Flight of the Conchords - Bus Driver's Song

Office Christmas party last night, killer headache this morning.  For those not in the know, in true credit crunch stylee we cancelled our planned Christmas bash at London Bridge, and decided to have it in the office.  Many alcoholic high jinks followed, and sadly there is video footage of pretty much all of it.  Whoever thought it was a good idea to start packaging mobile phones with video cameras?!

Still feeling a little under the weather (ahem), so not much blogging being done.  The only thing that's keeping my head above water at work are the ever-wonderful Flight of the Conchords.  I'm so excited about the new series, which should be hitting the Beeb in January '09.

Anyway - I'm sure fans of the show will know all the songs from the episodes, but I'm posting one that comes from their pre-TV days.  It's one of my all-time favourites of theirs - a look at life in New Zealand through the eyes of Coachline driver Tony.  Very funny, of course, but sweet and quite affecting at the same time.

Enjoy

Jx

Alex Roots Alex Roots Alex Roots!

What were you doing at 16?  If you were anything like me, you were panicking about which A-levels to take, sneaking into under-age pubs (of which Cambridge had a wide array), and listening to Pulp.  What you possibly weren't doing was surrounding yourself by a media-savvy array of agents, managers, label folk and songwriters, and making a determined assault on London's live scene; but then again, neither of us are Alex Roots...

Now I've been meaning to blog about this little lady for a while now, ever since we booked her to open for us at dancetillyoudie's 1st birthday party in Kilburn a couple of months ago and she attracted a hysteria akin to the start of 'A Hard Day's Night' (well....almost...) to be exact.  Why do I bring her to your attention, you ask?  Because she's a chuffing pop marvel, that's why!

Ploughing a furrow described by the Guardian as mid-way between Cyndi Lauper, Blondie, Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne, Alex and her co-writer (pop/RnB stalwart Ryan Laubscher) have crafted a selection of musical gems that seem sure to grace the Radio 1 playlist in the not too distant, from the faux thrash of 'Fake', to the Lauper-inspired 'Put Your Hands up' to the quite wonderful 'Dizzy from the Ride' (mother flippin's favourite), they are all belters.

(hat-tip to Sheena Beaston for the link to this megamix - you can also hear a couple of the tracks in full on her Good Groove artist page...)

Her debut album looks set to drop in the early part of 2009, released on the Good Groove imprint that brought Corinne Bailey Rae to the music-buying public.  It sounds like they have another hit on their hands...

Jx

Bring Your Parents Records - Sunday 7th December

So this Sunday I was invited along to the latest venture from the kids from Broccoli Music, Bring Your Parents' Records.  A co-promotion with Jonny Awsum - PR guru and all-round lovely lovely man - who they found running the night in his front room, the night normally has its home in Bar Vinyl, Camden.  For their Xmas bash, however, they had upped sticks all of 10 yards to nextdoor's Zen Sai bar.

The night is a great idea.  You bring a load of dusty old vinyl along (mine had the benefit of a bit of scratching for that 'true' record sound), hopefully half-inched from your loving mother and father, and stick it on the bar's one - yes, count it, one - record deck, one track at a time.  The set-up flatters all levels of DJing proficiency, though the gaps between tracks does tend to get longer as the 4-hour happy hour (don't tell Gordon) takes hold of the crowd, and the random nature of most parental LP collections allows for some...interesting setlists.  

I have to say one of the best things about the night, though, is that it genuinely rewards the fun rather than the obscure - play Postman Pat and you get cheered, play ELO and you'll be lauded to the rafters, play anything too hip and you'll be laughed off the decks, as one girl found within two minutes of sticking some pounding dance nonsense on at the start of her set.  There WAS a little too much Bob Marley on display, but it WAS a Sunday...

I had the privilige of kicking proceedings off at 3pm, being a Sunday the bar was already undulating gently if not jumping, and I treated them to (as far as the Coronas will let me remember):

J Walk - Another Lover

Jummy Ruffin - What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five - Pump me Up

Rufus Thomas - Walking the Dog
Sparks - Thank God it's Not Christmas

Led Zeppelin - Good Times Bad Times

Duran Duran - Planet Earth

Jesus Christ Superstar (1974) - Overture

ripper!

Jx

Bo Pepper - I Haven't Got You Anything (This Christmas)

So Christmas rolls around, along with all the usual traditions.  You know what I'm talking about; Turkey for dinner, Shrek on the TV, The Queen's Speech, Mince pies and mulled wine, and the X Factor winner getting to Christmas Number 1.....

...but wait!  What light from yonder musical window breaks?  It can't actually be...no....a....half-decent Christmas song?!  Hallelujah!  

They go by the name of Bo Pepper, and Mother Flippin is a BIG fan having encountered them a number of times over the past year.  Fronted by the charming Dolly Pepper, they sound like the Strokes and look a lot better.  I mean they've even got idential twins in the band for God's sake, that's got to give them one up on El Tel in the Chrimberley music stakes, surely?!  So, I know where MY festive 79p iTunes purchase will be heading, and it won't be to Terry Wogan or Alexandra Burke*...Plus, if they get to the top spot, it might make Simon Cowell look like this...

and THAT's worth the money!

Jx

*of course I don't KNOW that she's going to win, but it would be a travesty if she didn't...

Lily Allen - The Fear

Ahhhh, Lily Allen.  Good to see that she's back to making music rather than mouthing off.  Mother Flippin is a big fan, and her new single 'The Fear', from the forthcoming album 'It's not me, it's you' is a winner - as is the video.  She's lookin' goooood...

Jx

Kid Cudi - Day 'n' Night

Yeah!  One of my favourite club tracks of the year is finally getting a proper commercial release.

The Crookers' remix of Kid Cudi's 'Day 'n' Night' obviously impressed the danceratti across the globe enough for the track to be picked up by Data Records, given a new 'Club Mix' title (the artist is now Kid Cudi vs. Crookers), remixed a couple of times, and stuck out for the chart to chomp on.  Not sure as to the release date as yet, but I'm sure there'll be some kind of girls in bikinis video along soon enough...

Kid Cudi vs. Crookers - Day 'n' Nite (RCDLBL)

I have to say, most of the new mixes can't hold a candle to the Crookers' original mix, but one that tries damned hard is the spiffy 'Jokers of the Scene' mix - haven't heard of them before, but this is lovely and squelchy!

Kid Cudi vs. Crookers - Day 'n' Nite (Jokers of the Scene Remix)

(hat-tip to Stoney Roads for the link)

Enjoy!

Jx