NEW SINGLE > The Long Blondes "Weekend Without Makeup"

You can vote for the video to our single 'Weekend Without Makeup' to be in the MTV2 Video Chart by following the link bellow:

http://www.mtv2europe.com/nmeVote.jhtml

The video was directed by Gina Birch, former bassist with indie legends The Raincoats, and filmed at London burlesque club Madame Jo Jo's, also home to the fabulous White Heat club night.

A special thanks to all those who attended the shoot, and apologies for any embarressment caused (you'll have to watch the video to see what we mean).....

NEW MINI ALBUM > iLiKETRAiNS "Progress Reform"

‘Before The Curtains Close’ (Dance To The Radio), ‘A Rook House For Bobby’ (Kids Recordings) and ‘Terra Nova’ (Fierce Panda). Consider that those previous releases have concerned themselves with the plight of Grandmasters and Scott of the Antarctic’s final doomed mission and you’ll soon realise that the quintet’s uniquely beautiful soundscapes and rousing songs are brimming over with exceptional characters and historical events - a fitting accompaniment to the iLiKETRAiNS neo-legendary live set, where the band dress in matching British Rail uniforms and play colossal chords in front of a backdrop of antiquated images of trains, snow and chess. Progress Reform is out on Fierce Panda on cd mini-album on June 26th.

NEW SINGLE > Dolium "Teenagers E.P."

The long anticipated new release from Dolium is soon to be available. What’s unclear is whether, with a new musical direction promised, this is a taste of what’s to come, or if the enigmatic duo are simply teasing their audience. With this pair it’s hard to tell. What is certain is that the band’s brilliant new ‘Teenagers EP’ will be their first ever exclusive iTunes release.

The Manchester based ‘duo from the dark side’ have followed-up their highly rated debut album ‘Kisses Fractures’ with a thrillingly powerful concept EP. ‘Teenagers’ features the live favourites ‘Dead Teenagers’ and ‘Teenage Boy, Teenage Girl,’ both bursting with adolescent fervour, and showcases a unique 4-track demo tape recording entitled ’13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19’, a septet of mostly instrumental tracks, each one representing its respective teenage year.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Reece Adamo and his bass-playing dominatrix counterpart Mistress De Vine have spent the past year perfecting their unique and intriguing brand of DIY punk-rock. The ‘Teenagers EP’ is intended to whet the appetite for their soon to be disclosed follow-up album. The nature of this second full-length venture may still remain a mystery however, as Reece hints that they could be serving up something rather different later in the year. ‘The Teenagers EP,’ he suggests, ‘should quite easily succeed in throwing folks off the trail…’

Dolium, with their reeling guitar sounds, aggressive pounding bass lines and dangerously urgent vocals that have lead to comparisons to bands such as the Pixies, Sonic Youth and Joy Division, may still be a relatively undiscovered talent. However, support and airplay from the likes of John Kennedy of XFM, and Steve Lamacq and Huw Stevens of the BBC have helped bolster their profile and point to things to come.

With the second album and more of their infamously frantic live appearances in the pipe line, the remainder of 2006 promises to be a busy time for the couple. In their mysterious vein they are yet to release any dates, so, for now, fans will have to satisfy themselves by wallowing in the scarily absorbing ode to teenage angst that is the iTunes available ‘Teenagers EP’. It might be a blind alley, but nevertheless it’s certainly a dark, emotion-filled and surprisingly enjoyable journey.

NEW ALBUM > São Paris "LÁ"

MOVIMENTO, the first album by São Paris, the French-Brazilian duo, which came out last September was universally acclaimed in the electronica world, thanks to it’s unique sonic atmosphere: mystery, cut-ups, collage, destruction, poetry, contrast, sweetness, suspense...

Closer to each other than ever before and still organic, still literary, Leticia Maura and Thomas Ferrière have courageously renewed all their methods.

«I am very touched by the beauty of the new album -LÁ- which means ‘over there’. Where Movimento was poetic, I’d say that LÁ is more cinematographic. It is still very electronica based but with even wider horizons».

- Eric Morand

LÁ, is a sound film shot in real or imagined countries. Some scenes are in China, with the delicate duo of Ly and Leticia, a sensual and mysterious homage to Wong Kar Wai.

There’s a stop-off in Romania, to recall a pioneer of surrealism, Guerasim Luca. A new landscape, Brazil, where the great magician of world music, Chico César, has some words to say, the abandoned children are in the clouds, the tramp plays the lottery to get to Paris, and the whales dance.

Yes, there is water in LÁ : the joyful samba of gigantic mermaids, desire and the swimming pool, and even an enchanted river for an ungrateful thirsty cat.

A place of unexpected moments; a child from the island of Vanuatu hums and the
breeze from Bali blows on Thomas’ face.

We dream of the dream. Yes, SÃO PARIS is «LÁ».

NEW ALBUM > Bob Jaroc & Plaid "Greedy Baby"

Developed over 4 years, Greedy Baby has evolved out of a relationship between Plaid and filmaker and animator Bob Jaroc, touring and continually developing their live audio-visual show to audiences from Buenos Aries, to Tokyo, Istanbul, London’s Imax and beyond.

The creation of this new album and dvd was made with tracks and video passing back and forth, inspiring and informing either parties in creative exchange.

Greedy baby is a moody body of work that is at times angry and haunted and other times, warm opulent and lively. This is a true creative exchange so darkness (inspired by these dangerous days) in the animation is fleshed out with light in the music and visa versa, so a balance is struck.

For this soundtrack Plaid's music is very rich, with a classic soundtrack feel, Plaid's electronics fleshed out with thoughtful arrangements with strings, choral voices, thembe and bossa piano. What is more the album was written in 5.1 surround sound specifically for the audio visual experience, which makes it a unique piece of work and an incredible experience for the eyes and ears.

MICRO SITE

NEW ALBUM > Scritti Politti "White Bread Black Beer"

“His best material since Cupid? Indisputably. His best album, ever? Looking more likely with every listen.”

— Simon Reynolds (author of the critically acclaimed post-punk history Rip It Up and Start Again)

“All that history is implicit as Gartside--simply ignoring the possibility of 1980s nostalgia—instead unveils a talent as unclassifiable and undimmed as ever.”

— Nick Hasted, Independent (UK)

White Bread Black Beer is the first new album by Green Gartside, the man who is Scritti Politti, since 1999. The album features fourteen new tracks, written and recorded solo by Gartside in a back room in his Hackney, London home. Nonesuch Records will release the album in North America on July 25, 2006 in conjunction with the UK’s Rough Trade Records.

A four-star review in the Observer (UK) calls White Bread Black Beer “a triumphant return from a true maverick.” Gartside’s history—from Camden squat-land post-punk collective to purveyor of “lustrously polished [pop] which earned him the distinction of Miles Davis’ admiration and the right to be considered a founding father of modern American R&B”—is an extraordinary one. And after a long silence, his new album finds him at last reconciling all of the strands of this history, from his intellectual lyrical preoccupations to the seductive pop sensibility of his mid-eighties work. Or, as the Observer concluded, “The best of the songs here might be the work of a post-structuralist Brian Wilson.”

Gartside has also given new life to Scritti Politti as a live band, currently playing low-key shows in the UK with several musicians he recruited from his Hackney social scene. These shows, his first in 26 years, have been overwhelmingly well received—a recent concert earned four-stars in The Independent. Plans for North American Scritti Politti shows, their first ever, are being made and will be announced in the near future.

“Those who have followed the winding path of Green’s music with Scritti Politti—and I count myself as one of his great admirers—have been transfixed for decades by music that I consider some of the most startling and addictive of its time,” said Nonesuch Senior Vice President David Bither. “The great regret has been that there wasn’t more of it. So to have White Bread Black Beer practically fall from the skies is unexpected. But most astonishing is to have this record, in 2006, be, from many angles, the best work Green has ever done.”

Scritti Politti may be best known to American audiences for the mid-1980s pop hits, “Perfect Way” and “Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)”, but the Welsh-born Gartside’s career as musician and songwriter spans nearly three decades. Formed in Leeds in the late 1970s as a loose-limbed collective with Gartside at its center, early Scritti Politti espoused Marxist theory and became critical darlings of John Peel and the like. But as praise amassed Gartside battled with the spotlight and succumbed to a panic attacks so fierce he stopped performing altogether after a 1980 concert supporting Gang of Four.

Gartside took a few years away but re-emerged in 1982 with the UK single “The ‘Sweetest’ Girl”. He moved to New York in 1983 and immersed himself in US pop music—especially R&B. The eventual 1985 album Cupid & Psyche boasted the two aforementioned hits and made Gartside an MTV star.

With the success, Gartside again retreated. 1988 brought the studio album Provision (and a collaboration with Miles Davis) and then not another Scritti Politti album until 1999’s Anomie & Bonhomie that included guest collaborations Mos Def and M’Shell Ndegeocello.

Guns N' Roses (live review)

Hammersmith Apollo, London, June 7

Welcome to the jungle: three and a half hours after the doors of the venue open, the main act shows no sign of taking the stage. The mixed crowd - virginal looking young men, thirtysomethings with anachronistic haircuts - are clearly displeased with the delay. They boo between the rock anthems blaring out of the PA, long after support act Avenged Sevenfold have finished their set.

They don’t know that a certain W. Axl Rose, lead singer and sole remaining original member of Guns N’ Roses, has issued an ultimatum. “We know he’s in the building,” says one of the backstage managers at the Hammersmith Apollo, as if this is an achievement in itself. “He’s just insisting he needs two masseuses for a ‘Deep Heat massage’ before he goes on stage. He fired both his personal masseuses this morning. He’s also complaining because his personal hairdresser (from Africa) couldn’t enter the country because of visa issues. But there’s not much we can do about that.” As an excuse for keeping 5,000 paying customers waiting, it’s up there with throwing a hissy fit because M&Ms of the wrong colour have been found in the dressing room bowl. “This might be the worst act I’ve dealt with,” says the exasperated concierge. “It’s certainly up there with Velvet Revolver (the band comprising of Rose’s former GnR bandmates) who delayed a gig for 90 minutes until we got them a homemade Shepherd’s Pie. If this goes on much longer, I think there might be a riot... excuse me,” he breaks off, one ear pressed to his walkie-talkie: “a fight just broke out in the stalls...”

For the self-proclaimed “Most Dangerous Band In The World,” a riot due to a delayed or cancelled show is not without precedent. But then, for Guns N’ Roses, not many aspects of rock’n’roll behaviour are without precedent. Rose presumably found someone to rub him up the right way, even at such short notice: when he does finally make it on stage just before 11pm, with the 2006 version of GnR striking up Welcome to the Jungle, the weary audience is immediately roused, and immediately forgiving.

This London appearance, a warm-up for their headlining slot at the Download festival, in Donington Park, follows dates in New York as the band’s first gigs since 2002. The seasoned line-up assembled by Rose - Tommy Stinson (bass), Richard Fortus (guitar), Robin Finck (guitar), Chris Pitman (keyboard), Dizzy Reed (keyboard), “Brain” (drums) and new guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (who only joined the band last month) - confidently swap the riffs of a string of old favourites to open the show, including It’s So Easy, Mr Brownstone, Live And Let Die, and Sweet Child O' Mine.

In a series of outfits and sunglasses, with diamond jewellery and teeth flashing, Rose appears very much at home as the grand rock showman - except for his red and yellow dreadlocks and ginger facial hair; they merely make him look like a cross between Mick Hucknall and Metallica's James Hetfield. The 44-year-old’s reputed face-lifts are indicated, too, by his pinched features and unblinking eyes, and he’s sweating profusely as early as the second song as he pirouettes and canters restlessly around the tiered stage. Yet his voice – always a fantastic blend of catty screech and resonant bellow – appears untainted by the ensuing years of ultimate rock star indulgence and prima donna delay. The world is still waiting, a reputed $13 million later, for Chinese Democracy, the album his band started recording in 1998. It’s now scheduled for release this autumn, but that’s not a date to hold your breath over.

Two tracks from the new album, Madagascar and Better, exhibit militaristic drums and a certain nu-metal swagger, but in term’s of both the audience’s reaction and the band’s energy, they pale in comparison with the ensuing You Could Be Mine, and a drawn-out Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. Another new song, IRS, ostensibly a bombastic swipe at an anonymous former lover, namechecks the President, the FBI and the taxman as co-conspirators, but is merely an extension of Rose’s own persecution complex, summarised in the rebel yell of Out Ta Get Me.

Prone to virtuosic, if overlong, fret-tapping solo spots, the Axl Rose Backing Band (for that is what GnR amounts to these days) seem less comfortable playing the sluggish new material than their own guitar improvisations on Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful, or the familiar riffs of Night Train and Paradise City, which are rapturously received and accompanied by exploding fireworks and flame-belching cannons. Former Skid Row frontman, Sebastian Bach, comes on, hair akimbo, for a brief cameo appearance during My Michelle. When November Rain reaches its guitar-led epilogue, it is hard to deny that Guns N’ Roses are back - for the moment at least – there’s certainly enough old-school entertainment value from these familiar hits to justify the Apollo staying open past its usual curfew. But as the crowd starts to thin out before the clock strikes 1am, the occasion seems far from riotous. In fact, it's more like a karaoke singalong.

Guns N' Roses setlist

Welcome To The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr Brownstone
Live And Let Die
Sweet Child O' Mine
Madagascar
Better
You Could Be Mine
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
The Blues
IRS
Outta Get Me
November Rain
My Michelle
Patience
Night Train
Paradise City

Axl gives his fans a bumpy ride

Andrew Perry reviews Guns N' Roses at the Carling Apollo in Hammersmith

At 10.40pm, booing and slow hand-clapping resounded about the Apollo. In a sane world, Axl Rose's latest line-up of Guns N' Roses should have been in full flight by now, reaping ovations for their encores.

It seems, however, that Rose no longer inhabits such a world - not since 1993, at least, when he fired his original band (including top-hatted Slash, rock's most beloved guitarist) and began working on an album called Chinese Democracy, which is still yet to materialise.

So, there stood his remaining fans, none more embattled, inspecting a stage empty but for one support band, for nigh-on four hours. Numerous people angrily claimed a refund. Tetchy voices heckled that you don't get treated like this by Velvet Revolver, the group formed by Slash and other former "Gunners", who have gone global with a slick professionalism since Rose's band last toured in 2002.

I began to wonder why, almost 20 years since GN'R coined their one solid-gold album, Appetite for Destruction, anyone should bother hanging around for a glimpse of their profligate singer.

Amid a stadium's worth of lights, fireworks and frou frou, he appeared, finally, for a dazzling opening barrage of Welcome to the Jungle, It's So Easy and Mr Brownstone, all drawn from Appetite….

But, even after three songs, Rose seemed to be out of puff. He failed to apologise for being late, instead mumbling inanities ("No sleep 'til Hammersmith, huh?" - how original), as if he had completely lost his match fitness. The band, too, were carrying excess weight, with three guitarists and two multi-instrumentalists. Bongos? In a heavy metal band?

On the plus side, Rose's hair transplant, now successfully completed after looking like a swatch of brown carpet last time out, matched his gold crushed-velvet jacket. But he soon replaced this, instigating a sequence of costume changes that gave the show a limping structure.

Each time Rose headed for the dressing room, all the energy drummed up by, say, Sweet Child o' Mine or Out ta Get Me was quickly dissipated, as each guitarist stepped up for an interminable solo.

As for the four songs (presumably) from Chinese Democracy, they lacked the euphoric choruses of Appetite....

Close to 1am, the patchy performance wound up on a pyrotechnic high with Nightrain (oh, the irony - the last rail service from these parts had departed ages ago) and Paradise City. In many senses, Rose will need to shed some baggage if he's to make a serious comeback.

Greatest 100 Albums of All Time

TIMESONLINE.CO.UK: Deemed Britpop's crowning achievement, Oasis' debut album, Definitely Maybe, has been named the Greatest Album of All Time in a poll voted for by more than 40,000 readers of British Hit Singles and Albums and NME.com, pushing the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band into second place. Which begs the question: How can 40, 000 music fans be so dumb?

Besides the dubious token inclusion of "bands of the moment" is there anything on the list that is surprising? No, it's so rigidly canonical it could have been lifted straight from the Old Testament. At times, it's comfortingly quaint, with numerous dadrock albums that are as cosy as a pipe and slippers - The Joshua Tree, Brothers in Arms, Dark Side of the Moon and Hotel California are all present and correct and likely to illicit a response along the lines of "Tubular Bells? Oh, that old chestnut".

It's the omissions that are the real shockers though. Staggeringly, there are only four black artists included - Jimi Hendrix (98), Prince (65), Marvin Gaye (57) and Michael Jackson (35). There is nothing in the way of hip-hop, funk, soul, blues and r'n'b. Similarly, the presence of female artists is lamentably low with a paltry six inclusions towards the end of the list - Alanis Morissette (93), Spice Girls (89), Madonna (83), Joni Mitchell (73), Kate Bush (70) and, sigh, Shania Twain (64).

The NME.COM vote is visible in the cloth-eared inclusion of 11 bands of the moment such as (sigh) Snow Patrol (91), Arctic Monkeys (86), (weep) Kasabian (67), Coldplay (52 and 33), (please God no) the Libertines (30), Kaiser Chiefs (27), (Shed Seven soundalikes) the Killers (21) and the Strokes (20). However, out of the new bands featured in the list, only the White Stripes and Arcade Fire merit inclusion in this particular pop pantheon.

The more recent inclusions, with the exception of Radiohead, suggest that new bands seem merely content to re-tread paths already ploughed by previous generations. So what's missing? Where are the lost classics, the unfairly overlooked? Which bands from the past decade, besides the preening, posturing NME-pin-ups, deserve to be on the list? Which black and female artists merit inclusion? Send your suggestions in now...

Here are the full results of the British Hit Singles and Albums and NME.com survey to find the greatest 100 albums of all time:

1. Definitely Maybe, Oasis

2. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, The Beatles

3. Revolver, The Beatles

4. OK Computer, Radiohead

5. (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis

6. Nevermind, Nirvana

7. The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses

8. Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd

9. The Queen Is Dead, Smiths

10. The Bends, Radiohead

11. The Joshua Tree, U2

12. London Calling, The Clash

13. The Beatles (The White Album), The Beatles

14. Abbey Road, The Beatles

15. Up The Bracket, The Libertines

16. Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols

17. Four Symbols (Led Zeppelin IV), Led Zeppelin

18. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, David Bowie

19. A Night At The Opera, Queen

20. Is This It, The Strokes

21. Hot Fuss, The Killers

22. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys

23. Grace, Jeff Buckley

24. The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers

25. Bat Out Of Hell, MeatLoaf

26. Appetite For Destruction, Guns N' Roses

27. Employment, Kaiser Chiefs

28. Rubber Soul, The Beatles

29. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

30. The Libertines, The Libertines

31. Urban Hymns, The Verve

32. American Idiot, Green Day

33. A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay

34. Parklife, Blur

35. Thriller, Michael Jackson

36. The Wall, Pink Floyd

37. Automatic For The People, R.E.M.

38. Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand

39. Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield

40. Achtung Baby, U2

41. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd

42. Exile On Main Street, The Rolling Stones

43. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel

44. Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin

45. Parallel Lines, Blondie

46. Brothers In Arms, Dire Straits

47. Blood On The Tracks, Bob Dylan

48. Hunky Dory, David Bowie

49. X&Y, Coldplay

50. Who's Next, The Who

51. Hopes And Fears, Keane

52. Parachutes, Coldplay

53. Arrival, Abba

54. Different Class, Pulp

55. The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground

56. Forever Changes, Love

57. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye

58. Let It Bleed, The Rolling Stones

59. Elephant, The White Stripes

60. Doolittle, Pixies

61. Absolution, Muse

62. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John

63. Sheer Heart Attack, Queen

64. Come On Over, Shania Twain

65. Sign 'o' The Times, Prince

66. Ten, Pearl Jam

67. Kasabian, Kasabian

68. Dookie, Green Day

69. Origin Of Symmetry, Muse

70. Hounds Of Love, Kate Bush

71. Blonde On Blonde, Bob Dylan

72. All Mod Cons, The Jam

73. Blue, Joni Mitchell

74. White Blood Cells, The White Stripes

75. Dog Man Star, Suede

76. Metallica (the Black Album), Metallica

77. Dare!, Human League

78. Closer, Joy Division

79. In Utero, Nirvana

80. Back In Black, AC/DC

81. Funeral, Arcade Fire

82. Up All Night, Razorlight

83. Ray Of Light, Madonna

84. Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen

85. Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin

86. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Arctic Monkeys

87. A Day At The Races, Queen

88. The Lexicon Of Love, ABC

89. Spice, Spice Girls

90. Violator, Depeche Mode

91. Final Straw, Snow Patrol

92. Electric Warrior, T. Rex

93. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette

94. Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division

95. Kid A, Radiohead

96. Out Of The Blue, Electric Light Orchestra

97. The Smiths, The Smiths

98. Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix

99. Rage Against The Machine, Rage Against The Machine

100. Hotel California, Eagles