A Streets Poem

Mike Skinner is back. And rather than releasing a shedloacd of free songs (as he did a year or so ago) he's posting weird cryptic vids on HIS BLOG. The below is the best of them and is genuinely quite thought-provoking and dark. He also let slip that there is a video for previously leaked Trust Me in the works. I've posted the original song below too.

My 21 Favourite Albums Of The Decade

Published this list back in March but thought I should repeat it as everyone else is putting theres out now. It was 20 but I had forgot Avalanches. So here are 21 and some honourabe mentions. Think Kid A would be my number one.

Avalanches- Since I Left You
Amy Winehouse- Back To Black
Gorillaz- Demon Days
M.I.A- Arular
M.I.A- Kala
The Streets- Original Pirate Material
The Streets- A Grand Don’t Come For Free
Radiohead- Kid A
The Strokes- Is This It
Kanye West- Late Registration
Daft Punk- Discovery
The Beastie Boys- To The 5 Boroughs
Eminem- The Marshall Mathers LP
N.E.R.D- In Search Of…
Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene
Outkast- Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below
Jay-Z- Blueprint
Gnarls Barkley- St Elsewhere
Justin Timberlake- Justified
The White Stripes- Elephant
Arcade Fire- Neon Bible

Honourable mentions: Hot Chip- The Warning, Cornershop- Handcream For A Generation, Gwen Stefani- L.A.M.B, Jay Z- The Black Album, Common- Electric Circus, Wu Tang- The W, Dizzee Rascal- Boy/ Maths, Outkast- Stankonia, Basement Jaxx- Rooty, Lily Allen- Its Not Me, It’s You, Radiohead, In Rainbows.

Any of which would have made my (pretty populist) run down much cooler. But you can’t leave Justin out, right?

New Streets

A recent Tweet from Mike Skinner (@skinnermike) said: "I am going to tweet 3 new songs this week. I can't be bothered with all this trying to sell you music. It wastes valuable time." Which i'm sure pleased his record label Atlantic.

The first is I Love My Phone which has no discernible hook and a scruffy beat. The verses are pretty deep especially given the superficial subject matter. I guess that was always what The Streets did best though.

DOWNLOAD: THE STREETS- I LOVE MY PHONE

UPDATE: The second track is better. Its got really tight funky production and some great rhyming couplets. In short it bodes well for his fifth album- which will be called Computers and Blues.

DOWNLOAD: THE STREETS- TRUST ME

The Streets Beats

You'll know how highly I rate Mike Skinner from THIS BLOG. I couldn't decide between his first two albums so put both in.

I was dissapointed with both The Hardest Way and Everything Is Borrowed for (many) reasons I won't go into now. He'd set a fucking high standard to live up to with those earlier albums and influenced a slew of rappers, indie bands and certain female singer songwriters.

His blog- which has recently migrated from Myspace- and his twitter are both entertaining. On there for the past few weeks he's released a DJ mix each Thursday. The latest includes a new track by The Streets called In The Middle. It could be a taster from Mike's fifth album which will be his last as The Streets. Although of course it may not even appear on there.

The track doesn't blow me away but if nothing else the mix features Skream's impecible mix of La Roux and a cool cover of the Chem's Star Guitar.

Best Albums Of The Noughties

Presume Pitchfork et al will produce their 'Best records of the noughties' lists at the end of '09. But its been troubling me recently so I wanted to get it down.... This is my 20. At least till I wake up one night this week having a panic attack that i've missed one out.

Amy Winehouse- Back To Black
Gorillaz- Demon Days
M.I.A- Arular
M.I.A- Kala
The Streets- Original Pirate Material
The Streets- A Grand Don’t Come For Free
Radiohead- Kid A
The Strokes- Is This It
Kanye West- Late Registration
Daft Punk- Discovery
The Beastie Boys- To The 5 Boroughs
Eminem- The Marshall Mathers LP
N.E.R.D- In Search Of…
Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene
Outkast- Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below
Jay-Z- Blueprint
Gnarls Barkley- St Elsewhere
Justin Timberlake- Justified
The White Stripes- Elephant

Arcade Fire- Neon Bible

Honourable mentions: Hot Chip- The Warning, Cornershop- Handcream For A Generation, Gwen Stefani- L.A.M.B, Jay Z- The Black Album, Common- Electric Circus, Wu Tang- The W, Dizzee Rascal- Boy/ Maths, Outkast- Stankonia, Basement Jaxx- Rooty, Lily Allen- Its Not Me, It’s You.

Any of which would have made my (pretty populist) run down much cooler. But you can’t leave Justin out, right?

Dubstep Takes Over

I was in Berlin the other week as you'll see below. The Germans have very specific music tastes. To my mind they love very minimal techno, scary metal and cheesy euro-dance.

And at a club called Maria I realised you can add another genre to that list. The UK's own Dubstep. I leave Brixton to go to Berlin and end up at a stonking Dubstep night. Bizarre.

Benga and Skream were supposed to play seperate sets but decided to go back to back and of course killed it. Biggest tunes were Benga's own Crunk, this remix of The Streets and the above La Roux remix. Sorry about the DJ, but it's so big I had to post it. Wait for it to kick in at 4mins.

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