Remember all that fuss about Lana del Rey a few weeks ago?

About how her label cruelly tricked us unsuspecting innocent bloggers into thinking she was the real deal, as opposed to an industry puppet with suspiciously inflated lips?

It all died down quickly didn’t it? Maybe…. too quickly. Hmm. Tinfoil hats on, everyone: I suspect the INDUSTRY wanted to HUSH UP the story and PAID OFF weak bloggers.

Fret not, dear friends, Alex James from Blur knows how to keep an issue in the public’s unwavering gaze: by pouring melted cheese all over it.

MIXTAPE:

FIRST! Flash Fiktion have released a B-side. This is newsworthy in itself: bands do B-sides these days? I used to love B-sides for the sheer unusualness/laziness of them – B-sides were a window to a band’s soul. Please note that Ulcers is not lazy or weird – it’s just a mightily badass (oh, yes) thrash through a crunchy rock forest, where the trees have all been replaced with flame-decal-covered Gibson SGs.

SECOND! Feathers have, in Early Morning, made a song that bobs along on an ellipsis of its own manufacture, looping back to a cardboard 1960s, stopping off in 1986 and then plopping happily back to today – before doing it all over again. A lovely, unfolded-origami song.

THIRD! Analogue Manilow “may or may not be Barry Manilow’s nephews”. I’m betting on the former, but I’ve always been a hopeless gambler. Their’s no hint of Barry in their buzzy spazz-rock, but why should there be? Wouldn’t mind a careful mash-up of The Coming Lights with Copacobana, though.

FINALLY! Dead Slow labelled their excellently downbeat 960 as “Shoegaze/Grunge”. Can you imagine? No, really, can you imagine? Fortunately, 960 is much better than that description implies, devastatingly heavy and smothering in the same way a ton of feathers is. Good stuff.