Find out what we did at SXSW today—from seeing Tinashe’s only show to a late night fiasco! More »
Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, Fall Out Boy, the Prodigy, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are among the acts playing this year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals, the twinned festivals that will be held in the UK during the last weekend of August. The Guardian notes that unlike other outdoor extravaganzas in the UK, Reading and Leeds are not sowing the oats of nostalgia, picking for its headliners acts that have actually had albums come out during the latter half of the ’00s. Progress sure looks funny these days! Full bills after the jump.
Nominations for the NME‘s annual addition to the bonfire of British awards shows, the Shockwave Awards, were announced today, with longtime darlings Oasis scoring seven nods—including a Worst Band nomination—and Arctic Monkeys/Last Shadow Puppets frontman Alex Turner amassing six. Of course, the biggest belly-laughs come in the Hero and Villain of the Year categories. The lights of positivity in the NME‘s world are Turner, the Killers’ Brandon Flowers, Brit comedian Noel Fielding, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher… and Barack Obama, while the big bad guys (and gal) are Amy Winehouse, George W. Bush, Gordon Brown, John McCain, and Pete Doherty. (Obama, sadly, is the only Hero contender who didn’t also get a “Best Dressed” nod; he’s replaced in that category by some British “it girl” who isn’t Kate Moss or Sienna Miller.) Full slate of nominees after the jump.
Technically, the era of the b-side is probably long over. Even in digital form, a castoff track is more likely to appear as an iTunes bonus track or as extra material on the Japanese release these days than actually attached to a single. Still, even as the file-sharing age has diminished the joy of feeling like you’ve heard a song that few other Americans have thanks to plunking down ten dollars for a import single, there’s still something special about the non-album track. While the likelihood of finding a “How Soon Is Now?” on the back of a “William, It Was Truly Nothing” is low, there were a few songs this year I thought were worth a mention (and a few listens).
The new album from Bloc Party, Intimacy, will be available for download Aug. 21. Yes, that’s this Thursday. And yes, that would appear to be the cover at left. (Perhaps it’ll be tweaked in time for the physical product to be shipped in October.) More »
This weekend’s Summercase festival in Barcelona should have been what most festivals are: A celebrations of commerce intermixed with music you sort of enjoy. But John Lydon apparently couldn’t let people enjoy their three-euro water bottles and Bloc Party.
ARTIST: Bloc Party
TITLE: “Mercury”
WEB DEBUT: July 7, 2008
Kele Okerke–the lead singer of anthemically anthemic British band Bloc Party–has suddenly decided that signing to Vice magazine’s record label is a “Don’t.” More »
– MTV begins layoffs today; alas, the twisted tykes featured on My Super Sweet 16 are not technically Viacom employees, and thus ineligible. [Gawker] – Bloc Party is editing NME.com this week. More »
– Paul Wall introduces a line of cubic-zirconia adornments for cars and SUVs. We’re expecting him to become a Home Shopping Network fixture by July. [AllHipHop] – Did Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke come out of the closet in a Guardian interview? More »
