Over twenty years on the clock for Saint Etienne and, having been absorbed in various distractions for the last seven of those, here is album number eight. In the early-’90s, the indie dance scene was gathering steam and the band were swept up with it, providing a mellower antidote to bands with an inclination towards rock. Time has moved on since then, although we’re not sure that Saint Etienne have! There’s nothing essentially bad about that, but the only maturity in their sound is towards a more ambient quarter. Elevator music not quite, but rising out of ...

Lingering a smidgen of oblique street beyond the odious ostentation of Regent Street lies Liberty. Probably the finest shop of this fair city yet one that is somewhat inexplicably, somehow, in some way humble it therefore serves as a quite apposite location at which to first encounter Sharon Van Etten . For like Liberty, she is the lusciously remarkable gem lodged barely beneath the bloodthirsty claw of the mainstream – or indeed right beneath the nose of the maddening crowds beyond these practically antiquated, single-glazed shutters. "I never wanna shop but then when I go out, it's like 'danger zone'", she ...

Spin : Started as a rebellious lark in 1988 by a boho Zelig named Larry Hayes (who took the sobriquet “Livermore” in a nod to a northern California nuclear facility), Berkeley-based Lookout! Records was run as a seat-of-the-pants labor of love and hate until it shuttered completely earlier this year. In addition to grooming Green Day (a 12-year-old Tre Cool played with Livermore in a band called the Lookouts), the label is best known for documenting the scraggly, playfully defiant East Bay pop-punk scene, based around, and in reaction to, the famed 924 Gilman Street club (but mostly enjoyed in countless ...

Check out this new video from Two Fresh debuting a never-released track, "Galapagos'd." The video is a nice recap of the No Antidote Tour wich was filmed and edited by RadioEditAV. The song will be available for free download from Elm&Oak; Records .

For a guy that seems to like to blow shit up real good when he's putting pen to paper or keyboard to Final Draft, ("Cowboys & Aliens," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III") Alex Kurtzman really appears to be going out of his way to make himself an antidote for that work with his directorial debut. Titled "People Like Us," the family drama centers on a man who is tasked with delivering $150,000 of his deceased father's fortune to the sister he has never met. Starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michelle Pfeiffer ...

SlowPlaceLikeHome (aka Keith Mannion) is to release a third EP, There Go The Lights Again, sometime next month. If the EP is anything like its predecessors, it’s going to be great. The first cut from the forthcoming EP is ‘Shady Jane’. It continues Mannion’s slow building and expansive wanders through rich electronic music. An thoroughly relaxing track and the perfect antidote to a [...]

Need to get this shit (http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=2734472) out of your memory? Fill it up with an acoustic *The Wonder Years (http://www.absolutepunk.net/thewonderyears)* performance of "Woke Up Older" - here...

On yesterday's "Sunday Morning" show on CBS, in a feature about "The Avengers" writer/director/super-geek Joss Whedon the first footage from "Much Ado About Nothing," his micro-budgeted Shakespeare adaptation that he shot in a two week window during post-production on "The Avengers," debuted. And it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect, the small scale antidote to his superhero romp, which is poised to be the summer's first bona fide blockbuster (and with good reason – it rules). But things aren't so happy everywhere in Whedonville, as his recent horror movie Rubik's Cube "Cabin In ...

Details emerge of a third film starring Robert Downey Jr

With "The Avengers" currently flying high on unbelievable buzz and critical praise, it seems the game plan for Marvel and Kevin Feige is to do the complete opposite of everything in Joss Whedon's movie for "Iron Man 3." Wait, what? Okay, it's a bit of an alarmist opening, but if you liked the good time, team up, high five vibes of "The Avengers," enjoy it now, because the latest adventures of Tony Stark are going to find him pretty much on his own. Empire caught up with Marvel honcho Kevin Feige who revealed where "Iron Man 3" will ...

Jack White Blunderbuss [Third Man; 2012] by Ed Comentale Rating: Okay, I think I get it now. Jack White is not the “seventh son” or even the “third man,” but the “last man.” You know, the man who remains after all the wars have ended, and the class struggle has ended, and your band’s broken up, and your wife’s gone, and the money’s worthless, and there’s nothing left to do but hole up in your studio and make some noise. ( See here. ) Typically, the last man is a little doughy and kinda cracked. He has a ...

Kaskade dropped his Coachella set today for free download to the all fans. Whether you were in attendance or not, this set goes off. Kaskade is steadily representing as one of the most critically acclaimed DJ's coming from the States. Check out the tracklist below. USA! Download:  KasKade - "Live @ Coachella 2012"    01. Kaskade – Eyes (Intro Edit with Swanky Tunes Mix)  02. Kaskade (feat. Skylar Grey) – Room For Happiness (Gregori Klosman Mix)  03. Kaskade vs Nicky Romero – Angel On My Stronger (Kaskade Mash Up)  04. R3hab & Swanky Tunes – Sending My Love (Kaskade Mix Mash)  05. Kaskade vs. Franz Novotny – Be ...

This movie, from 1971, is another reflection of the fears of the time period: germ warfare. In THE OMEGA MAN, Neville (Heston) is a doctor who survived a Russo-China war that decimated the Earth's population with some destructive germ agent. Neville seems to have an anti-body that keeps him alive, but the infected survivors want to change that. The movie is about Neville's adventures as he tries to keep himself alive while trying to keep himself supplied so he may continue living. Of course he finds other survivors and decides to try to save mankind with the antidote ...

Today I have a real heavy hitter. It’s from Stratus, one of the new faces that was on the OWSLA Free Treats Vol. 2. Remember his Antidote or She Will remixes, well today he flips the recent single from Kanye West “Mercy” into a dubstep BANGER. Warning this track is very heavy, and not for [...]

Written by Mikey Sibson It's no secret - ask anyone with even a passing interest in culture and they'll tell you that Leeds has always been the artistic beacon of the North, boasting - along with iconic galleries and museums - one of the most expansive music scenes in the country. You'd be hard pressed to find as much musical endearment in such concentration outside of the capital. So it'll come as no surprise to the previously enlightened among you that Leeds embraces Record Store Day with open arms, hosting events, giveaways and general muso-loving all across the city ...