Get your VEG(C)

The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club are one of the most fun bands around, but then again you should already know this from their very enjoyable album "Love On An Oil Rig". You SHOULD do, though frankly, I don't think that album got the attention it deserved despite managing to combine all the fierce, edge of your seat insanity of the Pixies whilst also having a groove to it, akin to those old Wall of Sound girl groups.

The highlight of Love On an Oil Rig, for me, was the single "Parrot", which started with one of the most ominous clunking bass intros, before bursting into life as a twisted dance classic. It also featured a rather brilliant video:

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Parrot from This Is Fake DIY Records on Vimeo.

Well now, despite it only being a bit over a year since "Love On an Oil Rig" came out, the VEGC seem raring to go once again with new material, having put up a song for free download on This Is Fake DIY's soundcloud. The new song is the MAGNIFICENTLY titled "A Biting Wind Followed By An Occasional Drift of Snow (Was No Way To Cure A Hangover)". It's a bit more out there than the to-the-point grooves of Parrot but it's fascinating, and has just the right amount of catchiness to make you go back for repeat listens.

A Biting Wind Followed By An Occasional Drift Of Snow (Was No Way To Cure A Hangover) by thisisfakediy

(There you go!)

And you know what, as a bonus, have the bedroom version of Parrot. In all honesty, I thought the original couldn't be improved on, but then again, I didn't think of having the song played acoustically, in a bed, with vocals sung through an old phone.

For the record, I think it's only fair that every single released from now on should have a "bed-a-phone" version. Watch!

Parrot (3-in-a-bed version) from This Is Fake DIY Records on Vimeo.

CHROMEO-OOOH in the STUDIO-OOOH!

(I'm just going to point out that this is officially one of my favourite images currently in existence)

Chromeo are a special band for me. I first discovered them on Modular's Leave Them All Behind compilation- a disc that, to me, was a revelation. I was a bit shocked at how well indie and electronic music went together. To my mind, there were indie bands and then dance producers and never the two shall meet, but this CD put Tom Vek and Fiery Furnaces songs next to remixes (the 2005 me had hardly heard a remix up until this point) and would you know it worked?

The next time I came across Chromeo was hearing some live tracks they did for the sadly missed "And This Is Our Disco" podcast, the first podcast I subscribed to that wasn't based on the premise of "DJs play indie songs you can dance to" but "DJs play electronic music, alright?" To say they were instrumental in my discovery of electronic music might be a bit much (and would leave out bands like The Knife, Clor, Ratatat and of course, Daft Punk) but they were definitely an important stepping stone out of my comfort zone.

The best thing about Chromeo is, without a doubt, the shiny, retro-futuristic keyboard sounds- complete with talkboxes- and it's obvious that, despite their albums being roughly 1000% fun, a lot of hard work and technical know how goes into making that sound.

Here's a video showing a bit more of that side of Chromeo, though it still seems like a hell of a lot of fun ("I'm much more arrrr-tic-u-laaate"). It's basically a nerdy studio tour that shows how they get those pristine synth sounds. Enjoy!



ps. Anybody fancy seeing Chromeo in Manchester? It's gonna be mecha-awesome.

Surreal Pop Post

Veering even further away from my comfort zone, here's a post about one of the most surreal musical curiosities I've come across recently. Will Smith's daughter, WHO IS NINE YEARS OLD (!!!) is releasing a single.

Take a moment to process your first reaction to that. What kind of song do you expect her to come out with? A weak pop number? An upbeat, Disney Channel-friendly sing song about being yourself and how nice friends are?

You would be hugely wrong, because she has somehow come out with a huge hip hop song, that's less Hannah Montana and more like Rick Ross and Big Boi. I'm not even joking, play the vid.



Hear those MASSIVE drums? And where did you last hear a chorus with a repetitive, pitch altered refrain like that? The Rick Ross classic Hustlin'. In fact Whip My Hair could basically be Hustlin' just sped up.

A nine year old is taking influence from coke-obsessed rappers. Whilst some sensitive parents may be shocked or outraged by that, all I'm saying is Whip My Hair is precisely a million times better than I expected of a child star, so musically speaking it's a very good thing.

Plus the chorus has a little nod to Devo, which I am all in favour of.

ps. Huge "blog shout outs" to Akira the Don for the discovery of the vid.