First things first. I know I should have blogged something about the Van She album but I only pretend that I like electro, sorry.

A new wave of British indie, again. There are quite a few waves. Johnny Foreigner is a band from England which draws more on US post-hardcore stuff, not the britpopish things and not electro. Los Campesinos!, Blood Red Shoes, Elle Milano can come to mind. With the dual girl+guy vocals it could easily be emo but it’s rather the Pretty Girls Makes Graves thing. The new single Salt, Peppa and Spinderella is an awesome, complex indie track and totally up-to-date even with the Bloc Party-like singing in the beginning of the song.

And mentioning Bloc Party, now it’s not a surprise (of course, for JF it was a huge surprise, they are flattered) that Bloc Party’s tech-man Russell Lissak made a remix for it. He’s like Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. And talking about Radiohead, the remix is like Amnesiac-era Radiohead but weird and beautiful in it’s own way. How witty I am!

Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa and Spinderella [zshare] // Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa and Spinderella [ysi]

Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa and Spinderella (Bloc Party remix) [zshare] // Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa and Spinderella (Bloc Party remix) [ysi]

Oh wow. I love The Kills album. So fucking amazing. I mean like it’s really like dirty old garage rock with some added freakiness and phobias. Still, it’s not only that it isn’t outdated, it feels perfectly relevant. Sexy and dark, Midnight Boom is exactly what its title says. They had made an average album in 2003 when this kind of stuff was popular. Now that it’s not so much, they made an awesome record.

There are many things I like about Ed Banger’s SebastiAn. Ok, he’s hyped and everyone knows the RATM re-edit and Motor and maybe the Fool for Love remix too. However, he’s a guy from the banger crew who is constantly pushing boundaries. Seems like blessed with a cool taste he chooses music to chop-chop that is good. Like rock music and stuff. Not remixing a remix of a remix of a cover. And Dog for example is one electro-grindcore noise that can piss off a lot of people who are waiting for another perfectly beatmixed techno track on the dancefloor. I like it and that’s why I adore this remix of Cheap and Cheerful very much. Compare it to the Nite Cells edit who are like ok but they fucked it up. Or The Bloody Beetroots? Although I’m into them this one sucks. The Mathematikal rerub or The Videoband re-distortion don’t even deserve to be mentioned. SebastiAn had the taste to keep the hot rocking side of the song and twist it with his own sick disco. The breakdown at the end is brilliant.

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (SebastiAn remix) [zshare] // The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (SebastiAn remix) [fileden]

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (Nite Cells Bored Robot remix) [zshare] // The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (Nite Cells Bored Robot remix) [fileden]

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (The Bloody Beetroots remix) [zshare] // The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (The Bloody Beetroots remix) [fileden]

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful [zshare] // The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful [fileden]

English band, Friendly Fires is like Foals for me. They are like the 2007 NME favourites with a couple really cool singles (video for Paris and On Board) and with a lot of people anticipating the album. Even musically they are a bit similar: the progressive indie rock injected with disco and electronica. The difference is that Foals are more on the heavier post-punk end of the scale and Friendly Fires are more elegant and relaxed like Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem. The Foals album is awesome and totally lives up to the high expectations. The full-lenght of Friendly Fires is gonna arrive on the 1st of September this year. You could’ve already heard Jump in the Pool at Bigstereo which is such a cool song, it sounds like reaching out for the stars but being stuck in the stratosphere between scary chemical processes and stuff. Here’s another track from the upcoming album and it proves that its worth to wait for it. It’s gonna come out on XL Recordings (besides Vampire Weekend, Ratatat, etc).

Friendly Fires - White Diamonds [zshare]  // Friendly Fires - White Diamonds [ysi]  // Friendly Fires - White Diamonds [fileden]

I really loved DFA1979 and so I was excited to hear Sebastien Grainger ex-drummer and singer doing the vocals for a Does It Offend You, Yeah? track cause I adore his voice. Since then I discovered that he’s been doing a lot of stuff alone. The old name is The Rhythm Method, new name is Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains. The Mountains is basically an imaginary band. With the other half of DFA in MSTRKRFT you could expect something dancey but it’s not. Grainger signed to Saddle Creek as their second Canadian artist and the label used to be indie-folk. So the sound is like…umm…ok, this might be weird but reminds me of the second album of The Killers. Bruce Springsteen connection both sides. It has the same sort of arena rock feel to it where everything is amazingly monumental and American. Highways, big cars, huge distances measured in miles. I don’t mean this in a negative way, the songs are cool, these are just the images that came to my mind about them. Grainger’s voice actually fits to these quite well with the tragedy in it and the power. You can buy the digitally released EP here and a full-lenght will follow in October this year.

Sebastien Grainger - American Names [zshare] // Sebastien Grainger - American Names [ysi]

I was a huge fan of The Blood Brothers. Unfortunately they split last year. I still think that Johnny Whitney’s voice is one of the weirdest and best vocals for experimental hardcore stuff. Or anything.

In addition I really loved Pretty Girls Make Graves who like BB disbanded last year. From the emo-y start to the dark Elan Vital, they were a band to live up to the expectations a rock band has which is formed in Seattle.

On the ashes of glory, Jaguar Love was born. Johhny Whitney does the singing with Cody Volotato also from BB, is on the guitar and Jay Clark, frontman of PGMG is doing a lot of instrument stuff as well, he’s mainly on drums. In the beginning of 2008, they signed to the legendary Matador. First single and EP were out in June. A full lenght titled Take Me to the Sea is following this August. I think it’ll be awesome. Expect hardly digestable music with sweet melodies, weird screaming and experimental aesthetics. Continuing the BB tradition somehow the atmosphere suggests the end of the world. Give them myspace love and buy the record.

Jaguar Love - Jaguar Pirates [zshare] // Jaguar Love - Jaguar Pirates [ysi]

Jaguar Love - Vagabond Ballroom [zshare] // Jaguar Love - Vagabond Ballroom [ysi]

XX Teens is a five-piece band from London, UK. Like a proper band, you know. There was a lot of hype around them and though they have a new single out and the album will be released 28th of July. They were called Xerox Teens but Xerox photocopier, etc company made them change it. Yeah, well, it would’ve been hard to play on a Xerox machine-something on stage. This is so funny, I mean rockband vs photocopy company? Haha, people are really serious about names. Proper name, totally sacred stuff.

Nevertheless, the XX Teens made the album and it sounds cool. At the very least it’s much better than the overhyped psychobilly revival of The Horrors. Dancey, dirty, noisy art-punk. Seems like a much more honest follower of the tradition than many other recent post-punk acts.

XX Teens - B-54 [zshare] // XX Teens - B-54 [ysi]

Yeah, someone might remember, there was a band called The Subways with a big hit a few years ago. Its title was like Rock and Roll Queen and it appeared in an OC episode that made it an even bigger indie-hymn. Now, they should sign to Kitsuné change their name and a chorus like ‘be my tech-house queen’ would be awesome. Remixes would be on the way.

Nevertheless, here they are again with two new songs preceeding the album. The first one was Girls & Boys (video) which made some think about Blur but I don’t really get it. Who the fuck are Blur anyway? Actually I liked the previous single better, it had some really heavy guitars. Nevermind, the new single bears the fancy title Alright (video) and it sounds quite cool. I mean, yeah, obvious hooks like “aaahh-haaa” and the girl-boy duo vocals are sometimes cheesy but Nirvana-like guitars can be great and there’s some metal. Buy it when it comes out in June, the full-lenght will follow same month.

The Subways - Alright (zshare)

The Subways - Alright (y. s. i.)

Poni Hoax is a five piece band from Paris, France. Well, they are electro but they rock as well. Arty post-punk with catchy electronica. Their song Budapest made quite a buzz in 2005. It was remixed by Joakim. (I know him since the Hearts on Fire remix, seems now he co-produces their new LP and owns their label.) Now, with their second album entitled Images of Sigrid (TigerSushi records, 28th April) they are gonna triumph. Antibodies starts like a Blondie song and (video) was their previous single in 2007 and the next one is Pretty Tall Girls which is quite awesome. When the chorus hits in it kinda blows anyone’s head off.

Poni Hoax - Pretty Tall Girls (zshare)

Poni Hoax - Pretty Tall Girls (y. s. i.)

The Cyanide Valentine hail from the US, city of Boston. They create a blend of very strange acoustic sounds and experimental electro. The beauty and the beast, ha! The vocals are like from Radiohead or Spiritualized and the guy+girl together reminds me of Arcade Fire. They even go as far as Sufjan Stevens-like folkish stuff.

Their second record is downloadable from their site for free which is really nice: http://cyanidevalentine.com/ I chose two songs from the album, they are my favourites. The first one has an amazing title: Kate I’m Only Freaking/Amphetamina, the second catches them at their naively melancholic folk-pop side. But the whole album creates a very strong and uniquely dark atmosphere.

Btw these guys have a great taste - their favourites of 2007 include The National, Of Montreal, etc - which should be appriciated.

The Cyanide Valentine - Kate I’m Only Freaking/Amphetamina (y. s. i.)

The Cyanide Valentine - The Sweetest Season (y. s. i.)

So I don’t think our love, or most others’ love for le Castles de Crystal need to be expressed to any greater extent… that is until Lazrtag’s re-work of Crimewave hit bloggaland. Lazrtag hail from Hollywood and their taste for remixes originals shows it: Britney Spears and Rihanna among others have been given brushwork by the lads’ laptops. The Crimewave edit is tops — gives it just the punch it needs for another ciruit on the dancefloors — or you can be sure on our dancefloors at least.

The CC album as a whole is on sale at your favorite local record store and even more conveniently on itunes, so hit them up and give support. My favorite of the lot that hasn’t been given so much attention is Reckless. Worth a listen, and more.

Crystal Castles vs. Health - Crimewave (Lazrtag Remix) [zshare] // Crystal Castles vs. Health - Crimewave (Lazrtag Remix) [yousendit]

Crystal Castles - Reckless [zshare] // Crystal Castles - Reckless [yousendit]