Emily Haines. Do you know her? You should.

I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who can be fluid with their musical career. Though decade-long stints in a band, maintaining a certain level of quality throughout is tough (I’m looking at you Jagger), taking part in multiple projects AND STILL producing great music is in my opinion even harder.

I’ve been a fan of Haines largely through her work with Metric, but her solo albums (under Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton) and contributions to Broken Social Scene – which also features Feist, another talented Canadian – are worth checking out. She’s also appeared on tracks with MSTRKRFT, Stars, Delerium and even Tiesto.

The track Help I’m Alive shows off her voice to full effect. It’s delicate and in parts sickly-sweet – identical to that of Inara George from The Bird and the Bee – but when paired with an earworm of an electric guitar riff, the two compliment each other more than you’d imagine. Gold Guns Girls (probably Metric’s best known song)  pushes this even further and shows clear influence from Garbage’s Shirley Manson, as well as a hint of Chrissie Hynde.

Some of Metric’s tracks are a little ‘emo’ for my liking (a yet-to-be released track called Eclipse is due to appear on the next Twilight soundtrack for instance), but when the stars align – it’s beautiful. Black Sheep is the type of song that makes becoming a rockstar seem achievable to a young girl (which I believe is in no small part the reason that Edgar Wright chose it as the soundtrack for Envy Adams’ band The Clash at Demonhead in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).

All this without even taking note of how smack-me-in-the-face cool she is. I actually think I might have to swap out Alison ‘all my songs sound the same and have done for the past three years’ Goldfrapp for Haines in my dream ‘Come Dine With Me’ line-up. This currently includes girls I can drink red wine with and play Stevie Nicks REALLY LOUDLY (Karen-O, Florence, Roisin Murphy, Alice Russell and Drew Barrymore).

One day…

Scott Pilgrim, or ‘I just couldn’t stand it any longer’

Me and the boy were lucky enough to go to the European premiere of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Wednesday. My 140 character review, posted just an hour after the film ended, was as you can see to the right.

It’s now Friday, and I’m tearing my hair out to get hold of a preview of the aforementioned soundtrack. The music bloggers are having a fit, I’m already changing my *laminated* ‘top five albums of all time’ list and Spinner seems to be rickrolling people by directing them to Brian Wilson’s new LP.

I liked the film, it was fun, but you all know where my heart lies. I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a soundtrack since Empire Records, which was FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, and I was too young to understand what they were singing about anyway. Though it did introduce me to one of my favourite songs, which I listen to religiously every morning at 10am. But I digress.

I’ve managed to cobble together the ENTIRE playlist by linking to Hype Machine and Youtube. It’s not perfect, but if you sign up for a profile and ‘like’ the tracks on Hype, that’s the best you’ll get till August 23rd.

Enjoy.

01) SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “We Are SEX BOB-OMB”
02) Plumtree: “Scott Pilgrim”
03) Frank Black: “I Heard Ramona Sing”
04) Beachwood Sparks: “By Your Side”
05) Black Lips: “O Katrina!”
06) Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Scene): “I’m So Sad, So Very, Very Sad”
07) Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Scene): “We Hate You Please Die”
08) SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “Garbage Truck”
09) T. Rex: “Teenage Dream”
10) The Bluetones: “Sleazy Bed Track”
11) Blood Red Shoes: “It’s Getting Boring by the Sea”
12) Metric: “Black Sheep”
13) SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “Threshold”
14) Broken Social Scene – “Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl”
15) The Rolling Stones: “Under My Thumb”
16) Beck: “Ramona (Acoustic)”
17) Beck: “Ramona”
18) SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “Summertime”
19) Brian LeBarton: “Threshold 8 Bit”

Free music from Mr Scruff & Two Door Cinema Club

First up, a code from Mr Scruff to download a one-hour recording from one of his gigs. Picked up at The Big Chill (though unlikely to be a session from there to be honest), but still a perfect sixty-minute soundtrack to productivity. I’m not sure when this will run out though, so visit http://mrscruff.com, click the ‘download code’ icon and tap in krA4C8 – sharpish.

Second. Something from Two Door Cinema Club too. Good times. In their own words:

“As a little treat to help you along through the Summer we thought you might like a free download of one of our early demos of “Hands off my Cash, Monty” – which we’ve never released. You’ll also find in the bundle, a live video clip of “Cigarettes in the Theatre” taken from our forthcoming documentary, filmed at Nouveau Casino in Paris back in February by our friends Babysweet.”

Diamonds and delights from The Big Chill: a quick re-cap

1. Alice Russell, the best act of the festival, without a doubt. The most energetic, inspiring set I’ve seen her perform yet. Fantastic to watch and a joy to listen to. I continue to be astounded by the sense of fun she imparts to the crowd, that voice (man, that *voice*) and how palpable it is that the band around her just love to sing with her. For god’s sake, go and buy her albums. DO IT NOW.

2. Caribou doing Odessa live and our friend KT telling us about listening to the band crafting the track below her through her bedroom floor. Amazing. Apparently, he’s a lovely bloke as well. They drew a bigger crowd than Patrick Wolf for sure.

3. Norman Jay hitting the nail on the head, as he does every year, getting everyone up and dancing at 1pm on a Sunday (very hard to do) after the big night before.

4. Our 20 minute power nap in the sun, listening to Gilles Peterson do his thing.

5. Bad as it was, it was rather amusing to watch M.I.A. get it *so* wrong on Saturday night. (Check out one of the most ridiculously-placed and inaccurate stories here on Perez Hilton). She’d bagged the biggest spot of the festival, and just missed the mark spectacularly. We wanted to hear the nuances of the sampling in her music, instead we got her roaming around the stage shouting. Not rapping loudly in a ‘we’re doing this live and are a bit excited’ kind of way, just shouting. “I love the law, fuck the law” was one of the most prominent and repeated phrases throughout, but it didn’t come across as authentic rebellion, it was just a bit sad.

Not only were the crowd not feeling it, but they had to stop the set halfway through to do a super-quick soundcheck (a recurring theme throughout the Big Chill on the main stage at least). When she realised that so many people were leaving, she panicked, and invited everyone on stage while moaning “help each other”. I’d estimate that about 400 people actually made it up there before security stepped in, and then the music was cut a mere 30 seconds into Paper Planes with a booming announcement from the organisers. Needless to say, she didn’t return and I guess won’t be for any other Festival Republic event in the near future. The best bit? KT turning to us before M.I.A. came on stage and saying; “I’ve never seen her live and I have nothing to compare to, so there’s nothing she can do to disappoint me”. Then just half an hour later; “I’m *so* disappointed”.

6. Chilling out in the Sailor Jerry tent, and discovering Goldhawks, who ended up playing to a crowd of maybe 50 while we sucked down ginger beer and rum. I’d urge you to go and check them out, they’re like a German version of Arcade Fire (with a touch of Bono-esque vocals from the lead singer) – but with a little less rock and a little more indie charm. Oh yes, and we managed to stick transfer tattoos on all available patches of skin during their set.

7. Watching the firework display and ‘world famous big burn’ on the last night, matched perfectly to the dulcet sounds of funky soul coming from Mr Scruff’s tea tent, complete with his very special organic rooibos, pear and cinnamon tea.

8. Explosions in the Sky. Surprisingly energetic, like a cleaner version of Incubus. And as a double-hitter, the ENTIRE FIELD singing along to Massive Attack’s Teardrop on the same night.

9. I was truly impressed with how good Kelis was live. She was looking fabulous and sung her heart out. The tent was jam-packed, and her version of Milkshake, set to Madonna’s Holiday, was the highlight of a fantastic set that sparkled with tracks from her new electro-inspired album, Flesh Tone.

10. Finally, Bonobo on the way back to the tent on Sunday night. The perfect way to end the festival.