New Choons!

It’s been nearly a year since I was involved in the music business down-under in Sydney, and I can only say it’s been a great thing for my appreciation of music again. The last year or so working at EMI sucked all the passion I had for music out of me and left me hating a one of my most favoured things. But that’s all changed for me, thankfully, and I’m starting to hear and appreciate some really good music again, it could also be the fact that this year has been blessed with some really smashing releases.

And right out of the blocks we have the new clip from Empire Of The Sun which was made to celebrate the longest solar eclipse thus far in the 21st century. It’s one of the most eccentric clips i’ve seen in a while but I love it all the same. Another fantastic clip by the Josh & the crew at Mathematics.

Keeping with the EMI trend, the crew from The In Sound From Way Out have posted up a bunch of new Jamie T tracks from his upcoming album Kings & Queens (Out in September). The first single is Sticks n Stones, and I like what I hear so far, not as instant as Panic Prevention, but the album should be a cracker, wish I could catch him live again, that Candy’s Apartment show in ’07 was brilliant!

Pearl Jam have this week posted up The Fixer, the first single off their new album Backspacer and it’s a cracking tune! Eddie is back in full force, can’t wait for the end of September for their new album, I just wish I was somewhere where they will be touring as I don’t think Singapore will get a show somehow. Rumors are that its a Pearl Jam & Ben Harper tour…

But the one thing that i’m looking forward to the most is the Nine Inch Nails concert here in Singapore on August 10th at Fort Canning Park, I missed the Australian tour earlier on this year and was absolutely gutted, and with rumours going around about this possibly being their last world tour it’s gonna be a killer show at a really awesome outdoor venue! Only a few weeks to go now… But until then, there really have been some awesome albums out in the first 1/2 of the year, and here is a list of some of my faves so far this year.

• Sepultura – A-lex
• Mastodon – Crack The Sky
• Glassjaw – Everything You Ever Wanted
• Pearl Jam – Ten Reissue
• Propagandhi - Spupporting Caste
• Chimaira – The Infection
• Earth Crisis – To The Death
• Hatebreed – For The Lions
• NOFX – Coaster
• Mos Def – The Ecstatic
• Alexisonfire – Old Crows Young Cardinals
• Rancid – Let The Dominoes Fall
• Sonic Youth – The Eternal
• Placebo – Battle For The Sun
• Karnivool – Sound Awake
• August Burns Red – Constellations
• DevilDriver – Pray For Villains

If the first half of the year is anything to go by then 2009 is gonna be one to remember and those end of the year charts are going to be a little more difficult to fill in than the past couple of years.