Strings and things

So yesterday I booked tickets to go and see James play with a full orchestra and choir, I am immensely excited. I love bands getting involved with orchestras and adding strings just makes a track sound so much bigger. The band are going to do a lot of their back catalogue and maybe even some covers. The tickets go on general release tomorrow (Friday 1st July). Now I've had a search for an example of James playing with an orchestra (they did a charity gig before) but the recordings were pretty poor.

Instead below is an orchestral piece with choir used in Doctor Who that is fantastic, it's the main theme from the most recent series that have Matt Smith playing the Doctor. This is just posted on YouTube but I recommend getting the original version (off iTunes) and playing it LOUD - not on laptop speakers...

The New Enemy

Town, that's the name of the band, try Googling it. It's bloody hard to find them. I heard them on Zane Lowe's show the other day as Huw Stephens stood in. It was the "Next Hype" track and I can understand why. They fit very much in to the mould of lads band. They sound very much like The Enemy and while that's not necessarily a bad thing I wait to see what more they've got in the locker.

What they certainly do have in their locker is an awesome T-Shirt / EP deal. £8 for a pretty hot looking t-shirt AND a CD. A good way to draw your fans in if you ask me. Check out their single, Teenage Sky below.

Town - Teenage Sky by ollierussian

Free Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah track

I never really got in to Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, their first album went down a storm with the critics, the second one not so much. This is a new track from them and it's got me tapping my foot. You can download it using this handy widget below, I'm a big fan of the widget, I get to give away a free track, you get a free track and they get to keep in touch. As Del Boy would say "everyone's a winner, petit dejeuner".

CYHASY release their new album, Hysterical, on the 12th September and supporting it with a European and States tour, they have three dates in UK, London, Sheffield and End of the Road Festival in Dorset.

Now For Something Completely Different

We don't normally feature hip hop on this blog, not because I don't like it but because I don't know what I'm talking about when I get anywhere near that genre. What I do know is that I really like e-dubble. I came across his Freestyle Friday tracks a while back and a few of the tracks have been on heavy rotation on my iPhone. Check out Let Me Ohh, Hampden Parks and Paradise City for starters (use the Soundcloud scroll bar to see them all). This guy is really talented how come I've only heard about him recently? Anyway you can download them all and there's more on his Soundcloud page.


e-dubble's Freestyle Friday by edubble

Cosmo Jarvis - Sure As Hell Not Jesus

Cosmo Jarvis is man with a sense of humour that certainly makes me smile. I mentioned yesterday his great track Gay Pirates, a song about two men's love on a pirate ship, and there captain who's not too happy about the situation. His latest song, Sure As Hell Not Jesus has a great video (above) which shows a priest who is not behaving himself with his choir boys and needs to be helped out by the big boss man, no not Jesus - The Pope. It's a great video and well worth your time watching.

I'm not sure where Cosmo gets his inspiration from but I read that he's straight and I'm guessing he's not in to kiddy fiddling...

The Most Fun Since...

The track Are You Ready? by Fatty Gets A Stylist is the most upbeat and fun track I've heard since Schonberg introduced me to Cosmo Javis' great track Gay Pirates. It has the quirky nature of a track from Stranger Than Fiction's soundtrack and with a name like Fatty Gets A Stylist you can't help but be drawn in to listening to them. The band are made up of two Australians and an Englishman and they are based in London. They have just released their album and lots of there's more to come from the styled fatties.



Thanks to Kick In The Peanuts for bringing this track to my attention. You can download the track from there.

City & Colour - Fragile Bird

City & Colour is Dallas Green's baby (Dallas is a city, green is a colour, glad someone pointed that out on YouTube). Fragile Bird, the single off his third album Little Hell reminds me of something Eels may have come up with. It has an upbeat instrumental with dark voices and a dark theme over the top. The video shows what I can make out to be a whore house and the lyrics talk of her making "it through the night".

You can download the single here: http://www.mediafire.com/?0b86lxgv6d725xw and the album came out at the start of the month. Album cover does look like the rug in my lounge though...

The Return of Big Gun Number 4 - The Kooks

Last night Zane Lowe played The Kooks new track, three years on from their last (second) album Konk. The track sounds very like Supergrass despite being produced by Belle and Sebastian and Air producer Tony Hoffer. The track won't actually appear on their new album Junk Of The Heart but you can download it for free by signing up to their mailing list.

The Charlatans - One To Another done in another way

Talk about messing with my head. This is The Charlatans performing One To Another like I've never seen/heard it before. Can it be described as acoustic with an electric guitar and drums? I don't think so but their PR person thinks it is. Either way it certainly messes with your head when you know the words, you know the band but the sound is something different altogether.

Sorry about the video posts lately but it's an easy way to legally share music with you that I don't have permission for download.

The Big Guns Are Back

We don't hate the mainstream here, we just try to push artists that aren't getting the recognition they deserve. So it's with interest we note that a lot of established bands are back with new singles. Coldplay, Hard-Fi and The Kaiser Cheifs let their latest singles loose and it's interesting to see how the bands are getting on.

Coldplay first:



Nothing spectacular but a solid effort from the band, they certainly haven't strayed far. The track is available for immediate download, something they missed a trick with Viva La Vida. It was such a strong track that it was one of those "got to have it now" legal or not tracks. This certainly doesn't hit me with the same feeling.

So on to Kaiser Cheifs:



This isn't grabbing me yet but I'm hoping it's going to grow on me. To be honest it took a lot of effort to stop myself from listening to the Cults album on stream and to listen to it again. They are doing something "interesting" with their album. You can choose the play order of your album and not only that you can choose the tracks from a list of 20 and even choose the cover. I have to say I like someone to point me in the right direction as to which of the tracks are better but on a visit to their site I can see that they do exactly that. Members of the band, the media and "normos" have put together their albums and you can choose who to back.

Last of all are Hard-Fi:



This one didn't grab me to start off with but has grown on me, it reminds me of Reverend and the Makers' Silence Is Talking for some reason. It doesn't sound like it but has the same kind of vibe.

So comments please, what do people like? Dislike? Should they have all given up ages ago or is it great to have them back?

Cults

I think I may have found a new band I really like. Sadly I'm a bit behind the curve but that's no bad thing. It just means I can get their album a lot sooner than if I'd found them when they were underground.

Cults sound perfect for 6Music, female vocals, ever so slightly slower than you'd get on commercial radio and with hell of a lot more class. Even more exciting is that they are coming to the UK, they're playing Birmingham, Cambridge, Aberdeen, Glasgow and The Bowery in Sheffield (August 22nd). Check them out and see what you think.


Cults - You Know What I Mean by cultscultscults

You can stream the debut album here.

Sheffield Music Compilation

Sounds of the City is a compilation put together to raise money for Cash for Kids and features local bands from the city including Alvarez Kings who have featured on 3WTM in the past. You can listen to the tracks below (tracks 1-10 are from the Birmingham edition, 11+ are the Sheffield tracks).


Latest tracks by Sounds Of The City