
Photo via MySpace Aside from a few typos here and there in the last little while, I think I've been pretty good about reporting things that can generally be considered factual. Accurate. Based in truth. Which pretty much goes against the basic ethos of blogging, does it not? So with that in mind, I will indulge in a little wild speculation and rumour-mongering, though even that has a basis in reality. Yesterday morning, I got an email from a reader asking if I knew anything about a Verve [...]

Während junge Britinnen mit modischen Akzenten im Rekordtempo die Hypemaschine auf- und absteigen lässt sich Emmy The Great Zeit. Hat nach mehreren Jahren stetigen Fansammelns ihre erste EP rausgebracht die in nur 2 Tagen restlos vergriffen war, schreibt weiter fabelhafte Songs über M.I.A. und Osterparade und covert Pixies, spielt viel, promotet wenig. Tritt lieber in einer nicht sonderlich gut gemachten DIY-Fernsehshow auf Youtube mit musikalischen Mitstreitern und Freunden Jeremy Warmsley und Lightspeed Champion auf. Dort singt sie in 24 Zeilen wie "I would marry you for money but i don't suppose you'll ever have enough" [...]

A lot of new British bands are given plane tickets dumped in the Texas Desert and then forced to play South-By-South-West (SXSW) in Austin to pay for their journey home and simultaneously try to show-off some of the best new music Britain has to offer... here's a run down of my picks for the agenda-setting festival. BEARSUIT MP3: Steven Fucking Speilberg : Speeding South-Eastern indie-pop gets revved up screeching from motorway to dirt-road to railway-track looking for the line that takes them to the sea, smiling throughout knowing they [...]
Usually these "Youtube Saturdays" are reserved for more established artists or sometimes for lost causes from the past ( Galaxie 500 , The Feelies , Gil Scott Heron ). But today's "YouTube Saturday" is devoted to the future. And someone I believe is an incredible talent. Emmy The Great is that someone. She's English and started out a little twee/indie pop but has smoothed out her edges of late and become quite refined. She's suddenly also very hip as her friends Lightspeed Champion and Jeremy Warmsley are gaining some fame [...]
From the UK here's Emmy The Great doing a cool little cover of 'where is my mind' live. I can't believe they are on MTV UK now. Why is American MTV nothing but 24 hours of 'my super sweet 162 and then England is spoiled rotten with this amazing band? Emmy the Great are [...]

This has been a funny old year for gigs in the world of The Daily Growl. First five months I carried on my regular gig-going habit, albeit with a little more urgency knowing that frequent time spent in London’s live music venues was drawing to a close, all due to the imminent arrival of The Baby Growl. The remaining seven months saw me eagerly taking the few opportunities I had to get out to see some shows. Given the lack of options available, I had to be selective and fairly sure it was going to be a good ‘un. From [...]

Image: Helen Levitt I See Who You Are - Björk From Volta ( Amazon ), Myspace Image: Irving Penn Trust - Gravenhurst From The Western Lands ( Amazon ), Myspace [...]
Today has been weird. I seem to just keep finding out about more and more amazing releases. All on one day. I'll jump right in with Daft Punk's ALIVE album. As soon as I was out of bed today, I pretty much ran to Virgin Megastore down the road to get my hands on my copy. There was a guy in front of me in the queue that took forever. Seeing them at 02 Wireless in Hyde Park this summer was possibly the best live music experience of my life. I don't think I've ever [...]
Emmy The Great was recently recommended and I checked out some of her stuff. Her real name is Emma-Lee Moss and she was born in Hong Kong is lives in London, England. I must say she is very very attractive as she looks part-Chinese add that she plays a guitar she's now SUPER SEXY in my eyes. There aren't many songs by Emmy The Great but all I've heard so far are great. She labeled as being part of the anti-folk scene so the only person who comes to mind is Regina Spektor (whom I also love). [...]
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I've collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their "song obsessions of the week." Quite often it's easy to explain why the song is good; it's much hard to explain why we're obsessed. Maybe you'll become obsessed with one of these. - Adrian ( me ): Andy Samberg and Adam Levine (and Richard James) - Iran [...]

DOWNLOAD: Tulsa - Whissper (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Emmy The Great - Canopies and Grapes (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Emmy The Great - Easter Parade (MP3) Emmy the Great * ZZ Top are at Beacon Theatre * Genesis is at Giants Stadium * XXXChange & Flosstradamus are at Stereo * Dirtybird Monthly with Claude Von Stroke at APT Claude Von Stroke's wobbly [...]
'member Emmy the Great ? From a couple weeks ago ? Of course you do! Why, you haven't been able to stop remembering her! It's starting to worry people! Well *poof* she's got a New York date: Sidewalk Café , this Wednesday, 9/26. Tomorrow! She won't have a full band behind her, just her geetar and a pair of back-up singers. We'll take it. That's the only U.S. date currently scheduled. Sorry, rest of America. Here are a few songs from live [...]

Several days too late I know, but August was such a good month, that I couldn’t let it pass. Here goes. Album of the Month St Vincent – Marry Me What to choose? It’s been a pretty blinding month for album releases. We’ve had Richard Hawley, MIA, New Pornograhers, Super Furry Animals and Eugene McGuinness for starters. It’s been a hard ‘un but I’m going with Annie Clark’s debut album, just because it’s a [...]

The second radio session of the day is by none other than Emmy the Great , making it a double Emmy whammy over the past couple of days on The Daily Growl. She came into the very same Xfm studios to play another live Xfm session for John Kennedy. This time it was all about plugging her new My Bad EP of course, so she played City Song , MIA and The Woods , not this time featuring Lightspeed Champion , but instead ably backed up by mysterious friends who [...]

It’s been 10 weeks. 1 June was the last time I was at a gig. That’s what having a baby does to your gig-going habit. But that’s OK – I haven’t exactly been bursting to get out. There are just too much other things to do, and tiredness is also a big factor. However, I have been getting itchy feet lately, so I nipped out on Tuesday night to head down to Rough Trade East for the Trouble Records party featuring Crystal Castles and HEALTH . [...]
This week M.I.A.'s new album Kala leaked and her charming brand of transglobal brainfuckery can now be found all over the internets. So, rather than more madness from Miss Arulpragasam, here is a song named after her...

Yeah, I know I’m wayyy behind with stuff on this blog, but I’m playing catch-up on a heap of stuff, and now on 5th July, it’s time to cast an overdue glance back (as I normally do) over the past month. Except this time it’s the past two months. My review of May didn’t happen for obvious reasons . Now the problem is that May seems too far away, and June passed in a bit of a blur, without much contact with the outside world. So forgive me for a less than coherent post. Still, I’ll try anyway. [...]
Not much time for proper blogging at the moment, but I've got an excuse for that . Instead enjoy a couple of film clips of two of The Daily Growl's favorite artists playing songs in the back of London black cabs. These 'black cab sessions' are the work of the people at Hidden Fruit . Nice start folks - who next? Londoners can also try to work out where the cabs are driving. Emmy the Great [...]

After this post from Best Week Ever , I was gonna do a post called “A Pack of Wolves”. As there are oodles of bands with “wolf” in the title. Instead, The Duke will feature bands with the word “Great” in their name. Fourteen bands to be exact. In beta-alphaical order: The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain ~ Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps The Sixth Great Lake ~ Everybody Loves To Be Loved The Late Greats ~ [...]

This Sunday sees the return of Nottingham's no.1 music festival, Dot To Dot but as my university sees it fit to give me 3 exams in 3 days in the last week of term, i very annoyingly can't make. I say very annoyingly because this year boasts the best line-up the festival has had in its 3 year existence. Many a funfunfun loved band are playing and i probably could have been busy running around the grotty streets of Nottingham between venues to catch the hottest bands from midday to midnight...non-stop. But NO...i'll be stuck in the library, [...]