Meet Me In St Louis

Blur once claimed (or at least titled an album as such) that modern life is rubbish, I disagree, being ill is rubbish. I'm not sure whether to blame last night's king prawn fried rice or the horrible pint of Guinness red I consumed. Either way, I have nothing better to do but to write a little something about Meet Me In St Louis, who are the most excellent Big Scary Monsters label.

Taking their name from the 1944 film of the same name (presumably?), they are much more RAWK! than romance. In fact, judging by the title of their new single ('All We Need Is A Lot Of Energon And A Little Luck'), they're more influenced by the original Transformers movie than anything by Judy Garland. And obviously graduates of the school of ridiculous song titles.

There has been a fair bit of chat about this Guildford band, in particular about their incendiary live show but the blogging world seems to be lagging behind a bit, especially in comparison to Gallows recent exposure. After debut album 'Variations On Swing' drops on September 24th, that may be a different matter. Recruiting ATD-I cohort Alex Newport for production duties, MMISL are embracing their biggest influence. But what a great influence to have!



MMISL move seamlessly between the melodic and the abrasive, like a post-hardcore Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Crunching guitars intersperse jangly intricacies, accompanied by vocals which manage to retain a successful balance between fragility and intensity. MMISL are one of those rare bands with the flexibility and versatility to allow them to weave sprawling soundscapes as well as commit mass aural destruction.

Meet Me In St Louis - The Torso Has Been Severed Mid-Thorax [right click, save as]//[Sendspace link]

MMISL tour LOADS from September through to November, supporting the returning Hell Is For Heroes after a headline tour. For more details, see the BSM website, which will also include details about preordering the album from September 1st [link].

New bands of 2006: An Investigation (part 2)

So this is the follow up to my mini appraisal of a 2006 New Bands feature in The Fly Jan 2006 issue. Part 1 showed Kaiser Chiefs manager James Sandom doing his best impression of a musical prediction genius, let's see if anyone can beat him. A reminder of the scoring system - we're using the "2006 Libs/Babyshambles/Dirty Pretty Things/Yeti scale" where the Libs had 'made it' (even though they split way before 2006) and are worth 4 points and Yeti remained in relative obscurity and thus are worth only 1 point. If it doesn't make sense yet, it will.

John Kennedy (XFM DJ, host of the amazing Xposure radio show)
Mystery Jets - The Libs; Larrikin Love - Babyshambles; Jamie T - The Libs; Les Incompetents - DPT; The Holloways - The Libs; Good Shoes - Babyshambles; Kubichek! - DPT; DARTZ! - DPT; Shit Disco - Babyshambles; ¡Forward, Russia! - The Libs; iLiKETRAiNS - DPT; I Love Poland - Yeti; The Ivories - DPT; The Sunshine Underground - The Libs; The Automatic - The Libs; Shuffle - Yeti; Former Bullies - Yeti; I Had An Inkling - Yeti; Keith - DPT; The Longcut - Babyshambles; Optimist Club - Yeti; Kalev - Yeti; Action Plan - DPT; Liam Frost - DPT; Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe - Yeti; Emmy The Great - DPT; Darren Plant - Yeti; Jeremy Warmsley - DPT; Metronomy - DPT; Sway - The Libs; C-Mone - Yeti; Plan B - The Libs; Union Of Knives - DPT; Rumble Strips - Babyshambles; Long Blondes - The Libs; Shy Child - Babyshambles; Detachment Kit - Yeti; Be Your Own Pet - DPT; Tilly And The Wall - Babyshambles; The Midnight Ramble - Yeti; Metro Riots - Yeti; Vincent Vincent & The Villains - DPT; Hot Chip - The Libs.

Hit rating - 10/43. Points per band = 2.35 (101/43). As with his radio show, John praises about a million bands! Quite a few biggies but also many complete unknowns.

Emmy The Great & Jeremy Warmsley - Poor Little Rich Boy (Regina Spektor cover) [right click, save as>]//[Alt d/l link]//[Emmy's MySpace]//[Jeremy's MySpace]
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Tim Perry (manager of London venue, The Windmill)
The Spinto Band - Babyshambles; Hockey Night - DPT; Clor - Babyshambles; Roland Shanks - DPT.

Hit rating - 0/4. Points = 2.5 (10/4). Decent choices here and a real pity that both Clor and Roland Shanks have split. See the Part 1 post [link] for a Roland Shanks mp3.
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Nick Burgess (A&R for Virgin Records)
The Feeling - The Libs; The Kooks - The Libs; Jamie T - The Libs; Mystery Jets - The Libs; Gnarls Barkley - The Libs; The Spinto Band - Babyshambles.

Hit rating - 5/6. Points = 3.83 (23/6). An amazing list really, with pretty much all the bands making it (the Spinto Band falling just short) and some of these bands going truly stratospheric!
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Mike Watson (Music PR)
Mystery Jets - The Libs; ¡Forward, Russia! - The Libs; Tera:Tora - DPT; Ninjah - Yeti; The Dykeenies - DPT; The Holloways - The Libs; Kid Harpoon - DPT

Hit rating - 2/7. Points - 2.71 (19/7). Not bad going here, Mike even mentioned Mastodon as well quite surprisingly.
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Tim Dellow (co-founder of Transgressive Records)
¡Forward, Russia! - The Libs; Optimist Club - Yeti; Youthmovies - DPT; Young Knives - The Libs; Tom Vek - Babyshambles; Wolf Parade - Babyshambles.

Hit rating - 2/6. Points = 2.83 (17/6). I think the main thing from this is whatever happened to Tom Vek?!

Youthmovies - If You'd Seen A Battlefield (Live) [right click, save as]//[MySpace]
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Ian Abraham (The Fly's Ones To Watch editor)
Captain - Babyshambles; Duels - Babyshambles; Guillemots - The Libs; The Crimea - DPT; Gavin Thorpe - Yeti; The Spinto Band - Babyshambles; We Are Scientists - The Libs; Humanzi - DPT; The Automatic - The Libs; Boy Kill Boy - The Libs; Morning After Girls - DPT; Larrikin Love - Babyshambles; On-Offs - DPT; Fear Of Music - DPT; Dive Dive - Yeti; Polytechnic - DPT; Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - The Libs; Technically Men - Yeti.

Hit rating - 5/18. Points = 2.61 (47/18). Mixed bag but generally a good showing.

Fear Of Music - Sheets We Test [right click, save as]//You can also download it via a link on their [MySpace].
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So A&R man Nick Burgess is the runaway winner but overnight leader James Sandom does well enough to take second place. It's interesting to see how few picks have truly made it (I was generous with points scoring) and also how many of the bands have dissolved despite being hailed as future stars. I suppose this really highlights the fickle nature of the music industry. Oh well. Let's hope my 2007 choicess manage to last the year!

New bands of 2006: An Investigation (part 1)

I found a pile of old magazines in my room the other day and plucked from it a copy of The Fly [link], a rather good free publication that I suggest you seek out. This issue happened to have a feature on new bands, "2006. The New Breed" and considering I did a feature on 2007 new bands, I thought I would do a bit of appraisal of The Fly's choices. My choices haven't done great by the way (apart from Jack Penate), although I did mention the likes of Jamie T, Klaxons and Kate Nash as being too obvious choices! At least none of my choices have split up, a disappointing number from this 2006 list have - Les Incompetents, Roland Shanks and Ciccone to name but a few.

Anyways, the following bands will be marked on the "2006 Libertines/Babyshambles/Dirty Pretty Things/Yeti scale", where the Libertines = famous, Babyshambles = almost famous, Dirty Pretty Things = slightly less famous, Yeti = very obscure. Obviously, now that would be very different with Pete Doherty's tabloid exploits making Babyshambles far more famous than The Libertines were. Anyways, I'm going to give points per band, so Yeti = 1 point, DPT = 2 etc and the hit rating is how many acts have become (at least moderately) successful. It should also be noted that some of the choices were obvious (i.e Arctic Monkeys!) or were established artists (Arcade Fire) so will be ignored. Now onto the choices...

Steve Lamacq (Radio 1 DJ, journo and general legend!)
¡Forward, Russia! - The Libs; Two Gallants - Babyshambles; The Early Years - Yeti; Celebration - Yeti; The Sunshine Underground - The Libs

Hit rating - 2/5. Points per band = 2.6 (13/4) I'm being generous here but both bands have had plenty of media coverage and acclaim, as well as minor chart success.

The Sunshine Underground - Commercial Breakdown [right click, save as]//[Sendspace link]//[MySpace]
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Alan McGee (bloke who discovered Oasis)
Clay Machine Gun - Yeti; The Hedrons - Yeti; Client - Babyshambles; Emily Mann - Yeti; King Biscuit Time - DPT; Jose Gonzalez - The Libs

Hit rating - 1/5. Points = 2.4 (12/5) McGee does about as well as expected although to be fair, Jose Gonzalez was a great choice.
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Alex Kapranos (bloke out of some band called Franz Ferdinand)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Libs; Animal Collective - Babyshambles; Bricolage - DPT; 1990s - The Libs; Kapow! - Yeti

Hit rating - 2/5. Points = 2.8 (14/5) Good choices from Mr Kapranos, deserves a pat on the back.
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James Sandom (manager of Kaiser Chiefs)
Envelopes - DPT; Help She Can't Swim - Babyshambles; The Feeling - The Libs; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Libs; Guillemots - The Libs; Semifinalists - DPT; Giant Drag - Babyshambles; Wolf & Cub - DPT; The Cribs - The Libs; Jim Noir - Babyshambles; Two Gallants - DPT

Hit rating - 4/11. Points = 3.0 (33/11) Some currently massive acts mentioned here, well done!

Envelopes - Mixtape [right click, save as]//[MySpace]
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Johnny Cooke (bloke from 'indie' band Dogs)
Larrikin Love - Babyshambles; Dustin's Bar Mitzvah - DPT; Komakino - DPT; Action Plan - DPT; Dogs - DPT; The Cribs - The Libs

Hit rating - 1/6. Points = 2.33 (14/6) Johnny did pick the criminally underrated Komakino but then cancelled that great choice out by picking his own band!

Komakino - Redstar UFO [right click, save as]//[Sendspace]//[MySpace]
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Nadia Dahlawi (co-founder of Young&Lost Club)
Good Shoes - Babyshambles; Jamie T - The Libs; The Horrors - The Libs; Dustin's Bar Mitzvah - DPT; The Creepy Morons - Yeti; The Beat Up - DPT; Les Incompetents - DPT; Roland Shanks - DPT

Hit rating - 2/8. Points = 2.5 (20/8) I actually worked for Nadia once upon a time, she was lovely. At least three of her choices have now split up however!

Roland Shanks - Anniversary [right click, save as]//[Sendspace]//[MySpace]
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Eddie Argos (Art Brut frontman)
The Chalets - DPT; Ciccone - Yeti; The Indelicates - DPT

Hit rating - 0/3. Points = 1.67 (5/3) Although it looks bad for Eddie, he did choose the Arctics as well. And I can hardly fault trying to give his mates some much deserved exposure.

Ciccone - Look At You Now [right click, save as]//[Sendspace]//[MySpace]
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Ben James (A&R at Nude Records)
O Fracas - Yeti; The Harrisons - DPT; The Goodbye Plot - Yeti; Duels - Babyshambles; The Maccabees - The Libs; Guillemots - The Libs; Fields - DPT; Jose Gonzalez - The Libs; Dungen - DPT; Laakso - DPT; Wolf Parade - Babyshambles; Black Mountain - DPT; Priestess - Yeti; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Libs; Favourite Sons - Yeti; The Spinto Band - Babyshambles

Hit rating - 4/16. Points = 2.44 (39/16). Hadn't really heard of half of these bands but some of them have done really well, I guess that's life as A&R really - a bit hit and miss.

The Maccabees - First Love (Orlando Acoustic Version) [right click, save as]//[Sendspace]//[MySpace]
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So, at the halfway point, Kaiser Chiefs manager James Sandom is the music prediction world's Tiger Woods, with a points average of 3 and picking 4 acts that are pretty darn big now. I met him once in 2004 I think, nice bloke. And I imagine quite rich now. Part two will be coming shortly, in the meantime gorge yourselves on the mp3s provided.

New ¡Forward, Russia! studio track

Leeds noiseniks ¡Forward, Russia! have been busy recording their second album since we last heard from them with the 'Don't Be A Doctor' 10"inch white label single. In fact, I posted a live version of that on my blog almost a year ago [link], time truly does fly! If you happen to read that, you'll notice a hatred for the first Little Chris single, his follow up 'Getting Enough' was amazing so all is forgiven. New tracks have appeared since then in live format, such as 'Breaking Standing' and 'A Prospector Can Dream' (search Youtube for the vids). No more of the crazy tracks-what-are-called-numbers-eh? business anymore.



While the band were finishing recording with Matt Bayles (of Minus The Bear fame) in the States, they managed to find some time to pop into local radio station KEXP to preview new track, 'We Are Grey Matter' from the forthcoming album. The version is an early studio version, although sounds pretty polished to me! An intro that sounds a bit 80's, complete with pulsating beats gives way to the good old formula of frenetic drumming, crazed vocals, puzzling lyrics and incisive guitar lines while still retaining an anthemic undertone. Not that ¡Forward, Russia! are restricting themselves in the studio, with Hammond organs etc due to appear on the album. 'We Are Grey Matter' is a track that gets better with every listen and I'm very much looking forward to the album! They're arguably even better live so be sure to check them out when you get a chance.

¡Forward, Russia! - We Are Grey Matter (Early Studio Version) [RIGHT CLICK, SAVE AS]//Alternative [D/L LINK]

¡Forward, Russia! are playing a handful of UK dates during the next few months and will be appearing on the new Dance To The Radio compilation. For more details and to read their awesome tour diary, go to their website [link].

p.s I am trying out Fileden instead of yousendit, bear with me for any problems downloading the file. There is a Sendspace link available as well. And while you're here, if you could spare thirty seconds of your time voting for me in the BT DMAs that would be amazing. Click below.

Mercury Music Prize 2007

Okay, before I get onto the meat and potatoes, if you could spare 30 seconds to vote for my blog in the BT Digital Music Awards that would be amazing. Obviously this is a lame popularity contest but last year, I was voted 23rd best music blog in the UK which was mega nice. You should be able to vote by clicking the fancy button below. Thanks!


So I was considering keeping schtum and retaining my 100% record at predicting the Mercury Music Prize winners (see this entry for evidence of my psychic powers [link) but no, I will stick my neck out ever so slightly and plump for Bat For Lashes. Admittedly, as my choice of Arctic Monkeys were last year, Natasha Khan's outfit are strongly tipped by the bookies to win. I'm a big fan anyway, ever since hearing a demo track of hers on a Drowned In Sound podcast many moons ago. In fact, I featured that very song on Keep Hope Inside podcast number deux (still downloadable here [link]).

I actually think Amy Winehouse would have won but for all her current drink(/drug?) related problems. Although the judges seem to court controversy at times, remember the whole Antony and The Johnsons = not British debate? The Go! Team obviously should have won anyway. So she still has a good chance and 'Rehab' remains one of the finest pop singles for some time and here's a nice little cover of it by those crazy popsters Girls Aloud from a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge session. If only the new Girls Aloud single was this good!

Girls Aloud - Rehab [Yousendit d/l link]//[Sendspace]

Another act I think is in with a strong chance of winning is a fella who's been mentioned here a couple of times but not for a looooooooooong time. It's quite weird to think it's been about two years since I saw a very grubby looking Jamie T sitting on a stool, bass guitar in hand. He's pretty much just as grubby now but he has written some excellent tracks and even though the album has some filler, he would be well deserving of the prize. Here's some live tracks (apologies for the quality, I had to rip them myself) that illustrate his versatility and ear for a good song.

Jamie T - Calm Down Dearest (Live At BBC Electric Proms) [Yousendit]//[Sendspace]
Jamie T - Ike & Tina (Live At BBC Electric Proms) [Yousendit]//[Sendspace

So, who do you lot reckon will win? Surely not t'Monkeys or Dizzee again? Klaxons for heading a new NME fabricated movement?