The Lemon Website Is Officially Up!

Our sister website www.lemonzine.co.uk is officially up! Go check it out for the latest in music, film and entertainment!

Have a look on the link below.

Lemon

FA Cup Vinyl's Winter Playlist

Remember Summer? With all the nice sunny weather and... Perhaps not. One good thing about Summer (we'd like to think) was our Summer playlist. But there's one thing that is for certain, is that it's winter now. It's freezing, probably going to snow, and it'll be Christmas. Keeping with that slightly positive theme, because you deserve it FA Cup Vinyl is going to give you an early christmas present, our Winter playlist. Thank us later, but it's mainly an excuse for us and you to play this during the festive season and most importantly it means you don't have to hear such Christmas 'gems' as East 17's 'Stay Another Day'. Like we said, thank us later. Here's the twenty five tracks you need for the holiday season.

In no particular order:

1. Michael Kiwanuka - Ode To You
2. Richard Hawley - As The Dawn Breaks
3. The Velvet Underground - Femme Fatale
4. Lou Reed - Satellite Of Love
5. Mount Kimbie - Carbonated
6. King Krule - The Noose Of Jah City
7.  Moby - In My Heart
8.  Gorillaz - Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
9.  The XX - Chained
10. The Streets - Empty Cans
11. Foals - Spanish Sahara
12. Alt-J - Matilda
13. J Dilla - Last Donut Of The Night
14. SBTRKT - Never Never
15. Grizzly Bear - A Simple Answer
16. Alex Turner - It's Hard To Get Around The Wind
17. Frank Ocean - White (OF Tape Volume 2)
18. R.E.M - The Great Beyond
19. BADBADNOTGOOD - Limit To Your Love
20. Jamie T - Alicia Quays
21. Disclosure - Carnival
22. King Krule - Out Getting Ribs
23. Arctic Monkeys - Dance Little Liar
24. Radiohead - No Surprises
25.  Paul Weller - One Way Road

Track Of The Week: Alt-J - Tessellate

Hello and welcome to another edition of track of the week.

As it's the return of this feature, we thought bring it back with a bang, or in this case an award winning bang. Yes this track of the week comes from the 2012 winners of the Mercury prize, Alt-J.

They may be slightly hipster with the name 'Alt-J' as it is the command used on a Mac keyboard to achieve the Greek letter "Delta" (indie triangle you see on 14-year old girls twitter bio's.) But don't let that take anything away from them, these lot have talent, great potential and overall a great album that deserved the mercury prize.

This track of the week is a version of Interlude 1 and Tessellate that was recorded when they performed at the African Centre in London and it's exceptional with an African choir, re-instating that they're one of the hottest bands in British music at the moment.

A great track of the week to bring us back, enjoy.
 
Alt J - Tessellate ( Live at the Africa Centre)

A Quick Update

You may have noticed that we haven't posted in a while, but we're up back and running for now. Just to let everyone know, we're currently working with another website that is similar to us called 'Lemonzine' and we've linked the website below. It's a work in progress, but hopefully they'll be a bit more regular than us. Expect exciting things from them soon.



http://www.lemonzine.co.uk/

Grizzly Bear – Shields

Not exactly ferocious and definitely not timid.

Grizzly Bear are unusual.

They may be from New York where most American musicians seem to hail from, they may be classed as indie rock which categorises half the new music that comes out at the moment. But there's something about them, something that separates them from the crowd, and that is, that they've been around for a while. Yes, not exactly the shocking twist you wanted but it separates them from all the other 'new' bands at the moment, they've got experience.

This is their fourth album, Shields. They formed in 2004, in the music industry that's a long time. So how come you've only heard of them now? Well this is the first album that's received any proper attention from us Brits. So what do we think? Well it's interesting.

Grizzly Bear first received attention after touring with Radiohead following the release of their second album in 2006, 'Yellow House', in which Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood stated they were his favourite band. A lot of pressure then, if a member of one of the biggest bands of the last twenty years gives the seal of approval.

So how does the album fare?

'Sleeping Ute' the opening track is a proper rock song, lulling you into a sense that you've been here before and is very reminiscent of The Black Keys in places, it's a great track there's no denying it, but then all of a sudden it changes, at about three minutes in, it quietens down and ends in a almost therapeutic way, with string instruments and soothing vocals by lead singer Daniel Rossen.

This is how the album transcends, into a less rock heavy and a more ambient vibe, with more musical instruments displayed throughout the album such as in track 'A Simple Answer'  where we hear the use of piano and synthesisers among others , helping create more depth in the sound. This is where that experience I mentioned comes in they've been playing together so they've worked out the kinks of what's gone wrong before and boy, has it worked.

This is one of the best albums I've heard this year, carefully constructed and thought through, its only after the third or fourth listen that you appreciate how good the album is. To sum up this album, it's a grower, not something you can just listen to and like straight away, it takes perseverance, but if you're willing to persevere, you'll be in for a treat.

Album Rating 7/10

Favourite Tracks : Sleeping Ute, Speak In Rounds, A Simple Answer

Track Of The Week: Ice Cube - Today Was A Good Day

You may be thinking FA Cup Vinyl have gone insane, Ice Cube? That guy in those awful films 'Barbershop' and the horrendous children's film 'Are We There Yet?' *shudder*.That's the last time we do research. But believe it or not, good ol' Ice Cube was in a little know rap group called N.W.A. so knows how to rap. You probably haven't heard of them... Anyway what with us missing track of the week again, and it being the first return of track of the week, we thought we'd pick this brilliant rap song in an effort for our poor organisation. The beat is spectacular and the rap is a brilliant accompaniment, anyway, enough talking.

This week's track of the week is Ice Cube, 'Today Was A Good Day'.

FA Cup Vinyl's Summer Playlist.

We've missed out on a couple of tracks of the weeks and various other things, so to make it up to you all, we decided to provide our essential summer playlist that you can all enjoy, while you 'enjoy' the 'great' British summer weather, or if you're lucky enough and in a foreign country with a warm climate, you can actually bask in the glorious sunshine, whilst blasting these tracks out. Here's the twenty five tracks you need to be playing in summer 2012. In no particular order:

1. Nas - Cherry Wine (Featuring. Amy Winehouse) 
2. Alt-J - Breezeblocks
3. Bob Marley & The Wailers - So Much Things To Say
4. Bob Dylan - Queen Jane Approximately
5. Amy Winehouse - He Can Only Hold Her
6. Kings Of Leon - Arizona
7. Mount Kimbie - Before I Move Off
8. The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea
9. The Maccabees - Latchmere
10. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
11. Frank Ocean - Pink Matter (Featuring. Andre 3000)
12. The Stone Roses - Made Of Stone
13. Primal Scream - Loaded
14. Blur - Beetlebum
15. The XX - Shelter
16. The Black Keys - Things Ain't Like They Used To Be
17. SBTRKT - Hold On
18. Kwes. - Bashful
19. Pete And The Pirates - Half Moon Street
20. Jamie T - Jilly Armeen
21. Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before The Lights Come On
22. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
23. Smith Westerns - Weekend
24. Bombay Bicycle Club - Sixteen
25. Noel Gallagher - If I Had A Gun

Like our list? Let us know in the comment section below.

(Main Image Owned By FA Cup Vinyl)

Back From The Brink...

Thursday the 12th of July. Remember that day? Of course you do because it was the last time FA Cup Vinyl posted anything. All we can say is we're sorry for the slight hiatus, we will continue to post a bit more frequently now. The reason for our break? Well it's down to several things that we won't get into and that you will not care about.

So to make it up to you, we are going to show you the best/worst song and music video of all time. Nothing we say can prepare you for this. It's 'Bangs' with 'Take U To Da Movies'. WE'RE BACK WITH A BANG(s). Oh bet you missed our puns.

Track Of The Week: Kwes. - Bashful

Hello, it's the fourth day of the week, so you all know what day it is. Track of the week day. Oh and Thursday.

This week's effort is not only a great song, it has a brilliant music video to accompany it. 'Kwes.', a British record producer released this way back in April this year and as far as we know, the track has received very little attention. We're here to change that, Kwes. is an artist that deserves more attention not only for this great track, but as we said for the great music video that compliments the track. We may have unearthed a fantastic lesser known artist to impress your friends with, or just a very good new artist to listen to, hopefully the latter because you're not a wannabe hipster.

Taken from his latest EP 'Meantime' is FA Cup Vinyl's track of the week, Bashful.

Click on the link below and let us know what you think.

Kwes. - Bashful

Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

Stop what you're doing, Frank Ocean released Channel Orange today!

A week before the original release date on 17th July, Frank has decided to release it after his appearance on American talk show 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' last night. FA Cup Vinyl may have listened to it a few times already on repeat, we're not fan girls honestly. Anyway go listen to it now on the link below to his tumblr. Are we a bit excited? Maybe.

Channel Orange

What's To Come: FA Cup Vinyl's New Features

A Formal Hello

Hello, you may have seen our new banner containing some of our favourite albums and regardless of whether you like it or not that's one of the many features FA Cup Vinyl is undergoing at the moment, we're working hard to improve the blog for you! Aren't we nice? New features include:


Classic Album Review
Gig Review (bear in mind, this is dependant on when we have money)
More Football Roundup
Banner Albums (We tell why they're our favourite and re-listen and review)
More 'Track Of The Week' section
FA Cup Vinyl's Premier League Team Of The Week (when the season starts of course)
FA Cup Vinyl's 'Players To Watch' (same as the other bracket)

And occasionally, more 'What FA Cup Vinyl did today...' You know because it's such a success...

Anyway you'll hopefully get to see these features more and more over the next few weeks and hopefully better material in our writing itself, no pressure.

Thanks, 

The FA Cup Vinyl Team

(Un) Reliant Robin: Van Persie Announces No Contract Extension

Yes, it's the news that every Arsenal fan has been dreading, their talisman Robin Van Persie wants to leave Arsenal. As a member of FA Cup Vinyl being an Arsenal fan themselves, they're not far from distraught. But let's take a look at why he wants to leave.

In a release on his own personal website Robin stated "Unfortunately in this meeting it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward. I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract. You guys, the fans, have of course the right to disagree with my view and decision and I will always respect your opinions."

So that's Robin's take on the situation, but what about ours? Well Robin has been at Arsenal for 8 years now, that's a long time especially in today's modern football society and there's no doubt he is going to be hot property after his sensational goal scoring record last season, 30 goals in 38 Premier League games is nothing short of spectacular. Arguably as well at the age of 29, it is his big last contract in football, so if he were to move it would be now. With Arsene Wenger acquiring two new strikers in Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, Arsenal fans will have to hope they can replicate the same kind of form shown by 'Van The Man', yes that's an actual name used by fans. Let's also remember from an Arsenal fan's viewpoint that he has been injury plagued as a striker in past seasons.

So who's interested in him? The question is really who isn't? Well surprisingly Manchester City are, as they are with every decent player in the world, but can Arsenal fans handle another player leaving to money bags Manchester City? Having seen the likes of Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri leave the red of North London to go to the blue of Manchester, every Arsenal fan must be sick to the teeth of seeing this sight. Plus we get the sneaking suspicion that Man City are buying every good player so no other club can have them? Do City need him really, with them currently boasting a striker collection of Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko and every knobhead teenage boy's favourite Mario Balotelli or as they've cleverly nicknamed 'LADotelli' *sigh*.  With Manchester United and Italian champions Juventus also interested as the 'Old Lady' have reportedly had an £8million fee rejected, it seems that Robin is not short of suitors.

The question is for Arsenal do they cash in on their captain, the PFA's Player of the Year and the Premier League's golden boot winner? Or do they keep him until next season, take a gamble by trying to sign him throughout the season, and then take the risk of losing him when his contract expires and he can leave on a free? It's an interesting decision and one that is down to the chief executive Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger to decide, we guess Arsene must be annoyed having seen similar ongoings with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last year and having being forced to sell them. Are we about to see the same for RVP? It seems to us, like it could be another ongoing saga at the Emirates Stadium this summer.

But what do you think let us know by commenting on the post below.

Track Of The Week: SBTRKT - Hold On

Track of the week time once again, and unsurprisingly we've picked another brilliant choice from the realms of our music collection in one of our favourite 'new' artists SBTRKT. For those of you who are unaware of SBTRKT (pronounced Subtract) is considered to be one of the next big things in the post dubstep genre, and we can see why. (It's not 'dubstep' like the crap you hear sampled on one of those dubstep anthems albums they advertise on tv, if we ever do post that, that's when you know we gone clinically insane.)

SBTRKT or Aaron Jerome (and sometimes Sampha) are a prime example to us that there are still good current new musicians knocking around in the barren wasteland that is the current British music scene. That's enough bickering for one day, taken from their self-titled album is this brilliant track, enjoy. Even  if you don't like it at least appreciate the cool African tribe masks he uses when live, we haven't liked masks so much since MF DOOM.

SBTRKT - Hold On

Track Of The Week: Bombay Bicycle Club - Sixteen

It's Thursday, it's FA Cup Vinyl, it's track of the week.

Ok FA Cup Vinyl has another cracking track for you this week and we're jazzing it up a bit and going for something a bit more modern in comparison to our recent classic tracks of Oasis and Blur and are going for a Bombay Bicycle Club B-Side, too much aliteration there.

From their self-released EP 'The Boy I Used To Be', to us this is Bombay Bicycle Club when they were at their peak, that's not to say they're not still good, but they were playing and creating good indie music and their first album 'I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose' still remains one of our favourite albums of the noughties? Ergh noughties doesn't sound right. But yeah it's one of the best albums we heard around 2009 in a long time, but we're rambling as usual, we'll just let the music do the talking.

Bombay Bicycle Club - Sixteen

FA Cup Vinyl Reviews... England's Euro 2012 Performance

The picture sums it up really, dismay, dejection, disillusioned. What's that, Wimbledon's on?

Yes England fans, it's deja vu for the umpteenth time, England go out on penalties, again.

Just when you thought it was going to turn around and we were going to win Euro 2012 because of that team spirit they had, they go and make a complete h-ASH of it. (Get it? Because ASH-ley Young and ASH-ley Cole missed their penalties? Oh god we're surprised that isn't a headline from 'The Sun'.) (P.S. We also hope that no-one genuinely thought England were going to win purely because of team spirit).

Anyway in all seriousness, England probably deserved to lose against the Italians, we say probably, they did deserve to lose because they were simply the worst team, and because no-one closed down Pirlo! We were shouting it at our T.V screen every time he had space, but obviously they can't hear us in Ukraine from our living room. While it may be heartache for some, but to others like us who have grown up watching England lose to so and so on penalties, it's become an all too familiar. But let's focus on the positives.

6 weeks before the tournament had started, a certain Roy Hodgson was appointed not Harry Redknapp, who was the firm favourite by fans, journalists and even players. Many doubted the FA about the decision to appoint the former West Brom boss as the manager of the 'Three Lions' but even the sceptics out there (those miserable Roy Keane types) can't deny that England exceeded your expectations.

We started very well against a France side that were unbeaten before going into the tournament on a stupidly good run of games, we took the lead with Joleon Lescott before Samir Nasri equalised by in his words, 'deceiving' Joe Hart with a low aimed strike. Alright Samir you had a good shot it's not Die Hard. Yes we did just relate that to Die Hard.

Followed by a rather impressive showing by England against Sweden where we managed to go in front with a great set up by Gerrard followed by an even better header by Andy Carroll. oh and when we say impressive we mean we took the lead, conceded two soft goals by Mellberg, yes the dodgy former Aston Villa defender before actually managing to win inspired by a bizarre brilliant performance by Theo Walcott who scored a fantastic if not lucky goal and also assisted to a marvellous back heel by Danny Welbeck. 

I know we were shocked too. It gave us hope that every England fan has when we do alright, 'This isn't atrocious, oh we might do well!' then we'll lose to a team who have far less better players than us and then it's 'oh it happens every time, I told you we weren't going to do well.' C'mon you know you've said that at some point if you are England fan, FA Cup Vinyl even may have ushered those words themselves. May have.

But Ukraine was our final game, the co-hosts, we only needed to avoid defeat and we were through, so being typical England what happens when it comes down to the crunch... We win. Unexpected right? We delivered, didn't play well, but we got the result and that's what matters. Yes how intense. Plus the match marked a return for Wayne Rooney, who also bagged the winner, albiet one of the most easy tap in headers we've ever seen. Oh and this happened.

 See didn't cross the line... No England were lucky not to concede this as the match official who is stood on the end of the pitch to see if the ball crosses the line, didn't see it. WHAT IS THE POINT OF HIM BEING THERE THEN? *cough* Goal-line technology *cough*

Then we played the Italians in the quarter finals, well you know what happened. Surprisingly it managed to stay 0-0 for England over 120 minutes in a game of which they were dominated by Italy who had a number of chances to win the match but somehow failed to grasp any of them. Despite having a disallowed goal in the second half of extra time it was clear the Italians should have won the game, plus we would have never beaten Germany. Good luck Italy.

So overall FA Cup Vinyl think that it was a good performance from Roy's Boys and who knows with a bit of improvement and a bit more attacking mentality we might be able to beat a Germany or Spain one day. But until then, we'll have to celebrate defeating minnows like Andorra.

Let's hope the next major tournament we fare a bit better, that's of course if we qualify. 

What FA Cup Vinyl did today...

So today FA Cup Vinyl took a day trip to Leeds, one of the capitals of the North, apparently. Now while we like Leeds, we can't help but be annoyed by what we saw today, so being the amazing people we are (some would argue cynical), FA Cup Vinyl noted the top 5 things we hated seeing in Leeds.

1. The Christian lunatic that stands in the street with a microphone: Now we know every city may have one and we shouldn't discourage Leeds as the only city for having it, but seriously get a grip. Stop forcing religion down people's throats during their lunch break when all they want is a Starbucks, not to be told they will burn in hell. 

2. The Majority of girls between the age of 16-18: You are not in Made In Chelsea, so stop acting like you are, a stupid air head with a lot of money and spending it on pointless things... come to think of it. Oh and shopping in Jacks Wills does not make you a better person, in our eyes it makes you worse.

3. The Man wearing Yeezy 2's: JUST LOOK AT THEM, THEY'RE AWFUL! Also this man appeared to be wearing leggings, that means two things: 1) You're wearing Yeezy 2's, that means you're automatically a prat.  2) Leggings? You're male and they were brightly coloured blue, are you on drugs?

4. Those pretentious folks who sit inside Pret A Manger on their laptops thinking they're big shots: Enjoy filling out that online application for Monsoon, Mr. Big Shot. 

5. The clipboard woman who stopped us in the middle of the street to ask a few questions: We obliged because we're friendly and know it's a miserable job, she then proceeded to become annoyed with us because we were too young to fill in her survey and claimed we had lied deliberately to avoid taking part. 

So all in all, it's not really Leeds itself that annoyed FA Cup Vinyl, it was the people plus the weather was miserable whic didn't help, so the message you should take from our adventure is not don't go to Leeds, you should do it's a lovely city, it's not to end up as miserable bastards like us.

Track Of The Week: Oasis - Cast No Shadow

It maybe Friday but we missed Thursday's input anyway, you know the score by now it's Track Of The Week.

After last week being Blur, we thought to be all controversial and go for Oasis. I know, we're sooo rebellious. (We'll never do that 'sooo' again)

Anyway the Britpop battle begins, we had 'Chemical World' taken from Blur's second album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' and now we have 'Cast No Shadow' from Oasis' second album which you should all be familiar with '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?'

Both are great albums, both are excellent bands and although the whole Britpop battle was mostly media hype and basically nothing, what we did learn from it all was that we had two brilliant British Bands.

With the band currently split with the Gallagher's doing different projects, Noel with his High Flying Birds and Liam and the rest in Beady Eye... Yeah don't bother with the latter, Oasis should be a band you all know too well, but you may have not listened to them in a while. Well FA Cup Vinyl is here to rekindle the love you had with the Mancunians with this absolute gem from (What's the Story) Morning Glory?'


Oasis - Cast No Shadow

Track Of The Week: Blur - Chemical World

Hello, once again we have to apologise for not updating the blog we've been pretty busy sorting out FA Cup Vinyl to make it better and watching the Euro's,  probably more of the latter really.

Anyway it's Thursday again, so after much consulting we've officially decided to make Thursday 'Track Of The Week Day'. You'd think it would make sense to post it on Monday, but you know we live life on the edge!

Swiftly moving on, this week's track is an old favourite of ours that we have recently rediscovered and has now made it into the various summer playlists that we've put so much effort in making on iTunes. Taken from Blur's second album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish', (which we might add is a very good album) is Chemical World.

This is a perfect time to be listening to Blur, with what the band reforming to play a special gig for the London Olympics in Hyde Park with other favourites New Order and The Specials as well as Bombay Bicycle Club. God we wish we were going to that.

The video of Chemical World is also worth a watch as well, so we'll speak no further, just click on the link below and thank us later.


Blur - Chemical World

Track Of The Week: XXYYXX - About You

Hello everyone, FA Cup Vinyl are back again. Sorry we've been pretty busy sorting out some matters, but after that 6 day period of nothing (which I'm sure you're all lost without us) we're back to business, starting with our new feature: Track Of The Week.

It may be something old or something new, but you know it's going to be good.

Kicking off the first week is a track that we simply can't stop listening to, XXYYXX's 'About You' and you can check it out below, which we suggest you do as the video is great and simple.

Please enjoy.

XXYYXX - About You

The XX's New Tracks

Now we're sure that you know that FA Cup Vinyl are a big fan of The XX, hence our earlier post about them a couple of days ago declaring them to be one of our favourite new bands. Well after the band recently playing some live gigs this year, those lucky people who went to see them were able to hear some of the new tracks, I know, how annoying. Well for those of you that haven't had chance to hear them yet, good old FA Cup Vinyl has found someone post them on YouTube for you all to listen to. They are all linked below, please enjoy.

The XX - Devotion

The XX - Strangers

The XX - Closer

The XX - Friction

The XX - Leave