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Pocket HD
The pocket handycam market has been picking up momentum recently, with Flip's original product selling huge amounts - not to mention fitting the bill on the recent chimp snow tour. Flip now have an HD version, which fits 720p in your pocket - and Kodak are amongst the brands offering similar rivals.
With more and more point-and-shoot pocket cameras now featuring HD video (try these: 1, 2) however, the market may be absorbed before it gets going - and rumours are already placing video recording and uploading into the next iPhone.
23rd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Get Heavy
2007 favourite's The Heavy have a new album, The House That Dirt Built, in the pipeline - and you can download the first single for free. Oh No! Not You Again is available here, with guest vocals from The Noisettes' Shingai Shonowa.
23rd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Somerset House Summer Sets 09
Somerset House's run of summer gigs is kicking off with Grace Jones, then it's the slightly less legendary Lily Allen and Athlete... more to be announced later
9 July - Grace Jones
10 July - Lily Allen
14 July - The Ting Tings
15 July - Pendulum
17 July - Athlete
23rd Apr 2009 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: M. Ward + Breeders
New clips up for Buddy Holly cover Rave On, by M. Ward and The Breeders roller-hockey fight-fest Fate to Fatal, from their new EP.
22nd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Speed of Sound Tour
Lebowskifest are running a whole tour of events this year, with the Metallica-esque Speed of Sound Tour hitting venues up and down the West coast of the US. Check out their re-vamped site - if only to enjoy the posters, man.
22nd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Faster Than A Speeding Bullet
If you thought Japan's current fleet of Bullet Trains were fast, check out their latest development. The latest Shinkansen innovation will use magnetic levitation to travel at around 310 kmph - which would get you from LA to San Francisco in 60 minutes.
22nd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Minotaur Pixies
Turns out that rumoured Pixies album isn't a new Pixies album after all - just a mega-deluxe re-issue of their previous work. No remastering, possibly no bonus tracks - but definitely a whole bunch of new artwork by original designers/photographers Vaughan Oliver and Simon Larbalestier. And some under-graduate design students.
Luxury release specialists Artists in Residence are in charge of the box - called Minotaur, and due on June 15th for a considerable sum of money.
22nd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Arrrrrrrr pirates like their music
Do pirates buy more tunes?
BONUS DATA: BT doesn't want you buying more music. They have formed an alliance with the other mobile broadband providers in an effort to block unsuitable content - and The Pirate Bay fits that bill.
#chimp71
#CurrentAffairs
#Music
#Websites
22nd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Promo Promo: Friendship
Nice promo up for The Graveyard Shift, by Friendship. Single out through the Too Pure singles club.
21st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Lost Timeline Theory
Pretty compelling theory up over at Time Loop Theory, providing one possible explanation for where things are heading with Lost. It's well considered and covers most of the bases - and has actually been evolving and becoming more relevant since way back around season 2....
21st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Get Sonic
Sonic Youth's new album The Eternal arrives on June 8th and they've already posted lead track Sacred Trickster for free download on the Matador blog - as well as details of a not-too-secret show at The Scala in London on April 27th.
You can pre-order the album through Matador's Buy Now Get Early program and start listening from April 28th.
21st Apr 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Evil Lairs
Co-incidentally just in time for the Quantum of Solace DVD release, check out this Google Earth map of the MI5 bases, Casinos and evil lairs from all the James Bond movies.
21st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Snow Centre
There's a new indoor snow slope opening in May - based at the much more chimp accessible Hemel Hempstead.
Ten snow cannons have already churned out 80 tonnes of snow, ready for the opening day on May 6th.
20th Apr 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Russell Hood!
Ain't it cool have robbed a pic of Russell Crowe in Sherwood
20th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Lymelife & Next Day Air
Double Culkin attack in Lymelife! Avon B and Mos Def in the slightly less cerebral Next Day Air
20th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Top 25 fictional ads in sci-fi movies
Real ads are never as good as fake ads in imaginary movies - as this article points out....
20th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Crystal Head Vodka
"Hi, I'm Dan Ackroyd..." Has the Ghostbuster gone off the rails? Is this ad for Crystal Head Vodka real? Looks like you can buy it
20th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Richard Swift
Slightly creepy promo up for Lady Luck, from Richard Swift's latest album - The Atlantic Ocean.
17th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Shiver Me Timbers!
A Swedish court has decided that the four operator's of torrent site The Pirate Bay are guilty as charged and has despatched them to Davy Jones' Locker. They have also been ordered to pay a fine of £4.5 million (dubloons)....
Wired / BBC / Bizarre Pirate map
From Peter The Pirate's Twitter stream:
Really, it's a bit LOL. It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release.
As a side note, legal downloading has doubled since the recent introduction anti-file sharing laws.
17th Apr 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Wilco Tour: UPDATED
Wilco are gearing up for the release of their new album, with more gigs popping up on their website.
"Dates in beautiful spots from Red Rocks to Wolftrap and a swing through 4 east coast minor league baseball parks. It's gonna be a fun summer."
They're also playing in Dublin on August 26th and the new Troxy venue in East London on August 25th. Ticket details TBA.
London tickets now on sale here. £25 plus fees. I took the old man option and booked 'Upper Circle'.
16th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Vengeance
New thriller from HK thriller master Johnny To: Vengeance weirdly, starring Johnny Halliday
16th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Great Swimming
We're enjoying the new Great Lake Swimmers album Lost Channels in Chimp HQ today. Top of the best sellers on eMusic too and flying medium high on Amazon.
16th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Animal Collective v Yeah Yeah Yeahs
been wondering what Yeah Yeah Yeahs would sound like if they'd let Animal Collective wander out of the forest and into the studio control booth? wonder no more: here's their remix for Zero
16th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
All New Chimpomatic
If you remember the Ronin battle cry of 2007, you'll be well aware that this new version of Chimpomatic has been in the pipeline for a very long time. That doesn't mean it hasn't been an evolving blueprint however - and we're happy to launch today with a raft of new features.
The new layout opens the site up more, with the homepage featuring a run-down of all news, reviews and articles. From there you can filter down to just news, reviews or articles - and from each item you can follow links to see related items, other items by that author, similar ratings, record labels and more. Tagging is also a new feature, letting you call up all items under a particular franchise or tag (e.g. Trailer Park) and there are also more links out of each item - including Last FM and Spotify for reviews.
The site now features a vastly improved search engine, with more ordering options for filtering results - and more features coming for that throughout the year.
Surveillance has probably seen the biggest overhaul, leveraging the power of Flickr to upload more photos, quicker - and then sort by sets (e.g. Mudhoney @ The Forum), tags (e.g. Dead TVs), dates and more. Video is also at a higher res and we'll hopefully be using that more thoroughly.
You might also notice the occasional ad here and there - but most likely if you arrive from a search engine (or maybe you left a comment on The Hunches review).
And finally, update your RSS feeds as we have a whole host of new feeds for different aspects of the site: All Content + Comments, News, Reviews, Articles, Comments as well as Comments for each specific item.
The site might run a little slow while we get up to speed and there's still some lumpy code behind the curtain, but over the next few weeks we'll be finessing that to get the site running as fast and smooth as possible. We're also working to get as many of the new features as possible compatible with all browsers. Firefox and Safari will always get the best response though, thanks for asking.
If you're on the chimp team and have feedback, drop me a line. If you're just an angry civilian, leave your hate mail in the comments.....
Enjoy!
C.S.F.
15th Apr 2009 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Extract
New Mike Judge comedy Extract - Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck as his stoner buddy.
15th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Sell Out? What Sell Out?
"This 8 Piece manicure kit includes tweezers, nail clippers, wine opener and more. The purple leather case is embossed with the Dylan Eye logo. A great stocking stuffer!" Yes, it's the Bob Dylan manicure set.
15th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1)
Michel Gondry's offering a dvd sequel to his Director's collection: cunningly called Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1) - it's available online on his site, and is stuffed full w more Bjork, Beck, Radiohead etc etc - and also YouTube curios like Michel Gondry Solves A RUBIK'S CUBE With His Feet. Best of all though, you can also get him to do a portrait of you if you send in a pic (and $19.95)
15th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
8 Tracks
the new Muxtape? 8tracks lets you save more mixtapes online. First one I tried pulled up Too Bad by the Faces, which isn't too bad...
15th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
No Linear On The Horizon
Creative Review have an article up about the recent Anton Corbijn/U2 collaboration Linear, from the deluxe box of U2's latest album No Line On The Horizon. It's a film that you can watch while listening the the album, starring possible LOST religious-cult member Said Taghmaoui.
14th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Still Trading
Interesting article at The Guardian on independent record shops which are still bucking the trend.... and staying open.
14th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
No More Living In A Ghost Town
Don't worry, ART will prevent credit crunch Britain from turning into a ghost town.
14th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Big, High Walls of Sound
Phil Spector's been found guilty - of more than just bad hair.
14th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Peter, Bjorn and John Black Cab Session
An effortlessly Swedish addition to the always fascinating Black Cab Sessions: Peter, (not Bjorn) and John perform the title track from their recently released album without the merest hint of a whistle.
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9th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
3D Photo Sculptures
Korean sculptor Gwon Osang creates sculptures from hundreds of photographs of his subject, overlaying them into lightweight life-sized mannequins. Good for building up points on the Snappy Snaps loyalty card at the very least.
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8th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Latest Chimp Dating Tips
Not getting any? Chimps, give away you food to ensure success with the ladies.
8th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Words Jim...But Not As We Know Them
It seems Science Fiction is creating more new words than Science itself. No entry for the Wamp Rat yet though.
Zero Gravity
7th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Where are they now?
Ever wondered what happened to the actors from some of your favourite TV shows ....
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6th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: The National & Yeasayer
Couple of promos up from the Dark Was The Night compilation, directed by The National's cohort Vincent Moon. The National's So Far Around The Bend up top, Yeasayer's Knotty Pine below.
3rd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Informers
80s cast for an 80s flick: Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke are all in the new adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's The Informers. Glossy 80s shoulder pads a go go
3rd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Max Tundra
Promo up for Max Tundra's current single Which Song. Shot in one take for £22 apparently. And the money's all on the screen.
2nd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
What if Don Draper was Lex Luthor?
Jon Hamm hams it up over on FunnyorDie
2nd Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Beast Force One
Looks like it's not just Eric Bana and CSF driving a car called 'The Beast'. Check out Obama's version trying to execute that trickiest of manoeuvres - the three point turn - in Downing Street.
1st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jason Lee-tyle
The world has indeed been a duller place since the demise of Jason Lytle's Grandaddy so in eager anticipation of the May 12th release of Yours Truly, The Commuter - the first solo work by Lytle, here's a cheeky video he's put up on his DIY website. I'm feeling Lytle's casual skate skills in a big way and loving the slam section at the end. Check out some new tracks on his myspace page.
1st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Man of Aran
British Sea Power are following in the footsteps of Giorgio Moroder and re-scoring a classic film. It's not Metropolis this time, but the 1934 documentary Man of Aran.
The DVD will be out (with a CD of the soundtrack) on May 18th - and the band will also be performing the soundtrack live as the film plays at the Southbank Centre on Thursday 23rd April.
1st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pseudo Mission To Mars
No one's quite sure how man would handle the multi-month schlep out to Mars, with suspected muscle wastage and cabin fever would be among the chief concerns.
There's one way to find out however: lock three volunteers in a mock-up capsule in Moscow and lock the door for three months. That's an edition of Big Brother I'd like to see.
The test is just a warm-up for a 500 day test later this year. The Telegraph has the full story.
1st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: The Veils
Video up for the new single from The Veils - The Letter. New album Sun Gangs arrives next week.
They're going on tour too:
Apr 15 London Dingwalls
Apr 16 Brighton The Hope
Apr 17 Guilford Boiler Room
Apr 18 Reading Oaskford Social Club
Apr 20th Nottingham Bodega
Apr 21 Manchester Ruby Lounge
Apr 22 Cardiff Barfly
Apr 23 Birmingham Rainbow
Apr 24 Preston Mad Ferret
Apr 25th Glasgow V Club
31st Mar 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
SkyPhone
A free Skype App has landed for the iPhone, meaning Skype-sized phone bills for calls to exotic numbers - or free calls to Skype buddies. It only works over WIFI, but with the free WIFI cover you get thrown in with the O2 package that's not much of a hurdle.
31st Mar 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet