Blog: The Red Radio

We are up late and tired and not enough words can express the greatness of Nitzer Ebb last night. We've been seeing these guys since the 80's and they are seriously better now then ever. Douglas and Bon were in sensational form. The set list contained the perfect mix of new (from the upcoming Industrial Complex album) to the classic - Murderous , Join In The Chant (of course), Lightning Man , [...]

F yeah is all we can say. Nitzer Ebb , one of our all time favorites, are set to play Los Angeles this eve at the Key Club. A few years ago, the very thought of Bon and Douglas playing together seemed about as likely as Morrissey and Marr reconciling on stage. That all changed when they guys reunited for a world tour in 2006. Tonight's show marks Nitzer Ebb's official live return to Los Angeles since September 12th, 2006, in which they played the Avalon. [...]

Can you handle it? Nitzer Ebb are about to descend upon Los Angeles. EBM madness in the house. One of our all time favorites. The track of all tracks:

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. [...]

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:

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. [...]

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 [...]

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, has a new book out documenting his amazing shots taken of of artists in 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 distribution has been set as of yet for the U.S, We can't find any musical samplings online as [...]

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 [...]

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. His new album, Reality Killed The Video Star , is out now in the UK, on iTunes here in the U.S. Check out the full performance of Bodies , complete with [...]

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.

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 , [...]

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 [...]

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:

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 [...]

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:

Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool is our third favorite track (the first being Papillo n , the second being the title track, In This Light And On This Evening ) from the band's upcoming album. I don't think we can express how freakin' in love we are with this record. A beautiful dark synth landscape done completely right for a change. Check out the guys live at Studio Brussel doing a little acoustic version of [...]

MTV will premiere the new Death Cab For Cutie video for their New Moon soundtrack single, Meet Me On The Equinox , tonight. The video will air on the channel at 8:00pm in all time zones. Need something to tide you over? Check out the below behind the scenes footage from the video shoot, including interview footage with the band discussing the Twilight series, writing for New Moon, and filming the actual video. For [...]