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Promo Promo: Steve Mason - Oh My Lord

New single from the ex-Beta Band/King Biscuit Time man. Album Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time out March 18

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1st Mar 2013 - Add Comment - Tweet

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New Cave Singers Ahoy

New one from the solid beard band on the horizon: Naomi is out in March, DL available now if you pre-order the vinyl/CD which is sort of retro and modern of them all at the same time. Enjoyed the last three, looking fwd to this one

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13th Feb 2013 - Add Comment - Tweet

12 For 2012

In alphabetical order, here's 12 things I enjoyed in 2012...

Argo
Ben Affleck turns in another great actor/director turn as a CIA agent heading to Iran to rescue hostages during the 1979 revolution with the flimsiest of bad cover stories: a fake Hollywood studio looking to shoot a Star Wars ripoff. Great beards, trenchcoats, 70s soundtrack - and it's all (pretty much) true. 

Breaking Bad S5
Magnetic, bitches! Can't wait for the second half. S4 was possibly tighter, but watching Walt's turn to the baaaad side was pretty compelling. 

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Fresh take on modern R&B, adding Sly Stone psych jams to the digital mix.

Game Of Thrones S2
Adding more families, more magic, more dastardly plots and more blood/guts/sexposition to an ever-expanding world.

Girls S1
Cue a stream of "new Sex And The City" / "they're so shocking" / "why is their NY so white?" articles - all interesting points, but it's easy to get sucked up in the phenomenon and lose sight of just how well written this is. Makes up for HBO canning How To Make It In America. Kind of.

Fables
Bill Willingham's ongoing Vertigo series is like Game Of Thrones for fairytales. A great graphic novel drama/thriller/comedy/soap opera.

The Killing III
Focused finale for Forbrydelsen, with Sarah Lund finding love in a hopeless place (another dark room in Denmark where the lights don't work but it's OK because she's got her torch. And Borch).

Lincoln
Total Oscar-bait, will be v surprised if anything manages to beat this when they're dishing them out. Spielberg back to his epic best, showing the mechanics of US government during the Civil War as Lincoln (Daniel Day Lewis) charms, cajoles and tricks his way to the abolition of slavery.

Tame Impala - Lonerism
Aussie psychedelia with bags of personality and tunes.

Toy - Toy
Two tracks pushing beyond the 7 min mark, tight Krautrock beats and Chameleons-style riffing - a promising, solid debut in a post-Horrors space that had multiple repeats at Chimp Towers.

The Walking Dead S3
Zombie action ramped up, more plots, more characters, less time to think "hey, what about..?"

Also CONSUMED & ENJOYED
Modern Family S4, Boardwalk Empire S3, Homeland S2, The Fear, Fresh Meat, Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes, The US Office, Nurse Jackie S4 (another standout performance from Bobby Cannavale - almost as crazy as Gyp Rossetti), Skyfall.

THE STUPIDO DAMN YOU WHY WHY pile
Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises

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17th Dec 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Trailer Park: The Fitzgerald Family Christmas

Another interesting-looking family drama from the prolific @Edward_Burns. Variety review here

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17th Oct 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Trailer Park: Stoker

Oldboy's Park Chan-Wook makes his English language debut with this messed-up family drama starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode and Mia Wasikowska. That spider can't be good news ...

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27th Sep 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Sonic Youth: Guitars & Future

great footage of @LeeRanaldo with his new band, and some thoughts on SY's future. Plus a story on @Pitchfork describing how they're slowly getting their stolen collection of custom guitars back; love the line about how 

"The band has long destroyed their guitars' value by stripping them down to their essential elements, ripping out extraneous electronics, switches, and the tone knob.."

As a bonus, here's the video for Death Valley '69; missed this the first time around, love seeing videos for the first time some 27 years too late ...

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25th Sep 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Promo Promo: The Beards - Got Me A Beard

I think Team Chimpomatic can all relate to this Aussie band (via @AdamRealBuxton)

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12th Sep 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Band Of Horses - Knock Knock

Good beards, good rock, filmed in EPIC 4:3 aspect ratio. @BandOfHorses ride back into town w a new album later this month (Sep 18). Slow Cruel Hands Of Time is streaming at Stereogum, there's an acoustic version complete with mountains at NME,  they played the iTunes festival on the weekend - still available here and the whole thing is streaming on their own website here. Beard rock, the maximum digital edition.

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11th Sep 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Trailer Park: Butter

Jennifer Garner, Ty "Phil from Modern Family" Burrell, Olivia Wilde and Hugh Jackman in one of those comedies about a niche-interest competition (glad they've stopped making these as mock-docs now)

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11th Sep 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Promo Promo: Django Django - Love's Dart

Enjoying the Beta Band-style feel to the Django Django album. Here they are in a field.

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17th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

MPFree: Hello Skinny - Smash + Grab Mixtape

Been enjoying this mixtape from Hello Skinny (via Audio Overdrive). Here's the er, Hello Skinny skinny:

Hello Skinny is the brainchild of drummer Tom Skinner, who's other current involvements include Sons Of Kemet, Mulatu Astatke, Matthew Herbert, Finn Peters and The Owiny Sigoma Band amongst many others.

The project is Skinner's first as bandleader, composer and producer [playing most of the instruments] and sees him exploring areas around and between psych-dub, electronics, downtown jazz and folk stylings.

The Smash + Grab Mix Tape features contributions from Shabaka Hutchings, Trudie Dawn Smith and Rowdy Superstar.

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17th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Promo Promo: Zac Brown Band - The Wind

aka Robo Redneck - from Mike "King Of The Hill/Beavis & Butthead" Judge

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11th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Korg Monotron-Delay

new family of analogue micro (120 mm x 72 mm x 28 mm) ribbon synths from Korg

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10th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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MPFree: Foxygen - Waitin' 4 U

In the mood for some loose Stonesy 70s rock? New Jagjaguwar band Foxygen are making a good job of filling that space at the moment. Here's Waitin' 4 U and Make It Known

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10th Jul 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Promo Promo: Frying Dutchman - humanERROR

A passionate anti-nuclear punk-meets-westcoast epic rant from Japanese band Frying Dutchman (via @YukaCHonda)

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29th Jun 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate Or Die: Frozen Wave by Juan Rayos

skating in a Madrid ditch with a giant rubber band propulsion system

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20th Jun 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Mac Daddies

New Fleetwood Mac covers album on the way, organised by movie soundtrack master Randall Poster. Ranaldo and Mascis doing Albatross is a very tempting proposition. More details at Exclaim, The New Pornographers track is here on Soundcloud

1 Lee Ranaldo Band [Feat. J Mascis]: "Albatross"
2 Antony: "Landslide"
3 Trixie Whitley: "Before The Beginning"
4 Billy Gibbons & Co.: "Oh Well"
5 Best Coast: "Rhiannon"
6 The New Pornographers: "Think About Me"
7 Marianne Faithfull: "Angel"
8 Lykke Li: "Silver Springs"
9 Karen Elson: "Gold Dust Woman"
10 Matt Sweeney And Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: "Storms"
11 Washed Out: "Straight Back"
12 Tame Impala: "That's All For Everyone"
13 Craig Wedren with St. Vincent: "Sisters of the Moon"
14 The Kills: "Dreams"
15 Gardens & Villa: "Gypsy"
16 The Crystal Ark: "Tusk"
17 MGMT: "Future Games"

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20th Jun 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Promo Promo: The Family Bones - If You Ever Needed Someone

featuring 25000 Post-It notes... (via Laughing Squid)

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6th Jun 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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RIP: Levon Helm

Drummer and vocalist from The Band, Levon Helm has passed away aged 71. Watch The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down in tribute.

BBC News

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20th Apr 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet