I JUST HOPED YOU THOUGHT IT ANYWAY.

Guillemots' new album Walk The River (coming April 18th) is one of the absolute best records to grace our ears in 2011, and the band have been kind enough to share the title track ahead of its release for free on their website. It's the album's lead track and sets the tone for the record perfectly - all dark, brooding Chris Isaak vibes from frontman Fyfe Dangerfield and some of the band's best songwriting yet, including a middle eight in the song's second half that's one of the most beautiful and magical moments in the band's illustrious history. Seriously special stuff and just another reminded of why Guillemots are one of the best bands to emerge from the UK in the last decade.

MP3: "Walk The River" - Guillemots

STATIC TONE ON THE PHONE.

We've been banging on about how amazing Fyfe Dangerfield's cover of Girls Aloud megahit "Call The Shots" is for quite some time, so the fact that it's taken until now to get an mp3 up on the blog is somewhat unforgivable. Fyfe played NYC a few weeks back though and fully reignited our love for the track, swiftly helping us to realize the err of our ways in sitting on this track for so long. The Girls Aloud original is one of the better mega mainstream singles of the past decade (right up there bumping shoulders with "Rude Boy" and "Ms. Jackson") and boasts a Xenomania-penned topline that's one of the best in recent pop history, so the source material is pretty strong in itself, making Dangerfield's ownership of the track on his cover all the more remarkable. The mp3 below is a live recording from a recent BBC Radio 2 session, and while we still pray for the day a proper studio recording of the cover becomes a reality, this is pretty damn great for now.

MP3: "Call The Shots" - Fyfe Dangerfield

LIFE ISN'T MEANT TO DRAG US DOWN.

Fyfe Dangerfield is one of our all-time favorite musicians and one of the nicest people we've ever met in this industry, so when he finally broke into the UK Top 10 last week with his breathtaking cover of Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman" (as featured on this phenomenal John Lewis advert), we couldn't have been happier for him. Now at long last he's bringing his debut solo album Fly Yellow Moon over to the states for release on Downtown Records, preceded by a string of North American dates this week, launching at Joe's Pub in NYC and rounded off by dates in Philadelphia, Toronto and Los Angeles.

Fyfe put on one of the most brilliant performances we've seen this year at our SXSW showcase, highlighted by a cover of Girls Aloud's "Call The Shots" (live footage here), that's simply one of the most intense and visceral interpretations of a Top 5 pop smash we've ever heard. Sadly there's no studio recording of the track yet, but in the meantime there's no shortage of brilliant Fyfe material to tide you over, like "Headache", an absolutely immense B-side off the deluxe UK edition of the record that's been on repeat around Neon Gold HQ all spring. Get into it.

MP3: "Headache" - Fyfe Dangerfield [exclusive]

NEON GOLD AT SXSW 2010.

The time has come. We've mentioned it here and there over the past few weeks, but now it's time to formally bring back the curtain on our official showcase at SXSW 2010. Over the last few months we've pieced together a dream line up, plucking our favorite young talent from both sides of the Atlantic. We've got our go-to partystarters Yes Giantess crushing it in the late night slot, our main man Samuel getting things going early on, one of our favorite musicians of all time in Guillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfield, and the one and only Marina & The Diamonds (hot on the heels of her NYC debut with us) headlining the night and rounding out what we expect to be one of the premier lineups of the week. Shit is going down Thursday night at Lamberts (401 W 2nd Street) from 10pm until late, official SXSW badge required for entry. Running times as follows:

10:00pm: Fyfe Dangerfield // MP3: "When You Walk In The Room"
11:00pm: Samuel // MP3: "Fader"
12:00am: Marina & The Diamonds // MP3: "Hollywood" (Gonzales Version)
01:00am: Yes Giantess // MP3: "The Ruins"

The venue is not large and will reach its capacity, so come early if you want a piece of the action.

I WANT YOU ENDLESSLY.

This is big news. Fyfe Dangerfield, ringleader of one of our favorite bands of all time, Guillemots, is back and better than ever with his first ever solo album, Fly Yellow Moon, due in early 2010. We were lucky enough to receive an advance copy a few months back and it's really all we've been spinning since - it's quite literally nothing short of amazing. "When You Walk In The Room" is the first track on the record and it's an absolute belter, exactly the kind of thing you'd hope for from a Fyfe Dangerfield solo record. Fyfe's in rare form here, his off-the-wall vocals riding a spastic beat and cacophonous guitars for 3 minutes and 28 seconds of leftfield pop perfection.

Fly Yellow Moon is a streamlined pop masterpiece with a number of tracks on par with anything off of Through The Windowpane (truly one of our most cherished records of all time), and anyone seeking more evidence needn't look further than Fyfe's beautiful new website, where you can stream some of the other album highlights. Tracks on the streaming player include "She Needs Me" - which comes off like a number one hit from a bygone era, complete with disco strings and immense brass sections - and "Livewire", a sparse acoustic number that's genuinely one of the most beautiful songs we've ever heard. To say we're excited about this record would be a vast, vast understatement. Here's your exclusive first taste.

MP3: "When You Walk In The Room" - Fyfe Dangerfield [exclusive]