It's Valentines Day. Love it or hate it, you can't deny it. I will, of course, effortlessly be showing Mrs M just what a lucky catch I was. And for the rest of you, by way of a massively contrived link, let us cover you with love too. Here is a tasty little mix of covers we've picked up to follow on from yesterday's Bad Moon Rising post , just don't expect them to be all loved-up now will you. First up is a sublime cover of Neil Young's classic Hey Hey [...]
Each of our writers who posted this year worked tirelessly to cover bands that normally don't appear on your FM radio stations, and in the true spirit of the season, here are their lists. All albums are linked to iTunes. To play all Soundcloud clips continuously, click on the play button in the bottom right of the screen. TOP 10 ALBUMS 10. Gold Leaves - The Ornament 9. Smoke Fairies - Through Low Light [...]
There is a nice free digital mix currently available from American Songwriter that features some of MM's favourites including Deer Tick, The War On Drugs, Cass McCombs and Real Estate . Here are a couple of our favourites from it - the sultry folk of the Smoke Fairies and Strand Of Oaks aka Timothy Showalter's outrageous elegy for John Belushi from a certain Ghostbusters star . Alternatively just click here to go and get the whole thing. Download Strand Of Oaks [...]
Hallelujah, there's a killer new live music venue in my home town!! The Crescent Ballroom , open for just a week now, is mid-sized room (able to accommodate 400-500 people) in a cool 1917 brick building located at 2nd Ave. and Van Buren in downtown Phoenix. Great atmosphere, friendly staff, really good food in their patio lounge/restaurant, Cocina 10 (I recommend the bean & cheese burrito paired with a Moscow Mule - tasty). Dawes Last night, the Blitzen Trapper / Dawes traveling roadshow hit the Ballroom [...]
Image by Maria Mochnacz, from myspace.com/smokefairies I had never been to the cozy little chapel that serves as one of the music venues at Philadelphia's First Unitarian Church, but it was perfect for a rainy night performance by British folk and blues duo Smoke Fairies. The name alone evokes images of vast landscapes, tinged by the mystical colors of fall. Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies filled the room with rustic electric guitar picking, and warm, image-drenched harmonies- oddly perfect for damp weather. The chapel's small size and Victorian architecture was a perfect visual companion to the [...]
We keep our eyes peeled for new tour dates announcements each week and compile them on Tuesdays for this handy column… As live music junkies we get really excited when our favorite bands reveal a new batch of tour dates, but when two of them decide to team up to hit the road together, it makes us feel like a kid on Christmas morning. This was the case last week when news dropped that Blitzen Trapper and Dawes will be traversing the country together come this fall. The two Cosmic Americana acts will [...]
British folk and blues duo Smoke Fairies have made some pretty large ripples in Indie music ponds, in the UK and beyond. The band, composed of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, have previously played to sizable crowds in England, opening up for Bryan Ferry, Richard Hawley, and The Handsome Family. They have also performed in front of high-volume crowds for their first US tour. This time they will be tramping around the states along with cello-rock group Rasputina, hoping to glean even more fans. The duet played at the 2011 iTunes festival and seemed to have been welcomed with open [...]
@ Facebook // MySpace // Amazon mp3 // iTunes Smoke Fairies are heading to the U.S. (tho' of course no where near me. Grrrr). Be sure and grab their new 5 song ep Live from iTunes Festival . [...]
Frank Yang One perennial highlight - okay, for two years - of my SXSW adventures was throwing day parties where we could invite Japanese Action Comic Punk outfit Peelander-Z to wreak havoc. So it was nice to see that not only were the Peelanders in town for NXNE , but they had an all-ages afternoon show scheduled at Sneaky Dee's on the Saturday. I guess Toronto's still getting used to the idea of having shows when it's still daylight out, because the gig was only attended [...]
Photographic Evidence by Ryan Spaulding We Take You There... The Dakota - Toronto, ON for NxNE - 06/18/11 Smoke Fairies - Alabama [...]
So, here's the deal. A few days ago I was informed that my squad will be leaving the relief effort on the 22nd (This upcoming Wednesday). This is good for you because: A) The Indie Sabbath will be back in full force sooner than planned, bringing you that same material that has been described as "Cooler than a polar bear's toe nail" and "So fresh it'll turn your chest into a pair of class cutters." B) [There is no B. Actually there are practically no Bees anymore either . [...]
The Coors Light Open House Festival is getting ready to kick off next Wednesday night in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast. Taking place between 22nd - 26th June, the series of concerts will include performances from some fantastic acts, including Fleet Foxes, Villagers, Laura Marling and many, many more. This year, the people behind Open House have also gathered an impressive line-up of acts for the Coors Light Breakthrough , a brand new series of gigs to showcase the very best in new and emerging music. With a particular interest in playing host to up-and-coming [...]
Michelle Ford Another year, another NXNE , another NXNE preview post. I'll apologize in advance if this one's a little less thorough or exploratory than previews past, as travels and general business has taken up time that would usually be spent cruising band websites and Myspaces Facebooks, Bandcamps and Soundclouds. But I can offer one unconditional endorsement for the coming week, and I'd like to think it's not a wholly obvious one: Vancouver's Louise Burns . Her debut Mellow Drama came out a couple [...]
<font size="2"It's now less than a week until Europe's leading new music festival, The Great Escape kicks off again in Brighton, but with a line up filled with so many artists you may not have heard of, how do you decide where to go? These are some of my personal picks, including a few off the beaten track that you might not even be aware are playing! Daughter Anyone looking for a captivating performance should head straight to Daughter's [...]
Smoke Fairies - U.S. debut for young Londoners Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire, childhood friends who began writing and performing together in school...adapt their traditional folk songwriting to bring in darkly atmospheric American roots music -- from swampy blues to alt-country shadings strung from Texas to Appalachia // Release : Through Low Light and Trees (June 14) // Quote : "This lovely album is reminiscent of early–70s acid folk...heartfelt and sensual...poised and elegant..." - MOJO // Sounds like : Eerie, genre-bending British folk enveloped in backporch Americana, acoustic [...]
February 3, 2011 A selection of photos from the gig by Smoke Fairies, Sea Of Bees and Lucy Rose at The Scala in London. [...]
The National are set to kick off the ninth series of RTÉ's Other Voices , which hits our TV screens on February 16th. The show will be broadcast every Wednesday night at 11.25pm for six weeks and will include performances of intimate sets by James Vincent McMorrow , O Emperor , Cathy Davey , Lisa Hannigan and Ryan Sheridan among others, all recorded in St. James' Church in the lovely town of Dingle. [...]
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A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
Diplo - "Climax" (MP3 Stream)
Gotye – Somebody I Used To Know (Jakob Liedholm Remix) : Must Hear House / Indie Remix [TSIS PREMIERE]
Out This Week 2/14
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
