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
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Friday, 11 December 2009
Radicle past 2 weeks!!!
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
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
Monday, 23 November 2009
Chapel Club and Dimbleby and Capper
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
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
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Single reviews- all out on the 15th November!
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
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
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Chew Lips- Slick
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
http://www.chewlips.co.uk/newsletter/
Katie
x
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Also found this golden nugget of a band today...
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
Katie x
The Unkindness of Ravens
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
Let me know what you think!
Katie
x
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