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July 25, 2006

New McAlmont & Butler - "Speed"

With his Tears on break, ex-Suede axeman Bernard Butler is back working with singer David McAlmont. Over the years, the duo's seen success across the pond, but new download-only single "Speed" is actually their first US release in ten years. But that's all ya get.

Butler explains:

"Just to clarify… we haven’t made an album and this is not the start of yet another boring big sell campaign. When David & I recorded this track it was the only thing EMI would pay for us to do, and we decided not to try and impress but to do what we wanted and ignore all their advice. They dropped us without hearing it. I always promised we would put this out someday somehow, so I finished it off alone and pledged to press up a few copies on my own. That was my dream, and Rough Trade kindly intervened and offered to take the burden off my hands. The dream remains as deliberately purist as the song: There is no sleeve because we have nothing to say that isn’t in the song. There are no credits because we don’t owe anybody anything. There is no video because they are always rubbish. There is no live version because I don’t have 3 drummers. To go against the purist’s opinion, there can be no purer way of presenting a piece of music than on a format that you physically can’t touch. And let’s face it, they sound alright and if you say otherwise you're boring."
What a wanker, teasing us with this top-notch soaring anthem and no album to look forward to. We'll always have "Animal Nitrate"!

McAlmont & Butler - "Speed" (M4A)

Posted at 7:27 PM in




12 Comments

Freakin' ace, thanks.

Posted by: Apexa at 07/25/06 8:31 PM  | Reply
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how do you download this track? got a mac here, via Safari - when I try to download it all comes up with just code. ideas?

Posted by: resurrect at 07/25/06 8:47 PM  | Reply
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Resurrect - for some reason the mac identifies it as a text file and tries to open it with text edit. You should be able to edit the filename on the desktop to remove the .txt suffix and make sure it ends in mp4a. If that doesn't work, right click or ctrl+click and open with - itunes/quicktime.

Posted by: Gari N. Corp at 07/25/06 9:08 PM  | Reply
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Still doesn't work when you rename the file. Where did the file come from? Can you direct us to the source? "Yes" is one of my favourite tracks of forever so I'd love to hear this one.

Posted by: DiGSY at 07/26/06 12:29 AM  | Reply
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Got it to work! The new suffix has to be m4a in order to work; not mp4a. Thanks for posting it!

Posted by: DiGSY at 07/26/06 12:35 AM  | Reply
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Absolutely kicks ass. Wonderful.

Posted by: Tony G at 07/26/06 9:19 AM  | Reply
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Whoa. I thought I was the only one who gave a shit about those guys. I'm not alone. *sob*

Posted by: Ferris at 07/26/06 10:59 AM  | Reply
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Beautiful. Butler is genius. They should take that on the road - with the Pipettes opening.

Posted by: sfenn at 07/26/06 1:06 PM  | Reply
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i like it a lot, but then i'm fairly easily pleased when it comes to anything Bernard Butler does

Posted by: EF Matt at 07/26/06 2:51 PM  | Reply
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How come he NEVER comes here? You would think that there are enough anglos/anglophiles to justify playing a few shows at least in NYC and LA. I mean, if Oasis can sell out MSG....

Bernard is such a genius, but instead we get 2 nights of Carl fucking Barat. Great.

I'm not a muso or anything but watching that guy thrash around on his guitar is mansexy.

Posted by: Chris at 07/26/06 3:48 PM  | Reply
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How come he NEVER comes here? You would think that there are enough anglos/anglophiles to justify playing a few shows at least in NYC and LA. I mean, if Oasis can sell out MSG....

Bernard is such a genius, but instead we get 2 nights of Carl fucking Barat. Great.

I'm not a muso or anything but watching Bernard thrash around on his guitar is mansexy.

Posted by: Chris at 07/26/06 3:49 PM  | Reply
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thanks for the tips - and yes, DIGSY, you're right. If you're using a Mac, drop the ,txt suffix and open as a .m4a file with iTunes and you'll be good to go.

"Yes" was one of the - if not THE - unrecognized single of millenium. This gets me closer - but "Yes" still remains unsurpassed. Well - only Johnny Boy's "You Are The Generation..." is in the same league...

Posted by: resurrect at 07/29/06 6:25 PM  | Reply
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