Chill Out

Here is a chill out mood playlist I've been listening to recently that you may like some of.

'Another World' by The Chemical Brothers

This one is from their superb 2010 album 'Further'. All its songs are worth a listen, notably 'Swoon' and 'Dissolve'.

'New Theory' by Washed Out

This amateur music video is sweet and the song is nice, spacey Chillwave Synthpop. Ernest Greene is the guy's off-stage name, he comes from Georgia and he was discovered à-la-Lily-Allen via Myspace before being brought to everyone's attention by music bloggers, like Pitchfork.

'Drinkin' in L.A.' by Bran Van 3000

This was the Canadian band's first single in 1998. Another one that's best served with cold beers and sunshine.

'Que Sera' by Wax Tailor

Came across Wax Tailor thanks to the Klapisch film Paris. Perfect "easy listening". And this video's pretty quirky. Here is a link to the slightly longer version on Spotify.

'Ghostwriter' by RJD2

I was introduced to RJ by a friend who works in a recording studio and was involved with one of his albums. Since then I've noticed this song in particular cropping up in random places; it's been used in a number of adverts.

Wayne Newton

Ever heard/watched a Powhatan-Irish-German-American Republican man who sounds like a woman sing half in German, half in English? Well, maybe you have I'm not quite sure how well known he is to be honest. But if you haven't, here's your lucky day.

Here's my favourite song (i.e. the only one I know):

Danke Schoen - Wayne Newton

Sébastien Tellier

Discovered a bit of YouTube gold through a friend and had to share.
I'd never heard of Sébastien Tellier, but upon research I found he's a French singer-songwriter who did Eurovision in 2008 (a brave mistake perhaps as France only came 19th) and once collaborated with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (the half of Daft Punk with the, er, interesting name). Guy-Manuel produced his third album, 'Sexuality'. Tellier went in a new direction and called it "intellectual R&B".

Sébastien is clearly an arse man (like many male frogs) which is reflected in the video for 'Look'. I like the audio but I like the visuals much more. One could say it simply consists of a woman shitting diamonds, but I promise it's much more tasteful than that.

Klaxons

WARNING: There may be some ranting in the following post.

When I read that Klaxons were releasing a second album I thought "hmm I must check that out" because I rather liked their debut (although I don't know if I'd still like it now, I was 13 at the time of its release, everyone was listening to it and I wasn't very mature in my music taste).
Well don't bother. They've released a video of their new single 'Echoes' and if that's anything to go by, 'Surfing The Void' is going to be shit. Apparently Polydor told them to re-record bits because it was "too experimental for release". It's not experimental in the slightest, so either they recorded the whole thing again or their label do not have a clue what they're talking about. Or both. It's dull dull dull.
The video is stupid for a start. To begin with I thought "Alright they're doing that half-whispering, half-talking thing again. That's okay". Then I started to get bored and the whole I'm-such-a-liberal-free-thinker-I'm-wearing-clothes-that-don't-really-match thing was grating on me. I was wondering if they were going to claim they're on their gap yahs and that they'd been on the lash the night before and had made vomcanoes. With little chunklets. (It's set in Egypt).
Anyway it's basically a load of guys all standing triumphantly as if they were God-given gifts, wind blowing through their hair, occasionally shouting "eeeechoes [something about otherworlds]".
Then there's the song. Stupendously banal, vapid, uninspiring to the max. And that's all I have to say.

Rant over.

Anyway now you can see/hear for yourself. If you must.

'Echoes'

Eliza Doolittle (2)

Peeping behind a mannequin

Just read up on her and apparently she's Sylvia Young's granddaughter. Wow. I used to be on Sylvia Young's Agency for acting but I didn't get that many auditions and didn't get the roles most of the time. I think I was a bit shit. Also when I was about 11 to.. well to now I was/am very moody and none of them liked me much. I wasn't stage school-ey and enthusiastic, I wanted to be in depressing dark films not McDonalds adverts. Oh well. I gave it up completely when I did my last job, a voice over for a film set in France. However afterwards they said they wouldn't hire me again or something because I looked so bored and glum.

Anyway, I was casually shopping in Oxford Street with my two best mates and we went to Topshop. I then saw a crowd gather around a little weeny stage and spotted a sign informing us Eliza Doolittle was going to perform. Like right there and then. Coincimental.
It was rather hard to take pics as I got there last minute but I did my best.

Eliza and her guitarist

I enjoyed her hit, Skinny Genes, whilst perusing the Topshop rails. When that ended she played a medley that sounded, well, quite crap really. She's got a nice voice but the song was generic and boring. One of my mates then informed me she was singing a Justin Bieber song (mashed up with something else I couldn't put my finger on) and at that point I bought everything I was carrying and left. Why would she feel the need to resort to covering Bieber? Or has she simply got no taste? Anyway it pissed me off.

Caption competition?

Belle & Sebastian

I adore Belle & Sebastian and even more so in the summer. They produce the most perfect summer tunes. If you don't know their stuff, the indie pop septet could be described as a combination of The Smiths and The Shins, with a dash of Nick Drake and a droplet of Fleet Foxes.
I discovered them when I became obsessed with Teachers, a channel 4 comedy series that started in 2001 and ended in 2004. The series has one of the best soundtracks I've come across (the other programme being Shameless, in which you can enjoy all the best Madchester music). It's still on 4oD if you're interested in watching the four series.
To get to the point, the ending theme of Teachers is 'The Boy With The Arab Strap', the title track of their most successful album. The song also featured in 500 days of summer.

Here is their performance of it on Jools Holland:

Two Belle & Sebastian songs also appeared on the soundtrack of Juno (which is stunning).

'Expectations'

'Piazza, New York Catcher'

The worst song you will listen to for at least a very long time

I have just discovered, yes, the worst song I've ever heard. It beats U2, Miley Cyrus, even The Jonas Brothers. I thought I'd share the pain of listening to it.

A Whole New World by Peter Andre & Katie Price (I say Katie Price, it's clearly not her singing):