Interviews and Features

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Greetings and a very Merry Xmas to all from THE POPSCENER! Hot 5 at 5 will be back in the New Year, but in the meantime here are a few interviews/features I have been conducting/writing elsewhere recently. Enjoy!

The Antlers @ Subba-Cultcha.com

Official Secrets Act @ Subba-Cultcha.com

Trailer Trash Tracys @ Spoonfed.co.uk

Gig Guide for 2010 @ Spoonfed.co.uk

Records of 2009: Artists' Choice @ Spoonfed.co.uk


Feel free to tweet it all around the interweb etc...

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL!!

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***This week THE POPSCENER picks out some cracking Xmas alternatives that demand to be heard***

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART IV (24/12)

The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I don't want to fight tonight)
The Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas
Mew - She Came Home for Christmas
The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song
The Who - Christmas


Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART IV (24/12)

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL!!

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***This week THE POPSCENER picks out some cracking Xmas alternatives that demand to be heard***

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART III (23/12)

The Kinks - Father Christmas
Eazy-E - Merry Muthaf*ckin Xmas
The Vandals - My First Xmas as a Woman
Low - Just Like Christmas
The Flaming Lips - A Change at Christmas

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART III (23/12)

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL!!

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***This week THE POPSCENER picks out some cracking Xmas alternatives that demand to be heard***

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART II (22/12)

The Wombats - Is This Christmas
The Knife - Reindeer
Fountains of Wayne - I Want an Alien for Christmas
Seasick Steve - Xmas Prison Blues
The Fall - Xmas With Simon

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART II (22/12)

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL!!

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***This week THE POPSCENER picks out some cracking Xmas alternatives that demand to be heard***

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART I (21/12)

Sufjan Stevens - That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!

Manic Street Preachers - Last Christmas (live)

Eels - Christmas is Going to the Dogs

Blink-182 - I Won't Be Home for Christmas

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

Hot 5 at 5 - XMAS SPECIAL PART I (21/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (20/12)

Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself
Holding its own

Compulsion - Mall Monarchy
Compulsive

Sleeping States - Rivers
Flowing

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Tunguska
Eat this

The Duckworth Lewis Method - Flatten the Hay
Method in the madness

Hot 5 at 5 (20/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (19/12)

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark
Shines a light

I Blame Coco - 18 With a Bullet
I Blame Sting

Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart
Key listening

Weezer - Across the Sea
Transatlantic geek-offs

Sleeper - Delicious
Tasty

Hot 5 at 5 (19/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (18/12)

Taken by Trees - Sweet Child O' Mine
Familiar

Noisettes - Never Forget You
Unforgettable

Kurran and the Wolfnotes - Whatabitch
Whatagoodsong

Razorlight - Pop Song 2006
Does exactly what it says on the tin

The Lemonheads - Hannah and Gabi
Wistful

Hot 5 at 5 (18/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (17/12)

Chisel - Your Star Is Killing Me
Perfectly sculpted

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
Wild

Cake - Hem Of Your Garment
Unhealthy yet addictive

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe
Not to be confused with Hey Jude

Lulu & The Lampshades - Feet to the Sky
Dreamy

Hot 5 at 5 (17/12)

Short Cuts! New Releases 14/12/09

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*** Brief run-down of this week’s new releases, including track recommendations from THE POPSCENER***

Former Ghosts – Fleurs

One could – and some certainly will – attempt to provide a grandiloquent celebration of this collection of ambient, murky, and occasionally noisy electronica. However, reduced to its constituent parts, this is the Postal Service’s whirs, clicks and dance-claps with Ian Curtis vocals and a similarly miserable post-punk outlook. Luckily for Former Ghosts, it mostly works, only becoming tiresome when the female vocalist is allowed to wail along too prominently in the foreground.  Free advice for Former Ghosts: don’t let her next time.

Choice Cuts: ‘Mother’, ‘Hold On’

7/10

Alicia Keys – The Element of Freedom

Where Keys’ last offering, As I Am, tentatively opened doors between her piano based balladry and a genuine pop career, this one goes one further: it moves beyond the average domain of R’n’B infused pop to create something smart and inventive. The growling synths that lurk in the background of songs like the splendid ‘Wait Till You See My Smile’ rather suit Keys slightly breathy vocals, the limitations of which mercifully prevent the seemingly de rigueur tonsil hysterics of her contemporaries. Bravo! Next task: fix the rhyming-dictionary lyrical nadirs (“Night/Right/Right/Fight/Night” from ‘This Bed’ – ouch).

Choice Cuts: ‘Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart’, ‘Wait Till You See My Smile’

7.5/10

Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind

Although armed with the same schizophrenic rhythms and scatterbrained sounds, Fall Be Kind sounds ever so slightly warmer to me than this year’s full lengther. Unfortunately, for all the kudos, I still really couldn’t care less for the band’s laboriously cluttered prog take on indie-electronica. Thanks to the hype I specifically gave this one extra spins, but it turns out I was right all along: this IS overrated pap with occasional flashes of worth – principally ‘On a Highway’, which sounds just enough like Sonic Youth for the iPod generation to appease me into giving it a bonus point.

Choice Cuts: ‘On a Highway’, ‘Graze’

6/10

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (14/12)

The Barracudas - Don't Let Go
Lingering

Sonic Youth - Tunic (Song for Karen)
Sonically charged

The Horrors - Sea Within a Sea
Fluid

The XX - Islands
Stoic

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
Efficient

Hot 5 at 5 (14/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (12/12)

Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Chilling

Stephen Malkmus - Jenny & The Ess-Dog
Man's best friend

A Place to Bury Strangers - Missing You
Miss it; miss out

My Bloody Valentine - To Here Knows When
Hazy

Rx Bandits - 1980
Retro

Hot 5 at 5 (12/12)

Short Cuts! New Releases7/12/09

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*** Brief run-down of this week’s new releases, including track recommendations from THE POPSCENER***

Comanechi – Crime of Love

A reckless attempt at avant-garde punk, this bassless fuzz careers along with White Stripesian insouciance but lacks the requisite pulse to endure. As noisey as it is tone deaf, the pervading headache of the music is permeated only by piercing vocals which rather recall a nuisance pneumatic drill’s affect on an existing hangover. At ninety seconds this racket is annoying, at six minutes (see final track ‘R.O.M.P’) it’s unbearable.  Prize for most apt song title: ‘Why?’.

Choice Cuts: ‘Naked’

2.5/10

30 Seconds to Mars – This Is War

The actor turns singer-songwriter-bandleader paradigm never has anyone coming up smelling particularly of roses (Keanu anyone?!), so credit to Jared Leto’s crew that they have survived to a third album. Nevertheless, as can be expected from an actor turned singer-songwriter-bandleader, here the lyrics are the usual emo guff and the songwriting formulaic, with Leto covering his bases from Linkin Park (‘Night of the Hunter’) to My Chemical Romance (‘A Call to Arms’). That said, the vocals are credible – best served on the shameless U2/Bono rips ‘Kings and Queens’, ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Alibi’.  More appropriate album title: This is U2 (sort of).

Choice Cuts: ‘Kings and Queens’

5.5/10

BlakRoc – BlakRoc

This rock/hip-hop/rap crossover protests loudly that it arose from organic beginnings – wunderkind producer Damon Dash supposedly decided the Black Keys were his new favourite band and decided to have them cut a record with a plethora of rappers. Regardless of the fact that the whole concept and sound barely updates the blueprint of beatsy guitar grooves built tall with rapping bon mots popularized by The Roots and more recently sent into hyperspace by Madcon’s ‘Beggin You’, it largely works. For every turgid ‘Coochie’, there’s a glorious ‘On The Vista’, and either way, as Pharoahe Monche suggests, “if it don’t make dollaz, then it don’t make sense”, right?

Choice Cuts: ‘On The Vista’, ‘Stay Off the Fuckin’ Flowers’

7/10

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (7/12)

Napoleon IIIrd - Zebra
Earns its stripes

BlakRoc feat. Mos Def - On the Vista
On my lista

Arcade Fire - Intervention
Timely

Royksopp - What Else is There (Thin White Duke Mix)
What else do you need?

Eddy Grant - Living on the Frontline
Wishes Grant-ed

Hot 5 at 5 (7/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (6/12)

The Replacements - Left of the Dial
Able replacement

The Chemical Brothers - Close Your Eyes
Addictive

Sebadoh - Violet Execution
Well executed

Eels - Not Ready Yet
A fishy dishy

Redd Kross - Mess Around
Deadd Kool

Hot 5 at 5 (6/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (5/12)

Digitalism - Pogo
Bouncy

Finley Quaye - Even After All
Coming back for afters

Mystery Jets - Diamonds in the Dark
Diamond in the rough

Tilly and the Wall - Beat Control
Mind Control

David Bowie - Sound and Vision
Visionary

Hot 5 at 5 (5/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (3/12)

The Sunshine Underground - Borders
Stately

McAlmont and Butler - Yes
YES!

Local Natives - Airplanes
Uninhibited

Dead Kennedys - Moon Over Marin
Over the Moon

Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves
Passionate

Hot 5 at 5 (3/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (2/12)

Official Secrets Act - So Tomorrow
The Secret's Out

Shoes for Industry - Invasion of the French Boyfriends
Tres Bien

Reflekt feat. Delline Bass - Need to Feel Loved
Hypnotic

The Weakerthans - Plea from a Cat Named Virtue
Strong

Ultravox - Vienna
Capital effort

Hot 5 at 5 (2/12)

Hot 5 at 5

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***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (1/12)

Van Morrison - Sweet Thing
Sugary

Dananananaykroyd - Infinity Milk
Milk 'n' cookies

Seal - Killer
Deadly

Supergrass - Ghost of  a Friend
Familiar

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - Sheriff Fatman
Rude

Hot 5 at 5 (1/12)

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Short Cuts! - New Releases 30/11/09

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*** 50 word run-downs of this week’s new releases, including track recommendations from THE POPSCENER***

Attack of the compilations! It must be Christmas soon...

Fall Out Boy – Believers Never Die

Obligatory Greatest Hits compilation following a fifteen minutes of fame but that’s now lasted 6 years and apparently sold 12 million (!) records. Remains predominantly for people who like their emo sugary; or their pop angsty – teenagers, then – but the best ones (those from Under the Cork Tree and ‘Thnks fr th Mmrs’) at least threaten to challenge the homogeneous arse-end of Generation Y appeal. And in spite of myself I find a toe tapping away to the ‘Beat It’ cover, providing I ignore the John Mayer co-credit. Docked a point for the nauseatingly twee/ clever-clever-but-not-actually-that-clever song titles, but overall not too bad.

Best Tracks: 'Sugar, We're Goin Down', 'Thnks fr th Mmrs'

6/10

 

The Bravery – Stir The Blood

A case study in overwrought try-hardiness and affected vocals, Sam Endicott still believes he’s Marc Almond playing in a punk band. Sure, it’s outmoded, jaded, and self-important, but you’ll hear far worse than the first half of this record. Whilst side B is weaker, the derision with which these lot are treated does rather beg the question – why is everyone making such a big deal about The Big Pink when they so often sound EXACTLY THE SAME? Prophetic line: “I can still remember your sound, it’s cut cut cutting me down, like slow poison” – food for thought Mr Endicott...

Best Tracks: 'Slow Poison', 'Adored'

6/10

 

NOFX – Cokie The Clown E.P.

Fat Mike is convinced he’s best at doing clumsy politics or clumsier sex/drugs montages. Of course, anyone with any sense knows his most relevant songs are increasingly the personal anecdotes sparingly sprinkled across a NOFX record. And so, skip to a tender acoustic version of ‘My Orphan Year’ – the best song from recent full-length Coaster – and enjoy the title track’s music without bothering with the lyrics sheet.

Best Tracks: 'Cokie the Clown', 'My Orphan Year (Acoustic)'

6.5/10

 

Seal – Hits

Seal has undergone the familiar regression from interesting, occasionally vital artist to adult-contemporary inconsequence, a fact documented by this second Greatest Hits compilation. As such, revel in early techno-infused hits ‘Crazy’ and ‘Killer’, marvel at the untouchable ‘Kiss from a Rose’, and use ‘I Am Your Man’ as a ticket to unhurriedly relieve yourself. That said; enjoy Seal’s soulful tone even whilst wading through the MOR debris. Destined, perhaps unfairly, to peak as every third auntie’s Christmas present.

Best Tracks: 'Crazy', 'Kiss from a Rose'

7/10

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