polished LP. Way less baked in Dave Sitek’s studio tapestry, and instead thriving by virtue of a very high ratio of good melodies ‘Dear Science,’ is an artistic triumph even if its not the classic album everyone knows they’re capable of making.

19. ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ – Scarlett Johansson

Let’s get one thing straight, this is Dave Sitek’s album, not Scarlett’s. What’s more, she knows it. Her flat and uncharismatic vocals never even attempt to rise out from the landscape of sounds that surround it. Regardless of the presence of members of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, David Bowie and not to forget one of the most famous actresses in the world on the album, Sitek’s details are its main attraction. His production shines – almost literally, with layers of bells, chimes, glockenspiels encasing this set of Tom Wait’s covers with a frosty melancholy. As far as music as decorative art goes, this is one of the year’s best.

18. ‘High Places’ – High Places

What’s with all the vegans making awesome albums this year? High Places’ debut proper after their collection of previously released 7”s this year was a tie-dyed patchwork quilt of samples, processed-ethnic percussion and Mary Pearson’s low-key, but ultimately pretty damn affecting vocals, spread thick like organic soya milk raspberry ice cream across it’s ten tracks. P.S. ‘From Starlight to Sentience’ has got to be the best closing jam pretty much ever.

17. ‘Saint Dymphna’ – Gang Gang Dance

If this is Gang Gang Dance getting concise and un-weird, then they should go and get full time jobs as accountants, and write an album based on reading the Sunday paper supplements. Asides from the playing being a little bit less messy, and the reverb being turned down (admittedly alot), this one isn’t that much less weird than ‘God’s Money’. I mean, just the concept of a track featuring Tinchy Stryder saying "oh shit, Gang Gang" is weird.

16. ‘Secret Horrrsing’ – Fuck Buttons

Over the course of 40 minutes 'Secret Horrrsing' genuinely made me think the adjective “digital jungle” was the only phrase capable of describing it’s dense walls of drone, collaged-samples and percussion (and that’s jungle as in the Amazonian jungle sense, not the Shy FX feat. General Levy sense). I hadn’t been to sleep for two days when I thought up this shitty description, but it was embarassing for me nonetheless. It's pretty awesome that these guys are from the U.K. because we need at least one band making this kind of stuff who are as good as The Skaters.

15. ‘World I See’ – The Present

It’s pretty cool when you put on an album and realize that you’ve never heard anything like it before in your life. As sometime Animal Collective collaborator Randy Santos pushes his improvisational envelope into the realms of ambient collage, African percussion and post-rock you’re pretty sure that The Wire had to call an editorial meeting to brainstorm over which review section to include this in. While they’re doing that, the rest of us can just sit back and enjoy its far-out awesomeness.

14. ‘Forest Diving’ – Natural Numbers

When I was 13 years old, I had just about got into ‘Nevermind’, and my main precoccupations were not doing my homework and watching WWF wrestling. At 13 years of age, however, Trevor Fitzhugh has created one of the year’s best albums informed as much by My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive as it is by No Age and Deerhunter. This record is remarkable not for its creator’s diminutive age, but more his insane talent for burying emotive melodies under the avalanches of distortion he forces into his PC through it’s shitty in-built microphone. With another full-length alreeady in the can and due for release in early 2009, the potential of this kid is staggering.

13. ‘808’s & Heartbreak’ – Kanye West

Most music critics are white, middle-class and boringly obsessed by Radiohead and therefore incorrectly compared ‘808’S & Heartbreak’ to ‘Kid A’ citing it as a brave step-forward, designed to baffle sections of Kanye's fan-base and thereby removing all commercial constraints for future releases. Are you fucking kidding me? Have you ever listened to a single word that comes out of Kanye West’s mouth? The guy literally wants to sell more records than The Beatles and is unlikely to be making a record as boring as ‘In Rainbows’ anytime soon either. What we got here was his own version of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Here My Dear’ – i.e. a record obsessed to the point of autism with the dissolution of a relationship played out in almost embarassing detail. Kanye’s spits his hurt and venom guiltily through Auto-Tune across ‘808’s & Heratbreak’s’ palette of digitized, robo-soul, conveying more emotion and expressing more forward-thinking musical ideas than Radiohead have ever managed in their entire career. The guy is a total fucking genius.

12. ‘Women’ – Women

This album was recorded by Chad VanGaalen on a variety of boomboboxes in his basement, and sounds very much The Shins if they were recorded by Chad VanGaalen on a variety of boomboxes in his basement.

11. ‘Vivian Girls’ – Vivian Girls

Hearing this for the first time I was very much of the “what in the hell is all the fuss about?” camp, hearing this for approximately the thousandth time, I’m very much of the “this album has the second-most amount of awesome songs on it after the Vampire Weekend album this year" camp.

10. ‘The ’59 Sound’ – The Gaslight Anthem

Sometimes all it takes to make a great album is a big-heart and a worn-out copy of ‘The River’ by Bruce Springsteen.’ This’ is without doubt the most moving record of the year buoyed by singer Brian Fallon’s world of diners, Cadillacs, girls, highways, leather jackets and the non-ironic turns of phrases like “standing in the Jersey rain”. The Boss’ influence is felt all over ‘The ’59 Sound’, but filtered through the sound of a band that cut their teeth on the local hardcore circuit. Strangely, the sound that they arrive at is not dissimilar to that displayed by The Killers on ‘Sam’s Town’, only you know that The Killers have neither big hearts, nor a copy of ‘The River’ by Bruce Springsteen between them.

09. ‘Black Sea’ – Fennesz

Christian Fennesz makes very serious music; serious and beautiful, digitally obliterating his guitars into orchestral walls of noise that have veered increasingly into more classical terrain as his career has progressed. If anything, ‘Black Sea’ is the total counterpoint to his generally-lauded masterpiece ‘Endless Summer’; where that record buzzed with warmth, ‘Black Sea’ is frostier, grander, but no less powerfully evocative, adding another masterpiece to add to his already stunning catalogue.

08. ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ – Bon Iver

Albums like this are a rarity. When Justin Vernon exiled himself to a wood-cabin with his acoustic guitar, primitive recording equipment and his absolutely torn-to-shit heart, I very much doubt he was thinking that his act of cartharsism would end up being the year’s most acclaimed record. ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ is the kind of album that succeeds on every level – it’s sound, that of utter heartbreak, is both universal and personal and rarely has it been articulated so profoundly as here. There hasn’t been a record like this since ‘Either/Or’.

07. ‘Tha Carter III’ – Lil Wayne

Impossible to ignore this year as much for being an event as the music contained within, ‘Tha Carter III’ mowed down competiton, ruthlessly letting the blood of anyone who stood in the way flow in a flurry of Autotune, R&B hooks, the most jumped-on beat of the year in the shape of ‘A Milli’ and the sense of something very, very important happening. At its centre, dreadlocked, drooling, savage stood Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr simply bathing in the acceptance of something he had known himself for a long time – Lil Wayne is the best rapper alive. ‘Tha Carter III’ is so mammoth in its scope that upon initial listens it seems disjointed, trying too hard to cover every base, to please everybody. However, by the fifth or sixth time of hearing the album it becomes clear, the collision of aliens, doctors, female police officers, drugs and graphic sex makes it tantamount to a William Burroughs novel in rap album format and if selling a million copies of that in a week isn’t genius, I don’t know what is.

06. ‘Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’ – Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

This album has got me through a lot of shit this year and the fact that it almost fell victim to its creator’s demons, drug addiction and homelessness makes me even more thankful for its existence. With a little bit of help from his friends in Grizzly Bear and TV On the Radio’s Kyp Malone, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson crafted an album which is at turns depressing and redemptive, self-depreciating, self-pitying and most importantly, totally naked in its humanity. Often this album brings to mind Elliott Smith’s final, incomplete statement ‘From a Basement On a Hill’, only where that genius gave up on life, this one sounds like he’s ready to give it another go.

05. ‘The Recession’ – Young Jeezy

I am as surprised as anyone at how high this has ended up in my albums of the year list, but I’ve been constantly drawn back into this album time and time again since its release. I’ve probably listened to it more than any other record released since ‘Cryptograms’ last year. As a drug-dealer turned rapper, Young Jeezy was cold-hearted and not particularly talented, but had some unidentifiable charisma that elevated him above all the other mediocre Southern trap-music to the point where by the eve of the release of ‘The Recession’ it was like he was the spokesman for the entire black community. What made him that slight bit more convincing than Obama was the fact he had absolutely fucking slamming beats to back him up.

04. ‘Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.’ – Deerhunter

All but abandoning the ‘ambient-punk’of ‘Cryptograms’ in favour of a a tighter, more coherent sound influenced in equal parts by Joe Meek, The Breeders and The Everly Brothers, ‘Microcastle’ presents a totally different band to the one we got last time round. Shrunk to quartet for the recording sessions after the departure of guitarist Colin Mee (new guitarist Whitney Petty was to join after its completion), the album has the sound of a band for whom being awesome comes really fucking easily. This is much less the Bradford Cox show this time round too, the first voice we hear on the record belonging to guitarist Lockett Pundt and the album’s most well-known track ‘Nothing Ever Happened’ being penned by bassist Josh Fauver. The coherency of ‘Microcastle’ even comes across as an experiment in itself, a thought perhaps supported by the fact that the bonus-album packaged along with it entitled ‘Weird Era Cont.’ seems to show the band once again in fine experimental form throwing coherency to the wind at every creative urge. This band is seriously great.

03. ‘Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill’ – Grouper

Just when I wanted the sonic gap between The Cocteau Twins and Khonnor in my record collection bridging, along comes Liz Harris (AKA Grouper) with her glacial, sadly-beautiful LP ‘Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill’. Whereas The Cocteau Twins can occasionally sound a touch like Enya with a rack of effects pedals, Grouper’s muse is a fragile one – femine, melancholy, never afraid to observe the dark edges but without becoming consumed by them. Whereas the term ‘shoegaze’ can often drown in its very masculine portentousness, Grouper’s chains of delays and reverbs act as gauze through which to peer into her peerless, insular creations.

02. ‘Vampire Weekend’ – Vampire Weekend

It may just be my upbringing, but my world-view says that there is literally nothing to dislike about a group of predominently-Jewish rich kids, trying to sound like Paul Simon.

01. ‘Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel’ – Atlas Sound

OK, so I’m not going to even pretend that I’m not a massive fanboy of Bradford Cox. ‘Cryptograms’ was my favourite album of last year and you may’ve noticed ‘Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.’ elsewhere in this list. The fact remains that music simply pours out of this individual in its purest form. The frequent posting of demos and other tracks on his blog shows that ‘Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel’ could easily be an arbritrary collection of tracks that loosely fit together as opposed to some definitive statement from the Deerhunter frontman, however, this is where its beauty lies. The music exists as its own entity, caked in reverb and delays, fluid and hugely imaginative. Those whose idea of ‘punk’ involves macho skate dudes in cut-off shorts and Vans are really missing out on the integrity, spontaneity and creativity contained within the world Bradford Cox creates for his music. The fact that when the disc finishes, you know that there’s more to explore outside of its walls only adds to its beauty. Album of the year hands down and has been ever since I heard it for the first time back in January.

MEAL DEAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR: PART ONE 50-26

2008-12-22T13:51:00.020Z

50. ‘Oracular Spectacular’ – MGMT

Why don’t more people come out and make the really obvious statement that this album is just an attempt to rework ‘In a Priest Driven Ambulance’ into a formula that is more impressive to hot girls than it is to acid dealers?

49. ‘Chinese Democracy’ – Guns N’ Roses

Included in this list predominatly for the fact that it sounds exactly as I dreamed it would. Axl has clearly been utterly consumed, artistically compelled to create the world’s greatest ever album for the past 17 years. He failed by miles, but what we are left with is utterly fascinating record which when it occasionally strikes gold, reveals God in it’s details. For my money, this is the best Guns N’ Roses album.

48. ‘Dream Island Laughing Language’ – Lucky Dragons

What sucks is that I have never seen these guys live. Apparently they hand out brightly-coloured electrodes out to the audience and everyone hold hands and weird electronic noises are created, and it’s so good that people don’t even realise they're being hippies. On record, Lucky Dragons sit somewhere between a more cacophonous High Places and a less cerebral Fridge with clipped gongs and weird ethnic instruments, colliding with drum machines, chimes and cut-up vocals in the mix. These guys are definitely vegans.

47. ‘Definition of Real’ – Plies

This album is so fucking lacking in intellectual worth, it’s basically the hip-hop equivalent of when you got a shitty mark on a test paper back at school and went round showing off to your friends about it.

46. ‘Sick to Death’ – Eat Skull

As the other Siltbreeze band people seem to know, Eat Skull’s ‘Sick to Death’ is the older, grubby brother of its artier sibling ‘Rip It Off’ by Times New Viking. To extend the metaphor, this record is the kind of kid who is always covered in cuts and brusies, who pulls the wings off flies and burns them with its magnifiying glass. This really is shitty recording for shitty recording’s sake and I just happen to think recording your band shittily as an end in itself is absolutely awesome.

45. ‘Weezer’ (The Red Album) – Weezer

The pre-release hype on this one was that it was going to fuse everything that is brilliant about Weezer together (i.e. everything except ‘Make Believe’), then we’d forget that they actually went to the effort of recording ‘We Are All on Drugs’ and then releasing it as a single, world peace would ensue and we’d all laugh at Rivers Cuomo’s ironic moustache together in blissful harmony. It never happened, but their third self-titled album is a million miles away from the infinite suckness that was its predecessor. It’s basically Weezer on autopilot, which is absoloutely great and loads of fun. Thanks.

44. ‘The Cool’ – Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco’s debut ‘Food & Liquor’ had the weight of expectation on its shoulders, and boy did it sound like it – perhaps coming-off too expansive and grandiose than any debut rap LP has the right to. ‘The Cool’ readresses this balance, retaining its predecessor’s ambition, whilst not afraid to, you know, feature a fun, easy-on-the ear hip-pop radio jam like ‘Superstar’. Lupe himself seems more at home amonst the less portentous musical scenery, allowing his creativity to hit its peak-to-date on tracks such as ‘Gotta Eat’ where he trades off the evils of dope-slinging and fast food against each other to stunning effect. If he raises the bar as much again on his next (and supposedly final) LP then he’ll be in with a shot of recording this milennium’s own ‘The Low End Theory’. (F.Y.I. I don’t really like that album, but everyone else seems to).

43. ‘HLLLYH’ – The Mae Shi

I know what you’re thinking – “not another band from The fucking Smell” and I’d agree with you. However, although they give off the impression of a bunch of dudes let loose in a music store on their skateboards (or in a skateboard shop with their musical instruments – whichever you’d prefer), nothing could be further from the truth. Just listen to this record carefully – something this complex and intricate, has obviously been tweaked and laboured over by its creators with microscopic precision in order to attain the most fun results physically possible. Also, twenty five bonus point for including a megamix of all the tracks on the album in the middle of the album.

42. ‘Get Awkward’ – Be Your Own Pet

These guys really shouldn’t have split up – it would’ve been so awesome if they had just continued making the same record until one of them died and they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when they were about 65 and really embarassing.

41. ‘Distortion’ – The Magnetic Fields

Conceptual to the core, Stephin Merritt led the Magnetic Fields into a swathes of Jesus & Mary Chain inspired fuzz for this pretty self-explanatorily-titled album . Not only guitars are overdriven - everything from pianos, drums, bass and strings are totally doused in saturated, buzzing, distortion. A Place to Bury Strangers this is not however, underneath the stylistic cloak, lies Merritt’s typically literate, tongue-in-cheek wordplay, and if you look hard enough beneath that, perhaps something approaching genuine emotion.

40. ‘Hercules and Love Affair’ – Hercules and Love Affair

As a label, DFA is relentlessly tasteful and consistent – almost to a fault (but not quite). Looking back at their catalogue, spanning everything from Black Dice to The Juan Maclean, via the only good song The Rapture ever did, it’s actually verging on frustrating how on point this label has been for the best part of a decade. Hercules and Love Affair is a project steeped in 80’s disco-house, and inevitably the production is absolutely immaculate. It’s one of those records where you give at least a ‘7’ just for the reverb-tails on the marraccas. This is no mere outing in simulacra however, the record is also emotionally a total winner, bursting with heart courtesy of the frequent melodic input of Anony Hegarty (of Antony & the Johnsons). It looks as though it could be a little while longer before we can enjoy that backlash.

39. ‘Initiations’ – Burial Hex

Oooh hello scary man with your power electronics and blackened, idustrial misanthropy, can we have some more of this please? The new Bloc Party album just isn’t doing it for us.

38. ‘Elephant Shell’ – Tokyo Police Club

I genuinely thought these guys could be the new The Strokes. They’re good looking, write rad songs and have lyrics that don’t make sense. If the general public thought this was enough to start a cultural revolution in 2001, I don’t know why they’re so indifferent to it now.

37. ‘Pretty. Odd’ – Panic at the Disco

Oasis would be so much cooler if they realised that The Beatles were a bunch of pretty boys making orchestral pop music, constantly perplexing their fans in the process, whilst retaining a hardcore following of underage girls who really wanted to give them blow jobs.

36. ‘The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull’ – Earth

The Earth of today is a very different band to the one who released 1993’s ‘Earth 2’ masterpiece – where that record (and I’m going to steal a phrase I read somewhere) sounds like “grunge liquified”, ‘The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull’ is more like Neil Young’s soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Dead Man’, being liquified, but very…..v---e----r--y s----l—o—w----l--y. The lack of information between notes on this record being as vital as the arrangments themselves – new empires have time to rise and fall between the solemn reach of every chord. With Dylan Carson passing the mantle of downtuned Sabbath-inspired extremity on to Sunn 0))) (who legend has it started as an Earth tribute band), this deeply-philosophical, Spaghetti Western funeral-march sees Earth once again enter the saloon of greatness.

35. ‘2’ – Semifinalists

I am in no way biased or exaggerating when I say Ferry Gouw is the most talented person I personally know. Inbetween doing the artwork for our releases here at Meal Deal, directing far-out videos for the likes of Lightspeed Champion and Bloc Party and dressing really well, he’s in the most underrated band the world has ever seen. I mean who else has thought of making a record that could soundtrack a high-school dance at the end of a John Hughes movie as seen through the eyes of the protagonist from a Daniel Clowes graphic novel?

34. ‘21’ – Mystery Jets

In the past, Mystery Jets had always been the kind of band I’d admire from afar, like the kind of girl you know is pretty, but ultimately they’re just not your type. With ‘21’ however, everything changed, the departure of quite literal father figure Henry Harrison along with the arrival of producer Erol Alkan allowed the band to embrace a sound which incorporated Brian Ferry saxophones, faultless harmonies, 80’s synths and the experience of being young, creative and in love written so perfectly, that this can’t be considered anything other than the best guitar-pop record made by a British band this year.

33. ‘All Hope Is Gone’ – Slipknot

After the pretty momumental ‘Vol 3: The Sublimal Verses’ seemed to bring natural closure to the Slipknot saga, (to make a shitty pun) all hope was gone that they would return with another album, let alone one as furious as this. From the outset, ‘All Hope Is Gone’ burns with an anger not heard since ‘Iowa’ became the most extreme album ever to get to hit #1 both sides of the Atlantic. There are however, a couple of ballads on the album and these do sound a bit like Staind (memo: Staind have a couple of big jams).

32. ‘Falling Off the Lavender Bridge’ – Lightspeed Champion

Post Test Icicles, hooking up with in-house Saddle Creek producer Mike Mogis and writing a record inspired in equal parts by Cass McCombs, Bright Eyes, and hanging out with Peaches Geldof at parties in Dalston wasn’t exactly what the world was expecting from Dev Hynes – well, apart from the last part maybe. ‘Falling Off the Lavender Bridge’ is however, an admirably ambitious, occasionally brilliant and frequently touching insight into the psyche of this exceptionally gifted songwriter , it’s folk-inflected melancholy (almost certainly intentionally) lightyears apart from his previous group’s vivid, day-glo screamo. A autumnal record, in the best sense, and one which perhaps only hints at the greatness that this man is capable of.

31. ‘What You Don’t Know Is Frontier’ – Asva

Consumed with anguish by the premature death of his brother, Stuart Dahlquist, along with ex-members of Burning Witch and other doom luminaries, decamped to the mountains to record this hugely emotive record of dramatic art-metal. Like a more religious Sunn 0))), guitars rumble blackly, with holy Church organs bringing with them a pervading sense of melancholy. It never sinks into bleak moroseness though, as its creator notes, “What You Don't Know Is Frontier is about rebirth… about that light at the end of the tunnel. Amen.” Indeed, this record stops only just short of being a total masterpiece.

30. ‘Devotion’ – Beach House

Ripping off how you'd imagine Mazzy Star would sound if they were forced to eat a ton of hash brownies and then play 'Among My Swan' on a really hot summer's day is such an obvious idea, that I can't believe no one has thought of it before.

29. ‘The Devil, You + Me’ – The Notwist

In the six years since their last release, the almost-perfect ‘Neon Golden’, it’s as though The Notwist have been hermetically sealed in their own world, wrapped in a blanket of warm melancholy, totally oblivious to musical trends and the passing of time. Once again, ‘The Devil, You + Me’ is a understatement of the most beautiful kind, a deeply cerebral, yet hushed, sad, poignant and natural album of sad electronica. I find it really weird that these guys used to be a hardcore band.

28. ‘Nouns’ – No Age

No Age are a couple of vegan pancake-eating, all-ages-party-throwing dudes who have more than paid their dues in the hardcore scene in their previous incarnation as Wives, so how they became so fucking big is kind of weird. What isn’t surprsing after hearing last year’s collection of E.P.’s ‘Weirdo Rippers’ is the quality of ‘Nouns’. It’s a single coherent statement that hangs together by its own logic – a record where ambient noise can sit next to grunge rock jams without it ever sounding anything more or less than a couple of guys making some noise and having fun with it. ‘Gnarly’ being the only appropriate adjective to describe it all really.

27. ‘Crystal Castles’ – Crystal Castles

Don’t hate – fact is ‘Crystal Castles’ is one of the year’s strongest records. Whether your scepticism is borne of their pretty lame Suicide meets electroclash posturing, their way too calculated “fuck you” attitude, or even just that guy’s massive nose sticking out from the front cover of NME, the music on this album is nothing short of spectacular almost from start to finish. What’s more as the elctronic squalls and diced vocals fade into a final track which sounds a bit like ‘Daydream’ off ‘Gish’ by Smashing Pumpkins, it’s clear that these guys could have another great record in them. (Then they’ll probably go shit on their third album – just like Suicide).

26. ‘Saturdays = Youth’ – M83

Much has been made of ‘Saturdays = Youth’ being Anthony Gonzalez’s nostalgia album – in fact he has publically said that this album has as much to do with John Hughes’ movies as it does with his record collection. If there’s any evidence of this, it’s that the record sounds like 2005’s ‘Before the Dawn Heals Us’, but set on Earth as opposed to trying to soar around its stratosphere. Whilst the emotional scope and ambition of M83’s earlier album has been reduced, what we get as a trade-off is Gonzalez is wrapping his natural gift for melody around some of his best and most straightforward songwriting to date, which on ‘Graveyard Girl’ strangely sounds a bit like early The Stone Roses.

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME/NATURAL NUMBERS SPLIT SINGLE

2008-12-15T12:30:00.004Z

This split single between London’s A Grave With No Name and Bedford, Indiana’s Natural Numbers gathers two tracks from each artist recorded specially for this release.

Tracklisting:

1. ‘Sleep Through Today’ – Natural Numbers
2. ‘The Tapes Inside My Closet’ – Natural Numbers
3. ‘Silver’ – A Grave With No Name
4. ‘The Underpass’ – A Grave With No Name

‘Silver’ & ‘The Underpass’ written by Alexander Shields, recorded at The Church, November 2008.

‘Sleep Through Today’ and ‘The Tapes Inside My Closet’ written by Trevor Fitzhugh, recorded at parent’s house November 2008.

Artwork by Ferry Gouw.

Download: A Grave With No Name/Natural Number Split Single

A very limited edition cassette version of the release will be available in January 2009.

If you’d like to reserve one, drop an email to info@mealdealrecords.com

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME PRESS & SHOWS

2008-12-12T10:06:00.004Z

'The Underpass' by A Grave With No Name is on the Dazed Digital playlist this month.

You can stream it here. It's part of a forthcoming split single due to appear on a forthcoming split single with Natural Numbers.

There's also another small feature about them where you can download a few more tracks here.

A Grave With No Name then play Club Motherfucker tomorrow at Barden's Boudoir. Special guest Ferry Gouw (who does all our artwork here at Meal Deal) will be joining them on guitar for this show.

They also support These New Puritans next week. Click the flyer to buy tickets. This will sell-out in advance so get them quick.

SOME PUKE I DID.

2008-12-11T12:31:00.002Z

This is perhaps the second faourite puke I have ever done in my life.

Photo taken in NYC.

NATURAL NUMBERS

2008-12-08T13:37:00.003Z

Natural Numbers is the musical alter-ego of Trevor Fitzhugh from Bedford, Indiana, U.S.A. Let’s disregard the fact that this kid is 13 years old and concentrate on the fact that he’s already turned out several amazing albums this year which solder unforgettable melodies into the kind of guitar squall that makes My Bloody Valentine sound like an even more pussy Snow Patrol.

Pretty much the most talented and prolific act we’ve come across all year regardless of his age. Natural Numbers will be releasing a split single with Meal Deal’s A Grave With No Name in the coming weeks for free download and on ltd. Cassette, but for now download his track ‘June’ below, a highlight from his simply amazing ‘Forest Diving’ LP.

'June' - Natural Numbers

THE RAYOGRAPHS

2008-11-25T15:49:00.004Z

I have known a couple of the girls from The Rayographs for nearly 15 years which is pretty scary. Imagine the best bits of the Kill Rock Stars label with some Television, The Breeders, and Patti Smith thrown in, sung by the best female vocalist this country has seen since PJ Harvey and you’re in the right ballpark. Anyway, as a first, and because I know them pretty well, I decided to interview the three girls – admittedly via email, but I think that counts all the same.

What is your favourite Breeders album? Mine is 'Title TK', I'm aware it's not the best, it's just the one I like the most.

Jess (bass): Choosing between them is like having to choose between my children, but if I must, I will choose ‘Pod’, the firstborn.

Astrud (guitar/vocals): ‘Last Splash’- that 2 minute virtual instrumental with a blazing wall of sound forging through it is immense. I listened to a tape of it constantly for the first two weeks of university so it reminds me of being in a dingy room in brighton with fairylights- it sounds depressing but it was sort of liberating.

I really can't get into Patti Smith, no matter how hard I try, but you guys are definitely influenced by her, but I like you. Weird huh?

Jess: I don’t like fresh ginger, but I like ginger nuts, see what I’m saying?

Astrud: She was influenced by all the rock and roll poets. I actually visited Rimbaud’s house last week, where he lived with Verlaine in 1875 or something- it’s in Camden. Apparently their landlady at the time was called Mrs. Smith and it was suggested that it was as if the spirit of Patti Smith was their protectress then, watching over these two romantic vagrants. I like that idea. I would say if you’re looking to get into Patti Smith don’t start with her Tears For Fears cover. ‘Piss Factory’’s ace though.

Amy (drums): Er, that's 'cause we ain’t no tribute act dude...Hmm I like Patti Smith a lot but I wouldn't say she's an influence of mine personally in terms of the band.

Your single is awesome. You recorded it on a farm didn't you? What's the best thing about recording on a farm? When's the single out? What label is it out on? Who produced your single? The mix is rad - pretty glacial were you guys pretty hands on in the studio, or did you let the producer do his thing?

Amy: It was really nice to record there 'cause it was so noticeably quiet compared to where we've recorded before and the way the studio was laid out and all the photos John had on the wall just made me feel instantly chilled out. I loved being able to come out and hear loads of birds and stroke horses and stuff. There was something good about how isolated the studio was. I think it helped us all to feel quite focused.

The single's officially out in the shops on Monday 3rd of November and will also be available for digital download with an extra third track. It's coming out on a new label called Everyone We Know who are two lovely lads that will be mainly doing smallish, special-ish limited edition runs (alongside a digital release) of new bands they really like.

Jess: One of the windows was next to a little horse pen thing and occasionally a horse would look in and that was funny. I find having eye contact with animals weird, and it seems to freak them out too, even our cat Pinky looks away all embarrassed when I look her in the eye.

Astrud: John Hannon is the clever man that recorded and produced it. I’m also obsessed with his dad’s poetry. We trust John Hannon. We had a great time at the farm and we want to go back. Everything was good about it!

Amy: One of my favourite moments was after I'd got all romantic about the farm shop (and John had warned me not to be), I really excitedly picked up a bag of massive home-made scones and saw they'd turned blue with mould. The let down was well funny. Astrud's right, John is man to be trusted. That, and when John was coming up with some really cool little ideas to get the sounds right. On the extra digital track I love it 'cause he's made it so Jess's voice sounds like it's down a corridor, quite haunting. Reminds me of some of the Breeder's production now you mention ‘em.

Who is the most sucky band you've ever played with and why did they suck so hard?

Jess: We once played with this metal band who obviously just put on the night so that they could play. They made us the headliners but insisted on playing for an hour and a half before we went on, and then when we went on stage one of them sat on a chair in front of the stage with his back to us, texting throughout our whole set. The only people there were five of our friends sitting right at the back. That was a good gig.

Astrud: We once played with a rap-rock group with a female singer that went off-stage mid song, went into the backroom with some sort of motivational coach revving her up while she looked hard into the mirror like it was a boxing match. She did that thing where you roll your t shirt up to expose your midriff before she went on again. It was harsh.

Amy: Ohhh..I wanted to say about that one! She was amazing.

Who is the best band you've played with?

Astrud: We played with this band called Mz Sojourn at a squat that used to be an old nursery school for Ladyfest Leeds. They had tiny sinks and toilets and posters of dinosaurs cleaning their teeth and stuff. It was quite a strange atmosphere because the day before one of the local residents who were angry about the occupancy had broken in and started smashing everything with a baseball bat. Anyway this band started playing and managed to blow a bass amp in the first song before going into an avant, LOUD version of I wanna be your dog- they were exciting. Also Bela Emerson who we saw in Cork was mindblowing, improvised cello with pedals- really, really electrifying and actually very emotive.

Amy: I've enjoyed playing with and or seeing lots of bands inc. Maria and The Mirrors (they're our friends too), The Mules, The Guillotines, Awesome Colour – I really relished getting into 'rocking out mode' around them...I absolutely adore their drummer, she's fucking wicked. They're just really cool dudes too. That's the thing we also love playing with certain bands 'cause we have loads of fun with them, like Le Tetsuo. We haven't been able to play with them for a while but i do actually think one of the best bands we played with are Wet Dog. Sarah is an ace drummer. Sorry - I couldn't possibly be capable of a singular answer for that question...most questions actually.

What's your favourite effects pedal?

Astrud: At the moment, the Boss DD7 delay pedal that I got for my birthday- we reckon we might be able to use it to double amy’s drums, but we might sound like we’re ripping off the Liars. I’ve also been starting to use my bright yellow tuna-melt tremolo pedal that sounds ace with reverb. I want to get a tape-echo, the chrome 70s ones look ace; I’m a massive fan of the BBC radiophonic workshop stuff so old style effects appeal to me a lot.

Amy: A pedal that could make me sound like I can sing, would be cool.

The Rayograph’s single ‘Hidden Doors/Golden Light’ is out now from all the cool normal places, or you can order it straight from the band at their My Space.

Semifinalists-'Last Pretending' (M.M.M Remix)

2008-11-25T14:52:00.006Z

Macc Mello does one remix a year and this year he chose ‘Last Pretending’ by Semifinalists which comes from their criminally slept-on ‘2’ album. I suppose if you’re only going to do one remix a year, then you may as well melt down some dreamy synth-pop into a psychedelic compound with the most complicated hip-hop drum-programming the world has ever seen.

P.S. Keep an eye out for Macc's forthcoming mixtape 'Mello Christmas 2: Bad Santa' dropping real soon. It's definitely going to be at least 5 x as good as this.

Download: (Semifinalists-'Last Pretending' (M.M.M Remix)

'Bricolage' - Hotline

2008-11-12T11:24:00.002Z

This new Hotline track ‘Bricolage’ literally sounds as though is being sucked back-and-forth through a time portal between 1986 and 3045 where gay clubs that play really cool house music made by black people still exist. That’s just what happens when the best producer in the world gets a hard-on for Acid Traxx I guess.

Laurence and Ronika are going to be taking their Hotline project into the live arena this month, so keep your eyes out for that.

Download: 'Bricolage' - Hotline

A1 BASSLINE REMIX COMPETITION WINNER

2008-11-11T15:58:00.005Z

After listening to literally hundreds and hundreds of entries – we are really happy to announce the winner of the A1 Bassline remix competition is this version by Pirate Soundsystem, which incidentally, was also the very last entry we received.

You can download a rough mix of the track below – the final version will be included in the ‘Girl Thing’ remix E.P. dropping real soon on Meal Deal along with mixes from Scott Cooper and Christian Martin.

Thanks to everyone who entered and put the effort in – you all did amazingly. Finally, well done to Pirate Soundsystem for absolutely killing it in the last minute.

’Girl Thing’ – A1 Bassline (Pirate Soundsystem Remix)

'Three Little Words' - FrankMusik (A1 Bassline Remix)

2008-11-10T10:32:00.003Z

Here’s the first bit of A1 Bassline for you today, first up, a brand new remix of FrankMusik’s ‘Three Little Words’ single. This isn’t the first time that Christian has tackled the song, the Partyshank remix he did of the same track is one of our favourites of this year. This A1 Bassline version re-contextualizes Vincent Frank’s melodic, electro pop as a half-tempo, melancholy rumination upon the nature of love before thinking “fuck it” and metamorphosing into the rudest bassline we’ve heard in ages.

We’re going to announce the winner of the ‘Girl Thing’ remix competition later on today, so check back for that in a bit.

Also, I’m sorry, but how much of a good look was it that Trevor Nelson played ‘Girl Thing’ on his 1 Xtra Breakfast Show on Friday morning?

Frank Musik-3 little Words (A1 Bassline Rmx)

GROUPER

2008-11-07T15:13:00.005Z

Just when I wanted the sonic gap between The Cocteau Twins and Khonnor in my record collection bridging, along comes Liz Harris (AKA Grouper) with her glacial, sadly-beautiful LP ‘Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill’. Whereas The Cocteau Twins can occasionally sound a touch like Enya with a rack of effects pedals, Grouper’s muse is a fragile one – femine, melancholy, never afraid to observe the dark edges but without becoming consumed by them. Whereas the term ‘shoegaze’ can often drown in its very masculine portentousness, Grouper’s chains of delays and reverbs act as gauze through which to peer into her peerless, insular creations.

Top 5 albums of the year. Easy.

Download: 'Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping' - Grouper

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME ON RCRDLBL

2008-11-06T10:04:00.004Z

A Grave With No Name are featured on the very awesome RCRDLBL site today. You can download their track 'Open Water' from there. Check it out right here.

'FIRE ISLAND' (VIRTUAL 7") - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2008-10-27T09:53:00.005Z

‘Fire Island’ – written and recorded on broken 8-track at The Church, 21/10/08.

‘The Outdoor Type’ – written by Tom Morgan, recorded on broken 8-track at Clonard Way 26/10/08.

‘Fire Island’ features my first attempt at playing drums, I guess I’m not so good at playing drums. I used to end our sets with a cover of ‘The Outdoor Type’ by The Lemonheads, and in retrospect I guess it’s a track which is pretty apt in so many ways. We don’t play it anymore, so I decided to put it to rest by recording a version with just acoustic guitar and voice – everything was recorded in one take due to the rewind button on the 8-track not working.

Side A: ’Fire Island’
Side B: 'The Outdoor Type'

Use the image at the top for the cover.

I’m playing a show with the band tomorrow night at The Fly, New Oxford Street, we’re also doing a Halloween No Pain In Pop show at Goldmiths on Friday. Both shows have great bands on the line-ups, so make sure to check them out if you come along.

HOTLINE

2008-10-23T14:52:00.002+01:00

Since his tour of Australia, mad amounts of remixes from everyone from A Place to Bury Strangers to, um, Snow Patrol (get that money kid), our boy Laurence ‘Lillica Libertine’ Matthew Blake has embarked on a new project with singer Ronika called Hotline bringing to mind the sounds of the early-90’s house beamed through his own fucking weird psychedelia. I’ve had the privilege to hear some original material from these guys (actually, so can you if you click the link above to their My Space), and let me just say that Hercules & Love Affair a’int got shit on these guys, but here’s an amazing Hotline remix of their track ‘Blind’ anyway which morphs from Studio 54 to Detroit to theyear 2024 and back again in under 7 minutes. Enjoy.

'Blind' - Hercules and; Love Affair (Hotline Remix)

RAD LO-FI

2008-10-20T14:50:00.003+01:00

OK, so apologies for not writing on here for a bit, but now we're back it's a good place for us to tell you about a few cool bands I've recently come across since writing here last.

The first one of these is Arch M which is the adventure of one very awesome dude called Corey. This track '21st Union', is honestly one of the best things that I've heard all year think Papa M sharing a mountain cabin with Slint and I guess we're nearly there. That really is Dave Pajo-tastic, or maybe I'm just obsessed with Dave Pajo at the moment. Anyway, I shared some beers with Corey in the dressing room of the ICA where he played on Saturday. In fact I shared so many beers with him that I passed out on the floor during his set which apparently he fucked up - maybe because he also drank too many beers.

Arch M - 21st Union

It's worth noting that Corey is also in a rad band called American Spirit who are kind of like a much more bitter, hipster version of real early Sebadoh (the Eric Gaffney tracks) but you know, in an awesome way.

Also, very much worth checking out are Gentle Friendly. I've been lucky to share a stage with these guys a couple of times and their single is coming out soon through our buddies No Pain in Pop. Imagine the midpoint between Hella, Trencher's casio grind and No Age and you get this kind of glorious racket. It's also worth noting that drummer Dan also plays in Banjo or Freakout and Buttonhead and is the nicest person I have ever met in my life.

Gentle Friendly - Five Girl Night

Finally, props due to Wavves, who find the mid-point between four-track skate punk and Pavement and as such the word 'gnarly' is all that can do this guy justice.

Wavves - So Bored

Most of these mp3s are jacked from our buddies No Pain in Pop . Tune in for more mid-90's lo-fi references next time, and please support all these artists by buying their releases.

'GHOSTS & STONES' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2008-10-06T10:14:00.001+01:00

Here’s a new A Grave With No Name track I recorded at my parents’ house this weekend called ‘Ghosts & Stones’. If you listen carefully at the end you can hear my Dad trying to get my attention, which the microphone picked up when I was recording one of the guitar tracks.

'Ghosts & Stones' - A Grave With No Name

Also, we’re playing a show this Saturday with the excellent Gentle Friendly. Hope to see you there.

A1 BASSLINE REMIX COMPETITION

2008-10-02T11:27:00.002+01:00

THE DEVIL & WESLEY WILLIS

2008-09-30T14:52:00.002+01:00

If you’re into describing people by the colour of their skin (which I’m not), or just plain lazy (which I am), you could describe Wesley Willis as ‘the black Daniel Johnston’. Although there are undoubtedly similarities between the two artists, (Wesley Willis was also an overweight schizophrenic writing alarmingly honest and rudimentary music throughout the 1990’s), Wesley's catalogue has as much in common with Biz Markie and Ol’ Dirty Bastard than it does with Daniel Johnston. His songs are more concerned with topics such as smoking crack (though he never did), beating up superheroes, his favourite bands and eating at McDonalds than wide-eyed, love ballads. Although it’s not intended as a compliment, you can hear the schizophrenia more vividly in Wesley’s music than you can in Daniel Johnstons’.

Towards the middle of his twenties, Wesley was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, his personal demons were named "Heartbreaker," "Nervewrecker," and "Meansucker” and he saw rock & roll music as a means to keep these demons at bay. From busking on the streets of Chicago, he developed a cult following amongst the city’s underground community and soon came to the attention of Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label with whom he released two albums (which sold next to no copies). He continued making music for the rest of his life which unfortunately ended in August 2003 when he died from complications relating to leukemia from which he was suffering.

I urge you to seek out his music which although at times maddeningly simple and repetitive (many of his tracks are insane diatribes set over the demo presets from his keyboard), also shines bright with invention and passion. Below is a five minute look into Wesley’s life which will probably say more about this artist than I can.

'LOVE LOCKDOWN' - KANYE WEST (YES SIR IDOL REMIX)

2008-09-29T11:01:00.005+01:00

When I heard that Kanye West had put the parts to his single 'Love Lockdown' on his blog, I knew it would be only a matter of time before my buddy Yes Sir Idol would send me his remix. Idol has had something of a love/hate relationship with the first drop from Kanye's '808's & Heartbreak' LP. Straight after he had seen the live performance at the VMAs , he sent me a text saying something along the lines of "Oh my fucking God the new Kanye West single is amazing. How has your day been btw shall I come over on Thursday and cook for you and Ben?". A couple of days later when he was hanging out at my house making us all some amazing peri, peri chicken we listened to the studio version and I could see his mood visbaly darken - he kind of went a bit quiet and I knew that he was harbouring some serious 'disappointed in Kanye' vibes. Shoot forward a few more and he was once again talking about 'Love Lockdown' on some 'Kanye is the Stevie Wonder' of the 2000's tip.

Anyway, click the link below to download to hear this full spectrum of emotions evident in his vision for 'Love Lockdown':

'Love Lockdown' (Yes Sir Idol Remix)

'MR UNSTOPPBALE' - MARVELLOUS MACC MELLO (SANTOGOLD REMIX)

2008-09-25T10:53:00.003+01:00

It’s been a little while since we’ve heard something new from our boy Marvellous Macc Mello, but word has it, he’s locked himself away in his bedroom and pretty much won’t emerge until he’s recorded all of his debut album. From the few beat snippets I have heard I’m expecting some futuristic fusion of ’Lord Willin’, ’Stankonia’, ’Trap Muzik’ and ’The College Dropout’, but set in North West London via Outer Space.

Anyway, yesterday he sent me this remix of Santogold’s ‘Unstoppable’ yesterday which apparently he did as a favour for Diplo. Thanks for distracting him Diplo, we’re waiting for that album you know dude.

’Mr Unstoppable’ – Marvellous Macc Mello (Santogold Remix)

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME/BANJO OR FREAKOUT/ATLAS SOUND

2008-09-24T12:03:00.003+01:00

Photos taken by my good friends Nick and Tom. Thank you both.

//NO PAIN IN POP\\

2008-09-24T10:20:00.002+01:00

No Pain in Pop are pretty much our favourite dudes right now, as well as throwing parties and releasing records by the likes of Health and Telepathe, their blog is essentially a directory of awesomeness and as a bonus is written in such esoteric prose, that you feel pretty clever reading it.

Selfishly I wish that they didn’t throw all their parties in New Cross because it’s kind of long for me to get to and their line-ups are too good to miss. They’re curating a festival this Saturday called Nail the Cross which traverses the outer dimension of greatness with ease.

Check out the website for stage times and more info.

Buy tickets here

'CHIMES' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2008-09-22T09:58:00.002+01:00

'Chimes' - A Grave With No Name

A1 BASSLINE - DAZED AND CONFUSED FEATURE

2008-09-12T10:42:00.000+01:00

BANJO OR FREAKOUT

2008-09-09T15:09:00.004+01:00

Banjo Or Freakout is the brainchild of 28-year-old Alessio Natalizia from Turin, although now he resides in London. My friend told me that he used to be in a post-punk band called Disco Drive who are ridiculously popular in Italy, but he jacked it all in when he discovered how to play around with found sound on his girlfriend’s laptop one night and decided it was much more fulfilling sounding like the natural midpoint between Arthur Russell, Animal Collective and High Places and supporting bands like No Age and Atlas Sound - a no brainer really when you look at like that.

Click the link below to hear his cover of Burial’s ‘Archangel’.

BANJO OR FREAKOUT - ARCHANGEL (Burial cover)

There's also loads of other cool tracks on his blog so go figure.

'COMMUNICATION' - LILLICA LIBERTINE

2008-09-08T16:15:00.003+01:00

Jeez – what a day. More new Meal Deal music for you. In preparation for his forthcoming Australian tour, Lillica Libertine has offered up a new track ‘Communication’ for download. If his tracks keep on getting this complex, I’m pretty sure that he’s going to crack God’s DNA code to the universe or something like that.

’Communication’ – Lillica Libertine

NEW A1 BASSLINE MIXTAPE

2008-09-08T10:33:00.002+01:00

The new A1 Bassline mixtape has arrived

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Tracklisting

01 - Intro-splice girls vs dizzee vs herve vs bloc party

02 - A1 Bassline - Bad Man Horror Theme

03 - Heavy Feet - Killa

04 - Foamo - Rokerman (Lee Mortimer rmx)

05 - Herve vs Kissy Sell Out - Rikkalicious

06 - Basment jaxx - Nifty

07 - Alphabeat - Boyfriend (Bloody Beetroots rmx)

08 - Nadastrom - Soul Pussy rmx

09 - Ac Slater - Kuku (Urchins Bring The Pain rmx)

10 - The quemists Ft. Wiley - Dem Na Like (A1 Baseline rmx)

11 - Foamo - Everything Cool

12 - Jackinori -Bad Boi J'Taime

13 - A1 Bassline Vs Dean Tynan - We Love Pussy

14 - Machines Dont Care - SoundBoy Massive

15 - A1 Bassline Vs Christian Shank - We are Everywhere

16 - Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood rmx)

17 - Does It Offend You Yeah - Epic Last Song (Jack Beats rmx)

18 - Bloody Beetroots - Ill To Destroy

19 - A1 Bassline Vs Girl And A Gun - Whomp Dat Suka

A1 Bassline's 'Girl Thing' E.P. drops on Meal Deal on 27th October.

'THE RIVER PATH TO MT. JADE' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

2008-09-08T10:03:00.005+01:00

I recorded this track over the weekend whilst I was staying at my parents’ house. I had got up super-early for some reason, so made myself a pot of coffee and just played the first chords that came to mind and tracked them along with the vocals and percussion and then added the reverb. It was pretty much done by the end of the pot of coffee. I hope you like it.

'The River Path to Mt. Jade' - A Grave With No Name

Also, I am supporting Atlas Sound next week on Wednesday 17th September at the Sazerac on Pentonville Road. This is a real honour for me, and I hope to see some of you there.

2008-09-02T10:42:00.002+01:00

Burritos rule. I’m not even sure that I’d ever eaten one of these little Mexican pillows of grease until a couple of months ago when Seb suggested we visited this place called Mucho Más near him that was so good that he had recently been there twice in one day (chicken burrito for lunch, pork burrito for dinner). The second I stepped in there and saw the delicious processed meat, salads and sauces on the counter, I knew that I basically in the Mexican version of Subway and therefore in the diameterically opposite place to that part in 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' when they each experience their own personal version of Hell.

I know that a lot of people have jumped on the burrito bandwagon of late and have been saying that Mucho Más isn’t all that it’s main rival Tortilla which is right round the corner in the king of burrito joints in Angel. I say fuck you. Sure Tortilla is ‘nicer’, sure the ingredients are ‘fresher’, but it’s also ‘gayer’ and the burritos are ‘not as big’. Now, I’m by no means hating on Tortilla, I went there with my friend and had one hell of a nice time, it’s just unfortunate for them that Mucho Más and Whole Foods exist, otherwise they’d be my favourite place to burrito in London.

Visit:

Mucho Más
27 Upper Street,Angel/Islington,London,N1 0PN

Tortilla
13 Islington High Street,Islington,London,N1 9LQ

Whole Foods
The Barkers Building,63-97 Kensington High Street,Kensington,London,W8 5SE