Tiger Eyes + Cecile - Live Like Lions

Live Like Lions were the first great unsigned band that I saw live since I started writing this here blog and it's great to see that the band have produced new versions of my two favourite tracks 'Tiger Eyes' and 'Cecile' along with a bit of myspace profile eye candy to go with them. Check out these two nuggets of indie-disco gold over at the bands Myspace. If you like that maybe you wanna go check my review from the gig all the way back in October '09 (Its old so.......maybe.....cut it some slack in the quality department).

Video: Tom Tom - The Hundred In The Hands

I know this is a bit naughty but their bio on their website sounds so pretentiously cool I may as well use it.  THITH say "We want to make music and keep making music and we want that music to be really very good. We’re using pop-forms and structures because we like songs; Kinks songs, Beatles songs, Michael Jackson songs; absorbing the lessons of the pop classics, folding the present into the past toward the future to create dub histories; Avant-pop split between the austere and feverish. We write together. One or the other brings in the foundation of a new track or lyrics and the two of us add to it, writing as we record, offsetting the precision of electronic production with analog machines and sweat. Party music, physical music, romantic music." . Read More on the video and watch "Tom Tom" after the beep.

Evolution Preview: Evolution Emerging

So Evolution Festival is only three days away but really it kicks off on Saturday night when all over Newcastle   all the best local bands are set to play six FREE gigs. Bands playing include Detroit social club, Let's Buy Happiness, Mammal Club, Mansfield Holiday and Viva City. Transatlanticism's pick of the bands playing Evolution Emerging after the beep.

MP3: Piece Of String - Clock Opera

My first Hypewriter post subject has already come to fruition. Clock Opera's amazing single 'Piece Of String' is now available to download. The song highlights all the original and brilliant sides to the band. Guy Connelly's wavering vocals, with the deeper synth rhythms and razor chopped guitar leave a melody so complex and unnerving but utterly perfect. The whole song is driven by a clicked drum complementing the tune rather than dominating it leaving a perfect base for the pained lyrics to lay over. Read more, Listen and Download after the beep.

Hypewriter: Clock Opera

Hypewriter aims to bring you the bands destined for greater things at a time when you can go see them in small venues without paying astronomical ticket prices, allowing you to enjoy and appreciate the music these great bands are making. 

Clock Opera are the band I have chosen as my first venture into my new series of posts, 'Hypewriter'. The London based four piece are a good place to start as they embody everything which I want to promote in these posts, they a great band which have potential to be even greater with the support of fans. The band are fronted by Guy Connelly (formally of The Corrections and The Fall Out Trust) and in his words make 'Chop Pop'. The genre 'Chop Pop' should, in this case be taken literally. Clock Opera take guitar riffs and everyday objects and 'chop' them up into tiny pieces, somehow putting it all back together to create the most harmonic and noise filled symphonies. Listen to Clock Opera's tracks and Remixes and Watch the video for 'White Noise' after the beep.

Stream: Tenderoni - Kele

The single 'Tenderoni' will be released on 14/6 and will feature on Kele's debut LP 'The Boxer'. Despite the name sounding like the new franchise from 'pepperami' the track itself is an electro-bass-synth masterpiece. It is definitely not new bloc party, it is definitely great. Listen and comment after the beep. What do you think of solo Kele, potentially better than Bloc Party or just incomparable?

Festival: Glastonbury Line-Up (Lite)

Alas, I will not be attending this year. But for those of you who are here is my 'Lite' but not so condensed version of the line-up. I would have put them all in order of times and what stages they are on except for the fact I'm lazy.

THURSDAY

Chapel Club

Local Natives

Two Door Cinema Club

Egyptian Hip Hop

FRIDAY

U2

Vampire Weekend

Snoop Dogg

Willie Nelson

Hot Chip

Phoenix

Gaslight Anthem

Groove Armada

The Black Keys

Mumford & Sons

Ellie Goulding

Kele

Bombay Bicycle Club

Tegan & Sera

The xx

Broken Bells

The Big Pink

Local Natives

Delphic

Fanfarlo

SATURDAY

Muse

Seasick Steve

The Lightning Seeds

The National

Imogen Heap

Two Door Cinema Club

Jamie T

Foals

Marina & The Diamonds

Laura Marling

Chiddy Bang

Holy Fuck

The xx

Delphic

Tinie Tempah

Blood Red Shoes

SUNDAY

Stevie Wonder

Faithless

Slash

LCD Soundsystem

MGMT

We Are Scientists

Grizzly Bear

Temper Trap

The Hold Steady

Ash

Julian Casablancas

Broken Social Scene

The Drums

Tunng

Empire Of The Sun

Dirty Projectors

Crystal Castles

We Have Band

Dans Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

If that lot of amazing bands still hasn't made you want to go then;

1. You are not sane
2. The full line up is here
3. There are still 30 bands TBA

Stream: I Can Change - LCD Soundsystem

It's Definitely a 'Someone Great' rather than a 'North American Scum'. It's nice to see (and hear) that James Murphy has included some of the angst that gave his previous albums that edge over his electro indie rivals. 'I Can Change' (or 'Change' as it has been called in parts of the blogosphere)  brings Murphy's lyrics to the foreground to showcase their awesome power to affect. Murphy is not known as a writer of love songs because the definition of a love song confuses people. Songs which are subversive to puppy love, songs which watch The Notebook and don't shed a tear because they know that's not how it goes, those are true love songs. 'I Can Change' is one of those songs.

Lyrics like 'Love is a Murderer' and my personal favourite 'Love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry' could easily fool even the hardiest of listeners. But the true message of the song comes in the title and chorus 'I Can Change, If it helps you fall in love'. Enjoy.

Video: Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem (Live)

MP3: We Want 2 - New Young Pony Club

The new NYPC album has received mixed reviews from the press and mixed feelings from myself. On one hand it has a couple of great songs but on the other hand a couple of good tracks is as far as 'The Optimist' goes. The album never builds upon the promising signs of the first album, instead they merely replicate it. Having said that I am a fan of the band and this new album (as i said before) has some great tracks, one of which is 'We Want 2'. It is track which immediately made its way onto my playlists and you can now download it for free, courtesy of RCRD LBL and NYPC. Enjoy.

I Feel Better - Hot Chip (Music Video)

Flash Delirium - MGMT

It feels like it has been far to long since we have been able to feast our ears on some new MGMT audio gold.
Well that moment has finally arrived and three guesses who this one was inspired by. 'Flash Delirium' is almost definitely (if not deliberately) a Bowie-esque tune. It stops short of some of Bowies weirdness but lets face it thats not saying much, MGMT level strange genius is very much still alive in this new record, and thank our surfing monkeys for that! Enjoy.
Flash Delirium - MGMT

Hollywood (Radioproof Remix) - Marina And The Diamonds

That's right, another remix of 'Hollywood'. This one is being given away on Marina's website if you join the mailing list, but anyone with any sense would have already done that......right? Anyway for those of us that already have here it is. Enjoy.
Hollywood (Radioproof Remix) - Marina And The Diamonds

Live: Hot Chip @ 02 Academy Newcastle 18.02.10

With the release of their new album, ‘One Life Stand, indie synth kings Hot Chip are once again touring the UK, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on a few much clamoured after tickets to see them in the fair city of Newcastle earlier this week. Having been a massive fan of hot chip for a few years now (to such an extent that I actually improvised a dance to ‘over and over’; tragic I know) I was buzzing with anticipation to see whether my favourite electroers would live up to the pressure of live performance. There were many burning questions, including ‘will Alex Taylor’s slinky vocals be pitch perfect or a bit off key?!’ and ‘Can a synthesizer carry a live track?!’ and I am pleased to say that the answer to my fears was a resounding affirmative.
Kicking off with some newbies from the recently released album, the band cut a slick and very together performance, and the fan’s dedication was shown by the fact that the dancing was as energetic during the new tracks as in those which have come to be regarded by many as indie dancefloor classics, the category of which includes the ever popular ‘over and over’ and the more recent hit ‘ready for the floor’.
The only flaw of the gig as far as I could see was a slightly awkward bit of recurring feedback in the middle few tracks, and the disgustingly mushy couple getting off next to us. But hey, the band could hardly help that.
After driving the crowd crazy with a sharply executed set of numbers they culminated (after an extremely loud encore) with a stomping guitar infused version of ‘ready for the floor’, which was a very nice way to end things indeed.
All in all a very successful gig which not only lived up to my high expectations, but succeeded them.

Written and photographed by Poppy Gardner

Chiddy Bang '10 video preview

The Right Thing To Do - Eberg (Music Video)

I thought i had heard the last from this small icelandic band after the amazing 'Inside Your Head' but i am pleasantly suprised to hear and see their epic new song and video.

Don't worry he finds a place to poop in the end.

Counterpoint - Delphic

'Acolyte' is almost guaranteed to make it onto everyone's favourites of 2010 list even though we are only twelve 365th's in. Impressive. 'Counterpoint' is the stand out single once you have ruled out 'Doubt' on the basis that everyone knows that song already, and i like to be different (that's DIFFERENT not difficult). Enjoy.

Counterpoint - Delphic

Blueberry - Late Of The Pier (Music Video)

This Is War - 30 Seconds To Mars

I have just got my greasy paws on the new 30 seconds to mars album and from what i have heard so far i am very impressed. 'This Is War' is much more of a coherent album than their first two releases, this is due partly to the variety of tracks on the album which in my opinion was absent on the first two albums. The collaboration with Kanye West on 'Hurricane' (i can only assume Mr West does the synth track in the background as there is no rapping involved) is genius and shows a different direction for the band away from 10 epic-emo tracks to a well produced and structured album. Despite the varied album I'm going to have to post one of the 'old-school' sounding tracks the album title sharing 'This Is War' due to its sheer epic nature but just to prove i wasn't fibbin' I've posted 'Hurricanes' too. Enjoy.

This Is War - 30 Seconds To Mars

Hurricanes (feat. Kanye West) - 30 Seconds To Mars

Let Go - Dan Black

Dan Black is a rising star within Indie circles (and other indie shapes for that matter) and with good reason. His debut album "Un" is a perfect example of the direction in which electroindie should be'a headin'. The first tracks i listened to off the album were the two singles he has released from the album ("Symphonies" and "U + Me=") and at first i was worried that we had another "La Roux" scenario where all the tracks sound the same (a tad harsh to Dan Black, it was no where near as bad as La Roux). Despite this, as i listened to the rest of the album i realised that i couldnt have been more wrong (something i don't often admit to). The album has an impresive amount of diversity from "Yours" which sounds like an electronic version of kasabians epic "Take Aim" to "Alone" where Dan sounds more like MGMT and Vampire weekend's ilegitimate love child. (Disclaimer: I fully accept that MGMT and Vampire Weekend do not have an illegitimate love child). I have selected my two favourite songs from the album the single "Symphonies" and the last track on the album "Let Go". Enjoy.

Symphonies - Dan Black

Let Go - Dan Black