pretty

This pic and many like it are doing the rounds, and so hopefully if im done reading Harry Potter i should bring you the 'Sexy! No No No...' brand spanking leather / shiny butterfly eye makeup Girls Aloud video, in about tomorrow days time?

Finally

M.IA, 'Jimmy' Kala

A future number one single finally gets its video premiered in full. I love this song and M.I.A is featured in Japanese magazines on every newstand shame shes not playing Summersonic like last year.

Another weekend without makeup

The Long Blondes, Someone To Drive You Home

The Long Blondes became a favourite of mine around December last year and finally this week i will see them play live at SummerSonic; even though their practically from my hometown, heralding as they do from Sheffield. This is actually the first time Ive bothered to look up their videos on youtube. I'd seen pictures and loved how their 50's style compliments the lyrics.

The first video below is for 'Weekend Without Makeup' their first single with Roughtrade, after being renowned as the best unsigned band in Britain. I love how the kissing lesbains casually infiltrate the discotheque and just the general fierce persona of vocalist Kate Jackson.

The lyrics are mostly written by guitarist Dorian Cox, and i like the queer elements that creep in from having a woman sing songs written by a man, who is in reality engaging in relations with Emma the second guitarist. Kate sings "19 your only 19 for gods sake, you dont need a boyfriend" she says in an interview it would be threatening to have a guy sing it? I think it would be eqaully amazing but here's her take on it...

When i played it for my friend, she picked up on this lesbian vibe, 'id take u out , id even cut my hair for you', but i just love it in the queer complexities and catchyness of it all. speaking of which another good song is this one which makes brilliant use of an opening caption. I cannot wait to jump around with these femme fatales.

The Sonic Sound of Summer

Summersonic, Osaka '07

This weekend I will be chilling with some stars at RockRock -last year apparently Delly met Dan Gillespie Sells- and then dancing in the humidity all weekend at the Summersonic festival.

Here's my abridged lineup...

Saturday:

Hadouken

Hot Chip / The Fratellis

Bloc Party

Cyndi Lauper

Kasabian

Arctic Monkeys / Pet Shop Boys

Sunday:

The Pipettes

The Long Blondes

Gym Class Heroes

30 seconds to Mars

Gwen Stefani / FalloutBoy

Avril Lavigne / Klaxons

Black Eyed Peas

I basically bought the Saturday ticket for Cyndi alone but i will be wearing my indie boy hat no doubt later in the day, but Sunday i see my one of my favourite bands... The Long Blondes! So in tribute this week I will post this week on things i hope to see at Summersonic.

just the once

Ivri Lider, 'Jesse'

I like this song but not sure how often id have it on repeat -unlike PayTV!- Everyone should listen to this song once though, and seeing as Perez already mentioned it consider this a bonus second chance.

I wanna go to the discotheque

Pay-tv, 'Trendy Discotheque'

This song has just become my favourite...The Sugababes are gonna have to pull up their pop socks to better this for me. DontStopThePop say new material from the girls is out soon!
The attidue, the lyrics, and the delivery are all sublime.

sugar rush

Sugababes, 'About You Now'

Rant over, we can now all happily jump aboard the fan driven hype train for the sugababes new single. The first listen is -no doubt- imminent...

Until then we can specualte about this picture.
stare to camera check

heidi sandwhich check

white on black check

fingers entwined check

zeitgeist haircut check

Popjustice inform us the chorus goes like this:

"Can we bring yesterday back around

because I know how I feel about you now

I was young, I was dumb, I let you down

but I know how I feel about you now."

Retro Tuesday: Margaret Berger

Margaret Berger, Pretty Scary Silver Fairy

With Robyn doing so well in the charts recently maybe its time we start allowing more Euro pop gems into our hearts. A lot of people allready love this girl, and if you havent heard this album yet you should so that like me you can pretend you've always loved her instead of jumping on the bandwagon.

This entire album is perfect pop, its deep and heartfelt but also the most immediate and catchy ten songs you can imagine. You can sing along to this after just one listen, and as much as we love My December it kinda almost makes you wish Kelly had taken those euro pop svengalis offer and crafted something equally as lush.

babyrant

This week Robyn and Darren Hayes seem to be revolutionising pop. Each has broken away from years with Major labels, going it alone in creating a record label to get their music heard.

Darren leaked tracks to his fans and he has created an enormous buzz about his double LP, Robyn meanwhile gave us promo EP's, moreover each crafted videos to enhance their sound and both did a huge number of gigs as promotion.

And then we have the Sugababes and Girls Aloud. Their record companies claim that illegal downloading is bad -and no doubt funds terrorism- but they happily leak tracks months in advance to generate buzz, knowing they can recoup profits in other ways that only big companies can- like overpriced concerts. I think its disregarding fans patience and support, and instead its making us do the buzz work for them.

Girls Aloud and Sugababes will hopefully have amazing and succesful albums, but, they also ride a wave of lazy promotion, especially when compared to some of our recent pop heroes. Maybe Robyn and Darren would like such a quick fix for themselves, but i think their success -which is coming now- will taste sweeter for them and their fans having been witness to a new wave of transparency in the way pop is crafted- promoted and released.

Ryan goes to the kwikEmart

Music to my ears

Shelly Poole, In Gold

"The title is still In Gold [...] its the prettiest child in my opinion. Chances are if you liked Alisha's Attic then your ears should be pleased , I went back to all the things I love about music and mashed them all up for one big dinner." Ms Shelly Poole

Girls Aloud, 'Sexy! No No No...'

once upon a time...

I once made a boyband... to be honest things aren't going well... the individual members are doing a bit too well for themselves...

Thomas Dekker is busy filming 'The Sarah Jane Chronicles' and making smoking look cool...His myspace says his first album will hopefully be available on Itunes this autumn, and he has many concerts planned in the upcoming months...

A boy going by the name of Calvin Goldspink who used to look like this is now in America about to make a family drama Life Is Wild due for broadcast this autumn on the CW in America. Is this guy still managed by Simon Cowell? If he is I'm sure he's gonna be around a long time.

Jesse is in the Studio working on his next album that he wants to sound like "Prince chord changes, Michael (Jackson) melodies, and the bigness of Madonna - fun '80s stuff." The boy hasn't exactly set his sights low has he.





Zac continues to become the next Brad Pitt / Kevin Bacon... with two hyped musical movies out this summer Hairspray and High School Musical 2, and a remake of Footloose in the pipeline. This one may be our Robbie, his individual fame suggests he's not long for this band of boys.


And lastly Simon Curtis finally got a video for his Britney 'Detox' track -see post below- now he just needs to get a record deal.

About time too...

Simon Curtis, 'Detox'

Not sure if this is the competition winner, but this is a good video and should spread the hyperbole into action regarding Mr Simon Curtis.