Sigur Ros

So a couple months ago we were treated to one of the best shows we’ve seen all year: Sigur Ros playing at the Museum of Modern Art. A gorgeous band with gorgeous songs in a gorgeous setting, it is definitely going on our Top Ten Shows of 2008 list, whenever we get around to making it. Current TV was on-hand to film the show, and broadcasted a selection of the songs last week (including lots from the band’s incredible new album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, which you can see by clicking on the link below. (We would embed the Current player, but well, we’re a bit rusty with our coding…)

Sigur Ros @ MoMA

With vinyl currently going though a steady resurgence and swiping back a massive portion of the recorded music market (currently 0.02%) we’re pleased to see that some truly awesome albums are getting a second chance to see the light of day. EMI will gradually reissue the catalogues of both Radiohead and Coldplay on 180 gm vinyl with original artwork and liner notes through their newly created series, “From the Capitol Vaults”.

This begs the question whether EMI will roll out this series across all of its labels so that we can pick up some modern classics from acts like The Beastie Boys, Blur, Sigur Ros, Mansun, Morrissey etc.

With the Best Buy chain testing in-store real estate devoted to vinyl in certain markets, perhaps a mini-renaissance period awaits our large gate-folded friends.

In rather an interesting move, our good friends at XL Recordings (The White Stripes, MIA, Devendra Banhart, The Raconteurs, Vampire Weekend, Sigur Ros) have launched a new website.

Instead of going for a conventional site model employed by many other record labels they’ve opted to cater to an more discerning audience, demanding the most of-the-moment content. Videos, photos, MP3s, blogs, TV appearances, tour announcements etc can all be accessed from XL’s site as all the content is being fed through from external sites.

XL’s new site will draw in content from all manner of music and entertainment outlets such as artist Myspace pages, news outlets like BBC and NME, music blogs such as Pitchfork, DayTrotter and DrownedInSound as well as Flickr and YouTube - almost a one-stop for all your music information needs.

It’s hoping that this new model, complete with a user-friendly collection of unique artist content, will attract a wide community of music fans.

Posted by JD