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.