The grime stars go back to back on the Plastic Beach track White Flag. So what was it like working with a load of cartoons?

Kano: 'I was a bit worried someone was going to turn me into a cartoon'

You may think it's weird working with a cartoon band but there are a lot of characters in grime, especially since the early days. The scene was built on strong characters â€' I could imagine someone animating Wiley! I was always a bit worried that the label was going to turn me into a cartoon character because they always wanted to exaggerate everything.

I first met Damon when we did a song together, Feel Free, for my album London Town. I went down to his studio and he was working on his Monkey: Journey to the West project. We're definitely on the same page musically, but we're not too similar: it's important to be on a different wavelength as well. In the same way, I think Gorillaz are on a totally different wavelength to most popular music.

When Damon explained the concept of the Plastic Beach album to me I was pretty blown away. He said the idea was that there was this place in the middle of the Pacific ocean and basically all the musicians from around the world were coming to meet at that one place. Once he played me some music I really started to get the idea. I thought it would...

Read More

MP3:> Drive-By Truckers: "This Fucking Job"

As previously reported, the Southern rock institution Drive-By Truckers are gearing up to release album number 10, The Big To-Do. The album will arrive March 16 via ATO, the label that Dave Matthews co-founded.

That picture of a top-hatted monkey riding a freaky black dragon-bird? It's not actually a deleted scene from Avatar; it's the album's cover art. And you can click above to stream or download "This Fucking Job", the album's lead single. It says good things about Dave Matthews that he's willing to release a song called "This Fucking Job" as a single.

A documentary about the Truckers called The Secret to a Happy Ending will premiere February 5 in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Also, the band will hit the road this month on a run of North American dates that'll take them clear through May. We've got their itinerary below.

Drive-By Truckers:

01-28 Huntsville, AL - Crossroads Music Hall
01-29 Mobile, AL - Soul Kitchen
01-30 Tuscaloosa, AL - Jupiter Bar & Grill
02-11 Greenville, SC - Handlebar
02-12 Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre
02-13 Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre
02-14 Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre
02-25 Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theatre
02-26 Charlottesville, VA - Jefferson Theatre *
02-27 Charlottesville, VA - Jefferson Theatre *
03-04 Wilmington, NC -...

Read More

On March 2, sunny New Zealand psych-pop outfit the Ruby Suns will release Fight Softly, the follow-up to the BNM'ed 2008 LP Sea Lion, on Sub Pop. (It's out March 8 in the UK on Memphis Industries.) That's the space-bar-averse cover art above.

Talking to Pitchfork back in October, frontman Ryan McPhun described Fight Softly as "probably the opposite" of Sea Lion: "I used a lot more synths. And there's a shitload of effected guitar on it. But I didn't use a lot of live drums. Going into it, I wanted to use organic sounds but I didn't want them to sound organic, which is the opposite of what a lot of people do. It's safe to say the new stuff is more bass-y."

Right now, we're getting our first taste of how the more bass-y Ruby Suns sound. Click below to stream or download "Cranberry" from Fight Softly. (UPDATE: The album version has been replaced with the radio edit.)

Shortly after the album hits, the Ruby Suns will tour North America, bringing glo-fi youngster Toro Y Moi along for the ride. They've also got a few New Zealand dates scheduled for next month We've got the band's full touring itinerary below.

MP3:> The Ruby Suns: "Cranberry" (radio edit)

The Ruby Suns:

02-19 Port Chalmers, New Zealand - Chick's Hotel #
02-20...

Read More

From working with Malian musicians to scoring an opera, the former Blur singer has emerged as a true pop renaissance man

When Blur first emerged, Damon Albarn seemed to me little more than a quirky songwriter among Britpop's grey and repetitious ranks. Over the years, however, my perception of him has changed considerably.
Now, I rate him alongside Ray Davies and Elvis Costello as one of England's great, unpredictable songwriters.

After Blur, Albarn has involved himself in one ambitious musical project after another. And to his credit, he has pulled off even the most unlikely concepts. His ventures seem to be guided by imagination and instinct. In an age of formulaic pop, such idiosyncrasy is to be treasured.

It wasn't always this way. In 1991 I was left totally unmoved by Blur's debut, Leisure. In the fading glow of Madchester, the album seemed half-baked and unoriginal. Maybe there were hints of the great pop songs that Blur would later write, but I just found the likes of There's No Other Way silly. I didn't listen to Blur again until Parklife in 1994. That record was unquestionably of its time, but the dynamic pop songs (Girls and Boys, This Is a Low) are still enjoyable today.

At this point, I still wouldn't have imagined the challenges Albarn would later set himself. The Great Escape struck me as uninspired and repetitious. I thought Blur would go on to produce variations on Parklife until the public had tired...

Read More

At a December 8 benefit show at the Echoplex in L.A., "Weird Al" Yankovic will sing a Pixies song with members of the Pixies. This will obviously be an incredible thing to see.

Yankovic will sing the Doolittle jam "I Bleed". But maybe if we bug him enough, he'll subject a Pixies song or two to the "Weird Al" treatment. "Here Comes Your Spam"? "This Monkey's Gone to 7-11"? This needs to happen.

The show is one of two benefits, taking place December 8-9 at the Echoplex and the Echo, to raise money for Winston's Village, which supports the family of Winston Bertrand, a nine-month-old baby born with lymphatic and venous malformations, two rare and life-threatening conditions.

Pixies frontman Black Francis will host the events. He'll perform solo as well as with members of the Pixies (including Flea filling in on bass!) and with the Grand Duchy, his duo with wife Violet Clark. The December 8 show will also feature performances from members of Love and Rockets and She Wants Revenge, as well as Michael Penn and the 88.

The next night, Francis will host an evening of comedy. The bill includes Tim and Eric, Bob Odenkirk, Brian Posehn, and Pixies drummer David Lovering. Francis will perform on both nights, which raises the absolutely intriguing possibility of a Black Francis stand-up comedy set.

Half-handed Cloud â€' Animals Are Cut in Two
(From Das Kleinicum)
Sparkling, quaint indie in which Berkeley's John Ringhofer has his knives out for the likes of Damien Hirst ("The same thing that happened to the animals will have to happen to you"). It's a radical suggestion for a performance piece, but then it may finally help the Groucho Club barfly land a decent review.

Ape School â€' Wail to God
(From The Walrus)
Warped psych-rock from Ninja Tune producer Michael Johnson's solo project. The superb video (by apparent Robert Crumb devotee Anthony Schepperd) imagines a post-judiciary world where monkey, machine and, um, loads of breasts live together in mellifluous harmony. 

Warpaint â€' Krimson
(From iso50. Thanks to theunderstudy for the recommendation)
LA's Warpaint are something of a fantasy band â€' they look like the Corrs, sound far better (early Tom Petty, Kate Bush and Jefferson Airplane) and could easily be cast as the bar band in a Tarantino movie that doesn't suck (while we're dreaming). How can the beer-sculpted blokes of other work-a-day groups hope to compete?

JJ â€' Go Go Club (Riddim mixx)
(From YouTube via Heatwave)
Chainsaw-chopped remix of a track bounding up the Jamaican charts, according to Heatwave blogger Dan Bean. His survey of scene stars includes hits from Mavado, Ce'cile and NMOW favourite Timberlee. 

The Marshmallow Ghosts â€' Shriek
(From Pampelmoose)
Early Halloween offering...

Read More

Spanish speed metal? Croation crunk? Greek ghetto funk? Relive the sounds you encountered on your summer hols

October is rubbish. It's not summer. It's not Christmas. It's dark all the time. Nothing happens for 30 days, and then some brat wearing a Scream mask threatens to pelt you with eggs unless you give him a fun-sized Milky Way. October can shut up.

So let's look back on the summer holidays. Specifically, let's look back on the music that defined your trip. Because, for me, one of the best things about going abroad is seeing the local acts on whatever version of MTV your hotel TV boasts. Unless you're in Greece. If memory serves correct, watching Greek MTV is like spending an eternity trapped in an echo chamber located deep inside a Teletubby's central nervous system.

It's time for an amnesty. What are the songs from other countries that coloured your holiday? This summer, I discovered two German acts who've produced some of the best music I've heard all year. First there was the thrilling, monkey-fixated madness of Peter Fox, who sounds like a more furious Faithless rendered tolerable by the fact that you can't understand anything he's saying. And then there's Karpatenhund, an improbably spectacular indie band who write stadium-sized tunes with exactly the right amount of restraint. Similarly, Quiereme by Colombia's Diana Angel never fails to charm me silly.

Those are my choices. Now it's your turn. What local music was an important...

Read More

Dylan's career has taken some strange directions. Perhaps that's why he's been asked to voice two satnav systems

The question of precisely how many roads a man must walk down before you can call him a man has baffled music fans for decades. Many agree that from central London to Norwich is enough. Others argue that this is but a child's toddle, and the man in question would have to get as far as Preston at least, even though that's basically just the M1 and the M6, making two roads in total, which doesn't sound like enough roads at all.

Bob Dylan, the man who posed the question in Blowin' in the Wind in 1963, has clearly grown tired of pondering this dilemma, and is now after the answers to more precise travelling questions such as, "How many roads, and in which directions, must a man drive down to get as directly as possible from Stoke Newington Church Street to King's Cross, smoothly navigating the many one-way systems in his path, and what parking facilities might he find when he gets there?"

On Sunday's edition of his internationally syndicated radio show Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, Dylan revealed that two car manufacturers are in discussion with him to become the voice of their GPS satnav systems. "I think it would be good," Dylan said, "if you are looking for directions and hear my voice saying something like 'left at the next street, no a...

Read More

Rare music sleuths make a monkey of the major labels

Not only was Faith commercially successful, it showed the former Wham! singer moving into Brian Wilson Pet Sounds territory

Barely a week goes by without an album getting the legacy-edition treatment. Usually I'm against the money-grabbing mentality of major labels, but I've been enjoying these reissues. Featuring rare demos, live footage and extra tracks from huge talents like John Martyn, Dennis Wilson and Johnny Cash, they're great historical documents.

What music fan wouldn't want to have the Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison DVD? Who doesn't want to hear an extra 50 Pavement tracks? Exactly. Which brings me to an important question: why is there no legacy edition of George Michael's Faith? Not only was it commercially successful, it also set a template for a solo artist wishing to progress beyond their boyband past (in Michael's case, Wham!).

In retrospect, were Wham! really that bad? Of course they weren't! Which is why Wham! have been making a comeback on the dancefloor recently courtesy of Idjut Boys and Dmitri from Paris.

Solo success beckoned for Michael after he tested the waters with Careless Whisper and Last Christmas, but his masterpiece Faith was still in the offing. Michael's transformation from Wham! to mature solo star paved the way for other frustrated boyband members. And he did it without being tame â€' his first single I Want Your Sex was banned. Amazing. George Michael was banned for being sexually dangerous. Who would have thought the singer of Wham!...

Read More