HOME CONTACT US Get our RSS feed: DISCLAIMER: Music hosted on this site is for preview purposes only. If you like what you hear please buy the artist's work. You can find much of it here: ARCHIVE April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007

Grindin' Even if, like us, you were a little underwhelmed by Kill Bill and Sin City it’s hard not to get excited about Grindhouse, the Rodriguez/Tarantino double feature that premiered in LA this week. It stars Kurt Russell as a serial-killing petrolhead and Rose McGowan as a stripper with a machine gun for a leg. If, for some insane reason, that doesn’t pique your interest then read what Neill Cumpston has to say about it. It may be the greatest movie review ever written. A soundtrack to the Tarantino half of Grindhouse, Death Proof, will be in the shops soon (we’re assuming Rodriguez has composed a John Carpenter homage/score for his bit). As you’d expect vintage rock & soul, obscure exotica and arcane movie references abound. We’ve got three of the tracks for you here. There’s revving engines and rumbling surf guitars on Jack Nitzsche’s The Last Race, driving funk-rock from Willy DeVille on It’s So Easy (taken from the Cruising soundtrack) and the uber-kitschness of April March’s Chick Habit. The album will also include a cut from Pino Donaggio’s Blow Out soundtrack, Ennio Morricone, Eddie Floyd, T Rex and, most improbably, Brit-beat combo Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Jack Nitzsche - The Last Race [mp3] Willy Deville - It's So Easy [mp3] April March - Chick Habit [mp3] The Death Proof soundtrack is out 03/04/07 on Maverick. Buy it here. Posted by: Scott 29/03/07 Don't Make Me Get Old School Poof. And like that... it is gone. The greatest trick XL ever pulled was convincing the world a leaked Dizzee Rascal album track didn’t exist. On Monday an illicit mp3 of Pussy’Ole- a Lynn Collins-sampling dancefloor-wrecker from Dizzee’s forthcoming Maths & English – was posted on Diplo’s Mad Decent blog. It soon got picked up by Fader, Gorilla Vs Bear and Discobelle and by mid-morning Pitchfork had posted it in their new music section so the whole world knew about it. As it happens we were at XL yesterday interviewing Dizzee for Clash magazine. Let’s just say he wasn’t happy about the leak. Not one bit. C&Ds were served and the song quickly disappeared, but we really wouldn’t like to be the dude who put it up in the first place. We don’t think Dizzee or his manager Cage will forget about it in a hurry. Leaks aside the interview was fantastic. Dizzee spoke candidly about the new LP, his feelings toward the grime scene (and one dude in particular), being a role model, hooking up with UGK and the Arctic Monkeys, and how good it felt to rock FWD last Friday. Anybody concerned that Dizz has gone soft can rest easy- he sounds hungrier than ever and Maths & English bangs from beginning to end. We’ll write more about this soon, but remember to look out for Dizzee in the next issue of Clash, out 01/05/07. Lead single Sirens (on which Dizzee plays drums- imagine if Jigga and Rick had 99,999 Problems) will be unleashed at the end of May and Maths & English follows on 04/06/03. We value our lives too much to post anything new here, so instead we've got a couple of vintage Raskit moments: Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U [mp3] [Buy] N*E*R*D ft Justin Timberlake, Will.I.Am & Dizzee Rascal - Lapdance (Live at Brixton Academy, London, 2004) [mp3] Posted by: Scott 28/03/07 The Three Bears We have a friend called Percy the Bear. He’s not a real bear, nor is he a big, hairy homosexual man, he’s just a pal who loves bears. StoNu’s answer to Timothy Treadwell helped us set up Pinglewood and as we’re writing about records made by bears it seemed only right to holler at our boy. Person Pitch is the third solo LP from Polar Bear (AKA Noah Lennox, member of our favourite freak-folkers, Animal Collective) and it’s been on constant rotation at the pinglepad. Lennox moved to Lisbon last year and ditched the acoustic sound of his previous work, replacing it with a dense sea of endless tape loops and evocative field recordings over which he spins the kind of opulent, celestial melodies that are his, and the Collective's, stock in trade. If you've ever thought that Steve Reich's process music would sound even more awesome if Brian Wilson was crooning woozily over the top, then this is the album for you. The song we've picked for you to listen to is Take Pills, a lovely ode to chemical-free living that's built around (we think) the sounds of someone skating a halfpipe. As with most AC stuff it sounds less like one song than two or three smaller ditties huddled together round a campfire. As we're very literal-minded we thought the best artists to augment this most ursine of posts would be Grizzly Bear and Polar Bear... [Continues...] Panda Bear - Take Pills [mp3] [Buy] Grizzly Bear - Knife (Girl Talk Remix) [mp3] [Buy] Polar Bear - Balloon Tune [mp3] [Buy] And here's our favourite Animal Collective song, just because we love it. Animal Collective - Winter's Love [mp3] [Buy] Posted by: Scott 26/03/07 Weekender- SXSW Special WATCH Why bother going all the way to Texas when the cream of SXSW performances are available as 5 minute long, shaky, tinny, pixelated camera phone clips on youtube? It’s like you're there- you can practically smell the BBQ and vomit. [Source: Fader, Prefix, Clash] The Stooges Bonde De Role Tiny Masters of Today Datarock Matt & Kim Fujiya & Miyagi Redman Donovan Rumble Strips Spank Rock Hot Club de Paris Devin the Dude Illinois Antibalas The Rapture Tokyo Police Club Les Savy Fav Peter, Bjorn & John Posted by: Scott 24/03/07 Heartbreaker The best thing about the Cannonball Run films was always the blooper reels that played over the final credits- Dom Deluise cracking up as Burt Reynolds horsed around with an elephant, Deano and Sammy slapping each other- ah, making movies used to be such fun. When spoof outtakes appeared at the end of Anchorman and the Incredibles it looked like the noble gag reel had been put to rest for ever. Until this outtake from I Heart Huckabees turned up. We’d heard stories about director David O. Russell in the past, George Clooney reputedly knocked him out on the set of Three Kings after Russell had manhandled an extra, and his total obnoxiousness is confirmed here. Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman and Jason Schwartzman are rehearsing a scene and Russell, it seems, isn’t happy with the way things are going… The Bird and the Bee - I'm A Broken Heart [mp3] [Buy] Posted by: Scott 22/03/07 Under The Skins Last year, the fairer, lovelier half of Pinglewood- the half that doesn’t regularly fall asleep drunk and covered in debris on the Pinglepad’s hard, unforgiving and steep (oh, so very steep!) staircase- declared This Is England far and away the best film screened at the London Film Festival. It duly won best feature at the British Independent Film Awards and its young star Thomas Turgoose deservedly bagged the Best Newcomer award. After months of delay and an unduly harsh 18 certification, Shane Meadows’s fantastic film will finally open in UK cinemas on 27/04/07. Though it might sound a tad premature, and more than a little hyperbolic, we think this is the best film you’ll see all year. Set in 1983, against the aftermath of the Falklands conflict, the film tells the story of Shaun, a troubled eleven-year-old boy who falls in with a friendly group of local skinheads, but is slowly radicalized when a charismatic, but overtly racist friend of the gang returns from a stay in prison. Meadows has said the story is based partly on his own childhood and everything about This Is England is utterly authentic, from the desolate and desperate Midlands town that Shaun calls home to the easy banter and simmering menace that permeates such places. As with all Meadows’s work, wry comedy goes toe-to-toe with shocking violence, but it’s the empathy and warmth he shows his characters, even those who behave abhorrently, that lingers. The film is full of nuanced, well-rounded performances, but it is the extraordinary Turgoose, just 12 years old at the time of filming, who will break your heart. Lonely, funny, brave, angry and intensely vulnerable, he makes Shaun one of the most unforgettable characters you'll encounter this year. Turgoose’s performance is made all the more remarkable when you discover the film is dedicated to his mother, who lost her battle with cancer during filming. Meadows’s films are always impeccably soundtracked and This Is England is no exception. Drawing on the ska, punk and soul obsessions of the Oi! skinhead scene the film features music from Toots & the Maytals, The Upsetters, The Specials and UK Subs, as well as Strawberry Switchblade. It’s a fantastic collection of songs and you’d be a fool not to buy it. We’ve selected a few choice tracks for your listening pleasure. The film opens to the strains of Toots & the Maytals's 54-46 Was My Number and closes with Clayhill’s haunting rendition of The Smiths's Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want. Clayhill frontman Gavin Clark is an old pal of Meadows whose next project will be a documentary about the singer’s attempt to find a foothold in the music industry. The Percy Sledge number plays a key role in the film, illuminating the transcendental importance of music to its most lost and disenfranchised character; the hope it can provide, but not always deliver. Toots & the Maytals - 54-46 Was My Number [mp3] Percy Sledge - The Dark End of the Street [mp3] Clayhill - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want [mp3] If you want to read more about Meadows and his many brilliant films visit his very well-run and endlessly entertaining fansite. More stills and a great 1981 BBC news report about the Oi! scene after the jump...... Posted by: Scott 21/03/07 A. Wintour's Tale We love this story from the New York Post’s PageSix gossip hounds… Apparently US Vogue is revamping its website, but the magazine’s superbitch editor Anna Wintour isn’t making things easy. "Anna hates the word 'blog' so much, she refuses to call anything on her site a blog and has charged her staff with coming up with a new word that isn't as garish-sounding," snitched a Vogue staffer. "She wants it ASAP - in time for launch." A Wintour minion has defended her boss's point of view, saying: "Anna just doesn't want people to refer to stories as blogs, because they're not. It's an improper use of the word. Anna has nothing against blogs." We know exactly how the Twiglet-limbed, helmet head feels. We’re tired of the glittering prose that graces Pinglewood being referred to as mere blog. Pinglewood, you see, is just like Vogue. We are literature- We're an entity- and while we may not bring about world peace, we will leave you broke and anorexic. We’re keen to see what the Voguettes come up with. Sticking with farshion, darling, we were rather impressed with some of the soundtracks at the recent Autumn/Winter ‘07 shows. In New York, Heatherette design duo Richie Rich and Traver Rains employed the services of hip hop DJ Swizz Beatz and Erin Fetherston got hipster pal Zooey Deschanel to open her show with a sweet rendition of Dream a Little Dream. In Paris, Robert Normand had Au Revoir Simone play a live set during his show, while moon-faced Stella McCartney had her models parade around to Amerie, Spank Rock and Radiohead. As ever, London was consumed by electro, Christopher Kane played it sophisticated, while Gareth Pugh mixed the Psycho strings with Benidorm euro-dance anthems. Cassette Playa didn’t have JME or Sonic modeling this time, but she did stay true to her new rave roots. Stockholm followed suit with the likes of LCD Soundsystem and the Klaxons on a loop at the ultra-hot +46 Select show, while Ann-Sofie Back was on an old rave tip, blasting out classics from S’Express, Black Box and the KLF. Here are five great songs we expect to hear on a catwalk before the year is out: Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit [mp3] [Buy] The Honeydrips - (Lack of) Love Will Tear Us Apart [mp3] [Buy] Mark Ronson ft. Santagold - Pretty Green [mp3] [Buy] Foals - The French Open (demo) [mp3] [Buy] Dntel ft. Jenny Lewis - Roll On [mp3] [Buy] Posted by: Alice 19/03/07 Weekender- Producers Special WATCH Dallas Austin explains how Joss Stone and Xtina procure their tracks. [source: Kerry!] Timbaland in the studio. His new album features Justin, Nelly, Fiddy and, um, The Hives, Fall Out Boy and Elton John. Mark Ronson ft. Daniel Merriweather- Stop Me Loefah unleashes 50,000 Watts at the recent DMZ 2nd birthday bash. READ Producers- who needs 'em? [source: The Times] This Phil Spector book looks excellent. [source: The Obsever] There's a great Paul Epworth feature in the latest issue of XLR8R. [source: XLR8R] Producer of clothes #1: Karl Largerfeld (tenuous, we know). [source: New Yorker] Producer of clothes #2: Marc Jacobs - get well soon. [source: Evening Standard] LISTEN Full album remix of LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver[source: Pitchfork] Fools Gold- the new label from Catchdubs and A-Trak. One to watch. [source: Catchdubs] Posted by: Scott 18/03/07 Teen Wolves A hard-living jazz-age hipster once said, “Youth doesn't need friends - it only needs crowds.” Of course, that’s no longer the case. Now acquaintances are counted and displayed like buttons, while new friends aren’t made, they’re requested. The Teenagers (hard-living Idol-age hipsters) are lucky enough to have both. They’ve got plently of friends (28,455ish) and their live debut later this month is sure to draw the crowds. This insufferably cool Anglo-French trio have straight teeth and crooked morals. They’ve proven themselves to be deft remixers, but it’s their own strikingly sharp-witted disco-rock that has really caused a buzz. Last year’s Homecoming was a mini-masterpiece of sardonic narration- the OC soundtracked by ESG and scripted by Vice magazine- while sparkling new song Starlett Johansson shows they have no intention of growing up just yet. The Teenagers - Homecoming [mp3] Au Revoir Simone - Fallen Snow (The Teenagers Remix) [mp3] New Young Pony Club - The Bomb (The Teenagers Crush Lou Remix) [mp3] [Buy] The Black Ghosts (The Teenagers Remix) [mp3] [Buy] Starlett Johansson is streaming on the band's myspace page. The Teenagers headline the Moshi Moshi night at Hoxton Bar & Grill on 29/03/07. Posted by: Scott 12/03/07 Weekender LISTEN Traneumentary.[source: Popmatters] Shadows mixtape featuring all kinds of electronic strangeness.[source: 33/45] READ David Denby on the scrambling of film narrative. [source: New Yorker] Justice Larry David style. [source: LA Times] Grime, Dubstep and the internet. [source: Blackdown] WATCH Kanye West - Throw Some Ds (remix) Jamie Woon live session [source: Dazed Digital] Posted by: Scott 11/03/07 Cover Art Oh, we know. Pinglewood has only been running a few months and already it’s being neglected- left to fend for itself, cold and alone, for days on end. Much like the little Viennese girl we keep in the cellar. But normal service has now been resumed. Sorry, we promise to feed her at least every other day. The LCD Soundsystem pre-tour warm-up at Cargo on Monday was amazing for many reasons, but when Yeah turned into a 1000-watt acid house freak out, then switched up into hammering Berlin techno, before finally, magically transforming into an inspired cover of Paperclip People’s Throw we knew we’d be yammering on about this show for a good long while. We usually love any cover version regardless of quality, but good covers require a special kind of alchemy. On the one hand, as Louis Walsh is prone to jabber during every one of his X-Factor comments, acts should “really make the song their own.” Lovely Leslie Feist scores points here with Sea Lion Woman, her take on Nina Simone’s classic See-Line Woman, which has become a staple of her live shows. She flips the words around, tweaks the instrumentation and delivers the song in that breathlessly pretty way of hers. A recorded version is finally available on the Canadian chanteuse brand new, sure to be star-making, album The Reminder. Other covers sound like they’ve always existed. Not just because they’re faithful to the original, but that they reveal so much about the covering artist. Peter, Bjorn & John’s version of Paul Simon’s Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard is like that. There is even whistling. Some of our favourite versioning occurs on an album that’s ever present on the Pinglepod, The Third Wave’s Here & Now. In 1969 five teenage Philippino sisters somehow ended up in a Swedish studio with the great George Duke and recorded some of the most giddily exciting harmonies we’ve heard. Our favourite changes all the time but for now it’s their take on Eleanor Rigby. It's fresh as a daisy and bursting with youthful abandon. Feist - Sea Lion Woman [mp3] [Buy] Peter, Bjorn & John - Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard [mp3] [source: My Old Kentucky Blog] The Third Wave - Eleanor Rigby [mp3] [currently out of print but you can usually pick up the 1999 Crippled Dick reissue on Ebay] Posted by: Scott 09/03/07 Weekend (well, Sunday afternoon) Links LISTEN Lots of songs by hip-hop acts appearing at this year's SXSW. [source: Brooklyn Vegan] Brilliant mixtape from Pinglepad faves Deerhoof. Tracklisting here. [source: OLO Radio] NYC nightclub the Rub have relaunched their website. They're hosting lots of great music, including FOP Ayres's excellent remix of 4-Hero's rave classic Mr Kirk's Nightmare. [source: Catchdubs] READ Time Out New York have compiled a list of the 50 greatest New York musicians of all time. [source: Time Out New York] Dan Mazer at the Oscars. [source: The Observer] WATCH Deerhoof - The Perfect Me White Stripes album preview JME - Serious (Remix) Posted by: Scott 04/03/07