Bandstand Busking

Summer in London means snacking on bread & hummus on a picnic rug; sipping Pimms and lemonade whilst basking in the sun; watching the deluded hysteria over a Brit winning Wimbledon and Bandstand Busking.

For the uninitiated, this is a delightful venture where established and up-and-coming bands come play, mostly acoustically, in some of the capital's disused bandstands. It's totally free, available to the masses and the highlights of the shows are put up on the website so you can re-live the moment. Like the Black Cab Sessions, only without having to cram into the back of a taxi to share the experience.

The alumni is pretty impressive with Of Montreal, Wild Beasts & Black Lips amongst those who've graced their stages. Here's a selection of my favourite busks from last year:







This year's busk season has now kicked off in earnest with their second collaboration with Meltdown festival at the Southbank Centre. There's more in the pipeline so sign up to their mailing list and we'll see you at the next busk...

Frightened Rabbit, 'Nothing Like You'

Check out the video of Frightened Rabbit's new single, 'Nothing Like You'. This track will be availabe on 7 inch and for download February 22nd. Their new album entitled The Winter of Mixed Drinks, will be hitting the streets on March 1st.


Frightened Rabbit on MUZU

a.m.p.m.'s favourite albums of 2008

Aside from the obvious quartet of MGMT, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend and TV on the Radio, here are 10 albums (in no particular order) that knocked my socks off in 2008:

1. Born Ruffians - Red Yellow and Blue
Born Ruffians - Badonkadonkey

2. Why? - Alopecia
Why? - These Few Presidents

3. Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
Titus Andronicus - Arms Against Atrophy

4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

5. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles - Air War

6. Grand Archives - The Grand Archives
Grand Archives - The Crime Window

7. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
Frightened Rabbit - Old Old Fashioned

8. Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too
Lindstrom - Grand Ideas

9. Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Chad VanGaalen - Cries of the Dead

10. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer

Frightened Rabbit return to London

Hot off the heels of their recent North American super-tour Scottish heroes Frightened Rabbit have scheduled a July 8th appearance at Madame Jo Jo's in the heart of Soho. Supporters include New Zealand's fantastic Collapsing Cities, who most recently toured with Black Kids, and Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit. According to event promoters White Heat, "Esau has just finished recording his album with Radioclit at the helm and collaborations from MIA, Santogold and Vampire Weekend. He's originally from Malawi and works in a furniture shop in Clapton. He is amazing." He sure is. Check out 'Kamphopo', his unique take on Architecture in Helsinki's 'Heart it Races' and his bloody brilliant version of M.I.A.'s 'Paper Planes'.

I've already got my tickets, but you might want to hurry over here and grab yours for only £5 as this one is sure to sell out FAST.

Frightened Rabbit - Fast Blood
Collapsing Cities - Fear of Opening My Mouth
Collapsing Cities - Seriously
Esau Mwamwaya - Kamphopo
Esau Mwamwaya - Tengazako

- a.m.p.m.

Frightened Rabbit release second single

Let’s face it – YouTube recordings of live shows are often of dubious video quality at best, and don’t even get me started on the sound. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised when I found a few good recordings from Frightened Rabbit’s sold out show at NYC’s Pianos last week.



The second single from new album The Midnight Organ Fight will be officially released in North America on June 10th through FatCat records. It’s called ‘Fast Blood’ and a live video is below.



The single's b-side ‘Soon Go’ would have fit cozily on the new album due to the galloping percussion and generous use of cuss words. Check it out:

Frightened Rabbit - Soon Go

- a.m.p.m.

thanks to jessimusic for videos

Coming Back For Even More

Glasgow-based Frightened Rabbit have created one of my favourite albums of 2008 (so far) in their sophomore effort The Midnight Organ Fight, released last month. I really enjoyed 2006 album Sing the Greys, but this new record beats the pants off the band's debut. The video for the first single, "Heads Roll Off", is below.

I really can't recommend this one enough, so check out the following tracks and get more info here.

Frightened Rabbit - The Twist
Frightened Rabbit - The Modern Leper



- a.m.p.m.

Canada Signing In

Welcome to Bridging the Atlantic, the international blog sensation. I am coming in from Ottawa, Ontario and Andrew will be keeping your hipster playlist bumping from jolly old London, England. Periodically we'll have guest features from our friends, and though I am hesitant to forecast that our writing staff will multiply in both size and physical attractiveness in the coming months, it's safe to say that random contributions are a guarantee. Our tastes in music are diverse, so whatever it is you like from TV On The Radio to Sonic Youth to Peter Bjorn and John to Spank Rock to MF Doom, we'll do our best to accommodate you.

Klaxons - Golden Skans (zShare)

New Rave? Thanks to the good ol' NME these guys have been thrown into a blossoming pseudo-genre. Labels aside, Klaxons craft some dope shit that you can dance along with...for Rapture and Hot Chip fans.

Frightened Rabbit - Be Less Rude (zShare)

Frightened Rabbit are two brothers who take on drum and guitar duties, playing Americanized Glasgow indie. Harmonicas are probably my eighth favorite thing in the world, just ahead of bungee jumping and narrowly trailing Dave Coulier.

-Brad