New LightGuides single…. May 25th!

Why write one blogpost when you can write two. Ole sweet poppers, one to warm the cockles this and at no expense… The good news is coming thick and fast now. As you will no dout be aware, we recently signed heroic Scottish power-alt-pop punkers LightGuides, and their first new single is coming soon… And what’s even better – it’s free!

Hammering your ears, and showing them a right good time – ‘Old Bucket Seats‘ will be up and freely available on Wednesday 25th May as a free download from their website (www.lightguidesmusic.co.uk) in exchange for an e-mail address, or maybe a kiss – one or the other. For those of you north of the border, they will also be having a launch the same night at Captain’s Rest, Glasgow – no doubt ripping the holy s**t out of it if evidence of last week’s power set at The Great Escape is anything to go by.

It seems a shame not to give it to you now really – but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait… In the meantime though, take a look at this awesome tour video (and just maybe you’ll be able to hear it all anyway – winner!)– all spliced together from a load of lovely footage taken over the last few months. Enjoooooy ‘Old Bucket Seats’!

Old Bucket Seats from Light Guides on Vimeo.

Johnny Foreigner release their video exclusively to … You!

So we talked and pondered over email and wondered who we should release the new video too. You see, the lovely J Matthew Nix in the U.SofA has created this awesome feast of moving images to go with Harriet, By Proxy – and while it seemed right to give it out as an exclusive, we weren’t really sure who we should give it too.

So we said… Why not release it as an exclusive to you… Yeah you. It’s a little ‘punk’ experiment we wanted to try, and rather than saying ‘go visit NME/Drowned in Sound/ The 405/Rocksound’ (all fine names under debate) – we thought – well help yourself to the vid, and make it exclusive on your facebook page, get the first play on YouTube – or you know – just download it and tell your mum that she’s the first person in Drotwich who’s gonna see it…

Whatever – it’s up to you. JoFo have promised not to show it off to the media for at least 24 hours… So in that time it’s yours.. Lex says…

“You get the exclusive. yeh, YOU. welcome to the fun fun world of music journalism. here are two links to our manager’s dropbox. (click right mouse button on the link and ‘save as’ to download)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1121527/JxFx%20Harriet%20by%20Proxy%20Med.mov

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1121527/HARRIET_BY_PROXY%20-%20iPhone.m4v

the first is our awesome video for harriet, by proxy, the second is the same thing only ready for iStuff. The Music Press won’t see this till the end of this week/start of next, and we’ll put it on our youporn account and that soon if you just don’t want to play our stupid game anyway.”

So yeah – if you want to get involved – it’s all yours. An exclusive for the bestest people out there ☺

My First Tooth Orchards video!

Oh I love this video! And despite the fact that at least 3/4 of My First Tooth were nearly blinded by wayward pens during its inception – it seems all went swimmingly. Filmed in N’Town’s primary venue, The Labour Club, extras came and went and did some rather cool, nifty creative things, made pretty masks and filled Ross’ pockets with streamers.

Voila – Orchards is killer! And available now in super cheap ‘pass it on’ format as a 10-pack card split with the lovely Momeraths in the Alcopop shop! Watch and love, especially the bit at the end where Gareth gets his head slapped at the end *sniggers*

New Attika State single out today!!

Hello PoPpers – and I hope you had a very charming weekend. Mine was mostly spent killing Truck Festival with a rusty tinny and face of steel… Good couple of nights, and lovely to see all of you I did there… Charmed indeed. The highlight of my weekend was undoubtely Kev BSM’s brother laying some incredible truths about Bodger (of Badger fame) which shan’t be repeated on this blog – but are well worth chatting about sometime…

Anyway – In preparation of their forthcoming LP, The Attika State TODAY release the most epic sub three minute power pop single you’re likely to hear this side of the Atlantic – on limited edition T Shirt/CD bundle (9 left in the shop tis all) and digital. Hailing from Sicily, Malta, Sri Lanka and Wisbech, the boys are back to showcase once again their appreciation of the beauty of forward thinking melodic rock and roll.

It is, take my word for it (and Rock Sound), bloody brilliant – and the soundtrack to the hottest of summers. Believe! And if you don’t, take a look at this rad video by Greg Anthony James (filmed at Alcopopalooza) and have yourself a listen! You can get it digitally here at iTunes too.

The Attika State – Celebration? from Greg Anthony James on Vimeo.

Stagecoach live in Manchester – rocking that acoustic look….

Stagecoach from MCR Scenewipe on Vimeo.

Nit a lot more to say really other than watch and love… PS – keep an eye out for good reviews on this forthcoming EP, because of the 9 we’ve seen so far – all 9 have been well… Rather stunning. Take this for example from those lovely lot at the 405… 10/10 you say – not bad, we’ll take that! You can preorder the very limited edition CD EP (complete in hand packaged poster format with stickers and envelopes and things) for just £6 from the shop…

Totes!

THE Jimmy Greaves loves a bit of Alcopop

Or something like that… i had the great pleasure of meeting England’s third highest scorer of all time – and he was lovely enough to record this (hilariously cheeky) trail for the good ship Alcopop. Watch, love and realise how ace he is – then do as he says!

<3 Screaming Maldini – Secret Sounds video

Oh and it really kills! You must watch this – prrrretty much immediately. Straight from the magnificent ‘Kookaburra Sings’ EP, released strongly on Alcopop a while back. Aren’t Maldini hot!

Strong Arms by Elephants is out today!

And by gum it’s a cracker… Limited to just 100 hand made polaroid fronted sleeves of friends, family and lovers (each one different of course), it’s an edgy, raw emotion-fuelled romp through delicious indie-pop and well, you can see what The 405 think of it right about here! The digital artwork features little Matty Stagecoach, but you can take a look at every photo which will feature on the front of each of the CDs below…

Who will you get? Well, it’s a veritable mix of heroes, but you’ll just have to wait and see… Luck out with a member of Stagecoach and they’ll give you a tee if you drop em a line. Get an Elephants member and you win their last single on vinyl. Get the photo of Alcokitten on the front of your sleeve though and know that she chose you as her favourite popper of all (and that’s a prize that can’t be beat!)

Observe… And pick up your copy before it sells out x

Alcopop loves the 90s

I’ve been listening to a fair few classic 90s albums over the last few weeks – revisiting THE most delicious old favourites… You know, like Symposium’s One Day at a Time, Cable’s When Animals Attack and The Crockett’s We May be Skinny and Wiry – and it’s been great. Of course we here at PoP are all about the new music, but it’s furiously ace to dip back and revisit all those awesome bands who inspired us to start all of this up in the first place.

And while I’ve had what probably amounts to awesome ‘aural sex’ (does that work?), there was one track that stood out in my head perhaps more than almost all of the rest! Whether it was because it was an awesome video, introduced me to the world of ‘inhaling deeply and passing it around’ as it were, or just the fact that the song was about as compelling as it could it possibly be (jam that horn baby)…

Dog Eat Dog y’all

Oh – and the singer was called JC (my initials when they’re not JP)… Ace!

Elephants rock Matt Horne, and The Candle Thieves new video is awesome!

Do you ever get that thing where there’s so much to write about, you kinda miss it all. Yes, as do I dear poppers – but today I aim to attack just a couple of things that have been in my mind to scribe over the last week or so. Firstly, to apologise for the very poor showing of Tell Massini, the stupid Alcopop horse who singularly failed to bring home the bacon – but also to let you know about a rather fun podcast, This is Reality, based in Oxfordshire, who seem to be giving us rather a love-in at the moment. Bless ‘em.

Big fans of My First Tooth, and come on now – if you aren’t you should be, it’s noticeable they tend to have a playlist of gold actually – and definitely put the work in… Just the other week I heard a specially created Alcopop megamix which was rather nice, and ith a quick glance to the playlist, one can see they regularly spin the likes of TTNG, Ex Libras and apparently a Hanson cover of Radiohead.. Sure, sure. They also boast a mascot which is a big dog thing wearing headphones… Which is cool.

Also meant to mention that the wonderful Elephants rocked up an awesome London show last week at Matt Horne’s takeover of Shoreditch party thing, wih the likes of My Tiger, My Timing and Jodie Harsh sharing the bill. By all accounts, Elepahnts slayed like tusk-wielding maniac mammals on the loose, which they tend to do in truth… And were pretty much the standout act of the evening.

It was Stagecoach who ventured that opinion too, and the good lads of Coach don’t lie – they’ve been brought up waaaay too nice for that..! (I once suggested to Nick Coach’s dad, whilst discussing his offspring, that he must have good sperm…. True story *cringe*)

Oh and finally, you should definitely check out the new Candle Thieves video for We’re all Gonna Die (have fun) which is coming out on Downtown Records tres soon… It’s magic!