Happy Halloween from TLC!

Just wishing all of our readers a safe night of fun, mischief, music, costume, and hopefully some sweets…like caramel!

MP3: Air – Ghost Song or zShare

Get Tickets for the MTV U Woody Awards!

Click HERE to register for tickets for the 2008 MTV U Woody Awards.

The event takes place November 12th at Roseland Ballroom. Performers include: Lykke Li, Vampire Weekend, Santogold, and All Time Low.

MP3: Santogold – Starstruck (Diplo Remix) or zShare

New Beck Video: Gamma Ray

Beck’s new colorful and funky video features a dancing Chloë Sevigny.

MP3: Beck – Hell Yes

Holy Hawley! Camden’s Favorite Watering Hole Re-Opens

Last February’s fire in Camden was tragic and destructive, but it seems rebuilding has been taking place in remarkable time. Tomorrow night will see the re-opening of The Hawley Arms, the legendary scenester outpost almost entirely destroyled by the fire.

I didn’t realize how bad this building was damaged until I saw this picture among others on MySpace.

Tomorrow and Thursday night are INVITE ONLY events. If you RSVP’d to an invitation but didn’t receive a confirmation, you will not gain entry. However the proprietors are happy to announce that Halloween Friday will be the official public re-opening.

Ahh The Hawley…Welcome Back!

Win A Signed Bass From Peter Hook

Rhino Records is re-issuing New Order’s first 5 albums (Movement, Power Corruption and Lies, Low-Life, Brotherhood, Technique) as 2-disc collector’s editions on November 11th.

In celebration of the releases you can enter to win a signed bass from Hooky himself. 2 runners-up will win copies of all 5 New Order collector’s edition CDs.

ENTER HERE.

MP3: New Order – Ceremony

Travis Frontman To Play Acoustic NYC Show

From Travisonline.com:

Housing Works Bookstore Café presents a concert with Fran Healy of Travis on Friday, November 7. Doors at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 at www.housingworksbookstore.org and include free beer, compliments of Whole Foods Bowery, the official beer sponsor of Live From Home. All proceeds benefit Housing Works Inc.

Celebrate the release of Travis’ 6th studio album, Ode To J. Smith (out Nov 4th on Red Telephone Box), at this event for a great cause!

MP3: Travis – J. Smith or zShare

Erol Alkan Voted Top UK DJ

The Top 10 as voted by Data Transmission Poll

1. Erol Alkan
2. John Digweed
3. Sasha
4. Danny Howells
5. Above & Beyond
6. Riley & Durrant
7. Armin Van Buuren
8. Carl Cox
9. James Zabiela
10. Paul Van Dyk

Watch his humble award acceptance interview below.

MP3: Fan Dealth – Veronica’s Veil (Erol Alkan’s Extended Rework) or zShare

New Christina Aguilera Video: Keeps Gettin’ Better

Christina Aguilera premiered the video for her brand new song, Keeps Gettin’ Better today. check out the video below and pre-order the Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits HERE.

MP3: Christina Aguilera – Keeps Gettin’ Better (Tricky Remix) or zShare

TLC vs. Pete & The Pirates: The Exclusive Electric Proms Interview

TLC featured Pete & The Pirates in an Artist Spotlight last month after rediscovering their poppy post-punk gem of an album, Little Death.

While perusing the BBC Electric Proms 2008 line-up we were thrilled to see our favorite Reading lads headlining the BBC Introducing gig at Proud Galleries in London. That momentous gig is happening tonight at the close of the annual week-long event. TLC caught up with Pete & The Pirates’ guitarist David Thorpe who talked to us about what it means to be involved in Electric Proms, what they’re working on now, and when they might (FINALLY) tour the US.

>Congratulations on headlining the BBC Introducing show at the Electric Proms! The first time I heard Pete & the Pirates was on Steve Lamacq’s show and then on Zane Lowe’s. How instrumental has support from the BBC, namely Steve Lamacq, been in your success so far?

DT: Steve has been amazing, he has supported us right from the beginning, not just by playing our records on his shows but coming to gigs, saying hello and what not. The BBC in general has always been very supportive of us which is great. I think as a band it just gives you a little boost and a bit of extra confidence to keep doing what you’re doing.

>What significance does participating in the Electric Proms hold for you? What are your expectations?

DT: It’s quite exciting, some of the shows seem to be collaborations between people you may not usually put together, which i think is a great idea, even if it ends up sounding not so great. It is definitely good to encourage artists to try new things. We actually went down to an event on the opening night of the Electric Proms called Africa Express where we met some really interesting people and managed to play with some musicians who we normally would not have had the chance to play with when you just do standard shows around England. Although in the end we didn’t get to perform the songs on stage, we hope to perhaps meet with one or two people we met there at one of our gigs in London and play the songs there instead.

>You’ve all been or are currently involved in other musical projects. How did Pete & The Pirates form? Is it the main focus for all of you or do you like to continue to work on other projects simultaneously?

DT: We formed in Reading; we all lived very close to each other and gradually met one another through mutual friends or seeing people at the same pub or whatever and realised we all were songwriters and interested in recording music and just kinda grew from there. A couple of us had been in bands together before so it was all very natural, just hanging out playing songs together and recording, just sort of dawned one day that we were a band without really thinking about it. I think The Pirates is definitely our main focus, however I think all of us have solo side projects too. But the boundaries are very vague, as to what is Pirates and what isn’t. I mean we all write songs and some become Pirates songs and some don’t.

>Your bio describes the band as “bright, young commanders of a brand of unique Englishness.” In your view, what about your music is distinctly “English” and how does that set you apart from today’s other indie rock bands, English, American, or otherwise?

DT: Coming from Reading you are just far enough from London to not be in “the scene” there. I think all our influences were from listening to each other’s songs rather than hearing a popular band’s sound and kind of apeing that. So I think our sound is different perhaps from some other bands just because we weren’t really influenced so much by what is or was popular at a certain time. Our writing is very much based on our own experiences and things that concern young folk growing up and living in Reading, England, not necessarily explicitly but kind of innately. I guess how could we not sound English? Also, we have never put on accents when we sing, so I guess people pick up on that too.

>Describe the music scene in Reading. Are you still based there or did you make the obligatory move to London?

DT: Yeah, we are still in Reading. Its tricky, as I think it really suffers from being 40 miles from London. You never get that many big bands playing there as most just play in London and there are unfortunately very few live venues, so it is difficult for a scene to kind of take grip. Which can be a good thing, as it enables bands to do their own thing and not worry so much about sounding like other bands around. If there is not much there already it gives you an impetus to make your own fun and get out there and play in places like London and Manchester etc.

>Can you tell me a bit about the new material you’re working on? How different is it working with Dave Allen versus Gareth Parton, who produced Little Death?

DT: Well, so far we have recorded two new songs (actually off to finish the mix off in a mo) with Dave and a man named Mark Ralph (who is part of Filthy Dukes) for a single to come out soon. They are sounding great, feel quite excited for people to hear them, I’m kinda terrible at describing songs… I think everyone you work with has different approaches and ideas about how to do things and it’s good to try lots of different people just to see what’s out there. We are quite hands on when recording so obviously the sound is very much down to us as well. But yeah, I’ve really enjoyed working with all three.

>Lastly, when are you going to tour the US?! I know quite a lot of people who would love to see you here in NYC and noticed other Stateside fans clamoring on your MySpace page for you to make your way over. What are your plans for the rest of 2008 and early ‘09? Does a trip to the States factor in?

DT: We are doing a big UK tour for the whole of November and then in December I think we are just gonna finish off some new songs, try and get the next album ready to record. Early 2009 should be releasing a single at some point and then off to record the next album. And then, fingers crossed, a quick trip to the States in or around March (which hopefully will drop by in New York for sure). It’s something we have wanted to do for a long time now.

MP3: Pete & The Pirates – Knots or zShare

CMJ 2008 Coverage: Chairlift at Piano’s

On Tuesday TLC attended The Music Slut’s afternoon showcase at Piano’s to catch our recent interviewees’ first CMJ set.

Chairlift headlined the popular event and played a rousing set to warm up for their 329732493740324 CMJ appearances. Day-time showcases are fun, mostly if you enjoy standing in a sea of industry types, Blackberries aglow. But I digress….

My first impression of Chairlift’s live show was very positive albeit shortlived. Their ethereal, glossed-up sound was beautiful in this intimate setting and good enough to get everyone to lift their heads from their iPhones more than once. The lighting in Piano’s is atrocious however and didn’t yield that many great pics. I’m excited to see the trio play a full set in the near future.

MP3: Chairlift – Planet Health or zShare