The Flaming Lips-Santogold-Spiritualized-The Ting Tings

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IN THIS ISSUE...

The Flaming Lips

The best festival band ever?

Summer’s on its way, which means the ever-expanding festival season is just around the corner. So Clash caught up with Wayne Coyne, ringleader of one of the world’s greatest festival bands, The Flaming Lips, who return to the UK for two headline shows in July.

Santogold

"Cheap and trashy? That's me"

The best thing to come out of Philadelphia since the Fresh Prince’s mom got scared, the now Brooklyn-based Santi White (AKA Santogold) operates amongst a mass of contradictions. Yes she fronted punk band Stiffed, but that doesn’t mean she will balk at commercial dollars.

Spiritualized

The Spaceman who fell to Earth

As the summer of 2005 begun, Pierce – creative lynchpin behind the phenomenal Spiritualized and, before them, the phenomenally underrated Spacemen 3 – woke each day unsure whether he’d done too much or just not enough.

The Ting Tings

Hit the highway
The experience convinced the newly christened Ting Tings to employ a DIY ethic from day one, which comprised simply of recording their own songs on their own terms. Having played a handful of house parties at the Islington Mill in Salford, interest in the band began to snowball again as record label

The Pigeon Detectives

Working up a sweat
You can’t get much further from Leeds, England, than Austin, Texas. Where one is a diligent northern financial and industrial metropolis, the other is a liberal southern artisan community, and while the latter bursts at the seams for a week in March with swaggering wannabes.

Scarlett Johansson

Career hopping with the blonde bombshell
The setting for the first UK airing of Scarlett Johansson’s debut album: cushy leather couches in a large, candle lit room full of European journalists, buffed with lunch and lubed up with drinks.

Matmos

Full of hot air
Matmos are Drew Daniel and M.C (Martin) Schmidt and as a duo they have made many brilliant sample heavy electronica for over a decade like 2006’s ‘The Rose Has Teeth in The Mouth Of The Beast’ as well as having a fistful of collaborations and remixes over the years.

Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues

‘Speaking In Tongues’ was a departure from the norm for Talking Heads. It was Talking Heads’ first post-Brian Eno release.

Yazoo Vs Hercules and Love Affair

Although the two have never met, Vince Clarke has influenced Love Affair and Hercules' Andy Butler’s life in more ways than he knew possible. Within seconds of the interview Butler described Yazoo as “the music they have in heaven”. Between them, the two set out a decent case for why the pearly gates are soundtracked not by harps, but by antique synths.