New Cold War Kids: "Something Is Not Right With Me"

Last week it was the announcement of a new Cold War Kids album and a running order. This week it's an MP3 of the new single, "Something Is Not Right With Me". What starts out with a bass line straight outta LCD Soundsystem land comes in the near-disco beat and lead singer Nathan Willett's distinguishable vocals. This quick little number definitely makes me want more from their new album, Loyalty To Loyalty, which will be out on Downtown September 23rd.

Download: "Something Is Not Right With Me" [mp3]

XX Teens Ready The Goons

This year's hot commodity out of the UK is a band calling themselves the XX Teens. The band have already made a name for themselves at home, with NME bestowing upon them the prestigious Single of the Week title for the track "Onkawara", and now are ready to make a name for themselves here in the states.

The band's debut full length, Welcome To Goon Island, will be out September 30th from the fine folks at Mute. The five piece make a raucous and catchy sound that makes me think that if the members of Blur were 10 or 15 years younger and were just breaking it in this decade, they might sound like this. Especially goes the case with first single "Darlin'" - with all the oi's and the awesome brass sample, it's slowly becoming yet another song I find getting stuck on repeat. For the visually inclined, here's the video (mp3 awaits you audio peoples below):

Welcome To Goon Island:
The Way We Were
B-54
Round
Ba (Ba-Ba Ba)
Onkawara
(Reprise)
Only You
My Favourite Hat
Darlin'
Sun Comes Up
For Brian Haw

Download: "Darlin'" [mp3] // [Buy Here]

New Ed Harcourt Album!

I remember being in college when Strangers came out, and just being in love with that record. In a time when Coldplay and Snow Patrol were blowing up, I felt they were sucking away all the attention that Ed Harcourt deserved. Random fact: he's got a 2-disc best of out over there! He's huge! Why is he not big in America? Maybe he is and I just don't know it. He should be. "The Storm Is Coming" and "Born In The 70s" were epic; "Black Dress" made me get all introspective and sappy. "Something To Live For" is the best song to start a mix off with. If you can locate the MySpace for my radio show (like I'm gonna post that link for all to see in public view), you'll see that when that record was out I was playing it every single week on my show. Every week.

That being said, Harcourt is back next week with his new masterpiece entitled The Beautiful Lie. It's his fifth album, and Dovecote is unleashing it's sonic goodness in the states. In honor of this, he'll be making a stately appearance on The Tonight Show with Cona -- I mean -- Jay Leno on June 6. We're giving you the new track, "Revolution In The Heart," for free. Hooray!

Random fact #2: He's such a fantastic piano player, so fantastic that Nada Surf sent him a copy of the working version of "Are You Lightning?" and he sat down and played that beautiful piano part that .. makes me sappy, again, yes. Damn him.

Download: "Revolution In The Heart" [mp3] // [Buy Here]