New Monday
I’m always getting emails from bands, record labels, and PR firms plugging their new releases in the hope that I’ll mention them on this here blog, often with links to free mp3s. On the one hand it’s flattering that they think I’m worthy of notice or could create anything resembling “buzz” for them (Ha! they should see my site stats) but on the other it’s a bit insulting because if they actually read the blog they would know that 99% of the time I only write about old-timey music.
So I usually ignore them – no payola here! – but I got one from some British DJs called Club Clique about their remix of Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games” which is one of my favourite singles of the year so I was curious enough to give it a listen. Remixes often ruin a song for me, some cocky DJ banging a Techno beat over something without any thought or originality, but blow me down if this isn’t bloody great, turning the moody original into soaring, glittering disco which you wouldn’t think would work but it does, spectacularly well. So sod it, I’m giving it a plug.
Download: Video Games (Club Clique For The Bad Girls Remix) – Lana Del Rey (mp3)
More Club Clique remixes and mixtapes here and if you’re ever in Manchester and feel like a boogie pop along to their club.
I’m pleasantly surprised by the quality of some of the covers done of songs like this – done by kids playing guitars in their bedrooms and posted on Youtube (see here for an example http://youtu.be/DvUVISbaGKs). We did the same thing with covers of the songs on albums like Ziggy Stardust, but of course there was no Youtube then so we had to go out and form a band to get noticed instead.
Grab this one too – http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Lana_Del_Rey/track/Blue_Jeans_Penguin_Prison_Remix