Archives for August 2012

This weekend, over 150,000 people will make the annual pilgrimage to Reading and Leeds Festival to see the likes of The Cure, At The Drive In and Foo Fighters headline what is one of Britain’s best loved bank holiday musical traditions. 

Over the past two decades a trip to the festival has become a right of passage for any self-respecting alternative music fan, with the antics of bands on-and-off stage dominating the online music conversation for days after. So what better then to celebrate Reading and Leeds past and present than with two hours of your favourite memories from the event on Now Playing?



Were you there when Nirvana headlined in 1992?



Did you see The Stone Roses implode in 1996 before their resurrection this year?



How about the spat between The Prodigy and Beastie Boys in 1998?



When 50 Cent got bottled off?



Or when Pulp triumphantly returned last year and Jarvis dueted with Julian Casablancas on stage?



You’ve got a who’s who of rock and indie bands to pick from, plus a surprisingly large amount of hip-hop and dance music too – the jukebox is your oyster with this one.



Let us know what your favourite Reading and Leeds memories are – or perhaps the act you’re looking forward to seeing at the festival this year – in the usual ways. Leave a comment here or on Facebook, Tweet using #Reading6Music if you’re in the South or #Leeds6Music if you’re in the North, e-mail us or add a track to our Spotify playlist.

The story which got us most excited in the Now Playing offices this week was news of the Frankenweenie soundtrack - Tim Burton's latest film which features the likes of Robert Smith and the delectable Karen O.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwomen wrote and recorded Strange Love especially for the film's closing credits and with such a number of past collaborations, influences and generally great music associated to her, why not ask our amazing audience to pick an hour of music for Sunday evening.



We also played some of the other most talked about tracks of the week and invited GoldFlakePaint to pick half an hour of music (which went down especially well).



Tracklist:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero

Animal Collective - Today's Supernatural (new video up on YouTube)

Bloc Party - Coliseum (album streaming at The Guardian)

Parliament - Fantasy is Reality (from The Interzone Mix by The Klaxons - get it here)

Oasis - Wonderwall (Noel had interesting thoughts on Liam's Olympic performance)

Zodiac - Points (the controversial producer has an EP forthcoming on Vase)



#Blog6Music - guest blogger this week is Gold Flake Paint

Tall Ships - Gallop

Foreign Fields - Taller

North Bay - Golden Years

Kissed Her Little Sister - I Am A Human Being

Adolescent - Golden Halls Pt. 2

Idles - 26/72



#KarenO6Music - a Karen O Playlist picked by you

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion

Trent Reznor and Karen O - Immigrant Song

Kills - Cheap and Cheerful

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control

The Strokes - Someday

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date With the Night

The Cramps - Human Fly

The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

Karen O - Strange Love (hear it in full at Pitchfork)

TV on the Radio - Modern Romance

Karen O & The Kids - All is Love

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message

David Lynch ft. Karen O - Pinky's Dream

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)

This Sunday the final hour of Now Playing is all about Karen O because of the news which broke surrounding her involvement in the Frankenweenie soundtrack – which also features the likes of Robert Smith from The Cure and Passion Pit.



Well, we’re going to have the world exclusive from the movie of the track Strange Love by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ front woman on the show!



But we can’t wait until then to play you the track which will close Tim Burton’s new film – so we’ve got a little clip for you here.



In an interview with Rolling Stone, Karen O said: “Tim wanted an unconventional unconditional-love song. My music inspiration came out of the same era of B-movie fright film references sprinkled throughout the film.



“I went in the direction of exotica and calypso stylistically because it's quirky, good vibes music of that era and when you throw in a theremin solo it's a marriage made in heaven. We ended up with a love song for the end of the film to the film!



“Frankenweenie is so special, it's an unbelievable honour to be involved with it.”



Want to get involved in Sunday's show? All the details are here.





And it's on Soundcloud





The full tracklist for the Frankenweenie soundtrack is:

Karen O - Strange Love

Neon Trees - Electric Heart (Stay Forever)

Mark Foster - Polartropic (You Dont Understand Me)

Passion Pit - Almost There

Plain White T’s - Pet Sematary

Kimbra - With My Hands

AWOLNATION - Everybody's Got a Secret

Kerli - Immortal

Grace Potter featuring The Flaming Lips - My Mechanical Friend

Imagine Dragons - Lost Cause

Grouplove - Underground

Skylar Grey - Building A Monster

Robert Smith - Witchcraft

Winona Ryder - Praise Be New Holland

This week we found out Karen O was to appear on a star-studded soundtrack for the latest Tim Burton movie, Frankenweenie, alongside Robert Smith, Passion Pit and Flaming Lips which got us thinking, do we need a better excuse to celebrate this fantastic vocal talent?



Born in South Korea to a Korean mother and Polish father, she moved to New Jersey in her childhood and helped the New York scene explode with some fabulous artists in the early Noughties as art of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and alongside others such as The Strokes.



Ultimately, as always, it’s down to you to help us pick the Ultimate Karen O Playlist to run this Sunday between 7-8pm, but to wet your appetite here’s some ideas:

* Your favourite Yeah Yeah Yeahs tracks

* Some of the collaborations she’s been involved with, or tracks from artists she’s worked with like Flaming Lips, David Lynch, The White Stripes and Santigold

* People who inspired her which could range from Blondie to Patti Smith

* Other New York artists who kicked started the 21st century like Julian Casablancas and co, The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem

* Right through to breaking acts like Haim and Lana Del Rey who more than likely have a few Karen O records in their collections



Let us know what you fancy by commenting on this blog and on our Facebook page, Tweet us using #KarenO6Music, send us an e-mail or drag a track onto our collaborative Spotify playlist.

Beck has caught the imagination of the music world this week by announcing that his new album won’t be an App or a 'virtual' concept but instead will be a book of sheet music. The 'album' entitled Song Reader will be released in December and consist of 20 unreleased tunes by Mr Hansen on printed manuscript complete with accompanying illustrations. The publishers - Faber - describe it as "an experiment in what an album can be in the 21st century."



Is this the secret the music industry has been missing? Who knows, but we at least think it’s the perfect excuse to celebrate this fantastic musical extrovert on Now Playing this Sunday with a two hour special honouring his work.



Going all the way back to 1993 there’s an absolute plethora of work to include in this playlist, and to give you some inspiration you could go for:



* Your favourite Beck hits, rarieties, b-sides and album tracks

* Some of the Californian’s influences – think David Bowie, Prince, Talking Heads or Bjork

* Stuff his dad, David Campbell, has been involved with like Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead (maybe we should just do a show on him?)

* Artists Beck has worked with like William Orbit, The Flaming Lips, The White Stripes, Thurston Moore

* Or people who wouldn’t be making music now if it wasn’t for Bek David Campbell



Let us know what you’d like us to play on Sunday evening from 6pm in the usual ways – by leaving a comment here, or on our Facebook page, Tweet us using #Beck6Music, drop us an e-mail or add tracks to our collaborative Spotify playlist.

On Monday Jamaica will celebrate it’s 50th year of independence, and we at Now Playing would like you to help us honour the vast array of music the small Caribbean island has given rise to.



Throughout August, BBC 6 Music and 1Xtra will have programmes dedicated to the nation which despite being smaller than Wales in population has helped shape music to what it is today. David Rodigan will host A Month of Sundays throughout the month, while Don Letts will sit in for Gilles Peterson on Saturday afternoons culminating with a Carnival Special on August 25.



Toots and the Maytals and Jimmy Cliff will also be dropping into 6 to perform exclusive sessions, they’ll be Jamaican themed documentaries but we want you to now help us with choosing tracks to be included in the Ultimate Jamaican Playlist.



Where to start (we aren’t sure which is why we’re asking you) but you could go for:

* Anything from reggae to dub and ska for starters

* Some of the elements which has shaped Jamaican music like American rhythm and blues or calypso and soca from Trinidad and Tobago

* The music it has inspired from early hip hop and rap to British jungle in the 90s

* And there’s always a certain Marley family which has created some pretty awesome music



As always let us know what you want us to play on Sunday from 6pm by leaving a comment here or on our Facebook page, Tweet us using #Jamaica6Music, drop us an e-mail us or add a track onto our collaborative Spotify playlist of all things Jamaica.