New Zealand music has always had a scattering of fantastic left-field pop. The Flying Nun catalogue is littered with edgey memorable pop songs (Chris Knox’s ‘Not Given Lightly’ or Bressa Creeting Cakes ‘Palm Singing’ for example), and the whole of Voom’s ‘Now I am Me’ is like a Beach Boys B-side collection on acid. I [...]

Howie Weinburg, who is responsible for mastering the upcoming Spoon album, here gives his opinion on the Jan 19th release. Is it just me or is he a little ‘Rainman’ esque in this clip? via I Guess I’m Floating.

The world’s greatest house band have, for the past 15 or so years, been blowing my mind consistently. From things fall apart, to Phrenology, to their live work with Joss Stone, Public Enemy, and now on Fallon, for me, they’ve earnt their self-imposed ‘Legendary’ status. The studio crowd are lucky enough to see this wizardry [...]

Sometime ago, as part of my 365 albums, I covered The Cure’s ‘Greatest Hits’. It took me a long time to get past the lipstick wearing cadaver that is Robert Smith, and take in their music. Again, I have to say; Brent Dallow, where ever you are, you got it right. The XX are one [...]

NPR listeners cover a pretty wide spectrum of music, so it’s no surprise on the range you’ll find in their ‘Best Music of 2009′ list. 1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest 2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion 3. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 4. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone 5. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast [...]

Honestly, I’m still surprised by how much I like Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – listening to it today it struck me as being still an exciting listen… Takeaway shows from Vincent Moon never cease to impress, and Phoenix get special Parisian treatment to make their takeaway show particularly cool…not that they’d need too much help [...]

According to the peeps at NPR’s All Songs Considered, the upcoming 7th studio album from Austin TX faves might be their best yet (therefore rubbing it in that they have an advance copy to listen to…when the album is not due until Jan 2010). You can check out the first single ‘Written In Reverse’ through [...]

Having seen The Roots live was probably one of the most amazing things I have every been lucky enough to do; I can only imagine what it is like for Fallon to work with them every night. Mos Def’s ‘The Ecstatic’ is probably my favourite hip-hop album of this year. From beginning to end, the [...]