Have to hand it to Lady Gaga, she’s pulled the biggest trick in musical history and it doesn’t seem like the world has noticed. Maybe Sheena Easton would have noticed, she who sang “You got the look”, for that is the ruse; Gaga looks like a supercool New York hipster dripping with post-modern artyness, but she sounds like something you’d hear the kids on Lazytown singing, or any other kids tv, cheap, catchy, painful low com denom. The kind of sound you couldn’t fault a seven year old for loving; you smile at the little nippers as they sing along and dance, trying not to let the smile slip as slip behind the sofa and start hacking your ears off with a rusty saw that’s been under the hedge for eight years.

She’s that much of an earache. She’s on a musical par with Barbie Girl, The Rednex (cotton-eyed Joe) and Scooter.

Betty Boo and 2unlimited actually sound sophisticated next to Gaga.

But she looks like Queen Shiva of the Avante Guard elite, and seems to have fooled a million ears.  I don’t think we ever saw Barbie Girl on a Glastonbury stage. She’s probably even fooled her self. Good trick!

I really can’t remember the last time I was so obsessed with an album, but I absolutely adore XX. I even thought I had come of an age where music couldn’t touch me in the way that it used to but I’m glad that’s not true. In fact I think that may just be part of the attraction. People have commented on how young The XX are, but I think that maybe exactly what draws me to it. Any time I’m listening to it it somehow reminds me of being twenty years old, and all the nostalgic melancholy and excitement attached to that era. I’ve a major teenage crush on XX.

I’ve never heard such a grower either. I had the album in the weeks coming up to Electric Picnic and saw them live that weekend – but it hadn’t at all got under my skin in the way it has now. In fact hearing all the fuss about them back then, I expected something really exciting but on first listen it actually sounds a little dull. But don’t let that fool you. Give it half a chance and it really sneaks up on you.

http://thexx.info/

Hi my name’s John and I like to chew on a Juicy Fruit while drinking beer.

Scandalous, I know. My dentist would have palptations at the thought of it. The habit started off like many a teenager, not yet acquired to the taste of alchohol. I love a pint now but when I’m in the pub, I always have a packet of Juicy’s in my pocket.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juicy_Fruit:

The average age of the typical Juicy Fruit consumer is under 20, with 3- to 11-year-olds making up the heart of the business; those 20 years old and over account for 40 percent of the purchases. John Braine, aka The Juicy Fruit Kid makes up about 10 percent.

Great to discover today that they’ve written such a sexy song about me:

Via http://haroldsatticradio.com/?p=195

It’s psychedelic funky rock, but I’d bet my bottom dollar these guys earned their chops on the electronic side of the park before going anywhere near a guitar or microphone. For some reason it always reminds me of Apocalypse Now; just as he’s chugging down the river, with strange birds chirping and something other lurking in the shadows, this would be the perfect soundtrack.

The lyrics sizzle too;

Dirty Lovin’
“Once or maybe twice a day
Dirty lovin’ baby it’s okay,
I like it straight around the bend,
Enough for me and both my friends”

Plastic Surgery
And I look more like my daugther
Then a dirty old man oughta
Cos I’ve had plastic surgery

These aren’t the best two tracks, they’re the only two I could find.

Not much about them on the web, their myspace page is as dead as their record label.

Secta Chameleon – More than a feelin’

Flight of the Conchords – The humans are dead

Beck – Hell yes

Herbie Hancock – Rockit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK0Pi4wC8Hk

I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard this little sample that gave me a mad craving to hear Coldcut – JDJ “70 minutes of madness”. Then I realised it was so frigging long since I listened to it, that the last time I heard it was on cassette. A tape that I once listened to over and over and over, a gazillion times. A tape that’s now buried deep in the arctic somewhere – ie the attic. I mentioned this on Twitter off the cuff and had several kind offers to get me a copy. I’m listening to it now and it’s still the best mix I’ve ever heard, hands down.

I’ve always been a big fan of a well worked mix. Off the cuff mixes obviously have their charm, but I was always a bigger fan of DJ’s who put a huge amount of time into perfecting their mixes to admittedly obsessive levels, whether it’s finding that perfect record or the perfect sample or the perfect scratch… or any other trick, I’ve always loved hearing that fantastically carved blend of sounds that compliment each other perfectly. Much more that a traditional album.

And 70 minutes of madness is a proper *mix*, not just one boring style from beginning to end. They took the JDJ (Journeys by DJ’s) mantra and smacked the bitch up. It’s on Amazon but if you’ve not yet heard it don’t go and spoil it by listening to separate tracks. Most definitely the sum of the parts here dude.

Latifah! The feminine professor of Wits, Coldcuts on the mix. And it ticks us off when we see so much wrong World, what’s goin on!?

• I can’t believe he hadn’t seen The Simpsons before. He gave it 11 out of 10.
• I can’t believe he got a tattoo of a scorpion on his arm, in the name of a TV show
• I can’t believe he never heard of The Smiths and thought they were rubbish. Particularly ripping apart, This charming man
• I can believe he never had Le Big Mac before