ZL♥FWW

"This album is so phenomenal. Smalltown America, Jetplane Landing, Andrew Ferris from Jetplane Landing, it's a very reputable, very cool, very independent record label. Not those independents that go and sign deals with major labels and get all their money... This is independent, you know. Northern Irish music, Smalltown America, Jetplane Landing is the band, fantastic. Cahir from Jetplane Landing starts this band, Fighting With Wire, they come out and they make this record like a while ago, Man Vs Monster, absolutely phenomenal from the start to the end, a flawless modern rock record, completely done independent, flown to the States, sign a big deal with Atlantic Records. It's all coming out in the next couple of months, bells and whistles, the whole thing, and I couldn't be happier. That's the story, here's the record, radios up, no excuses, GO!"

Zane Lowe there, on Fighting With Wire's forthcoming "Everyone Needs A Nemesis" 7" single, right before he played it for about the eighth time. Trust me when I say this: it's currently a bit crazy down at STA Towers right now, but there's LOADS of good stuff forthcoming and I'm super excited about all of it.

Giant Isopods Ate My Well-Known Brand of Corn Chip

My friend Theo plays guitar in a band called Pocus Whiteface - the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that we stock one of their 7"s on the STA store - and they're one of the most DIY-as-fuck bands I've come across in recent months. The 7" we've got is super limited, self-released, has a sleeve designed by one of the band and comes with a bonus CDR featuring both tracks as audio tracks and mp3s, as well as a 6-track bonus mp3 EP. Their next release is going to be a hand-cut 10", limited to 10 copies.

And now... Now they've done this:

This ties in nicely with what I was saying to a director I met with at the end of last week (coming soon: an amazing Alan MX video!), that the best videos have a brilliant idea behind them, rather than big production values. The idea, in this case, stems from this photo and, one suspects, a bit too much of the home-made fruit-infused vodka Theo is fond of...

Keep an eye out for Public Service Broadcast 10, it's slated to include a brand new Pocus track.

Broken Tail - 4 By 4 More EP

Broken Tail Records who first brought the wonderful music of Alan MX to our table are releasing a EP 'Four By Four More'.

Broken Tail has been awarded the coveted DIY Label Of The Week title by nice man Huw Stephens in '07 - and relentlessly 'bring you more grapes plucked from the vine of excellence on our continuing mission to expose the unexposed'.

Due 24th March 2008 (Easter Monday) and released in conjunction with Josaka Music, Four By Four More sees the return to action of PROJEKT A-KO, a bunch of Glaswegians previously involved with Scottish lo-fi heroes URUSEI YATSURA, under which name they released three critically-acclaimed albums, performed a string of major festival dates and even propped up the top 40 singles chart for a week on the back of a John Peel Session. Imagine an Idlewild (circa. 100 Broken Windows)/Pavement supergroup mixed by Thurston Moore and you end up somewhere close.

The EP also features up and coming Bristol indie-rock act TRIPWIRES, already spun by Huw Stephens and currently being filmed by media giants Endemol for some reason, the epic piano-rock of Steve Lamacq favourite TO THE BARRICADES and a joint effort between anti-folk anti-hero BEN MARWOOD and electro-whizz MR FOGG.

Tracklisting:

1/ Tripwires – Kings And Queens

2/ Project A-KO – Here Come New Challenger!

3/ To The Barricades – Say Who You Are

4/ Ben Marwood – Question Marks?

Myspace

Kick Out The Jams/Everyone Needs A Heineken

It's 11 o'clock your time but 6AM in New York Fucking City from which I write. What a mental week it's been and it's all Zane Lowe's Fault. I was quite pleased with myself being able to work out how to crack the hotel mail server. Daniel and I even worked out how to instant message each other last night. Technology? Us? Indeed!

I'm here with Fighting With Wire - who are currently sleeping (I hope) and are possibly struggling to come to terms with the $9 bottles of Heineken they bought last night in the hotel bar. You can put a deposit down on a two bedroom flat in Derry for that.

News of KOTJ's vodcast arrives on my laptop screen and is really quite exciting - allow me to share. This is a music show broadcast on a community television station in Belfast and then redistributed via the web. They are teamed up with AU magazine and have done loads of our bands and others like Rumble Strips (pictured), The Young Knives and Therapy? In fact if you dig around on Google Video (or follow that link I've just given you) there is a particularly awkward interview with Cahir from aforementioned FWW - bless.

Biffy Clyro (have you heard of them?) recorded an acoustic session last Christmas for the show and it's available for three weeks from 5th February - after this you can watch And So I Watch You From Afar - Ireland's post-rock contenders - from February 12th.

This is a lovely community spirited venture run by real music lovers, the production value and the care put into the editing makes this a great way to discover music from Ireland and uncover little rarities by international artists. Okay, I'm off to eat some pancakes! Go me!

Vodcast Link | Feed Me, Feed Me Now | Myspace | AU Official | NvTV