See Jungle! See Jungle!

One more, while I'm at it. I greatly enjoyed Jungle's last single, Busy Earnin', and their newie, Time, is even better. 

Kiss FM

Also rather good is this newie from Sheffield's Slow Club. I'm not entirely sure the video suits the song, but there's no denying that The Pieces is a pretty fine choon, and, if there were any justice in the world, it'd be a summer no. 1 hit.  Incidentally, there isn't and it won't be.

True Mathematics

As I cocked an ear to the radio the other day I thought to myself "What a lovely female voice. I wonder who it is?"

It turned out to be the (decidedly male) Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, guesting on Sbtrkt's new release. And rather good it is too. Entitled New Dorp, New York, I was going to put it in contention for this year's Worst Title award, until I discovered that there actually is a place called New Dorp in New York. Every day's a school day.

Heads You Win

I recently got talking to a nice chap from a band called Stats. He said they were influenced by Talking Heads, which is something you don't hear very often.  Like the Associates, like Sparks, they were a singular band who clearly had a devoted following, none of whom seem to have used them as a template for further musical exploration. A shame really. I can't quite see why. Perhaps if they'd have stopped after Remain In Light they'd have been better remembered and more influential (though Mr. Stats and I both were fulsome in our praise of their final vinyl Naked). But listen to Stats and you can definitely hear traces of the nervousness and jitteriness of, say, The Great Curve or Crosseyed and Painless.



I can also hear it in the current offering from Tune Yards (or tUnE-yArDs, if you must). Perhaps there's a TH revival under way? Great video, incidentally. Big up to Brian Cant and Floella Benjamin.

The Real McCoy

There aren't enough pop songs based on the novels of Tom Wolfe, whom long-term readers will know takes up a large amount of shelf space chez ItP.  In fact before today I could only recall one, and that was New Kids On The Block's 1988 classic You Got It (The Right Stuff), which is clearly a homage to Wolfe's description of the 1960s space race The Right Stuff.

So it was exciting to hear Tom Vek's Sherman (Animals in the Jungle) this morning, not just because it's a catchy slice of upbeat leftfield electro-pop from one of the smartest guys in the biz, but because it's so clearly a nod towards the Sherman McCoy character in Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, as Vek himself has admitted. Enjoy.

http://www.tomvek.tv/

RIP DJ E-Z Rock 

Seeing Double

We got to the Usher Hall a little too late to see Rock Action's Remember Remember last night; they were one of the support acts for Mogwai, the other being The Pastels, who we did get to see.  Is it possible to review Mogwai without alluding to that NME cliché "Cathedrals of Sound"? Probably not. So instead, in honour of the first support band, we proudly unveil the ItP rundown of the Top Ten Groups With Two Words Exactly The Same As Their Band Name.

10. Bourgie Bourgie
9. Everything Everything
8. Rema Rema
7. Medium Medium
6. Duran Duran
5. Talk Talk
4. The The
3. Django Django
2. Allez Allez
1. Liquid Liquid

Incidentally, Mr. Mister, you don't make the cut. I hope I don't need to explain why.