Sound Bites

Feigning Joy and Surprise at the Gifts We Despise

I miss the Darkness... happy whatever everybody!

MP3: The Darkness Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)

Jim Noir Fans, Christmas Comes Early

Kevin Barnes, let Jim Noir take the heat for a while. The snappily-dressed Brit has rewritten his song "My Patch" (or allowed someone else to do so) so that the lyrics are now Christmas-themed for a series of holiday ads for Target. I watched it a couple times and couldn't quite make out what the new lyrics were -- something like "The Holidays are times of magic / We're counting down, counting down." Buy your mum something nice with the cash, Jim. You can afford it now.

MP3: (buy Tower of Love)

Jim has been slow as Christmas coming up the follow-up to 2005's Tower of Love, which itself was just a compilation of three EPs. He coasted for a while thanks to another commercial, for Adidas, that aired nonstop during the 2006 World Cup but is finally set to release something new. Out next Monday (Nov. 12) as a 7" single or digital download, the All Right EP features four new tracks and you can listen to all of them right now at Jim's MySpace page. The title track is pure 1990 Madchester, a genre  I have a secret affection for (there are lots of embarrassing CDs in my collection), but it feels more like a b-side. The vocoder abuse may be to blame, the song sounds half-finished and a bit novelty to these ears. But it's growing on me.

MP3: Jim Noir - All Right (low quality MySpace rip; pre-order the All Right EP)

The video is pretty cute...if you like creepy ventriloquist dummies: