Flashback Friday.. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - 'Heads Will Roll'

What's this? A post? A Flashback - for Friday!?

I know, shocking isn't it?

Today I spotted that the Yeah Yeah Yeah's are doing a three date tour of the UK (Manchester O2 Apollo, Leeds O2 Academy, and London at Alexandra Palace), having recently announced the forthcoming arrival of their fourth album, MOSQUITO. As of yet, there doesn't appear to be an announcement in regards of a single, though Karen O has shocked my soul by bleaching her hair to a platinum blonde (!), so let's refresh ourselves of how AWEsome the Yeah Yeah Yeah's were in the years prior to their sabbatical!

Aside from Karen O's collaboration with Atticus Ross and Nine Inch Nails maestro Trent Reznor in their contribution  for the soundtrack for the western re-hash of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (they covered 'Immigrant Song'), the last we heard of the YYY's was 'Skeletons', the final single from It's Blitz!. The album was a departure from the YYY's of old, with Nick Zinner exchanging his guitars for keyboards on some of the tracks, and my favourite track from the album has to be a song where these aforementioned keyboards were used to full emphatic effect.

'Heads Will Roll' was a stomping indie dance-floor anthem, poppy, and perfect for club remixing (the A-Trak remix is very good!), and unlike anything that, at the time, they had done before. It's one of the standout tracks from the album, for me, along with 'Zero' and 'Soft Shock'.

Anyway, if you haven't heard 'Heads Will Roll' before, check out the creepy music video, and if you have - reminisce!

A reminder of the 3 UK dates:

1 May
Manchester
O2 Apollo

2 May
Leeds
O2 Academy

4 May
London
Alexandra Palace

Rapid Review.. Japanese Voyeurs - B-Sides and Rarities

The other day, I said that I'd most likely write a review of the Japanese Voyuers' 'B-Sides and Rarities' limited CD that I purchased, however since then my computer pretty much exploded whilst it was ripping the CD to iTunes, so that prevented me from listening to it as much as I'd have liked, I've had to dig out my rather old portable CD player. I'm writing this on the family laptop. Anyway, here it is, along with some nice photographs of the content!

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Japanese Voyeurs are a British grunge band, combining screechy schoolgirl vocals - courtesy of frontwoman, Romily Alice, with aggressively heavy guitars; quite a juxtaposition - but it works nicely. Unfortunately, the band, decided to split earlier this year, but have released a limited (250 copies) B-Sides and Rarities CD due to fan demand. 

There are a few songs on the disc which stand out. The opening track, 'Godzilla', for example, is a short, angsty burst of energy and would have been at home on their 2011 debut album, 'Yolk' and is probably the best and most immediate track found here. It's successor, a demo version of  'The Heart is a First' is perhaps the best of the demos, made interesting due to it being quicker and livelier than the album version and I far prefer it to the original. These 2 songs - along with the cover of Nine Inch Nails classic, 'Closer', taking what Japanese Voyeurs does best and applying so well to the song that it sounds like it could be one of their own - are the CD's highlights. 

                                     

The rest of the demos aren't quite as thrilling - 'Double Cheese (Demo)' is without vocals for example - and 'Milk Teeth' does not vary that much from its 'Yolk' album counterpart in anything but quality. The other B-Sides - 'Ah Ah Shame', 'Hand Me Down' and 'Scare Bear' are very enjoyable - though not quite as brilliant as 'Godzilla' in my opinion, though the 'Cry Baby (Remix)' is far too clumsily edited to be good and better off skipped. The album closes with further classic Voyeurs affair in the shape of 'Live Doom'.

For fans (yes, I'm quite the fan!) of the band, this album is well enough received simply for the desire to have more songs from the band. However, naturally,  it's not quite a showcase of what the band can do.

If you've never listened to the band before, I suggest you check out the vids below and their debut album, 'Yolk'.

3.5/5

http://www.japanesevoyeurs.com/
http://www.facebook.com/japanesevoyeursofficial

'Dumb'

'Cry Baby'

'Milk Teeth'