Since the inaugural Record Store Day in 2007, the annual celebration of music and local record shops has risen to become a highpoint in the diary of both hardcore vinyl crazies as well as the more sedate music lover.

This year, the event is supported by some incredible live music in the UK capital with the likes of Wire, Smoke Fairies, Matthew E White and Steve Mason lined up to play sets in Soho’s Berwick Street while leathery mod Paul Weller drops into East London’s Rough Trade for an evening set. Up in Scotland, Fence Records’ Girl Canaveral and eagleowl join Honeyblood and Trembling Bells‘ Mike Hastings at Edinburgh’s Vox Box and over in Wales the legendary Cardiff store Spillers has sets from Sweet Baboo and Railroad Bill.

But most will be focused on the real prizes for the day: those silver or black discs of audio pleasure pressed up with the rarest of the rare tracks and released in highly limited numbers. You’ll see them (and us) clutching shopping lists, lined up at an ungodly hour, waiting for the doors to open. With hundreds of incredible releases on offer, it can be difficult to know where to start so we asked our writers and staff what they’d be grabbing from the shelves first…

10. MGMT – Aliens Days

Format: Cassette
Label: Columbia
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

Limited edition, collectible cassette single of the first music from their upcoming album, comes with a digital download code.

The Connecticut psych-pop duo have been rather quiet of late. After diving headfirst into public consciousness with the disturbingly catchy though inconsistent Oracular Spectacular (tracks even featured on the cultural zeitgeist that was Gossip Girl), Goldwasser and VanWyngarden followed up by embarking on the art-pop anglophile odyssey that was Congratulations, which though the better of the two releases, fell flat in the face of their previous chart admirers.

So with Oracular producer David Fridmann back on board, will we see MGMT reconcile with fans of their club friendly hits? This seems uncertain, as live-recordings of Alien Days suggest it wouldn’t feel misplaced on Congratulations, with its slow-burn, cosmic prog-rock tinged foray into spiritualism covered with VanWyngarden’s trademark near-whisper vocals, which helm the song’s spoken-word intro.

If that’s not enough to get excited about, it’s being released on cassette – take that retro vinyl enthusiasts! Well, I’m intrigued to hear the studio version, and provided I can locate my Walkman, I’ll find out early on Saturday when I get to hear what’s likely to be the first track from their forthcoming self-titled LP.

Jason Williamson

9. Music Finland with The Line of Best Fit – The Limited Record Store Day Edition 2013

Format: 10″ Vinyl
Label: Music Finland
Release type: Record Store Day Exclusive Release

Six track vinyl, 1,500 copies only and absolutely free.

It might stink of more than a touch of nepotism to include this in the list but we’re immensely proud of the Best Fit-curated selection of Finnish indie and electro that’s being released on Record Store Day. We’ve worked closely with the people at Music Finland to choose six of the best bands coming out of the Nordic country and 1,500 10″ vinyls will be available from every store in the UK as well as several across the world.

One of The XX‘s favourite bands, Phantom, feature on the release, along with a number of artists we’ve kept a close eye on in the last 18 months – LCMDF, Sin Cos Tan, K-X-P and Husky Rescue. There’s also a track from the incredible Millennium, the new project from Ville Haimala of Helsinki/Berlin based house group Renaissance Man. The best thing of all, of course, is the record’s being given away for free!

Paul Bridgewater

8. Big Star – Nothing Can Hurt Me 

Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Omnivore Recordings
Release type: Record Store Day Exclusive Release [Special Pressing]

Limited First-Edition 2-LP 180-Gram on colored vinyl of the soundtrack to the soon-to-be released documentary film (Magnolia Pictures). All previously unissued versions of classic Big Star songs. Download Card Included.

1. O My Soul (1973 Demo)
2. Give Me ANother Chance (Control Room Monitor Mix 1972)
3. In The Street (2012 Movie Mix)
4. Studio Banter (1972)
5. Try Again – Rock City (2012 Movie Mix)
6. My Life Is Right (Alternate 1972 Mix)
7. The Ballad Of El Goodo (Alternate 1972 Mix)
8. Feel (Alternate 1972 Mix)
9. Don’t Lie To Me (Alternate 1972 Mix)
10. Way Out West (Alternate 1973 Mix)
11. Thirteen (Alternate 1972 Mix)
12. You Get What You Deserve (Alternate 1973 Mix)
13. Holocaust (Rough 1974 Mix)
14. Kanga Roo (Rought 1974 Mix)
15. Stroke It Noel (Backwards Intro 1974)
16. Big Black Car (Rough 1974 Mix)
17. Better Save Yourself (2012 Movie Mix)
18. I Am The Cosmos (2012 Movie Mix)
19. All We Ever Got From Them Was Pain (2012 Movie Mix)
20. September Gurls (2012 Movie Mix)

Big Star have done pretty well from the last couple of Record Store Days, with some fine reissues of their three studio albums. Last year’s release of Third stood out in particular – 1 in every 300 copies of contained a 1970s test pressing of the record.

All of the tracks on this compilation are versions that haven’t officially been issued anywhere else. While serious fans of the band will probably own a lot of them via some of the incredible bootlegs that have popped up in the last thirty years, this release promises a level of quality beyond those unofficial CD/vinyl releases and sub-par bitrate mp3 versions.

If the mix of ‘The Ballad of El Goodo’ on this record is in fact the one from the bootleg I own, I’ll be a very happy man…

Paul Bridgewater

Tonight’s UK charts will reveal decisively whether a track from the the 1939 American musical film The Wizard of Oz – which the public are buying to mark the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – will be the biggest selling song of the week.

As of yesterday (13 April) ‘Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead’ was in the top position in the iTunes chart with another Thatcher-related track (Not Sensibles ‘I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher’) close behind.

Of course the wider issue – and one that has dominated the UK media this past week – is whether the track will actually receive airplay at all. The BBC, who broadcasts the UK’s main weekly music charts, is currently committed to playing only a five-second clip from the song, during a news report to provide some context to the track’s sudden rise. The Director-General of the BBC, Tony Hall, approved the corporation’s decision, explaining, “I understand the concerns about this campaign. I personally believe it is distasteful and inappropriate. However I do believe it would be wrong to ban the song outright as free speech is an important principle and a ban would only give it more publicity.”

To those outside the UK who aren’t aware, if you own a television in the UK then you’re legally compelled to also purchase a yearly license to watch it, with the revenue funding the BBC. Thus as a publicly-funded organisation the broadcasting behemoth is theoretically meant to operate in line with both the concerns and interests of the British public. With a long and well documented history of bans – from the Sex Pistols to Serge Gainsbourg – the BBC has taken issue with some of music’s most iconic and beloved songs.

It’s a difficult line to walk and one that rarely keeps the majority of the UK happy. Here are ten tracks which show Auntie‘s changing attitudes to music throughout the last sixty years.

Dropping the F-bomb these days rarely raises an eyebrow and the use of profanity in music is anticipated, with alternate versions of tracks or appropriately pre-censored cuts being released.  Back in 1981, when Californian punks Dead Kennedys released their fourth single ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’, this wasn’t the case.

Jello Biafra‘s dark, nihilistic and hilarious take on alcohol-infused chaos peaked at number 36 in the UK charts during May of that year,  becoming the first song to ever breach the top forty with the F-word in its title.

During the countdown, presenter Tony Blackburn avoided naming it by simple referencing ‘”a record by a group calling themselves The Dead Kennedys”. In stores around the country, stickers were supplied to to obscure the song’s title, stating: “Caution: You are the victim of yet another stodgy retailer afraid to warp your mind by revealing the title of this record so peel slowly and see…”.

Paul Bridgewater

9. Scott Walker – ‘Jackie’ (1967)

The death penalty for sex between two men existed in the UK until 1861, following a ruling in 1533 (during the Henry VIII’s reign) that made sodomy a felony.

Indeed, all male homosexual acts – categorised as ‘gross indecency’ – were outlawed in 1885 by the Labouchere Amendment until 1967 when the Wolfenden Report led sexual acts between of-age males to become legal (bizarrely, only when no more than two people were present in the same room).

In the same year as the law change, the BBC got all hot and bothered about Scott Walker‘s ‘Jackie’. The centrepiece of Walker’s Brel covers, the song’s reference to “authentic queers and phony virgins” was simply too much for senior bosses who forbade the song from airplay. It would take many, many years for them – and other public bodies – to adjust their points of view. Many would say the UK still has a lot of catching up to do in certain areas.

Paul Bridgewater

8. The Beatles – ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ (1967)

Supposedly inspired by a nursery school painting from John Lennon‘s son Julian, the Beeb’s reaction to The Beatles‘ ode to lysergic acid diethylamide was yet another example  of the corporation’s lack to understanding when it came to contemporary youth culture.

The band denied it ever had anything to drugs, naturally, citing the Julian Lennon origin-story until well into the late seventies. The elder Lennon claimed, “I never even thought of it [until someone pointed it out]…I mean, who would ever bother to look at initials of a title? It’s not an acid song.”

Paul McCartney eventually acknowledged the song’s link to the drug. “It’s pretty obvious,” he said in a 2004 interview, “but, you know, it’s easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on the Beatles’ music.”

Paul Bridgewater

7. The Prodigy – ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ (1997)

It was named the most controversial song of all time in a recent survey and only a lyric-free version was allowed on BBC’s flagship station, Radio 1. The Prodigy‘s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ ran up more bans, controversy and column inches than most songs of recent times – perhaps only the Thatcher/Ding Dong controversy has mobilised a similar shitstorm.

Unlike most BBC bans, many liberal commentators did actually  back the corporation’s decision against the track and its accompanying video, which puported to subvert the songs’s misogyny via the “shock” ending – showing that the (presumably) male point of view that accompanies a night of debauchery, drugs, lapdancing and violence is actually that of a woman.

The BBC referred to the track simply as ‘Smack’ in chart rundowns. MTV eventually relented and showed the video way after the watershed. Fifteen years on, the lyric and visuals remain as potent as ever.

Paul Bridgewater

6. Donna Summer – Love to Love You’ (1976)

One of the highlights of Donna Summer‘s creative partnership with Italian producer Giorgio Moroder, 1975′s ‘Love to Love You Baby’ contained the most explicit set of simulated sex noises since Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin‘s ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’ from seven years earlier. 23 seconds of faked orgasms were counted in the song, which reached number four in the UK charts.

5. Ricky Valance – ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ (1960)

Many have now forgotten about death rock – that utterly bizarre collection of tracks from the late 1950s and early 60s that dealt with teenage tragedy, sung from the viewpoint of either the griever or the deceased.

Ricky Valance‘s version of ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ followed Ray Peterson‘s stateside success with the same track earlier in 1960 and tells the story of a boy named Tommy who falls foul to a car crash during a race intended to win him the cash to buy a wedding ring for the eponymous Laura.

Of course the track is overwrought, melodrama at its finest, but Decca Records apparently destroyed thousands of copies of the Peterson version, claiming it was in bad taste and too much “for the English sensibility”. The BBC’s condemnation of Ricky Valance’s version was apparently due to different reasons though – the corporation cited a serious of fatal road accidents as evidence of copycat activity and imposed the ban out of concern for the nation’s youth.

Paul Bridgewater

4. Heaven 17 – ‘(We Don’t Need This) Facist Groove Thang’ (1981)

Very much a track of its time, Heaven 17‘s minor 1981 hit – which references Hitler and Reagan – was released two years into Thatcher’s first term as Prime Minister. The song’s denouncement of facisim and racism was too much for the BBC, who banned it due to concerns of libel against the then US President, with the offending lines “Across that great wide ocean/Reagan’s president elect/Fascist god in motion/Generals tell him what to do”.

Writer Stewart Mason pointed out the absurdity of the ban: “The lyrics put images of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan getting down P-Funk style into the listener’s head, a concept that’s certainly worth a giggle just by itself.”

Paul Bridgewater

As the return of The Strokes recently reminded us, there’s nothing sadder than a creative lowpoint for a once-loved band. Sustaining a heightened level of quality across a fifteen year career is an impossible feat – few even manage it for three consecutive records.

The history of modern music is strewn with duds from the great and good. The Beatles may have avoided turning in a truly terrible long-player but had they lasted another decade, we’re pretty sure to have seen some overwhelmingly poor choices turning up. Just look at what happened to The Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan arguably hit a wall when he dallied a bit too close with the Christian sentiments for 1978′s Street Legal, a record that’s almost beyond salvation.

The best approach for us fans is to usually to turn a blind eye and imagine the whole sorry mess never happened. Below, Best Fit writers and staff try and place the records they’d choose to erase from the history of their favourite bands.

10. Bright Eyes – Cassadaga (2007)

When Johnny Depp names your record one of his “favourite things” of the year – not “albums” but “things”, you know it’s going to be debatable. This is a man, after all, who has been best friends with both Hunter S. Thompson and Charlie Sheen at various points in his lifetime.

Following up on not one but two pretty stellar albums was never going to be easy for Conor Oberst and Co. I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning from 2005 saw the Bright Eyes man stripping away his previously melodramatic tendencies for a more mature and fluid folk collection that truly lived up to his wide billing as “the next Bob Dylan”. This was accompanied in a dual release by the record’s alter-ego of sorts, the electronically-charged sonic exploration of love, drugs and surrealism that was Digital Ash In A Digital Urn.

With three years passing, how do you top two records that would normally define any artist’s career? Not by bringing out something like Cassadaga, that’s for sure. While showing brief moments of redeeming qualities in ‘Middleman’ or ‘Lime Tree’, the album was doomed from the very beginning. A record born in the aftermath of mainstream success saw Oberst spiral into his own ego, simultaneously trying too hard to live up to – whilst also rejecting – increased expectations. Not as experimentally defiant as follow-up The People’s Key, without the early angst and melancholy that has plagued him with the ‘emo’ tag ever since.

It remains – now that the band leader has seemingly dropped his popular moniker in favour of his birth-given name – a rare miss in a career-to-date of consistant hits.

Luke Morgan Britton

9. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream (2009)

Part of being a true Bruce Springsteen fan is admitting which of his records are just bad.  Both Bruce himself, who has already all but ditched every single track from this abominable recent LP from his marathon live sets, and Boss devotees – who on last year’s Wrecking Ball tour booed the very suggestion that the band roll out the title track – seem in agreement.  It’s hard to think of anyone but folks on the E Street payroll and close family members who’d regard Working On A Dream as anything other than a mistake.

It was all the more disappointing coming as it did off the back of Bruce’s first purple patch in more than a decade. 2002’s The Rising reunited the E Street band in full for the first time since Born In The U.S.A. and really struck a chord (an A major, most likely) in post 9/11 America.  It was followed with the fine introspective acoustic LP Devil’s and Dust and considered Bush Administration critique of full-band effort Magic, which I’d argue is even better – all the wry social commentary of The Rising without the cloying bombast.  That album also saw Springsteen jumping on the campaign trail for a certain Barack Obama, which proved to work out well for the both of ‘em; whilst Obama swept into office, Springsteen found his critical stock higher than it had been since Tunnel of Love, and thus raced back in to the studio, mere months after Magic, to strike whilst the iron was hot.

Yet where the young Springsteen could bash out bohemian folk classics like Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ and The Wild, The Innocent And The E-Street Shuffle within the space of a few months in 1973, the hurried Working On A Dream came across like a bunch of Magic – but far from magical – b-sides.  Everything Springsteen haters dislike about the guy is here in abundance; syrupy, pompous, jingoistic and overcooked rock and roll redeemed only by the more reserved ‘Life Itself’ and Grammy-nominated ‘The Wrestler’ (technically a bonus track anyway).  Elsewhere, it contains inarguably his two worst ever songs – the under-thought ‘Happy Birthday’ re-write ‘Surprise, Surprise’ and ‘Queen of the Supermarket’, in which Bruce tells a tale of falling in love with a shelf stacker in a manner that manages to convince a grand total of nobody at all that he spends any time in supermarkets.

Thankfully, the subsequent Wrecking Ball was actually pretty good.  So let’s never speak of this again.

Tom Hannan

8. The Shins – Port of Morrow (2012)

The Shins, for me, were always the shining Gold Standard of just how good a certain brand of so-called “indie” or, if you must, “indie-pop” music could be. Debut Oh, Inverted World quickly became a favourite on its release in 2001, then along came second album Chutes Too Narrow two years later, and all of a sudden – hey – I had a Favourite Band.

The Shins made music that was more than just a jangle and a transient hit of sugar. These songs had melodies that were at the same time intricately structured and complex – just try whistling or humming along to ‘Young Pilgrims’ or ‘Kissing the Lipless’ for example – yet somehow still insanely beguiling. Every time I listen to one of the first three albums, the resultant earworms can literally run for weeks.

And for anyone who likes an intriguing lyric here, again, is Your Band, from the wonderful relish with which James Mercer delivers polysyllabic words like “malcontent” or “unconscionable” to the faintly disturbing imagery, often at odds with the alluring melodies and musicianship: “those lingering voices are just your ego’s attempt to make it all clean and nice, and make a moron out of you” from ‘Fighting in a Sack’, the faintly vampiric short poem that is Oh, Inverted World’s ‘Weird Divide’, Wincing The Night Away’s ‘Phantom Limb’, full of a kind of nostalgic, uneasy malaise.

After coming wonderfully good again on Album Number Three (2007’s Wincing the Night Away) despite the dauntingly-high expectations raised by 2004 film Garden State (sample quote: “You gotta hear this one song ['New Slang']. It’ll change your life, I swear”), it seemed like this was a band, the band, my band, that was untouchable and perfect.

And then, last year, Port of Morrow came out. Early single ‘Simple Song’ augured well, but it turns out it was the only decent track, the only Shins track, as I would class it, on the album. That I am sitting here struggling to even recall any of the others – all I can remember is a kind of diffuse, generic, bland indie of the stereotypical kind that I always used the band as a counter example to in those kinds of arguments that probably dog any “indie” music fan’s musical discussions – probably says as much as needs to be said. I write this very much more in sorrow than in anger. Like a wonderful TV series that went on just one season too long (oh hai, The Wire?), if the band had stopped in 2007 we would now be left with pretty much the perfect (my perfect) back catalogue. Damn.

Jude Clarke

7. R.E.M. – Around the Sun (2004)

The thing about Around the Sun is that if you held a gun against my head or that of my nearest and dearest and demanded I whistle or sing any of the tracks on the album, I just couldn’t do it. I’d be a goner. Nothing. It’s a huge, terrifying black hole of a record, and don’t let anyone tell you that it’s just average or only pales in comparison to R.E.M.’s sparkling back catalogue – it’s not true, Around the Sun is an embarrassment to the memory of the band.

Released in 2004 it was their thirteenth (clearly unlucky in this case) album and third without drummer Bill Berry. It’s not like the band had been in freefall since Berry left, but they certainly weren’t the same. The first post-Berry release, Up, stands proudly alongside New Adventures in Hi Fi as the sound of R.E.M. pushing themselves somewhere new and interesting but things took a swift dive with the release of the anodyne Reveal, itself a fairly horrible nadir with all the forced sunny-ness as Buck, Mills and Stipe pretended that they still got on okay. But compared to Around the Sun that record sounds like fucking Murmur - heck even Peter Buck couldn’t refer to it by name in interviews.

It’s a crock from start to finish, a clueless meander round half-ideas, woeful attempts at political polemic and you’d think that they would have learned from KRS-One’s appearance on ‘Radio Song’ on Out of Time that there’s no place for rapping on an R.E.M. record. Nope, hang it! Let’s get Q-Tip in for a few rhymes on ‘The Outsiders’ and hope he doesn’t sound like a befuddled old man wondering what he’s walked into (he does). There’s a track on the album called ‘The Worst Joke Ever’, and it contains the lines: “you see there’s this cat burglar who can’t see in the dark / he lays his bets on 8 more lives, walks into a bar / slips on the 8 ball, falls on his knife / says ‘I don’t know what I’ve done but it doesn’t feel right’”. Remember when you couldn’t understand any of Michael Stipe’s lyrics? Was that just a cover for banal shite like this?

Around the Sun is special for the fact it contains R.E.M.’s single worst song, ‘Make It All Okay’, and I long for the time at the start of writing this piece when I couldn’t remember how any of these songs went. Maybe I’d blocked out the awfulness as some kind of psychological defence – now they’re fresh in the memory again. I was asked if there was anything that redeems the album; the answer is no. It is by far the worst R.E.M. album in the canon.

Andrew Hannah

As Easter marks a period of rebirth and re-evaluation, so has the first quarter of the year, with some monumentally significant returns from modern music’s most seminal artists.

The reinvention of an artist following a period of inactivity or – worse – a downturn in profile or creativity occurs so infrequently; thus is the law of diminishing returns that applies as time passes and defining records resonate an unfair advantage, holding up a benchmark for everything that comes after. Sometimes the opposite is true: there are a select few who have bounced back with a surprising response, as if the time away really did do them good or they somehow found their mojo again.

This year, My Bloody Valentine, David Bowie, Suede and The Strokes are among those that have returned with records of varying quality, some of them equalling their best work, others not so much.Given the biblical significance of today, here’s a selection of some of the best albums that not only marked a comeback for their respective creators but added a defining chapter in their artistic development.

10. Elvis Presley – From Elvis to Memphis

At the end of the sixties, Elvis Presley‘s career was hurting from the rapid production-and-release schedule around the 20+ movies he’d made in that decade, each with its own soundtrack album. He hated much of the material he was tasked to sing and by the time of 1967′s Clambake, record label executives finally realised the joke he’d become. The former king of rock ‘n’ roll was simply no longer relevant to anyone but his die-hard fans.

In 1968, a one-off TV show set out to change that. What we now know as the ‘Comeback’ special, the show (simply titled ‘Elvis’) set out to remind the world why they fell in love with the quiffed boy from Tupelo, Mississippi in the first place. Drafting in the two surviving members of Elvis’ original band (Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana) and covering some of his greatest late-’50s tracks, the special pre-figured the format of MTV’s Unplugged series by many years.

During recording, Elvis had remarked that “[I will] never sing another song that I don’t believe in, I’m never going to make another movie that I don’t believe in”.  The next record, From Elvis to Memphis, was released to capitalise on the success of the special and has been described as the one of the greatest white soul records ever made. The album’s only single ‘In The Ghetto’ is as iconic a performance as ‘Jailhouse Rock’ or ‘An American Trilogy’. Rolling Stone awarded the record five stars, noting “his fully engaged, newly energized voice finds its most logical album setting in years.”

9. Morrissey - You Are the Quarry

You Are The Quarry is not the best record by Morrissey but it is the one that pulled the former Smiths man out of a career low and placed him at the centre of an entirely new audience – one that wasn’t necessarily familiar with the hit-and-miss of his post-Smiths career up to the end of the ’90s and largely ignorant of the back-and-forth between the singer and the music industry/press throughout that decade. They knew The Smiths and that was all that mattered.

Dropped by his record label following 1997′s Maladjusted , Morrissey had retreated to the Hollywood Hills, setting up base in a house once owned by Clark Gable. Emerging after a seven year hiatus, he curated London’s annual Meltdown Festival, gave his first full-on TV interview in 17 years (to Jonathan Ross) and even managed to get the New York Dolls to reform.

The musical climate was primed to accept him again – in his absence, an entirely (new) generation had grown up with the likes of The Smiths and Joy Division as musical touchpoints, particularly in America. You Are The Quarry was his most personal record to date too. Lyrically rich, the album’s Tory-baiting lead single ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’ announced the quiffed one’s return and as as statement of intent, it even dropped the double quotes that framed the title of every album he’d released previously.

8. Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose

It took Jack White to help channel the core strength of Loretta Lynn – namely her voice – and in the process create a record that recalled a similar success, that of Cash and Rubin’s American Recordings project.

Throughout much of the ’80s and ’90s, Lynn had focused more on touring than releasing music and by the time she hooked up with the former White Stripe in 2004, it had been almost  two decades since she’d even dented the US top 20.

“I’d play tambourine on this record, if that’s it,” White said of Van Lear Rose. “I don’t care. I just want to be in the same room with her and to be able to work on this.” The lyrics used by Lynn were apparently taken from a cupboard filled with half-written material, including one song ‘Have Mercy on Me’ that was originally meant for Elvis.

Van Lear Rose was cut in twelve days on eight tracks and White’s aim was not to overthink the production, simply wanting to capture Lynn’s incredible voice in one take wherever possible. The result was Lynn’s finest long-player to date, the equal of her great singles and simply one the the most kick-ass country albums you’ll ever hear.

A trip to Austin’s infamous South By Southwest festival is not complete without experiencing a set of extreme emotions – from the disappointment of missing a set or not getting into your party of choice, to the joy of catching surprise guest performances, nabbing the free swag you actually want and the IRL hangs with online pals. Of course, it’s also not complete without seeing a mega ton of new music and ultimately that’s what we’re here for. Without a badge around our neck we explore SXSW unofficial style and manage to catch a host of incredible acts, breaking and established. So here are our top picks from last week’s rambling festivities.

Empress Of

For reasons still unknown to modern man, Wednesday’s party itinerary happens to be the most stacked day of SXSW this year. With amazing line-ups and events spanning Austin’s dusty concrete plains, we manage to take in a good mix of it all without feeling like we’ve just run a marathon without proper training (not recommended). While we down as many coconut waters as we can to avoid the impending hangover, we’re treated to a performance by Brooklyn’s Empress Of. Recently signed to Double Demin and having played their first show ever only last October, singer Lorely Rodriguez garners a sweetly earnest performance that’s captivating in such a pleasantly surprising way. Delicate harmonies looped on-the-fly dance across wailing synths and sexy guitar riffs, as the crowd sways along to her words. In any other circumstance this setup might come across as lacklustre but Lorely’s innocent charm and earthly vocals marry all of the pieces of this live set together wonderfully.

Zebra Katz

Part of our week, which was not in the slightest bit planned, includes attendance at more than a few hip-hop shows. With artists ranging from Action Bronson (with special guests Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Danny Brown, Riff Raff and Hit Boys) at the open-bar Viceland Party to the accidental amazing experience that is the Zebra Katz show at House of Blues.

Rapper Ojay Morgan (who has already toured with Azealia Banks) aka Zebra Katz and Njena Reddd Foxxx have an onstage chemistry that makes us feel like we’re on the set of some big budget music video, watching the behind the scenes magic take place. The pair literally transform the daytime, makeshift venue into their own dark and playful world of hip hop: swinging on cables, rolling on the ground, and at one point getting the entire crowd jumping and chanting “I’ma take that bitch to college, I’ma give that bitch some knowledge” from Zebra Katz’ single ‘I’ma Read’. It’s 3pm in the afternoon.

MØ

The Hype Hotel – which has less of a first-year-at-University feel this year – seems more like a modern art gallery space, except the art is the glowing (and free) Tito’s Vodka, Monster Energy drinks and the ability of otherwise self-respecting showgoers to consume aggressive amounts of Taco Bell products in one sitting.

Hype also includes free massages, an interactive photo booth, a massive light, a sound system and of course killer line-ups curated by music sites every day and night of the festival. We catch great performances by St. Lucia, MØ and !!!, all three offering equally polished and extremely magnetic sets that deepen our love affair with them. MØ almost makes us shed a tear (which we didn’t know was still possible) with her sheer uninhibited passion and stage presence.

St. Lucia

New York’s St. Lucia has packed the large venue space for a 2pm show, filling the room with a warm, magnetic energy. South African born singer, Jean-Philip Grobler and his band’s charming, polished mix of percussion shakes, pulsing synths, heartfelt falsettos and slightly worldly feel have garnered all of our attention, and we’re getting nervous; we think we’re falling in love. It’s a giddy kind of polished sound, with a love ballad quality that is just so irresistible. As Jean-Phillip claps his hands together and motions for the crowd to follow, we look around and the entire place is fixated, hands clapping above their heads and taking part in this communal lean towards the stage, just to feel that much closer. It’s a pretty magical moment.

Ryan Hemsworth

Live For The Funk are holding a party that includes free booze and Cashmere Cat, so naturally we make sure we’re there. The Norwegian producer with battle-champion beginnings is an explosive ball of energy, mixing tracks from his debut EP Mirror Miru, with current favourites that drive the crowd absolutely insane.

Ensuring the drops are huge and the vibe continues to build, Cashmere Cat warms up the crowd for a hilarious and charismatic Ryan Hemsworth, who takes the stage next. He drops new edits of his own tracks, unreleased bangers from producers-to-watch, and all kinds of on-the-fly remixes that make it feel like the roof of host venue the Joie de Vive hair salon, might blow off at any minute. Hemsworth proves once again why he’s such a star in the producer game. Names to know in bass music – everyone from LuckyMe Records labelheads, to Dubstep pioneers Skream and Mala – can be seen casually hanging out, just taking it all in.

Following the closure of the BBC’s iconic Television Centre this weekend, we thought we’d take a bleary-eyed journey down memory lane and countdown our favourite Later… with Jools Holland performances as the show prepares to move its famous round-room setup to the Maidstone studios in Kent.

10. Cat Power – The Greatest (2006)

For any repeated guest of the show, it must be hard to keep things fresh to audiences already known to you. After all, a large part of the joy of Jools is to discover new acts. But anyone who’s ever seen the constantly-brilliant and frequently-erratic Cat Power will know she has no trouble with this. Delivering a performance somewhere between Chrissie Hynde and Nico, ‘The Greatest’ has been her finest TV moment and remains indeed one of her greatest tracks to date.

9. At The Drive-In – One Armed Scissor (2000)

Relationship of Command was a raw, frantic album. It’s messy urgency speaking to a new generation of alternate music fans more than any other at the turn of the millennium and their performance on Jools Holland in 2000 solidified why. It’s completely chaotic, out of time, out of tune in parts but my god is it incredible to watch Omar Rodriguez and co excitably jump around that stage, as if it was the heart of the song’s sentiment that mattered, wraught with surreal lyrics and high octane thrills. If you weren’t already a fan, this is what made you one.

8. Sigur Ros  - Hoppípolla / Með Blóðnasir (2005)

Iceland’s Sigur Ros must have given Chris Martin and co a right old fright when they took to Jools to showcase tracks from the faultless and flawless 2005 album Takk. Here was a band wholly perfect for the kind of nature programme and movie trailer soundtracking that Coldplay were raking in the big bucks from, without evoking one to want to rip their own ears out. Sigur Ros nowadays, however, aren’t sounding so delicate…

7. Radiohead – The Bends (1995)

Before Thom Yorke learnt he could dance, he clung to microphones and guitars in leather jackets and bleached blond hair, inspiring a shift in the introspective, inwardly focused grunge hang ups of the day. The title track from their third full length album, the first to be engineered by long time producer Nigel Godrich, was abrasive, dynamic and marked a change in the band, one evident in this Late Night performance; York’s angst ridden vocals straining over intensely layered, expertly executed guitar wails. Disillusion never looked so inspirational.

6. Battles – Atlas (2007)

With their time-signatures and song structures so dynamic and complex as to warrant the otherwise ridiculous genre tag of math-rock, it was always going to be an interesting proposition to see how Battles fared live on the box. They didn’t disappoint either, with their instantly recognisable high hi-hat and pitch-bending vocals. As a commenter on Youtube so aptly puts it: “I dont do any drugs and I love this.”

From the Led Zepplin man’s reunion with his former groupie, to Kanye West‘s antithesis performance and near collapsing bridges, as the events of this year’s SXSW come to a close we reminisce about the riots, reunions and random events that have made Austin’s most famous music festival what it is.

10. Robert Plant and Pamela Des Barres reunite, 2005

Following his Keynote Speech, Led Zepplin man was giving a press conference when a voice from the back piped up “So, do you still have groupies?” before Robert Plant recognised his old friend and jumped down from the podium to give “Miss Pamela” a hug.

9. Alex Chilton Memorial Tribute Show, 2010

On the first day of SXSW 2010, just three days before he was set to make a rare live appearance with 70s icons Big Star, Alex Chilton sadly passed away. A memorial concert was swiftly arranged in it’s place and performances from The Watson Twins, M.Ward, Evan Dando and R.E.M‘s Mike Mills succeeded to do justice to the man’s legacy.

8. No Age and F-cked Up party on Lamar Pedestrian Bridge, 2008

“Yo! If anyone dies tonight, don’t tell the cops. No body. No Crime.”

Chaos at a punk music fuelled after-party? Well we never! No Age and Fucked Up brought the guerilla spirit to 2008′s event with a performance that, according to legend, almost collapsed Lamar Pedestrian bridge.

7. Kanye West’s ‘Surprise’ show at Vevo Powerstation, 2011

In a way it represented everything people lament when discussing the commercialisation of SXSW, in another way, it was a completely unforgettable performance.

6. Prince performs at Samsung’s Closing party, 2013

So this only happened yesterday, but we know Prince’s performance to 250 fans will go down in SXSW history, a) because it’s Prince and b) because his Samsung sponsored show is a leap forward in terms of the festival’s scale, ambition and attitude.

“It’s a hideous record”, Rivers Cuomo said of Pinkerton, probably one of the most famous rags-to-riches concept album stories in recent history, even the album’s creator couldn’t stomach it!

Named after the character from Puccini’s 1904 opera Madame Butterfly it was a commercial, critical and personal disaster for the band, who at the time were riding on the back of the commercial accessibility of The Blue Album. BF Pinkerton was in Weezer main main Cuomo’s mind “an asshole American sailor similar to a touring rock star” and so was “the perfect symbol for the part of myself that I am trying to come to terms with on this album.” Taking an outside almost voyeuristic view on Japanese culture, much like the opera, Pinkerton explores romantic disappointments and sexual frustrations of the westerner in the orient. Hardly the stuff of 1994′s “I’m going surfin’” aesthetic.

Time has been a pretty cruel mistress to Weezer and River’s Cuomo, their last four/five albums charting a rapid downward creative spiral but she took pity on Pinkerton and turned it into a cult classic. It is hard to remember that before the days of ‘Where’s My Sex’ Weezer actually used to have some “out there ideas”, but my god they did. Pinkerton has a song on it called ‘Pink Triangle’ for gods sake. But unlike some of the other album’s in our list today, it’s not just one song that redeems this album it’s the entire thing from ‘Tired of Sex’ through album highlight ‘El Scorcho’ through to ‘Butterfly’, just as a concept album should be appreciated I suppose. If you’ve not already found it within yourself to look past 2009′s Hurley and 2010′s Raditude you really should, you’ll find forgiveness particularly cathartic in this case.

But then you probably all new that anyway, everyone pretty much agrees that Pinkerton is one of the few albums in Weezer’s (unfortunately) growing back catalogue worth spending time with. So here we are then with our ode to the still under-rated, overlooked and much maligned, we look to pull at least one redeeming factor from the wreckage of “unsuccessful” concept albums and remind you of the ones that are often forgotten entirely.

With the 33rd annual BRIT Awards set to take place this evening (20 February), we bring you the best moments from years past that show – whatever your thoughts of some of the acts nominated – the ceremony is one always worth tuning in for.

Featuring Suede, Jarvis Cocker, Prince and more…

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10. Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood’s terrible presenting (1989)

Never working with children, animals or Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood as the popular idiom goes. Probably. Well, it would be quite deserved if this managed to find it’s way into the dictionary, given how atrocious their presenting at the last ever live-broadcast BRIT Awards. And let us tell you, it was no coincidence they decided to record and edit the whole thing first the next year.

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9. Chumbawamba throwing water over John Prescott (1998)

You may think that Chumbawamba are only known for that one song, but you’d be mistaken. They are also known as one of the many people John Prescott has had a fight with, after they poured an ice bucket of water over the politician at the ’98 BRITs. “If John Prescott has the nerve to turn up at events like the Brit Awards in a vain attempt to make Labour seem cool and trendy, then he deserves all we can throw at him,” the band later said – seemingly inventing their own system of legal justice.

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8. Freddie Mercury’s last public appearance (1990)

In a last public appearance before his death, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury accepted the ‘Outstanding Contribution to British Music’ award at the 1990 BRITs. Bearing a quiet, gaunt figure, Mercury let Brian May do all the talking, simply waving to the worried public, then unaware of his failing health. The award stands as an apt marking of the singer’s legacy.

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7. Random DJ thinking he won ‘Best Film Soundtrack’ (2000)

Sure, you could blame your mates when they pull a stunt like this on you, but we really think Brandon Block only has himself to blame for this one. Tricked by his friends into thinking he had won ‘Best Film Soundtrack’, the DJ proceeded to get on the stage, get into a fight with Ronnie Wood and get water thrown on him in the process. It’s still not known where Block had ever actually recorded a film score, let alone be nominated for this actual award…

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6. James Corden cutting off Adele (2012)

Only diamond-selling, CD-in-every-home, song-on-every-TV-show singer Adele could get away with flipping her middle finger at the camera on air after being cut off by James Corden and not cause a big moral panic. She’s still probably sold like a million albums since and we got to see Blur instead of her rambling on. Everyone wins.

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Forget to buy your loved one a present yesterday? Well, here’s some actually good Valentine’s-themed tracks that dropped yesterday that you can just pop on the stereo tonight and let all be forgiven.

Dim the lights and enjoy:

1. Usher – Go Missing

2. Justin Timberlake – Suit & Tie (Julio Bashmore remix)

3. Hudson Mohawke – Valentine’s Slowjams Chapter VI

4. Jessie Ware – Diamonds (Rihanna cover)

5. The Dream – Slow It Down

Ahh Valentine’s Day, you’ve been with us in gift shops and adverts since Christmas up and left whether we want you around or not, so to counter-act your ubiquitous sweetness and hallmark sentiments we’ve gathered some songs for the broken hearted: some to wallow in, some to revel in but all a big middle finger to the four lettered word that is love.

15. Robert Forster – Baby Stones

From the 1990 album Danger In The Past Robert Forster’s ‘Baby Stones’ is still one of the best self-assured break up songs, the lyrics standing up for their narrator just as they should: “I’m not going to sit here and let another man take my place / So go and see him, what will be will be / Every man for the rest of your life will be less than me”

14. Daughter – Still

Daughter certainly know how to write a stark, twisted love song. Taken from their forthcoming album If You Leave ‘Still’ is cutting. The cyclic rhythms, soaring atmospherics and whispered vocals transporting us to the moment you realise a relationship has all but slipped away but still you remain together.

13. Scott Walker – If You Go Away

An adaptation of the 1959 Jacques Brel song ‘Ne me quitte pas’, ‘If You Go Away’ is an old pop standard but we think Scott Walker captures its sentiment best.

12. George Michael – Careless Whisper

Boasting one of the most iconic saxophone solos in pop music here’s the other, ‘Careless Whisper’ boasts a unique place in the anti-love song canon: through sometimes (cloying) melodrama, it ultimately demands sympathy for the guilty party.

Perhaps the former Wham! man’s greatest achievement, the 1984 track is the Casablanca of eighties pop: the central metaphor of the track is overwrought but it somehow works, bringing a perspective that trumps more cerebral attempts to capture the end of a relationship. ‘Guilty feet have got no rhythm’ remains one of the greatest lines ever written and yet Michel never really had the praise he deserves as a songwriter. The abundance of impressive moments that dot Wham!’s records come to a head on ‘Careless Whisper’, which also initiated Michael’s solo career (the band would finally break up two years later, after selling a mammoth 25 million records).

11. Jens Lekman – I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You

Ahh, Jens, our favourite broken hearted Swede. If The Night Falls Over Kortedala featured song title didn’t tell you what you needed to know about this song, his distinct crooning voice and the tinkering piano keys will.

The Grammys are set to take place this evening (10 February), with the music industry’s most talented and famous (along with a few hopeful Z-list types) donning their suits and preparing their faux-modest speeches and even more forced “I am happy for you” claps. While many revel in watching the event unfold, and staying up late on Twitter to tell the world who the hell ‘Bonny Bear’ is, unsurprisingly it’s not for everyone.

It’s not a great shock that those overlooked seem not to like it all too much, but moreover, for all the endless categories announced on the night, there still seems a fair few accolades the organisers have missed out. So here’s our very own fictional award ceremony, the Best Fitties, to celebrate the most weird and wonderful parts of the music biz.

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While formerly a “mix tape” would relate to a collection of soppy tracks one compiled for a love interest when the pennies ran dry around Valentine’s time, nowadays the term – condensed to the singular phrase ‘mixtape’ – has become known more for its context in electronic/hip-hop culture. These days, mixtapes are basically an artist’s debut album. Heck, The Weeknd has already knocked up three releases of which that are better than most musicians’ entire output. And best of all, and thanks to good old Rapidshare, they’re generally free. Artists get publicity, music fans get free things – everyone wins. Oh, except the record labels, of course…

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It’s easier than ever for music fans to keep up to date and in touch with their favourite musicians. While in the past you’d sign up to a band’s fan club or subscribe to their fanzine, now you just ‘like’ them on Facebook. Online PRs must be shaking in their brogues at the thought of their singer-songwriter or bedroom producer ruining their entire well-constructed album campaign with one fell tweet. Just imagine, you spend all day organising for Rolling Stone to have an exclusive stream of an upcoming EP and then the artist in question goes and posts it on Tumblr as soon as they wake up hungover from some debauched after-party. Sometimes, however, following a musician can be great. Like Kanye West used to be before all he did was post links to the new Raf Simons jacket or Alexander Wang bag.

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Due dates mean nothing anymore, do they? The likes of Azealia et al have made delayed album waits like the most agonising pregnancy. But sometimes it’s all worth it when an unexpected release drops right in your lap(top), like waking out of a coma on Christmas Day blissfully unaware of the presents awaiting you under the tree. These past twelve months have seen expected comebacks, as well as those frustratingly overdue (yep, I’m looking at you, Kevin Shields). Oh and then there’s Death Grips…

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It’s just comedy acts like Lonely Island or Tenacious D that fill their music vids with famous faces nowadays. A moderately popular clip uploaded onto Youtube and Vimeo basically get as many viewers as BBC Three or, say, ITV2 nowadays, causing more and more “serious actors” to branch out their filmography to the (very) small screen. A particular favourite recently has been Harry Potter himself popping up in a Slow Club video, tearing up Best Fit’s very own local pub in Finsbury Park. Now, that’s glamour.

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2013 has been so good to us that we’re actually starting to feel a little on edge. After being treated to the first My Bloody Valentine album in 22 years over the weekend, we awake to news that Fleetwood Mac are coming to the UK for a long overdue arena tour. We thought we’d celebrate this news  by sharing five Fleetwood Mac cover versions you might actually find yourselves enjoying.

More information about their upcoming tour can be found here.

5. The New Pornographers – Think About Me

One of the only tracks really worth lifting from last year’s Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac, The New Pornographers take on the 1980 Tusk featured number and really make it sound like one of their own without compromising the integrity of the Christine McVie penned original. Having lied low on fans radars upon it’s release, the Canadian band weigh down the bouncy guitars with psychedelic howls without flattening, them while A.C. Newman’s smooth vocal’s prove pretty irresistible .

4. CFCF – Big Love

‘Big Love’ originally appeared on 1987′s Tango In The Night, and was in fact the first single to be taken from that record even though Lindsey Buckingham had intended to use it as part of his third solo album. The glossy finish, jangly guitars, highly stylised and slick production techniques of course made this song ripe for the picking by one certain Michael Silver, aka Canadian producer CFCF. Covered on his 2009 album Continent, ’Big Love’ is transformed into wonderfully breezy, balearic, late night disco offering. Twisting the song to fit modernity Silver manages to retain a sense of the original, the call and response keys mimicking the ”ooh/ahh” vocals of old.

3. Julia Holter – Gold Dust Woman

Famously featured on Rumours, ‘Gold Dust Woman’ was apparently recorded at 4 am after one of the band’s famous long studio nights and, according to Cath Carroll’s Never Break The Chain, just before the final take Nicks wrapped her head with a black scarf, veiling her senses to tap into something more genuine. Although Nicks herself admitted in an interview with Spin in 1997 that she wasn’t really sure what the song was about, that there was a lot of cocaine around and she fancied it gold dust. The song also resonates with after taste of a bad relationship and just trying to get through it, which is something Julia Holter captures nigh-on perfectly in her rendition for Mojo’s recent Rumours Revisited covers album. The hazy synths, delicately layered husky vocals echo that sense of being lost , the breakdown at the end just absolutely nailing the songs intended sentiment.

2. Caitlin Rose – That’s Alright

Taken from her debut album Own Side Now, released in 2010, Caitlin Rose’s version ‘That’s Alright’ is utterly arresting. The Mirage featured number was originally written in the Buckingham/Nicks days of 1974 even thought it didn’t see it’s official release until the band’s 13th studio album in 1982. With her lulling Nashville drawl Rose manages to capture the bitter honesty of a song Fleetwood Mac never played much live themselves, the gently strummed acoustic guitars carrying the songs sentiment on their back as the lyrics own up to the singer’s shortcomings but find victory through that defeat.

1. Lykke Li – Silver Springs

Undoubtedly one of Fleetwood Mac‘s (well, Nicks’) finest moments, amazingly ‘Silver Springs’ never made it onto a studio album. Controversially left off 1977′s Rumours, it was one of the many songs recorded throughout the sessions that documented the fractious inter-band relations – in ‘Silver Spring’s case: the break-up of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Timely then that it ended up as a b-side to ’Go Your Own Way’ – Buckingham’s very own kiss-off to his relationship with Nicks.

Although profusely keeping her private life as just that, tales of burned out love are something Lykke Li has pretty much built her entire career on. With Wounded Rhymes reeking of heartbreak and longing – pop noire at its finest – there was no artist better suited to cover the Nicks classic than she. The only other song really worth lifting from last year’s Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac, the Lykke Li track understands the original in a way we never quite thought possible.

Ridding the original of its smooth FM soft rock – breaking the melody down to its bare bones – Lykke recites fragile after brutally fragile verse, with each instrument used drenched in reverb, making those aching notes hang in the air that little bit longer. At the song’s peak, it’s the delivery that cuts the deepest. The regret and longing, sung with Li’s Swedish puppy dog eyes – “I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me” – is deeply effecting and, almost perversely, demands repeated plays – just so you can feel as bad as her.

Spinal Tap turned it up to 11. The Monkees were real life daydream believers. But what about the bands that never broke through their fourth wall? That were never anything more than their fictional incarnation? Bands that never existed beyond their imagined confines. Some bands, like Dr. Funke’s 100% Natural Fun Time Family Band Solution are probably best left in their imagined realm (although we’re not saying we wouldn’t absolutely love to see them live) but others, well we damn well wish we lived in a world where they existed.

10. Rage Peace from Prince Rama‘s ‘Top Ten Hits of the End of the World’

Conceived as a pseudo-compilation album, psychedelic Brooklyn three-piece Prince Rama released Top Ten Hits of The End of The World last year via Animal Collective‘s own label Paw Tracks. Tracking began with Tim Koh in Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti’s studio and was then completed and mixed with producer Scott Colburn (Animal Collective, Sun City Girls, Arcade Fire) at Gravelvoice in Seattle. The Hare Krishna community raised siblings Taraka and Nimai Larson and friend Michael Collins invented ten different pop bands that died during the apocalypse, channeling the ghosts of each one to perform the various songs across genres and stylistic eras. Yep, you read that right, we’re talking future post-apocalyptic music here. A retrospective requiem to pop music.

Now of the ten bands that went out in crashing flames of glory as the world perished around them there are bands like The Metaphsysixxx, who upon hearing the world was about to end, took all the ecstasy they had and jumped on a treadmill, running until they collapsed but our favourite has to be Rage Peace. For starters, what a name. Then there is their fictional tale of fame and demise which, according the press release, goes a little something like this.

“Rage Peace formed as a small protest band in the early 90s and before they knew it they were the Bob Dylans of a whole generation of angry youth. They became founding members of the Rage Peace movement, based on the principle of nihilism as the only true order, and wrote songs with violent messages placed in seemingly saccharine pop structures. The band was notorious for staging organized acts of violence and destruction, burning cars and sometimes buildings in the name of chaos. When the end came, their bodies were found locked inside a limousine they had set on fire. The license plate read “HEY U”.”

There are stories like that for all the bands, which you can read here, but this is our favourite for the pure rock’n'roll nihilism it embodies and more than anything, we would just love to live this world, safe in the knowledge, that if the apocalypse does come, music will live on.

9. Ming Tea from ‘Austin Powers’

Taking their name from a company in Elio Petri’s 1960 film The 10th Victim, the band made up of actor Mike Myers, The Bangles‘ Susannah Hoffs and power-pop singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet isn’t explicitly referenced within the Austin Powers trilogy. Myers formed Ming Tea after he got together with friends Hoffs and Sweet for a night of B Movies. Inevitable jam sessions followed and a few live appearances at LA’s comedy clubs convinced them that the project had legs.

It took life as a hyperbolic facet of Austin Powers’ identity and the band members were given equallly ludicrous nom de plumes (Hoffs became Gillian Shagwell, Sweet was Sid Belvedere) to compliment the main character. “Manny Stixman” (New Radicals drummer Stuart Johnson) and “Trever Aigburth” (Canadian VJ and ‘Black Velvet‘ songwriter) were added to flesh out the line-up.

It’s Sweet’s songwriting that shines through in the two songs and several instrumental pieces that saw the light of day as part of the films while Myers does a passable amalgam of a vocal pitched somewhere between Roger Daltry, Anthony Newley and Steve Marriott. Outside of the movies, they played the odd TV show; a fully-live appearance on VH-1′s Sparkle shows Ming Tea making a decent stab of being an actual band.

8. The Stains from ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains’

Marin Kanter, Diane Lane and Laura Dern unwittingly filled in the gap between punk and riot grrl when they appeared as The Stains in the 1981 Lou Adler (who produced The Mamas & The Papas and Carole King) directed film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. The production was so chaotic and turbulent, rather apt for a film about punk rock and the music business, that the ending was shot two years after the film wrapped.

The Paramount Pictures satire only saw a full release in 2008 after its cult status had reached breaking point through endless art house screenings. The film itself co-stars Sex Pistols men Paul Cook and Steve Jones, alongside Paul Simonon from The Clash while most of the music was written by Barry Ford and Rob Morton, the pseudonym of Nancy Dowd.

The Stains, comprised of brashly cynical lead singer Corinne “Third Degree” Burns (Lane, barely 15 at the start of shooting), her sister Tracy (Kanter), and cousin Jennifer (Dern, who was 13 at the time), were an overnight sensation, embodying teen rebellion in their skunk striped hair, lightening-bolt eye make-up and provokative see through shirts. Their attitude and rallying cry has probably inspired more people than we’re aware of, imagine what they could have done if they were the real deal.

7. Sonic Death Monkey from ‘High Fidelity’

It’s a classic. Anyone who loves this film, and that I am assuming is most of you, can probably see the scene play out in your head. That moment when John Cusack is burying his head in fear of how much Barry is about to crash and burn, Vince and Justin are swiping CD’s from the DJ booth while Laura looks to the stage encouragingly. “It’s my great … great pleasure to introduce … Sonic Death Monkey” he says before Jack Black walks on stage triumphantly, of course what we don’t get is Sonic Death Monkey. The band have skipped a couple of phases in their career and whilst on the verge of becoming Kathleen Turner Over Drive they play Barry Jive and The Uptown Five and famously cover Marvin Gaye.

And while we do of course really wish we could see Jack Black doing his best ‘Let’s Get It On’ thrust, what we would like to hear more than anything is their Sonic Death Monkey phase, whose immediate influences are German and whose music promises to go over the edge, to provoke a reaction.

“And if Laura’s bourgeois lawyer friends can’t take it. Fuck them. Let ‘em riot. We’re fucking Sonic Death Monkey.”

As we find ourselves over a decade into the 21st Century it is only natural people would begin to argue that all the best songs have been written already. Not that we’d necessarily agree with that of course but the likelihood of a cover version springing up does seem to have increased.

There is of course an art to a good cover song but we’re not just talking about good cover songs here, we’re talking about covers that somehow embody the idea of the song more than the original, allowing it to be the song it should have been all along. These are the ones that totally stole the show, some of which you might not even realise were covers because well, in your head, there really is no other version.

10. The Flying Burrito Brothers – Do Right Woman

Sorry Aretha, we love your version, we really do – the tenderness with which you treat the vocals and the warmth you give Chips Moman and Dan Penn‘s number but it was The Flying Burrito Brother’s 1969 album The Gilded Palace of Sin which gave birth to the version we love the most. It’s sinewy strings, soothing vocals harmonies and gently swaying country rhythms really tapping into the song’s message.

The Original

9. Ryan Adams – Wonderwall

It is nothing short of a miracle that anyone was able to take Noel Gallagher‘s words and turn them into something as subtle, poignant and heart breaking as Ryan Adams did in 2001, not to mention the fact that the ubiquity of this song would have put most people off of touching with a barge poll. Not Adams though, he delved beyond the pomposity, opened it up and let it breath with a newly found fragility. Even Noel has admitted that “I never got my head round this song until I heard Ryan Adams play and he did an amazing cover of it” going on to admit that Ryan’s version has had an affect on how he plays the song now.

The Original

8. Lemonheads – Different Drum

Originally written by The Monkees‘ Michael Nesmith in 1965 and included in the The Greenbriar Boys 1966 album Better Late Than Never! ’Different Drum’ weaves a tragically familiar tale of two lovers who are at different places in their lives, one wants to settle whilst the narrator still craves his freedom. Folk legends John Herald and his band may well be, but able to do the adolescent nature of this love story justice they are not. Thankfully it was that very nature which made it ripe for the picking, and who better to tap into that pysche than a 23-year-old Evan Dando? The Lemonheads stole this warbling bluegrass number out of its nicey-nicey home and threw distorted guitars at it until it became a veritable nineties teen anthem.

The Original

7. Björk – It’s Oh So Quiet

Everyone knows this is Björk’s song. I bet you’re picturing the famous Spike Jonze directed video in your head right now. In actual fact though Björk’s break through pop moment has it’s routes in a 1948 German song called ‘Und jetzt ist es still’ performed by Horst Winter and later, more famously, covered by Betty Hutton in 1951. For such a playful song it is a wonder our favourite iceland pop star didn’t come up with it herself.

The Original

The standard party line in relation to David Bowie is that his more recent output (and by “more recent” we really mean anything in the last twenty years) pales in comparison to the “Classic Bowie” of the 1970s where he dynamically hopped between continents, genres, haircuts and drugs and became the darling of pretty much every music fan and critic in Christendom.

The tipping point is usually seen as the fine New Romantic spawning Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) album from 1980 and subsequent albums (if they’re deemed to be critically acceptable) are usually touted as being “his best album since Scary Monsters” in reviews whether he likes it or not.

For me, to casually cut off his career short by thirty+ years is ridiculously unfair.

I got into Bowie by the back door. In the 1990s I loved Nine Inch Nails - everyone did. They took the pitiful concept you had of “guitar music” back then – hair metal, grunge rock, Madchester, Britpop – and spat them all out with wonderful disdain. They were the sound of pure unadulterated (yet heavily processed) excitement to my ears and everything they did was significantly better than everyone else.

It turned out that David Bowie had also heard The Downward Spiral and felt exactly the same but whereas I was making my own “tributes” to Trent Reznor in my bedroom at my mum’s house on my trusty Yamaha, Bowie was making his with Brian Eno in Montreux. I’d liked Bowie previously but not really got it – I knew the big hits and seen Labyrinth but that was about it – so when he started touring and collaborating with Trent Reznor my eyes suddenly opened up to a whole new world and style and I became obsessed. My hair was dyed peroxide, then orange, then let to grow out for a few weeks just to get that Man Who Fell To Earth look and I even stopped looking at sunlight for added authenticity.

Basically, everything about me is David Bowie’s fault.

Since he performed the Lords Prayer on bended knee at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert in 1992, his music has been either critically underrated, derided or completely ignored. Either that or the ghosts of all of those classic albums of the 1970s are continuously dragged up and thrown back in his beautiful funny coloured eyes. No other artist of his generation – Jagger, McCartney, Elton John, Clapton etc – has to take this sort of flak so why David? The Rolling Stones do one half-decent song in forty years that sounds a bit similar to something they’ve probably already recorded in the 60s and they’re hailed as Gods. McCartney scours the globe looking for opening and closing ceremonies to play the one song he remembers and everyone falls at his feet. Bowie made a post modern concept album about an artist murderer set to industrial drones on his 50th birthday you know dear. Everyone else can go fuck themselves.

Read on for my top ten David Bowie songs since Freddie Mercury died…

A new year dawns and with it a whole host of new releases pencilled in for the ensuing months. We’ve bashed our heads together over the Christmas break and compiled thirteen albums that we think will help define the musical landscape of 2013. Regretful omissions have been made, of course, and notable mentions should be made to the return of Foals and Beck, the eagerly awaited debut albums from Daughter, Outfit and Mikky Ekko – plus, not forgetting, the new record from the God-like Kurt Vile, Shout Out Louds and Mudhoney.

From the massively anticipated (Daft Punk, The Knife), the debut make-or breaks (Savages) and the re-inventions (Solange), here are thirteen records you’d be a fool not to sit up and take notice of.   

13. Frightened Rabbit – Pedestrian Verse
(4 February, Atlantic)

Despite being awarded our coveted Album of the Year in 2008 for the terrific Midnight Organ Fight, a bit of a law of diminishing returns has been in play for the once highly regarded Scots ever since.

2010’s follow-up, The Winter of Mixed Drinks split opinion, the band’s opting for a more optimistic and polished approach proving, frankly, a bit of a disappointment to many. September 2012 saw the release, though, of an eponymous EP which started to re-ignite our love for the band, and make us excited all over again at the prospect of this February’s new full-length, Pedestrian Verse.

Initial signs seem promising for a return to the kind of form that make this band – at their best – one of best in a series of lachrymose chroniclers of woe from North of the Border, their verses, on initial encounter, anything but pedestrian. Welcome back, Frabbits, we’ve missed you!
- Jude Clarke

12. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
(18 March, Dead Oceans)

Matthew Houck, who goes by the musical moniker of Phosphorescent, has consistently produced some of the most interesting and inspired music ever to be lazily filed under the catch-all tag of alt.country. After 2010’s laid-back classic Here’s To Taking It Easy, this time round he promises to return to the more surreal and psychedelic end of his musical palette.

Described as an “assemblage of underwater hymns”, Houck’s distinctive vocal – now raucously singing of alcohol fuelled fun times, now brokenly mourning the end of a romance – is in full effect on this brilliant collection. First single ‘Song For Zula’ sets the tone: a shimmering, echo-laden ode to the oppressive nature of love. Elsewhere on the album we witness more of Houck’s raw and personal songwriting. What better person to accompany us on a trip through the mysteries of love and life?
- Jude Clarke

11. Solange Knowles – TBC
(Expected Spring 2013 / Terrible Records)

Step aside Beyonce there’s a new Knowles in town. Well actually, she’s probably not that new to you and to the pop world she has been around in various guises since the early 2000s but whether it is right or wrong of us, we’ve only stood up and paid attention in the last 12 months. And not without renewed reason. Guided by the sturdy indie hands of Dev Hynes and Kevin Barnes her recent efforts have been nothing but iressistble. In fact ‘Losing You’ was named our seventh favourite track of 2012 for it’s funky rhythms and slick understated pop hooks whilst ‘Lovers In The Parking Lot’ had us mesmerised with its hypnotic vocals and rich production. We know we’re not alone when we say “more of the same please.”
- Lauren Down

10. Savages – TBC
(Expected 2013)

There is no official word from the band on this, in fact we’re not even sure who’ve they’ve signed to in the UK but pending any kind of announcement we feel that a 2013 full length debut is an inevitable move for Savages. Their swirling, post punk guitar driven, Joy Division indebted drones have cemented the Sound of 2013 nominated, London four-piece as one of the most exciting British bands around. The handful of singles they’ve released over the past 12 months have shown the band capable of living up to the energy and promise of their live performances so we only hope a full length can bottle that raw, taught fusion in a sharp, precise manner.
- Lauren Down

9. Caitlin Rose – The Stand-In
(25 February, Names)

Caitlin Rose’s Nashville heritage is infused in every note of her forthcoming second album. Scheduled to arrive on UK shores in February – just as the gloom of winter seems set to go on forever – Caitlin’s perky, upbeat take on country music brings with it a glorious Tennessee swagger and warmth.

Making good on the promise of 2010’s Own Side Now, on The Stand-In you can expect a poise and confidence in her carefully-crafted songs: perfectly delivered in that soaring, expressive, wise-beyond-her-years vocal. With one of its early tracks, the “epitome of modern day Americana” that is ‘No One To Call’ making the Top Ten of our Best Fit Fifty Tracks of 2012, it seems certain that the album from which it was taken will be one of 2013’s highest musical points.
 - Jude Clarke

As you get older Christmas isn’t all about sleigh bells ringing and chesnuts roasting on an open fire. Magic is no longer really found in waiting up for Santa until 3am but perhaps in stumbling home full of festive cheer at 3am. With that in mind as you scroll through our list of alternative Christmas numbers you may well notice that our favourite artists don’t necessarily subscribe to the idea of a “Merry Christmas” but that won’t stop us celebrating, even if it is to the sound of forlorn, jingling, indie gems.

10. Eels – Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

We’re not really sure what the hell the O.C montage that accompanies this video has to do with Christmas but we can’t resist a song that contains the lyrics “Baby Jesus, born to rock.”

9. The Walkmen – Holiday Road (Lyndsay Buckingham Cover)

The National Lampoon associated classic gets a festive once over courtesy of these Santa hat sporting New Yorkers.

8. The Flaming Lips - Christmas At The Zoo

Ahh that ol’ Christmas tradition of going to the zoo?! To be honest, Wayne Coyne and co have probably done stranger things than freeing Peacocks and Lama’s on Christmas Eve.

7. Belle and Sebastian – Santa Claus (The Sonics Cover)

Recorded as part of John Peel’s Christmas Session in 2002, Glasgow’s favourite alternate export Belle & Sebastian covered The Sonics classic 1964 Here Are The Sonics extra ‘Santa Claus.’

6. Sufjan Stevens – That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!

Whether he intended it or not Sufjan Steven’s releasing Christmas specials has become a bit of a tradition but this number from 2003′s Ding! Dong!: Songs for Christmas, Vol. III> has a more special place in our heart than most.

5. Elliot Smith – Kings Crossing

Haunting half sung vocals, endless flickering reverb and an overwhelming sighing sadness: would Christmas with Elliot Smith ever bring anything else?

4. The Knife – Christmas Reindeer

Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer bring you a juddering, bass heavy beast of a festive number in the spiralling, panic inducing beats of 2006′s ‘Christmas Reindeer.’ We won’t judge you if you just keep this on repeat until their new release in April.

3. Death Cab For Cutie – Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

Because we’re hopeless romantics at heart we can’t resist the dulcet tones of Ben Gibbard covering Darlene Love‘s 1963 original.

2. Tom Waits – Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis

For the title alone, Wait’s 1978 classic get’s a worthy inclusion at no.2.

1. Low – Just Like Christmas

Low’s ‘Just Like Christmas’ just has to take the no.1 spot for many reasons. Not only do the jingling bells and bouncing rhythms underline a heartbreakingly nostalgic sentiment but it formed part of perhaps the best record dedicated to the holiday season in recent memory. The Christmas EP was release by the Minnesota trio in 1999 and has been on our Christmas day playlist ever since.

Here’s a rundown of the very best in late-night TV talk-show live performances. A catch-up for all you people who go out and have fun in the evenings, or whatever you kids get up to these days…

1. Grimes on Jools

It’s a weird but wonderful thought thinking that many people stumbled in from late-night Champions League football, a tad inebriated from pints at the pub, to turn on the TV and come across this – Grimes on Jools Holland sporting a strange “mystical” eye painted upon her forehead. I think they would have stuck around to watch though, even if it was out of drunken bewilderment.

2. Solange on Fallon

What can we say? That song. That hair. That pantsuit. And that well-dressed guitarist (hey Dev Hynes!) almost stealing the show with that dance routine. Solange delivers pop brilliance in video form.

3. Father John Misty on Letterman

A surprise forerunner as performance of the year, Father John Misty’s rather camp, and wonderfully kitsche, hand-on-hip posturings and interpretive gestures show buckets of confidence from the man who once used to hide behind the drums for Fleet Foxes.

4. Los Campesinos! on Letterman

Los Campesinos!‘ lovably sardonic frontman Gareth comes off as effortlessly cool in this U.S TV debut from the Cardiff band. I mean, he’s not even trying to sing in tune or look comfortable with the whole thing. As some rather biting Youtube comments will point out…

5. Frank Ocean on SNL

In the most emotive sit-down performance since Westlife would don white suits and chase the key-change, Frank Ocean steals America’s and all of Twitter’s hearts in this stripped-back rendition of ‘Thinkin Bout You’.

6. Willis Earl Beal on Jools

Talking about being effortlessly cool and not giving a damn, we nearly forgot about Willis Earl Beal‘s showstopping performance on Jools Holland from back in April. While his studio album was, quite frankly, pretty disappointing, live he still manages to impress every single time. During this clip he channels a cross between John Coltrane and Tom Waits, but fuelled on weed rather than whiskey.

7. Carly Rae Jepsen on Fallon

Jimmy Fallon seems the best guy in TV, doesn’t he? He just about proves it here by performing the Second Best Pop Song of 2012 (big up Taylor Swift!) with Carly Rae Jepsen and The Roots.

8. The Weeknd on Jools

Okay, so this one is a bit NSFW. But screw it, hearing The Weeknd utter the words “Let me motherfuckin’ love you” at the 1.05 mark is such a beautiful moment that it’s worth any disciplinary action your boss might throw at you.

9. Rihanna on SNL

This was the moment that the internet killed television forever, as Rihanna performed ‘Diamonds’ on Saturday Night Live to a green screen background that basically ripped off the whole of Tumblr. RIP TV.

10. President Obama on Fallon

The President himself warranted four more years with this performance alone, “slow jamming the news” with Fallon’s resident house band The Roots. Whatever your thoughts are on Obama‘s regime, you must admit he’s a pretty damn slick m’effer.

We see you there. Yes you. All dried up and broke. We know what you’re doing. We can see you peering over the horizon, eyeing up the nearest cash cow. Reunion? Reissue? It doesn’t matter what you pick, we know the difference between a lovingly repackaged, remastered, rarity including, reinvigorated project and a limp last ditch attempt to milk your fans for all they’re worth. Thankfully we know there are plenty of artist around whose impact and creativity has never wained, those whose cult status has wrongly never risen about the threshold and we know their work has been restored for the love of it, for a celebration, for the next generation.

For this very reason trying to compile a list of reissues is perhaps one of the most humbling experiences a new music website can go through; the collective gaps in our knowledge revealed only to be immediately be filled with a hunger to find out more. And so it was with today’s list which, whilst we have no doubt will produce cries of “what about Interpol or Can?”, we hope will intrigue you enough to investigate further.

10. Oh Ok – The Complete Reissue

Listen: it’s an inevitable fact of pop that some bands just get lost by the wayside. And you can call them “cult artists” if you like, as you wait for the day they transcend their previously-humble existence. The day when enough broadsheet journalists and BBC4 documentary-makers cotton onto the potential cred that awaits those who unveil another bunch of obscurists’ treasures. The day when they stop being the sole preserve of a tiny but adoring group of misfits and become another fucking Top Man T-shirt design. But bear in mind that the above scenario is the exception, not the rule – most of these bands stay unknown, regardless of how incredible they are, how unique their sound or how goddamn precious every second spent listening to them can feel.

Listen: Athens, Georgia has provided the world with some of the greatest music ever paraded under the “alternative” banner – which may not mean anything any more, but it was still yet to be coined (never mind co-opted) in the early 1980s. In a world that’s witnessed the horrors of landfill indie, it’s easy to see post-punk as a disaffected British mannerism that gave way to Orange Juice first, then indiepop and C86; all disco beats, bitterly oblique rhetoric and angry white funk. But this city proved as much as any other that there was far more to the genre: the mysterious, smouldering beauty of early REM, Pylon raising holy hell from the simple art of tension and release, The B-52’s’ cartoonishly euphoric sense of otherness… if music is the product of its environment, what does this say about Athens? No, you don’t need to answer that.

Listen to Oh-OK: lesser-known contemporaries of the artists mentioned above, whose admittedly-scant studio output this vinyl-only selection collects, alongside some essential bonus material.

Listen: who do you want to impress most by listening to this record? Yourself? Your friends? Obscurist cognoscenti? Post-punk survivors? Athens hipsters you’ve never even met? Your damn turntable?

Never mind all that. It doesn’t matter.

Just fucking listen.

Will Fitzpatrick.

9. Palace – There is No One What Will Take Care Of You, Palace Brothers a.k.a. Days In The Wake, Hope, Lost Blues And Other Songs, Viva Last Blues

How entrenched can one man be in the last two decades of alternative culture? From snapping the iconic cover of Slint’s seminal Spiderland album, perhaps one of the images most strongly associated with the modern American underground, to his lead role in the critically lauded film Old Joy and an appearance in R. Kelly’s magically insane Trapped In The Closet, Will Oldham would be something of a cult figure even if he hadn’t written and recorded upwards of a dozen albums (not counting his major collaborations with artists as noteworthy as Tortoise) of the most highly acclaimed Americana of modern times.

Under various monikers, mostly varying versions of the Palace and Bonnie ‘Price’ Billy names, he’s moved, over the years, from the simplest Appalachian backwoods strumming to the borderline sex-comedy hoedowns of his recent live work via Steve Albini savagery (more on which later) and straight-out classic songwriting – I See A Darkness will probably remain in “Best Album Of All Time” lists for many years to come.

With this set of reissues we get to start from the start and understand a little more of how Oldham’s curious career evolved.

Michael James Hall

8. My Bloody Valentine - Isn’t Anything, Loveless, EPs and Rarities

One thing this reissue campaign proves is that it’s important to take each record on its own merits; the available My Bloody Valentine catalogue is small, but that doesn’t mean that each release rests on the other. There’s a sense of progress between the three records, sure, but the EP collection brings you that evolution without having to change discs. Isn’t Anything can now be accepted as an incredible stand-alone achievement, albeit one which just happened to come from the same minds who brought you Loveless.

EPs and Rarities is arguably the most important of these three reissues; so much of its material has been unavailable on any format other than crappy-quality mp3s for years, and its position as a pseudo-best of means that the listener can use it as a handy reference guide to their MBV-of-choice. The sheer volume of material on this compilation certainly bears listening to in smaller portions. Want a relentless jangle rush? Skip to the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart-inventing ‘Thorn’! Fancy ten minutes of relentlessly shifting industrial noise? Well, then you’ll love the extended take on ‘Glider’! Sure, it would’ve been nice to see the compilation-only covers of Wire (‘Map Ref. 41°N 93°W’) and Louis Armstrong (‘We Have All the Time in the World’) making an appearance (presumably licensing issues were to blame…), or Andrew Wetherall’s remix of ‘Soon’, but this compilation is still an embarrassment of riches that was entirely worth the wait.

Taken as a whole, this reissue campaign is a fantastic way to perpetuate the myth of My Bloody Valentine, and the reclusive genius of Kevin Shields, right down to the constant delaying of the release date. The CDs don’t necessarily sound better than the existing issues – which makes EPs and Rarities the only truly essential purchase of the bunch – but they certainly make for a more satisfying experience. Especially when, as obvious as it sounds, you play it fucking loud.

Alex Wisgard

7. The Small Faces – Small Faces (66) , From The Beginning, Small Faces (67), Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake

For a band whose original lineup’s recorded output only spanned four years, The Small Faces managed to leave behind an impressively rich and diverse discography. Now, the band’s Small Faces (Decca, 1966), From the Beginning, Small Faces (Immediate, 1967), and Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake are being re-released by Universal Music. When listened to in chronological order, these four albums tell the story of a band whose output remained remarkably consistent and enjoyable even as its sound changed with the times, from stomping R’n’B covers to tripped out psychedelic rock.

In reissuing these albums, Universal have given The Small Faces fan an overwhelming bounty of alternate mixes (including stereo mixes for each album), alternate versions and b-sides. The first three albums get the double-album treatment while Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake gets three discs (and includes a previously unheard track, the groovy instrumental, ‘Kamikhazi’). Each album is packaged with rare photos, and liner notes by rock journalist Mark Paytress, including interviews with McLagan and Jones, the two surviving members. Universal have done a great job with these reissues. They’re a fine way to get to know a band that maybe isn’t as well known as it should be (at least Stateside), as well as providing the definitive reissues for completists.

Tyler Boehm

6. Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle, Discover America, Clang of the Yankee Reaper

Initially, it all sounds suspiciously like badly dated lysergic whimsy; a collection of incomputable tunes for the most blown minds of its era. Allow it a while to cohere, however, and Song Cycle soon blooms into a substantial – if slightly over-egged – slice of alternative Americana, one that eschews the commonplace country/blues/folk grit in favour of psychedelically skewered showtunes, ragtime, jazz, Disney fantasy and tin pan alley songcraft, sprinkled with occasional nods towards mud-splattered roots music. All of this is coated in soothing yet eerie arrangements so rich they practically drip with butter and cream, resulting in an album that’s simultaneously nostalgic for some imaginary past and gazing wide-eyed into the future, unmistakably of its time but also almost totally free of such constraints as era and genre.

Janne Oinonen

Let’s make one thing clear from the outset: there’ll be no Mayan jokes here.

The world isn’t ending, but it is collapsing – a blisteringly chaotic process that has been thrown into very stark relief indeed this year. As the actors at the end of the world assumed their first positions we might have expected the soundtrack to take a turn for the doomy – and yet, if anything, 2012’s albums have been characterised by a lunge at the light; a self-conscious attempt to ward off disaster with a smile, or at least to precede the apocalypse with a decent party.

Happily enough, the pre-obliteration festivity vibe has yielded some delightful records. Some of the finest albums of the year can be considered the fruit of the continuing disintegration of genre boundaries, with artists increasingly adept at mining sounds for nuggets to be redeployed. The culture is fragmenting, yes, but if there is a big tent into which these records all fit, it might broadly be labelled ‘pop’ – a heading that, for all its contradictions, seems particularly vital in 2012.

Here, then, you can find the fifty albums that defined Best Fit’s year. Be quick though – if the Mayans are right, you’ve only got four days to listen.

Wintersleep – Hello Hum

There are some records you find yourself salivating over for months before their release date, and then there are some you stumble upon quite by chance. The fifth full length album from Canadian veterans Wintersleep definitely falls into the latter category, but whilst I’m not sure what draw me to Hello Hum in the first place, I’m damn sure of what made me stick around: eleven mournful, sincere, sentimental, indie tracks of the folk tinged variety that became more addictive than cigarettes for a while. Once in its arms, this is the kind of record you push to breaking point.
- Lauren Down

Cave Painting – Votive Life

A solid first effort from Brighton based Cave Painting. Bubbling beneath the anthemic hooks and rousing melodies scattered throughout Votive Life lies a rich canvas of sound with minute elements – which take a second play through or more to pick up on. Mixing fragments of more easily identifiable genres to form a woozy and unique potion, straying from the template of the done-to-death guitar-rock revival and alleviating some of the electronica pains; there’s sincere emotion muddled in with the labyrinthine noises, making for a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Immerse yourself.
- Laurence Day 

Bill Fay – Life is People

Bill Fay made a majestic and eagerly awaited return in 2012 with Life In People, a collection of new songs and cover versions pitched Fay’s voice, enriched by time, as one of the most overlooked voices in British music.
- Ray Honeybourne

Chromatics – Kill for Love

Chromatics may initially have appeared to be testing their fans’ enthusiasm upon the release of Kill for Love, delivering not just a long album but one that also featured several extremely long individual tracks. The opener, a cover of Neil Young’s ‘Into the Black’, threw another curveball for those simply expecting a collection of slick Italio-disco, the disjunct only heightened by the fact that – well – it worked. Brilliantly. This was, it turned out, a moreish, addictive treat of an album, equal parts slinky club delights and underlying melancholy. The title track was a euphoric, lysergic delight, while ‘These Streets Will Never Look The Same’ was a more downbeat, complex, yet no less pleasurable treat.  Throughout, Ruth Radelet’s darkness-tinged vocals gave the collection its distinctive character, from yearning comedown to stylish ennui . Music to dance to then, certainly, but also to recover to on the day after the big night before, all regret and shadowy apprehension for what might have been said and done. This album is more than worth the hour and half of your time that it demands.
- Jude Clarke

WHY? – Mumps, etc

During the four year interval between the recordings of WHY?’s last two LPs and this new album, the aptly-named Mumps,etc, band member and chief confessionalist Yoni Wolf was struck down with several bouts of sicknesses, including, as you might gather from the album’s very title, the mumps. The resulting record is an all-encompassing ode, lament and requiem to everything from life, love, sex, death and those little things that crop up in between. Littered everywhere within the album’s entirety are songs of ageing and illness, from the aforementioned opener to ‘Kevin’s Cancer’ and ‘Strawberries’, the latter a touching mourning for Yoni’s own grandmother.

At the centre of it all, though, is Yoni’s own mortality, as he pushes past thirty and holds a magnifying glass up to his own lfe. The record isn’t the first of the group’s back-catalogue to address ailing health, in just the name alone of 2008’s Alopecia comes the lamenting of his receding locks. But this recent offering is the first where it all takes centre-stage. That isn’t to say it’s a record lacking in humour, a focal point once again is Yoni’s signature sardonic verse, making light on the grave and providing one of the wittiest records of the year once again.
- Luke Morgan Britton

Sleep Party People – We Were Drifting on a Sad Song

Chad Valley – Young Hunger

After a series of well-received EPs, Chad Valley‘s first album proper seems less like a debut that you’d normally expect. Just taking a single glance at the tracklisting will reveal a whole host of collaborators amongst the record’s credits. There’s so many cameos on the album that the tracklist begins to appear like a mathematical worksheet, with x signs galore through the linear sleeve.

Where it works best are the tracks where the collaborators connect the dots between Hugo Manuel’s own harmonies and their own, as is on lead single ‘Fall 4 U’, the unashamedly Spice Girls-aping ‘My Girl’ (featuring Fixers’ Jack Goldstein) and the El Perro Del Mar-featuring ‘Evening Surrender’. The strength of the record, however, rests with Chad Valley’s own vocals and his ability to craft masterful pieces of electro-pop goodness.
- Luke Morgan Britton

Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan

Swing Lo Magellan’s namesake, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was allegedly the first man to sail round the entire world (well, he popped his clogs a little short of the finish line, but we’ll let him off). David Longstreth is at the helm here, propelled forward by fidgeting, unstable melodies that somehow sound entirely natural. Longstreth is such a dedicated songsmith that you just have to step back in sheer awe and hear every single harmony transform into colour. Dirty Projectors have created an album that is every bit as original as its predecessors, one that is also extremely accessible.
- El Hunt

Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man

Such was the focus upon the aesthetics of Natasha Khan’s third album that the music itself was forced into a supporting role: a terrible fate for a collection so consistently impressive. Sidestepping slightly from the fantasy environs and Grimm fairy tales of her earlier work in favour of a more personal lean, The Haunted Man still presents a glimpse into another place, where the moon hangs low and shadows dance upon snowy fields. These are pop songs that strive to move, whether through ‘Laura’’s sparing balladry or the twitching off-beat of ‘Oh Yeah’, from an album that reaffirms Bat For Lashes’ central role a step apart.
- Christian Cottingham

Django Django – Django Django

Wayne Coyne gets into the festive spirit.

It’s that time of year again: the time when we can eat mince pies without a shred of remorse, the time for garish reindeer knits and a time for peace on Earth and goodwill to all mankind. Or, well, y’know, getting wrecked with your Nana and a bottle of Tesco Finest Sherry. But more than that, more than all the tacky flashing lights and neon Santas, it’s a time we can properly enjoy classic Christmas crackers like ‘Mistletoe & Wine’, ‘Santa Baby’ and that one song by Slade without (or with, whatever) getting awkward looks. Yes, this festive period is as much about the music as much as it is about turkey and sprouts.

We’ve heard a spectacular cornucopia of sonic treats this year, with 2012 shaping up as one of the best years for music in recent memory. This Christmas won’t break the streak, and as Sufjan Stevens prepares his annual package of Christmas delights, here are our highlights to make sure that these Christmas nights are not so silent.

Dan Croll - Just Like Christmas

Sufjan Stevens – Christmas Unicorn

Team Me – Sixteen Steps

The Civil Wars – I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

The Killers– I Feel It In My Bones

fun. – Sleigh Ride

Glasvegas – No Her, No Hymn

Grimes – Christmas Song

The Shins – Wonderful Christmastime

SEXBEAT Christmas records sampler

Calexico – Green Grows The Holly

Hey Rosetta! – Carry Me Home

And just for good measure, here’s another one from Sufjan.

 

Fresh from releasing his excellent debut record Battery through Matthew Herbert‘s Accidental Records, an album described recently by The Line of Best Fit as “a meandering collage of old school hip-hop and floor-shaking electronics, equipped with a twisted pop coating,” we’re set to take a deeper look into the musical musings of Rowdy Superstar today. His album in a melting pot of eclectic influences and stylistic fusions, so we caught up with the grime-pop maestro and Atari Teenage Riot member to find out exactly which musical path he trod to have been able to create something as masterful as Battery.

Prince – Kiss

“Everything about this changed me for LIFE. I was inspired by the way it sounded, the way it looked and what it meant to sound and look like that at the time that he did. It was confidence and raw attitude. To get older and find out that he played and produced everything on most of his stuff I developed a huge respect and admiration for him.”

Patrick Wolf - Bloodbeat

“I remember when I first found Patrick’s debut Lycanthropy in HMV, I had no idea what to expect but I bought it anyway. ‘Bloodbeat’ ended up being one of my favourites. The DIY electronics, the string arrangements, the tales and stories in his lyrics and his voice felt like a story book tape I had turned into an album of music. Then a few years later I got a message on Myspace from him saying he loved my demos. He then got me my first gig which where we met and became close friends. He later invited me to duet with him on ‘Bloodbeat’ live at Latitude Festival 2010.”

Dennis Brown – Cheater

“Some of my earliest music memories lay in Reggae music. My mum was a big fan of Dennis Brown so every weekend this would be on heavy rotation. She would sing it out at the top of her voice.”

Public Enemy – Fight the Power

“This song was the soundtrack to the opening scene of the Spike Lee film ‘Do the Right Thing’ which featured Rosy Perez doing a dance solo. I was really young the first time I saw that scene and I don’t think I understood the film so much until I got older, but for some that image of her stuck in my mind, her energy and attitude, the way she expressed herself. I just remember thinking she was strong and free and I felt like that’s what hip hop was all about.”

Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U

“10 years later and it still sounds new to me. It’s big, bold, music that I had never heard before and felt like I could connect to.”

Radiohead – Idiotique

“Just because it’s perfect to me. It just felt so different to anything I had heard before at that point having grown up on R&B, Thom Yorke’s voice had soul in a different way to what I was used to. Lyrical and sonically it just takes me to another world every time I hear it. Building and building with layers and noises.”

Janet Jackson – If

“I think this was a good moment where Hip Hop, Pop, Dance, Funk and Rock were married together to make a good pop song. I remember one night me and my sister stayed up the whole night learning all the choreography from the Velvet Rope Tour. Still like listening to this.”

Bobby Brown – Don’t Be Cruel

“The first album I ever bought. I remember the first time I heard the bells in the beginning, I listened to every sound over and over again on my walkman.”

Aaliyah – Rock the Boat

“Still feels like the perfect R&B production. Whenever I get new monitors or headphones this is the first song I test on them. The space in all of the music allows for you to step inside the song as it washes over you and wraps around. Everything just sits in its place and feels effortless.”

Antony and the Johnsons – Hope There’s Someone

“I remember I was watching Jools Holland and Antony started to play and then as soon as he sung the first line we froze and watched the whole song and I got goose pimples. I don’t think I had paid that much attention to something on TV since a Michael Jackson video premiere. Every time I listen to the album version I still get that feeling. Its a beautiful love song to a love to come.”

Rowdy Superstar’s debut album Battery is available to hear in its entirety here, and to purchase through Accidental Records here. He’ll also be performing at a special album launch party on 12 December at The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington. 

Set Times
20:00 – 21:00 – MARSH MELLO (NTS).
21:00 – 22:00 – RAISA K (Micachu and the Shapes)
22:00 – 22:45 – ROWDY SUPERSTAR
22:45 – 00:00 – I.R.O.K (dj set)

Sticking to last year’s guns we’re not going to be so trite as to rehearse the old argument about iTunes having killed the album, but we can’t ignore the fact that the way we listen to music today is almost unidentifiable to the way in which we listened but just a few years ago. Single sales might be collapsing but with mp3 blogs going from strength to strength, the cult of the DJ enjoying a continued resurgence and the endless stock of individual remixes that have dominated our pages, the stock of the individual track is as strong as ever.

Whilst some of the greatest albums of the year have struggled to hold our collective attention, some of our favourite artists have been honing the art of the discrete track to perfection, whilst a whole handful of newcomers have offered up the most addictive, moreish songs we’ve ever heard. And whether you believe the cult of the new has turned us all into consumers with the attention span of a goldfish or not, quite frankly, makes no difference, because for us this is what 2012 was made of, in all its ephemeral and enduring beauty.

Check out the full list of tracks via the Soundcloud player below – all grouped together into one handy playlist.

Wolf Alice – Leaving You

London based newcomers Wolf Alice more than deliver with ‘Leaving You’.  A track that possesses that rare but oh so perfect blend of elation and forlorn sentiments: wrapping up melancholic lyrics in warm, breathy vocals and Americana inspired sonics with a twist.
- Lauren Down 

The Magnetic Fields – Quick!

Taken from this years Love At The Bottom of the Sea, ‘Quick!’ is another example of Stephen Merritt’s sharp lyricism, the uplifting bass-heavy synths and talk of sarcastic sharks saving phrases like “you better think of something quick! / Before I don’t love you know more” from crushing you emotionally.
- Lauren Down

Taken By Trees – Dreams

A stand-out moment from one of the year’s most beautiful records, Taken By Trees’ third album Other Worlds immersed itself in full on tropicalia: heaven sent melodies, soothing pedal steel guitar and oceanic waves of synth flirting gently over a dub backdrop – all blending effortlessly to recount Bergsman’s time in Hawaii.
- Rich Thane

Dinosaur Jr. – Rude

Lifted from this year’s excellent I Bet On Sky album, ‘Rude’ was perhaps the surprise stand-out on a release that elsewhere (reassuringly) lacked innovation from the indie-rock veterans.  Infectious, warm-toned and almost wholly lacking in bluster, this was as close to a “perky folk tune” as we are likely to ever hear from Dinosaur Jr. An upbeat, short and to-the-point, delight.
- Jude Clarke

John Talabot – Destiny

An album with its origins aimed directly towards the dancefloor, John Talabot’s fin was undoubtedly one of the most satisfying electro releases of the year. ‘Destiny’ – a song co-produced with fellow Spanish DJ Pional – is just one of many highlights on a record that hits hard at the jugular and never lets up. Irresistible and captivating from the off, a future club classic if ever there was one.
- Rich Thane

Angel Haze

To make the comparison that Angel Haze is another Azealia Banks is bordering on the ludicrous. Such a statement is made by someone only listening to verses and choruses and completely missing the lyrics, heart anger that pierces your flesh and digs in like a needle with every line she drops. You can feel the needle going in, and then the immediate effects of Angel Haze’s lyrical drug hitting your bloodstream. It’s a tangible feeling, a connectedness to her prowess. The way she arranges her words and flips her tongue, to her sound that’s meant to be nothing more than a simple backdrop for choreographed freestyles made into song, and of course, her story. Angel Haze is raw and admits she’s not perfect.. She’s not a pro…yet, but knows she possesses a talent that many MC’s can only dream about.

With her ferocious quick-witted rhymes about the gritty circumstances surrounding a life not so uncommon, Angel Haze makes a case for her place at the winner’s circle every time she drops a new track. Having recently signed to Universal and preparing for a European headlining tour, she’s still without a doubt ‘one to watch’ in 2013, and she’s only just getting started.
- Andriana Albert

The Barr Brothers

There have been a couple of sibling projects on our playlists this year, most notably that of Montreal based four piece formed by Andrew and Brad Barr. Beginning their musical journey in the improv trio The Slip, it was upon meeting harpist Sarah Page and keys man Andres Vial that the four became The Barr Brothers. Their debut, self-titled, kickstarter style funded LP was released last year and ashamedly flew well under our radar. Indie folk at its finest, the album was recorded in a make-shift studio built from scratch in a converted boiler room in the basement of a building at the foot of Mount Royal before being released by Secret City Records.

We finally stood up and paid attention at this year’s Iceland Airwaves festival, when the band recorded a session for us. We were utterly blown away by their poetic lyrics and the care that seems to have gone into every guitar strum and percussive clap, giving us chills to rival the Icelandic winds. On the surface their beautiful, enveloping harmonies appeal through their simplicity but when you really listen an entirely different, unbelievably intricate world is revealed in which every single element has it’s own space to be appreciated. The bluesy, southern soul elements meld with that classic Americana sound to produce something that is as familiar as it is exciting and new.
- Lauren Down 

MØ

After a strong 2011, there’s been a distinct lack of innovative and genuinely exciting new pop music to emerge from Denmark these past 12 months. It’s with open arms then that we welcome MØ (Karen Marie Ørsted), who debuted with the horn drenched skank-a-thon  ’Pilgrim’ just a few months back and, after the usual A&R bun fighting, signed with Sony across Scandinavian territories and Chess Club here in the UK.

Lazy references to the ‘Danish Grimes‘ aside,  the reception to Ørsted’s fluid genre-defying grooves has been nothing short of bewildering, but it’s with her live performance that the young Copenhagen based artist really shines. Possessing an energy so embracing and down right ballsy, her on-stage persona is pure and filled with knife edge drama that doesn’t let up for one second. And of course, it helps that her songs are just as impressive. Mixing a dizzying amount of influences and reference points (Wu-Tang Clan to Fever Ray, Santigold to Lykke Li),  Ørsted manages to emerge sounding unique and completely in control of her own world – a world that we very much want to be a part of.

Big things await.
- Rich Thane

Ahh 2012 - the year the world was supposedly going end, the year scientists discovered the ‘God Particle’, the year we were all swept up in national pride while everything else was swept under the rug, the year in which nothing was private but everything was privatised - you’ve been quite something.

Inside our smaller musical bubble, well, you’ve been quite something too: we’ve fallen in love with R&B again, watched as Universal swallows EMI, let Scandinavian music burrow even closer to our hearts and even launched our very own signature record label. But now, with mince pies filling supermarket shelves and Christmas adverts flooding our TV screens, we find ourselves looking forward to what awaits us in 2013, and boy would it be a massive shame if the Mayans were right.

Our editorial staff have combined forces like the Power Rangers doing a pub quiz to settle on a definitive list of singers, producers, bands and musical trends we think you should be keeping a firm eye on over the next 12 months. We’ll be bringing you three new crushes over seven days, totalling in twenty one new and emerging artists. Some you will no doubt be familiar with and hopefully, there’ll be a few new discoveries along the way too.

The Categories

Part 1 > The Boys
Part 2 > The Girls
Part 3 > The Bands
Part 4 > The Duos
Part 5 > Scandinavia
Part 6 > Folk Innovators
Part 7 > The Game Changers

Returning to Camber Sands was always going to be an interesting proposition for the ever expanding, sometimes stumbling, always musically compelling ATP brand.

The relative luxury of the Butlin’s Minehead site would have to be cast from the minds of the fans with as heavy a dose of experimental racket as was humanly possible. In this sense, and in several others we’ll get to in a moment, ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas, curated by Our Glorious Leader Steve Albini and his (equally glorious)buddies Bob and Todd of Shellac, was an outstanding success of which we bring you but a few highlights.

1. STNNNG

Almost entirely unknown in the UK, Minneapolis’ STNNNG took early Friday evening by the neck, held it’s squirming body against the wall then screamed into it’s eyes until it begged for more. If you don’t fancy Bill Hicks fronting The Jesus Lizard then please see a psychiatrist. If you do? Get involved. STNNNG are a band that have a short fuse and are primed to explode with their fourth album due early next year. From the tracks debuted here it’s hard to think of a band of this type with this magnitude of potential since At The Drive-In. Yes – they’re that good. It’s obligatory to go from blinkered ignorance to blind worship in the space of a single hour at ATP – this time around this was the band for the job.

2. Future of the Left

Having recently been at some small risk of being perceived as ‘stalwarts’ of the UK alt-rock scene, Andy Falkous’ post-McLusky band is now three albums in and after a few line-up shifts they’ve hit their full stride. Jesus Christ is that stride magnificent. On an otherwise relatively subdued Sunday afternoon FOTL erupt with force, fury, humour and above all else outstanding tunes. Their show-stealing stage deconstruction at the set’s close is a cheeky and joyous rampage – just like the band’s most recent release The Fight Against Common Sense. The double-tap treat of McLusky’s ‘To Hell With Good Intentions’ and ‘Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues’ didn’t detract from the fun either.

3. Mono

No-one wants to come away from an ATP without being swept up in some epic post-rock. This service was provided more than ably by the ever-exhilarating Mono in the headline slot on Friday night. Drawing largely from their most recent and least abrasive album For My Parents the squall of sound that lifted the audience to the next level was nonetheless overwhelming. It seems to be an appropriate response to just stand there with tears rolling down your cheeks as the Japanese legends hit yet another arcing crescendo – it’s hard to disagree.

4. Black T-Shirt Bands*

Workmanlike, often North American, serious, and indebted to Shellac in several ways are the black t-shirt bands that took over the stages this year. From the terrific Pinebender through to the storming Arcwelder via the impossibly tuneful and powerful Bottmless Pit it all just goes to show how bands with little concern for image or ephemera can create some of the most emotive and connected musical moments you could hope for. This isn’t to say they lack showmanship either – the ultimate black t shirt band Shellac themselves proved that conclusively in their festival closing set on Sunday night that was ticklingly playful as well as being immensely well-received.

5. Nina Nastasia‘s ‘That Is All There Is’

During a shambolic and entirely endearing set on Sunday Nastasia engaged the crowd with tales of eaten twinkies and disgusting pharmaceutical devices. Aside from that she also played some astounding songs including this, the very definition of disappointment, crushed dreams, romantic disappointment and, finally, stoicism. It’s the kind of song that chills you then wraps you in a blanket and lets you know you’ll be ok. See also – Kim Deal playing ‘Gigantic’ during her solo set. THAT was a bit special.**

Now limiting the highlights list to five doesn’t allow for a celebration of the full-throated might of Uzeda, the punishing, delicious loudness of Neurosis or the proto Riot Grrrl beauty-pop of Scrawl. Suffice to say that musically it was one of the best ATPs in recent memory.

Nor does it allow us the opposing luxury to observe that the dreadful facilities – bars without drinks, vending machines without snacks, toilets without locks, two keys between 6 people, beds without duvets, chalets without showers, one solitary vegetarian option, – proved testing for many BUT if you were to take the logical path and just fill your time with generally excellent bands handpicked from all over the world for your listening pleasure and bright morning beach walks you’d have been hard pressed to find much to complain about when it came down to it.

*They don’t ALL wear black t-shirts. It just feels like they do.

** And as for the atmosphere? Fairly faultless – smiling faces on the faces of both attendees and organisers and band members reached Cheshire cat levels throughout.

Wild Belle

The Chicago born, Brooklyn based sibling duo started making waves at SXSW this year as word of their slinking retro rhythms spread thick and fast on the sweltering ground. A hybrid breed of pop, psych, reggae and R&B – Natalie and Elliot Bergman’s output to date has the capacity to be original in its revivalism. Yes it does have hints of Saint Etienne and rootsy jazz stalwarts, the influences of Miles Davis, Cold Train and a lot of Studio 1 artists shining though, but what it smacks of most is Wild Belle, which is a pretty rare thing.

Coming together whilst Natalie was recording vocals in a Michigan studio for her brother’s Afrobeat band Nomo, the pair’s aesthetic dynamics just seemed to click, as they realised they heightened each others ideas. And when a demo version of ‘Keep You’ was enough to make everyone fall head over heels they promptly realised they were onto a good thing. With rich, dreamy vocals that wrap themselves around laid back ska piano keys and saxophone wails we completely understand why. It’s just so effortlessly irresistible.

Their debut album Isles is set for release on 18 March and we can’t wait.
- Lauren Down

Wolf Alice

As goals go “getting our shit together so we could actually play the music we’ve always wanted to play” is a humble one, and whilst it may seem like an easy thing to do, life is often never that simple. Thank God then that North London’s Wolf Alice count this as one of their great successes this year. Why are we so happy about that you might ask? Just one spin of recent track ‘Leaving You’ will give you your answer.

Having begun their musical journey on a folk music kick indebted to Willy Mason, Ellie Rowsell and Joff soon met Joel Amey, whose pysch-rock tendencies transformed the duo into a three-piece, completing the line-up we’re a little bit in love with today. Blending warm, sentimental lyrics with an effortless cool we can’t help but feel we’re witnessing the beginnings of a very special band. They would seem to agree: “We are all getting better at writing songs together as a group because we understand each others methods better. I’m actually starting to like these guys!”

There are no immediate plans to record an album, at least until after their next single, due out in February 2013, is released. They are however playing our New Years Eve party at The Social this year (tickets are available here) and you should definitely come along because, in the band’s own words “we practice now so we’re actually quite good.”
- Lauren Down

Syron

To say that the team behind Black Butter Records have had a fairly good 2012 would be somewhat of an understatement. For the past twelve months the London based dance label have been relentless in their output – releasing track after track from some of the most consistently brilliant UK talent around. Stay+, Rudimental, Lulu James, Kidnap Kid all valued massively here at Best Fit, but it’s 19 year old Daisy ‘Syron‘ Russell that has won over our hearts with her sublime take on 90s inspired house music.

Initially appearing as a guest vocalist on Rudimental’s ‘Spoons’ back in February, Syron came crashing onto our radar in September with ‘Breaking’: a bonafide classic if ever we heard one. Four minutes of sheer arms aloft bliss, Russell’s bittersweet vocals – all soulful and flighty – pinned against an infectious backbeat of  nineties cool. A mainstay on the Best Fit office stereo since the very day it burst through our inbox, it was the eventual accompanying video that cemented our crush. Although filmed against a South East London backdrop, flanked by a Rotweiler and a seemingly hard edged look – repeated plays revealed a softer side to Russell: all subtle features, puppy dog eyes and cute knowing smile.

With her eyes firmly set on the dancefloor, ‘Breaking’ was closely followed by ‘Mainline’ – a collaboration between Syron and German producer Tensnake. The track saw the pair dive headfirst into the early spirit of Chicago House and somehow ended up sounding like the bastard offspring of ‘Vogue’ era Madonna and Inner City circa ‘Good Life’. One of the most outwardly ‘fun’ releases of the year, it could quite easily have been a long lost Stock Aitken Waterman out take; lost to the cutting room floor only to be dusted down 25 years down the line.

With her output so far a shameless nod to the golden era of commercial dance music, our attention now firmly pointed towards the new year which will see the release of a new single and debut album. A ready made pop star for the Rinse FM generation, there’s no doubt Syron is destined for great things over the next twelve months.
- Rich Thane

MIKKY EKKO

Within seconds of being exposed to Louisiana-born, Deep South-raised John Stephen Sudduth’s vocals, it’s plain to see where his musical roots are planted. Although playing music since the age of 7, it was in Nashville, Tennessee where Sudduth would eventually carve out his early career, odd-jobbing in various bands. It wasn’t until 2010 that Mikky Ekko was born: the swampy ‘Who Are You, Really?’ – a debut single drenched in southern delta groove – eventually catching the attention of hip-hop producer Clams Casino, whose credits include A$AP Rocky, Lil B and The Weeknd. The two quickly became firm friends, so much so that Clams invited Mikky to NYC so the two of them could collaborate, and it’s the resulting track – ‘Pull Me Down’ – that instantly placed the young (virtually unknown) singer onto the industry radar.

No doubt one of the most emotionally moving vocal performances of 2012, the juxtaposition of Ekko’s yearning lyrics together with Clams Casino’s beats and atmospheric production ignited the blog world with absolute fervour. For once, it was more than justified. ‘Pull Me Down’ is sheer perfection; Ekko’s front and centre vocals are jaw dropping in their dexterity whilst his lyrical prowess is filled with lovelorn angst. Indeed, said angst made him the perfect candidate to pair with Rihanna on her recent Apologetic album, in which Ekko provides one of the few memorable moments on the future single ‘Stay’.

Mikky Ekko’s debut album is due for release in 2013 and will feature collaborations with Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence and the Machine), Elof (Niki and the Dove), John Hill (M.I.A, Santigold), Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and, of course, Clams Casino.
- Rich Thane

Kitsuné Maison, one of Paris’s most revered labels, releases a brand new compilation record this week. Not only that, but they’re also celebrating their tenth anniversary. Ten years young, ay? How the time flies. As such, they’ve decided to make their latest mix, entitled Kitsuné Maison Compilation 14 – 10th Anniversary Edition, something of a celebration. Including remixes from Citizens!, a new Two Door Cinema Club song, (incidentally the first remix by label founder Gildas Loaec himself) and Friends as well as tracks from Is Tropical and Lorenz Rhode featuring Jamie Lidell, the compilation looks to the past and the future as it marks ten years of presenting its favourite sounds to the world.

Also featuring on the album is the track ‘Maybe You’ by Sweden’s Saint Lou Lou, who kindly offered to put the following playlist together so that we could hear how Saint Lou Lou’s dream compilation would sound. Describing it as “an eclectic mix of our favourite music. Some of the songs have been with us since childhood, some are new found loves,” we find out more about what inspires Saint Lou Lou’s sought after sound.

Saint Lou Lou will support El Perro Del Mar at London’s Village Underground on 12 November. Kitsuné Maison Compilation 14 – 10th Anniversary Edition.

Saint Lou Lou – Maybe You

The XX – Angels

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Baby

Arthur Russell – That’s Us/Wild Combination

Riz Ortolani – Love With Fun

This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren

Minnie Riperton – Inside My Love

PJ Harvey – The Glorious Land

Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

Prefab Sprout – Bonny

Indie music’s original elusive troubadour, Jeff Mangum turns 42 years old today (24 October). To celebrate the day, we’ve put together a list of ten things from the Neutral Milk Hotel frontman that we should be celebrating on this very occasion.

1. That album and that album cover

Any of those nostalgic and retrospective ‘Albums You Should Listen To Before You Die’ lists that you tend to get every single year in certain music magazines, and make you think the writers know something that’s wrong with you that you don’t, will sure to feature In The Aeroplane Over The Sea somewhere within. A masterpiece of emotive surrealism, it veers from prophecy to nervous breakdown on virtually every turn. And it’s only complimented moreover by an album cover that’s definitely tattooed on the scrawny arms of many up and down the country.

2. Giving us one of the greatest promo shots ever

When you manage a band like Neutral Milk Hotel, you only really get a few chances to get them all in one place and willing to pose for new press pics. So when you do have a photographer at hand, you know this is your one shot to get it perfect, otherwise you’ll end up with something close to either the infamous Razorlight disaster or the recent BEAK> monstrosity.  Luckily, they got it just about right with this one; appearing somewhere between city centre preachers and the kind of blokes you might find under a damp bridge.

3. Being a muse to the stars

Rather than your ordinary old press snippets, the reverse sleeve of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea instead features selected quotes from the likes of Arcade Fire and Franz Ferdinand on how the record has influenced their bands. Even Tyler the Creator revealed he’s a fan of the group after hearing this admittedly pretty atrocious mash-up. Yet, we can’t imagine where to start trying to explain the photo above.

4. Rocking up to Occupy Wall Street and playing an impromptu set

I know what you’re thinking, the worst person at a political rally, march or protest is always the dude who came equipped with an acoustic guitar, proceeding to serenade all with dreadfully sincere John Lennon or indeed Neutral Milk Hotel covers. But when Jeff Mangum shows up on the off chance for an entire set comprising of such classics as ‘Holland, 1945′ and ‘Two-Headed Boy’, you know you’re in for the best campfire singalong of your life.

5. Making a half-hour one-song album comprising of Bulgarian folk music

Although his post-NMH offerings have been patchy, a sublime highlight came in 2001 with the release of this rather bizarre record. Orange Twin Field Works: Volume 1 was recorded over three days at Koprivshtitsa Festival in the Sredna Gora Mountains of Bulgaria and comprises of a majestic interweaving of Balkan folk music and noisy drones. Sadly, however, we’ve yet to hear a Volume 2.

6. Providing a faux-pas pitfall of a name

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? I think I once allowed an ex-girlfriend to refer to the NMH frontman as ‘Jeff Magnum’ for the entirety of our first date before correcting her coyly. It’s an unfortunate faux-pas and is destined for us all at one point or another.

7. The capability of turning Radio 3 presenters into swooning fanboys

There are only a few musicians that could urge plum-voiced late-night radio hosts to intersperse an evening of classical and orchestral music with four minutes of unrelenting noise-rock, or “a bloody racket” as many of the listeners probably referred to it when they wrote in to complain. Jeff Mangum is one of them.

8. Ability to turn normal fans into conspiracy theorists at the slightest of whims

In what is already being dubbed ‘Mangum-Gate’, certain corners of the internet (we’re guessing populated by people with too much time on their hands and under the influence of too little sleep) have run rife with conspiracy theories that, wait for it, the singer invented a time machine, went back to the 1940s and saved Anne Frank from being killed. Oh, and they also suggest he brought her up as his sister, before she changed her name and married him years later. Of course, as you do.

9. Bestowing upon us a pretty awesome fancy dress costume idea

Take note, people. If you’re going to an alt fancy dress party this Halloween, you’re certain to win the can of Red Stripe – or whatever else is awarded as a prize to the ‘Best Dressed’ winners – with this outfit. Oh and there’s also room for two or more to get involved, so there’s safety in numbers when you have to stumble onto a night bus at the end of the evening.

10. Last of all, ‘Ghost’…

Arguably Mangum’s finest moment of all comes in ‘Ghost’, one of the final tracks of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, as brass instrumentation and manic thoughts collide in a way that would be the surefire highlight of any musician’s career had they not created as many deserving competitors as Mangum’s has.

Jeff Mangum turns 42 years old today (24 October). Happy birthday Jeff.

Today (21 October) marks the nine year anniversary of the death of Elliott Smith. To pay tribute, we take a look back at nine selected highlights from the great life of the troubled icon.

1. Performing ‘Miss Misery’ in front of half of Hollywood at the Oscars

Never one comfortable in large groups of people, Smith was unexpectedly thrown onto the largest stage of his career when he was asked to play the 1998 Academy Awards. Performing ‘Miss Misery’, taken from the soundtrack of fellow Portland resident Gus Van Sant’s film Good Will Hunting, the singer cut a bewildering figure to many unaware of his talents prior; uncomfortably dressed in an ill-fitting all-white suit but delivering a strikingly composed, if not typically emotive, rendition of the song that sadly didn’t win Smith a golden statue to place upon his mantelpiece.

2. Writing a song that should have reached Number 1 instead of Gotye

It’s a sad reality that whenever somebody spots you on a tube listening to this classic cut from the Elliott Smith back-catalogue that they’ll instantly assume you’re listening to a soppy acoustic cover of the similarly-named hit from Gotye by some Radio One live lounge fodder. Any justice in this cruel world would result in this getting to the top of the charts posthumously.

3. His classification of his own music

“‘Depressing’ isn’t a word I would use to describe my music. But there is some sadness in it — there has to be, so that the happiness in it will matter.”

Just a glance at the Last.Fm tags of Elliott’s name will reveal such synonyms akin to a teenager’s thesaurus. But the above quote from Smith himself shows how his music truly outstretches any “sadcore” pigeonholing.

4. Satirising lazy music journalism while interviewing Dinosaur Jr.‘s Lou Barlow

Being given some stock questions to ask one of his musical heroes, Elliott’s utter deadpan in this video interview must bring great shame and guilt to any music journo who has ever posed the question “So who would you say are your main influences?”

5. Perfectly encapsulating those rare moments of pure ecstasy

“Sunshine been keeping me up for days
There is no night time, it’s only a passing phase
And I feel pretty, pretty enough for you
I felt so ugly before
I didn’t know what to do.”

- ‘Pretty (Ugly Before)’

Whether it be about love, narcotics or anything else that can suddenly omit all the bad things about the world from your periphery, Smith had a rare skill in concisely capturing these occasions of overwhelming highs – as seen in the lyrics to ‘Pretty (Ugly Before)’ above.

6. “Selling out” and not giving a damn

“I think that the easier someone’s life gets in a financial way, you have more people that expect you to answer to them. Whether you do or not is kind of your choice. But, definitely if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose, and you’re very free in that way. If you got lucky enough to not have to worry about that, like my last job was spreading gravel and transplanting trees and things, so I don’t have to do that for the moment; but that means that there’s a different boss to account to that’s a more abstract one.”

Smith’s penning of a record deal with a major label, specifically Dreamworks, was always going to rile some in indie communities, but Elliott responded in the most elegant of ways – with a great record in the form of Figure 8 and by simultaneously giving his ethical critics both the middle finger and an unconcerned shrug.

7. Performing ‘Say Yes’ at his last ever live show

Just a month prior to Elliott’s untimely demise, this live clip recorded at Redfest on 9 September 2003 marks the last live appearance from Smith, as he runs through a stone sober and  hauntingly foreshadowing performance of ‘Say Yes’.

8. Making music that will keep indie movie directors occupied for decades to come

While most people’s cinematic introduction to Elliott Smith comes from Good Will Hunting, it’s perhaps Wes Anderson’s brilliant The Royal Tenenbaums that appropriates Smith’s music best of all, with this scene featuring the track ‘Needle In The Hay’ standing eeriely similar to the singer’s own death.

9. The ‘Figure 8′ mural

After the news broke of Elliott’s suicide, this mural – located on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and originally depicted on the cover of the singer’s last ever record Figure 8 - became a site of pilgrimage for all die-hard Smith fans, littered with personal messages, memories, lyrics and odes alike. Repeatedly the target of vandals, the way the late musician’s fans rally together to keep the site going to this day shows just how much of an impact Smith has had in their lives.

RIP Elliott Smith (6 August 1969 – 21 October 2003).

With an entire day dedicated to Bella Union‘s fifteenth birthday celebrations and headline sets from Beach House, Grizzly Bear and Grandaddy, not to mention a special appearance from a certain Patti Smith, End of The Road 2012 was as fantastic as ever. And we learnt a couple of things too…

1. Grizzly Bear’s New Material Sounds Amazing

Photograph by Burak Cingi

There were a lot of mixed reports drifting on the warm breeze the morning after Grizzly Bear’s headline Saturday night set but we thought they were amazing, especially when you consider that this was their fourth show in two years and they only started rehearsing a couple of weeks previous. New songs ‘Speak In Rounds’, ‘Yet Again’ and ‘Sleeping Ute’ went down a treat, the latter’s powerhouse guitars underlying the “louder” sound the Brooklyn quartet promised from their forthcoming album Shields.

Rarely would you find a festival crowd so welcoming of new material, but as the first half of their set came and went with barely a trace of Veckatimest, no one around us seemed disgruntled although obviously the en masse elation came with classics like ‘Cheerleader’ and ‘Two Weeks’. Urging everyone to smoke what they can find, Grizzly Bear ended the night with the audience voting for 10-minute epic encore ‘Colorado’ and we fell in love with them all over again, the feeling very much mutual: “It’s such an honour to play here” Ed Droste exclaims, “we don’t have anything like this in the US, you guys need to come over and teach us a couple of things!”

2. Folk Music Doesn’t Have to be Synonymous with Twee, You Know?

Photograph by Burak Cingi

Despite its oft’ heavily “alt-folk” leaning line-up, calling End of the Road a folk festival would conjure up the wrong kind of image. It is more than that. Just like Alt-J are more than an experimental folk band, as their momentous An Awesome Wave focused performance proves. Their twisted, compelling offerings are certainly grounded in folk arrangements but laden with electronic guitar strings, invigorating tracks like ‘Tessellate’, with its pulsating rhythm and dramatically dark electronics feel like something entirely new, even though the shifts from already established bodies of work are subtle. As ‘Something Good’ swells the already staggering warmth of the increasingly claustrophobic Big Top tent, ‘Matilda’s gentle flickers leave an entire crowd breathless.

3. It’s The Attention To Detail That Matters

Photograph by Eva Vermandel

From the fairy lights that adorn every single tree to the sound sculptures hidden in the depths of the woods, End of The Road has always had the highest regard for the little things, and well, they really makes this quiet Dorset affair come to life. What other music festival has people genuinely excited about the food, film and comedy options? Where else would you find giant origami peacocks lining a tiny stage decked out like your Grandma’s living room? Where else would you stumble across a disco shower in the woods with its own karaoke system? Where else could you discover that dancing just isn’t dancing if you’re not on the light up part of the dance-floor or that yes, it’s ok, everybody secretly loves a bit of Will Smith! I don’t know what more I could say to convince you that this is genuinely the most special festival in the UK.

4. “South Jersey has the best dancers in America”

Photograph by Sebastien Dehesdin

Or at least that is the gospel according to Patti Smith. We were lucky enough to see her twice over the weekend, once performing her rich back catalogue and new experimentations to a sea of thousands, and once reciting passages from her book Just Kids to, oh just about 100 people on the aforementioned grandma’s living room stage, more commonly known to End of the Road-ers as the piano stage.

She recalls her first encounter with Allen Ginsberg, smiling with her entire face as she delights in the fact that he bought her a sandwich at the automat whilst mistaking her for a boy. She reads the lyrics to ‘People Have The Power’ as if it were a poem while the dulcet tones of First Aid Kit begin to waft through the trees. She urges people to leave if they want to go and see the band, claiming she would. Half the crowd disperses, the other half is unable to move from the spot they’ve so carefully crafted out for themselves around this tiny platform.

She talks about Pussy Riot, describing their situation in the way only an angry poet could: “Why are these girls in prison? They presented, in an aggressive art form, a new way to pray. Who are the clergy or the government or anyone to tell people how to pray? They were speaking in a language the government doesn’t understand and that language is freedom.”

Patti takes questions from the audience, says she would collaborate with “Beethoven, Hendrix, Coltrane or maybe Jesus” if she could work with anyone, but ultimately finds bliss in collaborating with her children. She ends this unbelievably intimate affair with a softly sung version of ‘Memorial Tribute’ and later, as her main stage performance comes to an end, one comment she made during her talk stuck out: “I wonder sometimes, am I still relevant?” Yes, is the resounding answer.

5. Watching Grandaddy perform ‘He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot’ is the ONLY way to end a festival

Photograph by Sebastien Dehesdin

Having parted ways in 2006 just before the release of their fourth and final full length Just Like the Fambly Cat, the announcement of Grandaddy’s reunion certainly had us more excited than certain other tired, nostalgia cashing in schemes hatched over the past couple of years, (although that is not to say Jason Lytle and co. don’t have a big paycheck waiting for them at the end of all this), but we weren’t quite prepared for just how great their headline set would be.

Obvious highlights come from the instantly recognisable, drudging guitars of 2003 classic ‘Now It’s On’ – its elated misery and that guitar hook mixing perfectly with a day’s alcohol consumption – and the euphoria of ‘El Caminos in the West’s opening howls. Moments only rivalled by the unadulterated rush of serotonin set in motion by ‘AM 180′s opening keys and ensuing, crashing guitars. But ultimately, as the Modesto five-piece cry “Are you giving in 2000 man?” for what seems like the thousandth time under the night sky, we realise there is just no better way this weekend could have ended.

Oh ok, maybe just one more dance in the forest disco…

Photograph by Burak Cingi

Last week (August 10) marked five years since the sad passing of Factory Records founder and all round trouble-maker Tony Wilson. We take a quick look back at some of his amazing achievements.

1. His ’13 year cycle’ theory

In his own words:

“I used to have this 13 year cycle theory that British youth culture exploded every three years. It wasn’t much but I noticed that the Beatles happened in 1963, then punk in 1976 and ’89 was acid house. Then someone pointed out that if you go back 13 years from ’63 you get teddy boy. Anyway, it suddenly made some kind of sense.”

2. His television career

As one of the main anchors on Granada Reports throughout the 70s and 80s Wilson brought charm, guts and intelligence to regional television news, despite the parochialism and idiosyncrasies that fill such airspace. Juggling his television career alongside Factory (even at the height of its success), Wilson would feature music heavily, always with a patented over-intellectualised prodding, but he showed charm and a total respect for the many citizens of Manchester who would also feature.

3. In The City

Renowned as “one of the great spotters of music talent”, Wilson initially helped set up In the City in 1992. The UK’s largest and most influential forum for finding new talent and discussing the future of the industry – Oasis, Radiohead and Suede played at the first In the City and year after year helps launch almost every major British act. Liverpool Sound City and Brighton’s Great Escape are just two similar events inspired by the initiative.

4. When he broke punk

The Sex Pistols‘ television debut came at the behest of Wilson on his Granada TV show So it Goes. Wilson had seen the band play their legendary show at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester; y’know, the one where Morrissey, Mark E Smith and, erm, Mick Hucknall were inspired to form bands. Lydon’s motley crew were exposed to the mainstream for the first time while hanger on Jordan stood at the side of the stage sporting a swastika armband.

The next day, Clive James – who also featured on the show as part of an interview with Peter Cook, referred to Rotten as ‘”a foul-mouthed ball of acne calling himself something like Kenny Frightful”.

Wilson’s show ran for two seasons before winding up at the end of 1977. A month later, Wilson formed a partnership with unemployed actor and band manager Alan Erasmus and, by that May, their first club night ‘The Factory’ was set up with Cabaret Voltaire and The Durutti Column booked to play.

5. His gravestone and coffin

Fittingly, Wilson went out as he lived his life: with style, a loveable arrogance and utterly on brand in every way. His gravestone declared him a ‘Broadcaster and Cultural Catalyst’ and lifted a quote from The Manchester Man, the 19th Century novel centred on the rise of Jabez Clegg whose rise to prosperity echoed Wilson’s own journey.

The grave was installed three years after Wilson’s death and was orchestrated in part by Peter Saville, Factory Records go-to-guy for the label’s aesthetic. Factory’s own numbering system also crept its way into the end of Wilson’s life – his coffin bore the legend ‘FAC 501′ – the last ever catalogue number to be assigned to a Factory product.

The debut album from Strip Steve is a very highly anticipated one. The Bordeaux native was first spotted by the intrepid eye of Boys Noize’s Alex Ridha back in 2007, who was impressed by the then 19 year old’s natural style and Chicago House influenced oeuvre. Snapping him up, the young producer was then sent off to complete a busy touring schedule, a couple of EPs and collaborations, gaining support from the esteemed likes of Erol Alkan and 2manydjs along the way. Strip Steve has just unveiled a new single, a sublime collaboration with LA’s Puro Instinct which gives a glimmering insight into the distinctive sound and unexpected nuances that we should expect from forthcoming debut album Micro Mega. 

We catch up with Strip Steve as he introduces us to some of his favourite spots around Berlin, the place he made his home for the creation of Micro Mega. 

Strip Steve releases album Micro Mega through Boysnoize Records on 16 July.

“I’ve been living in Berlin for the past 4 years. I moved there from Bordeaux, France where I grew up, as I especially enjoyed a couple of trips I made to play in Berlin, and was amazed at how cheap and cool the life was here. I didn’t speak one word of German and barely knew anyone here, but the city is one of the most welcoming in the world to me. So I decided to stay for a while…”

1. My favourite record shop…

Hardwax on Paul Lincke Ufer in Kreuzberg, the selection is quite amazing. One of those shops were you can pick random records in a section you wouldn’t usually look into, and discover gems. The owners are quite moody, but if you catch their attention they’ll show you amazing stuff. Also Oye Records in Prenzlauerberg is really great too for house music…

Hardwax Website

2. My favourite venue…

Photo from roomdivision.com

It used to be Villa, a club set in an abandoned old house/mansion, there was a very relaxed and intimate atmosphere, the type of club I could go to no matter what mood I was in, if you know what I mean. But sadly, they tore it down as it was illegal… Now one of my favourite is Arena Club, very small, massive sound system, very good DJs. As for after hours, I love Berghain / Panorama Bar and occasionally Kater Holzig…

3. My favourite equipment store…

Schneider’s Laden on Kotbusser Tor. Crazy little hidden shop in a flat, where you can try all the freaky modular synths and unique effects they have stored there. It’s actually quite well known in the whole world I think. There’s always one piece of equipment I’m looking to buy there, right now it’s a spring reverb with a spring you can play and fiddle with to change the sounds, sounds like thunder and water… pretty damn cool.

Schneider’s Laden Website.

4. My favourite place to have a beer…

Would be next to the canal in Kreuzberg, around Maybach Ufer, or go to one of the lakes around the city, like Krumme Lanke. You just have to take one subway and you step out to a beautiful forest surrounded lake. In summer, I like to go there at the end of the day with friends, people are leaving, the sun is going down, the water is still warm from the day, and to have a beer or two there is very chill…

5. My favourite place to eat out…

The Bird, Am Falkplatz, in P.berg. Simply the best burger I ever tried in the whole world. I don’t go there too often because the injection of fat you get when eating there is quite violent, but the taste is like nothing else… Also, it’s the first place I take my friends to eat when they visit me in Berlin.

The Bird Website.

6. My favourite micro spot…

The rooftop of the abandoned hospital in Neuköln. You can get lost everywhere in the old corridors and rooms, and when you get to the rooftop by sundown, the view is great. Also a fun ‘Goonies type of experience’. Last time there we were hanging out with a wild fox.

(Photo from Abandoned Berlin)

7. My favourite mega spot…

Probably Hamburger Bahnhof. They have great contemporary exhibitions, and a very good selection of permanent work, including pieces of one of my favourite artist: Roman Signer. Last temporary exhibition I saw was Tyoji Ikeda’s “DB”, really breathtaking.

Hamburger Bahnhof

Bob Dylan’s brilliant isn’t he? An absolute bonafide genius of mammoth proportions. Writing a blow-by-blow account of his endless contribution to popular music and culture seems a little pointless though. There are more books and essays written about Dylan than any other artist of our time – Dylanology is even an actual University course.

Despite his intellect and talent, it’s well documented that the man is an absolute raving lunatic whose numerous attempts at career suicide are utterly baffling and just keep on coming.

We thought it’d be fun to look back the best moments of madness within the career of a genius: Bobby Zimmerman’s 10 greatest epic fails / crazy stunts / dabblings with madness. Got any more? Let us know in the comments box at the bottom of the page.

Text: Rich Thane / Paul Bridgewater

10. His appearance in the video for Wyclef Jean ‘s ‘Gone Till November’

Dylan’s appearance at two minutes and thirty seconds prompted a collective double take from all almost everyone who saw this video on Top of the Pops back in early 98. As the Fugees man recites the line “knockin’ on heaven’s door/like Bob Dylan”, the man himself magically appears on a bench in the middle of LA International Airport, a slightly worrying, fawning-over-Wyclef Jean meets WTF-am-I-doing-here look over his face. “I was like, ‘Yo, we should get Bob Dylan in the video!’”, Wyclef explained to MTV back in 2001, “And it was like, ‘You ain’t getting no Bob Dylan! Bob Dylan never shows up in videos, man! Bob Dylan doesn’t do that kind of stuff!’ But I was like, ‘Yo, we can get him, man!’ And we got Bob Dylan.

“I think that what Bob Dylan brought to the game is lyrical continuity in the music, and [the idea that] it’s not all about the commercialism. It’s about standing up for something and speaking out for the rights of the people.”

Er, okay Wyclef. If you say so.

9. The poetry book, Tarantula

Throughout 1965 and 1966, Dylan was at the height of his creative powers. Not only did he toss out two faultless era-defining records within a twelve month period (Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde), he also went right ahead and re-invented himself as some kind of extra-terrestrial amphetamine fuelled mercurial mesiah; globe-trotting the earth toting an electric guitar and a sneering vocal that would ultimately piss his ardent fans off to biblical proportions. The pace of his boundless rise in popularity perhaps went to his head a wee bit when he decided it a good idea to ‘write a book’. Released in 1971 but written in the ’65-’66 period, Tarantula is arguably one of the most confusing things Dylan has ever done. Unfocused and filled to the brim with, well, utter bollocks – Tarantula was supposed to be a ‘stream of conciousness collection of poetry’, but the amount of drugs Dylan was consuming thus led its contents to be the biggest pile of nonsensical dirge ever created.

8. His 1986 ‘rap’ duet with Kurtis Blow

In Chronicles: Volume One – Dylan’s sensational and wonderfully written autobiography – he recounts how American rapper and producer Kurtis Blow introduced him to Ice-T, Public Enemy, N.W.A. and Run-D.M.C. “These guys were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs. They were all poets and knew what was going on.” The same cannot be said for Bob, whose 10 second appearance at the start of a terrible Kurtis Blow track from the mid-eighties engenders the same embarassment in us as Homer Simpson’s only slightly less embarassing Mr Plough rap does to Lisa and Bart.

7. His directorial debut Renaldo and Clara

Dylan’s complex – and, frankly, messy – directorial debut from 1978 closed after just a few weeks in movie theatres following widespread negative reviews. Clocking at at four hours, the concert movie/documentary/fiction is musically interesting but as indulgent as they come.

“Following a pattern of linear thought is clearly not one of the film’s concerns,” wrote Janet Maslin in the New York Times, “but maintaining a constant degree of intensity should have been; this way, by carelessly commingling very complex and suggestive episodes with very flat and simple ones, the editing continually throws an already befuddled viewer even further off balance.”

Never released since, the film is still available online if you look hard enough. We wouldn’t recommend it – getting through all four hours for me took some serious recreational drugs and half a bottle of scotch. There are better ways to spend an evening. Pauline Kael, as usual, had the best summary of the film, noting “it’s what Louis and Marie Antoinette might have done at Versailles if only they’d had the cameras.”

Years later, Todd Haynes would take some narrative and ideological cues from the film for his Dylan ‘biography’ I’m Not There, another artistic statement that confused a whole generation of non-Dylan fans but at least had Heath Ledger and Charlotte Gainsbourg for us all to coo over as well as Pingu from Nathan Barley as Arthur Rimbaud  reciting the wonderful ‘whoever heard of a fatalistic farmer?’ line…

6. The video for ‘It Must Be Santa’

The sting was taken out of the concept of a Bob Dylan Christmas album due to the various hunger and homelessness charities that benefited from receiving all of Bob’s royalties related to the release. As a humanitarian gesture then, Christmas in the Heart is a fine, upstanding album worthy of a place as Dylan’s 34th studio album (and it’s certainly less dodgy than some of his eighties’ oeuvre). Sure it’s frivolous in places, a little bit indulgent and a little unnecessary but we can live with that.

What we can’t abide is the excruciatingly hammy, vaudevillian clip for lead single ‘It Must be Santa’, which sees Bob recast visually as a Patti Smith clone in cahoots with the man in red. As all manner of drunken shenanigans play our, Bobby lurks in hallways with his dank, ironed hair.

5. Mr Bojangles

In 1973 Dylan would be wooed away from Columbia Records (if only temporarily) by Asylum. Columbia were slightly peeved at the big man’s decision so in spite they released Dylan: a collection of rarities and cover versions so utterly tragic that even the most loyal of fans would struggle to find a decent thing to say about it. ‘Mr Bojangles’ was (and still) is the ultimate ‘Bad Cover Version’. The 1973 rendition so painful that even after spending hours scouring the internet for a stream of sorts, all we could muster was a random YouTube clip of a sincere young man giving it ‘his all’ in the privacy of his own bedroom.

4. Born Again Christianity

Bob, dearest. Even Christ our Saviour couldn’t save these records. Good for a LOL, not a lot else.

3. His 1984 interview with Martha Quinn

“What’s your favourite video on MTV?”

“The ones I’ve seen…my favourite one…I’ve got a few of them…I like that one of The Police jumping around in the studio…they’re all wearing hats…of course I like Cyndi Lauper…”

Dylan’s attitude to his interviewers often veered from the charming and playful to the righteous and angry. In the same way his hardcore fans continue to deconstruct his life, lyrics and songwriting, good old Bobby loved to bat the ball right back at those tasked with writing about him. He revelled in questioning the value of journalism and why critics did what they did – but by the eighties was clearly getting tired of fighting the treadmill of promo.

This filmed 1984 interview with one of MTV’s first VJs Martha Quinn begins with a make-up girl applying an emo eye-line to Bob’s visage that leaves him looking like a cross between Keith Richard and a session player for the New York Dolls. And it’s all downhill from there, turning into a pointless discussion about David Lee Roth’s uncle, hats and an inane back-and-forth about touring and recording:

“What kind of audiences have been coming to the show?”

“Mostly foreign audiences. In France we had French audiences. In Spain we had Spanish audiences”

“What about Italy”

“…mostly Italian audiences?”

You can watch all five parts here, here, here, here and here.

2. His acting in Hearts on Fire

The eighties really weren’t the best time to be Bob Dylan. Like many of his contemporaries from the sixties, a certain redundancy was to be found as the seminal greats eased into the comfortable middle-aged years amongst a backdrop of Regan-era economics and, to some degree, a black period for popular music. With his most creative and commercial years clearly behind him, some truly awful choices would occur in the time between Slow Train Coming and Good As I Been To You. “Fifteen years ago, he walked away from the spotlight”, introduces the trailer voiceover to the utterly dreadful 1987 drama from the director of Return of the Jedi. “Now he’s back to help a young girl make it to the top and to teach a superstar how to stay there.”

Whatever drove Dylan to pick up a role opposed ‘promising’ British talent Rupert Everett and eighties never-was rock singer Fiona is anyone’s guess. If the allure of a role as a reclusive, retired rock star struck happily close to his current situation, it didn’t show in his lumpy, dispassionate and dull reading. A script with input from Joe (Basic Instinct) Eszterhas didn’t help. Director Richard Marquand died before the film was released – straight to video.

And just what are Dylan’s words of wisdom for his protegee in Hearts of Fire? Apparently this: “There’s no such thing as a big star…the better you are, the bigger the trap.”

God help us all.

1. That Victoria’s Secret commercial

Why is Bob Dylan selling knickers? We’ll never know. It’s baffling. In fleshing out the concept for this commercial, someone sat round a table and decided that putting a grizzly faced sexegenarian alongside a Brasilian supermodel would shift lingerie. Who was this insane visionary? Does he still have a job? We need to know.

Racing through the year like a hot knife through butter, we appear to have already – already – reached 2012′s halfway point. Which seems as good a time as any to press the pause button for a moment and take a glance back at what we think has actually, when you turn around and look at it again, been a pretty exciting six months of album releases.

We here at The Line of Best Fit have taken this opportunity to revisit some of our favourite releases from the start of the year, and we’ve come up with a list of twenty. Today, we present the last ten of our list (noted in release-date order) accompanied by what our writers thought of them at the time of release. How many will stay in the top 20 for the end of year lists, we wonder…

Find Part One of our selection just here.

THEESatisfaction – awE naturalE (Sub Pop)

“Within these short timespans, however, there is an enormous compression of ideas to be found, making the album an intense non-stop thrill ride through the stuttering, brightly coloured “eldritchtronica” of Oneohtrix Point Never and Gang Gang Dance; the dreamy, drowsy hypnagogic pop of Ariel Pink and Rainbow Arabia; and the neo-AfroFuturism of Shabazz Palaces…Clearly the most thrilling and assured debut of the year so far.”

Robert Barry, 5 April 2012

Death Grips – The Money Store (Epic)

“There’s an urgency to the way its textured samples and apocalyptic synthesisers have been rendered, dumfounding the dogmatic illusion of crossover, to morph into something new. Whether it’s the armour-piercing oriental terror drone of ‘Bitch Please’ or the Salt ‘n’ Pepa-bastardising ‘I’ve Seen Footage’, The Money Store feels like being waterboarded into accepting a new status quo.”

David Newbury, 20 April 2012

Poliça – Give You the Ghost (Memphis Industries)

“While Leanagh’s soaring, auto-tuned vocals are placed prominently in the mix and will justifiably get a majority of the attention, the propulsive double-drum attack of Drew Christopherson and Ben Ivascu, along with the fluid bass lines of Chris Bierden, give Poliça’s songs a rich soulful texture that only adds to the record’s mercurial ambiance. (…) These stirring, evocative songs prove that something deeply meaningful can arise out of moments of misery.”

Erik Thompson, 1 May 2012

Father John Misty – Fear Fun (Bella Union)

“Dumping the sticks, leaving the supremely successful canoe-carrying band and changing your name to become a pervert prophet of Big Pink (no, not that one) nostalgia and classicism? A great and exemplary choice Mr Misty.”

Michael James Hall, 7 May 2012

Niki and the Dove – Instinct (Mercury)

“Dahlström’s vocals are delivered with an urgency and intensity that stops you dead in your tracks and her power is multiplied by the efforts of her band mate, Gustaf Karlöf , who provides various synth flavours and a wall of sampled vocal textures that offer an apocalyptic assault on the pop genre. What follows is the post-apocalyptic pop world where Dahlström presides as the new royalty and conventional formulaic pop songs are few and far between.”

Slavko Bucifal, 8 May 2012

El-P – Cancer 4 Cure (Turnstile / Fat Possum)

“El-P has a penchant for the verbose and lyrically dense. So when he challenges, he does it his own way. As he puts it, he’s a “garbage pail kid” who “sat at piano, lap of my father/Watching him talk harmonic”. And he’s telling you all of this because, well, he never gives up. Even after his father left, he still felt (and I imagine, given this record’s content, feels) unbreakable – kinda like those “The Few, the Proud, the Marines” ads, but without all the jingoism. While El-P has kept such defiance up throughout a record – both lyrically and sonically – before, it’s still impressive, even awe-inspiring, to watch him do it over the course of these 50 minutes.”

Steve Lampiris, 21 May 2012

Liars – WIXIW (Mute)

“Really, it’s just fantastic. Blinding. A blinding record from a band who surprise so often it’s pretty much unsurprising. Gaze upon it in a state of slack-jawed awe.”

Tim Lee, 30 May 2012

Japandroids – Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)

“Celebration Rock is cigarette butts, spilt beer, hoarse voices and the smell of stale dope smoke. This is REAL party rock, and like the best nights out, it leaves you sweaty and exhausted and ready to do it all over again. Unlike the best nights out, however, you don’t have to wait another day to do so.”

Alex Wisgard, 31 May 2012

Echo Lake – Wild Peace (Slumberland Records)

“Guitarist Thom Hill and lead singer Linda Jarvis plus band conjure up a graceful storm, and it’s as if nothing and everything happens all at once. And you’ll never want to leave, because once you’ve heard these ten tracks the outside world will seem like a painfully noisy, pointless irritation compared to the ethereal kicks you could be having with this London-based bunch.”

Camilla Pia, 20 June 2012

DIIV – Oshin (Captured Tracks)

“Oshin’s thirteen songs are so precisely crafted and impressively executed (the drumming and guitar playing in particular are spellbinding) that DIIV sound like they’ve been together for years. But early tracks like ‘Sometime’ were written, recorded, posted online and picked up by blogs just weeks after they formed. It’s rare for a band to hit upon something this special so early on in their career and then be able to hone that initial energy and excitement into a debut as accomplished as this.”

Camilla Pia, 21 June 2012

Racing through the year like a hot knife through butter, we appear to have already – already – reached 2012′s halfway point. Which seems as good a time as any to press the pause button for a moment and take a glance back at what we think has actually, when you turn around and look at it again, been a pretty exciting six months of album releases.

We here at The Line of Best Fit have taken this opportunity to revisit some of our favourite releases from the start of the year, and we’ve come up with a list of twenty. Today, we present the first ten (listed in release-date order) accompanied by what our writers thought of them at the time of release. How many will stay in the top 20 for the end of year lists, we wonder…

First Aid Kit - The Lion’s Roar (Wichita)

“This stirring, striking new album will surely (in a just world, at least) find First Aid Kit a wider audience, although this resolute new batch of songs remains intensely personal and intimate, like the whispered longings and frustrations of two siblings talking candidly to each other long after the lights have been shut off and everyone else has gone to bed.”

Erik Thompson, 25 January 2012

Errors – Have Some Faith In Magic (Rock Action)

“There’s something much more grand and pristine about this album than what we’ve heard from Errors before. That’s not to say that it’s polished or glossy in any way, more that it’s extremely well mapped out. Each track slips seamlessly and seemingly effortlessly into its successor, yet each track also stands sturdily on its own (…) a subtly brilliant album.”

Francine Gorman, 26 January 2012

Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur (Maple Music / Rounder)

“Since 2003’s Failer, Edwards has been lauded as one of the better female songwriters of the last decade. However, Voyageur now firmly places her among the best songwriters of her generation. For album after album, she has entertained and explored; now she has mesmerised.”

Matt Conner, 31 January 2012

Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory (Wichita)

“Attack on Memory feels like a third album should – a progression, a move into new territory, and an expansion, literally filling the space that previous albums suggested. And all condensed into a no-frill thirty minutes. Gutsy, aggressive, and ultimately confident, if Dylan Baldi has come this far by the age of 20, then who knows what else is to come.”

Catriona Boyle, 2 February 2012

Sharon van Etten – Tramp (Jagjaguwar)

“It’s not that Van Etten’s music was ever meek or mild, butTramp’s size and ambition is a step forward that allows her to impress its feeling more vividly, not just add volume (…) It’s an album impressively relatable and vivid, filled with the chewy unpalatable stuff of failed relationships that usually gets erased in the line between autobiography and art. More than that striking life story, it’s a record that’s defined by resonances and things often thought but rarely so well put.”

Joseph Richards, 6 February 2012

Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It (Matador)

“It’s just all so achingly soft, so bruisingly powerful. Ballads and torch songs of almost unknowable longing lay alongside poems of almost unbearable loss, sleeping next to paeans to possible futures as yet unrealised (…) It’s a near perfect album and Perfume Genius has, ever so swiftly, made the transition from interesting outsider to fully-fledged musical hero.”

Michael James Hall, 14 February 2012

John Talabot – Fin (Permanent Vacation)

“No matter what influence Talabot is channelling, Fin never sounds anything less than distinctive and utterly captivating. It’s a rare example of an album that’s at once deep and instantly appealing, a record equally capable of moving your brain, your heart and your feet (sometimes all at once).”

Chris Lo, 14 February 2012

NZCA/Lines – NZCA/Lines (Lo Recordings)

“NZCA/Lines is a true soul record, brought up to date with precision R’n’B beats and slick electronica. If Marvin Gaye’s voice was used for HAL, this is the soundtrack apes would rise to (…) What makes NZCA/Lines so special is the way that it sounds comfortingly familiar as if ingrained in our DNA, while still oozing the excitement of the undiscovered. Lovett has produced an album which relies on timeless songwriting and taps into the essence of soulful pop, shamelessly repackaging what works into a truly invigorating display of craftsmanship.”

David Newbury, 23 February 2012

SoKo – I Thought I Was an Alien (Because Music)

“15 beautifully woozy songs, which rubbish any claims she is merely a French Zooey Deschanel (…) SoKo proves raw talent is the finest currency and she pays it out with gently understated vocals and haunting melodies (…) A perfect album for a melancholy Sunday afternoon.”

David Newbury, 24 February 2012

Kindness – World You Need a Change of Mind (Female Energy / Polydor)

“World You Need…’s charm is not its mystique but its muted technicolor aesthetic. Instead of being a collection of bright, vivid dance tracks that bombard their way into your brain, here the scenario is more one of a gradual aural intoxication. It’s up to the listener to get lost in this sea of hypnagogic albeit utterly captivating skewed-disco. And those who choose to do so will undoubtedly find their soundtrack to the summer.”

Antonio Rowe, 13 March 2012

Keep an eye out for part two of Best Fit’s Favourite Albums of 2012 So Far.

As the fifth annual Record Store Day looms ever closer (Saturday 21 April), we got in touch with a few leading lights in the music industry to find out which records in their collection ‘make them tick’.

Kicking things off today we have Stephen Richards, co-founder of Lucky Number – responsible for bringing Darwin Deez,Caged Animals, Gotye, Sebastien Tellier and some Brooklyn upstarts called Friends to the fold. Here, Stephen picks three of his all time favourite classic records.

“The first album that stopped me in my tracks”: Prince - Purple Rain

Purchased: WH Smiths, Falmouth

“On yet another family holiday in Falmouth Cornwall (12 in a row) I saw the video for ‘When Doves Cry’ on Top of The Pops. I was mesmerised by what I saw and heard, Prince looked like he was beamed in from another planet. Literally ran into WH Smiths to look for the album the next morning, (with free poster) – easily my most played and most loved album of all time.”

“The album that changed my life”: The Smiths - Meat Is Murder

Purchased: Christophers’ Records (RIP), Barry

“Hatful of Hollow is my favourite Smiths album (all be it a collection) but Meat is Murder changed my life. It led me to investigate factory farming, animal cruelty and I became, and remain, a Vegetarian. It probably would have happened anyway, but hearing that song (on that album) changed my life in 6 minutes – nothing has ever hit me so hard in the gut on first listen.”

“The album that makes me feel like anything is possible”: Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

Purchased: Plastic Factory (RIP), Birmingham

“1988 and it was my first year at college, at Aston University, Birmingham. I had a grant (it felt like a lot of money in those days – sorry kids, it’s shit nowadays I know), there was a lot of good record shops there and 1988 was a truly great year for music. House Music really took off that year and became really important to me, and there was so many great albums that year – like Daydream Nation (Sonic Youth), Surfer Rosa (Pixies), Nothing’s Shocking (Jane’s Addiction) and Isn’t Anything (My Bloody Valentine) – it was a really inspiring time of my life as you can imagine. The album that reminds me most of that wonderful period however is It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back. The best hip-hop record of all time… one of the best albums of all time. I find it hugely exciting and inspiring to listen to, they don’t make them like this anymore etc”

John Cusack in High Fidelity: A guy that knows about heartbreak

Hey guys! It’s Valentine’s Day! Great, huh?

So, let’s talk about getting dumped.

There are three things I like to do when I’m freshly single: watch High Fidelity on repeat, plan getting a tattoo, and drink a bottle of wine while listening to Deja Entendu in the dark.

Seriously though, there is just something really satisfying about self-pity, and if like me you’ll be spending this evening drinking beer with your solo mates in Hooters, only to stumble home alone singing Paramore come midnight, then this playlist is for you.

Here’s to misery.

1. Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness

You can’t really have a playlist about heartbreak and not put in some Los Campesinos! New album Hello Sadness is perfect to warp any break-up to, so here’s the title track to begin.

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2. Broken Family Band – Give and Take

The lyrics in this track are so brutal and exactly what you want to hear when you’ve been chucked. His voice alone is depressing enough.

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3. Bon Iver – Skinny Love

Bonnie Bear, back from that album that didn’t count. Such a stark song and words that cut.

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4. Robyn – Be Mine!

No matter what issue of the heart Robyn sings about, she always finds a way of telling it like you’ve never heard.  Also, I ran out of tracks and couldn’t fit in any emo so this is the only one you can throw down to, sort of.

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5. Sharon Van Etten – Love More

Sharon Van Etten really knows how to turn her pain into something productive. God, this song is amazing.

6. Life Without Buildings – Sorrow

I don’t really know what she’s singing about, as with the majority of LWB’s tracks, but it’s just so barren I’m going to pretend it’s miserable.

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7. LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change

Look into James Murphy’s sad eyes and tell me you can’t feel this song in the pit of your stomach.

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8. Beach House – Used To Be

This track is so beautiful it took me forever to realise just how gutting and raw the lyrics really are.

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9. Peggy Sue – Yo Mama

You can almost feel the hurt in her voice, and the words echo that newly single self-destructive streak to perfection.

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 10. Perfume Genius – You Won’t Be Here

Perfume Genius to end, just to remind that there are people with a lot more pain out there… and that his next album is going to blow your heart from your chest.

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And if you need some more? Here’s the rest:

Brand New – OK I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t

Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight

The National – Cardinal Song

Dry The River – No Rest

Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Rilo Kiley – Portions For Foxes

Glassjaw – Pretty Lush

The Smiths – How Soon Is Now

Girls – Saying I Love You

Lykke Li – Sadness Is A Blessing

Rufus Wainwright – Vicious World

The Deaf Institute, Manchester

Like most Mancunians, I’m packed with civic pride. And like a typical gobby Manc, I’ll happily spout absurd notions to anyone who’ll listen. So, when I say that Manchester is one of the best places in the world to watch live music, I mean it. And, I’ve got three reasons to back such a wild claim.

Firstly, Manchester is big enough to attract almost every touring act. It is rare that a band undertaking even the shortest UK tour doesn’t play a show in Manchester. Secondly, the city is small enough to facilitate a visit to any venue. In London, schlepping across the river for a weekday gig can result in a very late night. In Manchester, most of us can be tucked up in bed a matter of minutes after that final rapturously-received encore. Also, the compact city centre means that gig-hopping is a regular treat. On mumerous occasions I have been to two gigs on the same night and once managed to see three different bands at three different venues over a two-hour period.

The third reason why Manchester is such an excellent gig city is the venues themselves. Within a couple of miles of the city centre, Manchester can boast a complete range of music halls, bars, clubs, churches, art galleries, parks and sports stadia for every type of event. From the tiny back room at the characterful Castle Hotel in the city’s chic-shabby, hipster-harboring Northern Quarter, to the grand 70-year-old Apollo (with its art deco design and scene of my very first gig – Depeche Mode in 1983) and onto the soulless concrete of the M.E.N. Arena or Heaton Park (which will accommodate 225,000 nostalgia junkies for The Stone Roses’ shows in June), Manchester can host concerts of all sizes.

What’s even more impressive is the diversity of small venues in the city. Fans of up-and-coming bands or niche genres have a myriad of interesting spaces to stand and gawp. The Soup Kitchen is a cozy basement beneath an achingly hip café, Kraak Gallery mixes music and cool art, the venerable Band On The Wall has re-opened to showcase jazz and world music, while Salford’s St Philips Church combines jaw-dropping architecture with perfect acoustics. The Ruby Lounge recently hosted Lana Del Rey’s first UK show and always boasts impressive listings, while the University of Manchester student’s union houses a complex of four stages – Nirvana played at the 1,800 capacity Academy 1 in 1991 (I know, I was there), and Coldplay once graced the tiny Academy 3 before they went stratospheric.

Perfume Genius at The King's Arms, Salford

It’s not all good. The Roadhouse is a filthy, dingy fleapit with appalling sightlines and toilets akin to a scene from Trainspotting, while the fanfare that surrounded the re-opening of FAC251 – the site of Factory Records offices – proved to be short-lived. The music room is a long corridor and unless punters are within the first few feet of the stage, they might as well retire to the upstairs bar and watch the gig on TV. I’m almost heartened by the one constant throughout Manchester’s music history is Factory’s never-ending ability to make inept business decisions.

Amidst this impressive canon of choice, there are a couple of stand-out places in Manchester. Both venues have resuscitated old buildings and strive to be creative and independent. Perhaps one of the best small venues in the UK is The Deaf Institute. A gorgeous renovation of a three-story Victorian building, The Deaf Institute is peerless. It is simply a wonderful place to watch gigs, with its stunning décor (flock wallpaper and vintage speakers are de rigueur), bleacher seats and great sound. The artists love the venue too – backstage is a fully equipped apartment for their use and the rider food is straight from the venue’s highly recommended restaurant.

The other venue which really shines is Islington Mill. Technically, the five-story cotton mill is in Salford and while Salfordians will correctly assert that Salford is a city in its own right, the venue snuggles up to the edge of Manchester’s city centre. Geographical pedantry aside, Islington Mill is a fantastically inventive space housing artist studios, galleries and a 300-capacity gig venue. I once interviewed EMA on the top-floor of the mill – a vast, junk-filled storeroom with views past the Manchester skyline and onto the Pennines – and it was strikingly eerie.

“In many ways we never really saw ourselves as a music venue, we just simply cleared out a space and started having some parties there,” Rivca Burns tell me. Rivca is the marketing manager for Islington Mill and fondly recalls the Mill’s recent history. “It has been with its current owner, Bill Campbell, for ten years. He took the shell of an old cotton spinning factory, emptied it and created over 50 artist studios. The music venue was an afterthought when certain projects, such as a recording studio, didn’t seem to work as well as impromptu parties. We loved the parties and wanted to do more, so the venue grew organically from us simply having fun.”

The Islington Mill

What is particularly impressive about Islington Mill is the breadth of music offers. As the building has other uses during the week, it can, perhaps, be slightly more open to new ideas. “Our tastes are incredibly varied,” Rivca says, by way of explanation. “Over the last few months alone we have collaborated with local promoters to bring debut shows from acts such as Death Grips, Shangaan Electro and Maria Minerva. If there is anything that sums up our preferences it’s that we seem to always gravitate to the outsider, the stuff that maybe everywhere else might not be prepared to book or host.”

“The vision was to open a venue that people would want to spend time in,” explains Ruth Peacey, the booking manager at The Deaf Institute.  “We wanted it to be comfortable and serve nice drinks and be a refreshing change from ‘toilet venues’ for both bands and customers.” The space opened on February 29th 2008, so is just about to celebrate a fourth – or first – birthday, and The Deaf Institute is already a huge favourite with Mancunian gig-goers and musicians alike. “The vision was also about putting on small touring bands that perhaps wouldn’t have had the opportunity to play in the city without The Deaf Institute. We wanted to work with and support independent promoters and look outside of what was happening already in Manchester and bring something new to the city.”

However, what most people are blown away by when step into the first-floor Music Hall is the delightful surroundings. “The interiors were designed by the owners Joel Wilkinson and Adelaide Winter,” Ruth reveals. “The building is Grade II listed so we worked with what was already there to create the character of the new interior. A lot of the decor was inspired by the original features which we wanted to remain sympathetic to; the tiered seating, the old staircase and domed ceiling. There is a grandeur about the room that fits the ‘music hall’ look, with the velvet curtains and posh wallpaper. But, also, because of environmental and financial considerations, a lot of the interior is reclaimed or recycled - from the doors that became a bar to the vintage speakers that were found in junk shops and eBay.”

The Deaf Institute, Manchester

The result is stunning. On many an occasion I’ve been undecided about a certain band but been swayed into attending a gig just because it was on at The Deaf Institute. It always seems that the artists are in high spirits too  – bands love playing at a venue which looks after them like no other. “It’s nice to offer a bit of comfort,” Ruth says, alluding to the backstage apartment. “A lot of the bands are embarking on, in the middle of, or just finishing long tours when playing with us. At our level, touring can be a bit of a thankless task. If bands sleep over, it can make it a bit cheaper for them and easier logistically for the evening – drivers often love that they can have a drink.”

I have seen many amazing shows at The Deaf Institute but Ruth is slightly unsure on how their booking strategy has evolved. “There isn’t a list of criteria,” she admits. “It sounds silly to say we book bands that we like, but that’s pretty much it.” Indeed, some of the great nights at the venue shed little light on how to define a ‘Deaf Institute act’.  “All different kinds of acts have worked perfectly from heroes like Stephen Malkmus to brand new locals like Everything Everything and Dutch Uncles,” Ruth says, rattling off her personal highlights. “From Girls, The Black Lips or Deerhunter to electronic stuff like Caribou, SBTRKT, Fuck Buttons; from Emmy The Great or First Aid Kit to Wild Nothing, Warpaint and Washed Out. I don’t know if there’s a thread?” The only thread is that they are all shit-hot bands. Someone has got taste.

However, amid these evenings of gig euphoria, virtually every venue in Manchester is operating in a vicious economic climate. I’ve stood at numerous gigs in town with 30 other people, having paid a fiver for my ticket, and wondered how anyone makes money in this sphere of the music scene. Both Rivca and Ruth are constantly battling to balance the books. “It is hard,” says Ruth. “We are an independent with a big impressive building that costs a lot of money. We do have the bar and café but still heavily rely on the nights.”  “It is incredibly hard,” Rivca admits. “But we just make the program as varied and exciting as we possibly can and then keep our fingers crossed. You just have to have faith in doing a good thing.”

Both Islington Mill and The Deaf Institute are two wonderful examples of how and why Manchester continues to do very good things for its gig-going community. I’m sticking with my claim – my hometown is an amazing place to watch live music.

To find out who you can catch at The Deaf Institute in the near future, click here and to see upcoming listings for Islington Mill, click here.

S.C.U.M aren’t hanging around. No sooner have they digested their Christmas pud and folded up their festive jumpers than they’re releasing a brand new single ‘Faith Unfolds’ which is out this week. To celebrate its release and to hail the beginning of the New Year, the band have very kindly agreed to unveil S.C.U.M’s favourite 12 albums. Read on to find out about the band’s rather diverse influences, and some of the musical elements that have brought the band to where they are today.

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Pharoah Sanders– Thembi
“Ideal music for walking on your own, makes Peckham appear brighter and a lot less shit. Michael White’s parts are perfect just like most of the stuff he does.”

Dr Octagon – Octagonecologyst
“A friend of my old man copied this onto cassette for me when I was eight or nine and I guess it was his way of trying to deter me from listening to Eminem and Slipknot.”

Brian Eno– Here Come The Warm Jets

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Add N to (X)– Avant Hard
“One of the noisiest records to accompany us across Europe in a freezing cold van.”

Les Rallizes Denudes– Heavier Than a Death In The Family
“I live for this record. Since I heard the title, let alone the content I’d written it on everything, like some weird school boy thing. When I finally managed to get a copy from a friend it was all I listened to for months. It’s without doubt one of my top five records of all time. It’s like a thousand bomber raid in your head, the deconstruction and massive ‘fuck off’ to traditional song structures and ideas is such a big inspiration.”

The Pretty Things – S.F Sorrow
“So much to bite into on this record, you can constantly discover new things on repeated listens. Harder than anything Beatles and The Stones ever put out. They’re another band I really admired, now they’re completely sub standard but watching live footage of them in the late sixties is a breath of fresh air even now after fifty years. They just tore shit up, this record and the singles that surround this time in their career are so well produced and beautifully written. They taught us a lot about the shit you can get down in one song.”

Ennio Morricone – Singles Collection Disc 1

“Morricone’s is one of the sweetest records. ‘Bird With A Crystal Plummage’ sounds like it’s written for a Riviera mountain side, but in reality is a brutal murder scene. We’re obsessed with how music can be interpreted when it doesn’t accompany a moving image, and how something so devastatingly beautiful can be the darkest accompaniment to a scene and vice versa.”

Big Black – Atomizer

“Pretty hard to beat this record, as albums go it’s faultless. The way Albini sings ‘Kerosene’ is like watching a film, [the] guy tells a story like not many people can. It’s a pretty funny record and completely fucking reckless. The lyrics are spot on throughout. I’ve been trying to work out the sound on ‘Passing Complexion’ for years, still no closer.”

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Neil Young– Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

“Like most of the best records on the planet, this creates the feeling of extreme happiness and following close behind, the inevitable feeling of intense sadness with a change of key or beat of the drum. On ‘Everyone Knows This is Nowhere’ no song preceding a track sounds the same.”

Butthole Surfers – Live Pcppep
“For some people it’s a joke, for some people it’s not their favourite by them but for me, I found this in a bin on Portobello after the market had packed up. I’d never heard them before but the same guy who made me the Dr. Octagon tape used to have a Butthole Surfers surf board which I used to chuckle at when I was small, so when I saw it I picked it off the top of a cracked computer keyboard and a stinking new balance trainer and took it home. I fucking love it to this day, it’s funny, stupid, loud and aggressive – as a band I love them and their attitude to making music. ‘Revenge of Anus Presley’ is fun to play at shitty fashion parties or in general to get rid of people.”

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Captain Beefheart – Safe As Milk
“This is a bench mark for me in everything, how to dress, how to play, how to dance, it’s all dictated by this record. Beefheart’s lyrics are so wonderfully odd. There is so much fire in this record, the times the theremin decides to join in the party are my favourite.”

Serge Gainsbourg – Histoire de Melody Nelson
“Purely a concept record – a soundtrack to a film to a film that didn’t exist.”

‘Again Into Eyes’ is available now through Mute.