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