Other than Lady Gaga’s new video for ‘Telephone,’ it seems the biggest buzz in the music world this week is around the new MGMT teaser track, ‘Flash Delirium,’ off of their forthcoming album, ‘Congratulations,’ due out 13th April 2010. Some seem to think that it’s a fantastic new direction for the band, while others don’t like it because they think it sounds nothing like MGMT. I fall somewhere in between: I was not, shall we say, particularly whelmed by it at first, but it’s growing on me. It has none of the catchy hooks of the singles off of ‘Oracular Spectacular,’ but that reflects an intentional move by the band away from singles and towards albums. As the band told NME, the album is “a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence,” and they want it to be appreciated as a complete album. Ben Goldwasser of MGMT said to the magazine, “There definitely isn’t a ‘Time to Pretend’ or a ‘Kids’ on the album. We’ve been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.”

They have, however, made ‘Flash Delirium’ available for free through their website, so head on over and download it now!

Bestival is a three-day, action-packed music festival held every year at Robin Hill Country Park on the beautiful Isle of Wight. The bash is well-known for being one of the final music festivals to be squeezed out of the last of the summer months, and this year Bestival will be taking place appropriately late – between Friday 11th to Sunday 13th September.

The festival initially started out 5 years ago and has grown in both size and popularity since then. The brainchild of Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank, Bestival is renowned for both it’s diverse line ups as well as it’s super fun atmosphere.

Headliners confirmed for this year’s event include Elbow, Massive Attack and Kraftwerk. Other quite simply amazing acts taking to the stage this 2009 include (and we stress, include!) MGMT, Fleet Foxes, Doves, Seasick Steve, Klaxons, Lily Allen, Friendly Fires, Florence and the Machine, Little Boots, Esser, Passion Pit, Chew Lips, La Roux and Jack Penate.

Meanwhile, DJs who’ll be spinning the decks at the Isle of Wight bash this year include Annie Mac, Huw Stephens, Zane Lowe and the boss himself, Rob da Bank.

Yet this is only a minuscule look into the massive selection of artists and DJs confirmed for this year’s event. You can grab the complete line-up over at Bestival’s website by hitting this link.

But music, no matter how impressive the line up may be, isn’t completely what this festival is about. Bestival is also a celebration of fun, and this year looks set to be one hell of a party.

Every year, for example, the festival has a fancy dress theme, and this 2009 the theme is ‘outer space’! So why not visit ‘The Dressing Up Area’, complete with a ‘Pimp My Outfit Booth’ to adorn yourself in such clothing wonderment while at the festival?

If fancy dress isn’t your thing, how about you check out ‘Heavenly Healing’ or ‘The Pamper Lounge’, two beautifully relaxing retreats providing festival-goers with a range of therapeutic treatments between their sweaty head banging sessions.

Other delights you can experience while at this dreamy festival include the tasty treats of ‘Buttercupcakes Afternoon Tea Hut’, the dizzying heights of the ‘The Big Wheel’, the jam-packed ‘The Village’ (complete with a farmers market and sushi stall!), ‘The Kids Garden’ for wee festival goers, and the famous ‘Inflatable Church’ should you fancy getting married along the way!

Wow! So, to learn more about this rollercoster of a festival, check out Bestival’s website. An adult weekend ticket for the event costs £140, and this includes camping. Tickets are still available for the fest and can be purchased from most ticket outlets. Check out the site for more information on where to purchase yours. Have fun!

Top photo is taken from alex_lee2001’s flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.

It’s undeniable that V Festival is a lot more commerical than other music festival’s across the country, and while the bash has certainly recieved the odd bit of criticism for it’s uber radio-friendly line up, the fest is no less fun in our eyes. Certainly – going by the awesome line-up, it’s unsurprising that the event managed to sell out in just two hours this year.

The summer bash – which is happening on Saturday 22nd to Sunday 23rd August – will be taking place across it’s two usual sites this ‘09: Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire.

Oasis (pictured right) and The Killers are the two big name headliners confirmed to be playing the festival’s top spot this year. Other major acts gracing the fest’s main stage (aptly titled ‘V Stage’) across the weekend include Razorlight, Snow Patrol, The Specials, Elbow, Biffy Clyro, Lily Allen, James, Seasick Steve and, intriguingly, Taylor Swift.

The smaller sized ‘4Music’ stage will also be featuring further super cool artists including Fatboy Slim, Pendulum, The Ting Tings, The Wombats, Keane, The Enemy, Katy Perry and Dizzee Rascal.

If nothing has still managed to catch your eye (or ear!), why not head over to ‘The Arena’ where you can check out a varied selection including MGMT, Lady GaGa, Happy Mondays, The Streets, Pete Doherty, and latest girl band sensation, British Sea PowerThe Saturdays.

If that’s still not enough, the festival has another 50 acts up its sleeve to announce in the coming few weeks. Exciting!

As I told you earlier, tickets for the Chelmsford leg have sadly sold out. There are still some available for the Staffordshire event, however. For more information regarding ticket outlets, check out V Festival’s website.

Top photo comes from stevec77’s flickr stream, and side photo from John Griffiths’ flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.

A quick note from Phil: We first introduced you to The Good Natured last summer, but times have changed and this is a much better write-up than the original one!

Sarah McIntosh is the lone member of The Good Natured and you can expect her to be a radio regular in a the not too distant future. A combination of electronic rhythms that would make MGMT proud and sublime vocals that sound like a mellow lily Allen or Kate Nash are the recipe to her success. The Berkshire bouncer certainly has a fresh sound that can be best described as electroacoustic with, of course, a little extra spice.

At times the keyboard playing sounds like The Prodigy playing on a church organ but it works and ear perplexing melodies add to the vibrant atmosphere that each track possesses. Although she’s not selling out stadiums, Sarah has a powerful voice which would sound great if she did a duet with Bloc Party.

Three always seems to be the magic number and their are three belters of tunes that stand out from The Good Natured back catalogue. “Rose” has to be the highlight. At first you’re certain that you’re listening to Kate Nash and then some inventive melodies and catchy beats begin and you know you’re dealing with a different kettle of fish. “Heart Of Stone” is my personal favourite. The track has a great injection of aggression and attitude and some of the the electronic bellows would not be out of place on a Daft Punk record. The last track that is in a different league is “How Can I Believe In You” which mixes organ and sonic drum beats but even better, it sounds good too and is more than just a musical experiment.

If you want a bargain, I’d go see a Good Natured gig right now as in a couple of years, you can expect tickets to sell out in minutes and prices to rocket due to all the hype that Sarah is sure to receive.

MP3: The Good Natured – Warriors

Citadels are the latest alternative pop/rock band making a lot of good noise and although unsigned, it’s surely only a matter of time before the London lads are in every one’s music collection. The Klaxons will have a strong rival as long as Citadels are around and the band have already played at the same venues as Kings of Leon, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party among others.

The band have a really thrilling and complex tone that is still easy on the ear and extremely vibrant. The band members are strong fans of MGMT but they might find themselves battling for fans as the Citadels become bigger and bigger. Trancy keyboard melodies, dark guitar chords and quirky beats go hand in hand on a Citadel track and this recipe is certainly sweet.

 There is one track that does stand out from the crowd. “Animals” gives just about everything the band can offer with sublime fuzzy vocals, rifftastic guitars and a huge beat. “Don’t Look Down” is probably going to be a summer anthem with catchy chants, hyper keyboard licks and a scratchy guitar tone but the band give a good level of quality on all their songs so just listen to anything by them and your ears should be grateful.

 The band are heading in the right direction and would not be out of place on a stage at Glastonbury. The pace that they are gathering fans and followers is scary, so watch out for them this summer, they could be at a festival near you.

So it’s that time of year again, the NME awards are fast approaching, the tours almost over, this year Glasvegas and White Lies headlined to bring back post punk, supported by Friendly Fires and Florence. The tour seems to have gone down well, but now all eyes are on the awards, a short week away… I bring you part two of who I think should win…

Best Track -This award goes straight to MGMT (pictured top). The Ting Tings (pictured right) and Kings of Leon provided us with musical sex with their efforts and Shadow Puppets songwriting was far superior to the other contenders, but on a whole the synth-pop ‘Time to Pretend’ was an instant classic and there’s no question who deserves this the most.

Best Video – Come on! Who doesn’t like seeing a load of wanabee Noel and Liams from around the world?? Of the selection Oasis walk away with the prize. It’s one of the less respected awards but hey, a prize is a prize right.. (NOTE: expect shocking results, last year Justice’s brilliant video for D.A.N.C.E. lost out to the Monkeys studio vid – Teddy Picker, a true WTF moment..)

Best Live Event -Reading - based on line up alone..

Best TV Show – The Mighty Boosh would seem favourites though they haven’t actually put anything out this year.. Skins would’ve been alright if it was last years series, this year our screens were graced with the same old thing marketed as a ‘new breed.’ It’s getting better though, and Effy being sex-on-legs keeps up watching.. Before I go to far on a tangent, this one is up to whoever…

Best Film -The Dark Knight. Easily beats the rest, there’s no need to even look at the other contenders..

Best DVD -This one’s easy too.. the Rolling Stones continue in their pathetic attempt to hold on to their former glory.. washed up and washed out they need to stop trying.. Arctic Monkeys scoop this one, their film actually made it into Vue so it must have done something right, plus it came with an uber trendy free poster..

Best Website -Seeing as we didn’t quite gather enough votes to be in the running, I’ll have to go Last.fm..

Best Band Blog – No Lily Allen?? WTF! If we have to chose from the rest then Foals (pictured left)with the tour shenanigans and free downloads walk away with this one..

Best Album Artwork- The Killers

Best Dancefloor Filler – Dizzee & Calvin

Best Venue – Astoria

Hero of the  Year – Let’s say Obama, purely because I think he’s a sincere guy, though if he screws up don’t point to this as us jumping on the badwagon..

Villain of the Year – John McCain, not because he ran against our hero, but because he’s a stupid bible bashing  idiot.. the man is a grade A fool and was better off out of the race in my much insignificant opinion.. he’s an absolute twat, and the most deserving wanker for this award.. (Where is Boris Johnson?? the man’s a tool, and now I can’t drink on the tube – not that I (or anyone else) ever did…)

Best Dressed – Noel Feilding.. Sorry Alexa .x.

Worst Dressed – Johhny Borell - purely because he needs to be given an award with ‘worst’ at the front..

Worst Album -Jonas Brothers, I don’t even have to listen to it, these guys are a disgrace to music and need to take their disney-emo-wankshit and flush it down the corporate toilet, we can’t wait to see these guys crash’n'burn..

Worst Band -We’re spoilt for choice, do we chose the ‘gender-confused-but-not-enough-balls-to-become-a-tranny’ Tokio Hotel, emo-pin ups Fall Out Boy or the revolting Jonas Bros. it’s up to which one makes you churn the most..

Sexiest Man - In my heterosexual opinion – Miles Kane..

Sexiest Woman – Tbh I’m not a fan of any of them.. some of them (no names) look too much like men to do anything for me..

The NME awards are around the corner, if you want to have your say head on over to the nominations page and cast your votes now! Voting closes at 4pm today (19th February)

So it’s that time of year again, the NME awards are fast approaching, the tours almost over, this year Glasvegas and White Lies headlined to bring back post punk, supported by Friendly Fires and Florence. The tour seems to have gone down well, but now all eyes are on the awards, a short week away… I bring you who I think should win…

Best British Band -The Shadow Puppets were fun, but not exactly up to scratch for this award. Oasis are pretty strong contenders, the band put out a decent record and are set to go on an arena tour in the coming months, being NME favourites it’d be foolish to count them out. But if we’re looking at quality of music, then there’s only one band destined for this year award – Bloc Party (pictured top). Kele & co. have been in full force this year, touring and of course putting out the brilliant ‘Intimacy.’ Dancefloor-filling ‘Flux’ and ‘Mercury’ have also gone down a treat and the album itself has some epic tracks. In this category they clearly deserve success..

Best International Band – Main fight here no doubt is between Vampire Weekend (pictured right) and MGMT, though Kings of Leon put up a good fight too. Two brilliant new bands with sensational records and ace singles to match. The two seem inseparable, to choose one would be madness.. take our advice and go with the one your prefer, if you can’t choose (like I couldn’t), flip a coin and see where it takes you.. Oh and whatever you do – don’t vote Crystal Castles!!

Best Solo Artist -Chances are that this being the NME Pete has pretty much walked it. Aside from this though I don’t see the need to vote for anyone, Jay-Z puts in a good shout but the true winner – Kanye West – isn’t even up for nomination!! Something is seriously wrong with this category, it’s another flip, this time between Pete and Jay-Z..

Best New Band -Fucking hell.. this is impossible, every band is deserving and each one of them should be walking away with the title. Out of them all I may like Glavegas the least but they’re still awesome (though massively overhyped too). This ones a tie folks..

Best Live Band -I haven’t been to any of their shows so perhaps I’m not the best to talk you all through, but I have seen them all on BBC Three’s Reading highlights, (if that counts for anything). If I had to go with one band, based on just energy and explosiveness it’d have to be Kings of Leon. They deserve an award this year and their live show was (apparently) flawless.

Best Album -I notice I’ve been a little indecisive over the last couple of awards, but here I’m decided. Though the nominations aren’t great and are lacking some classics from last year (Clinic, Kanye (again!), The Metros, MGMT (if counted), Xiu Xiu etc. etc.)  Bloc Party are enticing us again as are Kings of Leon, and I know I said I’d decided, but I lied..

Find out the rest of my choices tomorrow morning at 11.

The NME awards are around the corner, if you want to have your say head on over to the nominations page and cast your votes now! Voting closes at 4pm tomorrow, 19th February.

Don’t let the name put you off, Sad Day for Puppets are the latest chirpy indie band that know how to create a hit or two.  The band only formed three years ago and are already tipped for numerous accolades and awards. It may be a cliche in the music world but Sad Day for Puppets have something more and different to offer than your average indie group with a fantastic mix of genre, style and tone.

Goldfrapp like vocals from Anna Eklund, twangly guitar rhythms and super-smooth  melodic electric leads all help provide an exciting and enticing listen. They’ve supported MGMT and in fact sound like MGMT fronted by a woman. Each track Sad Day For Puppets have made is radio friendly and above all good enough to fill the charts with their hippy, daisy chain sound.

The band have a truly blossoming sound and the fuzzy haze that is applied on the material gives a timeless feel. As for tracks to look out for, just take your pick. ” Marble Gods” and “Big Waves” are two tracks which look likely to be used to thrust the group into the limelight but the band have good consistantcy with plenty of other solid tunes like “Hush” which as the title suggests is a gentle yet upbeat feel happy track.

This Swedish group are not yet an Abba but its not hard to imagine that in a few years, these guys will be at all the festivals pumping out cheer to the audiences. Don’t they know there is a recession going on? Obviously not.

Ahh…The Brits. Perhaps more famous for Jarvis Cocker’s stage invasion, or Arctic Monkey’s drunken speeches rather than for it’s showcasing of the best of British music. Either way, every year it certainly proves an interesting watch and this 2009, the controversial show will be presented by disco diva, Kylie Minogue and Gavin and Stacey stars, Mathew Horne and James Corden. There will be performances from Kings of Leon, U2 and Take That to name but a few. You can catch all the action live on ITV1 on February 18th, but if you can’t wait till then, There Goes The Fear is here to tell you about the successful nominees that were announced earlier this week.

The artists leading the way with the highest amount of nominations this year are Welsh songstress, Duffy and Coldplay – both tallying up a total of four nods. Both artists had number 1 albums last year – Duffy with ‘Rockferry‘ and Coldplay with ‘Viva la Vida‘ (pictured right) – so are unsurprisingly up for Mastercard’s Best British Album alongside Elbow, Radiohead and The Ting Tings. Duffy’s ‘Mercy’ and Coldplay’s ‘Viva la Vida’ will also be going head to head in Best British Single category alongside the likes of Estelle’s ‘American Boy’, Adele with ‘Chasing Pavements’ and the X Factor Finalists’ ‘Hero’.

Duffy also features in the Best British Female Solo Artist category alongside Adele, Beth Rowley, Estelle and MIA, while the nominees in male counterpart include Ian Brown, James Morrison, Paul Weller, Streets and Will Young. Best British Group has seen the nomination of the ever-popular Coldplay, Elbow, Radiohead, Take That and Girls Aloud.

New music recieving nods in this year’s Best British Breakthrough Act include Last Shadow Puppets and Scouting For Girls, while 2009’s Best British Live Act showcases everyone from Iron Maiden and The Verve, to Elbow.

Singer-songwriter, Florence and the Machine (who we featured here), is tracing the footsteps of 2008 winner Adele through gaining the coveted Critics Choice Award which recognises upcoming music talent. Meanwhile, Pet Shop Boys have been intriguingly awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award, following on from Beatle Sir Paul McCartney’s win last year.

Band’s receiving nods in the international categories including Best International Group and Best International Album are Kings of Leon, The Killers, AC/DC, MGMT and Fleet Foxes. Solo artists featuring in the categories honouring oversea talent include Katy Perry, Gabriella Cilmi, Seasick Steve, Beck and Kanye West.

To see the nominations in full, check out the official Brits website.

I did intend to do a full top ten, but seeing as I ran out of time I’m gonna list (in no particular order) the top albums of 2008.. I didn’t get time to cut down my shortlist either..

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular - This is the only album I ranked and I did so at Number One. A little cliched? Probably.. Predictable? Yes.. They’re topping loads of lists for this accolade (including the NME) and so perhaps this wasn’t the most shocking, but the truth is that I was praying for a 2008 release on this album (though strictly it was first released in 2007 the retail and UK versions fell in 2008). These physc-rockers have created the best album in a long while. It falls under no specific genre or style, yet is instantly listenable.

Highlights – Time To Pretend, Kids, The Youth

MGMT – Kids

The Metros – More Money, Less Grief - The most under rated debut of the year. If you could bottle London, muggings, sexual riots, ASBOs, depression, topshop and all, then press it on to a CD, it would sound like this. The South London based garage indie rockers have produced one of the best albums of the year, every track is brilliant and the signles released have been on par with the quality of the album as a whole. This definately deserves a listen.

Highlights – Talk About It, Last Of The Lookers, Education Pt.2, Sexual Riot

The Metros -  Education Pt. 2 (Live)

Bloc Party – Intimacy - The unexpected third album from Bloc Party was a pleasant surprise, and anyone lucky enough to see them live this year were lucky as they maintained top form through festivals and tours. The album was a digital adventure in to varying sounds, lead single ‘Mercury’ was a stark contrast to some of the other more mellow singles. It wasn’t low on energy either, ‘Trojan Horse’ amongst others going down a treat at live shows.

Highlights – Signs (whilst there are a load on this album, this track is a must listen

Bloc Party – Talons

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