Mixed Bag

Maximo Park - I Want You To Stay (Field Music/J.Xaverre Remix)This is a pretty radical and gorgeous reworking of the latest Maximo Park single - from frantic new wave to Elton John piano rocker. J.Xaverre is Pete Gofton, who used to play the drums in Kenickie. Field Music are also from the same North East UK scene that gave us The Futureheads and Maximo. Andrew Moore plus song writing brothers Peter and David Brewis record with an ever-shifting crew of locals and as a result are something of a North East supergroup. Peter was The Futureheads original drummer; Barry Futurehead was in one of the many early Field Music line-ups and sometime drummer Tom English is on loan from Maximo Park. Their self titled debut album gets it's US release on April 4th on Memphis Industries US. The Maximo song has a pretty cool video too which you can watch on the I Want You To Stay ecard.

I got this Irving ecard in my inbox this week. I hadn't heard of these guys, so I clicked on the link. A very artfully presented ecard got my attention, as did the stream of three tracks from their upcoming album. It's indie rock, strummy and shiny and kind of summery. I read the band's bio and noted that it was recorded with production and engineering help from Phil Ek (dios (malos), The Shins, Modest Mouse), Aaron Espinoza (Earlimart) and Jim Fairchild (from Grandaddy). I like all of those bands so I figured that there would be a chance I'd like this stuff. I do. The band's second album Death In The Garden, Blood On The Flowers is also out on April 4th on Eenie Meenie Records.