Hot Chip are a really evocative band - at The Green Man a few years ago I remember dancing wildly with a toddler on my head and another throwing shapes on the dancefloor to Over & Over, which is still a firm favourite. Their last tour worked really well too. I've just got tickets through for February's gigs, and if this is the sort of thing they're playing I reckon I'll enjoy it.
Looking forward to the album dropping, but in the mean time Take It In will have to do...
What an amazing film of a very pissed woman falling onto train tracks in Boston (I think).
Two things strike me straight away.
Firstly: how lucky she is and at the same time quite how pissed she must be... Secondly: how effective this is as a warning/deterrent as it's so realistic, and so credible
Amazing video, and not for the right reasons either. Reminds me of the time Justin Trousersnake used to do the "I'm loving it" song in his tours (when he was paid by McDonalds) to arenas full of teenage girls. Am I the only one who finds the use of innocent students singing a commercial song purely for (social media) broadcast slightly insidious? (via @mobbie and tribbleagency.com. Oh, and JWT)
A couple of songs I’m listening to a lot at the moment for your perusal...
I always thought it was sacrilege to re-version You’ve got the Love, given how it improved on the Frankie Knuckles original (Your Love if I remember rightly). But Florence and the Machine totally nail it. And XX do a tasty little mix of it. Most impressed.
In a very different vein, this Fool’s Gold tune, Nadine (Memory Tapes Version) is also pretty intoxicating. Don’t know much about them, except I’ve got this on repeat. Pitchfork called them an afro-pop band with American influences, or something of that ilk.
Oh sod it, while I’m at it, check out the Peter Hook bassline on this Sometimes, this synth-heavy beauty from Miami Horror (via etmusicpourtous). I remember the 80s first time round, but don’t recall much that was quite so catchy. It turns out this guy’s Australian. Maybe it’s the sun, permatan and beaches that give him, Cut Copy, Empire of the Sun, Pnau etc etc. all their catchy riffs. I don’t know. And I don’t care. But it is all very good loud.
You've Got The Love (Xx Remix) by Florence + The Machine Download now or listen on posterous
Not sure if this says more about the state of Japanese Pop music or the cutting edge technology of the new Nikon coolpix (with built in projector). Either way though, it's a very creative approach. But I can't stop thinking of it as one long Jim'll fix it for the Helicopter Boyz.
Lovely collection from b3TA.com, via my mate Mrs Mandi Hunt.
Their challenge: Since Great Britain and the US separated in 1776, the Americans have very much gone their own way, inventing both canned cheese and obesity. But what if America were still British? Show us, using Photoshop devilry...
There's 24 in the full deck. Worth a quick look at I reckon...
So Mr Magic has died. One of Hip Hops true pioneers. So here is Whodinis tribute to him in… what, 1982/83?. OK so the rap is dated, but the riff still sounds fresh.
And – from my memory, this classic 1984 Malcolm Mclaren & the World Famous Supreme team track was for him/was about him/ or involved him.
But then again, it did seem to involve a whole load of the early New York Hip Hop scene’s movers and shakers so he’s bound to have been involved.
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My mate Nik is an artist who makes mechanical contraptions which never fail to raise a smile - whether it's the "unplugging" machine - as soon as you plug it into the mains, it drives off and unplugs itself. And that's all it does.
Or his jelly-wobbler. Think Singer sewing machine, amazing jelly mould, a big spring and a large mess.
Either way, a cracking film by James Jarvis/Richard Kenworthy. Really fantastic animation.
And top tune too - released in the UK as Crayon by Manitoba years ago, on my mate Tony's Leaf Label. Great to hear that get the credit it deserves too.
It's very rare to see a totally new approach to a music video. But I think this certainly is one. Genius. The turntable skills are excellent anyway. The video on top is the icing on the cake...
I think Jet Blue were the first to totally demonstrate the honesty and transparency of a "straight to YouTube" apology, a couple of years ago, when bad weather left thousands of people stranded on the tarmac over a holiday weekend. Asda in Fulwood have given it a go as well, to demonstratet that the infamous late night chicken licker was in a minority of one. Fair play to them - hope they get the views (especially locallly). It's a nice approach. But (maybe because I work in that intersection of digital comms and PR) I can't help thinking that even their response is not quite as credible as it could be. It reads to me as if Head Office have come up there with a camera, found some good people and edited it together - rather than staff at the store taking matters into their own hands... Either way, we're going to see more of these of these heartfelt apologies/singling out of the one bad apple on social media. The chalenge companies have is how to demonstrate sincerity and honesty as they do it. But 10 points ot Asda for having a crack.
Have been thinking about moving off Blogger for a while. Having tinkered with both Wordpress, Tumblr and Posterous, I've decided to take the plunge and move Chris Reed - ginger and proud over to Posterous.
So, I'll shift feedburner over shortly (and hopefully seemlessly), but will be double-posting for a little while. In the meantime, if you wouldn't mind posting comments there, and not here, I'd appreciate it.
I'd missed a few London Bloggers Meetups in a row for various reasons, so was really looking forward to last week's. Not only was Matt from the Londonist speaking (I was on holiday when he was on the panel for the "What next for journalism?" debate at Fishburn Hedges [my employer], but had heard very good things), but also those fine people from Starbucks were sponsoring the night at The Old Crown on New Oxford Street.
Despite the heat, the atmosphere in the room was as friendly and welcoming as ever. And both Matt and Jason from Edelman (representing Starbucks) gave a fine old spiel, though I'm afraid Chris from Buy.at failed to convince me that I should start affiliate marketing. The whole transparency issue worries me...
Anyway - hats off to Andy Bargery for organising another fine night, and for Starbucks and Edelman for supporting it financially (and with free VIA coffee sachets). While doing a bit more research into the coffee I did raise a wry smile at the instructions on the Starbucks site for it. Having seen the pic I was half expecting to see disclaimer: warning - adding boiling water may make the contents hot ;)
The internets were rocked to their very foundations earlier today when people who spend a lot of time on the internets, couldn't spend as much time on the internets as they would have liked, because someone had switched off some of the internets by using them too much.
Speculation as to who organised the Denial of Service attacks on Twitter and Facebook is rife, and the conspiracy theorists who like to spend a lot of time on the internets are having a field day making up conspiracy theories on the internets about the internets. Welcome to echo-chamber heaven.
To save Google going down under the sheer weight of people trying to search for the conspiracy theories, I make up many of them here:
1) It was Ev from Twitter who was getting concerned that his appearance on Newsnight last night (below) hadn't done him any favours, and he simply didn't want any other tweets doing the rounds pointing it out and linking to it
2) It was Kirsty Wark from Newsnight, or the Newsnight production team, also concerned that his appearance on Newsnight (and their Demi Moore... Demi Moore line of questioning) wasn't doing them any favours either
3) It was Demi Moore, a bit peeved that she featured so much in the Newsnight interview with Ev when all she does is use Twitter like the rest of us
4) It was Desperate Dan, Dennis the Menace and Gnasher wanting to deflect attention from the £25M purchase of Friends Reunited. That's a lot of Fan Club memberships' worth of money, for not very much of anything at all really, isn't it?
5) It was Rupert Murdoch, fresh from dropping the bomb that his online media empire would start charging for content, to show all these business-plan-free businesses who have been depriving his titles of advertiser-friendly eyeballs that he's up for a fight
6) It was those black-hat hackers who were hacked off that Apple fixed the scary SMS bug that would have brought the world of iPhone fanboys to their knees weeping and gnashing their teeth because they received a [] text
7) It was all the cool kids, pissed off that their parents had not only taken over their favourite social networking sites, but that OFCOM had found out about it too, and they were showing the world and their parents that they know how the internets work
I'm sure there are other possibilities, but I reckon it must have been a combination of all of these... Unless it was something else entirely. Either way, the world hasn't ended...just another ordinary day on the internets.
And if you haven't yet seen the Newsnight interview, enjoy.
OK, it's an oldie but a goodie, but this never ceases to put a smile on my face. Have seen Beardyman a few times and always been impressed - especially when he gets cracking with a reverb/sample pedal.
Chris Reed - PR by day. Web evangelist by night. Music fan at the weekend. Full time ginger and dad. And just for the avoidance of any doubt, this is all my own work. The views expressed here are my own, not my employers', but there's some more blurb about me on the Fishburn Hedges site.
It's easy to track me down on Twitter (@chris_reed) or, unless you're a nasty spambot, you can email me direct, chris [at] chrisandlin [dot] com.
