Save 6 Music - http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

Guys, BBC 6Music is one of the all-time greats.  This digital radio station with fantastic programming and an amazing line-up of DJs, both celebrated and unknown, fostering the growth of burgeoning artists and keeping sacred the history of modern music, is now being threatened with extinction.  The BBC bosses say that  with only 700,000 of us listening to it, 6Music is grabbing money from what could be better programming for both TV and radio.  But they're at split purposes here because the low listenership is due precisely to the lack of mainstream on show on 6Music.  Meanwhile back at the ranch, BBC 3, a totally mainstream, youth-angled station with very little (if any) originality seems nice and cruisey simply because they are more visible and more people know about it.

We have a chance to try to do something about this.  Please sign this petition to let the BBC know how important 6 Music is to the future and history of music. http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

Saturday night’s alright for fighting. Yay! Sayer! – Yeasayer; Marina & The Diamonds; The Hurts (almost)

Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Oh hooray.  Just when I thought my belated love affair with Vampire Weekend would allow no room for pretenders, Yeasayer walked right in.  Right! In!  And in fairness, SXSW tried years ago and then it was that whole thing they did on the Paris Metro, then inevitably Rough Trade whispering sweet nothings but you know that old chestnut; first there was love then marriage and then a baby in a baby carriage. 

But here they are, Brooklynites yet again leaving one to question why I moved to London when I could have just crossed the East River.  (I always thought it would be like Saturday Night Fever if I moved to Brooklyn, all white leisure suits and light up dance floors.  And at the time, it was.  That whole nu-rave thing was reason enough to be afearful.  Alright for brunch but would you want to live there?)  They called it Bridge and Tunnel back in the day.  They, poor fools, must have been commuting from Great Neck. 

Anyhoo, Brooklyn again and lovely sounds.  These guys, the darling buds from SXSW 2007 who have been touring with MGMT and making a raucous ruckus ever since.  This album, Odd Blood, is very, very poppy, much more so than the debut album, All Hour Cymbals.  But strangely, though they were lauded (mainly by themselves) as being all eclectic and eccentric, I heard more King Missile and Pet Sounds in that first one than whatever citar-playing beardy they were going for.  And now I hear some New Order and some Howard Jones.  And I love Howard Jones so don’t go making fun. 

Anyway, people who bought this also bought Beach House, Animal Collective, MGMT, TNP.  Aha (the declarative not the band though they do have a new album out).  Then we have a full complement.  But here’s the thing about these guys – they really sound different.  Born in the Williamsburg scene and though very much of it, they have something unique and different.  Remember a few reviews ago I said that this band that RT had sent me also sent a bonus DVD of baby doll parts floating in a pool and I was like, come ON.  Why?  Why bother with all the “aren’t we cool and weird” stuff? Because seriously those guys had over 30 and what is the point if not to improve adolescent cool points?  These guys, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder to be precise, skipped that BS altogether on this album and what’s left is the music, a jolly mix of rave and trad dance and some folk and harmonies and country.  Why didn’t anyone do this before?  Because they were too busy cutting up doll parts and making thoughtful films about them.  *****

ITunes free download of the week – Marina and the Diamonds “Rootless”

There is a positive furore on iTunes this week in regards to this Miss Marina and her shiny rocks.  Some say Kate Bushy and some say not worth the money paid (it was free).  But they are absolutely fighting with one another over this track. Fabulous.  If you want to read some seriously self-righteous people with some seriously bad writing skills, please run don’t walk.  With regards to the track in question, I say, close but no cigar.  And that’s only because it’s been done before and better (Frou Frou’s “Let Go” springs immediately to mind – now there’s a track).  Not bad but not quite good though I’m betting the album has better on it.  Still I won’t be buying it.  ***

The Hurts – Paul!  I tried desperately to listen to these guys online but their myspace page was being maintained and couldn't find them anywhere else. What rotten luck.  Where can I get my hands on more?