Tagged: onestowatch

Every so often a voice comes along that stops you dead in your tracks. Seeing that that I typically gravitate towards strong female vocalists, for a male vocalist to draw me in, he has to be REALLY good. Let me tell you, Josh Kumra is REALLY good. What about Kumra's voice struck a chord with me? What didn't, is a better question. Stirring, soulful vocals with plenty of rough-around-the-edges rasp and grit, reminiscent of a Jamie Scott (of Graffiti6 ) or a [...]

Tweet As predicated, Alabama Shakes are beginning to blow up, and rightfully so . Below you can watch them perform "Hold On" and "I Ain't The Same" live on Conan O'Brien last night. NAILED IT! Their debut album "Boys & Girls" comes out on April 10th via ATO and Rough Trade. Connect with Alabama Shakes – Facebook [...]

I love it when America discovers someone talented that the rest of the world has known about for months, even years! Today, the talent I'm referring to is Scottish singer/songwriter Emeli Sandé . Sandé is due to release her debut album, Our Version of Events on June 5th via Capitol Records . This is HUGE ! I'm envisioning lots of promotion, performances on The Tonight Show , The Ellen DeGeneres Show (except I think [...]

Could Carishma be pop's new princess? If the rest of her material is anywhere near as catchy as her debut single, " Glow In The Dark " then the answer is 'quite possibly.' Produced by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins , the man behind such hit songs as " The Boy Is Mine " ( Brandy & Monica ), " If You Had My Love " ( Jennifer Lopez ), and " Say My Name " ( Destiny's Child ), " Glow In The Dark " [...]

I've had my eye on 25 year old Rebecca Ferguson since her flawless days appearing on the seventh series of The X-Factor in 2010. From the moment she first stepped foot on that audition stage, I knew big things were in store for the Liverpudlian single mother. Since coming in second on The X-Factor , the stunning Rebecca Ferguson has been hard at work launching her solo career. Signed almost immediately to [...]

Tweet Confession time. I have a "moderate" obsession with Later...with Jools Holland. Every time it's on I find myself giddy with the enthusiasm of a 14 year old girl watching The Beatles for the first time on Ed Sullivan. In my defense, it's probably the best musical showcase show of the last 25 years. The format is unique, the bands (mostly) always sound good, and it's a great source of finding new music. Even still, sometimes I get more than I bargain for. Back in November [...]

Having already played renowned and industry established festivals such as Reading, Glastonbury, Pukkelpop and Roskilde festivals, Baddies are no stranger to hard work and slogging it in the music scence. Commencing work on album number two, the boys from Southend have played to audiences across the globe, from small UK towns, to Australia and Japan. Assisting in production of the record is a close friend of the band, producer Sean Genockey ( Futureheads , Reuben, Manic Street Preachers , Starsailor ) and Bronto has a distictly post-punk feel that is growning in mainstream [...]

Tweet With the current amount of music being released (a LOT), I feel that band names are really getting to be of utmost importance. Being honest, I've passed up many a band because I thought their name was just not appealing to me (you know you've done it too). We Have Band is the type of band name that is going to be entirely hit-or-miss for most people. While some may mock it for being completely ridiculous, [...]

Feisty, feminine and empowered, those are just a few words that come to mind when you listen to Elsie . 'The Assassin' is the debut single from sassy newcomer Elsie , who's set take 2012 by storm.'The Assassin' showcases Elsie's unique vocal style traipsing right over an anthemic disco beat and baseline, and is a nice indication of what we have to come from this newbie to the music scene, hailing from Liverpool. With a heavy hint of Blondie in her music, Elsie states "I'm doing songs for people who listen to [...]

Tweet Watch the new video for We Have Band 's song "Where Are Your People" below, taken from the album "Ternion" . Connect with We Have Band - Facebook | Twitter | Website | Soundcloud

Tweet Listen to Fair Ohs ' new song "Salt Flats" below. In September we introduced to one of our favourite new Ones To Watch bands of last year, Fair Ohs , straight outta East London. Their gyratin' take on Garage-Rock looked us square in the eyes and we saw its soul, all colourful and rabid with emotion . Today they released their latest single, [...]

Tweet We've already featured Alabama Shakes a few times on the site, but it's time for a formal introduction to one of our Ones To Watch for 2012 . Formerly The Shakes, Alabama Shakes from Athens, Alabama are poised to knock you for a loop like a Mint Julep going straight to your head on a sweltering summer's day. A four-piece made up of Steve Johnson, Zac Cockrell, Heath Fogg, and [...]

Tweet Michael Boyd Photography Sometimes the story behind an artist is more interesting than the music they create, but with Willis Earl Beal both story and music fight for the biggest talking points. Discovered by Found Magazine after posting homemade fliers around Chicago and Albuquerque with self-drawn portraits and messages, the now 27 year-old began to make a name for himself when he'd give out his phone number on the fliers asking people to call him so [...]

Tweet Watch the new video for Lianne La Havas ' song "Forget" below. If this is the first of her you're hearing then you're in or a treat. She's someone you'll hear a lot from this year and is beginning to generate a lot of buzz in these here parts. Connect with Lianne La Havas - Facebook | Twitter | Last.fm | Website

Tweet One of the rewards of being a fan of a particular band, besides their actual music, is that you sometimes get to reap the benefits of the music they're into. In this case it was Sondre Lerche and his uncanny ability to pick remarkably talented show openers. Before attending his summer tour I had never even heard of multi-instrumentalist K. Ishibashi, a.k.a. Kishi Bashi . It's sort of surprising I hadn't heard of Ishibashi sooner, considering [...]

• Kishi Bashi - Evalyn, Summer Has Arrived (feat. Kevin Barnes)
• Kishi Bashi - Manchester

Tweet Skrillex : ruining dubstep for everyone since 2010. I'll put my hands up and admit that I did enjoy him on my first couple of listens, but it's quickly become clear that his repertoire consists entirely of abrasive wobble-bass. Thankfully, while the explosion of mainstream dubstep sounds pretty stale, there are still some artisan producers out there taking it in a more innovative direction. London-based James Blake springs to mind, and London-based Ben Ash ( Two Inch Punch ). Now we have [...]

Without exaggeration, its feels like we've been waiting an eternity for one of our 2012 tips - CSLSX - to release some new material. It appears as if that wait is over as new track "Aeromancer" has made its way online today. continue reading >>

Tweet Our hotly-tipped Ones To Watch artist Alabama Shakes have just announced the official release date of their highly-anticipated debut album. "Boys & Girls" will finally see the light of day on April 10th via ATO Records and will be preceded by a 73 single (presumably for "Hold On" ) that will be released by Jack White 's label Third Man [...]

Tweet Listen to and download the new track from Contrakids , "All The Way Back" , which samples Justin Timberlake 's "What Goes Around... / ...Comes Around" . I love a bit of JT, me. Who doesn't? And you know what? I don't care if Timbaland has ripped every single one of his beats off from obscure Turkish folk tunes and (frankly awful) Finnish electronica. Fair play to the [...]

• Contrakids - All The Way Back

Tweet Watch the new video for POLIÇA song "Lay Your Cards Right" below, taken from the album "Give You The Ghost". "Lay Your Cards Right" also features Mike Noyce from Bon Iver , and if you needed another reason to listen to us when we said that POLIÇA would be Ones To Watch [...]