This Week I Will Mostly Be Listening To... Foals

My favourite ever band this week has to be Foals. After seeing their video for 'Balloons' twenty odd times, I saw them perform live on the BBC's 'Later With Jools Holland' and am now hooked.

I realise there's a bit of a buzz surrounding the band at the moment with many pronouncing them the new saviours of Indie rock. That's obviously taking it a bit too far, but they're certainly a refreshing change from the current crop of whining generic Indie Pop soundalikes. The first thing I notice is that this is Dance music. Think of thumping The Rapture beats meeting the complicated Math Rock of TV On The Radio and you'll get some idea.

I'm not sure if it's just me but I hear echoes of Two Tone era ska with their off kilter beats and saxophones on their studio recordings. After seeing a few live clips it's clear that they can play, although how well they'll manage with larger venues remains to be seen.

According to their interviews they're promising a more experimental approach for their new album, which was actually produced by TVotR's Dave Sitek. Certainly one to watch even if they don't save Indie.

Muppets v Sesame Street

I always divide the world up in to two distinct groups. Those who prefer The Muppet Show and those who favour Sesame Street. Anyone who has no opinion I generally ignore. I myself would always go for muppets. I always found Sesame Street too full of learnin' and stuff, while the muppets was all for laughs. Plus I always found Big Bird a little sinister.

It was only fairly recently, during a regular drunken Muppets v Sesame Street debate with a friend of mine that I discovered how much I'd missed out on. I was blown away when he sent me this YouTube Vid of Stevie Wonder playing 'Superstition' live on Sesame Street. This is funky in the extreme and not a furry critter in sight.

Here Come The Girls

Sometimes I despair at advertising. Ad execs are always ready to pick the bones of real artists' work and regurgitate it for mass consumption. How many pieces of classical music does Joe Public know that weren't discovered through some media campaign? Not many I'll bet. Mind you if that's the only way we're gonna find out about it, perhaps that's not so bad. Anyway how else would we get to hear about fantastic new products like Cillit Bang. Three cheers for TV ads.

Watching the new Boots commercial (below) got me racking my brains trying to remember where I'd heard the music from. I'm sure I must have heard it in Bar Rumba or somewhere, but never new the name. One google later and there it was. 'Here Come The Girls' by Ernie K-Doe is the funky track in question, reasonably familiar to the old Northern Soul crowd but most famous for his 1961 R&B hit, 'Mother-In-Law'.



Anyway I tracked it down on New Orleans Funk Vol.1: the Original Sound of Funk 1960-1975, and was pretty easy to find on Soulseek. It's a good collection (not exceptional) of solid funky grooves, with many recognisable as Hip Hop breaks. Highlights for me were Chuck Carbo's 'Can I Be Your Squeeze', and Aaron Neville's 'Hercules'. If you collect funk compilations then you'll already have most of these tracks but if you're looking for an introduction to the New Orleans funk sound you can't go wrong with this.

Purely Perfect Punk Power Pop

While accidently watching MTV today, I noticed a not so recent interview clip featuring Pete 'Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo' Doherty. When asked if there was any song that he wished he'd written, everyone's favourite heroin addict just about managed to reply "'Another Girl, Another Planet' by The Only Ones". Well he may be a skanky twat but he certainly couldn't have picked a more worthy tune.

Released in 1978, it was highly regarded by critics at the time but wasn't a hit. You can now find it on soooo many compilations from that era, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick up their debut album, The Only Ones. The group is often referred to as a Punk band but I think their sound has just as much in common with Badfinger and Big Star. The track is 3 minutes of pure pop genius and should be mandatory at every indie disco. In fact it's such a strong track that even Blink 182 didn't manage to ruin it.

Oh, and it's about heroin. Enjoy!