As I said with Noel’s first single from his first solo debut album since leaving Oasis, I had higher hopes for it than I did with Liam’s Beady Eye.

The first track “The Death Of You And Me” was highly enjoyable for me and almost exactly what you’d expect from his solo stuff, especially if you’ve heard a few of the things he’s released over the last few years for charities and played live.

When Oasis ran this shit their B-sides were untouchable.  There were bands who would struggle to write their best songs as good as Oasis’ B-sides, and Noel‘s trying to do the same thing with this new track “The Good Rebel”. It’s the B-side to that first single which you can grab here, and pre-order the album that drops on November 8th.

Connect with Noel Gallagher - Facebook / Twitter / Soundcloud

Man, how much do you envy Zane Lowe? I envy him quite a lot. Tonight he debuted the first single from Kasabian‘s forthcoming album “Velociraptor!” – as you do. (Yes, not only is the album named after the widely-acknowledged Most Epic Dinosaur; it also includes an exclamation mark. That’s how you know it’s good.)

We’ve already had a taste of what’s to come in the form of “Switchblade Smiles”, which I was unsure about. The drums sounded like Oasis‘ “Fuckin’ In The Bushes”, so that was good. But that bass synth… That sounded like Robbie Williams‘ “Lovelight”, so not good at all. “Days Are Forgotten”, which has been around for a week or so already but only just got an official bump when they upped it to their YouTube page, sees them squarely back in rock territory. There’s even a slight hint of Semisonic in the guitar tones, which I’m going to chalk up as a good thing.

For me, I can’t see them ever repeating the magic of their self-titled debut, but then I’m biased. I saw them perform it live at Leeds ’04 just before it was released; it was late at night, they played one of the smaller stages, and the atmosphere was incredible. To date, they are one of my favourite live acts. “Days Are Forgotten” hasn’t recaptured that glory, but it sounds confident and brash, and a lot closer to their best than 2009′s “West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum”.

Connect with Kasabian – Facebook | Website | Last.fm

You may never have heard of Ride, but chances are you’ve heard of Death Cab For Cutie, so let me give a little insight as to who the former are.

In the late 80′s and early 90′s there was burgeoning Indie scene in the UK, specifically London and Manchester that were churning out talent like it was going out of fashion.  Bands like Oasis, Blur, and Suede paved the way for a shitstorm of other bands to gain some commercial or mainstream success, one of which was Ride fronted by future Oasis/Beady Eye member Andy Bell.

Whilst never reaching the magnitude of success as the aforementioned bands, Ride did however make four albums and attain a moderate level of success although mostly on their home shores. Death Cab For Cutie have been playing this song live for a little while now and when they visited BBC Radio One’s Maida Vale studio they spoke about the music coming out of those cities in the early 90′s and how they influenced the band, and so naturally they covered Ride’s “Twisterella” which you can hear below.

Connect with Death Cab For Cutie – Facebook | Twitter | Last.fm | Website

Death Cab For Cutie – Twisterella (Ride Cover) by ListenBeforeYouBuy

As I mentioned last week when Noel’s teaser made its around t’interwebs, I’m one of the biggest Oasis fans on the planet. The dude’s a hero of mine, so I’m stoked for new music of his, especially after Beady Eye didn’t really….you know, make good music.

Anyway, here it is, our first new solo music from the man himself.

Connect with Noel Gallagher – Facebook / Twitter / Soundcloud

I might just be on of the biggest Oasis fans on the planet, and after the disappointing run of Liam’s Beady Eye my hopes are firmly set on Noel to realease something that’s actually worthwhile.  Here’s the teaser for his debut solo single “The Death Of You And Me”, out on August 21st.

Picture by James Chadderton/Peter Hook

It’s fairly indescribable the impact that Joy Division have had on my life, but it’s fair to say it’s been nothing short of life-changing; one of those artists that literally do change your life, and personally it’s only happened with four others (Oasis, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Arcade Fire…gotta get the hipster points in with that one, but no, seriously, they did).  Of course it’s been said countless times before, but on the off-chance that there’s someone reading this who’s never heard of Joy Division, all you need to know is that they’re one of the most influential and important bands in the history of music, and I don’t say that lightly.  Do yourself a favour and find a stream of “Unknown Pleasures”, go watch the movie Control, and come back and thank me (you’re welcome).

“Pictures In My Mind” was an unfinished Joy Division track that had been uncovered on a rehearsal tape that was stolen in 1977, and now it’s been finished and mastered with bassist Peter Hook taking the lead on the vocals.  It’s being released as part of an EP by Hook’s new band The Light and will feature said unreleased track along with three classic Joy Division tunes, “Atmosphere”, “Insight”, and “New Dawn Fades”, all sung by guest-vocalist Rowetta.

The new song sounds nothing like what you’d expect a Joy Division song from 1977/78 to sound in terms of production, mainly because Hook’s reworked it so it’s got that crisp, more-polished sound, and it’s also got Hook on vocals, but imagine Ian Curtis singing and you can see it fitting in between “An Ideal For A Living” and “Unknown Pleasures”.  I would’ve loved to have heard this with Ian on vocals (he did mention that he’ll put the original up on the Factory website so people can buy it with proceeds going to charity), but the song is actually really good.

The EP “1102 / 2011″ is released on May 9th via Hook’s own digital label Hacienda Records and this morning they played two of the songs on BBC Radio 6, and on Monday May 2nd they’re releasing videos for “Pictures In My Mind” and “Atmosphere”.  If you missed the radio show you can hear a shite radio rip below, but make sure to buy the EP when it comes out in a couple of weeks.

Connect with Peter Hook & The Light – Facebook

Joy Division – Pictures In My Mind by ListenBeforeYouBuy

Before you get your panties in a bunch, this isn’t aimed at all bloggers and site owners, but I guess we’re all to be held accountable for the subject at hand, including myself.

In three weeks the Seattle Indie-Folk-Pop-Alternative-Rock band Fleet Foxes will release their much-anticipated second album “Helplessness Blues”.  On the last day of January the band released their first single from the album “Helplessness Blues” as a free download, and the internet went apeshit over it, not only because it was their first new music in a couple of years but also because it was so fucking good.  Then on March 21st they had “Battery Kinzie”, a new song, played on BBC Radio One and I posted a shitty radio rip of the song that was then posted around various other sites and blogs and again, everyone went apeshit.

Almost a week later their album leaked online and again the internet was abuzz with talk of the songs and their quality.  As the days passed blogs began posting songs from the album, obviously without permission, and now less than two weeks after the album leaked, thanks to bloggers looking for hits, you can get eight tracks out of the 12 from the album all for free. Obviously there are a multitude of ways that we can get music for free these days, but I’d like to think that as a site owner with a readership base who look to you to post new music, signed and unsigned, and who trust your taste in music, that if you enjoyed an artist so much that you wouldn’t post tracks from an album for people to download for free a month before the fucking thing drops.

I mean we (as bloggers and site owners) have to have some kind of responsibility in controlling what music gets out there. We don’t post shitty music, so why post illegal music?  I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve posted songs to the site, new and old, that I have no permission from anyone affiliated with the artist to do so.  I made mistakes, looking to get a few hits, thinking it wasn’t a big deal, and I cared more about more people seeing my site than whether or not I was contributing to people illegally downloading music.  Today, I’ll still post radio rips of new songs because I can’t possibly see how that would affect any kind of album sales or the artist making money, unless the music sucked, but then I wouldn’t post it in the first place (yes, my taste in music is the litmus test for “good”).  The song has already been played on national/worldwide radio for millions to hear, the quality is piss-poor, and 99% of the time there are people talking before and after it with radio tags overlaying the track, rendering any kind of longterm enjoyment null and void (how many people pull out radio rips at parties or throw them on their iPods?). Besides, these days if someone has a song played on the radio they generally give it away for free not long after.

When I post these shitty radio rips it’s because not everyone listens to the radio, not everyone can listen to it at work or from another country and so this is another way for people to hear them, and I only post them as a stream and not downloadable so it’s not like people can distribute them anyway.  Is it illegal? I’m not sure, I’m still unsure as to who owns copyright on public radio streams.  Is it that big of a deal?  I don’t think so.  I remember when I was a kid I’d tape Oasis interviews and songs from the radio because it was the only access I had to them. They were shit, but back then we didn’t have the kind of access to music like we do today and they were enough just for me to hear the music and nothing else.

Is there a difference between posting a stream of a song we’re not allowed to vs. posting the MP3?  Yeah, big time.  I’m completely fine with streams being posted as long as the songs aren’t able to be downloaded because what harm does it do?  If the artist/label are confident about the release and proud of the work they did then why the big deal when some of the songs are posted for people to listen to?  Again, listen….not download, just to listen to. BUT, even then that should only come down to songs/albums that have been released already, not MP3s of leaks. At least give the band a chance to release their fucking album before you start illegally posting their songs.  I understand that artists and labels want to be able to control the musical output of new albums and how and when people hear the music, and I completely agree and that’s the whole premise of this rant.

There are blogs and sites who did this with Fleet Foxes, some do it regularly and that pisses me the fuck off, and some never do it so I’ll cut them some slack.  Some of you I called out when it happened and others there’s no point in calling out because all you give a shit about is a quick hit on one of your obnoxious ads, but I’d like to think that if you’re considering doing it, then please don’t.  It’s not a good look.

I’m sure I’ll get shit from people about me posting full albums for people to listen to, but I’m just using the tools that Grooveshark are allowing me to use and I don’t post links to Mediafire or anything like that to directly download the album unless it’s actually been released for free, and I offer links to purchase the album in a bunch of formats from a bunch of different places.  I’m trying to promote the purchase of music by allowing people to listen to something before buying it.  To me, someone’s going to be more inclined to buy an album that they’ve just listened to if they have the ability to purchase it right there on the same page.  After someone’s illegally downloaded an album from a torrent site, what are the chances that once they have all of the MP3s on their computer that they’ll turn right around and pay for it?  I’d say slim to none.

The thing with the Fleet Foxes leak is that bloggers have taken it upon themselves to just post anything from the album that they wanted to and you know what, I’d say 90% of them did it to try to get some hits from The Hype Machine, and if not from that then from whoever finds their blog from Google after searching for “New + Fleet Foxes”.  I mean, you fucking did it for hits.  For something that is completely intangible.  It’s just a number.  You can’t touch them or hold them.  You can’t exchange them for money.  You can’t take them out for a walk or play Frisbee with or make babies with them, they just exist on that screen you’re looking at.  You posting one song might not seem like a big deal, but whenever 100 blogs all post the same eight songs or so, that shit translates into lost album sales.  Sixteen clicks on The Hype Machine and you can get 3/4 of an unreleased album. That’s some bullshit, why would someone want to buy it then? Oh, and you can also get the entire new album from Radiohead on The Hype Machine…the entire album.  For free.  Publicly. Thanks to people who should know better.

If you have to pay for a song/album, then you shouldn’t be posting it or parts of it online for others to take unless you have permission, and chances are you fucking don’t, so fucking quit it.  Like I said, I’m to blame too, I’ve learned a lot in the last year and I fucked up, but c’mon, if you like an artist so much then promote them as much as possible along with links for people to buy their music.  I know a lot of you DO buy music and DO support bands by going to shows and buying merch, but surely you can do without sacrificing your damn integrity for hits.

Integrity wins every time, guys.  Every. Single. Time.

Now, I’m about to step down off’a my high horse and go rip that new Arctic Monkeys track from the radio.

So far it seems like the first few months of 2011 have been dominated either by atrociously hilarious pop (you know who I’m talking about), unbelievably awesome comebacks (Beastie Boys), or soul-crushing mixtapes.

A recurring theme on the those mixtapes is the mixtaper’s ability to make trite and once-enjoyable-but-now-just-a-parody-of-themselves music, listenable again.  OFWGKTA‘s Frank Ocean released his mixtape and did this with Coldplay and their song “Strawberry Swing”, The Weeknd‘s “House Of Balloons” mixtape was fan-fucking-tastic and did an amazing job at sampling good music, and now Joywave have done it in their mixtape with Limp motherfuckin’ Bizkit!

I remember back in the late 90′s when I used to love the music they were making.  I was a wee young and impressionable kid, slightly angry that I’d never be as cool as Fred Durst, and reeling from the direction Oasis were taking, so their yell-induced music made me work out my frustration.  I mention that because Joywave have completely stripped their cover of “Re-Arranged” to it’s bare minimum, removed the unnecessary scratching and Nu-Rap-Metal basslines and instead given a kind of Imogen Heap-like vibe with triple-layered vocals and smooth synths.

These kinds of reworking are littered throughout the mixtape as they do straight up covers of artists like Robyn and Limp, reworkings of artists where they mashup a couple and change the lyrics, such as Drake and Foals on opener “Winnipeg”, Flaming Lips and MGMT on “The Launch”, and LCD  Soundsystem and Miike Snow on “Betelgeuse”, as well as a couple of original tracks in “PM” and “Traveling At The Speed Of Light”.

It’s a really great listen and you can tell they put a lot of time and effort into it, so check it out below and then download it yourself from their site in a ZIP file and grab a couple below.

Connect with  JOYWAVE- Website | Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

Joywave – “Rearranged” (Limp Bizkit Cover)
Joywave – “Space Walk” (Beach House Vs. One Republic)

Oasis, AC/DC, Kings of Leon, The Black Crowes, The Beach Boys, The Stooges…  The list of great bands with brothers in is quite a lengthy one but there’s always room for one more so ladies and gentlemen please welcome Kudos Fiasco to the fray. The brothers in this band are Benny and Dan Juengling and they’re joined by Matt Milns and Tim Mac.

Coming from Perth (the Australian one, sorry Frank) and with a style that’s been described as ‘soulful and melodic with heavier underlying tendencies’ they cite their influences as broad, but they particularly love a lot of 90′s studio sounds and soul music and name check (amongst others) James Brown, Luther Vandross, Curtis Mayfield, Faith no More, Janes Addiction and Pantera (another band with brothers in).

Accumulating an array of equipment from various sources they use it to record everything themselves, which gives them the opportunity to dabble and keep a raw sound in their music.

Having spent a huge chunk of the last year writing, recording and mastering their 7 track EP “Changer”, which they even produced themselves, they were recently rewarded with their first play on national radio.

Listening to “Changer” you can see their love of the music they like coming through.  Power guitars, thumping drum beats and vocals that range from soulful to rock god all played over songs that are multi layered and in some places complex. This is a stunning collection of tracks with my particular favourite being “Sangria”. The complete rock out section got me going totally and yes I’ll even admit that I got my air guitar out dammit! I suggest you turn it up loud and so the same.

Connect with Kudos Fiasco - Myspace | Website | Bandcamp