Tagged: featuredarticles

As dictated by The Music Blogger's Handbook (we're all issued with one when we sign up to inflict our views on an indifferent world), there are three things that ANBAD must be doing right now . Firstly, this post needs to be appearing after the mandatory Two Week Christmas Recovery Period, where all email is automatically deleted, and any mentions of a trudge through Soundcloud or Bandcamp is deflected with a nervous laugh and the tinkle of another gin and tonic being poured. Secondly, the 'site' ( no-one has a blog any more) [...]

Well. This is awkward. Didn't Lissi Dancefloor Disaster feature on ANBAD last year? What are they doing astride the top of the Best Of 2011 List ? Have I lost my mind? Well, in answer to the first question: yes, they were on ANBAD in 2010 - I saw them play a short, brilliant gig to an empty room underneath Oldham Street in Manchester and simply had to tell someone about it . In answer to he second and most important question: they are #1 because, simply, LDD' [...]

Nearly there now... don't forget to check out the runners up ( Parts One and Two ), as well as the bands who are ranked from 10 to 6 , and 5 to 3 . How did Trwbador sneak into the number two slot? They're just so unassuming. Look at them. They wouldn't even bruise a fly, let alone hurt one. Well, bluntly, it's because [...]

As we trundle imperceptibly closer to the frothing climax of ANBAD's 2011 Top Ten, the bands are getting weirder, more coiling, and more devious in nature. Just like capitalism, the closer you get to that top 5%, the more sly and crafty it's inhibitors are. ANBAD: you'll come for the bands, but stay for the politics. Don't forget to check out the runners up ( Parts One and, indeed, Two ), as well as the bands who are ranked from 10-6 . #5 - [...]

• baaneex - Weird Dance 2

If you missed them, here's Part 1 and Part 2 of the list of bands who didn't quite make the Top Ten... Sifting through the hundreds of bands who were splurged all over ANBAD is a task which is part edifying pleasure and part brutal exposure of this writer's foibles at any one period throughout the year. Not many bands have 'aged' badly in the months since they were first exposed in breathless terms (though some are there, if you're inclined to find them). If anything, revisiting them has been affirmative: [...]

• Tripwires - Cinnamon

Here's Part Two of ANBAD's Best Bands of 2011 Runner's-Up List. Cast a beady eye over Part One here . Next week, a rarity: decisiveness in action, and I'll be picking the Top Ten new bands featured on ANBAD this year. All the bands that will be featured over the next week or so have quite definitely not been carefully judged, weighed and balanced against one another: you'll find no pretence here that this will be anything other than the mysterious blue fluff nestling in the belly [...]

• REID - Forrest

So. Why pick the ANBAD End O' Year List, which starts in earnest next week, over any other music blogs'? Well, there is no real reason, though if you've had the determination to read past the first paragraph, maybe you have a modicum of interest in slip-sliding into the grubby, ragged, and frequently ludicrous world of new bands from a slightly different, dubious angle. Still, while you're deciding whether it's worth the plunge or not (HINT: it actually is - there were some genuinely terrific bands on ANBAD this year), here's [...]

I love Spotify. If you like listening to music, I know that you love Spotify too. Because what is there not to love? And I do mean love - I can vividly recall the dizzying, bewildering, heart-racing feelings when I first downloaded it a few years ago, and lots days discovering and rediscovering amazing music. I became Spotify's loudest, most rabid, most insistent acolyte, forcing family and friends to download it. (I still recommend you do , by the way) Try it yourself - just say to your nearest and dearest, "Imagine your iTunes collection [...]

**This is a Sponsored Post ** Whoah. It's almost Christmas. No really, it is. Check the calendar. Go ahead, I'll wait. See? Crazy isn't it. And just when the season of moderate goodwill has swept by, do you know what'll whip around just as fast? The Brit Awards . Yep, the massive UK music jamboree, habitually sponsored by MasterCard , will zoom back into all of our lives, and bombard us with the usual flurry of award-scattering, tales of drunken behaviour, and endless reminiscances of that time when [...]

**This is a Sponsored Post .** Unless you're blind, deaf, or utterly determined not to engage with the rest of the world at large (or even all three), you'll have heard that 19892s baggiest of bands, The Stone Roses, have announced a surprise comeback; in a flurry of sportswear, pithy quotes and excessive swagger. "So what?" you may say, "Everyone's doing it these days. Even Steps just reunited, and nobody wanted that to happen." But what's [...]

In this final post on Bestival, we finally get around to addressing the bands that were actually playing. You know, the reason we were there in the first place. The variety was bewildering, broad and mostly enviable: witness Public Enemy rubbing shoulders with Brian Wilson; DJ Shadow with Boys Noize; awful Adele dubstep remixes with awful Adele Drum 'n' Bass remixes. Out of bloody-mindedness, the following article is presented in a series of notes and bullet points. THE NEW BANDS: Yuck proved [...]

Since music festivals became part of the summer social scene, and started to get crowbarred into mobile phone companies' TV ads as part of yeah-we're-down-with-the-kids campaigns, and become an item to tick off a tedious bucket list , the way they are reviewed has had to change too. Before, you could get away with simply writing about the bands . The parameters are different now - it's about the experience, yeah? As such, this article is about the festival itself - reports on the music will arrive tomorrow . [...]

ANBAD is still enjoying the long, deep sleep that can only be fully appreciated in a normal bed after a few days of camping in a field* at a music festival; thus the written review will follow when consciousness has fully returned. In the meantime - here's a picture gallery of things that flashed before our eyes at Bestival when we were aware enough to be holding a shonky camera that could record it. Fair Warning: there are a lot of pictures of the AWESOME LASERS in the Big Top tent. [...]

Remember Record Store Day ? It was only a week ago. Has it changed your shopping habits? Will you keep buying your exclusive , 1000-only , limited edition, 73 glitter-flexi-disc vinyls from your local shop now? Or will you continue to order it off the internet like you did before? Record Store Day enjoyed its highest-ever profile this year. Stories about eager music fans queuing to buy one-off singles featured in the news on non-music radio stations, and every newspaper trundled out someone capable of writing a thousand words on [...]

***Sponsored Article*** ANBAD is more than willing to champion anyone who also champions new music, especially when it's an initiative that is not only enjoyable but also explores the music world to a little more depth than usual: providing musical Edutainment, if you'll allow such heinous terminology into your life. That closer peep into new music is to be found in the AllSaints Basement Sessions - a minor treasure trove of videoed live performances from new bands; lectures and discussion groups on new music; [...]

Here at Word is Bond we have a real dope community of hip-hop heads, from contributers to readers; to encourage it the last couple of months we've had a tal.ki messageboard running , a dip of the toe in the ocean of internet foruming, which generated some real interesting posts and discussions. So now's the perfect time to push it, all you readers of Word is Bond sign up and get involved! It's real easy, you can connect with your existing Twitter, Facebook and Google accounts ( as well as many others, check out the full list here ) [...]

Today, a rarity: an ANBAD live review. It's one of an interesting gig for those interested in new bands, though: the NME Awards tour, which provides a helpful snapshot of what is deemed to be now in the UK by both the NME and the teens that treat it as the music bible. The Shockwaves NME Awards g ig at Manchester Academy drew curious punters from across the social spectrum, but for the hoards of teens, it was Mecca. [...]

FYI: ANBAD is away for a few days R&R, and will return refreshed next week. That's three Initialisms in one sentence , BTW. Wait - four. FTW! ANBAD spends most of its time blah-ing about very new bands that make no money from their passion, but who do it in the hope that one day they will. When they do, they'll make most of it from live ticket sales - the one side of the music industry that actually makes any money now. [...]

Before thoughts turn to further gluttonous over-consumption during the forthcoming New Year's celebrations (and before you have to wade through acres of tedious 'Hot Tips For 20112 articles), how about one final glance back over some of the writing that was on ANBAD, but not directly about a specific new band? Here, then, are the pick of the various articles written by me and the generous contributors over the course of the year: A Triple Threat of articles first; a quasi-provocative couplet of articles in the shape of: The Trouble [...]

Judging for the Crown Paint/ANBAD TV-ad competition has taken place . Momentous news indeed. I nuzzled up against the creative people behind the advert and, accompanied by legendary band-troubler James Endeacott – who signed The Libertines and oversaw The Strokes ' UK career, we settled down with tea, biscuits and moderate harmony to go through the shortlisted bands. In the end, the decision was a complicated one due to the high quality of the bands that submitted tracks. Still, after much heated discussion we came up with a favourite. The winner, tantalisingly, [...]