New sounds from the best Manchester duo-turned-trio-turned duo! Fabulous & impeccable, The Bell Peppers have been one of my favorite bands since their Top of 2011 EP, Cooking With The Bell Peppers, and new sounds is always a great thing, having not heard from them in a while. Golf Shack, off their TBC 2nd EP, hits at all the BP’s great strengths: 50s reverb & surf through a modern lens, fresh-faced instrumentals with pop hearts, and the undeniable ability to sound like they belong in a Tarantino. Needless to say, you’re gonna need this EP, whenever it surfaces:

Every year on April 15th the MLB celebrates Jackie Robinsons life & legacy, not only in respect to his athletic achievements (which were of course considerable, keep in mind baseball was only his 2nd best sport!) but with regard for his major sacrifice for equality. If you don’t know Jackie Robinson’s story, I would highly recommend watching Ken Burn’s Baseball 1930s-1940s and 1940s-1950s for a really in depth look at Jackie’s greatness that doesn’t shy away from his humanity as well. Above you will find a song honoring Jackie Robinson, also used in KB’s Baseball, but which is awesome — not only because baseball was truly the American past-time then, so much that it bled into pop music, but because it’s a great fucking song. Of course, its Count Basie so can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be amazing. #jazz

Thought I should post the first song to make me dance around my living room like an idiot since that King Tuff jam from a while ago.

Okay, so I felt really compelled to blog about how the murdering of Bob Dylans songs need to stop immediately. It’s like, if we can band together for a really shittily run charity, we should also put a stop to the suffering of Bob Dylan’s timeless pieces of art — even though I feel like 60s Bob would kill me for saying that.

So today I’m looking at the stuff you can overpay for on Record Store Day here in the UK and I came across a Bob Dylan, because they always press some random record of his and this year they’re re-releasing Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?, which to be honest is a pretty great choice and a completely underrated gem. But then, to my shock and horror and chagrin, I read immediately below Sony presents Bob Dylan (The Ting Tings Remix). LIKE.

STOP WHAT YOUR DOING AND THINK ABOUT THIS CATASTROPHE.

I generally dislike remixes, and hate Bob Dylan remixes more than anything in the world (except these remixes by K’Naan which are actually amazing) but I just wanted to run down the list of unacceptable things that have happened “recently”:

1. Mark Ronson butchered Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine
2. Ke$ha “sang” a cover of Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright
3. Countless other disasters that make me want to say “FLAG ON THE PLAY! ENCROACHMENT!” etc and then punt them but am too lazy to type out here for you

But on top of all this, The Ting Tings remixing Dylan? No. It has to stop here. We must stop it here lest the Wombats are next in line to take on a Dylan classic! So take a stand, or something.

I mean, can we at least wait until the man is dead before we desecrate everything he did?

May 29th. New King Tuff album, entitled King Tuff on Sub Pop. Will be a top 10 record, and the odds are like 2:1 of a #1 album of the year. Bad Thing is as great as King Tuff has ever been if not better. Such an exciting band.

It is with heavy heart that I admit to y’all that I won’t be at this years SXSW (first one I’ve missed since 2008) and I pretty much want to die — suffice it to say I’m trapped in England until September. However, I’ve had a hand in helping with the utterly fantastic and much more on top of it astoudingly cool people at Get Bent to present a party also presented by the ridiculously rad Southpaw Records, Oops Baby Records & Evil Weevil Records. Spider House was one of my favorite places last year so it’s fitting that this years shindig will be there with a thousand amazing bands on three stages. Find all the information below & represent NRBW by wearing something ridiculous.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14 AT SPIDER HOUSE 2PM // FREE // ALL AGES // FACEBOOK EVENT

SPIDER HOUSE CHAPEL:
2:00 Public Dims (San Juan Capistrano, CA)
3:00 Turbo Fruits (Nashville, TN)
4:00 Natural Child (Nashville, TN)
5:00 Habibi (Brooklyn, NY)
6:00 TEENS (Boise, ID)
7:00 Guantanamo Baywatch (Portland, OR)
8:00 Las Ardillas (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
9:00 Audacity (Fullerton, CA)

BALLROOM BAR:
2:15 Lola Cola (Austin, TX)
3:00 Crooked Bangs (Austin, TX)
4:30 Fungi Girls (Cleburne, TX)
5:15 Lovely Bad Things (Los Angeles, CA)
6:00 Dikes of Holland (Austin, TX)
7:30 The Band in Heaven (West Palm Beach, FL)
8:15 Modern Convenience (Memphis, TN)
9:00 Nightmare Boyzzz (Muscle Shoals, AL)
9:45 Mouthbreathers (Lawrence, KS)
10:30 The Amoebas (Grand Rapids, MI)
11:15 Mujeres (Barcelona, Spain)
12:00 Dead Ghosts(Vancouver, BC)

BALLROOM:
2:30 Hector’s Pets (Brooklyn, NY)
3:15 Allah-Las (Los Angeles, CA)
4:00 Brown Brogues (Manchester, UK)
4:45 Rayon Beach (Austin, TX)
5:30 Psychic Palms (Houston, TX)
6:15 The Nervebreakers (Dallas, TX)
7:00 Bare Wires (Oakland, CA)
7:45 Ketamines (Lethbridge, AB)
8:30 Puffy Areolas (Cleveland, OH)
9:15 Heavy Times (Chicago, IL)
10:00 Mannequin Men (Chicago, IL)
10:45 Cosmonauts (Fullerton, CA)
11:30 FIDLAR (Los Angeles, CA)
12:30 Missing Monuments(New Orleans, LA)

HEAVY HAWAII – SUPER BOWL XXIX (Official Video) from Art Fag Recordings on Vimeo.

Nothing that I love more than a video that is highly amusing despite containing no inside jokes that I even get, or anything else to explain what makes it so joyous. But Heavy Hawaii have always done this for me — can’t even hope to dislike anything this band does because it’s all fucking good. Their video for the new single Super Bowl XXIX, which you can/should/must pick up a copy from Art Fag Recordings, is one of the best ones I’ve seen in a while. Listen to the track above/below & make sure you pick your copy up RIGHT NOW!

mp3: Heavy Hawaii – Super Bowl XXIX

Don’t do a double take, I know I posted about Best Friends‘ ultimate jam Wasting Time once before, but I’ve had it on repeat for so long that I thought it deserved a second look. Not only that, but Art Is Hard will be celebrating their 10th release, Best Friends‘ second EP, Throwing Up, out on March 26th. The newly recorded jam they’re giving away for freesies is better than it ever was — clear, clean and full of sunshine, ridiculous hooks, a frenetic riff and the best part — it’s really good to shout along to at the end (“you make me feel so unreal” is surprisingly fun to shout). This song has been a mainstay of my current “just kickin’ it” playlist and it should be part of yours, as well. The full EP is up for stream via Art Is Hard’s Bandcamp, but you should put up £5 to order it, or shut up.

Apologies for the missed January mixtape, hopefully this February 2012 one will soothe the ache I’m sure you all felt sans my monthly mixtapes. I had things to do like see the Thunder play, hang out in Washington DC and resume hating the English winter, but I’ve got my shit back together now, y’all. Enjoy:

01 Jack of Heart – Marry Me
02 The Obligatory Cripples – I Wanna Be Yr Boyfriend
03 Corners – Sometimes
04 King Khan & The Shrines – Bite My Tongue
05 Colleen Green – Goldmine
06 Soko – I Just Wanna Make It New With You
07 Royal Limp – Ennui
08 Heavy Hawaii – Super Bowl XIX
09 King Tuff – Wild Desire
10 Cold Bones (feat. King DJ) – No Need For Names
11 Grimes – Nightmusic (feat. Majical Cloudz)
12 A$AP Rocky – Celebration

mp3: Nu Rave Brain Wave x February 2012 Mixtape | zip file [63.3mb]

Been super sweet on California girl Colleen Green for quite some time now, and couldn’t be more excited about her upcoming release, Milo Goes to Compton, which comes out tomorrow via the ever impeccable darlings at Art Fag Recordings. Goldmine, a track that lives up to its name in almost every single way, is the best way to whet your appetite until tomorrow. It’s an upright, confident helping of summer sun and punk fuzz with Green’s lilting, clear vocals — this succulent little tale of not being able to control oneself sounds so damn good. Don’t forget to grab your copy of her full-length tomorrow and grab the mp3 below:

mp3: Colleen Green – Goldmine