Nada Surf's Matthew Caws isn't big on organized religion, but when the spirit does move him, it always has a soundtrack. And that soundtrack has come a long way over the last 16 years. You'd be hard-pressed to discern so much as a whiff of snarky 1996 hit "Popular" amid the bracing, impeccably crafted power [...]

Download: Mac Miller - Jerry's Record Store New music from Mac Miller "Jerry's Record Store", original taken from Scritti Politti "Tinseltown to the Boogiedwon" featuring Mos Def.
Apologies for being a bit of a tease. I thought it might be better to split the post as I have outdone myself in attempting to justify my no. 6. Be gentle with me; I am but a music nerd... 10. Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri An odd one this. Perri was unsigned when this big old angsty ballad was posted on her YouTube channel in June 2010 and quickly became a sizeable hit in the US. It wasn't until a [...]

Don't call it a remix! That's the word from the King Midas Sound camp about the sonic re-imaginings that are at the center of their upcoming album release, Without You . While it finds the trio enlisting an impressive array of friends in order to rework tracks from their 2009 debut album, Waiting For You , King Midas means for Without You to be more in the tradition of reggae artists who offer up dub versions of their tracks, especially those who oversee the dubbing themselves. After all, KMS is known for combining reggae [...]
"Tiny Fingers" is lush and exotic, with sounds of broken sitars, brass, and wind chimes backing a gentle acoustic strum. Like everything on Red Velvet Snow Ball, it would be the perfect accompaniment to a day of greenery – lying in the green grass, staring at the green trees swaying above you, and perhaps indulging in something that would make the sky appear green.

Cupid & Psyche 85 is the second album by the British new wave pop group Scritti Politti. It remains the band's most successful album, reaching No. 5 in the UK, and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies sold. The album contained five singles, three of which were top 20 hits in the UK. The single "Perfect Way," while not a major UK chart success, was a surprise hit in the US, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a 25-week run on the chart. Read more »
ABSOLUTE is the first ever career-spanning collection of words and music by Scritti Politti - including two new and exclusive tracks. This collection includes: - Debut single, 'Skank Bloc... Download your favourite album at The Mood Indicator

How did one shy, Welsh intellectual with a passion for Marxism and Deconstructionist theory convince Mos Def, Miles Davis and Robert Wyatt to appear on his records? Simple: write some of the most beguiling, fascinating pop songs of his era. Green Gartside, the brains behind Scritti Politti , is often mentioned alongside such eighties cult genii as Kevin Rowland or Paddy MacAloon; yet, while Rowland had dungarees and the great Irish writers, and MacAloon wrapped himself in "the songs of Georgie Gershwin", Green lived for Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and the Top 40 - a singular mix that makes [...]

It's been two weeks since I 'leaked' one of the new tracks from Scritti Politti on YouTube. Scritti have a Best Of on the way later this month, and, thankfully, have recorded two new tracks to sweeten the deal. Prompted by an excited message on fansite Bibbly-o-Te k, I learned that Steve Wright played one of the new tracks, A Day Late And A Dollar Short, on BBC Radio 2. He cut it off 30 seconds before the end and he didn't say what it was. Apart from that, only a handful of people had [...]

Photo: Carl W. Heindl . Troubled by wild fire and your heartless, raging music. Scritti Politti - Doubt Beat Early (Rough Trade, 2005) Maximum Joy - Silent Street/Silent Dub Disco Not Disco (Strut, 2008) Anika - Yang Yang Anika (Stones Throw, 2010) Clinic - Evil Bill [...]

for some reason i found myself listening to this today. this being 802s for this comp known as c81. the rest of this post is exactly what i wrote when i posted this back in 08. c81 was compiled by nme journalist roy carr and rough trade pr dude christopher rose for the 5th anniversary of independent label movement in the uk and of course to show off rough trades wares. more info can be found here , via wikipedia. there's some real awesome stuff here, there are a few turds too. but of course what might be pure [...]
Raw Thrills | Insted | GREATEST HITS Brooklyn Zak Mering My name is Zak Mering, I come from a family of musicians and entertainers. My father was Sumner Mering, and had a band titled Sumner in 1978-1980 and put out an album on Asylum/Elektra. My mother Pamela Mering releases albums, and my sister plays shows and releases music as Weyes Blood. I create music as a solo project under [...]

I don't want to tempt fate, but if that's not a number one, I'll eat my sofa. As the man responsible for such songs as Diana Vickers ' "The Boy Who Murdered Love," The Saturdays ' "Chasing Lights," and Will Young 's "Anything is Possible," as well as some of the upcoming material from Pixie Lott and JLS , pop writer and producer Chris Braide has seen his fair share of glory in the UK Top 40 recently. Two weeks ago, I had the [...]
"Taking it's cue from the sophisticated pop sound of the mid to late 80s, The Luxury Pop EP by Rescue Cat is aiming for that cinematic, widescreen UK pop sound epitomized by bands such as New Order, Tears For Fears, Scritti Politti, Aztec Camera and Howard Jones to name just a few! Featuring songs about repressed emotions, chess and the breakdown of a relationship, The Luxury Pop EP delivers sometimes dark subject matter coupled with uplifting melodies and stabs of synth and heavy drum machine." [Video: Rescue Cat - £10 Bag] [...]

Released as a collaboration between NME and Rough Trade back in 1981 to mark 5 years of the independent label - here Indiefy recreates the majority of the compilation as a Spotify playlist . "The "Sweetest Girl"" – Scritti Politti (6:09) "Twist and Crawl Dub" – The Beat (4:58) "Misery Goats" – Pere Ubu (2:26) "Blue Boy" – Orange Juice (2:52) "Raising the Count" – Cabaret Voltaire [...]

Released as a collaboration between NME and Rough Trade back in 1981 to mark 5 years of the independent label - here Indiefy recreates the majority of the compilation as a Spotify playlist . "The "Sweetest Girl"" – Scritti Politti (6:09) "Twist and Crawl Dub" – The Beat (4:58) "Misery Goats" – Pere Ubu (2:26) "Blue Boy" – Orange Juice (2:52) "Raising the Count" – Cabaret Voltaire [...]

Yet to be mistaken for Foals' Yannis Philippakis, his doppelganger and leading man of Californian (experi)mentalists Fol Chen Samuel Bing talks Williamsburg fault, five vocalists and broken vacuum orchestras... Dots: On first listen Fol Chen may not come across as the most coherent of lo-fi pop masterpieces, yet following repeated exposure it's exasperatingly evident that a masterpiece is just what Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made is. Were you shocked at yourselves to some extent with the off-kilter unfiltered pop that wound up on there? [...]

Il brano "She Wolf" é la canzone più trascinante dell'ultimo album dallo stesso titolo dell'interprete colombiana Shakira , di cui vi abbiamo parlato qualche tempo fa. Ma il gruppo elettro-pop londinese degli Hot Chip l'hanno trasformato in un brano originalissimo presentato nel corso del programma radiofonico Live Lounge della BBC. Tra gli autori del brano di Shakira c'è anche a Sam Endicott, leader della band americana The Bravery che é già un buon punto di partenza. Poi, lo stile degli Hot Chip e la chitarra [...]

I've spent the greater part of the weekend pretty much lazing about and reading Simon Reynolds ' 2006 book " Rip it Up and Start Again " (Postpunk 1978-1984). It's post-punk on overload, helping one learn about those fitful, conspiring and musically experimental bands that followed the 1976-1978 punk explosion. Bands like PiL (Rotten's Pistols' follow-up), The Fall, Gang of Four, Joy Division, Devo, Talking Heads. The Human League, Scritti Politti, James Chance and the downtown NY Mudd Club scene and so much more. The book tackles loads of postpunk ephemera - Malcolm McLaren's post-Pistols dabbles [...]

This post is a couple of weeks late, but considering I was very ill last week, I think you'll forgive me. Whatever coldette I had a few weeks ago was nothing compared to this all-out attack on my immune system. It just stopped short of the lung searing bronchitis of a couple years ago. Nonetheless, I only allowed myself to miss roughly one day of work (the illness guilt my mother instilled in me as a child is still there). I'm really starting to believe I have an immunodeficiency disorder what with my chronic allergies and seemingly high risk of [...]