Post categories: mpfree
|09:05 UK time, Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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Today's MPFree comes from Of Montreal. The Athens, Georgia five piece (they're not from Montreal at all!) release their 10th album in September which is called False Priest.
This little offering comes from it, help yourself...
Post categories: mpfree
|10:26 UK time, Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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Right, back to normal; Glastonbury is out the way, and the MPFree returns....
And it returns with Baths - Hall (The One AM Radio Remix Feat. The Los Feliz Ladies Choir)
Baths is Will Wiesenfeld who's from LA. Cerulean is the forthcoming LP, and this is a taster for you. Tasty!
Post categories: mpfree
|12:00 UK time, Monday, 28 June 2010
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As the dust settles around Glastonbury, today's free offering is a little number from Jenny & Johnny's debut album, I'm Having Fun Now. The duo unites Rilo Kiley frontwoman and solo artist Jenny Lewis with her longtime boyfriend (and solo artist in his own right) Johnathan Rice. Full album details are yet to emerge but this is a sneaky peak of what's to come. For more info check out their website.
Jenny & Johnny - Scissor RunnerPost categories: Glastonbury
|16:00 UK time, Thursday, 24 June 2010
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Number 10
Elbow - One Day Like This (Glastonbury 2008, Other Stage)Number 9
R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (Glastonbury 2003, Pyramid Stage)Number 8
The Cure - Just Like Heaven (Glastonbury 1990, Pyramid Stage)Number 7
Coldplay - Yellow (Glastonbury 2000, Other Stage)Number 6
Orbital - The Box (Glastonbury 2004, Other Stage)Number 5
David Bowie - Heroes (Glastonbury 2000, Pyramid Stage)Number 4
Pulp - Sorted For E's & Wizz (Glastonbury 1995, Pyramid Stage)Number 3
Radiohead - Karma Police (Glastonbury 2003, Pyramid Stage)Number 2
Radiohead - No Surprises (Glastonbury 1997, Pyramid Stage)Number 1
Blur - The Universal (Glastonbury 2009, Pyramid Stage)You can listen to the show again until 10am on 1st July.
Post categories: Danny Robins
|13:40 UK time, Thursday, 24 June 2010
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Swamp Soccer Tournament: Sat 26th - Sun 27th June
If 3 matches a day hasn't satisfied your footie appetite and if you're worried that Glasto might not be muddy enough for you this year, I've found the perfect event for you - it's the Swamp Soccer World Cup. This is for people who like their football dirty. Swamp Soccer lives up to it's name, where footballers would normally complain about a muddy pitch, with this variant of the beautiful game the pitches are made as muddy as possible so players wade through thick bogs to try and kick a ball that constantly gets stuck. It's very funny to watch, kind of like football meets mud wrestling. Check out these pics here.
I think it originated in Finland but it seems to have found a home in Scotland. This is all taking place in Strachur in Argyll, not too far from Glasgow. There are 64 teams taking part from around the world, with names like Unathletico Mudrid, Hurt of Mudlothian and, my favourite, Mudchesthair United. I think you may still be able to enter a team yourself as the entry form is still on the website, otherwise you can just go and watch.
World Egg Throwing Competition: Sunday 27th June
Continuing the theme of sporting events that get messy, this Sunday sees the annual World Egg Throwing Competition happening in Swaton in Lincolnshire. According to the website this has been voted 'England's Most Unique Experience' - not quite sure what the criteria would be for that, but certainly I can't think of another World Egg Throwing Championships, so it is indeed unique.
It's not just any old egg throwing this, there are 5 different disciplines. Your basic entry level one is two people throwing eggs to each other with the distance constantly increasing. The pair that are able to throw and safely catch the egg the furthest win.
There's a team event where 11 people have to throw a whole egg box of 12 eggs down a relay of team members over 100 metres. There's also Egg Target Throwing where you throw eggs at one particularly unlucky person. Stepping it up a bit you can do Egg Russian Roulette - a tray of 6 eggs, 5 are hard boiled, one is raw. Two people sit opposite each other and brak them onto their forehead. The loser is the one who finds the raw one. And finally, best of all, Egg Trebuchet - people construct massive catapults to fire eggs across huge distances at people. Great. And you'll be glad to know that all eggs come from organically fed, free range, sustainable sources. There's a very funny video here.
Ghost Stories from 25th June
And finally, Ghost Stories, the rather blooming brilliant and very very scary play from League of Gentlemen writer Jeremy Dyson and Derren Brown's director Andy Nyman arrives in the West End on Friday night.
After a really successful sell out run at the Lyric Hammersmith, it's coming to the Duke of York's Theatre. Check out the trailer on the website with lots of people screaming and jumping in their seats. It's great and does genuinely make you scared.
Post categories: Danny Robins
|13:00 UK time, Thursday, 24 June 2010
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We kicked off a new strand in our Indie travel Guide last week - Around the World in 80 Festivals, of course there's only one festival worth talking about this weekend. So, here's a guide to some of the lesser known, more unusual attractions on offer at Glasto this year. Yep, forget the main stage, in fact forget all the music stages, you know who's on there - this is all about some of the quirkier things you should try and stumble across over the weekend.
Looks like it's going to be sunny for once, so you can really have a good wander round lots of fields instead of sitting in your tent shivering and desperately praying for the rain to stop. The festival website very nicely suggests taking a 'tapas approach' -don't just find one zone you like and stick with it, get around and sample little bits of as many as possible.
Spectacular Sights
Cubehenge looks truly spectacular - a Stonehenge inspired installation of lights blocks that move to the beat of music. But it's not the only large scale artwork that's going to be causing a stir... 5 words for you - flying tube train on fire.Oh yes. This is the new large scale artwork by Block 9. They are the 'radical set- designing collective' who created the NYC Downlow - a full size recreation of a New York tenement block that's been running the last few years. That's running again this year, but their new set sounds quite spectacular. There's only a sketch of it on the website so we need to see some photos to see if they pull it off, but they are talking about a sinister decaying tower block with a burning London Underground train bursting out of the top. Sounds pretty amazing - it's going to be a party zone with different people curating different nights, kicking off with plenty of dub step from Black Market Records on Friday.
The Crystal Maze of Glasto...
Glastonbury's a bit like The Crystal Maze now with all these different themed zones. One rival to Block 9 are The Mutoid Waste Company who have been doing stuff at Glasto for a few years now. This year they're running The Unfair Ground. It's like a twisted apocalyptic Mad Max-style fairground. The main attraction is The Hellcopter - a Royal Navy chopper that's been 'crossed with a praying mantis' and become a secret 'nightclub of your wildest nightmares'. There's also a Joker's Sideshow Alley which features an exhibit known as The Acid House hosted by Bez from the Happy Mondays (be interesting to see if he stays at his post the whole weekend). There's also Arcadia, which grew out of Trash City. The daddy of them all though is Shangri La. If the festival is like a town, this is its biggest suburb.Shangri La
So much thought goes into this project. I think they've been hard at work building it for about a fortnight. It's laid out like a retro-futuristic metropolis, inspired by stuff like Blade Runner and Star Wars. Last year it was described as "a dystopian vision of a pleasure-city ruled by a corrupt power dedicated to enforcing its vision of perfect 24hr pleasure."This year apparently the city's been taken over by rebel pleasure givers from all over the universe and there's just loads and loads of mini happenings or 'Nanos' going on all over the place, things like: Raveoke - croon to your 'back in the day' rave favourites; Temple of the Blessed Bono where you can cleanse your soul by prostrating yourself at a Bono-based altar; and Microrave where you can be part of a live action computer game.
The main focal point of everything though is The Hub, a 'town square' that hosts games featuring hundreds of players and spectators during the day and a big rave up at night. It all looks great. Check out the trailer on the website. They're encouraging people to get dressed up to go down there. The memo says "Think of yourself as an extra on the set of 'Blade Runner' that's fallen into a vat of glitter..." - nice!
If that all sounds too hectic...
If Bez gurning at you to a mad dubstep soundtrack is a bit unsettling there's plenty for people who fancy a bit of sedate niceness. Culture vultures are well catered for this year.There's the Pilton Palais Cinema Tent, which has a great line up of films. There's kids stuff during the day and then from 5pm they've got adult films (not like that). A few ones that caught my eye - Four Lions (Thurs 9pm) Kick Ass (Sat 12.30am) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Sun 12.30am). They're also showing Avatar in 3D (Fri 3pm).
Glastonbury's also got it's very own mini-literary festival this year - The Free University of Glastonbury. This is based in The Park and is a tent hosting lots of talks by writers, often with a musical bent. The highlight for me is John Niven, author of the excellent A&R serial killer novel Kill Your Friends, reading from his new book The Amateurs. That's on Saturday at 12.15pm, followed by Peter Hook from New Order in conversation.
Something for the kiddies...
They used to have one of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warriors in the Green Fields for kids to play on, but this year it was deemed dangerous and been replaced with the Cadmus Boat, a massive ship built out of recycled plastic in the design of a Venetian sailing ship. It's named after Cadmus, the legendary explorer who is meant to be the first person to have navigated from the Middle East to Europe. And, according to Michael Eavis, it's the sort of boat that could have brought Joseph of Arimathea to Glastonbury, which takes us into Da Vince Code territory.
And, of course, there's the Kidzfield, open from 9am till 7pm everyday. That's also the place to camp I was always told. Worth becoming a kids entertainer just to be allowed to go there. Best toilets too. If you're not a parent, become one.
And finally, a little bit of politics...
The Leftfield Tent is back. This is Glastonbury's 'pop and politics' tent and is very excitingly curated by Billy Bragg this year.
There are gigs in the evenings, including the Braggster himself, but during the day there is a Comedy Hour and Daily Debates, which look interesting. On Saturday at noon there's Beating The BNP with former footballer Leroy Rosenior representing 'Show Racism the Red Card', and Billy Bragg amongst others...
And on Sunday at noon there's 'Stop the Cuts - BBC 6music and Asian Network' with Bobby Friction from Radio 1 and the Asian Network and Tom Ravenscroft off of our very own 6 Music.
To keep up to date with all the different areas check out this page.
Post categories: mpfree
|12:00 UK time, Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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Today's MPFree comes courtesy of Sad Day For Puppets. Formed in 2006, the Swedish indie-rockers release their second album, 'Pale Silver & Shiny Gold', via Sonic Cathedral Recordings on 6th September.
The release does seem a little way off we know so in the meantime, to satisfy your hunger, you can get hold of the track 'Monster & The Beast' as an amuse-bouche for the forthcoming album.
Grab it here while it's hot: Sad Day For Puppets - Monster & The Beast.
Post categories: mpfree
|08:31 UK time, Tuesday, 22 June 2010
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The MPFree today is one for fans of the Be Good Tanyas; but non-fans should keep reading too...
The band are currently on hiatus which has led to Frazey Ford (member of the band) to record a debut solo album. 'Obadiah' is set for release in July, and here, for you today, is an appetite wetter...
|12:14 UK time, Monday, 21 June 2010
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It's the longest day of the year, and so people are gathering at Stonehenge; if you can't get yourself down that way, then why not build your own. In fact, that's your Workers' Playtime Project - build a mini Stone Henge on your desk, and we'll stick it in the gallery below. Get to it.
Your Stonehenge GalleryPost categories: mpfree
|09:51 UK time, Monday, 21 June 2010
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Sometimes things just all fall in to place. On the day Wimbledon starts, we have an MPFree from a band called Tennis. Get in.
The band are a married couple who sailed around the East Coast and started and band in the process. The duo release their debut single South Carolina through Fire Talk on 27th July. This should keep you sweet until then.
Post categories: mpfree
|11:00 UK time, Friday, 18 June 2010
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Right, it's Friday treats time; form an orderly queue...
Your MPFree EP is a beauty this week; it's a real mixed bag. The final track comes from Eels and is from the forthcoming album Tomorrow Morning.
Your artwork this week comes from our call for 'photos of your dad at his most rock'n'roll' for a gallery we're building for today's show ahead of Father's Day.
The photo we've gone for, as I'm sure you'll agree, is possibly the coolest thing Teamlaverne ever did see. Sent to us by Will Ashton, this is his dad Nigel when he was a waterskiing instructor. Hands up who wishes they were Nige? Me too.
Lanterns On The Lake - Lungs Quicken
Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.|08:50 UK time, Friday, 18 June 2010
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Ahead of Father's Day, Lauren has been asking for the coolest, most rock'n'roll photos of your dads. We didn't expect the response we got, which was a collection of the coolest men that walk this earth. Seriously, these guys are Gods!!!!
You've excelled yourselves for this one, it's easily one of our best galleries. Enjoy...
|13:40 UK time, Thursday, 17 June 2010
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World nettle Eating Contest - Sat 19th June
We talked a few weeks back about National Be Nice to Nettles Week - an event aimed at counteracting the bad press that stinging nettles get, well this events goes one further than that - people actually eat them.
Yes, you're right, it is nuts and it may not surprise you to hear that it goes hand in hand with drinking heavily. The event is organised at The Bottle Inn in Marshwood in Dorset.
Competitors have one hour to eat as many stinging nettles as they can. They are handed 2 foot long stalks and have to eat the leaves off them then the number of bare stalks is added up. The winner is crowned 'King of the Stingers'.
The record holder is Simon Slee with 76 feet of stalks - that a lot of nettles. There are various different techniques as to how to get them down but it's generally agreed that drinking lots of beer in between mouthfuls helps.
You have to use the regulation nettles supplied - no smuggling in less toxic nettles you've grown specially at home. The only other rule is that the nettles can't leave your body. Anyone going to the toilet, or worse still vomiting in the car park, is disqualified.
If you haven't come across Modern Toss yet, it's a series of short cartoons defined by bad drawing and swearing. It's perhaps got some of the spirit of Viz, but instead of being comic strips these are generally short - one or just a few frames. Like Viz though it's a publication that revels in the fine Bristish tradition of enjoying being creative with foul language.
It's the creation of Mick Bunnage and Jon Link and has spawned books, cartoons in The Guardian and two series on Channel 4. They even have an iPhone app that shouts swearwords at people you know.
Now it's getting a retrospective exhibition at the Maverik Showroom in Shoreditch in London from the 22nd June - 4th July.
They are promising such delights as a 'Periodic Table Of Swearing', a drop-in art therapy session in the form of a 200metre long communal cartoon, some live poetry reading from their character the Drive-by Abuser and some highly collectible dirty pictures, hand-stitched in wool by enthusiastic mature ladies.
Should be fun and rude.
Mexicans Ahoy
A couple of gigs caught my eye this week that are linked by a Mexican theme. The first one is a double bill by a band with a split personality. Hardcore US punk band The Bronx have, over the last year, been nurturing a rather eccentric side project second life as as a Mariachi band - Mariachi El Bronx. Goodness knows where they got the idea from but they're actually pretty good. To warm up for Glastonbury, they're playing a couple of gigs next week where their mariachi selves will be supporting their punk selves.
23rd June - Talking Heads in Southhampton.
24th June - Kasbah, Coventry
25th June - Glastonbury
26th June - White Rabbit, Plymourth
28th June - Barfly, Camden
And, if that sounds bizarre, on Tuesday 22nd at the famous 100 Club in London, you can witness El Vez, the Mexican Elvis - I'm the proud owner of several of his albums - he's not just an Elvis impersonator, he' so much more, weaving Elvis and many other artists into his Mexicanised versions which are very funny and often quite satirical and politically aware. He stood for President recently. He didn't win, instead he's doing a tour of Kiss cover versions. I can't wait.
|12:29 UK time, Thursday, 17 June 2010
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This week Danny started his guide to festivals of the world - he started with Spain, naturally, and here's what he had to say....
With Glastonbury just a week away, we're properly into festival season. So, we're going to use the Indie Travel Guide to check out what's on offer around the globe in a new strand called Around The World in 80 Festivals. This week, we're starting with Spain.
I don't know if there's any way of scientifically proving it, but I have a theory that Spain has more festivals than any other country.
Spain's a great place to go to a music festival. They have most of the same bands you'd see at an English festival but it's nice and sunny and often by the sea. They can pretty much guarantee it won't rain at a Spanish festival and, if it does, as we all know, the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
As well as music festivals the Spaniards love their religious festivals. And often these religious occasions are an excuse for some truly bizarre happenings. There must be something in the Spanish psyche that likes a big party but needs to find a reason for it. More on those later.
MUSIC FESTIVALS
Well, kicking off today is the Sonar Festival which we talked about when we covered Barcelona a couple of months back. That's from the 17th to the 19th and is mainly electronic acts Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, Jonsi and The Chemical Brothers amongst others.
Of course the big one that everyone talks about is Benicassim. It's 15th to 18th July this year.
Benicassim is a small beach town between Valencia and Barcelona. Everything starts late which suits the Spanish weather. The first bands start playing at 6pm, headliners go on at 1am and DJs play till 6am. Then you can sleep in during the day (or at least until you can't bear being in a hot tent anymore).
Having said all that about the perfect Spanish weather, 2009's festival was actually cut sort because of freakish 'extreme weather', so the organisers will be doing their darndest to make sure 2010 is a cracker. They've got Goldfrapp, Ian Brown, Klaxons, Kasabian, The Courteeners, Mumford and Sons, Vampire Weekend and many many more... If you go, make sure you check out Spanish band Cola Jet Set. I think they're rather good.
There used to also be Summercase, a July festival that happened simultaneously in Barcelona and Madrid - you might remember it's where there was a big fight between John Lydon and his road crew and Kele from Bloc Party, Ricky from Kaiser Chiefs and Yannis from Foals.
They didn't run last year though because of the recession and it looks like they're not running again - the website seems to be dormant now - if anyone knows any different let us know.
STRANGE FESTIVALS
Be chased by bulls...
I suppose the most famous Spanish festival is probably the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Like pretty much all the festivals I'm going to talk about, it's tied to a religious celebration and is officially called the Festival of San Fermin.
It lasts for a week every year from July 7th to 14th (it's always the same dates).
It's been running for centuries and the first accounts of foreigners going over and joining in date back to the 18th century. It's became really internationally famous thanks to Ernest Hemmingway who wrote about it in his book The Sun Also Rises in 1927.The bull run takes place at 8am every morning during this week. The 'course' is 825 metres and takes about 3 minutes to run. But it's a pretty dangerous 3 minutes. As if being chased by an angry bull weighing over a hundred stone wasn't bad enough, you've also got to contend with the massive crowds of runners all around you, many of whom will be pretty drunk. Over the years since 1924, 15 people have died and over 200 have been injured. Even just last year, one man was gored to death and nine others were injured.
Despite that's it's massively popular so it's worth booking your accommodation well in advance (some sites recommend 12 months in advance) - an alternative option is to stay in nearby San Sebastian.
Baby jumping...
Marginally safer, and you could certainly take the kids - Spain's nuttiest festival has to be the Baby Jumping Festival in Castillo De Murcia near Burgos in Northern Spain.
This is linked to the Catholic Festival of Corpus Christi and quite frankly has to be seen to be believed. Babies are laid on the ground in a line (don't worry they get a little bed to lie on) and grown men jump over them rather in the manner of Evel Knieval jumping over buses. The men are apparently dressed as the Devil, though in all the photos I've seen they look a bit like Elvis. Apparently this cleanses the babies of all evil doings. Yeah right. Apparently the Pope has asked the local priests to distance themselves from it. I'm not surprised.
Sadly we've just missed it for this year as it was June 6th but book ahead for next year why don't you - if you're not yet a parent, you've still got time to change that.
Food fight!
This is La Tomatina - the tomato chucking festival. It's always on the last Wednesday of August every year in the town of Bunol near Valencia. Basically, people chuck a lot of tomatoes at each other - if you haven't seen the pictures, they're spectacular.
No one knows how it started but it's happened every year since the Second World War. It was banned under Franco but then came back with a vengeance after his death. 20-50,000 tourists turn up for it. Women wear white and men wear no shirts. About 150,000 tomatoes are chucked every year apparently.
If you don't fancy tomatoes but still want to chuck stuff at people, you could check out the water fight festival in Lanjarón near Granada on June 24th or better still the wine fight ('Batalla del Vino') in Horo, La Rioja on June 29th. It being the Rioja region, there's plenty of wine to fight with.
For something all together less nice how about the ant throwing that goes on in Laza, Galicia at Carnival time (February) or, even worse, the Battle of the Dead Rat (yes they throw them at each other), in the Valencian town of El Puig during the fiesta of San Pedro Nolasco (January).
Last year I went to the Festival of Santa Marta de Riberteme in Las Nieves (also know as As Neves) in Galicia. It's a festival of 'near death experiences' - people who have come close to death in the preceding 12 months are paraded through the town in open top coffins. It's pretty eerie. Some pilgrims also crawl around the town on their knees (it's about a 45 minute circuit).
Here's a good site for more info on Spanish Festivals.Post categories: mpfree
|09:38 UK time, Thursday, 17 June 2010
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The MPFree today is an offering from 'Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin'. The Missouri four piece are gearing up for the release of their new album Let It Sway due in August. Some UK dates are also penciled in for October.
I think this song sounds like it could've featured on an early Brendan Benson album, what do you think it sounds like? Download and form an opinion...
Post categories: memory tapes
|08:18 UK time, Thursday, 17 June 2010
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This week's Memory Tape is rather appropriate considering we're going big on Father's Day on Friday.
The man behind it is Adam Maunder, who writes...
"I don't really know if this particular AR-90 is in the general area of suitability for your excellent 'Memory Tapes' slot, but I thought I'd send it along & see what y'all thought nonetheless.
"It's called Mindless Music for Driving, and was a project of my father's, designed I assume to give us kiddiewinks something to sing along to in the car. What this meant in practice was to ransack a load of his old compilation LPs and pick out a selection of UK & US pop hits spanning the late 50s to the late 80s, and I'm bound to say it was something of a success; I've still got the thing languishing in a drawer, and find it strangely comforting listening all this time later, whether or not I'm on the road."
Nice idea Dad; shame you didn't teach your lad any photography skills though; look at the state of this photo!
Anyway, the tracks on the compilation album are:
Side A
Dance in the Smoke - Argent
Hocus Pocus - Focus
Oh Babe What Would You Say - 'Hurricane' Smith
Softly Whispering I Love You - The Congregation
Up Up & Away - The 5th Dimension
Massachusetts - The Bee Gees
Blame it on the Pony Express - Johnny Johnson & the Bandwagon
Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' - Crazy Elephant
Keep On - Bruce Channel
Rock 'n' Roll (Pt 2) - Gary Glitter
Hot Love - T-Rex
I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers
Delta Lady - Joe Cocker
Hoots Mon - Lord Rockingham's XI
Oh Carol - Neil Sedaka
I Only Want to be with You - Dusty Springfield
Side B
St. Elmo's Fire - John Parr
Let My People Go-Go - The Rainmakers
Concrete & Clay - Unit 4 + 2
Blackberry Way - The Move
Mouldy Old Dough - Lt. Pigeon
Sylvia - Focus
Caroline - Status Quo
Battleship Chains - The Georgia Satellites
Tom Hark - Elias & Zig Zag Jive Flutes
Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) - Edison Lighthouse
Mr. Lonely - Bobby Vinton
Tennessee Bird Walk - Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan
There's a Place in the World for a Gambler - Dan Fogelberg
Sunday Will Never be the Same - Spanky & Our Gang
The Sweet Sounds of Summer - The Shangri-Las
Tune in to the show on Friday 18th June to see which five tracks are selected.
Inspired? Email Lauren your Memory Tape for consideration...
Post categories: video
|17:24 UK time, Wednesday, 16 June 2010
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One of the most surreal moments that TeamLaverne has experienced in the show's history was having The Sugarhill Gang in session. When Wonder Mike, Master Gee and Hendogg perform Rapper's Delight before your very eyes, it takes a while for the brain to compute. And now, in glorious technicolour, you can experience it yourself!
The performances from the Gang are now up online, and here's a taster to get you started...
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions
Teased? You can watch the full Sugarhill Gang session - off you go.
Post categories: mpfree
|11:32 UK time, Wednesday, 16 June 2010
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Some epic cinematic sounds for you on the MPFree today - the lush, sweeping sounds of Lanterns On The Lake. Originally hailing from Newcastle they've served up a slice of perfectly pitched, blissed out pop music. It's all a bit magical, basically.
The band are touring the UK this summer and playing festivals including Glastonbury and End of the Road in Dorset. Catching them live is guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of your neck; in a really good way.Post categories: mpfree
|09:04 UK time, Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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This is a second outing for Here We Go Magic on the MPFree front. Earlier in the year TeamLaverne spotted The Collector floating around the blogosphere and gave it a home. Now their second album Pigeons is out, and Casual is set to be the second single.
The US quartet have appearences lined up at Glastonbury, Latitude and Bestival and some other dates around the UK with Broken Social Scene at the end of June. Rejoice.
Post categories: mpfree
|09:35 UK time, Monday, 14 June 2010
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Our MPFree today kids is another understated, shy and retiring offering from one half of Outkast and friend of the show Big Boi. To coin an overused phrase of TeamLaverne, this is 'massive', and considering this is going to be on the same record as Shutterbug, the solo album: Sir Luscious Left Foot: Son of Chico Dusty promises to be...well, massive.
Here it is: Big Boi: General Patton
Post categories: memory tapes
|14:00 UK time, Thursday, 10 June 2010
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The vast majority of Memory Tapes we've received since starting the show have been musical love letters; an attempt to win the heart of a significant other. Most seem to have worked, and this week's is no different...
Patrick Pope has submitted this compilation, and he writes...
"Ok ... so this tape is me desperately trying to convey every possible emotion in just a few songs to impress upon a girl just how much she meant to me. Isn't that what they're always about? I made this mix early in 1998 when I was in my early thirties, having just starting seeing someone again who I had loved madly for five very heady years as a teenager, but who I had seen very little of since.
"Gary Crowley gave the All Seeing I track one of its first airings, and I was instantly obsessed with it. The spirit of it seemed to perfectly suit the renewal of our relationship. But in those pre-internet days, almost as a mirror to all the other teenage feelings that were also returning, I was forced to sit night after night listening to the show with a tape recorder at the ready in the hope he would play it again...
"Anyway - once bagged, I found myself unwittingly building a compilation around it - ending it with the painfully plaintive last track from The Eels which in retrospect might have proved a bit of an emotional overload, but I decided to risk it nonetheless ... this wasn't a time to mess about. And The Road Back Home was probably a a little heavy handed as well - but hey ... I had to get the message across that this WAS IT.
"And luckily for me it was IT. We married within the year - and now have three children. Joy!"
The artwork, nestled amongst some flowers, looks like this:
And the tracks are:
Side One
All Seeing I - The Beat Goes On
Propellerheads - Velvet Pants
Mighty Dub Katz - Magic Carpet Ride
Utah Saints - Something Good
Sneaker Pimps - Underground
Beloved - Sweet Harmony
Side Two
Fountains of Wayne - Radiation Vibe
Eels - Novocaine For The Soul
Ian Brown - Corpses
Paul Simon - Boy in the Bubble
Supercat - Josephine
Cornership - Road Back Home
Eels - Manchild
Inspired? Email Lauren your Memory Tape for consideration...
Post categories: mpfree
|12:04 UK time, Thursday, 10 June 2010
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We're back up to the full quota of five free Friday tracks this week; result.
As always with the MPFree EP, we collate the week's free download and you, the listener, knock up a bit of artwork to go with it. Inspiration for the artwork this week came from Devo who were Lauren's guests on Thursday, so obviously, we asked for photos of flower pots. You didn't disappoint, and we chose this photo from Alex.
So, bringing your MPFree EP up to the required five tracks is Washed Out. We're big fans of the band on the show, and this track (linked below your other MPFrees) features Chairlift's Caroline Polachek. If you were wondering what Chill-Wave was all about, or as some call it: 'Glo-fi' - then this track is a perfect example.
Anyway, this week's tracks are...Washed Out - You And I (Feat. Caroline Polachek)
Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.
Post categories: mpfree
|09:23 UK time, Thursday, 10 June 2010
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Normally you'd find him hanging out with 'friend of the show' Dangermouse in Gnarls Barkley, but while Brian's knocking about with James Mercer for the Broken Bells project, Cee-lo is solo.
Georgia is the first single from Ladykiller; his first album since 2004. The song is a love letter to his home state, and is an understated slice of stomping northern soul. Along for the ride are the Daptone Records' Menahan Street Band.
Anyway, here it is: Cee-Lo - Georgia
Post categories: mpfree
|09:41 UK time, Wednesday, 9 June 2010
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Today's MPFree is: Stars - Wasted Daylight
Always a joy when one of Canada's very finest bands give us something new and this brand new track from Stars' forthcoming album The Five Ghosts is a joy. Like many of their best songs (hello Your Ex-Love Is Dead, hello Ageless Beauty), it's wistful and uplifiting at the same time and finds singer Amy Millan in the thralls of new romance and not caring that she's wasting her day lazing around in bed with a new fella.
It's brilliant - especially so when the chorus kicks in. Download it now!
Post categories: mpfree
|09:08 UK time, Tuesday, 8 June 2010
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It's raining; it's grey; it's a little disappointing. So, how about some free music as a pick-me-up? Yeah, I knew that'd work...
So, your MPFree today is !!! - AM/FM. The band's new album 'Strange Weather, Isn't it?' is out on August 23 through Warp Records, and this is from it. Get stuck in.
Post categories: mpfree
|10:00 UK time, Friday, 4 June 2010
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Bank Holidays are all well and good, but it does mean you only get four tracks on the MPFree EP rather than the standard five. Still; chin up - you've got four corkers!
The idea behind your artwork this week was in honour of Thursday's session guests Faithless. We asked for photos of you lot throwing shapes in a 'big fish, little fish, cardboard box' style. Will the chef took this a little too literally and sent us this:
The tracks to go with this artwork are:
Jessica Lea Mayfield - Kiss Me Again
The Drums - Forever & Ever, Amen (St Etienne mix)
The Hundred In The Hands - Ghosts
The Cool Kids - Strawberry Girl
Some of the above free downloads are only posted for a limited amount of time; therefore not all may be available.
Post categories: mpfree
|09:45 UK time, Thursday, 3 June 2010
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Heads up, your MPFree today is a gift from Warp Records: The Hundred In The Hands - Ghosts.
This is from their debut EP entitled 'The Desert' which is available now. The band are heading to the UK from Brooklyn for festival dates in July.
Post categories: memory tapes
|15:47 UK time, Wednesday, 2 June 2010
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Memory Tapes is back in the hands of the punters after 6 Music's own Tom Ravenscroft took control last week. Eleanor Ratliff is in the driving seat this week, and the story behind her Memory Tape is...
"Me and my mates used to make tapes for each other, especially once I started to drive and needed day-tripping sound tracks. I made this one (circa 1999) and kept one for myself. It's an odd mixture there and quite clear which albums were on heavy rotation at the time! Not entirely cringy."
Not cringy in the slightest Eleanor! The artwork looks like:
And the tracks are:
A
All Day And All Of The Night - The Kinks
The Way You Look Tonight - Billie Holiday
Sing Softly To Me - Kings Of Convenience
Expectations - Belle & Sebastien
You and Me Song - The Wannadies
Jump, Jive, And Wail - Louis Prima
Someday - The Strokes
You Make It Easy - Air
Monkey Gone To Heaven - Pixies
I Don't Love Anyone - Belle & Sebastien
Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino
Lovefool - The Cardigans
Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks
Beauty Dies Young - Lowgold
B
Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
Girl From Back Then - Kings Of Convenience
Lilly - Smashing Pumpkins
Fell In Love With A Girl - The White Stripes
Favourite Game - The Cardigans
Utopia - Goldfrap
All Of Me - Billie Holiday
Not In Love - Fun Lovin' Criminals
There She Goes - The La's
Blue Moon - Mel Torme
Pale Blue Eyes - Lou Reed
People Are Strange - The Doors
Winning A Battle, Losing The War - Kings Of Convenience
Mystic Hopscotch - Eddie Izzard
Tune in to the show on Friday 4th June to hear which 5 tracks get selected, and if you have a Memory Tape you'd like to submit, then email Lauren now...
Post categories: mpfree
|09:34 UK time, Wednesday, 2 June 2010
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I think it's safe to say The Drums are friends of the show. Not only have we had them in session twice, but during the broadcast from Worthy Farm they held the tarpaulin down when the wind got under it. As a result, Lauren stayed dry, as did all the electrical equipment, and so the show stayed on air. Nice boys.
Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is because the MPFree today is The Drums - Forever And Ever, Amen (St Etienne mix). It's all yours, take it.
Post categories: mpfree
|09:15 UK time, Tuesday, 1 June 2010
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Your MPFree today is Jessica Lea Mayfield - Kiss Me Again.
Jessica hails from Ohio in the States and this track is the opener to her debut album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt. The album is out now and was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Enjoy!
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