Cactus Parties

Hey Y'All!

Photos from the Hot Chip after party & DJ set are now up on the Neon Cactus Blog. Good times were had, much tequila was drunk, and some awful dancing was done...

Extra kudos for Nick's stylish accessorizing of the oven shovel thing, and to Hailey for dragging me up for some rather precarious dancing!

More terror and tequila next week with the Passion Pit after party & DJ set!

The ABC Club - Thieving Magpie

The ABC Club have been a local favourite of mine for quite a while now, but had gone off the radar for a little while, with name and line-up changes, and a tendency to spend too much time in The Puzzle Hall Inn and on farms in the countryside surrounding Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax. But now they are well and truly back, and what a way to come back. Their new single 'Thieving Magpie' is released next Monday on our good friends 'Things to Make and Do' records, down in London, and I cannot wait for mine to come through the post.
Thieving Magpie is a great track, with intricate guitars, bass and drums providing a great juxtaposition to Zandra's souring vocals. Think of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, mixed with The Shocking Pinks, but with a female voice. It is this mix, along with great pop songwriting, that makes The ABC Club really stand out. The B-side 'Friends of Mine' continues with this style, and is such a strong track that it could easily be seen as a double A side. Having already been describes by Rough Trade as 'one of the most exciting of 2010's debuts', and receiving enough plays to reach the most popular page on Hypem, this is definitely worth a listen here and a pre-order here.

Shout Out Louds

The Shout Out Louds are one of my all time favourite bands. Their debut 'Howl Howl Gaff Gaff' is fantastic, and the follow up 'Our Ill Wills' was just as good. I cannot wait for their third album 'Work' after hearing these two new singles from it. The first of which is called 'Walls', and you can download it here. Here is the video.

Shout Out Louds - Walls from Merge Records on Vimeo.

The Second is called 'Fall Hard', here is the video.

Shout Out Louds - Fall Hard from Merge Records on Vimeo.

The album doesn't have a UK release date yet, but is out in Europe and the US/Canada at the end of the month, so we shoulnd't have to wait very long.

The Eurpoean

I stumbled across this today and felt inspired to share it. It is by a man called Simon Break who performs under the name 'The European'. He has just signed to Stolen Recordings, one of my favourite labels. His voice is very distinctive of Stolen, with the same kind of vocal sound as Let's Wrestle or Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts. This song sounds like Pete and the Pirates singing The Pet Shop Boys! Truly brilliant. His album is out soon and I cannot wait. Listen to more here and here.

THE SETTLER from THE EUROPEAN on Vimeo.

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

So... the big news we've been waiting to tell you for ages is finally out today.

The uber special guests who will be DJing for us at the Neon Cactus on Tuesday. This Tuesday! the 16th.

If you've not already heard the news, check out the Cactus blog here.

Sharks Tooth

Yesterday, the beardtastic Archie Bronson Outfit announced the release of 'Sharks Tooth', lead single from the forthcoming album'Coconut', out 1st March. The track can be downloaded for free from the Archie Bronson Outfit website here. It will also released on 7” on February 22nd with an exclusive Loose Meat remix too. Its described as 'a heavy-psych dancefloor classic featuring distorted vocals, a head-nodding pulse and a highly infectious riff.'

This is the video, directed by Ferry Gouw:

It's the first track (and video) you can hear from 'Coconut', and the first new material form them in nearly 4 years! No Leeds date unfortunately, but they play at the Manchester Academy

on Sunday 28th March. We're very excited!