Hot Press Electric Picnic CD: Our Friends Electric

Irish mag Hot Press logically enough devotes its latest cover to its coverage of the Electric Picnic Festival, relegating "Jesus Wept: The Mary Chain's Jim Reid On His Alcoholism" to the bottom corner and a variety of stories relating to sex off to the sides - the top sides. mind you. Jesus wept, and the Hot Press staff was no doubt moved, as well, Jim, but apparently they think sex sells more copies than alcoholism. Now if you'd groped a groupie or two whilst drunk... maybe things would be different. Or maybe if Madonna was involved in your story in some way, just to open up more headline possibilities and help the "billing".

Included with the mag is a CD. It's not an Insta-Marriage Electric Picnic Festival CD, but Our Friends Electric: Ten Essential Picnic Tracks does offer ten songs by artists at this weekend's Electric Picnic Festival, and word is, they're "essential".

Our Friends Electric Track Listing:

1. Bloc Party - Banquet
2. Broken Social Scene - Ibi Dreams Of Pavement
3. Duke Special - Maps (Live) (Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover, available on the Portrait EP, recorded at the Empire Music Hall in Belfast) A cover of "Maps", why hasn't anyone else thought of that?! Yikes, this song is covered often. I should produce a "Maps" covers album, pronto. Piano + dude, sincere cover here.
4. Semifinalists - The Chemicals That Wait (available on Semifinalists) Chirpy, synth-heavy, sweeping and dramatic but on a small-scale
5. Hot Chip - Crap Kraft Dinner (available on Coming On Strong) Mellow, sad electronica.
6. Os Mutantes - A Minha Menina
7. Elbow - Leaders Of The Free World
8. Gang Of Four - Damaged Goods
9. Tilly & The Wall - Nights Of The Living Dead
10. dEUS - 7 Days, 7 Weeks (available on Pocket Revolution) Sweet vocals and lyrics mixed with music that sometimes sounds like it's played at the wrong speed (I need to listen to it more to figure out what about it sounds a bit off to me. Nifty and then... off)