Contest: Meet the Kooks

ATTENTION ALL KOOKS FANS!

The Kooks return to the US this fall in support of their brilliant new album Konk, and they are teaming up with imeem to give you the chance to design their tour poster! Send in your design and one lucky winner could have their poster produced and get a chance to meet the band!

For details visit their IMEEM page: http://www.imeem.com/thekooksfan

Mike Skinner Brings Back The Streets: The Escapist free mp3 and video

Our favorite laddie, Mikey Skinner, is back with a new Streets album and a return to form. 2006’s The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living proved to be one of those cliched, self-indulgent, mo’ money/mo’ problems messes about how since he hit it big he’s always prangin’ out, wearing expensive clothes and sleeping w/ popstars. Prior to this disappointment, what we always loved about Mike was that he talked about real people and every day issues. I think what contributed to his initial success among the indie crowd and people like me in the US (read:Anglophiles) had to do w/ the fact that he touched on universal themes but was always distinctly British.

We held out hope that he’d work through all this corrupted-by-fame nonsense and evidence that he finally has is in new album, Everything Is Borrowed, out September 15. As a preview, The Streets made album track, The Escapist, available for free (download below). The song’s video (thnx Music Slut) sees Mike on an on-foot journey of Forrest Gump proportions and of course prominantly features Reebok sneakers, the brand for which Mike participated in the I Am What I Am ad campaign (pictured above).

Check The Streets UK tour dates here. No London show announced yet.

MP3: The Streets – The Escapist

The Killers at Highline Ballroom

A growing trend among bands this season is the Surprise/Secret Shows [see A Morning With Modest Mouse]. In keeping with the trend, The Killers announced an impromptu surprise NYC-area show last Friday to play Highline Ballroom this past Tuesday night.

Upon arrival 21+ concertgoers were given skull bracelets for the bar and checked off of the list as there were no physical tickets. This was the most diverse crowd I’d ever seen at a show: over-weight middle-aged men and women, old, young, bridge and tunnel, and then us. It was actually kind of refreshing to be out of the typical music scene crowd, but the squaking accents and Iphone flashing were almost unbearable during the wait.

I saw The Killers at Jones Beach a few years ago for the Hot Fuss album tour, but after the less than stellar follow-up, Sam’s Town I opted to catch them for the next album.

The opening band, Halloween Town, was decent for it’s genre and the band members, specifically the keyboardist and drummer were quite the characters. The keyboardist was either 1) VERY bored, 2) stoned, 3) in a trance, while the drummer made the funniest facial expressions imaginable. The Killers made a dramatic entry around 10PM, in typical Brandon Flowers fashion: cocky, dapper, energetic, hot and fully aware of this aka the ultimate front man. They played a few good tracks off their upcoming album and most of their previous hits. The show had one encore and wrapped up with “All These Things That I’ve Done.” All in all, worth the $40.

The Opener: Halloween Town

«More Pictures of The Killers Surprise Show at Highline»

MP3: The Killers – When You Were Young (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)

Beck w/ MGMT and TV On The Radio Presales

More exciting fall concerts/presales to announce:

Beck w/ MGMT
October 9th: United Palace Theatre [Harlem]
$49, Available for Presale 8/1 @ 10:30AM

TV On The Radio
Oct 14th: Masonic Temple [Fort Greene, Brooklyn]
Oct 15th: Masonic Temple [Fort Greene, Brooklyn]
$25, Available for Presale 8/1 @ 12:00PM

MP3: Beck – Hell Yes

Russell Brand to host MTV Video Music Awards in LA

British comic sensation Russell Brand will take a transatlantic turn on September 7 to host the MTV VMAs in Los Angeles. This is a huuuuuge break for Russell in the US and the amount of exposure this will bring is outrageous.

I think MTV took a bit of chance here since not many people know who he is but he’s got a longstanding relationship w/ MTV worldwide and is no newbie when it comes to hosting awards shows. The VMAs are generally one big commercial for MTV and an excuse for people to flaunt their celebrity. It’s been a guilty pleasure for me in the past, but I’ve eschewed the show in recent years just because it makes me more angry than anything else. This year though, I’ll be making an exception.

Broken Social Scene Presale Tickets

After their headlining gig at this summer’s Coney Island Siren Music Festival, BSS are stopping by Brooklyn again along their fall tour. Tickets for the Brooklyn Masonic Temple show are available for presale now. You will also be entered to win an autographed silk-screened poster by purchasing your tickets through the presale.

10/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Masonic Temple

http://arts-crafts.ca/bssticketing/

MP3 – Broken Social Scene – Alive in 85

Summer MAC ATTACK continues: James McAvoy Cover Star

James is currently making the rounds of the US and UK men’s style mags as cover star. I’m noticing a pattern of brooding squinty eye looks.

Check out the Arena photos and interview over at ONTD.

Details video and interview.

once you compose yourselves, you’ll thank me for this:

Catching up with The Metros!

TLC has been championing The Metros for quite some time now. We are happy to report that their debut album, More Money Less Grief, will be released in the UK on September 15!!! The album’s preceded by single, Talk About It, out Sept. 8. The video premiered the other day and shows the boys giving chase throughout their native neighborhood of Peckham, South East London. Check out the vid for their usual good humored gobshite antics and heartwrenchingly cool (for me anyway) scenes of Peckham like Peckham Rye, Rye Lane, the SE overland train, the library and (OMG!!!) the P13 bus. Keepin’ it locallll!

The Metros have been touring like crazy for what seems like forever and this summer and fall are no exception. They’ll be opening for The Cribs at KOKO on August 19! Also if you’re in London, be sure to check them out at McClusky’s July 31 and The Borderline Sept 24.

I think we need to start the official campaign to bring them to NYC…hopefully it won’t take too long.

MGMT at McCarren Park Pool

To make a long story short, the MGMT + The Ting Tings + Black Moth Super Rainbow concert at McCarren Park Pool on Sunday July 27th was utter, utter chaos. We had friends wait in line for the show an hour before the doors opened, and even so the line to get in stretched across three blocks!

In addition to the MASSIVE turn out, storm clouds quickly replaced the sun and the patience of countless fans were put to the test. Thunder and lightning lit up the sky and the rain did not let up, but still the line did not move. Yours truly stood on line outside of the venue discouraged as The Ting Tings took the stage (they were first in the lineup), but even more discouraged by their short set. We at least were able to catch the last song of their performance.

Black Moth Super Rainbow (glorified indie elevator music) was second to hit the stage before the crowd packed in for the headliner, MGMT. The band pleasantly buzzed through songs off their debut Oracular Spectacular, but still I wondered if it was worth the many unpleasantries.

The Ting Tings


Black Moth Super Rainbow:


The line exiting McCarren



«More Pictures of MGMT, The Ting Tings, Black Moth Super Rainbow and the chaos»

MP3: MGMT – Electric Feel (Justice Remix)

Video Roundup with Radiohead, Dirty Pretty Things and The Verve

Everyone’s probably seen this by now, but it’s really cool and bears repeating. In true Radiohead fashion, they’re paving a new road in video technology w/ the use of 3D plotting in the video for House of Cards.

“no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.”

Most of that explanation went completely over my head, but it looks really great and I would expect no less from Radiohead than to do something completely different.

Carl Barat hoists high the flag of Albion once more in Dirty Pretty Things’ latest single, Tired of England, from the album Romance At Short Notice released in June in the UK but WHEN IN THE US?!!! We’ll have to tide ourselves over with this video in the meantime. Nice haircut, Carlos.

And lastly, The Verve’s new single is called Love is Noise from their forthcoming album Forth released August 25 (UK)/26 (US). When I saw The Verve back in April we all thought this song was amazing and could be a total club anthem. The recorded version is a little disappointing (I don’t remember all those wawaaah whoawhoaaaas) and this video elicits a big “HUH?!”