We’ve trawled our offices for exclusive, signed and money-can’t-buy items to be auctioned off and raise money for the devastating Queensland Flood Relief and come up with some real treasures.

This is a rare and great opportunity to bid for that valuable signed album from your favourite artists including limited edition vinyl, CDs, posters and other exclusive items which have unearthed in the search for this much needed cause.

The auctions will be held via eBay on EMI Music Australia’s account – with all monies raised going to The Premier’s Flood Relief.

Items include (but are certainly not limited to):

• the original and actual electric chair used on the cover for the classic Hoodoo Guru’s album Electric Chair, through to;
• a vintage triple j Hottest 100 Platinum plaque awarded to the Virgin team for sales of the 2nd triple j Hottest 100 CD;
• an ultra limited edition signed AIR Love 2 vinyl box set;
• signed block mounted posters from the likes of Robbie Williams, JET, The Cat Empire, Eliza Doolittle, Miami Horror and Keith Urban;
• signed CDs from Coldplay, Lily Allen, Ben Harper, Good Charlotte, The Vines, Kisschasy, and Paul Dempsey;
• various merchandise items including a Katy Perry beach towel;
• vinyl bundles from the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, Arcade Fire, Explosions in the Sky, JET, Arctic Monkeys, Grinderman, The Chemical Brothers, Jamelia…
• a limited edition Goldfrapp Head First cassette tape (old skool!) and limited edition Depeche Mode Ultra and Exciter CD albums.
• a limited edition Spice Girls Greatest Hits boxset (including friendship bracelet)
• and much much more…

Bidding wars are highly encouraged!!!! And thanks for doing your part in helping raise money for those in need throughout Queensland.

AUCTION ENDS JAN 27 – GET BIDDING!

EVERY WINNER GETS BONUS PRIZES
(Arcade Fire badges, Beastie Boys stickers, Goldfrapp keychains, etc)
IN THEIR DELIVERIES

If you’ve not heard today’s incredible 10th anniversary Splendour In the Grass lineup, have you not a computer / radio / phone / ears / eyes????

OK so camping tickets are $450 (ouch), but we’ve done the math & it turns that makes each set $5.55… Five and half bucks to heard the new LCD album live!? The full lineup is below, with our favourite acts on the LHS. (Full disclosure, they’re all ours!)

In your pre-Splendour research mode, we’re willing to help you out even further by giving you:

• Laura Marling Ltd Edn I Speak Because I Can CD/DVD with 5 free downloads, postcard artwork, and lyrics booklet
• Jonsi blockmounted poster featuring Go album art
• Operator Please signed 7″ vinyl of Logic / Logic (Dolby Anol Remix)
• Ben Harper & Relentless7 signed blockmounted poster featuring White Lies… art
• Gorillaz limited edition Plastic Beach CD/DVD
• Hot Chip One Life Stand double gatefold vinyl
• Goldfrapp Headfirst collector’s edition cassette

Just head to our sister store at theinsong.com/splendour, buy any of the singles or albums to receive competition details, and tell us in 25 words or less how you plan to warm up for Splendour.

OK there’s nothing particularly Easter-y about Hot Chip’s magnificent video for I Feel Better – it’s just very close to my heart, having been subjected to Blue (All Rise!) videos during my teenage years (my sister is an unrepentant fan).

So it’s very cathartic to watch four eerily similarly clad and choreographed singers obliterated with lasers. That and I Feel Better is probably the best track off Hot Chip’s One Life Stand. Keep an eye out of Alexis and Felix amongst the crowd before they too meet their ill fate.

Appropriately, I Feel Better was directed by British comedian Peter Serafinowicz, star of Alan Partridge, Shaun of The Dead, Hardware, etc. Peter is particularly renowned for his voice work – he is voicing Paul McCartney in the upcoming Yellow Submarine, provided the voice for Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, and is the ecstasy-inducing Howell Granger in Season 1 of Black Books (skip to 5:55).

It’s been a massive week for the angelic-voiced sweethearts of electro-pop Hot Chip…

They’ve performed live with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon, globally broadcast a show live from NYC, and their new album One Life Stand finally burst out of back rooms and onto shelves in record stores… but if you need an extra prod before dishing out your hard-earned cash, the album is streaming in full on their myspace. Who knows how long the tracks will be up there, so pop over to myspace.com/hotchip asap and turn up your speakers.

One Life Stand is far softer than the previous sample-heavy, hectic album Made In The Dark, with Alexis Taylor’s silky-sweet vocals taking the forefront even in the heavier dance-oriented tracks. Personal favourite tracks are I Feel Better and Alley Cats – a quietly reflective tune that manages to turn the potentially awkward comparison of friends with the band’s restless pet cat into charming poetry. Check out the feline-ified band members below!

A fellow EMI staffer (requesting anonymity) likens Hot Chip’s soft beats, synth, and warm vox to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and recommends you give OMD’s album Architecture & Morality a whirl – specifically the track Souvenir.

Back to Hot chip however… Here’s their performance of Take It In with The Roots, live on Jimmy Fallon:

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Not giving too much away here except there are some KILLER electro and dance albums heading our way in 2010!

inthemix.com has detailed their 30 most anticipated albums, and here’s a sneak peak at what’s in the running…

Safe to say we agree with their verdict.