This is a really interesting compilation, it's amazing given that British label 4AD went through the most of this decade almost unnoticed, pushing the wrong emerging bands (with the notable exception of Blonde Redhead) and getting mentioned only for the odd Pixies compilation.
If there's still some irritating stuff, like the kitch retro of Camera Obscura, the most of the bands (some Americans, some English) bring a refreshing sound and are worth investigating: Atlas Sound is the solo project of Deerhunter's Alex Cox, both play a unique take on psychedelic noise, Tune-Yards's fragmented mix of melody and rhythm sounds really original, M Ward's ethereal ballad seems inspired by Bowie's Low and Future Of The Left play an excellent revision of At The Drive In.
Best of the bunch are The Big Pink, which blend perfectly baggy and shoegazing, and St. Vincent which confirms Annie Clark as a genius as inventive as Bjork with an eclectic and emotional song.
The rest of the playlist is pretty average contemporary indie folk, or post folk, but discovering six interesting bands out of 12 is good enough.
I've made this video for this astonishingly intense live performance of a truly emotional song.
Exit Calm are an English emerging band, all four members are extremely talented and I think this is the best showcase for their talent. They are the best band to emerge from England in this decade.
The first single, the wonderful Higher Learning, is sold out but you can still find the video here on YouTube, and you may want to check the video of the second single, the brilliant We're On Our Own, before purchasing it on iTunes.
Check http://www.exitcalm.net for links to their (really active and interesting) forum and their MySpace, which links itself to other MySpace profiles created by Spanish, American and Japanese fans, featuring many streaming tracks.
Some might not be aware that Blogger has a new, much improved post editor which is not yet active by default.
Better link and image handling, vertical editor resizing and a button for expandable post summaries (no need to code anymore) are reasons good enough to switch to the new editor.
Enabling the new editor is easy, read An Overview Of The New Post Editor on the Blogger Guide to learn how to switch and all the new features, but after you have enabled it you must also read the article Creating 'After The Jump' Summaries because you have to adjust a couple of settings, as customizing the Read More link text, especially if you write in another language, and updating the code of your template once to make the summary feature work if you're using a customized third-party template or if you changed the code anyway.
The best way to purchase this album is to order the limited edition digipack CD with two bonus tracks from Townsend Records, and then download yet another bonus track from iTunes.
Bad Lieutenant are not, as it first seemed, New Order minus Hook, but Bernard Sumner with Phil Cunningham (who replaced Gillian Gilbert in New Order in this century) and Jake Evans from Rambo And Leroy.
Steve Morris appears on just a few tracks. He's even in the Sink Or Swim video, though the drums were apparently played by Jack Mitchell.
The forthcoming debut album by Bad Lieutenant (the new band founded by former New Order leader Bernard Sumner), Never Cry Another Tear (released on the band's own Triple Echo label), is available for pre-order on Townsend Records in a variety of editions.
The limited edition digipack features two bonus tracks and when you order it you can immediately download Dynamo, the wonderful B side to the single Sink Or Swim, which is already available on iTunes in England.
Here we have the streaming video, single and B side:
http://htxt.it/ZNop YouTube - aneworderfan I love the new channel design, much better user experience...
http://htxt.it/NqiE Bad Lieutenant on MySpace Music. It's the new project of Bernard Sumner from New Order! I love the logo! :)
