140 characters

The new albums around at the moment reviewed in 140 characters or less, Twitter style.

Mumford and Sons- The Cave and The Open Sea

Rounding off their trio of EP's with their finest song to date ('The Cave') and standard B-sides. All well and good but an album now please?

Asher Roth- Asleep In The Bread Aisle

Laid back and confident but ultimately shallow. Will sell well to Uni students who identify with being a middle class urban wannabe.

Camera Obscura- My Maudlin Career.

Beautiful throughout- the Scottish sextet should hopefully achieve mainstream adulation with this, their finest work to date.

Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca

It's no coincidence that the female led tracks are the best here. As intriguing as it is frustrating Bitte Orca is its own worst enemy.

Golden Silvers- True Romance

Not as good as the demos promised- have ruined 'Arrows Of Eros'. However the twisted song-writing aligns them nicely as Mystery Jets Jr.

Noisettes- Wild Young Hearts

A nice mix of glossy pop songs alongside retro-soul. It's bizarre they are now a 'big' band but nice while it lasts. Car ad song still bad.

PJ Harvey & John Cale- A Woman A Man Walked By

Black Hearted Love promised a return to guitar slaying form, however this is a mish-mash of her recent output. For hardcore fans only.

The Virgins- The Virgins

Utter rubbish. Pointless wannabe hipster (imagine that?!) preening. Wants to be The Strokes sounds more like a really bad 80's boy-band.

That was all a bit negative wasn't it? Oh well, hopefully forthcoming albums from Jarvis, Patrick Wolf, Passion Pit and Maximo Park will impress. Not to forget the already reviewed Maccabees, Horrorsand Metric.

Read More »»

New Music Monday

for Gigwise

Detachments
Remember Myspace? Logging on nowadays is a bit like walking around school when everyone has left- it's familiar but really creepy and you half suspect you'll get caught at any moment. As one of the remaining fans of the site (it's still a great music resource) I think you can tell a lot about a band through their top friends. So when I saw Detachments align themselves with Crystal Castles, Telepathe, Metronomy and The Big Pink I knew they were worth waiting around for the pesky music player to load up. At first they sound like another in the great Joy Division lineage of recent times but repeat listens bring a myriad of influences with them. Like last weeks NMM pick, Delphic, a tight minimal electronic background is used to great effect however unlike Delphic Detachments build on top of this with bombastic guitars and a huge rhythm section. For example, 'Messages' sounds like Interpol covering the Mission Impossible theme tune. The bands debut single 'The Flowers That Fell' is a jerky post-punk anthem that brings to mind the DFA back catalogue alongside Gang Of Four and Wire- you do need to check it's no longer 2005 when you listen to it (Myspace being empty helps there) but it's the sound of a confident and infectious new band.

Detachments@ Myspace

Friendship

Imagine a cross between Death From Above 1979 and Hot Club De Paris- a string of jangly and angular intricacies interspersed with huge distorted riffs- and a drummer who sings. This band is Friendship, the London based two-piece who juxtapose math rock rhythms with sleazy walls of sound. Their debut single 'The Graveyard Shift' is released today (April 20th) and is typical of their sound- hyper and excitable but controlled throughout and most importantly, really really fun. If you need further recommendation Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw (Grimmy to his friends) says of the single, "Stupidly big hype tune" and if you can find a more respected and knowledgeable voice than his then I will stand corrected. Friendship are playing a ludicrously huge show this week on Wednesday supporting Yeah Yeah Yeah's at the Manchester Academy. Presumably they will gather a tiny audience with those ignoring them in favour of the bar no doubt attempting to drop the bands name in 6 months time.

Friendship@ Myspace

5 to download

1. Pulled Apart By Horses- E=MC Hammer. Another huge slice of thrash pop from the Leeds four piece. Currently on tour with Rolo Tomassi E=MC Hammer is no doubt tearing venues apart at the skirting boards every night.
   
2. Discover- Orange Shirt. If like me you can't decide who is better: Vampire Weekend or Ra Ra Riot (It's obviously VW but bear with me...) then fear no more as they have formed a super group! Discover is Vampire Weekend keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra's main man Wes Miles and together they make emotive and electronic beauties like 'Orange Shirt'. Sounding at times like The Postal Service and at others like that Calvin Harris single it's a heady and exciting project to keep your eyes and ears on.
3. MEN- Credit Card Babie$. Le Tigre side project courtesy of JD Samson this is exactly how CSS would sound if they were no longer sadly irrelevant.
4. Local Natives- Airplanes.Ignoring the horrible American spelling of the song title this is a heart swelling and melodic moment of perfection from one of the US's most exciting new bands. Like Fleet Foxes with more oomph.
5. Internet Forever- Break Bones. The only thing more twee than 'Break Bones' would be Stuart Murdoch playing hopscotch in the sunshine and even that would not be as idyllic. Short, sweet and bursting with melody this is pretty much perfect.
   

Debut Albums Out This Week

The new Eminem say the lazy critics, the new Vanilla Ice say the fools. Asher Roth drops his debut album 'Asleep In The Bread Aisle' this week, go see what all the fuss is about. Similarly hyped but actually a bit rubbish The Virgins release their self titled LP. It's ten tracks of shallow and desperate Strokes meets Duran Duran rock-pop not worthy of half the hype.

Hot Gigs:

Last weeks NMM stars Delphic play in Manchester on Saturday. The Virgins and The Big Pink continue their tours, Chew Lips and Amazing Baby support The Virgins whilst The XX are with The Big Pink. Similarly Rolo Tomassi's tour with Grammatics carries on with the newly renewed Pulled Apart By Horses re-joining the tour now that guitarist James Brown has recovered from his dodgy leg. Esser continues to try and convince us he's worth caring about with dates in Manchester, Wolverhampton, Bristol, Southampton and Exeter. NMM favourites Golden Silvers are in Bristol, Glasgow, Sheffield and London ahead of their debut album release next week, support comes from Exlovers. The week is rounded off with the Camden Crawl on Friday and Saturday. Every new and exciting band who play the toilet circuit every week gather in North London with people queuing to see the bands who played the same venue 3 months earlier to half the crowd- it's great. If you're there do try check out Bleech, Copy Haho, Drums Of Death, S.C.U.M and Televised Crimewave.

Read More »»

Introducing...

This is the first in a hopefully long run of articles. Every Monday Gigwise.com will run my weekly guide to all that is going on in new music. So expect to hear about the best new acts, essential tracks to download, key debut album releases and where you can see all these things live in your home town. Read on for the first installment...

Link to original

Asher Roth
How’s this for a breath of fresh air? A rapper who is a self confessed Dave Matthews Band fan, who claims to not relate to 90% of hip-hop and doesn’t even own a car to put 25 inch rims on. Pennsylvania’s Asher Roth has had 13 million plays of his ‘I Love College’ single on Myspace and with its mix of a party atmosphere and a stoner ethos it’s not difficult to see why. The track originally sampled Weezer’s ‘Say It Ain’t So’ but has since been changed due to legal wrangling (Rivers Cuomo didn’t like it). Jay Z’s label Def Jam clamoured to sign him but Roth currently resides with Universal who are celebrating ‘I Love College’ hitting the Billboard top 20. As a white rapper with a sense of humour inevitable comparisons to Eminem have been made but these are dismissed out of hand, "That Eminem comparison is barely accurate/My rapping is as passionate, but lacks the psychopath of it" he says on ‘Silly Boy’. Asher Roth will release his debut album ‘Asleep In The Bread Aisle’ in April featuring collaborations with Ludacris and Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green.

Asher Roth Myspace

Tweak Bird
Following the likes of Turbowolf and MC Rut in making garage rock sound monumental in 2009 are Tweak Bird of Los Angeles. Their feral take on the age-old genre is a decibel smashing riot with little care for beauty or intricate sonic invention. ‘Whorses’ is a riff heavy party track seemingly made for flailing limbs and waterfalls of beer, similarly ‘White Lips’ could be DFA1979 if they were caged for 23 hours of the day and poked with sticks. Angry, thunderous and most importantly fun Tweak Bird are a force to be reckoned with. The EP ‘Reservations’ is available now via Volcom.

Tweak Bird Myspace

Top 5 New Tracks to download.

1. Cocknbullkid- ‘I’m Not Sorry’. Stylish electro glamour with streetwise vocals backed up by a Metronomy production job.
2. Favours For Sailors- ‘I Dreamt That You Loved Me In Your Dreams’. Not since Morrissey’s nocturnal monologues have dreams sounded so beautiful. This is a dizzying Weezer-esque slice on romance from the bands superb ‘Furious Sons’ EP.
3. The Big Pink- ‘Velvet’. Epic dose of hypnotic, maudlin shoegaze from the men behind Merok Records (Klaxons, Crystal Castles) and recent NME Award winners.
4. Two Door Cinema Club- ‘Undercover Martyn’. Wrestling the title of indie disco floor filler away from Mystery Jets will be a tough task but if anyone can do it it’s these three Northern Irish boys. Just try keeping your toes from tapping.
5. The Soft Pack- ‘Nightlife’- Fresh from touring with Franz Ferdinand these San Diegans hit the UK with their first proper single. An effortlessly cool, nagging and addictive slice of post-Strokes rock: it more than lives up to the hype.

On Tour this week.

Yo Majesty play shows in Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, London and Bristol. La Roux is supporting Lily Allen (Bristol, Southampton, Brighton, Norwich). Everything Everything play The Lexington in London (Tuesday), Birmingham on Wednesday then hook up with The Maccabees to play Glasgow, Sheffield and Coventry. Dutch Uncles play an album launch show in Manchester (Monday). The Joy Formidable and Chew Lips support Howling Bells in Liverpool (Monday) and The Invisible play dates with Doves in Coventry (Tuesday), Portsmouth (Wednesday) and London (Thursday).

New albums out this week

• Formerly in charge of the Kill ‘Em All clubnight and now musicians in their own right Filthy Dukes release their first full length record ‘Nonsense In The Dark’. It features collaborations with Orlando Weeks of The Maccabees, The Secret Machines and Samuel Dust of Late Of The Pier.
• Hatcham Social, championed by Tim Burgess, release their album ‘You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil’ this week. Featuring the superb new single ‘Murder In the Dark’ it is available on Fierce Panda.

News

• Little Boots has announced the details of her first single since topping the BBC Sound of 2009 poll. ‘New In Town’ will be released on May 25th and is produced by Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, Ladyhawke)
• Vivian Girls follow up their debut album with a 7” single, ‘Moped Girls’ to be released in May.

Video of the week

Read More »»