Please note that this is the 'original' Meme Magazine website - we have updated it significantly and you can go there by clicking on the image below. You can still access all of the 'old' pages from here if you wish.
The Amplifetes, out of the blue - Meme Interview
One of our favourite new bands of the moment are The Amplifetes, a Swedish quartet with a distinctive and diverse sound. Often they are quoted as being influenced by ELO, The Ramones, David Bowie and Velvet Underground.
Ahead of their forthcoming debut album release, we caught up with Amplifetes' lead-man Peter Ågren to ask him about these influences, the Swedish music scene, Twitter, Madonna and the new LP...
Tracey Thorn, once darling of the indie pop scene of the '80s, voice of the 'heart-broken teenager' (that'd be me then) and one half of 'Everything But The Girl', has recently released her first solo album in 3 years. We asked Tracey about her journey from Marine Girl to pop starlet, and about how she, and her fans, are coping with it all...
Belleruche - Clockwatching / Mirror In The Bathroom
Belleruche will soon be releasing their third LP, '270 Stories', on Tru Thoughts Records on 11th October. The first single will be 'Clockwatching', which we've kindly pointed out to you before (you can see the video here). But, also worth pointing out, is the flip-side which is a blissed-out dub version of The Beat's 'Mirror In The Bathroom'.
The single is released on August 23rd.
Listen to 'Mirror In The Bathroom' by Belleruche
The Jolly Boys - Rehab This definitely works for us. The Jolly Boys are one of Jamaica's longest running Mento bands, and they have teamed up with Geejam's Jon Baker to update the Mento sound with some contemporary covers. We would recommend watching this 10 minute documentary first which will introduce you to the Mento sound and the wonderful Albert Minott and his other band members. There will be an LP, 'Great Expectations', released 20th September on Wall of Sound Records.
SoundCloud Track of the Week Each week we bring you a new track from the wonder that is SoundCloud. This week Frenchmen, Nassau, give us a superb loved-up re-mix of Stevie Wonder's 'For You Love'. It's been around for a few months but still available for download.
Natural Self's 2009 LP, 'My Heart Beats Like A Drum' was an accomplished album of hip-hop-influenced funky dance-floor grooves with Nathaniel Pearn doing most of the instruments and vocals himself, and bringing in the odd guest vocalist such as Elodie Rama.
As seems to be the trend right now, Natural Self will soon release this remix mini-album, which contains 9 tracks plus an exclusive cover version of Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' (in which the original idea of a mash up of Street Spirit with the riff off DJ Shadow's Organ Donor eventually became a complete reworking with new instrumentals and vocals). Remixers on the remaining tracks include Prince Fatty (with a couple of versions of 'Midnight Sun'), Kid Kanevil, Eliphino and Yult.
Consequently, there is a wide range of styles on the album which, whilst not necessarily hanging together as well as the original LP, do make a worthwhile selection of tunes to get your hands on. Our favourite tracks are The Prince Fatty version of 'Midnight Sun' and Natural Self's own remix of 'All Static' and, whilst we didn't initially take to the Street Spirit cover, this is now definitely growing on us. The record is released on Tru Thoughts Records on 8th August.
Each and every week, we select our favourite track, record a little voice-over intro to it and broadcast this to the listeners of Laid Back Radio. Each track is played a few times a day - you can listen straight from the web using Laid Back's player, or through your iPhone with their iPhone app. We're also collating all of the associated articles on a special page here. Enjoy!
Ways to follow Meme You all know that you can subscribe to Meme's regular email updates (using the form here), our podcasts and our RSS feeds. Now there's a couple of other ways you can join in. We've our own Facebook Group (imaginatively titled 'Meme Magazine') and have our own Twitter feed (bet you can't guess what that's called) which you can follow for micro-blog updates on what we're up to.
About Meme Magazine Meme Magazine is a source for great music. It is about helping people expand their musical horizons by feeding them the best new music through simple concise reviews using a unique ratings system, news feeds and our own exclusive mixes.
Find out more about what a meme is, and how to pronounce it.
