Earlier in the year we wrote about our disappointment in missing Champagne Riot’s only Los Angeles show. They were kind enough to e-mail us with an update about the band who apparently have gone from a three-piece down to a two-piece and are busy working on new tracks. One of those tracks is featured here today, and more can be found on their MySpace page.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download: Champagne Riot – The Champagne Anthem
Wow, if there was one song that was apparently screaming to be covered, it’s this one. Newcomers Codeine Velvet Club come out swinging with their version of The Stone Roses’ “I Am The Resurrection” right before their debut album is released on the 28th. Though I can’t claim myself as a Fratellis fan (50% of this band is Jon Lawler) and I can’t vouch for the rest of the record yet as I have only heard snippits, if this cover is any indication, it’s got a better than average chance at being great.
RevCo was one of Al Jourgenson’s many (and uniformly excellent) Wax Trax! collaborative side projects that kept him entertained when not devoting time to his major label behemoth, Ministry. Of all of his side projects, RevCo, with its lurid tales of lecherous rednecks, motorcycles thieves, and perhaps most famously, for raising hackles on high profile goats via cheeky covers (Olivia Newton John and Rod Stewart), is far and away his longest running non-Ministry related concern. This go around, Al has passed the reigns to a new lead singer and a reconstituted RevCo and at this recent show only stopped by as special guest.
DJ Food is a name I haven’t thought about in a looooong time, but apparently he’s back and has a new EP out now and a couple coming in the next month or two. I’ve been a fan of DJ Food for a long time, but I really got into them/him around the time that A Recipe For Disaster came out. In fact, Refried Food is one of my favorite electronic releases of all time. I had no idea that Strictly Kev was still putting out new stuff, but here’s a brand new track from one of the EPs and in keeping with his older stuff, it’s pretty great. I’ll certainly be looking for the other ones when they are released by Ninja Tunes in the next couple of months.
This week is going to be about posting stuff that I’ve been meaning to write about that’s been sitting my inbox. First of is Raphael Saadiq. I have no idea how this record slipped completely by me for over a year, especially seeing that it was up for 3 Grammy awards and voted Best Album on iTunes, although I’m probably not the target demographic for “Best R&B Album” most of the time. I guess this proves that there is some worthwhile “mainstream music” out there after all. Raphael just came through LA a few days before I heard this track, otherwise I would have been at the show for sure. It’s a fantastic 60′s soul throwback record, which I love, done with some seriously talented people. I should go back and put an asterisk on my best of 2008 records to include this one because it’s straight up amazing. If you’re digging this track, do yourself a favor and be sure to check out the full album “The Way I See It.”
Reading all the hub-bub about Johnny Marr touring with The Cribs has caused me to revisit his legendary days with The Smiths this past week. I’m sure he has a lot of reasons for not doing a Smiths reunion, but if I can think of one band that could probably pull off a good reunion show, it would be them. This track comes from the demos of The Smiths first self-titled LP. This track didn’t make it on the record but it can be found in it’s finished form as a B-side to the “This Charming Man” single.
