Spotted_Dick475

 

Spotted Dick Week 2

 

Like a boomerang, a tramp that you once gave money to and Freddy Flintoff’s injury woes, Spotted Dick keeps coming back for more and will continue to do so. So here’s this week’s playlist of songs; some new, some old and some emo. 

 

http://open.spotify.com/user/g-town/playlist/6tf3lscqc8r0afvGnf3d9O

 

Simian Mobile Disco “Audacity of Huge”

 

Simian Mobile Disco’s second album “Temporary Pleasure” is set to be released soon and should in actual fact turn out to be, at the very least, a reasonably sustained pleasure….

Let’s not dwell on that. Featuring some great vocal collaborations and a healthy mix of thumping, minimal club bangers and smooth pop sheen, it’s certainly one to look forward to. This, their new single, somehow mixes both the face chewing basic club stuff and the shimmying pop.

 

Thom Yorke, “Analyse”

 

Thom Yorke/Radiohead this week recorded and released a song in tribute to Harry Patch, the WW1 veteran who died recently. Though this is not it, the song in question (“Harry Patch (In Memory Of)”) is a beautiful, haunting affair which Sigur Ros would be proud of. Download the song here: http://download.waste.uk.com/Store/did.html and donate to the Royal British Legion at the same time.

“Analyse”, meanwhile, is a right old treat from The Eraser.

 

Wild Beasts, “The Fun Powder Plot”

 

This is the opener of new album Two Dancers and instantly sets the bar ridiculously high for what turns out to be a fantastic album. If Wild Beasts’ first album, Limbo, Panto perhaps saw some of their great ideas slightly flawed by over the top flamboyance and, well, that voice, Two Dancers is a much more complete album.

 

All American Rejects, “Swing Swing”

 This is for anyone who ever listened to this song while gazing grimly out the window onto a miserably rainy day, trucker cap firmly positioned to the left, and thought of different ways for American emo bands to be relevant to our British lives. More importantly though, this is for anyone who, on Monday at the Bodega Social in Nottingham, jumped up and down, slammed into a sea of bodies or simply face planted the floor with a full pint in hand as their 15 year old self ran rampant through the night….

 

No Age, “Eraser”

This week, the two piece shoegaze meets punk outfit No Age have announced a European tour which includes a date at London Scala on October the 19th. Exciting times if you’re a fan of the lowest of lo-fi.

 

The Maccabees, “Young Lions”

 

In here for no other reason than that they’re great. This song kinda sounds like Interpol fighting out a battle of melancholy with Arcade Fire while never losing The Maccabees identity.

 

The Antlers, “Shiva”

Hospice, by Brooklyn based band The Antlers, is an album of starry, mirror ball ambience and crashing, sky scraping atmospherics- it is both intimate and universally powerful. Spotify that shit up.

 

 

Bob Dylan, “Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again”

 Rumours are rife this week that the man christened Robert Zimmerman has already gone back into the studio to write an album to be released at Christmas time. The old workhorse. Dylan Christmas album though? Yes please.   

 

Lovvers, “OCD Go Go Girls”

New Lovvers single! The fuzzy Nottingham scamps are touring from now until around October so see them if you can. This song is a right old bluesy, chaotic mess, but you have to love it.

 

Animal Collective, “Water Curses”

“The Collective” have just been named the top of NME’s future 50 thing. Whatever that is. I’m not really sure what this means, but if anyone was pondering backlash due to shit rag association, they can fuck right off. “Water Curses”- a fantastic slice of jumbled, trippy, addled dream pop.

 

Fanfarlo, “Drowning Men”

This band’s catchy but yearning pop is still yet to get old. I don’t think it will either.

 

 

Queens of the Stone Age, “Sick Sick Sick”

There’s been something about a “supergroup” involving QOTSA, Led Zeppelin and Foo Fighters floating about recently. This has the very real potential to be anything but “super”.  But, really, any excuse for this song is a good enough one. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Not content with just being sick, it is impressively sick x3.

 

Weezer, “Hash Pipe”

I get slightly aroused by an ageing geek grunting into a microphone at exactly the same time as he releases his dirty guitar riff from palm muted to ripping distortion for a split second. What of it….?

 

Grizzly Bear, “Knife”

A band I’ve come to pretty late in the day, but being late could be my special move by now. This is a rambling, spooky build up of a song which is both disgustingly lo-fi and, strangely, nearly a prog wig out…I like.

 

Beastie Boys, “Intergalactic”

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch was recently diagnosed with throat cancer but has since emailed fans saying the operation to remove the tumour was successful and he is making a recovery. MCA 1, Cancer 0, biatch. Seriously though, I hope he is OK and makes a speedy and healthy recovery. Here’s some classic Beastie Boys.

 

The White Stripes, “Dead Leaves on The Dirty Ground”

Jack White is apparently releasing a solo album/a solo song or something. The details are hazy right now. Let’s just hope it’ll be more like his Stripes stuff rather than one of his many tedious collaborations/side projects. There’s something pretty fucking brilliant about Jack’s out of this world blues guitar noodling bumping uglies with Meg White’s more-basic-than-a-prison-cell style drumming which is just not the same when he’s playing with actual competent musicians…

 

Dirty Projectors, “The Bride”

Wow. This song is a masterful, messy psyche jam which never even comes close to becoming too abstract or confusing. From gentle acoustic guitar picking to dizzying, fuzzy chords by the way of beautiful vocals and a soulful choir of soaring voices, this song sweeps you off your feet and drops you back off gently at the end without ever disorientating you too much.

 

Fever Ray, “If I Had A Heart” (Fuck Buttons remix)

What a dark, grand and pulsating beast this is. It’s long and, at times, features a shit load of what can only be described as noise. Therefore, it has Fuck Buttons written all over it and is amazing.

 

Arcade Fire, “No Cars Go”

It’s been too long Arcade, I miss you. I’d like to think of Win Butler sat somewhere in the world’s further reaches creating an epic, soaring, 11 minute long masterpiece using only the instruments of Djibouti or something but, in reality, he’s probably still in a mardy after some twat threw a shoe at him in Nottingham Arena.