First Play: The Men – Open Your Heart

We sat down for an initial listen of the upcoming record from The Men and we were left pretty blown away by what counts as a really ambitious step up for the band. So here is what we made of the record track by track. Look out for more of these ‘First Play’ pieces soon.
Turn It Around

Fierce, big poppy opener from The Men. This song bares its teeth from the off but shows some big melodic touches too and some nice guitar work to finish things off. More Foo Fighters than Circle Jerks.

Animal

More melodic guitars on order here but with poppy new wave female vox trailing a shredded vocal. Two tracks in and this record is an awful lot of fun and sounding like a big step up.

Country Song

Not quite Country, but what you do get is some quivering, quick tremolo guitar and some gentle slide work in the background too. There’s a jangling restraint to this that certainly wasn’t hinted at by their noisy beginnings.

Oscillation

Country Song segues into mammoth jam Oscillations nicely. Low-key chugging riffs prop up drum fills and chiming guitar until the song explodes around the 5 minute mark. Glorious stuff.

Please Don’t Go Away

Some big emotional payoff with swirling guitars and a pleading refrain. More pop bent on this track and more thoughts of early Foo Fighters.

Open Your Heart

First single and (hopefully) everybody has heard this by now. Big song and a good indication of the rest of the record. Check out a live take of the song below…

Candy

Three chord pop song and some overtones of Velvet Underground. A bit more low key than the rest of the record but Candy lands some hefty emotional punches yet again. The impressive thing about this record is how deftly The Men turn out these huge, riffy guitar songs with big hooks but also manage to hit you squarely in the gut emotionally too.

Cube

Back to the beaten path for The Men and a noisy two and a half minute squall. A palette cleanser jam and one that will please any fans of their earlier stuff.

Presence

Another long song and a slightly slower, softer start but the track builds block by block as churning guitars start to pile up. Almost Krautrock vibe to this.

Ex-Dreams

Closer and it’s back into the fast lane with big riffs and hooks again. A great closer for a really superb record. Big step up from The Men and this could be their breakout record.

Andrew Bird previews A Room for London show

Great stuff as usual from The Guardian who corner Andrew Bird ahead of his performance in the boat that sits atop the crest of London’s Hayward Gallery at the moment. That show happened on Saturday and sounded fantastic so keep an eye on The Guardian who will be replaying the live stream magic from Tuesday for this week.

Django Django – Default

Django Django have kicked off the year with intent – their new record scoring high across the board, the highlight being a 5 star treatment in The Guardian..

Not heard anything of theirs yet? Well the hype train hasn’t left the station yet, catch up and watch their art-attack video for excellent single ‘Default’ above.

THE MEN – Open Your Heart

There’s been a bit of a tidal wave of buzz for The Men over the past few days from the likes of NPR and Pitchfork. The band are set to release a new record this Spring and it’s shaping up to be more accessible than previous material – a potential dambuster record, introducing them to a whole lot of new people. ‘Open Your Heart’ is a song they are letting go from that record and boy does it raise the excitement levels. Take a listen:

The Men – Open Your Heart by myblogcliche

New names for Field Day

We’re excited today to present a new raft of names for Field Day 2012. Joining the names you already know about as well as recent additions such as Grimes, Mazzy Star, Death Grips and Zomby will be…

Blawan
Blood Orange
Daniel Avery (Stopmakingme)
Django Django
Friends
Huw Stephens DJ
Julia Holter
Justin Spear DJ
Kindness
Korallreven
Koreless
Liars
Modeselektor

Look out for much more on the blog from these acts over the coming weeks as well as some exclusive content.

Andrew Bird – Eyeoneye

The week starts with some exciting news in the form of a track from Andrew Bird’s upcoming record ‘Break it Yourself’. The song is classic Andrew Bird but skews with the formula slightly with reverb heavy off-beat chords and pounding 60s drums. Dig in below.

You can also order the record from his website now in a variety of interesting collector-friendly formats here.

Eyeoneye by Andrew Bird

Zulu Winter – We Should Be Swimming

Here’s a new one from one of 2012 most exciting prospects Zulu Winter. This one continues on from ‘Never Leave’ with atmospheric synths and taut rhythms. They’ve got a sly love of an epic coda too. Looking forward to hearing more from them, with an album slated for late Spring.

Ariel Pink and R. Stevie Moore Collaborate

Lo-Fi legend and Field Day artist R. Stevie Moore has teamed up with Ariel Pink for a collaboration – a six minute jam called “SteviePink Javascript”. The song comes out on a very special sounding vinyl package. To read more about it and listen to the song head over to Pitchfork who have a stream.

SteviePink Javascript

Errors – Pleasure Palaces video

This new Errors video has been twisting our minds over the last day or so. It plays out in a ‘picture of a picture of a picture’ Web 2.0 realm of psychedelia. Very fun.

Fennesz – On Invisible Pause

Fresh from unveiling a new record last month, Fennesz has now released a piece that originally accompanied a dance called ‘HAZE’ (that’s a picture from the piece above). The Fennesz track is called ‘On Invisible Pause’ and you can download the whole 40 minutes of it below.

Fennesz – On Invisible Pause

Spector on Launched at Red Bull Studios

Bit of Spector to kick off the week this week. Head over to 4OD to watch them perform live for Launched at Red Bull Studios.

SPECTOR AT RED BULL STUDIOS

SBTRKT on Rinse

SBTRKT Popped up this week on Soundcloud with a download and stream of his Rinse FM show. Getting a lot of plays from us this week too. Some good weekend vibes here.
SBTRKT rinse fm 3rd january 2012 by sbtrkt

Grimes – Genesis (Yours Truly Session)

Yourstru.ly presents: Grimes “Genesis” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

We posted about the great Grimes session for Yours Truly a little while ago and it turns out they were sitting on a take of album-favourite ‘Genesis’ too. That emerged last night so take a look above now.

Errors – Pleasure Palaces (Brassica Remix)

This new remix from Brassica of Errors song ‘Pleasure Palaces’ is setting off some good vibes this afternoon. Brassica dust down a funkier palette for the song and push in all the right directions. Take a listen below…

Errors – Pleasure Palaces (Brassica remix) by Mixmag

Field Day 2012 – Spotify Playlist

Here’s a nice reminder of the state of Field Day 2012 so far – with much more to come – as a Spotify playlist. The list features a song from every artist on the bill so far and jumps from Andrew Bird to Rustie and back via Afrocubism. The eclectic mix is always forward-thinking and makes for a pretty harmonious knit. So if you’re at a loose end for listening material then wrap your ears around this.

FIELD DAY 2012 SPOTIFY

Spector – Chevy Thunder

Here is a funny moment from last week – a first play of Spector’s new single Chevy Thunder on Nick Grimshaw’s Radio One show, a hard won treat for Grimmy who managing to persuade Harry Styles of One Direction fame to intro the song to seal the deal.

In terms of pop world ridiculous antics it sets the bar for 2012 nice and high. Well played Spector.

SBTRKT in the Live Lounge

SBTRKT thoroughly entertertained us earlier on today on Radio One in the Live Lounge. The man and Sampha played new single Hold On as well as a cover of Friendly Fires. Take a listen to both below…

 
SBTRKT on BBC Radio 1′s Live Lounge by Young Turks

Grimes Signs to 4AD, celebrates with ‘Genesis’

The excellent Grimes has just signed to 4AD, who will release her album ‘Visions’ shortly. She also let go of a new song from that record called ‘Genesis’ and it’s a fine way to start the year.Head over to Pitchfork who are offering up the song as a free download.

GRIMES – GENESIS

Grimes – Genesis

SBTRKT – Ride to Freedom

While most people were gearing up for New Year parties SBTRKT slipped this little nugget past us. It’s the B-side to forthcoming single ‘Hold On’ and sees a shift to more instrumental, noodly sound that we are used to from the man. Take a listen below.

sbtrkt – ride to freedom by sbtrkt