Music: EMA

"Anderson's music has the power to plummet to the depths and drag you right down there with her" - Pitchfork

Erika M. Anderson (ex-Gowns singer and guitarist) has released the video for the free download, Milkman, taken from her latest album Past Life Martyred Saints.  EMA has received praise from NME, The Guardian, Stool Pigeon, Pitchfork, The Fly etc etc and you can download the track from Soundcloud for free... Mmmm lovely free-ness!

Music: Give It A Go...

Battles: Repetitive, weird... Great!!

iTunes is on shuffle and I'm going to share with you the first ten tracks that I think might be worth 4 minutes of your time (and that I'm not ashamed of)...

Jamie T: The Dance Of The Young Professionals

From his Sticks n Stones EP, sounds like a Russian influenced pre set keyboard tune.  If you're easily offended by swearing, then don't bother.
www.jamie-t.com

Example: What We Made

From his first, better album of the same name, which I might point out is completely different to anything he's had in the charts in the last year.  Probably not the best song off the album, but iTunes does the choosing here.
www.trythisforexample.com/

Alanis Morissette: Head Over Feet

Because everyone likes this album... Go on, go and listen to Jagged Little Pill again.
www.alanismorissette.com

Enter Shikari: Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour

The story of a stalker!  Who knew what Hertfordshire could breed - synthy, rocky, occassionally screaming melody makers.
www.entershikari.com

Gary Moore: All Your Love

One of my favourite musical conversations: Person X "What do you like to listen to", Me "Oh loads of different things, I've got Gary Moore on in the car at the moment", Person X "Gary Moore? From Thin Lizzy? What are you listening to that for, you're far too young to remember him aren't you?".  Oh, I'll just go erase Frank Sinatra and the Beatles from my memory too, shall I? Sigh...
www.gary-moore.com

Green Day: Warning

Green Day, when they were good.  That's all.
www.greenday.com

The Distillers: I Am A Revenant

Again, probably not the best track from the ex-band of Brody Dalle/Armstrong/Homme, whichever she chooses to be.  She may sound like she smokes sixty a day, but any other way and it just wouldn't be right.  Most girls can't do punk for that very reason.
www.myspace.com/thedistillersband
www.spinnerettemusic.com

Marina And The Diamonds: Guilty

The darkest sounding track on the album The Family Jewels, Marina can't really be rivalled by any other female singer at the moment, her extensive live performances were incredible along with an album that didn't disappoint.  Hopefully, we'll start to see some more tracks soon!
www.marinaandthediamonds.com

Battles: Leyendecker

Battles repetitive weirdness - I'm sure I said that in yesterdays post.  I don't know what else to say about them really but they are great!  Much better than I make them sound...  In fact, almost the next track iTunes chose was Ddiamondd by Battles, and this track is just mad.  Sometimes this track is what the inside of my head feels like!

http://bttls.com

Incubus: Here In My Room

If you listen to no one else here, you should give Incubus a go.  I reckon that they're fairly appealing to most musical tastes.  Also I just read on Wikipedia that singer Brandon Boyd can play the didgeridoo and the djembe (which I have also just learnt is a kind of drum).  I know Wikipedia is the enemy of reliable information but I hope this is true.
www.enjoyincubus.com

Music: Free Strummerville Compilation

"It's you and me at Club Dawn" - Joe Strummers usual words to the early morning campfire stragglers

Quite often when a whole album, especially a compilation, is being given away free there is a reason (i.e. no one in their right mind would pay for it).  But here's one worth listening to:  Songs For The Summer 2011.

Many moons ago, Joe Strummer started a camp fire at Glastonbury.  Many people came, playing music and generally having a nice time.  This has since been labelled Strummerville, and it's now a regular thing.  No play lists are announced, the best way to find out who will be there is to swing by in the day and take a peek at their chalkboard - last year there were artists such as The Mystery Jets, Frank Turner and The Drums.

Strummerville is now a charity - The Joe Strummer Foundation for New Music - that helps aspiring musicians and projects that could change the world.  The album and charity are being supported by Brothers Cider who will be donating a penny from each bottle and can sold in June to the Strummerville Foundation.

So, download the album from here, though actually I got it more easily from here.  It's a great compilation, there is a good range of music to listen to and really, if you hate it then delete it - you haven't lost anything by giving it a go.

You find out more about Strummerville and the charities excellent work at their official website.  And at least we can feel like we're doing a good thing by drinking Brothers Cider this June!

The track list is:

The Joker & The Thief - Be The Boy

Bastille - Icarus

Dark Moon - Blackbird

The Welcome Committee - Rich Kids

Shooting Star Poets - That Boy Don't Dance

La Rebla Fam - A British Morning

The Vagabonds - John Mellor

The Lights - Mostly Water

The Great Whale - Don't Lost Your Mind

The Barker Band - Chapel

Benjamin Folke Thomas - Thoroughly Alone

Music: Tall Ships

"Clash Magazine: Tips for 2011.  Tall Ships aren't your average rock band"

If you're into the Foals mathy, staccato catchiness, Battles repetitive weirdness, Biffy's epic start to Living Is A Problem, shanty harmonies... Well the list could go on.  Tall Ships are an amalgamation of everything that is good and right and wholesome about music.

Take their back catalogue.  You don't even need to hear it all - two tracks and you can cover a myriad of styles, tempos and atmospheres.  From the top.  Vessels.  You could be forgiven for thinking that you hear more than one song here.  A slow, heartfelt beginning with impeccable harmonies and then... Pounding drums and we're into Foals territory.  You'll notice the Foals comparison surfaces often with this band and that's because it is simply unavoidable.  That's not to say they're lacking in originality - the band is awash with imagination and new ideas.  

The track Books then comes as a shock and a surprise when it knocks you back with synths.  Not just your casual indie synths - we're talking like, Ibiza, dance music synths.  Shocking, I know, but they've made it come together so well.  Moments later it's laid back wailings about time - and presumably how there isn't enough of it to fit all these genres into each track.

But we've really come here for is their next single Hit The Floor.  I'm sorry, but this is where those Foals comparisons are really going to be thoroughly applied.  This could have come straight off of Antidote, if they had enlisted Julian Casablancas as vocalist.  And that's not a bad thing - they've added their own stamp onto the genre setting themselves apart.

Hit The Floor by Tall Ships

The track is a three minute frenzy, and was recently featured by Q magazine as their record of the month.  It's punchy, a bit mad and each simple layer builds on the last, making it an obvious hit for the indie fans who love to dance.  As for the live show, rumour has it it's a audio and  visual delight.  You can decide this for yourself as the band are currently on tour supporting Three Trapped Tigers (tour dates below).

The single can be found on iTunes now.  Or if you prefer to hold something lovely and hand numbered go here to pre order the physical release that will be out on 13th June.  There are only 300 copies of the vinyl, and only 100 of these will be available online, so no hesitation!  And then we can all sit back and wait patiently for an album.

Find Tall Ships at SoundCloud, MySpace and their own blog.

See them on tour:

1st June - Exeter, Lemon Grove (with We Are Scientists)
13th June - Middlesbrough, Empire (with WAS)
14th June - Leamington Spa, Assembly (with WAS)
15th June - London, Koko (with WAS)
16th June - Kingston, Banquet instore (6pm) and New Slang (11pm)
17th June - Brighton, Concorde 2 (with WAS)

1st July - Bournemouth, Six Million Postcards

9th July - Reading, Reading Outside Inside Festival

10th July - Vibe Bar, Sweet Beans Festival

15th July - Cheltenham, 2000 Trees Festival

22nd July - Tunbridge Wells, The Forum

24th July - Birmingham, Off The Cuff @ The Flapper And Firkin

25th July - Leeds, The Wall

5th August - Little Somerford, Fieldview Festival

6th August - Callington, Knee Deep Festival

9th August - Isle Of Wight, Bestival

TV: Dragons Den

"What you've got there is a ball on a spring"

Excellent.  On the surface this is the rich giving help to the poor.  The inventors of this world who might not otherwise be able to amass the investment they need, get a chance to be heard by some of the biggest names in business.  But I have two problems with Dragons Den - and you'll soon see they're fairly substantial problems.

My first problem: the people.  There are some ridiculous ideas, cardboard beach furniture, pet burial pack, road kill soft toys... All the way down to one of my favourites, the all female building company - obviously because the majority of male builders lie to their customers and are unreliable, she implies.  Cherry on the cake?  She had no qualifications whatsoever to do the building work.  

If you get the opportunity to go on Dragons Den, make sure you know what you're talking about.  Don't go on with a half arsed attempt at a presentation - just don't!  If you're going to run a business, why wouldn't you know your figures and your markets and actually what your product really does.  You might truly love and believe in your product but that doesn't mean that someone else will.  And when you've been given advice, take it - some products are just not meant to be.

My second problem, and probably the killer for my enjoyment of this program: the dragons.  Take for example the poor soul who wandered in with Storycode - an online way of finding new books to read based on books you like.  An excellent idea, I was thinking.  Apparently not.  It was ripped apart by the Dragons almost immediately.  Several dragons seem to assume that because they are in control and hold the power (money) they have every right to be unbelievably rude and obnoxious.  Frankly, I don't care how much money you have, it doesn't mean you're exempt from manners. 

There are some people who just can't win.  If you don't go into the Den with enough information/ sales/ background you're out.  But on the other hand, the lady who took her gardening, wheeley gadget into the Den was constantly questioned over 'why was she there?'.  The Dragon's problem with her was that her background was too good, her product had sold too well and she had too much money.  How could she win?

My final Dragon peeve: Deborah Meaden.  Does she ever smile?  Does she ever invest?  Who knows - I've never seen it.  I'm sure that when the Dragons do choose to invest it's an excellent opportunity for the company involved.  It's just the attitude with which the verdict is given.  No doubt, there is some good advice in there somewhere - I just can't see it through my cringing eyes.  

Music: O'Death

"They've always been revved-up and eager, but Outside, the band's third full-length, is also earnest and persuasive, a collection of intensely personal, intricately assembled folk songs." - Pitchfork.com

O'Death - Bugs (Official Video) from City Slang on Vimeo.

To be honest, I'm not usually into all this new folky nonsense.  The wave of chart popularity the genre has recently received, headed up by Mumford & Sons, all seems to take itself just a little too seriously.  Maybe I missed something but here was just no room for fun, and then... Well what's the point?

So, when I was reading the PR blurb for O'Death I got to the words "delicate, folk-inspired"... Argh, delicate.  Argh, folk inspired.  This is going to be awful.  But how wrong could I be!  O'Death make me love "folk-inspired" - well done them, this was previously considered an impossible task.

On the surface, the music sounds so energetic and upbeat, though they would have every right to be serious for reasons other than self importance. The band have had their fair share of hardships.  Their 2009 tour was interrupted when drummer, David Rogers-Berry was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.  After ten months of chemotherapy and a shoulder replacement, the band went back into the studio to record their third album, Outside, and returned to the stage with a performance that received excellent reviews.

Their latest track Bugs, which comes from that third album, is so obviously inspired by folk music but it's fun and uplifting and there's never a dull moment.  For a band known for combining folk and country with a fast, furious punky style, Bugs is far more laid back, mellow track.  Their past albums have been full of aggressive energy and drama, with a harsher vocal line than you might expect from such a genre.  As I mentioned, there is an element of country music about them, but it would be a seriously excitable line dance if O'Death took to the stage.

Luring you into a feeling of calm, with their softer than usual vocals and plucking guitars, Bugs picks up it's pace to a ridiculously catchy and thick chorus.  Chances are that you're going to find yourself humming it, and have one of those 'damn, what is that song!' moments, whether you love it or hate it.

MySpace is the first place to head to to hear a few sample tracks, as ever.  You can listen to their older tracks, and compare the evolution of their sound.  Certainly, the new album will be a very interesting listen, even from a new fans point of view.

The single, Bugs, is released May 30th on City Slang Records.  O'Death's new album, Outside, is out on June 6th.  You can pre-order it from HMV here.

Have a listen to O'Death at their MySpace page, or listen to Bugs on SoundCloud.

Music: Crystal Fighters

"Have you ever wondered what would happen if you went back, say, 100 years and dropped a ton of modern recording equipment plus a copy of Mixmag into an obscure hamlet in the heart of the Basque region of Spain and left the villagers, steeped as you'd expect in folk music, to their own devices?" - The Guardian

Crystal Fighters have created their own brand of music and received praise from Dazed and Confused, TimeOut and Mixmag (amongst others) for it.  They've even appeared on Later With Jools Holland!

Combining Basque folk music with dance, producing what they have described in the past as 'raved up, percussive folktronica' gives the Crystal Fighters an edge on other dance acts.  It's difficult to imagine how all the elements of their music could come together so well, but somehow Crystal Fighters manage to reign it all in.  They're certainly not afraid of showing their Spanish roots, and this adds depth to their music.  A perfect example of how they combine genres is the track Swallow, which features Spanish guitars and a dub step baseline.  It should all sound like Fawlty Towers' Manuel on a night out in Ibiza... but it doesn't.

There are of course, tracks I am less keen on.  I Love London is one such track - it's a little repetitive, a little predictable and when you reach the end of the track you realise that actually not a lot has happened.  But it is catchy and I suspect there will be many, many people who strongly disagree with me (proof: it was voted as one of the top 100 tracks of 2008 by Mixmag - but if we agreed all the time it would be boring).

One of their most popular and well known tracks, Xstatic Truth, begins with a simple tunes and soft vocals but slowly builds into an absolute explosion of fun and noise and dancing and everything thats good about music in the summer.  

Crystal Fighters are a welcome breath of fresh air in a time when music can all too soon start sounding the same.  Let's face it - flick through the music channels and you'll hear the same songs over and over.  They are unafraid of doing things a little differently, and with originality and intelligence.  I love that you can listen to one track and it will be folky loveliness and the next track will be a dance track; it makes the album imaginative and exciting.  Everything that music should be but so often is not.

Crystal Fighters' album, Star of Love, is out now.  You can find it here (and many other places... probably).

Visit Crystal Fighters Official website