Monday, December 08, 2008

Tessellate

This song is my latest obsession. Below: Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate



Recently we went to see Show Of Hands in Cardiff. Below: A live video of Cousin Jack.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

No posts in ages

Sorry it's been so long. I've seen loads of bands since we last spoke. Here's a long list of them with some youtube videos...

Paramore - Emo-pop at it's best and sexiest.



Above: Paramore - Misery Business
Below: Paramore - Emergency



Plain White T's - I will avoid posting the obvious song.



Above: Plain White T's - Take Me Away
Below: Plain White T's - Hate (I Really Don't Like You)



Alkaline Trio - A band I've wanted to see for a long time now.



Above: Alkaline Trio - Mercy Me
Below: Alkaline Trio - Time to Waste



Finch - Only really have one song I like... but I love it lots.



Counting Crows - one of my favourite bands ever.



Above: Counting Crows - Round Here
Below: Counting Crows - Omaha (live)



The Hold Steady - I was really impressed with these guys.

Above: The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
Below: The Hold Steady - The Swish.


The Duke Spirit - The guys, who are originally from Cheltenham, were fab. Managed to sneak back stage for a chat :-). Below is the video for The Step and the Walk.



Johnny Foreigner - I love these guys so much.



Above: Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Peppa and Spinderella
Below: Johnny Foreigner - Eyes Wide Terrified



Jim Lockey - I've seen Jim play loads of times this summer and he has been excellent every time. Below is Luxembourg



Art Brut - These guys were way better live than I thought they would be. Below is Emily Kane.



Frank Turner - Always stunningly good.



Above: Frank Turner - Photosynthesis
Below: Frank Turner - Long Live The Queen



Flipron - Creepy, melancholic, fantastic.



Above: Flipron - Dogboy vs Monsters
Below: Flipron - Raindrops Keep Falling on the Dead



Chris T-T - Went down well at 2000 Trees festival. We put the world to rights with Chris over a pie after the set. Below is The Huntsman Comes a-Marchin' from that weekend.



Below: Chris T-T - This Gun is Not a Gun



James Yuill - I liked this guy so much I booked him to play a show in Cheltenham.



Above: James Yuill - No Pins Allowed
Below: James Yuill - No Surprise

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Sherwood

A while ago we went to see Red Jumpsuit Apparatus at the Barfly in Birmingham. It was great to see a band who were just out to have fun. This is the video for Your Guardian Angel:



The support band Sherwood were pretty good too. Below is the video for Song in My Head, released on MySpace Records:



RJA myspace
Sherwood myspace

Monday, June 02, 2008

Operator Please

Australia produces less than it's fair share of good bands. Maybe that's set to change. This band are young, fiesty and bursting with mad violin based energy! Find out when they are next playing near you and drop everything to make sure you go.



Above: Operator Please - Get What You Want
Below: Operator Please - Leave it Alone



Many thanks to idle hands for bringing this band to Gloucester.

Operator Please Myspace

Friday, April 11, 2008

Dogs die in hot cars... DIY album

Dogs Die In Hot Cars' debut album 'please describe yourself' hit the shelves in 2004.



The production of a long awaited second album was underway when the band decided to split on the 18 September 2007, leaving their fans disappointed.

This month, former band member Craig Macintosh has posted a blog asking fans to chip in their ideas to complete the second album. On the blog you can download demo versions and the individual tracks that made up the songs. The band is offering 50% of the royalty incomes to those who contribute towards the song.

Check out the blog

Ida Maria live

I just stumbled across some videos on YouTube and realised I was at the show where they were shot :-)



Above: Stella
Below: Queen of the World

Friday, March 28, 2008

Get smashed gate crash

It's electro indie at its best. It's the latest Hadouken single.



Check them out on myspace

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Searching for the hows and whys

Let the journey begin!

So starts the second album from 21-year-old Sam Duckworth, aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. And it really is some journey, one that adds a roomful of musicians to the laptop and guitar that populated his critically acclaimed first album, 2006’s The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager and that quantum leaps his sound into musically broad and defiantly joyful new territory. It marries GCWCF’s proven lyrical talent with expansive orchestration, razor-sharp laptop beats, folkish, fervent guitars and even a touch of afro-beat. “I started making it on my computer as we were touring, but the more I got into it, the less I wanted to make a bedroom sounding record. I wanted a tangible step forwards.” So he called in an orchestra and realised a new vision that is both intimate and raw. You can hear the strings emote – but you can also hear ‘em scrape.

It’s a long way from his early teen beginnings as a gig promoter prone to playing agit-emo sets in-between the hardcore punk acts he booked at local scuzz-holes. Since he signed to Atlantic in 2006 zipped up and down the British rail network gigging intensively, had two tracks featured on The O.C, supported The Flaming Lips and Funeral For A Friend, played three riotous shows at 2007's Glastonbury Festival and a show-stealing performance at the Carling Weekend, and picked up a 2007 NME Awards nomination for Best Solo Artist. “We headlined the Astoria on my 21st but I’ve always been more of a punk rock person than anything else and I’d love to headline Brixton Academy. It’s the holy grail.”

Searching For The Hows And Whys contains a mix that reflects a crazy, colourful twelve months for Southend’s favourite musician since acid jazzer Snowboy powered up the local soulsters. Since the last album GCWCF has recorded in a strange Brazilian choir singing grunge songs over beats with Kieran Hebden, ended up in hospital during the Berlin leg of his last tour, and travelled to the Congo as part of Damon Albarn’s Africa Express project – with the last two events being connected by way of an exotic amoeba. And seeing as GCWCF is marking himself out as one of the UK’s most adventurous and interesting artists, it’s no surprise that he’s got a sparky sideline on the go: a hip hop re-telling of American Psycho, featuring as yet-unveiled American artists. There are already a few gigs booked for the summer.

But back to the album in hand. It was written on tour and in London, during a few months of intensive 18 hour sessions. Once the songs had a basic shape, GCWCF began looking for someone to co-produce it with him – and seeing as Beyond Skin was pretty much his favourite record ever, asked Nitin Sawhney if he’d come on board. “If someone had told me three years ago that I would be recording an album with an orchestra, produced by Nitin Sawnhey I would have thought that sounded rubbish,” he says with a smile. “But Nitin’s great at finding the best character to fill the spaces in a song. I couldn’t have trusted him more. I know his records inside out, we were thinking the same things.” The resulting album is powerfully political. “On the last album I danced around things a bit. Some of these songs couldn’t be more direct.” Fundamentalist religion, pointless consumerism, bitter sex – they all get the GCWCF treatment.

Take ‘The Children Are (The Consumers Of) The Future’, which was written around the time of ‘Chronicles…’ and channels one of those “horrible” monologues where Carrie in Sex And The City realises that shoes are the answer to her emotional problems. It’s also a good example of how GCWCF’s musical plan has changed since the first record. “It was one of those songs that were just around. We did an in-store at Pure Groove and sang it for some reason. When we went back to the studio we decided to go as far left as possible with it. We had trumpet players blowing as hard as they could in one key, so it wasn’t really a note. It was just finding new ways of making sounds. Everyone thought we’d lost our minds.” ‘Better Things’ features a duet with long time friend and touring partner, Kate Nash. “It’s a song about that classic thing where people want to talk to you, or want things from you because you’re in a band.”

Listen carefully and you’ll hear a few musical influences making their collective presence felt. There are shadows of The Manics and Fela Kuti on ‘The Children Are (The Consumers Of) The Future’; of Simon and Garfunkel and Elliot Smith on ‘Postcard From Catalunya’ and shades of a mystical, clear-eyed Shaun Ryder and DJ Shadow on ‘Could’ve Seen It All’. By some alchemical combination of hard work, prodigious talent and a determination to push his sound forward, it coheres – beautifully. “The first album was a snapshot in time, but that’s not where I am now. This record is about my ambition, and about where I want to get in the future.”

Of course there are the lyrics too. “I’ve always been into interesting ways of saying things that are very simple. Imagery and old fashioned language is definitely my thing.” Or as he says on ‘Postcards From Catalunya “We talk in circles, but we move in narrow lines.” The album title comes from a lyric in the Orwell-referencing ‘Postcards From Catalunya’. “It was the original track title for that song, but it seemed to encompass what I’m about. Progress happens through trying to find solutions to problems – keep questioning, keep challenging things.”

Which sums it up, really.

The album tracklist is:

1. Let The Journey Begin
2. Waiting For The Monster To Drown - free mp3!
3. Young And Lovestruck
4. Postcards From Catalunya
5. The Children Are (The Consumers Of) The Future
6. Window Of Your Mind
7. I Could Build You A Tower
8. Keep Singing Out
9. Moving Forward
10. Find The Time
11. This Could Be All
12. Better Things
13. Could’ve Seen It All

Buy
the album

Friday, February 01, 2008

Okkervil River & Ida Maria

The year is a month old and I was starting to wonder where my next musical obsession was going to come from. There seem to be a lot of very average indie bands around at the moment, and most of the bands being shouted about in the media are struggling to live up to the hype.

Luckily my mp3 player did some fine randomising and reminded me of two great bands.

Okkervil River are a dark indie-folk-rock band from Austin, Texas.



Above: Okkervil River - Our life is not a movie or maybe
Below: For real



Ida Maria is riotous indie-pop from Sweden.

Below: Ida Maria - Oh my God





Above: Ida Maria - Drive away my heart
Below: Everyone loves a montage



Okkervil River myspace
Ida Maria myspace

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sam Isaac: stripped!

Sam Isaac is playing the latest stripped session this Friday at Pitville Studios, Cheltenham, UK.

Below is the video for sideways. Buy this single



Sam Isaac myspace

Support from...

TERRY EMM
Recently dubbed as the king of folk by radio Gloucestershire, an un-sung hero of University talent.
Listen

LEANNE DORMODY & DAVID JONES
More bright talent from the fresher population.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Alcopopular Vol. 2

16th June, and amidst free-flowing alcopops – a drunken Northerner was frying a gutted lizard, procured from a bottle of dubious Spanish spirit. Nibbling at the rotting morsel was too much for other parties, who rushed to vomit on a pile of tapes… A pile of tapes earmarked for our upcoming compilation Alcopopular volume 2. Analogue never was easy.

For a moment the fate of this wonderful return to cassette tape tradition hung in the balance – and with a stream of indie poppers already excited about this compilation we were concerned… But after binning a number of the offending articles, we rescued the situation, and Alcopopular 2 was born. Just a matter of days into the new year but we’re already confident enough to proclaim this the best cassette compilation you’ll see in 2008.

But who resides upon it? Here are a few highlights…

Sam Isaac – A Glastonbury appearance, place at the BBC proms plus 100s of shows thrilling pubs, venues and house parties across the land – Sam brings charming UK acoustic storytelling songs to the hearts of a nation. Single ‘Sideways’ was released on Alcopop!/BSM in December 2007

Harry & The Potters – This delicious duo from Boston have toured libraries across the UK and USA, run a wizard singles club and sing solely about J.K. Rowling’s magic series. Entrusting their first non independent outing to Alcopop!, ‘Wizard Chess’ recounts Christmas at Hogwarts – big sweaters and all.

Jeremy Warmsley – Wonderful singer-songwriter currently residing at Transgressive Records, we were delighted when Jeremy agreed to be on the compilation. More so when he presented us with ultra rare b-side ‘ice.river.cold’ from his 2006 ‘I believe in the way you move’ EP.

Johnny Foreigner – Ones to watch in 2008, hailing from Birmingham this band will soon be as big as Ozzy Osbourne’s swimming pool. Their track, the dizzying ‘Cranes And Cranes And Cranes And Cranes’ is a brilliant unreleased demo.

The Honey Brothers - Arguably the biggest unknown residing within this joyous cassette compilation isn't actually as unknown as you might think…..The Honey Brothers and their Weezer-esque indie pop feature Adrian Greenier on drums, the man better known as Vincent Chase, the lead character in the cult US TV show, Entourage. The show, which has seen him pick up Emmy, Bafta and Golden Globe awards, has proved a worldwide smash but that doesn't meant Adrian doesn't have time to produce gorgeous pop music, something music fans in the UK will find out for the first time with this, their debut appearance this side of the Atlantic.

Side A:

1. Arthur - Complications
2. Dave House - Beep Beep (Hi Hi)
3. Kid Carpet - Employee Of The Month
4. Decades - Mary Angel
5. Dartz! - Latin And Greek
6. Harry And The Potters - Wizzard Chess
7. Sky Larkin - One Of Two
8. The Young Playthings - Hot Sex With The Girl I Love

Side B:

1. Sam Isaac - When the Silhouette Drops
2. Wojtek Godzisz - If You Hurt Me
3. Wintermute - Ask A Stupid Question
4. The Honey Brothers - O Dear
5. Jeremy Warmsley - Ice.River.Cold
6. Johnny Foreigner - Cranes And Cranes And Cranes And Cranes
7. Windmill - Fluorescent Lights

Buy it now from alcopop

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Disjointed thoughts

I was doing some house-keeping tasks in my music collection the other day and had an urge to stop and listen to a few tracks along the way. I thought I would share them.



Above: Little Man Tate - Sexy In Latin
Below: Long Blondes - Once and never again



You know I'm not so young,
I spend an hour getting ready every day,
And still I end up looking more or less the same,
But I could show you,
a thing or two.




Above: The Honorary Title - Bridge and tunnel
Below: The Reindeer Section - Your sweet voice



I can't call you a friend
'Cause when you left me here
You left me here to die
Don't worry I won't call you again
'Cause when I take a hint
I take it pretty hard
And when you broke my heart
you broke it into shards of glass




Above: Tilly & the wall - The freest man. Check out the CSS remix of this song.