Category Archives: Track of the day

Track of the day: The Cure – ‘Lullaby’

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All of a sudden, I’m seeing The Cure in all sorts of places – news broke on Monday that the venerable English band are dragging out their hairspray, black hair dye and red lipstick for the 2012 European summer festival season, and last night I saw Finnish band French Films, whose song introductions seemed to be mostly variations on the intro to the classic ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing).

After the heydays of the 80s and 90s, The Cure hovered stealthily but steadily at the edges of the popular music conscience for a couple of decades. But not for much longer – I guess it’s now The Cure’s turn to be at the frontline of influence for the current generation of up-and-coming bands. I’m seeing their names pop up on press releases in the field marked ‘seminal influences while growing up’ a lot more lately – well, they did win the NME ‘Godlike Genius’ award in 2009. Looks like 2012 is going be a Cure revival on a rather epic scale.

So in the wake of the (glorious) news of Smith and co.’s return to the concert arena in 212, I’m revisiting The Cure’s increasingly-referenced back catalogue. For instance, the track ‘Lullaby’, from 1989′s brilliant Disintegration, which, along with Twin Peak’s Bob, used to scare the crap out of me in high school:

The Cure are playing at numerous festivals during the European summer, including Pinkpop (NL), Les Eurockeennes (FR), Southside (DE), Hurricane (DE), Hultsfred (SE), Roskilde (DK), Heinekin Jammin’ (IT), and Rock In Roma (IT). Fingers crossed for a Swiss festival! See the full list here.

Track of the day: Autoheart – ‘Control’

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I’m a sucker for indie pop gems, and that’s exactly why the charmingly-named East london group Autoheart (formerly The Gadsdens) have snuck into my early-2012 playlist – by virtue of a well-placed piano melody, some lovely, fervent vocals and a self-directed, appropriately nostalgic, fuzzy video. Right up my alley.

‘Control’ is the first track from Autoheart’s forthcoming album, which was supposedly recorded in semi-Arctic conditions in Greater Manchester during a freak spell of cold weather (talk about suffering for your art. If you listen closely you can almost hear their teeth chattering – just kidding). It might account for the doomed tenor of the lyrics (relationship breakdown, despair, etc etc), though:

Why don’t you grab a free download of the track while you are listening?

 Autoheart’s forthcoming album, produced by Danton Supple, is due for release in 2012.

Autoheart play at The Bar Fly in Camden, London, 01.02.2012.

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Game on

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I’m no gamer, and I’m usually blissfully oblivious to anything video game-related, but recently a couple of music tracks used in the marketing of a couple of major video games have caught my attention.

While a long drive recently I came across French musician and director Yoann Lemoine, aka Woodkid, whose track ‘Iron’ is used in the trailer for the Ubisoft game Assassin’s Creed: Revelations:

Very reminiscent of These New Puritans‘ ‘We Want War’, and featuring the type of big Japanese-monk drum I’ve seen in about 80% of live shows this year. But still a rather good and compelling track, nice vocals from Mr Lemoine and a suitably mysterious and foreboding atmosphere.

Also, earlier in 2011 The National contributed ’Exile Vilify’ to the Portal 2 video game (this video is the winner of a competition held by the band):

I admit to being rather taken aback at the time by the release of this track in support of a video game. I don’t know why I was so surprised, perhaps it was because The National don’t seem to be a) the type of band to do commercial endorsements, and b) don’t appear to be the type of people to be gamers. And here I admit that I fell completely into a useless and outdated stereotype. I have no idea what Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner et al get up to in the tour bus/in their spare time. In fact, odds are that they ARE big time gamers, at least as evinced by their release of ‘Exile Vilify’ for Portal 2. It all goes to show that I know nothing, nothing at all about gamers and their world. Guess I should get out more.

But the tracks I’ve mentioned above are good, great even, and from interesting musicians, not just manufactured pop/rock/hip-hop/R&B artists who’ve been roped into promoting the latest gaming release of their record label’s parent company. It’s not surprising that the fields of gaming, music, and cinema are merging and cross-pollinating. Wondering now which gaming franchise will be next up for a music/cinema treatment…World of Warcraft, perhaps?

The Woodkid Iron EP is out now on Green United Music. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations by Ubisoft is out now. 

‘Exile Vilify’ by The National is out now on Clear Vinyl as the B-side of the ‘Think You can Wait’ single. Portal 2 by Valve Corporation is available now.

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Track of the day: Shields – ‘White Knuckle Tight Grip’

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Sometimes (like today), when I get up in the morning and look out the window to see thick, dreary fog rolling and curling over the lake with no sign of respite, I feel like going straight back to bed and pulling the covers over my head. Today that’s not an option – but oh, how I wish it was! – so I’ll have to find an alternate means of surviving the day.

Shields to the rescue! Their new single ‘White Knuckle Tight Grip’ is a perfectly jaunty pop moment, with a definite The Police-esque vibe (that’s a good thing), just what I need to brighten up my morning:

I couldn’t resist adding this, too, because look how much fun the Shields blokes are having bouncing around in amongst all those balloons in the video from their first single ‘Spires’:

Who could resist those images of, *sob*, sunshine, blue sky, fields of lavender and green grass? I feel cheerier already.

(Click here to discover the fate of all those poor, defenseless balloons. Is there no mercy in the world?)

Shields’ second single ‘White Knuckle Tight Grip’ is out on Riverman Records on 28.11.11

Shields are touring Europe in support of Neon Indian and The Naked And Famous throughout November and December. Details here.

Track of the day: ‘Shiver’ – Boys Next Door

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Back in my university days I would lay in wait for this song to be played on either the local Brisbane public radio station 4ZZZ, or national broadcaster Triple J, like some kind of rare bird only seen once in a blue moon. Hearing it was always indescribably poignant – perhaps because of its association with the doomed Michael Hutchence, or perhaps purely because of Nick Cave‘s fatalistic delivery of its melodramatic lyrics of suicide and teenage heartbreak.

Boys Next Door was the first incarnation of Nick Cave’s first band (they would later move to London and rename themselves The Birthday Party). ‘Shiver’ was written by The Boys Next Door guitarist Rowland S. Howard at the tender age of 16, and recorded in 1979 for the album Door, Door.

For me, ‘Shiver’ always had something of an aura of myth surrounding it, a status only enhanced by its use in the 1986 film Dogs in Space. Set in the post-punk era Melbourne suburbs and starring Michael Hutchence of INXS as the drugged out band frontman Sam (in a strangely prescient role, given his later fate – although in the film it is Anna who dies of a heroin overdose rather than committing suicide as Hutchence did in 1997), the film captured a moment in Australian film and music just as the 80s were dying and the bombastic 90s were about to begin.

Watch a very young, blue-eyed Nick Cave perform ‘Shiver’:

Video of the day: ‘We Go’ – Choo Choo

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The cheeky chums from Bernese band Choo Choo have just debuted the video for ‘We Go’, the third single from their album Cannes, and as usual it’s chock full of their usual humour, style and wit. Plus, spiffy special effects!

Choo Choo‘s second album Cannes is out now.

Choo Choo play @ I ha Nüt Festival, Cully, 17.09.11 and Kufa Lyss, Bern, 04.11.11