Musical Advent Calendar - Recap Days 21 - 24
Written by: Hugh Platt
By the time you read this, it’ll be Christmas Day. Music Towers will have shut up shop for a while (at least until we’ve put the finishing touches to our 2008 Almanac), and will have settled down to watch the Dr Who Xmas Special with a big bottle of gin. Later on you will find us wandering the streets, drunkenly singing the four songs you can see below. We might be dressed as Santa, we might possibly just go naked - in either case, it won’t be pretty, but gosh darn it will be entertaining.
Have a very merry Christmas, from all of us here at Music Towers. We just hope that someone got us that White Zombie boxset we’ve been dropping hints about over the last month….
Day 21 - ‘Christmas Is Awesome’ - Rueben
Day 22 - ‘Merry Christmas Baby (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight) - The Ramones
Day 23 - ‘Happy Christmas (War is Over)’ - John Lennon
Day 24 - ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’ - Twisted Sister
Musical Advent Calendar - Recap Days 16 - 20
Written by: Hugh Platt
Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? We have. We’re so up on Christmas like you would not believe. We’ve taken to striding about our office dressed as Santa Claus. Local children are terrified when thye see us struttung up and down the high street like a gaggle of red-clad drunks. It’s amazing.
ANYWAY - here’s the last five days of our splendid musical advent calendar - we really love Joel Moss Levinson’s bitchin’ song we used yesterday.
Day 16 - ‘Last Christmas’ - Wham!
Day 17 - We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ - Weezer
Day 18 - ‘Fairytale of New York’ - The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl
Day 19 - ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ - My Chemical Romance
Day 20 - Christmas Kicks Hanukah’s Ass!’ - Joel Moss Levinson
Musical Advent Calendar - Recap Days 11 - 15
Written by: Hugh Platt
OHMYGODTHERE’S
JUSTTENDAYSTOGO! No, we don’t know why Christmas makes us so exicted here at Music Towers. Maybe because we know we’ll be getting that White Zombie boxset we’ve had our eye on for the last few weeks. Or maybe because there’s a Doctor Who special on TV. Or maybe because of the vast amount of mince pies we’re going to eat. Or maybe it’s the mulled wine. Or the mistletoe! Or the fact we’re going to get dressed up like Santa and ruin someone’s office party. Or that we’re going to hire a snow machine and set it off in our garage.
Or maybe it’s because the best is still yet to come on our amazing Musical Advent Calendar? There are some real gems coming up in the last ten days. In any case, here’s the last five entires, which you may have missed if you’ve been out Christmas shopping or something.
Day 11 - ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Rave Mix)’ - DJ Cool
Day 12 - ‘It’s Christmas And I Hate You’ - Paloma Faith & Josh Weller
Day 13 - ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’ - The Darkness
Day 14 - ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ - Girls Aloud
Day 15 - ‘Someday at Christmas’ - Stevie Wonder
More reasons to be Christmassy
Written by: Hugh Platt
Did you come to the big Music Towers ‘Oh Christmas!’ party last night? It was amazing. The police turned up. There was blood everywhere. People danced till they hurt, and everyone who could get sexy, got sexy. Jon Bon Jonas and Death & Glory stole the night with a sing-a-long ‘Love Hurricane’, and John Doran of The Quietus and our faves, Beef Warehouse, kept the tunes spinning till late, late doors. If you missed it, then you are an idiot.
But hey, the real reason I’m bothering you this evening is to let you know of the recession-busting sale going on at Xtra Mile Recordings. They’re knocking a shocking 20% - TWENTY BLOODY PERCENT - off some of their records till December 18. Included in this sweet little Xmas shopping shortcut are Million Dead, Lights Action, Reuben, Jonah Matranga and Frank Turner. That’s him in the picture up there. He’s got a new single out, ‘Reasons Not To Be An Idiot’ which those of you with magic radio boxes might’ve heard aready. We tupping love it here at Music Towers.
Watch the video for ‘Reasons Not To Be An Idiot’ by Frank Turner:
Frank Turner is also touring the fuck out of 2009 - he’s all over the place alternately with The Levellers, The Gaslight Anthem, and Anti-Flag. You ought to buy some ticket - BEAT THE RECESSION!
Musical Advent Calendar - Recap Days 6 - 10
Written by: Hugh Platt
The results of Days 6 through 10 of our Musical Advent Calendar, presented for those who might’ve missed a day.
Day 6 - ‘Christmas Duel’ - The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
Day 7 - ‘Dick in a Box’ - Saturday Night Live and Justin Timberlake
Day 8 - ‘Heavy Metal Jingle Bells’
Day 9 - ‘Christmas Tree’ - Lady GaGa
Day 10 - ‘No Presents For Christmas’ - King Diamond
Are you as excited as we are that it’s NEARLY CHRISTMAS!?!?!?!?!!!
Musical Advent Calendar - Recap Days 1 - 5
Written by: Hugh Platt
What do you mean, you don ‘t read Music Towers every day? Are you some kind of cretin? Man, you used to be cool.
Well, since it IS getting near Christmas and all, we’ll forgive you. And to show that we really mena it, here’s a recap of all the wonderous Christmas videos from our Musical Advent Calendar (it’s up a bit and on your left) from the first five days. Enjoy.
Day 1 - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer’ - HemorRhage
Day 2 - ‘Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy’ - David Bowie and Bing Crosby
Day 3 - ‘8 Days of Christmas’ - Destiny’s Child
Day 4 - ‘City of Christmas Ghosts’ - Goldblade ft. Poly Styrene
Day 5 - ‘NOT the Cliff Richard Christmas Single’ - Beau Bo Do’r, Doghorse and Eclectech
Something For The Weekend: The Tunics
Written by: Hugh Platt
Music Towers got mugged after getting off a nightbus once. We were coming back from DJ’ing at some shindig or another, and had a big box of weird records with us. We got off at our usual stop in North London, and a pair of goodofrnothing thundercunts threatened us with knives. EL BASTARDOS. We later found a lot of our lost recrods in a nearby hedge. Apparently our collection of Shellac records wasn’t what the little oiks were looking for. Perhaps they expected more macho chav music?
Anyway, we’re not looking for sympathy, we’re bringing it up as it meant that ‘The Cost Of Living’ by The Tunics struck a chord with us. The Croydon 3-piece are releasing it as a single on Monday through Manta Ray Music, and we thought it was a perfectly good track for our Something For The Weekend selection.
Watch the official video to ‘The Cost Of Living’:
The band’s debut album gets a full release on January 2nd. Worth picking up when you’re off credit crunching those January sales, we think.
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VIDEO: Joe Gideon and the Shark - ‘Daughter of a Loony’
Written by: David Harrison
Bronzerat Records seem to be really drudging up the best in sleazey lo-fi rock’n'roll right now. They’cw just finished this ace video for Joe Gideon and the Sharks’ track, ‘Daughter of a Loony (DOL)‘. This is the kind of song that makes me want to put a band together, rustle up a video, then just put it out into the world for one man and his dog to look at.
Joe Gideon and the Shark - ‘DOL’
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VIDEO: The Gaslight Anthem - ‘Old White Lincoln’
Written by: Hugh Platt
Last month we mentioned that The Gaslight Anthem had a new single, ‘Old White Lincoln’, coming out to co-incide with their December mini-tour, but didn’t have a video for it. Well, we do now, so have a gander:
The video for ‘Old White Lincoln’ by The Gaslight Anthem:
Speaking of tours, the band are coming back in February and March for a proper jaunt around the UK, so if you miss them this week, you’ll still be able to catch them in a couple of months time if you’re as taken by their The Boss-esque rock. You want tickets? Then click here, dear readers.
December
3 - Glasgow, Garage
4 - Manchester, Academy 3
5 - London, LA2
February
2 - Portsmouth @ Wedgewood Rooms
3 - Birmingham @ Academy
4 - Manchester @ Academy 2
5 - Bristol @ Academy 2
6 - Brighton @ Concorde
8 - London @ Shepherds Bush Empire (NME Awards Show)
March
2 - Norwich @ Waterfront
3 - Nottingham @ Rock City
4 - Dublin @ The Academy
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I Set My Friends On Fire: the band you never heard of, are coming to sellout a festival near you soon
Written by: David Harrison
So: the design is perfect, the name and logo are excellent. It seems they have fourteen billion MySpace listens already and 100 date tour. Already no doubt sold more records then Guns N Roses and The Killers combined. And nobody has ever heard of them. I can already see them on main stage at Download or Bloodstock or somesuch, book them up now.
Music Towers can only assume thar this summer, I Set My Friends On Fire will come over here to blow our tiny little minds, with their accomplished mix of hardcore electro, High School Musical pop, and their comedic yet postive outlook.
Here is them putting all of that into practice, in a YouTube video masterclass:
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VIDEO: The Count & Sinden ft. Rye Rye - Hardcore Girls
Written by: David Harrison
This should make me feel old - it wasn’t like this in my day. I should talk at full volume in a grumpy old white man voice, saying “This isn’t real music. Real music is Soundgarden or Slayer’s ‘Angel of Death’, or Led Zeppelin‘.
I should be dismissing this as “Yes, very good, but not my sort of thing”. <aybe I should dislike it for simply being on the same label as Emmy The Really-Not-Very-Good-Let-Alone-Great.
I would say all those things…but i am too busy grooving. Someone put me in the club, this move is too fresh to waste!
Seems they are doing a London residency, down Old Street way -
The Count & Sinden present:
MEGA MEGA MEGA
With guests:
Nov 27th – Skream, Emynd & Bo Bliz (Philly), Frankmusic
Dec 4th - Chase & Status, Example, Mystery Jets DJs
Dec 11th – Sunship, Mistajam (BBC 1Xtra)
But don’t go to the one on the 11th - come to our Beef Warehouse party instead.
Something For The Weekend: White Lies
Written by: Hugh Platt
I first heard this track, White Lies’ forthcoming single, ‘To Lose My Life’, on Steve Lamacq’s BBC 6Music radio show last night. It was one of the tracks being reviewed as part of Lamacq’s Round Table feature, where musicians and celebrities listen to new releases and give their two-cents on them. We were quite taken with it, as was the awesome Marcus Brigstocke, who’s love of The Cure has always made him a bit of a hero here at Music Towers. It wasn’t universally popular though - Huey the bore-off from The Fun Lovin’ Criminals thought it “sucked”, but then he hasn’t made a decent record in over a decade. It’s easy to see why he’d be bitter about a track as awesome as this.
So, to ease the pain of the end of Friday in the office, why not take a couple of minutes to watch the video. It has soup in it. Amazing:
‘To Lose My Life’ (the single) is out on 12 January 2009, with an album of the same name out a week later. Both are being released by Fiction Records.
Single: Selfish C**t - ‘England Made Me II’
Written by: David Harrison
Selfish C**t never had a name for radio. It was always such an abrasive name that I found it was difficult to them seriously, dismissing them as a bunch of attention-seeking skinny-jeans types.
But ‘England Made Me II’, their latest single, is just too bloody good. First up (thank God), it isn’t a cover of the Black Box Recorder song. Instead it kicks off with a US-style preacher vocal that doesn’t reconcile with the title at all, but then the car-crash smash of guitars kick in and send you flying into the nearest ditch.
Calling on the ghost of McClusky, 80’s Matchbox, The Cramps, Sex Pistols and all things that are fucking great in low-fi rock n roll, Selfish C**t have made a bastard brilliant record. It might just be one riff all the way through, but who gives a toss? It’s better then that 700 billion dollar Chinese Democracy record, and probably only took about ten minutes to record as to boot.
Splendid - carry on.
‘England Made Me II’ by Selfish Cunt is ount on December 1st on Sparrow’s Tear Records. For more info, go check out the band’s MySpace page.
What do you mean, you haven’t seen…The Computers
Written by: Hugh Platt
We here at Music Towers are big fans of The Computers. We’ve caught them playing live a couple of times, and when we got hold of their debut mini-album, You Can’t Hide From The Computers, a few weeks back, we were more than a little impressed.
Well, on last week we busted down to the Camden Barfly to catch the boys play a killer set to mark the release of their mini-album. We brought along our trusty (ie, creaky and useless) video camera, and before the show we pinned down bassist Nic Heron (that’s him on the left) and drummer Will Wright (on the right) for a chat. In one of the Barfly’s gloomiest back passages. No, that’s not a euphemism, you filthy-minded oiks.
Anyway, why not busy yourself for the next three minutes with the end result?
We’ve got some more live footage, if that’s your cup of tea. Let us know if you want to see more.
‘You Can’t Hide From The Computers’ is out now on Fierce Panda. For more info, tour dates, that sort of thing, go check out the band’s MySpace page.
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Songs In The Key Of Hanukkah
Written by: David Harrison
Why are all those dudes in Golders Green in such sharp suits? Because they are all in carnival-ska, qausi-religious, Gnarls Barclay-type acts of course!
This track, ‘Dreidel’ is really nice, a big latin dance behind the floaty feel, and a big call-to-arms vocals to boot. Featuring Jules Brooks and MC Y-Love - whoever they are - it’s been put together by Erran Baron Cohen, brother of Sacha Baron Cohen. Yes, Börat. If there is any sibling rivalry, Erran - you have way more class.
It seems to be off an album, Songs in the key of Hanukkah, where bunch of hipsters making Hanukkah songs. Do you have to buy presents at Hanukkah? Maybe I will convert.
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Just remembered not everyone knows who the Fuck Buttons are
Written by: David Harrison
I was watching Top Gear last week, and was stunned to hear a Fuck Buttons track, ‘Sweet Love for Planet Earth’, creep in as they tore some supercar round their airbase. This band have blown my mind this year, and I mean literally - ever since catching them at ATP last Christmas, I’ve had a headache. I think I actually went blind while standing in the front row; I know I woke in the middle of the night shouting obscenities. All these I can only attribute to the mighty Fuck Buttons. I think the band didn’t take it as a compliment when I told them so later - in fact they just walked away from me. Maybe I was just talking in white noise.
Anyway, fans of avant garde electro rackett listen up. Actually, non-fans of bristol based electo racketts listen the hell up and get experimenting. They don’t seem to have a real video, but if they did I would expect it to have massive space ships colliding.
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Forget your troubles to the Bloody Beetroots.
Written by: David Harrison
I love this shit, banging classic thrash covers. One-part Metallica, one-part two geeks, to two-parts sugarcoated idiots. How can you possibly complain? Recently after posting some Bloody Beetroots on a message board we received some po-faced replies, along the lines of “Yes, they are obviously very talented but I would never listen to it”. Even as on the wrong side of 30, this makes me feel the urge to shout ‘Baldie’ at random strangers, throw Eggs and Flour at passing dogwalkers before chasing footballs in front of a buses. Yes, it’s got me that excited.
How can we save the Music Industry? WE CAN’T - SEEK AND DESTROY. This is the Bloody Beetroots, playing London next on the far away date of February 27. Don’t miss it.
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Something For The Weekend: The Amazing Baby
Written by: Hugh Platt
Wolves. Dogs as pharaohs. Crazy spaced-out electro rock. Put them all together in a video, and Music Towers gets excited. Which is exactly what The Amazing Baby have made us with the video for their track, ‘Pump Your Brakes’.
Having just finished a tour with those over-hyped MGMT lot, Brooklyn-based The Amazing Baby wowed pretty much everyone who saw them. They make us want to roll around the office on our backs, playing ludicrous space-rock air guitar solos like the bastard spawn of Bill & Ted.
The band are bouncing back to the UK for Swn Festival tomorrow, before hitting The Lexington in London town on Monday. Who knows when they’ll be back in the UK, so if you’re in Cardiff or the capital, don’t miss your chance to see why we’re raving about these fellows.
‘Pump Your Brakes’ by The Amazing Baby:
You like? We like. So why not do what we do, and click click your way over to the band’s website, where they are giving away a free download of their Infinite Fucking Cross EP, which contains the above track and three other gems.
You want even more? Then head over to their MySpace page.
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