There are 2 tracks, ‘Baltimore’ and ‘Marathon’, doing the rounds on the interweb from this husband and wife duo “Tennis” at the moment and both are tres coolio.

Hopefully there is more soon, in the mean time these are well worth the listen.

xx rebecca.

So ol’ Kanye really lost his rag there for a while- shorty was a ho, mama died on the plastic surgery table, made a shite album about that and then he stabbed that kitten onstage at the MTV VMAs… sigh.

Now “he’s back” (you always have to come back) with a new song that isn’t Auto-tuned bollocks!

Naturally he’s still flapping on about his issues-but this song is actually pretty good! (Thanks Pitchfork!)

Posted by Rebecca

So, rest assured guys-Ariel Pink is still a total nutbar…

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xx rebecca

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Shane

M.I.A. – /\/\ /\ Y /\ (Xl Recordings)
The “pop” single on Maya Arulpragasam’s third album contains the refrain “you want me (to) be somebody who I’m really not” – is she responding to the masses who really like Paper Planes after they heard it in Slumdog Millionaire? The people who call her Mia – like Farrow? Smacking them in the metaphorical face? I like to think so. And then, with the rest of this record she kicks them in their groins and gouges their eyes out. Metaphorically, of course; using the knuckle-dusters of dubstep-star Rusko production and the numb-chucker of Derek Miller (Sleigh Bells) on Meds and Feds among her arsenal of aural assault. Teqkilla, with both Rusko and Switch joining in production is likely to give someone brain damage if they’re not careful. Lovalot – or as she sings it, stretching out and dropping a consonant “I really love Allah” – she explores and imagines the “mindset of impulsive youth caught up in Islamic terrorism”. M.I.A. is pulling no punches or being careful with her pop-stardom – if anything she’s prepared to destroy it in the name of her art. And, that is exciting, invigorating and challenging. – AT

DIE DIE DIE – Form (Flying Nun)
Arguably (but, really, who is arguing) New Zealand’s hardest working band return with a new album – and their debut on the recently reclaimed Flying Nun. It’s a glorious aural assault on all your senses – I mean you can literally taste how good this sounds; you can smell it. Mikey’s drums are like some sort of magical jack hammer; Lauchlan’s bass-lines are fluid and hypnotic while Andrew’s guitar envelopes you in melodies which dance with his vocals. There are generous servings of pop sensibilities throughout this record; the progressions in Lil Ships are to die (die die) for. While forthcoming second single, Howye and Daze are dreamlike – the latter reminding me of early Chills – in quite the contrast to the quasi-industrial We Built Our Own Oppressors with it’s genius-ly placed ‘wooo’s – this is a song to rise the masses if there has ever been one.
Form is as diverse as it is cohesive – and yet again they have outdone themselves – easily their best work to date – which only make me more excited about the next album (which they have apparently already finished) – AT

Cut Copy are in the midst of finishing their new album – and they are giving away a free track via their website in exchange for an eMail address.

“Where I’m Going” is a real psychedelic jam of an anthem – check it out!

We all know at least two people like this guy huh?

Hilarious

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Kids of 88 are finishing up mixing their album Sugarpills, with James Duncan this week and shooting the music video for upcoming single Downtown.

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Last year Cheese on Toast released a 7″ singel with 1995’s Polar Rapid on one side an DZ (from Australia)’s Blue Blood on the other.

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We still have some copies of the 7″ available actually if you wanna buy one – eMail Andrew at andrew (at) cheeseontoast.co.nz

Oh, we almost forgot how much fun this was… thanks Blink…

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Tickets on sale to CAMP A LOW HUM 2011 now

From 2007

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Britain’s most violent prisoner is Michael Peterson aka Charles Bronson. He has spent most of his life behind bars – initially imprisoned in 1974 for a robbery (the haul was just £26) and sentenced to seven years – aged 22. That first sentence was stretched out to fourteen years for bad behavior. He was released from jail on October 30, 1988 but only spent 69 days free before he was arrested again. He remains incarcerated and has spent the majority of that time (thirty of teh thirty-four years) in solitary confinement.

Bronson is an abstract portrayal of the man. Tom Hardy takes on the role with full psychopathic glee in this film directed by the Danish film-maker Nicolas Winding Refn and written by the British screenwriter Brock Norman Brock.

Initially, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is some sort of glorification of British Crim in a “Lock-Stock-I-Read-FHM” kind of way, but Hardy’s frightening performance propels it more towards a “Clockwork Orange” psyche; it’s a highly stylized affair – my favorite parts being the most stylized – the imagined vaudeville-esque on-stage perfromances / monologues. The film postulates that Bronson’s mayhem, naked brawling, hostage taking, and violence were, in fact, the man’s creative outlet – a proposition that I’m not sure sits easy with me, but it certainly is an interesting angle to consider.

The film is out now on DVD – we’re giving some copies away next week on Cheese on Toast – thanks to the fine folk at MadMan.

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!!! (Chk Chk Chk) are releasing a new album in August – called Strange Weather, Isn’t It?.

Here’s the official music video for the lead single:

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Also – you can download a copy of teh single for free from their Official Webpage

ANDREW’S ALBUM OF THE WEEK
I was just thinking, while listening to this, the debut and much anticipated album from Brooklyn based duo Sleigh Bells that, logically, if two things are opposite to each-other, when placed side by side if must be false then that both things are true. But when you start to challenge that rather simple piece of logic, that’s when shit gets interesting. Like, when you take something the size of a pin point and expand it to the size of a universe (something I like to think I could do, like, if I really wanted to) , is that the same as taking something the size of a universe and compacting it to fit on a pin point. What if you did that simultaneously? Would the reverse of an action be, in fact, the same as the action itself? Presumably, the duality of the actions, if achieved in unison, would null each-others effect?

But, when the noise of Derek E Miller meets the melody of Alexis Krauss, here as Sleigh Bells; simultaneously, it is clear that the effects do not null each-other, but rather amplify them. Both becoming more true not despite each-other but because of their disparity. This is, all a bit confusing. All I think I am trying to say is that this record is a little bit the imagined sound of a universe collapsing in on itself and inside out to expand into a new one that’s twice the size of it’s original self. – AT

Pasta Primavera has an mp3 of Tell Em for download

For more album reviews click here

MATTHEW’S ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Two things can happen when you put a bunch of talented friends with separately rewarding careers in a room to record an album together. One: it comes out sounding like less than the sum of its parts (…Monsters of Folk?) and Two: it comes out sounding somewhere near as good as BARB, aka Lawrence Arabia, Liam Finn, EJ Barnes, Connan Mockasin and former Mockasin Seamus Ebbs. Opening with the now-familiar “Leo”, where Connan Mockasin’s alter-ego Don’s obsession with Leonardo DiCaprio finally gets explained (PLEASE go watch the video asap), “Alcoholic Darling” follows on with an almost Broken Social Scene-esque slow-groove build before making way for Finn’s finest vocal performance since his solo debut – with a catchy call-back chorus. The equally upbeat “Not A Bird” is next up, with a gang-vocal verse that sounds almost like a joyful military exercise, opening up into a multi-part harmony chorus. Clearly a chance for the famous five to experiment together as much as spend a month in each others company at Roundhead Studios, BARB rarely strays into in-joke territory. Everyone gets a turn to shine, with EJ’s soulful take on Lawrence Arabia’s imagined tale of lost lesbian love making “2004″ another highlight. The album closes with “Nile” – an occasionally raucous epic from Connan, and the fitting book-end “Looking Out Through Barb’s Eyes”. Notably absent is the tune that started it all – “Having A Baby” – though there is plenty here to saturate the ears in good, good sound. Take a listen, then listen again and again – BARB have layered the cake high with treats. MC

Watch the official music video for Leo here:

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for more album reviews click here

It was bound to happen, eventually.

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So Levis gave the dude from Passion Pit some cash to cover The Smashing Pumpkin’s 90s hit “Tonight, Tonight”.

Just how many poetry books do you think Billy Corgan threw across his gracious drawing room after someone else was cashing in on his staggering genius??

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Remember Levis? Yeah-they are still cool man. Hip. Down with the kids.

xx rebecca.

This was Andrew’s album of the week at the last Eavesdrop Listening Party

Here’s his review:

Crystal Castles’ second eponymous album (their first one was too) is the sound of everyone you know, everyone you love, everyone on the planet being annihilated. Simulataneously. Destroyed. Killed. Mercilessly. But the beauty of mankind’s ultimate demise being the the final solution to the gradual destruction of the planet, and Earth’s salvation, becomes overwhelming. This is an album of extremities. Polarized. Disparate. Horrifying one moment and sublime the next. It is the sound of the welcomed apocalypse. The salvation we shalt not want. The global euthanasia of Earths most insidious, destructive, raping parasite will sound like it, too, was recorded in a church in Iceland, a garage in Detroit and a log cabin in Ontario. The refrain “Do you pray with your eyes closed… When it’s cold outside, hold me tight, hold me”. will echo long after our collective final breath is exhaled. From our darkest hour shall become our brightest and we shall, upon our own un-marked graves, dance. With strobe lights. – AT

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Young Creature have an mp3 of Celestica and The Thurston Remix for you to download too.

Switch on over to our REVIEWS PAGE for more album reviews

This was Matthew Crawley’s ‘album of the week’ at the last Eavesdrop Listening Party.

Here’s Matthew’s review:

Sub Pop’s new little darlings Avi Buffalo burst out into song earlier this year with the impossibly wonderful single “What’s In It For?” – a song that attacks the Sub Pop sound with a young-eyed, melancholic take on joy. The self-titled debut album from Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg (aka Avi…) & co doesn’t so much follow up with a set of pop hits, as takes its time getting to know you, and eventually shares its post-teenage diary with you. What’s surprising, though, is just how articulate and laden with charming feeling the diary is. With a voice that comes off like the Shins’ James Mercer attempting a Devendra impression after sucking a little helium (complemented perfectly by the sweet harmonies of bandmate Rebecca Coleman), Avi is ever regaling you with stories of summer sex and eager crushing, not to mention the youthfully playful obsession with death. Avi Buffalo: young, full of cum, but not at all dumb. MC

You can download Summer Cum from Kick In The Peanuts

Flip over to our REVIEWS PAGE for more album reviews

Were you at the gig at Powerstation when MGMT performed Anything Could Happen and, embarrassingly, the majority of the idiot-popped-collar-audience didn’t recognize The Clean?

sigh

Anyway – here’s MGMT performing the song acoustically for a radio station live-session…

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