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24 Apr 2006
Eyeballkid's Single of the Week
Psapp - Tricycle (Domino)
 Utterly
charming lo-fi pop down to the light-of-touch production values
and live feel. Psapp are London-based duo Carim Clasman and Galia
Durant who create their sweet take on electronic folk on a variety
of non-conventional instruments and pieces of furniture (is that
a packet of toasted almonds in the second verse?). Sounds gimmicky
but the acoustic guitar melody ties the whole thing together, aided
by Durant's winning vocals.
Watch the video to Tricycle here
King Biscuit Time - Kwangchow
(No Style)
A testament to the fact that whatever they add to the water in the
Scottish Highlands should be systematically prescribed to the rest
of the nation's supply in place of fluoride, this latest single
from former Beta Band front man Steve Mason is a little gem. Less
utterly out there than last single C I AM 15, this is instantly
recognisable as fruit from the loins of the man who produced psychedelic
classics Dr Baker and Dry the Rain. A slice of pop perfection.
Doloroso - High Times in
Middle Management
(Trial & Error)
A possible contender for Eyeballkid's Best Title award, High Times
in Middle Management is a pithy tale of an innocent young acid casualty
who is waylaid, Dick Turpin style by a femme fatale whose day job
involves aforementioned middle management. Lyrically dry ("she
said a second hand car will never get that far / if you drive it
to the end of a long weekend") and sonically like a standoff
between Calexico and the Afghan Whigs, for the duration of this
intriguing mariachi-driven melody, middle management sounds dangerously
attractive.
Ralfe Band - Women of Japan
(Skint)
Upbeat waltz-along country in the vein of the Palace Brothers, Ralfe
Band deserve a special mention if only for daring use of cowbells
on this single. God knows what they're on about, it's all a bit
stream of consciousness, what with dancing the tango with an old
woman with no face and pointing sticks across oceans. There's also
a bit about a man who drowned all the children in Iraq. Maybe there's
a deep socio-political metaphor in there that's just that little
bit too obtuse for Eyeballkid but regardless, if line dancing should
come back into fashion, we nominate this as our
soundtrack.
Watch the video to Women of Japan here
Dirty Pretty Things - Bang
Bang You're Dead (EMI)
Message in the title aimed at anyone in particular, we wonder? Instead
of getting involved in a public slagging match with his ex-bandmate,
Carl Barat simply gets on with doing what he was always doing -
making music. And pretty decent it is too - a trumpet driven intro,
Clash-influenced guitar riffs and lyrics that are infinitely superior
to the nonsensical warblings of a pitiful junkie ("oh I give
you a Midas touch / and you turn round and scratch out my eyes").
It's refreshing to see that Barat can rely on his musical skills
to create interest, in place of tabloid tales and dribbling pseudo-poetry.
words: Niamh Murray
17 Apr 2006
Eyeballkid's Single of the Week
Coldcut feat. Roots Manuva
- True Skool (Ninja Tune)
 Surely
Coldcut's best attempt at chart domination since the days of Yazz
and the Plastic Population, the latest single from their
Sound Mirrors album is relentlessly
catchy and toe tapping to boot. Cuts meet camels in this Egyptian-inspired
hatful of happy, with Roots Manuva's singalong melody line bound
to bring a smile to the most sceptical of hearts. A sure sign that
summer is on the way, True Skool is light, upbeat and already a
guaranteed soundtrack for this year. (NM)
Wolfmother - Dimension (Island)
Fuzzy haired Aussie rockers reviving the fuzzy guitared Ozzy rock
that seemed long forgotten in the swirling haze of the 70s. It's
all your Deep Purple fantasies come
true so I guess your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance to
yelping, portentous stoner rock. To be fair Wolfmother are honest
in their pastiche and there's no ironic posturing like The
Darkness did with hair metal. Dimension matches deep, distorted
guitars with a stomping blues rhythm and vague mystic lyrics involving
horses, angels and purple hazes. Solid rock. (CL)
The Immediate - Make Our
Devils Flow EP
(Fantastic Plastic)
Wicked electro guitar pop from young Dublin four-piece The Immediate
that calls for an Adam Ant revival,
and long overdue it is. It's all thanks to a school caretaker who
introduced vocalists and guitarists Conor
O'Brien and Dave Hedderman to
the finer points of guitar music - Can,
The Velvet Underground and er, Adam
& the Ants? Well they're not admitting to that one, but
Don't You Ever, the lead song on this
four track EP, owes more than a pinch of inspiration to Stand
and Deliver. As for military costuming and red warstripe
make-up, you'll have to catch The Immediate live to see how far
they've taken the homage. (NM)
Justice - Waters of Nazareth
(Because / Ed Banger)
Choppy French industrial techno in the vein of Motorbass's
more minimalist moments. Not a gospel choir in sight. Pity. There's
a church organ though as consolation (musical, not spiritual). (NM)
MC Lars - Download This
Song (Nettwerk)
MC Lars is a Brooklyn based "post-punk laptop rapper",
which basically means he is a one-man Blink
182 without the singing. Download This Song is part of his
campaign to free music from its traditional bonds and in that familiar
whiny post-punk voice he makes valid, if obvious, points about record
labels thinking it was still 1992, anticipates the demise of CDs
and DVDs and looks forward to the download revolutions "new
artist model" meaning anyone can release their own music. All
good things surely. Yeah right, listen to this shit track that barely
manages to wobble to its feet thanks to the wholesale (and we're
presuming, unauthorized) use of Iggy Pop's
The Passenger, and you'll think that maybe having some fat
cat record label boss saying "no" to whiny little brats
every so often isn't a bad thing. (CL)
10 Apr 2006
Eyeballkid's Single of the Week
The Maccabees - Latchmere
(Fierce Panda)
 Christianity,
now there's a new wave idea. The Maccabees though could represent
the old wave given that their name comes from that of the Jewish
tribe whose revolt against their Seleucid rulers in the second century
BC is celebrated at Hanukkah (from my head or the third option on
Google? You decide). The Maccabees aren't a Christian rock band
(though confusingly there is another English band called Maccabees
who are - my head or first option on Google? You decide.) but they
are certainly new wave. Latchmere is a pulsating, fiery number with
a bass line that throbs to anthemic lyrics about a South London
leisure centre. Yes "Latchmere's got a wave machine",
but those demanding choruses of "please return to your cubicle"
and "stay in your lanes" make it sound like a fascist
hell. (CL)
The Bleeding Hearts - You
Bring Me To My Knees (Mother Tongue)
The musical equivalent of a Dear John letter, suitably named Londoners,
The Bleeding Hearts decide to break up with their girlfriends in
the form of their latest single, rather than having the guts to
do it in person. Documenting the moment when you realise it's just
not working and never
will. When you're tired of pretending and something has to give.
Most people go for a pint (public place - no scenes of overwrought
emotion etc.) and face to face, do the decent thing. The Bleeding
Hearts instead compose an altogether passable piece of pop to convey
the message instead. The message you're left with is - satisfactory
songwriters, pathetic human beings. (NM)
The Fratellis - Creeping
Up the Backstairs (Island)
Highly touted after signing to Island Records Glaswegian trio The
Fratellis release their first material. They start off jaunty and
jangly like The Zutons but proceed
to venture into all territories rock, from -a-billy to 'n'roll.
It's all pleasantly haphazard and unruly, reeling from handclaps
and pounding guitars to chanting verses, all while remaining on
the right side of commercial. (CL)
Jackson Analogue - West
of Here EP (Island)
Well it seems that Soundgarden, when
they died, decided to hang around the ether for a while waiting
for their moment to be reincarnated as Jackson Analogue. Either
that or someone is wearing leathers a size or, two on the wee size
as this screams with the kind of agonised rock vocal that is only
created by restricted trouserage. Bravely unfashionable in the musical
sense, unfortunately there's no photo of the band included to clarify
whether they've adopted the poodle perm to go with the pantaloons,
but it's a fair bet. (NM)
Brian Kennedy - Every Song
is a Cry for Love (Curb)
And we've been studiously ignoring them all. Ireland's Eurovision
entry. Like Mistletoe and Wine without
Richard's class. Looks like we're still
making sure we don't win the damn thing again. (CL)
03 Apr 2006
Eyeballkid's Single of the Week
Mocky feat Feist - Fighting
Away the Tears
(Fine)
 Canadian
Dominic Salole aka Mocky has previously
recorded songs with the likes of Jamie Liddell
and Taylor Savvy. Current collaborator
Leslie Feist has a voice like melted
Valhrona chocolate - lush, silky, delicious and intensely bad for
you. Fighting Away the Tears is a mellow reflection on love and
loss with a son-influenced rhythm, which adds to the sun-drenched
melancholy that is as whistfully loss-tinged as it is sweet and
soulful. (NM)
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
(WEA)
Much-hyped collaboration between Gorillaz
producer and maker of the mischievous Grey
Album, Danger Mouse and Southern soul machine Cee-Lo;
the hype steming from the fact that it's become the first single
to make it to number one in the UK charts solely by downloads. At
some point we'll have to become wary of internet-led breakthroughs
but for now the digital gold record rush is still sifting for quality.
Crazy is a sad and soulful song similar to the moody blues lifted
by Moby on his Play
album. Cee-Lo's voice has all the understated anguish of a true
soul singer, while the quietly pacing groove is haunting. It may
be an example of the growing power of downloads, but this song would
surely have been a hit however it was sold. (CL)
Belle & Sebastian -
The Blues Are Still Blue
(Rough Trade)
Belle & Sebastian offer a genteel version of The
Rolling Stones in their honky tonk days with the new single
from their recent seventh album The Life Pursuit.
You could say this refined take on the blues is a bit more Tom
Petty but as ever B&S always add something interesting
to their stylistic bases. Here it's the surprising melodies and
lyrics on the value of separating your colours and whites. Very
catchy, very good, very Belle & Sebastian. (CL)
Watch the video here
Warren G feat. B Real &
Snoop Dogg - Get U Down (Universal)
Delightfully smooth hip-hop from Warren G - like a golden years
revisit to the sound of Regulate. On
Get U Down the groove is the same but the vibe is different. Lyrically
its about Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War and the US penal system,
but the reality is that it is the hustle of a man sitting in a mansion
with the MTV Cribs crew checking out
his cars in the garage. Dreamy horns and the snug groove make it
sound like a hip-hop Walk on By, while
Snoop has a walk on part to talk about the American football team
he owns and for whom he set up his own competition - the Snooperbowl.
(CL)
The Zutons - Why Won't You
Give Me Your Love? (Sony)
The Zutons return with a new single. The big riff intro makes your
think they'd lost their jauntiness but it quickly returns with a
bouncing rhythm and the incongruous sax adding a touch of the strange
to their pleasant pop riffs. It drops a little with the half-hearted
return to the heavy stuff on the chorus but The Zutons as interesting
and inspired as ever. (CL )
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