We've been digging the new EP Happy As Can Be from New Zealand's Cut Off Your Hands. The EP is due out here in the U.S. this Tuesday and contains the following tracks -
1) You Still Love Me 2) Happy As Can Be 3) Shorelines 4) Nostalgia 5) (Hidden Track)
You Still Love Me stands out as our favorite so far.
Happy As Can Be will also appear on the band's upcoming album You and I due January 2009. Bernard Butler of Suede fame produced.
A band to watch for sure. The EP has made it into our heavy, heavy rotation.
Gonna be in NYC this week for CMJ? Check the guys out at one of the below shows -
10/21 -
8pm - The Delancey New Zealand Showcase 10/23 - 4pm - Continental Army
Plaza Todd P Party 10/24 - 9pm - Cake Shop New York Noise Showcase 10/25 - 4pm -Glasslands Daytrotter/Snowghost Party 10/25 - 12am -
Public Assembly Crashin' In Party
This is a band we really want to catch live so until they have a Los Angeles based date check them out for us New Yorkers.
An older video for Expectations but it gives you an idea of the band -
Fred Perry released a special limited-edition Terry Hall V-neck sweater recently. The sweater is based on a very classic image of Hall in The Face magazine. The image (seen above) originally appeared in the debut issue of the magazine in 1980.
Only 500 of these beauties were created and they are available now until the supplies run out in black or maroon.
Take a peek below at Hall today wearing the new version of the classic -
The Specials are one of our top all time favorite bands. Hall was a style-god for British mod culture back in the 1970's/early 80's and this sweater pays tribute to the master of it all! Fingers crossed for a reunion one day?
Even cooler,Mod Culture is giving away one of the Fred Perry sweater's signed by Hall himself! Check it out and check out the Mod Culture site here. We just came across it last week and we are kind of obsessed with it now. Bookmark it folks.
Purchase your own right now at Fred Perry. The sweater comes in a limited edition collector's box as well. Hurry up before they are all snatched up.
In celebration of the upcoming Letters To Cleoreuniontour the band just released limited edition, handmade and numbered tour posters for each of the five shows. Got to say, lovin' the artwork on these. To purchase one of your very own click here. Counting the days until the Los Angeles show. The Roxy, Los Angeles, November 8th
Our random video of the week feature seems to have taken a two week break. Never fear however as it is back in full swing and as random as ever.
I recently came across my old 45 for Buffalo Stance. I had forgotten how much I loved this song. Neneh Cherry was the hippest chick back in the day and the song? It still holds to this day - not too dated and retro in just the best way.
Random fact - Neneh's half brother is musician Eagle-Eye Cherry, remember him?
Trashcan Sinatras released their new single Oranges and Apples today via iTunes and other fine download shops. The song appears on the band's upcoming album In The Music due Spring of next year. It was written as a tribute to the late Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd. Proceeds from download sales will go to Syd's charityEscape Artists. Good music for a great cause. You can't go wrong here. More info on Escape Artists and the upcoming City Wakes tribute to Syd here.
Guitarist John Douglas has this to say about Syd and the track itself -
"In the months after Syd's passing, I became entranced and intrigued again by him and his wonderful unique work. A friend of mine, the great English songwriter Boo Hewerdine, lives in Cambridge and had told me of seeing Syd on occasion riding around town on his bike (in fact, on one occasion, Syd fell off his bike and Boo helped him get back up and on his way). He seemed to enjoy a degree of anonymity, and the local tradesmen spoke highly of him and he seemed to be happy. This picture of Syd seemed at odds with the historically documented version. I was relieved and pleased to discover that Syd had found a degree of peace and 'normality' in his years there."
"I was very touched by his personal effects from his house. A fund raising sale of some of his household items by auction was held, and the auction house had photographs and descriptions of each item available to view online. Syd had personally adapted pretty much everything in his house, from the stereo to the chest of drawers to his bikes and wheelbarrow... all had been re-painted, re-designed or, somehow, made more personal by Syd. His highly individual attitude to song-writing was, it seemed, a reflection of his attitude to life in general."
"Through dwelling on these things in admiration, the song 'Oranges and Apples' appeared."
Some months later I was fortunate to run into Allan Brown, a Sunday Times journalist living in Glasgow. Allan had bought a chest of drawers and one of Syd's paint brushes at the auction and he gave me a tube of paint owned by Syd and allowed me to be photographed with the chest. We spoke for hours about Syd and my feelings about him were re-enforced. I will forever treasure the tube of paint!"
A video for Oranges and Apples was released today as well. Listen and watch below, the Trashcans are back! Fingers crossed for a Los Angeles show next year.
More on In The Music, Carly Simon guesting, and the long awaited album reissues in our post here.
English rockers Boy Kill Boy are calling it quits. In a note via a MySpace bulletin vocalist/guitarist Chris Peck had this and many other things to say -
IN SHORT WE'VE SPLIT UP.
Basically like many other bands we kinda got sucked into some sort of decision made by 'the powers that be' that guitar bands are 'over'. The label got shakey and decided to start chasing whatever they're told is gonna be the next big thing and as a result, we got dropped, just a month after the record was released.
We obviously were completely fucking broken about it. At the time being we all know the industry is in a bit of a state, to say the least, so really everything is being run by a few people. Until 'the professional music industry business people' work out how to sell their artists, really all you can do is just gig your ass off and reach as many people as possible, and that's just what we did. But even still bit by bit, we could feel ourselves being buried alive. No matter how hard we tried to pull ourselves out, there was just another familiar face ready to throw another pile on. Too bad really. We quite liked the band's debut Civilian and we saw them open for the Charlatans once and they put on a great show. Looking forward to seeing what the guys may add to the world of music in new incarnations.
If Madness, The Specials and The Beat all had a child together it might sound a little like The Rumble Strips. A little bit ska and a little bit rock n' roll, The Strips will produce some skankin' little beats this Wednesday night at Spaceland for your dancing pleasure.
Their debut Girls and Weather is out now.
Motorcycle has got to be our favorite song from the guys - just a retro 2-Tone vibe all over it. We've developed a small obsession with it.
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