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Sonic Wound
Enjoying Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse album on my headphones this morning. Even tighter and more rythmically pounding than Murray Street, there's a definate whiff of Jim O'Rourke about this one.
18th Jan 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wulfmutha
Hot of the boat from Australia (via Chimp Jnr.), the Wolfmother LP is currently on rotation at ChimpHQ. Sounding a bit fuller than the EP and going down well so far. Like White Stripes with a bass and permission to rock from Meg.
17th Jan 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
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Jim James Top 10
1. Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise (Asthmatic Kitty)
2. Common – Be (Geffen)
3. M. Ward – Transistor Radio (Merge)
4. Bright Eyes – I'm Wide Awake, It’s Morning (Saddle Creek)
5. Kanye West – Late Registration (Roc-a-Fella)
6. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Naturally (Daptone)
7. Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow (XL/Beggars)
8. Andrew Bird – Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs (Righteous Babe)
9. Silver Jews – Tanglewood Numbers (Drag City)
10. Bobby Bare Sr. – The Moon was Blue (Dualtone)
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Un-filtered
Jim James on Radio 2 MP3's
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12th Jan 2006 - 12 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Earth to Mac
Links
Google Earth is finally on Mac OSX.
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12th Jan 2006 - 6 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Mactech
Apple have started the year by releasing new machines using Intel processors. The Powerbook finally gets a 21st Century speed boost (up to 2x1.83Ghz), and the iMac gets a 2x2Ghz speed bump.
Links
www.apple.com
www.thinksecret.com
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11th Jan 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Black Crowes Backwash
Marmot's Black Crowes review from New Year's Eve is online now...
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9th Jan 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day: II
I thought I'd posted this before New Year, but the final Song of the Day for Volume II is The Bucket by Kings of Leon, from their top 10 album Aha Shake Heartbreak.
Get ready for Song of the Day: Volume 3 in 2006.
9th Jan 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Notes from The Big Banana
A is for Aerosmith * (Love in an...)
B is for Black Crowes
C is for Coffee Shop Hotties
D is for Diamond Dave
E is for Elton John (Ze Early Years)
F is for Fish & Chips (With French Fries)
G is for Gotham *
H is for Home Fries. Uh-huh.
I is for Irving Plaza
J is for Jerry's
K is for Kim's Video
L is for Led Zeppelin. Ten Year's Gone. *
M is for Mumbles
N is for Nobu
O is for Overseas. Which is not a country.
P is for Poop. Back and forth. Forever.
Q is for Queensboro Bridge
R is for Radio City *
S is for S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g
T is for Tim & Shannon
U is for Union Square
V is for Vodka Tonic
W is for Wendy's
X is for Terence X
Y is for Yellow Taxi *
Z is for Zagat
* means likely to be replaced when I think of something wittier.
5th Jan 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wendy vs The Dinosaur
Some NYC surveillance is now online, starting with the food face off above. Just when I couldn't eat anymore, a dinosaur sized steak arrived.
My front row seats at Black Crowes were re-allocated to an unsuspecting young New Yorker, who I assume scored a date and is now making out in the back of a muscle car. Cheeky contributor Marmot should be filing a gig report shortly.
5th Jan 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
OS2
Good news people, chimp75 favourite Old School is set to get the sequel treatment. If you still haven't got this decade's Big Lewboswki yet, pick it up in the Virgin sale for £3.99.
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5th Jan 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
top ten albums of 2005 (and some other notable mentions)
chimp71:
in no particular order, and some of these contain a few killer hits rather than functioning as entire albums, but hey… also this is just the stuff that was out 2005, so no dylan, no pharoah sanders, no japan, or jackson c frank etc which have all been shuffling for me nicely this year.
clor (swung me round after seeing them supporting malkmus)
stephen malkmus - face the truth (this one does work as a whole album)
matthew herbert - plat du jour (the return of the concept album! loved this live too, looking forward to the return of disco herbert in 2006 as well)
roisin murphy - ruby blue (this should point where disco herbert will be taking off from, great hearing that wonky guitar on the title track on the radio all year)
louis xiv - the best little secrets are kept (great singles here, bit patchy as an album)
jamie lidell - mulitply (real grower this, disappointed at first, dig it now)
devendra banhart - cripple crow (this is way too long, but like it a lot even though i imagine he'd be quite high maintenance to hang with)
wilco - ghost is born (c75 really swung me around on these guys, so not the alt folkies i thought they were)
ambulance ltd - ambulance ltd (great, really varied album, which they pulled off live)
caribou - milk of human kindness (ironic title seeing as they were such miserable fuckers at the montague and we pulled them from heavy rotation afterwards)
notable mentions:
arcade fire - funeral
gorillaz - demon days (all year i keep hearing the singles on the radio, liking it, and still not identifying that it's them)
Chimp 75:
First off, for me 2005 has been one of the best year's of music I can remember - and possibly the first where I'm not digging into the past for good music. In previous years, a few of this year's notable mentions would have certainly made the 10:
Clor - Clor (Fear of Music regulars, bartended my party, supported Malkmus, some great singles but the album is slightly thin in places)
Surgery - The Warlocks (the opening track is so good I rarely get past it)
Funeral - Arcade Fire (I like it more than I actually listen to it)
Bright Eyes - (See above. Too much in one year. Use Your Illusion syndrome)
Half Smiles Of The Decomposed (Came out in August 2004, but gets a nod for being a fine finale for GBV)
Liar's Exit - Bikini Atoll (This made the list, but was bumped at the last minute by Low. Still moving up the charts)
And here's my actual 10, in descending order:
10 - Ambulance Ltd. (For Yoga Means Union alone. Great live)
09 - Low - The Great Destroyer (Shoe gazing goes big time)
08 - KC Rules OK/Rocket DIY - King Creosote (Two albums, but both equally good, and both 2005)
07 - Aha Shake Heartbreak - Kings of Leon (Even better than what seemed like a perfect debut)
06 - Face The Truth - Stephen Malkmus (No More Shoes, and that infectious Rod Stewart riff. Classic.)
05 - Take Fountain - The Wedding Present (Let down by a couple of annoying tracks, but the rest gets 11 out of 10)
04 - Gimme Fiction - Spoon (Definite future-classic-rock)
03 - Alligator - The National (Definitely one to watch, as they will only get better. Awesome live.)
02 - A Ghost Is Born - Wilco (OK, this was actually mid 2004, but it's been on heavy rotation all 2005)
01 - Z - My Morning Jacket (The most anticpated album I've had for a while, and still getting better. They rule.)
If you don't have them, go get them. Can't wait for 2006.
27th Dec 2005 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Merry Christmas Chimps!
Hang tight, and once the panel has reconvened we will deliver our Best of 2005 stuff.
25th Dec 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day: II
King Creosote's cover of Grace, from the compilation Dream Brother: The Songs Of Tim & Jeff Buckley. Loving King Creosote this year.
23rd Dec 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
ATP 2006
Look's like this year's All Tomorrow's Parties festival is shaping up to be a good one, with many of Chimpomatic's 2005 favourites playing:
All Tomorrows Parties
The line up for next year's event is starting to take shape :
Week 1 includes
Mudhoney, Comets on Fire, Black Mountain, The Drones, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Liars, TV on the Radio, Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan, Bert Jansch
Week 2 includes
Dinosaur JR, Dead Meadow, Sleater-Kinney, Spoon, The Shins, The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, Clinic and Big Business
With many more to be added.
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23rd Dec 2005 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Revisionist
Wikipedia inventor Jimmy Wales has been caught re-writing his own bio. You would have thought he could at least have planeted a trojan horse or something. Nina Myers would have.
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20th Dec 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Pandora
In case reading Chimpomatic isn't providing you with enough musical guidance, try Pandora.
15th Dec 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Sausage & Mash of the Day
Spent my lunchtime pacing around the City looking for the perfect Sausage & Mash, before settling at the S&M Cafe. Good flavours, but I could have done with a bigger portion.
13th Dec 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
And now the circle is complete...
A sad day for this music fan... the Select-a-disc sign has been taken down and the Sister Ray sign is up on the Berwick Street store.
BUT, Select-a-disc are now doing online sales at their website, and at the old store prices....
10th Dec 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
24 Natic
I love the Die-Hard style Christmas hat.
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8th Dec 2005 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Salt/Wound
MMJ might have cancelled, but there's a Clapyourhandssayyeah / The National / Dr. Dog 'spectacular' at GBV's favourite NYC venue Irving Plaza on New Year's Eve... which is SOLD OUT!
8th Dec 2005 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Aaaaaargggghhh!
New Year's Eve Show & European Tour Cancelled
Jim James of My Morning Jacket will be sidelined for a while due to health complications related to pneumonia. My Morning Jacket will unfortunately have to cancel an upcoming show on New Year's Eve as well as their European tour that was to begin on January 18th, 2006.
The band would like to extend their sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. My Morning Jacket hopes to reschedule the European dates as soon as Jim is fully recovered and able to perform. We thank you for your understanding.
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6th Dec 2005 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Non-Metal Jacket
The excellent Archive.org website has a rash of live recording from My Morning Jacket's recent outings accross North America, including a radio taping of Jim James' solo show at Easy Street Records
2nd Dec 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
CocoRosie
A new contributor to chimpomatic has entered the arena, with a bolshy 5 star review for last night's CocoRosie concert.
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humping unicorns spewing rainbows
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2nd Dec 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hidden Agenda
The Times seems to have unconvered the real reason behind George Bush's War On Terror.
2nd Dec 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Face/Off
"Remember Rock With U, or When the Doves Cry? Enjoy our end of year show as we celebrate with some of the talented artists who have graced our stage over the last year: Marcia Escoffery, Randolph Matthews, Fola, Floetic Lara, Junior, Eshe Escoffery, Kenny Barry and more..."
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2nd Dec 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Spinto Band
Enjoying Nice And Nicely Done, the debut album from The Spinto Band this week, but something's not quite right. There's a touch of the kazoo about them and I suspect the could be heading for a shallow grave with the likes of the Magic Numbers and The Killers.
Enjoy them while they last.
30th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
For those about to rock...
Links
...there's no need to leave your desk anymore.
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29th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Small Holes
Apparently, people in Cardiff are the proud owners of the world's smallest holes.
Thanks to Dr. Chimp for the tip off.
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29th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Sound Theory
Our man Clarkovich is now online, reporting the news direct from Madrid, Spain.
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29th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Song Of The Day: II
California, by LOW, from the excellent album The Great Destroyer. Another best-of 2005 (and a bit of 2004).
29th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pulling Bob Dylan's Beard
As an extra kick in the teeth it seems that Jeff Tweedy even played a Dylan song (John Wesley Harding) in his solo set last week. He probably even apologised to everyone who had chosen him over Dylan. Shame Dylan didn't apologise to us.
Anyway, the new Wilco album Kicking Television: Live in Chicago album is great. Go get it.
28th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Original Kong
"this thing is over 70 years old and still is in great shape. the guys who are making the new kong movie animated this for a short clip online somewhere after all these years."
26th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Judas!
Saw Bob Dylan at Brixton last night.... and was distinctly disappointed. Especially after shelling out £40 for the honour.
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23rd Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Wedding Present
Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
The Wedding Present's Take Fountain is another chimp album of the year for me, and certainly best "comeback album that is mind numbingly good, as opposed to predictably disappointing" in a long time.
As the lights went down and the spooky atmos track of Interstate 5 drifted over the PA, I thought we were heading straight into a thundering live rendition of my Collateral-esque widescreen track of the year. Instead, that faded away and we just had a thundering run through of classic Wedding Present and Cinerama tracks, with only two off Take Fountain - Always The Quiet One (awesome and fast) and Ringway to Seatac (awesomer and faster).
Suck, Dare, Kennedy, Heather, Corduroy, Apres Ski and a cover of Falling from Twin Peaks stood out - but then I only have six albums and only recognized about half the songs. The most under revised I have felt in a long time.
David Gedge was not quite what I was expecting (it is 15 years later), but was not disappointing. A totally engaging character, he acted and gestured his way through every song, without the pretensions of someone like Jarvis Cocker. "This song's about sex, or maybe love. Don't ask me, I'm just a conduit." Continued requests persisted from the crowd, and were met with the response "In 20 years have you ever known us to do requests?"... until someone shouted "Brassneck" at just the right time on the set list for the very tight band to launch straight into a ferocious version of possibly their most famous tune. The generally well behaved mosh pit (most fans were 30-40 and probably teachers) went crazy.
No Take Me! either, but I got what I was looking for with the speaker facing, top speed, double guitars, extended high note strumming on about half a dozen other tracks. The only thing that could have made this gig any better would have been for it to be a warm up show at the Amersham Arms.
23rd Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
The National
ULU, London
The National have been making quick progress up my album of the year chart, so this was a good chance to put these pups under the microscope (even though they are only a mere 3 albums in).
Support act Film School kicked things off, and I spent quite a while deciding whether their Cure stylings and sound were contrived or genuine... but being American ponces (as opposed to British ones) did them some favours and they may be worth watching out for. When The National took to the stage however there was no doubt that they were a cut above. They kicked straight into the new classic Secret Meeting with such power and gusto that the audience was instantly gripped. I was surprised that singer Matt Berninger wasn't the dude on the cover of the debut album... but if Britt Daniel from Spoon is Richie Cunniingham, then this guy is a cross between Crispin Glover and Sam Shepard. Alternately smoking and moodily skulking around the stage... which all made me realise how many bands don't have an instrumentless singer at the moment. This created a real focus for the six piece band, who did seem a lot more of a band (rather than a single vision of a single person) than I had imagined.
There was a bit too much swapping around between the bass and guitar guys (chimp concert rule number 3, stick to one instrument), but the set motored along without much interruption, consisting of a lot of tracks from the current album Alligator, with a few other numbers from Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers and the Cheery Tree EP, all amped up a notch from the studio versions, with a fair bit of screaming.
If you don't have Alligator yet, get onto it. And keep a eye out for these guys in the future. Ossum.
23rd Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviewsFear of Clor
It's the final Fear of Music this Friday, with current wunderband Clor signing things off. Should be good... and busy.
The Death of Music
With Clor & Freaks live
At The "Legendary" Montague Arms
Friday 25th November
8-12
£6
23rd Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Bob Dylan
Brixton Academy, London
It was a tough call seeing this or Jeff Tweedy tonight. One, a bonifide legend who might not be back, the other a mini-legend, who will almost certainly be back - with and without Wilco. That made the decision easier, and the huge queue snaking all the way round the Brixton Academy at 7.30 certainly added to the excitement.
Everyone got in pretty quickly, and at about 7.40 the lights went down for an ice hockey style introduction for the "legend of the 60's counter culture, duke of spook... etc". The crowd went crazy when Dylan shuffled on, and kicked things off with Maggie's Farm. We also got Positively 4th Street, Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine), Girl Of The North Country and Highway 61 Revisited. The Band (I wish) were certainly good, but no one really moved off piste without a nod from the commandant, and certainly no one broke into a sweat. Dylan himself was captivating to watch, but mainly due to the fact that you were in the presence of a living legend... rather than what he was doing (not playing the guitar, occasionally playing the harmonica. The older geeks in the crowd (some with binoculars, many taking notes) seemed determined to like every single move or shuffle, and every song started with a race to be the first to recognize it.
The band shuffled off after a brief bow, but nothing was said to the crowd. They predictably shuffled back on for an encore with Like A Rolling Stone, which was the first time the crowd actually had a chance to sing along. As the chorus came up the crowd swelled up - but then after one line, Dylan's different delivery (Like a ROLL-ing stONE!) just caught everyone off guard and put an end to it.
All Along The Watchtower wasn't bad, but all in all it was a bit like seeing a really good jazz band (or even Steely Dan) on a Cross Channel Ferry doing Dylan covers. In the club style.
Should have seen Tweedy.
23rd Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 2.5 star reviewsDylan
Seeing the B.O.B. tomorrow, for night 3 of 5 at Brixton. After the under-revision of yesterday's Wedding Present gig I'm hoping I'm not out of my element, as Walter would say.
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21st Nov 2005 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Live Jacket!
Some lucky chimps are going to see My Morning Jacket at Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve (Boom!), but for everyone else they have just announced European dates in January/February. London Astoria is February 9th....
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21st Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Wedding Present
David Gedge and the gang totally (but politely) rocked Shepherd's Bush last night with their high speed, heavy love songs. Felt a bit under-prepared, as I only own about 6 albums and only knew about 1/3 of the set...
"This song is about sex, or maybe love. Don't ask me, I'm just a conduit."
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21st Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Correction
In our review of the White Stripes (Chimpomatic Vol. 5, review 101) we stated that Jack White at one point played a Xylophone.
Chimp North has corrected that information: Jack White plays a marimba not a xylophone. They are similar, but the xylophone has a more harsh sound and doesn't have resonators. It's absolutely a marimba on the album.
We apologise for the misinformation.
21st Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet
Stop Making Sense
Stop Making Sense
with
Machines live
plus
Fear Of Music Soundsystem
@ The Social W1
Saturday 19th November
7 til 1
Free
18th Nov 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet