Portishead release a brand new track - 'Chase the Tear' for Amnesty International.

It's now available as an exclusive download single from 7 digital with all earnings going towards Amnesty's human rights work.

First aired on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 9 December, the track is out just in time for international human rights day on 10 December.

And if you were wondering - 'Chase the Tear' is a reference to a paper tear-style 'tear', not a tear from an eye!

Check the track and video out here

and I sincerely recommend that you do.

Rural Alberta Advantage video - Drain The Blood

Released on the 12th of January this is Rural Alberta Advantage's first official video.

Panda Yoghurt

Panda Yoghurt have updated their site with some splendid work

Will Stratton - No Wonder

Yet another sensitively assembled effort from the gifted Californian fledgling, coming from a galvanized musical place. spiritually and inspirational to his cult following, Will is instrumental in concocting a bold acoustic plateau of intricate guitar twiddles, heart warming lyrics and complicated string compositions as a stunning compliment to his unique tone which defies his modest 22 years.



He has really been ‘Stratton’ his stuff with his 2nd full length Studio album out on ‘Big Hassle‘ records. Melodic masterpiece ‘For no one’ and the quant elegant flowing composition ‘New Jersey’ are stand out tracks and prove that there is not only some incredible guitar playing on this album, but it’s the way that Will manages to harmonise these talents with his vast range of vocal ability.



‘The country clear’ beautifully describes his journey of a love interest painting a picture storybook for the avid listener, the line ‘I saw your eyes in the air and on the inside of my head’ gives you an idea of how Will found his inspiration for this song



‘Your California Sky’ opens with a very intricate guitar progression into a layered string fuelled chorus.



There is a distinct style of playing, reminding me of Nick Drake or even Bon Iver at times, because this is an acoustic album of chilled proportion that will lend your ear heart warming British folk stories of days gone past from his personal exploits. With a 3rd album currently being recorded, the talented lad has a promising career ahead.

By Joe Head

Future of the Left - The Garage, London. 03/12/09

As the saying goes, “great things come in pairs”. And with Future of the Left you really get double the value, where the feeling of being at a stand-up comedy gig as well as a kick-ass musical display has been a regular occurrence within the bands repertoire. After releasing ‘Travels with Myself and Another’ earlier this year, I couldn’t wait to see how their live performance has developed after their second album.

As I rushed home from work, caught the train and the tube down to Highbury & Islington for my first gig at the newly corporately named Relentless Garage I surprisingly managed to make it in time for the two support acts. The opening act Japanese Voyeurs provided us with female led scuzzy metal-core which has some potential but was difficult to get really excited about due to their poor sound and early start. However, I was tempted to buy one of their brilliant t-shirts from the merch desk before they came on stage but wearing it I felt would be false advertising.

Main tour support Tubelord have been used to playing in front of sizable crowds in their hometown of Kingston, as well as various DIY shows around the country, so I was interested to see how the hardcore pop-punk trio would fare in front of the FOTL fans. But respect where it’s due as they nailed their set with their cult following singing along to their tunes and the near capacity crowd enjoying their set.

As FOTL came to the stage at 9.30pm they launched into the opening two tracks off their latest album, ‘Arming Eritrea’ and ‘Chin Music’ respectively. Before following up with a crowd favourite from their first LP, ‘Wrigley Scott’. It took a good four or five songs before the bands' Andy ‘Falco’ Falkous and Kelson Mathias began their trademark banter with the crowd. Laying into Kings of Leon whose entire album ‘Only By the Night’ was played in between sets much to the bemusement of myself included, led to hysterical agreement from the crowd. Affectionate mockery of drummer Jack Egglestone was also a common feature during the set, where Kelson even for a short while displayed a t-shirt saying “I Hate Jack Egglestone”, which a friend of the band had kindly made for him. Throughout their 1 hour and 15 minute set they consistently played an incredible tight and loud gig coupled with incredible banter. They closed the show with the 10 minute ferociousness of non-album track ‘Cloak the Dagger’ which epically concluded with Kelson stage diving into the crowd and Jack’s drum kit being dismantled in a barrage of noise.

Having seen FOTL on more than one occasion it is possible to say they are of the funniest live bands on the planet whilst still showcasing the hi-tempo heavy rawness and witty lyrical genius that Kelson and Falco presented in Jarcrew and Mclusky respectively. Comedy geniuses? I think so!

By Freddy Rothman

PiL - Death Disco (on TOTPs)

Bit of nostalga footage for ya here. The always controversial Public Image Ltd with a legendary performance of 'Metal Box' Death Disco on Top of the Pops in 1979.



Catch the newly reformed Pil on their tour later this month, starting with the o2 academy in Birmingham on the 15th and concluding with London's Brixton academy on the 21st followed by 2 tiny shows at Camdens Electric Ballroom.

The Twilight Sad 'Seven Years Of Letters' Music Video

Here is the eerie new video from one of my favourite bands of the year Twilight Sad.

A Place To Bury Strangers - The Garage - 15/11/09

With a reputation for being the loudest band in New York I think it's fair to say the first thing I thought of was to bring my ear plugs considering the extent of extremely loud bands that already reside in the amazing city although the band assured me that this 'nickname' came about from a particular article and wasn't a shameless act of self promotion I was still dubious and after a couple of songs realized that it was probably the best decision I made all day.

In the short time that they have been around, A Place To Bury Strangers have already gained a huge following and a great reputation for putting on mind blowing shows, the hoards of fans who crammed into the sold out venue ranged from rowdy teenagers (you know the type, the ones that like to throw their McDonalds around the tube, still read Kerrang but somehow think they have an ungodly opinion second to none about music) to chubby old fellas and the only thing I could comprehend that any of these people had in common was the fact that they were all dressed in black, preferably at least one item of clothing to be leather so much so that at one point I could honestly say it was the first time I have ever stood out by wearing a chequered shirt and trainers.

After a fairly average support slot courtesy of Sad Day For Puppets it was time for the main event, striding onto stage in a haze of guitar whir and heavy drums the first two songs were only the warm up for what was about to come, with crowd members jokingly shouting 'turn it up' the band gladly obliged and in turn deafened the crowd with an intense hour and a half of pure brilliance. The songs which were mostly displayed from the phenomenal aptly named 'Exploding Head' sounded so much better live than they ever could on cd, the relentless driving force of the sound really does transport you somewhere totally different and it was hard to take my eyes off of the wonderful frontman Oliver Ackermann throwing himself around stage over and over again, slamming his guitar on the floor and into his amps before falling to his knees and messing about with the pedals whilst a large number of the fans to the front of the crowd were going mental.

This was one of those shows that completely takes it out of you, with the crowd stumbling out of the venue silenced by the intense performance I was left thinking that this was one of the best gigs I have been to this year.

A Place To Bury Strangers are back over here this week playing All Tomorrow's Parties and if you are going I highly recommend you check them out.

PÁL

PÁL is an ordinary observer, whose interests cover painting, hand drawn vectors, street graphics, wall decoration, illustrations, sketching, psychology and aggressive inline skating.
The Latvian illustrator has a real eye for colour and detail, check out more of his work here

The Bays, Fri 27th, Concorde2 Brighton

The Bays have a formidable reputation as a live band that excel on the stage. Reputably improvised and spontaneous, the four-piece attempt to do something relatively rare in modern music, apart from a few incoherent avant-garde jazz ensembles. Despite being incredibly talented musicians (The Bays a real high-end session muso's) on stage as a unit they were (on this night) sadly disappointing and lacking the excitement and impetus their reputation screams about. A band that improvises 100% on stage is a rare and special Animal and The Bays can be forgiven for having some beats pre-programmed into the Keyboards as the Bassist appeared to be playing very familiar Riffs to himself and the rest of the band who barely even glanced at each other during their improvised set. The first hour drifted by uneventfully sounding like a sub-par Black Dog combined with Autechre's dullest moments. Slowly the band shifted up a gear, the beats became less sporadic and the rhythm picked up some momentum resulting in some middle-aged , disappointing Drum and Bass not even redeemable by the Concorde's brilliant sound system. Overall, very under-whelming.

By Matt Pratt

APSE - 'Climb Out'

Hailing from Newtown, in Connecticut, APSE have been performing atmospheric post-rock tunes for the best part of ten years now and having released numerous EP’s and singles, they release only their second full length album (third if you include their limited edition enhanced EP, ‘Eras’) on ATP recordings.
Despite not grabbing the listeners attention on it’s first listen, the more plays it gets, the more ‘Climb Up’ grows on you. The first single, titled ‘3.1’ is an instant highlight, which is proceeded by the anthemic ‘Rook’. Another personal favourite is the slightly more eccentric instrumental ‘Tropica’. For me ‘Tropica’ is a track that adds more of an electronic direction from the other soundscapes on ‘Climb Up’. However, for me the strongest track on the LP is ‘Closure’, which is fittingly the final cut on the record. An uplifting end to a somewhat gloomy sounding album that displays a cleaner and straight up Alt-Rock production, but with APSE’s usual layered vocals making sure they stay true to their sound.
Whilst not disputing the promise that ‘Climb Up’ gives, I do feel that inconsistency lets it down. Whilst being a bit two dimensional at times the three or four stand-out tracks make the LP more enjoyable. The vast majority of the tracks on ‘Climb Up’ have the basics of being brilliant but they lack a cutting edge that make this album stand out.

By Freddy Rothman.

Trans Am - Futureworld Live

Trans Am - Futureworld live from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Here is a clip of Trans Am's awesome song 'Futureworld' from their new dvd out today

Grasscut get their laptops stolen.

It's been a crazy time in the music industry recently what with the Twilight Sad boys getting pulled over by people impersonating police officers somewhere in italy and getting robbed at gunpoint, we also saw Grizzly Bear having to cut their tour short due to a load of their gear stolen in Brussels. Now Ninja Tune new boy's Grasscut who were due to play the Lexington with Three Trapped Tigers on Friday (and were also due for an interview with Middle Boop) had to pull out due to their laptops getting stolen at a show in London on the previous night.
They are planning to reschedule the date early next year with their album due for release soon after.

Trans Am - What Day is it Tonight?

The crazy Washington three piece Trans Am are gearing up to release their hotly anticipated live album and with a catalogue of over thirteen years of undeniably classic tracks that, despite a constant search for progression could never deny their roots.

With recordings taken from three gigs, one in L.A. and two seperate shows in San Francisco the seventeen songs on show range back from the prog influenced 'Firepoker' from their debut to songs such as 'Tesco vs Sainsbury's' lifted from their 2007 album 'Sex change.' Whilst surpassing some of the fan favourites from a number of their early albums What Day is it Tonight? proves a valuable asset in showcasing the talents of a band that have an extraordinary live sound, whether they are parodying boy bands and writing spoof synth driven craziness or writing dark instrumental pieces Trans Am's varied and unique sound shines through well on this cd.

Each of the three tireless performances on show here are played with such intensity and flare with huge throbbing basslines and wacky synths mixed with their tongue in cheek, sometimes subversive lyrics and vocodered vocals sounding something out of a 60's sci fi, Trans Am have produced one of the best live albums I have heard heard for a while.

These performances have also been released as a double LP packaged with a DVD which is limited to only 1,500 copies. I can't wait to see it.

the Fall's first performance on naional television

The Matrix in Lego

The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club - Mr Fenton and his photo of Melrose Abbey Video

WHY? - These Hands / January Twenty Something video

WHY? - These Hands / January Twenty Something from anticon. on Vimeo.

Here is the first video released from Why?'s excellent fourth album 'Eskimo Snow' released earlier this year.

The Silent League, new album coming early next year

The Silent League is releasing a new record, it's third, in Feb 2010, ..But You've Always Been The Caretaker. Originally formed in 2004 by Justin russo, a one time ketboard player for Mercury Rev the band has gone through many stages and worked with many different musicians with links to Arcade Fire, St Vincent and Beirut.
their first track is a mere sampler of what's to come next year.

Check it out here.

Poketo Space Time

The guy over at Poketo have teamed up with Kitsune Noir to create a great series of t shirts and wallets created by the wonderful Mike Perry, Cody Hudson, Damien Correll and Boop contributor Andy J. Miller