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Our Q&A with the East London duo

Iron Maiden – New Tune, New Artwork, New Eddie!

Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie The Head has seriously evolved since appearing as a teen street-punk zombie on their self-titled debut album 30 years ago. Today’s Eddy – illustrated by long-time Eddie artist Melvyn Grant – is a bulked-up extra-terrestrial killing machine on the artwork for The Final Frontier.

Check him out below: he’s cuddly as ever though!

So HELL YES… there’s a new Maiden album coming! The Final Frontier arrives on Friday August 13. I’ve definitely noticed an increase in Iron Maiden tees (including my own) being proudly worn out on the streets since the album announcement.

For a taster, Iron Maiden are giving away the album track El Dorado from www.ironmaiden.com.

The Final Frontier sounds like it will be a return to peak 80s form: it was mostly recorded earlier this year at Compass Point Studios with long-time Maiden producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley. So Bruce Dickinson and The Boys were in the same head (and physical) space, as it was where they previously recorded Piece Of Mind (’83), Powerslave (’84) and Somewhere In Time (’86).

Bruce said: “The studio had the same vibe and it was EXACTLY as it had been in 1983, NOTHING had changed! Even down to the broken shutter in the corner… same carpet… everything… It was really quite spooky. But we felt very relaxed in such a familiar and well-trodden environment and I think this shows in the playing and the atmosphere of the album.”

Here’s the full tracklisting for The Final Frontier:

1. Satellite 15… The Final Frontier
2. El Dorado
3. Mother Of Mercy
4. Coming Home
5. The Alchemist
6. Isle Of Avalon
7. Starblind
8. The Talisman
9. The Man Who Would Be King
10. When The Wild Wind Blows
Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

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The Count & Sinden – Mega Mega Mega Minimix Download

Here’s a heavy jolt of adrenaline for your drowsy Monday morning…

London overstimulation-experts / dancehall-techno-afrobeat duo  The Count & Sinden have released a minimix of their upcoming debut album MEGA MEGA MEGA on www.dominorecordco.com/csmmm.

As the album title suggests, there is nothing subtle about The Count & Sinden’s tunes… 4 minutes of a minimix and I’m already bouncing off the walls. If you remember the #1 UK dance track Beeper, you know what you’re in for… (hit me on my beeper, hit me on my beeper, beeper-beeper-beeper-beeper, hit me on my beeper, etc…)

So perhaps keep the minimix for today, and take the album for a proper spin on an ‘enhanced’ hedonistic Saturday night when it arrives in Australia on August 20.

The Count & Sinden - Mega Mega Mega Minimix 1. Do You Really Want It – ft. Trackademicks
2. After Dark – ft. Mystery Jets
3. Desert Rhythm
4. Hardcore Girls – ft. Rye Rye
5. Roll Out – ft. 77 Klash
6. Elephant 1234
7. Hold Me – ft. Katy B
8. Mega
9. Addicted To You – ft. Bashy
10. Panther
11. Llamamé – ft. Coolio Iglesias
12. You Make Me Feel So Good

Follow The Count (@hervespace) & Sinden (@gsinden) on Twitter and give the current single MEGA a whirl.

It is indeed, MEGA.

The Count & Sinden will play Parklife nationally in September.

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The Cat Empire… get a taste of what’s to come

For those who listen to Triple J you would have heard them playing a new track from The Cat Empire called Beyond All from their 4th studio album Cinema due out June 25. This is a little taster the band have given Triple J and their online fans in the lead up to the first single which will be released May 14.

The Cat Empire

If you want to own Beyond All you can, for FREE, jump over to triple j to download it for free!

Also on triple j, this morning The Cat Empire’s Harry announced their massive August national tour - dates on thecatempire.com

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Grab your 360 “Please Be Seated” Mixtape!

A short while back, we very proudly announced our partnership with Soulmate Records… and today we taste the first fruit of those endeavours.

The incredible Please Be Seated mixtape by 360 features his original electro-infused-Aussie-hip-hop take on tracks by MGMT, Justice, Lisa Mitchell, Broken Bells, Tinie Tempah, B.o.B, and Ellie Goulding. Who would have predicted that Lisa Mitchell’s Coin Laundry could be mixed into a scathing (though ultimately foot-tappingly-addictive) critique on treatment of war veterans and homelessness!?

360 Please Be Seated Mixtape

The Please Be Seated mixtape is filled with all types of these unpredictable gems – and you can download all six tracks from 360music.com.au now now now for free free free.

Tracklisting is below:

  • Electric Feel – 360 x Justice x MGMT
  • Do You Have A Dollar? (Coin Laundry) – 360 x Lisa Mitchell
  • The Ghost Inside ft Pez – 360 x Broken Bells
  • Starry Eyed – 360 x Ellie Goulding x Jakwob
  • Pass Out – 360 x Tinie Tempah
  • Nothing To Lose – 360 x B.o.B

Please Be Seated is a precursor to 360’s Falling and Flying album, which arrives very soon. In the meanwhile, follow 360 on twitter and kick back with a beer.

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A Place To Bury Strangers hit FBi studios (& give away a free track)

Last week I took A Place To Bury Strangers out to radio before their Sydney Oxford Arts Factory show on Thursday. We did triple j, FBi and 2SER.

These pics are from FBi. They spoke with Shag (Thursdays 3-6pm).

A Place To Bury Strangers

A Place To Bury Strangers

Everyone was really interested in talking to them about their “wall of sound” noise and how they come up with their sounds. They’ve produced effects and guitar sounds for the Trent Reznor and the Edge. Guitar nerds love it.

The opening track It Is Nothing off the new album Exploding Head has over 100 guitar tracks on it!

Exploding Head

Meanwhile, the band are giving away the second track from the album, In Your Heart from the Civil Society website. Go fetch.

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Free download of Yeasayer’s new single O.N.E

Hands up who has been waiting for a new Yeasayer album since the stereo died down after spinning 2007/8’s magnificent middle-eastern-infused-brain-melter All Hour Cymbals for the first time?
“More tunes!” we said… “More tunes now!”
Yeasayer

It’s been a torturous wait, but we were richly awarded late last year when Yeasayer delivered Ambling Alp, a very different percussive electro-pop number off the new album Odd Blood. If All Hour Cymbals was an album for lazy afternoons evaporating in a haze of smoke, spirits, and sitars, then Odd Blood is a wholly different drug-induced haze – a LSD-laced sun-bleached space trip. The landscapes in the Ambling Alp video make me think that this is exactly the type of quirky pop listened to on David Bowie’s desert homeworld from The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Now it’s time for single #2 from Odd Blood, which the band are kindly giving away using the widget below. The track O.N.E follows in the same vein as Ambling Alp – catchy vocals, sunshiny synth melodies, and a serious pop sensibility. Go forth and download:

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Operator Please – download “Logic” for free and find the Gloves that fit

Since Operator Please are editing their video for Logic right this minute, you really oughtta know the tune. Fortunately enough, the Operator Please team from the Gold Coast (who love to give you handwritten notes in class) are giving Logic away free from their website!

Logic download

Operator Please note

The first taste of the upcoming album Gloves is a ballsy punk pop number – a fresh, new, and ever-so-slightly glam tune that is seriously turning heads (well, ears are attached to heads). UK Pop music bible Popjustice also gives it the tick of approval, matter-of-factly declaring: “It is good”. Can’t ask for much more than that!

What’s more is that they want to give you the album on cassette tape! If you get in early that is… You can pre-order 3 different sized Gloves:

  • Standard – CD album of Gloves… but signed!
  • Deluxe – Signed Gloves album + an exclusive cassette tape of OP remixes and demos.
  • Premium – Signed Gloves album + an exclusive cassette tape of OP remixes and demos + an OP tote bag.

If you’re super enamoured of the single, you can order Logic on 7″ vinyl too!

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Lightspeed Champion giving away new album tracks – starting out with an Elvis cover!

Whilst at Avatar Studios recording his upcoming album Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You, Lightspeed Champion (AKA Dev Hynes of the Test Icicles ) recorded live versions of several tracks  – which he’ll be be making available for you to download over the next four weeks.

In classic Lightspeed style the kickoff is an unexpected corker, a cover of Elvis’ Devil In Disguise – featuring the studio admin staff and whoever else wanted in – to celebrate Elvis’ 75th birthday. To get your live version of Devil In Disguise, click the download button on the widget below, but over the next four weeks the remaining tracks will all be available for download from Domino’s Soundcloud page.

He explained: ‘Due to a popular band having leftover studio time at New York’s historic Avatar Studios, I had the opportunity of going into Studio A to record some music, Obviously I decided an Elvis song would be best. I got my friends from the band Spacecamp down and together we recorded an “almost” live version of Devil In Disguise with the help of whoever was in the building that felt like singing… including the receptionist.

Dev has also made an accompanying video in LA:

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These New Puritans – We Want War

Holy smoke, this video is A-mazing!!!

We Want War is the bombastic, epic (read seven minute) new single from These New Puritans’ forthcoming brilliant new album Hidden, out January 15.

Crazy video, crazy song and played LOUD, it’s like some indie industrial orchestral aural attack with BIG DRUMS and BIG SWORDS! Yes peeps, BIG FREAKING DRUMS – six foot to be exact – and BIG FREAKING SWORDS. The video was directed by Sydney-based motion-ographer Daniel Askill.

We Want War is a great intro to the sound of new album which is more broodier and steelier and interesting and experimental than we last heard with Beat Pyramid – which was, that’s right, Triple J Album Of The Week!

This band REALLY push the boundaries while still keeping this listenable and this album is super impressive.

AND! You can also download the Album Preview MP3 – a mash up of what’s to come on the new record, by heading to thesenewpuritans.com

AND AND, here’s UK electro star SBTRKT’s remix of We Want War for you to download immediately Just hit the arrow on right hand side of the player below.
These New Puritans – We Want War (SBTRKT Remix) by theinsound

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Jón Þór Birgisson solo album preview

Mystery abounds!

We have received word and sight of a new project from Jón Þór Birgisson, but the mystery is yet to unravel…

jonsiHead over to jonsi.com to preview 5 snippets from tracks (in English no less!) from the upcoming solo release. And if that doesn’t sate your appetite, sign up to his mailing list to receive a free mp3 of Boy Lilikoi.

For those of you unacquainted with the ethereal mews of Jónsi, he is the voice behind Icelandic heart-melters, Sigur Ros and recent side project Jonsi and Alex.

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