Awesome VIDZZ

Hey bad boyz! (and girlz)

Check out the new vid from Röyksopp!!

Its pretty gruesome and kind of gross! Esp with all teh old bitz of skin hangin out! Also theres some kind of freaky slime girl half way thru!

Its featuring Karin Dreijer Andersson which is awesome cos I plugged out ma headphonez from ma Pod playing the Knife right into this :D



Enjoy!

L8rz

Big B

Year 2!

Hey users,

You have zero interest in this but we’re one year old as of today, making us older than half the blogs on earth :P Yup. One year ago, a bold step was taken to make a very bad music blog that would both assault the senses and cover the rightfully neglected topics in music. This blog has helped us neglect our college work plenty and been plenty useful in filling up the ‘interests’ space on our CVs. Here’s hoping year 2 will be just as miserable as our first.

Quickie

Hey users,

You’ll be ecstatic to know we’re not dead. We’re all living in different cities since our last update though which made for an awful few weeks. There’ll be plenty of weird updates soon (I made a list during a lecture) so in the mean time, here’s a quickie.

I was listening to this pretty loudly as I passed lots of pubs filled with absolute losers celebrating Arthur Guinness day. If I’m to ever drink anything that colour, it’ll be petrol. Anyway, here’s Golden Silvers. I’m sure I said something nasty about them a while back but I’ve come around to their charm.

ResultZ

Well...we got 4 right. No Micachu and no Late of the Pier is the terrible news. They chose some rubbish jazz band instead >:Z

FTCz will be criticizing the 2/3 of the nominees we got wrong later on, so stay chooned.

MercuryZ

Hey readers,

The Mercury Prize shortlist is out tomorrow so FTCZ feels obligated to weigh in with our not very good predictions. We were way off when we backed Laura Marling last year (who would have thought the long shot would fail???), and we’re confident we’ll get it just as wrong again this year.

Anywayz, here’s 12 FTCZ preferences for the shortlist.

1.Florence And The Machine – Lungs

This is one of the few that we’ll probably get right. The only way she won’t get the nomination is if the selectors find the extra sentence here and there that she inserts into the album songs as annoying as I find it.

Chance of making the list: Very high




2.Late Of The Pier

The most FTCZ apprived band on the list. WE back these guys to win. Still haven’t seen them live unfortunately. It’s Buckfast’s fault.

Chance of making the list: pretty good. We'll be gutted if they don't. Not that the mercury prize is all that good to begin with :P



3.Friendly Fires

My Brova loves em. So Do I, This is a rarity you should know. They have no chance of being nominated really since they’re a lot like LOTP. Too bad.

Chance of making the list: Not very good. Late of the Pier's fault.




4. Micachu

A New love of FTCZ. We wrote a load about her below so we really hope she gets it. 200+ plays on my last fm this week says all that needs to be said.

Chance of making the list: reasonable. Hopefully the hype will squeeze em through.



5. The Horrors

The first album was more along the lines of FTCZ. The new one is a bit serious, but good all the same.

Chance of making the list: They're a cert for the shortlist.




6. Emmy The Great

Hope she gets nominated. Still a little scarred about some interview she had did a while back.

Chance of making the list: Not a chance.




7. Dananananakroyd

We mentioned these guys a while back before they released very much. We’re still listening to Pink Sabbath as much as ever which is a good sign.

Chance of making the list: Lol. no.




8. Metronomy
Not very alt to like Metronomy any more. But they do have the best video out of everyone here.

Chance of making the list: They've got a good chance. If Klaxons can win, they can.



9.Sky Larkin

We’ve not mentioned them on this blog (and we’ve defo not mentioned them on our fads/hot girls/fashion dabbling disgrace of a blog). We’ve really grown to love them though. Very fond of their Queens Of The Stone Age cover.

Chance of making the list: pretty terrible.



10.Rolo Tomassi

Very loud band and a very hot singer. We highly approve.

Chance of making the list: No way. Maybe if the selectors wanna show how diverse they are.



11. Bat For Lashes

We were a little disappointed when she didn’t win it the last time.

Chance of making the list: A sure thing.



12. The Bug

The super duper outsider. Don’t even expect this album to be considered. We’d be over the moon if they did.

Chance of making the list: The Bug will NOT eb on the list.




Of course the unpopular ones we mentioned will definitely be replaced by La Roux/Little Boots/Glasvegas (who we like) and a few others that aren't coming to mind.

There should also be a token hip-hop album by someone like Wiley or Tinchy Styder, and a jazz album that isn’t in tune with the rest of the list. I don’t really care for jazz so I’d rather they give music genres, that are alien to you and I, a miss.

Here's hoping we get at least one right. The list comes out tomorrow.

Quickie

Here's a track from Partyshank. I absolutely love em. At a party I had a while back, they were a little much for most people. Never liked those people anywayZ.

teh 8-bitZ

Hey readers,

While we have a lot to say about Crystal Castles on this blog (partly coz we keep listening to them/seeing them live.kinda wanna see them before the year is out again), we've never really said much about any other 8-bit types of bands. This is partly because we think most of them aren't up to much. We do however like Smuggling Chewbacca.



What can I say? They tick all the boxes. They also remind me of Fuck Buttons a little. We promise to be kinder to the 8-bit scene from now on. Not that we ever keep promises on FTCZ ;)

Quickie

The Major Lazer track with Santigold (not fond of her new spelling) has won a spot in our hearts.

Wizard Rawk

Hey readers,

I'm going to commit the worst music blog sin of all by mentioning a film :O If Q magazine can get away with it monthly, I'm sure i can get away with it once. The film is Harry Potter of course.

The Harry Potter films have the awesome aura around them that Disney films (people that go to Disneyland with me should know how hyper i get)and old Nickelodeon shows and Pokemon seem to have. I just can't get enough of it. The cinematic experience always is surrounded by some problem (especially this time), but i always grow to love the new film.

In the build-up to the new film (my favourite part), i tend to try and get in the right mindset. And to do this, i often listen to one of the more neglected bands on my iPod: Harry & the Potters.

As part of one of the most FTCZ-approved genres, wizard rock, these guys cover Harry's life and the incredible amount of bad luck he seems to have. Harry & The Potters also happen to be a really good band (much better than other bands beginning with H on my iPod - Howling Bells/The Hold Steady have had their day). They've also been the inspiration for a number of other awesome bands in the genre like Draco & The Malfoys, and The Moaning Myrtles (all highly recommended).

With that, FTCZ stamps its fluorescent seal of approval on HATP and the wizard rock genre. Can't wait for the next film already :D

Quickie

This was the first thing on mtv2 this morning. Excellent morning song. Makes me hungry for cheese.

Teh Nu Look

Hey readers,

We thought we'd make the blog less rubbish looking. Consequently, it now looks like one of my many, many tshirts. Rest assured it's a cosmetic change and there won't be any improvement in our posts. Hope you approve. Give us a whoop below :)

Quickie

Marina & The Diamonds are easily the most interesting band announced for the NME Radar tour. They'll be the ones most likely to blow up :)

Good Shape

Hey readers,

It speaks volumes about a band if they make for excellent walking music. A lot of bands tend to be too quiet (the bon ivers of the world), too wordy (Jeffrey Lewis) or too loud and dangerous for careless pedestrians like me (2 many DJs) to listen to while walking. The loudness is my fault but I can’t listen to it any other way and I can’t see myself changing my ways.

Anyway, having stood on a nail the day before and having to limp my way around for several hours before getting my bus, I needed to call on 2 bands to take my mind off the pain and to act is good walking music. I used Digitalism as always and the new-ish album from Micachu.




How highly do I rate Micachu you ask? Well she’s shot into my top artists on Last Fm after a single week, I say. Not since I got hold of Chairlift has anyone shot up my
Last Fm charts so fast. And that was about a year ago. Well 6 months. I should really read back in the blog to find out but I’m confident nobody reads those old posts :P

Anyway, nobody penetrates my chart so quickly. Not even the almighty Joy Formidable managed that feat and I wouldn’t shut up about them at the time. Ask that friend of mine that was having a meltdown and was a little annoyed that the conversation suddenly turned into an endorsement for TJF.

So, I’m confident that I’ll be spinning Micachu a lot more during the next few weeks. It’s one of those albums that I can now call upon to walk around to. Highly rec’D by FTCz.

Quickie

I heard this the other night. My friend hated it. I loved it and broke out an impromptu/innapropriate glowstick (thats' something i'm oddly in a position to do a lot of the time).

Not very good music alert :(

Poor old rumble strips,

They were playing their new song on the radio this morning and the radio host said something very unflattering about it and called them a new band. NME slated the album in this weeks issue and cleverly referred to them as the rumble strips as skid marks (charming stuff). I’m sure I’ll come across the album eventually (when my sis picks it up) but otherwise I’m not interested. I’ve got a feeling this was the album the NME editor tweeted about last week (he said some bands new release was cack and laughed off that they were gonna get the cover at one point). At least I hope it’s them. I’d be very displeased if it turned out he was talking about Jamie T or Dizzee Rascal. That simply wouldn’t be on.

Here’s some old school rumble strips back when the were a simple band doomed to fade away and not harm anyone. They probably have older material but this blog, has standards, albeit rock bottom ones.

Quickie

Absolutely love the Golden Filter. They're probably the best thing on the new Kitsuné maison compilation (sorry Maybb). They'd make much better headliners for the new NME tour than the similarly named Golden Silvers. Better not slag them too much because i'm destined to end up liking them.

Quickie

Really can't get enough of this. Panic Prevention is one of my fave albums ever so FTCz will be eagerly anticipating album #2.

Always the quiet ones...

Hey readers,

As much as I love edgy, outspoken bands that release bad music, some musicians simply won’t buy into my way of life. Disturbing to think I’m such a big music purchaser really.

So while my first choice tends to be bands that think ‘music is rubbish these days’ and formed a band pretty much to save music (see futureheads rip off the chapman family and my brother’s loltastic youtube vids), I do occasionally appreciate bands that build up buzz but disappointingly don’t spout off the save the world rubbish. Music interviews are rubbish without bands hating everything after all.

Anywho, the best example of the hard touring, buzz building sensation seems to be the Temper Trap.



They’re playing every festival on earth this summer after browsing their myspace, and they’ve got a handful of good songs. But in order to achieve stardom (I wrote about this in spring about la roux), they should consider telling people they’ve revolutionised music and start fueds (just like la roux. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t look at this blog though).

IF they’re clever, they’ll lay into any band (I don’t recognise the close matches, but hockey and van she are further down in their matches). I suppose they can pick on Hockey for not having a very good band name. Or Van She for having too good a band name. Only time will tell. Check em out

Quickie

I spent my money on the new Florence album this week but i did right by Slow Club today. Or at least my brother did ;)

My Little Brother Just Discovered Rock n' Roll

Hey readers,

My siblings can be real characters at times, completely unintentionally. I hate them both, but they do things to make me smile every so often. Not usually on purpose. My sister got trapped in a cave underneath her school a few months back while her friend cried and played ‘the man who can’t be moved’ by the script over and over. They now call her Tomb Raider XD And now my brother posted this gem on youtube.

Dismayed at the state of music (he went to a BellX1 gig a few weeks ago and felt the need to go on about how dissatisfaction with it for an excessive period of time), he and his friend took it upon themselves to make the greatest music in the world. In between his countless hours practicing Joy Division/Modest Mouse riffs, he came up with a few of his own.



The song is all right apart from a) his ridiculous attempt at singing (he should stick to playing base and not try to stand out – just like all other base players. Know your place T), and b) the very long and very funny rant that starts it off.


Yep. My brother is the guy that can’t hide his displeasure with things. Just like several of my best friends, he won’t let things go and just get on with it. It’s been at least 2 weeks and he’s still going on about it! It’s a pity the world is run by people like him.

If all it takes is one bad gig to inspire him, then there’s plenty of inspiration out there for him.

Quickie

Just so we're not the only blog on the planet not sporting The Big Pink, here's the coolest band around :D

Poster Child

Hey readers,

After a night when I got well and truly knexed roughly a year ago (knex party 2 will happen in the very near future – and fyi actual knex is involved), there was a lot to be ashamed about. But I had never thought it would include the posters in my room.

I was told by two friends that my room was quite 90s, which was quite ignorant of the fact that Buffy and the Vampire Slayer and the Foo Fighters continued right into the 21st century. But when girls notice these things, it’s important to do what they say. Plus being a fickle, of-the moment guy, I tend to react to these things swiftly – consequences be damned. Come to think of it, that explains a lot about me.

Anyway, I’ve always been one for grand gestures, so I set fire to the posters. Forgive me Sarah…

I guess at least one of you readers is wondering what became of my bare walls (there’s a lot of you according to the flag counter so I’m optimistic). Well as it happens, I decided to toss up any poster that came my way from clubs (thanks to my sister’s vague job which she got paid for. I’m semi-sure it was nothing dirty), cinemas, and cds, but mostly music mags. Namely NME.

This year NME has sort of made a point of including lots and lots of posters in their magazine. Around the time of the NME awards, they were simply in every issue. Most are unusable, which tends to be the case when they’re not a picture of a band posing or if it was a concert which you weren’t at.

It’s a good thing I’m quite ignorant about these things as long as I can put them on my wall. Plus if people ask, I was at all of them ;) Thankfully they’re all double sided so you can genuinely avoid the very worst pics (I’m talking about you giant nude Pete Doherty/unimpressive pics of Glastonbury tents).

So here’s the FTCz official review of the posters that have made my room look gaudy, childish and messy, but importantly, more 21st century-esque. Even though some are of old films I haven’t seen (*NB: I’ve never seen Jaws or Close encounters, but I’ve gotten the jist from various spoofs and homages).

All who have entered my room recently have approved of the new posters but public opinion should always take a backseat to reviews, no matter how much Bon Jovi think the inverse is true :P

Anyway, the review...

Above My Amp

This spot lies above my somewhat damaged amp. There's two really cool MGMT posters, 2 eqaully awesome Crystal Castles posters, a decent Klaxons one, some nothing ones of KoL, Florence, White Stripes, the Distillers (from my Kerrang days doncha know) and the lamest possible pic Late Of The Pier could ever be in. Despite the shameful LotP poster, this section gets a FTW rating.

By My Vinyls

There's this cool looking radiohead one with the odd advice 'right hand pull trigger.left hand shrug shoulder'. Needless to say i always try it when i'm hungover. There's also the cool blur reunion pic, useless posters of white lies (gag), Florence Welch with Glasvegas (why not separate pics?!?) and a YYYs one that reminds me of my giant Karen O poster. This corner of the room earns a meh rating.

By my locker

The last of these terrible pics (which i didn't have to leave my bed to take as you can tell :P) is by my locker. Out of all the other sections around the place, this is probably the worst combo. I don't care for Oasis, Munich and that is the worst Libs poster i could possibly have. Good thing it's hiden to the side. This section gets an epic fail rating.

While my dodgy pics didn't do their posters much good, NME were pretty good about giving away so many. Hopefully they'll keep it up :)

Till next time...

Teh ClassikZ #6

Hey readers,

As bloggers, we here at FTCz have a very low attention span. So when we introduced this feature way back when, we were surprised that it lasted any length at all. But for some reason, we here at FTCz have decided now is the time to bring it back.

I, sonic c, am working at some Irish version of Hello magazine at present, so while searching frantically for an article I accidentally closed, staring me in the face was the big list I made on a whim for teh classikz series. And believe me, it’s a rubbish list. I’d consider any list that has 2 Boards of Canada albums enough to kill off my pulse. But there’s a few albums on the list FTCz approves of (except Bruce, who very clearly told me to turn some of them off).So here we go…

First up is the ‘not really a classic, but still more worthy than any of the previous entries’ debut album from Be Your Own Pet.




On a trip to a yacht party recently (such is my life), my friend was a little bemused that I was playing such angry music in my car. I responded by saying that I only ever listen to this cd or gangster rap in my car. But rather than the usual response of ‘turn this shit off now’, she allowed it to a) loop and b) turned up to a ridiculous volume. Silent J (FTCz nickname for her) is pretty…um…strong willed, so if she disapproved, I would have known :P

Be Your Own Pet broke up last summer making them the best band to split up in a long while. It was a blow which we haven’t fully gotten over, which is strange. In fact, we feel pretty good usually when bands break up because they can’t deal with playing the same songs over and over on stage. And we were very chuffed with ourselves the day the disgraceful Boy Kill Boy broke up (I binned my review copy of that album and gave them a rotten review at some newspaper if I recall).

Anyway, while Be Your Own Pet are no more, they did leave behind 2 really good albums for us in their wake. And while I’ll never quite understand what the album cover picture is of, their debut album is quite a memorable affair. It doesn’t hurt that it’s ridiculously loud either.

Quickie

On a side note, to those of you who doubted we'd be blogging 8 months later, I hope you've now learnt that we're not the commitment-phobes that we appear to be ;P

But anyway, we love this band...

King of the lols

Hey youz guyz,

My sister felt the need to tell me about all the hilarious posts Calvin Harris made on twitter recently (she's low on gossip - apart from her getting trapped in a cave under her school. Her new nickname is Tomb Raider at school) and it seems to be pretty much in line with the sense of humour he has on tv. And that one time we saw him live. Calvin Harris is pretty funny.

I remember him telling jokes of sort back when we saw him at Oxegen two years ago but it was hardly an appropriate time since the tent he was playing in had water leaking throught it :'(

Then he started cracking wise on E4 in the morning a month or so ago which i wasn't expecting at all. I even got a text saying 'Calvin Harris is on E4 being funny. How r u?". Unfortunately for the person in question, i was already watching it. He was being dry and if it weren't E4, he would have been considered a hostile guest.

But Calvin didn't stop there. Next up he went on the sound on BBC, let himself get felt up a little and then said it being on the show was better than food. He was supposedly funny at Trinners Ball as well but sis is being a prude and not disclosing all the events of said event.

So today, FTCz salutes Calvin Harris for bringing the funny. Nothing brightens up our day more than hearing what he's eating. We're awful sad clearly :/

Quickie ;)

How'd we miss these guys...

They're back :O

Hey users.

After months of exams and theses, FTFZ started up again last week and now FTCZ is back. And while one of us is still doing exams and another one of us fucked off to Italy for "academic reasons", at least one of us is here :P

Thankfully, there only seems to have been a dozen or so essential albums released in the 2 months we've been distracted. We lack the energy to do 12 posts on this blog per year (thanks to lazy contributors - i'm looking at you Bruce/Aidano), so it's likely you'll only be hearing about Passion Pit and Kap Bambino out of that dozen :P One of those bands in particular reminds me of you-know-who so they'll be the first to get a rub from us ;)




Kap Bambino received the highest of compliments at a poker game i was having recently when somebody pointed them out to me in the background unprompted. IIRC, they said "Cill, your phone is ringing" at which point I explained that it was not the phone. It was, in fact, this hot French band called Kap Bambino.

Aside from having the FTCZ-approved dynamic of stunning frontwoman and mopey guy with long hair doing the music bit, they seem to be '09s answer to all the awesome dance rock that emerged last year.

We for one are glad that someone stepped up to the plate, since Bruce's music project 'Gangsters of ebonic proportions' seems to be inactive to say the least. Our band of the week endorsement seems to have been a kiss of doom in the past, so we're going to endorse them without letting that poisoned title near them. Consider Kap Bambino endorsed by teh choonZ :D

Teh mentalZ

Hey users,


While it isn't one of the message boards i frequent very often, Last Fm seems to have quite a vocal community. They seem to find tiny bugs with the site and get into a frenzy, they always want people banned, and a while back, there was outrage when Last Fm decided to change it's rubbish design.







I decided to check out the boards during a study break yesterday and came across some uproar on the message boards about cheating :O

Last FM is of course one of the best things on the net. There isn't exactly a way to describe how useless it really is, except to keep a shoddy record of the music you listen to and to give you somewhat vague references. My favourite part of it is watching the playcount rise by one to a brand new number. It's an excellent substitute to watching the percentage of one of your downloads slowly rise (everyone does that i've recently discovered).

Anyway, it turns out Last FM has turned into a competition of sorts. People are supposedly leaving their computers on 24/7 and have special programs to skip tracks over and over. While we here at FTCZ have often ridiculed people that have listened to 500,000 tracks in the past 2 years as being super losers, it may actually be the case that they are excellent cheaters at something that you can't really cheat at.

And for our amusement, Last Fm users have once again come to the rescue with their over the top anger. They've called for bans of the users and taken pics of people's last fm homepages before circulating them, and funniest of all, they've scrolled through people's 200,000 strong play histories and checked if songs have played all the way through.

We thought the Last Fm groups were insane with their interview processes, but now we know that the craziness is a site-wide phenomenon.

On a wee note: why must the people that do get 200,000 plays only play the gloomiest looking metal music? You think they'd put something a bit different in there to mix it up but that isn't the case :(

Also, Happy Paddy's Day everyone! We're not really into the holiday (in fact the only time i've gone out on the day was last year when i wasn't even in Ireland).The 3 members of FTCZ will all be studying, but there's always aa excellent chance we'll give up and do something :)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs = teh best :D

Hey users,

As the title of this post shows, this is destined to be an absolute suck up to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs which is pretty much what you should expect from FTCZ by now. We're a bit YYYs crazy here.

So...as you know, the band moved up the release of the new album after that terrible rip of the new album started doing the rounds on all the invite sites. And according to Pitchfork i believe, Kanye started posting it on his blog also.

Anyway, who cares how it got released (definitely not us - we're far too self absorbed to be thinking about something like that). It's here! And we can confidently say we absolutely heart 'It's Blitz'.

It's a good thing too. Because if it turned out bad, i wouldn't feel right about hanging that giant Karen O poster beside my bed (you know the poster - everyone has it). Thankfully, for the 3rd time (i'm not counting the EPs obviously.Those are only a'ight) its all gone according to plan.

NME have a big thing about them being disco or something in this week's issues which is hitting newsagents tomorrow morning. Well...most newsagents.There's still a few stragglers which i've noticed try to tout the old issues as long as possible. It's not all that disco though. It doesn't have the Nick Zinner, trademark guitar heavy sound some of the time, but ya know, it's still got plenty of guitar since 1/3 of the band are professional guitarists.

"But Kill Kill (a long abandoned nickname someone gave me), is it as good as the first two albums? Or should i simply invest my money in those brill topman tshirts that say things like 'oh hai' or something similar?".

Well reader...while it's early days, we're gonna jump the gun and rank it second best since Fever To Tell is a contender for best album ever and near impossible to compete with. FTCZ highly recommends the album and recommends seeing the band live and reading all their interviews and buying all their merchandise also.

We're YYYs fanatics and not ashamed!

Teh LabelZ

Hey users,

FTCZ have been having some pretty long days recently. Mr. A and myself have been hitting the books pretty hard, while B is having a meltdown because his final year project probably won't work. I think it's fair to say we're in need of some good luck in the near future. We don't really mind at whose expense it may be.

But anyway, on to what we talk about most (that's music for the dimmer readers among you). Yours truly had a long day of shopping in various womens' clothing shops in search of adequate birthday presents, which is the most head wrecking thing in the world for guys. It didn't help that i somehow ended up modelling some girl accessories much to the amusement of some very attractive girls. I can't remember what made me think it was a good idea.

Anyway, to keep me company on my ipod as I trekked to various stores across the city, I decided to listen to Kitsuné Maison Compilation 6.

FTCZ isn't usually into purchasing compilations, with he exception of that Rough Trade one a while back (bad idea), but this compilation struck us as something we might actually like.

And wow were we right :D

To be fair, it does have a lot of bands which we listen to anyway which made it more of a safe purchase than some daring risk. It's got La Roux and Digitalism and Fischerspooner and HeartsRevolution (they're one of our bands to watch).

The best thing about compilation of course is the bunch of obscure people they shove into them too. Our faves are David E. Sugar who is well cool, and last week's stars of 'Skins' (can they do no wrong???) You Love Her Coz She's Dead.

Who would have thought that we'd be getting a British version of Crystal Castles in 2009? They're absolutely awesome and have the FTCZ seal of approval after a handful of singles. We'll be writing more about them soon. And we'll defo be writing about Skins very, very soon. Note to any girls that are rocking the Alice Glass look: I will go out with you. Please forward your details.

In conclusion, if you're cool, you gots to get hold of this compilation. FTCZ demand it!

Teh Tundra Picz :O

Hey users,

As most of you know, FTCZ decided to go to hip electronic musician Max Tundra a while back for reasons that we can't remember. I think we got a little caught up in the moment or didn't want to do assignments or something. As well as being asked our age at the door (not sure what that was about - we looked the part!!!), the FTCZ crew were the only 4 people in the room that weren't sporting the generic gig-goer beard. We were a little regretful that we didn't unleash our usual rainbow of glowsticks upon their late 20-something, bohemian fashioned eyes.

As for the gig itself, it wasn't as impressive as live reviews on Pitchfork had led us to believe.Max Tundra of course decided to be a little blurry and we think it might have been because he may have taken too much caffeine (we're serious).



Poor old Max compensated for being a one man show by doing this mental dance that made it rather difficult for the dancers among us to follow. I think he was hoping that such enthusiasm might encourage his fellow old people to do a bit of a dance. They didn't really.

As a result of all this, the very cool gig-goers that attended were left a little bemused.

This crazy older guy in a jumper was letting loose while us cool young people were wondering what was happening and making V signs at each other (V is related to that incident with Duff-V of course).

All in all, Max was ok but the crowd killed the buzz a bit. It's sort of what you expect when you unleash old people on Cork really. FTCZ will stand by Mr. Tundra and see him in the future hopefully. Not in Cork though. No sir. Perhaps up here in Dublin :D

We're on Twitter for some reason..

Hey users,

For some reason we've decided to be on Twitter. Consider it the consequences of a long day at college because we promise to neglect our twitter account like you wouldn't believe.

Proper updates coming soon. We have very strong opinions on the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. Stay tuned....

High friends in places (song reference for the 1st time ever)

Hey users,

As you know we like to keep promises around here. And by that, we often run out of ideas and have no choice but to steal our old ones. So be sure to look out for our terribly photographed/reviewed TV on the Radio/Max Tundra gigs very soon. The photos are so bad, you'll think you actually were me in the drunken, pilled-up state i seemed to be in.

In the meantime, it's time to moan about a band we actually like: High Places.

As a contender for making the greatest EP ever, and one that i couldn't stop listening to when i was in France last year, High Places will always have a place on my iPod. We can forgive them for looking grubby and not very rockstar-like (i had to rephrase that a few times - you can word that really weirdly). Greeting The Light is defo one of FTCZ faves from last year too (as long as you don't ask those other losers - why am i always the one blogging???).

When they got used in last week's ep of Skins, they even prompted queries as to who they were from a room with 6 girls and me (I couldn't have been more miserable). You'll be pleased to know i was annoyed enough from there raunchy girl talk that i didn't tell them. Girls need to learn manners. Especially girls following this blog.

But upon revisiting their rather expensive debut LP (i forget how much, but i paid lots), the love disappears a little. It's a massive case of 'what were they thinking???'. I guess they thought being music types gave them room to express themselves. How uncool of them. They should have tried to express themselves in defined ways.

But despite this, we have faith in our bands around here. Unless they've been awarded the poison pill that is our album of the week of course (none will ever come back from that - nobody that's gotten it has had any real success).

But as for High Places, we see them getting back on that horse and getting the job done right next time. That or we'll give there next album our 'album of the week' title. So be warned....

La Roux is la quiet (we're clever like that)

Hey users,

Of all teh hype bands and singers this year, there are a couple that are missing key qualitites. While with bands like the Chapman Family, it's a case of missing talent (we really, really don't like them. Avoid! They're disgusting to even look at), with La Roux it's a case of not seeming very talkative, despite her really cool hair.

Having read our fair share of articles about her, and even interviews, she doesn't seem to say much or leave the oh-so-humble vibe or the really out there persona that female musicians give off to make them seem cool. I mean, how are we ever supposed to really know her if we can't lump her into either of those categories.

Then, during Channel 4's broadcast of the NME awards in the wee hours of the morning the other day, she performed on stage with Franz Ferdinand. Only she didn't go on stage with them for a while. Or say anything quippy. Or smile. She's no Little Boots by any stretch clearly :/

While FTCZ is pretty indifferent about celebrity, we do tend to be nicer to people who seem nice. Well...not really. But if you do come off as nice, we certainly can't fault you for it. I'm sure she'll come off a bit better as we get closer to her actually releasing an album, but in the meantime, we'll just have to make do with her really cool songs. Be sure to get a hold of some of 'em.

Oh noes! Teh hype!

Hey users,

You think you're doing ok. There's nothing wrong with your usual routine and then *bam*, out of nowhere there's something better. And as you well know, this blog loves nothing more than to leech on to something at the first scent of cool coming from it.

In the past, we've had a preference for Grooveshark when it comes to streaming free music.
Grooveshark has been perfectly fine. It seems to do an adequate job. It has all teh choonZ that we hear about on drownedinsound and last fm and plenty of stuff from the non english speaking world too. Not that any of that is any good :P As you can see, we love nothing more than angering the FTC community.

Anyway, it was disheartening for FTCZ to see that Grooveshark is no longer the 'it' streaming service on the net. That title seems to have gone to Spotify.

This smug snot green logoed website seems to be endorsed by everyone. We'd gladly praise them so we could fit in with the cool crowd but unforunately it's not available in Ireland without an invite yet :( It's available in the UK though which happens way too often. Kind of pity we're not in the UK clearly, despite Sky News' attempts to include us :/

So in the meantime, we'll remain firmly pro-Grooveshark, until one of you loyal readers sends us an invite to Spotify of course. Then we'll radically cahnge our opinions i'm sure :D

Teh FestZ are coming!

Hey users,

As we mentioned in our last post, we've been searching for an awesome festival to hit up this Summer. Oxegen has been completely overrun, so that's a big no-no. The same with T in the Park (which is sold out anyway - i guess we could very well not see the YYYS :O ).

The homies in Edinburgh have been talking up the Belgian festivals, but FTCZ has cast it's several eyes towards the Isle Of Wight for Bestival!

Bestival gives off the same vibe as Electirc Picnic did last year (but without the genuine fear of ending up married after a large quantity of Buckfast - :S ).

"But Cillian.we know nothing of this year's line-up - at least talk about who's playing."

Ok reader, we shall.

On the card this year is MGMT, Fleet Foxes, Klaxons, Seasick Steve, Florence And The Machine, Little Boots, Friendly Fires, Bat For Lashes, Diplo, Squarepusher, Passion Pit, Dan La Sac V Scroobius Pip, Fujiya & Miyagi, and loads of other which i would type if i had the time.

Lets hope it's got the awesome vibe and weather as Electirc Picnic did last year!

Oh yeah...her :)

Hey users,

It's a crying shame when bands we like disappear of our radar (we're looking at you Jamie T - we're glad we saw Calvin Harris instead of you that time now), so when they pop up again we tend to get a little rush of nostalgia and excitement, just like when old bands reform for old people of obselete generations (we're really not kidding - we're very ageist on this blog and in real life).

So hats off to Bat For Lashes for finally releasing a second album :D




As you all know, Natasha Khan is really hot and if one were to want to woo FTCZ, all they'd have to do would be look like her. So you'd think one album would be all she'd ever have to release since she can get by on her looks, yeah?


Wrong user! Completely wrong! Khan has instead decided to release a second album, so that means April is going to be bringing us helping of both Bat For Lashes AND YYYs. Couple this with Passion Pit in May and we're all set for Summer :D FTCZ are thinking of going to Bestival this year (possibly on a joint expedition with renowned fashion blog SaveourShoes), so we may very well see Natasha Khan in the flesh.


It's out on April 6th. But it is somewhat possible that one could hear the tracks earlier (that's a hint of sorts).


Here's hoping there's a big Bat For Lashes poster with the album. We've become a little disillusioned with free posters since the Crystal Castles incident (who on earth gives away 1/4 of a picture?!?).

Find Teh Joy :D

Hey users,

On this blog we're a little notorious for talking up bands and then being mean to them once the year changes, when they become "so last year".

And this year will be no different. So prepare to enjoy the next 308 days: The Joy Formidable!

In FTCZ opinion (aka mine, probably Bruce's and probably not Aidano's), they're the best band of '09 so far. And they defo have the best album of '09 (since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs haven't released their sexy 3rd album yet - man that's gonna be sexy).

The band are also guilty of being far too nice. After all, they gave away their entire album on the NME daily download blog. Luckily for them, that blog isn't very popular so they probably didn't lose as big a fortune as they could have.

They're also giving away their second single on Last FM, which is probably the only time in history there's been something worth getting off Last FM.


On another note, i've some how ended up doing one of my dissertations on Francophone rap, so there's ao good chance i'll moan about how unhelpful Last FM is with that.

What am i doing?? This isn't the place for this....

Yay Joy Formidable! Since we can't all be in Edinburgh to see them play with Howling Bells this week (*sigh*), FTCZ will just have to hope they play Ireland soon. Also we're kinda hoping we hear them in Skins soon. They'd fit in really nicely on that.

Red FM approves!

Hey users,

I know you may feel disorientated, what with getting two posts in one day (don't you dare get used to it), but i feel its a fitting tribute to one of my cats who is named after today (Ash Wednesday because she has a black smudge permanently on her forehead. Thats the sort of thing that earns one of the title: least favourite cat).

Anyway, it gives me an apportunity to mention the very ugly band that is Passion Pit.

One would be forgiven for thinking that those are the guys from teh really unfunny TV show 'The Big Bang Theory'. but luckily for us, these guys have musical talent, which trumps any similarities they may have for those really unfunny characters.

Oddly enough, right after getting their EP (entitled 'A Chunk Of Change'). they appeared amidst the somewhat weird amount of dance music on Red FM. I usually listen to Ice Cube when i'm bombing around in my car (as pretty much anyone that reads this knows very well), but a bit of Passion Pit has now found its way into my very exclusive car playlist.

In short, Passion Pit are awesome. I'm pretty sure they're playing Oxegen so they're kinda annoying in that sense though. Anyway, FTCZ approves! Red FM too i guess.

Nobody likes eager girls :/

Hey userz,

As all of you users know, clingy people are not a good thing. After all, FTCZ was guilty when we did our daily updates back in November (what were we thinking?!?). But there's proper ways to do these things, and we've learnt the hard way that hot and cold tactics never helps anyone (really funny story).

So of course it's getting to be a bit of an annoyance when i go to my hotmail, eagerly awaiting a "wazzup gangster/you are teh hot" message from facebook, only for it to be from Little Boots' outta control newsletter.

"But Cillian", you say, "If you don't like it then why don't you unsubscribe like a sensible person. Stop moaning about it in your blog.In fact, didn't you say you'd complain less for lent..."

I'll have to stop you there, you awfully nosey reader, simply because i'm quite fond of Little Boots and like many other bands, I enjoy the occasional newsletter. Anf FTCZ highly approves of her awesome youtube vids (see her middle-of-the-night version of Stuck on Repeat). But what FTCZ doesn't like is that we've been notified that her album was 'nearly finished' several times and get told about the still not sold out UK tour (yet no love for Dublin or Cork) quite often.

The best thing Little Boots can do is chop down the emails and do bigger ones with more content. And more importantly: Release her album and play more dates! Like the almighty Yeah Yeah Yeahs (best band ever, by the way), she's a bit guilty of riding the hype train and not releasing enough stuff, like Florence and the Machine.

Luckily for Florence, i've seen her live while eating a pie, so I have nothing but good things to say about her :D

'09999999999999999999999999999999

Hey internet users,

Sorry for the shabby amount of updates over the past two months. There's loads of reasons why but 'didn't want to' isn't a pretty strong argument. Fortunately we're gonna be updating lots again :D

We're also dumping everything we liked about '08 and getting with '09. Late of the Pier? More like Late of the Old (rofl).Crystal Castles? More like 2008 Castles. We're gonna be raving about passion pit and little boots and joy formidable till you're sick of 'em. Also, there'll be lotsa coverage of Crystal Castles and LOTP.

So start visiting this blog again.

Sonic C

KeyGenz Musak

Hey Guys!

There have been a serious lack of updates on this thing for a good while!!!
FindtehApologiez will be created soon!

However since all of you are fans of 8-bit music im sure you wont mind a re-appearance with this Choonz-tastic Blog!

If any of you had a dubiously nerdy/dangerous friend who enjoyed copyright infrigment when you were 12 I'm sure you will all be aware of the fact that keygens often have class music. While the actual keygen is like juggling fire, a real good virus scanner is needed, oftentimes these things have absolute gems of Choons on them. These lil soundbits hark back to the days when consoles only had 8- bit colour and 8-bit sound!! The guys that make these things have had the decency to put all the ripped off atari music onto the one website for our aural pleasure!!!

www.keygenmusic.net/?page=team&teamname=crude&lang=en

For all you CC fans keep your Kleenex near ;)

Big B