hmvblogs - blogs by hmv

end of year lists

well, i figured i'd leave it till the last day to post my favourite music of the year - & there was loads to choose from. 'till next year!

ALBUMS

1.      The Night Marchers – See You In Magic

I loved that a review described one song as being a cross between Status Quo & The Byrds! For the most part tho this just rocked - & relentlessly. This debut from John Reiss’ new band was killer & they were ridiculously good live.

2.      No Age – Nouns

Lots of noise, but really good pop songs too.  Some great live shows this year – the aftershow at Vinyl bar was particularly good.

3.      Nobunny – Love Visions

Has a sloppy Modern Lovers feel & dumb jokey lyrics throughout but this is a damn good record & has some of the catchiest songs you’ll hear.

4.      Deerhunter – Microcastle

Microcastle is just great song after great song. & not too shoegazey for me, made me think of The Shins at times.

5.      Davilla 666 – Davilla 666

The Nuggets boxset as played by Mexican gangsters.

6.      Jay Reatard – Matador Singles 08

A precursor to his proper solo album for Matador due next year, this was a great collection of songs. Not as good as the 06/07 collection that also came out this year, or his debut ‘Blood Visions’. Still if this was the first you’d heard of him (as it was for many) you’d be mighty impressed.

7.      Gentleman Jesse – Introducing Gentleman Jesse & His Men

Carbonas bass player takes the lead and comes up with a late 70’s style powerpop album (The Nerves/The Jam etc). Sadly this didn’t include the great single ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ which may well be the best thing he’s done.

8.      The Explorers Club – Freedom Wind

The best Beach Boys outtakes album you could wish for.

Blitzen Trapper – Furr

All the best bits of classic rock, alt country & powerpop crammed into one record & played by a band of Jeff Lynnes.

10.   Grand Archives – Grand Archives

Killed the Fleet Foxes album for me, but no one else seemingly.

 SINGLES

1.      Marked Men – Fortune

Had the album from which this is taken had arrived as planned this year, it would almost certainly have been a contender for the top of my chart. As it’s now due Jan 09, i have something to look forward to.

2.      Hex Dispensers – Lose My Cool

Equal parts Cheap Trick and The Misfits; their debut album snuck out at the end of last year & has been one of the most played this year. This 2008 ep was great & the title track is possibly my most played track of the year.

3.      Hunx – You Don’t Like Rock & Roll

Glam rock glitter drums, early Ramones, very camp vocals & a scratch & sniff sleeve. The ‘Good Kisser’ single was great too.

4.      Box Elders – Hole In My Head

Makes me think of Redd Kross playing The Hollies, probably helps there are brothers in the band too. A really cool melodic song which sounds timeless to me.

Violens - V

Their list of influences begins with The Zombies & Nazz which is good enough. Kinda sounds like ‘Dear 23’ era Posies to me too. Looking forward to more in the new year.

god i feel old...

Can it really be the 30th anniversary of 2 Tone records in 2009? What a great year, i'm so lucky to think looking back now that i was a part of all that. Tonic suits, Sta-prest, loafers, pork pie hats, Fred Perry, Harrington jackets, The Specials, Madness, The Beat, Bodysnatchers and The Selecter featuring the delectable Pauline Black. There's never been or probably never will be such a short-lived movement in music and culture like it. Like i said, i'm so glad i was part of it.. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Before I log off and go home for Christmas (which will be in about 2 hours time!!) I wanted to say Merry Christmas to all you kind souls who read this blog – it’s been a good year, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what I’ve had to say. There’s some great games coming out next year, like Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5, Tekken 6 and Halo Wars, so there’ll be plenty to talk about in 2009!

Hope you all have a lovely time

Duncan x

Fifa 09 is Christmas number 1!

Not much more I can say than that! FIFA 09 has ended Call of Duty’s 5-week reign at the top of the multi-format sales charts and grabbed the top spot at the last minute. Congratulations to everyone at EA, the game is great and it’s a good year to see FIFA back at the top!

Here’s the top 5:

1. FIFA 09
2. Call of Duty: World at War
3. Mario Kart
4. Need for Speed Undercover
5. Brain Training

new arkham asylum screenshots

Is it me, or does 2008 feel like it’s been the year of Batman? The Dark Knight is easily one of the best films of the year, maybe even the millennium, LEGO Batman: The Videogame has been released to huge success, the Arkhum Asylum graphic novel recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, and Eidos have announced that they’ll be releasing an Arkham Asylum game in 2009. This, as well as rumours of Jonny Depp playing The Riddler in the next film, will mean that the Batman bug won’t be going anywhere for a while.

Anyway, as a special present for anyone excited about the aforementioned video game of Batman: Arkham Asylum, some new screenshots have emerged today, which, if they are indeed screenshots taken right out of the game (rather than renders from a cut-scene), look pretty darn impressive in my eyes. Here’s one of my favourites, take a look for yourself and lemmie know what you think. If you want to see some more, click the, umm, ‘more’ button…

PS sorry for the lack of posts last week – I was on holiday!

more »

bushwhacked!

How long does it take for a video-game to be made about a George Bush press conference? Well if you’re talking about a web-based flash game, it only takes about 48 hours! Glasgow flash developer T-Enterprise has come up with the game, in which players have to protect Bush from an increasing onslaught of in-coming shoes, based on the moment when Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi threw his shoes in disgust at the American president on the weekend.

It’s called ‘Bush’s boot Camp’ and you can play it yourself by clicking here

download PLAYSTATION HOME tomorrow!

It feels like PlayStation Home has been in development ever since the first Sony Walkman cassette player was released. Sony’s social networking service for PS3 was originally expected to be available at the console’s launch in March 2007, but PS3 owners have had to patiently watch as Nintendo successfully launched and integrated their Mii concept to the Wii and its games, and watch Microsoft create innovative ways to communicate, socialise and play online games via avatars on Xbox LIVE.

 

Well, at last Sony have released a statement saying that an open BETA trial of Home is going to be available for free download – from tomorrow! You’ll be able to access the service to your console and try it out for yourself, customise your own avatars, voice-chat with friends and other PS3 users, as well as play mini-games and watch videos all within the online world.

So say Sony…

more »

Lara Croft interview finally done

So, it’s been a long time coming, but today I received the final edit of the video interview I did with Allison Carol, the new ‘face’ of Lara Croft. She talked to me about all what she brings to the role, how she relates to Lara Croft and what qualities it was that landed her the job. Interesting stuff, which you can watch below…

What would you like to see on Blu-Ray?

I've been considering buying a blu-ray player after watching a couple at a friend's house and being totally blown away by how amazing and sharp they look (because i'm a bit of a geek about things like picture and sound quality).

Most new films look great on blu-ray, because they're shot on state-of-the-art modern equipment, and i noticed that there aren't that many older movies available yet. I was excited to hear that Raging Bull is coming out in February. I'm sure you'll be able to get absolutely everything eventually, but i wondered which films readers of the blog would most like to see released on blu-ray? I'm sure our suppliers would be interested to see what customers are waiting for, so you could make a difference. Comment below and let us know...

Perhaps I was right all along

What’s this all about then? Today, a new website was launched by Konami that seems to hint towards the next step forward in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. All that is on the site is an ambiguous green logo, with words simply saying ‘A NEXT METAL GEAR IS…’. The image is green, and incorporates a circular logo that doesn’t look a million miles away from the power button on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Surely that can’t be a hint to a possible Xbox 360 version of MGS – can it?

A couple of years ago, an un-named member of the hmv.com games team *accidentally* set up a pre-order screen for Metal Gear Solid 4 on Xbox 360. This led to all sorts of rumours on games forums and mass hysteria on some gaming websites, as people took it as confirmation that a 360 port of the game was in development. Even a few Xbox 360 magazines picked up on it, but we were quick to put a statement out saying it was put on the site in error. However, with the launch of this new site, who knows, maybe it wasn’t such an error after all. Watch this space, Solid fans…

never mind the red bull...

Feeling a bit run down?  Then forget the energy drinks, what you need is a dose of The Bronx. A half-hour pick-me-up of driving, unrelenting hardcore noise that'll have you reaching for the volume control in no time, not to turn it down, but up! WAY UP !! This L.A. based collective have released one hell of a record. If you buy one punk album this year, then this it it, sheer full-on rock 'n' roll noise, hard & fast !!     

my three favourite singles of the year...

it's been a good year for pop, so here they are in reverse order : 3rd - Ting Tings - That's Not My Name    2nd - Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown - No Air  and 1st - Estelle and Kanye West - American Boy