After Hefner broke up, Darren Haymen did a lot of forgetable things. But now he's back - sharp, witty and charming as ever. It’s probably because he is kinda doing Hefner songs again.

Let me start off with an off-topic explanation – I know that lately we haven’t been updating the music blog as much as we used to. I’m sorry about that. But let me assure you that soon enough we will be right back on track! What can we say? 8hands is growing, and you can expect a lot of surprises from us in the near future – site wise and app wise. Things will just get better round here! Now, let’s start talking about da man, Darren Hayman.

Most of you will probably know Darren Hayman from the astonishing work that he did while he was the lead singer of Hefner. If you ever heard anything by Hefner, you probably fell in love with Hayman’s endless geeky charm, his perfect voice, and of course, his way with words. He had this magical ability to deliver purely cynical thoughts, without a trace of anger or bitterness.

But not everything about Hefner was perfect. They had three brilliant pop-folk-rock studio albums and a ton of b-sides before they have decided, like the rest of the world in those 2001 days, to try their luck with synths and electronics. They brought us ‘Dead Media’ – one hell of a boring album, and probably the cause of the Hefner’s threesome going their separate and unknown ways. The only one I’ve tried to follow was Darren Hayman.

At first he went to a project called The French – another electronic outfit, which released a decent album, but didn’t leave any real marker except from that one “Wu-Tang Clan” song (can’t find it to put it here legally for ya, but look for it or buy it. It’s an amzing song). Sadly, it kinda went down the hill from there.

Hayman started to put out lots of solo releases: eps, 7 inches, even an album – alone, all by himself, recorded at home without a backing band. That’s when I got it! Apparently, Hayman isn’t the bedroom-singer-songwriter we thought he was. When he was alone, the songs didn’t sound right, too much was missing. Around the beginning of 2006, I’d lost hope and stopped trying. I thought to myself, “We will always have Hefner”, and popped ‘The Fidelity Wars’ in the stereo. Only god knows what made me google Hayman’s name a few weeks ago.

I found out that by the end of 2007, Hayman released a new album, with a band! The band's name is Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern and the album’s title is just the same. And how is the music? Awesome! Haymen is back to guitars, back to what he does best, back to… doing Hefner!

I mean… I love electronics, and I appreciate it when musicians try out new stuff. I really do. But when it comes to Hayman, I just want him to deliver those great lyrics over some beautiful catchy and melodically soft rockn’roll, and that is exactly what happens in Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern. So, if you ever had a soft place in your heart for Hefner (and I assume you did, after all, you are not robots!) you will love this new album. Just trust me on this one.

The best thing about British hip-hop artists is that they are down to earth. You can love their accent or hate it, enjoy their usually filthy and hard beats or despise them.

Say what you want about Dizzy Rascal or Lady Sovereign, but if you're an indie creature like most of us at the 8hands mega-team are, you can be sure these two are more like you than most of Snoop Dogg's posse.

I'm almost sure that Rascal & The Lady used to listen to The Smiths or Blur at least a couple of times while they were growing up, and I cannot even imagine that 50 Cent knows who The Smiths are (Maybe American rappers like Common or Mos Def knows a bit about those bands, but they will never get too proud about it).

Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip are a British hip-hop duo. The first one produce beats, the other one controls the mic. They have recorded a brilliant track called "Thou Shalt Always Kill" that makes my point perfectly.

Actually, that single has been out there since April and was named NME's track of the week back then (even though the songs lyrics say "Thou Shalt Not Read NME"). But I only got to hear it last week, after two RSS feeds sent me the song – KEXP song of the day podcast & Pitchfork Media's Forkcast.

So yes, maybe I'm a bit late, but I figure that if it took me so long to find out about this track, maybe you don't know about it either, and you should!

Besides the sweet beat & great lines like "Thou shalt not think any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a pedophile - Some people are just nice", Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip are also throwing around lots band names in a smart, condescending way – I just love that good old name dropping!

The Beatles / Were just a band.
Led Zepplin / Just a band.
The Beach Boys / Just a band.
The Sex Pistols / Just a band.
The Clash / Just a band.
Crass / Just a band.
Minor Threat / Just a band.
The Cure / Were just a band.
The Smiths / Just a band.
Nirvana / Just a band.
The Pixies / Just a band.
Oasis / Just a band.
Radiohead / They're just a band.
Bloc Party / Just a band.
The Arctic Monkeys / Just a band.

Of course, Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip are also "just a band", but still, they are semi-worshiped and many remixes of that song can be found online. Check out the Knifehandchop Remix above this paragraph, or the Fatboy Slim Remix at the bottom. Either way, try to take the simple and naïve message of that song, and just think for yourself.

Lo Recordings has been in existence for over 10 years and is widely regarded as one of the most consistently innovative independent labels. Recently Lo have developed a new labels called Loaf, in order to bring ONLY new music by up-and-coming artists in the fanciest of packaging with limited distribution.

We were curious to learn of how, and if, social networks influences the indie record labels work. and decided to have a little chat with Udi Radomski – Loaf's label manager.

This is also the place to mention that Vincent Oliver, the gifted musician that composed all the amazing sounds you hear while using your 8hands, is also a part of Loaf recordings.

Hi, and thanks for taking the time to participate in our interview. First we want to ask what have you been working on these days?

"We are about to release our first 7” (!!!) by Charlie Alex March. It has a lovely cover of a Daniel Johnston track and it includes collaboration with people like Metronomy and The High Llamas. Lovely stuff. Also, we have a quirky little album from The Lonesomes coming out in September; it’s all sung by cows. Pretty wicked, innit?"

What's your main use in social networks?

"We do quite a lot of promotion through MySpace, but it’s hard to tell what kind of impact it has. Other than that, it became an industry standard for every label to have a MySpace page and it provides an easy way of getting feedbacks from people."

What's your favorite music social network?

"I don’t really have one. I find that “social networks” aren’t that social and immediate. MySpace is ok, but takes a lot of time to manage which I don’t have. I really should try Facebook which everybody is talking about."

As the manager of an Indie label, did you ever got to sign an artist just from listen to the artist profile?

"No, I find listening to music on MySpace very uncomfortable. Listening to an artist profile might be the first stage of the process. If we like what we hear we usually ask for a hard copy of the music, then we can asses better what’s going on. And of course, lets not be naïve, the fact that the music is great doesn’t mean that its something we can work with, there is also the human element involved – if the person(s) are serious enough to actually finalize the tracks/songs (most tracks we hear are usually in some sort of demo form, its very unusual to get anything close to finalize)."

Do you find new music online?

"Yes. We have a few favorite myspace bands, such as “After After After” and a few designers/illustrator that we met through MySpace.."

Music blogs you read?

"I like mystery poster the best, a blog dedicated for unheard gems. Simon Reynolds’ blog is very interesting but I don’t have time to actually read all he writes there."

Can we ask for a music recommendation of yours?

"Hmm.. quite a tough one.. there is so much good music out there. I really like the new Dan Deacon album, Black Dice new 12” is ace. also been listening to a lot of new stuff on the Not Not Fun label – intense shit. And the new M.I.A single is wicked"

And finally, What would you do if you had 8hands?

"Probably more. But it wouldn’t look nice, will it?"