New tune from Muse

After the not-so-well-received 2012 release of The 2nd Law, Muse is back with a more straight-up rock-riff sound and some profanity as their return-to-form. Check out the tune "Psycho" from their forthcoming June 9th release Drones.

See what you think of the new tune by taking a listen below. And you can always join in the online bashing of the rather obvious messaging of the album cover.

Pic from Facebook.

Stream the new Muse album The 2nd Law

Update: Here's a working link for Canada. If I were in Muse, I'd be pretty pissed with my label for not having proper links working.

Muse have announced that you can listen to a stream of their forthcoming album, The 2nd Law. They've got different stream providers for different countries, so follow the link to their site for deets. Personally, I can't find a link for Canada that works, perhaps due to timing, but someone's posted a URL to a private Soundcloud stream in the comments of the announcement post. Try that for as long as it may work.

Now we can all see how far down the dubstep hole they may have fallen...

In case you missed it, the video for "Madness" is here. The 2nd Law is out October 2.

Video for Muse's Madness

Muse have their new album The 2nd Law coming out October 2. I already posted the song "Madness" and now the official video is out. Just love Matt Bellamy's soaring vocals on this track. Check it out!

And I guess I missed this vid for "Unsustainable" a few weeks back.

New Muse song called Madness

Muse have a new album called The 2nd Law coming out October 2. They've just released the lyric video for "Madness". It finds the trio experimenting with some new sounds and I think it will definitely get some strong reactions from fans.

New Muse song - Survival

Muse have a new album called The 2nd Law coming out in September. They also have a song for the 2012 London Olympics. That song is "Survival" and you can listen to here:



They lyrics of "I'm gonna win" and "I will survive" sound olympic enough, the overall tonality is just a little dark for what I would think of as an olympic anthem. Looking forward to this album nonetheless.

My 25 favourite tracks of NME's 100 best tracks of the '00s

NME posted their 100 Best Tracks Of The ’00s.  I picked out my favourite 25.  It was tough.  Here they are.

100 Maxïmo Park – “Apply Some Pressure”


99 Flaming Lips – “Do You Realize”


95 The Killers – “These Things That I’ve Done”


93 The Big Pink – “Dominos”


79 Muse – “Plug In Baby”


76 Gnarls Barkley – “Crazy”


66 Friendly Fires – “Paris”


59 Interpol – “Evil”


55 The xx – “Islands”


50 Kasabian – “Empire”


47 Britney Spears – “Toxic”


46 Lily Allen – “Smile”


42 Gossip – “Standing In The Way Of Control”


41 The Killers – “Mr. Brightside”


31 Bloc Party – “Banquet”


30 Franz Ferdinand – “Take Me Out”


28 Arctic Monkeys – “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”


24 Doves – “There Goes The Fear”


23 Muse – “Knights Of Cydonia”


22 The Strokes – “Last Nite”


17 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps”


10 Arctic Monkeys – “A Certain Romance”


07 Klaxons – “Golden Skans”


05 Outkast – “Hey Ya!”


02 MGMT – “Time To Pretend”

New Tunes from Still Life Still, Rain Machine, and Muse

C-c-c-cool!

Obviously Still Life Still are pretty cool since they've got Broken Social Scensters Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning introducing them in their video... The tune's called "Pastel". The album's called Girls Come Too. Who knew? You can pick up the album at emusic.


Here's TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone's solo effort Rain Machine with "Give Blood".


A new video from Muse? You bet. Here's "Undisclosed Desires" from The Resistance.

My First iTunes LP: Muse's The Resistance

Well, I've purchased my first iTunes LP. It's the latest release from Muse, The Resistance.

What do I think of it? I think it's pretty cool. A lot of my friends like buying physical CD's over digital because of the booklet - they want to have something tangible in their hands to look at and read lyrics. iTunes has been offering digital booklets on some albums, but this is definitely a step up.

I compare it to a DVD menu. When you open the iTunes LP, a nice screen appears (shown above) and some music plays. There are links to listen to the album, view the song list, read the lyrics, view videos and view pictures. For The Resistance, you can listen to the album, view the song list, which contains descriptions of the inspiration for each song, view photos, videos and credits. There are no lyrics with The Resistance.

Overall, it's a cool experience, but I wouldn't pay extra for it.

And how about the new Muse album? It's pure Muse, but they are stepping up their game from album to album. There are some really good rockin' tunes, like "Uprising", "Resistance" and "Unnatural Selection". The more symphonic tunes, like "United States of Eurasia / Collateral Damage (Excerpt from Nocturne in E-Flat, Op. 9 No. 2)" and the three-part "Exogenesis: Symphony" will take some time to grow on me.

Here's a video for "Uprising" from the new Muse album for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Muse |MTV Music

And if you're interested in seeing the band live - I saw them on their last trip through Toronto and they were absolutely fantastic live - then look for dates on their web site. Their first string of dates has Biffy Clyro and The Big Pink supporting.

Arctic Monkeys: New Album On It's Way

Arctic Monkeys is one of those bands that grabbed me. When I first heard Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not when it came out in 2006, I was instantly hooked. The band was tight, the songwriting was instantly appealing while being unique, and the way the stories were told was engaging. I remember their awesome performance on SNL, too. I still love the album and it certainly has one of the largest number of five-star songs from one album in my iTunes library.

In fact, 2006 was a gigantic year in music for me. Many British groups were on heavy rotation that year including Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, The Kooks, Muse, Kasabian, Maxïmo Park, Klaxons, Lily Allen, The Automatic, and Boy Kill Boy, to name a few. By the way, if you follow the link to Muse's web site today you'll see they're counting down to something exciting. I for one will be checking back tomorrow to see what it is. Their new album The Resistance is due out September 14th. Update: Muse published a major site overhaul July 13.

Favourite Worst Nightmare came out in 2007 and although it had a massive success to follow on, it was a great album, too.



Their new album is called Humbug and the first single is "Crying Lightning". The single's available from iTunes right now and the album is due out August 24th in the UK. Probably means that we'll see it in North America on the 25th.



Check out the tune below.



Arctic Monkeys will be touring North America in September and October. Dates are below.

SEPTEMBER
14th September - Soma, San Diego
15th September - Hollywood Palladium, LA
16th September - Fox Theater, Oakland
18th September - Wonder Ballroom, Portland **FREE SHOW**
19th September - The Showbox @ The Market, Seattle
20th September - Malkin Bowl, Vancouver
22nd September -In The Venue, Salt Lake City - w/Airborne Toxic Event
23rd September - Ogden Theatre, Denver - w/Airborne Toxic Event
25th September - First Avenue, Minneapolis
26th September - Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee
28th September - Newport Music Hall, Columbus
29th September - Kool Haus, Toronto
30th September - Electric Factory, Philadelphia

OCTOBER
2nd October - House of Blues, New Orleans
3rd October - House of Blues, Houston
4th October - Austin City Limits Festival, Austin
5th October - The Palladium Ballroom

And for your listening and viewing pleasure, here's a gem from the first album - "A View from the Afternoon".



Edit: July 16. I just finished reading a great article on Arctic Monkeys and thought it turned out better than my article, primarily because the writer had access to the band themselves. Enjoy.