Cougar Microbes

Last month Cougar Microbes took over Tom Robinson‘s Now Playing @6Music program selecting some of our favorite tracks. By popular demand here is a full audio version of the show as well as the live tweets that accompanied it.

Cougar Mircrobes Now Playing @6Music Takeover

- “The little hand says it’s time to rock n roll” – Point Break. Here we go #Blog6Music on @Blog6Music

- 1st up Friends with the brilliant “I’m His Girl‘. Can’t get that groove out of my head! #Blog6Music http://tinyurl.com/3jal9qn

- I stumbled across Tashaki Miyaki performing this song and was immediately taken by them #Blog6Music http://tinyurl.com/85qmftn

- Kick Up The Fire‘s ‘No Fun In London‘ is both an ode to and a critique but always catchy #Blog6Music http://tinyurl.com/74druvg

- I always enjoy playing Les Savy Fav‘s ‘Sleepless In Silverlake‘ in LA and seeing people react. #Blog6Music http://tinyurl.com/736mrm9

- NYC based Alana Stewart brings the haunting ‘Boy Next Door‘. A new video for the track is out soon#Blog6Music http://tinyurl.com/89hkztr

- Next up Danish upstarts Casiokids with the infectious ‘Det Haster!‘ watch the video. Spooky! #Blog6Music http://tinyurl.com/7p8pugh

Alex Ebert‘s ‘Truth‘ was already haunting & magnificent. RZA‘s adds another dimension #Blog6Music http://tinyurl.com/6p89g3t

- Thank you @BBC6Music & @Freshnet for letting me take over today. Hope everyone enjoyed my takeover #Blog6Music

TRACKS:

Friends – “I’m His Girl”

Tashaki Miyaki – Somethin Is Better Than Nothin

No Fun In London by KickUpTheFire

Les Savy Fav – Sleepless In Silverlake

Boy Next Door by Alana Stewart

Casiokids – Det Haster!

ALEXANDER – Truth

Long time Cougar favourite Kick Up The Fire delivered on their early promise by bringing out their bombastic Self Titled mini-album. Back in October I remarked that the band sounded ‘like Franz Ferdinand after a large hit of  performance enhancing drugs…..offering more hooks than a regional angling club’.

It is indicative that a few months on I can still spin all the tracks on repeat without ever losing interest or finding the process repetitive. their angular approach to guitar lead post-rock  demands to be blared from huge speakers and I have gone out of my way to do just that.

Here’s to 2011 bringing them more success

TRACKS:

NEXT: #05 Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2010: Tokyo Police Club – Champ

PREVIOUS: #07 Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2010: Emanuel and The Fear – Listen

South East London mischief-makers Kick Up The Fire release their self-titled debut mini album on November 15th on You And Whose Army?Records.

Aditionally they have unveiled a video for ‘No Fun In London‘ directed and edited by talented NYC based filmmaker Alice Millar. The band needed some additional live shots so I stepped in to film some additional footage which I’m pleased made the final cut.

The band’s album launch party is set for the 18th of November. If you are in London go down and show your support

TRACKS:

Kick Up The Fire – No Fun In London

I’ve been following Kick Up The Fire ever since I heard the South London outfits early demos (and subsequently photographed them on a few occasions) so it was with some pride that I unwrapped the bands self titled mini album.

The boys have been perfecting these songs on the live stage for the past year and these songs showcase a band firing on all cylinders. This is an accurate snapshot of where the 4-piece stand today and special credit should go to Got Mics for the first class production.

Album opener ‘These Canvas Shoes‘ is an immediate burst of energy boasting soaring choruses and deceivingly straightforward verses built on an almighty guitar riff. Vocalists Kenny and Thom volley vocals assaults at each other over drummer Andrew‘s relentless attack. The whole track comes perilously close to collapsing under its own awesomeness… it doesn’t and instead races past the finishing line in Usain Bolt style.

Tracks ‘No Fun In London‘ and ‘Cocktails And Gold‘ are kindred spirits sounding like Franz Ferdinand after a large hit of  performance enhancing drugs. Both offer more hooks than a regional angling club. The former is an observation of the capital’s darker side yet ultimately comes through as surprisingly upbeat whilst Cocktails is it’s angrier and judgmental older brother; catchy and danceable but packing one hell of a punch.

‘No Hotel Room‘ is the bands deceptive (anti) pop song and a change of pace and mood. A tale of a media hounded politician; the main line “he’s having bad sex, you like to talk about it, you’re having no sex maybe, you should go get your fix” is a stab at celebrity and tabloid culture.

‘The Never-Ever Ending Story‘ is a bass lead scorcher that returns to the high tempo previously set and owes a slight debt to Thursday with its guitar intricacies. Like the rest of the album it is packed with melodies, question/answer singing and a penchant for a gang vocal to beef up certain key messages. Still, if you scratch under the surface you’ll discover lyrics that are observationally astute and witty.

Nowhere is this more evident than on closer ‘Because Of You‘, the bands proverbial “slow one”. This is a tale of an apparent bitter breakup told over  a stunning and captivating crescendo that never subsides. The lyric “go runaway, go join a bank, gonna count my debts while I get drunk” is so sharp it should come with a warning.

Kick Up The Fire‘s self-titled mini album is out in November on You And Whose Army? Records. The band are having an album launch party on the 18th of November. Show your support!

The mini album is catchy and full of potential and it would be a travesty if this band are still unsigned this time next year.

TRACKS:

Kick Up The Fire – Cocktails and Gold

Last Saturday night Cougar Microbes was out in force spinning tunes once more at what is quickly becoming a home from home ‘South Of The Border’ in Old Street. To top the night off  perfectly Cougar faves Kick Up The Fire played a blistering set closing with a particularly raucous offering of  ‘These Canvas Shoes’.

Keep ‘em coming fellas!

Check out the new tracks at myspace.com/kickupthefiremusic

South East London‘s finest angular riff peddlers, Kick Up The Fire, have recorded a bunch of hot demos for a prospective new release.

Cougar Microbes got its filthy mittens on the tracks and I can safely say they are guaranteed to get your booty shaking.

Check out the bands Facebook page for more tracks and live dates.

A couple of days ago I featured a vitriol filled and slightly humerous open letter written by Alan of Kick Up The Fire to Lily Allen. Taking the band slightly by surprise the original post received thousands of hits and several comments over the past few days with some criticising the joke nature of the post.

The band have readdressed the balance by posting a slightly more rationale response to Lily Allen‘s filesharing stance. Check it out:

There’s been a fairly mental reaction to our last blog post which was initially a frustrated joke rant. I’d like to redress the balance a little bit by getting serious, Lily stylee.

Lily Allen was a silly girl, in my personal opinion, for her stance on illegal file sharing and here’s why:

First and foremost, she herself allegedly used this very tactic to gain fame. I personally believe her fame is a result of her father’s musician mates writing some catchy as hell tunes and his big-shot cronies employing some major-label viral marketing strategy to shoot her into the public eye. However, if you buy into the “local girl blogger makes good” fairytale then you have to buy into the “by making mixtapes available to file sharers who read her blog” part of the story too. Of course she has a beaming personality, and that helps, but for the love of God please stop pretending you’re hard done by.

The fact that she has publically criticised a coalition comprised of artists such as Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and accused them of having “the biggest Ferrari collections in the world” is a serious lack of judgement. Radiohead just so happen to use ecologically friendly stage lighting and sell merchandise made from recycled bottles. That may be beside the point but Lily’s old man Keith doesn’t exactly fit into the public-sector-worker bracket either, and that is not.

For Lily to proceed by making a stand for struggling musicians, something she has never been and never will be, is a joke. We can fight our own battles thank you very much.

“When you manage to get a contract, all those pretty videos and posters advertising your album have to be paid for and as the artist, you have to pay for them.”

We know how record label advances work. If you don’t recoup that money the label takes the hit. Most struggling artists don’t ever get this opportunity. Some of them aren’t particularly interested in having it. Needless to say Alan obviously doesn’t feel her posters or videos are pretty.

“You might not care about this, but the more difficult it is for new artists to make it, the less new artists you’ll see and the more British music will be nothing but puppets paid for by Simon Cowell.”

This is a painful, painful comment from somebody who is themselves a neatly packaged product. The fact that the industry is clogged up with such products makes it nigh-on impossible for other musicians who go through a mundane 9 to 5 existence or live off the dole to fund their passion.

If Lily is ready to chuck her musical career over a bit of controversy then maybe, just maybe, she’s not in it for the music after all but instead for the adulation.

“And it’s not like there aren’t alternatives to illegal downloads anyway. Sites like Spotify give us access to new music and different music without having to rip someone off – you can listen to tracks and see if you like them before you buy them. Then obviously there’s MySpace, that streams music and helps acts like me get enough fans to convince record companies to sign us up” …….. “File sharing’s not okay for British music. We need to find new ways to help consumers access and buy music legally, but saying file sharing’s fine is not helping anyone – and definitely not helping British music. I want to get people working together to use new digital opportunities to encourage new artists.”

Again, who is paying you and how much? Prehistoric record labels are rightly getting just deserts after years of raping their artists’ (read employees’) talent. The independent artist is now thriving thanks to the internet and long may it continue. Perhaps Lily’s real fear is for the future of multinational companies with the power to create superstars out of their CEO’s best mate’s daughters.

Regardless of how good or bad any given struggling musician may be people like Lily Allen create barriers for entry. They most certainly do not break them down. Radiohead overcame this barrier and who exactly is Miss Lily Allen to debate the best interests of struggling musicians with them.

In her defence I can almost comprehend that Lily may have had the right intentions at heart. However coming out and criticising artists with real integrity and the desire to give back to their fans is not the way to go about it. It’s not alright.

Lots of love

KennyX

TRACK:

Sway – Download

My friend Alan, from the band Kick Up The Fire, has written a vitriolic post on the band’s blog based on Lily Allen‘s stand on filesharing.

I think its probably a little harsh and bordering on the overly personal (I actually quite like her personality and some of her tracks). I do, however, agree that of all the artists “daddy’s girl” Lily has little if any credibility when it comes to discussing the plight of the struggling artist. Take it away Alan:

(warning: the language is quite colourful)

—————-

Dear Lily,

Exactly how much are you being paid to go on this sickening crusade against piracy?

Do you really expect me to believe that this is a subject that bothers you so much you feel the need to become some sort of idiotic spokesperson for the ailing music industry megabuckers? Are you upset because when you said “daddy, can I be a pop star” you imagined that the income would be even fucking higher than it already is for you? Should you have asked daddy to make you a glamour model? Or a Bond villain? Or a soap star? (oh, you’re too rough for Hollyoaks, soz.) or any other fucking thing his mates down at the groucho club could have made you?

You don’t give a shit about musicians, they’re just the dudes who stand behind you while you churn out under-average performance after under-average performance. You are not a musician, you have never been in a band, you have never struggled, you have no passion for music, all you wanted was for your dad to make you one of the cool kids. You fucking corporate pig. Good old Dad, getting his mates to spend weeks in the studio writing you a bunch of tunes so you could be famous. You weren’t even there! I know, because I was the fucking runner! Mayfair studios, in Primrose Hill, bringing your dad and Alex James tea and biscuits for a hundred quid a week. Fuuuucking sweet job!

I can see it now, all the grey faced, Eastenders-addled drones, stumbling, slack jawed down to HMV to write that great wrong they have done by downloading music. They saw you in the metro and you really struck a chord with them! Yes, Lily is right, must buy CD’s or the world will collapse!

Yeah fucking right it will, who on earth will pick the bands to force into 360 deals now that all the pretty girls with the well connected fathers aren’t clogging the A&R departments? Who will be left to use their job title to get them into the Kanye after-party so they can maybe get to let him spunk on their face in the bogs? What will the fucking world do?

Nothing, it’ll do nothing you twat. All the fucking proper musicians living on the breadline will just keep doing the same thing, playing the music they want to play and maybe there will be less dickhead popularity whores like yourself flouncing around the stage at Glastonbury next year.

Get out of the papers love, you’re making a dick of yourself, you’re a popstar, thats all, good for nothing but drinking cocktails and wiggling around on Callum Best’s lap in some shit aftershow in the West End until he takes you home, ties you up and fucks you like a pig. You don’t really like it, but it’s Callum Best!!! If you want people to take more notice of you, maybe walk up to Primrose Hill and get your horrible gash out while walking your dog or something? Maybe you’ll get lucky and some paparazzi slug will take a snap that’ll end up in the Daily sport, that’ll shift a few units for you, and that’s what it’s all about eh???

Wanker.

Alan.

—————-

Click here to see the original rant.

Something tells me Alan won’t be making Lily Allen’s Christmas card list this year.

TRACK:

Lily Allen – Naive (The Kooks Cover)