Street Party In Soho Take Their Time

Street Party In Soho are a young band hailing from Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Although less than 1 year old they are already making waves Tyneside and are now ready to cross the bridge and go global. 

Taking their influences from such bands as Bloc Party,Bombay Bicycle Club and The Libertines, the band sound a bit like a more northern version of Maximo Park.  In fact at times during their single Take Your Time you'd swear Paul from Maximo was singing.  Needless to say, this is good stuff done properly.

The band release their debut single Take Your Time on Monday 29th October.Catch the band live around the UK this month and next.

Tour dates:
September
Friday 28th Newcastle - Dog & Parrot (single launch)

October
Thur 18th Northampton - King Billy
Fri 19th Sheffield - The Redhouse
Sat 20th Liverpool - Lantern Theatre
Sun 21st Manchester - Retro Bar

Download: Take Your Time
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Leave It To The Fixers

British band, Fixers are preparing to invade the States and in the process of doing so are releasing their first US EP, Pop Meat/Your Corruptor, on April 24th via Dolphin Love Records. 

With an aesthetic that blooms from Beach Boys-era harmonies and surf samples, Fixers assert themselves as a band to watch, with endless hooks and a love for experimentation.  Using these tools, Fixers create songs that are all over the place and refuse to sit still.  From the acappella harmony of, "Another Lost Apache," to the endless rolling drums of, "Crystals," the band harness a variety of approaches to make your legs akimbo, you arms outstretched, and get your feet moving.

If Pop Meat/Your Corruptor, hints at what’s to come from Fixers we're in for a lot of jumpy indie in the future. They never sacrifice the big melodies or the experimentation that makes them great and the result is a sun-drenched, fuzzed out, joyride that hopefully will find it's way onto a full length album.

Download: Crystals
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We Paid Standard Fare

Limbo. It's a funny place to be, but it provided inspiration for the second album from Standard Fare, the Sheffield-based indie-pop power trio who debuted with 2010's The Noyelle Beat, their lovelorn, melodic songs and male/female vocals making them the new darlings of the indie-pop scene. "We're now in our mid twenties - not young and not old, not yet with kids but starting to earn money, starting to see how we fit into the wider world and how we feel about this," says singer/bassist Emma Cooper. "The album's lyrics are a bit more mature than our debut - we didn't want to just write about our romantic failures and frustrations, although they're hard to avoid!"

These 12 tracks, then, concern subject matter as varied as the Holocaust (recent single "Suitcase," written about a survivor and friend of Emma's family who recently passed away), bitterness ("Kicking Puddles"), frustration ("Dead Future"), divided families ("Half Sister") and unfaithfulness ("Early That Night"). With the widening lyrical scope, the album's texture has become more diverse too, with a greater contrast between heavy and light, fast and slow, dancefloor and bedroom. The guitars are beefed up, the melodies are unbeatable and the words are flecked with wicked humour.

Download: Suitcase
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You've Got That Turnpike Glow

Turnpike Glow started life in Italy but are now UK based, bringing their sunny, quirky Phoenix influenced sound to Britain’s rainy shores.

Sandro Schiena (vocals / guitar / keys) and Giuseppe La Mela (vocals / bass / keys) started the band in Rome, in a scene marginalised by glossy Italian mainstream pop and insider trading. However, with their Pavement / Phoenix inspired sound, they soon found themselves supporting acts like Cooper Temple Clause, The Futureheads and The Constantines.

It wasn't long before Sandro and Giuseppe, the songwriting core of the band, moved to London armed with only their guitars and a bag full of European plug adaptors! One rainy Sunday, they bumped into Anthony J. Hutchinson (drums) and Jeremy Levy (guitar) busking on the tube in giant sombreros. They talked, they laughed and eventually, they joined forces to become… Turnpike Glow!

An official single will be released in early 2012, along with their debut EP but in the meantime...enjoy The Turn, The Pike And The GlowDownload: The Turn, The Pike, The Glow
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Tender Is The Night Has A Golden Glow

Golden Glow is the charming solo project of Manchester singer/songwriter Pierre Hall.

Son of a British father from Trinidad and Tobago, and a Mauritian mother, Pierre's early years were spent near Liverpool before moving to Manchester at 18 for university.

While in Manchester and just as Pierre's previous band, Lead Balloons were ending their time together in 2009, Pierre was in a serious automobile accident that left him unable to walk for nearly six months. Although the recovery was tough, and this was a dark time in his life, it also changed the way Pierre approached his art. Naming his new project Golden Glow as a tribute to the band Felt and their track "Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow" he began to write songs that captured what he was living through.

By late 2010, Pierre Hall had completed the set of songs that were to make up the Golden Glow debut, Tender Is The Night. Rough, raw, and totally DIY the songs are as pure as pure can get and while Pierre thought of re-recording the songs in a more "professional environment," he didn't and the charm of Tender Is The Night was preserved.

Now, Golden Glow’s debut album, Tender Is The Night will be released in all of its distorted beauty by Mush Records with help from the label Bleeding Gold, who will handle a limited run of vinyl. The performances that make up this record are perfect in their obvious imperfections and quite honestly that's what makes the record so good and as a result it's why Tender Is The Night is the record to introduce Golden Glow to the world.

Download: Adore Me
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Do You Have Your ID

The ID don't have a lot of information available about them. They don't really have their ID worked out like that. But here's what the band says about themselves...

From an unusual international coalition The ID has members from Switzerland, Ireland and the UK who formed a musical union through their love of Joy Division.  This fandom coupled with an appreciation of the artistic ideals of Dadaists, the I.D deliver their own slant on the post punk manifesto.

Dramatic and angular, the band have embraced that post punk manifesto and constructed songs that are moody, sweeping, and pretty darn good. If you can imagine the Editors in a bit of a tussle with the aforementioned Joy Division and White Lies you'll get where The ID are coming from.

With manifesto in hand the band have recently produced their debut EP, which will be the first in a series of three.

Download: Friday Night Star
Download: Last To Fall Tweet

The Good Suns

In performing their beautifully crafted, old time pop gems in and around London for the past year, The Good Suns have won a faithful following that have fallen for their dreamy guitar pop.

At the core sits the partnership of James Hearn and Bobby McBrierty - a songwriting duo in the purest sense and meticulous over every word they pen. Their lyrics connect over similar themes of love, lust, and the anxiety of going nowhere fast.

As for their songs...think Hermans Hermits brought bang up to date and hanging out with someone like The La's or maybe even Cinerama. It's all very retro-tinged and jangly and as a result hits you right between the ears. Not overly complicated but ridiculously good, The Good Suns are mining all the best influences to come up with a sound that is uniquely their own.

February sees their first official release in the double A-side of Shadow/At Last I’m Bored.

Download: Shadow

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Zoey Van Goey Is A Poet & Doesn't Know It

Zoey Van Goey are Matt Brennan, Michael John McCarthy, Kim Moore and Adam Scott. Brennan, McCarthy and Moore, hailing from Canada, Ireland and England respectively, formed the initial trio in Glasgow in 2006, with Scott becoming a fully fledged member in 2010.

The band's new album, Propeller Versus Wings, has been inspired by Powell & Pressburger's magnificent A Matter of Life & Death, a film with which it shares a sense of romance and adventure. Perhaps emboldened by the addition of the multi-talented Scott (as well as the results of their research), this collection of songs sees Zoey Van Goey displaying a new found musical confidence, borrowing freely from disparate styles whilst still sounding like themselves, in a fashion not dissimilar to heroes such as Yo La Tengo and The Magnetic Fields.

They're mathy, rustic, weird, and quite good. They're like a jumble of influences as much as they are a jumble of nationalities and it's this sense of confusion that really helps the band stick out. In fact, it might not really be fair to compare them to anyone as they've gone their own way and come up with some fantastic music. To quote a famous Scottish band..."I love your friends they're all so arty." That pretty much sums up Zoey Van Goey.

Propeller Versus Wings comes packaged in specially commissioned artwork by Glasgow-based artist Ursula Cheng, including a 9 panel fold-out illustration. Equal parts Quentin Blake, Jamie Hewlett, Jimmy Corrigan and Hayao Miyazaki it is the work of a kindred creative spirit, bent on making strange the stuff of everyday life in order to fashion a looking glass through which the mundane becomes something more magical.

Download: The Cake & Eating It

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Don't Cross The Lines

Sounding something like Hard Fi in a head on collision with The Enemy and perhaps the Arctic Monkeys, The Lines have been making quite a ruckus in their native Wolverhampton.

Making giant strides and getting the heck out of their hometown has been a major goal for this band and judging by what they've released so far they've done just that. From their debut single Domino Effect to their latest El Matador it's easy to see why these guys are clearly on to something.

With an incessant groove and a hook bigger than Wolverhampton and it's big city cousin Birmingham, El Matador is the sort of tune that you'll have a hard time clawing out of your brain.

The guys are preparing a full on SXSW assault this Spring and until then enjoy the matador.

Download: El Matador

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Little Comets Light It Up

Little Comets won't actually be releasing their new single, Joanna, for a month and a half, but through the miracle of modern technology. You can see the video now and even download an alternate version of the single.

The tune is a moody kind of Futureheads-ish (listen to the chorus) kind of heart breaker that's more syrupy sweet than actual syrup. It's a great tune that hints at just how good Little Comets debut album is going to be.

Joanna is released on January 17th followed a fortnight later by the release of their enigmatically titled debut album In Search Of Elusive Little Comets.

Until then enjoy the vid and minimalistic Joannacapella.

Download: Joannacapella
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Summer Camp Isn't Over

British duo Summer Camp's acclaimed EP Young is in stores this week in North America via Moshi Moshi records. It's pretty much an essential release since it's all you can get at the moment and will have you dreaming of warmer days and large open fields.

Everybody in the world already loves them and so should you, so download the songs below, but the EP and rejoice.

Following a highly successful tour of the UK and Europe this fall, Summer Camp is set to begin work on recording their full-length album. In anticipation of its planned release in spring/summer 2011, they will make their first visit to North America to play select dates, including an appearance at SXSW.

Download: Round To The Moon
Download: Ghost Train

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The Good Natured Are So Good!

The Good Natured's new single Be My Animal was released this past week.

This is the band's second official single after the release of Your Body is a Machine which has already acquired huge popularity on YouTube and plenty of public attention.

The Good Natured have also been receiving great radio and TV support for Be My Animal, including being play listed on NME TV and daytime Radio 1 airplay from Fearne Cotton.

As for the single itself, it's like a slice of Bjorkian weirdness mixed with a bit of La Roux, Florence, Little Boots, and Harriet from The Sundays. It's fantastic stuff that's literate, glossy, and as scary as it is tense. It's the sort of single that's going to make The Good Natured a name everyone will remember (just try and forget the chorus...I dare you).

Download: Prisoner
Download: Be My Animal (Zebra & Snake remix)
Download: Be My Animal (Portmanteau Remix)

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Check The Answering Machine

The Answering Machine have unveiled the first taster of their brand new album Lifeline in the form 'Animals.'

Lifeline - The Answering Machine's follow-up to last year's debut album Another City, Another Sorry - is due for release in early 2011. Before that they will play a series of UK shows and then head out to Europe as support to Tokyo Police Club.

Full list of tour dates are as follows:
21st October @ New Slang, Kingston
22nd October @ The Soundhouse, Leicester
26th October @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester
27th October @ Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London
28th October @ King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
29th October @ Café Drummonds, Aberdeen

The Answering Machine European Tour w/ Tokyo Police Club
17th Nov @ Uebel and Gefaehrlich, Hamburg
18th Nov @ Botanique Rotonde, Brussels
21st Nov @ Luxor, Koln
22nd Nov @ Lido, Berlin
23rd Nov @ 59tol, Munich
26th Nov @ Das Bett, Frankfurt
27th Nov @ Sonic Vision Festival, Luxembourg

Download: Animals

Redtrack Has The Whole Town's Heart

Redtrack consist of Billy Wright (guitar / vox), Phil Blake (bass / vox), Mitch Silvey (guitar / vox / keys) and Andrew Perry (drums). They come from Southend-On-Sea, their bass player has survived an attack with a meat cleaver and they reckon they sound like a cross between Girls Aloud and The Clash.

Whole Town’s Heart is their debut album and will be released in early September. It is chewy and tuneful and, with its small-town panic attacks and punchy new wave melodic jabs, sees them nodding towards classic Britpopesque heritage.

Whole Town’s Heart is also the first ever album release on Label Fandango, the Pointy Recordings / Fierce Panda offshoot which has previously concentrated on ace singles by the likes of Broken Records, Fanfarlo, Air Traffic and more. And frankly it is a miracle that this record even exists seeing as how three years ago bassist Phil Blake was attacked with an air gun and a meat cleaver and so badly hurt that he needed microsurgery on severed tendons in his arm. That he is back playing is a testament to his spirit in the face of potentially crippling adversity.

Download: Wait Around

British Sea Power Look To Zeus

British Sea Power are about to release the Zeus E.P. an all-new seven-track EP from Rough Trade. Nikita Khruschev, Rick Stein and Wurzel Gummidge are are all alluded to on the EP, which comes out in the States digitally on October 5th and limited edition 12" vinyl on October 12th through Rough Trade.

The EP was recorded in East Sussex and on the Isle Of Skye and starts with two seven-minute tracks that set the tone for a collection of songs that is wonderfully all-ov er-the-place. The title track "Zeus" sets new standards for progressive garage-rock – a recording that suggests waking from the crazed impetus of a lusty dream full of dead Soviet leaders, TV chefs and... scarecrows. Following this is second track "Cleaning Out The Rooms" which is an expansive and reflective beauty. Elsewhere on the 43 minute long EP is radiant prettiness and care-in-the-community exclamation. (Please note that only the physical 12” format runs to 43 mins, the digital version is slightly shorter). This EP is an unwashed, wild-eyed precursor to the fourth BSP studio album, set for release in early 2011. Of the EP tracks, only "Cleaning Out The Rooms" will be included on the upcoming full length.

Download: Zeus

Illuminations With Vic Godard

Vic Godard is the kind of person the term 'cult hero' was invented for. His band Subway Sect debuted in 1976 at the 100 Club Punk Festival alongside the Clash, Pistols and Banshees, and since then he has had by far the most unpredictable and wide-ranging career of any of his punk contemporaries - and arguably the most interesting.

The name was a dead giveaway. While those around him were nailing their aspirations to the mast by dubbing themselves Rotten, Vicious or, gosh, even a Strummer, the 18-year-old Victor Napper's new moniker was a nod to the legendary French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. The band's lyrics, extraordinarily literate from day one, reflect the circumstances in which the members first bonded: not in an art college lunch break or over a couple of lines of speed at the Roxy, but acting out Moliere plays in Godard's bedroom.

The time it took Subway Sect to make two of the classic punk singles, Nobody's Scared and Ambition, was also the time it took for Godard to outgrow the genre altogether. By 1978 the original band was no more, and 1980's debut album 'What's the Matter Boy?' cloaked Godard's richly melodic and intelligent songs in a singular pot-pourri that straddled northern soul, early rock'n'roll and even folk rock, inspiring everyone who heard it - amongst them Felt, Primal Scream and the Postcard Records stable, with Orange Juice's Edwyn Collins describing Godard as "the finest songwriter of his generation".

By 1982's 'Songs for Sale' and the follow-up 'T.R.O.U.B.L.E.', Godard had abandoned rock altogether, instead styling himself as a swinging, Tony Bennett-style crooner. The sound and style of the records was influenced by Cole Porter, and as a writer in that genre Godard was arguably his equal. And then he was gone - increasingly adrift in, and disillusioned by, the glossy, grasping '80s, Vic Godard simply walked away from it all. Taking a job as a postman (which he still holds to this day), he dropped off the radar and didn't perform or record again till 1992.

Coaxed out of retirement by Rough Trade's Geoff Travis, Godard's 1993 comeback album 'The End of the Surrey People' was produced by Edwyn Collins and showed that he had lost nothing, and gained plenty, in the intervening years. The soulful yet biting indie-rock formula of that record was developed on 1998's 'Long Term Side Effect' and a brace of collaborations with, amongst others, The Bitter Springs, Long Decline and Irvine Welsh.

Godard's last couple of releases have found him as contradictory as ever: 2003's 'Sansend' was a stew of breakbeats and blues that many hailed as his best ever work, and last year's '1978 Now' was, of all things, a reconstruction of the great lost album from the start of his career: a record at last of Subway Sect's unrecorded punk-era repertoire that was dropped, perhaps a little too hastily, 30 years before. Since then he's been touring with a mix of classics and unheard new material destined for an imminent new studio record. ‘We Come as Aliens’ will be released on Overground Records in October 2010.

Download: Blackpool

Manic Street Preachers Prepare Return

I sent this out via Facebook/Twitter yesterday, but for those of you that aren't fans/followers of ours on Facebook or Twitter I've taken pity on you.

The Manic Street Preachers have marked the launch of their new album Postcards From A Young Man by making an exclusive new non-album track available for free download from their official website.

Postcards From A Young Man is released on the 20th September. It's preceded by the release of new single (It's Not War) - Just The End of Love the week before.

Enjoy and welcome back to The Manics...Oh and you can fan/friend/follow us over there on the right. We send out stuff daily via Facebook and Twitter that ISN'T on the blog.

Download: I'm Leaving You For Solitude

Lions In The Pacific Theater

Sometimes arty pop comes from the strangest places. Buried beneath all the hipsterdom of Brooklyn, and New York for that matter, resides Pacific Theater. Not your typical New York band by any stretch of the imagination, Pacific Theater probably has more in common with Doves or Elbow then anything on this side of the pond.

This is a band that's dramatic, artful, and moody while maintaining a sense of flare and pop about them. They're most definitely a different band then most of their peers and that's one reason why they stand out, the other of course are the songs. These guys apparently went to the Tindersticks school of songwriting and have learned to write emotionally draining songs as if their lives depended on it.

One listen to, "Lions," and you'll see what I mean and why they're so damn good.

Download: Lions

Malachai Voyages West

Malachai is Hebrew for ‘angel.’ It was also the name of the red-haired bloke from Children Of The Corn. From which the band’s name is derived, we’re not exactly sure and neither are they. Strictly speaking, Malachai’s a duo. There’s a mysterious figure lurking in the background supplying beats and tunes. But he’s a shy sort, preferring the music do the talking, happy to let Gee, the outspoken front person, take the limelight.

Malachai’s origins are in Bristol, UK on the West Coast of England and are indicative of the kind of artists that originate from Bristol: dubstep running through their bones, hip hop in the fingers, ‘60s psychedelia in the heart. It’s only right, then, that Portishead mastermind Geoff Barrow has a thumb in this project. Barrow’s a kind of a mentor for Malachai and released the album on his own Invada imprint last year.

Malachai will be making their maiden voyage to the United States around SxSW as well:
3/19 13:00 Austin The Onion/Canvas Media Party @ The Mohawk
3/20 12:55 Austin Domino Publishing/Press Here Party @ French Legation
3/20 20:30 Austin SxSW official showcase @ Antone's (with Big Star)
3/24 21:00 New York Le Poisson Rouge (with Hudson Mohawke)
3/25 22:00 Brooklyn DJ set @ Treehouse

Download: Snowflake

You'll Have A Satellite Crush

A backwards British Invasion....

After graduating from art school in Ohio, Satellite Crush's Elliot moved across the Atlantic to London, England with hopes of starting a band. Heavily influenced by British music, and determined to follow this path, he barely made ends meet by bar tending at a nearby pub and busking on the streets. In the extreme loneliness that followed, he spent much of his spare time writing songs in his small studio flat in central London. Having just left the girl with whom he was in love with, naturally she became the subject of many songs to follow.

Elliot began playing open mic shows around the city, eventually playing several solo gigs before forming a small band with several other Londoners he met at a show. Despite some promising success this however, proved to be short lived following some members' habits. In an attempt to escape the loneliness and addiction that London so warmly embraced, Elliot moved back to the States eventually planting himself in Los Angeles.

Shortly after moving to L.A, Satellite Crush was formed, basing their material around the songs that were written in London. The name came from a reference to the subject of the songs, the girl left behind, who he had minimal contact with while in London through emails, and occasionally a phone call, she was his "satellite crush".

With soaring guitars and vocals it's as if Satellite Crush were already out in space. The songs this band writes are sweeping, heartbreaking, and just about epic. These are anthems to love and loss in the making. They're emotional roller coasters packed into something five minutes long and will have you yearning for something more. As blur once said, "London loves the way people just fall apart," and Satellite Crush is the sound of that.

Download: Paris to London