More info on Chemical Brothers new release

Just got back from the Hollis Browne show at Midway. Will post a review tomorrow.

After the show I was talking to my friend Chuck (the manager of Hollis Browne) who is the one who turned me on to the Chemical Brothers and electronic music in general. He informed me that Pete Tong was playing two of the new Chemical Brothers tracks on Radio 1 tonight- Electronic Battle Weapon 8 and 9, which if things go as usual, will be released as b-sides. You can stream that show here. The site uses Real audio. Unfortunately you can't just scroll forward to the chems' tracks,but you can get through to them using buttons that skip ahead in increments of 5 and 15 minutes. Electronic Battle Weapon 8 starts a little before 20:20 and ends around 20:25. Once it's done you can get away with skipping ahead 5 minutes, but if you go for 10 you will be too far ahead and will miss the beginning of Electronic Battle Weapon 9, so just sit tight. There also is a link on the page to the track listing in case things get confusing.

My initial reactions:

Electronic Battle Weapon 8 - sounds like an old school Chemical Brothers track...going way back...reminds me of "Chemical Beats" with a lot of classic club anthem stuff layered over it at times. A little weird, but good. Need to give it another listen. Definitely a lot of good elements though.

Electronic Battle Weapon 9 - loved it from the beginning. It reminds me of a re-worked version of "Star Guitar". As it is I love "Star Guitar" and I couldn't imagine them doing anything to it to make me like it more...but I definitely hear it in Battle Weapon 9. It sounds totally different. There is a lot of other stuff going on, but in the best way possible. I'm not going to try to break it down because I have no technical knowledge and wouldn't know where to begin to explain it, but from the most basic standpoint: IT BANGS.

I really hope these are an indication of what's to come on the new album. I really love the Chemical Brothers, but must say something just didn't click with me with "Push the Button". When I saw them in Central Park last year all the songs from "Push the Button" really played out well live, but I hardly ever find myself reaching for that album. When I do, I enjoy it more than I remember, but not like their other albums...I would get stuck on those for days and days at a time.

Also, some more info on the new album courtesy of Wikipedia of all places:

"In the beginning of June 2006, Ed Simons announced on the chemicalbrothers.com forum that the band are indeed working on a new album, codenamed 'Chemical 6, and although no release date has been confirmed, some speculate it will see a summer 2007 release. Typically an announcement is made on the band's website two to three months in advance of the release of a new album."

Alright...I need to get to bed. Hollis Browne was very good. Unfortunately they are temporarily being overshadowed by my excitement over all the Chemical Brothers happenings. Tomorrow they will have their moment though.

Also big ups to anyone else who dragged their ass out there tonight. It was fucking freezing, or as Charles would say "madd brick".