The idea is simple, authorize the app for use with your account, pick a person you like from your Facebook friends, pick a reason from the given options of why you like this girl, what the plan for the date is and let her know what makes you so special that she should agree to go on the date. You can send to multiple ladies to hedge your bets, I’m assuming Heineken are of the belief the guys should do the asking as it is guy to girl orientated.

It could be the perfect ice breaker to ask out a girl you’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to ask out, who knows, maybe it could make the difference to serenade your date. Just highlight the video below and start creating. Apologies to all the ladies I’ve sent videos already

Both the sender and recipient have to allow the app to send and open and as if that wasn’t enough Heineken are throwing a Serenade Live event on February 9th which will be streamed on Heineken’s YouTube channel, London 6pm to 3am, New York 1pm – 10pm and Sydney 5am to 2pm. If you’re tweeting about it use #Serenade or #SerenadeLive and keep an eye on @Heineken for some more updates.

Serenade Your Date

This was a ‘Sponsored Post’ from E-Buzzing for their video viral. These items help keep Goldenplec alive and free. Huzzah.

The Rubber Bandits are no stranger at this point to most, if not all, people within Ireland. Having started with prank phone calls way back when as far as the year 2000. They have seen a dramatic rise in popularity since the success of a certain song that aired on RTE’s Republic of Telly in 2010. An assault and campaign was now underway to get ‘Horse Outside’ to the number 1 slot for Christmas. They were beaten by the inevitable success of the begrudging reality show contestant Matt Cardle and his awful rendition of ‘Many of Horror’, later renaming it to ‘When We Collide’.

Fast-forward one year, as Matt Cardle will soon be struggling to book gigs at his own local Tesco. The Rubber Bandits plan to make an assault on the Irish Christmas charts once more, this time with the album charts in their sight. After spreading their brand of Limerick laughs around Ireland and the UK with gigs and comedy sketches as far away as New York, the Rubber Bandits have no need to prove anything to the Irish and greater public alike.

‘Serious About Men’ is a double disc release from the Bandits who I caught up with last week to talk about the album, their plans and unsurprisingly anything else in between.

With physical music purchases floundering in recent times, an artist must be ready to offer a little bit more than some fancy album art-work and a list of the lyrics to entice the customer. Something the Rubber Bandits have clearly sat down and thought about as Blind Boy Boat Club explained: “In the album art, there is loads of photographs of tits, and make up tips and tampons for women.” If that wasn’t enough reason to run to the shops and buy the album, he continued: “In the album you can find the IRA members in the puzzle and there is a colouring in section. You can colour in a drawing of Willie O’Dea with an inspirational quote coming out of his mouth. So fuck it, you’ve got everything, everything.”

Their album ‘Serious About Men’ I would imagine will be a serious contender for the number one slot with competition coming from the usual X Factor band wagon crew such as Olly Murs having just released his album. I quizzed the bandits on whether they would ever consider conforming to the masses in order to spread the yuletide festive feeling, their answer was rather straightforward: “Nah, that’s for faggots.” Not even with the super powerhouse that is Michael Buble I asked? “I’d do a song with Buble, because he’s a nice man, and he is elbows deep in fanny, 24-7”. Their appreciation for the Buble was like any other middle aged women around the world: “I seen an interview with him on Jonathon Ross and genuinely, I wanted to fuck him by the end of it. Clean he is, you wouldn’t see a grain of sand underneath his finger nails after a weekend at the beach.” I began to wonder was this due to the Bandits fondness of his music? “He loves what he does and he probably knows what he does is shit. It’s very middle of the road, easy listening. It’s kind of like being really good at making fake poo. You can make it look as realistic as humanly possible but at the end of the day, there is no balls.”

‘Serious About Men’ holds many an interesting song on the track list, but the most bewildering track listing has to be ‘Danny Dyer’. “Danny Dyer is a true story about meeting Danny Dyer, and him being a big massive liar. We met him, he said he did a piss in a kettle, then boiled it and then got in a time machine. Went back in time, met himself when he was eight and made him drink boiling piss, which I doubt is true.” An interesting topic of conversation was about to take a more interesting turn as they enlightened me: “The last time I saw Danny Dyer, he was on television with a survivalist and he had to do a shit into a bit of cling film in the woods and he wouldn’t, that’s a fact, you can see that. Look up Danny Dyer shitting into cling film and its there. Judge Jules remixed it as well.” Unfortunately, they were not joking this time around. (Video)

Sticking with the Christmas theme. I thought I would quiz the guys on whether the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was inspiration for their recent single, ‘Spastic Hawk’. Surprisingly, this comparison had never been made to them before as Mr.Chrome declared; “Fuck, it is isn’t it? Jesus, it is quite similar. I never knew that now. Deep in my unconscious mind, it’s very like that, well spotted.” This led to a rather misguided synopsis of the story of Rudolph: “Rudolph, he has this tumor on his nose and all the reindeer’s said you can’t play with us, you’ve got a tumor on your nose and Santa said, that’s the one I want, you can drive.”

The Rubber Bandits have just returned from a tour of England recently and I wondered how songs such as ‘Up The RA’ would go down. This song involves the Bandits listing off members of the IRA. I wondered if the members themselves would mind being ousted to an English audience in this manner. “R2D2 is sound about it. Sylvia Plath had no problem being mentioned. Winnie the Pooh, we haven’t heard anything and we ousted him as the master of the IRA.” So the English crowd received them well? “The English are lovely, they come to shows and they don’t drink. They sit there and listen, they clap when there supposed to clap and they shut up when there supposed to shut up and that a lot more than I can say for this country.“ Although: “But we love playing here because their a shower of mad bastards here. They are mad. Its different shows, it’s a nice break.”

Upon questioning the Bandits on whether there has ever been a topic they decided was too controversial and therefore wouldn’t touch upon. I thought for a few moments that I must have been the first journalist ever to get a serious answer out of the Rubber Bandits as they answered: “Drink Driving. There is nothing funny about drink driving. No there is not.” That was until they continued: “It’s not even funny when a load of clowns are killed. Even if, here’s the thing, even if a load of clowns drank drive and got into a car and crashed their car, and that’s funny, a load of clowns in a car. Possibly by the time you got there, all their clown gear would have melted away, leaving just the man. Then you just have a car full of dead men. Sounds like a politicians nightmare.”

The Bandits most recent work has been for Channel 4 who commissioned the duo to produce a number of webisodes that involved the Bandits recording some videos for songs off the new album. The first release ‘Black Man’ was then followed by ‘Spoiling Ivan’, the last in the series. The Bandits clearly enjoyed the experience: “Fucking loved it. It was a good laugh. We done it down Limerick and it was directed by Declan Lowney. Declan Lowney, he’s a director, gas bastard, lovely boy. But he’s mad like all great geniuses are. One day he ordered a pizza to the set. There were no peppers on his pizza and he started bawling crying and he wouldn’t direct the rest of the episode for like two days and Channel 4 were paying for it. Really upset like. He clearly said peppers in his defense. He did but there is no reason to cry about it for two days and not do any filming. Fair play to him, spectacular in bed.”

However last year there was a similar reaction. ‘When We Collide’ or if you’re a fan of decent music ‘Many Of Horror’ by the amazing Biffy Clyro was the winner single. Since that release the band have said the decision was pretty much out of their hands. It is possible the decision was not Damien’s, but even if it was his own decision to allow the X Factor use his song (which considering how fame shy he is seems unlikely), let’s try look at this from an artist promotional aspect initially and then turn the analysis on X Factor chiefs.

Damien hasn’t released an album in around five years, live album in 2007 not withstanding. He’s an Irish act who like other Irish acts has struggled to be globally successful on the scale that perhaps his great music should be. He is rumoured to be working on a new album for release next year. The first thing the X Factor release will do is raise awareness of Damien’s work, particularly his back catalogue which is already charting again not even 24 hours after the show.

A raised profile before releasing an album could be extremely lucrative. I for one won’t begrudge a man a few euro’s regardless of the promotional aspect. Are Marcus’s and Little Mix versions of the song good covers of the original. No I didn’t particularly enjoy them. The iTunes version just sounds highly produced and the raw emotion of Damien’s version is what makes it such a special song.

We have an opportunity here. A top Irish act’s music has been highlighted by a massive PR machine and is likely that his material will rise high in the charts, ironically more than possibly higher than the previous chart high of 19th back in 2004. Great for Damien, but if you REALLY like Damien’s song then do yourself, Damien and the world a favour and buy HIS version. Millions will buy the X Factor one. They always do, but it’s entirely possible to have the original chart above the new version.

That’s what I feel the fans who loved Biffy Clyro’s verson should have done, helped the original to chart higher than the X Factor version. They missed an opportunity to do that last year choosing to denegrate their favourite bands decision to allow the song be used, rather than make ‘Many Of Horror’ the Christmas number one. This year there are so many options of a song to support. An amazing charity single like the TwitterXmasSingle, Shade Of Lights excellent and original Christmas song ‘December Eve’. The thing to remember here is that you have a choice, your are not a slave to the X Factor machine.

Buy the original, buy a charity single, but for the love of god don’t just buy the Little Mix song for the sake of it. I don’t say this because I inherently dislike the act, I think they have a future in music in the same stream as J.L.S. and One Direction, but it is time for the X Factor chiefs to realise that doing a karaoke cover version and releasing it for Christmas is not good enough. Write an original song and have the finalist perform a unique version of it customised to their style and sound. You have the budget, you have the audience. Why continue to pillage other artists work.

You have eleven months to hire a team of writers and produce a pop song worthy of the number one slot. Hell wouldn’t it be great if it was a Christmas song that was number one. Give your winning act an original song and marginal credibility leaving the show and not confirm their victory with a lazy karaoke version of an amazing original song. The only power we have as people is to vote with our feet and wallets until the search for a top new music act produces new music, and not yesterdays music rehashed.

After those misleading 6 seconds had past, I was treated to a vibrant and zesty 2 minutes and 46 seconds of power fueled electric anti-pop. By their own admission, their “heavy dependence on Casio keyboards” is vastly apparent in this little ditty. Hopefully this heavy dependence doesn’t limit them going forward as this market is flooded with replica bands from all over. The song ‘Zola’ itself is oddly based around Mr.Gianfranco Zola of footballing genius fame. Not often such topics will be immortalised through Northern Irish youth music. ‘Zola’ is a great little tune I want to immediately add to my iPod “Happy Time” playlist along with other bands such as Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit and The Black Kids.

’33′ is more of the same as the catchy intro plays by. In this song, a comparison must be made to Fight Like Apes in the use of the keyboards/synths being implemented. It’s almost uncanny as the distortion is turned up loudly. Even though a comparison may be made, these two bands couldn’t be any more different as The Wonder Villains squeaky-clean lyrics and sound differs largely from their southern counterparts. ‘Running in Circles’ I must say, lets the EP down slightly. Unlike the previous two songs, which I highly recommend, this song and its production screams “EP Quality”.

All in all, this is a successful first release for these young Derry-based folk. They will soon be embarking on a short Uk & Ireland tour with General Fiasco.

Tour Dates are as follows:

Sat, Oct 22 – Academy 2, Dublin
Sun, Oct 23 – Thekla, Bristol
Tues, Oct 25 – King Tut’s, Glasgow
Wed, Oct 26 – Rainbow, Birmingham
Thurs, Oct 27 – Islington Academy 2, London
Sat, Oct 29 – Deaf Institute, Manchester
Sun, Oct 30 – Speakeasy, Belfast

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Disaster, it’s back to school time and the summer is officially over. Fear not, to help you ease back into the slog here are some songs to stick on your playlist. It’s our selection for the hardest parts of going back to school.

ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL
Fort Minor – Remember The Name
OK so this up before nine lark isn’t your thing, you need a song to get you going so you’re motivated for the day ahead. If you want to leave your mark on the education system, give Fort Minor’s ‘Remember The Name’ a listen.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDvr08sCPOc

To read the rest of the article click HERE to read it on the Two Tube website.