Los Campesinos

(Eagle)

Los Campesinos, a seven piece indie pop band from the Welsh'est Welsh of Wales, Cardiff. Formed in early 2006 at Cardiff University, interesting fact for you - none of the band members are actually Welsh.... sorry did i say interesting i meant blahhhh but thought I'd mention it regardless, i mean come on guys you couldn't have even squeezed one tiny Pubhornist in, just to keep the home fans happy? Huh, shame on you, anyways...Their debut album "Hold on Now, Youngster" was released in February 2008. Campesinos second album "Romance Is Boring" was released in February 2010 but was not without its casualties, the band announced on their website that Aleks (Keyboard and Vocals) was to leave the band and return to her studies after their US tour in August. The Campesinos crew released the single "The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future" hmm beautiful, it was to be released as a free download. Giving something back to the people, i like, i like a lot. The video for the song was directed by the band's bassist, Ellen Campesinos.

Campesinos formally announce Aleks successor in the form of lead singer Gareth's sister Kim, having long alien like fingers and the voice of an angel she slipped nicely into the band as the new keyboardist. blah blah blah more facts........If your a fan of Arcade Fire, Dananananaykroyd, Vampire Weekend, Peter, Bjorn & John and all other indie type bands that the youngsters are infatuated by these days (Just messin) then you'll love Los Campesinos. Deserve'ed of a lot more recognition than they currently get, i predict big things in the future so much that i am not going to get my brother to illegally down load "Hold on now youngster" for me. I intend to shell out the £5 price tag Play.com have generously attaching to this epic record....I shall however wait until "Romance is boring" is to match this mark up as i am not a millionaire, £7.99 is too much, TOO MUCH. Cheap Bastard signing out.

Favourite tracks from LC:

The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6booM03nKI

Death to Los Campesinos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDsbnTqdaE

(Image borrowed from Pitchfork.com)

In 2010 Look Out For...

(Image taken from Fly.co.uk)

If your looking at this Blog entry and saying to yourself "This is just a list of tracks" Then firstly stop talking to yourself its Weird and secondly your right, these are some Awesome tracks that will hopefully either make you think "WoW who's this" and lead on to you purchasing the album, making the Artist rich and powerful and then make you say to yourself "That blog i bumped into whilst looking for naked pictures of Audrina Patridge was right these are kick ass Bands/ Artists", Failing that then hopefully it'll just make you think "I know these already" and if that's the case then you need to be out spreading the word because some of these bad boys deserve a little more recognition than just a bob of the head every now and again!!!

Any-whob... Enjoy;

The Cheek - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYZ12yav6GU

Goldhawks - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufQZd32k3lc

Foals - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYoINidnLRQ

The Automatic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP6ztAyFoV8

Kids In Glass Houses - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MRAc9-Q9C0

General Fiasco - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM5JK2i6qwI

Blood Red Shoes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuUfIZkEYCY

Matt Morris - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Tdf6M_Ce4

Bombay Bicycle Club - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOBKSuC42PI

Lykke Li - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJHdT1j6hH8

Phoenix - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGDqnJLou9k

Ellie Goulding - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVAy87yJcBY

Tegan And Sara - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4tcDRkqU4o

Chitty Bang - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McRgkE_vgjU

Two Door Cinema Club - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLK4oaXUuLg

Silversun Pickups - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeGtsL-0W1g

(Thanks to the YouTuber's as always for supplying these great videos)

Band of Skulls

Good, Bad, Ugly?

Haven't heard enough yet, but what i have heard is pretty dam Rockin!! "I Know What i Am" from their album "Baby Darling Doll Face Honey" is due for release in the UK on March 15th and is in my opinion an absolute anthem, think white stripes with a bassist. On Lead Guitar and vocals we have Russell Marsden, If you tilt your head slightly to the left and squint he looks slightly similar to the late great Kurt Cobain, On Bass and Vocals welcome to the stage Emma Richardson, looking a little like Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs but without the wacky outfits, And last but not least i give you Matthew Hayward on drums looking a lot like Matthew Hayward. Legend has it that the trio first met at college where they fancied the unlimited possibilities of having two lead singers and three songwriters together in one orgy of a rock fest. Not only are they on a cosmic journey through time, space and other odd words that pop into my head to establish themselves in the music industry but they have also been known to dabble in the fine arts with all of the album artwork being based on paintings by Bassist Emma Richardson who recently held an exhibition called "Meat Me At The Butchers", in a butcher's shop where she spent time on the weekends elbow deep in blood and guts, very Ozzy Osbourne of her. Their debut album is due for release in the USA on April 6th, exclusively at iTunes before being thrust upon the rest of us lowly mortals two weeks later.

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My Favourate tracks on the soon to be released album are:

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"I Know What I Am"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrcev6z7c_8

"Death By Diamonds and Pearls"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIBNpd9s_yA

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The UK Tour:

07 May 2010 - Cockpit, Leeds

08 May 2010 - Classic Grand, Glasgow

09 May 2010 - The Factory, Manchester

10 May 2010 - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

11 May 2010 - Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton

13 May 2010 - Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

14 May 2010 - Electric Ballroom, London

(Image borrowed from "audioabsinthe.com")

Wild Beasts

I first caught glimpse of Wild Beasts whilst poodling around on YouTube for new musical talent, i was intrigued by a live video recording of the track "All the Kings Men" from the their second album Two Dancers, the mix of masculine and feminine vocals made me laugh at first and i remember thinking are these guys for real, yes they were! The operatic vocals and melodic beats fuse perfectly to form a crisp and faultless band cautiously sneaking into the indie music scene, "All the Kings Men" could easily become a summer anthem for the midday weekend lager sippers. "Hooting and howling" shows off another weapon in the Beasts arsenal, that being a very edgy Rock like vocal range produced by Hayden Thorpe within the first 30 seconds of track, saying that Ben Little changes things up in a big way during tracks with sometimes using a big deep vocal range and sometimes changing it up mid thought with loud sheiks of controlled power.

I've possibly done this band a grave injustice by making them sound like crazy whaling banshee but that perception is kind of true to an extent, all i can say is check them out for yourself and form your own opinion I'm sure it wont feel like wasted time.

Check out http://www.wild-beasts.co.uk/ for the full listings but hurry as they are already selling out their UK tour which starts tomorrow.

(Image borrowed from Melting Vinyl.com)

The Maccabees

Where to start Where to start....

I was first introduced to The Maccabees many moons ago by my best friend who was and is still a massive fan, stupidly i refused to succumb to their charm's and didn't even give them a chance. This was partially due to me being a proud warrior like man that does not need other men telling him what is good and what he needs to be wrapping his ear lobs around.

Luckily i discovered them all by myself much later on without the help of any other alpha wanna be males, i did things slightly backwards i bought there newest album first "Wall of Arms" and fell in love with the Massive guitar riffs and intricate drumming patterns, "Seventeen Hands" and "No Kind Words" being my favourite tracks on the album.

After listening to "Wall of Arms" constantly for weeks on end i caught wind of The Maccabees possible appearance at Glastonbury's 2009 Festival, i say "caught wind of" what i actually meant was that my slightly dribbly, drunk, overweight friend (come on we've all got one)spat it into my ear after reading the line up in NME magazine Yummy! With that information securely locked in my mind in the shape of a toffee nodule i set off for Glastonbury in search of my new Favourite band. They were due on stage but i was what felt like a million miles away and was unable to fight my way through the wall of teenagers, there were just too many of them!!! so i enjoyed the set from far far FAR away. They were still amazing but i didn't feel as though i got the full effect of their gig. on my way to see Kasabian on the main stage i stopped in at the phone refueling club where people refueled phone battery, duh, much to my amazement guess who was standing on stage ready to start an unannounced private gig, that's right it were "The Maccabees". Highlight of the Festival was when Felix got what i believe was his little brother "no not Hugo the younger one" to sing whilst they did a cover of The Strokes "Reptilia", it was flawless and seriously awesome, sadly my best friend who tried introducing me to The Maccabees in previous years missed it because he fell asleep watching Kasabian, that'll teach him.

Any who, after returning from the festival i purchased "Colour it in" and was wowed by the colossal awesomeness of it, i much preferred it to "Wall of Arms" both albums having there place permanently embedded in my life forever. In short if you havent heard or just haven't checked out The Maccabees then you need to be slapped HARD!

Check Out:
X-Ray (Colour it in)
Lego (Colour it in)
Mary (Colour it in)
Seventeen Hands (Wall of Arms)
No Kind Words (Wall of Arms)
Love you Better (Wall of Arms)

(Picture and Video Taken by Myself at Glastonbury 2009)

Manchester Orchestra

After seeing Manchester Orchestra on the TV show "Live from Abbey Road" i felt compelled to dust the cobwebs off my moth filled wallet and buy their new album "Mean Everything to Nothing". If Hard old school Rock whilst not straying to far from your indie roots is your thing then wrap your ear holes around this 5 piece from Atlanta Georgia. Lead singer Andy Hull's voice is likened to a husky Ozzy Osbourne, by who you ask?? By me that's who! The band are currently touring America then off to Germany before setting hoof down in the UK in October where they will be touring the UK and Ireland along side Biffy Clyro. buy your tickets early as I'm sure this band is sure to explode all over the UK.

Best 3 Tracks on the Album (In my opinion):

Tony the Tiger
Everything to Nothing
I Can Feel a Hot One

Check out their live performance on "Myspace Transmission" Via YouTube in particular the single "Everything to Nothing" the Drummer is savage!!!! And vocal harmonies are Awesome, "Ive got friends" and "shake it out"are just as bad ass but "everything to nothing" blew my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCttzQSsdWc

(Image and Video borrowed from Google and Youtube)