I’m bloody ruddy busy at the moment so didn’t think I’d be posting anything right now. If there is one thing that will force me to post though it is NEW SUMMER CAMP MUSIC. They’ve announced a new EP, Always, which will be out on 9th July. Plus, they’re letting us stream one of the tracks right now. It’s a move forward in sound that I’ve heard them start to bring to the fore in recent live performances. Elizabeth’s vocals ensure this is unmistakable Summer Camp though. I also love the way it ends so abruptly. Sorry, I’ve just spoilt the end if you haven’t already listened haven’t I.

I bloody love Summer Camp. I also bloody love France. Part of my bloody loving France is bloody loving French Music. Here, possibly to celebrate their upcoming French tour, possibly just to show off, Jeremy and Elizabeth are doing their best Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot impression. This is a new version of their brilliant ‘Round the Moon’, or as the French say ‘Autour de la Lune’.

One of the best tracks from sockformation’s 2011 album of the year gets a video. And what a great video it is. Directed by Ollie Evans, the man behind Tom Vek’s ‘A Chore’, it is inspired by awkward family photos. I was filmed for it as well but got cruelly discarded like a coffee revel. Probably for the best though as I would have only got overshadowed by Puck the cat. Anybody who reads this blog and is yet to buy Welcome to Condale or see the band perform live should stop and have a very hard look at themselves by the way.

I love it when favourite bands of mine come together. Here we have Saint Etienne remixing Summer Camp. Super. The remix is of ‘Losing My Mind’, which I think is Summer Camp’s next single. I should really remember as there is a certain low rent music blogger featuring in the video. I won’t tell you who, but I look even more ridiculous than I did in ‘Down‘. I’ve totally forgotten which song it was for though. Anyway, I imagine I’ll post about it real soon.

how was your christmas? mine has been fun. present wise, i finally own a record player meaning that i can now play the piles of vinyl i’ve built up due to my complete lack of self restraint when faced with a pretty looking 12″. no longer will i have to shift uneasily or change the subject when somebody when i get home from flashback records and emma asks me why i’ve bought another record. having said that, 2011 has once again been dominated by digital music of course. your spotify account now links to your facebook, everybody has their top three played artists of the week feed through from their last.fm to twitter and you can’t move on the tube for people with a pair of beats headphones plugged into their iphone. some artists are fighting back though. it is not unusual to see a band release lovely vinyl versions of their albums with limited edition t-shirts, posters or chocolate brownies. but they still have to include that code for the digital download of course.

enough of all that though. let’s get on with the list. once again, i’ve nominated a top ten, with a single winner and then an extra addition which i simply couldn’t ignore. the 2011 apologies for just missing out go to battles, emmy the great, the kills, pj harvey, the pains of being pure at heart and last year’s winner cloud nothings.

bon iver. bon iver

he’s still a miserable fucker, but compared to for emma, forever ago this is positively rainbows & puppies. let mr iver take you on tour of his favourite places while he sits alone in a vets. (buy here)

girls. father, son, holy ghost

their ep was one of my favourites of 2010 and this full length is a worthy successor. in a year when the beach boys announced they’re reforming for 2012, girls released an album that any californian worth their salt would be proud off. (buy here)

the horrors. skying

i’m still at a loss as to how a band can improve so immeasurably (actually, you can measure it. only in terms of back to the future though). still debating whether it’s as good as primary colours, but who would i have thought they’d be anywhere near this list four years ago? (buy here)

lykke li. wounded rhymes

oh lykke. we all love lykke. her second album ticked all the boxes about growing up and while not as instantly pickupable (real word) as her first is far more accomplished overall. (buy here)

m+a. things.yes

this was the album that i could just put on this year and drift away. what a a truly beautiful album. (buy here)

metronomy. the english riviera

what isn’t to love about this album? nothing. the perfect advert for tourism of the english coast. (buy here)

times new viking. dancer enquired

there are lots of bands producing that lo-fi sound that i love so at the moment. the greatest example of the year though came not from a teenage genius in his bedroom, but a five-album veteran three piece. (buy here)

tom vek. leisure seizure

so excited i was about the release of this album that i dedicated a day to tom vek day. any other year he would have probably walked off with the winner’s badge. tom vek is back in a big way. (buy here)

yuck. yuck

the first new album i listened to of the year. a great start it was too. especially for a sonic youth and cajun dance party fan like myself. (buy here)

so, who wins? if you’ve been an avid reader of this blog over the year i’m sure you already know. a couple of years ago nobody knew whether they were a swedish collective or an east london teen. it transpired that they were in fact a guy who was already established as solo artist in his own right, and a girl who was a music journalist – and had in fact been asked to cover the band before people knew their true make up. i’ve seen them over a dozen times live and i hoped the album would live up to the high standards they’d set. it more than did.

summer camp. welcome to condale

summer camp introduced us to the fictional american town of condale. with teen crushes, a burgeoning rock band and ultimately death, welcome to condale and the accompanying fanzine takes us through an americana dream. it isn’t just the story that makes this album so good though. elizabeth has the sort of voice that is recognisable and easy to listen to. jeremy knows more about electronic instruments and how to use them than i know about cheese. the songs have more variety than early releases did and straight away remove the risk of becoming bored of the sound. this is a worthy winner. as an aside, if i was writing a list of my live performances of the year, i fancy summer camp’s gig at efes would top that too. (buy here)

alex turner. submarine original songs

i couldn’t complete the list without giving a shout out to alex turner’s soundtrack to submarine as well. my favourite film of the year was also my favourite soundtrack. just six tracks long, but it was pretty much all i listened to for a period earlier in the year. superb songs, brilliantly performed. (buy here)

in case you’ve ignored all of my subtle hints to buy the albums mentioned, you can listen to them all on this handy spotify playlist.

live review: summer camp. efes pool bar, london. 17 november 2011.

i could write about how great it was to see such a huge crowd. i could write about the brilliance of jeremy and elizabeth kicking off with an acoustic version of ‘better off without you’ while walking through the crowd. i could write about the girl who i was convinced was about to vomit on me throughout the gig. i could write about how much i want to find out where william got his shirt from. i could write about the second acoustic performance of the night for ‘losing my mind’. i could write about red stripe for £3. i could write about the superb company. i could write about summer camp’s rendition of r kelly’s ‘ignition’ during the karaoke after party. i could write about how this must be the eleventh or twelfth time i’ve seen summer camp at least and this was also the best.

i think the best way to tell you about just how good this gig was though, is by telling you that i fought through my hangover on friday morning to buy tickets to their scala gig next year because i am so convinced that every single person in that crowd would be doing the same thing and i cannot miss out.

hello. it’s been a while. how are you? i’ve decided to put some real effort into this again. a little undecided about the exact direction, but i’d like to go back to the days when i wrote about new music loads. i’m sure there will still be the odd album and live review and i’ll probably include anything i write for other sites on here as well, but the main aim will be new music. yeah. decided now. oh, and i’ll still post a load of videos. mainly because they take about two minutes to do and are an easy post. i thought as a bit of a welcome back (in addition to the amazing competition i’ll be posting either later tonight or tomorrow morning) i’d quickly tell you what i think about some of the albums that have come out recently.

sitting comfortably? then we’ll begin.

feist. metals. (buy here)
she’s fucking good isn’t she. she’ll be touring early next year and i want to go. feist at the albert hall? that’ll be amazing. 8

justice. audio, video, disco. (buy here)
brilliant. not as ipod friendly as † but this will sound pretty awesome live. 9

summer camp. welcome to condale. (buy here)
can you imagine if this had been rubbish. two years of stalking the two of them totally wasted. fortunately it isn’t. perfect. seriously. i love the little town of condale the’ve put together and i want to be brian krakow. 10

los campesinos! hello sadness. (buy here)
recently there was a twitter hashtag game of #lessexcitingbandnames. my favourite? “los campesinos.” i found that fucking hilarious. only challenged by “the bernard matthews band”. 8

yeah, so i’ve pretty much only chosen albums i really, really like. live with it. anyway, stay tuned for a competition coming up soon. i’m not going to give it away, but if you want to see yuck live in london at the end of the month, you’ll want to enter.

i am getting more and more excited as we get closer to the release of summer camp‘s debut album. as a preview here’s the video to the brilliant ‘down’. what a video it is as well. a great combination of gifs over still images. it’s like that website that does things from cult films. i’ll tell you what though… that fella dressed as the surgeon steals the entire thing. what dancing skills.

summer camp have released a video with them actually in it! unlike ’round the moon’, a video put together from parts of a teenage love film from sweden, you get to see jeremy and elizabeth in all their glory here. well, not all their glory but elizabeth singing and jeremy playing guitar and doing clever things. it’s very summer camp. all old school america and sunshine. a split screen thrown in for good measure too. i’m so bloody excited about this album. i really am.

it should come as no surprise that this month’s playlist is a bit of an amy winehouse special. i wasn’t blogging very regularly last weekend so didn’t really mention her on here. enough has been said anyway, so it isn’t really worth saying much apart from how much she’ll be missed. especially her music. as it happens, i’m in the camp addiction is a disease and it doesn’t matter how what the situation around her life was, she was a young girl who lost her life. and that’s bad. just in case you haven’t read it by the way, russell brand wrote an amazing piece about her.

these playlists aren’t just about what i’ve written about on here, but also what i’ve been listening to in the background. as most new bits of music i like get included on the blog, the extras are often older stuff. this month i’ve broken out crazysexycool for a bit of tlc love. i had to include them on here. also on an rnb feel you’ll find some cassie. a few days ago i had her playing on youtube (she’s hot, so it’s always video rather than mp3 with her) and accidentally started ‘rudie can’t fail’ by the clash on itunes. suffice to say that the two mixed together brilliantly and i now rate myself as the next carl cox.

enjoy the playlist, which can be found here and any feedback (especially tlc love) is always appreciated. also a quick thank you to emma who chose the amy winehouse connected songs to close the set.