Today's POP culture, as it happened (2024)

No one seems to be massively arsed about the Klaxons comeback.

You still have to watch The League Of Gentlemen through your fingers.

Prince may or may not be stuck on the South Circular. But his songs certainly make for prime punning opportunities.

Right, that's yer lot. Gwilym and Lanre will be with you tomorrow. I'm outta here the way I came in.

Just as I declared that there's nothing worth switching your tellybox on for tonight, we learn that afrobeats star Fuse ODG will be on Newsnight. Read our excellent interview with him here.

What's on telly tonight? Not much, to be honest. Unless you count Ross Kemp going to Northern Ireland, Dominic Littlewood guesting on House On Fools and Chris Packham discovering that "crows are masters of flexible thinking".

Why not treat yourself to a night out instead? Anna Calvi plays Leeds, Childish Gambino's at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, Krystal Klear's at the Tuesday Club in Sheffield, and as we mentioned previously, The Family Rain play an in-store in Bath.

And most of the Oscar contenders are still on at the flicks.

Cumberbatch is everywhere else, so not such a surprise to see him counting apples on Sesame Street.

My favourite Sesame Street cameo, however, belongs to Feist. Save this for one of those really dark Sunday afternoons of the soul.

Here's another great track I came across while doing the singles this week, from Leeds' Adult Jazz. If you like the Dirty Projectors, Wild Beasts and songs that leave you bemused but elated, then I think you'll like this.

Not sure about the name, though. If HMV still existed, I wouldn't want to walk up to the counter and loudly enquire if they've got any Adult Jazz.

Here's an enjoyably odd video they made for another song, Springful. And look where they end up – in Brixton, South London! Sometimes it all just comes together.

Still no sign of the Princemobile on the Tulse Hill gyratory, but people have been having fun with the #princeoflondon hashtag.

So all those cider / psychedelia puns reminded me of this:

Which in turn made me wonder what Marc Wootton's up to these days. My New Best Friend was excruciatingly brilliant and Shirley Ghostman had his moments. Well, turns out Wootton's in the first episode of Inside No 9 tomorrow!

How's that for a callback? Entirely coincidental, mind.

At the very top of the morning, I promised you some Somerset psych. So let me introduce a band called The Family Rain. While writing my singles column for last weekend's Guide, I came across the video for their song Trust Me… I'm A Genius and was mildly flabbergasted to see them legging it down a couple of streets that often used to comprise my route home from school, thus prompting a Proustian rush of ice-pole swordfights, crap graffiti tags and earnest discussions about who's the fittest off Neighbours. Admittedly that effect will be lost on the 99.99% of people who didn't grow up near the Southdown area of Bath, but it's still a good tune.

Anyway, I've taken this opportunity to collar my fellow Bathonians and ask them a few questions to which they have responded with photos. Yes, it's a PHOTO Q&A with The Family Rain!

Show us a photo of… A great gig.

"Southside festival Germany last summer…Possibly the best festival of the summer."

Show us a photo of… A fun aftershow party.

"We played Ibiza Rocks with Biffy Clyro, it was a heavy night, here's how we got rid of the hangover…"

Show us a photo of… An amazing view.

"A sunny day at The Blackpool Tower."

Show us a photo of… A piece of accidental art.

"This vinyl of the Nutty Professor soundtrack was a christmas present. It is framed and takes pride of place on the bedroom wall. Killer."

Thanks, The Family Rain. If you're in Bath tonight, go and see them play a hometown instore show at Raves From The Grave.

Still no sightings of The Artist Currently Known As Prince on Streatham High Road, but there's been some sterling work on the "South London / Croydon landmarks as Prince song titles" pun meme.

A couple of excellent nominations for the best Shearsmith / Pemberton sketch here, courtesy of Gemma Samways and Paul Jones on Twitter. Any more for any more?

I'm off to microwave some lunch (homemade leek and courgette risotto, since you ask). In the meantime, have a look at what else is happening on the Guardian culture site today:

More tributes to Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The first look at Michael Winterbottom's drama inspired by the Amanda Knox case.

Rob Boffard's championing of indie hip-hop label Rhymesayers.

Back soon.

No news yet on Prince's planned press conference at Lianne Le Havas's flat, though less than an hour ago the Purple one tweeted his arrival in London.

So presumably he's on his way to the Streatham/Croydon borders now. News outlets seem divided on exactly where Lianne lives, so let us know if you have any more specific info, or if you've spotted a tiny, purple-clad man with an all-female entourage boarding the 250 bus at Brixton. Let's hope he doesn't accidentally end up in Penge.

Are there any reasons left not to sack off the English festival season and spend the summer on the shores of the Adriatic instead?

Here are the latest Croatian festival lineup announcements:

Unknown: Wild Beasts, Chvrches, Mount Kimbie, James Holden, John Talabot plus every hot UK house DJ of the moment

Dimensions: Caribou, Roy Ayers, Jon Hopkins, Moodymann, Metro Area, Mala plus every Detroit-influenced techno DJ with a passport.

Sonus: Dixon, Jamie Jones, Luciano, Ricardo Villalobos, Richie Hawtin and every Euro techno DJ in the Resident Advisor Top 50.

Plus lower-key happenings like Stop Making Sense and The Garden Festival look as tastefully-curated as ever.

Tempted?

The Postman Pat Movie trailer is in!

Predictably, our bitter and cynical film correspondent Charlie Lyne is the first to put the boot in.

OK, it doesn't look the same in CGI. But you've got to hand it to Pat's team, they've kept him relevant for almost 30 years now – surviving the Royal Mail sell-off and threats of Amazon drones – and you can't say that for Wizbit.

Could Bored To Death be the new Arrested Development? The cultish, slow-burning comedy didn't make much of splash when it was on telly back in 2011/2012 (HBO there, Sky Atlantic here) but it's the kind of thing best appreciated on box set, by viewers of a faintly nerdish persuasion (and we very much include ourselves in that category). It could occasionally come across as a bit whimsical and smug but Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson are reliably excellent throughout, especially in this scene.

Anyway, posthumous interest in the cancelled show appears to be growing, and it turns out that creator Jonathan Ames has almost completed a Bored To Death film script. One to keep an eye on, especially if Galifianakis's "co*ck grab" scene gets reinstated.

The verdict on the new Klaxons single is in. And it's not especially complimentary…

Ciara's made another slowjam with her fiance Future. Ah, bless. Think I actually prefer this to Body Party.

Here's a catchy little stomper from Ex Hex, fronted by Mary Timony (formerly of Wild Flag and Helium). If you're going to rip off My Sharona, you might as well be upfront about it. Cool artwork, too – someone more cultured than I can probably tell me who they've ripped off for that.

The League Of Gentlemen's Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are back on telly this week with their new show, Inside No 9. They're also in the Guide on Saturday, interviewing each other. Without giving too much away, the article contains the phrase "pickled onion Monster Munch". Here's a sneak preview of Inside No 9, although they undersell it a little.

Anyway, what I want to know is: what's your favourite Reece & Pemberton sketch? Go Johnny Go Go Go Go deserves to be held up as an all-time classic…

...but for sheer, toe-curling awfulness it has to be the Tina Turner routine from Psychoville.

Having invented new rave before spunking away their Mercury Prize money on a dog's dinner of a second album, Mr Keira Knightley and crew are back with a poppy new song. Do you care?

NB: This was produced by current Top 10 stars, Gorgon City – a smart move, there. James Murphy and The Chemical Brothers are involved with the album.

After I'd had enough of people shouting loudly about benefits, I watched a touching BBC3 documentary called Growing Up Downs, about a group of youngster's with Down's Syndrome who put on a performance of Hamlet.

Their theatre group could teach the Benefits Row rabble a thing or two about diplomacy. Some of the actors were disturbed about the volume of carnage in Shakespeare's original script, and voted to give Hamlet a happy ending, complete with a dance routine. But Lawrie (Claudius) stood firm. He was the only one who'd seen Hamlet performed before and felt that it just wouldn't have the required impact without plenty of actual tragedy. But a compromise was quickly proposed: they'd do the dance routine in the middle, and everyone could still die at the end. "Best idea ever!" agreed Lawrie. It's worth catching on the iPlayer.

I for one haven't had quite enough recently of people with loud voices shouting loudly about benefits. So last night I tuned excitedly into The Big Benefits Row on Channel 5. Not Debate, not Discussion, but Row. Because that's exactly what it was: all your favourite rent-a-gobs – Edwina Currie, Owen Jones, Rachel Johnson, Terry Christian – shouting loudly about benefits, as goaded by Matthew Wright. It's worth a gander here, if only for the self-parodic, Cassetteboy-style intro which culminated in a maddening supercut of people saying the word "benefits". Benefits, benefits, benefits. But you probably won't make it further than the words, "what you you think, Katie Hopkins?"

Interesting to see that The Mirror deemed The Big Benefits Row worthy of a (weary and cynical) liveblog. Whereas The Spectator's Fraser Nelson was actually there – he seemed to think White Dee from Benefits Street emerged as the victor.

Meanwhile, here's the real Cassetteboy at work:

Mornin'. Welcome to what a lazy music journalist (such as myself, fair's fair) might call my sophom*ore Guide Daily blog, following last week's seminal debut.

The reason Robert Smith is up top is because The Cure have just announced a new album. Hurrah! Although it looks like it might just be the leftovers from 2008's underwhelming 4:13 Dream. Boo! But they're heading out on the road this year to play some more "trilogy" concerts – and by our calculations, they should now have reached their mid-80s imperial phase (The Top, The Head On The Door and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me). Hurrah!

Basically, any excuse to start the day with this: