- Gorillaz released a free fan-club only album The Fall.
- Klaxons released a free EP Landmarks of Lunacy, taken from those abandoned sessions rejected by the band’s label in 2008.
- M.I.A released a free mixtape Vicky Leekz. M.I.A. – Vicki Leekx
- Will Wiesenfeld aka Baths released a free album as Geotic which was recorded in four days. It’s a lush and ambient record.
- Listen to the new Elbow song ‘Lippy Kids‘.
- Yeasayer released a live album called Live at Ancienne Belgique for a pay what you like fee. Stream via Hypetrak.
Yeasayer – Live at Ancienne Belgique by Hypetrak - Friends Of Friends released a free compilation Pop Massacre in which artists like Daedelus, DNTL, Shohlmo and Loden cover big pop hits from Abba, Lady Gaga, Prince, Soulja Boy, Beach Boys, Britney, Katy Perry and A-Ha.
- Wick-It mashed up Big Boi’s Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty and The Black Keys’ Brothers into a mixtape.
- Canada who directed El Guincho’s brilliant ‘Bombay’ video also directed a mental and NSFW video for Scissor Scissors’ awesome single ‘Invisible Light’.
- A leaked version of Kanye’s “Monster’ video leaked. It’s not half as good as the tune. Speaking of Kanye, check out the packaging for the vinyl version of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
In other news, Jay-Z and Kanye’s album is coming next week.
- JJ released a free mixtape called Kills. Also, the band released a new video for ‘Let Them’.
- Mogwai‘s video for ‘How to Be a Werewolf’ was published and follow round-the-world champion cyclist James Bowthorpe during the leg of his journey which led him through Norway. The footage is taken from a short film called Thirty Century Man. More info at Culture Bully.
- The Joy Formidable released a new version and video for ‘Austere’ which will appear on their second album The Big Roar to be released on Atlantic Records on January 21st.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
Speaking of Hip Hop collaborations, has anyone heard the new Q-Tip/Common album (The Standard)?
It seems to have been released without any sort of publicity!
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=353110
Can find no mention of that album anywhere else Robbie – did you try and buy it? I’d say they don’t have it in stock.
They’ve been talking about that since 2007.
It’s on play.com too. I’m a bit aprehensive about buying it in case it’s some sort of shitty bootleg. The track featuring Lady Gaga entitled ‘I poke her face’ is a bit suspect!
Ha weird! I’d say it’s a bootleg. After today’s news that HMV are closing down 60 stores they might just be selling any old shite to keep the numbers up!