DOM

Dom dee Dom DOM! It was revealed earlier today that sonic wizz kids, DOM have joined the illustrious Modular family. The Massachusetts quartet gave us a taster of what they're all about when they dropped their stupid-crazy catchy, 'Living In America' last year. Following was the release of their debut EP, Sun Bronzed Greek Gods which they recorded in their bedroom.
The EP will now be re-released via their new label on April 22nd.
Check out their latest offering, 'Bowl Cut' which features the awesome Cults!

DOM - Bowl Cut (Feat. Cults) by DoM

W A V V E S

 Why are m&m's called m&m's? What do the m's stand for? I feel like this could be the sort of thing everybody knows and I've totally just missed the boat. I kind of ate a shitload of peanut m&m's before and now I don't feel so good, but I know something that will make me feel better.
Wavves' Nathan Harris has been putting out a number of new songs since the year began and has just thrown down his latest offering, 'Horse Shoes'. The track is a re-working of an older song which was recorded back in 2009 but now features the machine gun drumming talents of Zach Hill.
It's not long before Wavves touch down in Australia for their March tour and I gotta say, I'm counting down the days.

WAVVES - HORSE SHOES


WAVVES AUSTRALIA TOUR MARCH 2011
8 March - The Zoo, Brisbane
9 March - Manning Bar, Sydney
11 March – The Bakery, Perth
14 March - Corner Hotel, Melbourne
(Also featuring at the Golden Plains Festival 12-14)

SHINDU

Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovers out there! If you're all alone without a lover, then you can either drink a bottle of jack in a darkened room OR you can get the fuck up and thank Yoda that you're not trapped in a dull 'oh-let's-not-go-out-tonight-let's-just-stay-in' relationship! Either way, here's something to get you in the mood, lover or hater.
Shindu just sent me their brand new mixtape which features a club edit of their debut track, 'Dreams'. Based in Ghent, Belgium, the trio who dabble in 80's inspired synth pop/electronica, name acts like Rex The Dog, Grum and Ali Love as contemporary influences. With a remix of Siouxsie & The Banshees, 'Happy House' on its way, I'm looking forward to hearing more from these cool cats. Download the mix below via Soundcloud.

Shindu - Mixtape #1 by Shindu

1) Riva Starr - Once Upon A Time In Naples
2) Miss Kittin - All You Need (Gesaffelstein Remix)
3) Rex The Dog - I Can See You, Can You See Me (Club Edit)
4) Ladytron - Ace of Hz (Punks Jump Up Dub Remix)
5) Robyn - Indestructible (A-Trak Dub)
6) Vandroid - Master & Slave (Van She Tech Remix)
7) Aeroplane - Without Lies (Black Van Remix)
8) Shindu - Dreams (Club Edit)
9) Mustang - Apocalypso
10) Etienne De Crécy - No Brain (Serge Santiago Remix)
11) Hercules & Love Affair - Painted Eyes (Moonlight Matters Remix)
12) Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix)
13) Michel Sardou - Afrique adieu (Mickey-re-view)
14) MGMT - Congratulations (Erol Alkan Rework)

DEAR CANADA, FROM FAR AND WIDE

This one's for all my homeboys and homegirls in Canada.
     I recently received an email about a new TV show called From Far and Wide, a show that's main goal is to uncover Canada's best new and original music talent. Basically, each episode the show travels to one province where four artists/bands who have been chosen battle it out in front of a panel of music industry judges. The finalist then goes on to perform in the final battle facing other winners from the other provinces.

"From Far and Wide is the Anti-Idol. It's about an individual or group writing their own original music and performing it live. It's about Canada's real grassroots music scene. We look for artists from a variety of genres who write their own music and engage the audience, whether it's quiet, humble subtlety or raging rock 'n' roll aggression. We look for believability and we look for a soul."

Check out the trailer for the first episode below and if you're a Canadian band and want to be apart of this experience, you can submit your music to fromfarandwide@gmail.com


From Far and Wide - Episode 1 (extended trailer) from Renee Rodenkirchen on Vimeo.

www.fromfarandwide.com
www.fromfarandwide.wordpress.com

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB + YOUNG EMPIRES

Young Empires are at it again, this time throwing their remix skills towards those baby faced Irish kids, Two Door Cinema Club. I'm starting to think Young Empires are becoming a never-fail type band, where everything they touch is golden. The remix doesn't take too much away from the original, but it ups the tempo and takes on more chilled elements to make it a more dreamier affair, as if you were riding that giant dog/dragon from 'The Never Ending Story'.

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - WHAT YOU KNOW (YOUNG EMPIRES REMIX)

THE STROKES

Who doesn't love The Strokes? honestly, they were one of the biggest bands of the noughties and pretty much defined the majority of my teenage years. It's hard to believe it's been ten years since the release of their definitive debut album, Is This It which came out in 2001.
After a five year absence, a number of solo side projects and very limited touring, The Strokes have finally returned with their brand new single, 'Under Cover Of Darkness'. The track is taken from the highly anticipated  fourth studio album, Angles and will see a release on the 18th of March. Very excited, long live The Strokes.

THE STROKES - UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS

Angles Tracklisting:
1. Machu Picchu
2. Under Cover of Darkness
3. Two Kinds of Happiness
4. You’re So Right
5. Taken For A Fool
6. Games
7. Call Me Back
8. Gratisfaction
9. Metabolism
10. Life Is Simple In The Moonlight

YOUNG GALAXY

Fucking motherfucking interwebs! I've really gotta stop downloading copious amounts of porn. Last month I exceeded my download limit and so for the past couple of weeks my internet has been 'throttled down to 64kbs' (whatever that means?!) and I've been forced to stay away from my talky talky shiny box or 'computer' to normal kids. So, once again I've been hurled out of the blogosphere loop and have no clue as to what's going on in the music world and now it's time to play catch up.
     Let's begin with Young Galaxy; their new video for 'We Have Everything' features a very lonely grimace like creature who takes a life changing bus ride, the clip is a great parallel to the actual song which also takes you on a bus ride up into the clouds. The Montreal trio's third album, Shapeshifting is due for release on the 8th of February through Paper Bag Records.

YOUNG GALAXY - WE HAVE EVERYTHING

PS I don't really download porn. . .I stream that shit!

WALTER MEEGO

I'm loving the new direction Walter Meego has taken on their new record, Wondervalley. The duo have moved towards a more matured pop sound and shows them departing from their previous synth saturated endeavors. Lead single 'Starlight' is the perfect example of this where the synths are still there, but it's the guitars that take control. Currently label-less, the guys have placed the whole album up on their souncloud for free, which kinda blows my mind.

WALTER MEEGO - STARLIGHT

TROPHY WIFE

Trophy Wife were undoubtedly one of the biggest and brightest new acts to come out of 2010 and are certainly a force not to be reckoned with in 2011, their brand of minimalistic indie really struck a chord with me and I've really become quite the fan. The Oxford band are set to release the follow up to their incredible debut, 'Microlite' in the form of a double A-side single, 'The Quiet Earth / White Horses' which is due February 28th through Moshi Moshi.

Stream The Quiet Earth below.
Trophy Wife - The Quiet Earth by Anorak London

FOSTER THE PEOPLE

Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks" was one of the highlights to 2010, a very accessible pop debut that had everyone talking about the LA trio, so popular in fact that they managed to sign a deal with Columbia. Since then the band have been working on recording new music and have just dropped their latest track, "Helena Beat", a crazy follow up that's going to have you spinning and bouncing for the rest of the Summer. With their debut EP, Pumped Up Kicks just around the corner (Jan 25), the band are set to tour Australia in February with three dates across the east coast- get on it!

FOSTER THE PEOPLE - HELENA BEAT


AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES

Sun Feb 13 BRISBANE, AUS The Zoo
thezoo.com.au

Mon Feb 14 SYDNEY, AUS Oxford Art Factory oxfordartfactory.com

Wed Feb 16 MELBOURNE, AUS Northcote Social Club northcotesocialclub.com

WOLF GANG

Here's the new vid for Wolf Gang's undeniably catchy single, 'Lions In Cages' which was released late last year (still getting used to saying 'last year', quite surreal.)

YOUNG EMPIRES GUEST LIST

On the eve of the Falls Music & Arts Festival (which was fucking rad by the way), I was severely rushed in posting my top albums of 2010 and amongst the chaos of packing and trying to get some sleep I managed to leave out a guest list from those ridiculously talented Canadian lads, Young Empires.
Now that it's 2011 and I'm back into the swing of things, I've had the chance to finally post it and get an insight into what albums made up the year for them.

Behold, Young Empires Top Albums of 2010

#1 Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
#2 Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
#3 Crystal Castles (21)
#4 These New Puritans - Hidden
#5 Caribou - Swim
#6 Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
#7 Broken Bells (album)
#8 Foals - Total Life Forever
#9 Yeasayer - Odd Blood

MYSTERY JETS w/ THE HOLIDAYS AT THE HI-FI BAR, MELBOURNE 05/01/11

I seriously need to upgrade my camera at some point this year, but until then i'll have to settle with what I've got. Here are some snaps from The Mystery Jets show last night with The Holidays supporting; amazing performances and was happy to see the guys throwing in their 'After Dark' collab that they did with the Count & Sinden.

SKELETON JAMBOREE'S TOP ALBUMS OF 2010

It's 2:08am and I'm still packing for Falls Festival which I have to leave for at 7.30am. So, I'm just going to throw down my Top Albums of 2010 and get some sleep action- no fancy presentation, just a list of what albums gave me a big ear erection.
Check it:

SURFER BLOOD - ASTRO COAST

THE NATIONAL - HIGH VIOLET

CROCODILES - SLEEP FOREVER

TAME IMPALA - INNERSPEAKER

OH NO ONO - EGGS

ARCADE FIRE - THE SUBURBS

FOALS - TOTAL LIFE FOREVER

DEERHUNTER - HALCYON DIGEST

YEASAYER - ODD BLOOD

WILD NOTHING - GEMINI

That's it for me for 2010, I hope you had an amazing year and I hope your new year's eve celebrations kick as much ass as mine. Keep it foolish and may the power of greyskull be with you!

All the best and I'll see you in 2011,

SKELETON JAMBOREE XXX

It's not easy trying to compile a list of the 'best' songs from a whole year, I've basically just gone back to a few older posts, gone through all the albums I bought, checked under the bed and sussed out what had the most plays in my itunes. I've tried to go back to when I first heard each song and tried to relive how it first made me feel. So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite tracks that made up 2010 (subject to be updated):

GROUPLOVE - COLOURS

TROPHY WIFE - MICROLITE

DELOREAN - STAY CLOSE

WEEKEND - END TIMES

CHAPEL CLUB - FIVE TREES

EGYPTIAN HIP HOP - MOON CROONER

SURFER BLOOD - TAKE IT EASY

JAI PAUL - BTSTU

ARCADE FIRE - READY TO START

WILD NOTHING - CHINATOWN

WAVVES - KING OF THE BEACH

THE MORNING BENDERS - EXCUSES

THE NATIONAL - ENGLAND

HARD MIX - MEMORIES

BAG RAIDERS

Bag Raiders - Sunlight
As far as Summer anthems go, this is about as big as they come. Bag Raiders' have just revealed the video for their second single, 'Sunlight' taken from their debut self-titled album.  The vid is based around a bad-ass party chimp who totally plays this babe, he acts all romantic but then reveals his true identity. Move over Super Chill Monkey, there's a new chimp in town.

By the way, if you haven't already bought the album, you might wana hurry your shit up and get it here! SUMMER LOVIN!

YOUNG EMPIRES

Young Empires just dropped me their latest demo, a nice little slow jam called 'The Earth Plates Are Shifting'. Since last checking in with the Toronto trio, the guys have featured on the latest Kitsune compilation, been down to Bogota, Columbia with Jamiroquai and have locked some dates in next month to play with Tanlines and Chromeo. 2011 looks like it's going to be a pretty big year for these guys and it's still not too late to jump on and say 'I was a Young Empires fan from the beginning.'

YOUNG EMPIRES - THE EARTH PLATES ARE SHIFTING

GOLD FIELDS

My friend works at Deluxe Guitars, a boutique guitar store and rehearsal studio here in Melbourne. He's always giving me the heads up on some of the acts that come in to rehearse and at the moment there's a band that's been coming in that's really caught his ears. Gold Fields are a quartet from Ballarat who have just released their debut single on Young & Lost Club over in the UK and will soon be supporting Crystal Castles in Sydney next month. Not a bad referral, certainly one act to keep an eye on in 2011.

GOLD FIELDS - TREEHOUSE

M.I.A - BORN FREE
Directed by Romain Gavras



LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - DRUNK GIRLS
Directed by Spike Jonze & James Murphy



EL GUINCHO - BOMBAY
Directed by Nicolas Mendez



YEASAYER - MADDER RED
Directed by Andreas Nilsson



HEALTH - WE ARE WATER
Directed by Eric Warheim



KLAXONS - TWIN FLAMES
Directed Saam Farahmand



ARCADE FIRE - THE SUBURBS
Directed by Spike Jonze



BATHS - LOVELY BLOODFLOW
Directed by Alex Takacs and Joe Nankin



 MUSCLES - GIRLS GO CRAZY
Directed by Beaufort


TAME IMPALA - SOLITUDE IS BLISS
Directed by Megaforce


RÖYKSOPP - THE DRUG
Directed by that go (Noel Paul & Stefan Moore)

F I C T I O N

FICTION - BIG THINGS

I've been following Fiction for a while now and I've watched them slowly become one of London's finest indie acts. The four-piece recently finished up a UK tour with Klaxons and are gearing up to release their second single 'Big Things' through Hit Club. The band have also just revealed the new video for the single which you can peep below.