PLIES

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

$49.99

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

NEW LILLICA LIBERTINE!!!

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

Download:

'Love Affair' - Lillica Libertine

VIDEO HIPPOS

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

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

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

MANOWAR

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

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

EX MODELS

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

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

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

LAMING-OUT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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