Music Under Fire

The French Kicks, the melodically, downplayed suprise of the year with their Swimming album back in early April, have arose again, this time with nothing but covers. That's much easier than putting together an ace album again, right? Sure it is, but they didn't do it for those reasons. As quoted on Stereogum:

We've always loved the Beach Boys' Party! record where the Beach Boys went into a studio room with some friends and played really loose and live, mainly cover songs, and then put it out ...

Just the fact that there are 5,118 blog posts about Bloc Party's Intimacy album alone shows that there is more than a demand for prolific English-accented vocals and a texture for a club goers and remixers. The news about Bloc Party is pure saturation really, but is well-deserved. When it comes down to it, the fact that the UK based foursome made it over to the States, then became a hit no more than three years ago, says a lot to begin with.

MP3: Bloc Party - This Modern Love (buy)

It started off with a loud bang with their 2005 release of Silent Alarm, then quickly gained more attention with a remix album. Not long after, we saw A Weekend In The City arrive, the media in England couldn't keep their hands off of Kele and his controversial appetite. It rarely works this way, but three albums have garnered themselves enough attention to go in whichever direction they choose from this point forward. Whether they put together a miserable fourth and fifth album, people will still follow, buy it and remix it. Whether Pitchfork rates them a 5.8/10 has no impact either.

MP3: Bloc Party - Sunday (buy)

This is why Bloc Party has already secured themselves on the ipods of millions as 'immortal'. They can do whatever they'd like and people will follow. Their club rock sound is cutting edge. They provide the synths and experimental percussion to veer away from the normal techno rock, but at the same time are able to ground themselves, keeping the rock elements in tact.

MP3: Bloc Party - Better Than Heaven (buy)

You can say what you want - you won't be able to ignore them from this day out. You will hear their name ten, twenty years down the road. And its true, they're not stellar at the moment - they don't liken the crowds like that of Radiohead or Coldplay - but at this rate, with 2 or 3 great songs on three albums in 3 years, in ten years, they will have an impressive Greatest Hits to complile. Sure, its hard to say now, but its hard to deny, they've got the music industry's attention in their little pocket. Congrats Bloc Party, you're in the club.

Official - http://www.blocparty.com/
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/blocparty

MGMT's music binge intoxicates any willing soul to listen. As Oracular Spectacular continues its rise into the ranks as one of 2008's most influential albums, the upstate New York duo has continued to reach out to fans through a relentless touring streak. The show will continue to go on, too, as Beck (Official) and his latest album, Modern Guilt, join the parade.

Courtesy of Columbia Records, you can get tickets of this tour for free. Follow this link, submit your name as well as a few other tidbits and you could be the lucky person to see these two talents play on the same stage.

Below are listed MGMT's tour dates, which do include the dates scheduled with Beck. Notice that their first show at Saratoga Spirngs is free. From Beck's website, we have provided a few clips from his new album. Now get going!

MP3: Beck - Gamma Ray (buy)
MP3: Beck - Volcano (buy)

9/13/08 FREE SHOW Saratoga Springs, NY
9/17/08 Los Angeles, CA
9/19/08 San Diego, CA
#9/20/08 Los Angeles, CA
*9/22/08 Phoenix, AZ
*9/23/08 Albuquerque, NM
*9/25/08 El Paso, TX
9/27/08 Austin, TX
*9/28/08 Tulsa, OK
*9/29/08 Kansas City, MO
*9/30/08 Minneapolis, MN
10/1/08 Des Moines, IA
*10/2/08 Chicago, IL
*10/3/08 Chicago, IL
*10/5/08 Toronto, ON
*10/6/08 Montreal, ON
*10/9/08 New York, NY
*10/10/08 New York, NY
10/17/08 Monterrey, Mexico
10/18/08 Mexico City, Mexico
10/19/08 Guadalajara, Mexico
11/3/08 Dublin, Ireland
11/5/08 Leeds, UK
11/6/08 Nottingham, UK
11/7/08 Bristol, UK
11/9/08 Glasgow, UK, Scotland
11/10/08 Birmingham, UK
11/11/08 Manchester, UK
11/12/08 Paris, France
11/15/08 Amsterdam, Netherlands
11/16/08 Hamburg, Germany
11/18/08 Cologne, Germany
11/21/08 Stockholm, Sweden
11/22/08 Berlin, Germany
11/24/08 Munich, Germany
11/27/08 London, UK
11/28/08 London, UK
12/6/08 Perth, Australia
12/9/08 Sydney, Australia
12/10/08 Brisbane, Australia
12/11/08 Melbourne, Australia
12/13/08 Meredith, Australia

# w/ Beck and Spoon
* w/ Beck

Since the beginning of the year, Scotland's energy-inducing rockers The Cinematics have been quite busy.

The transition to new record label The Orchard (from TVT) and the addition of new guitarist Larry Reid along with the departure of Ramsay Miller should spark some interest for news-eager fans a bit. Reid did play a stint with the group during their tour of Germany earlier this year before he was officially announced as Miller's replacement last month.

Finally, the four-man band has a new album in the works and is hoping to start touring as soon as everything gets done. The Cinematics previously released the critically acclaimed A Strange Education. Although this album isn't available in the U.S. iTunes, their Live Session (iTunes exclusive) can be bought off there.

The mp3 below is off of A Strange Education, but was originally done by Beck on his Sea Change album.

MP3: The Cinematics - Sunday Sun (buy)