Into the top 20, and you can tell by the change in the Top of The Pops music that this is getting serious now. This next installment features two albums with roman numerals, Christoper Mintz-Plasse, a three year old stealing the show from her Dad and 10 albums of total excellence.
20. Ghostpoet - 'Some Say I So I Say Light'
19. Kurt Vile - 'Wakin On A Pretty Daze'
18. Jon Hopkins - 'Immunity'
17. Inc. - 'No World'
16. Austra - 'Olympia'
15. Vampire Weekend - 'Modern Vampires of the City'
Vampire Weekend's Chris Baio has turned out the most aptly named track of the year so far in Sunburn Modern, taken from his debut record for Greco-Roman, and now has a bizarre yet transfixing and confusingly erotic stop-motion video to go with it.
Five piece Vadoinmessico only just qualify as 'local' favourites, solely thanks to drummer Joe. The remainder are made up of Italians Giorgio and Alessandro, Salvador (from Mexico) and banjo playing Austrian Stefan, combining to make luscious, tropical folk-pop. The Vampire Weekend-esque Pepita Queen of the Animals and In Spain showcase elegantly quirky vocals reminiscent of Devendra Banhart, while the nostalgic rolling folk and slide guitars of Teeo are our personal picks, but there's much to admire in all the band's enigmatic output thus far.
Preparing to release their debut record 'Archaelogy of the Future' on 5th March on PIAS, Vadoinmessico will be following up with a show at the Lexington with Drugstore on 6th April.
Muse did it; Dead Weather did it; even Radiohead did it. Now Vampire Weekend are doing it too, offering up a brand new track for the forthcoming Twilight film.
Thankfully, it sounds pretty great. Not only do we get new material, the band have also dipped into their wardrobes and dressed up in Elizabethan garb for latest single Holiday, both of which you can enjoy below.
A band that could prove the 'find' of SXSW (despite preparing to release their second album, jj no.3), reclusive duo jj's video for Let Go proves there is literally no smoke without fire. Or dogs. Or indeed blood.
If you're yet to have this band in your life, allow in their cross of Vampire Weekend's afro beats with The xx's sombre atmospherics and hushed vocals. Label Yours Sincerely seems to have the knack for sourcing top new talent, with labelmates Memory Tapes producing one of the albums of 2009. Sadly, SXSW's gain is my poor East London existence's loss, so join me in this feast for the eyes until the band come to British shores.
Thanks a-plenty to Abeano for drawing attention to this.
Premiered on Channel 4 last night (so often the domain of mediocre Madonna and Oasis efforts), Vampire Weekend's video to promote new single Giving up the Gun maintains their burgeoning reputation for videos as unique and entrancing as their songs.
Directed by Emmett Malloy who recently worked on The White Stripes' Under Great White Northern Lights, the video not only features the unlikely menage a trois of Joe Jonas, RZA and Jake Gyllenhal, but sees them battling a fearsome red-head in some sort of heavenly future tennis. A delight.
Welcome to No Action.
Based in Bow, East London, writing about stuff that sounds good.
No Action has also written for High Voltage and The Fugitive Motel.
