XL Recordings

Oof alert! Remember that time you were drinking Purple Stuff with your buddies and throwing out possible mashup project titles: Weezyer, The Fall...Out Boy, Animal Collective [ft. Animal from the Muppets], Jaydiohead. It was dumb; it was great. But there's a difference between spitballing while listening to The Grey Album and actually making a full 10-song album of Jay-Z/Radiohead smashups and calling it Jaydiohead, which is exactly what some New York City guy named Minty Fresh Beats just did. Jay-Z raps, Radiohead play, and you listen curiously for about a minute before groaning. Will somebody please stop the madness?

Who has patience for this type of thing in 2009? Even Girl Talk faltered when he put Jay's "Roc Boys" over "Paranoid Android" on Feed the Animals-- and that was just 30 seconds of Jaydio-ness. This is 38.1 mintues worth! The best thing to come out of the project are the titles, which often cross over into so-bad-they're-amazing territory. There's the possibly Wall-E-inspired "Dirt Off Your Android" and, our personal favorite, "Lucifer's Jigsaw", which sounds like a very difficult puzzle. Of course, this isn't the first time some dude (it's always a dude) downloaded Jay-Z a cappellas and put them over his favorite subversive rock band (lest we remind you of The Slack Album). And it won't be the last time. It should be the last time.

Former Auteurs and Black Box Recorder man Luke Haines has launched a series of scathing attacks on some of Britpop's biggest stars, including Oasis, Radiohead and Blur.

The results of this year's guardian.co.uk/music Readers' Poll are in, and the remarkable thing is last year's double winners Radiohead very nearly made it into the the top ten Bands of the Year list, despite not having released an album this year. That good eh, readers?

They have not clinched the top spot, however. That honour goes to another double winner. This year, Bon Iver takes the prize in both Album of the Year and Solo Artist of the Year (which was actually dominated by women). You voted him better than Fleet Foxes, Elbow and Vampire Weekend in the former category, and more worthy than Laura Marling, Santogold and, erm, Leona Lewis of the latter award. He told guardian.co.uk/music: "I am simply flattened by your response to the record. I don't know how to thank you ... appropriately. Thank you for making it your record."

Over in the Band of the Year category, there was one group who obliterated the competition in terms of votes. The Killers, whose album Day & Age was released in November, were so far in the lead we suspected foul play, but the freak who spammed us over 1,000 times under such names as Dickie Burn and, charmingly, Fred West, had nothing to do with it. The Killers' lead singer Brandon Flowers was especially touched on hearing the news, telling guardian.co.uk/music: "We are very blessed to have such great and computer-savvy fans. It's wonderful to be a band of the...

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A four-hour video remix of Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' song 'Videotape' is being auctioned on eBay to raise money for the Missing People charity.

I woke up this morning to hear the Oliver Postgate has died, which makes me very sad.
His childrens Tv shows changed my life and my childrens so we wish him well wherever it is he is off to next.
He had a great website as well, was very politically minded.
Anyone who is involved in the upcoming climate negotations in Poland might, in memory of him and all his amazing work, want to read this essay from 2006

Political Reality









Thom

Willie Williams
Messenger man, and
Armagideon time. - All The Way

Innocent Youths
Earth, Roots and Water


Tougher than tough/iroy/glen brown
Do your thing vers.
Chosen few - federal and harry j studios
Kingston 1971-73

Tristan Palma
How can a man be happy
Trojan
B/W
Barry brown - living as a brother

Toots and the maytals
Pass the pipe

The congos -
Feast

Ltj bukem- logical progression

Knowledge - straight outta trenchtown

Well, this was unexpected. Perhaps coming to terms with the fact that increasingly few people give a shit about the Grammys, the Recording Academy tonight announced its list of nominees for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, and those nominees were...shockingly relevant. (Read the whole list HERE.)

You know who got the most nominations? Lil Wayne! He's up for eight Grammys! That's right, not the Eagles or Bob Dylan or John Legend or U2 or some boring old fart your dad likes. Lil Wayne! Pretty risque move, Grammys. I like it.

While it would be pretty awesome if the Grammy for Album of the Year went to an album with THIS FUCKING COVER, it probably isn't going to happen, as Weezy has some pretty stiff competition in that category: Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (which will probably win) Ne-Yo's Year of the Gentleman (!), Robert Plant & Alison Krauss's Raising Sand (which will win if Coldplay doesn't), and-- hey why not?--Radiohead's In Rainbows. Yes, Lil Wayne and Radiohead are competing for Album of the Year. Please dear god, let those two pair up for one of those collaborative medley things that the Grammys always do. Please!

But you know what's even crazier? M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" is up for Record of the Year! It totally won't win (it's up against Coldplay, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Leona Lewis, and Adele), but can you imagine if...

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Conservative leader David Cameron gave US President-elect Barack Obama gifts of albums by The Smiths, Lily Allen, Radiohead and Gorillaz when they met in July, it has emerged.

Kate Nash, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien and Blur drummer Dave Rowntree are among the artists hoping to establish a new committee dedicated to give bands in the music industry more of a voice.

Stanley Donwood, the artist who has crated the artwork for all Radiohead's album and poster artwork since 1994, has launched a new record label, Six Inch Records.