Dreamy shoegaze band Gingham have found a way to update Alan Sillitoe's classic short story The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner for indie kids of all ages with their new single Cross Country. Let's face it, most people dread outdoor sports if they are organised by an overzealous PE teacher. It is much more fun to indulge in a bit of daydreaming in stead having to deal with a body screaming for mercy, because it is fucking old outside.
Watch pop parodist 'Weird Al' Yankovic perform four songs, for a NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Things got a little crowded, because he brought along Jim "Kimo" West (guitar, background vocals) ,Steve Jay (bass, background vocals), Jon "Burmuda" Schwartz (drums), Chad Thomas (keys), Payton Rose Velligan (guitar, background vocals), Monique Donnelly (tambourine, background vocals), Scheila Gonzalez (alto sax, baritone sax, background vocals) and Probyn Gregory (trumpet, background vocals).
Setlist:
Manchester-based band T.R. Burge & The Temple peddle the kind of Gothic folk that will sound familiar to fans of DeVotchKa. They recorded the basic tracks from their forthcoming album Godache in thier hometown, before setting up shop at Klangbild Studios in Berlin, and the German love for the classics spilt over to their new single This Bird is Flown, with a prominent role for Aninka Rosa's violin, slowly taking over from the sad sounding keyboards. It is about loss and mourning, before finding some kind of solace in art.
London-based progressive power-punk trio Alien Chicks have used their righteous anger about rightwing nutjobs and other dictators for their new intense single Madmen. "Democracy does not exist anymore" was a line that nobody expected to become true, but it becomes more real each day.
American folk rocker Ben Crum has unveiled a video for Fear of the Fear, the title track from the new album by his band Great Lakes on which he is trying to get to grips with the death of his close friend Ryan Trammel. He is not haunted by demons on this one, but the feeling of "being haunted by twenty hounds" is scary enough. It is a rambling rocker with a purpose: to find some kind of closure as he mourns the loss of his pal.
