The Red Radio

Sondre Lerche plays NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert" series

Sondre Lerche stopped by one of our favorite sessions out there - NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series. 

Lerche played a three-song set in the middle of the music offices at NPR.  The set included:

Heartbeat Radio
Good Luck
Easy To Persuade

We admit, seeing him do Heartbeat Radio acoustically with the backdrop of vinyl and CDs makes us love the song more and more.  Lerche jokes with the crew that Heartbeat Radio is taking an issue with radio, but not the NPR guys per say. Good Luck and Easy To Persuade sound great acoustically as well. 

Watch the set below:

Editors do "Papillon" live and acoustic for Belgium TV

Editors guested on Belgium's De Laatste Show last week.  There's a nice little chat with Tom Smith at the opening of the clip below, discussing the band's current album hitting number one in Belgium, the band's late 90's musical influences, and a few other tidbits. 

The chat is followed up by a beautiful, quiet acoustic take on Papillon - we love this stripped down, synthless version:

Depeche Mode ready new double A-sided single for "Hole To Feed" and "Fragile Tension"

December 7th brings us the new double A-sided single from DM's Sounds Of The Universe.

Hole To Feed and Fragile Tension will share the spotlight and follow in the footsteps of the previous Sounds Of The Universe singles, Wrong and Peace. 

Art is above - consistent with the Sounds design of course. 

Oh and the 7th is for UK folks only, details on a US digital release are pending.  Our UK peeps will be able to purchase the single in digital format, CD or delectable double 12" vinyl. 

Beyond remixes of both tracks, special remixes for Perfect and Come Back will also be included.

There are all kinds of things going on across all three formats, take a gander below:

CD
Fragile Tension (Radio Mix) - 3.36
Hole To Feed (Radio Mix) - 3.27
Perfect (Roger Sanchez Club Mix) 7.24
Come Back (SixToes Remix) 4.56
Fragile Tension (Laidback Luke Remix) 7.52
Hole To Feed (Popof Vocal Mix) 8.42
Fragile Tension (Peter Bjorn And John Remix) 3.45
Hole To Feed (Joebot Remix) 6.43

Digital Download Bundles
Fragile Tension (Radio Mix) - 3.36
Hole To Feed (Radio Mix) - 3.27
Come Back (SixToes Remix - 4.56
Perfect (Ralphi & Craig Club Remix) - 8.49
Fragile Tension (Stephan Bodzin Remix) - 9.14
Hole To Feed (Paul Woolford's Easyfun Ethereal Disco Mix) - 9.24
Perfect (Roger Sanchez Club Mix) - 7.24
Fragile Tension (Solo Loves Panorama Remix) - 6.10
Hole To Feed (Popof Vocal Mix) - 8.42

iTunes Bundle
Fragile Tension (Radio Mix) - 3.36
Hole To Feed (Radio Mix) - 3.27
Come Back (SixToes Remix - 4.56
Perfect (Ralphi & Craig Club Remix) - 8.49
Fragile Tension (Stephan Bodzin Remix) - 9.14
Hole To Feed (Paul Woolford's Easyfun Ethereal Disco Mix) - 9.24
Perfect (Roger Sanchez Club Mix) - 7.24
Fragile Tension (Solo Loves Panorama Remix) - 6.10
Hole To Feed (Popof Vocal Mix) - 8.42
Perfect (Ralphi & Jody Club Remix) - 7.39

Double vinyl 12"
Fragile Tension (Stephan Bodzin Remix) - 9.14
Fragile Tension (Kris Menace's Love On Laserdisc Remix) - 6.24
Hole To Feed (Popof Vocal Mix) - 8.42
Hole To Feed (Paul Woolford's Easyfun Ethereal Disco Mix) - 9.24
Perfect (Roger Sanchez Club Mix) - 7.24
Perfect (Ralphi Rosario Dub) - 8.26
Peace (Herve's 'Warehouse Frequencies' Remix) - 5.10
Peace (Sander Van Doorn Remix) - 8.02

Track listing breakdown compliments of the DM official site. 

Random video of the week #38 - Urban Dance Squad "Deeper Shade Of Soul"

Back in the late 80's we used to work in a surf shop up in the Bay Area.  We had two TV's hanging over the cash register and used to play VHS tapes of videos we'd tape off of MTV and other local video shows.
Deeper Shade Of Soul by Urban Dance Squad made it on every tape.  Mini-dance parties would break out inside the shop and outside the front door.  Lots of Cali kids grinding and rocking out to the beat.  STILL a great little jam to this day.  One of the forgotten, but not one of the lost. 

Check it...

Photographer Kevin Cummins talks Morrissey, Marr, Happy Mondays and early Madonna

If there's one thing we love just about as much as music, it's photography.  Mix the two together, even better. Kevin Cummins, one of the greats and a favorite of ours, has a new book out documenting his amazing shots of the Manchester music scene.  His work with The Smiths, and later with solo-Moz and solo-Marr, is now legendary.  Anybody remember the infamous "tattoo" shot of Marr post-Smiths breakup outside the tattoo parlor? His new book, Looking For The Light In The Pouring Rain, contains a collection of his work from the Manchester scene over the past 30 years.  A black and white silhouetted shot of Morrissey graces the cover - above.   

Cummins recently sat down with the Mirror UK to talk about his work with Morrissey, Marr, The Happy Mondays, and early shots of Madonna taken at Manchester's infamous Hacienda back in the early 80's.  Good stuff.  Order the book here. 

Anya Marina releases video for "New Moon" track, "Satellite Heart"

We haven't yet talked about the excellent soundtrack to New Moon.  The entire collection embodies a cohesive atmosphere that continues on a consistent path throughout.  The gathering of previously unreleased tracks, by some pretty stellar indie artists, offers the ultimate mix tape.  

Our top selections include: Band Of Skulls, Friends - never paid them much attention, but we are now.  Lykke Li, Possibility - our favorite track. Editors, No Sound But The Wind  - of course, we've been having a love affair with this band recently - noticed? Thom Yorke, Hearing Damage - puts Thom back on our map (finally)

And of course, this lady, Anya Marina.  Join her in a romp through the woods in the video companion piece to her New Moon offering, Satellite Heart.  Anyone else conjuring up a direct link to Morrissey in the "true to you" lyric?

Goldfrapp pen score to John Lennon biopic, "Nowhere Boy"

Goldfrapp recently wrapped their score to the new John Lennon biopic titled Nowhere Boy.  Alison and Gregory recorded the strings with a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.

The film, which tells the story of Lennon as a boy and a young man, debuted this evening at the London Film Festival.  Release is slated for December 26th in the UK, no U.S. distribution has been set.

We can't find any musical samplings online as of yet, but have a look at the film's trailer below.  We are anxiously awaiting a listen.  It will be interesting to see what landscape Goldfrapp has conjured up.  Wonder if Alison will have provided any vocals? 

The completion of the score opens the duo up to finishing work on their yet untitled fifth album.  That is some pretty damn fine news. 

Random video of the week #37 - UTFO "Roxanne, Roxanne"

We've had a few requests to resurrect our "random video of the week" feature.  It's been quite some time ( March 2009 to be exact) and we realized without it, the site is just way too serious.  Our randomness usually leans towards the more obscure side of the fence, or at least the more random.  About as random and jostled up as our musical taste. 

Anyway, let's jump right into the video, #37.

Kangol Kid in the house. 

We are taking a look back at one of our favorite hip hop records from the old school days, UTFO's Roxanne, Roxanne.  A classic, and definitely a backdrop to our younger years.  We used to tag up pieces of cardboard boxes to break dance on, while flipping through our handmade book of "Breakin" words which included the likes of FRESH and LACE. 

Ah yeah....

Robbie Williams live at Electric Poms, "Bodies"

Robbie Williams is one of our big guilty pleasures of the year.  We always like to keep a little fun in our musical landscape and Williams fits into that perfectly.  He recently performed for the BBC at the Electric Poms festival. 

Check out the full performance of Bodies, complete with full orchestra, below:

Morrissey returns to the stage post-collapse, photos from tonight's gig

Morrissey took the Royal Albert Hall Stage this evening in London, just three nights after his stage collapse in Swindon. 

It appears he is doing well and back in action.

The Daily Mail is featuring photos from the show. Click here. 

Glad to see him back up performing. 

Video: Chris Martin performs "Yellow" at The Bridge School Benefit.

The annual Bridge School Benefit charity show was held this weekend at the usual location, Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View, Ca.  Neil Young and his wife started the event back in 1986. 

If you've ever been lucky enough to attend one of these shows, then you know how powerful they are.  Various musicians coming together for an amazing cause and an excellent night of mostly acoustic performances. 

This year boasted the usual set from Young as well as No Doubt, Monsters Of Folk, Wolfmother, Fleet Foxes, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Buffet, Gavin Rossdale and a solo set from Chris Martin. 

See below for Martin's performance of Yellow, still our favorite Coldplay song if we had to pick one.  We've got that exact same beanie by the way. 

About The Bridge School:

The Bridge School is a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that individuals with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT) applications and through the development, implementation and dissemination of innovative life-long educational strategies. The Bridge School is an internationally recognized leader in the education of children who use augmentative and alternative communication and has developed unique programs and trained highly skilled professionals in the use of state of the art assistive technology.

Click here to read more. A great cause and it's great to see so many folks coming together to show their support and help out. 

Editors set U.S. release date

Finally!  In This Light And On This Evening secures a proper U.S. release date via the FADER Label. 

The album will officially release on January 19th.  The U.S. version will include exclusive bonus material not yet announced. 

U.S. fans can head to iTunes to purchase the record digitally for now. 

Our top three tracks from the album in order of preference:

In This Light And On This Evening
Eat Raw Meat = Drool Blood
Papillon

+ For The Money, one of five bonus tracks from the UK 2-disc special edition. Worth the import price as all five songs are a great extension of the album. 

By the way, how great is the cover art?

Watch: Kings Of Convenience 'Spin Session'

Erlend and Eirik took part in a three-song session for Spin yesterday.  Check out the guys performing The Power Of Not Knowing, Peacetime Resistance and It's My Party (yep, a random Lesley Gore cover), below:

Nitzer Ebb to open for Depeche Mode in 2010

Damn it, a dream pairing for us for sure.  Two of our favorites will once again share a bill for the first time in twenty years.  Nitzer Ebb will open for Depeche Mode on the European/Russian leg of their 2010 tour. 

Click here for the full list of dates, venues, etc...

Nitzer Ebb opened for Depeche Mode way back in 1990 during their World Violation tour.  We are pretty bummed that we will miss this BUT we do have our very own Nitzer Ebb show here in LA on November 17th at the Key Club. 

We choose an nice old school photo of Ebb above, feeling nostalgic this eve.  Now how about that new album, guys? 

Listen: Nitzer Ebb, Let Your Body Learn:

Trashcan Sinatras release video for "People"

The Trashcans released a video for People from their new album In The Music.  We've got to say that over time the album has really grown on us.  People is one of the catchier tracks and a song that we were instantly drawn to in the first few listens. 

Hear for yourself: