Look! It's my first competition! I wear far too much topman than I care to admit and I was delighted when their CTRL team contacted me. Topman CTRL is an awesome feature, where bands are selected to edit the CTRL blog and curate a live show. They've had Lightspeed Champion and Gallows (off the top my head), so they already have a pretty good list of some of my favourite bands. To get to the point, it's Passion Pit (who I saw recently ) this month and they offered me to give away [...]
Want to win a Passion Pit t-shirt? Go here! Passion Pit opened with a bang (or to be more accurate, a high pitched sound which had quite an after effect on my ears) and launched into Eyes As Candles . The first thing I noticed was how much more dynamic and louder their live sound was, and this wasn't just because they were playing in a venue, not a studio. They had obviously taken some time to create a solid set, one which would be more interesting than just playing through the album. [...]
I was hesitant to post this one, because more than four of my feeds ( Funkism , Music Liberation , Too Many Sebastians and Party Aids ) are posting a track and crying that they are the next thing. And really, we'll have to put that into the persepctive of on an album or a live show. Fortunately, their live show is actually coming to Munich. This never happens for bands without a debut, so for this reason I'm also going to join the blog masses and nominate them as the best band to have existed [...]
My knowledge of this particular remixer consisted of his amazing remix of Franz Ferdinand's Do You Want To and that he did that thing with Boys Noize (which was also pretty damn amazing). After researching (scourged for all his remixes and wikipedia'd the man), I discovered a couple of interesting things about this guy; he makes some crazy good, headbanging electronic remixes of indie artists (Bloc Party, Klaxons, Interpol and more) and produced the Late of the Pier record. For the second feat alone, I applaud him, it is quite a marvelous record . But that's not [...]
Packed (but not uncomfortably) with The Streets blasting through the speakers, it seemed there were good signs the gig was going to be interesting. I Heart Sharks then stepped through the crowd and got their instruments ready, while the singer nervously slipped in and out of German and English. Since they were previously unknown to me, I'll just throw some random observations out there. The drummer was the most enthusiastic percussionist I've had witness to see. He seemed to be having more fun than the entire crowd combined, he was constantly getting up and [...]
Holly Miranda was the best opener I have ever seen at a gig. She was completely unknown to me, but proved herself as an artist to look out for and she managed to impress everyone in the room, not just me, which is a rare thing to happen. It was simply made up of Holly, her guitarist, bells and a really old mic. She would switch between the normal mic, to the older one, in and out through the songs and occasionally loop her vocals (with the old mic's sound reminding me of the one from [...]
I guess this is a sort of excuse post, but maybe we'll put a positive spin on it and say this is a personal post? I've been visiting contributer Philip in the wonderful city of Dresden, where we watched I Heart Sharks (their enthusiastic drummer is pictured above) and did numerous other non-music related things. I've been waiting to post a review of their gig and The XX (who I caught a week ago), but if you haven't noticed yet, dropbox cut me off there service. They have been my best hosting [...]
This is another edition of Studying, Revising and Reaching a Higher Level (the first can be found here ). The title explains exactly what kind of music this post is all about. Modular Mix - Air You've Got The Love (The XX Remix) - Florence and the Machine Ribbons - Four Tet Feeling Kind of Anxious - Franz Ferdinand Kiss Of Life (Spiral Into The Storm remix) - Friendly Fires Kids With Guns (Hot Chip [...]
Tomorrow is the first time I'm helping organize music for a party (a friend's 18th birthday), which will probably involve some alcohol, and hopefully (if all goes well), a lot of dancing. I have a couple of different playlists for different styles; pop, indie, my favourite stuff and my "pure" dance music (house, techno etc.). I blended these to form this gigantic mix which, as earlier stated, is an attempt to get those kids dancing. Comments, and more importantly; any recommendations? Thanks. Oh and enjoy the mp3s attached. The Rockafeller Skank Fatboy Slim Put Your Hands Up [...]
So the slick looking guy above really hasn't been on my radar at all. Sure, I know that he had that big thing with Crookers, which all the awful club rats at my school enjoy, but as you can probably tell, that is not the best way to get in my good books. So I sort of downloaded this album on a limb, and I've been pleasantly surprised. Initially, I only enjoyed a couple of tracks which felt like they might as well be sold as singles. The rest felt awful. But after going through the album, as a whole, [...]
Alex Egan (aka Astronomer) got chucked on the rather mediocre new EP from Metronomy, but it's definitely the highlight. Astonomer speeds up the track and makes it a lot more fun. To be honest, his interpretation of Not Made For Love actually sounds like something off Metronomy's second album, which is most certainly a good thing. And why not throw in his recent remix of Basic Space by The XX? Not as good the original, but not half bad either. myspace , amazon
This is a perfect piece of music. It is everything I strive to achieve in what I create. It is amazing. It is unparelled and unflawed. This piece fills me with energy, aggression and madness. I can't really find that many words to describe how much of a masterpiece this track is. I can't say their debut ever struck me as great, but searching for their older EPs made me incredibly appreciative of their music. It's these original EPs which make me see how one of my obsessions, Foals, completely ripped them off. Not neseciarlly in [...]
When I first heard this track, I had the same reaction as I did from the first single from Noah and the Whale's new album; "Damn, they've gone all slow and emotional." But it grew on me, a lot. It's really quite fantastic. A mellow string arrangement opens and their no-bullshit, sharp lyrics push to a violent clash of all the instruments within the band. It's really beautiful, and very, very powerful. The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future Amazon , iTunes , Official [...]
On Saturday I attended a small "festival" and heard a couple of bands completely unknown to me. The Coxx were first and they were a dull all-girl rock/blues/pop band. Their music, nor their energy, managed to keep my interest. The Fog Joggers (above) were the opposite, with a true passion for their songs and a solid performance. Their recordings definitely haven't managed to capture their energy live. If you want an extremely explicit song, try out Split Another Fuck , while Autumn Girl is held together by a killer bass [...]
Theophilus London first came to my attention through his take on The Very Best's remixed-to-death "Warm Heart of Africa". It didn't interest me, however his original track "Sand-Castle Black X Blue" is far better. With slick pop-culture references and some sweet electronica instrumental work, this track is slick. I need to get hold of some of his other work. official , myspace , itunes Sand-Castle Black X Blue - Theophilus London
I saw this on Disco Demons and I had to share. Most remixes I download are pretty boring, but this immediately caught my attention. Starting with a chopped up version of the main riff, it moves into some solid electronica. As soon as you start getting bored Dirty Disco Youth moves it all the way back to a clean version of the original. A great take on Empire of the Sun . Standing On The Shore (Dirty Disco Youth Remix)
I managed to find myself flying to England on the same weekend as two excellent sounding festivals, Underage festival and Field Day . Unfortunately, I had to take the former, since Field Day does not allow anybody under the age of 18 to attend. I had my doubts, the line-up wasn't quite as excellent as last years (Foals, The Maccabees, Four Tet and Gallows to name a few), but I came in with high hopes. My eduction of Marina and The Diamonds consisted only of an acoustic version of " I Am Not A Robot [...]
I went on an unplanned "holiday" from this blog. However, this was hardly a holiday since I was actually home for a lot of it. So what I'm trying to say is that there is no real reason I stopped posting, it's just once you fall into the cycle of not posting, it just continues. The motivation was there, I just got a bit stuck on Day 2 of Southside . I'm back and I think I will be staying, it's just so much fun writing, receiving feedback and hopefully getting people to listen to music they haven't heard yet. This [...]
When I attended the Southside festival I went with a couple of really good friends, and I thought it would be nice to show you a more personal account of what happened that fantastic weekend. KG wrote this for me. When you are shaken awake on a Friday morning at 7:45 am, after having gone to bed at 3 am the night before, you begin to curse whatever made you stay up so late. Four hours and fifteen minutes of sleep are just not enough. This was the beginning of this year's [...]
Only a couple of weeks ago, I did my work experience at on3radio . I heard of them through their yearly on3radio concert, which included Lightspeed Champion's final performance of 2008. Even though he cancelled because of voice problems, I'm still glad I found this station. It's digital only and owned by the most popular radio company in Bavaria, who publish Bayern 1, 2, 3 and 4. I have no fear in saying German FM radio is awful, incredibly awful. There isn't one good station; all they play is horrible top 40 hits from the 80s, that people who [...]
new music from vampire weekend – cousins + music video
Friday Five: Surf Songs
Beach House: Norway
No Curve Allowed (Grading This Week's New Tracks)
