playlist:
VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
LISTEN WITH SARAH - Duelling DJs: Peel vs. Harris (Cuntry Music Peeled)
THE KILLS - U R A Fever
BATTLES - Atlas
ELEANOORA ROSENHOLM - Musta Ruusu
THE HAPPY HOLLOWS - Monster Room
ENON - Dr. Freeze

If you're wondering what we're doing these days, we're compiling our annual list of the superbestest records of 2007. Which doesn't mean we don't have time to discover new music. No, because those two sadly go hand in hand.

Take Vampire Weekend, whose "Oxford Comma" we were going to put in our list, but who were taken off the list when we discovered their album was due for release in January 2008.
There is a chance however, you might find Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa in the list because that was pre-released in August of this year. They even were nice enough to put an MP3 of the song on their site, so download away.
Vampire Weekend are from New York, but love using African genres (i.e. the Congolese Kwassa Kwassa). The result is a wonderful and pretty unique mix of African music and the hecticness of New York. (Feel free to visit their MySpace, stream "Oxford Comma" and lament it won't be in our 2007 list.)

Speaking of lists, every year the Kurtodrome site compiles such a list we cannot help but think of John Peel, whose Festive 50 was often an inspiration and occasionally the only other list that would feature similar tracks (speaking of which, we've browsed the net for similar lists, but found our nrs. 1 and 2 aren't very well represented in other lists - which only proves the need for us to compile a list). But John Peel is no more, which is why we were pleasantly surprised to find the Listen with Sarah track "Duelling DJs". Did we save it for this final update of 2007 because of that reason? Yes, we did. So why this track, Sarah? "This is a track I was creating when John died. I wanted to make him giggle like a schoolboy. He never got to hear it, so may you guffaw in his honour. It features the voices of John Peel and Bob Harris, with a touch of Derek & Clive. You'll hear John and Bob debate Country Music.
The result? Duelling DJs - Peel vs Harris (Cuntry Music Peeled)

The Kills will return in 2008 with a new album. The single "U R A Fever" (don't you just love abbreviations?) will be released in January in order to make you drool for a couple of months. The video is already finished and we managed to find it. Plus, since we're in a sharing mood...



Battles may end up in our list, but - oh, aren't we mischevous? - we're not going to select of the singles from the Mirrored album. "Atlas" is the name of the track and once again it's time for us to complain that the single and the album track do not match: the single is roughly two minutes shorter and takes longer to build up. Yes, those record companies... they don't care about people liking the single and ending up being bitterly disappointed when they've bought an album which contains a different version of the song. (Yeah, I'm talking about , Von Südenfed!) Anyway, here is the video for the "Atlas" single.



Next up, Eleanoora Rosenholm. Ladies and gentlemen, it's official: the 80s are more than back. More proof than needed comes from Finland, where Fonal Records released Vainajan Muotokuva, Eleanoora Rosenholm's record. The band is a project by Noora Tommila, Pasi Salmi and Mika Rättö. "They crafted a genius pop album with murderous lyrics inside the dark stonewalls that surround SS-Palace studio. Time came to get the show on the road and the band evolved into a full 8 piece. Mika Rättö is not a part of the band but is working as a background godfather and often watching the band as a part of the audience. With Noora's amazing vocal work and the genius backing band they create a disco any housewife serial killer would be proud to dance to." (Fonal Records)
Sadly no MP3 of "Musta Ruusu" to be found, but we did found these:
- If you follow this link, the first track you should hear is "Musta Ruusu".
- Online for a couple of days/weeks, the full album in streaming flash goodness (with many thanks to the VPRO)
- Oh, and there's a MySpace. Of course, there's a MySpace!
- And, last but not least, a 50 second MP3 excerpt of another track: Maailmanloppu (we are much indebted to the wonderful people Hea Uus Heli from Estland).

These days you need to log into MySpace to be able to download music, which is a shame really. Still, people without MySpace can at least stream the tracks, which is still better than some similar sites where non-members are left to listen to silence only. So whether you'll stream or download "Monster Room" by The Happy Hollows does depend on your (un)willingness to join MySpace. But do listen to the song, a track the Californian band has offered for free to their fans as a prelude to the Happy Hollows album which will appear somewhere in 2008.

Why not call an album Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds? Sure, it'll take the fans longer to memorize than, let's say, 12 New Super Duper Tracks, but let those fans make an effort. Enon were in Belgium recently to support the wonderful Fiery Furnaces (and will return in January 2008 with a concert in Brussels) and to play tracks from their new album.
Because Touch and Go prefer showing videos in a Quicktime setting that'll make our crash, we decided to see if the video for "Dr. Freeze" wasn't available on YouTube. And, lo and behold...



Well, that's it for this edition of Radio Kurtodrome. We'll inform you when our Democratische 99 (that's how our annual list is called) will be upped on the site. For now, enjoy the music and the final days of 2007.

Happy New Year!

This is Radio Kurtodrome. This edition contains some new(er) videos and some dirty language. You have been warned.

THE FIERY FURNACES - Promo Video
THE FIERY FURNACES - Ex Guru
TUNNG - Bullets
THE TEENAGERS - Homecoming
CAMERA OBSCURA - If Looks Could Kill
FAMILJEN - Det Snunnar I Min Skalle

Hello and welcome back. This time only a bunch of YouTube videos in this Radio Kurtodrome. But don't worry, we didn't mind looking after getting you some quality tunes.

First up... the brand new Fiery Furnaces album has been released. Widow City is the name of the record you should ask for at your local cd shop and we'll have a look at their new single, but first - sort of like a DVD extra - a promo video for the new album.
If only we could wake Eleanor up...



Okay, so now high time for "Ex Guru", the Widow City single that can only be described as "superb".



More from Thrill Jockey, one of the best tracks of 2007: "Bullets" can be found on Tunng's brand new album, Good Arrows. Listen to this again and again:



Youthful lack of innocence now. We would describe "Homecoming" as the 2007 answer to Nada Surf's "Popular". The name of the band is The Teenagers and the song features a boy and a girl talking about their sexual encounter. He: "I fucked my American cunt." She: "I fucked my English romance." And then they also have a monologue. Plus a video with girls jumping on a bed in their underpants. Teenage anxiety in three minutes.



It's been a while since we promoted Camera Obscura and "If Looks Could Kill" was the third single from their album Let's Get Out of This Country.



And we end this session with Familjen, which already promoted on our site, but deserved another mention. If only for the wonderful video they had made for their single "Det snurrar i min skalle". It manages to combine a religious rally with dance music. Excellent!



That is all for tonight.
See you soon & take care!

Welcome to yet another Radio Kurtodrome. This time YouTube videos, MySpace links and even legal MP3s. Amazing... they still exist!

Let's kick off in the Netherlands. A Spinvis release is always good news, but Goochelaars en Geesten is not a new album: it compiles the extra tracks of the singles of his second album as well as tracks from "Nieuwegein aan Zee" (all the tracks that weren't live recordings from his first album tour). What we're trying to say is: if you're a fan, you may already have loads of tracks on this new album, so please take a good look at the album tracks before you buy it. Nevertheless, here's "Wespen op de appeltaart" (Wasps on the apple pie), a track about a patient at a mental institution. No audio available, but we tracked down this video:



Joyous tidings! The Raveonettes are back with a new album: Lust Lust Lust will be released in November, but the band's MySpace already allows you to pre-listen to a couple of tracks. We sincerely recommend "Lust".

Trolle Siebenhaar is a duo from Denmark. She is Ana Trolle, he is Martin Siebenhaar. I guess that explains the band's name then. Sweet Dogs is their first single and was released in Denmark earlier this year on the Danish iTunes. The song was downloaded so often it not only became the n°1 download, but even reached the status of gold. (I wonder what you get as a prize? A golden iPod?) In August Trolle Siebenhaar released the song in Germany. It may not be available in other countries yet, but there's always the video. Enjoy!



Apologies for the quality of what'll follow, but we didn't put it up on YouTube. My Brightest Diamond recently visited Belgium (Pukkelpop) and Holland (Lowlands). At Lowlands the VPRO asked My Brightest Diamond to perform an acoustic solo performance and it's too good to let you miss out on this one (even if sound and video aren't completely synchronous): "Golden Star".



Seattle's Minus The Bear may have been formed in 2001, 2007 may prove to be a big year for them. The band have released an album, Planet of Ice, on Suicide Squeeze Records and this may introduce them to more people than their previous two full-lengths could. Two tracks are available as downloads thanks to their record label, so take your pick: go for Dr. L'Ling if you'd like a longer post-rock track or Throwin' Shapes if you like 'em short and good.

You Say Party! We Say Die! is a Canadian 'punk/dance' quintet. In 2007 they released a new album, Lose All Time, and the band is promoting this by touring all over the world. Apart from the US, where the band is banned (due to visa trouble during their last tour). Here's one track from their new album, Monster (MP3 courtesy of label Paper Bag Records).

That is it for this edition. See you next time!

RADIO KURTODROME'S PUKKELPOP PREVIEW PART 2
LONEY, DEAR - Saturday Nights
KATE NASH - Foundations
COCOROSIE - Rainbowarriors
BONDE DO ROLE - Solta O Frango
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - North American Scum
M.I.A. - Jimmy
UNKLE - Morning Rage
DINOSAUR JR - Been There All The Time

Welcome back to part two of our prelude to Pukkelpop. Our first stop is Sweden, home of Emil Svanängen a.k.a. Loney, Dear. His album, Loney Noir is distributed by Sub Pop, notorious for releasing The Postal Service, a band Loney, Dear is often compared to. Which is a bit sad, as we don't think he can live up to such high expectations yet. Nevertheless, do check out Loney, Dear: you can listen to some snippets at his site or listen to four tracks on his MySpace. We recommend the track 'Saturday nights'.

A late addition to the Pukkelpop festival (Sat, 15.55, chateau) is Kate Nash, who skyrocketed from the UK via MySpace. Things are going evidently very for Kate, as her MySpace situates Lowlands in Germany (last time we checked it was in Holland) and has the Belgian festival spelled 'Pucklepop'. Which - one has to admit - looks charming.
Kate's MySpace has four songs on the player (two of which, "Dickhead" and "We Get On (Live)" are downloadable) and a YouTube link to "Foundations" - which sounds cheerful but isn't (sit back and enjoy the lyrics). Kinga Burza directed the video and here it is:



Back at the time when The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn was released, there was no video for 'Rainbowarriors'. Now that CocoRosie are coming to Belgium again (saturday, 18.30, marquee), it's a good opportunity to mention the track again (and our review of the Belgian concert in April). You can download the song at their MySpace or watch the video here:



Bonde do Role come from Brazil and there's a reason this band was put in the dance hall (Thu, 13.05). Honestly, we think this is the sort of band you'll enjoy more on a stage than on a record, but that won't stop us from showing you the video for 'Solta O Frango':



Most of us will remember 'Bucky Done Gun', just one of the impressive tracks on M.I.A.'s Arular. Two years later M.I.A. has released a second album, Kala. One of the first released tracks was the quite eclectic Bird Flu (we will refrain from using the pun 'catchy', thank you very much). 'Jimmy' is a song that, rather than using a Bollywood sample, is a clever mix of Bollywood sounds with London beats. Peculiar!



We never noticed the technical difficulties LCD Soundsystem had in 2005: we were in the chateau to enjoy Patrick Wolf. James Murphy can get his revenge now. Apparently the band is planning to be on all the Pukkelpop stages: after the dance hall (2004) and main stage (2005) the band will now perform at the marquee (Sat, 20.25). North American Roamers!



UNKLE is back with an album entitled War Stories. This is the third release from the project that started way back in 1994 by James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Tim moved on to DFA Records (think LCD Soundsystem) . UNKLE has included people like DJ Shadow, Josh Homme, Ian Brown and now Chris Goss. You can listen to five tracks on UNKLE's MySpace. We suggest track n°5, 'Morning Rage'.

Dinosaur Jr are still around, in fact they've been here all the time (we can't always avoid weak puns, you know). The band split in 1997, but reunited in 2005 and released new album Beyond in 2007 (their first release in 10 years). J Mascis! Lou Barlow! (And Murph, of course!) Pukkelpop! (Fri, 0.30, marquee!) Nuff said. "Been There All The Time"



And that is all for our second brief prelude to Pukkelpop. Did we fail to mention a couple of bands? Sure, but there are over 150 acts at the festival, so we just picked a handful that sounded good together and that we'd recommend to you (if you're going). Radio Kurtodrome will return soon after the Pukkelpop festival. For now, enjoy yourself and listen to some good music!

RADIO KURTODROME'S PUKKELPOP SPECIAL (PART 1)
Hanne Hukkelberg - You Really Got Me
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Architecture in Helsinki - Do The Whirlwind
Sophia - Oh My Love
Low - Breaker
The Arcade Fire - My Body Is My Cage
Liars - Plaster Casts of Everything

In just over a week it's time for the 2007 edition of the Pukkelpop festival (August 16-18). Which means high time for our first (of two) Radio Kurtodrome special about artists playing at the festival. Von Südenfed and Gogol Bordello have already been featured here, so scroll down for more info on them. Time now for a look at some of the other artists (over 150) who'll be appearing on one of Pukkelpop's eight stages.

First up, let's praise YouTube (and the likes) for existing. They allow you to see something that otherwise only would've been visible to people living in a certain country. Norwegians were able to see Hanne Hukkelberg on national tv, transforming a Kinks song into a Hukkelberg track. Normally we wouldn't promote an artist with a cover, but Hanne Hukkelberg (Saturday at 21.30 at the Chateau) has been featured here before, so we reckoned you do know her by now. Hence: All Day and All of the Night.



Speaking of Radio Kurtodrome attention, Patrick Wolf's third album didn't get as much attention as the first two albums. We will only go as far as say this is because of "personal issues", but never mind that, Patrick's third album gathered more attention for this former boy wonder. The single The Magic Position has a video and all you need to do is a click to watch it. Patrick is playing at Pukkelpop on Friday (club, 21.30). We're not sure if we'll be there to watch him (because we're not sure we'll be there on Saturday and because of the "personal issues" stated above). Nevertheless, good luck to him.



No doubt about it, one of the toughest choices you'll have to make on Pukkelpop (if you aren't us) is whether you'll go and see Patrick Wolf or Sophia (Friday, 21.30, marquee). Robin Proper-Sheppard has promised to make this a special show and he'll bring a string quartet, a woodwinds section as well as a trumpet, a guitar, a piano, a bass and drums. It will not be a rock concert, he warns us. Don't worry, we don't mind a bit.
Now finding online material of Sophia has proved to be tricky, so for once a repeat performance will have to do: here's the video for "Oh, My Love".



On Thursday it'll be the Australian Architecture in Helsinki who'll turn out the lights in the Chateau (00.50). Not a bad way of ending your first night at the festival with some feelgood music one can dance to. As a prelude, here's the video to "Do The Whirlwind". Architecture in Helsinki say The Mighty Boosh is one of their influences. Is that right? We'll believe them if they cover the soup song!



Now, while we're on the subject of animated videos, would be a good time to switch to Low, whose 2007 album Drums and Guns featured track called "Breaker". Drums and Guns wasn't made in the cheeriest time of Low's life and you can hear that on the album and it takes a step back to how Low sounded before The Great Destroyer. So wiser and with a confident sound for loyal Low fans, no doubt all of them already own a copy of Drums and Guns. Will the band make new fans at the biggest alternative festival in Belgium? Let's hope so. Especially if their concert will be as good as their 2006 concert in Antwerp, which started barely okay but grew out to a very enchanting experience. If thousands of people will hover slightly above the ground at a quarter to one on Thursday night, no need to question why: they've just seen Low (club, 23.45) and it felt good.



Have you been to Neon Bible, the site for the latest Arcade Fire album? It's a weird experience. Yes, Arcade Fire are finally coming to Belgium again (please don't cancel your concert this time, people) and will be at Pukkelpop right after Sophia or Patrick Wolf. We've mentioned the band before a couple of times and thought we'd might as well skip them now (I'm sure you know them by now), but then we saw this video on YouTube: a fanmade video, which combined "My Body is My Cage" with images from Sergio Leone's classic Once Upon A Time in the West. The result is well worth being seen, so here we go: it's the Arcade Fire!



Liars are coming to Pukkelpop. I know, we've heard that one before, but this time it'll be for real (allegedly) and the band will be promoting their new album, out on August 20. Plaster Casts of Everything will be the first track of the new album. Nothing to download, so let's watch the YouTube video.



And that is it for this edition of Radio Kurtodrome. Didn't we already complain last year that it became harder to find legal MP3s of people playing at festivals? This was the first time a Radio Kurtodrome had to go without even a single download. We hope you didn't mind as the music was nice. Next time part two of our Pukkelpop special, so stay tuned!

Welcome to Radio Kurtodrome in its brand new format. A lot of new stuff has been released in the month and a half our lives were so busy we couldn't cram in an update that it's high time we'd bring you up to date.

Suggested playlist:
CODEX MACHINE - Man vs. Monkey
LISTEN WITH SARAH - Drum 'n' Berceuse
GOGOL BORDELLO - Supertheory of Supereverything
BLONDE REDHEAD - Top Ranking
SPOON - The Ghost of You Lingers

We love getting promotional copies in our mail and occasionally they even manage to get our pulse raising. Case in point: Codex Machine, the latest release on Womb Records. The 12" EP Man vs Monkey consists of 4 tracks, all sample-loving breakbeats. While the title track is very enjoyable, the fourth track You can never escape the underground made it straight to our heart. It's not often you get an EP where all four tracks are equally good, but this Codex Machine release hits the bullseye. Expect a diverse source of samples (from Bollywood to reggae) served with a highly addictive sauce of breakbeats and you know what Codex Machine tastes like.
Right now you can only hear two snippets from earlier releases ('Love Requiem' and 'Crunch') on the band's site, but then there's their MySpace where you can get a taste of "S.P.Y" and the title track "Man vs. Monkey".
You can also stream 'Man vs. Monkey' on the Womb Records site.

Speaking of Womb Records, you may remember Listen with Sarah from earlier episodes of Radio Kurtodrome (in earlier webforms or during our brief stint as online DJs - if you were our one and only listener, please contact us). Sarah is the wife of Peter Nelson (a.k.a. Womb Records) and you may be wondering how Sarah is doing anno 2007. (And if you weren't, we sure were.) The answer is just fine and there's even some proof of that. My Little Hula Girl is the latest Listen with Sarah release and contains three tracks: "My Little Hula Girl (WWW remix)", the enchanting "Animal Boum" (a mélange of animals sounds and the classic track 'Boum') plus the wonderful "Drum 'n' Berceuse" (which may just be our favourite LWS track so far).
You can get the EP on vinyl from Cherryade Records, or - if you're that sort of person (and, if you're reading this, chances are high you are that sort of person) - get it in MP3 format from IndieStore.
If our word for it doesn't suffice, you can always listen to the tracks yourself before buying them. The three tracks are all streamed in full on the Listen With Sarah site.


Speaking of bringing you up to date, have you heard about Gogol Bordello? They've been touring quite a number of festivals and the response is quite good. Their new album is called Super Taranta and is out on July 10 or 27 (depending on where you live). We've already heard it and it's lots of fun. Our favourite track is Supertheory of Supereverything. The band played an acoustic session of it on Pinkpop (see below), but there's also an MP3 which we don't want you to miss out on (just follow the link).



If you read our website, you'll have noticed the latest video of Blonde Redhead being posted there. The song is called 'Top Ranking' and you can find it on the band's new album 23.
Blonde Redhead have been touring Europe and their Belgian passage was quite nice. A pity they only came to a big festival: we really wanted to see more of them. And while the concert was nice, without the loudness of la Winehouse at the other stage we're pretty sure the concert would've been even better. As it is, we'll give it 7.5/10 and we'll focus on the new video.
The woman you'll see posing is called Miranda July. She is the director of the movie You and Me and Everyone We Know. (But not the director of this video, that's Mike Mills.) 'Top Ranking' proves one thing: we weren't too enthusiastic about 23 (the album, not the song) when we first heard it, but it's starting to grow. We don't think it'll ever rival Misery is a Butterfly, but then again, few albums can.
Enough talk, here's the latest Blonde Redhead video:



Tell me, have we run of out of good album titles? The latest Spoon release is called Ga ga ga ga ga. We'll just call it 'the new Spoon album' then. The album is quite nice and the sparse money you've left after visiting all those festivals could be spent worse than on 'the new Spoon album'. Speaking of festivals, Spoon is touring the US from July to October, but will appear on several European festivals in mid August. If you're European and there's big alternative concert in your area, better check if Spoon aren't playing and don't forget to visit them there.
The band's site is pretty much empty right now, so we headed off to their MySpace, where you could at least listen to two tracks of the new album: 'The Underdog' and 'The Ghost of You Lingers'.
The new track 'The Ghost of You Lingers' is even accompanied by a video, which mainly proves you shouldn't let Spoon too close to your piano. Watch out for some lovely distortion at the end of the track.



That is it for this episode, we'll return to you very shortly. Ta-dà!

RADIO KURTODROME's new format

Welcome to Radio Kurtodrome: new place, new design. Finally as we'd planned it, a wonderful integration of videos and downloadable songs (legally downloadable, which means offered by the bands and/or the labels). Hurrah!
Tonight we'll offer you new videos by Githead, Mintzkov and LCD Soundsystem, a Clash cover by Arcade Fire as well as an old video by Joy Division (sparked by Control's release at Cannes). But first... audio and video from Conor Oberst.

Conor is better known as Bright Eyes and he has just released a new cd, Cassadaga.

The Bright Eyes label Saddle Creek was nice enough to offer you a couple of downloads for the songs No One Would Riot For Less (which has grown on us, we must add) and Four Winds.
Only like a song when moving images are attached to it? Here's the Four Winds video:

The wonderful Arcade Fire are making amends for abandoning their fans during their recent European tour (because of problems with Win's voice): the band will be in Europe again and will make appearances at lots of festivals. One cover they like to play on gigs is The Clash's Guns of Brixton. A couple of months ago The Arcade Fire were interviewed by the wonderful Culture Show (BBC2, Saturday nights) at the Brixton Academy, which sparked this acoustic cover of that Clash track. Check it out by following this link to YouTube.

Does the name Githead ring a bell? No? Githead is Colin Newman (Wire), Robin Rimbaud (a.k.a. Scanner), Max Franken (Minimal Compact) and Malka Spigel (also the director of the video you're about to watch) . Their new (and third) album is called Art Pop and here's the track from that album. The video for Drop may not be too funky, but the song is definitely mesmerizing.

LCD Soundsystem have released a new single. It's called All My Friends and here's the video:

Not really a friend is the waiter in this new Mintzkov video. Personally I was wondering whether the band has seen the recent Alex van Warmerdam movie Ober. For me it made the video a bit too familiar, but there's nothing wrong with the song - and after all, it's Radio territory here: Ruby Red.

All the rage at the Cannes film festival was the directorial debut of Anton Corbijn: Control tells the story of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, which is enough reason for us to show you the video of Love Will Tear Us Apart again.
LCD Soundsystem have recently been playing Joy Division's No Love Lost at their concerts and who can forget the Nouvelle Vague cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart?
Is Joy Division-mania coming back to town? We certainly wouldn't mind.