New Music / French band, Cocoon

October 14, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

We’re big fans of French duo Cocoon, so we spoke to frontman Marc Daumail to prove it. Ahead of their upcoming tour of Australia in November, we asked him how vibrant the French music scene is right now: ‘It’s such a relief to be considered like a real band singing in English in a country like France, which is very conservative about its music traditions. We know Moriarty and The Do. They are nice. We all worked a lot to make this scene exist’. Which folk acts have most excited you recently? ‘My albums of the year are not very folky: Grizzly Bear, Lee Fields, The XX. But The Tallest Man On Earth just made one of the best folk albums of all time’. Read Cocoon’s Secret Playlist.

New Prizes / Arctic Monkeys Humbug giveaway

August 25, 2009 | New Prizes | by Zolton |

We like monkeys. But we like Arctic Monkeys more. To celebrate the release of their new album, Humbug, we have a very cool prize-pack featuring a Humbug LP, poster, badges and a 7″ and 10″ for Crying Lightning. Just leave a message under this post saying why you really, really want one. Read more

New Events / Rare Michael Jackson Motown radio session

July 7, 2009 | New Events | by Casper Johansson |

From the Motown archives, this is a rare radio session recorded in the early 70s and featuring the original Jackson 5 — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — all interviewing one another. During the podcast you’ll hear a very young sounding Michael talk about his favorite sports, bands, even what he looks for in a girl – all an instinctive brotherly banter, providing a nice reminder of where it all began. [Michael Jackson sculpture by Jeff Koons]

New Music / Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

June 15, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs are primarily remembered for the song Wooly Bully, but I’ve been incessantly listening to Little Red Riding Hood. As a metalhead, any song that features howling makes me happy.

New Music / Miike Snow

June 11, 2009 | New Music | by Kate Barnett |

Miike Snow is a collaborative effort from three well-established producers — Andrew Wyatt, Christian Karlsson, and Pontus Winnberg. Together they are a powerhouse, producing electro pop classics for huge artists. They penned Britney Spears’, Toxic, for instance. Though we won’t hold that against them. Their first solo album is vastly different. It’s an incredible multi-layered masterpiece, far deeper than any of the chorus pop pieces they’ve written for other artists.

New Music / The Shangri-Las are Out In The Streets

February 2, 2009 | New Music | by DM Stith |

The period between 1:22 – 1:43 in The Shangri-Las’ track, Out In The Streets, is a miracle. I’ve never been so obsessed with twenty seconds of high-hat and high school girl shrieks: it’s a raging teenage fantasy that all the composition notebooks in all the lockers of 1965 couldn’t write better. That the singers have managed to preserve their naivety perfectly in this three minute song may be the reason I feel recording pop music is worthwhile.

January 30, 2009 | Video | by Zolton |

I put together a few mix CDs for a friend’s party the other week and had to include this track from the Modfather himself, Paul Weller, during his Style Council period, which marked the second distinct phase of his ever-changing career. Weller may have disavowed much of his back catalogue, but for the rest of us, there’s still much pleasure to be had living vicariously through soulful, introspective moments like these.

New Music / Findlay Brown’s Love You Will Find You

January 30, 2009 | New Music | by Casper Johansson |

A former bare-knuckle boxer from Yorkshire, England (for real), Findlay Brown was heralded by many as the UK’s answer to Jose Gonzales when his debut album, Separated By The Sea, was released on Peacefrog Records in 2007. Love Will Find You moves beyond his earlier folk sound to a more ambitious — and soulful — place. Produced by Bernard Butler (Suede), the album features songs that are lush and intimate, influenced as much by Phil Spector and Ennio Morricone as by Roy Orbison or The Beatles. The album came together while Brown was stuck on his sister’s couch nursing a broken leg, having been run over by a cab driver: ‘I’d already started going back and listening to a lot of records I’d grown up on, like Elvis Presley, soul music, doo wop, Phil Spector, The Righteous Brothers and the like. I had an idea about making a modern record influenced by the songwriting of the late 50s and early 60s. I just started writing, trying to work out what made a universally great song, like Stand By Me. These new songs are the first part of that process’. You can download his new single, Holding Back The Night, for free in our Music Download section.

New Music / Luke Jackson’s debut album, And Then Some

January 27, 2009 | New Music | by Casper Johansson |

In the Spring of 2006, a seven-year email correspondence culminated in the meeting of Luke Jackson and Magnus Börjeson. Jackson had long been a devoted fan of two of the Swedish musician’s former bands: Beagle and Favorita, and the two songwriters finally met in Paris where Börjeson was mid-tour playing in The Cardigans. By the end of the weekend, Jackson had accepted an invitation to record in Sweden, which he took up in January 2008. He set to work in the studio with Magnus on bass and Christoffer’s Brainpool bandmate Jens Jansson on drums. Upon his return to London, he sent the rough mixes of the songs to renowned London-based string arranger Robert Kirby (who has orchestrated works by Nick Drake, Elvis Costello, and Elton John). Kirby loved the songs and offered to write orchestrations for the album and accompany Jackson to Sweden to conduct the necessary recording sessions with nine players from Malmö’s Opera Orchestra. It is the collision of these two worlds which makes his album, And Then Some, so compelling. Densely layered guitars and vocal harmonies fuse with sweeping string lines, none of which ever draw the ear too far from what lies at the heart of Jackson’s music.

Cool Websites / Land Of Talk’s Secret Playlist [psst, they like Bon Iver]

January 27, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Zolton |

Red hot Montreal band Land of Talk feature Elizabeth Powell, a former punk who got her start playing her own anti-rock anthems on the local scene of Guelph, Ontario, during her mid-teens. We got the inside word from her on the tunes that inspire Land of Talk’s own high energy frock and roll. The first track she propped was, drum roll please, Bon Iver’s hauntingly evocative, Re:Stacks: ‘This song changed my course, emotionally. I can’t tell you how, but it levelled me. Everyone I’ve played it for, or who has heard it, has had the same or similar reactions. This is a song I will listen to well into my twilight years’. Read the rest of Land Of Talk’s Secret Playlist.

New Music / Setting Sun cover Tom Petty’s You Got Lucky

January 27, 2009 | New Music | by Casper Johansson |

Setting Sun’s cover of Tom Petty’s You Got Lucky was recently released as part of Buffet Libre DJ’s compilation CD, Rewind 2. Says frontman, Gary Levitt, of their version on the song: ‘We got back from our European tour on Christmas Eve with a December 27th deadline for the track looming. It was finally started on December 26th and then sent off completed the next day. It was a great exercise in having to let some things go. That’s twenty-four hours out the door complete, old school style. That’s how records used to be made. Motown, baby, MOTOWN!’ We have the song for free download in our Music Download section [psst, it's in the third column of the site]

Cool Websites / Cocoon’s Secret Playlist

January 24, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Zolton |

We checked in with Mark Daumail from French duo Cocoon to find out what music he’s been getting down to lately: ‘Emily Jane White’s song the Demon [listen below] is beautiful. She must have listened to Cat Power and Fiona Apple too much, but it made her write better songs than them!’ Read the rest of Mark Daumail’s Secret Playlist.

New Music / Ben Lee really, really loves Pop Music

January 22, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

Australian singer-songwriter — and occasional Lost At E Minor contributor — Ben Lee has a new album, The Rebirth of Venus, and will be co-headlining the Big O university shows across Australia from late February to early March. On top of that, he got hitched in India recently. No wonder he’s glowing. We checked in with him to ask about his latest single, I Love Pop Music, and whether he recalled the moment of epiphany when he wrote its timeless sing-along chorus: ‘I had a less politically loaded version of the song that was a sincere tribute to pop music. It was only when I juxtaposed that with all the statistics and facts that the chorus really seemed to take on a feeling of being special. Bubblegum tastes best after a salty snack’.

New Music / Muscles’ Guns Babes Lemonade

January 20, 2009 | New Music | by Ben Lee |

Muscles is doing a remix of my single I Love Pop Music and I’m really excited to hear what he comes up with. He’s a new electronic artist from Australia and he’s full of piss and vinegar. He’s got that youthful Manchester-esque arrogance that makes rock n’ roll sound life-changing, all set to a surprisingly retro style. Check out his album Guns Babes Lemonade. It’s sort of like thug pop techno made for big teddy bears.

Cool Websites / My Secret Playlist: Weezer’s Mikey Welsh

January 17, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Zolton |

Former bassist of Weezer, Mikey Welsh, has since reinvented himself as a successful artist. We covered his recent exhibition at Rhode Island’s Montanaro Gallery and checked in with him to get his Secret Playlist, a rundown of the tunes that spin while he’s working on one of his canvasses. The first track on his Playlist is the frenetic Minutemen song, Search: ‘Clocking in at 51 seconds, The Minutemen lay down all the goods that made them one of the best bands in history. This track features throbbing, melodic bass from Mike Watt, glass-breaking guitar from D. Boon, and tom-tom heavy swirls from George Hurley. Watt takes the mic for this one, at times sounding a bit like David Byrne. Almost as soon as you get your head around this tune, it’s done’. Read more of Mikey Welsh’s Secret Playlist.