THQ CONFIRMS DEVELOPMENT OF SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD – ENTER THE DOMINATRIX

Thank heavens April Fools day jokes are long gone – otherwise one could be forgiven for thinking this latest announcement from THQ Inc was a prank but isn’t.  THQ and Volition, Inc have announced the development of Saints Row: The Third – Enter The Dominatrix, a standalone expansion to Saints Row: The Third.

Slated for an Augsty/ Septemberish release date on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Saints Row: The Third – Enter The Dominatrix looks to take the award-winning, over-the-top action of Saints Row: and mix it up a little by throwing in super powers.

Executive Vice President of THQ Danny Bilson, stated in a recent press release “Faster than a speeding cyber jet bike, more powerful than a chromed-out SUV, able to leap flying aircraft carriers in a single bound… That’s the power you’ll find inside the Dominatrix. Use it for good. Use it for evil. Use it for whatever you want. As always in Saints Row, it’s up to you,”

With a franchise of reportedly more than 11 million units shipped globally so far, it looks like an incredible amount of fun for Saints Row fans and most importantly as it’s a standalone expansion will give users good reason to hold on to their copies and not trade them in just yet.

Enter the Dominatrix picks up immediately following the events of Saints Row: The Third with a story just as wacky and fun. For those of you not up to date with Saints Row, it is kind of like a mix between Grand Theft Auto and…erm something very very different. Put it this way, it has long been regarded as the guilty pleasure of gaming. Very tongue in cheek and serious at the same time, wrestlers, gangsters, guns and hitting people over the head with a huge bright pink dildo. This expansion sounds like it will add something very Matrixy to the mix and increase its longetivity.

More details and a first look at Saints Row: The Third – Enter the Dominatrix will be available this summer stay tuned to Frost for more details.

She Makes War + Hope And Social cover Madonna in collaboration | Music News

 

London-based singer She Makes War has taken time out from her UK tour with Chris TT to join Leeds rockers Hope And Social on their Crypt Covers project. The songstress joined the band to record a cover of Madonna’s ‘Dress You Up’ and you can watch the video below. The song is the 2nd installment of the project, which last month saw them team up with Ellen & The Escapades to record a cover of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love”. A full album from the project is due later this

Catch SMW on tour now. Details here.

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_1FgQuyx9Q&w=560&h=315]

Toots and the Maytals confirmed as Beacons Festival headliners | Music News

Jamaican reggae band Toots and the Maytals have been confirmed to headline the Stool Pigeon stage of Yorkshire’s Beacon Festival. The festival, will runs from 17th-19th August, will play host to the band on the final night.

As if the band need an introduction, but we’ll give you one anyway. They started releasing records from their base in Kingston, Jamaica in the early 1960s, working with the likes of Prince Buster and getting their first major hit, ‘Monkey Man’ in 1970. Their influence is cast far and wide, beyond the immediate world of roots music and into the punk and ska revival of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, through to modern songwriters like the late Amy Winehouse. Toots isn’t just about nostalgia, though; he continues to record and release new music, bringing sunshine everywhere he performs.

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy987izmPAM&w=560&h=315]

 

Fellow bands at the festival include Roots Manuva, Wild Beasts, Patrick Wolf and Ghostpoet. Tickets are available here.

Black Dice unveil new video | Music News

Brooklyn’s Black Dice reveal the self-directed video for “Rodriguez”, a track off their new LP Mr. Impossible out now on Ribbon Music.  An exclusive 7-inch for “Rodriguez” featuring b-side “Pissed In A Cave” with art by band member Bjorn Copeland will be available exclusively via Ribbon Mart.

Have a watch of the video below.

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqwXak1BxKo&w=560&h=315]

 

The band are currently on tour in the US but head to Europe in September including a show in London. Details here.

 

Happy Martyr – One Square Mile | Music Review

 

Happy Martyr rapper Alex Lusty is the greatest musician of all time. Move over Cobain, Marshall, Blackwell, Doughman et al. Lusty wrote the greatest lyric of all time in his previous outfit Frigid Vinegar when he sang “you’ll always come 2nd to football and music” on ‘How Cheap is Your Love’. Never has another human being been able to express my ethos in life quite as well as Mr Lusty. Since Frigid Vinegar and that release, back in 1999, Mr Lusty’s been a busy boy releasing music with 7 different bands, including this, a collaboration with Boz Boorer, formerly of The Polecats and now working with former Smiths miserablist Morrissey.

Happy Marty’s sound is an eclectic mix of hip hop, rap, punk and rockabilly that sounds like it should be the soundtrack to This Is England.

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PglUhd6S9LY&w=560&h=315]

 

Opening track is classic Lusty, displaying every side of him including his achilles heel of lust and passion. It’s all love and romance and Lusty snarls the lyrics with anger and regret. Delightful. Rusty Nail is in a similar vein, with a beautiful guitar track and Lusty’s spitting lyrics. If you like good, interesting, thought-provoking lyrics then this is for you. The album continues in a similar mould and if there’s one criticism is that it gets a bit formulaic and samey with the songs morphing into one long stream of strummed guitars and rapped poems.

I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed the record though, it’s stunning. It’s just to get some more airtime on my iPod it could do with a bit more variety. The band certainly have it in their sound; ‘It Never Rains But It Pours’ hints at similarities with Mike Skinner, only less dull and more interesting. They also have ‘Old Skool’, the band’s final number. It’s a fun sing-along garage rock number with it’s refrain of “there’s no fool like an old fool and I am strictly old skool”. More variety wouldn’t go amiss but it’s enjoyable. Boorer’s guitar playing is enjoyable and Lusty’s tragi-comedy lyrics keep the listener entertained.

It’s a good album, not great. Hard to live up to things when you’re the greatest ever though. I’ll await the next HM record with excitement, though. “Ladies and gentlemen form an orderly queue – I might just be the right man for you” sings Lusty on ‘This Small Town’. Indeed, you’ll do for me.

AlunaGeorge tour news | Music News

 

Hot on the heels of news of their debut single, AlunaGeorge are to take their unique blend of experimental hip-hop, ‘90s R&B and house on the road, supporting Brooklyn band Friends. The tour begins at Newcastle Digital on 6th May and runs through to 14th May at the Thekla in Bristol and includes a show at London’s Scala on 9th May. Full tour dates here.

Have a listen to ‘Just A Touch’ from the ‘You Know You Like It’ EP here:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/44255827″ iframe=”true” /]

 

ILLLS announce Dark Paradise EP | Music News

Straight out of Oxford, Mississippi (nope, not a clue. You?), ILLLS are to release their debut EP, Dark Paradise, on London label The Sound of Sweet Nothing.  Have a watch of the video here.

The band set about recording music over the space of about a year, which eventually turned into this. On recording the band have said “We didn’t know what we were doing, but this is what we made. We play live now and will be this Spring after we release this EP that’s taken so long to create.”

Speaking of the video this is what they had to say: “It was shot in our home town of Oxford, MS.  We rented a camera from the local university and got two of our friends (who have never really worked in film before) to just help us shoot an idea we had.  For the other parts of the video, we really did just walk through a grocery store, bought a bunch of nasty food, cooked it all together and ate it.  There should probably be more of the aftermath of us eating the food in the video because we were gagging and throwing up for about 30 minutes afterwards.  It was disgusting.”  

 

Lower Dens unveil 2nd single from Nootopics | Music News

 

Baltimore band Lower Dens, whose album Nootopics (pronounced No-eh-tro-pics) is released today, have unveiled the second single from the album is to be ‘Propagation’ and will be released on 14th May via Ribbon Music. The Sebastian Mlynarksi-directed video is available to watch below:

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GafB7NQvQWg&w=560&h=315]

 

Catch the band on tour in the UK in May and June. Details here.