Some Newsy Things And Links

• Perhaps you are familiar with electropop siren Sarah Nixey. XO just interviewed her for his blog.
  
• Did you know that OMD reunited and have been playing gigs that showcase their early classic albums in their entirety? Electronically Yours was invited to an intimate warm up and you can read Orac's detailed report by scrolling down to "11 . 05. 2007".
  
• It was very tempting to copy and paste my own version of Tremble Clef's brilliant choose-your-own adventure post on Flunk's cover of Depeche Mode's "See You" but fear of it being a bad cover version of his blog stopped me short.
  
• A survey dares ask which synthpop guru are you. I'm Neil Tennant.
  
• After months of waiting for news about The Modern/Matinee Club's US EP I contacted the label that was supposed to release it. Even though the band had made the announcement and the label dropped money into prepping the release nothing was signed and after the name change they never got back to the label so another release from the band goes back into the vault. Shame they treat their fans this way.
  
• A source told fansite NewOrderOnline that "Peter Hook can leave the band, but this doesn't mean the end of New Order" because New Order is a democratic body. The source mentioned that Hooky recently signed with different representation than the rest of the band and that he stayed at a different hotel in Cannes than his former band mates during the junket for the premier of Control. The film's soundtrack is complete so we can expect something new from Joy Division this year and the silence of Bernard and Stephen suggests that they might complete New Order's unfinished album.

Inner City Pressure

Can't imagine why Neil Tennant would link to this in his blog:

Video: Phonique featuring Erlend Øye "For The Time Being"

Phonique released his album in the US earlier this month and since it involves a collaboration with the peerless Erlend Øye it caught my attention. "For The Time Being" is more of a mood piece than all out song, not unlike Øye's contribution to last years James Figurine album, but it still has a bit of magic to it.

However, the video is the least interesting video yet to feature on this blog. This variation on the film school staple "my girlfriend looking moody around the apartment in various stages undress" features the following plot. Girl wakes up, puts on socks, looks at boyfriend's picture, puts on pants, puts on sweater, puts on shoes, puts on jacket, goes outside, puts on makeup, back inside notices missed call from Phonique on cell, takes shower, puts on dress, dries hair, puts on fur coat, goes down subway escalator, dances at a club and kisses the fellow from the picture. Thow in some cross cuts of cheap effects that I can duplicate on my gradparent's cameraphone and you've got the finished video. In a word: genius! Not only does the web release of this, if I may quote the record label, "beautiful video" run 22 seconds of title cards before actually starting it is such an artistic work that we get 1:05 of end credits so we understand how much talent went into this production:



: Hear more from Phonique here.

Video: Tracey Thorn "Raise The Roof"

The second single taken from Tracey Thorn's Out Of The Woods is the delightful "Raise The Roof". The video tells the parallel stories of an internet couple preparing to meet for the first time which sounds like it could be utterly painful but is actually quite cute revealing a playfulness in the song that I missed the first time:



: You can get a free download of "Raise The Roof" by signing up here and you can listen to remixes and b-sides at Tracey Thorn's myspace.

The Gifts He Really Wants

With Father's Day just around the corner what better time to give Dad the two things that would make his life complete:

: The brilliance of amazon's personal shopping expertise is proven again.