Sleigh Bells

The sound of Sleigh Bells is in the air, it must be Christmas time,

An awesome American version of our beloved Ting Tings, Sleigh Bells are a noisy American pop boy 'n' girl combo. The group released their debut album (Treats) in May 2010. Coming straight out of Brooklyn NY with a combined weight of 300lbs Sleigh Bells are fronted by the silky smooth, aggressive Alexis Krauss and the behind the scenes man/ upfront guitar wielding maniac Derek Miller AKA the brains of the operation (songwriter, guitarist, producer). A brief in site into the duo's past points us in the direction of "Poison the Well", where Derek played guitar as the....um guitarist. Alexis on the other hand had a very fluffy wuffy past as a member of a teen pop group called "Rubyblue", she also appeared in a Nickelodeon Magazine commercial. You should be ashamed of yourself Alexis!! That's not Rock 'n' Rolls baby! The duo met and formed in 2008, legend has it that Alexis's mum kicked the whole thing off with a chance meet and greet in a Brazilian restaurant. I like to think the story went exactly like this (possible slight fabrication)......A down and out former rock star called Derek was waiting tables at a Brazilian restaurant called "Miss Favela" when he stumbled upon two hotties, whilst he was mentioning (to the hotties) that he was looking for a female vocalist to work with on a musical project; Alexis's gobby mother immediately stuck her nose into Derek's conversation and sold her daughter to the project for mere pennies, she has since been claiming royalties from the groups worldwide success. For the purpose of law and truth telling blah blah blah this did not happen, but it went something like that. The terrifying twosome are signed to M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. Recordings and Mom + Pop Recordings.

Every time i hear the track "Tell Em" i automatically think of the Michael Jackson video Black or White when Macaulay Culkin is dancing in his bedroom and then his dad comes up stairs and sh*ts on his party, Macaulay then sets up his amps and with a massive F you to his dad, or evil step dad as i like to assume, strums his guitar and destroys the whole house with loudness ha ha ha aha ha aha ah....Awesome!

I've just bought my copy of "Treats" mere minutes ago for the grand sum of £5 (HMV Online), that's the equivalent of a penny sweet these days. If you've got some change floating around in your pocket, purse or strange pouch located in men's swimming trucks, whats that all about? Then get it out and purchase this album now!

As always i have trawlled through Youtube and found some links to some great associated video's, Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhYYd5adVY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZFf9T32g94

We Are Mona (The Band)

I have frustratingly titled this, We Are Mona (The Band)

Why you ask? firstly, Stop talking to yourself in your head its dangerous, Secondly! Well.....there is no secondly, the reason i have done this is because Mona is the most commonly named song, band, food, animal, mineral, disease etc, etc, etc in the entire universe. Don't try and research this you will only find out that i am correct. Finding information on this band has been an arduous task, don't ask me what arduous means because I'll just stare at you uncomfortably until you get bored and walk off. After many hours i struck gold, Triumph!!! An actual understandable, sense making, journalist type individual wrote this........its just below this, look down.......Now....

Mona are an indie rock band originally from Dayton, Ohio, now located in Nashville, Tennessee. They play romantic rock n' roll songs for the 'city folk'. Their single ‘Listen To Your Love’ was recorded in their basement and was released on their own Zion Noiz recordings which came out in the United Kingdom on September 13th 2010. The band comprise of Nick Brown (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Vince Gard (drums), Zach Lindsey (bass), Jordan Young (guitar). The band have been so keen to keep their debut material under wraps that rather than sending it out to journalists to review, they played it down the phone to them.

The above was Stolen from: The Guardian - New Band of the Day, I have chosen to highlight and underline this as i am not going to prison for plagiarism again, I'll never go back there, swapping PlayStation's for trainers is crazy!!!!

I saw Mona on Later Live With Jools Holland preforming amongst power houses such as Robert Plant, Arcade Fire and Adele, who if i may add sang a single from her new album "Someone Like You" due for release in January, what an amazing song. Back to the titled band, whilst being sandwiched between the Godly ex-front man of Led Zep and the thousand member strong Arcade Fire, Mona really hold their own amongst the overlords of everything that is rock.

Please check out the Youtubious video's and judge for yourselves, I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTH6Hz_jrY0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziir6rf0eQk

Had to sneak the Adele track in here, sorry if your not a fan but its a great track!

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

Onlookers

Tunbridge Wells Forum......

A public toilet lookalike on a dark dark hill in a posh toff town where well known bands such as Gallows, Rolo Tomassi and The King Blues can sip shandy and rub shoulders with some of the new up and coming bands playing along side them at this old school venue, One of those new bands being Onlookers. I was more than grateful to see this band perform last night warming up the stage for another local band called Dogs. Onlookers is a Faversham based band consisting of four young lads, two of which are brothers, Dale Norton Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar, Callum Norton Drums and Vocals, Jamie Darby Lead Guitar and Keys, and Thomas Ford Bass and Percussion. An English take on blues rock with powerful vocals, commanding stage presence, and faultless live performances propel them from just another support act too a band worthy of headline stardom. Being Onlookers newest self proclaimed honorary band member i vow to use whatever platform necessary to help rocket the guys to ungodly heights.

If you like what you hear or are still on the fence then check out the tracks on Onlookers myspace and performances at Canterbury's Chantry Social Club's Hoochie Coochie night on the bands Facebook page.

www.myspace.com/onlookers

http://www.facebook.com/onlookers

(Special thanks as always to Google search engine for pictures)

At The Drive-In

After watching the 250 million trillion best Later Live with Jools Holland videos last night i stumbled across an All American Rock band that would make Ian Curtis look like Idiana Jones stuck in quick sand. The band were called "At The Drive-In", Hence the title. I say "were called" because they sadly went their separate ways in 2001, before the separation the band were active for 8 years that's 1,2,3,4,5, ah 1993 to 2001 for those of you that are mathematically challenged like my great self. They were known for being extremely energetic and have some of the most unorthodox guitar Melodie's as well as having unpredictable tempo shifts and loud controlled screaming, slightly reminiscent of my old PE Teacher, as well as......."only kidding"! I fell madly deeply head over heels in love with this band the second i saw them, sorry I've just read that back to myself and realised how that statement could be taken out of context, lets get it "straight" i was referring to the way they carry themselves whilst performing a live show, anyway shut up (dam this holes getting deeper, Hello is anyone up there?) At the Drive-In are sometimes by many described as a Prog Rock-Tastic face yankingly great band that should never have died. If you love music and you love listening then put those talents together and listen to this music, by this music i of course mean check out the link that i have attached. If you like some of the cool classic Rock bands such as The strokes, The Nation of Ulysses, sex pistols or even some of the new sounds crossing over to our shores these days like Dananananaykroyd then check out this band, I'd like to finish by saying and i think my friend Tony would agree "Their Grrrrreat".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NYbojdoAQE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqsNR5pI6bw

(Thanks to Youtube and Google Images)

The Island of Whites

The Island of Whites is a strange place, an island of only one rule "NO BRINGING DRINKS INTO THE ARENA". Slightly reminiscent of the fair that the boys were carted off too in Pinocchio, "You Know", the one where they all turn into donkeys.

 

Tip number one for all you festival goer's, don't buy a pop up tent for a rainy festival. I am sad to say i did and yes it did flood. I first became aware of this when i woke up in a pool of my own urine, have you ever heard of that game people play when a drunk mate falls asleep and you put his or her hand into a bowl of water whilst sleeping and they end up peeing themselves, it is now apparent to me that hanging your hand off of a blow up bed into rain water can be just as effective. I'll leave you to decide for yourselves how much of this statement is true.

 

I went to Glastonbury festival in 2009 and it is safe to say that Isle of Wight is a much more chilled out festival, nothing starts until about 13:00, so the morning is spent sleeping, eating and generally prepping for the evening ahead. There are considerably fewer preforming tents than Glastonbury so alot less walking which was nice.

 

Onto the music, i managed to see 10 Main Stage acts, 4 Big Top acts and possibly a few from the other stages and bars but i cant remember names. Highlights of the week for me were; Jay Z preforming Heart of the City, Kanye West joining Jay Z for Run this Town, Jay Z's interaction with the crowd, Pink entering the stage via a crane, Vampire Weekends drummer....drumming, Ocean Colour Scene stealing some dudes hat, The Big Pinks drummer standing on the bass drum to show the crowd her ass cheek revealing swim suit, and Bombay Bicycle Club doing there thang.

 

All of these moments were dwarfed by the mere presents of, drum roll please......wait for it........ THE STROKES!!!!!!

 

Now i'm a 27 year old man and should probably know better but i found myself palming small women and children out of the way in order to get to the front of the stage so i could enjoy this moment to the fullest as i have convinced myself that this will end up being a once in a life time reunion. I know i should be ashamed of myself but I'd do it all over again if i could, the cry's of squashed feet and palmed faces were drowned by the Sheer coolness oozing from the stage. I bounced around like a baby for about an hour, I even removed my shirt at one stage in order to swing it high above my head in some homoerotic Stroke loving frenzy, for that and that alone i am ashamed. It's safe to say that this was the highlight of my festival, no year, no decade, No.....Life. For all of you that missed this moment, I feel sorry for you and wish you all could be as happy in your lives as i now am in mine.

......

Surf's Up Dude!

There Surfers....Blood

Strutting the streets of Florida comes an interesting and refreshing summer sounding indie 5 piece called Surfer Blood. Still in their early 20s this greasy hoodie wearing indie boy band have been locked away in their smelly university dorm room, venturing out only to stock up on cartons of orange juice and all manor of tasty treats that the crazy young indie folk use to stuff their faces in order to stay awake until the early hours of night stroking their strings, disgusting. In summary they have just finished their new album Astro Coast.

The band comprises of Guitarist and lead singer John Paul Pitts who is considered by no one as the colossal Juggernaut and driving force behind surfer blood, playing with his toms directly behind him is drummer Tyler Schwarz who is widely considered to be the deep thinker of the group, just to the left of him is guitarist and all round ladies man Thomas Fekete, self proclaimed wild man and general trouble maker stands to the right in the form of bassist Brian Black, last but by no means least percussionist Marcos "Crazy hair" Marchesani, there's one in every band!

As you can probably tell by now Surfer Blood still remains a mystery even to me, they are still going through the very early stages of Indie Rock growth, as we all know their journey is just beginning and thanks to me you are privy to their first word. If you like music and you like listening to it (yet another odd line) check out Surfer Blood in my opinion their "totally awsome dude".

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDCe6mV0xV8

(Praise goes out to that god like Buddha YouTube entertaining the young & poor til the end of time)

Lissie

Country Music Yall.....

Country music is on its way to the UK just in time for our 1 day of summer sunshine, shouldn't be flippant our summer lasts at least a week, anyway where was i....... Ah yes Country Music, Lissie Maurus other wise known by her stage name Lissie, dropping the surname is so in this season, is an American country music artist likened by some people to a modern day Stevie Nicks. Lissie released her debut EP, "Why You Runnin" in 2009 and her debut album, "Catching A Tiger" is Rumoured for release, see what Ive done there Ive slipped in a sneaky Fleetwood Mac comparison, can you spot is? Anyway her debut album is due for release in June 2010.

Lissie's debut EP "Why You Runnin" was produced by none other than Bill Reynolds the string slapper from legendary Country, Rock band "Band of Horses", "Oh Mississippi" was co-written with English singer songwriter Ed Harcourt who has worked with artists such as Jamie Cullum, Yusef Islam, The Streets, New York Fund, and Brian Jonestown Massacre. The first single of the album, "In Sleep", was selected as Track of The Day by Q Magazine.

Lissie isn't just another Country singer she brings a Folk, Rock element to her work and really puts her stamp on the American Folk, Rock wave invading our shore's today. Lissie has real appeal and the fact that she has chosen to favour an electric guitar as apposed to the classic acoustic guitar look donned by so many in her genre invokes real sex appeal for all of the red blooded Folk, Rock lovin men of the world.

Check out these video's and hopefully you'll see what i see;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4_Jysk8Q4

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

(Video's and Pic's secretly stolen from Google and YouTube)