Facebook / daydreamingwinter.com I'm currently getting wet in Brighton and this is the last of my pre-writes so hopefully you have a great weekend and I'll be back with a review of The Great Escape when I'm recovered next week.. The new music discoveries never stop though and today I write about Winter , a dream pop/shoegaze band from Boston led by Samira Winter, they released their first EP "Daydreaming" last December... The four track release introduces a sound that combines a blissed-out Best Coast jangle pop sound with shimmering guitar [...]
Facebook The Fabergettes describe their own sound as " 60’s inspired pop-punk music. Think Best Coast meets The Ronnettes with a dash of The Runaways thrown in for good measure ". I can't really add or beat that description, it's bang on the money, I can't quite remember how I came across the Sydney duo / band, I think it might have been the trusty Bandcamp Discover but their discovery and subsequent addition to my iTunes directory is certainly a good thing. "Ding Dong" opens their four track debut [...]
Facebook / camera-obscura.net Indie-Pop royalty Camera Obscura announced their return earlier this year with the joyous "Do It Again", now as they build up to the albums release, Desire Lines is due June 3rd via 4AD , the Glagsow quintet have shared the second track from their forthcoming album and it's even better... I could say lots about the wistful ballad "Fifth In Line To The Throne", the beautiful lead vocals of Tracyanne Campbell are crystal clear, the instrumentation is perfectly restrained and the lyrics of the [...]
Facebook / seaponyband.tumblr.com With a vast ocean between us Brits and America it's obvious they'll be numerous Stateside bands who can't afford to make the trip across it to play live shows (and vice-versa I'm sure). I've got a (mental) list of at least twenty bands that I'll be first in line to buy tickets for if they made it to London, good news though, one band that'll be coming off that list soon is Seapony. Tomorrow the Seattle group start their first ever European tour - with a date that I [...]
Facebook / sistersband.co.uk/ I'm currently gearing up for The Great Escape, they'll be a few more posts here this week before a bit of a blog holiday until I return and recover from three days of bands, booze and seaside fish & chips (I'd like to add sun but the weather forecast is abysmal). For now though, a new music post on a band I discovered during research for the festival, although seemingly I'm a little late to the party. Sisters are a London based (of Irish descent) trio with [...]
Facebook I've mentioned LIPA here quite a few times and acts that have graduated from their even more so, my latest discovery to previously tread the Liverpool school's heady halls is Tina Refsnes , whom like fellow past LIPA attendees's Anna Lena & The Orchids and Farao hails from Norway. Tina returned to Oslo after study and this track "A Million Things" is her debut single. It's vulnerable, aching and gorgeous from the moment her acoustic picking and rich, warming vocals wrap themselves around you, accompanied by [...]
Facebook / wearebigwave.com Big Wave are quickly making a name for themselves, not only as one of finest new bands in the UK but as excellent video makers too, following the wonderful speed-dating theme of the " Only You " video comes "Goldmine", the lead single from their sexy new cassette due next week via Art is Hard - pre-order here , which sees the band tackle their alter-egos in a gameshow. Another Robot are again responsible for the video as "Goldmine" bounces along with [...]
Facebook When I blogged about Sister Crystals in March I talked about their last single " For So Long " highlighting a progressive, more dynamic sound, well consider that comment quadrupled. "White" is the latest track to be taken from their forthcoming self-titled LP (released June 4th via Walk-In Records and available to pre-order here ) and it's bloody gorgeous. The Chicago duo / quintet have perfected their sound confidently, sitting perfectly between the starry-eyed romanticism of modern dream-pop with Lauren Whitacre's butterfly soft vocals and nostalgic psychedelic shimmers, where heavy, [...]
Straight on with the second part of my Great Escape 2013 preview - if you landed on this page and want to see the first part - head here and your wish will be granted... Golden Fable - Facebook / goldenfable.com Friday 17th May - 19.15 - Sticky Mikes Frog Bar A band I'm very much looking forward to breaking my live duck with are Golden Fable, the duo [...]
Official Website: mamacolive.com/thegreatescape 2013 will be my sixth Great Escape , I’ve learnt from being shut out of Metric’s seafront show on a wet, windy evening and now tend to look lower down the festivals billing for my acts. If you plan on seeing a London Grammar or a Chrvches this year, my advice is simple, get there early. Other the next couple of posts I’ve picked out a dozen acts from the 350 odd in the line-up as my “must-see’s”. The Great Escape is a vast, widespread festival with [...]
Facebook Drop Out Venus have released the first single from their forthcoming Glitz EP (which follows on May 20th), the frankly bizarre "Death Is Screaming". From a band never content to sit on the fence, the track pushes the boundaries of multiple genres and styles in one crazily wonderful three minute track. The place I keep coming back to is Prince, I can't think of another genre-hopping act capable of merging a funk laden melody of 80's analogue beats, shredding guitar hooks, rap sections and disconcerting lyrics to such [...]
Facebook The name of this blog is aptly titled given I only feature music that I like, Wilsen is not just an artist I like though, I've been pretty much smitten with their beautifully atmospheric sounds from the moment I first heard the track I'm talking about (again) today, "Dusk", almost a year ago now... Still as haunting and pure now as the first time I heard it, deliciously heart-breaking and devastatingly gorgeous it builds from gently picked chord patterns and light brush strokes with Tasmin's heartfelt [...]
Facebook / americanmary.com I've had what can only be described as 'one of those days', day long meetings where none of my actual work managed to get done and the gig I was thinking of going evaporating before my eyes. What better way to cheer me up than a new track by The National , "Sea Of Love" is instantly as addictive as the other two tracks we've already heard (and I've previously featured here - " Demons " and " Don't Swallow The Cap ") from the Brooklyn bands forthcoming album [...]
Facebook / boardwalkla.tumblr.com Latest signings to Stones Throw BoardWalk , a duo from Los Angeles consisting of Mike Edge and Amber Quintero have only released one track to date, "I'm To Blame" (stream below), but it's the sort starry-eyed beauty that sweeps around you like a fuzzy, warm blanket. The beautiful, woozy melody and Amber's soft, sultry whispers are as pretty as a flower and bound to draw comparisons with just about every romantic, dream-pop band you've already heard of, with elongated organ chords, reverberating guitar and gently [...]
Facebook / editorsofficial.com Editors have been one of my favourite bands since I first saw them at the turn of 2005, their debut album The Back Room is a stunning collection of songs that stands the test of time while their third album In This Light and On This Evening highlighted another side to the band and is in my opinion their best yet, a few changes have happened over the past couple of years though, Chris Urbanowicz left the band and in have come Justin Lockey [...]
Facebook Rules are a new London based quintet whose members have been in a few other bands I could mention but won't, instead I'm going to head straight into their debut release, a demo of a track entitled "What's Changed?", shared just a couple of days ago... It promises to be the first track of many, a statement on their Facebook says they plan to: 'digitally release a new song on the first Monday of each month for free from July 2013 with an accompanying photo and video. Followed by a [...]
Facebook / emilyandthewoods.com Summer is finally here and everyone is out enjoying the long weekend with glorious weather. That is apart from me, I've been having a quiet, lazy day resting up before my marathon on Monday. Now as day turns into night I find myself looking for something to take my breathe away, what better thing to pop up on my timeline then than a new track (a solo, live version of) by Emily and The Woods ... "First Light" does just that, a plucked electric guitar gives the sole [...]
Facebook / locketsmusic.com Every now and then a band comes along that you love and cherish and hold close to you heart no matter if you are listening to them or not, Lockets were one of those bands for me last year after a series of knock-out single that I covered with glowing praise here. Later it was a great honour that my little label Beautiful Strange put out the Philly duo's debut LP Camera Shy on vinyl - a limited release which you can stream via [...]
Facebook Two birds with one post here, an introduction to The Great Escape, which I will be focusing on next week and a post on a band whom I've been toying with blogging about for a while - the only reason I've not until now is the track in question has 142k plays already and is not really in need of the additional limited attention from my small-fry ramblings. I was asked who my 'must see acts' for The Great Escape (now only two weeks away) were on twitter last night by a very [...]
Facebook / everythingbyelectricity.com One of the main reasons I continue this blog is the buzz of discovering new music, it's why I try and feature and support new bands (and follow them there after) as much as possible. One of my favourite "Introducing" blogs from early last year was London based trio Everything By Electricity (here's my initial post from March 2012), I went and watched the band play at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen shortly after that post and was preparing to have them as one of my 'new favourite [...]
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