Blog: The VPME

The VPME The VPME present their most "eggsellent" Easter Podcast. With guest appearances from, amongst others, Jim Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain, Straylings, I Am Harlequin, Curxes, Severin, Sarah Nixey Of Black Box recorder alongside new tunes from Garbage, The School, 2:54 and Polica. You'll also find  classics from The Cure, The Psychedelic Furs and The Waterboys and so much more. The Von Pip Musical Express Podcast -Episode 11- April 2012 by Thevonpipmusicalexpress on Mixcloud

The VPME   Pic By Nathan Blaker This is the Muncie Girls and this video dropped into our email box yesterday. The result?  We started frenziedly pogoing around the room like Zebedee on a sugar rush in no time at all. We don't know much about the band, other than they are from Exeter and are influenced by Punk , Sleater-Kinney, Fugazi, Against Me! and The Cut Ups. This is apparently their first video for their rather fabulous new tune " Kasper and Randow." [...]

The VPME Dead Mellotron started life as a solo vehicle for singer and guitarist Josh Frazier, but after relocating from Louisiana to Baltimore and adding Courtney Corcoran and Aimee Bowen to the line up the project became a fully fledged band. "Glitter" is their third album and is the first to be released by the wonderful Sonic Cathedral records, a label which is surely the bands spiritual home. "Glitter" does exactly what it says on the tin, it glitters, it shimmers and it explodes with euphoric melody and manages to pack a huge emotional [...]

The VPME Alba is a London based singer-songwriter from Finland, we've certainly featured plenty of Scandinavian artists on The VPME in the past but I'm not sure if we've shone the spotlight on any from Finland? However it is entirely possible we may have ironically mentioned the Rasmus once or twice, but Alba's music is the polar opposite of her compatriots rather cheese imbued take on American rock, and whereas The Rasmus radiate sweat and angst, Alba exudes sweetness and light. " Open My Mind" is a gently strummed, sweetly sung confessional full [...]

The VPME LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY 2012 www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk Tickets here                                                              The Temper Trap   White Denim                       [...]

The VPME Last week our "Track Of The Day" feature shone the spotlight on a fair bit of electro pop, these weeks theme seems to be being drawn to a species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Yesterday we had wily Jethro Fox and today we have the foxy, erm Foxes. "Christ, not another female singer song writer " I hear you cry, well yes, and we do seem positively awash with them these days, but the thing is, in our opinion, many of them are extremely fucking good so [...]

• iamfoxes - Foxes - White Coats

The VPME Press Release: SELF TITLED DÉBUT ALBUM OUT JUNE 4TH “A great sense of melody” – Brian Wilson “Great songs, great band, great future” – Debbie Harry “The best band since the Ramones” – Seymour Stein Rock’n’roll dreamers Two Wounded Birds are back! And now, at long last, [...]

The VPME We are currently running the vast VPME Empire from our sick bed, sympathy is of course obligatory, you can therefore anticipate less words this week ( which may come as a relief to many ; ) ) For today's "Track Of The Day" we welcome back  Liverpool dwelling Jethro Fox with his second release "Echo." We think this might even surpass his previous song , the fabulous "Before." Some artists take time to find their feet, but Jethro appears to have arrived fully [...]

The VPME Last week Laura Welsh was featured as our track of the day with "Ghosts" , today she's back with another beautiful song "453 which provides irrefutable evidence that Laura is indeed a huge talent. You can download it for free below.

The VPME Here's a free download from Sarabeth Tucek, which is an out-take from her second album "Get Well Soon"  ( and also the VPME's album of the 2011). As you'd expect it's sparse, haunting beautiful and evocative. You can read our interview with Sarabeth HERE

The VPME Shy Around Strangers are a new (ish) band from NYC who combine thundering bass, chiming guitars, swirling keyboards and the smoky whiskey cracked vocals of Emily Powers to great effect. Vocally Powers is somewhere between  Shirley Manson and Metric's Emily Haines, which as you would imagine is a pretty darn fine place to be. "Never Look Down" artfully combines flourishes of 802s cinematic melodrama with radio friendly 902s grunge to produce a sound that whilst not unique, is extremely satisfying and expertly crafted. And y'know, some days you just cant be arsed with [...]

The VPME Yesterday we had some Norwegian Electro Pop from Musique Le Pop and  today we have some Scouse electro pop in the form of Citi Petts with a remarkably accomplished double A side début.  " Love In A Riot " (anagram LIAR) has both the sweetness of St Etienne and the cool imperious menace of Ladytron, whilst " Sick Slick Trick" has a more sultry, soulful dance vibe with enough left field cool to appeal to indie kids and the Ibiza crowd alike.  In summation both tracks are  " well impressive lah" as [...]

The VPME This is a bit of a gem, a spellbinding, shimmering, swirling electro-pop nugget from new Scandinavian trio  Musique Le Pop.  "Time Changes"  sashays onto the dance-floor, spins you around by your lapels, plants a lipstick smeared kiss on your forehead before enigmatically disappearing into the night,  leaving you somewhat breathless and  hungry for more. And you were so intoxicated by the whole experience you forgot to get it's bloody phone number  . This is Musique Le Pop's début single , they all hail from the small town [...]

The VPME Dum Dum Girls  have revealed their new video for 'Coming Down' one of our fave songs  from 2011 The band will headline Islington Academy on 11th April ... but still haven't come to Liverpool, you can stay on our sofas!!!

The VPME Alice Jemima is an 18 year old singer songwriter from Newton Abbot, Devon whose songs convey an easy charm and demonstrate a well schooled ear for melodious, delicate, understated pop. There's a youthful, innocent joy to many of her tunes, but let's not confuse innocence with naivety, for her lyrics reveal she's young lady with her head firmly screwed on. She's been played on BBC 6 music, Radio 1 and BBC Introducing and has been picking up fans via the blogosphere  with the same regularity as those infamous Imelda Marcos "shoe hunts" [...]

The VPME Dead Mellotron's "Stranger" ticks all our musical boxes and despite lasting less than three minutes  achieves a  measure of soaring epicness that some bands never even get close to over the course of an entire career.  Its glorious driving guitar and reverb soaked vocals pack a huge emotional punch, which is pretty impressive for a band who once listed their influences as “complete apathy. ” Dead Mellotron were initially a solo vehicle for singer/guitarist Josh Frazier, but after relocating from Louisiana to Baltimore they have expanded to a three-piece. Their [...]

The VPME Poliça are a formed around the artistic nucleus of  Channy Casselle and Ryan Olson, two members of a Minneapolis collective known as Gayngs.  Much play has been made with regard to the synthetic manipulation of Ms Casselle's voice, but this isn't employed to mask vocal defects, as she clearly has a wonderful voice, more  to imbue the overall feel of " Lay Your Cards Out" with an atmospheric, other worldly sound. Indeed instead of stripping emotion from the vocal performance it merely adds to the celestial, dream-like beauty and leaves one with the feeling of having been [...]

The VPME   Stealing Sheep. There's been baaaaa-rly  a squeak from us about Liverpool's hotly tipped, harmony drenched, psych folk, dream pop trio Stealing Sheep, but don't ewe wooly we aim to set things straight and stoically resist resorting to infantile puns about sheep. They've recently uploaded an evocative new video for their track "I am The Rain" which is a bit M. Night Shyamalan's "the Villag e"  meets "the Wicker Man" as well as recording a quite stunning session for  Marc [when did that beard [...]

The VPME The ladies have dominated the VPME's "Track Of The Day" feature this week" so its time to redress the balance [slightly] with a track from Hillary and the Democrats. Despite the name they are neither female  or related to a certain American powerhouse family who make The Simpsons look well adjusted. They are in fact a Liverpool dwelling, indie-pop four-piece who are apparently "forged from the fires of Art Brut, Hefner, Weezer and XTC." This track "Let's Play Kubb" isn't an affectionate paean to Noughties indie band [...]

The VPME I Am Harlequin is the creation of multi-instrumentalist Anne Frier,  who we are told  spent her early childhood in East Germany. Now in our experience many avant garde artists from Germany are often, well, how can we put this delicately.. a bit "bats" to be quite honest. This is of course a good thing. Thankfully, unlike her compatriot Nina Hagen, Anne's music is a lot more accessible and she has honed a sound that conjures up a dash of  Kate Bush,  Bjork without the "bollocks du jour" mixed with a more restrained, sonorous Florence.  [...]