Introducing... Catherine A.D

Catherine A.D is a young female singer working with Bernard Butler but please don't let that put you off. Rather than the Stars In Your Eyes approximation of Dusty Springfield that was Duffy Miss AD is an altogether more haunted proposition. A real juxtaposition of an artist she is one of the emerging artists in residence at the Southbank Centre whilst at the same time revered by Courtney Love who described her as having a , "gorgeous, sick, beautiful voice."

Her music is a rich tapestry of peaceful mourning, a sound to wash over you serenely before dragging you under gasping for air. The one track previewed on Myspace is the delightful 'Carry Your Heart' a brooding and intense slice of what Catherine AD is all about, dramatic and passionate without ever losing an ear for the melody. Anyone wanting to hear more can find the beautifully packaged 'Carry Your Heart EP' online.

Catherine is currently working on her debut album which promises to be a dark and intriguing listen.

Myspace

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Introducing... Little Comets

If the cold weather and the even colder political state we live in is starting to get you down then maybe Little Comets are the answer*. Deliciously unhinged and permenantly smiling the band hail from Newcastle and make music that bounces, shakes and all those words that mean 'it's big fun music so dance and smile yeah?"

Little Comets are here to make people tap their feet and make involuntary hip movements in their bedrooms. There is a single, 'One Night In October', that has been receiving daytime Radio 1 airplay and could easily see the band laying waste to indie dancefloors the country over. The band tour in March too, beginning in Edinburgh on the 15th before ending in Manchester on the 27th. It promises to be an evening of care-free good times, you'd be a fool to miss it.

*I am in no way suggesting the economy would improve if we all started listening to fun indie bands.
Myspace


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Introducing... Televised Crimewave

LINK
Televised Crimewave main man Daniel Wilson started a riot. A pretty big riot that led to Kaiser Chiefs first real hit. Wilson was lead singer in Black Wire, a sort of proto Horrors who regularly played notorious Leeds club night Pigs and one particularly heady night Nick and Ricky from the Kaisers were in attendance. Legend has it they left so inspired by events that they went home and wrote ‘I Predict A Riot’ kick starting five years of ubiquitous singles and increasing waist lines.

Black Wire split however and now Wilson, alongside band mates Rob Bootle, Tom Greatorex and Bat Neck (It’s a tattoo thing) resides in East London and in the scuzzy black and exciting band Televised Crimewave.

Where most of the Pix fanzine championed bands from East London seem content to play to a handful of people every month at Hoxton’s Dice Club TC have a more steely determination to take their music on the road and have already supported The Cribs as well as playing headline shows of their own up and down the UK.

The music is a dark pop noir with elements of Pixies abrasive squall mixed with Pavement style lo-fi melodies. ‘Listen and Repeat’ is a great song with Wilsons vocals confident and creepily riding the evil wave of sound created by the band, electric and relentless. ‘Kids’ on the other hand is a bass heavy pop song driven again by military style drumming and a keen ear for a killer chorus.

The band play Manchester on December 3rd with the glorious Abe Vigoda before completing a Smell 1-2 supporting Mika Miko in Sheffield the following night. Anyone lucky enough to still be in the throws of youth will be able to catch the band alongside White Lies and Metronomy and the Underage Clubs Christmas party at London’s Scala on December 20th.

MYSPACE

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Introducing... Everything Everything

Everything Everything make the sort of music I dream of in a perfect haze of beauty then wake up crushed when I realise I will never have the ability to commit it to tape. The band take elements of the Gang Of Four/ Wire post- punk jitter style and mix it with intricate multiple harmonies that cross over one another to create a mesmerising sound. The one band I think of when listening to the demos is the wonderful and much maligned Field Music.

The four piece from Manchester have just released their first single ‘Suffragette Suffragette’ (Seems they are fond of repetition) which begins like The Cribs ‘I’m A Realist’ before descending into a dark prog-pop master piece with falsetto vocals and a fierce battle between riffs and Foals esque high fret work. It’s a fine introduction to the band and a late entry for one of the finest singles of the year.

There is still time to see Everything Everything live before the year ends too with an extensive touring schedule taking in Brighton, Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds and London before Christmas. A deal with XL records is drying as we speak and only good things await this eccentric and alluring band.

MYSPACE

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Introducing... LA ROUX

LINK
2009 is the year the dancefloor belongs to the girls. Hard beats and big drops are out, Justice can go back to France because next year is going to be soundtracked by fairer sex and I can’t wait. Little Boots is a dead cert and so is today’s subject LA Roux, a flame haired cross between The Knife and Prince.

It feels cold and clinical to predict hits, mapping out a year before it even starts but if this time next year every single person reading this hasn’t tapped a foot, shook an arse or pulled someone closer to the sound of LA Roux well then you just won’t have lived. ‘Quicksand’ is a fine taste of what is to come from her, an incessant and fantastic electro pop song that could be written by anyone from Xenomania to Hot Chip. It comes out on the effortlessly brilliant Kitsune Label on December 15th. Future releases will come courtesy of Polydor (Klaxons, Maccabees and another next big thing Lady GaGa).

The Blogosphere has already hooked its talons into her, securing the hipsters. Remixers will no doubt be frothing at the mouth at the prospect of LA Roux as well leaving sites like Hype Machine brimming to the top with countless versions of these tracks. A Chateau Marmont mix of ‘Quicksand’ is already doing the rounds and sounding very sweet to these ears.
Patrick Wolf started it LA Roux is joining the party, red haired avant garde pop is the way forward.
MYSPACE

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Introducing... Violens/ Amazing Baby

Anyone with the misfortune to catch MGMT on their recent UK jaunt will probably be busy seeking full refunds and a thorough irrigation of the head after all the shit that was pumped in their during the show. However, there is a point to this rant, they will have been witness to two very fine support acts in Violens and Amazing Baby- who unlike MGMT have more than two good songs to their name.

Violens first then (Pronounced ‘Vy-Lens’) craft a fine blend of melodic rock with grinding guitars and finely crafted choruses soaring a top the sonic waves. With My Bloody Valentine-esque walls of sound driving it ‘Lightning Lightning’ is a grand pop epic with a fine blend between the drone and the anthem. ‘Doomed’ is the flip side however with flowery whimsy replacing the big slabs of controlled feedback. With the Kinks sense of a chorus wrapped in an eccentric blanket it shows an enticing second dimension to Violens.

Amazing Baby the other hand take the term eclectic and take it on a world tour to broaden its horizons. Spending time in the bands audio presence is like channel hopping or hitting shuffle on your Ipod, dark prog pop becomes brooding electronic gloom which in turn flicks to ethereal floating soul. What they all have in common however is the fine sense of song craft that runs through the band. Check out ‘Head Dress’ and ‘Pump Your Brakes’ for evidence.

Further evidence that all the good music as 2008 rolls into 2009 Amazing Baby and Violens both call New York home. We’d pack a bag and move there tomorrow if we didn’t suspect the bands will spend next year taking over the whole planet.

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Passion Pit

LINK
Suprisingly the buzz band to emerge from the recent CMJ music conference did not hail from the alt.hit factory Brooklyn but from the far less fashionable Cambridge, Massachusetts. Passion Pit, a one man pop altruist, known to his friends as Michael Angelakos.


Taking clear but not derivative influence from the likes of Flaming Lips and Beck Passion Pit’s soulful slacker dream pop sounds as relevant as it does classic. ‘Sleepy Head’ pricks listeners attention with its early Kanye-esque high pitched vocals over the top of a pounding backdrop, the bands sound is so dense- layer upon layer of instruments create a smorgasbord of elements to pick up on. The sense of euphoria is strikingly obvious too, all the songs come with happiness strapped to every inch of their bodies. I’ve Got Your Number’s milk bottle top beats meanwhile paints Angelakos in a much darker light, still airy and poppy but with a hint of menace underpinning the lustful vocals. An easy comparison it may be but Passion Pit sounds not unlike The Postal Service in places. A melodic hazy electronic sound indebted to numerous genres and appealing to fans of all.


The only release thus far is an EP (‘Chunk Of Change’ via French Kiss) which was originally recorded as a Valentine’s Day present to Angelakos’ girlfriend which then prompted him to give it out to friends and fellow students at Emerson College. Angelakos wrote and recorded the entire record by himself and it only hints at what is to come from this extremely talented perfectionist. Currently touring the US as a live 5 piece Passion Pit have opened for, amongst others, These New Puritans and Death Cab For Cutie.
MYSPACE

Passion Pit: Sleepyhead
Uploaded by Killstain

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Introducing... Middle Class Rut

LINK
Listening to Middle Class Rut (or M.C. Rut for short) is an ear opening experience. The ears are open however for the blood to escape, this is music decibel counters were invented for, music that neighbouring towns complain about not next door neighbours. Comprising just two members, Zack Lopez- vocals/ guitar, Sean Stockham- Drums/ vocals, the unholy roar they unleash is influenced by noise forefathers such as Refused and Fugazi with added melodic nods to Janes Addiction and Rage Against The Machine.

Despite hailing from California the sunshine has clearly been locked out of which ever garage M.C. Rut practise and write in. ‘Busy Bein’ Born’ is a looming apocalyptic stomp that lurches and sprints into action in equal measure. The split vocals could shred a larynx from 50 paces and the riffs pummel fast and hard underneath. With nods to the Seattle grunge sound this band are taking you on a whistle-stop tour of 90’s American alternative music.


With a thought provoking name and drummer Stockham’s bright ‘For Sale’ red chest tattoo on full display Gigwise suspects M.C. Rut are far from shrinking violets. ‘Busy Bein Born’ is on a limited copies release in the Britain (November 17th). The band tour Britain in February 2009 doing dates with Inner Party System. Bring ear plugs.

MYSPACE

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Introducing... Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains

Death From Above 1979: they came they saw and they conquered in a flurry of sweat and blood leaving an amazing album in their wake. Jesse F. Keeler went on to form the electro vowel haters MSTRKRFT and take the dance floor elements of DFA 1979 and take them into their natural Ed Banger, Kitsune direction. Sebastien Grainger however has been suspiciously quiet. Apart from a guest vocal on Does It Offend You? Yeah!’s ‘Lets Make Out’ we’ve heard nothing from the DFA sticksman in over two and a half years.

Until now. Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains is the new vehicle for the man and it’s a return to fine form. Less aggressive than DFA and the Does It Offend You material The Mountains is a straight up rock record: big choruses, lots of passion and a mixture of lo-fi scratchy recordings and big big pop tunes. It takes the mainstream essence of the old stuff and makes a contemporary sound out of it. It’s still as gloriously jagged and eclectic but somehow cleaner and more mainstream than ever.

The self titled album is available through Saddle Creek records from this week (October 21st). There is not a confirmed UK release date or any live dates yet but you hope that is just a matter of time. There will no doubt be a huge appetite for this material as we can all agree Death From Above fans have unfinished business.

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Introducing...

3 this week because I am bored and re-discovered Myspace.

1. Ponytail
They have the ugliest, brain warping Myspace page around but some of the most rip roaring party starting tunes blasting out of it. Can I say 'Art-Metal'? I just did, get over it. Experimental but heavy in all the right places Ponytail sit alogside current transatlantic luminaries Abe Vigoda, Yeasayer and Dirty Projectors in bringing us sounds that are not a million miles away from certain influences but 2 steps forward as well. It's jagged and bleeding but it's pretty nonetheless.
MYSPACE

2. Vivian Girls
'Standing In The Way Of Control saw Beth Ditto made an awfully large splash (Must. Avoid. Jokes) but nobody has seemed to pick up the riot grrl baton and run with it. Sure Yo Majesty are having a go but they are a million miles away in terms of music, Brooklyns Vivian Girls on the other hand have all the ingrediants to continue the movement Gossip re-invigorated 2 years ago. Scuzzy recordings of battered and bruised songs like 'Tell The World' and 'Wild Eyes' may lack FM aesthetics but they boast more charm and character than 90% of bands out there. As sweet as they are dirty Vivian Girls hit UK shores in December to promote their self titled debut LP.
MYSPACE
3. Fan Death
Rule of thumb: If Erol Alkan is involved, it tends to be good. From Trash to Late Of The Pier by way of Mystery Jets and countless remixes everything he fiddles with turns to gold. Fan Death are the latest recipients of his midas touch. Treading on the Glass Candy/ Hercules & Love Affair camp disco path Fan Death are by no mean original but there are brains behind their neon lights. 'Veronicas Veil' is a swirling stomp that led to the aforementioned Alkan remix, it is their best song and looks set to take floors by storm. A la Snoop drop their name whilst it's hot.
MYSPACE

* I will think of a better name for this feature, promise.

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Introducing... Little Boots

From the embers of glam dance act Dead Disco rises Little Boots. Also known as Victoria Hesketh Little Boots has been gaining attention since the Summer with a sound amalgamating Ladytrons cold edge with Hot Chips relentless hooks and beats. The latter is provided by LB producer and Hot Chip member Joe Goddard (also producing the equally brilliant Dels). Having only played her first gig under the Little Boots moniker recently this project is very much in its infancy but looks set to be on countless 'Hot In 2009' lists come December. It's not hard to see why either, the two singles to this date 'Stuck On Repeat' and 'Meddle' are uber-cool slices of disco based electro that are rooted and underpinned by a huge pop sensibility. Little Boots will be at In The City this week as well as playing the following dates this week-

Oct 4 2008 8:00P	Newcastle University	Newcastle, Northeast
Oct 5 2008 7:00P	Roadhouse	Manchester
Oct 5 2008 11:30P	NME Showcase, In The City	Manchester
Oct 7 2008 8:00P	Popjustice, In The City	Manchester
Oct 9 2008 8:00P	http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.showDetails&Band_Show_ID=35775225&friendid=312877888	London

Myspace

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