The Tallest Man On Earth is Kristian Matsson (born April 30th, 1983 in Dalarna, Sweden). He plays guitar, banjo and piano and has released two full length albums, the first entitled Shallow Grave and the second entitled The Wild Hunt. He has also released a self-titled 5-track EP on the Swedish label gravitation, as well as a second 5-track EP entitled Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird, recently released on Dead Oceans.
Quite the busy man isn't he! And what? You're surprised he's done ALL that, and still managed to stay under your radar? Well that's why I'm here! :)
There is an instinctive rustic quality to the folk songs of The Tallest Man On Earth, think Bob Dylan, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver.
The Low Anthem are a folk quartet (up until recently, a trio) from Providence, Rhode Island, United States. They formed in 2003 and consist of multi-instrumentalists Ben Miller, Jeff Prystowsky, Jocie Adams and Mat Davidson, 'Smart Flesh', their 3rd album (self-produced by the band, mixed largely by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk), and mastered by Bob Ludwig) was released back in February, combining folk with blues, hymnals, barn-stompers and whispered meditations.
I think it sounds a bit like Interpol, and that's definitely not a bad thing!
The Vaccines release their debut single "All In White" from their debut EP 'What Did You Expect From The Vaccines', scheduled for release May 31.
The band's in the middle of their tour with the Arctic Monkeys but will eventually split off for a length European stop before returning back to the states for Lollapalooza.
The band have a limited 7″ of the “All In White” single available to pre-order. Go get yours right now!
This Modern Glitch
Tracklisting 01 - Our Perfect Disease
02 - Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)
03 - Jump Into The Fog
04 - Anti-D
05 - Last Night I Dreamt.
06 - Techno Fan
07 - 1996
08 - Walking Disasters
09 - GirlsFast Cars
10 - Schumacher The Champagne
Yes, that’s right, somebody in the UK has opened up a can of worms and uploaded The Wombats’ This Modern Glitch for all to “preview” before its official April 26th release date!
The new song from The Audreys, a band from Adelaide in Australia is 'Sometimes the Stars' and the video matches its ethereal beauty with elegance and charm. It tells the story of a lost girl who journeys through a dreamlike land – and her yearning to make a connection with this world.
1. Cats and dogs
2. Coeur d'alene
3. Ghosts
4. Down in the valley
5. Honey come home
6. Lost in my mind
7. Winter song
8. Sounds like hallelujah
9. Heaven go easy on me
Seattle based The Head and the Heart write and play songs that speak to the newness of a fresh start, of the ghosts left behind, of moving forward, all brimming with a soulfulness and hope for a better life than the one we’ve all been sold.
was formed after five twentysomethings met at an open mic night in Seattle.
"None of us knew each other beforehand," recalls singer Josiah Johnson. "I just happened to go to the same open mic. [Jonathan Russell] played some songs and I played some songs, then we started talking and hanging out."
After the band self-released its eponymous debut album last June, the emblematic Seattle label Sub Pop will reissue the album in April. The Head And The Heart is a bright, powerful debut full of classic harmonies, a la Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and The Beatles.
The Joy Formidable are the latest act to sign to Canvasback Music/Atlantic Records. The label will release the band's full- length debut in on the 25th of this month (pre-order here).
The group members are Ritzy Bryan (vocals, guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass, backing vocals), and Matt Thomas (drums). Their music has been described as “primal epic grunge rock รก la The Breeders, Arcade Fire and Yeah Yeah Yeahs”.
Having already played Latitude Festival, Reading Festival and Leeds Festival, I think they're set for a good 2011!
They play Dublins Olympia Theatre on Monday May 16th as support to Manic Street Preachers.
The Naked and Famous are a five piece indie band hailing from New Zealand. The band comprises of Thom Powers, Alisa Xayalith, Aaron Short, David Beadle and Jesse Wood. Their debut album “Passive Me, Aggressive You” was released on the “Somewhat Damaged” label during September 2010. The single “Young Blood” debuted at number one on the New Zealand chart - the first New Zealand artist to do so in three years.
The Limousines are an Electropop band based in the Bay Area, California. The band consists of songwriter and vocalist Eric Victorino, and multi-instrumentalist and producer Giovanni Giusti. The band has had comparisons drawn with MGMT.
Victorino, who had previously performed with rock band Strata, stated that he was “tired of band politics” and “needed another outlet, one that wasn’t quite as dark and heavy”. Giusti and Victorino started the Limousines after communicating online and exchanged lyrics, music and recorded vocals online.
Dolophone Smile (2009)
01. Friday on my knees
02. For those who dream with open eyes
03. The teenage order
04. Lovesick
05. Dolophine smile
06. Blue perfume
07. Looking for your love
08. I'm sorry
09. London, my town
10. You knew I was trouble from the start (featuring Theoretical Girl)
Having grown up outside Seattle after being born in Sweden, Gustaf Kjellvander AKA The Fine Arts Showcase is well familiar with the English language and uses it fluidly. After 10 years in the States his family (including older brother and artist Christian Kjellvander) returned to Sweden, where Gustaf as a mean of coping with boredom and alienation started writing music. One of his first gigs were at his school when he was 12 years old. And so the story goes.
The Fine Arts Showcase sound is made up of a lot of different fragments. Loaning the pop sensibilities of bands like The Byrds, Television Personalities, The Jesus and Mary Chain and artist Gene Pitney with the song writing and autobiographical elements of Merle Haggard, Leonard Cohen and John Lennon and the overall poetics of bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and The Silver Jews.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Cinematic Orchestra is a U.K.-based jazz and electronic outfit, created in the late 1990s by Jason Swinscoe, which records on the Ninja Tune independent record label.
Other members include Tom Chant (saxophone), Phil France (double bass), Luke Flowers (drums), Nick Ramm (piano), Stuart McCallum (guitar); former members include Jamie Coleman (trumpet), T. Daniel Howard (drums), Alex James (piano), and Patrick “PC” Carpenter (turntables).
In both live and studio context, the Cinematic Orchestra employ a live band which improvises along with a turntablist and electronic elements such as samples provided by Swinscoe. In their studio releases Swinscoe will often remix the live source material to produce a finished product that is seamless combination of live jazz improvisation with electronics, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins. It is worth mentioning that in the sound of the Cinematic Orchestra the role of traditional solo instruments, such as piano or wind instruments, is not the same as in traditional jazz; instead of performing intricate solos they provide a mature accompaniment environment and quite often there is more space for the drums and the double bass to have a lead role.
The Cinematic Orchestra have been noted for their new score to the classic 1929 Dziga Vertov’s Russian film Man with a Movie Camera. They worked on two other scores. They recorded some tracks for “Ils se mariรจrent et eurent beaucoup d’enfants” (2004) and made the music for the Disney Nature movie “The Crimson Wing” (2009).
The Weepies - Be My Thrill (2010)
1. "Please Speak Well of Me" 2:36
2. "When You Go Away" 2:21
3. "Red Red Rose" 2:51
4. "I Was Made for Sunny Days" 3:14
5. "They're In Love, Where Am I?" 2:23
6. "Add My Effort" 3:12
7. "Be My Thrill" 2:30
8. "Be My Honeypie" 2:10
9. "Hummingbird" 2:45
10. "Hard to Please" 4:12
11. "Not a Lullaby" 2:37
12. "How Do You Get High?" 2:36
13. "Hope Tomorrow" 1:59
14. "Empty Your Hands" 3:09
In 2006, The Weepies big label debut Say I Am You came out on Nettwerk Records. After an initial hard-scrabble tour in their compact car as a duo, Deb Talan & Steve Tannen’s music appeared in more than a dozen TV shows, as well as several major motion pictures.
Their iTunes sales topped the folk charts in eight countries. Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol nominated them for a Short List Music Prize, and Mandy Moore asked them to write with her and sing on her album. They were invited to open for the Indigo Girls and invited onto the Hotel Cafรฉ Tour; they played the Oxegen Festival in Ireland, the Hurricane Festival in Germany, and T in the Park in Scotland. Their MySpace player hit 2 million plays. JCPenney and Old Navy used their tunes as the theme songs for their major holiday TV campaigns.
The Rescueshave recorded an amazing cover version of Katy Perry's hit "Teenage Dream". Drenched in gorgeous 4-part harmony, this new recording was released as a single on iTunes today. You can download a 320kbps MP3 of the song here: And here's the new video in case you want a preview:
01. Best Friend
02. Me And The Moon
03. Lets Go Surfing
04. Book Of Stories
05. Skippin' Town
06. Forever And Ever Amen
07. Down By The Water
08. It Will All End In Tears
09. We Tried
10. I Need Fun In My Life
11. I'll Never Drop My Sword
12. The Future
1. Down In The Street Below
2. The Complete Banker
3. Neapolitan Girl
4. Bang Goes The Knighthood
5. At The Indie Disco
6. Have You Ever Been In Love
7. Assume the Perpendicular
8. The Lost Art of Conversation
9. Island Life
10. When A Man Cries
11. Can You Stand Upon One Leg
12. I Like
Bonus tracks:
13. Ya Sumeera
14. Beside the Railway Tracks
15. The Circular Firing Squad
16. Napoleon Complex
The Divine Comedy is a baroque pop band now based in Dublin, Ireland, fronted by Neil Hannon.
One of the overarching themes of Bang Goes the Knighthood: namely the private lives of the rich and the powerful, be they celebrities, aristocrats, politicians or financiers. Sometimes, as on the opening "Down in the Street Below", his technique is impressionistic, ร la Jimmy Webb. Other times it's straight to the point. He comes on like a latter-day Lehrer on "The Complete Banker", a savage satire of the traders who precipitated the credit crunch.
Such flashes of anger are rare from Hannon, but when they come, they're always thrilling. He occasionally misfires: "Island Life" is a little too reminiscent of Pulp when they started singing about trees and sunrises, and the dated references of "At the Indie Disco" sound like the work of a man who hasn't been inside one for at least a decade.
The oompah-reggae shuffle of the Duckworth Lewis Method project is gone, and Hannon reverts to the lush orchestral pop with which DivCom are most closely associated. Several times, he reminds us that he is a master of genre: "Have You Ever Been in Love" sounds like an instant Tin Pan Alley standard; "When a Man Cries" sounds like an expertly translated Brel (yes, that good) and you can imagine hearing the daft, kiddie-friendly "Can You Stand Up on One Leg" on Ed "Stewpot" Stewart's Junior Choice circa 1975.
Always misfits during their Chris Evans-approved chart heyday, the Divine Comedy are proving that their value has far outlasted that, and their 10th album sees Hannon comfortably embracing his elegant outsiderdom, bow tie, bowler, Labrador and all.
01. Blue Blood Blues
02. Hussle and Cuss
03. The Difference Between Us
04. I’m Mad
05. Die By The Drop
06. I Can’t Hear You
07. Gasoline
08. No Horse
09. Looking at the Invisible Man
10. Jawbreaker
11. Old Mary
The Dead Weather is an alternative rock band which formed in Nashville, Tennessee, United States in 2009. It consists of Alison Mosshart (of The Kills and Discount), Jack White (of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs), Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes).
This month is New Zealand Music Month! The month that Kiwi's like to celebrate their growing music scene. So this week, I hope to bring you a NZ album to brighten up your ipod!
Indie/Rock
Get In The Club (2008) Tracklist
01.Western Zeal
02.Grow Up
03.All Over Town
04.Get Contented
05.K
06.Devo
07.Whiteout
08.In My Lifetime
09.Seven
10.Cut in the Rope
11.i20
12.Odyssey
13.Same Old Thing
‘Get In the Club’ is the debut album from the Auckland dance-rock, five-piece the Tutts, released in late 2008. From the runaway success of the first single ‘K’ to the enchanting and tainted love story of ‘I20’, the Tutts songs conjure images of debauchery, dark hallways, and a band steeped in nocturnal mystery. The new single ‘All Over Town’ picks up where the band left off with the vampyric club anthem ‘Whiteout’, with a Smiths like melody, a tambourine and jangling and jagged guitars, ‘All Over Town’ sees the natural evolution of a band finding their sound more and more, but one that is keeping the style that has earnt them the recognition they have received so far.
(extra info) Track #5,‘K’ was nominated for single of the year in 2007 at the NZ Music awards and won best breakthrough video on Juice TV in 2006.
Ever since seeing Conor O'Brien perform, 6 months ago in a packed upstairs bar of Doyles Pub, I became interested in his band, Villagers. I'd never heard of them before that, and I've heard nothing BUT them since! The played Crawdaddy last October, have performed on Jools Holland, and are currently on tour in Europe.
