Charlotte Gainsbourg teams up with Beck

Couples the world over, get ready for some mutual masturbation. Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg are working together on her forthcoming LP. Handsome boy and coolsexy woman in the same place. Take your pick who gets yer pocket fumble.

Beck said that he has been collaborating with the Frenchster in Los Angeles and Paris on the follow-up to 2006's '5:55'.

"I was supposed to work on her last album but I couldn't get over there," Beck said on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. "Now I'm working on her follow-up record."

Beck's pappy, David Campbell, made the strings happen on '5:55', which Gainsbourg also collabbed with Jarvis Cocker, Air and The Divine Comedy. Should I bother mentioning Serge Gainsbourg? Okay, I won't bother.

Kyle Drinkwine: Karaoke enforcer.

Meet Kyle Drinkwine. He's from Wisconsin and is 24. Get this. Kyle (allegedly) got so pissed by a lacklustre karaoke performance of a heavy metal song that he assaulted the singer and a second man!

Full Throttle

According to a River Falls Police Department report, Drinkwine throttled singer James Mischler, 28, and his friend Cyrus Kozub, 29, "over one's ability to sing karaoke." Kozub said that Mischler was performing 'Holy Diver', the title cut on Dio's '83 debut LP... and it gets weirder...

Stuff Whitey Digs

Oh man! You godda read this I just stumbled across! Man, this blog has we, Whitey, banged to rights! You won't believe! Okay, before I start laughing myself a snot bubble, click here. It's a piece called Black Music That Black People Don't Listen To Anymore, and taken from a site called Stuff White People Like. I won't spoil it for you, I just want you to go read it. I snickered my way through it thinking "Man, I'm one predictable bitch!"

Fing iz, the rest of the site has got Whitey banged to rights too. Reading the headers, it includes Humous, Promising To Learn A New Language, Compaing People To Hitler, Pea Coats, The Onion, Self Aware Hip Hop References, Girls With Bangs, Typos On Menus, Having Gay Friends... it goes on and on... man. You think you're not predictable? Wrong. Go laugh 'n' hoot by clicking here to read the rest of the site.

LCD Soundsystem to call it a day?

LCD Soundsystem might be calling it a day, okay? You upset at that prospect? See, thing is, I'm not. I seriously dug 'Losing My Edge'... in fact... I still seriously dig it. It's a cool-ass DIY thang which takes the piss outta loadsa people I know and that probably includes me. If you ain't heard it, click over and listen to it right now. It's a stupidly great record. So I waited for the LP to come out, hammering the twelve all the while and... then it came out, I listen to it and... uh... ah... it was super-lame. I got bored trying to get into it and ended up giving it away. I've been back to it... I still can't dig it.

However, there's still loads of you who love the cheek of it, who love the cheek of 'Daft Punk are playing in my house, my house...' and whatnot. Well, mebbe no more.

New Evan Dando track. Listen with your eyes.

Lemonheads mainman Evan Dando has collabbed with a German band called Tortuga Bar. There's this track called 'Storm' and guess whut? It's available to hear online now.

Tortuga Bar is ex-Sharon Stoned and Speed Niggs' Mark Kowarsch and the Dando track also features guitarist Gisbert zu Knyphausen. Mean anything to you? Me neither, I just copied it down from the blackboard.

The track, a folky little number, will be on the forthcoming 'Narcotic Junkfood Revolution' LP, which will be out early 2009. 30 year old women, get ready to go weak at the knees like you were 18 again.

Listen to the track here.

Bible tapping with Prince

I've had a funny time of it with Prince. For years and years he was my enemy. I hated every the square inch of him. In a mag I started at 6th form called Do The Shag, where I first wrote the word 'gusto', I also wrote about Prince. I said: "Sex pixie Prince is made entirely of wax, eats tinfoil and lives in a sock". Do this day, I've no idea what I was getting at, but I do like the rhythm of it.

Anyway, at some point, I went easy on the little fella, and started to dig some of his rekkids. I mean, I used to drink in this working men's club and when you won on the gambler, it would play 'When Doves Cry'. I think that was a turning point... and I'm being serious.

So, since then, I've sat back and watched what Prince Rogers Nelson has been getting up to... from writing 'Slave' on his face (which prompted Blur's drummer writing 'Dave' on his at The Brits) to, er, other stuff. The latest 'stuff' is that he's kicked up a bit of a stink in an interview in The New Yorker, which quotes the singer on politics...

New Bonnie Prince Billy LP. BEWARE

Bonnie Prince Billy is putting a new record out called Beware! (and it comes out in the UK on March 16 via Domino and in the U.S. on March 17 via Drag City).

There's a load of musicians playing instruments on the record, as well as Will Oldham, in his Bonnie Prince guise, playing instruments and mainly singing into a microphone. The LP will comprise of a series of 'chords' put together in a sequence to make 'songs'. You will be able to hear these and learn them on release.

You want the tracklisting for these 'songs'?

The Electric R' asks you a question and expects no answer!

Here at The Electric R', we value your opinions more than our own. I mean, we like the collective 'you' and loathe the collective 'us'. We've got more hang-ups than the backroom of a butchers. And just as bloody. This is the reason why we feebly ask you lot stuff all the time.

So the latest question? Should we even bother doing a run-down list type thing over Christmas? I mean, lists of records are the dullest thing known to man aren't they? I mean, if you want some tip-offs, fine, we'll do it... just don't expect it to be like anyone else's lists y'know?

Also, we've had some decent pieces send in, which have been put on the site... so if you fancy writing anything for us, get in touch via the email given or via our Facebook group.

The Hives versus Cyndi Lauper: Christmas audio fist-fight for Jesus

The Hives and Cyndi Lauper are to engage in a Christmas duel. Of course, the headline lied to you. They ain't kicking the teeth outta each other's faces, but rather, releasing a track for Jesus.

A yule-themed single set to hit the Hives website as a free download November 28-30 and music stores in the UK December 1 and in the States the next day from the Orchard.

In a statement, the Hives note, "It may sound weird and come as a surprise to some, but we had to. It came to us. It landed in our lap and was way too good to shake or toss. We knew we had to record it.  A sign if you will."

Lauper added, "This goes to show even rat sideswipers can have a good Xmas too." [via Pitchfork]

Review - Coffee by Mug

Big things have been expected of Mug, and the newest project, 'Coffee', went down a treat. Previous 'Coffees' have included 'That Really Nice One I Had That Time' and the hit-and-miss 'I Think The Milk Was Slightly Off'.

Thankfully, this collaboration with Milk and Boiling Water has proved to be yet another timeless classic. Like most releases, initially, 'Coffee' is almost too hot to handle, but quickly cools into something as near to perfect as you're gonna git! Sadly, like every previous effort, the longer you leave it, the more unsatisfying it becomes, cooling off to an almost tepid temperature.

NASA: Hip hop collective featuring Tom Waits, Method Man, Kool Keith, Karen O, David Byrne... and more and more...

SHIYET! There's sompin' stirring in the collaborative world of Hip Hop, man! There's this new project called NASA (which happens to stand for North America/South America) which has got a team of people working together to make one of the most interesting looking things in ages!

Firs' up, there's a track causing a bit of a stir that features Tom Waits AND Kool Keith! It's called 'Spacious Thoughts' (which you can hear if you click over in a variety of ways) which is a funky-ass track and, better yet, sees Waits going Ol Dirt' McGirt! Serious. I never put ODB and Tom Waits together before, but it makes sense.

Anyway, the NASA international collective features... Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon, who roped in... Chuck D, David Byrne, M.I.A., Karen O, Method Man, RZA, George Clinton, the aforementioned Kool Keith and Tom Waits, Nina Persson (of The Cardigans), Chali 2na from the J5... and shit loads more. It's an amazing project. Click over to watch a video about the album or listen to tracks.

Click here to hear Tom Waits and Kool Keith or if that doesn't work, click here to visit the NASA MySpace (there's more tracks there at any rate).

Play The Flaming Lips Christmas Game!

The Flaming Lips released their film, Christmas on Mars, this week (you can see it at The Barbican if you're in The Smoke) and, not done there, they've also given us all a nice game to play with too.

Basically, it's Space Invaders, but head-on. You've got Santa's hands that shoot out magical shit and blows up Wayne Coyne's many Martian heads-in-bubbles. It's stupidly easy to play and may well provide decent skiving opportunities in the office... just make sure the sound is switched off.

Click here to play the game!

Full circle as the New York Dolls team up with Todd

Sleaze rockers the New York Dolls are going back to their debut as they've announced that they're getting back with rock lizard Todd Rundgren for their next LP, with Todd at the controls.

David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain are to reunite with their original producer in January, to record the new, as-yet-untitled album. Once the LP is done, it's looking like a cert that they'll hit the road for a big ol' tour.

Johansen sez: "We're really excited to be working with Todd again. We're hoping to recapture the same magic on the forthcoming album [that was on the debut]." So do we.

Review: Thee Vicars go "WWWAAAARGH" with the hip sound of 'Back on the Streets'

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUURRRGH! So. Thee Vicars, huh? Gotsemself a record out by the name of 'Back on the Streets' and man, they've been dreaming of this place called 'Three Minutes'. Everytime they try to get there, they clean burn up in white heat around 2 minutes 30 seconds. These little fuckers keep jumpin' in the engine, full throttle from the word go, head toward this fabled land of Three Minutes and keep on hurtling, hangin' out the window with tongues furious flapping in the G-force and ending up wrapped around trees.

According to this LP, they've tried to meet their destination and left 16 flaming car-wrecks along the way... yet sumfin' tells me they ain't about to quit and are probably scouring another car to steal... back on the streets.

Joe Gideon and the Shark make 45 and I liked listening to it

Gotta be honest with you here, weighing up whether I'd like a band called Joe Gideon and the Shark, I thought to meself... 'this, this right here, is gon' be tosh. NME jangly nonesense made by 4 skinny white lads with back combed hair... it's gon' stink to high heaven.'

I was wrong.

Fact is, aside from the cruddy band name, this new 45, a double A featuring 'DOL' and 'Harum Scarum' is a a strange little creature indeed. Slow fuzz tracks that lie somewhere in the realms of Grinderman/Bad Seeds (who they happen to be supporting on tour) with the wagging finger of an angry Spirtitualized. 'DOL' kicks off with the horrors sound of the bowels of a piano falling out of it's own arse before kicking into a huge fuzz bass with off-kilter rhythms and some gecko-eye twitch sermonising. Great stuff. The b-side is just as gonked out. I think you'll like 'em. Click here to listen to 'em. [Mof]

David Holmes, The Holy Pictures, Pillows and Knives... scene shot through Salfordian Super8 and trains down West

Let me set the scene: Salford, Manchester, 1st year university exams. I am studying furiously, David Holmes plays in the background.

When I went to Salford to study music, recording and the like I got caught up in a music scene that made Manchester some of the best years of my life. There was Holmes, DJ Shadow and Mr Scruff. That was the trio and they were my sanity and awakening to a style of music that was different from anything else that I had previously recognised. Yeah, I had Bjork but she was a stepping stone in a way to the 3 Amigos.

Ten years or so on and Holmes has produced a record that I deem as near perfection. Yes, to others they may gasp and exclaim but Halina! Perfection? Calm yourself now, you are getting all melodramatic again. No, no I am not.

Dig this. Warm Sounds 'Birds and Bees'

As some of you know, I've been away this week and stayed over at this super cool guy and gal's house called Max and Seph. Max has a silly amount of records and he played me this killer bubblegum track by Warm Sounds (you might know 'em from comps with their track 'Nite Is Comin'') called 'Birds and Bees'. It's now on my 'wants list'. Max also has a radio show which you can find here. Dig.

Beatles - here's what they should do with 'Carnival of Light'

Okay, at some point, you've probably heard about The Beatles' 'Carnival of Light'. Even if you only heard about it this weekend in the newspapers. For those who haven't, it's as simple as this:

'Carnival of Light' was a 14 minute experimental electronic track which was performed only once at an electronic music festival in '67. No-one was sure if it existed. It does.

Now, Paul McCartney wants to see it getting a release. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Front Row, McCartney said: "The time has come for it to get its moment. I like it because it's The Beatles free, going off piste. I said all I want you to do is just wander around all the stuff, bang it, shout, play it, it doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum then wander on to the piano, hit a few notes, just wander around. So that's what we did and then put a bit of an echo on it. It's very free."

So, how should they release it? Pretty simple in my opinion. Give it away as a free download and press it onto a 12inch. Easy. Don't muck about trying to turn it into something more. The Beatle estate has got more than enough money. Let us have somethin' fer nuthin' fer once. [Mof]

Book Review: Sleeveface by Carl Morris & John Rostron

If you've never Sleevefaced, you're:

1. Not a proper vinyl freak
2. Joyless swine.

Fact is, Sleeveface happened by word of mouth and everyone laughed snot bubbles with glee when they saw a hound with Babs Streisand for a head... or the one with Richard Clayderman showing off a nice pie... or the one with someone with a Heino head and toy dog in shot (okay, the latter was mine and no-one found it that funny)... It took off big time. And what a fine thing to promote - LP sleeves. Crate diggers the world over have always stumbled across sleeves that bewilder and puzzle, and this book celebrates all that with it's own impish fun.

Move On Up! Soul and funk in Belfast

I know The Electric R' has a Northern Irish contingent, and they tend to bemoan the lack of new decent nights over there. Well...

Move On Up has kicked off at Queens Bar, in Queens Arcade. The club's promoters emphasises "a friendly atmosphere in a cosy environment...". Playin' whut?

Expect soul and funk from James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Booker T and the MGs, Etta James, Stevie Wonder... all that good stuff.

 

If you want more information, best thing to do is visit their Myspace page here.

[via Modculture]