The Naked and Famous

HOW EVERY WAS MEANT TO TELL ME ABOUT THESE GUYS EARLIER CLEARLY FAILED IN THEIR JOB!

A late introduction Ladies and Gentlemen to The Naked and Famous. This five piece from New Zealand make indie pop rock music and bloody good indie pop rock as well.

Formed back in 2007 when Thom and Alisa were at music school they were soon a full live band kicking off small intimated highly anticipated gigs in and around Auckland. By taking a listen to 'Young Blood' below you can easily hear why this band in thrown into the mix of MGMT/The XX/Passion Pit.

The band which exploded in their homeland with 9 nominations in the New Zealand Music Awards, winning 7 of them and a number one single with 'Young Blood' easily won over UK press here with the NME describing them as 'A classic case of ugly and beautiful: TN&F’s passive melodicism and aggressive innovation clash in a dazzling blaze of psych/sonic fireworks.' They should have stormed the BBC Sound of 2011 when up against the likes of the flavourless James Blake (who funnily enough they are inspired by) and the standard 'woman with attitude' pop clone Jessie J.

I hadn't heard any TN&F material until today but they have suddenly become my second favourite Kiwi band after Ladyhawke but then again can you name any more buzz worthy New Zealand musicians? I'm sure they exist they are just hiding in those Middle Earth mountains of theirs.

AWOLNATION - Sail

So here is an example of an artist that I was clearly late onto the scent of. AWOLNATION consists of Aaron Bruno (formerly of Under the Influence of Giants, Hometown Hero and Insurgence...yeah never heard of them of either) who's song Sail caught my attention whilst on a general browse on YouTube.

How this low-fi yet synth explosive, bold yet soothing song managed to not infect the airwaves globally akin to an Owl City's 'Fireflies' I don't know but it's bloody good. Drawing inspirations from punk, metal, hip-hop and pop his songs are certainly a mash of genres leading to a mixture of emotions across the album from ballards to sheer anarachy and screaming.

Bruno believes that listeners should find their own interpretation in a song, instead of being forced fed the ideals of the artist, this struck huge sense with me. Not only do I think of multiple meanings to songs by myself when listening to them but you can go on any website such as songmeanings.net to find fans debating and arguing over the meanings of individual lyrics. Just sit back and take in the music, make it what you want it to be. That's what I'm going to let you do now. Enjoy guys.

Chairlift - Sidewalk Safari

Yoyo so one of my favourite bands consists of these guys below (minus Aaron Pfenning in the middle who has left) they are called Chairlift and well you may have heard of their song Bruises before, an unbeat, summery infusion of synths, a constant drum beat and happiness.

I luckily found out last minute that they were playing a show in London at the Electrowerkz and one of my favourite songs they played on the night; Sidewalk Safari (seemingly about hunting someone down and running them over) has had a pretty head spinning live video made for it.

Check it our below! Or else I'll come and hunt you down and trust me Caroline Polachek may not be good with guns and arrows but I am.

The Ting Tings - Silence (Bag Raiders Remix) Video

So the Ting Tings have released another video for their song, "Silence". I very much like the simplistic take which resolves around the duo getting verbally and physically for Katie abused through the streets of Salford. The grey sombre feeling throughout perfectly matches the intention of the song.

I can also reveal that in a recent interview with the band with NME the new album is going to be titled; "Sounds From Nowheresville", myself I personally prefer the edgy "Kunst".

When explaining the title Katie White is quoted as saying: "We've lived in kind of nowheresville for two years and we've put the songs together in that time. You go to some little shitty town in the middle of nowhere and it's so cool and interesting there. We find that more interesting than bigger cities full of cool wankers".

The track listing from the album is as follows:

1. Hang it Up
2. One by One
3. Hands
4. Hit me Down Sonny
5. Soul Killing
6. In Your Life
7. Help
8. Guggenheim
9. Give it Back
10. Day to Day
11. Silence

I myself is personally looking forward to hearing the studio version of Day to Day, the live one of which can be heard from a performance on the Jools Holland Show, little over a year ago when the band were promoting Hands.

Summer Camp - Green Door Store

So on Saturday I took the train to Brighton to see the duo play a wonderful set at a pretty sweet venue; The Green Door Store.

Okay so the train there was very cringy, pretty much everyone on the train was drinking before hitting the tiles in Brighton and the women sat next to me at one point were talking about their teenage children's sex lives. At this point I put my headphones in and whacked on some CSS.

So I arrived a bit early, like erm two hours aha. But I was more than happy to have as when I scout out the venue hidden on a side street who do I see but Summer Camp playing an acoustic set for a film crew. Having a little taster of what was to come was more than appreciated!

The venue itself was very nice, a small bar was at the center adorned by random articles such as a Woolworth's sign, some kind of resuscitation mannequin, dismembered arms hanging form the ceiling as well as plenty of other quaint treasures around.

The venue was also the most intimate I have been to yet, with the stage being in a small room off the bar which reminded me of a a small outhouse you would find in a farmhouse.

The support act Theme Park were surprisingly amazing, they had the crowd dancing and swaying and the talent these guys have is shown by every member playing various instruments, with two of the members switching between bass and electric guitars between songs.

Summer Camp came on giving a slow rendition of Better Off Without You walking through the crowd giving me a warm tingling feeling inside. The duo made their way through a very decent set list including my EP favourites Round the Moon and Veronica Sawyer which definitely topped off the night for me as I feared their lack of presence on their debut "Welcome to Condale" would write them off from being played.

Throwing in humour, chatter, vintage visuals and playing amongst the crowd made this a very special gig for me and I may just have to buy tickets for their tour in March now.

Listen below to Summer Camp's latest single, "Down".

Anddd "A Mountain We Love" by Theme Park

CSS - City Grrrl

Okay, so I'm one of those shameful people who once they have found a mind splitting, catchy-ass new song it's on repeat, repeat, repeat for a week.

SO, introducing this weeks fine example is "City Grrrl" by Brazilian indie-punk-pop-don't give a fuck band CSS.

Don't they just look like they could cause a lot of damage? Aha.

City Grrrl is the bands next release and well if you aren't wishing to dye your pink or put on black lipstick at the end of listening then your loss.

I've been a fan of CSS for just around a year now and I'm finally getting to experience the much talked about live shows they put on in London on Dec 7th. Can't wait!

Oh and if you're life isn't like a movie it's not worth living

Ladyhawke Returns and it's Magic

"It feels like I've been away for a while, but I haven't been hiding - honest," - Pip Brown.

Despite a good absence from the music scene since the end of her debut album campaign I can reassure the unsure that Ladyhawke a.k.a Pip Brown will stick to her roots in the electro-indie-rock niche she carved out for herself back in 2008. Hoo-ray!

I was one of the lucky few in getting tickets for her hotly anticipated London Club 100 show on Tuesday with tickets selling out within a minute. Her set on the night combined the best of her debut with eight new delights also being played.

My insights into the night; fans shouldn't be worried of the rumours flying around about her direction into a more guitar heavy Britpop album, it isn't. Her new tracks are just as uplifting-synth filled-with the "na-na-na" choruses as Back of the Van, Magic and Danny and Jenny. Secondly her new logo is AMAZING.

Thirdly she is super friendly in real life, a real down to earth individual.

Set List:
Blue Eyes
Anxiety
Magic
Girl Like Me
Professional Suicide
Quick & The Dead
Dusk Till Dawn
Vaccine
Paris Is Burning
Sunday Drive
Back of the Van
Black, White & Blue
Gone, Gone, Gone
My Delirium

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