2010 musical preview part 2: international artists

Rip It Up Digital has made its list and checked it twice. Now we present you with the twelve bands of Christmas who are due to storm 2010 with brand new albums.

Friendly Fires
In a recent interview with Rip It Up Digital, Friendly Fires guitarist Edd Gibson revealed the band are currently spending every moment of spare time in the studio laying down the foundations for their second album. There’s a lot of pressure on the indie dance trio as their 2008 debut was nominated for Britain’s coveted Mercury Music Prize and with a tour of Australia coming up, Gibson hopes there will be new material ready to preview down under. But don’t expect the new album to drop until halfway through next year.

“We are desperately trying to write our second album at the moment. We only had about three weeks between tours (in the UK and US) so we locked ourselves away for most of that and got a few instrumentals done but yeah, we need to get it finished as soon as we can. I think we might only pause for Christmas lunch and then get back at it," he joked

“We really want to try and get it out by (northern hemisphere) summertime. Hopefully it’ll be in the can by May and then we need to get all the artwork sorted and the label will organise how it’ll all be packaged and everything like that. Ideally, we want it out by summertime though.”

Friendly Fires are supporting Gossip at Thebarton Theatre on Thu Feb 18.

Vampire Weekend
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so, you would have surely heard that Vampire Weekend’s second album Contra will hit the physical and digital shelves early next year. And unless you buried yourself 10 feet that same rock, you would have likely come across one of their new tracks. Horchata is the one with the laid-back calypso feel and Cousins sounds like a not so distant relative of previous hit A-Punk. Here’s what frontman Ezra Koenig has to say about the rest of Contra:

“It's definitely going to be a recognizably Vampire Weekend sound, but there are going to be new sounds,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “We're trying to challenge ourselves not to use the same bag of tricks that we used on the first album – different instruments, stuff like that,"

No word yet on an Australian tour, but their recent whistlestop trip to the eastern states left everyone wanting more.

Gorillaz
Damon Albarn has outlined what to expect from the new Gorillaz album, to be titled Plastic Beach and due out some time next year. De La Soul have contributed to two of the tracks on the album while Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed and Mos Def are also rumoured to be part of the project. In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, the Blur frontman and Gorillaz mastermind cryptically described some of the themes and issues the new record will address.

“I've tried to connect pop sensibility with trying to make people understand the essential melancholy of buying a ready-made meal in loads of plastic packaging. People who watch X Factor might have some emotional connection to these things, that detritus that accompanies what seems the most essential thing in people's lives these days, the celebrity, the voyeurism.

“It's sort of about the mythical aspects of Britain. Obviously, because it's Gorillaz we've moved it to a different place, but it still maintains a lot of that melancholy.”

Hot Chip
Two new songs, Take It In and One Life Stand, have been doing the rounds on the blogs and edgier radio stations and if these tracks are anything to go by, expect a very Hot Chip-py affair on their third album, also to be called One Life Stand. There’s a certain darkness and tenseness about them, much like the feel on the English group’s debut album. A press statement on the band’s website probably paints the picture best.

“One Life Stand sees a proliferation of influences as diverse as the burgeoning UK funky scene to soul music, modern R&B, northern soul, gospel, golden age electronica, house, the sounds of Arthur Russell, Prince and Theo Parish- and they all sit effortlessly alongside the band’s signature pop aesthetics, wild electronics, off kilter beats and intoxicating musical experimentation in a way that only Hot Chip can execute”

Slipknot
Metal fans will be pleased to hear that veterans Slipknot have confirmed they will be releasing an as yet untitled fifth record in 2010. Drummer Chris Fehn revealed as much earlier this year, although the news trail on the forthcoming release has since gone cold. It has been rumoured that this fifth album will be the Americans’ last, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Interpol
It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from New York’s moody indie outfit Interpol, but the group have spent 2009 working hard on material for an album due for release next year. Details on what the new stuff sounds like have been kept to a minimum and no title or release date has been given. However on the band’s website, Interpol described the new songs as “vital” and said, “We feel like a new band”.

In November, drummer Sam Fogarino told Paste Magazine that “the new record falls back towards the first. In trying to move forward, there was an unspoken realization that you can’t let go of your sonic-defining tag.”

The Strokes
From one New York band to another, and we can only hope that The Strokes will get their shit together and start work on their highly anticipated fourth album. Apparently the five-piece are having a hard time getting together so they can write and record their new material. In a recent interview with Pitchfork, frontman Julian Casablancas seemed frustrated with the constant delays with the new record.

“I'm done with the predictions,” he said. “We're supposed to get back together in January but don't hold me to that. We've been trying to do it for years. I'm always available and they know that but getting together is tough.”

Despite being “always available”, Casablancas will be touring his debut solo album Phrazes ForTthe Young for the rest of this year.

If The Strokes do manage to release a record next year (and don’t hold your breath just yet), it will be their first since 2006’s First Impression Of Earth.

Deftones
They were planning on releasing something by the name of Eros right about now, but Deftones have since scrapped this idea and are working on a compltely new project without bassist Chi Cheng, who was seriously injured in a car accident late last year. It’s anyone’s guess what their new stuff will sound like, seeing as we haven’t heard from the Sacramento group since 2006 and they’re keeping their cards pretty close to their chests. Rip It Up Digital would hazard it’ll sound pretty hard and heavy, with a touch of mournful soul for their wounded brother Cheng.

Daft Punk
While we were all shocked and disappointed to learn that a rumoured Daft Punk tour of Australia in the new year turned out to be bullshit, we can at least take solace that the robot rockers will be releasing a new album of material in 2010. The French dance duo are composing the soundtrack for Tron Legacy, the sequel to ‘80s sci-fi flick Tron. Sounds like a match made in heaven! In the meantime, here’s hoping the pair will change their mechanical minds and return to Australian shores sometime soon.

Eels
American indie folk consortium Eels are set to release their somewhat apocalyptically titled eighth album End Times in the dawn of 2010. It’s been slated as frontman Mark Oliver Everett’s “divorce album”, and early snippets from it would suggest this will be a pretty sad and solemn listening experience. What else is new, right? As always, Everett will lay out his soul and present his music and nakedly and emotionally as possible.

With regards to the album’s title, Everett says it refers to “the state of desperate times we live in. The bottom line-ness of it all. The end of common decency. The loss of caring about doing a good job. These are tough times. Who can you trust? Walter Cronkite is just a ghost.”

Massive Attack
So far fans have had to rely on a drip feed of information from Massive Attack’s blog about their long-awaited seventh album. As such, there’s not a whole lot we can tell you. What we do know is that it will be called Heligoland; it’s slated to come out in February; and it will feature guest vocalists such as Damon Albarn, TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and as always, the haunting tones of Horace Andy. We can also tell you that Heligoland has been a much more collaborative project between Massive Attack’s members 3D and Daddy G, after 2003’s 100^th Window was largely a 3D affair. Excited? You should be!

Radiohead
After Thom Yorke told The Believer that Radiohead no longer “want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again” earlier this year, guitarist Ed O’Brien has since confirmed to the NME that a new album was definitely in the works. Radiohead released two stand alone singles (Harry Patch, In Memory Of and These Are My Own Twisted Words) in 2009, but O’Brien insists that the ethereal spaciness of these songs won’t necessarily be the driving force behind the new album. Whatever the case, Rip It Up Digital will be keeping a keen eye on all things Radiohead as they progress.

The Rest
Other rumoured and confirmed releases in 2010 include those by No Doubt, Bad Religion, Panic At The Disco, Blink 182, Cake, Devo, HIM, and a collaboration between James Mercer of The Shins and Danger Mouse. Stay logged on to Rip It Up Digital for more info as it comes in.

Who’s on your wish list for 2010? Have you heard of any other rumoured releases for next year? 

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