Some things I've written:

Goodbye Blog.

2011-01-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

So basically, I've been way too busy writing for the 405 to continue my blog. I'm also busy because I've just set up my own online magazine, Freedom Spark.

I was just using this really as portfolio of my work but I'm writing so much now that I don't even have the time to copy and paste my work onto here any more!

I probably won't abandon this blog forever so don't unfollow me or anything. You may get a cheeky, occasional post now and then but I won't be updating regularly. Please keep your eyes peeled in regards to my site though as we're constantly updating it with lots of interesting, arts related stuff. I've got lots of different writers and PRs on board so it's all very exciting and we hope to keep expanding it and reaching out to wider and wider audiences.

Here's my latest post for the 405 for you. It's a review of the Grouplove EP:

http://www.thefourohfive.com/reviews/3515

Also if you follow me on twitter, not only will you get updates on my life but you'll get updates on posts I've done for various websites and exclusive Freedom Spark info. So, go on, follow me on twitter.

This blog has helped me reach where I am and I'll miss updating it but hey, c'est la vie. I cannot control time.

Peace out,

Katie.

x

So,who'll be big in 2011?

2010-12-17T04:47:00.000-08:00

I can't predict the future but I do have an idea of bands that I think will make it in 2011...

BEAR DRIVER

I watched them play a gig at The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town this week and can indeed confirm that they are the future of indie pop with their sharp, yet light and pleasant melodies.

The Naked and Famous

They make good, rather cool, pop music, yes? And now that everyone's catching onto this fact and they're getting the attention that they deserve, I'm sure they will acheive amazing things in 2011.

Esben & the Witch

I'm listening to their album as I write this which is going to be released in January 2011 and can indeed confirm that it is BIG. I'm pretty certain that it will be just as well praised as albums from their 'witch-house' counter parts: Glasser and Zola Jesus were this year.

Yuck

I don't think I really need to say much about Yuck as if you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know how much I've raved about them over the past year. 2011 WILL be their year, with their debut album set for release.

Matthew and the Atlas

They fit right into the 'nu-folk' scene along with Noah and the Whale (who are also due to release an album in 2011), Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn but this is not to say that they're just another nu-folk band. They are individual and posess the melodic/musical/poetic skills to do great things in 2011.

Spark

Having been the first person ever to interview her back in May of this year, I feel so proud of all of the media coverage she's getting at the moment and trust that she'll do great things in 2011 as she certainly has the drive. Here's the interview:

Having just performed her first set (and only 2nd ever live show) of the Marina and the Diamonds tour, East London songstress, Spark joins me for a brief chat in the Glee Club dressing room. Her dark hair is all clipped back, gravity defying eyelashes frame her eyes and she’s wearing starry hot pants teamed with a fancy looking ruched top; she looks like an authentic pop star already.

We soon establish that Spark’s real name is Jess Sparkle Morgan, yes; Sparkle is her middle name, that’s amazing right? But she mainly goes by the name of Spark whilst on tour due to her manager also being called Jess which can lead to confusion.

Spark tells me that although, leaving education would seem like a big decision for many people, for her, it was not as she would never have considered going to university. She’s only eighteen and left school (the Brit School) yesterday (she was meant to leave on Friday but “slipped out early” to come on tour) and has no intention of returning.

We also discuss how the whole music career thing happened; it seems to have all taken place so rapidly. “I have no idea, one day I was singing in nursery and the next day I’m on tour with Marina” Spark tells me endearingly. She used to play guitar and write songs, wrote her first song at the age of twelve and has always sung but she says that never really had any musical influences at all. She also describes the whole process as: “I just kept writing songs and then after that is all a blur.”

When asked about being on tour with Marina, she seems incredibly excited; having never witnessed one of Marina’s brilliant live shows, she’s eager to see what all of the fuss is about. She also appears to be stimulated by her future plans for after the tour as her debut single ‘Shut out the Moon’ is being released and she is already “living her dream.” “I feel like some-one’s going to pinch me and I’ll wake up and have to drag my sorry arse to school” she tells me with what seems like a mixture of genuine disbelief and delight. And that is where our chat terminates as we ‘hug it out’ in the words of Spark and head off to see Marina.

Sunday Girl

She's beautiful, she has a good eye for fashion, a great voice and can write good pop songs (and produce good cover versions). She's so perfect that there's no way in hell that this girl won't be doing something huge next year!

Duologue

I saw them play at a night that my friend, Jamila, put on in a rather odd venue in Hackney under a block of flats and they were absolutely brilliant. They're like no other bands out their at the moment. They combine distorted guitars with piano riffs and electric violins. Think of Muse, but of their faces on MDMA. I will be posting more on these boys soon! Keep your eyes peeled!

Too Young to Love

Hailing from Madrid, Italy; I'd say that this band are the most diverse choice on my list. Their music is a mélange of witch house, indie, shoe gaze and classic pop. Thus, giving them the sound of The Big Pink, mixed with These New Puritans (in some of their more experimental songs), mixed with Fever Rey, mixed with Hurts.

Wild Palms

Simple, catchy indie pop but with a bit of synth and plenty of delicious percussion. I saw them the play the other day too and they proved themselves to be pretty great live.

Clare Maguire

The phenominal voice of 2011. Her voice will blow your songs off just like the likes of Adele and Winehouse did. Her pop songs are great too. Head over to http://www.claremaguire.co.uk/ for a free download of the song below.

Wolf Gang

Now that they're finally getting the praise and media coverage that they deserve for their utterly marvelous pop music, they're heading for big and exciting things in 2011, including the release of their debut album.

The CocknBull Kid

Now that she's focussing on her own music carreer instead of writing songs for other people, Anita Blake is releasing her debut album 'Adulthood' in Febuary 2011 on Moshi Moshi. It will be a great pop album, fact. Here's the time when I interviewed her in November: http://katiewilkinsonblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/cocknbullkid-interview.html

Jamie Woon

This man knows how to mixed beats together and sing. Look, he's great! Beautiful pop music with bitterly dark undertones:

James Blake

The voice, the minimalism; it's all just pure beauty in a musical format.

The Vacccines

Ok, yes, they are another scuzzy, nostalgic, lo-fi indie band. But that doesn't make them any less brilliant.

Summer Camp

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you obviously know how much I love them. With the album release next year and a heavy tour schedule planned, they will achieve mass recognition in 2011, for sure. This video is so cute, it's ridiculous:

Thanks for reading! Have a nice christmas! I love you!

Katie

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Chapel Club -Wintering EP

2010-12-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

As far as dark, atmospheric rock music goes, Chapel Club are one of the best bands of recent times. After the likes of Glasvegas and White Lies, although quality bands, made a mockery of the genre by refusing to wear anything other than black onstage, Chapel Club are making morbidity cool again.

In this new EP, they successfully balance elements of love, life and heartbreak into an even mix of pensiveness, joy and pain. Opener ‘Roads’, introduces the style of the EP; a hazy, blissed out body of relaxed, yet skilful, guitar loops and painstakingly intense lyrics. ‘Bodies’ is a gothic twisted power ballad that conveys feelings of love at its extremity in a truly moving format. ‘Widow’ cements the gothic undertones that the band seems to posses whilst the distorted guitars add contrast to the mellower moments that are present in the EP. Chapel Club’s lyrics are certainly their great strength and throughout Wintering, singer, Lewis Bowman’s poetry skills are uncovered and displayed amongst layers of drums and guitars; the drums allowing movement and adding ‘pop’ qualities.

As soon as the listener starts listening to the EP, they begin to uncover Bowman’s emotions one by one which are so easy to lose yourself in. Wintering plays with the heartstrings with its solid intensity throughout; the lyrics toying with the listeners mind and emotions as Bowman pours his heart out and the band as a whole appear to put everything they have into what they are doing. It is clear that a lot of time, effort and creativity has been put into this EP and it’s certainly a ‘must listen’ and an emotional journey that everyone must embark on.

Summer Camp and Idiot Glee @ The Drop, Stoke Newington

2010-12-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

It's December and now socially acceptable to celebrate Christmas. So when guests arrived at the door of 'The Drop', the basement music venue of 'The Three Crowns' pub on the 3rd of December they were greeted by Summer Camp holding a box of mince pies. The dj was playing the Moshi Moshi Christmas compilation on repeat and Idiot Glee was wearing a flashing Santa hat. The barman also gave me half price drink "because it's Christmas", this was another reason for me to be filled with festive cheer. The fact that basement resembled a Swedish cabin also helped.

At 8.30, the adorable Idiot Glee takes to the stage. His is set is furnished with pretty much all of the songs on his myspace page , including his absolutely beautiful take on Bill Withers's 'Ain't no Sunshine' where he manages to fuse together blues with lo-fi pop. He also gets Luisa from Lulu and the Lampshades up on stage for a duet of 'Baby, it's cold outside' ; their voices gell together magically. Idiot Glee is definitely onto a winner as tonight's performance proves.

And at half past nine, on come headliners, Summer Camp, to a wave of claps and cheers as the room is now full. Their set is a recipe of songs from their 'Young' EP such as ‘Why don’t you Stay’ and ‘Veronica Sawyer’ and favourites 'Was it Worth it' and 'Ghost Train' as well as new songs such as the fantastic 'Losing my mind.’ These songs were sandwiched between onstage banter (including Elizabeth trying to rap) and their wonderful cover of The Waitresses 'Christmas Wrapping' which goes down an absolute dream.

The evening was a complete festive treat on behalf of Moshi Moshi and I'm pretty certain that every single member of the audience had a lovely time. Again next year please Moshi Moshi?

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

2010-12-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

So, it's that time of the year again and whilst everyone is writing their 'Albums of the year' list with no explanation to why they chose each album, I thought I'd do a one sentence explanation per album, apart from my number 1 which gets a paragraph. So here we go, there are some obvious choices and some rather controversial ones...

30. Jónsi - Go

For being a beautifully epic, well orchestrated masterpiece.

29. Wild Nothing - Gemini

For being sweet on the ears

28. Harry's Gym - What was ours can't be yours

Because they deserve more recognition for the brilliant, haunting pop music that they create.

27. Beach Fossils- Beach Fossils

One of the most relaxing, happiness inducing albums of this year

26. Yeasayer - Odd Blood

For being an excellent pop album with a cynical twist

25.Hurts- Happiness

A great pop album

Johnny Flynn - Been Listening

For being lovely

24. Beach House - Teen Dream

For being one of the 'chillwave' albums of the year.

23. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

For the wonderful American folk-pop

22. Everything, Everything- Man Alive

For being utter indie-pop darlings

Freelance Whales- Weathervanes

For the individuality and the delicious intricacy of their music as well as the man at Brick Lane market (whoever you may be) who listens to it on Sundays whilst he works his stall.

21. Tame Impala -Innerspeaker

For the delicious guitar riffs and the trippy ambiance that they conjure

20.The Drums - The Drums

For providing one of the soundtracks to my Summer.

19. Marina and the Diamonds - The Family Jewels

For being one of the best female pop stars of the past ten years.

18. Blood Red Shoes -Fire Like This

Because they're one of my favourite bands and don't get enough credit for their talent in crafting superb rock music.

17. Foals - Total Life Forever

An album that takes you to another place.

16. Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be

The best album to drive to, ever.

15. Bombay Bicycle Club - Flaws

For being one of the sweetest albums of the year

14. Zola Jesus – Stridulum II

An EPIC album

13. Glasser -Ring

For taking you on a journey to a far away land.

12. The National- High Violet

For it's urgent emotion

11. Caribou- Swim

Trippy, yet motivational dance music at it's best.

10. Laura Marling- I Speak because I can

For the mature poetry, collaborations and sleek musicianship.

9. Mystery Jets - Serotonin

One of the best indie albums of the year; brilliant songs songs with brilliant lyrics.

8. Perfume Genius- Learning

For it's ability to take away your breath with just one listen.

7. Villagers- Becoming a Jackal

For Connor's beautifully honest lyrics that tug at the heartstrings.

6. Sleigh Bells- Treats

For being Rad.

5. These New Puritans- Hidden

For the extreme experimentation and for doing things that no band has ever done before.

4. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

For it's polished brilliance and for the songs 'We Used to Wait' and 'Sprawl II' which are two of my favourites of the year.

3. Best Coast-Crazy for you

For reminding me of the best summer of my life

2. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring

This album is already an old friend that I turn to in times of need.

1. Warpaint- The Fool

After being completely and utterly blown away by them at Reading Festival (despite being quite unknown they were literally a highlight of my weekend), I knew that this album was going to special as their set proved that the material they had created was of an incredibly high standard. Since Reading, I long awaited this album and the wait paid off and made me even more happy when it finally arrived. For me, Warpaint's powerful lyrics really strike a chord and are backed by tidy guitar riffs with effects that build up a blissful, hazy ambiance and urgent drumming that captures the intense restlessness that the album seems to possess. I know it may be a controversial choice but I think it definitely deserves the position I've given it.

Twin Sister @ The Lexington

2010-12-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

For original post on The 405, click here.

Kotki Dwa open the show tonight and it’s only their second gig after a three year break. Despite this; they’re on top form. There music lies somewhere between The Wave Pictures and Egyptian Hip Hop; they combine indie style guitar work with obscure keyboard sounds and quirky lyrics which finishes up as a rather exclusive and interesting sound. They even use their mouths to create beeping sounds (to mirror a supermarket scanner) at one point during their set as the singer goes onto sing about particular events that occurred during a supermarket shop.

Still Corners are up next which the audience appears to be extremely excited about, probably having downloaded the glorious free give away ‘Endless Summer’ earlier this year; it was certainly one of my favourite musical discoveries of the summer. The band manage to conjure a soothing air of sixties nostalgia and a kind of disturbing, ghostly ambience that I can’t quite put my finger on. Their performance certainly has a powerful effect on the audience as they stand in silent awe.

Finally, headline band, Twin Sister, take to The Lexington stage; lead singer, Andrea Estella's hair a bold shade of green which made her look like some form of beautiful mermaid/sea creature. Twin Sister maintain the hazy, trippy, dream pop vibes that Still Corners created earlier. Estella’s charisma is astonishing; let’s put it this way, I’ve never wanted to have green hair more than I did whilst watching her in my whole life. Her performance comes naturally, casually even; the whole band’s performance is relaxed and all of the members seem to complement each other without even trying. Twin Sister craft beautiful, tripped out, eighties tinged, romantic pop music as their performance tonight truly cements.

Local Natives @ The Forum, London

2010-12-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

The orginal post on the 405 is here.

Last week I got the chance to witness Local Natives’s celebratory last show of the year before they headed back to the studio to record the next album. It took place at Kentish Town’s HMV Forum, a beautiful venue that was perfect for the occasion.

First up are Cloud Control, hailing from the Australian Blue Mountains (near Sydney) who enchant the audience with their blissful, hazed out, percussive indie folk. They give a polished performance and definitely recruit new fans in the process with their lustrous, distorted guitar riffs that draw comparisons between them and bands such as Tame Impala (who they have already toured with), Local Natives, who they are supporting tonight, whilst the folk vibes lead to Fleet Foxes similarities.

The next band to take to the forum stage are Moshi Moshi favourites Summer Camp, consisting of Jeremy Warmsley and ex Platform Magazine editor, Elizabeth Sankey. They dive straight in with an abridged version of ‘Why don’t you Stay’ from their debut EP, Young, which was released in September, followed immediately after by fan favourite ‘Was it Worth it.’ Their set comprises of material from the EP, such as ‘Jake Ryan’ and ‘Veronica Sawyer’, and new songs such as ‘88’ and ‘Losing my mind’; all 80’s tinged, smile producing, lo-fi pop diamonds of course, in true Summer Camp style. They end their triumphant set with their most recent single ‘Round the Moon’ which goes down a treat; a perfect end to a smooth set.

The venue finally fills up to its full capacity, just in time for headliners, Local Natives, as they take to the stage to mass cheers; an atmosphere of hysteria dominating the room. Firstly, they plunge into ‘Camera Talk’ and the audience is lost in their own excitement. They then play a set comprising of songs from their much loved album, Gorilla Manor, which goes down a dream with the audience as that’s exactly what they came here to witness. Driving percussion and jangly guitar riffs urge gentle dancing amongst the audience, whilst contagious vocal refrains force a group sing-a-long. The crowd’s passion for Local Natives is clear for even the blindest of eyes to see. The band’s set is graceful, humble and everything you’d want it to be. Local Natives are not a band that offer a ‘show’ as such and it suits them down to their bones. They leave the stage after performing an elegant version of ‘Airplanes’ before returning for an encore of the utterly gorgeous ‘Who Knows, Who Cares’ and the heavily percussive, crowd pleaser ‘Sun Hands.’

They then terminate their performance by thanking the audience for having them and London as a whole for being a “second home” to them over past year. Local Natives are certainly unlikely indie-folk heroes but their audience perceive them as such and their performance tonight proves that they deserve the credit they receive.

Frankie Rose and the Outs- Girlfriend Island

2010-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Frankie Rose is usually recognised for her drums/vocal/guitar contribution in scuzzy lo-fi rocks bands: Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls and The Crystal Slits but now she’s founded her own project where she is the is the pinnacle figure, rather than having behind the scenes involvement.

Her new band are entitled Frankie Rose and the Outs. They may sound rather like the other bands that she’s worked with but that doesn’t make them any less wonderful or significant. New single ‘Girlfriend Island’ is as twee as fuck, but not in a pejorative way. In the cold grimness that is winter everyone needs cheering up, and ‘Girlfriend Island’ is a perfect way of doing so; the retro guitar riffs and the sweet, harmonious vocal refrains could warm even the coldest of hearts.

Frankie Rose certainly knows how to construct an almost perfect retro pop song; her new single is proof of this. Bands like Frankie Rose and the Outs are keeping the girl band revival alive simply because they do it so well. Frankie’s influences are clear throughout the record as it pretty much reeks of everything that was great about music in the 1960’s. Frankie Rose was a centre piece of this revival and continues to be as she demonstrates during this brilliant new single. The record seems so catastrophic, due its lo-fi, unrehearsed edge, yet pristine at the same time, making it a body of delightful chaos.

Love Blogging

2010-11-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Stevie MacKenzie-Smith, the author of Discoteque Confusion and Alex Fury, the fashion director at SHOWstudio.com talk about the importance of blogging in the fashion industry. If you love fashion or blogging, you should probably watch this:

Isn't this man wonderful?

2010-11-23T03:01:00.000-08:00

His name is Gareth Jones. He's produced albums for everyone from Depeche Mode to Nick Cave to Interpol and Mogwai. He's currently working with Emmy the Great (one of my favourite artists) for her new album, which I'm very excited about. Here's a little documentary on him:

Cocknbullkid Interview

2010-11-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

After being thrown out of a Marina and the Diamonds sound check; I joined Anita Blay (Cocknbullkid) in her dressing room at Kentish Town’s ‘Forum’. We start off by discussing how she has found touring with Marina and the Diamonds. She tells me that it’s been “really good fun and it’s a bit sad that it’s coming to an end”, however, once the Marina tour is over she’s heading straight out on the road with Kele. She was a “big fan of the first Bloc Party album, particularly the second single ‘Everything you wanted’” and is looking forward to seeing him live as a solo artist.

The topic of conversation then shifts to the new EP, ‘One Eye Closed’, her first EP release since her début EP two years ago. She seems pleased with it and is aiming to release her first album in February, which she will be calling ‘Adulthood’, “not to be confused with the film,” she adds.

I ask her what music she’s been listening to recently. She replies with “I’ve just slowly started listening to music again because I didn’t want to listen to anything whilst I was writing the album so excuse me if this reference is really old but I’m really into Sleigh Bells at the moment.” This sways the conversation to how I’m seeing them support MIA tomorrow and Anita seems to be a big MIA fan as well.

I follow up this question with “do you go to many gigs?” but she tells me that she made a decision that she wouldn’t go to any gigs, listen to any music or read any magazines whilst she was recording the album so the last gig she went to was the Sleigh Bells instore at Rough Trade. “I haven’t been to any gigs in a while but I’m getting back into it now” she informs me. The ‘not listening to music’ concept seem to be more about avoiding finding out what everyone else is doing and what’s ‘cool’ rather that being influenced as Anita tells me that she definitely draws musical inspirations from: Kate Bush, The Beach Boys, Morissey and The Smiths. The fact that she likes The Smiths leans the conversation towards Britpop as a whole and when asked about the Pulp reunion she seems very excited.

We then move onto the inevitable topic of her writing for other artists, which she tells me has always been a side project of hers. “We’ve just finished some songs for a new girl band and we’re just sorting out some other things as well at the moment” she tells me conspicuously, trying not to give too much away. I then ask her whether she plans on focussing more on her own music career now that the album is all set to be released but she says “I’ll still keep writing for other people; I have a few sessions booked as it’s very important to me as I enjoy writing so much and so I try and do it parallel to my own stuff, when I’m not too busy with it.” Writing is clearly a big part of her life and she loves to keep busy with it.

We then move onto the other inevitable question that I felt very obliged to ask of why she got rid of the ‘The’ in her stage name. She tells me it was just because she felt it was a bit of a mouthful, “it’s neater this way.”

On the topic of image, particularly onstage, Anita feels that “it is important to a degree. If you’re claiming to be a pop star then it kind of is but if you’re just sat there playing a guitar and singing and that’s all it is and it’s not a show then you could just turn up in just your jeans and a t shirt.” I ask her if her musical performances are a ‘show’ and she tells me of her designs and ambitions for it to be but she knows that she’s “just got to take baby steps to make this happen but in the meantime I just think that charisma and just a good performance is a good show.”

I close with the question of whether she has a favourite venue that she would like to play at and she tells me of how she would love to play in a church or a cathedral as “it wouldn’t be great for acoustics but there would just be something really grand and beautiful about it and my mum would be so chuffed to see me sing in a church. I sung in churches when I was younger as I was in the choir but never at the front or anything.”

MANDINGO EPISODE 1

2010-11-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

Remember I posted the trailers for Mandingo! on here? You know, the odd swingers parties full of black men? Well here's episode 1, it's all very strange and slightly disturbing....

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These people love blogging as much as me:

2010-11-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

Fashion bloggers Richard Nicoll and Disneyrollergirl explain to Vice why they are such fans of blogging:

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Lykke Li @ Heaven

2010-11-07T14:50:00.001-08:00

So, this Thursday I finally got to witness Lykke Li perform live after always having a burning desire see her. It was an absolute pleasure, apart from the disgusting couple to the side of us that were all over each other like a terrible rash.

After no support act, the audience were pretty hyped to see Lykke Li to say the least. The crowded (but not too crowded) venue, Heaven, was filled with excited fans. At 9 o clock, on came Lykke and her band, head to toe in black, looking rather like a widow in morning. She opened with a one of the new songs that's set to feature on her new album which is soon to come out. It was sounding delicious and Lykke performed it well as she danced and teased the curtains which were being blown around by a wind generator. This dancing and curtain teasing remained part of her 'act' throughout the show and worked nicely as it really suited her dark, yet sexual persona.

Little Bit:

'I'm Good, I'm Gone'

The set was scattered with a handful of songs from the new album and classic songs from her début, 'Youth Novels'. The new songs were sounding like fresh and brilliant pop songs whilst the old songs went down with the audience a dream. Highlights of the set included: 'Little Bit', 'I'm good, I'm Gone', 'Dance, Dance, Dance' and her new song (which is up for free download from her website ), 'Get Some.' She also sung a cracking cover of the Big Pink's 'Velvet', which she completely put her on special twist on and made it sound quite far away from the original.

Inevitably, she performed an encore, during which she played: 'Possibility' and 'Unrequited Love.' This was a beautiful way to terminate her stunning set with the audience singing along in unison, gathering a really friendly, harmonious atmosphere; something which unusual for a London gig. However, despite being on for almost an hour, her set did seem quite short (possibly due to the lack of support act) and she finished without having performed fan favourites 'Tonight' and 'Everybody but me.' But apart from this, my first Lykke Li live experience was pretty pleasurable.

A new installment of Vice's Guide to travel...

2010-10-28T14:35:00.001-07:00

MANDINGO - "A African male who knows that he has a huge penis that can hit all night and keep a female coming back for more."

This will blow your mind.

VBS travels to Tampa, Florida – home of Americas fastest growing fetish: interracial swinging. Its a scene run by a mysterious gangbang crew known as The Florida Mandingos.
Our guide is Art Hammer, the founder of the Florida Mandingos, a group of discreet, professional, educated, intelligent, physically fit, drug and disease free, well-hung black gentlemen, age 24-45, that specialise in hot, intense, nasty gangbangs for couples/females who love big black dicks and black dick fantasies!FOR REALZ.

Here are the trailers. These will give you a brief idea of how bizarre/insane the whole thing is:

(Watch out for the first epsiode - coming next week on VBS.tv)

Maps & Atlases Interview

2010-10-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post my Maps and Atlases interview up here that I did for The National Student. Here it is:

I’m sat in the beer garden in Shoreditch’s ‘Cargo’ (finally, after having gotten lost on my way there) with Dave Davison and Erin Elders from Maps and Atlases.
In the middle of a UK tour the band are now in London following what was apparently a truly beautiful set at Deaf Institute in Manchester. As they often do they finished with an acoustic set in the middle of the audience, a special event always enjoyed by both band and crowd.

“It makes a nice change to play acoustically and it is a lot more personal with the audience,” Davison tells me. They also tell me that it’s good to play acoustically as they get so used to playing with amps that it’s great to just play some real “human” songs and give the pieces more feeling.

When asked whether it’s their first UK tour, they tell me of how they toured with Foals two years ago and how much fun it was and how they’re enjoying “hanging out in London” on this tour as they didn’t get a chance to on the last one.
They’ve been on tour since May promoting the recently released and brilliant album Perch Patchwork and they’ll be pretty much on tour until December. Despite the tough touring schedule the band don’t seem phased by it and look forward to life on the road.

I ask them how they feel about the label ‘Math Rock’ which they are often attributed with. “People can’t help but label things, it’s natural”, says Elders.

“We don’t really like the label of ‘Math Rock’ as it makes the music sound like it’s far more calculated than it actually is; we like to think that our music is created naturally. We do definitely think that the guitar work is complicated though, we like to keep our guitar riffs intricate,” Davison chips in.

We move onto discuss why they released two EP’s and then an album rather than releasing just two albums. They say they wanted the EP’s to be short and sweet and full of mainly upbeat songs and that it wouldn’t feel right to put them together. They were created to be just two small bodies of work.

“We’d say that the album is more an equal mix of upbeat songs and slower songs which is exactly how we wanted it to be like, that’s why we released it as an album,” Davison adds.

The band point out how they are honoured that Perch Patchwork was the 100th release on the acclaimed and prestigious label FatCat (home to the likes of Frightened Rabbit, Sigur Ros, Brakes and Animal Collective).

“We didn’t actually realise that it was going to be the 100th release until after the album had been made but it was pretty exciting when we found out. We didn’t really celebrate it because we didn’t really realise,” Davison explains.

Answering the inevitable ‘what’s next’ question the band say they will be returning to the UK after a string of European dates for gigs in Liverpool and Dublin before heading back to America to continue their relentless touring.
Perch Patchwork is out now on FatCat records

www.mapsandatlases.org

COULDN'T BE MUCH MORE OBSESSED WITH THIS....

2010-10-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Like Crystal Castles? Like their second album? Like their song 'Not in Love'? Well it's just been made even better with the aid of Robert Smith....

I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I heard this; it excited me so much.

Over and out,

Katie

Lykke Li - Get Some

2010-10-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

Having been away for a couple of years, Lykke Li's return has been much awaited. I'm very excited to say that the wait is over and she's giving away her come back single with a B Side included for free.

'Get Some' seems to be a complete and utter oxymoron to the mellow B side 'Paris Blue' which showcases a delicate side of Lykke Li, in a similar way that songs like 'Tonight' did on her début album, 'Youth Novels'. Contrastingly, upbeat future pop hit 'Get Some' contains brash lyrics, such as "Don't pull down your pants before I go down" and "I'm your prostitute, you're gonna get some." Only Lykke Li could pull this one off.

Lykke Li - Get Some by radarmaker

Both songs can be downloaded from her Official Website.

WARPAINT- THE FOOL

2010-10-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

After triumphant performances at Reading and Leeds this year which proved that Warpaint had more potentially brilliant material other than free download 'Billie Holiday', the music industry was all over Warpaint like a contagious rash.

Despite having been around for ages, Warpaint seem to have only really broken into the music industry this summer, which gives the impression that they seem to have come out of nowhere to sell out shows and produce a highly rated album. A delight for them I'm sure after all of that time they've spent waiting for that moment to come.

Warpaint successfully express many feelings that a typical human being has ever felt in their stunning début 'The Fool' in a distressed art-rock format. Guitars are effortlessly tight, yet relaxed whilst drums are sharp and driving. Lyrics are poetic, yet simple, production minimal and a beautiful hazy, trippy atmosphere is created, leaving listeners in a blissful, peaceful place.

There are questions as to whether this is a conceptual, feminist album due to lyrics such as "What's the matter? You hurt yourself? Opened your eyes and there was someone else?" (from recent single 'Undertow') but I still think that Warpaint are too ambiguous with their lyrics for anyone to label it a feminist album. Warpaint display their emotions throughout 'The Fool' yet with an air of precaution. The album is only a slight incite into their minds, no-one can understand what they were thinking when they wrote the album and quite frankly, I really wouldn't want to know. It would ruin the mystic ambiance that the album possesses.

'The Fool' proves that Warpaint are certainly a talented quartet of young women with the potential to achieve fantastic things. With 'Undertow' having gone down so well with the media and reaching playlists and grabbing listeners attention all over the world, who knows how amazingly songs like 'Bees', 'Composure' and ' Majesty' will be received which also contain a similar commercial potential. Another standout track is 'Baby', an acoustic song that reveals heart tugging vulnerability and offers a stunning alternative to layered reverbed guitars.

This is certainly one of the most interesting and spectacular albums of the year.

NME Tour- KOKO

2010-10-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

The first band I see at Koko this evening are East Londoners ‘Flats’ who have provided support on all of the dates of the tour. Flats manage to successfully divide the audience into lovers and haters. Half of the audience detest their abrasive punk rock that’s delivered with typical punk arrogance whereas the other half pogo like nutters. Their set is brief though due to their songs all being under 3 minutes, so those that didn’t enjoy them were put out of their misery pretty soon. I found their set entertaining, but in the spacious decrotive surroundings of the KOKO, there swagger and energy was lost a little, stick them in sweaty basement and you could have one hell of an act on your hands.

Next up were fellow London boys ‘Chapel Club’ who present the crowd with an emotive set. They put their souls into it, and contrary to popular belief, were actually really great to watch. Their live performance provides focus on the beauty of their lyrics and proves that they have got some decent tunes under their belt. Highlights of the set were: all four singles (particularly the latest single ‘Five Trees’ and set closer ‘All the Eastern Girls’) as well as a new song entitled ‘Bodies’ which was utterly gorgeous.

The stage is scattered with bird cages filled with fairy lights and then the moment that the majority of the crowd has been waiting for arrives as The Joy Formidable take to the stage, lead singer Ritzy looking rather like an exorcised porcelain doll. Her lacy black dress, contrasting to her pale, snow white skin and bleach blonde hair. They head straight into ‘Spectrum’, an unusual choice as it’s a lesser known song. In fact, it’s not until, ‘The Greatest Light is The Greatest Shade’, which is the fourth song in that they play one of their ‘hits.’ They then carry on bashing out these hits, much to the audience’s pleasure before inviting Paul Draper to the stage to perform o0n ‘Greyhounds in The Slips.’ Next they dive straight into their Christmas song (oddly) ‘My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees’ which was a lovely, more mellow moment of their performance. They close with crowd pleaser, ‘The Last Drop’ but then obviously, as headliners do, return to stage for an encore. Ritzy thanks the audience humbly and the band plunge into fan favourites ‘Whirring’ and ‘Cradle’ and the roof is raised, the atmosphere electric, the crowd buzzing. This is visual evidence that there are some very passionate Joy Formidable fans out there.

Being a 'fresher' in London....

2010-10-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

I was asked to write an article about being a 'fresher' for Uniplanet. Here it is:

So, having only started university this September, I had my first experience of 'Freshers week' and the whole general moving away from home experience.

Freshers week was, in a word- cliché, everyone was so excited about being 'a fresher' and attending really bad club nights and drinking the cheapest drink on the house. These events were also quite costly, I thought for students anyway and for their bad quality. I moved to London to experience the best of the nightlife. Having grown up in Stoke-on-Trent where nothing exciting ever happens, I was very eager to head out in London to some of the best clubs/clubnights and to witness some of the local musical talent.

So eager in fact, that on the Friday of Fresher's week, I completely abandoned Freshers week at Roehampton and headed to London Bridge for the launch night of The Counter Culture Project . It's a 99 day art/music/film exhibition taking place at a double roomed pop-up venue in London Bridge under a disused rail arch. The atmosphere was friendly, the music was good, DJ sets came from the coolest and the most current people in the industry, the lighting was phenomenal and the bar was relatively cheap and sold my favourite tequila! What more could you want? Most of the events happening there are also under a tenner, pretty student friendly really.

There have been some down sides of course to moving away from home, which I've found are: the prices of things (chicken, washing, standard things that you didn't know were so expensive), missing my friends from home that I have so much in common with, travelling (don't get me wrong, the London transport system is good, it's just the killer 3 buses home from central London at night are utterly lethal.)

From a personal prospective Freshers week is great as you're free, you have your own personal space, you are constantly meeting new people and no work to feel guilty about not attending to! But, if you're looking for interesting or fun events you're best paying the price and heading to central London for nights out rather than staying at the uni to watch some people from Hollyoaks (I don't know who they are, I don't watch Hollyoaks, I don't even have a TV) DJ quite badly.

So, in conclusion. Freshers week was great for meeting people as I met a collective bunch of people from 1st years to 3rd years but the events, at my university at least, were terrible, so bad infact, that I fell asleep at my own fresher's ball!

Glasser @ Rough Trade East

2010-10-12T03:55:00.000-07:00

It’s a warm Sunday afternoon in Rough Trade East, the crowd mainly consists of industry types, hipsters and foreign tourists. I’m drinking piping hot coffee (bad idea, I know) and I’m practically burning up, especially as I manage to spill it all down my white top.

At six o clock, Glasser takes to the stage wearing what can only be described as a plastic, black cagoule with her band in tow, who are sporting what look like white forensic scientist outfits. One of them fiddles with a laptop and bangs a drum rather passionately, whilst the other one plays a synthesized guitar.

Glasser introduces herself humbly and commences her set with ‘Apply. ’ The audience are immediately hooked, even those that may not be aware of her.

Her onstage confidence has multiplied considerably in the past 7 months since her tour with the XX, where she didn’t even tell the audience who she was, leaving the Birmingham Academy audience puzzled, yet intrigued. This new found confidence is quite understandable given the press’s brilliant reaction to her debut album ‘Ring.’ Glasser’s presence is undeniable: the quirky vocals, the sharp dance moves, her great rhythmic awareness, she’s every audience’s dream. It’s hardly possible to take your eyes off her.

As her set comes to a bittersweet end when she concludes with ‘Tremel’ having only played a few songs, it’s a disappointing moment as the audience clearly wants her performance to go on a lot longer to feed their new found fascination. And, also after having heard the celestial debut album (as a lot of the audience have), who wouldn’t want it to? She clearly has a lot of material to show off. You just have to catch her at a ‘proper’ Glasser gig to witness it. All in all, a very encouraging set from Glasser, she’s a definite ‘must see.’

To see orginal Hive Magazine post, click here

Mark Ronson and the Buisness intl- Record Collection

2010-10-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

See original Faux Magazine post here

Having had this album bubbling away for a while, it is obvious that a lot of time, care and creative energy went into this record. Also, no-one really knew what quite to expect from it. Having already executed a hip-hop based record and a soul based record, the question was: what would Mark Ronson do next?

Record Collection merges a diverse mélange of genres, from hip hop to rap, from soul to 80′s tinged synth pop music. Guests are just as diverse as the music itself: Kyle (of ‘The View’ fame), Rose Elinor Dougall (ex- Pipette and solo artist), Boy George, Q Tip and MNDR, to name a few. No-one would have pictured these artists together other than Mark Ronson.

With ‘Record Collection’ Ronson still cements himself as the crafter of good pop music, with contagious lyrical hooks and perfectly polished production; yet as an album, ‘Record Collection’ fails to quite grip the listener throughout. ‘Bang Bang Bang’ (the phenomenal single featuring MDMR and Q-Tip) was the first song released from the album and is still the best on there; the rest of the songs on the album fail to out do the mind blowing brilliance of ‘Bang Bang Bang’, which leaves listeners disappointed.

It also lacks depth, which was inevitable as Ronson’s a producer, rather than an artist. There’s no emotional attachment to any of the album’s content to Mark Ronson or the artists involved on the album.

Stand out tracks are definitely: ‘Bang Bang Bang’, new single ‘Somebody to Love me’ (featuring Boy George), ‘You Gave me Nothing’ (featuring Miike Snow and Rose Elinor Dougall), ‘Hey Boy’ (featuring Rose Elinor Dougall and Theophilus London) and Glass Mountain Trust (featuring D’Angelo.)

Dr Martens 50th Birthday

2010-10-09T04:32:00.000-07:00

On the 29th October Dr Martens will host a party (in a secret east London venue) to celebrate their 50th Birthday.

'Black Lips' are set to headline, whilst 'Mazes' are also on the bill with critically acclaimed London punk rockers 'Flats' join them fresh off the NME Tour.

Also on the line-up is London surf pop band 'French Kissing' and dj sets will come from 'Sexbeat' and 'This is music. '

All in all, it's set to be a great night, tickets are free (you just need to register here ) and booze is cheap!

Glasser- Ring

2010-10-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

When Glasser bagged themselves a support slot for the XX on their March tour, they were virtually unknown, particularly in England anyway. Since then they have been gradually creeping their way up the rungs of the hype ladder and have become rather well rated. Their debut album, 'Ring', that they'd been quietly piecing together proves them to live up to such impressive press responses.

Not only do they seem to keep an aloof attitude with regards to themselves, their music and trying to sell it but their music is just pretty much the definition of cool, therapeutic, you could even argue.

I've said it before about Glasser and I'll say it again, the echoes of similar artists like Fever Ray for example, are enchanting rather than annoying, the tribal vibes so seductive and imagination stimulating that I'm pretty sure there are few people in the world that would not find their music at the least interesting or intriguing.

Experimental rhythms,sinister Gothic undertones, inconspicuous noises and odd instruments are present. Whilst haunting lyrics involving the natural elements make the listener forget that nearly everything the band is doing is done on Apple Macs.

Mesirow's vocals seem almost ceremonial. Throughout 'Ring' the mind is taken on a trip to a parallel universe of sacrifices, costumes, passion and drumming. Where many albums fail to have such a strong impact, Glasser succeed this with flying colours, quite literally. The whole album is pretty much a complete and utter trip fest, who needs acid when you have 'Ring?' Even the album artwork is a visual mind fuck. Listeners are taken on a complete break from reality, an adventure even, as all of the best albums do.

Glasser may not be the most radio friendly band in the world but this completely doesn't matter. This album is a master piece designed to be listened to in one sitting, not a break up of pop songs. It's certainly one of the most ground breaking albums of the year so far.

So I did a review of Dot-to-Dot Festival for the newspaper at uni...

2010-10-01T05:06:00.001-07:00

I know I've already done one but here's my new version:

Dot-to-Dot Festival

On bank holiday Monday (31st May), I attended my first ever Dot-to-Dot festival in Manchester and one of the first festivals of the summer!

One of the highlights for me was definitely Liars, in the 'Club Academy' AKA, the sweaty basement of the Academy. There's nothing quite like the release you get from prancing around to dirty rock music is there? Truly liberating stuff. Liars intense build ups and break downs worked well on stage, you could sense everyone in the crowd waiting for the heavy break down to arrive to throw themselves around to. A really stimulating set to say the least.

Another highlight was seeing one of my favourite bands ever, Blood Red Shoes. I had the pleasure of interviewing Steven in a shower once, it was amazing.

Blood Red Shoes were on fire and the crowd reaction was completely electric. It made me feel so proud to have watched them grow and to see now how people appreciate them. Manchester Academy 2 is the biggest venue I'd ever seen them play at and it was brilliant. They lured in a good crowd that were singing and bouncing along to every lyric, having been a fan of them since pretty much the beginning of their career, I felt so happy to see them go down so well.

The Chapman Family were also great. I'd never seen them play live before, in fact, I hadn't heard much from them since their single 'Kids.' Kingsley Chapman, the lead singer, was hurling himself all over the stage in a Gothic, tormented kind of way. At one point he even 'attempted' to strangle himself with the microphone lead, some would find that silly and attention seeking, but I guess I enjoyed it. They also proved that there’s more to them than just ‘Kids.’

We then headed off to see Wild Beasts in Academy 2. They were wonderful of course, as critically acclaimed. They whipped the crowd into a hazy, blissful frenzy, fantastic!

I then proceeded to get drunk on Red Stripe whilst waiting around to watch Mystery Jets, a band that I hadn’t seen play live in about a year and a half.
There was such a brilliant atmosphere, everyone was singing along and jumping in unison. The band seemed pretty pleased with this response; there was a great love for Mystery Jets in that rather large room. They split their set well between stand out songs from their album 'Twenty One' and songs from Serotonin (bear in mind, it was unreleased at that point, its brilliance had not yet been unleashed!)

From Mystery Jets we ran straight to see Los Campesinos! as their set had already started down in Club Academy. I'd like to think that me and my best friend, Emily made a dramatic entrance as we jumped/danced down the stairs and through the crowd whilst bellowing the lyrics to Death to Los Campesinos! as they played it on stage, just because we’re geeky indie kids like that. We went to join a large clan of people who were jumping and singing along to every word as passionately as the band themselves whilst musically unknowledgeable onlookers just looked permanently confused. Their set was superb, love and energy gushing through my veins excitedly. Yes, I am far too obsessed with this band. Their outstandingly beautiful lyrics were emphasised well during their live performance, it was an incredibly strong performance. Their set terminated with 'Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks' and Gareth Campesinos! in the crowd, surrounded by happy and devoted fans.

I was slightly upset that Los Campesinos! ran over their allotted time as I really wanted to catch ‘Yuck’ at Deaf Institute. The one song I saw was beautiful though, as was the venue itself. It reminded me of a chapel on the inside with its dome structure but with vintage looking bird print wallpaper and toilets that looked like they'd come straight from a Mexican bar scene in an old film.
To end the night we went to see Zane Lowe DJ in a tiny club called 'Factory (FAC251)' which was rather fun. Zane Lowe is certainly a skilled man. He played far too much drum and bass and dubstep though, that's literally all he played! But if you’re into that stuff, definitely go and see him at Fabric on the 7th October!

For £28 Dot-to-Dot is definitely worth the money. They also seem to have a strong line-up every year. Well done Dot-to-Dot!

Vice team up with Palladium Boots

2010-09-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Having already teamed up with Palladium Boots before,Vice have teamed up with them again to bring you this Johnny Knoxville (from Jackass) video. In it Johnny discovers Detroit, the city that famously represents the "death of the American dream." He focuses on it's music and art with pop-ins from mainstays like punk band the Dirtbombs and hip-hop artist Black Milk (let's not forget that Detroit became the home of Motown in the 60's). This video gives an excellent insight into the creativity currently present in Detroit, especially the young creative minds that are working together to re-build their city into something great.

Summer Camp-Young EP

2010-09-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

Summer Camp got under way when Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey started writing music together last October, since then, they've provoked quite a stir as they've already played most of this year's summer festivals and have released a 12" single (Ghost Train). Last week (the 6th September- I forgot to post this review until now) saw the London duo release their first EP on Moshi Moshi as well as a tour with Sunderland boys 'Frankie & the Heartstrings' which they are due to persue this October.

Throughout 'Young' Summer Camp combine all elements of pop music from the last few decades, probably subconsciously. Despite their ongoing obsession with the 80's, the EP definitely does not seem to be purely 80's influenced.

In an era where nostalgia seems to be making a comeback, Summer Camp are bang on trend, yet it all seems so accidental which makes them even more endearing as initially the idea of sharing their music wasn't what attracted them to writing music. This is one of the things that set Summer Camp apart from their nostalgic pop counterparts such as: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Warpaint, Best Coast, The Dum Dum Girls and The Drums. In this EP, not only have they created blissful, youthful, pop music but they appear to enjoy doing it as well as their listeners. It's music for themselves, rather than just attempting to make effortlessly cool music for people to engulf themselves in.

During the course of the EP, Summer Camp explore various elements of youth from first love to house parties to drunken nights and break ups. 'Veronica Sawyer' describes being at a house party full of drunken strangers, whilst 'Round the Moon' sounds as if it's come straight off the soundtrack of a cheesy 80's film with a young, teenage target audience.

Lo-fi production eliminates all elements of possible corniness whilst keyboards have been successfully experimented with. This EP promises that Summer Camp are onto a winner.

Jamie Reynolds meets filmmaker Jack Bond.

2010-09-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

WOW, I LOVE this!

Jack Bond is one of Britains most radical filmmakers and over a fifty year career has redefined documentary, art-house drama, music video and television.

Jamie Reynolds is lead-singer of Klaxons, one of Britains most visceral, important bands. In 2007 they won The Mercury Music Prize with their debut album and their follow-up, Surfing The Void, was released on August 23rd.

In the summer of 2010, these two artists were brought together by VBS.TV, Vice magazines groundbreaking online TV station. After reading about Jack Bonds films in Vice a year before, Jamie Reynolds had became an obsessive, collecting his films and discussing them endlessly with the only people he knew whod seen them, Vice writers and VBS producers. Jamie was desperate to meet Jack and VBS agreed to help make it happen.

In VBS meets Jack Bond, Jamie and Jack spend the day together in Hampstead pubs recounting Jacks tales of loosing 50 mental patients on a shoot, bumping into famous friends, and discussing Jacks relationship with Jane Arden. Eventually, drunk, they finally end up at the fun fair, reciting poetry on the teacups.

In 1965, Bond, then 28, spent two weeks with Salvador Dali filming the revolutionary documentary Dali in New York with his lover Jane Arden. They would remain the only film crew Dali would ever agree to work with. The pair worked together on a series of dense, obscure, psychedelic films: Separation (1967), The Other Side of the Underneath (1972), Vibration (1975), and Anti-Clock (1979). In 1982 Arden killed herself and Jack banished the films to the Technicolor vaults. They would remain there unseen for over 20 years, until the BFI released them on DVD last year. Jacks work is now an inspiration for a new generation of avant garde, fearless filmmakers.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Counter Culture Project

2010-09-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

As festival season grinds to a halt (unless you're lucky enough to be attending Offset and Bestival, I'm very jealous you are, I'm all out of money), moods darken, the sky darkens, the world becomes a vat of darkness in general. Ok, that was a slight exaggeration but if you're anything like me, you get rather depressed in winter. But if you are a Londoner, you are in luck! Counter Culture has come to rescue you from your state of dismay!

Counter Culture is a 99 night project (it's taking place EVERY NIGHT for the next 3 months) launched by a group of dedicated, open minded individuals commencing on the 24th September and ending on the 1st January (yes, that does mean a cracking New Years Eve party is coming your way).

It is a project taking place in a venue under London Bridge Station (7-9 Crucifix Lane to be precise) that aims to showcase the best in the world of art, music, literature, film and theatre of the moment. Expect anything, anything at all. From the UK's hottest DJ's to the exhibitions of immensely talented photographers. At Counter Culture anything creative goes.

You'd be a fool not to attend any of the brilliant events that Counter Culture has to offer, the listings are here , look, they are looking impressive so far, yes? And there are a lot more to be added! KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED.

You should also totally join the mailing list as the first 100 people to join get free entry to the project launch on the 24th September which saves you £12 and is sure to be an excellent night!

DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!!

Katie
X

Reading Festival 2010

2010-08-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

After having arrived on the Wednesday (one of the worst mistakes I've ever made) and getting all of my belongings saturated by the rain whilst putting my tent up and having watched it torrential rain for 2 whole days and having wrecked my military boots in the mud, let's just say I was in desperate need of something to cheer me up. This something turned out to come in the form of a 15 piece female 'Alt-choir' wearing tassells and ribbons and headdresses in every colour of the rainbow and holding a banner a banner which read 'This is merely a distraction from the inevitable' on Friday afternoon. Some would say 'GAGGLE' are bunch of diverse individuals that lack sanity but who says that's a negative thing? The security guards at Reading had apparently christened them 'Radio Gaggle.' But the harmonies work, their ideas and style are original, their costumes are brilliant, the choral directer (is there a proper musically correct name for this?), Deborah, was already cracking open a bottle of wine at 12pm, what more could you want from a band?

I then headed off to catch a bit of Surfer Blood who were...okay. Yet, surely they are just a not quite so talented version of The Drums? However, I then headed straight to catch a bit of Funeral Party, an Irish rock band whom I was pleasantly surprised by, the crowd lapped them up too, which always helps.

I then got drunk on vodka, cider and wine and watched Summer Camp, Jeremy Warmsley's new project with Elizabeth Sankey, former editor of online cult magazine 'Platform.' Their fun 80's tinged pop lightened up my drunken emo phase that I was experiencing as did Elizabeth's onstage dancing and sequined jumpsuit.

And then there was teenage hipster band Egyptian Hip Hop who's demos have impressed industry types all over the blogsphere and radio, a band who I've been fond of for a while, yet, I must admit their set was quite underwhelming. It seems they have a lack of live practice which showed in their performance. That said, they do now possess some brilliant songs, the album should be good at least.

From one teenage band to another...I watched Californian band AVI Buffalo who proved themselves to be masters of heartfelt indie pop. Though the real American stars of the afternoon were certainly Warpaint, the all female creators of fuzzy surf rock/pop music. There seems to be a lot of the same sort of thing about right now (eg. Best Coast, Still Corners, The Dum Dum Girls) but there is a reason for this: It's amazing! Something tells me their EP which is coming out in October will be something pretty special. Their music is lushness personified.

From there I went to a very rammed NME tent for Mumford and Sons, I don't really feel like I should review them as I was too far back to see them and had the most disgusting couple in front of me which was distracting. The girl behind me even said to me "oh god, they'll be shagging on the floor in a minute" whilst the guy next to her shouted "just get a johnny and fuck her already", so yes, I was forced to leave.

I fled to somewhere that I was a lot happier at: Blood Red Shoes's gig in the Festival Republic tent, which was excellent, they just get better every time I see them. It's so nice to see them do well and to see their set go down well with the audience as I feel they are a band that really are underrated. It also makes me feel proud to have interviewed Steven in a shower (just scroll back a few pages, you'll find it somewhere, it's worth a read if I don't say so myself).

I then caught the LCD Soundsytem set which was pretty good and James Murphy is great front man, I was just slightly disappointed that they didn't play 'New York, I Love you', not a logical decision at all. It would have gone down a dream with the crowd.

Everything Everything were the first band I saw on Saturday, who didn't fail to impress as they did last time I saw them. They seemed so grateful to have such a wonderful crowd reaction too, yes, I'm a sucker for gratitude. The album is out next week I think, it will be definitely worth checking out, it will have some good pop tunes on, fact.

I then finally watched Yu(c)k, whom if you've been following my blog will already know my complete and utter adoration for their soothing pop music and how I've accidentally missed them play live twice. Well, Daniel, Jonny, Mariko, Max and Ilana definitely lived up to my expectations. Yep, they definitely write blissful pop music, it was lovely.

Another stand out band of the weekend was Freelance Whales. A Brooklyn based band that writing gorgeous, interesting music that I find possesses that same originality as bands such as Arcade Fire. There's nothing in the music industry quit like it, lots of intriguing instruments, stunning hearty lyrics and charismatic stage presence, definitely one of my favourite bands of the moment.

After such a beautiful spectacle, I Blame Coco failed to impress me really. Having been fond of her for a while now and having seen her perform an excellent acoustic set earlier on this summer, I decided I really liked her. Yet, her electric set proved her as 'just another pop act'. She's gone from a quirky ska writer to 'just another pop act' who fails to compete with stronger acts such as Marina and Florence. This said, as she comes across as quite a shy person offstage, the girl gave it her best shot, she gave the audience her heart and soul, yet a lot of the pop content lacked originality.

Darwin Deez was also a definite highlight of the day, having just watched Chapel Club play a surprisingly half decent set, considering their live reputation amongst journalists with some of the guitarist's friends, I stayed in the tent and watched Deez perform an absolute cracker of a set. Also, he seems to be the most loved man in the music industry as he took to the stage to chants of 'Darwin, Darwin' which he seemed thrilled about. In fact the crowd reaction throughout the entire set was insane, as were the band's dancing and the fact that Deez chose a security guard and danced onstage to single ladies with him. So there you have it, everyone loves Deez.

Villagers performed a lovely set, I thoroughly enjoyed eating chips and wotsits and watching lead singer Connor pour his heart out to blissed out spectators. The boy's a cutie pie! And their set made me realise that I need the album in my life! Does anyone have it yet? How is it?

And then it was time for...THE LIBERTINES! I was particularly excited as I was too young to see them (13) when they broke up. They played pretty much everything the crowd wanted to hear really, bar, The Man Who Would Be King, which is all everyone wanted really, a drunken sing and dance along. There were even flares let off and a bit of a fight at one point so security turned the power off half way through their set but then let them return to the stage shortly after. I had fun with my Libertines crazy friend, Eva anyway.

We then ploughed to the front for Arcade Fire, an act which was worth every push and shove and kiss dodging (long story) and standing next to weird old men for. Words just can't describe how beautiful it was. The unity, the insanely capable musicianship that was witnessed by the audience, Regine's outfit, the meaningful lyrics sung in a meaningful way, the stage graphics... It. Was. Magical. It also proved the strength of the new album 'The Suburbs. ' Stand out tracks were: Intervention, We Used to Wait, The Sprawl II, Wake up (obviously), Tunnels and Haiti. It was a BEAUTIFUL SPECTACLE.

If I'd have not known the time I would not have thought that it was 12.45pm when I saw The Joy Formidable in the NME tent. Their set was excellent. Front woman Ritzy was on fire, she smashed up her guitar during the first song. Their excellent simple rock music never fails to impress me. I look forward to their next release, whenever that may be..

I caught Local Natives's set whilst in there, it was great as ever. Good crowd reaction too. They were joined by a few random people onstage at the end, including We Are Scientists.

Me and my friend's then witnessed Los Campesinos! play a thrillingly emotional set, that just wasn't quite long enough considering how good they are, they needed to be higher up on the bill as they are not only one of my favourite bands ever but one of my favourite live bands too. Half an hour set is not enough for them, they have three albums worth of superb material!

We stayed for Wild Beasts who eased our hangovers with their hazy tones. I don't even care that an over excited fan in front of me jumped on my toe and quite possibly re-broke it (I think I broke it at a Silent Disco at Summer Sundae Festival), I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Staying for Wild Beasts meant that we were right at the front for The Drums's set, a band whom I love dearly. They played a really exciting set, despite the fact that they ran out of time to play 'Let's go Surfing.' It was well worth having the BBC cameraman stick a camera in my face throughout the entire set for anyway.

After that, off the Festival Republic tent to see 60's girl band influenced 'The Like', AKA the best looking band in the world, watching them makes you feel so ugly and untalented (they played a great set). They seem far too lovely people to dislike with envy though.

Straight after that was Tame Impala who performed an excellently woozy set whilst shoeless and they gave me a Kit Kat, they know how to win me over, for sure. I was really pleasantly surprised by them, I enjoyed them a lot and shall certainly be investing in more of their material.

The NME tent was absolutely packed for FOALS, who played and alright set but they didn't play 'This Orient', which is the best song they've ever written, why would they do that? I was drunk, I wanted to hear it so badly and dance manically to it. Gutted.

From Foals I headed straight to Caribou, who really impressed me which I didn't expect them to do live. I definitely danced in a drunken haze to them and made friends with some weird boys that crashed me some of their roll ups too. I now must get the Caribou album as what I heard was BRILLIANT.

Klaxons were great, yet, didn't compare to Caribou. The new stuff sounded better live than on the record though, I may have to give the record another listen, maybe it's better than I first thought it was. They played a nice mix of both albums and I found it a really enjoyable set. I'm not sure it was the best way to end the festival though, it made me wish the Sunday headliners were better...

All in all, I am rather satisfied Reading Festival punter. I am sorry that this blog is so long, I just couldn't leave any bands out.

Katie
xxxxx

Like Dinosaur Jr?

2010-08-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here's when VBS interviewed the founding member of the band, J Mascis and talked about his life on the East Coast, Scooby-Doo comparisons and The Stooges, it's pretty interesting, have a watch:

Katie
x

Can you remix?

2010-07-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

At The Creators Project in London last Saturday Jammer, Rodaidh McDonald (producer, of the xx), Sampha, Mumdance and a participating audience created a pop song in just 58 minutes. This was called The Pop Song Panel. This pop music experiment aimed to collaboratively produce a pop hit that would reach out to a vast amount of people and get to number 1 in the UK chart. This experiment resulted in: bass heavy musings on the impact of a free bar, appropriately entitled;‘'Too much alcohol in my system'’ which was a huge hit with the tipsy crowd.

Vice are looking for people to remix 'Too much alcohol in my system' so if you are a technical genius, unlike myself and can remix and want to show off your skills then head here for more info: http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/blog/we-want-you-to-remix-our-pop-panel-songs
Get on it!

Katie X

You should totally follow me on Tumblr...

2010-07-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to my tumblr: http://kwilko.tumblr.com/
* please follow me, I only have 14 followers so far, it is filled with my personal ramblings, rather than me trying to be clever and talk informatively about music/arts/literature etc.. as found on here.

+ twitter obvs: www.twitter.com/katieliz18

and Mflow, you know the one which is a bit like spotify mixed with twitter and last fm: www.mflow.com/katieelizabeth

Katie
xX

THE CREATORS PROJECT LAUNCH PARTY - LONDON

2010-07-19T09:08:00.001-07:00

As you all will know by now if you've been reading my blog recently, I have been getting very excited about The Creators Project. The Launch Party in London took place on Saturday night at Victoria House in Bloomsbury.

Victoria House was overflowing with artists, hipsters and journalists. Films were shown in the auditorium ("I'm Here" a robot love story by Spike Jonze being a particular favourite- see the trailer below), the creators of fascinating electronic art projects which were scattered around the building made inspirational speeches, the music was brilliant (I'll explain more about that later) and alcohol was free and unlimited all night.

Many of the art projects were interactive, for example The Radical Friend installation where you went into a large glass triangular booth, got your face scanned and then it morphed on a big screen. It's purpose: who knows, but it was fun and the guys doing the face scanning looked like additional members of the band, Hurts. There was also interactive 3D drawing, an indoor enchanted, pine forest corridor by Karl Sadler and 'The Blue Box' where each participant put on their favourite song on the laptop, danced around to it whilst being filmed and it was shown on a big screen duplicated. This was a lot more interesting than it sounded, especially after a few cocktails (stand out cocktails were Pom Collins and some sort of gingery one). We met some lovely, friendly people there including Will, The Californian, who we later found hunched over outside looking just a little bit fucked, we couldn't even tell us his name when we asked him, he just said "Will and shit" , two french girls and a guy that we had witnessed performing a Napoleon Dynamite dance routine earlier. Whilst we were waiting to dance, a slightly drunk Peaches was wheeled in on her wheelchair (she has a broken leg) and we saw her dance in her wheel chair. It was filmed, have a watch: (I'm sorry you can't hear too much we were having a rowdy conversation about which dance moves we were going to pull out):

She then went off and performed an excellent DJ set, despite the cast!

And here is us (I'm wearing a blue t shirt and black leather shorts) dancing on this video, we were very drunk and it was only about half past nine, we had already thoroughly taken advantage of the free bar:

We could not find the Ballroom for ages and therefore missed Flats and Yuck (the latter, very, very regrettably as I absolutely adore Yuck, as you probably know if you read my blog or follow me on twitter, this is the SECOND TIME that I've missed them!), I nearly cried when I found out that I'd missed them! But, I soon recovered from my disappointment as Mark Ronson and The Business International performed an utterly amazing set. Mark was joined onstage by guests Q-Tip,MNDR, Kyle from The View and Rose Elinor Dougall and brought to life tracks from all three albums, with Valerie ft. Kyle as a finale.

Kele Okereke was also brilliant, after having sound problems him and his band returned to the stage and delivered an animated, well received set full of not only songs from his solo album (which is out now, you should get it!) but a Bloc Party medley, wrapping things up with the classic, Flux. After this we then went to the toilet and when we tried to come back in for Tinchy Stryder we were denied access as the room was "too full" but ah well, it was still a excellent, memorable and interesting night with free alcohol, stunning art, great music performances and wonderful people. Bravo Vice/Intel, Bravo!
Over and out,

Katie
x

See Spaces by TEETH

2010-07-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

This track is utter brilliance. It's by a three piece electronic punk/pop band (it's pretty hard to describe their music, that's the closest description I can think of) called TEETH. They seem to be getting a lot of attention lately for all the right reasons; the main reason being that they are AWESOME at what they do, which is make sleek, cool electronic music.

They've been knocking around the interweb for a while now and BBC Radio 1 Introducing DJ, Huw Stephens has been playing them for months. Think of a slightly less abrasive Crystal Castles that still maintain a similar rebellious attitude as they infamously hacked into Lady Gaga's account, apparently her password was the title of one of her singles.

The single below, 'See Spaces' is going to be released on the 16th August 2010. They will also be supporting the brilliant New York band 'Sleigh Bells'(seriously, check out their album, definitely a favourite of mine this year so far) on the 9th August at The Lexington in London too, should certainly be a phenomenal gig, make sure if you can you get down to that.

SEE SPACES by TEETH

I love this

2010-07-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

It's Lioness by Dems

<a href="http://dems.bandcamp.com/track/lioness">Lioness by dems</a>

Bombay Bicycle Club-Flaws

2010-07-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

To view the original Faux post, click here

Everyone who’s ever listened to Bombay Bicycle Club knew that if they ever did an acoustic album it would be pretty beautiful. Those judgements appear to have proved correct with the release of BBC’s latest acoustic album Flaws – released this week.

With the distorted electric guitars having been replaced by acoustic guitars, more reflection of Jack Steadman’s lyrics is allowed, shedding new light on older track ‘Dust on the Ground’ from their debut I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose and helping listeners form a deeply rooted love with new tracks such as ‘Jewel’ and recent single ‘Ivy & Gold’ which provide glistening lyrics.

The stripped back songs also remind listeners that BBC are never trying to be anyone else but themselves and that their music is genre defying; they don’t need electric guitars to make their music work. Their lyrics are pure and honest as Steadman pours out thoughts and feelings that are close to his heart like drunken word vomit in his unique, deep, signature voice.

The fine texture of the music permits listeners to hear every single stringed instrument as clear as crystal, each of them intertwining blissfully in a beautifully, complimenting mélange as well as showcasing the bands true musical potential. In ‘Fairytale Lullaby’ BBC present their own version of the classic John Martyn song, Steadman’s voice carrying it well and introducing a new audience to the old song.

Some may interpret Bombay Bicycle Club doing an acoustic album as them going soft and trying to follow in the successful footsteps of Mumford & Sons, but I see it as a brave, bold and interesting change on their behalf that permits listeners an even deeper insight into Jack Steadman’s lyrics and feelings – as well as the musical talent of the band and how the life of their songs is established before being made into intense works of art with an indie-rock twist.

If I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose yanked at your heart strings, just imagine the impact that this album will have on them; it may even snap them.

Flaws is out now on Island Records. You can stream the video for the band’s fabulous cover of Jonna Newsom track ‘Swansea’ below.

Mystery Jets-Serotonin

2010-07-09T04:33:00.000-07:00

Having been teased by free download ‘Flash a Hungry Smile’ and the new single ‘Dreaming of another World’, this album seemed a long time coming. After a couple of years away from the music scene, Mystery jets have returned with a brand new album entitled ‘Serotonin’, which was certainly worth the wait.

The band has said that it’s a continuation of their second album, ‘Twenty One’; this is evident as their general sound hasn’t changed at all really. The only difference is that this album is even stronger than ‘Twenty One’, this record contains just as much heart and soul as 'Twenty One', it is just that riffs and lyrics are more infectious and compelling than ever before.

There are more powerful, anthem like choruses present in this record. I can certainly imagine crowds of people singing along very loudly to the contagious lyrics established on ‘Serotonin’ , particularly on tracks such as the title track; ‘Serotonin’, ‘Show me The Light’, ‘The Girl is Gone’ and ‘Lady Grey.’ And then there are the high pitched lyrical riffs of ‘Flash a Hungry Smile’ and the keyboard riff of ‘Dreaming of another world’ (a song which was written and is sung by Will) that give life to bright, polished pop music with an 80’s twist.

From ‘Flash a Hungry Smile’s ‘Have you heard the birds and bees? They’ve all caught STD’s’ to ‘The Girl is Gone’s ‘You’re spread like butter on the bed linen’ and ‘Fingerprints on a dusty wall, remind me of what went before,’ Mystery Jets get it right every time lyrically in capturing a dark, sinister ambiance, as found on previous record, ‘Twenty One.’

‘Serotonin’ is a glistening gem of an album, made pristine by producer, Chris Thomas that showcases Mystery jets true musical and poetic skills. Let’s just hope that they haven’t peaked too soon and continue to produce such incredible albums.

Katie x

Cassette Playa

2010-07-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

Carri Mundane and Thomas Manat are 21st century fashion pioneers that effortlessly fuse fashion, music and technology together to create magnificent, original clothing. Having already worked for musicians such as M.I.A, The Klaxons and fashion designer, Jeremy Scott it seems things can only get better for the pair. Here's an interview with them as part of The Creators Project where they speak of their thoughts and inspirations behind their pieces and their collaboration with Nike.

Katie
x

Introducing Sunday Girl

2010-07-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

For original Faux Magazine post click here

Sunday Girl – real name Jade Williams – inherited her name working in a pet shop on, yes, you guessed it; Sundays, rather than the popular Blondie song. She’s the creator of smooth electro-pop, and having already bagged a collaboration with legendary producer Diplo on her track ‘Four Floors’ which was her début single in March of this year, her future seems bright. This young lady is starting to get a lot of attention recently not only for her delicious, fuzzy electro-pop music but also for her fashion enthusiasm – she has been blogged about by everyone from Popjustice to ASOS Magazine.

Sunday Girl - Self Control by Sunday Girl

Following on from ‘Four Floors’, new single ‘Self Control’ is set for release on the 26th July. It incorporates blissful production with a serene representation of Laura Branigan’s original captivating lyrics, whilst a third single ‘Stop Hey’ is geared up for a September release. Sunday Girl is effortlessly chic musically – taking in to account her flawless, stylish appearance, she seems to have pretty much everything going for her. Expect to see her all over fashion and music magazines shortly, but in the meantime you can read her blog where she posts her drawings (she does all of her own artwork), her latest fashion interests and music news.

Sunday Girl releases ‘Self Control’ on July 26th. You can download a fantastic remix of ‘Self Control’ by previous New Blood stars Fenech-Soler here and stream previous single ‘Four Floors’ below. Sunday Girls blogs over at her official site here.

Katie x

Introducing Spike Jonze...

2010-06-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Spike Jonze is the man behind Jackass and director of the films 'Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation' and the beautiful 'Where the Wild Things Are'. Spike Jonze is also the magical genius behind videos for Sonic Youth, The Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys, Weezer, Björk, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. As part of The Creators Project, VICE caught up with Spike for an exclusive insight into his world of creativity:

Pretty inspirational stuff yes?

Besos,

Katie
x

Things that I've fallen in love with recently:

2010-06-23T12:29:00.001-07:00

The New Perfume Genius Album- Learning

It's one of the most beautiful things I think I've heard since I first discovered Bon Iver, yes, it's that sickeningly beautiful! I can't even believe I only found out about this band last weekend when Rebecca from Slow Club tweeted a link to the album. You can stream the album on spotify, via my playlist here.

Lost Fiction

There seems to be a new form of indie pop around. It's less energetic and more melancholic, reflective and tugs on the heart strings a little more. It's already been seen in emerging bands like Yuck, Babeshadow and more established bands like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Bombay Bicycle Club. Check out their myspace page for more info.

Download their demo of their song 'Time' here

David Lyre's Marina and the Diamonds Cover

With his extraordinary covers that have the ability to completely change a song and showcase a songs inner meaning, this man's caught the attention of many music journalists recently. Here's why:

You can also download it for free here

Spark- Shut out the Moon (Monsieur Adi Remix)

Fresh from a tour with Marina & the Diamonds, 18 year old, East London raised singer 'Spark' releases her first ever single 'Shut out the Moon' in July on Puregroove Records. Here's the fantastic Monsieur Adi Remix, which I've had on repeat all week!

Spark - Shut Out The Moon (Monsieur Adi Remix) by Pure Groove

Bisous,

Katie
X

The Creators Project Event at Victoria House,London

2010-06-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

On the 17th July The Creators Project is hitting London, bringing with it an array of artists, musicians, designers, panelists, filmmakers and lots of food and drink. Therefore there will be lots of things to see, hear, watch, eat and drink. And if this wasn't a good enough reason to attend, well, you'll be glad to hear that it's free! So make sure that if you don't live in London that you book yourself a hotel room/crash on a friend's floor and get yourself down there for one of the coolest and most interesting events of year! And if you live in/around London then you certainly have no excuse not to be there! It starts at 10am and finishes at 3am, live performances will come from Kele Okereke, Mark Ronson, Filthy Dukes, Trevor Jackson, Mumdance, Flats, Yuck (if you've read my previous posts, you'll know how much I love these people), and Hudson Mohawke whilst you'll also get to experience exhibitions, attend film screenings, and interact with multimedia installations from the following:

Radical Friend (see my earlier blog )

Karl Sadler

Felix’s Machines

Mos Architects

United Visual Artists

Spike Jonze

Nick Zinner (Yes, Nick from the YYY's)

Takeshi Murata

Mark Essen

Peng Lei

Ray Lei

Danny Perez and Animal Collective

ladj ly

Patrick Jean

Sun Haipeng

To find out more about these creators and their projects, and to register for tickets from Monday 28th June please click here

Katie
x

Lissie- Catching A Tiger

2010-06-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Lissie seems to have been an artist that came out of nowhere. With her November 2009 release ‘Why You Runnin’ barely heard of in England, Lissie’s managed to become the word on everybody’s lips with the aid of an exceptional Gaga cover and an ITunes single of the week, entitled ‘In Sleep.’

She’s been playing many of the UK Festivals and her set at Brighton’s Great Escape Festival was not only one of her first but the one that proved her phenomenal talent to those watching. Videos of her set were up on youtube within hours, scoring thousands of hits by journalists and muso’s. The stand out of this set being her collaboration with Hereford’s finest, Ellie Goulding. Having formed a swift friendship with her, they performed a spine tingling version of Lissie’s ‘Everywhere I go’ together. This set sent alarms bells ringing in its spectators; this girl really is talented, her voice angelic yet edgily raw.

Lissie’s debut, ‘Catching A Tiger’ starts with, ‘Record Collector’ a sinister, progressive folk affair that gets increasingly intense as it goes along. “When I swore God, she spoke to me and she told me, oh yes, she told me of all the wonder that she could bring” Lissie sings as if she’s just been having a conversation with a phantom. This is followed by current single ‘When I’m Alone’, a more upbeat pop song and an honest account of her feelings.

Throughout the course of the album Lissie displays her soul to her listeners, from the urgent and naively dreamy fixation she showcases in the previous single ‘In Sleep’ to her adoration of The Mississippi River in her album closer ‘Oh Mississippi’ (co-written by Ed Harcourt), something which feels like it should be sung by a black servant in 1920’s America, or maybe that’s just me and my vast imagination. It certainly possesses gospel vibes anyway. That’s not to say her music sounds dated. In fact, her music is rather refreshing to the ear in an era where a band can consist of one man and his laptop.

Lissie exposes her feminist voice in ‘Stranger’ and offers extreme commercial potential in songs like ‘Loosen the Knot’ and ‘Cuckoo.’ I think that as soon as the rest of the world hears this album, Lissie will be repaid for her album efforts in huge ways. We get the impression that music has always been something firmly lodged in a place close to her heart as she seems to be one of those grounded, passionate American musicians (let’s not forgot she’s a competent guitarist too) that still possess a romantic imagination. In this album, Lissie blends pop music and American country folk in a blissful union, which will be heading through the airwaves of Britain very soon; Lissie will find her way off radio ‘C’ playlists and straight onto the A lists. The pop aspect makes her music radio friendly and the folk adds soul and warmth. It’s impossible not to fall in love with her honesty and charm as well as her captivating hooks. Expect big things from Lissie in the next few months.

Topshop Bandstand Picnics for The Teenage Cancer Trust

2010-06-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended the Topshop Bandstand Picnic at Birmingham University. Playing were: Eliza Doolittle, Summer Camp (fresh from a tour with Slow Club), I Blame Coco (if you read my blog you should know a lot about her by now, I've mentioned her a lot) and Cardiff's Los Campesinos! It was a free event but the proceeds from the food, drink and competetions (raffels, sack races etc.) all went to The Teenage Cancer Trust.

It was the perfect day for it. It was hot,sunny and the end of university/school/college/exams etc... I unfortunately missed Eliza Doolittle and Summer Camp, the latter very regrettably, but I only found out about the event about 30 minutes before it started and Birmingham is an hour journey from Stoke and I then had to hop into a the first taxi I saw from the train station as well, for which I was ripped off £7 for.

T4's Mequita Oliver hosted the event and the DJ sets inbetween acoustic bandstand sets came from 'Broken Hearts' and 'Blonde Ambition,' both dj's doing an excellent job.

Coco Sumner and her band took to the bandstand at around 3 o clock. They played a beautiful acoustic set which included a divine cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain', very topical considering they're playing at Glasto next weekend. It was interesting to see what she would play, as these days, technology is involved a lot in her music, this contrasts to her earlier reggae/ska tinged sounds.

Later, came Los Campesinos! With it being an acoustic set, there was only four of them. They played even more stripped down versions of their more lo-fi songs. They played a lot of songs of their most recent album which came out at the start of this year, 'Romance is Boring' and then a couple of songs from earlier albums, including 'We are all Accelerated Readers' from their glorious début 'Hold on now, youngster!' Their set went down well, especially as there seemed to be a few young Los Campesinos! fans in the audience, rather than people that just seemed to find themselves there.

I think it's safe to say that everyone there enjoyed it, as it was the perfect thing to do on such a lovely day. I hope that The Teenage Cancer Trust host more events like this in the future.

Over and out,

Katie
X

M.I.A album sampler is out!

2010-06-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Ah, words cannot express my excitement about this! SO EXCITED about this album! I'm a massive M.I.A fan, I have been for a long time. This new album seems to have turned a couple of fans as it comes across as more mainstream than her older stuff but I think that her and producer Rusko's attempts to make the album hyperactive and exciting prove this theory wrong. M.I.A's back and she's just as strong as ever.

M.I.A. "/\/\/\Y/\" Snippets from RS on Vimeo.

Katie x

Johnny Flynn- Been Listening

2010-06-12T04:13:00.000-07:00

Johnny Flynn is back with his new album 'Been Listening' but this time without the help of his Sussex Wit following his 2008 debut ' A Larum' which captured the hearts of music lovers. On listening to his debut, my own mother once said to me that she wants me to marry Johnny Flynn.

Opener, 'Kentucky Pill', although a brilliant track does not really sum up the entire album, though it is clearly still a folk track, here Flynn seems to shy away from the 'folk-rock' label and delves more into a 'folk-pop' reinvention. The brass instruments add bright, subtle pop vibes. A lot of brass is found on this album in comparison to Flynn's debut. The album is scattered with little pop sounding gems like this, for example 'Barnacled Warship' begins in this manner, though more Belle & Sebastian than Madonna. Violin riffs neutralising the pop and reinforcing Flynn's folk roots.

That said,there are many songs, for example, 'Lost and Found' which could have easily came from 'A Larum' with their simple folk tone and sinister lyrics. Typical Flynn lyrics include " will you put down your fiddle, young Willie, will you put down your fiddle and pray that the world has begun with the birth of the sun and its death the very same day" as found in 'Sweet William Part 2' which opens with a haunting violin riff.

Johnny Flynn has definitely been more experimental with this album, this is represented in the opening of the song 'Churlish May' with it's hip-hop style drum beat. More electric guitar is found in this album too, such is seen in the lo-fi title track with the solo riffs which come and go in waves, often complimented by violins, an odd musical combination, which undeniably works.

'The Water' features his long term friend Laura Marling, it's a slow and seemingly medieval folk type affair, with a waltz rhythm, which is reflective of Marling's follow up album which was released in March. Clearly more of a collaboration than solely a song with guest vocals.

It's obvious that Mr Flynn has been a little more experimental on this album but his signature sound is not lost as it's clearly present throughout, even on the brighter, more poppy numbers.

7/10

The Creators Project meets Mark Ronson

2010-06-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

With the release of his third album just around the corner, Mark Ronson talks to The Creators Project about the making of all three albums and how he became a musician and a DJ in the first place.

X

The Drums- The Drums

2010-06-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

The Drums have received some very harsh criticism, which was probably produced due to the large amount of hype that surrounded them in late 2009 - early 2010. There is far too much focus on people questioning whether this hype is justifiable. For me, the truth seems to be that The Drums are a great band, they're a band which I could genuinely listen to at any time of the day, as was tested out the other day by my friend's boyfriend who decided to play 'Forever and Ever Amen' really loudly at about half past 6 in the morning the other day, just half an hour after I'd nodded off to sleep (it was a very long and heavy night) and I actually didn't mind, in fact, I enjoyed it!

The Drums were definitely worth getting excited about. The long awaited album finally dropped this week and it's brilliant. Some people say that they try too hard to be cool and 'hipster' but I couldn't disagree more. The album is bursting with heart felt lyrics and simple riffs. In this album we are given a deeper incite into the life of the lead singer, Jonathon Pierce, than you would have ever imagined from a band that have a song about surfing. The way that he intertwines sorrowful lyrics with bright, repetitive hooks and lightly distorted guitar is phenomenal, something which I don't think has been done really to such an extent since The Smiths. The Drums clearly have far more depth and troubles to them than we first thought when 'Let's Go Surfing' and 'I feel Stupid' were thrust into our faces by every radio DJ on the airwaves. What's more is there's nothing wrong with the irony used in their lyrics, it works well for them and adds strength, it's surely a positive thing. Occasionally, the repetition can get slightly irritating, for example, in the song 'I need fun in my Life', but most of the time their use of repetition compliments their chilled out scuzzy, indie pop style and adds commercial potential. Having seen them live too, I also know how well it all translates on stage. This album is filled with songs that can't help but make you joyful, yet their frequent sinister lyrics mean than their music, thankfully, lacks cheese and you can enjoy it guilt free. This album could well be the soundtrack to your Summer 2010 and you should certainly try and see them live at a festival this summer.

9/10

Katie x

Shot by Kern Part 2, in Barcelona!

2010-06-02T12:46:00.001-07:00

For those of you who enjoyed the last episode of Shot by Kern in London, here's the next episode, this is when he went to Barcelona and shot some spanish girls:

Katie
x

ps. I will do a review of Dot-to-Dot festival that I went to in Manchester soooon!

Dot-to-Dot Festival

2010-06-02T04:09:00.000-07:00

So, on bank holiday Monday, I attended my first ever Dot-to-Dot festival in Manchester and what an experience it was!

First off, we saw a local band called 'The Heartbreaks', they're doing great considering they've already been played on radio 1 by Huw Stephens and are now playing gigs in lots of London venues. They were quite good actually, very indie. I'm not majorly into indie though as I feel a lot of indie music is a bit lackluster.

Next, we saw 'The Cheek', formally called 'Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds', they were great, and the lead singer is gorgeous now that he's thinner. I was a bit gutted that they didn't play any of their old stuff though but it was nice to see them. There was a great atmosphere in there. It was like a school assembly hall, there was nothing in the room apart from a stage and a polished wooden floor. Everyone was sitting down too until the band came on and they stood up promptly, and politely.

We then headed off to see 'The Answering Machine' because they are one of my friend's favourite bands and I've heard that Chapel Club, who were the other band on at that time aren't very good live (?), I like their music though. The Answering Machine were pretty good though anyway.

I then went to see one of my favourite bands ever, Blood Red Shoes. Check out the time that I interviewed, Steven, from the band here.
Blood Red Shoes were on fire and the crowd reaction was amazing. It made me feel so proud to have watched them grow and to see how people now appreciate them so much. Manchester Academy 2 (about the same size as Birmingham Academy 1) is the biggest venue I've ever seen them play at and it was brilliant. They pulled in a good crowd that were singing and bouncing along to every lyric.

Next up, in Academy 3 were The Chapman Family. I'd never seen them play live before, in fact, I hadn't heard much from them since their single 'Kids.' That said, they were brilliant live, Kingsley Chapman, the lead singer, was throwing himself all over the stage in a Gothic, tormented kind of way. At one point he even 'attempted' to strangle himself with the microphone lead. The rest of their music is sounding great too, I shall have to invest in some of it.

We then went off to see Liars, in the 'Club Academy' AKA, the sweaty basement of the Academy. This ended up being one of my favourite gigs of the day. There's nothing quite like the release you get from dancing around to dirty rock music is there? It was headbanging and moshing a go-go, liberating stuff. Liars intense build ups and break downs worked well on stage, you could sense everyone in the crowd waiting for the heavy break down to arrive to throw themselves around to. A truly excellent set to say the least.

We then headed off to see Wild Beasts in Academy 2, after a few, quick, refreshing splashes of water and a dismissal from Katy Klaw from Peggy Sue. Though she cannot really be blamed for this, she was probably petrified! She seemed pretty scared of me as I shouted her name at her after whispering to my friend when she came to the sink next to us "ahh, that's Katy from Peggy Sue" and of course splashing water over myself before that saying "ahhh, oh my God, that was so good! That was amazing, ahh!"
Anyway, back to Wild Beasts! Yes, they were great! A lot better than I though they'd be, the crowd liked them and I didn't even realise how many Wild Beasts songs I knew, I didn't even know that I liked them so much but they surprised me, they were fantastic!

We then decided not to go to Beach House or Egyptian Hip Hop but to wait and get a good place for Mystery Jets and drink Red Stripe. It was well worth it. There was such a brilliant atmosphere at the front, everyone was singing along and jumping in unison. The band seemed pretty pleased with this response, there was a great love for Mystery Jets in that room. They split their set well between stand out songs from their album 'Twenty One' and songs from the new album, which, by the way, are sounding great! I cannot wait for the album release in July now!

From Mystery Jets we ran straight to see Los Campesinos! as their set had already started (but only just). I'd like to think that me and Emily made a dramatic entrance as we jumped down the stairs and through the crowd whilst bellowing the lyrics to Death to Los Campesinos! as they played it on stage. We went to join the 'real' Los Campesinos! fans, a large crowd of people who were jumping and singing along to every word as passionately as the band themselves. The onlookers that didn't know who Los Campesinos! were just looked permanently confused. Their set was superb, love and energy gushing through my veins excitedly. Seeing the band live also made me come to terms with exactly how beautifully written their lyrics are. Their set ended with 'Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks' and Gareth in the crowd, surrounded by happy and devoted fans patting him on the back.
This is the crowd, I could seem to get a picture of Gareth himself! I'm such a bad photographer!

From Los Campesinos! I ran all the way down to Deaf Institute to try and catch some of Yuck, but only managed to catch one song as LC! had run over their allotted time in Club Academy so I was really late. The one song I saw was beautiful though, as was the venue itself. It reminded me of a chapel on the inside with its dome structure but with vintage looking wallpaper with birds printed on it and toilets that looked like they'd come straight from a Mexican bar scene in an old film. It was probably my favourite venue that I've ever visited, even if I was only their for 10-15 minutes! From there we went to a take-away entitled 'Babylon' and I ate vinegar saturated chips smothered in tomato ketchup and then went to see Zane Lowe DJ in a tiny club called 'Factory (FAC251)' which was pretty fun, however, everyone else looked spotless, like they'd not been at a festival all day, whilst we looked sweaty and casually dressed. Zane Lowe is certainly a skilled DJ, I i wish I wasn't such a technophobe and could mix like he can. That said, he played too much drum and bass and dubstep. Don't get me wrong, I love drum and base and dubstep, but that's literally all he played! I like to dance to a good mix of music. It was amazing being that close to Zane Lowe though and he really knew how to work the crowd! He did play an Oasis mix though, which, of course, I disliked. I don't understand how people can like the music that comes from such a rude and ugly man, Liam Gallagher.

I would definitely recommend Dot-to-Dot Festival, it was well worth the £28 that I paid for a ticket and judging by this year and previous years, they always seem to manage to get the line-up spot on!

Katie x

Vice's shoot with Kern + The Creators Project talk to Radical Friend

2010-05-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm writing a bit of a photography based blog, makes a change from just writing about music!

Earlier this month, Richard Kern came to London for casting for his lastest shoot and ended up photographing Akiko Mastuarya from The Big Pink, Comanechi,Pre and Sperm Javelin and Deborah, a bi-sexual nurse from Bristol with very precise pornographic tastes. Here's the result of the casting and photoshoots, look out for the little cameo from Karley Sciortino (the American one), AKA, slutever , I really like her blogs :

Radical Friend are the duo accountable for all of the epic Yeasayer videos that have been released this year. Here, they explain their ideas behind the videos:

Katie
x

I Love Peaches

2010-05-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

When I was younger (maybe 14ish?) and I first heard the music of Peaches, I enjoyed it not only because I thought it was utterly brilliant, evolutionary and dangerously honest but because I knew that it was something that would be disapproved by the people of authority around me. I certainly knew that Peaches was special, even at that age and I still do. She pushes boundaries with her electro-punk mélange, her extreme, mesmerising live shows and unique spirit. I'm hoping to go to Lovebox festival this summer (providing I manage to get a press pass as I can't afford a ticket) and she's playing. Her live show is something I'd love to see, so fingers crossed...

Here's an interview that The Creators Project did with her, it's really good, watch it:

Katie x

I forgot to post this last week...

2010-05-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

It's the review I did for with drums and colour

Guns and Horses is the 3rd single to come from Ellie’s début album ‘Lights’ and is the opening track. The texture starts off relatively thin with just Ellie, her guitar and a repetitive drum loop. I like this, it reminds her audience of her acoustic roots, as after all, before she met producer, Starsmith, not long ago, her music was just her and her guitar. Ellie and her acoustic guitar are the origin of many of the songs on her album and ‘Guns and Horses’ is one of them.

And then comes the synth. Not overly powerful, just enough to enhance the mood and create an atmosphere of intensity, complimenting the mysterious lyrics that Ellie sings. “Let’s join forces; we’ve got our guns and horses. I know you’ve been burnt but another fire is a lesson learnt.” What does Ellie actually mean by these lyrics? Is this song a cavalry themed song, a song about arson or a love story? Ellie is deliciously shadowy concerning the topic of this song through her lyrics, in fact, admiringly so.

As the song continues Starsmith’s production unfolds, bridges and choruses become bigger. This track is very cleverly produced, from the layered electric violin sounds to the fast flowing drum loops and handclaps. Ellie’s guitar also builds, as do her compassionate lyrics of “I’d do it all for you.” The repetition adds fervour and zeal and makes the listener really believe the words that she sings. Her lyrics are honest, yet not explicit.

This song, as a concept, contains flecks of genius; combining acoustic music with dance music to create a hazy, yet, sophisticated, polished pop song. Ellie and Starsmith have done phenomenally well with this song, their work flattering constantly each other.

8/10

Katie x

New Stuff that I love...

2010-05-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

The new Mystery Jets single:

Avi Buffalo

They are a lovely, young, American band, some of them are still at school...

The new M.I.A single- XXXO

I adore this, I don't care that it's more mainstream pop than anything she's ever done before. I'm so glad she's back. Rusko's on the production, hasn't he done a mighty fine job?

Katie x

CREATORS OF THE FUTURE

2010-05-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Vice have teamed up with Intel Computers (and have started 'The Creators Project') which has involved making various documentaries. I rather like this Diplo one as I'm a fan of his work:

Find out more about this project here

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/thecreatorsproject?v=wall

Twitter : www.twitter.com/creatorsproject

Myspace: www.myspace.com/the-creators-project

Katie
X

Babeshadow Interview

2010-05-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

Babeshadow are a band that I’ve loved since about December of last year now. You always know that a bands special if you can remember where you were the first time you heard them. I remember when I first heard Babeshadow I was walking to the library wearing a white fur coat and the ridiculous biker boots that I almost fell over in about ten times during the course of my journey because of the ice.

I seem to have a tendency of interviewing bands in unusual places, a few months ago I interviewed Steven Ansell from Blood Red Shoes in a monochrome shower and now I’m interviewing Tom and Dave from Babeshadow in a vacant disabled lift in Wolverhampton Civic Hall, after the rude security lady in her suit refused to let me go into the dressing room (in case I did a Mark Chapman and shot Florence?). It is here that we cover the topics of Girls Allowed naked, Joe Jackson as a bald guitarist and the band’s desire to move into the Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s ‘Tunnel of Love’ with their caterer. Here's the conversation I had with them...

K: Introduce yourselves
T: I’m Tom Cawte and I play guitar, sing and play keyboards
D: I’m David Thornley and I play guitar and sing...And play keyboards

K: Is the name ‘Babeshadow’ or ’Babe Shadow?’ I’ve seen it written as both.

T: Well, it’s a bit of both at the moment because everyone thinks it’s something different.
K: I was introduced to you as Babe Shadow when I downloaded your demo of Sea Serpents in December from Jamilafuckingdance’s blog, it has the bit on it at the beginning where you’re talking about William Hill
D: Ha, yes

K: How did you come up with the name Babeshadow?

D: We saw a band playing in Shoreditch once who were called Babe Shadow years ago and we thought it was a good name.

K: How did you get involved with LuvLuvLuv records?

T: Hannah, one of the founders of LuvLuvLuv (there’s Hannah and Mairead), heard about us from two different online bloggers in one day so she thought, ‘oh they must be good’ and she came to one of our shows but we know Mairead through other people we know.

K: How long have you been together?

T: Well as a full band, just over half a year, we’ve been together since about October of last year.
K: When did you realise that you could start a band?
T: Well, us two have been playing together forever and we’ve always had whatever band we could gather up and now, we have our current line-up. It’s always changing, we’ll probably quit like next week!
K: Oh no! Don’t say that!
D: But then reform again with the same members!

K: How was the 6music session the other day? Did you enjoy it?

T: That was good, that was at Maida Vale. I snapped a string on the first song but it was still good. It was nice having a live audience there too.
D: The weirdest thing was that we’d been watching the ‘Adam and Joe Show ‘all day and at the venue as the light went out, Adam and Joe did the ‘no smoking announcements.’ It was like Adam and Joe were introducing us to the stage.
K: You’re getting a lot support from 6music, Lauren Laverne played you the other day on her show and my mum was listening and said that she said that she liked you.
T: Yeah, we got played on radio 1 the other day too.
(They were played by Huw Stephen’s on his BBC introducing show)
T: Yeah, when was the Lauren Laverne show?
K: Last week sometime, Monday I think.
D: Ah, well, we’re clearly widening our audience now; we’ve got the 40+ crowd. We fancy Lauren Laverne as well.

K: Are you enjoying being on tour with Florence and The Drums?

T: Yeah, it great. We’ve just spent 3 days in Blackpool and we didn’t know what to do so we went to the theme park and that was fun.
T: Yeah, we wouldn’t want to be at home right now, we’d just be paying rent for now reason when we could be on tour.
K: That sounds fun, but what are you going to do here? There’s nothing here!
T: We’ll probably just drink and then not get up in the morning and then meet some Wolverhampton people.
K: What’s the two nights in the same city thing like? Do you get bored?
D: Easy
T: Amazing because it’s very helpful as it means that we don’t have to leave at night so now we can just sit and relax.

K: Which musicians do you find most inspiring?

T: Buddy Holly
D: And then there’s your slightly embarrassing one
T: Oh yeah, Madonna, I really like Madonna.
D: And Girls Aloud are great naked.
T: Apparently
D: Apparently
T: and there’s Joe Jackson as well, he’s good. *sing’s Joe Jackson’s ‘Don’t you know that it’s different for girls’ *
D: I mean he’s bald, it’s always difficult for bald guitarists but he does it pretty well.
T: Buddy Holly is probably our main influence at the moment but if they all started a band together, “oh my!” We often just listen to the same record about 50 times until we’re sick of it. I just listened to the Beatles for a year and then I moved onto someone else

K: Do you like The Drums?

D: Yeah, I’ve heard mixed reviews about them but I really like them, I like their confidence.

K: Who’s your favourite band at the moment?

D: Maybe it’s The Drums or Is Tropical
K: Yeah, I’d say mine are probably you or ‘Yuck’, have you heard of them?
D: No, I haven’t.
K: They’re really good; they’re like half of Cajun Dance Party. I also like Villagers and Lissie.
D: I don’t know those either, I’ll have to check them out

K: Any future releases?

D: Yeah, we have an EP out at the moment; you can buy it on iTunes now.
K: Which songs are featured on it?
T: ‘Sea Serpents’,’ Darling’,’ Heart’ and ‘For Me’, and then we’re going to be releasing an actual 10” limited edition vinyl and then a 7” after that, so fix your needle!
(I have already told them the story of my broken record player needle.)

K: What are your views on illegal downloading?

T: I think it’s great, I think that it was bound to happen to there’s no point in trying to control it.
D: I’ve done it and I don’t feel bad about it
T: I think that the thing is, now, everyone has got an iPod with iTunes on it and everyone should download it through that and if you don’t want to download a crappy quality one from the internet then you can buy it off iTunes. It’s not as bad as it was at one point, iTunes sales in the past year have gone up by 100%.
D: Yeah, don’t do it, but do it!
T: Vinyl’s are coming back anyway, everyone I know has vinyl records.
D: Yeah, I think iTunes is dated now; vinyls are the new thing

K: Are you playing any festivals this summer?

T: Yeah, we’re playing: Glastonbury, we’re supposed to be doing Reading and Leeds and we’re doing 1234 festival in London and maybe The Secret Garden Party, it’s all in the email process at the moment.

K: Any aspirations for the future?

T: To really, really, really sell out.
D: The caterers that we have on this tour, I just want them to live in my house. And where we were yesterday at the Pleasure beach, we went into the Tunnel of Love which was great; I’d like to live there.
T: So, basically, we want to move into the Tunnel of Love with our caterers.

I then explain that the interview is over and Dave requests a bonus question, I asked him what his favourite Drums song was and he reply’s with ‘Let’s go Surfing’, the song that they are currently playing downstairs, onstage. I tell them mine’s ‘I Feel Stupid’, a less obvious choice, even though it was a single from their ‘Summertime’ EP. Babeshadow’s ‘Sea Serpents’ EP is out now on iTunes.

An interview with Darwin Deez

2010-05-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

It’s a rainy Friday evening in Stoke when I interview Darwin Deez, real name Darwin Smith, in a packed out dressing room at The Sugarmill. I am surrounded by talented musicians, there are guitars everywhere, I nearly sit on one, partially due to the triple tequila and coke I had before hand.

Darwin and his band have been on the current NME Tour with headliner’s ‘Hurts’ and Manc/cockney, electro pop boys ‘Everything Everything.’ He tells me that he’s having a great time and is enjoying being in Britain. He also tells me that the latter band is definitely his favourite on the tour as they’re “really sweet guys.”
We then move on to one of the things that one can only assume he gets asked about a lot: the hair! He tells me that his look is from “not washing it with shampoo, always just washing it with water and then letting it drip dry.” This then moves onto him talking about his ancestry, something which I found quite surprising. “The curls are because I’m half black, my dad’s black. That’s why I can dance.” And dance he can, as he later demonstrates onstage in between each song.

When I ask him about how he’s finding the UK he tells me that the reason that he likes it is because “people really seem to like my music here which is nice” and that despite today’s miserable weather, “the weather’s been good for all of the other dates, even up in Scotland it was nice.” He says that his music’s definitely been better accepted here than in America and that he’s very pleased about this as “a lot of time, thoughts and feelings went into the album.”
On the topic of the album, I ask him which song he enjoys performing most on the album, his reply being, perhaps the most obvious reply; Radar Detector.
“I really like to see the crowd dancing and singing along to my lyrics so I’d have to say ‘Radar Detector’ because it’s the one that everybody knows and goes crazy to.” “I really enjoy touring but New York is a good place to go back to after touring.”

The conversation then shifts to Darwin’s personal music taste, a question which I have been pondering for a while now: what does Darwin Deez, an incredibly unique artist actually listen to?
“I don’t have an iPod. I don’t really actually listen to much that much. However, I did see Mystery Jets play at a festival the other day and now I’m in love with their song ‘Two Doors Down’, have you heard it?”
K: Yeah, it’s a good song, their new one’s good too, it’s called ‘Flash a Hungry Smile’, did you hear that one?
D: Yes, I think I did, it was good. They were good live. They were nice guys as well.

As we are talking, Jeremy from ‘Everything Everything’ enters the dressing room and hands us bottles of cold beer and we talk of what a charming young man he is. Deez is definitely particularly fond of Everything Everything, I later witness him getting his groove on during their set. Darwin Deez dancing is certainly something that one must see at some point during their lifetime, it’s a visual phenomenon, who would have expected such moves to come from him? He tells me that his favourite artists at the moment are Mystery Jets , Everything Everything and Jai Paul.

I slip in the random question; goodness knows where it came from of ‘What’s your favourite drink?’ I wrongly expect him to name a bizarre alcoholic cocktail; instead Darwin introduces me to a healthy, mushroom based tea drink. “It’s called Kombucha, it absorbs sugar in the body, and it’s really good for you. I don’t think you can get it here yet which is a shame because you should try it. “

On the topic of his recent, newly inherited title that the press have donned him of ‘the Michael Jackson of indie rock’ he tells me that “it feels amazing, I really loved Michael Jackson.” “ I think that people used to say some not very nice things about him towards the end of his life which I don’t think were very fair. I’m not denying that he had sleepovers with young boys but I don’t see that there’s anything wrong with that. I mean sure, it’s weird but I don’t think he did anything untoward with those boys. They used to do that in Greece anyway, have you heard about that?”
K: No, what happened in Greece?
D: “Old men used to be gay and sleep with young boys. If I wasn’t American and I was Greek I would have been gay and done that but I’m American, so I’m straight. I think that what they doing was more of an urgent expression than anything paedophilic, I believe that artist’s get the same kind of urgent rush, I do when I’m writing songs.”

We then wrap up the interview and make plans in go to some bars in town later where Darwin can whip out some of his formidable dance routines. This unfortunately does not happen as the band decides that they’re too tired after their set. Their set, of course being incredibly entertaining, let’s just say that there was a dance routine to Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’ half way through!

Literally, getting emotional just watching this video

2010-05-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

I will be such an emotional wreck when I see them at Reading Festival in August,
religious x

Foals- Total Life Forever

2010-05-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

So, it’s finally here, the second offering from Foals, and by God, have they grown up! Not only have they significantly developed musically but lyrically too, they are far from the repetitive riffs and nonsensical lyrics of their debut delivery.
The dance tones remain and are mixed with groovy bass lines (for example, in the song, ‘Black Gold’) and experimental instrumentation. The fact that they have been more experimental with this album is evident, as tracks range from 48 seconds to the 7 minute mark (such as Spanish Sahara, their debut single from the album). However, unlike some of their musical peers, you certainly don’t begin to question whether they’ve been overindulgent, like the controversial second MGMT album for example. The Britpop influence is still evident and there are still catchy hooks like there was in their debut.

Foals have come back lyrically stronger, yet they still seem inseparable from the device of repetition, but it seems to work more in their favour. The repetition of the lyric “I’m the ghost in the back of your head” captures the haunting ambience of the song ‘Spanish Sahara’ and the rich pop chorus of their current single ‘The Orient’ creates a platform for them into the more commercial airwaves. The latter, fitting in with the ‘world’ theme that the album appears to possess, both rhythmically and lyrically with its Balearic drum beats and location references.

The lyrics “The future is not what it used to be” from their song ‘Black Gold’ suggests growth and realisation, these both are apparent. It seems that the band have realised perhaps that their songs don’t always have to be fast all of the time, tempos can be experimented with and varying tempo can make an album more interesting and exciting. This album is filled with enchanting dramatic breakdowns, pure musical talent and enough bizarre computer generated sounds than you can shake a stick at. This is a purely spellbinding album that will really excite the listener’s imagination.

Katie x

If you vote for Lib Dems tomorrow...

2010-05-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

then this adorable ginger nerd could be the youngest politician ever to enter the House of Commons. Towards the end of this vid you get the impression that he may well be the inspiration behind M.I.A's new video (see a few blogs down). Yet another reason why you should vote for Lib Dems tomorrow! Also, does anyone know why 'Janis' finds his name so funny?- "Everytime I forget his name, he says "It's Alan, Janis" *laugh's hysterically*

Katie x

A brief introduction to PARTY HORSE

2010-05-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday evening I was introduced to Party Horse, when they supported Chew Lips at the Sugarmill in Stoke and what a pleasure it was. It was there that this band proved that they are not just another synth-pop duo but crafters of simple, classic pop music. Some of their lyrics may seem a little cheesy on the surface but they carry them off with successful grace. DK’s rich vocals are complimented by Ursula’s cool Dutch voice and the guitar and synthesizer gel well together. Not only is their music great but their live show is captivating, their show involves dancing and sparklers and it hints promise at the bands potential.

Chew Lips Interview

2010-05-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

I’m sat on a cracked, brown, leather sofa in The Sugarmill dressing room with Tigs and James from Chew Lips; it is here that we discuss, SXSW, house parties, politics, Patti Smith and the importance of stage image. It’s not the first time that they’ve been in Stoke as this art electronic pop trio came here on the Delphic tour in March.

K: In March you toured with Delphic, how was that? Did you enjoy it?

T: I t was good, but we missed the last couple of gigs because we off to SXSW
K: Oh yeah, how was that?
T: Yeah, that was really good, you just walk down the main street and there’s a really great atmosphere and everyone’s really excited
J: Yeah, everyone was really friendly and you get given free beer wherever you go. It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done
K: Did you make friends with lots of other new bands when you were there?
T: Yeah, we need, all the bands were really nice

K: What bought you back to Stoke after the Delphic tour?

T: Were you here that night?
K: Yeah, it was good
J: Yeah, we really enjoyed it last time, it was really full and the crowd were good
T: But it’s not gonna be like Delphic, I’m pretty sure.
K: Yeah, that show was sold out
T: Yeah, that was mad
J: People were crowd surfing
T: Were they?
J: Well, not crowd surfing, just jumping up on to people’s shoulders and landing on their heads
K: Yeah, there was a lot of unsuccessful crowd surfing
T: But, yeah, you have to just keep going back to the same places until more and more people hear your music before you can decide where you tour.

K: How did you meet?

J: We met in South East London and just started playing together
T: Same old, same old really. We just through people we both knew
J: And then we started writing songs and playing gigs in small venues in London
K: Wasn’t your first gig in a kitchen on a washing machine?
T: Yeah, it’s quite well heard of.
J: Someone was having a house party and we thought we’d go because we love house parties at other people’s houses because it means that you don’t have to clear up
T: People decided that they wanted some live music there and we agreed to play, so now that person can say that we played our first ever gig there, I think that particular person loves that fact.
T: We hadn’t written any song at that point but then we went into the studio and wrote some songs.

K: Name 5 things/people that you are most inspired by when making music

T: ACID JAZZ * laughs* No, I think I personally would have to say Patti Smith
K: Ah, have you read her autobiography? It’s amazing; it took me two days to read because I was so addicted to it!
T: No, I’ll have to read it then because I do quite like her but I wouldn’t say that musically I’m influenced by her at all but she made me want to become a musician because before that I was just writing poetry before that before I started turning it into music.
K: Yeah, well that’s how she started too
T: Exactly, it was really the idea of poetry and music together that was a bit of a revelation to me and what made me want to write music.
T: Ok, who do we share? We share David Bowie don’t we?
J: Yeah, we share David Bowie.
T: Ok, who else? I’d have said Prince. We haven’t really said anything other than musicians; we haven’t said anything like ‘the sky’ or ‘the faces of children’ or ‘the rain on the window.’
J: What about New York?
T: Oh yeah, we went to New York a few weeks ago, we wrote some songs there, it was amazing.

K: If you could play with any band in the world, who would it be?

T: Well, I don’t want to say anyone too amazing because they’ll just make us look shit, compared to them, like I love Prince but everyone would think that we’re rubbish compared to him. We’re enjoying playing with the support band, Party Horse, there in sound check now, can you hear them? They’re fucking incredible!
J: Yeah, what about the Beach Boys as well?
T: Yeah, that’d be good

K: Describe a Chew Lips live show to someone that’s never seen you play before

T: It’s involves a lot of lighting and playing, we’re a proper band. I think our live show is a lot more ‘rocky’ than the record. It’s entertaining and we’ve got the Chew Lips sign behind us.

K: What’s your favourite track of your album?

J: Mine is ‘Eight’, the first song off the album
T: Really?
J: Yeah, I really like it
T: It’s probably my least favourite track
J: Well there, you go
T: No, it’s because you like things that are clever and I like the big songs like ‘Two years’ and ‘Too much talking.’

K: It’s the general election next week, who’re you backing?

T: I’m backing Clegg because he’s quite good looking I think, is that weird?
K: Ermm, a bit
T: Yeah, I just think that there’s something quite kind about his face, I feel like I can trust him where as I can’t trust the other two as far I can throw them. That’s the reason that I’m backing Clegg, I just hate the other two. I think that that little creep for the conservatives, David Cameron is just Satan’s little helper really.
J: The Lib Dems definitely have good ideas but they’re not really that strong
T: But they’ve never had a better chance than they have now.
J: What about the Green Party?
T: The Green Party? I don’t know, do they even do general elections and stuff or just local elections?
J: Yeah
T: But I wouldn’t know who the head of the green party is, do you?
J: No
T: Exactly, so I don’t know either Green Party or Lib Dems

K: Why did you name the album ‘Unicorn’?

T: Because it’s a rare mythical creature
J: And it’s a strong, one word title
T: Yeah, we wanted to call the album ‘Unicron’ because we wrote an electro pop album but then we googled it and we found out that it’s a really obscure character from ‘Transformers’ and we thought it would attract the wrong kind of geeks.

K: Are you looking forward to tonight’s show?

T: Yeah, of course, we look forward to every show
K: What are you all wearing?
T: Well that’s a surprise! What did I wear last time in Stoke?
K: You wore lots of glitter; I think you may have worn some glittery trousers.
T: Ah, glitter’s good, glitter’s important, it’s my onstage vibe.

K: Do you think image on stage is important?

Yeah, I do. I think it’s important that as a performer I feel the difference between sitting around here in the dressing room to the way I feel onstage and I think that having an onstage look is important for people to recognize that and to look like a band.
J: Yeah, the other day you just looked at that picture of a band and said “I’m sorry but the way they look would not make to me want to buy their music.”
T: Yeah but that’s because they were like 40 as well.

K: If you had to sum up Chew Lips in three words, what would they be?

J: Electronic future pop
T: I prefer ‘future’, ‘classic’ ‘pop’

6 Inspiring Things

2010-04-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

1. YUCK

Yuck are part of what was Cajun Dance Party mixed with a few other musicians. So far they've only released home recorded demos for free on their blogspot.
They write beautiful, classy music, their song 'Automatic' is particularly lush. Their music is like nothing that's around at the moment, make sure you visit their blogspot and get downloading!

Here's some live footage of them:

2. 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith

I'd read some great reviews of this autobiography but didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, I read it in just 2 days, so basically, it occupied my life 2 days, I was completely hooked. Not only is the story of Patti Smith's life interesting but this book is perfectly written, from the structure, to the language used.
It also gives you a great incite as to what the New York art scene was like in the 60s and 70s

3.The New M.I.A. video- Born Free

This video is extremely powerful, deeply explicit and a brave move by M.I.A. It will mesmerize you. The song's sounding good too! Youtube won't let me embed it, but here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xD5xjahxac&feature=youtu.be

4. Oberhofer

This band is one of the most interesting bands that I've heard in the past few months, on paper they would be described as 'Bright, refreshing indie pop' but there's a lot more to it than that. There's whistling, some sort of organ snyth sound, a glockenspiel (?), distorted guitar and twinkly drums.
Here's their song 'Away from you'

5. The Favourite Game by Leonard Cohen

I didn't know what to expect from this book as I didn't even know that Cohen had written literature until a few months ago. This book, as you would expect from such a poet is very beautifully written, it's brimming with imagery and metaphors yet, you never seem to really tire of them. It tells the story of a young man, 'Lawrence Breavman's' youth. Despite Cohen's dreamy, lyrical flow, this novel is very down to earth and a true, typical portrayal of a man's youth.

Flash a Hungry Smile by Mystery Jets

MJ are back and it seems they're stronger than ever, this song is a perfect summer indie pop anthem. Blaine's twisted lyrics are still present but the sinister undertones are a little more hidden but clearly still present. This song brings instant sunshine. Download it (legally) for free here.

Have a nice week!

Katie x

Kids Love Lies-Stars

2010-04-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

This is their new single 'Stars' which will be released on the 1st June, it's lovely, here's the video:

Katie x

Smirnoff have teamed up with Simian Mobile Disco

2010-04-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Like Vodka and good music? Watch this Simian Mobile Disco video in association with Smirnoff:

Katie x

Lissie- Bad Romance

2010-04-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the review that I did of it last week for Faux Magazine

I just want to quickly introduce you to something I heard for the first time the other day; one of the best covers that I have heard in a very long time. It’s a cover of Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ by young American singer Lissie, who’s brilliant single ‘In Sleep’ is Single of the Week on iTunes at the moment. Lissie seems to sing the song the way that it was meant to be sung; she sheds light on the tender nature of the song and encapsulates the pain that Gaga covers up through flamboyant gimmicks and dancing. Unlike Gaga, Lissie showcases the frustration and monotony of being in a shoddy relationship through the aggressive strums of the slightly distorted guitar as well as some pretty frequent tempo changes. Perfect, perhaps even better than the original.

Katie x

The Dead Weather- Die by the Drop

2010-04-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

Die by the Drop starts with twinkly drums and a quiet funk riff, these later on during the song will seem so out of place in comparison to the rest of the song. Then comes the hauntingly repetitive piano, the one note, repeated and repeated throughout the whole song, which still happens to actually work very effectively in creating this horror pop/rock montage that White and Mosshart blatantly set out to create. However, their pre- thought out aims for the song are obvious, yet, this doesn’t cheapen the song itself. The deathly distorted guitar riffs are finally introduced and the song gets going in true Dead Weather style. The mélange of Jack’s quirky vocals and Alison’s husky voice complements them.

“Let’s dig a hole in the sand, brother. A little grave we can fill together” Alison sings in her clean, husky voice that fits the entire concept of The Dead Weather so well. The entire song is full of a semantic field of gothic horror, “graves”, “death”, “salvation” and an air of destructive love.
The ever changing rhythm seems to have been set out to purposely confuse the listener, it still has a traditional verse/chorus structure but the changing rhythm adds flair and originality to the song.

In my opinion The Dead Weather are Jack White and Alison Mosshart at their best, it seems that they have finally obtained the formula to making fantastic music which is something that I honestly don’t think either of them had in The White Stripes, The Raconteurs or The Kills, it seemed that either their talents were withheld or just not fully developed, until now.

Katie x

The Golden Filter- Voluspa

2010-03-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

This is the New York band’s debut album and after the release of their first single ‘Solid Gold’ well over a year ago, it’s been a long time coming. Named after the poem on the subject of the creation story, this album is scattered with epic electric violin riffs, mouth watering synth riffs and catchy dance beats.

Despite the influx of computer generated music, I’m yet to get bored of this trend, mainly as it fascinates me as I could never have the patience for such technology. This band defies all barriers with this album, its dream-like ambiance captures the imagination, the beats urge dancing, this album’s a production master piece.

Penelope’s warm vocals melt the ear drums and Stephen’s disco handiwork compliments them well, not only is this album pop gold dust but it’s a beautiful piece of art at the same time. The strange computer generated noises add to the enchantment that the unique, overlapped vocal riffs provide. This album is hazy pop at its best.

Voluspa explores the natural elements, the supernatural and relationships, both musically and lyrically. You have to listen to the whole LP to understand what The Golden Filter are all about, given their status for remaining mysterious, this album is the biggest insight into their minds that we have, thank goodness it’s a good one. This album is a box full of magic just bursting to be opened. For me, this is definitely one of the best album’s that’s been released so far this year.

Goldfrapp- Head First

2010-03-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

Goldfrapp have just released their fifth album ‘Head First’, but after the new wave of electro-pop artists that have been established in the past couple of years, have they still got that same appeal as when they released their first album? Quite possibly not, through no fault of their own, why should they be forced to change their style just because of fellow competitors for the electro-pop throne?
This album is surprising contrast to their 4th album ‘Seventh Tree’ which seemed to nod more to the sixties for inspiration, where as ‘Head First’ has an evident 70s/80s pop inspiration, which, at times seems a bit too much as it conceals the haunting darkness that has always been present in their music. But, this album’s full of contagious vocal hooks and chorus’s and tastefully created cheese, however, the repetition can get irritating from time to time.
Despite its negatives, this album also contains a lot of positive factors, not only in its uplifting style but Alison’s delicious breathy, dream-like vocals are impossible to hate. Many of the songs contain strong dance beats and catchy synth riffs which is another reason why I like this record; Alison seems to be revisiting her roots, this music is similar to the music that you would expect to find on some of their earlier albums.
‘Head First’ contains slick vocals and smooth production, particularly on certain tracks, for example ‘Shiny and Warm.’ Though, some songs are a little too reminiscent of 80’s pop acts like Van Halen, such as ‘Rocket’, the title track ‘Head First’ and ‘I Wanna Life.’ This well polished pop album is easy on the ears and despite its downfalls, is quite an enjoyable album, there’s nothing not to like, yet there’s nothing there to really thrive upon either, I’d say it’s a ‘pleasant’ album. Though, unfortunately for Goldfrapp, given pop’s current climate of producing exciting, fresh new artists continuously, I doubt this album will be winning any awards any time soon.

6.5/10

Paloma Faith -gig review 24/03/2010

2010-03-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

Paloma has been unwell recently and has hardly any voice, I was meant to be interviewing her earlier but she had to cancel all press to try and preserve the little voice that she has left in order to not have to cancel shows. Despite not having a sore throat this evening, she ploughs on with the show. And what a fine job she did of it too! It was a show littered with her album tracks, jazz covers, a radio 1 live lounge cover, costume changes and jazzy break downs.

La shark are on first, I pre- warn my mother, who attended the gig with me, that she may not like them because they’re quite strange but after a couple of songs she turns to me and says “these are good, these are.” This seems to be the general feeling around me, at first the audience were taken aback by the bizarre mash up of ideas, genres and images that La Shark convey but by half way through the set they are drawn in and start to like them. It seems that La Shark have obvious punk/ska roots but they appear to be influenced by a lot of things, some might describe them as mad heads who’ve somehow managed to obtain musical instruments but others would consider their experimental approach artistic and genius, I’d go with the latter.

After lots of excessive guitar tuning and the revelation of a large, theatre set type mirror (a hint to the opener of the set, Smoke and Mirrors), Paloma’s band take to the stage, followed dramatically of course, by the lady, herself. Paloma works the stage dressed in a multi-coloured cat suit and a head full of fruit, if I hadn’t have known that she wasn’t feeling 100% I would never have guessed it from this entrance! Paloma evidently found it hard to talk at times, which wasn’t helped by the absolute idiots that were shouting obscene things at her from the balcony in between songs but her singing voice remained fairly strong throughout the set. Her mellow jazz covers such as Nina Simone’s ‘Don’t Explain’, her Billie Holiday cover and her slant on The Beatles’ ‘You never give me your money’ were sounding beautiful and Paloma’s dancing was still energetic. A particular highlight of her set for me was the ‘remix’ version of her third single ‘Do you want the Truth or something beautiful?’ which was highly refreshing and the band seemed to enjoy playing it a lot. Speaking of her band, I must say how talented they all are! Dom’s piano skills are excellent, this something which I noticed especially, with being a pianist myself, the guitarists were great and I see a bright future ahead for all of her gifted backing singers, particularly ‘Baby Sol’, whom I felt had a particular stage presence/ unique charismatic appeal to her. After a stunning set, the encore songs were her cover of Etta James’ ‘At last’ and the single that really broke her into the world of main stream music ‘New York’. As always after a good gig, there is an air of love and adoration in the room, this reassures me that although there may be a lot of dislike for Paloma, there is a lot of love for her too. I know a lot of people that don’t like her but in the wise words of Mama Wilkinson, “what is there not to like about Paloma? She’s lovely!”

Katie x

The XX Birmingham 5/03/2010

2010-03-06T05:18:00.000-08:00

After almost getting beaten up by an alcoholic homeless man on the bus, I was glad to finally get to this gig! Spirits were high, as one often finds at this time of year because it's nearly SPRING! It was nice to finally see The XX on a headline tour as opposed to a festival or a supporting tour, everyone around me was a true XX fan. This fact excited me greatly, it constrasts so much to Leeds Festival this year when I was standing there singing along wearing my free XX T shirt whilst everyone around me was like "Who the fuck are the XX?" Also for some reason when I saw them in Manchester supporting Florence and the Machine they didn't seem to go down too well generally, why this was, I do not understand! But last night at Birmingham Academy 2, was a sell out!

First up were a band called 'Glasser', they were rather like an American version of Fever Ray, but this didn't bother me, I love a good tribal rave! They were mysteriously dressed in white robes with hoods and did not speak the whole time! Nobody even knew their name until after the gig when people asked at the merchandise table! The irritating older gentleman behind me kept saying "I like the costumes, they remind me so much of Spinal Tap" this, of course is absolute bollocks! I think he was saying it to try and impress his date. Anyway, I enjoyed this band a lot, the female singer has a lovely voice!

Next were 'These New Puritans', another experimental band. I don't own the album but I was talking to some boys next to me and they were saying that they are much, much better live than on the record (which was released two years ago), and this seems to be true. They were very good live. Interesting, and for some reason, the singer freaks me out a bit, but I must admit they are a talented gang of people. Like 'Glasser' they did a lot of their performance on laptops but this didn't even decrease the value or quality of thier performance for me. They also had two drummers, one of them played 'the chains' too during their set, you wouldn't think that hitting chains with a drumstick would work so well! They write wonderful dark, experimental music, music that you can completely lose yourself in, intense music, my favourite kind of music.

Here's them at Scala, London, a couple of weeks ago:

And finally, it was time for The XX! I knew that people were even going to remain completely silent throughout their set or be singing along to every lyric, thankfully, it was the latter. As soon as 'Islands' kicked in I felt a rush of adoration, emotion and happiness and this carried on, I believe not only for me but for those around me, throughout the entire set. They pretty much just played the whole album but with 'Stars' as the encore and their cover of 'Teardrops' (originally by Womack and Womack) slotted in there too, which still went down well. This gig was one of those very special gigs where everyone walks away happy and singing the bands songs. The DJ played their version of 'You've got the Love' after their set and everyone hung around and sung and danced around gleefully. Basically this gig made me and everyone around me adore The XX even more than they already did and they made me realise that they are even more beautiful and special than I ever thought they were, despite having the album on repeat since the day it came out. It's nice to see that they have a strong cult following too, they deserve a lot of success, they have such epic and intense talent that deserves to be appreciated by many.

Katie x

The time when I interviewed Steven from Blood Red Shoes....in a shower

2010-03-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

I am sat in a black and white tiled shower cubicle in Bar Academy, Birmingham with my friend, Amy and Steven Ansell for his first ever interview in a shower, the drummer and singer from the Brighton two-piece, Blood Red Shoes. Steven has a bottle of Sambucca under his arm and I have a can of cider that we managed to smuggle into the venue because the drinks in the Academy are such a rip-off! French/cockney band, Underground Railroad have just performed an excellent set which even involved some cello. Blood Red Shoes are on in half an hour, hence, the reason why Laura-Mary isn’t here with us because she’s getting ready. Although, she did peek her head around the door at one point and say hello with a slightly confused look on her face. Here’s what happened during our chat on the day that I discovered that cider mixed with Sambucca actually tastes rather nice.

Katie: So, why the name 'Blood Red Shoes'?

Steven: Well, when we started, we weren’t trying to start a band; Laura just emailed me and said “shall we have a jam?” So we got together and wrote some songs, a guy heard it and asked us whether we wanted to play a show but we were really fucked, we didn’t really know what the fuck we were doing but we said “Yeah, we’ll play” but we didn’t have a name because we’d just had one jam. As we were trying to think of a name we were hanging out with one of our friends and he had this book called ‘Hollywood Babylon’ and in it was a story about Ginger Rogers and in that story, Fred Astaire makes Ginger Rogers keep re-doing a tap scene until eventually he’s like “Cuuuuuuuuuuut” “Why have you changed your shoes?” and she was like “I haven’t” but her shoes are red, she was wearing white shoes but now her shoes are red because he’s re-made her do the scene so many times that her feet have bled, she’s been tap dancing so much. We thought that this sounded really fucked up so we were like “let’s call our band that.”

Katie: Who and what are your main influences?

Steven: A lot of stuff because when you’re a musician everything that you listen to goes to your brain, Laura’s an artist as well so for her even more things go in, and so a lot of things go into our music. “Also, us getting frustrated about having shit jobs before we were in the band full time is also as much as an influence because it gave us that force to really do it.”

Katie: yeah, I know what you mean; I fell asleep at work the other day, it was that boring.

Steven: Yeah, it was just things like that, being fed up with your life and being fed up of the structure of somebody always telling you what to do. And there were musical influences such as Queens of the Stone Age, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, The Pixies and a band called ‘Q and Not U’, like nobody has ever listened to this band, they broke up a few years ago, they were the best band that we’ve ever heard, they were an American band and they were so good.

Katie: Yeah, I hate it when that happens, have you heard of The Delgados? They were really great but they split up

Steven: Ah yeah, I used to like The Delgados actually.

Katie: Are there any new bands about at the moment that you really like?

Steven: Yeah, I really like ‘Pulled apart by Horses’

Katie: Ah yeah, they’re good, you love them don’t you Amy?

Amy: Yessss!

Steven: I really like the band that supported us too, Underground Railroad, but they’re not that new, they’re on their third record but they’re still new to me, Laura found them and we were like “yeah, let’s take them on tour with us” and there’s a band from Brighton called ‘Peggy Sue’

Katie: Ah, yeah, I love Peggy Sue! They supported you when I saw you two years ago in Stoke!

Steven: Yeah, and I produced a couple of tracks on their album so I have a deep interest in the band but they’re just about making really diverse records.

Katie: Is Brighton really that boring because Stoke’s shit isn’t it? I imagine Brighton to be a lot better than Stoke!

Steven: It’s not that boring, but it was quite frustrating at the time. Brighton’s very small and you get bored of it because you can get bored of almost anywhere. “You could get bored when you have the most exciting life in the world, anything gets boring if it just keeps repeating itself, Brighton isn’t actually that boring, it’s just that we got to the point where we just felt a bit caged in, especially at the time that we wrote ‘Boring by the Sea’, which is the reason why you’ve asked this question.” It’s because at that time we started out on this really DIY punk scene and it was all about being like super underground all of the time and then we wrote these pop songs and we were always really happy that they were punk and fucked up but also catchy and people really hated us for that, it was kind like that reaction against the fact that we wrote this song and it was really disco, you could really dance to it and it was a bit of a hit.

Katie: Yeah and then there was that amazing remix of it as well that was even more danceable and popular!

Steven: Yeah and we were like this is a really amazing ‘fuck you!’ to all of the people that were like “you’re too pop, you don’t deserve our respect.” It’s so boring! It’s so boring! “Just because a song has a chorus doesn’t mean that the band is a ‘sell-out’ band. It doesn’t mean that it’s ‘not cool’ or ‘not underground enough.’ It just means that people like it for fucks sake!”

Katie: If you had to categorise your music into one genre what would it be?
Steven: Just rock. That’s it.

Katie: Which country do you most prefer to play gigs in?

Steven: Right now? This changes because each tour something else surprises you.

Katie: You play quite a bit in Japan don’t you?

Steven: Yeah Japan is really good. I think my favourites recently were either Belgium or Holland. We’re playing at a festival called ‘Lowlands’ and they did a launch night which was what we played at the other day and everyone who goes to the launch night gets a ticket, you can’t get them any other way.

Katie: How does Fire Like This compare to Box of Secrets? Would you say that you’ve progressed or changed or anything with this album?

Steven: I think it’s just natural evolution really, we didn’t change anything, and there are still just guitars, drums and singing. I think that for us it was about getting better at what we were doing. I see Box of Secrets was a starting point, I see Fire Like This as us figuring out our thing and I think the next record is gonna get much weirder than that because I think that we learnt a lot of stuff whilst making this album. The weirder moments that are found on this record will be a lot weirder on the next but I don’t see it as a change, just a progression. We write better songs I think, like, they don’t go on as long because we’ve figure out that every song doesn’t have to be really fast all of the time because this just gets really boring. I think it’s a slightly sadder record than the first one; the first one was a bit more optimistic. “I think that Fire Like This is more ‘us’, with the first record we were just kind of finding our feet, this record is more the real me and Laura-Mary and expressing more of who we really are than on the first album.”

Amy: At least you have turned to electro-pop like most other bands have.

Steven: You know what, we’d never do that! I mean we like to dance and stuff but no we’d never do that. If people said that to us “so, change your style”, we’d be like “what, really?” It’s like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s made a dance/electro record and I’m like “yeah, that’s shit”. I would much rather listen to Date with the Night than I would their new shit record, its rubbish! Why would you change your sound? “People would think that it’s a bad thing that we haven’t completely changed our sound but we don’t fucking want to change our sound.” There are two things in a record, there are the lyrics to the songs and the way that you record them and just because you recorded it differently, doesn’t mean that it sounds any better so the way it seems to me is that if you write the same sentence in a different colour ink , one in red, one in blue, one in green and one in black, have you said anything different? No, you haven’t, you’ve just written it in red so that you trick people into thinking that it looks different when they first say it but when you really pay attention, you realise that you’ve just written the same sentence, that’s why if you write the same song but record it with a keyboard, it’s basically the same shit, you’ve just tricked people into thinking that it’s different. “We just thought “right, let’s write better songs”, you should make the way that you sing it more powerful by trying to really sing it like you mean it and don’t fucking worry about being electro or whatever by changing your sound because for me that’s a short term way into tricking people into thinking that it’s exciting.” I also just don’t really like keyboard that much. I love the sound of a loud, distorted guitar.

Katie: After the tour is finished, what’s next for Blood Red Shoes? Do you plan on playing any festivals?

Steven: We finish this tour and then in May we actually have a load of shows that we haven’t officially announced yet and then we’re doing all of those festivals like ‘The Great Escape’, ‘Dot-to-Dot’ and ‘Liverpool Sound City’ and I think that we’re playing a show in Moscow with The Horrors apparently and then in between the shows in May we’re gonna try and write some new stuff and try and release a new EP after the summer.

Steven: The album was released yesterday so tonight we are celebrating; this is why I have this bottle of Sambucca.

Katie Wilkinson

Marina and the Diamonds- The Family Jewels & Ellie Goulding- Light

2010-02-26T11:26:00.000-08:00

I have been anticipating this album for over 2 years now, I knew that when it finally arrived, it would be something pretty special and I believe that it has reached these expectations. You may be thinking, "oh no, not another female solo artists, this whole 'females taking over thing' is getting boring now." But let me assure you, this one's a special one. Not only do her songs clearly come from the heart but Marina Diamandis is a woman that's not fearful to speak her mind. Her songs are littered with her opinions on certain modern social issues and happenings as well as personal experiences. From the flamboyant vocal utterances to the electric violins, this album is shiny pop perfection that speaks for itself. I'm glad that Marina has put some polished up versions of some of her oldest songs such as 'Hermit the Frog' on as well as her new songs, for example 'Guilty', a song which shows her more vulnerable streak. Despite its nostalgic 70s/80s pop tint, this album is certainly an individual one, full of inspiring honesty, passion and intriguing individuality.
9/10

Now, this one's an interesting one and completely different to Marina's. Although I know that Ellie obviously started out by just writing acoustically with just her and her guitar, I expected it to contain an equal split of both up tempo songs with contagious beats and more mellow, down tempo songs, yet, it did not. It's a lot more relaxed than I expected it to be, beautifully so of course, I would not expect any less from the combined effort of Miss Goulding and Producer Starsmith. The fastest, more dancable songs are most certainly the two singles that have been released from it so far that have helped Goulding properly break into the more commercial music scene. The piano compliments the acoustic guitar well and it all works magically in terms of the musical side of things and Ellie's heart meltingly fragile lyrics slot into this well. I like the fact that Ellie, like Marina, means every word that she sings, when the lyrics of a song are evidently meaningful to the person singing them, the song is a lot more beautiful.
8.5/10

If you do one good thing this weekend, make sure that it's buying at least one of these albums, legally, these albums deserve all the credit that they can get.

Katie x

What will you be listening to this spring/summer?

2010-02-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

Spring is on its way, well I say that, yet, there is still snow outside, which means that a musical change is on it's way. I listen to completley different music in summer than I do to winter, do you?

Here's what I shall be listening to during the warmer weather, when the sun is actually out:

1. Vampire Weekend: They've recently released their second album 'Contra' and it's brilliant! Their next single is 'Giving up the gun', my personal favourite from the album. Contra is filled with exotic beats and riffs that will keep you happy all day.

2. The Drums- having recently finished touring on the NME Tour, they'll surely release their debut at some point this summer I'd imagine and I'm pretty sure that they'll be playing lots of summer festivals as well their upcoming UK tour with Florence and the Machine

3. Babeshadow- this band also will be supporting Florence on her UK tour this summer as they've just signed up to her manager, Mairead Nash's, new label, Luv Luv Luv records. I find it fascinating that they are english as their music is so relaxed and uplifting, it makes me wonder where the influences to their music came from. The lyrics "It's love, love, love, now it's only love" (from their song 'Sea Serpents') fit in nicely with Luv management and given Nash's previous success with Florence, this band should go pretty far. Listen to their music on hypemachine

4.LCD Soundsystem- Their back, they've kept relatively quiet about their new stuff but they're heading on tour in March so I'm sure they'll be showcasing their new material there! They're also booked for lots of UK festivals, including Bestival, they're definately not a band you should miss this year as I would think that their gigs are pretty much a party. Their album's expected in March.

5.Lightspeed Champion- Dev Hynes is back with his new album 'Life is Sweet Nice to Meet you' which came out last week, I can't afford to buy it so I'm getting it for my birthday next month, hopefully on vinyl as I'm getting a new vinyl player :) Apparenly, this album is more experimental as the last and I'm very much looking forward to hearing it! He's just announced a tour of small venues- so get in there quick! I really want to go but I'm trying to save up, the train to Birmingham costs me £6!

6.MGMT- Congratulations- Their new album is expected for release on the 13th March, that's not far off! I'm quite anxious about this album as they've changed their physical imagine to a more toned down, indie rock look, will their music follow suit? I hope not! We'll see! Oracular Spectacular (2008) is a summer album that's pretty hard to beat!

7.Arcade fire- I've heard their new album is coming out this spring/summer, I've not heard much else about it though! I hope it comes soon, they're so musically and lyrically talented, how can it not be good? And I hope they play some festivals! Especially Reading, as I shall be going!

Katie x

Recent Happenings..

2010-02-18T03:18:00.001-08:00

THE NME TOUR AND THE BRITS

On the 11th Feburary I headed to Birmingham for The NME Tour, the line-up featured American band-The Drums, Art rockers- The Big Pink, heartfelt indie boys- Bombay Bicycle Club and the Brighton lads- The Maccabees headlined. There's no doubt about it, the line-up was brilliant, it had to be given last years epic line-up of Florence, White Lies, Friendly Fires and Glasvegas!

Just as I'd got into the venue and qued up for a pint of water (I'm not 18 for another month!), The Drums took to the stage. They were a band that I was looking forward to seeing as they will supporting Florence and the Machine on her tour in May, so I wanted to check them out before hand! With the crowd already familiar on the whole with their singles (thanks to radio1)- Let's go Surfing and I Feel Stupid, those 2 songs went down a storm with the young indie fans. The crowd seemed a bit unsure about The Drums at first but gradually warmed up to them. By the end of the set, the majority of the crowd loved them! Including me, there were definately moments where I felt like I was dancing at some sort of quite tame, yet, harmonious beach party. I'm very much looking forward to seeing them in May now!

Next up were The Big Pink. This band apparently did not go down too well on the other dates of the tour, which is probably due to the difference in genre, indie fans can be stubborn and rude when they want to be! I, however, love them and I loved their performance. The crowd did at least make the effort to pretend that they were enjoying their set but then after they'd finished, some people behind me were like "God, they were so shit." Perhaps it's not cool, for some reason, to like The Big Pink... I thought they performed really well and was enraptured in their insensity, their clearly a very passionate band.

Bombay Bicycle Club came on and the crowd went wild! Their a band that have visited Birmingham quite a few times and I think a lot of their fans that surrounded me had seen them a couple of times before. I, however, had not due to lack of money, it cost me £6 to get to B'ham from Stafford (which is still about 12 miles from my house). The boys gave a lovely performance, I love it how through all of the distorted guitars lies a beautiful and delicate lyrics.

Here's a video of Magnet, I apologise for the quality of the video!

And finally, The Maccabees headlined. They were clearly the band that most people were the most excited about seeing. It is impossible not to love the Maccabees, because not only is their music good but they are such a humble band. They're a very well loved band but they have never left this go to their heads, they came on smiling at their wonderful applause that they got. They laughed whilst carrying on with their set when nearly the entire crowd fell over because they got a bit over excited and they thanked everyone at the end. And above all, they came on and performed very well, they even did a wonderful encore with a brass section! Boys stared in admiration and girls swooned, everyone there loved the Maccabees, fact.

Wall of Arms:

The BRITS

Every year I get ridiculously excited for this ceremony and this year was no exception. I took the night off work, made sure that I was in front of a widescreen TV for 8pm and sat with a large bottle of posh, organic cider for The BRITS to start. Lily Allen's outfit and performance was first and recieved a slating on twitter, however, I loved it! I hope that it was her last performace before her 'break' though, I'm praying that she'll play some festivals this summer! I ahve never been lucky enough to see her in the flesh! Anyway, I'll talk more about the performances in a bit, here's the winners list:

WINNERS BELOW
British Female Solo Artist

Bat for Lashes

Florence & the Machine

Leona Lewis

WINNER: Lily Allen

Pixie Lott

I was so glad that Lily finally got a BRIT award, well deserved!

British Male Solo Artist

Calvin Harris

WINNER: Dizzee Rascal

Mika

Paolo Nutini

Robbie Williams

I'd have quite liked to see Paolo win this one because I really like 'Sunny Side Up' and her seems lovely, but oh well, Dizzie is a hit machine!

British Breakthrough Act

Florence & the Machine

Friendly Fires

WINNER: JLS

La Roux

Pixie Lott

I was not impressed, I'd have loved anyone to win this one apart from Pixie Lott of JLS, it would have been nice for Friendly fires to maybe win it as they've never won anything and they're a great band!

British Group

Doves

Friendly Fires

JLS

WINNER: Kasabian

Muse

I wasn't too fussed about this one as I knew that poor Friendly Fires did not stand a chance up against JLS, Muse and Kasabian!

MasterCard British Album

Dizzee Rascal - Tongue n’Cheek

WINNER: Florence & the Machine - Lungs

Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Lily Allen - It’s Not Me, It’s You

Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up

I was very, very happy about this one!! If Florence was only going to win 1, I wanted it to be for Lungs and it was!

British Single

Alesha Dixon - Breathe Slow

Alexandra Burke Ft Flo Rida - Bad Boys

Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love

Joe McElderry - The Climb

WINNER: JLS - Beat Again

La Roux - In For The Kill

Lily Allen - The Fear

Pixie Lott - Mama Do

Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart

Tinchy Stryder Ft N-Dubz - Number 1

An absolute joke, The Fear Should have won!

Critics' Choice

Ellie Goulding WINNER

Delphic

Marina and the Diamonds

I'm very happy for Ellie becuase she's great and seems very, very sweet. However, I've been a Marina fan for over 2 years now, so I'd have loved to see her win it, I'm a little biased!

BRITs Album of 30 Years

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head

Dido - No Angel

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

Duffy - Rockferry

Keane - Hopes & Fears

WINNER: Oasis - (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

Phil Collins - No Jacket Required

Sade - Diamond Life

The Verve - Urban Hymns

Travis - The Man Who

I didn't really care who won this one really as I don't think any of them really deserved to win! I hate Liam Gallager though, cannot believe he threw his award into the crowd, twat!

The BRITs Hits 30

Bee Gees - Stayin’ Alive/How Deep is Your Love

Bros. - I Owe you Nothing

Coldplay - Clocks

Eurythmics & Stevie Wonder - Angel

Girls Aloud - The Promise

Kanye West - Gold Digger

Kylie Minogue - Can’t Get You Out of my Head

Michael Jackson - Earth Song

Paul McCartney - Live & Let Die

Pet Shop Boys - Go West

Robbie Williams & Tom Jones - The Full Monty Medley

Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama

WINNER: Spice Girls - Wannabe/Who Do You Think You Are

Take That - Beatles Medley

The Who - Who Are You

I was a 90's child, so I don't really mind that The Spice girls won!

International Female Solo Artist

WINNER: Lady Gaga

Ladyhawke

Norah Jones

Rihanna

Shakira

Welll deserved, I love Gaga

International Male Solo Artist

Bruce Springsteen

Eminem

WNNER: Jay-Z

Michael Buble

Seasick Steve

I'm glad that Jay-Z won, he seems very lovely and he's good at what he does!

International Album

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Black Eyed Peas - The End

Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream

Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3

WINNER: Lady Gaga - The Fame

The Fame is great, well deserved! It would have been great to see Empire of the Sun or Animal Collective win it though but that would never, ever happen!

International Breakthrough Act Supported By MTV Viewers

Animal Collective

Daniel Merriweather

Empire of the Sun

WINNER: Lady Gaga

Taylor Swift

Fair enough, I'm glad Swifty didn't win, her sickly sweetness is irritating!

Outstanding Contribution Award

Robbie Williams

What contribution? Pub singer, much? He's from Stoke too :/

Anyway, what did everyone think of You've Got the Dirtee Love? I thought that it was quite good, maybe could have been a little bit more amazing, but just a bit. I don't really know what to make of these television performance because I think I'm a bit of a tradionalist when it comes to Florence performances, I like it when she's drunk and crowd surfs and climbs up lighting riggs and jumps into swimming pools!
As for Gaga, I loved what she did with her songs telephone and Dance in the Dark, especially as it was in tribute to her friend, the brillaint designer Alexander Mcqueen, it was all very beautiful. She seemed very happy to win all of awards too because she says that she is one of those people that has in the past generally not very successful, I can relate to this entirely.

Here's Gaga's performance:

That's all for now, I might be interview The Drums sometime soon, I'll let you know if I do

Katie

Corinne Bailey Rae- The Sea

2010-02-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

This is an album of beauty, pain, heart-ache, hope and grief. Her voice is flawless and her song writing skills have been further honed during the making of this album into perfection. The Sea is a very personal album, at times in fact it even seems too personal, like you shouldn't be listening. Some people might find it uncomfortable or depressing, but I see it as a beautiful thing. I love the intensity of this album and find it a real gateway into Corinne's experiences and emotions of the past 2 years after the death of her husband, Jason Rae. Even the name 'The Sea' is perfect for this album as it portrays a wide range of Corinne's feelings, views and experiences.

This album welds together acoustic, jazz and soul which gives it a wonderful, yet still relatively simple sound. Had this album been overproduced, it would not have had half of the impact that it does.

The stand out tracks are: Are you Here, Feels Like the First Time, The Blackest Lily, Paris Nights/New York Mornings and The Sea
However, I'd recommend getting the whole album because I'm a strong believer that some albums should stand alone as an album, rather than individual songs and this is one of those albums.

Corinne gets a 10/10 for this glorious offering.

Katie x
ps. NME Tour on Thursday, I'll write it up :)

Wow, it's been nearly a month, I'm sorry!

2010-02-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

I had exams!
hmm, here's what I'm liking at the moment: The new Blood Red Shoes single, Light it Up, which will be released on the 22nd Feb!

I also love a band called Beach House, here's there song 'Zebra', it's a beautiful! They are from Baltimore in Maryland :)

This weekend I went up to a gig at one of my favourite venues, The Box, in Crewe and I saw a band called Violet Violet. The hail from Norwich and are friends with Kids Love Lies and The Kabeedies, who I have also mentioned before. I've never really understood why they never seem to get much recognition, they're brilliant. They're a fierce female two piece with lots energy. Here's their myspace page Their album, This City is Full of Beasts is out now!

I'm also really liking a new American band called 'Yeasayer', I'm sure you will have heard of them if you tune in to Zane Lowe, Nick Grimshaw or Huw Stephens on Radio1, Their album is out this week, I really want it! They write beautiful pop that uses all kinds of wierd synth sounds...
Here's their single Ambling Alp:

Also out this week- Hollywood by Marina and the Diamonds (download it for just 49p here)

Albums: Romance is Boring by Los Campesinos!- It's brilliant

Recent albums: Alcoyte by Delphic- I really, really want it, I already have a few track off it though, great stuff, their music is very close to perfection for me! Fly Yellow Moon by Fyfe Dangerfield ( I've spotified it, heart warming stuff from the former Guillemots frontman) & Contra by Vampire Weekend- I have it, it's great, it transports you to a sunny place!

I'll try and write sooner next time!

Katie x

I Blame Coco- Ceasar (ft. Robyn)

2010-01-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

It comes out on Island Records on the 24th January, she is Sting's daughter, it took me a year of listening to her before I found out this fact..

Katie x

Hurts- Wonderful Life

2010-01-04T07:36:00.001-08:00

I have a feeling that this band have an excellent year ahead of them, this song is actual death disco perfection, delicious!

Katie x

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-13T03:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!

This year has been an incredible year for music, the best of the decade, by far!!
My top twenty best albums of 2009:
1. Florence and the Machine- Lungs
2. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s- It’s Blitz!
3. The XX- The XX
4. Regina Spektor- Far
5. White Lies- To lose my life
6. Paloma Faith- Do you want the truth or something beautiful?
7. Jack Penate-Everything is New
8. Golden Silvers- True Romance
9. The Big Pink- A Brief History of Love
10. Slow Club- Yeah, so
11. The Horrors- Primary Colours
12. Little Boots-Hands
13. Jamie T- Kings and Queens
14. Friendly Fires- Friendly Fires
15. The Maccabees- Wall of arms
16. Passion Pit- Manners
17. Lily Allen- It’s not me, it’s you
18. Mumford and Sons-Sigh no more
19. Bombay Bycicle Club- I had the blues and I shook them loose
20. Lady Gaga- The Fame

Predictions for 2010!:
1. Marina and the Diamonds
2. Ellie Goulding
3. Frightened Rabbit
4. Laura Marling (whatever her second album will be called)
5. Los Campesinos! (Romance is Boring)
6. Lightspeed Champion (life is sweet! Nice to meet you)
7. Late of the Pier
8. Frankie & the Heartstrings (youtube’Fragile’, it’s lovely)
9. The drums (Heading on the NME Shockwaves tour in February, I have my ticket!)
10. Everything Everything (I’ve already sung their praises!)
11. Duchess says
12. Delphic (see Leeds Festival Blog)
13. Dimbleby and Capper
14. Sparky Deathcap (he is amazing and I have great expectations for this man, he writes beautiful songs and recently supported Los Campesinos! On their tour)
15. Joy Orbison (critically acclaimed already by the bbc, currently being played by Huw Stephens, Nick Grimshaw and Zane Lowe)
16. Gold Panda (they know how to make people dance!)
17. Chew Lips
18. Ghostcat
19. Wetdog
20. Ou est le swimming pool?

My favourite xmas songs:
Paloma Faith and Josh Weller- It’s Christmas (and I hate you)

Frightened Rabbit- It’s Christmas so we’ll stop

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- All I want for Christmas

Slow Club- Christmas (baby please come home)

Listen to it here: http://rcrdlbl.com/2009/12/03/exclusive_new_download_slow_club_christmas_baby_please_come_home_

The Pogues- Fairytale of New York

Have a great 2010 everybody! Comment up this blog with your opinions on my favourite albums for 2009 and your predictions for 2010!I want to know what you think!

Katie x

Radicle past 2 weeks!!!

2009-12-11T08:56:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry for my lack of blogging but I have been very, very busy!! However, I still managed to squeeze 3 gigs into the past 2 weeks!!

Firstly, I saw Regina Spektor, that lady is so disgustingly talented, it's unbelievable! She treated her audience to a flawless one and a half hour set, it was just perfect, She did songs from all of her albums apart from 11:11. It was also so cute when she came out and tried to do an english accent with her little Russian lilt!

And then on Thursday the 3rd of December was the re-scedualed Paloma Faith gig at Birmingham Academy 2, I took my mother along! We had a great time, Paloma was as great as I thought she was going to be, however, although I already had high expectations of Josh Weller, he even out did my expectations. He's phenemenal live! His live shows really showcase his song writing skills, his performance capability and refreshing unique sound. Although my mum did compare him to Elvis Costello! It's outrageous that he's not signed, he's so good and he's been part of the music scene for quite some times now, he is particularly popular in Paris, however.

And finally, on Wednesday (the 9th Dec) I saw for the second time this year, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the following video basically says it all, their pure brilliance!

Supporting them was a band from Montreal called 'Duchess says.' Now there's an interesting band! I think the stewards nearly had a heart attack when the lead singer, Annie-Claude, jumped into the crowd and sung the majority of the set moshing, whilst still singing, in the audience. She moved from one end of the crowd to the other and back, whilst the audience members participated in passing the microphone lead over their heads. That woman managed to change people first impressions of her in the space of half an hour. When she came on, in a flowery night gown, pretending that she had been excosised, people immediatley though "gosh, she's wierd and arrogant, we don't even know who she is!" but by the end the set, she was being called a total ledgend. She was crazy in the same sort of way that Alice Glass is and I can imagine Duchess Says having a simular cult following and sold out shows in the way that Crystal Castles do. Their music was a mixture of grunge/punk and elctroinca/shoegaze, they had a very original sound and I truel believe that they will go on to do great things!

That's all for now, but I'm going to post another blog very soon!

Katie x

Chapel Club and Dimbleby and Capper

2009-11-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

I'm completley in love with a London band called 'CHAPEL CLUB' at the moment, their new single 'Surfacing' samples the classic song 'Dream a little dream of me' which they have maliciously fucked up using gothic and religious imagery and heavily amplified guitars. If you like White Lies and The Smiths, you will LOVE these! Check them out at their myspace page here

The next artist I've already mentioned before, when I spoke of her demo 'Beautiful but boring', she writes excellent pop music, her first ever proper single 'Slick Maturity' is already being played by Huw Stephens on Radio1 and it's up on her myspace page

Katie x

Single reviews- all out on the 15th November!

2009-11-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

Single Reviews- Ellie Goulding, Florence and the Machine and Wolf Gang

Ellie Goulding- Under the sheets (Neon Gold) - for video see here
Here, Ellie Goulding, the chic hoodie and trainers supporter delivers her debut single. Having already performed on ‘Later live with Jools Holland’ without a release to her name, this 21 year old Hereford girl sees the release of ‘Under the Sheets’ on Neon Gold record label, previously home to Passion Pit and Marina and the Diamonds, who has just left the label to pursue her debut album release on a major label. This excellent debut, cleverly produced by up and coming producer ‘Starsmith’ is filled with a scrumptious pop melody, contagious drum beats, some form of electronic harp sounds and strong choruses. Her interesting (yet not too uncommercial) angelic voice caries the song well through honest and striking lyrics from the simple “we’re in a mess babe” to the metaphorical “You left a bloodstain on the floor.”

Florence and the Machine- You’ve got the Love (Island)
This exciting take on the original Candi Staton 90’s anthem is an absolute treat, I love how she has changed it vocally to her original recording for the B side of ‘Dog Days Are Over’ and the one found hooked onto the end of her stunning album ‘Lungs’ (for my review of this click here). The infamous strings riff found in the classic song has been replaced with a soaring harp and progressing keyboard, Candi’s remarkable voice of course replaced by the quirky and equally powerful voice of Florence Welch. You can hear Miss Welch’s passion when she sings this song, like it’s so personal to her, it’s clearly a favourite song of her which bestows many memories, just like her version does for me, I have seen her many times and more than often cried hysterically and smiled ridiculously during this song (see here here and here and here for reviews of her live performances). Her version unexpectedly became one of the most popular songs off her album and I think that it why it has been released, it’s certainly not an obvious choice and to be honest I would have rather seen ‘Cosmic Love’, ‘Hurricane Drunk’ or ‘Howl’ released as I would never want her precious version of ‘You’ve got the Love’ to be overplayed by sleazy radio presenters that don’t know what they’re talking about half of the time.

Wolf Gang- The King and all of his Men (Neon Gold, again!)
This song is everything that I expected of this talented gang of men, everything that I’ve heard from them has been fantastic! I would say that their music belongs mainly underneath the ‘synthpop’ bracket but they are excellent musicians rather than technology geeks. ‘The King and all of his Men’ contains fantastic instrumentation, a strapping chorus with catchy and well written lyrics and dancibilty on behalf of the drums. The song has been well polished off by producer ‘Blue May’ but not disgustingly so, this song contains all of the ingredients for a perfect pop song and I think that its qualities have been well mixed to create a butterfly of a song; it’s a very beautiful thing, something that anyone would wish to have created.
I also love the video, set in some sort of Victorian (these seems to be a popular style amongst the band, they certainly seem to like this era, see their myspace pictures for more details on this!)masquerade party:

Katie
x

Chew Lips- Slick

2009-11-10T11:11:00.000-08:00

Chew Lips are celebrating the release of their debut album by giving away free tracks everyday, today's track is an excellent gem called 'Slick.' It's a mellow electropop number, have a listen and follow the download link below if you like it!

http://www.chewlips.co.uk/newsletter/

Katie
x

Also found this golden nugget of a band today...

2009-11-08T05:34:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love this, it's delicious, perfect even. This lot are from Toronto, home of punk but they are clearly also influenced by pop and electronica. They are now living in London I believe. Here is a band called 'Ghostcat'...

Katie x

The Unkindness of Ravens

2009-11-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

What do you think of them, a new sonic youth but more electro and PJ Harveyesque vocals? I think I like this..

Let me know what you think!

Katie
x

Art Vs Science

2009-11-08T05:12:00.000-08:00

This quirky, Melbourne, electronica band sure know how to whip up a pop storm. Their lyrics are catchy and witty and their songs impossible to resist dancing to.

I love the video for this song!

Katie x

Miike Snow in session for Nick Grimshaw

2009-11-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

Her is the excellent session that they did for Nick Grimshaw this week!
Enjoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/videos/nickgrimshaw/video/091030_miikesnow_tk1

Their self titled album is out now!

Katie
x

Local Natives- Gorilla Manner

2009-10-27T06:31:00.000-07:00

Local Natives are streaming 30 second samples of each track off their debut album 'Gorilla Manner' here:

http://www.nme.com/news/local-natives/48040

It's sounding beautiful, pre-order it at Rough Trade (for £10.99) and get a free bonus cd

Oh and I LOVE this!

2009-10-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ellie Goulding- Under the Sheets

Music Go Music

2009-10-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so they don't have a very inventive name but their outfits and music make up for this:

Also, did anyone else spend £1.90 on the Guardian this saturday just so that they could get the link for the live Fever Ray album? Good stuff yes?

Katie X

John Peel 5 year anniversary

2009-10-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

I was always too young to stay up and listen to John Peels show, as I'm only 17 (although 18 in March :)) so I'm making up for it now by listening to these spotify playlists, it seems he was a great man with excellent musical taste...

http://drownedinsound.com/news/4136745

Have a listen, they are brilliant,

Katie
x

I'm soooo sorry I haven't written on here in ages!

2009-10-15T08:37:00.001-07:00

I've been a very busy girl, so therefore this blog may be a long one....

first of all I'd like to introduce you to a new band called 'The Middle Ones.' If you like Emmy the Great, Laura Marling, Slow Club or Ruby and her Whorses, then you'll definately like these. Check them out on myspace here:

http://www.myspace.com/themiddleones

So, bands I've seen since I last wrote:

Florence and the Machine, for the 5th time this year! She did an excellent cover of Etta James' 'Somethings got a hold on me'

The XX supported and they were great too, although a lot of people I know that went didn't like them for some stupid reason!

Next gig was The NME Tour. That was brilliant, all of the bands were amazing!

They were: Yes Giantess!

Local Natives- notice how all of the drummers come on and support them :)

Marina and the Diamonds- Already spoke a lot about this girl, she's fantastic and sooo sweet, she is absolutley lovely!

And of course headlineing were Golden Silvers!

Here are some pictures from the gig:

Yes Giantess!

Local Natives

Marina-

Golden Silvers-

Slow Club- I only managed to catch half of thier set as I had to leave at 12 o clock, but what I saw of them was excellent
Here's some footage of them playing 'I was unconscious It was a dream'

I think that will do for now, I hope I haven't bored you with this mighty long blog! I'll try and write on here sooner next time! Have a great week!

Katie
x

The Mercury's

2009-09-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sure that you are all very well aware by now that Speech Debelle won. What do you all think about this? I don't personally have the album but I do like what I've heard of her songs. I don't think the album will be quite as strong as its contenders but the things that she's been through which have inspired her album make me think that she really does deserve the £20 000. She is an ex drug addict with no qualifications what so ever who was thrown out of her house by her mother when she was a teenager. Make of her what you will but I think that she's wonderful and I admire her strength and the fact that she sings about real things which have happened to her with real emotion.

Of course I'm a bit disappointed that Florence did not win with her beautiful album 'Lungs' as I do strongly believe that it's the best of the bunch (see my album review for more details). I'm not just saying this because I'm a huge Florence fan but the reasons that I don't think she won were:

a) She was favourite to win- The judges clearly knew this when decision making and didn't want to go for such an obvious choice

b) She has already won a Brit award- They didn't want her to win a second award, they wanted someone who hasn't won one to have it

c) Her recent increase in popularity- She doesn't really need the exposure of winning. I know a lot of people who have recently started to like Florence, simply due to the exposure that the BBC/radio1 have given her.

Other people I'd have liked to see win

The Horrors- I've bought Primary Colours recently, it's excellent and I think I'm a little bit in love with Faris Rotter/Badwan as well!

Friendly Fires- It would have been nice to see these boys win something after all of the effort they've put in to reach the exposure that they have now and thoroughly deserve!

Bat for Lashes- Beautiful album, it's a real shame that this is the time that she has lost out on winning the Mercury Music Prize.

Jack Penate- I know her wasn't nominated but he was robbed of a nomination! 'Everything is New' is a gorgeous album, it's currently in my car. I don't see why it wasn't nominated!

Predictions of Next Years Nominees

The XX- An absolutely STUNNING album, see older post for more details

Jamie T- His new album is amazing! I've never really been a huge fan of his work but this album has changed everything for me. This is a very cleverly written and produced album (he did a lot of the production himself in his home studio) which showcases his privately educated background. He's a very smart man, an incredible poet.

That's all for now but leave me a comment with your thoughts on the Mercury's!

Katie

Leeds festival 2009

2009-09-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

So here's a list of who I saw!

Thursday night-

Blood Red Shoes- awesome, their new songs are great, however I though their set was a little short
Wierd clothes swap disco thing- so basically this was a big disco and whenever the klaxon sounded you had to swap clothes with someone, it was a lot of fun, the music was great too, the DJ's were excellent!

Friday-

Disnosour Pile-up- a great new band
Delphic- same as above really
Spinnerette- I had never heard of them before but they were a good rock band
Metric- they were really good and the lead singers jacket was amazing I want it!
Patrick Wolf- one of the best acts I saw all weekend, he's sooo dramatic, it's brilliant, as were his outfits. I almost touched him!
Marina and the Diamonds- loved her for 2 years so it was lovely to see her live finally! She was wonderful and was wearing a beautiful jacket also. She did a good cover of space in the woods by late of the pier!
You me and six- fucking terrible and some of their fans were munching each others facing off, disgusting
The Maccabees- rather good although, the tent was very, very packed, I could hardly see
White Lies- Excellent as per
The Prodigy- the 15 mins which I caught of them were full of dancing :)
Arctic Monkeys- Excellent, Alex pulled the plug out of something by accident and at one point and all of the sound went but then everything just carried on like it never happened

Saturday

Noah and the Whale- caught half of their set, it was pretty good, I love thier new stuff, their album's out this week, think I'll get it
The XX- eXXcelent (God, that was lame) but yeah I wanted their set to go on forever, it was too short!
Oh and everyone got free T shirts which was awesome of them I thought!
Frank Turner- Wonderful and a very lovely man, there was a lot of love for him in that tent
Magistrates- Brilliant, the lead singer is a great front man!
Metronomy- I caught the tail end of thier set, it was really good, lots of raving going on
Passion Pit- Really good, I just wished that a bit more of the crowd were into them
Vampire Weekend- Really great, sooooo glad they played Walcott too, I love that song!
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Maybe the best I saw all weekend? I WANT TO BE KAREN O, so did the girl next to me, it was all good! I'm certainly going to try and catch them on their next tour!
Bloc Party- Very good
Radiohead- What I saw of thier set was beautiful
La Roux- The tent was jam packed, she was on fire, just wish I was a little closer towards the front. There was lots of chanting going on of: "La roux, la roux, la roux is on fire" and also my cousin decided to shout "who's you mum?" because her mum was in The Bill
Smash and grab- The best DJ's I have ever seen, I stayed there for about 3 hours and during this 3 hours I was grabbed by Tabitha and told to come onto the stage, so I jumped over the barrier, revealling my underwear to everyone (but i didn't care and neither did anyone else!) and did 'sexual aerobics' with two drag queens, excellent! I got snapped a fair few times by smash and grab photographers, I see some embarrassing pictures on the horizon!

Sunday

Dananananakroyd- utter shit
Manchester Orchestra- I'm sure I'd have had a good time if I was into hardcore music
The Virgins- Really good, I'd love to see them at their own gig, I'm sure I'd have a great time!
Amazing Baby- Very good, my new favourite band, it was nice that The Virgins came to watch them too!
Little Boots- 10 times better than I thought she'd be, I thought she may be slightly dull but she's actually really good live, I might buy the album
The Horrors- fucking brilliant, I had a great time moshing and crowd surfing to them!
Jack Penate- Excellent as per
FF- the same as above, although, the crowd were a bit rough, FF fans usually have more class and why do fatties insist on crowd surfing?!
Florence and the Machine- really excellent as per but the crowd really made this gig, we all sung happy birthday to Florence and basically everyone was just going insane, which was nice as most of the time, it's only really me!
Kings of Leon- Beautiful set, a nice mixture of new and old songs, the crowd knew pretty much every single word, lovely, they weren't just there for two songs like some of the Reading people were apparently!

So all in all, an EXCELLENT weekend, I may have to go next year if i managed to find some money from somewhere once I've bought my glasto ticket!

Here are a few pictures: Patrick Wolf-

Arctic Monkeys

The XX-

Passion Pit-

Nick from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs-

Karen O!-

The Virgins

Amazing Baby

Little Boots

The XX's album- review

2009-08-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have to say, this album is the best I've bought since Lungs by Florence and the Machine, from the moment I picked it I wanted to listen to it sooo bad, not only because of the brilliant reviews it's had but because of the mystery that the artwork beholds. I feel that The XX are a band which love to remain mysterious, for example the lack of blogs and information on thier myspace, they seem to like you to find out everything youselves. The album artwork contains no flashy photoshoots or drawings just the tracklisting, the lyrics and a large X on the front. I was intruiged to find out what the contents of the album were, musicwise.

The epic introduction led to more suspense and then burst into the beautiful song 'VCR.' The lyrics are simple but heart warming. Next up is the first single 'Crystalised' and then 'Islands' which has already became a personal favourite. Then it's the dazzling song 'Heart skipped a beat', the lyrics to this song are ravishing.

Fantasy, is an interesting number, it's particularly different to the rest, it was written by just Oliver and is a very atmostpheric song that you just have to 'get' if you don't 'get it' you'll just be like "what on earth is this?"

After Fantasy is 'Shelter', which is another favourite which was written by Romy. It's absolutely STUNNING, this one. It's just so intense, emotional and comes across as very personal. It's absolutley beautiful. This is followed by the last single, Basic Space, which I'm sure you're already familiar with if you listen to the radio a lot in the evenings, if not, here's the video:

Infinity, is lovely slow song, which is a nice contrast and then the penultimate track 'Night Time' which is again very intense, it's about extreme love in the same kind of way 'Howl' by Florence and the Machine is (as well as being about a werewolf of course.)

And the last track, if you haven't heard it already, although if you've been following my blogs you will have already done, is 'Stars,' a song which I can't see how anyone cannot fall instantly in love with, it's just so charming and heart melting. It's a beautiful way to finish the album.

This album most certainly deserves a 5/5, if you have any sense you would go and buy it right now! Ohhh and also try and catch them on tour with Florence and the Machine in September!

Katie
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Ten things I'm listening to this week

2009-08-16T02:31:00.000-07:00

1. Amazing Baby- Bayonets
2. Rosie & the Goldbug- You've Changed - This band have just split up which I'm pretty distraught about as I never got to see them live :( So I'm listening to them a lot at the moment in rememberance of them!
3. Marina and the Diamonds- I am not a Robot - You have no idea how excited I am about seeing her on the NME Tour in October, I've been waiting 2 years to see her!
4. Chairlift- Evident Utensil (here it is live at this years Latitude festival)

5. The Temper trap- Sweet Disposition
6. Boy Crisis- Dressed to Disgress
7. Orphans and Vandals- Not just one of thier songs but all of them, their songwriting is superb
8. The XX- All of their singles and demos in prepartion for their album release tomorrow, I can't wait to buy their album, I know that it's going to be BRILLIANT!
9. Slow Cllub's new album, Yeahs So, it's beautiful, a definate must buy!
10. Chromeo- Fancy footwork

A Couple of Video Treats

Drumming Song is out on the 13th September

Have a wonderful week!

Katie
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The Mercury Music Prize

2009-07-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

The Nominies are named!! Here you go:

The nominations in full:

The Horrors – 'Primary Colours'
Friendly Fires – 'Friendly Fires'
Florence And The Machine – 'Lungs'
Bat For Lashes – 'Two Suns'
Led Bib – 'Sensible Shoes'
La Roux – 'La Roux'
Lisa Hannigan – 'Sea Sew'
The Invisible - 'The Invisible'
Speech Debelle – 'Speech Therapy'
Kasabian – 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – 'Twice Born Men'
Glasvegas – 'Glasvegas'

I haven't got Primary Colours (but I want it, what I've heard of it is good though), FF are awesome, I don't mind them winning, although the album has nothing on their live shows! I still haven't got La Roux, I think it'll be good though but not as good as Florence's album. I like Lisa Hannigan but I haven't got the album. I do have Bat for Lashes though, it's good, but not as good as Lungs! The Glasvegas one has flickers of beauty and genius but some of the songs are just a bit boring (eg, ice cream van) and Kasabian have nothing on Lungs either so I'm backing Florence all the way!!

What I'm listening to a lot at the moment

The new Bombay Bicycle Club album- it's actually pretty great, I wasn't sure about them when I first heard the song 'how are you?' a year and a half ago but they've done a really good job with this album, their sound has developed nicely and the album is boderlining epic actually!

The Rumble Strips- Welcome to the walk alone- They're just great musicians and the help they've had off Mark Ronson on this album has just added the polish to thier music. It's great and I saw them on saturday and I must say, they're a very good looking band ;)

Florence and the Machine Lungs- See older blog

VV Brown- Also saw her again at Lovebox Festival on saturday and she was brilliant, I shall definatley be buying the album once I have more money!

Duran Duruan- They were absolutley amazing at Lovebox and I had so much fun singing and dancing along with my new, drunken, 40 year old friends which I met!

Have a great week!

Katie
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