WHOO HOO!!! PARTY!!!

OH yeah... how you like these apples. I've had a counter up for roughly 2 months (give or take a day) and I broke 20,000 hits this morning. That is totally mental to me... 20,000 hits in such a short period of time! Since I couldn't have done it without you (well I suppose I could have but that would have been pretty crazy) so I'm going to try to give you the BEST British "BEST OF" I can come up with! I haven't quite finished my list so instead it's just going to be a rough overview of the best bands/tracks of the year...

LET'S GET IT STARTED (shoot the imaginary stereo for playing BEP.. cause they suck... and WILL leave wet spots on your couch!)

I would say my favourite song of the year is probably "Boy From School" by Hot Chip... it's perfect mixture of Simon & Garfunkle melancholy and filter house grooves was the most amazing musical combo this year (next to Timberlake/Timbaland but that's another story... here's the Erol Alkan Rework...

Hot Chip- "Boy From School (Erol Alkan's Extended Rework)"

Then we have a track from The Streets... it's pretty obvious that "Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living" is going to make a lot of people's lists this year... but this track (which is an improvement on the already great original) will likely be overlooked...

The Streets- "When You Wasn't Famous (Professor Green Remix)

And of course Arctic Monkeys are the most important band of the year... the new 'Oasis'... and I don't need to tell you anything about them... here's a live one from KCRW!
Arctic Monkeys- "Fake Tales Of San Francisco (Live @ KCRW)"

I don't know a lot about Sunshine Underground other than the name is from a Chemical Brother's song... but they are pretty sweet.. here's a fun live track from the London Calling festival...
Sunshine Underground- "Commercial Breakdown (Live @ London Calling, Amsterdam 1.4.06)"

Guillemots (which I STILL do not know how to pronounce) wrote one of the most touching albums this year (in fact 'Trains To Brazil' easily will make it into my ten best songs of the year) and this is a beautiful b-side off their EP...

Guillemots- "Sea Out (B-Side)"

I wanted to post the video for "Trains To Brazil" as well... it's fucking awesome...


I know I mainly talk about Pete Doherty but his former partner Carl Barat, and his band Dirty Pretty Things, are just as relevant and just as exciting as the Libertines use to be... however without the drama that Babyshambles were surrounded by DPT were largely overlooked this year... and so was this bonus track at the end of their album... (if you buy the limited edition vinyl version this is on the bonus 7 inch.. sweet song)

Dirty Pretty Things- "B.U.R.M.A (Hidden Track)"

Ah the Kooks... my friend Lolly, who is mates with them, introduced me to them earlier this year just prior to the "THEY ARE FROM MUSIC SCHOOL" backlash... because of this I have no tainted view about them and really enjoyed their album... this is a wicked cover of Gnarls Barkley...

The Kooks- "Crazy (Gnarls Barkley Cover @ Radio 1 Live Lounge)"

...and speaking of covers, and speaking of The Kooks, Lily Allen hit both bases this year while taking the piss at the same time... after making a bunch of remarks on how worthless The Kooks were she went ahead and did this at Radio 1's Live Lounge as if to beat them at their own game... then to prove she was still indie friendly she dueted with Alan from The Rakes... game, set, match!

Lily Allen- "Naive (Kooks Covere @ Radio 1 Live Lounge)"

If you've been reading this blog you know I love dance music... and Klaxons were the biggest thing to happen this year in British dance music... this is a demo version of their cover version of the old rave classic 'The Bouncer' (that was a mouthful)!

Klaxons- "The Bouncer (Demo Version)"

Here is an AWESOME 2 part Klaxons performance... fucking ace...



This song is about a girl being raped and killed... I think... that's a bit dark for me so instead I just bop around not listening to the words.. works well.. you should try it... anyway.. Larrkin Love's skank funk was so successful they almost beat Babyshambles for the best white reagee influenced band this year! Here's a live rendition of the song from London Calling festival...

Larrikin Love- "Happy As Annie (Live @ London Calling, Amsterdam)"

Of course no 'best of' comp would be complete without the next Arctic Monkeys The View... they haven't quite taken the world by storm but you can TRUST they will be on my 2007 list as well.. these guys are going to take over the world.. and this song will help them do it! Here's a demo of their biggest track thus far... an homage to their friends the Wasted Little Djs...

The View- "Wasted Little DJs (Demo)"

The Fratellis are little lad rock-y for me... BUT I generally still dig them just because I like overly masculine bands with insane egos (Kasabian, Oasis)... and these guys have got that one nailed!

The Fratellis- "Dirty Barry Stole The Blackbird (B-side)"

Ahhhh... The Pipettes... the prettiest girls you've never met... this track was a refreshing step away from the norm with one of the most catchy choruses in 06... here's a live one from Radio 1's Blue Room...

The Pipettes- "We Are The Pipettes (Live @ Radio 1's Blue Room)"

...and why not just give you their super weird Austin Powers-esque video...


...and last but not least... my favourite midget Lady Sovereign... I think I already posted this but this is one of the songs that didn't make it to the album... I heard her do it live and it's a nice addition to any Sov collection (for all you completists out here)! This is actually from 2005 and got a 4 star review over at Pitchfork...

Lady Sovereign- "The Broom (B-Side)"

Actually here is sort of what that sounded like...


So that's that! I will (as I said) still be doing a 'best of list' before Christmas and will keep giving you more tracks from this years best artists until the 1st (if everything goes to plan)... so, thanks again for stopping by and PLEASE feel free to leave comments!

P.s. If we blow through a BUNCH of these YouSendIt links really fast I will throw some other sort of links up if you guys request them!