Happy 100th Post

On day one we were asked who is Bawley?

“Bawley is a collection of music nerds, no talent, no experience, no education, no right to have as many opinions as they do."

On this Bawley’s 100th posts are we in a better position to answer such existential questions, looking at the Bawley tag cloud I yes, well Yes and No.

Yes, Bawley are clearly Radiohead fans with 18 posts referencing the band. We also have a love of Nine Inch Nails who come in as the second most popular act (12 posts), followed by The Cure (8), Crystal Castles (7) and Bloc Party (6) who complete Bawley's top five blogged about bands.

Yes, Bawley obviously loves a bargain with 9 posts on free downloads, and one each covering free shows, rip offs and artist greed.

Yes, Bawley has an inflated sense of self-importance referencing itself on 16 occasions including this post.

No, Bawley still can’t really decide who it is or what it wants to talk about covering 230 topics in 100 posts seems a little scatter brained and if anyone can explain how Blatant excuses to publish pictures of Richard Ayoade, Sailing boats, Iceland and not actually about music made it onto this music blog they are doing better than us.

Thanks for reading our first 100, we look forward to you joining us for 100 more.

- The Bawley Team

Get Funky With Reckoner - It Ripples

Getting a little funky with Reckoner. Let me know what you think. More (and better) Reckoner remixes can be found on radioheadremix post links to your favourites?

Björk and Yorke team up to save Iceland.

Björk and Thom Yorke are teaming up to save Iceland, no not from the current economic crisis but from the irreparable damage the Icelandic aluminium smelting industry is having on the country’s stunning environment.

On October 20th, One Little Indian will release the collaboration titled Nattura, the song it is claimed will highlight the growing movement to reclaim the country’s natural resources from big business and pollution.

You can find out more on why Björk is supporting the movement on the Nattura website.

Psychoville!

We at Bawley are all big fans of The League Of Gentlemen.

We're therefore delighted that two of The League's creators, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, are just about to begin filming a new comedy that they have created for BBC2, entitled Psychoville.

According to The Guardian, the cast will also feature Dawn French, Christopher Biggins, Dame Eileen Atkins and Nicholas Le Prevost, and we are promised that:

"The series will be populated with a cast of off-beat characters including a blind Beanie collector, a dwarf who is in love with his panto Snow White and a one-handed clown who makes balloon animals with his hook. Each of the characters in the series has been sent an anonymous, black-edged card saying: "I know what you did ...'"

Sounds awesome. The series is set to air in the UK next year, and, potentially, in Australia at some point in the future.

As this is supposed to be a music blog, I should also point out that Creme Brulee, who will be familiar to League Of Gentlemen fans, will be performing their hit, 'Voodoo Lady' live at the Soho Curzon Cinema on the 31st of this month. And the weirdest thing is I am not making this up.

Atlas Sound Play Trick or Treat

First a spooky new Atlas Sound track called Coffin Trick promptly followed by a 55 minute DJ set creatively titled October Micromix. Nothing more just a quick spurt of Halloween themed action on the Deerhunter/Atlas Sound front man Bradford Cox’s blog early this morning.

Coffin Trick is all distorted vocals and slinky guitar, while October Micromix is consistent with Cox’s previous DJ mixes - chilled out, diverse and full of his favourite tracks. This time the mix travels from The Beach Boys to Robert Wyatt via The Supremes, Suicide, and Nico.

If you like what you hear, you can find more micromixes along with demos and new tracks for download all over the deerhunter / atlas sound / lotus plaza blog. Plus the brilliant new Deerhunter album Microcastles will be in stores from October 28th. Can’t wait that long? It is available now for download from pretty much everywhere (both legally and leaked).

Download:

Coffin Trick / October Micromix

$0.00: Strange Attractor

This week Mercury Rev have released two brand new albums the magnificent Midnight Snowflake and its instrumental companion Strange Attractor.

As previously mentioned Strange Attractor is being made available as a free download: signup to the bands mailing list for access (here).

All Tomorrow's Parties launches in Australia

All Tomorrow's Parties, the cult festival franchise that launched in the UK a few years back and is known for eclectic lineups curated by some of the most interesting musical acts in the world, is coming to Australia in January.

Curated by (who else?) Nick Cave (in my mind one of the greatest artists in the world today), the festival visits three states and takes a different form in each one. Melbourne gets a full blown two day affair with camping at Mt Buller, Brisbane gets a mini afternoon/evening festival at the Riverstage, and a series of concerts, and Sydney gets two one day festivals (each with the same lineup, on consecutive days) on Cockatoo Island, which seems like an awesome place to watch bands.

As the curator, Nick Cave has handed himself and his Bad Seeds, the headline slot, and before him comes a bunch of really interesting and innovative acts, including the excellent Spiritualized, and others, most of which sit a long way outside the mainstream. Full lineups and details here.

It's a bold and exciting festival for Australia, bringing some great bands to brillant settings and offering what is sure to be a totally different experience to that offered by Big Day Out.