Hot 5 at 5

Tweet

***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (14/12)

The Barracudas - Don't Let Go
Lingering

Sonic Youth - Tunic (Song for Karen)
Sonically charged

The Horrors - Sea Within a Sea
Fluid

The XX - Islands
Stoic

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
Efficient

Hot 5 at 5 (14/12)

Hot 5 at 5

Tweet

***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (12/12)

Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Chilling

Stephen Malkmus - Jenny & The Ess-Dog
Man's best friend

A Place to Bury Strangers - Missing You
Miss it; miss out

My Bloody Valentine - To Here Knows When
Hazy

Rx Bandits - 1980
Retro

Hot 5 at 5 (12/12)

Short Cuts! New Releases7/12/09

Tweet

*** Brief run-down of this week’s new releases, including track recommendations from THE POPSCENER***

Comanechi – Crime of Love

A reckless attempt at avant-garde punk, this bassless fuzz careers along with White Stripesian insouciance but lacks the requisite pulse to endure. As noisey as it is tone deaf, the pervading headache of the music is permeated only by piercing vocals which rather recall a nuisance pneumatic drill’s affect on an existing hangover. At ninety seconds this racket is annoying, at six minutes (see final track ‘R.O.M.P’) it’s unbearable.  Prize for most apt song title: ‘Why?’.

Choice Cuts: ‘Naked’

2.5/10

30 Seconds to Mars – This Is War

The actor turns singer-songwriter-bandleader paradigm never has anyone coming up smelling particularly of roses (Keanu anyone?!), so credit to Jared Leto’s crew that they have survived to a third album. Nevertheless, as can be expected from an actor turned singer-songwriter-bandleader, here the lyrics are the usual emo guff and the songwriting formulaic, with Leto covering his bases from Linkin Park (‘Night of the Hunter’) to My Chemical Romance (‘A Call to Arms’). That said, the vocals are credible – best served on the shameless U2/Bono rips ‘Kings and Queens’, ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Alibi’.  More appropriate album title: This is U2 (sort of).

Choice Cuts: ‘Kings and Queens’

5.5/10

BlakRoc – BlakRoc

This rock/hip-hop/rap crossover protests loudly that it arose from organic beginnings – wunderkind producer Damon Dash supposedly decided the Black Keys were his new favourite band and decided to have them cut a record with a plethora of rappers. Regardless of the fact that the whole concept and sound barely updates the blueprint of beatsy guitar grooves built tall with rapping bon mots popularized by The Roots and more recently sent into hyperspace by Madcon’s ‘Beggin You’, it largely works. For every turgid ‘Coochie’, there’s a glorious ‘On The Vista’, and either way, as Pharoahe Monche suggests, “if it don’t make dollaz, then it don’t make sense”, right?

Choice Cuts: ‘On The Vista’, ‘Stay Off the Fuckin’ Flowers’

7/10

Hot 5 at 5

Tweet

***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (7/12)

Napoleon IIIrd - Zebra
Earns its stripes

BlakRoc feat. Mos Def - On the Vista
On my lista

Arcade Fire - Intervention
Timely

Royksopp - What Else is There (Thin White Duke Mix)
What else do you need?

Eddy Grant - Living on the Frontline
Wishes Grant-ed

Hot 5 at 5 (7/12)

Hot 5 at 5

Tweet

***5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today ***

Hot 5 at 5 (6/12)

The Replacements - Left of the Dial
Able replacement

The Chemical Brothers - Close Your Eyes
Addictive

Sebadoh - Violet Execution
Well executed

Eels - Not Ready Yet
A fishy dishy

Redd Kross - Mess Around
Deadd Kool

Hot 5 at 5 (6/12)